Pendulum Swings

Going through past entries to see how far I've come in just a few months. Thanks to all who've been with me on this journey, especially Rich and Mike, who have been so patient and supportive. Even Millie, above, is turning my head around. Here's an excerpt, with a p.s. that reflects some cynicism sweetened by an opening mind:

Pendulum Swings

November 1, 2008, the day after our second two-day workshop, we went to Denver to experience Jackson Browne in concert. The workshop had covered some mighty interesting topics including pendulum works, although I still wasn’t certain how much of Carl’s quick answers I should regard as gospel truth. The pendulum I made was still in my purse, 325 miles from home, where no one knew its owner -- a piece of natural crystal dangling from a fishing line.

So I pulled it out from time to time to measure the energy in Beule Theater. We had paid dearly for seats close to the orchestra pit, so I could check out the outfits and read the faces of everyone in preferred seating including friends and family of the band, music critics and the most energetic fans who had won, or cannily manipulated, their privilege of sitting up close.

I played with the pendulum by putting my hand in the air as an antenna, directing it at the stage, toward workers or couples eagerly taking their seats. I noticed only one person who came in by himself to take his privileged seat up close, also observed that, among the post-50, long-hair and tee-shirt crowd, he was the only one wearing a suit and tie. “Must be a critic,” I figured I’d try to get a read on him. My pendulum was madly reacting to the high positive energy around by happily swinging large and clockwise. I assumed this meant I couldn’t focus on an individual in this busy boisterous crowd. And if I did, the overwhelming force was so intensely high, it would not perceive differences in energy. I was wrong.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the performance, and thought I’d get confirmation of this fact when the band left the stage and lights went up. I held my left hand over my own heart, the fishing line in my right above seat level as my neighbor vacated the spot next to me. I focused at the dangling crystal and noticed it had subdued its turns a bit. Then as my neighbor returned I looked down and noticed it rocking differently, heading the opposite direction, reading my own heart energy as not in-tune! I pointed it out to my husband and tucked it back into my pocket, perplexed.

As the band began setting up again, there was enough light for me to take one more reading with my hand once again over my heart. It was still spinning counter clockwise, off axis. But when Jackson sang his first note, it promptly reversed direction to a full clockwise open swing.

Carl had spoken of walking down the corridors of hospitals, holding one hand up and the other on his bouncing stethoscope that was eagerly responding to the energy around it. I thought I’d try it with my crystal in Downtown Denver on this pleasant night after the concert. Teenagers were calling happily to one another – good vibes. Horses were drawing carriages. Rich could not resist offering peppermints to a Chlysdale patiently waiting his turn. All seemed in good harmony with their surroundings.

A bicyclist passed me. I thought his speed would make a reading impossible, but my pendulum stalled and acted erratic as he passed. We walked, then stopped at a traffic light and I was able to get a definite counter-clockwise read as I approached, casually palming the cyclist's back while we waited. It returned to a general clockwise spin after he took off.

I paused at the entry of the hotel next to ours, and directed my palm at the open doorway. Even though no one was currently there, it spun energetically counter clockwise. I wondered what couple last passed through those doors and what feelings they left behind.

I tried the same experiment with my own hotel entry. It felt welcoming and the pendulum agreed. A carriage horse, a large chestnut Morgan, and young couple read well. So I tried to take a reading on one of those Cows on Parade, an art sculpture, but it refused to budge. No energy. As I entered the elevator I was able to pick up some motion from my pendulum again. Probably residual energy from it last travelers. But when I turned my palm toward the electrical box, I got nothing again. So man-made energy doesn’t read either.

I was also wrong that I wouldn’t run into anyone I knew that night. Actually Rich’s boss from the USA Today was at the Chess Tables downtown, not far from the Morgan and young couple I had read. I think he took my casual upraised palm and amused expression as hello. I tucked my crystal back into my pocket as we greeted him warmly.

************************

Post-script: January 7, 2009

My loyal dog Millie had been acting funny lately, tripping down stairs, not excited about food, leaving "treats" for us to find in our bedroom corners. So I decided to take a reading on her doing a full body scan with the pendulum. Our 12-year-old Golden cooperated in such a way as though she felt the love in what I was doing, even though I didn't know what to expect.

