Archive for June, 2007

What this book is about
From the author of the ground-breaking book Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives, Brian Weiss brings us this fascinating book about healing life-long issues and learning lessons through a combination of pass life regression and future life progression therapies. He sites examples of patients that were helped in this life by learning why they have a particular life lesson to learn and how the choices they make now will affect their future lives.

Why we have lessons to learn
Brian feels that we all have lessons to learn in our lives. He’s similar to Dr. Sue Morter in that way. Most of these lessons, he feels, are because of choices we made in past lives. He also thinks that earth is a school room and we are all here to graduate into higher realms and ultimately achieve immortality and enlightenment. What I can tell from this book and others that I have read is that, as souls, we set ourselves up to learn about things we don’t t understand. If we are to be complete and balanced we need to understand all aspects of humanity. If we have been the perpetrator in one life we will probably set up a future life as a victim so we understand both aspects and can choose our future life situations from a place of understanding. If we can see our lives from the perspective of achieving understanding, we will look at our lives differently. If we continue to play the victim we will have more future lives of being the victim. We can, instead, decide to change our lives now and move from victimhood into understanding and thereby change all future lives so we don’t have to play the victim anymore.

Methods
Brian offers some exercises in the book to regress yourself, heal illnesses and visualize.

My take on it
There are differing beliefs as to why we come into a life time and have the experiences we do: because we are being punished and must regain our entry into heaven; to learn from our past mistakes; to walk in another shoes and obtain understanding (in future lives we become those we hate in this life); to learn lessons in order to become worthy of moving out of this school room; to be together with those we have the most to learn from; to find our soul mates; to have fun and create our lives. I choose to believe in the later: we are hear to have fun and create. It’s what Abraham teaches. While I think learning about past and future lives can be fun and healing, I also believe that we don’t have to relive something in order to release a pattern that we have.

My experience
I enjoyed reading this book because of the stories of others’ past lives and the visions people are bringing back of glorious future lives, lives in an idyllic world I’d like to live in. It gave me hope and the belief that everything I want in this world can be achieved including human evolution and mastery of all. I also had some epiphanies, realizations and shifts while reading it. I definitely recommend it.

Read my interview with Brian
I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian for the New Visions Magazine last fall.

View book details at Amazon: Same Soul, Many Bodies: Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives through Progression Therapy

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What this is
Raw Coconut Oil has many benefits. It’s versatile and can be used as a food, moisturizer or massage oil. Coconut oil is solid (butter) when it’s below 78 degrees and a liquid (oil) when above. Some people believe it has many health properties, I just like how it tastes and the many uses I can get out of one bottle. Coconut oil is extracted in several different ways:

Centrifuged Coconut Oil
This method of oil extraction keeps the temperature of the oil at about 78.8 degrees and the oil is extracted by a method called centrifuge. It brings out the best in the oil. The process explained on The Wilderness Family website "Our Centrifuged Coconut Oil is USDA Certified Organic by Integrity Certified International. It is made from fresh coconuts opened less than 48 hours after they are picked from the trees. They first shell the coconuts and then chop the flesh, placing it in an expeller press. The temperatures of the coconut flesh and the resulting coconut milk emulsion do not exceed 25° C or 78.8° F (room temperature). Once the coconut is shelled, it takes less than 45 minutes to produce the milk. The resulting coconut milk emulsion is then chilled slightly to 10° C (50° F) so that the oil will “pull out of solution.” In other words, the chilling helps to break the protein emulsion that holds the oils in solution. Next, the cooled milk, by use of a large centrifuge, is separated into the pure oil that we sell here and a “skim” coconut milk. This method of extraction requires no heat at all. It works like a cream separator that is used for separating cream from cow’s milk. It requires quite a few passes through this chilled centrifuge to obtain pure oil, but the resulting oil is absolutely fabulous."

Virgin Coconut Oil
I couldn’t have said it better myself: "For generations in the Philippines they have been making virgin coconut oil by hand, using a traditional Philippine method of extraction. First the fresh coconuts are opened and grated. Then the flesh is pressed, yielding a fresh coconut milk emulsion that is approximately 40% oil. The milk is called an emulsion because there is a natural protein that holds the oil in solution. Within about 12 hours, however, the natural enzymes from the coconut will break down this protein, releasing the oil. This process has been studied and now perfected by our manufacturers in the Philippines and professors at the neighboring university. As the oil floats, it is siphoned off and made ready for export to the United States. This oil, unlike other traditionally processed Philippine oils, is never heated. Most traditionally processed Philippine virgin coconut oils experiences temperatures close to the boiling point of water (200° F). Most raw-foodists, however, prefer to use food that does not see heat above 117° F. Our manufacturers have perfected the fermentation process so that our virgin coconut oil, made the traditional way, has a very low moisture content without having to heat the oil at all." Sounds good to me.

