It’s a free ebook I wanted to share with you.
My way of saying ‘Thanks for reading my blog!’

Enjoy!

the Matrix of Mind Reality

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:45 PM PDT

Hi Team. Hope you enjoyed your weekend. If you’re feeling a little emotionally fragile or presh today, you may want to come back tomorrow. Or you might want to read the following post through your fingers or, perhaps, from behind a cushion. Or you may want to make the font really small and sit back a bit. Maybe turn your head a little to the left. Or, perhaps you could suck it up, read with an open mind and see if any of the following resonates with you.

Getting Old?

Gotta say, I’m not as patient as I once was. Does it show? Maybe I’m getting old. And you thought I was perfect. Sorry. To be honest, I’m a little over the chronic excuse-makers, the delusionites, the energy vampires, the career procrastinators and the liars. And I’ve met many. I think I’ve reached my “But life’s not fair and you don’t understand my situation” (discussion) threshold.

Getting Shit Done

I’m especially not patient when it comes to the excuse-making, shit-talking, woulda-shoulda-coulda fraternity who constantly delude themselves (and a few gullible others) about what they’re not doing in their world. Like getting shit done. Like taking action. Like being honest. Like taking responsibility. Like making decisions. Like committing. Like finding a solution. Like finishing things. Like using their potential. Like being gracious. And thankful.

Yep, some folks have almost done a million things. And some folks have been circling success for years. If words were results, they would be megastars. But you and I know that words are cheap. And require no effort, sacrifice or sweat. It’s my experience and observation that, more often than not, it’s the big talkers who do the least. People who are committed, proactive, productive and courageous tend to let their results do the talking.

Good philosophy that.

No Shit Sherlock

Of course, we can’t all be positive, passionate and productive all of the time (that’s part of being human) but seriously, how long do the rest of us need to tippy-toe around (some) people’s issues, egos, frailties, problems and excuses? You’ve met those people who never have a good day. Ever! Guess what? It ain’t about the day. No shit Sherlock. When will some people stop being the victim, stop sulking and sooking and actually take charge of their own lives? When will they stop waiting to be rescued or saved? And when will they stop seeking sympathy, pity and approval? For some, the answer to those questions is never. Sadly.

Pity parties suck. And I should know, I’ve attended (and left) plenty.

Don’t Panic…

Now, before you think I’ve turned into a heartless, hard-core pig, breathe easy; I haven’t. I still care very much but sometimes (okay, most times), listening to people’s attention-seeking, self-indulgent crap serves no positive purpose – it helps neither them nor me (or you). This post today is actually a byproduct of my desire to help people help themselves. My purpose in life is not to hold hands, stroke egos, seek popularity or tell people what they want to hear.

“When you change, your world will change because you create your world, your reality and your experiences – consciously or not, intentionally or not. No matter what you currently believe, think or feel, lasting transformation is all about you. Other things will influence and affect you but only you can determine you.”

When Nice Doesn’t Work

In my world, one of my biggest challenges is deciding where, how and in whom I will invest my time and emotional energy. I don’t want to waste it. Over the years I’ve learned that, sometimes, being nice is the wrong thing. There have been times when being nice has simply created another problem – a dependency problem. That is, a person has come to depend on me. Which is: (1) unhealthy for both of us and (2) disempowering for them.

I’m not a solution (for anyone), I’m a resource.

Being nice might mean giving someone some attention or making them feel momentarily better but in the context of this discussion (and in my role as a coach and teacher), that’s not what I’m interested in. At all. I’m interested in that person being in a better place for the rest of their life, not for the next ten minutes. Sometimes, a little short-term pain for some long-term gain is exactly what’s required. Now, try selling that paradigm to our quick-fix, instant-gratification, pleasure-addicted generation.

“If it’s not quick, comfortable or fun, we’re not interested.”

Sure, we try to distract ourselves with meaningless crap but when the dust settles, the noise stops and the lights go off; there we are with all of our issues. Still pretending, still denying, still blaming and still not taking charge.

Prepared to Pay the Price

Changing a life, or part thereof, is rarely quick, easy, painless or comfortable but that’s what the majority wants: great results, minimal time, no effort. And therein lies the challenge, Grasshoppers. Many people come to me (or to this site) wanting amazing results without being prepared to put in an amazing effort or make amazing sacrifices. Sometimes, people get disappointed when they discover that I’m not selling a magic pill. So they’ll look for another website or another coach – one who will tell them what they want to hear. What they’re comfortable with. How dare I tell people to do it themselves. To fix their own life. How dare I tell them to look in the mirror. To stop f*cking around. How dare I be blunt. Practical. Honest. Realistic.

Back Slappers

As you’ve probably figured out prior to this article, I’m not one bit interested in the hand-holding, back-slapping, feel-good, self-help fluff. It doesn’t lead to lasting transformation. To be completely honest, some of the cheesy, motivational bullshit that gets wheeled out (by some people) embarrasses me and makes me uncomfortable. There’s a lot I don’t like about what goes on in the world of personal development so I’ll just keep teaching and coaching in alignment with my principles, beliefs and core values. And I’ll continue to make mistakes and keep learning along the way. Sometimes we don’t need to be told we’re beautiful, amazing and special (by someone we’ve never met), sometimes we need a kick in the arse and a reality check.

People who need a cheer squad to get things done are destined for failure.

The Idea Vs the Reality

It’s my belief that, when it comes to the practical reality (the doing part) of personal growth and life-long transformation, most people simply aren’t prepared to do what’s required. Of course, they like the ‘idea’ of transformation (don’t we all?) but when the fluff, the hype and back-slapping subside, they simply won’t commit to changing their habits and behaviour over the long term. Sure, they might change for a while but when the reality (of what’s required to create f-o-r-e-v-e-r results) sets in, they’ll throw in the towel. Again. And, of course, they will rationalise, justify and explain it. Again. Just like they did the last ten times.

They might even get angry at someone (like me) just to make themselves feel better about what they haven’t done.

So there it is folks. I’m done with the over-analysing, under-doing, excuse-making, self-important, self-indulgent, woulda, shoulda, coulda brigade. It’s exhausting and pointless. From now on, I will only work with people who are genuinely committed to doing what’s required. If they’re scared, that’s fine. If they’re not particularly talented or gifted, that’s fine too (welcome to my club). But here’s the pre-requisite: (1) a good attitude (2) a willingness to get uncomfortable and (3) a willingness to do the work.

Simple really.

Okay, you can come out from behind that cushion now.

That’s a bit of an unusual post for me but I thought that was a nice little site

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

How To Heal The Pain Caused By Others
By Mark Myhre, author of
“The Magic Of Forgiveness”

What happens when you’ve been wronged by another and you
want to move on? 
 
How do you let it go – get on with your life – and make
sure it doesn’t happen again?
 
The short answer is that you forgive yourself for attracting
them into your life – so you don’t have to continue to carry
the burden around and so that you *don’t repeat the same
experience with another person.*
 
You forgive yourself for ALLOWING it to happen – not for
CAUSING it to happen.
 
Right now you may be in some sort of a mental prison. There
may be a lot of resentment and other similar feelings. And
what you’re feeling now – the bitterness, the resentment,
the anger, the hurt; WILL influence your future relationships.
 
Bitterness only leads to more bitterness.  Hurt leads to
more hurt.
 
Forgiveness is a way to clear out those old feelings from
the past so you will be better able to believe in yourself
and trust yourself. Not to mention you will be wiser and
more perceptive.
 
