Four Dharmic ideals which I constantly strive to embody, embrace and express are Truth, Freedom, Peace, and Love. I think of these four ideals as the immutable pillar stones necessary for an impeccable moral foundation. Morality and Dharma are on the decline in our current age (Kali Yuga) and the only way to change and improve things externally is to change and improve ourselves internally. To manifest the ideals of Truth, Freedom, Peace and Love, first we must stop manifesting Lies, Enslavement, Violence, and Fear.
Lies are broadcast daily from our governments, mainstream media, big pharma, the public education system, pundits, politicians, lawyers, actors, and advertisers all making a living from lying. To take our power back from the liars we must be devoted 100% to honesty and integrity in our own lives. We must make a 24/7 habit of absolute sincerity, standing strong in our truth, striving to express as eloquently and articulately the truth as we know it. We must refuse to believe the lies and help to expose the liars. Refuse the temptation to lie to make our lives easier and never cheat on our spouses / partners because that is a form of lying too. We must refuse the notion that some lies are acceptable because "the truth would hurt" too much. If there is ever to be an actual "Truth Movement" it can only happen through radical, unconditional honesty and integrity.
Slavery is practiced by governments, corporations, banks, private prisons, insurance companies, factory farms, bankers, politicians and lawyers who all make a living from enslavement. To take our power back from the slave drivers we must be 100% free and sovereign in our own lives. We must quit our wage slave jobs, stop paying taxes, stop obeying unlawful legislations, get free of debt, learn self-defense, acquire tangible assets, get off the grid, grow our own food, create our own jobs, become entrepreneurs and freemen on the land, start our own interest-free banks and local currencies. We must completely refuse to be enslaved, refuse to enslave others, and help one another achieve true freedom.
Violence is practiced by governments, corporations, militaries, police forces, private security, prisons, gangsters, mafias, mercenaries, factory farmers and butchers all making a living from violence. To take our power back from the bullies we must be 100% peaceful in our interactions. We must refuse to be employed as a soldiers, police or mercenaries. We must end the animal holocaust. We must stop domestic abuse and practice peaceful parenting. We should never hit, harm or even raise our voices to others, especially our friends and family. All interactions between parents, children, siblings, friends, and strangers alike should be free of all force; even passive-aggression is still aggression which we must personally refuse to manifest.
Fear is employed by governments, corporations, militaries, police, banks, insurance companies, factory farms, mafias, private prisons, politicians, and lawyers who all make a living off victims of fear. To take our power back from the fear-mongers we must practice unconditional love. As Jesus, John Lennon and many-a-martyr will agree, no one word, no one concept is so powerful and unifying as Love. Love is the main immutable pillar for a truly moral foundation. If you have developed true unconditional love, then you already have the other three pillars of Truth, Freedom and Peace as well, because love is certainly honest, free and peaceful. Cheating or lying is not true love. "Loving" a bird enslaved in a tiny cage is not truly loving the bird. And forceful or "violent love" cannot be called true love at all, in fact it's called rape or domestic abuse.
So before saying or doing anything, remember the four pillars: Is it true? Does it promote freedom? Is it peaceful? And is it loving? Or if you're short on time just check the fourth: Is this a loving thing to say? Is this a loving thing to do? Adhere to these and we will be on the Dharma fast-track through morality to another golden age. All we need is Love.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Rupert Sheldrake and the Hundredth Monkey
Another short-coming of traditional Western science is its inability to
explain the existence of forms in nature.
No matter how we magnify or manipulate the material world, no mechanical
model explains the emergence of the variety of unique and semi-unique forms in
nature. Every type of rock, plant,
animal, organism, bacteria, all aggregate themselves into distinct and definite
types with traits/characteristics semi-unique to their form and completely
unique to them individually. For example
each oak tree has many semi-unique features that characterize it clearly as an
oak and not a pine, like the shape of its leaves, being non-coniferous,
etc. These features are semi-unique as
all oak trees share them, however on another level, no two oak trees are
exactly alike either. Exact size, shape,
dimensions, growth patterns, ring patterns etc. are completely unique to each
tree. So what is the mechanism in nature
which constantly creates these unique and semi-unique forms? Newton’s model, nor the 300+ subsequent years
of material science since have been able to explain this. British biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s concept
of morphogenic resonance, however, seems to be our best current theory.
“British biologist Rupert Sheldrake has offered an incisive critique
of traditional science … He pointed out that in its single-minded pursuit of
‘energetic causation,’ Western science neglected the problem of form in
nature. He pointed out that our study of
substance alone cannot explain why there is order, pattern, and meaning in
nature any more than the examination of the building materials in a cathedral,
castle, or tenement house can explain the particular forms those architectural
structures have taken. No matter how
sophisticated our study of the materials, we will not be able to explain the
creative forces that guided the designs of these structures. Sheldrake suggests that forms in nature are
governed by what he calls ‘morphogenic fields,’ which cannot be detected or
measured by contemporary science. This
would mean that all scientific efforts of the past have totally neglected a
dimension that is absolutely critical for understanding the nature of reality.” -Stanislav Grof, “The Holotropic Mind” (11)
As an example Sheldrake asks us to consider the complexity of the human
body. For instance, take notice of your
arms, how they twist, bend, and rotate, notice how your fingers separate and
clasp with opposable thumbs, giving your upper-limbs unique function and
purpose. Now take notice of your legs,
how they are designed, how they bend and move, notice your feet/toes, and how
your lower-limbs perfectly serve their unique function and purpose. Arms and legs look different; have different
functions and locations, but the DNA, chemicals, nerves, cells and molecules
composing them are exactly the same. So
how did they become different and why?
What property within leg cells determined them to become a leg, and what
property within arm cells determined them to become an arm?
“Sheldrake proposes a theory he calls Morphic Resonance. This theory basically states that there is a
field of energy surrounding and permeating an organism which contains, among
other things, the form of the organism.
