Catching up....

Well, it has been a while and that is not to say that we have not been doing anything, but the line from the song in Snow White 'busy doing nothing' does seem to ring true. Isn't it amazing and somewhat overwhelming to find that we are busying ourselves doing a lot of nothing that is any good for us? For me it is chasing my tail, organising myself and then forgetting to note something down and then re-organising so that before I know it I am all over the shop! This time of year there are so many things to be juggling around and we are so busy trying not to drop any of those balls we continually have in the air that we can forget to take a time out for ourselves and just breathe. It creeps up on us doesn't it. We make these wonderful promises to ourselves and then we forget to say 'no' to those little add-ons that appear. How is it that we choose, particularly at this time of year to give so much of ourselves away now? How can we not give ourselves as much consideration as we do to shopping for things no-one really needs most of the time? What if we were to give just our presence instead of presents...? What if we were mindful of our need for self care so that we can give of ourselves without tipping the balance into stress. I am not saying that we should neglect our friends and relatives, what I am saying is that we often gift them items and forget to be mindful to their needs. The exchange of gifts between each of us is about how well we know the recipient these days, or indeed if we are not sure we - I was about to write 'we get them socks', but now iTunes have taken over the role of the 'I have no idea what to get them' ah the generational changes. I have no idea how I got onto this track - it certainly wasn't my intention at the beginning to write about this so I can only surmise that my unconscious mind is having me notice now that I have been remiss on looking at the things that matter, to the things I should be taking care of now....Recent unscheduled trips to hospital with my husband took me into the space of what is important in life. Even though we don't celebrate Christmas we are slightly earlier and celebrate Yule at the Solstice, we are in a familial community who do and so we respect that and wait to exchange gifts. More and more though, our family are taking to the idea of our 'differences' particularly the younger members who find it a 'cool idea' and I must admit I enjoy the freedom of being deemed eccentric or just plain weird. Expectations are not there so we don't disappoint. Less stress comes with real communication. We don't want presents of things from our youngsters, we prefer their presence, their gift of sharing joy, laughter and fun. Making a memory, giving hugs which are of course stress relievers and free! Not only that but these gifts never disappoint.

Death And The Shaman Part III

Death – the cessation of life – or not...

Normally we do not like to think about death. We would rather think about life. Why reflect on death? When you start preparing for death you soon realise that you must look into your life...now...and come to face the truth of your self. Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.
Sogyal Rinpoche.
Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, “Did you bring joy?” The second was, “Did you find joy?”
Leo Buscaglia.
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Psychopomping
For most people it is not the fact of death that they fear it is the mode of transport, and in some cases the concept of blame, also known as guilt.
Fear is a powerful driver; add to that the tag team of guilt and blame and you have a Bermuda Triangle effect, where everyone gets lost. People’s beliefs tend to become more adamant than ever when the perception of death is nigh or imminent.
This can be quite a turn around for some as they have perhaps eschewed all religious belief consciously. Toward the end of life the unknown inspires a search for a common thread of security. This they will find more often than not in a re-visiting of the beliefs of their elders; with the caveat that it will very much depend upon the values that are personally held most dear. It is not unusual to find someone who says that they are not particularly religious. That is until someone steps onto the toes of their values and a surprising effect will occur, a knee jerk reaction; surprising most of all to the person concerned.
Beliefs are very important in all aspects of life but most especially when it comes to death.
In saying that of course the one thing that transcends all belief is the fact that we shall all die.
In that respect we are all of us animal, vegetable and human, equal.
This is where the talent of the Psychopomper comes into play. How many of you have experience of, or have heard someone say, that having said their goodbyes and assured the dying person (even when that person is in a coma) that everyone will be looked after and all affaires managed appropriately, have reported that very soon afterward, if not immediately, the person has died.
We can call it co- incidence but then what is co-incidence? Again, it will depend upon your beliefs not only in religion but in your connection to the deceased.
What has this to do with it? Well, what has just been described is a form of Psychopomping.
At times the Shaman is called, compelled even, to areas of disaster or major accidents and incidents, which due to their very nature cause a lot of confusion not least to the newly deceased who can be lost and wandering in a state of shock having been evicted from their bodies so violently and unexpectedly.
The Shaman journeys to these incidents and becomes a guide for the souls of the deceased, comforting them and facilitating their transition.
Where there is terminal illness, a Shaman may be brought in to allay any fear. By acclimatising the patient to the concept of changing states and introducing them to their body on a metaphysical level they are encouraged to journey to the seat of their illness and to communicate with their bodies, connecting to the divine, by whatever name they choose to call Spirit.
Since the act of journeying involves trance this is beneficial in a lot of ways as this can relieve pain (which will also tend to increase with fear). This in itself is positively therapeutic. In the latter stages of terminal illnesses the patient, may feel totally isolated and alone; lost in a sea of doctors, nurses, beeping and flashing machinery, talked over but not spoken to, de-personalised. By giving them resources to enable them to regain control over some part of their situation it allows them to get as much as possible out of the time they have left in this reality.
Too often the visitors that come are already grieving and perceive loss first and foremost, forgetting that their loved one is still within this reality. They fail to understand that this is not happening to them it is happening to the person in front of them. If we manage in some small part to facilitate an awareness of how to be in the present and to celebrate what the dying person has brought not just to their lives but to those of the extended family and how it has enabled them to go forward and thank them for being – just for being, then perhaps everyone can accept the ultimate change and understand its place in the scheme of things.
It is crucial that this is done for children in this situation. A child reads the emotion of those around them. If they are reading fear and grief they will spend the short time they have left in that state. Sometimes they will be very brave for the adults and be congratulated for being so, but still are not given the space and respect to express their own emotions. They may feel responsible for the morale of the adults around them; children can take on a lot of responsibility without our catching on. All this will be age related and not surprisingly, it is from children that amazing feats of emotional strength are witnessed. It is also at this time in their lives that dogma and fear can be installed to great detriment. We can also steal strength from them, unwitting we feed our guilt on their courage. They will allow us to do so without rancour because they love us and they look to us for guidance and answers. Ironically, it is they who probably know more than we will ever comprehend. Connected still to their inner self so bright and strong, they move between worlds on a daily basis naturally. It is an ability so many of us lack and we should allow them to keep that to their advantage.
“Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.”
John Muir

