How To Know God: The Soul's Journey Into The Mystery of Mysteries by Deepak Chopra M.D.

From Chapter One: A Real and Useful God

God has managed the amazing feat of being worshiped and invisible at the same time. Millions of people would describe him as a white-bearded father figure sitting on a throne in the sky, but none could claim to be an eyewitness. Although it doesn't seem possible to offer a single fact about the Almighty that would hold up in a court of law, somehow the vast majority of people believe in God -- as many as 96 percent, according to some polls. This reveals a huge gap between belief and what we call everyday reality. We need to heal this gap.

What would the facts be like if we had them? They would be as follows. Everything that we experience as material reality is born in an invisible realm beyond space and time, a realm revealed by science to consist of energy and information. This invisible source of all that exists is not an empty void but the womb of creation itself. Something creates and organizes this energy. It turns the chaos of quantum soup into stars, galaxies, rain forests, human beings, and our own thoughts, emotions, memories, and desires. In the pages that lie ahead we will see that it is not only possible to know this source of existence on an abstract level but to become intimate and at one with it. When this happens, our horizons open to new realities. We will have the experience of God.

After centuries of knowing God through faith, we are now ready to understand divine intelligence directly. In many ways this new knowledge reinforces what spiritual traditions have already promised. God is invisible and yet performs all miracles. He is the source of every impulse of love. Beauty and truth are both children of this God. In the absence of knowing the infinite source of energy and creativity, life's miseries come into being. Getting close to God through a true knowing heals the fear of death, confirms the existence of the soul, and gives ultimate meaning to life.

Our whole notion of reality has actually been topsy-turvy. Instead of God being a vast, imaginary projection, he turns out to be the only thing that is real, and the whole universe, despite its immensity and solidity, is a projection of God's nature. Those astonishing events we call miracles give us clues to the workings of this ineffable intelligence. Consider the following story:

In 1924 an old French villager is walking home. With one eye lost in the Great War and the other severely damaged by mustard gas in the trenches, he can barely see. The setting sun is bright, so the old man is completely unaware of the two youths on bicycles who have wheeled around the corner and are barreling down on him.

At the moment of impact an angel appears. He takes the lead bicycle by its two wheels, lifts it a few feet in the air, and sets it down safely on the grass beside the road. The second bicycle stops short, and the youths become tremendously excited. "There are two! There are two!" one of them shouts, meaning that instead of just the old man alone, two figures are standing in the road. The entire village becomes very worked up, claiming afterward that the youths were drunk or else have made up this fantastic tale. As for the old man, when he is asked about it, he says he doesn't understand the question.

Could we ever come to an answer ourselves? As it happens, the old man was a priest, Pere Jean Lamy, and the appearance of the angel has come down to us through his own testimony before his death. Lamy, who was saintly and beloved, seems to be credited with many instances where God sent angels or other forms of divine aid. Although reluctant to talk about them, his attitude was matter-of-fact and modest. Because of Lamy's religious vocation, it is easy to dismiss this incident as a story for the devout. Skeptics would not be moved.

Yet I am fascinated simply by whether it could have happened, whether we can open the door and allow helpful angels into our reality, along with miracles, visions, prophecy, and ultimately that great outsider, God himself.

We all know that a person can learn about life without religion. If I took a hundred newborn babies and filmed every moment of their lives from beginning to end, it wouldn't be possible to predict that the believers in God will turn out to be happier, wiser, or more successful than the nonbelievers. Yet the video camera cannot record what is happening below the surface. Someone who has experienced God may be looking on the entire world with wonder and joy. Is this experience real? Is it useful to our lives or just a subjective event, full of meaning to the person having it but otherwise no more practical than a dream?

One bald fact stands at the beginning of any search for God. He leaves no footprints in the material world. From the very beginning of religion in the West, it was obvious that God had some kind of presence, known in Hebrew as Shekhinah. Sometimes this word is simply translated as "light" or radiance. Shekhinah formed the halos around angels and the luminous joy in the face of a saint. It was feminine, even though God, as interpreted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is masculine. The significant fact about Shekhinah was not its gender, however. Since God is infinite, calling the deity He or She is just a human convention. Much more important was the notion that if God has a presence, that means he can be experienced. He can be known. This is a huge point, because in every other way God is understood to be invisible and untouchable. And unless some small part of God touches the material world, he will remain inaccessible forever.

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The Story of Mary the Mother of God
Her name was Mary, a form of the name Miriam, the famous sister of Moses. The name was common among Jewish women in those days.

A well-known tradition says she was born in Jerusalem, the daughter of Joachim and Ann. Other early sources say Mary was born in Nazareth. There is even an ancient record that points to Sepphoris, a town a few miles from Nazareth, as her birthplace.

Wherever she was born, Mary's life most likely unfolded in the staunch Jewish settlement of Nazareth in the hills of Galilee, not far from the important caravan routes linking Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The Jews there were a strong, robust people. The hill climate was dry and healthful. And though the land often lacked water and no one knew from one year to the next if enough rain would fall or if invading locusts or field mice would spoil the crops -- still, facing uncertainty only made the people of Galilee more hard-working and close-knit. Struggling for a living deepened their religious spirit. They learned you must depend on God always.


Her Daily Life
Mary was a woman of rural Galilee. She lived as they did, in a small family house of stone and mud-brick. She worked like any young girl, grinding wheat and barley into flour, preparing dishes of beans, vegetables, eggs, fruits, nuts, and occasional chunks of mutton. Wool had to be made into clothing. Bread had to be baked. A few chickens and a donkey had to be fed. And in the village, small as it was, there were always little children to care for.

Almost daily she carried a large jar of water from the town well for washing and cooking (the well still supplies modern Nazareth today and is called "Mary's Well"). Early on, the Jews found that cleanliness prevented disease, so frequent washing -- an important chore of women -- became part of their religious practice. The well also was a favorite spot where women talked and traded bits of everyday news.

Just as for the other women of Nazareth, the seasons and times of harvest determined what Mary had to do. With the first downpour of rain in October, the vital wheat crop was sown on the mountain fields, to be gathered -- if all went well -- in May. Small dark olives, knocked from dull green trees in September, had to be pressed into oil for lamps and food. In May or June, early figs were picked; in July, the softer juicy fruit. Grapes and pomegranates ripened in September and October. God blessed the hills of Galilee with his bounty, but it could never be taken for granted. The unpredictable land could just as well give nothing to those working it.

From the people of Nazareth Mary learned about life. Few strangers visited the town. It had little wealth, culture or learning. But just as a tiny drop of water contains a wealth of living organisms, so the small town of Nazareth had a rich life of its own. Children were born, young people married, someone died and was buried. Mary felt these joys and sorrows. A sheep was lost, a family quarreled, a son left home. From such small things, life's deepest lessons could be learned.


Her Rich Faith
The people of Nazareth had a strong Jewish faith. As God's chosen people, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Jews believed this land was theirs, given to their ancestors whom Moses led out of Egypt. They knew by heart the deeds of kings like David and Solomon and the words of prophets like Isaiah and Elijah. Even though the Romans, with Herod's family as their puppets, now occupied Palestine, the Jews of Galilee believed God would someday send a Messiah who would free Israel from her enemies.

They lived in a war-torn land. For centuries before the Roman occupation, conquering armies of Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians and Greeks fought over Palestine. Despite their wars, revolts and riots, the Jews remained a subject people -- taxed, bullied and despised by succeeding rulers. Like their compatriots, the Jews of Nazareth were never far from the dangers of political violence. During the Jewish uprisings in Galilee around 6 A.D. -- when Jesus was a child -- Roman legions captured the city of Sepphoris, sold all its inhabitants into slavery and burned the city to the ground.

For some Jews, foreign domination only fanned the fires of revolution more brightly in their hearts. Others, like the Pharisees, became more strictly conservative and exclusive in their religious practices. Still others, like Mary and many ordinary people of the land, became more and more aware that they were powerless themselves, but God, the all powerful, could raise up the lowly. Their faith was of the deepest kind:


"The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Blessed be the Lord.
The Lord our God, the Lord alone!
Therefore you shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart, and with all your soul
and with all your strength." (Deut. 6:4-5)
Mary's faith was strong. Yet, in fervently religious Nazareth with its high moral standards, she hardly stood out at all, even in the eyes of those who knew her best. Besides, as a woman living in a society where men counted most, she would be little noticed except as a mother and a wife.

When she was 15 or so, Mary's parents made plans for her to be married, as was customary in those days. They chose Joseph of Nazareth, a carpenter, for her husband. The engagement took place and Mary returned home to wait about a year before she would go to live with her husband as his wife. But then, something happened:


The Annunciation

"The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. He went in and said to her, 'Rejoice, so highly favored! The Lord is with you.'
"She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, 'Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God's favor. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a Son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob forever and his reign will have no end.'

"Mary said to the angel, 'How can this come about, since I am a virgin?'

"'The Holy Spirit will come upon you,' the angel answered, 'and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.'

"'I am the handmaid of the Lord,' said Mary. 'Let what you have said be done to me.'

"And the angel left her." (Luke 1:26-38)

The Gospels, compiled years after these events at Nazareth, tell the story of Jesus and recall Mary only incidentally. True, St. Luke's account sees Mary favored by God, the Lord's handmaid, a model believer. His story describes her fear and perplexity, her faith and acceptance during the angel's visit. But still, we are left to ourselves to imagine Mary's life and her experience when the angel left her.

The angel's message struck like lightning, changing everthing for her. Immense joy filled the young girl's soul when she conceived the child by the power of the Holy Spirit. But when the angel left, Mary was alone.


