MEMORIES OF HEAVEN - WAYNE W. DYER MEMORIES OF

Transcription

EARTH STAR
OCT / NOV 2015
CONSCIOUS LIVING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
MEMORIES OF HEAVEN - WAYNE W. DYER
THE BRAIN FOG FIX
FINDING YOUR
ANIMAL ALLY
DENISE LINN
MEDICAL MEDIUM
ANTHONY WILLIAM
7 CUPS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Contact Christopher for a remote Divine Healing session
via Skype.
http://www.christophermacklinministries.com
2
EARTH STAR
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015
www.earthstarmag.com
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015 EARTH STAR
3
EARTH STAR
CONTENTS
ON THE COVER
16 Memories of Heaven
Children’s Astounding Recollections of the Time
Before They Came to Earth
by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
27 7 Cups of Consciousness
by Aleya Dao
40 The Brain Fog Fix
Digital Distraction
by Dr. Mike Dow.
52 Go Wild To Thrive
The Key To Keeping Up With A World That Never Stops
by Anthony William - Medical Medium
59 Finding Your Animal Ally
Page 16
by Denise Linn
FEATURES
12 Down To Earth Astrology
by Tim Gunns
22 Grow New Brain Cells
\
by Forrest Ritiker
35 Theoretical Evidence for Human-to-Human
Transmission of Alzheimer's
by Dr. Joseph Mercola
43 We are Never Alone with Angels
by Marie-Ange Faugerolas
Cover Art
Private Meditation
by Jean-Paul Avisse
For further information,
contact
Prestige Art Galleries,
3909 W. Howard, Skokie,
IL 60076. (874) 679-2555,
www.prestigeartskokie.com
45 Live Love Soul
by Machel Shull
Page 59
47 Reaching for Insights
Stories of Love, Faith, and the Kitchen Sink
by Mitch Rosenzweig
57 Reflexology Made easy
Self-help Techniques for Everyday Ailments
by Ewald Kliegel
61 Search for Happiness
by Dennis Waite
63 7 Herbs To Help Boost Your Brain Power
by Jared Tropple, M.H.
65 In Memoriam - Wayne W. Dyer, Ph.D.
DEPARTMENTS
Jean-Paul Avisse
.
For a free color brochure,
please send a S.A.S.E.
5 Up Front
18 Book Reviews
Page 52
4
EARTH STAR
Earth Star Up Front
F
Research From 100+ Countries Proves Sunlight Prevents Cancer
or the same reason that the conventional energy industry has
not harnessed the full potential
of solar energy (its free!), sunlight and
its indispensable byproduct in our skin:
vitamin D, represents a serious threat to
the medical establishment, whose questionable and aggressive promotion of
vaccination and drug-based strategies in
place of inexpensive, safe and effective
vitamin D supplementation (or better,
carefully meted out recreation and sunlight exposure) for immunity, has many
questioning their motives.
Vitamin D, after all, has a vital preventive role to play in hundreds of conditions, due to the fact that 1 in every 10
genes in the human body depends on
adequate quantities of this gene-regulatory hormone to function optimally. In
other words, the very genetic/epigenetic
infrastructure of our health would fall
apart without adequate levels.
Even the risk for developing cancer,
one of the most feared health conditions
of our time — and the one the medical
establishment has had the least success
preventing and treating — is intimately
connected to your vitamin D
status.Sunlight exposure, after all, is
essential for health from the moment we
are born. Without it, for instance, infants
are prone to developing neonatal jaundice. The very variation in human skin
color from African, melanin-saturated
dark skin, to the relatively melanin depigmented, Caucasian lighter-skin, is a
byproduct of the offspring of our last
common ancestor from Africa (as determined by mitochondrial DNA) migrating towards sunlight-impoverished
higher latitudes, which began approximately 60,000 years ago.
In order to compensate for the
lower availability of sunlight, the body
rapidly adjusted, essentially requiring
the removal of the natural “sunscreen”
melanin from the skin, which interferes
with vitamin D production. While a lifesaving adaptation, the loss of melanin
likely has adverse health effects, which
include losing the ability to convert sunlight into metabolic energy, increased
prevalence of Parkinson’s disease
(which involves de-melanization of the
substantia nigra), and others effects
which we will discuss in
detail in a future article.
For now, it is important
to point out that within the
span of only 60,000 years (a
nanosecond in biological
time), many of the skin
“color” differences among
the world’s human inhabitants reflect how heavily
genetically-conserved was
the ability of the human
body to produce vitamin D.
It should also be pointed out that vitamin D is to sunlight, what
ascorbic acid is to the vitamin C activity
in food. In other words, sunlight likely
provides a greater spectrum of therapeutic activity (when carefully meted out,
preferably during solar noon) than supplemental vitamin D3, which is almost
exclusively derived from UVB irradiated sheep’s lanolin.
Indeed, a groundbreaking new
meta-analysis on the sunlight - vitamin
D connection, published in the journal
Anticancer Research and based on data
from over 100 countries, found that “a
strong inverse correlations with solar
UVB for 15 types of cancer,” with
weaker, though still significant evidence
for the protective role of sunlight in 9
other cancers.
The relevant cancers were:
“Bladder, breast, cervical, colon,
endometrial, esophageal, gastric, lung,
ovarian, pancreatic, rectal, renal, and
vulvar cancer; and Hodgkin’s and nonHodgkin’s lymphoma. Weaker evidence
exists for nine other types of cancer:
brain, gallbladder, laryngeal, oral/pharyngeal, prostate, and thyroid cancer;
leukemia; melanoma; and multiple
myeloma.”
Sunlight exposure, after all, is
essential for health from the moment we
are born. Without it, for instance, infants
are prone to developing neonatal jaundice. The very variation in human skin
color from African, melanin-saturated
dark skin, to the relatively melanin depigmented, Caucasian lighter-skin, is a
byproduct of the offspring of our last
common ancestor from Africa (as determined by mitochondrial DNA) migrating towards sunlight-impoverished
higher latitudes, which began approximately 60,000 years ago.
In order to compensate for the
lower availability of sunlight, the body
rapidly adjusted, essentially requiring
the removal of the natural “sunscreen”
melanin from the skin, which interferes
with vitamin D production. While a lifesaving adaptation, the loss of melanin
likely has adverse health effects, which
include losing the ability to convert sunlight into metabolic energy, increased
prevalence of Parkinson’s disease
(which involves de-melanization of the
substantia nigra), and others effects
which we will discuss in detail in a
future article.
For now, it is important to point out
that within the span of only 60,000
years (a nanosecond in biological time),
many of the skin “color” differences
among the world’s human inhabitants
reflect how heavily genetically-conserved was the ability of the human
body to produce vitamin D.
It should also be pointed out that
vitamin D is to sunlight, what ascorbic
acid is to the vitamin C activity in food.
In other words, sunlight likely provides
a greater spectrum of therapeutic activity (when carefully meted out, preferably
during solar noon) than supplemental
vitamin D3, which is almost exclusively
derived from UVB irradiated sheep’s
lanolin. —The Best Years in Life\
EARTH STAR
5
Looking for Customers?
EARTH STAR
The Leading Magazine for Holistic Living
in New England
EDITOR/PUBLISHER
Cody Bideaux
[email protected]
Advertise with
Earth staR
- [email protected]
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Tim Gunns
[email protected]
ADVERTISING OFFICES
828-452-9864
email: [email protected]
EDITORIAL OFFICE
828-452-9864
email: [email protected]
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
Tim Gunns
Janessa Howard
DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Earthstar Productions
Jay Scott Hackleman
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Aleya Dao • Mike Dow • Wayne W. Dyer
Marie-Ange Faugerolas • Tim Gunns •
Ewald Kliegel • Denise Linn • Joseph Mercola
Forrest Ritiker • Mitch Rosenzweig
Machel Shull • Jared Tropple
Dennis Waite • Anthony William
SUBMISSIONS
Manuscripts, artwork, and photographs
must be accompanied by a self-addressed,
stamped envelope. Earth Star Magazine
cannot be responsible for loss or
damage of unsolicited materials.
Earth Star Magazine is not
responsible for advertising claims.
Earth Star Magazine, Copyright © 2015
by Earth Star Magazine Incorporated,
All Rights Reserved. No articles may be used
without written permission of the publisher
Volume XXXVIl No. 226 — October / November 2015
http://www.earthstarmag.com
6
EARTH STAR
CCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015
Earth Star Up Front
A
t the same time that Monsanto’s
corruption is infiltrating every
corner of U.S. academia, government regulators and corporate-controlled media, Russia has just
announced a total ban on the cultivation
of GMO crops.
“A senior Russian government
member told reporters the cabinet decided that any food production in the country will completely exclude any genetically-modified organisms or parts thereof,” reports RT.com.
RT reports:
According to official statistics the
share of GMO in the Russian food
industry has declined from 12 percent to
just 0.01 percent over the past ten years,
and currently there are just 57 registered food products containing GMO in
the country. The law ordering obligatory
state registration of GMO products that
might contact with the environment will
come into force in mid-2017.
This puts Russia in a powerful position of producing nearly 100% nonGMO foods for both domestic consumption and export. Most consumers
around the world, when given a choice,
prefer to eat non-GMO foods. In the
United States, the criminally-run food
industry front group—the Grocery
Manufacturers of America—is desperately trying to block all GMO food
GMO Crops Totally Banned in Russia
labeling in order to keep consumers in
the dark about what they’re eating.
Nearly the entire mainstream media,
likewise, has also been bought off by the
biotech industry and refuses to cover the
truth about GMOs. (Which is why sites
like GMO.news are becoming so popular among independent thinkers.
Hungary is also working hard to
produce GMO-free food products for its
own people. As reported on GMO.news:
Hungary’s Ministry of Agriculture
believes that keeping Hungarian agriculture GMO-free is a matter of “extremely high strategic importance.” In fact,
Hungary’s Constitution states that:
Hungary shall promote the effective
application of the right referred to in
Paragraph (1) by an agriculture free of
genetically modified organisms, by
ensuring access to healthy food and
drinking water, by organising safety at
work and healthcare provision, by supporting sports and regular physical
exercise, as well as by ensuring the protection of the environment.
Monsanto, widely known as the
world’s most evil corporation, has
turned the United States into a massive
GMO experiment by recruiting a literal
mafia of academics by offering them
monetary bribes disguised as “grants.”
The University of Florida’s disgraced
agricultural scientist Dr. Kevin Folta
was recently exposed for financial collusion with Monsanto—a fact that even
the New York Times could not ignore.
—Natural News
Pesticides Used on GM Crops Survive in Our Digestive Tracts
A
ccording to new research from
Canadian scientists, the pesticides used on genetically modified (GM) crops and, in some cases,
the genes used to create GM crops are
able to survive in our digestive tracts,
move into our bloodstreams, and, in the
case of pregnant women, show up into
their developing infants. The study, in
press in the journal Reproductive
Toxicology, contradicts that biotech
companies are either misleading or
inaccurate when they repeatedly reassure the government and public health
organizations that genes and bacteria
inserted into GM crops cannot survive
the digestive tract.
“Monsanto and the Environmental
Protection Agency swore up and down
that it was only insects that would be
hurt” by GM crops, says Jeffrey Smith,
founder of the Institute for Responsible
Technology, a nonprofit devoted to educating the public about the risks of
genetically modified crops. “They were
wrong.”
—The Best Years in Life
EARTH STAR
7
Earth Star Up Front
US Military Foresees Robot-Run ‘Transportation Hub’ in Space
T
he future of spaceflight involves
building, refueling and repairing spacecraft in a depot far
from Earth, all without the aid of human
hands, officials with the United States
military say.
The Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a highly capable robotic arm that
could make such a space “transportation
hub” possible in the relatively near
future, said former NASA astronaut
Pam Melroy, deputy director of
DARPA's Tactical Technology Office.
“We think that these capabilities—
space capabilities—are not just about a
single monolithic satellite with a few
capabilities, but instead about a vibrant,
robust ecosystem that involves transportation, repair, refueling, upgrading,
[and] in situ construction,” Melroy said
at DARPA's “Wait, What? A Future
Technology Forum” in St. Louis.
“Look at the great seafaring port
cities in the world for inspiration, and
imagine a port of call at 36,000 kilometers,” she added.
Thirty-six thousand kilometers
(22,370 miles) is the distance from Earth
at which satellites fly in geosynchronous
orbit, or “GEO” for short. Spacecraft at
GEO—which include most operational
telecommunications satellites—complete
one lap in the same amount of time it
A
from Earth to the moon—are too high for
astronauts to tolerate safely over long
durations, so this future facility would be
run by robots, Melroy added.
The key to making all of this happen therefore lies in advanced space
robotics—“robotic arms very much like
the one that was used to build the
International Space Station, but with
greater levels of automation and safety,”
Melroy said.
“DARPA is building just such a
robotic arm,” she added. “We think this
is a critical capability to building a
transportation hub that allows transporation to and from the Earth’s surface,
from low-Earth orbit to GEO, and even
beyond Earth orbit.”
—Space.com
Prescription Drugs 62,000 Times More Likely to Kill You Than Supplements
ccording to data released by
the UK-based Alliance for
Natural Health International
(ANH-Intl), pharmaceutical drugs are
62,000 times more likely to kill you
than supplements. In fact, the data collected by ANH-Intl demonstrates that
food supplements are the safest substances regularly consumed by UK cit-
8
takes Earth to
rotate once on its
axis, and therefore
appear to “hover”
over one spot on
the planet all the
time.
It
makes
much more sense
to build a transformative transportation hub at
GEO than at lowEarth orbit (LEO), which lies at an altitude between 186 miles and 373 miles
(300 to 600 km), Melroy said.
For one thing, orbital velocity at
GEO is lower, reducing the risk of serious collisions with space junk. GEO is
also a much more stable orbit, because
satellites located there are not nearly as
affected by atmospheric drag. Whereas
spacecraft at LEO (such as the
International Space Station) will fall
back to Earth within 25 years or so
unless orbit-boosting maneuvers are
performed, objects at GEO will stay put
on their own for up to 1 million years,
Melroy said.
“We think this sounds like a really
interesting place to put infrastructure,
because it's such a stable place,” she said.
Radiation levels so far from Earth—
GEO lies about ten percent of the way
EARTH STAR
izens even though they are the target of
increasingly restrictive European legislation aimed at ‘protecting consumers.’
The data found that pharmaceutical drugs were also 7,750 times more
likely to result in death than herbal
remedies. Both food supplements and
herbal remedies were placed in the
‘supersafe’ category of individual
risk—with a less than one in ten million risk of death.
By contrast, being admitted to a
UK hospital or taking prescription
drugs exposes a person to one of the
greatest preventable risks in society.
Overall, preventable medical injuries
in UK hospitals expose patients to the
same risk of death as being deployed
on military service to Afghanistan—
both of which are around 300,000
times greater than the risk of death
from taking natural health products.
ANH-Intl executive and scientific
director, Dr. Robert Verkerk, PhD,
hailed the figures as shedding new light
on the question of natural healthcare’s
safety. “These figures tell us not only
what activities an individual is most or
least likely to die from, but also what
the relative risks of various activities
are to society as a whole. It puts some
real perspective on the actual risk of
death posed by food supplements and
herbal remedies at a time when governments are clamping down because they
tell us they're dangerous.”
Earth Star Up Front
Antibacterial Book Made From Nanoparticles Cleans Water In Third World
T
hey say you shouldn’t judge a
book by its cover. However, in
the Third World, where clean
drinking water is often hard to come by,
the only way to judge a revolutionary
new “drinkable book” is by the effectiveness of its cover and pages.
A nanoparticle-infused novel of
sorts is the latest approach being undertaken by do-gooders throughout Africa
who aim to develop a safe, simple way
for the less fortunate to purify drinking
water without the need for chemicals.
It’s a simple process. The pages of
this drinkable book are specially coated
with nanoparticles of silver and copper,
both of which are known antibacterials.
Its developers say they can be dipped into
non-potable water in order to purify it.
Trials in some 25 locations
throughout Africa where water supplies
are contaminated show incredible promise, with the metal-fortified pages
removing some 99 percent of harmful
bacteria, according to reports.
Small amounts of copper and silver
leach into the water, of course. But both
of these metals can be beneficial and
have minimal toxicity, especially at the
minute levels released. Therefore,
researchers say the method can be an
effective way to purify putrid water
when other, more expensive alternatives
are in short supply.
“It’s directed towards communities
in developing countries,” stated Dr. Teri
Dankovich, a postdoctoral researcher
from Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and one of the
developers of the edible book, at the
recent 250th national meeting of the American
Chemical Society (ACS).
“All you need to do is
tear out a paper, put it in a
simple filter holder and pour
water into it from rivers,
streams, wells, etc. and out
comes clean water—and dead
bacteria as well,” she told
BBC News.
Some 663 million people around the world currently have no
access to clean water, Dr. Dankovich
says. It could be many years before
more advanced water purification solutions are developed in many of these
areas, hence the need for a simpler
approach.
With purifying silver and copper
paper, she says, this widespread thirst
pandemic can be minimized for pennies
on the dollar thanks to the amazing
cleansing power of these natural metals.
“Ions come off the surface of the
nanoparticles, and those are absorbed by
the microbes,” she explained about how
the technology works, noting that a single
page of the drinkable paper is capable of
purifying up to 100 liters of water. An
entire book, she says, could purify a person's water supply for up to four years.
“Greater than 90 percent of the
samples had basically no viable bacteria
in them, after we filtered the water
through the paper. It’s really exciting to
see that not only can this paper work in
lab models, but it also has shown success with real water sources that people
are using.”
In early laboratory trials, Dr.
Dankovich and her team showed that the
paper was effective at treating artificially
contaminated water. Later, in field trials,
she found that the paper worked in nearly every real-world application, reducing
bacteria levels by well over 99 percent on
average. In most cases, it was 100 percent
effective
Even in heavily contaminated raw
sewage samples, the paper was found to
purify water at an exceptionally impressive rate.
“There was one site where there
was literally raw sewage being dumped
into the stream, which had very high
levels of bacteria,” she stated. “But we
were really impressed with the performance of the paper; it was able to kill the
bacteria almost completely in those
samples.”
“We need to get [this paper] into
people's hand to see more of what the
effects are going to be. There’s only so
much you can do when you're a scientist
on your own.”
—Natural News
HIGHER VITAMIN C LEVELS LINKED TO LOWER RISK OF HEMORRHAGIC STROKE
A
presentation at the American
Academy
of
Neurology
revealed a protective effect for
high plasma levels of vitamin C against
the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.
Hemorrhagic stroke is characterized by
bleeding in the brain and, although less
common than ischemic stroke, is associated with a greater risk of mortality.
“Scurvy is caused by vitamin C
deficiency, specifically a plasma vitamin
C concentration of less than 11 micromoles per liter, and may have hemorwww.earthstarmag.com
rhagic manifestations,” write authors
Stèphane Vannier, MD, of Pontchaillou
University Hospital in Rennes, France
and colleagues. “Vitamin C depletion
(less than 38 micromoles per liter) is
associated with cardiovascular diseases
and could increase intracerebral hemorrhage risk.”
“Our results show that vitamin C
deficiency should be considered a risk
factor for this severe type of stroke, as
were high blood pressure, drinking
alcohol and being overweight in our
study,” Dr Vannier stated. “More
research is needed to explore specifically how vitamin C may help to reduce
stroke risk. For example, the vitamin
may regulate blood pressure.”
“There are multiple physiopathological mechanisms given the involvement of vitamin C in blood pressure
regulation and collagen synthesis,” the
authors note. “Additional work is
required to confirm our findings.”
—Life Extension Magazine
9
Earth Star Up Front
Inflatable ‘Space Elevator’ Invented By Scientists
A
stronauts would ascend 12
miles into the stratosphere
before taking off under new
plans to build a space lift.
It is an idea that every small child
has had at some point. Instead of sending up rockets into space, why not simply build a huge lift.
Now a Canadian firm has been
granted a patent for a ‘space elevator’
which will shoot cargo 12.4 miles into
the stratosphere from where it can be
launched more easily.
According to Thoth Technology,
the lift would cut the cost of space flight
by around one third because shuttles
would not need to carry enormous
amounts of fuel to get themselves off
the ground.
“Astronauts would ascend to 12
miles by electrical elevator,” said Dr
Brendan Quine, the inventor.
“From the top of the tower, space
planes will launch in a single stage to
orbit, returning to the top of the tower
for refuelling and reflight.”
Rockets are incredibly inefficient
because they need huge amounts of
power to get off the ground, using up
most of their fuel fighting against inertia
and atmospheric drag.
Engineers had always believed that
space elevators would be unfeasible
because no material exists which could
support itself at such a height—
although diamond nano-threads have
been suggested.
However the new design by Thoth
gets around the problem by only building the elevator to 12.4 miles so that it
sits in the stratosphere rather than going
all the way out into geostationary orbit,
where satellites fly, which is around
22,000 miles up.
Dubbed the ‘ThothX Tower’ it
would be inflatable, made with reinforced segments and topped with a runway from which satellite payloads could
be launched. It would stay upright using
a complex arrangements of fly-wheels
to compensate for the tower bending.
The patent suggests that either pressurised cars would run in the core of the
structure—like in traditional pneumatic
tube message systems, or alternatively,
10
EARTH STAR
they could climb up
the outside of the
shaft like a funicular
railway. Each car
could carry around 10
tonnes of cargo.
According to the
designers, the tower
could also be used for
scientific research,
communications, and
generate energy from
high up wind turbines.
And the elevator
could open up new
possibilities for space
tourism, bringing down
the cost of flights and
making travel more
convenient.
“Landing at 12
miles above sea level
will make space flight
more like taking a passenger jet,” said Thoth
President and CEO,
Caroline Roberts.
Even though it
does not go all the
way to space, the
blueprints suggest it
would be 20 times
taller than the current
highest
manmade
structure, the Burj
Khalifa, in Dubai.
Space elevators
were first suggested
by Russian scientist
K o n s t a n t i n
Tsiolkovsky in 1895.
Tsiolkovsky proposed a freestanding
tower reaching into geostationary orbit.
Arthur C Clarke also wrote about a
space lift in his 1979 novel The
Fountains of Paradise claiming it would
bring down costs by transporting cargo
directly up to satellites.
Structural engineer Peter Debney,
from Arup, last year proposed a space
lift based on how cathedrals control
their centre of gravity by tapering at the
top.
And in the US, the Washington
based LiftPort Group is also planning is
to use a ‘ribbon’ cable to transport material, robots and even humans to and
from the surface of the Moon.
It will be attached to a space station
in a Lagrange Point—where the Moon
and Earth’s gravity cancel each other
out out—so a spacecraft or station can
remain stationary.
The cable from the station, dubbed
the PicoGravity Laboratory (PGL), will
drop down to a location on the Moon via
an elevator positioned at an area called
Sinus Medii, roughly in the middle of
the face that looks towards Earth.
—The Telegraph, UK
Earth Star Up Front
Huge, Newly Discovered Monument Dwarfs Nearby Stonehenge
M
ove over Stonehenge. The
mysterious ancient monument looks to have an even
larger neighbor hidden beneath a nearby bank as revealed by cutting-edge
technology.
Stonehenge is one of the most iconic
examples of a prehistoric monument we
have, but it turns out that it may be
dwarfed in size by something buried
underground less than two miles away.
Researchers have been going over the
area using ground-penetrating radar and
other non-invasive technologies for the
past few years and their data seems to
show a major new stone monument.
“Our high resolution ground penetrating radar data has revealed an amazing row of up to 90 standing stones a
number of which have survived after
being pushed over and a massive bank
placed over the stones,” professor
Wolfgang Neubauer, director of the
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for
Archaeological Prospection (LBI
ArchPro), said in a release.
The row of huge (some believed to
have originally measured over 12 feet in
length) buried stones run along the flank
of Durrington Walls, a lesser-known but
larger prehistoric site a short walk from
Stonehenge. Many of the stones seemed
to have been pushed over and then
buried beneath a huge bank to form
what one of the project leaders
describes as a sort of "”fence or boundary” to an area that was likely one of the
more important spots in Stone Age
northwestern Europe.
“This latest work has given us
intriguing evidence for previously
