Guiding Light
Philippo Franchini – The Musical Alchemist
Philippo Franchini The Musical Alchemist
Blog: Between the Notes
http://tinyurl.com/philippoblog3
Inner Listening
Introspection, contemplation, meditation—these are all terms for a practice that leads our attention toward a heightened awareness. Inner Listening is the foundation for developing this awareness. The different impulses, traits and conversations we all have within us have their own vibrations and sounds…and this cacophony is often the first thing we notice when we turn our attention inward!
How do we harmonize all this inner jumble???
Consider that all emotions and thoughts we have every day, every moment, ultimately arise from Silence. Many people have had special experiences where time seemed to stand still and all was peaceful. The Nada yogis say we can learn to dive into this stillness by listening to ever more subtle sounds. We can do this by beginning with soothing outer music and gradually turn our focus to the inner symphony of our own body.
Once we go beyond our own body’s nervous system, we can venture beyond thought, to merge in the Anahata Brahma or “unstruck sound.” Anahata Brahma means is the Cosmic Word -the Om or Amen.
In this video I introduce some of the Rasas (flavors) of different kinds of music. The Rasas represent different frequency levels, and introduce a sound meditation that can be practiced to develop more inner sensitivity.
Breathe slowly and deeply as you do this and harmonize with the Cosmos (aka your Sonic Self!)
Blessings,
Philippo Franchini
The Musical Alchemist
Valentine’s Day Resolution: Install Love 2.0
VALENTINE’S DAY RESOLUTION: INSTALL LOVE 2.0
By Marsha Lucas, PhD
Author of Rewire Your Brain for Love
“Oh, man, I hate Valentine’s Day!” I hear this a lot in my office as February 14th approaches. Since I focus on helping people create healthier relationships, you can probably guess why. Valentine’s Day is the bane of anyone who’s single but doesn’t want to be. It flings daggers of loneliness rather than the gentle arrows of Cupid. And if you’re in a relationship, Valentine’s Day can feel a little like an episode of “Survivor” – are you (or your relationship) surviving? Thriving? Or getting voted off the island?
Instead of dreading another February 14th, consider turning it into your day to make a healthy relationship resolution. You could call it a new year of the heart, the first day of the rest of your love life.
Waitwaitwait! Before you start making your long list of habits that you could resolve to change, you need to remember that cultivating new or better relationships isn’t about admonishing yourself to stop yelling, or putting little sticky notes on the mirror about how wonderful you are. You’ve probably (repeatedly) tried scores of ideas like those, and your relationships still don’t cut it – the same old problems keep resurfacing.
Here’s the thing: The way your brain is wired is mostly what helps – or hurts – when it comes to satisfying, healthy relationships. You need a wired-in “Operating System” that supports better relationships from the ground up — the kind of OS that supports “apps” for keeping your anxiety or anger from hijacking disagreements, or increasing your resilience when it comes to your emotional reactions. I’m sharing here my list of the most important apps for better love – the skills that seem to be the most powerful in creating and sustaining a healthy, vibrant relationship. Best of all, these are acquirable apps, skills you can develop and grow within yourself, within your brain, starting with the most basic and getting progressively more sophisticated:
Better management of your body’s reactions
Regulation of your response to fear and stress
Increased emotional resilience
More flexible responses to relationship challenges
Improved insight (self-knowing)
Healthy, balanced empathy and attunement—within yourself and with others
A perspective shift from “me” to “we”
Installing and running these love apps isn’t about resolving to be, say, more empathic, or to practice stress management. Trying to install these apps won’t really work if you haven’t dealt with your underlying “relationship OS.” All of us who’ve struggled with self-improvement or self-acceptance—or any other method for trying to make healthier relationships with ourselves and others possible—often fall into the trap of trying to get our cortex, the intellectual, insightful part of our brain perched way up top, to make changes in the way the deep, lower parts of our brains drive our relationships. But if you have a faulty OS trying to get those two areas to work together as a team – it’s a bit like trying to get an iPhone app to work by typing in DOS commands. It’s just not gonna go well.
Sorry to say that there’s a bit more bad news: most of your brain’s relationship OS was developed unbelievably early in your brain’s history—before you were about two years old. Your first experiences with relationships—those you had with your parents—have a huge influence on how you deal with relationships throughout your life. The your-parents-to-you relationship covertly operates in important, behind-the-scenes ways in your later you-to-your-partner romantic relationships.
And the style of attachment you develop in childhood (secure or insecure, anxious or avoidant) is most often a lifetime deal. It informs and influences how you interact with others, how you see yourself in relationships, and, as much as you might not like to believe this, it deeply influences the kinds of partners we attract and are attracted to, leaving us to play out the same relationship patterns over and over again. The lessons of our primary childhood relationships run so deep and so strong—and often waaaaay outside our conscious awareness—that we all find it extraordinarily challenging to overcome them. It’s a buggy operating system. Unfortunately, you can’t just order a replacement OS on Amazon.
But — you can rewire your brain for better relationships, starting now, with your Valentine’s Day resolution. You can rebuild your OS for love.
How? Recent studies by leading neuroscientists and biobehaviorists—researchers from Harvard, UCLA, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Cambridge, to name a few—have shown that the practice of mindfulness meditation promotes changes in the brain in areas and ways that can promote healthier relationships with yourself and others.
And it doesn’t take years of practice—many beneficial effects are seen in the earliest stages of practice, in as little as a few weeks of practicing 20 minutes a day.
Can’t do 20 minutes? That’s perfectly okay; start with two.
Now, if you’re not finding the love of your life, or if you’re in a crummy relationship, you don’t usually say to yourself, “Hey, I know – I need to start meditating!” But let me share this perspective with you: I’ve been practicing psychotherapy for over 20 years. I’ve always felt deeply honored to help people as they dig in and do the often difficult work of creating better lives for themselves. And since I began using mindfulness meditation with my patients, I’ve been privileged to witness some of the most amazing shifts and improvements. It has been the single most remarkable and elegantly simple way to update your OS that I’ve ever seen, and the neuroscience evidence backs that up.
By practicing mindfulness meditation, you can rewire your brain’s relationship operating system, get the amazing love apps—and make this Valentine’s Day the beginning of Love 2.0.