Living With Mystery
Nazareth certainly was unaware of the angel's visit. That day and the days afterward, men tended the fields, the aroma of fresh bread filled the village air, women talked around the well. The Word of God was made flesh, but the people of Nazareth saw nothing changed. In their eyes, Mary was still a young girl of 16, espoused to Joseph the carpenter.

Once the angel left, Mary faced some troubling questions with only faith to guide her. What about her marriage to Joseph? Since she was bearing a child that was not his, Mary had to face the anguishing prospect of divorce and the shame it could bring down upon her in a small town that frowned on an unfaithful wife. Even though he had a high regard for her, how could she explain to Joseph the mysterious act of God and an angel no one else saw?

The threat was removed when the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son and you must name him Jesus."

When Joseph woke, he took Mary as his wife to his home. Together they would do what God would have them do.


Mary Visits Her Cousin
Three months after the angel's annunciation, Mary visited her relative Elizabeth, the elderly wife of Zachary who served as a priest in the temple at Jerusalem. Mary had been told that this couple advanced in age was to have a child, too, "for nothing is impossible with God."


"Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zachary's house and greeted Elizabeth.
"Now when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said,

'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honored with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'" (Luke 1:39-45)

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then went back home. Finally, six months later, her own Son was born.

For the rest of the story see:
http://www.cptryon.org/compassion/mary/mother.html
for pictures, maps, woodcuts and paintings.

Being and Essense and Body and Mind

Considering the human being's essences, man looks at what he knows through experience, knowledge and what he is born with inside his body. Although being and essences does not require a body according to what God has revealed to man, few have experienced the after life long enough to tell us much about all that the eternal life entails to be a great body of knowledge from which we can draw upon to explain the mysteries of the mind body connection that philosophers have written about from the beginning of recorded history.

In order for man to best enjoy all the good things that our Lord has provided for us, human beings have sought a way to pass on their wisdom to others, so that they may learn more about God's wonderful creation and his plan for our salvation. We know that human beings were created in the image of God and that we have a body and mind that cannot be separated in physical reality and that the soul is that which gives life to the body. The mind is an aspect of our spiritual essence that lives forever and is also called our immortal soul. Therefore our Lord taught us that we should love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and all our strength. We should also love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

It is possible for everyone to obtain the reward of heaven. The knowledge of God's gifts to us is without limit. His grace endures forever and everyone can receive it. When we receive God's love, we are transformed through it. God loves everyone and yet not all are worthy of salvation that is why our Lord came to earth to save us from our sins. Human beings have the gift of free will. Everyone can love God and do his will or reject his love. Those who love God will receive sufficient grace to be able to obtain the reward of eternal life with him in heaven.

It seems that everyone wants to be happy and to enjoy living the good life, yet the only way anyone is going to obtain it is by first knowing what is good and what is evil. God has taught us what is right and what is wrong and all we have to do is to love God to enjoy the good life and receive heaven.

From the beginning, human beings have gone off in different directions to find a better place to live. They have learned how to tell their families where they wanted to live and what they wanted to do during their life.

From the desires to enjoy happiness, man has created society, community and cultures that have developed various laws, educational systems, politics, philosophies, economics, social, scientific and technological aspects of the good life. There are many other outgrowths of the human aspects of the body, mind and soul that we have learned about through education and personal experience. These are the extensions of the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of human life on earth.

In order to have a healthy body we need to ask ourselves "What do I need to do to be healthy?"

Health is concerned with the total human being and a person's environment. That is why we have all those aspects of the human experience to help us become healthy, holy and wise!

You Were Made In The Image Of God
God tells us that he made human beings in his image. We have potentially unlimited aspects like a holographic image. Our body is also a mind, a soul, a spirit, and a child of God.

We all have a personality, an ego, goals, motivations, passions, likes and dislikes. Yet the thing that most makes us like unto God is our goodness.

These are our strengths that are called virtues because they help us be more like our Lord who prayed that we all be one with him and God our Father.

He became man, lived, died for our sins and rose from the dead to show the world that he is God. He sent the Holy Spirit to guide us to eternal life with him, and to bless us with his gifts to transform the world to a place of joy, peace, love and goodness.

The Bible tells us how much God loves us and how to enjoy the good life. The church continues the work of our Lord to bring all people to him.

Through the virtue of knowledge we obtain understanding and through understanding wisdom. With wisdom we can be prudent, and through prudence we can have counsel, justice, fortitude and reverence.
Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called "cardinal"; all the others are grouped around them. They are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

The three theological virtues are: faith, hope and charity. The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man's faculties for participation in the divine nature: for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity.

Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.

The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity inform and give life to the moral virtues. Thus charity leads us to render to God what we as creatures owe him in all justice. The virtue of religion disposes us to have this attitude.

1841 There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. They inform all the moral virtues and give life to them.
1842 By faith, we believe in God and believe all that he has revealed to us and that Holy Church proposes for our belief.
1843 By hope we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life and the graces to merit it.

1844 By charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. Charity, the form of all the virtues, "binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Col 3:14).
1845 The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon Christians are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts and by a perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by divine grace. With God's help, they forge character and give facility in the practice of the good. The virtuous man is happy to practice them.

It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance. Christ's gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow his calls to love what is good and shun evil.

The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being.

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."

Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.

Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces of state that accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian life and of the ministries within the Church:

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.55

2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved.56 However, according to the Lord's words "Thus you will know them by their fruits"57 - reflection on God's blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers us a guarantee that grace is at work in us and spurs us on to an ever greater faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.

A pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: "Asked if she knew that she was in God's grace, she replied: 'If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there.'"58

All Of Creation Is Moving Light
Introduction to Sacred Geometry

Sacred Geometry is the blueprint of Creation and the genesis of all form. It is an ancient science that explores and explains the energy patterns that create and unify all things and reveals the precise way that the energy of Creation organizes itself. On every scale, every natural pattern of growth or movement conforms inevitably to one or more geometric shapes.

As you enter the world of Sacred Geometry you begin to see as never before the wonderfully patterned beauty of Creation. The molecules of our DNA, the cornea of our eye, snow flakes, pine cones, flower petals, diamond crystals, the branching of trees, a nautilus shell, the star we spin around, the galaxy we spiral within, the air we breathe, and all life forms as we know them emerge out of timeless geometric codes. Viewing and contemplating these codes allow us to gaze directly at the lines on the face of deep wisdom and offers up a glimpse into the inner workings of the Universal Mind and the Universe itself.

The ancients believed that the experience of Sacred Geometry was essential to the education of the soul. They knew that these patterns and codes were symbolic of our own inner realm and the subtle structure of awareness. To them the "sacred" had particular significance involving consciousness and the profound mystery of awareness ..... the ultimate sacred wonder. Sacred Geometry takes on another whole level of significance when grounded in the experience of self-awareness.

The gift of lightSource is that it actually allows you to experience that essential self within the designs of pure Source energy. As the blueprints literally come to life before your eyes, you are propelled into ecstatic play with the very the heart of Creation.

The Platonic Solids

As far back as Greek Mystery schools 2500 years ago, we as a species were taught that there are five perfect 3-dimensional forms -The tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. Collectively these are known as The Platonic Solids -- and are the foundation of everything in the physical world. Modern scholars ridiculed this idea until the 1980's, when Professor Robert Moon at the University of Chicago demonstrated that the entire Periodic Table of Elements -- literally everything in the physical world -- is based on these same five forms! In fact, throughout modern Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, the sacred geometric patterns of creation are being rediscovered, but often without the greater context of spiritual understanding which protects against their misuse. One of our intentions with lightSource, is to provide a bridge to an intuitive spiritual understanding that is in alignment with the appropriate use of this knowledge.

The Elements of lightSource

Geometric shapes actually represent the manifest stages of 'becoming'. To see and work with unity and wholeness in geometry can help abolish our false notion of separateness from nature and from each other. Through Sacred Geometry we can discover the inherent proportion, balance and harmony that exists in any situation, all manifest reality and even the circumstances of our day-to-day life.

It was Marcel Proust who said, " The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes." To that end, lightSource Vol.1 visually offers up thirteen of the world's most auspicious and elementally powerful geometric designs brought to life through technological artistry and revealing the inherent magic and order at play in the universe.

The Energy in Action

Leonardo Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician who introduced to Europe and popularized the Hindu-Arabic number system (also called the decimal system). He contributed greatly to number theory, and during his life published many important texts. He is also known for the Fibonacci Series, a numerical series found frequently in the natural world.

The Fibonacci sequence is generated by adding the previous two numbers in the list together to form the next and so on and so on.(1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55...). Divide any number in the Fibonacci sequence by the one before it, for example 55/34, or 21/13, and the answer is always close to 1.61803. This is known as the Golden Ratio.

One of the most profound and significant activities encompassed within sacred geometry and lightSource is the 'Golden Mean Spiral', derived by using the 'Golden Ratio'.

The Golden Mean was used in the design of sacred buildings in ancient architecture to produce spiritual energy that facilitated connectivity with spiritual realms through prayer.Our reality is very structured, and indeed Life is even more structured.

This is reflected though Nature in the form of geometry. Geometry is the very basis of our reality, and hence we live in a coherent world governed by unseen laws. These are always manifested in our world. The Golden Mean governs the proportion of our world and it can be found even in the most seemingly proportion-less (active) living forms.

Clear examples of Sacred Geometry (and Golden Mean geometry) in Nature and matter:

All types of crystals, natural and cultured.

The hexagonal geometry of snowflakes.

Creatures exhibiting logarithmic spiral patterns: e.g. snails and various shell fish.

