Resolving Conflict

Resolving Conflict

Copyright © E. Raymond Rock 2009.
All rights reserved.

What we extend outward toward others, we internalize. Whether the emotions are negative, such as hatred, animosity, and anger or positive, such as love, forgiveness, and peace, these feelings seep inside of us and affect us deeply, both emotionally and physically.

You can feel the physical difference between, on one hand, hating someone, and on the other, forgiving someone. One is restricted and one is spacious, and our body reacts accordingly with feelings of stress or feelings of ease. The person we hate, or forgive, only feels the rejection or acceptance momentarily, where we, conversely, feel it constantly. This is because it is never them that we hate, but we, ourselves, that we hate, and the feeling is there all the time. We are always the recipients of our actions, no one else. We hate ourselves because the ego that we have created in our minds is a terrible burden to sustain, even if we think the opposite; that our ego is delightful.

Positive emotions create spaciousness, they create acceptance, and love accompanied by a feeling of completion. Hatred and anger, negative emotions, create closed-in feelings of conflict, and a feeling that something is left undone, which creates tension. Because we are under the influence of our illusions, we take steps to make certain that our hatred and anger is never directed at ourselves. We do this by searching for targets outside of ourselves in order to vent these negative emotions, and when we run out of distant targets, the targets become those closest to us.

We erroneously think that if we can only eliminate the people and ideas that we hate, or change them, the hatred will go away, but this never quite works out. There are always uncountable people and conflicting opinions to hate. The reason for this is that the hatred comes from inside, and if there is nothing to externalize the hatred on, we begin to hate ourselves. We are ever on a mission to discover new things outside of us to hate, and we try to keep the hatred alive, sometimes even over long periods of time, decades. It protects us from looking at ourselves.

Part of the illusion is that we, each one of us, are unchanging entities. We become concrete images in our minds complete with a set of uncompromising opinions. Concrete images of others and concrete images of ourselves is based on memory, and instead of being here and now and discovering ourselves and everybody else in a new light moment to moment, we chisel ourselves into marble statues based on memory and thought. And statues, memory, and thought are all dead.

Being truly alive is being completely absorbed into our passion, whatever it is. There is no room for hatred here. Those who are passionless, who have not discovered that which they love to do, will become caught up in the past, in the images and thoughts that haunt them constantly. Within our true passion is the absence of thought. In the moment of discovery, thought is never present, only creativeness.

Few discover these things, and as a result, many live a life filled with stress. This is a sad thing. And if someone would mention to them that there is a creative spaciousness of mind, that is absent of memory and thought, and a spaciousness that will introduce them to their individual creativeness and passion, they will be suspicious of any new ideas. Their habit patterns of hatred will instead look upon ideas alien to their conditioning as targets of hatred. This is symptomatic of closed minds, and the reason humanity continues to war with each other even after countless years of culture, in our families, our neighborhoods, and our world. .

A new consciousness is slowly evolving, however. If you hate, dislike, detest . . . look into it for your own good. You are only hurting yourself and creating karma that will come back on you, if not in this lifetime, in subsequent lifetimes. Begin with meditation, which will slow things down so that you will see how an initial feeling of fear spins out of control with a succeeding flurry of thoughts, turning the fear into hatred. You only have to see this once, clearly, and the hatred ends. The fearless never hate, and meditation, if practiced for some time, breeds fearlessness.

The one that we hate so, our separate ego, slowly evolves with meditation. It becomes extremely intelligent, and because it begins to realize the interconnectedness of all beings, it begins to experience genuine courage because it is no longer isolated and alone. It now has the courage to understand others, see their side of things; stand in their shoes, and feel authentic compassion toward them. Then the fear is gone. Then we can be integrated beings once more. It’s a great relief.

And if none of the above makes any sense to you at all (maybe you even hate it!), then simply look to the saviors and sages throughout history. Did they profess love, or did they spread hatred? They professed love, of course, and if you are a person of faith, to hate instead of forgive would be nothing less than a contradiction of your beliefs.

—

E. Raymond Rock is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center in Fort Myers Florida. His 28 years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His new Book: A Year to Enlightenment is now available in bookstores and online.

Dowsing versus aura

Copyright © Miroslav Provod, 2008. All rights reserved.

What is the natural force that causes the dowsing rod to move is only one question of many for which we are still trying to find the answer. However, we are not the only one trying to answer this; the same case could be found in Physics. Cited from specialists literature:”We do not know why this happens; we just know the experimental fact that two positively charged bodies repel each other.” It’s therefore not logical to doubt the movement of a dowsing rod in connection with this information, because a similar mystery is also in Physics. It can’t be excluded that an identical natural force moves the dowsing rod. Other than that, it was found by doing an empirical research that the known physical phenomenon of ‘charge flux’ doesn’t work only in a laboratory, but everywhere in nature. It’s not easy to believe that the phenomenon of ‘charge flux’ was already known and used by our ancestors when menhirs, Babylonian towers, pyramids, obelisks and all types of holy structures were built.

I have been using dowsing rod for many years, which is also known as ‘little butterfly’ (motýlek) in the Czech Republic. At the beginning I wasn’t able to orientate in the reactions of the dowsing rod, but everything changed when I found by chance an example replacing unit, something like etalon. It was the high voltage power lines, whose energetic components (aura, zones, inter zones) don’t move and could always be found in the same place. I did the first series of experiments in an environment, where I got experience that I then rechecked with other sources. I can recommend everyone who is interested in the research of dowsing to do the same. It is easy and very educational.

The work order for the identification of energetic components of high voltage power lines

Firstly, we have to make a dowsing rod from a wire of 3 mm diameter in a way that we take a 24 cm long wire, which we bend in the middle so it becomes U shaped. Then we stretch both its parts to have it like on the picture at http://www.miroslavprovod.com in a way that the front side of the dowsing rod is 5 cm long. Then we have to find a high voltage power line (between 22 kV and 400 kV) in the vicinity, which is perpendicularly intersected by not much busy road with a hard surface and we can begin to build the ‘etalon’ measuring units. We take the dowsing rod loosely between our thumb and middle finger. It is necessary that it sticks out of our aura so we need to hold it approximately 50 cm from our body. We can’t try this after alcohol consumption. In this case even a long hand is short (the dowsing rod doesn’t stick out from the aura of our body).

