Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime

The Arlington Institute's Newsletter, FUTUREdition, reports:

(New York Times - August 24, 2010)
Cell phones now make the tiniest windows of time entertaining, and potentially productive. But scientists point to an unanticipated side effect: when people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas. At the University of California, San Francisco, scientists have found that when rats have a new experience, like exploring an unfamiliar area, their brains show new patterns of activity. But only when the rats take a break from their exploration do they process those patterns in a way that seems to create a persistent memory of the experience. The researchers suspect that the findings also apply to how humans learn.

Teen Hearing Loss Rate Worsens - (Discovery News - August 18, 2010)
The prevalence of hearing loss in teenagers rose by nearly one-third in recent years compared with the rate in the 1980s and 1990s, a new study shows. The findings come as a surprise to the study's authors, who had expected overall hearing to improve thanks to publicity about the risks of exposure to loud music and the advent of childhood vaccines against meningitis and pneumonia that can prevent many ear infections. Scientists report that the portion of U.S. adolescents aged 12 to 19 with any hearing loss rose from 14.9 percent during the 1988 to 1995 period to 19.5 percent in 2005 and 2006. While noise exposure is a known culprit, diet, medical care, lack of exercise and obesity may also play a role. 

Past Lives, Parallel Lives, Future Life: All in the Vast Present Moment!

Plan Ahead! I am teaching a WEEKEND TRAINING at Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA in the Berkshires, Oct 1-3. Why not join me there for the fall color? 866-200-5203 


You will learn to enter and play constructively in the amazingly real "imaginal realm," which exists at the heart of the present moment. So much of what becomes meaningful about who you are and what's possible to do comes from your ability to access fresh ideas and make them real—and that includes sensing other lives you may be living somewhere in time. Penney Peirce, an expert in expanded perception, will guide you in a variety of journeys through the inner worlds of unlimited knowledge and creativity to access information about past and parallel lives so you can discover an expanded experience of how big you really are.

Then, to increase your ability to move to higher frequencies of the present moment, where your potential reality and important insights and are stored, you'll learn to travel the territory of the dream world, make sense of symbols, and interpret both night dreams and daily reality as messages from your soul. You'll form a trusting relationship with your Inner Perceiver, and receive glimpses and a felt sense of your Destiny—the ideal experience you want, love, and deserve—so it can begin to materialize smoothly in your Now.

One Voice in Many: Part 3

This is the third installment from my early work from 1980. Previous parts are on 7/12 and 8/19.

We hear the One Voice in each moment in many ways. Whether it's our own words, the words of a friend, or of a discarnate spiritual being, it is the One Voice. Whether the words sound Christian, Sufi, Jewish, Hindu, or Buddhist, it is the One Voice. Whether it comes as a question or an answer, it's all part of the Divine teaching us through revelation. The Voice speaking to me, speaks to a part of you, and what awakens you also awakens me in some way.

So the quest for spirit becomes a conversation held between the "We" and the "You," where the One Voice reveals that speaker and listener are the same. Ultimately, it is through the understanding of our common vulnerabilities and doubts that we can see each other and come to an experience of our common love. We each have equal access to the one infinitely wise Source, so if we share our world views with each other, trusting the One Voice, creating moments of commonality, we'll know each other better, if only through our shared uncertainties and desire for the greater understanding.

I have always asked, "Why?" I seem to have begun my journey on the spiritual path without realizing it: I moved steadily forward by backing into revelations. Church seemed empty so I backed into a reverence for nature. I couldn't justify why wars were fought over God and how one people's interpretation of God could be incorrect while another was "ordained," so I put all religions on hold and opened my mind to the truths all cultures hold dear. I couldn't find an idea of who or what God was (certainly not an old man with a long, white beard), so I refused to say the word for a long time and sought an experience, rather than a definition. The most I could come up with was that God is an energy that always was and always will be and trying to understand this enigma was my "religion"—and if I could live with that, that was faith.