Marsha Lucas is a clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist in Washington DC, and author of Rewire Your Brain for Love: Creating Vibrant Relationships Using the Science of Mindfulness (Hay House, February 2012). www.RewireYourBrainForLove.com
Smart Meters: Dumb Idea?
Smart Meters: Dumb Idea?
By Cindy J. Cole
There is no question that advancements in technology have impacted almost everyone on the planet in one way or another. In the United States, our lives have changed dramatically over the last fifty years or so with the development of cordless phones, computers, the Internet, microwave ovens, cell phones, and wireless networks. For many, these developments have made lives easier and allowed folks to keep in touch with family and friends around the world or even run a business from any location. However, many are also starting to ask whether all this progress comes with a steep, even lethal, price tag. The recent death of Apple mogul, Steven Jobs, has been related by some to continuous long-term exposure to high Electro-Magnetic Fields, a by-product of his life’s work – he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer that only shows up those who have undergone extensive imaging for another illness.
Often we know that there are risks involved as we willingly incorporate technology into our lives. In some cases, we choose to accept the risks or try to find ways to mitigate them. In others, we deny that the risks exist and just move on with our lives. But when do the risks begin to outweigh the benefits? At what point do we need to take a stand and say enough is enough? When do we begin to look at the good of the many and not just the few? Many people are drawing that line in the sand when it comes to the installation of smart meters.
Smart meter installation has begun across the country and in other parts of the world including Europe and Australia. Smart meters are an integral part of creating a worldwide “smart grid” for delivery of utility services. In the US, the federal government has provided over $4.5 billion for the development and implementation of smart grid technologies. Advocates of this extensive plan see it as an energy-saving way to control the flow of power nationwide. Opponents see it as expensive, invasive, unsafe, and unhealthy.
So, what is a smart meter? According to the Arizona Public Service (APS) website a smart meter “is a meter that provides two-way communication of information on energy use between your home and APS. Smart meters can be read and programmed remotely without sending a service person to your home.” Sounds simple, right? But what APS fails to mention is that smart meters transmit the information they collect via wireless signals – utilizing Radio Frequencies (RF) that produce EMFs. In addition, in order for smart meters to send their data back to APS, date hubs (equipment for collecting data from multiple meters and relaying it back) may need to be placed throughout neighborhoods adding to greater frequency emissions and EMFs.
Health Concerns
The safety of RF exposure is something that is hotly debated amongst scientists, wireless equipment manufacturers, and utility companies. The World Health Organization has yet to provide extensive research regarding EMFs, which the utility companies have used as a determination of its safety. An APS pro-smart meter brochure states: “The World Health Organization has concluded that no known adverse health effects can be attributed to low-level radio frequency.” However, on the WHO website, the line following this statement is that “there are gaps in knowledge still needing to be filled before better health risk assessments can be made.” And in May 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a WHO specialty agency, declared RFs to be a “possible human carcinogen.”
Dr. David Carpenter, a Harvard-trained physician who was the head of the New York State Department of Public Health for 18 years says that “we have evidence…that exposure to radio frequency radiation…increases the risk of cancer, increases damage to the nervous system, causes electro-sensitivity, has adverse reproductive effects and a variety of other effects on different organ systems. There is no justification for the statement that smart meters have no adverse health effects.” And just how much RF radiation is put out by smart meters is another point of contention.
APS and other utility companies that have begun implementing smart meters often claim that the RF emissions are no worse than what a person experiences with a cell phone held against the head. In some cases, this may be true but we always have the option of turning off our cell phone or using it with a wired headset that has been shown to reduce radiation exposure. Once a smart meter is installed on your home, there is no way to turn it off or move it. Some have equated this exposure to be more like living right next to a cell phone tower.
The RFs are measured from smart meters using a “time averaged” method. This approach looks at the RF emissions over 30-minute time spans. What independent research is showing, however, is that this method is serving to hide the extremely high spikes in RFs emitted when the meter pulses to communicate with the mesh network or send data. By averaging out the high spikes with the lower emissions during non-transmission times, the overall level of emissions appears lower. But the spikes can be so high that they are off the scale of even the most sophisticated measuring devices. And the pulses tend to come in unpredictable and erratic patterns.
Utility companies have tried to tell consumers that their smart meters pulse infrequently but this is also proving to be untrue. APS claims that their wireless meters send out signals for no more than a few minutes in a 24-hour period. However, independent researchers who have measured functioning smart meters have found them to be pulsing at rates as high as 2 to 20 times per second. There is even research that indicates that this pulsed form of RF radiation is actually more dangerous to people than a constant stream, like that found with cell phones and Wi-Fi. This research was related to sickness amongst radar operators and was conducted in the 1930′s.
If science and research isn’t enough to prove the RF emissions from smart meters are dangerous, there are countless first-hand stories in complaints filed with utility commissions across the country, where otherwise healthy people who have suffered from the physical impacts of radiation from smart meters. Many report these effects occurring within hours of smart meter installation. The health issues reported include headaches, nausea, heart problems, insomnia, ringing in the ears, stress, anxiety, and irritability.
Another factor in the health concerns raised by smart meters is the creation of what has become known as “dirty electricity”. This phenomenon could explain why some people begin to experience health symptoms even before their smart meter starts broadcasting. The smart meter can cause voltage shifts in the power lines going into your home which in turn cause high frequency electricity to emit RFs through your appliances and other electrical devices. This creates high-level EMFs in your home that can cause the illnesses listed above. Again, this is a hotly debated issue as there are some who do not believe that this phenomenon even exists and others who have reported the onset of health issues immediately following the installation of a smart meter.
Security Concerns
Health issues are not the only reason why smart meters may not be such a smart idea. There are also extensive concerns about the security of the meters and the wireless system that is designed to carry usage data to the utility companies. The very features that the power companies say will allow them to deliver your electricity more efficiently are what make the system extremely vulnerable to hackers creating a variety of security concerns.
Microsoft itself, on a Windows help forum on their website, declares “there is no way to guarantee complete security on a wireless network.” And, unlike Wi-Fi and Bluetooth security systems, in the protocol used for wireless transmission in smart meters, called Zigbee, the encryption keys are transmitted as plain text. This is equivalent to using the word “password” to secure a sophisticated computer network.
