Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Creativity




"Allow your creativity to explode in a burst of illumination in the world.  Follow the muse that fills your heart with passion.  Listen to music that inspires your highest consciousness.  Get out of the cities and into nature.  You are not a sinner who must be penitent; you are a child, a part of the cosmos.  Abstain from foods and drinks that suppress your creative force.  Change your life; seek out new adventures.  Practice compassion to all living beings, and live a gentle life.  Let the beauty of your spirit be your endowment to the world.  Become a conscious and transformative element in the conception of the world."

The Accidental Shaman



If are are interested in healing wisdom, 
indigenous cultures or Shamanism, I'd definitely
recommend this book. 



artwork by Adam Fergurson 
 is available through his website


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Saturday, December 31, 2016

End of the Year

 For the last week plus, the boys and I have been caught up in a blog domain renewal nightmare.  Of course I had no doubt that the confusion was only compounded by Mercury going Retrograde.  I swore to the Universe, over and over, that if I finally got the mess straightened out, I would make sure this blog got back to a more active state...which I think it honestly deserves, especially given the current state of world affairs.  If I couldn't straighten out the mess, then so be it.  This blog has been around since 2009.  It's had a long, productive run.  

Well, we did it.  So instead of this being my last post, it will only be the last one of the year.

I hope everyone has a good new year.  Stay positive and try to be nice to people...even if you are feeling defeated and frustrated.  The world needs your sparkle and shine right now.

Onward and upward!


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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

It's all in Your Dreams


What have your Dreams been telling you lately?
How do they relate to the choices 'you' have been picking for your life?
Is all harmonious?  
Or have you been ignoring the 'elephant in the room'? 




It's all in Your Dreams #8 by Diane Fergurson
Prints available on Etsy



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Thursday, June 6, 2013

The Singing Crystal Bowls - Conversations With Healer Darren Orr


MBS:  One of the things I found rather unique about your classes when I studied with you years ago, is how you incorporated the Crystal Bowls into your sessions. For some of our readers who may not be familiar with them...what are the Crystal Bowls, or Singing Bowls, and how do they assist in healing and meditation?


Darren:  Yes I still use 3 crytsal singing bowls for the 3 Dantiens (Jing, Qi, Shen) at the end of each class. However, over the last couple of years I have expanded their use throughout the class to enhance acupressure, chanting of sacred sounds and the toning of the 5 elements and internal organs. Recently I've incorporated a Native American drum and my 400 yr old antique Tibetan singing bowl to give a complete sound healing for the last 15 minutes of class. People love it!

As the bowls are played the sound spins and swirls in a circular motion around the Mind drawing the energy back into the center of the body, rooting and grounding it. To use a metaphor the sound of the bowls is like a dimmer switch that slowly settles and calms the monkey Mind, allowing it to come to peace. The Mind becomes quiet and "the lights get turned off and the noise of the mind dims". The nervous system switches from sympathetic (fight or flight) to parasympathetic (rest and digest) mode. A calm mind and nervous system creates a healing space for the body to let go of physical, mental/emotional, spiritual blocks and return to homeostasis. This is the point that trapped cellular information is released in the form of memories, experiences, feelings, sensations and seeing of colors and lights. Through this release and peace, the sounds create an access point via stillness to awaken and experience your Shen/Spirit/True Nature.

The crystal singing bowls were initially designed and engineered by computer companies as the environment and habitat to grow the quartz microchips needed to process and relay information. When the bowls dont meet the perfect specifications for the microchips they would be given to and played by an expert who determined the tone and musical note. Today I believe people many manufacture them outside the computer industry.

The quartz crystal singing bowls (vibrational therapy and sound healing) are an amazingly profound and unique treatment modality that I continue to use by themselves and in combination with all my classes, Medical Qi Gong, massage, reiki treatments and meditations to help my clients further enhance their healing and well being. I also use them daily in my own self cultivation practice along with the chanting of seed sounds and sacred mantras to vibrate and resonate my 3 Treasures (Jing/matter, Qi/energy, Shen/spirit).

The bowls are made of 99% quartz crystal and when played resonate a pure tone on the musical scale (do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti,) that reverberates through and balances the DNA, nervous system, endocrine glands, brain, bones, marrow, myo-fascia and internal organs as well as purifies and revitalizes the entire energetic matrix and awakens one's Spirit.

Like the quartz crystal singing bowls our bones, DNA, brain, endocrine glands and myo-fascia also are made up of a quartz crystalline structure. When the bowls are played these physiologic structures in the body become like tuning forks that transmit the healing vibrations of the sounds deep into the DNA, brain, body, endocrine glands, bone marrow and cellular structure of the myo-fascia vibrating and resonating them to the frequency of health and healing. This healing frequency releases tension, stress, pain and adhesions and quiets the constant chattering of the thinking monkey mind. This allows the body to enter a profoundly deep state of relaxation, meditation, regeneration, rejuvenation, peace and healing...all while passively lying down. You learn via the sounds to let go. In that state of silence and stillness is where the spirit can be met.

In our technological age, quartz is used as a transmitter of energy and information in such things as clocks, watches, electronic equipment, micro-chips, computers, smartphones and tablets. Any piece of quartz is able to hold more gigabytes of information than all the computers on Earth. This ability of quartz to act as an amplifier of energy and information is further enhanced when the practitioner and client place their intention on the sound and healing themselves. You can intensify the power of the bowls by incorporating the power of intention and through use of the human voice, which is 1 of our most powerful tools for creation/destruction. The most potent and powerful aspect in any treatment of any system (Western or Eastern) is the intention of the practitioner. This is why NO ONE should play them for people until/unless they know how to ground and have developed a daily dedicated self cultivation practice where they have cleared thier own blocks. Otherwise it can be dangerous for both the person playing and people listening as transference can occur.

The bowls correlate to a specific musical note, particular color, nerve plexus, endocrine gland, internal organ, meridian, dantien and chakra. So when all 7 bowls are played you effectively balance and harmonize every aspect of your being and in doing so are given access to your true-nature/spirit/soul. That is the deepest healing and meditation one could ever ask for.

