Spirit of Change Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

HOLISTIC NEW ENGLAND

SPRING/SUMMER 2020

Happy Brain, Happy Body The Generation of Hope D Filling the Addiction Void D Heart Sound Journey A Brief History of Energy Medicine D Your Natural Healing Stories So What Do Vegan Kids Eat All Day? D How to Make Magical Moon Water

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REWARDS & RECOGNITION

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Paramhansa Yogananda’s

CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

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Ananda Boston invites you to share in the glorious celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Paramhansa Yogananda’s arrival in Boston to launch the mission of spiritual awakening for peace and harmony throughout the world!

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• A pilgrimage to the Boston Harbor where Yogananda stepped on to American soil on September 19, 1920, to launch his world mission.

• Music to uplift your consciousness.

• Renowned Ananda speakers sharing about the extraordinary accomplishments that have occurred during the first hundred years of Yogananda’s mission and what we can look forward to in the next hundred years.

• A Festival of Light Sunday Service – replenish your spirit and renew your soul’s memory of its Divine Destiny.

Paramhansa Yogananda is best known as the author of Autobiography of a Yogi. This life-changing book has sold millions of copies throughout the world and inspired multitudes of truth-seekers to pursue a path of spiritual search and meditation. In this timeless classic, Yogananda shares about his search for God and the great masters who guided him to be the instrument of launching the scientific teachings of Kriya Yoga and spiritual awakening in the west.

ANANDA IS A WORLD BROTHERHOOD SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT AND COMMUNITY INSPIRED BY THE TEACHINGS OF PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA AND BEGAN BY HIS DIRECT DISCIPLE SWAMI KRIYANANDA.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 5

MAIN OFFICE PO Box 405, Uxbridge, MA 01569 Phone: 508-278-9640 Fax: 508-278-9641 www.spiritofchange.org

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ADVERTISING INFORMATION Phone: 508-278-9640 x 5 E-mail: advertise@spiritofchange.org PUBLISHER & EDITOR Carol Bedrosian Phone: 508-278-9640 x 3 E-mail: carol@spiritofchange.org ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Carrie Rowan Phone: 508-278-9650 x 5 Email: carrie@spiritofchange.org WEB EDITOR Laurie Johnston Email: laurie@spiritofchange.org CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST Eric Linter, Astrologer DESIGN & PRODUCTION Samantha Angeli, Amber Routten-Mitchell, Wendy Watkins PRINTING GDI, Inc, Hanover, MA

Departments H Features

uman beings have been practicing energy-based healing for as long as there has been religious practice. Suffice it to say, prayer is a form of energy healing and people have been praying for as long as we have had concepts of deity.

In fact, as you review the history of medicine, only in the last two hundred years, with the standardization of Western medicine, has spirituality been excised completely from a medical inicsaroM ennaeJ yB modality. Up until very recently, spirituality and medicine were integrated practices.

Shamans have existed around the planet for all of human history. Their work with spiritual ,01 fo ega eht ta ,ohw ,lliH notnilC fo draeh reve uoy evaH pleh ot straeh dna sdaeh rieht desu ohw dlrow eht dnuora si ereTh .ecalp gnikat si nonemonehp gniticxe yrev ?snoitulos noitullop no sucof ot h traE gnivaS sdiK d• etraVol. ts factors and herbal medicine predates any formalized medicines. yrreP .K nasTh uS ybetiridea ipS eht hof ctaCmagical .egnahcSpring/Summer ekam shealing rehto yb del33, gnieb dlrow eht ssorca e142 poh fo llewsdnuorg a 2020 No. dna htrae eht nosiop dluoc ew woh dnatsrednu t’ndluoc eH woh tuoba seirots rieht gnirahs sreetnulov neet 02 selcinorhc evah yeTh .stsivitca gnuoy etanoissap ,dettimmoc harkens back to shamans and has been a part of human.seihistory -niM a ni loohcs sih ta bulc a detrats eh os ,etsaw cixot htiw ria sesirc labolg etic yeht nehw stsitneics eveileb ot detacude neeb tinummoc dnafor semoas h rielong ht ni egnaas hc ethere dam yeht yhas hw dnabeen tub ,recnac morf 11 ega ta deid notnilC ,yllacigarT .atosen ecurB ot tuT gniK morf seoreH :dlroW eht dekcoR ohW syoB .ekats ta si taht erutuf nwo rieht si ti taht dnatsrednu yeht dna human history. won hcihw ,tcejorp sih deunitnoc dna depoleved stnerap sih htiw noitacinummoc tnatsnoc ni era ebolg eht ssorca snoilliM 64 fo seirots eht selipmoc nnaCcM mheoR ellehciM yb eeL 001 revo ni srebmem gnuoy fo sdnasuoht fo sderdnuh sah i dlrow eht gnignahc nageb ohw yrotsih tuohguorht syob ,ecnatropmi labolg fo seussi ot detacided era yeht ;rehto hcae Roughly 6,000 years ago, people all around the worldecnibegan constructing pyramids.

Th ese .htraE — emoh ruo gnivas ot detacided seirtnuoc vreS ot ediuG ’sdiK ehT dnA .reilrae ro sraey eganeet rieht namuh nihtiw era snoitulos taht decnivnoc ylmrfi era dna -lihC eht eerF ylremrof ,)gro.ew.www( ytirahC EW eTh -nuh ot ediug daer-ot-ysae na si siweL arabraB yb stcejorP structures can be found on almost every continent, including North and South America, dlo-raey-21 neht yb 5991 ni detrats tfiorp-non a si ,nerd !gnitdcna aersasudcnsaidp,utedemeppdentas kevlaathsdrelrdoawel edhlrtofowhetluihoWy e.hytti,leibtaabpeadc .yawa thgir no detrats teg nac sdik stcejorp ecivres fo sderd Musings fo htaed eht tuoba tuoUpdate dnuof giarC nehW .re..g...................................... rubleiK giarC vah ew epohSafe laeSupernatural r tsom eht sHarbor i epoH fo noienergies tareneG Legislation siTh were .epoH fo noitareneG eh10 t sa meht ot gnirrefer ma I Massachusetts Africa, ancient Mesopotamia, India, Indonesia and even eEurope. sthgir namuh denrut evals remrof ,inatsikaP dlo-raey-21 a tsum ew ,srekamecaep sA .eniuneg si tI .sedaced ni dah ni devlovni neeb evah sega lla fo stneduts ,sraey lareves roF

by Carol Bedrosian..................................

8 of most people who constructed edarg htneves sih fo pleh eht htiw ,eh ,hisaM labqI tsivitca tpecca dna sredael gnpyramids. uoy eseht yb tes selpOft maxeen eht wit ollowas f -ucitrap neeb t’nevah eW .sesuac suoirav fo flaheb no msivitca a cornerstone of the belief systems .nerdlihC eAll ht eerF deDay? trats ,craM ,rehtBy orb dna Colin setamssalc teMcCullough..16 slaog teHealthy s ot eunitnoc tsum eW .n wo ruo sa segnellahKids c rieht Y ”.nerdlihc tsuj“ era yeht ,lla refta ,esuaceb meht fo erawa ylral So What Do Vegan Eat fo ylimaf a fo rednuof-oc eht si regrubleiK giarC ,yadoT semitemos ,tnecalpmoc dna dezilaromed emoceb evah ew elihw ton ,snoitulosenergies eht no ,od yeht to sa ,deprovide sucof yats dnaphysical, ,yad hcae ,ytirahC EW .dlrow eht gnignahc ot detacided snoitazinagro yeht ;rewop evah nerdlihc taht tpecca ot eraD .smelborp eht tnemdrabmob ylruoh neve ,yliad eht yb deregna dna evitagen Starspeak believed in these societies that pyramids focused supernatural EW dellac ledom tnempoleved citsiloh a sedivorp hcihw emotional and spiritual benefits to thoseHowling inside. How With this elpoepfactored eht ew rehtegotinto ht evemedicine ileb yeht esuaceb ois d yunclear, eTh !od -idnoc suoveirg fo tsil gnol a htiw snaicitilop dna aidem morf My taMom

by John Oberg....................................................................20 tuo elpoep noillim eno naht erom ftil ot depleh sah ,segalliV ,yltnatropmi tsoM .od ot sdnim ruo tes ew gnihtyna od nac .egnahc gnidnamed noitom ni era stsivitca gnuoy eseht ,snoit

by Eric Linter............................................12 yet it does appear that the pyramids played some role in energy the .aciremA nitaL dna aisA ,acirfA ni ytrevop fo -norivne hsidewS ,grebnuTh aterG dlo-raey-71 fo wonk eW no sdneped dmedicine lrow eht fo erutuffor eht tah t dnatelites srednu yehin t those tuoba etanoissap stsivitca dlihc fo sderdnuh era ereTh dna yb detartsurf era yeTh .msivitca dna tnemtimmoc rieht ylbmessA NU eht ot yltnulb nekops sah ohw ,tsivitca latnem early civilizations.

Are We Still,sRecycling rof elAmerica? batiuqe erom efil gnikam noFrom tnetni dna ,sesRecycleSmartMA..... uac dairym selraef era yeTh .gnihton od oOur hw esoht htTrash iw tneitapmi In -wollof noillim neves deillar ,dlrow22 eht dnuora sredael ot dna EarthTalk .gnihtemoSoD ta gniod era srehto tahw ees dna saedi teG .lla dezylarap ro sreyasyan yna yb derreted eb ot ton denimreted sah ehS .raeY eht fo nosreP 9102 s’enizagam emiT si dna sre e oldest formal energy medicine still in active practice today is likely Chinese Medicine elpoep gnuoy rof ylevisulcxe tfiorp-rof-ton tsegral eht ,gro railimaf era eW .sisirc etamilc eht ni tseretni esnetni denekawa .secitcarp detpecca tnerruc brutsid ot diarfa era ohw stluda by the Editors ofTh E—Environmental srebmem fo snoillim s’gnihtemoSoD .egnahc laicos dna ekam dna 02by 02 ni gnMark iog teg s’tel os ,Mathew sreod era srekamecaePBraunstein........................................................ nehw retsgnuoy natsinahgfA na30 tsuj ,iazfasuoY alalaM htiw Breathe Easy created thousands of years texts in Chinese medicine only go a esu srebmeM .etats SU yreve dna seirtnuoc 131 tneserper dna yrtnuoc reh ni slrig setacude taht noitadnuof a detrats ehs -ne — tsivitca na gnimoceb su fo hcae — raey elbaromem a ti Magazine...........................................

23,ago.

25The oldest surviving classical ,egnahc laicos ,reetnulov fo trap emoceb ot mroftalp latigid .epoH foChinese noitareneG ehtmedicine gninioj dna gnitro ppus ,gnigaruocthese fo daetsni reerac a evah nac yeht os snoitan dlrow driht rehto back to several hundred years BCE, but it is very likely that predates yeht seussi noby tcapmiRitu na ekam ot sKapur....................................32 ngiapmac noitca civic dna .net ega ta yrram ot decrof gnieb 3 Simple Poses for Peace and Calm .tuoba erac eht deviv rus ohw stneduts fo puorg eht si ereht neTh mulucirruC A morf rohtua eht fo noissimrep htiw detnirpeR texts by thousands of years.

Journal of Natural Healing meht erahs dna sgniht taerg gniod sdik tuoba skoob daeR loohcs hgih rieht ta gnillik ssam a fo rorroh elbaknihtnu .0202 ,retniW ,dlroW lufecaeP a rof epoH fo yb dlroW eht dekcoR ohW slriG !nerdlihc ruoy htiw saK noremaC setamssalc yb deL .adirolF ,dnalkraP ni The Grace oldest known mummy, Otzi the iceman, was found in the Otzal Alps of Europe.

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by Sheila Rajan, Dr. Johnstone Fengyang Taoist Chinese Medicine & Present by Dr.,sr,eydkWei Li..........34 eguh edam ohw slrig suomaf fo seirots eht serahs nedleW ael etalucitra rehto dna ggoH divaD ,zelaznoG ammE roF epoH fo mulucirruC A“ fo rednuof eht si inicsaroM ennaeJ lived around roughly 3,300 BCE. laeR ,sdiK laeR .02 denrut yeht erofeb dlrow eht ni segnahc dnamed ot tnemevom niagA reveN labolg a dezinagro yeht 891 ecnisacupuncture dehsilbup ,rettelswen ylrepoints trauq ”dlroWand lufecaePmerida and Leslie Saffer. ....................................

26 His body was tattooed,ae.6with dlroW eht dnuorA snoitcA suoegaruoC :egnahC laeR ,seirotS evitaitini na ,erehwy reve ecneloiv nug pots dna lortnoc nug hS adniL tcatnoc ,liame yb noisrev FDP roloc a eviecer oT A exploring Very Quick History Methodologies by Borg..........38 .gnorts gniog llits ians. This suggests that human being were energy medicine sdik fo seirots eurt 03 fo noitcelloc a si nredn uS htraEthan G yb ten.tensin @aeone hsof h ,regform anEnergy aM noitor pircsanother buS 0202 REMMUS/GNIRPS | egnahC fo tiripS 45 all over the world at least 5,000 years ago.

Build Your Microbiome Qi, Yin and Yang, and the Five Elements theories wereBrain created inGut China.

Bringing one’s by Beth Colon....................................... 40 energy back to balance has been the goal of this medicine ever since. Restoring energy balance Healing Heart Sound Journey by Ellie Blair.....................................................41 Yoga Guide.............................................. was a common theme among33 energy medicines spanning the globe. China, Greece and India shared their knowledge among each other the widespread of five eleA resulting PortalinFor Happy adoption Moments

by Suzanne Leopold.....................................42 Calendar..................................................

64 ments/form/phrases of energy as the basis of medicine. For instance, Aristotle, living around Filling — and How Culture Is Making Us Addicted: 340 BCE, echoed Chinese theory fiveThe energyVoid Elements theirOur importance in Holistic Logo Directory ......................

68 in describing health and disease.

An Interview with Bruce K. Alexander by Jari Chevalier................. 44 Holistic Specialties Directory..........

76of Qi Gong for balancing one’s qi was an early development The self-cultivation practice My Story of Hope bywasRichard ............................................................. 50 in Chinese energy medical practice. the corollary to Qi Gong Yoga, whichBaydin was Classifieds............................................. 77 In India, designed to cultivate and move prana, a synonym for qi.

Fern & The Bamboo: A Fable of Hope...................................................51 Advertiser IndexTh ....................................

78SamhitaThe e oldest known Ayurvedic medicine texts, written in India, were likely written around 100 BC. Again, it is hard to know what deeper Hope knowledge preceded those survivInspiring for Humanity

by Lois Hermann.............................................52 ing texts. Yet it is clear that for much of the next two thousand years, Chinese medicine and

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Copyright ©2020 Spirit of Change. All Rights Reserved. Spirit of Change distributes 50,000 magazines throughout New England semi-annually (Fall and Spring) and accepts paid advertising as an advertising service.

Responsibility for the products, services or claims of our advertisers rests solely with them;| advertisers are liable for2020 any claims Spirit of Change SPRING/SUMMER made against Spirit of Change Magazine as a result of their advertisement. The information in Spirit of Change is intended as a sharing of knowledge about holistic health for educational purposes. Health care decisions requiring medical advice should be made with the help of your health care professional. Subscriptions are $20.00/4 issues. Article and artwork submissions are accepted for review and will only be returned if accompanied by a SASE. To receive bulk shipments of Spirit of Change to distribute to your clients & customers, please email carol@ spiritofchange.org.

Becoming Self Aware by Alison David Bird.................................................53

The Generation of Hope by Jeanne Morascini................................................54 Ask The Psychic Medium by Bonnie Page.......................................................56 How to Make and Use Magical Moon Water by Athena Perrakis......... 60 Humanity’s 2020 Challenge.................................................................................62

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You Are The Cure

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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 7

MUSINGS

BY CAROL BEDROSIAN

The Power To Heal Begins With Belief

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“I do not believe in miracles, I rely on them.” — Yogi Bhajan

strologer Nikki Davis wrote in her January 2020 Full Moon Journal, “The Full Moon hugs our nation’s North Node in the 8th House of death, rebirth, and embracing another. She speaks our karmic destiny. Know the Other. Nurture the Other. Transform each Other — even if we want to kill each Other.”

I’ve noticed how much more frequently these days I encounter people whose views are strongly at odds with my own. In some cases these are people I have known and cared about my entire life. Whether it’s vaccines, gun control, healthcare, abortion, climate change, political candidates or any number of other sensitive issues that directly impact the course of my life, the country or even the entire world, I find myself rubbing shoulders with the Other on a daily basis — people who hold a very different vision than I do about humanity’s blueprint here on Earth. It reminds me that just as much as I believe the reality of the facts that support my beliefs and vision, they believe in the facts affirming theirs. We both own the truth.

How can this be? We develop our beliefs based on feelings, not facts. We simply choose to ignore the facts that don’t resonate with our beliefs and focus upon the facts that do.

Just look at our love affair with eating meat, despite the inescapable fact that doing so creates tremendous suffering for sentient animals warehoused in our system of confined animal feeding operations (CAFO). We have created a reality where that fact is invisible so we can continue enjoying meat without feeling complicit in their torture. But we could also decide one-by-one, then thousand-by-thousand, and finally a whole cultural shift could take place where we no longer resonate with the belief in torturing animals for our food, and we stop CAFO warehousing and drastically reduce our meat consumption.

Basically, we can create any kind of culture we want by consolidating our focus and banding together to do it. Expansions in human consciousness tend to occur when pressure and passions are running high, such as they are in our polarized world today. The implications for this creative opportunity in terms of our healing potential are enormous.

It is entirely possible right now to shift the majority of our healthcare needs away from the current surgery/pharmaceutical model, which is too expensive and riddled with risky side effects, to other systems of alternative medicine that are safe, affordable and powerfully effective. These holistic healing modalities are available to us now, ready and waiting to be used on those who are willing. Many are low tech, so patients can even perform 8 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

treatments on themselves to speed healing and further reduce healthcare costs.

Only a sliver of understanding about the energetic mind/body healing connection has so far been studied and harnessed, yet it is likely the driver of our innate healing abilities.

The brain tells the body what to do and how to feel. Dr. Kevin Chen at the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine reports that cancer phobia is one of the major factors leading to cancer-related mortality, so he has developed a seven-day residential self-care retreat to help patients take back the seat of their innate healing powers by believing they can beat the disease, for starters. Visionary author and leader Marianne Williamson concurs, “We have more faith in the power of cancer to kill us than the power of our bodies to heal.”

The power to heal begins with believing it is so. All world religions and cultural myths contain stories about people given extraordinary powers to heal and accomplish heroic feats through their connection with spiritual or otherworldly beings. We are living in a time where we are all touched with healing powers collectively.

While this medicine is not magic, it is often seen as miraculous because healing occurs without the usual trappings of surgery, doctors, hospitals and prescriptions we are so accustomed to. Magic is not responsible for the fact that healing can occur without these things, and that it can even occur remotely. Healing occurs because our brains are connected to the energy matrix of universal qi and are able to receive the information needed to restore balance in the body. Happy brain, happy body. Fortunately, anyone can learn how to work with these energies to heal themselves and others.

Which is all the more reason for Massachusetts and all state governments to refrain from enacting legislation to regulate, restrict or reign in holistic practitioners at this time, just when this bud of collective healing consciousness is beginning to blossom. These practitioners have been safely operating from their homes, offices, in hospitals and other public settings for decades, providing relief and oftentimes lifesaving healing, guidance and education to those in need. The availability of holistic healthcare is vital to my health.

Please turn the page for more information on how you can help keep freedom of access to holistic practitioners strong in Massachusetts or your own state.

Carol Bedrosian is the publisher of Spirit of Change Magazine. www.spiritofchange.org.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 9

THREE IMPORTANT

HOLISTIC HEALTHCARE LEGISLATIVE UPDATES IN MASSACHUSETTS

The first week in February marks the annual deadline at the State House for legislators to take action on bills being debated in the current legislative session. Here’s an update.

1. S665/H3660, aka “Safe Harbor Bill,” would protect unlicensed holistic practitioners from being charged with practicing medicine without a license as long as practitioners avoid certain prohibited acts and provide specific professional disclosures to patients as required by the bill. This bill, currently under consideration by the Joint Committee on Public Health, has been granted a reporting extension until April 1 to verify that it will cover consumers under Chapter 93A of the General Laws as intended. S665/H3660 could make it to the floor for a vote as early as this spring, potentially heading to the Governor’s desk before the end of this year. This means now is the time to contact your senator and representative and ask them to support S665/H3660, the access and practice alternative healthcare act.

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2. S168, aka “Bodyworks Bill,” would centralize authority for a great number of the 200+ GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe, i.e., Reiki, meditation, tai chi) holistic healing modalities currently practiced in the state under a single, unrepresentative board for the purposes of licensing, and then call all these disparate practitioners “bodyworkers.” In many cases the law would require practitioners to submit to training completely unrelated to their field in order to continue doing what they have already paid dearly to learn and practice.

The bill has been proposed twice in recent years as a solution to stop human sex trafficking, despite recent high-profile arrests that have shown human trafficking also takes place in licensed facilities. The punitive licensing of non-harming, holistic healing professionals will not deter human trafficking; only criminal enforcement of human trafficking laws already on the books will.

The Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, which has been deliberating the bill this session, has recommended that it be “sent to study,” essentially acknowledging that the bill is fraught with inconsistencies and complexities that make voting on it in its current form inadvisable at this time. It is likely that the testimonies from over 70 individuals opposing the bill at the October 2019 public hearing are responsible for bringing to light the enormous disruption to the entire holistic health industry that passage of the bill would cause, as a similar version that had no public comment last year sailed through committee and enjoyed a unanimous Senate vote (only to be blocked in the House.) Your voice matters! Since bills are often introduced multiple times, we need to stay tuned to this issue and see if the bill re-surfaces.

SI N

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3. On Monday, February 3, 2020, the Marlboro Board of Health held a public hearing on tan extreme ordinance proposal to restrict holistic practitioners in the town, including licensing of all bodyworkers, mandatory vaccinations, prohibition on maintaining home offices, criminal background checks, office plumbing requirements and more! These actions to regulate completely safe, legal and professional holistic practitioners, while no doubt well-meaning, are a misguided and misinformed attempt on the part of the Board to prevent sex trafficking within the town. Over 25 holistic practitioners from around the state showed up at the hearing to educate the Board about the safety of holistic medicine, and the serious hardships these regulations would pose to alternative health practitioners and the consumers who rely on them for care. While BOH members voted not to move ahead with the proposed bill draft that evening as intended, they will surely re-work their proposed ordinances.

This means that alternative health practitioners and consumers in all towns will need to stay vigilant at the local level to ensure that their health freedoms are not infringed upon as municipalities across the state struggle to combat sex trafficking, often by restricting practitioner freedoms, rather than helping law enforcement find sex traffickers and their victims.

Because many misconceptions about holistic medicine exist, it’s up to each of us to educate officials locally about the safety, effectiveness and necessity for holistic healthcare to be freely available to consumers, just as it has been for generations or even centuries. Now is the time to speak up to your legislators about keeping healthcare freedom of choice strong in Massachusetts. Find your legislators here: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator.

Email carol@spiritofchange.org to outreach for advocacy support in addressing proposed bodywork regulations in your town.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 11

STARSPEAK

BY ERIC D. LINTER

Astrological Forecast

Spring/Summer 2020 “When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru.” — Ram Dass, "Be Here Now"

Who do you know who

WORRIES?

We all do, don’t we?

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H

umankind is at a turning point. The historic stellium of Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter in Capricorn, not seen since 1284, continues to hold sway. Capricorn is the pragmatic sign of grand ambitions and the structures that reflect them. Its ruling planet is stoic Saturn, the Lord of Karma. Pluto presently serves in restructuring businesses as well as governments, for better or worse. In recent years we’ve seen power consolidated into increasingly fewer hands. Corporate takeovers include businesses and governments around the world. Saturn and Pluto are associated with both endings and rebirths. Jupiter rules knowledge, principles and perhaps most importantly, truth.

While leaders may talk of holding on or returning to the glories of the past, the future is calling. Old ways, systems and values are phasing out. Witness the growing number of extinctions of plant and animal species.

As I am writing this, the continent nation of Australia is burning. Talking heads debate the issues of environmental degradation, climate change, energy sources and who controls them. Solar- and wind-generated power is increasing, but not fast enough. The pressing need to transition to life-supporting values, health care, technologies and business models is on the minds of millions. Some see the current alignments as ominous, but there is an upside.

According to legend, around 1150 a persistent draught and severe winters in the Mississippi River basin decimated the inhabitants. Desperate for food, wars broke out. A hundred years of fighting ensued. In the

late thirteenth century, the last time these three planets came together in Capricorn, the desperate tribes of the northern Great Plains chose a different course. The peoples of the territories we know now as Ontario, Manitoba, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan began years of negotiations, ceremonies and planning. The tale of a monumental gathering to make peace was passed down through the generations.

Alerted to the story, archeologists began exploratory digs in the late 1980’s. Corroborating evidence was quickly discovered. A gathering of tribes had occurred at The Forks, a site at the intersection of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Chards of pottery from at least nine tribes, fish bones, sacred pipes, arrowheads and other artifacts confirmed ten thousand or more people attended. Modern science dates the meeting to around 1285!

Now it’s our time. I remain hopeful that wise women and men will once again follow humanity’s better instincts and come together to achieve a lasting peace based on equality and respect for all of Mother Earth’s creation.

MARCH 2020

Meteorologists consider March 1st the beginning of spring. I don’t expect the month to come in roaring like a lion but with the Pisces Sun drawing closer to Neptune, blasts of wintry weather may occur. Check weather reports before heading outside or traveling. Delays and communication snafus are likely during the first quarter Moon day of Monday the 2nd and Tuesday the 3rd. Both Mercury and Venus change signs that Wednesday. The retrograding Winged Messenger backs into Aquarius while Venus enters her own sign of Taurus. Mercury’s shift adds potential new layers of confusion but hearts grow more resolute late Wednesday night. Life is about to get busy.

Magic is afoot the weekend of the 7th and 8th. The Pisces Sun is conjunct Neptune while Venus aligns with Uranus. Dreams come true. Love is reborn. Social get togethers scintillate. Set clocks ahead one hour before going to sleep Saturday night.

Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday.

The potent full “Worm” Moon in Virgo is exact the afternoon of Monday the 9th.

The opposing Sun and Moon are favorably aligned and empowered by Mars, Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn, all in Capricorn. Mercury resumes forward motion that night. Surprises are in store, many are delightful. This is the week to be attentive to partners. A little TLC goes a long way towards rebuilding or maintaining ties. Pursue creative and artistic ventures on Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th. Partnerships thrive these two days.

The astrological year winds down as the Sun reaches the late degrees of Pisces. A new journey through the Zodiac starts on Thursday the 19th. The evening’s solar sextile to Saturn in Capricorn closes the astrological year. Certain lessons have clearly been learned. Karmic obligations may feel fulfilled. Clean the slate as best you can and make ready for the new. The Sun arrives in Aries minutes before midnight. Happy New Year!

Drumbeats of war may again be heard around the 20th when Mars unites with Jupiter. We would be wise to tone down inflammatory rhetoric at this time. Saturn enters Aquarius on Saturday the 21st. Give some thought to the foreseeable future this weekend. Sunday the 22nd is a pure delight. Venus is happily aligned with Neptune while Mars unites with Pluto. Hearts sing as desires are realized. Galleries, museums, movies, music, along with our lovely Mother Nature provide endless pleasures.

The Moon is new in Aries on Tuesday the 23rd. Set intentions for the coming month and the zodiacal year. With support from Saturn, these intentions have staying power. Venus delivers many joys the last weekend of March. Relationships are strengthened. A change of scenery can be rejuvenating. Slow down and be patient on Tuesday the 31st.

APRIL 2020

This April Fool’s Day attempt no early morning pranks under the first quarter Cancer Moon. Practical jokers rub others the wrong way under the tense alignment.

There’s time for more relaxed, good-natured fun after noon. Work at maintaining friendly ties on Thursday the 2nd. On magical Friday night, a waxing Leo Moon and Mercury’s conjunction with mysterious Neptune set the stage for weekend adventures.

Saturday the 4th’s stars bring long time friends together. Jupiter overtakes Pluto that night. Some folks make emphatic statements. Others profess a love of facts and principles, but be on the lookout for hidden agendas.

The waxing Moon brings numerous mood swings and tempo changes on Monday the 6th. After a day of dizzying developments, the full “Pink” Moon in Libra glows bright in the Tuesday night sky. Revelations reshuffle political standings and alliances. Some leaders fall from grace before the month is out. Uneasy feelings may linger until Friday, when more harmonious trends arrive. Enter into agreements and make important decisions on Saturday the 11th.

Tuesday the 14th and Wednesday the 15th are not easy days. Like the proverbial Ram, those who know what they want keep their heads down and resolutely move toward their goals. For others, financial worries, peer pressure and other distractions can be tough to overcome. Satisfaction comes from a job well done and the weekend of the 18th and 19th is a good one to celebrate hard won gains. However, Continued on page 14 www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 13

SPRING/SUMMER ASTROLOGICAL FORECAST Continued from page 13

new concerns may arise with the Sun’s late morning entry into Taurus on Sunday the 19th. A Solar square to Saturn brings delays. Money matters command attention. Use the time wisely. Carefully consider your goals and the surest ways of attaining them.

