Garden Healing Church

Grateful for Healing in Nature – for all of us mind control subjects

Category Archives: Counsel


by Leave a comment

Considering “food combining” for Health

rsz_shutterstock_148917983For decades I’ve resisted “food combining” as maybe-a-fad but in any case too complicated for me to think about and make changes in my habits every single meal!  

Have you resisted for similar reasons?

For some reason, I read this article – http://www.annmariegianni.com/food-combining-for-good-digestion/ – and finally, today, because it’s explained in easy but credible language, I’ve copied this and will post it in my kitchen.  I invite you to see whether it makes sense to you:

Guidelines For Optimal Digestion

1. Fruits

Fruits digest best when eaten alone, in the morning or at the beginning of a meal. They digest very quickly, within 30 minutes of eating. Not all fruits digest well together, though. For example, melons should always be eaten alone, as they digest completely differently than any other fruit.

Fruits are best combined with greens, in salads or smoothies. Acidic fruits like oranges, tomatoes, lemons and pineapples should not be eaten with proteins such as meat or eggs, but rather with protein fats like avocado, cheese or nuts.

2. Greens and Non-Starchy Vegetables

Greens and non-starchy vegetables are fairly neutral foods. Rich in enzymes, fiber, amino acids, essential vitamins and minerals, these foods combine wonderfully with all proteins, carbohydrates, fats and oils (avoid melons!) and should be eaten daily with every meal, if possible. Side of greens with cake, anyone?

Non-Starchy vegetables include: greens, lettuces, broccoli, celery, mushrooms, onions, garlic, radishes, sprouts and zucchini.

3. Whole Grains and Starches

Pair whole grains and starchy vegetables with greens, while avoid pairing starches with a protein such as meat or beans.

The common American diet is a meat with potato type, but this is probably the worst food combination you can eat. Our bodies require an acid base to digest protein and an alkaline base to digest starches, so when eaten together, this combo can really take a toll on our guts, causing a traffic jam of indigestion.

Starches include: Grains, breads, pastas, sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin, squash, etc.

So, is eating a burger with fries optimal? No.
But it’s free-range on a gluten free bun! No.
Rice with beans? No.
Chicken pad thai? Not really.
Leafy green salad with your favorite meat and veggies? There we go!

4. Proteins

Two rules for consuming proteins:

Do not eat proteins with fats. Eating fats like cream, butter and oil with proteins such as meat, eggs, cheese or nuts, inhibits your stomach’s gastric juices from breaking down proteins properly, which might cause you some tummy trouble.

Do not mix different proteins in the same meal. This means avoid eating nuts with meat, cheese with nuts, eggs with meat, or cheese with eggs, and so on. Each protein requires a different type of digestive juice. Mixing is no-bueno.

Proteins should also be consumed first because they require the most enzymes. When you eat a protein after eating a starch, the acids in your stomach may not break down the foods sufficiently, resulting in that post-dinner bloat.

5. Sugars

Sugar and starches eaten together should be avoided, as this combination causes fermentation in the gut. I know this is nearly impossible, as most sweet treats are exactly that, but try and limit your consumption of desserts. (Easier said than done)

If you’re going to have dessert, it is recommend to eat it before dinner (since it digests quickly) or wait until 4 hours after dinner.

Sugar is best eaten alone, like in a cup of tea or not at all…Deep breaths, here!

The Basic Breakdown

Proteins with Starches = improper combination
Proteins with Vegetables = proper combination
Starches with Vegetables= proper combination
Proteins with other Proteins= improper combination
Fats with Proteins= improper, pair in moderation
Fats with Starches= proper combination
Fruits= eat alone or on empty stomach
Fruits with greens= proper combination

Of course there are many cultures whose cuisines are naturally not “proper” food combining such as Mexican, South American, Mediterranean or even Asian, but for people native to these areas, their food combinations work for them.

Americans, on the other hand, have every type of cuisine and junk food available to them. We also have every type of disease and discomfort under the sun due to poor diets. So, while food combining might not be the “cure all” for everyone experiencing gastrointestinal issues, it has deemed success for many people.

#

Blessings on your personal healing work, from the inside, on the outside, and in all dimensions!


by Leave a comment

Mind Control, Calendars, and Change

Mostly I’ve written about mind control from a very personal vantage – the struggle to get free of the worst sort of it – while recognizing that the most general sort of it may be so intrinsic to the nature of who we are that it will always be a part of society, the only question being to what degree.

In any case, I assert we must do aikido with mind control programming, dancing out of its way – rather than ignore it as we’re so encouraged to do.

Most people think about mind control as hypnotic programming or voice-to-skull technology – both of which I’m certain I’ve experienced, along with a great variety of other technological, pharmacological, and other experimentation – but it is so much more.

