Issue #221 DECEMBER/JANUARY, 2015

Transcription

EARTH STAR
DEC / JAN 2015
CONSCIOUS LIVING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
EVERYTHING IS
A MIRACLE
BERNIE S. SIEGEL
WALKING
HOME
SONIA CHOQUETTE
SONIA CHOQUETTE
THE COLORS
OF LOVE
NEW SLOW CITY
YOGA FOR CANCER
Contact Christopher for a remote Divine Healing session
by phone or Skype.
http://www.christophermacklinministries.com
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EARTH STAR
DECEMBER / JANUARY 2015
www.earthstarmag.com
DECEMBER / JANUARY 2015 EARTH STAR
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EARTH STAR
CONTENTS
ON THE COVER
27 Walking Home
Day 25: Rabanal to Ponferrada (32 km)
by Sonia Choquette
38 Everything Is A Miracle
Excerpts from A Book of Miracles
by Dr. Bernie Siegel
51 The Colors of Love
Excerpts from The Light by Keidi Keating
by Don Miguel Ruiz
56 Yoga for Cancer
Creating Your Yoga Practice and Learning the Poses
by Tari Prinster
Page 38
59 New Slow City
Living Simply…No Matter Where You Are
by William Powers
FEATURES
12 Down To Earth Astrology
by Tim Gunns
16 Rhythm Alchemy
\
by Martin Ivanov
22 Discover the Benefits of K-Laser
Cover Art
Flight of Music
by Jean-Paul Avisse
For further information,
contact
Prestige Art Galleries,
3909 W. Howard, Skokie,
IL 60076. (874) 679-2555,
www.prestigeartskokie.com
Class 4 Laser Therapy Treatments
by Dr. Joseph Mercola
31 Strange Electromagnetic Energies
Page 27
by Louis Proud
43 The Real Brass Ring
Change Your Life Course Now
by Dianne Bischoff James
45 Natural Extracts Lower Blood Pressure
by Brandon Dewitte
64 4 Myths That Keep You From Living Fully
and Fearlessly
by Anita Moorjani
Jean-Paul Avisse
.
For a free color brochure,
please send a S.A.S.E.
DEPARTMENTS
5 Up Front
18 Book Reviews
Page 51
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Earth Star Up Front
PHILAE Touches Down on the Surface of a Comet
ouchdown! The Philae probe
has landed on the surface of a
comet, scientists from the
European Space Agency (ESA)
announced November 12th.
It is the first time a soft landing has
been achieved on a comet.
However, project scientists believe
anchors that hold the probe to the surface failed to work properly and are now
trying to find out why, according to ESA
tweets.
T
ESA lander system
engineer
Laurence
O'Rourke told CNN that
engineers are still checking the data to see “how
we landed and where we
landed.”
Shortly after landing
was confirmed, the probe
tweeted: “Touchdown! My
new address: 67P!” Later,
it tweeted again: “I’m on
the surface but my harpoons did not fire.”
ESA director Jean-Jacques Dordain
told colleagues who had waited anxiously for confirmation of the landing.
“This is a big step for human civilization. The biggest problem with success
is it looks easy.”
And William Shatner, who played
Captain Kirk in the science fiction series
Star Trek retweeted: “touchdown con-
firmed for away team @Philae2014,
captain!”
Led by ESA with a consortium of
partners including NASA, scientists on
the Rosetta mission hope to learn more
about the composition of comets and
how they interact with the solar wind—
high energy particles blasted into space
by the Sun. —CNN
Being Neighbor l y Promotes a Health y Hear t
here may be something more to
heart health for everyone
beyond genes, diet and exercise. This heart-health booster is something we don’t think about, and yet
there it is, right in front of our noses.
And this newly proven secret to heart
health and longevity is free and not
hard to do—all you have to do is be
neighborly.
That's right—just be neighborly to
live longer! Here’s why.
We know that negative aspects of
physical environments—noise, traffic
and pollution—can harm our health.
It’s a no-brainer. But recently, a study
by researchers from the University of
Michigan looked at the impact of posi-
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tive rather than the negative aspects of
neighborhood living. The research
team wanted to find out whether feeling
part of a community, trusting neighbors
and feeling safe had an impact on heart
health. They called these feelings about
community connections perceived
neighborhood social cohesion.
Drawing data from the University
of Michigan’s ongoing Health and
Retirement Study, the researchers identified 5,276 heart-healthy people and
followed them for four years. The average age of these folks was 70. The
Health and Retirement Study is a large,
national program that collects information on health, health-care economics,
aging and quality of life in adults older
than 50 through questionnaires that are
sent every two years to the more than
22,000 participants in the program.
Researchers asked the participants
how they felt about the area within a
20-minute walk or one-mile radius of
their homes, and how much they agreed
with these four statements:
• I really feel part of this area.
• If you were in trouble, there are lots of
people in this area who would help you.
• Most people in this area can be trusted.
• Most people in this area are friendly.
Depending on how strongly a participant agreed with each statement, he
or she was put into one of four groups.
During the four-year study period,
148 of the participants had heart
attacks. The researchers took this information and sliced and diced it with the
data they had collected about neighborhood social cohesion and demographic
factors (for example, age, sex, race,
marital status, education level and
income) of their study population.
When the researchers adjusted data
to compensate for the impact of demographic factors on heart attack risk,
they found that, compared with people
with low neighborhood social cohesion, people with low-to-moderate
social cohesion were 34% less likely to
have heart attacks and people with the
moderate-to-high or high social cohesion were about 45% less likely to have
heart attacks.
Those are stunning numbers—you
can potentially reduce your risk of
heart attack by half by just being neighborly and liking and being involved
with where you live.
—Daily Health News
EARTH STAR
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Volume XXXVIl No. 221 — December / January 2015
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Earth Star Up Front
Aer otoxic Syndr ome Threatens Airline Passengers
here are many air travel victims
whose mysterious health issues
are not publicized or understood
by medical authorities, and apparently
the international airline and aircraft
industries would like to keep it that way.
Toxins from bleed air bleeding into
the cockpits and cabins of commercial
airplanes have the potential to create
Aerotoxic Syndrome, an illness that can
lead to a long term debilitation that
makes it quite difficult to ever regain
health. All jet liners and turboprop
planes use the bleed air technique for
cabin air with the exception of the
Boeing Dream Liner.
Bleed air is air that is forced into an
airplane for breathing via engine turbine
compression sections. The air is cooled
and forced into the aircraft interior from
inside the engine cowling or cover. Most
cabin air is 60% bleed air and 40% recycled air. Pilots are subject to 100% bleed
air, so they get hit the hardest from bleed
air contaminants.
The contaminants are in engine and
hydraulic oils that sometimes leak and
burn off vapors into the bleed air. Some
of those oils contain large amounts of an
organophosphatecalled tricresyl phosphate (TCP). Organophosphates are
nerve gas agents used in insecticides and
pesticides, and many nations have
banned them. Organophosphates are
deadly!
A group of Swiss/German TV
investigative journalists swabbed interior cabin samples from 31 different commercial aircraft and handed them over to
Professor Christian van Netten, a leading toxicologist at the University of
British Columbia. Professor van Netten
found 28 of those swabs contained TCP!
The long term effects of TCP are
mostly neurological, but sometimes pulmonary. These effects create various
symptoms identical to MS (multiple
sclerosis) or Guillain-Barre, a paralysis
that sometimes occurs after vaccinations. The symptoms vary in intensity,
and they’re crippling in different ways.
Bleed air incidents from the 1960s
were rarely connected to neurological
damage from cabin air contamination.
The airline industry has covered them
up since the connection was first made
T
and
the
dangers
became known in
1977. But now the veil
of censorship has been
ripped away by some
key victim activists
who have done the
research and provided
proof to use in lawsuits
against airlines and
aircraft manufacturers.
Victims involved with
the lawsuits have been
mostly airline crews
and flight attendants
whose repeated exposure to bleed air contaminants made them
most vulnerable to
aerotoxic syndrome.
These activist victims are not disgruntled employees looking to get something
out of their employers. Many pilots and
flight attendants who had previously
loved their jobs have been forced into
medical retirement with debilitating
health issues as the result of bleed air.
The UK Independent reported that 27
pilots suffering from cognitive dysfunction were tested at University College
London in 2006, and high amounts of
jet-engine oil chemicals including TCP
were discovered in their blood and fat.
There have been incidents where
pilots couldn’t function and were losing
vision, or were desperately ill until
moments after donning their oxygen
masks. Sometimes one of the pilots
would pass out, leaving the other stricken pilot with the task of handling the aircraft. Incapacitated pilots are invitations
to disaster!
Flight crews and attendants have
been aware of this toxic situation without speaking out for some time. But
almost all passengers are clueless
regarding these dangerous toxins. Cabin
air filters are useless for protecting
against heated oil TCP contaminants.
There are reported cases of passengers
who have had problems, some very serious and long lasting, from even one
flight where the burnt oil smell was
noticeable.
A pilot who had protected himself
with oxygen reported passengers looked
ill and “zombie-like” from a surge of
burnt oil bleed air that had been sent
throughout the plane. How many of
those passengers had lingering negative
health effects that would never be connected to bleed air contamination on
that flight? Some passengers were
aware of a noxious odor and then dizziness, which turned into long term neurological problems with debilitating MS
symptoms.
That’s the problem with long term
health issues for the unsuspecting. They
often kick in strongly days or even
weeks after the toxic flight. And since
passengers know virtually nothing of
aerotoxic syndrome, they don’t connect
what’s wrong with them with the flight
that released TCP fumes.
For prevention, there are compact
masks lined with highly effective activated charcoal to adsorb TCP molecules. Adsorbing differs from absorbing
because it involves a more effective
toxin elimination by electronic or ionic
bonding of molecules, rather than
sponge-like soaking.
Masks
are
available
from
http://www.aerotoxic.org
—AlignLife
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Earth Star Up Front
Volkswagen’s New 300 MPG Car Not Allowed In America
ou won’t find the 300 MPG
Volkswagen XL1 in an
American showroom, in fact it
has even been denied a tour of America
because it is too efficient for the
American public to be made widely
aware of, and oil profits are too high in
America with the status quo in place.
No tour has been allowed for this car
because the myth that 50 mpg is virtually
impossible to obtain from even a
stripped down econobox is too profitable to let go of, and when it comes to
corporate oil profits, ignorance is bliss.
Years ago we had calculated that it
should be possible to get a small car to
exceed 100 mpg by putting parallel
direct to cylinder water injectors side by
side with the fuel injectors, and using
the exhaust manifold to preheat the
water so it would enter the cylinders as
dry steam, thus providing added expansion (which drives the engine) while
allowing the combustion process to proceed without reducing it’s efficiency.
But we were obviously wrong with our
calculations, because they were in fact
over 2x conservative.
The 100 mpg carburetor was indeed
a reality, and the Volkswagen XL1
proves it with only straightforward
nothing special technology we have had
since the 1970?s.Though the XL1 can
be plugged in to deliver a 40 mile all
electric drive, it does not need to be
plugged in EVER to achieve 300 mpg.
And it does not cheat in any way to
achieve the rating, it weighs over 1,700
pounds, has normal tires, and delivers a
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very good driving experience with a
governed top speed of 99 mph. The XL1
could reach a top speed in excess of 110
mph absent governor and turns in a 0-60
time of 11.5 seconds which is by no
means leisurely for a car designed for
efficiency. The XL1 in no way cheats on
performance to hit it’s rating. It is simply the car we should have always had,
and have had taken from us in the name
of oil profits.
Though the XL1 can hit 300 mpg
under ideal driving conditions, it’s combined mileage is usually a little over 200
mpg, and if you do city driving only that
will drop to a minimum of 180 mpg
under the worst driving conditions. But
we’d be happy with that no doubt.
If the XL1 was equipped with an 18
gallon fuel tank, and you did all highway driving, you could fill it up with an
oil change and
when the next
change was due
you
could
change the oil
and keep driving
without filling
up for and additional
2,400
miles. But it
comes with a
much smaller
fuel
tank,
because if it
could go that
long on a single
tank chances are
the fuel would foul before it got used.
The tank is only 2.6 gallons to prevent
fuel age related problems from happening. So fill ups are cheap.
Many of the publications which
speak about the XL1 did so when it was
a concept car predicted to get right
around 250 MPG. But in 2014, after
extensive testing of cars now produced,
test drivers report economy above 300
mpg under the correct driving conditions, which would be close to sea level,
a flat straight road with no stops, and
reasonable speeds. To get rid of
miles/imperial/U.S. gallon confusion, in
the metric system the XL1 is rated to
deliver 100 kilometers per litre.
Translated for the U.S., that means
approximately 65 miles per quart.
We remember how we laughed at
the Smart Fortwo, because even a full
size 4 doorChevy Impala significantly
beat the “Smart’s” fuel economy, and
with the Impala you would get a whole
car. The Volkswagen XL1 is clearly the
two seater the Smart should have been if
it really was what the name implies, and
the XL1 is in contrast, a car we’d be
proud to be seen in.
You will NOT see the Xl1 in
America, however,
Even it’s far less efficient 85 mpg
non hybrid full size station wagon counterpart, the Jetta TDI blue motion wagon
(Carscoops.com), which is made in
America, is banned from American
roads. —Peak Oil
Earth Star Up Front
SMART METERS Are Poor Value, Find 10 EU Countries
early half of European United
countries have decided against
a large scale rollout of smart
meters, calculating that the new technology can be poor value for money.
Digital smart meters are a big innovation over present analogue versions,
allowing grid operators and utilities to
view power consumption at the household level, but they also involve a significant upfront cost.
EU member states were supposed
to replace at least 80% of all electricity
meter with “smart” versions by 2020,
provided that they found smart meters
saved money in the long run, under the
Energy Efficiency Directive.
Only 16 out of 28 countries in the
bloc found a conclusive net benefit,
however, according to a new report from
the European Commission.
The European Commission painted
an upbeat view of the rollout proceeding
in those countries, but acknowledged
the set back.
“The business case for rolling out
smart metering is not yet overwhelming
throughout Europe,” the Commission
said, in its report, “Benchmarking smart
metering deployment in the EU-27”.
“Sixteen Member States will proceed with large-scale roll-out of smart
meters by 2020 or earlier, or have
already done so.”
“In seven Member States, the costbenefit analysis for large-scale roll-out
by 2020 were negative or inconclusive.
In Germany, Latvia and Slovakia smart
metering was found to be economically
justified for particular groups of customers. For four Member States, the
cost benefit analysis or rollout plans
were not available at the time of writing.”
The Commission report found a
huge range of values for costs and benefits per smart meter across the different
member states.
Costs ranged from 77 to 766 euros
per meter, and benefits from 18 to 654
euros.
Some of the differences in cost
were down to technical accounting
issues, such as the assumed lifetime of
the meter, rather than actual differences
such as in installation or labour costs.
N
The smart meter rollout is part of
the EU’s 2009 “third energy package”
meant to achieve an internal energy
market targeting secure and affordable
energy.
Other measures under the package
include linking cross-border markets, so
that electricity flows from cheaper to
more expensive countries.
Smart meters allow two-way communication between a house and utility,
whether by cable or wireless, replacing
present meters which simply measure
household electricity consumption.
Utilities benefit by reading meters
remotely, rather than manually at present.
And they would allow grid operators to balance power demand and supply better, by having real-time data on
electricity consumption at the household
instead of electricity sub-station level.
Where the meters can communicate
with individual plugs or appliances in
the home, they would also allow utilities
to shut down power supply for households in return for cheaper tariffs.
Such “demand response” could revolutionise grid management, giving
operators an alternative tool for managing surges in electricity demand, as well
as variable wind and solar power supply.
Instead of investing in new power
generation, they could pay consumers
not to use electricity during demand
surges. Such so-called “peak load shift-
ing” could save billions of euros by
allowing countries to avoid investing in
new power generation, much of which is
presently kept idle.
But not all smart meters have such
demand response functionality yet.
Smart meters could also help consumers to monitor their energy use and
even control appliances remotely by
smart phone.
But the European Commission
report found that smart meters in seven
of the 16 countries proceeding with a
large scale rollout did not have the functionality to report consumption data
back to consumers.
Some consumer groups are concerned at the amount of detailed household data which smart meters give to
utilities, including how many people are
in the house in real time. The EU’s efficiency law protects such consumer data,
the Commission report said.
“A high level of personal data protection must remain a central concern in
the development of smart standards.”
“An intensive communication effort
is required to help consumers understand their rights, the benefits of
installing smart meters and participating
in demand response programmes.
Consumers should be informed about
the functionalities, what data will be
collected, and what these data will be
used for.” —rtcc.org
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Earth Star Up Front
SEABUCKTHORN: “Holy Fruit of the Himalayas” or “Wonder Berry”
eabuckthorn is known as nature’s
most balanced fruit. This “Holy
Fruit of the Himalayas” has been
cherished by native Tibetans for centuries for its incredible nutritive qualities. The Seabuckthorn fruit is also
known throughtout the world as
Sandthorn, Sandorn, and the “Wonder
Berry”. Consider seabuckthorn’s nutritional profile: Seabuckthorn contains
more than 190 biologically active compounds and with its full range of omega
fatty acids in perfect balance.
Seabuckthorn contains more than 60
antioxidants and high ORAC value. The
fruit of Seabuckthorn is very rich in
vitamin C (300-1600 mg/100 g), which
is 4 - l00 times higher than any vegetable and fruit.
Seabuckthorn is a small, yelloworange to orange-red berry with a sourish taste that are native to China, Russia,
and Mongolia. Seabuckthorn was used
in China for over twelve centuries where
it was first used for traditional Chinese
medicine strengthening stomach, blood
circulation and respiration.
Seabuckthorn is currently used in
juice, sports drinks, jellies, ice cream,
cosmetics and medicines.
S
Seabuckthon is rich in
macronutrients and micronutrients. Seabuckthorn contains
vitamins B1, B2, folic acid, C, E,
beta-carotene (provitamin A),
and K. It contains carotenoids,
flavonoids, phenols, terpenes
and at least 20 mineral cofactors.
Seabuckthorn also naturally contains 5-HT (serotonin), a neurotransmitter that helps regulate
emotions. Seabuckthorn numerous health benefits include cardiovascular, immunity, anticancer, memory,
growth, anti-inflammatory, and skin
health. Seabuckthorn is known as
nature’s most balanced fruit.
In addition to omega-7’s, seabuckthorn also provides a rich source of
powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
constituents
including
carotenoids (pro-vitamin A), mixed
tocopherols and tocotrienols (vitamin
E), phytosterols and beneficial omega 3,
6, and 9 fatty acids.
Together with omega-7 fatty acids,
these compounds deliver proven benefits
to gut mucosa while providing a wide
range of benefits to the cardiovascular,
immune, and integumentary system.
In numerous animal models, sea
buckthorn has been shown to prevent
and repair ulceration of the digestive
tract caused by common stressors like
noise, radiation, vibration, and acidic
environments. These impressive findings have prompted further research
examining this effect in humans.
In one clinical study involving 30
subjects diagnosed with peptic ulcer disease, sea buckthorn supplementation for
one month was deemed an effective
treatment for 96.7 percent of cases and
had a 76.6 percent cure rate. Its restorative effects on oral and vaginal mucosa
have also been studied in humans and
are equally impressive.
—NaturalHealthyChoices.weebly.com
Simple S OLAR OVEN Makes Salt Water Drinkable
purred on by his own extensive
travel and friends’ involvement
in NGOs, designer Gabriele
Diamanti developed a fascination with
global water scarcity as a graduate student at Milan Polytechnic in 2005; he
recently decided to pursue his interest
again and the result is Eliodomestico, an
open-source variation on a solar still.
Cooking with a solar oven is probably the greenest method of preparing
your food or water. It is also one of the
most easily accessible forms of solar
power.
A solar oven is a device that harnesses sunlight to create heat energy. It
doesn’t use any fuel, and it doesn’t cost
a thing to operate it. It can help slow
down the deforestation and desertification caused by harvesting natural
resources which are used in conventional fuel production.
There are many solar oven designs,
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but each of them uses the same basic
principles. They concentrate sunlight,
using mirrors or other types of reflective metal, into their designated cooking areas. The more concentrated the
light, the more potent the concentration
will be.
Diamanti’s design functions by
filling the black boiler with salty sea
water in the morning, then tightening
the cap. As the temperature and pressure grows, steam is forced downwards
through a connection pipe and collects
in the lid, which acts as a condenser,
turning the steam into fresh water.
Once Diamanti established the fundamentals were sound, he experimented
with a series of concepts for the aesthetic of the object. “My goal was to
design something friendly and recognizable for the users,” he explains.
“The process developed quite naturally
to determine the current shape; every
detail is there for a reason, so the form,
as well as production techniques, represent a compromise between technical
and traditional.”
While solar stills aren’t a totally
new concept, Diamanti says it’s rare to
find them in a domestic context rather
than in missions or hospitals, or as
large plants overseen by qualified personnel that serve entire communities.
“I tried to make something for a real
household that could be operated
directly by the families,” he says.
—PreventDisease.com
Earth Star Up Front
CoQ10 Improves Symptoms in War Veterans
new study found that a moderate dose of CoQ10 improved
symptoms of Gulf War illness
(such as word recall, fatigue, and irritability) in veterans. A larger dose did
not show this effect.
CoQ10 and its activated form,
ubiquinol, are now among the most popular supplements in the U.S. They may
A
be useful in treating or preventing a
range of conditions including congestive heart failure, migraine headache,
high blood pressure, and Parkinson’s
disease. CoQ10 and ubiquinol may also
reverse side-effects of “statin” drugs and
improve “vitality” —although the evidence is not conclusive.
—ConsumerLab.com
Buried Treasures Pulled from ‘Titanic of Ancient World’
ncient tableware, lead
anchors and a giant
bronze spear have been
recovered during an expedition to
the 2,000-year-old Antikythera
shipwreck in Greece.
The treasure-filled sunken
ship was first discovered more
than a century ago. Now, undersea
excavators who are revisiting the
wreck say it actually covers a
A
much bigger area than expected.
“The evidence shows this is the
largest ancient shipwreck ever discovered,” Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist from the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in
Massachusetts, said in a statement.
“It’s the Titanic of the ancient world.”
[In Photo: Mission to 2,000-Year-Old
Antikythera Shipwreck]
—LiveScience.com
The “Black Knight” Satellite is Transmitting Signals
uthors claim that there is a
connection between long
delayed echos and reports that
Nikola Tesla picked up a repeating
radio signal in 1899 which he believed
was coming from space. The satellite
explanation originated in 1954 when
newspapers including the St. Louis Post
Dispatch and the San Francisco
Examiner ran stories attributed to UFO
researcher Donald Keyhoe saying that
the US Air Force had reported that two
satellites orbiting the Earth had been
A
detected. At this time no man-made
satellites had been launched.
