November ‘18
austin * san antonio
ISSUE 151 FREE
ALL NATURAL
BODY * MIND * SPIRIT
Bogus! A Deep Breath Artist of the Spirit
Storm
THE REJUVENIZER Phyllis Light, Ph.D & Telepathic Healer
®
A LIFETIME OF HEALING AND PROTECTION
I wear my Rejuvenizer all the time. I really feel good having it on at work when going through those scanners. I have also noticed more energy and feeling more at ease on the airplane. —E.C., Alaska
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This woman had only a few hours sleep the previous night and felt exhausted at the time this photo was taken.
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Primal Wellness can provide health beyond the expected when other methods haven’t helped at all. Chronic disease isn’t natural. Extend your competitive edge. Maintain functionality throughout life. If you want health beyond the expected, you must go beyond the expected health care.
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Soul Guide
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DENTISTRY FOR BODY, MIND, AND SOUL
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Inside Austin All Natural
BOGUS! – Dr. Joe Vitale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 STORM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 THE LAST METAPHYSICAL BOOKSTORE OFF TO THE FAIR DIET – OR DIE? – Cecili Eckert A gentler way to change how you eat TAKE A DEEP BREATH Breathing for transformation ARTIST OF THE SPIRIT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 RIGHT BRAIN/LEFT BRAIN – Lane Sebring, M.D.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The anatomy of politics? It’s all in our heads NATURAL HEALTH PIONEERS – Dr. Matthew Carpenter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Biological dentistry, chemical sensitivities, and the story of Annde WHY PEOPLE DON’T HEAL – Christina Allen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 DEAR ASHTARA – Ashtara Sasha White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 THANKSGIVING A daily reminder – Dephanie Cates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 THE AYAHUASCA CHRONICLES – Steve Dyer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 So what did you get out of it? UPCOMING EVENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Publisher/Editor
Michael Abedin (512) 879-7299 michaelabedin@yahoo.com www.AustinAllNatural.com
PRODUCT AND PRACTITIONERS GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Products and Practitioners for Healthy Giving and Resolutions for a New Year
A Letter to Our Readers
Art Director
We have a dark, brooding cloud all around the world, but if we enliven the field of peace within, it’ll turn that cloud from a dark, brooding cloud to a beautiful, golden cloud. And this is what I’m interested in – seeing that happening very soon. – David Lynch
Pun Nio
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WEB SUPPORT
Kira Ann Hayden Cover Art
Sioux Rainmakers, Original artwork by Rance Hood Austin All Natural ©2018 All rights reserved. The information in this publication is believed to be accurate, and Austin All Natural will not be held liable for the performance of goods and services provided by advertisers or any other portion of this publication. Austin All Natural is printed on environmentally sound paper certified under the rigorous production standards of the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization devoted to creating true sustainability. For environmental reasons, we do not use soy-based inks. See www.AustinAllNatural.com for details. 100% Natural. No preservatives or additives.
If anyone knows about dark and brooding it would be David Lynch, co-creator and director of Twin Peaks. In it, and its sequel/prequel Fire Walk With Me, straight-arrow FBI agent Cooper spends some time in the Black Lodge, which Native American sheriff’s deputy Hawk explains you sometimes have to go through to get to the White Lodge.
Redemption.
The Native People knew no journey to the Black Lodge is complete without the possibility of redemption, something Lynch offers all his characters. Some take it, some you’re not sure of. Lynch, an avid meditator, calls the field of peace within the unified field, the unity of all particles and forces, and he says this field is magical. Enliven this field of unity in the midst of diversity, and there is peace. Make your choice. Make it soon. -Michael Abedin
AUSTIN ALL NATURAL PRESENTS
Quantum Reiki THE MASTER INTENSIVE INCLUDING
The Reiki of the Fire Dragon A new look at the history of Reiki and its founder, Dr. Mikao Usui, with Reiki Master Teachers, Karen Riviere Hayden and Michael Abedin
Everything you need to be a Reiki Master • History and concepts of Reiki. • How to do treatments on yourself and others, in-person and long-distance. • What the Reiki symbols are, and how to use them. • Attunement to First Degree, Second Degree, and Master levels. • A powerful Journey into Mastery meditation. • How to attune others. • Reiki Master certificate, and a chart tracing your lineage from Reiki founder Mikao Usui. • An opportunity to assist in future classes to receive Reiki Master Teacher certification. • Tips on setting up a practice, or incorporating Reiki into a current practice • Introductory manual, and illustrated handbook.
Nov. 30 – Dec. 2 Pre-register by Nov. 15 for a 20% Discount
(512) 879-7299 “An outstanding teacher—clear, articulate, caring,
and careful in how you help people absorb the potent information. I wouldn’t do the class with anyone else. It’s Reiki on an accelerated level of learning.”
— JOE VITALE
Michael Abedin, Karen Riviere Hayden Reiki Master Teachers
michaelabedin@yahoo.com
(Please include your phone number in your email. Phone interview required for info and registration.)
by Dr. Joe Vitale
I
went to a sleep study center recently. I needed to find out if I have sleep apnea. I don’t know the results as of this writing, but I want to share this story of what happened while I was there. It’s another miracle. The woman hooking me up with wires and sensors had an hour to kill, as she had that much set up to do, so she asked me what I did for a living. “Lots of things,” I said. “I’m primarily an author.” “What have you written?” “I’ve written over seventy-six books,” I said. “Good God! Tell me about one of them.”
I told her about Zero Limits.
I explained the story of Dr. Hew Len and how he helped heal an entire ward of mentally ill criminals with a Hawaiian healing method called ho’oponopono. “What’s that?” she asked. I explained it was a way to change outer reality by changing your inner perceptions of it. “Are you saying that therapist changed his perceptions and the inmates got better?” “Exactly.” “Bogus!” she blurted.
I was slightly surprised.
I’m not used to meeting people so instantly close-minded. “I’m a psychologist,” she said. “I only look at the brain and empirical evidence for what works.”
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“Then you’ll love my book,” I said. “I coauthored it with the therapist, and I interviewed the staff that worked at the hospital with him.” “Do you believe the stuff you write?” she asked. That was a stunner. “Yes, of course! It would be the greatest crime in my life to write what I didn’t believe.” “Well, it sounds bogus to me.” I let it go. I was there to have my sleep diagnosed, not get in an argument.
