Cold Shower Practice (Misogi)

For Many years, about 45 years actually, I've ended my morning shower with a cold shower. By cold, I mean COLD, not cool or lukewarm. I don't know why I began to do this, except perhaps that around the age of 16 I decided that I would swim in Lake Candlewood, on my birthday April 23, every Spring, and even in Connecticut the water is cold in Spring. I felt I wanted to be tough enough to just dive in with no toe dipping and cries of shock. I thought it would toughen me in general and help me to adapt to cold weather and discomfort. I retained this practice throughout my life and even when a teenager I also felt a spiritual and emotional aspect stirring from it.

I always felt that morning was the only time that a cold shower would be beneficial. It wasn't until the past couple of years that I found out that one of the health benefits of cold showers in the morning is that it stops the output of melatonin, a hormone produced by the pineal glands in mammals in the morning. Researchers have revealed a myriad of health benefits and medical uses for melatonin, among which are re-establishing Circadian rythm, aiding learning and memory loss, combating Alzheimer's and mood disorders, insomnia, cancer, obesity, headaches, ADHD, to name a few. Cold showers in the morning help establish appropriate melatonin production, which entails having it being released into the bloodstreams at night to aid sleep.

Circulation is greatly enhanced by the practice of ending one's morning showers with cold water. Warm water brings the blood to the outer surface of the body and cold water accelerates this process at first by dilating the capillaries and pulling the blood from the inner body to the skin, and then sends back to the internal organs. The skin's pores are first cleansed by the warm water and then closed by the cold, as are the hair cuticles. The result is glowing skin and shiny hair. I’m 61 and I’ve been told (even by a skin specialist), that I have very good skin

More physical benefits are:

Anti depressant influence
longevity benefits
toxins flushed from the skin
less toxins from water and self cleaning products absorbed
fertility benefits in men
boost and improve all glands of endocrine system
Improve lymphatic production and drainage
reduce swelling edema and inflammation
skin conditions,
Improve skin elasticity and collagen production
repair and strengthening of the circulatory system
strengthen and regulate autonomic nervous system
reduce stress
Enhance pain tolerance
improve hemorrhoids and varicose veins
Relieve chronic fatigue
Stimulate anti -tumor responses
Increases percentage of brown body fat - the good fat which helps offset diabetes & obesity
Lowers uric acid

It’s best to take a shower finished by a cold shower on an empty stomach.

Beyond these very important health benefits are the mental emotional and spiritual benefits.
Being of Eurasian background, with a Japanese grandmother from a Samurai lineage, I was interested to find that Samurai and seekers of spiritual balance alignment and development regularly practiced Misogi - Harai, the cleaning or purification of body, mind and spirit, through the washing away of impurity or obscuring energies in a cold river or waterfall, or by pouring cold buckets of water over themselves.

Over the years I incorporated an intent to allow water to wash away resentment, grievances, resentments, emotional hurts and any unwanted emotions and habitual thoughts. It is symbolically satisfying to guide your imagination in this way and to see the water flowing down the drain with unwanted emotional rubble.
I will probably finish my showers with 5 to 10 minutes of cold water as long as I’m alive, which, due to the many health benefits and my family background may be for a very long time.

Defying Aging

We are told time is an illusion and at the same time are told to be in the moment. I consulted Spirit on this dichotomy recently after a time of being unwell and not walking, or doing any type of inner work. After exchanging spiritual greetings with Spirit as I always do, I mentioned that I hadn’t been spending any time in Non-Time as I sometimes call walking meditation, trance, and other similar experiences. This is what was given to me...

Where are you when you’re not integrating the spiritual in your daily life? When you are simply and only in the physical you are truly trapped in the finite logistics of time and space. When you are earthbound in this way, you enter the aging experience of a limited earthly existence.

Transcendence, which you experience in many other states besides your ordinary everyday consciousness, takes you out of the moment into the spaces between the moments, this what you need to integrate into your earthly moments. Playing is transcendental, making music, creating, being in Nature and any activity which takes you out of your customary daily existence in a pleasurable way. These experience expand your consciousness into the wonder and timelessness of Infinity. It is here that Joy resides, and Love in it’s purest form, as a sweet state of bliss and not a human emotion.

The All That Is, is a powerful organic whole which you are an essential part of. Although you may feel small and insignificant you are as important to the workings of the Universe as every small part of a clock is necessary for a clock to keep on ticking.