But are you responsible for what they did?
 
No, absolutely not. You don’t forgive yourself to make them
‘not guilty’. You created your reality and they created
theirs.
 
And the realities overlapped.
 
A cheater is basically that way before you meet them.
 
A betrayer is a betrayer before they come into your life.
 
The question is – why did I attract someone like this into
my life?
 
Of course you didn’t KNOW they would cheat or betray you
when you first met them. But then, maybe there were little
hints and clues you ignored. I don’t know.
 
The point is, you CHOSE to allow them into your life. You
allowed it to happen.
 
That ‘allowing’ is your responsibility; something you CAN
forgive yourself for.
 
The value of forgiving yourself is -
 
first of all, it’s empowering to accept responsibility for
YOUR contribution. Yes, I understand you were wronged. They
engaged in hurtful behavior that was unjustified.
 
By forgiving yourself, you don’t say their behavior was
acceptable. On some level, they must still ‘pay’ for what
they did. But that’s not your business.
 
(I understand many try to make it their business!)
 
But you would be much more productive by dealing with YOUR
contribution to these events. And not worrying about their
contribution.
 
“They’ll get theirs.”
 
But look at the damage it does to YOU by not forgiving
yourself.
 
Maybe you don’t believe in yourself anymore.
 
Maybe you don’t trust yourself to make good decisions.
 
Maybe your self-confidence is lacking.
 
Maybe you’re carrying around a ton of pain.
 
And I would guess many other problems as well have come up
because you’ve been wronged.
 
Forgiving yourself can heal the damage they caused.
 
Also, you don’t let someone ‘off the hook’ by forgiving
yourself for what they did.
 
YOU LET *YOU* OFF THE HOOK BY FORGIVING YOURSELF.
 
Sorry to shout, but I want to make that point clear. By
forgiving yourself, you empower yourself.  You free yourself
from your own private prison of pain.
 
Forgiveness is a strength; it empowers you.
 
By not forgiving yourself, you are not honoring or
respecting yourself. You’re saying you don’t matter.
 
Forgiveness creates freedom. Forgiveness is liberating.
Forgiveness is a positive, pro-active decision. It’s a
deliberate choice from a position of power and
responsibility.
 
It’s an act of character and integrity. It takes courage.
I admit it’s not easy to be kicked by someone and then
forgive YOURSELF for being kicked. Because, “It’s not me -
I didn’t do this! It’s THEM!! They’re the bad ones!”
 
But finding your own contribution to being kicked is like
finding a foothold to greater power and greater strength.
You will become ‘more’ if you forgive yourself for being
wronged.
 
It takes enormous courage to let go of the blame. So often
we seek our strength in blame. We anchor to it. And the
thing is, we really are justified to blame!
 
We really WERE wronged. Nobody would deny that. It’s obvious.
 
But what I’m saying is to go beyond the obvious. If blame
really did solve problems, what a wonderful world this
would be!
 
We wouldn’t be fighting in the Middle East.
 
New Orleans would be a thriving regenerated city.
 
Congress and the president would get along, and start doing
something good for a change.
 
But blame doesn’t solve problems. In fact, it locks those
problems in place.
 
The trap is, you really are justified in blaming. But if
you do, it keeps those painful feelings in place. You can’t
grow and stretch and reach for more in life when you’re
blaming.
 
It’s like putting your feelings in the freezer. And then
you have to tote that freezer around with you every where
you go.
 
Blame is like being seduced by a beautiful woman with a
hidden agenda. You think she really does like you when all
she wants is your money.
 
If you know her game, you can easily resist. If you turn
a blind eye, you’ll get taken.
 
You think blame is your friend, but really all it wants is
your power. You must give up your power to blame.
 
I know it doesn’t seem that way, because we always get a
cheap hit of power when we blame. But it never lasts.
 
It’s like spending on credit. There’s no problem until the
payment comes due!
 
But to me, the biggest benefit of forgiving myself for
being wronged by another is that it helps to ensure that
it doesn’t happen again. “I’ve suffered enough. I don’t
want to go through the same situation again.”
 
But if I don’t forgive, then most likely I WILL repeat the
same mistakes again. Or else, I’ll try not to love anyone
else for the rest of my life. Which is almost impossible.
 
More likely, since I haven’t explored the reasons WHY I
created a hurtful person into my life, I’ll create another
hurtful person into my life.
 
Then I’ll have to go through the same crap again.
 
Just thinking about that is depressing!
 
You want to live a better life, not repeat the pain of
the past.
 
Forgiveness helps to make things better. So next time,
you’ll have a better chance of finding someone who’ll treat
you with respect.

Because you respected yourself enough to forgive YOURSELF
for what THEY did.

You forgave yourself for YOUR contribution; because you
played a part in what happened.
 
You are not a spectator in your life.
 
You’re not a helpless victim.
 
You created what happened.
 
Not by causing, but by allowing.
 
You allowed another to hurt you.
 
Now, you will turn it into something good by changing
yourself.
 
And the way to change is by recognizing what happened,
feeling the impact of what happened, and forgiving yourself
for why you let it happen in your life.
 
And later, if you choose to forgive them as well, that’s
great.  But always forgive yourself first – as an
acknowledgment to yourself that YOU are in charge of your
life – not them.

Why didn’t they go ruin someone else’s life instead of
trying to ruin yours? You may never know.
 
But the fact is, you let them in, they betrayed you, and
now you’re left to pick up the pieces.
 
Okay, you will.
 
You’ll be a winner. You’ll take their sucker punch to the
gut, and you’ll become a better person. Not a bitter,
beaten loser. You’ll take the pain they tried to dump on
you and use it to become strong and powerful.
 
You’ll find the good in their act of wrongness.
 
While they will in all likelihood continue to be a
punishing person.
 
Maybe someday you’ll forgive them for their misdeeds, but
for now you’re ready to grow and heal and move on.
 
Remember the old saying -
 
Living Well Is The Best Revenge!
 
Forgiveness can be that first step to living well.
 
It can be the greatest gift you can give yourself.
 
Here’s how I do it -
 

http://magicmind.forgiveme.hop.clickbank.net/

All the best,
 
Mark
 
Brought to you by
Mark Ivar Myhre
The Emotional Healing Wizard

Read through it as it contains an important message

Enjoy!

In the first half of the 20th century there was a Russian mystic called Gudjieff. He was the teacher of P.D. Ouspensky who talks about him in his book The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin.

In it, Ouspensky touches upon the topic of reincarnation.

Now let me be clear upfront that the intention of this article is not to discuss the existence or the ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ of reincarnation…

It’s just that Ouspensky’s take on it makes up a nice intro to the rest that this article is going to be about…

Anyway, in his book, Ouspensky poses that reincarnation is not what we’re often led to think it is…

He says that instead of being born as someone else, we’re rather reborn to relive the exact same life we’ve always lived… over and over and over again… until we make a significant choice at one particular moment to do something differently than we’ve done it life after life.

Kind of like the basic principle of the movie Groundhog Day… (which I think you should watch sometime if you can, in case you haven’t seen it).

Based on this take, Ouspensky says that hell on earth is living life the way you’ve always lived it, and heaven on earth is breaking free of your long-standing patterns.

And as you probably know, it can take an enormous amount of energy, passion, determination, and will to even see patterns… let alone break free from them.

So that’s actually the thing that we’re trying to help you with through our materials:

We want you to be able to see those patterns in your own life… and then provide you with the information and tools (or point you to the ones) that we think can help you break free from those patterns.