Mind control begins with birth trauma (all sorts are induced by modern medicine), and continues with day care, education, news, history, economic manipulation, law, law enforcement, entertainment, war, etc.

time-travel-forward-backwardBut mind control predates even these basic elements of society; when humans were separated from their Earth-based calendars and forced to accept an arbitrary industrial work week, our minds were fractured.  We were weakened, given inducements and threats, and we agreed to calibrate our minds to the needs of industry.

In 2002 I’d been feeling a gut horror at this idea growing in me for twenty years.  I was still pulling myself together after a nervous breakdown, or spiritual crisis, in 1993, and was obsessed with the idea that we needed to learn to pay attention to the sky, stars, moon, wildlife, and planting and foraging cycles.  The idea of a calendar to help me do that had been growing in me since the 1980s, and I finally did something about it.

One October day, I told a friend I’d delayed the project too long again, and it would be impossible to throw it together now, and he (a printer) encouraged me to reconsider.  Because my life was fairly simple, living out in the country, I decided I could do it, and began.

I solicited writing and art, designed the weeks, and wrote pages on the Equinoxes and Solstices and others entitled, “Pre-Industrial Time,” “About Moon Names,” “Thanksgiving” (on Native American customs), “Kwanzaa,” “TV Turn-Off Week,” and more.

Each “moon week” began on a Full Moon, New Moon, or Half Moon (any day of the week), rather than a Gregorian Sunday or Monday, and each week was either 7 or 8 days.  Gregorian months and days were incorporated into the calendar, of course, but the moon weeks shoved them around instead of the reverse.

People responded well to the Almanac.  Three-hundred copies of the 2003 Almanac/Datebook/Journal for Southern Arizona were ready for sale in early December (not much time for a single person to sell them all),  and all were sold by February.  Next near I  sold out my printing of 500.

Unknown-1Because I’d been a hermit ignoring the news, I was surprised to learn almost a decade later that Jose Arguelles had published (also in 2002)  a substantial book – Time and the Technosphere – on this subject of the Gregorian calendar being the most fundamental aspect of human mind control.  (A web search for the title will bring up many videos and articles by others resonating with this idea that the calendar is basic to our control.)

Some of the metaphysics of Arguelle’s book was beyond me, but I’d certainly felt the subtle impact of the mind control the Gregorian calendar is.

images-1From the time we sit in kindergarten, learning to read the calendar and reciting, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…, we understand we are part of a system which cycles 5-2-5-2-5-2-5-2…work long, play short, work long, play short, work long, play short.  And everything from that moment on which has anything to do with a calendar reminds us that we are part of a world of 5-2-5-2-5-2, work long, play short.

79The natural world teaches us something nicer:  slower cycles of 14-14-14-14…, balance.  As I wrote in all the Almanacs,

Ancient people invented – or discerned – patterns that seemed to facilitate harmonious living, that encouraged an energetic cycling of activity and rest, like inhaling and exhaling, waking and sleeping, summer energy and winter hibernation….

Today’s lifestyle requires many people to work intently for five consecutive days, resting for only two, relying on caffeine and/or other drugs to keep themselves going.  Perhaps the equal cycles of waning and waxing moons might inspire us to create more balance in our lives.

in timeMy partner then, Leo, claimed that if we all lived with this sort of balance, allowed ourselves to be less productive, slept more, took more time off, travelled less, and shopped less, we could solve a lot of our environmental and health problems.

Inspired, I would later write a poem entitled, “Pssst!  Quit Your Job!” in which I suggested a couple/few dozen other things a person might do that would be of service – real service – to their communities, that would be artful and satisfying to do – whatever days we chose to work.  (To read more easily, click to enlarge.)

psstposter

*

Not everyone all at once, now!  (Or maybe….)

imagesBut it’s good to know that we can create a different world if we want to.  We could ignore the stupid ideas of industry – genetically-modified foods, fracking, and a million unnecessary consumer gadgets that will soon be in the landfill – and do something meaningful instead.

And we could work on our own schedule.  “Take it easy when someone’s ill, or the weather is especially nice.”

A few years ago, many years after the first two Almanacs had been published and I thought forgotten, in a single week three different individuals asked me when I’d publish another.  I waited for a couple of years and finally produced a third one, The 2013 or Year One Almanac, Datebook, and Journal – taking advice of many people to make it less local, so I could sell to a wider audience.  I didn’t like it, but it rekindled my love for the thing – though I didn’t have the energy to create one for 2014.

This is what I think should happen next:  Every bioregion should have it’s own Almanac.

To that end, I offer the pages in the back of last year’s version, the section entitled, “Make  your own Perpetual Moon Calendar!”  It contains instructions, templates for  four “moon weeks” (first quarter/waxing crescent, and so on), and “phases of the Moon” through 2017.

Collectives in each bioregion can put out a call for information, art, and ideas, and do like I did: sit at the kitchen table to draw, cut, paste, edit, peruse, and chat with friends (for me in the desert, they were few) while putting the book together.

I chose to eschew the computer for as much of the work as possible:

to remind us all, myself included, that sometimes we can break the rules, relax, and enjoy the imperfections.