HOW I BECAME RICH ...

Success and Wealth:

The Secret, Think and Grow Rich and so many other books, articles, talks, lectures, teachers, , Life coaches, gurus, seminars, webinars, workshops and classes, focus on attaining Wealth, , becoming a Millionaire, becoming Wealthy. I capitalized Wealth and Millionaire because these days that’s where the values of society focus. Many condemn the breaks the government gives to the very wealthy , who in the opinion of many own the government, and there has been a voluble outcry against the reckless way in which the small percentage of the wealthy has recklessly attained and maintained their wealth, Despite that in my life coaching studies I’ve been saddened to see the 6 figure income and I’m saddened to see how many aspire to achieve great wealth or to become a millionaire.

This morning I clicked on a link to read a blog by a woman who has overcome some big challenges and is still working on attaining freedom from life’s challenges. I was saddened by this blog although parts of it were right on.

The author was perhaps referring to the law of entrainment . This is no news. There is a term in physics called entrainment which is based on a concept introduced in 1666 when Christian Huygens, a physicist noticed the inclination of pendulum clocks placed in proximity to one another (as in the same room) to fall into the same rhythm. This occurrence falls under the principles of resonance, or sympathetic vibrations. This is no news.

What bothered me about this outlook came next when the writer stated “If you are serious about deliberately creating wealth in your life like I am, begin hanging out with wealthy people.” To me monetary wealth is not a criterion for friendship. It has been my experience in my years on this earth that wealth has many faces. Monetary wealth just hasn’t demonstrated itself to be one of the characteristics I value or look for in a friend or companion. While I have often desired more financial stability and security or abundance in my life, I have rarely found the friends public figures and people I know who are wealthy in finances to be happier, or more secure and balanced than those who aren’t.

In fact, I’ve found many, but not all, to be rather miserable. Many are on multiple anti-depressants and anti- anxiety prescription and/or self medicate with recreational drugs, booze, shopping, drama and gossip, or whatever suits their particular needs. We’ve all read the statistics on the economic analysis of global wealth and are aware that about 90 % of global wealth is distributed throughout North America and “rich Asia Pacific countries and 1% of adults are estimated to hold 40 % of world wealth. According to Richard H Ropers the author of Persistent Poverty and American Prejudice: With Liberty and Justice for Some; the concentration of wealth in the United States is inequitably distributed. That 1% at the top of the financial ladder has a net worth approximately equal to that of the bottom 90%. “ Do I long to be among the 1% holding vast amounts of wealth in cash property and investments ? No.

Lately I’ve realized I am a very rich woman. I am wealthy in rich relationships, family and friends. I have a home and a very small bit of land which I am truly fond of. I have a wonderful friendship and relationship with my husband kids and animal companions. I really value knowledge and books and I have a huge library. I am intrigued by crystals, rocks and minerals and have enough to open a rock and mineral store, but I don’t hoard and store them. They’re displayed throughout my house and yard to gladden my eye wherever it lands, as are my many, many plants. My ouse has been described as a Bolivian jungle.

Do I want to make a fantastic living ? Yes ! The Key word in my last statement is “living”. No need to ” make a killing” which I always found a strange phrase to use to suggest making an inordinate amount of money. I’m interested in making a great deal of money yes, but I want to be enjoying a fantastic life along the way. I don’t want more than I need and I don’t need more than I want. I don’t want to amass wealth at the expense of others. I want just enough money to have financial stability and abundance and to provide abundantly, not extravagantly for myself and my family, to help others in need and to support organizations which are of service to those less fortunate. I want to be able help others achieve the same. I suppose that’s why I do intuitive counseling and life coaching. Through my coaching in the past I’ve encouraged and supported others on their journey to identify and harvest their gifts and to create a job, or jobs they loved while making a “fantastic” living and en-JOY-ing their lives.

Dr Valerie Hunt Scientist and Mystic

Dr. Valerie Hunt, Emeritus Professor in the UCLA Department of Physiological Sciences, with a Doctorate in Science Education from Columbia University is among a small small handful of pioneers in the visionary research and application of the understanding of the human bioenergy field and it‘s effect on our bodies and health. It was the well documented work of Valerie Hunt,which I read in the articles offered by Nikken ( a Japanese medicinal magnet company) of Hunt's work with NASA, which first introduced me to the concept of Vibrational healing.