Death and the Shaman Part II

Traditionally Shamanic initiation will involve some form of ‘death’ which in turn is followed by rebirth into the new life, the new state of being. For the Shaman death is another state, another way of being in the Universe; this one or any of any number of others. The valley of shadows is a journey undertaken by the Shaman for many purposes. They choose to cross the bridge that spans the worlds.
Occasionally, through trauma mental or physical the veil may be pierced by those unaware of the existence of the other worlds. Unbeknown to them as it does not form part of their belief system. They are shown that there is something else, somewhere else.
Some catch a glimpse of what is on the other side of the veil or membrane of that parallel Universe and others are catapulted right into the belly of the Void with all its magnificent potential. Each experience is subjective and coloured again by the belief system of the person involved. This may be the reason that it does not sit well with some.
This is life through a different door, and like Bluebeards’ wife we may find that once we have gone through that door our perception of what life is on this side of it will be changed forever. As found the curious spouse, once something is seen it cannot be un-seen, once a story is told it cannot be un-told it may be changed and adapted but it will still have been brought into conscious awareness.
Le Barre said ‘There were Shamans before there were Gods’; it is a kind of Schrödinger idea, the situation doesn’t exist until it is seen, and once seen it may be believed – but only by those who have experienced the sight of it. Depending on whom these people are, their relationship to whomever they tell and the evidence they produce of how that experience has changed their own perception will govern the acceptability of the event to a wider audience.
That this idea remains unacceptable for some is to be expected since it may fly in the face of certain belief systems. There will be those who will question such ability or the experience of it due to fear, dogma or their opinion of the person relating it.
Let’s get this straight Spirit doesn’t care if you have a degree in theology or not, Spirit speaks to the heart and soul; Spirit is its own qualifier and quantifier. Ordinary Joe Blogs round the corner has as much chance of an epiphany as does the Pope the only difference is in the expectation and perception of their audience. The Pope is expected to deal in epiphany; it is a recognised and widely held belief that this guy has the ear of God; therefore it’s his job to deal in the less than tangible. Joe Bloggs on the other hand, he has the ear of his wife and family and his epiphany can easily be brushed off as a dream or nonsense by family and friends even should this be the result of a near death or indeed a death experience.
It is others’ beliefs as to what right Joe Bloggs has to claim a life changing spiritual experience that will govern how many times he tells it, and to an extent his own continuing belief in his story. If he believes he has witnessed/experienced a miracle and it was sent to him by God it is most likely that he will seek out the counsel of a priest. Should the priest be dismissive of his experience it will fall to how much he believes that he is deserving of such an epiphany and what it means to him.
It is understood that even Jesus Christ had a hard time being accepted as the Messiah in his home town, because people knew him as only the son of a carpenter.
It is the human condition to seek out those who with whom we share experiences, this is proven by the amount of support groups that are around brought into existence by people searching like for like. There are indeed groups of people who give each other support due to dying on the operating table and having the post resuscitation blues. They stay within this ‘circle’ and are comforted. Some see it as a miracle some really do not like the idea of it at all – a door has opened and they’ve had a peek, a bit like Bluebeards’ wife, once she knew what was on the other side of the door she had no idea how to deal with it only that she wanted to undo it, which of course is the one thing she was unable to do. She had no way to know how to be, everything was different now, and she was different.
For others the way to understanding the concept of death is less dramatic – they may not remember the event or indeed they may not consider it memorable enough – one persons’ near death trauma is another’s extreme sport.
It is within these parameters i.e. being human, being curious and being experiential learners that the whole thing gets tangled up like a big ball of string the kitten’s had for a week.
Generalising is one thing, feeling, being, doing, touching, hearing and seeing is another.
Oh, and one more thing before I go on...there is a theory that we cannot imagine anything we have not already experienced...if you could just keep that idea in mind for what comes next and if you are not sure then perhaps you could imagine what that would feel like now, or not either is better.
We cannot speak our minds for fear of ridicule
We cannot love for fear of being hurt
We cannot move forward for fear of losing what we leave behind
We cannot stay for fear of what we may miss
We cannot be ourselves for fear we offend another
We cannot die because we fear..... DEATH