An article in the September/October 2009 issue of Technology Review, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, included several different methods by which the security of a smart meter could be compromised. From tapping into a meter’s memory chip using syringes to listening in on the wireless transmissions, the article demonstrated that there could be extreme risks to data security using the current generation of smart meters. And, once the smart grid system is in place, the data from your meter could also be present in multitudes of additional meters in your neighborhood. The smart grid is designed so that meters share information from surrounding meters so that all data will eventually be transmitted to the collecting agency. If one meter fails to transmit, data is duplicated on other meters so it will not be lost.
At the personal level, concerns about what information is transmitted over the smart grid are high. If the security of the system is vulnerable, then any personal information that is a part of your utility account could be up for grabs. A hacker could also falsify data regarding your rates and usage – hopefully to your benefit! Not to mention being able to tell whether or not anyone is home based on the amount of electricity use the meter is reporting or the ability to disable a home security system.
On a bigger scale, hackers could potentially break into the grid through any individual smart meter and gain control over the entire system. One of the perks of smart meters touted by companies like APS is that they will be able to shut off a consumer’s electricity without having to make a site visit. So the system contains remote shut off mechanisms that could also be vulnerable to attack allowing a hacker to shut down the power grid any place that a smart meter is present. If the utility companies have their way, smart meters will be everywhere – including hospitals, schools, and banks. Because of the mesh nature of the smart grid, it has also been shown that a virus introduced into a single meter would spread like a wildfire.
Safety Concerns
Another by-product of smart meter installation has been an increase in electrical fires in buildings that have them. In California, where Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has installed more than 8 million smart meters, a fire in East Palo Alto involved 80 burning smart meters. In San Bruno, a fire caused by exploding smart meters killed 8 people and destroyed the homes in an entire neighborhood. Multiple reports of smart meters smoking, smoldering, burning, and exploding have been filed.
PG&E has, more often than not, blamed faulty wiring for these electrical fires. However, it may not be that simple. The problem may once again be related to the high RF spikes emitted by the smart meters. These spikes are not intended to travel down the electrical lines in a building connected to a smart meter. However, various factors can cause the high frequencies produced to do just that. Improper installation of the meters by inadequately trained technicians has been suggested. Arcing of power in the lines and shorts can also occur. Cindy Sage, of Sage Associates, an independent environmental consulting firm, stated in a July 2010 report that “wireless smart meters don’t intentionally use the electrical system to send their RF signal back to the utility to report energy usage. But, when the wireless signal is produced in the meter…it boomerangs around on all the conductive components and can be coupled onto the wiring, water and gas lines, etc. where it can be carried to other parts of the residence or building.”
Current wiring standards are not sufficient to support the high frequency spikes that emit from smart meters. In addition, smart meters have not been tested and approved under federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules, nor are they certified by Underwriters Laboratories, the independent, non-profit product safety testing and certification organization that certifies most of the rest of the electrical equipment consumed in the US. This means that, in general, homeowners insurance will not pick up the tab for damages caused by a smart meter.
In addition to fires, there are also a plethora of reports from people whose home appliances have been damaged or destroyed following the installation of a smart meter. The electrical equipment we have in our homes is also incapable of handling the large RF spikes that may be delivered through the wiring by the smart meter.
The Final Blow
On top of all the health, security, and safety issues that have been raised, the final blow often comes along with the first bill the consumer receives after installation of a smart meter. In spite of promises that the new meters will save energy and money, most utility customers report an immediate increase in their monthly bill – sometimes more than two or three times the amount they were billed for under their analog meter. There are several reasons why this may occur, though companies like PG&E and APS have failed to offer their own justifications for this broken promise.
One explanation is that companies are varying rates more for peak and off-peak use of power. So, for consumers who are on a time-rated plan, the real-time monitoring capabilities of smart meters may mean they are paying more now for the fact that their refrigerator runs all day long. Another explanation speculated is that consumers are being charged for electricity delivered to the meter on the power company’s side of the lines but not used yet on the homeowner’s side – a way of charging for potential use rather than actual use.
Whatever explanation is applied, thousands of complaints have been filed with corporation commissions that govern utility companies in the states where smart meters have been implemented. And consumers have filed lawsuits against PG&E in California and against public utilities in Maine and Texas. Will suits against APS be far behind?
Mandated, Really?
There is no federal mandate for the implementation of smart meters. In Arizona, there is also no official option to not have one. APS had initially told those that protested the installation of a smart meter on their property that they would be put on a “temporary” opt-out list and that further installations would be delayed until 2013. However, more recent contacts with the utility provider have been less gracious. One consumer received a letter from APS that stated: “Our Company is in the process of installing smart meters throughout the state and we expect to complete the project by the end of 2014. I regret to inform you that we do not offer the option of opting-out.” In Maine, people had to fight for it but they were eventually given the option to refuse smart meters. Californians are still fighting for it. However, the alternative proposed by the utility companies is often an exorbitant fee for those who choose not to have a smart meter.
Research has shown that there are other, safer technologies that can be implemented to make our power delivery systems more efficient. In fact, there is significant evidence that wireless technologies place an even greater strain on the environment than wired ones. And what about all the people whose job it is to go out and read your meter? Is this really the time to be forcing people out of their jobs so we can rush into an expensive technology that may have a great deal of risk involved in its implementation?
Maybe these so-called “smart” meters are really a dumb idea after all.
Between the Notes – Resonance
RESONANCE
Welcome to Blog No. 2 of Between the Notes.
Now that we all know we are vibrational beings, let’s explore one of the main qualities associated with vibration: RESONANCE.
When we talk about resonance we are talking about the way waves or vibrations affect each other and the way they interact. We use this concept in our common speech to describe feelings of alignment, sympathy, attunement, or common ideas (i.e., “That idea resonates with me.”) Or it can be used conversely to describe a lack of harmony or disagreement. When we hear music we love we might say, “It strikes a chord in me.” The same can be said about a particularly eloquent speaker or an evocative poem. In each case an intrinsic frequency within us is being moved; stimulated by a similar frequency coming into our field of senses; and connected to our emotions. People that make musical instruments also use the principle of resonance when crafting a fine sounding guitar, violin, or piano.
As I demonstrate in this video, a string held in the fingers and plucked won’t make a great sounding tone. But, if you stretch that same string over a wooden box, the wood will resonate with the vibrations created when you pluck it. Viola’! You’ve created a primitive instrument, complete with amplification!