Even though this is a day planner, I hope it won’t drive your days, but lead you through them with a little more kindness and ease than our efficiency-minded society usually wants us to grant ourselves.

As Ghandi said, “The purpose of life is not to do everything faster.”

Jean & Almanac

 

Here’s a link to my last Almanac.

In my next post (since this is after midnight), I’ll upload those “Make Your Own Perpetual Moon Calendar” pages, and pray we unleash a thousand or more bioregional Almanacs around the “civilized”/controlled world, birthed by women and men gathering the wisdom of their elders, reclaiming our relationship with Nature, breaking our mind control, and helping ourselves and our children find harmony again.

Let’s do it ~

And please share your work here if you’d like.  I’d love to see it.

Peace,

Jean

* “Pssst! Quit Your Job” mini-poster art by Jean Eisenhower. Different versions of this I began to create around 2004-ish.  Even though I said “copyright” on this one, I’ve changed my mind; it and the Almanac are both now Creative Commons. Copy, swipe, redesign, evolve. Distribute freely.

** “Declare the Jubilee” in that poem is a Biblical reference.  If you don’t know about it, look it up.  It’s good.


by Leave a comment

I Quit! (Doesn’t that feel good?!)

“Too many inspirations” has long been my excuse, as well as my pride, but a couple of months ago, I said, “I quit!” and I really, truly did quit quite a few things:
~ I quit my home and yard design business.
~ I quit singing.
~ I hardly planted anything in the garden.
~ And more I’ll spare you.

What I decided to do was two things:  1) Pay primary attention to healing – figuring out how to monitor my wandering, easily-distractable mind, meditate, pay attention to the communications of my alters and their healing status, stay focused on my “big questions,” track my progress, etc. – and 2) write about it.  That’s all I would do, besides the necessary mundane work.

I was due to get my first Social Security check, and Greg was willing to take up the slack while I practiced this discipline for some unknown length of time – Thank you, Greg!

So I’ve been monitoring, listening, focusing and tracking since early August – applying effective business skills to my head – and writing about it in my various blogs.  (Details here.)

And exciting things are happening!  I’m noticing phenomenal changes in my ability to track my own ideas more coherently, also feeling more calm, alert, and present – a powerful experience for me.

And just what I’d hoped for.

But there was a surprise too:  Singing, which I’d always felt was the least of my talents is the one thing that has come back to me.

After six weeks of leaving the house when Greg and other musicians would get together, he drew me back for a single song, and then “just a few,” and then one night he led the band in a whole series of my favorite songs, and I just couldn’t leave.  And here’s the surprise:  I liked my voice.  It had changed.

That, plus the fact that so many people challenged my decision and told me they wanted to keep hearing our harmonies gave me permission to accept singing back into my life.

As they say, “If you let it go and if it returns, it’s yours.”

So:  I accept.  Gratefully.  And I enjoy it so much more now that I’ve discovered my voice is new.

lying here video stillA few days ago (Oct 3), Greg and I were singing and I spontaneously suggested we go into the office and record one of our co-written originals, “Lying Here with You,” with the minimalist PhotoBooth software on the Mac.  Not fancy recording equipment by a long shot – but, wouldn’t you know, it was heart-felt, and got heart-warming responses on Greg’s website and Facebook page.

So I invite you to take a listen.  It’s sensuous and sweet.

Maybe we should all just quit things now and then.  And see what comes back.

GR.com snapshotOne more thing I was hoping for, but not too hopefully:  teaching Greg to do more of his marketing!  But that came back to me too!  I spent all day Sunday – 15 hours! – happily updating it – and it wasn’t work – it was artwork, and very satisfying.  (Greg kept me fed, and responded to my every need while I worked.)  Here’s the new design.   

I pray all our activities are exactly what we should be doing, and if we have any doubts that we have the Courage to Quit – at least for a while, to see what returns.

Many happy returns!


by Leave a comment

Limits to Cannabis Consumption

Lest I be thought a naive advocate of cannabis for any purpose (because I’ve reposted a few good articles I’ve found), I’d like to share two thoughts on limits, one my own limits, and a post by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) – http://www.mpp.org).

Recently, because I’m healing (or attempting to heal) from MKULTRA  mind control, I designed a notebook/journal specifically for my needs, including daily check sheets in which I track numerous small things that I typically lose track of:  how much sleep I get, my dreams, how I feel from day to day, whether I remember my supplements, and much more, including ideas I think are break-throughs, which I also typically “forget” or am controlled to forget – who knows, unless I get more serious about working to track them!  (I’ve described the notebook/journal and its use more completely on my ParadigmSalon site:  http://paradigmsalon.net/2014/09/29/saved-by-my-journalnotebook/

One of the items I track is when and how often I use cannabis.  I have a highly sensitive system and believe cannabis (at least much of what’s locally available) is detrimental to my logical, rational mind’s functioning; therefore, I do not use it when driving, socializing, or doing daily chores.  I do find, though, that it is excellent medicine for solving problems, for instance, in meditation and in writing, so I limit my use to those times or similar times when a “wandering,” relaxed mind is useful.  And I have committed to writing in my journal every single time I have a hit.  That way I know how well I’m sticking to my commitment, and the tracking practice is a good inhibitor, making me as responsible as I think I should be.