The aura is identified in a way that we go on the road from the middle of the high voltage power lines in one way until the dowsing rod reacts by bending either left or right. We mark the position of this dowsing rod reaction and in the same way we find the location of the dowsing rod reaction on the road in the other direction. If both these distances in the opposite directions are the same, we have worked precisely and the distance between opposite locations is approximately the diameter of aura of the high voltage power lines. The aura of high voltage power lines copies the shape of the source and has the shape of a cylinder and its diameter is in the range of tens of metres (depending on the voltage).

Next we have to find out about the properties of aura, which give us a hint about much information needed for further identification. At first, we check that it doesn’t matter whether we go forwards or backwards with the dowsing rod in a way that we repeatedly walk backwards both directions; the dowsing rod will react in the same places. This fact comes well into use when we identify objects with small dimensions of aura, for example in the case of a human body, where it is not easy to distinguish between the border of aura from the reaction of a zone, etc. The dowsing rod has an answer for the question, whether we are located in the area of aura or not. We go with the dowsing rod in any direction in a way that the dowsing rod reacts in the rhythm of our steps by short movements to the left and right, but not in all cases, only when we walk at a certain speed. Everybody can find the right pace of walking in a few minutes. All the identifications need to be preceded by trying whether we are or are not in the space of aura. The common aura of a dense urban area could occupy large areas in the same way as a stadium that is full of people or an unmoved grassland, etc. The dowsing rod ‘motýlek’ doesn’t react in the space of the aura. The aura of our body gained a common aura with the one where we are located and so it doesn’t have an object with which it could react.

The dowsing rod reacts with energetic components in the perpendicular direction or in the direction that is not much deviated from the perpendicular direction. The greatness of deviation from the perpendicular direction could be found just with a little information, while we increase the deviation with each trial. We use this fact while looking for an energetically clear place, we realize that such a place needs to be crossed with the dowsing rod in more than one direction.

The same procedure would be used when looking for energetic zones. We go from the edge of the aura in one direction until the dowsing rod reacts, which we then mark again. Then we do identification in the opposite direction just to check. If we worked precisely, both distances between the aura and the zones are the same. In this way we mark other zones. It’s not possible to find out the number of the zones. We will verify a rule, which works not only for the zones of high voltage wires, but also for zones of all other sources. Every first and second zone has the same width, but every third zone is about ten times wider. In the case of the zones of high voltage power lines, the first and the second is about 10 cm wide, the third about 100 cm. I have no clue why this is. Hopefully, someone of you will find the reason. We remember that the gaps between zones of high voltage power lines are about 10 metres wide. The zones, in the same way like aura, copy the shape of the source like skins. At greater distances from the source they gain large volumes.

Between the zones there are four inter zones, in some cases there are more. They are located closer to the zone in the direction towards the source (in our case towards the high voltage power lines). They could be identified with a dowsing rod if we make its front part longer by one centimetre. However, such a modified dowsing rod also reacts with the zones so we can use it only if we have done marking the zones. Now we have marked all three high voltage energetic components, which don’t move; it is an optimal etalon for further research. Next we could compare the reaction of ‘motýlek’ with the reactions of other types of dowsing rods and make first statistical data. Other data could be obtained by changing the sizes of dowsing rods.

The energetic components of any other sources could be obtained in the same way; a source is any lump of matter and we mustn’t forget that by the inter contact of auras the sources gain one common aura. I could recommend getting further energetic experience with a small stream by a similar technique as with the high voltage power lines. By this, we remove the doubt that in the case of high voltage power lines the aura has something to do with the electromagnetic field. I recommend finding a similar place, like a bridge where a stream flows under a road. When identifying all three energetic components of the stream, we use the same technique as with the high voltage power lines. The result will be the same, except that we find that when the rate of flow of water changes, its energetic components will move. I shall recommend making a graph of an inner and outer bend of a stream; there will be a greater density of zones and inter zones on the inner bend. We will understand then why people used the inner bends to build certain structures. Such a place has more energy, which then accumulates in the mater of the structure. The moving zones of a stream give energy to the surrounding vegetation. In the same way, any other matter, including humans, could gain this energy. It’s a new knowledge to us, but people already used it in the ancient times.

By monitoring the energy of a stream we learn to look for water springs. The zones of springs are easily distinguished from high voltage power lines zones by the fact that they change their direction and mainly because of different separation of the zones. When trying to identify a spring we find and mark at least three zones and the inter zones between them. By using the rule that the inter zones are located closer to the zone that is located in the direction of the source (the water spring) with respect to them, we easily get the direction in which to go. By finding and marking further zones in that direction we find, by looking for greater separation, the aura. In the middle of the aura, the place where the dowsing rod doesn’t react is the spring. In another case if the spring is located deeper, the cylindrical aura is also located under the surface. In such a case the clue is given by the inter zones that are always located closer to the zone that is situated towards the source with respect to them. In the middle of the location where the inter zones between two zones point towards each other is the water stream. However, we have to realize that there are many energetic components everywhere and in urban areas it’s almost impossible to orientate between them.

In a habitable house the sources are the matter of the house, electric cables, all kinds of electric components, water and heating pipes, all metal, zones that intersect the building (water springs, streams and rivers located far away, energetic wires, cumulus (thunderstorm) clouds, etc.). If the auras of these sources are in contact, they join into one common source with a common aura. A large group of zones that are conductive for the cosmic energy doesn’t create its common aura, but can manipulate the energy of the building in both directions.

