Forest Bath Health Benefits The tonic of the wilderness was Henry David Thoreau’s classic prescription for civilization and its discontents, offered in the 1854 essay Walden: Or, Life in the Woods. Now there’s scientific evidence supporting eco-therapy. The Japanese practice of forest bathing is proven to lower heart rate and blood pressure, reduce stress hormone production, boost the immune system, and improve overall feelings of wellbeing. Forest bathing—basically just being in the presence of trees—became part of a national public health program in Japan in 1982 when the forestry ministry coined the phrase shinrin-yoku and promoted topiary as therapy. Nature appreciation—picnicking en masse under the cherry blossoms, for example—is a national pastime in Japan, so forest bathing quickly took. The environment’s wisdom has long been evident to the culture: Japan’s Zen masters asked: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears, does it make a sound? To discover the answer, masters do nothing, and gain illumination. Forest bathing works similarly: Just be with trees. No hiking, no counting steps on a Fitbit. You can sit or meander, but the point is to relax rather than accomplish anything. Forest air doesn’t just feel fresher and better—inhaling phytoncide seems to actually improve immune system function. “Don’t effort,” says Gregg Berman, a registered nurse, wilderness expert, and certified forest bathing guide in California. He’s leading a small group on the Big Trees Trail in Oakland one cool October afternoon, barefoot among the redwoods. Berman tells the group—wearing shoes—that the human nervous system is both of nature and attuned to it. Planes roar overhead as the forest bathers wander slowly, quietly, under the green cathedral of trees. From 2004 to 2012, Japanese officials spent about $4 million dollars studying the physiological and psychological effects of forest bathing, designating 48 therapy trails based on the results. Qing Li, a professor at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, measured the activity of human natural killer (NK) cells in the immune system before and after exposure to the woods. These cells provide rapid responses to viral-infected cells and respond to tumor formation, and are associated with immune system health and cancer prevention. In a 2009 study Li’s subjects showed significant increases in NK cell activity in the week after a forest visit, and positive effects lasted a month following each weekend in the woods. This is due to various essential oils, generally called phytoncide, found in wood, plants, and some fruit and vegetables, which trees emit to protect themselves from germs and insects. Forest air doesn’t just feel fresher and better—inhaling phytoncide seems to actually improve immune system function. Experiments on forest bathing conducted by the Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences in Japan’s Chiba University measured its physiological effects on 280 subjects in their early 20s. The team measured the subjects’ salivary cortisol (which increases with stress), blood pressure, pulse rate, and heart rate variability during a day in the city and compared those to the same biometrics taken during a day with a 30-minute forest visit. “Forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments,” the study concluded. In other words, being in nature made subjects, physiologically, less amped. The parasympathetic nerve system controls the body’s rest-and-digest system while the sympathetic nerve system governs fight-or-flight responses. Subjects were more rested and less inclined to stress after a forest bath. Trees soothe the spirit too. A study on forest bathing’s psychological effects surveyed 498 healthy volunteers, twice in a forest and twice in control environments. The subjects showed significantly reduced hostility and depression scores, coupled with increased liveliness, after exposure to trees. “Accordingly,” the researchers wrote, “forest environments can be viewed as therapeutic landscapes.” Berman advised the forest bathers to pick up a rock, put a problem in and drop it. “You can pick up your troubles again when you leave,” he said with a straight face. City dwellers can benefit from the effects of trees with just a visit to the park. Brief exposure to greenery in urban environments can relieve stress levels, and experts have recommended “doses of nature” as part of treatment of attention disorders in children. What all of this evidence suggests is we don’t seem to need a lot of exposure to gain from nature—but regular contact appears to improve our immune system function and our wellbeing. Julia Plevin, a product designer and urban forest bather, founded San Francisco’s 200-member Forest Bathing Club Meetup in 2014. They gather monthly to escape technology. “It’s an immersive experience,” Plevin explained to Quartz. “So much of our lives are spent interacting with 2D screens. This is such a bummer because there’s a whole 3D world out there! Forest bathing is a break from your phone and computer…from all that noise of social media and email.” Before we crossed the threshold into the woods in Oakland, Berman advised the forest bathers to pick up a rock, put a problem in and drop it. “You can pick up your troubles again when you leave,” he said with a straight face. But after two hours of forest bathing, no one does. Joy Chiu, a leadership and life coach on the forest bath led by Berman, explained that this perspective on problems lasts long after a bath, and that she returns to the peace of the forest when she’s far from here, feeling harried. “It’s grounding and I go back to the calm feeling of being here. It’s not like a time capsule, but something I can continually return to.” eraoflight.com
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Article forwarded by: Jenny Schiltz Have you ever just read something that made you sit back and scream YES! I was sent this story by the author and it spoke to me so much I had to share. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. The link to her blog is at the bottom. The Story of Awakening You’re living an ordinary life in an ordinary world. You have good times and bad times – like everyone else – but you never really question it. That’s just the way life is. Then one day you feel unusually restless, and you decide on a whim to wander far from where you’ve always lived, to see what’s on the edge of your world. And there you find a wall. It’s not a very high wall. In fact, if you jumped really high you could probably see over the top of it. But you can’t jump. It’s like your insides are weighed down with concrete. And you never even noticed it before, but suddenly you feel so heavy. But you are so intrigued by what might be on the other side of the wall! You wander along its length until you find a place where there are a few holes in the stonework. There seems to be sunlight or something like that shining through the holes. You excitedly put your eye to the nearest hole and what you see makes you gasp! You couldn’t even describe the sight if you tried, all you know is that it’s magical and beautiful and it makes you feel amazing. Suddenly you think, “Oh my God, there is so much more to this world than I realized, I can’t believe I never knew!” It starts getting dark so you head back home, but the wall haunts you. The feeling you got when you peeked through to the other side won’t leave you alone. The life you never questioned suddenly seems bleak and flat. You can’t stop thinking that this can’t be the ultimate destination. You lay awake all night coursing with excitement because you suddenly wonder whether the whole purpose of your life is to get over the wall!!! Maybe that’s what you’re here for! And maybe you could bring more people with you, and everyone could experience a whole new way of life in