But then something miraculous happened.
Around five in the morning, I announced I couldn’t sleep anymore and she might as well return and unhook me from the test equipment. She came out, moving slow, and I noticed she was red-faced and struggling to breathe. I asked if she were okay. “I think I’m having a heart attack.” I instantly perked up and sat up. I still had wires all over me, and electrodes on my head and face. But I was alert. “I’ll call 911 right now,” I offered. “My phone is right here.” “No, the hospital is right behind us.” “Then I’ll walk you to the hospital. Just get this stuff off of me and we’ll go.” “I still have two other patients to unhook,” she explained. “Then I can go.” “Sit down here,” I said, patting the bed. She did. “Take your time. There’s no hurry.”
As she sat beside me, I began to practice the four phrases of basic ho’oponopono.
I repeated, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, and thank you. I didn’t say it out loud. I just repeated it silently, as a mantra. I noticed she seemed to relax. Her breathing slowed. She was still red-faced and still anxious, but clearly more relaxed.
She started to remove the wires from my body. As she did, I just kept practicing ho’oponopono. When she was done, I told her I’d wait for her to finish the other two patients.
She left the room and I got dressed.
But even as I dressed, I continued saying the four phrases. The other patients left. I went out to the main area and saw her sitting at her desk, her head laying down like a student at school having recess. “Are you okay?” “I’m fine,” she said. She was still struggling to breathe. “I’m a cigarette smoker and haven’t had one in a while,” she confessed. I waited and talked to her a bit. Once I was confident she was truly fine, and that her supervisor would be coming in shortly, I left. So, did ho’oponopono help her?
It helped me.
That’s the point. Whenever you have something going on, do ho’oponopono on yourself. As you relax into the miracle of now, you will feel better. As you do, the outer may shift too. But do it for you.
Dr. Joe Vitale, a star in The Secret, is a bestselling author, musician, speaker, and coach. His latest book is Anything is Possible. You can have his free e-book, Attract Money Now, at www.AttractMoneyNow.com His main website is www.MrFire.com Photo by: Brian Fitzsimmons
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Storm Riders on the storm Riders on the storm Into this house we’re born Into this world we’re thrown – The Doors, Riders on the Storm
A
s the finishing touches were being made to this page, a great yellow orb appeared in the sky over Austin one Sunday morning, strangely blue for the first time in what seemed like a very long time. Were the gods pleased – or displeased? Would you be struck blind if you gazed at it, burned to a crisp if you ventured outside? No one was sure, and many citizens wandered through fearful jungles where yards once grew, keeping a wary eye out for chupacabras, vampire armadillos, and other predatory beasts. Strange times indeed. The Lizard King, who rode a storm or two in his time, would approve.
The Long Rain.
That’s the title of a vintage sci-fi story from Ray Bradbury’s excellent work The Illustrated Man, whose tattoos come to life and tell strange and wonderful tales. In it, astronauts crashland on a planet of near-eternal rain, and slowly go insane trying to reach the warmth and safety of the Sun Domes – sort of like what it felt like walking to your car in October as rains spawned by Hurricane Michael filled Lake Travis to record levels, doing a bit of flooding here and there. Michael, a Category Four storm and the third-worst to hit the U.S. in recorded history, devastated the Florida Panhandle, and tore through Alabama and Georgia like Sherman’s Union army in the War Between the States. There’s a whole bunch of metaphors lurking in there, not the least of which is that things are heating up – like, say, the waters of the seas – and more storms are yet to come unless things start cooling off. The cultural, political, and metaphysical parallels don’t even have to be drawn. These are DIY metaphors.
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Thanks a lot.
If your people on your mother’s side came to northeast Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears, it’s fitting from time to time to do a November issue celebrating Native American culture. The Native people of both Americas gave Europe peppers, chocolate, tobacco, vanilla, tomatoes, and potatoes. (When potatoes were introduced to the Elizabethan court by Sir Walter Raleigh, it’s said they tried to light up the leaves and smoke them.) In return, Europe gave them smallpox, measles, and other diseases, killing off about eighty percent of them – then broke treaties, hunted the rest down, and marched survivors to reservations. And yet their culture survives, often through Native artists and annual gatherings like the Austin Powwow, November 3, and Sacred Springs Powwow, November 17-18, good ways to celebrate and give thanks to Native cultures existing before Columbus blundered onto the Bahamas in 1492, thinking he was in India.
Rainmakers.
Comanche artist Rance Hood is one of those artists. November’s cover, Sioux Rainmakers, is one of his most recognized paintings, an illustration of how light and dark can come together in harmony, creating life-giving rain and the beauty of a rainbow. The Sioux, Lakota in their language, were featured in the 1990 Academy Award-winning film Dances With Wolves, hailed as a tribute to Native culture. Then producer, director, and star Kevin Costner used some of his profits for a luxury resort and golf course – in the Black Hills, sacred ground to the Lakota, on land once given the Lakota in another broken treaty. Two decades later, it was never completed. No record of whether there’s a Lakota word for karma, but the tag line at the end of a good film, in spite of Costner’s later actions, could be read as an omen for our own times. The great horse culture of the Plains was gone, and the American frontier was soon to vanish into history.