Dr. Hunt’s work and research and her own personal development has brought her to view healing as an interaction between energy fields, and she stresses that a transaction must be agreed upon on a deep level between: the Life-fields of the disease, that of the person with the disease, that of the therapist or healer, that of the therapy or modality being applied and the combined field of therapist and therapy . Dr. Hunt calls what her predecessors called the Life- field the Mind-field. This I see in concept, as a combination of Burr’s Thought field and Life field.

As I interpret Dr. Hunt's work, our bioenergy (Life field) is a reflection of how we have come to interpret our life experiences. Our emotions according to Hunt modulate or organize the patterns of our bio-energetic field (L-field) into what she describes as either coherent or anti-coherent patterns. When we think of coherence we envision patterns of wholeness and balanced well being. Measured by Dr. Hunt’s Bioenergy Fields Monitor, the patterns of a person in good mental emotional & physical health are described as smooth shallow gentle waves distributed in a measured even pattern . Anti-coherence after disease has developed enough to present symptoms, and even before that, exhibits on the graph of the monitor in two ways: as a deficiency or as a hyperactive patterns, appearing on the graph as thick jagged irregular waves concentrated in the high or low frequency bands. The Bioenergy Field Monitor is designed on the theory that bioenergy fields oscillate at markedly higher frequencies than those EKG or EEG machines are designed to detect and measure. According to Dr. Hunt her research has proved that the bioelectrical energy radiating from the atoms of bodies of living beings are given off at frequencies 1,000 faster than those of any other electrical bodily activities for instance heart or brain waves. .

There are a variety of ways in which the energy field or Life field can be brought back into harmony according to Dr. Hunt, including light, sound and low frequencies of electromagnetic energy. Above and beyond this however, the bienergetic field of the body can be changed through focused intent and conscious creation and through the directing of bioscalar energy. This brings us back to “the word”. Human imagination is usually directed by inner talk. It’s through our inner dialogue that imagination takes flight. And, as I continue to research Hunt’s work, her theory of the manipulation of bioscalar energies appears to fall under the auspices of guided imagery.

Some of this this may sound like theories based on “soft” science or non-authoritative opinions to those who are unfamiliar with the research behind the theories. It may be wise to remember how far fetched our most basic daily living experiences in modern civilization today may appear to the indigenous people of a rain forest, or to any untouched primal civilization which still exists in remote parts of the world.

When people question my ideas and theories on what they call the "supernatural, I often introduce a dialogue on emotions. Love, is as real as the air we breathe, yet it can’t be observed, measured or weighed as a distinct material object. Fear, antipathy or hate also can’t be measured observed or weighed, yet we all know these emotions intimately and know them to be real insofar as our life experiences have taught us.

In my interpretation of my independent studies of Bioenergetics, Dr. Hunt, appears to view the energies which can interact with the biofields of living bodies to alleviate symptoms as relevant. But I find it fascinating, as well as heartening that someone from such a deeply scientific background has come to the realization and acknowledgement of the more elusive energies inherent in the order of deeper Biological truths, the energies of thought and more particularly focused attention and thought coupled with emotion.

Dr Hunt in many later works has synthesized the results of her research and explorations and as I interpret her words, has arrived at the understanding of a fact I (as a hypnotist ) have long suspected ; that and our will, intention and active participation plays a much larger part in the healing of our minds , emotions, bodies, and even in the much disputed arena of the soul, than any traditional treatment, or medication which customarily treats only symptoms.

In my next blog I'll explore the incredible world of bioscalar energy.

Biocommunication Is No Secret

Dr. Leonard Ravitz a student and colleague of Burr’s carried on his work. In 1959, Dr. Ravitz then at at William and Mary University showed that the Human Energy Field or (L-field) is affected by a person's mental and psychological changes. He introduced the idea that there is a field associated with the thoughts of an organism which was dubbed the thought field or T-field He suggested that variation of this thought field caused psychosomatic symptoms.

