Tuesday, June 27, 2006

David's and your spiritual journey

David's Spiritual Journey
This is the journey that David has taken he empowers and enables people that work with him to successfully travel the same journey.

David has taken the long hard journey to become an effective healer and teacher. He has reached deeply into the centre of his inner being and taken full responsibility for his calling as a healer of the spirit. He is someone who has fully walked this journey of transformation and has chosen to become a healer and helper to those in need.
Next, he has learned to clear his mind of it's inner dialogue and mental garbage replacing the dogma of his culture with the knowledge and wisdom from the collective unconscious which is within us all.

He had to resolve all negative aspects of his personal history in order that his past would not interfere with life in the present. This he has done to insure that no negative elements of his own psyche be transferred to his clients.

He then faced his own death in order to accept it's finality within the eternity of the Universe around him. By separating from his culture and it's value systems he has learned to see and understand the universality of the human spirit and it's sacred laws.
Finally he has controlled the dream and found a new vision and purpose:- Rebirth as a renewed person with new reasons for being and interacting within the world.
These are some of the area's that will need addressing during the course of your Spiritual growth.

David is aware that there are many belief structures and organizations that purport to train people in the ancient craft or assist them to make the journey. Unfortunately very few if any are able to deliver causing anguish, ill health and great disappointment. Either that or they spend many years of pointless study in what they have been told is real, only to realise that they have been lead up the garden path.

Part of David's inner gift is the depth of understanding that he has in the spiritual crafts. David is not about destroying the knowledge that you have gained or about giving you another belief structure, but giving you new insight into what is happening when using these skills. Creating a greater spiritual connection which will enable you to develop the craft as a healer or medium with greater safety and understanding. This will lead you to have a greater ability to help people that cross your path in a state of distress. David sees this happening more and more as they only appear to be interested in 'bums on seats'. Guiding and giving assistance in your spiritual journey forms the corner stone of David's work.

Vist David's Resource Library holding some 2500 + pages on things of spiritual and general interest

Friday, June 02, 2006

The disciple & sex

An aspirant to discipleship has in sex a real problem with which to contend. Self-indulgence and the control of the human being by any part of his organism are always inevitably wrong. When a man's entire mind is occupied with the thought of women, or vice versa; when he lives mainly to satisfy an animal craving; when he finds himself unable to resist the lure of his polar opposite, then he is a victim of and is controlled by the lowest part of his nature, the animal.

But when man recognizes his physical functions as a divine heritage, and his equipment as having been given him for the good of the group and to be rightly used for the benefit of the human family, then we shall see a new motivating impulse underlying human conduct where sex is concerned. We shall see the elimination of promiscuity, with its attendant evil, disease.
We shall see the solution of the problem of too many children and, incidentally, easement of the economic problem. Through right control of the sex function and its relegation to the purpose for which it exists (the carrying onward of the human family and the providing of bodies whereby souls call gain experience) then right use will be made of sex. Then, passion, Lust, self-gratification, disease, and over-population will die out in the world. Matter will no longer be prostituted to selfish desire, and the relation between the sexes will be governed by understanding of divine purpose and skill-in-action.

Two points of view are equally wrong: in the one case we have practices taught which lead eventually to sexual orgies. These have been dignified by the name of sex magic, and in the sexual orgasm, deliberately induced, a man is led to believe that the physical sex act is his highest point of spiritual opportunity and that, at such a moment, he can touch, if he will, the kingdom of Heaven.

The other attitude, which makes marriage and all expression of the sex life a sin for a disciple and which says that a man cannot be pure in the truly spiritual aspect if he marries and raises a family, is as devastatingly dangerous.
There is no state of consciousness and no condition of life in which it is impossible for a man to function as a son of God.

If it is not possible for a man to live the life of discipleship and the life of initiation and, with due self-control and understanding, live a normal, balanced sex life; then there is a department of human expression in which divinity is helpless, and this I refuse to recognize.
There is no department of life, no field of expression, no meeting of obligation, no use of the physical apparatus, in which the soul cannot fulfil the part of the dominating factor and all things be done truly to the glory of God. But the soul must control, and not the lower nature.
People forget that some of the greatest of the world initiates married; that the Buddha married and had a son, and must have been an initiate of high degree when he entered into the married state. They forget that Moses, David the Psalmist, and many of the outstanding figures in the world of mysticism in both hemispheres, were married and raised families.

Disciples belong to all races, both in the occident and in the orient, and the attitude of different races towards sex is widely diversified. Standards of conduct differ. The legality or the illegality of relations varies. Different epochs and different civilizations have seen relationships that were legal at one time, and illegal at another. Some races are monogamous and some races are polygamous. In some civilizations the woman is regarded as the dominant factor, and in others the man. Down the ages sex perverts, homosexuals, true and spurious, have been with us, and today is probably no worse than 5,000 years ago, except that everything is now dragged out into the light, which is good.

Everybody talks about the problem; and the rising generation are asking in no uncertain tones:
"What about sex? What is right and what is wrong?" How can they be expected to deal with a question which has been discussed, seemingly in the most futile manner, down the ages?
Here it is pertinent to note that Minos, King of Crete, who owned the sacred bull also possessed the maze in which the Minotaur lived, and the maze has ever been the symbol of the great illusion. The word "maze" comes from an old English word, meaning to bewilder, to confuse, to puzzle.

The island of Crete with its maze and its bull is an outstanding symbol of the great illusion. It was separated from the mainland, and illusion and bewilderment are characteristics of the separated self, but not of the soul on its own plane, where group realities and universal truths constitute its kingdom.

The bull, to Hercules, typified animal desire, and the many aspects of desire in the world of form which, in their totality, constitute the great illusion. The disciple, like Hercules, is a separated unit, divided from the mainland, the symbol of the group, by the world of illusion and the maze in which he lives. The bull of desire has to be caught and mastered and chased from one point to another in the life of the separated self, until the time comes when the aspirant can do what Hercules succeeded in doing: ride the bull.

To ride an animal, in the ancient myths, signifies control. The bull is not slaughtered, it is ridden and guided, and under the mastery of the man. There are potencies and faculties hidden in the human being that, when developed and unfolded, may bring new powers to bear upon this problem. But, in the meantime, what shall the aspirant do?

Certain suggestions may be made:
1. Ride, control and master the bull and let the aspirant remember that the bull has to be ridden across the waters to the mainland; which means that the solution of the whole sex problem will come when the disciple subordinates his separated personal island self to group purpose and endeavor, and begins to rule his life by the question, "What is best for the group with which I am associated?" It is by doing this that the bull is ridden to the mainland.

2. Use common sense. The ancient meaning of the word "common sense" was that there was a sense which synthesized and unified the five senses and so constituted a "common sense", literally, the mind. Let the aspirant use his mind, and through the medium of intelligent perception, guide and control the bull of desire. If common sense is used, certain dangers will be avoided.

There is a danger in the method of many aspirants in inhibiting or shutting off all sex expression. Physiologically they may succeed, but the experience of psychologists and teachers is that where inhibition and a drastic suppression is imposed upon the organism, the result is some form of nervous or mental complex. Many physically clean people have unclean minds. Many who would scorn the practise of any of the sex perversions and who hold that marriage is not for the disciple, have mental apparatuses which will not bear investigation. Their minds and their interpretations of other people's actions are so salacious and their capacity to think evil so great, that, dangerous as this may sound, one feels that it would be better for them to be ridden by the bull of desire than to continue their present practice of substituting mental indulgence for outer sin.

A clean mind and a pure heart, a rightly organized and rightly used physical body, conformity to the laws of the land in which his destiny is cast, utter consideration for the welfare of those with whom he is associated, and a life of loving service: these constitute the ideals of the aspirant.

3. A right understanding, of the meaning, of celibacy. The word means "single" and the meaning usually given to the word is, to refrain from the marriage relation.
Many young men and women, driven by spiritual desire and under the influence of the thought-form of the church during the Middle Ages, with its many monasteries and convents, believe that for them the celibate state is essential and right, and are puzzled when they find that complexes result. But may it not be that the true celibacy has been expressed for us in the words of Christ, when he said,

"If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light"?
May it not be that true celibacy is the refusal of the soul any longer to identify itself with the form? May not the real marriage relation, of which the physical plane relation is but the symbol, be that of the union of the soul and the form, the positive spirit aspect and the negative mother-matter? Let the soul be single in its purpose and freed from the thralldom of matter, and then right action and a right point of view will inevitably be the characteristics of the physical plane life.

Let the soul ride the form, controlling and mastering it, and then it will surely know its right obligations. It will recognize the relation that it should hold to other human beings, whether its destiny is to be that of husband or wife, father or mother, brother or sister, friend or companion.
Through right use of the form and right understanding of purpose, through right orientation to reality and right use of spiritual energy, the soul will act as the controlling factor and the whole body will be full of light.

Through control, through the use of common sense, by a right understanding of celibacy, and by identification with group purpose, the disciple will arrive at liberation from the control of sex. He will succeed in following the example of Hercules and will ride the bull of desire over to the mainland where, in the Temple of God, he will hand it over into the care of the Cyclops who were early initiates, having the single eye about which we have been speaking, the eye of Shiva, the Bull's eye in the constellation Taurus.

For Hercules himself was not only the disciple, but he was, in his lower nature, the bull, and in his higher nature the Cyclops. When the bull of desire has been handed over to the Cyclops, to the initiate with the single eye, which is himself, the soul, the three divine aspects, will begin to manifest: Brontes, Steropes and Arges will guard the sacred bull, and Hercules, the disciple, will no longer have any responsibility.

Brontes is the symbol of the first aspect of God, the Father who spoke and is the creative sound.
Steropes means lightning, or light, and is the second aspect, the soul.
Arges means whirling activity, the third aspect of divinity, expressing itself in the intense activity of physical plane life.

