  to have  children,  will produce  very  healthy
well-balance d children. Som e perform Ovarian  Breathing  and then  proceed  directly  to
the Microcosmic Orbit  Medit ation. The practice  can be  done  any
time and  virtually  anywhere, once  you have  achieved  the direct
pathway from  the ovaries  to the  brain. When you find yourself  with
unstructur ed time, e.g.,  waiting in line, com muting, at your desk,
looking  at television,  in bed,  etc.,  carry out several  series  of
contractions. as many  as y ou choose  to fill the tim e available. The
main considerati on is that the  back  be properl y straight,  the chest
relaxed,  and the vagina  protected  from the  breeze. You must also
remem ber to touch  your tongu e to your palate  after  you practice
three  or four times. Take y our time to really  feel the  warmth  when you practice. Do
not rush  it, and  always maintain  the action  of the pumps as y ou
breathe  in and  out. Use a mo re mental than  physical pull when you
do the exercise. Let the  warm feeling  be y our guide. Always
remem ber to bring  the ener gy down to the navel  after  a few breat hs,
since the  navel  is roomy  and a safe  place  to store  this w arm vital
energy. It is highl y desirabl e to use Ovarian  Breathing  to tone  the pelvic
diaphra gm. The whole lower abdomen  is deeply  massaged  each
time the pelvic  diaphra gm flexes. Life- force  flows into the regio n
through  periodic  waves of breath  which stimulate the  glands  and
vital organs. Ovarian  Breathing  has tremendous  implications  for w omen’s
control  over  their  reproductiv e systems. There  is not  enough
evidence  to conclude  that women  can control  their  fertilit y through
this me thod. Histor y records,  how ever that when a woman
practices  the Orgasm ic Upward Draw, she can control  her cervix
and urethra  very well, squeezing  the urethra  (befor e the cervix)
tightly  so a ma n’s sperm cannot  enter  the cervix to  join w ith her
egg. There  is too  little evidence  to com e to any conclusions  about
the effectiveness  or reversibilit y of this  method  when used  for birth
control. However some women  are experimenting  with this method,
trusting  that it will be reversible  just by  stoppin g the practice  for a
couple  of months. These  wome n feel justified  in using  them selves
- 115  -Cultivating  Ovarian Power
as their  own laborato ries, since the  method is gentle  and appears
to be  under  control. So many  women,  out of despe ration to control
their reprod uctive  systems, have  already  accepte d the wholesale
experi mentatio n of dangero us birth  control  methods,  by suppose dly
trustw orthy institutions,  such  as IUDs, DES, m orning- after pills,
sequential  birth  control  pills, and forced  sterilization. 4. Ste ps to Practice
The follow ing is a step- by-step guide  throu gh the practice. a. Sit erect  on the  edge  of your chair  with your feet flat  on the
floor about  shoulde rs’ width apart. Make sure  you feel very relaxed. If you are tense,  do some stretching  exercises,  practice  the Inner
Smile to the tense  part,  or take a wa lk to disperse  tension. b. Find  the Ovarian  Palace  by placing  both  thumbs at  the navel
and forming  a triangle  with your index  fingers. Spread  your little
fingers:  the place  where they com e to rest is the site of your ovaries. Beco me a ware of them. Rub  the ovaries  until  they  become w arm. Concentrat e to produce  more ener gy from  the ovaries  and eggs. Use y our mind and  very little pressu re on the  P-C Muscl e to close
and open  the vagina. When you feel enough  energ y has been
generat ed, inhale  a short  sip of air,  bringing  the energ y to the
Ovarian  Palace. c. Inhale  another  sip of  air and  create  a do wnward pulling  action
of the  ovaries’  ener gy to the perin eum by  contracti ng the outer  and
inner  lips of  the vagina. Then  contract  and pull up the front  part of
the perineum so that  the energ y will travel  there. Maintain  an
awareness of the  front  part of the perineum for  a while. d. Exhale  and breat he normally  Rest and guide  the warm feeling
from your ovaries  to your perineum, letting  the ener gy flow to the
perineum via the uterus,  dow n through  the cervical  canal  and along
the back w all of the vagina. At the  same tim e feel  it flow  the few
inches  to the  perine um, an action  induce d by putting  your mind at
the perineum and  maintaining  your attention  there. Inhale  and exhale
several  times fro m the  ovaries  to build  up more energ y. The retentio n
of the  ovaries’  sexual  energ y (Ching  Chi)  at the  perine um is very
important,  for if you release  your attention,  the w arm ener gy will
leak out. e. Start at the Ovarian  Palace  and use Ovarian  Breathing,  inhaling
and exhaling  until  you feel that  the energ y is ready.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        5. 1 Deep  breathing issue s from  pelvic  and urogenital  diaphragm s. 1. Pelvic  Diaphragm
   The pelvic  diaphra gm is a muscular  wall that extends  across
the lower part of the  torso. It is suspen ded betw een the s ymphy ses
- 70 -Chapter  V
pubis  (pubic  bones)  in front  and the cocc yx (at the  bottom of the
spine)  in back. (Fig. 5. 2) There are several  organs  that penetrat e
this mu scular  partition  as it lies bet ween the pelvic cavity  and the
perineum. These  organs  are the ureth ra, the vagina  and the rectu m. One function  of the pelvic  diaphra gm is to suppor t these  organs :
therefor e, control  over  this diaphr agm provides  you with greater
control  over  these  orga ns. The pelvic  diaphra gm is also the  floor  of
the abdo minal  cavity, which contains  the stom ach, small and large
intestines,  liver  bladder  and kidney s. It lifts up  and helps  shape
these  vital organs. Anus
Pelvic Diaphra gm
Fig.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the purpose of the pelvic diaphragm?,
A: To support the organs and provide control over them.
Q: What is the significance of the anus in Taoist practice?,
A: The anus is connected to the organs and glands, and its connection is crucial for the flow of Chi.
Q: What is the importance of the perineum in Ovarian Breathing?,
A: The perineum is a crucial point for the storage and circulation of Chi, and it is essential to maintain awareness and control over it.
Q: What is the role of the sacrum in Taoist practice?,
A: The sacrum assists in transforming raw sexual energy into life-force energy.
Q: What is the purpose of the cranial pump in Ovarian Breathing?,
A: The cranial pump helps to guide the energy up the spine and is essential for the circulation of Chi.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Inhalin g in short
sips, dra w the warm energ y from yo ur ovaries  to the perineum,
- 116  -Chapter  V
and then  by pulling  up the  middle and back of  the perineum, dra w
the energy  up to your coccyx,  located  at the very  botto m end  of
your spine. The sacral  hiatus,  an area  made m ostly of bone  and
located  a little up from


 push energy away or grab onto it. Someday, you’re going to remember this discussion. Something is
going to wake up inside, and you’ll know just what we’ve been talking
about. You’ll observe the energy pulling on you, and you will try to let go. For the first time you’ll realize what is actually happening—you are
struggling with yourself. You are both sides of the struggle. Part of you
wants to let go but part still wants to give in to the pull of the energy. Once
you sincerely want to let go of the old habitual energy flows, you will
realize that you have all the power you need inside. You’re the only one
living in there. You just need to deeply relax and stop fighting with yourself. At that point something amazing  is going to happen: All the energy that was
pulling you down and out changes direction. It begins to lift you in and up. This is the transmutation of the energy, and it is real. As liberat ion becomes
the meaning of your life, this inner process will step up signifi cantly. Once
you learn that your center of intent is stronger than any of the habitual
energy flows caused by your samskaras, you will sit quietly within, in the
seat of consciousness, and allow the process of purification to take place. Every day, every moment, you have the opportunity to explore the greatness
of your being.Letting go like this is not a struggle or an act of control. It is much
subtler than that. Perhaps this analogy will help. Imagine you’re in a game
of tug-o f-war. You are alone on one end of the rope, and an entire NFL
football team is on the other end. You’re in big trouble. The force pulling
you in the team’ s direction is very strong. You’ve studied all the latest
techniques for how to dig in your heels, how to best use your bodyweight,
and anything else the experts could teach about standing your ground in a
tug-of-war. You’re doing all the techniques, but they’re not working. Suddenly, Yoda, the great sage from Star Wars shows up to help (he
thinks everyone’ s name is Luke). Yoda: Luke, you know not how to do this. Let go. Let go, Luke. Luke: What do you mean, let go? If I let go, they will pull me
through the mud, headfirst. Yoda: Let go, you must. Luke: I don’ t get it. How do I just let go when this great force is
pulling on me? Yoda: Relax hands, Luke. Relax your hands. Luke: No, not hands—feet, legs, and body position. That’ s how to
end this tug-of-war. Yoda: Over it will be, Luke, if you relax your hands. Turns out, it’s true. If you relax your hands during a tug-of-w ar, the
struggle will immediately be over. No more rope. No more pull. No matter
how strong the pull is, if you relax your hands, you can go home and have
lunch. That’ s all you really wanted to begin with. Who said you had to take
the whole football team home with you? Just relax and let go, and the whole
struggle will be over. That’ s exactly what it’s like to surrender. You’re in
there, and the energy is pulling  you into it. Please don’t fight it. Just relax
your inner hands and let go. If this sounds very Zen, good, because it is. Y ou
don’t need to be strong; you need to be wise. The blocked energy can’t take
you anywhere if you simply relax and let go. Over time, you will find there is a place inside you that is behind the
commotion of the storm. You can simply relax and fall back into that place.This is the place  from which you are noticing the inner commotion, and this
place is still, quiet, and there are never any storms. That is the seat of Self. You don’ t find your way back to Self—you simply cease to leave. If you work
on this, you will come to a beautiful state within that is alwa ys there for
you. It is a place of refuge, and all you ever need to do is keep letting go. That is the life of surrender.Chapter 38. Exploring the Higher States
Once you are no longer drowning inside, a whole other life becomes
possible for you. We can now begin to discuss who you are, and what it can
be like in there. As the blockage s release, the energy is freed from having to
go aroun d them. You start to feel happier. You start to feel higher. You start
to feel like you used to feel when you had a really good day or a particularly
great experience. But this time, nothing special is happening. You’re just
feeling an uplift ing energy going on inside of you that keeps getting higher
and higher. You start feeling love simply because the sky is blue. It used to
take a special moment in a relationship to blow you away like that. Everything that is happening comes in, and you feel it all at a richer, deeper
level. This is because you are more open, more receptive. You don’t have
the need s and problems that you were trying to solve. Because you don’t
have all that commotion inside, and you’re feeling more whole and
complete, there’ s nothing you need from the outside. You start to look at
needs in a completely dif ferent light. You used to make satisfying needs your priority. Most of our modern
needs are psychological, not physiological. Psychological needs are actually
unnatural, as they indicate that something is missing or wrong. If you are
feeling whole and complete inside yourself, there are no psychological
needs. Psychological needs come from your blockages. When the energy is
freed, what you feel is love, joy, and enthusiasm, which are just different
words for uplifting energy. In the purest sense, this upward-flowing energy
is quite different from emotions. An emotion emanates out of your heart and
pulls you into its vibration. Enthusiasm is something that wells up inside. It
is a system-wide, spontaneous, uplifting flow of energy. It is, in fact, freed
shakti.When your energies are liberated, you don’t need energy from anybody
else. You have so much energy inside you it’s incomprehensible. Surely you
have experienced from time to time that if something you really like
happens, there can be a sudden  burst of inner energy. How long does that
take? A billionth of a second. Imagine you’re feeling depres sed and not
doing well. Suddenly, something  happens. Perhaps you receive a phone call
that gets you talking and smiling—it makes your energy flow. The energy
was always there, but you opened up because the phone call matched
something you liked. A blockag e temporarily got out of the way, and all this
energy flowed up. Truth is, if that blockage had not been in the way, you
would not have needed the phone call to open you. This is why you do the
inner work of releasing blockages. As the blockages release, the energy takes you to higher and higher
states. You alrea dy know what the higher states are. The higher states are
about love. They are about being really enthusiastic about your job and
anything else you’re doing. The higher energies are beautiful. They’re much
more beautiful than the expression of the lower energies. As you open up,
life is no longer about seeking nonnegative states; it becomes about
allowing ever-increasing, positive states. Growth used to be about not
feeling anger or anxiety anymore. Now it’s about feeling so much
overwhelming love when you wake up that you have trouble getting out of
bed. Then the feeling of enthusia sm to go to work gets so strong that it pulls
you out of bed and propels you through your day. This is what  it feels like
when the ener gy is flowing. Most people don’ t believe life can be like this. They feel they must find
the perfe ct job in order to be enthused to go to work. How are you defining
“the perfect job”? You define it as the one that opens you. In other words,
the one that fits your blockages just right so your energy can flow. Problem
is, if the same job ever hits your blockages the wrong way, you will close. You are still letting your samskaras run your life. It’s not a matter of finding
the right job; it’s a matter of releasing the blockages so you can be enthused
about the job you have. No matter how high you get, you can always get much higher. Don’ t
believe those who say you can’t enjoy happiness unless you also know
sadness. That is not true. That’ s what life is like if you are still blocked. Once you’re unblocked, you will notice the energy is always beautiful. It is
an ever-new rush of uplifting joy that raises your heart, your mind, andeverything insid e you. You’ll be more aware than you used to be and have
the enthusiasm of a child about everything you get to do. You might wonder why you would be motivated to do anything if
you’re already that content. Why bother having a job, or even a relationship,
if you’re  alread y filled with so much love and happiness?


