​Many successful people keep journals. Also, some famous figures in history, like Napoleon or Marcus Aurelius kept journals. This practice has some obvious benefits – it clears up your mind, releases stress, and brings you clarity and inner peace.
 
There are many varieties of journaling, like keeping a diary; journaling with the Stream of Consciousness technique; keeping a journal from others’ perspective; dream journaling; art journaling; and many, many others. For all of these methods, you can easily find instructions on the Internet.
 
However, in this article, I will focus on a new type of this practice: the Vantage Point Journaling, part of the Reintegration System methodology.
 
 
Vantage Point Journaling 

We could say that this is a unique journaling technique. It is different from all other methods in that it initiates writing from four distinctive points of view:

1. From our Temporary I – in a “normal” state of everyday consciousness;
2. From our Heart – done in a deeper state of consciousness;
3. From the other person’s perspective (optional);
4. From the state of Pure Consciousness (Presence).

 
You can adapt your Vantage Point (VP) Journaling practice to your own needs and circumstances. For example, you can keep your diary in a VP Journal form, or practice the Stream of Consciousness technique in a VP Journal framework. Of course, you can apply any other well-known journaling method and do it from several points of view of VP Journaling practice.

VP Diary Journaling 

This method of journaling is especially good for those of you who need to improve mental clarity, de-clutter the mind, and improve focus.
 
All of us know very well what a diary is. What’s important for this practice is that diary captures streams of thought in an organized and structured way. It requires investing a certain amount of energy and focus on writing.
 
In this framework we will write our diary from several vantage points – the Temporary I,[1] the Heart, another person’s perspective, and Pure Consciousness.
 
The VP Diary Journaling structure is the following:
  
Stage 1: Writing from the Temporary I
 
To begin with your journaling session, do not try to change your mindset or relax too much. Just stay in your current state of mind, whatever it is. Maybe you are anxious, worried, angry, or experiencing any other emotion. You have to write exactly from that state. In this stage, your vantage point is your Temporary I, your transitory I-feeling at that very moment. Just become aware of your Temporary I, its location within your body, and – write.
 
Think about your day, event, or person that you want to write about. The text should be relatively structured, with meaningful sentences. You may be putting on the paper the most important impressions of that particular day, event, or person. Your diary may also relate to thoughts, emotions, new ideas, etc. Let it flow from you.
 
If you are writing in the evening, you can structure your journal by creating a list of questions that you will answer:

• What tasks have I accomplished today?
• What positive things happened today?
• What am I grateful for today?

 
Give three to five meaningful answers to each of these questions.
 
When you finish your text, review it. Feel and fully accept main ideas or parts of your text, one by one. You must accept all the main thoughts in the text. By doing that you will effectively remove a great deal of that day’s burden.
 
On the other hand, if you are journaling in the morning, you can create a list of questions related to your goals or action steps for that day, like these:

• What are the top three tasks I need to accomplish today?
• How do I want to better myself today?

 
If you are working with goals, at the end of your text write down the most important goals you are currently working toward.
 
If you want, you can limit the time of writing in this stage, but it should last no less than five minutes. But don’t worry – if you are too tired, it won’t be a problem to reduce your writing to only one or two sentences that comprise your whole day.

​Stage 2: Writing from the Heart
 
The second stage requires you to relax and open your mind. You will probably already find yourself pretty relaxed because the first phase (writing from your Temporary I) has surely de-cluttered your mind to a significant extent.

​As every individual human being has their ups and downs, so does mankind. Each of us regularly faces various hardships, which are, in fact, results of our prolonged periods of stagnation in numerous areas of our life. That’s the purpose of every hardship-an opportunity for awakening, for change.
 
Collective entities like families, nations, or the whole of humanity, also experience recurring challenges, similar to individuals. Whenever there is stagnation and lethargy in our collective mind, a big change is inevitable.
 
Our species is facing difficult times. The history of mankind is rich with these episodes-wars, diseases, earthquakes, floods, economic crises… We are currently experiencing such a period. The COVID-19 pandemic is a harsh reminder for us all to wake up.
 
Our collective mind is overwhelmed with this pandemic. Our individual minds are immersed in this sea of fear and anxiety, too. Can you feel it? Do you often find yourself thinking about coronavirus threat, numerous fatalities, looming danger of becoming infected, or the economic crisis it has already generated? Most probably you do. The majority of people are strongly drawn to that whirlpool.
 