These divine aspects constitute the controlling factor and once they have gained possession of the sacred bull, the problem of Hercules is solved.
The solving of the sexual problem will release the minds of men from an inhibition and an undue concern, and so produce a mental freedom which will admit of the inflow of new ideas and concepts. We shall discover that vice and virtue have no real reference to ability and inability to conform to man-made laws, but to man's attitude to himself and to his social relation with God and his fellowmen.

Virtue is the manifestation in man of the spirit of cooperation with his brothers, necessitating unselfishness, understanding and complete self-forgetfulness. Vice is the negation of this attitude. These two words signify in reality simply perfection and imperfection, conformity to a divine standard of brotherhood or a failure to achieve that standard.
Standards are shifting things and change with man's growth towards divinity. They vary also according to man's destiny as it is affected by his time and age, his nature and surroundings. They alter also according to the point of evolutionary development. The standard for attainment is not today what it was one thousand years ago, nor a thousand years hence will it be what it is today.

The Rays and the Kingdoms in Nature Yet all periods of the world's history have not been as critical as today, for - apart from the great cyclic opportunity to which I have earlier referred - we have in humanity itself a unique attainment. For the first time in racial history, we have the expression of a true human being, of man as he essentially is.
We have the personality, integrated and functioning as a unit, and we have the mind and the emotional nature fused and blended, on the one hand with the physical body, and on the other with the soul. Also, the shift of emphasis is today away from the physical life to the mental life, and in an increasing number of cases to the spiritual life. There is therefore little real cause for depression, if what I have here noted is true.

There is today, on a wide scale, a true "lifting up of the heart unto the Lord," and a steady turning of the eyes towards the world of spiritual values. Hence the present upheaval. Apart from the coming in of the new age, apart therefore from the inflow of the Christ spirit, with its transforming power and regenerating force, and apart from the cyclic return of the seventh ray energies, we have mankind in a condition where the response to the deeper spiritual energies and to the new opportunities is, for the first time, adequate and synthetic. Hence the increasing problem. Hence the great day of opportunity. Hence the wonder of the dawn which can be seen brightening in the east.

I should like here to approach the problem of sex from another angle and point out that it is a basic symbol. A symbol, as we well know, is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual reality. What is this inward reality?

First of all, the reality of relationship. It is a relationship existing between the basic pairs of opposites, - Father-Mother, spirit-matter; between positive and negative; between life and form, and between the great dualities which - when brought together in the cosmic sense - produce the manifested son of God, the cosmic Christ, the conscious sentient universe.
Of this relation the Gospel story is a dramatic symbol, and the historical Christ is the guarantee of its truth and reality. Christ guarantees for us the reality of the inner significance and the true spiritual basis of all that is and ever shall be. Out of the relation of light and dark that which is invisible emerges into visibility, and we can see and know. Christ, as the light of the world, revealed that reality.

Out of the darkness of time God spoke, and the Fatherhood of Deity was revealed.The drama of creation and the story of revelation are depicted for us, if we could but see truly and interpret our facts with spiritual exactitude, in the relation of the two sexes and in the fact of their intercourse with each other. When this relation is no longer purely physical but is a union of the two separated halves on all three planes, - physical, emotional and mental - then we shall see the solution of the sex problem and the restitution of the marriage relation to its intended position in the Mind of God.

Today it is the marriage of two physical bodies. Sometimes it is the marriage also of the emotional natures of the two people concerned. Rarely indeed is it a marriage of minds as well. Sometimes it is the union of the physical body of one party, with the physical body of the other party left cold and uninterested and uninvolved, but with the emotional body attracted and participating. Sometimes the mental body is involved with the physical body, and the emotional nature left out.

Seldom, very seldom, do we find the coordinated, cooperating fusion of all the three parts of the personality concerned in both parties to the union. When this is indeed found, then you have a true union, a real marriage, and a blending of the two in one.
It is here that some of the schools of esoteric teaching have gone sadly astray. The false idea has crept into their presentation of truth that marriage of this kind is essential for spiritual liberation and that without it the soul remains in prison. They teach that through the marriage act, at-one-ment with the soul is brought about, and that there is no spiritual deliverance without this marriage. At-one-ment with the soul is an individual interior experience, resulting in an expansion of consciousness, so that the individual and specific becomes at-one with the general and universal. Behind the erroneous interpretation, however, lies truth.Where this true marriage and these ideal sexual relations on all three planes are found, the right conditions exist in which souls can be provided with the needed forms in which to incarnate. Sons of God can find forms in which to manifest on earth.

According to the scope of the marriage contact (if so unusual a form of words can be used in this connection), so will be the type of human being attracted into incarnation. Where the parents are purely physical and emotional, so will be the nature of the child. Thus is the general average determined. Today we have a world of men which is rapidly reaching a high stage of development. We have therefore a dissatisfaction with the present views on marriage, preparatory to the enunciation of certain hidden principles which will eventually govern the relations between the sexes, and provide, as a consequence, the opportunity to men and women to furnish, through the creative act, the needed bodies for disciples and initiates.

Under the symbol of sex, you have also the reality of love itself expressing itself. Love in reality connotes a relation, but the word "love" (like the word "sex") is used with little thought and with no attention to its true meaning. Basically, love and sex are one and the same thing, for both express the meaning of the Law of Attraction. Love is sex, and sex is love, for in those two words the relation, the interplay and the union between God and His universe, between man and God, between a man and his own soul, and between men and women are equally depicted.
The motive and the relation are emphasized. But the impelling result of that relation is creation and the manifestation of form through which divinity can express itself and come to be. Spirit and matter met together, and the manifested universe came into being. Love is ever productive, and the Law of Attraction is fruitful in results.

Man and God came together under the same great Law, and the Christ was born, - the guarantee of the divinity of humanity and the demonstration of the fact. Individual man and his soul are also attempting to come together, and when that event is consummated the Christ is born in the cave of the heart, and Christ is seen in the daily life with increasing power. Man therefore dies daily in order that Christ may be seen in all His glory. Of all these wonders, sex is the symbol.

For much more information about spiritual healing,alternative,complimentary medicine,health and Spirituality visit http://www.spiritual-healing.co.uk Spiritual Healer and Teacher.See for your self.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

The Seven Principles of Infinite Being


1. Infinite Being is All That Is. Nothing exists outside of it.
The universe exists within the consciousness of Infinite Being. The physical world exists within the consciousness of Infinite Being. We exist within the consciousness of Infinite Being.

2. We are Infinite Being

Creation is holographic in nature. For example, the oak tree produces an acorn and yet the life-form of a complete oak tree is contained within the acorn. If a picture hologram is divided into two, both parts will retain the complete original picture.

While you are a part of the consciousness of Infinite Being, you are also Infinite Being itself. All that Infinite Being is, you are.

3. Destiny exists due to your pre-planning the themes of your life

At a soul level, you pre-plan each physical life before you enter it, choosing the themes that you wish to explore in that particular life. Your life’s themes are largely preset by your choice of parents, the time and place of your birth and the environment of your childhood. Many issues related to life’s themes unfold automatically from this initial setting. This pre-planning gives rise to the occurrence of related, meaningful events in life and the impression that destiny exists.

4. Free will enables you to explore your true potential

Free will can be used to any degree that you choose. The most productive use of free will is to explore your true potential within the themes of your life, thus gaining the greatest possible experience from your life plan.


5. Life reflects what you project

Reflectance is a property of the universe. Life reflects your beliefs, emotions and actions. The stronger these are, the more apparent it becomes that life is a mirror of what you project. Every time you change the way you view life, the universe, like a mirror, reflects your new view of reality.

6. Abundance is natural

Natural abundance comes from “getting into the flow,” by doing work that brings a sense of inner excitement. The phrase “Follow your inner joy” is actually the key to abundance. Once you follow your excitement and find yourself doing work that you love, then synchronicity begins to flow. Synchronicity is the universe’s way of telling you that you’re on the right track. It is a flow of events where everything clicks into place to support your efforts. It brings you opportunities, people, events and circumstances exactly when and where they need to be. When life flows naturally, the natural abundance of the universe follows automatically.

7. Love is the only reality

Unconditional, holistic love is the answer to all of life’s challenges. You are here on Earth to learn how to love yourself and others, and to accept yourself and others unconditionally and completely. As every person has a unique set of beliefs best suited to their individual needs, this includes a respect for the personal beliefs of others.

Unconditional love and acceptance can be developed by the use of affirmations. The more often an inner truth is repeated, the more it becomes integrated with your outer personality. The most powerful of all affirmations is “I am Infinite Being” because it encompasses all qualities and all possibilities.


The Infinite Being meditation uses the statement “I am Infinite Being,” both as a focus for the attention and as an affirmation to naturally enhance the quality of life.

For much more information about spiritual healing, alternative, complimentary medicine, health and Spirituality visit www.spiritual-healing.co.uk David Wells Spiritual Healer and Teacher.See for your self.

The Antahkarana "rainbow bridge" between the lower and higher self


A discussion of the "rainbow bridge" built by the man/woman in incarnation between the lower and higher self as part of personal spiritual evolution.
The science of the Antahkarana is probably the most important science of the coming time but this talk will not claim to cover the whole subject of the Antahkarana or the science of its use.

This is a science which is, as yet, unknown to humanity but it will be the coming science of mind of the New Age, the science of building the bridge between lower and higher man, and also a number of other bridges: between the members of the human race as a whole; between one Centre - Humanity - and another, Hierarchy; between Hierarchy and Shamballa; between Humanity, through Hierarchy, and Shamballa; and between this planet and other planets, this solar system and other solar systems. All these bridges and connections are the result of the correct use of the science of the Antahkarana, which will be the major educational field for humanity in this coming age.

The best way to study the Antahkarana is to read the Alice Bailey Teachings, in particular the book Education in the New Age, and further references in The Rays and Initiations. You will not get from this talk, or from the Alice Bailey Teachings, the technique of the science of the Antahkarana. That is something which, as far as humanity as a whole is concerned, lies well in the future. It is a gradual process of enlightenment for humanity, but it will become the major science - the science of evolving as a race and making the inner connections (which of course already exist but which have to be consciously built by the man or woman in incarnation), to weave the thread of return to the source from which we have originally come.