The new Moon in Taurus occurs the night of Wednesday the 22nd. The skies are filled with mixed messages. The Moon, Sun and Uranus are conjunct and also in testing angles with Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto. Uncertainties hover over the proceedings.

Getting ahead can feel like pulling teeth. If people work in unison, great things are possible. Set aside thoughts of instant gratification and serve the greater good.

Plans may need revision during the last week of April. Mental Mercury tests Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn, then conjuncts Uranus on Thursday the 30th. Shifts in perspective and changes of consciousness impact many lives. Be open to better ideas as well as technological breakthroughs.

MAY 2020

Loving Venus is at odds with mystical Neptune on the 3rd. Their heart-stirring square tests the capacity to be loving, especially when facing adversity. Be kind with partners and cautious with finances. Thoughts are quick to race as excitable Uranus influences the Taurus Sun and Mercury. The emotional pitch is also rising. The busy first week of May culminates with the full “Flower” Moon in Scorpio the morning of Thursday the 7th. Make an extra effort to share resources, power and decision-making with key pals. Mother’s Day, Sunday the 10th, is stellar. Uplifting influences continually brighten spirits.

Mixed trends soon return. Mercury is in a square with Mars on Monday the 11th.

Words spoken in haste can be hurtful as well as counter-productive. Fortunately, during the mid-month period there are also many constructive aspects between Mercury and the Sun in Taurus to Neptune, Pluto and Jupiter. Where there is a will, a way can be imagined and implemented. May is also the month of retrogrades!

Saturn in early Aquarius on the 11th, Venus in Gemini on the 13th and Jupiter in Capricorn on the 14th all begin to track backwards. These are good reasons to pause and take stock of current realities as well as recent developments. Second thoughts and course changes are inevitable. Upbeat Sunday the 17th is a fabulous day for an adventure.

The Sun arrives in Gemini the morning of Wednesday the 20th. Some feel an itch to travel. Venus’ same day square to Neptune tugs at heartstrings and could occasion a painful loss. Protect your feelings as well as your financial standing. Friday the 22nd sees the New Moon in Gemini. Star-crossed lovers are at their wits’ end. A steadying trine from Saturn to the Sun and Moon encourages listening to cooler heads. Saturday night of the 23rd is one of the season’s best for a successful date, reunion or party.

Mellower trends carry us through until the end of the month.

JUNE 2020

Under a waxing Libra Moon, June opens with the focus on the relationship dance.

Monday the 1st features many beguiling moments. Partnering is far more challenging on the 2nd when Venus tangles with Mars. If a disagreement occurs, input from an impartial third party can be helpful. Business and social life is very active this week.

Wednesday and Thursday are good for meetings.

The full “Strawberry” Moon in Sagittarius brightens Friday the 5th. A lunar eclipse could complicate matters. Rivalries may be intense, and seemingly without resolution. An attitude adjustment could be necessary. Don’t forge ahead where there is confusion and disharmony. Monday the 8th brings cooler heads and is a good day to mend fences. The Sun’s square with Neptune on Thursday the 11th brings new challenges. Trust issues continue to plague independent-minded thinkers through the last quarter Moon day of Saturday the 13th. Where uncertainty clouds options, it is probably best to wait. Take cover if the weather becomes ominous. Mars is also conjunct Neptune on Saturday so protect your wellbeing and assets.

While not without challenging moments, smoother sailing blesses the week of the 15th. On Thursday the 18th Mercury in Cancer begins a retrograde that lasts until July 12th. The backwards track stirs up many memories and longings of the heart.

The Sun arrives in Cancer during the afternoon of Saturday the 20th. Summer is

14 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

blooming! Late Sunday night the Cancer new moon eclipses the Sun. Every eclipse is an opportunity for aligning with one’s higher self. In this case, family ties, especially with father figures, enter into the process of self-discovery. Some leaders may drop a peg or two in the eyes of the world.

Quieter skies dominate the last part of June. On Tuesday the 30th, Jupiter is conjunct Pluto. The Sun and Mercury also conjoin while making a sextile to Uranus.

Around this time the potential for personal growth and transformative realizations is enormous.

JULY 2020

July’s first major aspect is the Cancer Sun’s sextile to Uranus. Psychic antennae are up. The prospect of change feels enticing. As we approach Saturday, the 4th of July, it’s important to remember we are still in eclipse season. Daytime lunar aspects are potentially irritating. Drive responsibly. The nearly full Moon is at odds with Mars and retrograding Mercury. Evening sees a lunar sextile with Uranus, promoting brother and sisterhood and general good will. Less than an hour after midnight, early on the 5th, a lunar eclipse accompanies the full “Buck” Moon in Capricorn. The public’s disenchantment with leadership in Washington could galvanize into a movement for peace and representative democracy. The “three amigos,” Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto, stand close together in late Capricorn, bearing witness to the need for real reform and honest solutions to the problems facing our nation!

Mercury resumes forward motion on the 12th. People are inclined to stand up for what they believe in during the middle of the month. The Cancer Sun opposes Jupiter on the 14th, Pluto on the 15th and Saturn on the new moon day of the 20th. This new moon is at the last degree of Cancer and closely opposed to Saturn. Illusions have worn thin. Debts have to be paid. A haunting sense of finality may at last give renewed clarity and purpose as another activity cycle begins.

The Sun reaches fiery Leo the morning of Wednesday the 22nd. A sense of anticipation is sparked by Mercury’s sextile to Uranus, so follow your hunches that day and the next. Instincts serve us well until the weekend, when mental discipline is a must.

Saturday and Sunday the 26th require patience, tact and diplomacy. Busy Monday the 27th features the activating first quarter Moon in Scorpio and multiple planetary alignments. Don’t rush into commitments. A change of heart could occur after noon.

The 28th and 29th are productive but Thursday the 30th requires focus and concentration if you want to maximize your effectiveness. Don’t take on more than you can handle.

AUGUST 2020

Treat others with appreciation and respect during the first few volatile days of the month. No matter how great the temptation is to break free from restrictive circumstances, slow down, be grateful and savor the joys in life. Commitments are a part of life but they need not define us. The emotionally charged full “Sturgeon” Moon is exact at midday on Monday the 3rd. With the Sun and Moon testing Uranus, many souls will wonder where they truly fit in. Don’t worry about it!

Late Tuesday night, the 4th, Mercury enters Leo. Soon the Winged Messenger is in a tense square with fickle Uranus. Give yourself, as well as others, permission to change course. Mars’ square with Pluto on Thursday the 13th underscores the need to formulate new strategies. Make plans as the Leo Sun and Mercury align with Mars on the 16th and 17th. Tuesday the 18th brings the new Moon in Leo and a green light for launching projects. Progress may be slow at first as Mars is at odds with Saturn on Monday the 24th. The lack of speed offers an opportunity to fine tune operations.

Revisions continue during the first quarter Moon phase on Tuesday the 25th. Big improvements are likely but avoid overreaching.

Vacationers seeking a respite from summer’s heat have auspicious aspects for travel on Friday the 28th as well as Saturday morning. Slow down Saturday afternoon. The Aquarius Moon provides vibrant social entertainment that night. Tricky aspects warrant slowing your pace on Sunday. Partnerships benefit from a caring, delicate touch, even as the waxing Moon keeps everything moving along at a lively clip.

Eric Linter offers a complete range of astrological services including readings and classes. Contact him at stars@ericlinter.com or by telephone at 508-541-4115. Read his Daily Forecasts on the Spirit of Change homepage at spiritofchange.org.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 15

whole grains and beans can be made ahead of time (if you have an electric pressure cooker, like an Instant Pot, you can set it and forget it), soups, sauces, and dressings can be easily frozen in glass Mason jars, fruit that is normally time-consuming to prepare like cherries can be bought frozen throughout the year and be ready to go for a quick morning smoothie. My recipes use ingredients found at typical grocery stores, and the handful of specialty ingredients I use can be found online and kept in the pantry.

So what do healthy vegan kids eat all day — nuts and seeds? Well…yes, in different ways. Mine might start out the day with Black Forest Smoothie for breakfast — frozen cherries, banana, nuts and seeds, and cacao powder blend together to taste like a chocolate cherry dessert. Maybe for dessert they’ll grab a handful of Orange Chocolate Energy Bites from the freezer, a deliciously sweet mix of dates, orange zest, nuts and seeds.

So What Do HEALTHY VEGAN KIDS Eat All Day?

BLACK FOREST SMOOTHIE

This was selected as one of the Top 10 Best Vegan Smoothies in the World by VegNews Magazine. The taste of chocolate and frozen cherries together is a winning combination! Frozen cherries are quicker than pitting fresh cherries and fresh cherries can spoil quickly.

BY COLIN MCCULLOUGH

IN 1994, I WENT TO A MUSIC COLLEGE

that had a large percentage of Asian students, so the cafeteria cooks made most of the food vegetarian. I ate like a king and found that I wasn’t missing meat — the food was so good! My classmate Alex was a vegetarian and took a rational approach, asking me, “If you’re enjoying the food, eating healthier, and not contributing to the suffering and killing of animals raised for meat, why not be vegetarian?”

Once I was living on my own, I started reading more about vegetarianism. Two books that were significant in my journey were Diet for a New America by John Robbins, and Fit for Life by Marilyn and Harvey Diamond. These books went in-depth about health and nutrition, the mistreatment of farmed animals, and the environmental impact of eating meat and dairy. I was a vegetarian for all of those reasons, but these two books detailed how much the meat and dairy industry are linked too. If you’re vegetarian for concerns about health, animals, and the environment, then it’s not a morally consistent choice to continue eating dairy.

Both books also offered a challenge — go vegan for thirty days, and see how much better you feel — just try it. I took the challenge, and I discovered that I’d never felt better in my life! People ask me if I ever feel tempted to cheat and eat something that’s not vegan. I did feel that 16 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

way occasionally for the first few years, but I remembered the difference of how I felt before I was vegan, and I didn’t want to go back to feeling less healthy.

These books also introduced me to information about how our bodies process food. While we can be omnivorous and process meat and dairy, our bodies run much better without consuming them. In my case, once I went vegan I became allergic to dairy; if I consumed dairy by accident, my throat started to swell and I had difficulty breathing. That’s my body’s way of very clearly saying “No way!” (or “No whey,” if you like). Nothing like struggling to breathe to take the temptation away; I’d rather be alive.

When I went vegan in the 90s, there weren’t a lot of vegan convenience foods available, so I was on my own. I love food and I didn’t have the money to eat out all the time, so I learned how to cook great food at home.

I have two boys who are now 17 and 20 and have grown up vegan. Sometimes other kids would tease them –— “Hey VEGAN” — and they would laugh as if that was supposed to be some kind of insult, knowing they were usually the fastest and healthiest in the group. I have always tried to feed my kids healthy, unprocessed whole foods as much as possible, but I don’t spend a fortune doing it, and with busy kids who are always on the go, convenience is a must! I use my freezer to keep healthy foods ready to go:

INGREDIENTS ⅓ cup raw almonds ¼ cup rolled oats 2 cups water ½ frozen banana 1 ½ cups frozen cherries 4 Medjool dates 2 Tbsp cacao powder 1 Tbsp chia seeds 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp almond extract ¼ tsp espresso powder INSTRUCTIONS Blend the almonds and water together for 1 minute, then add remaining ingredients and blend for several minutes until completely smooth.

ORANGE CHOCOLATE ENERGY BITES

I often make a batch or two of these energy bites and store them in a freezer bag to have on hand; they taste even better frozen!

INGREDIENTS 2 cups Medjool dates (approximately 16), pitted 1 ½ cups raw cashews ¾ cup raisins ¼ cup cacao powder 1 tsp orange extract ½ cup hemp seeds Zest of 1 orange ¼ tsp espresso powder INSTRUCTIONS Using a food processor, blend all ingredients until everything is combined and a thick paste forms, which may take several minutes. Roll the paste into balls and refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. continued on page 18

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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 17

What Do Vegan Kids Eat? Continued from page 16

I DIDN’T STOP EATING MEAT and dairy because I thought it tasted bad; on the contrary. Before I became vegetarian, I would eat kielbasa by the yard if I could. There was a time when I would walk by hot dog stands in Boston and be tempted, and I had to find the willpower to keep walking. Just like drug addiction, I had to get to the point where the part of me that felt like it wasn’t worth it got stronger and dominated the impulse to have meat. That happens over time. You feel so much healthier and stronger that it’s just not worth it to eat those foods. But this is not an all-or nothing way of eating.

You may not be ready to go all-in and may want to start with smaller steps, like one plant-based meal a day or a few days every week. I didn’t start eating like this overnight. It also really helps to be surrounded by family and friends who are supportive of you, even if they don’t eat the same way as you.

SESAME NOODLE SALAD

This Asian-inspired noodle salad makes a delicious and hearty lunch. Split up a batch into smaller containers and you’ll have to-go lunches for days! Often you will find prepared sesame noodle salad uses buckwheat soba noodles, which is more authentic, but I prefer the texture of spaghetti to cold soba noodles, so ultimately it’s a matter of whatever you like best.

INGREDIENTS For the salad ⅓ lb uncooked spaghetti noodles or linguini 1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into 1” matchsticks 2 Persian cucumbers, unpeeled and diced 1 red bell pepper, diced ½ cup shredded purple cabbage For the sauce 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 2 Tbsp tamari 2 Tbsp agave nectar 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp ginger powder ½ tsp sriracha Toppings ¼ cup chopped peanuts ¼ cup chopped cilantro 2 green onions or scallions, minced 2 Tbsp sesame seeds INSTRUCTIONS Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package, then add to a large mixing bowl with the carrots, cucumbers and bell pepper. Mix together until well combined. Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk together, then pour over the salad. Use tongs to add the salad to individual bowls, then add the toppings and serve.

I HAVE TO MAKE DINNER for my two boys; looking through the sparse pantry I find a random can of black beans. I find some cauliflower rice in the freezer, remembering the suspicious looks I got from the kids when I put it in the grocery store cart last week. In the fridge I have a bunch of kale; kale is one of the healthiest greens you can eat but not exactly my kids favorite. I have to somehow assemble this into something my kids will actually eat, bonus points for making something they won’t complain about.

18 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

A delicious sauce is the magical fairy dust that transforms healthy but boring foods into meals where my kids ask for seconds.

Also, I only have 15 minutes to make it before I have to get them out the door for karate. Game on!

My secret weapon in cases like this is always the sauce: a delicious sauce is the magical fairy dust that transforms healthy but boring foods into meals where my kids ask for seconds. They’re usually too busy plowing through their dinner to stop and notice what the sauce is helping to deliver to their stomachs. Years ago I started seeking out and writing recipes for “utility” sauces I could make in short order to cover a bowl meal full of whole-grains, beans or tofu, and veggies — dinners that could give my kids the healthy fuel to power them through the evening. Here’s a favorite utility sauce that I’ve served up countless times.

LEMON TAHINI SAUCE

Tahini is ground sesame seed paste, which has a unique flavor, and the consistency is similar to peanut butter. It lasts a long time in the jar or can, so stock up when you find it at the supermarket or natural/ethnic markets. This sauce is typically what you would find with falafel in Mediterranean or Middle East restaurants. It makes a bowl of grains, beans, and veggies taste ten times better!

INGREDIENTS 1 cup tahini 1 clove garlic 1 tsp grated ginger (about ½” thumb of ginger) 2 Tbsp tamari Juice of 1 lemon ½ cup water INSTRUCTIONS Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

Add more water for a thinner consistency.

AS A VEGAN FOR 25 YEARS now, I’ve heard the question asked many times: is it possible to be healthy and get all the nutrients you need as a vegan? It’s really a backwards question; if you eat whole food, unprocessed meals

of fruit, veggies, whole grains, nuts, seeds, beans, etc., how can you not be healthy? As for the oft-cited protein concern, there’s no lack of protein with all the nuts, beans, legumes, seeds and tofu in this diet. I like to think of it as giving my kids a superpower: they get lots of energy when I feed them foods that their bodies can use best, making them healthy and strong. Their bodies aren’t bogged down trying to process all the toxic ingredients, which have been intentionally added to junk foods to make them more addictive.

But you shouldn’t ever have to feel like you’re sacrificing taste by eating healthy foods because there are so many delicious ways to prepare them! If you are looking for ways to get your kids to eat healthier, introduce new recipes instead of trying to make healthier versions of what they usually eat.

Most of the time, the “healthier” versions of pancakes, mac & cheese, and chocolate chip cookies are still full of processed junk, and they turn out to be a pale imitation of what kids are used to eating. Try redefining breakfast with healthy smoothies that taste like dessert, dinner with healthy, whole grain bowl meals and a delicious sauce, and dessert with whole food sweet energy bites. That’s not to say you won’t ever eat at restaurants again, or enjoy a good chocolate chip cookie, but you can gradually shift your eating to cooking family meals with healthier things you enjoy on a day-to-day basis.

Fortunately, there is more interest today among kids in eating vegan than ever before, with many more vegan options available at schools, restaurants and supermarkets.

There is also a wealth of vegan nutrition resources online to help parents feel more comfortable with kids who want to start eating more vegan food. Dr Michael Greger’s non-profit www.NutritionFacts.org offers a wealth of information on evidence-based nutrition and health.

Colin McCullough is the author of the newly released The Healthy Vegan Cookbook (2019, Vegan Publishers), which includes over 200 recipes for healthy, whole-food meals kid-tested by his two boys. Colin also teaches free healthy cooking classes at libraries across Massachusetts. A calendar of his upcoming classes can be found at www.ColinCooksVegan.com.

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Howling With My Mom Put Me On a Path To Living With Compassion

By John Oberg

A creative approach to saving deer from being culled opened my eyes to feeling empathy for life around us.

M

y mom raised me to be kind to animals. She told me that they were vulnerable and therefore deserved our protection. Being the good momma’s boy that I was, I listened.

We grew up putting this compassion into action through various means and methods. From feeding stray animals to trapping, neutering and releasing cats in our free time. From making sure every dog we met received all the pets to sweettalking squirrels as they ran through our yard.

The world, however, didn’t always share our compassion for animals. When I was 10 years old, our ability to build a kinder world for animals was challenged.

My mom, Karen Oberg, was a single mom and I was her only child. We didn’t have a lot of money, so we did what we had to, to make ends meet. In Michigan, returning empty soda cans to the grocery store would fetch you ten cents per can. In the mornings, before she would drop me off at school, my mom and I would hop in the car and head to Stony Creek Metropark. There, we’d walk from trash can to trash can collecting empty cans. On a good day, we’d get $15-20 worth of cans. Every little bit helped.

In these early mornings, there usually wouldn’t be a single other person in the park. Just my mom, me and the morning dew. To our delight, however, there were some deer, who would make appearances often. When we’d see them on those cold, misty mornings, we’d often stop dead in our tracks and

20 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

just admire their beauty. We’d even greet them and let them know how beautiful they were to us. In a way, they became our friends.

One morning at Stony Creek, we were devastated. We learned that a cull — the first-ever of its kind there — would be occurring. These deer, who knew nothing but peace and tranquility, would suddenly have their family members and peers picked off one-by-one.

Rest on my mom’s laurels she did not. She stepped up and told me that she wouldn’t let this happen without a fight. So, fight we did.

Every day we would stand at the entrance or exit of the

park holding signs that read things like “Stop the hunt” and “Being cruel isn’t cool.” My mom made every attempt possible to make as much of a fuss as we could. It even led to us getting local news coverage, which took our fight to the next level back in 1997. At a Department of Natural Resources meeting, I spoke as an extremely shy boy where I muttered: “Please don’t hurt the deer.” Fight as we did, it wasn’t enough to stop the forces that were in motion. The cull went on.

We were heartbroken, but we did not go quietly. During one of the final hunts of the cull my mom had a dangerous but risky idea that she felt we needed to put into action. We stuck around the park into the evening — when the hunts would occur — and we howled like wolves. We wanted to alert the deer to the forthcoming danger. We howled and howled into the night.

The next day, we learned that hunters only killed three deer — far fewer than what they were getting on average.

We never knew if our howling actually helped, but we only hoped that it had. It was our repayment for the favor of keeping us company during those many early misty mornings when we ventured from trash can to trash can.

It was this experience with my mom that was my first foray into animal activism. It was the first time I realized that when there is injustice in the world, you stand up and you speak out against it. This primed me perfectly for when, a decade later, I learned how farm animals were treated.

The disconnect that I had felt between the animals on my plates and the animals raised on factory farms somewhere far away was real and jarring. I learned that farm animals face some of the worst cruelties imaginable, yet almost no one bats an eye because of society’s relationship with meat, dairy, and eggs. I knew that if I wanted to continue treating animals with compassion and respect like my mom raised me to, I needed to make changes.

If I wouldn’t pull the trigger at Stoney Creek Metropark on any one of those deer, why would I pay someone else to confine and slaughter a farm animal just so I can eat their body? It made no sense. I decided to become vegan. That was ten years ago. It was the best decision of my life.

Shortly after becoming vegan, I handed my mom a pamphlet to read about how animals are treated on factory farms.

She immediately began crying and declared that she would no longer eat animals. The sense of compassion that she had instilled in me as a child had come full circle and she was now inspired by me. Until the end of her life, she never ate another animal.

You don’t need compassion running in your blood to understand that you can make a difference. You can take the very real compassion, consideration, and respect you already have for cats and dogs (and maybe deer) and extend that to farm animals.

The world that we want for animals and the world that exists are two very different things. Creating a kinder world, however, is something that we all can strive for. And that starts at the dinner table.

This article is reprinted courtesy of Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

John Oberg and Karen Oberg, Deer hunt protest clip, 1999, courtesy WDIV.

John Oberg is a social media influencer and professional, dedicated to making the world a kinder place for animals by utilizing the power of social media. In 2019, he launched his own independent project for animals through Patreon to maximize his impact for animals. Follow him on Twitter @JohnOberg.

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What You Put In Your Bin Matters From RecycleSmartMA

Mali Maeder, Pexels

ARE WE STILL RECYCLING OUR TRASH IN AMERICA?

Recycling is a service. Trucks, labor, fuel — none of that is free, but it’s a service worth paying for. It’s also a public good — like schools, public transit, parks and clean air. It’s hard to put a dollar value on the benefits for our community, because they’re invaluable.

R

ecent news stories have highlighted the changing face of recycling around the world, What happens to what I recycle? Where does it all go? creating confusion for consumers in the process. Are we still recycling in America, and If recycling is a mystery to you, you’re not alone. Whether you place recyclables in a bin at does it make sense to do so? your curb or take them to a community recycling center, they eventually wind up in the same You bet it does! What the headlines aren’t telling us is this: there are markets for our paper place: one of several Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) in Massachusetts. and plastic, just not in China. Other countries including India, Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam Once at the MRF, the materials are loaded onto a series of conveyor belts for sorting. are buying the mixed paper China no longer wants, and that’s where much of what’s collected Workers attempt to remove non-recyclables — including plastic bags and bagged trash. Some from Massachusetts is recycled into new products. The difference is it’s now a buyer’s market. of these items make it through and jam the sorting equipment. As the “good” recyclables — The value of mixed paper has dropped from $75/ton paper, cardboard, glass, metal and plastic containers to $5/ton. This means less revenue to offset the costs — move along the conveyor belts, they get separated The U.S. plastics recycling industry is healthy of processing our recyclables. The good news? It’s all mechanically and crushed. The cleanly separated still getting recycled. materials are compressed into bales and shipped and their message is clear: We need all the Cardboard is mostly sold to paper mills in the U.S. to businesses that transform them into new items. or Canada, and multiple U.S. mills are expanding or Understanding the process helps all of us do a better recycled containers you can send us! re-opening to start taking scrap paper and cardboard. job recycling.

There’s good news with plastics, too. The U.S. plastics recycling industry is healthy and wants our soda bottles, milk jugs, yogurt cups and margarine What changes are happening with recycling in Massachusetts? tubs. Their message is clear: we need all the recycled containers you can send us, and more.

Two related issues are having a major effect on recycling in Massachusetts. The first and The silver lining (and maybe the irony) is that China’s National Sword program (banning most significant issue is that too many of us are putting things in our recycling bins that cause the importation of solid wastes) is bringing jobs and investment to the U.S. and enabling reproblems at recycling facilities. Things like plastic bags, diapers, trash, food waste, garden cycling companies to buy recycled materials that they previously had to compete with China hoses, bowling balls, clothing, and the list goes on. for. Now jobs and investment in recycling are coming to America.

Because our recyclables aren’t clean enough, countries such as China are refusing to import While market experts expect the value of recyclables to increase as material quality imour recyclables to make new products and packaging. Recyclables are a commodity and are proves and domestic capacity expands, recycling is first and foremost about saving resources, subject to the laws of supply and demand. Less demand means lower value. All of this has a conserving energy and reducing our dependence on landfills and incinerators. As the impact financial impact on our local communities. of climate change escalates, it’s critical to embrace the circular economy, reduce greenhouse To insure our recyclables find a second life, we all need to make a better effort to recycle gas emissions and lower our carbon footprint. Recycling does all of that, and it creates jobs. smart and stick to the list of approved recycling items.

The U.S. plastics recycling industry is healthy and their message is clear: We need all the recycled containers you can send us!

22 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

Continued on page 24

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— Jim M., Norfolk, VA

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The short answer is yes, it’s still worthwhile for us to recycle, even if it’s not as easy and more expensive than it used to be — especially when you consider the costly and environmentally dubious alternative of creating new products out of all-virgin materials. That said, China’s decision to stop accepting most recyclables from other countries beginning in January 2018 did send shockwaves around the world. For the previous 25 years, China was gladly importing more than half of the world’s plastic garbage for reprocessing into new products.

It seemed like a win-win situation, but the Chinese started to tire of dealing with a deluge of soiled recyclables from abroad. Also, years of economic growth and rising consumption means the Chinese are now producing plenty of waste on their own; they no longer need to rely on waste imports to keep their recycling plants humming. It’s for these reasons that the Chinese government invoked its “National Sword” policy, banning the import of 24 types of solid waste and setting a much tougher standard for contamination levels on the recyclables it would accept. Waste handlers in the U.S. and other developed countries where landfill space is short were left in the lurch and forced to rethink how to move much of their “feedstock” along now that China is no longer willing to take it.

In the meantime, a few Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and India) stepped up to fill the void by taking larger loads of our waste. But poorly run waste management practices and lack of government oversight lead to conditions where only about 10 percent of potentially recyclable waste sent to these countries gets recycled. According to a recent World Bank report, much of what doesn’t get recycled ends up in “unregulated dumps or is openly burned…[creating] serious health, safety and environmental consequences.” But more recently, many of these countries are now following in China’s footsteps by tightening up their own rules about what kinds of waste they are willing to accept.

These changes have put some U.S.-based recyclers out of business, but it may have strengthened those left standing, since they have been forced to find new ways of dealing with the waste streams they are responsible for collecting and processing. Instead of shipping it all off, they are recycling as much as possible themselves. While China’s National Sword program may have been a headshot to the American waste industry, the result might just be a greener, cleaner, more self-sufficient United States.

American consumers and businesses can help bolster recycling efforts by sorting waste appropriately — don’t mix soiled food containers in with recyclables, keep non-recyclable plastics out of the blue bins, etc. — and encouraging friends and neighbors to do the same so that more of what we do discard can live another day and provide other consumers with a guilt-free way to enjoy whatever came in that plastic bottle or cardboard box.

CONTACTS: “After China's import ban, where to with the world's waste?” dw.com/en/after-chinas-import-ban-where-to-with-the-worlds-waste/a-48213871; World Bank’s “What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050,” openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/30317.

EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit EarthTalk. See more at https://emagazine.com. www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 23

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RECYCLING

Continued from page 22

What can I do to recycle better?

Keep plastic bags out of household recycling. Maybe you’ve been putting your recyclables in plastic bags for years, but plastic bags, plastic wrap and other stretchable plastic cannot be recycled along with paper, cans, and bottles. In fact, plastic bags are the number one cause of ruined recyclables. If you use them to bag your recyclables, all your recyclables are treated as trash (exception: some Boston neighborhoods are allowed to use sturdy clear plastic bags for their recyclables). At the recycling sorting facility, plastic bags get caught in the machinery, causing work stoppage and worker injuries.

However, plastic bags and wrap are collected at many grocery stores. Next time you head to the supermarket, bring along your plastic bags and put them in the labeled recycling bin!

Stick to the list and only place approved recyclable items in recycling bins or carts. What belongs in your bin and what doesn’t? As a rule of thumb, remember: bottles, cans, jars, jugs, and paper. It’s easier than ever to get it right when you use the Smart Recycling Guide, which lists items accepted for recycling in every Massachusetts community. If it’s not on the list, check for separate drop-off locations by downloading and using our Recyclopedia app.

Keep it clean and make sure your recyclables are free of food and liquids. Rinse containers to remove food and drink residue. A little pizza grease on the box is okay, but pizza slices are not recyclable!

Spread the word! Once you learn how easy it is to recycle smart, tell your neighbors and friends so everyone can do their part.

Can’t I toss anything with a recycling triangle into the bin?

Isn’t it better to recycle more and put less in the trash?

You sound like someone who wants to recycle as much as possible — which is great — but not every item with the recycling triangle can be recycled with the rest of your household items. In fact, some items with the recycling logo, like plastic bags, create real problems at the recycling facility because they get caught in machine gears causing work shutdowns, worker injuries, and increased recycling costs. These items may be recyclable elsewhere; check if a specific item is recyclable, and where to recycle it, by using the feature in recyclesmartma.org.

