Find Focus Now

Watch this interesting video… and ask yourself… why were most major religions founded long ago, and why don’t we look kindly upon individuals who try to start a new religion now?  Times have changed… but the mystical, religious experience has not… I paraphrase but the basic principle goes something like this… “the waters in which a mystic swims and bathes, are the very same waters in which a person thrown into spiritual turmoil or crisis is drowning”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGNCMcJVKYs&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7tjp_ZQItI&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_290642&src_vid=T7tjp_ZQItI&v=_mJVZ03P6ck

Watch the following film, “Yogis Of Tibet” (2002).  A great overview of Tibetan Buddhism and yoga as practiced in Tibet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOk0tZHwCs4&feature=related

Here is a link to an article by Hyla Cass, MD on Energy Psychology just published on the Huffington Post blog… Energy Psychology includes practices like TFT, EFT… and if we cut to the chase, chigong, yoga, meditation… anything that works with the chi/prana/bio-energy/magnetism in the body:)  

Talking about chi or prana sounds like pseudoscience now, but in a few more years they’ll have this all mapped out from a science perspective and claim it as a brand new discovery… the rest of us will roll our eyes and continue meditating, tapping, breathing like we have been:) 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hyla-cass-md/energy-psychology_b_1328995.html

When the going gets tough the tough get going… but where to?  Many people are turning to yoga, meditation, and energy tapping/acupuncture techniques like EFT (emotional freedom technique).  The scientific establishment loves to paint these alternative treatments as being “unverified and without proven efficacy”.  As more and more people are becoming disillusioned with the “proven benefits” of modern medicine (pharmacotherapy/pills in particular) and more consumer money is being spent on “alternative health care” the heat is being turned up… will “alternative therapy” live up to its promise under scientific scrutiny!?!  Is this “rigorous scientific scrutiny” really the unbiased “eye for the truth” it is held up to be!?!  Yoga and meditation, chigong and acupuncture are not “new kids on the block”… they have a very long track record of helping people cope with the realities of living. 

“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.” (Marcia Angell, MD)

So here’s an excerpt from the article (written by Marcia Angell)

“Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption”

January 15, 2009

Marcia Angell

“Many drugs that are assumed to be effective are probably little better than placebos, but there is no way to know because negative results are hidden. One clue was provided six years ago by four researchers who, using the Freedom of Information Act, obtained FDA reviews of every placebo-controlled clinical trial submitted for initial approval of the six most widely used antidepressant drugs approved between 1987 and 1999—Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Serzone, and Effexor.¹⁰ They found that on average, placebos were 80 percent as effective as the drugs. The difference between drug and placebo was so small that it was unlikely to be of any clinical significance. The results were much the same for all six drugs: all were equally ineffective. But because favorable results were published and unfavorable results buried (in this case, within the FDA), the public and the medical profession believed these drugs were potent antidepressants.”  

Read the full article here:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jan/15/drug-companies-doctorsa-story-of-corruption/

More and more people are trying EFT, “emotional freedom technique”, also called Energy Tapping.  It is the cornerstone of a rapidly growing movement known as “energy psychology” which combines therapeutic techniques from East and West. 

EFT is based on acupuncture theory & application but uses gentle body tapping instead of needles to loosen up resistance and stimulate chi flow.  The tapping is combined with a systematic application of verbal “psychotherapy phrases” for tuning in to the issues that need healing and for quickly pinpointing physical and emotional pain, resistance and trauma bound up in the body-mind-energy complex.

Many, many people are finding relief using EFT for all sorts of issues, like meditation and yoga, the proof is in the pudding… don’t just take my word for it, don’t take Gary Craig’s word for it, try it for yourself and see:) 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-ortner/emotional-freedom-technique_b_1349223.html

Many people go on endless meditation retreats and do endless hours of yoga in the hope of achieving even a small glimmer of the “enlightened consciousness”.  Kundalini Awakening is a powerfully trans-formative experience, and with the proper discipline and safeguards in place it can be the most amazing journey of a lifetime.  Without proper knowledge and insight however, an Awakening can lead to a world of hurt… especially if you get sidetracked into a pharmacological quagmire where they use pills with endless side-effects to stop the Kundalini force from completing the rewiring and clearing process of the human nervous, emotional, and endocrine systems.   