GIFTS AND RESOLUTIONS The Last Metaphysical Bookstore Unity Church of the Hills, 9905 Anderson Mill Rd. Long ago, in an Austin far, far away, there was a metaphysical bookstore in a strip center on S. Lamar, home to funky, locally owned vintage and music stores. This was when there was a S. Lamar, instead of Condo Canyon, when there was an Austin instead of – well, never mind. Whole Life Books is gone now, and most of the other stores. There is, however, one remaining bookstore in Austin specializing in metaphysical and New Thought titles. How does a metaphysical bookstore feel? Walk into Unity Bookstore, an alchemical blend of incense, candles, tea, salt lamps, things to pick up, touch – it’s a tactile experience. Books are everywhere, bestsellers to ancient wisdom. Prosperity, healing, Near Death Experiences, relationships, living a happy, peaceful life – there’s a book for it. In the e-info age, there’s something comforting about paper books. They have a heft to them, a scent. They crinkle when you turn the page – and that can’t be duplicated by an electronic device. And they make great gifts. Mention Austin All Natural for 20% off any single purchase. Unity Bookstore, Sun. 9-2, Tues.-Fri. 9-5. (512) 335-4449, www.UnityHills.org
Off to the Fair
Lotions, Notions, Potions Since folks first learned to exchange goods and services for shiny coins, fairs and festivals have been a social event – a place where you could see a seer, be entertained, buy necessities and luxuries from far and wide. The more things change, the more they remain the same. The Austin area has a plethora of possibilities for finding products, practitioners, lotions, notions, and potions for Christmas, New Year’s Resolutions, Valentine’s Day – or just for fun. Metaphysical and Holistic Life Expo. Austin’s original, a quarterly two-day event carefully curated to be a balanced blend of readers, practitioners, and products. January 5-6, Psychic Prediction Panel Jan. 4. www.SpiritualLifeProductions.com Body Mind Spirit Expo. National circuit of two-day events with vendors and speakers from around the country, BMSE has added a second Austin show. Feb. 2-3. www.BMSE.net San Marcos Metaphysical and Holistic Fair. Monthly, products and practitioners from Austin, San Antonio, points between. Nov. 25, Dec. 30. www.HeavenPathwaysEarth.com Austin Powwow and Sacred Springs Powwow. Traditional Native American dance competition, crafts, artwork, herbal products, and food. Austin Powwow, Nov. 3. www.AustinPowwow.net ; Sacred Springs Powwow, San Marcos, Nov. 17-18, www.SSPowwow.com
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DIET – OR DIE?
A gentler approach to changing the way you eat by Cecili Eckert
H
ow is it that a new diet seems to gain prominence every year or so? From the popular Keto to the beloved Paleo and all the countless diets in between, it’s difficult to determine which best fits your needs. Even if you’ve found the “perfect” diet, just how long can you maintain its regimen, for long-term success? For some, food has become a topic of great stress and confusion. For others, food only enters the mind when hunger strikes, with little to no thought about the health implications.
How can you make lasting changes where food is concerned? You probably can’t if you’re blindly following the rules of a diet, day in and day out, or if you’re completely checked out, with no thought whatsoever of what, when, or how you eat. Success comes much more easily when you ensure your way of eating has a heavy dose of the two most important ingredients missing in most diets – love and awareness. In our overly rushed society, it’s easy to understand their
absence. However, adding love and awareness to your daily food rituals could be a catalyst for great change where health is concerned. So, how do you go about implementing these ingredients?
Slow down.
Slowing your pace allows you to sprinkle some joy and gratitude on your plate. After all, food does so much more than quell your hunger. It provides energy for the body and the mind, and it feeds every amazing cell in your body. When you start to embrace the idea that food is a powerful way to show love for your body, in return for sustaining your existence, you’ll begin to want to feed your body in a manner that shows your appreciation. Nutrient-dense, organic, whole foods that work with your body instead of against it provide your body with high-quality energy to keep you healthy and vibrant. Junk food, however, doesn’t just fill your body with empty, weight-producing calories that leave you, like an addict, craving more junk food – it also stresses every system in your body as it tries to rid itself of toxic pesticides, antibiotics, and chemical additives, and has been implicated in contributing to a lot of emotional disorders.
Get off autopilot.
Slowing down also helps you move from autopilot into a full state of awareness. Get curious about how different foods serve your entire being, ask yourself what role your thoughts play in creating your current way of eating. Observe barriers that keep you from reaching your goal and gradually begin to remove them, pacing yourself so as not to create a state of stress. Holidays can be stressful and a tough time to change your eating habits, but they’re also a perfect time to think about challenging yourself to embrace, fully, the amazing benefits nourishing food offers your mind, body, spirit, and emotions. Love and awareness are the keys to understanding that you are a powerful and deserving being. It’s through self-love and awareness that you will be pulled toward the perfect way of eating that honors your greatest self. Cecili Eckert is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist specializing in positive, life-changing results for IBS, Crohn’s, colitis, and food relationships, including individualized menus and structured but flexible eating programs for children with food sensitivities. (512) 689-0169, www.RevivalNutritionandHealth.com
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TAKE A DEEP BREATH Breathing for Transformation T
he human body is pretty adaptable, but there are certain things it needs to survive. Go without them too long, and things get unpleasant. One of them is particularly important – you can go without food for weeks and without water for days, but can only go a matter of minutes without oxygen. Barring a few exceptional circumstances, brain cells start dying not long after you quit breathing. There’s breathing, however, and breathing with intent. Yoga practitioners, martial artists, and meditators know the importance of proper, focused breathing, but breath can become an even more powerful tool that can accomplish something in and of itself.
Transformation.
Everyone has wounds, hidden deep within levels of body, mind, and emotions. They may be recent, or go all the way back to birth – or even before. If you can’t resolve them, the convenient thing to do is stuff them away somewhere, consciously or unconsciously, so you won’t have to deal with them. That may seem to work for a while, maybe even indefinitely, but eventually you start wondering why the same old stuff keeps coming up, on different levels, in one form or another. One clue something is trying to resolve itself is restricted or shallow breathing. That’s when a trained facilitator can work with specific breathing patterns to get things moving. Transformational Breath evolved over a couple of decades, becoming available as an alternative healing technique in 1992. Its premise is simple – better breathing not only brings in more oxygen, it can also bring in higher vibrational levels of energy. Whether you call that breath-borne energy prana, mana, or chi, it has the potential to raise lower energetic frequencies through a process of entrainment, the basis of just about any form of energetic healing – higher vibrational levels raise lower ones when they come into contact.
effective method of integrating wounded aspects of self into one functioning whole. Nothing needs to be released. Instead, the focused intention is on breathing in joy, peace, harmony, and balance. Any ‘release work’ takes place naturally and easily, without the need for conscious processing of each accumulated hurt and pain. Old patterns are brought to awareness, restructured through the breath, and consciously transmuted.” Once the energy it takes to stuff issues from old wounds and traumas has been transformed, there’s a whole lot more left to get in touch with higher levels of spiritual awareness – many recipients have reported mystical experiences that brought insight and clarity to their lives, and access to higher states of consciousness. “It is easy to take breath for granted,” Grace points out. “When you take back conscious control of this critical function, you begin to lead a healthier, more joyful life.” Transformational Breath® facilitator Grace Bryce offers individual and couples sessions and monthly workshops. Next workshop, Nov. 26. (512) 818-7857, www.GraceBryce.com
How does it work?
