Great Short Films to Inspire You
A friend recommended this site, monday9am.tv, and now I'd like to pass it on. There are a collection of brief film interviews with interesting people, about Life and the Human Spirit, by filmmaker Nic Askew.

Anyone Interested in Remote Viewing?

One of my intuition colleagues, Lyn Buchanan, is a remote viewing expert and trainer. You might enjoy checking out his site and practicing with the "targets" he posts, to see if this is a skill you might like to develop. Here's what he says:

The targets are pictures prepared for you with full feedback text, some have video and/or audio clips, and those which have specific locations also include dowsing maps for your dowsing practice. All targets also include links to more information, just in case you get something in your viewing which is not covered by the prepared feedback. The targets are selected for suitability for all levels of experience
and/or training.

Instructions on how to use the page are also provided. Once you have finished your session, you can call the page back up and see your feedback in full, and links to more information, if you want it. The targets are there for everyone to use. We do not track your use and do not require any log-in or membership. You can work the targets and only you will know how well or how badly you did. Of course, if you just totally ace the targets, you have full bragging rights to anyone you wish. A new target is posted each week for your convenience. Also, for your convenience, the newest targets are posted to the top of the list, so many people just starting out like to start with the oldest, at the bottom of the list, and work their way up. They are there for you to work in any way or order you like. We now have around 100 targets, with maps, full feedback, and links to more information about each one. The target page is: http://www.crviewer.com/targets.htm

Moonstruck Flock to Arizona Light Collector
by Tim Gaynor

THREE POINTS, Arizona (Reuters) - Financial advisor Jaron Ness stands in the cool desert air waiting for the clouds to clear and the moon to rise. As the conditions come into alignment, he steps into the path of a cool blaze of blue-white light bounced off a wall of highly polished parabolic mirrors five stories high. "It feels magnetic," he says, turning his hands slowly in the reflected glow of the light from the almost full moon.

The young professional from Colorado is among a growing number of curious people beating a path to this patch of scrub-strewn land out in the Arizona desert to bask in light from the world's first moonbeam collector. A Tucson-based inventor and businessman Richard Chapin and his wife Monica are behind the giant device, which gathers up and focuses the light of the moon. The effect of the moon's gravitational pull on the Earth's tides and other natural phenomena has been studied for millennia. Less attention has focused on the sunlight reflected from its surface.

The Chapins built the large, one-of-a-kind contraption that stands in the desert some 15 miles west of Tucson, Arizona, in the belief that moonlight might have applications for medicine, industry and agriculture. "So much work has focused on the sun. We have just forgotten about this great object that has been here for billions of years, has affected us in all forms of our evolution," said Chapin, who paid for the project with his own money. "If it could affect plants and animals ... I thought, 'what could the amplification of that light do?"'

BATHING IN MOONLIGHT
Neither of the Chapins are scientists. The couple used income from a popular swap meet they own in Tucson to develop what they call their "Interstellar Light Collector," which has so far cost them $2 million. It consists of a large frame sunk into a 45-foot-deep (14-meter) crater, on private land in sparse desert, in an area known for its dark skies a few miles from the Kitt Peak National Observatory.

The device is five stories tall and weighs 25 tons, and is covered with 84 mirrored panels set on a hydraulic mount that, the Chapins say, can focus the light of the moon with "the precision of a Swiss watch." There is no charge to use the facility, although the couple accept donations of $10 from people who use it to defray some of the operating costs. So far they have had more than 1,000 visitors, with interest from as far a field as Australia, Japan, India and Saudi Arabia from people seeking either a new experience or in the hope of some kind of medical benefit.

Some dress in robes, others strip to their underwear to bask in the moon glow from the glittering bank of mirrors, spending anywhere from three minutes to 15 minutes at a time. Visitors enjoy the experience. Some say it is like swimming underwater, while others say it feels like standing in a warm breeze and leaves them feeling upbeat. "When I got in the moonlight it was an instant and profound sense of euphoria ... it was very peaceful," said Eric Carr, a hypnotherapist from Tucson who has visited several times.

BENEFITS OF LIGHT
Some visitors to the site believe that exposure to the moonlight has helped alleviate some medical conditions. After bathing in the moonbeams, Carr said he noticed an improvement in a long-standing asthma condition. However, no clinical experiments with moonlight have been carried out on people. Scientists say there is no proof that it has any effect whatsoever on medical conditions and diseases, and are skeptical of anecdotal claims.

"I haven't seen any hard scientific evidence that it's not a placebo effect. There hasn't been enough real research on it yet to say that it's doing anything," said Katherine Creath, research professor of optical sciences and medicine at the University of Arizona. "But whether or not it's the placebo effect or the light, I don't think that matters as long as people feel like they are having a positive effect, then it's worth it to them to do it," she added.

The Chapins are eager for researchers to use the site to determine if moonlight does have any demonstrable applications in areas including medicine, plant biology and certain industrial processes. They also welcome visits by skeptics to the site. Meanwhile, visitors continue trek out to the imposing
installation and listen to ambient music as they wait for a break in the clouds to step into the moonlight. For them, it is a very enjoyable experience in itself. "You feel almost like you are in heaven," said Aranka Toniatti, a cancer patient who has driven from Colorado twice to stand in the moonlight. "It's a gorgeous feeling."

Thought for the Week: Parallel Lives
"I have a theory that every time you make an important choice, the part of you left behind continues the other life you could have had. Some people's emanations are very strong, some people create themselves afresh outside their own body. This is not fancy. If a potter has an idea, she makes it into a pot, and it exists beyond her, in its own separate life. She uses a physical substance to display her thoughts. If I use a metaphysical substance to display my thoughts, I might be anywhere at one time, influencing a number of different things, just as the potter and her pottery can exert influence in different places. There's a chance that I'm not here at all, that all the parts of me, running along all the choices I did and didn't make, for a moment brush against each other. . . .Perhaps for a while these. . .selves become confused. I have not gone forward or back in time, but across in time, to something I might have been, playing itself out."

—Jeannette Winterson, from Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Post-Thanksgiving: A Poem by Wendell Berry

PRAYER AFTER EATING
I have taken in the light
that quickened eye and leaf.
May my brain be bright with praise
of what I eat, in the brief blaze
of motion and of thought.
May I be worthy of my meat.

Hawk Omen Interpreted by Friends

Thanks to those of you who wrote to me with your thoughtful and intuitive insights about my hawk omen. The ways of seeing it are an education in themselves.

1. It felt to me that energetically the Hawk in most Native lore is a messenger from God or "the gods" and it feels like Spirit was very clear in telling you energetically there is a strong "upcoming event" and it wanted to get your attention, in a strong, clear, distinct fashion. I didn't feel it was bad; I felt it was a clear wake-up (no, you are not going to "miss" the message with the clarity that hawk gave you!). It felt there is a huge transformation of energy coming, for yourself and mother earth. It is a time to stay grounded and open and aware.

