We all face challenges in life and learn to overcome what is blocking us. Striving to overcome obstacles is mainly an inner process, and all the more when you tackle your inner barriers, weaknesses or wounds. We chose the challenges ourselves, as a program of our soul, even if the situations seem to come from the outside.

Since my childhood I got dizzy when looking down from a rock, a bridge or a high building. There was an ache in my belly and I had to step back.

October 2012, a new pedestrian bridge had been inaugurated in Sigriswil near the Lake Thun, leading over a deep gorge. The bridge has a length of 340 m and the gorge is 182 m deep – and you have a gorgeous view of the lake and the Bernese Alps with the Jungfrau.

My wife and I went there shortly after the inauguration. There were a lot of people crossing the bridge, and though it is very solidly constructed it is vibrating and swinging. While walking over the bridge I felt so dizzy that I had to half-close my eyes, cling with one hand anxiously to the banister and with the other hold the hand of my wife. Thus I managed crossing the abyss but did not dare to look down. With the head I knew that there was no danger but my system responded otherwise.

Yesterday I proposed to my wife to go for a walk in Sigriswil and then also cross the bridge again.

View of the bridge from above the village, the the background you see the Lake of Thun.

My wife had just done a formation in EmoTrance in Germany and she proposed doing an exercise with me, when the dizziness would come again on the bridge. So we entered the bridge. After about 100 m I stopped and looked down to the lake, softly breezing: The dizziness and the ache in the belly were there but not extreme.

Looking down from the bridge

The pathway with Mount Jungfrau in the background

My wife made me locate the centre of the ache in the lower abdomen and visualise the blocked energies getting into a circulation and search for a way out of the body. I let it flow down towards the feet and out. The unpleasant feeling in the abdomen remained. After several turns it became a little better. We crossed the bridge and continued with the exercise standing on firm ground again – letting the energy circulate and “wash out” the blockages. Then we had an ice-cream in a panorama restaurant.

Mount Niesen overlooking the Lake Thun

On the way back I entered the bridge and fixed my gaze on the persons ahead. I was astonished that I could walk over the bridge and even look down without getting dizzy. The unpleasant feeling in the abdomen had disappeared. My wife commented, “It is an energetic thing, and when the energy is no more blocked, the emotion is no more there.” For me it was a big step of overcoming an old inner barrier.

Today started with a cloudy sky but soon the sun cleared the way and we had a warm day with a soft golden light. I made a walk near Biglen, one of my favorite places in the nearby surroundings. During the walk, you have a fantastic panorama towards different directions.

A typical Bernese farm house

Ideal for a panorama bath…

View of Biglen

Pigs in the mud – curious but not much interested in the beautiful scenery

A living room with sky view

Way up

The Bernes Alps – Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau

Passage between winter ans spring

A snowdrop on the wayside

A Swiss bank – without money

A fantastic swing

A farmhouse garden

Curious friends

A beech besides a farmhouse

Enjoying the sun

Observing the visitor – and freezing, freshly shorn, without their wool

Spring messengers

Clay birds

Way into the sun

Last week I got an e-mail from an unknown couple living in the surroundings of Berne asking about the group activities we do with the Circle of Good Will. With the links in their e-mail, I saw that they were doing a lot of things, among others they are running a medieval laboratory and are doing alchemical work. They invited us for a visit and I thought, that sounds interesting. Besides, I am sorting out books which I don’t need any more and wanted to give away my Paracelsus books, and that seemed a good occasion.

They are living on a small farm in the countryside next to a place where I had been working 20 years ago. In the courtyard, there was a tent – they are going on medieval fairs presenting their activities and product. A cordial welcome, long talks – and then they showed us the medieval laboratory: They had renovated the basement and created in the vaults a meeting space and a laboratory for the alchemical work.

Now the room was lighted by electric bulbs but they were also using torches.

At first, I found it a bit amusing to thus “relive” times which have long passed. Of course there is a number of people playing medieval times, arranging market-places, tournaments, music festivals and the like. But here was something more. Morpheo, as he called himself, described how when doing his alchemical work is entering into some trance-like state where he is like in another dimension and in contact with a teacher who answers his questions and guides him in his work. He is preparing essences from trees, ointments and preparations which seem to have special effects. Though I didn’t try, there was a very special ambiance.