He writes that each species has its own field, that there are fields
within fields, and that these fields have built-in memory, based upon what has
happened in the past derived from previous organisms or forms of a similar
kind. In other words, each organism on
the planet shares fields of similar energy or we could say a specific frequency.” -Eric Pepin, “Handbook of the Navigator” (78)
What biological mechanism recognizes, stores, and develops the
evolution and various adaptations of a species?
If a species of insect develops camouflage coloration like nearby
foliage to hide from predators, where is that information stored? If a species of bird develops curvature in
its beak to assist in gathering low-laying food/materials, what mechanism
informs new beak cells to curve? The
typical answer is that this information is stored and transmitted by genes/DNA,
however, no biologist can explain how this occurs. Sheldrake compares it to studying building
materials at a construction site and attempting to determine the structure of
the house to be built.
“British biologist Rupert Sheldrake has mounted one of the most
constant and vociferous challenges to this approach …Current genetic theory
also doesn’t explain, he says, how a developing system can self-regulate, or
grow normally in the course of development if a part of the system is added or
removed, and doesn’t explain how an organism regenerates – replacing missing or
damaged structures. In a rush of fevered
inspiration while at an ashram in India, Sheldrake worked out his hypothesis of
formative causation, which states that the forms of self-organizing living
things – everything from molecules and organisms to societies and even entire
galaxies – are shaped by morphic fields.
These fields have a morphic resonance – a cumulative memory – of similar
systems through cultures and time, so that species of animals and plants
‘remember’ not only how to look but also how to act … ‘Morphic resonance,’ is,
in his view, ‘the influence of like upon like through space and time.’ He believes these fields are different from
electro-magnetic fields because they reverberate across generations with an inherent
memory of the correct shape and form.”
-Lynne McTaggart, “The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the
Universe,” (46-7)
The question of form and process in nature is still a complete mystery,
no matter how many fancy explanations or Latin terms scientists create. How do embryos develop from fertilized
eggs? How does a tiny seed grow into a
huge tree? Inside every apple seed there
is the potential to grow an entire apple tree with deep roots, winding
branches, colorful leaves, and hundreds of apples with thousands more seeds inside! Where is this amazing blueprint in those tiny
seeds? How does part of the seed become
a root, another part become a branch, another part become a leaf, and another
part become an apple?
“Imagine a little acorn planted in the ground. The form and shape of that little acorn,
hidden in the earth, is vastly different from the giant tree it will become,
with branches sticking out in every direction, leaves and bark, roots reaching
far into the earth. We could say that
the acorn contains some kind of genetic program that tells it how to grow and
how to form. But, where is this
program? If we said this genetic program
was within the DNA, science and biologists such as Rupert Sheldrake, tell us we
would be wrong. DNA codes for proteins
and the micro components which make up proteins. Coding the structure of single, solitary
parts that make up organisms, such as proteins, is very different than coding
the shape and structure of an entire organism.” -Eric Pepin, “Handbook of
the Navigator” (77)
In 1921 an interesting phenomenon relevant to morphic fields was first observed
in Southampton, England. In the morning when people came out to get
the milk from their doorsteps, they found the cardboard lids torn to shreds and
the cream disappeared from their bottles.
It turns out blue tit birds in the area had learned to perch atop the
bottles, pull off the cardboard lids with their beaks and drink the cream. Several months later this phenomenon began
occurring elsewhere in Britain about 50 miles away, then later about 100 miles
away, then again and again in many diverse locations throughout Europe:
“Whenever the bluetit phenomenon turned up, it started spreading
locally, presumably by imitation.
However, bluetits are very home-loving creatures, and they don’t
normally travel more than four or five miles.
Therefore, the dissemination of the behavior over large distances could
only be accounted for in terms of an independent discovery of the habit … The
people who did the study came to the conclusion that it must have been
‘invented’ independently at least 50 times.
Moreover, the rate of spread of the habit accelerated as time went on …
Here is an example of a pattern of behavior which was spread in a way which
seemed to speed up with time, and which might provide an example of morphic
resonance.” -Eric Pepin, “Handbook
of the Navigator” (79-80)
Decades later, further evidence for morphic resonance was provided by
Dutch blue tits. Due to the German
occupation of Holland during World War II, their milk delivery ceased in 1939,
not to resume again until 1948 (9 years later).
Since the average lifespan of a blue tit is only 2-3 years, it is safe
to assume that none of them alive in 1939 were still around in 1948, yet
mysteriously when milk delivery resumed, the phenomenon quickly sprang up again
in diverse locations spreading rapidly throughout the country. This time, however, the behavior began right
away and independently popped up in various places at a higher rate of
frequency. This lends credence to the
idea that the evolutionary spread of new behaviors are likely not genetic but
rather due to a kind of “collective memory” phenomenon like Sheldrake’s
morphogenic fields or Carl Jung’s collective unconscious.
“Jung thought
of the collective unconscious as a collective memory, the collective memory of
humanity. He thought that people would be more tuned into members of their own
family and race and social and cultural group, but that nevertheless there
would be a background resonance from all humanity: a pooled or averaged
experience of basic things that all people experience (e.g., maternal behavior
and various social patterns and structures of experience and thought). It would
not be a memory from particular persons in the past so much as an average of
the basic forms of memory structures; these are the archetypes. Jung's notion
of the collective unconscious makes extremely good sense in the context of the
general approach that I am putting forward. Morphic resonance theory would lead
to a radical reaffirmation of Jung's concept of the collective unconscious.” –Rupert Sheldrake, “Morphic Resonance”
(11-12)
Biologist Lyall Watson in his book “Lifetide”
also offers evidence in support of Sheldrake’s theory with his discovery of
“the hundredth monkey effect.” This
phenomenon was first observed during an experiment on a remote Japanese island
where scientists were leaving sweet potatoes on the beach to feed Macaque
monkeys. These particular monkeys had
never eaten sweet potatoes before; they enjoyed them very much but didn’t like
eating the beach sand covering them.
