Taking Charge of Your Health

The Three Pillars of Radiant Health

Originally published on Fearless Parent, like us on Facebook

Hey Parents, This New Normal Ain’t OK

Two hundred years ago, English poet William Wordsworth bemoaned man’s preoccupation with the material world and our lost connection to nature and what truly matters. Can you relate? We are so attuned to the rhythms of social and daily commerce around us that new realities normalize and we settle for them. Even when they aren’t remotely acceptable.

This is the U.S. today:

* rank among developed countries

The new childhood normal is deeply unsettling. What’s a mama to do?

The Three Pillars of Radiant Health

Whenever there’s a health issue, medical anthropologist Syd Singer suggests we ask: What am I doing that may be causing the problem? Intrepid parents are asking the question. To find answers, we’re scouring the scientific literature, consulting researchers, acknowledging anecdotal and clinical experience, examining global best practices, and accessing ancestral wisdom.

When it comes to my family’s health, I rely on a few foundational principles that serve as guideposts for the many issues that come up. If you’re already pregnant or hoping to be soon, this two-part series focuses on the important things you can do to give your baby the best chance for a healthy start (and it’ll help the rest of your family, too). Preconception, they apply to mom and dad (and it pays to start early). Post birth, they apply to everyone. Here are the three pillars of radiant health:

Pillar #1: RESPECT THE MICROBIOME

Human health, immunity, and well-being pivot on a vast microbial foundation called the human microbiome. This is the total complement of microorganisms residing in and on our skin, and deep inside the body, including but not limited to the full length of our mucosal linings, from our nasal and oral membranes down through the gastrointestinal tract and beyond. One hundred trillion microbes — as many as three pound’s worth – call us home. The microbiome is an entire ecosystem teeming with 10,000 species of bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and more. Most of these microbes are benign or actively protective and productive. Watch this fantastic TEDx talk by researcher Jeroen Raes.

We owe a lot to our microbiome. It houses over two-thirds of our immune system. It produces important vitamins, such as B12 and K2. It synthesizes our own private stash of “feel good” chemicals, like dopamine, serotonin, and GABA. It inhibits colonization of pathogens by competing for attachment sites and essential nutrients (how cool is that?). New research offers tantalizing connections between the microbiome and what ails us, including:

Among other studies, the NIH is looking to better understand the vaginal microbiome during pregnancy. Fantastic, right? It’s a brave new microbial world.

Protect your microbiota. They are the guardians at the gate and the wizard behind the curtain. There’s an unfathomable intelligence in these bugs. Thank God.

Pillar #2: FOOD IS MEDICINE

It’s not just a matter of giving our engines good fuel to keep our bodies running efficiently. There’s an entirely separate idea that shouldn’t be revolutionary, but it is. It is the idea that food is medicine. For real. It can heal us. If we change how we eat, we can change our lives. The corollary, of course, is that, if food is so important, then the wrong food can be harmful and increase our risk of chronic illness.

Tempted though we might be on occasion, we can’t, don’t, and shouldn’t eat all day. We’re busy and we’re probably not getting what we need. We want every bite we take to count. This is true for babies, too. It’s why you will hear that we must eat densely. We’re talking about food that’s chock-full of of the good stuff we need to power up, build and repair tissues, and sustain life. The collection of chemical reactions in which our bodies engage to convert or use energy is called metabolism. Digestion, respiration, elimination, and circulation. It’s what keeps us alive and kicking. Metabolism uses nutrients. Carbs, fats, and proteins provide 100% of the body’s energy. Vitamins and minerals are “co-factors” the body needs for metabolism to take place.

There’s a food revolution underway. It’s highlighting the many different ways to eat and providing a “feast” of new research and cutting edge ideas, with online and community-based education, conversation, and support. People are doing phenomenal things for their health with food.

Changing how and what you eat can help your body to be more efficient at doing what it does best: keeping you alive and helping you thrive.

Pillar #3: LESS IS MORE

We are a consumerist society. We love stuff and believe that the latest is the greatest. We embrace better living through innovation in science, medicine, and technology, which we equate with progress. If one is good, more is better, and before we know it, we find ourselves wanting as much as possible of something we never really needed in the first place. This is why reality shows feature Hoarders and Storage WarsPODS appear on front lawns, and 70% of Americans take prescription drugs (and 19 million abuse them).

It’s my nature to jump in and take action, but that’s not the case when I’m addressing my children’s health. I start with the premise that less is more. Our bodies hold more intelligence about what we need to be well than I could ever hope to acquire and orchestrate on my own. I have a definite bias against medical interventions. All things equal, I prefer to say “no, thank you” to a drug, treatment, or a procedure, especially when one (or more) of these things is true:

  • There’s no emergency.
  • It’s something new.
  • I don’t understand it.
  • It sounds too good to be true.
  • I don’t think we need it.
  • There are risks.
  • I’m feeling pressured.
  • It makes me nervous.
  • There’s a PR firm behind it.

As pediatrician Larry Palevsky says to fretting parents: “Don’t just do something. Stand there.”

The toxins in allopathic drugs and medical treatment are just one category of toxic environmental exposure. It’s a numbers game and less is definitely more. Contrary to what you might hear, there’s no debate. Environmental toxins are absolutely implicated in most of what ails us, from illness, autism, and cancer to brain damage and birth defects. Beware when people say: “the body can handle it,” “the risk is worth the benefit,” or “the genie is out of the bottle.” They’re trying to comfort themselves or convince you to do something you may not want to do. Here’s what I can say for sure:

  • Everyone isn’t born with the same genetic strengths and vulnerabilities.
  • Everyone doesn’t inherit the same degree of transgenerational toxicity.
  • Everyone doesn’t live in the same place and do the same things.
  • Our world is more toxic.
  • Less is better.
  • If you’re worried, pay attention. You’re onto something.
  • It’s not their body. It’s yours.

We’re not in control of all our toxic exposures. However, we are in control of many of them. Choosing non-toxic substitutes can make a big difference, particularly since we’re subjected to some of these substances multiple times a day, or all day and all night, over very long periods of time. We apply toxins directly in and on our bodies, and on things that come into contact with our bodies. This includes all the activities that comprise our waking and resting moments, when we eat, drink, clean, cook, primp, wash, brush, protect, entertain, travel, medicate, decorate, renovate, fix, furnish, exercise, work, romp, and sleep.

We should decrease toxic overwhelm to be kind to our precious organs and pathways of detoxification and excretion. When they’re not optimized, bad things start to happen.

Fearless Parent is the thinking parent’s daily dose of unconventional, evidence-based news about health, wellness, green living, and holistic parenting choices. Find them on FacebookTwitterPinterest, and on the air.

Louise Kuo Habakus runs Fearless Parent, an online media platform combining her passion for health/wellness, green living, scientific research, and holistic parenting. She is a published author, runs a nonprofit think tank, and is the lead host/producer of the popular Fearless Parent Radio. Louise was a Bain consultant and C-level financial services executive, and holds two degrees from Stanford University.

from:    http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/three-pillars-radiant-health

Nonlocality & Universal Consciousness

Holographic Reality of Being: The Nonlocal Universal Mind

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We experience material reality in the form of separate objects.  However, modern physics is developing a conceptual understanding of the physical universe as an interconnected whole.  New scientific insights concerning the nature of reality in relation to quantum theory are beginning to produce a new understanding in which nothing is separable from anything else.  We are beginning to find that although this perceived separation between material objects is experientially real, it is not ultimately real.

Quantum Crystalizations of the Non-local Universal Mind
Let us begin with the classical misconception by addressing the fundamental assumptions of Newtonian physics.  In a very general sense, it was thought that science could be used to lift the veil of man’s ignorance to reveal the ultimate reality that existed out there.  It was assumed that physical objects existed separate from each other.  They were also seen as existing separate from space.  The classical conception of the relationship between physical reality and space is analogous to the relationship of billiard balls to a pool table.  The behavior of physical reality was described as the interactions of the billiard balls.  The table itself was seen as completely separate from what occurred on it.  In this way, classical physics viewed space as nothing more than an arena where the interactions of physical objects took place.With the advent of Einstein’s theory of relativity, new relationships were taken into account.  Specifically, it was observed that physical reality was inseparable from the spatial structure.  In relativistic physics, material reality was still described as separately existent objects interacting like billiard balls.  However, the connection was made between the structure of the billiard balls and the structure of the pool table on which the game was played.  Ultimately, time and space, which were previously considered independent of each other, were now seen to be relative or related to each other through the underlying spatial structure of space-time.

