Snake Oil Traffic School
I silently cursed the cop who pulled me over for speeding in a residential area. Going fifteen miles over the ridiculously low speed limit had earned me a $150.00 ticket. This was hardly worth the two-second frown I was trying to avoid from the owners of the French restaurant where I worked. The police officer told me I was “lucky.” I could attend traffic school one Saturday and avoid points on my driving record, and this obnoxious fine. Money was tight at the time. I had recently separated from living with my partner, and I was earning extra income by waiting tables. The idea of eight hours in traffic school made me feel like life really sucked.
A few weeks later, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I bit the bullet and paid $90.00 for traffic school and attended the class. Could I endure this and still put in six hours of smiling, pouring wine, and serving escargot to wealthy socialites? I was not a happy man that day.
There were about one hundred other offenders in the same boat as me, stuck against their wills in this tedious class. The instructor did his best to make things as interesting as possible, and even offered to answer questions we might have had about traffic safety. I groaned when I looked at my watch and realized I had four more hours of this crap before I was free.
My fellow violators were raising their hands and asking questions. Their questions were not about traffic safety. They were all excruciatingly long, detailed reports of how each person should not have received a ticket in the first place. “A huge semi blocked my view of the cop who nailed me. How fair is that?” “I got pegged by a speed radar trap-what makes Arizona think that this is an acceptable way to make money?” “I was only going like two miles over the speed limit. You would think they would go after the real criminals!” The “poor me, life is unfair” tirade went on for hours.
Everyone who raised their hands to talk had been screwed over by the system. Each person believed they had been victimized in one way or another. I began to feel sorry for the instructor. How many times had this poor man been subjected to this parade of delusional casualties? I wondered why the victim theme is so prevalent, not only here but across the country. Frivolous lawsuits; coffee that is too hot, tobacco companies that are responsible for making people smoke, people wrongfully arrested for driving while intoxicated, glandular-problems making me fat, the list of questionable reasons people come up with is very long. What makes so many Americans believe they are victims? I sat in class and began to feel ashamed to be part of this collection of spoiled brats. How many people suffer with real cases of victimization, rape, violence, robbery, and a host of other tragedies and don’t complain nearly to the degree these losers were?
I wondered if I was the only one there who was sickened by all of this whining. I was guilty. I had gone way over the speed limit and was caught. A police officer did his job appropriately. I was doing time here deservedly. All things considered, I got off easy. The study of metaphysics teaches that we are never really victims, and I was reminded that the majority of people in this world do not know this fact or pretend they don’t. As the class finished, the instructor announced he would hand out the certificates. Since elementary school I have been accustomed to my name being called nearly at the end of every list, never something I have been a fan of. My last name starts with a “V.” But a pushy, loud mouthed young woman behind me insisted that he reverse the alphabet this time. Not surprisingly, her name started with a “Z” and she received her freedom first. My name was called second, which saved me a good twenty minutes off my wait to get out of the class. Perhaps the universe was telling me that I had learned some valuable things in traffic school after all.
Jim Ventura 10-2003
Notes:
This Snake Oil was written more than a decade ago. If you like reading my columns and never got to read this as well as the first few years of my original columns, you can purchase Snake Oil Volume One by contacting me or thru Amazon.com
It is funny how much more conservative we often become as we get older. While I am never going to move into right-wing-conservative thinking, I definitely see a bit more value to some elements of conservative logic. Not the fear based, judgmental hogwash, but the perspective on personal responsibility. I went out a few weeks ago and found that driving home at one am on a Saturday night was a bit harrowing. There were far too many insane people doing 85 or more miles an hour on 55-65 MPH roads. People cutting you off and just doing all kinds of unsafe maneuvers did not make my trip home very enjoyable. While I am probably in the minority on this perspective, I would actually like to see more photo speed radar traps and more cops pulling speeders off the road and ticketing them. Hell, if you are doing more than 20 miles over the speed limit there should be a few days in jail. My cranky old man aspect is surfacing here, but I don’t speed excessively not because I fear getting a ticket. I don’t speed because I would hate to cause an accident and hit a human or animal!
