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Rick Archer: Welcome to Buddha at the Gas Pump. My name is Rick Archer, Buddha at the Gas Pump is an ongoing series of interviews with spiritually Awakening people. There have been about 355 of them now. So if this is new to you, you could go to batgap.com Bat gap. Look under the past interviews menu, and you’ll see all the previous ones categorized in various ways you can explore those. This program was made possible by the support of generous and appreciative viewers and listeners. So if you appreciate it and feel like supporting it, that’d be great. There’s a Donate button on the right hand side of every page on batgap.com. And if you don’t like PayPal, which some people don’t, then there’s a Donate donation page which explains other ways of doing it. My guest today is Anette Carlström. I’ll just read a little bio she sent here. And Annette is an internationally recognized speaker, author and teacher in development of consciousness living in Hi Helsingborg, Sweden. Her focus and specialty is guiding the individual and groups towards finding your inner compass to discover your full potential and true nature. And that also has a strong presence in chanting sacred mantras offering Mantra concerts as well as having recorded several CDs carrying the transmission of divine grace through the oneness blessing, easily accessed by simply listening. She is the author of two acclaimed books in her first from the heart. She shares her bumpy journey of consciousness of conscious awakening and natural transformation, as well as answering sensitive and profound questions. Her second book Namaste awakening, the power of presence is a roadmap and extraordinary guide, exploring the sacred truths that are hidden in our everyday life. It is filled with wonderful guided meditations and anecdotal stories. And that is the founder of diamond Life Foundation, an alternative health practice and meditation center in southern Sweden, where she gives weekly programs courses and guided meditations, as well as giving cranial sacral therapy treatments. Since 2003. She has been traveling around Europe and the world sharing her story teaching and singing. When she chants and speaks there is a natural group transfer of grace that is received either in person or over the phone she has initiated to give the oneness meditation, which is sacred transmission of energies that accelerate awakening to the intelligence of the heart. She offers online oneness meditations every Tuesday evening, Swedish time on her free live stream channel. And I’ll be providing a link to that live stream channel batgap.com. So viewers may recall that I had a guest on here a couple of years ago named Eric Eisen, who is a very old friend of mine, who is also a teacher of oneness meditation. And we talked a bit about that. But we won’t presume in this interview that anybody knows anything about it and will have will have a net explain it to us. But maybe, for starters, it would be interesting to hear about your, your bumpy journey.
Anette Carlström: Yes, my bumpy journey. I think it started. As long back as I can remember, I’ve always been a seeker of Truth or the seeker of why am I here? You know, as long back as I can remember, I think I was three years old. When I started questioning things and wanting to find out and living in an mostly atheistic country. No, people are not so interested in spiritual questions in my country or my part of the world. I grew up in an academic more scientific family. And nobody really had these kind of questions. So I just came in with that. And I remember seeing some Sunday school or something next to the little store that I used to go to with my mom. And I said, Oh, I want to go there. There was like this colored windows with angels and Jesus and things. So I was, you know, sent to the Sunday school to learn all about Jesus and God and I took it upon me very seriously. I remember asking my friends, you know, do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus or none? Or I wanted to know, why are not people more people interested in this? So my bumpy road started as far back as I can remember? And I come from a very nice family and a very nice upbringing, and there was no reason for me to have been some kind of a pain, that all my life, I’ve been having some kind of inner restlessness not satisfied with life wanting to know this is the regard or not. And I took it upon me very seriously to pray every evening, you know, the traditional weather, pray praying was on my knees. And then I started to question what am I saying, you know, why is this prayer only people who pray will get help. And so it is from that perception of wanting to find something that could go in any religion or outside any religious or spiritual path. So,
Rick Archer: okay, and you can continue it. I was just gonna say so, you know, as you got older, and, you know, you probably began to explore actual, various spiritual paths, like most of us did, right?
Anette Carlström: Yes, that’s true. When I was very small, I used to have this expansion of what I know now is expansion of consciousness, I thought it had something to do with my pajamas.
Rick Archer: Because you’d put them on and at that time, and then have big expansion.
Anette Carlström: I had this blue silk pajamas, and I used to put my thumb in it like little children do. That was my comfort. And I put my thumb in it, and I did like this. And then I would hear the sounds, and I would go into the sounds and I will, I’ll be outside the body. And I did this every night. And I thought everyone did this. And it had something to do with this, you know, thing with a thumb and
Rick Archer: just this the sound of rubbing the silk together kind of triggered a transcendent experience.
Anette Carlström: No, it was an inner sound. Inner sound of like, it’s some kind of rhythmic inner sound that was very beautiful. What I now know, many years later, I got introduced to nada, yoga, you know, the inner sound, the yogo, the inner sounds, it was just, I just had those experiences. And I thought everyone had that. And I wanted, I love going to sleep every night because then I would have you know, the thumb thing and so so yes, many years later, we moved to Helsingborg, where I live now. And I got the confirmation in school. And I wanted to ask the priest a lot of questions that I had because I was not satisfied with a no clarity about this. But I was too shy, I had developed a very great shyness of feeling different because the way I was was very different from others. So I also moving from Stockholm, which is the capital of Sweden to Helsingborg, which is down south. And at that time, it was not so common. So I was teased in school. And I became too shy to question things. And those years were probably the hardest because this presence or this longing for uniting with the presence within was still so strong, maybe stronger than ever, because I didn’t feel like I belong in this world. So I left Sweden just to be away for three months, because I wanted some sunshine. I thought my suffering had something to do with the weather. I see something with a Swedish weather and unhealthy board. It’s very windy. So I thought if I could just get some sunshine for a little while I’ll be fine. So destiny had me go to the city of angels. And I thought I was so beautiful in California, Los Angeles. Yes. So I was there for three months. And then I was supposed to study chemistry and go the scientific route like the rest of my family. I got accepted at the University in Sweden, to be a chemist. But destiny wanted something else for me. My whole life changed over there. Not that it did. It got less bumpy, it actually probably got more bumpy at that time. By coincidence, I ended up in Hollywood at a recording of TV shows. I worked in a family taking care of the children as an au pair. It’s called when you live set. So I was gonna do that for three months. But on my day off one day, there was a man coming in the car. And I did something that only a Swede would do not know you’re not supposed to do this. But he rolled down the window. And he said you want to come with me to see a TV show. And I go oh, cool. Yes. All right. So I just left the bike and I got into the car and this was in Orange County. So it was maybe an hour and a half or two hours right up to Hollywood. And I didn’t even know that Hollywood was around there. And I was just like, wow, this is so cool. And luckily, you know, he was taking me to this Hollywood studio and once Coming there, we were there to be audience, you know, to actually sit there and laugh at, you know, the sitcoms. And at the break, then the bathroom break, I went to find the restroom and I got lost on this Paramount picture a lot that we were at lots of buildings. And so there was this guard and a TV light in the news light. And he said, You look lost. And as I was very scared, I said, I don’t know where I am. How do I get back? And he heard on my accent. Are you from Sweden? We have also a newscaster, who is from Sweden. Do you want to meet her? She said, again? Sometimes we have these meetings, you know, and the whole life change. So it’s like, oh, yeah, cool. So I got into meet Christine Lund, because the newscaster for ABC Television CHANNEL SEVEN NEWS at the time. And she looks like she could be my art, you know. So we kind of connected in a, in a very strange way. She hadn’t spoken Swedish since she was six years old. So she enjoyed speaking little Swedish. And just at that time, she heard what I had done, that I had come there with this man. And he had also been found me inside the news station. And she said in Swedish to me, you know, you shouldn’t just jump into people’s cars like that. It’s not a good idea. And she felt some kind of protection for me. So she helped me. And she helped me also to started working for ABC News and their promo picture as a guest relation hostess. So that was change. So I called my mom and dad and said, I’m not going to be a chemist, I’m going to call it work. Of course, that’s not good news for someone. Maybe so they took the first plane over to see is this really a good year? Is this for real? But it was a very nice job. And it was I had nice people around me so but during that time working in Hollywood, you would think because all I’m looking for is some happiness and seeing you know, growing up in Sweden, looking at Hollywood movies, you think everyone’s so happy there, you know, maybe working in Hollywood, I can find happiness here. Right? So I had great expectations and but it wasn’t what I thought it would be like, actually, it will be more suffering than I had experienced in Sweden. Because here everything was surface. Everything was fake. It’s supposed to be like that, of course. And the inner suffering the inner searching got even worse at this time. Because now I was also working in front of the camera and behind the camera, because of course everyone in Hollywood you get discovered, right? So so I was of course one like that. And they said you should it was actually some director for the Cosby Show. The famous name who said it otherwise I probably wouldn’t have gone that route. Thinking back to it. But I started studying acting and I thought, Oh, maybe I can be an actress. I could get happiness, you know, being in the movies, and
Rick Archer: I hope you didn’t have anything to do with Bill Cosby.
Anette Carlström: No, I didn’t. It was another show.
Rick Archer: Okay, great. Yeah, cuz he’s, he’s pretty notorious these days.
Anette Carlström: Yeah. Now it wasn’t the Cosby Show it that he was the director for it. It was. So I knew him very well. I had great respect for him. And actually, I was watching a movie star’s dog. That was my job. My assignment for the day. I was in guest relations. You do all kinds of jobs. So I was there while she’s doing the lines. I was there holding the dog. And one of the actresses were sick. And the producer director said, Hey, you there with the dog? Can you just get up on the set and just say these lines because there was a woman that was sick that day. So I just okay, said the lines. And he’s the one who said, Hey, you’re really good. And you’re an actress. And I found myself going. And then I thought, Well, if he thinks I’m really good at it, maybe that is something I can be, you know, fulfilled and, and find happiness. And so that’s how I got into that business. By doing all the acting classes and film learning film, acting and going for auditions and being in the Hollywood business. It just made my confidence even worse, you know, because now I’m in a category where Blue Eyed Blonde, and either I’m a European, or I’m a California, and when I spoke, it wasn’t any good because I had too strong accent. And I had managers and agents, you know, the whole thing. And they said, they tried to figure out what are we going to do with her? And they said, well, we’ll just keep her silent. Can you be like, Will will have you be like that the Greta Garbo? Like in the silent movies, you can just sit there and be silent. Talk there’s just It’s no good. So I thought, well, I could have to talk sometime, you know. And they sent me to voice coach. And I said, maybe you can be a singer, maybe you can be a pop singer if this is the business. So they sent me to a voice coach, and after about 10 lessons
Rick Archer: You should have stayed back in Sweden and joined Ah,
Anette Carlström: no, you should listen to this. But the voice coach called my manager after a few sessions, right and said, Maybe you should try something else. So, so both acting and, and singing, the whole thing was just a failure from from the beginning. But pursuing that, and still thinking I have to do something just to find happiness in life. I also found like Los Angeles is like a mecca of new age. And everything was there, all the teachers, the workshops, the books, I was always at the Bodhi tree, reading all the books and I loved it, it was the best place I thought I’d live here forever, and just learning and studying. And I can put up with this business somehow. So I learned to meditate very nicely 45 minutes every day. But the rest of the day was, like I said, filled with anxiety and not fitting.