It wasn’t long after Einstein’s insight into the interconnectedness of space and time that a new science began to emerge which we call quantum physics.  This strange new science, which physicists encountered as they peered deeper and deeper in the structure of the atom, revealed a reality that was everything but consistent with common sense.  By this I mean that the predictions the theory makes about the nature of reality do not correspond to our usual sensory perception of physical reality.  However, quantum theory is the most accurate method physicists have for predicting the behavior of physical reality.

One startling feature of the quantum model is that electrons, as well as other subatomic particles, are not really objects at all.  In addition, an electron can manifest as either a wave or a particle.  An electron can be fired at a screen to reveal a tiny point of light, thus clearly revealing the particle-like side of its nature.  However, the electron can also behave as a blurry cloud of energy.  If fired at a barrier, in which two slits have been cut, the electron can go through both slits simultaneously.

A popular interpretation of the evidence suggests that the electron manifests as a particle only when it is being observed.  For example, when an electron isn’t being looked at, experimental findings suggest that it is always a wave.  In another slightly different interpretation, it is the method of observation that determines which aspect of the electrons nature will manifest.  Conceptually, we could say that what we experience as physical reality does not exist in a defined or definite state prior to the act of observation.  Similarly, it is the act of observation itself which somehow defines the state of physical reality.  This line of thought represents a radical break from classical physics in that there is no longer any reality out there which we are struggling to uncover.  For indeed, any interaction we make somehow effects that which we are trying to observe.

Quantum theory also predicts another fascinating phenomena which is known as non-locality.  It is quite obvious to our sensory perception of physical reality that things have specific locations.  However, David Bohm, a protégé of Einstein and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists, held the view that at the quantum level, location ceased to exist.  In other words, all points in space became equal to all other points in space, and it was meaningless to speak of anything as being separate from anything else.  A non-local interaction links up one location with another without crossing space, without decay, and without delay.  Simply put, a non-local interaction is unmediated, unmitigated, and immediate.

Bohm’s conception of non-locality enabled him to give an explanation for what is known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, or EPR paradox.  In short, the paradox describes the problem of how two twin particles can seemingly communicate instantaneously which each other.  The problem is that, according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, let alone instantaneously.  Bohm’s interpretation of the EPR paradox is that the twin particles are not separate, but non-locally connected.

In 1964, a theoretical physicist named John Stewart Bell devised a simple and elegant mathematical proof which demonstrated how non-locality could be experimentally verified.  This proof is known as Bell’s theorem.  The only problem was that the testing of his theorem required a level of technological precision that was not yet available. It wasn’t until 1982 that physicists Alain Aspect, Jean Dalibard and Gerard Roger of the Institute of Optics at the University of Paris succeeded in verifying the twin particle test that had been outlined by Bell.

In what is now known as the Aspect experiments, the non-local effect was demonstrated by producing a series of twin particles, allowing them to travel in opposite directions, and then measuring certain characteristics of the particles.  Quantum particles, when observed, display what is known as a spin state.  In general, this characteristic comes in complementary pairs, such as an up or down spin state.  In order to understand the type of experiments performed by Aspect and his team, let’s consider the following simple variation.  Imagine two particles which together have a zero net spin state.   That is they each have opposite spin states relative the other, thus cancelling when they are combined.  However, according to quantum theory, the precise state of each particle’s spin characteristic is undefined until it is observed.  Since the two particles must have opposite spin states, determining the spin state of one of the particles through observation determines the spin state of the other particle.

In quantum theory, the spin states do not just exist to be revealed by observation.  The spin states are in some way the product of observation.  So, the observation and determination of one spin state then gives the other particle a spin state.  Prior to the initial observation, each particle has only a potential spin state, which when determined, has to be the opposite of the other.  In the experiments led by Aspect, the particles fly away from each other at the speed of light and are allowed to travel a relatively great distance.   Then, a primary measurement is made to determine the spin of one of the particles.  After this measurement has been made, the spin state of the second particle is measured and is always observed to be in the opposite spin state relative to the first.  For a more rigorous explanation of the actual way this experiment would be conducted, please refer to the text of Quantum Dynamics of Morphing Psy ~ Trance ~ Formations.

The amazing thing is that the observation of one particle instantaneously determines the spin state of the other particle regardless of the distance separating them.   It doesn’t matter if they’re ten feet apart or ten billion miles apart.  The question could be stated, how is information transferred between two apparently separate particles faster than the speed of light?  A number of theories have arisen which attempt to account for hidden variables that somehow facilitate the unseen cause and effect relationship whereby one particle affects the other.  However, these theories avoid the most obvious conclusion, which is that the apparent separateness of the particles is itself an illusion.  The separateness is not ultimately real.  Non-locality is simply a manifestation of the ultimate unity underlying what we experience as separate physical objects.

Holographic Mental Interference
Artwork by Cameron Gray

As we shall see, these ideas are very consistent with concepts which describe the universe in terms of holographic principles.  Before we proceed further into our exploration of unity, it is necessary to understand some of the basic ideas of holograms.  A hologram is produced when a single laser beam is split into two separate beams.  The first beam is bounced off the object whose image is to be recorded.  The second beam is reflected off a mirror and allowed to collide with the reflected light of the first.  When this happens, the two parts of the beam create an interference pattern that is recorded on a piece of film called a holographic plate.

It is this phenomena of interference which makes holography possible.  Interference is simply a pattern that is created when waves move through each other.  Consider what happens when if you drop two pebbles in a pond.  Each pebble will produce a set of waves that form concentric circles which radiate outward from the point of impact.  As the waves from each pebble expand, they will at some point collide, and the pattern that results is known as the interference pattern.

The pattern that is recorded on the holographic plate looks absolutely nothing like the object which was used to make the recording.  Basically, it looks like a bunch of chaotic swirl’s and concentric rings.  However, once another laser beam is used to illuminate the film, a three-dimensional image of the original object reappears.  You can walk around the image and view it from different angles, but if you attempt to grab it, you’ll find that there is really nothing there.

The most striking property of holograms is that the whole image is contained in each part of the film.  If you take the original film, on which the interference pattern is recorded, and cut it in half, you will find that the entire image can be projected by illuminating only half of the whole.  In fact, you can cut the holographic plate into as many pieces as you want and you’ll find that each piece, when illuminated, produces smaller versions of the whole image.

At this point, we can easily begin to draw some very interesting connections between the concepts we’ve addressed.  In the holographic model, we say that the information of the whole is contained in each part.  This is the same thing as saying that the information is distributed non-locally. We have also found that, at the quantum level, all particles are also waves.  Thus, all of physical reality is essentially nothing but interference patterns.

It might be a good idea for us to contemplate the meaning of this last statement for a moment.  Imagine an endless web of energy patterns.  Science has discovered that, at the quantum level, these waves of energy are connected non-locally.  This means that every portion of the pattern is infinitely interconnected with every other portion.  It is essential to remember that we are not objective observers to this field of crisscrossing frequency patterns.  We are it.

David Bohm suggests the possibility that this underlying unity of existence produces the physical world in the same way as a holographic plate produces a hologram.  Could it be that our experiential perception of separateness is nothing more than a holographic illusion?  Bohm describes the deeper level of reality as the “implicate”, or enfolded, order.  He refers to the level of reality of our everyday experience, as the “explicate”, or unfolded, order. This is not to say that our physical existence is unreal.  However, it is helpful to understand it simply as a secondary reality.

Let us consider what we are really observing when we perceive a physical object.  Consider the paper you are reading and words on the page.  What you see out there is not what exists directly where it seems to be.  You are perceiving a holographic blur of frequency patterns that are translated into a pattern of neural stimulation, which in turn is experienced as the object out there.  In fact, the process of determining that the object exists out there occurs only in your mind’s interpretation of the neural stimulation.  When you look up at the stars, you are seeing light that left the stars millions and perhaps billions of years ago.  Again, we are not seeing what is there directly; we are seeing a pattern of neural stimulation created by our interpretation of the light.  “The same holds true for all the physical senses.

