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Prepare!!
Best time to purge!!

Rare 'Super Blue Blood Moon' Coming—First in 35 Years

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Lucky sky-watchers are about to get a cosmic three-for-one deal, as the second super-size full moon in a month undergoes a dramatic total lunar eclipse on January 31.

According to eclipse experts, the event marks the first time anyone on Earth has seen this celestial trifecta in 35 years—and the first time it’s been seen in the Americas in 150 years.

On the 31st, the moon will officially reach its full phase at 8:27 a.m. ET (13:27 UT).
This is the second full moon to occur in a calendar month, an event commonly referred to as a blue moon.

Around the same time, the full moon will be making an especially close approach to Earth, a phenomenon popularly called a supermoon.

Adding to the space oddity, viewers in some parts of the world will also see a total lunar eclipse on the 31st.
When the eclipse hits its peak, the moon’s face can sometimes take on a reddish tone, earning it the moniker of blood moon.

Based on this cosmic combination, the unusual lunar sky show has been dubbed a super blue blood moon.
So, what can sky-watchers expect to actually see?

The nearly full moon will reach its closest point to Earth at 6 a.m. ET (11:00 UT) on January 30, when the moon will be just under 223,069 miles from our planet.

This means the full moon on the 31st will appear about seven percent bigger and 14 percent brighter than usual.

But the most visually impressive part of this lunar show promises to be the total eclipse.
Lunar eclipses happen when Earth is between the moon and the sun, so that the moon passes through Earth’s shadow.

Eclipses don't happen every month, because the moon's orbit is tilted with respect to ours, so the lunar orb usually passes above or below Earth's shadow.

Our planet's shadow completely engulfs the moon’s face twice a year, on average. (Find out about lunar eclipse myths from around the world.)


Intuitive Astrology: Super Blood Blue Moon Eclipse January 2018

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January 31st, 2018 brings us an extremely potent Super Blood Blue Moon Eclipse in the sign of Leo.

Let’s first break down the meaning of the name of this Super Blood Blue Moon Eclipse-

Super: A Super Moon happens when the Full Moon is closest to Earth.
This Lunar Eclipse is going to be nice and close to Earth, which means visibility will be high and its energetic effects will be strong.

Blood: A Blood Moon is used to describe a series of three or more Total Lunar Eclipses, but the name comes from the fact that a Total Eclipse gives the Moon a reddish glow.

Blood Moon’s are quite rare, and we haven’t had one since 2015.
Because Blood Moon’s always happen in series, we will have two more Total Lunar Eclipses to follow, one later in 2018 and another in 2019.

Blue: A Blue Moon is the second Full Moon of the month.
Whenever there are two Full Moon’s in a month, the second is referred to as a Blue Moon.

This is also an extremely rare occurrence and makes this Eclipse particularly significant.
Interestingly enough, 2018 brings us two Blue Moons!

Phew!
Just to put it into context, the last time we experienced a Super Blood Blue Moon Eclipse was 36 years ago, but having this type of Eclipse in the sign of Leo is extremely rare and has not occurred in hundreds or possibly even thousands of years.

Whenever we have a rare celestial event such as this, we feel the energy strongly and it has the potential to cause huge ripples and waves in our lives.

Eclipses always come in cycles, and this Super Blood Blue Moon Eclipse is linked to the Eclipses back in February and August of 2017.

This means that whatever lessons or themes were brewing for you around that time are now coming to an end, and you will be able to bring closure and resolution to those energies.

Think back to what was stirring for you especially during the Total Solar Eclipse that happened on August 21st, 2017.

It is likely that whatever the August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse brought into your life is now being wrapped up, resolved and put to rest.

When thinking back to what was stirring for you, pay attention to what was unfolding on a spiritual and emotional level, not just on a physical or external one.

2017 was a transformative year for a lot people, and perhaps the months since the August Total Solar Eclipse have allowed things to move in a new direction for you.

The January Super Blood Blue Moon Eclipse is not only going to help bring resolution and closure to the last half of 2017, it is also going to open and activate a new energy that we are all going to be working with until the next round of Eclipses in July and August 2018.

Eclipses often bring turning points in our lives.
They are often an instigator for change and illuminate areas of our lives that need attention.

The Moon represents our emotions and how we feel safe and secure as we move through the world. During an Eclipse, our sense of security and comfort is often shaken in some way, and we are given the opportunity to really look within and discover our fears, hopes, dreams and the truth.

Seeing as this Blood Blue Moon Eclipse falls in the fire sign of Leo, it is really going to be guiding us to take charge of our lives and to step into that role of being the King or Queen of our own jungle.

As this is Full Moon energy, most of the action we are going to have to take will include clearing things out, doing away with the past and letting things go.

Even though the fiery Leo energy will want us to act, there is also a need to retreat and to clear things from within first.
In fact, hidden truths and buried emotions are likely to stir around Eclipse time, and you may need to let things rise up before you know the best course of action.

Eclipses are always emotionally supercharged, and this is even more so.
This Eclipse is likely to increase your sensitivity and bring up heated emotions.

Old wounds from the past may resurface, and you may find yourself digging through some muck in order to make sense of the things around you.

If things get intense, or your sense of security is shaken up under the presence of this Eclipse, remember that this is just so you can make some positive changes in your life.

You always have an inner power and inner strength, and tuning into lion or lioness energy and finding your pride is really going to help you.

When you feel safe and secure from within it gives you the confidence to express your truth, be who you are and to go after your dreams.
This Eclipse is going to be helping you find your way through this, and to find your inner strength so you can feel confident in who you are and what you are here to do.

If you allow the energy of this Blood Blue Moon Eclipse to filter into your life and you embrace the changes and inspirations that it brings, you will really be given a huge push to create a new state of being for yourself.

A state of being where you can feel confident, loved and supported by yourself and by the world around you.
A state of being where you have the confidence to be yourself and live your truth.

To achieve this state of being, you have to connect with your heart center and tune into that intuitive voice of wisdom.

This Total Lunar Eclipse carries a strong feminine energy and will really help you to connect to that intuitive, softer heart-centered place we all have inside.

In fact, the strong feminine energy around this Lunar Eclipse is likely to bring about global changes for women as well.
Under the presence of this Eclipse, we may experience a rise up of feminine power and a focus on equal rights for women.

The Super Blood Blue Moon Eclipse is definitely a special celestial event that will really shape the direction and energy of the year ahead.
The best thing to do is sit back, surrender and join the Universal flow.

This is an intense Eclipse and it is likely that you will be feeling its effects for a few weeks until the energy settles.
Just be gentle with yourself and observe any themes, issues or patterns that emerge.

If something starts slipping away from your life, or if something is abruptly ended around Eclipse time, trust that it is meant to be, and allow things to take their natural course.

The January 31st Eclipse is a potent one, and there is no doubt that it will put you where you need to be and beckon you to a higher state of consciousness.



 
It’s been a while.
This is quite an optimistic vision of our future...let’s hope so.
Enjoy!

Awakening To Our Empathic Mind

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by Kingsley L. Dennis

Part 1

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The tragedy of humankind is that many of us have little recognition of the powerful conscious energies inherent in our collective psyche.

Our propaganda and media systems have been exploiting the mythological images, collective stereotypes, and subconscious signifiers that play on our collective vulnerabilities.

Knowledge has more or less trickled down to the average person through heavily filtered channels, and most often has been doctored, amended, and/or edited.

The end result has been not knowledge but consensus information, or 'allowed' information.
It has served the elite power structure well that people in general have not awoken to the understanding that humanity possesses incredible capacity and inherent resources for creative expansion and evolutionary development.

It is now necessary to see our future potentials, not the daily news.

For many of us we have been brought up within a social structure that demands we become a 'productive member' of our society; thus much emphasis is placed upon developing individual skills so that we can compete with each other for survival.

Inherent in this is a residual fear that if we open ourselves too much to others we may lose our 'competitive edge' and defined sense of individuality.