A Transformational Breath session may involve some combination of toning and sound healing, breath, movement, breathing analysis, and, maybe most importantly, conscious awareness. Potential physical benefits of getting more oxygen into your system are obvious, and may include tension relief, helping get rid of pathogens and toxins, and increased energy. Mentally, there’s the potential for old limiting beliefs to be dissolved, freeing up stuck creativity and joy. Emotionally, old repressed patterns of negative emotions can be reintegrated, freeing up more bandwidth for positive emotional content.
Not a big fan of processing?
Good news, according to Austin-based Transformational Breath practitioner Grace Bryce. “This can be a dramatically
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ARTIST OF THE Spirit The visions of Comanche artist Rance Hood
by Michael Abedin
T
he Native American warriors of the Plains tribes were, in their day, experts in homeland security who started battling what they perceived as terrorist attacks not too long after 1492. Just before the beginning of the 1700s, a band of hunter-gatherers in Wyoming split off from the Shoshone and created their own tribe, after borrowing a whole bunch of large dogs they saw Spaniards riding around on. Over the next couple of centuries, they became some of the best horsemen and some of the fiercest and most independent mystic warriors the world has seen. Like most Native Americans, their name in their own language meant simply The People, but they eventually became known by a Spanish version of the Ute word for enemy – Comanche. The Comanche became sort of the biker gangs of the Plains Indians, bad enough to have driven even the Apache out of Texas. Read Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove trilogy or fellow Texas author Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian to get an idea of how much Texans feared them in the 1800s. Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas, lived with the Cherokee in Tennessee, and he negotiated successful treaties with the Comanche and other Texas tribes. Almost all of them were broken, through no fault of Houston’s – in fact, it’s said the only treaty with Natve Americans never broken anywhere in this nation’s history was one between the Comanche and the German settlers of Fredericksburg.
The Great Raid.
In 1840, a group of Comanche chiefs was summoned to a house in San Antonio under a flag of truce, where they were surrounded by Texas militia. Over thirty of them were killed before
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they could reach their weapons. Buffalo Hump, a war chief who didn’t trust the truce offer, organized several Comanche bands and ran through central and south Texas like grease through a goose, sacking the second-largest port in Texas in August of 1840. They made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in loot, some of which they dumped during a running battle with militia and Texas Rangers near Lockhart, outside Austin – jauntily attired in top hats and formal wear
looted from stores. By 1875, though, the last band of free Native Americans in Texas gave up the fight and went to the reservation – a band of Comanche under legendary chief Quanah Parker.
History repaints itself.
Any histories kept by Native American tribes were usually in story or graphic form. Rance Hood is half Comanche, raised by his grandparents on his mother’s side. He can tell a pretty
good story, but he’s also one of a handful of Native American artists still preserving what’s left of their culture by painting it. He came to painting relatively late in life at twenty-two, after being a bull rider like his brothers and his mom. (Yep – his mom.) “I started off playing a guitar and wanted to make it in the music business, but somebody told me it was hard to get into that. I’d seen paintings by Indians, and I thought, hell, I’m an Indian, I should be painting to follow my traditions, to help The People.” A gallery owner in Oklahoma City started showing and selling his work, then a cover story in Southwest Art magazine lit the fuse and Rance started doing what a lot of good artists never manage – he sold a lot of art. “I was doing serigraphs a hundred at a time and selling all of them in a week. I felt like one rich guy for a while.” He lived the high life with rock stars of the Seventies and Eighties, running with guys like Stephen Stills and spending a little time with Stevie Nicks. He hung out with The Eagles, and his artwork would have been on one of their album covers – except they couldn’t find him. “They went with a Navajo artist, instead.”
White men with tails.
Some of the Native American languages are dying out, and Comanche, Rance says, is one of them. “They’re starting to teach it again, but you really have to spend time with the old people to learn it.” He speaks fluent Comanche, “better than most full-bloods. Did you know none of the Indian languages have curse words? You might say something funny about a guy, like his butt was real skinny or his head was round as a globe, but even going into battle, we didn’t waste time cursing. We just fought.” Indeed. The Comanche raided as far as Central America. “We went all the way down south of Mexico, on horseback, and saw monkeys in trees. We’d never seen monkeys before, but we’d seen a few white people – so we called them white men with tails.” When Rance talks about his ancestors, he doesn’t say they, he says we – and it’s a good thing for him they made it into Mexico. His greatgreat grandfather was full-blood Mexican, captured as a little boy by a raiding party. Like a lot of captives – including Quanah Parker’s mother, Cynthia Ann – he became a tribal member. “They called him Red Man,” he laughs, “and he was Mexican.” The warrior tradition is so strong in Native Americans they’re still fiercely patriotic, proud to serve in the armed forces of the country that destroyed their culture. One of Rance’s old friends, now gone, was one of the World War II code talkers, who baffled Germans and Japanese monitoring Allied radio communications by speaking their native tongue. The fighting spirit of the Comanche was so powerful, in fact, that one Comanche on horseback was considered a threat, and two constituted a raiding party – but individual fighting spirit and skill can’t prevail forever against sheer numbers and superior firepower. Hungry for land, wave after wave of immigrants poured into Native American homelands and intentionally decimated the buffalo – their source of food, clothing, and shelter. Some of the invaders wore Union blue and carried repeating rifles, and they kept coming and coming. With the notable exception of a handful of Lakota war chiefs at the Little Big Horn, most tribal leaders failed to unite their people against them, and they fought and died as they’d lived – in small bands of independent warriors. They say if go to the Little Big Horn around dusk or dawn, you can still feel the spirits of warriors who passed over that day – but you don’t really need to go that far. Just go to the work of artists like Rance Hood, who are keeping that spirit alive.