I put my hand on top of her body beginning above her crown where the energy immediately projected full clockwise circles. I covered her willing eyes, and the circles contracted, becoming more elliptical, and off axis, tending left. I was told she was developing cataracts, the pendulum showed me one eye was better than the other. Little hard growths and larger puffier growths, signs of aging, around her ears registered no changes to my pendulum. Her snout, throat, front were all wide open circles. Her feet and legs, despite the tripping, seemed happy too. Tail areas checked out. Under the belly, where there had been problems years ago, showed that all had cleared up now.

But when I touched her front shoulder under her right leg, the pendulum reacted erratically, spinning clearly off center and pulling left. My hands felt under her thick winter coat and confirmed that a soft massing had developed and spread. I snapped my fingers to open the chakras which responded immediately. I changed my mindset to a healing intention and let energy flow from my hands into her. Millie trembled as I touched her so gently, but did not attempt to move away. After a minute or so, she stopped trembling and looked into my eyes. I hugged her and told her everything would be alright.

I took Millie to the vet who checked out the growth, took a sample to view under the microscope and relieved us with the news that it was not cancerous. "A fatty tumor" he called it. He confirmed that her only area of concern was the eyes and ears, normal for her age but not too bad. Since she is an active dog, who still goes on horseback rides with us, she could live for many years yet.

I think every parent and pet owner should be aware of the magic of pendulum swings. I was told that most people are sensitive enough to pick up the energy very quickly, and the rest will do so with continued practice.

Any dangly thing will work, even a pendant necklace. Attention and Intention -- I feel now that these are the two distinct states of mind that put the energy into play. Give full active attention for scanning and feeling; direct intention for healing and balance.

So simple yet amazingly effective.

Creating Harmony

Yesterday Kim taught a class about how to use tuning forks to create vibrational balance. While I was en route, running pre-class errands, NPR played this segment:

Morning Edition, January 9, 2009 · Scientists at Cornell University have discovered that a species of mosquito has mastered the art of the serenade.
They found that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes adjust the frequency of the sound produced by their beating wings as potential mates near each other. The team's research appears in this week's issue of the journal Science.
The male mosquito's buzz, or flight tone, is normally about 600 cycles per second, or 600-Hz. The female's tone is about 400-Hz. In music, he's roughly a D, and she's about a G. So the male brings his tone into phase with the female's to create a near-perfect duet. Together, the two tones create what musicians call an overtone — a third, fainter tone at 1200-Hz. Only then will the mosquitoes mate.

...
Most of the pairs varied their flight tones to create the overtone. Hoy speculates that the musical union could be a kind of sexual selection — potential mates unable to hear or produce the overtone might be deemed unfit for reproduction.
...
What makes A. aegypi so unusual in the animal world is how precisely it modifies its tones.
Rex Cocroft is a behavioral biologist at the University of Missouri who has recorded the sounds made by numerous kinds of insects. He says many animals, from birds to katydids, use sound in mating behavior. This experiment showed something new.
"We think of insects as being masters of timing and rhythm and not so much as masters of pitch," Cocroft says.

There's a field of science called biomusicology, he says, that investigates the idea that what we like in music may derive from what we've heard in the natural world.

"For example, when people were writing early melodies like Gregorian chants," Cocroft says, "when you have a large jump up in frequency, then you tend to drop down stepwise, and people were asking, 'Well, do animals show similar kinds of rules?'"
If that sounds crazy, consider this: The interval between the male mosquito's tone and the female's is quite close to what musicians call a perfect fifth.
In fact, composers for centuries considered the interval of a fifth to be the most euphonious. So if mosquitoes have it right, all you need is a melody with an interval of a fifth and you'll be guaranteed romantic success. The composer of that romantic chestnut "Feelings" apparently figured that out: The first two notes are a perfect fifth.

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=99133147&m=99147652

So What? What do mosquitoes have to do with tuning forks or natural healing or Reiki?

More than I ever thought about, until now.

We all tune in to perfect pitch. Everything in nature -- plants, animals, humans -- seeks balance in tone, pitch, vibration. More precisely, we crave the note of C, 128 Hz, for perfect health. And rise spiritually at 136 Hz, a Universal Tone, Om, that helps for spiritual meditation.

More and more scientific research has demonstrated healing effects using vibrational energy, sound waves, to modulate, calm, soothe -- or stimulate activity.

