Between the Cracks: A blog by Albert Clayton Gaulden

Just when I thought the world was about to adjust to and do what one must to recover from the economic meltdown that we all caused-yes, Virginia, WE caused-along comes swine flu which is turning us all topsy turvy. Yes, one should be aware of the symptoms and of course take the over-the-counter meds to recover quickly-but there is no need for the fear factor to rise to the levels it has.

I was at my doctor’s yesterday getting my semi-annual report-how is the blood pressure? What are my cholesterol levels?-what about the PSA?, ya di ya di ya, and he remarked that more than 36,000 people died from the flu last year…the old garden variety flu…and we did not do a high alert level about those that were dropping like flies. Come on, folks. Be cautious and mind your manners: don’t cough in anyone’s face and use smart hygiene to stay as far away from any malady as possible. Wash your hands-keep them out of your mouth. Did you learn these basic steps to good health when you were in kindergarten? Uh-huh, and so did I.

I would like to reserve panic attacks for when they are prime indicators. I oftentimes call the Internet the anti-Christ, dark side of us all, and here is another example of the nonsense of too much technology run amok.

What I want to know is where did all this red flag high anxiety start in all areas of our lives? We are living in times when more and more of us are going to seek the high road: turn our will and our lives over to the care of a Higher Power and then live in His grace. Duh.

Thanks for letting me share. Now go back to your knitting or tinker toys. Turn off the computer and let your television set go dark.

Albert Clayton Gaulden is the founding director of the Sedona Intensive and author of You’re Not Who You Think You Are: A Breakthrough Guide to Discovering the Authentic You. For more information about Albert and Sedona Intensive visit http://www.sedonaintensive.com/.

Purchase You’re Not Who You Think You Are at http://www.yourenotwhoyouthinkyouare.com/

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I have traced a lot of the shoddy unintelligent behavior of humankind to 1953 and the advent of computer technology. It was in many ways the beginning of the end of civility and ‘TMI”-too much information-as soon as the Internet sprang onto the scene. (The Internet was officially born on October 29, 1969 when the first computer talked to another computer via the router over a network. It became the anti-Christ during the 80’s and 90’s).

Perhaps some will say I judge an invention that puts information at the touch of a key, when it would takes hours, weeks and months to gather and use facts and dates from resources in a public library. I live in a community where everyone is ready to pounce at the sniff of “judgment”; I am rather a devotee of the late and great Dr. Scott Peck (The Road Less Traveled and People of the Lie) who advised us all when we see bad behavior “to name it”. For months now I have been taking a sharp look-see at the currency of the landscape and what I see points to how treacherous and dangerous giving everyone with a computer and nerve the privilege of bashing, smashing and accusing with loads barrels everyone and everything that the disgruntled can conjure up.

I was reluctantly reading something from CNNPOLITICS.COM on the Internet saying that “experts” were vilifying President Barack Obama for smiling as he shook hands with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Excuse me. I grew up where they sang, “…just let a smile be your umbrella…” and now we have the know-it-alls throwing stones at the President of the United States for being cordial to a man who vilified this country-and sometimes even Chavez was not so far off the mark. Did it ever occur to the sane and sensible that we have been under an eight-year regime that has done more to bring harm to this country than any administration in the history of the Union?

Of course the computer would be harmless and rather brilliant in and of itself without the yapping, blowhard left and right and in between. I am one who would like to see all of us give the President a few more months to steer us where he wants this nation to go. And if you want to know where you stand, get quiet and listen to the voice of intuition within you. It is a heck of lot sounder than the talking heads in the media, especially on the Internet.

Albert Clayton Gaulden is the founding director of the Sedona Intensive and author of You’re Not Who You Think You Are: A Breakthrough Guide to Discovering the Authentic You. For more information about Albert and Sedona Intensive visit http://www.sedonaintensive.com/.

Purchase You’re Not Who You Think You Are at http://www.yourenotwhoyouthinkyouare.com/

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When I was asked recently by a caller on a talk radio show what was the single most important thing one could do to become authentically who he or she really is, the host and I talked the rest of the hour about forgiveness. Forgiveness is more about cleaning up toxic bad-boy and bad-girl behavior within yourself than it is about waiting until the cows come home for someone to seek your forgiveness. From more than 45 years of processing life histories with clients, it is apparent that those whom you perceive have harmed you is more like ‘the Hatsfields and Mccoys have at it’-‘til the best man or woman wins. Waiting around for someone to make you feel better about your emotional breakdowns is futile. More than likely it won’t happen. What does open you up to become real and legitimate as a human being is making amends to others.I have retooled and rethought the old saw “forgive and forget”. My bag of healing strategies includes, ‘we will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it,’ so I choose to have a mental diary of all those who have been my Diogenes by mirroring my inappropriate behaviors. The title of my new book came from an episode with a former employee whom I perceived had harmed me. My spiritual teacher, Swami Swahananda brought me to the light of my misdeed-my part of the bad blood between this man and me-when he said, “You always come to me and say that you are not who you think you are; perhaps, you are not who he thinks you are either. And never forget him or the antagonism you experienced. ”

If you find yourself in a war of words or worse with someone, take an inventory. Write down all of what happened and then write what your part in the misery is. Go to someone you trust and discuss this situation. When you are ready, go to the people with whom there is enmity and clear up your part. A friend of mine says constantly, “If you want peace, make peace.” Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, make peace. Forgive, and for the sake of contributing to mental health, always remember this person and the life lesson you will have learned.

Albert Clayton Gaulden is the founding director of the Sedona Intensive and author of You’re Not Who You Think You Are: A Breakthrough Guide to Discovering the Authentic You. For more information about Albert and Sedona Intensive visit http://www.sedonaintensive.com/.