Death and the Shaman Part 1

Death and the Shaman

The Shaman has a kind of symbiotic relationship with death, a concept that some find less than easy to understand.
This relationship is integral to the work of the Shaman, that life and death exist together in harmony is unacceptable to some who will not venture to become comfortable with the idea of their own mortality or that of their loved ones.
Fear and dogma is the veil which obscures our understanding of this subject; curiosity is the key to overcoming the inevitability of our demise. We really are the only animals on this earth that fear death because we are the only ones to quantify it, deify it and philosophise it. We endeavour always to control it, to avoid it at all cost and to what end? We still die.
Really, we cannot have life without death– for without either there would be no existence – no ability for rebirth. The seasons change and things die, we see the cycle of life as they are born anew, not the same as before but part of the same species for plants and trees, they would be the forebears of the original – carrying the double helix to the next generation. So I suppose that we would call life and death a co-dependant relationship, the fruits of which give us the space to bring forth new life, and still allow us to honour what went before.
Anais Nin said, Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
This equating death with a permanent state of non-function is not unique; it may however be more than a little unfair. As with most things we have to realise that our experiences form our opinions of things. Those things we do not have experience of we depend on other authorities’ views to explain. Authorities that we have deemed worthy of the position; so much so that we invest in their belief and make it our own, sometimes less than wisely. This again is a matter of opinion. However, when it becomes a consensus of opinion it can jump from the realm of belief into the realm of fact. Ask any room that has a cross section of Creationists and Darwinists. Though what if they are both correct? What if it is the time frame that we humans have given that is the bone of contention and nothing else?
As Kuan Yin posits People believe that death is punishment from God rather than a natural progression, a doorway to other realities. By having such grim perspective on death, they make it a fearful and painful experience.
Belief is the key.

Going Solo

The Solo Seal

Recently in the papers, the tale of ‘Sahara’ the Arctic Seal was told.
It seems that Sahara is not keen on the cold Arctic Waters around Greenland and Iceland to the extent that he swims South instead of North putting himself in jeopardy.

The consensus of opinion it seems is that there is something wrong with him….why cannot there be something wrong with the consensus?

Is it not possible that Sahara is an evolutionary revolutionary? Could he be the next signal of global warming? Or could it be that he is a ‘Jonathon Livingston Seal’ he can because he thinks he can.

Against everything the little seal is holding onto the idea that he deserves to live in the South that he will be able to feed and get himself adapted to the heat of sunnier climbs.

Sahara the evolutionary revolutionary, I like the sound of that. His is a story worth the telling.

If nothing else it shows the tendency of behaviourists and experts to insist on keeping things in boxes. Unlike the Great Whites of Seal Island whose behaviour is unique due to the currents and mapping of the sea bed at that point, Sahara’s behaviour is seen as unusual in a negative way. This little seal is mistaken, he is wrong. He has to be made to fit into the Arctic Seal code of behaviour so buy him an ice machine and make him like it!

The sharks however, less cuddly and more assertive in what they want to do are allowed to keep their behaviour in fact it is positively re-enforced by the behaviourists and marine biologists who leave out seal decoys for them to ‘hunt’. Whose behaviour is the most OCD? Who is driving that particular bus?

