Friday 21 October 2011

The Mystery of Science

I have always had an inquisitive mind. I like to know how things work and not just take them at face value.

If I think about it, I even did it as a child. Doing something as simple as taking apart a music box to see how it worked is one of many of my memories, it never really occurred to me that other children didn’t do these things, and I always did it in such a way that I could put the item back together. Needless to say, my father came to me first if any of his tools were missing.

This way of thinking has also helped me as an adult. When I look at business or investing I naturally take this approach, I want to know the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of everything. This is why, for example, I trade my own shares instead of going through a broker.

When I meet new people, especially in business, this mindset comes across as “how and what can I learn from this person?”

Science is no different to me. I never studied it beyond standard 6 (grade 8), probably because it didn’t intrigue me at the time.

With the world’s ‘new’ approach to mind, body and soul, the concept of quantum physics is used quite often. Not much scientific explanation is given and this concept is generally taken at face value.

The ultimate sales pitch is that it can help you change your life to the life of your dreams. The actual words ‘quantum physics’ seem important and based on trustworthy science (not that it isn’t) but for most people the words also appear to be too immense and confusing to actually look into it and the research that backs it.

Naturally with my approach to life this lead me to buy books on the subject. I started with books on research by Newton and Einstein, starting at the beginning of the research with light particles and waves and moving onwards from there. It was all fairly “simple” and straight forward, laying out the basics of what science is but what did all this have to do with life altering experiences?

I then came across a book called “The Tao of Physics” by Fritjof Capra. What he did in his book was take all the basic scientific research and the discoveries in quantum physics and compared them to Eastern Mysticism. Finally a picture began to form.

What I had now was scientific principles that had the same principle of Eastern Mysticism but what I didn’t have is how science had come to this conclusion of MIND entering into the picture.

Now how do we bring the ‘mind’ into the picture to prove that our minds, or will, can change our realities?

I then discovered a series of books written by Lyall Watson. He wrote a series of scientific books in the late sixties, early seventies, that although slightly outdated, I have found incredibly interesting.

In case you were wondering, yes these books are “light” reading for me. Strange but true. I can be captivated for hours in stories of scientific discoveries and I can say one thing for sure, the truth is definitely stranger than fiction.

Lyall Watson’s series of books starts with a book called “Supernature”. What he does in his book is take actual scientific studies that prove that the ‘Supernatural’ really is a natural occurrence.

You might be wondering what this has to do with quantum physics.

What Dr Watson does NOT do is go around discussing quantum physics and how it fits into everything. However what he does do with these case studies is prove how the mind and body is measured, usually via brainwave and electromagnetic technology (at least the type of technology built up until the 1970’s) and how these affect real life experiences.

He discusses topics from astronomy to the aura to psychokinesis and how we can affect ourselves and our environment with our bodies and minds and how it can affect us in return.

This leaves me with not only fascinating stories to tell but also a way of how science discovered and built up experience and proof that we can change our lives through thought.

One thing I can say for sure is that if they had told some of these experiments to high school students, science would definitely have been a very popular topic.

With all this reading and learning I often find myself pondering and putting ideas together. I don’t know if other scientists have pondered the same thing as me, I am sure one or two of them at least have.

So for entertainments sake (well as entertaining as science can be), I am going to share one of my own theories with you. Please note that although I got the basics from scientific research, the theory is my own and isn’t scientifically proven, as far as I know.

I want to have a look at the aura. Scientists have proven that there is a ‘shell’ of energy around us (usually egg shaped) and that it has electromagnetic properties.

When trying to decide exactly what the aura was made up of, they finally classed it as a type of plasma.

Plasma is a mass of electrons moving at a rapid speed. These electrons are so ionised that they have actually broken free from their atoms (promise these should be the only big words I’m going to use). Back in the 1970’s plasma was seen as a gas but since then science has classed it as a fourth element, fire, which is burning gas.

Now for my theory.

If we look at our auras as a fourth element this would mean that we have a metabolic system surrounding our bodies. Since it is also an electromagnetic field, this means that our auras alone are burning oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. Though the aura surrounds our bodies, scientifically it isn’t seen as a part of our bodies, just something that surrounds us.

When we are injured or ill the aura above the area is usually hot or cold. Cold would mean that the aura in that area may be very weak, which means that part of the body would be ‘weak’ or functioning poorly. If the area is hot, this would mean a large amount of energy from the body is being used to heal itself in that specific area.

If the body is hot and the aura is hot in a specific area, surely that means there is something happening in the aura as well? My conclusion is that the body can heal itself from the inside out and the aura can help it to heal from the outside in.

If the area of the body and aura is cold and weak, this could mean the body is unable to heal itself and the person who is ill would need to seek medical attention.