2. In our Native tradition, Hawk is specifically a messenger from Spirit. Generally, I understand Hawk to be a sign of provision. Hawk can also have other messages, of course, so you have to look at the behavior. Three years ago on New Years day, a red tail sat on a branch right outside our kitchen window and looked directly at us, making sure it had our attention. Then it turned around on the branch, facing the other way, and again looked directly at us. It did this twice, as if to make sure we saw what it was doing. It stayed for several minutes in all before flying off. Though we live in the country and hawks are not unusual, nothing like this has ever happened before or since. What happened with us over the next year, however, was a complete turn-around in our lives. We had been pursuing a very conservative theology, a mix of Native and evangelical Christian. In the year after the hawk, our entire road ministry, associations, and friends changed.

So if it had happened to me, I might think that Hawk's message may be preparing me for something, although there are times when the message is more immediate. The dramatic way it appeared suggests that it really had to get your attention for something significant coming up. If I were you, I would be on the alert for something totally unexpected. Hawk appeared to be in danger, but vanished without harm, apparently. Pay attention, and do not panic should something occur that would normally cause you to be concerned. Spirit will give you the way to "disappear" from the situation as safely and suddenly as it showed up.

The other thought I would have is that there may be a sudden opportunity that comes up quickly and must be seized quickly before it vanishes. I would be as alert as Hawk. When the car appeared to Hawk, it did not stop to think — it trusted its instincts and flowed with them. As you know, Spirit will reveal the meaning when the time is right. So many times Spirit sends us signs before the fact not so that we can know ahead of time, but so that after the fact we can know for certain that a path we have been put on was meant to be, as happened.

3. I feel that the sudden appearance of the hawk presents a warning. It wanted to get your attention in an unusual way. It wasn't out of its element when it served as a messenger, even at an airport. I feel that the hawk is you and your ability to avoid a bad business deal (at the last minute), with someone you know (a male).

4. There are three symbolic characters: the driver, the passenger, and the hawk. The driver and the passenger represent aggressive and passive aspects of the ego that seeks to drive you through the world of action in a physical body (car), and reacts to events in the world. The hawk is the impulsive, spontaneous, and trusting higher self that appears when the ego stops its activities and becomes aware of the higher self’s greater reality which is beyond the body. The ego usually reacts with awe and surprise because of its limited beliefs about what should happen and not happen in the world. The hawk is the essence of the Tao, God, Goddess, All-There-Is, now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t, I-am-and-I-am-not — a reality that is unknown to the ego that is conditioned to perceive reality in a certain way and cannot explain the unknown. Though encountering our impulsive and spontaneous self may at first startle our egos, eventually we are reminded that we are connected to something beyond the ordinary and can trust life's adventure (the safe flight arrival in the waking world).

My Hawk Omen
I would love some input from those of you who are shamanistic, or well-versed in omen-interpretation. I know this is significant, but can't seem to connect with the deeper meaning. . .

I was being dropped off at the Baltimore airport on my way back to California a few days ago. As we pulled into the drop-off area, just before the roofed-in section, a hawk materialized right in front of the car, and realizing it was out of its element, and about to be hit, it stopped in flight immediately in front of me and reared up vertically, wings spread horizontally, and stared into the car at me. The driver stopped in time not to hit it, and it appeared to go under the car and disappear. We didn't know what happened to it, but I felt it had survived. That a hawk (it looked like a red-tailed hawk) should have appeared in that particular space in a crowded municipal airport was incredibly weird, but that it had punctuated the space directly in front of me in such a graphic way really shocked and impressed me--litrerally, it made an impression IN me, like a dent.

My flight back to San Francisco was effortless and smooth, and no critical kind of thing has happened since. . . But I can't forget it, and my dreams have not given me insights. So if any of you have any ideas, I'd sure appreciate hearing from you!

Merging Into the World's Body

the first feeling as I cast myself into the world's body
is: panic and pandemonium
then: the children are scared and whimpering
then: quiet mumbling by powerful men making plans
then: the women are comparing notes
then: the dogs are barking because they are alone
then: the winds are blowing madly and leaves are falling in the spring
then: birds are chirping because they are glad for the sun
and as I go farther, I feel the earth about to give birth
the cramping is beginning, the discomfort grows
and: she is happy!
and: the angels are here, very close!
and even so: horses are ripping grass to the left, then the right
under that noise is:
green and under the green is:
water at peace and:
air molecules swarming
and inside that movement is: raw excitement
then: I feel the pleasure of being alive
then: the exquisite pleasure of being
and through it all:
a private amusement
we are in chaos
and we are unable to escape the gravity-pull of gratitude
it's what makes us smile
the origin experience: of tiny smiles turning to full foolhardy grins
and: falling farther in I feel the wide-waking sleep
the coming birth has the power to expel particles like us
with a force we cannot fathom
far from the nest: into new home places
the feel of new homes we cannot anticipate
and: now I am stunned
with this experience of welcome
and can go no further tonight

copyright by Penney Peirce

Question of the Week: Hmmmmm. . .
Does the prevalence of plugged-into-iPod-young folks have anything to do with the elimination of music programs in our schools? Do we NEED music to develop our brains in a holistic way?

The New Science of Consciousness
One of my colleagues, Laurie Nadel, PhD, has written a series of thought-provoking articles. This is an excerpt: "Much has been written about 'the physics of consciousness,' which applies the quantum theories of subatomic physics to attempt to explain mental phenomena, including intuitive perception and synchronicity. Such sophisticated interpretations are helpful to those who understand quantum mechanics, but those in the vanguard of the new science believe that, ultimately, physics cannot explain mind — including its intuitive aspect — because mind cannot be quantified, physically observed, and reduced.

For example, Bell's Theorem of Nonlocality is often cited by New Age teachers as an explanation for the occurrence of intuitive phenomena in which no sensory-based precedents are apparent. Bell's Theorem states that two electrons that are joined and then separated from each other will vibrate at the same frequency even when they are in different locations. Many people who teach New Age philosophy cite this as scientific evidence for the belief that minds, too, can vibrate at the same frequency when physically separated.

However, physicist John Stewart Bell, who developed his theorem in 1964, did not intend for his theorem to be applied to mental phenomena. In an interview published in Psychological Perspectives, Bell said, 'I was never so ambitious as to assume that such a comprehensive description would also cover the mind. There is clearly some fundamental difference between mind and matter. If science is sufficiently comprehensive at some point in the future to discuss both those things intelligently at the same time, then we will learn something about their interaction.'

The majority of those working in the hard sciences (physics and chemistry) would challenge Bell's open-mindedness, because they are committed to the positivist, objectivist, and reductionist model of reality. The new science, on the other hand, rejects the use of quantum physics to explain the mind because it does not believe that everything can be explained in physical terms. That belief is, in itself, a revolutionary idea. In looking at mind in all its complexity as a biological fact, the new science asks us to reexamine our own thoughts, feelings, values and beliefs, and to take them seriously as agents of change. Dr. Sperry believed that "the new beliefs are a way out of our human predicament.'"

The History and Future of Time
I found this article, by Adam Hill and Dr. Peter Storey, called The History and Future of Time. Thought you might enjoy a few excerpts; I have edited a bit for simplicity. "In recent years physicists have arrived at new possible concepts of time. One theory proposed by Cumrun Vafa is that of ‘Hypertime’ which proposes that there is more than one time dimension in the universe. The second theory is proposed by Julian Barbour, in which time does not exist at all but is purely a construct of the psyche. Before explaining these recent theories, the concepts of Newtonian and Relativistic time are described to give a background.