Other useful knowledge could be gained when drawing the energetic graph of an automobile, which consists of these sources: all the metal, the air pressure in the tires (this could be easily verified with one tire by increasing its pressure), all kinds of electrical components, the chemical reactions occurring when the engine is running, the energy of the fuel in the tank and the matter of people in the car. In this case the auras of all the sources overlap each other so the car becomes one source with a common aura. The graph could be constructed in a way that we place the car in an energetically clear space and draw its position. By the known procedure we find its aura with the use of a dowsing rod and then add it to the graph. We do the same when the lights and other electrical components are on, with the engine started, when a driver sits in it, with greater revolutions per minute of the engine and with more passengers. In this way we could observe the increase in size of the common aura.

You will be surprised by the difference in size of driver’s aura before a journey and after it. Also, you will likely think about a situation when there is traffic jam on a road. All the vehicles gain one common aura in this way, which is intersected by an uncountable number of zones and its energy is increased in this way. The greater aura of organisms shows greater charge on the membranes of our cells. We could do an easy experiment with capacitors to confirm that great aura creates health problems including thinking mistakes.

After a short break from our trial etalon we return to it with more experience. You can do experiments with anything that comes to your mind. I recommend starting working with an assistant whose differences in the size of aura after an hour in an aura or a zone of high voltage lines could be monitored. It won’t be less interesting to monitor how long it takes for the aura of your assistant to get into its original size in a clear location. You will be surprised what happens with his or her aura if you put a small bottle of alcohol into his or her pocket. You won’t miss the fact that dowsing rod can reliably indicate the presence of alcohol in a human body to an extent, when common detectors don’t anymore.

When the assistant is on a metal bed he or she has a common aura with it. I could recommend placing this bed out of all zones. You can go back to the ancient times and create menhirs from rocks near water streams. You easily get to know by experience that a menhir has more energy in vertical position then in horizontal position. If you think about the actions of people in history, you have to consider the fact that in those times there were only natural sources present on the Earth. I can’t judge by how much these natural energetic sources were increased by the sources of our civilisation. In the air there are thousands of aircrafts that interact with all cumulus and cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) clouds. On the ground these are the great cities, power stations, power lines, millions of vehicles, hundreds of thousands of ships on the sea, electromagnetic waves that are present everywhere, etc. The attempt of medics to manipulate the energy of a human body in this way could cause negative reactions as we don’t know the optimal value of the capacitance of the membranes of our cells as measured by the size of the aura and also we don’t know the properties of aura. We have to wait for the view of specialists or for the construction of measuring devices that could be built into mobile phones in the future.

We still don’t know what natural force moves the dowsing rod but we could definitely mark the places where it reacts. These could be the starting point for further research. It hasn’t been explained yet why the dowsing rod doesn’t work for some people. However, there is information in history that could have something in common with this problematic.

Miroslav Provod

author’s related article » Cosmic energy versus aura
author’s web site » www.miroslavprovod.com
author’s e-mail » centrum11@volny.cz

Australia’s Gold Coast says “no” to Gandhi street

Paradise in the Sunset – Gold Coast

Originally uploaded by neilalderney123

Special to Earthpages.org

Australia’s sixth largest city Gold Coast has said no to the request of naming a street after peace icon Mahatma Gandhi.

Replying to a plea of Gandhi Monument Council headquartered in USA, Ron Clarke, Gold Coast mayor, said, “…Council’s Street Naming department will not be able to support the request.  Following Council’s Street Naming Guidelines Section S.1.4., Council will name streets of which have a historical or cultural significance of Australia and/or of those who have resided as a local resident for a considerable time.”

Right Reverend Gene Savoy Jr. and Rajan Zed, Council coordinators, in a communiqué to the City of Gold Coast, had urged to name one of the major streets of Gold Coast after Mahatma Gandhi, preferably to be called Mahatma Gandhi Marg (“marg” means path). While Savoy is Head Bishop of International Community of Christ, Zed is the president of Universal Society of Hinduism.

The Gandhi Monument Council is formed of Christian (various denominations), Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Baha’i, Native American, etc., clergy.  According to Zed and Savoy, the purpose of this Council is to commemorate Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, his commitment to world peace, and his work for the upliftment of the downtrodden.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was one of the few men in history to fight simultaneously on moral, religious, political, social, economic, and cultural fronts. His life and thought had an enormous impact on the world, and he continues to be widely revered as one of the greatest moral, political, and peace leaders of the twentieth century.

Gold Coast; known for surf, partying, sun, active nightlife and meter maids; is Australia’s answer to Las Vegas.

The Remote Viewing Archives

By Gerald O’Donnell

Reprinted with permission

“Remote Viewing” (mental spying) was initially carried out by Eastern Block countries at the height of the “Cold War.”

Secret PSI research associated with the state security and defense establishment was going on in the former U.S.S.R. and its many satellite communist countries since the early 50′s.

Paradoxically, the Soviet Union, although based on pragmatic and dogmatic, no-nonsense materialistic principles devoid of any spiritual content, had since the early 1950′s developed many PSI laboratories in order to study the applications of what the Soviets coined Psychotronic (bio energetic) research.

They had a clear lead in this field over any other country.

Military – controlled research centers specializing in the paraphysical were set up in Moscow, Leningrad (today called St. Peterburg), Omsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Saratov, and the heavily guarded room B12 at Solnechnogorsk (NE of Moscow).

According to some yet classified documents, other establishments were set up in the U.S.S.R. for the same purpose in Siberia and at the Durov Institute.

These laboratories were under the control of either the K.G.B. or the G.R.U. (Military intelligence branch).

In contrast to their Western counterparts, these institutes were unencumbered by the desire and necessity to conduct double-blind studies, uniformly repeatable experiments, and to publish their results in international publications, at the risk of encountering the ire of skeptical colleagues. They, therefore, invited and studied naturally gifted psychics, psychokinetic performers, Siberian shamans, and Indian yogis.

Their stated purpose was “mental spying.” However, in reality, they had more sinister goals in mind, centered around the ability to control the minds of individuals at a distance. The Soviets felt a fanatical need for the indoctrination to their cause of masses of people, selected high-placed influential individuals in the West, or terrorist cells.