We have the ability to receive all kinds of vibrations and influences, some of which will enhance our well-being while others will weaken or even damage us. We’ve all had the experience of being around a particularly negative person and feeling exhausted or negative as a result of the experience. This is because we begin to resonate with them, either out of sympathy, a desire to connect, or plain old unconsciousness. And at the same time, there are people in our lives we love to be around because their energy produces an uplifting or inspiring effect on us.
By being sensitive to our feelings and paying attention to our intuition we can attune ourselves and resonate with situations, people, and places that amplify our inherent spiritual integrity. For example, being in natural environments is particularly restorative to our balance and peace.
The fundamental note is, choose your music, work, and friends wisely because in time we become that which we resonate with!
On that note, I’d love to hear about what you resonate with. In the comment section post the kind of music, poetry, spiritual teachers, food, colors, etc. that amplify your vibration.
Enjoy the new webisode. I hope it strikes a chord!
Philippo Franchini
The Musical Alchemist
Philippo Franchini – The Musical Alchemist
Philippo Franchini
The Musical Alchemist
Blog: Between the Notes
http://philippomusic.ning.com/
I believe that every major shift in social consciousness has been accompanied by a change in music — and this is happening again now! Music from all parts of the world has been blending together powerfully for over two decades. On any radio dial or online music source, one can hear African, South American, Asian, Arabic, Native American music, and more. Our current pop music is being infused with many elements borrowed from a variety of other cultures. And now that social media has exploded all over the globe, our choices — along with our newfound connection to each other — will allow for a more profound global impact.
One of the new currents of music sweeping the globe is a yogic, meditative blend called “Kirtan.” Kirtan, originally from India, utilizes Sanskrit mantras and chants to heighten awareness and open the mind to meditative states, just as shamanic rituals from many ancient cultures do. And with these kind of creative rebirths, I see music reclaiming its original place not only as entertainment, but as a transformative and healing force that can help to balance us, nourish our spirits and communities, and serve as a unique doorway into sublime realms!
We are all vibrational beings, and we live in a vibrational Universe (or Uni-verse, if you will). We are all literally “composed” of multidimensional vibratory patterns, meaning our breathing, circulation, brainwaves and internal organs all have rhythms, pulses, and tones! Our thoughts and emotions can also be understood as frequencies. And the more self-aware we become, the more we have the ability to regulate and tune our individual frequencies to enjoy the kinds of experiences we choose — and we can do this by using sonic self-attunement and choosing music that nurtures and supports our most-essential vibrational make up. I like to call this process “Musical Alchemy.”
Please join me, Philippo, the Musical Alchemist, once a month, for the lighter side of enlightenment as we romp around the mystical space I’ve come to call “Between the Notes.” I am a composer, musician, and yogi, which means I study, investigate, and apply the natural laws of vibration to integrate and transform discordant, heavy vibrations into more harmonious and joyful ones.
I will be introducing you to some of the amazing properties of sound and cosmic vibration, including the ancient wisdom of Nada Yoga, as well as some intriguing, recent scientific research. Did you know that we can actually use music and sound every day to change our moods, give us energy, calm us down, or tune out things we don’t like? In this blog and the accompanying videos, I’ll explain how to do this more creatively and with a better understanding of the natural laws involved.
This will be our own mystical journey, so please tune in every month here on The Edge for “Between the Notes.”
Copyright © 2011 Philippo Franchini. All Rights Reserved.
Saving Rainwater for a Sunny Day: An Interview with Chris Anderson
Saving Rainwater for a Sunny Day:
An Interview with Chris Anderson
by Wayne H. Purdin
As Arizona continues to suffer from 16 years of the worst drought in its history, it is comforting to know that Arizona is home to some of the world’s foremost authorities and activists on rainwater harvesting and desert permaculture. Chris Anderson of Sedona is one of them. Chris attended the International Permaculture Convergence in Jordan from September 17-23, 2011, which brought permaculture designers from about 30 countries to one of the driest climates on the planet to study ancient and modern water-harvesting sites and regenerative, multi-functional permaculture water-harvesting projects. I recently asked Chris what he learned at the convergence and how it can be applicable to Arizona.
Q: Is Jordan facing some of the same problems that Arizona faces in terms of desertification, urbanization, and agricultural and industrial pollution? How are they dealing with them?
A: Both Jordan and Israel are facing many of the same problems as Arizona. Like Arizona decision-makers, Jordanian and Israeli decision-makers are dealing with these issues primarily with high-tech approaches, such as desalination, that are one-dimensional. I’m a low-tech guy. At least three of the four problems you mentioned can be solved locally just by slowing down stormwater in the landscape and encouraging it to soak into the ground with earthworks, thereby dramatically reducing the need for freshwater supplies.
While in Jordan and Israel for 7 weeks, I had opportunities to see ancient vast water-harvesting features and farms designed to maximize the benefits of rain. Living on this planet is not rocket science, but we’ve been barking up the wrong tree, looking to Western innovation to save us, when all along, simple and effective answers to modern problems were practiced by ancient people. There’s a myth in the developing world that anything Western is good.
Q: Of all the presentations at the convergence, which ones did you feel offered the most practical solutions for dealing with Arizona’s drought?
A: The drought is a minor issue. Human mismanagement of land and water are the primary issues we face. Tucson native, Brad Lancaster, author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, always brings a fresh, lively perspective to the water issues we face in Arizona. He presented twice at the convergence, once on turning our current “dehydration infrastructure” into “rehydration infrastructure” and again on growing native, food-bearing trees along waterways in the urban core. I highly recommend Brad’s book and his website, www.harvestingrainwater.com.
Owen Hablutzel presented on the work of Southwesterners Bill Zeedyk, Craig Sponholtz, and others regarding induced meandering and management of creeks and rivers, in other words, how to restore compromised waterways by “letting water do the work” with minimal inputs. This is inspiring work for the washes, creeks, and rivers of Arizona, and I look forward to learning more about it through their workshops.
Q: What are your thoughts on using sunlight and UV irradiation for purifying and charging water?
A: When people use rain for drinking water – which is rare in the Southwest – the industry standard is using a three-stage filter, which includes sediment filtration and UV treatment. Rainwater should be protected from sunlight because of algae growth. If stored and prefiltered correctly it is safe to use on plants.