What you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell are all ultimately patterns of neuronal stimulation that in some way correlates with what is out there, but still are not really that.” The frequencies that are translated into neural stimulation are, in and of themselves, colorless, textureless, and tasteless.  The qualities we experience through sensory perception are created by the mind and represent an “explicate” order or secondary reality.

Our material reality is but a filtered version of the ultimate unity which connects everything.  This filtered version creates separateness because it only perceives bits and pieces of the whole at a time.  If we could remove the filter, we would experience reality directly as an interference pattern where all information is distributed non-locally.  Again, let’s not forget that we are this pattern.  Your hands, this paper, the trees outside the window, our solar system, the entire universe; it’s all a seamless, unbroken extension of everything else.  It is one thing.  If this is true, then there can be no objective reality because the observer, the process of observing, and the observed become one thing.

Morphogenesis & Dynamic Relativity  

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Let us contemplate and consider how the uncut fundamental wholeness of all reality became the differentiated reality of our experience.  Firstly, we’ll begin by introducing the concept of absolute existence.  Absolute existence is the uncut whole from which the pieces of reality emerge.  Conceptually, absolute existence is undefined and un-bordered existence.  As we will see, absolute existence is equivalent to existent nothingness.  Nothing does not mean non-existence.  It simply means that what does exist is not definable as this or that, and therefore, no-thing.  Absolute existence has no structure, and thus, contains no boundaries that could be used to define here in relation to there.  “Physical reality is the reality of objects, the reality of things.We hear things, we see things, we feel things, we taste things, we smell things. Throughout life we have assumed that all those things exist as defined things independent of our experience of them as those things.” However, as noted in our discussion of quantum theory, science has found that this may not be the case.  The defined thing-ness of those things we experience cannot exist except in relation to our experience of them.

In fact, any thing that can be experienced only exists in relation to something else.  We may experience up and think that up is independently up; however, up can only be up in relation to down.  Likewise, we experience hot and think that hot is independently hot, not aware that hot can only be hot in relation to cold.  “The same is true for everything that we experience, in that whatever we experience something to be, it can only be that in relation to some other aspect of existence that is not-that.” This form of existence can be termed relational existence: existence that is what it is in relationship to some other aspect of existence.

While absolute existence is structureless, relational existence has structure.  In order to get from the uncut boundless non-structure of absolute existence to the structure of relational existence, the system must undergo some transformation or process.  In order for the one thing to become two things, the one thing must polarize itself.  It is this process of dualization whereby absolute existence forms a relationship with itself.  Thus, some relational existence is defined in terms of some other relational existence.  “Once relative realities exist, there exists a level of structure within existence.  The existence of this relational structure allows existence to form other relationships with itself.”

In other words, absolute existence does not dualize just once, but does so over and over again, repeatedly and progressively.  What this means is that the relational realities produced by each level of dualization themselves undergo the process of dualization, resulting in the creation of two new relational realities within each preceding level of relational existence.  This process of repeated and progressive dualization creates an interconnected structure of relational realities which we can call a relational matrix.

Regardless of how many times existence dualizes, the underlying reality will always be that of unity and interconnectedness.  Although we experience reality as seemingly separate pieces, the fundamental reality form which that perception arises is that of oneness, whereby nothing is separable from anything else.  Each part of the structure, each reality cell, contains some of the existence of all the other reality cells.  Thus, each part of the structure is a reflection of the whole.

Since any localized area of existence has the quality of a-where-ness, then a non-localized area of existence, which would be everywhere, would not have a-where-ness, but would have the quality of every-where-ness or no-where-ness.  This unbordered every-where-ness is consciousness.  Consciousness exists everywhere, and thus no-where.  Absolute existence, as we’ve defined it, can be considered as existent nothingness, because it exists without the borders which define a thing.  It is no-thing and no-where, because it is everywhere.  Absolute existence is consciousness.

Any attempt to transcend the duality of existence inherent to our experience can seem hopeless until one realizes that they are an inseparable part of whatever it is that exists.  Therefore, we have access to whatever it is that exists directly because of the inescapable fact that we are that.  At the deeper “implicate” level of reality, you are infinitely connected to everything else that is.  You are connected to every other person, organism, and atom in the universe; thus, you are all these things.  Similarly, your thoughts are infinitely connected to all thoughts.  Being that the image of the whole is contained within each part, the whole universe is within you.  The information of the whole is distributed non-locally, and therefore you have access to all of it.  Your mind is the Universal Mind.

All relative realities are created by consciousness existing in relation to itself.  “We are that consciousness.  We are that consciousness existing in relation to itself and interacting with itself.”  There is nothing else.  None of the things we perceive as separate have an independent existence, as all are in actuality relational extensions of the underlying unity of consciousness.  “Physical reality is a product of consciousness.  Consciousness is not a product of physical reality. Physical reality does not interact with itself in some unknown fashion to cause consciousness to come into existence. Consciousness in the process of repeated and progressive self-relation becomes the awareness of experience, and thus creates physical reality.”

We have seen that we cannot directly experience the true texture of quantum reality because everything we look at crystallizes into matter.  For the same reason, we can never experience consciousness as consciousness.  When the unbordered, structureless-ness of consciousness attempts to look at itself, it creates a relational structure or frame of reference, experienced as a relative state of awareness.  Consciousness can only experience itself through its creation.  This a wonderful thing because here we are, armed with the understanding that nothing is truly separable from anything else, and experiencing ourselves as all that is.  Separateness is an illusion.  Fundamentally, your true self is not other than the indestructible, unbordered, structruless-ness of consciousness.  To put it another way, you are the Source.  The Universe is your body.  The understanding of this truth gives rise to the experience of unconditional love for all frequencies because they all exist within you.

from:  http://www.shift.is/2014/09/holographic-reality-nonlocal-universal-mind

More on the Pineal Gland

Raising Your Vibration – How To Crack Open Your Pineal Gland

How To Crack Open Your Pineal Gland - Raising Your Vibration8th September 2014

By Joshua Eagle

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

In order for us to tap into our deepest states of intuition, intelligence and spiritual enlightenment, it is necessary to unlock and activate our brain’s Pineal Gland. Commonly referred to by ancient cultures and mystics as “the third eye,” our pineal gland sits in the center of our brain between our right and left hemispheres and is responsible for producing neurotransmitters such as serotonin and melatonin.

Yet, the pineal gland wasn’t bestowed the name “third eye” for just any random reason. Rather, when dissected from the brain, it is found that the pineal gland actually contains photoreceptors just like our own two seeing eyes and is activated by light transmitted through our two eyes. This sunlight transmitted through our eyes stimulates the pineal gland’s production of serotonin and further works to strengthen the gland’s ability to break free of specific harmful chemicals that can encrust it. As well, the pineal gland is also stimulated by darkness, in which the gland responds by producing melatonin to help induce us into sleep.

Sun -> Serotonin

Moon -> Melatonin

Decalcify and Detoxify Your Pineal Gland

As a result of our natural biological make up, the pineal gland is not protected by the blood brain barrier and therefore does not have an extra line of defense against harmful toxins that enter the bloodstream. Specific toxins, such as synthetic fluoride and synthetic calcium, are specifically shown to have an affinity for the pineal gland, weakening its abilities to produce our neurotransmitters and receive photons of light from the sun, moon and stars.

However, it is important to distinguish the difference between synthetic fluoride and synthetic calcium versus organic fluoride and organic calcium. If received from plant sources, such as vegetables and other organic foods, calcium and fluoride are healthy essential minerals. Yet, when fluoride and calcium are synthetically manufactured through industrial processing and added to tap water, vitamin supplements, toothpastes, fortified cereals and various other products, these synthetic minerals are shown to have detrimental affects to the pineal gland as well as numerous other organs of the body.

Before beginning to activate one’s pineal gland, it is to necessary to remove the toxic chemicals that prevent it from working, such as synthetic fluoride, synthetic calcium, pharmaceutical medications and other toxins mentioned above. If you are drinking tap water, then look to replace this with purer and safer options, such as natural spring water, well water, reverse osmosis water, or carbon-filtered water. From there, one can work to remove any vitamin supplements, mineral fortified foods and toothpastes containing added fluoride or calcium. Last but not least, one can take five minutes out of their day to install a carbon shower filter which works to remove chlorine, fluoride, used toilet paper particles and other impurities from tap water that can enter our bodies through the skin, pores and lungs when we shower.