The difference being in the outcome perceived by the scientists; the shark behaviour is positive because it feeds them and is a progression of hunting instinct and a sign of intelligence at work. Poor little Sahara on the other hand is seen as a negative because no one can actually work out why he does this. They assume he is phobic of his home waters, they assume that there is something wrong with him. He is not physically sick it seems but chooses possible death rather than stay in his home environment… perhaps there is something wrong with the environment not the seal?
Is it perhaps not the animal behaviour that is at odds with their relative situations? Let’s turn the microscope on ourselves and our perception of what is normal behaviour and what is not.

Who are we to decide what is and what is not normal behaviour? I would posit that we change the word ‘normal’ for uniformly acceptable – at least that is what we like uniformly acceptable behaviour. Slight variations are allowed of course, but must only be quirks that are amusingly clever enough to pique our interest but that we may also bring back into the general acceptable table of reference.

There seems to be no morphogenesis here with the sharks and the seal, neither would meet the other… Unless of course Sahara has decided to become a Superhero Seal Saviour going to The Cape to save the population of Seal Island from being eaten by the relentless Great Whites. Flights of fancy, but then who would have thought of a shark that would jump like a dolphin… how did that work? Have the sharks encountered dolphins? Yes possibly, therefore it is not inconceivable to have a learning curve of monkey see monkey do – all the elements being in place to promote the serendipity of the first incident. The unique currents and layout of the seabed around seal island and a very hungry and quite powerful shark.
Maybe they are one time learners, perhaps they follow each other in a school mentality, and they must have some kind of social/hunting scale that allows them to not attack each other? So they are aware of each others differences… or was it just that one lucky fluke. The lack of morphogenesis is a telling one BUT there are a lot of sharks there and they come in from all over at the breeding season, when food will be plentiful, how do they know – who do they follow – who did it first? Was there a Jonathon Livingston Shark to go with the little seal’s efforts to find his comfort zone? Getting there is only half the problem staying there and thriving that is the biggie.

N.B as far as the behaviourists are concerned the famous Pavlov’s dogs were actually also a product of re- enforced behaviour – at first his experiment did not work so he punished the dogs that did not respond. If it doesn’t fit in with the idea of how it is thought it should go – make it by whatever means was okay to do in those days – hopefully karma has sorted that one out I have an image of an aging Pavlov dribbling into his soup and a stern nurse type giving him into trouble for requiring a bib at his age! That would be justice in my book.

But again we come to the anthropomorphism of animals and do we also have a right to do that, why, in fact do we do that?
If we believe that they are just humans dressed in a four legged furry body then it is actually quite evident why we are so cruel to them. We are not much better with ourselves really.

Giving an animal the benefit of humanistic tendencies is one thing, trusting them to exhibit those tendencies on tap is another; the pack mentality is the trigger for the anthropomorphism with dogs and to a certain extent cats. We believe they know exactly what we are saying because of what they do in given situations and the more we create those situations the more we see the behaviour. We reward the behaviour so of course the animal is going to repeat it especially if there is a reward of food or a favoured toy. Carrot and stick, it is donkeys ages old, and it still works in various forms; especially with us as we too are animals.
So we are animals, we think – we believe things are just so because we have worked out that doing a series of things will generate a certain response or result. If it pleases or adds to our comfort and progression we keep it if it does not, well as human animals we have a tendency ourselves to hold onto bad habits.
Dr Phil says if you keep doing the same thing you will keep getting the same result. Obvious but then the truth usually is. Succinct and to the point if you cannot see what is wrong with what you are doing and it does not serve you – change it.

What makes a seal believe he can buck the trend? To begin with does he even know what trend it is that he is bucking? Does he know what a trend is?

How much of a drive was the instinct to feed responsible for the first shark to leap at such speed to get the seal from the island in South Africa?

We believe we know; we believe we understand these things almost better than they understand themselves.
We believe all that and more – but we do not believe in ourselves, we are less than totally aware that the beliefs we hold make our lives so rigidly habitual.