Uses
It can be eaten, used as moisturizer, massage oil or rub it on your gums.

My experience
I use this as a facial moisturizer, rub it on my feet, rub it on my gums or anywhere my skin might get dry. I use it on my daughter to sooth irritated skin, which can happen if her clothes get wet and she doesn’t change them right away. It’s kept me from having to give her an oatmeal bath at 11:00 at night when she wakes up in dis-comfort.

Moisturizer
I use it as a skin moisturizer, after skin brushing and cleaning my skin. I also use it on my lips if they’re dry although it can get a little oily if I use too much.

Food
I also use it in some of my raw recipes. I didn’t use it in any recipes in the Dawn of a New Day Raw Desserts e-book but I’m experimenting with it in the new dessert recipes I’m creating for the published version of the book. (Sign-up for the newsletter and I’ll let you know when it’s being released.) Be careful when you use this in recipes. Too much can taste overwhelming but a little bit is nice.

Massage
It makes a nice massage oil, especially since it starts out solid, when the temperature is below 78 degrees, so you don’t drip it on the way to the person’s back. It also smells nice. Like other oils it does stain clothing so keep that in mind. There are also other topical uses for it. The label on mine suggests using it to dab on your partner, but I wouldn’t want to be suggestive.

A story
That reminds me of how my husband and I first confessed our love for each other. We had been dating for a few months and were walking down the street in Manayunk (in Philadelphia), when we came to a park that had an abstract statue in it. I thought it looked like two people kissing, but I didn’t want to say so. I asked Martin what he thought it looked like. He said, "I think it looks like two people kissing." I asked if that was a suggestion and he said, "I wouldn’t want to be suggestive." LOL It was so cute. I kissed him. Then we told each other that we loved each other and the rest is ourstory.

Others like it too
I told a friend about coconut oil who told another friend about it. She said that she didn’t know what she had been missing until she used the coconut oil and thanked me for telling her about it, her friend thanked me, too. They took the suggestion. Wow! It’s a hit.

Get Coconut Oil at Nature’s First Law: Raw Coconut Oil / Butter

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Get the free Demo or buy the Holosync® Meditation Program

What this is
Centerpointe Research Institute has developed meditation CDs that get your mind into the same state it would be in if you were meditating very deeply. It does this by delivering different frequencies into each of your ears. It gives the brain something a little greater than it can handle and this causes the brain to get a workout, become more synchronized and releases unresolved emotional issues.

Meditation
Many people have been touting the benefits of meditation in this country for nearly a century. There are as many different types of meditation as there have been Gurus to teach it. The one I studied the longest was the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda as distributed through Self Realization Fellowship. One of the meditation methods is called Kriya Yoga, which is a form of Pranayama or life force control. Doing one Kriya properly is the equivalent of one year of spiritual evolution. When you start doing Kriya you do 14 in each of your morning and evening meditations which means that you’re evolving 28 years per day. As you raise your vibration, by doing the meditations and exercises they offer, you are allowed to do more of them. The goal is to do 108 twice a day. Even Paramanhansa said something about not wanting to be meditating all day long. It does take a while. Getting to the point where your mind is still can take a while but it’s well worth the time you put in. The longer you meditate the faster the results, the deeper you go and the greater the results you see and feel.

Benefits of meditation
The benefits of regular mediation are many. The include: more peace, less stress, more calmness, being happier, more easily dealing with life’s ups and down, better mental clarity, lower blood pressure, more creativity, more easily come up with solutions to problems, feel better, be healthier, sleep better, have better relationships, have more drive to do the things you want to do, live longer, have a better quality of life, feeling of well-being, more fulfilling lives and more.