It is really the science of the Path of Return. For long ages, the soul on its own plane looks down at its reflection, the man or woman on the physical plane, and sees no way to interfere with its development. There is very little the soul can do except create a body, give it its various physical, astral and mental make-up, and leave it to get on with the job of evolution. Eventually, there comes a life - a series of lives in fact - in which the soul sees that its reflection, the man or woman, is beginning to respond to the influence of the energy which connects the soul to its reflection, and the process of 'ensouling' begins.

"The Antahkarana" is, above all, the thread of consciousness. It is the result of the interaction of the life with the form, with substance, with matter; that produces something entirely different. We call it "consciousness". We can also call it "the Christ Principle". It is the process of evolution itself.

Each individual is really threefold: the Monad, or spark of God, the impersonal Self which reflects itself on the soul plane as the individualized human soul or ego. The soul, again, reflects itself on the dense physical plane as the man or woman in incarnation. That is the 'way down', the process by which spirit involves itself in its polar opposite, substance. When the spirit, or life, aspect and the matter aspect come together, a third, the consciousness aspect, is born.

Those who study anthropology, the history of evolution on the physical plane - the evolution of forms - know that in the beginning there were great oceans, teaming with life, nothing on the land, and then gradually some of the more evolved animals - fish, reptiles of all kinds - came on to the land and became the early reptiles and mammals. Gradually, there evolved a prohuman type which eventually became early, animal man, separating itself from the animal kingdom. With the germ of mind - which could become the nucleus of a mental body - at last formed, the human race began.

This is denied by Christian fundamentalists and other orthodox religious groups who deny the reality of Darwin's theory of evolution, but esotericists accept it as a more-or-less accurate account of the growth of the form, the evolution of form, on this planet. We are not concerned with that; we are concerned, as human beings evolving back to our source, with the evolution not of form - which has come more or less to perfection (though there are some minor adjustments and improvements still to be made) but rather with the evolution of consciousness.

The evolution of consciousness is the basis of how we become aware of ourselves and our environment, and create together the evolution of the human race. Gradually, there evolved a prohuman type which eventually became early, animal man, separating itself from the animal kingdom The descent from Monad to soul and from soul to personality has to be re-enacted in reverse order.

The threefold man - physical, astral and mental - has to find his way back by a process of at-one-ment, first with the soul and then, through the spiritual triad - the reflection of the Monad - with the Monad itself: the threefold monadic Being.

That return journey, or the process by which that return journey is made, is through the creation, the gradual evolvement and building, of the Antahkarana. This is a conscious process and only occurs in stages. As the process downward has been slow, over millions of years, so the process back can be a long, drawn-out process, and for the vast majority of humanity so it is. We are in the second of a threefold solar system. In other words, this solar system is the second embodiment or manifestation of the great Heavenly Man we call the Solar Logos Who has a Plan for the evolution of all the forms in the solar system.

The first solar system expressed through matter, substance, the quality of active intelligence. It was concerned mainly with the intelligent creation of forms. We are in the second of this threefold expression in which the soul quality - the love or consciousness aspect - of the Logos is in process of being expressed. The Solar Antahkarana is being built by the Solar Logos and by all the forms, whether they know it or not, who have evolved from the first solar system and are now creating the bridge between that system and this one, and, eventually, between this system and the next.

The next solar system will be concerned with the Will aspect, the Monadic aspect, of the Solar Logos. When the correct bridge between these three expressions is built, the Solar Antahkarana is in place. This will lead to the culmination of the Plan of our Solar Logos in its threefold expression. Each solar system creates a body of expression at a higher level than the one before. The first - that to do with form, with substance - is, of course, preparatory to the expression of the soul. It is the soul, in all forms, which incarnates. By descending into form, the soul - actually the Monad, the spirit aspect, through the soul - begins a process of redemption of the soul in form.

It begins to spiritualize substance; the underlying purpose of our incarnational experience is, precisely, to spiritualize the substance of this particular solar system. When we have taken the substance - the forms created in the previous solar system - and energized it with the energy of the soul, the consciousness aspect, in this solar system, we will raise it, redeem it, heighten its vibration and bring it up to the level at which the Will, the Purpose aspect of God (in terms of our Solar Logos), can be expressed.

In this present solar system God is Love, Love is the aspect of the soul, Will of the Atmic level of being. In the next solar system God will be Will and Purpose. We are, all of us, as microcosms, evolving in precisely the same way as the macrocosm, our Solar Logos, through its threefold expression, works out its Plan of evolution in every kingdom and in every planet. In coming into incarnation, therefore, we are doing something quite extraordinary, something far greater than we as individual human beings possibly realize. But as soon as we do realize the interconnectedness of the microcosm with the macrocosm it deepens our sense of purpose - the sense of reality - in life, and it is also a stimulus to concentrate more, and to build a direct line of ascent between this low-level (for that is what it is) expression of Deity and bring it into line with the underlying purpose of Deity for its perfectionment.

The energy of each solar system is raised and becomes the basis for the new system, just as in our incarnational experience every incarnation creates an expression through the vehicles up to a certain vibration. That vibration is held exactly at the point we have reached when we die. There are three 'permanent atoms' around which the new bodies, physical, astral and mental, are formed. These permanent atoms vibrate at exactly the frequency reached in that particular life, and we can understand, therefore, how the vibrational rate reached is the degree to which we have perfected, or spiritualized, matter.

The soul infuses the matter of the three bodies with its energy and in this way salvages, redeems that matter. It raises their vibration onto an ever-higher level until the point is reached when the soul is reflecting itself, without resistance, directly, through the personality. That is how we become divine. We do so by raising the vibrational rate of the substance of these three bodies to a point where the Divine Man, the soul on its own plane, can reflect itself relatively purely through its reflection, the man or woman on the physical plane. That is the evolutionary, the return process; the technique of it is the science of the Antahkarana.

Sutratma

There are two major threads which connect the Monad, through the soul, with the man or woman in incarnation. One the Sutratma, the thread of life, is anchored in the heart. It comes directly from the Monad, reflected through the soul, and is fixed in the heart centre at the right-hand side of the body. It is reflected through that etheric centre to the physical heart and into the bloodstream, which, as you know, is the purifying stream which carries the energy of life to every part of the body. While the lifeblood is pumped correctly through the body and is kept free of poisons, the physical body displays all its ability and accuracy of movement and expression. So, too, the connecting body, the astral-emotional body and the mental body are dependent on the life thread, the Sutratma, for their existence and correct function.

There is another thread, called, indeed, the Antahkarana. This thread in anchored in the centre of the head, and through these two threads the threefold expression - Monad, soul and physical-plane man or woman - live their lives. These two threads inform all of these and, in a downward flow, bridge the gaps between, first, Monad and soul, and secondly between soul and its reflection, the man or woman on the physical plane. Eventually, a third thread is built by the man or woman him/herself through the interaction of soul energy, and eventually, monadic energy, through the physical apparatus: the thread of creativity.

These three threads wound together eventually produce the bridge between the three levels of existence. The future science of the Antahkarana will concern itself with this, the path of return. This will be the New Age education. Individuals will be recognized for what they are, souls in incarnation; their point in evolution and ray structure will be ascertained and known; through this science the gaps between the various levels of our being will be bridged. This is only possible now that the human race has reached the present state and, of course, because of the return to the everyday world of the only people in the world who actually know this science: the Masters.

Since the Masters are returning this will become an exoteric science. All children, from the earliest age up until 28, will eventually go through this process of education in the science of Life - the science of building the return channel, or pathway. I would like here to show the inner unity of method and approach of certain terms.

The antahkarana is the bridge built - first out of mental matter and later out of light - by the evolving aspirant, disciple and initiate, in turn. Until a certain time, the connection between the man or woman and the soul plane is developed by the control of 'mentation', the energy of the mental body. It brings the mental body under control and the thought-patterns create a bridge.

The Antahkarana is, therefore, in the first place, a bridge connecting the lower man, the lower mind, with the soul, and then the lower mind, through the soul, with the higher mind which is the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad. This is Atma, Buddhi and Manas - the reflection on the soul plane of the threefold Monad, or spark of God.

Path of Return

There are different terms for this and I would like to bring all of these together to show the unity and interconnectedness of these different methods of expressing what is essentially the one process, the return journey: the Path of Return. The mystic thinks of the Path as the Path to God. He thinks of it generally in terms of his religious or mystical feelings and experiences, his mystical religious beliefs, doctrines, and dogma, his various spiritual practices, the various rituals -- all of these to the mystical and devotional type constitute a way of approaching God through belief, a linking in consciousness between the individual man's belief structure (whether that be Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, or whatever) and that which lies back of all creation.

The religious person sees that as the Path of Return -- and of course that is perfectly true, it is. But not everybody is religious, and the Path of Return, to the esotericist, is a path which, literally, is made by the disciple himself. The disciple makes the Path by becoming the Path. It is not something which is already laid down and is whispered into your ear. It is not like that at all. It is the evolutionary process itself. It is that same process which brought the fishes out of the sea onto dry land, from which they evolved into, first, reptiles and then mammals and then the huge variety of animals and eventually, at the peak of that development of form, the human kingdom. Above the human kingdom is the Kingdom of Souls, the kingdom whose nature is consciousness.

The plane of consciousness is the plane on which the Masters have hitherto worked exclusively. The Path of Return is the Path by which the consciousness of what is and what might be gradually becomes known to the seeker, the evolving individual. In other words, as you seek, as you aspire, you create before you - as DK says: the "spider creates out of his own being the silken thread" - so, in exactly the same way, the aspirant, the disciple and the initiate are creating before them the Path of Return, the Path which is not yet laid down.

It is the path of a growing awareness of what constitutes his/her relationship to the whole. It is a means by which we grasp deeper and deeper realizations and experiences of our connectedness to the whole, to the Macrocosm. This is done by a growing expansion of consciousness. These expansions of consciousness are marked off on our planet by the five planetary initiations. For the adept there are also four Cosmic initiations. Above these, and on throughout Cosmos, are initiation after initiation upon initiation - on and on eternally, throughout the whole of galactic space.