Q: Are you familiar with Masura Emoto and his work with water? How can techniques be integrated with water harvesting in terms of erasing the memory of pollution in water molecules?
A: Erasing the memory of pollution is treating a symptom rather than the actual problem. Determining and neutralizing the source of pollution is the key. Pollution is simply a waste material. In nature there is no waste. In the best Permaculture projects, inputs and outputs are balanced; within a system, outputs from one subsystem, such as greywater, are inputs for another subsystem, such as a small orchard.
Q: What are the goals of the Arid Lands Context and Greening the Desert projects? How can people help?
A: The aim of the Arid Lands Context project is to convince municipal officials and other decision makers to begin to think differently about water and water management. The stormwater management systems in Southwestern communities have been modeled after systems in the Eastern U.S. and Europe, where precipitation is 2.5-8 times higher. Generally the systems act as drains, increasing surface runoff, which leads to massive erosion and pollution in waterways.
Meanwhile, Western communities pump drinking water from deep wells and the local water tables keep dropping. Also, waste-water treatment plants produce salty and pharmaceutical-laden water. The Arid Lands Context project’s mission is to educate, encourage, demonstrate, and celebrate our living water cycle and our human role in fulfilling its ability to function naturally. Ultimately, the vision is that Western municipalities and agencies will implement water management systems that are in harmony with nature and regenerate local resources rather than degenerate them.
The Greening the Desert project is a subproject of the Arid Lands Context project, modeled after a Permaculture project in Jordan designed by Geoff Lawton and others to harvest rain in earthworks, thereby using rain to “re-green the Middle East.” The Arizona Greening the Desert project will slow, spread, and sink rainwater through a system of earthworks. The demonstration project will be a model of how to enhance nature’s own regenerative processes in compromised settings.
The Arid Lands Context and Greening the Desert projects are in their infancy and are in need of financial and administrative support. I am currently seeking land for the Greening the Desert project – the ideal site would be 10 acres of average land.
Chris will be giving a presentation about “Saving Rain for a Sunny Day: Creating Abundance With Permaculture and Rainwater Harvesting” on December 31st from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm at The Hearts Center’s New Years conference in Carefree at the Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center. A conference theme is experiencing Nature as the platform of evolution and higher consciousness. For more information, call 623-302-3227 or 928-710-5833.
Wayne Purdin is a freelance writer and author of five books. He is editor of The Sun Gazette newsletter at http://www.suncenterofphoenix.com. Wayne is keenly interested in this article’s topic, having spent 2 years in the Eastern Environmental Division of the U.S. Geological Survey before going on to graduate study in Hydrogeology at Ohio State University and work as a research assistant with the National Water Well Association (NWWA).
Awakening the Planetary Mind by Barbara Hand Clow
Awakening the Planetary Mind by Barbara Hand Clow
Book Excerpt
Chapter 9
Goddess Alchemy and the Heliopolitan Mysteries
Past-Life Regression under Hypnosis
Past-Life Regression (PLR) is a therapeutic method for recalling our “past lives,” and whether these stories are thought of as “real” does not really matter. PLR helps us access the themes of our lives. In a typical regression session clients are hypnotized, or induced into a light trance, and they are encouraged to go back in time to seek information that might assist them in their current life.
Often, by simply remembering key themes in the past, we can experience psychological breakthroughs that stimulate new growth in our current life. Crippling phobias can be eliminated–such as fear of water or heights–by having the client reexperience a drowning or fall in a past life. Sometimes overweight people achieve their normal weight after experiencing a past life when they starved to death.
Past-Life Regression emerged during the 1960s out of standard hypnotic therapy and psychological counseling, and now it is widely used by therapists to help clients access deep emotional themes. Beyond receiving symptomatic relief, some clients seek spiritual growth and transformation from Past-Life Regression sessions. When spiritual growth is the goal, PLR is greatly facilitated by using the concepts of karma and reincarnation, which teach us that we live many lives to work out emotional blocks. We return again and again, guided by our soul’s desire to learn, express love, and find spiritual meaning.
Gregory Paxson of Chicago was my first PLR therapist. Although PLR is a recent practice in our culture, it is actually an ancient and sacred tradition that was used to train adepts for thousands of years. Most people who do PLR sessions report past experiences in the linear space and time context, which surprises people. This is what makes me think there is a central, time-coded library that contains all our past experiences that anybody can visit at any time.
We seem to be souls who create experiences amid collective events, as if being alive is like being in a movie. Since 1999, when the Eighth Underworld opened, computer technology has made it easy to consider ideas like this. Computer files are organized by linear time based on crystalline clocks that are the essence of this Underworld’s resonance. By traveling through various times and experiencing different phases of time acceleration, I encoded the mental-emotional qualities of the 102,000-year-long Fifth Underworld. Anyone can reawaken these dormant capacities. PLR is tremendously helpful for clearing your emotional body and going beyond duality, because the therapist is trained to help you see all the aspects around a particular dilemma and seek resolution.
Greg Paxson thinks of memory as a “power of refreshment, of new life in harmonic resonance with the ancient earth of the heart.” When we explore this harmonic resonance, we experience ourselves as pure energy, which is what happens when we have a clear, diaphanous emotional body. Realizing that your feelings are the energy field that holds you in physical form is very liberating and expansive.
Paxson once said that our bodies of consciousness–physical, emotional, mental, and soul–are “holograms of different densities that are co-occupying the same physical space, vibrating independently and in harmonic interaction around the reference–the frequency of Self.” For him, an initiation is when higher energies are received into the person, permanently changing the energy frequency and functioning of that personality–that is, accessing nine dimensions simultaneously.
Theologians removed reincarnation from Christian theology 1,600 years ago, and since then the one-lifetime mentality has created a huge glut of unprocessed emotions. Individuals erupt ever more ferociously and irrationally with desperate and violent cries for help because they feel they must get married, have children, succeed at work, and be famous–all during one lifetime. They drug themselves, the frustration builds, and like a dam bearing the weight of the water, the pressure will build until it is breached. These intense inner complexes must be expressed eventually, which is why the initiation process has always been used in healthy cultures.
