Authentic Numerology

By: Daniel Lefferts / Source: Bookish

Yoga diehards have long claimed that the practice can allay physical ailments, such as back pain and headaches, as well as improve mood and mental agility. But these perks may not represent the full reach of yoga’s power, says parapsychology researcher Dean Radin in his new book, Supernormal: Science, Yoga and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities.

Before its recent popularization as an alternative physical and mental discipline, Radin writes, “The essential goal of yoga was to achieve states of insight that revealed the true nature of Reality.”

This rarefied plane of consciousness offers many spiritual rewards, some of which we’re familiar with — deep focus, empathy, enlightenment — and some of which sound more like the paranormal weaponry of the X-Men.

By clearing their minds of static and attachments, and perfecting bare focus and attention, Radin suggests, yogis of previous eras were able to transcend their intellectual and bodily confinements to commune with—and alter—the world around them.

“After thousands of years of exploration, refinement, and discussion about [yoga] techniques, advanced yoga practitioners may have advanced far beyond what science is currently capable of confirming,” Radin asserts.

Radin’s investigation into the supernormal potential of yoga begins with a look at ancient yogic writings called the “Yoga Sutras,” which date back as far as the second century B.C. and which “provide a taxonomy of supernormal mental powers” — called siddhis — “and a means of obtaining them.”

He then turns to the cutting-edge field of paranormal science and parapsychology, where researchers test the validity of these ancient claims through a range of studies and experiments. We take a look at the hard science behind four yogic superpowers Radin identifies.

Clairaudience

The “Yoga Sutras” name 25 siddhis, one of which is “knowledge of the meaning of sounds produced by all beings,” or, what Radin refers to as “clairaudience.”

Achieved by maintaining a meditative focus on the area behind the ear (a kind of trance state known as a “samyama”), clairaudience “may be interpreted as a form of clairvoyance, or telepathy that extends beyond human minds and includes animals, insects and other species,” Radin writes.

In other words, yogis who attain clairaudience would be able to communicate with–or at least understand the messages of — living beings other than humans, leaving us to wonder if Dr. Dolittle was really just an esoteric yogi extraordinaire.

Breatharianism

According to the “Yoga Sutras,” performing samyama on the throat enables some yogis to liberate themselves from the need to eat and drink, a phenomenon known in Catholicism as “inedia” and, more generally, as “breatharianism.”

“The implication is that the human body can transmute ambient energy into nutrients,” Radin writes, “and through the practice of cultivating this ability one can live comfortably for as long as one wishes without food.”

He points to the case of an Indian yogic ascetic named Prahlad Jani, who claims to have lived healthily without eating or drinking from the age 11 to the present (he is now in his 80s).

Jani has participated in two medical tests in India — the first in 2003 and the second in 2010 — in which he was observed to go without food or drink for as many as 14 days with “no drastic changes…in his physiological condition.”

Telepathy

Just as a samyama focused on the ear can engender clairaudience, a samyama focused on another person’s mind — as in the case of trying to send a message to another person’s mind — can engender telepathy, according to the “Yoga Sutras.”

Radin points to a type of test called a “ganzfeld” experiment, in which “receivers” are deprived of sensory input (in Radin’s example, they wear headphones that pump in pink noise and wear halved Ping Pong balls over their eyes) while “senders” attempt to mentally communicate a specific image.

The receiver then reports any images that come to mind over the course of their sensory deprivation. Radin recounts a ganzfeld experiment that he and a team of researches conducted in 2010 in which the “sender” telepathically communicated an image of the pyramids at Giza.

The “receiver,” in turn, reported images of something “tall,” “monolithic” and of a “rough texture.” Radin classifies this experiment as a “hit.”

Psychokinesis

According to Radin, “some of the siddhis in the ‘Yoga Sutras’ are described as interactions between mind and matter.” He points to an experiment in which subjects were seemingly able to influence the physical body of another person through deep meditative focus.

In this “Love Study,” Radin and his colleagues tested 36 adult couples, one of whom was healthy and one of whom was undergoing cancer treatment, to see if focused, channeled affection could measurably influence the physical body of another person.

The sender (the healthy participant) sat in a remote chamber watching an intermittently played video of their partner, while researchers measured the skin conductivity of the receiver (the ill participant).

Radin reports (with graphs showing results) how the ill patients’ skin consistently displayed markedly higher rates of conductivity after the healthy patient had viewed a video of them.

Radin argues that this constitutes evidence that a purely mental faculty—in this case, love—is able to influence material reality.