How to Activate Your Pineal Gland

After one has begun removing the impurities that prevent the pineal gland from being activated, they can start implementing practices that work to stimulate and grow their pineal gland’s functioning and abilities. A great practice that one can do throughout their life is that of meditating. The act of meditating works to stimulate the chakra system of our brain and body that’s responsible for conducting and generating life-force energy. Meditating specifically guides bioelectric and zero-point energy to the pineal gland allowing for greater states of clarity and intuition to come into our conscious life.

After meditation, a more advanced exercise modality which works to activate the pineal gland as well as all of the body’s chakra points is that of Kundalini Yoga. The Kundalini which rests coiled in the lowest chakra of our spine is a transducer of energy which rises farther up the spine through the practice until finally reaching the pineal gland/third eye chakra. Upon activating the Kundalini and growing its pathway to the pineal gland, one is able to merge the photon celestial energy of the sun and cosmos with that of the physical body which roots to the Earth. Being that the bones of our skeletal system are technically piezoelectric crystals at the core, the Kundalini energy rises and flows through the crystal bones of the spine, activating the 33 vertebrae points one by one until reaching the crown and pineal gland energy points at the top levels of the upper spine.

Nutrition for Your Pineal Gland

In the food category, numerous options are available for accelerating and detoxifying our brain’s pineal gland. As a foundation, one should look to comprise the percentage of foods in their diet to a highest degree of organic plants and animals as possible. Eating organic adds a buffer to protect oneself from pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, GMO’s and other harmful chemical laden substances that can wreak havoc on our mental and physical health.

Foods that specifically support and activate the pineal gland are tumeric (tea and raw), cacao beans, green plants and vegetables, wild harvested spring water, reishi mushroom tea, grass juices, beets, apple cider vinegar and others. Supplements one can use to help detoxify and activate the pineal gland are zeolite tinctures, bentonite clay, organic MSM powder and ormus gold. Begin activating your pineal gland today and tap into levels of your higher self that lay dormant, calling to be awakened.

from:    http://wakeup-world.com/2014/09/08/raising-your-vibration-how-to-crack-open-your-pineal-gland/

Ervin Lazlo on Evolved Consciousness

The Ten Point Credo of an Evolved Consciousness

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1. I am part of the world. The world is not outside of me, and I am not outside of the world. The world is in me, and I am in the world.

2. I am more than a skin-and-bone material organism: my body, and its cells and organs are manifestations of what is truly me: a self-sustaining, self-evolving dynamic system arising, persisting and developing in interaction with other such systems and with the world around me.

3. I am one of the highest, most evolved manifestations of the drive toward coherence and wholeness in the world. My essence is this cosmic drive. It is the same essence that is inherent in all the systems that arise and evolve in the universe.

4. There are no absolute boundaries and divisions among the systems that arise and evolve in the universe, only transition points where one set of relations yields prevalence to another. In me, in this self-maintaining and self-evolving coherence- and wholeness-oriented system, the relations that integrate the cells and organs of my body are prevalent.  Beyond my body other relations gain prevalence: those that drive toward coherence and wholeness in humanity, nature, and throughout the universe.

5. The separate identity I attach to my fellow humans is a convenient convention to facilitate my interaction with them. My family and my community are just as much “me” as the cells and organs of my body. There are only gradients of intensity in the relations that distinguishing individuals from each other and from the world, no absolute divisions and boundaries. There are no “others” in the world: we are all dynamic, coherence and wholeness oriented systems in the world and we are part of the world and so part of each other.

6. Collaboration, not competition, is the royal road to the wholeness and coherence that hallmarks healthy systems in the world. Collaboration calls for trust, empathy and solidarity. Comprehension, conciliation, and forgiveness are not signs of weakness but signs of courage. Harming others, even under the banner of patriotism and national or corporate interest is a mistaken intention. I am part of whoever I harm, and so I harm myself.

7. “The good” for me, and for everyone in my world, is not the possession and accumulation of wealth. Wealth, whether in money or in a material resource, is but a means for maintaining myself in my environment. As exclusively mine, it commandeers a part of the resources that all living beings on the planet need to share if they are to live and thrive. Exclusive wealth is a threat to everyone in the community of life on the planet, and because I as well as the holders of wealth are part of this community, it is a threat to the wealthy, and to me.

8. A healthy person has pleasure in giving: it is a higher pleasure than having. I am healthy and whole when I value giving over having. The true measure of accomplishment and excellence is my readiness to give, whatever I can give without harming myself, my family and those in my care. A community that values giving over having is a community of healthy persons, thriving through solidarity and love. Sharing enhances the community, while possessing and accumulating creates demarcation, invites competition and fuels envy. The share-society is the norm for all communities of life on the planet; the have-society is an aberration.

9. Only life and its development have intrinsic value as ends in themselves.  All other things have value only insofar as they add to or enhance life and its development. Material things, and the energies and substances they need or generate, have value only insofar they contribute to the development of life in the community of all beings on the planet.

10. I recognize my responsibility for evolving my consciousness, and through my example for helping the evolution of consciousness in others. We have been part of the aberration of human consciousness in the modern world, and we need to be part of the evolution that overcomes that aberration. Living and working toward this goal is my duty, as a conscious member of a conscious species in a conscious cosmos.

from:    http://www.shift.is/2014/07/ten-point-credo-evolved-consciousness/

Decoding the “Sell By”/”Use By” Dates

What the Dates on Your Food Really Mean

 

In today’s society, our grocery stores have become a means for obtaining more than just common food. The grocery store is, in fact, a place of competition: of store against store, brand against brand and, strangely enough, labels against the consumer.

Of all the messages we receive during our time at the grocery store, which are, admittedly, more like bombardments on our neurological processes, there is one message that tends to call to us more insistently than the rest. It’s the message that dictates how and when we consume our food, dispose of our food, and come back to the store to replace our food.

Think about it: the expiration date, sell by date, manufactured on date, etc., can stand as the deciding factor between taking that scoop of mayonnaise and using it on your deli sandwich or throwing the whole container in the trash.

What Your Labels Aren’t Telling You

The truth, however, isn’t exactly in the label. Recent studies from the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, in conjunction with the Natural Resources Defense Council, suggest that the dated imprints on our food labels are one of the leading factors in food waste in America. According to the study, a misinterpretation of the expiration dates on food is causing Americans a loss of both money and provisions – provisions which, if used correctly, could have helped in the fight against hunger.

What this means for you as the consumer is that the date on the package is merely a guideline to be used to help you determine the freshness and longevity of the product. It does not mean that the egg carton that has yesterday’s date on it needs to hit the trashcan instead of being used.

Decoding the Terms

As the dates on your food are not strictly regulated, except in the case of baby formula, many of the terms that companies tend to use can seem to contradict one another or get muddled into a transmogrification of food terminology resembling an alien script that no one can hope to decode.

So, to help you decode, here are a few of the most common terms and what they really mean:

  • Sell by – If you see “Sell By” on a food carton, recognize that this date is meant more for the store carrying the product than for you as the consumer. The date refers to the last day that the product should be placed upon the shelf as required or requested by the manufacturing company. It doesn’t mean that the product has gone bad or is no longer safe to consume. However, your best bet is to simply reach for the product in the back, as most stores tend to place the newest batches behind the ones with upcoming sell by dates.
  • Best if used on or before – Dates with this terminology are, in many cases, flexible. All this means is that the quality of freshness in taste and consistency that the manufacturer wants to provide to the consumer is at its peak if used on or before that date. The product is still safe for consuming after the date, but the consumer may notice a slight alteration in the taste of the product. Something akin to an A+ going to an A or A-.
  • Use by – The “Use By” date is another quality control measurement that is determined by the manufacturer. It is, as you may have guessed, the final date that the company wishes the food to be consumed by to retain their level of desired quality. It, too, has nothing really to do with the safety of consuming the food after that date.

To further help you decipher when and how to safely consume your food, check out this great article from Star Lawrence at WebMD. Lawrence does an excellent job going through expiration date terminology in more detail, as well as explaining food safety tips and how long items generally last once you’ve purchased them.

In short, the dates on your food have very little to do with any sort of federally regulated safety requirements or health care laws, but instead refer to what companies have determined to be the best “shelf life” of their product in terms of consistency in taste and freshness.