that beautiful magical land that you glimpsed. The next morning you call in sick for your job – because suddenly it doesn’t seem important anymore – and you trek back to the wall. Your excitement mounts the closer you get to it. You find the place again where the holes are and the sight you see and the feelings you feel bring tears to your eyes. You sit down by the wall and you cry and cry and cry. You can’t believe that you never knew there was more. And something about that golden light coming through the holes feels like it’s shifting that heavy concrete inside you. It doesn’t feel so permanent anymore. When you finally stand up you feel just the tiniest bit lighter. As the days and weeks go by, the world you live in starts to feel less real, and the world beyond the wall starts to feel realer than ever. There is no inspiration for you in your old life. It’s like being on a treadmill, you keep running and trying and huffing and puffing but you never get anywhere. You start wondering why life has to be a struggle. Why does everything have to feel heavy and hard all the time? You’ve had a glimpse of another way and it won’t leave you alone. You try telling your friends and family about the wall and the paradise beyond, but they tell you off for straying that far from your land. “What the hell are you doing wandering out there for, you idiot! It’s dangerous, you could have got yourself killed!”. Or else they start looking at you with suspicious sidelong glances like you’ve come down with an unknown illness and they are wondering if it’s contagious. They don’t want to hear that there is more. They just want to keep living their same old lives in their same old world. But that world is not yours anymore. And the more you connect with the new world, the less you fit in. You start feeling horribly excluded and your excitement starts to shrivel. You were all set to lead everyone to the wall and to have a massive party together when you all made it over. But no one wants to go. You feel very sad and alone. Then one morning you wake up and you make a decision. This world is not for you and you are not for this world. It’s time to take your power back and go with this exciting new adventure, even if you have to do it alone. You quit your job and pack up your belongings, buy a tent and a camping stove, and you set off for the wall for the last time. You set up camp where the holes in the wall are, and in the distance, you can still see everyone else going about their days like nothing has changed. You still feel a little bit sad but you feel detached now too. You’re on a new mission, and you know you’re doing the right thing. You peek through the hole in the wall again, and the feeling is even stronger this time! It’s like the land beyond the wall is congratulating you on your detachment from the old world. It’s calling you and celebrating you and suddenly you realize it KNOWS YOU and it LOVES YOU. The feeling is so overwhelming that you start crying again, and once more you sit down and cry your little heart out, for hours and hours. And once more you feel a little bit lighter when you’ve finished. And so begins the chapter of ‘Camping at the Wall’. Every day you peek through to the world beyond and every day the feeling gets stronger. And every day it makes you cry – sometimes you scream and yell and wail and beat your fists on the ground – and every day the concrete inside you lessens its load just a little bit. You feel like everything bad that has ever happened to you is happening again – you revisit feelings from your childhood and teenhood and it’s excruciating… but when the storm passes you feel better. There is pain and then there is relief. And you start to understand the pattern and you throw yourself into it, knowing that you are healing yourself and it is amazing. The more you cry and lighten yourself, the bigger the holes in the wall get! This is such an exciting revelation, and it makes all the emotional agony worthwhile. You can see more of the world on the other side, and it’s so incredibly beautiful. Somehow there it feels like everything is easy and flowing. And absolutely everything is made of love. It’s magical beyond imagination. One day some people from the old world come out your way and start yelling at you, telling you you’ve lost your mind and you need help. They look at your campsite and the isolated way you’re living and they judge you for it. They see you crying and hugging yourself and they try to cart you off to the mental hospital. But although it hurts, you stand strong and say, “No, leave me alone. This is my life and what I’m doing is important – even if you don’t understand.” That same day you hear another voice. But this time it’s coming from the other side of the wall!!!! Maybe there are other people there!!! But when you stop and listen, it doesn’t seem like a human. It’s a voice of pure light, and it’s letting you know that you’re doing so well, and that it loves you. As the day goes by more voices appear, all giving messages of support and love. You feel like you’re getting closer. One day you wake up feeling like you’ve cleared so much concrete from your insides, and you decide to try and jump. It takes you a couple of tries, but eventually, you jump high enough to see over the wall!!! And it takes your breath away once again because there are waterfalls and mountains and rainbows there that you hadn’t seen before. It’s the most glorious sight you’ve ever seen. But as you jump again you make a disturbing discovery. The top of the wall is covered with tangles of barbed wire. You hadn’t been able to see it before, and until then you believed that all you needed to do was get to the top of the wall and you’d be over – but now you realize you face a new challenge. In that moment you feel so defeated, you wonder if you’re ever going to make it. You lay on the ground and bawl your eyes out and feel like dying. It’s no use, you’ll never be strong enough. You’ll get tangled in the barbed wire and never make it over the other side. You almost feel like giving up and going back to your old life. At least there was certainly there. Depressing certainty, but certainty nonetheless. At that moment you hear a shout from further along the wall. “Hey! You over there – are you OK?” It’s another person walking along the edge of the wall towards you – and hey! He’s carrying a backpack and camping gear too! You start crying again with the relief of seeing someone who might understand what you’re going through, and the two of you run towards each other and launch into a huge bear hug, laughing and crying. “I thought I was the only one!” the guy says. “Me too!” you say, and you sit down together and talk and talk and talk about your experiences of the wall. They are remarkably similar, even though the other guy has been in a completely different section than you. You feel totally rejuvenated by this new connection and you know you can do it now. You’re not the only one. As the weeks go by, you see more and more people doing the same work as you – lightening themselves up so they can get over the wall. Sometimes you work together for a little while, but a lot of the time it seems like it’s something you have to do alone. But that’s ok, because you know now that you’re not really alone. You are part of a team, all working for a common cause. And although the locals from the old world still come and shout abuse and judgment at you sometimes, mostly it doesn’t affect you. You feel strong in your new united front. And you’re getting so light, you feel like any day now, you will be ready to climb the wall. The day comes, and you wake up knowing that you’re ready. You know there are more challenges ahead, but you feel strong and able. You know you can face it, no matter what it takes to get through the barbed wire. There will be new methods to learn and