It's All Relative and Primal Screaming is Allowed

Death And The Shaman Part III

2012-01-26T02:48:00.000Z

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

Normally we do not like to think about death. We would rather think about life. Why reflect on death? When you start preparing for death you soon realise that you must look into your life...now...and come to face the truth of your self. Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.
Sogyal Rinpoche.
Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, “Did you bring joy?” The second was, “Did you find joy?”
Leo Buscaglia.
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

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

Death and the Shaman Part II

2011-10-11T23:50:00.000Z

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

Death and the Shaman Part 1

2011-07-22T01:06:00.001Z

Death and the Shaman

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

Going Solo

2009-08-29T12:19:00.001Z

The Solo Seal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This involves YOUR RIGHTS both HUMAN AND CIVIL

2009-03-23T18:07:00.001Z

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

Daydream believer

2008-07-09T09:25:00.000Z

Day Dreaming your life a – way…..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Year New Chaos

2008-01-03T09:00:00.000Z

Well, here it is all shiny and New Year, happy? Not so much at the moment but things change, that is something that I depend upon at stupid o’clock when I can no longer pretend to sleep.

I’m told that things are ‘for the best’ and that is ‘just how things are’ and yet… in my belief system things are what I make of them. Funnily enough it seems that the only thing I am making at the moment is a right bloody mess of it.

My love of Chaos has come back to haunt me, it resides in my brain, never quiet and on the surface less than totally helpful. Like all things that are interesting (?) it is what is going on beneath the surface that is the important part.

The dreams it throws up (in the minutes I do manage to collapse into sleep), like projectile vomit are vivid, colourful and yes there are references to carrots… I don’t know, it’s an unconscious thing – I’m sure Freud or Jung would have something or other to say about it but my favourite guy has to be Carlos Castaneda, he has such wonderful little homilies to be helping one out with ones daily debacles.

“It is important to do what you don't know how to do. It is important to see your skills as keeping you from learning what is deepest and most mysterious. If you know how to focus, unfocus. If your tendency is to make sense out of chaos, start chaos.”

Interesting thought for the day really, but also it has to do with unravelling. The things that we can do when we unravel things; like on Christmas night – there I was in my cousins house, cheeks almost as red as the wine I was quaffing back quite happily when her daughter came in with a necklace that she had managed to get in a fankle.
It was passed around about four different pairs of hands and was really getting more and more tangled, until finally it came to us.

It looked like an impossible job, but being the helpful souls that we are, the former partner in crime and I, got working on it together. What was helpful was having an idea of what it should look like and what its purpose was outside of the chaotic mess it had become.

It took a bit of manual dexterity and more than a little patience and perseverance but I knew it would not leave our hands until it was fixed and in its original state, and so it was.

So many things that we see in life as chaotic messes could be less so if we only took the time and the patience to see it as it is in its original form and return it to that – or the form we originally intended, a clear and unsullied picture of the outcome we aspire to.

Then again Carlos has another good one for those chaotic things that we get ourselves embroiled within…

"A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use."

I suppose it is time to get the moccasins on and start walking the New Year Path remembering all the time that
“Conclusions arrived at through reasoning have very little or no influence in altering the course of our lives”

Back to Chaos again!

Goals and aspirations at this time of year are uppermost in our minds. I had few and now I have one less… it is yet to be decided as to whether this path has heart.

So, the last words I will leave, not to Carlos this time but to Robert Frost…

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I…I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

May all your paths have heart and may you walk only far enough to know the difference and no farther, and may you find the one less travelled.

Happy New Year.

Options and Choices = expectations and disappointment?

2007-10-02T20:47:00.000Z

The Choices we Choose to make

There are choices and then there are, well, choices. We choose. Sometimes we think we have no choice but you know we do.

We also have expectations, which sometimes drive the choices we make.

The sticky bit, is when the expectations are more than we can ecologically cope with or worse that we have expectations of others that THEY cannot ecologically embrace.

This leads to disappointment and shows us that the premise of the outcome of communication is the result that you get is very true and has great relevance no matter what we get up to or whatever choice we make.

This is the kind of thing that can lead us into the cul-de-sac of Hobson’s Choice; no choice at all, a less than totally verdant place to be.

My old friend Castaneda has a good one for this, read this and think about the situation you find yourself in when the walls are closing in and you feel that there is no way to move forward, there is still choice…

“Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you. All paths lead no-where, it is important to choose a path that has heart!”