Recycling is more complicated than I thought. Do the benefits of recycling outweigh the cost to my community?

Yes! Recycling has helped cities and towns reduce their disposal costs, create jobs, and protect the environment by reducing the amount of trash we burn or bury. By placing only approved materials in your household recycling, you will be doing your part to improve the recycling effort that supports local jobs and preserves our environment.

New England RECYCLING Websites MASSACHUSETTS recyclesmartma.org

CONNECTICUT recyclect.com

VERMONT dec.vermont.gov

RHODE ISLAND rirrc.org

NEW HAMPSHIRE nrra.net

MAINE maine.gov

• Empty and rinse all containers

• Include only glass bottles and jars, metal cans, paper, flattened cardboard, and plastic containers

• No plastic bags, plastic wrap, or bagging your recycling in plastic bags

• If in doubt, check the Recyclopedia at recyclesmartma.org to determine whether a specific item should go in your recycle bin or someplace else

Keeping plastic bags and plastic wrap out of household recycling is the most important thing you can do!

24 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

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From the Editors of E — The Environmental Magazine Dear EarthTalk: You don’t hear much anymore about the cutting of our forests to make paper. Has this destructive practice just moved overseas where we don’t have to confront it, or have increases in recycling in recent years made paper production less destructive?

— J. W., Greenville, SC It’s true that saving paper (and in turn saving trees) used to be a big discussion topic at home, school and office, but these days you don’t hear much about it. This is likely because paper recycling has become ubiquitous; most of us are now well versed in how to sort recyclable paper from other waste.

According to the American Paper and Forest Association (AF&PA), upwards of two-thirds of all paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling in 2018.

What this means is that a lot of the paper we use now gets made with recycled materials that don’t cause more logging and deforestation.

A big player in this march forward has been the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international non-profit that sets standards on forest products and then certifies and labels those that meet the standards as eco-friendly. Another major factor has been the establishment of guidelines set forth and agreed to by 200 governmental and other entities in 2014’s New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF), an international agreement to “end natural forest loss” by 2030.

Despite this progress, deforestation for paper still continues unabated in Indonesia and other parts of the developing world where government oversight is non-existent and profit incentives are too great for illegal loggers to ignore. Some 10 percent of global deforestation (a major driver of climate change) is due to logging for wood products including paper, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

UCS reports that clearing tropical forests and replacing them with mono-cultural plantations of so-called “fastwood” trees like acacia, partly to make virgin paper, accounts for more deforestation across Indonesia than more infamous environmental bogeymen like palm oil production and coal mining. “This is particularly harmful because about a quarter of fastwood plantations were cleared on carbon-rich peat soils,” reports UCS, “adding significantly to global warming pollution.”

Beyond recycled paper itself, there are some promising alternatives to wood pulp as a feedstock for paper production. Some well-known alt-paper feedstocks include fiber crops like bamboo, kenaf, hemp, flax and jute, agricultural scraps such as sugarcane bagasse, cornhusks or straw, and textiles leftover in the production of fabrics and rope. A newer entrant in the green paper alternatives playing field is calcium carbonate — literally rock dust — which is made by pulverizing construction waste and fusing it together with plastic before compressing it with massive rollers into its final paper-thin form.

What about, you might ask, the rapidly growing digital age we find ourselves in now? Isn’t that saving trees? Yes, but consider the electricity load of all the computers, tablets and phones, as well as the server farms and network switching facilities that keep your e-mail inbox full and your Facebook feed full of new content. They’re largely powered by coal and other fossil fuels. Our addiction to digital information might just be taking a larger toll on the planet than if we still got our information the old-fashioned way — from actual books, magazines, newspapers and printed reports.

CONTACTS: AF&PA, afandpa.org; UCS, ucsusa.org; FSC, fsc.org; NYDF, forestdeclaration.org.

EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit EarthTalk. See more at https://emagazine.com. www.spiritofchange.org

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YOUR NATURAL HEALING STORIES ELIMINATING GLUTEN CLEARED MY ACNE AND EXCESS WEIGHT

By Sheila Rajan For my whole adult life, I’ve been a huge health geek! I’ve always enjoyed eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and practicing mediation. As a result, up until a few years ago, I maintained a steady weight and was relatively healthy except for some minor health issues. One chronic condition I could never really shake was adult acne. I tried several products and dietary changes, but nothing really worked. I didn’t worry too much about it since it was cosmetic, and I figured it would improve with age.

After recovering from a long bout of depression and its after effects, I was finally happy again, but with 20 extra pounds! Since I love natural health, I began fighting the weight gain with a stricter diet and more exercise. My diet was already pretty clean (vegetarian, whole grains, unprocessed foods) so I eliminated dairy, reduced my carb intake and started intermittent fasting. For exercise, I began running to add intense cardio to my work out. I absolutely hated running but I forced myself to do it as often as possible and tried my hardest to like it.

A few people had suggested eliminating gluten, but I resisted for a long time. I figured that I didn’t have Celiac disease because my digestion was pretty strong. I also didn’t want to give up whole wheat, since I always thought it was so nutritious.

Finally, on a trip to India, my schedule and long flight home forced me to fast for extensive periods. When I arrived home, I happened to not eat gluten-containing

foods for a week. I noticed some weight loss, so I decided to consciously eliminate all gluten from my diet for a month. I lost 10 pounds and was pleasantly surprised not to have any breakouts in that period. I couldn’t remember the last time I went for a month without a single pimple!

I continued a whole food, gluten-free diet for the next six months. I replaced running with walking (since running made me miserable), and added some dairy back into my diet. I lost a total of 15 pounds out of the 20 that I gained initially. My acne decreased significantly too, but I still experienced occasional hormonal breakouts.

Finally, I went to an Ayurvedic doctor for my remaining acne. She prescribed me herbs, dietary changes and remedies. Since starting her plan, I haven’t gotten a single pimple and I was able to lose the remaining 5 pounds, finally returning to my original weight.

I did several Internet searches on the relationship of gluten to weight gain and acne so I could understand the science of how gluten was affecting my body. Several websites (and my primary care doctor) said something along the lines of, “There is no official research to link gluten to acne.” Despite these few websites, I found many more in which people recounted their own experiences similar to mine. Ultimately, my gluten journey was a huge scientific experiment, so it’s all the data I need to prove something to myself that official science hasn’t yet investigated.

Continued on page 28

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YOUR NATURAL HEALING STORIES continued from page 26

HEALING LYME MENINGITIS WITH HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY

By Dr. Grace Johnstone On July 4th, 2012, my life changed dramatically. I was suddenly in agonizing pain with a high fever and incapacitated by what was eventually diagnosed as Early Disseminating Lyme Meningitis, and then Lyme radiculoneuritis. Within the short span of just 12 hours, I went from being a person actively gardening, mountain biking and doing the chiropractic work that I love to being bedridden and in acute, excruciating pain.

Treated first with IV antibiotics my condition improved, but soon deteriorated again as I began to experience severe lower back, leg and abdominal pain. Nine months later I remained unable to walk, dress, read, drive, or sit without excruciating pain. A host of treatment approaches, including a long course of IV antibiotics were unsuccessful, and my life was reduced to my couch, bed, constant pain and morphine.

I am fortunate to live in Vermont, where there are not enough people for much anonymity. Eventually a friend of a friend heard about my situation and offered to let me use her hyperbaric oxygen chamber. This was the beginning of life a new for me.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) allowed me to recover and get my life back. I took out a loan and got a hyperbaric chamber for use at home — I could not drive or walk without assistance, so this was my only option. Within two weeks I started walking again, discontinued morphine, and was gradually recovering. Now I garden, run, ski, and work full-time. I have resumed the chiropractic practice I love and am certified in Hyperbaric and Undersea Medicine.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is defined as the medical use of oxygen at pressures greater than normal. Although I was a physician, I had never heard of HBOT until Lyme disease catapulted me into incapacity and demoralizing pain. It is a safe, effective and well-researched treatment modality that is underutilized here in the U.S, as we tend to rely on pharmaceutical approaches instead.

The hyperbaric chamber is a tent-like structure that one can sit or lie down in.

It is pressurized with room air at the normal mix of 21% oxygen, and an oxygen concentrator is used to provide 90-95% oxygen, which one breathes through a mask.

At normal pressure, oxygen is carried by red blood cells, but the increased pressure in the chamber allows the oxygenation of plasma and all fluids, perfusing the entire body, brain and all of the organs with high levels of oxygen. This provides powerful antiinflammatory and antibiotic effects, and speeds tissue healing, including soft tissue, bone, brain and neural tissue. It also stimulates stem cell production and normalizes immune function. Even when one’s blood supply has been compromised, as in the case of a stroke, diabetes or a large wound, HBOT delivers high levels of oxygen directly to the tissues.

Both clinical experience and research demonstrate that HBOT is particularly effective in treating chronic and degenerative conditions such as traumatic brain injuries, nonhealing wounds, radiation damage, autism, and resistant infections such as Lyme disease.

Over 30,000 research articles support its use. 1 The U.S. military is using it to treat veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries and PTSD. Diabetic patients have been able to avoid amputations and halt vision loss, allowing them to regain mobility and resume their daily activities. Even some patients with dementia have made complete recoveries, and others regained the ability to speak following strokes using HBOT. The U.K. has over 50 HBOT centers for the treatment of MS and cerebral palsy, which have been a central part of their treatment protocol for over 35 years. In other countries, HBOT has been approved for the treatment of between 60-120 conditions. Many of these conditions have few other effective treatment options. It’s time to spread the word here in the U.S. about this safe, effective treatment option.

Notes 1 See https://www.hyperbaricvermont.org/research-resources/ Dr. Grace Johnstone is certified in Hyperbaric and Undersea Medicine and runs three hyperbaric treatment centers, as well as the nonprofit Hyperbaric Vermont, committed to making affordable HBOT treatment and education available throughout Vermont. Visit www.hyperbaricvermont.org for more information.

28 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

MY PATH TO TONG REN HEALING

By Leslie Saffer I first learned about Tom Tam’s reputation as a powerful healer from the widow of a cancer survivor during a short conversation we had at a social event. She described how her husband’s life had been extended years beyond the timetable forecast by his medical doctors and how, on one occasion in particular, his debilitating pain had been relieved at a distance while they vacationed in the Midwest.

Our conversation was brief and her experience with Tom had taken place years before, yet her enthusiastic animation in describing her late husband’s compelling pain relief was more than enough to plant a seed. Over the next 12 years, two trusted holistic health practitioners also shared their experiences with Tong Ren, the energy healing discipline the Boston-based acupuncturist, author, teacher and inventor began developing more than 30 years ago.

The passion of these three individuals was not lost on me. Finally, after the span of a dozen years, I took action to check Tong Ren out for myself. What I discovered was not only an extraordinary healer, but a community of devoted practitioners and deeply grateful patients.

The success of the Tom Tam Healing Healing System relies on tapping, acupuncture, Tui Na and devices Tom has invented, all honoring the principle of clearing energy blockages by tapping into the collective unconscious to allow the body to heal. Tong Ren practitioners use a hand-held model of the human body with a magnetic hammer to clear blockages in nerve pathways, distinguishable from meridian pathways, to support the balanced flow of chi, the life force energy. The therapy uses the power of the mind to move chi.

Tong Ren practitioners do not diagnose; they work with the medical diagnosis of the individual seeking healing. In a group tapping session, the leader moves from one individual to the next, inviting each to verbally share his/her current need or complaint.

Some report the results of their latest lab or other conventional procedure. Tapping on the human model for each person present is done sequentially and generally lasts anywhere from one to three minutes per individual. Sessions close with a few minutes of quiet time where the healing energy is broadcast to the full group.

Like others in the room during the first healing circle I attended in Burlington, MA, I felt strong sensations reflecting movement of the energy elicited by the tapping.

That first Sunday afternoon, I arrived home feeling a pronounced sense of elation and renewal. I felt so much lighter, happier! I was due for hip replacement surgery in a few months, and the cutting lower body pain I’d been experiencing was relieved to the point that I could walk around the house without my two ski poles. When my surgeon unexpectedly cancelled the scheduled hip replacement surgery date, the only way I was able to make it through to the new date was by way of the support I was getting from the Tong Ren community.

Many who come to Tong Ren are unfamiliar with the concept of chi and are looking for hope and solutions. Like me, they’ve heard Tong Ren stories or someone they know has suggested they check it out. They’re not into the science Tom bases his work on and they needn’t be to benefit. Within a few weeks of attending these free healing circles, the vertigo I’d experienced for several months vanished completely and has not returned. Prior to experiencing Tong Ren, I considered sleeping four hours without waking a good night; yet that first night, I slept 6 1/2 hours without waking. On days I attend weekly healing circles and/or tap at home, sleep continues to be sounder and longer. And if I can’t attend an in-person session, I can sign in online with my healing request to maintain momentum via circles held throughout the week.

JOURNAL OF NATURAL HEALING Email your natural healing story to editor@spiritofchange.org to be included in the Journal of Natural Healing online. Read more natural healing stories at www.spiritofchange.org/journal.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 29

Breathe Easy The number one health tip for cannabis smokers is also the easiest.

by Mark Mathew Braunstein

A

ll drugs pose risks. Drugs that we use and often cherish provide us with desirable benefits, else we would not use them. But cloaked as side effects, those rewards also come with unwanted risks. Whether medicinal or recreational, whether herbal or pharmaceutical, whether legal or illicit, all drugs pose risks.

And all smoke poses risks. Smoke up a drug, and you’ve stirred up some double trouble. While cannabis is a natural herb, intentionally inhaling its smoke is a grossly unnatural act.

Even as an herbal remedy that can benefit a long list of ailments, its smoke can compromise your health. Smoke in any quantity and from any source irritates the respiratory tract. Smoke is its own smoking gun without the need for any gun. Smoking is bad news, which is not even news. You might ignore the facts or fool yourself about smoking, but no smoke and no mirrors can fool your lungs. Even incense, which fools the nose, fouls the lungs.

Like tough love or square circles, healthful smoking is an oxymoron. But we can address how to make smoking less harmful.

To reduce any health risk of smoking cannabis, the number-one safeguard is also the easiest. You have no need to reach into your first-aid kit for this. Nor need you do anything more than what you already are doing. Actually, you need to do something less. So, if you wish to take no special precautions nor to read beyond the next paragraph, then read only this: After you inhale the smoke or the vape, do not hold it in! It’s that simple. When you hold your breath, you put your health on hold. So, don’t hold your breath!

It’s no coincidence that, if you cough, it’s usually on that hold.

So breathe naturally and normally, almost as though you were not smoking. Inhale and exhale casually, without fanfare or deliberation. Even tobacco smokers, who may sometimes inhale long and deep drags, seldom hold it in. If they always held their breath the way that most cannabis smokers do, tobacco smokers would all be dead. So take it easy and breathe easy.

When your shaman or mentor or older sibling turned you on as an initiate to the rite of smoking cannabis, your cannabis 30 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

coach probably instructed you to inhale deeply and to hold that toke. Such an unfamiliar and unnatural way of breathing may have contributed to your failure to get high on that first try or two. In 1992, while campaigning for the presidency, Bill Clinton admitted that during his college years, “I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and didn't like it, and didn't inhale.”

We all know that the blowhard was lying when he notoriously claimed that he didn’t inhale. Instead, he more honestly should have claimed that he couldn’t inhale. Clinton quite possibly might have failed because the forced technique of intentionally inhaling smoke and then holding it in was so unnatural and new to him. And unnatural and contrary to normal human physiology for all of us, too.

Cough It Up!

Here comes an anatomy lesson with some physiology thrown in. So, if the mere thought of peeking into your innards makes you feel queasy, consider skipping this section. Or just close your eyes, and I’ll let you know when it’s over.

Once you fill your lungs with smoke-filled air, holding your breath will promote no further absorption of the cannabinoids. Thus, no further enhanced psychoactive or medicinal effect. Cannabinoids are fat-soluble and quickly absorbed within the lungs. “Tars” is a diffuse term for the hydrocarbons produced by the combustion of plant matter. Tars are not fat-soluble, so are absorbed more slowly. More than any contaminants or debris in smoke, tars muck up the works.

Holding your breath only promotes more intake of tars, and therefore more irritation to your lungs.

The literary scion Aldous Huxley rhapsodized about the psychedelic drug experience in his 1954 classic, The Doors of Perception. The rock band, The Doors, embraced their name in homage to that book’s title. For the cannabis drug experience, cannabinoids enter through the doors of the lungs. Think of your lungs as two huge playing fields with several main players, all on the same team. Your team. For our discussion, the star

athletes are the alveoli cells, the goblet cells, and the cilia cells.

Alveoli cells are tiny air sacs lining the interior membranes of the lungs. They absorb oxygen to assimilate it into the bloodstream. Absorption of oxygen is by design; absorption of other miscellaneous substances is by accident. Cannabinoids just happen to be among the miscellanea that catch a ride with the oxygen.

While the alveoli are the doorways, goblet cells and cilia cells are the doormats. You wipe your feet on a doormat so you won’t track dirt into your home.

Cilia cells are delicate hair-like hooks that can become overburdened by an overload of smoke or foul air, regardless of the origin. If too gummed up to do any further heavy lifting, the cilia slacken at their job. Mucus then accumulates in your lungs. Pathogens lurking about and hanging out in the primordial soup in your lungs begin to flourish and multiply.

And whammo! You come down with a cold, the flu, an acute case of bronchitis, or a not so cute case of pneumonia. Thus, heavy cannabis smokers compared to nonsmokers have garnered a well-deserved reputation for succumbing to more episodes of respiratory illnesses. So try your best to cough it up and get it out.

Hypoxia, Hyperventilation, and Huffing and Puffing Some diehard smokers swear by the practice of holding their breath because they consider lightheadedness to be part of their high. Holding your breath, with or without smoke, causes a reduction of oxygen reaching your brain. The havoc wreaked upon your brain cells is called hypoxia. Even without smoking, if you hold your breath long enough, the oxygen deprivation will make you feel giddy or dizzy. You might experience the same sensation from choking on a chunk of meat or from drowning in a pool of water.

It is our human nature to seek altered states of consciousness.

Even as children, many of us made ourselves giddy by performing multiple somersaults down a hillside. Or we made our heads spin by standing and whirling our bodies around in circles. We enjoyed as a form of play the dizziness and loopiness that the whirling produced. As adults, some Sufi dervishes do this as a form of prayer, chanting, and meditation, all rolled into one.

Hyperventilation, too, will make you feel lightheaded. As an adult, you might try huffing and puffing, like the Big Bad Wolf blowing down the house of one of the Three Little Pigs. “I will huff and puff and blow your house down!”

Some smokers firmly believe that, until they cough, they will not have inhaled enough smoke to make them high. They anticipate the coughing as their signal that they have smoked enough. Actually, coughing signals that they have smoked too much. While coughing expands the lungs, it is only because it has irritated them.

For a more healthful way of expanding lung capacity, try improved techniques of breathing. Singers and yogis practice it. You can read entire books devoted just to the subject of how to breathe. Or get off your butt and engage in some physical exercise, especially aerobics such as walking, swimming, rowing, biking, or running. Just about any activity except for staring into cell phones or sitting around smoking a joint.

Mark Mathew Braunstein, is the author of five books and a contributor to many holistic health magazines, including five times previously to Spirit of Change. This article is an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Mindful Smoking: Health Tips for Cannabis Smokers. www.MarkBraunstein.org.

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THE ARVIGO INSTITUTE, LLC • PO Box 189, Antrim, NH 03440 603-588-2571 • office@arvigotherapy.com • www.arvigotherapy.com www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 31

By Ritu Kapur

D

3

Simple Poses

id you know that just putting a smile on your face, even if it’s fake, can instantly raise your level of happiness? Yoga does that for your whole body. After a 60-minute class, you will come out smiling from head to toe.

You can start a personal home yoga practice of just 10-20 minutes per session with very little prep. Place your yoga mat on a carpeted space or use two mats to give extra padding for your spine. If you don’t own a yoga mat, just use a blanket on a carpeted space. Consider creating a designated calming space in your house where you can leave your mat spread out or folded up with the blankets if space allows. This will give you access to this peaceful oasis in your own house any time you want it.

It is important to be comfortable during yoga. Keep a few thick, extra blankets nearby when you are practicing to help support your neck, head, back, arms and legs comfortably in each pose. If it doesn’t feel good, adjust your body or add an extra blanket or two where support is needed until the pose feels comfortable. If it’s painful, skip it altogether.

During poses, do some deep breathing by using slow mental counting: breathe in to the count of four, breathe out to the count of six. This simple practice can help focus your mind better. At some point, the counting drops away and you can simply begin to notice the slow, smooth, effortless breaths coming and going through your body. Watch these breaths like you would watch ocean waves, sitting by the beach, without any judgement. Allow yourself to be present in each moment with each breath as you enjoy this process of connection between your body, breath and mind.

The following three simple poses can help encourage your body into a big wide smile. Try one or all three to help you feel stretched in a gentle way and filled with gratitude for the beautiful body that you have the privilege of owning.

CHILD’S POSE

• Start on your hands and knees. Keep a folded blanket under your knees to give them extra padding.

• Keep your knees wide and lower your hips towards your ankles. You can also use a folded blanket between your hips and ankles to make the pose more comfortable. Allow your belly to rest in between your legs.

• Keep your arms stretched out in front of you on your mat and bring your forehead to the ground. Use a blanket under your forehead if your head does not comfortably reach the ground. Alternately, you can place your hands on top of each other with palms facing down, then rest your forehead on your hands.

• Bring your inner eye gaze to the center of your forehead and focus your attention on your breath. Simply observe the flow of breath in and out through the nostrils.

• Open and close your mouth a couple of times to release any tension from your lower jaw. Soften your facial muscles and let this smile spread to the rest of your body. Notice your shoulders, spine and hips beginning to relax.

• Stay in Child’s Pose as long as it feels good.

To come out of the pose, get back onto your hands and knees and make gentle movements in your hips and neck.

32 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

For Peace & Calm

CROCODILE POSE

• Lie down on your belly with arms crossed in front of you and your forehead resting on top of your hands. After 1-2 minutes of resting in this position, lift your head up a little bit and place your arms by your sides.

• With your legs together, squeeze your buttocks to keep the legs engaged. Feel your elbows gently pressing towards your hips. Feel your spine and neck reaching towards the top of the mat.

Your neck should be in a comfortable flat position, neither looking too far up nor down. This is a great pose to decompress and lengthen your lower back in a very gentle and controlled way.

• Stay in this pose for 4-5 deep breaths. See if you can manage a gentle smile on your face.

• To come out of this pose, lie down on your belly again, roll over to your side and then roll onto your back.

HAPPY BABY POSE

• Lie down on your back and bring your knees to your chest, holding them with your arms if you’d like. Rock side-to-side a few times massaging the spine and take some deep breaths.

• With your knees towards your chest, open them wide and bring your arms inside the knees.

• Grab hold of your ankles, or your feet if you can reach them, and spread them apart. Keep the ankles aligned with the knees. Feel your tailbone resting on the ground. This is a great pose to stretch and open the hip muscles, which in turn helps lengthen the spine.

• Keep a big smile on your face as you gently rock side-to-side or stay still. After 3-5 breaths, bring your hands down to your knees and rest your feet on the ground with your knees bent. Take a few resting breaths. Stay here as long as you want.

Start with these beginner friendly poses at home or try out different classes and teachers to determine which style of yoga will have the most benefit for you Illustrations by Jeffrey Longo

Ritu Kapur is the owner of Sohum Yoga and Meditation studio in Westborough, MA. She has been working as an occupational therapist for 25 years and is a registered Yoga teacher. You can reach her at Ritu.Kapur@Sohum.org or visit www.Sohum.org.

YOGA DIRECTORY

Yoga at the Ashram, Millis, MA

Opening Lotus Studio, Holden, MA

CONNECTICUT

Haverhill

East Hartford

Sacred Rivers Yoga is a Registered 200 and 300-Hour School with Yoga Alliance, as well as a member school with the International Association of Yoga Therapy offering Yoga for Every Body. 860-657-9545 www.sacredriversyoga.com.

MASSACHUSETTS

Bridgewater

Bliss Through Yoga, Inside Physical Therapy U, 75 Scotland Blvd., Bridgewater, MA 02324. Offering Svaroopa® Yoga, Embodyment® Yoga Therapy, group and private classes. 508-331-3564. blissthroughyoga@ comcast.net. blissthroughyoga.com Maha Yoga Center, 992 Bedford St. (Rt. 18), Bridgewater, MA 02324. Yoga all levels, Hatha, Ashtanga, meditation, massage. Yoga teacher training (Yoga Alliance). 508-697-3273 mahayogacenter.com

Charlton/Central Mass Area

BethanyJewellYoga, RYT Embodyoga, RPYT Prenatal Discover the Healer Within. Local studio classes, private & on-line offerings. Begin a home yoga practice where health can begin right at home. www.bethanyjewellyoga.com 508-768-7253

Easton

Easton Yoga Center, 50 Oliver Street, Ste 208, Easton, MA 02356. Yoga for all levels. Hatha, Vinyasa, Restorative, Beginners, Yin. Private Yoga, Reiki and Reflexology sessions available. 508-276-0315. eastonyogacenter.com

Harmony Integrative Bodywork. Sessions include half bodywork and half one-on-one yoga to bring harmony and balance back to your body.

76 Merrimack St, Suite 102A. 978-771-0377. www.harmonyintegrativebodywork.com

Maha Yoga Center, Bridgewater, MA

Princeton

FrogPond Yoga Centre. Classes in the tradition of Raja Yoga for all levels of practitioners. 200 and 500-hr classes are ongoing. frogpondyoga.org

Uxbridge

Holden

State of Grace Yoga and Wellness Center for Health & Healing. Yoga, massage, acupressure therapy, Reiki, Anxiety & Trauma Programs. Yoga teacher training January 2020. Stateofgracewellness.com.

104 East Hartford Ave. 508-278-2818.

Leominster/Central Mass Area

Mountainbrook Yoga. Eileen Nikopoulos, RYT 500 is a skilled and experienced practitioner of the yogic arts, yoga for pelvic health and postpartum yoga. www.mountainbrookyoga.com. 508-591-FLOW.

Opening Lotus Yoga. 465 Main Street, Holden, MA, 01520. All levels. Kundalini , Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, Restorative, Certified Yoga/Ayurvedic health coaching. 508-829-7435 openinglotusyoga.com.

Yoga Anita. “Calm the mind, stretch the body, invigorate the spirit.” Yoga and Meditation. Group, private, schools, corporate, workshops. www.yogaanita.com. 978-227-8297

Millis

Yoga at the Ashram, 368 Village Street, Kundalini, gong relaxations, concerts, workshops, healing circles, retreats and teacher trainings. First 30 days $30. www.YogaAtTheAshram.org. 508-376-4525 The Yoga Studio. A tranquil, welcoming healing center. Daily classes for all levels, private yoga therapy, and 200/500 hour YTT. First class free.

508-376-8508. theyogastudiomillis.com

Northborough

The Core Connection offers a variety of alignment-based yoga classes ranging from Yoga Sculpt and Funky Flow Yoga to Yin and restorative candlelight yoga. Visit www.thecoreconnection.com. 508-393-8086.

Westborough

Sohum is a Yoga and meditation studio with the mission to promote health and wellness to all for the body and for the mind. www.sohum.org. 508-329-3338.

Westborough Yoga for transformation, healing and spinal health. Offering Svaroopa yoga, meditation, private Yoga Therapy and Embodyment.

Contact Michelle (Kamala) Gross, 508-341-6424 westboroughyoga.com

Worcester

Worcester Yoga Center. Ann Bissanti. Over 30 years teaching experience. Trained in India by B.K.S. Iyengar. 21 West Street, Worcester, MA. 508-829-6300. worcesteryogacenter.com

Include your studio. Next ad deadline is July 31, 2020. email advertise@spiritofchange.org

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 33

Fengyang Taoist Chinese Medicine Past & Present

By Dr. Wei Li

By Dr. Wei Li

F

engyang Taoist Chinese Medicine (Fengyang TCM) is a system of Chinese medicine dating back 1,750 years. It is a complete system of holistic healing that includes: herbal medicine (including high-end healing teas and herbal infusions), external medicine (powders, creams, etc.), Fengyang tai chi, Fengyang qi gong, long distance healing and tui na acupressure. All these pieces work together as equal parts of a whole; none of them are separate from the other. Handed down from practitioner to practitioner for more than 1,750 years — all the way back to Dong Feng himself in 220 AD — these ancient methods have long since been refined down to a science and perfected, and are still practiced today.

The Story of Fengyang Chinese Medicine Dong Feng, the founder of the Fengyang Chinese Medicine system, lived in Fengyang City on Lu Mountain in China during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD). There he freely shared many of his powerful secrets on improving personal health and curing Dong Feng diseases with the locals, as many of them were sick and poor. Dong Feng, himself, is said to have lived to over 300 years old. Perhaps it is possible that his practices were able to greatly improve his health and longevity.

Dong Feng, courtesy name Junyi, was born in Houguan (now Minxian in Fujian Province). As a young man, he 34 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

“Dong Feng asked every patient he cured of a major illness to plant five plum trees, and every patient with a minor illness to plant one plum tree.