Recently, when Colorado legalized marijuana, a reporter made the news when she overindulged in a pot brownie.  The Marijuana Policy Project (http://www.mpp.org) today posted a blog that links to a site called “Consume Responsibly” (http://www.consumeresponsibly.org).  There is a lot of good information there, and I hope folks will check it out and pass it on.


by Leave a comment

Metaphor of the Dragonfly

A month or so ago, we were helping a friend “consciously” die.  It was a wonderful experience that released him from his pain and immobility (which he said was “no way to live,” regularly asking for a shotgun when we inquired what he might need), and brought together a community of friends to support his decision to quit eating and drinking.

We had nurses and chaplains and shamans in our group, as well as plain-old caring people – to talk and read and sometimes watch TV with him – and singers – us!  After he had passed, we all realized what a blessing we had not only provided but had received.

(Some of us plan to write a guidebook soon.)

A few days before his passing, we were working at home when we found a strange-looking insect emerging from a hard shell.  I thought it looked rather monstrous.

monster birth

Within minutes, the monster had turned into a fairy-like thing with ruffled wings!

faerie emerged

And within the hour, the wings were dry and extended, ready to fly.

open wings

And it did fly into the elderberry tree above the pond where it had – we understand now – climbed out.

in the tree cu

I knew the dragonfly as a totem guardian of the portals to other realms, so I’d thought this was a good harbinger of our friend’s passing soon.  It would be two more days before he passed – but it’s common for dying people to commune for days with loved ones on the other side before they complete their passing, and we thought the dragonfly represented the opening of those portals for those important communications.

When we sent the photos to the man’s wife, she was doubly moved, because the dragonfly had aways been their totem.

Now, over a month later, the wife, my friend, yesterday shared a video with me that tells us a little more about the dragonfly’s birth.  http://www.genekeys.com/free-webinars/vaporising-the-victim/

Around minute 17 or 18, the teacher describes (in just two minutes) the dragonfly nymph living for years in a pond (we have one beneath the location where we took these photographs) until one day, it does what it has never done in its life:  it climbs up a stalk of grass and begins to dry out.  The shell dries first, and then the pressure of the watery self inside bursts the shell open!  (And doesn’t the dragonfly look vulnerable in the first photo, hanging up-side-down?  With little sign of the wings about to be.)monster birth

We were very moved by the idea of a life form suddenly following an impulse to do what it had never done before, climb into the light and allow itself to dry and even burst!  Wouldn’t most of us want to fall back into the familiar water?

The teacher uses the term “vaporize” for what we need to allow to be done to certain aspects of ourselves.  In this case, the dragonfly’s excess moisture did need to literally vaporize in order for it to fulfill its destiny.  I love it.

Wishing us all faith in a process we may not yet understand.  It might look ugly.  But let’s not despair. I do believe there’s new life ahead.

in the tree cu


by Leave a comment

Another bunch of studies on cancer-healing properties of guess-what…

I really did not mean for the site to be all about cannabis’ healing properties, and it’s really not, but here’s another article covering many medical studies – available on government sites – which show cannabis to have properties that reduce and discourage tumor growth:

Unknownhttp://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/cannabis-cure-cancer

Thank you for speaking up for ancient – proven – medicine.

The only reason to ignore this is to keep medicine ineffective and expensive.  Apparently some forces think ineffective and expensive is a good thing.  We don’t.  We’re breaking out of our mind control.

 


by Leave a comment

Why Cannabis Is the Future of Medicine

The strange fact: “the human body is in many ways pre-designed, or as it were, pre-loaded with a receptiveness to cannabis’ active compounds — cannabinoids — thanks to its well documented endocannabinoid system.”

That quote comes from this excellent article, copied below, by Sayer Ji, of GreenMedInfo.com.
Here:  http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/why-cannnabis-future-medicine

cannabis_the_future_of_medicineThe future of medicine rests on the the fundamental right we all have to use things that spring from the Earth naturally as healing agents. Why should cannabis, used for at least 10000 years by humankind to alleviate suffering, be excluded from this inexorable mandate?

The politics of cannabis are exceedingly complex, and yet the truth is simple: this freely growing plant heals the human body – not to mention provides food, fuel, clothing and shelter, if only we will let it perform its birthright. In a previous article, we investigated the strange fact that the human body is in many ways pre-designed, or as it were, pre-loaded with a receptiveness to cannabis’ active compounds — cannabinoids — thanks to its well documented endocannabinoid system.