I’ve lectured to thousands about reincarnation and karma, and so far the biggest objection to the concept is that people say they hate the idea because they never want to be born again! This is why Western culture is ecocidal. Why bother to care for the forests and streams, the animals and insects, and the fertility of the soil if you believe you will not return again to this world? This one-lifetime mentality causes people to destroy the world. Some clients access lifetimes in which they experience terrifying cataclysms. PLR significantly reduces catastrophobia when people get in touch with cataclysmic lifetimes. The use of PLR in the midtwentieth century began clearing the collective mind, I’m sure of it!
For me, memories are like imagistic musical chords, and when we experience them again we enrich our current resonant frequency. Accessing our inner memories is like listening to Beethoven’s late quartets or Bach’s fugues. By feeling past vibratory fields existing deep within our brains, our current nine-dimensional structure tunes up. Like an old violin in the attic that is oiled, restrung, and played again, we become cosmic instruments in tune with the divine plan for ourselves as individuals and for our culture as a whole.
An excerpt from the Preface of Visionary Shamanism
An excerpt from the Preface of Visionary Shamanism
by Linda Star Wolf and Anne Dillon
Foreward by Barbara Hand Clow
“It is time not only to heal the past but also to learn from the future.”
Nut, the sky mother goddess of ancient Egypt, woke me up one morning before sunrise while Jupiter was still very bright in the dark night sky. I felt Nut’s shimmering presence downloading powerful information into my energy field. She arched her beautiful, indigo blue, star-filled body over me as I lay in my bed, caught in between the worlds, only half awake. Nut conveyed her message of sacred purpose to me through electromagnetic waves that filled my mind and heart with many strong images and emotions. Over the past year I’ve repeatedly heard the same inner message: “It is time not only to heal the past but also to learn from the future.”
Many people write, teach and talk about releasing past programming. But the time has indeed arrived for humanity to give equal attention to our future programming. This future programming is held within our archetypal DNA as well as our physical DNA and can be even more compelling than our past programming, once we surrender our ego’s agenda and open to our soul’s true purpose.
Make no mistake about it, the future self is very real, and many alternative realities are available for our imaginations to grab hold of. The imaginal selves, which together form the perfectly realized archetype of who we are really meant to be, exist in conjunction with the past selves but they do not always manifest in our current existence. When we begin to actively feel their pull within us, they are moving into our present life. In other words, our imaginal selves are eager and ready to be born into the world. They need our conscious cooperation to come into being, and as a result of their emergence, we will grow in self-awareness and wisdom.
Without the assistance of our imaginal selves, our development will consist of a long succession of woeful experiences. Suffering is very real on our planet. Genuine pain is all around us: in war-torn countries like Iraq and Afghanistan; in countries where environmental disasters have left millions of people without food or shelter; in situations where disasters resulting from human error have trashed the environment. The world around us is a reflection of our inner state of being.
As we collectively move into the new eon, we need to open to a much bigger vision for our future. This is an evolutionary shift that has been predicted by religious, spiritual, and shamanic traditions for thousands of years. The common prophecy has it that a time would come when we would need to wake up and see that we are all connected and a part of the world’s greatest challenges and opportunities for transformation. As we collectively shape-shift our consciousness away from addiction and into planetary service, we will begin to live and give from the fullness of our sacred purpose, simultaneously healing the world around us as we heal ourselves.
The earth and all its beings are calling out to the heart of humanity to heal its self and open to a larger reality. This is not a time for staying half asleep but for fully awakening and taking creative action in our lives. Staying stuck in the past is about addiction; opening to the future is about embodying the full measure of our energies of love and sacred purpose.
My personal spiritual commitment is to continue to rid myself of the immaturity and selfishness that blocks my soul’s true purpose. My hope, my prayer, and my faith is that we will all awaken from our deep slumber before it is too late. It is time not only to imagine a new Earth, but to create it. We must each find the love in our hearts that will inspire and motivate us to fulfill our unique role in helping to reshape reality. We begin by taking responsibility for changing ourselves and helping to open the portals in order to birth a higher love and wisdom, or, as the great master Jesus said, create Earth as it is in Heaven. It is time for humanity to shape-shift into its future self now!
Linda Star Wolf is the founder of Venus Rising Association for Transformation, Venus Rising University, the Shamanic Breathwork™ Process, the Shamanic Ministers’ Global Network and the author of several books on shamanism. Visionary Shamanism: Activating the Imaginal Cells of the Human Energy Field, published by Inner Traditions / Bear & Company, is now available in stores and on-line. Star Wolf will return to the Sanctuary at Sedona in December to teach Shamanic Egyptian Mystery School. To learn more please visit: www.shamanicbreathwork.org
Are You a Member of the Golden Motorcycle Gang?
Book by Jack Canfield
“Meet Up” with Jack Canfield in Hog Heaven
By Linda M. Potter
Picture Jack Canfield, the charismatic co-author of the Chicken Soup For the Soul book series and “America’s #1 Success Coach,” vroom-vrooming through the cosmos on a solid gold Harley… accompanied by a Gang of spiritual soul mates. Then… picture yourself joining the Gang. It’s hard not to smile, or at least raise an eyebrow.
But it’s more than just a whimsical image. It’s the inspiration for Canfield’s new book, a mostly factual, adventure-filled account of his personal spiritual journey and his subsequent awakening to his life’s purpose.
Partnering with fellow Gang members such as William Gladstone and Barbara Marx Hubbard, Canfield uses the book to set the stage for the ride of a lifetime — the one we’re all invited to participate in, the one that ushers in a new age of global consciousness and Universal Humanity.
Your new book, The Golden Motorcycle Gang, is set to release this month. What inspired you to write this book at this time?
When I was in graduate school at the University of Massachusetts, we had a guest lecturer who led us through a guided visualization to take us back to when we had chosen to become a teacher. Well, I went back to before I was born which kind of shocked me. And [in the visualization] there were a bunch of us, “souls” I guess, on summer vacation, floating through the universe and having a good time driving down the road on Harley Davidsons. (That’s where the book title comes from.) We looked down on earth and there was a war going on. It was 1944, which is the year I was born, and I just had this sense that I had to go down and help.
So I chose to be born and help out, and that’s been my life’s work.
Afterwards I thought, wow, I’m not just a school teacher; I’m a teacher at a higher level and I have a bigger destiny to fulfill. Then I kind of forgot about it until 10–15 years later when I started meeting people that I had this certain vibrational resonance with. I realized they were doing the same work I was doing; they were here with that same purpose. Maybe they’re part of that “Golden Motorcycle Gang” and we’re reconnecting, I thought.