The perceived bellicose intentions and military arms race of many Western societies increased their paranoia, made them overreact by isolating themselves, and caused them to try frenetically to win the “war that could only leave, if at all, one winner upon the face of this planet, and most probably none.”

In the megalomaniacal world of the “Cold War, ” the possibility to control, without the targets’ knowledge, the minds of selected individuals at any distance became a paramount goal within the Soviet’s security system apparatus. It seemed to them as the perfect weapon.

The Soviets successfully set-up ELF (extremely low frequency) devices who could pulse subliminal sound messages at targeted individuals (using key words embedded in white noise or infra sound music) in order to manipulate their minds and their behavioral impulses.

Microwave pulsed behavioral modification and mind-control techniques were also used in the former U.S.S.R.. One of the most famous case involving such technology involved the discovery of this technology being applied to the U.S. embassy in Moscow that greatly alarmed the State Department and U.S. Intelligence. Despite vehement protests by the U.S. Government and concern for the mental and physical health of its embassy’s staff, the Soviets continued with their constant beaming of microwave signals towards the embassy. Henceforth, the embassy was literally shielded from these radiations by covering its entire structure with metallic plates. The full account of this incident is still classified.

Experiments attempting to instantly hypnotize subjects by purely telepathic means, without the subjects knowing in advance that they would be the targets of these highly concentrated “mind-waves,” were successfully carried out by the Soviets over distances of up to 2000 miles.

The best Psychotronic Research within the Eastern block was carried out in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The Czechs and the Bulgarians achieved very interesting results.

Kirlian Photography, named after its inventor Semyon Davidovich Kirlian, was found to be a better lie-detector machine that the other lie-detection techniques.

Some of the finest clairvoyants in the world worked for the Bulgarian Secret Police, dreaded for its implacable methods devoid of any sentimentalism.

The Bulgarian Secret Police had tight liaisons with the Institutes of Suggestology and Parapsychology in Sofia and Petrich.

The K.G.B. (Soviet security and intelligence) conducted some so-called deep-black operations where attempts were made to assassinate individuals, or have them commit suicide, by the use of “psychotronic techniques.” Although it seems that the K.G.B. was at least partially successful in some cases, the author refuses to dwell on further into this negative side of Soviet “mind research.”

In the U.S. although “mind control” experiments using hypnosis, behavioral modifying drugs, ELF, VLF (very low frequency sounds: 20-35 khz), and all kind of technical gadgetry had been tested on human subjects since the end of WWII (project MKULTRA) by the intelligence agencies, “remote viewing” abilities had been shunned by the operative technocrats of the C.I.A. and its predecessor: the O.S.S.

This was probably due to a cultural religious bias that many top brass of the agencies had against psychic abilities that they considered as the domain of spiritism and “malefic” forces.

Nevertheless, when it became apparent that the Soviets were making great strides in the subject of mental espionage and were spending in 1970 more than 60 million rubles on it (this sum reached 300+ millions by the mid-70′s), American intelligence became quite alarmed and after a detailed analysis took the Soviet “psychotronic” threat very seriously.

It then commissioned several programs to look into operative modalities that could duplicate and eventually outperform the Soviet successes that had by then been confirmed by Humint (human intelligence ) and electronic intelligence.

The main program was given to laser specialist Dr. Harold Puthoff (a former N.S.A. member during his military service at fort Mead, Maryland) and Russell Targ who both worked at Stanford Research institute (SRI), a gigantic scientific think-tank attached to Stanford University in California. SRI was already involved in many scientific projects for the defense establishment.

The initial RV (remote viewing) experiments happened in February 1972 using mainly Ingo Swann, a talented New York psychic, as a test subject.

Initially the testing modalities involved using computer generated random chosen targets that were then visited by human “beacons” to report back if the description given by the test subject seated in a “Faraday cage” at SRI (in order to shield him or her from any outside electromagnetic force) corresponded to the reality of what the “beacons” were seeing while witnessing the target site or object.

The first experiments were highly successful, and the CIA contracted hence SRI for an initial period in order to streamline and define the training and operational modalities of “remote viewing.”

Since most of the targets that were of interest to the defense establishment were secret sites in the Soviet Republics whose real location needed to remain classified and could not be revealed to the civilian remote viewers of SRI, an attempt was made to use geographical coordinates instead of other means to describe theses sites.

The results were as impressive as before, even though the test subject had no idea of what these coordinates corresponded to.

The use of coordinates (latitude and longitude) is what caused the project to be initially coded as Scan gate.

The US Army intelligence branch sent some personnel to be trained as remote viewers at SRI and opened their own operational top-secret unit with code names such as Sun Streak, Center Lane, and Grill Flames.

Eventually, SRI realized that instead of giving the RV (remote viewers) real coordinates, it was enough to give him or her a series of random generated numbers that the computer had assigned to the target.

SRI also realized that human beacons were not needed and that one got statistically the same rate of success without them.

Another strange realization made by SRI was that the RV would get the same rate of success whether the computer chose the target before its description by the RV or after! In other words, the RV was describing a remote target that would be chosen randomly by a computer in the future (even days or weeks later) after his or her description of it. This meant that the remote viewer was describing an event (the choice of target) belonging to the future.

We had therefore proof that, not only could one instantly bridge space as the remote viewers were doing routinely, but that time could be also traveled forward in the future in an instantaneous fashion!

Another proof of this phenomenon came as follows: SRI realized that if the subject would not be given in his or her future a definite feedback as to the success or failure of his or her description of the targeted site, the chance were very high that the Remote Viewing session would be a failure!

In other words: one needed an act of retroaction (feedback) in order to make that future feedback (picture shown of real target or just verbal feedback) a reality of success or not that would be given and experienced by the test subject.

This might be at first difficult to comprehend by non-RV and individuals not trained in the discipline of quantum physics. We had here a statistically significant proof that the future influences the past!