unknown features buried beneath the
banks of the massive henge monument at
Durrington Walls,” said Phil McMahon
of the preservation organization Historic
England. “The possibility that these features are stones raises fascinating questions about the history and development
of this monument, and its relationship to
the hugely important Neolithic settlement contained within it.”
Stonehenge and Durrington Walls
are believed to have been the site of
neolithic burial and ritual grounds near
the river Avon, dating back between
4,000 and 5,000 years. As Crave’s
Michelle Starr reported last year, LBI
ArchPro’s Hidden Landscapes Project
has recently revealed a number of other
historic monument sites in this ancient
neighborhood, but this is the biggest
find yet for the project.
“I don’ think we could have anticipated finding not just a new monument
underlying a very well known one, but
to have these ruins of stone, it's a completely new bit of information... the like
of which archaeology has never seen in
Britain before,” lead researcher Vince
Gaffney of LBI ArchPro told the BBC.
—CNET
Our Grocers Shelves Contain Food Ingredients Banned in Other Countries
A
ccording to the new book Rich
Food, Poor Food, ingredients
commonly found in up to 80
percent of all pre-packaged foods on
grocers shelves in the U.S. have been
banned in other countries. As alarming
as such information is, our food safety
outlook becomes even bleaker when
we consider other banned and toxic
food items.
In the book, authors Mira and
Jason Calton provide a list of banned
ingredients as well as the countries
which have banned them. Among the
items is Olestra—commonly used in
low/no-fat snack foods and known to
cause serious gastrointestinal issues—
which has been banned in the United
Kingdom and Canada.
Worse is brominated vegetable oil, a
substance found in Mountain Dew and
Fresca which has been banned in more
than 100 countries. As the authors state,
brominated vegetable oil “has been
linked to basically every form of thyroid
disease—from cancer to autoimmune
diseases—known to man.”
Other dangerous items listed
include food colorings—such as yellow
#5 and yellow #6, dyes used to make
mac & cheese dinners visually appeal-
ing. Those dyes are made from coal tar,
an active ingredient in lice shampoo
which has been linked to allergies,
ADHD, and cancer in animals.
Thanks in part to GM engineering,
US produce contains serious levels of
pesticides as well as herbicides such as
Roundup and other glyphosphates.
Researchers in Europe have found that
the weed killer Roundup has serious
toxic effects due to inert ingredients
that amplify the toxicity of Roundup’s
active ingredient, glyphosate. As a
result, Roundup is banned in nearly
every European country.
Due to growth stimulators such as
ractopine as well as antibiotics which
are added to our meats, over 160 countries say “no” to U.S. meats.
EARTH STAR
11
OCTOBR - NOVEMBER 2015
T
he sun squares mighty Pluto
on October 6th, a cosmic
augury to identify and change
behavior patterns or business
practices that no longer work
for you. Excessive pressures, from within, or
without, may even force you to make some
radical changes. Sexual tension and mounting passions are also part of the mix, when
the wise will avoid attempts at emotional
manipulation.
When Mercury sextiles Saturn also on the
6th (and again on Oct 13th) consider business
decisions, and if planning to buy or sell real
estate, or to sign or negotiate contracts, do so
after Mercury resumes direct motion on the
9th. Organize your office or place of work for
greater efficiency. Seek sage advice from an
elder or authority figure.
Be alert to self-destructive impulses or giving
vent to suppressed anger when Mars opposes
Neptune later on the 6th. Avoid artificial
stimulants now, as one’s physical tolerance
may be below par. Deception or deceit could
be rife, and the truth behind actions or events
may be deliberately obscured. Escapist tendencies prevail, so know where you’re going
and what’s prompting your actions.
Venus enters Virgo on the 8th (till Nov 8).
Get in touch with your emotions during the
next five weeks, identify what it is that
‘pushes your buttons’. Seek alliances with
those who share your work or intellectual
interests. Spruce up your place of work.
After Mercury stations Direct on October
9th, in 01° Libra, formerly sluggish mental
processes over the past three weeks will
begin to accelerate and become more
dependable. It’s celestially safe now to gradually move ahead with plans, and to sign
12
EARTH STAR
important documents, but only after careful
consideration, as there'll be a tendency to
want to rush matters over the next several
days, so avoid making hasty decisions.
Spend some quiet time alone when Venus
squares Saturn on the 10th, as a more serious
than social vibe pervades the ethers now.
Consider ways to stabilize your cash flow.
Giant Jupiter trines distant Pluto on the 11th
for their first such precise (120°) alignment
since October 2011. Self-improvement
through creative enterprise and spiritual
evolvement is encouraged now, and in the
coming weeks. Relative to one's natal horoscope, the present house locations of Jupiter
and Pluto indicate the life areas in which the
transformation of stagnant conditions may
have become necessary, in order for further
evolutionary progress and personal growth to
be made.
Restlessness could inspire radical changes
when the sun opposes Uranus later on the
11th. Anticipate the unexpected around this
juncture. Back-up important computer files.
Interpersonal relations are in the spotlight
following October’s new moon on the 12th,
in 20° Libra. Seek new creative alliances
with like-minded individuals and groups during the next four weeks. The spirit of independence is abroad now, so give partners and
colleagues plenty of space and latitude. Be
willing to take action for what you believe in.
Mars trines Pluto on the 15th, when levelheaded actions combine well with will
power. Improve efficiency wherever possible. Begin a new physical exercise regimen.
A saber rattling, passion-rousing conjunction
between two boisterous heavyweights of the
celestial pantheon, Mars and Jupiter, occurs
on the 17th, in 15° of tropical Virgo. Events
that transpire now could precipitate a veritable tidal wave of revolutionary sentiment.
Many may rally to support a cause or respond
to a call for help.
Seek ways to revitalize financial or business
practices when Venus trines Pluto on the
23rd, and greater harmony in close personal
relationships. An intense but meaningful
relationship could begin for some.
Passions deepen later on the 23rd when the
sun enters Scorpio (till Nov 22), while feelings and emotions are experienced more
intensely. Use this four-week transit to regenerate and recharge yourself. Eliminate that
which no longer serves a useful purpose in
your life, as a new phase of growth and
expansion begins shortly.
A visually stunning alignment of Venus and
Jupiter, the two benefics or gift-bearers of the
zodiac, occurs on the 25th, when good vibrations and worldly success potential abound.
Artistic interests and affairs of the heart can
flourish. However, the ‘urge to splurge’ and
go overboard with spending also pervades
the ethers, so extra self-restraint may be
called for now.
An earthy full moon in 04° Taurus occurs on
the 27th, which may bring finances and personal values into sharp focus. Discard expensive habits or deep-rooted, self-sabotaging
fears or phobias, particularly where love and
money are concerned.
When the sun trines Neptune on October
30th, focused visualization on a desired outcome could bring rapid results, while creative artistry of all kinds can flourish, so give
your imagination free rein!
/www.earthstarmag.com
Down To Earth Astrology
Mercury slips quietly into Scorpio on
November 1st (till Nov 20). Keep all communications on the level now, and avoid deception. Impassioned flights of fancy are not
uncommon during this transit, when deep
thoughts can emerge. Investigate recycling.
Gender planets Venus and Mars align in conjunction on the 2nd, promoting harmony
between, and among, the sexes. Indeed, love
may bloom, for those available, and passions
will be on the rise. This alignment is favorable
for most forms of creative self-expression.
The sun sextiles Pluto on the 5th, when
efforts geared toward self-improvement are
strongly favored. An opportunity may arise
to express your unique creative abilities
through business or career activities, so be
enterprising. Carpé diem!
A moment of awareness could provide the
solution to an old problem when Mercury
trines Neptune on the 6th. New ideas or
experiences may come your way, while spiritual or metaphysical study now could be
particularly enlightening.
is not serving our highest good. As Scorpio is
the sign of regeneration, where this lunation
falls in one’s horoscope can indicate the life
area that is ripe for release and rebirth. Resolve
sensitive issues around intimacy during the
next four weeks. The changes you make now
will stimulate new growth and creative enterprise in the months ahead.
and visions for the future.
Mars enters Libra on the 12th (till Jan 3), a
time to avoid unnecessary competitiveness
and impatience, as egos are more easily
bruised. Productivity now may depend on
the cooperation or approval of others.
Indeed, we can learn much about ourselves
through our interactions with others during
this period.
Mercury squares Neptune late on the 24th,
so it might be wise not to commit to anything
just now without checking all the facts and
details, as confusion is likely. Guided
imagery techniques can help you to focus.
Venus sextiles Saturn on the 13th, when the
reestablishment of a past tie or connection
may have karmic implications. Reorganize
business affairs now to increase stability and
efficiency. Seek financial investors for business ventures. Discuss partnership or business expectations.
Be considerate of partners, close associates
and friends when a potentially troublesome
opposition between Venus and Uranus
occurs on the 23rd. Emotions are excitable
and volatile now. Forbidden fruit may seem
appealing. Be sure to tighten purse strings!
November’s full moon culminates on the
25th, in 04° Gemini. One’s everyday physical circumstances may in some way come
into focus in the days around this lunation.
Some may be contemplating a change of surroundings, while it could even be forced
upon others. Release whatever or whomever
no longer serves you now, particularly in
regard to associations that may no longer
have relevance. Observe how you communicate around this juncture for ways in which
you may improve interpersonal relations.
Venus moves out of Virgo and enters Libra
on the 8th, till Dec 4th, signaling a time to
cultivate artistic abilities, and to seek greater
harmony in all relationships—personal,
social, and business.
When the sun and Mercury align in conjunction in 25° Scorpio on the 17th, you’ll be
more inclined to want to express your
thoughts and views. Indeed, this is often a
planetary transit that coincides with important announcements. Be on the lookout for
business or educational opportunities.
There are forceful, dynamic energies at work
as Mercury sextiles Pluto on the 10th, which
can give one's willpower a huge boost.
Therefore, this would be an appropriate juncture at which to begin a new physical exercise
regimen or diet. Improve efficiency wherever
possible, eliminate waste and unnecessary
effort. Passions and physical desires are dramatically increased now, so be aware of the
motivations that prompt your actions.
After five months in retrograde, Neptune,
planet of mystery, imagination and deception
stations Direct on November 18th, in 08°
Pisces. Neptune’s directional shifts often coincide with strange or unexpected events, peculiar behavior, and anomalous weather or geophysical activities for several days either side
of its station. Don’t believe all that you see or
hear around this period. Remain alert, be
observant, but avoid jumping to conclusions.
Later on the 10th, the sun and Jupiter align in
a free flowing sextile, 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.
Steady progress can be made in business,
commerce, and legal affairs, following
Mercury’s arrival in Sagittarius on the 20th
(till Dec 9). However, be aware of the consequences of your actions. Get plenty of mental and physical exercise during this intellectually stimulating transit.
A sobering conjunction between the sun and
Saturn perfects later on the 29th, in 08°
Sagittarius, when a career or educational
opportunity could appear unannounced.
Seek vocational guidance, if necessary.
Forget petty frustrations by focusing on your
work or responsibilities.
When the sun enters Sagittarius on
November 22nd, review your values and
ideals over the next month; are they ‘up to
speed’ with today’s rapidly changing world?
Give some serious thought to your dreams
Following is a general overview of how the
planetary trends for October/November,
2015 apply to each sun sign. If you know
your rising sign (Ascendant), read that, too,
for additional insights.
November’s new moon on the 11th occurs in
19°01’ Scorpio, inspiring us to act and speak
with power in the weeks ahead, and to transform that which is no longer working for us or
Saturn squares Neptune precisely on the
26th, when patience and clarity of intent will
be essential criteria if contemplating major
career moves. Fears, anxieties and insecurities are more readily elicited now, as confidence levels temporarily dip. Guard against
deception, particularly in business matters.
Some time spent alone in quiet contemplation or meditation, perhaps upon realistic
career objectives, would be beneficial.
Keep a firm grip on reality when the sun
squares Neptune on the 29th, as escapist tendencies can, quite literally, lead the unwary
astray. Stay on track; know where you’re
going.
EARTH STAR
13
Aries
(March 20—April 19)
You are becoming more aware and more
appreciative of the importance of the
roles played by certain significant others in your
life, as the value of your nearest and dearest
becomes more apparent. Work may be plentiful
these days, but be sure to lock in your options for
the future. This would be a good time to revamp
your health and fitness regimen. Look into any
chronic ailments, as a resolution may be close at
hand. Make an effort to get more physical exercise,
as you may have more need for stamina to handle
the extra workload as the Holidays approach.
Taurus
(April 19—May 20)
The winds of change are blowing
through your employment sector in
October, when adjustments to your
schedule might be necessary, to accommodate an
increasing workload. Some of you may receive a
new assignment, involving more travel and meetings, while others amongst you might reorganize
their workspace to improve efficiency. Pay attention to your diet and health regimen. Is your body
getting the exercise and proper nutrition that it
requires to maintain optimal performance levels?
As you are likely to be busier than usual, you will
benefit from higher energy reserves.
Gemini
(May 20—June 21)
A creative enterprise dear to your heart
may be transforming into a project of
much broader scope than was originally
envisaged, and as a result, could be much more
successful. Activities around the home will also
keep you busy, with remodeling, decorating or a
clean out of junk amongst the possibilities, perhaps
in preparation for the Holidays. A new professional
alliance or affiliation could make a goal seem more
readily attainable, though it may necessitate some
adjustments to your game plan. Keep your schedule
and options flexible and open.
Cancer
(June 21—July22)
Much-needed changes in your domestic
environment could be taking place, with
a move possible for some. A shift may also be
14
EARTH STAR
taking place deep within you, as you begin to purge
thought patterns and emotional ‘hot button’ issues
that no longer serve your highest good and
evolution, to be replaced with a more positive
mindset and self-image. As a consequence, your
professional aspirations now reflect this new ‘feel
good’ factor, with a bold new set of objectives.
Leo
(July 22—August 23)
A change of mind or heart could set you
on a new path this fall, one that is more
in alignment with your hopes and dreams, and
perhaps a cherished personal objective. One such
goal might be balancing your checkbook, and
bringing your personal finances under control.
You may even be able to add to your income, as
your stock-in-trade on the job could now return
huge dividends in the weeks and months ahead.
Virgo
(August 23—September 23)
Libra
(September 23—October 23)
Seeds for new financial growth can be
planted now, as fresh revenue streams
become available to you. Bringing
stability and reliability to your cash flow will also
help to ensure more peace of mind. Stability is
important to you now; you need a firm and secure
foundation upon which to build your hopes and
dreams for the future. This, in turn, boosts your
self-confidence, to which others will respond
favorably. If you need a special favor, ask for it
now. Just be tactful in your approach.
You’re in your element during October,
when your creative muse is in overdrive.
Bright ideas and novel notions can flow
freely now, unobstructed by distracting thoughts or
fleeting fears. Use this time to make new plans for the
future, particularly professional or educational
objectives. It may be possible to increase your
income in November, when prior efforts begin to bear
fruit. Events around this time can have a ‘fated’
quality to them, as though destiny is calling you in
one direction or another. Use your powers of
discernment to make wise choices.
Scorpio
(October 23—November 22)
Your world is turning rather more
quickly these days, so it's all the more
important to make ample quiet time for yourself in
which to regroup and recharge. Nervous energy
levels could be especially high. However, there's
nothing like a surge of adrenaline to help you get
through your work, chores, and indeed your day,
with relative ease. You may take on additional
financial responsibilities; you could also make
substantial gains by doing so. If so, spend wisely,
and set aside something for the proverbial ‘rainy
day.’
Sagittarius
(December 21—January 19)
You’re riding high in the cosmic tide
during October, when opportunities to
ply your trade can abound, so keep your instincts
finely tuned, and network as freely as your
schedule will allow. Distant climes may beckon
and travel could be on your agenda; it might even
be work-related, but more likely for pleasure.
You're certainly keen to get out there in the world,
perhaps in the company of friends, or family.
Spend some quiet time alone to reflect upon your
hopes and dreams for the future, as well as to
recharge your batteries as the Holidays approach.
(January 19—February 18)
A need to broaden your horizons, both
personal and professional, spurs you on to
consider your options for self-improvement. Going
back to school to learn a new craft, trade or skill
might be one option. Sharing what you know with
others in some form of teaching capacity could be
another. You may also be striving to bring stability
and balance to your financial affairs, and won’t rest
until you succeed! Such is your determination. A
new professional opportunity could come your way
as the Holidays approach, so be on the look out.
Pisces
(November 21—December 21)
You may be feeling the yoke of
responsibility more keenly upon your
shoulders these days, now that serious Saturn is
becoming reacquainted with your sign. This can be
a good thing, as it can propel you beyond your
‘comfort zone’ to take on challenges that you
normally wouldn't consider. You might also have
one or two new objectives in mind, as your
ambition, along with your stock-in-trade, each
receive a significant boost. Be sure to allow
yourself adequate ‘down’ time, in which to
recharge, and to assess the progress you've made.
Capricorn
Aquarius
(February 18—March 20)
In the wake of the recent Harvest Moon
it’s time to purge the unwanted or
unnecessary elements from your life, beginning
with thought processes that no longer serve your
highest good and evolution. You are both cognizant
and appreciative of the help and support you receive
from your nearest and dearest, and this would be an
appropriate juncture at which to let them know how
much they mean to you. Your thoughts turn towards
the future, and various options that may lie before
you. Professional decisions taken now can have a
profound and long-lasting effect on your worldly
endeavors.
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
15
Memories of Heaven
Children’s A stounding
Recollections o f t he T ime
Before T hey C ame t o E arth
By Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
I
have enjoyed a lifetime love affair with children, particularly newborns, infants, and toddlers. If a baby is in the room, it’s almost as if
there is a magnetic connection that draws my
attention and I must make contact. Being the
father of eight children, I have spent countless hours
simply gazing into the eyes of a brand-new arrival into
our family. In these private moments, I often send silent
inquisitive messages asking them to tell me about God
and what the formless spiritual world is like.
I have passed many, many hours of my life lying on
the floor making direct contact with our new arrivals.
I’ve long been fascinated by the fact that children just
show up here with personality traits. I love to ask little
toddlers who are only beginning to communicate with
language to tell me what they remember about their
experiences before coming here for this earthly incarnation. In fact, this entire book was created because my coauthor, Dee Garnes, engaged in such a conversation with
16
EARTH STAR
her little boy, Marcus, who was just learning how to
communicate in single words. (You can read about this
joyful conversation in Dee’s Introduction, which follows
mine.)
I have asked adults from all walks of life to share the
wisdom of their little ones, and I have included many of
my own experiences with my children’s recollections in
this book. After reading through the responses that Dee
and I received from people all over the planet, I am more
than convinced that there is much more to our lives than
the few short years we are allotted here on Earth. And
our young boys and girls are the ones who can offer us
a glimpse into the unfathomable, infinite, invisible world
that is for all of us to discover. After all, they haven’t had
much time to truly forget.
I have always loved the poem written by the English
poet William Wordsworth, titled “Ode: Intimations of
Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.”
One of the lines says: “Our birth is but a sleep and a for-
getting.” As I would look into the eyes of one of my own
newborns, I would frequently contemplate what the poet
is saying here. This entire human experience is like a
dream: we sleep, we dream, and then we awaken, forgetting all of those wondrous experiences in our dream
state. But sometimes we can recall some tidbits of that
dream, particularly if we have very recently emerged
from sleep. As I would look at this newly arrived miracle in my lap, I’d feel the truth of Wordsworth’s words.
Our birth may indeed be a sleep, but not all of it is
forgotten by children, and it was thanks to that idea that
this compilation was born. Every remembrance cited
here came from children who seem to have these recollections, just as we adults do when attempting to explain
what has taken place in that mysterious dream world we
enter every night, and live in for at least one-third of our
time here.
Dee and I have gone through thousands upon thousands of entries that were sent to us when we asked for
personal anecdotes about young children’s memories of
heaven. So many of the stories that my own children
relayed to me when they were just learning to talk,
which I thought were unique to me and our family, have
actually turned out to be quite universal in nature—
countless people gave us almost identical stories about
children reporting how they remembered choosing their
parents for this journey, how they had invisible friends
that only they could see, memories of past lives in the
same family, visitations with God, and on and on.
Today there is an entire literature filled with rigorous scientific evidence of past lives and the presence of
angels among us. I myself have had a very powerful
journey to a previous life, and I have had my mind
expanded by my close association with many highly
respected scholars who have provided convincing testimony for the reality of the infinite spiritual realm. But it
is out of the mouths of these babes, who have recently
shown up here and still have some remnants of heaven
clinging to them—which they talk about unequivocally—
that we are all provided with clues to the world beyond.
It is to those voices that this book is dedicated.
In Wordsworth’s “Recollections of Early
Childhood” he gives us this to chew on as well: “The
Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, / Hath had elsewhere its setting, / And cometh from afar . . . From God,
who is our home. As you read through these enthralling
commentaries about the world beyond what we see and
experience with our five senses, know that these little
beings are drenched in the heaven that is our home. They
have so much to teach us all.
Excerpted from Memories of Heaven: Children’s Astounding
Recollections of the Time Before They Came to Earth by Dr.
Wayne W. Dyer and Dee Garnes, with permission from the
publisher, Hay House; http://www.hayhouse.com
EARTH STAR
17
Fall Reading
Miraculous Silence
A Journey to Illumination and
Healing Through Prayer
By Mitra Rahbar
Like so many immigrants before her, Mitra
Rahbar was challenged to find her way in
an unfamiliar land. She was sustained by an
ever-deepening prayer life that led her to
her soul’s core. Turning outward, she pursued a life of service—first as a social worker and then as a spiritual teacher, healer,
and guide. Having worked with students
from many walks of life for more than thirty
years, Rahbar has a deep understanding of
what spiritual seekers long to learn and
how best to teach them. In Miraculous
Silence, Rahbar takes us on a journey into
the sacred space of prayer and spiritual healing. She shares practical
instruction on how to pray and meditate, as well as some of her own
prayers to inspire and encourage us. She also explores the healing
power of stones and other natural elements.
The Spiritual Awakening Guide
Kundalini, Psychic Abilities, and the
Conditioned Layers of Reality
By Mary Mueller Shutan
The first modern, comprehensive resource on
spiritual awakenings, this pragmatic, clear
guide covers everything from the first step on a
spiritual journey to enlightenment, and the different types of spiritual awakenings we may go
through. Using the concept of the twelve layers
that cover an awakened state, Mary Mueller
Shutan addresses every step of the spiritual
journey, starting with the Self and showing how
family, ancestral, past lives, karmic, archetypal, and other larger layers
such as societal, cultural, global, and cosmic energies condition us to
sleep and obscure our realization of an awakened state. Instructions for
how to navigate through each of these layers and how to recognize