I suppose I ought to backtrack and explain something that most of you probably already know. And that is that in physics a field is described as being a region throughout which two bodies separated by space can exert a force on each other without any direct or indirect contact save their mutual participation in the field under which or within which they operate, and show an immediate affect. Not taking into account the theory of a field in such an instance, would not be in accord with the theory of modern scientific theories such as the theory of relativity, specifically, the theory of general relativity as opposed to special relativity, as well as many other accepted scientific theories. The L field is the matrix, or medium through which forces are transmitted. It is also a vehicle for transmitting forces within it‘s sphere . Every known force in the world such as electric, nuclear magnetic has a field of it’s own. The body can only be affected by the influence of forces inherent within it’s own biology.

Of particular interest to me as a hypnotist was the way Dr. Ravitz used hypnosis in his work with patients as he focused on the link between the thought field and life field of humans and how each affected the other. His work is one of the few in that time in medicine and psychiatry validating the changes hypnosis could bring about in any aspect of an individuals life. Hypnosis primarily depends on suggestion; the introduction of new thoughts into a person’s consciousness through an induction into relaxation and facilitating an almost meditative state whereby the editorializing conscious mind is subdued ((but never completely silenced) and the subconscious mind is engaged into collaborating with all aspects of the patient or client’s persona for desired changes or improvements.

Ravitz concluded that changes in the T - field (thought field), such as changes in a person’s mental and emotional state while responding to verbal or mentally self directed suggestion distinctly influence a person’s L- field (Life field). Through his use of a galvanometer he was able to view visually the distinct changes in the electric patterns recorded of a brain’s activity during the hypnotic experience. In time he arrived at the conclusion that that emotions, and external stimuli (people events etc), and the thoughts we have about them, and the words with which we explain these emotions and external stimuli to ourselves (internally) and to others in conversation have a distinct and very real influence on our bodies and our lives.

Dr. Leonard Burr asserted that “Wherever there is life, there are electrical properties.”

He described the Life field as the organizing field for the physical body , asserting that the L- field was in place before the physical body began to organize itself , it's atoms and molecules into it’s intended pattern or mold. It can be deducted through the works of Dr. Burr and Dr. Ravitz that the material body and the electromagnetic Life field both have a brain but the brains differ greatly. The brain of the L-field has a managing property in directing the structure of the body, maintaining growth and healing. It also has an influence on the brain of the material body, conducting it to conform to it's greater influence

Called chi by the Chinese, ki by the Japanese, and having several words in Hawaiian to describe it; mana or ho’mana, wai, halau, and ki, the life force is something long recognized and understood by many schools of thought, throughout many continents. It has been described in a multitude of and ancient writings as well as in the scientific writings of the researchers I have written about . It is nothing new, and it is no secret.

No Secret - Part I and II

NO SECRET

The impact of Word Thought and Intent on All Sentient Beings and Life Forms

Part I

I never felt a desire to read the book or see the movie, The Secret . What I saw in the trailers and reviews revealed a sensationalized pumped up “revelation” of ideas and concepts which most people interested in self development already knew. The new ideas "revealed" in the book and movie are not new and they've never been a “secret”. I’d like to share some of the history of the research conducted by visionary scientists from the 1800’s to the present day which has been well published and has always been available to anyone who had an interest in reviewing it. It was public knowledge then as it is now and I suppose it could be viewed as the foundation of the concepts which the "secret"

As early as 1848 it was suggested by Dr. Gustav Theodor Fechner that one could promote healthy growth in plants by showering them with loving attention, thoughts and talk.

In 1927, a brilliant scientist; one of the most respected biologists of the early twentieth century, polymath, physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist and later in life a writer of science fiction, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, a Knight Commander of the Indian Empire conducted a series of experiments on the effect of focused thought and intent on plants. The biologically recordable reactions that thoughts and intents brought about in the test groups of plants involved were astounding. Sir Bose's research was based on the reactions recorded through the use of an electro dermal device. Double ‘blind’ studies were conducted dividing groups of plants and seedlings into two groups and subjecting them to totally opposite thoughts and intents. One half of a group of identical plants of the same size age & species was put into interaction with a person who directed loving thoughts, emotions and words to them. The keeper of the other half of the plants was requested to direct hateful threatening thoughts and words to his group of plants. Without exception the plants responded by flourishing under the auspices of the kind intentions and thoughts; and becoming stunted and frail from the assault of the ill intentioned thoughts of the other half of the control group.

