investigations, insight, unconditional Love for the greater Oneness, tales of adventure, and shameless optimism from the edge of the not so distant future
I’m taking part in a Naturopathic research study related to my digestive pain (oh how I dream of a time in the future where it does not plague me) and I’m happy that I’m getting a chance to help with some open-minded yet scientific research. There is a small financial bonus at the end (yay) but mostly I’m happy about the free high-end probiotics. Though there is a chance that I’ve been given a placebo, they’ll give me the real stuff at the end if that’s the case.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog site GOOP is quite well-written, interesting and insightuful.
This week, three experts, including Michael Berg, co-director of the Kabbalah Centre, talk about addiction…
Addiction is simply a misguided yearning of the soul. What happens with alcohol, drugs, sex and money is that they are short-term fixes for this deeper desire. Sure, in the moment, they give us a certain amount of fulfillment, but as we know it never lasts.
Our soul has this massive thirst, and we are trying to quench it with a teaspoon.
A very useful quote from the Healing chapter of the gem-packed ebook of note No Time For Karma…
The master teachers didn’t advocate analyzing one’s problems. They preferred to go directly to the solution. The solution involves holding the truth of our being in mind as opposed to holding the problem or its cause in mind. Remember, to create and maintain a situation which is contrary to the natural state of being requires constant effort on our part. We must be constantly reaffirming our dislike of a situation in order to keep it around. When we release our attachment to the problem or to the cause of the problem (all causes are in our mind, not “out there”) healing is the result. That is nature’s way.
Today I listened to the old Deepak Chopra audio called Perfect Health in which he said the most important thing about choosing a form of exercise is that you ENJOY it.
yesterday I was moved to buy a Louise Hay CD on anger release
the CD drive on my old computer doesn’t work so I had to use another machine in the house and I had a lot of technical difficulties getting it onto my computer
I kept getting angry the process was taking so long and then laughing at myself because of the irony
the meditation was amazing and I had prophetic dreams of the Joy to come
I’ve been exploring the concept that everything we consume has an energy to it, and that certain foods have higher vibrations than others. It seems that paying attention to this type of food quality is more important than counting calories.
This includes how close the food is to its natural state, how fresh it is, if it’s organic, who prepared it, their emotional state during the preparation process, and the amount of appreciation felt and quality of attention while eating it.
There’s a reason no one can quite duplicate Gramma’s cookies even with the recipe in hand…
Here’s a passage that takes this kind of thinking even further:
from “Healing” in No Time for Karma www.notimeforkarma.com/HEAL.html Blessing Food
We have been told to bless our food before we eat it. The reason is because consciousness creates reality in our diet too. When we direct energy from our hands into our food, we literally alter the chemical make up. If we put our hands on the sides of a cookie plate and visualize light and energy running through our hands and we recognize that energy as the essence of God, we will be eating the healthiest food that we could possibly consume.
Many Silva graduates have done an experiment that all of us can do at home. Buy two similar looking tomatoes. Set one of them on a plate and put it where it will not be disturbed for several weeks. Take the other one to your meditation spot. Do your relaxation and release ritual. Then spend ten minutes with your hands around the tomato, visualizing light and love passing through it from one hand to the other. Put this tomato on a plate, mark it so you know which is which, and put it aside for several weeks. One spoils and one dehydrates, still edible. See? The masters knew about preservatives too. But their preservatives aren’t hard on our bodies, they heal our bodies.
The foods that we require as individuals may not be found in nutrition books. We each have karmically conditioned bodies. We have been conditioned by lifetimes of cellular memory of what we survived on and adapted to. Our bodies are much more than a physical instrument – - they are the remembrance of previous existences in the physical domain. This has been clinically proven. There are people with multiple personalities who demonstrate intolerance to certain foods, but when they shift to a different personality there is an entirely new set of foods that they are allergic to. It is the belief system that controls the body. It is a cellular memory of your historical self that determines which eating habits work for you. It has nothing to do with what the nutritionists or overeaters anonymous or Weight Watchers have to say. The longest lived civilizations on the earth have an average life span of over one hundred years and they eat the most ungodly things. Some of them survive mainly on sugar cane. But the primary ingredient in their lifestyle is a lack of stress.
today at the tax office (my temporary job which is almost over!) a woman came in with a small child
he started to have a bit of a tantrum and to shut him up she gave him a treat
I thought to myself, “he’s whining because he knows she’ll give him a treat to avoid making a scene” and upon thinking that he turned and looked me in the eye with an evil glare (the kid was maybe 3 years old) that communicated a distinct manipulative intelligence
this bit of lazy parenting reflected some issues of my own around using consumption to assuage my own emotional agitations & pointed towards the fact that whatever energy or entity is at the root of my difficulties around food and eating may have a consciousness of its own…
When I first wrote about tartrazine on the Internet SEVEN years ago there were already people out there who knew that there is a connection between food additves and hyperactivity (and many other health/emotional/behavioural conditions) so this “news” isn’t as new as they say.