Rick Archer: Did you learn from the Vedanta society? Or
Anette Carlström: was the Siddha, Yogi?
Rick Archer: Muktananda. Yes.
Anette Carlström: And I felt, yes, it was actually the old Guru, Guru Nityananda, that saw a picture of his, and something happened to some kind of awakening of the heart. It was through the chanting at his ashram and seeing his photo. And I remember I took all kinds of classes, and they had both Yana yoga and bhakti yoga. And then I heard a video of mukta Ananda, and they were speaking, you know, the path through devotion. And love is the fastest one. Oh, because I’ve tried to figure this out, trying to understand all this for so many years, and go into Jnana yoga, you know, the knowledge yoga classes just didn’t clarify anything, it just didn’t give anything, no matter how high your SWAMI was teaching it, you know, it’s just, I’m not getting it. But through the chanting evenings that we did at the center, that was something started to happen in me, and I thought, I’m probably a bacta. That would be my way. So I pursued that path very intensely. And singing at home, namah, Shivaay, and singing all of these sacred chants, and it became part of me, I loved it. So many things happen in those years that prepare me for what, what was to come later. What I didn’t like about it was, or I liked, but I was looking for more, it wasn’t fulfilling the whole part of my seeking. Because 45 minutes every morning, I sat and just had a Mantra and breathing in and out like that. Very nice. But 23 hours, the rest of the day, it’s filled with anxiety. You know, all of these things that is happening. So I thought it couldn’t be the reverse. You know, I could take 45 minutes of chaos, if I can have 23 hours of God, or that presents that peace within you know, so I started looking because a Los Angeles, there’s everything, right? So I’m thinking, meditation in action, there must be such a course somewhere. So I was looking everywhere, meditation in action, somewhere where you can have that niceness where you meditate, but you shouldn’t be able to just sit, you know, I can’t go in a cave. Even though I started thinking that would be my way that’s probably have to be a monk and to sit in a cave because I really, really enjoy the meditations. So I was looking for something that would be meditation in action. Like, I could have 45 minutes of chaos, if I could have 23 hours of peace. And that niceness of that experience of meditation was so profound, I just loved it to sitting breathing in and out, you know, repeating a Mantra, so simple. And I’m going deeper and deeper, but I realized I cannot sit meditation for the rest of my life. Even though I started to contemplate that path. I thought maybe I should be a monk, or a nun, and I should sit in a cave and just devote my whole life to this. But then a part of me said, No, we’ve done that already. You need to be a regular person. I had some kind of strange sense of a past life or something where I oftentimes felt like an old SARDU with a grayish, you know, like a Shiva with a loincloth. I felt like that like, Oh, this is so familiar. This is so home, I can just do this forever. But some part of me pushing me you know, be a regular person, be a normal person, and just keep pursuing it. And it was Not until I moved back to Sweden strangely enough to Helsingborg, where there was the shift that I was longing for many years later, when I lived in California and the City of Angels, Los Angeles, I felt, I just loved it there. You know all the variety of people, you can really be yourself. If there’s a place to live, that will be it. And I thought, but I couldn’t live anywhere in the world. As long as it’s not Helsingborg. Because my memory of Helsingborg of growing up there was just so filled with such deep rooted anxiety. I could live anywhere but there. And it’s so strange that What you resist persists. So that’s what happened to me. Destiny had me moving back here. And it was mainly because I had then got married. And we had a child. And at that time, there was big riots in Los Angeles. And there were weapon detectors in first grade. And I thought it’s time to move and coming back missing my parents, who are grandparents then living in Helsingborg, I felt the heart it’s always the heart that causes and that’s what makes the shift. So here we wait, we went, the family moved here and coming here to Helsingborg. There was more trauma happening or more drama of my life, you could say there. It wasn’t over yet. Coming here with an American husband and and realizing that we didn’t work here in Sweden. And we have grown apart. And I thought well, maybe having a child will fix it. So the classic thing that we think sometimes but we had a daughter, she’s born here. And unfortunately the marriage couldn’t be saved. So we divorced when she was a baby. So if things were bad before in Helsingborg, thanks for pretty bad at this time, this is probably the worst time and in a place like this. And also my situation around. And sometimes it has to be like the darkest before the dawn, it was like that for me. I had also when I gave birth to my daughter, I had received a near death experience. And that came to have a profound effect even to this day. It was during the birth during the actual delivery. My husband, he was in the room and I had yelled at him. I said, you have to tell me when to bring this American right that I was yelling at him because our relationship. You know, I was not at the space where I could fix that. So I was angry and I yell at him, you have to tell me when to breathe. So he was sitting in the corner saying breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. That was his thing. And then I came up with the idea. What if he’s not telling the truth? What if, when he says breathe in, I should actually breathe out? How do I know he’s telling the truth? It was that kind of a logic that came into my head. You know, when you give birth, you don’t have that regular logic. So my logic went berserk. So I said, I said to myself, well, I’m going to show him, I’m not going to do what he says. And I still to this day, remember that, like I thought it was such a brilliant thought that I’m gonna like overthink him. I’m not gonna breathe at all that will show him it was just that kind of insight in the moment of the pain whatever’s going on. So I simply just held my breath, just to like outsmart him. This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever done. But you know, you’re not really thinking there. So as I did that, after some time, I could feel the heart pounding like a hammer to my ribs, you know. And I’m just experiencing this physical sensation and improve. I’m out of the body. And I go into this dark tunnel or this dark darkness of this universe because I could also see stars and things and I was drawn into a light. And this experience came to be very profound for me what happened now because there was a big light and this light was alive. Very brilliant, intelligent. I can’t put words on the magnitude of my experience of being in this light. I had of course been seeking this all my life but this was an experience that overtook my whole beingness whatever I was in right now. And what happened now was a few light beings I call them came Apart from this light, and they were like, human human figures, but there was no hair or skin or anything like that it just looked human. And I knew with every cell in my Being that this is another me. This I knew him like Ash, like the Mayan Indians who I love very much. I am another you this was I was startled to see that the beings coming out of the light is another me. And there was three or four of them. And each one was another you each of the three? Yes, I can’t explain this more than it was a very profound experience that helped me very much. And in later days,
Rick Archer: was it like different lifetimes of yours or something that each of these beings represented or what?
Anette Carlström: No, it was. It was the one light coming out as three or four. We had some profound just like that. And I remember seeing these three and four tall, light beings. And they were filled with joy filled with humor, and wisdom. And they came out and said, What are you doing here? It was telepathic communication. Mr. What are you doing here? And I said, Well, I think I messed up the breathing, because I was giving birth. And I said, I think I did something there. And well,
Rick Archer: from the doctor’s perspective, had you gone unconscious or something?
Anette Carlström: I had no idea because there was no doctor there. It was just my husband in the corner saying breathe in, breathe out.
Rick Archer: There wasn’t a doctor or midwife or something.
Anette Carlström: Yeah, not no. Not in the room. At that time. They were okay. Yeah, that’s hospitals in Sweden for you. They’re going understaffed? Yes, very much. That there was no no midwife, no doctor there when this happened. But I realized that I’m in some kind of trouble, but I didn’t see it as a trouble, because I’ve been seeking the light all the time. And I said, Okay, guys, don’t worry. I can go in there, it will be fine. Let me into the light. And they said, no, no, no, no. And they showed me a life review of sort. And they made me see that it’s not my time. And one of them picked me up. It’s like, you’re in some kind of you’re not heavy. You’re very like, my experience was he picked me up like this. And he went like that. And he said, The off, you sent me off like that. And I was like, whoa. And that’s when I saw I had a silver cord. It was my belly button down into Earth, I saw the universe. And I saw like the Pleiadian systems or the stars different was like, wow, but I was, you know, kicking back into the body. And now what happened, something that really came to change my picture of reality. Because as I’m coming down into the body, I’m also coming in from the inner universe, from the inside light into this gross, big body, you know, the first thing that I hear coming in, so I’m coming from outside and from inside at the same time, the first thing I hear is the voice of my then husband saying, breathe in, breathe out. So I’m coming here with Oh, no, that kind of a feeling. And the pain or the contractions and everything. So again, the thing hit, things happen very fast. And once again, I did the same thing, because of this relationship was not healed, and I was not okay in it, who I was, I held my breath again, somehow to show that I just can’t do this for whatever reason I did that I can’t recall. But I did the same thing. And I experienced the same thing again, boom, boom, boom, the heart would like a hammer up in my ribs. And I’m out again, again, the same star system was like, there’s no pain when you’re out there. You just like oh, and again to the light. Now they came out very fast this time. And they’re like, Oh, you back again. What are you doing back here? Now they’re a little more irritated. Like we showed you. It’s not your time. And I got I know, guys. I had a new strategy. I remember the second time I came, I said, You know what, I know, I was supposed to give birth to a child. But I think I’ve learned all my lessons. And there’s a husband that’s sitting there, he can take care of her and I try to like make some kind of a deal that because it’s just the most amazing thing to be with the light. You know, you just want to get in there. It’s like, just let me in. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I learned whatever I had to learn. Just get me in there. And now they let remember, they left so much that they turned double like this. But I but I was so serious. And I could not understand why they’re laughing. Because I had the greatest strategy. I thought I was very intelligent. I had that kind of mission to get me into this light. But one of them said, Okay, I walk you down this time. So he walked me out. All the way down was so amazing. And he told me stories all the way down. And then he showed me and told me stories of what I am to do here. He said, it’s not your time, what are you talking about, and he shared funny stories, and I was laughing. And now this time coming again, into the body from inside from the inner light, stepping into the speak. And the first thing I remember hearing the voice, breathe in, breathe out. But I also heard my own voice, and my lips. And my lips were like big like tractors like, huge. I remember thinking, Ah, it’s such a gross thing, this body and the lips were saying, I remember. I remember. Because like, Bailey was there telling me, don’t you remember? Don’t you remember that? Oh, I remember. So I came into the body. The second time, I remember. I remember. And then my daughter is born, this kind of dramatic birth for her. I’ve shared this with her many times we talk about and I thank her, thank you for letting me see the likeness I wear and you taught me how to breathe. Like you gotta breathe, Mom, you got to breathe. So stop breathing. So we have developed a great sense of humor for it. But it was a profound experience of discovering what I had learned later, the university light is within you, the light is also outside. So my own experience kind of settled into that many years later. And of course, after the birth of my daughter, she was put on my stomach, and she looked up right away in my eyes. And that moment, I’ll never forget, it was, I’m looking at God. I knew I’m looking at God and and God sighs that was my profound expense. And then memory erased. Memory completely erased, I remember nothing of what I’m here to do, or my life review nothing. But it was a profound experience that came to help me many years later. Life I was thrown into being a mother. And it didn’t work out with this relationship. I was not in a place where I could work things out with him. But we were married to 10 years. And we had two beautiful children, and a son and a daughter. And then, so the breakthrough came when I’m now a single mother. With two children and my own work, I work as a cranial sacral therapist, and I worked at my home. My home was like a hospital. There was always somebody feeling bad sitting in the kitchen, you know, because that was the waiting room. That’s how my children grew up, like, okay, there’s somebody there. And then they go into the living room, and they get help. And then they go off the hallway. So it was that kind of circulation of people always. And I had a mission to fulfill. I want to help the world, right? And not the least help myself, because I’m filled with misery. And if I could just help people the best they can. Maybe I could help to one day. But I was probably one of the most miserable people you could find. I was afraid of
Rick Archer: everything. And meditating at that point, I presume?