 uninformed. That is, you will not knowWho You Are. You do not have enough in-forma-Neale Donald Walsch 67
tion. When enough of You  is in formation, you will
know and experience Who You Are in physical form. This is another way of saying that your Outer Life
will begin to reflect your Inner Reality about Who
You Are, and Who You Choose to Be. Remember, it all starts with a State of Being, which
you choose independently. It can be quite an arbi-
trary choice; a State of Being you select simply be-
cause you prefer it or desire it. Yet that selectionmust be made before you can get anywhere. So choose your life purpose, and let that life pur-
pose be to achieve a state, or states, of “being.”  Thenmove into that State of Being no matter what. Watch
as your body moves away from that which you are
not. And do not resist that which opposes you. Sim-ply stay centered in your Being by staying in the cen-
ter of your Being, and watch the miracle. Being will produce  Form, sooner or later. It has no
choice, for that is what Beingness becomes. It is the
function of Beingess to produce Form. That is what
God does. Or, more correctly, that is what God is.68Bringers of the Light
Now, let’s see if there is a way to apply this
wisdom to the fictional man in our example,
as we return to Step 5. Let’s say that this man did not spend any time or
energy trying to put his Being into Form, but rather,
allowed Form to create itself, out of his place of Being. If he had done that, he would have simply moved
into the place of Being in which he wished to reside,
and remained there, stayed there, no matter what
was going on — even if what was going on seemed to“oppose” what he wished to be. Perhaps especially so. He would have simply been “healing” wherever he
went to “work.”  He would have likewise been “heal-God is Being; becoming Form. And so are you.So, there is nothing for you to do, actually. And
the less done, the better. Simply be.Just...be.Neale Donald Walsch 69
ing” at home. At his church. With his friends. And
whenever and wherever he could “be” that. This is, in fact, what he did, soon after he aban-
doned his attempt to “make a living” doing whatcrystal healers do, or what massage therapists do, or
what ministers do, or whatever he thought he had
to do in order to “be” a “healer”... In other words, instead of trying to be a HEALER,
he decided to simply be HEALING. He returned to what he had been “doing” before
he’d decided to become a healer, which brought
money back into his life almost instantly. His wife returned to him, too, which was a source
of great happiness to him. Even his health returned
to normal, for it had been going slowly downhill
during the months he’d been  trying to “be” a“healer.”
Now the problem was, how was he going to be
able to tolerate his old occupation, knowing that whathe really wanted to do was be a healer? The answer was simple. He was going to see his70Bringers of the Light
occupation in a new way. Just as he saw all of Life in
a new way. For he now saw every moment and every
situation as an opportunity to be healing. Being now
on the road to life mastery, he saw opposition as op-
portunity. This changed his whole life around. Where be-
fore at this job he saw conflict and wanted to run
away from it, now he stood in the midst of it and
brought healing. Within months his reputation asa healing, helping person spread. At work, he was
soon removed from his former job and asked if he
would accept a position in charge of employee mo-rale. In his church, he became head of the team on
Well Being. In his home, his spouse and his chil-
dren found a new place of comfort to which to go intheir moments of confusion, conflict, or despair. Never before did this man have such a rich and
wonderful experience of Who He Really Is. But it went further. Soon, people in the commu-
nity began to hear about him, mainly from his ac-
tivities at church and on his job. One day he wasNeale Donald Walsch 71
asked by a friend if he would have the time and the
willingness to volunteer with a local hospice organi-zation. He knew instinctively this was a place where
he could express and experience a part of himself, a
side of  himself, which longed for richer and richerunfoldment. His wife encouraged him. His minis-
ter thought it was a wonderful place for his skills. His employer even gave him a certain amount of timeon the clock  each month to undertake the work, if he
would be kind enough to tell the hospice that he
was representing the company. Soon, his work withthe hospice became the company’s “in-kind contri-
bution” to this charitable organization. The hospice staff saw his obvious desire, his abil-
ity, his enthusiasm for working with people — both
patients and volunteers — in this unique setting. It
took only a few months for the organization to real-ize that it had a very valuable man in its midst. Then, as “luck” would have it, the head of Patient
and Family Well Being at the hospice — a lay personworking in close concert with the chief medicalofficer — moved to another town to accept a new
opportunity...
You already know the end of this. Today, when
he is not working directly with the terminally ill and
their families in his home organization, this man
travels the country speaking to hospice staff and vol-unteers. He has written a book, appeared on televi-
sion, lectured at universities and churches all across
America. Recently, at one of those lectures, he wasintroduced in a way which caught his ear. “Ladies and gentlemen,” the moderator began, “I
would like to introduce to you a man who knowsand deeply understands the meaning of the word
‘healer’.”
 This is how it happens. Had this man tried to
become a hospice advocate, author, and activist  in
the first place, he may never have succeeded. In fact,
the idea of even doing  this kind of thing may never
had occurred to him. Yet here he was. A Healer.72Bringers of the LightNeale Donald Walsch 73
Doingness will follow Beingness, as surely as
the night will follow the day. For Beingness
cannot be denied, and never will. Yet Beingnessknows its own reward. The man in our example
knew himself as “healing” in his own experience long
before he found himself “showing up” that way inthe hospice setting. Still, you may say, the example was fictional. Does
it really work this way? Can you really “be who youare” and, out of that, make a life rather than a liv-
ing? I can only tell you this. There once was a man
who wanted deeply to experience the part of him-
self  called Wisdom, and Clarity. It was an audacious desire, sweeping in its scope,
almost blasphemous in its implications. Yet this is
what he saw in himself. This is the part of God he
saw within. And this is what he wished now to ex-perience. He looked and looked everywhere, yet he could
not find a position, “Vice President in Charge of74Bringers of the Light
Wisdom and Clarity.”
He thought of creating his own firm, but no one
was buying the concept. So, he stopped trying to force his inner Beingness
into an outer Doingness. He simply decided to just“be that,” no matter what he was “doing.”