where we are in our spiritual journey are included each step of the way
along with common physical, emotional, and spiritual symptoms that
may be experienced
Findhorn Press. Paperback, $19.95.
Tarcher/Penguin. Paperback, $15.95.
The Witches’ Ointment
Essence
The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic
By Thomas Hatsis
The Emotional Path to Spirit
By Jacob Watson
In the medieval period preparations with hallucinogenic herbs were part of the practice of veneficium, or poison magic. Examining trial records
and the pharmacopoeia of witches, alchemists,
folk healers, and heretics of the 15th century,
Thomas Hatsis details how a range of ideas from
folk drugs to ecclesiastical fears over medicine
women merged to form the classical “witch”
stereotype and what history has called the
“witches’ ointment.”: He shares dozens of psychoactive formulas and recipes gleaned from rare
manuscripts from university collections from all over the world as well as
the practices and magical incantations necessary for their preparation.
Essence: The Emotional Path to Spirit is
packed with wise, fierce and gentle emotional
and spiritual teachings that describe how our
natural emotions clear a path to the spiritual
life. Using a holistic model of health—body,
heart, mind and soul—and illustrated by stories of tragedy, death, and illumination that
guided the author through his personal healing, Essence is like having an intense spiritual
workshop in your own hands. Includes meditations and spiritual practices in each chapter.
O-Books. Paperback, $20.95.
Park Street Press. Paperback, $19.95.
The Yoga of Relationships
Loving Your Weight Off
The Metaphysical & Practical Tools for
Living Forever Lean
By Londin Angel Winters
Loving Your Weight Off is about achieving the body
you desire using the power of love. As this book will
show you, it doesn’t last. Love works. It worked so
well for Londin Angel Winters that she won a figure
contest at the age of 38 using the techniques she
presents in this book. Most importantly, she found a
way to maintain the results with ease and joy. If
you’ve always wanted to be lean but cannot stand
another day of food obsession and deprivation, the
tools in this book will offer you a beautiful path to having what you want and
enjoying the journey.
Metaphysical Fitness. Paperback, $19.95.
18
EARTH STAR
A Practical Guide for Loving
Yourself and Others
By Yogi Amrit Desai
Life itself is an experience of relationships.
Using the Yoga Sutras of Pantajali as guide,
world-renowned yoga master Amrit Desai,
recognized as one of the pioneers of the
authentic teachings of yoga in the West,
melds ancient wisdom with modern practicality as he offers piercing insight into the
nature of relationships as a road map to fulfillment. Appendix includes outline of the
basic observances of Yoga, Guidelines for
day-to-day living, and meditations on healing relationships.
Monkfish Publishing. Paperback, $16.00.
Fall Reading
Bouncing Forward
Transforming Bad Breaks into
Breakthroughs
By Michaela Haas
The uplifting science of posttraumatic growth
presents groundbreaking research and proven
methods to survive and thrive in the face of challenges. Twelve inspiring role models share their
profound insights on how they emerged from
hardship stronger, wiser, and more compassionate—from civil rights icon Maya Angelou, who
healed deep childhood trauma; flight surgeon Rhonda Cornum, who
found a new purpose after being captured in Iraq; renowned autistic
pioneer Temple Grandin, who overcame crippling panic attacks; and
famed jazz guitarist Coco Schumann, who played for his life in
Auschwitz. In Bouncing Forward, Michaela Haas draws upon powerful
storytelling, psychology, history, and twenty years of Buddhist practice
to reshape the way we think of crisis.
Enliven Books/Atria. Hardcover, $26.99.
In this book of remarkable stories, we learn firsthand about the many different forms of the “aha”
moment of shamanic awakening, whether they
arise from ceremony, near-death experiences,
dream messages, or entheogenic substances. We
travel alongside Sandra Ingerman, Hank
Wesselman, John Perkins, Alberto Villoldo, Lewis
Mehl-Madrona, Tom Cowan, Lynn Andrews,
Linda Star Wolf, and other well-known shamanic
practitioners as they begin their transformations into the prominent
shamans we know them as. We experience the real-life shamanic
epiphanies of those with unique shamanic paths--teachers, mothers,
social workers, academics, healers, and even rappers who have all
experienced a moment in time in which they were awakened and the
shamanic path showed itself to them.
Destiny Books. Paperback, $18.95.
Reflexology Made Easy
Crystal Prescriptions Volume 4
Self-Help Techniques For Everyday Ailments
By Ewald Kliegel
the A-Z guide to chakra balancing crystals and kundalini activation stones
By Judy Hall
Rapid relief for minor ailments Reflex zone massage can be a direct and effective aid for many
small daily complaints, but you have to learn ‘the
how’ and ‘the where’. This handy reference book
explains just how to find relief from headaches,
colds and fear of flying, along with coping with
long car journeys or lengthy days at your computer, all with just a few reflex zone massage
strokes. You’ll never want to be without your
helpful companion!
Earthdancer. Paperback, $9.95.
The Book of Secret Wisdom
The Prophetic Record of Human Destiny
and Evolution
Translated by Zinovia Dushkova
The Book of Secret Wisdom includes a newly released
excerpt from the million-year-old manuscript widely
known as the Book of Dzyan, originally written in
Senzar, a Sanskrit-like language, and translated by Dr.
Zinovia Dushkova in 1995. Iin the 19th century, the
Great Masters of Wisdom permitted Madame
Blavatsky, the world-renowned founder of the
Theosophical Society, to study the most ancient manuscripts secretly stored in Tibet. In 1889 Helena Blavatsky stated, “During
the last quarter of every hundred years an attempt is made by those
‘Masters’ to help on the spiritual progress of humanity in a marked and
definite way.” In 1995, the Masters of Wisdom allowed Dr. Zinovia
Dushkova to translate twelve new stanzas from this mysterious book.
However, unlike the nineteen stanzas of Dzyan published in Blavatsky’s
masterwork, The Secret Doctrine, the new excerpt is translated in simple
and understandable language. Dr. Dushkova encourages readers to
examine the evidence presented and then listen to their own heart alone.
Radiant Books. Paperback, $16.95.
Shamanic Transformations
True Stories of the Moment of Awakening
Edited by Itzhak Beery
This handy directory provides all you need to know
about crystals for the chakras, subtle energy bodies and raising kundalini. There are many more
chakras than the conventional seven that have traditionally been in use. As the frequency of the
human organism is raised, additional chakras are
opening up to assimilate higher dimensional energy. This frequency uplift can be facilitated by stimulating the rise of kundalini energy, which in turn
can be activated with appropriate crystals. Volume 4 in the A-Z series
assists you to identify exactly the right crystal to release any blockages
and return the chakras to a state of equilibrium. This will enable the higher chakras to open and controlled kundalini rise to occur.
When Life Cried Out
One Woman’s Spiritual Quest
to Be Fully Alive
By Paddy Fievet, Ph.D.
When Life Cried Out is a courageous woman’s
amazing adventure as she surrendered to the
Spiritual to discover what life and self-love are all
about. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Paddy
Fievet experienced more dark nights than she did
Light. Instead of knowing who she was from a
spiritual, innate truth, she spent most of her time
living as others wished her to live. In utter despair
one stormy night, she dropped to her knees in
prayer. With complete earnest, she asked God to eliminate everything
in her life that was standing in the way of her spirituality. It was quite a
brave prayer.
Cloverhurst Publications. Paperback, $14.95.
EARTH STAR
19
The Anunnaki Chronicles
A Zecharia Sitchin Reader
By Zecharia Sitchin
Edited by Janet Sitchin
Providing an insider’s look into the decades of
research behind Zecharia Sitchin’s complete works
as well as an in-depth overview of his theories, this
collection includes carefully selected chapters from
the Earth Chronicles series as well as never-beforepublished letters, articles, and lectures. We learn
about the genesis of his first book The 12th Planet,
and get to read never-before-published lectures,
culled from Sitchin’s decades of presentations, as
well as the article that spurred the writing of There Were Giants Upon the
Earth. Each piece includes an introduction by Sitchin’s niece, offering
context and insight into Sitchin’s passionate work. These introductions
reveal the man behind the theories, a world traveler known for his scholarship, dry humor, and precisely chosen words. If his theories are true, as
Sitchin wholeheartedly believed, then this collection presents some of the
most important knowledge we have of our origins and future
Bear & Company. Hardcover, $24.00.
Get Your Life Back
Learn to Cope with Stress
Anxiety Depression
By Mary Heath
Whilst working in a mental health setting
for 30 years Mary Heath soon discovered that everyone she encountered
shared a similar problem: no one
appeared to have any knowledge at all
of how to cope with the stress of life and
its consequences. The great majority of
patients had no coping skills or strategies at all. No one had been taught how
to deal with stress, and many didn’t even
know what stress was and why they felt
so helpless, so alone and so afraid. Mary
on the other hand had a very large tool box and a set of skills that helped
all of them to change their lives around and become healthier and
stronger in every way. Many of the techniques and therapies Mary used
can be found in this book
Findhorn Press. Paperback, $19.95.
The Inner Heart of Reiki
Rediscovering Your True Self
By Frans Stiene
The Inner Heart of Reiki is the first Reiki
book to look at the inner heart of the spiritual teachings of the system of Reiki. It will
take practitioners and teachers to a whole
new level of understanding about their
practice and about the way they teach—a
must read for all students of Reiki.
AYNI Books. Paperback, $16.95.
Angels
The Definitive Guide to Angels
from Around the World
By Marie-Ange Faugerolas
Angels appear in every major world
religion—from Christianity to Judaism,
Islam to the Native American
Thunderbirds. This book is a celebration of all the world’s divine messengers and a definitive resource containing all of the knowledge collected
about these awe-inspiring beings.
Rigorously researched, Angels is
packed with knowledge about these protectors and guides. This substantial tome of ancient and modern angel wisdom offers a perspective
on a world we could only have previously imagined, as well as practical
tools to bring more love, light, and energy into our lives.
Tarcher/Penguin. Paperback, $19.95.
Sh*t Happens, Magic Follows
A Life of Challenges, Change and Miracles
By Carmen Harris
Carmen Harris, 30 years a creative and TV
scriptwriter, stumbled into becoming a healer
when, totally unexpectedly, the awakened energy
in the palms of her hands roused a terminally-ill
cancer patient from an unresponsive state. The
narrative of extraordinary events in her life can only
be described as magical and is captured in the
premise of this book: Magic is available to all of us.
It is our birthright, calling to us during times of
great hardship and difficulty. When we allow it into our lives, amazing
transformations can and do take place.
Sidewalk Oracles
Playing with Signs, Symbols, and
Synchronicity in Everyday Life
By Robert Moss
Renowned author Robert Moss has spent
his career investigating the power and
purpose of the unconscious and dreams.
In this delightfully accessible guide, he
puts the magical realm of the multiverse
within readers’ easy reach. He teaches
readers to become what he calls "kairomancers" by seeing and using the truly
marvelous multidimensional universe. No
exceptional knowledge is needed to do
so; the tools Moss highlights simply allow
people to utilize, rather than brush off, the
signs they encounter every day—synchronicities, mysterious signs
and symbols. Moss offers specific techniques for posing questions
and reading the symbols that appear. Instead of walking through life
tuned in to an unproductive inner soundtrack, the kairomancer feels
the sidewalk she treads, hears the messages awaiting receipt, and
sees the extraordinary in the ordinary.
New World Library. Paperback, $15.95.
20
EARTH STAR
The Book of SHE
Your Heroine’s Journey into the
Heart of Feminine Power
By Sara Avant Stover
The Book of SHE celebrates all that it
means to be a woman, from mythological
underpinnings to the cycles of our day-today lives. Drawing on archetypes including
Mary Magdalene, the Dark Goddess, and
Green Tara, Sara Avant Stover will guide you
on a journey home to psychological wholeness, personal empowerment, and, ultimately, full feminine spiritual Awakening.
Brimming with mystery and magic, this
provocative book makes ancient wisdom
and healing practices accessible to every woman who is ready to revel
in her full femininity—the dark and the light—through joyfully becoming
the heroine of her own life.
New World Library. Papernack, $16.95.
Life Pulse Massage
Taoist Techniques for Enhanced
Circulation and Detoxification
By Mantak Chia
and Aisha Sieburth
In this fully illustrated guide to Life Pulse
Massage, Master Mantak Chia details
abdominal massage practices to open
restricted blood vessels, direct blood flow
to specific areas for healing, release arterial tension to rebalance high or low blood
pressure, and detoxify individual organs
and body systems such as the liver, lungs,
lymph nodes, and colon. He shows how to
clear and activate the master pulses of the
navel and aorta and synchronize these
master pulses with the 52 pulses of the whole body for optimum circulation and energy balance. He explains the ancient art of reading
pulses to diagnose organ health as well as how to recognize internal
health states through the unique positions and shapes of the navel.
Destiny Books. Paperback, $18.95.
The Little Book of Dragons
Finding your spirit guide
By Christine Arana Fader
When you are touched by a dragon, you feel the
depth of its love. This incomparable energy
allows us to find the place in life that is meant for
us, as Christine Arana Fader, the ‘dragon
woman’, powerfully shows with these entrancing
stories from her daily life. Granting us a glimpse
of the mystical world of dragons, she will help us
to get to know our own dragon, a close personal companion who will share its invincibility, its
wisdom and its magic with us. ...and you will
grow as a person and find your own path.
Earthdancer Books. Paperback, $14.95.
OMG!
How Children See God
By Monica Parker
OMG! is a magical window into how children view God. Its humor is timeless and
satisfying and rich with insight. It's a book
that speaks to people—no matter who they
are or where they live—especially given the
state of our troubled world. It will make them
think, re-evaluate, and without a doubt,
smile. OMG! showcases the differences and
yet the similarities that kids of every economic, cultural and religious background
share. Funny, poignant and galvanizing with deeply rooted sentiments
that will never go out of fashion.
Health Communications, Inc. Paperback, $12.95
The Slow Down Diet
Eating for Pleasure, Energy,
and Weight Loss
10th Anniversary Edition
By Marc David
In this 10th anniversary edition, Marc David
presents a new way to understand our relationship to food, focusing on quality and the pleasure of eating to transform and improve metabolism. Citing cutting-edge research on body biochemistry as well as success stories from his
own nutritional counseling practice, he shows
that we are creatures of body, mind, and spirit
and that when we attend to these levels simultaneously we can shed
excess pounds, increase energy, and enhance digestion to feel rejuvenated and inspired. He presents an eight-week program that allows
readers to explore their unique connection to food, assisting them in letting go of their fears, guilt, and old habits so they can learn to treat their
bodies in a dignified and caring way.
Healing Arts Press. Paperback, $14.95.
In Search of the Luminous Heart
From the Mountains of Naranjito,
Puerto Rico to the Mountains
of Crestone, Colorado
By Victoria Rivera McKinley
Beginning with her family’s origins as tenant farmers in the mountains of Puerto Rico, Victoria Rivera
Mckinley leads readers through dramatic and
painful events, which in spite of psychological
explanations, add up to experiences that are much
larger. She shows how a family of ten children survive and learn to look out for one another. This is a
success story, but not simply because the author
leaves Puerto Rico and becomes a psychotherapist
in America. Rivera McKinley offers an extraordinary perspective that finds
truth in how each person lives experience in his or her own way. Her own
journey ends in the Rocky Mountains, where Buddhist teachings offer her
a spiritual and philosophical framework with which to understand her life.
EARTH STAR
21
Grow N ew B rain C ells
By Forrest Ritiker
F
or years, scientists believed brain shrinkage was inevitable and irreversible.
Cutting-edge research has shown that brain
cells can regenerate. An amino acid called
taurine plays an important role in creating
new brain cells.
Researchers found that taurine increased the growth
of brain cells by activating “sleeping” stem cells.
Taurine also increased the survival of new neurons,
resulting in an increase in adult brain cell creation.
Recent studies reveal that taurine has unique biochemical properties that promote new brain cell formation. Animal studies show that taurine triggers new brain
cells to grow in the hippocampus, the area of the brain
most concerned with memory. This can lead to dramatic
improvements in cognition and recall. Low levels of taurine have been observed in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
In addition to these impressive brain benefits, taurine also boosts cardiac function and reduces arterial
stiffness as well as reducing the negative impacts of
metabolic syndrome. In fact, taurine supplementation
22
EARTH STAR
added to the drug metformin has been shown to offer
tremendous reductions in tissue damage.
Taurine levels fall significantly with age, leaving the
brain, heart, kidneys, and other tissues deprived of this
vital healing compound–—one capable of rescuing
dying cells and restoring cellular communication.
Experts are beginning to recognize that with age,
many can experience a taurine deficiency that is a real
and fundamental threat to health.
The great news is that taurine is a super low-cost
supplement, meaning everyone can benefit from its
potential to slow and reverse degenerative processes.
Taurine Grows New Brain Cells
For years, scientists believed that brain shrinkage (atrophy) was an unstoppable degenerative process. New
research reveals this loss of brain matter is partially
caused by reversible processes. This knowledge opens
the door to a new paradigm—one that aims to restore
brain structure and function—as opposed to simply
treating the symptoms.
One of the chief requirements
for growing fresh brain cells is a little known amino acid: taurine.
Taurine has a surprising number of
critical actions concerning how cells
protect and renew themselves.
Because taurine levels decline
with age, older adults are unable to
maintain the level of new brain cell
formation required to preserve their
youthful responses to toxic and
metabolic insults. This taurine deficiency may lie at the heart of some
of our most dreaded brain disorders.
Studies now show that restoring
taurine content in brain cells can reverse these trends,
and rejuvenate brain structure and function. Animal
studies show that taurine triggers new brain cells to grow
in the hippocampus, a brain region centrally involved in
memory.
A study published in the journal Stem Cell Research
found that taurine supplementation in middle-aged mice
increased the growth of new cells in regions of the brain
associated with learning and memory. It accomplished
this by activating “hibernating” stem cells that were then
capable of maturing into several different kinds of cells.
In fact, one study showed that when human neural
precursor cells (the early-stage neurons and supporting
cells in the brain), were cultured with taurine, it produced significantly more brain cells, demonstrating how
taurine stimulates stem-like cells to differentiate into
functioning brain cells.
In animals, taurine deficiency impairs brain growth
by delaying normal neuronal development. Lab studies
show that taurine can reverse this problem. When taurine-deficient brain cells are grown in culture and then
taurine is added, it results in a sharp increase in the
development of new cells. This is attributed to multiple
mechanisms of action, including improved mitochondrial function; activation of genes required for normal proliferation, survival, and energy
functioning; and blocking chemical signals that inhibit neuronal
cell regeneration.
In addition to promoting the
growth of new brain cells, taurine
enhances neurites, which are tiny
projections that help brain cells to
communicate with each other.
Neurites maximize connections
between those cells, along which
electrical impulses flow to sup-
port memory, cognition, feeling, and
thinking. Over time, chemical stresses and toxins can damage these neurites, contributing to slower cognition in older people. A lab study
revealed that taurine restores normal
neurite growth in nerves exposed to
toxic chemicals, largely through its
protective effects against chemical
stresses.
The findings that taurine can
genuinely rejuvenate damaged brains
are truly revolutionary, and are
beginning to change the way scientists and neurologists are thinking
about age- and trauma-related brain changes.
Taurine’s Benefits For Brain Conditions
Two specific conditions taurine has been shown to help
benefit are Parkinson’s disease and depression.
Human studies show that taurine plasma levels are
reduced in patients with Parkinson’s disease, suggesting
both a potential contribution to the disease—and a possible treatment. This problem is compounded by the fact
that standard treatment of Parkinson’s symptoms
involves the drug levodopa, which may further deplete
taurine. This makes it particularly important for
Parkinson’s patients to supplement with this versatile
amino acid.
Supplementing with taurine is also important for
those suffering from depression. Depression is particularly prevalent in diabetics; indeed, there’s a strong
school of thought that chronic blood sugar elevations are
involved in depression and neurodegenerative disorders
such as Alzheimer’s disease. Intriguingly, taurine supplementation in diabetic rats has been shown to improve
depressive-like behaviors; in addition, supplementation
improved the diabetes-damaged neurotransmitter function, which helped lead to improved short-term memory.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Taurine Promotes Brain
Cell Regeneration
•
Taurine is a free amino
acid that is vital in slowing key ageaccelerating processes, particularly
in the central nervous and cardiovascular systems.
EARTH STAR
23
• Laboratory studies
show that taurine can achieve
what was once thought to be
impossible—stimulate new
growth and connections of
brain cells, which raises the
real possibility for restoration
of youthful brain function in
older adults.
• Taurine
levels
decrease with age and with
metabolic and neurological
disease.
• Supplementation
with taurine, in both animal
and human studies, demonstrates the age-decelerating
effects of this amino acid.
• Laboratory studies reveal dramatic improvements in cognition and memory in taurine-supplemented animals, and suggest that human supplementation
might slow or reverse changes seen in Parkinson’s disease.
• Taurine supplementation boosts cardiac function and reduces arterial stiffness, both contributors to
early death from heart disease and stroke.
• Those with metabolic syndrome also stand to
gain from taurine supplements, which substantially
reduce that syndrome’s negative impacts on cardiovascular risk.
cle is a major contributor to
high blood pressure and
resulting cardiovascular disease. Fortunately, taurine is
known to have blood pressure-reducing and heart muscle-protecting effects. In a lab
study, human artery segments
were immersed in a chemical
bath that induced contractions
similar to those that occur
during an angina episode or
heart attack. The addition of
taurine to the bath resulted in
relaxation of the artery.
Animal and lab studies also show that taurine supplementation can mitigate ischemia-reperfusion injury, a
major cause of long-term heart failure and further dysfunction. This type of injury occurs when there is a loss
of blood flow to the heart muscle (ischemia) followed by
the restoration of blood flow (reperfusion). Both
processes can lead to an energy crisis and high amounts
of reactive chemicals.
Ischemia-reperfusion injury is severely exacerbated
by high sugar intake and diabetes because of negative
effects on nervous system signals. Taurine supplementation can abolish those aberrant signals and improve arterial blood pressure following such an injury.
Solving Your Heart’s Energy Crisis
HOW TAURINE ENHANCES
BRAIN FUNCTION
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in US
adults.
A recent study in mice has, for the first time, suggested that taurine might prolong life span by improving
heart muscle function. The study used mice genetically
engineered to be profoundly taurine deficient, a state
that causes premature aging and severe heart problems,
eventually resulting in early death. Painstaking work in
other animal models revealed why taurine deficiency
leads to these severe effects. Taurine deficiency disrupts
the “electron transport chain,” which reduces the amount
of energy-rich adenosine triphosphate (ATP) available
for heart cells to support their contractions, leading to
decreased pumping ability of the heart.
That fundamental finding—that low taurine levels
contribute to or exacerbate poor heart muscle function—
is now being corroborated by lab and animal studies
demonstrating improvements in heart or blood vessel
performance.
Poor or unregulated control of arterial smooth mus-
Taurine has the unique ability to help promote new brain
cell formation—but its benefits don’t end there. Taurine
has several other important properties that preserve and
enhance brain function:
• Taurine restores to aging brain cells the ability
to prevent and clean up after chemical stresses from
reactive molecules, to fight brain inflammation, and to
generate brain cell relaxing and stimulating signals at
appropriate times.
• Taurine increases the electrical activity (signaling ability) in nerve cells through effects on calcium, a
key element required for proper electrical function of
neurons.
• Taurine can favorably mimic the actions of certain neurotransmitters, the chemical signals that brain
cells use to communicate. From a chemical structural
standpoint, taurine closely resembles the neurotransmitter gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA). GABA is
