healing | Ascension Lifestyle

28 Oct 2021
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Moldavite: Extraterrestrial Stone On Earth

Moldavite is a member of the tektite group, a glassy mixture of silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide and other metal oxides, with a hardness of 5.5 to 6. Its crystal system is amorphous. The color of most specimens is a deep forest green, though some pieces are pale green and others, especially those from Moravia, are greenish brown. A few rare gem grade pieces are almost an emerald green.

Moldavite’s formation coincides with the crash of a large meteorite in what is now the Bohemian plateau of the Czech Republic, approximately 14.8 million years ago. Most specimens are found strewn throughout that area. For many decades, farmers in southern Bohemia have turned up pieces of moldavite when plowing fields, and moldavite miners sift and dig through loose sand and gravel from depths of up to twenty meters. Some of the richest finds have occurred at the towns of Chlum and Slavce. A very delicate, lacy form of moldavite has been found near the village of Besednice, although this location is now exhausted. In recent years the moldavite fields have become depleted, and the stones are becoming increasingly rare.

Moldavite is the stone that initiated me into awareness of the spiritual properties of crystals and minerals, and it has been a catalyst for several of my most important spiritual experiences. It has, over the 33 years I have worked in this field, had similar effects on thousands of other people with whom I have spoken and corresponded. From my perspective, it has a special role to play in the awakening of humanity now underway.

Scientific theorists differ on hypotheses regarding moldavite’s origin. Some contend that moldavite is earthly rock melted by the heat of the meteorite crash, while others suggest that the material is of extraterrestrial origin, possibly a type of obsidian ejected by a lunar volcano.

A third theory holds that moldavite is a fusion product of meteoric material and earthly rock vaporized in the tremendous heat of the impact explosion, with the resultant gas being propelled high into the atmosphere. This gaseous material would have then cooled and condensed into a liquid glass that rained down on the crater and surrounding areas. Regardless of which, if any, of these ideas is correct, it is known that moldavite indeed fell from the sky, because of the aerodynamic shapes of certain pieces. Most scientists associate it with the meteoric collision that formed the Bohemian plateau and surrounding mountains.

The event that gave birth to moldavite was one of tremendous power. The force of the impact explosion has been estimated at six trillion megatons, far more than all the atom bombs on Earth. The heat, as mentioned above, was hot enough to vaporize rock, and the main body of the meteorite is believed to have passed completely through Earth’s crust, penetrating into the liquid iron at the planet’s core. This deep impact was described in a New York Times article as having disturbed the currents of rotating liquid iron enough to cause a reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles.

Throughout history, and even into pre-history, moldavite has been regarded as a spiritual talisman. The Neolithic peoples of Eastern Europe wore moldavite at least twenty-five thousand years ago, and the famed Venus of Willendorf — the earliest known goddess statue — was discovered in a digging site that contained a number of moldavite amulets. People of that period also used moldavite for arrowheads and cutting tools.

Feeling The Moldavite Flush

In modern times, moldavite has emerged as one of the stones most prized for metaphysical purposes. Its effects vary widely, from mild to almost overwhelming, from physical cleansings to spiritual breakthroughs — yet the common denominator seems to be the revitalization and acceleration of one’s path of evolution.

People who hold moldavite for the first time most often experience its energy as warmth or heat, usually felt first in one’s hand and then progressively throughout the body. In some cases, there is an opening of the heart chakra, characterized by strange (though not painful) sensations in the chest, an upwelling of emotion and a flushing of the face. This has happened often enough to have earned a name — the “moldavite flush.” Moldavite’s energies can also cause pulsations in the hand, tingling in the third eye and heart chakras, a feeling of light-headedness or dizziness, and occasionally the sense of being lifted out of one’s body. Most people feel that moldavite excites their energies and speeds their vibrations, especially for the first days or weeks, until they become acclimated to it.

Moldavite’s energies can activate any and all of the chakras. Its vibrations tend to focus in areas where one has blockages or wounds, first clearing these areas and then moving into resonance with one’s entire energetic system. Resonance with moldavite can take many forms — chakras can open; synchronicities can increase in frequency and significance; one’s dream life can become dramatically more vivid and meaningful; one can connect with spirit guides; physical, emotional or spiritual healings can happen; jobs and relationships can change; meditations can become deeper and more powerful — yet all these can be viewed as symptoms of a shift in one’s own energies. This shift is what moldavite can catalyze. With its high and intense vibrations, it can resonate with one’s energy pattern in a way that creates an intensification of spiritual vitality and an acceleration of progress on the path of one’s highest destiny.

Moldavite is a powerful aid for meditation and dreamwork. In both cases, taping a piece of moldavite to the forehead can have the effect of creating a much more vivid and visionary inner experience. Moldavite increases one’s sensitivity to guidance, and one’s ability to discern the messages sent from the higher realms.

Used As A Spiritual Talisman

Moldavite can be a powerful catalyst for self-healing, clearing blockages and opening the meridians, as well as energizing the interconnections among all aspects of the subtle body. It is a talisman of spiritual awakening, transformation and evolutionary growth.

In addition to use in meditation and dreamwork, moldavite can be worn as jewelry. This conveys the advantage of being able to keep its energies in one’s vibrational field throughout the day, for further strengthening of its effects. Doing this also draws an increased incidence of beneficial synchronicities into one’s daily life. Some people will have to accustom themselves gradually to wearing moldavite because of its energetic intensity, but most will make the adjustment in a few days.

Moldavite also offers an energy of spiritual protection. When one is in resonance with its high-frequency vibrations, negative energies and entities cannot connect with or hang onto one’s field. In alignment with its transformational properties, moldavite tends to disconnect one from unhealthy attachments and to magnetize the persons and situations most needed for evolutionary progress.

Moldavite tends to quickly attract whatever one’s spiritual metamorphosis requires. It also seems to cause whatever parts of our lives no longer serve our highest good to be discharged, whether we realize the need for that or not. This reminds us of Hermes, especially in regard to the speed of the changes that occur. Hermes was a being of great speed. He had wings on his feet, and was the messenger of the gods.