In a sense we have been partially programmed to play the role of victim or fighter, externalizing our troubles and our blame.
Added to this is the fact that Western science, which has asserted itself as the dominant hegemony since the Renaissance, has been at pains to stress that matter is primary and that consciousness is a secondary by-product from our mental activity.

The modern worldview which denies the primacy of consciousness is fostering forms of human alienation, both psychological and social.
It is a great paradox that modern science, itself a result of human consciousness, has produced a view of the cosmos which has no room for consciousness.

Yet human beings are in need of meaning and significance in their lives as much as they are in need of air to breathe and food to eat.
This struggle over the conscious mind(s) of humanity, which has been going on in various forms for eons, is coming to a crux in our present generation.

The result is that we have now collectively arrived at a critical moment in our evolution of human civilization.

Any society or civilization which makes the material world its sole pursuit and object of concern cannot but devolve in the long run.

As Professor Needleman so aptly remarked:

The esoteric is the heart of civilization.
And should the outward forms of a human civilization become totally unable to contain and adapt the energies of great spiritual teachings, then that civilization has ceased to serve its function in the universe. [1]

It is therefore imperative that people begin to break-away from non-developmental social conditioning and make efforts to make compassionate intent a part of our everyday experience.

This includes being conscious of the type of impacts we receive, and to avoid those impacts and influences that are negative in favor of those that are positive.

For example, true words encourage us and give us strength because we instinctively recognize truthfulness - our body consciousness reacts to this, even if indirectly as through the form of galvanic skin response, pupil response, or through our electrical nerve responses.

In short, our body feels the essence of what impacts us, and negative or false information weakens us.

This concept was researched scientifically through testing muscle strength.

Dr. David Hawkins has written extensively on how muscle testing shows that various impacts create either strong or weak reactions from the body.
In his work he relates how people who listened to lies proved to exhibit a weakened muscle reaction, whilst those who listened to positive words and statements showed a strong muscle response.

In his work Dr. Hawkins further notes,
  • How particular language 'attractors' such as Shame, Guilt, Apathy, Grief, Fear, Desire, Anger and Pride serve as negative, energy depleting emotions.

  • Higher energy attractors are the positive words/emotions such as Courage, Willingness, Acceptance, Reason, Love, and Joy.
According to Dr. Hawkins, over 99% of humans calibrate below the level of Joy; which is a saddening thought.

What this also tells us is that our whole body functions as our mind - an extended mind.

As such, our whole body can respond in empathy, and be strengthened through empathy and compassion.
We need to listen more to our bodies, the information they give to us, and trust in this part of our mind - and not just the thoughts coming from our head upstairs.

When the mind is receiving ambiguous impacts and news, it is the body we can often rely on to give us more accurate and truthful information.

Furthermore, during moments of cultural and social disorder/disequilibrium the human mind often works with an energy and intensity not manifested when social patterns are stable and monotone.

At such dynamic periods there can be the realization that no individual is isolated; that each person is interwoven into a vibrant network and web of psychological, emotional, and spiritual interrelations.

Such realizations can be heightened during periods, such as now, when it appears that human consciousness is moving through a time of critical transition.

Our self-awareness over the nature of human consciousness has been increasing greatly over the last several decades.
The latest findings in the new sciences (especially quantum and neuroscience), in consciousness studies, in the popularity for inner and self-development, etc, all indicate a new awareness emerging within our collective consciousness.

It is interesting to note that according to the research of Dr. David Hawkins human consciousness was dangling at below the 200 level (190) [2] for many centuries before it suddenly rose up to its present higher level some time in the mid 1980s.

The overall average level of human consciousness stands at 207 (as of late 1990s).

Hence, many past predictions and prophecies of doom may have been avoided because they relate to a time when human consciousness was below the 200 level.

For the world to stay at levels below 200 over a prolonged period of time would, says Dr. Hawkins, cause a great imbalance that would likely lead to humanity's demise.

When one's consciousness falls below 200 at any given moment a person begins to lose power and thus grow weaker and more prone to be manipulated by one's surroundings, says Dawkins.

Now, however, human consciousness is on the rise; and as it rises it has the capacity to affect - or infect - other minds.

As Dawkin indicates:

The power of the few individuals at the top counterbalances the weakness of the masses:

  • 1 individual at level 300 counterbalances 90,000 individuals below level 200


  • 1 individual at level 400 counterbalances 400,000 individuals below level 200


  • 1 individual at level 500 counterbalances 750,000 individuals below level 200


  • 1 individual at level 600 counterbalances 10 million individuals below level 200


  • 1 individual at level 700 counterbalances 70 million individuals below level 200 [3]
What this tells us is that as human consciousness rises it has an exponential capacity to affect others around, like an expanding energy wave.

What this tells us is that individuals have the capacity to make change infectious by transmitting one's state of being amongst others.
That is, energetic change will come through our social and cultural forms, and not by avoiding them.

Developmental change on a large scale can occur by creating conscious change from within our daily lives and within our social systems, and not outside of them.

By just walking on this planet, holding the focus and intention, we create incredible energy - energy that is shared.
We are creating change by just being alive.

That is why being without fear is so important.
We need not create a black and white film in our heads when in reality we are creating color.

We can make use of the tools that are already available to us, and within us.

There is an exponentially increasing mass of us who are now awakening our empathic consciousness.

Recent de-stabilizing events in our financial and political spheres have drawn people's focus to the dysfunction of many of the systems that we once gave our trust to.

Even the focus on religious extremism in the media has drawn people's attention not only to the deficit of spiritual values in our major religions but also to how religion is being used as a tool for furthering social, political, and emotional control.

This trance-like grip on our collective consciousness is now being stripped away as people awaken to the knowing that there is so much more to our lives than that of a materialistic and consumer-based lifestyle.

Yet don't become frustrated if things don't happen tomorrow, but trust that changes and shifts are happening over time.
The necessity of inner knowing, intuition, self-trust, and integrity, is now critical.

And let us remember that humans are biased for compassion and empathy.

The awakening of our empathic mind is our natural inheritance.

References

[1] Jacob Needleman, New Religions (New York: E P Dutton, 1977)

[2] This is Dr. Hawkins scale for calibrating the level of human consciousness according to his 'Map of Consciousness'. See his work for further details

[3] D. Hawkins, Power vs. Force - The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior







The accelerating changes occurring across our planet right now will have no alternative but to force a mind-change on a global and individual level.

We are coming together as a global species like never before; despite what we have been shown and told by the mainstream media.
We need to view this in both the immediate and the bigger picture.

Due to our relatively short human life span we rarely reflect beyond a generation or two in front of us.
We have evolved as a species that reacts to immediate concerns.

This served us well in the past when we had survival needs in a restricted world of limited horizons.

Yet now we need a perspective that is global at the very least - and even possibly beyond!

If we now look at the bigger picture we will see that a different type of consciousness has been emerging over the past 150 years.
That is, since the dawn of the Second Industrial Revolution.

The new technologies of the Second Industrial Revolution - the telephone, radar, cinema, automobile and airplane - called for a new reorientation of human perspective.

A new perception of the dimensions of space and time began to birth a psychological consciousness - one that wanted to look beyond the borders and horizons of the physical frontier.

The 3rd Industrial Revolution, which is now emerging, will be a convergence of digital communications combined with a young generation that is more globally aware.

This has the potential to catalyze upon this planet a rising empathic, integral consciousness.
Also, our global communications will encourage new relations in our extended connectivity.

That is, increased multiple relations are likely to stimulate a connected, collaborative consciousness; rather than a consciousness of conflict and control.

A planetary citizenry is emerging that will exhibit greater empathy, and which will create a different planetary society within perhaps two generations. Humanity already contains the seeds of these momentous potentials.

Many social changes within the upcoming years will emerge from the creative engagement and innovation of individuals and collectives worldwide - a shift catalyzed within the hearts, spirit, and minds of the people.