There is always a choice, people may be disappointed at the choices you make, but that is their expectation not yours.

Choose to release your expectations of yourself and your expectations of others and find freedom, peace and acceptance.
You may be pleasantly surprised to find other things too, things that you may have overlooked from the platform of high expectations.

Instinctively self destructive...

2007-06-10T06:20:00.000Z

The Outcome of Communication

One of the tenets of NLP is that the outcome of communication is in the result that you get.

I am discovering that in certain situations when I am being less than totally magnificent in my communication the results I am getting are on the surface, pleasing, however I am aware of their placatory and transient nature, particularly within the scenario I find myself playing out on a day to day basis at this point in time.

A friend asked me recently had I ever heard of the adage of ‘trapping more flies with honey’? Of course I have, my tendency though is to either leave them alone or kill them instantly.

Thinking about it dispassionately (?) I wonder if this has as much to do with my personal coping mechanism, as it has to do with my beliefs, which are of course inextricably linked.

This is something that I have learned about sentient beings, we make connections and having made them we use them as convincers banging home the rightness of it. For the reasoning and more rational animal this is a complicated procedure – or not. It can just as easily be a knee jerk reaction to an external stimulus that provokes an emotional response, jeez would that be the birth of a strategy that would possibly be compounded by proving it again and again – compounding itself, becoming rooted in our neurology. That old survival fight or flight still crazy after all these millennia, and still so strong.

In the aftermath of an adrenaline high response attitude there is only a need to rest, conflict especially within oneself is exhausting and it can be the result of a learned behaviour, a less than totally positive behaviour at that.

I know what my friend means about the honey. For me it’s a bit like learning something new and strange and until I am able to be secure in this alien world in all my states, I am likely to slip back to swatting the flies, irrevocably and taking the hollow victory of being placated until I go away and leave them to lick their wounds and build their walls of resentment so that I become the trigger for their adrenaline response.

Eventually this too will cease and there will be no communication at all. What is the point in that?
The self-fulfilling prophecy goes around again and nothing new is learned, only re-iterated.

So, in order to rewire my neurology I have to examine those static beliefs about myself, and change them now.

Just a thought on States of Mind

2007-05-28T10:16:00.000Z

Depression, a bigger state than Texas…
And I don’t mean Alaska!

Depression, deeply dark, totally autocratic, no sense of boundaries! Sounds like my last date!
It is also a state of mind, and like other states it does have boundaries, we just don’t recognise them.
When we are travelling there are road signs, place signs, directions and miles to go signs, there are even state lines; borders we call them. There are no visible signs for the long journey that depression is; there are only indications, symptoms.

How many people do you think know that depression is something that can be treated to a successful conclusion? How many people do you know have it, have had it or has someone in their immediate family dealing with it?

How do you treat a person you know has it, as in how do you interact with them? Do you steer clear not wanting to get involved, do you tell them to ‘get a grip, pull themselves together and just get on with it? Do you sit with them and empathise, ‘there, there, I know, I know’? The thing is – you don’t know, you can’t know, even when you have been there yourself because everyone’s is unique to them. It is their state; they own it and they are completely in it to the exclusion of all else. It takes that much energy.

The word itself is in fact overused, like the word ‘love’, which is bandied about as a step up from just liking something it is used in such a way to allude to enthusiasm and covetousness of a thing or a place and sometimes a person. When used in this way it has nothing at all to do with the Shakespearian, Casanova, Burton/Taylor, situations that we are taught are the thing to strive for.

These days when someone says they are depressed it can be anything from just slightly peeved, a bit unhappy or put out about something that didn’t go how they would have liked, ‘I didn’t win, that is so depressing!’ to totally suicidal with various stages in between. There are even those who will go from totally ecstatic to the depths of despair that confound most of us.
There are things to look out for though, a change in habit, if outgoing to introverted. Less inclined to buy or shop for little treats and in some cases even staples for themselves. Just too tired or apathetic about getting out of bed or getting dressed; losing interest in topics of hobbies or favourite television programmes, being impatient with others and tired or sleeping at strange times then up in the middle of the night.

These are just some indications and most of them can be found in the indicators and symptoms for M.E.

Mental health is not just in the mind – it has a physiological effect. Depressed people don’t tend to stand straight they bow their heads, they shuffle they sit for long periods of time – vegetating in front of a television that if asked they could not begin to tell you what was on it.