Rance Hood lives in Denison, Texas. His artwork is available at www.RanceHood.com
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I
RIGHT BRAIN/ LEFT BRAIN
The anatomy of politics? It’s all in in our heads by Lane Sebring, M.D.
f you consider yourself a liberal, you may ask yourself, “What’s wrong with the minds of those narrow-minded conservatives? They just don’t get it.” If you consider yourself a conservative, you may ask yourself, “What’s wrong with the minds of those completely ungrounded liberals?” Fascinatingly, there’s a bridge between these two, called the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is the neurologic connection between the left and the right hemispheres of the brain.
What I’m saying here is political persuasion is anatomical.
If you divide the brain into four quadrants – left and right frontal, and left and right basal – you’ll find that each quadrant performs very different functions, and actually receives different neural input. The two left quadrants make you a political right brain, and the two right quadrants make up a political left brain. The left frontal part of the brain thinks in terms of structure. It’s responsible for engineering, prioritization, and a very narrow, focused, linear logic. The left basal quadrant thinks categorically and sequentially and is responsible for details, organizational skills, and protocols. The right frontal part of the brain is responsible for pattern recognition, and inconsistencies in the pattern. It sees the big picture, understands concepts, and can take large amounts of data and fast-forward it to see where it’s going. It has a vision of where it wants to go, but it has no idea how to get there – because that’s the function of the left side of the brain. The left brain says, Where do you want to go? I’ll get you there. Don’t give the left side of the brain a bunch of newfangled ideas, though, because it doesn’t get them. The right basal part of the brain seeks rhythm and harmony. It reads body language well and experiences feelings of spirituality, like witnessing a glorious sunset, the birth of a child, or discovering a waterfall in the woods. Hard-core religion is mainly from the left basal quadrant of the brain. I’m a good person because I do these things. Those people over there don’t, so they’re not.
All of us have one of these four quadrants that’s our dominant quadrant.
We find that kind of thinking easy and satisfying, and can even do that kind of thinking when we’re a little sick, and maybe not up to our usual level of performance. All this gets really interesting when you realize: • Twenty-five percent of people just use one quadrant of the brain. • Fifty-five percent use two quadrants. • Fifteen percent use three quadrants.
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Only five percent of people use all four quadrants effectively.
These people are called full-brainers, and they have a lot of criteria to fulfill. There’s evidence that it can take up to a hundred times more energy to do focused thinking in an area of the brain where we’re not very good. As a result, that kind of thinking is done last, or not at all. We tend to befriend people with similar areas of dominance – but we tend to marry people that help us complete the circle.
Is half a brain better than none?
The left side of the brain, being the conservative mind, is logical and organized and understands cause and effect, but finds it difficult to see the big picture, and is unaware when it’s headed over a cliff or when a certain activity is unsustainable. It cannot understand a continuum – so a fertilized human egg and a human being are the same thing. Evolution is impossible to the categorical mind, because it is continuum. Conservatives often say Watch out! That’s a slippery slope. If you move, you must be in a different category. The left side of the brain can’t think outside the box. It’s uncomfortable without rules to follow. The right side of the brain says to the left, You keep making more and more rules, taking more of my freedom. Your rules are just an approximation of what needs to be done anyway. My mind works just fine, thank you. The conservative left side of the brain looks at the right and says, You’re such a space cadet, you can’t even follow the rules. The right side of the brain, being visionary and feeling, can envision a world without the poor but doesn’t know how to get there, so it throws money at it, complains about the mean conservatives, and holds feel-good pep rallies and protests – none of which has been that effective at actually helping the poor.
Our country seems to be run by half a brain at a time.
And we can’t stand either one for any length of time. The people we need to consult the most are those that use the areas of the brain that we do not use. Maybe, before a congressional bill is complete, it should be required to be passed through all four quadrants of the brain. Each of us prejudicially views the world through our preferred quadrants. We also view the thinking style of the quadrants in which we are weak as strange, or not real thinking. We often view those people who use quadrants different from ours as inferior thinkers, but each is not only valid, it’s also equal. Ironically, our greatest prejudice is found right between our own ears.
Dr. Lane Sebring is a practicing physician specializing in natural health empowerment, anti-aging, bioidentical hormones, personalized nutritional counseling, and alternative medicine. Offices and Paleo Pharmacy in Wimberley, 16811 Ranch Road 12. (512) 847-5618, www.SebringClinic.com
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NATURAL HEALTH PIONEERS Biological dentistry, chemical sensitivities, and the story of Annde
by Dr. Matthew Carpenter, DDS, NMD
A
number of our patients at Transcend Dental Health come in with other health issues, giving us the opportunity to show them how dental health supports overall health, and vice versa. It also gives us the rare privilege of learning from them, because many of them have had to do their own research and self-education to deal with issues mainstream medical providers couldn’t help them with – or, in many cases, didn’t even acknowledge existed. One such patient is one of the many grassroots giants in the field of natural medicine, particularly the field of people with chemical sensitivities. Ann deGraffenried was sick with multiple chemical sensitivities in the early 1990s, when most of us had never heard of such things. She created a newsletter that became a support system and source of information for people who sometimes felt isolated and alone in dealing with a condition often written off as simply their imagination. (To this day, chemical sensitivities and environmental illness are still viewed with skepticism in some medical and research circles, even though it’s been implicated as a possible contributor to such conditions as autism and ADHD.) As a biological dentistry practice, we assist patients who’ve made the decision to have toxic materials like mercury amalgam and old, infected, toxic root canals removed as safely as possible. To that end, we’ve installed state-of-the-art air filtration and other safeguards to ensure none of these compounds makes its way into the environment of our office, where they could endanger the health of our family of patients or staff. As a result, the only precautionary measure taken when Ann visits is to turn off the humidification system – our office and treatment environment is clean enough that it hasn’t triggered any sensitivity symptoms for her. This is the kind of wonderful discovery we receive as a gift from our amazing patients, and we want to begin sharing their stories with others who can benefit from them and be inspired by them. Because of the tireless work of individuals like Ann, way before their time and against all medical opinion, these very real medical conditions are now more recognized. This month we’d like to honor her for her work, and the positive impact she’s had, by sharing a portion of the first edition of her newsletter. They’re still very pertinent and current, and will be available in the near future on our updated website.