A corner of the alchemical laboratory

They are collecting herbs in the surroundings and cultivating some in a glasshouse. He is preparing himself the alcohol for the tinctures and has an intuitive approach to the work. I felt it to be true when he explained that he is tapping at knowledge from previous incarnations which often seems to be more than what is present in today’s awareness.

Morpheo was very happy about the collected writings of Paracelsus and other books that I gave him – and I was happy that I found someone to whom I could pass them on.

I today got an e-mail informing about a global initiative to eradicate ecocide. For me this is very timely and urgent.

On their website they write: “Ecocide law is known as a ‘law for life’ – a law that puts people and planet first, a law that says ‘enough, no more mass damage and destruction.’ When we do that, humanity places the health and well-being of all beings both now and in the future at the forefront of our decision-making. It is a law that affirms humanity’s right to life, nature’s right to life and future generations right to life.”

The initiative was launched by Polly Higgins, an Ecocide law expert: “I am someone who cares deeply about the Earth. I’m also a lawyer who loves the Earth. It’s not often lawyers talk about love – and it can feel strange to do so. However, I believe love and law can be brought together and when the two meet, the potential to create new laws that put people and planet first is born. I’m rethinking law; my vision is a world that works from one simple overriding principle: ‘first do no harm.’ That is a world where people are thriving in harmony with nature. I believe in well-being for all beings.”

“Today large scale habitat destruction, massive soil depletion, extensive deforestation lead to worldwide disruption of natural cycles and the irreversibility of extinction. Today instances of mass extinction occur with greater frequency, greater rapidity and greater impact than at any other time. This destruction, damage and loss comes at an enormous cost.” There is a map showing the global ecocide hotspots but also a map for the growing global support to create a law against ecocide, which, according to Polly, is the missing 5th International Crime Against Peace. In April 2010 a fully drafted proposal was submitted into the United Nations. Already in 1972, after the Vietnam war, there had been UN attempts to make ecocide a crime against peace. For years, there had been fruitless debates, and it needs more public and political pressure.

In 2011 a “Mock Trial” was held in the Supreme Court of England and Wales. Two fictional Chief Executive Officers were put on trial for causing ecocide due to their destructive practices in the Athabasca tar sands and found guilty. This demonstrated that a law of Ecocide can work in practice, and garnered international media coverage.

Here are some proposals what you can do to promote the Ecocide law. First of all you can sign an Avaaz-petition to make Ecocide an international crime against peace and like it on Facebook. There are a number of information tools, also translated into other languages.

You find an interview with Polly in “Positive News“.

You probably haven’t yet had the opportunity to visit a space station and see how everyday life in zero gravity looks like. In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station ISS, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory, just hours before she departed with two colleagues in a Soyuz spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan.

Sunita takes you on an amazing tour through the different part of the ISS and shows how they are sleeping, eating or getting to the toilet in a place where there is no above and below. You have a look at their workplaces with computers and pencils, see a training machine for strengthening the muscles or peep into the cockpit of the Soyuz spacecraft with which they are going back to earth. Of course you also have a look “down” to the blue planet where you and I are somewhere living.

“A 25 minutes video worth every second of watching” wrote my Indian friend who sent me the link today. And that’s true.

Sunita Williams explaining a spacesuit, picture (c) from the video.

Beginning of December, the windows of a fashion store on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse attracted the attention of the passers-by: Between the perfect display dummies, you could see figures with scoliosis or brittle bone disease modelling the latest fashions. One with shortened limbs; the other with a malformed spine.

The campaign has been devised for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by Pro Infirmis, an organisation for the disabled. Entitled “Because who is perfect? Get closer.”, it war designed to provoke reflection on the acceptance of people with disabilities. Director Alain Gsponer has captured the campaign as a short film. An impressive sensitization for the inclusion of people with disabilities. And a great response – up to now the video generated over 9.3 million views.

