If the Future Scares You, the Present Moment Can Heal You
Money has been on people's minds these days. The media volleys the word "recession" around. It's like a toddler learning to say a first word and saying it again and again. Personally, I don't believe that staying obsessed about a future fear, is staying "informed." Actually, I'd call it mental poisoning. You often create what you focus most upon. But even more importantly, fear distracts us from our present moment and the present moment is where our only abundance resides.
Recently, walking with my friend Ann, we decided to focus on the grace of current conditions. Strolling back from a local coffee house, we appreciated the genteel temperature of a metro Denver summer early evening, the drunken perfume of Catalpa trees, the orange of the yearning tiger lilies. I reveled in the rambunctious love of every dog, straining on leash, to meet me. Ann, a non-dog-lover, allowed me my impulsive love affairs. We appreciated decaf coffee, a purple door on someone's home, and the power of the everyday life stories we shared. I started to feel giddy and alive as we had our own Eckhart Tolle- Ram Dass- Be Here Now-kind of moment. We had switched from discussing "the future," our plans and hopes, to being where we were. The future, an unknown that the media often portrays as a formidable mountain lion, gazed at us with yellow eyes... until we backed up into the present where we were safe, and rich beyond compare.
I believe in a purpose to things. I like purpose. I don't like thinking that God just got bored or had a little ADD moment of creating other universes and forgot what she was doing in this one. (I'd hate to think she's journaling, "darn, I meant to do something about that ozone hole. Woops, senior moment!" ) So here's my take on current challenges. The changes in our world do not allow us the "comfort" of walking through our days on auto-pilot, on the way to someplace good, in the future. We've all just enrolled in "Joy 101," some graduate course on how to savor the juice of our current experience and transform our entire lives. It's like sitting in a large Zen meditation hall where the beloved teacher carries a huge stick and whacks you on the back when you slouch with distraction. The pain brings you back to paying attention. Paying true attention, not judging, resisting, or fantasizing, leads us straight into the pearly experience called our present lives. Here we realize we are ridiculously blessed.
Eckhart Tolle explains in his bestselling book The Power of Now: "The moment your attention turns to the Now, you feel a presence, a stillness, a peace. You no longer depend on the future for fulfillment and satisfaction -- you don't look to it for salvation.... You have found the life underneath your life situation." The wisdom tradition of A Course in Miracles echoes this same philosophy. It teaches that you can never have a miracle in the future. There is nothing in the future that you want or that you don't want. If you knew your true power and felt your connection to Spirit's unending, unlimited love -- all craving and anxiety would disappear.
So you might ask, but what about serious problems? I remember once reading about a 26 year old Buddhist girl. She had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Everyone cried out in horror at the injustice of it, all the life she would miss. The young woman, however, wrote about how she had learned to focus on each moment of her life without reflecting on her past or her future. She said she had reached a state of freedom and rapture that transcended every joy she had known before. She wrote about all the lifeshe would have missed, had this challenge not come her way.
We live in stirring times. I believe our Information Age will provoke many of us to seek out other information, sweet, soft, loving information that comes from listening to the Beloved, the Prince of Peace, the essence of Beingness, our own True Voice. There is a place within you where you can experience no lack, no pain, and no resistance to your present life. Of course, once you enter this kind of present moment, you also have pure access to your wildest creativity, healing potential, and highest intelligence. From this abundance, you will create another future. "My father's mansion has many rooms," says the Bible. Our minds have so many dimensions and capacities.
Our minds are great story makers. They are forever telling the tales of our future and of our past. But you can rest in this moment and change everything you've ever known. Find a small joy in this moment. Focus on anything that you love, and you will not know pain. You are swimming in wealth and goodness, practically drowning. But your focus is on "what might happen." Suspend that focus and find out what is happening right now. You'll be glad you did.
Yours in the dance,
Want to discuss this or any other aspect of living your dreams?
Please visit our free discussion forum at:
http://www.awakeningartistry.com/resources.discussion.html
©Copyright 2002-2008 Tama J. Kieves. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Past Life Memories
Children's Reports of Previous Lives
By Jim B. Tucker, M.D., University of Virginia
“Mom, when you were a little girl and I was your daddy, you were bad a lot of times, and I never hit you!” With these words, William, then a rambunctious three-year-old responding to his mother’s warning about a spanking, proclaimed that he had been his maternal grandfather, John.
His mother, Doreen, was initially taken aback by this, but as William talked more, she began to feel comforted by the idea that her father had returned. John had been close to his family and had frequently told Doreen, “No matter what, I’m always going to take care of you.” William talked a number of times about being his grandfather and also discussed his death. He demonstrated knowledge that amazed his mother, such as the nickname only his grandfather used for a family cat and the day of the week when his grandfather had died.
