With Halloween so close, we seem to have our minds on goblins! And that led us to think about the goblins in our Consciousness - those pesky error thoughts that keep us from being at one with the Truth of who we are. We want to send those goblins on the run! But, we want to do it the right way, or we will just wind up creating more problems for ourselves.

Hence, the second part of our title, Google comes into play. Whenever we really need to research something, we turn to Google!

By the way, did you know that Google is a play on the word "GOOGOL" which refers to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google coined the word to reflect their mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available via the web.

Google is our favorite search engine ~ but even with Google, you can only discover so much. Just imagine the infinite amount of Divine Ideas and Guidance available to us when we Google God!

Just for fun, we did Google God, and landed 510,000,000 hits in just .09 seconds! And believe me, those hits were all over the place, from God's homepage, to the official God FAQ (which we do not recommend), to God's Yellow Pages! But that is a drop in the bucket compared to what we get when we really Google God - through Meditation and Prayer. Rather than sit at the computer, try sitting in the Silence, quieting your mind, and opening yourself up to receive the Divine outpouring of ideas and guidance that are at your constant disposal.

And here's the neat part. Once we identify our goblins, then Google God through mediation and prayer, we can live in a state of constant giggles! We can experience the pure delight of knowing that we are never alone, and nothing has any power over us. We can say with gusto: My consciousness is greater than any goblin my mind can imagine!

Research has now proven that complex humor (riddles, puns, funny stories) not only strengthens our immune system, it actually can improve memory and recalibrate our intuition! We can also approach problems with more flexibility, opening the channels to creative Divine ideas. We call it the Giggle State of Consciousness.

When we live in the Giggle State of Consciousness, we operate from a state of pure joy and gratitude. Consider this great quote we discovered about gratitude, by Melody Beatty:

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, and confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

Did you know that there is an actual meditation practice called a Laughter Meditation? Because the physical act of laughter is one of the few actions that involves the body, emotions, and soul, it helps us transcend physical and mental stresses. Research even proves that it will improve the immune system.

You can practice 3 stages to mindful laughter, each taking 5-20 minutes:

* Stretching like a cat and breathing deeply. Stretch the muscles in your face by yawning and making silly faces.

* Pure laughter. Fall on the floor if you want, and keep laughing as long as you can. You may need to force it at first, but we invite you to give it a try. Just laugh out loud!

Here are some funny stories to get you laughing:

We enjoyed this announcement from a church bulletin: "Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person(s) you want remembered."

Or this: Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door. (That'll really help build that esteem!)

And how about this slogan: The Associate Pastor unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last week: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours."?

A woman went to the Post Office to purchase stamps for her Christmas cards. "What Denomination?" asked the clerk. "Oh, good grief! Have we come to this?" responded the woman. "Just give me 50 Baptist and 50 Catholic ones."

* And the final step: Sit in silence with your eyes closed, and become aware of your breath.

We believe Jesus had a great sense of humor, and understood the power of laughter. He used hyperbole, paradox, and exaggeration to make a point. In John 15:11, He said, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full."

Lowell Fillmore (Charles & Myrtle's son) said, in his book, The Prayer Way to Health, Wealth, & Happiness: "Unity believes that when joy is put back into religion, there will be more religion in the world." A friend of Lowell's said that when they were young children, living at Unity Farm, young Lowell would take off his shoes and socks, and run barefoot in the winter snow-just out of exhilaration, out of the joy of being alive!

We'd like to close this week's article with a poem we enjoy. But be aware: we added an additional verse to share a Unity perspective!

Sit on the Lid and Laugh (by Bertha Adams Backus)

Build for yourself a strong box

Fashion each part with care;

When it's strong as your hand can make it

Put all your "goblins" there.

Hide there all thought of your failures,

Every real or imagined gaffe;

Lock all your heartaches within it

Then sit on the lid and laugh.

Tell no one else its contents

Never its secrets share,

When you've dropped in your care and worry

Keep them forever there;

Hide them from sight so completely

That the world will never dream half

Fasten the strong box securely

Then sit on the lid and laugh!

(Our bonus verse):

You have within you this strongbox

At Headquarters you'll find it's true -

Go there to empty your worries

Your problems, your fears - heartaches, too.

The goblins that seem to consume you

The burdens that tear you in half -

Can be Googled away in this strongbox ~

And you can sit on the lid and laugh!

So when the goblins come out to frighten you away from your Divinity, just Google God by going into the Silence, with the assurance that you can live in a continuous state of Divine Giggles and Joy, knowing that wherever you are, God is - and all is well!