We demonstrated this in our classroom. I volunteered to be guinea pig and was rigged with an oxygen sensor and pulse meter. My classmates were able to increase my pulse rate dramatically, from 62 to over 80 and higher, by chopping the air with two tuning forks in two different tones Kim selected. My pulse rate went back down immediately when an Om tuner scanned over my body. My oxygen reading went from 98 to 99 as well under Om's influence. Physiological reactions to vibrational energy quickly convinced our class that this is for real -- something healers like Kim have always known.

Each of the chakras respond to various notes, beginning at the crown descending to the root: BAGFEDC. Use low and high Cs to help restore balance, root to crown. Use D and B to promote unconditional love. C and E create white energy to cleanse and reduce fear.

Even though the students were relatively inexperienced, each of them claimed they could feel some resistance over the solar plexus scanning with a tuning fork over my body. They were sensing the fact that I had developed a lower back issue from skiing with my son two days before.

As the guinea pig, I can tell you that I felt different reactions depending on which tuning fork they used -- slightly improved, neutral or less. It reminded me of the lens flipping eye doctors do when they're trying to tune the prescription for your eyeglasses. "Better? or worse?" I dunno exactly, I don't want to give the "wrong answer", but eventually I end up with something that works.

When I got up from the table, pulse and oxygen returned to normal, I felt light headed but tuned. Soon I was well enough to take these pictures of the next beautiful guinea pig you see here.

I'm going to get that book about Musicology that piqued my interest by the doctor, Oliver Sachs, who wrote the book about mistaking his wife for a coatrack... What was that? I'm sure Amazon will direct me. Another area in which I had zero interest, looks interesting now.

I spoke to Kim about writing a book together. She is a fountain of experience. She breaks into enthusiastic bubbling of information, her face flushes and sparkles like a little girl's, reciting ideas and recipes for healing that trip off her tongue so fast that no one can write them down. I've got to bring my recorder to class more often. Students asked if she could give them a chart on all this. She laughs, "Sure if you want to transcribe my notes from the last 25 years or more!" So much of this she developed from dreams after near death experiences, then put into practice. Some is written, some is intuitive, so much will be lost. Other teachers like her have guarded their secrets intensely. Buddhist traditions have been passed verbally for 2500 years or more.

Kim agrees that this is the time to unveil the secrets and share them with a world that needs them.

Wheels are turning.

Winter Wraps, Spring Awakening

That which is a mystery shall no longer be so, and that which is veiled will be revealed; that which has been withdrawn will emerge into the light, and all ... shall see and together they shall rejoice."

--Alice Bailey

Today is the sixth day after my Reiki Level One attunement. My consciousness is supposed to be accommodating the influx of new energy that Kim blessed me with, and it is.

Yesterday, I felt called to be with my oldest son, Steve, who had just quit a job on the mountain, due to altercations with his boss. His happiest moments were on that mountain, yet he denied any feelings of loss. At 2:38 on the fifth night, I woke up to stabs of panic, and immediately thought of Steve.

I felt it would be okay to wait until morning to call him. He accepted an invitation to breakfast, over which he admitted that his feelings had changed from being pleased with his decision to quit, to remorse, but not sufficiently to warrant apology or asking for his job back. He could not think of anything else he would rather be doing. I told him about my panic awakening and he nodded his head, revealing that his remorse was deepening into depression and a sense of uselessness, now a frozen inability to do much of anything. His apartment was a mess, this mother noticed. I threw out many suggestions that were all met with zero enthusiasm. We checked out a few jobs together, nothing lit any fire. So the superior answer was to head for the slopes and just Be, together. Two with Nature.

After a day of skiing, I fell asleep early, right after dinner, and awoke four hours later. I could not sleep so I read my Essential Reiki book by Diane Stein. My husband was also up, and asked me to read to him. My readings helped me to realize that I was running too far ahead of myself. Quite literally, in fact. The blog I wrote before this one, about the group meditation and distance healing, is a better reflection of Reiki Two. I have not adjusted to my Level One attunement which is about integrating the Energy into yourself and practicing directly with others. "Slow down girl, be more patient with yourself. Take it One Day at a Time."

