Healing

Burul Payne, a researcher of biofield, or spin force, and the creator of the Biofield Meter, posts results of his latest research.

Remote Healing Measured by the Biofield Meter

Buryl Payne, Ph. D. Psychology, Psychophysics Laboratories, P.O. Box 514, Soquel, CA. 95073

Abstract

A force around the human body different from electric, magnetic, gravitic, photic, or thermal has previously been discovered and was used in this research. Originally called a ‘biofield’ and now called a ‘spin force’, it was found to vary in amplitude with lunar phase, solar activity, vitality of the subject and other factors. It was found to vary in amplitude with intended remote healing attempts. In 17 out of 20 trials in this pilot study, with healers from 50 to 3,000 miles distant, a clear change in amplitude of the spin force was observed.

Keywords: remote healing, subtle magnetism, biofield, spin force

Introduction

It is known by experience that prayer and other means of visualization at a distance enhance healing, although no satisfactory explanation has been found to explain this effect. This study shows the operation of a different type of force may be involved. Called a spin force, torque, or rotational force, it is hypothesized to exist around all living organisms.

Biological spin force was accidentally discovered by the author while investigating ‘pyramid energy’ in 1976. The author’s device, called a Biofield Meter, displays a spin force when placed around an organism. It was found to exist around every human tested, a couple of plants, a grapefruit, watermelon, cat, dog and horse. Presumably it exists around all living organisms and its existence has been observed by other researchers. The amplitude of rotation of the Biofield Meter varies with solar and geomagnetic activity, changes direction temporarily at times of new and full moon and varies to some degree with the health of the subject.

Several researchers have observed some physiological changes in humans as a response to remote healing. Ron Hruby, a retired NASA electrical engineer, made his own version of the Biofield Meter and hypothesized that it might respond to distant healing attempts on a subject. He found this to be the case. In 18 trials with four

subjects, he found 100% correlation of changes of the Biofield Meter amplitude of rotation with attempted healings by a small group ten miles distant from the subject. This study expands upon the work of Ron Hruby, and attempts to verify his results while using variable distances between the healers and the subjects.

Materials and Methods

The Biofield Meter consists of a square frame, made of 0.25 inch diameter wood dowels, 16 in. on each side. Six ring magnets are centered on each dowel and 16 in. long strings are attached in the center of the six magnets on each dowel. The strings angle to a center where a set of two mirrors of 1.5 inch diameter are glued back to back. A hook and additional string is used to hang the apparatus over the subject’s head at eye level. The device looks roughly like a pyramid frame.

In practice, the Biofield Meter rotates a few degrees after being placed over a subject. Given an initial impulse, and because it is a string suspension, the torque on the string, or winding force, limits continuous rotational movement. It winds up and unwinds, in other words, oscillating back and forth for a few minutes. The number of degrees of initial rotation was used as a measure of spin force around the body.

This experiment was conducted in Santa Cruz, California. Twenty trials were conducted May to June, 2005. The first trial was completed with a small group of remote healers in Sheffield, Massachusetts, a distance of 3,000 miles from Santa Cruz. Three Biofield Meters were set up around three subjects. The subjects’ first names were supplied to the distant healers. The healers chose one subject for the healing attempt, which was unknown to the observer. A start time was determined for the healing attempt, and observation of the biofield meters began at that time. Movement of the three biofield meters were measured and recorded during the trial period. Following the trial period, the name of the chosen subject was revealed to the observer.

In addition to this initial trial, seventeen other remote healers were invited to attempt distant healing on one of two subjects chose by the experimenter. Seventeen subsequent trials involved one to three subjects and one to four remote healers. It was not feasible to repeat tests using multiple subjects as it was too difficult to coordinate them. Two more trials were conducted on a radio show called ‘Out of Time’ in Hot Springs, Arkansas. On this show the author invited the listening audience to attempt remote healing on a subject sitting next to him. There were two main subjects who where involved in most of the trials.

Results

In the first trial, one of the three Biofield Meters rotated more than 720 degrees, (more than 2 complete rotations). Later phone communication showed that this was the subject chosen for the healing attempt. The subject did not report any sensations or feelings at the time of the attempted healing or on the following days. In seventeen out of twenty trials, the Biofield Meter showed deflections from about 3 degrees to four full turns (1440 degrees) around the subject chosen for healing. These seventeen included the trials involving the radio show audience.