In February 1960 there was a further report that the US Navy had
detected a dark, tumbling object in an
orbit inclined at 79° from the equator
with an orbital period of 104.5 minutes.
Its orbit was also highly eccentric with
an apogee of 1,728 km (1,074 mi) and
a perigee of only 216 km (134 mi) At
the time the Navy was tracking a fragment of casing from the Discoverer
VIII satellite launch which had a very
similar orbit.
In 1973 the Scottish writer
Duncan Lunan analyzed the data
from the Norwegian radio
researchers, coming to the conclusion that they produced a star chart
pointing the way to Epsilon Boötis,
a double star in the constellation of
Boötes. Lunan’s hypothesis was that
these signals were being transmitted
from a 12,600 year old object located at one of Earth’s Lagrangian
points.
An object photographed in 1998
during the STS-88 mission has been
widely claimed to be this “alien
artefact”.
People analyzing these pictures
have claimed that it could be the Pakal
Spacecraft, a supposed Mayan spacecraft written about by Erich von
Daniken
Black Knight, also known as the
Black Knight satellite, is an alleged
object orbiting Earth in near-polar orbit
that ufologists and fringe authors
believe is approximately 13,000 years
old and of extraterrestrial origin.
—Before It’s News
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decemBER - january 2015
ard work and purposeful
action win the day on
December 1st when action
planet, Mars, sextiles
Saturn. Ambition is stimulated now, so act on business or career
options. Do work requiring physical stamina.
H
When Venus trines expansive Jupiter on the
4th, make time to consider the future, and to
review your hopes and wishes. Financial
enterprise, foreign investments, and travel
are particularly favored now.
Seek innovative ways of raising investment
capital or of financing a project when the sun
trines Uranus also on the 4th. A flash of pure
genius could facilitate progress towards a
goal or ambition now.
Mars enters Aquarius later on the 4th, for the
next six weeks, encouraging us to be more
organized and to clarify our goals. Pursuits
requiring teamwork are supported now.
December’s full moon culminates on the 6th,
in 15° Gemini. Some may be contemplating
a change of surroundings, while it could even
be forced upon others. Release whatever or
whoever no longer serves you now, particularly in regard to associations that may no
longer have relevance.
When the sun and Mercury align in conjunction in 17° Sagittarius on the 8th, you’ll be
more inclined to express your thoughts and
views. This is often a planetary transit that
coincides with important announcements. Be
on the lookout for business or educational
opportunities.
Jupiter stations Retrograde later on the 8th, at
22°38' Leo (till April 8th, 2015), a celestial
reminder that we will need to exercise greater
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EARTH STAR
tolerance of others' philosophies and methodologies during the next four months.
Consolidate recent gains or business progress.
While the truth “out there” may be harder to
get at, we would be best served now by seeking our own truths within.
Venus enters the serious, business-like realm of
Capricorn on the 10th, when business interests
may actually have greater appeal than pleasure
pursuits. A new source of investment or working capital could appear during this transit, or a
present source could dry up. Emotional insecurities could manifest as a desire to go out and
shop!
Steady progress can be made in business,
commerce, and legal affairs when Mercury
trines Jupiter on the 12th. However, be aware
of the future consequences of your actions
now. Get some physical and mental exercise
The sun and Jupiter align in a free flowing
trine on the 14th, an aspect that favors expanding one's outlook on life, and the pursuit of
educational goals. Plan a long-distance business trip, or vacation in search of spiritual
knowledge—a pilgrimage or quest, perhaps.
Spend time with friends, or participate in
uplifting group activities. Reflect on life.
Uranus squares Pluto precisely later on the
14th, presaging a period of radical change,
extreme behavior, political upheaval, and an
acceleration of geophysical turbulence around
the planet. Wild and exciting times indeed lay
ahead, with disruptions in daily life and routines becoming more commonplace.
Mercury enters Capricorn on the 16th (till
Jan 4, 2015), when thoughts become more
serious and turn toward business, career and
practical considerations. Ambition is further
fueled, while patience and discipline are
easier to come by.
Be alert to compulsive behavior when Venus
and Pluto align in conjunction on the 20th, in
13° Capricorn. For some, a new love interest
or fascination could develop, for others a
financial windfall is possible. This aspect is
favorable for corporate business interests and
joint financial concerns. Powerful energies
also exist for healing.
The red planet, Mars, sextiles Uranus later on
the 20th, a favorable planetary auspices
under which to initiate new activities or ventures. Progressive career opportunities may
present themselves, perhaps at a party or
social gathering. However, be discerning. A
good physical workout will help to reduce
any stress that may develop.
After five months in retrograde, Uranus, planet of innovation, stations Direct on the 21st, in
13° Aries. Ambition is powerfully kindled at
this time, and goal setting is favored, while the
spirit of innovation abounds. There is also
heightened potential for geophysical activity
and unstable weather for several days around
this potent planetary station.
The winter solstice arrives on the 21st. just
minutes after the Uranus station, as the sun
leaves outgoing Sagittarius and enters the
cool, calculating domain of Capricorn, where
the creative energies of the sun are constrained, disciplined and focused on achievement in this Saturn-ruled sign. Over the next
four weeks, try to get a handle on where
you’re going, career-wise, and focus on your
professional aspirations.
December’s new moon occurs later on the
21st, in 01° Capricorn. With this lunation
occurring at the winter solstice, much creative impetus exists for planning practical,
/www.earthstarmag.com
Down To Earth Astrology
ambitious new business ventures now, and in
the weeks ahead.
A significant shift in the force occurs on
December 23rd, when we will have our first
taste of Saturn in tropical Sagittarius since its
last visit, from 1985 - 1988. It will, however,
retrograde back into Scorpio from June 14 to
Sept 17, 2015, when it will finally leave
Scorpio for the sign of the Archer, where it
will remain till 2017. During the ringed planet’s transit here we will be presented with new
challenges to overcome, principally in
Sagittarius-ruled areas such as truth; freedom;
spirituality; higher education; long-distance
travel; and communication matters, including
control of the press, free speech, and Internet
neutrality. People will become more committed to their beliefs, and therefor more willing
to fight for what they feel is right. Indeed, the
truth shall set you free.
Mercury squares Uranus on the 24th, when
mechanical or systems failures are possible.
Therefore, be sure to back-up data files, or
get your vehicle checked out beforehand.
Postpone important decisions or signings for
a few days, as mental processes may tend to
be somewhat erratic. This is a great time to
brainstorm, though. Mercury is also conjunct
Pluto today, so be aware of all you say and
do...thoughts and words have much power!
Imagination can be truly inspired when the
sun sextiles Neptune on the 26th.
Experiment with telepathy or lucid dreaming; try going to bed with the firm knowledge that you will receive an answer to a particular question in your dreams.
Mars opposes Jupiter on New Year’s Day, signaling a time for caution, and to examine
material motives. Beware of biting off more
than you can chew, taking too much for granted, or rushing into new ventures without fully
assessing all the ramifications. The wise will
exercise moderation in all activities.
The Sun squares Uranus on the 3rd, which,
potentially, can be a real earth shaker! Flow
with any changes in circumstances beyond
your control, but this is not the time to rebel,
or initiate change based solely upon a desire
for greater personal freedom or independence. Nonetheless, creative inspiration
abounds now, so tap into it.
Venus enters Aquarius on the 3rd (till Jan
27), a time to be more sociable, and to connect with friends and colleagues.
Relationships can take an unconventional
twist. Seek financing for an innovative project. Pursue business, educational or creative
goals with renewed fervor.
When the sun conjuncts distant Pluto precisely
later on the 3rd, in 14°Capricorn, willpower
and assertiveness are greatly intensified.
Watch out for ego clashes, or attempts at coercion now. A glimpse of the darker side of life,
or of oneself, could be revealed.
Mercury moves on from Capricorn’s realm
of rules and tradition into revolutionary
Aquarius on the 4th (till Jan 27), a transit
especially favorable for creative writing,
conceiving progressive ideas, and for the
study of metaphysics, science, and astrology.
January’s full moon culminates later on the
4th, in 15° Cancer, suggesting that domestic
responsibilities may be pressing, while the
need to take care of business will also be
strong. Strike a healthy balance between
home and business or career needs.
Mars heads into dreamy Pisces for a sixweek sojourn on the 12th, when unconscious
desires are powerfully stimulated. Maintain
contact with reality now as strong emotional
turbulence and sensitivity could temporarily
undermine one’s self-confidence.
Mars squares Saturn on the 14th, when the
customary vim and vigor conferred by Mars
is inhibited by the constraining influence of
Saturn. Don’t push too hard now. Be sure to
get plenty of rest.
Self-discipline may be lacking when Venus
opposes Jupiter on the 19th. Beware of pursuing pleasures while duties go unfulfilled.
Safeguard your resources, as financial extravagance will be rampant now. In addition, Mars
is conjunct Neptune today, so subconscious
self-destructive impulses could emerge, giving
vent to suppressed anger or repressed escapist
tendencies. This is certainly not a good time to
make financial decisions!
The sun enters forward-looking Aquarius on
January 20th, a time to assess whether you’re
“up to speed” with the techniques or technologies that can keep you at or get you to
the head of the pack in your chosen field.
Consider your goals and ambitions over the
next four weeks. Are you on target? Align
with organizations, groups or friends who
share your objectives.
January’s new moon on the 20th, in 01° of
progressive Aquarius, will inspire bold new
objectives in some, while others may find that
they require a greater sense of freedom. As all
new moons are imbued with the energy and
attributes of Aries, new beginnings of one
form or another will likely be in the wind.
Mercury stations Retrograde on the 21st, in
18° Aquarius (till Feb 11) so plans or arrangements of any importance should be implemented prior to this period. However, while
Mercury is retrograde, you may safely make
revisions or otherwise go over previously covered territory for inconsistencies or errors.
Even with Mercury virtually motionless at
present, constructive progress can still be
made towards career goals, as the sun and
Saturn align in sextile on the 22nd. By being
both practical and creative you can achieve
tangible results now. If necessary, seek
advice from an elder or authority figure.
Venus enters Pisces on the 27th, when judgment in business or partnership matters may
be below par.. However, aesthetic sensitivity
is heightened and intuition is enhanced,
while creative inspiration abounds.
A momentous sextile (60° aspect) between
Mars and Pluto perfects on the 30th. When
the god of war and the lord of the underworld get together, highly unstable and
volatile conditions can typically exist for a
few days, and explosive events are possible.
However, as this is a generally harmonious
alignment, much potential exists to implement positive changes in one’s life around
this juncture. Nonetheless, issues concerning
power or willpower are likely to arise, so
avoid locking horns with anyone who will
surely defend their beliefs as fiercely as you
would your own. Constructive activities are
strongly favored under this potent planetary
influence. Improve efficiency wherever
possible.
Following is a general overview of how the
planetary trends for December/January
2015 apply to each sun sign. If you know
your rising sign (Ascendant), read that, too,
for additional insights.
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13
Aries
(March 20—April 19)
You’ll be in the mood to broaden your
horizons and, more particularly, boost your
career potential throughout this forecast period. Indeed,
given free rein, there’ll be no holding you back once you
get the bit between your teeth. An element of good
fortune, too, can help keep the cosmic wind at your back,
while doors to new opportunities might now open to you.
Connect with groups and individuals who share your goals
and interests, and be receptive to tips and advice from
those in a position to help you. Make adequate quiet time
for yourself during the early weeks of the new year, to
recharge your energies, and to review your plans and
objectives, to ensure that you’re still on course.
Taurus
(April 19—May 20)
Your ambition is growing by leaps and
bounds, and there could be some big changes
taking place during this forecast period. Renewal, in
preparation for new growth, is a prominent theme in
December, when at times you might feel like you’re on an
emotional roller coaster. Such can be the intensity and
implication of events that transpire now that you sense
there’ll be no turning back to the way things were. And
that will be just fine with you, as you’re strongly motivated to expand your horizons, and to enhance your prospects
for the future. Accept all opportunities to socialize over the
Holiday season and in the early weeks of 2015, as there
are new friends to be made now, with the potential to connect with like-minded people. For some there could even
be a soul mate connection just waiting to happen.
Gemini
(May 20—June 21)
You’ve been giving some serious thought
towards ways to enhance your career or
business prospects and to that end, a new
partnership or alliance might be the most direct way
forward. How convenient, then, that fate may likely
connect you with someone who can fast track you towards
a particular objective; your mission will be to recognize
them, and the opportunities they bear, when they show up.
This can be a time of great transformation and
metamorphosis, especially in your preconceived notions
about where your highest potential might lay, and how it
could be best expressed. While your interests are varied,
there may be one or two that you feel a special affinity for,
and it’s one of these that you’re now keen to investigate
further, one which could lead you in a very satisfying, and
gratifying, professional direction. toward an objective.
Cancer
(June 21—July22)
It may be possible to breathe new life into
a once successful career path that has
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EARTH STAR
remained somewhat dormant of late, but which might
once again shortly bear fruit. You become more keenly
aware of your health and nutritional needs, especially
after the likely excesses of the Holiday season,
recognizing that your physical energy levels might be
higher, and general fitness improved, as you look to
the future with renewed hope, and at the prospect of
becoming busier. The potential looks good for
financial gain, particularly during January, when a
little good fortune could go a long way towards
helping you to meet certain financial obligations.
Leo
(July 22—August 23)
You’re in your playful and fun loving
element during the Holiday season, which
is just as well, as friends and family will be vying for
your attention and participation in various activities;
and you’re only to happy to oblige. Your creative
energies are flowing rather well now, so be sure to
channel them into some form of self-expression;
writing, music, or singing might feel particularly
satisfying, for those inclined. For others, energetic
physical activities would be an ideal outlet. A more
disciplined health and fitness regime could be on
your New Year’s resolution list, which may please a
partner or significant other even more than you.
Virgo
(August 23—September 23)
Libra
(September 23—October 23)
Changes or improvements are afoot on the
home front as the Holidays approach, when
a spot of nest feathering might be on your agenda.
Some may be considering putting down firmer roots,
while others could be contemplating a move. There’s
a part of you that would secretly love to be having
more fun these days, and yet your obligations and
sense of duty keep you focused on what you really
need to be doing. Indeed, there certainly seems to be
enough work to keep you gainfully occupied for a
while, with the prospect of even more throughout
winter. A need for more security may become evident
on different levels, from the desire for a more stable
home environment, to a new and improved sense of
self worth.
You’re keen to leave your own indelible
imprint on the world, and on your chosen
field of endeavor, be it in the form of a novel, notion,
or new philosophy for getting more joy out of life that
you feel would benefit humanity. There is so much
that you want to express to the world at large, and yet
must devise the best method of delivery. Ever fleet of
thought, you decide to teach from experience, that is,
convey what you know, and in an entertaining and
efficient way. Be sure, however, to pace yourself in
your endeavors, to avoid undue physical or, indeed,
mental strain. You may have a long row to hoe, so plan
your activities wisely.
Scorpio
(October 23—November 22)
You’re beginning to get more serious about
stabilizing your finances, and find ever more
creative ways to add to your income. Some notions may
be truly inspired, while others a product of your deepest
thoughts. Indeed, you’ll have a bountiful supply of
bright ideas, some of which could help to bring about
new professional possibilities. Your domestic
environment could be a hive of activity, from home
improvements to worldly endeavors. Therefore, greater
effort may be required to maintain emotional
equilibrium to avoid conflict with family members.
With Saturn leaving your sign and moving into
Sagittarius around Christmas, you begin to feel a
lightening of the personal load you feel you’ve been
carrying these past few years.
Sagittarius
(November 21—December 21)
You feel more focused, more vibrant, and
ready to meet life’s challenges head on in
December, when new personal objectives may cross
your mind. You’re not short of creative ideas, that’s for
sure, and one or two of them you might eventually be
able to take to the bank. Speaking of bank, consider
opening a new savings account; it might help you to be
more conscientious about putting a portion of your
income to one side for that proverbial rainy day. With
Saturn entering your sign over Christmas, entering your
solar first house, you will become a lot more
conscientious about a good many things over the next
couple of years, and as a result will have become a
much more substantial individual.
Capricorn
(December 21—January 19)
You’re strongly motivated to move forward
with a personal project, one that may, however,
require the acquisition of additional funds or resources to
make it possible, and timing might also be an issue. You
may be looking to create your own “fortress of solitude”,
in which you can retreat from the world whenever you
want, to feel safe, secure and protected. The fulfillment of
a long held professional goal might also be on your
agenda. If so, your ruling planet, Saturn’s, entrance into
Sagittarius and your solar twelfth house over Christmas
will provide you with an able ally in your quest,
conferring the mental, emotional and spiritual discipline
you will need to remain focused on your objective.
Aquarius
(January 19—February 18)
You may have several bold, ambitious
plans or creative projects on the back
burner and are now keen to see them come to the
boil, and yet there are elements connected to them
that are beyond your immediate control. Meanwhile,
review your journey, the chain of events and
circumstances that have brought you to this point in
time; assimilate what you’ve learned from those
experiences into your awareness of where you are,
who you are, and what you hope to accomplish
moving forward. The benefits of this process will
shortly become apparent, when you get the green
light to proceed with a professional venture, and
feel all the better equipped to handle the new set of
challenges and responsibilities that will likely come
your way.
Pisces
(February 18—March 20)
You may feel like you’re approaching the
end of a steep learning curve in life,
during which you’ve been challenged to grow and
develop in ways you would have scarcely imagined
years ago. As a result, you feel more confident about
tackling a new and ambitious professional
opportunity that suddenly appears on your radar,
perhaps inspiring a bold new objective. Your hopes
and dreams for the future are still very much alive;
you’d also like to leave your enduring mark on the
world, but are not exactly sure what that might look
like. As you change, your values and priorities also
change, which can directly influence your goals. A
little soul searching might be called for now.
Tim Gunns is an astrological consultant,
conference coordinator and producer,
and formerly program director of the
Los Angeles Conscious Life Expo, and
the national Whole Life Expos.
Tim prepares personalized no-nonsense interpretations of Natal Horoscopes ($40), Future Forecast Transit
Reports ($75 for 1 full year), and Relationship Compatibility
Reports ($45). Shipping is free. Send: Name (as you'd like it to
appear on the chart), Date of Birth, Time (as close as possible),
Place of Birth (city/country, etc.) for each person, and your return
address, phone# and check to: Tim Gunns, c/o 110 Hilltop Drive,
Waynesville NC 28786. 828-452-7885. Consultations by
phone may also be scheduled. Payment can be made via Paypal
to [email protected] http://www.earthstarmag.com
EARTH STAR
15
R h y t h m Alchemy
By Martin Ivanov
Motion is the significance of life, and the law of motion is rhythm.
Rhythm is life disguised in motion, and in every guise it seems
to attract the attention of man: from a child, who is pleased with
the moving of a rattle and is soothed by the swing of its cradle,
to a grown person whose every game, sport and enjoyment has
rhythm disguised in it in some way or another
—H A Z R A T I N A Y A T K H A N 13
hat is rhythm? According to the
Encyclopaedia Columbia, rhythm
is the basic element in music. It is
connected with time, linked to the
duration of sounds and their
arrangement and emphasis, whether chaotic or organized, in straight and symmetric models. The western
European tact system and its notation began with the
formulation of rhythmic models at the end of the 17th
century.
The explanation of the word continues in the same
style. It is explained from a purely musical point of view,
ie., that rhythm is linked primarily with music. There is
no doubt that most of us accept rhythm with its musical
nuance, in the way in which it affects our mood or in the
way in which we react to it with our bodies. This fact
may sound strange and contradictory, since in the history
W
16
EARTH STAR
of the universe and humanity, rhythm has existed in all
forms long before the conscious creation and understanding of music.
What word did they use before the advent of music
to refer to and designate the cyclical nature and frequency
of events in ancient times? The etymology of the word
“rhythm” is rooted in some of the most ancient languages: ancient Greek (ritmos) and Latin (ritmus). It is
clear that in the distant past people did not have the same
understanding of rhythm, which we have created over
time. The word rhythm was equivalent to motion and
time, while for us today the words rhythm and time have
somewhat different meanings. While time is a phenomenon, which allows mankind to register the changes in
the environment and the universe, rhythm is more closely connected to music and the changes and frequencies
contained therein. Is it indeed possible to merge the
meaning of these two words?
Most contemporary scientific, esoteric and psychological literature views time not as a fact but rather a
concept or an idea. Even quantum physicists do not use
the word time. They refer to the space-time continuum.
Dr. Deepak Chopra in his book, Power, Freedom and
Grace writes:
Time is an illusion; it is an internal dialogue, which
we use to explain our sense or perception of change
and connection.
At the same time, in the same book and in many
other works, rhythm is treated as an absolute fact.
However, since it is also connected with time it should
also be unreal. Thus if we as human beings are structured in such a way as to accept the space time continuum in a certain way, then is the sequence of the seasons
a real phenomenon, are days and nights, high and low
tides, bird and fish migration real phenomena? What is
used to measure them? Who measures them? Only us as
humans?
Both the cosmic and the individual reason possess
conscious knowledge: ie., not only we, but the Sun,
Moon, Stars, Earth, Animals, Fish, Insects and Plants
think and possess awareness. If we as people have such
an illusory notion of time, how do the Sun, Moon and
stars influence with such great accuracy the world’s
oceans and create the rhythms of the high and low tides?
How does the Earth rotate at a specific speed to create a twenty-four-hour cycleof day and night we refer to
as the circadian rhythm? How does the mutually interdependent
rhythm of the Sun, Moon and Earth create the Lunar Rhythm, which represents a cycle of 28
days? How does the grunion fish make its way to a specific place (Newport Beach, California), exactly at midnight on a precise day of the year, creating the rhythm of
their migration? Is time really a fruit of our illusory
notions? Clearly since all the events in the lives of planets, animals and plants happen with such precision, they
must measure the rhythm of their lives using the expressive resources of time.
The clock—the main spokesperson of time—measures every second with perfect precision and gives form
to time with equally spaced ticking. If time did not exist,
rhythm would not exist or vice versa.