And there you have it, my pondering mind. If you have any thoughts about this, or know of anything that can prove or disprove my ideas, feel free to let me know, I am always willing to learn.

Thank you.

)O(

Friday 14 October 2011

World Change

How the world has changed.

Today I had a conversation in Spanish. I have never spoken Spanish in my life before, never taken any classes and don’t understand a single thing about the language or culture at all.

So how is such an amazing feat even possible?

Modern technology.

When Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, he probably had no idea that someone (well, plural really) would take his idea of the Babel Fish and create a program around it. I suppose with the book having a somewhat science fiction theme he wouldn’t be too surprised about it.

For those of you who don’t know, a Babel Fish in the book was literally a small fish that you would put in your ear and you would be able to understand any language. In the real world however such a small and wonderful fish does not exist but should you Google Babel Fish an array of options will appear. They are simple programs where you type in what you want to say, select the language you want to say it in and hit the “translate” button.

Before you know it, you’ll be having a conversation with a complete stranger in an unknown language. The unfortunate thing is that this doesn’t happen in real life when you are face to face with a stranger speaking a different language.

Google it! A term we all use so often. If you want to find out about something you don’t know, for example Spain and its cultures, well then Google it. This is another phrase that would have made absolutely no sense just a few years ago. I suppose “encyclopaedia it” wouldn’t have made much sense either.

A status update – a what? Isn’t this something your parents did at work, or something? Surely it is not an everyday, if not hourly or less, activity of millions of people all around the world.

What about instant messaging, more commonly known as IM. No more waiting for weeks for a letter to come in the post. Just pop online, or whip out your phone, and you have instant contact with those near and dear to you who live all over the world.

The world definitely has become a smaller, stranger place. We live in a world of science fiction. A mere decade ago none of this would make sense and it would be only in the imaginations of fiction writers and the young inventors who had just a mere spark of an idea that will one day be a reality.

We live in this wonderful world but there is one small catch.

The human connection. We all still have people in our lives and we spend time with them so we are not completely lost but there is something that is almost lacking. There is so much technology between us. It is just easier to communicate that way, but sometimes we loose a little perspective. This week was a perfect example.

Blackberry went down for two / three days. No BBM (Blackberry messenger) no mobile instant internet. We were left with sms and phone calls. Honestly who calls anyone these days, it’s such a hassle and much easier to type a quick message and send it.

My two closest friends live overseas, it was my birthday and I felt so incredibly isolated. If I didn’t have a separate broadband bundle through my service provider and downloaded apps such as Google chat, I would have been completely lost.

All this technology in our lives really made me think this week. We have all come so far, technologically evolved yet we have gone backwards too, losing a bit of what makes us human.

This realisation is not a new one. Scientists are hired to run studies to see to what point technology has actually affected us.

I’m not one to judge, I won’t give up any of the above any time soon. Lying in my pj’s, having a conversation with a friend in France or a stranger in Spain is truly an amazing gift, though I think this weekend I might just play possum (or at least attempt to, for a few hours). I’m going to put away all my gadgets and spend some time being a human being, and spend time with other people, face to face not screen to screen.

Maybe I’ll even read a book.

Modern Technology & Old School Advice

This week I spent a moment thinking about the advice I would give to my teenage self, should I be able to go back in time but then I got sidetracked by other thoughts on modern technology.

If I went back in time there would be no facebook, no twitter even no myspace. Terms such as Blogging and vlogging would be completely unheard of, even lingo such us wtf, brb, OMG… all gone. Never mind the fact that the only internet connection came via a big box and Telkom and made that dreadful and frustrating dial up noise. Once online, if you were lucky, a webpage would take on average six to eight minutes to load. Can you imagine doing that now? Modern research has shown that on average if a webpage doesn’t load within 10 seconds it is usually closed by whoever wanted to view it.

Cellphones were literally the size of bricks and a rare commodity. Not every person in school had one.

For some reason we all managed to cope. If the phone rang and we didn’t pick up well, that meant we weren’t home.

Gossip was spread via whispers and pieces of paper not IM, BBM or SMS. If I wanted to make a new friend I would simply walk up to them and introduce myself to a complete stranger. Not knowing who they were was half the fun. Now we browse profiles and facebook which can pretty much give us an entire background check on someone before we decide if we want to be their “friend” online.

How I, my generation and those before us survived, I have no idea. It makes me wonder what the current generation of teenagers (and those in their early twenties) will look back on and wonder how they survived without it. Perhaps they will wonder about how they survived by actually reading books or buying and playing countless CD’s and DVD’s when everything is in their hands in one product.