I was having a beer one night with Bill Gladstone, a literary agent (and the co-author of the book) maybe 10 years ago, and I told that story to him. He said, “That should be a book.” And I said, “That’s ridiculous, no one wants to hear that,” but he kept hounding me. Finally I said, “Bill, I just don’t have time.” “What if I were to interview you two hours every day for a week or two,” he says, “and get all the stories. Then I’ll do the first draft and you can clean it up and make sure it’s accurate, fix the writing, or whatever.”
That’s how the book came into being.
The image of spiritual beings belonging to a motorcycle gang makes me grin a little, but also piques my curiosity. Guides, angels, ascended masters and others are more often portrayed as introspective beings wearing long white robes. Why do you think you’re getting visions of a “hog” Heaven?”
(laughing) I’ve never been drawn to a community where we all wear white and bow down to a certain guru. I’ve studied with many and I’ve sat at the feet of many, but there’s always been this sense of independence in me. When 15 guys on Harleys go by wearing their Hell’s Angels jackets, I admire that sense of “we are who we are and we don’t care what you think about it.” Not that these are guys I’d necessarily want to go have a beer with, because I don’t really know how safe I’d feel! But that’s the kind of feeling I had during that visualization. We were just a bunch of men and women flying through space on motorcycles. They’re golden because it’s spiritual.
In the book, you had more than one encounter with other people who had seen that same image of being in a gang of motorcyclists. Why do you think that same metaphor keeps showing up?
It’s hard to know what gets planted in consciousness. There’s a book by Dick Sutphen called, You Were Born Again to Be Together. In that book, he talks about groups of people who travel through time together like a family — it’s the idea that certain souls agree to go through eternity together and have different experiences. I think people in my “tribe” if you will, saw similar images. But I don’t know why.
It seems like there are many people who have had transformative spiritual experiences of one type or another, but are hesitant to talk about it. Have you noticed this?
I see it all the time. When I do my groups, we talk about these things and people come out of the woodwork. I see bank presidents, corporate leaders, military people and policemen who’ve had near death experiences, visitations from angels, intercessions from higher powers and awakenings. But they’re afraid to talk about it because they don’t want to be seen as “woo woo.”
But someone has to go first. A lot of people don’t know this side of me. I think I’m seen as kind of a famous person because of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Now they can see, here’s this normal guy who’s had these experiences. Maybe it will give them the courage to admit they have too.
You founded the Transformational Leadership Council; its members are listed in the book. What is the purpose of this group and how has it influenced change?
It was founded out of my need to have a support group of people doing similar work. There were different associations, but there was no group for people who own transformational training companies. So I threw a three-day event at my house and for three days we had a discussion about whether or not we wanted to create a support group with each other. Well, 32 people were invited; 30 came; 29 people said yes. Now we’re at about 125 members. It’s morphed into also including transformational coaching company owners, transformational authors that we all read, transformational media people, and so on. The purpose is simply to support each other in becoming more conscious and sharing our techniques with each other.
Did you feel like the 30 people in this original group were part of the Golden Motorcycle Gang?
I would say that 80 percent of them were. Yeah, I could feel that vibration.
How do we know if we belong to The Gang?
If you feel you have a calling, a destiny to contribute to the transformation of the world into a more cooperative, loving, positive, socially just, environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling world, you’re probably part of the Golden Motorcycle Gang. I might have been in one “local chapter,” but it’s clear to me that there’s more members than me and the little group I hang out with. I meet people who are locally well known but not on the national scene and I say, yeah, you’re part of the gang. I think it’s become a metaphor for anyone who wants to become a midwife to the evolution that wants to be occurring right now.
What does this evolution look like to you?
What I get is that there’s something bigger than us that’s evolving. We can tune into it through meditation, visualization, and so on. If you tune into it, you can cooperate with it and you do your part.
I think that so many people who are out there doing counseling, coaching, teaching meditation, doing yoga classes, NLP, EFT… are doing this work. Some people are very conscious about it because they’ve tapped into that calling, that awakening. Other people are more unconsciously doing it, but it’s a quickening I see all over the planet.
In the book, Barbara Marx Hubbard presents you with five questions we can all ask ourselves to determine whether or not we’re part of the Golden Motorcycle Gang. Can you share those with us?
Barbara had an experience [during a full-life regression] of going to the Elysian Fields where in Greek mythology the Gods and demigods hung out. There she found Aristotle and Plato and people like that (probably in white robes!) and was asked these five questions:
What do you know of the original plan?
Are you aware there’s some destiny unfolding that you’re a part of? A lot of people will tell you they are.
Do you have any memory of having volunteered to go to Earth at this particular time?
I volunteered to come down here. I think a lot of people did. I read Life Before Life by Jim B. Tucker where he did 2000 questionnaires and a bunch of interviews with people who had, under hypnosis, direct memory of choosing to be born, what gender to be, what race to be, what kind of parents they wanted to have — coming in with a purpose. They’d met with a board of advisors if you will — guides who helped them clarify that purpose so that when they came down, they could fulfill it.
The third question is, if so, do you remember your contract?
Do you remember what you agreed to do? For example, I agreed to help bring about a world that was more peaceful and harmonious and where people were living their highest vision rather than living their lowest vision out of fear.
What do you do best in the world that only you can do?
What we’re all being called to do right now is authentically be ourselves, not Tony Robbins because he made a lot of money the way he did it, or Barbara Marx Hubbard, or some guru. But to really ask, what is it that I do that’s unique to me?
My wife, for example, I call her a day maker — she makes people’s day. She leaves a message on your cell phone and it makes your day. She walks in to the salon to get her hair done and everybody walks out of there happier because she was there. That’s her purpose.
I have this belief that we’re all like cells in a body. Maybe you’re a brain cell and someone else is a pineal gland cell, and someone else is a liver cell, and someone else is a heart cell, and if we each fully be that, then all the body’s functions will work, and we’ll live. If you try to do something different, you end up being a cancer cell.
What are you supposed to do now, and what tools and resources do you need to do it?
We really have to tune in every day and say, what am I to do now? Today? This period of life? This month? This cycle? This season? And then go and find the tools, the resources and the people to be able to do that work. We should all be supporting each other in that.
