Energy Cultivation: Mind Body Spirit Connection

Keeping Good Health By Being Aware and Using Diet

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:38:00 +0000

Letting Go of Attachments is Key Part 1 of 2

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 04:58:00 +0000

Acid-Alkaline Diet: Creating Balance for Optimum Healing

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:24:00 +0000

Benefits of Working Out Exercise vs Energy Cultivation & Meditation

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 13:53:00 +0000

Qigong for Beginners

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 12:43:00 +0000

Qigong Principles
Dan Tian (Qi Center) is the center of our physical and energetic body, a field located about 3 cm below the navel. This is where attention is focused when practicing qigong. Often during exercises, one will experience sensations of warm, flowing energy circulating in this area. Qi is said to be like water in a pool. A full pool results in happiness and well-being. However, every physical or mental imposition drains the water a certain degree, and this must be restored for health to remain.

Qigong optimizes the body's homeostatic function by relaxing the central nervous system, freeing the mind from distractions and creating a state of inner stillness.

Qigong works best when the practitioner spends some amount of time each day in quiet introspection. During this period, one's only focus should be "hearing the body," in order to develop a deeper relationship with the inner source of being. Qigong Healing Sounds Exercise A good routine for beginners is mixing sounds with movements in order to develop your awareness of different vibrations in the body. Do these once a day.

Begin taking breaths in through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. As you inhale, press both fists together at the center of your chest, and spread them outward and back, in a big morning stretch motion. As you exhale, bend forward and roll the extended hands out, palms flat. Do this six times. Breath in this manner three times between each step in the routine.

First, put both elbows into your sides, bent at 90 degree angles with you hands in front of the body, fists clenched. Bend over while pressing the elbows into your waist, and making a "shuu" sound. This is meant to force stale qi out of the liver, so that fresh energy can be drawn in. Cleansing the liver will improve its detoxification capabilities. This exercise can also be used to treat skin eruptions, bad breath and body odor, and it aids the liver and gall bladder.

Second, raise the arms straight up, hands outstretched and inhale at the end of the movement. Squat all the way down, and close your fists as you bring your hands level with your head, elbows to the sides. Stand back up slowly, reaching the arms and hands up to the original position while breathing out a "hey you" sound, extended through the motion. Do this to promote heart and small intestine health.

Place both your hands over the Dan Tian area, palms to the body with one hand over the other. Breath out from this area of the body, making a "seee" sound.

Return your hands to the side position level with the head, again with the elbows out to the sides. Twist to the left, and sound out a "whoo" while returning to center. Repeat three times. This will remove stress from the stomach, spleen and pancreas.

Perform the same movement as you did during the original breathing exercise, in which the hands are stretched back from the chest, except on the exhale powerfully thrust out a "seee-ahhh" sound. Do this three times. This exercise optimizes lung and large intestine health

Rub the kidney area or your back while taking a big breath. Stop rubbing, and stand while pronouncing "cherr-rou-eeee." Hold this sound as long as possible, with your hands hanging loosely to the sides. This exercise targets the kidney and bladder.

Maintaining Balance
Although performing this routine daily is meant to unblock the flow of energy in the body, qigong is also a practice centered around bringing the mind and spirit into focus. Through practice and focus, one moves toward establishing a lasting bond with the source of all life.

By Harold E. Sconiers, eHow Contributor

Read more: Qigong for Beginners | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_5133396_qigong-beginners.html#ixzz19hkHLLoz

The Unexplained Powers of Animals Many pet owners believe their animals are sometimes telepathic with them By Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D.

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:32:00 +0000

For many years, animal trainers, pet owners, and naturalists have reported various kinds of perceptiveness in animals that suggest the existence of psychic powers. Surprisingly little research has been done on these phenomena.

Biologists have been inhibited by the taboo against “the paranormal,” and psychical researchers and parapsychologists have (with few exceptions) confined their attention to human beings.

According to random household surveys in England and the United States, many pet owners believe their animals are sometimes telepathic with them. An average of 48 percent of dog owners and 33 percent of cat owners said that their pets responded to their thoughts or silent commands. Many horse trainers and riders believe that their horse can pick up their intentions telepathically.