All of that is a process by which, through the building of the Antahkarana, our individual relationship to that totality gradually dawns on us.

The Monad reflects itself in the soul as the Spiritual Triad: spiritual Will, spiritual Love-Wisdom and spiritual Intelligence, and these are again reflected in the physical being by the soul.

The process by which this takes place is the Antahkarana. Most people thinking about the Antahkarana, because of the nature of the language used, inevitably imagine a bridge. That bridge is built in, first, mental substance and then light, and so they visualize a physical bridge. An artist has to do so, of course; one cannot paint a picture without a form. The artist has to create out of his creative imagination a form which will symbolize a process, but the form is not the process, it is simply a means of expressing the idea of the process.

Anyone who does Transmission Meditation knows about alignment. When that alignment is perfect, symbolically speaking there is a column of light above the head of the meditators. In that light there are three threads, strands, of energy. That is the form, but it is not the Antahkarana. We must realize that the form and the idea of a bridge, the idea of a column of light, the idea of some actual form in substance, is only a way of stating something else. What we are really talking about is awareness. Awareness, in a sense, is a vague, generalized way of talking about the process of return. We return through a gradual expansion of conscious awareness, through the conscious building of the Antahkarana.

This is created firstly in mental matter, between the personality and the soul, and then by the initiate - who has already contacted and come into a close at-one-ment with the soul - in light, between the soul and the Monad, the highest aspect of our threefold being. Then the connectedness eventually is direct between the Monad - the divine being, identical with God, the reflection of our Planetary Logos - and the man or woman on the physical plane.

By this process our Planetary Logos works out His Plan of evolution through the human kingdom, and of course in the same way the Solar Logos is working out His greater and vaster Plan through all beings on all planets in this, the second, solar system. This process will be completed in the third solar system, in which the Monadic aspect - the Will, the Purpose, the essential Love of God - will come to its final expression and fulfilment.

Each of us, right now, is engaged in creating the Antahkarana.

Another term for the Antahkarana, besides the bridge of light, is Self-realization, which is what Maitreya calls it: "I have come to teach the art of Self-realization," He said. The art of Self-realization is the science of the Antahkarana: they are one and the same.

Maitreya has said that the simplest, most direct path is to practise three things:

Honesty of mind; sincerity of spirit, and detachment.

These three bring about Self-realization, and they do so by enabling the man or woman to create the Antahkarana. For the vast majority of people in the world this is a process which goes on, up till a certain time, quite unconsciously. Most unevolved individuals are connected only by the Sutratma, the life thread, coming from the Monad through the soul and anchored in the heart. Average humanity are connected also by the thread of consciousness, the Antahkarana, and as the person evolves through the building of the first stage of the Antahkarana - that between the lower man and the soul - the energies of the soul become available to him or her.

"The Antahkarana is not simply a column of light but threads of awareness spreading outwards from the individual into every sphere of his environment. These threads of awareness multiply endlessly, until in the Master, they make for omniscience: nothing can happen anywhere of which He is unaware." Then the creative process begins. This stimulates the mind and the creative imagination, and a life of creativity and of service ensues. Creativity and service are one and the same; service is the life of the soul creatively expressed on the physical plane. This, then, dominates more and more in the life of the individual, and so we get the creation of culture.

It is not by accident that the culture of any nation is created by the disciples and the initiates of that nation; they are the ones who have already built the first stage of the connecting link, the bridge, between themselves and their soul. The initiate, having achieved an integration of the three lower vehicles, physical, astral and mental - that is, having brought them to a point of synchronous vibration, takes the third initiation; the soul, henceforward, controls and dominates its vehicle, which is now negative in relation to the purpose of the soul. The divine man or woman displays his or her divinity on the physical plane in a life of service and creativity. The third-degree and the fourth-degree initiate is usually in incarnation for only one or two lives, depending on astrological factors. But having taken thousands of lives to the first initiation, and perhaps five or six to the second, the third is taken very quickly, and the fourth very quickly after that, probably in the next life. Therefore, by the time a person has reached the state of true creativity, is more or less soul-infused and expressing the purpose of the soul, he or she does not have long in which to do this; only three or four lives at the most.

Then, as a Master, the whole of this existence is dedicated to the service of the Plan. Of course, the more one evolves the more one knows. The more one knows, the greater the responsibility of service, and the greater the opportunity for service. The Masters can serve because They know. Our service is limited, not only because of lack of desire or energy, but because we do not know enough; we can serve in a rather limited way because our consciousness is limited. The more conscious one is, or the higher the level of consciousness, the greater the number of threads of consciousness extending outwards to the world, the greater awareness there will be of the nature of reality.

These are the Antahkarana, which is not simply a column of light but threads of awareness spreading outwards from the individual into every sphere of his environment. These threads of awareness multiply endlessly, until, in the Master, they make for omniscience: nothing can happen anywhere of which He is unaware. In this way we reveal the mind of God, become instruments in the furthering of the Plan held in the mind of God. That, really, is the basis of initiation. When you know consciously, through the building of the Antahkarana, how to link the different levels of expression - Monadic with soul, soul with the physical (on the downward path) - when you know this science because you have done it, and done it consciously, when you are a Master, you can use this science to create the Mayavirupa, the self-created body.

The Mayavirupa reverses the process of the Antahkarana. It is the result of the ability to create a body because you know the connecting links between the form. A God-realized Master experiences Himself as God in this physical body. For us that physical body is the closest, most important, aspect, whereas for the Master it is only a transitory aspect of the whole. From His God-realized state, the Master can go backwards down the bridge, the Antahkarana, can repeat the process and bring together, therefore, matter of the mental, the astral-emotional and the etheric physical plane, and precipitate His consciousness into that. That is the secret behind the creation of the Mayavirupa.

The new world religion, when developed, is really the creation of the 'racial' Antahkarana. Maitreya has said the He has not come to build a new religion, to create followers, and so on. This is true. Nevertheless there will be what we have to call, for want of another name, a new world 'religion', but it will be the science of which I am speaking. The new world religion will be a conscious approach by the human race to the Creator, that which stands back of creation -- which, of course, is also ourselves, the essential part of ourselves as the Monad. This will be done through the creation of the racial, group, Antahkarana.

The growing experience of aspirants and disciples of working in groups is a preparatory step towards this great racial grouping, to the creation of the 'world' Antahkarana. Eventually the Antahkarana links not only peoples, but planets and solar systems. This is the essential nature of Being throughout Cosmos. All that is higher reflects itself through a lower vehicle. This threefold expression is to be found throughout Cosmos. At our human level, we experience it consciously, because, as souls, we are the "Sons of Mind". Through the expression of the soul, the consciousness aspect, that awareness takes place by which the racial Antahkarana can be built. As a Being, as a race, as one big grouping of all peoples, all religions, all types and points of evolution, there will be eventually a conscious approach to Deity, especially at the three spiritual festivals in April, May and June and also at the nine other full-moons.

This will constitute "the new world religion", or the technique of the new world religion, in which invocation will replace the present process of worship. We can see therefore that it will be a very scientific religion -- it will be very difficult to distinguish between what we call science, religion and education. This is also the education of the New Age. Children will be trained in the creation of the Antahkarana. The science of the Antahkarana will be taught - in so far as it can be taught, because it is an experiential thing - to those ready to receive the tuition. Of course, that does not mean all children, but for those more advanced aspirants, for those who are preparing for initiation, this will become the norm.

No initiation is possible for anyone without the building of the Antahkarana. Indeed, it is precisely the building of the Antahkarana, the link between the lower man and the soul, which makes initiation possible. Eventually, the link between the integrated lower man and the soul makes possible the higher initiations in which the at-one-ment is with the Spiritual Triad, and, through that, with the Monad. Then the process is complete; the Godlike man, the God-realized or Self-realized man, has achieved: he is a Master.

The Antahkarana is not only the bridge between the different fragments of ourselves, it is the bridge between the worlds: planetary, systemic, and galactic. The key to the formation of the Mayavirupa is found in the right comprehension of the creation of the Antahkarana. It is important to remember that as these bridges are built the vitalizing process goes on. It is not simply a question of building a bridge; it is through that bridge that the stimulus from the higher levels takes place.

Three major sciences will dominate in the New Age: the science of the Antahkarana, the science of meditation and the science of service. The science of service utilizes the creativity which is achieved through the building of the Antahkarana, and the science of meditation, of course, is a preliminary process leading to, and essential to, the creation of the Antahkarana through its science. So the science of the Antahkarana is very broad indeed, including that of meditation and of service. The vitalizing agency is, first of all, the soul. The soul opens up on the personality level the Knowledge petals in the crown chakra and vitalizes them; this stimulates the thought processes and galvanizes the man or woman to further creation of the bridge, the Antahkarana, between itself and the soul. Soul at-one-ment gradually takes place, and when this has gone a certain distance initiation leads to the opening of the Love petals, and eventually, as a man or woman approaches the third initiation and that is taken, the opening up of the inner three petals which enclose the "jewel", the "jewel in the heart of the lotus", which is the Will aspect.

The Monad reflects more and more in the man or woman on the physical plane, dominating, therefore, the life of that individual. In this process, what was simply emotional aspiration gradually transforms itself into the Monadic will: the purpose of the life is known. This leads to lives of true value on the physical plane, no time is wasted, the individual knows his or her purpose in life and gets on with it without the wastage of time and wrong thought, wrong action, and delays which occur lower down the line. He discovers the value, uses and purposes of the creative imagination. This is all that remains to him eventually of the intensely active astral life lived for so many lives. The astral body becomes a mechanism of transformation - desire transformed into aspiration, aspiration into a growing and expressive intuitive faculty. The intuitive faculty emerges when true soul contact is achieved, when the bridge between the personality and the soul is of such a constancy and intensity that what was simply emotional aspiration is transformed into a direct linking with the higher aspect of which it is a reflection, the Buddhic aspect of the Spiritual Triad.