Externally we may seem like a vast, distant, and separate collection of individuals yet in truth the human family is an intimate, closely entwined species comprised of various cultures.

Many of the younger generation now are waking up to this fact.

Youngsters the world over are growing up accustomed to having networks of hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of friends across the planet; sharing intimacy and empathizing easily with an international social group of like-minded souls.

This younger generation is manifesting, whether conscious of it or not, a non-local level of human relationships.
This expanded connectivity is impacting and affecting a change in our psychology and consciousness.

We are now being impelled to live in ways that enable all other people to live as well.
We are also being compelled to live in ways that respect the lives of others and that respect the right to the economic and cultural development of all people; and to pursue personal fulfillment in harmony with the integrity of nature.

These traits may constitute what I refer to as an integral-ecological consciousness: a person acting and behaving as both an individual and as a part of the greater connected whole.

Such multiple relations form a more varied, rich and complex life; they also provide a more diverse range of impacts and opportunities to develop the self.

As well as providing challenges for developing new skills and learning, our diverse networks can form new friendships and add extra meaning to our lives.

Many young people today are comfortable in expressing themselves with strangers; they explore and express their inner thoughts, feelings, emotions and ideas with hundreds of unknown persons online, from various cultural backgrounds.

More and more daily interactions are empathic as we react and share news, stories, and emotional impacts from sources around the world.

Empathy is one of the core values by which we create and sustain social life.

Exposure to impacts outside of our own local and restrictive environments helps us to learn tolerance, and to live with experiences that are richer and more complex, full of ambiguities, and multiple perspectives.

It is a mode of connecting that allows diverse people worldwide to construct a new form of planetary social capital.
We have the resources to co-create a planetary human society where once again the focus is on social benefit rather than profit.

We can see many examples of this today, such as in online collaborative tools and both local and global projects.
The online global community is a model for the new paradigm that illustrates how sharing can work above the individual motive for profit.

The values and ethics of communal sharing might seem odd or out-of-place to the old capitalist-consumerist mindset, yet these are the very values that will be on the rise within the coming generations.

The spectacular rise in global communication technologies (Internet and mobile phones, etc) reflects a new form of participatory consciousness, especially among younger people.

This new model is a distributed one; in other words, it connects people through networks rather than through hierarchical structures.
It also represents a more feminine energy that seeks relationships, to nurture and to collaborate rather than compete and conquer.

It is this emerging feminine energy that underlies the rise in global empathy.

Also, since people are connecting amongst themselves in multiple relations it impels them to have an active engagement.

For those individuals brought-up within the older generation of communication technologies (radio, television, fixed phones), the interaction was either two-way or, for the most part, one way.

In this era people were passive receivers, targeted by information they could not engage with.
This has now shifted so that the receiver of the communication is both the user and the producer.

We have learnt to democratize our engagement and to activate choice through online social networks, phone messaging, video channels (e.g. You-Tube), and various other broadcast mediums.

The younger generation is waking up quickly and learning how to set-up inexpensive, or free, radio sites (podcasts), home websites, newsletters, and are managing their own forms of self-expression.

This new model is changing our thinking and behavior patterns.

We are now getting used to dealing with multiple connections rather than single ones; and to becoming immersed in diverse relations and not just one-on-one dialogues.

We are also being exposed to a myriad of viewpoints, beliefs, identities, and experiences.

Within these new arrangements we are being asked to respond and engage with the outside world not in fear or with anxiety but with healthy, creative, and positive energies.

As a new generation enters a world where collaboration and connection is the new normal, we are likely to also see a different consciousness responding to such an environment.

In this way, change will come through responding to new patterns and potentials.

With patience, tolerance, empathy, compassion, and conscious communication we will see a different set of values catalyzing change throughout our cultures of the world.




We are going to witness a generation of young people showing a desire for human betterment that will emerge through intensified action for social, political, and ecological change.

More and more young people are growing up experiencing social relations that transcend space and time, as well as cultures, national boundaries, and local ideologies.

This may account for the increasing numbers of young people in developed nations becoming involved in community and social projects and NGOs; such as taking a year out to help in another culture abroad, to learn, experience, and to offer assistance.

Volunteering among the young, despite what appears to be the contrary, is on the increase.

Young people are even putting themselves into dangerous situations - in conflict zones - to stand up for values of peace, justice, equality, and human rights.

Across the world young minds are demanding fair and equal access for all peoples to engage in open communication and free speech.

And it appears that many more creative minds will be joining the global conversation as our current generation(s) increasingly 'wake up'.

In 2012 the planetary population was around 7 billion and the number of registered internet users was 33%, a rise of over 500% from the previous decade.

By 2020 world population is set to be 7.8 billion and internet users worldwide is estimated to be 66% - that's a little under 3 billion new people plugging into the global conversation.

In other words, nearly 3 billion new minds will be tapping in to the information flows; and that's many millions of new creative problem solvers, innovators, and visionaries.

What is more, the majority of these new minds will be coming online from Asia, the Middle East, and what we refer to as the developing countries.

These will be mostly young minds; and minds with necessities, with the urge for social betterment.
Can we imagine the collective potential of these creative new minds; many of them thinking outside of the box, and outside of the old patterns?

It is significant that in times of relative social stability, human consciousness plays a lesser role in the behavior of society.

However, when a society reaches the limits of its stability then social-cultural systems are sensitive and responsive to even the smallest fluctuations in the consciousness of its citizens.

In such times, changes in values, belief sets, perceptions, etc, hold great sway over the future direction of the social situation.

Human consciousness becomes a significant stimulus and catalyst for change during these times of social instability.
That is why it is imperative humanity be collectively focused upon positive development and betterment rather than to be coerced, or conditioned, into a fear-based security that resists change.

We should not underestimate the capacity for the human mind to adapt and evolve according to social and environmental impacts and influences.

Our modern sense of self-awareness has clearly evolved to root us in our social world: a world of extended relations and social networks.
Humanity, it can be said, has been biologically hard-wired to tap into extended social connections and human communication networks.

We are also hard-wired to adapt physically in response to experience - new neural processes in our brains can come into being with intentional effort, awareness, and different patterns of concentration.

This capacity to create new neural connections, and thus new mental skill sets through experience, has been termed neuroplasticity.

The human brain of today has to respond to the incredible amount of energy and information that is flowing through our environments and embedded in our cultural experiences.

By being aware of our experiences and environmental impacts and influences we can gain a better understanding of how our brain and thinking becomes re-patterned.

Thus, how we focus our attention and awareness greatly shapes the structure of our brains.

Further, the ability to grow new neural connections is available throughout our lives and not only in our young formative years.
This knowledge encourages us to nurture our mindfulness, our self-awareness, and our empathic relations with others.

Neuroplasticity also encourages us to be more reflective over our human networks, and to develop those social skills that underlie empathy and compassion.

These new 'wired connections' are exactly what are becoming activated as individuals increasingly 'wake up' to what is happening within our communities, our societies, and upon the planet.

Such distributed connections breach cultural and national borders and force us to self-reflect on our identity, values and ethics.

The opportunity is here for change and betterment like never before in our recent history.

This means that the responsibility is also here; and these two factors may never be present again at exactly the right moment when they are so badly needed.

What the human species may now be witnessing during these years is the rise of intuition, empathy, greater connectivity to the world and to people, and a sense of 'knowing' what changes need to be made.

Furthermore, within each person is a growing sense of the greater cosmic whole: the realization that humanity exists and evolves within a universe of great intelligence and meaning.

This serves to impart within humanity a more profound spiritual impulse.
As a new global empathic mind emerges, people worldwide will grow up with new expressions of mindfulness that are more caring, relational, and compassionate.

The 21st century is likely to be the era that births and nurtures such an evolving consciousness.

Many of the younger people across the world do not accept the social conditioning of anger, fear, and insecurity of their past generations.
They want to reach out for change and betterment.

Around the world there are examples of young people rejecting the conflict mentality of their elder generations.
In conflict zones especially, where young minds are conditioned into unconditional hatred of fixed enemies, there is a backlash against this old programming.