No obvious ‘healing’ effects or sensations were observed by one of the two main subjects. The other subject felt sensations four times which resulted in some healing one time. In three trials where it was offered the remote healers correctly identified problem areas for one subject.

A new member at our healing forums posted about a simple yet effective, so he claims, technique to fight with various health conditions. Specifically he tells about a woman whom he told it, who could help her get over bad cold in about 17 minutes.

Here’s an excerpt of what he wrote:

I finally found a woman friend with a severe cold that after 12 days was actually getting worse and while on the phone would be consumed with coughing for like 30-45 seconds straight, She did that 3 times n 5 minutes while I was on the phone with her, and she was feeling so bad and not doing any housework etc and was in consultation with her Doctor for it who told her it sounded like a virus that a lot of people were getting and it was taking them longer than 2 weeks to cure.

She stared at a small patch of skin on her hand , for 17 minutes. She reports that in 5 minutes she was about 25% better, in 10 minutes she was well over 50 percent better and and after 17 total minutes she stopped and was almost cured, felt fine, then did all the work that had been building up and didn’t cough a single time the rest of this evening, with the only remnant of her cold being a fraction of the nasal congestion.

To read more about the background and the application of the proposed method, read the original post about curing cold for free.

JJ Lumsden is a UK based experimental parapsychologist who has just released his debut book “The Hidden Whisper” (See my review of The Hidden Whisper). Centring on a fictional poltergeist case in Southern Arizona, the book seeks to explain various aspects of parapsychology and where paranormal research currently stands. Lumsden gained his PhD at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit (University of Edinburgh), before moving into independent research.

Could you please start by telling about how and why you became a parapsychologist?

As a youngster, I was curious as to how things ‘worked’ in the world, and naturally intrigued by paranormal phenomena. This intrigue grew stronger as I got older; if telepathy and precognition, for example, were real – there were serious implications for our world view and how the universe operated. I didn’t enter the field because of any personal paranormal experiences, or because I wanted to prove or disprove anything. I just wanted to look into things for myself.

What do the studies of parapsychology in the Koestler Parapsychology Unit include?

Things have changed now, but when I attended (2000-2003), there was a buoyant set of research programmes in place. These were conducted by full-time staff, postgraduates working on their PhD studies, and undergraduates doing final year projects. We had a full Ganzfeld suite in the unit, so (as you can imagine) there was a fair amount of research into Extra Sensory Perception. In addition, there was Psychokinesis work, investigations into ‘haunted’ settings, and DMILS (Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems) studies.

Between 1984 and 2003, almost two dozen people gained their PhDs at the KPU, but in recent years, following the untimely death of Professor Robert Morris in 2004, the unit has been substantially downsized. Nowadays, there are only two permanent members of staff, the laboratory space has been given up, and very few students are taken on. Today, Edinburgh University seems to prefer to focus resources on other areas of psychology.

What specific areas of parapsychology did you concentrate on?

I primarily investigated emotion and its bearing on Psychokinetic functioning (the idea that your mind can influence events in your environment).

Using ‘Random Event Generators’ to generate random data-streams of ones and zeros, (akin to lots of coin tosses with perfectly balanced coins) I looked at how highly emotive states like anger, sadness and happiness impacted on the behaviour of these devices.

Later on, I began to examine psychic healing (still using micro PK protocols), and spent time in Zululand, South Africa – working with indigenous healers (izangoma).

*The REG approach is a measure of so called micro-Psychokinesis. With micro-PK, we rely on statistical analyses to see if the behaviour of a measuring system (e.g. the REG) can be accounted for by ‘chance’ (i.e. the ones and zeros are summed, and compared with mathematical probability). This is in contrast to macro-PK events like levitation, where you can see the event with the naked eye.

What are your thoughts on the state of parapsychological research these days? After the PEAR has closed, there are not much research institutions left in the academia in the field. Why is that? Should it be different?

There’s little doubt parapsychology is going through a tough time right now, with a lack of funding and a lack of institutional support being the primary reasons.

In academia, particular research areas often come in and out of favour. Certain fields might find themselves lavished with resources one moment, and conversely, starved of them the next. I hope that parapsychology is simply experiencing a cyclical dip in appeal (and support), and that we are not witnessing any long term decline. Whilst the funding environment remains difficult, it will inevitably be more of a challenge to advance research programmes, and we should expect the field’s progress as a whole to slow.