Anette Carlström: It’s very difficult to meditate when you have to get a new
Rick Archer: business and all that. Yes. Yeah, it was just
Anette Carlström: it was I was not at the point where there was any time for that I was every night I was looking forward to I can go to sleep tonight. That was that was my joy. A little bit of breathing. And then it’s just tough, just hard with just difficult times. And sometimes it needs to be a little more difficult before you get a shift. And for me that’s that’s how it happened. It was 2002. So it’s actually 14 years ago now that my life came to have a dramatic shift, my first dramatic shift, you could say. I will set the lecture here in Helsingborg, it was by an atheist, who had was holding a spiritual workshop or a lecture it said, I thought, Oh, I’ve seen everything and Los Angeles but not this. And I actually threw that paper aways and I’m not going to go to that I’ve done everything in Los Angeles, I gotta go through life. But no matter what I do, this piece of paper was there. So it’s like, maybe I should just go to that and cancel my appointments that night because I was worried. So I rescheduled them and I went and it came to be a life turning event for me. This atheist then he said simply he was had very few words because he was clinically deaf. So he couldn’t speak so much. And he said I’m not a speaker, but I have been to India. And I’m not a spiritual person. Don’t ask me any spiritual question as my big brother. I don’t know anything about spiritual things. I’m not interested in that. I just have experienced something that I wish ever No one could experience in their own way, like a positive disease. That’s pretty much what he said. Like it would be contagious somehow. And he kept touching his heart area. And I felt like this. I want that to whatever he had, if he had a heart dislike. And he doesn’t speak much, he doesn’t know anything. But he’s obviously experienced something, I felt an energy in the body. And it wasn’t like he was not particularly charismatic or brilliant in his, you know, saying or anything, it was just something is happening here. And he said, I would put some music on, and I’ll go around, this is before the phenomenon of the oneness, blessing or oneness, diksha, wonders, meditation, all of this thing that is, is more known right now. He said, I call this experience healing. Because you will get the kind of experience that you need. The only thing that you need to do is be grateful before you receive it. He said it was serious like that. And then he put on music. And he said, so before you get it, just be grateful. And if you can’t be grateful, then you have to pretend you said I thought this was a way to just lecture I’ve ever been to. So it was during this lecture, then he he touched the head of each and every was very likely. And I’ve received healing. Many times, I also give healing in my practice. So healing, I know what that is like. But this was different. When he touched my head, just very lightly. There was a presence of intelligence of that. Strong. If I could say, a presence of God, this would be it. This is what I’ve been looking for all my life. I knew this with every cell of my being this is it. And I was surprised I didn’t expect that to happen,
Rick Archer: especially from an atheist. No, it’s kind of ironic that this guy’s an atheist.
Anette Carlström: No, this is all completely overtook me, I was not prepared for this. And he had said, You should be grateful. But you never know how you’re going to react when you have an experience like that. Something you’ve been looking for all your life. And here it is, you don’t know what you’re going to how you’re going to react and what you’re going to feel like and I was, unfortunately, I was not grateful at all. When this happened. I was shocked that I was not grateful. He had said, you have to be good. And I wasn’t when this happened. This here’s this presence of this loving, witnessed seeing Enos and all encompassing love, and intelligence of just seeing. And what I know is chakras, different energy points of my body was looking around in different points, and could see everything. They’re not just like the nice things about anarchy, but all the other things too. And this became very apparent to me what I’m carrying around. And so what happened now was, I became so angry, I became so furious, and directed this anger, to this presence to my big shock that I’m reacting like this, I could not stop this reaction. And I tried everything I could to not be angry. But I was so mad. So you’d be surprised how you react when you have an experience of something you’ve been looking for all your life. You know, this man had been telling be grateful when you receive this, but I wasn’t grateful when this happened. I was so deeply angry. And I directed this anger to the presence. You think
Rick Archer: that maybe this deep experience you had stirred up some deep thing that caused the anger? I mean, or maybe not. But maybe you could play with that theory a little bit. Why Why were you angry? What or was there some sudden release as a result of the deep experience that bubbled up as anger? or was there some other reason for it?
Anette Carlström: I saw that I wasn’t only angry, I was also hurt. I was filled with guilt with sorrow. With all the negative feelings you could have anxiety, depression low like so dry inside. It was every kind of shadow, emotion you could have any kind of emotion that you just don’t want so angry because
Rick Archer: you’re seeing yourself so clearly for the first time.
Anette Carlström: What happened was as this presence came, which could be seen as a light or whatever it was at the time when I first just experienced. All of these feelings came up. And the anger was the one that on top so God directed. It got directed there. And I said, Why are you coming now? Don’t you know they’re looking for you all my life? You’re coming now through an atheist in Helsingborg. I mean, look at you coming now. So I’m angry. And at the same time, I remember how this man said You should be grateful. And so I tried to push all this down like, oh, no, I should be grateful. It’s the only thing is the only thing you need to be grateful. And here I am the most ungrateful, pitiful person sitting on the earth complaint, like, are you coming now. So I tried to like push all of this down. But nothing I did was helping. So more and more of the different anxieties and different horrible feelings started just pouring out of me, and now Had something happened. That came to change my life. Because this presents then got a voice. And I don’t hear voices like this. This was a voice that was coming from seemingly outside the whole universe. And inside of me at the same time, it was a thundering voice. And if I could say there is a voice of God, then this would be it. Whatever you would call this, it was a voice and it had a clear message to me. And the message came to change my life or it was said here, it said, don’t be afraid to meet your inner suffering. Afraid to meet your inner suffering and as I was sitting in the most inner suffering, you could imagine at that time, it was a good a good advice. So I did. I did with the voice said Just relax. Just meet it. Just say this is what’s this is it right? So just relaxed about it. And as I did that, I was just met it, confronted it just this is here. Then the energy of that the anger, the frustration, the dryness, the hurt, the bitterness, the whatever all that was, like one big massive something grayness. It went through the body, like a physical sensation I’d never experienced before it was a physical like flow like a river through the whole body, that I later I learned that joy. No, I had not experienced that or bliss. Like such strong experience of joy for no reason that it can take a physical sensation like that. And I felt like in my round my cranium, I felt pressure or certain points. And I thought, is he standing there doing something to my head is he putting his fingernails inside my head, I had these kind of thoughts of what this, I never experienced anything like this. But he was moving in the other side of the room. So he wasn’t doing anything. I just had very dry wood, so to speak, and he just came with a very lightly, some kind of fusion happen in that meeting. That’s all I can say. But the profound thing was, there was a teaching that was given to me, from inside this man have not told me anything it was given from inside, don’t be afraid to meet your inner suffering. And given me this sense of a sacred joy of some sort, that eventually die down, you know, you get peak experience, it died down and it good enough for me to get home somehow. I remember, this was February 2002. And the first thing I did I came into the apartment was I ran to the computer, and I started, I think there was Google search, then there was searching on the computer, anything that this man had talked about in the hour or something. There was nothing on the internet then nothing. All I had was this, this deaf man and he’s coming back to Helsingborg, he was from another city. He’s coming back a week later to have a course. And I signed up to that course, because I have to find out everything. He doesn’t speak much, whatever he’s saying, I got to write it down. Because, you know, I’m a writer. I’m a reader. I’m very, like intellectual like that. So I can’t just have this kind of experience of a lifetime and not knowing more about it. And I need to know, what do I do now? So I sat in the front in this course, I think there’s only 10 of us. I thought the whole city is going to be there. Everyone’s had this kind of profound experience. But it wasn’t the case. I sat in the front. He looked at me he was very serious. And he said, you can put down that paper and pen because I was sitting like ready, whatever. He said, I’m just like that. Okay. He said this course is about experience. He said there’s only two things you have to remember. And he said one, you have to connect with your arm three. Amen. Yes, that’s what I said. I had never heard that word before. And so he wrote it on the big board behind us on diarrhea men. It is a Sanskrit word. It is an atheist. He’s not a spiritual person. He likes this word. It means the one that dwells within or the indweller. It’s a Sanskrit word. And he’s like, this is so cool. This is a cool word because it describes what has happened to him, is it there’s something inside, I call it the anterior Om, and he would never call it divine or anything like that it would fit in. So he said, get in contact with anterior men, however you relate to it, whatever you call it, that’s your business. And to. And now he said, something that almost made me fall off the chair. He said, Don’t be afraid to meet your inner suffering. So then, I felt literally, like a white flag from inside of me. Like, I’m not in war with life anymore, I found a path like I give up, the war’s over, I found my path, because it was given from inside a path that nice obviously found something. And he’s saying there’s only two things, getting connection, good relationship with this inner self. And don’t be afraid to meet the suffering. And so the course was simply about these two things, how to go about doing that on a practical way. Because this is a very practical farmer, you know, and I said, How do I, how do you meet suffering? How do you do that? The classic question. And here’s this man, right? He said, Go by egg timer, which I did. And he said, next time you’re in some kind of uncomfortableness or suffering, suffering is a big word. He said, start with something little you’re uncomfortable you don’t like about whatever experience, when you come home at night, you set the egg timer, and just like you and you boil eggs, you just sit and boil in the feeling until the timer is ring, then you can do other things. But during the time, when you have the timer on, then you just experience whatever it is you’re trying to run away from. So this is his own way that worked for him. And I did this, I had no one to help me or coach me in this path. But him so for a year and a half. That was the only thing I did, developing the relationship with that anterior woman in my way. And then also learning to stay with what I am running away from. So these two things together, I discovered was the magic key. If you only sit in experience, in awareness of what is difficult, that is not getting you necessarily into the transformation. And only praying to the Divine or having a relationship with the divine, which I’ve been doing all my life. That wasn’t that wasn’t doing it for me. Here the divine presence came in and gave a teaching. Listen, you got to know what to do when you’re with me, it’s that kind of a thing. So I felt the divine gave me that I got to do you know, he didn’t say, Go tell your mother about this, you know, go tell the world about this. He said, Don’t be afraid to meet your inner suffering. So I took this upon me very serious. I did not speak about this to anyone. I just did these two things for a year and a half before I first time went out to India. And already I could see that my life started to change. Because I did this inner process these two things together was the magic key in relation to the Divine what I call divine but my friend who introduced it would not call it that. It’s very also important to me that this was a path where you can keep this to yourself, you could be anonymous, you can call it anything you want, you can call it divine, or you can call it M three Amen. Or you could be an atheist, you could be Christian, you could be Buddhist, anything, the important thing is your experience and what you do with it. So
Rick Archer: did he provide some kind of technique or method to get in touch with this on three Atman? Or how did he expect you to do that?
