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NEWSLETTER VOLUME 2, #3

Ideas for people pursuing an empowered life,


CONTENT

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A "LESSON FROM THE JUNGLE..." (Top)

The mind and its « ESP »

In America's jungles, the jaguar is both feared and admired, depending on who's looking. Anthropologist Carlos Castaneda, an author of 10 books on Mexican sorcery and an admirer, was given a spectacular demonstration of that noble cat's "mind-reading abilities".

Trapped in a mountain gulch by a mature cat one night, he came to realize that the jaguar was anticipating his every move. He described how it would cut off his avenues of escape... waiting at every turn. Each path, in whatever direction he tried to leave that gulch, warned him with the growls and roars ahead, and continuously forced his hasty retreat. He was frantic to escape when Juan Matus, the old "brujo", gave him invaluable advice: To think one way - with a clear intent - but act in a totally different way so as to confuse the cat

The plan was to feed the jaguar's "mind reading" with false data. When it became clear the suggestion was the only escape, he tried it. Happy to be free, he was ready for an in depth discussion on "ESP" - Extra Sensory Perception.

ESP refers to the mind's capacity to consider information other than what is normally picked by the body's 5 physical senses. This 6th sense potential is often called telepathy but can include such "extra perceptions" as precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis and more. Don Juan - the old sorcerer - was 100% right. Castaneda understood that we have and use many senses we're not usually aware of -i.e. we have subconscious sensors. Body-mind receives and processes information that cannot be attributed to sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste.

Beyond those five, the 6th might include our sense of balance for example. We stand erect because of the machinery in our inner ear. There, three loop-like semi-circular canals are working to orient your perception in terms of horizontal, vertical and diagonal.

You also have a solar sense. Your pineal gland receivers sunlight from photo-sensors in the eye. Stimulated by the sun, the pineal secretes a hormone called melatonin to regulate sleep and mood, among other things. When dysfunctional, this solar sense is responsible for depressive states like SAD - seasonally adjusted disorder - and others.

You have a magnetic sense. With a North to South orientation, Earth is like a huge bar magnet. Magnetite in the brain orients you in space. This "sense of direction" is used by dowsers to find geologic "ley lines" and, lately, by people who practice "Feng Shui" for home and business orientations.

What about your electric sense? Everything has electrons. Higher animals and some humans can sense the mineral world's piezo-electric charge before a seismic quake, for example. Some people feel incoming weather by sensing changes in their ion levels. Dogs are trained to sense epileptic seizure and other neuro-electrical ailments before they occur. Hysterical people and hormonally charged teens can cause poltergeist activity, influencing the continuum's electromagnetic field.

You have a "trigeminal sense" - i.e. there are nerves near the top of your face - around the nose and eyes - that carry touch and temperature sensors for such stimulants as chili pepper, menthol or eucalyptus. Consider how you'll change breathing patterns to send mint fumes high into your nasal cavity or how hot sauce will quickly create havoc there, even draining your sinuses at the dinner table. Those receptors are designed to receive sexual pheromones.

Ever hear of "synesthia"? That's where one sense seems to compensate for another. Blind people will look at sound and use their peripheral hearing to scan and zero in on its source. Autistic people can actually see sound as pulses of light and some can even feel odor. Etcetera.

And you have a proprio-receptive sense - i.e your body's muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons are constantly supplying data on position to your inner pilot. If you want to see folks mastering that particular 6th sense, come to the edges of Costa Rica jungle's, where the mountains meet the sea. Surfers will demonstrate how proprio-receptors allow their body to adjust blissfully to the demands of a 10 foot breaking wave with a left-handed curl.

So if surfers often sound like they're tuned-in to a separate reality... it's because they are. Like the great jaguars, they are using ESP to figure out the world's shifting tides. That way they might gain an edge.

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AN EMPOWERING TECHNIQUE, TOOL OR EXERCISE (Top)

Contemplative thinking means taking the time to think things through. How do you know if you are making the right decisions? This self-empowerment tool will guide you through the decision-making process. If you don't already have a good method, you'll get bogged-down in your "inner dialogue".

The process suggested here encourages you to make better decisions... by being true to yourself, "...you will not be false to God nor man." Try it a few times and you'll be amazed. Click here for the details.