Soon one intelligent monkey started taking his potatoes to the shoreline
and scrubbing them underwater which both removed the sand and gave them a desirable
salty taste. Shortly after this more and
more monkeys began to copy the potato washing habit until the entire island’s
monkey population was doing it. Next,
strangely, whole communities of Macaques on many other unconnected islands not
part of the experiment, Macaques who already ate sweet potatoes as a staple
food, spontaneously began washing their potatoes in the sea as well! There was no possible connection or
communication between the islands or various communities of Macaques, so how
and why did this behavior spread?
“Consider the
hypothesis that if you train rats to learn a new trick in Santa
Barbara, then rats all over the world should be able to learn to do
the same trick more quickly, just because the rats in Santa Barbara have learned it. This new
pattern of learning will be, as it were, in the rat collective memory -in the
morphic fields of rats, to which other rats can tune in, just because they are
rats and just because they are in similar circumstances, by morphic resonance.
This may seem a bit improbable, but either this sort of thing happens or it
doesn't. Among the vast number of papers in the archives of experiments on rat
psychology, there are a number of examples of experiments in which people have
actually monitored rates of learning over time and discovered mysterious
increases. In my book, A New Science of Life, I describe one such series of
experiments which extended over a 50-year period. Begun at Harvard and then
carried on in Scotland and Australia, the
experiment demonstrated that rats increased their rate of learning more than
tenfold. This was a huge effect - not some marginal statistically significant
result. This improved rate of learning in identical learning situations
occurred in these three separate locations and in all rats of the breed, not
just in rats descended from trained parents.” –Rupert Sheldrake, “Morphic Resonance” (6-7)
Monica
England of Nottingham
University’s Psychology
Department knew about Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance and devised an
interesting experiment to test for collective consciousness in humans. She reasoned that if morphic resonance is
occurring, it should be easier to do today’s newspaper crossword puzzle
tomorrow than it would have been yesterday.
London’s
Evening Standard newspaper provided their crossword in advance for her
experiment. First students all completed a control crossword to measure their
ability, then half were tested in Nottingham the day before and half the day
after the crossword was published in London. Amazingly, the students who did the already
published crossword (the puzzle that had already been completed by thousands of
Evening Standard readers) improved their scores by an average of 25% What can account for this huge jump in
scores?
In another similar study, two teams from Australia and Britain did an experiment with face recognition. They created a photo image with over a hundred faces in it, big ones, small ones, faces within faces etc. then asked people to point out as many faces as they could find within an allotted time. Because they were so well hidden a control group of several hundred Australians could only see about six to ten faces total. Then back in England, the other team of researchers showed a group of volunteers the picture on a closed-cable BBC TV station with a narrator pointing out one-by-one every single face. A few minutes later the Australian team repeated the experiment with several hundred more volunteers ready and waiting. Amazingly, this time most people were able to find not just a few, but the majority of faces within the allotted time limit! What could account for this other than some mechanism like Jung’s collective memory or Sheldrake’s morphic resonance? The typical “DNA” explanation is insufficient.
“As we will
see, this model does not work very well. The genetic program is assumed to be
identical with DNA, the genetic chemical. The genetic information is coded in DNA and this
code forms the genetic program. But such a leap requires projecting onto DNA
properties that it does not actually possess. We know what DNA does: it codes
for proteins; it codes for the sequence of amino acids which form proteins. However, there
is a big difference between coding for the structure of a protein - a chemical
constituent of the organism - and programming the development of an entire organism.
It is the difference between making bricks and building a house out of the bricks.
You need the bricks to build the house. If you have defective bricks, the house
will be defective. But the plan of the house is not contained in the bricks, or
the wires, or the beams, or cement. Analogously, DNA only codes for the
materials from which the body is constructed: the enzymes, the structural
proteins, and so forth. There is no evidence that it also codes for the plan,
the form, the morphology of the body.” -Rupert
Sheldrake, “Morphic Resonance” (3-4)
More scientific
verification for Sheldrake’s theory came from Yale University
with Dr. Harold S. Burr’s studies of electromagnetic radiation fields. He discovered that there are electrical
fields surrounding all organisms from molds, bacteria and plants to
salamanders, frogs and humans, and that within these fields there exists an
observable energetic blueprint of each organism’s future. For instance plant seedlings have electrical
fields which resemble the eventual adult plant.
Baby salamanders possess energy fields shaped like adult salamanders and
the energetic blueprint can even be seen in an unfertilized egg.
“Each species
has its own fields, and within each organism there are fields within fields.
Within each of us is the field of the whole body; fields for arms and legs and
fields for kidneys and livers; within are fields for the different tissues
inside these organs, and then fields for the cells, and fields for the
sub-cellular structures, and fields for the molecules, and so on. There is a
whole series of fields within fields. The essence of the hypothesis I am
proposing is that these fields, which are already accepted quite widely within
biology, have a kind of in-built memory derived from previous forms of a
similar kind. The liver field is shaped by the forms of previous livers and the
oak tree field by the forms and organization of previous oak trees. Through the
fields, by a process called morphic resonance, the influence of like upon like,
there is a connection among similar fields. That means that the field's
structure has a cumulative memory, based on what has happened to the species in
the past.” –Rupert Sheldrake, “Morphic
Resonance” (5)
Elmer Lund at
the University of
Texas discovered that he
could control the regeneration of limbs in hydras using electrical fields. By applying an electrical current strong
enough to override the hydras’ natural morphogenic field, he was able to cause
heads to form where tails should be and vice versa. Similar experiments have been performed on
flatworms, salamanders and other organisms all of which have had their natural
“genetic” or “morphogenic” data re-programmed by electrical frequencies. This provides yet more evidence that all
organisms must be involved in some type of energetic data transference that
determines things like form and process in nature. It seems DNA holds the blueprint, but rather
than being set in stone, it is constantly being edited and re-worked by various
fields of influence both from within and outside our bodies.