This involves YOUR RIGHTS both HUMAN AND CIVIL

Hi Everyone, I think it is vital and urgent that we address this matter and get the Codex Alimentarius laws stopped. Never heard of it? I’m not surprised, it is yet another erosion of our rights and choices that Governments are trying to steal from us by stealth. They do not want the public to have any powers of choice in the matter, of course they would prefer us to believe that they do this for our own safety...
Codex Alimentarius is due to be passed on 31st Dec 2009. If Codex were to be passed then all nutrient supplements would be banned, this means vitamins would be illegal in the same way heroin is illegal. Under Codex it would also become law that ALL foods would have to be sprayed with pesticides and ALL animals for food would have to be injected with growth hormones and antibiotics that then end up in our bodies. This not only would affect us, but would have a disastrous effect on developing countries. Also, all natural herbs would be banned, all alternative remedies would no longer be available...anywhere!
It is the pharmaceutical industry that is behind this. If this happens it would result in more ill health and cancer, so then what would the pharmaceutical companies make? More money.
I know you probably are thinking this sounds far fetched but this is very real and to my mind, incredibly sinister.
Below is the link with all the information.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5266884912495233634&ei=IE9FSdO8BorMwgPNp93TCQ&q=codex+alimentarius&hl=En
Please sign the petition! It takes 10 seconds! This is for our health and wellbeing and the health and wellbeing of our children. Please click this link for the petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Vitamins/

Daydream believer

Day Dreaming your life a – way…..

There is a theory about daydreaming. Let’s face it there is more than just the one!
My school report card was full of how much of a day dreamer I was in so many of my classes that it was a wonder there was any room left for anything else. Much to my chagrin this would be changed to “must try harder”, but daydreaming is something that you don’t have to try to do.
All of the adults in my life and some of my peers would be very upset with me for not being present while in their presence. It wasn’t as if there was a problem from my point of view, I would just get to a space where the words of the teacher, parent, sibling, friend or whomever would become a drone and life would become very still and quiet because I have a volume control inside my head and it would be slowly but irrevocably turned down to silence…………………..

The premise that I am stating here is that at that time – in days of yore there was no recognition that actually there was something I was good at. Their focus was on their criteria, mine was on my own; it was deemed inappropriate behaviour and ever so slightly arrogant that I should consider myself able to go into the dwam, trance or whatever they wanted to call it. Personally I believe that they were a bit envious of my ability to switch off. That what I was doing was not recognised as a positive is really not surprising – even today teachers are teaching with the same criteria as before and their criteria now has criteria from the Government as to how they should be teaching and what targets they should be reaching. Still they forget that a class of pupils is made of individual people. Some of whom have no idea what it going on as their method of learning is entirely different from the person they are sitting next to.

What happens when the brain is not being stimulated to learn? What happens when the inspirational button is not pushed? What happens when a child is left to flick between channels and not engaged by another human who can stimulate and inspire and motivate?

Look around you, how many children and teenagers and young adults are sitting in front of a box, playing monotonous games of destruction in order to get to a different level.

If we only stimulate one part of the brain then we lose the functional ability of the others. We switch it off. We don’t daydream anymore we go on stand-by.
White noise, the noise when the signal is not tuned in, the brain is constantly looking for a signal and at one point it will get hungry enough to latch onto the first strong signal it finds. So is this why some young people get into the wrong company, take drugs, seek authority figures by accessing a machine, since a machine has been a baby sitter and a trusted one at that; why should they not?

Stand-by on a computer or a television is when the machine is waiting to be fully turned on.

What is it that turns your nearest and dearest on – in respect of the choices they will make?

At what point do we realise the soporific effect of the box in the room whether it be a television or computer? At what point do we realise that time is being stolen from us?

At what point do we sit down and think that we are not day dreaming anymore we are on stand-by, ultimately at the mercy of a remote control?

Day dreaming is a useful tool – ask any creative genius. Einstein was a day dreamer and he dreamed up E=MC2.
Day dreaming can also be re-learned, not taught exactly – too restrictive and in some cases one persons’ day dream is another’s ennui, and it is an entirely personal thing.

Being able to ‘go with the flow’ is something that has even more relevance in the world today. Stress relief. People who are stressed have rarely any kind of good sleep patterns and if we don’t dream we become mentally challenged in different ways; allowing someone to daydream could be the way back to getting a hold on their lives – the Universe is full of such paradoxical games.

Like everything else that we dismiss as unimportant until we understand why we needed it in the first place; the ability and the need to dream is all to easily lost in the white noise of stand-by until we eventually experience burn out.

So get yourself a bit of space and make time to day dream – see where it takes you – write it down afterwards or even record it and read / listen to it again after a couple of days. Notice how you feel directly afterwards. Notice how it felt during and then realise that you were in a trance and then wonder what else you could do in that space, without some Ghengis Khan in twin set and pearls bearing down upon you to bellow in your ear to wake up and pay attention.