Holosync® versus Conventional
Some people think that the conventional methods of meditation are the best way to go and doing something that is passive, like listening to a CD to get into the same state as several hours of meditation, is cheating. I grappled with that myself, wanting to know and be able to say that I did it all myself. What I realized was that I had been at a disadvantage in my emotional and spiritual life with the first disappointment or difficulty I had experience early on in life. My natural state of being had been encumbered baggage long ago. Unresolved emotional issues that I had from my life up to this point were keeping me from having the life experience that I wanted. Limiting beliefs and thoughts about myself and what I was capable of stopped me from being the successful, prosperous, happy, fulfilled person I wanted to be. I’m finding that doing the Holosync program is helping me get rid of the baggage so I can evolve from here instead of trying to evolve with the disability of the unresolved emotional issues that I have. It’s like starting over with a clean slate where I can create my life from here without the baggage of the past.

Benefits of Holosync Meditation
You get all the benefits of conventional meditation and you get them faster. From the very first listening, your brain starts to manufacture the chemicals that are manufactured in the brains of long-time meditators. Instead of having to meditate deeply for years or decades to get all the benefits of mental clarity, physical health, emotional well-being, great relationships and overall well-being, you get them in  days or weeks. You feel good right from the start. There is no learning or practicing curve. All you have to do is listen to the CD once a day with stereo headphones, eyes closed, in a place where you won’t be disturbed. Then you sit for 3-5 minutes after the CD is finished so any (previously) unresolved emotional issues that came to the surface during your listening can dissipate. That’s it.

From the Centerpointe website, Holosync will:

• Safely and effortlessly take you to states of profoundly deep (and extremely pleasurable) meditation…
• Stimulate the creation of new neural pathways between the right and left hemispheres of your brain, balancing your brain and leading you to a high-performance state scientists call "whole brain functioning"…
• Dramatically improve your learning ability, memory, intuition, creativity, and your ability to focus, concentrate and think more clearly…
• Create true quantum leaps in your personal self awareness…
• Significantly lower your stress levels and lower your levels of harmful brain chemicals related to stress…
• Create remarkable improvements in your mental and emotional health—even in areas that have stubbornly resisted change with other approaches…
• Dramatically increase your production of vital (and very pleasurable) brain chemicals related to your longevity, well-being, and quality of life… * Creates states of deep meditation and gives you the benefits of long-term, deep meditation, but much more quickly.
• Boost intelligence and creativity
• Dramatically lower stress—raises your threshold for what you can handle coming at you from the world.
• Create new levels of self-awareness and inner peace.
• Heal unresolved emotional issues at the deepest level, including anxiety, depression, anger, substance-abuse, fear and many other dysfunctional feelings.

  You will experience…

• Profoundly deep meditation…
• Dramatic increases in the production of a whole variety of beneficial brain chemicals, including pleasure-causing endorphins—as well as a number of others proven to slow aging and increase longevity and well-being…
• The release and falling away of dysfunctional mental and emotional patterns (such as anger, fear, anxiety, depression, sadness, substance abuse, self limitations, etc.)—even those that have stubbornly resisted other methods…
• Increased learning ability, enhanced creativity, greater intuition, improved focus and concentration—and (even more amazing) greatly increased personal self- awareness (scientists call this combination "whole brain functioning")…
• Dramatically lower stress levels, and an increased ability to deal with whatever comes at you from the world, calmly and clearly. You become more relaxed, less anxious, more centered, more peaceful, and more connected to others…
• Achievement becomes easier, and without the same feelings of anxiety and stress. Taking the risks necessary for success doesn’t seem so scary anymore.
• Good things begin to just "happen" in such a way they almost seem to fall right into your lap…
• The need for sleep decreases, yet aliveness, vitality and energy increase!

Unresolved emotional issues resolved
I know personally what it’s like to relive something in order to heal it for good. Sometimes it took weeks, months or years to get over a personal trauma and I didn’t really like having to relive it, once was enough. Well, Holosync manages to release unresolved emotional issues as an added benefit of listening to the CDs. No memory recall, feeling recall or anything like that. It just happens as a natural process of the brain being evolved.

Addictions healed
Holosync has also helped people eliminate addictive behaviors that haven’t been resolved with any other method.