By: Chris Bourne / Source: Waking Times

There’s much talk in spiritual circles about ‘setting our intention’; ‘envisioning the things we want’ or ‘manifesting our reality’. How easily such things slip into the psyche and collective vocabulary. What if though, we’re still being led astray by the ego, albeit a more subtle form of ego?

What if instead, there is a reality that is shaping according to the natural flow of the universe? What if by aligning with that flow, you could amplify it and bring amazing harmony not just to your life, but the world around? I’m speaking of activating the Power of Higher Mind…

You’re already creating your reality

Here’s the key point:

When we speak of intentioning or envisioning what we want, we’re actually cutting across the natural flow of what is already unfolding and happening. We’re creating an illusionary bubble, which is bound to burst at some point. The fact is, you’re already creating your reality, just as it is. The real key therefore, is to figure out why you created it in the first place?

We’re living in a reality where we’ve been separated from the higher self. This has happened for a variety of reasons but for the now, we can simply attribute it to humanity’s karma. As a result, we’ve been living in a bubble, disconnected from the higher flow of life. It is of course what some people aptly refer to as ‘the matrix’.

But when the reconnection with higher self happens, and the magic begins to kick in, the mind still tries to own the show for a while…”how can we use this new found ‘secret’ to shape the world how we want it?”

And here’s the point: ‘want’ is always ego based, and founded on a sense of lack. Even if you feel good about what you’re manifesting, you’re still identifying your sense of completeness with something in the mirror – with something physical, material.

It’s all about self realisation

When I experienced a life-threatening car-crash, suddenly expanding into multiple realms, I realised one crucial truth that literally turned my life on it’s head:

“there is just one underlying purpose to each moment of life: which is to reveal an aspect of truth about yourself, to yourself.”

It may sound simple, but then the best realisations always are. It can profoundly change the way you look at life and what you get from it. In realising every moment is designed purely to realise an aspect of being, then situations cease to be about trying to get something – to gain a physical outcome.

When you switch to figuring out what the moment is telling you about you, then you’ll always find something and therefore always be a winner. Even if you are ‘losing’!

What’s more, in aligning with this underlying purpose, the universe will always provide a vehicle through which to express. And I mean ‘vehicle’ in the widest sense: it will always provide some form of exchange, circumstance or situation. And miraculously, always the energy and resource to follow this calling. You will never be left ‘wanting’.

Always ‘winning’

There’s a vital reason for this which would greatly benefit one to grasp. All authentic creative action, which is aligned with the universal flow, comes first through higher mind. Higher mind is vastly different to lower, rationalising mind. It’s much more ‘artistic’.

It doesn’t function according to logic and it doesn’t tighten around the need for an answer, rather it is happily contemplating abstract phenomenon. Like for example: “what is the true nature of abundance?”

With such a contemplation, it will draw to us other sentient beings who also have something to reveal, realise and reflect. Each soul will be realising a different aspect of the same issue.

If I can spot the patterning that is concealed and yet yearning to reveal itself within these interactions, then I’m onto a real ‘winner’. Just by bringing the pattern into awareness and holding the open space, ultimately the answer will drop.

The answer is always an aspect of being. For example, it might be ‘losing’ out on some material gain and yet realising the abundant nature of divine connection in the process. I recall being in a tight spot with a previous web development company I’d established…

On the highest level it didn’t serve me to continue to be in the company anymore. Despite the fact that it paid my wages, mortgage and bills, my soul yearned to be ‘employed’ within the field of spiritual evolution.

Every time I met a client to supposedly help them with a website, we’d end up discussing the latest self realisation they’d made or a challenging personal situation they were in. Somehow, synchronistically, there’d always be a key I could provide.

I was wondering how I might progress from one life to the other? On this particular day I was headed down to London for an important meeting with a client – a contract that would secure all the company’s costs for several months to come. I was late and so asked the universe ‘which road to take’.

I was led straight into a traffic jam. Moments later, struggling to resist shaking my fists heavenward, a song came on the radio by Alanis Morissette…”a traffic jam when you’re already late, isn’t it ironic? A little too ironic”. Well exactly!

I missed the appointment and later back at the office, the other infuriated directors, who’d already been concerned by my curious spiritual distractions, offered to buy me out of the business. Despite having no clear view of what was to come or how to survive, I immediately felt to accept. I’ve never looked back since!”

Higher Mind simply creates situations like these to test various aspects of being: resolve maybe, trust, acceptance or awareness of the flow.

The point is, we’re already creating these movements through higher mind. If we could accept what’s presenting and instead of trying to immediately change and get rid of it, then go deeply into the situation and ask “what’s it revealing about me?” Then if I express that revelation through my being and actions, then I’ll unleash an unstoppable flow through my life. This is the Power of Higher Mind.