Our astral-emotional body, in terms of evolutionary purpose, is meant to be, and eventually becomes, simply a still, reflecting vehicle for Buddhi. Buddhi is true intuition. It is essentially, group consciousness; intuition is another name for group consciousness. It is the Buddhic, the Love-Wisdom, aspect of the Spiritual Triad. Buddhi eventually reflects itself directly through the astral mechanism as intuition: we know, because we know, because we know. There is no thinking about it; it is a direct, spontaneous response to Buddhi, using the purified astral nature as the medium for that intuitive response. The Antahkarana produces this, inevitably.

There is a relationship between the science of the Antahkarana and Transmission Meditation. Transmission Meditation is a fusion of two Yogas: Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Service, and Laya Yoga, the Yoga of the Chakras, the energies.

Essentially, the Antahkarana is concerned with the force centres, the chakras, because it is through the scientific, manipulation of the energies in the chakras, the correct stimulation of these chakras, that the Antahkarana is built. One can say that the science of the Antahkarana is the science of the chakras. The sciences of the future - of the Antahkarana, of meditation, and of service - are linked. One leads to the other: correct meditation leads to the building of the Antahkarana; correct building of the Antahkarana leads to the life of service - correct service, directed by soul purpose.

The knowledge and creativity of the soul is consciously put at the disposal of the individual who scientifically builds the Antahkarana. Transmission Meditation is a fusion of two Yogas: Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Service, and Laya Yoga, the Yoga of the Chakras, the energies Since Transmission Meditation is a fusion of Karma Yoga and Laya Yoga, what the Masters are actually doing in the Transmission Groups around the world is creating a group Antahkarana. It is being done for us. The average time of real alignment, and therefore of correct transmitting, in any hour is about three-and-a-half to four minutes.

It is only because Transmission Meditation is so potent, so scientific, that it is valuable to do even these three-and-a-half minutes. Because of its extraordinary potency, because of the pure, scientific nature of Transmission Meditation, these three-and-a-half to four minutes have an extraordinary value for the world and an extraordinary value for the people doing it. We are gradually having the Antahkarana built for us - it is a gift. The Masters are serving us, spoon-feeding us.

The Antahkarana is being created at an extraordinary rate; so much so that, if people are around the 1.5 mark - between the first and second initiation - and in reasonable health and youth, it is perfectly possible to take the second initiation in this life; not because of any particular effort being made, either in building the Antahkarana or in service to the world, but simply by sitting enough times in Transmission Meditation, keeping the attention at the Ajna centre, for the Masters to help create this channel of light between the different aspects of our being.

This is an extraordinary thing that is happening in the Transmission Groups, and it is one of the major reasons why people in these groups make such extraordinary advancement. Those who have been transmitting for the last 10 years, say, are far more advanced than they could possibly have been. They may not realize it, but the Masters do; They measure and register it, and They know those who are ready, in this incarnation, to take the second initiation (most people doing Transmission Meditation have taken the first). This is only possible because of the exigencies of the time which at the same time presents to the aspirant and the disciple an opportunity for service through Transmission Meditation. It cannot be overemphasized how valuable this is proving. What is being built in the connecting thread, the channel between the different aspects of oneself, is a Path of Return to the Source, the Monad. We are the Monad, which reflects through the soul as the physical-plane personality. We are on the Path of Return, redeeming the matter of our various bodies, physical, astral and mental.

That redeemed, spiritualized, matter produces, in the next solar system, matter of a higher rate of vibration. And so the evolution of the body of the Planetary Logos proceeds; we are all involved in that individually and for the planet, for the solar system. That is why we are here. As one grows and evolves one deepens one's consciousness of that reality. The Macrocosm, as we begin to intuit its nature, to experience it through conscious awareness, tells us that that is the reality, and, more and more, we lose the sense of the separate self. It is said: Lose yourself in service.

The process by which we do this is the building of the bridge. It results in the creativity of service: creativity is service, service is creativity. It is the nature of the soul in the three worlds to express itself in some form of creative service, and as we do this we lose sense of the separate self. We deepen our experience of the Macrocosm and realize that that and ourselves are one. That is the growing experience of the man or woman who builds the Bridge, who creates that unity with the soul. Then the soul becomes in a singular life a reality. Beyond all controversy, all gainsaying, we know that we are the soul. It is not simply a theoretical or intellectual idea, we know it as part of our being, and we know eventually that the soul itself is a light within an even greater light, a fire within an even greater fire. That fire has consciousness -- that is the nature of the soul, and the person making contact with the soul eventually realizes that it is a fire within a greater consuming fire, which is Deity itself. It says in the Bible: "God is a consuming fire". That is the reality.

The soul is a great, fiery vortex of forces which are reflected on the lower planes as the man or woman in incarnation. That is what we are: a reflection of these fiery forces, and the bridge that we build -- the Antahkarana -- back to the soul and eventually back to the Monad is the path by which these forces become available to us. They stimulate the mind, the intuition and the creative will, and our life as initiates, knowing initiates, in the process of life, takes place. "It is the nature of the soul in the three worlds to express itself in some form of creative service, and as we do this we lose sense of the separate self."


For much more information about spiritual healing,alternative,complimentary medicine,health and Spirituality visit David Wells Spiritual Healer and see for your self.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

The Masters

A report on the Masters of Wisdom, people who have by our standards, fully perfected Themselves.

Esoterically an adept is not a Master of Wisdom until He has achieved the fifth initiation or, in other words, until He has entered the spiritual plane and His consciousness embraces the fifth or spiritual kingdom.

The Masters are members of that group of 'Illumined Minds' which is guided by love and understanding, and by deep compassion and inclusiveness towards humanity. They are striving towards a comprehension and translation of the Divine Purpose, and are illumined by knowledge of the Plan; they are also characterized by a readiness to sacrifice their own immediate spiritual progress if thereby they can assist humanity in its upward struggle.
In comparison with earth-bound human beings, who are still far behind on the evolutionary path, the Masters have attained a relatively high state of development. But, as with all else in nature, their status is only relative in comparison with those already higher up the ladder, their own position remains humble, and vast expansions of consciousness still lie ahead of them on the Path of Higher Evolution, which will eventually take them beyond planetary and solar spheres into cosmic consciousness.

On hierarchical levels there is naturally no oral communication, as the Masters do not avail themselves of physical organs. All communication on spiritual planes is telepathic. To a lesser extent this also applies to selected senior disciples on the physical plane, although effective intercourse is often limited by a lack of sensitivity on the part of aspirants.
One of the major functions of the Masters is to convey the principles of the Plan to their less evolved brothers. The usual technique employed for this purpose is impression. So far the Masters have not taught from public platforms, but have mainly worked on intuitive and mental levels, by telepathically impressing ideas on the minds of their disciples. However, as more of these Masters make their appearance among men, and recognition of their powers and wisdom grows, it is possible that use will also be made of oral teachings, when they might avail themselves of radio and television facilities. Although the Masters have reached a stage of spiritual development far beyond that of man and, comparatively speaking, have achieved perfection, they should none the less not be considered infallible as they, at their own level, are also engaged in the never ending process of evolution.

Purposes of Service
Those occasional Masters who for purposes of service are temporarily functioning in a physical body do not avail themselves of an emotional body, since they have complete conscious control over their feelings and emotions. For them the astral plane no longer exists, nor are they subject to any form of illusion or glamour. They are therefore completely liberated from material influences and reactions, as well as from every form of bewilderment to which the ordinary man is subject. This gives them the freedom to enter the centre of pure love, the heart of God, and from that centre to spread the spirit of love and goodwill throughout mankind.
The sphere of service of many of the Masters does not concern humanity at all, as these entities are often fully occupied with the application of the Will of God in other extensive fields in the lower kingdoms.

Body of Manifestation
Thus far the Masters have normally functioned in etheric bodies on subjective levels. Should a Master, however, require a mechanism for contact with His disciples or the world of men, He can avail Himself of any type of physical appearance which may suit His particular requirements and circumstances. He can use or 'overshadow' an existing physical body, in which case such a body would no longer remain subject to astral and emotional limitations, or the mental restrictions of an ineffective brain. These He would be able to by-pass at will. Usually, however, 'a body of expression or manifestation' is instantaneously created by His spiritual Will, and according to His special needs. As a rule this assumed body will resemble the human form which the adept occupied during His last initiation, although He is perfectly free to adopt any form which may suit His purpose.

Whatever type of body of expression the Master may assume, this will not encumber Him with a 'personality' to curb His activities or consciousness. He retains His divine nature, and the exterior through which He works is merely a created image and the product of His focused Will and creative imagination, and this may, when demanded by circumstances, also be instantly discarded, or as far as the human observer is concerned it may just fade away and disappear into nothingness. The body that He creates will therefore be of pure substance and radiant light. It will be a perfect body, even though to outward appearances, and for the purposes of the Master, it might display a deformed exterior, perhaps even covered by the rags of a beggar. Such a body is therefore not the product of the deva-builders, as these are only summoned by desire which, being an aspect of the astral body, no longer plays any role in the life of the Master.

David Wells Spiritual healing Alternative & Complimentary Medicine http://www.spiritual-healing.co.uk/ and http://www.thewellsclinic.co.uk/

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Walking Your Way To Better Health

It is an accepted fact that exercise is an important part of any successful weight loss plan. Every muscle you have can burn calories, so the more you work them, the more calories you burn. So, don't just depend on dieting alone. Move that body and do some exercises to achieve that weight and that body you have always dreamed about.

Walking is great exercise to lose weight. Moreover, it does not require any expertise or equipment and you can do it free anytime you feel like it. However, to be beneficial, you should do it regularly.Make walking a daily habit or at least 3 to 5 times a week depending on your schedule.

Before you start walking, do some warm up stretching exercises. Stretch only as far as you feel comfortable so as not to pull any muscles. Start with a modest goal, like 15 to 20 minutes at a leisurely pace. Gradually extend the duration and the speed. Walk up one or two gentle slopes. Your walk should be comprised of three segments: warm-up, exercise pace and cool-down.

