Online ACIM Satsangs on Google Hangout!

You are warmly invited to join myself, Armelle, and other devoted friends for any of our upcoming "ACIM Satsang" sessions using Google Hangouts online. These sessions are a fun way for us to connect in Purpose without leaving the comfort of our bedroom or office! "Satsang" is a sanscrit word which basically means "Joining in Truth".  It is an opportunity to share from our hearts, ask questions, be open to Answers, and always to practice seeing the Innocence in one another. Authentic spiritual healing and inner Peace are the results. 

If you are new to Google Hangouts (or even if you're not), then be sure to continue reading (down below the video) for some additional info that you might find helpful. 

Here's a little invitation video I just made...



For those of you who are new to Google Hanguts, you should know first off that there are two types of Google Hangouts. There are "regular" Google Hangouts which are like "private rooms" (up to ten people in the room at once, but the session is not broadcasted), and then there are what's called Google Hangouts "On Air". Hangouts On Air (HOA) still can only hold a maximum of 10 people in the room, but they are also broadcasted live as they are happening and then made available for viewing on YouTube afterwards.

Because I'm feeling most inspired by the idea of broadcasting the Satsangs live for the benefit of everyone, most of these ACIM Satsang sessions will be the latter type - Google Hangout On Air. If, however, you would prefer a "private" Satsang session on Google Hangouts (either with you alone, or just a small group), just email me and I will be happy to organize one of those at a time that works best for you!

In order to join the Hangout sessions, you will need to sign up for a Google+ account if you don't already have them, and then add me to one of your "circles".  Then you will start receiving the invitations in your email inbox or on your Google+ page.  Once an event has been scheduled, then I always post the link for joining the Hangout about 10 minutes prior to the start time.  I will either be posting it on the event wall, or having it sent in a private message to those of you who've responded "Yes" to the invitation. 

Here is a link to the invitation for tomorrow's Christmas Eve Satsang:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/ctn23glc0c942ursofores0o5ms

Next thing... it's always helpful to make sure that all of your audio/video equipment (video camera, microphone, headphones/speakers) is working properly well ahead of time. That way you won't have to fuss with any of it once the Hangout has actually begun. In order to do this, sign in to your Google+ page (again, you'll have to create a new account if you don't already have one - but they are completely free) and then follow these simple instructions:

1. Look in the upper-right hand area of your Google+ webpage, and you should see a button where it says, "Start a hangout". This is what you would click to start a hangout of your own should ever decide to do so... but it also can be used solely for testing all of your computer's equipment. Click on this "Start a hangout" button now.

2. In the new window that this takes you to, you should see a few grey icons in the upper right-hand corner, the third from the left of which is one that looks like a little gear. This is the icon for "Settings". Click on this, and it will take you to a page where you can test (and, if necessary, reconfigure) your audio/visual equipment.

3. Once in the settings page, you'll see a video screen in the middle, and ideally, you should see yourself moving in the video screen already. To the right of the video screen, you'll see a few drop down menus. The top one is for the video source. If you don't see your face in the video screen, you may need to click on that first drop-down menu and choose another video source (if there are any). If for some reason, you can't get your video camera to work properly, no worries... you can still join the hangout and communicate in a purely audible way. :-)

4. Which leads us to the next thing to check, which is that your microphone is working properly! You can check this by looking on the left-side of the 2nd drop-down menu - just beside the little microphone symbol. As you start talking, notice if you can see a little green meter there which goes up and down to register the sounds you are making. If so, it's working. If not, then either your microphone isn't working, or you need to configure it differently. If this is the case, click on the drop down menu next to the microphone symbol and try choosing different sources to test which one works.

5. Last but certainly not least, check that your speakers and/or headphones are working properly so that you will be able to HEAR everything in the Hangout clearly. (Note: if you own headphones, please use them during the Hangout rather than just listening through your computer's speakers. That way, there will be less "feedback" for everyone else.) You can test your headphones/speakers by clicking on the "Play Test Sound" button just below the 3rd drop down menu. If you hear the ringing sound it produces, then your equipment is obviously working and you're good to go! Otherwise, try changing something in the third drop-down menu there.