Over the years of using the bowls in
many clinical settings such as hospitals, hospices, homes, juvenile detention centers, cancer care units etc, I have seen how profoundly they affect people and how they are drawn to them.

I offer vibrational therapy and sound healing using the singing bowls in private one-on-one treatments and group sessions as well as in combination with any other services I provide. The session can be done in the comfort of your home or my Medical Qi Gong clinic.

Leonardo da Vinci asked us, "Do you know that our soul is composed of harmony"?? The singing bowls provide that harmony. To me the bowls are sacred and holy because they allow me to hear the sounds of of my soul and of the Divine Mind.
As Pythagoras stated and the bowls prove, “The highest goal of music is to connect one’s soul to their Divine Nature, not entertainment”




Darren Orr is a Doctor of Classical Chinese Medicine in Medical QiGong Therapy with a specialization in Dao-yin. He is currently training in ShenGong to be a Formless Daoist Priest. He is a Medical QiGong Master, nationally certified massage, bodywork and somatic therapist, Reiki Master, sound healer, Dao yoga, Dao Yin and meditation teacher. Darren is an A-Z practitioner specializing in life-altering illness, palliative care for the terminally ill, bereavement services for family, cancer, PTSD, fibromyalgia, addiction, mental/emotional imbalances, chronic pain and stress management as well as preventative medicine. CEU courses, lectures, workshops, seminars, classes, qi parties, and corporate wellness programs also available. Serving the tri-state area in a triangle from Philadelphia to NYC to Atlantic City Nj. Long Distance therapy also available.

You can contact Darren at:  d.orr333@gmail.com 

You may also be interested in reading our interview with Darren about healing and the practice of Qigong.


Also his articles for our blog include:



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also our pages on Pinterest -





Thursday, April 18, 2013

Tragic Events - Be Mindful About What You Are Viewing

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those involved or connected to the recent tragic
 events in Boston and Texas.  Just a gentle reminder, as horrific as the tragic events are...and as much as we would like to be constantly informed about updates...if there is one thing we all 
should have learned from 911 - it's NOT healthy to sit glued to the TV or in front of the computer or Twitter all day, absorbing all the trauma and fear. It's not good for your mental health.
 Check back to the news several times a day to keep yourself informed, but don't become a victim to the mass media. Don't allow yourself to be put in that position...and please do not
 let yourself keep absorbing all those vibrations.
 Prayers and silence work much better then allowing yourself to view a
 constant barrage of negative imagery ~





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photo - diane fergurson





Thursday, April 11, 2013

Enlightenment and Empowering Others


The following excerpts were taken from the book Spiritual Growth by Sanaya Roman.
  Wise words, and good food for thought.

Numinous Reflection

"Shifting consciousness is an important aspect of your world service.  You shift consciousness by empowering people.  People make changes when they have new insights and perceptions.  They make changes when someone reaches them at the deepest part of their being and touches them with love.

True service comes in moments when there is openness, love, and a lack of boundaries between you and another.  It comes when you feel your equality, recognize the other person's divinity, and act in a way that empowers him or her.  It comes when you link with a higher power and, through your alignment, allow a greater good to come to both of you.  You connect with the other person's Higher Self, and each of you comes away expanded.  In those moments you have become the teacher as well as the student.

Empowerment is different then simply helping people.  If people are hungry, you give them food and help them temporarily.  They are empowered when you teach them to get food for themselves and they can eat on an ongoing basis.  If you are a healer, you can keep "fixing" people's problems, or you can teach them how to solve their own problems.  Empowerment means teaching people skills they can use to take charge of their own lives rather them out of recurring problems....

When you assist people, perhaps helping them find solutions to problems, they either remain the same or make positive changes in their lives.  If they make the changes, you have shifted their consciousness and made a true contribution to them.  Then they will have more choices and higher visions of themselves, which they can use to create better lives.

To shift consciousness you need to recognize where you can truly make a difference.  It requires knowing when people are open to growing and giving them assistance only if they are ready.  This way, you will gain much energy from your contact, and your time with this person will contribute to your spiritual growth.....

Consciousness can be shifted in simple ways.  When you are with children or friends, focus on what you can do that will create a shift for them.  When you meet people, think of what you can contribute to them, not what you will get from them....

It is important to know when to assist people and when not to.

It takes a certain amount of energy to shift someone's consciousness to a higher level.  It is important to learn how much energy to put out to create the shift.  You may have experienced helping someone with just a few words of advice.  He or she made changes and solved the problem.  You probably felt good and energized by the exchange.

You may have had other exchanges with friends in which you poured a lot of energy into assisting them, but the recurring problem never got solved.  You probably felt drained, for the energy you put out didn't create any lasting changes in their lives.  If you choose the wrong time to help or if the person is not open to growing, you will put out much energy with little result. You also need to learn how much energy you are capable of shifting so that you do not take on more than you can handle.

The higher your consciousness, the more of a penalty you pay for putting your energy where it doesn't create a shift.  You may feel tired or drained, or even get sick.  When you create a shift, you feel charged with energy and your radiance increases.  As you grow, you will want to be increasingly alert to whom and what you are putting your time and energy into and the results you are or aren't creating.

If people feel like burdens, it is a sign that "carrying" them is not for their higher good.  You may be taking away their lessons and slowing down their growth.  They may become dependent on you and stop taking responsibility for making their own lives work.  People who are growing rapidly from your assistance will not feel like burdens....

To serve others you will need compassion and the ability to detach.  Compassion is helping people understand what they are learning and empowering them to see their gifts in what they are experiencing.  It is watching others go through their lessons the way they have chosen to experience them, knowing that though they may be suffering at the personality level, their suffering will help them give birth to a new, stronger self.  Assist them by focusing on all the gifts their problems are offering them, such as teaching them about self love, compassion, patience, inner strength, and other positive qualities."




 Numinous Reflection courtesy of Karen Casey-Smith.
Prints are available through her shop on Etsy




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Sunday, September 16, 2012

Manifesting Destiny - Conversations With Healer Darren Orr


MBS:  I was having a discussion with some people the other day, and someone made the off handed remark that because of the way that a mutual friend had acted, they predicted that a certain future outcome was inevitable for them.  Another person who was standing with us then made the statement, "you better watch what you say, or you will manifest it."