What can you do?

Pay attention, action is movement, get them to change their state, get help. If not for them – find out how you can get help if it is a partner or family member or your friend. Every little helps, and may even prevent a fall into despair. Depression is a lonely and isolated dis – ease. The feelings of being in a vortex of despair and pain whether physical or mental is most debilitating. It is also frustrating for those closest to the person involved which brings it’s own form of depression.

Carlos Castaneda once wrote, ‘we can make ourselves miserable, or we can make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.’
It’s not the effort itself; it is the kind of effort, focus of strength, and the intent to change this state, fromI CAN’T to I WILL! Strangely the rest will follow.

Any complementary techniques should be used under advisement and if they are under a Doctors care with that Doctors’ written acknowledgement of proposed methods and their permission to go ahead.

For more info or 1-2-1discussion on this topic use e-mail link

The Hypnotic effect with M.E.

2007-04-27T19:47:00.000Z

A Change Will Do You Good

NLP & Dr Milton Erickson, MD

Founding father of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, Dr Milton H. Erickson, MD was a particularly excellent psychiatrist and foremost practitioner of hypnotherapy.

It was therefore no surprise that John Grinder and Richard Bandler sought him out to work with them and used him as a model for the Neuro Linguistic Programming that we know today.

The no less than spectacular results achieved by modelling Erickson’s techniques have brought NLP to the attention of the world, not only as a therapeutic tool but also in the world of corporate business.

Surprisingly so, because the language patterns are distinctly vague, and at times totally bizarre, bringing the client’s brain to the brink of meltdown in the attempt to make sense of it all.

Rapport is key, and Dr. Erickson was so masterful at gaining rapport instantly that it was possible for him to entrance a person within a few minutes, and on one occasion to hypnotise a client who couldn’t speak a word of English.

How did he do it? Body language and paying attention to the space in-between; using sensory acuity the way a surgeon uses a laser scalpel. Every facial tic, every foot shuffle was a beacon to him, and being artfully vague and ambiguous allowed the client to relate completely to what was not being said.

To change you need choice. To have choice you must first recognise the clients’ model of the world.

Requisite variety, the tool of change; it’s good to change is it not?

Sleepy Dragon Oct. 06

Stop the world and make a connection

2007-02-05T16:53:00.000Z

What Happens When We Lose Our Connection?

Recently I got very excited. Now, normally that is nothing to write home about, however, you ask anyone with M.E. when the last time was they got excited and they’ll probably say they can’t remember or they haven’t got the energy.

Energy is the key word here, and it does have a physical, organic root to go along with the metaphysical and spiritual curtain that few of the medics will go beyond.

So what lies behind the curtain that has them all so freaked out?

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, AKA Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, AKA Post viral Fatigue Syndrome and in the good old US of A it has the impressive handle of Epidemic Neuromyasthenia.

So when your GP tells you it’s all in your head, you can actually correct him by saying not only is it in my head it is also in my spinal cord and in the nerve endings in my muscles – see your medical dictionary for clues!

Dr. A Melvin Ramsey, Hon Consultant Physician, Infectious Diseases Dept. of the Royal Free Hospital describes M.E. in his paper circa 1986 as a ‘Baffling Syndrome with a Tragic Aftermath’. He also explains the different terminology used in it’s diagnosis.

Another Doctor whose paper was summarised in The Haworth Medical Press, the title, Betrayal By the Brain: The Neurological Basis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia Syndrome and related Neural Network Disorders was written by a Dr. Jay Goldstein, in which he describes a conceptualisation of CFIDS/FMS as “ impaired sensory information processing in a neural network, resulting in dysfunctional responses. Triggers include things like genetic susceptibility, neonatal stressors, and elevated cortisol levels activated from an early age due to various situations including sexual, physical, emotional abuse.

A Dr. Charles Shepherd has acknowledged that it has links to certain toxins and pesticides, organophosphates being the main contenders.

With all this weighty evidence going on how dare the GP’s call this hypochondria?
And, should we wish to go and inspect the aforementioned curtain then we can look to another eminent scientific source, Dr. Deepak Chopra.
Who writes prolifically about the cells eavesdropping on one another and their ability to hold memories, particularly traumatic memories.