But the medical-industrial complex in the U.S. does not want you to use these freely growing compounds. They threaten its very business model and existence. Which is why it synergizes so naturally with the burgeoning privatized prison sector, which now has the dubious title of having the highest incarceration rate in the world. The statistics don’t lie:

“far surpassing any other nation. For every 100,000 Americans, 743 citizens sit behind bars. Presently, the prison population in America consists of more than six million people, a number exceeding the amount of prisoners held in the gulags of the former Soviet Union at any point in its history.”

According to a recent Al-Jeezera editorial, “One explanation for the boom in the prison population is the mandatory sentencing imposed for drug offences and the “tough on crime” attitude that has prevailed since the 1980s.”

Cannabis/marijuana is presently on the DEA’s Schedule 1 list.  Since 1972, cannabis has been listed on the Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the most tightly restricted category reserved for drugs which have “no currently accepted medical use”. Opioids, stimulants, psychedelics and a few antidepressants now populate this list of substances that can put you in jail for possessing without a prescription.

The notion that marijuana has no ‘medicinal benefits’ is preposterous, actually. Since time immemorial it has been used as a panacea (‘cure-all’). In fact, as far back as 2727 B.C., cannabis was recorded in the Chinese pharmacopoeia as an effective medicine, and evidence for its use as a food, textile and presumably as a healing agent stretch back even further, to 12 BC.[1]

When it comes to cannabis’ medical applications, cannabis’ ‘healing properties’ is a loaded term. In fact, it is extremely dangerous, as far as the medical industrial complex goes, who has the FDA/FTC to enforce it’s mandate: anything that prevents, diagnoses, treats or cures a disease must be an FDA approved drug by law, i.e. pharmaceutical agents which often have 75 or more adverse effects for each marketed and approved “therapeutic” effect.

Indeed, the dominant, drug-based medical systemdoes not even acknowledge the body’s healing abilities, opting for a view that looks at most bodily suffering as fatalistic, primarily genetically based, and resulting from dysfunction in the mechanical design of a highly entropic ‘bag of enzymes and proteins’ destined to suffer along the trajectory of time.

And so, an at least two trillion dollar a year industry stands between you and access to the disease alleviating properties of this humble plant.

As Emerson said, “a weed is an herb whose virtues have yet to be discovered,” and yet, by this definition, cannabis is not a weed, but given that is has been extensively researched and used for thousands of years for a wide range of health conditions, it should be considered and respected as a medicinal herb and food. Sadly, the fact that the whole herb is non-patentable is the main reason why it is still struggling to gain approval from the powers that be.

Let’s look at the actual, vetted, published and peer-reviewed research – bullet proof, if we are to subscribe to the ‘evidence-based’ model of medicine – which includes over 100 proven therapeutic actions of this amazing plant, featuring the following:

  • Multiple Sclerosis
  • Tourette Syndrome
  • Pain
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
  • Brachial Plexus Neuropathies
  • Insomnia
  • Multiple Splasticity
  • Memory Disorders
  • Social Anxiety Disorders
  • Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease
  • Cancer
  • Opiate Addiction
  • Anorexia
  • Bladder Dysfunction
  • Bronchial Asthma
  • Chemotherapy-induced Harm
  • Constipation
  • Crack Addiction
  • Dementia
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Glaucoma
  • Heroin Addiction
  • Lymphoma
  • Nausea
  • Neuropathy
  • Obesity
  • Phantom Limb
  • Spinal Cord Injuries
  • Endotoxemia
  • Myocardia Infarction (Heart Attack)
  • Oxidative Stress
  • Diabetes: Cataract
  • Tremor
  • Cardiac Arrhythmias
  • Fatigue
  • Fulminant Liver Failure
  • Low Immune Function
  • Aging
  • Alcohol Toxicity
  • Allodynia
  • Arthritis: Rheumatoid
  • Ascites
  • Atherosclerosis
  • Diabetes Type 1
  • High Cholesterol
  • Liver Damage
  • Menopausal Syndrome
  • Morphine Dependence
  • Appetite Disorders
  • Auditory Disease
  • Dystonia
  • Epstein-Barr infections
  • Gynecomasia
  • Hepatitis
  • Intestinal permeability
  • Leukemia
  • Liver Fibrosis
  • Migraine Disorders
  • Oncoviruses
  • Psoriasis
  • Thymoma

Moreover, this plant’s therapeutic properties have been subdivided into the following 40+ pharmacological actions:

  • Analgesic (Pain Killing)
  • Neuroprotective
  • Antispasmodic
  • Anxiolytic
  • Tumor necrosis factor inhibitor
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • Antiproliferative
  • Apoptotic
  • Chempreventive
  • Antidepressive
  • Antiemetic
  • Bronchodilator
  • Anti-metastatic
  • Anti-neoplastic
  • Antioxidant
  • Cardioprotective
  • Hepatoprotective
  • Anti-tumor
  • Enzyme inhibitor
  • Immunomodulatory
  • Anti-angiogenic
  • Autophagy up-regulation
  • Acetylocholinesterase inhibitor
  • Anti-platelet
  • Calcium channel blocker
  • Cell cycle arrest
  • Cylooxygenase inhibitor
  • Glycine agents
  • Immunomodulatory: T-Cell down-regulation
  • Intracellular adhesion molecule-1 inducer
  • Matrix mettaproteinase-1 inhibitor
  • Neuritohgenic
  • Platelet Aggregration Inhibito
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A inhibitor
  • Anti-apoptotic
  • Anti-proliferative
  • Anti-psychotic
  • Antiviral
  • Caspase-3 activation
  • Chemosensitizer
  • Immunosupressive agent
  • Interleukin-6 upregulation
  • Tumor suppressor protein p53 upregulation

Thanks to modern scientific investigation, it is no longer considered strictly ‘theoretical’ that cannabis has a role to play in medicine. There is a growing movement to wrench back control from the powers that be, whose primary objectives appear to be the subjection of the human body in order to control the population (political motives) — what 20th century French philosopher Michel Foucault termed biopower, and not to awaken true healing powers intrinsic within the body of all self-possessed members of society. Even the instinct towards recreational use – think of the etymology: to re-create – should be allowed, as long as those who choose to use cannabis instead of tobacco and alcohol (and prescription drugs) do not cause harm to themselves or others. How many deaths are attributed to cannnabis each year versus these other societally approved recreational agents, not to mention prescription drugs, which are the 3rd leading cause of death in the developed world?

Ultimately, the politics surrounding cannabis access and the truth about its medicinal properties are so heavily a politicized issue that it is doubtful the science itself will prevail against the distorted lens of media characterizations of it as a ‘dangerous drug,’ and certainly not the iron-clad impasse represented by federal laws against its possession and use. All we can do is to advocate for the fundamental rights we all possess as free men and women, and our inborn right towards self-possession, i.e as long as what we do does not interfere with the choices and rights of others, we should be free to use an herb/food/textile that sprouts freely and grows freely from this earth, as God/Nature as freely made available.

I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?

~ Willie Nelson

“Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn’t the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit . . . unnatural?” – Bill Hicks

[1] Marijuana – The First Twelve Thousand Years

 

Sayer Ji is the founder of GreenMedInfo.com, an author, educator, Steering Committee Member of the Global GMO Free Coalition (GGFC), and an advisory board member of the National Health Federation.

He founded Greenmedinfo.com in 2008 in order to provide the world an open access, evidence-based resource supporting natural and integrative modalities. It is widely recognized as the most widely referenced health resource of its kind.

Google Plus Profile.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.


by 3 Comments

No longer a shamanic practitioner

imagesI mean no disrespect to shamanic practitioners, but I have just become aware of how unproductive, and maybe spiritually vulnerable, that attempted practice has been for me.  Yesterday, I stood at my alter, before an overwhelming clutter of totems of various animals that have played a significant role in my life, many totems of some of them, and felt a cacophony of guilt in my head for not being more disciplined about staying in connection with each of them, as is supposedly my responsibility if I want to accept their gifts.  But I have failed in that responsibility again and again.

Yeshiva - (I meant to write, and thought I wrote "Yeshua," but I wrote this interesting derivation! Wonder where that came from….

Yeshiva – (I meant to write, and thought I wrote “Yeshua,” but I wrote this interesting derivation! Wonder where that came from….

And I had tremendous guilt about not acknowledging Yeshua more, whom I consider my spiritual leader, my tribal chief – but I hate the images of him painted in our culture by obnoxious evangelists and corrupt doctrine-writers, so unlike my image of him as the counter-culture, anti-materialist, love and peace prophet.  And since the foundation of my programming was done in churches with all that other religious iconography and his “name” – JEEZ-suz – being used (American South rendering of the Greek translation of his Hebrew name).  (And I’ll save for later the story of how a “Christian” church helped my abusive husband take my kids from me for two years.)   So my picture of Yeshua has him in a lotus pose, in saffron robes, flowers in a necklace, surrounded by lotus flowers, his heart open, wounded and shining, a crown of thorns on his head, a halo, a hand sign of peace, a gesture to the heart, and a look of calm sincerity.  (It came from a magazine cover, and I’ll appreciate if anyone can help me with the source – I’d like to credit it and the artist.)

58d2d41dd980effea93bdd5a21a5dac5

I also like this portrait of him. His counsel regarding prayer: “Pray alone.” I like that. Feels most real to me.