Excerpted with permission from Rhythm Alchemy, by Martin
Ivanov, published by Findhorn Press,
http://www.findhornpress.com
EARTH STAR
17
Winter Reading
A Book of Miracles
Inspiring True Stories of Healing,
Gratitude, and Love
By Dr. Bernie S. Siegel
Bernie Siegel first wrote about miracles when he
was a practicing surgeon and founded Exceptional
Cancer Patients, a groundbreaking synthesis of
group, individual, dream, and art therapy that provided patients with a “carefrontation.” Compiled
during his more than thirty years of practice,
speaking, and teaching, the stories in these pages
are riveting, warm, and belief expanding. Their subjects include a girl whose baby brother helped her
overcome anorexia, a woman whose cancer
helped her heal by teaching her to stand up for
herself, and a family that was saved from a burning house by bats. Without
diminishing the reality of pain and hardship, the stories show real people
turning crisis into blessing by responding to adversity in ways that
empower and heal. They demonstrate what we are capable of and show
us that we can achieve miracles as we confront life’s difficulties.
New World Library. Paperback, $14.95.
Healing Crystals (2nd edition)
The A - Z Guide to 555 Gemstones
By Michael Gienger
This 2nd updated edition is based on new findings in mineralogy and new experiences and
research results in the field of gem therapy,
including information for an additional 125 crystals not present in the 1st edition, some of which
that have been discovered in recent years. With
Healing Crystals, Michael Gienger presents a
comprehensive directory of all the gemstones
currently in use in crystal healing. Clear, concise
and precise in style, with photographs of each of
the crystals accompanying the text, he describes the characteristics and
healing functions of each crystal. All the important information about 555
healing gemstones in a neat pocket-book! Though it may appear small, it
encompasses the contents of a whole encyclopedia.
Findhorn Press. Paperback, $9.95.
The Real Brass Ring
By Dianne Bischoff James
The Real Brass Ring takes The Secret on a
high-speed road test in a tale of midlife transformation in the real, flesh-and-blood world of
contemporary Chicago. It is the story of a
“midlife reboot,” a raw, unfiltered journey of
enlightenment that illustrates a woman’s
daunting personal reinvention and the rewards
of fearlessly pursuing a life’s true calling. After
a jolting encounter with internationally known
psychic and author Sonia Choquette, Dianne
Bischoff James is forced to face the truth
about her life.
Turning Stone Press. Paperback, $19.95.
18
EARTH STAR
Akashic Alphabet
By Trenace Rose
Within the akasha, the space between matter,
lies a treasure trove of memories known as the
akashic records, containing a history of the
infinite, stored from the origins of time. The
wisdom from this resonating, energetic heart,
whose fabric connects all humanity, life-forms
and elements, is accessible to all with pure
intention, through meditation. Akashic
Alphabet is received from the akashic records, housed within the
space of the collective mind, the cosmic container of all that is and
ever has been. This thought-provoking series of vision narratives coupled with acutely sensitive Illustrations painted by a Master Artist,
conveys diverse cultural and spiritual philosophies from around the
world, revealing a graceful connection of Oneness in all.
Dementi Milestone Publishing. Hardcover, $38.95.
The Psychic & Spiritual
Awareness Manual
A guide to DIY enlightenment
By Kevin West
Aimed at people who wish to develop their psychic
and spiritual awareness in a very practical way, each
chapter deals with a separate aspect of development and also acts as a diagnostic empowering
tool. It is based around the Spiritualist and New Age
approach to full realisation, and filled with helpful
exercises and hands-on techniques designed to
empower the reader. Chapters include healing,
meditation, psychic awareness, clairvoyance, psychometry, scrying,
colours, auras and their energies, and much more.
6th Books. Paperback, $14.95.
The DNA Field and the
Law of Resonance
Creating Reality through
Conscious Thought
By Pierre Franckh
Taking the law of attraction to an entirely new
level, Pierre Franckh reveals how human DNA
has a direct effect on the physical world around
us--an effect we can consciously focus to manifest our desires. Sharing groundbreaking
experiments on the influence of DNA on photons and on the interactions between emotions
and DNA, Franckh explains how our thoughts,
emotions, and beliefs, whether positive or negative, build a field of resonance around us. Through this quantum field, our DNA is continuously communicating our unique vibration to those around us, and
receiving their unique oscillations in return. By focusing our intentions
and removing negativity from our beliefs about ourselves, our past, and
our future, we can use our DNA to communicate our thoughts and
desires to the universe. Through focused thoughts and intentions we
draw the same resonant energy to us, thus bringing our intentions and
desires into manifestation.
Destiny Books. Paperback, $16.95.
Winter Reading
Strange Electromagnetic
Dimensions
The Science of the Unexplainable
By Louis Proud
We live in an environment permeated by both natural and artificial sources of electromagnetic energy, while we ourselves are electromagnetic
beings. As we continue to pollute and thereby
alter our electromagnetic environment, we are
also altering ourselves. In particular, these
changes infringe on the psychic side of our being.
This exciting and controversial new title shows
how all things, from the mundane to the mysterious, are tied together by
a vast—and largely invisible—electromagnetic web. It examines ESP, poltergeist disturbances, psychokinesis, electric people, UFOs, and other
paranormal phenomena from an electromagnetic perspective. It also
reveals how the artificial, alien energies we’ve been introducing into our
environment shape the way we experience the paranormal.
New Page Books. Paperback, $16.99.
New Slow City
Living Simply in the World’s Fastest City
By William Powers
Burned-out after years of doing development work
around the world, William Powers spent a season in
a 12-foot-by-12-foot cabin off the grid in North
Carolina, as recounted in his award-winning memoir
Twelve by Twelve. Could he live a similarly minimalist
life in the heart of New York City? To find out, Powers
and his wife jettisoned 80 percent of their stuff, left
their 2,000-square-foot Queens townhouse, and
moved into a 350-square-foot “micro-apartment” in
Greenwich Village. Powers explores the viability of
Slow Food and Slow Money, technology fasts and urban sanctuaries.
Discovering a colorful cast of New Yorkers attempting to resist the culture
of Total Work, Powers offers an inspiring exploration for anyone trying to
make urban life more people- and planet-friendly.
Your Hidden Riches
Unleashing the Power of Ritual to
Create a Life of Meaning and Purpose
By Janet Bray Attwood, Chris Attwood
and Sylva Dvorak, Ph.D
Passion Test comes a book that will teach readers to harness the power of ritual to unlock their
unique gifts and create a life of love, wealth, and
happiness. Rituals are the common feature of
every ancient culture on Earth. Yet, modern society has lost touch with the power and value of
ritual to create a rhythm for daily life, balance,
and a connection with others. In the process,
many of us have lost touch with ourselves. Your Hidden Riches is a call
to reignite the power of personal and community rituals--to sustain us
in the midst of an ever-increasing onslaught of information and expectations, and to sustain our world by reawakening the awareness of our
interconnection with all life.
Harmony Books. Hardcover, $25.00.
Of Course!
How Many Light Bulbs Does It Take to Change?
By Ian Patrick
In Of Course!, Ian Patrick discusses some of the toughest challenges known to students of A Course in
Miracles: facing the deaths of loved ones; letting go of
long-held grievances; trying to comprehend Nelson
Mandela meeting the Spice Girls; and much more. In
this new edition, O-Books presents the best of Ian’s
insights and personal reflections in one volume, selected from over 100 editions of the UK’s highly respected
Course periodical, Miracle Worker. From the lighthearted to the profound,
these short essays reveal the down-to-earth illumination of a dedicated
Course student who "remembers to laugh" at the ego - and who understands the everyday joys and difficulties of working miracles.
O-Books. Paperback, $18.95.
The Immortal Mind
Science and the Continuity of
Consciousness beyond the Brain
By Ervin Laszlo
with Anthony Peake
Based on a new scientific paradigm in sync with
experience-based spirituality, Ervin Laszlo and
Anthony Peake explore how consciousness is continually present in the cosmos and can exist without
connection to a living organism. They examine the
rapidly growing body of scientific evidence supporting the continuity of consciousness, including neardeath experiences, after-death communication, reincarnation, and neurosensory information received in
altered states. They explain how the persistence of consciousness beyond
the demise of the body means that, in essence, we are not mortal—....we
continue to exist even when our physical existence has come to an end.
This correlates precisely with cutting-edge physics, which posits that
things in our plane of time and space are not intrinsically real but are manifestations of a hidden dimension where they exist in the form of superstrings, information fields, and energy matrices.
Inner Traditions. Paperback, $16.95.
The Case of the
Disappearing Cancer
And other stories of illness and healing,
life and death
By Louis Heyse-Moore
Everyone has experienced some suffering in their
life, often through illness, and, of course, everyone
wants to heal. This is a book about healing based on
Louis Heyse-Moore’s forty years of experience as a
doctor, counsellor and a Somatic Experiencing trauma therapist. The author believes healing is much
more than just physical cure. Over the many years
that he has worked with ill people, it has become obvious to him that their
body, mind and spirit are all affected when they are sick. Many doctors are
excellent at treating and curing physical illnesses but may miss the other
aspects of healing. The Case of the Disappearing Cancer attempts to
redress the balance.
AYNI Books. Paperback, $24.95.
EARTH STAR
19
Walking Home
Pilgrimage from Humbled to Healed
By Sonia Choquette
Life was falling apart. Within the space of three years,
Sonia Choquette had suffered the unexpected death
of two close family members, seen her marriage
implode, and been let down by trusted colleagues.
And sympathy was not forthcoming. “You’re a worldrenowned spiritual teacher and intuitive guide,” people jeered. “How could you not have seen this coming?” Having intuitive abilities didn’t make her superhuman, however. Nor did it exempt her from being
wounded or suffering the pain of loss and the consequences of our all-toohuman traits such as anger, resentment, and pride-traits that can lead even
the best of us to stray from our spiritual path. In order to regain her spiritual footing, Sonia turned to the age-old practice of pilgrimage and set out to
walk the legendary Camino de Santiago, an 820-kilometer trek over the
Pyrenees and across northern Spain. Day after day she pushed through
hunger, exhaustion, and pain to reach her destination. Eventually, mortification of the flesh gave way to spiritual renewal, and she rediscovered the
gifts of humility and forgiveness that she needed to repair her world.
Hay House. Hardcover, $26.95.
Death, the Last God
A Modern Book of the Dead
By Anne Geraghty
Anne Geraghty was a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist when her son, Tim Guest, author of My
Life in Orange died suddenly. Her old life ended. She
went on a search for her lost son. Where was he?
Did he live on in some other realm? Or had he fallen
into the darkness of oblivion? Her search for Tim
became an exploration into the nature of death itself.
We die as we have lived. Our lives are not like those
of a C12th Tibetan, a C15th Cardinal or a Zen monk;
we cannot, therefore, simply turn to old maps and myths of what happens when we die. We need a new narrative of death that embraces our
modern understandings of our humanity and the workings of the universe. This book is an investigation into death in our modern world, and
an exploration of our struggles to live well in the ever-present shadow of
death, which offers fresh and original ideas about death and dying.
The Alchemy of Self Healing
A Revolutionary 30-Day Plan to Change
How You Relate to Your Body and Health
By Jeannine Wiest
We have more power to heal ourselves than we
have been led to believe. Your body is “Instant
Messaging” you all the time. These messages contain a unique cellular treasure waiting to be
accessed. The discovery that your body (not your
mind) is listening to you will transform your life. Your
mind runs old programs, “defaults” to all that is
familiar in your life, even when what’s familiar is pain. The Alchemy of
Self Healing will show you how to tap into your body wisdom that
craves health and joy. Take the Alchemy Quiz, follow the exercises, read
the essays. At the end of 30 days, when you retake the quiz, you’ll discover you have new resources and tools at your fingertips.
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EARTH STAR
Rebel Angels in Exile
Pleiadians, Watchers, and the Spiritual
Quickening of Humanity
By Timothy Wyllie
After the angelic rebellion 203,000 years ago, Earth
and 36 other planets were quarantined from the
larger Multiverse. Despite aligning with Lucifer and
the rebel angels, Georgia—an angel of Seraphic status—was permitted to remain on Earth and continue her role as a Watcher. In this book, Georgia, writing together with Timothy Wyllie, shares her personal account of half a million years on this planet.
Focusing this volume 38,000 years after the angelic
rebellion, Georgia shares her experiences being present for key decisions
taken by the rebel angel leadership, witnessing firsthand Earth’s steady
descent into darkness, ignorance, and confusion. She explores the
supreme significance of the Earth as a world on which the rebel angels
have been accorded the privilege of mortal incarnation and as an arena
for accelerating spiritual growth.
Bear & Company. Paperback, $20.00.
Rewilding Our Hearts
Building Pathways of Compassion
and Coexistence
By Marc Bekoff
In wildlife conservation, rewilding refers to
restoring habitats and creating corridors
between preserved lands to allow declining populations to rebound. Marc Bekoff, one of the
world’s leading animal experts and activists, here
applies rewilding to human attitudes. Rewilding
Our Hearts invites readers to do the essential
work of becoming reenchanted with the world,
acting from the inside out, and dissolving false
boundaries to truly connect with both nature and themselves.
Voices of the Sacred Feminine
Conversations to Re-Shape Our World
Edited by Rev. Dr. Karen Tate
Most of us have come to realize patriarchy—rule by
a male-dominated society revering solely a male
God—is not working for Mother Earth or most of
the people on the planet. How do we counter
beliefs that there is no option but the authoritarian
father? How does society go about making a
course correction? How do ideas that permeate
every level of society from womb to tomb, boardroom to bedroom, voting booth to the workplace
shift into a more fair, equal, and just world of partnership, sharing, caring and peace? Those are exactly the questions
discussed on the long-running radio show, Voices of the Sacred
Feminine, hosted by Rev. Dr. Karen Tate, dedicated to the Sacred
Feminine as deity, archetype and ideal. If we can imagine it, vision it, and
restore ancient truths then we can manifest it! Here are solutions from
these visionaries, scholars, wayshowers, foremothers and activists—
women and men— dedicated to reshaping our world.
Changemakers Books. Paperback, $24.95
The Science and Practice
of Humility
The Path to Ultimate Freedom
By Jason Gregory
Foreword by Daniel Reid
From Krishna and Lao-tzu to Buddha and Jesus,
each enlightened master discovered how being
receptive to all experience was the key to
becoming one with the universe and its spontaneous patterns of order and chaos. Revealing
humility as the purest expression of this receptivity, Jason Gregory integrates classic teachings
of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and
Hermeticism with principles from quantum physics to explain the science of humility as practiced by the ancient masters.
Inner Traditions. Paperback, $16.95.
Depression
Understanding the Black Dog
By Stephanie Sorrell
Having suffered from major depression for much
of her life, Stephanie Sorrell has learned to work
with the disease rather than against it. Where so
many mental-health books feature ‘fighting and
overcoming‘ depression, her experience and
understanding have enabled her to see the
value of the condition rather than what it can
take away. In this easy-to-read introduction to
depression, Stephanie shows the various ways
in which it manifests, what is available on a natural as well as chemical level and how the diversity of psychological
therapies serve and hold depression. There is also a spiritual thread
running throughout which invites the reader to go further.
Psyche Books. Paperback, $11.95.
DMT and the Soul of Prophecy
A New Science of Spiritual Revelation
in the Hebrew Bible
By Rick Strassman, M.D.
After completing his groundbreaking research
chronicled in DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Rick
Strassman was left with one fundamental
question: What does it mean that DMT, a simple chemical naturally found in all of our bodies, instantaneously opens us to an interactive
spirit world that feels more real than our own
world? Examining medieval commentaries on
the Hebrew Bible, Strassman reveals how
Jewish metaphysics provides a top-down
model for both the prophetic and DMT states, a model he calls
“theoneurology.” Theoneurology bridges biology and spirituality by
proposing that the Divine communicates with us using the brain, and
DMT--whether naturally produced or ingested--is a critical factor in
such visionary experience. This model provides a counterpoint to
“neurotheology,” which proposes that altered brain function simply
generates the impression of a Divine-human encounter.
The Light: A Book of Wisdom
How to Lead an Enlightened Life Filled with
Love, Joy, Truth, and Beauty
By Keidi Keating
This powerful book contains chapters by 22 of
the world’s leading luminaries in the field of personal development and spiritual transformation,
including bestselling authors Neale Donald
Walsch (Conversations With God) and Don
Miguel Ruiz (The Four Agreements). Covering
topics from co-creating a peaceful world, forgiveness, healing, and finding purpose and
happiness, to chapters about health, well-being,
destiny, and the mysteries of kundalini, The Light also includes practical exercises and guidance, empowering readers to achieve their
greatest potential.
Metrophage
A Novel
By Richard Kadrey
The cult-classic dystopian cyberpunk tale
from New York Times bestselling author
Richard Kadrey, after twenty years, now back
in print in a special signed, collectible edition.
Welcome to our future: L.A. in the late twentyfirst century—a segregated city of haves and
have-nots, where morality is dead and technology rules. Here, a small wealthy group
secludes themselves in gilded cages. Beyond
their high-security compounds, far from their
pretty comforts, lies a lawless wasteland
where the angry masses battle hunger, rampant disease, and their own
despair in order to survive. Jonny was born into this Hobbesian paradise.
A streetwise hustler who deals drugs on the black market—narcotics
that heal the body and cool the mind—he looks out for nobody but himself. Until a terrifying plague sweeps through L.A., wreaking death and
panic, and no one, not even a clever operator like Jonny, is safe.
Harper Voyager. Paperback, $14.99.
Vibrant Emeritus
The Elder in the Twenty-First Century
By Richard Stuecker
Enter the second half of your life journey
with vibrancy, generativity, creativity and
blessing! One’s second half of life can be an
amazing adventure of abundance, generativity, and deepening spirituality. Vibrant
Emeritus: The Elder in the Twenty-First
Century offers a path. that embraces a view
of life that counters the belief that one’s
"second journey" is one of dissipation and
disappointment, focusing on the transitions
men and women make in the “Second
Journey” they make in their lives after 50.
Park Street Press. Paperback, $19.95.
EARTH STAR
21
Discover the Benefits of K - L a s e r
Class 4 L a s e r T h e r a p y Treatments
By Dr. Joseph Mercola
aser therapy is still a fairly unknown 21st
century treatment modality that can have
profound benefits for pain management
and tissue healing. Dr. Phil Harrington
was a high school physics teacher and
was trained at Palmer College of Chiropractic as a chiropractic physician.
He ran a chiropractic office in a small town in Iowa
for 10 years prior to becoming the first employee of KLaser USA1 —a company that manufactures high-grade
medical laser equipment.
There are a number of companies that manufacture
lasers for tissue healing but K-Laser is currently the
leading manufacturer of these types of lasers.
L
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EARTH STAR
What You Need to Know About Lasers
Lasers are classified according to their power output:
• Class 3a—maximum of 5 milliwatts of power (standard laser pointer)
• Class 3b—maximum of 500 milliwatts/0.5 watts
• Class 4—anything over 500 milliwatts/0.5 watts
The most significant issue with the clinical use of
lasers is the depth of penetration. Some practitioners
make the mistake of using low-power Class 3 lasers,
which basically amounts to a standard laser pointer.
Most class 3a lasers only use a red wavelength – 635
nanometers in the visible red. When you look at the
depth of penetration with laser, red laser light only penetrates about one to two millimeters (far less than 1/8
inch) into the human body.
Granted, red laser is highly useful for treating superficial wounds, cuts, abrasions, and perhaps even for the
treatment of vitiligo, but they will not penetrate far
enough for deep seated pain reduction. However,
infrared lasers (around 800 nanometers) penetrate far
deeper and able to go several centimeters, into your
body which will reach most tissue injuries.
Power is also another crucial factor when it comes to
laser therapy. Power is measured in watts, and you can
think of it as the brightness of the light. A higher-powered laser is a brighter light, and it can produce more
energy per unit of time. When it comes to doing laser
therapy treatment, a higher-powered laser (Class 4) provides two benefits:
• A therapeutic dose of laser light can be applied to a
much larger volume of tissue
• By shining that brighter light at the surface, photons
of light are able to penetrate deeper into the tissues,
which allows you to treat deep-seated pain conditions
Health Benefits of K-Laser
Class 4 Laser Therapy
Basically, three things happen during K-Laser treatment.
First, infrared laser therapy treatment helps reduce pain,
reduce inflammation, and enhance tissue healing—both
in hard and soft tissues, including muscles, ligaments, or
even bones.
“When we look at the basic mechanism of how it
works, we are enhancing the microcirculation. We are
getting more red blood cells flowing to the area,” Dr.
Harrington explains.
“But it’s not just the arterial blood supply to the
area; we are enhancing the venous and the lymphatic
return from the area. We’re also increasing oxygenation
of those tissues. We are stimulating the hemoglobin molecule to dump off oxygen at the treatment site, so we are
increasing the oxygenation of those tissues.”
Finally, the treatment stimulates the cytochrome
oxidase enzyme in the cells’ mitochondria. This is really one of the key discoveries in the whole science of
laser therapy. Specifically, injured cells are targeted
because damaged cells are more readily accepting of
photons of light, whereas healthy cells don’t need this
extra energy.
“By stimulating the cytochrome oxidase enzyme, we
are utilizing that oxygen in the respiratory chain inside
of the mitochondria, producing more ATP for that cell.
So regardless of what kind of cell it is, it’s going to function at a higher level. Now, we are not turbocharging.
We’re not making your body do anything that it could
not normally do. We’re just facilitating the process. We
are helping those cells produce the energy that they normally would, so they can function as they normally
should,” he explains.
Now, lasers are also used in other areas of medicine,
specifically in surgical interventions where they’re used
for cutting, removing tattoos, and a lot of other dermatological applications. But the class 4 K-Laser does not
do that. The K-Laser can produce up to 15 watts, and the
laser light is allowed to diffuse to a spot size about that
of a quarter, whereas ablative lasers, the ones used for
23
surgical cutting, are closer to 100 watts, and the laser
light is focused to a tiny spot size.
“The interaction that we’re getting in the body with
the K-Laser is called a photochemical reaction,” Dr.
Harrington explains. “By shining that light on a tissue,
we are getting that ATP energy produced, whereas your
surgical lasers, hair removal lasers, or tattoo removal
lasers, are designed to cut or ablate the tissues. They
have a very, very high-powered density, a very high concentration on that laser.”
The infrared wavelengths used in the K-Laser allow
for targeting specific areas of the body. The K-Laser is
unique in that it is the only Class 4 therapy laser that utilizes these three infrared wavelengths, allowing for deep
penetration into the body to reach areas such as your
spine and hip (the K-Laser also has a 100-milliwatt,
660-nanometer visible red which, again, is excellent for
superficial wounds):
• 800 nanometers penetrates the deepest, and is at a
peak of absorption for the cytochrome oxidase enzyme
• 905 nanometers most efficiently targets the hemoglobin molecule
• 970 nanometers most efficiently stimulates microcirculation in the tissues
surgery and virtually has no side effects, unlike surgery.