Take into consideration the depression angle, a lot of physicians say that M.E. is just another form of depression and is therefore psychological, it has been proven though, that cortisol levels in the clinically depressed are low and yet in M.E. they are high, so the answer to that would be that although depression may follow an episode of M.E it is not in itself a component of the disease.

I have M.E. and I have a good idea why I have it. My biggest problem has been how to manage it for once it is got it will not go away!
It hibernates and lays in wait, it catches you out when things are going relatively okay then you catch a virus and it’s basically goodnight Vienna for anything up to 18months or longer.

I have found that actually recognising when I need to rest is the key and acting upon that information, I REST! Dr. A. Melvin Ramsey, agrees with me on that one; only wish I’d known that earlier.
He writes, ”The degree of physical incapacity varies greatly, but the dominant clinical feature of profound fatigue is directly related to the length of time the patient persists in physical effort after it’s onset; put in another way, those patients who are given a period of enforced rest from the onset have the best prognosis.”

So, NO, it is not the best thing to work through the flu, it is not the best thing to go back to work soon as you can put your feet to the floor without falling down. We need time to heal and if we don’t take it the cells in our body will mutiny and then we really will find that creek and how necessary a paddle can be. It is all very well having a work ethic, but how good is it if it means you can only work for a significantly shortened length of time?

The government is not too helpful in that department either, it could make things better with more legislation on sick days and wellness programmes in the workplace, not to mention tightening up on the pesticides and toxins that are carried on ships in our waters and used on our food and our animals on a daily basis.

Getting level with M.E is an expensive and epic journey- getting level is all you can hope for, these papers I'm on about have been in existance since 1986 and before; it's been around so long and they're still arguing whether it's a 'real disease' or not. Where have we heard that one before? The NHS does not supply most of the treatments that are helpful, and even when they do it is down to the mind set of the GP that has to refer you to it which will again depend on his budget.

For myself, it has been an awakening to how much more we can do with natural things and (dare I say it?) spiritual things. Don’t get me wrong there are extremely interesting people out there who have some very unique ways of looking at things; all in all though sorting through the chaff there is help available and again it is at a price, isn’t everything these days, but what price the ability to at least function reasonably on a daily basis?

The Shamanic way of looking at it is that a soul part has been lost and there is a void there that has been filled by the dis – ease, this is bourne out by the neo natal stressors and other triggers mentioned above. It also bears out the mind controls the body thing and Dr Chopra’s theories on cell memory.(This is a very simplistic and edited explanation of these concepts, I will have a tendency to mention them again and go into more detail).

The NLP and Ericksonian Hypnosis way of looking at it,is using neural networks and changing pathways through language and metaphor, hey, it works for me and helps me to talk to my body when it is tired and aching – my unconscious mind is a vast storehouse of resources – as is yours – just waiting to be used, making the connection is the key.

Then there is the Reiki, Aromatherapy massage, Reflexology et al. Touch and smell and relaxation, it really does make you feel better and when you feel better you feel less tired. Being tired is tiring sometimes you know the hypothalamus and the limbic system they don’t need drugs, they need some TLC; and we all know there’s just not enough of that to go around these days.

So what to do, look for yourselves, find a practitioner of any of the above mentioned therapies and some more, whatever is right for you – there’s Indian Head Massage, herbalism, sound therapy, there are so many and there is no one right answer for me it was a combination of the Shamanic, Reiki, Reflexology, hypnosis/NLP, and a great support network that I had to find for myself, my GP is of the Hypochondriacs persuasion… It seems he ignores the fact that the brain is the one organ in the body they know damn near nothing about!

I actually learned how to do most of the ones that work for me and am now trying to get into the NHS so that I can help people who haven’t perhaps the means to pay for some of these treatments.(The surgeons don't like anything they can't shake a scalpel at! When the phrase ' if in doubt - cut it out' won't or can't cut it they balk at the idea that something non invasive in physical terms will acheive what they cannot. How could we dare? Let us remember that white coats, greens and an ability to excise things doesn't mean you're right every time, and doesn't lessen the gravity of the illness just cause you can't get hold of it and put it on a slide.

When I’m not able I don’t do it – when I’m able I do it until I need to rest. If the world can’t slow down maybe we have to? If we are a Universe inside a Universe inside… Isn't it time we listened? Isn't that what Doctors used to do, so they could follow the hypocratic oath - first do no harm. Ignoring it will not make it go away and it certainly will not cure it.

