The ancient art of burning sage...

photo credit: Toast.co.uk

I love the smell of burning sage. From the first whiff I was hooked. It’s one of those powerful scents that immediately transports me to a place filled with warmth and peace.  I have no present life memory connected with its smell but on some deep inner level I find it very soothing.

I first learned about its cleansing properties from a Shaman named Bobby Sanchez. I was attending his class on Shamanism and one night he conducted an introduction to vision quests, starting the meditation by cleansing each of us with sage.  

Using sage to cleanse a space or person is known as Smudging. In a Native American smudging ritual sage is used to purify and balance the aura or energy of a person, place or object. When lit, a bundle of densely packed dried sage leaves produces a plume of smoke that can be fanned over the subject to help cleanse it of any unwanted negative energy.

I now make sure to always keep several bundles of sage on hand. When I’ve had a particularly frustrating week and feel the need for some deep relaxation or meditation I like to place some dried sage leaves in a porcelain bowl, light them and then let the smoke waft around me. The smell almost instantly calms my mind and releasing pent up frustration becomes quite easy.

Supernatural Science in Florida

In the heart of Miami is an amazing structure known as the Coral Castle. Ed Leedskalnin spent 28 years, 1923 – 1951, building this stone edifice out of 1,100 tons of coral stone. Working alone, and mostly at night, Ed built his castle using only simple homemade tools.

Like the pyramids of Egypt, scientists are still stumped at how Mr. Leedskalnin was able to accomplish this feat.

Coral Castle Musuem website

photo credit: Coralcastle.com

 

The Mozart Effect

From Wikipedia

The Mozart effect can refer to:

• A set of research results that indicate that listening to Mozart’s music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as “spatial-temporal reasoning;”
• Popularized versions of the hypothesis, which suggest that "listening to Mozart makes you smarter", or that early childhood exposure to classical music has a beneficial effect on mental development;
• A US trademark for a set of commercial recordings and related materials, which are claimed to harness the effect for a variety of purposes. The trademark owner, Don Campbell, Inc. claims benefits far beyond improving spatio-temporal reasoning or raising intelligence, defining the mark as "an inclusive term signifying the transformational powers of music in health, education, and well-being."

The term was first coined by Alfred A. Tomatis who used Mozart's music as the listening stimulus in his work attempting to cure a variety of disorders. The approach has been popularized in a book by Don Campbell, and is based on an experiment published in Nature suggesting that listening to Mozart temporarily boosted scores on one portion of the IQ test. As a result, the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, proposed a budget to provide every child born in Georgia with a CD of classical music.

Everyone knows that Mozart was a genius. But could his talent go beyond just writing beautiful music? Was he somehow guided to create music that is mathematically complex and that somehow triggers and inspires our brains in unseen ways?

Interesting uses for Mozart’s music:

Sewage plant plays Mozart to stimulate microbes

Improved maze learning through early music exposure in rats

The Mozart Effect and epilepsy

How the Wizard of Oz can assist you in warding off evil...

An easy way to protect yourself in your daily life is to ask to be surrounded by the white light of the Holy Spirit!

Envision the image of the Good Witch of the North from The Wizard of Oz. She traveled from one place to another inside a beautiful transparent bubble. Try traveling through your day and night that same way, inside a bubble made of the glowing, transparent white light of the Holy Spirit.

Here's another moment from the movie you can borrow that will help you keep dark or negative energy at bay... When Glenda is confronted by the Wicked Witch of the West, she waves at her dismissively and says, "You have no power here. Be gone with you." Project that thought to anyone or anything around you that you suspect is dark, negative or evil. You’ll be amazed at how effective it is in reminding you of your power.

Bless this space...

This simple home cleansing/blessing was given to me by a very kind and gifted man. It proved a powerful tool in dispelling my own demons.