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OUR FEATURED COSTA RICA TOUR (Top)

This month we are featuring "The Creative Team", a milder version of our adrenaline-filled week called "Building a Higher Performance Team". The focus of this curriculum is to increase the creative intelligence the participants and to direct that output to "breakthrough ideas" of concern to their own business. It benefits groups responsible for innovative ideas, services and products.

Following this weeklong innovation lab, you will have gained an important understanding of yourself and powerful insights into the brain/mind and its creative expression. You will also have experienced how to more efficiently function as a team-member and will have explored the concept of synergetic relationships in "self-organizing teams". You will have learned how individuals can attain higher intelligence and performance.

Check it out here.

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WEB LINKS TO HELP YOU WORK AND PLAY (Top)

April showers bring May flowers... if we get out there and garden. Maybe the following resources will jump-start your green juices.

Gardening is an outstanding way to add to the world's beauty, food, medicine and much more... while you rid yourself of any acquired stress. Work with Earth's elemental forces. Just starting out? http://wwww.icangarden.com will help.

Concerned about climate and other regional differences? Well in the great white North, the best resource is at http://www.canadiangardening.com but most places have their own magazine. Let http://wwww.google.com look it up for your area.

If you only have limited space, see http://www.cityfarmers.org and they'll explain how to do it on a rooftop, a balcony or in a box. It all begins with good soil... so check out http://www.primalseeds.org/soil.htm for the best recipes and then surf their site for a radical way to make a difference.

Then you'll need seeds, so for anything Primal doesn't offer, look at http://www.seeds.ca - unless you want medicinal plants of course - then http://www.richters.com is your best bet.

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SOME INSPIRING QUOTATIONS (Top)

"You can observe a lot by watching." - Yogi Berra

"One important key to success is self-confidence. And the important key to self- confidence is preparation." - Arthur Ashe

"Only those who risk going too far, can possibly find out how far one can go." - T.S. Elliot

"Trust in yourself. Your perceptions are often far more accurate than you are willing to believe." - Claudia Black

"An imperfect plan executed today, is better than a perfect plan you'll begin tomorrow." - Jim Anonymous

"You may be disappointed if you fail but you are doomed if you don't try." -- Beverly Sills

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A BIT OF A GIGGLE (Top)

Millennia ago in America's jungles, mighty sorcerers ruled. In those days, as soon as Creation's law - altruistic self-interest - was understood and accepted in full by an initiate, he or she was expected to set up his or her own school.

In this way the sorcerers spread the good news about creative self-empowerment on through the land. The process tamed the jungle and developed that part of the world so well later cultures remembered it as "Paradise", "Atlantis" and other mythical names.

In fact, for many years and throughout the American tropics, sorcerers with more or less experience and wisdom kept houses where local people learned to become healthier, wealthier and wiser.

Sometimes it didn't take too long before a student surpassed his master. Near Cholula in Central Mexico one day, there was an earthquake of such intensity that it shook the house where initiates lived together to learn from a newly graduated mystic. He had arrived from the South and gathered students when he solved local disputes with impressive skill.

Now the front parts of the house collapsed and many of the students were terrified. During the chaos that followed the first tremor, the young sorcerer shouted instructions and directed the traffic. When the earthquake and its aftershocks had finally abated, the teacher said, "Now you've had the opportunity to see how powerful sorcerers behave during a crisis. Fear has no place in the life of a 'nagual' - we learn to face all odds with serenity and inner strength. You may have noticed that I did not panic. I was fully aware of what was happening and "power" dictated what I should do."

Thinking he had an ideal "learning moment", he continued: "I led you all to the kitchen, the strongest part of the house. It was a wise decision because, as you see, we've survived and no one is hurt."

"However, I must admit, despite my self-discipline and personal power, I did feel a little bit apprehensive - which you may have realized from the fact that I drank a large cup of chicha, the corn liquor that was left on the table. As you know I no longer drink alcohol but I believe it was warranted under these extraordinary circumstances... I was very concerned for your safety."

One of the initiates then began to laugh loudly and with good-humor but otherwise didn't say a word.

"Why are you laughing?" asked the sorcerer.

"That wasn't a large cup of 'chicha'", the initiate replied, grinning widely, "...it was a large cup of chili sauce."


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