By being aware of the varying terminology, American consumers can greatly decrease confusion resulting from expiration dates and can become more efficient in their consumption, thus providing America with lower costs in food waste and production.

from:    http://blogs.naturalnews.com/dates-food-really-mean/

A Cosmic Curriculum

Cosmic School: 17 Things We Could Be Learning

Updated September 3, 2014 by in5d Alternative News

by Michelle Walling, CHLC

Have you ever had dreams of being in school? Some people recall classroom settings in their dreams which may indicate that a multidimensional aspect of themselves is learning more about our cosmic existence. Many people recall the actual cosmic syllabus taught by beings of other dimensions, and many of those people are our starseed children.

Is it possible that a part of us goes to school when we dream in order to prepare for living in a multidimensional reality? If so, then the ability to do these things and more may already be latent within us, waiting for us to merge with the remembrance of this information:

    1. Quantum Physics, the Holographic Nature of the Universe

 

    2. The Non Linear Nature of Time and Space

 

    3. The awareness and sentience to all sentience/life
    4. Levitation Abilities and skills, offworld
    5. Understanding the special geometry of thought
    6. How to operate in a multidimensional reality

 

    7. How to communicate, interpret and interact with other interdimensional and other non human species
    8.  Out of Body training
    9. Telekenesis

 

    10. Telepathy and mind melds
    11. Multidimensional Ecology
    12. Manifestation, direct thought, and emotion
    13. Healing skills and working with energy
    14. True history of man’s origins and information your own star heritage
    15. Time Travel and Teleportation
    16. The true nature of the Source and Universal Spirituality
    17. Remote Influencing

 

Some of our younger generation are already remembering what they have been taught in spaceship school, however most do not remember at this time. Children as young as two and three years old are remembering being taken into spaceships, going to high level school, and being returned into their bodies within a blink of an eye, as if hardly any time was lost here on Earth.

They have been told that they need to be taught these things so that they can teach the adults on the planet. This confirms what we have heard about paying close attention to our children, for they just may have something that we need to know. Some adults today have been going to school for many years since they were children and one day they will also begin to have a remembrance of all of this material flooding in.

Cathy, a 9 year old from Northern Europe, has this to say about what is happening on the planet:

“The light orbs are sent here to protect us. My little brother has a blue orb to protect him. Something will happen in the next 5 years to this planet (2102-2017). I am here to tell my family “WAKE UP”; everyone is sleeping! 50% of people on the planet are STARSEEDS. But many get lost, only 20% will remember who they are. Children are programmed, the teachers just push the keys. The stress of modern living extinguishes their inner core; their light. It’s like a virus, we lost the knowledge we had in the beginning.”

Everything is possible, we just need to believe it.
~ Cathy, Age 9

Everyone born beyond the year 2000 is a Homo Noeticus according to a young lady in Mary Rodwell’s  video below. These children will help those of humanity to choose to upgrade their DNA from Homo Sapien to Homo Noeticus status, and the Homo Novis humans are the ones who will bridge the gap between the two, lifting them up. Transcending fear is the most important thing in making the transition.

In this video, Crystal, a 7 year old, describes the New Earth and says that some will go to the New Earth in jelly like pods and then will return to the old Earth to change what is happening here. This New Earth is not in this galaxy. This is all in preparation for a new species of human that has been created.

The video also confirms that DNA can be re-programmed by human language and speech. It seems to me that this is what we need more people to come forth to do, to speak the language that re-programs or activates our dormant DNA to allow us to be the multidimensional beings that we are. Then we can in turn teach others how to do this.

Not only that, but when our DNA is activated, it allows travel outside of time through stargates or wormholes, which would allow connection to different areas of the Universe where information and healing can be received outside of space and time. DNA attracts this information and passes it on to our consciousness. Is this the true meaning of “everything we need to know can be found within”?

We are in for some exciting changes in our reality and capabilities and human beings. Those who have been on an awakening path know that something is happening to us that will allow us to go within and return with amazing and miraculous knowledge, skills, and healing.

The current school curriculum will no longer be necessary or appropriate and will immediately become null and void for those who have this DNA upgrade, and this will cause a split in humanity due to the differences in consciousness.

from:    http://in5d.com/cosmic-school.html

COnsciousness & Evolution

The Evolutionary Leap Has Begun – What it Means for You

Posted by September 4, 2014 

Jon RasmussenContributor

The Human species has begun an evolutionary leap that is exponentially more abrupt than any known previous leaps – and it is happening to you. It is the work of the Shamans to help us navigate this extreme course.

The prophecies of my Q’ero shaman lineage speak of the evolutionary leap that humanity is undergoing at this time.  And this evolutionary leap is unprecedented not only because of our current level of awareness and understanding as a species, but also because the overall trajectory of all previous evolutionary leaps is exponential.  This means that each leap has happened sooner and quicker than the previous.  My teachers speak of the fact that this leap isn’t just happening from one generation to the next, but within our generation.

Modern science and medicine is barely scratching the surface of the possibility that we can change our existing DNA and bodies within one lifetime.  But modern science is only coming to a full understanding of just 5% of the known or theoretical Universe.  The other 95% of everything is “dark” or unknown, and currently un-measurable.

Shamans not only see into that unknown, but actually have techniques to work with it and apply it to facilitate change in the 5% known experience.  We see that the 95% of “dark energy and matter” as modern science calls it, and causay as the Q’ero call it, informs the 5% of the energy and matter that make up our conscious and sensory experiences.  It is essentially a working and changeable blueprint for reality.

With this understanding, we can see that the evolutionary leap in our human bodies and minds as a species is and has been preceded by accelerating changes in the energetic blueprint that are being facilitated in many humans right now. And it is helpful not only to know that this is possible, but to help explain and deal with the implications in the most graceful way possible.

With all evolutionary leaps, one can only imagine that it comes with a certain amount of upheaval, shedding of many facets of the old paradigm, and varying degrees of discomfort, confusion, and even downright fear.  It is our work as shamans to help humanity through it all with healing, vision, comforting, clarity, and even celebration.

The main thing to remember is that the you that is  95% of who you really are is not limited to this lifetime, this body, this mind, and this story- or perhaps even this planet or this Universe.  In the English language, the you the feels like you and comprises your conscious awareness, personality, and tons of information and “coding” is called the Soul. In Sanskrit you’re called the Aura and Chakras, in Italian your called the Anima.  Every language has a name for the you that is really you.  So physical life and death, bodies, brains, and DNA are all relatively and extremely temporary vehicles by which you play in the theater of the Universe once again, and again, and again, and again.

Shamans understand that evolution and expansion are very desired aspects of the consciousness within and throughout all aspects of this theater for the simple reason that boredom is worse than annihilation. In other words we, or consciousness in general and in all forms and formless, keep evolving in to greater and greater complexity to keep it interesting and to see where we can take it through the creative process.  And of course as a part of it all there are fits and starts, fear and back peddling, dead ends, destruction and construction, millennium of rest, and exhilaration filled leaps and bounds.

So if you are feeling like the old ways of looking at things and doing things is no longer cutting it, and/or you know children and adults that do not fit our current understanding, lifestyle, and constructs, then you are likely witnessing the evolutionary leap in progress.  You may also being experiencing nothing short of the personal and collective revolution/upheaval that often accompanies such leaps, and which often comes with the extremes of feelings and emotions such as fear, pain, love, and pleasure.  And to the extent that you can allow your mind to go along with it, to blow open and expand, to accept the unknown and the unknowable, to surrender to the inevitable evolution of who you really are and all that comes with it, then you may actually enjoy this part of the ride.

Call on your shamans to help you gracefully and quickly jettison any unnecessary baggage and stories that will no longer be necessary or useful in the new paradigm, and that would only hurt worse to be ripped away the hard way.  And together let’s align the 95% blueprint with the ideal vision that we manifest by dreaming it into being as co-creators of the Universe(s).

In Love and Service,

Jon Rasmussen

from:    http://consciouslifenews.com/evolutionary-leap-begun-means/1176475/

Some Health Hints

21 Health Hacks Everyone Should Know

Aug 31 • Do It Yourself, Natural Relief

by APRIL McCARTHY

21health hcks sqWhether it’s curing a throat tickle, resolving your headache in minutes or experiencing supersonic hearing, these 21 tricks are proven methods of fooling your body to achieve a desired result, whether that’s relieving pain or just having fun.