Excerpts from papers found on www.meactionuk.org and www.afme.org.uk.

Contact me at Sleepy.dragon@ntlworld.com

A Change in Perspective Can Be The Answer

2007-01-29T23:37:00.000Z

TURNING JAPANESE

I’ve been having a bit of a think recently. It’s been quite confusing at times – all these things I’ve been thinking about. Confusing until I had that ‘ah!’ moment; you know the one. That’s the one where everything slots into place very suddenly, like when you’re watching one of those formation thingies, just before it’s completed or from the original angle they make no sense at all; then in a nano second there it is, and you wonder how you could have not seen it all the while.

It reminded me of a time when I was sitting in a pub with a bunch of PhD doctor types, one of whom was Japanese – that he was Japanese (and presumably still is) is not all together relevant, he was a thoroughly impressive chap, at least 6ft 4 if he was an inch! Anyway, he made a puzzle with some matchsticks, it was a fish shape and we had to change the direction it swam in by moving only two of the matches. Whether it was the copious amount of alcohol we’d consumed, (there the Japanese are also impressive!), or that we were all just not thinking laterally – and let’s face it within a group of five academics and one technician someone should have been able to sort this one out – we just couldn’t see it.

The call of nature saved face! I had to go to the toilet, having consumed several pints it was urgently required. The point is that on my way back to the table I looked down at the puzzle and BAM! There it was, the answer so obvious, how could it be there, just there staring me in the face, such a simple thing, and I could not see it?

Until I changed my position, until I looked at it from a different perspective I could have been sitting there all night and still been stymied because my Japanese doctor friend was being very inscrutable and refused to reveal the solution. He had given us the puzzle to solve and would leave us locked in a battle with this inanimate thing until we ourselves found the answer.

So, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about life and NLP and Mr Erickson (our hero). Like my Japanese friend, a head and shoulders above his peers, he sees from a different perspective, and shows us that by simply altering the way we look at a situation, allows us to change that situation, by using very little interference we can change the direction in which we or our clients are swimming.

Can you hear it? Can you hear the ‘Ah, yes?’ It’s so simple – isn’t it?