I have zigzagged onward, backing away from things that didn't feel quite right, and into ideas and practices that did. Puzzle pieces have slowly dropped in place. I was troubled by how life could become so complicated, distracting, and draining to our energy when beneath the surface, there is plenty of peace, perfect functioning, energy, and wisdom. Everywhere, I saw—and still see—people who have spun off from and lost touch with their center and have forgotten the real "why" in life, who can't remember who they actually are experientially. People are looking for relief from their anxiety, often rather desperately, sometimes insanely, grabbing for the first flashy thing or settling for easy, cosmetic solutions that don't last. There are far too many empty ad-agency answers and authorities who haven't earned their stripes.

We're underdeveloped in two ways: 1) We don't have direct experience of the true self, the soul, and we have trouble maintaining the brief glimpses we do get, thinking they are abnormal in their positive nature. And 2), We have a basic misperception about the way the world works, a "perceptual geometry" that's not in alignment with universal principles. We create our own suffering. The way we think sometimes doesn't make much sense. When we feel weak, vulnerable, and insecure, we want others to be the same way. We seek agreement and common bonds. Yet when it comes to inspired self-expression and success, we want to feel unique and special and don't want anyone else in the world to be like us. We look for our differences.

Isn't it simply crazy that the way we seek to be one with others reinforces, not our magnificence, but the idea that we're powerless, miserable, and riddled with bad habits and character weaknesses? And the way we try to experience our magnificence, by being an individual and standing out from the crowd, offers us the empty rewards of maintaining an isolated position, alone, without equals? Basically, we perceive ourselves as separate from our own soul, each other, and the earth, and see the Divine and the universe as outside us. If original sin means "first misperception," this is it. The truth about the way the world works is that we are alike in our LOVE and our fears are the mirages and misperceptions. 

copyright Penney Peirce

The Three Faces Teaching

I'm passing this along; it comes from the newsletter of my friend Gail Larsen, who teaches Transformational Speaking. 

It is said we stay alive to our lives if each day we express the three faces (an African teaching from Angeles Arrien). The first is the face of the child, the face of wonder and curiosity, imagination and awe. The second is the face of the young lad or young maiden seized by passion and creative fire. The third is the face of rude magnificence, the face of the elder with its wisdom, and yes, often its fierceness.

We spend too much of our time with an audience substituting information for the aliveness of these faces. So the next time you are preparing a presentation, ask yourself these questions to bring yourself and your material alive:

1. Where and how can I show my delight in the material that has captured my attention?  What caused me to be curious? Where am I in awe at where my investigation is leading me? How can I invite people to play with me around my idea? How can I demonstrate, as stated by Albert Einstein, that imagination is indeed more important than knowledge?
2. How can I express my passion for this subject and ignite a creative fire in others whom I’d like to have join me on my quest?
3. What understanding have I gained through my life journey, and how can I demonstrate my wisdom through the stories I choose to tell?  How do I take a solid stand knowing what I know, having seen what I have seen?

This isn’t just about saying it, it’s mostly about showing it!  In your face, in your body language, in your words. What face needs to show up in you?  Will you commit to bringing this face into your speaking and in to your life? http://www.youtube.com/user/gaillarsen1

Michael Brown's 2010 Letter

I feel a strong spiritual kinship with Michael Brown, as if what comes through his mind and from his source is identical to mine. I had loved his 2009 letter, but got distracted and forgot to read his 2010 Letter (go to his site > Writings > 2010 Letter). I highly recommend it; it lines up so strongly with everything I feel. It's so valuable to have people say things from slightly different angles—you get more depth of understanding.