The research of Cleve Backster, an American scientist who began his career as an interrogation specialist with the CIA, took an interesting turn in the early 1920's when he also began exploring the reaction of plants to thoughts, emotions and intent . The staid scientific community met his findings, which were in alignment with those of Bose, with skepticism. This is no surprise, as science tends to resist new concepts which conflict with the paradigms or concepts they’ve arrived at so far. This has been dubbed by one writer as ideological immunity. The story of the search for a cure for malaria is replete with documentation of the resistance of the scientific community to new thought. At any rate Backster didn’t let the close mindedness of his fellow scientist deter him in his exciting new explorations. Three of his articles chronicling his experiments and conclusions were published in: National Wildlife, Main Currents in Modern Thought and the International Journal of Parapsychology. Backster’s findings were that plants , being under the auspices of the general L-field of living community, responded visibly to any threat or perceived threat to themselves or to any other living entity, such as shrimp being boiled alive in the same or in a nearby room, fingers being cut. His conclusion was that plants do have emotions and consciousness, and that these emotions are linked to those of other living beings.

In the 60’s Reverend Franklin Loehr conducted a series of very detailed scientific controlled experiments with a Dr. Rhine of Duke University exploring the effects of thought prayer and intent on the aforementioned sensitivity of plants. Hundreds of thousands of seedlings were involved in these experiments. Divided in three, one group was prayed over in a positive way, one experienced negative thought and intent, and the third was ignored. The results were in accord with those of Bose and Backster; plants were sentient beings and were very responsive to benign thought and intent.

Throughout the time Bose was conducting his research , Dr. Harold Saxton Burr, a biologist and E.K. Hunt Professor Emeritus at Yale University School of Medicine as well as editor of The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, was engaged in explorations and research in the same vein as those of of Bose Backster and Reverend Loehr. Dr. Burr was a member of the faculty at Yale for over forty three years and published no fewer that 93 scientific research papers either alone or in collaboration with others between the years of1916 and 1950.

Throughout his life Burr was exploring the fundamental issues of growth, maintenance and healing of the body. In his view these basic processes did not fall under the traditional mechanistic premises of his tim, which were that the influence of DNA, chromosomes, and genetics were responsible for all functions & dysfunctions of the body. While these influences did indeed play a very real and determining role in the structuring of the body, Burr thought they did not, and could not account for the mystery of the myriad of incredible and complex processes carried out within the body such as the synthesizing of a minimum of 5,000 chemical compounds. In the living material of the body, for example the short lived cells, must be replaced constantly. All the protein of the body needs replacement as well, every six months. The whole body Burr noted is constantly undergoing a multitude of repairing healing and maintaining operations which must be under some organizational control.

Around 1930 Dr. Burr began to conduct a research project based on his view that a directing force must be involved in these complex processes. Being a scientist , he did not embrace the idea that this force had a spiritual or ”soulful” basis. He set out to explore the possibility that the already proven existence of the electrical processes present in every part of the human body may operate under the influence of a larger electromagnetic field . The interaction between this force and the biological entities under it’s influence was likened by Burr in his book Blueprint For Immortality to the magnetic field of a magnet organizing iron filings in conformation to it’s magnetic force. This is how Burr envisioned that a larger electromagnetic field may organize different components of the body, and the body as a unified whole. He theorized that, as molecules and cells are being torn apart and rebuilt with fresh material from the food we eat… thanks to the controlling L-fields, the new molecules and cells are rebuilt as before and arrange themselves in the same pattern as the old ones.

Professor F.S.C. Northrup, who was also a professor at Yale University and a colleague of Burr's, worked with Burr on the exploration of an electrodynamic theory of life and co-authored with him a paper titled "The Electrodynamic Theory of Life ". Working with dozens of specialists in the fields of biology, medicine, physics, electronics, and agriculture Burr and Northrup and his fellow researchers discovered and tracked electyrodynamic fields in all living things from tiny seeds to animals and humans. Each individual life field operated under the influence of a larger bioenergetic unifying field.

Part II

The bioelectric fields Burr and Northrup investigated were not similar to the electrical currents within the human body measured by cardiographs and electroencephalographs (EEGs). They in fact could not be measured by these instruments. It took three years of research and experimentation for Burr to create an instrument sophisticated enough to measure them. Burr found that the bio- fields or L fields as he called them had direct current as opposed to the various inner currents of the body such as those in the heart and brain which have alternating currents. The biofields L-fields ( for life-fields) indicate only voltage potential which needed Burr to invent the vacuum tube voltmeter before it could be detected. A regular voltmeter needs a lot of current to move the needle and it would literally drain L-field potential and impede any reading or make it impossible. In his book The Fields of Life Burr stresses that “these electrical properties (of all living things ) … are voltage gradients, not current movements, not changes in resistance to the passage of current”.