Supplies:

• Course Kosher Salt (most grocery stores sell this)
• Holy Water (you can get this at a catholic church or use the method below)
• White Candle (any inexpensive small white candle is fine)
• St. Benedict Medal (you can get these online, from a catholic gift shop or Botanica)

Preparation:

• Before you start the cleansing say a simple blessing over the salt. Something like, “I Bless and Empower this salt from the earth to both Bless and Protect my home, my family and all whom I love. So It Is, Amen.”
• If you don’t have Holy Water you can make your own.  Just as you did the salt, take your water and say a simple blessing over it, "The Spirit of the Living GOD is within this Water, may it Nourish, Cleanse and Bless this Space."  Placing it in a spray bottle is a very easy way of using it.
• Protect yourself before you begin.  Make sure you have a St. Benedict medal with you, take a moment and surround yourself in the Light and Protection of SPIRIT and ask GOD to protect you with a Special Angelic Guard as you move through your home.
• Make sure to open as many doors and windows as you can.

Blessing:

• After your salt is Blessed simply sprinkle it around the exterior of your home. While doing this imagine the salt completely blocking and dispelling any evil that might try entering.
• From inside, make sure as many doors and windows as possible are open, start at one end of your home and work towards the open doors.  Light the candle, get the Holy Water and go to each corner of each room and say, “I Bless this Space in the name of the Living GOD, only those in Divine LOVE and LIGHT may stay, all others must go now!"  Hold up the candle and spray each area with Holy Water as you go.
• Continue this until you have Blessed each corner of each room.
• Closets, bathrooms and such are your call - if in doubt, ask GOD to lead you as needed.
• Once you have Blessed the final area, CLOSE the Doors and Windows.
• Blow out your candle, put it in a trash bag and take to a dumpster somewhere FAR away from you.

You can do this as often as you feel the need. When I first performed this cleansing I also put a small St. Benedict medal in each corner of my home.  If you still feel the presence of negativity you may need to seek the help of someone experienced in home blessings and cleansings.

If you fear something negative is present in your home it can be hard to hold a positive thought while doing the cleansing – but TRY! As you go through each room speak with authority and power, truly believing that you’re forcing out anything negative. It makes a difference in how you feel and helps you truly take back your space.

Years ago I signed up a past life regression class.  Growing up I was taught that when you died you just stopped being. That’s it. No white light, no gathering of loved ones, no angels, no heaven – just worms returning your remains to the earth.  Needless to say, I didn’t expect much from the class.

I was firmly convinced that I was incapable of being hypnotized so as I settled down with my blanket and pillow assuming the next 3 hours would be a total waste of time.  The teacher led us in a typical guided meditation and I soon lost track of her voice. The next thing I remember was hearing her say, “Three, two, one. You’re now awake and will easily be able to remember all the past lives you just visited.”

This is what I remember:

  

1. I was a boy around 4-5 years old and was sitting under a bid wooden table.  The floor was earthen and the surrounding room seemed to be made of large timbers. The table was surrounded by adults who were talking, laughing, and eating. From my vantage point I could see only their chairs and legs. Everyone was wearing large fur lined boots that went to their knees and were bound with leather laces. The entire atmosphere was very jovial and friendly. I sat calmly playing under the table feeling completely safe in my own enclosed “fort”.  Seemed very “Vikingesque”.
2. I was a young man, mid twenties. I was dressed in a ruffled shirt, black pants and black boots. My horse was also black and I was riding him at breakneck speed towards a sprawling estate that reminded me of Versailles, but on a smaller scale (maybe somewhere in France or Italy, late 1700’s). When I got to the estate I leaped off the horse and went storming into the main house. I was yelling and slapping my riding crop against my boot, obviously very angry with someone. I saw a man at the top of the massive curving staircase that dominated the entrance and went running up the stairs still yelling. When I reached the top of the stairs I realized the man was wearing a mask (much like the ones made in Venice).  With one great shove he pushed me backwards and I tumbled down the huge flight of stairs. As I lay dying at the bottom of the stairs the man in the mask leaned over me and started to laugh. In that moment I knew that I had been a very cruel person and that no one would be sad at my passing.
3. In the last “past life” that I remembered I was a young boy, around 9-10, and was living in London during the mid 1800’s. I sat on my bed looking out a window at the smoggy rooftops wishing I could go outside. As I looked down I saw that both my legs were encased in braces and a wicker wheel chair sat by the bed. I felt very alone and quite lonely.

It wasn't over...