Here are a few excerpts, edited together by me for continuity: "When I place my attention on the numbers of the year 2010 a definite feeling dawns within my heart. The only word I have for this feeling so far is, ‘sparkle’. . . .The feeling around 2010 is communicating to me that something I assume lost is not—it is returning—unexpectedly—like a visit from a dear friend who had long since vacated my day-to-day memory bank. This is the essence of 2010: what is assumed lost is rediscovered—what is unknowingly forgotten is remembered—and what is thought hidden, revealed. Something ancient is restored and renewed. All unfolding unexpectedly—and all given with our only effort in being willing to open our heart enough to receive. We metaphorically turn around and there it is, unexpectedly, right in front of us, in pristine condition, just as if it had never been gone—rediscovered, remembered, revealed, restored, and renewed.

". . .as we enter and traverse 2010, it may at times appear as if it is getting colder. It is not. We may at times feel as if we are becoming more unconscious. We are not. And, there may be moments in which all appears hopeless. It is not. Don’t believe the hype! . . .Throughout 2010 deliberate vigilance is therefore called for. This is not a time to fall asleep on our feet. We are all tired, and we ought to be. After all, we are consciousness completing a vast journey from seeding to fruition. Our limited mental body capacity cannot even contain the immensity and profoundness of this greatest of adventures. Only the heart has the capacity to feel the extent of this, and to tear up our eyes with the immense sense of relief accompanying such accomplishment.

"As we enter and move through most of 2010, the one word that is therefore our greatest friend is, ‘application’. ‘Application’ is the frequency of 2010. When we use the word ‘application’ in relation to the energy of 2010—we are referring to ‘consciously and consistently applied action which supports the positive influence of structure in our lives whose intent is to uphold personal integrity’. 

"It is also beneficial to remember that because we are on a very precise and deliberate evolutionary schedule, that the sunrise representing this particular completion point of our evolving awareness is already spoken for. We do not have to spend one moment trying to make it happen. Any effort now aimed at trying to achieve experiences like ‘enlightenment’ or ‘awakening’ is futile. It is a waste of our personal energy. Trying to ‘become enlightened’ during 2010 is like trying to get the sun to rise an hour before it is scheduled to appear upon the horizon. Such behavior is misguided and pointless.

"2010 is the year of adhering to a simple daily routine that is our trusted route in. Throughout 2010, as dark as it sometimes appears, as cold as it sometimes feels, and as hopeless as it may at times appear, our task is to continually remind ourselves of the bigger picture, and to sparkle accordingly. 

"Many shall identify with the unconsciousness of the pre-dawn darkness and deny, and even try to prevent, the reality of the imminent rising of the sun within us. It is therefore important we remind ourselves that we cannot save or rescue another from their experience—no matter how much we love or care for them. To try and do so is to enter their madness and so to become equally susceptible to the consequence of crashing.  

"Take note too that what now fills the subject matter of all major news stories relates to ‘ethics’. This scrutiny of ethics in all aspects of our human experience comes to a head mid-year, and then begins to recede. Many sacred cows fall with it, and all emperors are shown to have no clothing. This is because our movement as evolving awareness shifts on Nov 3^rd 2010 from ‘aligning our ethics’ to ‘participating as conscious co-creators of our shared experience’. Therefore, let whatever we choose as our daily application—as our route in to presence—also be a means to hone our co-creative capacities.  

"Throughout 2010 anyone paying close attention—which is another way of saying ‘anyone who remains present with the felt-aspect of their experience’—will be able to peer through the apparent darkness and perceive the landing lights of the runway up ahead. This ensures conscious landing into multi-dimensionality. Throughout the year there are also going to be a string of ‘legitimizing events’. Legitimizing events do not do anything for us—they simply arise to confirm the validity of what is truly unfolding. They contradict the mass media and its political intent to convince us that all is going to hell. They also contradict the madness of sustaining a belief in mortality-based awareness and the destructive behavior it encourages. These legitimizing events will be overlooked by those stuck in the mental plane, and therefore missed by many.. . .One of the legitimizing events will be a sudden surge of a personal awareness of what peace is. 