In order to illustrate his theory Burr conducted an experiment exploring the L-field of frog’s eggs. His intent was to prove that as simple and small a life form as a group of frog’s eggs could have an L-field which controlled the growth and development of the eggs. Their experiments entailed marking the axis of the largest voltage gradients in the L-field (detected by the vacuum tube ) of the frog's eggs with spots of Nile blue sulphate and observing as the eggs developed any uniform growth patterns which could indicate the influence of the L-field on the egg’s development. As the eggs developed Burr and his associates found that the nervous system of the frogs consistently grew along the axis of the largest voltage gradient. This strongly indicated that the L-field or life field is the matrix which maintains growth and development in living beings, just as Burr had postulated.

Dr. Burr felt that this frog egg experiment, and a subsequent one on Salamander eggs was important because it showed that the L-field was indeed an ” organizing and controlling force in the growth of the living form” but beyond that it also anticipated physical conditions.

Research which supported these findings were conducted by a Dr. Louis Langman (of Bellvue Hospital ) and his assistant, along with Dr. Burr, involving about a thousand female patients. They examined each patient and using Dr. Burr’s instrument measured the voltage gradient in the women’s cervix and the ventral abdominal wall. In 102 cases an abnormal voltage gradient indicated the existence of malignancy which was later confirmed through exploratory surgeries which discovered malignancy in 95 out of the 102 women. This to me, indicates that the L-field of these women was in possession of information about these dysfunctions in the women’s bodies before any symptoms or discomforts were felt or observed . Ongoing research followed which observed changes (erratic voltage patterns) in the brain wave patterns of patients who later exhibited psychiatric conditions, showing them to be mentally unstable before they presented any abnormal behaviours.

The L-field of seeds trees and bodies of water have also been studied and shown to indicate potential for growth and health and possible conditions indicating future disease. Dr. Burr followed the bio-field (L-field) of two trees of different species, a maple and an elm, and observed them for thirty years. The data collected from the machines recording voltage gradients from these trees was surprising. The magnetic fields of both trees reacted to the shifting of day into night, and vice versa. They also changed with the passing of the seasons and the phases of the moon and reacted to sun spots. This and other similar research appeared to validate the relationship and interconnection between all bio-fields and cosmic fields. Or, as some call it - All That Is.

In his book Blueprint For Immortality Dr. Burr stated that: “The Universe in which we find ourselves and from which we cannot be separated from is a place of Law and Order. It is not an accident, nor chaos. It is organized and maintained by an Electro-dynamic field capable of determining the position and movement of all charged particles . For nearly a half a century, the logical consequences of this theory have been subjected to rigorously controlled conditions and met with no contradictions.”

Curb Your Tongue

According to the biblical writings of the Christian faith, , in the beginning was the word. Naming things and people is how babies remove themselves from the the matrix and auric influence of their mothers, and enter into the world of duality, of you and I, self and other. The illusion of separation begins to be established when we realize we are no longer floating in our mother’s womb and begin to see the world beyond our mother’s breast, and our own thumb more clearly. And it is with words that we attempt to create order in our lives. Words, thought, spoken or written can be tools of order or disorder in our lives. I will reiterate the idea of keeping in mind that a few well thought out words , well spoken, or written can bring many relationships; such a crumbling marriage, an estranged family, or a strained business partnership, back into alignment. By the same token, a few impetuous words spoken in the heat of anger during an explosive conversation can damage or even destroy a fragile relationship.

Words, thoughts & emotions are intimately connected. Whether originating from emotions or thoughts - words can also arise from spiritual inspiration or influence, be it negative or positive. Our stream of consciousness is an ocean of words on which we sail or in which we drown. Regardless of their origin, words must not be spoken without discernment & deliberation, for they are in fact thoughts and emotions & spiritual impulse, materialized into a more tangible vibration which can have an impact which is very direct and influential on others and on the world we live in.