Can you talk a little about the Birth 2012 event on Dec. 22 that you’re helping to organize: how you plan to participate, how the rest of us can also take part?
There are a lot of events being created and maybe I’ll be on a stage somewhere, but I will definitely be participating. Through the Transformational Leadership Council, we have a combined mailing list of over 12 million people and we’ll be promoting it, encouraging people to really participate in a day of celebration, a day of intention, a day of how do we want to create this next chapter of our life? That day will be an ongoing day of celebrations and concerts and TV shows and such. Conscious evolution means evolution by choice, not chance.
Do you want to learn more about the Golden Motorcycle Gang or Birth 2012? Check out www.GoldenMotorcycleGang.com and www.Birth2012.com.
Linda M. Potter is a popular speaker, a freelance writer and the author of If Only God Would Give Me a Sign! www.lindampotter.com or at lindampotter@comcast.net.
What is Ascension? By Dyan Garris
What is Ascension?
By Dyan Garris
Ascension is a much misunderstood concept. When we think of the meaning of ascension, we may tend to think in terms of the Mayan prophecies regarding 2012. But whatever conclusions we have drawn from those is not necessarily what ascension means.
Let’s talk about the term “ascension” first. Ascension is really about transforming the lower into the higher. That is it. It is nothing to be feared. Everything in the universe changes and shifts. Nothing stays the same. Ascension is a normal, natural process that we’ve been engaging in for all of eternity, perhaps without knowing it. It has nothing to do with our conception of “death,” but has everything to do with life.
Very simply put, if we can take the energy present in the lower chakras and transform that energy into energy that can be integrated and used in concord with the upper chakras, there you have energy for transformation, and thus, ascension.
Ascension is a full integrating of mind, body, emotions, and spirit. It’s a way of living as a whole person instead of just as a physical entity. Often, people forget that they are not separate from their spirit and focus instead on the physical. But the ascension process we are now engaged in requires that we live differently. It requires us to live as “one” within and without. It requires us to re-learn to co-create. It requires that we call all of our scattered energy back to us. It requires that we live as empowered beings who remember our divine right to create and remember our connection to each other, to ourselves, and to Source.
Part of the reason people become so frightened by the ascension concept is that we have come to equate “transformation” with some sort of “death.” And we are biologically designed to avoid death. So, it is natural that we would have some resistance to the concept of ascension on a very base and primal level. But in order to function and survive as a species, ascend we must. Just as an infant grows into childhood and eventually adulthood, so it is with ascension. It is that natural of a process.
If you understand the paradox of the illusion in which we live here on the Earth plane, you can perhaps appreciate the paradox of ascension as well. Things are not always what they seem and there are many illusions present in the physical realms. In fact, no matter how real living here may seem, it is all an illusion. Our basic task in the achievement of ascension is to see through all illusions, return to understanding, and return to being able to live and function in the real reality.
So many people are facing difficult challenges at this time in all areas of the physical realms. This is not to punish us, but to assist us in the ascension process. We cannot stay stuck. The old must be released as we learn to fully embrace who we are. Know that these are simply steps on the ascension staircase. Everything you think you know must now transform.
There is another paradox there, if you choose to see it, because the process of thinking takes place in an upper chakra and thinking should therefore be a “high” process coming from a high place. But certain kinds of thinking can definitely keep us stuck in the lower, more physical realms. It’s akin to someone “out-thinking” themselves. Our thoughts can keep us stuck, particularly if they are all about root chakra issues.
The Mayan Prophecies
Let’s simplify these. This ancient civilization kept a calendar based partly on astrology and partly on astronomy and partly on their ancient wisdom. In their writings, for whatever reason, this calendar came to an end in December, 2012. Many people take this to mean the end of the world will occur at that time, or that we will have an apocalypse, or that this refers to the end times referred to in the Bible. This is speculation.
However, in December, 2012 our sun will move into the very center of our galaxy with the planets around it forming a sort of “new ray.” This does not necessarily mean that our world will end at that time. One thing it does mean is that things that have previously been hidden will come to “light.”
So what we’re working on now is simply shifting our energy fields to be able to accommodate the new energy that will literally be “beaming” to the planet at that time. Will it kill us if we don’t shift? No. However, if we refuse to shift, the discomfort we feel presently as we engage in the process that we are currently in, would be greatly magnified and perhaps unbearable in an energy field kind of way. Think of it this way: Would you be uncomfortable if your mind developed to maturity and adulthood, but you still found yourself physically present in the body of a child?
Transforming Energy
Remember, it’s all about being able to transform the lower into the higher. What does that mean exactly? If you understand which energy resides in which chakras this will all make more sense.
For example, the energy of money resides in the first or root chakra. If you can begin to understand that money is energy instead of real power, you can begin to use that knowledge to transform your entire existence.
The real power of transforming the energy of your thoughts, goals, dreams, and desires, for example, is in the ability to understand energy and then how to make it work for you as a “flow.” As long as you hold on to the belief system (root chakra) that money is power, you keep yourself completely stuck and unable to transform. When you let go of that illusion that was taught to you, you can begin to clear a pathway for the energy of money to flow to you. When you do that, you’ve effectively taken the lower (money and your concept of money) and transformed it into the higher (pure energy).
And if you take any other energy, you can do exactly the same thing. If you know, for example which chakra the power of creation resides in and how to operate it, you can transform your life. And the same holds true for all other energy contained in all of the other chakras.
These are not difficult concepts or tasks. What is lacking is basic knowledge of how energy works and how energy works in terms of ascension. Once we understand this and remove our distortions, ascension becomes very natural. And life – no matter where you are – becomes very easy.
Dyan Garris is visionary mystic, voice recognition psychic, and trance channel medium who reads directly from the Akashic Records. Her specialties are manifestation and chakra balance and teaching people what is missing from the way manifesting was taught. She has created a Spiritual Toolbox™ of products that work together for integrative living. This includes a multiple award nominated CD series with several #1 charting songs. She is also the author and artist of Voice of the Angels – A Healing Journey Spiritual Cards and several other books, including the award winning finalist and bestselling book “Money and Manifesting.” Garris is the owner of The Sedona Psychic Fair and The Phoenix Psychic Fair. Website: www.voiceoftheangels.com
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