And in the context of this topic of breaking free and creating the life you really want, many times we’ve also mentioned the importance of recognizing your ‘passion’, and knowing what you want… or at least, having some kind of vision of what you want in order to have some sense of direction.

Passion is in fact the fuel that drives you forward in life… the passion to experience… the passion to create value… the passion to invent… the passion to build something that has a life of its own… the passion to do something remarkable with your life… whatever it is that feels important to you.

But what has become abundantly clear over time, is that for many people, the process of ‘creating’ or ‘attracting’ what they want comes to a halt at this point already… simply because they say they have no idea about what they want… or can’t decide on anything.

Fact is however, that they do know… at least when they turn deeper within themselves and are prepared to be honest with themselves…

The thing is that it’s usually covered up by a lot of subconscious patterns and mechanisms that are basically pulled over their eyes to blind them from it… although every now and then it makes itself apparent.

Let me tell you a quick story:

Back in high school, I remember some friends of mine came with these books where each page is a picture (usually some abstract collage of colors at first sight) that has another picture underneath it that you can’t readily see…

You’re supposed to hold the book at a certain distance from your face, and then pull it slowly away without focusing on the picture… sort of looking through the picture… and then suddenly the picture slows up.

I could never do it, except for some occasional instances of success… It could drive me crazy! I could try and find it, but it never worked…

And then at one point, for no reason whatsoever that I can remember, I picked up one of those books, opened it to one of the pictures, and without trying it all… there it was! The other picture behind it just appeared!

But even after that, I couldn’t do it on a consistent basis…

At first I thought the trick was sneaking up on the book as if I wasn’t interested. But that didn’t turn out to work consistently… Putting my eyes out of focus didn’t work either. Sometimes it just came to me, but usually it didn’t.

I can’t say I consistently and diligently practiced it though… It was just never that important to me…

And that’s the key point of what I’m trying to get across here! That’s the key to really discovering your passion!

You see, passion is kind of similar to those pictures I mentioned… You can’t always see it. But sometimes it’ll come to you… usually at the most unexpected or inconvenient moment…

It can come to you in the strangest, most unpredictable ways. You can be standing on the corner about to walk across the street… You can be turning in your sleep, dreaming… You can be in the shower, packing a suitcase, engaging in ‘number two’, cleaning out your closet… etc.

And it’ll always be like that, unless you make it truly important!

If you really want to use it to your advantage… if you want to tap into that enormous resource for anything you want to do… if you want fuel to power any intention you have… if that’s what you want…

… then you must make it really important to you!

In fact, you must make it so important that you’ll do anything to see it for what it is. It’s being interested in it… deeply and genuinely interested in it… that’ll give you the power to see.

“So how do you do I do that then?”, you’ll probably ask…

Well, I’ll let you in on a simple little trick to get yourself going in a moment… Just hear me out, because I need to clarify a few details first…

You see, the actual problem of ‘not knowing what it is’ or ‘not seeing it’ is caused by these subconscious patterns that I mentioned. And like I said above, it can take an enormous amount of energy and determination to even see those patterns… let alone break free from them.

It’s kind of a catch-22:

• You try to see your adverse subconscious patterns, in order to be able to break free from them…
• Your adverse subconscious patterns make up virtual ‘blinders’ and prevent you from seeing them…

So if you want things to change for you, you definitely need to get out of that rut…

And there’s one basic thing that you absolutely must be able to do to make that happen… It’s a basic trick that’ll put you back in the driver’s seat and take the steering wheel!

Here’s the thing:

The very frustration that most people are feeling about their lives and their inability to change it can only be addressed once they’re able to see how completely identified they are with their ‘pain’ of not being satisfied with the way things are.

As long as you are your pain… and you can’t create enough distance from it to step back and ‘see yourself being in pain’ instead… you can never get free of it.

The ‘pain’, or ‘exhaustion’, or ‘frustration’, or ‘overwhelm’, or whatever negative state you find yourself in, is usually a subconsciously driven defensive reaction to something you feel threatened by… and that thus takes you away from being consciously present in the moment.

It’s a subconscious pattern, and it’ll keep playing out as long as you don’t deal with it. And in order to deal with it and break free from it, you need to find out what you feel threatened by…

But that’s a next step. Let’s stick to the most essential thing first:

First you need to actually put yourself in the position to see those patterns for what they are. This means that you need to take a step back and observe yourself… and then look… see… and listen… to discover what you feel threatened by…

Or rather, to discover what part of you feels threatened.

If you do this, and you do it seriously… let me tell you what you’re likely to discover:

• You’ll discover that the part of ‘you’ that feels threatened, is the ‘you’ who doesn’t want to be seen because he/she’s feeling so small…
• It’s the ‘you’ who doesn’t feel he/she’s up to it…
• It’s the ‘you’ who’s terrified of all the passion that you’ve got inside you that could blow you away in a flash!

And you know what?

Instead of ignoring that part like you’re told to do in many of the ‘positive thinking’ and ‘Law of Attraction’ schools of thought… that’s actually part of you that deserves more attention instead of less!

You can do that once you learn how to step back. I called it the ‘participant/observer’-method in an earlier article.

You need to take a step back into the ‘observer’ role, instead of getting caught up in the experience of the ‘participant’…

Because underneath that superficial take on your experience, you’ll find that there’s something really different going on.

You’ll discover that, no matter how you’re feeling at any particular point in time, whatever you’re doing, or whatever you’re afraid of doing… your passion is alive and well underneath, whatever it is that’s standing in the way…

It’s the connection with this passion that enables you to move through all of the inevitable external obstacles you’ll find in your way, which of course each come with their own set of internal obstacles to be overcome.

So to learn how to observe the form it takes at any particular point in time is one of the most essential things you can do… that you must do actually, if you want to put your creative power back into your own hands…

It’s actually one of the most empowering things you can ever do! If there’s any skill you need to learn to actively make a difference in yourself and in your life… this is it!

And to internalize this skill, here’s something you can practice:

Step 1:

First, whenever you feel overwhelmed, exhausted, frustrated, overwhelmed, resentful, ‘wrung out’, etc… just say to yourself: “See through it!”

That’s the first step…

Just see through it, and see what happens…

Step 2:

And secondly, just for three times a day… STOP. It’s as simple as that… You just STOP, whatever you’re doing.

Any time of the day is fine… any time at all. However, the best times for you to choose to STOP would be the times when for instance:

• You feel completely consumed by something you’re doing…
• You feel dreading or dreading the prospect of something you need to do…
• You feel frustrated…
• You feel overwhelmed…
• You feel exhausted…
• You feel ‘wrung out’…
• You feel angry…
• And so on…

Basically, whenever you feel identified with your moods…

And when you feel that, you just STOP!!

And then you look… listen… see…

This will not just enable you to ‘see through it’, as I mentioned above…

But more importantly, with practice, something amazing will happen:

• You’ll see how absolutely consumed you are with your moods, thoughts, emotions…
• You’ll see how they eat up your passion by filling the space with something else to do…
• You’ll find out that there’s more passion than you’ve ever imagined underneath your moods… more than enough to fuel whatever it is that you want to do!
• You’ll see that you’re not your emotions… not your feelings… not your thoughts… not your moods.
• You’ll see that you’re the silence in between… something apart from them that is more alive than you can possibly imagine!

It’s taking this observer point of view that’ll enable you to see all this…

When I got more adept at this myself… I literally saw myself. And then I saw myself seeing myself. And then I saw that I was seeing myself seeing myself.