Class 4 laser therapy can be effectively combined with a
number of other treatment modalities, including various
soft tissue mobilization techniques. Ideally, your doctor
would do the K-Laser treatment before they do those
soft tissue techniques.
“Another technique or modality that it’s used
together with [laser therapy] is spinal decompression.
When a person has a bulging or a herniated disc, by
running the laser on the lower back, we are reducing the
inflammation internally; we are reducing the cytokines
(the tissue irritants in the body), and we are helping to
stimulate the blood flow in the area to help that decompression treatment help to heal up that damaged disc,”
Dr. Harrington says. “Another interesting area—this is
one that we’re just at the forefront of—is both human
and animal practitioners are using the laser together
with either the platelet-rich plasma injections or with
stem cell therapy. We’re just at the beginning of discovering the benefits of those things together.”
Examples of the types of injuries that this kind of
laser therapy can be helpful for include:
• Acute injuries, such as strains, sprains, and shoulder
injuries
• Repetitive-use injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome
• Traumatic injuries, such as post-motor vehicle accident with cervical strain/sprain
• Chronic issues such as frozen shoulder and arthritis
To me, at this point in time, it would almost be med-
Try Infrared Laser Therapy BEFORE You
Consider Surgery For Many Acute Injuries
You can have the best diet and exercise program in the
world, but as most of us are painfully aware, it doesn’t
take much to develop an injury from an accident that
you were not responsible for. Many times surgery will
be recommended to repair or replace joints. There are
certainly many times when surgery is appropriate and
needs to be performed and we should be VERY grateful
we have access to this tool, but more often than not it is
inappropriately recommended because of lack of awareness of other effective options, including the healing
power of lasers.
The laser is typically a tiny fraction of the cost of
24
EARTH STAR
ical negligence bordering on medical malpractice not to
try laser treatment before prescribing drugs or surgery.
We know Vioxx killed 60,000 people, and that was just
an anti-inflammatory, which doesn’t in any way, shape,
or form treat the cause of the problem. It was just a
symptomatic Band Aid that killed 60,000 people.
Similarly, the effects of surgery are typically irreversible, for better or worse.
“The Class 4 K-Laser treatments are amazing. They
are so effective at treating a wide variety of conditions,
whether it is soft-tissue injuries, acute injuries, or nerve
damage,” Dr. Harrington says. “For example, we have a
gentleman from the Twin Cities who was so successful at
treating diabetic neuropathy that he has franchised a
chain of treatment centers where the only condition they
treat is diabetic neuropathy, and the K-Laser is a keystone in their treatment plan. K-Laser treatments virtually have no side effects.
When we talk a little bit about how the laser works,
one effect that we’re getting is vasodilation of the tissues
and also a lot of release of the tissue irritants in the
area. If we’re treating a patient that has a lot of myofascial trigger points, a lot of metabolic waste products,
and we give them a K-Laser treatment, a couple of hours
afterwards they might be a little bit sore. It’s absolutely
not any tissue damage going on; it’s because we’re
causing the release of all of those metabolic waste products that were locked up in the muscle... Just [drink] a
little bit of extra water to help flush that out.”
heating for temporary relief of muscle spasms and joint
stiffness. Even so, the vast majority of people seeking
laser therapy do present pain as a symptom. It’s just that
the laser actually has beneficial effects over and beyond
what the FDA recognizes.
While there are a couple of over-the-counter lasers
available, they are very low in power and will not be able
to provide deep-seated pain relief. The K-Laser and
other higher-powered lasers are prescription medical
devices cleared for sale to and use by trained health professionals only.
“As far as training someone in using the machine,
we give them all of the scientific information in what we
call online modules, where they watch laser therapy science, physiology, and safety, after which they take a certification exam. We also supply different training materials whether it’s booklets, DVDs, or webinars,” Dr.
Harrington says.
The training modules take about three hours to complete. Anyone who buys a K-Laser unit gets onsite training by K-Laser USA, which is typically a four-hour
training session, reviewing the proper use of the
machine and how to treat different conditions.
Before Drugs and Surgery, Consider
Giving Laser Therapy a Try...
I have successfully treated a large number of friends and
professional associates with the K-Laser and have been
very impressed. For example, the person who helps me
with my organic landscaping. I noticed he was walking
with a limp and I thought it was a result of a tree we just
had planted. It turns out it was related to chronic crippling pain he had in his ankle for over ten years. He had
merely endured this terrible pain for over a decade. I
gave him one three minute treatment and it was virtually
removed. He had a slight recurrence several weeks later
and I gave him another one and he has been pain free for
months.
A typical treatment session can take anywhere from
five to twenty minutes, dependent on your injury or condition.
FDA Clearance of K-Laser
All therapy lasers are FDA-cleared medical devices,
including the K-Laser. Interestingly, the FDA does not
recognize the biostimulatory effects of laser therapy.
They see it simply as an infrared-heating device. So if
you were to look up the FDA clearance for the K-Laser,
you’d find it described as an infrared lamp for topical
25
“Your shortest treatments could be some of the jaw
issues, something fairly superficial, or treating a fairly
small area. That would be three to three and a half minutes. And then on the other side of the spectrum, if we
are doing either a disc herniation or a diabetic neuropathy, where we’re wanting to treat the lower back
and all the way down the leg, that could be 12, 15, to 20
minutes of treatment time,” Dr. Harrington says.
In terms of how many treatments will be required
before the actual condition is resolved or the pain relief
is really achieved, this can vary widely, depending on
your condition. Typically, pain relief will be achieved
long before the condition itself is healed, so it’s important to remember that the absence of pain does not equal
the presence of health. According to Dr. Harrington, the
vast majority of conditions require six to 12 treatments
over a two- to four-week period of time. As for cost, the
nationwide range varies from $25 to $150 dollars, but
most practitioners will charge around $40-65 per treatment.
“When you look at a pain condition that you’ve
been suffering from for years, and you can get it
resolved with just a few hundred dollars’ worth of KLaser treatments, that’s well worth it,” Dr. Harrington
says.
26
EARTH STAR
Humans aren’t the only ones that can benefit from
laser therapy. Veterinarians are able to use medical
devices as they see fit, and some veterinarians, especially holistic vets like Dr. Karen Becker, swear by laser
therapy.
“Yes, it’s going to work for any of the arthritic conditions—hip dysplasia, intervertebral disc disease in
dachshunds, for example. Looking at the little dachshund (where the pet owner had brought him in, planning
to put him down because his back legs were useless) get
a few K-Laser treatments, and the little dog is up and
running around again. Some of those stories are really
heartwarming,” Dr. Harrington says.
The K-Laser website2 (K-LaserUSA.com) lists
trained K-Laser Providers—both human medical and
veterinary medical providers. I was so impressed with
the healing potential of the K-Laser that I obtained one
for my personal use. I realize how fragile our bodies are
and how easily they can become injured, and I simply
did not want to not have access to this marvelous healing tool. I also thoroughly enjoy helping my friends and
family eliminate pain from injuries they encounter.
Dr. Mercola is the founder of the
world’s most visited natural
health
web
site,
http://www.Mercola.com. You
can learn the hazardous side
effects of OTC Remedies by getting a FREE copy of his latest
special report The Dangers of
Over the Counter Remedies by
going to his Report Page.
The following is an excerpt from Walking Home, A Pilgrimage from Humbled to Healed by Sonia Choquette. It is
published by Hay House (Sept 2014) and is available at all bookstores and online at http://www.hayhouse.com
W alking Home
Da y 25
R a banal to Ponf er r ada (32 km)
By Sonia Choquette
woke up early this morning, ready to begin the
long ascent up to Cruz Ferro. I knew it was
going to be a long, rigorous walk today so I
layered up and stuffed two of my last now six
remaining power bars into Pilgrim, just to be
prepared for what lay ahead. I then packed up Cheater
and headed down to the first floor. I managed to get
Cheater down to the second floor when an Argentinean
biker saw me struggling, so took him from me and
carried him down. It was a good start to the day.
After a quick breakfast of coffee and toast and a
glass of fresh orange juice, I asked for a stamp for my
passport and went back up to my room to grab my poles,
Gumby, and Pilgrim. I then pulled on my wool cap, my
gloves, pulled my headscarf over my ears, and stepped
out into a stiff, frigid wind under dark cold skies. I was
ready to go.
I
Holy Mother God,
Please let me release all my burdens at the top. Even the
ones I still want to hold on to.
Amen and thank you in advance.
The steep walk challenged my knee from the first
step, but I just kept going. As I climbed, one slow step at
a time, I reflected once again on just exactly what was
burdening me, as I really wanted to be sure I didn’t forget something. I had come too far on this pilgrimage to
miss the opportunity before me.
The top notes of my thoughts cited the usual complaints: too much work, responsibility for what is not
mine, years of what I felt were unfair experiences, not
feeling loved and appreciated as I had wanted to be. It
was nothing new.
Yet, the more I walked, the more apparent it became
EARTH STAR
27
to me that while those were things that made me unhappy,
they were not at the root of what burdened me.
What burdened me most has been my own fear and
anger, even rage over these things and more. I’ve been
burdened by not trusting others to be good to me. I have
been burdened by the belief that I could trust only
myself to be responsible and then made choices to support that belief. I’d been burdened by the false belief that
I had to work and never stop because I was taught that
working hard is what love looks like. I was burdened by
the belief that I had no right to the full range of my feelings or to healthy boundaries. I was burdened with
resentment and bitterness over things past. These were
the real burdens in my life and what I wanted to unload
from my heart. It wasn’t what had happened, or who
made it happen that burdened me. It was my own emotional confusion and lack of forgiveness toward all that
pained me that weighed so heavily on my heart and kept
me from being happy and peaceful today.
The climb was intense and I was shocked at how
cold it was outside. But I didn’t mind. After a few hours
I came across a small café and decided to stop and warm
up. My fingers were freezing and I was getting very
hungry, my breakfast longed ago burned off.
When I stepped inside I was surprised to see so
many familiar pilgrims standing around a roaring fire in
the fireplace in the middle of a large room. Clint and
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EARTH STAR
Dean were there. So were Hans and Peter, and Linda. I
also saw Victoria from last night but I didn’t see her son,
Eric anywhere. I asked about him and she rolled her
eyes.
“I left him behind this morning,” she said. “I had to.
We have been fighting since we started the Camino. In
fact, I think that is what I am here to unburden myself
from today. His control and neediness are strangling me.
I needed to get away, so I told him I would meet him in
Santiago if he makes it.”
I applauded her decision and wished her a “Buen
Camino” as she stepped past me and out into the cold
once again. I looked around before I sat down. It was an
old hippie establishment, complete with peace signs,
incense, tons of Camino t-shirts and memorabilia for
sale, all of which I wanted. But I knew that I couldn’t
take this experience with me, so I didn’t buy any of it.
Then my eye caught a small deck of cards called The
Way, made up of insights from previous pilgrims who
had walked to Santiago, offering advice from the
Camino for the journey through life. I pulled a card from
the deck. It said, “Don’t fear the criticisms of others.”
That piece of advice made me think. I have been
severely criticized all my life for being intuitive and
making it my vocation. I have been criticized for being
an outspoken and strong woman, accused of not being
feminine enough. I have been criticized for being playful when I taught my workshops, told I was not worth
being taken seriously. For most of my life, I was criticized just for being me, and while it hurt me, it didn’t
stop me. Rather than collapse under all that criticism, I
just fought back. Now, I didn’t even want to do that. I
just wanted to ignore the criticisms of those who didn’t
like me, or approve of me, or “get” me and carry on in
peace. That would be wonderful. That is what I would
pray for today.
After drinking a cup of hot chocolate and eating my
last power bar of the day, I put my gloves and hat back
on, reached for Pilgrim and my poles, pulled my poncho
back over my head and headed out. I was being called to
the top.
Today marked a turning point in my pilgrimage. For
over three weeks now, my walking had dredged up the
deepest wounds from my past and shaken them free
from both my psyche and my bones, along with the
long-held pain, sorrow, and grief that they had trapped in
my body. Today was my opportunity to release all of it,
from my body and from my life. This was the day to
leave the past behind and open my heart to living fully
and freely in the present.
The fog became thicker once I was back on the path,
the cold intensifying along with it. I finally reached the
summit, and through the fog I could barely make out the
huge iron cross that stood at the top of the mountain. But
it was there. I had arrived at Cruz Ferro, the place to
unburden myself and ask for forgiveness.
Approaching the cross, I was taken aback by the
massive amount of small stones and talismans, prayers
and pleas, piled high all around it. It was surreal to see
the world’s prayers and pain all symbolically left behind
in these offerings. There were photos, teddy bears, letters, little shrines made of stacked stones, shoes,
rosaries, and more, each item representing someone’s
heartache.
Looking at everything reminded me of how painful
the human experience is and how we, as humans, cannot
avoid this pain. There is no way around the human condition. We can only experience it as bravely as possible.
We cannot feel love unless we open our hearts, and
yet, when we do open them they can and do get broken.
It just works that way. If we close our hearts off, however, as a means of protecting ourselves, and cover them
over with anger and rage, we break our hearts from the
inside. If we look to others to give us the love we are not
giving ourselves, we become frustrated and disappointed and often feel rejected, creating even deeper wounds
than before.
It is only when we love ourselves fully and forgive
all the people and experiences that have caused us pain,
both inside and out, can we truly heal and find inner
peace. There is no other way. We cannot avoid the pain
of life, no matter how spiritually awakened we are. Life
involves loss. It is impermanent and messy and causes
suffering. It is only when we feel our pain, feel our losses, and allow our feelings to move through us, and then
onward, are we able to heal and live as a fully empowered beings in the moment.
Looking at the mountain of grief left behind by so
many others, I realized I had no need to feel ashamed for
hurting. I had no need to feel like a failure because I got
angry and scared. As spiritually conscious as I was, I
was still human, and still had to experience loss and suffering like everyone else.
It was not allowing myself to freely feel my losses
that caused me to get stuck. It was denying my pain over
and over again that made it explode. In walking the
Camino I had now felt it all, and because of that, it was
moving on. It wasn’t stuck inside me any longer. I could
honestly say I was leaving my pain and my karma
behind, while at the same time, as I walked, they were
also leaving me. We were done.
I placed my huge rock on the pile and thanked all the
people who had touched my soul, now and in lives past,
for the lessons and the love they brought me. I released
my rage, my hurt, my emotional pain, and underneath it
all, my fear, and asked for and offered forgiveness for
everything in my past. The minute I placed my rock at
the foot of the cross, I could feel my last bits of pain
tumble out of me and onto the ground. All that was left
in its place was gratitude.
Just before I left, I took Gumby from my pocket and
sat him on the rocks. He had been a good touchstone for
EARTH STAR
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me, helping to keep my spirits up and my humor alive
when all I felt was lost. I took a few pictures of the two
of us together, so that I could leave everything behind
with a smile. I then got on my knees and prayed for
everyone in my life, thanking their spirits for their contribution to my human experience. I stayed a few minutes longer, but it was bitter cold and I felt there was no
need to linger. I picked up Gumby, put him in my pocket, and got ready to go. It took a moment or two to find
the path in the fog, but I did and slowly began the steep
descent.
As I started down, the icy wind blew in my face with
such relentless ferocity that it felt personal. And yet,
rather than fight it, I let it scour off the remaining barnacles of hurtful beliefs and behaviors that I still subconsciously clung to.
“Go ahead,” I screamed to the spirit of the wind.
“Do your work. Blow it all away.”
I felt as though I were being bathed in pure love. In
spite of the cold, a gentle warm energy was now touching those deep places of hidden sadness and terror in my
heart that for so long had held onto the harsh and frightening experiences from my past, both in this life and
long before. I was healing.
The cold was refreshing. The flowers along the side
of the path were magical. My heart was becoming free
of some old and very ugly and painful stuck energy. I
finally descended below the cold and fog and emerged
into a vast mountain valley. It was incredible. The past
was behind me. I was now free.
Alzheimer’s Test Detects Disease Decade Ahead of Onset
A
new blood test for Alzheimer’s
appears to detect the disease as
many as ten years before clinical diagnosis is possible.
The test, described publicly for the
first time yesterday, could soon be used
to identify and treat patients with
Alzheimer’s earlier in their disease progression. Those people could participate
in clinical trials to help find new treatments. Already, the test distinguishes
between patients and healthy elderly
with 100 percent accuracy.
“We will need replication and validation, but I’m very optimistic this
work
will
hold,”
Dimitrios
Kapogiannis, the study’s lead author
and a neuroscientist at the National
Institute on Aging, said.
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EARTH STAR
The blood test is still in the early
stages of development and has only
been evaluated in 174 individuals,
requiring a larger, long-term study
before widespread use, the authors
said. NanoSomiX, an Aliso Viejo,
California-based biotech company that
develops blood assays for neurodegenerative diseases and is sponsoring the
study, plans to produce a commercial
version of the test.
Two other potential Alzheimer’s
blood tests were announced earlier this
year. One measures ten fats in the bloodstream that appear to predict dementia
with 90 percent accuracy within three
years of its onset. Another uses ten proteins in the blood to predict onset with
87 percent accuracy within a year.
At the National Institute on Aging,
Kapogiannis and his team identified a
single protein in the brain involved in
insulin signaling, called IRS-1, that
appears to be defective in Alzheimer’s
patients.
The researchers gathered blood
samples from 70 individuals with
Alzheimer’s disease, 20 cognitively
normal elderly with diabetes, and 84
healthy adults. Of the participants, 22
of the Alzheimer’s patients provided
samples taken one to 10 years before
diagnosis.
From the samples, the researchers
isolated exosomes, little lipid sacs that
bud off cell membranes and carry signals to other cells and tissues. From the
resulting pool of exosomes, they identified just those originating in the brain,
which contain IRS-1, and measured the
levels of the protein.
They found that patients with
Alzheimer’s had higher amounts of the
inactive form of the protein and lower
amounts of the active form than
healthy individuals. The diabetics had
intermediate levels.
These levels were so consistent
that the team could predict whether a
blood sample came from an
Alzheimer’s patient, healthy individual, or a diabetic —with no errors. This
was true even for samples from
Alzheimer’s patients taken ten years
before they were diagnosed.
—Bloomberg.com News
Strange
Electromagnetic
Energies
By Louis Proud
Allergic to Electricity
he human body is tuned to, and responds
to changes within, the electromagnetic
environment of the Earth, such that geomagnetic disturbances can reduce melatonin production and thereby disrupt the
sleep-wake cycle. Exposure to artificial EM fields can
likewise reduce melatonin production. We will now
examine a number of other biological effects associated
with exposure to artificial EM fields, some of which
come under the domain of “mind control.”
If, like me, you live in an urban environment, you’re
bound to receive a high amount of exposure to EM radiation from sources too numerous to mention. Cities are
grossly polluted with EM radiation, or “electrosmog,”
and are becoming more polluted every year as our use of
technology expands and technology itself becomes ever
more sophisticated. If, on the other hand, you live in the
country, it’s probable you receive a low to moderate
amount of EM exposure. Some people choose to live in
T
the country solely because they’re convinced that artificial EM fields make them acutely ill—a condition
known as EM hypersensitivity (EHS). EHS is commonly assumed to be psychosomatic in origin; though, as
we’ll see in the latter-half of the chapter, much compelling evidence suggests otherwise.
Smart meter health problems
Although I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself “hypersensitive” to EM fields, I have reason to believe that during one period in my life I suffered ill effects from longterm exposure to radio frequency (RF) radiation. As
with any story, it’s necessary to begin at the beginning.
In early 2010, my wife (then girlfriend) and I moved into
a small brick dwelling located in the northern suburbs of
Melbourne. We found our new home reasonably pleasant and settled in quickly. Most of all, we were grateful
to have a place of our own and to be paying such afford-
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31
able rent.
One day in mid-2012, a technician paid a visit to our
home to replace our analogue electricity meter with a
“smart meter” as part of a Victorian Government plan to
upgrade the electricity network—a plan that’s currently
being implemented in other states of Australia. Smart
meters are at present being installed in homes and businesses across the United States, and the same is happening in numerous other countries, including Canada,
Italy, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.
Smart meters and analogue meters are similar to the
extent that both devices record your electricity usage for
billing purposes. But whereas analogue meters are connected to the grid by means of wires, smart meters are
digital, wireless, two-way communication devices that
operate in the RF range. They record your electricity
usage at frequent intervals and send that data directly to
your electricity supplier. They enable your electricity
supplier to monitor your power usage closely without
having to send a technician to your home to do so manually. Not unreasonably, the surveillance capabilities of
smart meter technology have sparked concerns among
citizens who value their privacy and don’t appreciate
being “spied on” by the powers that be.
Although at first I was annoyed that a smart meter
had been installed in our home without our consent, I
soon forgot the device was there and became absorbed in
more pressing concerns. At the time I was busy working
on a major writing project, which involved spending
much time at home in front of the computer. (I’m aware
computers emit various forms of EM radiation. To minimize my EM exposure while working in front of a computer, I always make sure the screen is positioned a good
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distance away from my body.) The project was coming
along smoothly and I was confident I’d make the deadline on time.
As the weeks progressed, however, I noticed a gradual
decline in my ability to concentrate on the project. I
soon found any activity that required sustained concentration challenging. The problem appeared to stem from
an intense feeling of agitation in the very core of my
being. There were times when the feeling became so
intense that I’d suddenly leap from my chair and dash
from my office without completing the sentence I’d been
writing. It’s as if my body was constantly on “alert
mode.”
Thinking that perhaps my health had suffered from
an overly homebound lifestyle, I began to make more
trips outdoors, either going for walks around the block
or visiting the park down the road. I felt much better
when out of the house; the feeling of agitation lifted to
some extent, only to come back as soon as I returned
home. My wife revealed to me that she, too, was plagued
by a feeling of deep-seated agitation and was experiencing concentration issues. It didn’t take us long to recognize that the problem coincided with the installation of
the smart meter in our home.
The penny dropped when, throughout the ensuing
months, I came across a series of online articles concerning cases in the United States and Australia of people claiming to have suffered health problems as a consequence of living with a smart meter in their home.
Among the health problems frequently cited were “agitation” and “inability to concentrate”—the same problems my wife and I were experiencing.
One article that came to my attention concerned a
family of six in the Melbourne suburb of Keilor East.