1. Cure a Tickling Throat

When you were 9, playing your armpit was a cool trick. Now, as an adult, you can still appreciate a good body-based feat, especially if it serves as a health remedy. Take that tickle in your throat: It’s not worth gagging over. Here’s a better way to scratch your itch: Scratch your ear. “When the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm,” says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose, and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. “This spasm relieves the tickle.”

 

2. Experience Supersonic Hearing

If you’re stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. It’s better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to identify that song playing softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is better at picking up music tones.

 

3. Calm Yourself With Cold Water

Nerves getting the best of you. Take a deep breath and spash cold water on your face. This triggers the mammalian diving reflex that is genetically in all animals including humans. The lower temperature of the water and you holding your breath also causes your body to think it’s diving into cold water. This reflex allows you to use oxygen more efficiently.

 

4. Overcome Your Most Primal Urge To Pee

Need to pee? No bathroom nearby? Fantasize about what ever turns you on. Thinking about sex and arousing fantasies preoccupies your brain, so you won’t feel as much discomfort, says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., chief of male reproductive medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine.

 

5. Feel No Pain While Giving Blood

Love donating blood but hate the needle prick? German researchers have discovered that coughing during a needle stick can lessen the pain. According to Taras Usichenko, author of a study on the phenomenon, the trick causes a sudden, temporary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, inhibiting the pain-conducting structures of the spinal cord.

 

6. Swallow Your Horse-Sized Supplements

Those huge health supplements are sometimes a pain to swallow. Want to swallow more than one at a time without gagging? Try this trick to get them down: take a drink of water, and tilt your head forward instead of backward. The capsule should float, and will be at the back of your throat, ready to swallow.

 

7. Clear Your Stuffed Nose

Forget Sudafed. Here’s an easier, quicker, and cheaper remedy to relieve sinus pressure: Alternate thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. This causes the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, to rock back and forth, says Lisa DeStefano, D.O., an assistant professor at the Michigan State University college of osteopathic medicine. The motion loosens congestion; after 20 seconds, you’ll feel your sinuses start to drain.

 

8. Fight Acid Reflux By Sleeping Position

Worried that chilli will repeat on you tonight? Try this preventive remedy: “Sleep on your left side,” says Anthony A. Starpoli, M.D., a New York City gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at New York Medical College. Studies have shown that patients who sleep on their left sides are less likely to suffer from acid reflux. The esophagus and stomach connect at an angle. When you sleep on your right, the stomach is higher than the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat. When you’re on your left, the stomach is lower than the esophagus, so gravity’s in your favor.

 

9. Cure Your Toothache

Just rub ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped webbed area between your thumb and index finger. A Canadian study found that this technique reduces toothache pain by as much as 50 percent compared with using no ice. The nerve pathways at the base of that V stimulate an area of the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands.

 

10. Make Burns Disappear

When you accidentally singe your finger on the stove, clean the skin and apply light pressure with the finger pads of your unmarred hand. Ice will relieve your pain more quickly, Dr. DeStefano says, but since the natual method brings the burned skin back to a normal temperature, the skin is less likely to blister.

 

11. Stop the World from Spinning

Feeling dizzy? Put your hand on something stable. The part of your ear responsible for balance–the cupula– floats in a fluid of the same density as blood. “As alcohol dilutes blood in the cupula, the cupula becomes less dense and rises,” says Dr. Schaffer. This confuses your brain. The tactile input from a stable object gives the brain a second opinion, and you feel more in balance. Because the nerves in the hand are so sensitive, this works better than the conventional foot-on-the-floor wisdom.

12. Unstitch Your Side

If you’re like most people, when you run, you exhale as your right foot hits the ground. This puts downward pressure on your liver (which lives on your right side), which then tugs at the diaphragm and creates a side stitch, according to The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Men. The fix: Exhale as your left foot strikes the ground.

 

13. Stop A Nose Bleed

Put some cotton on your upper gums–just behind that small dent below your nose–and press against it, hard. “Most bleeds come from the front of the septum, the cartilage wall that divides the nose,” says Peter Desmarais, M.D., an ear, nose, and throat specialist at Entabeni Hospital, in Durban, South Africa. “Pressing here helps stop them.”

 

14. Make Your Heart Stand Still

Trying to quell first-date jitters? Blow on your thumb. The vagus nerve, which governs heart rate, can be controlled through breathing, says Ben Abo, an emergency medical-services specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. It’ll get your heart rate back to normal.

 

15. Thaw Your Brain Freeze

Press your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much as you can. “Since the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, your body thinks your brain is freezing, too,” says Abo. “In compensating, it overheats, causing an ice-cream headache.” The more pressure you apply to the roof of your mouth, the faster your headache will subside.

 

16. Prevent Near-Sightedness

Poor distance vision is rarely caused by genetics, says Anne Barber, O.D., an optometrist in Tacoma, Washington. “It’s usually caused by near-point stress.” In other words, staring at your computer screen for too long. So flex your way to 20/20 vision. Every few hours during the day, close your eyes, tense your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds, release your breath and muscles at the same time. Tightening and releasing muscles such as the biceps and glutes can trick involuntary muscles–like the eyes–into relaxing as well.

 

17. Wake Up a Limb That Feel Asleep

If your hand falls asleep while you’re driving or sitting in an odd position, rock your head from side to side. It’ll painlessly banish your pins and needles in less than a minute, says Dr. DeStefano. A tingly hand or arm is often the result of compression in the bundle of nerves in your neck; loosening your neck muscles releases the pressure. Compressed nerves lower in the body govern the feet, so stand up and walk around if they fail you.

 

18. Impress Your Friends

Next time you’re at a party, try this trick: Have a person hold one arm straight out to the side, palm down, and instruct him to maintain this position. Then place two fingers on his wrist and push down. He’ll resist. Now have him put one foot on a surface that’s a half inch higher (a few magazines) and repeat. This time his arm will cave like the French. By misaligning his hips, you’ve offset his spine, says Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., co-owner of Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California. Your brain senses that the spine is vulnerable, so it shuts down the body’s ability to resist.

 

19. Breathe Underwater

If you’re dying to retrieve that quarter from the bottom of the pool, take several short breaths first–essentially, hyperventilate. When you’re underwater, it’s not a lack of oxygen that makes you desperate for a breath; it’s the buildup of carbon dioxide, which makes your blood acidic, which signals your brain that somethin’ ain’t right. “When you hyperventilate, the influx of oxygen lowers blood acidity,” says Jonathan Armbruster, Ph.D., an associate professor of biology at Auburn University. “This tricks your brain into thinking it has more oxygen.” It’ll buy you up to 10 seconds.

 

20. Encode Long-Term Memory

Your own! “If you’re giving a speech the next day, review it before falling asleep,” says Candi Heimgartner, an instructor of biological sciences at the University of Idaho. Since most memory consolidation happens during sleep, anything you read right before bed is more likely to be encoded as long-term memory.

 

21. Relieve a Migraine Instantly

The next time you are about to reach for some pills to get rid of your headache, use your thumb and forefinger and pinch down on the muscle on the web of your hand (thumb on the back of your hand and forefinger underneath) and press for 2 minutes. Repeat. Most headaches and migraines will ease after just 4 minutes. This shiatsu point addresses headaches by dispersing stagnant Ki (i.e. blocked energy) and moving blood in the head, neck, and other parts of the body.

April McCarthy is a community journalist playing an active role reporting and analyzing world events to advance our health and eco-friendly initiatives.

RE: The Pineal Gland

10 Questions About the Pineal Gland That Add to the Mystery of Spirituality

April 11, 2014 | By  

Pineal Gland -1Buck Rogers, Staff Writer
Waking Times

The  pine cone shaped, pea-sized pineal gland, located in the center of the human brain, is an organ of tremendous interest these days. To many spiritual seekers it is the ‘seat of the soul‘ and the ‘third eye,’ the anatomical part of the human body that acts as our spiritual antennae, connecting us to the non-physical, spiritual planes of existence. However, to many scientists and rigid materialist thinkers, it is strictly an endocrine gland responsible for the secretion of the hormone melatonin, a substance which, among other things, aids in the regulation of our circadian rhythms.

Far from cased closed, this small, but intriguing piece of the human organism is the source of endless discussion and consideration, as many people believe that by cleansing, detoxifying or decalcifying the pineal gland, one can more readily achieve spiritual states of consciousness and can experience with greater depth and clarity.