One phenomenon that displays a Trickster quality of moldavite is its apparent ability to disappear and reappear. I have experienced this many times. In a typical instance, I put my moldavite away on a dresser or in a box, only to find it gone the next day. Then, sooner or later, the moldavite will reappear, usually in a ridiculously unlikely spot. In one instance, I left my moldavite on top of my dresser in the bedroom, discovered the next day that it was gone, and found it again weeks later — in the container of one of our house plants in the living room! In the longest of these disappearances, my most treasured moldavite disappeared for fourteen years, only to be found eventually in the pocket of a pair of pants that I had never worn! For a long time, I doubted my memory, but this occurred over and over. And through the years, many people have told me their own very similar stories. There are numerous disappearing moldavite stories online.

What is the reason that moldavite performs these disappearing acts? I have thought at times that the intention behind moldavite’s disappearances may be to show us that the physical world is not necessarily as solid as we think it is. If that were proven to us, and if we accepted the evidence, the knowledge could be very liberating.

Moldavite Is A Stone Of The Heart And Dreams

When a person first holds a piece of moldavite, he or she often feels heat, especially around the heart. As this experience unfolds, the person frequently flushes red in the cheeks. This can be accompanied by tears, signifying an emotional release. I have witnessed people holding a moldavite and being surprised by the fact that their hearts began to beat in a different way. It is not a painful event; I compare the heart’s behavior to a dog wagging its tail when it is happy. I believe the heart responds to moldavite in this way, communicating its recognition and pleasure in the presence of this stone. And of course, moldavite is green — the color of the heart chakra.

In my first powerful moldavite experience, the sensation of energy began in my right hand where I was holding the stone. Then the current went straight up my arm and into my heart. At that point, my heart chakra opened, like a blooming flower of light. And in the next moment, the light surged both downwards and upwards from my heart, opening all of my chakras.

As an incubator of dreams, this is true of moldavite more than any other stone I have worked with. If you tape a small piece of moldavite to your forehead at the location of the third eye chakra before going to bed, I guarantee that you will dream! A lot! I have tried this many times and recommended it to others for over thirty years. Almost all of us find that the quantity and depth of our dream life increases immediately. And the dreams are often spiritually significant ones.

I believe that this happens because of moldavite’s affinity with the deep self, the part of us that creates our dreams. When moldavite lends its power to one’s deep self, a flurry of inner communication comes to us through a cornucopia of dreams. Another rather surprising symptom of moldavite’s effect on our dreaming is that most of us have to remove the moldavite during the night, because we are dreaming so much that we need to take a rest from it and sleep more deeply!

For virtually all of us, the path of spiritual evolution involves healing. In alchemical terms, we need to cook ourselves so that the impurities in our energies — the disharmonious patterns in our subtle bodies — are burned away. And moldavite just loves to do that!

Moldavite resonates with the pattern of our highest good — our full spiritual awakening and development. Thus, its influence moves us toward dispelling all patterns that are not in alignment with our wholeness, clearing the way for profound good health. However, the ride may sometimes be uncomfortable, just as it can be on the psychological level.

Something I experienced several times during my first years with moldavite was the onset of physical problems that turned out to be rooted in past lives. As people who work with past life therapy often observe, my physical ailments expressed similarities (at least symbolically) to traumatic past life events. Hypnotic regressions were helpful in completing my review of these patterns and letting them go, but I am convinced that the presence of moldavite is what brought them to the forefront.

Sometimes, especially when one is already in the throes of an apparent illness that stems from long-held unhealthy patterns in the subtle body, the introduction of moldavite can trigger a direct and rapid healing effect. It can seem as if the stone has cured a physical illness, but in my view, the presence of moldavite has simply dislodged the stuck pattern, allowing the subtle body to clear itself and bring the physical body back to health.

If one wishes to work with moldavite as a healing stone, it is often a good idea to bring another beneficial stone (or stones) into the mix. Heartenite, seraphinite, healerite and healers’ gold are good, overall healing stones that can stabilize one’s subtle body and work to soften the intensity of moldavite. In my own past, during a time when my healing was focused on the emotional body, I found that charoite and moldavite felt best to me. I urge you to work intuitively in these types of situations, and let the stone beings tell you which ones are most appropriate.

Robert Simmons has been working with crystals and stones for over 35 years. He is the cofounder of Heaven and Earth, a company offering gem and jewelry creations for self-healing and spiritual and emotional development. The author of several books, including The Book of Stones, The Alchemy of Stones and Stones of the New Consciousness, he lives in New Zealand.

09 Oct 2021
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Our Brains Tell Stories So We Can Live

We are all storytellers; we make sense out of the world by telling stories. And science is a great source of stories. Not so, you might argue. Science is an objective collection and interpretation of data. I completely agree. At the level of the study of purely physical phenomena, science is the only reliable method for establishing the facts of the world.

But when we use data of the physical world to explain phenomena that cannot be reduced to physical facts, or when we extend incomplete data to draw general conclusions, we are telling stories. Knowing the atomic weight of carbon and oxygen cannot tell us what life is. There are no naked facts that completely explain why animals sacrifice themselves for the good of their kin, why we fall in love, the meaning and purpose of existence, or why we kill each other.

Science is not at fault. On the contrary, science can save us from false stories. It is an irreplaceable means of understanding our world. But despite the verities of science, many of our most important questions compel us to tell stories that venture beyond the facts. For all of the sophisticated methodologies in science, we have not moved beyond the story as the primary way that we make sense of our lives.

To see where science and story meet, let’s take a look at how story is created in the brain. Let’s begin with an utterly simple example of a story, offered by E. M. Forster in his classic book on writing, Aspects of the Novel:“The king died and then the queen died.” It is nearly impossible to read this juxtaposition of events without wondering why the queen died. Even with a minimum of description, the construction of the sentence makes us guess at a pattern. Why would the author mention both events in the same sentence if he didn’t mean to imply a causal relationship?

Once a relationship has been suggested, we feel obliged to come up with an explanation. This makes us turn to what we know, to our storehouse of facts. It is general knowledge that a spouse can die of grief. Did the queen then die of heartbreak? This possibility draws on the science of human behavior, which competes with other, more traditional narratives. A high school student who has been studying Hamlet, for instance, might read the story as a microsynopsis of the play.