Some companion animals even seem able to tell when a particular person is on the telephone before the receiver has been picked up. For example, when the telephone rang in the household of a noted professor at the University of California at Berkeley, his wife knew when her husband was on the other end of the line because Whiskins, their silver tabby cat, rushed to the telephone and pawed at the receiver.

“Many times he succeeds in taking it off the hook and makes appreciative meows that are clearly audible to my husband at the other end,” she said. “If someone else telephones, Whiskins takes no notice.” The cat responded even when he telephoned home from field trips in Africa or South America.

Since 1994, with the help of hundreds of animal trainers, shepherds, blind people with guide dogs, veterinarians, and pet owners, I have been investigating some of these unexplained powers of animals. There are three major categories of seemingly mysterious perceptiveness: namely telepathy, the sense of direction, and premonition. Telepathy

The commonest kinds of seemingly telepathic response are the anticipation by dogs and cats of their owners coming home; the anticipation of owners going away; the anticipation of being fed; cats disappearing when their owners intend to take them to the vet; dogs knowing when their owners are planning to take them for a walk; and animals that get excited when their owner is on the telephone, even before the telephone has been answered.

As skeptics rightly point out, some of these responses could be explained in terms of routine expectations, subtle sensory cues, chance coincidence, and selective memory, or put down to the imaginations of doting pet owners. These are reasonable hypotheses, but they should not be accepted in the absence of any evidence. To test these possibilities, it is necessary to do experiments.

My colleagues and I concentrated on the phenomenon of dogs that know when their owners are coming home. Many pet owners have observed that their animals seem to anticipate the arrival of a member of the household, often 10 minutes or more in advance.

The pets typically wait at a door, window, or gate. In random household surveys in Britain and America, an average of 51 percent of dog owners and 30 per of cat owners said that they had noticed such anticipatory behavior.

The dog I investigated in most detail was a terrier called Jaytee, who belonged to Pam Smart, in Ramsbottom, near Manchester, England. Pam adopted Jaytee from Manchester Dogs’ Home in 1989 when he was still a puppy, and she soon formed a close bond with him.

In 1991, when Pam was working as a secretary at a school in Manchester, she left Jaytee with her parents, who noticed that the dog went to the French window almost every weekday at about 4:30 p.m., around the time she set off for home, and waited there until she arrived some 45 minutes later. She worked routine office hours, so the family assumed that Jaytee’s behavior depended on some kind of time sense.

Pam was laid off in 1993 and was subsequently unemployed, no longer tied to any regular pattern of activity. Her parents did not usually know when she would be coming home, but Jaytee still anticipated her return.

In 1994, Pam read an article about my research and volunteered to take part. In more than 100 experiments, we videotaped the area by the window where Jaytee waited during Pam’s absences, providing a continuous, time-coded record of his behavior which was scored “blind” by a third party who did not know the details of the experiments.

To check that Jaytee was not reacting to the sound of Pam’s car or other familiar vehicles, we investigated whether he still anticipated her arrival when she traveled by unusual means: by bicycle, by train, and by taxi. He did.

We also carried out experiments in which Pam set off at times selected at random after she had left home, communicated to her by means of a telephone pager. In these experiments, Jaytee still started waiting at the window around the time Pam set off, even though no one at home knew when she would be coming.

The odds against this being a chance effect were more than 100,000 to 1. Jaytee behaved in a very similar way when he was tested repeatedly by skeptics anxious to debunk his abilities.

The evidence indicates that Jaytee was reacting to Pam’s intention to come home even when she was many miles away. Telepathy seems the only hypothesis that can account for the facts. All our published papers on Jaytee, and on another return-anticipating dog, Kane, can be found on my website.

Currently, Alex Tsakiris is replicating this research with dogs in the United States. Details of his investigations are at www.skeptiko.com.

Other kinds of animal telepathy can also be investigated experimentally; for example, the apparent ability of dogs to know when they are going to be taken for walks. In these experiments, the dogs are kept in a separate room or outbuilding and videotaped continuously. Meanwhile their owner, at a randomly selected time, thinks about taking them for a walk and then five minutes later does so.