Anette Carlström: Yes, it was on the course. And this still also recall it it is also stayed with me how I also teach and see a person who has found on three Om and himself, you find like a secret way in to this field. What I know is a unified field of consciousness. You can call it whatever you want. He had very strong definite experience of that presence within. So in his course, he did the same thing that they had done down in India in a very this is before the temple and all this magic happen down there. It was just in the look got jungle and some huts and the monks and nuns down there. They prayed for the participant. In other words, praying is you go to the inside, you know, of course my friend wouldn’t call the pray. He said, I’m going to talk to my device, my Anthurium and ask, please give this to everyone here. Because when I tried to do something in life, wherever it’s healing or anything else, nothing happens. You know, I only get problems, I don’t want to be involved in all this. So he simply had us lie down on that. And he talked to his countrymen, make please help these people very, they want to have this kind of experience. So that’s what he said,
Rick Archer: when he this guy calls himself an atheist because it sounds like he’s communing with something that he considers to be intelligent and responsive. And, you know, and yet non material and transcendental or something. It’s he has a strange definition of the word atheism, it seems to me,
Anette Carlström: it’s beautiful, I love it, you know, we’re free to call this whatever we like and call ourselves whatever we like, as long as we become happy, it’s really about that, you know, happy person could never hurt to another. So whatever we call ourselves, or how we relate to this, it’s really, it’s personal.
Rick Archer: Sometimes Buddhists are referred to as atheists. And yet, they have, obviously a connection with this, this sort of field of whatever you want to call it. But they just choose not to attribute any kind of divinity or intelligence, I guess, even to it. Anyway, that’s just a little side thought. Thank you for sharing. So continue.
Anette Carlström: So, after doing this process, very intensely, I started with, like this man who is deaf, he shared from his own experience, I started with something simple, he said, Because being deaf, it’s kind of embarrassing. Sometimes I end up in situation and I feel embarrassed about it. So my first suffering, I was feeling embarrassed. And I was also like that I was embarrassed about everything in my life. So I started, you know, pursuing those things that was difficult for me to do. And just stay with it, setting the egg timer. Just feeling embarrassed until the the clock ring. The thing that he said was the key to this instead is you have to do it every day. And later, much later, I learned about neuro science and the wiring of our brain and to break a habit, you have to do it regularly. So all these things I learned much later. But that’s how I started just picking it up. Because here’s the profoundness of his state that he’s he’s just giving very simple practical things to do. So every day I sat or every evening, I sat with an egg timer. And eventually my brain got used to this doing it for a year and a half, I got so used to not running away from that, which is called suffering, but to actually confront it or embrace it or just seeing it. And that which is the non dual way, you know, that I learned afterwards. It’s like, oh, that’s so cool. You know, I just kind of got into it and, and through awareness, learning it from this in the simplicity of this way. And there were some things though, that was still difficult for me to be just in awareness of being with. And I heard of this course in India called Samskaras samskaara, that is your past lives, your D is cleansing. So there could be some past life things that is still bothered me or something. So I went down to India, my first time in August 2003. And that’s when I had the profound experience number two. The first one was definitely in here in Helsingborg, where that inner voice came that that changed my life. But the presence that I had got to know it was more like the volume of a radio channel. You know, it’s like sometimes it will be very loud, like, I could really feel this presence. Sometimes it was like, I guess it’s there. But it wasn’t so clear. But that came to change. In August. I took I took a course it was a three day course with the monks or the diocese down there that guided you know how to meet the different kinds of shadow energies and invoke the presence of your divine into it and not resist it. And it was nice to do it in a group. And I’ve had the option of running away with your thoughts and things like that. So it’s very strong, very powerful. And I felt like I had taken a shower from the inside was that kind of a feeling. It was actually so amazing that I thought I’ll stay here forever. And I didn’t I just didn’t want to leave. It’s just an amazing experience. But we were also to have a Darshan, a meeting with the founder of the Oneness University, one of the founders, there’s two founders. And he had been Sri Bhagwan. He had been in silence for three months at that time. And he was having a Darshan for the first time. And I went in there with a group of Russians. There was 30 Russians and me. And we were told we could ask questions or at something like that, it was at this Darshan that he, he shared with the group, he said, humanity has been preparing itself for a shift in consciousness that will start happening after 2012. And hear from the Oneness University, we will contribute in this shift in consciousness by giving an energy transfer we call diksha. I had never heard of this before ever. And he said, we’ll start on Sunday, you should all come, you know, you could have a good transformation in consciousness, the different doorways of consciousness that you could go in and have an experience of and something could happen to you. So of course, my plane ticket back home was on the on that day, 17th of August. But I was gonna make this big day when the first diksha was given to the bigger to the odd when he called the regular people. And word spread fast. And people came from all over and you know how it is in India? I believe they said it was about 150,000 people there that day. Yeah. So they were at this Ashram called naman. And they took in was very beautifully organized. It was like 10,000 people at a time, like a big rock concert thing with its fences. So you don’t you didn’t feel squished or anything was really nicely organized, I was really impressed by that. And coming in there, there the dusts as they walked around to different sections and put their hands on our head tips are, the bosses are monks and nuns that work at the Oneness University as teachers. And this first big shot was to be given through them to us. And I had this thing of always having male teachers all my life, and male masters, you know, like starting with Jesus, you know, and then talking to God, the Father in heaven, all of this, I was so happy that in this path, there was an a man sitting next to Bhagwan they were holding this together. This is what I knew I was looking for. For a while I thought it was the Siddha Yoga path. Because as mukta Jnana left his body, there was actually two people joining together holding that, but then that movement kind of split up. And I split with that. Because inside I felt I want both that Divine Mother Divine Father, divine female, divine male to be together, that has been something that I’ve been carrying in my heart all this time. So I was so sad when the siddhi movement kind of didn’t go that for me, they did beautiful things, both of them did beautiful things, but they didn’t do it together. And for me, I needed them to be together. So in this path, there was both an AMA and a Bhagwan holding this phenomenon of bringing the sin. And in my head, when we received this diksha it was so important to have the female a little bit more like I want a female dancer to give this, whatever this is diksha I don’t know what this is, whatever it is, it must be from a female dancer, one of the nuns I just it has to be because I’ve had too much mail all my life influences I need more of the feminine. So I prayed I learned to pray and talk to my divine. So I talked to my divine said, have the female that and I looked in my section where I was sitting was a male that I was a male guide, you know, going down and giving this very, you know, powerful energy transfer. And I remember feeling like so that disappointment that like or remembering my friend, the atheists back home, say you know, you should be grateful really, I should be grateful. I shouldn’t sit here complaining I want but I want the female. I don’t want to I don’t want the male. And I started having this conflict again. And then I know what can I do about the conflict? Nothing. I had to just like, this is happening. It’s like, oh, no, not now. I want to be like in this beautiful day receiving this wonderful day share. But I was like in the innermost conflict again, as this is happening. And right before he’s coming to my head. There’s two female dancers running over to me I could see and feel their shots sweeping around me like this. And one of them press down or her hands on my head like really like I was so taken by this experience. I couldn’t believe it. I got heard from my divine the last second it was like the last second she just like I got to pretty cool. That was a cool experience. And the same experience happened that didn’t Helsingborg, this inner presence, but now it was experienced more like a golden ball of liquid light. That’s all I can explain it. It was like she went blue. It felt like liquid light does it It expanded in my head, it went down by itself in my throat, I’m busy, but just feeling like in awe like because I was, you know, busy with anger and disappointment. And so I just see how all of this is happening and it goes into my chest area and it expands and it goes into my stomach. And that’s when it landed like a huge golden basketball, you know of something. And it was so filling some kind of sweetness like honey nectar I could feel like it was. So I saw that I’ve been carrying like a dark hole in my stomach, like a black hole in my stomach, no, just trying to fill it with something, just that it’s been the issue somehow. And that together with my brain is now used to not running away from suffering, not running away from that, which I don’t want to have there. But just like, oh, well, this is what we have to experience. Now. Whatever the moment brings you. So a combination, perhaps not resisting the now. And the gift of grace that happened to me that they made a shift in consciousness, a profound shift in consciousness this time. There was a lot of noise happening there around that it always does in India with 250,000 people. There were speakers, you know, you have to leave the area, everyone has to come out, you know, and I couldn’t move I was against it with this, this bliss. And I thought the Russians because I was with the Russians, I don’t understand any Russian but they always like adopted me in that kind of pull that me like neti neti, we have to go. And so I figured the Russians will save me, the Russians will take me here. I’ll just sit here, you know, I can’t move. And I looked up after a while. And all the people in my section, they couldn’t get out. Because there was some kind of problem. And this is sit down, you will receive it one more time in this section as Oh, cool. I get it one more time. And this time, I didn’t care if it was a male or female, I, you know, I was like, you know, this, whatever is happening. And this time, it was a male, that male monk that gave this very beautiful. And the same thing happened again, golden liquid light coming in, filling the head. And now doing something more in the left brain seem to be having its own intelligence, whatever it’s it’s doing. And then sure enough, after this, after some time, there was a Russian woman tugging at my arm saying nifty nifty share a taxi to airport. So I, I actually, from there, went straight back home to Sweden, because there was a dramatic exit from India. But it was when I came home, then I realized something is very different. Now then, from before I left, even though I had started this process before, there was energy shooting up my spine, electric, I was feeling so happy, I have never been so happy in my life, I actually didn’t know how to function. And I just fell in love with my family I couldn’t speak of there was nothing to talk about. It was just like falling in love with everyone. My daughter was then eight years old, and you know, had missed all her baby years. And because I was so miserable and trying to help this world. And it was like, Ah, she’s so beautiful. And we just connected like that. And then it was so difficult to see myself like how how can life work now on a practical level. So I actually remember I went to the doctor. And I said, you know, I feel so happy. I don’t know how to live my life.
Rick Archer: You wanted a pill for that?