involved in learning, and studies in lower animals
demonstrate improvements on simple learning tasks fol-
24
EARTH STAR
lowing GABA supplementation.
• Taurine supplementation supports learning in
higher animals as well. Supplementation in a mouse
model of inheritable intellectual disability (fragile X
syndrome), which is associated with reduced GABA
signaling, stabilized and recovered some cognitive functions to an extent that brought some measures of the animals’ performance close to that of normal mice.
Human Studies Of Taurine’s
Cardiovascular Effects
Human studies are demonstrating the impact of taurine’s
cardiovascular effects. Large epidemiological studies
show that deficiencies in taurine are associated with an
increase in cardiovascular risk factors. For example,
when compared to people with the highest taurine levels,
those with the lowest levels had a 184% increase in the
risk of obesity, a 22% increase in the risk of hypertension, and a 120% increase in the risk of elevated cholesterol.
While the risk of taurine deficiency is great, encouraging studies
show that supplementation with
taurine can reduce risk factors for
heart disease. And in fact, intervention studies are now showing that
supplementation can rectify heart
muscle energy deficiency to the
point of improving clinical outcomes.
One of the best examples of this
is a Russian study on patients
undergoing heart valve replacement
and coronary bypass surgery—both
of which are huge thieves of cardiac muscle energy. This
study showed that supplementation with taurine resulted
in improved heart pumping action, reduced the size of
the enlarged pumping chambers, lowered triglyceride
levels, and significantly improved quality of life. These
benefits may help to reduce the rates of sudden death
after cardiac surgery, which remain unacceptably high.
As is typical with many mainstream doctors, if something costs virtually nothing, as taurine does, they overlook its critical lifesaving properties.
Congestive Heart Failure
Taurine has been shown to have protective effects
against congestive heart failure, a common, energyrelated complication in heart attack survivors, cardiac
surgery patients, and people with hypertension or severe
lung disease; it results from an inability of the heart to
pump sufficient blood to meet the demands of the body.
In a study published in the journal Clinical
Cardiology, patients with congestive heart failure took
either a placebo or 2,000 mg of taurine three times a day.
Compared to placebo recipients, supplemented patients
experienced significant improvements in the severity of
their heart failure, and significant increases in measurements of the heart’s ability to pump blood. In addition,
none of the taurine-supplemented patients worsened
during treatment, while 29% of placebo subjects did.
In a similarly designed study, heart failure patients
who took 500 mg of taurine three times a day experienced increases in exercise time and distance, and
increased ability to utilize cardiac energy, compared
with placebo. This is a graphic example of how taurine
can affect heart muscle energy production, making it
more efficient and helping to energize tired heart muscle.
Another study of heart failure patients showed that
taurine supplementation (3 grams
per day for six weeks) resulted in
significant changes in echocardiogram results, which showed
improvements in the pumping
action of the left ventricle, the
chamber that pumps blood out to the
entire body.
Clearly, ample blood taurine
levels are required for proper heart
functioning and this data was published by Life Extension® decades
ago based on what cardiologists in
Japan had discovered when treating
congestive heart failure patients
with 3 grams of taurine per day. Let’s now look at some
ways that taurine can reduce the risks for developing
cardiovascular disease in the first place.
Taurine Reduces Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is the combination of central obesity,
high blood pressure, insulin resistance/borderline high
blood sugar, elevated triglyceride levels, and low HDL
cholesterol levels. It is strongly associated with shortand long-term risks of cardiovascular and kidney disease, diabetes, cancer, and death.
Taurine supplements have been found to be extremely
effective in reducing harmful effects of metabolic syndrome—while at the same time inducing changes that
reduce the syndrome’s long-term impact on cardiovascular risk.
EARTH STAR
25
Studies of diabetic and/or obese mice and rats
demonstrate that taurine leads to consistent improvements in multiple components of metabolic syndrome,
including insulin secretion and sensitivity and glucose
tolerance.
One study also showed that taurine-deficient mice
develop kidney changes identical to those in human diabetic nephropathy, the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease. This suggests that taurine supplementation in metabolic syndrome patients might lower renal disease risk.
And, in a remarkable pair of studies, taurine was
shown to amplify the beneficial effects of metformin, a
naturally derived antidiabetic drug with multiple healthpromoting effects in metabolic syndrome. In the first
study, when rats were treated with both taurine and metformin, they were better protected against chemical and
metabolic stresses than when either was used alone.61 For
the second study, the combination of taurine supplementation and metformin was found to provide the same pattern
of protection as insulin against diabetes-induced metabolic changes, including preservation of renal function.
Human Studies Of Taurine
And Metabolic Syndrome
Human studies demonstrated just how important taurine
supplementation is for people with metabolic syndrome,
which exacerbates the age-related decline in taurine levels. Compared with healthy people, obese people have
as much as a 41% reduction in taurine levels compared
with healthy controls, while diabetics have a 30% reduction in taurine levels.
The good news is that supplementing with taurine
significantly reduces many of the risk factors faced by
those with metabolic syndrome. For example, at doses
of 3 grams per day for eight weeks, a group of obese
adults had significant 29% reductions in plasma markers
of inflammation (hs-CRP) and 20% reduction in lipid
peroxidation (thiobarbituric acid reducing substances.)
And when diabetics supplemented with 1.5 grams
per day, not only were their taurine levels restored to
normal, but their platelet aggregation was reduced to
levels seen in healthy controls. (Platelet aggregation is
elevated in diabetics,64 increasing the risk for stroke- or
heart attack-inducing blood clots.) This study also
involved a laboratory test of platelet aggregation, which
showed that while taurine reduced aggregation in blood
from diabetic patients, it had no effect at all on blood
from healthy controls. (This is a safety concern about
virtually all prescription antiplatelet drugs).
In addition to the heart disease and stroke risk
induced by aggressive platelet aggregation, diabetics
26
EARTH STAR
(and even nondiabetic people with chronically “high
normal” blood sugar levels) are at increased cardiovascular risk from physical stiffening of their arteries.
Again, taurine supplementation is able to reverse
this dangerous state of affairs. In a study published in
Diabetes & Vascular Disease Research, young adults
with type I diabetes and impaired endothelial function
supplemented with 500 mg of taurine three times a day.
After just two weeks, their abnormal arterial stiffening
and reactivity returned to levels found in controls!
Since type I diabetes (formerly known as “juvenileonset,” or “insulin-dependent” diabetes) exposes its victims to much greater elevation and fluctuation in glucose
levels even than those seen in type II (“adult-onset”) diabetes, seeing this dramatic effect in the more severe
form of the disease is especially encouraging for the
much larger population of type II diabetics.
Summary
Taurine, a little-known amino acid, can do the seemingly impossible: stimulate new brain cells to grow in adult
brains. This capability creates an entirely new paradigm
for the ways we think about age-related cognitive
decline, and even major neurodegenerative diseases like
Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Taurine levels fall as we age, leaving our brains relatively unprotected. Taurine levels are low in people
with age-related brain disorders. Animal studies reveal
that supplementation can not only restore youthful taurine levels, but also improves deficits in memory and
cognition.
Taurine also has a fundamental connection with
longevity, particularly related to cardiovascular disorders. Animal studies demonstrate protection against
heart disease with taurine supplementation, and human
studies show that supplementation produces dramatic
improvements in heart and blood vessel function.
People with metabolic syndrome have lower taurine
levels than their healthy peers; again, taurine supplementation drives down the detrimental effects of metabolic syndrome while inducing changes that reduce the
syndrome’s long-term impact on cardiovascular risk.
A balanced supplement program should aim at
restoring youthful levels of nutrients known to counteract the chemical stresses, inflammatory changes, and
toxic exposures we experience through life. The evidence for the amino acid taurine suggests that it be
included in such a regimen.
Reprinted with permission from Life Extension Magazine,
http://www.lef.org
Seven Cups of
Consciousness
By Aleya Dao
I
magine a life filled with happiness, connection,
and purpose. Just think: You are able to connect
with the divine and perfect aspect of yourself.
You feel protected and guided by a loving
angelic presence. You use every challenge to
grow stronger and to access a higher consciousness. You
are healthy and filled with self-love. Deep inside, you
feel creative, passionate, and joyful — and all of that is
reflected into your life.
Wouldn’t that be lovely?
Well, it is possible, and I am here to show you how.
The basic idea is that all your work is done at a level
higher than your physical reality. There are aspects of
you that exist in higher dimensions, at the spiritual level.
I call these parts of you your energy self or your Higher
Self.
I have created a step-by-step process to help you
gain access to your energy self and the energetic
resources it controls. As you develop these tools, your
consciousness will evolve, your challenges will transform, and a deep inner peace and empowerment will
bloom.
You will learn that your real power comes from
within and from beyond. When you explore your inner
realms, along with the higher dimensions, your life will
start to change in amazing ways.
For many years I looked for fulfillment externally.
My life was a half-empty cold cup of coffee. I felt a deep
sense of emptiness, even though everything on the outside looked “perfect.” I was living in a beautiful mountain town. I had a thriving acupuncture practice. I was
healthy, had great friends, and was single and dating, yet
this full life was not enough. I yearned for an inner
change, wanting something, anything, that would fill my
emptiness.
I chased numerous spiritual teachings, hoping that
each one would give me the answer. I longed for an
enlightenment moment that would miraculously transform my life into one of bliss and joy. But nothing could
have prepared me for what was to come.
In the middle of a sound healing session, I was hit
by the cosmic two-by-four. I had an awakening. In less
than thirty seconds, my consciousness radically altered.
A bright light enveloped me. My awareness shifted into
EARTH STAR
27
a higher realm, and I felt an exquisite vibration of love,
as I saw the world surrounded by loving, compassionate
beings. Waves of light coursed through me, filling me
with new ideas, perspectives, memories, and pearls of
wisdom. In every fiber of my being, I could feel and see
a multidimensional reality.
I started to see the world through new eyes. It was
like getting X-ray glasses. I could feel a deep interconnectedness and purpose behind everything. The fabric of
the world looked like an exquisite pattern of love and
light, instead of a dark, shadowy, and challenging place.
I understood the reason behind every action, and I had a
profound awareness of what needs and lessons were
being addressed by other people’s behavior. This greater
awareness was simultaneously overwhelming, empowering, and comforting.
You would think that having a deep inner knowing
of connection and peace would make life a cakewalk. I
wish. Often the opposite is true. Life gets real, very
quickly.
As you awaken, you will become more sensitive.
This sensitivity will become your greatest strength and
your greatest challenge. You will need tools to protect
this new level of awareness. You will also need discernment, empowerment, and courage.
As you become more sensitive, you may feel other
people’s feelings, hear angelic beings and guides, hear
or know the thoughts of others, see beings of light and
dark, and maybe even see the future of your life and of
others’. These experiences may be both comforting and
frightening.
You might also experience a conflicting sense of
connection and deep loneliness. Old relationships could
fall away. You could even find yourself living in a new
place, driving a new car, wearing new clothes, and
maybe even taking a new name.
28
EARTH STAR
Less than six months after my enlightenment experience, I had experienced all the above, and more. My
entire life had changed in the blink of an eye. I had to let
go of the old and move into the new. I slowly discovered
the tools to help me navigate the unknown waters with
ease and eventually with grace. I was my very own
guinea pig, and my life was the lab. I learned how to discern the difference between my thoughts and feelings
and the thoughts and feelings of others. I learned how to
hold appropriate boundaries, meet my needs internally,
and take responsibility for my inner and outer reality. I
met my beloved partner, found a beautiful home, and
created a bountiful livelihood.
I am not saying it was easy. I fell down a lot, had my
heart broken a few times, spent way more money than I
had in my bank account, moved seven times, got sick,
got healthy, lost friends, and made new ones. My learning curve was steep and involved many tears, laughs,
and thinking I was insane for brief moments of time.
Fortunately, I had guidance through the entire process of
integrating a higher consciousness.
Through trial and error, and with the help of my
angelic guides (beings of love and light who exist in a
higher dimension), I have developed seven concepts that
have proved useful to my clients, my students, and
myself. When understood, practiced, and mastered,
these concepts can help you create the life you yearn for,
one of abundance, balance, connection, and empowerment. When you take the conscious, slow, gentle path,
you will save time, money, relationships, and your general sanity.
After fourteen years of practice and teaching, I have
distilled these concepts into what I call the Cups of
Consciousness. The seven cups are simple statements of
truth:
First Cup: You Live in a Multidimensional Reality.
Second Cup: You Are Never Alone.
Third Cup: You Can Change Your Inner World.
Fourth Cup: Your Challenges Can Help You Grow.
Fifth Cup: Your Body Is a Nature Spirit.
Sixth Cup: Your Soul Has Wisdom and Inner Gifts.
Seventh Cup: You Are Perfect.
Combining these concepts can help you form a big picture of reality that can dramatically transform your life.
If you sip from just one of these cups, however, it can
help you find greater peace and empowerment.
If some of the cups do not resonate with you, put
them aside. You can always come back to them—or not.
Your life will change positively whether you master just
one or all seven of the cups.
You Live in a
Multidimensional Reality
The world you live in is made up of multiple dimensions. The physical dimension is just one floor of a multistory building. Each floor or dimension holds different
energies and levels of consciousness.
The physical dimension contains solid objects, a linear time line, finite resources, and limited space. You can
only accomplish a certain amount in a day, depending on
your energy level, the amount of time you have, and the
resources available to you. It is a finite experience.
The nonphysical dimensions are more etheric realities. Time is not linear, space is infinite, and resources
are endless. For example, when you dream, a few seconds may seem like several hours. During a meditation,
you may grasp a concept in seconds that might otherwise take years of study to fully comprehend. When you
use your imagination or fantasize, you are accessing different dimensions that contain different layers of information and perspectives.
Let’s take a quick dimensional trip. Imagine standing in the lobby of a hotel. You step into a glass elevator
and press the button for the sixth floor. As you ascend
and look down at the lobby, you have a different vantage
point. You see things that you could not see before.
When you arrive on the sixth floor, you are able to
access information that would have been otherwise
unavailable. Once you have gathered all the information
you need, you travel back down to the lobby. When you
use your energetic glass elevator, you may find yourself
traveling faster than light and receiving profound wisdom. You will see your challenges from a different
angle. You will come up with solutions and receive new
insights.
The information you access can be viewed as physiological (simply a function of the human brain), as spiritual (a connection to God), or as an energetic multidimensional reality, depending on how you view the
nature of the Universe.
The key lies in your ability to focus on your inner
world, using your imagination and intent as a way to
connect to other dimensions. When you close your eyes
and focus on your breath, you take your awareness off
your outer physical life and move into an inner dimensional one. This shift in awareness opens you up to a
multidimensional reality.
The Cosmic Two-by-Four
During my first enlightenment experience in 2001, I was
engulfed in a multidimensional reality, which felt just as
real as the physical world. It was an amazing, overwhelming, clarifying experience that took me years to
fully comprehend and integrate.
Your first experience of a multidimensional reality
may be just as mind-blowing. Any time your perception
of reality radically shifts in a positive way, it is a
moment of enlightenment. You may have many minimoments of enlightenment in your life, or you may have
one big one. To give you a taste of what a “big one” feels
like, I will share mine in more detail.
My awakening moment came while I was receiving
a sound healing session. As Mary McLaughlin’s “Bring
the Peace” pulsed through the sound table, and I took a
deep breath, my consciousness abruptly altered.
My awareness instantly shifted from the physical
realm into a higher realm. A white light flashed over me,
and I found myself standing on a platform of light looking down at the planet. I felt an exquisite vibration of
love. I saw thousands of light-beings full of love and
compassion surrounding Earth. Millions of lines of light
encircled the planet, creating spheres and grids that held
uncountable numbers of vibrations and consciousnesses.
I felt peaceful, warm, safe, and connected to this
exquisite fabric of love. There was a profound sense of
support and strength inside me. I had clarity and a deep
understanding about the nature and purpose of life that
reached far beyond the simple knowing of my mind.
I felt a group of light-beings around me, and a surge
of energy pushed me off my platform of light. I instinctively curled into a tight ball as I accelerated down a tunnel. The music became louder, and I felt myself passing
through thick blankets of light, the energetic veils that
separate the dimensions.
I became aware of my body and felt a current of
energy rushing down the back of my neck and down the
front of my spine. I could feel a river of light flowing
through the top of my head, down the front of my spine,
through the center of Earth, and looping up behind me
EARTH STAR
29
That night as I lay in bed vibrating, I thought about
my new reality. I could feel a river of light inside me. I
could feel how the river is connected to Source. I could
perceive other realms and beings in other realms. I could
hear other people’s thoughts and feel their feelings. If I
had not been an alternative medicine practitioner and a
doctor of Oriental Medicine, I might have thought I was
experiencing a psychotic break. Fortunately, I had read
about all the potential symptoms of an enlightenment
experience.
Of course, it’s one thing to read about these experiences, but to actually have them...? Well, there is no
comparison. Your journey is yours, and yours alone.
Developing Your Energetic Senses
into the heart of Source, where my divine spark resides.
I could feel and hear a group of energetic beings around
me. I would later refer to this river of light as my divine
line, and the angelic ones as my Team.
I felt my body tingling and radiating with energy. I
could literally feel the light emanating from my fingertips. My awareness of the other realms activated. I felt
the exquisite vibration of love encompassing everything.
I had a deep inner knowing of my own essence and of
my journey that extended far beyond my earthly years.
All that I had known quietly faded away and a deep
peace, connection, and inner knowing of who I truly am
came into being. From that moment on, I was aware.
Many mystics have talked about this experience as
an awakening or as enlightenment, and I can see why. I
literally awakened to a new reality. Everything was different. I could see through the veils, the energetic curtains that separate the dimensions. I perceived swirls of
color, light, and sound representing subtle energies.
Information flowed to me via channels that had just
opened up for me. I could see and understand a new conception of reality.
I slowly got off the table and instantly felt dizzy. I
sat down for a moment and collected myself before I
quietly thanked the practitioner and headed for the door.
As I stood outside, taking deep breaths of cold air, I felt
my Team surround me. I got in my car, and heard them
say: “Now drive.”
I thought to myself, “Sure, no problem. I just shifted my entire reality. I have had a massive spiritual awakening, and I am now able to perceive multiple dimensions simultaneously. My body is tingling and shaking
with energy. And they want me to drive?” I made it two
blocks before I had to pull over and walk the short distance home.
30
EARTH STAR
Being aware of and feeling the energy in the other
dimensions is different from feeling and being aware of
energy in the physical dimension. It is not something
you can tangibly see with your eyes, touch with your
hands, smell with your nose, or hear with your ears. The
energy in the other realms is subtle. It may feel like little wisps of energetic wind, a flash of light, a tingle on
your arm, a quick high-pitched ringing in your ears, a
weird swirling sensation in your head.
Your body’s five senses give you information about
the physical dimension. In addition to your five physical
senses, you have five energetic senses. When you develop your energetic senses, you will be able to perceive
other dimensions.
The easiest way to develop your energetic senses is
to identify your strongest physical sense. When you talk,
do you describe things by the way they look, sound, feel,
smell, or taste? Are you more sensitive to light, sounds,
smells, taste, or touch? When you determine your
strongest physical sense, you can focus on strengthening
and opening this sense at an energetic level.
Imagine having energetically sensitive eyes, ears,
nose, mouth, or hands. Think of these energetic senses
as your sixth sense. They pick up information in dimensions other than the physical. Clairsentience is energetically feeling, also know as empathic sensitivity.
Clairvoyance is using your energetic eyes, also known
as your third eye. Hearing energetically is called
clairaudience. Clairgnosis is clear knowing. The ability
to energetically taste is clairgustance. And having an
energetically awakened nose is clair-alience. Everyone
has the ability to energetically feel, hear, see, smell, and
taste. You may have already developed a few of your five
energetic senses.
When you are just beginning, I recommend using
your imagination. Imagining your energetic senses puts
them into your conscious awareness, where you can pay
better attention to them. The sensations are so subtle
that, with all the noise of life, they can be easy to miss.
The more you use your Higher Self, imagination,
and intent, the more you will develop multidimensional
awareness. The energetic protocols and meditations in
this book will also help you develop your energetic senses. I recommend doing this slowly and carefully. It can
be intense if you go too quickly.
Get In Your Divine Line
Before you jump into pumping up your five energetic
senses, I recommend first learning how to connect with
your divine line. My expanded awareness of other
dimensions was overwhelming; I needed to find a place
where I could go that would be quiet, safe, peaceful, and
calm. That place was in the inner waterfall of light: my
divine line. You will need a place of refuge as well.
I learned the importance of connecting with my
divine line from my angelic Team. One night I was having a hard time sleeping, which was not unusual, since
sleep was hard to come by those first few years after my
enlightenment experience. As I gazed up through the
skylight at the starry sky, I felt the familiar presence of
my Team. A soft shimmering vibration radiated around
me. I felt a swirling in my head that made me dizzy as I
received the energetic information. (I quickly learned
that the fastest and easiest way to receive energetic
information was to relax, close my eyes, let go of my
need to know what the information was, and just feel the
energy coming from my Higher Self.)
I felt my Team members come closer and heard their
gentle, loving words, inviting me to take a deep breath
in. As I relaxed, they pointed to the light flowing up and
down the front of my spine. My Team said, “This is your
divine line. Hold as much of your awareness as possible
here. Connecting with your divine line is the safest way
to travel to higher dimensions.”
With each inhale I pulled myself more and more
deeply into my divine line. After a few minutes, I felt a
warm flow of energy gently pulsing up and down the
front of my spine. I could see a beautiful, pure light
flowing in this column, and a sense of peace and calm
enveloped me. I felt myself standing in an exquisite
shaft of light.
As I held my awareness on my divine line, my Team
instructed me to firmly attach my divine line, which was
bubbling off, to the front of my spine. I used my breath
and asked my Higher Self to use my energy fields to
firmly attach my divine line to the front of my spine.
If your divine line is not fully attached to the front
of your spine it will negatively affect your chakras, your
ability to be grounded, and your connection to your