Another insight from the rest of my night's sleep, was to ask my younger son, who will be graduating from elementary school in May, his feelings about the changes going on in the household and how he would like to be a part. We spoke this morning and he is both supportive and enthusiastic about Reiki and healing touch . We discussed spiritual rites of passage, something he never experienced, and he agreed that he would like us to fashion something for him. I had already reserved a room at the Grand Canyon for two nights, and another two nights in Sedona AZ, for the week he finishes school. So my subconscious had already been plotting an Awakening with Nature. Now it fits to add an Attunement with Reiki.

So this is how it works? Coincidence. I don't think so. I will try not to get too far ahead of myself, but some spiritual adventure is developing for mid May that I will share with my family: at least one son and my husband Rich.

In the Belly of The Earth

I will christen this painting I did last fall "In the Belly of the Earth" in honor of my teacher, Kim, and the story that follows.

It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble; how hopeless the outlook; how muddled the tangle; how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all. If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world.

--Emmet Fox, the Sermon on the Mount

In light of Kim's recommendation, I put my books aside for a day and decided to meditate on recent percolation's before and after sleep last night.

I must admit that the quality of my meditation has changed beginning with my teacher's Reiki attunement.

During the attunement procedure, Kim laid hands and worked her magic, going down a line to each of the six of us in successive turns, changing or adding something in each of several rounds. In an early round, she used her highly receptive hands to feel our energy. I was the last in the group of six and she developed a tremble upon touch of my right shoulder, which she later said indicated a response to a certain quality of energy I was emitting that she could share with the rest of the group.

Well, something else happened around that shudder point that I internalized. I felt magnetized -- like heavy magnets were weighting me downward. I've been meditating on and off since my Unity days in the 80s. Usually I feel lighter until I drift off to sleep or go airborne. With Kim, I got heavier and heavier, "drawn into the belly of the earth."

This reminded me of my first metaphysical experience in which I was in a forest in Indiana with college friends. I broke off from the group and sat on a decaying tree stump feeling perfectly in tuned with nature and wonderful. The heavy sensation kicked in without any thought or effort on my part. Then, just like Alice in Wonderland, I fell inside. I could smell the earth in heightened concentration. I felt its warmth and strength. I became like a burrowing earthworm. I could navigate with equal ease into earth, amid roots and through stone. I fell in love at that moment with it all, my secret love, and carried an afterglow of bubbling tingles for quite a while after the experience. I shared the moment with only a few close friends, one who sighed, "Aw girl, you just had a metaphysical experience. I'm jealous." I knew it was a gift to treasure forever. I incorporated a reverence for all life in all forms from that moment on.

I had similar encounters at 8:30 last night and 3:30 this morning. I must first confess that I am a lazy meditator. I bought a latex mattress and lots of pillows last year to cradle my old bones firmly. If I'm just going to lay around, I want to be comfortable. I know the gurus say that a certain amount of discomfort will prevent you from falling asleep. And they're right, of course. They get used to those horrible lotus positions and worse. I keep promising myself I'll change, but I don't. So the Universe has blessed me with more sleep than I need and often inspired answers, sometimes full dictated chapters, upon awakening as our means of communication. Thank you.

So last night, propped in latex, I let my thoughts drift over and through me. I concentrated on my breathing and fell into my own cells. I thanked them for a job well done. I told them I didn't believe the rubbish about aging and that they shouldn't either. I brought my hands to my thighs and chided that didn't need to store as much fat as they've been doing lately, let it go. I thanked the chakra at my solar plexus for not over-reacting to the temptations of the holidays with all the sweet and fatty foods around. I brought my hands over my face and spoke lovingly to my skin cells. This, honestly, is the first time I've been this effusive toward my body, but it felt good, so I went with it.

I reminded my group of my readings. "Ya know, gang, if we unify our efforts we can magnify our effects 300 million times. So you really have unlimited potential. Go for it." I thought about the superfluidity and superradiance stuff of yesterday, letting the words go away and the blur fade my thoughts into simple muted awareness.

My legs and spine were melting into the latex. "Uh oh," I felt like I doubled in weight. "Hey guys, don't mess with me please. Remember 'Only for the Greatest Good' now!" I tripled in weight and felt I couldn't lift a finger without a crowbar. I assured myself this was some magnetic effect I was feeling. My cells were tingling, I could feel each and every one of them vibrating. "All together, now, all together now."

