Home

Several weeks ago I went to Unity Church in Charlotte to attend a seminar by Dr. Deborah King. Most of the events I frequent are usually not well attended but when I arrived I was shocked to see the crowd of people.

From the press material that was handed out: Dr King was an attorney and hotel developer (go figure) diagnosed with cancer. She decided to take her health in her own hands and began a journey into alternative healing modalities. Eventually she cured herself through energy healing and decided to help others do likewise. Her book is called Truth Heals: What You Hide Can Hurt You. In the book she talks about the relationship between the suppression of painful emotions and the impact on health and the human body.

It all sounded good and I sat in the audience patiently awaiting her speech. A stylish, middle aged woman gracefully entered the room ( I recall thinking that I liked her outfit-not too granola or glam) and introduced herself as Dr. Deborah King. She gave a brief rundown on her life history and then asked if anyone wished to receive a “treatment”. I was expecting her to give a lecture on her new book but instead was surprised to find that she intended to do energy healing on people in the audience

Which she did…

Read more

I usually let my Alaskan Malamute walk me when I get home from work and we always pass a house that has an Invisible Fence. There are three plump Jack Russell Terriers that have collars with big boxes around their tiny necks. Apparently, if the dogs walk past a certain area they either get a warning beep and possibly a small shock. Not sure which comes first.

Anyway, there is nothing visibly stopping them from running away except for the possibility of getting shocked. As I approached with my dog, their plump little bodies perked up and they frantically charged us barking and twitching with excitement. However, as they approached the “forbidden zone”, you could hear a little beep coming from their collar and suddenly, they just stopped in their tracks.

This got me to thinking (god forbid) that many people (including myself) create invisible fences in our minds that stop us from growing. We are so scared of the possibility of pain involved with making changes in our lives that we never cross the barrier to freedom.

We continue to live in the status quo which keeps us in prison behind a mental fence. However, the pain involved in change is short lived and once you get past that threshold you are suddenly free to create the life you really want.

Read more

The other day I was watching Sponge Bob Square Pants (don’t ask, my partner loves the show) and in this episode Plankton (evil plankton) is trying to get Sponge Bob to “toughen up” by training him to be inconsiderate and mean to others. However, as hard as Sponge Bob tries, all his actions end up helping others.

Eventually Plankton gives up in frustration at his failed teachings. Apparently, Sponge Bob can do no harm to others. It is in his nature to help everyone feel good. These are the traits of an enlightened being.

As hard as it is to fathom, we are all connected and our actions affect others in both small and large ways creating a ripple effect that continues on.

I have decided that the next time I encounter an angry situation, I will change my reaction to understanding instead of anger and focus on how I can help that person find happiness (at least in that moment).

may everyone be happy,
may everyone be free from misery
may no one ever be separated from their happiness
may everyone have equanimity, free from hatred and attachment.
-Buddhist Prayer

God is in the speckless blue sky.
God is in the solitary flower.
God is in the barking dog.
God is in our skin, hair, eyes.
God is in our hearts.
God is in the birds soaring overhead.
God is in our lovers, partners, and passing strangers.
God is in the eyes of a child playing with abandon.
God is in the warmth of the sun and our beautiful spinning world.
God is in our cells and DNA.
God is everywhere.

Last night I attended a “Toning Circle” at the Center for Positive Living in Charlotte. The instructor was Lauren Powell and she travels around the country to New Thought churches teaching people to heal through music vocalization.

The class was well attended with over 20 people sitting in the usual circle. In front of every other person were quartz singing bowls and freenote xylophones of various sizes. Lauren explained that our own voices and the music we create have healing properties that can eliminate toxic emotions. She instructed us on how to produce mellifluous sounds by breathing properly and keeping our throats open (not easy).

She brought up the Japanese study on water crystals by Dr. Masaru Emoto and how their shapes were affected by the intentions and feelings of the people in the room at the time. Apparently, negative thoughts produce ugly shaped water crystals that resemble diseased cells and positive thoughts produce beautiful structured water crystals.  Anyway, By singing and playing music we create positive feelings that may actually alter our cellular structure (we are 70% water anyway).

She asked three people to sit in the center of the room with two words that they wanted the group to sing back to them. For instance, some people chose their name and a positive word like “John” and “Love”. We proceeded to play the singing bowls, and Freenotes while vocalizing those words towards the people being “treated”. Everyone seemed to feel good after we sang for them.

Read more

Last week I attended an Abraham Hicks study group which was based on their book “Ask and it is Given” and “The Law of Attraction” . The group had about fifteen people and we sampled scenes from their movie “The Secret behind the Secret” by Ester and Jerry Hicks.

Apparently the original version of “The Secret” had Ester Hicks in it but was later edited to remove her portions. The basic premise of this couple’s work revolves around a visitation by a spirit called “Abraham” who revealed mucho information about us as humans and how we can change our lives by altering our emotions and thoughts.

As I said earlier, the class focused on movie “The Secret Behind the Secret” which further expounds some of the ideas that were touched upon in “The Secret”; in particular, the law of attraction and how to manifest what you want by altering how you feel at any given moment.

We began the class by singing a “feel good song” (Gasp!!). I resisted at first but finally joined in with the group and after a couple of minutes found myself smiling and actually feeling good-Silly how simple things work so well. Anyway, we proceeded to watch parts of the movie and discuss them.

