Insights for your personal evolution

Astral projection and lucid dreaming

I recently completed an online course focused on astral projection facilitated by Robert Bruce and Bob & Marina Felix. While I didn’t succeed in a fully conscious out-of-body experience, I did have some amazing lucid dreams.

For example, in one, I was having a lucid dream about being out of body, flying around, seeing another flying person, etc. On the way back to my body, I hit my head on the light above my bed and chuckled, as it was warned this could happen. I found myself back in my body and wanted to get back out, so I did the rolling out technique, but instead of rolling out energetically, I rolled out physically and landed on the floor next to my bed. This woke up my husband and we laughed about it, he wanted to know about my dream experience, but I wanted to write it down before I forgot everything. So when I finished writing, I had a conversation with him about my out-of-body dream. Much to my surprise, I then woke up AGAIN and realized that falling out of bed, recording the dream and subsequent conversation never took place.

After reporting this occurrence on the online student forum, I was instructed to remember while dreaming to stay focused on what was happening in the dream instead of thinking, “wow, I’m dreaming so my physical body must be back in bed.” In my case, I was put right back in bed and my subconscious invented a waking experience. So clearly I have more work to do in attaining a sustained, conscious astral projection, but the class provided an excellent foundation for doing just that with continued practice.

While taking the course, I was reminded of a book written by Bruce called Energy Work: The Secret of Healing and Spiritual Development, which includes a good number of personal exercises also taught in the online class. It is an excellent companion to many types of energy work and remains a frequent reference as I am exposed to other modalities.

Alternative TV channel on Verizon FiOS and DISH Network

For those television viewers with Verizon FiOS or DISH Network, a new channel is now available called Veria, geared to an audience interested in natural health and wellness. They are new enough that the only sponsor I could see was Gerber Baby, but for program breaks they play humor, because everyone knows laughter is the best medicine. I saw clips from old Buddy Hacket and Richard Pryor standup comedy.

A cooking show created a meal cooking with organic ingredients that helped support an immune system to avoid allergy symptoms. Each step included explanations for why particular foods are helpful to good health.

Another program called Bedside Manor was particularly amusing, yet educational. The premise has a conventional doctor and an alternative healer debate specific treatments for a particular disease. I viewed an episode addressing COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the different options available from both points of view. The traditional M.D. was especially critical of the alternative treatments but his sparring partner took it in stride, remaining confident in his theories.

Other programming includes feng shui living, yoga, pilates, aromatherapy, organic gardening, natural anti-aging and beauty products.

Orbs and Obama on election night

I heard through a friend that there had been photographs taken with Obama and orbs and I searched online to find the pictures. Imagine my delight to see these amazing orb images at Grant Park in Chicago during Obama’s acceptance speech on election night. I don’t profess to know what orbs are or where they come from but I do know they have appeared in my own photography during high emotion, meaningful events.

I took similar photos at a friend’s outdoor wedding last October in Chapel Hill, NC. Throughout the day, several groups focused on creating beneficial and supportive energy on the site including a bata drum ceremony, several spiritual blessings, and a mardi gras parade as the groom’s procession to the altar. There were 300+ people at the all-day wedding and I planned to show my friend, Gazelle, how to take orb pictures when it got dark.

I fully expected to get a few orbs, but was completely surprised to get a large number of orbs (photo below). The collections of light images only showed up above the crowd of people, not when the camera was pointed to the night sky nearby where cars were parked. I felt intuitively that these orbs were due to the large group of people coming together to celebrate a loving union. Seeing the Grant Park orbs where thousands emotionally celebrated Obama’s victory lends credibility to this thought. Read more about orbs in The Orb Project.

Grant Park, November 4, 2008

Chapel Hill, NC, October, 2007

Surviving disaster

I’ve always been fascinated with natural disasters, more specifically, avoiding them. For example, while I love to go to the beach, I would not consider purchasing a long-term home along the shoreline. Nor have I consciously chosen to live near a river; water is a force to be respected as it has a power of its own.

Some disasters remain unavoidable, especially in these days of global warming, earth shifts and general turmoil, as one can not anticipate every circumstance. So I was especially intrigued to see an innovative inflatable house featured in Wired Science. For $3900, this 12-foot-tall structure will provide shelter and amenities, including a bed, a couch, freeze-dried food, a 50-gallon water bladder, a first-aid kit, a radio and a cookstove.

Developed by Inflatable World, the Life Cube was a finalist at the Department of Energy-sponsored California Clean Tech Open.

Dancing with David Byrne

OK, it wasn’t just me dancing with David Byrne, but me and 1800 other fans who packed the Warner Theatre last night in Washington D.C. This was my fourth David Byrne concert in the past 16 years and it was as unique, distinct and exciting as each other performance. Along with a drummer, percussionist, keyboard and bass players, he was accompanied by 3 backup singers and 3 interpretive dancers who were amusing and original.

The current tour focuses on songs produced with Brian Eno. This meant that we were treated to very early tunes from the 1970s along with their most current release, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. Byrne has a huge selection of songs to choose from and while I didn’t get to hear my all-time favorites, some fan favorites were mixed in from his tenure with the Talking Heads including Psycho Killer and Once in a Lifetime.

I don’t know very many David Byrne lovers so it was an extra pleasure to discover my friend, Robin, was also a fan. We had fun one-upping each other on our past encounters, from my personal meeting of Byrne backstage at Lisner Auditorium to her attending one of the first Talking Heads tours some 30 years ago.

Typically, I dance to Byrne’s repertoire in the privacy of my home, so it was a thrill when the entire theatre stood dancing throughout most of the concert. I have spent hours memorizing Byrne’s wacky lyrics and singing along came naturally. In these later years, I have a different understanding now of how these lyrics can be interpreted:

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Sounds suspiciously like a parallel universe or waking up in someone else’s body, eh?

Byrne continues his tour throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia through 2009.

Playing in the matrix

This weekend I attended my second Matrix Energetics seminar. Like camping out for great concert tickets in the days before internet purchasing, my friend Kris and I got up early each morning to stand in line to get good seats for the seminar. We were rewarded with front row seats each day on the right side of the stage where Richard Bartlett tends to face.

I had always envied those who got called up on stage to receive demonstration treatments. So I was especially excited to get called to the stage on 3 different occasions, twice with Richard and once with his daughter Justice who helps teach. I experienced firsthand the shift in the field within my body. While many people fall over during a treatment, gently lowered to the ground by helpful facilitators, I seemed to have a delayed reaction of several seconds and each time got dizzy and needed to be helped from the stage to my seat.

The immediate result was feelings of expansion and pleasant heart energy. During practice time, several other participants were eager to find out what the treatment felt like and for me to give them a treatment. To my surprise, I had one subject fall to the ground. Another insisted I had taken away her back pain. Comparing notes with another person following a practice treatment, it seemed my movements and thoughts matched the energy he felt surging through his body.

Many attendees repeat the seminars multiple times. I hadn’t quite understood the necessity of this until I realized how much I absorbed that didn’t quite sink in the first time around. What I grasped better this time is the concept of letting go. Different from other techniques where one focuses on bringing energy through our body as a conduit to the other person’s body, we are instructed to drop down into our heart energy then let go of all expectation and move our focus to something else, often called “doing nothing.” This seemed to be very effective in my practice sessions. It was easy to get into this state following my own matrix shifts, especially considering Justice was demonstrating this exact technique during my time with her on stage.