Walk your chin up and your shoulders held slightly back.

Te heel of your foot should touch the ground first. Roll your weight forward.

Swing your arms as you walk.
To avoid stiff or sore muscles or joints, start gradually. Over several weeks, begin walking faster, going further and walking for longer periods of time.

Walk on soft ground whenever possible.

Quench yourself, drink 8 to 10 ounces of water for every 20 to 30 minutes of the activity.

The more you walk, the better you will feel. Plus, walking also uses more calories; thus, burning more fats. Its benefits include giving you more energy, making you feel good, helping you to relax, reducing stress, helping you sleep better, helping control your appetite and increasing the number of calories your body uses.

To lose weight, it's more important to walk for time than speed. Walking at a moderate pace yields longer workouts with less soreness leading to more miles and more calories spent on a regular basis.

About the Author: Jim O'Neill gives you tons of valuable information on the subjects of weight loss, fitness, and nutrition to make it easy for you to live a healthy lifestyle. Sign up now for his free 7 part mini e-course at: http://www.mrgymfitness.com/minicourse.php

Spiritual Healing alternative and complementary medicine www.spiritual-healing.co.uk

Source: www.isnare.com

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Spiritual Healing as the Energy Side of Einstein's Equation

Daniel J. Benor, MD examines the possible overlaps between spiritual healing and quantum physics.

"If you conduct a study and the data doesn't agree with your theory, the scientist throws away the theory. The quack, on the other hand, throws away the data." -- David Bresler
I am a medically trained physician specializing in psychiatry, practicing psychotherapy combined with spiritual healing. I speak from the perspective of more than a dozen years of research in spiritual healing (commonly termed psi , mental, faith, shamanistic, bioenergetic, subtle energy, vibrational, psychic, divine, unconventional or paranormal healing). First, let me define what I mean by spiritual healing and add a few words about the obvious confusion in terminology, a clear indication that there has been confusion in considering these phenomena. Spiritual healing is the intentional influence of one or more people upon one or more living systems without utilizing known physical means of intervention. It is commonly practiced in two major ways:

1. With a laying-on of hands -- the hands lightly touching or held near to the body, often combined with visualizations;

2. With meditation, prayer or other focused intent, again often combined with visualizations. The two are often used simultaneously. I shall use the term healing to mean spiritual healing, not to be confused with physiological process of healing. Lawrence LeShan pioneered the investigation of healing, and laid the groundwork for scientific approaches to the study of healing. He points out that a common denominator amongst healers is the visualization of the healer being "one with" the healee and with the "All." His book, The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist is highly recommended for a discussion of the second type of healing. Dolores Krieger pioneered the application of laying-on of hands healing, and her books on Therapeutic Touch are also highly recommended. My own books, Healing Research, Volumes I - IV consider these matters through the eyes of research.

I mention all of these because healing is, above all, an individual and subjective phenomenon. It is from the realms of experience we label noetic or ineffable. This means that we can know aspects of healing through inner awarenesses that are clearly perceptible but very difficult to describe in words. This is especially true in Western society, where our language is heavily biased towards the material aspects of experience. From that vantage point, we are led to believe that whatever is not perceivable by the outer senses and measurable with mechanical, electromagnetic or particle physics instruments is considered "non"sense or "im"material. For these reasons, one must consider the observations of multiple researchers in order to arrive at a rough consensus of what healing might be.

In our materialistic and reductionistic Western world we are taught that reality is "objective". We are led to believe that there is a constancy to the world and that it is consistently measurable by reliable scientific instruments. I will address these beliefs from clinical and research perspectives. My personal introduction to healing illustrates the difficulties a Western person can experience in learning about healing. As a medically trained doctor with a Batchelor's degree in psychology and specialty training in psychiatry, plus research experience, I was most skeptical about healing. I had years of study, omnivores reading and clinical experience in how people can innocently and unconsciously misguide themselves into believing nearly anything - about themselves and each other.

When Walter, a new-found friend, asked my opinion about healing in 1980, I told him in no uncertain terms: "I am convinced that healing can be no more than suggestion, placebo or other self-healing effects, defensive denial of unwanted illnesses, wishful thinking, and sometimes even deliberate charlatinism." Walter challenged me, "Have you ever personally observed a healer?" I had to admit I had never bothered to study something so obviously attributable to self deception. Somewhat reluctantly, I accepted his invitation to observe Ethel Lombardi, a Reiki healing Master. This challenge changed my life. Ethel brought about a physical change in a young man that was impossible according to all my medical and psychological understanding of how the body functions.

A lump under his nipple started out measuring 1 x 2 centimeters, was rubbery-firm (like an eraser), was more fixed than one would like to see in any lump (suggesting it might be invasive), and was quite tender. Ethel treated him with a laying-on of hands, placing her hands over the chakras -- the energy centers on the midline of the body. After only half an hour, during which time the young man sobbed heavily -- without explaining what he was experiencing (that bothered me as a psychiatrist!) -- the lesion had changed. It had shrunk by a centimeter, was soft, freely mobile and not tender. Fortunately, another physician was there with me and we agreed on our palpation of the lesion before and after the healing. Otherwise I am certain I would have let what we call retrocognitive dissonance convince me that I must have mismeasured or misremembered my perceptions - in order to explain away something that contradicted my expectations and understandings of what can happen with a lump under a young man's nipple in half an hour.

Tremendously impressed with Ethel's healing, I went to the literature to see what research had been published. This was the start of a collection of 155 controlled studies of healing that is now published in my book. These include studies of humans, other animals, plants, bacteria, yeasts, cells in laboratory culture, enzymes and more. Some of the studies were with touch healing, some with hands held near the studied organisms, and some were done from distances of several meters to several miles. More than half of these studies demonstrate significant effects. There can be little doubt that healing is a clinically potent intervention in a variety of living organisms and laboratory systems. Let us examine one of the 155 controlled studies in humans. Distant healing produced significant effects in patients with cardiac problems. Randolph Byrd, M.D. arranged for prayer healing to be sent to 192 patients on a coronary care unit, while another 201 patients served as controls. This was done with a double-blind design, where neither the patients nor the treating or evaluating physicians knew which patients were sent the healing and which were not.

The patients were randomly assigned to either of these groups, and no significant differences were noted between the groups on many variables. Highly significant effects were found in the treated group, in which there were lower incidences of intubation/ ventilation, use of antibiotics, cardiopulmonary arrest, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, and the use of diuretics. The study was published in the respected, conventional Southern Medical Journal in 1988. On the basis of this evidence from the many significant studies, and in view of the absence of negative side effects of healing, I believe that if healing were a medicine it would be on the market.
Is there a theory to explain healing? If it is true that in distant healing one person may influence another without known physical energies, and even from a distance, we have to change our theories and views about the world. Because this is strange within conventional understandings of the world, the evidence is generally ignored. It is easier to do this than to reassess our basic beliefs about the world. Albert Einstein pointed out, earlier in this century, that matter and energy are interchangeable.

Quantum physics has amply confirmed his theory. Conventional, Newtonian medicine continues to address the body primarily as matter. Healers have been saying for a long time that they are addressing the energy body when they do healings. Healers report that several interpenetrating, subtle energy fields surround the physical body. They claim that the physical body is an expression of the states of these energy fields, each of which is distinctly related to an aspect of being (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual). The fields are said to be hierarchically organized. The emotional and mental fields can therefore also influence the physical body. These subtle energy fields extend to various distances from the physical body. Though only a few sensitive people are able to perceive these subtle energies as visual halos or auras of color around the bodies of living organisms and inanimate objects, many people can sense them with their hands. One has only to hold one's hand's near each other and then move them slowly apart and back together to sense these. About 90 percent of doctors and nurses I have instructed in workshops on healing are able to perceive these, and 25-75 percent of general audiences can do so as well. (The lower percents are among academics and others who have difficulties in letting go of thinking about what they are doing in order simply to do it or be with it and let their bodies experience these energies.)

The human body is a very sensitive instrument for the perception of subtle energies. This presents problems of "noise" in perceiving and interpreting human reports. There is also a wide variability in healers' subjective experiences of perceiving and directing energies. Most people who are gifted with healing are not academically or research oriented. These problems have contributed to the difficulties of science in accepting reports of healers. We can see that energy medicine and allopathic approaches simply represent the two sides of Einstein's equation, E = mc2. I am fascinated as a psychiatrist and healer to read about the psychological and social processes of paradigm shifts, as scientists assimilated the new concepts of quantum physics. It took several decades of research before these observations, which run counter to our ordinary experiences of the world, were accepted. A similar process is apparent with psi healing.
Why is it so hard for conventional medicine and science to accept healing as a valid and potent treatment? Modern science has gone through a similar process with quantum physics. Some of the observations of modern physics, which relate to the energy side of the equation, are counter-intuitive to conventional physics, and to "everyday, common sense." In conventional physics and medicine, linear interactions are the rule. (Note another prejudicial term.) We deal with measurable forces which produce measurable effects in material objects or chemicals. In quantum physics, it has been shown that non-local effects may occur.

An electron may be understood both as a particle and as a wave function. Single electrons may bilocate when passing through two slits. Time may flow backwards as well as forwards. The universe is so intricately interwoven that every element in it is ultimately influenced by every other element. An event may be considered as both occurring and not occurring -- until an observer intervenes and determines which is the case. In other words, the observer cannot be separated from the system which is being observed. Much has been made of the similarities between modern physics and psi phenomena in excellent books, such as Fritjof Capra's The Tao Physics, so I shall not belabor these. It took several decades for scientists to accept these counter-intuitive observations of modern physics. The same is happening with healing. There may be greater difficulty with the acceptance of healing, however, as this involves a shift in world views with far more personal consequences than the abstract and highly theoretical shifts with quantum physics. Many people find it threatening to learn that another person might influence them through thoughts or intentions.