Newton was the first scientist to ever properly define time. Aristotle believed time to be motion as this was how it was perceived; the motion of the sun and stars across the sky. Plato believed that time was not real, but a mental creation, that the world was really a timeless domain of pure and perfect Forms which occupy the realm of eternity. Galileo was the first scientist to record time as a quantity through his experiments with the pendulum. The laws that Newton laid down defined ‘absolute, true and mathematical time, of itself, and from its own nature, flows equably without relation to anything external.’ Newton believed time to be a separate entity from space which could be measured with unlimited accuracy.

The next major advance following Newton’s incorporation of time into the laws of physics was made by Einstein in his general theory of relativity. At the end of the nineteenth century scientists using Newton’s laws were finding that strange things were happening when they were applied to light signals and material bodies. Einstein solved these problems by disposing of the concept of ‘absolute time’. Einstein put forward a model of the universe in which space and time were a united entity and formed a four-dimensional existence in space-time; one time dimension and three space dimensions. Einstein had destroyed the ‘common sense’ perception of time and brought about a much stranger and alien concept in which everyone had their own ‘now,’ and clocks could run faster or slower depending on how they moved.

For many years physicists have been adding extra dimensions to the universe – in addition to the common three space and one time dimension – in attempts to simplify the laws of physics and unify them in a single theory. The general consensus today is that there are eleven dimensions; the additional seven are spatial dimensions curled up so small that they are invisible to us. More recently Cumrun Vafa of Harvard has increased the total to twelve by adding an additional dimension of time.

The use of higher dimensions was first instigated by the mathematicians Kaluza and Klein in the 1920’s. By adding a fifth dimension they achieved the combination of gravity and electromagnetism. Superstring theory, developed in the 1980’s, required nine dimensions of space and one of time. In 1995 Edward Witten of Princeton and Paul Townsend of Cambridge added one more spatial dimension to unite the multitudes of string theories into M-Theory. Most recently Vafa added his additional time dimension, bringing the total to twelve, to create F-Theory.

Another modern theory which has been fielded in recent years does away with time as a physical entity altogether. ‘Physicists struggling to unify quantum mechanics and Einstein’s general theory of relativity have found hints that the Universe is timeless,’ says Julian Barbour, a theoretical physicist from Oxford. Time is now completely remiss from the description of the universe as there are no paths to be traced just multiple possibilities, where each possibility is a point described by a probability. Hence there are many versions of ‘now’. The ‘now’ that is experienced as an instantaneous state of the universe is just the state which has the highest probability of occurring. The past becomes a set of consistent events for which the probability of occurring was high relative to the other potential states. (This) theory harks back to the ancient argument that time is purely an invention of the human consciousness, a form of ‘temporal dizziness’.

In each case there are interesting arguments and consequences. Modern physics still does not have a complete grasp of the concept of time and only through further research into this area will it be obtained."

A Brief Interview with Penney Peirce about Intuition Development

When did you first recognize your intuition? Was your young life guided by intuition?
I can't say I was intuitive in any special way as a child growing up in the Midwest. But I do feel I've been a spiritual detective all my life—looking below the surface for the hidden dynamics of life. When I was young, I didn't believe that germs made people sick, or that surgery was the only solution for disease. There must be deeper causes. . . For years I wouldn't say the word "God" because I didn't know what it meant—I couldn't believe God was an old man on a throne in the sky. I mused about why wars were fought over religion, and decided I would find the core truths in every religion—and THAT would be what I would believe!

It helped that I grew up with a strong connection to nature and communicated with my many pets telepathically. I also spent hours alone looking out from bluffs, hilltops, and tree branches, or next to streams in the woods. At the same time I was enthralled with art, drew endlessly, had inexplicable urges to write poems, and kept a journal since age seven. I also began remembering my dreams quite early. So something was at work! It would have been nearly impossible back then to decide, "I'm going to be a professional intuitive when I grow up," so somehow, by zigzagging away from things that bored me, and toward things that lit me up, I have arrived at a goal I didn't know I had!

For instance, I studied interior design in college, but got sidetracked by a small course on the "Psychology of Spaces," something like what feng shui is today. This rang my inner bells, and I decided to pursue "environmental design"—the closest thing I could come to what I thought I wanted. This led me to California Institute of the Arts, and an experimental program in "Social Design," which was taught by a team of psychologists, sociologists, urban planners, and various kinds of designers. We did projects like: redesign the elevator so people will talk to each other inside, or redesign the funeral, and we looked at questions like "What affect does advertising have on mass consciousness?" This taught me about working with patterns and "design thinking." All this was great preparation for becoming an intuitive.

What lead you to become a teacher and author of intuition?
Life practically swept me into Marin County in the mid-1970's, when the consciousness movement was blossoming. I studied clairvoyance development in earnest, and worked as a corporate art director until my department was closed. At that point a freelance design business ensued, which let me get my feet wet as an intuitive reader and teacher. I joined The Center for Applied Intuition, started by Dr. William Kautz, a scientist at SRI International. The Center then sent me to Japan to teach and counsel. I have worked there annually now, since 1984. After many years of training people in intuition development, I decided it was time to write, and wrote three books in three years.

What or how do you see when you give a reading to a client?
I used to be more visual. Over the years I've shifted to auditory, then tactile modes, and now I receive impressions of abstract patterns of knowledge all at once over my entire body. I feel the other person's life as though it were my own—even physical symptoms or sensory emphases like acute hearing or smell. The I have to describe this vision and process as articulately as I can. So I have become very empathic; I call it "conscious communion." When I finish the session I come back to my own body and persona, and forget what I've just been merged with—I just leave it out there.

How can people begin to open to their intuitive senses?
The most important thing is to pay close attention to the body, and the subtle expansions and contractions connected with various choices, opportunities, or people. It also helps to develop all the senses, work with symbol interpretation, and dreams. When you see similarities, intuition opens. When you stay real, in the moment, and in the truth, your intuition remains open as well. We're all intuitive, but we tend to gloss over the guidance we receive that way because it's so subtle.

Intuition and Business
In the not-too-distant future, corporations will have professional intuitives on staff, much like kings and pharoahs in ancient cultures had viziers, astrologers, and dream priests who provided vital information about the unseen factors influencing their success. Soon it won't seem odd at all that an empath, like the beautiful Star Trek intuitive, might be consulted about the strategy for making a major new investment or how a cash flow problem should be solved. Even today, in Asian cultures, it is not at all uncommon for businesses to consult with psychics about such things as timing on new marketing campaigns or the feng shui in their office complex.

In the future, executives will hire the services of proven teams of expert intuitives. These councils will conduct intuitive readings on specifically designed sets of questions, posed independently to each individual intuitive. The intuitive insights will then be merged into a consensual report, comprised of the common findings and the most tantalizing new angles for problem-solving. Intuitives will shed light on the underlying hidden agendas interfering with growth, help define accurate vision statements, solve personnel problems, assess prospective business partnerships, identify market trends, pinpoint timing, projected sales figures, create and double-check strategies, and help facilitate painless conflict resolution.