Even though I felt better than I had in years, maybe forever, I still wasn’t convinced that what I’d experienced was “real”.  I kept going over it trying to force it to make sense. I couldn’t. There simply wasn’t a rational explanation. Period. And although I still wasn’t a believer, I couldn’t shake the fear that perhaps whatever I’d had would somehow come back.

It did.

The angry arguments crept back into my thoughts, I found it hard to focus, the actions of people I didn’t even know sent me into a mental rage. I panicked. I immediately started reciting the Lord’s Prayer and silently calling upon Jesus, Mary, the angels and any other benevolent forces (all beings I’d been raised to consider pure nonsense, funny what you’ll do when desperate) to help me dispel anything evil that resided within me. I had to be crazy. No other explanation.

Then the nightmares returned. Only now, instead of simply yelling at them while dreaming I found myself on my knees sobbing… yelling at the top of lungs for them to get the fuck out of my house, my head and my soul and literally begging God to help me.

The worst part: I had no one tell. No one to sit, listen, nod, and then tell me it would all be OK. Who in their right mind would believe me? No one, not even the UFO abductees and big foot researchers. Never in my life had I felt so utterly and completely desperate and alone. 

I knew I had to go back to the Spiritualist Meetup group.

And now for a little bit of back story….

It’s true. For some time I’d been having intermittent nightmares. And that’s actually very usual. I’ve always had very vivid dreams, but never real nightmares. These nightmares always involved the same subject matter: demons. I never saw them, but the scenario was the same: I was in a house (it differed from dream to dream) and I knew that somewhere in building there was a demon. I never saw it, but I felt it and it terrified me. The dream always ended with me screaming at the demon to get out my house and leave me alone.

In and of itself it really doesn’t sound that frightening… but, I would wake up in an absolute panic – terrified to open my eyes for fear something would be looming over me.

The week before the Healing Service my husband and I were talking and the subject of dreams came up.  He never remembers his dreams but recently he’d been having nightmares.  He’d be in a house, no house in particular, and he’d be plagued by a terrifying feeling of dread.  He felt as if something evil was there with him, just watching and waiting. I told him about my demon dreams.  We both jokingly blamed each other.  I tried to help him analyze why he’d been having them… little did I know...

Waking up in someone else’s body and actually liking it…

In the days immediately following "the exorcism" I began to see and feel the world in a whole new way.  It seemed as if I’d always felt slightly apart from everything else… not now.

I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t had angry, resentful, violent scenarios running through my head. It seemed there was always a constant chatter going on. One that was never positive. As I walked our dog the following morning I was shocked that I heard nothing but the sound of the world around me. Instead of forcing myself to see what was in front of me I saw it all very clearly (I compare it to those Claritin commercials. It was if a waxy film had been removed from my world. I saw colors and heard sounds like never before.) In the past I’d had to count or repeat the Lord’s prayer in order to silence the negativity.  Now, I simply stopped and heard the ambient sounds of leaves blowing, birds chirping, cars driving past. It was like waking up in someone else’s body. I was stupefied and cautiously joyful.

Maybe it had been real.

Part 1, How casually attending a Meetup group can knock you on your ass… in a BIG way…

Journal Entry dated February 25, 2013

My mind is now quiet. I feel at peace and a part of the world.

Healing Service

After receiving several Meetup emails I decided to go a healing service being held by a Spiritualist Meetup group.  I’d never really paid much attention to the emails I’d gotten from Meetup, not even sure how I got on their list, but this time I just had a nagging feeling that I needed to go to this particular meeting. Drew was in Wyoming, seemed a perfect opportunity to do something different and waste some time. I didn’t go with a particular ailment that needed attention, simply thought I’d go check it out and voyeuristically eavesdrop.

Upon arriving I met a really nice woman named Mary while washing my hands in the bathroom. It was her first time also. So much for fearing I’d have no one to talk to...  She in turn was meeting a woman she’d met on an online diet support group.

The evening started off with a group sing-a-long, then continued with introductions of all the featured healers for the evening.  At the far end of the room sat a couple; the sister, Martha, was a native American energy healer and her brother, John, introduced himself as a wizard and alchemist. The brother sat looking rather uncomfortable and somewhat unhappy to be there.  