"2010 is our year to individually sparkle, like the lone morning star heralding the coming of the sun. By years end all who live by their heart’s governance shine brighter than ever and become the undeniable light of their world experience." 

illustration by Sarah Hoolander 

 

Intuition into Action TeleSummit

I am part of the FREE Windows to Wellness INTUITION INTO ACTION TeleSummit, along with 14 other intuitive teachers! Broadcast begins Mon. August 16 at 3pm ET and runs Monday-Friday for 3 weeks. The FREE replays will be available for 48 hours after each release.

Penney's talk, YOUR PERSONAL FREQUENCY MATCH, will be available from Aug 25, 3pm ET. 

If you want to subscribe to the whole series: http://www.windowstowellness.com/cmd.php?af=1231580

New Italian Translation

I just got word that my sweet little Dream Dictionary for Dummies is being translated into Italian. The Dummies books are always deceiving; they contain so much more content than their title implies. As a kid I used to like to read the dictionary, but I never thought I would write one!! Actually, it was a really interesting experience, and a great intuition development exercise. After much reviewing of what's out there, I decided that most dream dictionaries were either really antiquated and the meanings had little relation to what was going on today, or they were geared more to Freudian symbology and were not really about one's personal growth and transformation process. 

So I decided to find the most common symbols, ones that weren't highly repetitive of each other, and look intuitively at what they meant in terms of our physical growth process and life, our emotional process and life, and our mental/spiritual process and life. So each symbol can be understood through many dimensions of experience. Then we added in an abbreviated version of the key content I'd had in Dreams for Dummies, and voila! A great, small-sized pocket reference book.

One Voice in Many: Part 2

I wrote my first manuscript when I was a neophyte on the spiritual path, probably about 1980, and called it One Voice in Many. I have just found it again, surprisingly, in a beat-up file folder among records of long-ago classes I taught. It was typed on an old portable Olivetti typewriter, before the day of computers! Wow! What a surprise to meet myself again as I was perceiving the world back then. Some of it is naive, but some is quite fresh and simple. So I've decided to put bits of it here and short quotes on Twitter. The first bit of it is in my July 12, 2010 blog post.

The quest for Spirit has come to be my major motivating force and the thing out of which all reward and richness flows. No longer is life an unordered array of disjointed experiences; it is a moving continuum of consciously received revelations. My life and I are a single unified experience punctuated only by varying focuses of attention. Perceptions fit into an ever-expanding puzzle, continually synthesizing and creating new wholes within wholes.

There is nowhere to go, no arrival point on the Path—only unceasing oscillation and the illusion of stillness as we become one with the flowing. Frustrations give way to satisfactions, satisfactions to new curiosities—and everything folds over and into itself to be known anew. The process is exciting: incredibly simple yet astoundingly complex. There are moments of pure understanding and times I am overwhelmed and confused by the sheer volume of input wanting to be known in a conscious way.

As I have continued exploring, I've looked for signposts to help me gain my bearings. There are many voices calling out directions, and many directions to go. Some voices are loud, some are silent. I have had to learn to listen in new ways. There are answers seeking to be asked for and questions seeking to be heard. Always, there is the challenge to be diligent that personal truth aligns with the universal. I have found guidance everywhere—in casual conversations, song lyrics, the inspiring words of great leaders and artists (both living and dead), and in my own dreams and random thoughts. As I have practiced noticing what I am noticing, I sense there really is One Voice communicating through all the diverse "voices" on earth.

As I said, we must learn to listen in new ways. Critical to this is the ability to be quiet and centered, to simplify and distill. These habits are a matter of practicality—it's the only way we will ever learn discernment. There certainly is no scarcity of sources of guidance in this world! The universal, or the divine, speaks to us in every cloud, every tree, every face we meet on the street. Everything can be seen as a symbol or sign, pregnant with meaning. Yet each person looks at the cloud and sees a different shape. One person interprets a hawk as an omen of good fortune, another sees it as a warning.