Intuition and perception training will be much more accepted in the corporate arena soon. Businesses will have to change the way they think, from purely linear perception to holographic knowing, to keep up with the changes in the world’s consciousness. In the near future, upper and lower echelon business people will meet in cross-disciplinary groups, use intuitive methods to align their minds and hearts into a singular focus, ask specific questions of the “group mind,” and receive highly useful, appropriate data that is mutually empowering to each person, to the business, to its clients, to the environment and society as a whole.

Solving Problems Before They Materialize
As executives acknowledge the interrelatedness of the internal, invisible, process-oriented part of life and the external, visible, results-oriented part of life, they will consider new, softer solutions to problems. They will assume that nipping an unhealthy energetic pattern in the bud is a highly efficient way to maximize productivity. It will be common sense to deal with potential problems at the feeling and emotional level, before they erupt into physical breakdowns in the manufacturing plant.

For example, a friend of mine was involved with a company that had a serious cash flow problem, threatening its very existence. The four founding partners, all men, were polarizing and a bitter battle was brewing. Two became controlling and dominating and planted their spears; two became victims and tried to preserve themselves, ready to leap to whichever side looked more promising. They spent money they didn’t have to bring in outside consultants who helped them develop better communications and new strategies. But nothing worked.

In the end, the company succumbed to a hostile takeover by the most domineering partner, in which almost all the employees were let go, and several of the partners were cheated of their rightful due. Had these men been open to the view “from the inside out,” they would have seen that the company was designed as an arena for them to work out the unconscious problems they each had due to bad relationships with their fathers, and thus to their own, and others’ authority. A talented “corporate therapist” or expert intuitive might have been able to help them find a way to support each other, and thus to save the company, which they erroneously thought existed only to manufacture a product and give them money.

In the near future, when we’re able to hold the paradox of the mutual inclusiveness of the world of spirit (non-form) and matter (form), 20 people won’t need to be severely shocked by the loss of their livelihoods, and the industry won’t need to lose a potentially innovative company, all because of the polarized egos and limited perception of four men. In the corporation of the future, hopefully “love” in business won’t be an oxymoron, and we’ll be able to speak directly about “intuition” and “spirit” without having to allude to these vital components of life through palatable and inventive semantics such as “business ethics,” “integrity in the workplace,” the “spirit of cooperation,” or “flying by the seat of your pants.”

Prayers for the Earth
If you're interested, you might check out this website for the annual prayer vigil for the earth in Washington DC, Oct 20-21.

Celebrate the 15th Anniversary of The Prayer Vigil for the Earth!

Where people of diverse faiths, cultures, backgrounds and ages come together to practice peace with self, peace with others, and peace with the Earth with One Mind, One Voice, One Heart and One Prayer.

The host tradition is Native American, joined by spiritual leaders and representatives from major faiths, spiritual beliefs and anyone who wants to be part of this magical, exhilarating and peaceful experience.

Each year, a sacred fire burns continuously in the center of a circle of tipis, African and Christian alters, a Jewish sukkah, a Tibetan stupa and other religious traditions' symbols. There is a labyrinth, a Prayer Grove, a children's activity area and other offerings.

Prayers and ceremonies are continuous for 33 hours concluding midday Sunday, October 21.

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge
Any scientists and great thinkers out there? Want to put your mind where your mouth is and start creating the future we all want? Check out this interesting site: The Bucky Fuller Challenge.

"If success or failure of the planet and of human beings depended on
how I am and what I do ... How would I be? What would I do?"
— Buckminster Fuller

Buckminster Fuller's prolific life of exploration, discovery, invention and teaching was driven by his intention "to make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone".

Fuller coupled this intention with a pioneering approach aimed at solving complex problems. This approach, which he called comprehensive anticipatory design science, combined an emphasis on individual initiative and integrity with whole systems thinking, scientific rigor and faithful reliance on nature's underlying principles.

After decades of tracking world resources, innovations in science and technology, and human needs, Fuller asserted that options exist to successfully surmount the crises of unprecedented scope and complexity facing humanity – he issued an urgent call for a design science revolution to make the world work for all.

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge seeks submissions of design science solutions within a broad range of human endeavor that exemplify the trimtab principle. Trimtabs demonstrate how small amounts of energy and resources precisely applied at the right time and place can produce maximum advantageous change.

Solutions should be:

• Comprehensive — a clear demonstration of holistic systems thinking.
• Anticipatory — projectively tracking critical trends and needs; identifying and assessing long term consequences of proposed solutions.
• Ecologically responsible — reflective and supportive of nature's underlying processes, patterns and principles.
• Verifiable — able to withstand rigorous empirical testing.
• Replicable — capable of being readily undertaken by others.
• Achievable — likely to be implemented successfully and broadly adopted.

The Benefits of Daydreaming
The more we try to be super-smart, on top of things, focused on outcomes, and mindful, the more we probably need to space out and daydream. As I get older and humorously bemoan the loss of short-term memory — I realize there is a new rule: you can only remember to take 2 things with you as you walk out the door to the car — I also realize that my inner imaginative life is pulling on me to pay attention elsewhere. There are moments now where I "wake up" out of my focus on the computer and my to-do list because my "under-consciousness" is trying to tell me something. I'm humming an odd song whose lyrics have a message, I'm thinking about an old friend from twenty years ago who embodied a certain courageous behavior that I want to increase in myself, I'm seeing images of a house by a quietly flowing river with trees and realize that may be the kind of place I want to buy.

Far from being an escape from "reality," my sense is that daydreams take us deeper into our process of seeding and fertilizing the next levels of our manifestation process; we're working on what's next, which must be created in its blueprint form first, then gradually pop into reality. I may not always know, in my conscious mind, what's best for me. As the Rolling Stones said, "You can't always get what you want. . ." I do believe, because I've seen it happen so many times, that the soul knows how to create anything, anytime, and knows just what needs to come next to propel us into our next level of growth — even if we are depressed, dull, bored, unmotivated, or stuck in bad habits. Our clues about what the soul is creating next come from paying attention to those sub-surface fantasies, images, desires, and daydreams.

Part of daydreaming may be processing experiences we didn't even know were important, finding the insight from a life lesson we're not quite consciously aware of yet. We may run down several tracks of possible ways of handling situations. Your inner 5-year-old wants to cuss out the annoying person or blow up his car, while your wise adult part wants to practice forgiveness and open your heart with some generosity. You live through several potential scenarios, testing them out.

Sometimes when we space out or leave our body, and it appears that "nobody's home," we're actually expanding to higher dimensions of the self where there is greater perspective, wisdom, collective knowledge, contact with our life purpose, and clarity about what and how to manifest the next part of our destiny. We are not being lazy; we're doing research, gestating, organizing at a very subtle level.

As part of intuition development, and dreamwork, I think bringing the stuff of daydreams into conscious recognition is an amazing, fascinating, and productive practice. If you can be more aware of what the deeper You is working on, the everyday conscious You can get in line with it, keep an eye out for opportunities, and act more purposefully. Creating new things will take much less effort and new things will suddenly occur. Imagining new realities and possibilities will be second-nature; we won't feel trapped by the last reality we created. You'll become a great opportunity-maker and problem-solver.