This may sound crazy, but it’s absolutely remarkable. It’s an experience of awesome clarity, where you see yourself as separate from ‘yourself’… or the ‘self’ that you think you are… the identity that you have in this world.

It’s a new dimension to your experience… a fourth dimension if you will… almost like a parallel universe to the one we live in.

This ‘observer’ point of view is the foundation for a completely new relationship to life.

• You’ll see that any ‘pain’, ‘frustration’, ‘exhaustion’, ‘overwhelm’, whatever negative state that you may find yourself in… is nothing but a strategy… and certainly not a result.
• You’ll see that it’s a defensive strategy that covers up the fact that you have a big hand in ‘creating’ your life…
• You’ll see that it’s a subconscious defense mechanism blinding you from the truth that you may find hard to face, because it leaves no alternative but to take full responsibility…
• In fact, you’ll see that it covers up the fear… and in many cases, the being ‘totally terrified’ of being ‘All You Can Be’.

In the words of Marianne Williamson:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It’s our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We’re all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Now that’s a revolution

Get 3 free e-books here

Visit Craig Harper’s website

When Opportunity Whispers

It’s my experience that opportunity rarely knocks. It might cough, whimper or look at you strangely but, as a rule, knocking ain’t really its thing. It never arrives on a silver platter with a red ribbon on it and all too often it will kick you in the guts before you realise what it is, what it could become or what it might teach you. It almost never announces itself and mostly, it avoids eye contact. Sometimes it makes you feel uncomfortable or even scared. Sometimes it whispers rather than knocks. Sometimes it embarrasses you. Sometimes it hides where you least expect it and sometimes it dresses up as a problem. Or a (seemingly) meaningless event.

The Lotto Mentality

Many people waste considerable time and talent waiting for opportunity to knock. Some will wait forever. If only they (we) would start doing (using and developing their potential) and stop waiting. Which reminds me of the people who buy multiple lotto tickets every weekend hoping to win their fortune. Imagine relying on your best life to arrive courtesy of a ten-million-to-one gamble. I often wonder if it ever occurs to them that they could actually create their own fortune rather than spending their lives staring at numbers in a barrel with their fingers crossed.

Just a crazy thought.

To me, people who wait for opportunity to knock are a little like those folk who ‘hope’ they will somehow land on their feet. And not unlike the “if it’s meant to happen, it will” brigade. Good grief. What an unnecessary way to go through life; ‘hoping’ things work out. So much waiting, hoping and finger-crossing and so little getting off their arses, working through the discomfort, doing what needs to be done and taking chances.

There, I said it.

I’d prefer to build my best life rather than hope it somehow finds me.

A Parable

Five guys get called into their boss’s office at work. These five guys all earn roughly the same wage and from a practical and financial point of view, they’re all in very similar positions; not rich but not struggling either. However, the similarities end with the external stuff. Internally they’re very different people.

The boss sits his five charges down and with tears in his eyes, informs them that due to the GFC he has to let them go. He explains the predicament the company finds itself in, apologises, shakes their hands and sends them on their way to collect their personal items from their work stations.

This single event creates quite a range of responses. Some positive. Some, not so much.

Response 1. Laid-Back Larry. Larry doesn’t stress about much. On hearing the news, Larry decides his unplanned ‘holiday’ might be a perfect opportunity for a little surfing. He packs his stuff, puts his board on the roof of the car and heads down the coast for some quality time with his favourite woman: Mother Nature. He figures he’ll think about looking for a new job in a week or so. Or maybe not.

Response 2. Angry Andy. It doesn’t take much to fire Andy up. He’s already mad at his parents, God and the government. Now, he has to add his ex-employer to the list. Within minutes of hearing the news, his body has gone into stress mode and his heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and cortisol (a stress hormone) levels have all gone through the roof. Following his sacking, Andy finds a way to stay angry at the company for years. Over time, his anger will make him sick. Emotionally and physically. It will also make him socially repellant. Which will further compound his anger. And misery.

Response 3. Phil the Philosopher. Phil is a seeker, a searcher and a student of life. The world is his classroom and every day is a new lesson. Some of his colleagues think he’s a little weird but he’s actually kinda cool. He believes things happen for a reason and there’s always a lesson if he chooses to look for it. On hearing the news, Phil asks himself “I wonder what the universe is trying to teach me here?” Phil doesn’t get stressed about much. Ever. He doesn’t really see any upside to it (stress). He’s observed plenty of stress and angry people. He chooses not to be one of them. He decides that the news is an opportunity for him to be less material and to get involved in some charity work while he gains clarity about his future.

Response 4. Cam the Catastrophiser. Cam is the president of the woe-is-me club. If there’s nothing to worry about, he will create something. He is the poster boy for pessimism and the news of his sacking throws him into a downward emotional spiral. “I knew this would happen”, he tells himself. Cam spends the next four months at home feeling sorry for himself and seeking sympathy from his long-suffering family. Like Angry Andy, he’s a major pain in the arse to be around.

Response 5. Ollie the Opportunist. Ollie sees the news as something of an opportunity for change. He’s like that. He’s sees opportunities where others see problems and catastrophes. He has an ability and an attitude to ask better questions than most and is more interested in solutions than he is drama, self-pity or sympathy (unlike Andy and Cam). “How can I turn this into a positive”, he asks himself. After some contemplation time, Ollie decides it’s a great time to set up his own business. “At least I can’t get the sack if I work for me” he tells his friends. He’s now more interested in the doors he’s opening than the one that closed.

While Andy and Cam seemed determined to create their own misery, Larry saw the ‘situation’ as a good opportunity to go on a surfing sabbatical, Phil saw it as an opportunity to learn something about himself and Ollie saw it as an opportunity to move his career in a fresh direction.

The truth is that we are constantly presented with opportunities but invariably we don’t recognise them for what they are, what they could become and what they could teach us. It’s clear that some people only want an opportunity if it involves no effort, no sacrifice, no pain and no risk. Which means they don’t want an opportunity at all; they want a gift.

An opportunity is not the start and finish; it’s just the start. It’s not a solution. It’s a door for us to walk through.

This week, my challenges for you (should you choose to accept) are (1) become more aware of (and tuned in to) the opportunities which cross your path (learn to look at old things in new ways) and (2) act on those opportunities. Do something which makes you uncomfortable. Something out of character. Something you’ve avoided for too long. Get out of that holding pattern and see what happens when your commitment (to change) overrides your fear.

As you endeavour to make this shift in your world (the world on top of your shoulders and the other one), keep in mind that, more often than not, the difference between an opportunity and a problem is perception, attitude and reaction. That is, your mindset.

Create opportunities and go in search of them but whatever you do, don’t wait for them to knock.

THE BRAIN EVOLUTION SYSTEM

A review by Véronique Cartier

Brain Evolution System is the latest and most sophisticated version of brain entraintment project that Lee Benson, in collaboration with brainwave pioneer Michael Kelley, has been working on. It is designed to strengthen the mind.

According to Lee, following the Brain Evolution System program can grant you amazingly enhanced personal energy, help you to think quicker than you currently do, and enable you relax and let go of tension.

Lee calls his project BrainEv which is short the Brain Evolution System. BrainEv is a six-level meditation program
that uses binaural brainwave entrainment to help influence brainwaves, putting the mind into a deep state of meditation within minutes of listening.

Brainwave entrainment has been around for years and is found in personal development products such as Holosync and Hemi-Sync.