Our preliminary experiments have shown dogs exhibiting obvious excitement when their owner is thinking about taking them out, although they could not have known this by normal sensory means. They did not manifest such excitement at other times.

The most remarkable case of animal telepathy that I have encountered is with an African grey parrot, N’kisi, who has the largest vocabulary of any animal in the world—currently more than 1,400 words. N’kisi uses language in a meaningful way and speaks in sentences.

It is amazing how pigeons can find the same place year after year. (Stephanie Lam/The Epoch Times) His owner, Aimee Morgana, is primarily concerned with exploring his linguistic abilities, but noticed that he often responds to what she is thinking by saying out loud what her thoughts are. Aimee and I carried out controlled tests with randomized photographs in sealed envelopes. In a series of videotaped trials, Aimee opened an envelope and silently looked at the picture for 2 minutes, while N’kisi, in another room, on another floor, was filmed.

In many of the trials, he said words corresponding to the image Aimee was looking at. This effect was highly significant statistically, and the data can be seen in detail at http://www.sheldrake.org/Articles&Papers/papers/animals/parrot_telepathy_abs.htm.

There is much potential for further research on animal telepathy. And if domestic animals are telepathic with their human owners, then it seems very likely that animals are telepathic with each other, and that this may play an important part in the wild. Some naturalists have already suggested that the coordination of flocks of birds and herds of animals may involve something like telepathy, as may communication between members of a pack of wolves. The Sense of Direction

Homing pigeons can find their way back to their loft over hundreds of miles of unfamiliar terrain. Migrating European swallows travel thousands of miles to their feeding grounds in Africa, and in the spring return to their native place, even to the very same building where they nested before. Some dogs, cats, horses, and other domesticated animals also have a good sense of direction and can make their way home from unfamiliar places many miles away.

Most research on animal navigation has been carried out with homing pigeons, and this research over many decades has served only to deepen the problem of understanding their direction-finding ability. Navigation is goal-directed, and implies that the animals know where their home is even when they are in an unfamiliar place and have to cross unfamiliar terrain.

Pigeons do not know their way home by remembering the twists and turns of the outward journey, because birds taken in closed vans by devious routes find their way home perfectly well, as do birds that have been anesthetized on the outward journey or transported in rotating drums. They do not navigate by the sun, because pigeons can home on cloudy days and can even be trained to navigate at night. However, they may use the sun as a simple compass to keep their bearings.

Although they use landmarks in familiar terrain, they can home from unfamiliar places hundreds of kilometers from their home, where no familiar landmarks are visible. They cannot smell their home from hundreds of miles away, especially when it is downwind, although smell may play a part in their homing ability when they are close to familiar territory. Pigeons deprived of their sense of smell by researchers were still able to find their homes.

Some biologists hope that the homing of pigeons might turn out to be explicable in terms of a magnetic sense. But even if pigeons have a compass-sense, this could not explain their ability to navigate. If you were taken blindfolded to an unknown destination and given a compass, you would know where north was, but not the direction of your home.

The failure of conventional attempts to explain pigeon homing and many other kinds of animal navigation implies the existence of a sense of direction as yet unrecognized by institutional science. This could have major implications for the understanding of animal migrations and would shed light on the human sense of direction, much better developed in traditional peoples such as the bushmen of the Kalahari or Polynesian navigators than in modern urban people.

Premonitions

Very little research has been done on animal premonitions, even in the case of earthquakes and tsunamis where such warnings could prove very useful.

Some forewarnings might be explicable in terms of physical clues, such as electrical changes before earthquakes and storms. Other premonitions are more mysterious, as in the case of animals that anticipated air raids during the World War II long before they could have heard enemy planes approaching, or animals that become agitated before unforeseeable accidents. Here precognition or presentiment may be involved, implying either an influence passing backward in time, or a blurring of the distinction between future, present, and past.

All three types of perceptiveness—telepathy, the sense of direction, and premonitions—seem better developed in nonhuman species like dogs than they are in people. We have much to learn from our companion animals about animal nature, and about our own.

Reprinted from The Rhine Online.

Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., is the director of the Perrott-Warrick Project, funded from Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and a Research Fellow of the Royal Society. He is currently a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, Calif., and lives in London. Much of his research on unexplained powers of animals and of people is summarized in his books “Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals,” and “The Sense of Being Stared At, and Other Aspects of the Extended Mind.” His website is www.sheldrake.org.