As you watch your daydreams, pay particular attention to your habit of looking at fear-producing, worst-possible-scenario realities. Sometimes those "dreams" show you simple data about what you don't want to do, what might happen without full attention. Other times, the fear sucks your attention and you become obsessed with worry and preoccupied with drama. Then all the positive visions are blocked. It's helpful to say to yourself: What am I paying attention to in my "under-consciousness" right now? What am I making myself aware of? Why is this information coming to me right now? Remember: it's just data and is not meant to scare you into inactivity. It's meant to put you in touch with your unlimited creator-self.

The most important bit is that, though daydreaming is fun, the ability to physically ground those visions is just as much fun. One feeds the other. Escaping from "reality" is actually impossible, since everything is real at some level. The real deal is to explore the realities you WANT to experience, for fun and learning. And just because you can!

Art by Jill Perry, www.jillperry.com

Penney on Streaming Radio: Discussing Intuition
Just wanted to let you know that I'll be a guest on Umar Hameed's streaming radio show, Breakthroughs, based in Baltimore at 1370am WVIE, from 10am-11am ET, Saturday Oct 6. You can listen to it live.

I'll Be Working in Baltimore. . .
If any of you are on the East Coast, I'll be doing life readings and a variety or talks and workshops in the Baltimore area from October 30-November 12. The pdf of the flyer can be downloaded now at my site (top of index page): www.intuitnow.com

There will be a half-day "Intuitive Shortcuts" intuition training; a full-day intensive called "Get Into Your Zone: Find Your Best State and Stay in It — In Spite of the World!"; and three evenings where I will do public research readings from my intuitive "trance" state on "Future Trends," "Intuitive Relationship Advice," and "Intuitive Insights for Consciousness Workers."

Call Pamela Sabatiuk at 410/203-2256 to sign up.

Eliminating Unnecessary Contraction
The last few days I've been becoming aware of my relationships — the ones that hold tension. I made a list of all the people I'm worried about; I feel them as disconnected from their true self in a way that could result in illness or death. I also listed people I feel contracted about because they have misinterpreted me and rejected me; there was a misfit of what they expected and what I offered, and there is a resulting feeling of guilt and fear in me — some old codependent panic in my gut about displeasing. Then there are the people who I have truly been insensitive to, and to whom I owe an apology.

I began meditating and sending heart energy to them, one by one, and I actually called a few and spoke my apologies to them, and said what was most important to me — that I didn't want to injure our friendship and I was sorry for being arrogant in any way. The ones I called were grateful and acknowledged the imbalance and rectification. I was so relieved. Then — surprise — 2 of the ones I simply meditated about actually called me out of the blue today and without much effort, just allowing the natural flow of conversation, all was made well again, as though the past had never gone wrong. It was magical.

My friend Henry Smiley, a wonderful intuitive in TN, wrote to me with a little "reading" the other day — again, sort of "out of the blue." He said: "Your skills and understanding continue to expand, but there exists an inconsistency in others to pursue their paths more fully. The inconsistency is, I think, a universal, latent energy that we all share in some form or another. There are so many 'themes' and 'concerns' in people's lives that they simply feel more inclined to sleep it away, be immobilized by fear, medicate it away, sexually repress it either by too much sexual expression or none at all, or just forget it 'til another day rolls around. There is a clear and present space where there are no needs. This is an inner space that affects the outward world. I think you are aware of this space. This is where your next ideas will flow from. They have emanated from this place in your life for decades now. You have yet to reach the expanse of your potential — no where near it, in fact."

Henry could have been speaking for all of us. Perhaps I wander a bit in my thoughts, but I am getting clearer and clearer that petty emotions and negative thinking, even positive thinking if it's locked into a structure, are SO in the way right now of us being all that we can be. I do not want to hold contractions in my mind, emotions, or body anymore. In fact, I cannot stand it! Reality TV is still glorifying the immature behavior of people whose growth was arrested at age 5 or so, but so many of us are moving rapidly beyond this drivel. We must act NOW, I sense, to refuse to hold contraction in ourselves, to be limited to such mental handicaps. It starts with feeling like a victim, with blaming, and moves into more expanded ego expressions, even to how we feel stymied politically — refusing to take action about an administration that is bankrupting the country and setting us up for failure due to underdeveloped character in our citizens, unrepaired infrastructure, uneducated children, unprepared emergency response systems, and rampant apathy.

Let us look for contractions in ourselves! Let us look for the places we've resigned ourselves to numbing entertainment and "news" that is more mind-controlling than mind-challenging. Let us make amends where we have been wrong. You cut someone off in traffic? Let the next guy in with a smile. Let us learn the art of blessing others in our inner mind, telepathically. Let us live without thinking that contraction is "normal."

Too Much Mind!!

The Perceiver in me is weary
of old conversations made of concepts
and brilliant insights that fortify or blame;
eyes and ears turn away to the peace
that dwells in cells.
A preference exerts itself:
puppy love, wide-open awareness like vast virgin landscapes,
naïve exploration of the small and ordinary.
The Perceiver ignores the things of the world
to notice the things of the world.
Opinions are boring, problems laughable,
kneejerk reactions so unnecessary.
The story does not want to be told again.
It is exhausted and grey, words will not clump
or rise to be animated,
the puppet has died.

The leaves are turning brown and falling from the elm
early this year,
Their falling brings the Silence,
reminds me of the peace of low light that I crave.
Minimalist.
Economical.
I'm remembering that Presence does it.
I can rest.
I just love,
and that's the magic carpet
I shall ride out on.

Copyright Penney Peirce 2007

Creativity Exercises from THE INTUITIVE WAY
To get your creativity going, you'll have to loosen up and dare to be slightly silly. The following technique can help you engage your limitless imagination. I've had great fun with this in seminars — I particularly remember a group of inscrutable Japanese businessmen who had surprisingly spectacular results. They came back from the meditation and drew pictures of goggles that took Polaroid photos, ceramic pinecones that generated an endless supply of heat and a bluegreen gel that hardened in the sun but turned liquid in the dark.

EXERCISE: THE INVENTOR'S LIBRARY
1. Close your eyes, get centered and quiet. In the clear space in front of you imagine a huge building up on a hill. Walk up the wide pathway to the giant front doors and the guard will let you in. Walk into the great rooms and notice the endless corridors of shelves stretching as far as you can see. On the shelves is an endless array of boxes — all different sizes, shapes and colors. Some are so big you have to get them down with a forklift. Some are so small you can only see them if you get up very close.

2. Let your body decide which way it wants to walk and when it wants to turn down one of the aisles. Let yourself wander around in the Inventor’s Library for a while, looking at the grand variety of boxes, wondering what might be inside each one. Soon one of those boxes is going to catch your attention in a special way. When you notice "your" box, go over and get it off the shelf, and take it to the end of the aisle where you will find a private viewing room.

3. In the viewing room, remove the box's lid and see what's inside. Take the invention out and examine it carefully. Look for the instruction sheet that comes with it. What is the title of the invention? How is it supposed to be used? What components is it made of? If you have any difficulty understanding what your invention is or how it’s to be used, ring a buzzer and a guide will come in and explain it to you.