However, it’s great to see it being reported in one of the world’s most respected medical journals and in major papers!
Their findings, published today in The Lancet medical journal, could have profound implications for the regulation of additives and the diets of children who exhibit frenetic behaviour, researchers said.
I’ve been working with Dana Williams on some health and emotional issues using EFT or “Emotional Freedom Techniques” which is a healing modality that involves saying trigger phrases and tapping on various points on the body.
I thought it seemed really silly at first however it kept appearing in my life so I decided to give it a try. It’s so simple and it is really helping. The tapping points correspond with Chinese energy meridian points used in acupressure and acupuncture.
Emotional Freedom Techniques http://www.emofree.com Based on impressive new discoveries regarding the body’s subtle energies, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) has proven successful in thousands of clinical cases. It applies to just about every emotional, health and performance issue you can name and it often works where nothing else will.
IfoundmethruEFT.com http://www.ifoundmethrueft.com EFT works beautifully with Hypnotherapy and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and reaches the deeper mind and emotions with an added body component. With EFT we can easily and rapidly gain access to parts of our subconscious mind to create change. As people experience EFT most report a profound relaxing of stressful emotions that we carry with us and access daily. These emotions that come up are actually anchored in earlier programming. EFT involves a simple process of tapping on stress relief points (Acupuncture Points) as you focus on your issue.
Many blessings to the woman in the herb shop in Molly’s Lane who introduced me to nutritional yeast and spirulina. My mood has improved exponentially since I started taking these and it seems I must have been deficient in protein and/or some other essential nutrients.
I always thought nutritional yeast was just some weird supplement for vegans however I am stoked to discover it’s totally delicious as well. I am loving it on toast.
I remember the cat ripping into a bag of it my vegetarian roommate left out on the counter at one point. This should have been a sign that there was something tasty and healthy going on.
Perhaps the mood improvement also has something to do with the fact that the treehouse tree is in fruit with cherries!
Here’s a marvellous article (with some great vocabulary words) about how attitude has a huge impact on one’s healing path.
I’ve realized my own “ailment” was something that at some level I was identifying with and using as an excuse as to why I couldn’t do certain things.
What helps? Staying hopeful and curbing the need to constantly complain about it. Though it’s important to talk about things sometimes (preferably to a health professional, though it’s important for our loved ones to know also) constantly using words to vocally (or mentally) obsess is counterproductive.
Another one I’ve learned: when someone asks, “How are you?” they aren’t asking for a lowdown on your bodily functions ;)
A Psychology of the Miraculous http://www.mindpowernews.com/PsychologyOfMiraculous.htm Under a compulsion to sort out my own strange experiences, I spent years interviewing dozens of people who claimed to have had unusual healings. This was no academic pursuit, but a survival exercise; a way to ride out the aftershocks of a catastrophe still rumbling through my life. I was oddly gratified to discover that many of those I spoke to had also undergone inward shiftings of tectonic magnitude. Their crisis of the flesh had become, as had mine, a dilemma of the spirit.
A few people I met seemed to have had a spontaneous remission of an incurable condition, such a rara avis of an event that its every sighting is doubted. They ply the circuit, these grateful, sometimes baffled beneficiaries of healing: the man trimmed out in polyester making televised couch-chat out of his vanished polyps; a woman telling Joan Rivers how the tumor-the-size-of-an-orange that once straddled her left ovary just… disappeared. “Incredible,” Rivers brays. “You hear these stories, you just go… unbelievable!”
As well you might, if you retain a phosphor of native skepticism. But if you also possess a scintilla of innate curiosity, you cannot help but wonder, Could it be? Do miracles really happen? It is only lately that you might hear science reply, with quiet, uncomprehending vehemence, Believe it.
Here’s an idea around why certain foods are considered extra tasty…
Who’s umami? Human taste now comes in five flavours http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/senses/umami.html When Craig Purdy, a New York entrepreneur, asked chef Jonathan Pratt for an innovative restaurant concept, Pratt jumped at the chance to tell him about umami.