"Okay, let's go for it!" I thought. "Hey, I know you're all out there, better teachers, more experienced travellers than I am. Well, let's join forces to magnify our efforts and reach for the highest good." I waited for the light to change and put on the gas. "Unconditional Love! Let it flow through me." I thought of husband beside me, and my children, one at a time. Then the rest of my family, their children and spouses. I saw their faces and said, "I love you." It didn't matter that I hadn't said this out loud to half of them for a long long time. It felt good.

A force was teaming up with me, so we went for an expanded audience at greater distances. The homeless, the discouraged, the sick, the lonely. I saw all these beautiful faces, of different colors and textures so many worn and weathered, from all over the world. I said "I love you" to each and every one in the montage. That didn't feel too bad either.

We fell into oceans and I loved the feel of it. We could spread love through the oceans like Matsui said. I recalled another blip about healers affecting hydrogen in water, which related to another sideline of my research, and it all segued and slipped on top of one another like some glorious, albeit over-intellectualized, group orgy. Layered concepts without words.

We were zooming close to home. I thought about my trees, conceptually, and felt another distinct tingle inside. I have thousands on my property, still I planted fifty more last year, and replaced the ones who didn't do so well this fall. "Make sure they're happy, please," I thought and instantly saw scrawny aspen and cottonwood, just like I'd seen the multitude of faces. Although it seems strange, I felt they beamed back at me. "Check on the seedlings, too," and I felt the grasses and baby roots under three feet of snow.

Some of my weight reduced and I drifted off after this global adventure. My last memory was glancing at the clock to see the time as 10:30. I don't really know how much time was involved at which stage of relaxation, meditation or simple sleep.

I awoke at 3:33 and wondered if it would be presumptuous to try it again. My cells responded immediately without questioning. I could feel them tingle, like they were getting into position, and I felt heavy within moments of first thought. "Okay, I'm game if you are." It's easier to meditate if you aren't fully woken up yet. Although sometimes I awaken to a chatterbox of thoughts and ideas and know that I need to get up and get going. This time I was a blank slate in a ready position. It was as though they were asking me to pick up from where we left off. "Unconditional Love," I remembered. "Highest Good," I murmured like a mom's automatic, "Be Careful!"

The next time I looked at the clock it was 5:27. It felt like good work had been done.

Superfluidity, Superradiance and a Christmas Tree

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us, 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness."

Albert Einstein

Did you know that photons, which usually act anarchically, can tune their energy to behave in complete synchrony, oscillating in perfect harmony and vibrating in a rhythm so perfectly coordinated that scientists can't tell them apart? Their "superfluidity" is so extraordinarily efficient it can create a wave of light that can travel 300 million times as far as it would under normal conditions. That's why lasers can exist. That also explains much about the concentrated energy of healers.

There's more.

Under certain conditions, these atoms can slow down to identical energy levels, lose their individuality to take on the the behaviour of one complete whole. This penonmenon was only recently confirmed, at the University of Boulder in 1995, seventy years after it was published by none other than our dear Albert. He had been corresponding with an obscure Indian physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose, who had ideas about light that no one else would believe. Together they brainstormed, experimented and discovered a new state of matter with properties different than anything known in the universe.

The "Bose-Einstein condensate" led to the amazing discovery that "Living energy is able to organize into one giant coherent state, with the highest form of quantum order known to nature... and resonate like a multitude of tuning forks all attuned to the same frequency."

NOTE TO SELF: Tuning Fork Class on Friday.

Not only that, but another group of scientists, led by Fritz-Albert Popp, have discovered that "biophotons," measured from plants, animals and humans, can also act in a single superpowerful frequency, referred to as "superradiance." This led to scientists to postulate whether mental processes could create Bose-Einstein condensates.

Researcher Gary Schwartz created CCD photographs of coherent photons streaming from the hands of healers, evidence that human beings are both receivers and transmitters of quantum signals. The Intention Experiment reveals research that proves that directed intention "manifests itself as both electrical and magnetic energy to produce an ordered stream of photons, visible and measurable by sensitive equipment."

This extends to life forms of all varieties.

The Popp experiments with biophotons, the tiny particles of light emitted by all living things, reveals that there is a "telepathic communication carrying on between every living thing and its environment. Somehow a constant stream of messages was being sent out, received, and replied to."