Younger people are reaching out across artificial borders to engage with the so-called 'enemy' and to start a new dialogue of peace and reconciliation.

Such minds realize that the conflict mentality has no future, and will be left behind if it cannot accept change.
Whereas many of the old programmed minds thought that a future meant putting up borders, and viewing the 'others' with suspicious eyes; many of the young minds see differently.

We can see this in youth movements worldwide as there is change emerging in the mindset of young people everywhere.

This is especially so in Middle Eastern territories where restrictive regimes are now encountering rising youthful demographics who are not accepting the old mentalities and old ways.

All young people want what everybody wants - peace, justice, equality, freedom, etc.

There is a new spring in the step of young, tech-savvy, energetic minds that are by-passing the old models.
In these years ahead - at least for the next two decades - we will increasingly see the signs of the changing of the old guard (the dinosaurs!).

And this time they will not be replaced by those with the same consciousness.

With generational change we will see the gradual transition to an era of individuals who think differently, feel differently, connect differently, and who will want to work toward a different world.

A new narrative is emerging, one where each person is integral to the larger picture; the journey of each one of us being a part of the journey as a whole. This new story informs us that the possibilities are open for humanity to engage in consciously creating its way forward - with harmony, balance and respect to all.

This new narrative is part of humanity's evolving empathic mind and which compels us to seek greater connectivity and meaning in our lives.

This most recent human story is one where we create the story of the future.
 
So I’m about halfway through a book called “Spook - Science Tackles The Afterlife” by Mary Roach.
She is the same one who wrote a book called “Stiff” which was about the secret life of corpses.
In “Spook” she sets out in search of the big question of what happens after we die to our consciousness, does it continue on, etc.
I have to say I’m really getting frustrated with the author.

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I’m a little more than halfway through her 300 odd page book and so far she has gone to great length to discredit and poke - what I’m sure she thinks is light-hearted humor, regarding history of the exploration of the afterlife, and things that have already been discredited by science.
Like the human soul weighing 21 grams as experimented by Dr. MacDougall - a horribly flawed experiment and measuring apparatus from the get-go.
That was the first 1/4 of the book as she talked about failed attempts to recreate this weight discrepancy.
The second half of the book if not more, has been her talking about how bunk it was when so-called “Mediums” would make so-called “ectoplasm” which most often than not was cheesecloth secreted in the vagina or ass, or even regurgitated in one instance, appear.
But so far does not address any other Mediums that have been far more successful in their practice and never made any such gimmicky shit appear.
The author seems to be cherrypicking stories and only presenting some of our dumbest moments in the exploration of human spiritual history, instead of trying to find and discuss those things we still cannot explain and furthering the discussion that she claims to want to explore/“tackle".
Maybe she just doesn’t get the idea of multiple realities and universes, higher dimensions, PSI, etc. ?
So she latches onto silly people, who did silly things, only to spend whole chapters discussing how silly she thinks they are.
She honestly seems to me to be someone who had their mind already made up about the “answers” they sought to seek...wasting her time with worthless and fraudulent subjects in the history of strange phenomena.
I will read it to the end and perhaps she will redeem herself somewhat - I have hope ;)
If you are going to write such a book where you are claiming to be “scientifically" searching for the truth of our consciousness continuing on past death, she certainly ignores or is ignorant of loads of good scientific research in all areas of “spirituality” or “spiritualism” and instead focuses on quirky stories that are laughable but prove nothing, nor do they make one even question what she is talking about as things like “ectoplasm” being materialized were already BS...there is no need to further talk about how stupid people were about the whole thing at the peak of the Spiritualism movement in the late 1800s, early 1900s.
The tagline of - “Science tackles the afterlife” so far has very little to do with science or the afterlife for that matter....it should read “Author pokes fun at already discredited spiritualist history...pours another glass of wine...waits for check from publisher”.
I think she “tackled” a subject she clearly was/is still ignorant about.
Hopefully, the rest of the book is not so narrowly focused and will actually get into some meat about the subject.
Not super confident that she will though.
Thus concludes my half-book review, lol.

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I think she “tackled” a subject she clearly was/is still ignorant about.

The reductionist nature of some "scientists" is deplorable. The issue of intuition is almost never explored. But it is obvious to anyone, and scares the crap out of the "pen and paper" idiots.

They have a mountain of data and "facts" but a thimblefull of understanding. Anyone who's taken a look at mathematical logics limits, quantum mechanics etc realises it's a strange thing. We're nowhere near to the full answers.

When I see that, it's a sign of closed minds, scared stiff of what the reality may actually be.
 
The reductionist nature of some "scientists" is deplorable. The issue of intuition is almost never explored. But it is obvious to anyone, and scares the crap out of the "pen and paper" idiots.

They have a mountain of data and "facts" but a thimblefull of understanding. Anyone who's taken a look at mathematical logics limits, quantum mechanics etc realises it's a strange thing. We're nowhere near to the full answers.

When I see that, it's a sign of closed minds, scared stiff of what the reality may actually be.

Yes...she is currently making fun of the group of people who have signed up for and are attending a “Fundamentals of Mediumship” retreat/class.
I’m reading it sparsely now...I should have finished weeks ago were it not for the growing dislike of her arrogance and irreverence/disrespect for the beliefs of others.
I may have to reduce my 2/5 star rating for the entire book review.
She's sitting in the corner snickering and laughing at personal judgments she is making of the attendees, clearly her mind is already made up about whether Mediumship is legit or not - she is totally closed-minded on the subject, so like most who don’t understand she makes fun of it as a projection of her ignorance/fear/arrogance and inability to truly connect and understand what others in the group are subjectively getting from it.
She almost comes off as a spoiled rich teenage girl/brat who thinks she knows everything...to be fair she is probably a bit more intelligent than your average teenager, but certainly not more mature.
Making fun of people’s physical attributes...of course it’s all supposed to be light-hearted and good natured poking fun...but the problem with that is she does that incessantly throughout the book to the point where it no longer feels light-hearted funny teasing or likewise now...it seems like she has a problem a Psychiatrist would best address, and not someone who I would like to be around IRL.
She wouldn’t say she is the smartest person in the room....but she doesn’t have to...I think perhaps she is unaware of how she comes off - and I’m sure there are some who would enjoy her snarkyness, but I’m not one of them.
So far there is very little if any actual science for a book with such a tagline of “science tackles the afterlife”.
Who is the scientist?
Certainly she is not, she is a professional writer and has always been one starting in magazines.
She has reviewed some history that contained faulty scientific experiments from the turn of the century...but this is also a time when people willingly drank arsenic for certain ailments, the stories she outlines and makes fun of are not any dumber than the rest of medical science at that time.
It’s like looking back at the early 90’s and calling people stupid for owning a pager - that was the technology of the time, like the fanny pack before it it is funny to look back on...but she always seems to make it some kind of broad generalized judgement of certain groups of people who believe/behave(d) differently than her own already congealed beliefs and experience/lack thereof.
Still waiting to see the science.
Not sure if it’s in the book at all.

Hope you are well?!
 
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I'm fine, just getting over a cold and have a badly blocked ear, lol. Hope you're well?

Sorry to hear that...same here...all last week and part of the weekend I had some kind of chest thing going on...it never really turned into anything full-blown but just sort of was there just enough to really be annoying...that seems to finally have left.
Neti pot man....best way to go to clear your ear!
Hope you feel better soon!!
 

by Rupert Sheldrake
Noetic Sciences Review, 30 4-9


Since ancient times, a strong and pervasive belief in the efficacy of prayer – for the living and the dead – reinforces the notion that consciousness is not limited to the physical body.

Not only do traditions throughout the world share a belief that prayers may in some way help (or invoke help from) deceased ancestors, many cultures throughout history have believed that prayer can bring about changes in the physical circumstances of the living.