Birds and flying insects, exhibiting clear Golden Mean proportions in bodies & wings.

The way in which lightning forms branches.

The way in which rivers branch.

The geometric molecular and atomic patterns that all solid metals exhibit.

The way in which a tree spans out so that all its branches receive sunlight

Another, perhaps less obvious but most significant example of this special ratio can be found in Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) - the foundation and guiding mechanism of all living organisms.

The understanding of geometry as an underlying part of our existence is nothing new, and in fact the Golden Mean and other forms of geometry can be seen imbedded in many of the ancient monuments that still exist today. The Great Pyramid (the oldest of these structures) at Giza is a good example of this. The height of this pyramid is in Phi ratio (e.g. the Golden Mean Ratio) to its base. In fact, the geometry in this particular structure is far more accurate than that found in any of today's modern buildings.

This explains why popular among spiritually significant shapes are pyramids and hemispheres (e.g. the domes, that are the basis of religious buildings, be it a mosque, a church or a synagogue). These particular shapes are energy emitters; they are shapes that produce a type of penetrating carrier wave which Chaumery and De Belizal named negative green (which acts as carrier-like radio waves that carry sound information). The vibrational quality of the Golden Mean gives it very strong communication properties, which facilitate resonance with higher realms in prayer.

We live in the 3rd dimension, or the 'Plane of Manifestation'. The Golden Mean is an intra-dimensional doorway though which matter emerges into manifest 3-D reality. For example, when a star is born it follows specific number sequences or universal rules, the same rules of life in the expansion process. Then we see the light!



Thus the Golden Mean is the "fingerprint" of creation. When we re-create this moving and always expanding sequence, we have in effect - 'the exact movement of creation in the expansion process'. When lightSource is playing, one is encountering and literally being bathed in this 'Golden Ratio' creation activity...undeniably one of the most harmonious, balancing experiences one can interact with.

The Magic of Geometry

Bio-Geometry is a science that deals with the effect of geometrical shapes on life functions and the design of shapes that interact with earth's energy fields, to produce special pre-calculated effects on biological systems.

It was developed by Dr lbraham F. Karim D.Sc. in Cairo, Egypt, who has been conducting research in these disciplines since 1968. The tools necessary for the measurement of the energy of geometrical shapes are based on the science of Microvibrational Physics, or Physical Radiesthesia, as it was named by the French radiesthesists, Chaumery and De Belizal around the years 1930-1940, (and later developed by Dr. Karim).

Research in Bio-Geometry was, and still is, mainly dedicated to the development of a new form of architecture that would enhance the human biological system and give a new meaning to the concept of Home.

To upgrade the energy quality of existing homes so as to cancel the potentially harmful effects of unchecked energy fields due to the architectural design, furniture layout, electrical wiring and modem appliances, specially designed decorative elements are strategically placed to neutralize negative energy and add a positive quality to it.

Bio-Geometrical shapes, when designed or engraved on jewelry, have shown positive effects on the body's energy field, and reduce the potential health hazards caused by cellular phones, computers and other modern appliances.

In many ways the science and metaphysical discipline of Bio-Geometry provides one of the underpinnings to support what many know today as Feng Shui.


Higher Harmonics Within The Golden Mean: The Magic of Geometry and Color
Particular shapes are energy emitters; they are shapes that produce a type of penetrating carrier wave which Chaumery and De Belizal named 'negative green', which acts as carrier-like radio waves that carry sound information. The vibrational quality of the negative green gives it very strong communication properties, which facilitate resonance with higher realms in prayer. This explains why popular among spiritually significant shapes are pyramids and hemispheres (e.g. the domes, that are the basis of religious buildings, be it a mosque, a church or a synagogue).

A revival of the ancient design criteria, or canons, in moderm architecture was attempted by the Swiss pioneer of the modem architecture Le Corbusier, with his "modular" system which comprised two scales of dimensions based on the Golden Ratio. The Russian researcher, Scariatin, who wrote under the pseudonym of Enel and published his first books on radiesthesia in Egypt in the forties, was the first to discover that one aspect of the negative green vibrational quality was an integral part of spiritual energy fields and increased with the spiritual evolution of the person.

Inspired by Scariatin's work, Dr. lbraham F. Karim has done extensive research and found that Bio-Geometrical shapes have three primary vibrational qualities: (1) negative green, (2) a higher harmonic of ultra-violet, and (3) a higher harmonic of gold. Only shapes which produce energy fields with all three components are Bio-Geometrical.

lightSource produces and emits all three components: negative green, a higher harmonic of ultra-violet, and a higher harmonic of gold.

http://www.spiraloflight.com/ls_sacred.html

TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE (TCM): Cancer Treatment
As Chinese medicine becomes more available as a system accessible to the general public, more and more people suffering with cancer are coming to utilize the rejuvenating effects of the Chinese herbal, acumoxa, dietary and qigong therapies to prolong life and aid in their recovery from this powerful illness. Although Chinese medicine has evolved primary treatments for the treatment of cancer, in this country there are still legal problems with this approach, and most western cancer patients at this time will choose to combine biomedical treatment with alternative therapies.

Although a limited number of successes have been recorded with biomedical treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, time and research have shown limitations to success, and the search for better treatments and cures continues. Many forms of cancer, although proven to be unresponsive to chemotherapy, continue to be treated by this method.

Often chemotherapy, surgery and radiation will cause damage to healthy as well as to diseased tissues, and weaken the immune system. This is where Chinese medicine can be very helpful.

The concept of "side effects" is not recognized as such in Chinese medicine. The toxic effects of certain medicines is recognized according to degree, and if it is necessary to use a 'toxic' substance medicinally, it will be prepared in a special manner or combined with other medicines to reduce or eliminate toxicity if possible. For example, fu zi/rx. aconiti is considered toxic, but it has a very strong medicinal power to mobilize and rescue yang qi to the spleen and kidney. It is usually combined in Chinese herbal prescriptions with sheng jiang/rx. zingiberis and gan cao/rx. glycyrhhizae to neutralize the toxic effect. Sometimes the principle of du yao gong xie/use toxin to attack pathogenic evil is used clinically; we can look at the modern use of chemotherapy according to this principle, if not in the degree of its clinical application in biomedicine. In Chinese medicine, it is considered unthinkable to damage the host or the zheng qi/correct qi in any clinical intervention.

Chinese herbal medicine treats the use of most chemotherapeutic agents and radiation as "heat toxins" that damage the yin and qi. However, such chemotherapy drugs as cisplatin lower sperm counts (weaken jing/essence), cause stomatitis (heart fire), diarrhea (damage to spleen qi), hearing loss, and leukopenia. In Chinese medical analysis, cisplatin will kill fast-growing cells, such as mucosa and intestinal lining as well as cancer cells, weaken kidney jing and yang, weaken spleen yang, aggravate heart fire all at the same time .

This shows the extreme effects of toxic substances on the body, which can cause damage to yin, yang, qi and blood, and cause extreme hot and cold reactions concurrently. In Chinese cancer hospitals, the use of chemotherapy and radiation are often combined with the use of herbal medicine to protect the body/mind from damage as much as possible. Dosages of chemotherapeutic drugs also tends to be lower than in western countries. In my opinion, it makes clinical sense to use the least toxic dose possible of anti- cancer drugs, radiation or surgery given concurrently with herbal prescriptions to protect the body and zheng qi/correct qi from damage. This may help relieve discomfort and suffering to the patient, and also minimize the suppression of immune function. This is a realistic expectation, considering the more lengthy goal of using Chinese herbs, diet, qigong and acumoxatherapy more extensively in cancer therapy in the west..

Presently, a practitioner of Chinese medicine may be asked to do the job of a "mop-up crew", cleaning up the side-effects of excessive drug treatment. In filling this demand, however, we can do much good. At the same time, this effort should not compromise us in seeing the shortcomings of this type of therapy.

In Chinese medicine, the optimum functioning of spleen/stomach qi is considered critical to life. According to the classics, when spleen/stomach qi is damaged or in decline, a patient's life and health are in danger. Chemotherapy drugs often will damage the lining of the stomach and intestines, leading to symptoms of nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and a burning sensation. The toxins produced by cancer cells will often weaken the spleen/stomach qi as well. Chinese adjunctive cancer therapy includes supporting the spleen/stomach qi and its function of digestion and assimilation. Formulas such as shen ling bai zhu tang/ Ginseng, Poria and Atractylodes Decoction and liu jun zi tang/Six Gentlemen Decoction are ideal for this purpose, containing herbs to strengthen the spleen/stomach such as Ren Shen/Ginseng and Bai Zhu/Atractylodes, as well as herbs to clear phlegm and damp such as Ban Xia/Pinellia and Chen Pi/Citrus Peel. These formulas could be either supplemented or replaced by Yin tonics in cases of extreme heat and/or dryness of the Stomach, which would be aggravated by this formula if used alone. However, many types of cancer show accumulation of phlegm and damp, and Six Gentlemen Decoction will be efficacious in these cases.

Supplementing the yin is also very important for many patients receiving conventional cancer treatment. the fire and toxin created by both radiation and most chemotherapeutic drugs, wastes the yin, leading to dry mouth, thirst, mouth sores, constipation and scanty, dark urination. The pulse may be rapid and thready, the tongue red, dry and cracked. The shen may also be disturbed by the heat buildup in the chest. Aggressive treatment over time can often disturb the kidney and heart/shao yin aspect, leading to insomnia, restlessness, disorientation, sterility, lower back pain, and palpatation. Formulas such as liu wei di huang wan/Rehmannia Six Flavor Pill, tian wang bu xin dan/Celestial Emperor's Heart Supplementing Pill, and zhi bai di huang wan/Anemerrhena, Phellodendron and Rehmannia Six Flavor Pill are very useful in these cases. When there are signs of lung and stomach yin vacuity, including stomach pain and burning, dry mouth, dry cough, dry skin, a peeled red tongue with scanty yellow coat, and a thin, thready, rapid pulse, sha shen mai dong yin/Glehnia and Ophiopogonis Cool Decoction is a choice formula.