new lessons to complete, but the loving voices on the other side of the wall are loud and clear now and they are cheering you on. You know you can do it. It takes you a couple of hours to figure out the best footholds and handholds, and you fall back down a lot. You’re covered in bruises but you are DETERMINED. Today is the day. You know you’re going to get there. Finally as the sun is beginning to set, you make it to the top of the wall. You find a place to sit amidst the tangles of wire, and already you’re covered in cuts and scratches, but you whoop with joy at the victory. And the VIEW! It truly is heaven on Earth. The most glorious landscape is laid out before you, with lakes and beaches, mountains and forests and valleys – all your favorite things. The sunset is dazzling and there are birds and butterflies everywhere. And at the bottom of the wall is your cheer squad! They are like swirling vortexes of light – sometimes taking an almost human form, other times appearing to have wings, but most of the time they are just these bright blazing beautiful beings of LIGHT. And they are having a party in your honor. You can FEEL the pride emanating off them and it makes you feel invincible. “I’M THE KING OF THE WORLD!!!” you yell (because you always wanted to have a Titanic moment and you reckon you earned it). The next day dawns on your new life – the chapter of ‘The Untangling of the Wires’. As the sun rises you can see that the new land gets more magical the further away from the wall it goes. Directly on the other side of the wall it could almost be the old world – the best parts of it – but as you move further forward it becomes something else entirely. The sight is all the inspiration you need and you set about your new task with renewed enthusiasm. You look down at the tangles of barbed wire, and realize that they have truly wrapped themselves around you in the night. You suddenly realize how uncomfortable you are, the wire is wrapped around your throat and body like a boa constrictor and it feels HORRIBLE. After becoming free of your concrete heaviness you felt so good, and now you feel like you’re almost back at the start once again. You feel stuck in a new way – not from heaviness this time but from these wire vines that cut into your skin. You sigh and try to remain positive but everything feels bleak for a moment. Then you bend closer to examine the barbed wire strands. And you realize they have writing on them. Names of people you knew in the old world. Stories of the hard times from your old life. Sentences like “I am not worthy” and “I am ugly” or “I don’t deserve to be happy.” Every single wire strand is covered with these strangling statements and they all sound very familiar. It isn’t until you really examine them that you realize that these are the things you’d been repeating to yourself every day in your old life. The names on the wires are all the people who were mean to you or made you feel like it wasn’t ok for you to be YOU. You realize in that moment that you’d ALWAYS been tangled in these wires, it’s just that you could see them now. And you marvel at how you’d lived your life like that – with insides full of concrete and outsides wrapped in barbed wire. “What a way to live.” you mumble to yourself, shaking your head. “No wonder I felt like I was never getting anywhere.” At that moment you hear a happy shout from the old side of the wall. It’s a fellow Wall Traveller that you’ve met a couple of times, who’s been working at the lightening game for a bit less time than you. “Oh my God – you’re on the top of the wall!” she squeals, her face lit up with excitement. “I wasn’t actually sure it was possible until I saw you up there!” “Yeah it wasn’t actually too hard once I was light enough,” you call down to her, feeling happy and proud. “I know you can do it too!” “I believe it now,” she says with an ecstatic smile. “Wow I can’t wait, I’m going to go and work some more on my heaviness now!” You and the fellow traveler say goodbye, both of you feeling renewed by that brief encounter. And you set your focus once again to the untangling of the wires. The more that you examine them and the stories they tell, the more you realize that none of the words on them are true. Or they are only true in the OLD world and your OLD life, but not in the new one. You suddenly feel a NEW truth beaming at you from the new world, and the more you connect with it the more the wires loosen slightly on your skin. “So that’s the trick,” you say to yourself. “I’ve gotta fully let go of all my old stories and fully connect with the NEW truth.” And so you set about your new work, constantly reminding yourself that you can do it, and being your own cheerleader as well as your squad at the bottom of the wall. And some days are just shit, and you feel more tangled and bloodied than ever, and you just sit there and cry. But it’s ok, because the despair always passes and you start again with renewed hope and determination. Some days you cry again, but out of sadness for yourself. You see how much you handed your power over to other people and were the victim of other people’s manipulation and attempts to bring you down. You cry as you see the way you played small and shrank yourself to make everyone else comfortable. You see the ways you put everyone else before you and sold yourself short. You weep as you see how you swallowed stories about yourself that weren’t true and stopped valuing yourself as a result. You see all the masks that you had to wear and personas that you had to put on just to feel safe in the old world. And all the ways that all these things echoed out into your life and kept you invisibly stuck. It takes a lot longer than you think it’s going to. Because although 90% of you wants nothing more than to be free of these wires that strangle you, 10% of you clings to them too. Because they are all you’ve ever known. And although you can SEE the new world before you, and how glorious it is, it is still unknown and that is scary. So you have to gently pick out the barbs and unwrap the wire stories because if you yank them away you create wounds. It is slow work but so valuable, and day by day you feel more and more free, and more and more YOURSELF. You realize you were never truly yourself until now, and that the world beyond the wall wants nothing more than for you to be who you really are. “What a gift. What glorious freedom that is,” you think to yourself as you peel away another wire. “I really really hope everyone gets to experience this one day.” Time moves on, and you feel a kind of maturity coming over you. When you look back on your life in the old world, you realize it was years ago that you left. You feel like you were so young and naive that day you set out with your new camping gear, and you smile with fondness at the memory. You feel like you’ve lived a thousand lifetimes at the wall, and you feel ancient and wise – while at the same time you feel you are becoming fresher and younger every day. It is a wonderfully contrasting feeling. You start to really savour and enjoy the journey, instead of always trying and trying to get to the other side as fast as possible. You feel so blessed that you’ve been able to have this experience and that you get to share it with your fellow Travellers – who you still see every now and then. The day finally comes when you are sitting on the wall, totally free of the barbed wire that once absolutely strangled you. And your team aren’t cheering this time. They’d like to, but they’re all choked up. There is a reverential hush over the crowd, and it seems like even the birds and animals are silently watching with bated breath. Your team – with wobbly teary smiles – place a ladder against the wall, and you take your first step down the other side. Your legs are shaking, your heart is pounding, but it feels right. You