How do we make sense of this glut of communication pouring from every form and event? We need to understand that each of us lives by an individualized system of personal truth and that revelation comes to us accordingly. For each person, place, and moment in time, the universe says one thing. And all forms and events echo that one message because we can only evolve one thought and action at a time, one moment at a time. We receive only the revelation we need next. You and I might gaze on the same scene, but our wise Inner Perceivers will cause us to perceive what we need to perceive. If we listen rightly, we see that all messages from all forms bring us closer to each other and a universal oneness.

copyright Penney Peirce

Your Brain on Computers: Outdoors and Out of Reach

Here's an interesting article about how we're being affected by so much electronic connectivity:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16brain.html?_r=3&ref=global-home

. . .The study indicates that learning centers in the brain become taxed when asked to process information, even during the relatively passive experience of taking in an urban setting. By extension, some scientists believe heavy multitasking fatigues the brain, draining it of the ability to focus.

Mr. Strayer, the trip leader, argues that nature can refresh the brain. “Our senses change. They kind of recalibrate — you notice sounds, like these crickets chirping; you hear the river, the sounds, the smells, you become more connected to the physical environment, the earth, rather than the artificial environment.”

My Haiku Diary: Week 4+

Finishing up July. . .

22

where did the technicolor moments

of my life go? still there and vibrant?

or down and out the wormhole?

23

this grey cat just stares

into my eyes with the

master's unwavering gaze

24

waking to the natural light

of approaching dawn, my body 

finds harmony again

25

did I say Thank You enough?

did I make your life just

the slightest bit easier?

26

thunder cracked right over

the house, loud as a bomb

broke me open

27

the crazy, the imprisoned ones, make art

make order and beauty

of their private hell

28

cicada song rolling

down the treeline and back

this repeating wave, their joy

29

I like apricots and cherries

the color is the flavor, I even

like the stone in the center

30

I am reminded again of the

infinite ways we make up life

of creativity's awesome ease

31

flying home o'er the eastern states

below me, white and seamless,

a blanket of popcorn clouds

My Haiku Diary: Week 3

This covers the first of the 2 weeks I was working at Omega Institute and in Baltimore in July.

15

predawn jetplane packed with people

flying toward the sun

I'm nervous with new adventure

16

man at the Jersey turnpike Starbucks

orders five extra shots of espresso

preparing for New York?

17

rare earthquake, heartless heatwave

sudden cooling thunderstorm, today's drama

eclipses my tiny tension

18

when I wake, mist shrouds the trees

my body is still, in profound silence

paralyzed with peace

19

the lush leaves of trees

here in the east

are big as plates

20

people's eyes and faces

opening as we speak

and I am always stunned

21

is the anticipated moment

richer than my experience

of now?

Skinny Dip by Charly Wrencher

Changing Society

This came from a friend in Hawaii; thought you might enjoy:

1. The Post Office:  Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are in such deep financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail is junk and bills.

 

2. The Check:  Great Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would go out of business.

 

3. The Newspaper:  The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

 

4. The Book:  You say you will never give up the physical book. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes but I quickly changed my mind when I discovered  I could get albums for half price without ever leaving home. The same thing is happening with books. You can browse a bookstore online and read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find you're lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget.

 

5. The Land Line Telephone:  Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep their land line telephone simply because they're always had it. But you are paying double  for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call others that use the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.

 

6. Music:  This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death, and not just from illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative  music being able to get to the people who want to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with--like the older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

 

7. Television:  Revenues to the networks are down dramatically, and not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers.  And they're playing games and doing other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Perhaps it's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

 

8. "Things" You Own:  Many possessions we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive on which you store pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can reinstall it if need be. But that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and Mac OS will be tied straight to the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, etc. from any laptop or hand-held device. But will you actually own any of this or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable?

 

9. Privacy:  If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. There are cameras on the street, in most buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. You can be sure that "they" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads change to reflect those habits. And "they" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.