Nonetheless, despite these tough times, parapsychology perseveres. In recent years, for example, Professor Deborah Delanoy has done sterling work at the University of Northampton, at the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes. Deborah has built up a unit of very capable and accomplished researchers doing valuable research. In turn, there are individual researchers dotted around various Universities who have an interest in parapsychology and who quietly work on their own experiments when they get an opportunity.

To return to the funding point, it should be pointed out that there remain a number of organisations who continue to support and promote parapsychology. These include, amongst others, the BIAL Foundation from Portugal, Trinity College, Cambridge (via the Perrot Warwick grants), and the Society for Psychical Research in the UK.

What areas of parapsychology are well researched, in your opinion, and which need much more effort?

Good question. I don’t think we’ve reached a point with any area of parapsychology where we can step back and declare: “aha – we’ve got it”. Psi (an umbrella term that’s often used when referring to ESP and PK together) is an elusive animal, and has a habit of tripping you up when you think you understand it. As I’m not holding my breath for a definitive experiment any time soon, it remains the case of patiently putting more evidence onto the pile.

Having said that, certain areas have been carefully researched for many years, and there comes a point when a sensible decision can be made as to whether more and more replications are needed, or whether we can move on – to new avenues of enquiry. The literature and meta-analyses from micro-PK research suggest the micro-PK is a valid, low order, but replicable effect. So the question that follows is how can we move things forward? Can we think of fresh methods to ramp up effects? Can we utilise new technologies to better measure the phenomena and the processes that underpin them? If a large cheque came though my letter box, I would love to instigate some MRI studies. In turn, I am always fond of experiments that try to break new ground with creative approaches. In recent years I’ve followed the Global Consciousness Project with great interest.

What are the most promising research areas in parapsychology in terms of establishing the fact that there’s something to it?

In terms of positive results, the Ganzfeld has shown itself to be an effective means of generating supposedly paranormal effects, as has the micro-PK/REG based research already mentioned. Of course, there is always the argument that these laboratory based investigations have limited crossover to the real world – which ultimately is something we need to address. But, once phenomena are established in the lab – it’s pretty likely they exist outside the lab in some way.

Some of the DMILS work has also enjoyed good results, and I’d like to see more of it, as I believe it should help us understand how psi might operate in the real world. If psi is real, it probably didn’t develop to enable us to influence the electrical current of Zener diodes (these form the basis of many Random Event Generators).

Going to your book, The Hidden Whisper, why did you write it? What was your goal in writing it? Do you think you’ve achieved this goal?

When people find out what I do, I get a whole spectrum of responses. Some smile and change the subject, others tell me it’s all nonsense, and others instruct me at great length on esoteric and quite unique universal theories.

In between, there are a lot of people who are unsure as to what parapsychology is, and what parapsychologists do. They would like to know more without enduring a lecture. So, The Hidden Whisper is for them.

Who is the targeted audience for the book?

I tried to write a book that could be picked up and enjoyed by anyone, regardless of their knowledge of parapsychology. I wanted to keep the book accessible and easy-going, and not get bogged down with lengthy didactic explanations. I also hope that people who enjoy mystery stories get a kick out of the narrative.

How much is Luke Jackson, the main character, based on yourself or perhaps other parapsychologists that you know?

Luke is a mix of real life people and fiction. I originally thought the book would take about a year to write, but it took three. Over that period Luke’s character morphed quite significantly. Luke Jackson (Mk.1) was very different to the one we see today.

Why did you select the case of poltergeist for the subject of the book. I would not consider poltergeist as a central aspect of parapsychology.

I wanted to write a book that hooked people into an interesting fast-paced story, and reckoned that mystery fiction – something with a central puzzle – was a good way to do so. I wanted to have an interesting plot which I could frame the science around. Poltergeists seemed to fit the bill.

How was the book accepted so far, by critics and by general audience?

So far, the reviews have been very pleasing… which is reassuring. A lot of time and effort was spent developing and writing the book, and if it had gone down like a lead balloon – I’d be in a right old grump. The ‘mix’ of fiction and expanded endnotes has been received especially well, which is good, as that was the riskiest part. A number of publishers I spoke with, advised me strongly against it.

One of the reviewers on Amazon suggested you write a series based on this character. Is this something you might want to consider?

There is another book, circulating in the back of my mind, but it is very different to The Hidden Whisper. I have no immediate plans to bring Luke back in any sequel, but you never know.

What other books on parapsychology could you recommend to people who are genuinely interested in it?