When I use the phrase spiritual impulse I’m thinking of the word impulse as a concept of physics as well as a spiritual one. In physics an impulse is - a force applied on a material mass in relation to time. Thoughts & emotions apply a force on our psyche, or the momentum of the mental, emotional and spiritual progress of our psyche. Positive mental, emotional & spiritually influenced thoughts create an impulse (force applied over a period of time) which can accelerate our emotional, intellectual and spiritual progress, and on the very fabric of our lives. Negative diminishing thoughts can of course have the opposite effect over a period of time.

Think of football or the activity of a car. In football an offense player will have momentum as he’s running toward the goal. If he’s really heavy, powerful and skilled in avoiding being tackled, through most of his run towards the goal his force and forward motion will increase. It will take a defensive player with an equal or stronger force to stop him. We non football players can have a similar experience in our headlong approach to the many goals we set up for ourselves in our life. It’s important to supply ourselves and those we care about with positive encouraging inspiring words and support in order to enhance the chances, and possibly even secure the chances of goals, dreams and ambitions being achieved . By the same token discouraging, negative input can derail a person’s passion and enthusiasm and cause limiting self doubt and fear of failure. Notice the affect of the input of others in your life. Cull those who discourage and derail you. Be honestly supportive and inspirational to all you encounter. Never dim another's light, or allow your to be dimmed.

Gematria, Theomatics, Isopsephis, Numerology and Sacred Geometry

The Word Part II

How powerful words can be has been illustrated in my life in so many ways. One of the most powerful positive ways I’ve seen words impact people is through by my work in hypnosis. For the more than two decades I have used nothing but words in my practice. When I was first trained in hypnosis, in 1990, there was a “hypno-disc available which was a hoaky looking spiral attached to a hand held battery operated contraption which the practitioner was supposed to turn on, so the spiral would spin, and then hold in front of the client in order to facilitate hypnotic induction. Yes, in my enthusiasm for my new profession & wanting to have all the latest connected to it, I have to confess I bought one.

When it came time to try the hypno-disc out on a client I demurred. It felt like an unnecessary and embarrassing prop. The training & practice I’d had during my hypnosis training made me realize that imaginative words delivered with confidence, and a loving intention for improvement in any area of self development for my clients were all I needed. The tone & timbre of my voice which is naturally hypnotic didn’t hurt either.

The areas of psycho spiritual changes in people’s life which these words brought about floored me. Words are powerful indeed.

For instance, a client who had suffered childhood abuse and I traveled back in time in our own version of soul retrieval to rescue hi/r, and her multiple personalities countless times until s/he felt fully rescued and re-integrated. I modify the word her and him or she and he with a / symbol in my writing to blur gender identification and to protect the identity of my clients. Over time this client became a therapist. Another client was suddenly rushed to the emergency room of a nearby hospital with inexplicable symptoms which turned out to be a frightening disease called scleraderma. How frightening to go from relatively good health to a health crisis and alarming diagnosis in one day. Our work together helped this client through the fear and stress (which can always worsen and accelerate any adverse condition). S/he has said I saved her life, but I didn’t. S/he did. By looking around for a solution and contacting me instead of being stalled and stuck in the problem, s/he seeded the ground for hi/r own survival. By becoming my partner and co-designing a mental/emotional/ and spiritual template for healing and meeting this challenge with poise and grace, and trusting in the process which s/he kept up with in between appointments s/he survived this crisis and is doing very well today.

Words have been recognized as more than letters strung into a sound representing or identifying a meaning which is being conveyed, either in writing or speech. In the system of Gematria a numerical value is assigned to letters words or phrases. In ancient times, before the 8th or 9th century, when numbers were adopted from the Arabaic numerals, letters were used to represent numbers. Theomatics and Isopsephia are two other practices in the arena of semantics (the study of language) which employ the assignment of numerical value to letters words and phrases. This assignment of numerical value to spoken & written words may be a predecessor of numerology, a system which assumes that life and our Universe are by nature designed to operate within a system which is orderly and through which the numerical relationship of everything is explored.

Numerology assigns spiritual mystical and divinational archetypal symbolism to the numbers in the name of an individual for instance and arrives at a final number which can be an aid in exploration and understanding of the individual and his life.