4. Come back to your normal awareness and draw a picture of the invention. You might want to write about it: how could this be a symbol for something you need in your life right now?

Let's continue exploring our artist brain, so stay loose and experimental. Have you ever wished you could be a musician, or a great painter, sculptor or poet? Well, in your imagination, your inner artist is capable of anything!

EXERCISE: THE ART HOUSE
1. Close your eyes, get centered and quiet. In the clear space in front of you imagine your favorite place in nature and a fabulous getaway house: an infinitely charming cabin in the woods, a mountain chalet, a beach house, a high desert adobe with rock gardens or even a penthouse in Paris, high above it all. This is your private place for creativity and self-reflection. Go in and look around.

2. There are rooms for every kind of creativity: a music room with every fun instrument you can think of, a kitchen with state-of-the-art gadgets and mounds of fresh foodstuffs and spices, a studio with huge flat tables, easels, paints, pens and brushes of every kind, and wonderful natural light. There is a place to sculpt, or work with clay, or to make paper, or work with metal and jewelry. There’s a dance studio with mirrored walls and a stack of CD’s next to a CD player. There’s a woodshop, or a darkroom if you want one. There’s a place to write on beautiful handmade paper with fountain pens, or to type on a full-size color monitor. Anything you can think of, you can have here in your art house.

3. Let your body and your artist brain lead you to the kind of creativity you want to indulge in first! Go into that room, touch the tools and materials, smell and feel it all. Surrender yourself to a total involvement with the medium you've selected, letting yourself experiment fully. Concentrate your energy, then release your energy. Enjoy the natural movements of the currents that want to flow through you.

4. When you're finished with your art play, come back to normal awareness and make notes in your journal about what you did and how it felt.

THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED BY PENNEY PEIRCE AND COUNCIL OAK BOOKS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

No Time to Be Asleep
Here's another message from my colleague PMH Atwater (see August 31), on how astrology is figuring into our growth process these days. I always like to see how unseen forces might be affecting us. . .

What is so special about all of 2006, 2007, and 2008 is the continuous and intense interplay between Pluto and the Galactic Center, along with a parade of strong, heavy configurations of various types that leave us with little time to recover before another rolls in. Exhaustion and depression have been common complaints. It's like we the people are constrained to simply run in place, even when it seems like we are making progress. Add to this the downturn in our country's energy factors and our place in the world (progressed Mars now retrograde in our nation's chart — for 70 years!) along with another major downturn in our nation's chart to occur one month after the elections in 2008, and you can see that it really doesn't matter who wins the Presidency. What does matter is that the average John and Jane Doe wake up to the fact that this is our country and it is us who must change it.

On September 2nd, Saturn made its initial move into the sign of Virgo, an earth sign, and will be there for 2 1/2 years. Virgo is business, jobs, education, health, that which is practical and down-to earth. Saturn says "get real." So what are we seeing, right on cue? Mortgages and mortgage brokers failing at a rate that is unbelievable and the economy in such an unusual slump that it is virtually in recession. Toys are jerked from shelves; food is proving unsafe. No matter were you turn in the practical, physical world around you, there's another challenge — another opportunity to reassess, revamp, and reconsider. We knew this was coming, and we were right — it's here. And, Pluto begins its shift into Capricorn — January 2008 until January 2024. That's a long run, one which will take us from a focus on freedom, inspiration, religion, spirituality, imagination, intuition, the arts, gambling, and world travel to quite a different factor — one centered on banks and banking, politics, government, corporations, big business, earth changes, security, status, achievements, sacrifice, and nationalism. (Take a look at what's happening already in Russia with the rise of the Nashi — young people encouraged by Putkin to act in a manner similar to the Nazi Brown Shirts before Hitler took over.)

These movements are part of the larger movement in our universe, called "The Great Shifting," where the cosmic year does a complete roll-over, ushering in a whole new 25,920-year cycle. We really cannot compare what is now happening in the energy world and directly affecting us, to anything else we have record of. We can get hints from the geological "record" and from memories encoded into each of our dreams and hearts, but, that's about it. Yes, the activity between Pluto and the Galactic Center, not to mention T-Squares and other strong configurations, have been unusually intense throughout this entire summer, right now, next month, and again in December, and, yes, next year will be another "doosy." Where we kid ourselves is in seeking predictions instead of waking up to the order of the day, which says "be in your center — practice what you preach — and be flexible and ready to change on a dime."

Every natural cycle, in my opinion, is in good timing. We become ready for what a new phase brings because it comes. There is a synchronicity here, and it is good to know the general flavor of a new phase, both the positive aspects and what is likely to happen as fear distorts the tendencies. We can be ready for real action, we can be on the lookout for people who want to control others with their belief systems (aren't we already seeing this in our current administration?). We may soon be seeing the real loss of external freedoms, the trashing of our constitution, at the need to fight within our own country for what we came into existence to embody. Certainly, this is no time to be asleep!

Princess Diana & Mother Teresa: Resurfacing with a Message for Today

This is the beginning of my latest editorial, on the parallels between these amazing women, and the messages that lie beneath the 10-year anniversary of their deaths. You can download the pdf of the whole thing at http://www.intuitnow.com/pdfs/17VisTimesFall07.pdf

. . .I was shocked when I saw the photo of Mother Teresa as a young woman, in the September 3rd issue of Time magazine. When I placed it next to one of Diana, the two women became mirror images of each other, as if they could almost be the same soul. I remember being struck by the synchronous close connection between Princess Diana and Mother Teresa, both at the time of their actual meeting — one so tall, one so tiny — and when they died literally within days of each other: August 31 and September 5, 1997, respectively. One's candle was snuffed out early, the other's burned all the way down. When two such prominent souls weave themselves together by death, where there is an almost forced comparison between the meaning of the two lives in the consciousness of a planet — I acknowledge: "Spirit" is up to something; a lesson is being imprinted on us!

When We Are Interconnected. . .We Must Think Differently

This is a sample prayer from the "Pick-a-Prayer" section on my website. There are also random generated Daily Intuition Quotes, and Daily Meditations called The Present Moment Practice. You might want to try it. Check the top of my index page.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
We vow not to kill.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
We vow to not take what is not given.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
We vow to not engage in abusive relationships.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
We vow to not speak falsely or deceptively.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
We vow to not harm self or others through poisonous thought or substance.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
We vow to not dwell in past errors.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
We vow to not speak of self separate from others.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
We vow to not possess any thing or form of life selfishly.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
we vow to not harbor ill will toward any plant, animal, or human being.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,
We vow to not abuse the great truth of the Three Treasures.