"At first Popp believed that a living organism used biophoton emissions solely as a means of instantaneous, non local signalling from one part of the body to another -- to send information about the global sate of the body's health... But then Popp grew intrigued by the most fascinating effect of all: the light seemed to be a communication system between living things." Popp was working with fleas and fluorescent seawater algea; his colleagues had bigger fish to net. Dutch psychologist Eduard Van Wijk wondered about communication between two entities and living organisms in their path. "When a healer sends out healing intention, for instance, how far does his field of influence extend? He placed a jar of algea near a healer and his patient, then measured the photon emissions and discovered remarkable alterations that indicated that this simple life form had indeed been "bombarded with light."

Time to back up a minute for a confession.

Before I read the chapter, "Two Way Street" in The Intention Experiment, I was too embarrassed to discuss some of the experiments that are going on in my own house. Now I'm ready. Did you know that one of our country's leading lie-detector experts, Cleve Backster, used very precise equipment to prove that plants are far more sensitive than humans in picking up energy -- not just light, and not just the energy within their own environment, but also human thought, and learning from it? They even become attuned to their caretaker, so much that Backster had to automate his experiments and get others to perform them remotely so that his feelings wouldn't impact the outcome. He was ridiculed for forty years.

A Russian doctor of botany, Alexander Dubrov, confirmed Backster's results independently and wrote the bestselling The Secret Life of Plants. So that ought to vindicate those of us who believe in a "more inclusive intelligence." Not so. In fact Esquire awarded Dubrov one of their "100 Dubious Achievement Awards" and made up the disparaging summary: "Scientist claims Yogurt talks to itself."

Since this is a journal, the reason I bring this up now, is that I took down my Christmas tree yesterday. I'm ready to take my research out of the closet and report, for the record that, yes, poor dear, there was no more energy being transmitted through my pendulum when I touched her needles.

When I first put her up, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, fresh from Walmart, she was holding every needle so tightly and circling madly counterclockwise. I watered with regular water, but she was still mad. The next week I switched to hydrogen-charged water, and touched her needles in her midsection with my right hand as I held my crystal pendulum in my left. Okay, truthfully, I wasn't expecting anything to change -- actually I hadn't expected a reaction in the first place. But it did! The pendulum spun clockwise. I don't know if it was my magic water, or that she was recovering from her trauma. But a month later she's over the balcony, covered in four feet of snow.

This all sound nuts, I know. But let's hold onto our sense of humor and allow ourselves to suspend disbelief.

I bet dear Albert would agree.

Reiki Basics and the Laws of Intention

Just for Today:

... I will give thanks for my many blessings

... I will not worry

... I will not be angry

... I will do my work honestly

... I will be kind to every living thing



The Reiki Principles

Yesterday I checked off one New Year's resolution by attending a Reiki Level One Workshop with Kim our Reiki Master, her assistant, three other initiates and two professionals with related experience. Kim instructed us to keep a personal journal and integrate some kind of cleansing ritual during the next ten to 21 days as we integrate the first level initiation -- our attunement -- into our consciousness. So here's the first entry into that journal.

Reiki One is "an emotional quest within yourself, an unfolding of your own potential as a visionary human being. The attunement process is an initiation into remembering who you are and why you are here."

I see very little differences in the practice of Reiki and what I have been learning through the CHI program at Mercy Hospital, Healing Therapy. Both involve a laying on of hands to direct energies to restore harmony and balance to promote self-healing. Both are considered to be sacred healing arts, philosophically directed by compassion but requiring no specific spiritual orientation. Both are designed to work best in synergy with other practices.

Here lies a significant deviation. Healing Therapy uses the same basic techniques, but at service to the more traditional, allopathic treatments received at a hospital or under a physician's direction. Practitioners are required to practice at least 100 sessions before receiving certification, half volunteering under hospital supervision. CHI awards certificates after one year of practice.



Reiki leans left and looser. Initiates can pay the price and "get certified" as a Master in just one weekend. It isn't difficult to grasp the basic concepts. Reiki proponents believe we are BORN knowing them, and unlearn them as we get older. It's part of our genetic code. The time and effort applies to spirtual integration, learning to actually Live the Art on a conscious level. For this reason, Kim has designed her program to allow several weeks between levels to allow the attunement to demonstrate its affect. We will become "Reiki Masters" before we complete the CHI program we began three months ago.



Kim describes the practitioner as "a hollow bone" who through "intent and alighnment allows the synthesis of healing to occur."