Anette Carlström: I wanted because I got serious like I can’t stress you know, stress is not having an effect. Because to make schedule. And you know, having all this kind of work ahead. You need to have some kind of, you know, quicker energy in here. I’m just, I could lie on a carpet. I’m just going into that what I remember from my childhood with the sound and the pajamas, you know that? How can I book clients, you know? So the doctor looked at me because I thought he must. He must have some kind of suggestion. What can I do now because there’s something he looked at me. And he sent me to a psychologist. I’ll go see her. So I went to the psychologist explained the whole thing. Again, what had happened to me and after an hour, he also want to go to India. And she said, You know what? I’m going to put you on sick leave for five weeks. I’m sure you have got used to this by them. So I got sick pay for five weeks. It was a second gift of grace that I actually got this time after this very big change in my body system.
Rick Archer: Sweden. Could you get something like that? Yes.
Anette Carlström: At that time, at least today. Things change but it was a grace that I could have that time with my family and just get used to them. I started taking my clients and, and booking and it was actually the clients that shocked to say, You’re so different now than when you were before. You know what happened to you in India. And I don’t want to take their whole hour to speak up my experience, because it’s expensive to go on our two cranial sacral, I don’t want to take your time and your money for that. So I’ll have in my living room on Sunday, I’ll have what what I learned is Satsang, which simply means you share your truth. I’m a very shy person, I know that but as Satsang I’m sure I can just say too few people are interested. So I thought 10 people could come and just listen, I can share it. Those people, my clients that were interested, they could come. Now a friend of mine had a big website, and he put it on his website, and that was share her experience from India. And that day that Sunday, nine people show up at my door.
Rick Archer: And you have room in your living room for
Anette Carlström: people, I was completely taken again by storm by shock. So what do we what do we do what is happening, people just keep pouring in. And the people from Denmark from Copenhagen, they had a film camera and it’s like, Oh, what is going on, I was just going to tell a few people. So someone said there’s a hall around this neighborhood where we can go in and just be where we can all fit. So they knew like a community place. So we went there. And they put me on top of the table because they all wanted to see. So I got this experience the first time in my life on camera then and I knew from Hollywood that I’m not good on camera that’s so in my voice and microphones like oh, I’ve been told I can’t speak be silent, you know, this is not working. So all of the memories from the Hollywood the trauma that came up. And also knowing that I can’t speak I’ve taken any classes, tried to look people in the eye, I can only look one person in the eye, maybe it doesn’t work. Otherwise. Now there’s 90 people sitting there, and they put me on the table so they could all see. And on top of it, I was supposed to speak of the most sacred, most profound personal experience I’ve ever experienced, like this. Oftentimes, when we have a shift of some kind, we get tested. So this was like, for me the biggest nightmare you could ever have happen big night nightmare like this. And what did I have? I had my divine I had my Anthurium. And I said what do I do now? What do I do? I have nothing to say what can I I have never been able to look more than two people in the eye. And my divine said very clearly stay with the what is stay with? What is their experience, whatever is you’re experiencing? There. So there’s no shortcut. It’s just sitting there experiencing whatever is going on. And the willingness to experience whatever that is. That’s all that’s needed. Just the willingness to experience it. There was nothing happening. All the years of anxiety was more like old photographs. Like yes, that is part of an it’s like personality, like a toolbox with different tools, like different aspects like Annette is this and this and this. But it’s like a bigger part of me was holding the smaller part, saying, We’ll take some of this a little bit of humor, and oh, she loves to sing, she maybe I can’t sing, but I love to do it. And it didn’t matter. So I sat there on the table, and I started just singing because I love to sing. And now it didn’t matter that I can’t sing right. And I thought they’re all gonna throw tomatoes at me. I was absolutely certain. Because I had such strong charges around, you can sing. But nobody left. Nobody threw anything. They all stayed. And I went around and gave this experience healing at the time. So I just hope and I had my friend who had introduced this to me he was there too. We gave this energy transfer or just a wish, like a positive disease. Let it just be contagious. Somehow. I don’t know what this
Rick Archer: is. Had you been trained to give Deeksha that? No, no, no, I did your best to figure it.
Anette Carlström: I did what like he said, you know, he had tricked me is that you talk to your honorarium and it’s not up to you. It’s up to you and 300 So I did that. I talked to my three Om and TMSA. Let’s just do that. What about what else are we gonna do? You know, I shared a little bit about my process in India, sang a little song. And then I said, I’m just gonna give you experience healing with my friends. So we walked around doing this thing, you know, and then I thought it’s over. But no, the people from Copenhagen that was filming they said come to Copenhagen have a Satsang there. I said, Oh. So from then on going to Copenhagen, there was people from Berlin they said, Oh, you come to Berlin and then people so this, like, unexpected journey around the world happened that I wasn’t seeking, I just was told to come to this place from one place to another to just share my experience. And I was comfortable enough to call it Satsang. Because that’s all I could do, I could just share what is going on. In the most strange places I would be invited. Around the world, this phenomenon happened on its own, and it’s still going on, like, going with a heart is calling.
Rick Archer: So at a certain point, you got more formal training, right? In India to to be a Deeksha giver and all that. Yes, yeah.
Anette Carlström: And the, the phenomenon of giving it is, you’re trained like that, you know, you get initiation. And you’re also trained very clearly that it’s, it’s from your inner divine self or your anthem, and they use that word and rearm, and because you should be free to relate to it in your own way. So it was That’s how it’s given. It’s none of us giving it it’s, it’s that presence within
Rick Archer: your just a channeler. Tool instrument. Definitely. Yeah. So the deaf guy, had he actually been to the one this University Place. And that’s why he was using the OnCommand word. At that stage, it was in a very preliminary.
Anette Carlström: Yes. In the very, very beginning of this. Yeah.
Rick Archer: So maybe this would be a good time for you to explain. Well, you’ve sort of explained it just now. But what is actually happening when you when you give Deeksha? How quiet? Why does it work? And how does it work?
Anette Carlström: You get connected into that unified field of consciousness, we can call the supreme light, or the superconscious, whatever you want to call it. Depending on you, there’s only one to my own understanding my own experience, there’s only one. And as we each find our own way into connecting into this unified field, we can help to awaken it and another. It’s not that you’re giving something because it’s already there within the other, and they relate to it in their own way. So we don’t know as giving this we don’t know, it’s not up to us. But we can wish good things for people. And we can give this energy transfer and it’s up to them. And they’re Andrea men, their higher sacred self, or what they do. It’s like sending an email, right? Here’s some good news. You can open it or not use it the way fits you. That is my understanding my experience of it. So I don’t get involved with being like hearing, did it work or not? It’s not up to me. I know if it works for me.
Rick Archer: So when you’re studying at Oneness University, did they give you training or methods to more effectively and reliably and clearly connect with the unified field or whatever you want to call it?
Anette Carlström: Yes, very clear teachings. I’m totally amazed at these. The dark sides, the monks and nuns, they have dedicated their lives to helping in this process. They’re amazing. That was one of the things that really took me by storm when I went there. Because it wasn’t just like, the founders were in a great state of consciousness, of course, but all of their monks and nuns are also in Super states. Were having that presence of something so kind, so loving, and their eyes so intelligent, and the way they teach the amazing thing I have found over the years, because it’s 14 years now. I keep growing. It’s not like, oh, yeah, I made some kind of a shift. Yeah, there was a big shift happening at that time. But that wasn’t the only shift. That was just one big shift that happened and it keeps growing and growing. And these guides, we call them guides, or, or dancers or monks or nuns, whatever you want to call them. They have dedicated their lives to the phenomenon of awakening each person in their own way, and to help this world in that way through evolution of consciousness.
Rick Archer: Are they really monks and nuns like they’re living the monastic life because I mean, with the Osho group, for instance, they called themselves sadhus, I believe, but they weren’t really scientists. They’re just sort of people using that name. This these people are really monks and nuns.
Anette Carlström: What I know yes, they live together. So they don’t have household and don’t have families. They’re not married. You know, so they live the kind of life of service Right. So they’re not monks in the traditional form, like they have to do austere things. And
Rick Archer: they’re living celibate lives. And
Anette Carlström: yes, yeah, they don’t, they wouldn’t have time.
Rick Archer: And what’s will? Now questions are starting to come to me, you’ve been, this is probably the least I have talked in any interview that I’ve ever done, but because you’re so you’re actually a very good talker, and you’re telling the story. So with such great interest, but now I’m starting to get some questions. So the Well, a couple of questions. One is the is there is there a difference in capability among diksha givers dependent depending on how clear and deep they are, maybe some are sort of 10% and some are 80%, or whatever in terms of the their ability to, to transmit. And also, I would imagine, there must be similar differences among those who received each teacher in terms of their receptivity and an openness to it.
Anette Carlström: Yes, it said that there are three components in giving a receiving addiction. So it is the Giver, it is the receiver. And it’s the addiction itself. So the actual diction, or the energy transfer has the most power of the three. So if the diksha has a mission, like the divine wants something for someone else, let’s say it’s someone, like when you give a diksha, if you were to not feel so good as a giver, let’s say you have a bad day, it’s just, you’re in some kind of mood, and you’re gonna give addiction to someone, maybe that’s not like the optimal, the best way to be, when you give a diksha is in a state of gratitude. That’s the highest state you can be in. But maybe you’re not able to feel grateful. And somebody’s asking you for addiction. What do you do? Well, what is happening then is the diksha is like a faucet, you know, turning on. So what happens is, you as the giver feel really good. And let the less comes to the one who is asking. So it’s a good idea for the other person to be as clear channel as possible. Otherwise, all this diksha goes to you as the giver, right? But if the diksha itself has a mission, like it’s some kind of time, for the gift of grace to be given to this person, it doesn’t matter if this giver is absorbed in some other kinds of things, it will still work because the diksha has priority. It is their sole sovereign.
Rick Archer: I understand that. I mean, I used to teach Transcendental Meditation many years ago, and sometimes I would teach somebody and all of a sudden, I would have this incredibly profound experience while I was teaching them, and I wouldn’t necessarily be in any very clear state that they are anything, but all of a sudden, they would just be like, boom, you know, and then I talked to them afterwards, and they would have had the same experience. And so I figured out must be that this person was really ready. i And somehow, whatever the mechanics are on a subtle level of this process, you know, we both got uplifted by it, because of their deserve ability, or you know, their readiness. Yeah. So what is the scene like over there? I mean, it sounds like it’s a really big place. And there are a lot of people and there, maybe, I don’t know, give it give us numbers. It’s like, how many people are there at any one time? How many of these dances are there? You know? How much does it cost to go there? I mean, if one wanted to get involved in this and start going there, what are they going to find when they go there?
Anette Carlström: So there are different ways to go there. First of all, one interesting point is the oneness temple. It is a magic, like you said, it’s like a magic fairytale place. It’s like, so see pictures of it. It’s beautiful. Yes, you told me when we started talking like the wonders temple looks like a fairytale place. And that’s exactly how I feel
Rick Archer: like the Wizard of Oz kingdom. Yes, yes. Is the man there’s something.