To make money, he got into marketing and ad-
vertising. He did some writing. He became a radiotalk show host. Then one day, something unusual happened. He
had a very interesting conversation with God...Neale Donald Walsch 75The Steps and Principles
in this Book
Step 1 :Get clear about the purpose of your life. Principle #1:
Life is pointless, and that is God’s Greatest Gift to us. Step 2 :Translate your purpose fromDoingness to Beingness. Principle #2:
You are a Human Being, not a Human Doing. Step 3 :Adopt right now the State of Being you
have described, no matter what you are doing. Principle #3:
Everything you are being,
you are being because you choose to be. Step 4 : Observe Opposition and call it Opportunity. Principle #4:
As soon as you decide Who and What you are, everything
unlike it will come into the space. Step 5 :Allow form to create itself. Principle #5:
Beingness becomes form.A closing note:
Opportunities for more experiential work with the
concepts and principles found in this book are availablethrough the ReCreation Foundation created by Nancyand Neale Donald Walsch, principally through its 5-dayintensive retreat, ReCreating Yourself, offered four timesyearly, and


 doesn’ t exist in action, yet
paradoxically you can find it through action. It will appear as a silent witness that stands back from activity simply to
observe and appreciate what is going on. Soldiers in battle and daredevil
adventurers often feel themselves becoming peaceful, unattached observers
completely divorced from the frantic activity around them. Speaking for
myself, I’ve found that moment s of nonattachment are characterized by the
following:
•  I am present with my body. •  My breathing becomes very refined, approaching stillness. •  Mental activity has calmed down. •  I feel no threat; there is a certainty of belonging. •  I perceive my inner world as an open space with no boundaries;
awareness exten ds in all directions rather than being focused on
specific thoughts. •  Self-a cceptance flows out into the environment. Things “out there”
seem intimate to me, an extension of myself. This experience of unity is also my working definition of love. For most of
us love is an emotion that comes and goes; we feel it intensely at times,
while at other times we don’t feel it at all. But the essence of love isn’t afeeling—it is a state of being. Or to be more exact, it is the state in which
you are in contact with Being. Someone who is truly experiencing love
feels tremendously real and alive, with no desire to do anything except exist
within the fulfill ment of love. Love’s greatest action is simply to be, which
is no action. That is why love is a supreme state of nonattachm ent and yet
the most satisfying state. For your action plan to succeed,  you need to find an outlet for your love,
a place where you can give it freely. The more openly you experience love,
on what ever terms, the closer you will come to finding its essence. Love
that doesn’t flow is no love at all; it is just yearning and longing. The
renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell pointed the way for expressing
love when he said, “Follow your bliss. ” Bliss is the tingling rush of love in
action, the flow of Being as it reaches out to meet itself and curl back with
delight in contact. Love wants to find itself, and when the circuit is
complete, bliss flows. Ask yourself, “Where do I find bliss. ” then write
down the steps you can take to increase this experience in your life. Do not confuse pleasure with love. There are many things that give
pleasure, such as watching television, with very little love in them. Love
certainly brings pleasure but in a more profound way. Carrying  a meal to a
shut-in is an act of love that is far more pleasurable than watching
television, for example, and there is much more to learn from such an action
in terms of sharing, compassion, and understanding. So don’t be distracted by superficial pleasures. The deep joy and delight
that exist at the core of life must be diligently uncovered. When you make
your list, you’ll  find that many  of your most cherished mome nts of bliss
have gone forever. For example, you cannot duplicate the first new feeling
of fallin g in love with the perso n to whom you are now married. But love
has depth after depth. As you make your list, you will remember how you
felt the day your children were born, and in that reminder is a clue: Your
children can still be a source of bliss, if you resolve to reach deeper into
your relationship with them. Nothing is more important than reconnecting
with your bliss. Nothing is as rich. Nothing is more real. Exercise 2: Being Love versus Being in LoveI’d like to explore the state of love further, because it is the surest road
back to Being. The ancient sages declared that ultimately everything is
made of consciousness, and when we experience consciousness purely, with
no extra neous images or assumptions, that is love. The great Bengali poet
Rabindranath Tagore declared, “Love is not a mere impulse; it must contain
truth, which is law. ” The merging of love, truth, and reality is the great
revelation of unity consciousness, the moment when a person can truthfully
say, “I am the All,” and, “I am love,” in the same breath. Seen from this
perspective, love is the feeling-s tate that is always present when  a person is
perfectly aligned with dharma, the flow of evolution. Being in love is not the same state as this. When you fall in love, an
opening is created for repressed feelings to rush forth and attach themselves
to another person. If the love is deep enough, the other person seems ideal
and perfect (this has nothing to do with his or her actual state, which could
be quite imperfect and even destructive). But the force of love changes
reality by changing the perce iver. Why and how does this happen. Physiologists have measured the increase in certain key neurotransmitters
such as serotonin in the brains of people who are in love, but chemicals are
only crude markers. Clearly, serotonin does not cause people to fall in love;
it is only the biochemical basis for the pleasant sensations triggered by
being in love. In a series of revealing exper iments, Harvard psychologist David C. McClelland probed the physiology of love. He had a group of subjects view
a short film of Mother Teresa in her daily work of caring for sick and
abandoned child ren in Calcutta. The film displayed a profound  outpouring
of love. As the audience watched the film, McClelland discov ered that a
marker in their immune systems increased—this was SIgA, or salivary
immunoglobulin antigen. High levels of SIgA, as measured in people’ s
saliva, indicates a high immune response; as it happens, an elevated
immune response is also characteristic of people who have recently fallen in
love. (The popular saying “If you don’t want to catch a cold, fall in love”
recognizes this connection between emotions and physiology. ) Curiously, when  the film was over and the audience was asked their
opinion of Mother Teresa, not everyone found her work laudable. Some had
objections of one kind or another, centering on differences in religiousbelief, while others reported feeling disturbed by the sight of children who
were starving or suffering from  leprosy. Yet all the audienc e members
experienced an increase in SIgA levels; their physical response to love
appeared to be more powerful than their rational attitudes. This led
McClelland to question one of the most popular definitions of love in
modern psychol ogy, which holds that love is a reflexive response that arises
when two people meet to fill each other ’s needs. According to that
definition, love would depend on a person’ s conscious evalua tion of the
benefits he or she was getting in a relationship. But here were people whose
bodies were responding at a much deeper level, deeper even than pleasure. McClelland also found that the positive effect on the viewers’ immune
response decline d and disappeared an hour or two after they had viewed the
film. It remained highest among  those subjects who reported a strong sense
of being loved in their own lives and having strong ties to family and
friends. This implied that some  people are already in a state conducive to
love. Instead of experiencing it as a passing state, they had incorporated it
as a trait. In other words, the statement of the enlightened sage, “I am love,”
was present in these people, if to a smaller degree. What is love as a trait rather than as a passing phase. Even the most
passionate exper ience of being in love eventually cools off, leaving people
dismayed to find that little real love, in a lasting sense, remains. Pondering
this problem, McClelland wondered what had become of the experiences
described in the poetry of love. These experiences did not refer to the
selfish advantages of being in love but to altruistic, undying devotion. Was
Shakespeare simply wrong when he declared, “Love is not love which
alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. Oh no. It is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempest and is never shaken. ”
McClelland also knew of instances cited in the psychological literature
where people were in loving relationships that made no sense in terms of
gaining any objective benefits. Such people felt deep love and devotion
despite the fact that they had no rational reason for feeling that way. What all this implied to McClelland was that love is a state that
transcends reason and whose purpose is simply to allow the experience of a
larger shared reality. One critical matter in this regard was a person’ s
reaction to the death of a loved one. If two people were in love just for whatthey could get, their interdependence would form the basis for loving and
being loved. Thus, the death of the loved one would cause great  pain as the
bond was ripped apart. Certainly this could be observed in real-life
relationships, but McClelland felt from personal experience that something
very dif ferent was possible:
The death of a loved partner should cause intense suffering and
grief, according to this theory. Yet when my wife died of cancer a few
years ago, I did not react in this way. We had been very much in love,
happily married


:Hep-s.
warmdrinks:Lye
Worse:
breathingincoldair:Hep-s.,Rumex. breathingin:Phos. coldair:Nux-v.
colddrinks:Ars.,Hep-s.,Rlius-t.
gettingcold:Sil. coughing:Hep-s.,Phos.,Spo.,Sul. eatingsolidfood:Bapt. evening:Ign. heat:Lach.,Puis. hotdrinks:Phyt. leftside:Lach. morningandevening:Phos. night:Bar-c.,Lye,Merc-s.
notswallowing:Ign. pressure:Lach.,Merc-c,Phos. rightside:Bell.,Lye,Merc-s.
singing:Spo. swallowing:Ars.,Bapt.,Bry.,Dros.,Hep-s.,
Merc-s.,Nit-ac,Nux-v.,RJws-t.,Sil.,Spo.,
Sul. swallowingsaliva(emptyswallowing):
Bar-c.,Lach. swallowingfood:Bar-c.
swallowingliquids:Bell.,Lach.,Merc-c
sweetdrinks/food:Spo. talking:Caust.,Phos.,Spo. touch:Lach.,Spo. turningthehead:Hep-s.
uncovering;Nux-v.,Rhus-t.,Sil. winter:Hep-s. Causes:
changeofweather:Calc-c.
exposuretowind:Hep-s.
gettingcold:Bell.,Hep-s.
singing:Arg-n.
strainingvoice:Rhus-t.
talking:Arg-n.
gettingchilled:Aco.,Bell. SpeedyseeHurried
SpitefulNux-v.
Splinters Sil.seealsoInjuries
Woundinflamed:Sil. SprainsAm.,Calc-c,Rhus-t.,Ruta. Ankle:Am.,Calc<.,Rhus-t.,Ruta. Toot:Am.,Rhus-t.
Hand:Calc<. INTERNALREPERTORY Sympathetic •193
Wrist:Ant.,Calc-c,Rltus-t.,Ruta. Firststage:Am. Pains:
bruised:Ruta. constant:Ruta. With:
bruising:Am. exhaustion:Ruta. lameness:Ruta. stiffness:Rltus-t.
swelling:Am. trembling:Rhus-t. Worse:
exercise:Ruta. lifting:Calc-c.
standing/walking: Ruta. Causes:
falling:Rhus-t.
lifting:Calc-c,Rhus-t.
heavyweights:Calc-c.
twisting:Rhus-t.
StiffneckCalc-c.,Calc-p.,Rhus-t.
Inadults:Calc-p. Causes:
draughts:Calc-p.,Rltus-t.
gettingchilled(cold):Rhus-t.
lifting:Calc-c,Rhus-t.
Stomach-ache seeColic
StrainsAm.,Carb-a.,Rhus-t.,Ruta. Ankle:Ruta. Muscles:Carb-a. Periosteum:Ruta. Tendons:Carb-a.,Ruta. Wrist:Carb-a.,Ruta. Pains. bruised:Ruta. constant:Ruta. joints:Rhus-t.
sore/bruised:Am.,Rhus-t.
With:
exhaustion:Ruta. lameness:Ruta. stiffness:Rhus-t.
trembling:Rhus-t. Better:
continuedmovement:Rhus-t. Worse:
beginningtomove:Rltus-t.
exercise:Ruta. standing:Ruta. walking:Ruta. Causes:
childbirth:Am. over-exertion:Am. StubbornCalc-c,Cham.,Nux-v.
Stupor(seealsoDazed)Bapt.,Op.StyesPuis.,Stap. Worse:
uppereyelids:Puis. SuddenonsetseeOnset
Sulky(seealsoMoody;Morose)Ant-c
SunburnseeBurns
Sunstroke Bell.,Glon. With:
fever:Bell. headache:Bell.,Glon. Sweat
Absentduringfever:Ars.,Bell.,Bry.,Gels. Clammy:Ars.,Chaw.,Ferr-m.,Lye,Merc-s.,
Plto-ac,Phos.,Ver-a. Cold:Ant-t.,Ars.,Carb-v.,Chin.,Cocc,Ferr-m.,
Hep-s.,Ip.,Lye,Merc-c,Merc-s.,Sep.,Ver-a. Exhausting:Carb-a. Fromfright:Nux-v.
Head:Calc-c. Hot:Aco.,Cham.,Con.,Ign.,Ip.,Nux-v.,Op.,Sep. Oily:Mag-c.