In just a few years the hill near Dong Feng’s house had become a plum tree woods."

worked very hard to study the classic works and medicine of China, wanting to become a doctor to help the people. Later on by chance, he met a Taoist monk, who taught him Taoist practices. Not only did he become very skilled in medicine, he could also predict the weather, among other abilities. People regarded him as a celestial being with special powers.

Taoist practices are known to be beneficial in improving one’s health and wellness. Dong Feng was able to stay looking young for the rest of his life. According to legend, a young man who was born in the same town first met Dong Feng when he was in his forties. Fifty years later, when he came back to visit his hometown, he saw Dong Feng still looked the same as when they first met. Out of curiosity, he asked Dong Feng, “You were a middle-aged man when I was young. Now my hair has all turned white and you still look the same. Is it because you have achieved the Tao?” Dong Feng answered, “It is just by luck.” Throughout history, immortality has been the dream of many emperors and powerful people. When more and more people came to Dong Feng, wanting to get special medicine

or to learn practices to achieve immortality, his life was greatly disturbed. He finally left his hometown, and started traveling around the country, helping people with his medical skills.

When he arrived at Jiaozhou (now Guangxi Province), the local governor, Shi Xie, had been in a coma for three days.

Dong Feng treated him and nursed him back to health. This news spread quickly to the whole of southern China. Shi Xie and his family were very grateful. They built a tall building by their house for Dong Feng and provided him with delicious food. A year later, Dong Feng declined respectfully Shi Xie’s invitation to stay longer, and continued his travel northward.

When he arrived at Haozhou (now Fengyang in Anhui Province), he saw that the locals were suffering greatly from poverty and diseases due to the war between the three countries. He was sympathetic of their situation, so he decided to settle down in a poor hilly village 18 miles south of the Phoenix Mountain. Considering local geology and weather conditions, he wanted to teach the locals advanced agricultural skills from southern China, and encouraged them Continued on page 36

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 35

Fengyang Taoist Chinese Medicine

Continued from page 34

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to plant plum trees on the barren mountains to increase income. However, the locals were doubtful because they saw him as just a traveling doctor, and did not want to accept his advice.

Dong Feng thereby announced a rule: he would not charge his patients any money. However, every patient he cured who had a severe illness was asked to plant five plum trees on the hill next to his house, and every patient with a minor illness plant one plum tree. Because of his excellent skills and ethics, many patients from near and far came to seek his help. After just a few years, his patients had planted over 10,000 plum trees. The hill near Dong Feng’s house had become a plum tree woods. When the plums ripened, Dong Feng posted a note saying that anyone who wanted to buy plums could trade one bag of grains for one bag of plums. He then gave those grains to the poor. It was said that he helped 20-30,000 poor people every year.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Dong Feng’s powerful methods became well known in the Fengyang area. The four basic kinds of medicine from Dong Feng are: 1. Fengyang Ointment for Furuncle (boil), 2. Fengyang Medicated Liquor for Bruise, 3. Fengyang Medicinal Powder for Stopping Bleeding, and 4. Fengyang Medicine for Burns.

Dong Feng’s methods were summarized into a system called “Fengyang Health and Wellness Practices and Treatment Methods Using Qi and Pressure Points,” which was based on Feng’s deep medical knowledge, ancient Taoist teachings and Zen Buddhism practices. It remained in widespread use until the Ming Dynasty many centuries later. Even though many of the locals who practiced these methods were monks and the descendants of the military officers who helped establish the Ming Dynasty, they were suppressed when the new government took over, and could only secretly practice Feng’s methods.

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, the rulers of the new Qing Dynasty tightened their grip on Fengyang to prevent rebellion. People could still only practice Dong Feng’s methods in secret. By the end of the Qing Dynasty in the early 1900s, almost everyone in Fengyang forgot how to practice Dong Feng’s ancient healing methods. The practice had almost been entirely destroyed.

Fortunately, some of Feng’s disciples moved to what is now called Guangdong Province, where his healing practices were passed down practitioner-to-practitioner, and continued to the present. There it is known as Medicine from Fengyang.

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Dr. Ming Wu is a doctor of Chinese medicine and 20th generation Fengyang TCM practitioner. Having been an apprentice since the age of seven under his father Muqing Wu, a 19th generation practitioner of the art, Ming Wu is the sole Fengyang practitioner in the United States.

Dr. Ming Wu He is also a tai chi and qi gong Master.

Dr. Wu has received authentic Yang Style Tai Chi instruction from his Sifu Grandmaster Gin Soon Chu, a disciple of Yang Sau Chung, and has been carefully instructing

students in qi gong and tai chi in the U.S. for over 26 years.

He has dedicated his life to healing and teaching others how to live healthy lives and remain present in the moment by practicing Chuang Tzu’s teachings.

“30% of healing is the doctor’s job, such as prescribing medicine,” says Wu. “70% is the patient’s job. They have to learn how to change their lifestyle — prevention — and learn how to take care of themselves. The patient is our healing partner. We’re going to help them heal and teach them how to stay healthy — find the root cause, not just the symptom. Symptoms will return indefinitely if the root cause is never addressed.”

Tai chi and qi gong can improve all areas of a person’s health including, but not limited to: balance, bone and soft tissue (muscle and tendon) strength, mental clarity, problems with stiffness and reducing pain, normalizing blood pressure, gastrointestinal disorders, arthritis and back pain.

Using slow movements to help bring awareness to every part of the body, tai chi and qi gong help one to remain present in the moment. When you are aware of your body in the moment, that is mindfulness.

“You not only say or think ‘live in the moment,’ you do it,” says Dr. Wu. “You practice it. It is a practical experience.

When you come into the room, you will feel the group energy and experience it for yourself. You incorporate this new awareness into all areas of your life.

“If someone tells you, ‘Honey is delicious,’ or you read it in a book or see it on the Internet, but you’ve never tasted honey yourself, you have to taste it before it will become your knowledge. Then it’s your wisdom, your experience.

You will remember the taste. That’s practical knowledge.”

According to Dr. Wu, the practice of tai chi and qi gong focuses on strengthening the mind-body-spirit connection.

“When everything becomes one, that’s what being in the moment is. You free yourself to feel the unlimited energy within, and you feel amazing. When you open up to the inside, then you can connect to Earth and the universe, and energy will always flow. That’s what we call living in the moment.”

In China, as well as in the United States, it is very important for Fengyang TCM doctors to practice tai chi and qi gong to serve as an example and inspire their patients with something they can see with their own eyes. Doctors trying to help many patients who are stressed out may be prone to energy depletion, and need to take care of themselves before taking care of others. By grounding themselves and feeling connected, their energy will flow so patients around them will feel calm and peaceful and get better.

“The Taoist concept of Wu Wei means ‘effortless power,’” concludes Dr. Wu. “You cultivate effortless power by doing tai chi and qi gong and living in the moment. When you do this every day people around you feel better without you doing anything. It is a daily practice.”

Dr. Ming Wu is the director of Wu Healing Center and Taoist Institute of TCM with offices in W. Hartford, CT and Maynard, MA. He offers private consultations as well as distance and in-person classes on all levels. Text or call 978-790-8888 or visit www.wuhealing.com.

Dr. Wei Li received her Ph.D. in Biology from Tufts University.

She joined Taoist Institute of TCM and Wu Healing Center in 2014 with an interest in promoting the Taoist health and wellness culture worldwide.

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 37

A Very Quick History Of

ENERGY METHODOLOGIES

By Ethan Borg, L.Ac.

H

uman beings have been practicing energy-based healing for as long as there has been religious practice. Suffice it to say, prayer is a form of energy healing and people have been praying for as long as we have had concepts of deity.

In fact, as you review the history of medicine, only in the last two hundred years, with the standardization of Western medicine, has spirituality been excised completely from a medical modality. Up until very recently, spirituality and medicine were integrated practices.

Shamans have existed around the planet for all of human history. Their work with spiritual factors and herbal medicine predates any formalized medicines. The idea of magical healing harkens back to shamans and has been a part of human history for as long as there has been a human history.

Roughly 6,000 years ago, people all around the world began constructing pyramids. These structures can be found on almost every continent, including North and South America, Africa, ancient Mesopotamia, India, Indonesia and even Europe. Supernatural energies were a cornerstone of the belief systems of most people who constructed pyramids. Often it was believed in these societies that pyramids focused supernatural energies to provide physical, emotional and spiritual benefits to those inside. How this factored into medicine is unclear, yet it does appear that the pyramids played some role in energy medicine for the elites in those early civilizations.

The oldest formal energy medicine still in active practice today is likely Chinese Medicine created thousands of years ago. The oldest surviving classical texts in Chinese medicine only go back to several hundred years BCE, but it is very likely that Chinese medicine predates these texts by thousands of years.

The oldest known mummy, Otzi the iceman, was found in the Otzal Alps of Europe. He lived around roughly 3,300 BCE. His body was tattooed with acupuncture points and meridians. This suggests that human being were exploring energy medicine in one form or another all over the world at least 5,000 years ago.

Qi, Yin and Yang, and the Five Elements theories were created in China. Bringing one’s energy back to balance has been the goal of this medicine ever since. Restoring energy balance was a common theme among energy medicines spanning the globe. China, Greece and India shared their knowledge among each other resulting in the widespread adoption of five elements/form/phrases of energy as the basis of medicine. For instance, Aristotle, living around 340 BCE, echoed Chinese theory in describing five energy Elements and their importance in health and disease.

The self-cultivation practice of Qi Gong for balancing one’s qi was an early development in Chinese energy medical practice. In India, the corollary to Qi Gong was Yoga, which was designed to cultivate and move prana, a synonym for qi.

The oldest known Ayurvedic Samhita medicine texts, written in India, were likely written around 100 BC. Again, it is hard to know what deeper knowledge preceded those surviving texts. Yet it is clear that for much of the next two thousand years, Chinese medicine and 38 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

Ayurvedic medicine were the most popular standardized and professional energy medicines around the globe. For 2000 years, Chinese medicine slowly spread across Asia, becoming the primary medicine for the greater part of the world’s population at that time. Arab and Greek medicines combined and flourished throughout most of the Mediterranean in the early centuries AD. Though the world was divided among many different forms of medicine, energy medicine continued to predominate globally until only the last few centuries.

By the early middle ages, the roots of Western biomedicine took root when physicians in the Islamic world began to focus on scientific study and inquiry. Textbooks by these physicians were translated into Latin where they then proliferated in Europe. At that moment in history, the medical world first divided between scientific inquiry in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East versus energy medicine popular throughout the rest of the planet.

Energy medicine, however, was in no way deterred by the adoption of scientific study. In fact it was in the heart of the scientific world that the next energy medicine was created by a Western-trained physician.

At the turn of the 18th century, a German physician named Samuel Hahnemann developed a completely new form of energy medicine that did not in any way relate to qi, yin/yang, Five Element or prana: homeopathy. Hahnemann showed the world that water could be a container for energy and could hold the energy of whatever substance was placed inside it. He placed herbs in water then diluted the water to greater and greater levels until the water itself contained none of the original herb. Yet, despite the fact that the herb was no longer in the water, the energy of the herb was encapsulated in it. The more dilute this solution, the more powerful the energy medicine impact on the patient. Today, in India alone, 100 million people rely on homeopathy as their primary medicine. It is widely valued across Europe. While remaining a relatively small market in the United States, homeopathy is a multi-billion dollar industry globally.

Western biomedicine became the primary medicine around the globe by the end of the 18th century. Yet, despite its success, energy medicines did not shrink away as one might expect.

Instead, their growth began to accelerate. For thousands of years, only a handful of energy medicines dominated the world. Yet Hahnemann appeared to light a spark that would keep growing for the next two centuries.

One hundred years after Hahnemann, and inspired by his discoveries, an English physician, Edward Bach, used an intuitive method of identifying healing flowers. By collecting dew on the petals of specific flowers, Bach created another new energy medicine, which is often called Bach Flower Remedies. These flower essences were considered capable of returning emotional and spiritual balance to a patient.

While one can argue that aromatherapy was first created at the first temple or stupa that utilized incense to stimulate spiritual reflection, the use of essential oil fragrances for healing was developed as a healing art in the early 1900s by European scientists and physicians. The first textbook on aromatherapy was written in 1937 by French chemist RenĂŠ-Maurice GattefossĂŠ, who proffered that fragrances of essential oils helped to stimulate the body to heal itself.

Around the same time aromatherapy was being developed, Faroese-Danish physician Niels Ryberg Finsen created modern light therapy for which he won a Nobel prize (employing light to treat diseases such as lupus). Light therapy, also known as heliotherapy, uses concentrated light to heal the body. In a more modern context, lasers such as blue lasers have become a popular healing method.

In 1922, Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui introduced the world to Reiki, a non-touch method of transmitting Universal Qi to a patient in order to balance and heal him/her. This method mirrors elements of ancient Chinese medicine but also adds spiritual symbols as a tool for healing.

In the 1970s another energy healing method became popularized by Dora Kunz and Delores Krieger. Their method, known as Healing Touch, focused on balancing chakras (energy centers first defined in Ayurvedic medicine and ancient Yogic texts) to heal the body.

Of course, human beings live in a sea of ideas and many more healing methods abound that I have missed. This is especially true in just the last several decades. New ideas are always churning at the surface. Suffice it to say, the dominance of biomedicine has in no way quelled interest and demand for energy medicine. If anything, that demand is experiencing a renaissance as the limitations of Western medicine become more clear. Energy medicine has been practiced throughout all of human history. It has been standardized, professionalized, and embraced by the masses. This has been true for thousands of years. In the United States alone, millions of people turn to it every year.

Reprinted with permission from EM Level 2, 2016, Ethan Borg, LLC. Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist Ethan Borg, L.Ac., has created a new energy methodology called Eminus (commonly known as EM), built on the pillars of classical Chinese energy medicine, feng shui, and modern ideas of anatomy and physiology. Visit www.eminusmirus.com. www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 39

On behalf of the Oneness of all existence, Millie brings you ...

A Human’s Purpose

Build Your

Brain Gut

Microbiome

This book is for anyone: • Searching for the deeper meanings in life and death • On a spiritual path who wants to understand themselves • Who wants to understand others more profoundly

...and Raise Your Happiness Quotient

• Who wants to create a love and joy filled life • Is open to new ideas and concepts that infuse love into all aspects of your being “For most of my life I was searching for purpose, not understanding the challenges and losses I have experienced.

After reading A Human’s Purpose I have gained more clarity than I can state.

I have a whole new outlook on life and death.

It was life-altering!” ~ Kim W.

Millie is an old soul that will steal your heart

www.AHumansPurpose.com 40 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

By Beth Colon, M.S., BCHN

B

rain and gut health are both necessary for us to feel happy and positive with an overall feeling of wellness. The microbial world in your gut not only supports your gastrointestinal system and general health, but is intimately tied to your psychological behavior and how you perceive the world. A gut that is lacking proper microbial balance and function cannot communicate efficiently with the brain, the immune system or the endocrine (hormonal) system. This can result in gastrointestinal diseases, immune disorders and hormone disruption, as well as anxiety and depression.

Communication between the gut and the brain goes in both directions; messages are relayed back and forth about our physiological state and our psychological state through the brain gut microbiome axis (BGM). The BGM is fully integrated into problem detection and resolution of imbalances in bodily systems. Many factors can disrupt functioning of the BGM. Stress, pharmaceutical drugs — especially antibiotics and PPIs (proton pump inhibitors) — infection, genetics, genetically modified foods, pesticides, toxins in the environment, food additives, Western diet and irregular eating all are destructive to the BGM. A degraded BGM can result in the disruption of important hormonal messages, such as the hunger and satiety response, which helps us know when we are full. It can also result in the loss of ability to produce calming neurotransmitters, initiating mood swings, anxiety or depression.

The physical structure of the brain is 60% fat and saturated with water. Hydration is key for optimum brain function as well as eating healthy sources of essential fats, especially omega-3 fatty acids found in cold water fish, nuts and seeds, and the oils derived from them. A leafy green salad topped with grilled salmon or cod, slices of avocado, chopped walnuts and a dressing of lemon juice, herbs and flax oil provides a good dose of omega-3 fats.

The brain's neural network requires essential fats and fat-based phospholipids like choline and serine to maintain cell membrane structure and for proper functioning and maintenance. Phospholipids can be found in most foods, to some degree, but they are especially high in eggs, milk, organ meats, lean meats, fish, shellfish, soy and sunflower seeds. The Western diet full of sugars, refined carbohydrates, unhealthy fats and toxic additives is not supportive for brain health.

TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR BGM FOODS FOR BRAIN HEALTH: Leafy greens, berries, dairy products, broccoli, cauliflower and other non-starchy colorful vegetables, lean meats, organ meats, salmon, nuts and seeds, turmeric, ginger and green tea. Excellent supplements for brain health include B vitamins, vitamin E, fish oil, and antioxidant formulations.

FOODS FOR GUT HEALTH: Healthy fats, vegetables, leafy greens, ripe bananas, pumpkin, butternut squash and low sugar fruits like berries. All fermented vegetables like ginger carrots, pickled beets, kimchi, sauerkraut and cucumber pickles; these are found refrigerated in stores and must be fermented with salt and spices only, no vinegar or chemical additives. Yogurt, kefir, kombucha, tempeh, miso, natto, fermented cottage cheese (farmer cheese), and fermented sour cream are more probiotic foods to enjoy. It is more economical to make fermented foods at home but it is time consuming. Probiotic supplements containing Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species as well as psyllium husk fiber and fish oil are great supplements for maintaining gut health.

MEDICATIONS DISRUPT GUT HEALTH, especially antibiotics. Eat probiotic foods and take probiotic supplements with and after antibiotic therapy. Homemade chicken, turkey or beef stock with the fat left in is great for revitalizing the gut. Supplementing with L-glutamine can also help fuel and restore cells that line the intestinal tract.

COOK AT HOME, prepare from scratch when you can. If you need to buy processed food, read labels to avoid food additives as much as possible. Prepare foods in bulk and freeze in

dinner portions so you will have healthy, homemade “fast food” when you don’t have time to cook. Buy or prepare ahead pre-measured portion cuts of protein (meats, fish, tempeh) that you can combine with frozen or pre-cut vegetables. A simple pan sauté of chicken and your favorite vegetables makes a quick meal.

AVOID EATING TOO MANY JUNK FOODS, breads, pasta, alcohol and sugar. When you go off this plan for special occasions, get right back on track with healthful eating as soon as you can. We all need to celebrate life and we need to be social and happy to stay healthy, so don’t beat yourself up if you go off your normal regimen. Make a plan for yourself and follow through.

MANAGE STRESS by removing stressful activities, schedules, people and behaviors from your life. If you cannot remove a stressor completely, consciously take steps to mitigate the stress with targeted nutrition, more sleep, healthy exercise, behavioral changes and seeking professional help to assist you in maintaining your health.

CONSIDER MEDITATION, deep breathing and yoga, which are all documented to improve BGM functioning and communication. When you become stressed, blood is directed away from the gastrointestinal tract while cortisol and adrenaline are released in the body for “fight or flight.” This constricts muscles in the gastrointestinal system and disrupts the normally unnoticed flow of digestion, which could leave you with unpleasant symptoms. Relaxation techniques can help you to manage stressors.

Nurture the intelligent microbes within your gut with appropriate foods and keep your brain sharp with plenty of sleep. Remember that your BGM becomes distressed when you become stressed; both your brain and gut will benefit from a stress management plan.

Beth Colon, M.S. BCHN, is a holistic nutrition counselor and owner of Holistic Nutrition Services LLC. She practices at The Healing and Wellness Center in Westborough, MA. Beth specializes in digestive health, is certified in holistic nutrition and is a certified GAPS practitioner.

She can be reached at (978) 340-0448 or visit www.HolisticNutritionServices.com.

Margo Roman, DVM on MICROBIOME RESTORATIVE THERAPY Main Street Animal Services of Hopkinton (MASH) provides Microbiome Restorative Therapy (MBRT) to restore the microbiome of our patients. MASH (www.mashvet.com) opened its doors in 1983, and in 2012, Dr. Margo Roman developed and added MBRT to the treatment options we offer. We have carefully screened, organically cared for, nurtured and loved our donors for 27 years — 5 generations. We love our dogs and cats!

There is a real need for members of the veterinary profession to provide microbiome support to their patients. Pet parents need to have access to this therapy. You can read more about MBRT in a recent peer reviewed paper published in the IVC Journal Innovative Veterinary Care, Jan 2020 at https://ivcjournal.com/behavioral-changes-microbiome-restoration/?utm_ At MASH, we are using MBRT for an array of medical conditions, which results in our patients getting back on the road to health. Owners understand why this internal garden that supports 80% of their pet’s immune system is so important. For acute and chronic GI issues, IBD, chronic giardia, allergies, liver and kidney failure, autoimmune issues, overuse of antibiotics, viral/bacterial infections, Lyme, cancer and even behavioral issues, introducing a new diverse well balanced microbiome from proven super donors is the key to making MBRT successful. Incorporating the gut building support of digestive enzymes, pre- and probiotics, nutraceuticals and a diet free from chemicals, preservatives, glyphosate and other toxic products is also really important.

The other part of the MBRT success is the addition of medical ozone to reduce the biofilm, which allows the new microbes to join the gut flora in a healthier balance.

Ozone also stimulates the mitochondria of all cells including stem cells. Medical ozone is another key to reducing inflammation and pain, then activating the immune system through its oxidation. Medical ozone is even killing viruses, bacterial overgrowth, Lyme and other blood and tissue invaders. Cancer does not thrive in high levels of oxygen and medical ozone floods the body with oxygen. Cancer grows in a high CO2 environment, and adding ozone therapy to cancer therapies is very valuable in keeping the healthy tissues more vital.

At Main Street Animal Services of Hopkinton (MASH), Massachusetts, www.mashvet.com, our doctors and staff are ready to help your animals with these cutting edge therapies. We also use acupuncture, homeopathy, laser, hyperbaric oxygen, Ultraviolet Blood Therapy (UVBI), PEMF, and herbal medicine, as well as lab diagnostics, preventative care with titers and vaccines if needed, dental cleanings, surgery and support for fresh organic raw diets, and even plant-based sustainable diets.

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 41

Healing Heart Did you know the sound of your voice holds the key to your healing?

SOUND Journey

By Ellie Blair

E DISCOVER & FEEL YOUR PERSONAL CHAKRA SCALE NOTES • Use your Chakra Notes to Balance your Emotions • Relieve Emotionally Triggered Pain • Releases Anxiety and PTSD *WORKSHOPS ALSO AVAILABLE

Schedule your Session Today with Kathleen Nagy

508-981-6896

TheSoundLady.com • info@TheSoundLady.com

To find an ECK Light and Sound Service in Massachusetts near you, go to www.eckinmass.org or call 508-745-9042 ECKANKAR, The Path of Spiritual Freedom

42 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

verything in creation is in a state of vibration and has a pulse, from the movements of the planets to the beating of our heart. Every organism, object, and part of the human body is made up of vibrating particles called atoms. These particles all vibrate at a unique resonant frequency, which is the rate at which each object or person most naturally vibrates.

Sound healing uses the power of sound and vibration to restore one’s body, mind, and spirit to this sense of natural balance and harmony. The use of sound and music for healing and re-balancing is not a new phenomenon. Sound has been used therapeutically for thousands of years by all cultures to relax, soothe, and de-stress, as well as to heal the body on the cellular level and alter consciousness. The famous medium and holistic healer Edgar Cayce often noted that sound is the medicine of the future.

Vibrating as a symphony of sounds and pulses connects us to all of the resonant rhythms and beats of life harmonizing all around us. Through the principles of sound healing, we can even change the rhythms of our brain waves, our heartbeat, and our respiration.

VIBRATIONAL FREQUENCY describes the unique frequency of waveforms that something vibrates at. The frequency of waveforms is measured in cycles per second.

RESONANCE is the quality of amplifying vibration. When two objects of similar frequency come together, they resonate. When you meet someone and you “click,” you are resonating at a similar vibrational frequency. Sympathetic resonance results when waves of similar frequency enter into phase with each other, such as when we experience falling in love.

ENTRAINMENT is the ability of strong rhythmic vibrations from one object to influence the less powerful vibrations of another object to synchronize their vibrations at the stronger level. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose public speaking skills lifted the vibration of large groups of people is a noted example of powerful entrainment ability.

HARMONY is created through forced resonance. Forced resonance is when you apply a A powerful harmonic sound vibration to create a forced resonance at the cellular level to bring a person who is out of balance back into sync.

Many methods of sound healing are practiced by healers all over the world, using a variety of beautiful tools such as gongs, drums, singing bowls, music, the human voice and tuning forks, to name but a few. Sound healing works especially well with the heart chakra, the fourth energetic center of the body, situated in the center of the chest. This chakra is represented by the color green, with a secondary color of pink. Sustained by love, it acts as the connection between our physical and spiritual body, initiating forgiveness, compassion, empathy, trust, equilibrium, and ease in our lives, as well as governing all of our relationships.

If your heart chakra requires healing, try some chakra toning. This powerful technique resonates and balances your heart chakra using the harmonics naturally present in vowel sounds.

Vowels carry the information energy of speech. In Sanskrit, Hebrew, Chinese and other ancient languages, vowel words are sacred; the vowel sounds carry intention and focus.

Start by sitting comfortably on a chair or on a cushion on the floor. Try to keep your spine as straight as possible, allowing energy to flow more freely through your body. Focus your energy and intent on balancing and energizing your heart chakra. The sound used for the heart chakra is “ah,” as in “ma.” Toned in a higher pitched voice, it is a sound that embodies compassion.

Visualize the color green if you wish, and tone the “ah” sound in a gentle voice; don’t strain.

The pitch will change according to your mood, diet, activities, and emotional states on a daily basis. This is fine as there is no set frequency for toning.

Breathe in deeply and imagine the energy of each breath coming into your body through your heart chakra to focus your awareness. The heart chakra is the place where unconditional love exists. You are given opportunities every day to shine in the light of that love. Enjoy and share them.

Ellie Blair is a UK-based holistic therapist and author who specializes in writing about mindfulness and holistic healing. She can be reached at auquael@gmail.com and Facebook Ellie Blair.

KN

HAPPY MOMENTS

E • COMPASSION • W IS D

O

M

A Portal for

G LED OW

By Suzanne Leopold

Are you in need of a mindfulness break?

Try these three mindfulness exercises.

FOCUS ON NATURE When you are feeling stress and need to still your mind, this is a good exercise to find your center again. If you are by a window or outside, focus your attention on the natural environment. Visually set your attention on a plant, cloud or bird. Explore the outline of the object. Take in as much detail as possible, immersing yourself in its presence. Being focused and present for those few minutes will reset your mind and release tension. When you are ready to release your focus, slowly bring your consciousness back to your space.

JOURNAL MOMENTS OF APPRECIATION Complaining is too easy. That’s why we all can fall into negativity traps in seconds and miss the finer things in life that are right in front of us. Open up to new moments of happiness by scheduling at least two or three appreciation breaks in your day. You won’t forget if you simply set alarms on your phone labeled “Appreciate!” You can do this in the morning to start off in a positive mindset. Also, journaling your appreciation at night gives your subconscious a reset from the day and helps you start off the next day in a more positive mindset.

Take at least one minute to write or type in a journal a short note about what you appreciate right now. In every moment, we depend on so many things. Notice them. Appreciate that your phone is working, you have toilet paper, there are trees outside your window, or any thought that pops into your mind. Even if you are in a place where you feel stuck, you won’t be there forever, so think of what you can appreciate now because this moment will be gone forever! Troubles melt away in seconds when you choose to be present — and appreciate!

REINVENT YOUR BREATHING When we grow up, we forget how to really breathe. Most of the time, our breaths can get shallow, quick and mechanical as we feel more stressed. To help in letting it all go, do this practice when you come home from work.

Lie down on the couch or a soft rug. Let your hands rest on your stomach next to your belly button. Inhale, then exhale, and imagine your body sinking down a little into the soft surface. Repeat for three breaths. Now as you inhale, allow your stomach to rise up, pushing up your hands. When you exhale, let your stomach fall down. Your hands will make you aware of your stomach rising up with each inhalation and coming down with each exhalation. Repeat this technique for 10 breaths.

When you really start liking it and want more, add this additional step after the first two steps. Count the length of your breaths. Count the seconds in your head for each inhalation and exhalation. Don’t force them to be any length. Just try to gradually inhale and exhale for the same amount of time. Eventually, you’ll be able to take longer, deeper breaths and release all the tension from your day.

Don’t be discouraged if getting into the present moment is elusive at first. Sometimes it happens for a second and then it’s gone. Most of the time it's longer but feels like a second.

Being mindful can be a portal for happy moments and, with practice, a new way of life.

Suzanne Leopold started Living Mavens in 2016 to share some of the products and techniques that help her focus inward and transform her life. To learn more on how to consciously create a life you love, go to www.livingmavens.com. www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 43

F ILLIN G TH E

V O I D BRUCE K. ALEXANDER

Hans Tammemagi

on

HOW OUR CULTURE IS MAKING US ADDICTED

T

he U.S. news is rife with headlines about overdose deaths from heroin and prescription opioids like OxyContin and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid forty to fifty times stronger than heroin.

The nationwide scare has doctors, therapists, social service agencies, policy makers, law enforcement, and communities looking for solutions.