There are a number of good introductory books out there, including:

Irwin and Watt’s “An Introduction to Parapsychology”, Dean Radin’s “The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena”, and “Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence” (edited by Cardena, Lynn & Krippner).

Then, when you start to drill down into specific areas, there are numerous specialised titles. “Healing, Intention and Energy Medicine” (edited by Jonas & Crawford) is one I can recommend.

If people want to stay abreast of the latest research, the best thing to do is get hold of parapsychology journals, such as the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, the Journal of Parapsychology, the European Journal of Parapsychology, and the Journal of Scientific Exploration.

At the end of the book, you write about the skeptic-believer debate and how both sides need to consider that they might be wrong. What are your thoughts on the state of this debate today?

The broad ‘uninformed’ debate will tick along regardless of the facts. You find people on both sides who hold views that appear to bear no relation to the evidence. The debate between informed critics and advocates of the paranormal is more interesting in many ways, because it is one of interpretation. Informed critics are aware of the experiments and the positive results generated – it’s now a question of what they mean…

At the end of the day, I simply suggest that people form their own opinions by looking into parapsychology for themselves, from a fair and impartial starting point. It is up to both sides of the debate (proponents and sceptics) to put across their positions convincingly. They should do this backed up by evidence, not rhetoric or conjecture.

Let me thank JJ Lumsden for this great interview. I wish him best luck both in his parapsychology research and his writing career.

J.J. Lumsden, a UK-based parapsychologist, who did his postgraduate studies at the Edinburgh’s known Koestler Parapsychology Unit has recently published his book about parapsychology, The Hidden Whisper.

The Hidden Whisper is a great introductory book to the different aspects of parapsychology, its concepts, research accomplishments and criticism. The book tells a fictional story of a UK parapsychologist, Dr. Luke Jackson, who while heading to a professional convention in the US, stays for a week at his grandmother’s house in the deserts of southern Arizona. During this week he is asked to investigate an intriguing poltergeist case in the house of one of the local most known families.

The story-line of the investigation is by itself an interesting and thrilling story, written like a good detective book. Its style actually reminded me of Agatha Christie’s books about Hercule Poirot.

The different concepts of parapsychology are intervened in the book by the means of dialog between Luke and other characters. Since the latter are not scientists, the explanations are all on a very basic language, so that any one could understand. These parts are rich with endnotes references.

In fact, the endnotes themselves are perhaps the more important part of the book. There are about 70 page of endnotes, all going deeper into the subjects of parapsychology described in the story. So, to get more insight into the research, its results and criticism, you’ll need to read the endnotes.

The Hidden Whisper cover

The book covers the following subjects in the field of parapsychology:

• ESP (Extra Sensory Perception)
• Skepticism (including the “fundamental”, non-scientific skeptical arguments)
• Spontaneous ESP, different testing methods of ESP and the results of those
• Ganzfeld experiments
• Meta analysis in parapsychology
• Poltergeists
• Macro and micro Psychokinesis (PK)
• Presentiment research
• Using Random Event Generators in micro PK research,
• Cold reading and other means of pseudo psychics
• Near Death Experiences (NDE)
• Healing, including remote healing
• Out of body experiences (OBE).

J.J. Lumsden wanted to show the required critical thinking of both sides of the parapsychological debate. He wants the skeptics to see the research and not dismiss everything out of hand. Similarly, he doesn’t like people jumping to fast conclusions and attaching a paranormal label to even the most strange events.

To summarize, The Hidden Whisper is both an interesting read and a book to study. The story is captivating and the quality of 70-some pages of endnotes and over 12 pages of references to studies are an invaluable resource to anyone who takes these subjects seriously.

One of Britain’s leading researchers into complementary medicine offered £10,000 to the first person to prove homeopathy works.

Professor Edzard Ernst – a former homeopath himself who now researches complementary medicine at Exeter University – said 200 strictly controlled trials had failed to find any evidence that homeopathy worked.

‘If you do a systematic look at all the evidence you fail to demonstrate strong evidence in favour of homeopathy,’ he added.

Some selectively pick studies that support the treatment, but ignore those that don’t, or misquote the findings of trials, or rely on flawed studies, he claimed.

Dr Simon Singh, who co-authored the book Trick or Treatment with Professor Ernst, said homeopathy only worked as a placebo.

‘If homeopathy could be proven to be effective it might earn the researcher a Nobel Prize in Medicine,’ he said.

‘He or she would also deserve Nobel prizes in chemistry and physics because the laws of science would need to be re-written.’