After a smart meter was installed in their neighbor’s
home, the Florios began to experience “constant
headaches and sleep deprivation.” The family became
what Ms. Florio described as “smart meter refugees,”
opting to abandon their home because their suffering
had reached an unbearable level.
A similar article concerned a couple from Mt. Eliza,
Melbourne, named Vic and Rosemary Trudeau. Just
days after a smart meter was installed in their home,
Rosemary began feeling extremely “irritable” and both
she and Vic experienced a “high pitched ringing” in their
heads. Other shared symptoms included nausea,
headaches, difficulties concentrating, heart palpitations,
and insomnia. The symptoms would disappear when
they left home and reappear as soon as they returned
home. Since their power company refused to remove the
device, the Trudeaus were left with no other option but
to abandon their home and take up residence in their
camper van. “I’d never had any [health] problems [like
these] before, and I’d lived in the house 22 years,”
Rosemary insisted.
Unlike the Florios and the Trudeaus, my wife and I
didn’t abandon our home, though we did consider the
possibility of moving. The opportunity to move arose
when, in early-2013, my wife secured a job in Darwin,
Northern Territory (where, fortunately, smart meters
haven’t yet been introduced). Our health problems vanished for good soon after we relocated to Darwin.
A brief internet search will reveal that many people
all over the world are experiencing health problems
related to smart meters. These include stress, agitation,
anxiety, irritability, insomnia, persistent headaches,
ringing in the ears, eye problems, severe memory loss,
mental confusion, inability to concentrate, heart palpitations, nausea, urinary problems, hyperactivity, fatigue,
dizziness, and nose bleeds.
Isn’t this all a bit over the top? Surely those reporting such problems are either deluded or mentally ill? To
be honest, had I not experienced some of these problems
myself—and my wife also—it’s likely I would have
adopted the “deluded or mentally ill” explanation and
looked no further into the matter. One person I talked to
about my smart meter health concerns suggested, as a
joke, I wear a tinfoil hat. The term “tinfoil hat” is used
in a derogatory fashion to refer to people inclined toward
paranoid or conspiratorial beliefs. The term makes those
who think cellphones, Wi-Fi—or indeed smart meters—
pose a danger to human health silly or crazy.
Another health problem I experienced during my
period of exposure to smart meter radiation was lowered
immune function. It’s a well-known fact that when the
immune system is weak it has difficulty doing its job,
which is to defend the body against pathogens (diseasecausing microbes). If you find yourself getting infections frequently and if these infections are difficult to
eliminate, it’s a good indication your immune system is
weak. Immediately after the smart meter was installed,
my immune system suffered a devastating blow. First, a
hair on my leg became ingrown and highly infected,
necessitating a strong dose of antibiotics. This was followed by a persistent fungal infection in a certain part of
my body. My immune system regained its strength as
soon as my wife and I moved. Later we’ll look at evidence showing that exposure to artificial EM radiation
can compromise immune function in animals and
humans.
The WHO report
Are smart meters really as harmful as many believe?
Before we focus specifically on smart meters, it would
be valuable to take a look at the World Health
Organization’s stance on non-ionizing (or low level) EM
fields and human health. The World Health Organization
(WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations
(UN), is an authority on matters of international public
health. Established in 1948, the WHO is involved in
coordinating international health activities and in aiding
governments to improve health services. It goes without
saying that their opinions are widely respected and taken
seriously.
Featured on the WHO website is a several page
report on EM fields and human health, simply titled
Electromagnetic Fields (EMF), of which I will now give
a brief summary. The WHO Report explains something
we know already: ionizing forms of EM radiation—xrays, gamma rays, and so forth—carry sufficient energy
to break molecular bonds and hence damage living tissue, whereas non-ionizing forms of EM radiation—
33
radio waves, ELF electric and magnetic fields, and so
on—lack sufficient energy to break molecular bonds.
Nobody disputes the fact that ionizing EM radiation is
harmful to the body; the debate is focused on whether
non-ionizing radiation is harmful to the body.
The Report gives particular emphasis to radio frequency (RF) radiation, which lies in the frequency range
between 3 kilohertz (kHz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz) and
is non-ionizing. Microwaves are one form of RF radiation. The Report acknowledges that RF radiation of high
intensity can heat tissue and is therefore harmful to the
body. (Earlier I explained that a microwave oven uses
high intensity RF radiation to cook food.) The Report
goes on to state that because RF radiation of low-intensity—such as that emitted by cellphone handsets and
base stations, radio and television transmitters, and radar
antennas—causes negligible to zero heating of body tissue it is extremely unlikely to harm the body.
The Report also addresses the topic of extremely
low frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields and
human health. Whereas RF fields are generally associated with telecommunications (radio, television, radar,
cellphones, and so forth), ELF electric and magnetic
fields are generally associated with electric power distribution and appliances that use mains electricity. The
power lines that run past your home, the electric kettle
in your kitchen, the clock radio situated on your bedside
table—all are sources of ELF electric and magnetic
fields. The Report explains that exposure to both
induces currents in the body.
For example, if you were to stand under a 60 Hz
power line, the electric field produced by the power line
would induce an electric current that flows from your
head to your feet, while the magnetic field produced by
the power line would induce circulating electric currents
within your body. “In virtually all ordinary environ-
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EARTH STAR
ments, the levels of induced currents inside the body are
too small to produce obvious effects,” the Report states.
Listed under “obvious effects” are “nerve and muscle
stimulation and changes in nerve cell excitability in the
central nervous system.” The suggestion is that because
these “obvious effects” are absent with respect to exposure to common, every day, low strength ELF electric
and magnetic fields, such fields pose no harm to our
health.
The following two statements from the Report give
a clear indication of where the WHO stands on the issue
of non-ionizing EM fields and human health:
“Despite extensive research, to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level [non-ionizing] electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health.”
“With more and more research data available, it has
become increasingly unlikely that exposure to electromagnetic fields constitutes a serious health hazard, nevertheless, some uncertainty remains.”
To state there is “no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level [non-ionizing] electromagnetic fields is
harmful to human health” but that “some uncertainty
remains” is somewhat wishy-washy. After reading the
Report in its entirety, one gets the impression the WHO
is secretly thinking: We’d like to tell the public that
exposure to non-ionizing EM fields is completely safe,
but since doing so would make us look negligent or
biased, instead we’ll tell them we’re 99 percent sure EM
fields are safe. That way they’ll stop worrying about the
matter.
Common sense tells us it would be extremely bad
news for the military and the telecommunications and
electric utility industries if the WHO came forward and
admitted that exposure to non-ionizing EM radiation is
linked to cancer and other serious health problems,
never mind the impact this would have on each and
every one of us, given that electricity is the lifeblood of
modern society. Clearly the best approach on the part of
the authorities would be to play down the issue as much
as possible, without entirely dismissing it.
It’s worth noting that in 2002 the International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is part
of the WHO, classified ELF magnetic fields as a possible human carcinogen (“Class 2B”), due to there being
a statistical association between “higher level residential
ELF magnetic fields and [an] increased risk for childhood leukaemia.” In 2013, IARC classified RF radiation
as another Class 2B carcinogen, stating “Positive associations have been observed between exposure to
radiofrequency radiation from wireless phones and
glioma and acoustic neuroma.” Given that IARC’s list of
Class 2B carcinogens includes such substances as cofwww.earthstarmag.com
fee, gasoline, bracken fern, and welding fumes, one is
led to believe that one is no more likely to develop cancer from excessive cellphone use as one is from feasting
daily on bracken fern fiddleheads and gulping large
quantities of coffee.
Public exposure limits
Just about every country has public exposure limits in
place for both ELF (50/60 Hz) magnetic and electric
fields and RF radiation. In Australia, the exposure limits
for ELF electric and magnetic fields were set by the
National Health and Medical Research Council
(NHMRC) in 1989 and are similar to limits present in
many other countries. (These limits are currently in the
process of being updated.) NHMRC states that in areas
where members of the general public experience continuous exposure, the electric field strength should not
exceed 5 KV/m while the magnetic flux density should
not exceed 0.1 mT. To the best of my knowledge, the
United States has no federal exposure limits in place for
ELF electric and magnetic fields.
We now come to RF radiation. In 2002, the
Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety
Agency (ARPANSA) released a document titled the
Radiation Protection Standard—Maximum Exposure
Levels to Radiofrequency Fields—3 kHz to 300 GHz.
The exposure limits set out in the Standard are based on
guidelines established in 1998 by the International
Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection
(ICNIRP). The limits take into consideration such
adverse biological effects as electrical stimulation, heating of tissues, and nuisance auditory effects. Again, the
heating aspect is strongly emphasized, with the assumption being that RF fields pose no threat to one’s health if
they are not of high enough intensity to heat bodily tissue and cause tissue damage.
The RF radiation exposure limits listed in the
Standard for the general population and with respect to
long-term exposure are expressed in power flux density
(power per unit area) and range from 0.2 mW/cm2 at 10
MHz to 400 MHz to 1 mW/cm2 at 2 GHz to 300 GHz.
The latter limit of 1 mW/cm2 at 2 GHz to 300 GHz
applies to cellphones, as 2 GHz is close to the frequency at which most cellphones operate. We find roughly
the same limits in place in the United States and numerous other Western countries. For the sake of simplicity,
we will say that 1 mW/cm2 is the RF radiation exposure
limit for the general population.
When you expose yourself to common sources of
RF radiation, the molecules of your body vibrate, which
in turn causes heating. As I said, the same principle is at
work when food is heated inside a microwave oven. In
the case of talking on a cellphone, the specific area of
your head to which the phone is in contact will absorb
the greatest amount of RF radiation, becoming ever so
slightly warm. Yet your overall body temperature will
not be affected. RF safety standards ensure that the energy emitted by RF sources such as cellphones is low
enough not to measurably increase body temperature.
The unit of measurement for the amount of RF radiation absorbed by the body is called the specific absorption rate (SAR) and is expressed in watts per kilogram
(W/kg) or milliwatts per gram (mW/g). The ARPANSA
SAR limit for cellphone handsets is 2 W/kg (using 10
gram averaging mass). This limit is such that talking on
a cellphone will produce a maximum rise in temperature
in the side of the head no greater than 0.1°C—far less
than the increase in temperature required to destroy bodily tissue.
Although it’s reassuring to know that cellphones and
other devices don’t emit enough RF radiation to “cook”
our bodies the same way a microwave oven does, much
convincing evidence shows that exposure to low-level
RF radiation can produce biological effects that have
nothing to do with the heating of tissue. It is these nonthermal or athermal effects, rather than the thermal
effects, that are of relevance to our present discussion.
There seem to be at least two attitudes within the mainstream scientific community toward non-thermal biological effects related to low-level RF radiation exposure:
either we are told there is no evidence for such effects,
or we are told there is evidence for such effects but that
the evidence is controversial and unproven.
My research in this area has taught me that it’s futile
to expect to receive from the authorities a truthful,
straightforward answer as to whether low level RF radiation (indeed, non-ionizing EM radiation in general) can
cause harm to our bodies. To get to the truth of the mat-
EARTH STAR
35
ter, we are left with no other choice but to bypass official sources of information, including ARPANSA and
the WHO, and seek out genuine sources of information.
Since one of our objectives in this chapter is to find out
why smart meters have sparked a flurry of health complaints all over the world, for the time being we will
limit our discussion to RF radiation.
Radio-wave sickness
Indications that RF radiation can produce a range of
adverse health effects unrelated to heating of the body
first began to emerge in the years following World War
II, when it was found that radar operators have a tendency to suffer from internal bleeding, jaundice,
leukemia, cataracts, headaches, brain tumors, and heart
conditions. Later, in the 1970s, Eastern European and
Soviet researchers—who had been at the forefront of
research on bioelectromagnetics since before the
1950s—began to use the term “radio-wave sickness” to
refer to a clinical syndrome in those occupationally
exposed to EM fields, particularly RF fields.
(Bioelectromagnetics is the study of the interaction
between EM fields and biological entities.)
It was accepted as a fact by the researchers that lowintensity EM fields adversely affect the autonomic and
central nervous systems of humans and animals. The
symptoms they listed for radio-wave sickness include
headache, increased fatigue, increased irritability, dizziness, loss of appetite, sleepiness, sweating, difficulties in
concentration or memory, depression, emotional instability, rashes, thyroid gland enlargement, and tremor of
extended fingers. Also listed, though found to be less
common, were hallucinations, insomnia, fainting, and
internal organ or intestinal difficulties. As the reader has
no doubt recognized already, many of these symptoms
are common among “smart meter victims.”
The Moscow signal
Of relevance to the topic of early research on the harmful effects of RF radiation on humans is an experiment
carried out by the Soviets during the Cold War, in which,
beginning in 1953 and continuing over a period of many
decades, they beamed low-intensity microwave radiation at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The U.S State
Department first detected the “Moscow signal,” as it
came to be called, in 1962, prompting an investigation
into the matter by various U.S intelligence agencies,
including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The initial theory put forward to explain the purpose
of the signal, whose average intensity varied between
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EARTH STAR
0.002 and 0.018 mW/cm, is that the Soviets were using
it to activate electronic listening devices hidden in the
walls of the Embassy. Yet because the signal was found
to be a composite of several frequencies and hence
unsuitable for electronic eavesdropping purposes, a second theory was advanced as to its purpose: to induce
physiological and behavioral effects among Embassy
staff. A Scarsdale, New York, ophthalmologist named
Milton Zaret, who was employed by the CIA in 1965 to
help ascertain the purpose of the signal, concluded:
“Whatever other reasons the Russians may have had,
they believed the beam would modify the behavior of
personnel.”
The Moscow signal became the focus of a classified
research project, called Project Pandora, which was
placed under the direction of the Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA), a secret organization within
the Department of Defense. One of the objectives of
Project Pandora was to “investigate possible behavioural and bioeffects (primarily the former) on primates
[monkeys] when the latter were irradiated with
microwave signals simulating the exposure of Embassy
employees in Moscow.” According to Robert Becker, a
United States orthopedic surgeon and expert in bioelectromagnetics, the monkeys “showed multiple abnormalities of blood composition and chromosomal counts.”
It’s also been alleged that the monkeys exhibited a deterioration in their ability to perform certain tasks.
Yet, disturbingly, Project Pandora also involved
human experimentation: the decision was made not to
inform Embassy staff about the signal or to attempt to
block the signal, but rather to treat the staff as guinea
pigs by observing what effects they might suffer as a
result of the prolonged irradiation. It wasn’t until 1976,
when the U.S finally decided to install microwave
screening in the Embassy building, that embassy staff—
and the rest of the world—became aware of the situation. The Soviets denied beaming the building with
microwave radiation, and in January of 1979 it was discovered the radiation had ceased. (The Moscow signal
made a brief reappearance in 1983 and was again
reported in 1988.)
Aftermath
After the Moscow signal became public knowledge, a
number of epidemiological studies were undertaken to
determine in what ways, if at all, Embassy staff had
been affected by the radiation. However, the results of
these studies are rather sketchy, indicating a desire on
the part of the authorities to keep the truth hidden from
the public. One such study, undertaken in 1976 by Dr.
Abraham Lilienfeld and colleagues at the Department
of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, examined the mortality and morbidity of all Moscow staff
and dependents from 1953 to 1976. Staff who had
served at other eastern European embassies during the
same period of time, as well as their dependents, acted
as the control group.
Although the study supposedly found “No convincing evidence...that would directly implicate the exposure
to microwave radiation experienced by the employees at
the Moscow embassy in the causation of any adverse
health effects,” this view is not shared by all. In the opinion of Simon Best and Cyril Smith, the study “yielded
some provocative findings.” These include “a definite
significantly raised rate of protozoal intestinal diseases,
benign neoplasms, and diseases of the nerves and
peripheral ganglia” among Moscow males. They add:
“As a group, Moscow personnel suffered significantly
more eye problems, psoriasis and other assorted skin
conditions (mostly cysts, dermatitis and eczema), as
well as depression, irritability, loss of appetite, and difficulty in concentrating.”
The latter group of symptoms are all consistent with
radio-wave sickness and very much support the theory
that the purpose of the Moscow signal was to “modify
the behavior of [embassy] personnel.” As an interesting
addendum, three of those who served as U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union in the period 1953 to 1976,
when the Moscow signal was active, died of cancer. In
order of service: Charles Bohlen (1953–1957) died of
pancreatic cancer in 1974 at the age of 69; Llewellyn
Thompson (1957–1962 and 1966–1969) died of cancer
in 1972 at the age of 67; Walter Stoessel (1973–1976)
died of leukemia in 1986 at the age of 66, having first
developed signs of leukemia in 1976. What makes the
three deaths especially noteworthy is that the Moscow
signal was beamed directly at the ambassador’s office.
Interestingly, the Moscow signal was between 500
and 55 times weaker than the 1 mW/cm2 exposure limit
for the general population. In fact, since the 1950s and
at the time of the Moscow signal incident, there existed
in the Soviet Union a tremendously stringent RF radiation
exposure limit of just 0.001 mW/cm2 for the general population. Today the limit is higher, at 0.1 mW/cm2. Of
course, the Russians have long acknowledged that there
are non-thermal biological effects associated with exposure to low level RF radiation. These effects are also
recognized in China, where the limit is also set at 0.1
mW/cm2.
Excerpted from Strange Electromagentic Energies by Louis
Proud, © Louis Proud. Excerpt is printed with permission of
the publisher New Page Books,
http://www.newpagebooks.com
EARTH STAR
37
Everything Is A Miracle
Excerpts from A Book of Miracles
By Dr. Bernie Siegel
any years ago, I would have defined
miracles as something for which
there was no explanation. That was
my concept of miracles. So when
patients would recover unexpectedly from disease, I would rationalize what mechanisms
were present within the body that could explain their
recovery.
Today, I realize that everything is a miracle. When
you ask quantum physicists and astronomers to explain
creation, they do not have all the answers. Life is a miracle, and it is derived from the intelligent, loving, conscious energy that created it. You can call it God or anything you want to, but the nature of life shows us it is
intelligent and loving, or we wouldn’t be able to survive
a cut finger or an infection. Most of us do not stop to
think about life on earth being a miracle.
To me, miracles are about our potential and what has
been built into us to help us to survive. A botanist I read
M
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EARTH STAR
about called miracles “spontaneous reversals” because
he saw how plants altered their genes to survive climate
changes and diseases. Just think about the fact that a
plant doesn’t bleed to death every fall when the leaves
drop off...it heals and survives.
Doctors call unexpected recoveries and cures “spontaneous remissions,” but that wording makes you think it
is luck and that the person had nothing to do with it. That
is not true. All living things have the potential to create
miracles. Studies and scans show that cancers come and
go sometimes with no treatment. We need to study the
personalities and learn the stories of the people whom
we consider to have had a miraculous or self-induced
healing.
I know people who have left their troubles to God,
or who refused treatment to go home and make the
world beautiful before they died. They did what made
them happy—from getting a dog to building a wildlife
habitat—and their letters to me later end with, “I didn’t
die, and now I’m so busy I’m killing myself. Help!
Where do I go from here?” I do not limit miracles to
only physical events like recovery from disease, because
they occur in every aspect of life. Since consciousness is
not limited to the body, or by time and space, it can have
effects at a distance, too, and I will discuss some of these
things when I present specific examples.
Someday I hope we will spend as much money
exploring inner space and the wonders of the human
body as we are currently spending exploring outer
space. The secret lies within us, and yet we are afraid to
go within because of our nature. It is time to stop fearing what lies within us and to achieve our true potential.
A true miracle is often defined as an event that
defies the laws of nature. My mother referred to miracles
as “God’s redirections” from which something good
would come. A television show you never knew existed
alerts you to a medical condition you wouldn’t have
checked out otherwise; a kind stranger helps you change
your tire before a flood; while you are sleeping a dog
barks when he smells a fire. There is so much more to
these occurrences than chance.
These events are more than coincidences. These are
miracles.
In fact, even so-called “bad breaks” can be classified
as miracles because so often they lead us in better directions. Years ago, arthritis threatened to end my career as
a surgeon before it had even begun. The military turned
me down for active duty, so I returned to Connecticut to
attempt to practice surgery with a former associate.
Almost immediately, the symptoms of my arthritis subsided, and I went on to practice medicine and become
who I am today.
Rather than wishing for miracles to change the
physical nature of life, my desire is for those miracles
that change our experience of it. When we decide to
make a difference in the world and create peace, love,
and happiness for all living things...that will indeed be a
miracle.
We are all living a miraculous story. When we are
enlightened by it, we elevate ourselves and demonstrate
loving, intelligent, conscious energy. To do so we must
act, seek wisdom, and have devotion. Those are the qualities demonstrated by those who exceed expectations.
I read a wonderful article by Stacey Chiew, who
wrote, “I believe each one of us holds the key that
unlocks the door for miracles. Before you can do that,
you need to know the password: Love. Miracles are the
response to love expressed in us and to others. It is the
extra ordinary healing power of our body, the amazing
protective energy force that helps keep us safe, and the
joy when prayers are answered.”
I agree with Stacey that life is a miracle. We cannot,
and probably never will, be able to explain creation and
how intelligent, loving, conscious energy could create
matter.
Angels and Guides
One evening I arranged my notes on the podium and
began my lecture. I noticed that what I was saying was
not following my outline. I kept struggling to get back to
my outline for the talk, but after a few minutes I realized
the talk I had not planned was better than the one I had.
So I just let the words flow out of me for the next two
hours. At the conclusion of my presentation, a woman
walked up to me and said, “I’ve heard you before. That
was better than usual.” The next woman came up and
said, “Standing in front of you for the entire talk was this
man. I drew his picture for you.” When I looked at the
picture I knew who it was: George.
George is my inner guide, whom I met when doing
guided imagery, as a nonbeliever, for the first time. The
picture she drew was the same as one I had drawn for
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross years before. From that day forward, George does all my talks for me. They come from
a place of consciousness shared with the audience.
A few years later, after delivering a funeral sermon
for a friend one Sunday morning, I was standing alone
in the hallway when Olga Worrall, a well-known healer,
who had attended the funeral of our mutual friend, came
up to me. “Bernie, are you Jewish?” I asked her if she
wanted to know because I had delivered a Sunday sermon. She said, “No, it’s because there are two rabbis
standing next to you.” Her description of them from
their garments to their beards was again exactly like
George. I think his presence in my life explains many of
39
my miraculous experiences.
I have been in four life-threatening accidents, including choking nearly to death, car collisions, and
falling off the roof when a ladder broke. Each time I
walked away with no serious injuries. I said to an audience one night, “I must have an angel.”