Of course naysayers who disregard the possibility of the existence of any spiritual dimension to life and to the pineal gland are quick to point out that no scientific evidence has proven that the pineal gland is in fact the organ responsible for spiritual experience. Yet, many people who’ve developed the subtle awareness and inward reflection required to connect to the spiritual qualities of humanity can clearly sense that something profound takes place within the area of the brain where the pineal gland sits, including visions, intuitive thoughts, vibrations, harmonic resonance with certain sounds, and other mystical phenomenon.

As the debate between science and spirituality carries on, the pineal gland sits at the center of the brain enticing both spiritual adepts and naysayers alike to take a closer look into the mysteries that make human beings spiritual creatures capable having psychological experiences that evade validation by modern scientific research methods and modes of thought.

Here are 10 questions about the pineal gland that add to the mystery of spirituality:

1. Is the pineal gland the evolutionary remnant of a literal third mammalian eye that moved into the center of the brain and changed functions from gathering light to entraining rhythms in accordance with information gathered by the retina?

2. Why do the visionary states of consciousness induced by psychedelics and meditative practices seem to be centered around the very part of the brain where the pineal gland sits?

3. If there is no connection between spirituality and the pineal gland, how is it that the 6th chakra (Ajna chakra), according to ancient Hindu tradition, is located precisely where the pineal gland sits, and has for centuries been associated with the ‘mind’s eye,’ the eye of intellect and intuition?

4. Is there a connection between the spiritual promise of the pineal gland, which is shaped like a pine cone, and the Pigna, the colossal bronze pine cone statue of ancient Rome which now sits in a courtyard in the Vatican?

5. Does the pineal gland produce the body’s natural supply of DMT, dimethyltriptamine, a chemical compound that produces incredible visionary effects when consumed in concentrated form or in the Amazonian medicine Ayahuasca?

6. Does the pineal gland release massive doses of DMT when a person dies, or when a person nearly dies, which causes the mind to have near-death experiences, or causes the soul to return to source?

7. What is the significance of the fact that the ancient Egyptian symbol, the Eye of Horus, strongly resembles the anatomy of the middle section of the brain and upper cortex, centering on the thalamus and the pineal gland?

8. Why is the pineal gland the only organ in the human body that calcifies and solidifies with age?

9. If the pineal gland has little effect on consciousness, why is it that people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, diseases which cause them to be severely psychologically disconnected from the ‘real world,’ have pineal glands that are much more calcified than those of ordinary people?

10. Why is it that following the methods of pineal gland decalcification and cleansing often bring genuine results to people who are seeking heightened spiritual experience, and why do these practices often result in people being able to more easily remember dreams and lead them to feel more connected to ‘source?’

Conclusion

There certainly is more to the human spiritual experience than just having a decalcified pineal gland, however, in our modern culture, which has grown spiritually bereft, the pineal gland holds special significance as people look for any possible technique or enhancement to the human body and mind that can assist them in re-connecting to divinity.

Some of these questions are better suited for serious scientists and laboratory research, however, simply pondering the role that human anatomy plays in spiritual experience can expand our awareness of the connection between the health of the body and the health of the spirit.

from:    http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/04/11/10-questions-pineal-gland-mystery-spirituality/

Shamanic View of Mental Illness

What a Shaman Sees in A Mental Hospital

August 22, 2014 | By  

ShamanStephanie Marohn with Malidoma Patrice Somé
Waking Times

The Shamanic View of Mental Illness

In the shamanic view, mental illness signals “the birth of a healer,” explains Malidoma Patrice Somé. Thus, mental disorders are spiritual emergencies, spiritual crises, and need to be regarded as such to aid the healer in being born.

What those in the West view as mental illness, the Dagara people regard as “good news from the other world.” The person going through the crisis has been chosen as a medium for a message to the community that needs to be communicated from the spirit realm. “Mental disorder, behavioral disorder of all kinds, signal the fact that two obviously incompatible energies have merged into the same field,” says Dr. Somé. These disturbances result when the person does not get assistance in dealing with the presence of the energy from the spirit realm.

One of the things Dr. Somé encountered when he first came to the United States in 1980 for graduate study was how this country deals with mental illness. When a fellow student was sent to a mental institute due to “nervous depression,” Dr. Somé went to visit him.

“I was so shocked. That was the first time I was brought face to face with what is done here to people exhibiting the same symptoms I’ve seen in my village.” What struck Dr. Somé was that the attention given to such symptoms was based on pathology, on the idea that the condition is something that needs to stop. This was in complete opposition to the way his culture views such a situation. As he looked around the stark ward at the patients, some in straitjackets, some zoned out on medications, others screaming, he observed to himself, “So this is how the healers who are attempting to be born are treated in this culture. What a loss! What a loss that a person who is finally being aligned with a power from the other world is just being wasted.”

Another way to say this, which may make more sense to the Western mind, is that we in the West are not trained in how to deal or even taught to acknowledge the existence of psychic phenomena, the spiritual world. In fact, psychic abilities are denigrated. When energies from the spiritual world emerge in a Western psyche, that individual is completely unequipped to integrate them or even recognize what is happening. The result can be terrifying. Without the proper context for and assistance in dealing with the breakthrough from another level of reality, for all practical purposes, the person is insane. Heavy dosing with anti-psychotic drugs compounds the problem and prevents the integration that could lead to soul development and growth in the individual who has received these energies.

On the mental ward, Dr Somé saw a lot of “beings” hanging around the patients, “entities” that are invisible to most people but that shamans and psychics are able to see. “They were causing the crisis in these people,” he says. It appeared to him that these beings were trying to get the medications and their effects out of the bodies of the people the beings were trying to merge with, and were increasing the patients’ pain in the process. “The beings were acting almost like some kind of excavator in the energy field of people. They were really fierce about that. The people they were doing that to were just screaming and yelling,” he said. He couldn’t stay in that environment and had to leave.

In the Dagara tradition, the community helps the person reconcile the energies of both worlds–”the world of the spirit that he or she is merged with, and the village and community.” That person is able then to serve as a bridge between the worlds and help the living with information and healing they need. Thus, the spiritual crisis ends with the birth of another healer. “The other world’s relationship with our world is one of sponsorship,” Dr. Somé explains. “More often than not, the knowledge and skills that arise from this kind of merger are a knowledge or a skill that is provided directly from the other world.”

The beings who were increasing the pain of the inmates on the mental hospital ward were actually attempting to merge with the inmates in order to get messages through to this world. The people they had chosen to merge with were getting no assistance in learning how to be a bridge between the worlds and the beings’ attempts to merge were thwarted. The result was the sustaining of the initial disorder of energy and the aborting of the birth of a healer.

“The Western culture has consistently ignored the birth of the healer,” states Dr. Somé. “Consequently, there will be a tendency from the other world to keep trying as many people as possible in an attempt to get somebody’s attention. They have to try harder.” The spirits are drawn to people whose senses have not been anesthetized. “The sensitivity is pretty much read as an invitation to come in,” he notes.

Those who develop so-called mental disorders are those who are sensitive, which is viewed in Western culture as oversensitivity. Indigenous cultures don’t see it that way and, as a result, sensitive people don’t experience themselves as overly sensitive. In the West, “it is the overload of the culture they’re in that is just wrecking them,” observes Dr. Somé. The frenetic pace, the bombardment of the senses, and the violent energy that characterize Western culture can overwhelm sensitive people.

Schizophrenia and Foreign Energy

With schizophrenia, there is a special “receptivity to a flow of images and information, which cannot be controlled,” stated Dr. Somé. “When this kind of rush occurs at a time that is not personally chosen, and particularly when it comes with images that are scary and contradictory, the person goes into a frenzy.”

What is required in this situation is first to separate the person’s energy from the extraneous foreign energies, by using shamanic practice (what is known as a “sweep”) to clear the latter out of the individual’s aura. With the clearing of their energy field, the person no longer picks up a flood of information and so no longer has a reason to be scared and disturbed, explains Dr. Somé.