6. Once everyone is working, click on "Save Changes" at the bottom of this page. Then you can just exit out of that screen by either closing the web window itself, or by clicking on the little symbol in the far upper-right hand corner which looks like a telephone being hung up.

If you would like to connect with me privately at any time, you may do so via Skype (my username is Erik Archbold), or you can email me at: erikarchbold@gmail.com.

Otherwise, I look forward to welcoming you into Satsang with Love!

Blessings,
Erik

I Give My Life Over To You

Here is Armelle and I singing her latest song "I Give My Life Over To You" in the living room just the other day! Enjoy... :-)

The Inspiration is Flowing...

I just recorded a few more songs.

Here's a longer version of this beautiful Cat Stevens song which I've loved from the moment I first heard it. May it touch your heart as it has touched mine...



Next, I recorded my version of John Lennon's classic tribute to all of us peace-loving dreamers. :-)
 

And finally... a gentle reminder from the Spirit that was given to me three years ago when I devoted my life fully to God... "Just Relax". :-)

Peace of Mind

It's Only Me

Well, I finally got inspired to do a little multi-track recording (adding harmony vocals and a 2nd guitar) for this song I wrote a couple years ago. Enjoy. ♥

My friend Suzanne at Living Miracles Monastery just sent me this link to their latest video creation. It's taken from footage of the Strawberry Fields Forever Music Festival that I played at last July. ♥ With Love...

Back to Love

Here's my first Spreaker broadcast (it's like internet radio), in which I felt inspired to sing a song on my guitar written by Donna Marie Cary called "Back to Love".  It's a beautiful song about forgiveness.  Enjoy!  ♥

Reading of A Course in Miracles, Ch. 28: The End of Fear

I just finished recording myself reading Chapter 28 from the Course, as part of a project that Armelle is leading at the Monastery for a new audiobook of the Course.  Instead of it being read by only one person though, it will be read by multiple people each reading whatever section feels Guided for them individually!  Cool, huh?

So here's the first section of the recording, from Ch 28, Section 1 titled The Present Memory, which I feel inspired to share with you all.  :-)  If you're interested in the other recordings that I'm doing, feel free to email me and I'll happily send them to you!    

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18949318/ACIM%20Chapter%2028%2C%20sect%201-%20Erik.mp3

Lots of Love,
Erik

Strawberry Fields Forever Music Festival

Dearly Beloved Friends,

I just got back to Petaluma after an incredibly healing week at the Strawberry Fields Forever Music Festival, held at the Living Miracles Monastery in Fruitland, Utah.  The Festival was sort of like a "Course in Miracles Woodstock"... with a full sized outdoor stage, and lots of incredible musicians gracing us with their beautiful music.  Such joy!

For me, the most healing aspect of the Festival was in allowing myself full permission to stop trying to be a "good musician" (or a musician at all), but to instead allow myself to just be!  As many of you know, I've been spending a lot of time these past several months sinking inward in prayer and meditation, learning to hear that "small, still Voice" within and letting go of past self-concepts of the ego.  My self-concept as a "good musician", for example, has been falling away, and in fact, prior to the Festival I was unclear as to whether I was even Guided to go to it, since I wasn't really feeling much inspiration around my music anymore.  Still, all the signs and symbols seemed to be pointing towards me going to the Festival anyway.  And so in order to feel at ease with it, I decided to simply give myself full permission to play music ONLY when it felt like it was truly coming through me from the Spirit of Inspiration, and not out of any sense of trying to please an audience or meet someone's expectations.  For those of you who are familiar with the "no people pleasing" principle, this was going to be about a specific form of that called: "no audience pleasing".  ;-)

And so when it came time early in the week for me to go up on stage to play an hour-long set, I was given an unprecendented opportunity to practice this full-on and face one of my biggest fears: to be in front of a large audience who are expecting me to play music, and yet not feeling inspired to play!  And this is actually what began to happen about a third of the way into my set!  Fortunately though, I stuck to my principles, relaxed through it all, and it turned out to be quite a healing and interesting experience to say the least.  :-)  It was more of an "unperformance" really...