Will the event really become manifested, or are you really predicting something that's going to happen anyway?  OR, if you really want to expand on that thought, does it have to do with time lines? Could it become manifested on this time line but not another?? Or does it even get that involved at all???  lol

Autumn Decor, Tree Reflection Print by Jude McConkey
Darren:  Yes it gets that involved and everything you mentioned is factored into the equation and outcome and probably alot more haha! You are doing both: it's being manifested because you said it and you are seeing the fruition of a habitual pattern not in balance with your friends destiny.

Everyone has a destiny--a reason why you were born, a reason why you are living at this time on Earth. We can go into this deeper from a Classical Chinese medicine perspective but it must be in person because truth cannot be expressed in words on paper or over the cloud, only through a direct vibrational experience.

Yes, you are predicting something that is going to happen. If you are friends with someone else and overtime you come to understand their mind (patterns, behaviors, habits) then it is relatively easy to predict outcomes based on past behavior. What do most people use as the basis of their current experience and future decisions?---their past. So the past, for most, informs their future without them ever being present of the only moment that they are alive---now and now and now!!  Or, for most people, even being aware that this pattern exists - which is most unfortunate. As my teachers teacher states "anyone who doesn't live in the present moment is committing a form of spiritual suicide" and thus cannot fulfill their mandate from heaven or destiny in this lifetime. 

The question becomes, are your choices and actions in life based on your true nature and your own spirit?  That truthful internal voice?  Or, is your truth stifled and unduly influenced by external sources ...ie family, friends, media, Internet, society, religion, culture???  Or, are you simply an amalgamation of these factors?  Or... have you even bothered to take the time to understand your own mind???
That is an important question to ask oneself.

It is worthless to read and reiterate someone else's words, practices, forms, teachings. All of those came from one who originally thought outside the box, a true independent thinker. This is what my lineage, Formless Daoism and Inner Strength teaches as it's foundation--to be an independent thinker.  The most meaningful teaching comes directly from one's own experience. All else is fallacy and plagiarism. You must speak and live your own truth. You are utterly unique. Over 70 trillion combinations of genes and cells and you are a unique combination and manifestation never seen before in creation and never to be seen again.

So, why follow anyone but your own spirit?  The greatest master you will ever find resides inside your own Being.
The teacher is so necessary and revered in every culture because it points you back to your own spirit -- the uniqueness which holds and enfolds all which if you connect with it while living, will unfold and manifest your destiny in this lifetime.

Everyone is a creator. Everyone creates their own life.  Even if they abdicate that responsibility and play the martyr or victim role they still choose the filtered glasses with which they choose to see the world through and act upon.  It can become manifest in this timeline based on your friends choices or it can be manifested in another dimension or another lifetime.

At this point one needs to look to the highest form of science we in the west know of, quantum physics. We are finding with each new discovery that our most modern scientific method directly correlates to the ancient teachings of many cultures. As the famous physicist David Bohm states "the universe may be nothing more than a hologram of your own Mind".
This is exactly the 'Truth' that QiGong Masters pointed at 8,000 years ago using 'internal' technology.

What does that statement invoke in you?
Does it make you think? 

Depending on the quantum physicist you are quoting there can be anywhere from 3 to 26 dimensions or more. Your choices determine whether the unlimited field of potentiality and possibility is broken into a particle or a wave. Using the metaphor of the ocean, the quantum realm is an ocean of unlimited potentiality and possibilities where your choices take this unlimited wave and break it into 1 path, wave or particle that you surf and that 1 path out of many becomes your so called "reality".   But if there are other dimensions then potentially you are making different decisions in each dimension and each produces a unique outcome and destiny.

Think about that!

Here we can reference the Hiesenburg principle which states simply that the observer changes that which is observed. This has HUGE implications for healing from a medical QiGong perspective but even mores for our scientific method and how research is conducted.

Said in another way- what you give conscious awareness to, you change. Your intention in some aspects has more of an effect on the field of awareness and consciousness, that is life, than do your actions.

From a jing level physical matter perspective, everyone has a timeline. Life is a terminal illness.  From the moment you are born it is a countdown to your death. You only get so many breaths. Can you face that fact and live moment to moment with that awareness, not be fearful and use it to increase your presence in the eternal now?  It's the only thing one can truly count on.  If you are born you will die. The question becomes how are you going to live your death?? The way you live your life is the way you will live your death. We are born with a destiny, but our individual choices from moment to moment affect this destiny and our ability to fulfill and manifest it in our lifetime and within a given time line.  If you don't find the time to deal with and understand your mind in life, you WILL deal with at death, it's your choice.

This is why spiritual disciplines like Medical QiGong were created.  So you can keep your body as healthy, vital and supple for as long as possible.  Regulating the Mind, reducing stress, harmonizing internal and external energies into 1.  Honing your intention to awaken your spirit so you can manifest your own individual, unique destiny in this lifetime for the benefit of all life, both formed and formless.



Darren Orr is a Doctor of Classical Chinese Medicine in Medical QiGong Therapy with a specialization in Dao-yin. He is currently training in ShenGong to be a Formless Daoist Priest. He is a Medical QiGong Master, nationally certified massage, bodywork and somatic therapist, Reiki Master, sound healer, Dao yoga, Dao Yin and meditation teacher. Darren is an A-Z practitioner specializing in life-altering illness, palliative care for the terminally ill, bereavement services for family, cancer, PTSD, fibromyalgia, addiction, mental/emotional imbalances, chronic pain and stress management as well as preventative medicine. CEU courses, lectures, workshops, seminars, classes, qi parties, and corporate wellness programs also available. Serving the tri-state area in a triangle from Philadelphia to NYC to Atlantic City Nj. Long Distance therapy also available.

You can contact Darren at:  d.orr333@gmail.com 

You may also be interested in reading our interview with Darren about healing and the practice of Qigong.