Mp3 players are common place, tablets (I don’t mean the medication type) and ‘intelligent’ cellphones that can do everything for us.

I don’t own TV or hi-fi systems, I don’t have a huge CD or DVD collection what I do have is a notebook, the modern day version of the laptop.

After all, why would I want to own so many things that can take up so much space, when all I need is one device? It’s portable and light weight.

Should I have a party and need decent sound than I simply plug in a set of very small yet powerful speakers. If I want a bigger screen to watch movies on all I do is plug in a bigger computer screen and that is all I need.

If I told my teenage self where I would be right now and that cellphones will not only have colour screens but would go way beyond that, she would probably have asked about flying cars and the current fashions. The fashions haven’t changed much at all (retro is fashionable) and flying cars are still way in the future but we do have eco-friendly (eco-what?) and electric cars.

So after all this what was my advice to my teenage self?

• Do what I want and not what others expect of me.
• Start being kind to the environment now.
• Still go out and meet those complete strangers because that is how you will make friends for life.
• Buy shares in Microsoft.

I’m not sure how old or young you are but maybe spend a few minutes doing the same. Go back in time and visit your teenage self, look at the world that surrounds him or her and perhaps try to offer some advice.

The advice I gave to my teenage self is just as valid to me now as it was then, so better late than never. I will listen to my own words and take my own advice even though I’m not a teen anymore.

I’m off to price Microsoft share prices.

)O(

Friday 7 October 2011

Physiology and Spirituality

The concepts of dis-ease and well-thy have been bandied about quite a bit. They are not new terms to anyone, especially the notion of disease in our bodies and what is happening in our lives and how they are linked.

We all know about these concepts but we tend to not pay them any attention until we fall ill or something happens to our physical bodies or we simply just feel tired. Only then do we give our bodies the attention they require but for most of us, once we are in good health again, we forget all about them and continue with our lives as we did before.

For those who might not be familiar with the above two concepts, I will go through them briefly, though for the most part I’m sure everybody knows what I am talking about.

1. Dis-ease:

When we fall ill, or we injure ourselves, it can often be linked to a stress in our lives which causes our bodies to not be at ease. Therefore the word disease has been re-termed to dis-ease.

2. Well-thy:

This is a new concept that has come about recently. It means exactly what it sounds like. Health is the new Wealth. In some big corporations you are not allowed to see clients if you look a little tired or ‘unhealthy’, you are encouraged to look after yourself. In general the size of your wallet is measured according to how healthy you appear to be.

It is becoming more and more common for us to look at ourselves, our life situations and our spirituality whenever we become ill, particularly spirituality, why?

I believe that many people find peace within their personal spiritual beliefs. It is the one path most of us choose for ourselves in this life and the one thing we are most certain of. After we feed our Spirit with stress day in and day out when we feel ill we tend to look for that part of us that fills us with something good, that one part of our Spirit that “detoxes” all the bad stuff out of our systems.

Quite often this becomes a time when our Spirit feels tired and we would take a holiday away from our daily lives before we feel we are about to “crash and burn”.

This is a similar experience to what I have had this week. I’ve turned to strengthening my Spirit and clearing out the stress and guess what happened? I became sick.

For a moment I thought about it. Why am I getting sick now when I’m resting and not when I was in a stressful office? Why do so many of us get the flu when on holiday?

That was when I realised, not only am I working on myself spiritually and mentally but my body is following physically. It is detoxing on its own.

As it does this, I noticed certain areas of my body were worse off than others. For example my throat has been gradually getting worse this week. Our throats are our centres for communication. Believe it or not, as I discovered a few years ago, the throat chakra, when out of balance actually means we need to listen more. Not speak up but to quieten down.

So that’s what I’m learning to do right now. I’m not just physically keeping quieter to save myself the pain but I’m also quietening my mind because once my mind is quiet only then will I truly hear the message that is coming my way.

As most of you already know, for the past six months I have been working on Oprah’s magazine here in South Africa and I have been really passionate about my work. Last week Friday I walked away from the magazine, albeit not of my own choice. I will admit though, I was looking at making this decision but at the end of the day it was made for me.

The driving message behind the magazine is “Live Your Best Life”, which is also the message from Oprah herself. This is what helped me to walk away. I didn’t walk away from her and what her brand stood for as I was too passionate about that, what I walked away from was a company.

Have you ever watched “The Devil Wears Prada”? I won’t lie to you, the press passes to events and all the freebies were fabulous but being under constant deadlines and stress was not healthy for me. I am going to Live My Best Life and I believe I am now on the right path to do just that.