All these numerical exercises and practices ; theomatics, isopleths gematria, and numerology descended from and are intertwined with the original use of letters as numbers, and the importance that letters and words, written, spoken and even thought of have in our understanding of ourselves and our world. It’s my feeling that words in a numerical context are also linked to Sacred Geometry which attempts to explain the order of the Universe through sacred equations and measurements which ultimately validate the premise of the new physics which is that there is a Universal unity which can’t be denied, and nothing in this Universe can be viewed or experienced as separate from All That Is.

In The Beginning Was The Word...

I’ve always thought of words as bridges from heart to heart. Unfortunately people sometimes use words in a way which inadvertently or deliberately wound others. Aren’t we fortunate to have words available to understand each other? Why misuse such a wonderful tool to draw closer to one another? They’ve been given to us to communicate with; not to belittle, ridicule attack or diminish.

Think of how difficult it is to figure out what’s wrong when one of your pets is ill or misbehaving. I’ve often heard people say “Oh if s/he could only talk & tell me what’s wrong.“ Or, as in the case of strays who find us, or animals we rescue, “I wonder what her story is…If s/he could only tell me…“

Be deliberate and discerning in how you use words both mentally, in your inner dialogue, and verbally in your interactions with others.

The words which we use in our inner reflections - our thoughts arise from many sources; emotions, memories projections into the future (as in expectations - joyful or fearful)… echoes of words which impacted us from the past (especially those from what we thought of as authority figures in our life). And also when we’re fortunate, our thoughts arise from inner spiritual promptings or guidance. It’s very important to be conscious of the words we allow to stream through both our conscious and subconscious minds. Some think thoughts arise unbidden, and are not subject to our influence, but I don’t believe that. We can choose our thoughts just as we can choose our words.

Where our consciousness resides is what creates the home our mind, heart and soul live in. In time, our thoughts program our brain to make choices conforming to them. Our bodies respond, and we make choices based on our thoughts and feelings. As we continue to dwell on these thoughts and to experience the emotions they evoke, beliefs are shaped, and the paradigms we live by are instilled, deep into our consciousness. Our character conforms to these habitual thought streams and we become our thoughts.

None of us want to live in a worried, suspicious fearful, angry, vindictive, offended, jealous, wounded place. Yet we often allow our thoughts to drift to an inner dialogue or words, which elicit these unpleasant emotions and in turn, we view everything in our world through a lens created by the beliefs and paradigms they shape. Our perspective is warped. The interpretations we are arrive at through the distorted lenses of these thoughts and emotions are inaccurate and damaging, because they are unilateral and don’t take into account all variables and possibilities. Such a single-minded focus creates imbalance and lack of harmony in our lives.

This world demonstrates a duality in practically everything that exists in it, female - male, good - evil , positive - negative, light - dark… That’s not a bad thing. Being exposed to the dichotomies in our world helps us to discern what we resonate to and what we really want in our lives and what we don‘t. For instance Joy vs. Sorrow, Harmony vs. Discord, Hate vs. Love… . It really is up to us and no one else which\polarity we allow to outweigh the other in our thoughts, emotions and in the lives we live - negative or positive - and where our consciousness resides. Even if we find ourselves in a life situation, relationship at home, or work environment which seems irrevocably negative, we can choose which direction we allow our thoughts and words to gravitate to and how we respond to it.

When my three kids were small, I constantly used the experiences in our life together to teach them how to take responsibility for their thoughts, emotions and lives. I remember very well, the sad puppy eyed, sympathy ploys of passing the buck attempts.

“He made me do it ! He made me mad!”

“She made me sad.”

"They made me feel guilty …”

I’m sure they all remember me asking: “Did he put a gun to your head? Even if he did..." I would continue, "your thoughts are your own. No one can make you feel the way they want you to, your thoughts are yours."

I would use times in our lives, such as when one family member was being manipulative and trying to instill guilt or control through moods to illustrate how we could rise above either the conscious or unconscious attempts at manipulation, to choose our own emotions and remain guilt free and in a good mood regardless of the pressure of others. When I felt they were old enough I shared the stories of holocaust survivors such as Viktor Frankl who, even with a gun to his head in a concentration camp, retained the right to his emotional & intellectual autonomy, and went even further in their attempts to uplift others.

"…everything can be taken from us but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one’s own way." - Viktor Frankl, neurologist, psychiatrist, author of Man’s Search For Meaning: Experiences in the Concentration Camp.

In the next blog I’ll continue on this topic. After all “In the beginning was the word…”