—Stephanie Kaza, Green Gulch Farm

The End of Intuition — Ha!
Thinking about the super-crunchers and their prediction about the end of intuition, I found this that my friend and author Doug Boyd (Rolling Thunder) wrote once:

"Without the use of intuition, conscious or otherwise, we’d all be stuck with the rational mind which, left on its own, would atrophy pretty rapidly. Therefore, fortunately, none of us has a choice about that. It is with the intuitive mind that we learn anything and everything. The rational mind is incapable of learning anything. That’s not what it’s for. As with any computer, it deals only with its content. It is only the intuitive mind that can see all the pieces. It is only the intuitive mind that can put the puzzle together. Both these minds (or parts of mind, if you prefer) are tools of the Higher Self. The Higher Self, with its constant unconditional love (sometimes called submissive love), allows the personality the gradual unfolding of all aspects of mind with infinite patience. . . . By the grace of intuition I can now delegate the articulating capacity of my rational mind to speak of its own limitations. I appreciate this arrangement."

"Super-Crunchers"
I am passing along a message that came through my intuition network, from a colleague, PMH Atwater, which you may find interesting. She says, >>In the Sept. 3rd issue of Newsweek is an article called "Era of the Super Cruncher," and it refers to "the end of intuition." They say, "An explosion of computing power gives companies powerful new tools." Law professor Ian Ayres, at Yale, talks about this new trend that will shape our economy for years to come — "the replacement of expertise and intuition by objective, data-based decision making, made possible by a virtually inexhaustible supply of inexpensive information." This is huge. I know because I've already been affected by it.

This spring, when my latest book was offered to bookstores — with an incredible cover (the best I've ever had) and a gangbusters title (I thought) — my publishers gave it to the super crunchers at Barnes & Noble and Borders first. These people did their crunching, and reported back. The cover was old hat, people were no longer attracted to things that looked "spiritual." The title was wrong, it would not entice anyone. Then they made a recommendation based on their data as to what kind of cover would sell and what type of title would catch on. Let me tell you it was painful to change, but, in the long-run (after much prayer), I went with the cruncher's cover and title. To see the cover they came up with, check out the home page on my website at www.pmhatwater.com. Their title is:"The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences: The Ultimate Guide to What Happens When We Die."

Now, everyone I've shown the cover and title to loves it. And so did amazon.com. They have already sold 2,000 copies, and the book isn't due out until October 19th! We'll see after that, but, at least for now, and in the business world, that super crunching, I must admit, works.

I am reminded that on January 25, 2008, Pluto makes its initial entry into Capricorn. During the many years it was in Sagittarius, religious and spiritual and mystical and intuitive issues flourished. So did gambling, identity theft, long-distance travel, higher learning, sports, the power of the sun and global warming, and anything to do with animals. All of these are typical Sagittarian issues.

You always feel the movement of the "heavy" planets about six months before they change signs. That means, we are already being faced with "colorations" and trends that associate with Capricorn. Capricorn says quit fooling around in netherworlds, fantasy, gambling, taking chances, and with stuff like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, with religious beliefs and spiritual longings, and get down to business. Like, who pays the bills? when? and, how much? Capricorns are drawn to business, places of business, chambers of commerce, service employees, the economy, farms and farming, the government, government officials, land owners, mines and their products, politicians, real estate, mortgages, banks, interest rates, money, time and timekeepers, discipline, and on and on. It's like Harry Truman yelling, "The buck stops here." And the advent of super-crunchers fits exactly into this new and growing "forcefield" of agents and individuals who are now stopping, taking a deep breath, and readying themselves for "payment time," as, not only is the bill due for our mutual excesses, but a new and different way of living, more in accord with sustainability and energy conservation, is now at hand — and needed.

On September 2nd Saturn rolls into the sign of Virgo, another Earth sign like Capricorn (well, sorta like Capricorn). Saturn is the disciplinarian, that quality in life that says "wake up, get real, and be honest with yourself. It's time to be more practical, down-to-earth, and reliable." Phew! See what's coming, and what's virtually here? For those of you involved in business pursuits, now is the time to redesign what you are offering, and maybe find a way to combine intuition with super-crunching. Both are valuable, and we need them both.<<

To me this is very thought-provoking. We certainly need to come down to earth, to bring our visions into reality. We also need to be in our bodies more, rather than in the logical structures of thought that the intellect, science, and computers call home. I see intuition as continuing to be extremely important if we are to survive with our highest humanity intact.

Appreciative Inquiry
A friend just sent me an article on this "new" method of problem-solving, a subject I've been thinking alot about lately. I've been contemplating the whole idea of having "problems" and "solving them" intuitively instead of just with the head. In my meditation the other day, I heard, "Don't solve problems with the mind." I understood that when we are in the heart, merged with the Field, problems only occur when we stop the Flow. But back to "Appreciative Inquiry," the method my friend was telling me about. . . Here's an excerpt from the article you can download with the link, above:

"Appreciative Inquiry is about the coevolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them. In its broadest focus, it involves systematic discovery of what gives life to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It centrally involves the mobilization of inquiry through the crafting of the “unconditional positive question” often-involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people. In AI the arduous task of intervention gives way to the speed of imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design.

"AI seeks, fundamentally, to build a constructive union between a whole people and the massive entirety of what people talk about as past and present capacities: achievements, assets, unexplored potentials, innovations, strengths, elevated thoughts, opportunities, benchmarks, high point moments, lived values, traditions, strategic competencies, stories, expressions of wisdom, insights into the deeper corporate spirit or soul — and visions of valued and possible futures. Taking all of these together as a gestalt, AI deliberately, in everything it does, seeks to work from accounts of this “positive change core” — and it assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized."

Problems are points of focus, calling our attention to how we may be off-purpose, where Spirit wants us to go next — remembering that we are ALL "Spirit," cocreating each other. By willing a problem to be gone, we may miss a deep lesson the soul is trying to bring us.

Pleasure Without a Cause
Here is something I said to a client in a reading this week, that I think I needed to hear myself. Perhaps it will be of use to you, as well. We were talking about his being more successful in his career, being able to put out the kind of energy that attracts the money he's worth. I said, "Entitlement is a function of centeredness. It's a function, really, of — gravity. When you occupy yourself fully you are naturally magnetic and what you need in order to express yourself next will just show up, simultaneously with the idea of what you're going to do next. As long as you stay in yourself, and don't vacate with your mind, don't split your mind, just stay in it, what you need and WANT will simply arise.

"To fully be yourself, stay in the real center-place where things are pooling. Natural entitlement comes out of the pooling energy of the Self, which naturally pools when you rest. It pools and then it expresses again. Like a fountain. You don't have to make an effort at expressing yourself, you just have to bring your mind into the pool, into the resting, and that collecting of Self feels like pleasure. It's the simple pleasure you knew when you were a child and were 'full of yourself' and had lots of energy, felt goofy and playful.

"Trust the pooling. It will fill you up with motive and bring ideas. And the more centered you remain, the more you will become visible, and the more you will become a creator that expresses originality, which will attract other people who are interested in that, who want to learn that, and who will value your talents. So you'll just sort of snow-ball into an expanded life.
Focus on the feeling of 'Pleasure without a cause.'"