He had come to think of it as a clandestine fifth taste, added to the list of what humans already savour — salty, sweet, bitter, sour.
Pratt believed it was also the secret to getting customers to return time and again.
Today I discovered the concept of neurotheology via the article below. The author of this particular article is skeptical, however in this case it made all the more interested.
It seems there’s a whole network of like minded types I didn’t know about out there!
Colour me stoked.
How to Wire Your Brain for Religious Ecstasy http://www.mindpowernews.com/ReligiousEcstasy.htm Neurotheology may nonetheless have a profound social impact, by yielding more potent, reliable methods of inducing spiritual experiences.
Surveys suggest that only about one in three people has ever had a mystical experience, defined by one poll as the sensation of “a powerful spiritual force that seemed to lift you out of yourself.” Humans have long sought such experiences through meditation, yoga, prayer, guru-worship, fasting, and flagellation, but these methods are unreliable, notes James Austin, author of Zen and the Brain, one of the best books on neurotheology.
Austin hopes that neurotheology will eventually yield much more potent, precise methods of inducing transcendent experiences, from fleeting feelings of connectedness all the way up to “the full moon of enlightenment.” Persinger’s God machine may not have done much for me, but here’s a brief status report on four mystical technologies with potential:
This video is an interesting demonstration of how positive thoughts have a positive influence on those nearby. Negative thoughts have a negative influence, however (good news!) positive ones are stronger.
I have been skeptical of applied kinesiology muscle testing in the past, however I’ve seen it demonstrated on myself and others enough times now that I’m a believer.
According to this report, the US Government has outsourced the job of reviewing whether a chemical causes birth defects to someone that works for the same company that makes and sells the chemical…
Chemical Industry Consultant Runs Federal Reproductive Health Agency http://ewg.org/issues/bisphenola/20070228/index.php The Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR) — an agency under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health — is actually run by Sciences International (SI) of Alexandria, Va. EWG found that Sciences International has collaborated with Dow Chemical Co., a major manufacturer of a widely used industrial chemical the agency will evaluate next week, and has also worked for the tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds. … BPA is a heavily used industrial chemical that is integral to the production of hard plastics and is found in the liners of metal food cans and in hard plastic containers. More than 200 animal studies show that BPA is toxic at very low doses, while the Centers for Disease Control has found BPA in 95 percent of people tested at levels that raise health concerns.
Oh honey, this is sad news. Generally I choose to stay positive here, however this is important to note.
Most people never think about where the food that magically appears at the grocery store comes from and won’t until their favourite products start getting a lot more expensive.
Vanishing bees threaten US crops http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6438373.stm All over America, beekeepers are opening up their hives in preparation for the spring pollination season, only to find that their bees are dead or have disappeared.
A great deal of physical illness is directly related to mental attitudes. As we heal our psychological/emotional pain, the physical often improves too (and vice versa.)
Does this explain the placebo effect?
Placebos, placebo effect, and the response to the healing situation: the evolution of a concept Papakostas YG, Daras MD. Department of Psychiatry, Athens University Medical School, Athens, Greece.
In spite of its impressive progress, medicine has been strongly criticized for relying on its modern biomedical tradition to the neglect of the psychosocial aspects of health. This neglect may account for patients’ dissatisfaction and eventual use of alternative health approaches. The concept of placebo has sustained dramatic “protean” metamorphoses through the ages. For centuries, placebos have been regarded as powerful deceptive therapies. From the middle of the twentieth century, however, conventional medicine has used placebos as methodologic tools to distinguish the specific from the nonspecific ingredients in treatments. In modern medical research, the double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial has been established as the gold standard for the assessment of any new treatment. Recently a new trend regarding placebos seems to have emerged. The placebo and other nonspecific effects elicited by the “healing situation” have been independently subjected to scientific study. Progress in this area may promote useful clinical applications, enabling physicians to broaden their perspectives on the healing process. We present the historical changes of the concept of placebo and the ethical issues raised by their use.
Abstract from Pubmed for Epilepsia. 2001 Dec;42(12):1614-25.
I have been going through a lot of intense feelings lately and am getting better and better at just observing them, dropping the stories, soaking in them, and letting them pass like weather.
I’m also getting better at forgiving myself in those moments I lapse & learning the obvious lessons within those dramas.