This means that the past (the memory of it) can be manipulated and changed depending on the presence or not of an event that chooses (quantum physicists would say that collapses the quantum probability function) to confirm or deny a certain correlated reality in the past!

Therefore, not only is the future malleable, but so is the past!

This is at the core of the technique (until now unexplained anywhere) that Mr. O’Donnell explains and where he shows that in order to choose one’s future, one needs within certain modalities to often change one’s past or memory of it (which is the same thing!)

In quantum physics research, a related experiment called-the double-slit delayed choice experiment was successfully carried out in the mid-80′s at the University of Maryland and the University of Munich, Germany. It proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that decisions taken in the present affect results achieved in the past, or that the future affects the past. That is to say that the effect affects the cause.

Mr. O’Donnell leaves each individual to ponder about the stupendous implications that this statement carries about the nature of reality, and will not explain it further. Rather, he uses it pragmatically for practical purposes.

Early in the protocol of SRI a technique coined Associational Remote Viewing was developed that allowed one to know in advance whether a particular remote viewing session targeting for instance precise information of a mundane type such as the numbers pertaining to a future lottery drawing, or the results of a future horse race, or the value of the DJIA for the next day etc. was most probably a correct prediction that could used to one’s advantage, or whether mental noise had been introduced and the vision was skewed and no money should be invested on it.

This very ingenious method is explained together with the foundation course that Mr. O’Donnell sends out.

SRI basically developed two protocols for remote viewing. The original one was a type of viewing where the RV was seated in front of an individual: “the monitor,” that would carefully help the viewer in his or her “remote trip” by asking him or her relevant questions in an interactive manner.

The viewer was also seated in a special biofeedback monitoring chair where special subliminal and tonal frequencies were beamed at his or her ears in order to help him or her attain a stage where the electroencephalographic trace and skin galvanometric response would detect a predominance of Alpha (7 to 14 cycles per second) or Theta waves (4-7 cycles per seconds) within the brain of the remote viewer. This Theta level correlates with the hypnagogic state that precedes sleep where one encounters a predominance of delta waves: 0-3 cycles per seconds (besides the periods of rapid eye movements were alpha waves: 7 to 14 cycles per second are predominant). At which point a special tonal frequency sound would be emitted by the biofeedback machine in order to allow the subject to recognize this state and hopefully be easily able to enter it at will in the future. And the remote viewing experience would start from that moment on.

The second protocol (ERV or Extended Remote Viewing) was much more loose and devoid of technical gadgetry. In this case the individual would go deeply within him/herself until he or she felt that he or she was able to separate his or her awareness from his or her physical body and go for extended trips to remote locations bridging either space, time, or both. He or she would verbally record on a tape recorder his or her impressions and often sketch them, on a piece of paper.

Well-trained remote viewers would often get the impression of having a so-called phantom body that could go at will through walls and examine a location from an elevated high perspective or from a very close one, depending on his or her desire.

SRI attracted the attention of the DIA, NSA, Naval intelligence, INSCOM which is the intelligence branch of the army, and many members of the US Congress and Senate ( ex: Senator Clairborne Pell). As a matter of fact, early in the program, groups of army personnel were chosen to undergo the training that SRI provided and they started their own “remote viewing” units. These units came from the mid-80′s until the early 90′s under the tutelage of the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), and operated mainly out of Fort Mead, Maryland. Other units were rumored to exist.

Russell Targ left SRI in 1982 to form together with gifted RV Keith Harary their own remote viewing organization: Delphi Associates. They won a large sum of money after trading the silver future markets based on remote viewing predictions made by Keith Harary that had an almost perfect accuracy rate.

Dr. Puthoff left SRI as head of the remote viewing program in 1985 and was replaced by Ed May, a former Naval Intelligence Officer. Director Ed May moved the whole program under the tutelage of SAIC in 1991.

Most of these defense-related projects are now either defunct or have gone deeply undercover (totally unproven) since 1995 for unknown reasons.

The Europeans have very effective RV units and so do some other intelligence units belonging to other countries. However, none of them has ever officially declassified any of their material. The anecdotal details of their operations cannot be revealed. Their RV methodology targets even deeper levels of mind (interface point with delta) than the US. protocols.

The only known leak in European spheres happened in the Soviet union where “mind control” electronic equipment was made commercially available by cash-strapped former research laboratories.

In the US, on the other hand, since the official recognition by the CIA in November 1995 of the 20+ year project and the declassification of some of the related material, many former defense trained Remote Viewers or RV analysts have come forward and broken their code of silence.

Some have written books about their espionage experiences, and others have opened Institutes where they teach for a fee remote viewing methods to the general public. A great deal of media hype seems to have somehow inflated their feats.

The author feels very strongly that on the eve of the next Millennium all these newly open avenues of exploration of the infinite powers of the mind cannot but be of major help to all of us as humanity.

author’s web site »  view author’s other articles at American Chronicle

Near-death experiences shed light on views of afterlife

Come-with-us

Originally uploaded by Trois Têtes (TT)

By Steve Hammons

What happens when we die? That question has been around for a long, long time. According to many religions and philosophies, we go to a beautiful place that is closer to God. That is, if we have lived a good life on Earth.

Some people who, through illness or injury, have been clinically dead or near-dead claim to have had what are now commonly called “near-death experiences” or “NDEs.” This phenomenon has been studied by people who sometimes come to different conclusions about what the experiences are.

Is it a spiritual journey to the afterlife? Or, is it biological experience involving the brain that is a sort of hallucination?

THE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE

Usually, this experience follows a pattern: The person goes out of their body, often floating above and witnessing the situation. Often, their life flashes before them like a fast movie. Then, they enter what is often described as a “tunnel” that quickly takes them to a place of increasing light – a special and beautiful kind of light.

Upon arrival, they may be greeted by loved ones who have previously passed on. Or, they may meet someone that they did not necessarily know beforehand. The NDE experiencers may have interactions and discussions with these people. Also, typically, but not always, the person reports feelings of great happiness and profound peace.

