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I
AM VERY ACCOMMODATING
By: Margaret E. White
I ask no questions.
I accept whatever you give me.
I do whatever I am told to do.
I do not presume to change anything you think, say or do; I file it
away in perfect order, quickly and efficiently, and then I return it
to you exactly as you gave it to me.
I am the reservoir into which you toss anything your heart or mind
chooses to deposit there.
I work night and day; I never rest, and nothing can impede my
activity.
The thoughts you send to me are categorised and filed, and my filing
system never fails.
I am truly your servant who does your bidding without hesitation or
criticism.
I cooperate when you tell me that you are ‘this’ or ‘that’ and
I play it back as you give it. I am most agreeable.
Since I do not think, argue, judge, analyse, question, or make
decisions, I accept impressions easily.
I am going to ask you to sort out what you send me, however, my files
are getting a little cluttered and confused. I mean, please discard
those things that you do not want returned to you.
What is my name? Oh, I thought you knew!
I am your subconscious.
Regarding
consciousness, it is unfortunate that today our mode of thinking is
that consciousness only comes from the head, mind or brain. It
doesn’t! The brain is an organ that directs consciousness in a
certain direction, and the mind can ramble on in strange ways and want
things that the body and soul do not want. There is also a body
consciousness, for example, when we eat certain foods, the bile knows
whether or not there is something there for it to go to work on.
In Dr. Peter O’Connor’s book; ‘Understanding The Mid-life
Crisis’, he says:
"For the first half of their lives males have been heavily
conditioned into believing that the conscious mind is the centre of
their universe and that the ego in particular is the ruler of this
universe.
"I find in this modern fixed-belief system, that the conscious
mind is the centre of the psychological universe, and the ego the
ruler of the system, a strange parallel with the ancient view (some
400 years) that the earth was the fixed centre of the universe and the
sun, planets and stars rotated around it. It is as if man has simply
shifted this erroneous belief into the realm of his personal
universe… In many ways Jung can be seen as being to psychology what
Copernicus is to Astronomy."
The problem in middle age, when the body has reached it’s climax of
power and begins to decline, is to identify yourself not with the
body, but with the consciousness of which the body is just a vehicle.
And in growing old there is the fear of death. But this body is a
vehicle of consciousness, and if you can identify with the
consciousness, you can watch the body go like an old car. But it is
predictable. And then gradually, the whole thing drops off, and
consciousness rejoins consciousness.
Out in the bush, where I now live, you can see all sorts of different
consciousnesses relating to each other. There is a plant
consciousness, an animal consciousness and a mineral consciousness,
and we as humans share all of these because we eat these things, we
assimilate, absorb, these energies along with the matter.
Regarding consciousness, Fred Alan Wolf says that:
“I
realised that my body is a materialisation of my unconsciousness. My
body is not a symbolism of my unconsciousness. It is my
unconsciousness.” This
gave him the connection between how addiction and the unconscious are
related, saying; “Our
bodies become addicted to material substances. In the same way, our
consciousness becomes addicted to material form. It is an addiction
or, perhaps less strongly put, a desire to have something rather than
nothing.” But
this opens up a whole new subject about a social problem that can be
solved with an understanding of Shamanic Consciousness.
A brief description of this altered state of consciousness can best be
described in the following passages. The first of which is from ‘The
Truth About Shamanism’ by Amber wolf, and the second is from’
Shamanism – A Beginners Guide’ by Teresa Moorey:
Shamanic
consciousness
"To understand the sacred, other world journey of the shaman, it
is necessary to first understand shamanic consciousness. To begin
with, consciousness is usually divided into two primary types:
"1. The focused, waking consciousness in which we are alert and
aware of our surroundings,
"2. The unfocused, non-waking consciousness in which, we are
either dreaming or unconscious of our surroundings."
"Simply put, shamanic consciousness blends the focused awareness
of waking consciousness with the unfocused flow of dreams, inner
vision, and non-waking consciousness….
"Shamanic consciousness is a special altered state of
consciousness in which the shaman is able to view his/her surroundings
as a non-ordinary reality. The shaman is aware of the concrete levels
of reality that include the everyday world of humankind. The shaman is
also aware of the abstract world of Nature energies and Spirit.
"For the shaman, both the concrete and abstract levels have
significance, meaning, and validity. The shaman has the ability to
draw information and wisdom from all levels, and the abilities to not
confuse them with each other….
"Carl Jung, the great Western psychoanalyst and mystic, once
compared the mind of man to a large apartment building. While most
people in an apartment building are familiar with a few floors and a
few other residents of the building, very few know them all. The
shaman, as an explorer and experimenter in mind and consciousness,
strives to “visit all the floors and residents.” He/she is then
able to return to his/her own “apartment” without getting lost."
