Violet Beauregarde
There is a wonderful movie made in 1971 titled “Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory”. It is a classic film that I have enjoyed watching many times. The plot involves five children winning a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate bars. The children are also given a personal tour of the entire factory by Willie Wonka himself, played masterfully by Gene Wilder. One of the children, Charlie, is a kind and loving soul. The other four children are odious to varying degrees. Charlie is accompanied on the tour by his Grandpa Joe.
Ultimately, during the tour, temporary mild disasters befall the four odious children. One of these is a gum-chewing girl named Violet Beauregarde. She is accompanied on the tour by her father, Sam Beauregarde, a sleazy used car salesman.
At one point during the tour, Willie Wonka shows everyone his new invention of a very special type of chewing gum that is actually a three course meal. He cautions all that he still has to iron out a few kinks. Violet grabs the gum from his hand and pops it into her mouth. Wonka tells her to stop and do not chew the gum. She completely ignores him and proceeds to chew the gum.
The first course is delicious tomato soup. The second course is an equally tasty course of roast beef and baked potato. The third course is a delightful piece of blueberry pie and cream. At this point however, Violet starts turning blue and becomes round like a large blueberry. Wonka explains that she is filled with blueberry juice and has to be rolled to the squeezing room. A very unpleasant experience which could have been avoided if she had only listened. How many of us have had “Violet Beauregarde” moments where we heard but didn’t listen. In case you can’t see, that is me raising my hand.
The Mighty 81st
Scripture is clear. The Kingdom of God lives within you. You can choose to listen to guidance from the Kingdom of God or you can ignore it and go your own way just as Violet did. If you earnestly ask for guidance, you will assuredly receive it. At times, you may find the guidance to be distasteful so you will refuse to follow it. It all comes down to just how real is your faith in Divine Guidance. Is your faith made of titanium or paper mache.
Listen to this from the mighty 81st chapter of the book of Psalms:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes.
1313 Mockingbird Lane
Do you remember that television comedy show from the 60’s called “The Munsters”. It featured Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster ( a comedic Frankenstein). It also starred Al Lewis as Grandpa Munster (a comedic Dracula). The show ran for two seasons. It is still watched to this day in reruns.
I mention this because the Munster family lived in an old spooky house located at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. When I want to remember where the specific verse is located where Jesus talks about listening, I think of 1313 Mockingbird Lane and that leads me to Matthew 13:13.
In chapter 13 of the book of Matthew, the disciples ask Jesus why he speaks to the crowds of people using stories or parables. Jesus responds in Matthew 13:13 – “The reason I speak to them in parables is that seeing, they do not perceive and hearing, they do not listen, nor do they understand.”
A planet full of human beings walking around in a trance-like state of sleep, hearing but not listening.
Hearing Versus Listening
OK, you are in a conversation with another person. Or perhaps you are with a group of others and you are hearing a speaker talk about some topic. Maybe you are by yourself but you are able to hear a nearby conversation. You can even be totally alone and are hearing your own thoughts continually rolling through your mind. What is actually happening in these situations? Are you hearing or are you listening? There is a huge difference.
Many times when you are in conversation with another, their ears hear your words but they are not listening. If you focus on them, you will be able to perceive this. They are thinking of what they want to say when you shut up and are waiting for the first chance to jump in. Perhaps they are glancing at their phone or a nearby activity. Maybe they are thirsty or hungry or sleepy or horny but actually fully listening to you, they are definitely not. Their paramount thought may even be “how the hell do I escape this boring conversation”.
Most people speak at a rate of around 125 words a minute. We have the capacity to understand someone speaking at 400 words a minute. Thus, we are only using about a third of our mental capacity. We still have two thirds remaining to do something else so our mind wanders and loses focus.
Listening is not to be confused with hearing. We hear with our ears. Listening involves every part of our being. Paying attention to their words, the inflections, the body language, sensing the energy coming forth from them and their eyes, especially the eyes. Lastly, it involves opening up to your intuition.
Yeah, But What’s In It For You?
Have you ever watched some of those old film noir detective movies? At some point in the film, the primary detective character is talking to a potential informant. The detective tells the guy that he needs information about someone or something. The potential informant usually says something along the lines of ” OK, suppose I remember what you’re lookin’ for. What’s in in for me? My memory is all foggy.” That is when the detective pulls out some money and says, “Does this clear up the fog?” or something like that.
If you have read this far into this blog article, you are likely to be thinking the same thing. What’s in it for you. What do you get out of it by developing listening skills. The answer to that valid question, dear reader, is this — much more than you can imagine. Read on.