Finally, the individual learns that this is not their time to pass on and that they are to return to life on Earth. Meanwhile, back where their physical body is located, medical personnel may be working to save them. Or, some other circumstances may be present that allows physical life to continue for this person.

What do these reports from reasonable and apparently sane people mean? Hallucination, neurological and biochemical event? Or, a real trip to the afterlife? Obviously, it is difficult if not impossible to prove either way. At least with the knowledge we have at this time.

Many psychics claim to be able to communicate with people who have “crossed over” to “the other side.” For some, this may be corroborating evidence that the NDE is real. It may be comforting to hear about these accounts because many of us have loved ones who have passed on. And, of course, one day we all will.

Do we just cease to exist? Here today gone tomorrow. Dust to dust.

ANGEL AGENTS

Or, if we do go somewhere, we might wonder about what those good people who have passed on are up to. Are they sitting around playing harps? Have they disappeared as individuals into a larger body of spiritual energy? Are they hanging out in a paradise? Are they working toward graduating to the status of angels or angels-in-training? All of the above?

What about all of our military personnel who pass on in large numbers from the wars past, and now in Iraq and Afghanistan? Do they maintain their military orientation when they pass on? Do they stick with some of their buddies as they get oriented in a new training and operational environment? Can they become part of a special operations force and covert intelligence network that functions from this unconventional operational platform in the afterlife?

Considering all the good people that have passed on over all of the generations and thousands of years, those who lived a full life and those who died young, that could be quite a large and significant force.

How do they feel about what is going on here on Earth? Are they far away, or closer than we might think, separated from us by a thin membrane or veil? Are some of them assigned as “guardian angels,” a sort of case officer for us? Do they whisper in our ear or come to us in our dreams at night? What other activities might they be involved in that affect Earth?

It is interesting for many of us to ask these kinds of questions and think about these things once in a while. It is the bigger picture. Maybe some of it is wishful thinking. Yet, we on Earth obviously could use some extra help. It is comforting to think that there might be angels and covert Heavenly special ops intelligence agents behind the scenes helping out. Angel agents.

A STORY TO CONSIDER

In my novel MISSION INTO LIGHT, one part of the story involves such an experience by the main character, Mike Green. On an operation in the Red Rock-Secret Mountain national wilderness area north of Sedona, Arizona, with the 10-person joint-service research team is working with, Mike is shot in the leg and another bullet grazes his skull. He instantly looses consciousness, falls to the ground, and starts loosing significant amounts of blood.

His friends immediately start to tend to him and another wounded member of the team. Meanwhile, Mike has a near-death experience:

Slowly, Mike’s awareness returns. He is disoriented. He looks below and sees his own body, unconscious and bleeding profusely from the leg and head. Another member of the group is bloody from his shoulder down to his hand, the arm of his shirt soaked with blood.

He sees his friends pinned-down by two snipers below him. Below him? Where is he? Has he somehow gotten to a high point along the cliffs?

Mike sees his Uncle Jack directly below him, firing bursts from his automatic weapon, and pulling more clips from his pockets. Near Jack lies Mike’s own body. Jack picks up Mike’s body, throws it over his shoulders, and tries to make his way down a hill, which Mike watches from above.

Slowly, the green forest below him fades from view. Darkness comes over him.

Then, a point of light becomes visible on the horizon. Mike is being drawn toward the point of light, first slowly, then more quickly, as if he were shooting river rapids in a canoe. The point of light draws closer, and Mike finds himself in a tunnel of beautiful golden light.

He seems to slow down now, like the inevitable calm water at the end of a river rapids. Mike drifts slowly through the tunnel and the golden light becomes brighter. Other colors seemed to sparkle through the golden light, like hundreds of tiny rainbows.

Ahead, he can see figures that seemed to be people. As he flows closer to them he can make out four beings. They seem to be waiting for him as he comes closer and closer.

Then, he finds himself surrounded by the four figures. He knows them. They are his four grandparents, and they embrace him. They passed on many years ago, though were a big part of his life when he was a kid. The five seem to float in the light. His grandparents communicate with him in unison.

They tell him, “Yes, Mike, this is the land of the Great Spirit. It is the beautiful place that many religions and philosophies have always taught.”

“There is constant rejoicing and peace in this land. But we feel sadness at the hardships faced by our people in your world. And we feel a longing to help the people there.”

“There are groups of beings who want to bring the two worlds together, to make Heaven and Earth one place. There are efforts underway to accomplish that very mission.”

“That work is proceeding. One day soon, that miracle will come to pass, and there will be a great celebration, a great happiness among all the people.”

“You, Mike, must return to the other world, and tell your family and friends about what you have seen.”

“We have one more thing to show you, something you have a need to know.”

Then, they help Mike take a fantastic journey into deep memories in his DNA, or maybe it is time travel into the ancient past of the Cherokee people in their Smokey Mountain homeland, or maybe both simultaneously. He learns some amazing things.

After this experience concludes, he finds himself with his grandparents again.

“Mike, you must now return to the other world. You still have many more seasons before you join us here in the Spirit land.”

They embrace him again, with happiness. Slowly, the golden light begins to fade and Mike is moving back through the tunnel of light. He sees his grandparents waving good-bye to him until they fade from his sight.

The light grows dimmer and dimmer until it is only a point on a distant horizon. And then darkness.

Mike’s next sensation is the sound of other people talking. He opens his eyes and sees a hospital room in Sedona, his friends gathered around his hospital bed.

He tries to tell about his experience.

“I was floating above the fight at the canyon, watching you scrambling for safety. I saw my own bloody body being carried by Uncle Jack down the rocky path away from the sniper.”

“A tunnel of golden light led to the land of Spirit . . . It wasn’t a dream.”

“I was in the golden light, and saw my grandparents.”

The others listen carefully as Mike tries to recall details of his journey and his meeting with his grandparents.

After he finishes his story, Mike looks closely into the faces of the friends around his bed. Some of their eyes are wider than usual. Some are expressionless, though a smile can be seen in their eyes.