Picture from the video (c) Pro Infirmis

I came across a beautiful infographics by John Nelson about the annual pulse of vegetation and land ice – an impressive visualisation of the heartbeat of our Mother Earth. Click on this link and then on the picture to see the pulse of the earth moving (it might take a moment to load).

To create this pulsating image John took 12 NASA images showing Earth at each of the twelve months: “This animation shows an oddly mesmerizing dance of snow and life, from the vantage of the North Pole.”

There is also a version showing different parts of the globe in one image.

The “pulsating earth” reminded me of a beautiful Greenpeace-video about “Mother Earth – She’s alive…“.

Breathing Earth – polar view (c) John Nelson)

Breathing Earth – multiple views (c) John Nelson)

John has created a number of interesting infographics. A very impressive one is the graphics about “Earthquakes since 1898“: “With a heaping pile of data from NCEDC.org, every recorded earthquake with a magnitude of 4 or higher was spattered onto this map.” So you see the places where you stand a bigger chance that the ground under your feed is shaking…

“Earthquakes since 1898” (c) John Nelson)

Here are two nice short videos – one about an encounter with Dr. Masaru Emoto’s water molecule experiments (the power of positive thinking) on a subway station, the other a commercial from BBC One about “What a Wonderful World” – impressive pics of the beauty of nature. Enjoy.

Pic from the video about Masaru Emoto’s water molecule experiments (c)

Pic from the BBC One What a Wonderful World (c)

I tonight received the link to a most touching documentary, The Animal Communicator. It is about psychic animal communication and portrays the work of Anna Breytenbach, a South African-based professional animal communicator. She has dedicated her life to what she calls interspecies communication. “She sends detailed messages to animals through pictures and thoughts. She then receives messages of remarkable clarity back from the animals. Anna can feel the scars hidden under a monkeys fur, she can understand the detailed story that is causing a birds trauma, she transforms a deadly snarling leopard into a relaxed content cat – the whole animal kingdom comes alive in a way never seen before – wild birds land on her shoulders, fish gather around her when she swims, and wild unfamiliar baboons lie on her body as if she is one of their own” (from the presentation of the documantary on the site of the film festival Culture Unplugged, the video has been removed from there, it is now available on YouTube).

Tracing animals is a very ancient tradition used by indigenous people for hunting. The movie presents interview with animal tracers describing their work.

You can find more about Anna’s work on her website Animalspirit.org. There she also gives links to other The movie cannot be framed here in the blog, so just follow the link. The film (52 min) is very well done and changes the understanding not only of animals but of our relation to creation. See the film until the end – the last story with the black leopard is very impressive.

There is also a short YouTube presentation of Anna, see below. Or here.

Anna Breytenbach, the Animal Communicator, pic from the documentary (c)

A traumatised wild black leopard who totally changed his behaviour after communicating with Anna, pic from the documentary (c)

Anna Breytenbach introducing her work.

The butterfly is a profound symbol of transformation – it goes through very different stages of its existence. A caterpillar has seemingly nothing to do with the strange chrysalis, and who would think that out of this immobile cocoon a beautiful flying being would emerge?

In our lives, we also might experience going through very different stages which seemingly have nothing to do with each other. There are clairvoyants, like Barbara Ann Brennan, who have observed with some people that for a longer period they are going through a time of pregnancy followed by a profound transformation, a second birth. During this time in the “psychic uterus” we might feel locked up, not knowing which direction our life wants to take. We are in a state of transition, which is frequently accompanied by deep inner crises and a reorientation of what we want to express in life. If you hold on, you might experience coming out of the chrysalis and step into a new life, where your soul’s intention can freely express – like a butterfly, symbol of the soul, coming out of the chrysalis and starting to fly.

Dinu, a friend from Mysore, whom I had visited in January, had his camera ready when a butterfly, a Plain Tiger, came out of the chrysalis. He documented it in his blog, “Dinu’s Yarden” (Yarden = Garden + Yard) and just sent me the link to the beautiful 2 min. video – must see!

There are millions of butterflies rising from out of their chrysalis but it needs a human eye to observe and a human heart to gain the inspiration and realise that it’s a story about his own soul.

The Plain Tiger just before eclosion. Pic: Dinakar KR (c)