Oncoveredpartsofthebody:Aco.,Bell.,Chin. One-sided:Bar-c,Nux-v.,Petr.,Puis. Frompain:Nats.,Sep. Profuse:Ant-t.,Ars.,Calc-c,Carb-a.,Carb-v.,
Chin.,Ferr-m.,Hep-s.,Kali-c,Kali-p.,Lye,
Merc-s.,Op.,Pho-ac,Sep.,Sil.,Sul.,Ver-a. Scanty:Eup-p. Singlepartsofthebody:Chin.,Cocc,Ign.,
Kah-c,Ntt-ac,Phos.,Puis.,Op.,Sep. Smelly:Carb-a.,Hep-s.,Lye,Merc-s.,Nit-ac,
Nux-v.,Petr.,Puis.,Sep.,Sil.,Sul. Sour:i4rs.,Calc-c,Colch.,Hep-s.,Lye,Mag-c,
Merc-s.,Nit-ac,Sep.,Sil.,Sul.,Ver-a. With:
diarrhoea:Ver-a. shivering:Nux-v. Better:
uncovering:Cham.,Lye
Worse:
aftereating:Kali-c.
atnight:Con.,Puis.,Sil. closingeyes:Con. duringsleep:Con.,Sil. lyingdown:Ferr-m.,Rhus-t. mentalexertion:Calc-c,Hep-s.,Lach.,Sep.,
Stap. pain:Lach.,Merc-s.,Nat-c,Sep. slightestphysicalexertion:Calc-c,Chin.,
Ferr-m.,Kali-c,Kalt-p.,Lye,Nat-c,Nat-s.,
Nit-ac,Phos.,Rhus-t.,Sep.,Sul. whentired:Kali-p.
uncovering:Rhus-t. Causes:
fright:Op. Sympathetic Caust.,Phos. J
194•Symptoms INTERNALREPERTORY
Symptoms
Changeable:Puis. Contradictory: Ign. One-sided:Pho-ac. Left-sided:Lack.,Sep.,Sul. Right-sided:Ap.,Bell.,Calc-c,Lye,Nux-v.,
Puis. Movingfrom:
leftsidetotherightside:Lack. rightsidetotheleftside:Ap.,Lye
TalkativeLack. TantrumsNit-ac
Tastemouthtastes
Bad:Calc-c,Merc-s.,Nat-s.,Nux-v.,Puis.,Sul. inthemorning:Nat-s.,Nux-v.,Puis. Bitter:Aco.,Ars.,Bry.,Carb-v.,Chin.,Merc-s.,
Nat-m.,Nat-s.,Nux-v.,Sul. Metallic:Cocc,Merc-s.,Nat-c,Rhus-t.
Salty:Nat-m. Sour:Arg-n.,Calc-c,Lye,Mag-c,Nux-v.,Phos. Sweet:Cupr. Tearful(seealsoDepressionandDislikes
consolation)Ap.,Calc-c,Calc-s.,Caust.,Ign. Lye,Nat-m.,Puis.,Rhus-t.,Sep.,Spo.,Ver-a. Duringafever:Aco.,Bell.,Puis.,Spo. Betterforfreshair:Puis. Difficultycrying:Nat-m. Involuntary:Ign. Criesonown:Ign.,Nat-m.
Teeth
Crumbling/decaying: Calc-f.
Teethingpainfulinchildren(seealsoToothache)
Aco.,Bell.,Calc-c,Calc-p.,Cham.,Mag-m.,
Mag-p.,Phyt.,Puis.,Rhe.,Sil. Cheeks:
hotandred:Aco.,Bell.,Cham. paleandcold:Cham. redspotononecheek:Cham. swollen:Bell. Slow(childrenlatetoteethe):Calc-c,Calc-p.,Sil. Pains:
criesoutinsleep:Cham. unbearable:Cham. With:
colic:Mag-m.
diarrhoea:Calc-c,Cham.,Rhe.,Sil. difficultyteething:Calc-c,Calc-p.,Cham.,
Sil. greenstools:Calc-p.,Cham.,Mag-m.
restlesssleep:Aco.,Bell.,Cham. toothache: S;7. Better:
bitinggumstogetherhard:Phyt. colddrinks/water: Puis. externalheat:Mag-p.
walkinginthefreshair:Puis.Worse:
heatofbed,warmfood/drinks:Cham.,Puis. pressure:Cham. TenniselbowRuta. ThinCalc-p. ThirstlessAnt-c,Ant-t.,Ap.,Bell.,Colch.,Gels.,
Pho-ac,Puis. ThirstyAco.,Ars.,Bell.,Bry.,Eup-p.,Merc-c,
Merc-s.,Nat-m.,Phos.,Pyr.,Sil.,Sul.,
Ver-a. Thirstwithchills:Ign. Thirstfor:
colddrinks/hotdrinksseeLikes
largequantities:Ars.,Bry.,Nat-m.,Phos.,
Sul


aaah with as much emotion and volume as you can manage. Place your attention on clearing the channel with this sound of
aaah. While you are doing the aaah meditation, add to your mental
125
WAYNE W. DYER
picture what it is that you would like to be able to create or manifest,
without being at all attached to how it will surface in your life. (I have
explained in detail in the eighth principle the importance of not
making demands on the how.) What you are doing is focusing on the
feeling that you will have as this desire manifests in the concrete
world of your life.. While you meditate for approximately twenty minutes in the
beginning of your day, repeat the sound of aaah as your mantra for
the entire time. However, only do it out loud and with emotion
for approximately the first one third of the time. Move your atten-
tion up and down the inner passageway between the root chakra
and the third eye chakra using the sound of aaah. Then remain
focused on the third eye chakra. You are now going to open up the
third eye. With the inner energy that you are feeling from the sound of cre-
ation resonating within you, open the third eye in your mental pic-
ture, and propel the creative force through it into the world of
form. Imagine its release from your inner being to a point at which
it circles the world and surrounds the objects of your desire. Trust
that this energy will connect with the universal energy that is the
God force and will send the object of your desire into your immedi-
ate world. This must be done in accordance with all nine of the
principles of manifesting that are explained in this book, which
means you have an absence of doubt, complete trust, unconditional
love and a knowing that this power of attraction is within you and in
all things. Gradually you will begin to experience an overwhelming sense of
bliss and peace in the sound of creation. Then you will feel the need
to lower the volume. For the next approximately one third of the
morning meditation say the aaah sound softer and _ softer. Stay
focused on the third eye, which is now open and sending out this
126
Manifest Your Destiny
creation energy, and the feeling of your desire manifesting. If you feel
distracted or your attention shifts, return to the third eye and the
feeling of your manifestation materializing for you., Remember, you
are not demanding anything, you are not telling God how to do this
work, you are experiencing in the third eye the strong feeling of
knowing and the bliss of this sound repeated in a quieter and quieter
fashion. For the final one third of your morning meditation, repeat the
sound of aaah to yourself silently as a mantra, and keep your atten-
tion on the third eye and the glorious feeling of gratitude that you are
already experiencing for having this manifest, however it will, into
your life. When you have completed approximately twenty to thirty
minutes of this manifesting meditation, your morning session will be
complete. The objects of your desire can be unlimited, and they can run the
full gamut of human potentiality. Some people have used this medi-
tation to manifest peace for themselves or those they love, to center
themselves on a healing, or to bring a relationship into their life. Others have used it for such matters as selling a house, getting a
promotion, overcoming an addiction, attracting money or whatever. The possibilities are unlimited. I have received hundreds of letters
from people describing the success they have had with this medita-
tion when they practice it, using all nine of these principles with
integrity. If you have read this far into this book, you are demonstrating
your interest in learning to become a spiritual manifester. If you
know that the power to manifest is within you, then do this ancient
practice of repeating the name of God in an almost chantlike ritual
each and every morning, with your attention on the feeling and the
third eye. What you are really doing when you do this morning aaah
meditation is resonating with the words “In the beginning was the
127
WAYNE W. DYER
word, and the word was God.” The act of manifesting is the begin-
ning of something being created in your life. The word is God, which
is to say, the aaah sound is the sound of God. The evening meditation is best practiced at sunset if possible. Once again, as the sun sinks below the horizon there is a coronalike
expression of energy that is greatest just as the sun leaves the horizon
and for a few moments immediately after the sun disappears from
our vision. Now you practice the sound of.om, which is the medita-
tion of gratitude. I have detailed this principle of gratitude in the
ninth and final principle explained in this book. Briefly, the practice is identical to the morning meditation, with
the exception that you are not now asking to manifest anything. Instead, at the end of your daylight, or as you retire, you are simply
saying thank you to the universal intelligence that we call God for all
that has manifested in your life. Take in deep breaths just as you did
_in the morning, clear the channel between your base chakra and
your third eye chakra, and mentally picture all that you have
received and project that energy out forcefully through the opening
of the third eye. You are expelling into the universe beyond your
immediate body an energy of gratitude, using the affirmations that I
have included in the ninth principle, and which I say aloud during
the guided meditation on the cassette and compact disc titled
Meditations for Manifesting. The sound of om is said aloud for the first third of your medita-
tion, then gradually more quietly, and ultimately silently, always
focusing grateful attention on the third eye and feeling that energy
going back to the universal source of energy that we call God. The
sound of om is the sound of the material world. It is the sound that
makes us feel most at home here in the material world since it is the
essential sound of all experience in this phenomenal world. When
you repeat this sound, you are in harmony with your environment. 128
Manifest Your Destiny
The final part of this meditation is the last sound you hear before you
go to sleep each night. The very first sound you hear in the morning is
generally one of aaah. It is the sound that you make when you yawn or
stretch. Be aware of this first sound and be willing to acknowledge it as
your own vibrational frequency of the new day that you are manifesting. However, the final sound you hear within yourself before going to sleep
can be a combination of these two sounds of aaah and om. You may recall that I defined enlightenment earlier in this book as
the ability to be immersed in and surrounded by peace. “Peace” is
the key word here. It is not an accident that the sounds of aaah and
om, when combined, translate to the word that means peace or
enlightenment, Shalom. Shaaah... looom. The sound of that which
you wish to manifest, and that which is already manifested, equate to
peace. By saying these two sounds to yourself as you drift off to sleep,
you are beginning the act of enlightened siddhi consciousness. You are
becoming at one with all that is peaceful and all that provides for us. It is also not an accident that the primary sound of spiritual joy is the
sound of aaah in hallelujah, and it is the sound found in the word that
ends every prayer, “amen.”