During my last week of working for the magazine I read an article reflecting on the last twenty five years of Oprah’s show and she said something very significant. This is in her words so she does speak of “God” as she is Christian, if you are not Christian replace it with what you feel comfortable with, The God/ess, the Universe, Life, etc.

“Tune in to the whisper. ‘God’ first speaks to you in a whisper, a hunch. If you don’t get that whisper you get a pebble to the head, then a brick, until finally you hit a brick wall, which is full blown crisis. I’ve learnt to listen to that small whisper – that still, small voice that says “Something’s not right. Pay attention”.”

I can tell you truthfully that I recently got the brick to the head, it definitely feels that way physically, and only now am I waking up and beginning to pay attention and working on avoiding that brick wall.

I am more aware now of constantly looking after myself and the need to listen. I am realising the importance of constantly being in touch with my Spirit and Spirituality and not waiting until I’m exhausted to look to these parts of myself.

If I listen to my body and keep my Spirit strong I won’t fall ill or exhaust myself.

I gave myself a bit of advice this morning that I wanted to share with you. I feel one of the biggest causes of my stress over the past few weeks has been self-doubt. Questioning whether or not I was on the right path, even though I have had several signs that have told me I am.

Don’t doubt, have faith.

Simple words, a whisper from within.

)O(

Monday 3 October 2011

Stress and Spirituality

Today I sat in the warm sun, clutching my cup of coffee and watching the wind blowing in the trees. Small moments like these are what we miss during our stressful, busy worker-bee lives, even if we don’t realise it.

I have had a very tough past few weeks and I allowed so much energy from outside sources consume me that I actually really missed my spiritual self.

I realised this some time last week when I sat in bed with a migraine and a sore and tired body. My spirit felt just as tired. I wondered how I had let this happen since it really is not a part of who I am, I treasure my spirit and myself.

I know that I am not the only one guilty of this. Some of us spend hours every day in traffic to get to somewhere where we really don’t want to be. We let our jobs consume us and leave little room for the small things in life that make us happy.

Our inner strength is weakened when our Spirit isn’t fed and our inner selves scream at us. We must allow our inner self to say what it wants to say, don’t ignore him / her. You can do this through meditation or just sitting quietly for a moment and actually listening to the thoughts running around in your head. Amongst all the chaos in your mind there is something there that is so small yet so important and you might miss it simply because you did not listen.

Every morning I write in my journal. At least three pages of all the thoughts in my mind, allowing them to flow from me and onto the page. I am always amazed at how this helps me, I am often able to work through the chaos in my mind and find a small insight about myself. That small insight is something I would normally never have thought of, and if I did, I might have lacked the courage to face it.

Writing in a journal might seem like a silly thing that only teenage girls do, trust me I was extremely suspicious about the idea. After all, why would I want to keep a journal? Someone had suggested it to me and she decided to make a deal with me.

I was to write at least three pages, of anything and everything, every morning before I started my day and every Monday we could reflect together and see if I had discovered anything new about myself after a few weeks. So, I gave it a try.

Three months down the line and I’m still writing every morning in my journal. Sometimes it has been hard to wake up earlier than normal to do what seems like a trivial task. Sometimes I feel I have to force three pages of writing out of myself and on other days it just flows on to four or five pages.

One thing I can tell you for sure is, keeping a journal and starting every day by clearing the chaos out of my mind has been an amazing, life altering experience. I have found so much of me that I did not know was there and I have been able to move forward and stop being stuck in a present situation.

Here are a few questions I would like you to answer for yourself:
• Do you feel stressed and over-worked
• Do you feel like you are facing a situation that you cannot see a solution to?
• Would you like the things you need in life to come to you?

Well, if you answered yes to any of the above, then I want to dare you to keep a journal. Try it for just a month. Write three pages every morning before you start your day. You might even find answers to some questions you felt needed answering.

If you are as cynical as I was, then let me say this. Give it a try, what could you possibly have to loose? If you feel as if a journal has not helped you in anyway after a month (four weeks), then feel free to complain, thewiccaseries@gmail.com, or in the comments section below.

If the opposite happens, and you find the pages immensely helpful then don’t stop after a month, just keep on going, make it a daily exercise for the rest of your life.

There is one rule though.

For the first two months (at least) of writing in your journal, whatever you do, DO NOT look back and re-read your pages. I’ve been writing for three months and I still haven’t looked back and I feel this may be one of the reasons I have been able to grow in my own personal capacity.

Over the past two weeks, with all the stress that seemingly consumed me, it was those daily journal entries that helped me to keep strong and grounded and I came out the other side with my Spirit and sanity in tact.

The only thing I have left to do now is to enjoy the small pleasures in my life. Having said that, I am going to go sit outside and watch the sun set on this wonderful, warm day.

)O(