William also talked about the period between lives. “When you die, you don’t go right to heaven,” he told his mother. “You go to different levels—here, then here, then here,” he explained, with his hand moving up at each level. He said that animals are reborn as well as humans and that he saw animals in heaven that did not bite or scratch. John had been a practicing Roman Catholic, but he had believed in reincarnation and had said he would take care of animals in his next life. William said he would be an animal doctor and would take care of large animals at a zoo. He also had a birth defect that seemed to match the fatal wound his grandfather had suffered…
Researchers at the University of Virginia have been studying cases like William’s for more than 45 years. Dr. Ian Stevenson, who passed away in 2007, started the work when he was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry. When he came to the university, Stevenson had published extensively in medical and psychiatric journals, but he also harbored an interest in parapsychology.
After he learned of five cases in India of young children claiming to remember previous lives, Stevenson went there in 1961 to investigate. He stayed for four weeks and discovered 25 cases. He achieved similar results in nearby Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and realized that this phenomenon was much more common than anyone had known.
Stevenson investigated more of these cases from various parts of the world, and in 1966 the American Society for Psychical Research published his first book on them, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. The title reflects Stevenson’s even-handed approach: He did not accept that reincarnation occurred and did not take the cases at face value; instead, he attempted to document the cases as carefully as possible—at times in exhaustive detail.
Stevenson stepped down as chairman of the Department of Psychiatry in 1967 to focus full time on this research and created the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia to carry on the work of reincarnation research. Over the past four decades, researchers associated with the Division have investigated more than 2,500 cases of children who say they remember previous lives.
Typical Features
The cases seem to occur most often in cultures with a belief in reincarnation. India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Lebanon, Thailand, and Burma (Myanmar) have revealed most of them. However, cases have been found wherever anyone has looked for them: Stevenson published a book of European cases, and numerous ones have been found in the United States as well. They often share several features:
1. Past-life statements. When they are two- or three- years-old, the children in these cases often begin to describe a previous life and usually stop by the age of six or seven. They talk about their memories spontaneously, without the use of hypnotic regression. Some are able to recall the memories on demand, but others need to be in a certain frame of mind to access them. They describe recent lives—usually quite ordinary and in the same country—with the median interval between the death of the previous individual and the birth of the child at only 16 months. The one part of the remembered life that is often out of the ordinary is the mode of death: 70 percent recall death by unnatural means.
Like William, some children say they were deceased family members, while others say they were strangers in another location. When those children give enough details—such as the name of that location—people have gone there and indeed identified a deceased individual, the previous personality, whose life appears to match the child’s report.
Some children talk about their memories with detachment, but many show strong emotions. They may cry and beg to be taken to what they say is their previous family. Others show intense anger, particularly toward their killers in those cases in which the previous personality was murdered. And yet, even the children with strong emotions may show great intensity one moment and then engage in ordinary play a few minutes later.
2. Birthmarks and birth defects. Like William, many of the children have birthmarks or birth defects that appear to match wounds, usually fatal ones, suffered by the previous personalities. Stevenson published a two-volume set of more than two hundred such cases. For example, a girl who was born with markedly deformed fingers remembered the life of a man whose fingers were chopped off. A boy with only stubs for fingers on his right hand remembered the life of a boy in another village who had lost the fingers of his right hand in a fodder-chopping machine. A boy with a birthmark on the back of his head (which was small and round, like an entry wound) and a birthmark toward the front of his head (which was larger and more irregularly shaped, like an exit wound) remembered the life of a teacher who had been shot from behind and killed. Another girl who remembered the life of a man who had undergone skull surgery had what Stevenson called the most extraordinary birthmark he had ever seen—a 3-cm-wide band of pale, scarlike tissue that extended around her entire head.
3. Themes of past-life statements. When children talk about a previous life, they tend to discuss events at the end of the life, and almost three-quarters of them give details about the death. They are also more likely to talk about people from the end of that life, rather than earlier, so a child who describes dying as an adult is more likely to talk about a spouse or children than about parents.
In addition, 20 percent of the children in these cases describe memories of events between lives. Some say they stayed near to where the previous personality had lived or died, and they may describe a funeral or other events involving the family. One girl in Thailand, Ratana Wongsombat, complained that “her” ashes had been scattered rather than buried. In fact, the previous personality had wanted her ashes to be buried under the bo tree at her temple, but the tree’s root system was so extensive that her daughter had been unable to bury the remains and scattered them instead. Another child, Bongkuch Promsin, said he spent seven years hovering over a bamboo tree near where the previous personality’s body had been dumped after he was killed. One day he tried to go to his previous mother but got lost in the market. While there, he saw the man who became his current father. Bongkuch followed him home to join his family. Bongkuch’s father had in fact attended a meeting on a rainy day in the area Bongkuch reported, during the month when Bongkuch was conceived. Like William, some children have also talked about going to realms such as heaven and seeing other beings there.