The group’s commanding officer, combat veteran Air Force Colonel Tom O’Brien, standing near the door, gives Mike a knowing wink.

—

Steve Hammons is the author of two novels about a U.S. Government and military joint-service research team investigating unusual phenomena. MISSION INTO LIGHT and the sequel LIGHT’S HAND introduce readers to the ten women and men of the “Joint Reconnaissance Study Group” and their exciting adventures exploring the unknown.

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Earthpages.org has no affiliation with these stories, their authors nor the websites they appear on

• Spirituality Protects Against Depression Better Than Church Attendance http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081023120228.htm
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Hindus find Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew’s remarks of “common commitment” very encouraging

Pope and Patriarch

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Hindus have applauded Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew’s remarks of “common commitment for the well-being of humanity” while delivering his historical first address to Synod of Bishops at Vatican City, held from October five to 26.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that world religions and religious leaders should at least work together on common religious concerns like human improvement, peace, ecological responsibility, social & economic development, etc.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that Bartholomew’s remarks of “common concern and common responsibility” and “to transcend political or religious differences in order to transform the entire visible world” were very encouraging.

Religion was the most powerful, complex and far-reaching force in our society, so we must take it seriously. And we all knew that religion comprised much more than our own particular tradition/experience, Zed stressed.

Rajan Zed further says that in our shared pursuit for the truth, we can learn from one another and thus can arrive nearer to the truth. Our dialogue may help us vanquish the stereotypes, prejudices, caricatures, etc., passed on to us from previous generations. As dialogue brings us reciprocal enrichment, we shall be spiritually richer than before the contact.

His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch is the 270^th successor to the Apostle Andrew and spiritual leader of about 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion followers. Moksha (liberation) is the ultimate goal of Hinduism.

Mysticism and the Idea of Sainthood, Part 4: Saints and Medical Science

WIE: The REAL Evolution Debate

Originally uploaded by ~C4Chaos

Copyright © Michael W. Clark 2008.
All rights reserved.

This is Part of a series.

Part 1 » One or Many?

Part 2 » Mysticism, Science and Politics

Part 3 » Different Interpretations

From a psychoanalytic perspective, the Freudian would say that alleged spiritual visions are fantasies stemming from the libido.

That is, the sex instinct simply attaches itself to an imagined object.

Similarly, the staunch materialist would contend that spiritual visions are mere hallucinations stemming from inner psychological states.

There is no heaven, hell nor afterlife for the materialist. Religion merely comforts weak-willed individuals thwarted by a mysterious and oftentimes harsh world.

Saints and Medical Science

Historically speaking, some of the saints might seem a bit destructive, uncompromising and obsessive.

Consider self-flagellation, hair shirts and St. Thomas More who had six Lutherans burned at the stake for heresy before he, himself, succumbed to the executioner for not sanctioning Henry VIII’s divorce.

What a mess.

In retrospect alleged saintliness and perhaps even some instances of martyrdom might seem pretty neurotic and more like the clash of rigid, judgmental personalities than some kind of holy ideal to be emulated.

If the saints of old could walk through a time machine to the present, some might seem barbarous, sadomasochistic or even insane.

But one thing is certain–because each saint lived in a distinct cultural setting, each met with a unique form of interpersonal and cultural misunderstanding and, in many cases, unspeakable oppression.

Not a few saints were taken as witches and devil-worshipers.

Joan of Arc, for instance, was condemned by an ecclesiastical court and tragically burned at the stake only to be found innocent by the Holy See 24 years later. And nearly 500 hundred years after her death she was canonized–that is, officially bestowed the status of sainthood.

As to whether some of the historical saints were psychologically disordered – or partly so – is a complex, arguably culture-bound question.

Critics of psychiatry say that aspects of this developing science are tantamount to a cultural weather vane, responding to transitory legal, economic and political influences. This kind of critique opens up debate as to the meaning of biological, psychological, social and spiritual normalcy.

One historical example favored among some anti-psychiatry and gay rights activists has to do with the psychiatric conceptualization and treatment of homosexuality.

The American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) classification of homosexuality changed in 1973. Until that time homosexuality was construed as a disorder.  In 1972 a homosexual likely would have undergone extensive therapy in an attempt to change his or her sexual orientation to the supposedly healthy norm defined by the APA.

But in 1973, not so. Suddenly it was psychologically normal to be a homosexual.¹

And one only has to consider psychiatry in Nazi Germany for an extreme example of cultural forces influencing the supposedly objective medical sciences.

Contemporary medical professionals are fully aware that this or subtler form of this dynamic could recur.²

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that some pharmaceutical corporations allegedly have used uneducated, impoverished people in underdeveloped countries as human guinea pigs for potentially dangerous drug testing.³

It’s hardly surprising that prominent intellectuals like Michel Foucault, Thomas Szasz and R. D. Laing question the very concepts of mental health and illness, while the psychiatrist C. G. Jung tries to redefine the issue within an apparently natural-cum-spiritual agenda of “achieving wholeness.”

More recently, the Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof envisions intense personal crises as “spiritual emergencies” that are best handled with holistically informed care.

Often, those episodes hold a powerful healing potential if understood and accompanied correctly. They are what we call a spiritual emergency.⁴

Conclusion

Where does all this this leave us? Are saints simply sick people hiding from the world or are they sublime seekers pointing to a greater reality?

The previous Parts 1-4 attempt to situate mysticism and the idea of sainthood within a contemporary cultural matrix.

In today’s world, a bona fide saint might be faced with unique challenges. He or she might be mishandled by an incompetent doctor, priest or insensitive friends and family members.

Historically, we’ve seen the unfortunate dynamic where family, friends and associates become angry and embarrassed, even hostile toward a potential saint. Two outstanding Catholic saints, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi, for example, were both temporarily imprisoned by their families in a misguided attempt to prevent them from pursuing essentially spiritual vocations.