Anxiety and fear are the natural response to the unknown, and these conditions are certainly abundant with many unknowns and concerns. So, do not blame yourself or others for that.
 
 
How to Cope with COVID-19 Fear? 

So, what can one do in this situation? Here are some guidelines for staying healthy, safe, mentally and emotionally stable, and even for turning this challenging time into a unique opportunity for your development.
 
1.   Follow the Instructions of Authorities 

​This is the first and most important thing. Follow all the instructions and measures imposed by the government and medical authorities. This is essential. ​

3. Apply the ATI Technique Whenever Possible 

To overcome the fear and anxiety related to COVID-19, my strong recommendation is to use a quick but very effective mental/emotional technique that may be applied in every other situation as well. Its name is Accepting the Temporary I (ATI).
 
As soon as you learn it, you will instantly recognize its astonishing efficiency. Whenever you become aware of your anxiety or fear, apply the ATI method and you will sense an immediate relief.
 
So, when you want to dissolve an unwanted experience with the ATI technique, you will:
1) Direct your attention to it and pinpoint its location (if possible);
2) Feel your “Temporary I” from which you are experiencing the content, and finally,
3) Completely accept the “Temporary I.”
 
Temporary I is your current I-feeling. It is the place or small area in your body where you feel your sense of “I” is most noticeable at that particular moment.
 
The ATI technique is described in detail here, while the concept of Temporary I and how to find it is depicted here.
 
You can do the ATI in countless common situations, especially in coping with typical anxiety, such as the fear of COVID-19 pandemic and its possible disastrous consequences.
 
For example, if you become aware that you are overwhelmed with fretful thoughts, you can accept and dissolve your Temporary I from which you are experiencing them. They will disappear, at least for a while. Or, if you find yourself flooded with emotions of fear, worry, angst, or anger, notice the location of your Temporary I and accept it.
 
Of course, if this mind content on which you were doing the ATI arises again, just repeat the procedure until it vanishes. Similarly, if you are in the company of a nervous or irritating person, you may quietly accept several times the Temporary I from which you are feeling the annoyance.
 
While you are reading articles or watching the TV news about the disease, try to do the ATI as many times as possible. This will make you stable and immune to all these bothersome influences.

​Each time you do the ATI, you will notice that your unwanted mental or emotional content has vanished. At least for a while, you are free from it. However, as the ATI is only a basic Reintegration technique, it does not deal with the root of your problems.
 
After some practice, you will do each step of the ATI fast and easy, so the whole process will take you no more than five to ten seconds.
 
4.   Mindfulness 

Mindfulness is the practice of being consciously present in the Now whenever and wherever possible. The more you develop this skill, the more you will be free from all kinds of unnecessary thoughts, body tension, disturbing emotions, and, of course, the COVID-19 anxiety.
 
You have to do any activity fully conscious of yourself and of the activity itself.
 
Although many people don’t consider it as strictly spiritual, mindfulness indeed is a purely divine practice. It leads you to your true nature while dissolving your inner conflicts softly and almost imperceptibly. Moreover, every conscious moment in the Now will gradually accumulate and make your whole life easier. It will abate or even prevent challenges.
 
When mindfulness becomes your intrinsic way of living, you will enjoy every task, you will become light and, in a strange way, even transparent. You will start sensing some inexplicable joy and deep inner peace. You will feel love more and more, both to yourself and the people around you.
 
On the Reintegration website, you can find an excerpt from my book “Inner Peace, Outer Success” about mindfulness. It describes this practice in numerous everyday situations, including how to develop specific mindfulness triggers - situations that your subconscious mind instantly recognizes as automatic activators of your conscious presence.
 
Accordingly, you may create mindfulness triggers from the fear and excessive thinking about this pandemic. Thus, whenever you find yourself thinking about the disease, or fearing it, you will automatically become consciously present and your thoughts and anxiety will subside.

​5. Meditate Regularly 

Steady meditation practice has a variety of benefits. It will provide you with additional love, health, strength, calmness, creativity, clarity, and smoothness in your life. It will surely help you a lot in these times of pandemic.
 
Meditation goes side by side with mindfulness. Without regular meditation sittings, your mindfulness can easily lose its foundation. Therefore, it is highly recommended to practice them concurrently.
 