Then it is possible to help the person align with the energy of the spirit being attempting to come through from the other world and give birth to the healer. The blockage of that emergence is what creates problems. “The energy of the healer is a high-voltage energy,” he observes. “When it is blocked, it just burns up the person. It’s like a short-circuit. Fuses are blowing. This is why it can be really scary, and I understand why this culture prefers to confine these people. Here they are yelling and screaming, and they’re put into a straitjacket. That’s a sad image.” Again, the shamanic approach is to work on aligning the energies so there is no blockage, “fuses” aren’t blowing, and the person can become the healer they are meant to be.

It needs to be noted at this point, however, that not all of the spirit beings that enter a person’s energetic field are there for the purposes of promoting healing. There are negative energies as well, which are undesirable presences in the aura. In those cases, the shamanic approach is to remove them from the aura, rather than work to align the discordant energies

Alex: Crazy in the USA, Healer in Africa

To test his belief that the shamanic view of mental illness holds true in the Western world as well as in indigenous cultures, Dr. Somé took a mental patient back to Africa with him, to his village. “I was prompted by my own curiosity to find out whether there’s truth in the universality that mental illness could be connected with an alignment with a being from another world,” says Dr. Somé.

Alex was an 18-year-old American who had suffered a psychotic break when he was 14. He had hallucinations, was suicidal, and went through cycles of dangerously severe depression. He was in a mental hospital and had been given a lot of drugs, but nothing was helping. “The parents had done everything–unsuccessfully,” says Dr. Somé. “They didn’t know what else to do.”

With their permission, Dr. Somé took their son to Africa. “After eight months there, Alex had become quite normal, Dr. Somé reports. He was even able to participate with healers in the business of healing; sitting with them all day long and helping them, assisting them in what they were doing with their clients . . . . He spent about four years in my village.” Alex stayed by choice, not because he needed more healing. He felt, “much safer in the village than in America.”

To bring his energy and that of the being from the spiritual realm into alignment, Alex went through a shamanic ritual designed for that purpose, although it was slightly different from the one used with the Dagara people. “He wasn’t born in the village, so something else applied. But the result was similar, even though the ritual was not literally the same,” explains Dr. Somé. The fact that aligning the energy worked to heal Alex demonstrated to Dr. Somé that the connection between other beings and mental illness is indeed universal.

After the ritual, Alex began to share the messages that the spirit being had for this world. Unfortunately, the people he was talking to didn’t speak English (Dr. Somé was away at that point). The whole experience led, however, to Alex’s going to college to study psychology. He returned to the United States after four years because “he discovered that all the things that he needed to do had been done, and he could then move on with his life.”

The last that Dr. Somé heard was that Alex was in graduate school in psychology at Harvard. No one had thought he would ever be able to complete undergraduate studies, much less get an advanced degree.

Dr. Somé sums up what Alex’s mental illness was all about: “He was reaching out. It was an emergency call. His job and his purpose was to be a healer. He said no one was paying attention to that.”

After seeing how well the shamanic approach worked for Alex, Dr. Somé concluded that spirit beings are just as much an issue in the West as in his community in Africa. “Yet the question still remains, the answer to this problem must be found here, instead of having to go all the way overseas to seek the answer. There has to be a way in which a little bit of attention beyond the pathology of this whole experience leads to the possibility of coming up with the proper ritual to help people.

Longing for Spiritual Connection

A common thread that Dr. Somé has noticed in “mental” disorders in the West is “a very ancient ancestral energy that has been placed in stasis, that finally is coming out in the person.” His job then is to trace it back, to go back in time to discover what that spirit is. In most cases, the spirit is connected to nature, especially with mountains or big rivers, he says.

In the case of mountains, as an example to explain the phenomenon, “it’s a spirit of the mountain that is walking side by side with the person and, as a result, creating a time-space distortion that is affecting the person caught in it.” What is needed is a merger or alignment of the two energies, “so the person and the mountain spirit become one.” Again, the shaman conducts a specific ritual to bring about this alignment.

Dr. Somé believes that he encounters this situation so often in the United States because “most of the fabric of this country is made up of the energy of the machine, and the result of that is the disconnection and the severing of the past. You can run from the past, but you can’t hide from it.” The ancestral spirit of the natural world comes visiting. “It’s not so much what the spirit wants as it is what the person wants,” he says. “The spirit sees in us a call for something grand, something that will make life meaningful, and so the spirit is responding to that.”

That call, which we don’t even know we are making, reflects “a strong longing for a profound connection, a connection that transcends materialism and possession of things and moves into a tangible cosmic dimension. Most of this longing is unconscious, but for spirits, conscious or unconscious doesn’t make any difference.” They respond to either.

As part of the ritual to merge the mountain and human energy, those who are receiving the “mountain energy” are sent to a mountain area of their choice, where they pick up a stone that calls to them. They bring that stone back for the rest of the ritual and then keep it as a companion; some even carry it around with them. “The presence of the stone does a lot in tuning the perceptive ability of the person,” notes Dr. Somé. “They receive all kinds of information that they can make use of, so it’s like they get some tangible guidance from the other world as to how to live their life.”

When it is the “river energy,” those being called go to the river and, after speaking to the river spirit, find a water stone to bring back for the same kind of ritual as with the mountain spirit.

“People think something extraordinary must be done in an extraordinary situation like this,” he says. That’s not usually the case. Sometimes it is as simple as carrying a stone.

A Sacred Ritual Approach to Mental Illness

One of the gifts a shaman can bring to the Western world is to help people rediscover ritual, which is so sadly lacking. “The abandonment of ritual can be devastating. From the spiritual view, ritual is inevitable and necessary if one is to live,” Dr. Somé writes in Ritual: Power, Healing, and Community. “To say that ritual is needed in the industrialized world is an understatement. We have seen in my own people that it is probably impossible to live a sane life without it.”

Dr. Somé did not feel that the rituals from his traditional village could simply be transferred to the West, so over his years of shamanic work here, he has designed rituals that meet the very different needs of this culture. Although the rituals change according to the individual or the group involved, he finds that there is a need for certain rituals in general.

One of these involves helping people discover that their distress is coming from the fact that they are “called by beings from the other world to cooperate with them in doing healing work.” Ritual allows them to move out of the distress and accept that calling.

Another ritual need relates to initiation. In indigenous cultures all over the world, young people are initiated into adulthood when they reach a certain age. The lack of such initiation in the West is part of the crisis that people are in here, says Dr. Somé. He urges communities to bring together “the creative juices of people who have had this kind of experience, in an attempt to come up with some kind of an alternative ritual that would at least begin to put a dent in this kind of crisis.”

Another ritual that repeatedly speaks to the needs of those coming to him for help entails making a bonfire, and then putting into the bonfire “items that are symbolic of issues carried inside the individuals . . . It might be the issues of anger and frustration against an ancestor who has left a legacy of murder and enslavement or anything, things that the descendant has to live with,” he explains. “If these are approached as things that are blocking the human imagination, the person’s life purpose, and even the person’s view of life as something that can improve, then it makes sense to begin thinking in terms of how to turn that blockage into a roadway that can lead to something more creative and more fulfilling.”

The example of issues with an ancestors touches on rituals designed by Dr. Somé that address a serious dysfunction in Western society and in the process “trigger enlightenment” in participants. These are ancestral rituals, and the dysfunction they are aimed at is the mass turning-of-the-back on ancestors. Some of the spirits trying to come through, as described earlier, may be “ancestors who want to merge with a descendant in an attempt to heal what they weren’t able to do while in their physical body.”

“Unless the relationship between the living and the dead is in balance, chaos ensues,” he says. “The Dagara believe that, if such an imbalance exists, it is the duty of the living to heal their ancestors. If these ancestors are not healed, their sick energy will haunt the souls and psyches of those who are responsible for helping them.” The rituals focus on healing the relationship with our ancestors, both specific issues of an individual ancestor and the larger cultural issues contained in our past. Dr. Somé has seen extraordinary healing occur at these rituals.

Taking a sacred ritual approach to mental illness rather than regarding the person as a pathological case gives the person affected–and indeed the community at large–the opportunity to begin looking at it from that vantage point too, which leads to “a whole plethora of opportunities and ritual initiative that can be very, very beneficial to everyone present,” states. Dr. Somé.

Excerpted from:  The Natural Medicine Guide to Schizophrenia, or The Natural Medicine Guide to Bi-polar Disorder, pages 178-189, Stephanie Marohn (featuring Malidoma Patrice Somé).

from:    http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/08/22/shaman-sees-mental-hospital/