To win the money, homeopaths will need to publish evidence through the Cochrane Collaboration, a respected UK independent group which investigates medicines.

Last night, the British Homeopathic Association claimed the challenge was nothing more than a gimmick to boost sales of Professor Ernst’s book.

Source: Daily mail

Buryl meditating

I’ve received an email from Buril Payne. At one time I was already in contact with Buril, who invented an apparatus called Biofield Meter and wrote a book about it, called “The spin force”, (which he sent me for a review in electronic form). I haven’t yet read it thoroughly but it looks quite interesting and has a collection of scientific work by the author. Buryl holds a M.S. in physics and a Ph. D. in psychology, both from the University of Washington. Anyway, it seems that age takes its toll and he asks for a distant group healing. If you have the ability and the time, take part in this healing. Here’s the email from him:

Help!

I, Buryl Payne, am in need of a group healing for a brain dysfunction that has slowly and increasingly hindered my balance, speech, and walking. I need my body to work well for a bit longer.

So, I invite and request you and any of your friends to do a thought power remote group healing for me on Thursday, June 19th at 7 p.m. Pacific time. Also, if you want, join in on the Global Meditation Healing during these special few days. See website, under Academy for Peace Research, www.buryl.com

For one minute, please visualize my brain working normally; normal balance, speech, walking easily, and with good coordination.

I will be sitting under a Biofield Meter, an invention of mine which measures the spin force around the body. In the past it has rotated as a result of remote healing.

Results will be posted on my website: www.buryl.com

Positive results from this experiment will add to all the other positive results of remote healing, prayer healing, and perhaps ultimately help hundreds of thousands of people.

Thank you in advance, Buryl Payne

P.S. You might like to check out my latest little ebook: THE QUANTUM THEORY OF LOVE at www.buryl.com

In the last several days a number of interesting posts were added to our Parapsychology and alternative medicine forums. Here I’ll present several of them.

User anonymous, who often writes on the topics of psychic development, healing and spiritual churches and is happy to answer people on the topics lately wrote that Army is going to test alternative medicine for PTSD. PTSD is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for those who don’t know and many soldiers suffer from it, coming back from war. He quotes an article from Wired about the news:

The military is scrambling for new ways to treat the brain injuries and post-traumatic stress of troops returning home from war. And every kind of therapy – no matter how far outside the accepted medical form- is being considered. The Army just unveiled a $4 million program to investigate everything from “spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga” to “bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, [and] distant healing” to mend the psyches of wounded troops.

But many of these treatments haven’t been held up to much rigorous scientific scrutiny before. So the Army is looking to hand out $4 million in “seedling grants” to “conduc[t] rigorous clinical studies” into all sorts of “novel approaches.” Projects “containing preliminary data” will be eligible for up to $1 million. But even “innovative but testable hypotheses without preliminary data” could get as much as $300,000. Proposals are due May 15.

“Music, animal-facilitated therapy, art, dance/movement, massage therapy, EMDR [Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing] program evaluation, virtual reality, acupuncture, spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga,” might all be considered worth of the military’s largess. So would “biologically-based treatments, botanicals, and nutritional supplements for enhancing cognitive function and mood in patients with trauma spectrum disorders, including TBI and/or PTSD, depression, anxiety, and/or substance dependence/abuse.” Even proposals for wild-sounding “therapies using bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, distant healing and acupuncture” would be accepted.

This is good news indeed. I might add using the EFT therapy. One of its teaching videos even shows several sessions with people suffering with PTSD after vietnam war. And it seems that EFT helped them very much.

Another interesting post by the same anonymous is called Skeptics duped by Fraudulent Skeptics. Here’s the intro:

There is a big problem in the skeptical community. There is rampant obscuration of the truth by prominent skeptics who have misled masses of people. Skeptics often say that believers in the paranormal have been fooled by charlatans but it is the skeptics who have been fooled by prominent members of their community who seem to be more interested in winning the debate than in illuminating the truth.

Following, he provides a significant number of links and excerpts from various sources that signify the point. Including quotes from Randi, Dean Radin, Michael Prescott and more. Another forum user, LeoM, added several sources of his own.

In Home remedies forum user Allen Green posted a number of articles on various conditions and news from research from the web.

User Drynal wrote about the Art of making a psi ball, where he describes how to create a psi ball, which is an energy practice.