What sets BrainEv apart from it’s competitors, claim the developers, is it’s patent-pending 3 Point Dynamic Audio Process
. This means BrainEv uses three different entrainment methods at the same time, apparently matching very closely how brainwaves really work.

To learn more about the differences between BrainEv and other similar programs, visit their website

I won’t go into the details here but if you want to read more about the science behind it, please go to
the research and benefits page
.

Well, it does sound very impressive… But does the Brain Evolution System really live up to its claims?

I decided to try it myself!

First of all, I was given a free 21-days trial of level one, with an option to cancel before I was billed a single penny. I could change my mind, get the benefit of the three weeks with BrainEv and walk away.
The recommended use of the BrainEv system is that you listen to each 30-minute level once per day, six days a week, for a month. Then you move onto the next level – finishing all six levels within six months.

Level one is called Transcendence and takes one into theta level state. It was gentle, natural music. I found I was relaxing well into it and had a tendency to fall asleep while listening. Apparently, falling asleep doesn’t affect the results you get from the meditation. I found I was sleeping much better than usual. I started to feel more relaxed during my everyday life.

Then, near the end of the first month, the full CD package landed at my door.
This was a professionally-packaged six-CD set, which came along with a user guide and a complementary box of Acuity, a brain supplement designed to enhence brain function.

During the second month, I worked with level two, which is called Lucid Echoes and takes one deeper into theta state. It was much more challenging for me to relax during this level.The natural sounds were mixed with some noise distractions, such as bells and gongs, which I found downright irritating!During this level, I experienced mind fogginess, some depression and mood swings.I was told it was part of the process and that it would get better. The discomfort lasted for over two weeks and then, I started to feel much better. Although, to be honest, I was glad when it was time for level three.

I found level three much more enjoyable. It is called Infinity and combines beta brainwaves with some alpha, theta and delta. The sound of the ocean was gentle and I was able to relax more deeply than the preceding level.I found that once again, I was sleeping amazingly well.

Level four was absolutely great.It is called Crystal Rain and goes deeper than level three. The sounds were easy to listen to and I was able to relax very nicely into it.Not only was I feeling better and more energetic than before, but most importantly, I was feeling much happier! I often found myself with a smile on my face without even knowing why!

Level five is called Neptune’s cave and takes one deep into delta state.During the fifth month, I was feeling on the top of the world!Once again, I found the music gentle and relaxing. I was able to relax very deeply and I was experiencing the most restful sleep of my all life. I was feeling simply amazing then. I never felt that happy in my whole life!

Then came level six, which is called Fusion. Although this level doesn’t go quite as deep as level five, I found it quite challenging. At first, it brought some discomfort.The sounds were enjoyable and relaxing but the discomfort came during my waking hours. I felt quite dissatisfied with my life and moody.What’s amazing is the way I just took the steps I felt were necessary to change what I didn’t like. It took a while for me to feel good again, but when I did, I was feeling like a new person! Or, rather, I was feeling- and still do- like I was really being myself for the very first time. I was experiencing a kind of freedom I had only dreamt about previously.

This has been an awesome journey for me. I am feeling much more confident and proactive. I have a newfound sense of clarity and focus. I feel much more energetic and happier. I feel much more relaxed. I feel much more comfortable socially. And of course, my brain is able to absorb information quicker than before. And then… there is this feeling of wholeness which is fairly hard to describe with words…

My verdict: ABSOLUTETLY BRILLIANT! MUST HAVE!!!

As far as I am concerned, the Brain Evolution System delivers. The customer service is brilliant with a support team always happy to help. There’s a good follow-up with monthly emails from Lee and Michael. And there’s also the support from the other users through the forum. In addition to their 21 days free trial, they also give a 7 months money back guarentee, making it absolutely risk-free for the user. I guess that shows they are rather confident of the quality of their product!

Anyway, it was definitely a delightful and useful experience and I highly recommend.

To get your 21 days free trial, click here

Energy healing is a big passion of mine and I thought I’ll share it with you today  :)

For more information go to the Bi-Aura website

Bi-Aura is an advanced system of bio-energy healing which works through balancing the human bio-field. If the bio-field which surrounds the body becomes overly stressed then this can lead to a reduction in the energy flowing into the organs, which over time may cause illness.

Bi-Aura therapists are trained to tune into blockages in the bio-field and to remove these blockages through a selection of mostly non-touch Bi-Aura techniques.Once the energy blockages are removed from the body,rapid healing can take place..

“The most powerful, exciting and clinically effective energy therapy I have witnessed.”

Dr Mark Atkinson
MBBS BSc (HONS) FRIPHH FCMA BTEC SAC DIP (Clinical Nutrition)

Complementary Medical Association Registered 1 British Complementary Medicine Association Registered

BI-AURA THERAPY

“All Healing is Self Healing”

What is Bi-Aura Therapy?

Bi-Aura is an advanced system of bio-energy healing which works through balancing the human bio-field.

Bi-Aura therapists are trained to tune into blockages in the bio-field and to remove these blockages through a

selection of mostly non-touch Bi-Aura techniques. Once the energy blockages are removed from the body it is

normally only a matter of time before health is restored.

The main proposition in Bi-Aura is that “all illness and injuries have a corresponding blockage in the normal energy

flow through the body. By “clearing out” the energy blockage, this allows the body’s own healing processes to

operate.” It is scientifically established that the body has remarkable regenerative powers, and therefore it can be

inferred that if the body can regenerate itself to the degree that it can replace up to 98% of itself in less than a year

then there must be some factor that prevents the body from achieving this when “diseased”.

Furthermore, Bi-Aura regards abnormal states as

part of a holistic model of the human body. A human

is not just a body; it is a combination of physical,

mental, emotional and energy qualities. As can be

seen in this figure each of the qualities is

interdependent with the others. An effect in one will

be felt and manifested in the others.

To watch a Bi-Aura session taking place, is similar to

seeing someone practice Tai-Chi around the client. It

is a graceful series of movements which help focus

the therapist’s mind in order to manipulate the energy

flow in and around the client’s body. There is no

physical manipulation, and minimal contact. The

client remains fully clothed.

A Bi-Aura session is generally 45 minutes in duration,

and the recommended course of treatments is for

one session a week for three weeks, and then a

follow on session four weeks after the third session.

An alternative, intensive, structure is to have one

session a day for four days.

1. What does a therapy session involve ?

At the first session your therapist will chat with you about your medical history and current emotional and physical

status. You will be asked to remove your shoes, watch, glasses and any chunky jewellery, otherwise you will remain

fully clothed. If it is comfortable for you to do so, you will be asked to stand for the first part of the therapy when the

therapist will scan your energy field and chakras to detect which blockages are apparent, the therapist will begin to

stimulate the energy flow and clear the chakras. During this stage there will be little or no physical contact, although

you may be aware of various sensations such as heat, cold, tingling or a feeling of lightness or heaviness, none of

which are unpleasant or last long.

For the next part of the session you will be invited to sit or lie down when further energy clearing will take place. By

now you are likely to be in a deep state of relaxation. The more relaxed the patient can become the more freely the

energy is able to move and the more effective the session is likely to be. Where possible the final scan is conducted

with the patient again in a standing position. The sessions last between forty minutes and an hour and we

recommend that the recipient avoid over stressing for the rest of the day.