This concludes the meditation practice of learning to vibrate to the
sound of creating and creation. It is a part of the ancient wisdom that is
being practiced and revealed more and more as we move into the spir-
itual revolution. Give this glorious, peaceful, enlightening manifesta-
tion meditation practice a three-month trial period in your life, using
each of the nine principles outlined in this book, and see if you do not
experience your heart’s desire appearing without your putting any
demands or rules on the universal God force. The willingness to allow
it to manifest as it will, permitting creation to reveal itself by and by, is
the subject of the eighth principle of manifesting. Hallelujah. Shalom. 129
PATIENTLY DETACH FROM THE OUTCOME
The Eighth Principle
n the seventh principle, on the use of the sound meditation, I
emphasized the importance of placing your attention not on the out-
come and how it will show up in your life, but on the feelings that
you are experiencing as you picture your desire manifesting. The
eighth principle of spiritual manifesting has at its heart the experi-
ence of that feeling. The manner of how and when what is desired
shows up is something that you must not try to control. During the time I have taught this meditation I have often been
asked questions like this one: “If I do this meditation as you suggest,
can I really win the lottery?” My response to this question is, “How
would you feel if you won the lottery?” The answers are something
130
Manifest Your Destiny
similar to “I would feel blessed, secure, ecstatic, content.” It is this
feeling picture that is crucial for one to have in order to activate the
eighth principle. It is an illusion that you must have some thing like a
winning lottery ticket in


3 ft (1 m). Has slender, rambling branches,
elliptical leaves, and greenish-white flowers on
terminal spikes. Habitat & Cultivation  Chaff flower is found
in China at the edge of forests, along streams, and
amid bushes. Grown commercially in the eastern
provinces, the root is unearthed in winter once the
foliage has died back. Part Used  Root. Constituents  Achyranthes  species contain
triterpenoid saponins and sterones. History & Folklore  Chaff flower’s
potent ability to bring on menstruation led the
13th-century Chinese gynecologist Chen Ziming
to prohibit its use during pregnancy to avoid
causing miscarriage. Medicinal Actions & Uses  In traditional
Chinese medicine, chaff flower is believed to
invigorate blood flow. It is used to stimulate
menstruation when a period is delayed or scanty. The herb is also prescribed to ease period
pain. Chaff flower is used to relieve pain in the
lower back, especially where the discomfort
is attributable to kidney stones. The herb is
also taken as a treatment for canker sores,
toothache, bleeding gums, and nosebleeds. Research  Research suggests that chaff flower
may lower blood pressure by reducing heart
rate and dilating the peripheral arteries. Related Species  A. aspera, found in tropical
areas worldwide, is used in Ayurvedic medicine
to treat chest conditions and a range of
digestive problems. Caution  Do not take chaff flower
during pregnancy. US_158-179_Abies_balsa_Boswe_serratta.indd   159 26/02/16   12:47 pm
160
other medicinal PlantsAconitum nA pellus
Aconitum napellus (Ranunculaceae)
Aconite,
Monkshood
Description  Perennial herb growing to 5 ft
(1.5 m). Has dark green lobed leaves with violet or
blue delphinium-like flowers on long spikes. Habitat & Cultivation  Aconite grows mainly
in southern and central Europe. It prefers damp
and shady sites, and is cultivated as a garden plant. The root is unearthed in autumn. Part Used  Root. Constituents  Aconite contains 0.3–2%
terpenoid alkaloids, principally aconitine. History & Folklore Aconitum species have
traditionally been used as arrow poisons. Medicinal Actions & Uses  Aconite is
poisonous in all but the smallest doses, and is  rarely prescribed for internal use. More commonly, it is applied to unbroken skin to relieve pain from bruises or neurological conditions. In Ayurvedic medicine, aconite is used to treat neuralgia, asthma, and heart weakness. Aconite is also used extensively
in homeopathy as an analgesic and sedative. Related Species  Chinese aconite (A. carmichaelii)
is used in China for shock and to support the circulatory system in emergencies. Trials in China indicate that it is helpful in congestive heart failure. RQ Cautions  Aconite is highly toxic and
is subject to legal restriction in some countries. Use only under professional supervision.Adonis vernalis (Ranunculaceae)
False Hellebore,
Y ellow Pheasant’s Eye
Description  Perennial herb growing to 8 in
(20 cm). Has a scaly stem and feathery compound leaves. Stem bears large, bright yellow flowers up  to 3 in (8 cm) across. Adhatoda vasica (Acanthaceae)
Malabar Nut,
Vasaka
Description  Evergreen shrub growing to 10 ft
(3 m), with lance-shaped leaves, white or purple flowers, and 4-seeded fruit. Habitat & Cultivation  Native to tropical
India, malabar nut grows in low-lying regions up  to the Himalayan foothills. Parts Used  Leaves, root, flowers, fruit (nut). Constituents  Malabar nut contains
pyrroloquinoline alkaloids and an unidentified volatile oil. History & Folklore  The highly bitter-tasting
malabar nut is a traditional Ayurvedic remedy for chest problems. Medicinal Actions & Uses  Due to its
expectorant qualities, malabar nut is useful for bronchitis and other chest conditions. An Ayurvedic preparation that includes malabar flowers is used to treat tuberculosis. All parts of the plant are used  to expel worms. A poultice of the fresh leaves  is applied to wounds and to inflamed joints. Caution  Do not take during pregnancy.False hellebore’s cardiac glycosides help to slow
down heart rate. Habitat & Cultivation  Originating from the
steppes of Russia and from the Black Sea region,
this herb is native to much of Europe but not to Britain. It grows in mountain pasture undergrowth. It is rare and legally protected in Western Europe. Parts Used  Aerial parts. Constituents  False hellebore contains cardiac
glycosides, including adonitoxin. History & Folklore  False hellebore’s botanical
name refers to Adonis, a figure in Greek mythology associated with the seasonal renewal of plant life. Medicinal Actions & Uses  False hellebore
contains cardiac glycosides similar to those found  in foxglove (Digitalis purpurea, p. 202). These substances improve the heart’s efficiency, increasing its output while at the same time slowing its rate. Unlike foxglove, however, false hellebore’s effect  on the heart is slightly sedative, and it is generally prescribed for patients with hearts that are beating too fast or irregularly. False hellebore is also recommended as a treatment for certain cases of low blood pressure. In common with other plants containing cardiac glycosides, false hellebore is strongly diuretic and can be used to counter water retention, particularly in cases of poor circulatory
function. False hellebore is used in homeopathic
medicine as a treatment for angina. QCautions  T ake only under professional
supervision. Gathering wild plants and their
medicinal use are subject to legal restrictions in some countries. Maidenhair fern is used
for chest complaints.Adiantum capillus-veneris
(Polypodiaceae)
Maidenhair Fern
Description  Fern with delicate fronds growing
to 1 ft (30 cm) long. Habitat & Cultivation  Native to Europe,
Asia, most of the Americas, and Australasia. Parts Used  Aerial parts. Constituents  Maidenhair fern contains
flavonoids (including rutin and isoquercitin),
terpenoids (including adiantone), tannin, proanthocyanidins, and mucilage. History & Folklore  Maidenhair fern has been
used since ancient times. Pliny the Elder (23–79 ce) states that the herb “is of singular efficacy in expelling and breaking calculi of the bladder.”
Medicinal Actions & Uses  Commonly
used in Latin America and occasionally in Europe,  a decoction or tincture of maidenhair fern is used  as an expectorant to treat coughs, bronchitis, sore throat, and chronic nasal congestion. The plant has  a longstanding reputation as a remedy for conditions affecting the hair and scalp. Related Species  A. caudatum has been shown
to act as an antispasmodic and could be useful in the treatment of asthma. US_158-179_Abies_balsa_Boswe_serratta.indd   160 26/02/16   12:47 pm161 other medicinal Plantsagave americana
aegle marmelos (Rutaceae)
Bael,
Bengal Quince
Description Thorny deciduous tree growing
to 26 ft (8 m). Has aromatic oval- to lance-shaped
leaves, greenish-white flowers, and yellow plum-
shaped fruit. Habitat & Cultivation  Native to India, bael
grows throughout much of Southeast Asia in dry
forests. It is also cultivated throughout the region. Parts Used  Fruit, leaves, root, twigs. Constituents  Bael contains coumarins,
flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, carotinoids, and
volatile oil. History & Folklore  The bael tree is sacred to
the Hindu deities Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth
and good fortune) and Shiva (the god of health),
and it is commonly planted near temples. Its
medicinal virtues are described in the Charaka
Samhita, an herbal text written c. 400 bce. Medicinal Actions & Uses The astringent
half-ripe bael fruit reduces irritation in the digestive
tract and is excellent for diarrhea and dysentery. The ripe fruit is demulcent and laxative, with a
significant vitamin C content. It eases stomach pain
and supports the healthy function of this organ. Bael’s astringent leaves are taken to treat peptic
ulcers. The tree’s most unusual application is for
earache. A piece of dried root is dipped in the oil
of the neem tree ( Azadirachta indica,  p. 70) and set
alight. Oil from the burning end is dripped into the
ear. (This is not a recommended practice.) Self-help Use


 material such  as cotton. QGeneral caution If there is no improvement,
or if the condition deteriorates, consult a
professional practitioner.General Remedies
Herbs Nettle (Urtica dioica, p. 146), elderflower
(Sambucus nigra, p. 132)Remedy Make a nettle infusion. T ake 12/3–21/3
cups (450–600 ml) a day for 3 months at a time. Alternatively, make an infusion with 1 tsp of each herb to 11/4 cups (300 ml) of water and take daily for 3 months at a time. Herb Baical skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis, p. 134)
Remedy Make a decoction from the herb and
take 11/4 cups (300 ml) a day. Hay Fever
Herb Elderflower (Sambucus nigra, p. 132)Remedy Make an infusion and take 11/4–12/3 cups (300–450 ml) a day. T ake for a few months before, as well as during, the hay fever season.Allergic Rhinitis with Congestion
Herbs Eyebright (Euphrasia spp., p. 209),
common plantain (Plantago major, p. 251), goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea, p. 271), boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum, p. 208)Remedy Make an infusion with one or a mixture
of all of the herbs and drink up to 12/3 cups a day. Note Use this remedy especially for copious, watery
mucus. Herbs Echinacea (Echinacea spp., p. 92),
marshmallow (Althaea officinalis, p. 165),
elderflower (Sambucus nigra, p. 132), thyme (Thymus vulgaris, p. 143)Remedy T ake 1 tsp of equal parts of each
tincture 3 times daily with warm water. Note Use this remedy especially for thick
yellow / green mucus and sinus congestion. General Remedies
Herbs Peppermint (Mentha x piperita, p. 114),
chickweed (Stellaria media, p. 272)Remedy 1 Make peppermint lotion by infusing
1 tsp of herb to 3/4 cup (150 ml) of water. Leave for 10 minutes, then strain and cool. Use to wash gently over the affected skin 2–3 times a day.Remedy 2 Apply chickweed ointment, cream,  or freshly squeezed juice up to 5 times a day.Option Add 2 drops of peppermint oil to  1 tsp of any of the chickweed preparations. Herb Gotu kola (Centella asiatica, p. 76)
Remedy Dust the affected area with powder  2–3 times a day. Alternatively, mix the powder  with enough water to make a thick paste and spread over the affected area 1–2 times a day. Eczema with Weeping Skin