look to your right and left, and see that a small handful of your fellow Wall Travellers are also embarking down their respective ladders. You smile at each other and nod in mutual respect, and slowly place your feet on the next rung, then the next, until you’re standing on solid ground. Then all hell breaks loose. There are fireworks and party streamers and everyone is yelling and crying and cheering and shouting and hugging and dancing and it’s the most joyous mayhem. Music blasts from somewhere and food and drink appear out of nowhere and it’s one gigantic party. The ones still tangled on top of the wall watch it all, laughing their heads off with tears streaming down their faces. And the ones peeking through from the other side stare in amazement at the sight. It’s the best day of your life – no, the best day of your entire EXISTENCE. All that hard work, all that time and effort, it was all worth it. SO WORTH IT. And now you have this incredible new land to explore. You can hardly believe it has finally happened. Over the coming weeks and months you do a lot of exploring, and what you find is beyond your wildest dreams. You can manifest anything you want in this new land, simply by picturing it in your mind. And soon you’ve built the house you’ve always wanted in the most stunning location, with a garden absolutely blooming with flowers and plants and all sorts of yummy food. Life is a magical fantasy but it also feels so REAL. The old world feels like the dream now. Like you were inside a virtual reality video game for a while and you clocked it and went home. This is HOME. This is the REAL world. And you realize that you are still growing and evolving. The destination beyond the wall was only the first step, the journey continues inside you and outside of you. But now you’re growing through joy and love, not challenge and struggle. Every day you feel like you are the total embodiment of your most awesome self and it just keeps getting better! But you are still drawn to the wall. Because the greater your new reality is, the more you wish that everyone could escape from their bad dream and experience it. And so you devote yourself to helping the ones who have ventured to the wall and are struggling to get up and over it. You don’t necessarily give them the answers, but you love and support them like your team did for you. And you know that just them seeing you there in the new world gives them hope and helps them know that it IS possible, and they WILL get there. As more and more people conquer the wall, the holes become bigger and it starts to crumble in places. You all realize it’s getting thinner and suddenly you all collectively understand the next step in the grand plan. The wall needs to come down, so that everyone can see what lies beyond their restricted reality. Everyone will still have to lighten themselves – as that concrete heaviness cannot exist in the new world – and they will still have to untangle themselves from their wire bonds, but it will be easier. They will have a much smoother time of it than the Pioneers of the Wall, and they will have a grandstand view the whole time of what the destination is – not to mention a hell of a lot of help and support from the other side. The day comes when the wall is so flimsy and crumbly, it’s almost falling down of its own accord. And by now there is a substantial crowd of Wall Travellers in the new world, ready to push. As you all line up to bring about the final destruction of the wall, you realize there is a crowd on the other side too. The people of the old world aren’t shouting anymore. They are not hurling abuse and judgment. They are standing there, their faces etched with a mixture of confusion, fascination and hope. You recognize the expression from the first time you glimpsed a world on the other side of the wall. It is the dawning realization that there is more. And that revelation changes everything. You shout out to your fellow Wall Travellers, who have a new name now. “LIGHTWORKERS READY!” you yell. “And… PUSH!!!!” The united force of all the Lightworkers launches itself against the wall and that crumbling stone comes tumbling down once and for all. The new world is officially open. Briony Louise Corrigan https://starsoulearthbody.blogspot.co.nz/2017/08/the-story-of-awakening.html An Indigenous Approach to Healing with Water
By Jonathan Davis on Tuesday March 1st, 2016 For the Desana people, singing to the Water is a key to healingThe science of cymatics literally shows us that sound influences the structure of water, but there are many who believe in the scientifically controversial idea that water can hold a ‘memory’ from the influence of light, sound and even human intention. In recent years many people have been captivated by the work of Masaru Emoto, with his images showing the world precise details of how intention may be affecting water on a structural level. For the first time we were able to clearly visualise what a particular intention, such as gratitude, may look like in the form a single snowflake-like structure, photographed under a microscope. The list of different photographs that could be taken using Masaru Emoto’s technique is as long as as the list of different emotions and all the different sources of water on planet earth combined. In fact people have believed in our ability to influence water since the days of antiquity, with the Christian tradition being the obvious example, with the ongoing performing of rituals they claim turns regular water into holy water. Vibrational essences and the water from flower baths are just a few other examples of people believing in the capacity for water to be affected intentionally for healing purposes. Dr. Emoto’s water blessed by gratitude (left) and Holy Water (right)Indigenous Healing With WaterWe shouldn’t be surprised to learn that there have been cultures who have held this understanding since long before microscopes and cameras existed to show them that their prayers or intentions were having some kind of tangible effect. Verification instead came to them in the form of efficacy in healing. Water was charged with healing intention, and then given to someone who was sick, and when their health was restored, the practice was deemed useful and it’s use was continued. In this way, this practice has been carried through to the present day from ancient times. One such culture which has found this practice effective is the Desana tribe who continue to reside in the Amazon on both sides of the Colombian/Brazilian border. The practice of charging liquids, particularly herbal medicines with intention is widely practiced throughout the Amazon basin among many different language groups, most often done with whistling or song, and/or the blowing of tobacco smoke over the liquid. Members of the Desana TribeImbuing Water With Healing IntentionOne term used in spanish is curar, to cure – used in much the same way we use this word when referring to clay tiles curing in the sun, or salted meat being cured, inferring that the intention is perhaps preserved in the structure of the water molecules. It has a double meaning in that one cures the liquid etc. in the preserving intention sense, in order to cure the patient in the healing sense. This is likely part of why a healer in the amazon is most commonly known as a curendera or curandero: one who cures. Another term for this practice in the Amazon is icarar. The verb icarar means to sing or whistle an icaro [medicine song] over a person, object or preparation to give it power; water over which an icaro has been sung or whistled and tobacco has been blown, for example is called agua icarada… Anthropologist Luis Eduardo Luna tells of how [mestizo shaman] Don Williams Vasquez deals with difficult childbirth, singing icaros [medicine songs] of slimy fish, demulcent and mucilaginous trees, the slippery boa, and the ray, which can give birth in any position. He sings these songs over a glass of water, which is given for the woman to drink. – Steve Beyer, Singing To The Plants Blessing water with sacred tobacco The Desana Tribe Of The Vuapes River RegionThe Desana stand as a particularly good example of this practice because in their culture exists a field of specialisation in this exact art. The Desana are unique in that they have three distinct types of shamans and the ones that work with incantations, usually over liquids, are known to be capable of healing with water and intention alone. This person is referred to as a kubu or kumu. The kumu cures by the inaudible recitation of highly formalised therapeutic spells over a liquid the patient then drinks.’ – Steve Beyer, Singing To The Plants A term that isn’t loaded with quite the same negative connotations as ‘spells’ is the Desana word bayi, which speaks of curing in both the healing sense as well as the encoding of intention into a liquid. Bayi also brings with it the same kind of reverence and sacredness as the word ‘pray’. For the Desana, this object [often water], which gives the incantation a material support, functions as a “medium”; it transfers the incantation to the patient. – Domonique Buchillet, Portals Of Power The Desana Tribe of the Amazon Why Not Simply Sing Or Speak The Incantation Over The Sick Person?According to the kubu shamans of the Desana, their incantations when used without some kind of physical carrier like water have more precision and are able to target the exact cause of the illness with more accuracy, but work more slowly. Perhaps the effect is slower to arrive, or slower to manifest into some kind of physical change, or both. When reciting their incantation over a physical agent like a liquid for drinking or a plant for rubbing on the person, the Desana claim that the cure is faster acting, more penetrating, has more materiality and permanence, though it not as precise. Cultivating The Ability To Encode Water With Healing IntentionIf Dr. Masaru Emoto is right then we are very likely accidentally affecting the environment around us with our thoughts and feelings every where we go, every single day – and water seems to be particularly conductive and sensitive to the emanations of our consciousness. If we wish to more actively affect the quality of the water around us the following lessons can be learned from the kubu of the Desana tribe. The apprentice kubu, kudu pegi, is literally ‘the one who listens’. – Domonique Buchillet, Portals Of Power Learning the practice of deep listening Deep Listening For the Desana, much of the listening required is the listening to the incantations being passed down in a lineage, so I’m sorry to say that those reading this article are unlikely to gain the powers claimed by a kubu. What we can do however is examine the qualities that they are trying to cultivate while they are learning the incantations of their ancestral line. There is a depth to the type of listening that they are trying to cultivate. The Desana speak of learning to be able to sit still on a bench that in their tradition is ‘intimately tied to thought and reflection’. Their term for intelligence is partly derived from a word that means: to listen, to hear, to comprehend, to understand, to know. Indigenous Australians, Kalahari Bushmen in Africa, Apache Indians, Indigenous Hawaiians and many more traditional cultures place a profound level of focus on deep listening to nature. For example the Lipan Apache philosophy as taught by Stalking Wolf / Tom Brown / Jon Young, is that as we listen deeply we develop threads of connection to the living world. This could explain why deep listening allows for more powerful incantations as the person is able to call on the aspects of nature he has formed strong threads or even ropes of connection with. For more information on the cultivation of deep listening practices check out our article about the Indigenous Australian concept of ‘Dadirri’. Indigenous Australians have a deep connection to nature through listeningPurification and FastingAnother aspect of gaining knowledge and the ability to focus and transfer intention powerfully and accurately is the practice of purification and fasting. Purification through emetic plant purges apparently removes blockages preventing knowledge from coming in. For you with your tape recorder and notebooks, it is easy to learn this incantation. For me it was very difficult. I had to fast and remain awake all night to learn it. – A Desana Kubu, Portals Of Power One of the fundamental methods of shamanic training in the Amazon is the practice of self imposing strict limitations on diet and spending time in isolation in the forest, listening for the songs of the plants that one is trying to establish relationships with. Perhaps it is the mental and physical discipline gained from fasting that hones the ability to focus intention in a powerful way, however the deepest lessons come from actually doing the practice yourself and receiving knowledge and experience directly. If you choose to explore fasting, please do extensive research and proceed with care. Getting a checkup and speaking to your physician is advised before exploring this path. A modern day Tambo for isolation diets and fasting How Is This Helpful In My Daily Life?Whether you believe fully in the possibilities outlined in this article or whether you are a more sceptical, it can be helpful to remember that in recent studies science has found that even when a person knows they are receiving a placebo it is still effective in a statistically significant way. So the next time you sit down to eat a meal, think of all the cultures that give gratitude for their meals and consider that almost every piece of food you are likely to eat contains water. What would the image look like if Dr Emoto took a picture of the water in that food now charged with gratitude? What would the image look like of the water in our body that had come into contact with this water from our gratitude charged food? The next time you’re cooking soup for a loved one who isn’t feeling well, you could consider singing it a song that warms your heart. When you run a bath for yourself at the end of a long stressful day, consider the affect the epsom salt crystals, the essential oils and music may be having on not only the water in the bath, but the water in your body that makes up approximately 70% of who you are. Can we positively affect our water before we drink it?Healing With Water On A Global ScaleIf water is extremely conductive of electricity then this conductivity could also extend to more subtle levels of energy that science is now only at the edge of being able to measure. Remember also that water has also been observed by eastern traditions as perhaps the best example of being able to adapt and change to any situation. Conductivity and adaptability. We may not be masters of encoding water with intention like the Desana, or masters of focus like buddhist monk, but what we lack in depth of focus we may be able to make up for with sheer volume of people. What excites me is the idea that millions of people may be able to collectively use their intention to take advantage of the conductivity and adaptability of water, by coming into a space of deep listening and receptivity and then focusing our intention on sending their blessing to the waters of this planet. This may be to bring healing to the waters themselves, but like this practice of using the water as a carrier for healing individuals, a large enough and focused enough collective may be able to bring about healing or re-alignment in not just the water but all those who come into contact with it – and there is nothing this planet needs more than that. Managing Emotional Sensitivity ~ Are you highly sensitive? Me too!