Finally, yi guan jian/Linking Decoction is very useful for liver and kidney yin vacuity with liver qi depression, a common pattern encountered with cancer patients.

It is important to support the zheng qi/correct qi to defend the body against the various forms of cancer, which can only thrive in a disordered body and mind. The weakening of zheng qi/correct qi by stress, environmental toxins, dietary and lifestyle indiscretions can take its toll, allowing cancer to proliferate, and even pass on a constitutional predisposition to the disease. The medicinal mushrooms are all very effective for strenghtening and repairing body/mind intelligence and immune function. Both xiang gu/lentinus (shitake) and ling zhi/ganorderma (reishi) mushrooms have been shown to have strong anti-tumor effects in recent studies, and are powerful strengthening agents to the zheng qi . In the Shen Nung P'en Tsao/Divine Husbandman's Materia Medica, ling zhi is considered to be a "superior" herb, with strong supplementing properties to all of the yin viscera. In recent Chinese studies, it was also shown to be valuable in reducing the damaging effects to blood and yin from chemotherapy. Cordyceps/dong chong xia cao is another medicinal fungi from the Chinese pharmacoepia used to aid in recovery from a severe illness, and especially strengthens immune function.

Huang qi/astragalus is one of Chinese medicine's supreme qi supplementers, and has been shown to be the most effective herb to restore damaged immune systems. It is presently used routinely in oncology departments of Chinese hospitals. In a joint study between a Texas pharmaceutical company and a hospital in Beijing, it was found that astragalus was most effective when combined with nu zhen zi/ligustrum, another yin supplementing herb for the liver and kidney, which has been shown in modern studies to have a strong immune strengthening effect. Astragalus is a major component with ren shen/ginseng (also shown to have anti-tumor and immune- enhancement effects) in bu zhong yi qi tang/Supplement the Middle and Augment the Qi Decoction, a major yang and qi supplementing formula.

Many of the chemotherapy anti-cancer agents were discovered in the plant world. Today, massive searches and clinical trials are sponsored in the rain forests and wilderness regions around the world for new cancer cures. At the present time, clinical trials and research are being sponsored by pharmaceutical companies on Chinese herbs that have anti-cancer properties. Vincristine and vinblastine, taken from madadasgar periwinkle, were discovered by the Lilly drug company during clinical trials done on so-called "folk treatments" used in different cultures for cancer treatment. However, it may be that the vast herbal pharmacopia may be best utilized in the traditional method of polypharmacy, where many ingredients are combined to reduce and eliminate side effects while balancing all the systems of the body.

To conclude, Chinese herbal medicine is the therapy of choice in treating the side-effects of Western oncological treatments, and is proven in its effectiveness. However, we should not ignore the tremendous potential of Chinese medicine in the treatment of cancer as a major therapy in its own right.

http://www.china-rmb.com/china-english/tcm/TCM-summary.htm

HOW TO LIVE THE GOOD LIFE

HOW TO LIVE THE GOOD LIFE
Every day and in every way become better, better and better. Learn to love life and everything that God created so that you see everything becoming fulfilled. It is only by being a child of God that you will become fulfilled.

Life is about knowing what to do and then doing it. The Bible is the best written source for you to know every day the Priest starts the 6 AM prayers by saying "You can not love God and Mthe truth and be set free of human errors. You will not find happiness if you seek fame or fortune, or gold or glory.

In Saint Andrew's Seminary ammon. Either you will love one and despise the other, or you will take one to your heart and neglect the other!"

The heart of prayer is to be yourself when you talk to God. You do not have to say anything when you pray. Just center yourself and give praise to God for being alive. You do not have to do anything when you pray. You are human beings not human doers.

If you think you really know something, you are wrong because knowledge is incomplete. The greatest minds once thought that their knowledge was complete, but they thought that the world was flat, and that the earth was the center of the world.

Even Einstein thought that he could figure out the mind of God; but then he said that his greatest discovery had been his greatest blunder, however even this is being revived with the understanding of dark matter and dark energy.

Many say that Socrates was the wisest man because he knew that he did not know anything. The Greeks taught that the most important thing to know is to know yourself, but not many of them knew of the Jewish religion early in their civilization.

Today most of the world has heard of school and yet still most do not have an education. The goal of education is to teach an individual how to learn how to learn. Yet we all know that we need to know the right things to know to be truly successful human beings.

There have been many groups that thought they knew what was best for us to know. No matter what they where called, all of them fail if the student does not learn about the true way of life. Teaching, books, media, and culture all have a place in our learning. However, no one can tell another that this is what you need to know to be perfect, fulfilled, self realized, or successful.

The Buddhist answer to the question, "What should you do, if you meet a perfect teacher? You should kill him." is too harsh for some to imagine, yet our Lord sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us to eternal life.

The key is to always seek goodness; and all those good things that our Lord has done will become ours besides all the good things that the world has to offer, for that is what God has promised to us all, who listen to his word and seek the Holy Spirit to guide us to eternal life!

WESTERN HOLISTIC TEACHERS
Surnames: A to G at the Esalen Institute
www.esalen.org

A
Ralph Abraham, also known as the
"godfather of chaos," is a professor of mathematics
at University of California at Santa
Cruz. He's authored mathematical texts and
nonfiction works on mathematics and is
writing a book on social applications of
chaos and complexity. p. 65

Mark Abramson is a part of the
Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine
and heads the Mindfulness Based Stress
Reduction Program at Stanford Hospital
and Stanford University. He teaches at
Stanford's School of Medicine and is on staff
at Stanford Hospital. p. 11, 29

Jeanne Achterberg is a pioneer,
visionary, writer, and scientist, who was featured
in Time Magazine as one of six innovators
of medicine for the coming century.
Currently, she researches prayer and healing
on the Big Island of Hawaii and teaches
at Saybrook Institute. p. 71

Ayo Adeyemi was born in Ijebu,
Nigeria and cofounded (with his wife
Carole) Yoruba House in Los Angeles. In
addition to being a master of the Yoruba
rhythms, he is a Babalowo in the Ifa' religion.
p. 20

Carole Zeitlin Adeyemi cofounded
Yoruba House in Los Angeles in 1992 with
her husband Ayo. Together they have introduced
thousands of people to the Yoruba culture
and the spirituality of community
drum and dance. p. 20

Adyashanti is a spiritual teacher who
experienced deep realization during 15 years
of Zen practice. Founder of the Open Gate
Sangha in 1966, his expression of truth
springs spontaneously from emptiness, as he
guides people into an intimate investigation
of their true nature. p. 53

Mandy Aftel is the founder and president
of the Artisan Natural Perfumers
Guild. She works with pure and natural
essences creating one-of-a-kind individual
perfumes, as well as formulating private
label fragrances. Her latest book is Essence
and Alchemy: A Book of Perfume. p. 73

Ramon Albareda is a clinical psychologist,
theologian, and sexologist. He is
the founder/director of Estel, a center of personal
growth in Barcelona, and creator of
Holistic Sexuality. He is the coauthor of
Nacidos de la Tierra: Sexualidad,
Origen del Ser Humano. p. 24, 26

Schahila Ute Albrecht is a visionary
artist who travels in different realities,
internally and internationally. With a
background in psychology and psychotherapy
she supports and teaches people in unfolding
their intuitive and psychic abilities.
p. 77

Ronald Alexander, a psychotherapist
in Santa Monica, Calif., has explored
Buddhist meditation and healing disciplines
since 1971. A business and entertainment
industry coach, he focuses on leadership, creativity,
and communication, integrating
Eastern wisdom with Gestalt and contemporary
psychotherapies. p. 20, 72

Martine Amita Algier is a certified
trainer for The Center for Nonviolent
Communication. A founding member of the
West Marin Community Mediation Board,
she teaches and consults privately with families,
business groups, schools, and other
organizations in California and Europe.
p. 72

Kathy Altman is on the teaching faculty
for Gabrielle Roth's institute, The Moving
Center, and has studied with Gabrielle for
25 years. She cofounded The Moving Center
School in California, and maintains a
teaching practice in Mill Valley. p. 23

Katherine Anderson was one of
Oscar Ichazo's first American students, as
she joined him in Arica, Chile in 1970 from
Big Sur, California. She has been a classical
5-Element Acupuncture practitioner and
longtime Arica teacher. p. 43

Susan Anderson is a psychotherapist
who specializes in helping people overcome
heartbreak, loss, and abandonment. She is
the founder of Abandonment Recovery, a
worldwide program of techniques and support
groups that help people overcome their
abandonment wounds past and present.
p. 11

B
Nancy Bacal, lyricist, screenwriter, and
longtime Esalen leader, edited Leonard
Cohen's anthology Stranger Music and
wrote and produced Raga, a film starring
Ravi Shankar. She conducts ongoing writing
workshops in Los Angeles and San
Francisco. p. 41

James Bailey is a third-generation
physician/health educator who has been living
yoga for 17 years with his wife, Shiva
Rea. He practices Ayurveda, Oriental
Medicine, and tantra yoga, and is a contributing
editor and columnist for Yoga
Journal, Light on Ayurveda, and other
publications. p. 53