Herb Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana, p. 102)
Remedy Apply lotion or cream up to 5 times  a day (the lotion is preferable). Alternatively,  make a decoction with 2 tsp of leaves to 3/4 cup (150 ml) of water. Leave for 15 minutes, strain, and cool. Use as a wash up to 5 times a day. Herb German chamomile (Chamomilla
recutita, p. 77)
Remedy Make an infusion using 50 g of herb
to 3 cups (750 ml) of water. Apply directly to the itchy area when cool, or add the hot infusion to a warm bath and soak in it for at least 20 minutes. Herb Oats (Avena sativa, p. 175)
Remedy Fill a muslin (or similar) bag with
milled oats and place under a hot tap while running a bath. Relax in the bath for
5–10 minutes. QSeek immediate professional
advice for:
■ Life-threatening allergies, such as asthma. Consult a professional practitioner prior to
taking any herbal remedies for such conditions
■ Any allergy that shows signs of deterioration
after taking an herbal remedy
US_300-307_Allergies.indd   300 26/02/16   4:43 pm301 herbal remedies for home useMild Asthma, Wheezing, & Shortness of Breath
Anemia
High Blood Pressure & ArteriosclerosisAsthma is usually triggered by an allergic
reaction to substances such as pollen, dust,
animal hair, or certain foods, but may also be
related to an infection. The listed remedies will
relieve immediate symptoms, but in order to
find the cause of your ailment, or for long-term
treatment, it is best to consult an herbalist. All
the herbal remedies that are suggested here can
be taken alongside conventional treatment. Herbs such as nettle, thyme, cramp bark, and
echinacea help to ease breathing, while essential
oil of German chamomile reduces inflammation. QGeneral cautions Seek professional help for asthma. Do not stop using steroidal or other inhalants. Their
use should be phased out gradually and only with
professional guidance. There are several types of anemia. Iron
deficiency anemia, caused by blood loss
from a wound or menstrual bleeding, can be
countered with herbs. Bitter herbs, such as
gentian, improve the absorption of nutrients,
and nettle contains plenty of iron. Increase
your intake of other green herbs that
contain iron. QGeneral caution Seek professional advice to
determine the type of anemia you have before
home treatment. Mild cases of high blood pressure and
arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
can benefit from herbs. Garlic thins the blood,
reduces fatty deposits, and lowers blood pressure;
beetroot and ginkgo aid circulation, reduce blood
pressure, and prevent arteriosclerosis; and ginger
improves circulation, especially to the capillaries. QGeneral caution Seek professional advice, especially
if already taking medication for a circulatory condition.Wheezing & Shortness of Breath
Herbs Nettle ( Urtica dioica, p. 146), thyme
(Thymus vulgaris, p. 143)
Remedy Make an infusion using 15 g of each herb
to 3 cups of water and drink throughout the day. Herb German chamomile ( Chamomilla recutita,
p. 77)
Remedy Make an infusion with 2 heaping tsp of
the herb to 3/4 cup (150 ml) of water and leave to
stand for 10 minutes in a covered saucepan. Remove
the lid, inhale the steam, and strain and drink the tea. Option Use the essential oil in a steam
inhalation, or inhale 2 drops of undiluted oil placed
on a handkerchief. General Remedies
Herbs Gentian ( Gentiana lutea, p. 99), wormwood
(Artemisia absinthium, p. 66)
Remedy T ake 2–5 drops of either tincture with
water, half an hour before meals. Caution Do not take wormwood during pregnancy. Herb Chiretta ( Swertia chirata, p. 273)
Remedy  T ake 5–10 drops of tincture with water
3 times a day before meals. General Remedies
Herbs Garlic ( Allium sativum, p. 59), beet
(Beta vulgaris, p. 178), pomegranate ( Punica
granatum, p. 259)
Remedy  T ake a garlic tablet or eat 1–2 fresh
garlic cloves each day. Drink 1/2 cup (125 ml) of
beetroot or pomegranate juice once a day. Note  These are most effective when used to support a
healthy circulation and prevent illness.Herb Baical skullcap ( Scutellaria baicalensis, p. 134)
Remedy Make a decoction and take up to
11/4 cups (300 ml) a day. Breathing Difficulty & Tight Chest
Herb Cramp bark ( Viburnum opulus, p. 150)
Remedy T ake 1 tsp of tincture with water up
to 8 times a day for 3 days, then reduce the dose
to a maximum of 1 tsp 3 times a day for 7 days. Mild Bronchial Asthma from
Colds & Chest Infections
Herb Echinacea ( Echinacea  spp., p. 92)
Remedy T ake tablets or capsules, or 1⁄2 tsp
of tincture with water 2–3 times a day. Anemia due to Heavy
Menstrual Bleeding
Herb Nettle ( Urtica dioica, p. 146)
Remedy Make an infusion using 25 g of herb to
3 cups (750 ml) of water. Sip the whole dose at
intervals throughout the day. See also Heavy Menstrual Bleeding —
Four Things Soup remedy, p. 315. Herb Ginkgo ( Ginkgo biloba, p. 100)
Remedy  T ake tablets or 1⁄2 tsp of fluid extract
with water twice a day for approximately


 ey a re missing in our life, we will naturally gravitate toward  that which
serves this need. A cup of tea on a cold wintery day can be just the thing tocomfort us. A sweet treat as a way of self-love can sometimes do the trick,
as well. Food is as much about spiritual and emotional nourishm ent as it is
about no urishing our physical body. Fear of becoming over -reliant on food
for our emotional nurturance can cause us to deny ourselves and feel guilty
about deriving any pleasure from it. On my son’ s 22nd birthday, I made him a chocolate chip cookie cake. I was
gener ous with both butter and chocolate and made it extra decadent. Later
he said,  “Mom,  it tasted so good, I honestly felt guilty about eating it.”
What is it about us humans tha t we feel guilty about getting any pleasur e
fr om food, I later thought? Most, if not all of us, struggle w ith a lack of worthiness. Is it humility? Our
ego? Ar e we just playing safe? I  mean, we don’ t want to toot our own horn! What if we bel ieved we were good enough but then later told that we
weren’ t?! As I pondered this idea while writing this book, I r ealized that
worthiness has nothing to do with our successes or failures: that would
mean that each t ime we fail we are deemed unworthy, and that’ s  simply not
true! W orthiness  is granted by that which created us. The Creator definitely
thought we were all worthy, and created us all with an equa l dosage of
worthiness. Simply because we are born, we are worthy and good enough. Because we are on this planet, we are good enough. W e are worthy of
experiencing thi s human life, a s dif ficult as it may sometimes  be. W e are
worthy of learning the lessons set out for us and becoming whole. W orthiness is not the result of our accomplishments or lack thereof. Certainly, our challenges can m ake us question our worthiness and that’ s
exactly w hen we  should remember where we come from and who we truly
are. W e are g ood enough to enjoy the experiences we are here to
experience, including decadent chocolate chip cookie cake. I N D U L G I N G  I S  D E S I R A B L E
The guil t that keeps us from all owing ourselves the experience of pleasure
equally pulls us into over -indulgence in trying to suppress it, and that keeps
us stuck  in a cyc le of guilt and shame. However, indulging once in a while,
or on special o ccasions, is desirable and allows us to truly experience
enjoyment. In allowance, there i s no guilt, only pleasure. And we may of ferour gratitude for the experience. Instead of asking “Who am I to have such
pleasure?” we might ask, “Who am I to not experience that pleasure?” As I
heard from one of my teachers: when good things come into your life,
simply s ay, “Th ank you. May I  have more please?” Because y ou are good
enough! Shame and guilt are the mental constructs of the mind to help us fit into the
societal mold of what’ s right a nd wrong. These are merely our defense
mechanisms, est ablished to bridge the gap between what we wa nt and what
we think  we should want. In this complex structure of feelings,  the truth of
what we  actually  feel and believ e gets lost somewhere, or at least distorted,
leaving most of us feeling insecure about what and how to eat; we chase the
latest food craze, and coming up short every time. All this anxiety about
food negatively af fects our ability to digest it. W e become hyper -sensitive
to every thing w e eat. W ith every bite we take, we ingest a morsel of fear,
guilt, sh ame and confusion right along with it. W e believe we h ave no right
to enjoy our food anymore, making that gap between what we want and
what we should want bigger an d bigger, and leaving food to fill that gap. Calling some foods “guilt-free” only emphasize the misplaced guilt we
experience in eating and nourishing ourselves. The comfort we derive from
food turns to guilt and shame if we don’ t resolve the deeper emotional
challenges that are keeping us from living full, vibrant lives. Dawn (o ne of my clients) br ought her mother, Doris, to see m e and, with
her mother ’ s consent Dawn stay ed with her during the consulta tion. Doris
was exp eriencing heat rash all over her arms and she attributed it to the
hormone therap y she was under going. In trying to uncover the true cause of
the pr ob lem, I asked for details of the food she was eating, as I  always do,
and nothing r eally pointed to wh at she was experiencing. Hormone therapy
affects e veryone differ ently and it can r esult in skin rash, but I wanted to
rule out any other causative factors. In th e m iddle of the appointment, Doris asked to use the r estr oom and in
her absence her daughter told m e that her mother was a closet eater. Doris
appar ently ate a lot of salty chips when no one was looking. W hen Doris
r eturned, I mentioned that in sp ite of how healthy her diet seemed to be, it
was rath er blan d and lacked va riety. I mentioned that when we  don’ t haveall the tastes and textur es in our meals, we tend to seek them out thr ough
junk foo d, at which point Doris told me about her cravings fo r salty and
crunchy things. She was over do ing it on the salt to compensate for the lack
of it in h er meal s. This cr eated mor e heat in her body, another c ontributing
factor to her skin rash. Doris th ought th at in order to stay healthy, she had to deny what she liked. That’ s often the case, as we believe that if it tastes good, it may not be too
healthy for us. W e can thank ou r marketing world for keeping us confused
when it comes to food. “This tastes good, and it is even good for you,” the
marketing messa ges tell us, as if tasty and healthy are mutually exclusive. The truth is that we can choose many tasty foods that are also good for us. W O R K  T H R O U G H  T H E  P A I N
Fear can  be debilitating. W e lose our ability to navigate through emotional
pain; perhaps we fear getting st uck in the pain and not being a ble to come
out, even though that very pain is subconsciously ruling our lives and
keeping us stuck in a pattern already! The quicker path to emotional
liberation is to work through the pain. Unfortunately, as painful emotions
surface, the fear of facing them makes us turn to food over and over again,
always in the h ope of eliminating these perceptively negative  feelings. If
food really could eliminate negative feelings, of course, we would
eventually stop turning to it to tr y to satiate our emotional hunger. The only
way out  of the negative feelings is through them; we must allo w them and
feel them fully. Allowing is a skill that we can all cultivate through practice. Seemingly
dif ficult, the easiest thing to do is to feel what you feel! Surrend er! Feel the
fear! Feel bad! Y ou may feel tha t your life is spinning out of control. Let it! Stay with it! Soon enough, you will feel tired or hungry or may  need to go
to th e bathroom. Life goes on! The sun is still there, either shining or
waiting behind the clouds. Y ou a re still here! The Earth did not shatter! Y ou
may feel awful, but you are OK.