You have countless varieties of meditation at your disposal. Within the Reintegration System, you can choose, for example, pure awareness or body/emotional awareness meditation, which are quite similar to those presented by Eckhart Tolle. You could also practice loving-kindness meditation, which is, in my opinion, very important. Meditation practice may also be focused on a mindful walk, open-focus awareness, acceptance, relaxation with the reintegration of subconscious structures, etc.
 
One example of “pure awareness” meditation technique is the following:

Emotions are precious messengers that may convey vital lessons about our lives.

There are no “positive” and “negative” or “good” and “bad” emotions. In fact, so-called “negative” emotions often carry more valuable information about our inner being than the “positive” ones.

Anger, rage, resentment, fear, anxiety, sadness, despair... All these feelings, in fact, have great transformative potential in the development of each of us. For this reason, the only possible classification of emotions would be (1) “pleasant,” (2) “neutral,” and (3) “unpleasant.” Actually, this grouping may help us in finding the proper ways of dealing with them.
​
Nevertheless, the only authentic way of dealing with emotions is to directly face them and reintegrate them into our whole being.

Dealing with Emotions

Since every emotion is, in fact, a thought with a strong energy charge, it is always expressed in our body through physical sensations.

Emotional energy is constantly reflected in the body, causing different reactions in its specific parts. It is almost always expressed as a tension of a group of muscles, sometimes accompanied by other phenomena—heat or cold, pain, sweating, heart palpitations, rapid breathing, shivering, etc.

Sometimes we are not even aware that there is a strong emotion in us that, if not reintegrated, can cause various difficulties and, eventually, illness. Focusing on the physical sensations that result from such emotions will help us more easily recognize their appearance in everyday life.

In this sense, it is very important for us to develop a continuous awareness of the presence of emotions through the recognition of their manifestations in our body.
​
Related to this, we have two ways of developing the awareness of the presence of emotions, that is, emotional awareness:

• Continuous awareness of physical sensations, and
• Periodic body scans.

Continuous Awareness of Physical Sensations

This awareness is, in fact, a form of mindfulness, which we may also call the conscious Presence. This type of mindfulness should include observing both external and internal contents.

When we talk about mindfulness, with the development of this skill we are gradually increasing our awareness of external stimuli—the varied images conveyed to us by the sense of sight; the sounds conveyed by our hearing; and all other content that our other senses convey.

Also, by practicing Presence, we become increasingly aware of everything that is happening in our inner world—both in the psyche and the body. Thoughts, mental images, emotions, and all kinds of physical sensations are tremendously important objects of our observation. I should also add that in mindfulness, while consciously observing various external and/or internal events, it is vital to maintain awareness of our sense of I, or self.

Another way to develop overall emotional awareness is to periodically scan the body.
 
Body Scans in Search of Unpleasant Emotions
​
Unpleasant emotions strongly affect our physical form. Each of them has its own characteristic body imprint. Some emotions cause tightness of the neck muscles, others cause stomach stiffness, some trigger tension in the chest, while certain emotions are mainly expressed on the face or in the limbs. There are also those that are expressed through the spasms across the whole body. In addition, many emotions are manifested in the body through pain, nausea, itching, and various other unpleasant bodily feelings.

​It seems that karma is a mysterious force that propels adequate responses to all our deeds. Outwardly, it is merely a mechanism of action and reaction within the emotional, mental, or spiritual planes. But how exactly does a right or wrong action return to us eventually? What is the mechanism of karma?
 
Holographic Principle
 
The Holographic Principle, hidden in every aspect of reality, elegantly explains the inner workings of karma.
 
Let us reflect upon our possible wrongdoing—for instance, we have manifested aggression toward another human being.

• Our behavior is always the expression of the corresponding inner parts of our personality.  In this example, we are aggressive toward another being because there is an equivalent part of our personality which must eventually express itself through aggression. That part may be a cluster of suppressed emotions from our childhood, some limiting beliefs related to victim identity, old revenge decisions, hidden resentment, or many other subconscious structures. In this case, the hidden part of our being takes over and we hurt other people.
• The holographic principle tells us that all our inner parts are mirrored in people and circumstances outside.
• In the example mentioned above, there must be a person in our environment which represents the aggressive part of our personality. From our point of view, his or her behavior is often hostile. As such, that person will inevitably take similar action against us.  