So yesterday, I stood before my altar, hands at prayer pose, namaste, feeling very real with him, confused about who I am and how I’m doing, a racket of other voices – or my imagination of them – telling me I’m a bad shamanic practitioner and I can’t keep up any discipline.  Suddenly, I realized I didn’t have to.  Yes, I’d really believed I was strong enough to accept the shamanic initiation invitation, and I’d told myself, “Once the doors are opened, you can’t shut them” – and that’s true – but I had assumed that that meant I had to use those shamanic practices to keep my bearings in that world.  Suddenly I realized that, even though I was invited, and that means the doors have been opened, I don’t have to play by their rules, i.e., shamanism.  Yes, I’ve had many amazing, sublime shamanic experiences, but I don’t feel the need to sit in counsel with animal spirits.  I believe the animal spirits, trees spirits, insect spirits, and all the elementals and devas and intelligences of every sort in this Ocean of Spirit can come to my aid, and they will when called, but I will take my counsel in prayer with Yeshua.  And I realized all those totems were way to much visual noise.  I kept a few things to remind me of special events, but those very few are scattered now around the house.  My eagle feather hangs in a tree, where it probably likes it better.  And Yeshua is uncrowded in the center of my wall.

Oh, my Lord, I can’t tell you what an energy rush that was to remove everything!!  Once I began, it was like an avalanche:  many, many items now sit out in the sunroom awaiting separation into piles of gifts, piles of things to throw away, and things to sell.  (I’m not assuming these things are wrong for someone else, and thereby am recycling them for someone else’s life lessons.)  The clearing in here is palpable!

Last night, we talked about some things I’d thought we’d never be able to face, but we did.  We hardly slept last night,  both racked to our souls, and today we both feel clean and clear and dedicated to love and creative living.  What a relief!

At one point I sobbed, “I feel like I’ve been in a balloon, tossed around in a harrowing storm for 21 years, and I just touched ground safely.

Another image appeared of an abscess lanced, gaping open, being flushed out.  Relief.

~

March 9, 2016:  I still relate, for the most part, to this blog, though I don’t close the door on the possibility of returning to the practice in a new form.  Not yet.


by 2 Comments

A New Healing Practice!

I’ll explain the practice in a moment.  But first let me share my journal entry – written just now – about it:

I love this timer and this practice!! I LOVE knowing what I’ve done all day.  I used to have to ask Greg, or struggle to remember, and feel guilty because I was never sure if I was being lazy or not taking care of myself.

This is GREAT!!  

I feel like living, like it’s worth it, and like I’m NOT running to catch up because I’m not sure if I’m working hard enough or getting anything accomplished.  I’m working with more energy, but not pushing myself.  I feel self-possessed, and strong.

What a feeling to know.  

I’ve needed this book for SO LONG!!

What did I do?  I went back to doing what I used to do as a business person – what helped me handle things with quite a bit of skill:  I kept a somewhat complicated datebook of my own design, made to manage exactly what I needed to manage in a manner that took into consideration my particular brain and its quirks.

To develop it, I thought a lot about how my mind works.  (I didn’t know I was multiple then, but I knew I absolutely needed my unique calendar or was lost.)

Since 1993, though, I haven’t wanted to use a datebook of any design unless I had to.  It represented rigidity and someone who might not be open to possibly-blessing serendipities.  So, for the last 21 years, I’ve only used calendars as often as I’ve needed them.

I tried to keep them away from me, as if they’d end the intense spiritual phase of my life which had amplified amazingly when I’d moved to the desert, gotten rid of my calendar, and opened my mind to immediate experiences of sunrises, sunsets, birds, insects, wild animals, weather, light, dark, hunger, food, thirst, water, walking, resting, waking.

While that triggered the most powerful time of my life, very healing, it also triggered some understanding of things very frightening, but important – for understanding simple reality.  It helped me begin a long hard struggle toward healing.

So I didn’t want to return to the calendar-mind.  No way.  I was proud to be oblivious of time.

But I also lost of sense of knowing where I was, what I’d experienced, and what needs to be done.  I’d acted as though vision and inspiration were enough.

(What irony, as the work I’ve always done has been teaming up with visionaries to “put legs on the vision and make it walk.”)

But no one was my manager to put the legs on.   I tried, but without help with self-discipline, I have too many selves to keep things moving in a productive direction.  I’ve been staggering around directionless for a pathetically long time.

A few days ago, after I read about this Full Moon today, I became motivated to prepare myself to catch the wave of this powerful energy.  I thought more about my mind and what help I need.  I decided to design a notebook for a new sort of business:  the business of healing myself.

I – a manager at heart – finally, after 21 years trying and failing to do too much in my head, have designed a system for myself.

First, I made daily check sheets that remind me of all the things that are important for me to do each day, that I want to do, that support this most important thing in my life – my healing – but that I often forget to do, maybe because I’m mind controlled to forget, but in any case, I forget way too often.

They’re simple things:

– Write dreams or first thoughts
– Note the time
– Take supplements
– Eat lots of vegetables
– Eat lots of fruit
– Drink herbal medicine tea
– Track use and reaction to herbal medicine to assure correct dose
– Be aware of physical and emotional energy
– Meditate/self-inquire/pray
– Walk, exercise, or do yoga
– Time in garden
– Summarize highlights of the day before
(and the week on Sunday, the month on the New Moon, and the year on the Winter Solstice)

The check sheets also include places to remember things thought of that day:
– Things to do
– New goals and reiteration of goals
– Day’s accomplishments 

At the top of each page is the date, day of the week, and phase of the moon, which I like to attend to (part of my research).