Leslie Currie, July 2006

2007-01-12T20:48:00.001Z

2007-01-12T20:32:00.000Z

Path of the Shaman
Shamanic practise is more than 50,000 years old. It is not a religion of itself but can be found interwoven into many religions; not excluding the main known orthodox beliefs. A part of, but apart from the major religions of the world. It is singular and of itself, and is remarkable in that although developed by many separate cultures, it has a central core that is common to all these indigenous traditions.
From the Australian Aborigine to the Tibetan Monks, from Siberia to Africa, from North and South America to Northern Europe. From Santa Claus to Arch Angels, Shamanism is alive and well and becoming more and more apparent as the Universe shifts back the spiritual balance to the individual; be it person, tribe, clan or village, the Universe is calling its warriors to arms, the Warriors of the Shadow, the Shapeshifters, the Healers, the Pyromancers, the Psychopompers, those who have eyes to see in the dark.
Le Barre said that there were Shamen before there were Gods, this is understandable as it would behove that a Shaman would be the one with access to the other words; other realities and different dimensions. Only when one found the way to enter these dimensions would it be possible for them to communicate with the beings/spirits therein. How they chose the first Shamen is still a mystery.
Supposedly, the original travellers to space and time had no pre - conceived ideas of what to expect and therefore, the fact that the Shamens’ individual (and very separate) experiences have so much in common has allowed them to connect with others such as themselves, that a belief system of ‘other worlds, of other dimensions, of other realities of has evolved from a core experience and recounting of these.
Their relating of journeys to otherworldly realms, the purpose of which was to find good hunting, good shelter, or more prosaically - an honourable victory over a Shaman from a rival tribe. From the birth of new members of the tribes, what their souls would bring to their people, what gifts would be brought by this new life, to the guidance of souls passing through the veils of shadow lands back into the void. The Shamen were the ones who knew how, and each one through ritual and wisdom passed down by elder Shamen to the chosen few, would have the responsibility of the lives and fortunes of all those within the tribe.
The similarities and the success of these rituals and ceremonials are testament not only to the wisdom and aptitude of the individual, but are an indication to a shared knowledge of something most of the Western world can only dream of. Thankfully, some of us still do dream of it and though even fewer of us act upon those dreams, the few are increasing in number as we as humans begin to realise that there is a finite amount of money, carbon based fuel and land.
This brings us to our main belief systems today, which have collected that which suited and rejected as evil that which did not, allowed the creation of Heaven and Hell, and who is to go to whichever the ’priest’ decreed through his knowledge of the new mysteries; 2,000 years young. The basis of which was made upon texts translated from Aramaic and Sanskrit into Greek and then Latin. No matter that the academic prowess, and therefore the competence of the priests was suspect as long as they were zealous, pure, pious, knew the fundamentals and were willing to implement the Gospel according to whomsoever was revising the “good book” at the time; any which way and with as much force as it would take to convert the poor daemon worshipping, simple minded souls they encountered on their way, who had the audacity to believe that they knew more about their spiritual needs than these new guys in frocks, who couldn’t speak their language, couldn’t cope with their weather and conditions and instead of being gracious guests became tyrannical overseers.
While doing this pushed most pure Shamanic traditions to past the point of extinction in places, it only succeeded to bestialise and ridicule its practise in others, though still chasing it underground and ensuring that only the most inaccessible places on this earth kept a pure tradition. Were it not for some of the more open of European minds the Native American Culture would have been totally lost to a Hebrew God whose testament has been bastardised and politically spun throughout the ages - not least by the first Pope who had converted from a Pagan background, and in his wisdom decided what the poor plebs could handle and what they could not; so it was the Gospel according to Constantine not God.
Still taking into consideration the pantheon of God/Goddess’ from various traditions, Greek, Roman, Celtic, Nordic/Heathen. Shamanic resonance can be seen in all of these, even unto the Bible. The bible
Teaches Druidic theology, the sacrificing of oneself for the good of the many, for the good of the land, this was taught by the Druid priests since there were people on this island. The King who was and will be again, risen from the dead to lead his people to freedom of suppression is not just the remit of the bible. Every child knows the Arthurian legends. Every mainstream religion is based upon the messiah concept. The de- possessing of spirit’s, the common sense that has been lost in translation, the trial on the mount the feeding of the 5,000, the vision quest in the desert 40 days and 40 nights. Go tell it to a Native American Brave, that is before the missionaries came to make him over in Gods own image, before they came to destroy and bully a people who were so connected to the land they lived and died for it. A people whose Medicine men treated not just the wounds of their people but the traumas of their souls, by connecting to the land that sustained them.
Shamen have power over fire, time and space, the weather, and particularly they have great power in healing arts and in psychopomping ; the assisting of souls crossing over to a new
Dimension, or state of being. These days our lives are full of arts and means to keep death at bay. Death is the ultimate change and we, although having a tendency to embrace change when we can see the outcome, have less and less intention to accept and embrace death. Somehow we have come to see it as an end to ourselves, in our human form we are so self obsessed. Western Society by and large does not take to spirituality unless there is a crisis in the offing. A Tsunami will do it for some, though less of praying for the dead and more of rifling the wallet takes place, there are a few people who put aside their everyday lives and trials and for some reason have an all encompassing urge to do something - something they would never normally think of.
People go on holiday every day to places like Thailand and India and the Maldives. They see the poverty, they see the potential for destruction and loss of life but they don’t own it, it is not their problem. They’re doing their bit by visiting the place and brining in much needed tourist money. Most of them go home having had a great time and not realising or even registering the fact that there are people who live on the edge every single day, that their tourist money is actually not doing much good, because the more they visit the more hotels have to be built therefore the more land is cleared. Natural breakwaters, natural barriers no longer exist. The government spends no money on early warning systems because it’s not as important as the next new resort for rich Westerners to come and spend their money.
And the indigenous peoples, they live with death every day. Their rights are taken from them by faceless foreigners who want their land and resources but these are finite resources. The real gold is in the fact that indigenous peoples have treatments for cancers that we don’t know about. They don’t get the kind of cancers and diseases that we have. That they have good health and longevity that we can only dream of. That they know a peace and contentment that we shall never see again, lest we go back to real basics remembering who we are and that we need each other, not another car, not a bigger house, not a pool; we need to connect.
It is known as a magico - religious practise, whose practitioners bring on an ecstatic trance state, through dance, chanting, journeying and meditation. Some practitioners use psychotropic drugs, these are not necessary for all.