,Ask-Angels.com, Melanie Beckler Being highly sensitive is incredibly common among those who are on a spiritual path. Actually, as you elevate your vibration and connect with the realms of spirit, your sensitivity will likely increase as well. If you are already highly emotionally sensitive, you may find yourself reflecting on things deeply, becoming overwhelmed by emotions, or getting your feelings hurt more quickly than others seem to. You may also prefer quiet locations and find yourself being bombarded by intense feelings while in crowded, busy, or chaotic locations. Emotional sensitives sometimes care too much about what others think about them as well, or find themselves tuning into dense and challenging emotions that halt their progress, cause fear, or even stagnate relationships and forward progress on their path. But while being highly sensitive is often perceived as a bad thing, by learning to manage it, sensitivity can be transformed into a beautiful gift. Sensitivity is actually a powerful intuitive gift that can allow you insight into relationships, the ability to quickly know and understand someone’s intentions, and an accurate guidance system. Emotional sensitivity also allows you a deeper connection with the angels and the realms of spirit when you learn to manage your deep sensitivity and turn what you may have once perceived as a huge challenge, or even a curse, into a powerful, positive, and quite frankly an incredible gift. How to Manage Emotional SensitivityAsk Yourself… What am I really feeling and where is it? Emotions are just vibrations… Yes, they’re vibrations that can be overwhelming, challenging, and even painful, but when you take a step back and analyze what is really happening, you’re able to take their power, and you can transform even the most challenging feeling into a blessing. So in the moment, when you’re feeling a strong intense and powerful emotion… Do your best to shift into the perspective of the observer. Become aware that alongside the emotion, there is a sensation, thought, or mental image that has appeared for you… Become aware of it, and analyze it! What qualities does the feeling you are experiencing vibrate with? Is it buzzing, humming, flowing, spiraling like a tornado, earth quaking, or erupting from within like a volcano? Just become aware of the energetic qualities of the emotion. Get scientific with it, and see if you can identify and classify the qualities of the emotion, which is actually just vibration you are tuning into and experiencing. Where do you feel the emotion in your body? Is it in your throat? Your abdomen? Located in the center of your head or pulsing within your heart? It is staying in one place or is it moving? What direction is it moving in? Take a mental note or actually write down what you experience. For example: Feels like volcanic mud slowly spewing out from your throat and flowing counter clockwise throughout your body weighing you down, and hardening. It causes thoughts to appear, and mental images of the challenging situation that just happened. This is of course just an example of how an emotion may feel, and how you perceive it is likely to be entirely different… The point here is just to become aware of how your emotions vibrate for you and to identify them. Next, see if you can change the vibration you’re experiencing? Can you change the direction it’s moving? Can you pull it out in front of you to reverse it's direction, slow it down or speed it up? Can you neutralize it or release it over to the angels and into the light? Just become aware… Once you’re aware of the vibrational qualities… Notice what emotion your mind labels it as. For example: If you’re feeling sadness, what it is that makes you identify the emotion as sadness? Increasing your awareness in this way is an incredibly powerful way to claim your power wrapped up in emotions, and shift your vibration back into a positive state. You may even realize an emotion like sadness, is really just intense vibration, and when you stop thinking it’s sadness, much of it’s power is taken away. Where did it come from? What caused this emotion in the first place? Is it tied to something someone said, something you saw, or something you thought? If it seems to have come out of nowhere is it really your emotion? Or are you tuning into the emotions of someone else? Finally… Could you let it go? Would you? When? Release the challenging emotion over to your angels and into the light. If there is some action you need to take to resolve how you’re feeling, do it. If you need to change your location… Take a step back, retreat into nature, peace and quiet for a while, honor this. Do what you need to do to shift your vibration, increase your awareness, and return to balance. With this type of awareness, sensitivity can develop in the most powerful way, support your other intuitive gifts, and offer an incredible form of guidance for you in the moment. When it comes to emotional sensitivity, awareness is key! Energies of Now - 13-Aug-2017
Kara Demonet- Ascension Notes- sousticerising.com While eclipses are powerful for change, I honor the Simplicity of it. I do not buy into the hype and I see there is a lot of that, and I don't follow the crowd...yet, I do honor everyone's choices. In this Ascension Note, I won't be spending time glorifying the upcoming solar eclipse, but rather speak to the underlying energy of it. This eclipse and any labels we use detract from the message. Any time we use labels, whether describing ourselves or defining something, we only touch the surface, rather than going deeper. As you know, we have been powering through our unique ways of keeping the old 3D matrix alive by holding onto old beliefs, patterns and other ways we believed were true. We've been moving through illusions by questioning everything. This is not so much intellectual questioning, but a feeling into something we've been told and realizing that it may be a lie to cover up the truth of something. As our Intuition has strengthened, we see and feel through any given illusion so that we may free ourselves from the old matrix. This includes history and current events, whether within us or around us. We have also been releasing through our physical bodies. Not fun, yet necessary. In my meditation I asked if the “on-fire” nerves on the lower left side of my body were indeed a Transformation to being crystalline. The answer was “yes.” It has also been a release of old toxins as my body adjusts. I know each being is experiencing some sort of physical adjustment; created by you, for you. It is best not to try to lump yourself into some sort of generalization, but honor your own process, for we each are unique in how we express our Divinity and all that goes with it. Perhaps it can also show us old beliefs like “I am ill; I'd better see the doctor;” or “I want to see if what I'm experiencing is what others are experiencing” (the need to belong); I know there are many beliefs that this adjustment can bring up. Take a deeper look beneath the physical manifestation. Take a breath and ask these questions: Do I see Divine Justice in all situations? Do I take Responsibility for all in my life (not for others; for your own life situations)? Do I still separate