Physical

Emotional Energy

Mental

Complementary Medical Association Registered 2 British Complementary Medicine Association Registered

2. How will I feel after a session ?

The most frequently reported immediate reaction is a sense of lightness, as if a weight has been lifted from the

shoulders, an inner sense of well being and many people find that they sleep extraordinary soundly that night. It is

not unusual for people to find that there is:

· An immediate improvement in health, often with significant reductions in pain

· No immediate change but a later realisation that the ailment has gradually gone

· An apparent deterioration, in the condition, sometimes referred to as a “healing crisis” while the body

adjusts to the changed energy flow followed by significant improvement .

3. Do I have to believe in Bi-Aura therapy for it to work ?

No, but thought is energy so it is ideal that anyone receiving the therapy should have an open mind. If a person is

adamant that Bi-Aura will not work for them they are unlikely to get a good result as their negativity will adversely

affect the energy flow.

4. Will it cure me and how long will it take ?

Most ailments can be alleviated quite quickly and simply by Bi-Aura therapy but some people can, quite

subconsciously, experience difficulty in letting go of their complaint. On these occasions the therapist will encourage

the patient to participate in their own healing by learning that our health is affected by the way we think and how we

literally make ourselves ill by holding onto old emotional pain and resentment. Patients are then able to recognise

and begin to let go of these negative thought patterns, in turn releasing the trapped energy causing the ailment. The

person’s willingness to accept this concept will dictate the speed of recovery.

5. Will my ailment come back ?

The aim of Bi-Aura is to assist the body’s own healing rate to increase and function normally so it can heal itself of

the ailment. So long as your healing rate is greater than the rate at which the body is damaging itself (through things

like diet, stress, pollution, and emotional issues) then you will remain free of the past ailment. A good analogy is with

your bank balance. So long as you have more money coming into your balance than going out, your bank manager is

going to be happy. So, don’t start writing cheques your body can’t cash!

So then what is gratitude? First, let’s discuss what it is not… Gratitude is not something you think and decide about. In particular it is not what you do in response to your life situation, irrespective however wonderful, non-descript or horrifying it might be. Gratitude is a state of Beingness. An Attitude. It is actually an abbreviation of ‘Great Attitude’/Gr(e)atitude. The Attitude of Greatness. Or, if we are to playfully Americanize it, it’s what makes the ‘Great I dude’ . Jesus was in a state of Gratitude His whole life, even while nailed to the cross. And Victor Frankl was too, after finding his post graduate studies in and practice in Freudian psychoanalysis meaningless. He also felt gratitude at the most trying time of his life while in a concentration camp. No more, no less. At a time when he saw his own religious leaders denounce God in dismal resignation.

 If what I write is true, then to fully understand the condition of gratitude, we must also discuss its opposite. What do you think it is? Take a moment to write it down before proceeding. You may be surprised by what you learn here. Gratitude is a condition whereby you stop resisting, stop fighting, with life, with yourself. It starts with unconditional Acceptance. And then it goes a step further. It is a positive response to the passive act of acceptance. It is an acknowledgment that you, in *your omnipotence, have created precisely the conditions you find yourself in. That you have created a world which perfectly reflects all that is beautiful, and also all that is not so beautiful in your soul. As such, it is a condition of acknowledging and regaining your own power, your own response-ability to what you have reflected in your material life and surroundings, your world.

The Greek word for gratitude is eu-nomos-yne, literally means the “Good Law (of) ‘Is’ness or Being. So being in the state of gratitude puts you in sync with this Universal ‘Way it Is’, which in religious terms is One with God, or At-one-ment. To clarify further, as a ‘Way to Be’, gratitude is not, and cannot be a judgment, so whatever circumstances you find yourself in , you can chose to be in gratitude, or to quote a nun I saw on TV ‘‘Whatever happens, whether the most joyous occasion, or greatest tragedy, I always say ‘Thank God’”. Naïve, or wise?

The biggest mistake people make is to confuse gratitude with gratefulness. I am not suggesting that you express gratefulness to the person who rapes you, robs you or hurts you in any way. Or that you should tip the rude waiter out of guilt. But if you learn to separate non judgmental, inner gratitude from judgmental, outwardly directed gratefulness, then you will unlock the key to your own power, first to deal in a life enhancing way with the painful experience you have endured, and subsequently, to open the way to creating, this time with conscious awareness which is in turn reflected in ‘better’ life circumstances.

 Briefly contrasted, gratefulness is a response, gratitude is causal. The extent to which you focus on the former is the extent to which you respond to your circumstances. The extent to which you focus on the latter is the extent to which you create them. But you don’t have to be in the blissful, powerful state of gratitude. There is, as always, a choice. ONE other choice, and one only. What did you write down as the opposite of Gratitude? In truth, it is victimhood. That is the opposite, one and only way of being, other than gratitude. It is the state whereby you deny your own responsibility, both in creating, by reflection, the life condition you have attracted, and your response-ability, rather than reflex, unconscious re-action to it. Or put another way, not being the consciously causative agent in your life, but living in the effect of your unconsciousness. I have counseled more than one woman who had been a personal victim in a violent crime. When they were able to turn from the state of victimhood into one of unconditional gratitude to life itself they became free and powerful. It was a hard choice to make, but once made benefited not only their own lives but the lives of everyone they touched.

And whether or not you believe that Jesus arose from the cross, He is more alive now, two thousand years later than He would have been had He not been crucified, OR if he had allowed himself to be a victim. Likewise, Victor Frankl, in deep gratitude, inspired everyone in the concentration camp, Jew and German alike, touching all their lives profoundly, and left a legacy of psychology books all should read .

Each one of us, to a greater or lesser extent, more or less times, has felt that s/he has been ‘wronged’. It is for you to decide whether to continue resisting the ‘way it is’, in victim-hood, and with this ‘hood’ smother your awareness, or exercise your freedom (divine right) to choose, and to remain in a state of gratitude. To continue fighting the stormy waves of Life, to re(en)act, denying your power of response-ability to your painful experiences (while pain is at times inevitable, suffering is a choice). To be dumped continuously, helplessly, one wave after another, until you drown. Or learn to Live Life with Gratitude, unconditional anticipation and enth(eo)usiasm (meaning God-filled), of the waves, and to surf on their crests

Apollo Pampallis, Therapist and Philosopher, can be contacted at apollo@discoveringthenow.com

The Holographic Universe- Michael Talbot

In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. You did not hear about it on the evening news. In fact, unless you are in the habit of reading scientific journals you probably have never even heard Aspect’s name, though there are some who believe his discovery may change the face of science.

Aspect’s experiment is related to the EPR Experiment, a consicousness experiment which had been devised by Albert Einstein, and his colleagues, Poldlsky and Rosen, in order to disprove Quantum Mechanics on the basis of the Pauli Exclusion Principle contradicting Special Relativity.

Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn’t matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart.

Somehow each particle always seems to know what the other is doing. The problem with this feat is that it violates Einstein’s long-held tenet that no communication can travel faster than the speed of light. Since traveling faster than the speed of light is tantamount to breaking the time barrier, this daunting prospect has caused some physicists to try to come up with elaborate ways to explain away Aspect’s findings. But it has inspired others to offer even more radical explanations.

University of London physicist David Bohm, for example, believes Aspect’s findings imply that objective reality does not exist, that despite its apparent solidity the universe is at heart a phantasm, a gigantic and splendidly detailed hologram.

To understand why Bohm makes this startling assertion, one must first understand a little about holograms. A hologram is a three- dimensional photograph made with the aid of a laser.

To make a hologram, the object to be photographed is first bathed in the light of a laser beam. Then a second laser beam is bounced off the reflected light of the first and the resulting interference pattern (the area where the two laser beams commingle) is captured on film.

