In the March issue the NZZ Folio magazine reported about an experiment of Albert Michelson, a Polish-born German-American physicist, who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1907. The article said that he did “the most successful” failure experiment in the history of science by trying to prove the existence of ether.

He thought that the earth moves through space in ether, and thus he wanted to show the existence of ether by measuring the adverse “winds” of its substance. However, the light rays which he projected through an “interference refractometer” always travelled with the same speed, always with the famous speed of 300 000 km/s. He did not want to accept that the consequence of this result would mean, in the eyes of science: Ether is not existing.

Later, in 1905, Einstein explained this paradox of light with his relativity theory: That the speed of light is always constant and that time passes-by differently with observers travelling with different speed. So the article resumed that for physicists ether was proven non-existing, but the writer ended stating that up to now however, it cannot be explained how a wave can expand in “nothingness”.

I had to smile a bit about this “nothingness” where the light-wave passes through and the so-called “non-existence” of ether. As you can read in the Lunar Messenger on “Space and Consciousness“, that from a spiritual viewpoint there is nothing such as empty space. When manifest, space is dynamic, pulsating, full of subtle structures. Eastern wisdom calls it Akasha, the content or consciousness of space, unfolding through many planes of etheric substance.
And in the Lunar Messenger on “Etheric Existence and Good Will” there is explained: “We live in the ether and are penetrated by it, like a tumbler lying in a big tank: The water is as well in the tank as in the glass, it isn’t locked up in it like in a bottle. We are in contact with the other etheric bodies, it is one ether penetrating all layers. The earth, the sun and the planets float in this big etheric ocean and move along its lines of force because of the movements of this ether. Just like the lines of force of a big magnet control smaller magnets, the ether of our planet arranges and regulates the etheric currents of its living beings and works on them.”

A contradiction to science? Not at all. The wisdom teachings explain that ether, the basis of all formations, precedes the dense forms. So you cannot “prove” its existence with physical means, but with the development of etheric view. Try to see not only the physical flower, but the vital form, or look into the eyes of a vital, living person, then you come closer to the etheric existence.

Withered flowers losing their etheric or vital energy

The Korea Times reports that the Korean venture start-up Xtive has developed an inaudible sound sequence, that is incorporated in games and tells gamers after a certain time to stop playing on their own. The messages are told 10,000 to 20,000 times per second,” Xtive President Yun Yun-hae said. “Game users can’t recognize the sounds. But their subconscious is aware of them and the chances are high they will quit playing. Tests tell us the sounds work.”Â

Korea Times says: “Experts point out roughly 10 to 20 percent of high school students can be categorized as Web junkies who need treatment. And many believe that is a conservative perspective.”

Xtive has applied for a patent for the phonogram and wants to use the technology in other sectors, too: “We can easily change the messages. In this sense, the potential for this technology is exponential.”

Many teenagers spend too much time playing computer games, not only in Korea – I have two of these at home… Sound is very powerful and is used in spiritual techniques, as you can read in Basics of Spiritual Life on The Power of Sound. However, using subliminal messages to manipulate people, even “for their good” infringes free will – even if the will isn’t that free with game addicts. If people voluntarily submit themselves to these influences, why not. But using them, pre-installed, in games or in other contexts – just imagine shops – is violating our human identity.

Someone must have subscribed me (it wasn’t me) to a newsletter called The Soul Journey, which is published bi-weekly by the Canadian Andrew Schneider. He is an ex-Roman Catholic monk and author of different esoteric books.

Since he receives our Lunar Messenger, I didn’t unsubscribe, and normally have a quick look through the texts, which contain thoughts about different spiritual topics with questions to ponder upon. Here is the beginning of his latest newsletter which just arrived: “The Soul Journey – On Our Teachers”.

“Everyone we meet – strangers too – bring us a particular gift. They do not carry it in their hands, but emanate it from the core of their identity or from the peculiarities of their personality. Their gift is a teaching. Everyone can be our teacher if we are willing to learn.

Because we observe and experience others through our own psyche and soul we filter what we see through our own unconscious identity. Therefore every time we make an observation about someone, positive or negative, we are revealing something about ourselves. And since we are revealing something about our unconscious selves, everyone tells us something that we would be wise to pay attention to. …”

Numerous news sources reported that the French writer Dominique Lapierre and his wife Dominique Conchon-Lapierre had sold in an auction last December the famous black gown of Audrey Hepburn, that the actress wore in the 1961 film ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’. The auction brought $825,000.

The dress was a gift of its designer, Hubert de Givenchy, in order to help Lapierre’s schools in India, that had been devastated by floods. The Lapierres are financing with the money from the Hepburn’s dress about 15 schools south of Kolkatta, the first one just being inaugurated. A great good-will activity.

Dominique Lapierre has also written a book with Javier Moro about the Bhopal gas tragedy and its aftermath. At the occasion of the auction, Lapierre said that his book has stopped other ‘Bhopals from recurring around the globe’.

You can see from this page a video from the auction.

Children in India

A Californian friend just sent me a heartwarming news video clip about the friendship between a man, his dog and a Canadian goose in Michigan by the name of Daisy Kare. It is fascinating to see how this friendship goes beyond the boundaries of species which normally keep them apart. An inspiring example for living together with differences.