body. Imagine driving your car while simultaneously
holding yourself off the driver’s seat. If you have resistance about being in a human body, your divine line will
not be firmly attached to the front of your spine and may
bubble off, as mine did initially. This resistance makes
for a bumpy ride.
You can use your breath, intention, and imagination
to energetically glue, Velcro, clip, or button your divine
line to the front of your spine. Use whatever energetic
mechanism you wish to attach yourself to the front of the
spine, as long as it feels comfortable and empowering.
The more awareness you hold in your divine line,
the bigger and brighter it will become. In this inner river,
you are perfect.
Excerpted from the book Seven Cups of Consciousness
©2015 by Aleya Dao. Printed with permission of New World
Library. http://www.newworldlibrary.com
EARTH STAR
31
Seven Cups of Consciousness
Q and A with Author Aleya Dao
Tell us about your awakening experience and how
your life has been different since.
What is a cosmic two-by-four and how can we tell if
we’ve been hit by one?
In 2001 I was receiving a sound healing session. During
the session a white light enveloped me and an awareness of other realms, and a higher consciousness awakened within me.
Since that moment I have maintained and continue
to develop this heightened awareness. It took me several years to adjust to this higher level of sensitivity and
perception of multiple-dimensions. During that time I
came up with the Cups of Consciousness I offer in my
book. These concepts have created a grounded foundation, which has enabled me to maintain my awareness,
cultivate greater compassion, empowerment, and nonreactivity in myself and with others.
A cosmic two-by-four is an enlightenment experience
that shifts your perspective in an empowering way.
There are varying degrees of enlightenment experiences.
There are little two-by-four taps or big two-by-four
smacks, the bigger the hit the more radical the shift in
consciousness.
An enlightenment two-by-four can happen during a
healing session, meditation, dream-time, or while going
about your day. You may have already had a little or a
big enlightenment experience. The trick is assimilating
this higher consciousness and then maintaining that
awareness in a balanced and empowered way.
The symptoms of getting hit by the cosmic two-byfour can vary. You may experience an expansion in your
consciousness and a deep knowing of the divine connection that flows within you. You may feel a deep inner
profound love for yourself and everyone. Other “enlightenment” symptoms can include insomnia, euphoria,
anxiety, premonitions, lucid dreaming, disorientation,
body twitching, forgetfulness, heightened empathic sensitivity, headaches, hearing or seeing things that are not
in the physical dimension. The list goes on and on.
The first few years after my two-by-four smack I
had a few brief moments thinking I was going crazy.
But, fortunately I could feel my guides right next to me,
soothing, comforting, and guiding me through my
enlightenment process, thus the book, for those who
may not have an angelic Bluetooth.
The subtitle of your book is Change your Life by
Connecting to the Higher Realms. What do you mean
by “higher realms?”
Reality consists of multiple realms including the physical realm. The majority of our awareness is held in the
physical dimension, but that is not the only realm that
exists. The higher realms are those realms other than the
physical. I call them “higher” because it is easier to conceptualize them as multiple floors of a building, with the
physical realm being the lowest floor.
My book teaches the reader how to access and use
the power in the higher realms to change one’s physical
reality.
In the book you say that we all have guides and a
Team of angelic beings who surround and support
us. Can you talk more about that and explain how
we can best utilize these resources?
Think of your guides and Team as your support system.
Normally we think of support coming from the physical
dimension. Your guides and Team can be an enormous
resource of support and exist in another dimension.
There is a difference between your guides and Team.
Your guides come and go depending on your needs and
stage in life. Your Team on the other hand encircles you
24/7. As a child you may have had “imaginary friends.”
Those friends are your Team. They are here to help you and
are also evolving along with you in another dimension.
32
EARTH STAR
When you ask your guides and Team to help you by
shifting their energy amazing things begin to happen.
Connecting with your Team also removes any feelings
of loneliness.
What is the body deva and what does it have to do
with our spiritual growth?
Your body deva is your physical human body. It is a
nature spirit and you are riding in it. You are not your
body. Just like you are not the horse you ride or the car
you drive. When you recognize that you are a rider in a
human body the game changes in a big way.
As you recognize your unique consciousness you
can hold space for your body to recognize its own consciousness. This awakening is empowering to both you
and your body. You can then build a healthier, co-creative relationship between you and your body. This leads
to a far more enjoyable and comfortable ride.
What does the Seven Cups of Consciousness offer
readers who have studied or practiced other spiritual
traditions?
This book helps the reader access a deep spiritual wisdom resident within all of us. Each chapter explains and
illustrates concepts that I refer to as cups. Each cup has
protocols and audio meditations at the end of each chapter to help access your inner wisdom. At a minimum, the
protocol and meditation will calm the mind and help you
feel more centered.
Learning how to use just one concept can change
your life. When you practice all seven concepts, a deep
inner transformation occurs. The essence of the work is
empowering; it helps you gain control of your spiritual
life. You don’t need a guru or teacher or spiritual guide
to do this work.
How is this book different from all of the other
spiritual self-help books?
I do not tell the reader what to do; I show the reader how
to do it. There are multiple ways to practice each concept. You, the reader, may pick your method depending
on your level of awareness, sensitivity, how much time
you have, and what resonates with you.
Many readers are often skeptical about energy
work? How are the seven cups different?
I chased many spiritual teachings before my enlightenment moment. I had a few feel good moments, but the
effects did not last. When the moment passed, I felt
betrayed and disillusioned. Nothing had changed.
After my enlightenment experience I was determined to create tools and practices that actually worked.
I explored the mechanics of my higher consciousness,
trying to understand what had happened to me. Through
this process, I created steps that helped me integrate and
maintain my higher awareness. Once I felt that the steps
worked for me, I tested them on clients. Time and again,
my clients shifted.
I am interested in spiritual efficiency. If a tool or
practice does not work for me, I toss it. If it works, I
keep it, unpack it, and figure out why and how it works.
I share what I have learned in my meditations and teachings, solicit feedback, and continue to streamline and
strengthen the protocols.
What if I am too busy to spend time doing spiritual
work?
You may spend as little as 30 seconds a day to start the
changes. The more time you invest, the faster the transformation. The book has short and longer practices that
you can easily implement into your daily life.
The book also has 7-minute audio meditations, as well
mini protocols. If you only have thirty seconds a day, take
five conscious breaths and pull yourself into your divine
line. Positive changes will still happen. If you do not have
thirty seconds, you can use the “yellow sticky note
method.” On a yellow sticky note write the words, “Pull all
of my awareness into my divine line.” Post the note somewhere you will see it at lease once a day, maybe on the
refrigerator or your bathroom mirror. Every time you look
at the yellow sticky note, your energy fields will activate.
After a week or two you will begin to feel a deeper sense
of connection, peace, and clarity.
EARTH STAR
33
What are the 7 Cups of Consciousness?
The seven cups are ancient wisdom retooled for the 21st
century sensibility.
You live in a Multi-Dimensional Reality, You are
Never Alone, Change Your Inner World, Use Your
Challenges to Grow, Ride Right In Your Body, Embrace
Your Soul’s Gifts, and You Are Perfect.
Understanding the concepts is not hard. All you
have to do is listen to the meditations and the energetic
aspect of you will grasp the consciousness. As your
Higher Self understands, your awareness, reactions, and
attitudes will shift. The practice is straightforward and
easy. The secret is that there is no secret. Let your
Higher Self which is the energetic aspect of you do the
work and the changes will come.
What cup would people sip from if they want to create greater happiness, health, and abundance in their
life?
The third cup, Change Your Inner World, would be their
cup of tea so to speak. This concept speaks to the idea
that the energy you feel inside yourself is the energy you
will create in your life. If you take a deep breath, what
is the energy you feel? If it is peaceful, joyful, and full
you will draw peace, joy, and fullness to you. Your outer
reality reflects your inner reality.
When you ask the energetic aspect of you to shift
your energy in a higher realm it happens. Once your
energy self does the work you will feel a ripple effect
within and around you. Change the energy in the higher
realms and it changes in the physical plane. The trick is
not using the mind, but using your energetic aspect to do
the work.
How long will it take me to manifest a million dollars?
Can you tell us about your book circle that you will
be starting October 22nd 2015?
A month after the release of the Seven Cups of
Consciousness and every two week afterwards, I will be
doing a one hour live and recorded tele-webinar. This
will be a free event for anyone who has purchased the
book.
Each book circle will focus on a specific chapter. I
will explain the layers within each concept, share stories, and answer questions. Think of the book circle as a
study group to help you practice the concepts. I hope
that the book circle will also build a community of support and a common consciousness.
Future readers will have access to the recorded
eight-videos/audio book circles. The Seven Cups of
Consciousness book includes online resources containing the audio meditations, images of my terms, and the
book circle videos/audio files.
In a perfect world, what do you hope your readers
will walk away with after reading your book?
May people find greater peace, empowerment, and a
deep inner connection to their own essence.
When the reader turns the last page, my hope is that
they will have a deeper understanding regarding the purpose of life’s challenges and how to transform those
challenges into great strengths.
The combination of the concepts and the practices
may trigger enlightenment moments. If a reader is open
to accessing a higher aspect, the cups can facilitate that
shift.
Aleya Dao is the author of Seven Cups of Consciousness. She
opened the first alternative health-care clinic in Telluride,
CO, and has built an international healing practice with her
online subscribers and students. Visit her online at
http://www.aleyadao.com/.
The real question is, “How long will it take you to manifest a millions dollars worth of wisdom, joy, fulfillment,
safety, connection, and security inside yourself?”
Desiring a million dollars is more about finding support, freedom, and protection than about a big investment portfolio.
You can use the energetic aspect of you and the
higher realms to cultivate your inner resources. Hold the
vibrations of empowerment, strength, and determination. That inner shift will in turn positively reflect onto
your finances and the ways you are supported in the
world.
34
EARTH STAR
Theoretical Evidence for
Human-to-Human Transmission
of Alzheimer ’s
By Dr. Joseph Mercola
A
n estimated 5.4 million Americans have
Alzheimer’s disease, a severe form of
dementia, and the most recent data suggests over half a million Americans die
from Alzheimer’s each year, making it
the third leading cause of death in the US, right behind
heart disease and cancer.
As prevalence has increased, so have the questions
about why, and the search for answers has dished up
some pretty curious findings over the past several years.
It seems quite clear that Alzheimer’s disease is primarily diet-related, with insulin resistance, processed
foods, trans fats, and unhealthy omega 6:3 ratios being
the primary culprits.
However, recent research has also uncovered evidence suggesting that the disease may be the result of
agricultural practices, and even more surprising,
Alzheimer’s could potentially be transmitted via certain
invasive medical procedures.
Five Routes to Alzheimer’s Disease
At present, evidence suggests there are a number of
causes promoting Alzheimer’s symptoms, including the
following:
1. Type 3 diabetes: Faulty insulin signaling is an
underlying cause of insulin resistance, which typically
leads to type 2 diabetes. However, while insulin is usually associated with its role in keeping your blood sugar
levels in a healthy range, it also plays a role in brain signaling.
Researchers have found that when insulin signaling
in the brain is disrupted, it results in dementia, hence the
suggestion that Alzheimer’s may be a brain-related form
of diabetes.
Even mild elevation of blood sugar—a level of
around 105 or 110—is associated with an elevated risk
for dementia. According to neurologist Dr. David
Perlmutter, if your fasting blood sugar is over 95 mg/dl,
it’s time to address your diet to lower it, to protect your
brain health.
2. Gut dysfunction, caused by a combination of
excess sugars and processed foods; antibiotic exposure
EARTH STAR
35
Alzheimer’s — A Foodborne Disease?
from food and medicine; genetically engineered (GE)
grains, which create foreign proteins; and pesticide
exposure, just to name a few well-known culprits
3. Trans fat consumption: Trans fat is linked to a
higher risk of memory impairment. It may act as a prooxidant, contributing to oxidative stress that causes cellular damage.
Vegetable oils oxidize when heated, and when oxidized cholesterol and trans fat enter into your LDL particles, they become destructive, contributing to arterial
plaque buildup in your brain.
4. Imbalanced omega-3 to omega-6 ratio:
Researchers have also found a link between Alzheimer’s
and raised levels of an omega-6 fat called arachidonic
acid.
They believe it interferes with the brain’s nerve
cells, causing over-stimulation, and that lowering levels
would allow the cells to function normally.
Most experts agree that the omega 6:3 ratio should
range from 1:1 to 5:1. The sad reality is that it now
ranges from 20 to 50:1 for most Americans.
Omega-6 fats are found in high concentrations in factory-farmed animals as they are typically fed grains, as
well as vegetable oils such as corn, canola, soybean, and
sunflower oils.
5. Slow-acting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
— the human form of Mad Cow disease, contracted
either through:
a. Contaminated meat
b. Certain medical procedures, such as using
human growth hormone extracted from the pituitary
glands of infected human cadavers (a procedure now
banned due to this contamination risk)
The first four have been discussed at length in previous articles. Here, we’ll focus on the last route, which
has disturbing implications for the conventional meat
industry.
36
EARTH STAR
Researchers have found a compelling link between a
particular kind of protein and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou
Gehrig’s disease.
This protein, called TDP-43, behaves like toxic and
infectious proteins known as prions, which are responsible for the brain destruction that occurs in Mad Cow and
Chronic Wasting Disease; two types of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
According to a study published in 2011, TDP-43
pathology is detected in 25 to 50 percent of Alzheimer’s
patients, and research presented at the 2014 Alzheimer’s
Association International Conference revealed
Alzheimer’s patients with TDP-43 were ten times more
likely to have been cognitively impaired at death than
those without it.
The common denominator between Mad Cow and
Chronic Wasting Disease8 (the latter of which affects
deer and elk) is forcing natural herbivores to eat animal
parts and byproducts, such as blood and bone meal. This
is common practice in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
The evidence also suggests humans may be infected
with TDP-43 via contaminated meats.
The most infectious parts of a cow carrying these
prions are the brain and spinal cord, which may be found
in hot dogs, bologna, and products containing either gelatin or ground meat.
The human version of Mad Cow disease is known as
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and some researchers
have noted that Alzheimer’s behaves like a slow moving
version of CJD.
The Case for Alzheimer’s as a Slow-Acting
Version of Mad Cow
Surprising as it may seem, the idea that neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s may be spread via CAFO
foods isn’t brand new. A 2005 study published in the
journal Medical Hypotheses, titled “Thinking the
Unthinkable: Alzheimer’s, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, and Mad
Cow Disease: The Age-Related Reemergence of
Virulent, Foodborne, Bovine Tuberculosis, or Losing
Your Mind for the Sake of a Shake or Burger”, states:
“In the opinion of experts, ample justification exists
for considering a similar pathogenesis for Alzheimer’s,
Creutzfeldt-Jakob and the other spongiform
encephalopathies such as Mad Cow disease. In fact,
Creutzfeldt-Jakob and Alzheimer’s often coexist and at
this point are thought to differ merely by time-dependent
physical changes.
A recent study links up to 13 percent of all
‘Alzheimer’s’ victims as really having Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease... Alzheimer’s, Cruetzfeldt-Jackob, and Mad
Cow Disease might just be caused by eating the meat or
dairy in consumer products or feed.’” [Emphasis mine]
The study also notes that bovine tuberculosis serves
as a vector for human Mad Cow Disease, and bovine
tuberculosis is one of the most prevalent disease threats
in American CAFOs. USDA data suggests anywhere
from 20 to 40 percent of American dairy herds are
infected at any given time.
Theoretical Evidence for Person-to-Person
Transmission of Alzheimer’s
All of this brings us to the most recent development,
which has gained widespread media attention. A study
published in the journal Nature reveals the first theoretical evidence for human-to-human transmission of
prion-like proteins associated with Alzheimer’s, introduced via a medical procedure involving contaminated
material.
As reported by Scientific American:
“Between 1958 and 1985, a number of individuals
with short stature received shots of human growth hormone extracted from the pituitary glands of cadavers...
Some of these samples were contaminated with prions
that caused certain patients to develop CreutzfeldtJakob disease (CJD), a rare and fatal brain disorder.
Treatments ceased once these reports came to light,
but by that time an estimated 30,000 people had already
received the injections. As of 2012, researchers have
identified 450 cases of CJD worldwide that are the
result of these growth hormone injections and other
medical procedures, including neurosurgery and transplants.”
To investigate the plausibility of human-to-human
transmission, researchers autopsied eight of the patients
who died after contracting CJD from the now-banned
growth hormone treatments. All had died between the
ages of 36 and 51 — too young to have developed
Alzheimer’s. Yet six of them had the misfolded proteins
found in Alzheimer’s patients’ brains, and four of them
had amyloid deposits in their cerebral blood vessels.
Previous animal research has also found that when
tiny amounts of amyloid-beta proteins—which are a
hallmark of Alzheimer’s—are injected into mice or
monkeys, they act as self-propagating “seeds,” unleashing a chain reaction of protein misfolding that results in
pathology that is very reminiscent of that seen in
Alzheimer’s patients.
Another recent study out of Germany found that
seeds of amyloid-beta can persist for months in the
brain, and become pathogenic under certain circumstances. As noted by Scientific American:
“All evidence pointed toward one possibility: Like
prions, amyloid-beta seeds were in the growth hormone
injections and infected these individuals... [H]ad the
patients not died young, they would have developed the
disease later in life.”
My Alzheimer’s
Prevention Strategies
Because there are so few treatments for Alzheimer’s,
and no available cure, prevention really is your best bet.
As explained by neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter,
author of the book, Grain Brain, Alzheimer’s is a disease predicated primarily on lifestyle choices. Diet is
part and parcel of a successful prevention plan, and my
optimized nutrition plan can set you on the right path in
this regard. In terms of your diet and other lifestyle factors, the following suggestions may be among the most
important for Alzheimer’s prevention:
Replace processed foods with real foods
The vast majority of processed foods contain genetically
engineered (GE) grains, which are heavily contaminated
with glyphosate—a herbicide thought to be worse than
DDT, and DDT has already been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s.
Eating real food will also limit your exposure to
trans fats. As a general rule, to avoid trans fats, you need
to avoid any and all foods containing or cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, so be sure to check the
list of ingredients.
EARTH STAR
37
needed to digest the milk protein casein. That’s why it’s
important to consume full-fat, raw dairy products
instead of non-fat or skim dairy products. The cream is
also responsible for regulating the sugar absorption into
your blood. It decreases the likelihood of insulin spikes.
Opt for organic, grass-fed, and finished meat
The vast majority of all store bought meats, and meats
served in restaurants, come from CAFOs unless otherwise labeled as organic or grass-fed.
Optimize your gut flora
Regularly eat fermented foods or take a high potency
and high quality probiotic supplement.
Avoid sugar and refined fructose
Alzheimer’s appears to be intricately linked to insulin
resistance. Ideally, you’ll want to keep your sugar levels
to a minimum and your total fructose below 25 grams
per day, or as low as 15 grams per day if you have
insulin/leptin resistance or any related disorders.
Optimize omega 6:3 ratio, ideally should be 1:1 to 5:1
Healthy fats that your brain needs for optimal function
include organically-raised grass-fed meats, coconut oil,
olives and olive oil, avocado, nuts, organic pastured egg
yolks, and butter made from raw grass-fed milk.
High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA are
also helpful for preventing cell damage caused by
Alzheimer’s disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.
It is imperative to also reduce industrial omega 6
oils, like soy, corn, sunflower, and safflower oils.
Avoid gluten and casein (primarily wheat and pasteurized dairy, but don’t avoid raw dairy, such as whole
milk, and organic butter)
Research shows that your blood-brain barrier is
negatively affected by gluten. Gluten also makes your
gut more permeable, which allows proteins to get into
your bloodstream, where they don’t belong.
That then sensitizes your immune system and promotes inflammation and autoimmunity, both of which
play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s.
Cream is perhaps the most important part of raw
milk because the cream is where all the energy is that’s
38
EARTH STAR
Reduce your overall calorie consumption, and/or
intermittently fast
Ketones are mobilized when you replace carbs with
coconut oil and other sources of healthy fats.
Intermittent fasting is a powerful tool to jumpstart your
body into remembering how to burn fat and repair the
inulin/leptin resistance that is also a primary contributing factor for Alzheimer’s.
Improve your magnesium levels
Preliminary research strongly suggests a decrease in
Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain.
Unfortunately most magnesium supplements do not
pass the blood brain levels, but a new one, magnesium
threonate, appears to and holds some promise for the
future for treating this condition and may be superior to
other forms.
Get plenty of folate
Vegetables, without question, are your best form of
folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies
every day. Avoid supplements like folic acid, which is
the inferior synthetic version of folate.
Exercise regularly
It’s been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in
the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,
thus, slowing down the onset and progression of
Alzheimer’s. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha.
Research has shown that people with Alzheimer’s
have less PGC-1alpha in their brains and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer’s.
I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak
Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
Optimize your vitamin D levels
Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning
of your immune system to combat inflammation that is
also associated with Alzheimer’s.
Avoid and eliminate mercury from your body
Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50 percent mercury
by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal
toxicity, however you should be healthy prior to having
them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the
diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can
follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
Avoid and eliminate aluminum from your body
Sources of aluminum include antiperspirants, non-stick
cookware, vaccine adjuvants, etc. For tips on how to
detox aluminum, please see my article, “First Case
Study to Show Direct Link between Alzheimer’s and
Aluminum Toxicity”, at http://www.mercola.com
Avoid flu vaccinations
Most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known
neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.
Avoid anticholinergics and statin drugs
Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of
dementia.
These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers,
antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic
pain relievers.
Statin drugs are particularly problematic because
they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your
brain of coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors,
and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids
and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting
the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule
known as low-density lipoprotein.
Challenge your mind daily
Mental stimulation, especially learning something new,