4. Past-life behaviors. Many of these children act in ways that appear connected to the lives they describe. Some show emotions toward various members of the previous family that are appropriate for the relationships that the previous personality had with them. The children may be deferential toward previous parents or a spouse but bossy toward younger siblings of the previous personality, even though those siblings are presently much older than the child. These emotions usually dissipate as the children grow older, but there are exceptions. In at least one case, Maung Aye Kyaw of Burma, the child grew up and married the widow of the previous personality.
Many of the children exhibit phobias toward the mode of death of the previous personality, especially in cases involving a death by unnatural means. These are particularly common in drownings, with 31 out of 53 showing a fear of being in water. Some show likes and dislikes that are similar to those of the previous personality. For example, when Stevenson and Jürgen Keil studied 24 cases of Burmese children who claimed they had been Japanese soldiers killed in Burma during World War II, they found that some of them complained about the spicy Burmese food and asked for raw fish instead. Some of the children also show an unfortunate interest in addictive substances, such as alcohol and tobacco, if the previous personality consumed them.
Children often play in ways that seem connected to their past-life reports, and this usually involves the occupation of the previous personality. One boy became preoccupied with his play as a biscuit shopkeeper and neglected his schoolwork to the point that his academic performance never recovered. Occasionally, children will repeatedly re-enact the death scene of the previous personality, appearing to show the same kind of play as children with posttraumatic stress disorder. When children report past lives as members of the opposite sex, they often show behaviors appropriate for that sex. At times, the behaviors are extreme enough to warrant a diagnosis of gender identity disorder. Although the cross-gender behavior may continue into adulthood, most of these children grow up to lead perfectly ordinary lives.
Recent Work
In recent years the research has expanded beyond individual cases to include examinations of groups of cases. At the University of Virginia, each case is rated on two hundred variables, and this information is then entered into a database. This is a long-range, ongoing project, but enough cases have been entered so that certain features can be analyzed.
One scale measuring the strength of a case is based on four features: children’s statements about the previous life; the presence of birthmarks or birth defects; behaviors that appear related to the previous life; and the distance between the child’s family and the family of the previous personality. This scale was applied to 799 cases and showed, for example, that the apparent strength of cases was not affected by the initial attitude the parents had toward their child’s statements—meaning that parents’ enthusiasm did not make a case appear stronger than it actually was. It also showed that in the stronger cases, children started talking earlier about a past life, were more emotional when discussing their memories, and showed more facial resemblance to the deceased individuals.
Another study involved the reports some children made about events occurring during the interval between the death of the previous personality and their own birth. It showed that compared to those who did not have such memories, the children who described these “interval memories” made more statements about the previous life that were verified to be accurate, recalled more names from the previous life, had higher scores on the strength-of-case scale, and were more likely to give the name of the previous personality and accurate details about the death.
Close analysis of 35 such cases in Burma showed that these interval memories could be broken down into three parts: a transitional stage, a stable stage in a particular location, and a return stage involving a choice of parents or conception. The descriptions by the Burmese children were compared to reports of near-death experiences (NDEs) made by patients; they overlapped in many ways with Asian NDEs and had features that were similar to the transcendental feature of Western NDEs. The study suggested that interval memories and NDEs can be considered examples of the same overall phenomenon of reports about an afterlife.
Another area of recent research has involved psychological testing of the children. Erlendur Haraldsson has published studies of two groups of subjects in Sri Lanka and one in Lebanon. The Sri Lankan children performed better in school than their peers but showed some mild behavioral problems. The children in Lebanon seemed to daydream more and show more attention-seeking behavior than their peers. Testing showed that the children in both places were not unusually suggestible. Psychologist Don Nidiffer has evaluated 15 American children reporting past-life memories, and in yet-to-be-published data, he finds them to be quite intelligent and psychologically healthy. None of these studies indicated any mental illness.
Future Research
Studies of this phenomenon are continuing in several areas. Haraldsson is conducting a long-term follow-up study of adults who were studied when they reported past-life memories as children. He has interviewed subjects in Sri Lanka and will be doing the same in Lebanon. This will produce a systematic assessment of how the subjects develop after childhood, which has not yet been done.
At the University of Virginia, work with the database will continue, allowing for further analysis of particular aspects of the cases. In addition, researchers are focusing more on American cases, with a goal to collect more and stronger cases. They also plan further psychological assessment of American cases. Thus the work goes on, continuing the effort that Ian Stevenson began 45 years ago, to understand the unusual phenomenon of these apparent memories of previous lives.