The pleasurable feeling that our explanation is the right one—ranging from a modest sense of familiarity to the powerful and sublime “a-ha!”—is meted out by the same reward system in the brain integral to drug, alcohol, and gambling addictions. The reward system extends from the limbic area of the brain, vital to the expression of emotion, to the prefrontal cortex, critical to executive thought. Though still imperfectly understood, it is generally thought that the reward system plays a central role in the promotion and reinforcement of learning. Key to the system, and found primarily within its brain cells, is dopamine, a neurotransmitter that carries and modulates signals among brain cells. Studies consistently show that feeling rewarded is accompanied by a rise in dopamine levels.

This reward system was first noted in the 1950s by two McGill University researchers, James Olds and Peter Milner. Stimulating electrodes were placed in presumed brain reward areas of rats. When allowed full unrestricted access to a lever that, when depressed, would cause the electrodes to fire, the rats quickly learned to repeatedly depress the lever, often to the exclusion of food and water. Realizing that our brains are capable of producing feelings so intense that we choose to ignore such basic drives as hunger and thirst was a first step toward understanding the enormous power of the brain’s reward circuitry.

Critical to understanding how stories spark the brain’s reward system is the theory known as pattern recognition—the brain’s way of piecing together a number of separate components of an image into a coherent picture. The first time you see a lion, for instance, you have to figure out what you’re seeing. At least 30 separate areas of the brain’s visual cortex pitch in, each processing an aspect of the overall image—from the detection of motion and edges, to the register of color and facial features. Collectively they form an overall image of a lion.

Each subsequent exposure to a lion enhances your neural circuitry; the connections among processing regions become more robust and efficient. (This theory, based on the research of Canadian psychologist Donald O. Hebb, a pioneer in studying how people learn, is often stated as “cells that fire together wire together.”) Soon, less input is necessary to recognize the lion. A fleeting glimpse of a partial picture is sufficient for recognition, which occurs via positive feedback from your reward system. Yes, you are assured by your brain, that is a lion.

An efficient pattern recognition of a lion makes perfect evolutionary sense. If you see a large feline shape moving in some nearby brush, it is unwise to wait until you see the yellows of the lion’s eyes before starting to run up the nearest tree. You need a brain that quickly detects entire shapes from fragments of the total picture and provides you with a powerful sense of the accuracy of this recognition.

One need only think of the recognition of a new pattern that is so profound that it triggers an involuntary “a-ha!” to understand the degree of pleasure that can be associated with learning. It’s no wonder that once a particular pattern-recognition-reward relationship is well grooved into our circuitry, it is hard to shake. In general—outside of addiction, that is—this “stickiness” of a correlation is a good thing. It is through repetition and the sense of familiarity and “rightness” of a correlation that we learn to navigate our way in the world.

Science is in the business of making up stories called hypotheses and testing them, then trying its best to make up better ones. Thought-experiments can be compared to storytelling exercises using well-known characters. What would Sherlock Holmes do if he found a body suspended in a tree with a note strapped to its ankle? What would a light ray being bounced between two mirrors look like to an observer sitting on a train? Once done with their story, scientists go to the lab to test it; writers call editors to see if they will buy it.

People and science are like bread and butter. We are hardwired to need stories; science has storytelling buried deep in its nature. But there is also a problem. We can get our dopamine reward, and walk away with a story in hand, before science has finished testing it. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the brain, hungry for its pattern-matching dopamine reward, overlooks contradictory or conflicting information whenever possible. A fundamental prerequisite for pattern recognition is the ability to quickly distinguish between similar but not identical inputs. Not being able to pigeonhole an event or idea makes it much more difficult for the brain to label and store it as a discrete memory. Neat and tidy promotes learning; loose ends lead to the “yes, but” of indecision and inability to draw a precise conclusion.

When we make and take incomplete stories from science, there are moral consequences.

Just as proper pattern recognition results in the reward of an increased release of dopamine, faulty pattern recognition is associated with decreased dopamine release. In monkeys, the failure to make a successful prediction (correlation between expected and actual outcome) characteristically diminishes dopamine release exactly at the time that the predicted event is anticipated but fails to occur. Just as accurate correlations are pleasurable, lack of correlation produces the neurotransmitter equivalent of thwarted expectation (or worse).

Once we see that stories are the narrative equivalent of correlation, it is easy to understand why our brains seek out stories (patterns) whenever and wherever possible. You may have read or heard about the famous experiment in which University of Illinois psychology professor Daniel Simons asked subjects to watch a video and count the number of times a ball is dribbled by a basketball team. When focused on counting, the majority of viewers failed to see a woman in a gorilla suit walk across the playing area. In effect, well-oiled patterns of observation encourage our brains to compose a story that we expect to hear.

Because we are compelled to make stories, we are often compelled to take incomplete stories and run with them. With a half-story from science in our minds, we earn a dopamine “reward” every time it helps us understand something in our world—even if that explanation is incomplete or wrong.

Following the Newtown massacre, some experts commented on the killer having Asperger’s syndrome, as though that might at least partially explain his behavior. Though Asperger’s syndrome feels like a specific diagnosis, it is, by definition, nothing more than a constellation of symptoms common to a group of people. In the 1940s, Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger noted that a number of patients had similar problems with social skills, eccentric or repetitive actions, unusual preoccupation rituals, and communication difficulties, including lack of eye contact and trouble understanding facial expressions and gestures. The 2013 decision by the American Psychiatric Association to remove the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome from its guidebook for clinicians, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM-V), for failing to conform to any specific neuropathology, underscores the all-too-common problem of accepting a clustering of symptoms as synonymous with a specific disease. Syndromes are stories in search of underlying causes.

Similarly, studies of psychopaths have shown a diminished volume of gray matter in specific regions of the prefrontal cortex. But these findings aren’t the sole explanation for violent acts. Because it is impossible to stimulate a specific brain region to produce complex and premeditated acts, we are left to conclude that while certain brain conditions can be correlated with a complex act, they are not necessarily causing it. Likewise, brain scans that reveal abnormalities in mass murderers may help us understand what might have contributed to their behavior. But the abnormalities are no more the sole explanation for violence than childhood neglect or poor nutrition. They are stories, albeit with a detailed neurophysiological component, but stories nonetheless.