such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of
Alzheimer’s.
Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to
build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the
lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
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.
Turmeric and Honey – The Strongest Antibiotic from Nature
Y
ou know, having something
that is anti-inflammatory,
antibacterial, antioxidant and
anti-stress in one place is indeed a precious gift of nature.
The best thing about this wonderful mix of honey and turmeric is that
it works fast and does not make a mess
in the intestines because it is antiinflammatory and anti bacterial. This
mix has also no negative effect on the
body whatsoever.
Turmeric is rich in curcumin,
which is famous for its anticancer and
also anti -inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It is a strong polyphenol and it’s proven to fight 150 health
conditions and diseases.
This is how it works its magic!
Our body’s immune system lives in our
intestines. It is there where all the
friendly bacteria digest, fight, help and
put an order on how we feel and react
to everything. This is where
turmeric and honey step in.
This dynamic duo
helps the good bacteria
rejuvenate and grow thus
stimulating proper immune
response. It’s an only two
ingredients recipe and this
is how to use it.
You will need:
100 g of honey (good quality);
1 table spoon of turmeric powder
A clean glass jar and a wooden spoon
Instructions:
Mix honey and turmeric in a clean jar.
Use the mix in the very early signs of
cold or when you feel under the weather. You’ll be up and going in three
days.
Day one – half a spoon every hour
Day two – half a spoon every two
hours
Day three – half a spoon every eight
hours
You can use this mix with tea or milk.
Try not to swallow right away. It works
better if taken slowly.
—Fell Healthy Life
EARTH STAR
39
The
Fix
Digital D istraction
By Dr. Mike Dow
M
onica’s problem was evident to me
from the first 90 seconds of our session. Armed with a BlackBerry for
work e-mails and an iPhone for personal calls and texts, she kept both
on when she sat down. She was a mom, a high-powered
publicist—and constantly connected.
She had to be! She was always waiting for that
emergency call, e-mail, or text to come in. In reality, the
constant pings weren’t emergencies, but rather
reminders about meetings from her assistant, press
release approval requests, and messages about a client’s
dress being panned at an awards show the night before.
Monica’s nonstop barrage of calls, texts, Tweets,
and e-mails had left her in a state of constant distraction.
She always felt only “half there,” never fully engaged in
the present moment. What’s worse, her perpetual distractedness was beginning to erode her relationship with
her husband and kids. Her resulting symptoms were a
mixed bag: a little anxiety, a little insomnia, a little
depression.
As Monica described the stresses of trying to juggle
40
EARTH STAR
a marriage, motherhood, and a high-stress job, she
teared up when she remembered her nine-year-old
daughter sighing and saying, “Mommy, you never look
at me when I’m talking to you. You love working more
than you love me.”
That comment was Monica’s tipping point. She was
ready and willing to turn her life around.
“Dr. Mike, my daughter helped me realize that I’m
never going to get back these moments with my kids. I
need your help to reprioritize my life, but frankly, I’m a
little scared because I’m not sure if it’s even possible. I
feel like I need every day to be thirty hours to get everything done.”
“While I can’t make the actual day longer,” I said, “I
can certainly help you to become more present, which
will actually buy you precious minutes and hours each
and every day.”
I explained that while most people assume multitasking saves time, the opposite is actually true.
Mindfully “single-tasking” won’t just help you feel less
frantic and more focused; it will also help you become
more efficient so you can finish that press release,
spreadsheet, or memo more quickly. You can even use
social media and browse the Internet mindfully instead
of just mindlessly procrastinating on the computer all
day.
When you’re more focused on work tasks, you’ll
have more time left over to give to things that are important to you—like quality time with your family. And
when you give your time to the people you care about,
you’ll be truly present, and presence is one of the most
magical and transformative gifts one human being can
give to another. It can make or break a marriage or
friendship. It can make your child feel seen and heard—
as opposed to unimportant and unloved.
“It won’t happen overnight, Monica. But I promise
you that if you are willing to make some simple
changes, your life will improve dramatically.”
Distracted All Day And Night
Does Monica’s predicament sound familiar to you?
Have you ever wasted a morning at work checking and
refreshing all your devices—only to find out that you’ve
gotten no work done?
Here’s an all-too-typical scenario: You start off
working on a spreadsheet, but suddenly your phone
lights up with a text, then a Facebook notification from
yet another person who liked that photo you posted last
night, followed shortly by a push notification with a
breaking news alert. Oh, and there’s an Evite for a cocktail party two weeks from now, and then your work
phone rings, and then your assistant comes into your
office to remind you about the half-dozen meetings and
conference calls you have on the schedule today. Shoot!
You’d totally forgotten almost half of them.
Man, I’m so scatterbrained, you think. You clearly
need some coffee.
You chat with a friend for 15 minutes in the break
room, half listening and half mentally listing all the
things you should be getting done instead. You return to
your office, and in the hour that elapsed since you got to
work you could have finished that spreadsheet. Now
you’re freaking out because your first of many meetings
starts in ten minutes, which means you’ll have to take
the spreadsheet home and finish it in the evening.
Oh well, you think; I’ll just do it in front of the TV
while eating dinner and trying to
catch up with my boyfriend about his day.
You finally finish the spreadsheet at 1 a.m. A few
hours after you stumble exhausted into work the next
day, your boss sends you a not-all-that-nice e-mail
pointing out several errors you made in the document.
By this point you feel totally overwhelmed. You’re even
more behind, since you now have to correct yesterday’s
work while also finishing today’s.
When you consider how accustomed most of us
have gotten to distraction, is it any wonder ADHD rates
are skyrocketing? They have tripled in children, and
with broader diagnostic requirements for adult ADHD,
the already-through-the-roof adult ADHD rates are likely to spike as well. But while Adderall can improve
attention for most—and is absolutely necessary for
some—it’s not the only solution to our inattentiveness
issue. Turning off your ringer or blocking your access to
Facebook for an hour can have the same effect.
It’s worth making these small but meaningful
changes, because digital distraction doesn’t just make us
feel scattered; it’s killing people.
One study showed that driving while using a phone
is comparable to drunk driving.
From 2005 to 2010, the number of pedestrians who
were struck and killed by distracted drivers rose 50 percent in the U.S. Distracted walking has even become a
problem. Yes, that’s right: people cannot even look both
ways before they cross the street because they’re too
busy staring at their phones.
You can almost understand the lure of the phone
when you’re stuck in traffic for 90 minutes, but we’re
now so addicted to our phones that we’re sucking all the
simple joy out of a five-minute walk.
One thing to understand about our phones and computers is that all the blinking lights, dings, and dynamic
ads scrolling across the screen when we’re trying to read
the news give our brains a tiny hit of dopamine. It’s not
dissimilar to the way dopamine surges through the brain
of a compulsive gambler when he’s sitting in front of the
slot machine. Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, Snapchat
EARTH STAR
41
Whenever you’re working, turn off your phone or its
ringer. Move the charger from the bedroom to your
kitchen or entryway so that you aren’t constantly checking your phone instead of going to sleep. And block
push notifications so that every single Tweet or
Instagram like or New York Times notification doesn’t
interrupt important e-mails or calls. When you get in the
car, throw your phone in the trunk or turn off the ringer.
There are useful apps that will disable your phone while
in motion on both iPhones and Android devices. Try to
have one full day of the weekend completely phone free.
Be More Mindful: Finding mindfulness, incorporating some of the 12-minute meditation practices that I
introduce on pages 219 to 233 into your everyday routine, and decreasing digital distractions can help you
lead a more productive and creative life.
Without constant technological distractions, even
normal acts like daydreaming can become mindful. You
can use these moments to toy with new ideas or make
future plans—but only if you’re alert enough to catch the
great ideas as they drift through your head. The 7-Day
Spirit Revolution is designed to tackle the attention
deficits that patients like Monica—and far too many of
us—experience all too frequently.
pics, Instagram followers, and Tinder matches have
started to exert an addictive pull on us. A little is never
enough: we have become dependent on that little surge
of pleasure that pulses through us every time someone
likes one of our status updates, so we do it again and
again and again.
Excerpted with permission from The Brain Fog Fix: Reclaim
Your Focus, Memory, and Joy in Just 3 Weeks by Dr. Mike
Dow; published by Hay House, http://www.hayhouse.com
Action Plan
So as you can see, stepping back from your digital world
a bit can be very healthy. But it can also be very hard. At
least in the beginning, you might have to take some
extreme steps to wean yourself. Here are some great
places to start.
Get an Internet Blocker: Try out an Internet blocker
like mindfulbrowsing. com, which allows you to block
the sites you use to waste time. For the truly committed
(who also happen to be Mac users), there’s also selfcontrolapp.com, which will block the sites you choose for a
set amount of time, even if you restart your computer.
The Freedom Internet blocker, which you can download
onto your computer for $10, will disable your Internet
connection for up to eight hours.
Try using one of these programs for a few minutes
at the beginning of the day so you can focus your mind
and get into a good work groove.
Put Some Space Between You and Your Phone:
42
EARTH STAR
We Are Never Alone
with A n g e l s
Marie-Ange Faugerolas
C
ontrary to popular belief, we aren’t born
alone and we don’t die alone. The birth
angels accompany us throughout the
entirety of our existence. They are
assisted by the guardian angels who lean
over our cradles just after our birth.
These guardian angels don’t intervene directly in our lives but rather
content themselves by watching
over our actions and gestures with a
protective gaze. When we solicit
them, they come running to our rescue. We can also invoke particular
angels in situations that call for a
specialized angel. God entrusted
guardian angels with a mission of
accompaniment. They honor it with
conscientiousness and promptness.
The people who don’t think about
angels, who never solicit them, or
quite simply don’t believe in them,
are even so accompanied by celestial messengers.
Guardian angels don’t interfere in the existence of a
protected person. But when we solicit their assistance
directly, the angels prove themselves more efficient.
They can even accomplish miracles.
On numerous occasions, I have
called on the angels in dramatic
personal situations. The angels
quickly intervened and transformed my life. Angelic experiences are truly mind-blowing.
Don’t be afraid to call on celestial
messengers. They are at your service. They are the divine voice and
light, the divine love. Make use of
their competence. Use their powers and offer yourself a happy fate.
Let them guide you. And, most
importantly: ask, solicit, pray. The
angels will answer every one of
your calls.
EARTH STAR
43
How Do We Feel an Angel Is Nearby?
The coming of an angel brings about a feeling of lightness, of joy, and of a spirit teeming with projects.
Oftentimes, the angels begin to manifest through pleasant physical and emotional sensations. Once someone is
accustomed to these sensations, they can appear in
dreams, in visions, and then in physical encounters.
Whatever their ways of communicating may be, they
will bring the happiness and certitude of not being alone.
Angels accompany humans throughout their existence.
They don’t judge their actions and are compassionate for
their past mistakes. They are guides toward the future
and infallible protectors. We can invoke them to obtain
comfort in times of personal crisis or when confronted
with sentimental or professional problems. The coming
of an angel is an event that can happen at any moment
when we invoke them regularly. Celestial creatures
make apparitions, but they are often reserved for people
accustomed to receiving the angelic touch. The most
common manifestations are signs, surprising circumstances, unexpected encounters, or happy coincidences.
It isn’t necessary to experience personal drama in
order to call on the angels. We can invoke them when
we’re tired or depressed. They bring about a renewal of
energy and lightheartedness. We can incite the angels to
manifest themselves regularly by installing an altar for
the angels in a privileged corner of the house. Rituals
and meditations are also an excellent way of getting in
touch with angels.
Angels are celestial creatures, messengers of God.
Their influence on destiny is always positive. We can
count on their help and support in all situations, because
they are enlightened by divine love. Depending on the
person and the circumstances, they warn of approaching
dangers, send signs to light the way, or provoke actual
miracles and surprises that can truly transform existence.
Opening your heart to the angels allows you to be graced
with divinity, and never again must you feel alone.
How Do We Recognize When Angels Help?
otherwise make out of fear and insecurity.
Angels remove negative influences and protect polluted or unpleasant environments. Their presence favors
emotional and personal fulfillment. We recognize their
assistance through miraculous encounters with soul mates,
the healing of somebody we love, positive relationship
evolutions, a new job offer coming out of the blue, tough
or blocked situations that suddenly resolve, or new and
enriching events that unexpectedly occur in our lives.
How to Be Guided by Angels
Before going to bed at night, let your thoughts wander.
Loosen your body and enter a state of drowsiness. As
soon as you start to doze off, call on the angels and ask
them to guide you and answer the questions that you’re
asking yourself. You can also ask them to bring you success, prosperity, and personal fulfillment. The following
day, or several days later, you will have new ideas, and
changes will start to happen in your life.
It’s very simple and rewarding to connect with your
angels. These loving creatures will always give you
supernatural help, whether you need love, healing, or
prosperity or even if you need to be saved from any circumstance.
The angels belong to another dimension where they
move simply with energy. Angels do not have bodies;
they don’t need them. Their energy is so powerful that
they can appear to us using any shape they desire in
order to inspire goodness and bliss in us.
The human energy doesn’t have a very high frequency. Every prayer, every ritual helps to enhance our
own energy for us to call on the angels. Energy is the
path that leads to the angels. We can increase this energy thanks to rituals, ceremonies, prayers, meditation,
visualizations, or just our honest desire to grow.
Excerpted from Angels by Marie-Ange Faugerolas with the
permission of Tarcher, an imprint of Penguin Random House,
http://www.penguin.com. Copyright © 2015 by Marie-Ange
Faugerolas.
The messages of angels frequently come to us in the form
of repetitive images or signs. Sometimes, angels manifest
themselves in the form of recurring visions of animals or
objects. Other times it’s when two different people say the
same thing. Whatever the circumstances, the state of openness that we find ourselves in will influence these forms of
manifestations and angelic contact. The help of angels
always brings about a sensation of psychological comfort,
physical well-being, and security. Their reassuring presence discourages us from committing mistakes we may
44
EARTH STAR
Live Love Soul
By Machel Shull
D
uring my mid-twenties I hit upon a
major stumbling block on my journey.
When I turned 25, I remember looking
around in my Los Angeles setting wondering about the ‘big picture’ in life.
Instead of looking for a good time with my friends and
booking acting and modeling auditions, I found that
there was something fundamentally missing from my
inner world. After a confident beginning at the age of 18,
I thought I had the world at my feet and knew everything. I thought this was going to be such a simple
journey. Oh, how I was wrong.
But that morning when I turned 25, I felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness and angst. I lived in an Aframe guesthouse in the middle of Studio City just about
five miles away from Universal Studios. I remember that
morning like it was yesterday. I woke up feeling like I
had isolated myself in this tiny cabin and I wasn’t quite
sure how my road had led me there.
My steps and the confidence of my youth had led
me to a place that I had never been before: a blank page
and an uncertain future that I did not understand.
After chasing dreams and following my creativity
and achieving decent success, the bottom fell out. The
world felt flat and my soul felt empty. I tried to talk to
my friends about this new feeling. You know, a new
awakening from within that wanted more than just
instant gratification from a fun night out on Sunset
Boulevard or booking another commercial with the cameras rolling. I needed something with deeper meaning.
What was missing? Why wasn’t I happy?
From that day forward, I can look back and see my
journey of wanting to discover: What makes me happy
and why? How can I be happy right now?
What is happiness?
And how can I be happy when I don’t always get
what I want? This quest led me to my best journey so
far…my journey within. My new book, Live Love Soul,
is essentially my story of ups and downs. My ins and
outs and how what I have found out is happiness can
EARTH STAR
45
also be a matter of living better, loving more correctly,
and sharing and uncovering my own soul. My journey
led me to discover ‘little things’ I can do each day to
change my world and make my own happiness. I discovered I loved running. So I became a runner. I discovered that I loved books. So I started reading more. I discovered that I loved rollerblading. So I went out to this
golf course in the Valley with a 10-mile path of sidewalk
strip, so I could blissfully feel the wind beating down on
my face as I whisked side to side in my rollerblades. I
got busy finding out what makes me happy.
I remember one of my managers at my part-time
position at the Sunset Marquis Hotel saying, “You must
be in love, you look so happy, Machel. New boyfriend?”
“No…I am just happy.”
“Really? Wow. Whatever you are doing, it shows!”
I walked away with the best smile that day. How
great that all my efforts were actually showing on the
outside, too! So I kept my nose to the grindstone. I kept
unearthing new ways to discover how to achieve a sense
of well-being without being specifically attached to an
outcome.
I worked on meditation. I studied self-help books. I
hung out with actors late at night and discussed our
fondest desires. I took time to enjoy my coffee in the
morning. I watched the birds take flight and land on the
branches in front of the little cabin I lived in, nestled in
the suburban neighborhood. I found a life coach. I studied Norman Vincent Peale’s many ‘power of positive
thinking’ books that empowered my mind, changed my
thoughts and lifted my temporary cloud of depression.
That yellow brick falling from the sky that had sideswiped me on my 25th birthday had been decimated by
active efforts of fighting for that smile I thought was
rightfully mine.
I took time to get to know myself over the years.
Even as my life changed and I moved to a different city,
46
EARTH STAR
I took what I learned with me. I stayed connected to the
joys of right now. Life is always a challenge of trying to
balance our schedules, do what we must, while finding
some much-needed fun along the way, too.
Dig in and make this your rosy mad-capped day.
Bee-bop your head. Drink tea. Watch the birds. Force a
laugh…fight for your happiness. Don’t be a sourpuss.
You deserve to feel good from the inside out and discover what makes your soul gleam with love.
So my book is about living more, loving more and
sharing more of your soul. It’s about uncovering how
you can find happiness at your fingertips every day even
if you are fighting depression.
It’s not a destination. It’s not a goal. It’s not what we
can have when we achieve something fantastic. It’s a
mood that feels strong, calm and grounded from within
the inner recesses of your soul that bubbles to the surface
at a pleasant cadence. It is about finding happiness
NOW in your current situation and being grateful for
your blessings.
Excerpted with permission from Live Love Soul, A Soul’s
Guide to Happy by Machel Shull. Published by O Books,
http://www.o-books.com
Machel Shull is the author the International Bestselling book,
Middle Age Beauty, an inspirational self-help book for
women. As a former International Face model and an actress,
Machel shares the nitty-gritty on aging, and exposes the pressures women receive to buy into a billion dollar industry of
Botox.Her background and study include seven years of meditation with the great grand daughter, Michiko Jane Rolek of
the first Zen Master in America, Sokei-an Sasaki.
Reaching for Insights
Stories of Love, Faith,
and the Kitchen Sink
By Mitch Rosenzweig
The Great Secret
I
am not sure when I first learned the truth. It
could have been one of my oh-so-helpful brothers who told me, or I could have learned about
it in some dark alley. Of course, I wanted to
believe in Santa. I think like many, I wanted to
hedge my bets. Better to believe and get presents than
doubt and get coal. Of course, I knew that all the presents didn’t come from Santa. We got them from Mom
and other family members. When I was raising my children, we were pretty sneaky. We had four types of wrapping paper. Santa had his own for each of the kids, and
mom and dad had different paper. When my daughter
was old enough, she too wanted to know if Santa was
real. I think she asked me the day after Christmas, just to
be safe.
Inevitably we go through challenges and changes in
our beliefs as we grow up. When we were young, we
believed in magic, fantasy, and things unknown. I
remember my older brother magically making quarters
appear for my son after he had stealthily hidden them
around the house. My son was amazed. As children, we
are very willing to believe in the unknown. It’s not that
we are gullible; it’s just there is so much we have yet to
learn about life and the world that the mystery of faith
seems natural. Of course there is a God-that’s easy to
believe.
As rational and ideology-challenging young adults,
we lose much of our faith. We get all Missouri-like and
say, “Show me. If you can’t prove it, it can’t be true.” It’s
a by-product of our education system. The quest for the
right answer. Perhaps it was exemplified by the Beatles’
claims about God being dead back in the 60’s. Prove it.
Many young adults walked away from their faith in
those days.
Now that I’m way ‘growed up’, and in spite of the
logic programming, on Christmas morning I still
believe. I believe in the magic of Christmas. Wide-eyed
children will race to open their gifts full of joyful happiness. We will express our faith in our carols and prayers.
On bended knee or surrounded by torn wrappings, we
will give thanks.
Many will have nothing. No presents, or trees, carols, or even prayers: the forward-deployed, the
im–poverished, and the lonely....Lost on this day, just
EARTH STAR
47
like every other day. For them, like us, the best gift isn’t
under the tree anyway. Rich, poor, faith-filled or not, we
are still loved. God is there whether we believe or not.
He always brings his presence to those that believe-and
those that don’t. What a gift that is. That is the magic of
Christmas.I do believe.
Oh Fudge
I laughed out loud, although I really shouldn’t have. She
was a cute as a button. Curly blonde hair and petite,
maybe 3 years old at the most. She had on the cutest little dress with a Christmas print, white tights, and bright,
shiny Mary Jane shoes to complete the perfect picture.
Her Dad, at the other end of her hand, was clearly a
work-a-day type. Gnarled and whiskered, there were
paint spatters flecking his plaid shirt and blue jeans. As
they walked into the black Friday store, Dad remarked,
“Look at all the people!” And in a cute, tiny voice with
a little-kid accent, the delicate princess exclaimed loudly, “No Shit!” My coffee almost exploded all over me as
I guffawed. Red-faced and embarrassed the Dad bent
close to his daughter and gave her a loving reminder:
“Now Chelsea, we don’t say those bad words in public.”
I wondered if it was okay in private. With wide eyes she
nodded, obviously confused and overwhelmed by the
bustle of the store.
In the 70s, George Carlin made famous the seven
words you can’t say on TV. But really, if you ask anyone, there are way more than seven that we classify as
expletives or bad words. When we are kids, we rejoice
in their delicious sounds. From the “doo-doo head” and
“poopy” of childhood, to the rude mother-degrading
curses of teens, we continue to thrill at the obvious
insults. It’s not just an American thing; I have seen
comedic dictionaries about how to curse in every language. We classify them as “bad” words. Never to be
spoken, especially not in public.
Of course no words are really “bad.” They are just
sounds on our tongue or letters on a page. It is in the
48
EARTH STAR
meaning and context that the moralistic value occurs.
We can exclaim about abundant waste in a toilet but we
better not tell someone they are full of it. It’s all about
the context. I have to re-train my brain after my various
military stints, where bad words are sprinkled throughout casual conversations. I once heard a Platoon
Sergeant use more than 14 of them in a single sentence.
The worst part is that I understood and agreed with what
he said-and how he said it. I shook his confused hand in
congratulations. Bad, bad, bad.
What I don’t understand is why other, non-curse
words aren’t considered bad. They have negative connota–tions in all contexts: such as “hate,” “unemployed,”