​The action from the external world can occur even before our own similar action toward the outer world. Nevertheless, we are often unaware of their inner connection. Such actions from outside will be occurring as long as there is a part within us that corresponds to these actions.

​The Question of Conscience
 
Another way of getting the karmic lessons is through self-punishment. Of course, it is usually a subconscious process.
 
When we commit a negative deed, our conscience creates a feeling of remorse. If it is a conscious feeling, we will repent and maybe even punish ourselves deliberately for that deed.
 
If our regret is deeply hidden under layers of our subconscious mind, it will cunningly undermine our actions and health. It will also create an unconscious decision for self-punishment. Again, in accordance with the Holographic Principle, this decision will be projected onto the external world in the form of resentment in some people around us. In this way, our regret will eventually manifest itself through adverse events in our life or people who will harm us.
 
Of course, I am not saying that we should have no regret over our obvious mistakes. On the contrary, we must recognize our bad deeds from the past and correct our behavior through the reintegration work on our personality. After that, we have to move on.
 
You may be wondering why there are many seemingly unfair cases. It seems that there indeed are rare people without conscience, the so-called psychopaths. They may outlive many of their victims, as there is no conscience and regret within them. They do not regret their actions, and they do not punish themselves for any misconduct.
 
Additionally, such persons typically possess very strong egos, that may shield them temporarily from many external threats, and postpone the karmic events.
 
There are some cases of Nazis who had escaped the earthly hand of justice and even lived long after WWII. However, the karmic lessons eventually reach such people, too. The destructive parts of their beings that were the source of their wrongdoings are reflected in their external world in a variety of possible forms of situations and people. These external forms will inevitably find ways to pierce through the heavy shields of their egos and impact their lives in a reciprocal manner.
 
Conclusion
 
So, there is no invisible, higher council which decides upon the righteousness of our deeds. Neither God does this. There is no hidden force that inexplicably returns to us all our previous actions. It is simply a matter of external reflections of our inner being.
 
Now, it is easy to conclude that karma is the consequence of unconscious living, of unintegrated parts of our inner being which must manifest themselves in our external world. If they remain in that unnatural (unintegrated) state – there is karma. But the Holographic Principle gives us invaluable advice: if we reunite our unconscious, suppressed parts with the oneness of our being, we will become free of karma.

This is a quite technically-oriented article in which I will present an idea for possible superluminal communication, suitable for exercising the skills of critical thinking and objective analysis.
 
In order to circumvent the natural speed of light limitation, this approach exploits the so-called Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) state of quantum entanglement. Unlike many previous attempts to use pairs of quantum-entangled particles for this purpose, this approach utilizes quantum entanglement of groups of three particles. There are two such states: the GHZ and W-state.
 
I have to emphasize that this idea is not based on getting results of measurements of entangled particles in various settings or trying to somehow force the particle on one side into the desired quantum state (which is, of course, impossible). Instead, this approach is oriented toward discerning different amounts of entanglement in the tripartite GHZ (or even W-state) groups.
 
If there is a system of three particles in the GHZ state of quantum entanglement, this essentially means that their quantum states are mutually correlated. However, the correlation between any of these two particles within the system is partial, while the entanglement of the system as a whole is full and stable.
 
This reasoning has an important premise: whenever one of the particles within a GHZ system is measured along an orthogonal direction, it becomes disentangled from the other two. On the other “side” of the system, those two other particles become fully entangled with each other, i.e., they are left in a maximally entangled Bell state. On the other hand, whenever one of the particles within a GHZ system is measured along the privileged Z direction, the entanglement of all three particles is completely destroyed. This means that not only the measured particle is disentangled, but also the other two become unentangled from each other and from the first particle. In other words, they are left in a “pure” or “mixed” state.[1]
 
In accordance with the basics elements mentioned above, this approach to FTL communication is presented below in the form of thought experiment.
 
So, we may imagine that one of these particles is on Earth with Alice, who has suitable equipment for measurement. The other two particles of that system are with Bob, who brought them with him to Mars, also with appropriate measuring equipment. Although physically separated, all three particles have preserved their GHZ state of entanglement.