If prayer affects things in the physical world, its effects should be measurable, and science should be able to investigate it.
There is a very scattered literature on this, but when you bring it all together as Larry Dossey has done in his recent book, Healing Words (Harper San Francisco, 1993), you see there is quite a large number of interesting experiments with challenging results.

Out of 131 controlled experiments on prayer-based healing, more than half showed statistically significant benefits.
One of the best known is a double blind study of 393 patients in the coronary unit at San Francisco General Hospital.

In this experiment, 192 patients, chosen at random, were prayed for by home prayer groups, the others were not.
The prayed-for patients recovered better than the controls, and fewer died.

In order to make sense of these data on the efficacy of prayer, science will have to change its underlying assumptions about the nature of causality. Currently, the standard view is still purely mechanistic – notwithstanding all the recent talk about chaos and complexity theory.

When applied to the life sciences, chaos and complexity theory – even with the help of highly sophisticated computer modeling – still explain the world in terms of mechanical causes involving known physical and chemical processes.

The data from empirical studies of prayer, as well as from the large literature reporting psi research in telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis, seriously challenge the mechanistic view.

Some other causal agent besides the mechanics of electrochemical interactions is required to make sense of the observed phenomena.

Holistic thinkers generally divide into two main categories.
The majority want to have holism on the cheap.

They want a holism which doesn’t conflict with science as we know it.
Instead of exploring the possibility of new causal factors, they prefer to explain holism in terms of complexity and self-organization of conventional mechanical forces, modeled with sophisticated mathematics and the latest computer techniques.

Nothing essentially different from physical and chemical interactions is considered to account for the properties of living systems.

The other group of holists, a minority among which I include myself and Larry Dossey, think that there is more to it than just what we know about chemistry and physics and clever mathematical models.

My view is that there are other causal factors in nature, processes that make actual differences – causes in nature which bring about new kinds of effects that we have to take into account in order to understand our experience and the world.

These new causal factors are involved in things like paranormal phenomena, prayer and healing.

The whole thrust of my morphic resonance theory is to say there is more to nature than just the standard forces in physics.
And what’s more these other agents are at the very heart of the way things are organized in chemistry, in life, and in consciousness.

Prayer and Mental Fields

How might prayer fit in with the scientific view of things?

I shall focus on two broad categories of prayer: petitionary and intercessory.
In petitionary prayer we ask for something for ourselves; in intercessory prayer we pray to a higher power for the benefit of other people (either living or dead).

In praying for other people and for ourselves we ask a higher power to bring about a particular result.
For me, this is what distinguishes prayer from positive thinking.

Positive thinking involves nothing more than one’s own mind, one’s own desires and wishes, but petitionary and intercessory prayer are put in the context of a higher power.

For this reason positive thinking does not fit into the category of prayer – even though it is often confused with it.

Whether petitionary or intercessory, prayer clearly poses a challenge to the mechanistic view of the world.
According to this view, there is no way that thoughts going on in your head, which at most create small electrochemical disturbances barely detectable a few inches from your head even by highly sensitive apparatus, could affect someone or something at a remote distance.

If you were practicing positive thinking or some of the more specifically directed forms of petitionary prayer, you could resort to explanations in terms of telepathy, or if it were a prayer affecting physical objects, you might say it was psychokinesis.

But such explanations serve only to replace one set of explanations which lie outside the scope of modern mechanistic science with another set.
There is nothing in mechanistic science that could allow mere thoughts inside my mind, whether cast in the form of prayer or as positive thinking, to affect things at a distance. It just can’t happen.

The key to understanding prayer as a scientific phenomenon requires, in my view, getting away from the idea of the mind as somehow inside the brain.
If we think our minds are confined to our brains – the standard view – then since what goes on in our brain occurs in the privacy and isolation of our own skull it can’t affect anyone else.

However, I see minds being field-like in nature (part of my general view of morphic fields), and I see mental fields as the basis for habitual patterns of thought.

Mental fields go beyond, through, and interface with the electromagnetic patterns in the brain.
In this way mental fields can affect our bodies through our brains.

However, they are much more extensive than our brains, reaching out to great distances in some cases.

As soon as we have the idea that the mind can be extended through these mental fields, and over large distances, we have a medium of connection through which the power of prayer could work.

We are no longer dealing with a purely mechanical system in the brain, with absolutely no way of connecting the brain and the observed effect – for if that were the case the phenomenon of effective prayer would have to be dismissed as delusion or coincidence.

With a mental field, however, we have a medium for a whole series of connections between us and the people, animals and places we know and care about– with the rest of the world, in fact.

When we pray, those extended mental fields would be the context in which prayer could work non-locally.

Non-Localized Mind

Clearly, this does not amount to a fully articulated scientific theory of prayer; it is highly speculative.

But, I believe, it is also very clear that we need to have a much broader view of how the mind is extended beyond the brain.
We need a theory of what I call the "extended mind" as opposed to the conventional scientific view of the "contracted mind" holed up inside the skull.

This view of a contracted mind came from Descartes in the seventeenth century.
It is a model of consciousness which separates our minds from the whole world around us into a small region in the brain – a model of the mind which plainly contradicts direct experience.

For example, when you see this page in front of you, you experience it as being outside you, not inside your brain.
To say that this and all your other perceptions are located in your brain is a theory, not an experience.

It is important, however, not to envisage the extended mind as some amorphous field, a kind of undifferentiated Universal Mind.
I don’t think we should make a large leap from the concept of a contracted mind to a boundless universal mind. Such a jump isn’t helpful scientifically.

My idea of morphic fields is that even though they are extended and non-local in their effects, they are still part of our individual and collective mind, but not to be equated with some ultimate Universal Mind.

The morphic fields are not God.
They are non-local in the sense that they can spread out over immense distances (as, for instance, gravitational fields do), so that if I were praying about somebody in Australia from my home in London the morphic field would carry the information and the prayer could work.

But my mental field wouldn’t usually spread out to Mars, for example, because there is nothing connecting me to someone on that planet.
If someone I knew had traveled there on a spaceship, then there would be a link.

For morphic fields to have a mental connection I believe there has to be something that links you to the other person.
Even if you have never met the other person, I believe just knowing their name or something about them seems to be enough to establish a connection, though this connection is likely to be weaker than that between people who know each other well.

You could picture it something like this: When two people come into contact and establish some mental connection (perhaps experienced as affection, love, even hate) their morphic fields in effect become part of a larger, inclusive field.

Then, if they separate from each other it is as if their particular portions of the morphic field are stretched elastically, so that there remains a "mental tension" or link between them.

There has to be something like this that relates the two people.

Nested Sets of Morphic Fields

Morphic fields are organized in nested hierarchies (see below).
For example, there are morphic fields surrounding the atoms in our bodies, which are within the higher level morphic fields of molecules, organelles, cells, organs and limbs, all of which exist within the morphic field associated with the entire body.

The body field, in turn, would be within the field of relationships that constitute a family, within a larger social group.
Societies, in turn, are embedded within ecosystems, and ecosystems within the planetary system, "Gaia”.

And by extrapolation, we could extend the series of nested morphic fields until we reach out beyond planetary, solar system and galactic limits to encompass the entire universe.

Even Einstein’s space-time field of gravitation is a universal, cosmic field holding everything together and linking the entire universe, in fact, making it a uni-verse.

It does the same thing as the World Soul or Anima Mundi of neo-Platonic philosophy. It embraces the whole cosmos.
There are levels upon levels of morphic fields within fields, within which we are embedded.

Human life is embedded in vastly larger fields of organization.
To what degree they are conscious still remains in the realm of speculation.

But I would assume that higher-level fields are not less, and probably more, conscious than we are.
I would think they are more conscious than we are not simply because they are larger in size, but because they are more inclusive, contain more complexity, and encompass more possibilities.

I think that is one way of interpreting traditional doctrines about super-human intelligences, or cosmic intelligences, usually thought of in Christianity as the hierarchy of the angels.