“addiction,” “kill,” and millions of others that produce a
visceral response in any setting. We don’t use them in
polite society either. I will avoid further examples but I
am sure you can think of your own that are far worse
than “doody-head.”
As parents and polite adults, we teach our children
and train ourselves to avoid using bad words. Even
though the best of us occasionally drop an “f-bomb,”
most of us don’t cuss like drunken merchant marines.
We realize that as reserved and thoughtful adults there
are better ways to express our emotions. Only the vulgar
cuss-until you stub your toe in the middle of the night.
And then that raw instinct forces us to damn something
to the nether regions. I’m not holier-than-thou; I am just
as likely to slip one in now and then. Especially the
milder ones, like sh*t, damn, and hell. Somehow, “doodoo happens,” or “oh fudge “ just doesn’t cut it in all situations.
I have a proposal. Can we create a list of the seven
words that we must say? Wouldn’t it be just as important
to teach our children those words? The positive rather
than negative? Wouldn’t it be amazing to see a dad
stooping to teach his to child to say, “Holy love!”? My
list of seven words we must say would be: love, faith,
caring, peace, giving, forgiveness, and thanks. I’m willing to bet we have just as many reasons to say them in
public. Maybe they are prohibited too, since I rarely hear
them.
Today, I am going to offer my seven every chance I
get. I will fully express myself and let people know how
I truly feel. No holds barred. If I offend, so be it. I don’t
need a filter. I will pepper my conversation with them
and shock people. Even when I stub my toe, I will offer
thanks for having a toe to stub. OK, well, maybe after I
cuss and fuss a bit.
Express yourself-it’s healthy. Let it out already,
Dagnabit!
Get Carded
Every place I worked, I would get new ones. If I had
kept one of each business card, I could have probably
wallpapered my house. Even though they all they were
all the same, they were different. Each was unique in
color, photos, and design. But in their essence, the function is the same: to proclaim, to the lucky receiver, who
you are and what you do, in tiny 6-point font. Yup, in
3.5 x 2 inches, you’re supposed to say everything someone needs to know about you.
How often we spend our time trying to figure out
people. What makes them tick-why would they act this
way or that way, or say something like that? We receive
all kinds of messages, most of the time mixed, about
who they are trying to be or what they are trying to communicate.
How simple life would be if we could just walk up
to someone and hand them a card that would say it all.
Not what it is we do to make money, but what we are all
about. Simple messages that convey our values and character. Just reach into your pocket and pass it out. It certainly would cut down on the guessing and confusion.
What would your card say? Would it be covered in
6-point font with all the things you think you are-barely
readable, but comprehensive? Would it include your life
roles, such as husband, wife, father or mother? Would it
show an important value or quality-like optimistic, or “I
believe”? Perhaps it would show your wishes or dreams.
The possibilities are seemingly endless. But of course,
the more you cram on it the more confusing it gets.
I know what mine would say. Clean and simple, with
no flowery distractions. Simple black and white type,
with the largest font that would fit. It would encompass
everything I am and that I value. Five words would say
it all.
With apologies to Descartes, it would simply say: I
care, therefore I am. What’s in your pocket?
the minimum wage. I talked to a bartender in a mountain
resort who astounded me with his earnings. But most of
us don’t begrudge gratuities. It’s our way of alleviating
the guilt for letting someone serve us.
If you think about gratitude, it is kind of a peculiar
thing. We are supposed to be grateful for all we have, for
all our gifts. But for many people, our prayers consist of
what is still on our wish list - usually for things to get
better...for the yuck to go away. Most of us do pray more
for others than ourselves; at least, I think we do. But do
we pray for those we don’t know? Not usually. But there
is so much around us to be grateful for, even if it is mundane and average.
We should spend more time being grateful in the
here and now. Pay for what makes us happy with a smile,
a thank you or a wave. If we go beyond social courtesy,
what would that look like? More than kindness to
strangers, but truly helping those that need it: to help the
seekers find, the hurt to heal, and the tearful to find joy.
Perhaps we should spend a large percentage of our gratitude doing just that.
So today, and each day, I am going to try to be grateful fifteen to twenty percent of the time. In my 16-hour
vertical day, that equates to about three and a quarter
hours. And if I can’t, I’ll try and remember how difficult
it is to make a living without being grateful.
What a great tip!
A Good Tip
Superman and Elvis Did, Too
I am forever trying to calculate tips. It doesn’t seem to
matter how good or bad the service is, a tip of fifteen to
twenty percent is expected - at least in this country. In
Europe, it is a bit different. They just round up the bill
and add a few dollars (francs, lira, etc.), regardless of the
total. Although we like to think that it’s a reward, it really isn’t-at least not to the server. What started as an
incentive (“to insure prompt service”) is now critical to
their livelihood. I can’t even imagine making a living on
the minimum wages that service workers earn. And of
course, our generosity helps some servers to far exceed
I felt like Elvis, swiveling my hip into the slightly stuck
front door; my hands were full in my superhuman feat of
carrying 14 plastic grocery bags in from the car. Real
men don’t make two trips. As it swung in a bit too fast,
I heard a satisfying “boing” and the door swung angrily
back at me, knob into ribs. Ouch! Doorstop must have
been loaded and waiting for the unsuspecting. Although
it saved the wall from the hole-inserting doorknob, my
ribs are a little offended from its anger. A softer rebound
and a louder expletive and I was inside.
Of course, we all know the metaphors about doors
EARTH STAR
49
and the future. One open, one shut, on the threshold,
etcetera, etcetera...I confess that I have cheaply used
them a few times. Yawn. But what about the lowly
doorstop silently waiting for that flung door? No poems
or prose written, it just sits there slightly screwed waiting for its opportunity to serve. I am sure that none even
give it a second thought unless they have hound-dog
hips and hit the door too hard.
But I am grateful for the doorstops in my world.
Being a seeker and adventurer, I always fling open
doors. Forget the timid peek, let’s rock that door open
and see what is on the other side. Screaming fans, adulation, love me tender? I am in! Well that is, until I go
too hard or too fast and then it’s nothing but heartbreak
and bruised ribs.
Your doorstops are as important as your doors. They
are there to stop you when you go too far and prevent
you from doing too much damage. They serve to ground
you when you go too fast and spring back with reality
when you think you are Superman or Elvis. Yet, they
don’t inhibit your swinging groove and are totally invisible when you are moving at the right speed. I am grateful to my doorstops in life-mom, my family, and my
faith for helping to slow me down when I go too fast. A
little poke in the ribs reminds me that I am not
Superman, just plain ‘ole me.
But every once in a while I make the perfect
entrance, and I can hear the loudspeaker announcing,
“Elvis has entered the building.”
Always Right
At first I thought it was me. It was the first one I changed
at daylight savings time as it is usually the first one I
look at. Later that day I noticed it was wrong so I fixed
it again. But later it was still off... odd, I thought. One
more time I adjusted it. Satisfied I finally had it right, I
50
EARTH STAR
forgot about it. A few days later I noticed it was wrong
again, but not by a lot. Must be the battery, so I changed
it. Seemed like the right solution. But the next day it was
off by ten minutes again. Time for a new clock.
I like to quip that broken clocks are usually right
twice a day. But in this case, it wasn’t true. It seemed
perfectly happy being near exactly ten minutes off. I
must have changed it five times, and the battery too, and
it still wasn’t the right time. I did some tests, another
new battery, and even gave it a good shake, all without
much luck. After a few days of it being the wrong time,
I began clock shopping. But after three stores, the only
one I found that I liked was a Disney princess one, and
that would just be wrong in the kitchen. I really did like
the old one best. So I just forgot about it and figured
what will be will be, and that someday I’ll get a new
clock.
And then a timely miracle happened. Not a water
into wine kind of miracle, but a little one nonetheless.
For the past week, the clock has been keeping perfect
time again. I keep checking and rechecking and it hasn’t
lost a minute. How it could possibly have fixed itself is
beyond rational understanding-it must be a miracle!
Often our fears and trepidations can be like trying to
get somewhere but relying on broken clocks to tell us
when it’s time to get going. A voice inside tells us it’s
not the right time, to justify not taking any action and
staying small. But despite being out of sync, we keep
looking, hoping that this time will be the right time.
There is no such thing as the perfect time, regardless
of what your clock tells you. If you count the minutes
that you spend waiting for the right time, you will get
good at counting but never get to your goal. And even if
you’re convinced it isn’t the right time, it might be. The
best solution isn’t a new clock, but overcoming your
fear. And the right time for that is always now.
The Zone
At the gym, some of the equipment has them built right
in; you just grab them and they tell you all kinds of
information. Ideally, you are supposed to be at a certain
heart rate, to maximize your efforts. But to actually get
an accurate reading you either have to stop what you’re
doing or, like me, hold on to the handles for dear life
until it registers. Without them, it seems next to impossible to tell your heart rate or pulse. Just because you’re
tired or out of breath doesn’t mean your workout has
been effective. Too fast or too slow and you are not in
the critical zone.
Many of us spend our days trying to chillaxe, relax,
detox, and meditate away life’s challenges. Many things
seem to assault us each day that we need to overcome,
get over, or run away from. We seek solace in our own
unique ways to get rid of whatever the yuck might be.
We dream of trouble-free white sand beaches and tropical breezes. It is one of the most common things discussed in counseling: how to let go and let life. Many of
us aren’t very good at it.
But if we spin too fast we burn more than calories.
We wear ourselves out from being on the edge of spent.
And a life of meditation offers no opportunity for growth
or love. Without things that make our heart race, we just
exist fat and unhappy. We are born to seize opportunities, risky or not, to achieve our maximum potential.
That moment when you first know love, the exuberance
of finding your purpose and “aha” of understanding:
these are the sweet spots of the critical zone.
Do one thing a day that scares you, something that
thrills you, settles you, and expresses your love and you
will find your sweet spot and achieve maximum potential.
Now You Have Everything
At my house, everybody used to help out. And it seems
it may be that way around the world. Why, it’s is almost
as much of a tradition as the meal itself. After hours of
fussing in the kitchen and an equal amount of feasting,
laughing, and dessert-eating we all seemed to bond
again around getting the remains cleaned up. The table
had been so full there was barely room for our plates. A
dish for everything - and everything delicious. But with
all the anticipation and most of the food gone, the used
dishes were piled on every surface and overflowing.
From fine china to burnt bean casserole, the debris was
everywhere. You would have thought we fed the 7th
Marines.
We didn’t have a dishwasher; we had five of them and dryers too. Wrap, box, bag and put away the leftovers and scale the mountain of dishes. Scrape, soak,
wash, rinse, dry and put away. It seemed endless.
Although the work wasn’t enjoyable, we had fun, all
laughing and smiling, everyone pitching in, almost
dancing in the kitchen. And just when you thought the
last dish was done, a few more would magically appear.
It was hot and sweaty, but we didn’t mind... we were
family.
In the joyful moments we forget about all the hard
work that it took to get us to the feast and the challenges
that still await. For some, that may be the holiday buffet
in our homes. For others, it is the promise of eternal salvation. Either way, it takes work to get there. And there
will always be dirty dishes left over from our banquet.
So as you plan and prepare in your life, wash away
what is done and move toward your potential. Go ahead
and use a new dish for each of your accomplishments
and challenges - there is plenty of room on the table. It
will all fit. When your day is done, take time to clean up
and be grateful for those that have helped you enjoy your
buffet. Our feast is nothing more than a sandwich without them. Without love we would certainly starve. And
there is no such thing as unwanted leftovers of love.
When I think back on those long gone days it is not
the dishes I remember. It’s the joy of being together.
Gathered around the kitchen sink, we washed ourselves
clean of any other junk that remained. And we had piles
and piles of potential in the clean.
Heaven may have an amazing buffet, but I sure hope
that it has dirty dishes. Gather around and grab a cloth.
Together, we can get it done. We can’t have everything
without the kitchen sink.
Excerpted with permission from Reaching for Insights: Stories
of Love, Faith, and the Kitchen Sink by Mitch Rosenzweig. In
this, his new book, veteran clinical psychologist and social
worker Mitch Rosenzweig attunes his therapeutic sensibilities
to his daily landscape and uncovers life lessons for us all treasures gained by observing the ordinary from an often
amusing, and always positive, perspective. This rich collection of 200 brief essays penned from his personal and professional observations delights us and invites us to grow into better, more compassionate human beings. For more information,
visit http://www.reachingforinsights.com/media/
EARTH STAR
51
Go Wild To T hrive
The Key To Keeping Up W ith
A W orld That Never Stops
By Anthony William
T
he world is moving faster than ever
before. Some of it is amazing: the miracle
of robotic surgery, the blessing of instant
communication with a loved one who’s
halfway around the world. And then there
are the downsides: pollution, pathogens, distraction,
overwhelm. At the same time you’re listening to a news
report on rising sea levels, you’re fielding text messages
about a computer virus at your child’s school—and then
a phone call comes in about a dear friend’s frightening
diagnosis.
I call our current era the Quickening. With everything speeding up, expectations are at their highest for
humankind—and women especially bear the brunt. It
can feel impossible to stay on top of it all, to protect
yourself and your family. It can feel like a struggle to
survive every day. And yet we don’t just want to survive,
do we? We want to thrive.
In order to adapt and thrive in our changing times,
it’s imperative to remember that no matter what else is
trying to grab our attention, health is key. Think of
52
EARTH STAR
today’s cars. They’re really advanced, right? Equipped
with GPS, Wi-Fi, solar panels, remote starters, and cameras that show you your blind spots, these automobiles
are like spaceships! They’re incredible. We hear that
soon, they’ll even be driving themselves.
Yet every car has a major vulnerability: rubber tires
filled with air. No matter how decked out the body of a
car is, if it runs over a bed of nails, the tires will deflate,
and it will be stuck by the side of the road. While the
design of pneumatic tires has improved since their
invention in the 19th century, there has yet to be a total
turnaround in the conception of how cars get from Point
A to Point B.
That’s where we are as a society, too. While certain
areas of life have seen exponential growth, we’re still
vulnerable at our foundation. Potential dangers are
everywhere: Toxins fall from the sky and fill the air we
breathe. Radiation surrounds us from past nuclear disasters. Superbugs multiply, out of control. Adrenaline
surges from the stress of it all. Disease is on the rise. Our
personal and global achievements—just like those feawww.earthstarmag.com
tures on the latest cars—are
only as fruitful as what they’re
built on: our health. If we end
up sick in bed because life in
the 21st century pushes our
bodies past their limits, then
what good are the advancements? Whether you’re low on
energy, struggling with illness, or perfectly well, you
must take active measures to
safeguard your health.
Here’s one secret: eat wild foods. These humble edibles are packed with adaptogens—that is, they’re crucial
to helping our bodies adapt to what life throws at us.
Wild foods not only retain the vitamin and mineral levels that nature intended, they also carry critical survival
information in their cells. When we ingest them, the wisdom that’s allowed them to thrive out in the elements
becomes a part of us.
You don’t have to spend all
of your time foraging in pristine locations to eat wild. And
you don’t have to be distracted
by the trends advertising the
latest exotic, expensive superfood. Wild foods (or foods so
close to their wild form that
they provide the same benefits)
are actually waiting for you at
your local market, and they can
transform your health. Here are
three of the best wild and nearwild foods you can add to your routine to protect yourself:
Wild blueberries: These little gems are the top health
tonic you can find. Turn to wild blueberries for immune
system support, tissue repair, anti-aging, digestive cleansing, ADHD management, extraction of heavy metals from
your system...the list goes on. You also want these in your
toolkit for prevention of brain diseases such as
Alzheimer’s. Perfect in smoothies, wild blueberries are
frequently found in the frozen section of your local grocery store. (Don’t confuse them with their cultivated
cousins, which are larger, slightly lighter in color, and still
healthy, just not anywhere near as life-changing.)
Nettle leaf: Amazing for detoxification, headache relief,
and support of the endocrine and central nervous systems, nettle is one of the best herbs for healing and prevention, period. Turn to nettle for alleviation of chronic
fatigue, joint and muscle pain,
and emotional distress. Its
anti-inflammatory properties
are astounding, and its vital
micronutrients make it an
essential part of your regimen.
Nettle leaf is readily available
as a tea herb, or as capsules.
Dandelion greens: The tenacity that makes dandelions a
rampant weed is about to make
it your new best friend. Rich in protein, dandelion greens
are wonderful for cardiovascular support, cleansing the
blood, fighting off bugs, and remineralization. They’re
also a fantastic anti-radiation remedy. Add dandelion
greens to stir fries and salads. You can harvest them
locally if you’re sure they’re from a lawn or garden that
hasn’t been sprayed with herbicides or pesticides.
Otherwise, find fresh dandelion greens in your grocery
store’s produce section, or buy
it dried and brew dandelion
tea.
Other items you can
throw into the mix include
thyme, oregano, rose hips,
Atlantic dulse, and all (edible)
varieties of wild berries. You
won’t hear lots of buzz out
there about the miraculous
health benefits of these
foods—yet. Rest assured, though: if you make them a
regular part of your life, incorporating at least one
(preferably more) into your daily rotation, you will be
taking the most powerful step you can to defend your
health.
This era of the Quickening isn’t just about everything accelerating. It’s about a new world emerging.
What used to be the setting of futuristic cartoons is
becoming the place where we live. And it is possible to
hold onto ourselves through that process. We can change
along with the world—if we take the right steps to connect to the earth’s potent medicine. So go ahead: go
wild. Watch your life transform.
Excerpted with permission from Medical Medium: Secrets
Behind Chronic and Mystery Illness and How to Finally Heal,
by Anthony William, published by Hay House,
http://www.hayhouse.com.
EARTH STAR
53
An Interview with Anthony William
Author of
Medical Medium:
Secrets Behind Chronic and Mystery Illness
and How to Finally Heal
How did you become the Medical Medium?
I received this gift at age four, when a voice that identified itself as Spirit of the Most High told me to announce
at the dinner table that my grandmother had lung cancer.
Though I didn’t even know what the term meant, I
shared the news with my family—and medical testing
soon confirmed the diagnosis. I’ve since dedicated my
life to communicating Spirit’s wisdom to anyone who
will listen, offering people answers for their health so
that they can overcome illness and lead the lives they
were meant to live.
How does your gift work?
Two things happen when I’m performing a read on
someone’s health. First, the voice of Spirit speaks to me
from just outside my ear, telling me what’s wrong with
someone’s health and how she or he can heal. When I
was young, Spirit also taught me how to develop the second part of my gift, the ability to visualize a scan of a
person’s body—think of an ultra?powerful MRI that can
not only detect physical ailments but also spiritual—so I
can truly understand what’s behind someone’s suffering.
How is your gift different from other mediums’ and
intuitives’ gifts?
Being able to hear a spirit voice clearly at all times, and
freely engage in conversation with it, is extraordinary
even among mediums. And more unusual is for that
voice to speak outside my ear, so that it’s an independent source separate from my thoughts. Essentially,
someone’s following me around everywhere—someone
who keeps telling me incredibly accurate information
about the health of everyone around me, insights that are
often decades ahead of medical research. It’s a gift I
can’t turn off, even though I sometimes wish I could take
a short break.
What types of health issues do you help people
overcome?
Do you have a couple of hours for me to give you the full
54
EARTH STAR
answer? The truth is that I’ve helped people with anything and everything, from Lyme disease to infertility.
Every single time someone comes to me for assistance,
I’m amazed at the answers Spirit provides for all aspects
of the client’s well?being, including care of the soul,
spirit, and emotions, as well as physical health.
What are the main messages of your book?
You can heal. If you’re dealing with chronic illness, if
you’ve gone from doctor to doctor looking for answers
and you’re still not better, don’t lose heart. There’s a reason behind your suffering, and there’s a way to get your
life back. Medical Medium is all about getting people
better. I’ve helped tens of thousands of people fully
recover from what ailed them, stave off further illness,
and live vibrant lives, and now is finally the time to share
Spirit’s wisdom with the wider world.
What is mystery illness, and why are we facing this
issue?
Mystery illness isn’t just the eight kids in the Midwest
who are hospitalized for sudden, unexplained symptoms; that’s a tiny fraction of what mystery illness is. Yet
this is how the term has been framed, and it’s misleading the public. Truth is, mystery illness is any condition
for which someone doesn’t have answers. Chronic
fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, migraines, Hashimoto’s
thyroiditis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune disease, and so many more—they have names, so we’re
supposed to think they’re under control. Just because we
have the tag “Hashimoto’s,” though, doesn’t mean that
researchers know what’s causing that thyroid issue, or
how to alleviate the underlying problem. That makes it a
mystery illness.
We’re facing this obstacle in our medical communities, both conventional and alternative, because of medical denial. Medical science is incredibly advanced
when it comes to areas such as life?saving surgeries.
When it comes to chronic conditions, though, it hasn’t
caught up. When enough people start to suffer from a
given set of chronic symptoms that the condition gains
validity and gets a label, the issue is put to rest. It’s not
considered a mystery anymore—that’s where the denial
comes in—and the research funding trickles. Much of
the information in this book will be discovered by science eventually—it will just take decades. You shouldn’t
have to wait 20 or more years for answers, though. It’s
time for the truth about mystery illness to finally reach
the public, which is why Spirit led me to write Medical
Medium.
Which illnesses and symptoms do you see as being
the greatest problems for people today?
Millions of people suffer from health issues such as
Lyme disease—which is still a mystery illness in the
medical communities—as well as chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, lupus, Hashimoto’s and other
thyroid diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, anxiety disorders, ADHD, digestive disorders, migraines, neuropathy,
fatigue, vertigo, tinnitus, blurry
vision, floaters in the eyes, bloating,
body temperature fluctuations, brain
fog, memory loss, tingles and numbness, muscle weakness, and insomnia. It’s heartbreaking—and even
more so that these people have to
deal with misdiagnosis, ineffective
treatment, or being doubted and
ignored. There is a way to heal and
move forward, the information just
hasn’t been released until now.
Who would benefit from this
book?
Anyone and everyone. Medical
Medium is the answer for anyone who’s suffering from
a chronic condition or a mystery illness that doctors
haven’t been able to resolve. If you’ve tried every conventional and alternative therapy, read every self?help
book on the shelf, and you still aren’t better, this is for
you. Or if you’ve just started to experience unexplained
symptoms and don’t want to lose decades of your life to
finding a solution, this book is for you. Every word of
Medical Medium is devoted to helping you with the
healing process.
It’s not just a book for people who are sick, though.
It’s a book for every person on the planet. Do you feel
strained by the challenges of a hectic life? Are you overwhelmed by the competing prevention information out
there and wish there were just one clear guide to experiencing vibrant health? Do you wonder what your purpose
in life is? Medical Medium is where you’ll find the tools
to rise up and meet the challenges of the 21st century.
How is this book different from other health books?
This book is unlike anything you’ve read. You won’t find