When the film is developed, it looks like a meaningless swirl of light and dark lines. But as soon as the developed film is illuminated by another laser beam, a three-dimensional image of the original object appears.

The three-dimensionality of such images is not the only remarkable characteristic of holograms. If a hologram of a rose is cut in half and then illuminated by a laser, each half will still be found to contain the entire image of the rose.

Indeed, even if the halves are divided again, each snippet of film will always be found to contain a smaller but intact version of the original image. Unlike normal photographs, every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole.

The “whole in every part” nature of a hologram provides us with an entirely new way of understanding organization and order. For most of its history, Western science has labored under the bias that the best way to understand a physical phenomenon, whether a frog or an atom, is to dissect it and study its respective parts.

A hologram teaches us that some things in the universe may not lend themselves to this approach. If we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we will not get the pieces of which it is made, we will only get smaller wholes.

This insight suggested to Bohm another way of understanding Aspect’s discovery. Bohm believes the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental something.

This fundamental connectedness would correlate with The Fifth Element, and its mathematical proof of all aspects of the universe being energetically connected – Hal Puthoff’s assertion in his work on Zero-Point Energy of all charges in the universe being connected and that further mass is in all likelihood an illusion as well — and both of these modern day theories of physics being in accordance with ancient traditions and philosophies, which claim the same connectedness of the diverse parts of the universe.

To enable people to better visualize what he means, Bohm offers the following illustration. Imagine an aquarium containing a fish. Imagine also that you are unable to see the aquarium directly and your knowledge about it and what it contains comes from two television cameras, one directed at the aquarium’s front and the other directed at its side.

As you stare at the two television monitors, you might assume that the fish on each of the screens are separate entities. After all, because the cameras are set at different angles, each of the images will be slightly different. But as you continue to watch the two fish, you will eventually become aware that there is a certain relationship between them.

When one turns, the other also makes a slightly different but corresponding turn; when one faces the front, the other always faces toward the side. If you remain unaware of the full scope of the situation, you might even conclude that the fish must be instantaneously communicating with one another, but this is clearly not the case.

This, says Bohm, is precisely what is going on between the subatomic particles in Aspect’s experiment.

According to Bohm, the apparent faster-than-light connection between subatomic particles is really telling us that there is a deeper level of reality we are not privy to, a more complex dimension beyond our own that is analogous to the aquarium. And, he adds, we view objects such as subatomic particles as separate from one another because we are seeing only a portion of their reality.

Such particles are not separate “parts”, but facets of a deeper and more underlying unity that is ultimately as holographic and indivisible as the previously mentioned rose. And since everything in physical reality is comprised of these “eidolons”, the universe is itself a projection, a hologram.

In addition to its phantomlike nature, such a universe would possess other rather startling features. If the apparent separateness of subatomic particles is illusory, it means that at a deeper level of reality all things in the universe are infinitely interconnected.

The electrons in a carbon atom in the human brain are connected to the subatomic particles that comprise every salmon that swims, every heart that beats, and every star that shimmers in the sky.

Everything interpenetrates everything, and although human nature may seek to categorize and pigeonhole and subdivide, the various phenomena of the universe, all apportionments are of necessity artificial and all of nature is ultimately a seamless web.

In a holographic universe, even time and space could no longer be viewed as fundamentals. Because concepts such as location break down in a universe in which nothing is truly separate from anything else, time and three-dimensional space, like the images of the fish on the TV monitors, would also have to be viewed as projections of this deeper order.

At its deeper level reality is a sort of superhologram in which the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. This suggests that given the proper tools it might even be possible to someday reach into the superholographic level of reality and pluck out scenes from the long-forgotten past.

What else the superhologram contains is an open-ended question. Allowing, for the sake of argument, that the superhologram is the matrix that has given birth to everything in our universe, at the very least it contains every subatomic particle that has been or will be — every configuration of matter and energy that is possible, from snowflakes to quasars, from bluü whales to gamma rays. It must be seen as a sort of cosmic storehouse of “All That Is.”

Although Bohm concedes that we have no way of knowing what else might lie hidden in the superhologram, he does venture to say that we have no reason to assume it does not contain more. Or as he puts it, perhaps the superholographic level of reality is a “mere stage” beyond which lies “an infinity of further development”.

Bohm is not the only researcher who has found evidence that the universe is a hologram. Working independently in the field of brain research, Standford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram has also become persuaded of the holographic nature of reality.

Pribram was drawn to the holographic model by the puzzle of how and where memories are stored in the brain. For decades numerous studies have shown that rather than being confined to a specific location, memories are dispersed throughout the brain.

In a series of landmark experiments in the 1920s, brain scientist Karl Lashley found that no matter what portion of a rat’s brain he removed he was unable to eradicate its memory of how to perform complex tasks it had learned prior to surgery. The only problem was that no one was able to come up with a mechanism that might explain this curious “whole in every part” nature of memory storage.

Then in the 1960s Pribram encountered the concept of holography and realized he had found the explanation brain scientists had been looking for. Pribram believes memories are encoded not in neurons, or small groupings of neurons, but in patterns of nerve impulses that crisscross the entire brain in the same way that patterns of laser light interference crisscross the entire area of a piece of film containing a holographic image. In other words, Pribram believes the brain is itself a hologram.

Pribram’s theory also explains how the human brain can store so many memories in so little space. It has been estimated that the human brain has the capacity to memorize something on the order of 10 billion bits of information during the average human lifetime (or roughly the same amount of information contained in five sets of the Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Similarly, it has been discovered that in addition to their other capabilities, holograms possess an astounding capacity for information storage–simply by changing the angle at which the two lasers strike a piece of photographic film, it is possible to record many different images on the same surface. It has been demonstrated that one cubic centimeter of film can hold as many as 10 billion bits of information.

Our uncanny ability to quickly retrieve whatever information we need from the enormous store of our memories becomes more understandable if the brain functions according to holographic principles. If a friend asks you to tell him what comes to mind when he says the word “zebra”, you do not have to clumsily sort back through ome gigantic and cerebral alphabetic file to arrive at an answer. Instead, associations like “striped”, “horselike”, and “animal native to Africa” all pop into your head instantly.

Indeed, one of the most amazing things about the human thinking process is that every piece of information seems instantly cross-correlated with every other piece of information–another feature intrinsic to the hologram. Because every portion of a hologram is infinitely interconnected with ever other portion, it is perhaps nature’s supreme example of a cross-correlated system.

The storage of memory is not the only neurophysiological puzzle that becomes more tractable in light of Pribram’s holographic model of the brain. Another is how the brain is able to translate the avalanche of frequencies it receives via the senses (light frequencies, sound frequencies, and so on) into the concrete world of our perceptions.

Encoding and decoding frequencies is precisely what a hologram does best. Just as a hologram functions as a sort of lens, a translating device able to convert an apparently meaningless blur of frequencies into a coherent image, Pribram believes the brain also comprises a lens and uses holographic principles to mathematically convert the frequencies it receives through he senses into the inner world of our perceptions.

An impressive body of evidence suggests that the brain uses holographic principles to perform its operations. Pribram’s theory, in fact, has gained increasing support among neurophysiologists.

Argentinian-Italian researcher Hugo Zucarelli recently extended the holographic model into the world of acoustic phenomena. Puzzled by the fact that humans can locate the source of sounds without moving their heads, even if they only possess hearing in one ear, Zucarelli discovered that holographic principles can explain this ability.

Zucarelli has also developed the technology of holophonic sound, a recording technique able to reproduce acoustic situations with an almost uncanny realism.