How it works 
Brain wave patterns can be measured electronically and the brain wave patterns of meditation are induced through the stimulus entering your ears from the Holosync CDs. You get into the state of deep meditation every time, right from the beginning. Centerpointe Institute asks if you would like to "Meditate like a Zen Monk", and you do. Now, the technology that makes it happen is giving the nervous system a stimulus greater than it can handle for the way it’s structured now, it’s like going to the gym to get stronger by lifting weights heavier than you can lift easily. It causes the brain to reorganize itself at a higher level in order to handle the new stimulus. New neural pathways are created while the communication between the right and left hemispheres of the brain are increased. This leads you to what scientists call, "whole brain functioning". This is how extraordinary thinkers like Einstein, Edison and Mozart functioned.

What it sounds like 
Listening to the CDs is very calming and peaceful on its own. As you listen to rain, music, singing bowls and/or bells the Holosync is running unheard in the background. It’s nice.

Support
With all the emotional, spiritual, mental and life changes you will be experiencing throughout the program, your life will change and you may have questions about how you are using the program or what you might expect to be going through at any particular time. There are letters that come every two weeks telling you what yo might be experiencing and why. Additionally, the support telephone hotline is available for your direct questions or you can email them. I found the support personnel (both via email and phone) very responsive, knowledgeable, helpful and pleasant. The support telephone hotline is free. You only have to pay for the long-distance call, which usually isn’t that much since the calls don’t usually take that long.

Research readings and information
There are a lot of readings that go along with this, in addition to the support letters. You can get as deeply into it as you like but you don’t have to read everything. A lot of it is the scientific findings and new research supporting the technology and indicating where the technology might go in the future.

You’ll like it, Guaranteed
Centerpointe guarantees "it will accelerate your mental, emotional, and spiritual growth…and positively change your life…in ways that will absolutely astound you." The program comes with a full, one-year, money back guarantee. You won’t need it, but it’s nice to know they are that confident about their program.

Free trial
If you’d like to try it out they will send you a free sample CD with a toned down version of the Holosync technology on it. Bill Harris, the founder of Centerpointe, talks during most of the 20 minute CD and tells you about the technology, how they discovered it and how it can benefit you. The last 5 or 6 minutes it’s just the Holosync, the rain and the singing bowls. It’s quite pleasant and a nice way to try out the technology for free. Do listen to the whole 20 minute sample CD as it guides you into the deep state through the entire 20 minutes.

The practice
When you first start listening to the CDs you have to ease into it. You’ll listen to the track called, "The Dive" once a day for two weeks. It’s about 30 minutes. After the two weeks is over you add in another track called, "Immersion". Then you listen to those two tracks, "The Dive" first and then "Immersion" together. Together they take about 60 minutes. The directions they send with the CDs explain it quite well. They even explain how you’ll know when you’re ready to go up to the next level, if you choose to.

Advanced levels
I’m still in the first level but I’ll tell you what I’ve read about the advanced levels. The Holosync technology is made stronger with each subsequent level. After you finish the first level you can, if you choose, go on to the next level where affirmations, recorded in your own voice, are coupled with a technology that is created to allow your affirmations to have the greatest affect possible. If you decide you want to go onto the next levels you’ll be offered a special offer of buying them all at once and saving more than 50% doing it. Be prepared, it’s worth it if you like the program and you want to go on.

Freebies
There were several freebies that came with the original package and some that came later. There are CD tracks for using when you are studying, it puts your brain in a state of super learning, and one for problem solving which gets you into a state of super creativity. I’ve used them both and found them to be very helpful for solving problems and helping me focus while reading or working on this website.

My experience
When I first got the trial CD I listened to it right away. That night I slept better than I had in months and actually saw faces on the people in my dreams. Faces are usually absent from my dreams so I was excited to see that something was really happening for me. AND THAT WAS THE SAMPLE. Here’s a sample of how it’s helped me:

• I’m sleeping better
• I have more patience for everyone
• I have more energy during the day
• I think more clearly
• I come up with more brilliant ideas (all right, I’ve been doing that for a few years now, huh?)
• I’m feeling very empowered
• I am able to slow time down
• I am more content
• I am more relaxed
• I honor myself more

Comes on CD or audio tape
Get the free Demo or buy the Holosync® Meditation Program

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As explained on The Wilderness Family website:

Expeller Pressed Method (for coconuts)
I didn’t know this about expeller pressed oils, I thought they were healthy. However, I don’t like the way the method of extraction sounds.
"The coconuts are opened and quickly dried. The dried coconuts are then mechanically pressed to remove the oil, without using chemical solvents. Any free fatty acids are removed, the oil is run through diatomaceous earth, and lastly, the oil is steam distilled. This yields a very pure, uncontaminated coconut oil. Though not a virgin oil, it still melts at 76 ° F, is very light and creamy smooth, containing the same medium chain fatty acids as virgin coconut oil."
Don’t think I’ll buy that kind again. Now I know it’s not raw and I’ve read the warnings on packages of diatomaceous earth.