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– Dr. Matthew Carpenter, DDS, NMD
THE GRASSROOTS JOURNAL
FOR PEOPLE WITH MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITIES/ ENVIRONMENTAL ILLNESS by Ann deGraffenried (MCS/EI) The birth of this newsletter was the brainchild of my husband, Brian. For several years before and after our move from our home in Austin to what we had called our “weekend” home in the middle of a sheep pasture, he urged me to record the information I was collecting related to MCS/EI and put it into a newsletter. The idea was a little selfish for him, because he saw an opportunity to use his computer skills in the production – but my health was not up to the task at that point. Due to MCS/EI, those of us who know we have this problem learn to re-think and re-do our way of living – and because of this, we have much to offer each other. So, a meeting was planned for October 26, 1994 for the MCS/EI Austin community, at the home of a member who lived in Northwest Hills. Thirty-five were known and contacted. Only thirteen were well enough to come that day. Upon arrival, all were able to be in her home – at first. Then people began to drop out, as they became sensitive to something in the house – the tea served, someone’s clothes-washing methods, so on and so forth.
AUSTIN ALL NATURAL PRESENTS Six of us were able to stick it out.
We shared phone numbers, treatments that were working, products we could find and use. On the way home to the sheep pasture, I drove and cried and cried, and realized it was time to write. When I got home it was dark and raining. I sat down on the sofa, told Brian about my day, picked up my yellow pad and pencil, and began to write it down. The first issue of the newsletter was birthed that night. One of the main points that came to light for me is the fact many of us with MCS/EI are just too sick to get together, regardless of how we are or how much we yearn for human companionship. Maybe this newsletter would serve as a “meeting in writing,” as well as a source of information. We’re a specialized group of people with a single, common bond. Because of the lack of information and understanding among the medical community and the general public, each of us has been forced to experiment and study, sometimes extensively, just to survive day to day.
Update, 2018.
We’re a hardy bunch, or we would not have gotten this far along. We shared a great deal of information with each other, and now Dr. Carpenter is offering the opportunity to share it with others. Every time I talk to another person with MCS/EI, I learn something, or am reminded of something I need to remember. We were able to share a lot of supportive information. How do we deal with EMF’s? Did anyone have an herb garden going? Was anyone gardening through all four seasons? I even got Brian to tell how he made our inexpensive compost pile containers. (And they worked – in spite of me!)
A final word.
Remember to smile, think positive thoughts – and sing out loud at least once a day.
Reprinted with permission of Ann deGraffenried (Annde), editor, from Nov. 1994, Vol., No. 1. Watch for more patient profiles in Austin All Natural, and at www.tdhtx.com Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health is an Integrative Biologic Dentist and Board Certified Naturopathic Physician, offering ozone therapy, natural oral care products incorporating essential oils, drill-free air abrasion, non-surgical gum disease treatment, safe mercury and root canal removal, and natural heavy metal elimination. (512) 255-3618, www.tdhtx.com
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Nov. 30–Dec. 2, 2018 All three levels of Reiki in one life-changing weekend Pre-register by Nov.15 for a $120 discount.
(512) 879-7299 Phone Registration Required. Learn to do treatments on yourself and others, in person and long distance, and how to attune others. Learn the true history of Reiki founder Mikao Usui, and Reiki’s relationship to Qigong, martial arts, Taoist and Tibetan traditions, and Japan’s ancient shamanism. Michael Abedin is an eighth-generation Reiki Master Teacher of the Usui lineage, a fifth-degree black belt martial artist, and publisher and editor of Austin All Natural.
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Why People Don’t Heal by Christina Allen
Y
ou’ve been to every healer in the county, and you still are in the same rut. It may get better for a while, but you always land back where you started. You can’t shift it by yourself, so you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on healers – but you’re still stuck. Why can’t you heal? There are many reasons. First, spiritual healing is a journey, not a miracle intervention. It takes time. Secondly, and most importantly, the healer can help us open the doorway, but it’s our choice to walk though it.
What prevents us?
Much of it is based on fear and limited beliefs. There are parts of ourselves in shadow that run background programs we’re unconscious of. We don’t believe we “deserve” to heal, or are worthy of a healthy vibrant life, for example. Perhaps you believe you’re a hopeless case, and cannot heal. When these beliefs go unnoticed, they can unconsciously sabotage your efforts. If you do not believe you can heal, you won’t. Until we disengage with these stories saying it is selfish to focus on ourselves, or the situation is hopeless, we’ll continue to muck around in that shallow eddy at the edge of the river, unable to dive in and swim. We may have a fear of failure. If we become healthy, we’ll have to show up and make an effort. Then all will see us flop spectacularly. If we never try, we can never fail. Or perhaps it’s a fear of success. If we heal, we will be seen, judged, and possibly envied, and this makes us feel vulnerable. A family dynamic can also keep us confined to passive or flunky roles, in exchange for love. All these knots are rooted in past events that make us feel unsafe to step up and change. Until we address these fears, we will not be able to move forward into other possible outcomes.
Some people have physical problems that are not gong to be cured.
Their healing work is in dealing with the stigma and the limitations of living with that disease or handicap. While they
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won’t be cured, they can heal – it’s up to each of us how we want to hold our limitations. All victim stories keep us unable to move on, until we can find acceptance. Further, the victim usually has someone who takes care of them as they suffer. This makes them feel safe and comfortable. To heal might cut us off from a steady stream of love or income we don’t believe we could otherwise generate. Blaming others and basking in indulgence can feel much safer than taking responsibility for our own lives and actually moving on. We may have a defensive mindset, an inner badass that won’t let anyone in to see our problems, or a well-defined intellect that knows everything already – so what’s the point? Seeing our stuff does not heal it. We have to be able to transcend it, not just override it with “better thoughts.” To transcend our mindsets, however, calls for a deep surrender, one that only we can sanction.
Healing is a journey within.