You can see the short clip either in a rather bad quality from YouTube or, if you have Windows Media Player, as a streaming from here.

Last Friday the Catholic Church celebrated the World Social Communication Day. Pope Benedict XVI gave a media communication on Educating People to Truth, which can be underlined in the light of an understanding of general good will:

He pointed out: “While the print media struggles to maintain circulation, other forms of media such as radio, television and the internet are developing at an extraordinary rate. Against the backdrop of globalization, this ascendancy of the electronic media coincides with its increasing concentration in the hands of a few multinational conglomerates whose influence crosses all social and cultural boundaries.”

He further went on saying that internet too “has opened up a world of knowledge and learning that previously for many could only be accessed with difficulty, if at all.” “On the other hand, it is also readily apparent that much of what is transmitted in various forms to the homes of millions of families around the world is destructive.”

“The responsibility to introduce and educate children and young people into the ways of beauty, truth and goodness is,” he said, “a grave one. It can be supported by media conglomerates only to the extent that they promote fundamental human dignity, the true value of marriage and family life, and the positive achievements and goals of humanity. I appeal again to the leaders of the media industry to advise producers to safeguard the common good, to uphold the truth, to protect individual human dignity and promote respect for the needs of the family.”

When we met yesterday with the family of a friend on their stop-over, our friend reacted quite astonished when we told him that we don’t constrain our youngest son (14) to tell us where he is going. The friend said that he is clearly expecting his sons (16, 19) to inform him or his wife about their wherabouts, and that they have to come back latest at a pre-fixed time.

Of course, they are living in a big city in Northern Germany and we in a small suburb, and there are no serious dangers around. But there is something more about it. My wife answered him: “Unlike the older son, the younger one has a great urge for freedom. When he feels restricted, he shuts himself up on a subtle level. When he feels I am trusting him, he experiences I am supporting him, and he keeps open towards me. For me this openness also in the subtle is more important than trying to check upon him. And up to now nothing has happened.”

Our son doesn’t like telling us what he is doing. When we ask him, he answers “data protection”. And when he wants to know something particular from my wife or me, we retort: “data protection”.

Yesterday the family of a friend made a stop-over here on their way back from ski holidays. Since the two sons (16 and 19) had some posture problems in their shoulder region, my wife showed them a few yoga asanas. Then the younger one asked her if she could also tell him how to meditate. He had heard several times about meditation, but had no idea how to do it.

So she showed him a simple method – just observing the respiration. Afterwards she asked him how it was. He answered, he could not say. She told him, that’s just as it is, you cannot describe it, you have to experience.

Both of them go to college – you learn a lot of things there, but you don’t learn how to connect with your inner. You might have a look at the extract from the book “”Mithila” on spiritual education.

Meditation in the Planetary Healing Centre, Visakhapatnam, India.

The European Union just decided about obligatory measures for climate protection in the fight against global warming. The president of the EU commission, José Manuel Barroso, was asked by journalists about his personal commitment in this fight. He is driving a German luxury car as well as a big cross-country vehicle, known for high CO2-outputs. He answered that he doesn’t want to do without his cars, that it is not a matter of moral role models, but of political solutions of Europe.

Where does arrogance start? It seems to be normal that politicians take their liberty of living in contradiction to their official opinions. Nations too take their liberties to behave against their declared positions: Many EU-countries are far from reaching their own Kyoto-commitments. If these will really be effective remains a question. Nations are made of individuals and thus often behave like unintegrated personalities.

On the spiritual path these discrepancies between a behaviour out of outer compulsions and different inner attitudes are quite dangerous, for tensions arise. If we want to behave in a good way, we should do it for ourselves, to be truthful towards ourselves. Then only we can come to an integration of the different areas of our personality and fill the gap between knowledge and action.

My wife and I yesterday were at the vernissage of an exposition of Hugo Lizandro Godinez, a Guatemalan painter living in Switzerland, whose wife is a colleague of mine. The exposition exhibits watercolour pictures of old alleys in Antigua and Berne. The beautiful paintings show houses, flowers, water reflections, painted in subtle, but luminous colours full of different shades.

Though seemingly painted in a realistic manner, they have something dream-like, and though luminous, not only the titles indicate an ambiance of solitude and yearning. Some titles are “Melancholy”, “Reflections of Sadness” or “Lonely Wanderer”. The pictures are nearly all without any persons. The paintings reflect the undercurrent mood. The alleys are like symbols of search – old and lonely alleys. The painter is not old, but old might be the soul’s wandering.

My experience from my own youth time as well as from observing others is: This feeling of yearning and sadness results from an inner urge, which has not yet found the direction. This might cause restlessness, but also frustration and depression. You somehow sense that there must be a higher light, but you don’t know how to get there, how to find the way out of the cocoon of personality. You haven’t yet realised that there is the cocoon of the caterpillar blocking.

People might stay in this stage for very long, or they search in outer or erroneous directions, like drugs, workaholism, adventurism. When, often through crises, you have taken to the path of the soul, the higher self, you feel like getting replenished from within. The “reflections of sadness” of the lonely wandering dissolve into the fresh flow of energies: The wanderer has come home.