Oliver Bailey is a practitioner and
instructor of Esalen Massage. His background
includes training in Gestalt Practice,
neurolinguistic programming, intuitive
work, and meditation. p. 77

Richard Balaban, a licensed clinical
psychologist and certified group psychotherapist,
has taught at Indiana University and
SUNY at Buffalo. His passion is for his family,
his work, and life's journey. p. 16

Anat Baniel began studying the
Feldenkrais Method in early childhood in
her native Tel Aviv and later became the
student and apprentice of Moshe
Feldenkrais. She works extensively with
infants and children, health-care professionals,
and musicians. p. 17

James Baraz has taught vipassana
insight meditation retreats and classes since
1977. Cofounder of Spirit Rock Meditation
Center in Marin County, Calif., he holds an
MA in psychology and has a counseling
practice in Berkeley. p. 40, 69

Flora Bardet trained with S. Rahardja,
founder of the White Crane Silat school of
Indonesia. Experiences from 25 years of
learning and teaching Silat in Indonesia
flavor her Western trainings, which emphasize
Silat as a path of health, expansion, and
women's empowerment. p. 55, 56

Amelia Barili is an Argentine-born
journalist and university professor who
teaches Latin American literature at UC
Berkeley. Coauthor of Conversations with
Borges, she is the author of Jorge Luis
Borges y Alfonso Reyes and the forthcoming
Borges, A Weaver of Dreams.
p. 30, 73

Ysaye Barnwell has since 1979 performed,
composed, and recorded with the
internationally renowned a cappella quintet
Sweet Honey In The Rock. She leads workshops
throughout the U.S., in Great Britain,
and Australia. p. 50, 52

Michael Baroff is the owner of The
Inner Work of Work, in Santa Monica. He
works with individuals and organizations
on productivity, communication, and effectiveness,
and is a coach and trainer. p. 40

Steve Barr cofounded Rock the Vote, the
organization that produced the first upward
surge in voting for 18-24 year olds since the
passage of the 26th Amendment. Barr also
spearheaded the Motor Voter Bill, which
helped to create a larger, more diverse, and
more reflective American electorate. p. 70

Sondra Barrett, teacher, award-winning
photographer, and "recovering scientist,"
has taught healing practices for more
than 25 years. A student of shamanism,
qigong, and expressive arts, she is author of
the CD Molecular Messengers of the
Heart and the forthcoming book, Mystic
Molecules. p. 20

Ellen Bass has supported, encouraged,
and inspired writing for 30 years. Her books
include No More Masks!, The Courage
to Heal, and Mules of Love, which won
the 2002 Lambda Literary Award for poetry.
p. 55

Therese Baxter has trained in and
practiced medical ki for 20 years. She is an
instructor of PhysioSynthesis with 26 years'
experience in the Alexander Technique. She
has a private SIKE practice in Los Angeles,
and works extensively with performing
artists. p. 22

Ruth Beaglehole is the founder/executive
director of The Center for Non-Violent
Education and Parenting. Author of Mama,
Listen! Raising a Child Without
Violence, Ms. Beaglehole has been a
preschool/parent education teacher for over
40 years, specializing in nonviolent parenting.
p. 60

Tandy Beal, dancer, choreographer,
actress, comedienne, and dreamer, has performed
as a solo artist and with her own
ensemble in major cities and festivals
throughout the world. She was artistic
director of the Pickle Family Circus from
1991-2000. p. 35

Sharon Beckman-Brindley is a
clinical psychologist working in both public
and private settings for 23 years. She has
over 20 years of meditation experience and
for 8 years has taught mindfulness practices
to Virginia therapists in yearlong seminars
on Unconditional Presence. p. 32

Denise Berezonsky is associate
director of The Breema Health and
Wellness Center, a senior instructor at The
Breema Center, and coauthor of a book on
Self-Breema. She teaches Breema worldwide
and leads wellness retreats. p. 30

Cynthia Johnson Bianchetta is a
photographer, movement artist, and authorized
Continuum Movement teacher, teaching
dance and movement for more than 30
years. Former director of the Weston
Photographic Gallery, her websites are
www.sacredearthphotography.net and
www.movingspirit.net p. 26

Daniel Bianchetta has been teaching
meditation and intuitive practice at Esalen
for over two decades. A photographer as well
as Esalen's media coordinator, his photographic
interests are the Big Sur coast and
Native American rock art. p. 26

Charlie Bloom is a teacher, consultant,
and therapist specializing in relationship
issues. He has designed and facilitated experiential
seminars since 1982, and codirects
The Empowerment Network with his wife
Linda. p. 14, 15, 70, 76

Linda Bloom is a psychotherapist, seminar
leader, and codirector of The
Empowerment Network. She has facilitated
relationship workshops throughout the U.S.
as well as internationally. p. 15, 70

Julie Bowden, psychotherapist and
author, specializes in childhood trauma,
substance abuse, and forgiveness. Coauthor
of Recovery: A Guide for Adult
Children of Alcoholics and Genesis:
Spirituality in Recovery from
Childhood Traumas, she has been teaching
at Esalen for 16 years. p. 11, 16

Kerry Brady has worked for over 15
years in the areas of energy work, psychotherapy,
astrology, and nature-based soul
exploration to support others in living more
authentically. She is a faculty member at
the California Institute of Integral Studies.
See www.unfoldings.com. p. 54

Devers Branden is a personal-development
consultant, corporate coach, and the
coauthor of What Love Asks of Us. She is
recognized for her pioneering work in relating
the field of subpersonalities to that of
self-esteem. p. 27

Deborah Brenner, an artist displayed
in galleries internationally, is an art
therapist devoted to exploring the creative
process of relationship. She and her husband
Paul have offered workshops throughout the
U.S. and Canada. p. 58

Paul Brenner holds doctorates in medicine
and psychology. Moderator of the PBS
series "Healing Through Communication,"
he is the author of Seeing Your Life
Through New Eyes and Buddha in the
Waiting Room. p. 58

George I. Brown is professor emeritus
from the University of California and
founder of the Confluent Education
Program, teaching courses in leadership,
change, and relationships. He continues
work as a consultant and trainer to institutions
and organizations. p. 56

Judith Brown is a psychotherapist,
author, and leader of training groups for
therapists. Her books illustrate her continuing
interest in relationships of all kinds and
in various contexts, especially couples. p. 56

Rick Brown is executive director of the
Institute for Relationship Therapy in
Winter Park, Fla., with over 27 years of
clinical experience working with couples.
He is the author of Imago Relationship
Therapy: Theory and Practice, and has
been married for 27 years. p. 40

Shelley Brown is director of Lemuria
Health Institute, an integrative medical
practice in Monterey. As a surgeon, she primarily
focused on breast cancer treatment
and recovery. Enfolding holistic medicine
themes, she is an educator, writer, and group
facilitator. p. 65

Stuart Brown is a psychologist, filmmaker,
and a leader in the study of evolutionary
play. He was executive producer of
The Hero's Journey: The World of
Joseph Campbell, and his article for
National Geographic on animals and
play is the most requested article in their
history. p. 12

Katy Butler's writing has appeared in
The New Yorker, the New York Times
Sunday Book Review, Utne Reader, and
elsewhere. She edits a first-person "personal
voice" column for Psychotherapy
Networker magazine in Washington,
D.C. Her website is www.katybutler.com.
p. 66

C
Narrye Caldwell-Cohen is a doctor
of Traditional Chinese Medicine, spiritual
guide, shamanic practitioner, relationship
and life coach, and wellness coach and counselor.
p. 16

Jon Carlson is Distinguished Professor
at Governors State University (Ill.) and a
psychologist at the Wellness Clinic in Lake
Geneva, Wisc. He has authored 35 books
including Time For A Better Marriage,
and developed over 200 video programs,
including the Living Love series. p. 54

Craig Carr comes to the coaching profession
from a background in psychology and
body/mind medicine. He is a senior trainer
with the Coaches Training Institute and
maintains an international clientele of
extraordinary business and professional
leaders. p. 28

Tom Case has been practicing massage
for the past 13 years. He has been on the
Esalen massage staff since 1993. p. 12, 49
Michele Cassou, internationally recognized
passionate artist and teacher, founded
The Painting Experience Method, which
she developed into the Point Zero Painting
Method, using painting for self-discovery
and exploring the spiritual dimensions of
the creative process. p. 50

Thom F. Cavalli is a practicing
psychologist for 25 years and author of
Alchemical Psychology: Old Recipes
for Living in a New World. He specializes
in providing transformational practices that
use alchemical techniques to advance individual
and collective consciousness. p. 58

Dorothy Charles is a Gestalt practitioner
whose primary interest is in combining
Gestalt Practice with artistic expression.
p. 76

Carl Chase (CC), developer of the CC
Flow, is a bodyworker who specializes in
cross-fiber friction and deep tissue methods.
He has also studied sports massage and softtissue
manipulation. p. 12, 56

Kenn Chase has taught traditional
Yang-style T'ai Chi Ch'uan for 30 years and
has studied with several T'ai Chi masters. A
certified Feldenkrais teacher, he is a stress
management consultant for Cardiology
Associates of Marin. p. 50, 76

Alaya Chikly developed Heart Centered
Transformation while on a 10-year soul
quest that took her from Berlin, Jerusalem,
Paris, and India to a Buddhist Temple in
Thailand. She is a certified massage therapist
and an international seminar leader
with the Upledger Institute. p. 64

Bruno Chikly is a French physician
with 10 years of study in Oriental
medicine, osteopathy, lymphatic drainage,
CranioSacral Therapy, Visceral
Manipulation, and myofascial release.
His work was awarded the Medal of the
Medical Faculty of Paris, VI. p. 18, 64