I believe we all have angels or guides. I can’t help
but think of the story of the lady who hears a voice say,
“Jump back.” She does and realizes she would have been
hit by a bus if she kept crossing the street. It’s a good
thing she listened!
We must remember that there is always hope. We are
capable of amazing things, and when we do not fear failure, we have nothing to lose by attempting to achieve the
miraculous.
blind to our faults and flaws. I believe that, while we
choose whom we love, we are wired with the desire to
love from the time of our birth.
Many people believe they have some terrible defect
at the center of their being, which they must hide if they
are to have any chance for love. Because they believe
they are unlovable and condemned to loneliness if their
true selves become known, such individuals set up
defenses against sharing their innermost feelings with
anyone. They fear and avoid relationships.
I cared for a teenage girl with severe burn scars who
wore a turtleneck even on hot summer days because she
felt she was “ugly.” Weeks after I suggested she spend
her summer working as an aide in a nursing home,
where they wore uniforms that would reveal her scars,
she found the people there didn’t notice them. “This is
because when you are giving love,” I said, “you are
beautiful.”
Love is energy, so it knows no time and no physical
limitations. I know from my experience—personally,
and through mystics, dreams, and drawings—that we are
capable of communicating with animals and the dead
and can know the future. I think that when two people
are constantly conscious of each other it sustains a connection, which eventually leads to their being reunited.
All we can ask of life is to be given the chance to
love.
Dr. Bernie Siegel’s multimillion-copy bestselling first book,
Love, Medicine & Miracles, was published in 1986. He is the
author of multiple other books, including A Book of Miracles,
101 Exercises for the Soul, and 365 Prescriptions for the Soul.
Visit him online at http://www.berniesiegelmd.com.
Excerpted from the book A Book of Miracles © 2011 by
Bernie Siegel. Published with permission of New World
Library. http://www.newworldlibrary.com
The Gift of Love
A teenager complained that her grandmother’s house did
not have a full-length mirror to see how she looked. Her
grandmother responded by saying, “If you want to see
how beautiful you are, come here and look in my eyes.”
I believe love is the answer to every question you
could ever ask. It is the solution to every problem, and it
is necessary for our survival. When we choose to love,
we can never be wrong. We will always be in the right
place at the right time because love brings order, harmony,
and peace.
By the same token, being loved is the gift of a lifetime. To be accepted by someone means they are transcending all your flaws with a commitment. Love is
40
EARTH STAR
A Book of Miracles
Q and A with Dr. Bernie Siegel
What is a miracle?
Life is a miracle. What cannot be explained by science
is a miracle. We cannot explain the origin of our universe and life so it is all a miracle derived from loving,
intelligent, conscious energy. It also lets us know we all
have the potential to be miracles and demonstrate them
because the ability to create lies within us too. The
potential is built into us by our loving creator so we heal
our wounds and alter our genes and survive threats to
our existence and I am talking about people, plants, bacteria and all forms of life.
The importance of change—from the inside out. How
does that happen and how does that open the door
for a miracle to take place?
As God said when I gave my first consultant’s report at
the Board of Directors of Heaven meeting, “Bernie
when you finish say the beginning and not the end.”
When I asked why God said, “Because we have to begin
to use the information you have given us. Graduations
are a commencement not a termination and the Bible
ends in a revelation and not a conclusion. My son’s life
is about beginnings because it is always changing.” I
have learned that when you use change as a labor pain
of life you can give birth to a new self which loves life
and your body and the direction of your life and health
responds to the chemistry created by the love both physically and spiritually. The future is unconsciously prepared long in advance, as Jung stated and therefore we
are creating our future and determining the possibility of
a miracle every day. When we are a work in progress
and rehearse and desire to become the person we wish
to be change is inevitable.
What is grace and how can we welcome it into
our lives?
Grace is amazing as the song tells us. It can save you,
help you to believe, protect you give you hope and more.
When you have faith your life changes and peace comes
to you because you know that you are connected to a
higher power and the Lord is your shepherd. My mother always let me know that when I had a problem God
was redirecting me and something good would come of
this. Norman Vincent Peale’s mom told him that if God
slammed one door further down the corridor another
would be open. I have seen people cured of cancer when
they went home and left their troubles to God. But to
believe and find that kind of peace is not an easy task
and one must accept the belief and the grace to attain it.
Like the still pond allows us to see our true reflection
grace brings peace and stillness to our mind and life.
What can we learn from children and animals?
What we can learn is the truth. Life is about living today
and not worrying about the future. When I have a problem I ask myself, WWLD, or What Would Lassie Do?
Then I can see how love will resolve my problem.
Animals are complete and we need to learn how to
become complete in our lives and behavior. When One
of our children was seven an X-Ray revealed a bone
tumor and I was sure it was a malignant tumor that
would end his life in short order. I explained to my wife
and his four siblings the problem. The next day he came
to me and said, “Dad can I talk to you for a minute?
You’re handling this poorly.” He explained they were
trying to enjoy the day and I wanted them all to be
depressed about the future. He was right. As the song
says yesterday is dead and gone and tomorrow’s out of
sight it’s so sad to be alone. help me make it through the
night.”
How do we let go and let God?
You stop judging and thinking and let your heart make
up your mind. There is a greater wisdom and higher
power. Again to turn to the wisdom of a song, just like
the seasons there are reasons for the path we take. There
are no mistakes just lessons to be learned. When you see
the obstacles as teaching you how to climb instead of
God punishing you things change. When you lose your
car keys you don’t assume God wants you to walk home
so when you lose your way or health look for it and God
will help you to find it when you let go of living in your
head and let your heart and faith take over.
EARTH STAR
41
Emotional darkness. How can there possibly be
benefits?
Charcoal under pressure becomes a diamond. When you
love your fate and ask what you are to learn from the
Hell you are going through the benefits appear. I ask
people to tell me what they are experiencing when they
have a disaster in their life and the words they share are
about their lives. Words like failure, draining, confusion
and so we deal with those things in their life which fit
those words and then they can be healed by their affliction. When that happens and you then ask them to
describe what cancer meant to them they say, gift,
blessing, new beginning and wake up call. I suggest you
don’t wait to become strong at the broken places but
learn from the wisdom of the sages and become strong
through their teachings.
What do you do when you are overcome by fear?
I don’t fear anything because I know what I and you are
capable of. As a ninety plus year old said at a support
group meeting, “The only thing I fear is driving on the
parkway at night.” Everyone laughed and stopped being
afraid of the future. One cannot be afraid when one is
loving or laughing. So when fear enters your life realize
others have survived what you fear and then laugh for no
reason and find someone who needs your help and
serve them. I guarantee your fear will melt away. I will
add fear is useful to protect us from dangerous situations
or vicious or poisonous animals because it empowers
our mind and body to move quickly and protect us but
when you live in fear your immune function is suppressed and stress hormone levels are elevated which
becomes self destructive.
Prescription Drug Vending Machines Installed On College Campuses
he total insanity of over-medication in America has reached
a new low as Arizona State
University has installed a prescription
drug vending machine called
InstyMeds.
American college students—who
are already the most over-medicated
population on the planet—now have an
even easier way to pollute their brains
with SSRI drugs, antidepressants,
antipsychotics
and
prescription
“speed” amphetamines which are routinely abused by students for final
exam cram study sessions.
“School officials didn't specify
exactly what kind of drugs will be
available in the machine, but said it
would contain 50 medications that are
most commonly prescribed to college
students,” reports CBS News.
“You know, the things that you'd
like to have right now to feel better,”
said InstyMeds Vice President Bob
T
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EARTH STAR
Bang, according to CBS News.
I don't assign any particular blame
to the InstyMeds machine company, by
the way. The machine looks like a competent invention to bypass the usual
inefficiencies found in most pharmacy
operations.
Check out the Instymeds website
http://www.instymeds.com for information on their invention, which technically could be used to dispense all
sorts of things that are far more useful
for student health —such as vitamin D!
Why don’t universities install nutritional products vending machines to actually support cognitive function and
immune function among students?
Big Pharma has already infiltrated
and dominated medical schools and
“science” journals. Drug company
interests also completely dominate the
mainstream media and government
health care decision makers.
These pharma drugs are so safe
that students can be dosed
with three, five or even ten
at a time, we’re told. And
yet the drugs are so dangerous that “the medication is secure in the 1,500pound,
‘vault-like
machines’ that
have
remote alarms in response
to any tampering,” reports
ABC. Wouldn’t want any
students looting the machine and selling those drugs on their own, you see.
That would be “drug dealing.”
When a student sells amphetamines to another student, that’s a
felony crime, you see. But when a
vending machine sells amphetamines
to the same exact student by prescription, that's called “evidence-based
medicine.”
Arizona State University is the
second university in America to install
the prescription drug vending machine,
and many more are in the works.
Seriously, is “easier access to more
meds” really the answer to student
health?
“Serving the health-care needs of
our students is still our highest priority,”
remarked Allan Markus, director of
ASU Health Services, when the campus closed its pharmacy. And yet, I’m
willing to bet nobody at ASU Health
Services ever bothered to tell students
why they need to boost their intake of
vitamin D.
In fact, if a vitamin vending
machine were installed on campus, it
would no doubt generate outrage and
complaints from all the drug company
reps and the doctors they routinely
bribe to keep pushing their poisons
onto students, pregnant women, babies
and the elderly. —Natural News
The Real Brass Ring
By Dianne Bischoff James
n this excerpt from her book, The Real Brass
Ring: Change Your Life Course Now, Dianne
Bischoff James reveals some of her secrets for
a midlife reboot. As a businessperson Dianne
gets excited by executive summaries. So she
put together 14 consumable rules based on the metaphysical practices she’d studied over the years. It is her
‘cheat sheet’, which she calls The Shortcuts for Happy
Living.
I
The Shortcuts for Happy Living
Rule 1: It’s All Good
The Universe is already in order and in a state of wellbeing. We didn’t come here to fix anything, because
nothing is broken.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: If the world is complete
and abundant, why do I keep running around trying to
improve it and worrying about my next dime? Does this
mean I can stop working so hard, relax, and just enjoy
being here?
Rule 2: What You Think about You Bring About
We are always attracting. Everything you think about,
talk about, and pay attention to is coming your way, so
make it good.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: I’ve been raised by second-generation fear-based survivalists. Positive self-talk
is a whole new skill set that will require tremendous
practice on my part.
Rule 3: Leverage Your Alignment
When you’re aligned physically, emotionally, and spiritually, you’ll experience joy. Connect vibrationally with
who you are so that your Earthly part, the body, joins
with your spirit, the Source part. This connection will
allow you to readily attract whatever you want.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: I’m pretty sure I’ve never
been aligned because I rarely feel like a “fountain of
well-being,” singing Hallelujah and waving my arms
back and forth.
43
Rule 4: Use Your Emotional Radar Detector
What feels good is good because emotions are the message center of the body. The thoughts that make you feel
light and breathe easy are the right ones. Move away
from anything that feels bad. And pay attention to the
warning signs displayed through negative emotions.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: As a strong-minded professional woman, I’ve been too busy “doing” things to
ever acknowledge my emotional center. It’s been much
easier to ignore exhaustion, sorrow, and frustration than
to go into those scary “feeling” places.
Rule 5: Manage Your Wave
Everything has a vibrational flow and we are all connected through energy waves. Create harmony and synergy by focusing on the positive side of the wave.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: It won’t be easy to grab
at the merry side of the “it’s all good” stick. I’ll need to
redirect my thoughts and look for the small positive
things that happened during the day.
Rule 6: Tend to Yourself First
The only person you need to please in life is you. Take
100 percent of the responsibility for your words, actions,
and experiences and take care of yourself, first and foremost.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: Abraham tells us to act
like a cat. Well, my cat is orange, fat, furry, demanding,
and only sits on my lap only when he feels like it. He is,
however, quite satisfied with life and always takes care
of his needs.
Rule 7: Focus on Receiving
Sit back, remain positive, and let the Universe deliver
what you want. Allow yourself to receive.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: I am a professional
“earner,” so I don’t know how to receive without effort
and exertion. But it sure would be nice if the Universe
just dropped things into my lap.
everyone else’s business and let them manage themselves.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: Does this mean I’m not
responsible for other people and their issues? Can I stop
feeling guilty and just let everyone enjoy their day or be
miserable, as they have chosen?
Rule 10: Feeling Good Is the Mecca
Lighten up. Move away from resistance and be able to
say, “I love how this feels!”
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: I mostly feel push-back
and strain, but emotional bliss is a terrific future goal.
Rule 11: Learn Your Lessons
Process your issues now. Learn your life lessons and
work everything out in your interpersonal relationships.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: Although I’ve made
some progress in learning lessons, I’m sure I still have a
bumpy road ahead.
Rule 12: Speak Your Peace
Say everything that needs to be said. Always speak your
truth in the moment.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: My tongue is a welltrained cover-up artist and I’m much better at saying
what people want to hear rather than what’s on my mind.
Rule 13: Live Your Authentic Self
The highest experience of love is the realization of what
you believe in, who you are, and what you love to do.
The only thing that’s stopping you is you.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: I am totally committed to
discovering my true desires and pursuing what I came
here to do.
Rule 14: Love Your Life
Learn to love your life because you are the “dance.” And
in all aspects, pursue the wisdom of the heart.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: Love your life and follow
your heart. This statement I completely understand.
Rule 8: Choose the Ending to Your Story
Reality is yours to create. Use clear intentions, desires,
and positive feelings to manifest whatever you want and
watch unlimited futures unfold.
Dianne’s Initial Feedback: If my life is a movie in
the making, perhaps it will end in love, romance, and
travel. Now that sounds pretty exciting.
Rule 9: Manage Your Circle
There are only three “circles” of influence: (1) your circle, (2) other people’s circles, and (3) the Universe’s circle. Your only job is to manage your circle. Get out of
44
EARTH STAR
Natural Extracts
Lower Blood Pressure
By Brandon Dewitte
he World Health Organization has determined that hypertension is the leading
cause of cardiovascular mortality. It
affects as many as 1.5 billion people
worldwide and is a major risk factor for
atherosclerosis. Drug therapy for hypertension is often
comprised of one or a combination of medications that
may include an angiotensin II receptor blocker, calcium
channel blocker, beta blocker, angiotensin converting
enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, and/or a diuretic.
Some of these drugs and drug combinations have
potential side effects, which is troubling since blood
pressure medications may be required for the rest of a
person’s life. That does not mean a person with hypertension should discontinue their prescribed medications.
But if natural approaches can reduce blood pressure
readings so that drug doses can be reduced or eliminated, then side effect concerns can be mitigated.
In an exciting new discovery, scientists have uncov-
T
ered two natural extracts that have similar mechanisms
to some of the most effective drug therapies for hypertension.
Olive leaf extract has been shown to function as an
ACE inhibitor and celery seed extract has potent calcium channel blocking properties. Clinical studies have
demonstrated that both extracts are able to safely lower
blood pressure.
These specialized extracts offer a natural approach to
blood pressure management.
Current Treatments For Hypertension
Numerous recent, large, randomized clinical trials have
indicated that treating hypertension in older adults can
reduce the risk of kidney disease, stroke, and cardiovascular events. Unfortunately, bringing blood pressure
down to healthy levels is easier said than done.
Many clinicians start therapy with a mild diuretic
EARTH STAR
45
(“water pill”) at low doses, then
gradually increase doses until
either blood pressure is controlled or the maximum dose is
reached.
However, nearly 75% of
patients do not get adequate
blood pressure control on a single drug, which means a second
medication is often necessary.
This process may continue until
a person finds himself or herself
on three, four, or more drugs.
A frequently prescribed class of antihypertensives
used today are the angiotensin II receptor blockers.
These drugs block the angiotensin II receptor and often
induce more profound and sustained blood pressure control than older classes of medications. However, there
are side effect risks associated with angiotensin II receptor blocker drugs. In some individuals, angiotensin II
receptor blockers can cause an increase in potassium and
changes in kidney function. Also, do not take
angiotensin receptor blockers if you are pregnant or plan
on becoming pregnant because this class of medication
can cause harm to the fetus.
One of the most commonly used approaches to
treating hypertension involves the combination of two
drugs: an ACE inhibitor and a calcium channel blocker.
A large 2013 study demonstrated that for most people,
this combination was more effective at reducing cardiovascular consequences of hypertension than using either
drug with a diuretic. This combination also demonstrated the greatest probability of reducing death.
Here’s how the combination drug therapy works.
Angiotensin converting enzyme, or ACE, is a natural enzyme in the body that activates the hormone
angiotensin, which causes blood vessels to constrict,
thus increasing blood pressure. Inhibiting ACE can
return blood pressure to lower levels. ACE inhibitors
alone, however, are not always entirely effective, which
is why doctors often combine them with a second drug
called a calcium channel blocker.
Calcium channel blockers
lower blood pressure by a different mechanism than ACE
inhibitors. They prevent the entry
of calcium ions into muscle cells
in the arterial wall. Since calcium
ions are a major signal telling
those cells to contract and raise
muscle tone in the artery, blocking calcium influx into the cells
46
EARTH STAR
will prevent contraction and
lower blood pressure.
Use of the combination of an
ACE inhibitor and a calcium
channel blocker has become one
of the mainstays of modern pharmacological blood pressure control, since the two drugs act in
parallel, but different ways.
Unfortunately, as is usually the
case, both drugs bring with them
side effects.
Scientists have discovered two
natural ingredients that work in ways similar to mainstream drugs, but without the numerous side effects.
Olive leaf extract and celery seed extract act as ACE
inhibitors and calcium channel blockers, respectively.
Each has been shown in clinical studies to lower blood
pressure.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Natural Extracts Lower Blood Pressure
• High blood pressure (hypertension) is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease and is an important
contributor to premature death and disability.
• Despite widespread awareness of hypertension
as a health threat, only a minority of Americans manage
to control their blood pressure.
• Patients using prescription medications may
have to take two or more drugs before their blood pressure is controlled.
• One of the most effective drug combinations
pairs an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor
with a calcium channel blocker.
• New scientific evidence shows that olive leaf
extract provides ACE inhibition, while celery seed
extract offers calcium channel blocking effects.
• Each of these supplements has independently
been shown to lower blood pressure in human trials.
•
ACE inhibition plus
calcium channel blocking effects
are available through the use of
the natural ingredients olive leaf
and celery seed extract.
Olive Leaf Extract: A
Natural ACE Inhibitor
Extracts from leaves of the olive
tree (Olea europaea) contain
compounds known as secoiridoid
glycosides. When ingested, these
substances break down into molecules with the ability to inhibit
angiotensin converting enzyme
(ACE) and its harmful effects on
blood vessels. Studies now show
that olive leaf extract is effective at
lowering blood pressure, just as
would be expected from an ACE
inhibitor.
In
preclinical
trials,
researchers found that when they
gave rats an olive leaf extract at the same time as hypertension-inducing chemicals, it prevented them from
developing experimentally induced hypertension.
Similarly, in rats that had already been hypertensive for
six weeks, administration of olive leaf extract normalized blood pressure, even when the rats continued
receiving the hypertension-inducing chemical. Animal
studies have also shown that olive leaf extract is effective at reducing the signs of metabolic syndrome, a
major cardiovascular risk factor.
Human studies have been extremely encouraging as
well. A cleverly designed human trial using identical
twins demonstrated the antihypertensive effects of olive
leaf extract, with one twin serving as a control. Treated
twins received either 500 or 1,000 mg/day of the extract
while the other received advice regarding a “favorable
lifestyle.”
After eight weeks, compared to their controls, twins
taking 500 mg/day saw an average drop in systolic pressure of 6 mm Hg, while the twins taking 1,000 mg/day
saw an average drop in systolic pressure of 13 mm Hg.
In the group taking the higher dose, blood pressure fell
from an average of 137/80 at baseline to 126/76 after
eight weeks and LDL cholesterol was also reduced.
Olive leaf extract was recently compared directly
with the ACE inhibitor captopril in patients with Stage I
hypertension and it was found to be
almost equally as effective. The
extract dose was fixed at 500 mg
twice daily for the eight weeks of the
study, while captopril dosing started
at 12.5 mg twice daily, and increased
to 25 mg twice daily if needed for
blood pressure control.
At the end of the study, both
groups experienced significant
reductions in systolic and diastolic
blood pressure as compared to baseline. The olive leaf extract group
experienced a mean systolic blood
pressure reduction of 11.5 mm Hg,
while the captopril group reduced
systolic blood pressure by 13.7 mm
Hg. Diastolic pressures fell 4.8 mm
Hg in the olive leaf extract group and
6.4 mm Hg in the captopril group.
The differences between groups were
not statistically significant.
In addition, triglyceride levels
fell significantly from baseline in the
olive leaf supplemented group but
not in the drug group. This important
study showed that olive leaf extract was similar in effect
to the ACE-inhibiting drug, but with the added benefit of
triglyceride reduction.
A subsequent human study showed that olive leaf
extract could also improve insulin sensitivity by 15% in
overweight middle-aged men, an important step in further reducing cardiovascular risk. It also led to a 28%
improvement in pancreatic responses to blood sugar.
WHY AT-HOME BLOOD PRESSURE TESTING IS SO IMPORTANT
To ensure that the drugs, nutrients, and lifestyle changes
you are using to combat hypertension are achieving
optimal results, have your blood pressure checked regularly.
Ideally this should be done every 12 hours initially
using an at-home monitoring device.
The reason you should check every 12 hours is that
some blood pressure drugs wear off after 12-18 hours,
leaving you vulnerable to considerable periods of higher-than-desired blood pressure. It’s during periods of
high blood pressure that damage to the delicate endothelial linings of our arteries occurs.
Once you have established a program of drugs,
nutrients, and/or lifestyle that produces reliable optimal
blood pressure ranges, then testing
several times a week should be adequate for most people.
Relying only on your doctor to
check your blood pressure exposes
you to long periods when your blood
pressure could be dangerously elevated without you or your doctor
knowing it. We offer an at-home
blood pressure testing device to our
members. You can also purchase one
at your local pharmacy.
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Celery Seed Extract: A
Natural Calcium
Channel Blocker
Celery is a simple food with a
complex chemical makeup.
Studies show that celery seed
components produce a relaxing,
dilating effect that lowers blood
pressure. This appears to occur,
at least in part, by blocking or
antagonizing the flow of calcium
into muscle cells lining blood vessels—similar to the
action performed by calcium channel blocking drugs.
One key blood pressure-lowering compound in celery
seeds has the technical name of L-3-n-butylphthalide,
abbreviated as 3nB.