It addresses the very fiber of who we are, and how we have defined ourselves. It happens on our time, when we’re ready, but we have to want it. A healer can’t “heal” anyone who doesn’t want to change. The practitioner holds space for their client, to realize their own power and potential. They can lovingly take us to where we’re stuck, give us a way to transcend it, and connect us with Source directly, but the rest is on us. There is no magic pill. Healing happens when we are finally willing to let go of who we have been – to become someone new. Christina Allen, Shamanic Healer, teacher, founder and director of the Austin Shamanic Center, combines a strong science background (BA Physics, MS Neuroscience) with decades of applied ancient spiritual wisdom as a Master Yogi, Reiki Master, and Shamanic Healer, based, in part, on Q’ero Indian traditions of Peru. ASC offers profound Shamanic Self Development Workshops, professional trainings, and personal healings. Learn more at www.AustinShamanicCenter.com
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Dear Ashtara:
Messages from Your Angels and Master Teachers Dear Ashtara, I am unhappy with leaving Austin, and with where I live now. Do you see me moving? Usually, in my life, I have been grateful and above average. However, I find myself crying, anxious and not very happy. I meditate and do yoga. A, 57, Flower Mound, TX Dear A, It seems your teacher Ashtar, and others, want you to take the following steps. (a) Rebound or exercise daily. (b) Tune in. (c) Experience relief, sometimes instantly, with your new guidance. You will move when you find a job back in Austin. Just keep trying, and it will work. One of your high teachers is Sandalfon, who is guiding you now through this process. Dear Ashtara, I’d like to quit smoking and have been looking into different ways to do that. I’ve heard that some of the quitting methods aren’t very healthy, and may be just as dangerous as smoking itself. I wonder if you provide a more natural spiritual way of quitting cigarettes? Amy, 39, Whitney, TX Dear Amy, It looks like you are in a morbid time of smoking. Your angel Michael would like to give you a bio-pattern that you could probably endure. As you flow through a process during the afternoons of trying not to smoke anymore, know that your soul is trying to help you. As you go into the evening, be aware your body has been overtaken by a peaceful and radiant love, to help you not smoke all night. During this process, become aware that mind over matter has been consuming your habit and taking up your time. Your highest teacher is Sanat Kumara. Dear Ashtara, I’m involved with a man and living my best love life yet. I’m just wondering if he’s the one that I am supposed to be with, or is this just another season of growth for me? Ms. Richmond, 41, Austin, TX
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Dear Ms. Richmond, Because of the amount of love that you have for each other, take a deep look and learn how to forgive when it is necessary. In the future, remain calm and centered and translucent, because each of you are in a period of growth that is never-ending. Congratulations for enduring, transcending, and becoming more enlightened while together Y.our teacher for this love life is Gabriel and your angel is Michael. Dear Ashtara, I am a single woman, and have been for the last fifteen years. I am not looking to get married or anything like that, but I was wondering if there may be a special someone coming into my life any time soon. Ms. Delightful, 50, Whitney, TX Dear Ms. Delightful, Partnership is yours, sayeth the Lord God. You have been there for so many people, never thinking of yourself, always being there for everyone else. Because of that, the universe wishes to supply you with a wonderful husband. In the next two to five years, there may be eight great guys that make you smile. So, don’t worry, be happy. One of your high teachers is Sandalfon, and your angel is Gabriel.
Submit your question for ‘Dear Ashtara’ via email: Ashtara@SashaWhite.com or call (512) 278-0559 and give your question (up to 30 words) with name or nickname, age, city, and state.
Private Sessions can be scheduled (in person or by phone). Questions answered and more. Ashtara Sasha White is a gifted psychic, profound healer and channel from the Ascended Masters/ Archangels. She is also a Reiki Master Teacher, Seichim Reiki Master Teacher, Sound Current Healing Master Teacher, Embodiment Master Teacher, and Teacher of the Light. Join her group on the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30PM. See her events at www.AshtaraSashaWhite.com.
Thanksgiving
A daily reminder
by Dephanie Cates
N
ovember tells us Thanksgiving is right around the corner. With that thought we look forward to family gettogethers, and what news and joys each member has to share since the last holiday meal. The hostess will gather recipes and plan her days leading up to one of the most revered and special times of the year. There will be to-do lists for up to a week, shopping and cooking so everything will be ready. Elder members of the family will reminisce about childhood Thanksgivings, and traditions their parents followed. Construction paper turkeys strung together with yarn the kids made when very young will spring to life in the dining room for the festivities. There’ll be a beautiful roast turkey, homemade gravy, cranberry sauce, veggies, and delicious pies for dessert. Thanksgiving’s a holiday to be shared, but it’s also a reminder to reflect on daily thanksgiving. The holiday itself – Thanksgiving Day – is an outward, visible sign of an inward, invisible feeling.
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The settlers who chose Jamestown realized their God-given, amazing fortune.
They’d withstood the trials and tribulations of a major, uncertain journey, determined to find freedom to live, to worship, to be who they sought so desperately to become. At all costs, they only knew to sail to what had been described as the ideal place to find solace for this hunger for freedom. The ships turned slowly into the James River off the Atlantic, searching for the perfect spot to land. Anticipating enemy forces, they chose a peninsula that seemed to give the best advantage. They’d have to build from scratch, and quickly forage for sustenance. As you prepare for Thanksgiving 2018, just as early settlers set aside a day shared with natives to celebrate freedom found, you have an opportunity to extend your day of thanks to every day. Thanks to family is primary – without their undying, unrelenting support, many would not only be alone, but perhaps abandoned.
Circles.
Today, we have ever-expanding circles of associates at work, through children, church, and community. Acknowledgement and a well-timed Thank you for all you do is a great way to break the ice. There’s a saying – What goes around comes around. Just beginning the practice of thanks by acknowledging a coworker, or your childcare-giver, will not only make you feel good and banish the day’s sour note, it will come back to you tenfold. Another almost forgotten way to express gratitude is sending a thank-you note. Addressing the envelope, choosing
e-mail web
512-970-2627 dcates@austintxhomesale.com www.austintxhomesale.com
Experience Excellence in Real Estate with Dephanie! This is not intended to solicit currently listed properties.
a perfect stamp, sends a magnificent message to the receiver – who will think of you and your kindness over and over. One thing realtors learn and practice over time is gratitude. Because we work with lots of folks, helping buyers and sellers realize their dreams, realtors are very grateful for their part in a fulfilling process. Realtors embrace opportunities to meet new potential clients and show gratitude.