User Jozen-Bo writes about The Incredible Mind Portal which is something that he kind of invented and now promotes on the forum. It seems to be a technique that should help people to deal with their problems, generally speaking.

On the very active Skeptiko podcast forum there are lots of interesting discussions, both philosophical ones about the consciousness nature and psi and also discussions of the various episodes of the great podcast itself. One interesting post was added by user Open Mind, where he writes about The Collective Placebo Effect. Collective Belief & Disbelief?. He provides several quotes from various articles about the placebo effect. For example:

’......Cimetidine was one of the first anti-ulcer drugs on the market, and it is still in use today. In 1975, when it was brand new, it eradicated 80% of ulcers, on average, in various different trials. But as time passed the success rate of cimetidine – this very same drug – deteriorated to just 50%.
This deterioration seems to have occurred particularly after the introduction of ranitidine, a competing and supposedly superior drug…..

So, if you haven’t done this already, take a look at our various forums. Read the posts that interest you, ask your questions and write your answers and ideas, where they are fit. All you need to post is to register for the forums for free. You’re all welcome.

For those who don’t know what EFT is: EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is a healing technique which bases itself in the meridian energy knowledge and which especially excels in treating psychological issues along physical ones. See my experience treating migraines with EFT. To get started with learning EFT (it’s quite easy), go to EFT Get Started.

Latest newsletter from EFT founder Gary Craig links to a story by an EFT practitioner (actually, an EFT journal founder, Gary Williams). Williams discusses the topics of whether EFT can be explained by placebo effect. He shares Gary Craig’s views about it, which discuss why placebo effect differs from EFT procedure:

Placebo effects require some belief in the process and this is rarely the case for newcomers to EFT. Also, although EFT may appear to be distracting, it will not work if the client is, in fact, distracted. That is why the client continually repeats a reminder phrase which “tunes in” to the problem.

Williams then tells a story where he witnesses a car accident and went to help the injured, among them a little girl, crying hysterically on one of the cars:

I approached her, looking her in the eye and said, “What I am about to do is a little strange,” and then began tapping her on the face and hands whilst still holding her gaze. Within a matter of seconds, to my own surprise, she stopped shaking and became totally calm. It was as though we had built an island of calm amongst the chaos.

I can remember her saying “I am going to be late to pick up my father” – a strange thing to say, but I just reminded her that she had had an accident and that picking up her father would have to wait. Meanwhile the services had been called and then when they arrived she calmly climbed into an ambulance to be assessed.

Could this be a placebo effect or does EFT really work?

To learn more about EFT visit EFT homepage.

I am hosting the second volume of the qigong and Energy arts forum.

Anmol Mehta posted the article Free Online Yoga Video – Breath of Fire Yoga Breathing Exercise
This king kong of pranayamas helps you detoxify your system, oxygenate your blood, magnify the benefits of the Kundalini Yoga exercise you are doing and generate terrific energy within. If you suffer from heat related issues or high blood pressure, you should use caution when practicing Breath of Fire.

I want to add my article Top 5 healthy relaxation techniques to the list, where you’ll learn 5 of the best relaxation techniques I know of.

This concludes the second edition of Qigong and Energy Arts Forum. You may submit your article for the next edition, to be published in a few weeks’ time.

I’m going to host the second volume of Qigong and Healing arts Forum. Qigong and Energy Arts Forum is a monthly online magazine, featuring the Internet’s best new articles on qigong, kundalini yoga, reiki, and other energy arts. It was started and is managed by http://www.martialdevelopment.com.

One of my articles, Qigong Yiquan Review was published in the first volume. You can see it at http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/qigong-and-energy-arts-forum-1/.

The second volume will be out on December 21 and it is now possible to submit your articles. If you have an article about Qigong or other healing arts, please send your articles for submission at http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/about/#contact.

Start pressing those keys already.

Today I present another article by drew hempel who often published here several other articles on the subjects of qigong, music and healing.

How Qigong or Taoist Yoga Explains Gurdjieff

by drew hempel, MA

(anti-copyright, free distribution).

THE FOUNDATION OF THE LAW OF THREE

"'Before examining these influences,' began G., 'and the laws of transformation of Unity in Plurality, we must examine the fundamental law that creates all phenomena in all the diversity or unity of all universes.'" -- In Search of the Miraculous (p. 78, emphasis in original, and source for below Gurdjieff quotes).