“Rather than a system of fortunate but ultimately random error, if
DNA uses frequencies of all variety as an information tool, this would suggest
instead a feedback system of perfect communication through waves which encode
and transfer information.” -Lynne
McTaggart, “The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe,” (51)
“One fact
which led to the development of this theory is the remarkable ability organisms
have to repair damage. If you cut an oak tree into little pieces, each little
piece, properly treated, can grow into a new tree. So from a tiny fragment, you
can get a whole. Machines do not do that; they do not have this power of
remaining whole if you remove parts of them. Chop a computer up into small
pieces and all you get is a broken computer. It does not regenerate into lots
of little computers. But if you chop a flatworm into small pieces, each piece
can grow into a new flatworm. Another analogy is a magnet. If you chop a magnet
into small pieces, you do have lots of small magnets, each with a complete
magnetic field. This is a holistic property that fields have that mechanical
systems do not have unless they are associated with fields. Still another
example is the hologram, any part of which contains the whole. A hologram is
based on interference patterns within the electromagnetic field. Fields thus
have a holistic property which was very attractive to the biologists who
developed this concept of morphogenetic fields.” –Rupert Sheldrake, “Morphic Resonance” (5)
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Monday, March 11, 2013
Deep Breathing For Maximum Health
As explained in my recent article, The Most Important Thing in Your Life, there is literally nothing whatsoever more crucial to your health, vitality, longevity and well-being than your breath. You may survive several months without food, a couple of weeks without water, but you won't survive more than a few minutes without air. More specifically, it is the oxygen in the air that your body so desperately and consistently needs. Just a few minutes without re-oxygenating the bloodstream through regular respiration results in immediate and certain death.
Did you know 90% of our energy comes from oxygen and only 10% from food and water!? Less than 200 years ago the Earth's atmosphere was comprised of 40% oxygen. Nowadays due to pollution, de-forestation and other environmental issues we're breathing in only about 19-21% oxygen. Not only this, but research has shown that each decade of regular aging humans lose approximately 5% of their lung capacity and elasticity which directly translates to less oxygen. Considering how vitally important breathing and oxygen are to our lives and well-being wouldn't it be a good idea to learn and commit to a daily practice of proper and effective deep breathing?
Proper oxygenation through Pranayama / Qigong breathing heightens concentration alertness and memory, calms the mind and stabilizes the nervous system, improves digestion, absorption and elimination, strengthens the heart, lungs, and abs, aids in recovery, immunity, longevity and weight control, cures headaches, hangovers, and asthma, moves the lymphatic system, relieves general body aches, pains, stress, depression and anxiety, increases stamina, lung capacity, and mindfulness, internally exercises and massages your organs, improves sleep, posture, poise and patience, boosts energy levels, releases happiness endorphins and elicits the relaxation response in every cell of the body.
For the past several years I have been diligently learning, practicing, and teaching Pranayama / Qigong and I can say from daily personal experience that this kind of internal exercise is by far the most important, over-looked and under-appreciated, energizing, invigorating, strengthening, purifying, balancing, meditative, relaxing, revitalizing activity possible. Below are several videos I've made to help people get started with a regular deep breathing routine. Please try these techniques for yourselves, share them with everyone you can, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more future tutorials.
The Yogi Complete Breath or 3-Part Circular Breathing is one of the best Pranayamas to include into your daily routine as it trains the lungs to completely expand, completely contract, and utilizes the entire respiratory system properly and effectively. It improves concentration, alertness and sleep, digestion, absorption and elimination, reduces anxiety, stress, and anger, builds stamina, expands lung capacity, and fully oxygenates the bloodstream. Begin by exhaling every bit of air from your body then inhale through your nose completely filling up your lungs in 3 steps. 1) Fill up your lower lungs by inhaling slowly and deeply pushing your tummy outwards like you just finished a big meal. Imagine a string attached to your belly button slowly pulling out as you fill up the lower lungs. 2) Once the lower lungs are filled, the mid-lungs will begin to fill up which will expand your chest outwards while pulling the tummy back in. Imagine a 2nd string pulling on your sternum, expanding the rib cage, while the 1st string on your belly button has been released. 3) Once the mid-lungs are filled, the upper-lungs will quickly fill up like the top tapered part of a water bottle. Just lift your shoulders a little to get the last bit of air that you can, hold for a second (or several seconds if you can) then exhale through the mouth squeezing the abdominals to push out every last bit of carbon. Do this for at least 10 minutes a day every day and you will notice many substantial positive powerful effects!
Reverse Circular Breathing or "The Chi Cultivator" is especially good for strengthening core abdominal muscles and cultivating life force energy (prana/chi/ki/qi) in your lower dantian. First exhale all the air from your lungs and really squeeze your abdominal muscles forcing out every last bit. Begin slowly inhaling through your nose bringing the air as deep into the lower lungs as possible filling them from bottom, middle, to top. Now instead of letting your belly bubble up full of air as in traditional low-breathing, actually pull your belly inwards towards your spine as you inhale. There is a vacuum vortex point behind your belly button called the dantian in Chinese medicine, and that is the point that will be sucking in, the destination point for the air being inhaled, and the main storage point for life force energy in the body. Once the inhalation is complete relax your abdominals letting your belly bubble out full of air then exhale slowly out your mouth. As you relax, practice and lengthen the breath there will come a sound from your throat like a cat purring or Darth Vader's mask. This is the sound of pranic/qigong ocean breathing which I've exaggerated a bit in the video to make it more audible.
Ujjayi Pranayama or Ocean Breathing is a very important deep breathing technique to master because it is so often used in conjunction with other breaths like the Yogi Complete Breath or Reverse Circular Breathing. Ujjayi Ocean Breathing warms and slows down the air being inhaled allowing for safe, full lung expansion and optimum oxygenation. The heat created helps release toxins and builds internal fire, enhances the digestive and nervous systems, elicits the relaxation response, and eliminates phlegm in the throat. The "ocean" sound comes from the glottis rapidly flapping against the vocal cords and acts as a regulator so you can drastically slow down and deepen your inhalations.
