A Spanish friend, a doctor I met at the seminar, told me he and his wife would go in November to a conference in Santa Fee, New Mexico, the “Third International Sound Healing Conference“. They are advertising the conference with the following words: “Come and join the leading-edge researchers, practitioners, scientists, composers, musicians and recording artists in the fascinating and fast-growing fields of sound healing, vibrational medicine, music therapy and body/mind/brain/spirit research.”… It is a small world: The conference is in the same hotel, the La Fonda where I was at an esoteric conference 13 years ago…

Working with sound is most important in spiritual healing. There is an interesting book by K. Parvathi Kumar on “Sound – The Key and its Application“, and even an online edition of the book. There is also a good caption on healing with sound in his book “On Healing“.

Healing through sounds: My wife and a friend playing last Sunday at the seminar in Engelberg, giving joy to the group

The Medpedia Project is planning to create the world’s best and most comprehensive resource about medicine, health, and the body and to make it freely available to the world. It will be launched at the end of 2008. A preview site is now available at www.medpedia.com.

Their goal is “to transform how both medical professionals and the general public acquire and understand information about health. Contributing to Medpedia gives health professionals the chance to become known around the world for their areas of expertise.”

Medpedia is created in association with Harvard Medical School, the Stanford School of Medicine, The University of Michigan Medical School, the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and health organizations around the world.

Medpedia is intended for anyone with an interest in health, medicine and the body: For medical professionals and organizations, it’s a platform to share the most up-to-date medical knowledge. For the general public, it’s a comprehensive educational resource that provides information related to their bodies, medical questions and health needs.

Anyone who is medically knowledgeable is welcome to become a member of Medpedia’s community. The content is copyright-free or in the public domain and freely editable. Medpedia offers no monetary compensation to any organization for participation.

However, to qualify to edit or contribute to the main content, you must have an M.D. or Ph.D. in a biomedical field. So there is no room for healing practitioners or other non-academic knowers of medicineH however,  I read in an article recently that more  people are willing to pay more money for alternative medicine than for the classical academic kind – will the academicians cedem them their due rights?

When applying to become an editor of Medpedia to contribute content he/she has to disclose if he/she receives any beneficial contribution for expressing his views – probably to prevent the lobbying of the pharma industry, which certainly is highly interested in such a platform.

The difference to Wikipedia is that Medpedia is focused 100% on health, medicine and the body, whereas less than 2% of Wikipedia’s content is related to health and medicine.

This afternoon when walking along a straightened brook, my wife and I observed that in our society you often think you also can straighten all kinds of processes, like it is done with the optimisation of workflows in an enterprise.

In life, however, things often don’t develop in a straightened way, but meandering. For example, if you have a serious disease – and we were speaking about a friend’s situation – the doctor might propose a surgery, as a “direct solution” to remove a tumor. Normally the milieu in which this disease has developed is not questioned – removing the effect is seen as removing the cause.

Searching a solution without having a ready-made shortcut is much more like a meandering river – you go in one direction, then find other aspects and turn to another direction.

My wife is just reading a new book by David Servan-Schreiber, professor of Psychiatry, on “Anticancer – A new way of life“, where he describes his search in dealing with cancer, also his own (here is a site of him).

In one passage he writes that when dealing with inner inflammations in the body you can reduce them with natural methods by reducing influences and poisons which promote inflammations, such as dietetics, establishing an inner balance and body exercises.

He ends saying: “A doctor probably won’t give you these counsels. Changes in the way of life cannot be patented, so you cannot make medicine out of them and prescribe recipes. Therefore many doctors don’t see themselves responsible for it, and it is up to each individual to inform himself.”

This means, you have to search your way, and this is a meandering path – there is no magic shortcut. And the way you chose depends on the information you get and also how you judge the quality of the information.

A straightened brook at the beginning of the Emmental, canton Berne, Switzerland

Meandering water

A friend today sent me a link to a YouTube video about the Health Freedom News Report (preview) of the Natural Solutions Foundation, an NGO that educates national and international decision makers about health freedom and natural solutions to healthcare issues. The association was created to protect, promote and defend Health Freedom. They give information about activities towards forced drugging and mass compulsory vaccinations.

On their site they write: “We looked at the current legislative climate and personnel and their stance on health and health freedom and then counted up the votes needed to push back the deadly incursions being made by CODEX ALIMENTARIUS and domestic health freedom threats. We felt that we had no moral and ethical choice but to close our medical practice of Advanced (pharmaceutical-free) Medicine to new patients so that we could tend to the body politic which was sick and suffering.”