Also his articles for our blog include:
Shedding Our Acquired Life Roles and Medical Qigong
Spiritual Warrior


 


Autumn Decor Tree Reflection print is courtesy of photographer Jude McConkey.
  Prints are available through her shop on Etsy.






   Follow the daily updates of the Mind Body Spirit Marketplace on Facebook and Tumblr.







Sunday, September 11, 2011

An Unintentional Life


 Ten years after losing her husband Arron Dack on 911, author Abigail Carter reflects on her "unintentional" life.                                                    

An Unintentional Life
by Abigail Carter

On that sunny September morning as I was stuffing our daughter Olivia’s lunch into her backpack and getting ready to leave the house to put her on the school bus for her second day of first grade, our son Carter clinging to my hip, my husband Arron called explaining carefully that he was at Windows on the World in the World Trade Center. His voice was urgent but not panicked. He asked me to call 9-1-1 because he thought there’d been a bomb. I didn’t ask if he was OK. I didn’t tell him I loved him. I didn’t know that I would never speak to him again.


Just two weeks before, I had watched six-year old Olivia flip-flop her way down a peaty forest path, peeping into an old stump pocked with moss looking for the fairies her grandmother convincingly assured her lived there. Carter, pillowy knees clasped around my waist, pushed away from me determined to hop down and get a look at the sleeping fairies for himself. As we continued down the path, I warned the kids’ away from the long line of frayed extension cords that were snaking their way down to the dock from the house, my grandfather’s genius at work. From the flimsy bridge, a gap-toothed smile across a tiny stream, I heard Arron running up the path from the beach toward us, warning us of the electric cords.


“Seriously?” I said to him.

“Don’t say anything, Ab. You know your Grandfather.” He was right. I did know my grandfather, a product of the depression when nothing, not even a dangerous and frayed extension cord was ever thrown away. Perhaps the danger was real, or perhaps Arron just sensed the danger that loomed ahead, a danger I could not yet fathom. I just shook my head and followed him and the kids to the water’s edge and the partially constructed dock.

I handed Arron a beer, his dark hair and bare chest peppered with sawdust, a leather tool belt slung loosely around his hips. I gave another beer to my grandfather, a spry eighty-eight year-old in a pale blue cap, clearly the director of the construction operation. He and Arron had spent the last two days building the new dock at our tiny lake in Quebec a replacement for the relic of splintered wood and dangerous rusty nails that had preceded it. “The dock’s looking good,” I said sitting on the freshly cut floor, its piney smell pungent as Arron helped Carter hammer a nail into it while Olivia peered over its edge looking for frogs. Across the lake I watched a solitary loon dip noiselessly under the water and I inhaled the moment – a perfect peacefulness. Less than two weeks later that perfect moment would become a memory that I cherished like a well-thumbed photograph.


How to explain to a two-year old the death of his father? I spoke of “big boo-boos” and “buildings falling down” until he began pointing at tall buildings asking if daddy was there. Each new developmental milestone required a renewed explanation of his father’s death. What I told him at two needed to be explained again at four and with each new piece of information came new fears. Fear of flying, fear of losing his mom. He wouldn’t let me out of his sight and I had to unhook his hands from around my waist each morning when I dropped him off at school.


Our daughter refused to speak of her dad, asking when we could go back to being “happy people.” She told friends who asked about her dad that he was at a meeting in Florida. If I cried when I tucked her into bed at night, she would look at me with horror, as if my face had just turned purple, a condition that might be contagious. Over the years, I’ve battled my kids’ out of control temper tantrums, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, learning issues – conditions that other, non-grieving families face, but that I had to handle alone as a grieving single mom, constantly questioning what was normal child behavior and what was grief. At times I longed to run away or have a night off when my only option was to sit in a heap on the floor and cry. I forgot what it was like to have someone else to take the garbage out, or to talk to about my day over dinner. I was lonely. I too wondered if we would ever be those “happy people” again. I couldn’t see how it would ever be possible.

I have been asked the question over and over, “so how ARE you ten years on?” It’s a difficult question to answer. My life is nothing like I imagined it would be when I married Arron almost 21 years ago, thinking we would raise our kids in tandem and grow old and crotchety together. My life is nothing like I thought it might be the day he died and I wondered if I would have to sell the house. And yet here I sit in a beautiful home that overlooks Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains, a published book under my belt, 3,000 miles from New Jersey on a sunny Seattle day, two beautiful children upstairs hunched over computers, a tiny Boston Terrier on my lap and I think, “whose life is this?”


Ten years later I’m baffled that in many ways our lives are better now than when Arron was alive – what I have come to think of as my “unintentional life.” If Arron strode through our door today he would walk into a beautiful house in Seattle instead of New Jersey. It was a move I felt was essential – to escape New Jersey and what I was sure would be the persistent recognition of my kids and me throughout Montclair as “that 9/11 family.” How could he not marvel that his beautiful daughter now drives, has his knack for languages, his giggle? Or that his son looks like him, is kind and generous and can play Taps on the trumpet? I would laugh at his astonishment that my memoir was published in four countries. He would admire his happy-again family, living their unintentional lives.


There is a heavy debt of guilt whenever I realize that our new life wouldn’t exist had Arron not died. Through the pain of our grief, we discovered strength we didn’t know we possessed, learned to appreciate the gifts of life and have empathy for others who were themselves in pain. We were awakened into life by death. Experiencing death head-on opened the door to new opportunities in our lives. In my longing to be with Arron, willing him to exist in some new form, I lost my fear of death – something I’ve come to see as the unexpected gift of grief – a lack of fear that unmasks an entirely new universe of possibility – move across the country alone with two kids? No problem. Write a book? Why not? Teach a class on grief? A fulfilling experience. I stopped worrying what people thought and began thinking almost magically, realizing that the only person standing in the way of, say, writing a book, was myself. I learned to be brave enough to trust my intuition, get help when we needed it, find allies and live with no expectations – a flexibility that invited what I can only express as mindful evolution. Some might call it a growing spiritualism, though I don’t want to get all new age-y about it. Certainly, I began to question fate and faith in my quest to make peace with Arron’s death.