Anette Carlström: That’s how I see it like, wow, it’s like candy for the eyes. The eyes got Ha, because it’s in the middle of a low cut jungle. So there it is, in white marble. Everything is made from white marble, carved out elephants and lions and horses and just magical staircases, spiraling up, and it’s like, this magic place. So you just want to go there. And it’s built like a structure like the pyramid is built in a way called Vastu. You know, knowledge of how a building can affect your consciousness. Yes. So it’s built with that knowledge, together with it’s a Danish architecture company that has designed it. So it’s very like modern, very hip, very cool place. And it’s the largest Hall in Asia. The third floor, you can sit without pillar. So you can sit like 12,000 people on the third floor meditating with no pillars, and it’s like this cool, like, like Sweden. We have The lighting is very important because it’s so dark here, we have IKEA here. So we have IKEA lighting, I always think, Oh, I’m going into the Swedish home. I don’t think anyone else agrees with me on this. But I feel very at home, because it has all these lights, you know, the cool lights from the ceiling. So it’s like a magic temple because of the lighting. And inside the floor, there’s these flowers that you can sit on the flower. And there is the Sri Yantra. It’s like a figure is a sacred symbol in the center that is like the power where a different power place and alliances meet at the same time. So the actual center of the temple is, is like a yantra like an energy structure. So you sit there and you feel just like ah, I’m, I’m like home, this really nice place to be. And in this temple, there have been over the years it was built. It was took seven years to build it was build the 2008 in April, I believe, for the opening. And they wanted to have it been like a oneness temple. But they had some problems having it as a oneness temple because there’s no nomination of religious things. So they actually have to sort this out somehow. It’s being a temple for oneness, a temple for all for everyone. So maybe soon, it will be released from to the public. But so far, you have to take a course or be involved somehow at the Oneness University because it’s set up like that from the government and the political situation, religious structure, just to explain a little bit what’s going on. Because it’s not like an ashram, like other sacred places. You can go and visit just freely like that. They have to actually pay taxes like a business, they have to run it like a business until the laws in India change so they can be a spiritual place because that’s what it is. But so they have worked around this to make it affordable for people. And they have something called Shambala. And Shambala is mystical vision of a place you know, and another dimension I think it’s in from the Buddhist tradition or a sign of coming of the light. They call the temple now the Shambala and then you can go for like a one day course. And it’s very low cost to go to this, if you only want to go to the temple, you can join in them into the Shambala, where you simply just pay for the food and shelter or living there. So the cost is as low as possible. And you can stay for just a few days, if you just want to go there and experience the temple. You go to the temple every night and you journey with one of the dasa so you learn how to relate to that on three Om and inside, you learn from that docile female or male like their way because we all have different ways. So they’re just teaching us a way, their way.
Rick Archer: It also has a slightly different way of doing it.
Anette Carlström: Yeah, they have their own personality, their own, you know, they’re not the same oneness is not sameness. So they’re very different. But they are all connected into that unified field. And it’s so cool to take classes with different dances to say, Oh, this is how they do some of different things. Yeah, yes, like very subtle things.
Rick Archer: How many of them are there?
Anette Carlström: I think there is about 100 or so. But there are certain that are only working with us Westerners who are used to us Westerners. There’s also those who only work with Indians and traveling around. They do lots of work, like volunteer work, helping 100 villages around giving them food and shelter schools and hospitals. So there’s a lot of work happening around the temple that we’re not really seeing what part of India is this is flying to Chennai. So it’s and then it’s three hours, about two, three hours with taxi up to North.
Rick Archer: on the East Coast, south
Anette Carlström: southeast coast, right. Okay. Yes, it’s in their nature reserved area.
Rick Archer: And most people who would come here obviously wouldn’t just come for one day. I mean, most people listening to this would be flying in from us, or Europe or Australia or something. And so I imagine they have longer programs for a week, a month, whatever.
Anette Carlström: Yes, actually, they they suggest stay for at least a week, you know, you don’t go to India for a day. So you stay for a week at the Shambala. That’s like the lowest most economical if that is your situation where you have to consider that then they have longer courses. So they have three week courses, Journey forces, that is also extraordinary, then it’s more of a process. So it starts like a beginning and an end. You know, these Shambala is one day courses. So you traveled that day with us and then it’s you knew that’s the next day so forth. But on the journey courses, it’s one journey for three weeks. So it’s a different kind of system in that in the teachings and the experiences that you get you go a little deeper and then They have lots of other types of courses also.
Rick Archer: And Bhagavan and amo are designing all this. They’re overseeing the whole thing ultimately.
Anette Carlström: Yes, they are. They are the founders, they started this and they retired 2014, they said, this, we came here with this mission to help humanity to create such a structure, a building that could stay for at least 1000 years, without being damaged by the weather and wind and all this and the structure would have hold the presence of light, the golden light, that is a symbol that I experienced coming into that golden light could be a symbol of just seeing nests, you know, so you put light on something, you see it. So they want the divine to be housed into that temple. So when you go in there, you will have an experience, but they still, of course, oversee it and have their part but they’re not so much out in public as they don’t want this to be like a guru phenomenon.
Rick Archer: I heard an interview with him one time, and he spoke very clear English. And it was I really liked the things he was saying it really, there’s a lot of wisdom in it. So it’s, I mean, India has a reputation for being kind of rough and the food, you know, you can get easily get sick when you go there and so on. But this place is pretty comfortable for Westerners. Yes.
Anette Carlström: It’s extraordinary. The things that have happened since I first came there. 2003 It was, we didn’t even have beds at that time was so simple, you know, we’re just like no huts with banana leaves roofs. And I was with the rushes. I was just sleeping on the towel on this mud floor. You know, so, so simple, rustic, but I loved it. You know, for me, it was like perfect. I felt really, you know, like a spiritual seeker like a sadhu you know, because I read all those books. And I would, I would love that, but also realizing, coming back to Sweden, seeing that people would want to experience that they have developed this very nice campuses around so that you could have the comfort of a Westerner that is used to the nice toilets, of course beds, they even have like five star hotel. Also campus. Yes. So also is part of the Oneness University where she Yama, Bhagwan actually lived themselves. So after that they moved into the temple, but that campus is very nice. And they made it into campus where you can stay. And they call it campus three, or an under locker or something like that. I don’t know what they call those have different names, but it’s one of the My Favorite campus to go to. It’s filled with peace. But all the campuses are like that. They’re 567 around them.
Rick Archer: Oh, all the campuses like, right, in a cluster near each other. Are they different parts of India?
Anette Carlström: No, no, they’re around the same area. I see. Like campus three, they’re the foothill of sacred mountains where old Siddhis are said to be well, you can have many great mystical experiences. That’s maybe why I love it so much. Because you can actually communicate with the ciders that are dwelling like could be 10,000 years old. And
Rick Archer: not in the in the flesh communicate, but on subtle level,
Anette Carlström: on the mystical level, yes. But they can also appear if it doesn’t freak you out. They can do those things too. They dwell up there. There is a there is a mountain campus called the sacred sacred forest campus. There we are just for a day. And the indigenous people who live there. They when they met through Yama, Bhagwan they said we want to build a campus here. And they said, Oh, do you come with a light skinned people, because they had heard this in a generation that when the when the light skinned people come, then the world will start its awakening. So that was very cool. So that is an awesome place that we go to visit. We don’t say they’re good energy. It’s like you can talk to the ants, you can talk to the tree, there are mystical things happening there. That is just like a fairy tale. So
Rick Archer: that’s, that’s great. Let’s talk a little bit about what I know that over in, in the Oneness University people are sort of proclaimed, awake, like, okay, you’ve had your awakening and so on. And, you know, let’s talk about what you guys actually mean by that. And to start with that someone named D from Denver, sent in a question, maybe this will get you going. She said, when your mind is engrossed in something, say a good book or adding figures? Are you simultaneous? Are you simultaneously aware of the Divine? For instance, so I might ask you, would that be one of your criteria? Of what awakening is that that awareness of the Divine or some kind of self realized state persists no matter what you’re doing, even if you’re engaged interest in reading a book or driving a car or adding figures or fast asleep for that matter.
Anette Carlström: It is an experience, I can only speak for myself. Now, I don’t know what the criteria are. I can answer it in two ways I can answer it the way that I know. Because you also asked how do you know if you’re awakened? Right? And then I can answer for my own expert. How
Rick Archer: does one is group define awakening? And then yeah,
Anette Carlström: because that will start there. What some of the doses are highly trained, developed in their consciousness that they can go into, I would call it like a Google search. But on the divine level, they can go into someone’s brain or their collective consciousness. And if they have your name, and your Birth Number, when you were born, there’s some some information about you. What they do is five of these dancers goes into five different dark rooms, they are trying to go into the divine field of consciousness, like an advanced Google search, I would say, and asking this person, is this person awakened? If they are on what level? And if all five come out with the same answer, then that’s it. Otherwise? So that’s how we are proclaimed awaken on one on what level?
Rick Archer: Do they do that a lot for people? I mean, if you take your awaken youth, you talk to the doshas, and say, Hey, could you check for me,
Anette Carlström: they only they did in the beginning, and all they got over, overwhelmed, overwhelmed with my emails, then they had to stop that because they would use these five doses too much, you know, they said, we only do it. Now for people who take the three week course, then you get declared, awaken and know what level and this level is only for you to understand and to be to be growing to see where you’re at. And what’s the difference between being on a lower level of awakening, what’s happened, when you go into the awakening? Building, it’s like your,
Rick Archer: there’s an awakening building.
Anette Carlström: This is my, this is my explanation. Now I came very quickly into my way of explaining it or understanding it. It is like there’s no one actual awakening building, even though I would say the temple could be such a metaphor. It’s a metaphor. That’s what it is. Thank you, thank you for helping this week. My way of looking at it is, when you’re not awakened, you’re looking at the world a certain way. Like something is bothering you, it’s in your face, because that’s how you see things. When you go go into awakening, it’s like you go into a building. And you’re let’s say you awaken on level one or two, you like go up to that level. And you look at the same reality from that. Second, second point. When level, then floor. Yes, second floor. So then it looks like that little different now you have a different perception of the same thing. Still, it’s bothering you, you’re not, you know, but you’re awakened. But you’re on this level. So then let’s say you you move up, because you get trained on not resisting the what is you, you get trained and your brain is actually changing, and you learn these things, and you have processes for that. And then you go into higher level. And to go really quick, then what is the difference between like a Buddha or a Ramana Maharshi, or someone who’s really big state of consciousness and somebody who’s just like, starting this process would be that, that would be like on the 100th floor, let’s say 100 floor is the top floor in this metaphor. So he is the Buddha is resisting, nothing. Okay, nothing of the mind is resisting. Those of us who are not on the 100 we might have resistance to some things. And we are growing and we are learning but we’re in the building are in the process of continuing, the neurobiological shift has happened, we perceive reality, we have not changed reality. We perceive reality in a different way. That is the awakening process from my own understanding and experience.