I came across a very similar site, with similar claims, but it seems of another organisation, the American Association for Health Freedom. Their link lists don’t mention each other, nor the names of the leaders mentioned – but just like there is place for more than one restaurant in a town, there is certainly place for many to work on different levels.

You might also have a look at the website of Paracelsus – Health and Healing. We are actively supporting the Paracelsus magazine (available in English, German, and Spanish), which is run solely by volunteers, and all is done on a free basis. An astonishing project synthesing new and old knowledge about medicine and the healing arts of the East and West.

The reason I went to Berlin was to meet the Ayurvedic specialist who is treating me with chronic ear problems and a dysfunction of the digestive system. I had seen him 18 months ago and it became necessary to do some adjustments in the therapy, and the pulse diagnosis cannot be done by phone…

My friends in Berlin had arranged everything for me and saw that I was brought to the place where the Ayurvedic therapist was working. He explained to me that Vedya is the title for an Ayurvedic healer, and not doctor. He is from a long tradition of healers and has a deep knowledge of medicine and healing.

I was again impressed how by feeling the different rhythms of the pulse he was able to locate several problems, some of them were known to me. I was to visit him 4 times during the three day’s stay in Berlin. He first gave me another combination of herb powders and tablets to be taken during these days and explained some health advise.

He trained with me a number of breathing exercises to strengthen the oxigen circulation and to cast off unhealthy mucus. And the exercises expelled quite some mucus from the lungs.

In the next meeting he checked again the pulse and gave some Yoga exercises to stimulate the digestive system and certain energy channels. So some more exercises are adding to my daily routine. Trying them out this morning showed a good energizing effect.

The last pulse check this morning indicated some betterments. So with this “multi-pack” of natural medicines and therapeutical exercises there is a good chance of stimulating a curative effect counteracting the physical defects.

Shiva Shop in Berlin

Ganesha greeting at the entrance

Yesterday my friend where I staid in Berlin asked me if I would like to go with her to the “torture rack”: An automatic massage system developed in Korea. I was a bit sceptical, but thought I might give it a try. When we entered the small studio, there was a gentle smell of exotic herbs in the air. Two rooms were filled with thermal massage couches, where people were lying, covered with a blanket. We were offered a tea by an elderly Korean lady, and after some minutes one of the couches became free. It was now my turn.

As soon as I had laid down on the warm couch and was covered, a little mechanism with jade stone rollers started moving along the spine, pressing it up a bit at certain points, rolling to and fro. At first it gave me a certain tension, but then it was more and more relaxing. Pleasant smells streamed into the plastic capsule which was put over my head. At the same time another mechanism was waruming my feet. The pressing, kneading and stretching of the jade rollers all along the spine went on for 40 minutes. Their with gentle movements were massaging the different vertebrae from top to bottom – a very vitalising and harmonising feeling.

At the end we got another cup of tea, this time by the Korean husband, who explained us a bit about his work and plans of spreading this innovative massage system, combining different therapy forms with modern technology (they have won a number of prizes with the DWZone-Master massage system) – and this at a very reasonable price.

A friend wrote me some days ago that she sometimes feels depressed and disappointed and that she has troubles in getting the equilibrium. She had read that this is related with the solar plexus centre: “Although I know it represents the balance between the soul and the body, I don’t know yet how to manage my emotions.”

A short time ago when she was feeling quite bad, she went to a doctor. The lab analysis said that she is physically healthy, and the doctor told her that she has a depression. She should see a psychiatrist or a psychologist. She didn’t want to go to any of them, but decided to go through the process alone with meditation and studying. She also was planning to do some work for needy people to overcome loneliness.

I encouraged her plan to do some volunteer activity, for helping others is a good antidote against solitude and feeling depressed. I have observed that these feelings come when you are not in the flow of life. Life wants to flow like a river, being active for others is like flowing water, being blocked within your own circle like stagnated waters. Meditation and studying alone don’t help in getting into a flow, but activity for others does. For a good flow in life the wisdom teachings recommend the triangle of meditation-study-service, and in this a meaningful activity is very important and must not be neglected.

A rhythmic routine does wonder in stabilising. Having ups and downs is very normal, like high tide and low tide. Especially on the spiritual path these fluctuations can be quite intense for some time. It isn’t a disease, but an integration process. During these processes an academic psychologist might not be the best help.