I muddled through “dad” experiences, like starting the lawn mower, knotting Carter’s necktie for a band recital and teaching our daughter to drive. The kids in turn have developed a sense of compassion beyond their years. Olivia, during a trip to Rwanda to help girls affected by the Genocide also learned about the power of forgiveness. Still, we have all had to learn to live with an un-namable absence, always wondering what life would be like if Arron were still a part of it.


This summer at the lake in Quebec, I watched that once pudgy-legged two-year old, now a lanky, tanned twelve-year old, hold the hand of his younger cousin pointing out the fairy’s stump, bestowing its magic upon a new generation. Our daughter, a lithe sixteen-year old enthralled the family who were gathered for my grandfather’s memorial with her effortless beauty and wit. The snake of extension cords no longer posed any threat as I stood again on the dock that Arron and my grandfather built that August in 2001, now adorned with a carved wooden plaque bearing Arron’s name. The family watched quietly as my mother and uncle peddled the paddle boat into the middle of the lake and sprinkled my grandfather’s ashes onto the water’s glassy surface, a ceremony whose dignity my grandfather would have appreciated. Arron too felt present in the breeze that caressed our hair. Just beyond the boat, a lone loon skimmed majestically across the water until I blinked and he was gone.


Abigail Carter's book "The Alchemy of Loss" is available on Amazon.  You can also visit her website.

The Mind Body Spirit Odyssey also interviewed Abby last year for our blog.  You can read that interview here. 

Thank you to photographer Karen Casey Smith for allowing us to use her photograph "Dandelion Clock".  Prints are available in her Etsy and Artfire Shops.

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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

This Beautiful Battered World

Mandala #1:  This Beautiful Battered World by Diane Fergurson 2001

Regardless of how you may personally feel about the unfolding of current events in the media, be careful you don't let yourself get caught up in the negative fray.  Change the channel on your television or radioYou've been informed about what's going on, so process this information in your own time, in your own way...without constant outside bombardmentIt's not good for you.  Emotionally, psychologically or spiritually.  Vibrationally it's perpetuating a lot of agitation in people right now.  Be conscious of this in your dealings with others.  We urge you to focus your energy on the positive endeavours in your day instead.

   -please share-

Monday, March 21, 2011

The Role of the Healer

"One of the most fundamental roles a healer can play is to help individuals attune themselves to their own unlimited healing capacities.  Each of us has an inner voice or adviser that helps us regulate our internal responses with quiet and truthful guidance.  (It is also important to) create an environment of support and reflection in which individuals can become receptive to their innate wisdom.

In assisting this process of calling forth our innate wisdom, the healer empowers us to look within for "healing", rather than to external sources for "curing."  The healer and the person being healed can then explore the idea that disease may not be a random event; it may even be a message telling us that we have deviated from our true path.

The realization that we possess these profound healing powers within us enables us not only to heal ourselves, but also to support others in their healing quests."

From the book:
Healers on Healing
edited by Richard Carlson, Ph.D. and Benjamin Shield

"Regarding the Moon - Gazing Crescent Blue Sky Clouds"  by photographer Karen Casey Smith is
available in her shop on Etsy

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Saturday, October 9, 2010

"The Magic of Color Vibration" an Interview with Jovita Wallace, Part 2


Question 3:
What are the subtle energetic effects of color?

Sometimes we may be feeling blue, or seeing red, or feeling in the pink, or green with envy. Or, we may describe something as red-hot, a black day, a brown-out, or the many more color expressions that we use.
Expressions like these indicate that we make intuitive connections between our feelings and the color we use to describe them. These expressions are cultural associations.  But, on a very personal, emotional level our response to color is through the heart, the mind, and the body and its senses. By learning to listen to our color feelings, we can enhance our sensitivity to color vibration.
When you notice a color that stands out from everything around you, or see a color that catches your eye, or find a color that just feels so good to look at, you have identified the vibration needed to balance your energy.
Color energy effects are not restricted only to the sighted. Those with impaired vision are equally receptive to these energies that are received as vibration through the aura.
Every color has specific characteristics that can stimulate a psychological and physiological response in the subtle body aura. Each major visible color’s qualities are linked to the chakra system with which it resonates. The chakras are the energy centers of our body that create the layers of the constantly changing aura. Understanding the nature of the chakras and their higher energetic dimensions helps us to comprehend the energetic effect of each color.

Extremes of emotions are often the outward display of imbalances or blockages in the flow of color vibration into and out of the chakras. Each chakra is designed for a specific purpose.

Below is a journey through the colors and their subtle energy effects that are associated with the major chakras.

Violet is associated with the crown chakra. The purpose of the crown chakra is “to think.”
The crown chakra governs the function of the pineal gland. Violet is the color of the eternal, spiritual self, made up of perfection. The center of spirituality, this chakra connects you to an infinite intelligence. This is the center for spiritual transformation, service, and living in the present.  It is also the energy field where we think too much and need to de-stress. Using the color violet helps us relax our mind and enhance self-respect and dignity. Use violet to help to still the mind and meditate.

Indigo Blue is associated with the brow chakra. The purpose of the brow chakra is “to see.”
The brow chakra, also known as the third eye, governs the function of the master pituitary gland. Known in yoga as the 1000-petalled lotus flower, it is the center of creative visualization, imagination, memory, intuitive wisdom, perception, and gathers instruction from your higher self.
Indigo blue is the greatest healing ray. All of our emotional responses are triggered here through our perception of the sense world. Is what I see pleasurable, painful or neutral? Use indigo blue to study and for memory.

Blue is associated with the throat chakra. The purpose of the throat chakra is “to speak.”
The throat chakra is centered at the energy of the thyroid gland. It is the center for creative expression through sound and is significant in matters of communication, self-expression, decision-making, and truth.
The blue vibration is used to help balance clear communication and the ability to speak truth from the heart. Use blue to calm.

Turquoise is minor chakra related to the heart chakra, and the purpose is “to protect.”
The chakra of the thymus gland is very closely linked with the heart, and connected with a generosity of life and love. Use turquoise as a refresher (equals a 10-minute nap), and to stimulate the thymus gland associated with our great protector- the immune system.