Centrifuged Coconut Oil
This method of oil extraction keeps the temperature of the oil at about 78.8 degrees and the oil is extracted by a method called centrifuge. It brings out the best in the oil. The process explained on The Wilderness Family website "Our Centrifuged Coconut Oil is USDA Certified Organic by Integrity Certified International. It is made from fresh coconuts opened less than 48 hours after they are picked from the trees. They first shell the coconuts and then chop the flesh, placing it in an expeller press. The temperatures of the coconut flesh and the resulting coconut milk emulsion do not exceed 25° C or 78.8° F (room temperature). Once the coconut is shelled, it takes less than 45 minutes to produce the milk. The resulting coconut milk emulsion is then chilled slightly to 10° C (50° F) so that the oil will “pull out of solution.” In other words, the chilling helps to break the protein emulsion that holds the oils in solution. Next, the cooled milk, by use of a large centrifuge, is separated into the pure oil that we sell here and a “skim” coconut milk. This method of extraction requires no heat at all. It works like a cream separator that is used for separating cream from cow’s milk. It requires quite a few passes through this chilled centrifuge to obtain pure oil, but the resulting oil is absolutely fabulous."

Virgin Coconut Oil
"Virgin" means it was produced without any chemicals. "For generations in the Philippines they have been making virgin coconut oil by hand, using a traditional Philippine method of extraction. First the fresh coconuts are opened and grated. Then the flesh is pressed, yielding a fresh coconut milk emulsion that is approximately 40% oil. The milk is called an emulsion because there is a natural protein that holds the oil in solution. Within about 12 hours, however, the natural enzymes from the coconut will break down this protein, releasing the oil. This process has been studied and now perfected by our manufacturers in the Philippines and professors at the neighboring university. As the oil floats, it is siphoned off and made ready for export to the United States. This oil, unlike other traditionally processed Philippine oils, is never heated. Most traditionally processed Philippine virgin coconut oils experiences temperatures close to the boiling point of water (200° F). Most raw-foodists, however, prefer to use food that does not see heat above 117° F. Our manufacturers have perfected the fermentation process so that our virgin coconut oil, made the traditional way, has a very low moisture content without having to heat the oil at all." Sounds good to me.

Olive Oils as posted on Wikipedia: 

Summary of Olive Oil extraction terms :

• Decanter centrifugation: Spins the crushed food around in a special machine which forces the oil out of it
• Expeller Pressed: Pressed without chemicals, but the heat caused by friction causes it to be cooked which isn’t good for oils, it’s also passed through diatomaceous earth which has warnings on the label (I used it in my pool filter)
• Extra-Virgin olive oils: From the first pressing of the olives, can’t have any refined oil in it
• First Cold Pressed: The European Union only gives out this distinction to oils which were kept below 27degrees C (80 degrees F) during the first pressing of the olives
• Olive Oil: Blend of virgin and refined oils
• Olive-Pomace oil: Produced using chemicals
• Refined olive oil: Produced using chemicals
• Virgin olive oil: Produced without chemicals, using physical means only, can’t have any refined oil in it

My choice
I think I’ll have to go with the centrifuged oil or cold-pressed extra virgin oils.

Read my review of Coconut Oil

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Michael Beckwith
Michael Beckwith started the conference Thursday evening with his message of “The Rhythm of a Descended Master” and why we need to come into the body to find our way back to the Divine. Knowing that we are Spiritual Beings having a human experience we can enjoy our time here, seeing the perfection in each moment and experiencing what comes to us. We came from Spirit, indeed we are still there, and we will return to Spirit after this life, so why the rush to get out of here by “transcending” the body? Heaven is where we are, not somewhere “out there” that we have to get to. We are the body of God, the eyes, ears, arms, legs and senses. We are here as extensions of Source energy, enjoying this realm so that God can know itself better through our experience. I love to say that I am God experiencing life as Dawn. And God is certainly having a good time! It was a great message which kicked off the conference and paved the way for what was to come over the next three days.

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