I told my friend that for stabilising emotional ups and downs the wisdom teachings recommend the use of silver. It is related to the Moon, to psyche, and to the zodiacal sign of Cancer governing the circulatory processes in the body. Silver affects sensitivity, psychic susceptibility and behaviour. It is related to the solar plexus centre and the reactive faculty of the mind. Silver in homoeopathic form (Argentum nitricum) is a remedy suited for calming the solar plexus. You also can fill water into a silver cup in the morning, keep it in a room with a current of air and drink it in the evening. Then you refill the cup, put it to the air and drink the water on an empty stomach in the morning. The water gets impregnated by the quality of the silver.

My friend answered: “l tell you that just today I’ve begun drinking the water which was during the night in a silver jug, and I feel happy, really believe me, I’m feeling well, it’s true. And besides now, nice days are coming and that makes me feel well, too. The sun is so important to me that I can’t explain you the good it makes me.”

My African friend from Congo (see the previous blogpost on Finding our Common Origin – Sanskrit and Kikongo Wisdom Teachings) just sent me a page with reflections about the veiled significance of eating: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who your are“. A few extracts:

In the Kongo tradition, there is an expression related to both material and spiritual nutriment. Besides, the Kingdom of Kongo is picturesquely seasoned with cooking implements, hence the frequently used expression “MAKUKU MATATU MALAMBA KONGO” (Three fireplaces serving to cook Kongo) putting forward the tasty side of full existence as concocted by Nabi Kongo (Kongo Great Initiates).

On the other hand, the following formula comes as buzz words: ” Muana Ngo Tu Dia” = We are going to eat the leopard cub”. As regards the importance attached to this animal in most African societies (representing inter alia a symbol of royalty), the above-mentioned expression evokes a situation in which an emergency solution is a must on a given fact or problem undermining life in the village; otherwise, no one is entitled to escape from the case.

From the spiritual standpoint, words generally assuming double sense in Kikongo (a matter-of-fact sense and a lofty one), this means attaining self-realisation; The Multiple must merge into the One, to reach the Buddhist nirvana, moksha, Unio Mystica or triumph over the wheel of incarnations, uplifting towards celestial spheres.”

Enjoy reading.

Buddha statue in the house of a friend

Some days ago a friend wrote me and told me about experiences at a sensitivity training seminar. There they were asked to see into the “chakras” of other participants and describe their experiences with sensing these energy centres in the human body.

The interest in subtle experiences is spreading, and many people are experimenting with the chakras. There exists a huge amount of books and courses in the “esoteric supermarket”. Though this field is very fascinating, the wisdom teachings caution very much about such “playing with fire” and advise not to focus on the chakras. It is like trying to open a flower which is still in the bud-form. It needs time and light, the flower will unfold by itself. Using force or techniques to open the flower will destroy it. I have come across people who have experimented too much in these fields and caused psychic damage to their lives. You’d better leave the development of these centres to nature and focus on doing something useful for life.

When the energy centres blossom naturally, they are described as lotuses. They give rise to a beautiful development of consciousness. You probably won’t cut them off and sell them like the merchant in a road in Pondicherry, India, January 06:

I just came across a study released in November 06 by Konica-Minolta on the “Impact of Colour” on the psychological wellbeing of employees. Each week for six weeks the colour of the office of an independent fashion recruitment agency was changed and the responses and behaviours were monitored. Six colours were surveyed in total: red, grey, blue, green, yellow and black.

(c) Konica-Minolta

Results: “It’s not just Monday mornings, rush hour or having to work late that can affect the office environment. Colour has a huge impact on the workplace in many ways and its importance shouldn’t be underestimated,” says Robert T Sethre of Konica Minolta.

Employees’ psychological wellbeing was found to be 72% less positive when they were working in a blue environment as opposed to any other colour. They were found to be less positive about their work-life balance (64%), pay and benefits (51%) and job security (40%). Blue creates greater job dissatisfaction and unrest amongst employees.

On the other hand, yellow was found to be the colour to spread a little sunshine through the workplace. The psychological wellbeing of employees with yellow surroundings was found to be 72% more positive, while 85% reported feeling more energised and focused. Employees in a yellow environment were also more positive about their work-life balance.

Fiery red stimulated passions and some employees reported feeling angrier. With black people claim to feel tougher and more macho. The highest proportion of respondents (52%) perceived themselves to be least productive in a grey office, which suggests they find it dull and uninspiring.

Grey and black howevever are the colours of most of the clothes I see here in Switzerland – what a contrast to the bright colours of the sarees in India… Have a look on the Lunar Messenger on Light and Colour if you would like to know more on the subtle effects of meditating on colours.