Green is associated with the heart chakra. The purpose of the heart chakra is “to love.”
The heart chakra is the center of love and harmony. This is the area for a person’s soul to shine through. This is where we live! Green is the color of balance. To give and receive love, develop more compassion and altruism, learn forgiveness, and increase prosperity are the aspects of the heart center. Green’s subtle energy gives the feeling of being free.  Getting in touch with our feelings sometimes is the hardest step in knowing what we want. Using the green vibration to go more deeply into the heart energy will be helpful in this process.

Yellow is associated with the solar plexus chakra. The purpose of the solar plexus chakra is “to do.”
The solar plexus, is associated with the pancreas gland and is like sun energy. The nervous system is influenced, and we can get very sensitive to situations. It is the center of human recognition and confidence where “I know I can do it”. President Obama’s election campaign was yellow.
We can use yellow to expand our light, show our gifts to the world, give us the confidence to be pro-active, and experience happiness.
I like to call yellow the Ginko treatment for focus and clarity. The mind and emotions come together in harmony in a balanced solar plexus.

Orange is associated with the sacral chakra. The purpose of the sacral chakra is “to emote.”
The sacral chakra relates to the reproductive organs and is strongly influenced by genetic patterning. Its connection is less spiritual, more earthly. Physical movement, well-being, and joy relate to this chakra.
This dimension is designed to express emotions, pleasure, sexuality, creativity, relationships, and social affairs, taste, and food. Orange is the color to use for feelings of depression or abandonment.

Red is associated with the root chakra. The purpose of the root chakra is “to have.”
The base chakra governs the function of the adrenal glands, energy. It is connected to passion, life-force energy, will, being stable and the ability to provide oneself with the basics of survival: Food, shelter, and material needs.  The use of the red vibration helps us physically energize and brings us into the moment, fully present. It also relates to our roots- our family, our country.
Subtle energy effects of color are inter-related with the wondrous wheels of light and color of the chakras, spinning and vibrating and always seeking balance.

Question 4:
Why are our responses to color so varied?

Because we are constantly seeking balance through the expression of our chakras, our attraction to a color(s) is letting us know what we need at any given time. The chakras can be in balance or expressing in a deficient or excessive manner to some degree. Always changing and fluctuating, the chakras are responding to our reaction to situations around us.
This is why one day you might feel attracted to green and the next day red. It can be that you may be drawn to a certain color over and over again for a period of time. With some knowledge of the chakras and some self-reflection, you will be able to identify what it is you are lacking or trying too hard to manage. It could be physical, emotional/mental, or spiritual.

In the color wheel, colors that are opposite each other are called complimentary. We can use one of these two complimentary colors to balance a chakra. For instance, anger is associated with red and the opposite color is blue. In this case anger is excessive and blue would be used to calm. Put your angry, fiery, redheaded boyfriend in a blue room where he can calm down and feel peaceful.

How’s your social life? Have you been a hermit lately? You need orange to stimulate the sacral chakra to want to get out and be social and find pleasure in the company of others.
You may be preparing for a speaking engagement and feeling nervous and stressed because you really are a shy person. Several days before the presentation, you purchase a bouquet of yellow daisies to cheer yourself, to feel a little happier. You are on the right track; you listened to your intuitive color message. The subtle energy vibration of yellow stimulates the solar plexus to release fear and helps give you the self-confidence you need. You can do it!
As you prepare for your presentation, you plan what you are wearing. If you choose blue or turquoise your audience will be better, calmer listeners. They will be responding to the subtle energy vibration of blue, which relates to communication and the throat chakra. Blue makes people feel comfortable and trusting. Still not sure of yourself, put a red scarf or red color near your throat chakra to increase the resonance of your voice.  A challenge for all of us is to forgive and love unconditionally, especially in our close relationships.
We know green, associated with the heart chakra, is the color for healing our grief and emotional wounds, but magenta is the complimentary color that can stimulate a feeling of unconditional love. The spectrum for magenta goes from pink, to rose, to burgundy. You can choose the one that most resonates with you to enhance the ability to forgive and start loving unconditionally.
If you have a cold, the best colors to surround yourself with are blue and indigo blue. Their subtle energy vibrations will give your immune system support. And, it will feel so good.
If lavender or violet has been calling to you, you may be seeking a spiritual teacher or maybe trying to get out of all the distressing thoughts you have been having lately.

Recently there was a special mask project at a local Mental Health Clinic for their outpatient clients. I was invited to participate in the project with a small group of artists. We were each paired with one of the clients. It happened that my participant was the most depressed of the group. She did not speak, and I was sure she would not come back for the second workshop. She did come back and finished her mask. And her mask was beautiful. The color she used was peach, which is in the orange spectrum. Orange is the color of joy and the optimal color vibration used for depression.

Sometimes people may have an aversion to a certain color. Although there may be a negative concept or experience connected to this particular color vibration, it is still important information. It will lead to an area where concepts need to change and healing needs to occur. The dislike of the color really says that I am trying very hard to manage and deny a particular expression of myself.
For example a man might intensely dislike pink. Society has connected pink to the feminine. Has he forfeited his creative, nurturing right-brain self?  Bringing the male and female energies together in balance is healthy for both men and women.

These are just a few examples of how color attracts and how we can use the information to re-balance a chakra. When one chakra is vibrating out of balance, it can affect the remaining energy centers.  We just do not want a chakra to stay stuck for a long period of time. The “stuck” is energy being diverted or blocked, preventing the chakra to resonate fully and the pathways of energy to flow. When all of our chakras are spinning open and in clock-wise motion, their light and color equates to a high state of vibration and well-being.

By paying attention to our color choices, we can become aware of our physical, emotional/mental, and spiritual needs. By consciously working with the subtle energy of color vibration, we can also empower ourselves and our world.

.... interview to be continued in Part 3.
Part one...