The word "angel" normally conveys the image of a good-looking youth with wings; but that’s simply a pictorial representation.
The traditional doctrine behind that image, however, is of a super-human intelligence.

And if the solar system and galaxy have intelligence, then one might be an angel and the other an archangel.
In some traditional Christian doctrines there are, for instance, nine hierarchies of angels or levels of intelligence.

And I would see these as equivalent to intelligences, minds or organizing fields at different levels of complexity.
The galactic angels, for instance, would embrace or include those of solar systems, which in turn would include those of planets.

This is a description of a cosmos which has intelligence at every level, not a view that sees consciousness as something that emerged from unconscious matter.

Conscious intelligence
was there to start with.
The place to look for it is not going to be in atoms or quanta (although there may be some kind of consciousness there), but in solar systems and galaxies and in the whole cosmos.

There may be all these different levels of imagination, intelligence, and mind throughout the whole of the cosmic organization.
All traditional doctrines that I know of have recognized something of that kind.

Opening Up To The Numinous

As a scientist I wasn’t always interested in prayer.

In fact, in earlier days I believed it was all nonsense.
I was an atheist; God had no room in my scientific education.

After graduating from Cambridge, I thought I had outgrown childish belief structures like religion, and that rational science was the way forward.
I had a typical secular-humanist atheistic worldview for a long time, well into my thirties.

And this, of course, is the worldview that most of my scientific colleagues still have.
They regard religion as a relic from a superstitious age.

In that context, prayer is completely meaningless, except insofar as people believe in it they may derive some psychological benefit – a kind of "placebo effect".

Then in 1968 I visited India, and all the materialist assumptions I took for granted just didn’t seem to work any more.
What struck me most was the experience of being immersed in a culture that worked in an entirely different way to what I had been accustomed.

In this exotic culture, the idea of what we might call "other realms" – the supernatural or spiritual – was simply taken for granted by practically everybody. There was a palpable sense of another dimension to life, everywhere you looked, and everywhere you went.

As an atheist, of course, my initial reaction was to think they were deluded in their beliefs.
Yet on the other hand, these beliefs produced a fascinating culture.

Even people living in the extremes of poverty seemed to have more joy in their lives than most people I knew who lived in the lap of plenty.
I was touched deeply by the natural human warmth, and the quality of the people and of their way of life.

According to the materialist beliefs I had, poverty equaled misery; wealth and good medical attention meant, if not happiness, then at least a much better quality of life.

In India I saw it wasn’t as simple as that.
The people there were poor beyond the comprehension of most Westerners, yet everywhere they walked about with the most radiant smiles.

Walk along a street in London, Paris or New York and you see mostly harried, worried faces.
That difference impressed me very deeply.

The contrast between the sense of inner joy and peace I experienced all around me in India compared with the tense way of life in the West was so striking that I decided to investigate meditation.

For about four years I did various forms of Hindu practice.
This didn’t conflict with my scientific attitude because meditation didn’t challenge my whole scientific worldview.

On the contrary, I could approach my study of meditation in a truly scientific spirit.
Its appeal is that you do it and see if it works.

It’s empirical.
You sit, you calm your breath and you observe what happens.

I started with Transcendental Meditation which sounded scientific in that it was supposed to lower lactose levels in the blood, have beneficial effects on the circulation, and calm brain activity.

I found that meditation did indeed work.
I experienced within myself that calm I was seeing all around me in India.

As a scientist I wasn’t troubled.
I could understand meditation by explaining to myself that it wasn’t opening me up to other realms of consciousness, but that it was simply changing the physiological state of my brain.

To say that breathing in a particular way and doing a particular kind of mental activity could affect my mental and physical state did not challenge my worldview.

Nevertheless, although I could follow Hindu practices, India was such a completely different civilization and culture that there was no way I’d ever be an Indian.

I began to have a sense that I would need to recover my own tradition if I were to share in the deep perceptions and peace that I saw in the people around me.

Furthermore, after living there a while, I also saw the shadow side of the Hindu tradition, which I hadn’t seen in my earlier brief visit.
There is a fatalistic lack of concern for other people that was alien to me.

That view was at variance with my more optimistic, progressivist Christian culture.

In India I came face to face with the realization that rooted in the Christian tradition is the sense that you can, and should, help other people; we can aim for some better state of affairs on Earth, for the whole of society.

When I talked with my Indian friends and colleagues, it became very clear that I had this view deep within me.
I realized that this sense didn’t come from Hindu philosophy, nor from my atheistic outlook.

Instead, I saw it came from a deeply embedded Christian view of the world that I carried with me unwittingly.
In fact, I realized this partly because in conversation with my Indian friends they would frequently point out that so much of what I was expressing was a Christian view.

The repeated revelation of this, even to an avowed atheist, was difficult to ignore.

I spent some time living in Father Bede Griffith’s ashram, and I found that coming back to a Christian path made sense to me.
I began praying and discovered that it was more helpful to me than meditating.

I would say that meditation involves a kind of separation between the practice and the rest of one’s life; it is going into another space altogether.
You could say that contemplative prayer would have the same effect.

But for me, ordinary petitionary and intercessory prayer, such as the "Lord’s Prayer", links the events of my daily life directly with my practice.
I pray about what I’ve done that day and what’s coming up the next day.

It’s a matter of bringing the very fabric of one’s life – relationships, work, and personal concerns – into the context of the spiritual life.

How Do Mental Fields Work?

My hypothesis of morphic resonance and morphic fields has grown out of the notion in developmental biology of "morphogenic fields”.

This idea dates back to the 1920s in the work of biologists A. Gurwitsch and Paul Weiss.
In modern developmental biology these fields are usually regarded as heuristic devices, or as mathematical abstractions with no causal effect.

By contrast, I interpret them to be causal fields with an inherent memory given by morphic resonance; in other words I regard them as one kind of morphic field.

Other kinds of morphic fields include behavioral fields, responsible for coordinating instinctive or learned behavior, mental fields, responsible for organizing mental activity, and social fields, responsible for organizing social groups.

If fields are the medium of mind then what you have in the brain is an interface between one kind of field and another kind of field.
All organization in the body has morphic fields underlying it.

Morphic fields
in the brain interact with electromagnetic (EM) fields in the brain.
However, the nature of this interaction is indirect.

Rather than morphic fields working directly through the electromagnetic field, they interact through both affecting the same thing – in this case, physical activity within the brain.

I am not saying that there is a linear-type causal relationship between brain-electromagnetic-morphic fields.
I regard mental fields as one kind of morphic field that affects the brain, shaping its activity, and this affects the EM field associated with the brain.

Here you’ve got fields acting on fields: morphic fields surrounding all the cells, tissues and organs of the body, as well as in molecules and cell membranes, and indeed in quantum-matter fields.

This is contrasted with the more usual view of the spirit-matter dichotomy – where mechanical matter and ineffable spirit interact in some kind of quasi-miraculous way. If you say that the spirit acts on the EM field, you’ve got a problem of miraculous intervention.

On the other hand, if everything in nature is organized by fields, and if mental fields are a more subtle kind of field, you’ve got no sharp dichotomy – you’ve got fields acting through fields at all levels of reality.

So the mind-body problem ceases to be a sharp dichotomy.
 
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Out of 131 controlled experiments on prayer-based healing, more than half showed statistically significant benefits.

I keep finding contradictory information as far as the validity/effectiveness of prayer-based healing. I hope in the coming years we will have a better view of the reality of this.

Also, everything being a field supports the idea that everything in its smallest form is a wave. It makes a lot of sense, but at the same time we aren't exactly able to manifest things directly like magic... (yet? :) )
 
I keep finding contradictory information as far as the validity/effectiveness of prayer-based healing. I hope in the coming years we will have a better view of the reality of this.