Jim B. Tucker, MD, a child psychiatrist at the University of Virginia, is the author of Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives (St. Martin’s Press, 2005). He would like to hear about new cases of children who report past-life memories and can be reached at jbt8n@virginia.edu. (Reprinted with permission of author. This article first appeared in Shift magazine December 2007, published by The Institute of Noetic Sciences (www.noetic.org).
By Jim B. Tucker, M.D., University of Virginia
“Mom, when you were a little girl and I was your daddy, you were bad a lot of times, and I never hit you!” With these words, William, then a rambunctious three-year-old responding to his mother’s warning about a spanking, proclaimed that he had been his maternal grandfather, John.
His mother, Doreen, was initially taken aback by this, but as William talked more, she began to feel comforted by the idea that her father had returned. John had been close to his family and had frequently told Doreen, “No matter what, I’m always going to take care of you.” William talked a number of times about being his grandfather and also discussed his death. He demonstrated knowledge that amazed his mother, such as the nickname only his grandfather used for a family cat and the day of the week when his grandfather had died.
William also talked about the period between lives. “When you die, you don’t go right to heaven,” he told his mother. “You go to different levels—here, then here, then here,” he explained, with his hand moving up at each level. He said that animals are reborn as well as humans and that he saw animals in heaven that did not bite or scratch. John had been a practicing Roman Catholic, but he had believed in reincarnation and had said he would take care of animals in his next life. William said he would be an animal doctor and would take care of large animals at a zoo. He also had a birth defect that seemed to match the fatal wound his grandfather had suffered…
Researchers at the University of Virginia have been studying cases like William’s for more than 45 years. Dr. Ian Stevenson, who passed away in 2007, started the work when he was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry. When he came to the university, Stevenson had published extensively in medical and psychiatric journals, but he also harbored an interest in parapsychology.
After he learned of five cases in India of young children claiming to remember previous lives, Stevenson went there in 1961 to investigate. He stayed for four weeks and discovered 25 cases. He achieved similar results in nearby Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and realized that this phenomenon was much more common than anyone had known.
Stevenson investigated more of these cases from various parts of the world, and in 1966 the American Society for Psychical Research published his first book on them, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. The title reflects Stevenson’s even-handed approach: He did not accept that reincarnation occurred and did not take the cases at face value; instead, he attempted to document the cases as carefully as possible—at times in exhaustive detail.
Stevenson stepped down as chairman of the Department of Psychiatry in 1967 to focus full time on this research and created the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia to carry on the work of reincarnation research. Over the past four decades, researchers associated with the Division have investigated more than 2,500 cases of children who say they remember previous lives.
Typical Features
The cases seem to occur most often in cultures with a belief in reincarnation. India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Lebanon, Thailand, and Burma (Myanmar) have revealed most of them. However, cases have been found wherever anyone has looked for them: Stevenson published a book of European cases, and numerous ones have been found in the United States as well. They often share several features:
1. Past-life statements. When they are two- or three- years-old, the children in these cases often begin to describe a previous life and usually stop by the age of six or seven. They talk about their memories spontaneously, without the use of hypnotic regression. Some are able to recall the memories on demand, but others need to be in a certain frame of mind to access them. They describe recent lives—usually quite ordinary and in the same country—with the median interval between the death of the previous individual and the birth of the child at only 16 months. The one part of the remembered life that is often out of the ordinary is the mode of death: 70 percent recall death by unnatural means.
Like William, some children say they were deceased family members, while others say they were strangers in another location. When those children give enough details—such as the name of that location—people have gone there and indeed identified a deceased individual, the previous personality, whose life appears to match the child’s report.
Some children talk about their memories with detachment, but many show strong emotions. They may cry and beg to be taken to what they say is their previous family. Others show intense anger, particularly toward their killers in those cases in which the previous personality was murdered. And yet, even the children with strong emotions may show great intensity one moment and then engage in ordinary play a few minutes later.
2. Birthmarks and birth defects. Like William, many of the children have birthmarks or birth defects that appear to match wounds, usually fatal ones, suffered by the previous personalities. Stevenson published a two-volume set of more than two hundred such cases. For example, a girl who was born with markedly deformed fingers remembered the life of a man whose fingers were chopped off. A boy with only stubs for fingers on his right hand remembered the life of a boy in another village who had lost the fingers of his right hand in a fodder-chopping machine. A boy with a birthmark on the back of his head (which was small and round, like an entry wound) and a birthmark toward the front of his head (which was larger and more irregularly shaped, like an exit wound) remembered the life of a teacher who had been shot from behind and killed. Another girl who remembered the life of a man who had undergone skull surgery had what Stevenson called the most extraordinary birthmark he had ever seen—a 3-cm-wide band of pale, scarlike tissue that extended around her entire head.