Bruce K. Alexander, author of The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit, thinks we need to look far beyond conventional views to understand addiction. Unlike most, he does not view addiction as a disease; he sees much of it as a way of adapting to the alienation and disconnection produced by modern, westernized societies.

Born in 1939, Alexander trained as an experimental psychologist and became a pioneering researcher of heroin addiction at Simon Fraser 44 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

Interview by Jari Chevalier University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

There he was skeptical of studies in which rats were kept in small cages with a lever they could press to get morphine or other drugs; they would self-administer the drug until they stopped eating. Alexander noted that the rats, who are social animals, were under extreme duress due to isolation in these experiments.

He and his research colleagues designed their own experiment, creating what they called “Rat Park” — a big container with wood shavings, tin cans, running wheels, and soft nests, where rats could romp around together. When these rats were given access to morphine, they tried it but did not become addicted.

His findings challenged the prevailing belief that exposure to an overwhelmingly addictive substance automatically creates insatiable cravings for more.

After Rat Park, Alexander focused on the history of

addiction. In addition to The Globalization of Addiction, he co-wrote, with Curtis P. Shelton, A History of Psychology in Western Civilization. Alexander retired from teaching in 2005 but continues to be an outspoken activist.

He lives in Vancouver and spends much of his time writing on nearby Pender Island. He and his wife share their home with one of their grown sons and his family.

In their urban neighborhood, which Alexander describes as “the best place I’ve ever lived,” the houses are close together, homeowners plant vegetable and flower gardens, and neighbors frequently interact with one another.

In 2011 I did a telephone interview with Alexander for my Living Hero radio and podcast series, and he and I have corresponded ever since. For this conversation we met in rural Massachusetts. He had come to the U.S. to give a keynote speech for the Maine Harm Reduction Alliance Conference.

J

ARI CHEVALIER: What’s currently going on in mainstream addiction research?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: I don’t think there is a mainstream. Addiction research is a vast field that includes biomedical, psychological, and sociological studies based on countless conflicting theories. It can be bewildering even to try to catalog it all: willpower theories; genetic theories; brain theories; trauma theories; immune-deficiency theories; vitamindeficiency theories; psychological theories pointing to misplaced love or a forlorn attempt to keep one’s parents together by giving them something really big to worry about. There are innumerable hypotheses. But no one has solved the mystery to everyone’s satisfaction.

The one common assumption today is that the answer to the problem will be found in science and modern medicine, which locate the cause of addiction in the fallible individual and in the drug itself. This view can be traced back to the nineteenthcentury temperance movement and even earlier. The assumption is that drugs transform human beings into addicts who single-mindedly seek out more drugs. In the nineteenth century addicts were called “demonpossessed” and “degenerate.” In the early twentieth century they were called “drug fiends.” Now biomedical researchers speak of drugs as putting people “beyond willpower” or “hijacking the brain.” Despite the differences in language, I’m not sure there’s been any change in the fundamental assumption.

JARI CHEVALIER: But the neuroscience of addiction is widely touted as groundbreaking and vital.

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Yes, it’s brilliant research, but what’s found in the brain might not tell us anything about the underlying causes of addiction. Neuroscience usually doesn’t take into consideration the situational and social factors. And if the neurologists are right that addiction is no more than a neurological process, why haven’t they found a cure?

JARI CHEVALIER: Can you give a specific example of social analysis being more robust and reliable than neuroscience?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Pre-contact aboriginal people had virtually no addiction. Of course, they had other problems, like war and torture and insanity, but not addiction. When forced out of their natural environment and put on reserves, however, most of them became addicted.

Anyone who knows addicted people personally and sees them in their surroundings will eventually conclude that the standard medical view is an oversimplification. But it can seem true because of the persuasive power of high-tech research and the way it is endlessly dramatized in popular media.

JARI CHEVALIER: What are the most dangerous addictions in the U.S. and Canada?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: We are overwhelmingly addicted to consumerism and wealth and comforts, such as enormous houses and gas-guzzling cars, at the expense of our health and survival. We need a huge amount of oil for this lifestyle. How do we satisfy this?

We frack the land in North Dakota and Saskatchewan, and the land collapses, and the farms go with it. We

www.spiritofchange.org

THE “RAT PARK” EXPERIMENT — A BIG CONTAINER WITH WOOD SHAVINGS, TIN CANS, RUNNING WHEELS, AND SOFT NESTS WHERE RATS COULD ROMP AROUND TOGETHER — CHALLENGED THE PREVAILING BELIEF THAT EXPOSURE TO AN OVERWHELMINGLY ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCE AUTOMATICALLY CREATES INSATIABLE CRAVINGS FOR MORE. WHEN THESE RATS WERE GIVEN ACCESS TO MORPHINE, THEY TRIED IT BUT DID NOT BECOME ADDICTED.

break families apart by putting oil-field workers on nearly impossible work schedules, like twelve hours a day for two weeks straight. We do all this to produce oil more cheaply than it can be imported. It wrecks both the physical and the social environment, creating serious unrest and causing the sort of political decline that tends to lead to tyranny.

JARI CHEVALIER: What about the opioid epidemic?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: There is a crescendo of emotion about prescription opioids in the U.S. and Canada now. As with many previous drug panics, whatever drugs are most worrying to Americans have become difficult to obtain legally anywhere in the world. In the past this has led to terrible situations in which patients in the Third World died in agony because the Americans had made it so hard to get morphine or heroin. Here in North America people in pain suffered needlessly during an opiate panic in the 1970s. I’m afraid that this is happening again.

JARI CHEVALIER: But people are overdosing. They are committing robberies to get money for drugs. Kids are being taken away from parents who are addicted.

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Those are major, terrifying problems, but extreme fear makes it difficult to think about them in perspective. Think of all the people showing up at emergency rooms for injuries from car accidents, and sometimes dying from them. Does the federal government close highways or ban cars? Type 2 diabetes maims and kills, and it’s often a result of a dietary addiction: some people can’t stop eating sugar, even after they’ve been told it’s killing them. Cars, sugar, cigarettes, alcohol — these can all lead to terrible consequences. Who’s going to jail for them?

There is a tendency to focus our fears on something we can put at a remove from us. If we focus on people who are using opiates — even if they happen to be our own son or daughter — we can say there’s an upsetting, awful addiction problem with them, over there, and deal with it in a prohibitive manner. In this way we minimize our vast social problems. We think all we need to do is be more distrusting of patients who report pain, punish doctors and patients who don’t comply with the new restrictions, and tighten controls on the Mexican border. But unconsciously we sense that our own addictions are not so different — and this terrifies us.

JARI CHEVALIER: Isn’t opioid addiction more serious than addictions related to consumer society?

Don’t opiates make a person dysfunctional?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: It depends on several

conditions, including, of course, dosage. The best opiate experience you can have is if you’re in extreme pain. Not only does the pain stop, but you feel a great relief. If you take the opiate when you don’t have severe physical or emotional pain, the experience may be nothing much. Laboratory research has shown that more than 90 percent of people do not have a euphoric response in a research setting, because they were feeling OK in the first place. What makes it possible to have a rapturous opiate experience is existing pain, either physical or emotional.

JARI CHEVALIER: I’ve heard that someone with chronic pain can become addicted to prescription opioids within ten days. What can people do for chronic pain instead of taking an opiate?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Some suggest cognitive behavioral therapy or just lots of ibuprofen, but there’s no substitute for opiates in cases of severe pain.

At the conference I just attended in Maine, I challenged doctors who were saying we shouldn’t be prescribing opiates for chronic pain. One doctor sent me a report from the Centers for Disease Control [CDC], arguing that there’s no proof opiates work for extended chronic pain. Well, there may be no study that gives quantitative proof, but clinical experience shows there’s nothing better for relieving certain kinds of long-term pain than opiates. To ignore that fact is to start playing dangerous games. When people in chronic pain cannot get the treatment they need, that is cruelty.

That CDC paper is otherwise a well-researched, well-reasoned report. It says there are about 45 million Americans with chronic pain. It also says that the rate of people who are prescribed opiates for chronic pain and go on to have fatal overdoses is around 1 to 3 percent. The percentage of people who develop problems with addiction depends on the dose, but even at high doses it’s only 8 percent.

So, for more than 90 percent of patients, opiates work fine and cause no problems. I say let’s figure out what we can do about the addiction or overdose risk for the single-digit percentage who do experience problems, but let’s not forget about the more than 90 percent of those 45 million people who have their lives restored.

JARI CHEVALIER: What is the role of pharmaceutical companies in the opioid crisis?

Continued on page 46

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 45

FILLING THE VOID continued from page 45 BRUCE ALEXANDER: They make lots of money

with patented opioids. Opium, morphine, and heroin are not patentable, but OxyContin is patented by Purdue Pharma, and they love to see their drugs prescribed widely.

JARI CHEVALIER: Do you think they are being overprescribed?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Opioids like OxyContin are certainly being overprescribed by some doctors, and the drug companies must be regulated, but the overwhelming majority of prescriptions still go to patients who truly need the drugs to control pain and who use them without any danger of addiction or overdose.

JARI CHEVALIER: So if addiction doesn’t arise from properties of the drug itself, what causes it?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Drug addiction of all kinds arises primarily from the relentlessly increasing dislocation in our society.

JARI CHEVALIER: What do you mean by “dislocation”?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: It’s a word political economist Karl Polanyi used to describe alienation or disconnection, a state of being ungrounded and ill at ease. People are dislocated when their vital needs for individual autonomy and belonging are unmet.

Dislocated people don’t have a place in the established social order, and they fill that void with addiction. For instance, some young people can’t stop playing video games, because a virtual fantasy world provides the excitement, identity, and meaning that are lacking in their actual world.

JARI CHEVALIER: What causes all this dislocation?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: The social and political system past generations struggled to create has been twisted into a cruel and stupid imperial system dominated by multinational corporations. This is hard for people to admit. Who can bear to face the fact that the consumer society we were raised to cherish is actually making us apathetic, crazy, and vulnerable to addiction?

The disconnected, fragmented nature of our culture causes addiction, which causes further fragmentation.

Most serious addictions are actually an adaptation to dislocation. To some extent addiction is a functional way of dealing with the problem. Of course, what people really need is to be genuinely recognized and accepted and believed in — to have a purpose.

JARI CHEVALIER: Is this what you call “psychosocial integration”?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: That’s a term I borrowed from psychologist Erik Erikson. It means the essential satisfaction most people feel if they live in a society that meets their basic needs for four things: belonging, identity, meaning, and purpose. When these needs are met, we feel a profound sense of well-being.

Lack of belonging is a feeling of being alone and neglected. Lack of identity is the unease of not knowing who you are and experiencing wild swings from one self-concept to another. Lack of meaning is a sense that the world is random or ruled by evil forces. Lack of purpose is boredom and a feeling of uselessness, of not having any reason to get out of bed. When all four of these needs are unsatisfied, life is hell.

The process of weaving together belonging, identity, 46 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

meaning, and purpose is usually accomplished through a living culture, which we might say includes a mysterious spiritual component. We know that in cultures where everyone has a place and a purpose and a stable way of life, addiction is rarely found.

JARI CHEVALIER: And this was supported by your Rat Park findings?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Yes. In Rat Park the rats didn’t take morphine excessively, as they did when they were confined to individual cages. This suggests that the rats were not reacting to drugs like automatons.

Instead their usage was affected by the conditions of their lives: Rats don’t compulsively take morphine if they live in anything like their natural environment.

If they are caged in solitary confinement, on the other hand, they do rely on morphine.

Rats evolved as communal creatures and have what Charles Darwin called the “social instinct,” which

DRUG ADDICTION OF ALL KINDS ARISES PRIMARILY FROM THE RELENTLESSLY INCREASING DISLOCATION IN OUR SOCIETY. DISLOCATED PEOPLE DON’T HAVE A PLACE IN THE ESTABLISHED SOCIAL ORDER, AND THEY FILL THAT VOID WITH ADDICTION.

is the need to be in the presence of others and to interact in a natural way. When social creatures like rats — or humans — are deprived of that contact, their basic needs are not being met, and they might take morphine or do any number of things that otherwise would be strange for them to do.

JARI CHEVALIER: What troubles and addictions have you faced in your own life, and how do they relate to your theories and your work?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: I was alienated from my peers as an adolescent. I was the shortest kid in my classes, smaller than the smallest girl, and the last to go through puberty. I had severe acne. I was an outcast with no real meaning in my life. I resolved that situation by falling in with the criminal kids. They were more accepting of me because I was reckless and would take dangerous risks.I got in a lot of trouble with the police as a teenager. This delinquent behavior was a self-destructive adaptation to not fitting in. My biggest crime was when two friends and I attempted to blow up a railway bridge in Morristown, New Jersey. We made a time bomb out of a single stick of dynamite and set it

on the bridge with the idea of bringing the bridge down.

I was sitting in a parking lot with my friends afterward, with the bomb still ticking, and I thought, If that bridge comes down and the train comes along, hundreds of people will die. All of a sudden I was sweating blood.

We were very lucky: the bomb didn’t go off. If it had, people would probably have died, and I might still be in jail. That experience changed my life. I’d seen the abyss.

Eventually I went to university, met a girl, and got married in a rush. Both of us were only eighteen, and we soon had two children. We got divorced after nine and a half years of struggle, but even before she and I split up, I was well on the road to becoming an alcoholic.

My divorce occurred during the Vietnam War. I understood for the first time that my country, which I had loved unconditionally, was doing something horrible, and it felt desperately important to stop it. So I became part of the antiwar movement. Now I belonged to a group of like-minded people. I found belonging, identity, meaning, and purpose, and the alcoholism went away, just like that.

Later I went to Canada. I certainly could have been called a work addict then. I was also a love addict: I had a string of passionate relationships, but they could never make me whole. I’ve gradually managed to find a balance. I am happily married to Pat, my wife of seventeen years. I’m a much better father to my grown children. And I love being a grandfather. I’m not claiming perfection; I’m just saying I’ve reached a state of balance by being lucky, creating a socially satisfying life, and doing meaningful work.

JARI CHEVALIER: Do any current studies and statistics support the idea that dislocation is at the root of addiction?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Statistics alone are insufficient.

The full picture comes from clinical, historical, anthropological, biographical, and autobiographical evidence. The truth is that, in these times, large numbers of people become addicted to something at some point in their lives. Drug and alcohol addictions form a substantial part of this, but nowhere near a majority of it. More common are addictions to gambling, food, sex, shopping, dysfunctional relationships, Internet surfing, social media, wealth, power, exercise, and so on.

A 2010 study of addiction in 948 Canadian university students found 1.7 percent addicted to tobacco, 10.2 percent to alcohol, 8.5 percent to illicit drugs, 14.9 percent to food bingeing, 9 percent to gambling, 10.3 percent to sex, 25.6 percent to exercise, 12.4 percent to work, and 21.8 percent to shopping. Many students had more than one of these addictions.

Addiction is pervasive, and we’re focusing on a tiny corner of it when we approach it as a drug problem.

JARI CHEVALIER: One way we’ve tried to solve it is through the War on Drugs. How would you evaluate its success?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: The War on Drugs is a colossal, expensive failure. It has done way more harm than good. If you have harsh penalties for drugs, the thinking goes, then you’ve nailed your problem. The War on Drugs serves commercial and geopolitical purposes by diverting attention from the true source of drug addiction: a society organized around the quest for wealth and geopolitical power, which creates enormous

dislocation. This pursuit of wealth and power inevitably produces widespread addiction, which we insist on calling a “drug problem.”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with restricting access to drugs at the local level. Parents have the right to control their children’s use of drugs. Religious groups should be able to forbid members from using drugs. Towns and villages may decide to prohibit drugs. All of this is fine as long as the punishments are not excessive. A town in British Columbia with epidemic alcoholism has instituted alcohol prohibition and is doing well with it.

Their punishments are reasonable. No one goes to jail for life or faces a three-strikesand-you’re-out policy.

By contrast, the draconian laws inspired by the War on Drugs include long jail sentences for possession and even longer ones for trafficking. And these incredibly bad laws triple the punishment for possession of some drugs associated with racial minorities.

The War on Drugs has hurt lower-class people of all races the most. The ancestors of today’s white working class once did the hard labor in American factories and on farms.

Now their descendants are struggling to get by in the automated, low-wage, serviceoriented economy. The white working class shows high and increasing rates of addiction to all kinds of drugs — particularly alcohol, methamphetamine, and prescription opioids. They have increasing rates of overdose, suicide, liver cirrhosis, diabetes, mental disorders, and stress-related diseases.

JARI CHEVALIER: You were just at a harm reduction conference, which addressed heroin and opiate addiction. What is the harm reduction approach?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: The harm reduction approach provides safe injection sites and clean syringes to reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C; funding for treatment and counseling clinics; and injections of naloxone, an antidote for overdose, which are provided to law enforcement and even to family members of addicts. It also provides opiate blockers and opiates like methadone and Suboxone, which are safer than street drugs. And it runs programs in which communities organize voluntary take backs of unused prescription drugs. But harm reduction is only an amelioration, not a cure.

JARI CHEVALIER: What about twelve-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous?

Do they work?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: These groups really do save some people’s lives. On the other hand, their implicit religious and coercive aspects can be offensive, and some people report being psychologically harmed by them. The twelve-step process requires dissolving the ego and giving over a great deal of control to the group and to a higher power, most often the Christian God. For many, the ego is all they have to cling to, and they are not going to give it up.

When twelve-step groups work, I believe they do so because they provide genuine fellowship in a compassionate environment. There are sponsors, meetings, and recovery houses where drug-addicted people live together and support each other’s recovery. They involve the whole community in the recovery process. And twelvestep groups are masters of patience. They will take a person back again and again and again. But no amount of patience will make those groups work for everybody.

JARI CHEVALIER: Are there other reliable treatments that help people get over their addictions?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: There are a great many views of what constitutes valid treatment: acupuncture, megavitamin therapy, medication-assisted treatment, mindfulness meditation, individual therapy, group therapy, support groups. My current favorite, and a favorite of my wife’s, is Knit to Quit, in which smokers try to cure their addictions by participating in knitting groups. Many of these treatments can validly claim some success stories, but none of them works for more than a minority of addicted people.

Field studies and clinical studies in the U.S. show that about three-quarters of people who become addicted to a drug in their youth recover, usually without any treatment at all. More than half recover by the time they are thirty. Addictions usually last less than a decade and sometimes only a few years. Natural recovery occurs because people establish stronger relationships or find a sense of meaning in a new career or religion or family.

Of the one-quarter who do not get over their addictions naturally, some die, and others stay in a cycle of recovery and relapse. This last group receives the most public attention. They fill self-help meeting rooms and treatment centers. A large percentage of this visible minority is resistant to treatment, which creates the illusion that addiction is an intractable, chronic disease. This supposed intractability is then used to explain the marginal success of treatment regimes. www.spiritofchange.org

Continued on page 48

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 47

FILLING THE VOID continued from page 47

likely to fully comprehend anytime soon. murders now depicted on TV every night.

As the vicious cycles of dislocation and addiction JARI CHEVALIER: What is life like in economically The field of addiction is stuck in endless debates continued, the capital city of Rome went to hell. cooperative societies? about the merits of competing forms of treatment People were devoid of moral inspiration. Intellectual BRUCE ALEXANDER: The native people Charles because it ignores the dilemmas human beings face life was degraded. Schools, law, and religion were Darwin discovered on the voyage of the Beagle in our fragmented world. Most alternative treatments corrupt and chaotic. Violence erupted. Political had village lives that were pretty idyllic. But when also ignore this. For example, a number of nutrition collapse was well underway. When bribes of bread they attacked neighboring tribes, they became experts claim that if we find the right supplements, we and circuses — consumer goods and entertainment murderous. That has been the history of indigenous will no longer be troubled with addiction, depression, — failed to keep the people in line, law enforcement people in Canada, in the U.S., in Australia — anxiety, and other ills. Likewise, there’s the widespread relied on brute force and the emperor’s despotism. everywhere. Darwin said that humans are, by promotion of mindfulness meditation, which says the Spies and secret police kept everybody under nature, conflicted: we are capable of compassion fallible individual will be made stronger by esoteric surveillance. and kindness and creativity, but we also destroy practices. our enemies mercilessly. He believed the role of Saint Augustine describes the Romans of his time as JARI CHEVALIER: What would work? civilization was to provide less-damaging outlets for “always rolling with dark fear and cruel lust, in warlike BRUCE ALEXANDER: We need to get individuals these murderous tendencies. slaughters and in blood, which, whether shed in civil out of the modern rat race and into less competitive or in foreign war is still human blood; so that their JARI CHEVALIER: If you had $100 million to devote communities where their work is valued and there joy may be compared to glass in its fragile splendor, of to helping people, what would you do? is time for individual and group spirituality and which one is horribly afraid lest it should be suddenly BRUCE ALEXANDER: I would divide the money celebration. broken in pieces.” into five-thousand-dollar packets and give them to JARI CHEVALIER: So a total cultural change is small organizations that are creating opportunities JARI CHEVALIER: What happens when people live necessary? for people who need restoration in their lives, such as in cooperative rather than competitive societies?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Yes. To break the cycle, we setting up wilderness camps for inner city kids or farms BRUCE ALEXANDER: I would not categorize need to change the structure of society. Take our for people who have just been released economic system, for example. We’re led from prison. There are thousands of such to believe we have to support the banks, organizations, and each of them can point because if they fail, the whole economy to small successes. fails. But if we could accept that banks

JARI CHEVALIER: Are there any are not sacred, we could let them fail and SOCIAL ACTIVISM PROVIDES ABUNDANT BELONGING, larger successes, examples of scaling back embark on an economic system centered addictions in whole societies? around human needs.

IDENTITY, MEANING AND PURPOSE; JUST LOOK

BRUCE ALEXANDER: There are We are in a period of rapid social change, many. But the best example of a radical, and the nature of society itself is changing.

AROUND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND SEE WHAT large-scale reform that reduced addiction But if it’s to have anything other than a is so controversial I hesitate to mention catastrophic outcome, it must take into PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH AND ASK it: in China following the ascendency of account the social instinct, which is built Chairman Mao in 1949, and prior to the right into our chromosomes.

HOW YOU CAN HELP. disastrous Great Leap Forward and the JARI CHEVALIER: Have there been Cultural Revolution, opium addiction further studies since Rat Park that back nearly disappeared. up the conclusion that dislocation leads to Opium has been used in China since addiction in human beings? antiquity, but it started to become a BRUCE ALEXANDER: A number of societies so neatly. Any stable, well-functioning serious problem only toward the end of the eighteenth experimental rat studies have confirmed that social society has elements of both. For example, century, during the Qing Dynasty. The problem grew isolation makes rats more likely to consume drugs cooperation is a key feature of tribal societies, but to even greater proportions after the Opium Wars of and that social enrichment makes them more likely to so is competition, though it’s generally kept outside the mid-1800s, which forced China to open its ports to stop once they have started. But the most important the economic realm. People in tribal societies Western trade, creating unprecedented modernization. data about addiction in humans is not found in compete for social status and desirable positions in Addiction started in the port cities and spread to the animal experiments. It comes from human history, the group, but they distribute food and wealth in a countryside. Civil wars and foreign invasions made it which shows a clear pattern of addiction arising from noncompetitive way. worse. sudden cultural shifts away from cooperative cultures JARI CHEVALIER: Do these societies last?

After Mao’s rise to power in 1949, opiate addiction and toward a more modern way of life: the period BRUCE ALEXANDER: Tribal societies tend to last was brought under control. This achievement is often of industrialization in England; the period of radical a long time, unless they’re destroyed by intertribal dismissed in the West as a result of the mass execution modernization following the American Revolution; warfare, disease, or colonial conquest. Modern of drug users and dealers, but that’s incorrect. The the modernization of the Chinese economy in the late economic and social cooperatives, such as the real reason is that Mao’s government restored social twentieth century.

Mondragon co-ops in Spain, tend to be long lasting as solidarity. Neighborhood groups, unions, and artists’ There are times and places in history when addiction well. Neither tribal societies nor cooperatives stand a collectives flourished. Of course, they were all linked to appears almost universal in a population, like during chance, though, in an economic or military war with a communist ideology, but they were immensely popular the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. modern capitalist society. and nearly eliminated drug addiction in the country for JARI CHEVALIER: What were the most prominent In my lifetime there have been many attempts to a while. addictions during the Roman Empire? establish noncompetitive local societies in the U.S. and JARI CHEVALIER: What’s happening with addiction BRUCE ALEXANDER: Alcoholism was a big one, Canada. Most failed, sometimes with great rancor, I in China now? but also addiction to the games, as odd as that sounds. think because they were too simply conceived. It may BRUCE ALEXANDER: There has been an alarming The equivalent of being a TV addict during the Roman be impossible to create a society from a theoretical surge of drug addiction alongside the emergence of Empire was to go to the Colosseum nearly every day blueprint. Social organization, like life itself, contains Chinese capitalism, beginning in the 1980s under the for a show. People would get terribly carried away with an element of complexity and mystery that we are not regime of Deng Xiaoping. the slaughter that constituted the show, just like the 48 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

Certainly China is experiencing great success on the world stage, but under this economic system the Chinese people have fallen prey to mass dislocation and addiction. They are trying to solve their addiction problems by importing all the latest American treatment techniques, but none has worked. China’s addiction problem is worsening. To solve it, I predict China will have to restructure capitalism to reduce its dislocating effects.

JARI CHEVALIER: What would that look like?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: In smaller countries capitalism can be reined in and domesticated, as it is in Norway or Denmark. These countries have government policies that prevent many of the excesses that fragment societies. Their addiction rates are lower than in other European countries, and far lower than in the U.S., Canada, and the UK. But can this be done in a superpower like the American empire?

We haven’t yet demonstrated that this is possible.

JARI CHEVALIER: You gave a lecture at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, entitled “The Environmental Crisis and the Psychology of Addiction.” What was the gist of it?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: That our ecological problems and our addiction problems are linked. If we’re addicted to being consumers, we’re contributing to the ecological crisis and to climate change. And if we’re addicted to power and to making money, we’re either invested in corporations that rape Earth in order to sell consumer junk, or we’re working for those corporations as CEOs or managers or politicians.

I honestly don’t think we can solve environmental destruction without solving addiction, and vice versa, because the two problems are so intertwined. Globalization is reshaping the planet at an astounding rate and could render the biosphere unfit for humans and millions of other species.

Our systems are making the human social environment uninhabitable, too. We need to take back control from commercial and imperial interests. We also need to adapt to dislocation in healthier ways, by helping social and spiritual communities thrive.

JARI CHEVALIER: When you say, “spiritual communities,” many people will think of churches, mosques, synagogues. Do you have other things in mind?

BRUCE ALEXANDER: Sure, I would say that social activism provides abundant belonging, identity, meaning, and purpose, based on my own experience. I think of political groups and neighborhood educational societies. There are lots of small groups like this. If you want to find one, you can just look around your neighborhood and see what people are trying to accomplish and ask how you can help.

JARI CHEVALIER: In your textbook on the history of psychology, you point to imagination as a requirement for moving ahead, both in the field of psychology, and in the world.

BRUCE ALEXANDER: We need to imagine a new and unprecedented way forward that is also in keeping with ancient truths about what is best for people. This is how we can keep civilization from collapsing.

On a smaller scale, imagination might rescue the field of psychology from its doldrums and make it a powerful force for good. Where would such imagination come from? It can’t be engineered. I am inclined to say it will come by...what? The grace of God? I am sometimes shocked that my thoughts revert to the Sunday school language of my youth.

The imagination we need might come from small, grassroots groups thinking independently about their local pieces of the global problem. Many ideas will fail, but through trial and error the best will rise to the top and be adopted. In my remaining years, I intend to devote more time and money to a few of these groups.

They just might help to generate the bold, imaginative ideas we need.

Therapy should take hours, not years!

Ross will discover the root cause of your problem and heal it.

By phone or in person

ROSS J. MILLER

Psychic Healer / Regression Therapist ~ 25 years experience

Newton, MA ❖ www.TheMysticWay.com ❖ 617-527-3583

“Filling the Void: Bruce K Alexander on How Our Culture Is Making Us Addicted,” interview by Jari Chevalier, originally appeared in the March 2019 issue of The Sun. Copyright © 2019 Jari Chevalier.

Jari Chevalier is an artist and writer. Her writings have appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast Online, Ploughshares, The Sun, and others. Her mixed media collage inlays have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and published in the 2019/2020 issue of Artful Dodge. Jari's website is jarichevalier.com. www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 49

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o have mental illness is to experience the brokenness, the wounds, the torture of life: something is killing me inside. It is to often fall into the gutter of life, pain of gargantuan proportions, to feel utterly alone, to feel tension about to break out in oneself. To have mental illness is to fight a daily war against poverty, ignorance, and prejudice, and often I lose not because of I lack guts, but because of my environment.

The stigma strikes daily and across the land, silencing the mentally ill, pushing us down, shutting us up, tearing our hearts out, rejecting and dehumanizing us, assigning us to the broken corner of life.

Mental illness has smashed me through a wall and cut me up with knives; it has put a curse of shame on me; it has eliminated my sexuality. It growls at me, “You should

be working,” and love kicks around upstairs waiting to find me.

For part of a lifetime I wanted to die; the suicide thoughts would come swiftly and push me to the brink.

Do you know what aloneness is? To face the almighty darkness where you are constantly falling down. Mental illness carries a rope to hang by, a bottomless terror, a plea to God to give me life or take me away.