Purchase You’re Not Who You Think You Are at http://www.yourenotwhoyouthinkyouare.com/

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There was an article on the internet yesterday (April 15, 2009) that said a new drug, naltrexone will soon replace the need for alcohol rehab because this “miracle” med takes away the craving for alcohol. No more need for 12 steps, no meetings, no sponsor and for goodness sake, you never ever have to say The Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.” I say, “Hogwash.”

Dr. Mark Willenbring, Director of the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse believes that another miracle drug, topiramate (topamax) will decrease the need to drink alcoholically as well. All of this sounds like those commercials for drugs which are required by law to reveal side-effects; you know like ‘this drug will prolong and improve your sexual potency but it also may cause cancer, renal failure and your erection may cause discomfort if it lasts several hours.’ As far as alcoholism is concerned, using pharmacology to diminish the bad affects of alcoholic drinking may also take away his courage to change the things he can: himself and the zillion reasons he is a 24-carat drunk in the first place.

As a recovering alcohol, sober 29 years, I am reminded daily that alcohol is but a symptom of my disease-it is what drove me to drink-anger, rage, resentments, fear, anxiety, low self-esteem and a myriad of other dysfunctions-that I must conquer in order to stay sober. It is like choosing to take heart medication rather than lose weight and exercise to get healthier. We are living in a world of quick-fixes and the longer, tougher more responsible method-like finding a spiritual program to eliminate why we drank alcoholically-makes more sense. In the early 80’s when I was sobering up, Antebuse was a drug that would make a person violently ill if he drank alcohol. Very few people ever stayed sober with the retching, gut-wrenching effects of Antebuse.

If you are having a problem with alcohol-about to lose the love and affection of your family, on the precipice of divorce, or about to lose or have lost a job due to alcoholism-I recommend you make it tougher going into recovery-going to meetings and letting God change your life inside out-rather than popping one of the new fangled meds to stop the craving.

Albert Clayton Gaulden is the founding director of the Sedona Intensive and author of You’re Not Who You Think You Are: A Breakthrough Guide to Discovering the Authentic You. For more information about Albert and Sedona Intensive visit http://www.sedonaintensive.com/.

Purchase You’re Not Who You Think You Are at http://www.yourenotwhoyouthinkyouare.com/

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Many people keep asking about the 2012 phenomenon. Will it signal the end of the world? Will the UFOs finally land and bring glad tidings or try to take over the planet? Or is there a new heaven on earth about to canopy the planet? Since I have been around seven decades and have seen many prophecies fizzle and many fatalistic predictions mean very little, I am going way out on Shirley MacLaine’s limb and aver that when 2012 gets here, what will happen is…nothing. It will be like the Harmonic Convergence of August, 1987 when there were seers saying that aliens would land and bring peace on earth or perhaps would signal the end of the earth. All the authors who had written those kinds of books skedaddled as far away and as fast as God would have it from all their gloom and doom karma hocus pocus.

What I can promise you is that there is a massive global shift in Consciousness that started several decades ago. This new way to think and feel will give a clear bell glimpse of where we are headed and why the currency of today from financial markets to religious and spiritual vacuums to catastrophic greed and self-centeredness and postures of entitlement can no longer reign in our world.

My insight says that we will turn inward. We will embrace the resonance of the still small voice of intuition as our moral and spiritual compass. No longer will the vast majority need someone else, be it a priest or rabbi or minister or spiritual big “piece of stuff” tell them how to pray, what to believe and how to attain this direct communion with the God within. There will be a change in frequency in the world and there will be mental implant that seems to come from a foreign and alien place, but which will grow to be the source of the Atman, or Brahmin as we like to address the authentic self available to each of us.

Om, tat sat, Om.

I am Albert Gaulden and I approve of this message.

Albert Clayton Gaulden is the founding director of the Sedona Intensive and author of You’re Not Who You Think You Are: A Breakthrough Guide to Discovering the Authentic You. For more information about Albert and Sedona Intensive visit http://www.sedonaintensive.com/.

Purchase You’re Not Who You Think You Are at http://www.yourenotwhoyouthinkyouare.com/

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In New York Magazine (April 10, 2009) someone finally asked the question that should slow the momentum of the ‘poor pitiful Pearl’ syndrome covering the country like a bad smell regarding all those big bad wolves known as bankers and how they have put millions of people out of their homes.

The economist asked: “Who forced all these people to sign their names to loans that they applied for?” He went on to say that there were a few rotten apples in banking (and elsewhere), but that consumers should be held accountable for all their ‘cry baby behavior’.

The media loves to plaster the outlandish numbers of all of those people who were foreclosed on by the banks, now homeless in the tens of thousands. Renters should never have been buyers. All of the bad bank loans can not be laid at the feet of banks solely. We are living in a time of the blame game-everybody who overextended their credit or bought more of a house than they could afford are at fault.

What is more tiresome and has caused me not to watch television and only buy USA Today in order to work their cockeyed crossword puzzle over morning oatmeal five days a week is the biased and factually unsound reporting which is more like donkey braying. As a former Republican who never voted for a Democrat until I cast a proud vote for Barack Obama, I am more than sick and tired of watching Hannity and O’Reilly and if Carl Rove is not careful his vitriol is going to drive some prosecutor to remember all his malfeasance regarding Valerie Plume and other down and dirty character assassination.

Before you sign onto witch hunt, look deeply into your own face in the mirror every morning and tend to your own business. Clean up your side of the street and leave everybody else’s side alone.

Albert Clayton Gaulden is the founding director of the Sedona Intensive and author of You’re Not Who You Think You Are: A Breakthrough Guide to Discovering the Authentic You. For more information about Albert and Sedona Intensive visit http://www.sedonaintensive.com.

Purchase You’re Not Who You Think You Are at http://www.yourenotwhoyouthinkyouare.com/

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