It’s in their nature.
Realtors love happy clients – happy clients mean great results in sometimes impossible-seeming circumstances. No matter what your day’s like, there’s someone who deserves to hear a gracious thank you from you. It’s never too late to begin your circle of ever-expanding gratitude. It began simply, with our forefathers and early settlers. In their struggles to find freedom, they met many hardships, but determined that giving thanks for their successes was imperative. We owe it to them to pay it forward. Dephanie Cates is a licensed realtor and Reconnective Healing practitioner who combines coaching skills and business acumen to create personal relationships with clients. (512) 970-2627, dcates@austintxhomesale.com • www.AustinTxHomesale.com
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Ayahuasca CHRONICLES
So what did you get out of it? by Steve Dyer DMT does not provide ‘an’ experience which you analyze. Nothing so tidy goes on. The syntactical machinery of description undergoes some kind of hyper dimensional inflation, instantly. And then you cannot tell yourself what it is that you understand. In other words, what DMT does can’t be downloaded into as low dimensional a language as English. – Terence McKenna
I
t’s a challenge to describe the experience of an ayahuasca ceremony. After taking multiple journeys to Colombia, I still can’t describe the majority of these adventures so they could be easily understood. Initially I went there for mild depression, and I was helped on so many other levels. I got more than I could possibly have imagined. Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, the active ingredient in ayahuasca, is an intense, naturally occurring psychedelic also found in the human body. The plant medicine simply boosts the amount you already have in you.
This does some wild and quite unexpected things.
A very conservative and skeptical friend asked me, “So what did it do for you? What did you get out of it?” How could I tell him about the giggling light beings, who honored me in a giant concert hall, or the cosmic surgeons who worked on my heart and brain? How could I explain floating out of my body and taking a long ride through the universe, or dying and being reborn
with a beam of bright white light radiating through me? This would not sound like therapy to him.
But I thought of something he could understand.
When my father died a few years ago, I didn’t shed a tear. I felt nothing. My mom and my wife thought this was unhealthy – and my friend, the shrink, did too. I can’t explain it. Dad and I were good friends the last twenty years of his life, but we had a lot of friction when I was growing up. Hard times. It hurt me deeply. I carried resentment deep inside. Emotionally, I think I built walls to protect myself. The first ayahuasca ceremony gave me an astonishing series of the most vivid early childhood memories. My brother and I were laughing in our pajamas, wrestling Dad on the bed. Then we were wearing our Indian Guides feathered headgear, while Dad helped us make handicrafts. Then I was in my little league baseball uniform, and dad was our coach. Then we laughed and sang songs on a road trip in the car. Then we were bird hunting in South Texas, barbecuing around the campfire. And at the deepest level of my being, I remembered Dad was my friend, and he loved me very much. With that, I cried and slobbered from the gut, for what seemed an eternity. I mourned his death that night. And I left the heavy baggage about him in Colombia.
What did I get?
I got my Dad back. In about two hours. Don’t ask me how plant medicine works. I just know it does. Steve Dyer, aka Stevie the Guide, conducts custom-tailored Latin American and Asian adventures. He returns to Colombia regularly. Anyone is invited to join him, and join his weekly MeetUp, Forbidden Discussions: Ayahuasca and Ancient Wisdom. He lives and studies at Wat Nitadsasanakhun, a Buddhist Monastery near Marble Falls, where he reads, writes, studies meditation, and sweeps leaves. Call for a walk and talk, (713) 628-1610, or email stevie3249@gmail.com
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UPCOMING EVENTS AUSTIN ALL NATURAL
NATURE’S TREASURES 4103 N. IH 35, Austin, TX (512) 472-5015 Shop online: CrystalsByNature.com November Events Customer Appreciation Sale Date Change: Nov. 17-18. Choose your gift box and receive 20% to 50% off storewide all weekend. Look for bows throughout the store for special pieces marked down 35% to 75%. Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sale: Nov. 23-26. Deals and discounts abound all weekend long. Be sure to get your holiday shopping done in-store and online so you can give a treasure this year instead of a gift. Daily in-store practitioners and aura readings. What color is your aura? Also offering personal shopping and crystal reading on select Saturdays with Dianna, Austin’s Crystal Whisperer. For full practitioner listing, event calendars and event rental inquiries, visit NTRocks.com ASHTARA SASHA WHITE’S EVENTS Monthly Group Meeting: Wed. Nov. 14 6:30pm, Snacks. 7-9pm, Group Phoenix Rising Metaphysics, 8650 Spicewood Springs Rd. #201, Austin Discounted Profound Readings, Instant Healing with Ashtara. Signup: (512) 278-0559 Sun., Nov. 18 – San Antonio, One Love Wholistic Fair 11am-6pm, Holiday Inn, 77 N.E. Loop 410, San Antonio, TX Sun., Nov. 25 – San Marcos Metaphysical Fair 11am-5pm Holiday Inn, 105 Binut Dr., San Marcos, TX Details, Private Sessions, and Ashtara’s CDs: (512) 278-0559, www.AshtaraSashaWhite.com
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“If you struggle with setting intentions, keeping commitments, taking action or if you just feel uninspired, ‘Anything is Possible’ will give you all you need to deliberately, methodically, successfully and joyfully achieve absolutely anything you choose to accomplish.” — LISA WINSTON “This book was my first introduction to Joe Vitale and his writing. Needless to say, reading this book was a turning point in my life. Never before has a book influenced me more to achieve life long dreams and goals. I believe this book is for anyone, especially those who might feel they are struggling in life and need tested methods to progress forward. Joe truly shows readers that anything that can be imagined can be obtained, and how to do just that.” — ERICA GARVIN “I loved this book. I learned a lot and laughed a lot at some of Joe’s colorful stories. I was inspired by it all.” — SCOTT YORK
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NEW from Dr. Joe Vitale, globally famous bestselling author of Zero Limits and The Attractor Factor, stand-out star in the mega hit movie “The Secret” and numerous other films, world’s first self-help singer-songwriter, creator of Miracles Coaching® and The Secret Mirror, inspirator to millions worldwide, and much more. See www.JoeVitale.com
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