3. Themes of past-life statements. When children talk about a previous life, they tend to discuss events at the end of the life, and almost three-quarters of them give details about the death. They are also more likely to talk about people from the end of that life, rather than earlier, so a child who describes dying as an adult is more likely to talk about a spouse or children than about parents.
In addition, 20 percent of the children in these cases describe memories of events between lives. Some say they stayed near to where the previous personality had lived or died, and they may describe a funeral or other events involving the family. One girl in Thailand, Ratana Wongsombat, complained that “her” ashes had been scattered rather than buried. In fact, the previous personality had wanted her ashes to be buried under the bo tree at her temple, but the tree’s root system was so extensive that her daughter had been unable to bury the remains and scattered them instead. Another child, Bongkuch Promsin, said he spent seven years hovering over a bamboo tree near where the previous personality’s body had been dumped after he was killed. One day he tried to go to his previous mother but got lost in the market. While there, he saw the man who became his current father. Bongkuch followed him home to join his family. Bongkuch’s father had in fact attended a meeting on a rainy day in the area Bongkuch reported, during the month when Bongkuch was conceived. Like William, some children have also talked about going to realms such as heaven and seeing other beings there.
4. Past-life behaviors. Many of these children act in ways that appear connected to the lives they describe. Some show emotions toward various members of the previous family that are appropriate for the relationships that the previous personality had with them. The children may be deferential toward previous parents or a spouse but bossy toward younger siblings of the previous personality, even though those siblings are presently much older than the child. These emotions usually dissipate as the children grow older, but there are exceptions. In at least one case, Maung Aye Kyaw of Burma, the child grew up and married the widow of the previous personality.
Many of the children exhibit phobias toward the mode of death of the previous personality, especially in cases involving a death by unnatural means. These are particularly common in drownings, with 31 out of 53 showing a fear of being in water. Some show likes and dislikes that are similar to those of the previous personality. For example, when Stevenson and Jürgen Keil studied 24 cases of Burmese children who claimed they had been Japanese soldiers killed in Burma during World War II, they found that some of them complained about the spicy Burmese food and asked for raw fish instead. Some of the children also show an unfortunate interest in addictive substances, such as alcohol and tobacco, if the previous personality consumed them.
Children often play in ways that seem connected to their past-life reports, and this usually involves the occupation of the previous personality. One boy became preoccupied with his play as a biscuit shopkeeper and neglected his schoolwork to the point that his academic performance never recovered. Occasionally, children will repeatedly re-enact the death scene of the previous personality, appearing to show the same kind of play as children with posttraumatic stress disorder. When children report past lives as members of the opposite sex, they often show behaviors appropriate for that sex. At times, the behaviors are extreme enough to warrant a diagnosis of gender identity disorder. Although the cross-gender behavior may continue into adulthood, most of these children grow up to lead perfectly ordinary lives.
Recent Work
In recent years the research has expanded beyond individual cases to include examinations of groups of cases. At the University of Virginia, each case is rated on two hundred variables, and this information is then entered into a database. This is a long-range, ongoing project, but enough cases have been entered so that certain features can be analyzed.
One scale measuring the strength of a case is based on four features: children’s statements about the previous life; the presence of birthmarks or birth defects; behaviors that appear related to the previous life; and the distance between the child’s family and the family of the previous personality. This scale was applied to 799 cases and showed, for example, that the apparent strength of cases was not affected by the initial attitude the parents had toward their child’s statements—meaning that parents’ enthusiasm did not make a case appear stronger than it actually was. It also showed that in the stronger cases, children started talking earlier about a past life, were more emotional when discussing their memories, and showed more facial resemblance to the deceased individuals.
Another study involved the reports some children made about events occurring during the interval between the death of the previous personality and their own birth. It showed that compared to those who did not have such memories, the children who described these “interval memories” made more statements about the previous life that were verified to be accurate, recalled more names from the previous life, had higher scores on the strength-of-case scale, and were more likely to give the name of the previous personality and accurate details about the death.
Close analysis of 35 such cases in Burma showed that these interval memories could be broken down into three parts: a transitional stage, a stable stage in a particular location, and a return stage involving a choice of parents or conception. The descriptions by the Burmese children were compared to reports of near-death experiences (NDEs) made by patients; they overlapped in many ways with Asian NDEs and had features that were similar to the transcendental feature of Western NDEs. The study suggested that interval memories and NDEs can be considered examples of the same overall phenomenon of reports about an afterlife.