When we make and take incomplete stories from science, there are often moral consequences. How much personal responsibility should we assign to an individual with a damaged or malfunctioning brain? What is the appropriate punishment and possibility of rehabilitation for such a person? Only when we openly acknowledge the degree to which science is presenting its observations in the form of story can we address this moral dimension. We must each work out our own guidelines for when we think scientific data has exceeded its bounds and has morphed into the agenda and bias of story. Of course this is always going to be a challenge in the absence of a full array of scientific data.

But we can begin by being aware of the various ways that storytelling can insinuate itself into the presentation and interpretation of data. Good science is a combination of meticulously obtained and analyzed data, a restriction of the conclusions to those interpretations that are explicitly reflected in the data, and an honest and humble recognition of the limits of what this data can say about the world.

Loose ends lead to the “yes, but” of indecision and inability to draw a precise conclusion.

As members of the public, we need to ensure that any science we accept as truth has passed through the peer-review process. We should also understand that even peer-reviewed data is not always accurate. In 2011, Nature reported that published retractions had increased by a factor of 10 over the last 10 years, while the number of papers published rose only 44 percent. Also in Nature, scientists C. Glenn Begley and Lee M. Ellis wrote that their colleagues at the biotechnology firm Amgen could reproduce only six of 53 landmark hematology and oncology studies from the scientific literature. Similarly, scientists from Bayer reported in 2011 that they could not consistently reproduce about two-thirds of oncology studies relevant to their work.

When reading science reports, we should also search for information on the limits of the data. Were assumptions made? What do the “error bars,” or graphic representations of variable data, say? We may not always understand the data limits, but we should be worried when some discussion of them is completely absent.

In the end, scientists have the tools, language, and experience to tell us informed, engaging, and powerful stories. In turn, we should judge their studies in the same light in which we judge other artistic forms. Like a literary critic, we should assess the preciseness of language, the tightness of structure, the clarity and originality of vision, the overall elegance and grace of the study, the restraint with which they present moral issues, how they place their studies in historical, cultural, and personal context, and their willingness to entertain alternative opinions and interpretations.

The methodology of science remains one of the great advances of humankind. Its stories, properly told, are epic poems in progress, and deserve to stand alongside the great stories of history.

About the Author:

Robert A. Burton, M.D., a neurologist and novelist, is the author of On Being Certain: Believing That You Are Right Even When You’re Not, and A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves.

Original article here.

06 Oct 2021
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Japan’s Unusual Way To View The World

Withdrawing my hands reluctantly from the slowly spinning bowl, I watched its uneven sides slowly come to a stop, wishing I could straighten them out just a little more. I was in the ancient pottery town of Hagi in rural Yamaguchi, Japan, and while I trusted the potter who convinced me to let it be, I can’t say I understood his motives.

Smiling, he announced, “it has wabi-sabi” – and whisked the bowl away for firing. I sat, contemplating the lack of symmetry and wondering what on Earth he meant.

As it turns out, failing to understand this phrase is not unusual. A key part of the Japanese Aesthetic – the ancient ideals that still govern the norms on taste and beauty in Japan – wabi-sabi is not only untranslatable, but also considered undefinable in Japanese culture. Often muttered in moments of profound appreciation, and almost always followed by the word muri! (impossible!) when asked to expand, the phrase offers an unusual way to view the world.

Originating in Taoism during China’s Song dynasty (960-1279) before being passed onto Zen Buddhism, wabi-sabi was originally seen as an austere, restrained form of appreciation. Today it encapsulates a more relaxed acceptance of transience, nature and melancholy, favouring the imperfect and incomplete in everything, from architecture to pottery to flower arranging.

Wabi, which roughly means ‘the elegant beauty of humble simplicity’, and sabi, which means ‘the passing of time and subsequent deterioration’, were combined to form a sense unique to Japan and pivotal to Japanese culture. But just as Buddhist monks believed that words were the enemy of understanding, this description can only scratch the surface of the topic.

Prof Tanehisa Otabe, professor at Tokyo University’s Institute of Aesthetics, suggests that the ancient art of wabi-cha, a style of tea ceremony established by tea masters Murata Juko and Sen no Rikyu from the late 15th to 16th Centuries forms a good introduction to wabi-sabi. By choosing common Japanese pottery over the popular (and technically perfect) imported Chinese examples, the men challenged the rules of beauty. Without bright colours and ornate designs to rely on as signifiers of accepted beauty, guests were encouraged to study subtle colours and textures that would previously have been overlooked.

As to why they sought imperfect, rustic pieces, Prof Otabe explained that, “wabi-sabi leaves something unfinished or incomplete for the play of imagination”. This opportunity to actively engage with something considered to be wabi-sabi achieves three things: an awareness of the natural forces involved in the creation of the piece; an acceptance of the power of nature; and an abandonment of dualism – the belief that we are separate from our surroundings.

Combined, these experiences allow the viewer to see themselves as part of the natural world, no longer separated by societal constructs and instead at the mercy of natural timelines. Rather than seeing dents or uneven shapes as mistakes, they are viewed as a creation of nature – much as moss would grow on an uneven wall or a tree would curve in the wind.

“The aesthetics of wabi-sabi opened our eyes to everyday life and gave us a method of handling what is common in an uncommon, aesthetic way,” Prof Otabe said, highlighting the importance of acceptance in Japanese culture, a society forced to contend with devastating natural disasters on a semi-regular basis. Rather than casting nature solely as a dangerous and destructive force, it helps frame it as a source of beauty, to be appreciated on the smallest of levels. It becomes a provider of colours, designs and patterns, a source of inspiration, and a force to work alongside, rather than against.

It is the inevitable mortality embound in nature, however, that is key to a true understanding of wabi-sabi. As author Andrew Juniper notes in his book Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence, “It… uses the uncompromising touch of mortality to focus the mind on the exquisite transient beauty to be found in all things impermanent”. Alone, natural patterns are merely pretty, but in understanding their context as transient items that highlight our own awareness of impermanence and death, they become profound.

This idea brought to mind a story a Japanese colleague told me when we discussed wabi-sabi. Visiting Kyoto as a teenager, she had hurried through the grounds of Ginkakuji, a wooden Zen temple with quiet gardens, eager to see the more famous Kinkakuji, an ornate temple covered in gold leaf and perched above a reflective pond. Bright, stunning and glamorous, it lived up to her expectations, a far more impressive beauty than its traditional sister temple.

