Thanks for the reply, Jaime! I've had a chance to check out more of Denise's site and read the excerpt from one of her books (which was just awesome) and she has amazed me and moved me to tears. I like her stuff very much.

Anyway, Ascension and my thoughts...

The analogy just hit me of the movie Groundhog Day. A classic film that most of us have seen, and many of us have seen over, and over (ha a pun!).

Let me make the analogy from my point of view:

Phil is stuck on a day and he can't get out. We are stuck in our earth experience and can't get out.

He tries to figure out how to get out, but can't and has no choice but to wake up each morning to the same scenario that at times seems like a living hell. Ditto.

He's a lump of coal, a cranky, selfish, cynical character, but kinda cute and with lots of potential. Groundhog Day is determined to put him through the wringer and make him a diamond , but all he can see is himself in a proverbial Chinese Finger Trap.

Once he realizes he's going to keep starting over no matter what he does, he overindulges in everything he ever wanted to do and try...until he tires of this dead-end road. Just as willingly pursuing materiality (money, sex, drugs, etc.) as an escape from living life is also a dead-end.

Next he tries to win the love of Rita, who attracts him due to her greater state of enlightenment and refinement. We are attracted to those who have achieved what we perceive as a state closer to self-actualization than our own. We have crushes and seek gurus, etc., in our attempt to realize our own power through them. And much like Rita, those we admire are only an example to show what can be attained, no real power can be had through attachment to them.

When he can't truly win Rita over (he cannot have her power through her), he becomes despondent and tries to end his life. But, he just keeps coming baaack. Ditto for us - reincarnation.

Finally, he decides to use the time to refine himself. He seems to lose the desire to escape the day. Likely it is because he changes his "focus" and as such, his feeling of entrapment is no longer dominant. He begins to make the most of that day. He can't go anywhere else, or do anything else, so he focuses all of his energy into what he can learn and accomplish within that day.

As a result of his positive efforts, and without a dominant desire to escape, in the end he wakes up on February 3, having "evolved" out of the loop, feeling very appreciative, but no longer desperate and entitled. He made his living-hell into a tool for self-refinement where he had begun to truly enjoy the rewards from the skills he had mastered. And I loved how when he "woke up" on Feb 3, one of the first things he said to Rita was, "Is there anything I can do for you today?" On his first day out he was truly transformed and no longer petty and desperate to cater to his animal needs. To escape was to evolve, and the enhancements he had created in himself were now a part of him that would served him forever. Just as I believe that getting through this earth school and evolving/ascending will gift us with certain skills forever, and we will not have to go through these same painful processes again. By the same token, there are no shortcuts, or checklists that can spirit us through to the finish line. It is a self-driven, self-defining process.

Anyway, that is how I relate Groundhog day to ascension. But are there mechanics involved, light bodies, stargates, aliens, blue star, planetary crashes, etc.? Probably. But to me, that is not the point. Just like in Groundhog Day, Phil didn't consciously know how he got to Feb 3 exactly, not the metaphysical mechanics of it, or even how he got stuck in Feb 2 in the first place. It didn't really matter, all that mattered and all that he could control and know was his own belief, effort, and focus. No doubt his higherself knew everything all along, agreed to it, signed up for it, and guided him. Though Phil himself just lived each repeated day without a scrap of technical knowledge as to how he got there or how he could get out. It wasn't available and it would not have helped him if he had it (it might even have dangerously drew his focus away from self-refinement).

So for me, as far as striving to ascend, I'm trying to focus on positives (things that bring me joy), to open my mind as much as I can, to interact and share ideas, to wake up and pay attention so I can make good decisions, to pray for progress and to flow with divine will (and to love myself and to become more conscious).

Those are my thoughts on ascension...What are your thoughts, Jaime, Orb Queen, friends?