During our holidays in Spain we also stayed for two days with friends in their house near Barcelona. Sighseeing was not our prime interest, but exchange. And this was a very good occasion: A number of other friends from the WTT-Spain group joined us, so we had some interesting talks.

The friend where we stayed is a doctor and a homoeopath. He is the responsible person for the Spanish version of the Paracelsus magazine of the WTT and very open to innovative research in alternative medicine. In his practice he showed us a very modern apparatus for diagnostics and treatments from Russia called Oberon, based on a spectrum analysis of rotating magnetic fields of living organisms. He gave me a diagnostic and a treatment for my chronic ear disease. It was fascinating to observe the process on a flatscreen. The treatment showed certain immediate results, however, they were not long lasting (the treatment would have to go on for a while).

Afterwards we visited the new centre of WTT-Spain in Sabadell which the group had inaugurated about a year ago. It is located in the middle of the city, in the first floor of an old house. The group had renovated the rooms themselves, and they do regular meditation, study and exchange meetings there. It has a serene ambiance, where it is certainly inspiring to do group work.

We also had a tour through Barcelona seeing some touristic spots. The city was bathed in a warm, soft light and there was a certain ease in the air. Here are some impressions, where you feel the city’s striving into space, vertically and horizontally, maybe also inwardly.

View of Barcelona from the Montjuic – a sea of houses.

The Palau Nacional, now a national gallery.

Containers waiting in the harbour

The vastness of the place in front of the Olympic Stadium is intensified through the rows of pillars.

Reaching for the sun – Calatrava’s Olympic telecommunication tower

Or reaching for the divine – Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, full of catholic fantasies.

After the evening pizza we went to a beautiful spot overlooking the cliffs of the Costa Brava where an old lighthouse is shedding its beacon over the country. I had been at the spot a day before at noon time, so you see some impressions from day and from night. The lighthouse is a beautiful symbol for the light of the soul, or the divine light, which is guiding our path when we submit ourselves to its direction.

The lighthouse is a most beautiful place, and Cancer full moon enchanted the entire atmosphere.

Steep cliffs go down some 50 meters to the sea

The cliffs and a boat in the blue Mediterranean

The beacon is like the jewel in the lotus of the soul, a multi-faceted diamond of light

The beacon in the dusk

View from the lighthouse to the city of La Calella – it seems that the light is more guiding the cars than the ships

The beacon and the full moon

Cancer full moon reflecting on the waters of the Mediterranean

The beacon

In the evening of Cancer Full moon we wanted to have a pizza in some village not far from the camping. We came to Pals. Though we didn’t find any pizzeria there (later in another village…), but the place turned out to be a beautiful medieval town. Here are some evening impressions.

Small passages leading up to the church

Tower of the fortress

The bell tower of the church

A lamp in front of the church waiting to be lit

View from the churchyard over the countryside

Tourists shopping

Tintin waiting for the start of his rocket

Angel dreaming in a shop window

Not far from our camping in Tamariú, near Palafrugell, Spain, there is a botanic garden on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean, and in its middle there is an ancient castle. The entrance and the inner court reminded me very much of the way into the inner temple you experience on the spiritual path. The pictures show the passage from the outer to the inner, to the fountain of life and light.

A friend sent me an e-mail with photos from Dubai about the architectural gigantomania. I found them also on the web. I saw a bit of it from the plane at two stop-overs on the way to India in January 08. Have a look at the pictures, it is really impressive what they do with investing all the petro-dollars – in view of the high gas prices (see the very interesting statistics from CNN), or with some illustrations, as I got it via e-mail.

Inside Dubai Airport, January 08

In the afternoon of our arrival some friends asked me if I would like to join them for an excursion to the Cataratas, the falls on the Brazilian side. They are in a beautiful national park, full of luxuriant vegetation. I had been there 7 years ago, but now the weather was fine.

The public bus brought us right to the entrance of the park, where we changed into another bus which brought us closer to the falls. And then we saw them, the overwhelming range of cascades, large and small ones, falling from different heights over brown rocks, embellished by green spots.

Clouds of spray hovered over the falls, and the sun painted beautiful rainbows.

At the upper part of the Brazilian side of the falls looking at Garganta do Diablo / Devil’s Throat

It is a most enchanted scenery, with the continuous roar of the falling waters resounding over the valley. The path lead us closer and closer to the “Devil’s Gorge”, the big hole at the beginning of the falls, where huge amounts of water tower down into the abyss. The water sprinkled over us and gave a cooling feeling. The soul feels uplifted and inspired by all the natural beauty. Some coatis were running around, watching us tourists, and waiting for some food to be picked up.

The next day we went with some small busses to the Argentinean side, where you can go even deeper into the cascades, through forests full of tropical bushes. A little train brought us to a catwalk leading to the other side of the Devil’s Gorge. The waters seem to be so quiet before rushing down into the abyss – like in life, where surprises often come unexpected.

At the end you can look from a platform down directly into the white of the thundering waters, without seeing the bottom.

Flocks of birds were dancing in the clouds, sometimes disappearing in the waters. A friend said he had seen a film about these birds having their nests behind the falling waters, a safe place without any natural enemies.

We later went with a little ferryboat to the St. Martin’s island in the middle of the falls.

A boat in front of the rocks of St. Martins Island

Some huge black birds circled over our heads or sat in trees.

Some lizards darted over the rocks or enjoyed the sun. Signs warned of serpents, but we didn’t see any.

On St Martin’s Island there is said to be a power-spot, an entrance to the subtle Devic kingdom – and you could really feel the sublime presence, surrounded by the torrential cascades.