If you are not able to make the May Creating Prosperity classes you can book a private Reality Creating session to go through this material and benefit. If you split the cost of a 90 minute session with a friend (2 people maximum to fit in my office) you can take advantage of an added discount. I constantly hear people around me complaining about not making enough money. You can change your mindset, make practical changes (classes and the reality change sessions focus on both) to change your life in this area. The only thing stuck is your decision to not do something about it.
Summer is almost here, wishing everyone a Happy May. Cheer, Jim V
Snake Oil Volume One
Jim Ventura has been writing his monthly Snake Oil column for 14 years. Volume One is a collection of his first four years of Snake Oil. This volume also includes nine Snake Charms. Practical explanations and instruction for meditation, ear conning, lucid dreaming, etc... Jim’s Snake Oil philosophy is all about changing the perceptions of how we view life to include metaphysical perspectives into all of our experiences. We benefit by expanding our consciousness, while we keep our feet planted firmly on the ground in this world at the same time. Snake Oil reminds us that we can also grow to become more enlightened while finding the wisdom of humor in ourselves and the world around us.
$11 including tax
($4 for shipping for each book in US). $15 total.
To request any or all three of my books email Venturasag@yahoo.com or ask for a copy next time you are here in the office.
You can send check or money order to Jim Ventura 2515 N 52nd St. #206 Phoenix Az 85008. You can also pay by charge or Debit thru Paypal. Feel free to request to have any of your copies signed!
“Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it can. And just when you think it can’t get any better, it can.” Nicholas Sparks
Channeled corner. I read many, many books from different trance channelers in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Unfortunately many of them are now out of print, but I still have a huge collection and will share some of the best material I have collected over the years.
“On the one hand, quite simply and in way that you cannot presently understand, evil does not exist. However, you are obviously confronted with what seem to be quite evil effects. Now it has been said often that there is a god, so there must be a devil-or if there is good there must be evil. This is like saying that because an apple has a top, it must have a bottom-but without any understanding of the fact that both are a portion of the apple.
We go back to our fundamentals: you create reality through your feelings, thoughts, and mental actions. Some of these are physically materialized, others are actualized in probably systems. You are presented with an endless series of choices, it seems, at any point, some more or less favorable than others.
You must understand that each mental act is a reality for which you are responsible. That is what you are in this particular system of reality for. As long as you believe in a devil, for example, you will create one that is real enough for you, and for the others who continue to create him.
Because of the energy he is given by others, he will have a certain consciousness of his own, but such a mock devil has no power or reality to those who do not believe in his existence, and who do not give him energy through their belief. He is, in other words, a superlative hallucination. As mentioned earlier, those who believe in a hell and assign themselves to it through their belief can indeed experience one, but certainly in nothing like eternal terms. No soul is forever ignorant.
Now those who have such beliefs actually lack a necessary deep trust in the nature of consciousness, of the soul, and All That Is. They concentrate upon not what they think of as the power of good, but fearfully upon what they think of as the power of evil.
The hallucination is created, therefore, out of fear and of restriction. The devil idea is merely the mass projection of certain fears-mass in that it is produced by many people, but also limited in that there have always been those who reject his principle...
Seth Speaks. Jane Roberts
Note: Jane struggled quite a bit when she Channeled Seth insights, especially when he talked about religion and the early church (and he talked about it a lot!). She was raised by by a somewhat fundamentalist Christian mother. In the late sixties and early seventies when much of the material that was written was seen as very controversial...