I continue to see a lot of serious confusion about the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, a very influential source for people exploring paranormal healing powers.  First of all there was Gurdjieff's focus on the truth of his teaching, not on the kundalini energy effects.  This is one reason people reject Gurdjieff.  For example a famous person, Katherine Mansfield, came to Gurdjieff shortly before her death from tuberculosis.  Some people think that Gurdjieff just accelerated her death because he focused on the truth instead of on healing.   Secondly there's the problem of Gurdjieff's lineage.  Some state Gurdjieff was a Sufi but since he didn't have a particular Sufi master he's not credible.  Gurdjieff does name a very important Sufi teacher who doles out amazing secrets in Gurdjieff's excellent book Meetings with Remarkable Men. 

Most importantly Gurdjieff didn't pass on and develop his powers in someone else -- i.e. create another energy master.  Gurdjieff doesn't have a replacement yet many people think that Ouspensky was necessary to help Gurdjieff or that Bennett or Orage or others can better continue Gurdjieff's teachings.  For example, because of this conflict, the famous NYC literary critic Edmund Wilson made fun of Gurdjieff based on Orage's attempts to teach Gurdjieff.  The best book on Gurdjieff's teachings, In Search of the Miraculous, is only hindered by Ouspensky's extended yet confused commentaries while Gurdjieff's longest book was the cause for Gurdjieff considering suicide.  Beelzebub's Tales is not a reliable source since his publishers forced Gurdjieff to change the meaning of his teaching, as Bennett reports.

What is clear is that Gurdjieff's teaching is based on harmonics or what some term "psychic music," the central secret of my 2001 U of MN masters thesis, linked at http://nonduality.com/hempel.htm and focus of my subsequent research, including my previous articles here.  I discovered that the Pythagorean Perfect 5th or 2:3 music interval, C to G, and the Perfect 4th or 3:4, G to C, are the same as yang and yin in Taoism.  Gurdjieff also relies on the Pythagorean teachings based on harmonics or what Gurdjieff called the Law of Three, the fundamental law.   (as quoted above)

Western science converted complimentary opposites, yin and yang, or the Pythagorean Tetrad of 1:2:3:4, into a symmetrical system through the same diatonic scale that Gurdjieff presents in his teaching, thereby forever confusing the West's understanding of Gurdjieff.  

For example the major third diatonic music interval of Gurdjieff, 4:5, was converted into 5:4 as the cube root of two while the Pythagorean diatonic minor sixth, 5:8, was converted into 8:5 as the Golden Ratio.  In fact the extension of the Tetrad, 1:2:3:4 (Perfect 5th/Perfect 4th complimentary opposite harmonics as the Law of Pythagoras) into symmetric-based ratios (i.e. Gurdjieff's 4:5 into 5:4 as the cube root of two) was the product not of Pythagoras but of Platonic math from Archytas' creation of the geometric mean (a "one-to-one correspondence of letter and number").  I give the technical details in chapter four of my blogbook, http://mothershiplanding.blogspot.com.  Math professor Joe Mazur recently stated that my compilation of this information is "very valuable" and he recommended that I have it published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.  

Today is another interview, this time with Laura Bruno. Laura Bruno is a Life Coach, Medical Intuitive, Animal Communicator and Reiki Master Teacher. She has lived and taught across the U.S. and now resides in Sedona, Arizona, where she enjoys the beauty with her husband Stephen, a photographer. Laura offers classes and phone consultations and writes fiction in her spare time. In addition to over twenty articles on natural healing, Laura also authored the soon-to-be-released eBook, If I Only Had a Brain Injury: A TBI Survivor and Life Coach’s Guide to Chronic Fatigue, Concussion, Lyme Disease, Migraine and Other “Medical Mystery. You can visit her website at www.internationalrenaissancecoaching.com.

Could you please tell the story of discovering your intuitive abilities.

I grew up as an empath (meaning I could feel other people’s physical and emotional pain), but I had no context for that “gift.” Everyone called me over-sensitive, and I learned to view intuition as something inconvenient, weird or shameful. Despite efforts to suppress it, people still sensed my ability. While I earned a Masters in English at University of Chicago, strangers often approached me for health or life path advice, which I quietly gave. To my embarrassment, these same strangers later hugged me in front of my friends, thanking me for the insights. Secretly, I felt led to a more spiritual career than academia, but I resisted.