Pribram’s belief that our brains mathematically construct “hard” reality by relying on input from a frequency domain has also received a good deal of experimental support.

It has been found that each of our senses is sensitive to a much broader range of frequencies than was previously suspected.

Researchers have discovered, for instance, that our visual systems are sensitive to sound frequencies, that our sense of smell is in part dependent on what are now called “cosmic frequencies”, and that even the cells in our bodies are sensitive to a broad range of frequencies. Such findings suggest that it is only in the holographic domain of consciousness that such frequencies are sorted out and divided up into conventional perceptions.

But the most mind-boggling aspect of Pribram’s holographic model of the brain is what happens when it is put together with Bohm’s theory. For if the concreteness of the world is but a secondary reality and what is “there” is actually a holographic blur of frequencies, and if the brain is also a hologram and only selects some of the frequencies out of this blur and mathematically transforms them into sensory perceptions, what becomes of objective reality?

Put quite simply, it ceases to exist. As the religions of the East have long upheld, the material world is Maya, an illusion, and although we may think we are physical beings moving through a physical world, this too is an illusion.

We are really “receivers” floating through a kaleidoscopic sea of frequency, and what we extract from this sea and transmogrify into physical reality is but one channel from many extracted out of the superhologram.

This striking new picture of reality, the synthesis of Bohm and Pribram’s views, has come to be called the Holographic Paradigm, and although many scientists have greeted it with skepticism, it has galvanized others. A small but growing group of researchers believe it may be the most accurate model of reality science has arrived at thus far.

More than that, some believe it may solve some mysteries that have never before been explainable by science and even establish the paranormal as a part of nature. Numerous researchers, including Bohm and Pribram, have noted that many para-psychological phenomena become much more understandable in terms of the holographic paradigm.

In a universe in which individual brains are actually indivisible portions of the greater hologram and everything is infinitely interconnected, telepathy may merely be the accessing of the holographic level. It is obviously much easier to understand how information can travel from the mind of individual ‘A’ to that of individual ‘B’ at a far distance point and helps to understand a number of unsolved puzzles in psychology. In particular, Stansilov Grof feels the holographic paradigm offers a model for understanding many of the baffling phenomena experienced by individuals during altered states of consciousness.

In the 1950s, while conducting research into the beliefs of LSD as a psychotherapeutic tool, Grof had one female patient who suddenly became convinced she had assumed the identity of a female of a species of prehistoric reptile. During the course of her hallucination, she not only gave a richly detailed description of what it felt like to be encapsulated in such a form, but noted that the portion of the male of the species anatomy was a patch of colored scales on the side of its head. What was startling to Grof was that although the woman had no prior knowledge about such things, a conversation with a zoologist later confirmed that in certain species of reptiles colored areas on the head do indeed play an important role as triggers of sexual arousal.

The woman¹s experience was not unique. During the course of his research, Grof encountered examples of patients regressing and identifying with virtually every species on the evolutionary tree (research findings which helped influence the man-into-ape scene in the movie, Altered States). Moreover, he found that such experiences frequently contained obscure zoological details which turned out to be accurate.

Regressions into the animal kingdom were not the only puzzling psychological phenomena Grof encountered. He also had patients who appeared to tap into some sort of collective or racial unconscious. Individuals with little or no education suddenly gave detailed descriptions of Zoroastrian funerary practices and scenes from Hindu mythology. In other categories of experience, individuals gave persuasive accounts of out-of-body journeys, of precognitive glimpses of the future, of regressions into apparent past-life incarnations.

In later research, Grof found the same range of phenomena manifested in therapy sessions which did not involve the use of drugs. Because the common element in such experiences appeared to be the transcending of an individual¹s consciousness beyond the usual boundaries of ego and/or limitations of space and time, Grof called such manifestations transpersonal experiences, and in the late ’60s he helped found a branch of psychology called transpersonal psychology devoted entirely to their study. Although Grof¹s newly founded Association of Transpersonal Psychology garnered a rapidly growing group of like-minded professionals and has become a respected branch of psychology, for years neither Grof or any of his colleagues were able to offer a mechanism for explaining the bizarre psychological phenomena they were witnessing. But that has changed with the advent of the holographic paradigm.

As Grof noted, if the mind is actually part of a continuum, a labyrinth that is connected not only to every other mind that exists or has existed, but to every atom, organism, and region in the vastness of space and time itself, the fact that it is able to occasionally make forays into the labyrinth and have transpersonal experiences no longer seems so strange.

Perhaps, in Creating Reality, we have already become – as in Star Trek, The Next Generation – a Q of the Continuum or we are part of a consciousness virtual reality experiment.

The holographic paradigm also has implications for so-called hard sciences like biology. Keith Floyd, a psychologist at Virginia Intermont College, has pointed out that if the concreteness of reality is but a holographic illusion, it would no longer be true to say the brain produces consciousness. Rather, it is Consciousness that creates the appearance of the brain as well as the body and everything else around us we interpret as physical.

Such a turnabout in the way we view biological structures has caused researchers to point out that medicine and our understanding of the healing process could also be transformed by the holographic paradigm. If the apparent physical structure of the body is but a holographic projection of consciousness, it becomes clear that each of us is much more responsible for our health than current medical wisdom allows. What we now view as miraculous remissions of disease may actually be due to changes in consciousness which in turn effect changes in the hologram of the body. Similarly, controversial new healing techniques such as visualization may work so well because in the holographic domain of thought images are ultimately as real as reality. Even visions and experiences involving non-ordinary reality become explainable under the holographic paradigm.

In his book Gifts of Unknown Things, biologist Lyall Watson describes his encounter with an Indonesian shaman woman who, by performing a ritual dance, was able to make an entire grove of trees instantly vanish into thin air. Watson relates that as he and another astonished onlooker continued to watch the woman, she caused the trees to reappear, then click off again and on again several times in succession. Although current scientific understanding is incapable of explaining such events, experiences like this become more tenable if hard reality is only a holographic projection.

Perhaps we agree on what is ‘there’ or ‘not there’ because what we call consensus reality is formulated and ratified at the level of the human unconscious at which all minds are infinitely interconnected. If this is true, it is the most profound implication of the holographic paradigm of all, for it means that experiences such as Watson’s are not commonplace only because we have not programmed our minds with the beliefs that would make them so.

In a holographic universe there are no limits to the extent to which we can alter the fabric of reality.

What we perceive as reality is only a canvas waiting for us to draw upon it any picture we want. Anything is possible, from bending spoons with the power of the mind to events experienced by Carlos Castaneda during his encounters with the Yaqui brujo don Juan, for Magic is our birthright, no more or less miraculous than our ability to compute the reality we want when we are in our dreams.

Indeed, even our most fundamental notions about reality become suspect, for in a holographic universe, as Pribram has pointed out, even random events would have to be seen as based on holographic principles and therefore determined.

Synchronicities or meaningful coincidences suddenly makes sense, and everything in reality would have to be seen as a metaphor. Even the most haphazard events would express some underlying symmetry.

Whether Bohm and Pribram’s holographic paradigm becomes accepted in science or dies an ignoble death remains to be seen, but it is safe to say that it has already had an influence on the thinking of many scientists. And even if it is found that the holographic model does not provide the best explanation for the instantaneous communications that seem to be passing back and forth between subatomic particles, at the very least, as noted by Basil Hiley, a physicist at Birbeck College in London, Aspect’s findings indicate that we must be prepared to consider radically new views of reality.