And as noted, Joan of Arc was condemned to the flames and we have no reason to believe that similar, if perhaps subtler, dynamics couldn’t happen today.

As medical, religious and legal dialogue continues as to how alleged visionaries and saints are to be best handled in contemporary society, we would be wise to remember that in his own day even Jesus Christ was occasionally thought to be mad and demon-possessed (John 8:49).

And some still say that he was.

This might, in part, be due to the fact that it’s not always easy to live the Christian message as related in the New Testament.

Rethinking the idea of personal empowerment and allowing God to be our primary source of power and joy can be challenging, especially if success is measured solely through the lens of the immediately visible.

—

¹ Meanwhile, the Catholic Church continues to regard sexual activity such as masturbation, homosexuality, contraception and unmarried sex as fundamentally disordered, opposing medical mores in these areas.

² Milgram’s famous experiment suggests that even good people do bad things in certain circumstances. And Festinger’s research indicates that when compelled to lie some people actually start to believe in their untruths in an attempt to eradicate so-called ‘cognitive dissonance.’

³ BBC online News (South Asia): “Drug Trials Outsourced to India,” 22 April, 2006.

⁴ Dr. Stanislav Grof cited by Nadine Kreisberger, “Mystic Musings” in The Indian Express, 18 March, 2008.

Applauding its mission to moon, Zed urges India to deal with poverty at emergency level

“America is a very powerful
country,” Jaisalmer, India

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since1968

Special to Earthpages.org

Acclaimed Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed has congratulated India on the launch of ambitious Chandrayaan-1, its indigenously built satellite system, which carries an unmanned exploration mission to the moon.

It was a major milestone for India and we were proud of it, Zed said in a statement from Nevada (USA) today.

After this success, it was opportune time for India to deal with its monumental crisis of poverty, which was a biggest challenge facing India today and should be handled at an emergency level, Zed pointed out.

Rajan Zed, who is the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, says that although India is on track to become a global power, but her new prosperity has remained evasive for many.

Despite economic miracle, many Indians still live in desperate poverty. Inequalities in opportunities block poor people from participating in the growth process and they remain trapped in vicious cycle of poverty.

Zed argues that income gaps are widening fast in India, where about one third of world’s poor live. Wealth distribution and growth have been uneven across various economic and social groups, urban and rural populations, and geographical regions.

A large population of India works in informal labor sector, with no steady jobs and no social security. The number of poor living on less than $1.25 a day has increased. It is blight on a country, which prides herself on having joined the league of hottest growth economies.

Rajan Zed further says that problems like severe malnutrition; spiraling food prices; ineffectual government programs; lack of access to medical facilities, potable water, energy sources, sanitation; illiteracy; etc., need to be immediately dealt with.

Poverty has lead to many other societal problems, which the country faces today. Basic inequalities need to be addressed if India wants all of her people to be able to share the fruits of the growth.

Religions should also put their share in poverty eradication programs in the communities. Large corporations, which have enormously benefitted from India’s economic growth, are also obligated to cater to social and environmental concerns and should take responsibilty in poverty elimination, Zed points out.

Zed warns that India should wake up to the magnitude of the emergency of poverty. Raising people above the poverty line is an achievable task. It just needs strong political and social will. Make it a policy priority; treat it as a crisis, he adds.

Mysticism and the Idea of Sainthood, Part 3 – Different Interpretations

Urban Saint

Originally uploaded by cobalt123

Copyright © Michael W. Clark 2008.
All rights reserved.

This is Part 3 in a series.

Part 1 » One or Many?

Part 2 » Mysticism, Science and Politics

Different Interpretations

Apart from the idea that the Catholic saints are not just spiritual but political writers, it’s also conceivable that

(a) Saints receive visions that match their innate predispositions and developmental conditioning. That is, God reveals images understandable to a saint according to his or her beliefs and cultural environment.

Another interpretation says

(b) A given saint actually creates a unique interior perception and corresponding spiritual reality.

According to this somewhat popular New Age view, we all create our own reality and truth is whatever we happen to believe in. Notions about this life and the afterlife are fully contingent upon one’s belief system and, as some would have it, desires.

While this may sound quite ridiculous to some, it is a philosophical position similar to solipsism in that it perhaps cannot be disproved by reason.

Solipsism essentially says I alone am, while the self-determination paradigm says I create my outlook and future possibilities among other individuals who also create theirs. And can we really prove either position to be false?

An additional view combines (a) and (b). This is the notion that

(c) God reveals material appropriate to a saint’s beliefs and social milieu, and sometime afterward the saint engages in a secondary, creative process of interpretation.

Those favoring possibility (b) usually maintain that it would be too disruptive for a saint locked into categories (a) or (c) to discover that other people’s truths are just as real as his or her own.

A further possibility is

(d) God reveals an absolute, immutable truth to a saint (e.g. the Holy Trinity).

According to this perspective, absolute truth exists independent of any philosophical or linguistic juggling which human beings may engage in.

The Discernment of Spirits

To complicate matters, Catholic theology stresses the importance of discerning interior perceptions which are from God from those derived from demonic powers or the imagination.

Catholic teaching says we – that is, everyone and not just saints – are continually under attack by evil and knowingly or not are in a constant state of spiritual warfare.

This notion of ‘attack’ refers not just to our own inherited and developmental weaknesses and proclivities but also to external agents of spiritual evil.

The devil, as it were, knows our weak spots and continually tries, like a hacker searching for vulnerabilities in a computer operating system, to enter and control or strongly influence the psyche so as to bring about negative effects.

The Catholic Church also recognizes the possibilities of hallucination and delusion. To what degree these mental activities are created by the person or brought about by external influences is a matter of ongoing debate.

While some of the arguably less elegant Catholic thinkers make a firm distinction between psychological and spiritual disorders, arguing that mental illness is a purely medical issue whereas possession is a spiritual one, the subtler intellects in the Catholic fold consider some combination of physiological, psychological, social and spiritual factors in trying to understand the overall human experience.

Proceed to Part 4: Saints and Medical Science