I am reading an important book now, "The Intention Experiment" by Lynne McTaggart, who came to fame in What the Bleep. The word INTENTION has taken on new importance in the scientific community as of late. I studied plenty of physics at IIT, a geek school, in the late seventies and became really intrigued with Quantum Physics. All those studies were based on the Scientific Method and Newtonian Principals -- fascinating but cumbersome to my esoteric mind. We all knew there was MORE that we could not define. What really trips my trigger is that Lynne is uncovering all sorts of "mystical" observations in academic experiments -- the actual Effects of Attention and Intention. The MORE that scientists couldn't quantify or explain is contained in our own thoughts and INTENTIONS through observable ENERGY fields in which we are all connected.



"The Intention Experiment forces you to rethink what it is to be human. It proves we're connected to everyone and everything -- and that discovery demands that we pay better attention to our thoughts, intentions, and actions."



Through the laws of INTENTION, you can empower yourself to change your life and your world. Through healing therapy, or Reiki, you can direct that power to help another person.



It begins with ATTENTION, center your focus completely on the person and the task at hand. As you do so, open your being to Unconditional Love, so there is no possibility of negative channelling. Then you can direct yourself toward the Highest Good, without expectation of result.



Sample Prayer:

"Bring this life into harmony with Divine Purpose.... I am open and present. Protect me, guide me, direct me toward the Highest Good for All. Thank You!"



As our hands move from head to toe, over the person, then back, we can actually feel areas of concern. We never need to physically touch the person, but we may, to assure them of our presence, if we feel it would make them more comfortable. We focus on seven major chakra vortexes from root to crown and spread the energy with our hands using long graceful strokes in the air. This looks ridiculous to uninitiated observers. But it works.



"There is nothing manipulative involved with this practice as it serves as an offering of Light and unconditional Love. The beauty of an energy session ... is that it always remains the choice of the one being healed to accept or deny that gift." Kim said it's like walking around with a golden plate, reflected with all this radiant energy. "If the gift has been denied it comes directly back to the healer."



Medical studies have uncovered the following measurable effects:

Stress and anxiety reduction,

Almost instantaneous relaxation response

Lower blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate

Reduced bleeding, increased red blood cell count

Insomnia relief

Ease of depression

Reduced pain

Note that nobody is talking about a cure here. If that happens it is 100% attributable to the energy forces within the receiver who has directed the energy where it needs and wants to be.

"Reiki is at least 2,500 years old, traceable to early Buddhism. Some believe that Jesus used Reiki as his healing methodology." It was brought to Hawaii in the twentieth century by Hawaya Takata who taught it to 22 Reiki Masters before her death in 1980. In 1995 there were only 750 Reiki Masters in the world. Now there are thousands, who can all trace their lineage to Dr. Usui the Grand Master in Japan. Considering the laws of exponential growth we can assume these Masters, on the loose and certified to pass on their training, will indoctrinate legions of practitioners.



My whispered prayer, unspoken until now, is that the core principal of Unconditonal Love will outweigh the attraction to a quick fix and easy money. The more I study the subject, the more I respect the underlying principals and love the champions who are spreading the light. I hope we'll keep the perspective clear and our intentions honest.

In the attunement, each of us was asked to reveal our intentions as to what we wanted to get from Reiki. My message was strong and clear: research and education.

I want to be one of the enlightened messengers, one who has seen the light and helps spread the news: The Light is Already Here, all around you. We are in a time of profound change and need more enlightened souls to guide us all to the Highest Good.

So bear with my stories and tell me some of yours. Let's see how far around the world we can send this.

Let the Sunshine In

"From the point of Light within the Mind of God,
let light stream forth into the minds of men."

The Great Invocation, a mantra given in 1937 to Alice Bailey by Djwhal Khul.


So many wonderful teachers have written enlightened texts and music inspired by the concept of a New Age, founded by the feisty Alice Bailey in the first half of the 20th century. Most of us in the Western World didn’t know there was such a movement underfoot until we heard about the Age of Aquarius in the 60s. Let the Sunshine in. Remember the time when hippies, yoga and yogis seemed so sweet and strange? “Establishment” press poked fun as most of mainstream America joined in on the ridicule.

But something was taking hold on the psyches of millions, growing from the inherent truths within both the “hippie” and “New Age” phenomena. In hindsight, it appears that there was a fast and furious break-though period that just happens to coincide pretty well with another “happening:” the global Harmonic Convergence of August 16th and 17th, 1987.