3nB has been used in a number of studies for the
management of vascular diseases in the brain, such as
stroke and vascular dementia. And even now, a synthetic form of 3nB is being developed as a drug in China for
the treatment of cerebral ischemic stroke and mild cognitive impairment as well as for the prevention of
Alzheimer’s disease—all of which have components of
abnormalities in blood flow.
Animal and lab studies reveal that 3nB-rich extracts
of celery seeds produce blood pressure reductions of up
to 38 mm Hg in hypertensive rats (this effect was not
seen in those with normal blood pressures). Animal
studies also demonstrate that celery seed extract has no
significant toxic effects even at very high doses.
A human study demonstrating the effectiveness of a
celery seed extract standardized to 85% 3nB recently
appeared in the Natural Medicine Journal. For the study,
thirty middle-aged patients with mild-to-moderate
hypertension took 75 mg doses of a celery seed extract
twice daily for six weeks. To obtain an equivalent
amount of 3nB, one would have to consume approximately 530 stalks (nearly 50
pounds) of celery.
Mean blood pressures at baseline were 139.4/85.4 mm Hg. At
three weeks, they fell to 134.8/80.9,
and at six weeks they fell to
131.2/76.9. This represents total
drops of 8.2 mm Hg systolic and 8.5
diastolic from baseline.
Of great importance, while
pharmacological calcium channel
blockers and ACE inhibitors are
known to reduce blood flow to the
brain—which can leave patients
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feeling tired, depressed, dizzy, or
forgetful—celery seed extracts
rich in 3nB appear to improve
brain blood flow, prevent stroke,
and may protect brain cells and
enhance their energy consumption.
THE DANGERS OF HIGH
BLOOD PRESSURE
Hypertension is classified as
blood pressure greater than 139/89 mm Hg.
It is now reported that once you are older than fifty,
a systolic (top number) blood pressure higher than 140
mm Hg is a greater cardiovascular risk factor than diastolic (bottom number) pressure. As blood pressure
increases, cardiovascular disease risk rises rapidly.
Beginning at 115/75, risk doubles for each additional
20/10 mm Hg rise. Even among those with normal pressures at age fifty-five, the lifetime risk for developing
hypertension is 90%.
Although the consequences of untreated hypertension take time to develop, they are deadly when they
arise and can include coronary artery disease, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation, a common arrhythmia.
There is now evidence that cardiac disease related to
hypertension has its origins early in life. Arterial stiffening, occurring with age and advancing atherosclerosis, is
a major underlying cause of adult hypertension, especially so-called “isolated systolic hypertension,” in
which only the systolic (top) number in the measurement is elevated. Stiff arteries create “back pressure” on
the heart, which not only further raises blood pressure,
but also puts extreme stress on the heart muscle, leading
eventually to heart failure, coronary artery disease,
stroke, vascular dementia, and chronic kidney disease.
Olive leaf and celery seed extracts could not have
been developed at a better time.
Hypertension is quickly becoming a
global epidemic.1 It is estimated that
nearly 30% of adults around the
globe have hypertension—and that
percentage climbs to 75% in some
European nations. Even in the US,
which has one of the highest rates of
awareness of the disease, hypertension affects between nearly 30 to
50% of the population.
Hypertension has long been
known as the “silent killer.” Despite
increased awareness and treatment
of hypertension, it is estimated that more than 50% of
people worldwide with high blood pressure are unaware
of their condition, and only a minority have been able to
achieve control of their blood pressure.
If you’re unsure of your blood pressure levels, you
should have them tested as soon as possible. Life
Extension suggests that optimally, blood pressure should
be maintained at 115/75 mm Hg. Blood pressure levels
greater than 139/89 mm Hg should be treated right away.
Talk to your doctor about possible treatments and consider adding the combination of celery seed extract and
olive leaf extract to your treatment plan.
Rather than blindly assuming anything works,
obtain an at-home blood pressure monitor to ensure that
the drugs, nutrients, and lifestyle changes you are using
to lower blood pressure are achieving optimal results.
ARE YOU PREDISPOSED TO
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE?
Many conditions cause or predispose a person to having
hypertension.
Over 25% of US adults have metabolic syndrome, which includes hypertension as one of its definwww.earthstarmag.com
ing features.
Obesity, another component of metabolic syndrome, is a leading cause of high blood pressure, with 60
to 70% of hypertension in adults related to excess body
fat, especially “central” obesity located around the
abdomen. Being overweight or obese is associated with
a significantly increased risk of hypertension compared
with people of normal weight. Obesity imposes unusual
stresses on the body’s self-regulatory mechanisms,
among which are over-activation of the reninangiotensin-aldosterone hormone system, which promotes fluid retention and boosts blood pressure.
High levels of uric acid in the blood is directly
related to hypertension. In one study, people with high
uric acid levels were 2.6 times more likely to have high
blood pressure than those with normal levels. And people with both high uric acid and obesity were more than
4.5 times as likely to be hypertensive, compared with
normal-weight people with normal uric acid levels.
Another cause of hypertension is obstructive
sleep apnea (also called obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome), in which a person’s breathing temporarily ceases or becomes very shallow during sleep. In one
study, over 50% of people with the syndrome had hyper-
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tension compared with only 30% in controls.
Regardless of the cause of hypertension, it is
essential to treat it.
While most Americans are aware of hypertension’s risks and many are receiving treatment, only a
minority have been able to successfully control their
blood pressure. The colored bars above represent the
percentages of American adults who express awareness
of the dangers of hypertension, those who are being
treated for hypertension, and those who have their
hypertension under control. Each color represents a different National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey (NHANES) study, which began in 1976.
Clinical studies show that each of these supplements alone is effective at significantly lowering blood
pressure, generally without the adverse effects often
associated with prescription medications. Using olive
leaf and celery seed extract together is a powerful natural combination modeled on solid science.
Reprinted with permission from Life Extension Magazine,
http://www.lef.org
Summary
Despite billions of dollars spent on drugs to lower blood
pressure, Americans are still losing the battle to keep
their hypertension under control. Even drugs that are
effective at bringing down high blood pressure have
uncomfortable, sometimes dangerous, side effects.
One of the most effective blood pressure drug
combinations is an ACE inhibitor paired with a calcium
channel blocker. But for those with early or mild-tomoderate hypertension (Stage I), ACE inhibition and
calcium channel blocking may be accomplished with
extracts from olive leaf and celery seed, respectively.
Even those with more advanced cases of hypertension
may be able to reduce their dosing of drugs by adding
this nutrient combo.
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EXCERPT
FROM
T HE KL I GK H T
BY
T HE C O L O R S
OF
EIDI
EATING
LOVE
By Don Miguel Ruiz
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the
barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
—A Course in Miracles
see love as a magnificent spectrum of all the
colors of the rainbow. We have hundreds of
emotions and each one is an aspect of love,
which can be placed somewhere within this
beautiful spectrum. By looking at love in this
way we can see how we fragment love in order for our
mind to understand it.
It is easy to see how we divide love in many different directions by looking at the conditions we impose on
love. We love our parents, our friends, our children, and
our partner. We love songs, places, and animals. All of
these different relationships are only a part of the totality, which is love, but they are not the whole thing. We
distort everything we perceive and because of this we do
not clearly see the different aspects of love.
When we merge all the radiant colors of the rainbow
I
together the result is white Light. And in the same way,
when all the different aspects of love are combined, the
result is Truth. It contains everything. So how can we
experience the fullness of love?
We cannot understand or experience what love is
until we reveal what love is not. I see this as knowing the
difference between conditional and unconditional love.
Conditions begin at an early age. When we are children
we want to be like the adults and from them we perceive
what they believe about love. This is the beginning of
our understanding and experience of love being fragmented because of early influences. We witness all the
dramas that our parents, our friends, and our brothers
and sisters create about love. But this is not really love
in the highest sense. Children play, pretending to be
adults, and they can hardly wait to grow older just to be
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51
like everyone else. I remember pretending to be a medical doctor. Children usually have such a beautiful smile,
but as soon as I pretended to be a medical doctor my face
changed right away and became very serious. Back then
I was only pretending, but when I grew up and became
a medical doctor my face really did change that way.
It is the same thing with all that romantic love. We
see our brothers or sisters falling in love and dating and
we wish to become older so we can do the same thing.
However, we also see all the dramas, the broken hearts,
and the consequences of those broken hearts. They say,
“Look at what he did to me.” They tell all their friends
and everyone knows how much they are suffering. We
learn that romantic love hurts. Then we finally grow up
and we start dating and falling in love and because of
this limiting belief we become like everyone else, distorting love. We follow the rules we were taught, that
love should be this way, a man should be this way, a
woman should be that way, and we believe that this is
love. But it is not true. We try to control the other person
but that is not love either; it is exactly the opposite. We
try to make our loved one the way we want them to be,
we grow jealous, possessive, and we create a huge
drama. If they are not the way we want them to be we
say they have broken our heart because love hurts, doesn’t it?
Ninety-nine percent of people love conditionally.
Everybody believes the way they feel is the way everyone should feel, however this is a great untruth. In the
same way, you defend your truth and you think this is
right and everybody else is wrong. But there are seven
billion people in this world who all believe they are
right. It is the same when it comes to love. We believe
that what we feel is really love, but it is not. This form
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of love is very selfish. We look for love, but in a very
conditional way because it has to be the way we want it
to be. We have Gods for everything. We have a God of
the thunder, a God of the sun, a God of the rivers, the
lakes, and the oceans. We even have the God and
Goddess of love and we really believe they exist.
However, that God or Goddess represents human sacrifice. Nowadays, we sacrifice in the name of love. You
can probably see how many times you have sacrificed
yourself in the name of love or how many times you
have sacrificed somebody else in the name of love. This
is clearly a tainted version of love.
When we put labels on the pure energy of love this
will distort it and once it is distorted it is no longer true
love. We distort love as soon as we use words to describe
what we feel. All of these words are labels that come
from our conditioning. For example, we feel intense
emotion, but instead of observing the extraordinary
energy force moving within us, we say, “I feel so sad, I
feel so angry,” and then we get caught up in melodramas
and our minds spin out of control, wallowing in memories of the past or fears of the future. We have lost the
power of the moment and in the process we have lost the
essence of the pure energy, which is always present. In
every culture and in every language we have invented
words and symbols to describe our moods and to give
meaning to love. No matter how rich the language, these
labels only serve to limit love. They are labels, not love,
and they are certainly not the Truth.
Love diffuses in many different ways yet it is all
from the same source, just as when we put white Light
through a prism all the colors of the rainbow are
revealed. We can liken our perspectives on love to how
we perceive Light. If we see brown or blue, for example,
we are only seeing a partial aspect of the whole picture.
What we are actually seeing is a reflection of our own
beliefs and limitations and this also colors what
we transmit in the name of love. Everything is
action and reaction.
When Jesus spoke to the public, only the
purest of white Light shone into the crowds.
When He spoke with His apprentices He was
also emanating that same pure white Light, but
the way it was received was a little different.
When He spent time with women the reflection
was received in a different way again. What is
important is that the love He was transmitting
was white Light, pure love directly from the
Source. The way everyone around Him perceived and received the love was different
according to their layers of conditioning. If you
meet Jesus Christ and He sends you white
Light your ability to receive and reflect His Light will be
dependent on your filters, or in other words, your limiting beliefs. Your level of radiance will not be as pure and
white as His. But with practice and awareness it may
become that way. This is the process of enlightenment.
The love you receive from your partner may not be the
white Light you receive from Christ. When the Light
you receive from those in your life is already distorted
you have a choice to either make it a little whiter or distort it even more. It is up to you!
It is a good idea to interact with people who send a
better quality of Light to you and that way you will
evolve more and more. Many cultures teach us to choose
our company with care. The disciples worked with the
white Light that came from Christ. When He worked
with a big group of people it was difficult to measure the
reaction, but when He worked with a little group it was
easier to measure the limitations falling away and the
pure love growing stronger. To be with someone like
Christ or Buddha will increase our ability to receive that
pure love. It is not that we do not have it, as we do, but
we distort it in our mind with our limited knowledge. As
a consequence what comes out of us is not what we really are, because in truth we are all just like the Christ and
Buddha. When love goes through the filters of our minds
it will emerge completely different and distorted. When
we learn from someone like Jesus Christ they will help
us to recognize those filters and to dissolve them, but no
one can do it for us. The easiest and best way to know
love is to be in the presence of pure love. It is written
that when the disciple is ready the master will appear.
In love or not?
To know pure love we need to understand what desire is.
Desire is completely normal, neither good nor bad, right
nor wrong, even though there are many religions and
philosophies that state it must be avoided! It all depends
on what we do with that desire. It can become obsession,
which is extremely destructive and will destroy everything we create. On the other hand, desire can become
passion. When this happens we really begin to love what
we are doing. That passion can take us to inspiration and
inspiration can take us to real love.
Nevertheless, obsession has the power to destroy
everything we create. For example, if we get married
and obsession comes into that marriage, sooner or later
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53
the marriage will be destroyed. If we create a business
and obsession goes into that business, sooner or later
that business will be destroyed. In reality our desire
shifts both ways, sometimes to obsession, sometimes to
passion. When the desire turns into obsession we fail in
our relationships, marriages, friendships, and businesses,
but when the desire turns into passion and inspiration we
radiate pure love, which is a reflection of who we really
are.
Expressing love for our world
We express love for our world because we have the
desire to. If, for example, we try to save the rainforests
and that desire turns into obsession, then in our efforts to
save the forest we will burn ourselves out and destroy
ourselves. The other option is that we get very passionate about saving the forest and then we really will be
doing something to help, but at the same time we will
have respect for everything else, not just the forest, or
the dolphins, or whatever it is we want to support. When
we feel passion, this is an expression of unconditional
white Light, pure love. Then, if something is not working the way we would like it to, we will not get upset.
We will simply express our desire without attachment to
outcomes, putting effort into saving the rainforest without expecting anything in return, including that the forest may not be saved. This is unconditional love.
idea of love or whatever, but this is not love. We are so
insecure that we become jealous about what our partner
is doing or not doing. We try to control them; the way
they walk, the way they talk, and the relationship
becomes a complete nightmare. And with that obsession
we destroy what we really want. And all of this is
because we do not love our self. We need to love the
main character of our story, which is our self, or else we
can only pretend to love the secondary characters.
The key point is when we become honest and aware
that we do not even like our self, we realize we cannot
expect anyone else to love us. The turning point happens
when we stop looking outside our self for love. If we do
not like a person, we can walk away. If we do not like a
group of people, we can walk away. But if we do not like
our self, wherever we go and whatever we do, we are
always going to be trapped with our self. We cannot just
walk away.
Most of the people who do not like themselves try to
bury their feelings of emptiness either by eating too
much, drinking too much, or indulging in something in
order to forget. They suffer and they hate themselves so
much that one way or another many of them end up
killing themselves. If we have awareness and we know
all the tricks we use to conceal our self-loathing we realize that these addictions are blocking our Light and love
from flowing and do not serve us at all. When we have
this awareness then we create reconciliation with our
own body, with our self. This is a wonderful step. It
begins a profound healing. The word yoga means union;
Loving our self
Loving our self is the first step to real love because we
cannot give what we do not have. If we do not love our
self, how can we pretend to love someone else? We may
feel the need to be loved, we may be obsessed with the
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union of knowledge, body, mind, and spirit. The problem is not the body, it is the mind and its limited knowledge. The body is judged by the mind. Therefore, the
mind is where we need to place our focus if we really
want to heal ourselves. We blame everything around us,
we see everything we do not like, and we try to change
the whole world. However, if we want to change the
whole world, we need to change ourselves first. If we
change ourselves then we can change the world and the
only way to do this is by loving ourselves. When we love
ourselves everything else then changes as if by magic
and we begin to shine.
About me
what I am not. And, of course, I accept
people the way they are. I have been
taught many lessons in my life about
love, but none of them are important.
They are all irrelevant because in truth
they were actually lessons in limitation.
What is really important is to enjoy life,
to love, to be in the moment, and to be
happy. No one can make you happy,
only you can make yourself happy. In
the same way we cannot make anyone
else happy either.
Now we are beginning to understand
what love is not, perhaps we can put our
eye on what love is. The only problem is
that it is so difficult to use words to
describe it. Because in a book we have
to use words, the easiest way for me to
define love is to say: love is the equilibrium between gratitude and generosity. We are so grateful to receive, and once we do, we become so generous
that out of the fullness of our hearts we start giving and
do not expect anything in return. We are being ourselves
completely with no conditions attached. We become
passionate. We react in that way because of the gratitude
we feel for what we receive and then the generosity of
who we really are shines forth. We do not have to and we
do not need to, it just comes out of us and the reason is
because we are love. We know we are made by love.
This is real love. This is pure love.
© Keidi Keating, Don Miguel Ruiz. Excerpt is printed with
permission of the publisher New Page Books.
http://www.newpagebooks.com
I can say I am a medical doctor, an author, and that I
used to play a lot of chess and guitar. I can tell you
everything that identifies me, but all that is just my creation. It is not me. I never even chose my name. I have
no idea what I am, but I am. I know I am alive, I am here,
that is the truth, and everything else is just an attempt to
describe my identity and I already know that I am not
that identity. That identity is the way I wish people
would perceive me, yet people distort that too and they
will not perceive me in the way I want to be perceived.
They will qualify me and according to what they believe
they will change it. They may believe they know me but
they do not. They know the image that they perceive, the
image that they judge, and vice versa. I really cannot say
that I know anyone, not even my own parents or my children. I can hardly say that I know myself. To not have to
pretend to be what I am not is a relief. I am what I am
and people either love me or not. I do not pretend to be
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YOGA FOR CANCER
Creating Your Yoga Practice
and Learning the Poses
By Tari Prinster
oga poses for cancer patients and survivors are not much different from those
for everyone else: we all need to
strengthen our immune systems and get
our muscles moving and fluids flowing!
Yoga for Cancer poses, however, are selected for their
specific benefits to target survivors â ™ needs.
Survivors can use many, but not all, yoga poses. Some
popular poses should be avoided, or used only with great
caution.
In this chapter fifty-three unique poses are provided
that are tailored to the specific needs of cancer patients
and survivors. Each pose is detailed with an illustration
and description along with any benefits and modifications. My recommendation is that you fully review all
these poses to better understand what options you have.
In chapters 7 and 8 I have sequenced these poses to provide sample practices of thirty, sixty, and ninety minutes
based on where you are in your treatment or recovery
and the side effects you are hoping to address (such as
lymphedema, bone loss, weight gain, anxiety, etc.).
Y
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Getting Warmed Up
- Starting to Move with Your Breath
- Arm Vinyasas
- Seated Hip and Spine Warm-Ups
Starting to Move with Your Breath
PELVIC TILT
Sit upright with hands on your hips. Use your hands to
bring awareness to the movement of the hips in this
sequence.
INHALE: Rock to the front of your sitz bones, moving
the front of your hips toward your thighs to arch your
spine. Lift your chest and draw your elbows behind you.
EXHALE: Rock to the back of your sitz bones, rounding your spine. Let your head fall forward as you pull
your belly back. Elbows move out to the sides.
Repeat sequence five times.
Benefits: Breath awareness, coordinating movement
with breath, spine mobility, hip flexibility, chest opening, releases neck tension, releases tension in upper and
lower back.
NECK STRETCH
Begin in your upright seat with your head balanced on
top of your spine, chin parallel with the floor.
INHALE: Lengthen your spine, sitting tall.
EXHALE: Slowly lean your left ear toward your left
shoulder. Relax the muscles on the right side of your
neck.
INHALE: Reach your right hand actively toward the
floor beside your right hip, turning your right hand so
the palm faces forward and then away from you.
EXHALE: Lean your head a little bit farther to the left
to increase the stretch.
INHALE: Bring your head back upright
EXHALE: Lean your head to the left, into the stretch.
Repeat the last two steps for five breaths. Then switch to
the second side, leaning right ear toward right shoulder
while reaching the left hand toward the floor.
Modifications: This sequence can also be done standing.
Benefits: Breath awareness; coordinating movement
with breath; releases neck, shoulder, and upper back tension.
Arm Vinyasas
CACTUS CLAP
Sit upright with palms on your thighs.
front of your face.
INHALE: Re-open your arms to cactus.
Repeat the last two steps for three breaths. Move slowly,
following your breath. Then lower your arms and rest
palms on your thighs.
Modifications: Forearms and palms may not come all
the way together. Bring them as close as is comfortable.
Benefits: Range of motion in shoulders and arms, chest
and upper back stretch, lymphatic drainage in arms.
CACTUS TWIST
Sit upright with palms on your thighs.
INHALE: Lift arms to cactus.
EXHALE: Holding your right cactus arm steady, bring
your left cactus arm across to your right, twisting your
spine to the right. Your forearms may or may not touch.
INHALE: Re-open your arms to cactus.
EXHALE: Repeat on second side, holding your left cactus arm steady and twisting left to bring your right forearm toward your left.
INHALE: Lift your arms to shoulder height, bend your
elbows to make a cactus shape, palms facing forward.
INHALE: Re-open to cactus.
EXHALE: Bring your palms and forearms together in
Repeat the entire sequence three times.
Benefits: Range of motion in shoulders and arms, upper
EARTH STAR
57
Sample Practices for Varying Stages of
Your Treatment and Recovery
30-, 60-, and 90-Minute Practices
This chapter offers sample practices based on various
challenge levels and durations of time so that you can
have the flexibility to choose different practices based on
how you are feeling. They are designed to be effective
for both new and experienced yoga practitioners. The
individual poses you learned in the previous pages are
carefully sequenced into complete practices. If you are a
cancer survivor in treatment, in recovery, maintaining
your new normal, or gaining new strength, these samplers are a way to structure your home practice. Or if you
are a yoga teacher for cancer patients or survivors, you
can use these sample sequences as a basic outline to help
plan your classes.
spine flexibility, chest and upper back stretch/strengthening, lymphatic drainage in upper body.
Seated Hip and Spine Warm-Ups
SEATED CAT / COW
Sit in a chair, cross-legged, or on your knees. Cup your
hands around your knees or thighs, extending your arms
as much as possible.
INHALE: Arch your spine, reaching your chest up
through your upper arms, belly moving toward thighs.
Pull on your knees with your hands.
Excerpted from Yoga for Cancer by Tari Prinster © 2014
Healing Arts Press. Printed with permission from the publisher Inner Traditions International.
http://www.InnerTraditions.com
Tari Prinster is a certified yoga teacher, founder of yoga4cancer, former director of Women’s Cancer Survivor Program at
Om Yoga, New York City, yoga ambassador for the Living
Beauty Foundation, and a breast cancer survivor. Her work
has been featured in the documentary YogaWoman and in
Yoga Journal. She has presented at conferences held by Yoga
Journal, Yoga Service Council, and International Alliance of
Yoga Therapists and has published articles in many yoga publications. She lives in New York City and Vermont.