A few decades later, however, she returned to find the gold garish and, while it was certainly eye-catching, there was little beyond the immediate gratification of the gold leaf. Ginkakuji, however, offered a new fascination: the aged wood held countless hues and patterns, while the Zen moss and dry sand gardens offered a frame for nature’s many shapes. Unable to appreciate these things as a child, she had grown to see the ravages of time as a deeper source of beauty, far greater than a two-dimensional flash of gold.

Intrigued by the personal element of this appreciation, I contacted artist Kazunori Hamana, whose unique pieces are often considered to have an element of wabi-sabi. As we walked through the grounds of his tumbledown farmhouse in the rural idyll of Izumi in Chiba prefecture, he agreed with the need for age.

“You have different feelings when you’re young – everything new is good, but you start to see history develop like a story. After you’ve grown up, you see so many stories, from your family to nature: everything growing and dying and you understand the concept more than you did as a child.”

This appreciation for the marks of time is a key feature in Hamana’s works, which he chooses to display in derelict Japanese farmhouses. Explaining that the wooden doorframes have been blackened by years of smoke from the irori (an indoor hearth) and pointing out how the mud walls have started crumbling, he says he feels the history of the houses lend a fitting backdrop to his pieces, avoiding the cold duality of impersonal white gallery spaces.

Creating sculptures with natural clay from Shiga, an area with a reputation for high-quality clay and a long history of pottery making, Hamana embraces the important wabi-sabi concept of mutual creation between man and nature.

“I design a little at first, but clay is a natural thing, so it changes. I don’t want to fight with nature so I follow the shape, I accept it,” he said.

Not only does he allow nature to aid in the shaping of his pieces, but in their later appearance too. In an overgrown bamboo forest in the farmhouse grounds, he showed me the pieces he’d chosen to leave outside, buried in the undergrowth for years at a time. There they’ve developed unique patterns from extreme temperatures and surrounding plant life, as well as being occasionally broken. Studying them closely, I found that this simply added to the beauty of each piece, with the cracks offering another opportunity to add to the story.

Often associated with wabi-sabi is the art of kintsugi – a method of repairing broken pottery using gold or lacquer. The process highlights, rather than conceals, the cracks, allowing them to become a part of the piece, too. When his daughter accidentally broke some of his work, Hamana said, laughing, he decided to leave the pieces outside for a few years, allowing them to be coloured and shaped by nature. When it was repaired by a local kintsugi specialist, the different colours created a contrast so subtle, so uneven, that could never have been intentionally created. Embracing the effects of nature and allowing family history to be visible in a piece creates a unique value for something which would, in many cultures, simply be discarded as worthless.

In fact, the term ‘perfect’, which stems from the Latin perfectus, meaning complete, has been placed on an undeserved pedestal in many cultures, especially the West. Prioritising flawlessness and infallibility, the ideal of perfection creates not only unachievable standards, but misguided ones. In Taoism, since no further growth or development can take place, perfection is considered equivalent to death. While we strive to create perfect things and then struggle to preserve them, we deny their very purpose and subsequently lose the joys of change and growth.

Although seemingly abstract, this appreciation of transient beauty can be found at the heart of some of Japan’s most simple pleasures. Hanami, the annual celebration of cherry blossoms, involves parties and picnics, boat rides and festivals, all beneath the often already-falling petals, considered as beautiful in their haphazard patterns on the floor as they are on the branches. The pure acceptance of a fleeting beauty that would garner no more than a few photos in the West is something of an inspiration. While the appreciation may be tinged with melancholy, its only lesson is to enjoy the moments as they come, without expectations.

The dents and scratches we bear are all reminders of experience, and to erase them would be to ignore the complexities of life. By retaining the imperfect, repairing the broken and learning to find beauty in flaws – rather than in spite of them – Japan’s ability to cope with the natural disasters it so often faces is strengthened. When my bowl from Hagi arrived in the post months later, its uneven edges were no longer a defect, but instead a welcome reminder that life is not perfect, and nor should I try to make it so.

Original story here.

28 Sep 2021
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Moving from potential to possibilities … Becoming a limitless creator

I’ve been studying, teaching, coaching and writing about transformation for the last 35 years. It fascinates me … always has, even as teenager. How can someone fulfill their potential and become the best of themselves in life?

Potential is that part of you that’s sort of already there with you, just not popping and shining in you yet. In other words, you’re born with it and then you get to live into it.

I spent years working with potential, in myself and in others. I tried the corporate ladder and followed the rules of success. I got exhausted and frustrated and finally left all that to follow a different route. On that different pathway I discovered that there is so much more than potential available to us all. That actually one of the easiest routes to fulfilling your potential is to move onto the playground of limitless possibilities.

Possibility is what isn’t yet, perhaps has never been before. It’s new and fresh. Here you play with limitless creation to innovate who and what we can become, as individuals and as a world.

Now I know for some reading this you might go ‘Oh for gosh sakes, that’s too out there for me.’ While others will be shouting hurray and diving in to read on. So let me put it into simple terms to show you how this move from potential to possibilities can show up in your life.

I’m a coach, a trainer, an author … things that are the fulfillment of my potential as a human being. I’m pretty happy with how my life has gone so far. But me as limitless possibility, well that’s a whole other ball game.

As I entered the possibility playground, I discovered the flow of genius through me. I became a consciousness innovator and a future creator. I truly doubt that that was in me when I was born. I began to morph who I know myself as. No longer this, that or the other, I discovered that I could be anything I wanted to be. I began to create myself as opposed to being stuck with who I was born as. I no longer occurred in my world as my mother’s daughter, with definitive genetics and family history to shape me. I no longer strived to become more successful in life. I began to flow, to create, to fall wildly in love with the possibilities of me, us and this beautiful world. I went bigger in terms of visions and creations. I allowed myself to do things I never thought I would or could.

I leapt beyond all the boxes that contain what it is to be a human being. The concept that we are of mind, body and soul to discover myself as a limitless creator of all that I might become. I discovered I could talk to animals, trees, oceans and the Earth. The universe and I became great buddies, filling me with new insights and understandings as well as providing things like synergistic connections and brilliant opportunities at just the right time.