Also, everything being a field supports the idea that everything in its smallest form is a wave. It makes a lot of sense, but at the same time we aren't exactly able to manifest things directly like magic... (yet? :) )

Perhaps we aren’t allowed to for whatever reasons?
Though maybe there are cheat codes and ways around such rules of reality and manifestation...at least there seems to be?
Here is that Dean Radin list of scientific studies, many of which deal with healing via prayer - http://deanradin.com/evidence/evidence.htm
IMHO we can manifest things...but it takes a lot of time, practice, concentration, and also IMHO a certain purity of will.
As in...are you asking for your bank account to double so you can buy a new jet ski, or are you praying for more compassion in the world?
I believe what, and how we ask has great bearing on if our prayer has any sort of “power” contained within.
That is not discounting that there are some negative and sketchy ways to manifest things that I will always avoid.
 
Dean Radin

Ok I know you've posted stuff on this guy before but I just went to his website and found this video which laid everything out very nicely


1. Divination
2. Force of Will
3. Theurgy

It makes sense for these to be "real" in some sense, and also he justifies our inability to use them by saying we are either subconsciously protecting ourselves from the dangers and/or we haven't evolved to the point of being able to fully do so

Also you may have posted this before as well but it's worth posting again: http://threebridgeswest.com/
 
Ok I know you've posted stuff on this guy before but I just went to his website and found this video which laid everything out very nicely


1. Divination
2. Force of Will
3. Theurgy

It makes sense for these to be "real" in some sense, and also he justifies our inability to use them by saying we are either subconsciously protecting ourselves from the dangers and/or we haven't evolved to the point of being able to fully do so

Also you may have posted this before as well but it's worth posting again: http://threebridgeswest.com/

Yes...that is a great video...I agree with everything he talks about.
I agree that the future of science will have much more to do with the study of our own consciousness and how it interacts with this reality.
There are groups like Thelema who’s main purpose is to manifest spirits or entities, bring them under your control, and have them do your bidding.
That type of manifesting or conjuring is what I was referring to when I said - sketchy....lol.
I DO believe that we can manifest things, usually subconsciously, but certain people seem to be more “open” and able to naturally see more, or do more, or create more.
It’s kind of like magic mushrooms...again, imho it allows the filters our minds’ normally place over our reality and allow it to flow more freely in this dimension and others where such things as manifesting our will seems to be more fundamental to that higher state.
Many say things like “It was 6 years worth of therapy condensed into 6 hours.”.
Though again...manifesting in this dimension - when our mind stretches across several dimensions - as I believe it is a multi-dimensional force of energy - seems to have certain limits that are placed upon us, unless there seems to be some kind of “work-around” those laws.
But what the hell do I know? lol Those are just my best guesses based on my experiences and studies.
Some seem to know how to do this much easier than others seem to...so perhaps it is a function of our further evolution?

I haven’t posted that link, appreciate you doing so...thank you very much!
How are things?
 
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I feel like we have a multi-dimensional mind...and that many of those things that seem fantastical to us are not so fantastical - only in this reality or dimension.
In others we are able to do these things and on some level in this reality, so it would makes sense that we should subconsciously long for that ability that we know how to use so well in others.
 
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This article explains the multidimensional mind idea much better than I can.
Enjoy!​



A Multi-Dimensional Theory of Mind
By Gilbert Ross on Tuesday November 28th, 2017


AMultiDimensionalTheoryOfMind.jpg

The Quantum Physics of Consciousness
In philosophical debate, particularly in the philosophy of mind, the question of how mind and consciousness arise out of our matter, or more specifically, out of the physical neurological processes in our brains, has been a long-standing one and it has baffled scientists and philosophers alike.

When we speak or think of mind, it seems natural to suppose that it is directly linked to our brain and our conscious thinking, including other cognitive functions.

Even if, from our direct experience and observation, there is no direct evidence or clue that could lead us to unambiguously understand what mind is, we do collectively intuit that mind is a phenomenon that is deeply interrelated to our brain activity, and yet it is something more.

But what is this ‘something’ more?
This question alone has historically spurred some interesting theories of mind, together with various philosophical standpoints and debates.

The most common take on the nature of mind in modern Western thought is that mind is the same thing as brain activity and hence the question of ‘what is this something more?’ does not arise.

This materialistic position on mind was born out of the classical scientific view and its influence on modern thought.
It is called materialist because it assumes that mind is nothing more than matter.

The philosophical idea coming out of this materialistic view is a reductionistic one, meaning that it assumes that phenomena such as mind and consciousness can be explained by reducing them to the physical and chemical processes occurring in the neurology of our brains.

It is literally a flattened view of the world, since it reduces all phenomena to the dimension of matter, time and space, which are considered primary, according to this view.​

MIND-11.jpg

The materialist view is that mind is the same thing as brain activity.
The Mind-Body Problem
The mainstream scientific position has led itself into a brick wall when it comes to understanding the phenomenon of consciousness.

Philosopher of mind, David Chalmers, refers to this as the hard problem of consciousness, which is basically the problem of explaining subjective mental states of consciousness objectively in terms of physical processes, as required by the strict view of science.

In simple words, how do we explain a particular feeling we have when we think of chocolate, in terms of neurons firing in our brain?

Other positions that do not subscribe to this reductionist view of mind, however, tend to face another problem–the problem of dualism.

Basically, if we are to consider the mind as being separate from the brain, then this once again begs the question “What is mind?” and more specifically, “What is the relationship between the physical brain and mind?”

The former is an ontological question asking about the nature of mind, while the latter is an epistemic one, which tries to understand the cause and effect relationship between brain and mind and how information and knowledge passes from one to the other, seeing that they are two different things.

The assumption that mind is different from the brain, such as–for example–that mind is non-material whereas the brain is material, gives rise to the so-called mind-body problem, first addressed by French philosopher René Descartes, who said that the mind and the body are two different substances.

Bodies are extended in space, incapable of feeling or thought, whereas minds are unextended, thinking and feeling substances.

Because they are two different substances, belonging to the material and non-material, and because there is no observable point of interaction between the two, then we cannot explain a causal relationship between the two.

If we cannot come up with a causal explanation, for example, of how our internal mental states and beliefs give rise to behaviour, then some would argue that talking of mind would be superfluous.​

MIND-12.jpg

Mind is non-material whereas the brain is material.
Mind as Software and Emergent Effects
Despite this seemingly problematic position of the mind and brain co-existing in some form of relationship, the idea lived on in other theories and metaphors.

One of the most popular metaphors, in fact, is borrowed from the computer sciences and which sees the mind as analogous to a software that runs on top of a hardware (or wetware)–the brain.

This model has served particularly well in psychology and the cognitive sciences, where the non-material aspect of mind is seen as the software program and the material aspect of the brain is seen as the underlying hardware.

Another interesting position considers the mind as an emergent phenomena, resulting from the complex interactions of the neural processes in the brain.

This theoretical position is a non-reductionistic one while at the same time it circumvents the mind-body problem because although mind is still considered as something other than the brain, the cause and effect link between the two can be explained in terms of emergent effects.

The problem with this view, however, is that it still considers matter (the brain) to be primary and mind and consciousness as something that emerges out of matter, rather than being a fundamental aspect of the universe, such as time and space are.

The Mind as a Higher Dimensional Field
As science and research continues, new theories of mind arise which could shed more light on some of the philosophical questions mentioned above.

One of the latest ideas to come out from the academia is one which sees the mind as a field existing in a different dimension than the brain, and which interacts with it on a quantum level.

Dr. Dirk K.F. Meijer, a professor at the University of Groningen, published a paper positing his idea in the peer-reviewed scientific journal NeuroQuantology, an academic journal that brings together research from the fields of neuroscience and quantum physics.​

MIND-8-1.jpg

The mind exists as a field in a different dimension than the brain.​

Meijer suggests that the mind is basically a field, or more technically, ‘a holographically structured field’ that acts as a ‘receptive mental workspace’ in that it exists around the brain but at the same time, is able to access other fields outside of it.

This field, Meijer suggests, resides in a fourth spatial dimension, a higher dimensional space than the one the brain is embedded in (3D).