WIKIPEDIA: “The event was centered on a number of "sacred" places throughout the world … where individuals ... gathered to usher in a new era. Mount Shasta, Stonehenge, Sedona, Arizona, the Golden Gate Bridge, Bolinas, California, Haleakala, Crestone, Colorado, as well as Dunn Meadow in Bloomington, Indiana, were believed to be "focus locations".

The date of the Harmonic Convergence was based to some extent on the Mayan Calendar with some consideration also given to European and Asian astrological traditions. The chosen dates have the distinction of marking an alignment of the planets of the solar system. The Harmonic Convergence was a global awakening to love and unity through divine transformation and divine channeling of sacred information... According to (an) interpretation of Maya cosmology, the selected date marked the end of … nine "hell" cycles … and the beginning of a new age of universal peace. Adherents believed that signs indicated a "major energy shift" was about to occur, a turning point in Earth's collective karma and dharma, and that this energy was powerful enough to change the global perspective of man from one of conflict to one of co-operation… allowing access to higher realms of awareness…

The Harmonic Convergence also began the final 26-year countdown to the end of the Mayan Long Count in 2012, which would be the "end of history" and the beginning of a new 5,125-year cycle. All the evils of the modern world—war, materialism, violence, abuses, injustice, governmental abuses of power, etc.—would end with the birth of the 6th Sun and the 5th Earth on December 21, 2012.*

Believers of this esoteric prophecy maintain that the Harmonic Convergence ushered in a five-year period of Earth's "cleansing", where many of the planet's "false structures of separation" would collapse. The subsequent events of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the breakup of the Soviet Union, the reunification of West and East Germany, and the ending of apartheid in South Africa were taken as evidence of the Earth's "cleansing.”
…
Many individuals taking part in the Convergence claimed to have received divine guidance from the astral realms about the current state of Earth and the necessity of transformation. Many others made claims of personal transfiguration and revelation…The highly publicized event brought the New Age movement into the public eye… a permanent, if still limited, part of mainstream American culture.
According to some in the New Age community, the Harmonic Convergence also sparked the birth of sacred travel, or metaphysical tourism, as well as opening the gate to the reception of sacred information.

If you think about it, a flurry of great New Age material made the Best Seller List within the next ten years including A Course in Miracles and The Celestine Prophecy, which was initially self-published in due to lack of mainstream interest. The first I read was Deepak Chopra’s 1986 book Creating Health which proposed a dramatic change in attitude, (which he later strengthened in 1993 with Ageless Body, Timeless Mind.) Although I did not know it at the time, this radical shift prepared me to take part in this movement, just as the gates were scheduled to open, when I accepted the position of art director and associate editor of Medical Insights magazine.

“Medical Insights to make over 9 million housecalls” read the optimistic headline from Medical Advertising News April 15, 1987. Our publisher, Virgil L. Williams, MD said, “We want to reach the masses with a message from the healthcare community that individuals must take responsibility for their own health needs, and to provide to them information on which they can make informed choices.” Due to Dr. Williams influence, MI became the first consumer publication to receive the endorsement of the AMA (by serving on its advisory board). But when advertisers realized that the “informed choices” we were offering the public included “alternative” modalities, such as chiropractic, acupuncture, acupressure, nutrition, meditation and yoga, they grew skeptical and withheld support forcing bankruptcy in 1989.

Today, each and every one of the “alternative” concepts we promoted has grown dramatically in acceptance. And the radical Dr. Chopra is considered one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

Americans are growing in their discontent with a health care system that no longer makes sense. growing in their distrust of what is often perceived as paternalistic practices on the part of healthcare practitioners. More and more people trust information they can get on the internet, over and above the advice they get from their physicians. We are searching and finding answers in areas we derided 20 years ago.

At the same time, inappropriate lifestyle decisions are gravely diminishing the quality of life for many across the globe. We can do something about it and we are. The world view is changing as more and more people take control of their lifestyle and healthcare choices.



* I chuckled as I read this part about 2012. Didn't we all, not too long ago? Could any of us have believed, or predicted, the fallout of 2008, even just one year ago today? "All the evils of the modern world -- war, materialism, violence, abuses, injustice, governmental abuses of power, etc.—would end" around the time of President Obama's first term in office... Wouldn't that be GREAT!

Let the Sunshine In…