Another area of recent research has involved psychological testing of the children. Erlendur Haraldsson has published studies of two groups of subjects in Sri Lanka and one in Lebanon. The Sri Lankan children performed better in school than their peers but showed some mild behavioral problems. The children in Lebanon seemed to daydream more and show more attention-seeking behavior than their peers. Testing showed that the children in both places were not unusually suggestible. Psychologist Don Nidiffer has evaluated 15 American children reporting past-life memories, and in yet-to-be-published data, he finds them to be quite intelligent and psychologically healthy. None of these studies indicated any mental illness.
Future Research
Studies of this phenomenon are continuing in several areas. Haraldsson is conducting a long-term follow-up study of adults who were studied when they reported past-life memories as children. He has interviewed subjects in Sri Lanka and will be doing the same in Lebanon. This will produce a systematic assessment of how the subjects develop after childhood, which has not yet been done.
At the University of Virginia, work with the database will continue, allowing for further analysis of particular aspects of the cases. In addition, researchers are focusing more on American cases, with a goal to collect more and stronger cases. They also plan further psychological assessment of American cases. Thus the work goes on, continuing the effort that Ian Stevenson began 45 years ago, to understand the unusual phenomenon of these apparent memories of previous lives.
Jim B. Tucker, MD, a child psychiatrist at the University of Virginia, is the author of Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives (St. Martin’s Press, 2005). He would like to hear about new cases of children who report past-life memories and can be reached at jbt8n@virginia.edu. (Reprinted with permission of author. This article first appeared in Shift magazine December 2007, published by The Institute of Noetic Sciences (www.noetic.org).
The Tree People
The tree people are a dedicated group of like minded souls with a deep emotional connection to the ancient forests of the planet. Only 5% of our ancient forests still stand. They have fought, argued, and tried desperately to educate Americans on the repercussions of such constant destruction of our trees and yet, we, the United States Government, has recently lifted a ban on harvesting forests all over our country. We all realize that the price of lumber is very high due to the demand of building materials in China and here in the states but don't we have a more pressing demand for oxygen and global balance? What is it going to take for us to recognize our planetary responsiblities and begin to put the planet before profit?
I am asking all of my students to include in their daily scripting a call for solutions and innovations to save the trees. Return all of your junk mail and catalogs that waste paper to the senders and advise them of your stand on the wasteful practice of mailers. Are you ready to take a stand? Are you willing? Are you feeling courage? Where are you on the tone scale?
And, by the way, all of that toilet paper you see in the picture below? It was re-rolled and used as it was intended....
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Mischievous Marlie
This baby girl has learned to climb onto coffee tables and she crawls everywhere. Her favorite thing? You guessed it. If the house is quiet you know she's found a roll of toilet paper. There hasn't been a toy invented that holds her eager attention like a fresh roll.
Marlie, we believe, is a psychic child. When she was tiny she often left her body and flitted around the house and down the street to her other grandparents home. In fact, for the first three months she was rarely in her own body completely. I know it isn't easy for regular people to understand how a spirit can come and go and yet the body continues to function as usual. But, I do. I not only understand it, I left my body when I was four years old and it was fine when I returned. I didn't do it again (that I was consciously aware of) until I was in my twenties. I wonder how much of Marlie's abilities will stay with her as she grows.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Training For Psychic Children
The television show about psychic children is so disturbing to me I refuse to watch it. Three episodes was enough for me to see that the psychic medium host is ill- informed, poorly trained. I know that producers have to dramatize the experience to get viewers hooked in on the spooky scenes. They even called in "Demonologists" to assist with clearing out negative energy in a home. OH PULEEZE! I wanted to yell at the screen.
Training children and adolescents how to manage their energy and how to turn on and off their psychic and intuitive communication abilities isn't rocket science and doesn't require nighttime raids on haunted houses. Empowering them and supporting them and training them is fun, friendly and easy on the emotional drama.
I spoke with a colleague in North Carolina who has created a summer camp for psychic kids. We both agreed that the show is missing the mark by a longshot.
Please, please, please don't judge psychic healers and teachers based on that show. We are not all created or trained equally.
Training children and adolescents how to manage their energy and how to turn on and off their psychic and intuitive communication abilities isn't rocket science and doesn't require nighttime raids on haunted houses. Empowering them and supporting them and training them is fun, friendly and easy on the emotional drama.
I spoke with a colleague in North Carolina who has created a summer camp for psychic kids. We both agreed that the show is missing the mark by a longshot.