“People come, people go-they’ll drift in and out of your life, almost like characters in a favorite book. When you finally close the cover, the characters have told their story and you start up again with another book, complete with new characters and adventures. Then you find yourself focusing on the new ones, not the ones from the past.” Nicholas Sparks
New Client Special:
January 1st 2016 thru July 1st 2016 Special: New Client introductory offer
$10-15 off listed rates for your first 45 minute session, 70, or 90 minute session! Ask for the special when you email Venturasag@yahoo.com to book. Debit and credit card payments get $10 off for 45-90 minute sessions. Local in-office clients can get an extra $5 off for cash or check payments for sessions. If you want to buy a new client a thoughtful gift of a session you can also take advantage of these rates!
$10-15 off listed rates for your first 45 minute session, 70, or 90 minute session! Ask for the special when you email Venturasag@yahoo.com to book. Debit and credit card payments get $10 off for 45-90 minute sessions. Local in-office clients can get an extra $5 off for cash or check payments for sessions. If you want to buy a new client a thoughtful gift of a session you can also take advantage of these rates!
My current rates (new clients can subtract the above discounts from these rates): 45 minute sessions $80. 70 minute sessions $110. 90 minute sessions $130.
“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” Oscar Wilde
Creating Wealth!
Getting Your piece of the Pie by making Peace!
Most of us wish we had more money. Whether you are already comfortable financially or struggling there is often (understandably) a part of us that wants more money and the opportunities and security that can come with it!
No matter where you are in life now it is possible to create more personal wealth. By changing our beliefs around money, success, and letting go of limiting beliefs we can shift our reality to accept and experience more abundance. This workshop will help you to focus on both practical and metaphysical tools to bring your current and future experience with success (whether you are self-employed or working a job) to a more prosperous reality.
Learn about the three pillars necessary to become a magnet to more prosperity.
This class will take place in my home for two consecutive Saturdays in late May. A maximum of 7 local students (a minimum of 4 to hold the series) and one call in from out-of-area (FaceTime may be an option or simply speaker phone). $40 for both classes. Current Regular clients and pre-paid students $35 for both classes.
Saturdays May 21st and June 4th. 10 am until 12:30 pm. Email me at Venturasag@yahoo.com to hold a space.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” Kierkegaard
Snake Oil Radio
Thursdays at 3:30 pm (there will be two live broadcasts this month)
My next live broadcast of Snake Oil Radio will be Thursday, May 5th. at 3:30 p.m. (AZ doesn’t use daylight savings time, so it’s the same as pacific time). Most Thursdays you can catch a new show. Each 45 minute show will expand on my current column’s subject matter. It will also offer an opportunity for you to call in live (or chat with other listeners in the chat room) with comments and your thoughts about the topic of discussion. If you miss the live show, you can catch any of my previously recorded shows on the web site’s archive. You can also catch Snake Oil Radio on I-tunes (download my pod-casts there).
To hear a live show, all you need to do is be at a computer and tuned into: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Jim-Ventura You may also access it by going to the site and type “Snake Oil” into the search option.You can also go to the shows that are currently “On air” at that time and find me. The call in number is 646-200-3966 for questions and comments.
Here’s my contact information to make an appointment for a session, or information on current classes: Phone: (602)957-3035 text: (602)349-0746 Email: Venturasag@yahoo.com (best method for contact).
Information about the different sessions and types of readings and services, past Snake Oil columns, and how to order my books and audio CD’s can be found at my website: Http://JimVentura.com
“Friend” me on Facebook to get other extra offers and in between column extras! Signing up for my fan page will get you even more extras and first shot at reading specials. Simply click on “like” on the fan page and you will automatically get my weekly updates.
You also may want to check out my posts on Tumblr.com: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/snake-oil-blog
All sessions/readings for 2016 are: Full (70 minutes) $110.00; Shorter session (45 minutes) $80.00; Extended session (90 minutes) $130.00 (two people can split an extended session back to back for $65.00 each). Email me for information about my Regular Client Program for even bigger discounts on session prices with the added benefit of monthly or quarterly check-ins.
All Current Snake Oil subscribers get $5.00 off all listed prices for any 45-90 minute sessions (except when using a special discount promotion). Local in office visits receive another $5 off listed prices for cash or check payments.