How To Experiment with Remote Viewing

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:46:00 +0000

Remote viewing is the controlled use of ESP (extrasensory perception) through a specific method. Using a set of protocols (technical rules), the remote viewer can perceive a target - a person, object or event - that is located distantly in time and space. What makes remote viewing different than ESP is that, because it uses specific techniques, it can be learned by virtually anyone. Here's how you can experiment with remote viewing.
Difficulty: Hard
Time Required: Up to 6 hours
Here's How:

First Decisions. Decide who will be the viewer (the person who actually does the remote viewing) and who will be the sender (the person who "transmits" the information to the viewer).
Create the Targets. Have a third, person who will not be involved in the remote viewing experiment, select 15 to 20 possible targets - the places the viewer will be remote viewing. The targets must be actual places, preferably within driving distance. This third person should write down details about each target on an index card. Information should include key features of the site: landmarks, geographic features, structures and directions. The more strong details, the better.
Secure the Targets. The third person should place each target card in its own unmarked opaque envelope. Seal all envelopes.
Choose the Target. Have a fourth person randomly select one of the target envelopes and give it to the viewer.
Plan a Time. Decide on a span of time that the actual experiment will begin and end. For example, let's say you choose to begin at 10 a.m. and end at 11 a.m. From this point, the sender and viewer should have no contact until the experiment is over.
Open the Envelope. In a place separate from the viewer, the sender should open the envelope and for the first time find out what the target location is. The sender should then go to that location, planning to be there by the start time (in this case, 10 a.m.). Viewer Preparation. Before the start time, the viewer should prepare by being in a quiet, comfortable location with as few distractions as possible. Dress comfortably, disconnect the phone or turn off the cell phone and go to the bathroom to avoid any possible interruptions. Get as relaxed as possible; try some breathing exercises 1.
Start Sending. At the agreed time, the sender is at the target location. The sender should look around and begin transmitting by thought detailed impressions of the location. The impressions should include specific colors, strong shapes, structures - even smells.
Start Viewing. At the agreed time, the viewer should be totally relaxed and be sitting comfortably with paper and pencil or pen. Write down the impressions that come across. Draw the shapes seen; note color and smell impressions. Notes. Before the experiment is over, the sender should also jot down notes about the specifics of the target location. Perhaps even photos or video can be taken.
Ending the Experiment. At the end of the agreed time, the viewer should sign and date all notes and drawings made. These are then given to another person. The Judge. After the experiment is done, the viewer's notes and the sender's notes (and photos, if any) should be handed over to an impartial person (who thusfar has had no connection with the experiment) who will act as a judge. The judge will compare the notes of the sender and the viewer to determine how successful the remote viewing experiment was.
The Verdict. Finally, all persons can gather to hear the judge's opinion, view all of the materials and find out the number or percentage of remote viewing hits. Plan Another Experiment. Whether the results are satisfactory or disappointing, plan to try again. Psychic experiments take time and practice. Don't give up. Share Your Successes. If you've conducted a successful remote viewing experiment, let me know about it. Send me the details2 for possible sharing with readers on this website.

Tips:

When the third party selects the target sites, it will be helpful to choose spots that have strong, bold and unique visual features. This will help make the transmission and reception of the target easier and more specific. At no time before or during the experiment should the viewer see or speak with the people who choose the targets and create the cards and envelopes. This prevents the accidental leakage of any information about the targets to the viewer beforehand.
When the viewer is writing down and drawing impressions, don't try to interpret, analyze or second-guess them. Record your first impressions without censorship or judgement. Just let it happen. For some viewers, it's preferable to just sit and relax while impressions are received. Say what is "seen" and have someone else write down what is said. Consider recording it on audio or videotape. (This recording person should be absolutely silent during the recording.)
Keep trying. Unlike a chemistry experiment in which you mix two chemicals and always get the same result, a psychic experiment like remote viewing is not always sure-fire. Results will vary with the people involved, the time and place, and other circumstances. But keep experimenting. You may find that your percentage of "hits" will improve over time. What You Need:

index cards envelopes paper pens or pencils tape recorder (optional) camera (optional) video camera (optional)
By Stephen Wagner, About.com Guide

The Power of the Words You Use

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:58:00 +0000

When I was only 22, I found myself thrust into the job of managing a bustling natural food store in Boston.