Please, please, please don't judge psychic healers and teachers based on that show. We are not all created or trained equally.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
New EBay Listing for Psychic Reading
Okay, Annie, Anne, Meleesa, Darren, etc....here's a chance for a reading at a huge savings! Don't forget to leave your feedback. Go to www.ebay.com and put in: 30 min Psychic Reading with Elizabeth, Proven Accuracy! in the search window.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Psychic Children
Psychic children and Indigo Children need more support for what they are experiencing than our educational system can provide. There is a show on television for them but there are few people in this field who can provide them with training and information to assist them with their 'gifts'.
I've written a bit about what it was like for me as a psychic child. I was fortunate to have a mother who understood what I was experiencing. I kept it a secret from my school mates but I was labeled as 'strange' anyway. When I was 10 I dreamed of creating a place for kids like me. I wanted to create a safe place for kids to go and be themselves and get the support they needed to flourish with their knowledge and special talents. They are special and they need to feel special instead of 'strange' or 'weird'.
I learned how to manage my energy and learned the tools to protect myself. I learned how to amplify energy when I needed to and how to close it down when I wanted. I had to wait until I was in my late 20s to find a teacher who knew how to train me. I want children to have special teachers as soon as they begin to have psychic experiences at whatever age that is. My grandchildren have abilities and I am working with them to understand what is happening.
This camp or special school will be in California. Perhaps in Idyllwild where the vibration is powerful and the air is clean. I'm going to get started on creating that today.
If you have a child with psychic abilities or know someone who does, please have them contact me at elizabeth.aleccia@gmail.com or 310 849-9617. Thank you.
I've written a bit about what it was like for me as a psychic child. I was fortunate to have a mother who understood what I was experiencing. I kept it a secret from my school mates but I was labeled as 'strange' anyway. When I was 10 I dreamed of creating a place for kids like me. I wanted to create a safe place for kids to go and be themselves and get the support they needed to flourish with their knowledge and special talents. They are special and they need to feel special instead of 'strange' or 'weird'.
I learned how to manage my energy and learned the tools to protect myself. I learned how to amplify energy when I needed to and how to close it down when I wanted. I had to wait until I was in my late 20s to find a teacher who knew how to train me. I want children to have special teachers as soon as they begin to have psychic experiences at whatever age that is. My grandchildren have abilities and I am working with them to understand what is happening.
This camp or special school will be in California. Perhaps in Idyllwild where the vibration is powerful and the air is clean. I'm going to get started on creating that today.
If you have a child with psychic abilities or know someone who does, please have them contact me at elizabeth.aleccia@gmail.com or 310 849-9617. Thank you.
This Is Post Number 592.
Wow! As I look back on some of the posts on this blog, I realize that the subject matter varies according to what is going on in my life. I've written a bit about politics, government, healthcare, metaphysics, family, healing, work, spiritual responsibilty, dream journals, meditation and much more. I've promised to finish stories that I've neglected and I've shared a great deal about my personal life. It's all here. Well, almost all of it. I know some of these posts get emailed to friends and that links are posted on other websites. Thank you for that. I feel very supported. So, I shall carry on with posts 593, 594 and so on ...and so on....and so on.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Changing Roles
My 88 year old mother took a fall on Saturday while out for her morning walk. Her toe clipped the edge of the concrete apron from the street to the sidewalk. She fell onto her shoulder and elbow and bumped her head. A wonderful man saw her fall and immediately pulled his car over and got out to help her up. She was shaken and afraid but managed to walk the half block home.
I was in my office, on the phone with a client, when she came through the front door. I heard her panicked voice call out for me. I escorted to her my patio and sat her down for a quick evalution. I could see a small scrape on her shoulder and a very small cut on her elbow. Nothing was bleeding, there was not even a bump on her head. She thought maybe she had cracked a rib. I asked her to inhale as deeply as she could and she was able to do that easily. I said, "You're fine Mom. You're going to be sore though. Let's get some ice and Advil and I'll give you a massage. You're going to have to take it easy for a few days." (After all, this is what I've done for a living for 30 years.) And, of course, she wanted to go to the hospital for X-Rays. I tried to explain to her that I didn't think it was neccessary but she wasn't going to listen to me. Dementia is a terrible thing.
I cancelled the rest of my day and took her to see a doctor. After four hours the doctor said, "You're fine. No broken bones but you're going to be sore. Use ice packs and take Advil for pain. You're going to need to rest for the next few days."