The Nadi Purification Breath or Alternate Nostril Breathing is one of the best ways to clear your sinuses if you have allergies, cold, stuffy/runny nose, snoring, asthma or other breathing problems. Inhale slowly and deeply into the abdomen through the left nostril while plugging the right. Then plug the left nostril and fairly forcefully exhale the entire breath out your right nostril. Squeeze your core muscles to expel every last bit of air, keep the left nostril plugged, inhale through the right then exhale through the left, and continue alternating back and forth like this. Alternate Nostril Breathing reduces stress, boosts energy, clears the sinuses, cleanses the lungs, increases oxygenation of blood, improves sleep, calms the mind/emotions, and has been scientifically proven to improve brain function. When used in conjunction with a Neti Pot cleansing it's like a complete enema for your head/sinuses!
The Yogi Cleansing Breath is the perfect detoxification breath for cigarette smokers and anyone with chronic respiratory issues or halitosis. I personally smoked cigarettes from approximately age 18-26 and beginning daily pranayama practice is what helped easily and effortlessly ween me off cigarettes forever. All addiction experts will agree that you need a new positive hobby/activity to replace your old destructive habit, and with smoking addiction (an unhealthy respiratory activity) what could be more relevant and advantageous than a new healthy respiratory activity like deep breathing!? Within weeks of starting my daily practice I became sensitive enough to feel the negative effects of smoking even just 1 cigarette per day. I slowly ramped up my pranayama and cut down my smoking, consciously improving my health, expanding and detoxifying my lungs, until the act of smoking became so counter-productive that I truly haven't wanted to smoke another one. To perform the Yogi Cleansing Breath first sit, stand or lay with your spine straight and inhale slowly and deeply through the nose until your lungs are filled. Make an "O" shape with your mouth and force the exhale out in 3 or 4 quick bursts pushing every last bit by clenching your abdominals.
The Pranayama Breath of Fire detoxifies and purifies the entire bloodstream which in turn feeds every cell in our body. It improves digestion, helps regulate the pituitary, glandular, and nervous systems, increases vital energy and lung capacity, expels carbon dioxide and other stagnant toxins, and is an excellent abdominal workout for increasing core strength. To perform Breath of Fire, first sit, stand or lay with spine straight, and exhale all the air from your lungs. Then in forceful 1 second bursts tightly squeeze your abdominal muscles and exhale out your nose. A slight vacuum effect will automatically and involuntarily inhale a tiny bit after each exhale allowing you to continue breathing like this for several minutes with practice. Start by doing 1 second exhales for about a minute and work your way up to faster breaths and longer sessions. If you feel nauseous, dizzy or light-headed stop momentarily and take several deep breaths.
Shitali Pranayama or The Cooling Breath, like all mouth-inhalation techniques, is only to be used sparingly in situations where the body feels over-heated. By rolling your tongue and inhaling through the mouth as shown in the video you will feel the air being cooled as it passes. Breathing like this for several minutes will cure heat exhaustion and cool the body down from the inside out. It is very important to note that mouth-breathing is something to be completely avoided except in extreme circumstances where the nasal passages are blocked or you're gasping from lack of oxygen. Mouth breathing is directly responsible for the contraction of many contagious diseases like colds and catarrhal infections. Experiments have been performed on hundreds of soldiers and sailors showing that those who slept with their mouths open were much more likely to fall ill and contract contagious diseases than those who breathed properly through their nostrils. During one of the Navy experiments a smallpox epidemic broke out resulting in many deaths among the mouth-breathers, yet not a single nose-breather suffered.
"The organs of respiration have their only protective apparatus, filter, or dust-catcher, in the nostrils. When the breath is taken through the mouth, there is nothing from mouth to lungs to strain the air, or to catch the dust and other foreign matter in the air. Moreover, such incorrect breathing admits cold air to the organs, thereby injuring them. Inflammation of the respiratory organs often results from the inhalation of cold air through the mouth. The man who breathes through the mouth at night, always awakens with a parched feeling in the mouth and a dryness in the throat. He is violating one of nature's laws, and is sowing the seeds of disease. On the other hand, the nostrils and nasal passages show evidence of the careful design of nature in this respect. The nostrils are two narrow, tortuous channels, containing numerous bristly hairs which serve the purpose of a filter or sieve to strain the air of its impurities, etc., which are expelled when the breath is exhaled. Not only do the nostrils serve this important purpose, but they also perform an important function in warming the air inhaled. The long narrow winding nostrils are filled with warm mucous membrane, which coming in contact with the inhaled air warms it so that it can do no damage to the delicate organs of the throat, or to the lungs." -Yogi Ramacharaka, "The Science of Breath"
Did you know 90% of our energy comes from oxygen and only 10% from food and water!? Less than 200 years ago the Earth's atmosphere was comprised of 40% oxygen. Nowadays due to pollution, de-forestation and other environmental issues we're breathing in only about 19-21% oxygen. Not only this, but research has shown that each decade of regular aging humans lose approximately 5% of their lung capacity and elasticity which directly translates to less oxygen. Considering how vitally important breathing and oxygen are to our lives and well-being wouldn't it be a good idea to learn and commit to a daily practice of proper and effective deep breathing?
Proper oxygenation through Pranayama / Qigong breathing heightens concentration alertness and memory, calms the mind and stabilizes the nervous system, improves digestion, absorption and elimination, strengthens the heart, lungs, and abs, aids in recovery, immunity, longevity and weight control, cures headaches, hangovers, and asthma, moves the lymphatic system, relieves general body aches, pains, stress, depression and anxiety, increases stamina, lung capacity, and mindfulness, internally exercises and massages your organs, improves sleep, posture, poise and patience, boosts energy levels, releases happiness endorphins and elicits the relaxation response in every cell of the body.
For the past several years I have been diligently learning, practicing, and teaching Pranayama / Qigong and I can say from daily personal experience that this kind of internal exercise is by far the most important, over-looked and under-appreciated, energizing, invigorating, strengthening, purifying, balancing, meditative, relaxing, revitalizing activity possible. Below are several videos I've made to help people get started with a regular deep breathing routine. Please try these techniques for yourselves, share them with everyone you can, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more future tutorials.
