Vulcan 607: the antithesis of self-improvement

One thing I love about Gary is his predictability, especially in the joke department. Whenever I mention book-club to Gary he rushes off and gets his book “Vulcan 607” and shoves it in my face, and demands that I suggest it for the next book. Every time. As a group of animal communicators and soul psychics reading hefty books about spiritual advancement, it’s not really what we go for but that only makes him think it’s even funnier. Every time. Every two weeks on a Monday evening.

I only ever read novels on holiday (gosh those were the days) and in a 2 week period and can work my way through 12-15 books, mostly trashy novels, and most of which will make cry. When he catches me crying because of something I’ve read, he looks at me solemnly and says, “do you want to read a book about helicopters?” Every time. Several times a day. For 2 weeks.

From Gary’s perspective, he cannot understand my need to dissect my emotions or read any form of teaching, do any form of self-improvement (and unfortunately that’s not because he thinks I’m perfect), and certainly doesn’t understand why I would read a book that makes me cry. From my perspective, watching Aircrash Investigation, Mighty Ships, or some disaster being dissected on TV, is beyond tedious and Vulcan 607, (a tale of British ingenuity and derring-do according to Gary), is recycling material.

So clearly we have different perspectives on entertainment and to be honest what Gary watches is usually educational, but he watches it for entertainment. He will not watch what he calls “TV for the lowest common denominator”, whilst, left to my own devices, I would be delighted to. But the point here is not that we enjoy different things, but that he does things in his spare time for his pleasure, and I do them to “grow”. Vulcan 607 represents to Gary every bit of suffering I go through in my “journey” and raises the question that came up for me few months ago i.e. is it all worth it or am I in a deluded, self-serving, self-improving, self-punishing cycle with no end?

I was listening to Jess C Lively talking to the nonphysical entity known as the Collective (channelled through Annie Francoeur) saying how she (Jess) had been sitting on a train going through all sorts of emotional awareness (read emotional agony) and observed a gentleman across the carriage drinking his coffee in peace, oblivious to her internal pain, and apparently oblivious to his own, and she wondered whether all this self-examination and soul searching was actually making her any happier. Here was this guy, completely content in his world right where he was (OK, massive assumptions on all parts that this guy was not doing deep spiritualist practises every day, or deeply self-flagellating internally – but we’ll overlook that). So is it worth it? Is all this self-examination, self-improvement, self-educating worth it? Will we ever be at peace? Why is it such hard work?

The Collective (and I’m paraphrasing, as it was a while ago) used the analogy of a baby waking up. A baby deep in sleep is restful. Peaceful. A baby about to wake up becomes restless and struggles and fidgets. I’ve never watched a baby sleeping or waking up, but it seems plausible. Abraham Hicks says the more we put in our Vortex (every desire we’ve ever wanted) and the less aligned we are with the Vortex (i.e. the more resistance we have to allowing our desires), the stronger the call of the Vortex and the more uncomfortable we will become. That our discomfort is the distance between what we know we want and what we allow ourselves to feel.

So the emotional discomfort is real, and it’s an indication that we’re going through a process, and hopefully the end result is a better place. The stronger the discomfort or pain you’re in, the further you are away from your Vortex but also the bigger and grander and more wonderful your Vortex is! Sort of comforting? Well yes, but only if you actually move towards the Vortex. And if you can’t you might reach for Vulcan 607 to put yourself to sleep.

Note that Gary’s sense of humour did not stretch to me posting the picture of his book in his pants drawer. Apparently that is NOT funny.