Photo copyright by Penney Peirce 2007

Split Mind, Partial Results
I have been coaching a client through the emotional part of buying her first home, late in life. She now has definite parameters for what she can spend, and what would be smart to have as features of the condo she needs: an extra room and bath in case she needs to take on a roommate, for example. But originally, she didn't know her financial limits, wasn't sure what she wanted in terms of features, didn't want to upset her strong-minded and rather impatient real estate agent, and was dealing with the sheer courage it was taking to take this "risk" at her age. So even in this buyer's market, she was finding surprising setbacks. The condos were in poor condition, too small, or the owners wanted all sorts of contingencies — some of them couldn't find new places to move to so she couldn't move into the place she was bidding on. Her agent was bossing her around and pressuring her to get done with it, already. Over the last few weeks, she's been getting clearer about her own boundaries — what she will accept, what her agent is supposed to be doing for her, what's simply too expensive and unrealistic for her. She is learning to unify herself in her own sense of "deep comfort," and the house-hunting process is narrowing and looks like it's progressing into clarity. This is one situation where the connection between inner state of mind and outer results seemed so directly correlated, that it impressed me, and reminded me to look into my own life for places I don't feel entitled to something, or hold too much humility and adaptability, or am conflicted about what I want. I heard myself say to another client in a reading today: "Entitlement is really about being centered." When we're centered, present, and saturated with our own soul energy, we become super-magnetic for that which we need.

Attack of the Mutant Rice; What About the 7th Generation?
Thought I'd pass along another alert from The Arlington Institute, about genetically engineered rice. The pertinent article is at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines. . .
In linking this topic to intuition, it seems to me this pertains to our need to wake ourselves up out of the lethargic hypnosis state created by the media spokespeople, by television's droning affect on our awareness, by comfortable consumerism, and by our own internal denial about facing unattractive realities and emotions. Many years ago before the term "global warming" had become common, I heard a late-night Art Bell radio interview with a man who claimed to be a time traveler from the future, sent back to the midwest as part of a team who were gathering seeds. It seemed, according to him, that the future had become much hotter, that genetically engineered seeds no longer worked, and there were food shortages. They needed the kind of non-hybridized seeds that were still potent and adaptable. It seemed preposterous that this man was who he said he was, but something about him seemed so normal, and what he said about many things in the future seemed to make common sense. Then, last night, I heard Bill Maher on Larry King say that the push toward shifting land toward the production of grain for biofuels was really the current administration's attempt to funnel money to Archer Daniels Midland. Even "small" things like this should capture some of our attention. Remember that the matriarchal decision-making process of the Iroquois tribes always depended on the affects of the decision on the 7th generation down the line.

10 Ways to Feel Spirit in Your Life — #4

1. Do some kind of volunteer service for other people. Notice how you get as much value from it as you put into it.

2. Ask 6 people to make a list of the things they like about you, and the things they think you could work on to improve your character.

3. Read the inspiring words of the great, spiritual world teachers: Jesus, Buddha, Pythagoras, Zoroaster, Mohammed, Lao Tzu, Gandhi, Yogananda, Swedenborg, etc.

4. Make an altar in your home. Or make a shrine somewhere outside in nature. Keep tending it.

5. Smile at people you don't know.

6. Learn to feel the energy in various kinds of rocks.

7. Turn off your TV, radio, stereo; put down that newspaper, magazine, book— and be with your experience.

8. Care for an animal as if it were a god. Feed the birds.

9. Find a special tree. Visit it. Talk to it. Hug it. Bring it offerings. Send love and messages to others through it. Lean back against it and let it absorb your tensions.

10. Give admiration freely to others, especially to younger people and older people.

See March 19 for part 1, April 30 for part 2, June 18 for part 3.

Remembering Our Roots in Space
Here's a movie recommendation, one that will help you remember many things you know at a deep, visceral level — if you watch it with the innocence with which it was made. It's called THE LAST MIMZY, and stars Joely Richardson and Timothy Hutton along with 2 perfectly cast kids who follow their intuition without fear, to discover pathways into the inner realms of energy and consciousness. The special effects are marvelous, building off Tibetan mandalas and crop circles, and though many may criticize the film as shallow, I loved it. I suppose what touched me were the representations in the special effects of the mechanics of the "toys" from outer space, discovered by the children on a beach. The film wove in the idea of paying attention to dreams, the subtle inner senses, and the unifying power of heart. I remember walking outside the theatre after I saw Close Encounters for the first time, and looking up at the early evening sky glowing turquoise and Prussian blue, and feeling SO connected to the sky and space and what was behind space. I felt the same after this sweet little movie. As I flipped back to the TV, and ran around the channels, I was appalled at the drivel we watch, the out and out stupidity and primitiveness in the programs that program and hypnotize our minds. I realized that nothing — silence — was more satisfying.

The 212-Degree Attitude
A friend forwarded this link for a short, inspirational movie; you might enjoy it. It's from a website called www.simpletruths.com. It really is a simple idea: put one more degree of effort, or originality, or spirit, or passion, into what you're doing. . . View the 212-Degree Movie.

Saturn and Pluto: Are You Part of the Purification?
I received an astrological notice recently from my client and colleague Judy Goldberg, who is a vocational astrologer in Baltimore. I often forget to check the stars, and when I do, the goings-on of the planetary transits usually explain some strange emotional tensions or energetic conditions I've been experiencing. This time, Judy drew my attention to the fact that Saturn, the planet of focus, concentration, responsibility, and karma, is leaving the sign of Leo (my sun and rising sign), about to move into Virgo. Judy says this has been especially challenging for "the millions in the Pluto in Leo generation (born between 1938 and 1956). Before it moves into Virgo on Sept 2, Saturn will have conjoined the natal Pluto of everyone in this generation. Because Pluto is the planet of death, as well as rebirth and of power, we who share this placement have been made aware of our relationship to our own power — where we hold it, how we give it away. Many of us have experienced an ego death or the death of a loved one — particularly a child or a parent. Some have had breakthrough changes in life for the better and some are still in the soup."

In an article Judy wrote, she recounts a few things her clients reported during this time:

• The past 5 years have been the most painful and stressful in my life, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It seems I was meant to be alone and separated from all things that were familiar, as if I was supposed to leave behind my past life and anyone who had been part of it.
• I am fighting the ego to let go of old behaviors which no longer serve me. I am learning I must let go of the outcome.
• I'm back in therapy working on old fears & past wrongs that I thought were long gone.
• I feel change is on the horizon and urging me to engage with new people and places. I have a feeling that I just need to release all that I have known and it will come forward. ...that is the difficult part.
• I am discovering that when I move with the universe instead of against it life is much easier.

I must agree that the past few years have been a kind of honing of the samurai sword for so many. I see it in my friends, clients, and in myself. It's easy to think of difficult periods as negative, but I honestly think everything evolves us and moves us into greater light. I can see that the many frustrating experiences I've been subjected to have irritated me so much that some of my more ugly defensive parts have surfaced and I've had a chance to examine and heal them. Some of the deep collective beliefs in human suffering have also surfaced, and these are not so easy to see and clear away.

Saturn now begins to move through the Pluto in Virgo folks' lives (born between 1956 and 1972), so the roto-rootering process continues, with new inner shadow issues to be focused on. Saturn brings "lack" to whatever it touches, as well as "binding force." Saturn narrows while Pluto concentrates. Saturn gives form and focus, while Pluto purifies the core of our being. Certainly one of the new hot issues will be taking responsibility for how you communicate, and what you communicate. We should see the liars in Washington, DC, brought to account. Can't wait!