I started off the set by playing a few songs I had been planning to play ("The Wind" by Cat Stevens; "Peace of Mind", an original of mine; "Strawberry Fields Forever" by the Beatles; and "Just Relax", another original) but then felt the wind just come completely out of my sails!  It began when I started having trouble tuning my guitar, and then noticed that I really felt like just meditating rather than playing!  (This was what I had been afraid of might happen.)  I didn't, however, feel completely comfortable with the idea of just closing my eyes and inviting the audience to go inward with me, and so instead of panicking, I simply tried to be as authentic with them as I could.  I basically just shared about what I was experiencing in that moment.  Gradually, the awkwardness began to dissolve a bit, and the audience and I ended up having some playful banter back and forth about my "unperformance".  Then finally, after a bit of that I finally told them that I didn't think I was going to play any more music.  Lol...

I thanked them and walked off stage, and was greeted by a big hug from David who, with much childlike enthusiasm, said, "That was GREAT!"... which I probably desperately needed to hear in that moment!  If I had been anywhere else, I probably would have had lots of angry fans rushing me to ask for their money back.  But at this "Festival of Forgiveness", it was nothing but love and hugs of gratitude!  It gave me a certainty that there really isn't ever anything to fear; that I need not ever fall to the temptation of "audience pleasing", and that so long as I am being authentic and following my heart, it will be healing for all.  Many of the musicians, in fact, came up to me later to thank me for "facing their fears for them".  So that was very reassuring.

Although I didn't play much music on MY set, I did end up playing lots of lead guitar and doing some back-up singing for OTHER musicians at the Festival... including of course, Armelle.  Her set was absolutely beautiful, for it was also a pure demonstration of transcending fear being that it was the first time she had ever sang on a real stage!  She started off by singing her first song a capella ("Remember Who You Are"), and for perhaps the first time ever (in my perception, at least) she sang the whole song perfectly on key with such grace that it literally made me cry!  When she invited me up on stage as planned to play the rest of the set with her, I just became totally overwhelmed with emotion and had to take a few moments of silence before being ready to start playing.

(As an aside, I just gotta say here that in my experience there is NOTHING more exhilarating than being totally raw and shamelessly "naked" in front of many sets of eyes!  From my perspective, this is really what the whole Festival was about.  It was about nothing more than developing the willingness to drop the mask of self-importance, and be completely authentic regardless of how it may look.)

For the rest of Armelle's set, she and I sang four more songs which we'd played and sang together before, and it was an experience of such Joy for us both!   We sang her songs, "Trusting You", "You Can't Be Perfect (Hear Me)", "Only Love", "No Need for More", as well as a beautiful cover song from the movie Once called "Falling Slowly".

From what I hear, the sound engineering team there in Utah is now working on putting all the music from the Festival into a professionally sounding CD, but if you're interested in hearing a rough recording of our sets now, I've embedded the recordings for mine and Armelle's sets below, which David Hoffmeister had graciously recorded on his iPhone.  The sound quality of these recordings is not exactly what the world would call "good" - it's what you might expect from an iPhone recording at a live concert - but if you tune into the FEELING that's present behind the sounds, you will certainly be able to capture a glimpse of the profound Love that was shining through us!

The first one below is the recording of my performance (or "unperformance", if you will), and the one below that is Armelle's, which begins with the end of Lisa Fair's M.C. speech just before introducing Armelle.    Both recordings are approximately 45 minutes long.

Also, if you'd like to hear more of David's iPhone recordings from the Festival, not only of the other musicians, but also including the spirituality talks which David gave each afternoon at the Festival (which were quite deep and profound), you can find it all by visiting his Soundcloud page: http://soundcloud.com/david-hoffmeister.

May these recordings lift your Spirit and remind you that there is no need to try being "perfect" in this world.  Our true Self is already Perfect in Eternity, and has never been tainted in the slightest bit by our comical dreams of separateness.






With Love Eternal,
Erik