Molly Clark is a physical therapist and
registered massage therapist with advanced
training in a number of complementary
techniques, including Lymph Drainage
Therapy, CranioSacral Therapy, and
Visceral Manipulation. p. 18

Nancy Clark, psychotherapist, author,
and international workshop facilitator, has
been involved in projects to reduce stress in
post-Communist countries. In 1991, she
spontaneously began to see inside the body
and started teaching energy medicine. p. 25

Manfred Clynes, musician, neuroscientist,
and inventor, is recognized as one of
the foremost multidisciplinary thinkers of
our time. He discovered the branch of science
known as Sentics, enhancing our states
of being being and creativity. His website is
www.superconductor.com. p. 49

Marvin Cohen is president and
cofounder of Relationship Coaching
Institute Silicon Valley (formerly
LifePartnerQuest), a six-year-old relationship,
coaching, and education company with
over 400 licensees worldwide. He is a
teacher, relationship and life coach, and
counselor (MFT intern). p. 16

Stephen Cohen, Gestalt practitioner
and longtime golf hacker, is founder and
president of The Shivas Irons Society, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to enhancing
golf's beauties and virtues. p. 59

Ann Weiser Cornell has taught
Focusing in fifteen countries on five continents.
She is a student and colleague of Gene
Gendlin, the developer of Focusing. Her
book is The Power of Focusing: A
Practical Guide to Emotional Self-
Healing. p. 14

Olivia Corson is a pioneering movement/
story artist, teacher, and performer.
Body Tales, infused with her lively devotion
to Earth's sacred and creative powers, has
inspired people internationally. Her website
is www.bodytales.com. p. 76

Jean Couch, author of The Runner's
Yoga Book, is director of the Balance
Center in Palo Alto, Calif., gleaning new
knowledge about fitness by studying populations
of people who have no back or joint
pain. p. 16

Phil Cousineau is a writer, filmmaker,
photographer, adventure travel leader,
and the author of 18 books, including the
recent The Olympic Odyssey:
Rekindling the Spirit of the Great
Games, Once and Future Myths, and
The Art of Pilgrimage. p. 12

Tom Cronin is a Healthy Life Coach, a
Certified Trainer, cancer survivor, heartattack
survivor, and teacher of Eight Weeks
to Optimum Health workshops for Gilda's
Clubs, cancer centers, and other wellness
groups in Chicago. p. 10

Stewart Cubley is cofounder of The
Painting Experience in San Francisco and
coauthor of Life, Paint and Passion.
Originally a scientist, he has led seminars in
creativity for over 25 years. p. 10

Annie Currie, a New Zealander, is an
educator, a certified psychodramatist, and a
partner in an organization-development
consulting company. She has a successful
practice in helping people clarify vision and
create balance in their lives. p. 40

D
Leslie Danziger, a visionary entrepreneur,
is cofounder and angel investor or
donor of three high-tech ventures and two
nonprofit organizations in past 18 years.
She currently chairs the Solaria Corporation
(Berkeley, Calif.), whose mission is to develop
low-cost solar energy. p. 36

Bhagavan Das spent seven years in
India and Nepal studying Hinduism,
Buddhism, meditation and living the life of
a sadhu (ascetic holy man). A master of
chanting and Nada Yoga--the mysticism of
sound--he is the author of It's Here Now,
Are You?: A Spiritual Memoir. p. 54

Govin Das (Ira Rosen) has a great
love for the awakening of the heart. He
sings kirtan and teaches vinyasa yoga in
Santa Monica and also leads retreats and
workshops internationally. He makes frequent
pilgrimages to India and is a devotee
of Neem Karoli Baba. p. 31

Susan Davis, president of Capital
Missions Co., in Elkhorn, Wisc., is a banker,
investor, and entrepreneur. She is the
founder of 20 business-leadership and socialinvestor
networks, including Investors'
Circle and Committee of 200 (see
www.capitalmissions.com). p. 36

Laura Day is an internationally
known healer, intuitive, and teacher. She is
the author of the best-selling Practical
Intuition and The Healing Circle CD.
Laura specializes in training the mainstream
world to use healing and intuition
in everyday life. p. 38

Bernie DeKoven is a workshop
leader, lecturer, author, instigator, and
award-winning game designer, who actually
devotes his life to making the world more
fun. Much of his work, and life, can be
found on his website www.deepfun.com.
p. 56

Drew Dellinger, poet, teacher, and
activist, was listed as one of the "important
musical voices" of the global justice movement
by YES! magazine. Founder of Poets
for Global Justice, he recently released his
first collection of poems, love letter to the
milky way. p. 67

Russell Delman has been teaching the
Feldenkrais Method since 1975 and has
helped train more than 2000 practitioners
internationally. Since 1990 he has been
integrating more than 30 years of Zen meditation
with body/mind awareness in a program
called "The Embodied Life." p. 64

Embree De Persiis has worked and
taught at her Big Sur studio for more than
20 years. Her work has been exhibited in
galleries and private collections throughout
the United States and Canada. p. 31

Harvey Deutch has been a physical
therapist for the past 24 years and a yoga
practitioner for even longer. His lifepath has
blended the intricate knowledge of movement
with the practice of yoga. He is
owner/operator of Red Hawk Physical
Therapy in San Francisco. p. 63

Patrick Douce, one of Moshe
Feldenkrais's first American students, has
been associated with Esalen since 1972.
Since 1986 he lives half of each year in Bali,
developing programs with Indonesian Silat
martial-arts-for-health schools. p. 39, 46,
63, 76

Alalad? Dreamer has been teaching
and performing the dances of Africa and
African diaspora for 30 years. She has studied
and performed, faciltiated workshops,
and traveled worldwide as dance captain
and principal dancer for Baba Olatunji and
his Drums of Passion company. p. 39, 40

Danny Dreyer, the creator of
ChiRunning, is a running coach, writer,
and nationally ranked ultramarathon runner.
He studies T'ai Chi privately with
renowned Master George Xu. He is author
of the forthcoming ChiRunning. p. 48

Ken Druck began the Jenna Druck
Foundation in 1996 following the death of
his daughter Jenna. The Foundation's
Families Helping Families program reaches
thousands of bereaved parents annually. He
leads "Healing Your Life After the Loss of a
Child" workshops throughout the U.S.
p. 14

E
Donna Eden is among the world's most
sought, most joyous, and most authoritative
spokespersons for energy healing. Her book,
Energy Medicine, is becoming the classic
in the field. p. 32

Riane Eisler is best known for her bestseller
The Chalice and The Blade, hailed
by anthropologist Ashley Montagu as "the
most important book since Darwin's On
the Origin of Species." Her most recent
book is the award-winning The Power of
Partnership: Seven Relationships That
Will Change Your Life. p. 45

Catherine Elber-Wenner has been
a student of yoga since 1964, of tai chi since
1970, and a teacher of tai chi since 1975.
Renowned for her distinctive approach to
this ancient art, she is "honored to be instrumental
in bringing this gift into people's
lives." p. 13

Zuza Engler has been passionate about
movement and awareness practice as a path
of healing and self-discovery for over 15
years. She has taught Tibetan energy work,
yoga, and dance since 1992. Her website is
www.transformativedance.com. p. 76

Karuna Erickson has taught yoga and
worked as a psychotherapist for over 30
years. She teaches internationally about the
interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit.
She is coauthoring (with Andrew Harvey) a
book titled Direct Path Yoga: The Sacred
Marriage of Yoga and Mysticism. p. 41

Myron Eshowsky is executive director
of the Pathways Foundation for Peace
and Healing, dedicated to bringing spiritual
approaches to modern peacemaking needs.
He has taught worldwide, written articles,
and worked in prisons, mental-health centers,
and with at-risk youth. p. 24

F
Jayson Fann, Esalen Arts Center coordinator,
has 15 years' experience as a musician,
performer, visual artist, costume
designer, composer, and musical director. He
studied music in Africa and the Caribbean,
and has taught at Cal State University,
Monterey Bay. p. 11, 13, 35

Warren Farrell, author of Father and
Child Reunion; Why Men Are the Way
They Are; and Women Can't Hear
What Men Don't Say, has been a pioneer
in both the women's and men's movement,
and has appeared on over 1,000 television
and radio shows. p. 51

David Feinstein is the author of
Energy Psychology Interactive and executive
director of the Energy Medicine
Institute. He has taught at the Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine. p. 32

Cornelia Flatischler, a percussionist
trained in classical music and world
rhythms, joined the MegaDrums group in
1999. She has been co-leading TaKeTiNa
workshops for 12 years and has more than
20 years of experience in Tai Chi and Tao
Yoga. p. 69

Reinhard Flatischler is the founder
of the TaKeTiNa process. In his Megadrums
group he composes for and plays with musicians
including Leonard Eto (from Kodo),
Airto Moreira, Zakir Hussein, and Glen
Velez. He has devoted his whole life to the
healing power of rhythm. p. 69

Thomas Michael Fortel is a longtime
yoga practitioner/teacher, influenced
by the Iyengar, Ashtanga, and Anusara
styles of hatha yoga, and drawing from his
devotional experience in Bhakti yoga. He
travels widely, sharing his love for yoga. His
website is www.yogawiththomas.com
p. 11, 36, 46, 55, 63, 68, 77

Mallory Fromm studied martial and
healing ki in Japan for 27 years, and is an
internationally recognized aikido shihan
and ki practitioner. Besides his private practice,
he consults extensively, and has written
two popular books on health through ki.
p. 22