The Yogi Complete Breath or 3-Part Circular Breathing is one of the best Pranayamas to include into your daily routine as it trains the lungs to completely expand, completely contract, and utilizes the entire respiratory system properly and effectively. It improves concentration, alertness and sleep, digestion, absorption and elimination, reduces anxiety, stress, and anger, builds stamina, expands lung capacity, and fully oxygenates the bloodstream. Begin by exhaling every bit of air from your body then inhale through your nose completely filling up your lungs in 3 steps. 1) Fill up your lower lungs by inhaling slowly and deeply pushing your tummy outwards like you just finished a big meal. Imagine a string attached to your belly button slowly pulling out as you fill up the lower lungs. 2) Once the lower lungs are filled, the mid-lungs will begin to fill up which will expand your chest outwards while pulling the tummy back in. Imagine a 2nd string pulling on your sternum, expanding the rib cage, while the 1st string on your belly button has been released. 3) Once the mid-lungs are filled, the upper-lungs will quickly fill up like the top tapered part of a water bottle. Just lift your shoulders a little to get the last bit of air that you can, hold for a second (or several seconds if you can) then exhale through the mouth squeezing the abdominals to push out every last bit of carbon. Do this for at least 10 minutes a day every day and you will notice many substantial positive powerful effects!
Reverse Circular Breathing or "The Chi Cultivator" is especially good for strengthening core abdominal muscles and cultivating life force energy (prana/chi/ki/qi) in your lower dantian. First exhale all the air from your lungs and really squeeze your abdominal muscles forcing out every last bit. Begin slowly inhaling through your nose bringing the air as deep into the lower lungs as possible filling them from bottom, middle, to top. Now instead of letting your belly bubble up full of air as in traditional low-breathing, actually pull your belly inwards towards your spine as you inhale. There is a vacuum vortex point behind your belly button called the dantian in Chinese medicine, and that is the point that will be sucking in, the destination point for the air being inhaled, and the main storage point for life force energy in the body. Once the inhalation is complete relax your abdominals letting your belly bubble out full of air then exhale slowly out your mouth. As you relax, practice and lengthen the breath there will come a sound from your throat like a cat purring or Darth Vader's mask. This is the sound of pranic/qigong ocean breathing which I've exaggerated a bit in the video to make it more audible.
Ujjayi Pranayama or Ocean Breathing is a very important deep breathing technique to master because it is so often used in conjunction with other breaths like the Yogi Complete Breath or Reverse Circular Breathing. Ujjayi Ocean Breathing warms and slows down the air being inhaled allowing for safe, full lung expansion and optimum oxygenation. The heat created helps release toxins and builds internal fire, enhances the digestive and nervous systems, elicits the relaxation response, and eliminates phlegm in the throat. The "ocean" sound comes from the glottis rapidly flapping against the vocal cords and acts as a regulator so you can drastically slow down and deepen your inhalations.
The Nadi Purification Breath or Alternate Nostril Breathing is one of the best ways to clear your sinuses if you have allergies, cold, stuffy/runny nose, snoring, asthma or other breathing problems. Inhale slowly and deeply into the abdomen through the left nostril while plugging the right. Then plug the left nostril and fairly forcefully exhale the entire breath out your right nostril. Squeeze your core muscles to expel every last bit of air, keep the left nostril plugged, inhale through the right then exhale through the left, and continue alternating back and forth like this. Alternate Nostril Breathing reduces stress, boosts energy, clears the sinuses, cleanses the lungs, increases oxygenation of blood, improves sleep, calms the mind/emotions, and has been scientifically proven to improve brain function. When used in conjunction with a Neti Pot cleansing it's like a complete enema for your head/sinuses!
The Yogi Cleansing Breath is the perfect detoxification breath for cigarette smokers and anyone with chronic respiratory issues or halitosis. I personally smoked cigarettes from approximately age 18-26 and beginning daily pranayama practice is what helped easily and effortlessly ween me off cigarettes forever. All addiction experts will agree that you need a new positive hobby/activity to replace your old destructive habit, and with smoking addiction (an unhealthy respiratory activity) what could be more relevant and advantageous than a new healthy respiratory activity like deep breathing!? Within weeks of starting my daily practice I became sensitive enough to feel the negative effects of smoking even just 1 cigarette per day. I slowly ramped up my pranayama and cut down my smoking, consciously improving my health, expanding and detoxifying my lungs, until the act of smoking became so counter-productive that I truly haven't wanted to smoke another one. To perform the Yogi Cleansing Breath first sit, stand or lay with your spine straight and inhale slowly and deeply through the nose until your lungs are filled. Make an "O" shape with your mouth and force the exhale out in 3 or 4 quick bursts pushing every last bit by clenching your abdominals.
The Pranayama Breath of Fire detoxifies and purifies the entire bloodstream which in turn feeds every cell in our body. It improves digestion, helps regulate the pituitary, glandular, and nervous systems, increases vital energy and lung capacity, expels carbon dioxide and other stagnant toxins, and is an excellent abdominal workout for increasing core strength. To perform Breath of Fire, first sit, stand or lay with spine straight, and exhale all the air from your lungs. Then in forceful 1 second bursts tightly squeeze your abdominal muscles and exhale out your nose. A slight vacuum effect will automatically and involuntarily inhale a tiny bit after each exhale allowing you to continue breathing like this for several minutes with practice. Start by doing 1 second exhales for about a minute and work your way up to faster breaths and longer sessions. If you feel nauseous, dizzy or light-headed stop momentarily and take several deep breaths.