Thanks again to Karen Casey-Smith for the use of her stunning Mandala images.
Jovita Wallace can be contacted at:  jovitabinb@yahoo.com 

Sunday, October 3, 2010

"The Magic of Color Vibration" an Interview with Jovita Wallace, Part 1

Jovita Wallace is a shamanic healer, educator and lecturer in Vibrational Medicine.  She is the Founder/Director of Being in Balance Inc. and teaches a comprehensive Color Vibration course. Her Center for Color Illumination and Pure Tone Therapy offers customized illumination therapy – designing programs to promote color enhancement experiences using computerized chromatherapy light technology.  This is Part 1 of our 3 part interview with Jovita.  We thank her for spending time with us and sharing some her extensive knowledge base and expertise on this subject.

Question 1:
You’ve had such a long, multi-faceted career.  One thing you continue to be well known for is your vibrational medicine work in color therapy.  For those who are not very familiar with this field, will you explain what it is and also how you became involved in it.

Answer:
My work in color therapy evolved quickly out of my initial pioneering research and practice of pure-tone sound therapy that began in the mid 1990’s.

The early and mid 1990’s was a powerful time for light workers.  Many of us were led to explore work in vibrational medicine. Vibrational medicine is an alternative therapy based on the belief that illness is caused by energy imbalances.

Two of these areas were sound and color. The Hopi Native American prophesy was starting to be fulfilled with the ”Coming of the Rainbow People” through the keepers of the crystal bowls.  I became one of those through divine opportunity...  While taking a shamanic course at Star Seed in Montclair, NJ, I was introduced to the sacred crystal bowls and experienced a mystical state of Being that lasted several days – being one with all in the Universe.  My higher self said, “Buy a crystal bowl.”  I listened, having no idea where this was taking me.

I learned that pure tone crystal bowl music and color are forms of vibrational medicine and validates that everything in the universe is in a state of vibration.  The frequency at which an object or person most naturally vibrates is called resonance.  Our resonance, or light, is expressed through our aura (electromagnetic field).

My work evolved.  I studied, attended workshops, and began hands-on application with sound and color therapy for clients.  My learning formula for Apply and Observe became one of my greatest learning tools.

Because the significance of color vibration was profound, I organized and promoted a comprehensive color workshop in 1997.  The audience awareness was not there, not until 2001 when I was asked to design and produce Color Enhancement Stories for a well-known day spa in SoHo, New York.

There were 8 glass massage rooms were filled with clouds of changing color emanating from LED lights.  Each 60-minute computer-programmed color vibration story was designed for a specific benefit.  The client received 100% saturation of color while they were enjoying their Reiki massage.
That year this spa won the “International Spa of the Year” award.  Finally, the years of Color Vibration work were now taking on a greater audience.

You do not have to see color with your eyes to experience the benefit.  The vibration is received through your aura (electromagnetic field) into the nervous system that sends the color vibration information into every cell, organ, and system of your body for healing and expansion.

Question 2:

What are the vibrational characteristics of each color?
Answer:
The characteristics of red are associated with contraction and logic. It is a warm hue carrying male energy.
Orange has a tendency to lift off, movement, a warm color and carries a male energy.
Yellow’s characteristic is also warm and carries a male energy. It lifts away from solidity.
Green is balance because its position in the rainbow is mid-spectrum, and holds equally the male and female energy.
Blue carries the energy of peace, relaxation, and openness. Cool, female energy is associated with this vibration.
Indigo Blue, a cool color, carries the vibrational characteristics of female expression and is ready to move energy.
Violet is the blossom not yet fully open but strives for fulfillment and carries a cool, female energy.

Color therapists also use Magenta and Turquoise:
Magenta vibration transcends maleness and femaleness. This is the color of the purest spiritual energy that lets go of all concerns and worries. It signifies the aspiration to completeness.
Turquoise carries a female energy and is a cool color. It wants to integrate with the colors green and yellow.

Each color has its own unique characteristic, or vibration, that is received as information to stimulate a subtle body energy response for our highest vibration and well-being.

What is your favorite color? What color have you been attracted to today…this week or month?  The color we are responding to can tell us where we are seeking balance.

Every day we make unconscious color choices from the clothes we wear to the food we eat. We can consciously use color choices, however, to improve our mental, physical, and spiritual health. Understanding and using color and experiencing their energetic effects can change our thoughts, emotions, intentions, choices and actions.  It can also heal.

Working with color is an adventurous journey of discovery and it really is a lot of fun!  The color energy that we take in originates from cosmic energy…the life-force that underlies our ability to breathe, eat, grow, have feelings, and think. Food and drink are just part of the energy that sustains us in life.

Sir Isaac Newton discovered the seven major rays of light that we receive through sunlight.  In his experiments he guided a shaft of light through a glass prism in a darkened room. The white light separated into its seven major colors – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo Blue, and Violet.  The colors of the rainbow.

This electromagnetic spectrum, sunshine, bathes the Universe in the energy which is all around us. The energy of sunlight produces all the wavelengths of color from ultraviolet to infrared. This is known as full-spectrum white light.

The color waves travel at the speed of light and are made up of an electrical magnetic component. Reds have the longest wavelength, the lowest frequencies, and the least energy. Violets have the shortest wavelengths, the highest frequencies, and the most energy.

We see the color of an object when our eyes interpret the wavelengths of the light it reflects. What we perceive as a result of the energy is illusion – only the energy itself is real. So, when we view the world in terms of color, the color is in our minds, not in the landscape. The wavelengths are reflected back to our eyes from the objects they strike, and they are interpreted by our brains as many different hues in the illuminated color spectrum.

The human eye allows us to differentiate somewhere between 200 and 250 different colors. And not all of us see each color the same way or in the same intensity. Color is active at all levels of our being - mental, physical, and spiritual.

Whether we see color through our eye or experience illuminated color light through the aura, we are receiving information as a vibration. The logical left side of our brain focuses on form, while the more creative, intuitive, right side responds to emotion.

.... to be continued....

Part 2




You can contact Jovita at jovitabinb@yahoo.com 
for more information about her classes and her work.

Thank you to Karen Casey Smith for letting us use her beautiful Mandala artwork throughout this interview.  You can find more of her stunning images in her  Etsy shop.