by blaming others, whether that is in my own small circle or on the global stage? Do I realize that I create my circumstances through my own consciousness? Do I truly know that I am not a victim? What outer event(s) mirror what I still hold onto within? What is the truth in every situation I experience? How am I seeing or not seeing the bigger picture? Do I trust Divine Order/Divine Justice or am I still practicing and holding duality within through judgment? Answering these questions may help you fully disengage from the 3D matrix. Of course, this is not all it takes. We must fully let go of anything that holds us back in the old. We must be absolutely willing and committed to being in the New and trust our journey of “no-destination.” We must be willing to allow our lives to be completely different. Realize also that when you let go, those in your life who want to keep you in your old role may resist your path; and it may not be pleasant. You aren't here to please others. However you create your life, be open to the ups and downs of change. It is a beautiful way to be if you are committed to your Path of Ascension. Can you flow with the changes or are you feeling as though you're kicking and screaming, as if you're being dragged somewhere you don't want to go? Remind yourself that you have chosen this. Any resistance surely creates a push-pull energy within you, so either commit all the way or not at all. Many of us have walked or do walk a Labyrinth...whether inner or outer or both. The Labyrinth was first created by King Solomon as a Commitment to Source. Walking it, one is reminded that they/we embody both Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine and that we are not separate from Source or anything else. In the center of the Labyrinth, there is a full Awakening, realizing that our physical body is a sacred temple. Walking the Labyrinth is bringing Heaven to Earth; creating the New Earth. Only Love exists here, within us. The Labyrinth symbolizes our life and we are asked to venture to the center (Heart) for complete communion with and as Source. We must see that we are Divine and nothing less. Divinity=Love. The energy of this entire month is to help push us over whatever we perceive to be a limitation. We may use the energy of this month to move beyond the old and empower the New. Where do you hold yourself back; where do you limit yourself? Know that you may transcend any small, limited way of experiencing life into living large. Each time you meditate, you strengthen your resolve to shift into a higher gear. You need not wait; do it now. Our own New Body Grid is in place now. It is created and activated every time we focus and integrate a Soul Essence such as Love, Joy, Peace, Responsibility (for self), Abundance and many more. Focusing on one or more Soul Essences within our Body Grid creates life that is built from these essences. It is the same with the New Earth Grid, which is anchored onto Earth. Each time we integrate a Soul Essence, we empower the New Earth Grid, so that there is a continuous strengthening of us and of the New through our choices. An important practice to help you integrate more Love into you as you is to drop the dualistic thinking of “I'll like you if you are just like me.” If you judge another as “bad,” where in you do you hold “bad?” All beings are Love. Do not withhold your Love from them just because you might see them with eyes of disdain. Perhaps these beings are ones who need to be loved more; not admonished or judged. See Love in everyone. As the old transforms, it may seem as though it is becoming stronger. This is an illusion. You help strengthen the old by practicing any sort of duality, which is still within you if you are in any judgment or fear whatsoever. While we see and feel the many changes within and around us, we still have a long way to go till we are nothing but Love. You may hasten this by committing and aligning yourself with the New; with Love. Open your Heart, for it is here that Soul/Highest Self connects with you. Merge with Soul so that there is nothing but Love within you. Surrender any resistance or stubbornness or insistence that you're “right” (as opposed to “wrong?”) to Love. If you have plans, let them go. Replace them with Heart-intentions (not head-intentions). Plans take you out of the Now. Realize that plans are illusions; they are of the old. Only being in the Now Moment helps you move forward, moment by moment. Keep your focus on how you want to feel. This alone creates the future. Let go of the details and simply follow your guidance in each moment. Source has no plans, for plans create a box of limitations. Source is nothing but Love and will never interfere with your Free Will. Source guides and does not direct or control. Continue to allow any emotions to bubble up so that you may transform them to Love. In other words, don't stuff them back down into their hiding place. They may hide and erupt at perfect times, as each emotion leads you to a deeper belief. These emotions also hide who you truly are by putting a layer of forgetfulness around you like a blanket. One big emotion for most is fear; fear of not having or being enough, fear of not doing enough, fear of the unknown, fear of being out of control, fear of being alone...and the list goes on. Release all your fears in the Sacred Rose and then fill up with Source Love...to replace what you release. This transforms fear and other emotions to Love. Remind yourself that all is vibration. What you are within is what you attract from outside yourself. As above, so below; as within, so without. Remind yourself also that it is not about doing as much as it is about Being. You do through Being. Everything you experience increases your Awareness and when you are fully awake and aware, you make choices that are aligned with who you are. If you are one who has wondered where I went on Facebook, I was guided some time ago to drop my pages. After a bit of a respite, I have begun a small personal page. If so guided, you can find me here: https://www.facebook.com/kara.demonet.1. ~ ~ ~ If so guided, your continued tithes are graciously and gratefully accepted. And thank you to those of you who consistently tithe to support this body of work. Tithing is giving from the Heart; creating a consciousness of Prosperity. I am blessed and grateful for each of you! http://www.soulsticerising.com/donate.asp Situation Update for August 8, 2017