After watching the part on manifesting things, our teacher (Sharon Powers) told us to close our eyes and envision something that we want in our head for at least 68 seconds. I saw the picture of a Red Gerber daisy.We were then told to release our desire to the universe.

Read more

My mother was in town for the week and I decided to take her to a Quantum Touch Healing Circle at Unity Church in Charlotte. My mom is no newcomer to alternative therapy/thinking and is a Silva Method graduate. We arrived a little late and the room was almost full. There were about twenty people seated in chairs arranged in a circle.

The two head practitioners explained (sort of) what Quantum Touch was all about:

Channeling of energy from the practitioner to the patient through intentional thought, and breathing techniques. This raises the vibrational energy of the practitioner,which in turn, raises it in the patient promoting the healing process. It was made clear that the practitioner does not do any healing and that all the healing is self-healing.

The “Quantum” in Quantum touch comes from Quantum Theory. Quantum theory states that all of reality is made up of energy fields and that over 99% of the universe is simply space. The practitioners speculate that they are breaking up blocked energy fields (chakras?) in the patients.. (Not sure I understand)

In order to determine who would get treatment first, we were asked if anyone was in pain and several people including myself raised our hands. My practitioner was a middle aged man who looked like an engineer or chemist, coming across very practical and serious. I explained my problem to him and he put his hands under my hamstring area, closed his eyes,and began breathing heavily. He performed Quantum touch for about an hour and I felt sorry for him because he had to keep his hands propped under my leg the whole time.

Read more

My Alaskan Malamute is chewing me out of house and home. One day I started noticing unidentified strange shaped objects (USSO’s) in my back yard. Upon closer inspection I realized the strange blobs were tree roots which she managed to whittle away into amorphous, artistic shapes. Could my dog be an artist at heart?

We are all artists and create our own reality at every moment, everyday. Every time you make a decision you are being creative, no one else could have made that specific choice for you. We write new chapters of our lives everyday. Find out what makes you sing with joy and pursue it with all your heart.

Take a lesson from Maya the Malamute…

I wonder if I could sell them on EBay.

As I was walking around my neighborhood my mind kept wandering to every problem in my life. This was supposed to be a relaxing walk with my dog but I anxiously kept thinking about tasks I needed to do.

I then glanced up and noticed a plump little bird sitting on a telephone wire happily chirping away. I thought to myself how nice it must be to live in the moment and be free from worries and fears. People who believe in reincarnation say that to come back as a lower life form is not desirable.

However, I can’t help but wonder who really winds up suffering more, we as humans or the bird contentedly singing. In the rush of our everyday lives we forget that all we really have is this moment right here, right now and we need to live every second with complete bliss and abandon like the little bird on a wire. Freedom comes when we live without regret or worry for the future.… I just wish I could figure out a way to snuggle with the bird.

The other day I was busy cleaning my house while my partner was lounging on the couch listening to Justin Timberlake at ear splitting levels. As I was swiffering around the house, a feeling of resentment and anger started to emerge. Why is he not helping me while I am laboring over the house?. Anyway, My music snobbishness reared it’s ugly head and I wound up snapping, criticizing him and the music he was listening to (Justin Timberlake!?!?!).

My partner calmly looked at me and said “why are you criticizing me about my music? I don’t criticize you for the music you listen to”.  As I looked at him, a feeling of regret came over me and said “I know”

Sometimes in the heat of our anger we need to step back and realize that we all deserve love and respect even if the other person’s views or listening tastes are different. As a wise Buddhist teacher told me: “We don’t need other people to change, we just need to change our mind. If we stop seeing people with faults we can cherish them more.”

Several weekends ago, I decided to attend a meditation for world peace at the Center for Positive Living in Charlotte, NC. I have never attended anything like this, so I did not know what to expect. When I arrived I noticed a circle (medicine wheel) in the middle of the room made from quartz crystals, scrolls, bones, and articles of clothing. 

We were greeted by a tall, friendly, soft spoken, Inca medicine man named Yachai-Hampe (Healer of Wisdom).  The ceremony began with the passing of a prayer stick to each person whereupon we were to say something that would encourage world peace.

When the stick came to me I took a deep breath and spoke the first thing that came to my mind: “To learn how to love and accept myself for who I am.”  Because deep down I know that if we don’t like ourselves we can never practice compassion and kindness toward others which are the seeds for world peace.

This was followed by an explanation of the medicine circle and the lighting of the candles within the circle.  We walked/danced around the circle meditating on world peace and played a musical instrument that we had chosen earlier.

Mine was a rattle. 

Read more

Scouring the Internet for resources on meditation, I found this site http://www.meditationsociety.com/. It is a free site that promotes the virtues of meditation and includes many different modalities.  A great resource for beginners or even someone more experienced as I had not heard of some of the other techniques mentioned. You can print their free newsletter to get an idea of the different types of meditation.

I actually had someone tell me that meditation was not christian and that it involved praying to Buddha or some god. This could not be farther from the truth and is an outright lie perpetuated by ignorant people. When you meditate you are clearing your mind of the the everyday junk and focusing on a single thought, image, idea, etc. That idea can be anything you want or even total emptiness.  If you are Christian, a good meditation might be to focus on some of the teachings of Jesus, or a line from the bible. Anything that helps your mind stop it’s internal chatter will help. Some people say the word “one” or “love” over and over in their heads. Others might visualize a tropical island, or even heaven. Don’t let others scare you from finding inner peace…  don’t let someone else’s mind be your limitation.