Follow us on FaceBook   

Friday, August 6, 2010

Part 3: From Jing to Qi to Shen, An Interview with Healer Darren Orr

 Question 5:  Some people believe that you can never fully emotionally heal after a loss (like a death)...and although they may suppress and manage those painful feelings...they continue to carry it with them and it unknowingly impacts their lives greatly.

Answer:
Yes, you are right, this is a very frequent situation that I see in my clinic and have had success in healing and ameliorating problems or imbalances associated with it. I firmly believe you can heal from a loss, you simply need to shift your perspective via self-cultivation.  Many if not most people believe they can never fully emotionally and spiritually heal after a loss such as death and they carry it with them and it does unnecessarily and unknowingly impact their lives greatly, very often negatively.

I understand this sentiment, yet it stems from a fundamental misconception. Firstly, if life is looked at in it's entirety from the macrocosm of the universe and mother nature to the microcosm of the internal universe of the human body, you will see that life consists of change. With loss the first thing that must be understood is that life is change. Change and death are the only things you can count on. The last change is the change of wardrobe at the moment of death from the cumbersome confines of the human body/mind to the invisible spiritual energy of the eternal soul. In America there is a stigma associated with death and dying and it is virtually taboo to discuss it. This is the underlying basis for our youth obsessed and age driven culture perpetuated by the media, multinational corporations and us the individual people, who buy into it.

This question is getting into the Shen (spiritual) level. Most people believe they are this separate individual being consisting of a body/mind that is confined in space and time. That is the great fundamental misconception about life (that we are the body/ mind).  We believe and mistake ourselves to be a separate, finite being consisting of only physical matter that lasts 100 yrs at most. This creates a fundamental fear and insecurity in people which our culture plays off of generously with its media, marketing and advertising.

In truth we are Spirit. We are spiritual beings having human experiences not human beings occasionally having spiritual experiences. We are not our bodies, not our minds/personalities/ego's, not our thoughts, feelings, information, experiences or emotions. We are none of them. As the ancient sages in India used to say Neti, Neti: Not this, Not this. They are simply tools used by the eternal soul to learn, evolve and grow.

In TRUTH we are an invisible eternal spiritual energy that is housed within the body/mind, in what the Daoists called the Taiji pole, similar to a person driving a car. When a person drives a car they don't mistake their identity for being that of a car, but due to life's stresses and our cultural upbringing we mis-identify and believe ourselves to be a body with a personality ie. false self or ego instead of spirit which is driving the body/mind. Again this disconnect usually occurs in childhood between the ages of 5-9, by the age of 12 the acquired personality/ego has taken root. Up until then a child understands the world primarily through spiritual intuition, innocence, energetic sensitivity, a spontaneous openness and exuberance for life. This spiritual disconnect of our children perpetuated by our materialistic culture is the main reason a childhood stress management curriculum needs to be implemented alongside the academic curriculum. If our children never lose their connection to Source/God/Christ/ Dao/Buddha/Allah etc.. in one generation we would have a global shift and uplift of consciousness about life and death.

You cannot have life without death, they are inseparable, yin and yang. Death needs to be discussed openly in our society. The stigma and taboo associated with its discussion in the public forum needs to be radically changed. If our attitude and awareness about death changed then our lives would change. The destruction and degradation of the Earth by the hands of man can only be explained by a fear of death. If we simply saw death as the transition, change and transformation of matter into energy that it is, then we could develop a culture and society integrated with the cyclical changes of nature like the ancients and thus live in harmony with the Earth and not opposed, disconnected, separated and segregated from the natural order of life like we currently are.

Death is the one thing we are ALL going to face. No one escapes it. In essence birth is a death sentence and we all have a terminal disease. Most are petrified of contemplating their own death. Many feel if they think or talk about it they are bringing death and negativity upon themselves or others. As if simply talking about death is a curse. The only way to truly live life is to come to terms with death..to learn how face it, to embrace it and not fear it otherwise whether you know it or not your life is being dictated by fear. When done properly and you contemplate and meditate on your own death you come to such a deep and profound appreciation, gratitude and acceptance for you life, for being alive, for this very moment, to be able to breathe, look at the sky, animals and trees. You can come to terms with death while you are alive and healthy using death as a deep meditation tool to keep you centered, open, peaceful and rooted in the present moment. For if you examine your mind carefully you will see that your spirit only exists in the present, while the acquired ego/personality only exists in the past and future. If you lose your fear of death, what do you have to fear from life? You can do anything if you are not afraid of death. The Buddha has said " of all meditations the meditation on the moment of your death is greatest of all".

 Everyone realizes they are that invisible eternal spiritual energy at death yet most have lived their lives in complete disregard of the spiritual principle and life force that creates, maintains and sustains them. I see it so often when I give medical qigong and reiki to terminally ill patients and their families. My real job and sole intention is to connect the person to that invisible eternal spiritual energy residing within the center core of the body in what the Chinese call the Taiji pole or the River of god so that they can re-awaken their true nature (Wu Jing Shen/enlightenment/Christ consciousness) and fulfill their destiny.The way people heal from loss in whatever form whether it be death, divorce, break-up, job loss etc... is for them to begin self-cultivation and the rooting out of the negative acquired habitual tendencies, behaviors, desires, attachments and aversions from their body/mind and reconnecting with the subtle invisible spiritual core of their being (Taiji pole.)

Here's a poem that popped into my head while writing this Shen level question:

Life is love manifest
You are not the emotions, thoughts and feelings
of the body and mind
confined in space and time.
                         You are the Divine.
                         The eternal invisible subtle
                         spiritual energy of the formless oneness.

                         Namaste


Discussion to be continued...


Interview part 1 
Interview part 2
________________________________



Thank you very much for your thoughtful and informative insights Darren.
We will be posting an addition to this interview in the near future.  I had a follow up question for Darren, but turned out to be an entire subject in and into itself.  We wanted to do it justice, so I will be posting it on it's own in the upcoming weeks.

If you have questions for Darren or wish to inquire about his teaching and Private Practice you can post via our "Comments" section of this blog post.
You can also email him at: Bodhichitta8@hotmail.com    You may also enjoy reading:Namaste- An Explanation of a Very Old Greeting     ~ diane  Follow us on FaceBook   



 

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