Rick Archer: That’s a good explanation. Does the Oneness University I guess that’s what you call it is that the best way to refer to it? The oneness group or whatever you call that do they have
Anette Carlström: and this university is it is a university, it is a university for consciousness. Yeah. So that school for growing in consciousness, you can call it that or the one is temporal words are not really important if it makes problem for people and you can call it something
Rick Archer: I just want to Yeah, I want to refer to it directly. But does does the group or does the teaching kind of have a fairly clearly defined explanation of how many levels there are like they might say seven levels or 15 levels or something like that and they when when the data to say, Okay, well this person has awakened, would they actually be so specific as to say, Oh, they’re at level four? Or is it a little bit more fuzzy than that?
Anette Carlström: They don’t put much emphasis on this. When they first started giving awakening levels, it was to simply explain this, like, you can grow into this, this shift has happened. And yeah, you can grow it for younger. But it started a lot of conflict around people. And they said, Let’s just forget this awakening levels, because it’s just creating problems for you. Let’s forget it. But yes, complicated. And then people say, no, we want to know if we have grown or not, you know, so then they started it again. And then they moved it. And one course, I remember said, all of a sudden, they said, No, we’re not going to give it, it doesn’t matter. You know, some people get upset, this just doesn’t really matter. They give a level just for our understanding, like a metaphor, you know, they can see if, if that much of your brain has changed. So if you’re on a 20, or 30, that I think they have from zero to 100. So if you’re on a 20, to 30, your presence, your very presence can change your room, some some kind of explanation like that I heard in the beginning. Now, they don’t like to go into that because people then someone on an it and go, Oh, I don’t change the room, you know. So it’s just that you don’t what is happening real practically is, you don’t have a problem with what is happening around you, you don’t resist, it has to do with how much resistance you like. So after you’re up after 50, then you start processing the suffering of humanity, that start the collective human consciousness start flowing through you. So you’re still having the same tools, connecting with The Anthony Atman. And then not resisting what you experienced. And responding from the intelligence of the heart is really quite simple. You learn how to live through the senses. So the mind is not the mind is more like a tool. My experience now from that, and her question sending in is the mind is a great tool. It is awesome coming from an intellectual country. So it’s not like you give away the mind or the mind is no good. And you shouldn’t have the mind when you’re writing or the Divine is here. And the mind is there. No, not my experience. The Divine can flow through the intellect, the divine can flow through the words or repent, you know, it’s not like, you are different from that you are that too. And you learn to day by day and go closer and closer having that relationship to the Divine and you feel it, when what you’re doing, how you’re responding is helping another is bringing back goodness to you and to the world, then you’re doing something good. You don’t analyze so much about it
Rick Archer: sounds good. I mean, imagine if you’re upset because you can’t figure out what level you’re on, then you can safely assume that you’re not on a very high one, you should just relax and keep on going. You said something interesting a minute ago, about maybe after level 50 or something, you begin processing the stuff of the world. And I’ve heard a number of teachers speak about this and even recently, and in fact, you know, Ramana said that his cancer was due to the fact that he was processing a lot of stuff from His devotees. Well, at 1.1 of His devotees said, Hey, why don’t you just give us give us all that suffering, that you’re experiencing a portion and among us will gladly you know, take a load and take it off you? And he said, Where do you think I got it from in the first place? So do you have you been experiencing this? processing the stuff of the world? And does it make you uncomfortable? Do you feel like it takes a toll on your body? For instance? Or? Or do you just kind of digest it and it doesn’t really you know, it’s not hurting your health or your your well being in any way.
Anette Carlström: It’s definitely not hurting my well being or my health or my body or anything like that. It’s it’s not like it’s a natural occurrence. It’s not like I do something, it is just what is happening. So it is the process is the same as with a egg timer. When you start you know, you just you learn after a while you don’t need an egg timer, you just experiencing life as it is. You don’t like say I’m going to sit now and experience the suffering of the world. It’s just It doesn’t matter if it comes from your ancestors. If it comes from your family, if it’s the collective human consciousness, or if it’s something else, you learn your brain gets the hang of it, or not resisting what is there. And this is a process. I believe this is the process of how long can you stay with with that or something, but it’s not something the mind is involved in. So it’s just a natural happening.
Rick Archer: You sometimes get a feeling for what it is you’re processing like oh, this is my family. This is my ancestors, this is something this is Aleppo, that, um, you know, working out some of that mess or the, or is it just more of a, describe the subjective experience of this,
Anette Carlström: sometimes the divine essence that is the central thing in my process is relationship with the divine or the anterior mind. So my anterior men can sometimes show me a picture of where this stuck, maybe some ancestor, something is, is happening, and this is causing the problem of the karma of this is happening. So sometimes yes, I can know what’s going on. And I can also see the results of me just not resisting it and experiencing it, feeling it, seeing it and not resisting it. And something happens in me. And something happens very often in the outer world over the person. So it’s, it’s a beautiful process to be involved in. And the fact that you don’t feel hopeless, or helpless, because you know, that there is a presence inside of you, that wants to goodness and well things in this world. And the more people that can wake up to it, without making a problem about it, without hurting another or hurting oneself, the better this world is going to be. So until that time, whatever suffering is given to me, it’s, it’s not a suffering, it is a it’s like a non effort, effort.
Rick Archer: It’s like a little assignment that you have to take care of, all right. I’m gonna process this. I’m a washing machine, and here’s a load of laundry.
Anette Carlström: But it gives joy see, it’s a win win kind of thing. So it’s not like, oh, I have to take all the suffering under work, because that’s how I spend the first part of my life. I’m here to help the world. But I went about it the whole the wrong way. I tried, I thought I had to do everything. I mean, as many people I can get into my living room, and they often got well, you know, but that’s not what we’re here to do. We’re not here to have like a burden. That’s the reason why we get connected to the Divine is something released on the shoulder. I go to Missouri sometime, because it’s so weird. How can you shoulders they’re like so loose, which is I’m not carrying the world’s pain. I’ll just let it experience, you know, yeah. So I wish that for everyone, actually, it’s a joy to, to not resist resistance hurt to resist the things that is difficult to painful. That is much more painful. I heard one priest today on the Swedish Radio, she said something really beautiful. The preseason in Sweden is perhaps very much more open. But she said, You know, I enjoy going and talking to people who have sorrows or have difficulties. Because I have the divine hand in my back. I can go into the darkness with them. I’m not there to say something that’s going to save them. That’s not my role. My role is to just be there and listen and be there. And I’m safe, because I have that in my back. So so beautiful.
Rick Archer: It’s nice. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, the Divine is really, there’s a nice metaphor that I’ve heard spiritual teachers use, it’s like, if, if you’re on a train, let’s say, you don’t have to hold your suitcase. You know, in order to get your suitcase to its destination, you can put it down because the train is carrying it and carrying you so just put the load down and enjoy the ride.
Anette Carlström: Yes, that’s a great analogy. That’s really cool.
Rick Archer: Yeah, so you don’t have to, I’m sorry, go ahead.
Anette Carlström: I was gonna add something to that train. You don’t have to run once you’re on the train. You don’t have to run an egg. It doesn’t go any faster.
Rick Archer: Yeah, you’re not gonna get there any faster by running up and down the aisles. To sit? So you mentioned a few minutes ago that Bhagavan had mentioned that 2012 would be a turning point in the world is awakening and so on. Has he? Or do you have any sort of vision as to how things are going and when whether we’re all going to survive or not? And you know, what the world may end up like if, if we do survive this transition?
Anette Carlström: Yes, I am very optimistic about this whole process. And, but I do feel that it is important that as many people as possible, awaken into that intelligence of the heart. Now it doesn’t matter what religious path you’re on or what philosophical path you’re on a spiritual path or non path or an atheist, whatever you’re on Just so that you help humanity, it’s time it’s high time to come into clarity what this time is all about. We talk about evolution of consciousness. What does that mean? I think it is most important for people to be clear what this time that we’re living now is all about. And except for going to India, I’m also very enthusiastic about the Mayan Indians have been that since long back the Mayan calendar that supposedly ended 2012. And it’s not like the world was going to go under, they clearly said that there’s an evolution of consciousness that this calendar is built on. And they’re built some pyramids. And this pyramid says nine levels. So there’s nine evolutionary levels of consciousness for humanity. And what is unique about 2012, which is what the founders of the Oneness University also aligning within is saying that after 2012, there is a new possibility to download the divine consciousness or to merge with the divine. Like, if you can use the analogy of the Mayan calendar of the pyramid with the nine levels. Humanity technically is at the top of the pyramid right now, like the priest in the old Mayan culture, he was standing there representing that consciousness where we’re at. So that is where humanity is, actually at. But we are not realizing that many people, most people on this planet are still in resonance with lower levels of consciousness with duality consciousness with seeing things as right and wrong, me and not me, and so forth. That is where most people are in alignment. Whereas the evolution of consciousness has taken us into a plateau, where we can actually download the Divine Consciousness our own way without having to belong to any particular path or religion. And that is the high time I feel that people start awakening into that there’s not one path, that is the right one. Because if you have that kind of understanding, it’s fine. It’s just that we’re not in that evolution of consciousness. Now, the humanity has evolved to the top of the pyramid. And if you were to look at that analogy, what is the next step if you’re standing on the top of the pyramid? Heaven. So the heavenly energies, the divine consciousness is for us humans, to learn how to download to learn how to connect with it, because that’s the answer to the problems we have in our world. And not until the evolution of consciousness have come to that point for humanity, where they see, we each have to find our own way, whatever path, whatever way we choose, let it be for the goodness, let me not hurt another or myself or my family. Let’s do it in a kind way. And there’s so many paths that are helping for this awakening of humanity, as long as you respect each individual’s wait to do it.
Rick Archer: Yeah. So it sounds like you’re saying that whatever your path, the times are, such that it will more readily bear fruit, you know, it’s it’s a good time to be pursuing spiritual development, because whatever effort you make, in whatever way, will be much more productive and, and your chances of awakening to whatever degree are much better than they might have been in 1955? or some such time?
Anette Carlström: Definitely, definitely. And we see it, you know, we see here at our center, I have a meditation center and a clinic and we have events happening every week. And there’s lots of new curious people like what is going on here, and they went, and they have nothing, they don’t know anything about meditation or spirituality, but they get an experience, they go into that field right away, so has nothing to do with, have you been a meditator for 45 years? Or are you like, you just came off the streets? Like, I have no idea what this is, it’s like this kind of cool, you know, it’s like, oh, I just felt, you know, I may have shared these experiences. And each one is different. It’s not the beauty of life, you know, there’s not one as like the other.