Shitali Pranayama or The Cooling Breath, like all mouth-inhalation techniques, is only to be used sparingly in situations where the body feels over-heated. By rolling your tongue and inhaling through the mouth as shown in the video you will feel the air being cooled as it passes. Breathing like this for several minutes will cure heat exhaustion and cool the body down from the inside out. It is very important to note that mouth-breathing is something to be completely avoided except in extreme circumstances where the nasal passages are blocked or you're gasping from lack of oxygen. Mouth breathing is directly responsible for the contraction of many contagious diseases like colds and catarrhal infections. Experiments have been performed on hundreds of soldiers and sailors showing that those who slept with their mouths open were much more likely to fall ill and contract contagious diseases than those who breathed properly through their nostrils. During one of the Navy experiments a smallpox epidemic broke out resulting in many deaths among the mouth-breathers, yet not a single nose-breather suffered.
"The organs of respiration have their only protective apparatus, filter, or dust-catcher, in the nostrils. When the breath is taken through the mouth, there is nothing from mouth to lungs to strain the air, or to catch the dust and other foreign matter in the air. Moreover, such incorrect breathing admits cold air to the organs, thereby injuring them. Inflammation of the respiratory organs often results from the inhalation of cold air through the mouth. The man who breathes through the mouth at night, always awakens with a parched feeling in the mouth and a dryness in the throat. He is violating one of nature's laws, and is sowing the seeds of disease. On the other hand, the nostrils and nasal passages show evidence of the careful design of nature in this respect. The nostrils are two narrow, tortuous channels, containing numerous bristly hairs which serve the purpose of a filter or sieve to strain the air of its impurities, etc., which are expelled when the breath is exhaled. Not only do the nostrils serve this important purpose, but they also perform an important function in warming the air inhaled. The long narrow winding nostrils are filled with warm mucous membrane, which coming in contact with the inhaled air warms it so that it can do no damage to the delicate organs of the throat, or to the lungs." -Yogi Ramacharaka, "The Science of Breath"
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Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Universal Fourier Transform
In the 18th century a Frenchman named Jean Fourier discovered a mathematical method of converting patterns into simple wave forms called the Fourier transform, a process which later led to the discoveries of both television and holography. When a video camera captures scenes on film it converts pictures into electromagnetic frequencies which are then converted back again by your television set. Scientists are now finding that this Fourier transform process is how the brain works, as an electromagnetic frequency decoder. We have long known that through our 120 billion miles of DNA/RNA our entire bodies are involved in a frequency decoding process. We know our ears are audio frequency decoders, Nobel Prize winner Georg von Bekesy has proven that our skin responds to frequencies, and thanks to neurophysiologists Russell and Karen DeValois, we now know that brain cells in the visual cortex react and activate based on frequency patterns.
“University of California at Berkeley
Neurophysiologists Russell and Karen DeValois converted simple plaid and
checkerboard patterns into Fourier waves and discovered that the brain cells of
cats and monkeys responded not to the patterns themselves but to the interference
patterns of their component waves.
Countless studies, elaborated on by the DeValois team in their book
Spatial Vision, show that numerous cells in the visual system are tuned into
certain frequencies. Other studies have
showed that the human cerebral cortex may be tuned to specific frequencies
… Pribram conjectured that these wave collisions must create the pictorial
images in our brain. When we perceive
something, it’s not due to the activity of neurons themselves but to certain
patches of dendrites distributed around the brain, which, like a radio station,
are set to resonate only at certain frequencies. It is like having a vast number of piano
strings all over your head, only some of which would vibrate as a particular
note is played.” -Lynne McTaggart,
“The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe,” (86-88)
Dr. Pribram has conjectured that wave-interference patterns are likely
not created or received by any particular brain cells, but in the spaces
between them. Dendrites, the tiny nerve
endings of neurons where synapses are fired, communicate with other neurons by
sending and receiving electrical/chemical wave impulses. It is plausible that this is where wave
frequencies are received and transformed into holographic images, because there
are constantly millions of wave-interference patterns criss-crossing here
anyway.
“The fact that movement could somehow be represented formally in
terms of Fourier equations made Pribram realize that the brain’s conversations
with the body might also be occurring in the form of waves and patterns, rather
than as images. The brain somehow had
the capacity to analyze movement, break it down into wave frequencies and
transmit this wave-pattern shorthand to the rest of the body. This information, transmitted nonlocally, to
many parts at once, would explain how we can fairy easily manage complicated
global tasks involving multiple body parts, such as riding a bicycle or roller
skating. It also accounts for how we can
easily imitate some task. Pribram also
came across evidence that our other senses – smell, taste and hearing – operate
by analyzing frequencies. In Pribram’s
own studies with cats, in which he recorded frequencies from the motor cortex
of cats while their right forepaw was being moved up and down, he discovered
that, like the visual cortex, individual cells in the cat’s motor cortex
responded to only a limited number of frequencies of movement, just as
individual strings in a piano respond to a limited range of frequencies.” -Lynne McTaggart, “The Field: The Quest for
the Secret Force of the Universe,” (87)
The color “red” in our explicate experience is really just an implicate
wave-interference pattern vibrating at a frequency of 400 THz. The color “violet” in our experience is really
just a wave-interference pattern vibrating at a frequency of 790 THz. Above the spectrum visible to humans are
ultra-violet rays, x-rays, and gamma rays.
Below the spectrum visible to us are infra-red, microwaves, and radio
waves. Our brains decode this small
sliver of electromagnetic frequencies and create the perceptions and sensations
we experience in our consciousness.
Using the piano analogy, think of the color red as a low note and the
color violet as a high note, a rainbow is a major chord, and a lakeside sunset
is a concerto.
“Our brain is not a storage medium but a receiving mechanism in
every sense, and memory is simply a distant cousin of ordinary perception. The brain retrieves ‘old’ information the
same way it processes ‘new’ information – through holographic transformation of
wave interference patterns. Lashley’s
rats with the fried brains were able to conjure up their run in its entirety
because the memory of it was never burned away in the first place. Whatever reception mechanism was left in the
brain – and as Pribram had demonstrated, it was distributed all over the brain
– was tuning back into the memory through The Field. Some scientists went as far as to suggest
that all of our higher cognitive processes result from an interaction with the
Zero Point Field. This kind of constant
interaction might account for intuition or creativity – and how ideas come to
us in bursts of insight, sometimes in fragments but often as a miraculous
whole. An intuitive leap might simply be
a sudden coalescence of coherence in The Field.” -Lynne McTaggart, “The Field: The Quest for
the Secret Force of the Universe,” (95)
If you
take a piece of regular film and cut it up, your image is destroyed
forever. However, when you cut up a
piece of holographic film, the image is never destroyed - a smaller scale
version of the image always exists. If
memories were stored locally, like regular film, and you cut out that part of
the brain, the memory would be lost. But
in reality, like holographic film, when you cut out parts of the brain, a smaller
scale version of the memory always exists.