The modern, Western, seekers travel to India and visit Mysore and other “go-to” destinations, over and over, looking for that “something-something” that can be found right here at home… if they only knew how to recognize those “touched by the force”… People always wonder, where are all those Enlightened Masters they used to talk about?  Well, the Masters are few and far between, becoming a “Master” means you have discipline, stability, grounding, and, above all, self and “state of being” knowledge about what is going on, how it happened, what to do about it, how to keep it moving, and how to chanel the force in proper circulations for healing and balance.  Proper training, proper emotional regulation, proper physical exercise, proper diet… all come in to play to make awakenings work.

Now-a-days, when someone experiences a “spontaneous” flood of Kundalini Shakti with no awareness of what is happening from a bio-energy perspective, with no previous training in grounding or releasing… they are more likely to have their life fall apart, be overwhelmed by fear, and when looking for help, be labeled Mentally Ill.  Those actively looking for Kundalini usually don’t find it… that’s the big cosmic joke:)  The harder you look, the less likely you are to experience it.  But those who go on alcoholic binges, party all night for 3 weeks strait, then have a psychotic, bipolar, meltdown… they have found what the “seekers” are looking for.  But without the theoretical insight into their condition they have no idea how to manage or what to do with their awakening… that’s why the ancient yogi’s said… “12 years dedicated asana and meditation practice before we show you the secret awakening techniques”. 

The foundation for stability must be laid for the kundalini to flow in a pleasant, blissfull way.  Of course, those “12 years” of practice needed for stability and grounding is different for every seeker.  Some are grounded and ballanced from the get go, some will need many more trips around the weel of life before they get to that point… that’s why there are no hard and fast rules… you get there when you get there… the universe annoints you… everything is perfect in the world just as it is, everything is exactly as it should be “warts and all”… things will change and evolve at their own pace as the universal ballance shifts from moment to moment… etc. etc.

Master Gary Clyman calls many of the strange meditation side effects, “bio-chaotic kundalini/meditation illness”.  With proper energy circulation techniques a meditator can turn that “chaotic” part into “controlled and guided” energy flows.  There are those who have connected the dots between the Western mindset of “mental illness” and the Eastern theory of “spiritual crisis”.  A lot of this theoretical work of blending East and West was studied, experimented with, and popularized by Stanislav Grof under the scholarly field umbrella term of “Trans-personal Psychology”. 

For those who are truly interested in yoga and meditation for the pursuit of Enlightement instead of the more modest Western goals of relaxation, anxiety reduction and work out benefits, but want to know more about how this relates to the everyday world around us, and about the “realities on the ground”… read and watch on:

http://www.bipolarorwakingup.com/#!mission

http://www.atpweb.org/journal.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=herQr9JcMJ8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/user/bipolarorwakingup?ob=0&feature=results_main

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jltXe9tBmU4&list=PL4196F96B34B46CB1&index=1&feature=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDQjJErJRk0&feature=related

http://www.amazon.com/Am-I-Bipolar-Waking-Up/dp/1461178258/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

http://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Search-Self-Personal-Transformational/dp/087477649X/ref=pd_sim_b_2

Prof. Dan Shechtman 2011 Nobel Prize Chemistry Interview with ATS:

discussing how his “paradigm shift” discoveries on crystal formations met with hostility when first introduced… the science community ridiculed him, then they got angry with him when he wouldn’t go away with his weird ideas, then more and more other scientists started seriously studying his ideas and corroborated his finding… then the naysayers accepted the truth… and he won a Nobel Prize:) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZRTzOMHQ4s

Words of wisdom from Ashtanga Guru:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o97hfhtXJwo&feature=related

From youtube:  “The Pineal Gland is a Gateway”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNVoVfZ98kI&feature=related

Many people want to know whether a Yoga Teacher is “Yoga Alliance Certified”.  This is thought to come in handy as people who are new to yoga want to insure they get quality instruction.  But those thinking the RYT “registered yoga teacher” logo has any real meaning beyond the payment of some yearly dues to some collection agency somewhere in the US are sorely mistaken.  

People like credentials.  We live in a society where credentials signify the amount of “approved training” a person has undergone.  But in yoga, what exactly is “approved training”.  Who approves, how, why, and what for!?!  The truth… many styles of yoga, many teachers, many pathways, nothing written in stone.  So what does RYT really mean… well, in truth… not so much.  To find out more read on:

http://www.yogaanatomy.org/2011/yoga-alliance-approved-my-ass/

Also this video here, interesting:)

http://yoganomics.net/2012/02/taking-a-stand-for-yoga-yoga-texas-workforce-commission/