How to Transform Your Painful Emotions Into Joy With the Eight Step Emotional Transformation Recipe http://icreatewisdom.com/emotions.html Normally, people resist their painful emotions with intense energy, which only keeps them festering and in pain for hours. By allowing yourself to feel in a spirit of openness and acceptance, you can learn your lessons quickly.
A fantastic side benefit is that you now have a powerful new belief in place! You can grow more in a few weeks than you have in the past years by practicing this process diligently.
I recently met an interesting female medical doctor named Nelie Johnson who works with a healing modality called Total Biology.
Words and Suffering http://www.totalbiology.ca/main/articles_e.htm It is said that, at the origin of every illness, the person suffers an emotional shock experienced in isolation (the person does not share what he is feeling within his circle of intimacy) and the person thinks about it incessantly. This creates a constant increase in stress levels that puts the person’s life at risk. When this stress becomes too great on the cerebral level, the brain reacts by triggering illness. At the same time, the psycho-emotive preoccupation of the conflict escapes into the subconscious so that the person forgets it.
What is Total Biology? (transcribed from printout) With Total Biology, one comes to realize that healing is not a miracle but rather the natural outcome of the work of healing – bringing awareness to what one has truly lived emotionally and resolving or letting go the emotional charge around conflict and trauma.
Here’s a story about a study that found optimists to be less likely to become frail in old age.
I enjoyed this quote from the head researcher, “I believe that there is a connection between mind and body.” I wish this idea (which is obvious yet somehow controversial) were accepted by more people in the scientific establishment.
The researchers assessed the development of frailty during the study by measuring the participants’ weight loss, exhaustion, walking speed and grip strength.
They found that those people who had a positive outlook on life were significantly less likely to become frail.
The researchers said more research is required to pin down why there should be a link.
I’ve written an article that appears in the newest issue of Re:connection Magazine on the health effects of different types of light.
My regular contribution there is now called “The Intuitive Investigator.”
Getting the Right Light? http://www.reconnectionmagazine.ca/summer06/11.php The idea that light affects human health is accepted to some extent and seems like common sense. Special full spectrum lighting is used for things like indoor gardening and creating habitats for pet lizards (who will not survive otherwise.) Why would humans be any different?
I’m currently reading John Ott’s 1973 book Health and Light as part of a research project on the subject of how light affects human health. Light is as important to life as food & water!
I personally believe that too much exposure to fluorescent and other artificial lights are a factor in many human ailments, including cancer. Unfortunately, this idea is still considered strange (even after over 30 years of research) and few scientists are willing to put their energy and effort behind controversial ideas that might affect their funding or academic reputation. Also, no pharmaceutical company would profit from light therapy like they do from drug therapy.
Here’s a passage from the chapter “Routine Opposition to New Ideas as Standard Procedure” (a clever title indeed):
Some recalled that scientists like Pasteur, Fleming, and Goddard would never have qualified for research funds during the early development of their great discoveries: something must be wrong with our present scientific approach to anything that is new or different from existing conjectures dealing with unsolved problems — problems like cancer. A reexamination of present policies might be in order, in connection with the much publicized appeals for vast sums of money for cancer research in order that “not a single possibility be neglected.”
make food choices around wanting to be healthy instead of because your butt is too wide, etc.
reject diet trends and newspaper advice on what to eat
each of us has different nutritonal needs there is no one “healthy diet” that will work for everyone figure out what natural foods make your unique body feel good
sit down, relax, chew slowly, and enjoy each bite with your full attention when you eat
stop thinking of your favourite “bad” foods as “junk food” and instead think of them as “treats” enjoy each bite do not feel guilty after (relax, Heaven says no dessert is actually “sinful”)
and most importantly stop thinking about what’s wrong with your body start loving it with an attitude of gratitude and watch it respond
Does Mind Over Body Healing Work?” http://www.mindpowernews.com/MindHealing.htm Diseases are burdens on biology. Human intellect and human body organs are integral parts of the human condition. To separate them, as Socrates lamented, is to negate the completeness of the human condition.
Our technology has rendered irrelevant the debate on the psychosomatic and somatopsychic nature of diseases. Advances in behavioural biology and experimental psychology have put these two disciplines on a collision course; a complete merger between the two is simply a matter of time.
My roommate introduced me to an ancient exercise regime that Tibetan monks do! It’s a set of 5 simple exercises that warms up all the major muscle groups and helps maintain physical health.