Jerome Front is an adjunct faculty at
Pepperdine University and teaches about
eating, food, and mindfulness-based
approaches. He has worked at the Rader
Institute for Eating Disorders, leads retreats,
and is an MFT in private practice in Studio
City, Calif. p. 17

Seena Frost, author of the book
SoulCollage, is a licensed psychotherapist
and a transpersonal counselor and teacher.
She practices in Santa Cruz County, Calif.,
and teaches SoulCollage widely to people
who love playing with images. Her website
is www.soulcollage.com. p. 72

G
Jerome Gary has worked as a screenwriter,
director, producer, and executive in
the movie industry for more than 25 years.
His credits include the Academy Awardnominated
Pumping Iron, Old Boyfriends, Stripper, and the Emmy
Award-winning The Russians. p. 34

Dennis Gates, an Integrative Medicine Physician after a 27-year career as an orthopedic surgeon, is a graduate fellow of Andrew Weil. He teaches healthy living integrating holistic and standard medical
care to all seekers of optimum health, including medical and surgical staffs. p. 10

Glenna Gerard is a nationally recognized consultant in the area of interpersonal communications and transformation. She is coauthor of Dialogue: Rediscovering the Transforming Power of onversation.
p. 19

Mariah Fenton Gladis, founder/director of the Pennsylvania Gestalt Center for Psychotherapy and
Training for nearly three decades, leads workshops and trainings around the U.S. and in Europe. She is recognized for the sensitive and creative way she practice the art of Gestalt. p. 37

Richard Gold has been practicing and teaching Oriental healing arts since 1978. A graduate in Thai Massage from the Old Medicine Hospital in Chiang Mai,
Thailand, he is chairman of the board of the International Professional School of Bodywork in San Diego. p. 27

Mary Goldenson is a clinical psychologist, chiropractor, and certified Radix teacher in Los Angeles. She has a private practice specializing in relationship therapy and transitions, and leads mediation trainings and workshops around the country.
p. 19, 31, 36, 50, 55, 70, 71

Harriet Goslins originated Cortical Field Reeducation. A Feldenkrais practitioner and Integrated Awareness teacher, she has a background in psychosynthesis, applied kinesiology, muscle energy, craniosacral work, and social anthropology, and has been teaching at Esalen for 22 consecutive
years. p. 37

Robert Grant works internationally as a trainer and consultant to business, religious, and relief organizations in the areas of trauma and pirituality. In addition to training professionals to work with trauma victims, he has gone on-site to trauma zones to support victims. p. 23

Susan Grant is a member and teacher of Aminah Raheem's Basic Acupressure faculty. She is the originator of Free To Move and is a certified practitioner of Process Acupressure, Craniosacral techniques, and the Alexander Technique. p. 25

Lynda Greenberg is an exhibiting sculptor who has taught drawing nationwide since 1981. She has been a colleague of the center for the Educational Applications of Brain Hemisphere Research since its
founding in 1985. p. 44

Debra Greene is a teacher, researcher, and practitioner of Transformational Kinesiology (TK). She has a dual doctorate degree in somatic studies and communication and a private practice in
Transformational Kinesiology on Maui and in the Bay area. p. 70

Pierre Grimes is one of the founders of the Philosophical Counseling movement. He was called a Jnana yogi by Alan Watts, with whom he studied. The Zen master Myo Bong S'nim of the Chogye Buddhist
order of Korea sealed him as his Dharma Successor. p. 38

Michael Grosso is the author of books on mythology and soulmaking. His most recent book is Experiencing the Next World Now. He's on the board of directors
of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association. p. 12

Sylvia Guersenzvaig is a student of intuitive pathways to healing who brings over 20 years of experience in the fields of somatic and visionary practices. She has been a massage practitioner and an
astrologer at Esalen since 1982. p. 69

ZEN IS

Zen is a way of meditating that Buddhism produced to obtain enlightenment by seeing one's original mind (or original nature) directly; without the intervention of the intellect.

Zen is simply to be completely alive.
Zen is short for Zen Buddhism. It is sometimes called a religion and sometimes called a philosophy. Choose whichever term you prefer; it simply doesn't matter.
Zen is not a philosophy or a religion.
Zen tries to free the mind from the slavery of words and the constriction of logic.
Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.
Zen is big on intuitive understanding, on just "getting it", and not so hot on philosophizing.
Zen is concerned with what actually is rather than what we think or feel about what is.
Zen is concerned with things as they are, without trying to interpret them.
Zen points to something before thinking, before all your ideas.
The key to Buddhahood in Zen is simply self-knowledge.
To be a human being is to be a Buddha. Buddha nature is just another name for human nature - true human nature.
The essence of Zen is attempting to understand the meaning of life directly, without being misled by logical thought, or language.
Zen techniques are compatible with other faiths and are often used, for example, by Christians seeking a mystical understanding of their faith.
Zen often seems paradoxical - it requires an intense discipline which, when practiced properly, results in total spontaneity and ultimate freedom. This natural spontaneity should not be confused with impulsiveness.
Zen is a subject extremely easy to misunderstand.
You have to experience Zen in order to "understand" it.
Zen sends us looking inside us for enlightenment. There's no need to search outside ourselves for the answers; we can find the answers in the same place that we found the questions.

The first step is to control your mind through meditation and other techniques that involve mind and body; to give up logical thinking and avoid getting trapped in a spider's web of words.

Learning Zen
Zen Buddhists pay less attention to Scripture as a means of learning than they do to various methods of practicing Zen. The most common way of teaching is for enlightenment to be communicated direct from master to pupil.

Zen practices are aimed at taking the rational and intellectual mind out of the mental loop, so that the student can become more aware and realize their own Buddha-nature. Sometimes even (mild) physical violence is used to stop the student intellectualizing or getting stuck in some other way.

Students of Zen aim to achieve enlightenment by the way they live, and by mental actions that approach the truth without philosophical thought or intellectual endeavor.

Some schools of Zen work to achieve sudden moments of enlightenment, while others prefer a gradual process.

Ways to truth

Meditation is something that plays a part in virtually all religions, although some of them don't use the word meditation. And meditation is something that can be done with no religious element at all.

Meditation involves both the body and the mind. For Buddhists this is particularly important as they want to avoid what they call "duality", and so their way of meditating must involve the body and the mind as a single entity.

In the most general definition, meditation is a way of taking control of the mind so that it becomes peaceful and focused, and the meditator becomes more aware.

In Zen Buddhism the purpose of meditation is to stop the mind rushing about in an aimless (or even a purposeful) stream of thoughts. People often say that the aim of meditation is "to still the mind".

Zen Buddhism offers a number of methods of meditation to people - methods which have been used for a long time, and which have been shown to work.

Zen Buddhists can meditate on their own or in groups.

Meditating in a group - perhaps at a retreat called a "sesshin" or in a meditation room or "zendo" has the benefit of reminding a person that they are both part of a larger Buddhist community, and part of the larger community of beings of every species.

What is meditation?

Meditation is a mental and physical course of action that a person uses to separate themselves from their thoughts and feelings in order to become fully aware.
Meditation has no supernatural side, nor is the person meditation trying to get into a hypnotic state, or to get in touch with angels or anything like that.

A successful meditator is just simply being; not judging, not thinking, just simply being aware and at peace; living each moment as it comes as fully as possible.

Many different courses of actions can be meditation.

Zazen

The key Zen practice is "Zazen". This involves sitting in one of several available positions and meditating so that you become fully in touch with the true nature of reality.

Different schools of Zen do Zazen in different ways: Soto meditators face a wall, Rinzai meditators sit in a circle facing each other.

Posture

Meditation is possible in any stable posture that keeps the spine fairly straight. Sitting quietly in a chair is perfectly acceptable.

The Lotus Position

The classic posture for Zen meditation is called the Lotus Position. This involves sitting cross-legged with the left foot on top of the right thigh and the right foot on top of the left thigh.

The lotus position is difficult and uncomfortable for beginners, and there are other sitting positions that are a lot easier to achieve, such as the half lotus (in which only one foot is put on top of the opposite thigh) or simply sitting cross-legged or sitting on a cushion with knees bent and lower legs tucked under upper legs.

Methods of meditation

Some classic meditation methods use the meditator's own breathing. They may just sit and concentrate on their breathing... not doing anything to alter the way they breath, not worrying about whether they're doing it right or wrong, not even thinking about breathing; just "following" the breathing and "becoming one" with the breathing.

It's important not to think "I am breathing" - when a person does that they separate themselves from the breathing and start thinking of themselves as separate from what they are doing - the aim is just to be aware of breathing.

This is more difficult than it sounds, so some meditators prefer to count breaths, trying to count up to ten without any distraction at all, and then starting again at one. If they get distracted they notice the distraction and go back to counting.

But there are many methods of meditation - some involve chanting mantras, some involve concentrating on a particular thing (such as a candle flame or a flower). Nor does meditation have to involve keeping still; walking meditation is a popular Zen way of doing it, and repetitive movements using beads or prayer wheels are used in other faiths.

Self-discipline

Meditation teaches self-discipline because it's boring, and because the body gets uncomfortable. The meditator learns to keep going regardless of how bored they are, or how much they want to scratch their nose.

Koans

Koans are questions or statements, often paradoxes, that provoke spiritual understanding. They are often used by masters as a way of teaching pupils, and also to test enlightenment.

Don't think that the koan and its solution are themselves wisdom and truth. They may be, but their particular importance here is their use as tools to help you understand the true nature of yourself and of everything, and to increase your awareness of what is.

A well known koan is "In clapping both hands a sound is heard; what is the sound of one hand?"

Koans can't be solved by study and analytical thought. In order to solve a koan, the pupil must leave behind all thoughts and ideas in order to respond intuitively.