EXHALE: Round your spine, belly away from thighs,
head bowing forward, as if wrapping your torso over a
beach ball. Press your hands against your knees.
Repeat sequence at least five times. If you are sitting
cross-legged, switch which leg is in front and repeat the
entire sequence an equal number of times.
Benefits: Full spine flexibility, chest and upper back
stretch/strengthening, stimulates lymph system in hips
and torso.
58
EARTH STAR
New SLOW City
L i v i n g S i m p l y. ..No Matter Where You Are
By William Powers
n 2007, I lived for a season in an off-grid permaculture cabin in North Carolina. No Name
Creek gurgled through a lush forest, and I
befriended the eclectic neighbors—organic
farmers, biofuel brewers, eco-developers. I discovered a sustainable but imperiled way of life, and
wrote about in my memoir Twelve by Twelve: A OneRoom Cabin off the Grid and Beyond the American
Dream.
Alas, the book triggered angry questions. “It’s easy,”
one Twelve by Twelve reader wrote, “to find minimalism,
joy, connection to nature, and abundant time in a shack
in the woods. But how the hell are the rest of us supposed to stay sane in our busy modern lives?” This question was the genisis of my new book: New Slow City:
Living Simply in the World’s Fastest City.
I received—in fact—a hundred variations of this
question after lectures and on radio interviews, and
always answered by saying I was living 12 x 12 values...
but in Queens, New York, the home to which I returned
after my time in the cabin. But as each year passed, the
reader’s doubt increasingly became my own as overwork, material clutter, and the lack of contact with
nature—“civilization,” in short—brought me to a point
of extreme unhappiness in Queens. Eventually, I too
doubted it was possible to live 12 x 12 in a city, and I felt
I
an urgent need to decamp far from urban life.
Not so fast. As I reached this point, my newlywed
wife, Melissa, was offered an excellent job that demanded we stay put in New York City, and I suddenly had no
choice but to figure out how to take what I’d learned in
the 12 x 12—about the Leisure Ethic, connecting to
nature, and living simply—and somehow make it work
in the real-world context of a marriage and two careers.
In an attempt to do this, Melissa and I embarked on
an experiment. We sold or gave away 80 percent of our
stuff, left our 1,600-square-foot Queens townhouse,
crossed the Williamsburg Bridge, and moved into a tiny
rental: a 340-square-foot “micro-apartment”—roughly
two 12 x 12s—in downtown Manhattan.
Melissa and I approached our thimble of an apartment through the ideas of philosopher Thomas Merton,
who called his stark monk’s chambers “the four walls of
my new freedom.” We stowed a minimal kit of kitchenware, toiletries, clothing, and books as if equipping a
houseboat’s trim hull. It was a refreshing purge; the
apartment seems to expand with each tweak.
We began to feel our well-being rise in proportion to
what’s been shed. A slim metal table in the kitchen welcomes the cutting board; jackets laze on his-and-her
hooks; sandals snuggle in their micro-shoe-apartment
beside the door.
EARTH STAR
59
rises up, I notice nut-brown oak branches and green
leaves fluttering with white butterflies. An off-turquoise
sky. Stretchy clouds. Ciao stress!
Beyond this minimalist freedom, I discovered that
being “Slow” is not at all Luddite. Slow means cultivating positive qualities—receptive, intuitive, reflective—
instead of the fast qualities so common today: busy,
agitated, acquisitive.
I began living and working smarter instead of faster.
Borrowing from author and entrepreneur Tim Ferris, I
spent my Slow Year practicing two principles at the
same time: 80/20 and the Hodgkinson’s Principle.
The 80/20 principle says that we accomplish 80 percent of work results in just 20 percent of our time.
Conversely, we more or less waste the other 80 percent
of our time on a paltry 20 percent of the results.
Dutifully, I 80/20ed my life and find that the principle holds true. In one particular week, for example, I
looked at all the potential work streams—in international consulting, writing, and speaking—that I could pursue, and distilled out that week’s most strategic one in
terms of income-to-time-invested and my current level
of enthusiasm: a high-end magazine article. Then I overlaid the Hodgkinson’s Principle. Hodgkinson’s says that
work expands to fill the amount of time available to
accomplish it.
Thus, having chosen the one most critical work
activity, I corralled it into a tight timeframe, and found
it works: I condensed what might have been five days of
work into two!
This approach spawned “reverse weekends” for me,
where I worked smarter for two-days and took five-day
weekends. This is not a utopian idea. Even Carlos Slim,
the world’s richest person, recently called for a 3-day
work week and Google is increasingly experimenting in
lowering hours and thus increasing employee creativity
and efficiency.
Other Slow City tools my wife and I discovered in
our year’s experiment are:
Technology fasting: We “fasted” from our gadgets for
stints, diabling our phones and setting email to vacation
mode. This helped quality of our relationship because
we had more time focused on each other.
Silent meals: Even in Manhattan’s fine restaurants,
we’d sometimes eat in total silence, deeply savor the
food, scents, soundscape, and visual beauty of the
restaurant in a meditative manner.
Though not everyone will live twelve-by-twelve, all
of us can ask: What’s my twelve by twelve? We can find
the elusive contours of enough—and live there. Enough
is the sweet spot between too little and too much. It
starts with each of us creating space to slow down a little and ask the core questions, like: How do we find balance in a world that is changing more quickly than ever
before in history? And how can we incubate a New Slow
City that’s saner now and fit for the future?
Born and raised on Long Island, William Powers has worked
for over a decade in development aid and conservation in
Latin America, Africa, Native North America, and
Washington, DC. He is a senior fellow at the World Policy
Institute and is on the adjunct faculty of New York University.
A third generation New Yorker, Powers has also spent two
decades exploring the American culture-of-speed and its
alternatives in some fifty countries around the world. He has
covered the subject in his four books and written about it in
the Washington Post and the Atlantic. An expert on sustainable development, he is a freelance writer and speaker. More
information at http://www.WilliamPowersBooks.com.
Based on the book New Slow City, © Copyright 2014 by
William Powers. Reprinted with permission from New World
Library. http://www.NewWorldLibrary.com
Urban sanctuaries: Melissa and I began spending more
and more time in natural and reflective places right in
Manhattan, like Central Park’s Ramble and the tip of
Pier 45.
Living on the third story: I discovered I only need half
my attention on the street level. As the rest of my focus
60
EARTH STAR
New Slow City
A Talk with William Powers,
Why did you write this book?
New Slow City originated with a somewhat angry question. It came from a reader of Twelve by Twelve: A OneRoom Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American
Dream, my previous book about living in a twelve-footby-twelve-foot off-grid cabin in North Carolina. “It’s
easy,” she wrote, “to find minimalism, joy, connection to
nature, and abundant time in a shack in the woods. But
how the hell are the rest of us supposed to stay sane in
our busy modern lives?”
I received a hundred variations of this question in
emails, after lectures, and during television and radio
interviews about Twelve by Twelve. I always answered
by saying I was living 12 x 12 values... but in Queens,
New York—the home to which I returned after my time
in the cabin.
But as each year passed, the reader’s doubt increasingly became my own as overwork, material clutter, and
the lack of contact with nature—“civilization,” in short
—brought me to a point of extreme unhappiness in
Queens. Eventually, I too doubted it was possible to live
12 x 12 in a city, and I felt an urgent need to decamp far
from urban life.
Not so fast. As I reached this point, my newlywed
wife, Melissa, was offered an excellent job that demanded we stay put in New York City, and I suddenly had no
choice but to figure out how to take what I’d learned in
the 12 x 12—about the Leisure Ethic, connecting to
nature, and living simply—and somehow make it work
in the real-world context of a marriage and two careers.
In an attempt to do this, Melissa and I embarked on an
experiment. We sold or gave away 80 percent of our
stuff, left our 1,600-square-foot Queens townhouse,
crossed the Williamsburg Bridge, and moved into a tiny
rental: a 340-square-foot “micro-apartment”—roughly
two 12 x 12s—on the fifth floor of a nineteenth-century
walk-up in downtown Manhattan.
Voila, New Slow City was born! It’s a memoir of a
year living the Leisure Ethic in a New York minute, an
adventure into smart-city trends ranging within the
growing global Slow Movement (Slow Food, Slow
Money, etc.).
As the world accelerates, shouldn’t we also go faster
to keep up and stay competitive? Slow feels a little,
well… Luddite.
At first blush, Slow evokes an interminable line at the
Department of Motor Vehicles. Slow is an old-fashioned
rotary phone, the kind that took so long to dial that, as
comedian Louis CK jokes, you kind of hated friends
who had 0s and 9s in their numbers. Slow is unAmerican—it’s inefficient, dull, and Luddite. Right?
Well, how about another perspective. Gallup recently
reported that 70 percent of American employees are
either unhappy or disengaged at work. Anxiety levels
among adolescents and adults are soaring, even compared to just two decades ago. One out of every four
adults in America experiences some form of depression
in the course of their lives. In Japan, they have a name
for people who die from overworking: karoshi. Could
we in the United States be tipping toward becoming a
nation of karoshis? I, for one, became so stressed by
constant work and the pace of city life that— before our
Slow Year experiment—I found myself nearly a karoshi
myself. I’m convinced that society must find a new equilibrium between the demands of business, the consumptive habits of society, and our own personal happiness.
Being “Slow” means being self-paced. Slow is not at all
Luddite. It means cultivating positive qualities—being
receptive, intuitive, patient, reflectiv—instead of the fast
qualities so common today: being busy, controlling,
impatient, agitated, acquisitive.
By living and working smarter instead of faster,
you’re likely be more competitive.
How do you work smarter?
Borrowing from author and entrepreneur Tim Ferris, I
spent my Slow Year practicing two principles at the
same time: 80/20 and the Hodgkinson’s Principle.
The 80/20 principle says that we accomplish 80 percent of work results in just 20 percent of our time.
Conversely, we more or less waste the other 80 percent
of our time on a paltry 20 percent of the results.
Dutifully, in New Slow City I 80/20 my life and find
that the principle holds true. In one particular week, for
example, I looked at all the potential work streams—in
international consulting, writing, and speaking—
that I could pursue, and distilled out that week’s most
strategic one in terms of income-to-time-invested and
my current level of enthusiasm: a high-end magazine
article. Then I overlaid the Hodgkinson’s Principle.
Hodgkinson’s says that work expands to fill the amount
of time available to accomplish it.
EARTH STAR
61
Thus, having chosen the one most critical work
activity, I corralled it into a tight timeframe, and found it
works: I condensed what might have been five days of
work into two.
This approach spawned “reverse weekends” for me,
where I worked smarter for two-days and took five-day
weekends. This is not a utopian idea. Even Carlos Slim,
the world’s richest person, has recently called for a 3day work week and Google is increasingly experimenting in lowering hours and thus increasing employee creativity and efficiency.
Granted, using 80/20 and the Hodgkinson’s
Principle won’t be ideal for everyone or all the time.
This approach is more suited to entrepreneurs and
hourly workers able to prioritize their own time and
tasks, nailing the most important ones as quickly as possible and thus freeing up time. But almost anyone can
create a small sideline work stream and apply these principles; eventually, perhaps, this side income might
become one’s main income.
How else can I slow down in my busy modern life?
Two great Slow City tools my wife and I discovered are
urban sanctuaries and third-story living.
First, Melissa and I began spending more and more
time in natural and reflective places right in Manhattan.
She loves Central Park’s Ramble—with its circuitous
paths looping down past waterfalls and pine groves—
and the Tudor City gardens perched above First Avenue
and 40th Street, an oasis to which she flees from her
Midtown office to eat brown-bag lunches amid birdsong. My favorite sanctuaries: Pier 45’s tip, where the
West Side High- way fades to a hum; a back seat in the
cathedral of St. John the Divine in late afternoon; and
the High Line, a new park sanctuary created from
unused urban infrastructure. Moongazing on our microapartment rooftop one night after dinner, we mused on
two other urban sanctuaries: Washington Square and
Madison Square Parks on warm days, when we love to
kick off sandals and lie back to savor that sensual press
62
EARTH STAR
of our bodies to the Earth. Gravity’s eros. And it’s mutual, since our bodies exert a tiny gravity on the Earth.
A second tool is “living at the third story,” which
challenges the street-level commandment that thou must
ingest sample sale and fast food come-ons wholesale. I
only need half my attention on the street, I discovered,
to keep from sleepwalking into traffic and other pedestrians. As the rest of my focus rises out of the buy-osphere and into the biosphere, I notice nut-brown oak
branches and green leaves fluttering with white butterflies. An off-turquoise sky. Stretchy clouds. A devious
gargoyle winking down at me from a portico. As gridlock, taxi-top strip-club ads, and the crush of shoppers
gets backgrounded, my body relaxes. My new foreground: the ebony shine of a baby grand piano through
an apartment window. And—look!—there’s the bright
white Washington Square Arch capped with a red-tailed
hawk, the sunlight gleaming on its wings.
Besides those two tools, we also experimented in:
• Technology fasts. We tuned off our gadgets for
weekends (sometimes for 5-day weekends!), utilizing
the “vacation auto-response” on our email. This helped
quality of our relationship because we had more time
focused on other and the “real” world around us.
• Silent meals. Even in Manhattan’s fine restaurants,
we’d eat in total silence, deeply savor the food, scents,
soundscape, and visual beauty of the restaurant in a
meditative manner. This made our lives feel deeper, richer,
more sensual and enjoyable.
Before your Slow Year, you took and your newlywed
bride took “uni-moons” instead of a honey moon.
What’s that?
Yes, as good New Yorkers Melissa and I had gotten
caught up in the prevailing turbo-capitalist ethos.
Americans work longer hours than the citizens of any
other country—fourteen more hours per week than an
average European—and on average we leave unused,
and so waste, 30 percent of our vacation time. I’d taken
on so many work commitments, mostly subconsciously,
to fit in and feel valued within the American system. I
overworked, eating quick meals at the laptop or between
flight connections.
So, even as Melissa and I married, in a small ceremony with family and close friends, our overworking
led us to join the disquieting “uni-moon” trend. Instead
of a honey- moon trip together in the busy weeks after
our wedding, we each took separate, individual vacations
without each other—uni-moons, or what amounted to a
few days of free time at the end of separate work trips.
She took hers in the Dominican Republic after a UN
capacity-building workshop; I took mine in Paris on a
forty-eight-hour stopover after a community forestry
consultancy in Liberia, West Africa. Strolling, alone, in
Montmartre that first evening, I found myself on the
smartphone, checking work emails. Looking up from
my phone, I was jolted aware that the Eiffel Tower and
all of Paris were stretched out before me in all their
beauty. I thought back to my North Carolina 12 x 12 and
wondered what had happened to one of the big lessons I
learned there: the need to balance my constant doing
with the joy of simply being—a kind of Leisure Ethic.
So you decided to change. What’s the biggest thing
you learned?
It’s hard to reduce what I learned to a soundbyte. It took
much effort to try and stretch a New York minute into an
hour, and a great way to discover what I learned is
through the new trend of Slow Reading. We’re so distracted by quick Tweets and the barrage of email that we
rarely sit with a book—New Slow City, for example!—
on a non-Internet-connected device or better yet the
physical book, and simply enjoy it for hours on end.
Slow Reading is a radical act in our workaholic era,
where economic growth is put before life itself.
The global environmental crisis is in no small part
related to our constant doing—consuming, burning fossil fuels, etc—instead of a benign and joyful being.
Ninetieth century British essayist Thomas Carlyle
wrote that “man was created to work, not to speculate,
or feel, or dream. Every idle moment is treason.” This is
even more the prevailing ethos today. It’s treasonous to
ask for something the American labor movement
demanded, a century back, when union members hoisted banners reading BREAD AND ROSES. The bread
was good wages. And the roses? American workers were
demanding time, in the form of shorter working hours.
Time to smell the roses.
Well, they didn’t get it. As Executive Director of the
non-profit work-life-balance group Take Back Your
Time! John de Graaf put it to me, “We’re working more
than we were a generation ago. Without leisure, we’re
slaves. This is a freedom fight.” (continued)
Time is a renewable resource, but we’re sold the
idea it’s scarce. It’s been stolen from overworked singlemoms and business executives. And from almost everybody I know. There’s a David-and-Goliath battle underway today all around the globe. People like de Graaf put
happiness first. Journalists like Carl Honoré report on
how American workers lost the roses. There’s spiking
interest in the international Slow Food movement and in
decompression activities like Tai Chi, Tantric sex, and
Slow Travel. In Austria each year, people gather from all
over Europe in the town of Wagrain for the annual conference of the Society for Deceleration of Time, whose
members explore pragmatic means of slowing down. In
Japan, the Sloth Club advocates a less-hurried and moreharmonious lifestyle, and it has swollen to seven hundred members, part of a trend called the “Latinization of
Japan.”
But do these growing movements stand a chance
against the Goliath of overwork?
I think they do. But it starts with each of us creating
space to slow down a little and ask the core questions,
like: How do we find balance in a world that is changing
more quickly than ever before in history? How do we
overcome our culture’s ingrained habits of too much
clutter, total work, and permanent distraction? And how
can we incubate a new culture that’s slower, saner, and
fit for the future?
EARTH STAR
63
4 Myths That Keep You
From Living F u l l y
and F e a r l e s s l y
By Anita Moorjani
ne of the biggest lessons I learned from
nearly dying of cancer is the importance of loving myself unconditionally.
In fact, learning to love and accept
myself unconditionally is what healed
me and brought me back from the brink of death. During
my workshops and speeches, I often tell the audience to
“Love yourself like your life depends on it, because it
does!”
Being at the brink of death taught me that my purpose in life is to be who I am, and express my authentic
self fearlessly. But I also learned that I would never fully
express myself unless I was able to accept and love
myself unconditionally. The extent to which I am fearless about expressing my authentic self is in direct correlation with how much I love and accept myself.
If you’re anything like me, you will feel that it’s one
thing to know the importance of loving ourselves in theory, but quite another thing to effectively put self-love
into practice. Most of us come from cultures and societies that do not promote, or even support, self-love, and
O
64
EARTH STAR
we often feel judged if we love ourselves, value ourselves, or put ourselves first.
It almost feels as though we live in an upside-down
world where we are taught the opposite of what would
really help us in life, and when we actually stumble
upon the truth of how to live our lives joyfully, we are
judged for practicing it.
Perhaps this is the reason why so many of us are
struggling through life—we are brought up to believe in
the opposite of what would really help us, and when we
inadvertently stumble upon the truth of how to live our
lives joyfully, we are judged for practicing it.
Below, I’ve listed some common myths which people seem to take as truths, and which I believe hold us
back from living our life fully:
Myth #1: It’s selfish to love yourself: To dispel this
myth, just look at its opposite: what does it look like if
we don’t love or value ourselves? We feel unworthy,
undeserving, and unlovable, and the person we become
is one who is needy with a void that we believe needs to
be filled by others because we believe that it’s selfish to
fill it ourselves.
This is the person I used to be. I was needy—and a
people pleaser—because I needed the validation of others in order to feel worthy. Now, I’ve noticed that when
we love ourselves, we don’t need the approval of others
in order to be who we are. Instead, we are able to bring
our fully-realized, joyful self out into the world—someone who others want to be around—instead of a self that
is needy, with a hole that needs to be filled from the outside.
Myth #2: Loving myself means needing constant selfcare, which could make me high maintenance: Many
have expressed to me that they believe loving and honoring ourselves simply means making the time in our
busy schedules to take care of ourselves—for example,
taking the time to meditate, smell the flowers, get a manicure, get our hair done, or get a massage—basically,
spend money on ourselves and give ourselves a treat.
People tell me “I must already really love myself,
because I do that type of stuff for myself all the time.
But my life still doesn’t work!”
Although I do think it’s important to take the time to
do those things for ourselves if it brings us pleasure,
here’s what self-love means to me: It means loving
myself even when I fail. Even when I’m feeling down,
and feel as though I have nothing left. Even when I feel
that everyone on the planet is against me and doesn’t
understand me. I need to be able to look myself in the
eyes, and say, “No matter what anyone else thinks, I will
not let myself down, or forsake myself. I will stay by my
own side!”
ity, I started to become fearful of having “negative”
thoughts. Whenever I had a fearful or insecure or negative thought, I would deny it, suppress it, and push it
away, believing that it would contribute towards manifesting into a negative physical reality. It was only after
almost dying of cancer, did I realize that I had been suppressing many of my thoughts and emotions, for fear of
being negative, and putting “negative thoughts” out
there. And this suppression only contributed to my illness. I then realized that it’s not my thoughts that create
my reality; it’s my emotions towards myself. That is, the
more I love myself, the better my external world. The
more I love and value myself, the more I allow positive
things to come into my life. The less I love myself, the
less I feel worthy of allowing positive things to come
into my life.
If I constantly suppress certain emotions and feelings within myself, judging them as being “negative”
and forcing myself to have more positive thoughts, the
message I am sending to my own self is that “my
thoughts are wrong. I should not be having these
thoughts!” Basically, I am denying who I am, and what
I am feeling. This is not a loving thing to do to myself,
and neither is it healthy to have all these feelings and
emotions bottled up inside. I have since realized that it’s
more important to be myself than it is to be positive. And
as a result, when I am positive, it is genuine and authentic.
Anita Moorjani is a speaker and bestselling author of
Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near
Death,
to
True
Healing.
Find
her
at
http://www.AnitaMoorjani.com or on Facebook.
Excerpted with permission from the publisher, Hay
House, http://www.hayhouse.com
Myth #3: Loving ourselves means being in denial of
our weaknesses Many believe that loving ourselves
means being in denial about our seeming failures, and
just talking ourselves with affirmations. However, this
isn’t the case. It’s not just about constantly praising ourselves, talking ourselves up and telling ourselves how
awesome we are. It’s about loving the REAL us! It’s
about loving the human “us.” The “us” who has feet of
clay, the “us” who comes undone under criticism, the
“us” who sometimes fails and disappoints those around
us. It’s about making a commitment to ourselves that we
will stick by “us,” even if no one else does! That’s what
lo ving ourselves means!
Myth #4: It’s important to always stay positive,
regardless of external circumstances: Although it’s
not a bad thing to have a positive attitude in life, I have
found that as someone who reads books that advocate
positive thinking, and how our thoughts create our realwww.earthstarmag.com
EARTH STAR
65

Issue #221 DECEMBER/JANUARY, 2015

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