Thr ough feeling the pain, you will get to the other side of it, wher e
ther e is peace.When we work through the mind-directed emotions, we find only peace and
love in our heart s. Fill yourself w ith that love by simply feeling it. Now you
can spare food to simply nourish you, which is what it was meant to do! The dee per beliefs that we are unlovable and unworthy can’ t be resolved
with foo d, as we eventually discover. And what if we were view ing food as
the temporary solution to a prob lem that had nothing to do with food? Now,
on top of feeling unworthy, w e begin to feel guilt and shame, since we
know that what we are doing is not going to serve us, yet we can’ t stop. The
more we  suppre ss our feelings, the stronger they become. W e get stuck in
an insid ious cycle, not only perpetuating our painful feelings, but
embedding them  deeper into our subconscious. Our basic human need to
feel loved and worthy gets undermined when we use food to satisfy it. The
brain becomes confused about w hether to satisfy the physical h unger or the
emotional hunge r. The lines become blurry and we begin to


. It is at the super -
conscious level that you join with all other souls in a collaboration of cosmic proportion
that allows for the perfect conditions to exist, allowing the souls involved to evolve to the
next highest level. So the reality that you have produced, the change that you are experiencing this minute,
is not something that you created alone. The fact is that you created it in collaboration with
others. All the other “players” in your Game of Life created it with you. You created t he
outcome together. For reasons known very clearly by the lot of you. In a way that serves
the agenda of all of you. This is just one more way of saying that everything happens for the best. Now when you know  that everything happens for the best, then everything that happens
is okay with you. The irony of this is that when everything that happens is okay with you, you
set up an energy field of such equanimity and harmony with the universe that the universal
law of attraction draws more equanimity and harmony into your life. Your soul knows that the process of co -creation never impinges upon the individual will
of anyone. Nothing can happen against your inner will. Not even your death. Especially  not
your death. (For a thorough and inspiring exploration of this particular insight, see Home
with God in a Life That Never Ends.) Given Who and What you are (Divinity Individuated), it is impossible for anything to
take place that violates your highest desire. The inte rweavings of life are always in
harmony with each other. You must, therefore, have at some level agreed with all that has
occurred and is occurring. If it happened to you, it happened through  you. This is why the soul is never unhappy. Why would the soul b e unhappy when it is always
getting what it wants? Why  it would want  what it is getting is another question. The answer: there is always a
reason tied to the soul’s desire to evolve. Sometimes the soul evolves most rapidly by giving up what the mind wants,  in favor of what someone else may need, or what a
situation may require. The mind might not always be okay with this, but the soul always is. So do not recriminate against yourself. Do not make yourself wrong or chastise or
castigate yourself for any life  outcomes that you have generated, consciously or
unconsciously, that you would call negative. Rather, have compassion with yourself if you
do not understand the larger reason for these outcomes, then give praise to yourself for
your ability to meet them h ead on, then congratulate the magnificent part of yourself that
finds a way to move through them, and finally, celebrate that aspect of yourself that sees, in
the final analysis, the benefit  that has come to you as a result of them. You will know that you have changed your idea about life when you come to the last
conclusion first. You will see life and everything in life as an opportunity, not an
obstruction; as good fortune, not misfortune; as a gift, not a gaff. And your attitude about
life itself will recreate  itself in life itself. After you’ve changed your idea about life and its purpose, you are only one step away
from changing your idea about yourself —from changing your very identity. Do this, and you will change everything. And that  is something you  may wish to
Take time to ponder
Only when you’re ready, pick up the chapter at... WALKING HOME
William Shakespeare had it exactly right:
There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your
philosophy. The final change in our list of nine could very well be the first. If the entire human race
ever made a wholesale shift to this new way of thinking, to this new way of holding the life
experience itself, then every moment in every day in the life of every person in the world
woul d be transformed forever. I now invite you to make this final change. I now invite you
to... CHANGE #9:
Change your identity
When I was a child —indeed, from the time I was eight or nine until the time I left my
family of origin —my father repeatedly aske d me the same question, usually about once
every other week or so:
Who do you think you are anyway...? His question was borne of frustration, but if he thought he was frustrated, he should
have lived in my reality! I had no idea who I was or what I was  doing here, nor did I have
any concept at all about what life was, or why it was the way  it was. I couldn’t understand it, I didn’t agree with it, and I wanted no part of it. Yet getting out of it was not an attractive
option. (Actually, there were times when I actually thought that it might be. I am so happy to say
that I moved through those times without succumbing to the temptation to end the most
magnificent experience a soul could ever have. My process was a little herky -jerky, for sure. A little bump y, no question. But I made it. Thank you, God!) I came to the hope that somewhere, somewhere, there was an answer to all of this; a
reason for it all; a way that it all made some sense. I figured that there was just something
that I didn’t understand, the understanding of which would change everything. After my conversations with God I knew that I would never find what that “something”
was in the Past Data held by the mind. I knew that I would have to somehow connect with a
larger source. I knew that I was going to have to commune on a regular basis with my soul. This I did in my own way. I’ve already said that there is more than one way to meditate. The meditation technique I described earlier is one way —and one very good way —to go
about sil encing the mind and connecting with the soul. But it is not the only way, nor is it
necessarily, for everyone, the best way. There are many people who find it extremely difficult to sit in silent meditation. For
them, it may seem as if the “art of meditati on” is something that is lost to them. I felt this
way for a long time, because I am an impatient person by nature and sitting in silent
meditation was not a thing I tolerated well. Then someone introduced me to Walking
Meditation, and everything changed f or me around the idea of “meditation.” Suddenly, it
was something I could do. The first thing that happened when I learned about Walking Meditation is that my whole
idea about what meditation is completely vanished, to be replaced by a much more clear
and concise picture of what was going on. For me, meditation always meant “clearing the
mind of everything,” leaving the space for “the emptiness” to appear, so that I could move
in consciousness into “the nothingness that is The All...,” or something like  that. What I was supposed to be trying to do, I thought, was “empty my mind.” I was supposed
to try to sit in one place, close my eyes, and “think of nothing.” This made me crazy, because
my mind never turns off! It is always thinking, thinking, thinking  of something. So I was
never very good at sitting with my legs crossed, closing my eyes, and concentrating on The
Nothing. Frustrated, I hardly ever meditated —and envied those who said they did
(although I secretly wondered whether they really did, or simp ly went through the
motions, doing no better than I was able to do). Then a master teacher in my life told me that I had entirely the wrong idea of what
meditation was about. Meditation, she said, was not about emptiness, it was about focus. Instead of trying to sit still and think about nothing, she suggested that I do a “walking
meditation” and move about, stopping to focus  on specific things that my eyes would light
upon. “Consider a blade of grass,” she would say. “Consider it. Look at i t closely. Regard it
intently. Consider every aspect of it. What does it look like? What are its specific
characteristics? What does it feel like? What is its fragrance? What is its size, compared to
you? Look at it closely. What does it tell you about Lif e?” Then, she said, “Experience the grass in its Completeness. Take off your shoes and socks
and walk on the grass in your bare feet. Think of nothing else but your feet. Focus your
attention on the bottom of your feet and consider immensely exactly what y ou are feeling
there. Tell your mind to feel nothing else, just for that moment. Ignore all other incoming
data except the data coming from the bottom of your feet. Close your eyes, if this helps. “Walk slowly and deliberately, allowing each slow and gentl e step to tell you about the
grass. Then open your eyes and look at all of the grass around you. Ignore all other
incoming data except the data about the grass, coming from your eyes and feet. “Now focus on your sense of smell, and see if you can smell the  grass. Ignore all other
incoming data except the data about the grass coming from your nose, your eyes, and your
feet. See if you can focus your attention in this way. If you can, you will experience the grass
as you may never have experienced it


 shriveled and near death. In a kind
gesture Pei gathers the octopu s into a plastic cup, carries it back to
the sea, and releases it. The octopus immediately begins to revive. Its eight arms spread
out (experts tell us that tentacle  isn ’t the prop er term), and it
changes to a healthier colo r. Typically, an octopus is shy andscuttles away from any approaching threat, a necessary tactic for
such a baggy, s oft-bodied ani mal. But instead of fleeing, the saved
octopus approaches Pei’s boots and places two arms on them,
resting for several seconds before moving away without haste. Soon the “grateful octopus” entered popular culture when the
video went viral. You might suppose that this was an exa mple of
human sentim entality, but then, there is no proof that the  rescued
octopus wasn’t  grateful. Is there any way to tell. The convention al answer is n o. This can be a hard no or a soft
no. The hard n o holds that only human beings are conscio us. The
soft no holds t hat humans are the only fully conscious cr eatures. This lea ves a little wiggle room for big-brained mammals, like
porpoises, elep hants, and the great apes. The soft no has h eld firm
for a  long time. But once you understand that consciousness is the
source of creation, the road to yes—an octopus can  feel gratitude—
is opened. From the perspective of metahuman, nothing is alien, however. There is only o ne reality, governed by one consciousness. There is
only one life, too, despite our distinctions between smart
chimpanzees, s tupid lizards, and totally unconscious bacteria. An
urgent need at this moment w hen the Earth is in peril is t o evolve
to metahuman for the sake of all living things. O n e  L i f e,  a n d  O n e  L i f e  O n l y
In a January 2014 article in Scientific American, the highly
regarded neuro scientist Christoph Koch made inroads against the
“no” po sition by asking if co nsciousness is universal. He is very
persuasive when he points out that animal intelligence isn’t
primitive. Not only that, it is n’t correlated with brain size or even
possessing a complex nervous system. “Bees can fly several
kilometers and return to their hive, a remarkable navigational
performance,” Koch points ou t (not only remarkable, I would add,