Activating Higher Mind

So what can we do to activate higher Mind more strongly? here are some suggestions:

1. Inner Purification: In order to access Higher Mind in the first place, we must purify our lower bodily vehicles so that Soul Consciousness is liberated from the lower realms and can flow upwards. This involves purifying our diet from the denser vibrations such as meat to the lighter ones of grain, vegetables and fruit.

It also involves meditation type practices to cleanse and purify our Emotional Body and Lower Mind. For more advice on raising our energetic vibration, click on this link…Tips on raising my vibration.

2. Dissolving Distortions: We must begin to cleanse the brain and Lower Mind of conditioned behaviour patterns. We must erase the programs in our lives by confronting those moments where we would succumb to them and instead follow our higher truth. This is achieved by becoming the

Observer of ourselves in all circumstances, watching our tightness arising as a result of the choices we continually make and instead choosing that which is in our highest interests and that of all life – that which ultimately leaves us more expanded and open. “Openhand Approach” is a powerful method of helping achieve this. Find out more…Openhand Approach.

3. Opening the Heart: We must open the Heart as fully as possible. In other words we must begin to feel more of the natural joy and beauty of life all around us. This involves giving more time each day to those things that bring us joy, openness and expansion.

Be careful here though – it’s not a case of “anything goes”. It’s all about what makes us feel truly expanded and liberated inside (without unnatural side effects!). It’s when we feel “in the groove” so to speak. You could also try our moving meditation “The Six Senses Walk…Six Senses Walk

4. Attuning to the flow: Higher Mind can be likened to a muscle; if we don’t use it, it will wither away. To exercise it, we have to give room for spontaneous acts of higher knowing within our lives.

Here at Openhand we play a game called “free wheeling”, being open, asking “what would you have me do now?”, following the pull and witnessing what signs and synchronicities we then observe. It’s a powerful exercise to activate Higher Mind and attune to the natural flow. Quite apart from that, it can be great fun!

5. Contemplating Abstractions: Higher Mind can also be opened by contemplating abstract issues such as the meaning of life. The key is that there be no need of an outcome or solution.

Simple enjoyment in the contemplation is the key. That’s why reading about spiritual matters can be so valuable. That’s one of the purposes of our book “Five Gateways”…find out more.

6. Cultivating humour and optimism: If we expect our lives to falter and for negativity to happen to us, then surely enough we’ll create that in our lives. Here at Openhand we believe success is measured by the degree of internal harmony, contentment and satisfaction we experience.

If we’re open to a more optimistic way of looking at things, then surely enough, Higher Mind will help us realise the solution to the supposed ‘problem’ thereby yielding greater harmony.

Cultivating a greater sense of humour is also paramount to Higher Mind creation – laughing in the face of life’s difficulties, always looking for the lighter side. Speaking of which, have you read our humour thread?…click here.

7. Creating for the fun of it: We can begin to ‘flex’ Higher Mind by creating just for the fun of it. So for example taking up the arts, playing a musical instrument, singing, dancing, painting, writing, building or modeling. The key is that there be no effort for an outcome.

So for example, if we’re learning to play the guitar, it’s not about the tune we play, it’s just about playing with sound and seeing what comes from it. If we’re efforting to learn chords, it’s likely this will constrict Higher Mind, not unleash it.

It’s the same reason that so many people like to write. Have you thought about contributing your creative thoughts to our forum for example? It can help amazingly…Openhand Forum.

The Power of Being

So the real key is realising that we’re already creating our reality. The outer circumstances of our lives present a continually updating mirror saying: “This is what you are being now, where’s the distortion and where’s your highest truth?”

Trying to intention or envision the moment is like removing the evidence at the ‘scene of a crime’ before you’re figured out what happened and why?

Conversely, if we accept and embrace our reality just as it is, then the magical paradox is that we can open into the soft embrace of higher mind, figure out what we’re being shown and unleash powerful creative flows of being through our lives. Whatever happens, we’re always a ‘winner’ – in the widest possible sense.

It is these thoughts that inspired us to make this video to share…The Power of Being

Source: Kooma

Ghosts are big business. They appear regularly in movies, on TV shows and, whether it’s fiction or a documentary, they apparently have always got some kind of message to impart to the living.

However, this isn’t a new idea; take a look at the theater. Shakespeare’s ghosts tended to have some information to pass on whenever they made an appearance. The ghost of Hamlet’s father passes on some news that sets a whole chain of events in motion. Séance meeting tend to reveal some hidden, supernatural agenda – although it’s not necessarily about the ghost itself; sometimes it can be about the querent.