Instead, I chose the corporate world. My first sales job required twenty-five cold calls per day. Twenty-five cold calls supposedly equaled seven call-backs, which translated to three sales appointments, which became one sale, which (funneled throughout the month) equaled or exceeded quota. I hated viewing conversations as statistics—not to mention all the “no soliciting” jabs. But I couldn’t live on my base salary: I needed to hit quota. Desperate, I started praying. Before each cold call I would silently ask, “Let them see your Light in me and, please, give me the right words to say.” Instead of kicking me out, business folks suddenly welcomed me as a long lost friend! Yet after seven cold calls, I still needed a vanilla milkshake and a two-hour nap. I requested extra guidance: “Please, take me to the right places today. Then, let me radiate your Light and use your words.” With my terrible sense of direction, I developed an uncanny knack for getting “lost” exactly where and when someone needed exactly what I had to sell. I continued to make or exceed quota each month, averaging about two cold calls per day.

This effective prayer only intensified that nudge toward spiritual work. One day I “accidentally” cold called a nun and she took my hands: “Child, you have such Sweetness in you! You will go far when you embrace your gifts.” Disturbed, I reapplied to doctoral programs, vowing to teach a Literature and Spirituality class. I found a cushy sales job with established accounts—no more cold calling nuns! Then I prayed, “If academia’s not my path, don’t let me do it. Otherwise, I’m going!” The scholarships and stipends flooded in: “Wow!” I thought, “That was easy! Here I expected some big, dramatic thing. One course on Literature and Spirituality? Guess I’m not so intuitive after all …”

But on May 19, 1998 (three months before I planned to start fully funded doctoral studies in English Literature) an on-the-job car accident destroyed the life I knew. A brain injury shut down my rational side for years. I suffered visual impairments leaving me unable to read longer than five minutes per day. Florescent lights caused migraines, dizziness and disorientation, and my short term memory all but disappeared. Without my rational mind, intuition suddenly unleashed itself. Carefully developed filters no longer worked. I suddenly “knew” someone had a thyroid problem or emotional blocks leading to cancer. Even worse, I’d get the insistent urge to tell them and if I didn’t, my head pounded louder than usual. The more I resisted, the stronger the migraines became until finally I contacted each person and shared my insights. Then the pain subsided. Medical tests and conversations continued to confirm my intuition, but it took a long time for me to feel comfortable sharing information—even under duress.

Summer 1999, I spent eight weeks in Seattle in a final push to attend graduate school. (Yep, I’m stubborn, and Northwestern let me defer enrollment for a year.) One day, my holistic vision and brain injury specialist said, “If grad school doesn’t pan out, come back to Seattle. I’m old and I need to give my practice to someone.” “OK, where did that come from?” I asked. “I’m an English major!” He explained that he and his assistant had noticed “the next three patients after” me “always made amazing progress.” “Great,” I said, “What’s that got to do with me?” He answered, “For weeks we’ve purposely mixed things up and no matter which three patients follow you, they always make amazing progress. You leave an energy residue in the room that lasts at least three hours. Seriously, if grad school doesn’t pan out, come back and work with me.”

Well, graduate school didn’t pan out. My head imploded under florescent lights and if I ever managed to read, I immediately forgot the content. Meanwhile, my intuition and energy continued to grow. In August 2001, I returned to Seattle for more treatment. That specialist eventually hired me as his Medical Intuitive Consultant—my first job after brain injury. With no other career options and a strong sense of Fate, I started to embrace my healing gifts instead of running from them. I opened my own business and made a full recovery. Now, I love my intuition, and I love that it helps so many people heal and find their path!

You are a Reiki Master teacher. What do you find Reiki helpful for?

Reiki translates to “universal life force energy” or “divinely directed healing energy.” As such, people find Reiki helpful for all kinds of things! In the last 10 years, many hospices and hospitals (including the esteemed California Pacific Medical Center, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire, St. Luke’s Hospital in Pennsylvania, and Tucson Medical Center in Arizona) have valued volunteer or paid Reiki practitioners alongside their cancer programs because patients report vastly decreased pain and fear, and increased peace, positive attitude and relaxation.

Personally, I’ve found that Reiki works well for headaches, stomach pain, and insomnia. When I first learned Reiki, I was still recovering from my brain injury. Daily self-treatments and a number of “healing attunements” allowed me to wean myself completely from pharmaceutical migraine pills. I also find Reiki useful for empowering goals, because the energy just flows through situations and events. Hallmarks of Reiki include increased serendipity and a bubbling sense of joy.

Describe some of the more interesting cases from your practice, where Reiki was helpful.