And one more, most important, item:  Under “Write dreams or first thoughts”: “Set timer.”

Yes.  It’s not crazy-making.  It’s the opposite.

First I chose a lovely chime on my phone.  Every morning now, I set it for 30 minutes, and reset it constantly throughout the day.  (I even did it yesterday when visiting friends.  I kept it in the next room, so I could do my record-keeping discretely when it went off, let others think I was checking on an important call, made my notes, and returned to the group.)

Here’s why it’s important:  The most important thing I need to do, as a multiple, is track my thoughts, remember them, and notice if I have lost time.

Every time I hear the chime, I reset it immediately, notice that I’m aware (or not) of the last half-hour, and write  a word (or more) about what has happened in the last 30 minutes.  Takes less than a minute, but it makes me feel in charge.

It doesn’t feel burdensome because it was my decision.  I was expecting it to be helpful, but it has also given me a major boost in my confidence – and I feel happy every time it chimes because it reminds me that I created this way to cope, and I’m proud.

I even caught a bit of “missing time” on my very first day, and said to the alter who must have been out during the chime, “Wanna talk?  I’m strong enough to listen.  I would love to help and will do anything you need.”  I’m still waiting, but I haven’t had any missing time since then.

And at the end of the first day, I could see all I’d accomplished – exercise, supplements, energy work, good food, everything I wanted – and I felt great.

I’ve also been noting when I use my herbal medicine, so I can keep perfectly disciplined about how much I use, how often, and notice any corresponding reactions.  Any course correction I want to make is informed by clear memory.

(Why did no therapist ever suggest this??)

So, that’s the routine.  Every thirty minutes, the chime reminds me to breathe, relax, remember what I’ve been doing for 30 minutes, and record it.  I re-set the time, write what I’ve done for the last 30 minutes (sometimes a single word), how I feel, and anything else I want.

How the notebook is organized with a journal:

The current daily check sheet is right on top – best place – when I open the notebook, with previous daily check sheets behind.  Each day, a new one goes on top.

Behind those pages is a divider followed by my journal pages.  Since I write many pages a day, I refill it frequently with thirty or more blanks at a time.  To easily find the current page, I have a sticky-note attached to the back of the page before it, hanging out like a tab, so I can easily grab it and turn all the used pages at once.

Since I needed a way to record my thoughts, but also want to be able to look separately at dreams, accomplishments, and meditation/prayer, apart from my stream-of-consciousness journaling, I created a template that lets me record everything chronologically, but lets me see easily which category things fall into.

I hand-drew the template page (hand-drawing feels better, less rigid).  The pages, copied from the template, are filled mostly with lines for writing, with a space at the top for the page number – to keep this record of my life in careful order, hopefully with fewer and fewer missing gaps.

On the left are columns for noting date, day of week, phase of moon, and category of writing (A = Accomplishments, D = Dreams, J = Journal, M = Meditation/Self-Inquiry/Prayer.)

On the right is a column for the time I begin and end any passage, and I also record the time at the beginning and end of each page.  Right of that is a column for “notes” to point out things I don’t want missed.

If I am so into my writing when I begin or end a new page that I forget to note the time and don’t realize it until I am not sure of it, I write “oops” – to not reinforce the word forget – but to cheerfully encourage myself to do it next time.

So that’s the full Practice:  Daily check sheet of everything I want to do.  Daily summary of accomplishments and goals for the next day.  I’m reminded to breathe and relax every 30 minutes.  I feel in control of my life, in a very positive endeavor, which is showing results already.  The minutes it takes is not a hassle, but a joy.

I’ll soon sew a cloth cover for this notebook, with pockets for pens, phone, and paper things that make me happy, right now a collection of birthday cards given me a couple of months ago.  It’s good to be reminded every day that there are people who love us.  No reason not to carry those things around!

It’s my compensation package – what I need to compensate for my fractured mind – designed perfectly for me.  It makes me feel like I’ve given myself back to myself.

Extras:  A section for “scribbles” – I use when my mind is going too fast (or too many alters want to talk at once), where I can quickly jot brief notes to write about when the current subject is complete.  Art pages (and maybe a pocket for potential collage items for those art pages).  And even a page for my current best “talk to myself” for when I don’t feel like meditating!

Whenever I might take on a big project with multiple steps, I’ll add a section for planning pages that can be consulted or added to, perhaps in public, without searching through personal stuff.

And as soon as I figure out some other quirk of my mind, for which I need compensatory help, I’ll design a solution.

When the notebook is filled, I’ll remove all the pages at once, drop them in a file, and begin again.

I will post on how this continues.

Hope it’s helpful to someone out there.