However, is all this fact or fiction? Is the reason that ghosts contact us solely to impart a vital piece of information – do spirits really have a message for us?

Messages from beyond the grave

The idea of spirits speaking from beyond the grave goes way beyond the Bard of Stratford on Avon. Shamans, witches and warlocks have often cited messages from the spirit realm as guiding factors in making decisions.

Alistair Crowley claimed to have written his first book under the influence of a spirit guide and even our former First Lady, Nancy Reagan, is thought to have consulted with psychics.

The notion is even responsible for some of our own traditions: the Celtic Ancient Pagans, when celebrating All Hallow’s Eve – later to become Halloween – would wear masks as they danced around a bonfire. That night the souls of the dead were thought to walk the Earth to complete their spiritual journeys.

However, it was believed that those spirits who had been wronged in life might use this as an opportunity to seek some form of retribution, so revelers would wear masks to hide their identities from vengeful ghosts – and the tradition of dressing up as a ghost or ghoul was born.

The theory of relativity

It’s interesting to note the hauntings that make the press tend not feature the passing on of any vital information. Instead, they appear to be random hauntings or poltergeist activity, but with virtually no reference to the spirit wanting to give a message to anyone.

However, mediums make their careers on the idea that they can contact the dead and act as a supernatural interpreter for anything they want to impart to the living.

What might be an important factor in these readings is that, generally speaking, the majority of querents have some connection to the spirit they are talking with. They are usually a friend or relative and the information they receive somehow pertains to something that is taking place in the material plane or explains how that person died.

However, rather than being the messages of revenge that we see in the movies, spirits contacted in this way seem to offer words of comfort to those left behind.

Mediums: from Biblical times to the 21st Century

However, messages from beyond the grave are a phenomenon that can be traced back to the dawn of civilization. The Jewish Tanakh tells a story about The Witch of Endor, in which the spirit of the prophet Samuel is raised from the dead so that the current king could question him about a forthcoming battle.

The idea that spirits have messages for us is one that has never particularly waned, although it reached its peak of popularity during the 19th Century in Europe and the United Sates. However, after the debunking of leading mediums, such as the Davenport Brothers, mediumship was viewed with suspicion and mistrust.

The Scole Experiment is probably the most famous research of the 20th Century, into whether we can really receive messages from the dead. It was conducted for five years during the 1990s, and was reputed to be the best evidence yet that there was life after death and that spirits have the ability to pass on information.

15 researchers from the Society for Psychical Research investigated the talents of six mediums and the results included ghostly lights flitting about the room, disembodied voices and even the levitation of a table. For paranormal investigators, this provided absolute proof that communication with the dead is a reality.

However, a set of failings on behalf of the Society undermined any evidence that the investigation appeared to have uncovered.

Debunking scientific evidence

The Scole Experiment was conducted in two basements, each belonging to a member of the six mediums. The main flaw in the experiment is that there was no ‘control’ system. It was the mediums who governed the conditions in which the research was conducted.

This including conducting séances in complete darkness, so that spirits would not be frightened, and the mediums proving the sealed boxes into which blank film would be placed, revealing ghostly images when they were later unlocked.

However, the films remained blank when placed in containers brought in by the investigators, who were also surprised, on later study, at how easily the mediums’ containers could be unlocked.

One parameter the investigators did insist on was that the mediums wore luminous wristbands, so the positions of their hands could be observed at all times. Once again, these were supplied by the mediums and, once again, they were found to be easily, quickly and discreetly removable.

Where’s the evidence?

In the UK, a similar experiment was conducted by the British Psychological Society. Professional psychics were asked to work with ‘sitters’ in control conditions and to use their abilities to make contact with the sitters’ dead relatives. They were asked to request messages from these spirits, giving information about each sitter; information that only the sitter or a relative might know.

After the mediums had fulfilled their part of the experiment, the statements they made were analyzed. The more general statements were found to be the ones that could be interpreted as relevant, whilst the messages that were thought contain specific information were found to have nothing at all to link them to the person they were meant for. Mediums were suffering another apparent debunking.

Unfortunately for mediums, there isn’t enough hard evidence to support the idea that spirits have messages for us. Scientists have proposed a number of theories such as cold-reading, hypnotism and even that the information that mediums purport to hear is the result of a medium’s alternate personality, bubbling to the surface.

However, supporters of paranormal phenomenon believe that, at the very least there is some evidence of ESP at play. At the most, spirits are capable of communication from beyond the grave. Unfortunately, all the evidence they propose is either anecdotal or unrecorded. Until a spirit becomes manifest under control conditions, it looks like science has the upper hand.