I hadn’t ask for the promotion. I enjoyed my previous job of produce manger. Fruits and vegetables are easier to mange than people! And before that job, I was very content unloading delivery trucks all day. It was good exercise—and bags of rice are even easier to manage than fruits and vegetables. I liked my jobs easy, my days flowing. My motto was: “No stress, no mess!”

Unfortunately I quickly discovered that the position of store manager was a vortex of turmoil and tension. The position was a magnet for stress. Every day, I heard 30 times, “Keith, we have a problem!” And guess what? … My job was to find a solution to the problem. Now!

After just a few days on the job, I was overwhelmed and paralyzed with the back up of problems to solve. I couldn’t sleep for the nightmares I had of hundreds of people chasing me down in the store shouting “We have a problem, Keith!” I prayed for a way to survive the onslaught of problems at the store. One night my prayers were answered. From deep inside me came a gentle suggestion: “Banish the word problem! That word carries such heavy, burdensome connotations for you that you can’t function well in its energy field.”

This helpful guide reminded me of all the people in my life who used this word a lot—my father, mother, brother, school teachers, sports coaches, bosses. I felt the immense morphic field of that word. The intense seriousness of the energy with which it is used in our culture.

So, the next morning I instituted an official ban on the word problem in my store. Employees had to find a substitute for that word. I suggested the word situation. So, now all day long I had people addressing me with the words, “Keith, we have situation.”

I immediately noticed that my reaction to the word situation was dramatically different form my reaction to the word problem. I didn’t cringe as much when I heard situation. I stayed more open. And thus, I was much better able to listen and hear what being said to me. And thus, I would respond faster and more effectively than when the energy field of problem was invoked.

I also noticed that the energy or vibration of the employees was markedly different when they used the word situation rather than problem. They were calmer, less tense, less urgent—less serious. Therefore, the whole interaction was lighter, more flowing—and more quickly resolved. My employees and I often even broke into a laugh at the notion that “Oh, my, God, we have a situation!!!”

The effect of changing just one word in our everyday communication had an immediate and cumulative effect on the store. The new playful vibration of situation had a radically positive effect on the atmosphere of the store. I was more cheerful and approachable. The employees were more relaxed and open to customers. The customers were happier. The result of every employee coming from a light-hearted, flowing space of situation instead of the serious, rigid energy of problem made for a radically higher energy, fun space in the store.

At that same time the daily dollar volume in the store tripled! I was so successful at managing the situations at the retail store level, I was quickly whisked up to the wholesale and distribution level of company, becoming a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President in charge of Product Procurement, Development and Research. And, boy, did the word situation come in handy on the level of million dollar decisions made every day!

This was my first personal experience of the power of words! Since this time, I constantly experiment with my choice of words—searching for the most clear and also effective words to use in every communication with others and myself!

I looked at the word emotion and saw a clue to the meaning of the word: e-motion = “energy in motion.” I began to use the words energy, vibration or sensation to represent the meaning of the word emotion. I now see and feel emotion as “energy in motion.” And it’s now easier for me to allow emotions to naturally come up and out of my body, my being and my experience.

I began to substitute the word challenging for hard, tough or difficult. And now I experience situations being more easy to shift and change.

Our words create a perceptual filter through which we experience our world. Our words attract and create the nature of our experiences.

If you’d like to play with the power of words, ask yourself these questions the next time you encounter a problem in life: If I labeled this problem as simply a “situation” or “challenge” or “experience,” how would I feel?

If I didn’t look at this situation as bad, wrong or negative, how would I see it?

How would the situation look, if I saw it from a different point of view?

Have fun!

by: Keith Varnum

http://www.thedream.com

Tao Yoga Yin Chi / Qi Gong Kung Fu Exercise Balance Yang Meditation

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 19:07:00 +0000

Everything In The Universe Is Made Up of Energy

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:52:00 +0000

Everything In The Universe Is Made Up of Energy