Your Payday
Here is the payday that is direct deposited to you when you engage in deep listening:
Information. You learn something that you did not know that will help you in some way with your own needs and wants. Information is indeed, power.
Enjoyment. You may experience the enjoyment of something humorous or of particular interest to you.
Protection. You will be able to perceive when people have malevolent intent and thus take steps to protect yourself.
Compassion. You get the honor of demonstrating the divine attribute of compassion. When a person displays a need to have someone listen to them, you impart worth and value to them. In turn, in some manner or form, the universe will see to it that you receive value in return.
Better Decisions. Deep listening allows you to “read between the lines” of a person’s conversation. It allows you to discern hidden meanings. Sharper perception on your part means better decisions on your part. Better decisions means your life becomes better. We all want that.
Money In The Bank
If you can listen, perceive and understand what the speaker is imparting to you, you become a valuable commodity. People in society reciprocate when offered something valuable to them. Food. Clothes. Lodging. Transportation. Experiences. People reciprocate by giving someone money for these things of value.
Money is energy. When you focus on actually listening to what a person has to say, it will be felt by most people. They will reciprocate. It’s like “money in the bank”. It may not be with actual money, but positive reciprocation will occur. And thus, your very powerful skill of deep listening will continually bring you good things.
Deep Listening
Deep listening is much more than hearing with your ears. It is hearing with your heart. Feeling. Sensing. Perceiving. Deep listening engages your sixth sense — intuition. When you actively use your intuition, you are connecting with the Divine. This connection always leads you to truth. Truth is power.
Deep listening creates. It creates a positive connection with another person through silent energy waves of attention. The deeper the listening, the faster the energy vibration and the higher the frequency. Nikola Tesla said that the secrets of the universe can be summed up in three words – energy, vibration, frequency. When you engage in deep listening, you are creating beauty. When you create beauty, you are in communion with God.
Through deep listening you actually attract people and the opportunities that people bring to you. You will discover with delight that in due course, all manner of opportunities will come your way. Through deep listening, you will be able to clearly recognize them when they come.
Oh, Those Rabbit Ears
Deep listening does require fine tuning from time to time. Back in the “olden days” of television, you needed some sort of antenna to get proper clarity and reception. Some people had rooftop antennas. Many others had small antennas on top of the television set. They were called “rabbit ears”. Back then, the tv was a large piece of furniture unlike today’s sleek televisions.
I can still hear my father cussing because he could not get the antenna in the proper position to get clear reception. He would increase the intensity of the cussing in direct proportion to his growing frustration.
The first phase, when initial attempts to adjust the antenna failed, was a loud “godammit” with emphasis on the dam. The second phase, after continued adjustments of the antenna still failed to get clear reception, was “goddamsonofabitchandbastard” with the emphasis on bastard. The third phase of frustration was “goddamsonofabitchandbastard”, pause, “goddamit” with total emphasis on the second dam. Everyone in the house breathed a sigh of relief when the antenna finally brought good reception.
Be persistent but by all means, please be patient with yourself if you find that your deep listening skills need fine tuning. It happens. It’s a learning process. Refuse to allow yourself to get frustrated. Just keep at it. You will continually improve if you really want to. And every level of improvement will be good for you.
Power That Benefits Everybody………Wow
Unfortunately, throughout the history of our species, right up to the present day, a segment of human beings love controlling others. They have twisted their positions of power to their own perverted ends. It seems like humans just can’t help themselves in attempting to control the lives of other human beings.
This is definitely against the way things are supposed to be. You were created by Ultimate Intelligence to live free. Your life was meant to exult in the freedom of the Kingdom of God within you. The human parasites who use their accumulated power to relentlessly control others are demon-people. If you build up your listening skills, you will be able to perceive them and their agenda. Your perception will help to protect you and assist you in avoiding their insidious spider webs.
The exquisite beauty of deep listening is that it creates and brings forth a power that distributes benefit to everyone involved. It is a power that benefits the “listened to” as well as the “one who listens”. That is what power is for — to benefit everybody.
The Choice Is Yours
“They see, but do not perceive. Hearing, they do not listen, nor do they understand”. The words of Jesus. Too often throughout my lifetime, I have chosen to be in the mass of humanity who hear, but do not listen. My life now is nearly spent and I will be dead soon. With whatever breath of life that remains, I desire to go beyond hearing. I desire to listen.
I still have a few things to do here before I depart. Practicing deep listening helps me and will continue to help me in that regard. I am 100% sure that it will help you also.
You have two choices. Listen and understand or continue in a trance-like sleep. The choice is yours. Choose wisely. The quality of your remaining life completely depends on it.
Dominus Vobiscum.
Conceive. Believe. Receive.