By Judge Anna Von Reitz The Chapter 7 bankruptcy of most of the world's municipal governments and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of most of the world's territorial governments is a domino effect. This primary funding source for the Territorial government services was provided by our ESTATES. When our ESTATES which were being held and operated by the Municipal United States were subsumed into its Chapter 7 bankruptcy, they stopped producing income for the Territorial government. That, then, threw the Territorial government into Chapter 11. Now you can see and grasp the chain reaction nature of the situation: UNITED STATES "owns" and operates JOHN MICHAEL DOE estate as a franchise, the profit realized from JOHN MICHAEL DOE funds the USA, Inc. So when the UNITED STATES goes into Chapter 7 liquidation, the funding for USA, Inc. stops, too. The problem for good old John Michael Doe is that his estate should never have been mischaracterized as a franchise of the UNITED STATES in the first place, and he should not have his name or assets embroiled in a foreign bankruptcy. So that's where you all are and that's what I and my Team are working to get you out of--- a foreign corporate bankruptcy that actually has nothing to do with you. The rats are bucking the inevitable, but the rest of the world knows the Truth. Now imagine that you don't know the value of anything on Earth, because nobody knows what the real debt is, how much money has been printed, or what the results of a free market valuation of commodities would be? That's what the GCR Committee has been wrestling with. Commodity markets have been manipulated and rigged for so long that there is no common sense basis for the valuation of anything. You can't even estimate the value of a pork belly in an open market, because this whole system has been corrupt for over a hundred years--- but somehow, the GCR Committee is tasked with not only coming up with a total of supply of pork bellies, but a total of supply of printed pieces of paper needed to buy them, and then a current valuation complete with all the exchange rates. Ever had the impulse to run screaming into the bushes, merely thinking about solving a problem? That was my impulse when I first looked at that one. Saner people than I threw up their hands, shook their heads, stared at me with the whites of their eyes showing, and looked helpless----- nonetheless, there is a GCR Committee and they have worked hard and faithfully for many months and have done their best. There is no doubt that there will be "adjustments" as actual market forces come into play and artificially low and high commodity prices fluctuate into a true value in the worldwide marketplace. The same is true of money, because money is a commodity. Most people have never been taught to think of it this way, but it's time we all did so. Money is a commodity like beans or hammers or gasoline engines. It is sensitive to supply and demand. It is subject to quality considerations. It gets counterfeited like Gucci handbags. When the revaluation kicks off you can bet your teeth and liver that some chaos will reign as the value of money and commercial paper gets readjusted along with everything else. There will be upsets as the world markets for nearly everything sort themselves out. Take what you can spare and make sure you have some extra food, water, medications you need, toilet paper, coffee, etc. so that you and your family are not caught off-guard waiting in long lines or otherwise getting hysterical simply because you don't have a small extra supply of things you need. The worst should be over in a month or two at most, but it looks like it will be hitting soon, so take a little pre-caution now. Finally, you have noticed that there are an awful lot of generals in Trump's Administration. There is a reason for that. The U.S. Army has been the de facto Territorial government since 1863. They have been responsible for safeguarding our money and have been functioning under the Lieber Code ever since Lincoln. Now that the Territorial government is in Chapter 11, the real brass has shown up at the White House to ride herd on things. Nothing to wonder about there, except---- how did you guys ever @#$@$% so bad in the first place? That remains a question that needs an answer. Everyone--- sit tight and stay calm and have faith. There are a lot of good people worldwide and the truth is the truth. The Land of Oz is fading away, but our own beloved homeland is coming into view. Just tap together the heels of your ruby slippers, close your eyes, and...... We are in need of funding to keep the law team going on all this. The "government" we are inheriting is broke and stumbling along under trusteeship and until things get sorted out and the funds we are owed are made available, we are on our own to make things work and bring forward the claims of the American states and people. Please send what you can now, if you can. I don't expect anyone to give up funds that they actually need to buy and put aside food and other things as I suggested above, but if you have "extra" that you can invest in America's future, we need you to come forward. We cannot possibly do what we are doing without help. I am still Chief Cook and Bottle Washer for this whole operation, so, my PayPal is the same as my email: [email protected] And as ever, I gladly accept checks and money orders and cash for the law team and bank team and all the other projects we have going at: Anna Maria Riezinger, c/o Post Office Box 520994, Big Lake, Alaska 99652. Thanks to all of you who have contributed in the past, we have made it to the Finish Line, but we still have a yard or two to go. ---------------------------- See this article and over 600 others on Anna's website here:www.annavonreitz.com To support this work look for the PayPal button on this website. The Pleiadians: Eclipse Reverberations
There has been a significant increase in energy on the planet in recent days and this will become more intense as the August 21 Eclipse approaches. This energy is coming straight from the Center of the Galaxy toward our Local Sun. This, in turn, will send increasingly intense waves of energies directly to the planets that surround it. Some people may feel (if not already) a pressure on the entire head, or in specific points such as the top of the head (coronary), or the forehead (third eye). Two other chakras will be very active: the Laryngeal and the Solar Plexus. In the laryngeus you may feel a kind of pulse in the throat, which can radiate down or up. A warmth can also be felt. In the Solar Plexus you may feel a slight sensation of “swelling” as if it were swelling and in some cases you may feel some slight tips, and also some heat. Just harmonize with those sensations. These three chakras are in great activity, the most intense will be those in the head. Feeling weight in the eyes will be very normal, too. Look for grounding in the midst of nature, especially sitting under a tree, letting your bare feet touch the ground. Get on the ground. If for some reason you can not go to these areas, wherever you are, do a mentalization by shifting your consciousness to a wooded area. Waterfall and sea baths also help in grounding and distributing that wonderful energy that is being sent to be infiltrated on Earth. And we, like receivers, are acting as pickups, true lightning rods of these forces, which will, more and more, trigger the necessary moves for the complete change of paradigms on this planet. Understanding lovingly also that our bodies are adapting to these high frequencies helps a lot, not getting irritated with any discomfort. These waves will also trigger, more and more, something that is stored and needs to be cleaned. Everything will come out. Your body can react in several ways. Stay calm and loving, knowing that it is crystallizing. The Love of the Supreme Creator is limitless! http://www.EraofLight.com – Channel: Gabriel RL – Shared per request via email. |
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