Rather than examine and deal with their discomforts, they prefer to reject the threatening concepts and to distance themselves from those who propose them. This is analogous to the ancient method of killing the messenger who bears bad news. People who advocate a belief in healing may be discredited and may suffer various discriminations against them.
England is a world leader in integrating spiritual healing with conventional medicine In the mid 1970s British healers formed a healing organization which lobbied to allow healers to treat patients in National Health Service hospitals. With one governmental (not medical) decision, 1,500 hospitals were opened to healers. In the early 1980s, the major healing organizations joined in a Confederation which standardized a code of conduct. The code of conduct was approved by the Royal Colleges of Medicine, Surgery, Nursing and Midwifery. Since 1988, the Doctor-Healer Network has provided a forum for doctors, nurses and other conventional health care professionals to meet with healers, other complementary therapists and clergy to explore how healing can be integrated with conventional medical care.

There are DHN regional groups in various cities in England: London; Yorkshire; Lancaster; Bath/Bristol and others. There are General Practitioners who have healers working in their surgeries, and some of the healers are paid under the NHS. Many more doctors are referring patients to healers at the healers' treatment rooms. Some doctors are developing their own healing gifts. Doctors can obtain Postgraduate Education Allowance credits for learning to develop their healing gifts. Two hospital pain centers, three hospital cancer centers, a rheumatology ward and a cardiac rehabilitation center have healers working there regularly. The Doctor-Healer Network Newsletter shares the experiences of healers and doctors between DHN groups and with interested subscribers around the world. How has this been possible? Clearly, the National Health Service, with its centralized, governmental management facilitated this process. England is also a country where eccentricities are cultivated, so that an interest in healing may be more tolerated than in the States.

How do doctors change their beliefs about healing? The research data is crucial to doctors in considering whether they would have anything to do with healing. However, the research alone will not bring about changes. In addition to convincing people at an intellectual level, they must be introduced to healing experientially. One would think that the observation of clinical changes in patients as a result of healing might be convincing, but it usually is not. Most doctors ignore such occurrences or dismiss them as either misdiagnosis or "spontaneous remissions" (which is a convenient vehicle for admitting ignorance while not having to re-examine one's theories). On an individual basis, it is very difficult to change the view of health care professionals.

Each individual is afraid of peer censure, which can be brutally vicious. Doctors, nurses and researchers may imperil their professional advancement, research grants and their jobs by advocating something which their peers or supervisors do not accept. (In many ways this is akin to the treatments received by heretics who espoused beliefs which differed from those of their religious compatriots. This has led some to suggest that scientism is the religion of the Western world.) I do not criticize people who are slow to assimilate new observations and theories. It took me two years after observing Ethel's healing before I was ready to explore the development of my own healing gifts, and several years more before I integrated spiritual healing into my practice of psychotherapy.

Getting doctors and nurses together in groups helps them to deal with these concerns. When one doctor lets on that he's seen a good response in a patient from healing, and a second allows that someone in his own family responded well to healing, the ice is broken. Each empowers the others to speak up. Gradually, with several meetings over a number of months, the process of healers rubbing elbows with health care professionals leads to greater mutual understanding and to cross referrals of patients. On broader fronts there are further approaches which can be fruitful. Osteopaths lobbied successfully to obtain recognition for their treatments, with almost no research evidence to support their claims or explanations for treatments. Their principal selling point with the medical and governmental authorities is that they have professional standards of conduct and peer regulation. Lobbying is a legitimate way to alter the status of healing and other complementary therapies.
The public is learning to appreciate healing and other complementary therapies much more quickly than the health care professionals One of my favorite cartoons is of a patient standing before the receptionist's desk, asking: "Does the doctor hug?" The public, voting with their dollars, are bringing about greater acceptance of complementary therapies in the US. David Eisenberg, M.D. published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine in January, 1993, which showed that almost as many dollars were spent in 1990 on complementary therapies as on conventional medical care. It was not long after that numbers of medical schools, including Harvard, introduced courses for medical students on complementary therapies. In England, money also speaks.

A General Practitioner in Devon published a study showing that the healer working in his practice saved money by halving the visits of patients with chronic problems and reduced their medication bills. This has been a popular item in the news media. The safety of healing is also impressive, as measured by malpractice insurance costs. Healers pay under £4 annually for roughly the same coverage which doctors pay over £1000. Much of the foregoing related to the material world with which we are familiar. Perhaps even more important is the opening to spirituality which occurs with involvement with healing.
Healing opens us to our spirituality Spirituality is an awareness which has atrophied in our society. Western culture is something of an aberration when compared to the majority of other cultures, where the spiritual dimensions are experienced and conceptualized as normal parts of existence -- not paranormal, mystical, or to be rejected. Again we must clarify our terminology. When I speak of the spiritual I intend to address those realms or dimensions where awareness can visit, where time future and time past are all in the now, and where form and space are purely mental constructs. In these dimensions our spirits continue their existence and development between physical lives. There is research evidence for this from a wide range of psi phenomena, including: Remote viewing (sometimes called traveling clairvoyance); out-of-body, near-death and deathbed vision experiences; apparitions (ghosts); channeling and other mediumistic phenomena; and reincarnation research. The research evidence from these diverse fields is, overall, consistent and produces a coherent picture. We haven't the time to review this in detail, but it is summarized in Volume III of Healing Research. From the vantage of the spiritual dimensions, our existence within the material realms of earth is an exploration, or digression, into the very densest levels of energy.

The material body is like a garment taken up by the spirit in order to explore particular lessons for the advancement of the soul. In our lessons we are repeatedly present us with choices regarding relationships, attitudes and actions. If we make poor decisions, we may not graduate into the next levels of existence, but might have to repeat the class with other teachers. If we do graduate and leave physical existence, we might choose an elective tutorial, sticking around in our spirit bodies in order to help those still struggling in the physical classrooms. At some point, we move on to further personal spiritual development in universities which we cannot even begin to comprehend from the vantage of our earthly existence and awareness......Home of David Wells spiritual healer and teacher of spiritual healing.

Presented originally as Spiritual healing as the energy side of E = mc2, Lecture at the 5th Mind/Brain Symposium of the Scientific and Medical Network, Institute of Psychiatry, London, October 1994.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

The Types of Dreams


Examining recurring dreams, nightmares, precognitive dreams and mutual dreams.

Recurring dreams

1. Because these dreams are presented to us more than once, we might assume that they are expressing an important message. We can look specifically for recurrences in our dream journal.

2. Themes often recur during the same sleep-period. When we are interpreting dreams from the same sleep-period, we can look for recurring themes; after interpreting one of the dreams, we can consider whether the same subject was examined in the others. This might aid us in the interpretation of those other dreams.

3. Recurring dreams are not necessarily identical. We might have dreams which contain a similar plot, characters, action, or feelings -- but the series might also differ in any of those elements (and we could even experience the same dream from the viewpoint of a different character). An important issue might be repeated verbatim, but it is more likely to be viewed with different symbolism, characters, plots, topics, and so on. This creates alternative perspectives from which the unconscious mind can study the topic.

4. Recurring dreams indicate an inability to find resolution. When the same dream occurs more than once, the unconscious mind is probably trying again to achieve a settlement following a previous unsuccessful attempt -- or it is presenting the same material to the conscious mind because we failed to follow through on that information during our wakeful life (perhaps because of inadequate recall or interpretation). If the psychological dilemma is alleviating but is not yet satisfied, we might see a change in the symbolism (i.e., "symbol evolution"); for example, the three-headed monster might now have only two heads!

5. We can create recurring dreams. If we are unable to interpret a dream, we can incubate a repetition of it; the dream might appear again, perhaps with symbolism which is easier to understand. And if we are in a lucid dream, we can create a scenario which is similar to the original dream; the plot is likely to go in a different direction, but we are still likely to gain insight into the original.

6. We can do "active imagination" with a recurring character. If a character continues to reappear, active imagination (as described in this book) might answer our questions about its presence. In a sense, this is a further recurrence of the dream, because we are creating that state during wakefulness. Several of my apparently unrelated dreams featured a teenaged boy, whom I "interviewed" with active imagination. He said, "I keep recurring [in your dreams] because I want you to know I'm here."

Nightmares
1. What is a nightmare? They are dreams which are characterized by their upsetting emotional quality; the emotion might be fear, anger, anxiety, grief, guilt, or another. Nightmares commonly occur to pre-adolescent children; these dreams become less common as the individuals gain a feeling of competence in dealing with the wakeful world.

2. What is a night terror? A night terror is a frightening event in which a sleeping child is likely to scream, thrash about, and perhaps stare with open but unfocused eyes. Night terrors are not nightmares nor even dreams; they occur during non-REM sleep in the first REM cycle. The non-REM portion of that cycle is deeper than usual, usually because of fever, medication, or exhaustion (due to daytime exertion or previous sleeplessness). Night terrors are a normal phenomenon for young children.

3. Nightmares have value. They are as useful as non-nightmare dreams. If we examine them calmly (without being repelled by their intensity), we can learn from any related interpretation or dreamwork. Even if we do not work with them, they can accomplish resolutions within the dreamworld; for example, women who have nightmares about their pregnancy have an easier delivery, and people who have nightmares about a trauma recover from it more quickly. (For some authors, nightmares have provided another benefit -- by supplying inspiration for such works as Frankenstein and Dracula.)

4. Nightmares have a reason to be outrageous. They shock us and distress us so that we will remember them, and we will think about them during wakefulness. Placid dreams can be ignored; nightmares demand that we notice them.

5. Nightmares represent a part of us. Similar to non-nightmare dreams, these experiences are symbolic of our psychological world. The "villainous" characters might represent an emotional conflict, or something which we fear, or a "shadow" aspect which we have restrained and despised in ourselves, or an element from the processing of a trauma (as in Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome following a car accident or a violent attack).

6. We can use dreamwork for nightmares. Refer to the chapter on dreamwork; the same techniques which are used for non-nightmares can be applied to nightmares. "Active imagination" is particularly useful, because it lets us converse with the character who has disturbed us.