Rick Archer: Yeah, I think this is a good point. And I think it’s an inspiring point. And I think more people need to hear it. Because if you just watch the news, you can get kind of discouraged. And, you know, you read about global warming and what’s happening to the oceans and what’s happening to the animals. And it’s, it sounds like we’re not going to survive as a species much longer. But, but what doesn’t make the news is that there’s this groundswell of awakening taking place, which is part of the reason I have started this show to sort of like make people more aware of that. And, and that groundswell of awaken I think has profound implications for the surface level problems that beset us, you know, for global warming for political unrest and economic woes and all that that awakening is going to In some way, hopefully, help us resolve those things. Those superficial problems are symptomatic of some deficiency in world consciousness and that deficiency seems to be getting remedied.
Anette Carlström: Yes. And you’re doing an amazing work. I love watching your shows, I love watching all your teachers, I just salute every one of them and the work that you’re doing. So it’s such a passion, from your heart to bring in different perception, this is completely in alignment and, and like you speak of the grassroot. Maybe you said something else. But I heard graph
Rick Archer: for this. Yeah. Okay.
Anette Carlström: It’s like a grassroot thing. This is how I see it like it. Like the analogy of like, when you do the dishes, you put the water in the sink, and then you pull the plug. So the water goes down. So we’re like it close to the plug, you know, where the dirty water goes out? Because there are things that like, oh, yeah, those of us that are like, we’re invited to your show, or we can share these things. We feel like well, so many things are happening. But so yes, things are happening. But at the surface, they just go yes, things are changing a little bit. But they don’t know slowly. They like they’re also coming down until we all like spinning, going down the drain.
Rick Archer: In a good sense. Going down the cosmic drain to infinity, infinity the infinite sewer system.
Anette Carlström: It’s a good analogy.
Rick Archer: Here’s a question that came in from Mark Peters in Santa Santa Clara, California. He asks, is there any simple practice or daily check in that you would recommend for building the relationship to your Ontario?
Anette Carlström: Mm hmm, beautiful question. Ah, yes. This under passionate about, find your own way. First of all, find a way that is natural for you, or start developing away. The important thing is that you do it every day, like you do a Vipassana Vipassana is so beautiful, it’s an old Buddhist meditation, we just steal the body. Because then you can see because the mind that is chattering so much, the mind is directly connected to the body. So if you want to affect the mind, or to be able to witness the mind, you need to be in contact with your physical body. Because there are parts of the physical body where you might have resistance. So if you were to sit down every day, and you will be passing out, you just steal the body, and just be an awareness of the physical body. See the breathing, moving in and out by itself, not interfere allowing the body to breathe away, it wants to, you would naturally expand your consciousness, then you can put a focus inside your heart is usually the heart that we start to feel the presence to feel that inner light, and to be interested in your undreamt and in a way that would be natural for you to experience it, you can see it like a golden liquid light, if you like, or can feel it like a presence of joy or peace, something that was goodness for you. Something that wants to help you and your world. Start relating to it in your own way. The important thing is just like when you brush your teeth, you have to do it every day. If you only brush your teeth once a week, you might as well just forget about it. Just no good. So it is the same with connecting until your anterior. You connect with it every day. And you can do different things like I love to sing. You know, it doesn’t matter if all of Hollywood says you cannot sing girl. I sing anyway. And I’ve actually recorded some CDs, just to show that anybody can chant. Because when you chant the sacred mantras of the chant sacred sounds automatically you’re like downloading. It’s like having the cable to the internet, like where do I plug it in? Singing Mantra, because you are like, in the Sanskrit language, there are 3000 different words for what we call God. So here’s 3000 different nuances like a diamond with many different facets. So I love to sing my dress, it’s a heart opener. So when you do it, Vipassana just takes three minutes, just like sit down and just be an awareness of the body, you allow everything. There’s like a ticket to joy when you do this. So you know that you don’t resist anything, just welcome everything. When you put a focus on your heart. When you can pick up a Mantra, you can sing a Mantra, you can sing it loud, you can whisper a Mantra, or you can repeat it silently inside. There are different aspects affecting your consciousness in different way. You can also listen to a Mantra if you want to, and you just hear the Mantra. Or you can talk, you can talk to your divine like it is your best friend. Because eventually you can have that kind of a bhakti relationship and more of a devotional path where it becomes like a super great friend that will help and you can ask a blessing for the day or if somebody’s feeling bad, your family someone needs help you say please help this family. Please help this person. So it’s a great way to have a communication and relationship with Add that in her best friend. And spending some minutes every day at night to maybe isn’t that a good idea to do at night to before you go to sleep because all these things happen at night. I always like checking like, I’m going to sleep, please be with me in my, in my dreams helped me to digest what I need to digest. And let me learn more during the night. So I talk like that.
Rick Archer: Yeah. So you might say In summary, find a practice that seems to work for you, you know, maybe learn some technique or get a Mantra from somebody qualified to give it or whatever, and then just start doing it every day, even even 10 minutes or whatever. Yeah, yeah, but but regularity is important.
Anette Carlström: Definitely, better 10 minutes a day, and two hours once a week. Yeah, the regular thing that makes a difference, and it actually affects the neurons in your brain, you will have a different perception. Definitely.
Rick Archer: I was listening to a guy in an interview recently, and he was saying, you know, the, the way you can tell if a technique is working for you is if you actually enjoy it. And if you feel like doing it, it shouldn’t be something where you have to beat yourself up to sit down and do something, you should actually look forward to it. Yeah. So find a way of practice that you actually look forward to and that is refreshing and enjoyable. And, you know, is the highlight of your day.
Anette Carlström: Make some tea, go and sit down, have some tea with your divine. And joy? Definitely.
Rick Archer: I don’t know if the acoustics would be very good. But do you feel like singing something?
Anette Carlström: Oh, sure. Yeah.
Rick Archer: Go ahead, whatever you feel like saying,
Anette Carlström: okay, I can guide them a little, just, if you can, whoever, because I, how do you want this,
Rick Archer: whatever you want to do? I have no idea but whatever you would like to do?
Anette Carlström: Well, I’m thinking that there is some viewer that there are taking part of this and I’m thinking maybe the viewer,
Rick Archer: right now there’s 150 of them or something I can’t quite see small print. But yeah, there’s quite a few people watching now and then 1000s will watch later.
Anette Carlström: Okay, well, that is so cool. So the viewers can kind of get the feel for discovering their own inner presence. So just close your eyes and relax in the body. Feel the feet touching the floor, your legs, your buttocks, your whole hip region, your back and spine, the stomach, your whole belly, whatever is going on. Just relax your chest and shoulders, your arms and hands and fingers. Your neck and throat, relax. Your whole head and your face. Relax. You can see the breathing happening in and out by itself. You don’t have to change the breathing. You just allow the body to breathe the way it wants to breathe. This what you’re doing now is a Vipassana. An old Buddhist meditation where you steal the body and you’re in awareness of every part of your body and you relax, not resisting anything that might come up. When you do this you have an expansion in your consciousness, where you can see your inner world your thoughts and feelings whatever is happening inside of you. Now, you can put a focus inside your heart and the heart to usually Theseus can experience your higher sacred self. However that is for you, as a presence as a golden light. However, that is for you. Allow that presence to move out in every part of your body. Let it move out and every cell of the body also emanating outside your body under your feet over your head in front of your body behind your back all around your body that this golden presence of light, move out all encompassing love and receive this oneness blessing through this chant. Namita purnamidam purnamadah Hod A wilderness here we’re Anoma on Namita I mean I’m born poor and another charity blueness Hiya. Bernama Bucha and Om era day on good and poor in America today we’re gonna learn Bernama born on Chevron, Chevron shallow auntie and just keep your eyes closed just for a little while I give gratitude inside your heart in whatever ways you are experiencing the presence, when we give gratitude to that presence within it is like giving fertilizer on that seed of knowing the divine from within. Every time you give gratitude, you always end your time with the divine with your Antarian however you relate to it. And it always in gratitude that you have this anchor into that unified field of consciousness, your sacred self in your own way. When you feel completely new gratitude, it take a deep breath and open your eyes in your own time.
Rick Archer: That was nice. Do you want to tell us the meaning of that chant?
Anette Carlström: That is a on like your dog is called Luna. I always think of the moon when I think that chant is the full moon. So if you take something away from that which is fully it is still fully, if you add something to it, it is still full, you cannot change it. So if you use the divine every day, and you make use of the power of the light, you don’t take anything from it, you cannot add something to it. It is complete. It is full like the full moon. Every time there is a Poornima or a full moon I always think of that chant. I love that chant.
Rick Archer: Yeah, that’s nice. Yeah, it means this is full, that is full taking fullness from fullness, fullness remains. And you know, to me, it always reminds me that the the Divine is completely permeating everything. And that the the sort of unmanifest field of all possibilities from which creation arises is not depleted when the creation arises from it. And in fact, you know, the fullness permeates both there’s there’s nothing but fullness. It’s beautiful.
Anette Carlström: Thank you for explaining it so beautiful.
Rick Archer: At the mouths of babes. So I think that it would be nice to end on this note, since that was so sweet. So I want to thank you for, you know, participating in this and, you know, telling such a nice account of your life. It was very uplifting, I think to hear the whole story. Oh,
Anette Carlström: thank you so much, Rick, thank you for the platform, you’re giving so many of us and for bringing this out to the world. And each and every one of us finding our own path. I’m so honored and so grateful, so deeply grateful to be invited here today. Thank you so much.
Rick Archer: You’re welcome. So let me make a few little concluding remarks. I’ve been speaking with a net Karlstrom and as always, she’ll have a particular page on batgap.com and from there I’ll have links to her live stream of thing into her website and to her YouTube channels and to our books. So you’ll see that there. This is an ongoing series of interviews as you probably know, if you would like to be reminded whenever a new one is posted, there is a tab on that gap where you can sign up to get the email once a week or so. There’s an audio podcast version of this and there’s a tab for that. There’s the donate button that I mentioned beginning to appreciate people’s support. And there are a number of other interesting things. If you explore the menus, I always say that because no point in going through them all, but there’s not that many things. But if you just pull down the different menus on BatGap, you’ll find some interesting little things to check out. So thanks for listening or watching. And thanks again to you and that it’s really been a joy.
Anette Carlström: Thank you. Thank you so much Rick.
Rick Archer: And next week, I’ll be speaking with Roger Castillo, he’s in Perth, Australia, and he was a close student of Ramesh Moussa Carr, who in turn was a student at Nisargadatta Maharaj. And had a brief conversation with Roger last week and we really hit it off. I think it’s gonna be a really nice interview. So thanks for listening watching. I’ll see you then.