citation after citation, references to study after study,
because this is fresh, ahead?of?its?time information that
comes from the heavens. Everything I share in Medical
Medium comes from a higher authority, the essence of
compassion, that wants everyone to heal and live up to
their potential. Unlike other books in the health industry
that repackage the same old theories with catchy new
names, this book contains healing guidance that Spirit is
revealing for the first time. It explains the true underlying causes of dozens of conditions, the
unknown?until?now history behind them, then walks
you through how to finally heal (or
prevent the issues in the first place).
Inside Medical Medium are the real
answers on everything from why
menopause isn’t what you think it is,
to how to conduct a proper cleanse,
to how to restore your soul after
dealing with difficult colleagues. It’s
the health book that will finally give
you validation and a path forward.
How can someone begin to heal
from a mystery illness?
The first step of truly healing is to
understand what’s really causing
your condition—to take the mystery
out of mystery illness. The second
step is to know what to do to free
yourself from the pain and suffering. For every illness in
Medical Medium, I devote pages of information to each
of these steps. Using case histories from my clients’ successes as well as specialized techniques, I also cover the
element that you need to keep yourself going through
the healing process: faith. You didn’t bring your predicament on yourself, your body can heal, and even though
you may not get better overnight, if you follow the healing protocols in the book and keep the faith throughout,
the day will come when your illness is a distant memory.
What is the number one step you can tell people to
take that will help them feel better?
Picture yourself post?illness, and plan accordingly.
EARTH STAR
55
Think of your illness as a temporary detour, and Medical
Medium as the map that will finally get you back on the
path of your destiny. What have your ailments held you
back from doing? What do you miss from your pre?illness days? Start brainstorming ideas for what you’ll do
with your future newfound health. Make a list of what
you plan to do, then relax into the healing process with
the comfort that your days of fulfilling those dreams are
ahead.
What roles do emotional health and spirituality play
in healing?
Emotional health and spirituality are an integral part of
physical healing. For true healing to occur, you have to
know that you did not cause your illness. You did not
create, manifest, or attract it; you are in no way to
blame. You deserve the utmost compassion. You deserve
to heal. You have every God?given right to heal.
Grasping this truth in your heart and soul will activate
your body’s healing potential.
How can someone rebuild trust and faith that they
can heal?
You’ll have to read the book to find out! The chapter
“Soul?Healing Meditations and Techniques” offers an
exercise to rebuild trust—it’s the best technique you’ll
find for this anywhere.
You have helped tens of thousands of people heal, yet
there are likely to still be some people who are skeptical about your gift. What would you say to those
people?
When a person has spent decades and thousands of dollars trying to heal with no results, I don’t blame her for
being skeptical of yet one more person offering health
advice. On top of which, I’m a guy who hears a voice!
People are bound to be skeptical. My response to these
people is that I was a born skeptic. When I first experienced my gift and as it began to develop, I could barely
believe it. The first chapter of my book, “Origins of the
Medical Medium,” goes into detail on how I tried to
escape the voice, and why I ultimately understood that
this is my calling.
I’m an ordinary man who happens to hear the voice
of Spirit with clarity and precision. It’s not a gift I chose;
God chose this for me. And it’s not about me. The only
reason I’ve been able to help tens of thousands of people heal is that Spirit provides the answers. To this day,
when a client tells me an insight I relayed to him was
56
EARTH STAR
spot?on, my reply is, “Really?” I’m amazed every time
my gift serves another person.
How can people learn more from you?
My website, www.MedicalMedium.com, is a great place
to start. You’ll find links there to my Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, and Pinterest accounts, where I post health
information that’s decades ahead of its time. You’ll learn
about the healing powers of different fruits, vegetables,
herbs, spices, and teas, as well as healing recipes and
daily inspiration to keep you moving forward on your
healing journey. On my website, you’ll also find information on my weekly radio show on Hay House Radio,
downloadable reports, plus news about my upcoming
appearances.
Anthony William, the one and only Medical Medium®, has
helped tens of thousands of people heal from ailments that
have been misdiagnosed or wrongly treated or have baffled
medical communities. He’s accomplished all this by listening
to a divine voice—called Spirit of the Most High—that literally speaks into his ear, telling him what is at the root of people’s pain or illness and what they need to do to restore their
health.
Anthony has been called the Edgar Cayce of our time.
He’s also been compared to Padre Pio. What he does is several decades ahead of scientific discovery.
His methods achieve spectacular results, even for those
who have spent years and many thousands of dollars on all
realms of medicine before turning to him. Now, in his revolutionary book, he gives readers access to all that he has
learned in over 25 years of bringing people’s lives back: a
massive amount of healing information, much of which has
never appeared anywhere before.
In Medical Medium he reveals the root causes of diseases that
medical communities either misunderstand or fail to understand at all, conditions that wreak havoc with the lives of
countless people around the world. And it explores all_natural solutions—not merely relief of symptoms, but critical
information that can address core causes and completely
restore a person’s health—for dozens of the illnesses that
plague us, including Lyme disease, diabetes, adrenal fatigue,
Candida, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis,
anxiety, depression, ADHD and OCD, rheumatoid arthritis,
fibromyalgia, shingles, and leaky
gut syndrome. Beyond the body,
Anthony brings his wisdom to bear
on soul, heart, and spirit as well,
offering readers unique insights on
how to find inner peace and live
longer, healthier, richer lives.
Reflexology Made Easy
Self-help Techniques
for Everyday Ailments
By Ewald Kliegel
T
Headaches
he head is prone to different problems –
from throbbing temples with the sensation of being trapped in a vice, while a
jackhammer is busy at work in the background, to having a brain that feels as
though it is made of cotton wool. Fortunately, however,
most of these nasty sensations go away on their own.
The symptoms are as varied as the causes that may
underlie them: a stiff neck, problems with the spine,
metabolic disturbances, allergies, medicine, unstable
blood pressure, too much stress, long periods spent sitting at the computer and much more. Essentially, any
organ in the body can have a detrimental effect on the
head. Most people suffering from a headache just think
of reaching for the usual analgesics but these medicines
are often also bad for the head; until the cause has been
identified, you are better off using remedies that cause
no side effects instead. These include reflex zone massage, which generally works just as quickly as the usual
headache pills.
1. Neck reflex zones
A typical place to treat a tension headache is the neck. It
seems the natural place to reduce the muscle tension that
causes it, even with no knowledge of the reflex zones.
Important control centers for many of the functions of
the head and sensory organs are also located here, just
beneath the point where the muscles of the spine meet
the muscles of the neck.
For this technique, take the back of your head in
your hands, with your fingers to the sides and your
EARTH STAR
57
Complementary techniques
For recurrent headaches, it’s also worth considering the
impact of any possible mental strain in addition to any
medical considerations. The expressions ‘racking my
brains’ and the need to ‘get my head round’ something
hint at this type of underlying cause and some honest
self-appraisal may be required to pinpoint where a conflict of this kind may be proving too stressful and burdensome.
thumbs in the middle. From this position, make circular
strokes with both thumbs to massage the central area
gently but thoroughly. After basic unblocking of the
maximum release points, finish with effleurage from a
line down the back of the neck out to the sides.
2. Hand reflex zones
Headaches are annoying and unpleasant – they can stop
us from thinking clearly and be impossible to shake off.
Two areas of the hand reflex zones may be of some help:
the brain stem zones on the joint of the thumb enable
you to influence the nerve supply to the head, while the
reflex zones of the brain are in the pads of the fingers.
Basic unblocking has proved effective for the brain stem
zones and, even when used on its own, can often make a
situation more bearable. Rubbing the pads of the fingers
together gently for a few minutes may often produce
results, making a nagging stress pain disappear, or at
least be eased considerably.
Essential oils that have a beneficial effect on headaches
include lemon balm, cardamom and ginger (give them a
try!), while the gemstones amethyst, dumortierite (the
‘take it easy’ stone) and garnet have also demonstrated
that they work particularly well.
Ancient Indian medicine teaches the use of meditative
finger positions (known as mudras) for many problems.
One such mudra is also extremely effective against
headaches. Using light pressure, just press the fingers of
both hands together for one to three minutes and breathe
deeply in and out over the joined fingers.
Excerpted from Reflexology Made Easy: Self-help
Techniques for Everyday Ailments, by Ewald Kliegel, with
permission from the publisher, Findhorn Press,
http://www.findhornpress.com
Ewald Kliegel is a healer, teacher, author, masseur and alternative health practitioner. He gives seminars about reflex
zones, and gemstone treatment courses for use in therapy and
professional wellness. This is what leads him to write about
simple and effective self-help methods for everyday life.
Headache Mudra
58
EARTH STAR
Finding Your Animal Ally
By Denise Linn
I
n many native traditions, finding one’s animal
ally often involved a vision quest in nature.
However, as we don’t always have the opportunity to go on a quest, there are a number of
other ways that you can find your spirit animal:
Think about what animal you are drawn to: You may
find your power animal by noticing the animals to which
you feel irresistibly drawn. It could be your favorite animal since childhood. Perhaps you’ve loved stories about
cats and have always felt aligned with them—this might
indicate that some kind of cat is your ally.
Watch your dreams: A totem may also appear repeatedly in a dream. Before you go to sleep, ask that your spirit animal appear in your dreams. Consider keeping a
journal next to your bed so that you can record your
dreams as soon as you awake.
Pay attention to the signs: Ask the Creator to give you a
sign in regard to your totem. If an animal appears a number of times, especially in unusual ways, this most likely is one of your allies. For example, you receive a card
with a horse on it in the mail. Then you begin seeing
horses on posters and billboards. There’s a song playing
on the radio about a horse, as you’re driving by a field
full of horses. If everywhere you turn, you see horses,
there’s a good chance that the horse is your totem.
Take the inward journey: One of the most powerful
ways to find your spirit animal is to go on an inner journey (meditation). Imagine yourself in a mist, and picture
yourself reaching into the mist to touch your spirit animal. Imagine the mist thinning and “see” what animal
has appeared. You can even communicate with the animal to understand why it has come forward as your
totem.
EARTH STAR
59
Spend time in nature: The traditional way to discover
your totem is to spend time in solitude in nature and then
notice the animals that show up. You can also watch the
images in the clouds and even in the patterns on the bark
on the trees to get clues as to your totem.
Discovering the Qualities
of Your Animal Ally
Different cultures assign varying meanings to totems.
Trust your intuition to find the significance of yours.
There are many books that list power animals and what
they represent. Although these can be very useful, it’s
important to remember that this is only one person’s or
one culture’s interpretation. Read the definition of your
animal ally in the book and see if it feels right to you.
60
EARTH STAR
Your own sense of what a particular spirit animal means
is unique and is more valid than anyone else’s opinion.
The owl is a good example of these varying definitions. When I was in Western Australia discussing
totems with Aboriginal elders, I was told that men feared
the owl, for it was a woman’s totem and represented the
darkness and the unknown. They said that as men were
afraid of the power of women, they also feared the owl.
In New Zealand, I discussed animal allies with members
of the Maori tribe and asked about the owl. I was told
that it was a sacred bird to the Maoris. It was so sacred
that its name was never spoken. In my own Native
American culture, some tribes revere the owl, saying
that it represents deep wisdom, yet other tribes consider
it the harbinger of death and darkness. The meaning for
each ally can vary dramatically; therefore, it’s crucial
that you find the meaning of your ally for yourself.
Another way to discover what your totem represents
is to read wildlife books, nature magazines, and encyclopedias. Research the habits and habitat of the animals
with which you feel a special kinship. For example, if
you feel that the wolf is your ally, by researching their
habits in the wild, you’ll discover that they have a strong
sense of family. Thus, having a wolf for your ally may
increase your connection to your family.
Excerpted from Kindling the Native Spirit by Denise Linn. It
is published by Hay House (November 2015) and is available
in bookstores and online at www.hayhouse.com
Search
for
T
By Dennis Waite
here is much talk about happiness at present. Even governments have begun talking about it, as though they have suddenly realized that the subject is actually of
interest to voters and that their ability to
promote happiness in some way might win them the
next election.
Of course, we are interested! One could say that the
search for it motivates our every action, directly or indirectly. Whole books have been written about it. This is
not obviously one of them. Certainly I do not intend to
say anything about it other than in this short, preliminary
section. Yet it will not escape your attention that it is the
very first topic that I introduce!
The point I would like to make is that neither governments nor most individuals actually know how to
make people happy. What we do tend to know is what
the specific thing (object, person, status etc.) is at present that we think will make us happy. What we invariably find is that, irrespective of whether or not we obtain
that thing, any happiness gained is only temporary and
we eventually move on, desiring and seeking for the next
thing that might work.
The naïve view is that, ideally, I would always be
free to do what I want rather than often seemingly being
forced to do things that I don’t want to do. But, on analysis of our experience, we should rather say that I really
want to be free of that pervasive idea.
What is actually happening here?
The problem is that what we are actually looking for
is the removal of some perceived limitation. We might
want a new house if we think the present one is too
small, too distant from our job etc., or if we do not have
one at all. We might want a new partner if the current
one is unfaithful, drunk all of the time etc., or if we do
not have one at all. We might want a new job if the present one is too boring, not paid sufficiently well etc., or if
we do not have one… You get the idea!
The perceived limitations are either in our body or
our mind. If there is no literal limitation, such as a muscular or sensory one, it is usually a thought that: ‘I must
have X before I can be happy’. And, if you follow this
line of reasoning, you end up with the real problem
being that I believe that I am the body or mind. Since our
bodies and minds genuinely are limited, it is no surprise
that trying to remove these limitations inevitably causes
EARTH STAR
61
largely hostile universe. The deep-sleep state, on the
other hand is a blissful one, in which we experience no
limitation whatsoever. But then we know nothing about
this directly and can only say on waking up that we
‘slept well’.
What can we make of these observations? If these
states are ‘masks’ that we put on, who is the one without
a mask? If the perceived limitations of those states are
not present when the masks are removed, then it would
seem to follow that ‘who-we-really-are’ must be without
limitation and therefore permanently, transcendentally
happy. This is indeed the case! This is why the subject
of my book is so important.
Excerpted with permission from A-U-M: Awakening to
Reality by Dennis Waite, published by Mantra Books,
http://www.mantra-books.com
problems and is ultimately doomed to failure.
So what has all of this got to do with my new book?
Well, the source text of A-U-M: Awakening to Reality,
says that who we think we are is actually somewhat
wider than this. It looks at our entire life experience
through the three states of consciousness – waking state,
dream state and deep-sleep state and their corresponding
objective ‘universes’. There is nothing else in our experience apart from these.
And what it says is that these states are effectively
‘masks’ that we put on. A metaphor which is sometimes
used is that of an actor, playing parts in several plays.
The waker, dreamer and deep-sleeper are merely roles
that the actor plays at various times. Who he ‘really is’
is the fourth aspect, called turIya in Sanskrit – the actor
himself. The waker is not the dreamer, the dreamer is not
the deep-sleeper but I am all of these.
The waking and dream roles are inherently fraught
with limitations. We play the role of a limited being in a
62
EARTH STAR
Dennis Waite has been a student of Advaita for over 25 years
and maintains one of the most visited and respected websites
on the subject. He lives in Bournemouth, England.
7 Herbs
Boost Your
Brain Power
To Help
By Jared Tropple, M.H.
W
ho couldn’t use help to make your improve cognitive functions without causing cognitive
brain function more effectively? I problems. I advise to always include ginkgo in your
know that I could. I have so many brain formula.
things going on all at once that at
Gotu Kola
times I can feel too overwhelmed
and taxed mentally to be able to balance and fulfill all Gotu Kola oxygenates the blood and brain so that your
of my obligations and desires. Here are a few herbs brain can get the nourishment it needs. It is also a brain
that can help your brain to function more fully and tonic and a nervine.
more
effectively
while
Gotu Kola
decreasing mental exhaustion
Rosemary
and stress.
I can feel rosemary working so
Gingko
quickly in my brain. I usually
take it in tincture form. It seems
Ginkgo promotes circulation
like smelling it is an important
and improves memory. Some
factor in getting the desired benstudies indicate that it may help
efits. I would suggest also using
rejuvenation brain cells. It helps
rosemary essential oil because
EARTH STAR
63
Gingko
Rosemary
of this outcome. Rosemary is a brain tonic. It stimulates
the brain but doesn’t have the anxious effect of caffeine.
Because of its stimulating effects on the brain it
improves cognitive performance and concentration.
Holy Basil
the brain function better
together. It helps rejuvenate brain cells and improves
ones capacity for attention and focus. It also helps
reduce stress and increases memory capacity. This herb
has so much scientific research backing it that it is very
exciting.
Sage
Much of my opinion on Holy
Basil as a head herb comes from
personal use. It is promoted as an
anxiety and stress herb. Maybe
that’s part of it. For me, it helps
clear my mind so that I can focus
on the task at hand.
They don’t call a wise person a
sage for nothing. This herb has
long been known to help improve
cognitive function and enhance
memory. Some of the active components of sage are similar to
those developed to make drugs
for Alzheimer’s. Along with rosemary I would also recommend
using this in the essential oil
form.
Ashwaghanda
Ashwaghanda reduces the effects
of prolonged stress. It promotes a
youthful state of mental health.
Recent research has shown that it
reduces mental impairment. It
seems to help me most when I need to be creative in
solving problems or in need of inspiration. It protects the
brain from oxidative stress that leads to degeneration. It
also improves long term visual memory.
Ashwaghanda
These herbs will boost your memory, improve brain function and feed your brain so that
it can be healthy and happy. I hope that if you are feeling mentally strained you reach for something nourishing like these herbs instead of an energy drink that just
taxes your brain and body.
Bacopa
Ayurvedic medicine has long used Bacopa for intellect,
memory and anxiety. It is probably my favorite recently
discovered herb. Studies show that it helps both sides of
Holy Basil
64
EARTH STAR
Jared Tropple is a Master Herbalist Graduate of The School
of Natural Healing.
Sage
Baricopa
Wayne W. Dyer, Ph.D.
(May 10th, 1940 - August 30th, 2015)
W
ayne W. Dyer, Ph.D., was an internationally
renowned author and speaker in the field of
self- development and spiritual growth. Over
the span of his four-decade career, he wrote 42 books, 21 of
which became New York Times bestsellers, and this wide
readership earned him the affectionate nickname of “the
father of motivation” among his fans. Dr. Dyer’s message
reached across all markets, generations, and cultures. Even
though the self-help industry has seen many new thought
leaders emerge in recent years, Dr. Dyer continued to be a
pioneer in this ever-expanding field up until his passing.
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Dyer earned
his doctorate in educational counseling from Wayne State
University before serving as a professor at St. John’s
University in New York. Through his early work as a college educator, and as a clinical psychologist, he discovered
the need to make the principles of
self-discovery and personal
growth available to the general
public. In 1976 he began his
career as an author by traveling
the country selling his first book,
Your Erroneous Zones, from the
trunk of his car—a book that went
on to become one of the best-selling books of all time, with more
than 60 million copies sold, printings in 47 languages, and 64
weeks spent on the New York
Times bestseller list. Its success
landed Dr. Dyer on The Tonight Show with Johnny
Carson—a dream of Dr. Dyer’s since childhood—a total of
37 times.
After publishing a string of best-selling books on the
practical psychology of self-improvement, Dr. Dyer felt a
shift in his thinking that led him to explore the spiritual
aspects of human experience. “My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts,”
Dr. Dyer said at the time.
“Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual
beings without label is a way to transform the world and
reach a sacred place for all of humanity.” In 1993, Dr. Dyer
began publishing books with Hay House and quickly
became one of the cornerstones of the company.
Dr. Dyer created several audio programs and videos,
and appeared on thousands of television and radio shows
over the course of his career. His books Manifest Your
Destiny, Wisdom of the Ages, There’s a Spiritual Solution to
Every Problem, and the New York Times bestsellers 10
Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, The Power of
Intention, Inspiration, Change Your Thoughts—Change
Your Life, Excuses Begone!, Wishes Fulfilled, and I Can See
Clearly Now have all been featured as PBS specials, raising over $200 million for public television stations nationwide and making Dr. Dyer one of PBS’s most successful
fund-raisers. This philanthropic spirit was intrinsic to Dr.
Dyer, as illustrated by his charitable contributions to his
alma mater, Wayne State University, which totaled more
than $1 million.
Dr. Dyer’s first feature film, The Shift, was released in
2009, followed in 2012 by the autobiographical film, My
Greatest Teacher. The second film dramatized a defining
moment in Dyer’s life, when he had visited the grave of his
father, who had abandoned him as a young boy. While the
intention that day had been to exact some form of
vengeance on the man Dyer felt had sent him down a dark
path of rage and alcoholism, at the gravesite Dr. Dyer was
overcome by inexplicable feelings of
love and forgiveness. He credited
this experience with changing the
trajectory of his life. The date of this
experience was August 30, 1974. On
the exact same day, 41 years later,
Dr. Dyer passed on.
Despite a childhood spent in
orphanages and foster homes, Dr.
Dyer made his dreams come true. He
lived to teach others to overcome
their perceived limits and engage in
their “Highest Self.”
“I realize I was this little kid
that was just born into the situation that I was born into,”
Dr. Dyer said while reflecting on the publication of his
2014 book I Can See Clearly Now. “But as I look back on
all of these things and all of these books that have come out
of it and the movies that we’ve done and the millions of
millions of people who’ve been touched all over the world,
I look back and I see that I was in some kind of training
since I was a little boy. It’s like these experiences are all
gifts, and that’s how you have to look at it.”
Just before his passing, Dr. Dyer had returned from
Australia and New Zealand, where he lectured in front of
thousands of people. As a father to eight children and six
grandchildren, he was back home in Maui looking forward
to spending time with his family, while gearing up for the
launch of his upcoming book, Memories of Heaven:
Children’s Astounding Recollections of the Time Before
They Came to Earth.
Although he was public with his struggle with
leukemia, Dr. Dyer was the healthiest he had been in years,
keeping a very active schedule. His death has officially
been attributed to heart failure.
EARTH STAR
65

MEMORIES OF HEAVEN - WAYNE W. DYER MEMORIES OF

Transcription

Similar documents

Kattunge

Kimbertal Kennels Star Dog Breeder

Scanned Document

Capito-Charleston Gazette Web

Maslow`s Hierarchy of Needs

STAR TOUCH - Add Type Business Equipment Ltd.

The Race to the Death Star Maths Challenge.

Star(Jones) - Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance

Health Monitor - Gina Roberts-Grey

Penhaligon Star, Truro - Cornish Concrete Products