It only takes about 15 minutes to do and even though I just integrated it into my life recently, it is already making a difference in my mood and energy balance.
The page below has instructions. It is important to synchronize the breathing with the movements.
The Five Tibetan http://members.ozemail.com.au/~clauspat/spin.htm#02 This Exercise combines spinning with four Yoga movements. This combination revitalises and rebalances the body and also cleanses the Aura.
The spinning subjects the whole body to a centrifugal force while the four other exercises realign the four alchemic elements ( F. W. A. E.) along the spinal column.
These exercises are fantastic for your vitality and spiritual growth, and reduce the effects of aging. (It keeps your posture upright and balanced.)
So, the whole “I am in perfect health” affirmation really wasn’t working. I do understand the importance of focusing on the positive in these things but the pain & mental chaos was just too distracting.
However, the new one is very promising.
“The mind-body unit is going through a transformational process that is progressing perfectly.”
Ibogaine is a very effective treatment available for strong addictions (like heroin) that comes from a plant traditionally used for a rite of passage ceremony in a Africa.
Ibogaine is not something that one would choose to do for fun. Most who undergo this treatment are psychologically brought to the roots of their illness (thus allowing them to heal) but never want to experience Ibogaine again. This is not a recreational drug.
This treatment is illegal in the United States, where all drugs are considered “bad” which I think is ridiculous, especially for substances that come from a PLANT. It’s like saying God doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Fortunately, this treatment is being offered in Canada. Visit the link below for more information, especially if someone you know could benefit.
Iboga Therapy House http://www.ibogatherapyhouse.net The Iboga Therapy House offers a unique detoxification program using a naturally occurring psychoactive plant alkaloid called Ibogaine.
Ibogaine is the principal alkaloid found in the shrub Tabernanthe Iboga which grows in West Africa and has been used traditionally as an initiation tool for rites of passage by the Bwiti culture.
Research and anecdotal reports suggest it is effective in initiating a deep and cathartic experience that may facilitate insight into one’s self while also significantly reducing or removing difficult and painful withdrawal symptoms from chemical dependence to substances such as Heroin, Methadone and other Opiates, Crack, Cocaine, Methamphetamine and Alcohol.
The Iboga Therapy House provides Ibogaine-assisted therapy and detoxification treatment to those with an honest desire and deep commitment to changing substance use patterns in a therapeutic setting. We provide a supportive environment for the exploration of deeper issues surrounding one’s addiction through processes facilitated by an Ibogaine experience.
The medical establishment often puts far too much focus on “curing” the symptoms of illness rather than investigating the root causes of disease.
Often, a lifestyle change is far more effective than a pill regimen, though it’s certainly not as easy or convenient.
Rather than think of illness as an inevitable disaster or unavoidable misfortune, we think of it as a powerful and useful message. – Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization
This is one of the best articles I’ve read on women’s body issues in a long time…
The Weighting Game http://www.judithstable.org/weightinggame_glaser.html We have known for years that we live in a patriarchal society that inspires women to organize themselves around being attractive and accommodating to men. Despite our “knowledge” that the societal standard of beauty creates pressure to conform and pain when we cannot, many of us still accept society’s definitions of beauty and dutifully try to adhere. I’m not talking about a healthy motivation to look and feel good. I am talking about the ways we objectify ourselves, such as literally measuring our value in a waist or bra size, or letting a slightly higher-than-desired number on a scale ruin our day. So, I ask, how long do we wait to lose that extra bit of weight (that will finally make us feel good . . . right?) before we give up the game? Why, when we have made so many advances, are so many of us still, to varying degrees, enslaved to ‘the cultural eye’?
Alternate nostril breathing is a great tool for balancing our physical and emotional energies.
This is an ancient yoga technique that has science to back it up.
Try it when you’re stressed at work! However, you may want to hide in the bathroom, as this can look strange to the uninitiated!
Alternate Nostril Breathing http://www.holistic-online.com/Yoga/hol_yoga_breathing-ex-nadisodh.htm 1. Close the right nostril with your right thumb and inhale through the left nostril. Do this to the count of four seconds. 2. Immediately close the left nostril with your right ring finger and little finger, and at the same time remove your thumb from the right nostril, and exhale through this nostril. Do this to the count of eight seconds. This completes a half round. 3.Inhale through the right nostril to the count of four seconds. Close the right nostril with your right thumb and exhale through the left nostril to the count of eight seconds. This completes one full round.
