with the image of "the Psychologist," which incorporated the attributes of deep compassion, courage, wisdom through the skill of written and verbal communication, and an ability to be present in the moment. I had a great amount of fear associated with being the Writer and with my verbal skills because I had been so victimized in the past due to a diagnosis of being dysphonetic. That is, my brain had an inability to process the symbolic representation of language in order to pronounce words. I was much like the person with dyslexia, whose brain jumbles the written word, making it difficult for him or her to read. But for reasons that went beyond my understanding, these attributes of the Writer and the Verbal Communicator kept coming up in my meditations as resources for my "Psychologist’ image.
It was the last day we were to spend at the site. Because I had spent so much time meditating in front of the Chahk God, I decided to seek out a guide and ask him about this figure that was at the bottom of the staircase on the "underworld" side of Temple 11. The underworld staircase had many steps and rose probably 80 feet to a platform that represented a transition place to the "superworld," or the above world or heaven. From this platform the same stairs went down into the main acropolis of the Mayan city. Because this was our last day at the site, I was setting the intent to have a synchronistic day, being open to what was occurring and just relaxing with events as they unfolded. I practiced being present in the moment, free from the worry and the fast-paced environment I had left over one week earlier. I wanted to see what would occur if I could be in touch with the rhythms of my own psyche and my own
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body, free of television, world news, gossip and stress.
I walked around the site for a few hours without finding a guide and decided to rest a moment at the top of one of the temples. While I was relaxing, I witnessed a military helicopter landing in the open area of the acropolis, and out of the belly of this helicopter, men dressed in military attire and carrying machine guns poured out. My heart quickened as images of a hostile takeover and of these men rounding up people as hostages went through my mind. I quickly quieted myself, once again reminded of the power of the heart center to shift my state of consciousness into the quiet mind. I went back to meditating.
Within 15 minutes I heard the familiar accent of a man, an accent that was slow in its drawl, not quite southern but distinct, an accent that sounded as if he was from the Midwest. I look up to see a group of young American military men who had been given the opportunity to visit the ruins. This explained the Honduran military presence at the ruins. I asked the man who was speaking where he was from, and he replied with pride, Angola, Indiana. I could not believe it, as that town was just a few miles north of where I lived. I was caught up in the fascination of this synchronistic event, when I noticed that this group of servicemen had a guide. I asked the guide the significance of the figure at Temple 11. He reported that it represented the Mayan guide of the underworld that assisted people in finding their way into the superworld. He likened this guide to the modern-day psychologist. Again, I was intrigued by this synchronistic event. I asked this guide what was the
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