Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: magic eye

  • Our True Nature

    The past two days I have been attending an online intensive with a group of dedicated individuals. Most individuals are dedicated to something. This group is dedicated to opening to awareness, also called “Pure Mind.” This particular series has been meeting weekly for the past year-and-a-half. Many of this group have been studying together for well over ten years.

    Our teacher lovingly reminds us we are not trying to get somewhere or become something we are not. We are simply setting our intention to allow ourselves to experience the awareness that is already our true nature. This was the randomly selected though for the day that came yesterday:


    Deep Spring Center

    Thought for Today

    “These are the people to whom you must talk:

    your neighbors, your coworkers, your parents and children,

    beings with good intentions who want to offer positive polarity

    but also may still be so grounded in their fear

    that when something comes along and shakes them, they react.

    These are the ones who must begin to learn they have a choice,

    and if they react from fear and it causes harm,

    they are responsible.

    And you you who are edging beyond that neutrality,

    more grounded in your positive polarity,

    must be their teachers.”

    For the past 6 weeks I had been unsuccessful trying to purchase a Magic Eye 2020 Calendar. The Magic Eye website announced Walmart as the exclusive merchandiser, but the stores all listed the item as “out-of-stock.”

    A few days ago, I searched ONE more time. The Walmart my brother-in-law shops at while he winters here in Southwest Florida listed the calendar “in-stock.” I sent him a photo, asked if he would check the next time he was there, and now I am thrilled to have one in my possession.


    In the Gospel of Thomas, Patterson/Meyer translation, Jesus said, “The (Father’s) kingdom is like a person who had a treasure hidden in his field but did not know it. And [when] he died he left it to his [son]. The son [did] not know about it either. He took over the field and sold it. The buyer went plowing, [discovered] the treasure, and began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished.”

    One of our practices is simply to look at a tree. We are to notice the branches, and then notice the space between. We are to allow our attention to shift between these, knowing that both ARE: simultaneous existence moving in and out of our awareness.

    The Subtle Communication Systems (SCS) training that Joel P. Bowman and I developed and taught for twenty years included higher sense perception. SCS was a synergy of energy medicine (Healing Touch and Reiki) and NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming). Joel and I studied for many years with Richard Bandler, co-developer of NLP.

    A renowned Buddhist nun and meditation teacher from Thailand Joel and I met at a Bandler training in Orlando read our training manual and said, “Debra, this is a shortcut to enlightenment!”

    Students learned to observe the true nature of their subjective experience: every experience went in as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic stimuli simultaneously! Even if all you noticed was a loud sound, or a flash of bright light, your actual experience (and your internal representation of that experience) includes all of your senses. We played games to help us notice the sensory system we were least aware of.

    One day in class, Joel reached out and touched a locket worn by one of the students. He said, “I see an image of a blonde-haired girl, about 8 years old.”

    “That is who gave me this locket,” exclaimed the student.

    When Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right,” he was giving us a great gift. If you think you are not enlightened, you are right. If you think you are enlightened, you can be in the world with greater wisdom and kindness and awareness.

    Joel and I watched sooooo many individuals wake up to what was within them all along.

    I love the Magic Eye calendar! The easiest way to see the hidden images is to begin looking closely at what you can see. Hold the page close to your nose. Relax your vision: trying too hard makes it too hard. With your eyes relaxed, slowly pull the page away from your face. As you see the 3-D image, hold the page and let yourself enjoy how easy it is.

    Where was it when you could not see it? Right there. It already is. The branches and the space ARE.

    If you are working too hard trying, relax, let yourself see what is already there. You are a soul. Every individual is a precious child of god.

    You already are that which you seek.

    That is your true nature….

  • Catching Rays

    Have you ever seen any of those 3D “magic eye” images? You have to hold the image close to your nose, look through it so it is blurry, and maintain your gaze as you slowly move the image away from you. As your eyes relax, your focus changes, and you can see amazingly beautiful things. This image contains two giraffes.

    Just like those hidden images, you have undoubtedly been able to see the way an unusual event will bring something else into view. Like seeing not one, not two, but three gopher tortoises one day during a bike ride. Or catching not one, not two, but three stingrays one day fishing off the dock.

    The odd thing about catching the rays while fishing off the dock is that the people right next door who have fished from the dock for years have never ever caught one stingray here. Let alone three in one day.

    So, I looked up the symbolism of stingray.

    Stingrays represent your emotions and how you may be hiding them from others. If it’s calm, stingray suggests maneuvering a challenge in your life with ease and grace. If the ray is aggressive; it means you may be reacting to your emotions, rather than using careful deliberation in your approach, which could be costly.

    Oh, my goodness. The first and largest of the three rays fought very hard. For the longest time. Taking the line way out. Darting away from the dock. Digging down in the mud. This first and largest one was about the size of a garbage can lid. In case you are wondering, the ray was able to be safely released.

    The guy who managed to wrestle with and land that big old ray on an ultralight rod and reel currently has two younger brothers navigating cancer treatment. One of his brothers was having his right kidney removed at that time! Another of his brothers has been dealing with the side-effects of radiation and chemotherapy treatment for lung cancer. His platelet count was too low for him to receive chemo at that time! While the fisherman has been snow-birding in Florida this winter, he has begun saying he is bored with being here and thinks he might go home early.

    Stingrays may be telling you to not overreact to your emotions, to calm down and wait before reacting. Stingrays maneuver themselves quite well despite their size and shape and they tell us to also carefully maneuver the complex emotional waters of our inner world.

    This week, I am participating in the World Tapping Summit. I especially enjoyed the interview with Dr. Paul Sheele, “Feeling Abundant: Attract More Wealth and Prosperity Into Your Life!”. Sheele made the distinction between abundance and prosperity. The universe is abundant. Prosperity is the degree to which we are aware of and participating in the true state of the universe.

    I am thinking about all of this in relationship to catching the rays, and those magic eye photos. I am going to think about it this way: well-being (like abundance) is there even while going through all those challenges, hidden right there just out of view.