Each of the healers had their specified area, be it a massage table, chair or simply a spot on the floor. You were allowed 5 minutes per healer but could see as many as you liked.  I hung back, not having anything in particular that I felt needed healing.  Mary kept urging me to at least go try someone so I got in line for the native American/wizard couple (although odd, they seemed the best match for me).  While in line I tried to come up with something that needed attention and I immediately remembered my recent dreams involving demons. Seemed better than nothing… Honestly, I was more concerned with having to take my shoes off (which thankfully I didn’t).

When it was my turn, the Martha introduced herself and asked what I needed help with; I half flippantly mentioned my dreams.  She asked that I lay down on their table. She told her brother my dilemma and he very seriously leaned over me, his face directly over mine, and asked that I look into his eyes.  After several seconds he looked up at his sister and said, “Yep, it’s in her. We need to get it out.”  Martha nodded, he put one hand on each of my temples, wrapped his hands around my head said, “Now just relax, close your eyes and imagine yourself surrounded in a ball of white light.”  I did as instructed and as he started repeating, “I command all that is evil and negative to leave this woman now” I felt the sides of my head grow hot. He kept demanding that the evil leave me and my head got hotter and hotter. After a minute or so I felt a chill run down the left side of my body. As if on cue Martha shivered and said, “Wow that was cold. I think it left, I just felt something jump out of her and run down my arm and out.”  John had me sit up and asked if I’d be offended if he used strong language… I just chuckled. He put both hands on the top of my head and began to gently rock me back and forth and while alternating between English and some other language, again commanding the evil to leave my body.  When he felt convinced of my release he once again asked that I look into his eyes. This time he smiled and reassured me that the presence was gone. He explained that before I hadn’t been able to really focus on him but now my gaze was clear and intense. Having not brought any sage spray, they quickly borrowed some from one of the other healers and completely dowsed me. He asked if I owned a piece of black tourmaline, yes I did. He told me to keep it on me at all times and to also place small bowls of white rice around my house. These two things would help both draw out and expel any evil from me.

I thanked him and walked away feeling like I’d just played a rather fun part in a “made for TV” movie.

The organizer of the event makes his living as a voice over actor, but is a medium in his off hours.  He was doing readings that night. I felt the need to do more than just observe at this point and sat down to wait my turn. When he asked what I wanted to know and I asked about my best friend, again not really feeling like I had a legitimate concern that needed attention. When he finished (that’s a story for another time) he asked if I had any other questions. I quickly told him about my experience with the wizard and asked where the “demon” had come from. He sensed my skepticism and told me not to think of it in terms of the biblical flesh and blood, fire and brimstone demon but instead to think of it in terms of negative energy.  More benign and less dramatic, but no less dangerous.  I said I didn’t believe in demons so I wasn’t sure what to make of it all.  He told me that because my personal energy was strong there would be all sorts of things attracted to me, not all good. When you combined that with my disbelief and natural interest in the dark side I became the perfect, and easy, target. Strangely, that made sense. He gave me a St. Benedict medal, instructed me to place it under my mattress and told me to start being more aware of what I bring into my life.

I left feeling like I’d just experienced something very unusual indeed.

I slept better that night than I had in a very long time.

Demonic possession leads skeptic to start blog.

Where do I begin…?

I’m not even sure I know where the beginning begins. What I do know: on Friday, February 22, 2013 my entire world was turned upside down and everything I thought I knew about the world went up in flames.

“Trust your gut”. Wise words from a biologist.

I live my life by intuition. It may seem contradictory that a scientist would teach their child to always trust their gut over their head but that’s exactly what my mother did. It was an invaluable lesson. I discovered a long time ago that when I go against it, I always regret it.  A good friend once asked me how to teach her daughter the same. I found myself at a loss when I tried to answer. It was my assumption that everyone lived that way. The more people I talk to, the more I realize how uncommon it truly is. I can’t imagine not just “knowing” which way to turn, who to trust, and what’s total bullshit when I hear it. I wonder, does everyone “feel” what’s right but simply choose to ignore it or is intuition truly something that has to be encouraged before it really starts to kick in?