The doctor also told me that I need to be more firm with her. She's like a child now. I must insist that she do the things I know are best for her. This is new territory for me, telling my mother to mind me. It's not easy being the one to watch her food intake and monitor her medicine. Now I must not only remind her to take her daily dose of Metamucil but I have to mix it and give it to her and watch her take it. Her mental abilities are declining rapidly. She loses her glasses three times a day and asks me what I did with them. I have explained, of course, that her perscription is for reading and mine is for televsion and driving. It doesn't matter. She frets and worries about the bank statements because she doesn't understand them anymore. She has hundreds of thousands of dollars but thinks she's broke. She looks in her purse for her house key but insists the one she finds there isn't it. When I explain these things to her ....she sometimes looks at me and says, "You're going to get tired of this and put me away." I always say, "Never. As long as I have a breath in my body, I'm here for you. You never gave up on me, I'll never give up on you. What goes around, comes around." It makes her feel better, until the next episode. I hope I can keep my promise. She's so afraid of going to a facility for people in her condition.
Our neighbor told me that she ran into my mother last week when I was in Phoenix. My mother asked her when I would be home. Of course she had no idea I was even gone. My sisters are supposed to be watching her when I travel but they sometimes just call on the phone to remind her to take her pills without coming to check to see if she actually did.
It's time I find a support group for people in my situation.
My script for today:
"I have an enormous capacity for strength and patience. I am Grace and Love and today I want to amplify and activate all the powerful beliefs and energies to maintain my calm and focused attention for my mother, for myself and for all of my clients and students. There is nothing I cannot do, be or have. Universal Love and Intelligence flow through me and draw to me all that I need to make my life happy and complete. I know this is so, and so it is."
I was in my office, on the phone with a client, when she came through the front door. I heard her panicked voice call out for me. I escorted to her my patio and sat her down for a quick evalution. I could see a small scrape on her shoulder and a very small cut on her elbow. Nothing was bleeding, there was not even a bump on her head. She thought maybe she had cracked a rib. I asked her to inhale as deeply as she could and she was able to do that easily. I said, "You're fine Mom. You're going to be sore though. Let's get some ice and Advil and I'll give you a massage. You're going to have to take it easy for a few days." (After all, this is what I've done for a living for 30 years.) And, of course, she wanted to go to the hospital for X-Rays. I tried to explain to her that I didn't think it was neccessary but she wasn't going to listen to me. Dementia is a terrible thing.
I cancelled the rest of my day and took her to see a doctor. After four hours the doctor said, "You're fine. No broken bones but you're going to be sore. Use ice packs and take Advil for pain. You're going to need to rest for the next few days."
The doctor also told me that I need to be more firm with her. She's like a child now. I must insist that she do the things I know are best for her. This is new territory for me, telling my mother to mind me. It's not easy being the one to watch her food intake and monitor her medicine. Now I must not only remind her to take her daily dose of Metamucil but I have to mix it and give it to her and watch her take it. Her mental abilities are declining rapidly. She loses her glasses three times a day and asks me what I did with them. I have explained, of course, that her perscription is for reading and mine is for televsion and driving. It doesn't matter. She frets and worries about the bank statements because she doesn't understand them anymore. She has hundreds of thousands of dollars but thinks she's broke. She looks in her purse for her house key but insists the one she finds there isn't it. When I explain these things to her ....she sometimes looks at me and says, "You're going to get tired of this and put me away." I always say, "Never. As long as I have a breath in my body, I'm here for you. You never gave up on me, I'll never give up on you. What goes around, comes around." It makes her feel better, until the next episode. I hope I can keep my promise. She's so afraid of going to a facility for people in her condition.
Our neighbor told me that she ran into my mother last week when I was in Phoenix. My mother asked her when I would be home. Of course she had no idea I was even gone. My sisters are supposed to be watching her when I travel but they sometimes just call on the phone to remind her to take her pills without coming to check to see if she actually did.
It's time I find a support group for people in my situation.
My script for today:
"I have an enormous capacity for strength and patience. I am Grace and Love and today I want to amplify and activate all the powerful beliefs and energies to maintain my calm and focused attention for my mother, for myself and for all of my clients and students. There is nothing I cannot do, be or have. Universal Love and Intelligence flow through me and draw to me all that I need to make my life happy and complete. I know this is so, and so it is."
Friday, July 04, 2008
Happy Birthday America!
Anthem Arizona puts on a Birthday Bash for America that surpasses any I've seen. Water slides and food carts, music and dancing, balloons and glow in the dark souvenirs, it's all happening here. Michael and his best friend T.J. are seen here after a good ride on the water slide. It's 112 degrees here and I'm not planning on leaving the house until the sun goes down. I'm just not much of a desert rat especially this time of year.
Have a wonderul day! Happy Birthday America!
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Phoenix in July
Seriously, wicked hot here. I've not finished my story about the accident but I will..... I know, i've said that before but this time I promise. I'll be heading home next weekend and will have access to the internet again. I'm currently sitting at a Starbucks as my daughter and son-in-law have yet to hook up wi-fi. It would certainly make things easier for me. I hope you are all well and will be enjoying your Independence Day Celebrations! God Bless America!
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