[1] “Although a naive measurement of the third particle of the GHZ state results in an unentangled pair, a more clever measurement, along an orthogonal direction, can leave behind a maximally entangled Bell state. (…) The lesson to be drawn from this is that pairwise entanglement in the GHZ is more subtle than it naively appears: measurements along the privileged Z-direction destroy pairwise entanglement, but other measurements (along different axes) do not.”
Source: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenberger%E2%80%93Horne%E2%80%93Zeilinger_state

​In previously agreed time intervals, depending on the message that she wants to send to Bob, Alice takes a measurement on her one-particle part of the GHZ system. She measures its quantum state either along the privileged Z direction or along an orthogonal direction.
 
On Mars, Bob regularly takes separate measurements on his two particles in the same time intervals (previously agreed with Alice).
 
If Alice takes the measurement along the orthogonal direction, her particle becomes unentangled from the other two on Mars, but Bob’s pair of two particles becomes mutually fully entangled. He measures both his particles separately, compares the results and learns that their quantum states are 100% in correlation. (Perhaps there should be several more such measurements on similar GHZ systems to determine whether the pairs are fully correlated or not.) Therefore, although no information is really being transferred from Earth to Mars, Bob instantly assumes that Alice has taken the measurement along the orthogonal direction because his particles are fully correlated, and this fact he translates into a simple message “YES” or, say, 1.

​If Alice takes the measurement along the Z direction, Bob becomes aware of that because when he measures his pair of particles in the GHZ state and gets information on their quantum properties, he sees that they are disentangled from each other. As he now knows that Alice took the measurement along the Z direction, he translates this state of disentanglement between his two particles as “NO” or 0.

Alice and Bob may have arrays of these three-particle GHZ systems, each with one particle on Earth, and two particles on Mars, and vice versa. They use these arrays for multiple exchanges of simple information, and, if needed, for determining with high certainty whether two other particles in each system are fully entangled or not. Moreover, there should be multiple measurements for each side to ensure that the jitter of the measurement tools cannot reverse the order of measurements.
 
Note that a similar approach could be applied to another type of tripartite entangled state—the so-called W-state. In it, three particles are also entangled as a system, particles are mutually entangled to some extent, but when one takes a measurement on one of its constituents, that does not destroy the entanglement of the other two particles—on the contrary, the entanglement persists and even becomes full.
 
In this case, also in regular, previously agreed time intervals, Alice either takes or skips her measurement. On Mars, Bob would always be taking measurements on his array of particles. If Alice had taken her measurement, he would have learned that his pairs of particles are fully entangled. He instantly knows that Alice had taken the measurement and therefore he assumes that the message is YES or 1. Conversely, if Bob’s results show that his pairs of particles are still partially entangled, it would mean that Alice skipped her measurement, thus he concludes that her message is NO or 0.
 
It seems that, effectively, complex messages can be instantaneously exchanged between Alice and Bob in either of these ways. They would not have to wait fifteen or twenty minutes to get the information from the other planet.
 
In a nutshell (for the usage of GHZ state of quantum entanglement):
1. There are three particles in the GHZ entangled state;
2. One of these particles is with Alice on Earth, the other two are with Bob on Mars;
3. Either:

• Alice takes a measurement on her particle in one direction, which automatically causes two particles on Mars to be maximally entangled;
• Bob takes separate measurements on his two particles and learns that they are mutually entangled, which he translates as “1”;

4. Or:

• Alice takes a measurement on her particle in another direction, which automatically causes two particles on Mars to be disentangled;
• Bob takes separate measurements on his two particles and learns that they are disentangled, which he translates as “0.”

 
In a nutshell (for the usage of W-state of quantum entanglement):
1. There are three particles in the W-state;
2. One of these particles is with Alice on Earth, the other two are with Bob on Mars;
3. Either:

• Alice takes a measurement on her particle, which automatically causes two particles on Mars to be maximally entangled;
• Bob takes separate measurements on his two particles and learns that they are maximally entangled, which he translates as “1”;

4. Or:

• Alice skips the measurement on her particle, which means that two particles on Mars are still partially entangled with each other;
• Bob takes separate measurements on his two particles and learns that they are partially entangled with each other, which he translates as “0.”

DISCLAIMER: The laws of physics strictly forbid superluminal communication. This is only a mental exercise with the purpose of developing the skills of critical thinking and objective analysis. I invite readers, especially those with solid knowledge in the field of quantum physics, to closely scrutinize this thought experiment and let me know of any flaws in this reasoning in the comments section.
 
Have a nice day! :-)