So just as a piece of holographic film stores complete images as
interference patterns throughout its entirety, the human brain stores complete
memories as interference patterns throughout its entirety. And just like a laser light focused on a
piece of holographic film creates a seemingly physical three-dimensional image,
the light of our consciousness focusing on quanta creates a seeming physical
three-dimensional world.
“The holographic model offers revolutionary possibilities for a new
understanding of the relationships between the parts and the whole. No longer confined to the limited logic of
traditional thought, the part ceases to be just a fragment of the whole but,
under certain circumstances, reflects and contains the whole. As individual human beings we are not
isolated and insignificant Newtonian entities; rather, as integral fields of
the holomovement each of us is also a microcosm that reflects and contains the
macrocosm. If this is true, then we each
hold the potential for having direct and immediate experiential access to
virtually every aspect of the universe, extending our capacities well beyond
the reach of our senses.” -Stanislav
Grof, “The Holotropic Mind” (10)
Another
markedly holographic processor present in our bodies and the universe is
DNA. Watch any movie or TV series about
crime-scene investigation and notice that the identity of the culprit can be
determined from tiny traces of their DNA.
A drop of blood, a fingernail, or a single strand of hair is enough to
positively identify the perpetrator. The
reason for this is that DNA, like our brains, holographically mirrors each part
in the whole and the whole in each part.
“DNA
(like RNA) emits light-energy in the form of photons to such an extent that it
has been compared by some to an 'ultra weak laser'. They generate coherent
light in the same way that our technological lasers do - the lasers that create
holograms. The [universe] broadcasts its signals in wave, or interference,
patterns and it may be that the laser light emitted by the DNA/RNA is part of
the process of turning them into holographic representations of that waveform …One
mystery of quantum physics is how particles can either express themselves as a
'wave' form (nonphysical) or as a particle (apparently 'physical') and the
waveforms only become particles when they are being observed - when we are looking at them. What is actually happening is that the DNA/RNA/brain is
causing the waveform or interference pattern to project an illusory hologram.
The act of 'observation' - focus - projects the holograms from the waveforms
and when this happens the quantum physicists see the waveform 'becoming' a
particle. Both the waveform and the particle exist at the same time and they
don't move from one state to another. When a laser is shone onto a photographic
interference pattern to manifest a hologram, one does not replace the other.
Both waveform and hologram coexist. It is just that the observer sees the
hologram as the prime reality. The waveform is possibility; the particle is
'physical' experience.” –David Icke, “Infinite Love is the Only Truth,
Everything Else is Illusion” (62-3)
Ever-increasing
evidence overwhelmingly suggests that our brains, bodies, DNA, and the entire universe are non-local holographic transducers incessantly interacting with a
deeper quantum reality. This
“holomovement” is an “undivided wholeness in flowing motion” where all
perceived separation is ultimately illusory like whirlpools in a river. Even the seeming separation of forms and consciousness
into “relatively independent subtotalities” only exists at the explicate
level. As David Bohm put it simply, “deep
down, the consciousness of mankind is one.”
“Scientists
can't understand why subatomic particles can communicate instantly with each
other over staggering distances because they are thinking in terms of space.
But there is no space involved. It is like the droplet of water and the
ocean. There are no particles, plural,
except in the way we perceive them in the illusion. All particles are the same
One. They don't have to communicate between each other because there is no
'each other' and they don't move from one place to another because there is no
space and so there can be no places. Appropriately the word 'Utopia' means 'no
place' - beyond the illusion of time and space. The superhologram appears to
occupy space and we talk of the vastness of space. But it's a hologram and so
that cannot be. If there is no space how come we seem to travel through it?
Once again because that is the illusion our DNA/RNA decodes for us and we
travel through space only as electrical signals interpreted by the brain.”
–David Icke, “Infinite Love is the Only Truth, Everything Else is Illusion”
(93)
“Every particle
in the universe is a carrier of knowledge.
In other words, in some form or another, every particle can be said to
be conscious. As humatons, we tend to assume that only we are conscious,
because only we seem to be self-conscious …
Not only that, we have attributed our consciousness to a single organ
only, the brain (And it is possible we only use ten percent of that organ with
which to deduce all of this). It would
seem to be equally possible, however - and a lot more logical - to assume that
the brain is merely a receiver of information - a tuning dial that picks up
data and translates it into sense impressions and rational thought, images, and
so forth - and that knowledge as such, memory, is stored in every single atom
of our bodies. For organic beings, the 'filing system' provided for every
living molecule is DNA. As such, if we were to tune in with the remaining
ninety percent of our brains, we would be capable of receiving vastly greater
amounts of data than we are presently accustomed to … Just as
knowledge/memory/experience is passed through generations of a given species,
presumably via DNA, in order for the species to evolve as a whole, so
information would appear to be shared freely amongst all the billions upon
billions of particles that make up the physical universe. This is cooperation
on a grand scale. Every particle is conscious. Every particle is potentially
conscious of what every other particle is conscious of. And all particles are
connected together into a single tapestry of consciousness/information/energy
which is, it therefore follows, conscious of what every particle is conscious
of, and conscious of itself as a unified whole; a living, conscious organism.
Ergo, the universe is a superconscious being within which all beings exist and
have life and consciousness. It is God, and every one of its parts and
components - as in a hologram in which each fragment contains the whole - is
also God, the totality, in and of itself.
–Jake Horsley, “Matrix Warrior” (90-91)
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