Koans don't have a right answer. Western pupils often find this very frustrating, since most westerners are used to trying to get the right (and only) answer to a problem. For the same reason, the truths of Zen can't be learned just by reading a Scripture or getting a solution from a teacher or a text book.

The best way to work with Koans is with a teacher. Without a teacher it can be too easy to fool yourself into thinking that you've solved a koan.

The first collection of Koans was made in the 11th century CE. They are a favorite teaching tool of the Rinzai school of Buddhism.

The Sound of One Hand
Here's an example: In the book Zen Flesh, Zen Bones there is the story of the pupil being asked by the master, "You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together. Now show me the sound of one hand."

The pupil goes off to meditate on this matter. He hears some geisha music through his window and thinks that this is the answer. So he returns to his teacher, and on being asked the question he plays the geisha music as his answer. No! The teacher sends him away to meditate further.

While contemplating the question again, the pupil hears water dripping from a gutter. Back he goes to the teacher and imitates 'the sound of one hand' as dripping water. No! "That's the sound of dripping water, not the sound of one hand," says the teacher, and sends him away to practice more.

The pupil keeps trying. 'The sound of one hand' is the sighing of the wind. No!

`The sound of one hand' is the hooting of an owl. No!

`The sound of one hand' is the chirping of locusts. No!

At last, after almost a year, he went to his teacher. "What is the sound of one hand?" asked the teacher. But now the pupil was different; he had transcended all sounds and come to the soundless sound, the sound of one hand, and he demonstrated his realization to the teacher.

Mindfulness

Zen is about living in the present with complete awareness.

Practitioners turn off the automatic pilot that most of us operate from throughout the day -- we don't really notice all the things that are going on around us or within our own minds.

They try to experience each moment directly. They don't let thoughts, memories, fears or hopes get in the way.

They practice being aware of everything they see, hear, feel, taste, and smell.

Another way of looking at this is to say that a Zen practitioner tries to be completely aware in the activity of any particular moment -- to the extent that they are one with what they are doing. So, for example:
when they eat they focus totally on the food and on the act of eating;
when they meditate they open the mind to the reality of the moment, not allowing thoughts, feelings or sensations to preoccupy them, not even thoughts about enlightenment or Buddhism;
when they work, they only work;
when they brush their teeth, that's all they do -- they don't think about other things at the same time.

Zen practice is to realize that thoughts are a natural faculty of mind and should not be stopped, ignored, or rejected.

Instead, thinking, especially discursive thinking, is to be acknowledged but then put to one side so that the mind is not carried away by worries, anxieties, and endless hopes and fears.

This is liberation from the defilements of the mind, the suffering of the mind, leaving the truth of this vast, unidentifiable moment plain to see.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/zen1.shtml

Dark Matter And Dark Energy May Be Different Aspects Of A Single Unknown Force

In the last few decades, scientists have discovered that there is a lot more to the universe than meets the eye: the cosmos appears to be filled with not just one, but two invisible constituents -dark matter and dark energy - whose existence has been proposed based solely on their gravitational effects on ordinary matter and energy.

Astronomers think that galaxies like NCG300 seen here are embedded in a large sphere of invisible particles, called dark matter. (Courtesy of NASA, Z. Levay and G. Bacon, STSci)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/07/040702091545.htm

See What's Related at the above link for these:
University Of Toronto Team Maps Halos Around Galaxies

Galaxy Cluster Surveys May Help Explain "Dark Energy" In The Universe

Astrophysicists Detect Cosmic Shear, Evidence Of Dark Matter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related sections: Space & Time and Matter & Energy

Now, theoretical physicist Robert J. Scherrer has come up with a model that could cut the mystery in half by explaining dark matter and dark energy as two aspects of a single unknown force. His model is described in an article published online by Physical Review Letters on June 30 and is available online at

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402316 .

"One way to think of this is that the universe is filled with an invisible fluid that exerts pressure on ordinary matter and changes the way that the universe expands," says the professor of physics at Vanderbilt University.

According to Scherrer, his model is extremely simple and avoids the major problems that have characterized previous efforts to unify dark matter and dark energy.

In the 1970's, astrophysicists postulated the existence of invisible particles called dark matter in order to explain the motion of galaxies. Based on these observations, they estimate that there must be about 10 times as much dark matter in the universe as ordinary matter. One possible explanation for dark matter is that it is made up of a new type of particle - dubbed Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, or WIMPs- that don't emit light and barely interact with ordinary matter. A number of experiments are searching for evidence of these particles.

As if that weren't enough, in the 1990's along came dark energy, which produces a repulsive force that appears to be ripping the universe apart. Scientists invoked dark energy to explain observations that the rate at which the universe is expanding is not slowing, as most cosmologists had thought, but is accelerating instead. According to the latest estimates, dark energy makes up 75 percent of the universe and dark matter accounts for another 23 percent, leaving ordinary matter and energy with a distinctly minority role of only 2 percent.

Scherrer's unifying idea is an exotic form of energy with well-defined but complicated properties called a scalar field. In this context, a field is a physical quantity possessing energy and pressure that is spread throughout space. Cosmologists first invoked scalar fields to explain cosmic inflation, a period shortly after the Big Bang when the universe appears to have undergone an episode of hyper-expansion, inflating billions upon billions of times in less than a second.

Specifically, Scherrer uses a second-generation scalar field, known as k-essence, in his model. K-essence fields have been advanced by Paul Steinhardt at Princeton University and others as an explanation for dark energy, but Scherrer is the first to point out that one simple type of k-essence field can also produce the effects that have been attributed to dark matter.

Scientists differentiate between dark matter and dark energy because they seem to behave differently. Dark matter appears to have mass and to form giant clumps. In fact, cosmologists calculate that the gravitational attraction of these clumps played a key role in causing ordinary matter to form galaxies. Dark energy, by contrast, appears to be massless and spread uniformly throughout space where it acts as a kind of anti-gravity, a repulsive force that is pushing the universe apart.

K-essence fields can change their behavior over time. When investigating a very simple type of k-essence field - one in which potential energy is a constant - Scherrer discovered that as the field evolves it passes through a phase where it can clump and mimic the effect of invisible particles, followed by a phase when it spreads uniformly throughout space and takes on the characteristics of dark energy.

"The model naturally evolves into a state where it looks like dark matter for a while and then it looks like dark energy," Scherrer says. "When I realized this, I thought, `This is compelling, let's see what we can do with it.'"

When he examined the model in more detail, Scherrer found that it avoids many of the problems that have plagued previous efforts to unify dark matter and dark energy models.

The earliest model for dark energy was made by modifying the general theory of relativity to include a term called the cosmological constant. This was a term that Einstein originally included to balance the force of gravity in order to form a static universe. But he dropped the constant cheerfully when astronomical observations of the day found it was not needed. Recent models reintroducing the cosmological constant do a good job of reproducing the effects of dark energy, but do not explain dark matter.

One attempt to unify dark matter and dark energy, called the Chaplygin gas model, is based on work by a Russian physicist in the 1930's. It produces an initial dark-matter-like stage followed by a dark-energy-like evolution, but it has trouble explaining the process of galaxy formation.

Scherrer's formulation has some similarities to a unified theory proposed earlier this year by Nima Arkani-Hamed at Harvard University and his colleagues, who attempt to explain dark matter and dark energy as arising from the behavior of an invisible and omnipresent fluid that they call a "ghost condensate."

Although Scherrer's model has a number of positive features, it also has some drawbacks. For one thing, it requires some extreme "fine-tuning" to work. The physicist also cautions that more study will be required to determine if the model's behavior is consistent with other observations. In addition, it cannot answer the coincidence problem: Why we live at the time when the densities calculated for dark matter and dark energy are roughly equal. Many scientists are suspicious of anything that indicates there is something special about the present era.

Scientists now believe there may really be a parallel universe - in fact, there may be an infinite number of parallel universes, and we just happen to live in one of them. These other universes contain space, time and strange forms of exotic matter. Some of them may even contain you, in a slightly different form. Astonishingly, scientists believe that these parallel universes exist less than one millimetre away from us. In fact, our gravity is just a weak signal leaking out of another universe into ours.

The same but different

For years parallel universes were a staple of the Twilight Zone. Science fiction writers loved to speculate on the possible other universes which might exist. In one, they said, Elvis Presley might still be alive or in another the British Empire might still be going strong. Serious scientists dismissed all this speculation as absurd. But now it seems the speculation wasn't absurd enough. Parallel universes really do exist and they are much stranger than even the science fiction writers dared to imagine.

Greater dimensions

It all started when superstring theory, hyperspace and dark matter made physicists realise that the three dimensions we thought described the Universe weren't enough. There are actually 11 dimensions. By the time they had finished they'd come to the conclusion that our Universe is just one bubble among an infinite number of membranous bubbles which ripple as they wobble through the eleventh dimension.

A creative touch

Now imagine what might happen if two such bubble universes touched. Neil Turok from Cambridge, Burt Ovrut from the University of Pennsylvania and Paul Steinhardt from Princeton believe that has happened. The result? A very big bang indeed and a new universe was born - our Universe. The idea has shocked the scientific community; it turns the conventional Big Bang theory on its head. It may well be that the Big Bang wasn't really the beginning of everything after all. Time and space all existed before it. In fact Big Bangs may happen all the time.

Of course this extraordinary story about the origin of our Universe has one alarming implication. If a collision started our Universe, could it happen again? Anything is possible in this extra dimensional cosmos. Perhaps out there in space there is another universe heading directly towards us - it may only be a matter of time before we collide.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/paralleluni.shtml