But hurrah, the long black night ends, and the storm is lifting. I have worked on myself from the dungeons up.

There are gifts locked away. In the dungeons there are great gifts. Open the gates: hope hope hope!

I learned to find meaning in the darkness. I had to uncover the potential of my inner self and learnings. What am I? What can I be? Will my life be taken away? These are the concerns I have posed for myself. I have learned a great deal and at times forgotten almost everything. I have stood tall and fallen flat on my face. I have to hold my own every second, for at any moment can come an inner attack.

I did not cause this illness; therefore I must practice self-acceptance and keep the blame down. It’s a sticky business and requires learning and unlearning, and megawatts of support. It’s very hard to get in touch with my feelings and stay inside them, to take my inner pulse.

I have learned to cry, get angry, and be aware of fear.

I have tried to be assertive, say what I need, speak out about my thoughts and feelings. That has been, and still is, hard work. I needed to keep expectations low.

I built a support system and put people in my life.

I learned to be vulnerable and share feelings of weakness and uncertainty.

I trained myself to look for the good wherever I could find it.

I learned to be closer to my family.

Through meditation, I harvest the blessings of the moment, striving not to live in the past or the future.

I pursued love, work, family, and service. Though I falter, I’m on the endless road.

I learned to put hope front and center on my stage.

I developed that special place inside where I am intrepid, a fearless warrior with life on all sides. Yet how overcome I can be by fear! My illness speaks like a foreign language. Vigilantly I translate and interpret it.

I have recurrences of my illness, pain; but I will not beat myself up. I have to practice gratitude and forgiveness.

I believe we are one family, all connected, people-topeople united. I belong in this great life stream.

Today in my life are prayers, faith, risks, relationships, support, family, friends, forgiveness, work, meanings, helping others, medications that work, and a never-saydie belief: get down, get up a thousand times!

A last word. If America had an understanding and compassionate and loving heart, mental illness would disappear or wouldn’t matter. There is a powerful security in belonging. Imagine: beyond the invisible torment would be visible love! If we, the mentally ill, were viewed as precious, we could bend to the light. We would not break off from life; we would join life!

"My Story of Hope" originally appeared in UU World, Mar/Apr. 1999. Reprinted with permission of the author.

Richard Baydin is a poet and political activist with a spirited ministry of over 50 years.

THE

Fern & Bamboo

THE

A Fable of Hope

One day I decided to give up: I quit my job, my relationship and my life. I went into the woods to talk with an elder who was said to be very wise.

“Can you give me one good reason not to quit?”

I asked him.

“Look around,” he replied. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. The fern quickly grew.

Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not give up on the bamboo.

In the second year the fern grew more vibrant and plentiful, and again, nothing from the bamboo seed.

But I did not give up on the bamboo.

In the third year still nothing sprouted from the bamboo seed. But I didn’t give up on the bamboo.

In the fourth year again nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I didn’t give up on the bamboo.

Then in the fifth year, a tiny shoot emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern, it was seemingly small and insignificant.

But then in the sixth year, the bamboo grew to 60 feet tall. It had spent five years growing roots to sustain it. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.

Did you know that all this time you have been struggling, you have really been growing roots?

The bamboo has a different purpose from the fern, but both are necessary and make the forest beautiful.”

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508-237-4929 www.PhoenixRisingHealing.com • PhoenixRisingHealing@gmail.com SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 51

Inspiring Hope FOR HUMANITY TO CHANGE ITS COURSE

By Lois Hermann

W

hen we focus our thoughts and energies on what we love to do, we engage in a creative shift that causes us to be more positive and peaceful. As we lift our spirits, we lift the energy around us, resulting in shifts for everyone. If we each do what we can to make even small shifts in awareness, kindness, healthy habits, and happiness, we create ripples of hope. I recently had the honor of learning how to make this possible — how each of us can contribute to inspiring hope.

“If we think we are too small to make a difference,” as attributed to the Dalai Lama, “try sleeping with a mosquito!”

Changing the negative course of our troubled world will take an unprecedented effort, don’t you agree? Something needs to change, and change is difficult for humans. We usually only drive change when our pain is deep, untenable, and unbearable. Is humanity reaching this point of pain? Or are we already there?

Humans are experiencing fading hope; many have lost it altogether, others have simply stopped trying. Before hope falls into an irretrievable space, we need to look forward with focused intention and confidence, use our creativity to stimulate positive thought, and feel that what we create matters.

Over the last couple of years, I found myself in the middle of a series of conversations that were channeled through a hypnosis client who was looking for help with sleep issues. During several sessions, the Anquietas, or Ancient Ones, spoke directly to me, saying they were wise spiritual beings, present since the beginning of time. They want us to help shift the state of our world back to the positive, before it is too late.

These Ancient Ones shared their knowledge and advice on the topics of vibrational energy, clearing negative energy, spirituality, history, humanity, and hope for the future with the ultimate aim of helping civilization and humanity to change its course. Their intention is to transform the darkness pervading our society by releasing the existing

52 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

hate, anger, fear, greed, and despair, and bring guidance for how to live our lives, staying positive.

They stated, “If you want to put the world in a positive, healing place, remember this: the act of wanting something generates feelings of want, which is negative, adding to the problem. Believe positively that things are better or are on the road to improvement. This thinking creates positive energy. There is a difference between wanting, believing, and knowing. Knowing is the best, the strongest.

Knowing how the world should be generates the strongest positive force. Do uplifting activities and simple things that create joy in your life, and think positive, grateful, and hopeful thoughts while doing them.”

There are many people doing wonderful things for our planet. We are told to do what you do because it is the right thing to do. It only takes one spark to make a change.

Together, we can be catalysts for positive change with this roadmap to hope: 1. Honor Earth — connect with nature 2. Care for the body — choose health 3. Create with joy — do uplifting things 4. Raise vibrational energy — smile and laugh 5. Know that there is plenty — share what you can 6. Respect each other — make personal connections 7. Ask for assistance — reach for the light 8. Live with gratitude — appreciate what is

Together, we can inspire the necessary hope for humanity to shift this world in a more positive direction and make this world a better place.

Lois Hermann is a board certified hypnotist and certified instructor through the National Guild of Hypnotists, a certified NLP Trainer with the National Federation for Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a Reiki Master teacher and multi-registered medical professional. Visit loishermann.com.

BECOMING SELF AWARE

By Alison David Bird

R

eturning to oneness is not the return to the source of all things, but to the wholeness of your own sovereign being, as the unique higher aspects of your own fragmented soul return to merge in a state of grace.

Oneness refers to the integration of all aspects of self; this includes current and past life identities, memories of inter-dimensional and incarnational experiences — galactic, stellar and inter-universal — as well as the reintegration of parallel expressions of your current form existing simultaneously on other timelines of experience, or what you would consider to be other versions of this planet Earth.

Simply put, it is the reunification of all higher versions of soul self, incarnate or pure consciousness, retrieved from across all time, and all space.

It does not mean the return to the parental care of an omnipresent and somewhat benevolent being standing on a heavenly threshold somewhere, with a glass of milk in one hand and a plate of cookies in the other, waiting to welcome you home like an errant child, ready to stroke your hair and croon, “There, there…”

You are home! And you are everywhere in every moment of time and at every point in space able to be realized in the simultaneous now moment.

The 3D reality as experienced on Earth is the anchor for all of your over-arching experiences. It is a realm of free expression from one perspective — experienced and perceived as relative to another — in a structure of duality. The experience was designed by you, for you. It is not reality in the same way your childish mind has been led to believe, but an illusion created for your protection while immersed in this experience, much like childhood itself.

The Earth project is an experiment in emotion, in which we chose to play out on a stage set in an emotional body constructed in a material realm. It is a holographic projection of light-encoded frequencies filtered through a two-dimensional lens (black hole at the center of the sun) and beamed onto the denser matter fields of manifestation and various refracted colored rays or vibrations. The hologram is pre-programmed by our own higher minds, with the energy of our own thoughts and emotions projecting electromagnetic signatures that ripple through the consciousness grids of our human collective.

Immersion in the game is like entering an altered state, as in deep sleep or unconsciousness. The period of awakening is likened to a holographic projection becoming self-aware! Metaphorically, it feels like the earth is quaking beneath your feet; cracks appear in your sheltered and neatly structured lives and relationships, and your sense that all is not as it seems is super heightened. The seamlessness of your reality matrix shudders, flickers and begins to break down. As you rub the sleep from your eyes, the memories of who you are skirt your consciousness like the remembrance of a dream.

Beware, the bright light of a new day can be blinding. Do not fall asleep again.

Alison David Bird, C.Ht., is the originator of Marconics, an evolutionary energy healing system carrying the ascension frequency of higher dimensions. She is the author of Marconics: The Clarion Call and Angels of Atlantis. For more information visit www.marconics.com. www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 53

The Generation

of

HOPE

By Jeanne Morascini

A

very exciting phenomenon is taking place. There is a groundswell of hope across the world being led by committed, passionate young activists. They have been educated to believe scientists when they cite global crises and they understand that it is their own future that is at stake.

Millions across the globe are in constant communication with each other; they are dedicated to issues of global importance, and are firmly convinced that solutions are within human capability. While world leaders talk and meet, discuss and debate, the youth of the world have stepped up and are acting!

I am referring to them as the Generation of Hope.

For several years, students of all ages have been involved in activism on behalf of various causes. We haven’t been particularly aware of them because, after all, they are “just children.” Yet while we have become demoralized and complacent, sometimes negative and angered by the daily, even hourly bombardment from media and politicians with a long list of grievous conditions, these young activists are in motion demanding change.

We know of 17-year-old Greta Thunberg, Swedish environmental activist, who has spoken bluntly to the UN Assembly and to leaders around the world, rallied seven million followers and is Time magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year. She has awakened intense interest in the climate crisis. We are familiar with Malala Yousafzai, just an Afghanistan youngster when she started a foundation that educates girls in her country and other third world nations so they can have a career instead of being forced to marry at age ten.

Then there is the group of students who survived the unthinkable horror of a mass killing at their high school in Parkland, Florida. Led by classmates Cameron Kasky, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg and other articulate leaders, they organized a global Never Again movement to demand gun control and stop gun violence everywhere, an initiative still going strong.

54 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

Have you ever heard of Clinton Hill, who, at the age of 10, started Kids Saving Earth to focus on pollution solutions?

He couldn’t understand how we could poison the earth and air with toxic waste, so he started a club at his school in Minnesota. Tragically, Clinton died at age 11 from cancer, but his parents developed and continued his project, which now has hundreds of thousands of young members in over 100 countries dedicated to saving our home — Earth.

The WE Charity (www.we.org), formerly Free the Children, is a non-profit started in 1995 by then 12-year-old Craig Kielburger. When Craig found out about the death of a 12-year-old Pakistani, former slave turned human rights activist Iqbal Masih, he, with the help of his seventh grade classmates and brother, Marc, started Free the Children.

Today, Craig Kielburger is the co-founder of a family of organizations dedicated to changing the world. WE Charity, which provides a holistic development model called WE Villages, has helped to lift more than one million people out of poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

There are hundreds of child activists passionate about myriad causes, and intent on making life more equitable for all. Get ideas and see what others are doing at DoSomething. org, the largest not-for-profit exclusively for young people and social change. DoSomething’s millions of members represent 131 countries and every US state. Members use a digital platform to become part of volunteer, social change, and civic action campaigns to make an impact on issues they care about.

Read books about kids doing great things and share them with your children! Girls Who Rocked the World by Amelie Welden shares the stories of famous girls who made huge changes in the world before they turned 20. Real Kids, Real Stories, Real Change: Courageous Actions Around the World

by Garth Sundern is a collection of 30 true stories of kids

around the world who used their heads and hearts to help others make change. Catch the Spirit by Susan K. Perry chronicles 20 teen volunteers sharing their stories about how and why they made change in their homes and communities.

Boys Who Rocked the World: Heroes from King Tut to Bruce Lee by Michelle Roehm McCann compiles the stories of 46 boys throughout history who began changing the world in their teenage years or earlier. And The Kids’ Guide to Service Projects by Barbara Lewis is an easy-to-read guide to hundreds of service projects kids can get started on right away.

This Generation of Hope is the most real hope we have had in decades. It is genuine. As peacemakers, we must follow the examples set by these young leaders and accept their challenges as our own. We must continue to set goals each day, and stay focused, as they do, on the solutions, not the problems. Dare to accept that children have power; they do! They do because they believe that together we the people can do anything we set our minds to do. Most importantly, they understand that the future of the world depends on their commitment and activism. They are frustrated by and impatient with those who do nothing. They are fearless, determined not to be deterred by any naysayers or paralyzed adults who are afraid to disturb current accepted practices.

Peacemakers are doers, so let’s get going in 2020 and make it a memorable year — each of us becoming an activist — encouraging, supporting and joining the Generation of Hope.

Reprinted with permission of the author from A Curriculum of Hope for a Peaceful World, Winter, 2020.

Jeanne Morascini is the founder of “A Curriculum of Hope For a Peaceful World” quarterly newsletter, published since 1986.

To receive a color PDF version by email, contact Linda Shea, Subscription Manager, hshea@snet.net

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Psychic Medium

By Bonnie Page Questions and answers about your guides, loved ones, angels and nurturing your spiritual gifts Why haven’t I heard from my loved one?

Sometimes when we are missing someone we’ve lost, the grief we are feeling can be overwhelming, and being in the depths of it can block us from seeing the signs that a loved one sends to us. This is particularly true if we were especially close to the one who has passed and are just too entrenched in the rawness of our grief to see and feel these messages from Heaven.

It’s easy to miss these signs, though they are there. Be open to receiving. Sometimes signs can seem like a coincidence. Pay attention to what’s happening around you. Are the lights flashing in the room you’re in, or are the dogs barking or wagging their tails back and forth for no apparent reason or explanation? Animals often see spirits and can see who is coming to visit with you.

Notice what your young children are saying or doing. If you see your children having a conversation with someone who’s not there, it’s more than likely that their grandparents are stopping in and keeping a watchful eye on them. Grandparents are very invested in knowing their grandchildren, even if they were not born before their passing.

Don’t be stressed. Try to give your loved ones in Heaven the time they need to come through. In the meantime, try to hold them close in your heart and acknowledge their lives by speaking about them often and honoring the lives they lived while here on Earth.

They love it when their memory is kept alive! And when the messages start to flow, be sure to let them know you are receiving them. It’s a beautiful reminder that love is eternal and that we are constantly surrounded by those we love, whether here or in Heaven.

Do angels have wings?

I see angels with wings, but also with beautiful faces, and each having different jobs to do. I have seen angels gently lay their wings across bodies of people requesting healings, and also wrap their wings around someone who needs comforting.

If you want to see, hear or feel angels, ask them to assist you. Angels like to be asked so as not to go against your own free will. If you want to be closer to the angels, invite them into your home. Adding statues or reading a book about them seems to bring them near. I have a statue or night light of angels in every room, welcoming them in.

Who is guiding you?

You have many guides around you at this moment. Before you came down to Earth, you met with your spirit guides to design a blueprint of your life — a blueprint that would enable your soul to have many learning opportunities to grow and evolve. Life is our schoolroom for learning, so our guides help us decide which path would be the best for us at this time. You chose the existence that is yours today, and your guides helped with choosing your soul family. You are never left alone, as your guides are an important part of your journey. It’s so rewarding to meet your team of helpers on the other side.

Meditation and dreamtime are two of the ways that you can learn to connect with these spiritual teachers. They give you guidance, knowledge, and wisdom. Angels, family members, ancestors, ascended masters and teachers are just a few who can become your guides. Guides help you fulfill the spiritual contract that you made before your trip to Earth this time around. Some guides stay with you throughout your entire life until you are home again, and some are specialty guides that pop in to help with a project or when you need help learning something new.

When I was teaching a dance class many years ago, I would go to bed knowing I had to have the steps down by the next morning, and I would often see dancers in heaven helping me with the steps during my dreamtime. If you do not see your guides, do not become worried; they are there and are very committed to making sure your life journey is going as planned. They cannot change your free will but are behind the scenes sending you signals that they are around with love and guidance.

It’s your job to pay attention to the signs they are sending. Have you ever found a white feather where there is no logical reason for it to appear? Nature plays a big part when your guides are letting you know they are around. Birds, clouds, rainbows, shooting stars, butterflies and more can all be signs that your loved ones are close by and offering comfort and guidance. It’s your job to watch for these signs and pay attention to the world around you every day. Once you make the connection to your guides, you will never feel alone on your journey, making life a little easier, even if you are on the road less traveled.

How do you want to be remembered?

In 10th grade, my high-school history teacher had us sit and write our obituaries. We were so young and had not really started to live life, but he wanted to show us how our life could look in the end. How do you want others to see you when you’re ready to leave Earth? I am sure we all looked a little perplexed staring up at him, so he encouraged us with amazing stories of how many great people in history did amazing things and accomplished their goals in their lifetime. My teacher wanted us to envision what we could do with the time we had here. He wanted us to take a good long look into the future — to truly see how we could manifest the best life possible for ourselves while making the difference in someone else’s life, to truly live a life worth living.

We all sat in class and tried to write our best story of how we imagined our lives would unfold. I remember very clearly envisioning a happy marriage and children and having a happy future, but beyond that I am not sure what else I wrote down. However I do know that 10th grade experience stuck with me my whole life. In fact, every time I have accomplished a new goal or visited a place I’ve always wanted to go, I imagine it written down in my obituary.

This is the time to write your obituary. What do you want others to remember about you? Ask this question as you move forward. Think of your obituary as a vision board.

We only have so much time here; with a little planning, it can be filled with love, compassion, and fulfilled dreams. Go big, dream big. When you write down what you truly desire, it gives the universe permission to step in and help with your plans.

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Do people attend their own funerals?

I know they do. I often take the time at a funeral or wake to acknowledge the person the service is for. Occasionally, I will hear them before seeing them. Lots of times they ask me to tell their loved ones that they are okay. I respectfully do that later at a time when it’s appropriate.

Continued on page 58

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 57

ASK THE PSYCHIC MEDIUM continued from page 57 When a recent family member passed and we were at the church service, I was amazed when I looked up at the podium to see all of her ten brothers and sisters in spirit holding hands together while the service was taking place. It was beautiful to see that our bonds of family hold steady even in the spirit world — standing together hand-in-hand to offer support for their sister as she watched her family and friends saying goodbye to her. A testament of true love and devotion for each other and their unconditional love never stops, not even in death.

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Have others described you as being overly sensitive? Do you become overwhelmed or easily fatigued in large crowds? When you meet strangers in a crowded room, do they begin to tell you intimate details of their lives almost immediately? Do friends routinely monopolize your telephone conversations with their “poor me” stories? Do you begin to feel ill when visiting a friend or relative in a hospital?

These are all common signs associated with being an empath. As an empath, it seems that other people’s emotions and even physical sicknesses can become your own. You are like an energetic sponge, soaking up all the emotions around you — both the negative and the positive. Your sensitivity is a gift, but left unmanaged, it can drain you.

How can you control your gift? Meditation can help you to learn to open and close the crown chakra (the energetic center at the top your head) so that you do not feel constantly bombarded by others’ thoughts, feelings, and physical ailments. Meditate before you leave your home each day so that your chakras and your overall aura are not overextended. Before bed, do a chakra-cleansing meditation. Neither meditation needs to be longer than 15 minutes, and they can be done while you bathe, leisurely walk the dog, listen to calming music or just relax.

Try using sage as a method of clearing your aura, the energetic field around your body.

First set the intention to remove all energies that cling to you and do not serve you. Then bring the sage smoke around your entire body, first down and then back up, toward the heart and over the head. Let it stay for a bit to absorb those excess energies, then open a window to clear the smoke.

If it’s not your preference to use sage smoke in your home, you can achieve similar results by using some Epsom or pink Himalayan salts in the bath, or sage soap in the shower. In either case, visualize the salt or soap suds rinsing the excess energies down the drain.

Mother Nature is the ultimate purifier! Spend some time outside walking barefoot in the grass, hiking through quiet woods, or swimming in the ocean or a lake. Water is an amazing clearing tool, especially since our bodies are mostly made up of water, plants are mostly water, and we live on a planet that is mostly water.

Speaking of plants and the planet, try to eat a variety of high-vibrational fruits and vegetables. Eat foods that span the colors of the rainbow and your chakras!

These nutritious, high-fiber foods not only cleanse your body, but they also cleanse your energy centers. The goal is to align your physical body with its perfect auric vibration, like tuning a radio dial to get just the right reception.

If you’re feeling drained and attribute it to your empathic gift, try picturing a helmet on top of your head that no energies can permeate. Or envision yourself encased in a mirrored bubble where others’ energies will just bounce off. You could also visualize a beautiful white light wrapping its way around your body, shielding and healing you.

If you’re feeling cloudy and out of it, envision flowering vines wrapped around your ankles that are deeply rooted in the strong bedrock of Mother Earth. Ask her to ground you. You can picture flushing stagnant energies down the vines and into the earth, where they will be absorbed.

Remember to take time for yourself. A soothing massage or facial can renew both body and soul. Laughter is the best medicine! Watch a funny movie, dance or sing, or just be silly. Your soul will soar. A Reiki session will help keep your chakras open and spinning at their optimum vibration.

Excerpted with permission from Ask the Psychic Medium by Bonnie Page, 2019, Balboa Press.

A born medium with conscious memories of spirit communication since the age of four, Bonnie Page has developed her talents to become a gifted, evidential medium. In 2004 she opened Messages From Heaven Healing Center in Leominster, MA. Visit www.bonniepagemedium.com.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 59

How To Make And Use Magical

MOON WATER

By Athena Perrakis

H

undreds of years ago, before the invention of electricity, there were people who would leave the comfort of their homes, in all weather conditions, to dance ceremoniously under each full moon. The term “lunatic” was invented for these free souls, who were most affected by the surge of energy Luna would permeate throughout their spirits. The energy of the full moon is not like any other, and any substance charged by the full moon carries highly energized healing and transformative energies for every intention.

I have found that one powerful way to harness this energy is by charging water under the full moon. Our bodies are mostly made up of water. Just as the moon affects the rhythmic waves of the ocean, our emotions and spirit are also greatly affected during the full phase of the moon, given the intimate connection between the moon and water.

MAKING MOON WATER Fill your glass vessel (or non-plastic container of your choice) with filtered water on the eve of the full moon. The vessel represents the container of spirit, as our body is the vessel for the soul. Vessels are symbolic of our capacity to measure and appreciate love, life, and truth. We all know what it means when we say our cup is full or overflowing. The vessel of your choice honors the sacred intentions of your spirit.

Surround your vessel with the herbs and gemstones of your choice. If you’re feeling drawn toward love, try dried rose buds, cacao, and rose quartz. If you’re in need of protection, try black tourmaline and marjoram. Use green aventurine and basil for prosperity and success; chamomile and angelite for peace and happiness; sapphire and rosemary for wisdom.

Hold your vessel close to your heart, meditate, and breathe love and light into the water. You will know when it’s time to let go, leaving it to absorb the energies of the full moon. Whisper your gratitude into the water and walk away.

60 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

Allow your water to charge with the energies of the full moon overnight. Some people cover their vessel with a clear wrap for maximum absorption. Allow your intuition to guide you.

Gather your vessel the morning after charging, thanking Luna for her blessings. Writing or speaking your blessing aloud is a great way to invoke Luna’s magic. Here is an example: As the full moon rises, so I rise.

I am awestruck by my divinity, my potential, my power illuminated fully in Luna’s light.

Her great cycle is the death and rebirth that empowers my ascension.

I am her and she is me. Across the lands where night has fallen, I am the light.

I have released the darkness — the fear, the grief, the worry — and opened my heart to let beauty and bright fruition flow in and to cast it back out, like a beacon from the heavens.

Luna, I am thankful.

Amen, A’ho, So it is.

FOUR WAYS TO USE MOON WATER 1. ADD MOON WATER TO YOUR BATH for intense relaxation and clarity. Fill your bathtub as you normally would, while pouring some water from your vessel into the mix.

Start a cycle of pouring the combined water over yourself, wherever you feel needs clearing, letting anything that no longer serves you release from your energy field. When the water’s charge penetrates your being, its light boosts every intention you set into it, while promoting intense peace and relaxation. Wash your hair with the pure moon water to encourage thick, luscious growth and a goddessy glow.

2. DAB MOON WATER ON YOUR THIRD EYE CHAKRA

for enhanced psychic awareness. The first step in strengthening your abilities is to acknowledge their existence.

Admitting the existence of your powers is the cornerstone to realizing their full potential. Trust your inner knowing, and listen to your intuition. Ground yourself deeply, and dab your moon water on your third eye chakra to open your inner eye to divine wisdom and revelation. Find a place of peace within yourself and your surroundings, and feel your visions come to you with potent clarity. Keep a jar of moon water on your altar to enhance your rituals.

3. ANOINT YOUR MONEY with moon water to invoke

wealth. Money is energy; it flows. Or it doesn’t. And what stops the flow is fear. When doing manifestation work, it’s important to have the vision and to be able to hold that vision for exactly what it is you want. Beyond that, you need the appropriate tools to magically and energetically summon that vision into existence. As you anoint your money with moon water, envision exactly what you want. Imagine possibility. Big infinite beautiful intoxicatingly amazing possibility.

Get ready to receive the abundance of your manifestations!

4. BLESS YOUR GEMSTONES with moon water to cleanse and increase their potency. Gemstones are powerful tools you can use to magnify and direct energy. It is important to remember that you are using gemstones to work with energy; the gemstone itself is not the energy, but a conductor, amplifier, generator, and director. Charging your gemstones involves setting your intention and purpose. When you charge them under the moon, they become infused with the deep lunar magic of intuition, dreams, and mystery. Set your selected stones out to bathe under the full moon, next to your vessel of water. After you charge your moon water, allow the rest of your collection to bathe in it for 24 hours to purify and raise their vibrations.

Athena Perrakis, PhD, is the founder and chief executive officer of Sage Goddess, the world’s largest source of sacred tools and metaphysical education. Visit www.sagegoddess.com.

Vis

NAT at tihteus U A L LIV exRp BO o ING OTH #70 3

Enhance Your Wellness With the Benefits of Energy Medicine Just for today….

I will not be angry I will not worry I will be grateful I will do my work honestly I will be kind to every living thing — attributed to Reiki Master Mikao Usui

Send in stories of Your Energy Healing Experience for the Fall/Winter 2020 “You Are The Cure” issue of Spirit of Change Magazine Share your first hand account of how energy medicine provided the cure and relief you were looking for.

Email to carol@spiritofchange.org by June 1, 2020 www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 61

Humanity’s 2020 Challenge H

umans today have an extraordinary challenge — and it has nothing to do with climate change or anything else you may imagine to be of great import — because most of you have not the capacity to perceive past the illusion that has been carefully woven about you by those who would retain power and control.

This critical challenge is whether or not you will allow yourselves as a race to be co-opted by technology and the devices it uses to distract you from yourselves, and proceed to live as extensions of and tethered to those devices — or, if enough of you will awaken enough, and choose to align with your true (divine) nature — making the choice to live in a balanced and harmonious way with each other, the animals, birds, sea creatures, and Earth herself, supporting the well-being of all.

These two pathways lead to two very different outcomes, and the choice must be made now. Not to put too fine a point on it — we are way past the eleventh hour: evidence the travesty playing out on the world stage. And make no mistake, your politicians will not save you — this is a boots-on-the-ground, all-in-it-together, critical-mass-required, call to arms.

THE FIRST PATHWAY, currently most evident, derives from the use of technology and its attendant devices attracting you as much as toys attract children: they fascinate and distract, sucking you into a world where you are manipulated into believing there is value where there is nothing but illusion. And that is their function: to lure you into an illusory world — a world even named “virtual reality” — where you can pretend you are something you are not and live life as if it were a game you can win by accumulating points or likes.

This unconscious trance that you have allowed yourself to be literally drugged into by what passes for food, drink, and so-called medicine, and programmed into by the marketing industry and your media — has you believing that you are limited, finite creatures, subject to what appears to be the trials and tribulations of life on Earth, and making you imagine 62 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

that (whatever they are selling in the moment) will fulfill you.

While this trance allows you to believe that you are living in an advanced civilization, the state of humanity today is actually analogous to cavemen in terms of actual evolutionary progress — simply transposed onto what you consider to be modern society. What you cannot recognize in your stupor, is that a civilization steeped in competition, war, mightmakes-right, deprivation and depravity, and the destruction of other species and the environment, are all signs of what is considered by the galactic community as a very primitive way of life.

The entire universe is available to support you and is awaiting your answer.

And unfortunately, even much of what passes for socalled spirituality in your society today is actually another form of distraction, lulling you into believing you are on a higher path when you are simply engaged in another level of self-serving illusion. This pathway will lead to a world where humans become more and more mechanical in their behavior and responses, literally programmed to function in service to an extreme version of the economic machine that exists today.

THE SECOND PATHWAY is that of awakening out of

the trance you’ve been conditioned into, recognizing the oneness of life, and proceeding to live in accordance with that understanding. This means that, as an individual, you realize that the way you choose to live — your attitude, your intentions, and your every act — is either in alignment with the well-being of all or simply self-serving. Once you are willing

to look at yourself objectively, and make the deliberate choice to live in alignment with your own true, higher nature, you begin to adjust yourself in attitude, intention and behavior so that you contribute all you are, all you have, and all you do for that “well-being of all.”