Psychology
"The shamanic state, especially at its inception, has been
likened to forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia. There are
several points in connection with this. Firstly, while the shaman may
begin her career in crisis, she certainly does not remain so, for the
point of shamanism is controlled spirit-flight and effective use of
transcendent states. Secondly, any ‘dualistic’ perception within
society, such as good/bad, spirit/matter, light/dark, which occurs in
many cultures, is bound to provoke crisis in one whose mystical
experiences go beyond this resolution into opposites, at once unifying
them and rendering them meaningless. Third, our attitude to such
illnesses as schizophrenia may just be misleading, for though these
conditions entail an undeniably great degree of suffering, we totally
fail to consider any possibility of the sacrality of these states or
the possibility of spiritual revelation in connection with them –
for instance, Mongolian lamas may advise the mentally unbalanced to
become shamans…
"As a mediator between the comprehensible and the
non-comprehensible, the unnameable, the shaman could make a perilous
world seem manageable."
For a detailed understanding of shamanic consciousness I would
recommend reading ‘The Eagle’s Quest’ by Fred Alan Wolf.
Joseph Campbell says that the whole world is informed by consciousness
and that meditation is the transformation of consciousness. Saying
that:
“All of life is a meditation, most of it unintentional. A lot of
people spend most of life meditating on where their money is coming
from and where it’s going to go. If you have a family to bring up,
you’re concerned for the family. These are all very important
concerns, but they have to do with physical conditions mostly. But how
are you going to communicate spiritual consciousness to the children
if you don’t have it yourself? How do you get that? What myths are
for, is to bring us into a level of consciousness that is spiritual…
Every God, every mythology, every religion is true in this sense; it
is true as metaphorical of the human and cosmic mystery.”
This Great Mystery can never be explained in any other form because
myths and dreams come from realisations that have to find expression
in symbolic form, and because they are manifestations of the energies
within us, moved by the organs of the body including the brain.
The following, I believe is the crux to understanding life and why we
have all the problems that we do. If you can follow it, it will also
explain the importance of understanding the duality of our existence.
People say that seeing is believing, but they have it wrong because
believing is seeing. Each of us creates the reality we see from our
beliefs. Recording a clear image of an object in our mind creates an
object clearly in the world. We see what we want to see. This is
something like thinking of an ice cream. If you think it clearly
enough and often enough, you will go and get one at any cost. Creating
one in the real world.
According to Fred Alan Wolf, it is in Mythos, Mythic Time or Mythic
Reality that nothing physically exists except as all possibilities.
This is the Quantum Body, or consciousness, where will and intent live
together in our conscious mind. However everything exists physically
in Cronos as the real truth in our unconscious, mechanical
‘body-mind’, with cellular memories, desires and fears, but no
will or intent, or heart and soul. So everything that actually exists,
does so at the price of having no conscious knowledge of itself, and
therefore relies on sending messages to our conscious mind that only
acknowledges, or sees, what it wants to. So everything in our
conscious mind is in the form of symbols and metaphors, and is
factually false unless it has a direct communication with the
unconscious ‘body-mind’. This communication is what is known as
Shamanic Consciousness, and can be accessed when the body-mind is
dying or thinks it is dying, as it prepares for it’s next stage of
the universal cycle of consciousness.
Yours in spirit
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Toning, Over-toning, Chanting, and Drumming have been used for eons by
indigenous peoples of the world. In addition to the above mentioned
techniques, crystal and metal bowls are still used today by the Tibetan
monks to create healing by using a padded mallet around the rim of these
special bowls. The didgeridoo, an ancient aboriginal wooden instrument,
is widely used for healing ceremonies as well as entertainment. Tuning
Forks, which are said to stimulate the vestibular nerves, the basis of
our sense of space, proportion and balance are, sometimes, the tool for
modern-day therapists.
Sound therapy is being revisited as an extremely powerful tool for
personal growth and transformation. Many holistic practitioners believe
we are each a vibrational energy system whose patterns of intention,
consciousness and information can be expressed dynamically through the
human voice. It is believed that sound vibrations can directly align all
energy fields, especially when using our own voice. Not only will toning
increase energy in the body, well being and healing, but also if used
for positive means, can help with the healing of another.
As noted in Sound as Medicine, “Toning is a practice, which refers to
the intentional elongation of a vowel sound using the voice. In other
contexts, it is a term used to refer to stimulating health, invigorating
the body, or as in a ‘tonic’ a medicine to balance the body. Toning
is usually done with one tone, which differentiates it from chanting
which involves multiple notes in sequence. This is a process of allowing
one’s own voice to find and produce notes needed by one’s own body.
Don Campbell states that when we do this for long periods “…we can
stimulate the limbic area [of the brain] to reduce stress and give us a
sense of well-being.
“Toning creates a deep sense of being bonded within ourselves. We can
reach a state of contentment in a safe and fully aware state of mind.”