I finally realised joy in my life and began to play with effortless abundance. I laugh a lot now and am breathtaken by the beauty of this world and the people and life forms in it. I am undefinable, ever morphing into the next new levels of what is possible for me and for us all. As I do this I realise that I am part of the redesign of what it is is to be human on Earth. I call us Earthians as a new way to talk about loving being alive on Earth while being an infinite creator of possibilities for life. The term Earthian also allows me to feel a kinship with other life forms on Earth, whereas the term human tends, in my view, to make us feel separate from other inhabitants of this wonderful world.

Today I get to hang out with the most wonderful of creators across all areas of life. Not just writers and artists, musicians and dancers, but inventors of new possibilities and innovators of how technology can benefit our world. Because once you access the state of limitless creation, once you understand how genius flows and innovation works, you want to do things that uplift, elevate and empower the world to be more awesome by the day.

While some might think that too daunting a task to undertake, the opposite is actually true. The more you dwell in possibility and creation, the more excited you become about the future of our world and your part in making a world of kindness, generosity, connection and of course limitless creation. The whole thing is a giant paradox you see. Letting go of a defined self, surrendering to a genius universe, making a greater difference in life … these are the things that vitalise us, that bring us alive, that make us smile and rush into our days with excitement for the possibility of who and what we might become all together now on this amazing planet.

About the Author:

Soleira Green is passionate about innovating a new future now, bringing genius, connection, greatness and the miraculous into the game for us all.

26 Sep 2021
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Loneliness: Coping With the Gap Where Friends Used to Be

Friendships can be difficult, and lockdowns have made them even harder to maintain. But we should cherish them.

Almost every day for the past few months, I’ve told my husband I am lonely. Obviously I’m glad that he’s around. What I miss are my friends. In the first lockdown, we stayed in touch with Zoom dates, which were awkward, often drunk and occasionally very joyful. Those days are long gone. I’ve returned to texting, and though I’m often deep in four or five conversations at once, it isn’t the same as being together.

In the past year, there was a difficult bereavement in my family, and work has been harder than normal. None of these things are unique or insurmountable but the isolation has left me feeling almost capsized by anxiety and paranoia.

I’m definitely not alone in this. The other night, my stoical husband stunned me by crying out in what sounded like real devastation: “No one texts me! No one WhatsApps me!” He’s a generation older than me, and rarely discusses his feelings or expresses emotional needs. But the lack of ordinary time with friends has worn away at his defenses too.

We’re lucky. There are people we can and will see. But a lack of friends is a growing problem, in Britain and America alike. A 2021 study, conducted by the American Enterprise Institute, suggests that the proportion of people who can name six close friends has dropped from 55% to 27% since the 1990s, while people who have no close friends at all had risen from 3% to 12%. One in five single men say they do not have any close friends, while only 59% of Americans have what they would describe as a best friend.

Some of this is undoubtedly the effects of the pandemic, which caused a global increase in loneliness because people were confined to their homes, no longer able to gather in offices, pubs, sportsgrounds or nightclubs. But long before lockdown, it seems that people were struggling with friendship, especially the young. A YouGov study carried out in 2019 suggested that 9 in 10 people between the age of 18-24 suffered from loneliness to some degree, and nearly half had difficulty making friends.

The old solutions – join a group, volunteer – have not been viable in the past year, which makes it unsurprising that so many people have turned to dating apps to track down new pals. That’s all very well, but simply meeting new people doesn’t quite solve the problem of loneliness.

Loneliness is not the same as being alone. It can be defined as a feeling of lack in response to an insufficiency of emotional closeness and connection. Everyone has different levels of contact they feel comfortable with, which is why some are truly content in solitude, while others feel deep loneliness despite being in a relationship or having a seemingly vast circle of friends. Loneliness is not about numbers. It’s about the depth of the connection, the feeling that you are being seen and loved.

The cure for loneliness, in short, is intimacy, and the problem with intimacy is that it’s frightening. There’s a risk of being rejected or having to deal with conflict, and both these things can feel insurmountable, especially when a person has been lonely for a long time.

One of the most useful things I found out while I was researching The Lonely City is that loneliness alters your perception, magnifying any sense of social threat. What this means is that you tend to notice and remember difficult or awkward social encounters far more than those that run smoothly. Instances of perceived rudeness or rejection loom large, making the lonely person more withdrawn and less willing to reach out.

What’s important to understand is that this is a warping of perception, which does not accurately represent reality. It’s the equivalent of the anorexic’s damaged sense of their own body: a dangerous illusion that needs to be challenged on a daily basis. It was the single most helpful thing I learned during my own lonely years, though I know that during the pandemic I let myself forget it, tumbling back into the paranoid self-doubt that is the hallmark of loneliness.

The other difficulty is that we have unrealistic expectations of friendship, just as we have unrealistic expectations of romantic love, including fantasies around its permanence and stability. In fact, friendship can involve conflict, it can end brutally and it can be as deeply, intensely heartbreaking as any sexual relationship.

The work of friendship is not discussed nearly enough, which means people assume they are failing, and failing alone – once again driving a retreat into self-protective isolation. It’s crucial we understand that friendship can involve disappointment on both sides, and to build a container that means it’s safe to discuss these things, to weather strife together.

Recently, I ate dinner with my friend Jenny. In real life, on a warm London evening, forking up aubergine from the same plate. We laughed, shared family news, told each other the things we’d been worrying over. At home, alone in my study, they’d felt insurmountable, a sign that something was irredeemably wrong with me. Under the gentle scrutiny of my friend, they diminished to a normal size: just the grit of everyday traffic with other humans. I walked home feeling buoyant, nearly invincible. I need my friends. I bet you need yours.

About the Author

Olivia Laing is an author. Her latest book is Everybody: A Book About Freedom.

Original article here

18 Sep 2021
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Let the Healing Begin

“The body is everywhere assaulted by all of our new media, a state which has resulted in deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture throughout the world. In the age of disembodied communication, the meaning and significance and experience of the body is utterly transformed and distorted.”

~ Eric McLuhan

“So much of the sickness is in our heads.”