7. We can incubate our responses to nightmare characters. The incubation can be a request to meet a monster from a previous dream, and to remember to ask, "Who are you, and why are you here?" Or we can incubate a particular response to a nightmare; the response might be to confront the monster rather than to run away. We might also incubate a happier ending to the nightmare; this ending would include a resolution to the conflict rather than the destruction of the creature (since it is a part of us). If we incubate a lucidity "trigger" (e.g.,"When I feel fear, I will become aware that I am dreaming"), we can manage the rest of the nightmare consciously.

8. Seek professional help for profoundly disturbing nightmares. Although dreamwork (and the nightmares themselves) can reconcile some of the problems, we might have nightmares which are so disturbing that we need to talk about them with a psychiatrist.

Dreams regarding physical health(This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical care.)

1. Through dreams, we can boost our physical health in many ways: we can receive guidance toward a health-promoting lifestyle (and warnings against destructive habits), diagnose illness and injury, maintain our emotional vigor during physical crises, get recommendations for treatments, and learn about our progress toward recovery. We might even receive the healing itself during a dream.

2. We can receive advice during a dream. Dream researcher William C. Dement was a smoker until he experienced a disturbing dream in which he underwent medical tests which indicated that he had lung cancer. After that dream, he quit smoking. When he returned to the habit two years later, another dream convinced him to stop again. A different person was told (by dream doctors) to apply heat to an aching back muscle; when this remedy was used during wakefulness, it was effective.

3. We can receive a diagnosis through a dream. Hippocrates and Aristotle said that dreams can reveal our illnesses, and ancient Chinese doctors would refer to a chapter on the diagnostic capabilities of these "prodromic" dreams in their text, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine. Medical information can come to us in dreams even before we exhibit symptoms, because the body and mind are aware of disturbances which might be too subtle to be detected by a medical exam or our wakeful awareness; this data allows us to seek early treatment, with clues about the nature of the ailment (e.g., the type of disorder, its location on the body, its severity, and its cause). Doctors and other medical professionals can assist in this process, by asking about our dreams and becoming familiar with the symbolism which might reveal a problem. Because dreams generally have an emotional component, we also discover our feelings about the affliction.

4. The symbols of infirmity. There are no standard symbols for physical distress; any symbol could represent either a physiological or emotional condition (or a problem in a relationship or another aspect of life), so we need to study the symbol more carefully -- its context and its emotional associations. Although we develop our own symbols, some people find that the human body is frequently represented by a car or house or machine, or by the dream-person's body itself; thus, for instance, if the car is malfunctioning, or involved in an collision, this might be an indication that the body is experiencing trouble. Illness might also be depicted by such symbols as warfare, rotten meat, afflicted plants or animals, unpleasant bodily sensations (hot, chilling, or painful), or an unusual depiction or usage of a body part. The symbols could be as blatant as a doctor, a hospital, or an ailing person (or a literal replay of an accident which caused the ailment). Symbols can indicate the severity of the problem: a harsher affliction might be indicated by images which are more turbulent and emotional. They might also indicate a reaction to therapy or medication. However, the medication might create another problem: some drugs disrupt REM sleep, so we will experience no dreams during this period.

5. Dreams of death. As stated previously, any dream can be interpreted on a physiological or emotional (or other) level; a dream of death might refer to the "death" of a component of our life -- for example, the end of a relationship (or perhaps the destruction of a tumor). Many people, during periods of physical health, have experienced dreams with possible symbols of death (corpses, graves, funerals, leaving on a trip, etc.) -- but the people lived to tell about them. But researchers have discovered that these "death dreams" tend to become more frequent when life is endangered; people who have these dreams might be more likely to worsen or even die -- but other people who have the dreams recover. (Some of the most seriously ill patients report no dreams at all; perhaps this is partially due to medication which is inadvertently suppressing REM.) If you have a dream which contains images of death, don't assume that your life will end soon (even if you are ailing); the dream is a speculation on a possibility, and it might not refer to physical health at all.

6. Dreams of healing. After the crisis has passed, we will notice a change in our dream symbolism. The nightmares will diminish, and a new series of dreams will give us hope, with images of healthy people and animals and plants, buildings being constructed, a well-tuned car -- or "to see the sun, moon, heavens and stars clear and bright" (in the words of Hippocrates).

7. Healing during dreams. Dreams can be more than reflections of our physical condition; they also present an opportunity to improve it. The chapter on dream incubation describes the healing temples of Aesculapius, in which participants would receive cures; we can incubate our own requests for medical help and advice. In modern times, dreamers have received health information (and healings) from images of angels, doctors, Jesus, or other individuals; certain Native American tribes honored dreams in which remedies were suggested by an animal such as a snake. And in lucid dreams, people have improved their health by invoking those healers or by directing a visible healing energy toward the part of their dream body which corresponds to the afflicted part of their physical body.

8. Dreamwork for physical health. During this time, dreamwork can help us to manage the emotions and stress generated by the crisis. Refer to the chapter on dreamwork.

Precognitive dreams
A precognitive dream is one which shows us the future with information which is not ordinarily available.

1. Some supposedly "precognitive dreams" are not precognitive. A dream is not "precognitive" if it causes a self-fulfilling prophesy (in which we act in such a way as to make the dreamed events occur later during wakefulness). Nor is it precognitive if the data was obtainable by inference (i.e., a logical extension of current trends or karmic antecedents). Carl Jung said (in Dreams), "The occurrence of prospective dreams cannot be denied. It would be wrong to call them prophetic, because at bottom they are no more prophetic and a medical diagnosis or a weather forecast."

2. Some supposedly "precognitive dreams" are mere speculation. During dreams, we enact scenarios which might happen -- as when an ill person dreams about death but then recovers. Some of these scenarios are part of the decision-making and problem-solving and rehearsal processes; we are testing "what-if" hypotheses in a safe, mocked-up situation. If one of the scenarios (among many) comes to pass during wakefulness, it is a coincidence rather than a precognitive dream.

3. Look for precognitive dreams in your journal. Review your dreams (and their interpretations) for situations which later happened. The precognition might take the form of a circumstance (such as an encounter with a former acquaintance whom we recently dreamed about) or an emotion (such as the fear which we felt when we dreamed and when we were mugged a few days after a dream). To discover a correlation between a precognitive dream and a wakeful occurrence, we might need to review the dreams from the previous months or years; that much time might elapse. These correlations will be easier to find if our dream journal contains a brief summary of each day's wakeful incidents and feelings. We might not recognize precognitive dreams when they occur, but they can become apparent afterward when we can discern their relationship to our wakeful life.

4. Incubate precognitive dreams. Rather than looking for random precognitive dreams, we can incubate a request for knowledge of the future -- generally or specifically (e.g., information about our career). We can also incubate dreams about events which are certain to occur. For example, incubate a dream about a party which is planned for next weekend. A dream about "a party" would not be precognitive in itself, but the dream might contain precognitive elements: people's attire, conversations, and so on.

5. Be careful in your interpretation of precognitive dreams. Their symbolism might be misinterpreted, as in the dream of Xerxes (which is described later); a personal conflict was apparently misunderstood to be a prophesy of a forthcoming battle. A few days ago, I had a "death dream"; I drove my car around a long, circular road at a cemetery, and when I came to the point at which I had begun driving, I felt a sense of completion and no reason to continue. If this book is completed, I can assume that the dream was not prophetic of my immediate demise; the "death" might have referred to the end of a phase of my life, or the conclusion of a project.

6. We might experience a dream about the past. This is called a postcognitive dream, in which we receive data which was not known at the time of the wakeful incident. Postcognition might reveal information about this lifetime or a previous life.

7. We can seek precognition during lucid dreams. If we are lucid, we can seek precognition; if we mock up the scenario of a future event, we will see details which can be confirmed later when the event occurs. (We can alter this dream while it is happening, to create a more-favorable outcome; this might influence the outcome which transpires during the wakeful event.) We can ask the dreamscape (or a character) for information about the future in general, or about a specific future occurrence which we anticipate.

8. Precognitive dreams have happened to many famous people. Some of those dreams have significantly changed the course of the world. In certain cases, the dreamer was inspired by a dream to take an action which changed civilizations; these might be viewed as self-fulfilling prophesies rather than true prophetic dreams.
The dream of Pharaoh Thutmes IV. Around 1450 B.C., a young man had a dream in which the god Hormakhu said, "The kingdom shall be given to thee." Later, the man became Pharaoh Thutmes IV (also spelled Thutmos). The tale of this dream was engraved between the paws of the Sphinx.

The dream of Xerxes. The Persian leader Xerxes dreamed that he was being castigated for not pursuing his plans to invade Greece. Xerxes, assuming that the dream prophesied a victory, led the attack in 480 B.C. but then lost the war. Because a similar dream was experienced by an uncle with whom Xerxes had experienced conflicts, it might have referred to interpersonal battles between those two people rather than military campaigns.

The dream of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great was another soldier who was driven by a dream. In the dream, he saw a satyr (a woodland god) which he chased and caught. When Alexander divided the word satyr into "sa" and "Tyros," he discerned a prophesy that "Tyre is yours." This dream stimulated him to escalate the war, which he won.
The dream of Hannibal. Hannibal -- who is best known for crossing the Alps with an entourage of soldiers and elephants -- dreamed of a serpent which demolished all that it encountered; a dream character told him to obey this guidance. On the next day, Hannibal began his attack of Rome.

The dreams of Julius Caesar. When Julius Caesar was a mere general (in rebellion against Rome), he was encouraged to continue his fight by a dream in which his mother appeared; he interpreted this to be Rome (the "Mother City"). After becoming Emperor, his assassination was prophesied in his series of identical dreams on the night before he was killed. His wife, Calpurnia, apparently had similar dreams; Shakespeare wrote, "Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, "Help, ho! they murder Caesar!"

The dreams of Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was another leader who was inspired by his dreams. In one of those dreams, he was told that he would lead the Mongols; the second dream directed him to start a military campaign which would enlarge his empire.
The dream of Columbus. Columbus -- in a refreshing change from these stories of