It is also worth noting that parallel research, such as in the blue brain project–an interdisciplinary collaboration between mathematician and neuroscientists–have identified that the ‘brain’ works in multiple dimensions.

The question then is how does the mind, as a fourth dimensional field, interact with the 3d brain processes?
Although we do not yet understand the specific mechanisms underlying the mind-brain communication, Meijer lends on quantum physics to suggest possible contenders.

Two possibilities are through what is called quantum entanglement and quantum tunneling; two of the most perplexing and mysterious phenomena observed in the quantum world.

In simple words, entanglement is the observed phenomenon that two particles are ‘synced’ together in a way that one effects the other instantaneously, despite being separated by immense distances, say for example, on opposite ends of a galaxy.

This phenomenon has baffled scientists for years, including Einstein himself who termed it ‘spooky action at a distance.’
Quantum tunneling can be best explained by analogy to a macro world object.

Imagine you throw a tennis ball against a wall.
Naturally we expect the ball to stop its motion once it hits the wall and bounce back in the opposite direction.

Strangely enough, in a quantum tunneling parallel, the ball passes through the wall and is observed to keep its motion and momentum in the other adjacent room.

Strange stuff indeed.

Yet Meijer thinks that although entanglement and tunneling are possible explanations to how the mind field and brain rapidly pass on information to each other, the most probable mechanism at work is quantum wave resonance.

This means that at the very quantum and sub-quantum levels there is a wave pattern underlying all the neurons and particles in the brain and which also passes through the mind field.

Changes in the mind field resonate with the neurons in the brain instantaneously and vice versa.

MIND-5.jpg

Wave patterns in the brain pass through the mind field.​

Faster than the Speed of Thought

The quantum wave resonance model of brain and mind field communication can be a very clever answer to what is called ‘the binding problem.’
Different neural regions and clusters in our brain are responsible for different cognitive functions, say for example, vision, colour, sound or verbal processing.

Yet these different signals from different regions in our brain come together collectively faster than the speed at which they are processed individually, hence giving rise to an observed anomaly known as the binding problem.

Now, this is relevant here because it seems that the binding problem arises when we scratch our heads and try to figure out what is happening from just one layer of reality–say from the neural activity of our brain.

On the other hand, when we start to view the brain and mind as being multidimensional manifestations of the same thing and which communicate information at the quantum level through resonance, a better, wider picture starts forming that explains apparent anomalies, such as the binding problem.

This also gives more credence to the fact that a flattened and reductionistic view of reality does not work at all.
We need a richer, broader and possibly a multi-dimensional view of consciousness and reality.

This brings me to the next interesting point about the field theory of mind.

Mind is Universe
The discussion about mind as a field ultimately goes beyond entertaining the possibility of answering longstanding philosophical questions.
It opens a door of exciting new possibilities that give us a completely new way of understanding the phenomenon.

In a way, it is the classical conundrum of answering one question and opening up another hundred, but this is what is special about growth in knowledge.

MIND-6.jpg

Mind is universe and everything is mind.​

The real pearl inside the oyster of this theory is that mind is not individual or exclusive to us humans, as we have always assumed.
A very short way of saying it is that mind is universe and that everything is mind.

As the first principle of the hermetic philosophy goes: ‘All is Mind.’
So one of the things that science might have got fundamentally wrong, and which David Chalmers refers to as “the hard problem of consciousness,” is that it did not assume that consciousness and mind are fundamentally part of everything that is.

Consciousness is primary; even relative to matter.
This starts to converge with ancient knowledge or modern panpsychism, which hold that everything is imbued with consciousness.

Matter arises out of consciousness and not vice versa.

But what does this have to do with Meijer’s theory of mind as a field?
Well for one, Meijer holds that the fourth dimensional field of mind is a torus shape which we are now understanding is found everywhere in the universe.

Secondly, fields are all interconnected with each other via quantum phenomena such as resonance, entanglement and tunneling.
This might explain what we consider as psychic or extra sensorial phenomena such as precognition, clairvoyance, remote viewing or telepathy.

Meijer, in fact, sees consciousness as a boundary condition that exists between the internal information of the brain and everything else outside of it, which he refers to as the ‘universal information matrix.’

From this point of view, consciousness is similar to a phenomena observed in black holes, called an ‘event horizon.’
When light or matter approach a black hole they do not disappear but their information is projected on its boundary.

That boundary is what separates the black hole from everything else, and he uses this as an analogy to explain what consciousness could be from his research and insights.

So the bottom line of this thought-provoking and pivotal research is this: Your brain is a quantum tuner that resonates with a field called mind.
That mind field is connected to many other fields and this might explain transpersonal and psychic experiences we could not previously explain through mainstream science.
 
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Time for a spiritual sabbatical.
I encourage everyone to take a day or two and create their own.
For the next 48 hours or so, I will not be on any social media, I will not watch or read any news...the only social media platform I will accept is listening to music, watching inspiring/informational/thought-provoking/mind-expanding documentaries or articles of such.
No TV shows with negative overtones (so pretty much no TV lol)...my binge-watching of the TV show “The Exorcist” (which is so-so) will have to wait a couple days.
I will focus on maintaining a present state of mind...focusing on the positive things in my life and the contributions I make/have made and giving myself credit for those without criticism going along with it. Meditation. Meditation. Meditation.
Lots of meditations...do some on aligning your chakras, on grounding, on being present, on being gracious, compassion, etc.
Smudge your home...open the windows even if it’s cold and exchange the air and energy...push out the stale, bring in the fresh and positive.
Take care of yourself...shave, take a long shower and really scrub yourself down...some are really into “dry brushing” now.
Go for walks...I just came back from the nearby stretch of forest and saw “Leo” the cat, who came trotting up to great me.
Stay present.
Pining over things that you cannot actively effect or change now is pointless and only serve to add stress to your day.
Chose a day to deal with those things, make an appointment for yourself on the calendar....otherwise, put it out of your mind.
Create a pleasant atmosphere for yourself...burn incense, clean your house, play music you love, put fresh sheets on the bed, declutter an eyesore you keep walking past.
Pray. Even if you don’t know whom you are talking with...give thanks to the universe...imho it is trying to actively help us through the chaos that is this reality and life, most of us just don’t take the time to bother to listen for guidance, or we ignore that gut feeling because it "didn’t make sense”.
Pray for those whom you love, and who give their love freely to you.
Give thanks for those people in your life, you never know how long you have with them...take the time to really appreciate all they have done for you.
Set your intentions...what do you wish to gain from this time with yourself?
What do you want to know or learn?
But also don’t be disappointed if it isn’t what you expect it to be - as the Rolling Stones said “you can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometime, you find - you get what you need.”.
Eat well...have some extra vegetables, or don’t eat meat at all for two days, give your body some extra nutrients.
Pause frequently...center and reground yourself...take a deep breath and let out your tension...unclench your jaw....do this whenever you remember to.
Think of those who cause you discomfort...those that you might even say you “hate”...those who represent everything you stand against - understand you are no better than they are...no smarter, no less passionate....they have just as rich an inner life as you - just as certain aspects of your personality are very entrenched in their mental make-up as well as their upbringing...nature and nurture as we all are subject.
Let go of your anger...understand what has made them the way they are...understand that some of the most powerful people in the world are also some of the most insecure, unhappy, and immature egos out there in the world.
Try Tai-chi, qi-gong, yoga...or just stretch.
Focus on the positive...while actively working to understand where your negative aspects arise from - but don’t ignore them.

So enough of that...just some ideas and things I do that help me to create the set and setting as well as put the intentions of such exercises out there in the universe.
It’s been far too long since I have addressed the depression/anxiety created by my chronic pain issues.
Time to blast them away. ;)
Much love to you all and I will see you on the flip side.
 
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Good avenues for grounding/te-grounding.

Enjoy your sabbatical :aum:

Thank you!
It was very productive I think.
Glad to hear about the surgery not being needed...that is wonderful news!
Much love to you!
 
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