The sun painted horizontal rainbows into the mist over the rocks.

The energetic center is said to be around the rock in the middle – a superb, but inaccessible place.

For hours after the return there remained the impression of the thundering waters in my subtle bodies. It had such a strong impact of purification, power and upliftment.

In Eastern wisdom teachings the descent and ascent of water is seen as the movement of involution and evolution of creation. It is described with the “Narayana” mantram. A friend from Miami who was at the group living in Iguazú sent me today a picture of the falls writing:

“I selected this photo because for me it represents the synthesis of the message of the past group living: NARAYANA: Waters from heaven and waters from the earth. For me the mist that is produced from the fall of the water represent our souls going on the return path. Thousands and thousands of little drops that at the end merges with the immense, unlimited blue sky.”

Friday I was in a suburb of Zurich for a meeting with the web marketing agency with which we are cooperating in my office. On the way back I had a short stop at Zurich main station, where I had a look at the work of art about which I had read in the American tech-blog Engadget (and about which I had heard before…)

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH has installed in the main station hall a huge 3D LED display for its 150th birthday. There are 25,000 bulbs containing each 12 LEDs which are constantly changing colours and patterns. The project is called NOVA and wants to give the travelers a new visual experience: In a surrounding where people are flooded with visual stimuli they want to appeal the people emotionally, remembering them of dreams and visions. The NOVA-team has a fascinating website, which you can also explore with different shapes and colours.

The structure reminds me of group relations not only in technology, but also with human beings. When their patterns harmoniously cooperate, a beautiful lightful structure can appear.

Some days ago I came across the website of the Kalliopeia Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation, located in San Rafael, California. (Kalliopeia or Kalliope is one of the Muses of ancient Greece, the goddess of music, song and dance. They chose this name as a symbol “of the intuitions and faculties centered in the higher self which call on us “to remember.”).

Kalliopeia is giving grants to support a cultural shift towards a recognition of oneness of life within diversity: “Kalliopeia Foundation contributes to the evolution of communities and cultures that honor the unity at the heart of life’s rich diversity.” They “support projects which bring together the voices of those who are inspired to create, express and define an emerging consciousness of oneness through many areas of human endeavor”.

They have very inspiring principles and areas of sponsorship:
“Kalliopeia supports projects that contribute to a growing awareness of what unifies, rather than divides, all people. Through our grantmaking programs we support the work of people committed to holistic personal, community and planetary transformation and healing based on the recognition that we are at the core one humanity, expressing itself through myriad ways and forms.

We are particularly interested in projects that help to deepen our understanding of what it means for humanity to live in harmony with the whole of life. Central to this question is the need to evolve local to global systems of living that are founded upon a recognition of the oneness at the core of life and what that means in terms of how we live, both individually and collectively.”

You find interesting projects when looking at the page with the organisations they sponsored. One of the projects they supported with grants is the Kosmos Journal (“An Integral Approach To Global Awakening” – ” KOSMOS is an ancient Greek term meaning the harmony and beauty of the universe wherein all parts have their place within the Whole”).

An Argentinian friend living in Spain yesterday sent me a link to this journal writing: “I know the people and they are well-intended seekers, to my humble understanding.” I also saw that a lady whom I met 8 years ago at a seminar is working for the journal … A small world.

A forest cosmos of anemones

Some days ago I read in the NZZ Folio-Magazine an article by Luca Turin on “The sound of impossible objects” (also translated into English). It is about William Sethares, a researcher from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (“Each of us plays several roles in life. Some of my favorite are: researcher, teacher, and musician”) .

Sethares did experiments where he electronically stretched the musical octaves and observed what happened with the chords: Some combinations sounded very dissonant, while others produced an astonishing consonance. Some scales he used were more harmonious for the ears than others. So in 19-tone, the “octave” on the keyboard is a fifth larger than the normal one.

Sethares calls this “Xenotonality” (from the Greek word for “strange” combined with tones). The results are described on his website as “strange and somewhat eeri. The effect was so different from the tempered scale that there was no tendency to judge in-tuneness or out-of tuneness.” Some of the songs sound quite normal, some leave an alienating feeling.

You can listen to some example from his CDs, like Incidence and Coincidence. I got a strange feeling from these sounds, like being a bit “off the track”, and the effect lasted for quite some time afterwards. It is not just the kind of vibrations I would love to expose myself to over a longer time, but and interesting transgression of the boundaries of the sound-range of physical instrument. In this context see the next blogpost on “Silence, Speech and Sound”.

Loudspeaker in a little forest ashram in Andhra Pradesh, India

I yesterday got some pictures from a friend with inspiring words coming from “pravsworld.com“, which “through its content strives to create a better human being, by cultivating ideas and values, spreading love & peace in this World to make it a better place to live; nurture peace and harmony, to have a human understand other, more importantly understand himself and realize his true potential.”

The header of the site “Pravs World”

They describe themselves as “The World’s most popular and the largest Web Group over the internet. Its probably the only that features a extensive collection of content that relates to inspiration in life and is dedicated to enrich and spread human values. It’s an inspiration to open your mind and touch your heart with words that makes positive impact. It’s an emotion felt by millions of individuals from over 120 Countries.”

You might be astonished about the name – it is the nickname of the initiator, who lives in Mumbai, India, but who doesn’t want to give his personality name because “I believe you should be known for the work you do, and your work should not be known for who you are. Let me be known for the work I do, and once you read this entire page I would seem more like a friend than some stranger.”

Have a look at the site, you find a great number of inspirational messages, and you can subscribe there to different mailing lists with daily inspiring thoughts.

Image Copyright – Pravs World & its photographers