~ Eric Clapton

Presence, Bliss, Tranquility. They are qualities of experience and states of being to be sure, but they do not arise only in the ethereal planes of awareness. They can exist while we are in embodiment as well. Carrying on from last week’s theme about our letting go, this coming weekend, and the early part of next week will afford us ample opportunities for accessing more of our divinity, while in our embodiment. This Monday-Tuesday, we get a breather, a blessing…a Full Moon in the expansion and dreamy sign of Pisces. Already we’re experiencing the forerunners. Strange or magical dreams and night-time dramas, restless sleep and bouts of feeling lethargic and tired, and a sense that one is walking in a fog bank. It will be helpful to reflect on these myriad states we’re entering before the exact moment of the Full Moon. That occurs at 00:54am British Summer Time. Subtract 5 hours for America’s East Coast, and 8 hours for the West. Hence why this lunation crosses over a day/night boundary.

This space will be super important to take advantage of, as the planetary and energetic aspects that unfold shortly. Next week there are some more intense energies afoot…mostly from Thursday onwards. We get a few little breaks in the action, until Mercury turns retrograde in Libra on September 27th. The real action will begin on October 1st, and reign through the whole month. But I get ahead of myself.

I inserted the quote from Marshall McLuhan’s son Eric as a reminder of why this Full Moon is so different than our abnormal digitized state of perception on the planet. This is an opportunity to connect or reconnect more deeply with our divine spark within. Whether you refer to it as your Higher Self or something else does not matter so much. You and that which is eternal are always together, always equals, and share a common awareness. No separation whatsoever! But in today’s world we may feel very hard-pressed to feel and know that Presence on a moment-to-moment basis. Now is a good time to re-establish the Foundation of your Being in the ways you feel drawn to do so.

The Eric Clapton quote is from the interview he did about his adverse injuries after having had the AZ jabs and having COVID anxiety prior to his accepting the jabs and after. Very honest and courageous man, and an amazing musician whom I’ve followed since 1966. I include it here to illustrate the (scientifically verified) fact of how we can be made to feel ill from just our thoughts and/or emotions, or from taking in toxic ideas from outside ourselves. This is about more than being a hypochondriac. One type of this condition is called psychogenic illness, and it can spread to millions of people in a matter of days or weeks…as we have seen.

With Sun in Virgo and Moon in Pisces, the themes of healing arise, especially emotional and psychic pains or wounds. Allow your feelings to flow and don’t hold anything back or judge them, no matter how messy or chaotic they might be. It’s part of the healing from releasing we all need…a cleansing. Virgo is all about the body, and about the sacredness and beauty of the divine in human form. Revere your body as such, and it will respond to your healing thoughts. Too much of humanity has forgotten what their bodies are for.

Lastly, I suggest using this time for artistic pursuits, resting, walking in Nature, Qigong, Tai Chi or yoga, meditating, chanting, listening to music (or playing it yourself!). Tuning in to the deeper knowing that is you is the key. If you are looking for information or answers outside of yourself (Sun-Virgo), okay. But come back into yourself and let your heart and spirit discover what is right for you.

About the Author:

Isaac George is an internationally recognized intuitive mentor/coach, evolutionary astrologer, conscious channel, self-published author and musician. After a life-altering spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1994 he explored various healing modalities, including hypnotherapy and Reiki. In 1998 he began spontaneously channeling Archangel Ariel and other dimensional intelligences.

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.

15 Sep 2021
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What Would Happen If Everyone Truly Believed Everything Is One?

“We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness.” — Albert Einstein

“In our quest for happiness and the avoidance of suffering, we are all fundamentally the same, and therefore equal. Despite the characteristics that differentiate us – race, language, religion, gender, wealth and many others – we are all equal in terms of our basic humanity.” — Dalai Lama

The belief that everything in the universe is part of the same fundamental whole exists throughout many cultures and philosophical, religious, spiritual, and scientific traditions, as captured by the phrase ‘all that is.’ The Nobel winner Erwin Schrodinger once observed that quantum physics is compatible with the notion that there is indeed a basic oneness of the universe. Therefore, despite it seeming as though the world is full of many divisions, many people throughout the course of human history and even today truly believe that individual things are part of some fundamental entity.

Despite the prevalence of this belief, there has been a lack of a well validated measure in psychology that captures this belief. While certain measures of spirituality do exist, the belief in oneness questions are typically combined with other questions that assess other aspects of spirituality, such as meaning, purpose, sacredness, or having a relationship with God. What happens when we secularize the belief in oneness?

In a series of studies, Kate Diebels and Mark Leary set out to find out. In their first study, they found that only 20.3% of participants had thought about the oneness of all things “often” or “many times”, while 25.9% of people “seldom” thought about the oneness of all things, and 12.5% of people “never” had thought about it.

The researchers also created a 6-item “Belief in Oneness Scale” consisting of the following items:

Beyond surface appearances, everything is fundamentally one.
Although many seemingly separate things exist, they all are part of the same whole.
At the most basic level of reality, everything is one.
The separation among individual things is an illusion; in reality everything is one.
Everything is composed of the same basic substance, whether one thinks of it as spirit, consciousness, quantum processes, or whatever.
The same basic essence permeates everything that exists.

Those who scored higher on this scale were much more likely to have an identity that extends beyond the individual to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, nature, and even the cosmos. In fact, a belief in oneness was more strongly related to feeling connected with distant people and aspects of the natural world than with people with whom one is close! Also, while a belief in oneness was related to actual experiences of oneness (“mystical experiences”), there was no relationship between a belief in oneness and feeling closer to God during a spiritual experience.

In their second study, the researchers looked at values and self-views that might be related to the belief in oneness. They found that a belief in oneness was related to values indicating a universal concern for the welfare of other people, as well as greater compassion for other people. A belief in oneness was also associated with feeling connected to others through a recognition of our common humanity, common problems, and common imperfections. At the same time, there was no relationship between a belief in oneness and the degree to which people endorsed self-focused values such as hedonism, self-direction, security, or achievement. This means that people can have a belief in oneness and still have a great deal of self-care, healthy boundaries, and self-direction in life.

Implications of a Belief in Oneness

People who believe that everything is fundamentally one differ in crucial ways from those who do not. In general, those who hold a belief in oneness have a more inclusive identity that reflects their sense of connection with other people, nonhuman animals, and aspects of nature that are all thought to be part of the same “one thing.” This has some rather broad implications.