Stephen Halpern suggests singing in the shower: “The hard reflective
acoustical surfaces in the bathroom enhance the voice. Just toning
certain vowels by hitting a low note and creating a gradual glissando to
a high pitch will trigger some interesting responses in the body.”
Toning in a group creates a synergistic effect. When two or more people
create separate harmonics, a third harmonic occurs. Barbara Marciniak,
in her book, ‘Bringers of the Dawn’ states, “When you tone with
others, you have access to the group mind that you did not have prior to
making the sound. It is a gigantic leap in consciousness. The key word
is harmony. When the entire planet can create a harmonic of thought, the
entire planet will change and return to the power of the group mind and
the simultaneous empowerment of the individual. Over-toning is another
aspect in which we can learn to project these harmonics into another
person with whom we are working. Just as one can project healing energy
through touch, as in Reiki, the same can be done with the voice. This is
a powerful aspect of over-toning learning to project sacred sounds for
healing another.”
Toning and over-toning uses vowels to create the tones used. They are
AHHHH, AAAA. EEEEE, IIIII, OOOO, YOUUUU. The EEEE sound is meant to
reverberate in the throat. This is created by pressing the tip of the
tongue up against the roof of the mouth while making the EEEE sound. It
can actually be felt in the chest.
It is best to do each vowel sound three times using deep, full, breaths.
I know some people who do this at the start of each day as way to
‘jumpstart’ their bodies and brains. This practice is said to be
very healthy for the body, centring and rejuvenating and helps balance
the energy centres (charkas).
Didgeridoo
The didgeridoo is the
oldest known instrument in the world, dating back to at least 40,000
years ago. Before the Europeans visited Australia 200 years ago, this
instrument was known only to the Aborigines of Australia. At ceremonies,
or corroborees, the didgeridoo provided musical accompaniment to dances,
telling stories of creation and other myths of their culture and of life
on Earth. The Aborigines have described the sound of the didgeridoo as
“recreating creation” through the continuous tone, insuring the
cycles of life on Earth would continue and flourish. The Aborigines
consider themselves as the care-givers of the Earth, stewards of this
planet and all of its various life forms. Playing the didgeridoo is part
of this continual prayer, which constitutes their cultural life focus.
Circular breathing is a process of taking air in through the nose while
squeezing air out of the mouth to keep a continuous stream of air
circulating. A good example of how to do this would be to take a
mouthful of water, and squeeze a fine stream out like a fountain. While
doing this, take a quick breath in through the nose while squeezing the
cheeks to keep the stream going. Another example would be to put a straw
in a glass of water and blow bubbles then keep the bubbles going as you
take in a quick breath through the nose.
Once this technique is mastered, it can be applied to the didgeridoo or
any wind instrument, which seals the lips completely (saxophone,
trumpet, tuba, trombone, clarinet, etc.).
An important thing to remember is that it is not essential to circular
breath in order to play the didgeridoo. It is more important that one
can produce a tone easily, clearly, and begin to get creative with it
before attempting to circular breath. It will be much easier to first
get completely comfortable with playing the fundamental tone, and allow
circular breathing to evolve later.
Singing Bowls
Typically,
fine handcrafted brass and other metals are used to create bowls, which
produce beautiful singing tones. Another type of bowl is made out of
crystal, and sounds much like rubbing your finger around the dampened
edge of a wineglass.
Michael Ferguson, therapist, states; “Some people have found that
playing crystal bowls while toning or harmonising the voice with them,
creates a sort of “internal massage” which seems to facilitate and
activate the body's ability to heal itself and increase its vitality. My
clients have told me that doing this helped them to feel more
comfortable with their voice and enter into a deep space of silence and
receiving. It seems that the sound creates a field of peaceful
resonance, clearing the mind and fostering a meditative state.
“People have told me that playing bowls in their house helped to clear
out any “dissonant” energies, and helped them to relax after a busy
or stressful day.
“I have also seen individuals who never considered themselves to be
“musical” but were greatly empowered by playing these bowls. They
are quite beautiful to hear and simple to play. Some have also reported
that it has assisted them in learning how to sing!”
Quartz crystal contains the full spectrum of light, reported to be
related to the seven energy centres (chakras) of the human body. The
human body is composed of mainly liquid crystalline structure bones,
blood, DNA, as well as the crystal-colloidal structure of the brain.
Eva Rudy Jansen, in her book, ‘Singing Bowls 1990’, documented the
effect of Tibetan singing bowls on the human brain. It was found that
among tones produced by these bowls, there is a measurable wave pattern
equivalent to the alpha waves produced by the brain state associated
with deep meditation.
Quartz crystal is an extremely accurate transmitter of electromagnetic
energies, and is therefore used as the foundation of timekeeping systems
(for example, modern watches). This same electromagnetic field exists
within all life forms, and listening to the pure vibration of these
quartz bowls can potentially assist in balancing and integrating these
energy fields of the body
By: Raven Wi’
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