but something  human beings lost in the woods are incap able of). “And a scent blown into the  hive can trigger a return to the site
where the bees previously encountered this odor. ”
Koch links this trait, called “associative memory,” with the
famous momen t in French literature centered on a cookie known
as a madeleine. The massive seven-volume novel À la recherche
du temps perdu  ( In Search of Lost Time ), by Marcel Proust,
begins with a f lood of memory occasioned when the narrator dips
a madeleine in a cup of tea, a gesture from his childhood. This
experience of associative me mory Koch also ascribes to bees, a
lowly form of insect life. But we can find a wealth of other
examples. Staying just with bees, Koch points out the following:
[They] are capable of recognizing specific faces from
photographs, c an communica te the location and quality
of food sources to their sisters via the waggle dance, and
can nav igate c omplex mazes  with the help of cues they
store in short-term memory ( for instance, “after arriving
at a  fork, take the exit marked by the color at the
entrance”). The upshot, Koch says, is tha t consciousness cannot be walled
off in arbitrary ways just because a life form looks biologically too
simple to be conscious. With arms wide open, he declares, “All
species—bees, octopuses, ravens, crows, magpies, parrots, tuna,
mice, whales, dogs, cats and monkeys—are cap able of
sophisticated, learned, nonstereotyped behaviors. ” This gets us a
long wa y from “no,” only hu man beings are conscious, to “yes,”
consciousness is universal. The grateful octopus was act ing out a human gesture. T o see
this isn’t sentimentality or fantasy. Koch believes that if we
weren’t so prejudiced, we’d see that animals behave constantly in
ways that would be called conscious if the same activity were
displayed by a person. A dog’s look of love toward his ma ster, his
distress if his owner is absen t, and the grief he feels if hi s owner
dies are conscious traits being expressed through another life
form. Yet our prejudice is ha rd to overcome because it se rves our
selfishness. Homo sapiens  has ancient hunting stock in it. We killand eat  a great many animals, and it salves our conscience to see
them as  lower life forms, dep rived of mind, will, and freedom of
choice. Everything that makes othe r life forms alien in our eyes is
arbitrary. No creature looks more alien than an octopus. Among
the three hundred octopus species, which first appeared at least
295 mi llion years ago according to the oldest fossils, the largest
types resemble the smallest in having two eyes, eight arm s, and a
beak ce ntered where the arms meet. Blown up to a large scale, as
in the giant Pacific octopus, w hich can reach a weight of up to six
hundred pounds with an arm span between fourteen and thirty
feet, those eight arms and snapping beak seem monstrous. But
like Tyrannosaurus rex  or a great white shark, the giant Pacific
octopus isn’t a monster in its own eyes. In the play of
consciousness, the octopus occupies the same cosmic status as
Homo sapiens. It is alive and aware of itself and its surroundings. There’s abundant evidence to support this claim. In her 2015
book, The Soul of an Octopus, naturalist Sy Montgomery closes
the gap between people an d mollusks in startling ways. In a
section that begins, “Octopuses realize that huma ns are
individuals, to o,” she relates how distinctly an octopus can make
friends and enemies. In the mildest example, one keeper at the
Seattle Aquarium was assigned to feed the octopuses while
another touched them with a bristly stick. Within a week, at first
sight of the two people, most of the octopuses drifted toward the
feeder. But the ir ability to relate to specific humans grows much more
mysterious. A volunteer at th e New England Aquarium earned the
dislike of a pa rticular octop us named Truman for no a pparent
reason. Whenever she came close to the tank, Truman would use
its siph on (a funnel on the sid e of an octopus’s head that propels it
through the water) to spray a blast of cold seawater at h er. The
volunteer went away to college but returned months later for a
visit. Truman, who hadn’t squirted anyone in her absence,
immediately s oaked her with a blast from his siphon at first
glance. Montgomery relates in depth the idiosyncratic behavior of
octopuses in captivity named Athena, Octavia, Kali, and others,making them almost as individual as people. Her argument for
their si milarity to humans is ultimately physical. After all, she
writes, we share the same neurons and neurotransmitters. But
even th ough o ctopuses have unusually complex nervous systems
for an invertebrate, their anatomy doesn’t resemble the human
nervous system. The majority of octopus neurons are lo cated in
their eight arms, not in their  brains. Each arm can indepe ndently
move, touch, and taste (the suckers that line each arm are
locations for the sense of taste) without needing to refe r to the
brain. Anatomy cannot explain how octopuses recognize people and
remember their faces. Disl iking a bright light at night that
disturbed its sleep, one octopus aimed a jet of water at it and
burned it out through short-circuiting. Dissecting an o ctopus’s
nervous system doesn’t expla in how such a tactic was devised (in
the wild octopuses don’t sq uirt water above the surface of the
seas). It would seem to be an act of creative intelligence. My contention  is that existence is  con sciousness ; therefore, no
animal ability is astonishing (except in our one-eyed view),
because every life form expresses traits that belong to pure
consciousness. These traits wake up, as it were, emerging into the
physical world according to each creature’s evolutionary story. The
grateful octopus wasn’t being like a human. We could say with
equal ju stice that when we ar e grateful, we are being octopus-like. Both views are one-eyed. This bo ok has been making the case for waking up, but being
awake i sn’t the  end—ahead lies cosmic consciousness. I am


	wrinkles	and	reducing	sagging
skin. Some	studies	have	shown	that	green	tea	can	also	reduce	damage	from
environmental	pollution	and	sun	damage. 9
PeptidesPeptides	are	protein	fragments	that	have	been	shown	to	have	some	beneficial
effects	on	skin. In	particular,	they	help	heal	damaged	tissue	from	scars	and
wrinkles	and	stimulate	the	production	of	healthy	normal	skin. Some	research
has	shown	that	peptides	can	help	enhance	cell	communication,
10
	regulating	the
exchange	and	growth	rates	between	layers	of	skin	cells. Peptides	can	also	prevent
harmful	oxidation	that	damages	the	skin,	and	they	have
anti-inflammatory
properties	that	can	better	set	up	your	skin	to	heal	itself. Essential	Fatty	Acids	(EFAs)
EFAs	reduce	the	amount	of	moisture	lost	through	your	epidermis,	the	top	layer
of	your	skin,	thereby	keeping	your	skin	soft	and	elastic	instead	of	dried	out. They	are	particularly	protective	in	cold	or	windy	weather,	which	can	strip	away
the	skin’s	lipid	barrier	and	contribute	to	skin	conditions	such	as	eczema. The
anti-inflammatory	properties	of	these	essential	fats	are	also	helpful	for	eczema
and	psoriasis,	and	in	preventing	inflammation	that	can	contribute	to	aging. There	are	many	natural	sources	for	these	essential	fatty	acids,	such	as	shea
butter,	kukui	nut,	jojoba,	rosehip,	sesame	seed,	black	currant,	evening	primrose,
camellia	seed,	almond,	apricot	kernel,	argan,	hemp	seed,	manuka,	kokum,
pumpkin	seed,	olive,	black	cumin	seed,	coconut,	sea	buckthorn,	avocado,
borage,	tamanu,	and	walnut	oils. Hyaluronic	Acid	(HA)
The	body	uses	hyaluronic	acid	to	make	new	cells,	and	it	is	a	natural	compound
found	in	the	skin. As	we	age,	we	produce	less	of	this	acid,	so	adding	it	back
helps	repair	the	skin	and	reduce	inflammation. As	a	skin-care	product
ingredient,	it	helps	not	only	to	deliver	moisture	to	the	skin	but	also	to	hold	it
there,	preventing	moisture	loss	for	continued	smooth	skin	while	protecting	the
skin	from	dirt,	debris,	and	pollutants. It	doesn’t	penetrate	too	deeply,	staying
near	the	surface	of	your	skin. Hyaluronic	acid	was	once	produced	largely	from
the	comb	of	a	rooster,	but	thankfully	it	is	now	produced	in	a	lab	from	a
fermentation	process	that	involves	plant	materials. Clay
There	are	different	kinds	of	clays,	which	are	a	highly	beneficial	ingredient	to
include	in	skin	masks. Sometimes	masks	are	pushed	to	the	side	in	a	skin-care
routine,	but	applying	masks	is	an	ancient	beauty	tool	that	can	be	very	beneficial
to	use	at	least	once	a	week	(depending	on	your	skin	type)	to	help	you	maintain
beautiful	skin	for	the	long-term. Clay	is	a	unique	ingredient	with	the	ability	to	absorb	excess	oils,	dirt,	andharmful	toxins	from	the	skin. Clays	are	made	up	of	different	mineral	contents,
which	are	unique	to	different	types	of	clays,	and	these	minerals	help	rejuvenate
the	skin	as	the	clay	simultaneously	exfoliates	and	stimulates	blood	circulation
to	the	skin. The	more	regularly	you	use	clays,	the	fresher	your	skin	will	look. Improved	circulation	and	the	removal	of	debris	from	your	pores	instantly
improve	the	brightness	of	your	skin. Rose	clay	is	mild	kaolin	clay	that	is	great	for	normal	to	dry	skin	and	gently
helps	cleanse,	exfoliate,	and	improve	skin’s	condition. It	gets	its	delicate	pink
color	from	the	iron	oxides	it	contains. White	clay,	also	known	as	China	clay,	is
basically	kaolinite	and	is	the	mildest	of	all	clays. It	helps	stimulate	circulation
to	the	skin	while	gently	exfoliating	and	cleansing. French	green	clay	consists
mostly	of	montmorillonite	and	is	highly	efficient	at	drawing	oils	and	toxins
from	the	skin. It	also	helps	nourish	the	skin	with	minerals	and	phytonutrients. It	is	great	for	oily	skin	and	is	commonly	included	in	spa	body	wraps. It’s	not
recommended	for	sensitive	or	dry	skin. Yellow	kaolin	clay	is	mild	and
stimulates	circulation	to	the	skin;	it	is	suitable	for	use	on	sensitive	skin	as	well
as	dry	skin. ANCIENT	BEAUTY	INGREDIENT:
ROSE	WATER
Roses	are	one	of	the	most	universally	revered	flowers	for	their	beauty	and	sweet
fragrance,	but	what	can	they	do	for	your	skin. In
ancient	Rome,	rose	water	was
allegedly	used	as	a	cleanser. Some	even	bathed	in	it. Rose	water	has	also	been	a
part	of
Indian	skin	care	for	millennia. Just	like	natural	foods,	natural	skin-care
ingredients	can	impart	their	beautifying	properties	onto	you. Pure,	true	rose	water
is	created	from	steam	distillation	of	damask	rose	petals. It	smells	delicate	and
delicious	and	nothing	like	the	synthetic	and	sickeningly	strong	fragrances	that	are
used	in	toxic	sprays	and	car	air	fresheners. Rose	water	is	said	to	have	some	antibacterial	and	antiseptic	properties	and	is
believed	to	help	restore	the	skin’s	pH	levels	and	tighten	pores. It’s	also	considered
to	be	anti-inflammatory	and	to	help	regenerate	skin	tissue. The	sugars	and	natural
oils	found	in	rose	petals	trap	moisture	in	your	skin,	making	your	skin	look	smoother
and	softer—just	like	the	beautiful	rose	petals	themselves. Plus	rose	water’s	natural
fragrance	can	help	soothe	your	nervous	system. This	will	help	destress	you,
another	key	factor	in	keeping	your	skin	youthful	and	healthy. Try	to	find	some	pure	rose	water	at	a	health	store	and	add	a	few	drops	to	your
cleanser	or	moisturizer. You	can	also	try	using	it	as	a	toner,	either	pure	or	mixed
with	a	bit	of	witch	hazel,	gently	brushing	it	over	your	skin	with	a	cotton	pad	after
cleansing. Bentonite	clay	is	derived	from	deposits	of	weathered	volcanic	ash. It	absorbs
toxins	such	as	heavy	metals	and	other	pollutants	from	the	surface	of	your	skin
like	a	kitchen	sponge. There	is	also	an	electrical	aspect	to	bentonite	clay’s	abilityto	bind	and	absorb	toxins. Bentonite	clay	has	a	negative	electrical	charge,
attracting	positively	charged	molecules. As	most	toxins	are	positively	charged,
clay	naturally	rids	the	body	of	toxins	as	it	pulls	and	holds	the	toxins	in	its
core. 11
Cosmetics	Safety:	Critical	for	Your	Overall	Beauty
Just	because	a	cosmetic	is	sitting	innocuously	on	the	shelf	at	your	local
pharmacy,	there’s	no	guarantee	that	it	is	safe	and	will	not	have	toxic
ramifications	on	your	body. The	US
Food	and	Drug	Administration	(FDA)	has
no	authority	to	require	companies	to	test	cosmetic	products	for	safety,	and
most	products	and	ingredients	are	not	approved	or	reviewed