First, this finding is relevant to our current fractured political landscape. It is very interesting that those who reported a greater belief in oneness were also more likely to regard other people like members of their own group and to identify with all of humanity. There is an abundance of identity politics these days, with people believing that their own ideology is the best one, and a belief that those who disagree with one’s own ideology are evil or somehow less than human.

It might be beneficial for people all across the political spectrum to recognize and hold in mind a belief in oneness even as they are asserting their values and political beliefs. Only having “compassion” for those who are in your in-group, and vilifying or even becoming violent toward those who you perceive as the out-group, is not only antithetical to world peace more broadly, but is also counter-productive to political progress that advances the greater good of all humans on this planet.

I also think these findings have important implications for education. Even if some adults may be hopeless when it comes to changing their beliefs, most children are not. Other beliefs — such as a belief that intelligence can learn and grow (“growth mindset”) — are extraordinarily popular in education these days. However, I wonder what the implications would be if all students were also explicitly trained to believe that we are all part of the same fundamental humanity, actively showing students through group discussions and activities how we all have insecurities and imperfections, and how underneath the superficial differences in opinions and political beliefs, we all have the same fundamental needs for connection, purpose, and to matter in this vast universe.

Perhaps now, more than ever in the course of human history, we would benefit more from a oneness mindset.

About the Author

Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., is a humanistic psychologist exploring the depths of human potential. He has taught courses on intelligence, creativity, and well-being at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. In addition to writing the column Beautiful Minds for Scientific American, he also hosts The Psychology Podcast, and is author and/or editor of 9 books, including Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, Wired to Create: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (with Carolyn Gregoire), and Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined. In 2015, he was named one of “50 Groundbreaking Scientists who are changing the way we see the world” by Business Insider.

09 Sep 2021
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The Future Is Fabulous

Oh, I know, the world is full of doom and gloom right now … fears of climate change, the COVID virus and even zombie apocalypses make the list today. So what the heck am I doing writing about fabulous futures then!

Well, I’m a consciousness innovator and an alchemist extraordinaire, and here’s what I see going on these days beyond the dramatic news pieces and apocalyptic movies that fill us with dread and concern.

We are becoming a new species, not limited any longer by the constrictive constructs of what it is to be human. A species that is connected with all life forms, that loves and nurtures the natural world in brilliant and innovative ways, that operates in alignment with an infinite intelligence that provides us with a kind of ‘north star compass’ to find our way to brilliant creation instead of mindless destruction.
We respect one another, celebrating our differences and uniqueness. For we know that it is the unleashing of all of our awesome magnificence and genius creation that is the answer to it all.
We are discovering a new kind of power. I call this Life Power, which is used by collaborative alchemists to quantum-leap us to whole new levels of being. With this Life Power we awaken the miraculousness of Nature and celebrate the emerging possibilities of life in its potent state of creation.

You see, at the heart of everything that is happening on this world at the moment is a quantum evolutionary leap into brilliant new possibilities for life on Earth. Now, you might think me a naive dreamer unwilling to look the yuck in the eye. But you would be mistaken. For I look into the eyes of humanity, into the eyes of the Earth, and there looking back at me is a glorious new becoming that supersedes all that has gone before.

So if you’re measuring our future by a projection of the past, don’t. Measure it by the brilliance of the new’ness emerging in us all. And then join us on the playground of Creation where we are sourcing futures too breathtaking to give language to yet.

For I am the oracle of fabulous futures and I know this to be so.

About the Author:

Soleira Green is passionate about innovating a new future now, bringing genius, connection, greatness and the miraculous into the game for us all.

05 Sep 2021
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Words Are Powerful!

“Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world.”

~ Rumi

“Words are powerful.” Lately we’ve been hearing this phrase often, and yes, we get the idea. However, it is a lot more difficult to really embody this concept within us.

Words are intangible, but they have a weight — and this load may be positive or negative. A word can give life or it can destroy. Why?

Because words are vibration, and this vibration resonates in our bodies, especially in our heart and mind. Words are infused with our emotions. In this sense, if a word is “charged” with a negative emotion, this vibration will reach us, making our heart sink and our mind to spin in disbelief or confusion.

On the contrary, if a word is “charged” with a positive or more uplifting emotion, its vibration will touch us in the same way — however, our heart will sing and our mind will be quiet, just enjoying.

To prove this point, I propose a short but effective exercise:

Say to yourself, quietly, the sentence: “I am stupid”. Repeat this at least five times. Now observe the impact in your feelings, in your solar plexus (located above the stomach), in your heart and in your mind. You probably felt an immediate discomfort and sadness.
Now, say to yourself, quietly again, the sentence: “I am smart and capable”. Repeat this five times and once more observe the impact in your body and feelings. You probably felt happier and even smiled.

My love affair with words started years ago, when I discovered their hidden power. I then became very aware of the effect words have in us, and I created a course and wrote a book.

In my book, I explore a way of incorporating high vibration or high frequency words into the way we talk to others and to ourselves. In Chapter 5, I address the importance of repetition. Below are a few sentences about the benefits of repeating positive words and mantras.

“Repetition not only aids memory, but it also helps you to embody habits. My suggestion is to start repeating high-frequency words.

“One key benefit of repeating what is good for you is the way you start feeling and thinking about yourself. Thinking and feeling more positively, in turn, makes you radiate that energy outward to the environment and other people. You can influence the world in a much more constructive way.”

To reinforce the importance of words for you I will give you one exercise to try at home:

Think of uplifting words for you, for example “love” or “happiness”, write them down in a journal, and then write your thoughts, emotions, ideas of each word. You can start with seven words and later you can add more. Do this exercise daily. Journaling about high vibration words is a nice way of empowering yourself and others.

About the Author:

Veronica Sanchez De Darivas is Chilean-Australian, now living in the UK and a proud mother of teenage twins. A spiritual awakening teacher, bestselling author, pineal gland (third eye) activator and Certified Instructor for the Cyclopea Method, Veronica is currently the only instructor in the world teaching the Cyclopea Method in English.

27 Aug 2021
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Coming Back to Ourselves

~ MaryamHasnaa.com