Then, when enough of you choose this way of being, aligning your energetic frequencies to that of an elevated consciousness, everything you want to change about how things are will happen with very little effort, as all the knowledge to make the desired changes are available through connection to the cosmic mind, and with the elimination of a self serving attitude can come about with ease.

The last hurdle that needs overcoming in taking this step is the fear that by sharing all you have and are and do with others, you will somehow not have enough for yourself.

What you don’t understand is that by choosing to be an open channel through which you are continuously contributing to the whole, you cannot possibly deprive yourself of anything.

Being an integral part of the whole, that channel is receiving from every contribution being made; it’s an energetic flow.

So if you have children or grandchildren, or want them, and you’d like their world to be a place where Earth and all life is respected and protected, and where nations live in harmony and peace, then this is the time to take a definitive step into the new paradigm and out of the old self-centered and self-serving concepts of the previous centuries.

The upshot being: you either recognize that the well-being of all is the highest path and align yourself in its service, or you continue to focus on your own small needs and desires and fiddle away as Rome burns to the ground.

The entire universe is available to support you and is awaiting your answer.

What are you going to do?

Publisher’s note: I discovered this article with no author attribution as a random file on my computer desktop one day.

I found the origin of the file interesting — and the message even more so.

“Love is the only medicine that can heal the wounds of the world.”

Amma

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MEET MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI, RENOWNED HUMANITARIAN AND SPIRITUAL LEADER

AMMA.ORG

E\nkfe# D8 V nnn%K_\Dpjk`ZNXp%Zfd V -(.$,).$*,/*

SUMMER TOUR TO NEW ENGLAND FOR UPDATED INFORMATION ON TIMES, DATES AND LOCATION Check ammanewengland.org and amma.org

PLEASE PLAN TO ARRIVE AT LEAST 90 MINUTES BEFORE THE PROGRAM TO RECEIVE A FREE TOKEN IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE AMMA’S EMBRACE. TOKENS MAY BE LIMITED BY TIME CONSTRAINTS.

MAY ALL BEINGS EVERYWHERE BE HAPPY www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 63

CALENDAR OF EVENTS MARCH 3/6-3/8/20 — READ & PLAY MUSIC in a weekend! World famous seminars (www.understandingofmusic.com) turns beginners into musicians, revitalizes and inspires even pro musicians. 169 Mass Ave. Boston. (781) 599-1476 or or sallee@dlorien.com. http://signup.understandingofmusic.com 3/7 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Wilton, NH. Libby Barnett, MSW. 41 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author.

Notebook, pin, certificate awarded. Credit cards accepted.

CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy. com. Reiki II: 3/8.

3/19 — ACTIVATING YOUR LIGHT CENTERS 1-DAY WORKSHOP. Learn about your 13 newly evolving light centers found in the outermost part of your energy and experience vibrational shifts. This workshop brings you into the higher frequency of each light center, allowing quicker healing, raising your vibration, and accelerating on your spiritual evolution. 9am-3pm. $199. The LoveLight Center, 2089 Post Rd, Wells, ME. (207) 216-9584. www.lovelightilluminations.com 3/21 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Weston, MA. Libby Barnett, MSW. 41 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded. Credit cards accepted. CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 3/22.

3/22 — INTERMEDIATE LEVEL INTEGRATED ENERGY THERAPY (IET) PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATION with Peter Van Twuyver. 10am-6pm. Special energy attunement which realigns 3rd and 4th pairs of your DNA. Learn the pullout technique to remove stubborn energy blocks. $210. www.heavenandearthstudio.com.

3/22 — HEALTHY LIVING EXPO. Warwick, RI Crowne Plaza Hotel. Keynotes: Susan Lataille, Roland M. Comtois and Rhys Thomas. 40 vendors! Passionate heart-based educators sharing empowering practices of living well.

10am-4pm. (508) 615-9805. mmamet@verizon.net. Tickets on Eventbrite http://myhealthyliving.eventbrite.com 3/27-3/30 — AURA SOMA LEVEL 1 FOUNDATION 4-DAY TRAINING. Learn the language of color, how to trust your intuition, and how to use Aura Soma products to bring balance to your energetic system. Harnessing the vibrational powers of Mother Nature, Aura Soma is a system of color, plant and crystal energies that enhance happiness and vitality. Methuen, MA www.circlesofwisdom.com.

64 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

3/31 — BERNARD ILSLEY, THE LONDON MEDIUM. One of the most gifted psychics of this century. VIP meet-andgreet tickets and one-on-one psychic readings available. The Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge, Ridgefield, CT. Call for tickets. (203) 438-5795 or www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

APRIL 4/1 — REGISTRATION OPENS FOR THE CONSTELLATION APPROACHTM IMMERSION PROGRAM. Faust Family Constellations presents The Constellation Approach™ Immersion Program, which is designed to take each student through a personal journey of transformation in relation to their family and ancestral lineage, as well as lay a solid foundation for anyone who wishes to learn the art and practice of Family Constellations. Through the processes of Family Constellations, energy medicine and evolutionary Soul work, you will have the opportunity to experience all aspects of your life and heritage in a safe, healing and supportive environment of a group of like-minded individuals. Enrollment begins April 1 with special early-bird pricing for a limited time only!

Classes are held October 2020 through May 2021. Visit www.faustfamilyconstellations.com/immersion.

4/4 — REIKI LEVEL 1 PRACTITIONER TRAINING. Learn how to use gentle energy healing to take control of your health and moods and feel less anxious in life. Receive a manual, practitioner certificate and lots of guided in-class practice.

(508) 808-5696 or northeastreikicenter.org.

4/4-4/5 — CANNABIS AND HIGH-QUALITY MEDICINE MAKING. An intensive on the multiple health benefits of cannabis and how cannabis affects our bodies. Instruction on high-quality medicine making, the endocannabinoid system, constituents, strains, quality assessment, right relationship. The Boston School of Herbal Studies. Call (617) 417-8686 or visit bostonherbalstudies.com.

4/4-4/5 — HAPPY ME 2020 RETREAT. A 2-day event releasing emotional pain with Bhavna’s Wellness Group in Shrewsbury, MA. Let’s re-do your emotions! For details and registration contact bhwellnessgroup.com or (508) 970-5620.

4/4-5 — STARSEED ASCENSION I. Wake up to your cosmic consciousness and discover your duties to the stars, to the Light, and to beloved Mother Earth. Joan Ruggiero shows you how to merge with your higher self, I AM Presence and activate your Merkaba Field of Light astral travel vehicle that we will use to journey both galactically and inter-dimensionally. Methuen, MA. www.circlesofwisdom.com

4/4-4/11 — SELF-HEALING RETREAT FOR CANCER PATIENTS with Dr. Kevin Chen And Dr. Linda Nadia Hole.

This 7-day retreat is designed to support your cancer recovery. By teaching mind-body integration techniques, stress management, and much more, your journey to self-healing for general health and overall well-being will be much better supported. This special retreat designed is specifically for people who have faced cancer, and their caregivers. Eastover.com. (866) 264-5139.

4/6 — FROM THE MARGINS: RACISM IN THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY with Kyung Peggy Kim Meill. At the end of this event, participants will be able to: 1. Understand microaggressions, as related to Asians. 2. Consider the influence of implicit bias upon our perspectives on race. 3.

Explore institutional constructs of inequalities. Cambridge Health Alliance, Central Street Care Center, 26 Central Street, Somerville, MA. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ from-the-margins-racism-in-the-search-for-identitykyung-peggy-kim-meill-tickets-71151308479.

(617) 591-6132. cmc@challiance.org.

4/11 — PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT, PAST LIVES & ANGEL COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP with Ross J. Miller, psychic healer, medium, regression therapist. In this unique, experiential workshop you’ll learn how to identify your guardian angels and spirit guides by name and receive their guidance, healing and inspiration; discover your soul’s life purpose; experience two of your past lives and heal the residual karma from them; give psychic readings to others in class and more.

Saturday, 10:00am-5:00pm Newton, MA. To register for the workshop or to schedule a psychic or past-life reading or healing session in person or over the phone, visit our website: www.TheMysticWay.com or call Ross J. Miller (617) 527-3583.

4/14/20 — WHY ME? WHY NOW? WHY NOT? A motivational book talks back! Join author of “Why Me? Why Now? Why Not? Finding Opportunity in Your Obstacles” in a Q&A about love, forgiveness and accountability. www.TrishWhynot.com 4/18-4/19 — HOLY FIRE III, REIKI I AND II CLASS. With Reiki Master/Teacher Bena Phillipo at Sacred Resonance healing in Southborough, MA. Class repeated August 15 & 16. Reiki Shares offered on the second Saturday of every month. SacredResonanceHealing.com or (508) 303-0366.

4/18–10/17 — HERBAL APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM. Seven weekends in person. Intensive study of medicinal plants to enhance physical and emotional health; plant identification and field trips; creating your own teas,

tinctures, salves and oils etc; facial and pulse diagnosis, and much more. The Boston School of Herbal Studies. Call (617) 417-8686 or visit bostonherbalstudies.com.

Shop the divine marketplace, attend over 80 empowering workshops and circle up in the sacred community. Taunton, MA. For details and registration InspiredLifeEvent.com.

4/19 — NEW ENGLAND VEGFEST. Free family fun event featuring socially responsible exhibitors, vegan food court and plenty of free vegan food samples and products.

Cooking demos, children’s activities, shopping, fundraising raffles, speakers and more. DCU Center, 50 Foster Street, Worcester, MA. www.NewEnglandVegFest.com. info@VegWorcester.com.

5/2-5/3 — THE 21 STAGES OF MEDITATION AS TAUGHT

BY YOGI BHAJAN. This 3-level course will help you deepen your contemplative capacity in a community of practitioners.

Each level is a distinct journey, 2 days in length, covering seven stages each. You can take them as individual journeys or all 3 as the full course. All serious meditators are welcome, no matter of style or path. Receive tools and experiences to deepen your meditation and come to a profound understanding of your Self. Early bird discount before 4/3. The first level will be taught 4/23-4/26. Yoga at the Ashram, Millis, MA. yogaattheashram.org or (503) 376-4525.

4/22-4/25 — EVOLVING INTO YOUR LIGHT 4-DAY WORKSHOP. Join Mother Mary in high vibrational Divine energy! Each day consists of guided meditative exercises, quantum healing, sound healing, and the opportunity for deep vibrational shifts on a cellular level. You will be divinely guided and supported as you move through energetic shifts for transforming your life. 9am-3pm each day $500. The LoveLight Center, 2089 Post Rd, Wells, ME. (207) 216-9584. www.lovelightilluminations.com 4/23-4/26 — THE 21 STAGES OF MEDITATION AS TAUGHT

BY YOGI BHAJAN. This 3-level course will help you deepen your contemplative capacity in a community of practitioners. Each level is a distinct journey, 2 days in length, covering seven stages each. You can take them as individual journeys or all 3 as the full course. All serious meditators are welcome, no matter of style or path. Receive tools and experiences to deepen your meditation and come to a profound understanding of your Self. Early bird discount before 4/3.

The second level will be taught May 2-3. Yoga at the Ashram, Millis, MA. yogaattheashram.org or (503) 376-4525.

4/24-4/26 — SOHUM ANNUAL YOGA & MEDITATION RETREAT. Nurture yourself for a weekend in the Berkshires.

Pricing of $425 to $550 includes 2-night stay, healthy meals, yoga, meditation, hiking, campfire and more. Contact Ritu.

Kapur@sohum.org. (508) 329-3338. www.sohum.org.

4/24-4/26 — EVOLUTION 2020. A reality-shifting 3-day workshop for entrepreneurs, leaders, visionaries and influences. Ask the questions, learn the techniques, and implement the strategies that will help you show up every day as the version of you who can make your biggest dreams come true.

Omni Hotel, Providence, RI. www.evolution2020event.com.

4/25-4/26 — QUANTUM TIME EVOLUTION. Sandy Corcoran is sponsoring Shama Viola from Damanhur, Italy. Workshop is based on time, the soul, and reincarnation. Heal your past, empower your present. Cost $375. Registration required. Details: Details: www.starwalkervisions.com 4/30-5/3 — LEVEL I HAND ANALYSIS TRAINING. Burlington, VT. Study with Janet Savage, Master Hand Analyst.

Immerse yourself in modern palmistry and the science of fingerprints. Learn to be a hand analyst; incorporate this tool into your healing practice or study for personal growth. Visit https://www.handtales.com/study/ for details. Contact Janet at (802) 279-8554.

MAY 5/1-5/3 — INSPIRED LIFE! TRANSFORMATIONAL HIGHVIBE EVENT FOR WOMEN. Join us for 3 days to nourish your spirit, elevate your mindset and transform your life!

www.spiritofchange.org

5/2, 5/30, 6/13, 6/27 — 4-DAY SHAMANIC TRAINING INTENSIVE Montpelier, Vermont, 9:30–5:30 each day. A well-rounded jumpstart to creating a shamanic practice to enhance your life and the lives of others. $420 early registration (by 4/10); $460 after. (802) 225-6413. https://www.lucidpathwellness.com/new-events 5/3 — HEALTHY LIVING EXPO. Quincy Boston Marriott.

Keynotes: Maureen Hancock and Rhys Thomas. 40 vendors!

Passionate heart-based educators sharing empowering practices of living well. 10am-4pm. (508) 615-9805. mmamet@ verizon.net. Tickets on Eventbrite http://myhealthyliving.eventbrite.com 5/3 — AWAKENING MOMENTS ENERGY HEALERS CONVENTION AND PSYCHIC EXPO at the Radisson Hotel, 11 Tara Blvd, Nashua, NH. Admission includes: Classes, breakfast, lunch and entry to the Expo Ballroom. 8am-5pm. For more info/tickets visit http://www.lovinglifeexpo.com 5/15-17 — ANGELIC REIKI 1 & 2 PRACTITIONER’S CERTIFICATE with Casca Graham. Love angels and Reiki? Gain full insight into the complete system of healing using angels and Reiki symbols. Includes attunement. This process will change your DNA, cells, and molecules, as well as activate your lightbody. Visit www.heavenandearthstudio.com.

5/16 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Wilton, NH. Libby Barnett, MSW. 41 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded. Credit cards accepted. CEU's/ contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com.

Reiki II: 5/17.

5/16 — WOMEN OF WISDOM PSYCHIC AND HOLISTIC FAIRE. Psychics, mediums, angel readers, spirit art. Reiki, chair massage, IET, Gaiadon Heart, crystal healings, etc. Sign yourself up for a few appointments and bring your friends!

Appointments recommended/walk-ins welcome! Call to book!

(508) 230-3680. www.womenofwisdominc.com 5/16-5/17 — AWAKEN EVENT WITH RHYS THOMAS. Make your decision to awaken to a new life now and receive all of the most powerful spiritual awakening techniques taught at the Rhys Thomas Institute. Two full days of healing, meditation and connections. Free yourself from energy blocks and learn the new science of energy healing and total health. Receive crystal bowl sound healing mediations and soul readings to clarify your purpose. https://awakenevent.com. (508) 233-2330 5/17-5/30 — SACRED FRANCE. Pilgrimage aligning archetypes of Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and the Black Madonna, tri-

4/4-4/11 — Join a 7-day self-healing retreat for cancer patients and caregivers to overcome cancer phobia with Dr. Kevin Chen at Eastover Retreat Center in Lenox, MA. See April listing or www.eastover.com fold Divine Feminine. Sites: Paris, Chartres, Lourdes, Rennesle-Chateau, Montesgur, Mont St. Michele. 1 slot remains.

Deadline 3/15. Details: www.starwalkervisions.com 5/20 — CELEBRITY MEDIUM THOMAS JOHN, THE “SEATBELT PSYCHIC.” As seen on Lifetime TV. The Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge, Ridgefield, CT. Call for tickets. (203) 438-5795 or www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

5/20 & 5/27 — MIND-BODY HEALING & RELEASING FEARS. Class meets twice at Newton Community Education, 7–9pm. You will learn a way to release your fears with the natural bio-destressing technique EFT, the amazingly effective way to quickly and reliably release irrational fears, phobias and traumas, and other self-sabotaging behaviors. Instructor: Judith A. Swack, Ph.D., www.hblu. org. Register at http://www.newtoncommunityed.org 5/22 — WOW SCHOOL OF HYPNOTHERAPY. Help yourself and others in a rewarding career as a professional certified hypnotist/hypnotherapist! Live demonstration,

Continued on page 66

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 65

CALENDAR Continued from page 65

supervised practice and hands-on experience makes this a truly exceptional course. Tuition includes two training manuals, scripts, over 220+ hours. All-inclusive.

Certificate and 1 year membership IACT. 6 weekends (One weekend/month.) Fri 6-9pm, Sat/Sun 10-6pm. $1995. Women of Wisdom. (508) 230-3680. womenofwisdominc.com 5/30 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Weston, MA. Libby Barnett, MSW. 41 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded. Credit cards accepted. CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 5/31.

JUNE 6/3-6/7 — 60TH ANNUAL AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS METAPHYSICAL CONVENTION AND EXPO. Join the largest gathering of dowsers, energy workers, teachers and students from all disciplines for over 40 lectures, in-depth lectures, dowsing schools, vendor area, practitioners, ceremonies and more. www.dowsers.org/convention or (802) 684-3417 for details and registration.

6/6, 6/13 & 6/27 — WISDOM WHEELS. Sandy Corcoran shares Seneca elder Grandmother Twylah Nitsch’s philosophical teachings, which identify your personal gifts of birth and latent talents, helping navigate your Earthwalk. $300.00 Limit: 10 Details: www.starwalkervisions.com

6/13 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Concord, MA. Libby Barnett, MSW. 41 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author.

Notebook, pin, certificate awarded. Credit cards accepted.

CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 6/14.

6/13-6/14 — MARCONICS LEVEL 2 PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATION. Marconics Lux Magnum. Join other like-minded seekers as we take a journey through the concepts of the new Earth paradigm, higher self and soul sovereignty, ascension mechanics, and spiritual alchemy. Register at www.marconics.com or (617) 366-6014.

6/14-17 — ANIMAS VALLEY INSTITUTE’S WILD MIND INTENSIVE at Spirit Hollow. This 5-day intensive is an experiential exploration of our human psyches with guides Dustin Timmons and Doug Van Houten. Explore the landscape of the psyche through creative expression, self-designed ceremony, solo exercises while wandering the land, group work, movement and more. www.spirithollow.org.

6/20 — AWAKENING GOLDEN LIGHT CONNECTION. 10am-1pm. Become awakened and part of the Golden Light Era. Learn to be more loving and receive Golden Light codes. Bhavna’s Wellness Group in Shrewsbury, MA. Details visit bhwellnessgroup.com or (508) 970-5620.

6/20 — SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION. With Reiki Master/Teacher Bena Phillipo at Sacred Resonance healing in Southborough, MA. (508) 303-0366 for more information or visit SacredResonanceHealing.com.

6/20 — SUMMER SOLSTICE MEDITATION. Join us for a

guided meditation welcoming the energy of the Summer Solstice! You are invited to enjoy the labyrinth and energy rooms before the meditation. $11. 4pm-5pm. The LoveLight Center, 2089 Post Rd, Wells, ME. (207) 216-9584. www.lovelightilluminations.com

JULY 7/9-7/12 — MARCONICS LEVEL 1&2 INTENSIVE PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATION. Marconics ‘No-Touch’ Healing Protocol and Marconics ‘Lux Magnum.’ Register at www.marconics.com or (617) 366-6014.

7/10-7/11 — ACCESSING DIVINE WITHIN 2-DAY WORKSHOP. Be immersed in a higher vibration for opening to a deeper sense of divine within self. Experience a greater awareness of your spirit through meditative exercises with your light centers. 10am-4pm. $295. The LoveLight Center, 2089 Post Rd, Wells, ME. (207) 216-9584. www.lovelightilluminations.com 7/17-7/19 — HOLY FIRE III, KARUNA REIKI CLASS. With Reiki Master/Teacher Bena Phillipo at Sacred Resonance healing in Southborough, MA. Reiki Shares offered on the second Saturday of every month. SacredResonanceHealing.com or (508) 303-0366.

7/17-7/19 — UNWIND AND UNLEASH: A JOURNEY TO AWAKEN YOUR INTUITION. Enjoy some downtime and reconnect with your inner self during this unique 3-day destination retreat in beautiful St. Helens, OR. For info or registration visit RevDawnLynn.com

AUGUST 8/4-12 — WILD WOMEN VISION QUEST at Spirit Hollow in Shaftsbury, VT. This immersion is held in a deeply resonant, revered, loved and protected hollow in a huge forested wilderness area in the southwestern Vermont Taconic Mountains, where vision quests, shamanic trainings, warrior and goddess camps have been held for decades. Open to all women ages 18 and up who feel called. Application and letter of intent required. Visit www.spirithollow.org.

8/8-8/10 — MARCONICS LEVEL 3&4 PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATION. Integrated Chakra Unification and Marconics Quantum Recalibration. Join other like-minded seekers as we take a journey through the concepts of the new Earth paradigm, higher self and soul sovereignty, ascension mechanics, and spiritual alchemy. Register at www.marconics.com or (617) 366-6014.

UPCOMING 9/1-9/2 — SINGING SEMINAR. Find your voice, become the singer you want to be! World famous seminar (www. understandingofmusic.com) teaches beginners through professionals to reach new notes, increase confidence, range, strength and more. Sign up: http://signup.understandingofmusic.com or sallee@dlorien. com. (781)599-1476.

5/15-5/17 — If you love angels and Reiki, gain full insight into the complete system of healing using angels and Reiki symbols with Casca Graham. See May listing or www.heavenandearthstudio.com.

66 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

9/12 — WOMEN OF WISDOM PSYCHIC AND HOLISTIC FAIRE. Psychics, mediums, angel readers, spirit art. Reiki,

chair massage, IET, Gaiadon Heart, crystal healings, etc. Sign yourself up for a few appointments and bring your friends!

Appointments recommended/walk-ins welcome! Call to book! (508) 230-3680. www.womenofwisdominc.com 9/18-9/20 — CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA’S ARRIVAL. Join us as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of Yogananda's arrival in Boston and the beginning of his mission to teach yoga in the West. Scheduled events will include lectures by some of Ananda's most dynamic speakers, musical events featuring Yogananda's sacred chants, and morning and evening guided meditations. Boston Park Plaza Hotel. Info and registration: yogananda100. eventbrite.com. Presented by Ananda.

9/19 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Weston, MA. Libby Barnett, MSW. 41 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded. Credit cards accepted. CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www. reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 9/20.

9/26 — YOUR IDEAL LIFE BEGINS TODAY with life-changing intuitive development training with internationally renowned medical intuitive and master healers/teachers Sue and Aaron Singleton. This exceptional 7-module program initiates healing that enhances all aspects of your life. (978) 834-0341 or www.theWayToBalance.com.

9/26 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Wilton, NH. Libby Barnett, MSW. 41 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded. Credit cards accepted. CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 9/27.

SPIRIT CAMP TEACHER TRAINING. Choose from 2 sessions. Oct/Nov/Dec or Jan/Feb/Mar. One weekend a month for 3 months. www.dancingjaguarinspirations. com/spirit-camp-training 10/3 — 2nd ANNUAL STURBRIDGE HERBFEST. Classes, vendors, food! Join us at the Sturbridge Senior Center, 480 Main Street, Sturbridge, MA. 9:30-4:30. For more info or vendor applications contact Salli Greene at Alternatives for Health. (508) 347-2111 or sargreene@gmail.com. www.sturbridgeherbfest.com.

10/17-10/18 — THOTH TAROT LINEAGE. Examine the Crowley Thoth Tarot deck’s 22 major arcana cards as pathways expressing each archetype’s lineage, uncovering personal limitations or deepening connections to Self. $300 Limit: 10. Details: www.starwalkervisions.com 11/14-11/15 — 14TH ANNUAL SPIRIT OF CHANGE MAGAZINE NATURAL LIVING EXPO. Royal Plaza Trade Center. 181 Boston Post Road West, Marlboro, MA. Saturday 9-6; Sunday 10-5. Featuring 250 exhibits, 90 workshops, readings, shopping and fun. Enjoy the healthy food courts for delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner meals throughout the weekend. Too much to see and do in one weekend! Plan to attend both days! www.NaturalExpo.org.

ONGOING RELIEVE PTSD, ANXIETY, INSOMNIA. Discover your personal chakra notes in the Chakra Sound Spa Experience

www.spiritofchange.org

5/17-5/30 — Divine Feminine sacred pilgrimage to France aligning the archetypes of Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and the Black Madonna. See May listing or www.starwalkervisions.com Workshop. Receive three guided meditations of your chakra notes Mp3’s. Thursdays 6-9pm. Email info@thesoundlady. com to reserve by Wednesdays at 5pm. Roots and Wings Yoga Healing Arts Center, 317 N. Main St., Natick, MA. $75.

Kathleen Nagy. (508) 981-6896. www.thesoundlady.com BOSTON SCHOOL OF HERBAL STUDIES. Arlington and Lincoln, MA. Affordable, upcoming weekend intensives on Cannabis, the Endocannabinoid System and High-Quality Medicine Making, Neuroinflammation and Autoimmunity, and Navigating Depression as a Tool of Transformation. Call (617) 417-8686 or visit bostonherbalstudies.com REIKI PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATION TRAININGS. Monthly. Learn how you have the ability to heal with your hands, to feel healthier and less anxious in life. Have confirmation — Reiki is flowing in your hands by the end of the class!

(508) 808 5696. www.northeastreikicenter.org CLASSES IN CHANNELING AND SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION with ascended master Vywamus, channeled by Andrea Seiver.

Have a personal reading or enjoy Evenings with Vywamus April 16 , May 7, June 4, July 9, September 10, October 1, November 5. (617) 332-1541. www.andreaseiver.com LINDA PATTERSON OF THE ECLECTIC INSTITUTE OF AROMATHERAPY AND HERBAL STUDIES offers courses in European based Aromatherapy beginning in March, and a second level course that emphasizes blending beginning

in February. Join in at any time. Aromatherapy course and flower essence making workshop to begin on Cape Cod in May. For details visit aromatherapyandherbalstudies.com PSYCHIC MEDIUM MESSAGE CIRCLE. 2nd and 4th Monday of every month. This psychic message circle is for anyone wishing to raise their connection using their psychic centers known as the "clairs." Learn how to use your own intuition while receiving messages for yourself and others in a safe and loving environment. $20.00 payable the night of class. Messages From Heaven Healing and Learning Center, 646 Central Street, Suite 3, Leominster, MA. www.bonniepagemedium.com YOGA WITH ANN BISSANTI. Mon, Multi-level, 6-7:30pm; Tues, Basic 6-7:30pm; Wed, Basic 2/Int 9-10:30am; Thur, Int/Exp 5:40-7:10pm; Fri, Basic 9:30-11am and Gentle Yoga 11:40-12:50; Sat, Basic 10-11:30am. Worcester Yoga Center, 21 West Street, Worcester, MA. (508) 829-6300. Worcesteryogacenter.com.

MEN’S CIRCLE. Quarterly at Spirit Hollow, Shaftsbury, VT. Open to men 18 to ancient. 12-4pm. For details and schedule visit www.spirithollow.org or (802) 447-3895.

WELLNESS ROUNDTABLE HOLISTIC PRACTITIONERS NETWORKING GROUP. Please join us at our monthly meetings, second Wednesday each month Sept-June in Westboro, MA. A welcoming community working for the greater health and wellbeing of all. Contact Ritu.Kapur@sohum.com.

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 67

NEW ENGLAND’S

HolisticDirectory SPRING/SUMMER 2020

Categories

Consciousness Transformation . . . . . . . . . . 70

Homeopathy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Acupuncture and Asian Medicine. . . . . . . . 68

Counseling and Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70-71

Natural Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Astrological Consulting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Crystals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Feng Shui . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Children's Health & Services . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Healing and Bodywork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71-72

Skin Care, Salons and Spas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Classes, Certifications & Schools . . . . . . . . 69

Healing: Combined Modalities . . . . . . . . . . 73

Spiritual Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Coaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Herbal Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Yoga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Colon Hydrotherapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Holistic Medical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

?

Questions?

Acupuncture & Asian Medicine ACUPUNCTURE OF WORCESTER Holistic Health since 1974

Dr. Yvonne Chen, Lic. Acupuncturist One of the first practicing acupuncturists in the United States, Dr. Yvonne Chen began her acupuncture practice in Washington, D.C. in 1973, moving to Worcester one year later. Trained in China as a medical doctor, Dr. Chen’s years of study and research included in-depth work with both traditional Chinese and Western medicine.

Her approach to health incorporates keen knowledge on the nature of disease, use

of energy balancing, nutritional counseling and the promotion of spiritual well-being.

Acupuncture is especially effective in the treatment of: • Pain: migraine headaches, stress relief, tendonitis, arthritis, lower back pain, neuralgia, whiplash, accident and trauma injuries and TMJ syndrome • Improving bodily functions: respiratory ailments, insomnia and impotency • Nervous system disorders: Bell’s Palsy, paralysis, multiple sclerosis and stroke recovery • Behavioral changes: weight control and smoking cessation.

Located at 110 June Street, Worcester, MA 01602. For an appointment or for more information, please contact Dr. Yvonne Chen at 508-755-5557.

Astrologer Eric Linter has answers.

Changes in relationships, career, health, finances or spiritual practice are inevitable.

Eric’s clarity will help you stay on the right path. His insights help you better understand and appreciate life’s challenges. His clients say Eric Linter is “profound and enlightening” and “one of the best astrologers on the East Coast.”

Astrology

& Esoteric

Psychology Monique Pommier, M.A., Ph.DE

Astrology illuminates one’s psychological landscape and journey. It times life developments and reveals their designs for the soul.

I offer astrological services and ongoing psychospiritual counseling with astrology, Jungian and esoteric psychology as a comprehensive ground of exploration and guidance

68 Spirit of Change SPRING/SUMMER 2020

stars@ericlinter.com ✸ 508-541-4115 ✸

“I learned more from one session than I did from 5 years of analysis.”

- J.G., Cambridge, MA

Centers SCHOOLS OF WISDOM

Astrological Consulting on current issues and lifelong questionings.

By accessing the deeper order of your life, you gain transformative insights into the evolutionary meaning of particular challenges and new perspectives to direct your choices.

My background includes an MS and PhD in Esoteric Psychology and Philosophy. Jungian psychology, Eastern and Western Traditions are key foundations in my approach.

I have been in practice for 25 years. ✵ Astrological Consultations ✵ ✵ Psychospiritual Counseling ✵ www.astrologicalpsychology.com 617-524-7072

Eric, a professional astrologer for 25 years, works with individuals, couples and businesses. Specialties include career moves, personal creativity and karmic relationships. Consultations are available in person, by telephone, or on cassette.

Eric also offers classes, lectures and appearances at parties and special events.

For more information and to schedule a private session, contact Eric by email or call:

Cel

g ebratin

Years!

24+

Women of Wisdom HOLISTIC HEALING CENTER

Usui, Holy Fire, Karuna Reiki Hypnotherapy ✧ BARS ✧ Massage Crystal Healing ✧ Past Life Regression Integrated Energy Therapy Akisni ✧ Inner Child Healing

Holistic Practitioner and Professional, Earth Medicine, Angel Alignment, Wicca Akashic Soul Mastery, Hypnotherapy, Mediumship, and Animal Communication; Training for Reiki, IET, Gaiadon Heart, etc., plus workshops daily GIFT SHOP

Unique Jewelry ✧ Healing Tools ✧ Statues Crystal Bowls ✧ Ritual Items ✧ Angels Mediums or Psychic Readings Hours: M-F 10 AM-8 PM, S/S 10 AM-6 PM 118 Washington Street, N. Easton, MA womenofwisdominc.com 508-230-3680

I do not believe in miracles, I rely on them. — Yoga Bhajan

Reading Types: Psychic, Tarot Card, Mediumship, Universal Readings, Oracle Cards, Crystals, Spiritual Counseling

Illuminating Light Healing Center

Healings Offered: Usui Reiki, Karuna Reiki, Crystal Sound Healing, New Paradigm M.D.T. Spiritual Mentorship: Make 2020 a year of learning, transformation and healing led by Kristen Stone, Meets twice a month.

Kristen Stone an intuitive psychic and spiritual medium who gives keenly profound and accurate psychic readings. Her readings cover all aspects and get to the root of the soul’s need for healing.

www.illuminating-light.com • 508-818-0675 407 Old Colony Rd. (Rte. 123), Norton, MA 02766

Children's Health & Services Learning through nature and outdoors The child as an active learner Project-based learning Challenging academics Focus on physical activity At least one hour of recess daily Focus on creativity and the arts No standardized testing Small class sizes

Touchstone Community School is an independent school serving students in grades PK–8, cultivating a joy of lifelong learning through transformative intellectual, social, and emotional growth.

Come visit us!

Grafton, MA 508-839-0038 touchstoneschool.com

Classes, Certifications & Schools GREATER RHODE ISLAND

APPLICATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED

HYPNOTIST

1 How to use hypnosis to help clients 1 How to turn hypnosis into a profitable

part-time or full-time business

Certified Instructor John.Koenig.Hypnotist@live.com GreaterRhodeIslandHypnosisTraining.com 401-374-1890

Eclectic Institute of Aromatherapy and Herbal Studies Instructor Linda Patterson offers over 20 years of experience in the science, art and principles of herbalism and aromatherapy.

New England Institute of Reflexology & Universal Studies ~ Now teaching throughout New England ~

100-Hour National Guild of Hypnotists Approved certification course

www.walkinbalance.com 508-317-3044

Includes 1 year FREE NGH Certification upon graduation

❖

Intensive 7-Month Herbal Apprenticeships Advanced Training – Transformational Weekends with Major Herbalists

❖

Aromatherapy Certification – Two Levels

❖

Lyme Disease Practitioner Training

❖

www.spiritofchange.org

A great education is spiritually transforming: You overcome your limitations and realize your highest potential, at the same time you learn the foundation and skills to succeed.

Excellent education is not by chance; it comes from years of listening to employers, graduates and students to find the best way to teach the most valuable information to make you successful.

As a leader in energy medicine and

Instructor John Koenig has practiced hypnosis in Rhode Island since 1998—his work featured on national television and author of The Hypnotic Coach.

AFFORDABLE HERBAL EDUCATION THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

bostonherbalstudies.com Arlington, MA ❖ 781-646-6319

You deserve an education that honors who you are and who you are becoming.

Programs take from 4 to 12 months, depending on your schedule: Full-time, mother’s hours or part-time evenings.

Accredited. Licensed. Financial Aid available for qualified students.

800-262-8530 ❖ www.spatech.edu

Ongoing certification courses offered throughout the northeast including: ✴ 7-Month Herbal Certification ✴ 4-Month European-Based Aromatherapy Introduction ✴ 4-Month Advanced Aromatherapy Course ✴ 3-Month Conscious Nutrition Course ✴ Palmistry a tool of diagnoses www.aromatherapyandherbalstudies.com 978-297-4502

1 How to hypnotize

make personal changes

For more information on all of our classes:

Ipswich • Plymouth • Westboro

You will learn:

CERTIFICATION TRAINING

Herbal Apprenticeships Advanced Training Aromatherapy - Levels One and Two

Massage | Aesthetics Polarity | RYSE

energy based education since 1980, Nancy Risley recognizes that your education is a transformational healing process. As a successful therapist, author and teacher, her vision is to help you realize your dream of work that is creative and supports all aspects of who you are. Whether you work in a spa, clinic, or have your own business, you gain the required skills to create satisfaction as well as increased flexibility, control and income.

The next step to fulfilling your future is to call for a no obligation, information interview with our Admissions Representative. We look forward to meeting you and learning about your future.

INTENSIVE HERBAL WEEKENDS

April 4, 5 – Cannabis and Medicine Making with Tammi Sweet May 16, 17 – Neuro-inflammation and Autoimmunity with Caroline Gagnon June 13, 14 – Depression as a tool of Transformation & the Mandala of the Endocrine System with Kathleen Maier

Experience healing, loving, empowering life energy in your hands Take control of your health and moods with the healing and self-care benefits of Reiki

Northeast Reiki Center

61 Nicholas Road, Framingham, MA 01701 508-808-5696 • NortheastReikiCenter.org Relieve stress, pain and chronic conditions

Approved Continuing Education in Reflexology, Massage, and Reiki Integrative techniques strengthen foundations and create a balanced treatment style NCBTMB provider

Our goal is to act as a bridge between complimentary and conventional medicine through the training of qualified holistic practitioners. Join us!

Learn how to use the natural, loving, renewing life energy of the Universe to feel less anxious and more content in life. Our one-day comprehensive, certification training provides the instruction and in-class practice you need to confidently bring Reiki’s healing to yourself, your loved ones and pets.

Receive training in the inspiring tradition in which it was meant to be taught, from a Reiki Master-Teacher with 15 years of experience. Receive a manual, your Reiki practitioner certificate, and ongoing afterclass instructor support. Plus, have the confirmation that Reiki’s energy is flowing through you by the end of the day.

Isn’t it time to express your full human potential?

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 69

Andrea Seiver, Ph.D.

Coaching

Carolyn McGee Soul Clarity Confidence Expert ❋ Are old worn out patterns and thoughts

getting in the way of your bliss? ❋ Do you sense your superpower of intuition

yet not take action on the messages? ❋ Are you spending precious energy second-

To reconnect with your Intuition, open the flow of your Divine Guidance to tap into your inner clarity for more confidence and abundance, I invite you to start with my “Soul Clarity System Bundle.”

Clear your energetic blocks to a joyful and abundant life, trust your intuition, take inspired action, and feel confident with every life and business decision.

Have you spoken with an ascended master recently? Vywamus, channeled by Andrea Seiver, is a master and teacher who is working to help all humans make the shift into the higher levels of consciousness.

Readings with Vywamus cover your life work, relationships, past lives, and other

CarolynMcGee.com

LIFE Wisdom Psychic Law of Attraction Expert

Ed also teaches workshops. See website for details.

Holistic Psychotherapy

Coaching sessions are in-person or by phone.

Lori Miller-Freitas, LICSW

“My session with Ed was not what I expected.

It was exactly what I needed, and I feel so much better.”

Working with Ed is unique and powerful.

His psychic ability, coaching skills, and

EdwardLangan.com facebook.com/edlangan.byb info@EdwardLangan.com ❖ 508 316-4574

Colon Hydrotherapy Experience colon hydrotherapy in a safe, relaxed environment using state-of-the-art FDA registered equipment.

Stephanie Dumas I-ACT Certified Colon Hydrotherapist, Owner

Lexington Medical Building 16 Clarke Street, Lexington, MA Cleansing for the body, the mind, the spirit

For information, contact Andrea at 617-332-1541 • www.andreaseiver.com Available Now! The Next Big Bang: The Explosion of Human Consciousness A Vywamus Book Read more at www.andreaseiver.com

Counseling and Therapy

calming manner have helped thousands of clients transform their lives. The Guides will answer questions about money, relationships, finding your soul mate, finding your life’s purpose, or any aspect of life.

Master Coach

Other Classes: Learn to Channel • Advanced Channeling

For more info, visit Carolyn McGee, Soul Clarity Confidence Expert, at

guessing your decisions?

ED LANGAN

Channeled Readings Classes

issues with his characteristic warmth, humor, and practical advice.

Channeled Classes and Spiritual Tutoring help you personally evolve and begin to live in a state of higher consciousness.

Evenings with Vywamus: Vywamus shares his energy and discusses your questions on topics of general interest. Donation $10.

stephanie@healthyspiritcleansing.com 781-860-5116

Get to the core — Transform your life!

You are on this earth to be happy and realize your true potential.

EMDR ✲ BSP ✲ Hypnosis ✲ Reiki

Certifications: LICSW, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, National Board of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists.

Visa/MC acccepted.

I use a combination of traditional, body centered and energy therapies to increase the speed and deepen the level of holistic healing.

294 Pleasant St. ✲ Ste. 103B ✲ Stoughton, MA www.eaglespirittherapies.com 781-297-2003

PATH TO THE PRESENT Diane Spindler, LMHC, LMFT Healing and teaching for over 25 years h Relief of PTSD and depression

Consciousness Transformation

Brainspotting A neurobiological tool for releasing traumatic/emotionally-charged issues within the brain.

Holistic Psychotherapy Clinical Consultation Using extensive professional experience to resolve issues related to: Trauma, Grief, PTSD, Anxiety and Phobias.

h Elimination of phobias h Reduction of anxiety, panic attacks,

unexplained body pain, nightmares, flashbacks, and dissociation

Psychotherapy clients have reached a point where they know why they feel badly, but don’t know how to release these bad feelings that keep them attached to their old stories and in the past. Using Gentle Reprocessing and other leading edge therapies, I help clients let go of these old stories so they can move on to a happier future.

If you’re a veteran, a first responder, a victim of physical, mental, or sexual abuse, a victim of a disaster, a person with a traumatic background, a person who has anger issues, or a person who is afraid of public speaking, this process could be for you. h 508-886-0007 h

www.GentleReprocessing.com

THE FREE SPIRIT — NOT A RELIGION • “The Speaking All-Unity – The Word

of the Universal Creator Spirit” • “This Is My Word – Alpha & Omega” • “The Life That I Chose Myself”

The Free Universal Spirit is the Teaching of Love for God and Neighbor toward People, Nature, and Animals

Spiritual books to learn from and attain high ethical moral values: www.Gabriele-Publishing-House.com Toll-free number: 1-844-576-0937

70 Spirit of Change SPRING/SUMMER 2020

It isn't enough to talk about peace.

One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it.

One must work at it.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

Center of the Heart Whole Health Integration

Joan Holzman, Psy. D. Lic. Psychologist, Lic. Marriage and Family Therapist Dance/Movement Therapist From the time we are very young we take life’s experiences to heart. Over time we may forget our core, hurts and feelings, but they remain with us. Our heartfelt experiences help shape our sense of self and our interactions with others.

Holistic Counseling Concepts Trish Whynot, D.C.Ed. Doctor of CORE Education Author of “Why Me? Why Now? WHY NOT? Finding opportunity in your obstacles.”

Dr. Trish Whynot’s approach is a blending of personal growth and spiritual wisdom incorporating ASAT™ C.O.R.E. Counseling, meditative techniques, and wise guidance that comes through the Mineral Kingdom.

Body-Centered Psychotherapy

I offer a variety of modalities such as: EMDR, Sandtray Therapy, Relaxation Techniques, Therapeutic Movement & Psychotherapy to help heal our core issues and attain a more integrated sense of health and well being. I look forward to meeting you.

Client Comments: Sandtray – “Sand tray therapy helped me see my life more clearly.”

EMDR – “I had insights I never had before.”

Therapeutic Movement – “It was great to feel the freedom in my body after working with you.”

42 Thoreau Street, Concord, MA 01742 978-369-6138

Get to the root of physical, social and financial problems. ✧ Learn approaches to living and loving that expect opportunities even during challenging times. ✧ Thrive on the wisdom, compassion and understanding gained from life experiences and open to an array of extraordinary futures.

Barbara Madden Johnson

“Barbara has a unique gift. She really helped me find the person I was meant to be buried under the layers of what people wanted me to be.”

Certified Master Hypnotist NLP Practitioner Energy Medicine Practitioner

You can do this. You can find peace of mind. You can make positive changes permanent. You can heal your body, mind, and soul. You may not know how to connect to the part of you that knows the way, but that part of you is still in you.

Barbara will help you reconnect and guide you on your unique healing path.

Barbara brings a rich blend of deep experience as a clinician, clinical supervisor, college administrator, and professor. She helps individuals resolve health issues, including learning disabilities, dyslexia, immune and auto-immune diseases, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and depression, as well as issues relating to career, identity, relationships, and more recently, gender identification.

Workshops and Sessions Available In Office, Phone or Skype Pittsfield and Windham, NH trish@trishwhynot.com www.TrishWhynot.com ✧ 978-314-4545

the power of the heart. Emotional safety, words, touch, meditation, movement, presence and silence facilitate verbal and non-verbal expression. Meaningful work, fulfilling relationships, self-esteem, purpose and passion, love, intimacy and sexuality follow. Straight, GLBT and poly-friendly.

Mediation for couples and families Coaching for soul-centered living Body psychotherapy groups Monthly Community as Healer Group meets on Sunday afternoons in Newton

Listen to your body…follow your heart.

The heart is the first organ to form in the body, and is the organizing factor for physical formation, including brain formation. Trauma, deprivation or neglect creates heart wounds, which keep us from accessing our deepest selves.

Linda is the author of Living with Vision and Healing the War Between the Genders.

Emotional-Kinesthetic Psychotherapy (EKP) facilitates an emotional, energetic rewiring, helping us activate and express

Newton, MA www.healingheartpower.com lsmheart@aol.com 617-913-0683

People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.

— Norman Vincent Peale

Portal Crystal Gallery

Barbara Madden Johnson, MA, CAGS, LPC 617-484-1716 UcanEmerge@aol.com

✲ Minerals and Jewelry ✲ Top Quality Selection ✲ Weekly Classes ✲ Guest Presenters ✲ Available for Rental ✲ Meditations and Workshops

Crystals & Wellness Space

489 Mass. Ave., Arlington, MA 12 – 5 PM daily Kyle@CrystalConcentrics.com

Kyle Russell, Founder

617-771-5119 ✲ PortalCrystalGallery.com

Feng Shui Signe (Sinny) Nelson deSigner Feng Shui and Staging Allow me to assist you in creating and achieving an environment in your home or business that will help promote and sustain healthy brains and bodies. Other services I

provide include blessing ceremonies, blue print site plan reading and removing negative chi or energy left from previous occupants.

As a Realtor I will help you find a wonderful home, where you feel safe, secure and stable.

Whether you wish to build the home of your dreams or find a new to you home, I will assist you in realizing the perfect space and place, where your dreams can take root, grow and blossom.

CALL SIGNE (SINNY) NELSON TODAY: 617-939-4657 • signe.nelson@yahoo.com

Healing and Bodywork Experience healing, loving, empowering life energy in your hands Take control of your health and moods with the healing and self-care benefits of Reiki

Northeast Reiki Center

61 Nicholas Road, Framingham, MA 01701 508-808-5696 • NortheastReikiCenter.org Relieve stress, pain and chronic conditions

www.spiritofchange.org

Be at your creative potential now.

Crystals

✧

“What impressed me about Dr. Trish Whynot was her ability to see through the chaos of life’s web and identify the root cause of any problem.”

— Bob Olson, Afterlifetv.com

– Sheryl C., Boston, MA

Learn how to use the natural, loving, renewing life energy of the Universe to feel less anxious and more content in life. Our one-day comprehensive, certification training provides the instruction and in-class practice you need to confidently bring Reiki’s healing to yourself, your loved ones and pets.

Receive training in the inspiring tradition in which it was meant to be taught, from a Reiki Master-Teacher with 15 years of experience. Receive a manual, your Reiki practitioner certificate, and ongoing afterclass instructor support. Plus, have the confirmation that Reiki’s energy is flowing through you by the end of the day.

Isn’t it time to express your full human potential?

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 71

SACRED RESONANCE HEALING Bena Phillipo Holy Fire III Karuna Reiki Master/Teacher

SPRING AND SUMMER SCHEDULE • Holy Fire III, Reiki I & II Class April 18th & 19th • Holy Fire III, Reiki Master/Teacher Class June 12th - 14th • Summer Solstice Celebration Saturday, June 20th • Holy Fire III, Karuna Class July 17th – 19th • Holy Fire III, Reiki I & II Class August 15th & 16th • Reiki Shares usually fall on the second Saturday of the month. Please let me know if you are coming…

My journey has led to me to my own healing practice, SACRED RESONANCE HEALING. The sacred practices, symbols and guides imbued and experienced along the way resonate strongly within. Trust and free will blend into one powerful, healing energy, which I channel and transfer to others.

To touch, in order to heal: That seems to be my calling. I first answered this calling when I was in my 20’s as a deep tissue massage therapist.

Exploring the healing arts in the San Francisco bay area, I came upon many practitioners who used a variety of modalities. Some combined different techniques in a single session, which worked well for me. Knowing this, I went on to learn many different healing modalities: Chi Nei Tsang, Shiatsu, Reflexology, Craniosacral Therapy then Reiki and EM. I have had great success combining these in various ways.

EM is a type of energy medicine that combines ancient Chinese systems, including acupuncture, feng shui, with modern knowledge of physics and anatomy. EM allows practitioners to diagnose and treat people over long distances. Tapping into Universal QI for both diagnosing and treating both western diseases and balancing eastern flows.

SacredResonanceHealing.com 43 Highland St., Southborough, MA 01772 508-303-0366 Bena@SacredResonanceHealing.com

Bringing complimentary and alternative care to our community...

We are a dedicated and professional group of practitioners providing compassionate care to assist our clients on their journey to wellness.

Acupuncture Reflexology Cupping Massage (over 10 types, including prenatal!)

18 North Meadows Rd, Unit 12B, Medfield, MA

Gua Sha TuiNa Therapeutic Ultrasound

holisticwellnesscenter.org | 508-359-7400 Now located in the Medfield Crossing Shopping Plaza on Route 27

Holistic Health Coaching and more!

…and if that isn’t enough, crystals & gifts too!

THE JOHN HARVEY GRAY CENTER FOR

This includes numerous doctors, nurses, massage therapists, and bodyworkers, as well as the general public.

Reiki Healing

Lourdes Gray, RMT, Director A charismatic and highly experienced Reiki Master Teacher, Lourdes Gray received her entire Reiki Training from her late-husband John Harvey Gray, who was considered the longest-practicing Reiki Master Teacher in the world before his passing in 2011. Lourdes has taught over 1,500 Usui Reiki classes and trained more than 15,000 Reiki students alone or with John Harvey Gray over the last 23 years.

Reiki IET Polarity

©

Libby Barnett, MSW, RMT Awaken Your Healing Touch Libby is a gifted, knowledgeable Reiki Master with 41 years experience. Libby learned Reiki from John Harvey Gray in 1979, and is the longest practicing Reiki Master Teacher on the East Coast. Her book, Reiki Energy Medicine, Bringing Healing Touch into Home, Hospital, and Hospice has sold over 75,000 copies in five languages.

Use Reiki to create more joy, ease, and happiness. Let Libby’s warm, heart-centered approach help you take your next step toward self-love and inner peace. Reiki brings balance and harmony, supporting you doing the work you were born to do.

Reiki facilitates transitions, promotes creativity and wisdom, and accelerates spiritual growth, helping you manifest your magnificence.

Libby has been teaching Reiki at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health for 15 years. She has taught medical and nursing students at Harvard, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Brown, Tufts, and Yale, as well as staff at Mass General, Brigham and Women’s, Beth Israel, Mt. Auburn, Emerson, DartmouthHitchcock, Southern New Hampshire, New York Columbia Presbyterian hospitals, and social workers at the University of Maryland. Libby was featured in a Reiki segment for the PBS nationally televised series, Body and Soul.

Graduates of other Reiki teachers welcome.

Reiki I, Reiki II, and Reiki Master classes offered at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health starting October 30.

Additional Reiki training dates can be found at: reikienergy.com

One of Libby’s passions is teaching hospice staff and volunteers. Fueled by Reiki energy, their healing touch is

To register or for more information: reikienergy.com reiki@reikienergy.com • 603-654-2787

Deborah Strafuss is a dedicated practitioner committed to the health and wellness of her clients, and a devoted teacher gently guiding her students into their own experience of Reiki through attunement and training.

WHAT HER CLIENTS SAY:

DEBORAH STRAFUSS

“Deborah is a caring professional who puts a - Brenda new client at ease.”

Reiki Master and Teacher, Usui Reiki Ryoho

“I felt so at peace last night. I slept through the night and am still at peace this morning.” - Steff WHAT HER STUDENTS SAY:

Creating a Personal Path to Inner Healing through Reiki

The John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing 9 Blake Street, Jaffrey, NH 03452 Visa/MC accepted

Crystal Reiki offers traditional Usui Reiki, Crystal Chakra Balancing, Space Healing and Clearing and Reiki Training, Shares and Classes for those desiring to incorporate Reiki into their lives and work.

72 Spirit of Change SPRING/SUMMER 2020

Reiki I, Boston Area Classes: Weston, MA: March 21 or May 30 or September 19 Concord, MA: March 14 or June 13 Reiki I, Wilton, NH Classes: Wilton, NH: March 7 or May 16 or September 26 Reiki II Class: on day following Reiki I Class Reiki Master, Wilton, NH Class: April 4 or July 18

All credit cards accepted.

Social Work, Nursing and Massage contact hours/CEU’s available. Reiki Master Teacher Training info available on request.

Check out our reviews on Facebook.

9,000+ likes and 76 5-Star Reviews!

See full class schedule: learnreiki.org ✴ 603-933-0943

"My commitment to teach the Usui System of Reiki Healing in the authentic, traditional manner inspired me to visit Japan to retrace the roots of Reiki. I am dedicated to teaching this sacred healing art to promote health and conscious living on the planet. I invite you to give yourself the gift of Reiki. It is an easy, effective self-care tool to love, heal, and empower yourself. I look forward to meeting you and sharing Reiki.”

“Libby has a beautiful way of teaching and creates a perfect atmosphere for healing and learning.”

Together, John Harvey Gray and Lourdes Gray wrote their best selling book, Hand To Hand, a favorite among Reiki enthusiasts worldwide. In 2008, John Harvey Gray officially designated Lourdes Gray as his sole “Reiki Lineage Bearer.”

We offer a full range of Reiki classes, including Reiki 1, Reiki 2, Reiki 2 Advanced, Reiki Master, Reiki Crystal Healing, Past Life Regression, Walking the Dead (Reiki for End of Life and Hospice) and Learn to See Auras. (All classes include lessons on how to treat your pet with Reiki.)

enhanced, creating greater effectiveness in calming agitation, soothing pain and providing comfort.

In class, a powerful slide presentation captures the essence of Reiki and highlights the latest research. Reiki stories from Libby’s extensive experience will uplift and inspire you, showing how anyone can learn Reiki. You receive attunements and practice giving and receiving Reiki. You leave class with an illustrated notebook, certificate, and Reiki pin, fully trained and certified to do Reiki on yourself, family, friends, and animals. “Hands on, Reiki’s on.”

“I love your space, the location, the energy of it, how prepared you were. I think you are a very professional and comforting presence.” - Bonnie Find Crystal Reiki at The Gentle Place Wellness Center in Framingham, MA ✲ 508-353-5136 ✲ www.CrystalReikiEnergy.com

Herbal Healing

Healing: Combined Modalities Kathleen Farris, M.Ed. RMT Kathleen is a professional medium, psychic, healer and teacher. She has been using her skills to serve Spirit and people for several years.

Kathleen is available for psychic/mediumistic readings and Reiki, in person or virtually.

intuitive HEALING

Wendy Marks

M.Ed, C.A.S., FAPA ✲ Medical intuitive sessions, energy heal-

ing and integrative therapy ✲ 30 years of experience in traditional and

complementary healthcare

CLASSES: Introduction to Psychic Development and Mediumship Development classes are open and ongoing.

I teach class twice per month out of 4 locations. For more info on classes visit: kathleenfarris.com/classes READINGS: “Her readings are just as amazing and accurate. She brings a humorous and lighthearted flare to her readings making you feel comfortable and at ease as you receive these amazing messages.” - Sylvia F KathleenFarris.com • 413-519-1730

AROMATHERAPY

Kehoe-Barbosa

TRUE QUANTUM HEALING ON ROOT CAUSE LEVELS Healing sessions via phone or skype. See our website for more information and youtube videos. info@nicolakb.com nicolakb.com V 857-526-1651

HOLISTIC WOMEN’S HEALTH

10% off your initial visit!

By appointment.

Shop: Saturday 10am-2pm

206 Worcester Road #35, Princeton, MA 01541 508-827-2733 holisticwomanshealth.com

Facebook Hillside Herbals for monthly herbal workshops and other events.

206 Worcester Road #35, Princeton, MA 01541 508-847-8615 hillsideherbals.com

Services include functional medicine testing and well-woman gynecological care.

Holistic Medical

spiritual health ✲ Works with individuals to develop their

own intuitive skills “By healing ourselves we create changes that have a ripple effect on the world around us.”

Looking for practical guidance to create your own spiritual path? You’ll find it in Wendy’s book Your Soul’s Companion, available on her website and at amazon.com. www.wendymarks.com ✲ 781-449-5368 wlm922@wendymarks.com

PAULINE KOSOWAN

Reiki Master Practitioner and Teacher Aromatherapist 67 Coddington St, LL2, Quincy, MA 02170

Experience a holistic approach to wellness at the BioMed Center Our caring medical and dental experts use advanced technology to treat you, not your symptoms. ✦

We focus on preventing, reversing, and correcting the deepest roots of chronic and degenerative disease by restoring your body’s systematic processes.

✦

We offer fast, painless, and nontoxic therapeutics that follow a noninvasive prevention and healing medical model committed to personalized care.

✦

We took the best bioregulatory medical technologies from around the globe and brought them into one facility, seamlessly integrating medicine and dentistry to treat the whole patient.

Learn more about our assessments, therapeutics, and integrated care packages.

Contact the BioMed Center New England today to get started.

American Center for Bioregulatory Medicine and Dentistry 111 Chestnut St., #1, Providence, RI 02903 BiomedNE.com 833-8BIOMED ✦ 833-824-6633

508-737-1384 ✧ lifeforcereiki.com

Mind Body Spirit Well-Being with Reiki and Essential Oils

Nicola

APRN, CNM

✲ Improve your physical, mental, and

LIFE FORCE

REIKI &

RACHEL ROSS,

HILLSIDE HERBALS

~ Family Wellness with Herbs ~ Find herbal solutions for the whole family

pauline@lifeforcereiki.com

V

Do you suffer with pain or anxiety? Are you feeling down or have no energy?

V

Do you want to heal the root cause of your problem?

V

Through True Quantum Healing, I use pendulum dowsing and a series of charts to identify where the problem is within your body and its root cause.

I use sacred geometry tools to amplify this healing to deeper levels.

V

Effective on mental, emotional, physical and spiritual levels.

Homeopathy Experience the Healing Energy of

Homeopathy ABBY BEALE, CCH RSHom(NA)

it’s depression, anxiety, women’s issues, digestive troubles, child behavior problems, or more, know that homeopathy works with your body to relieve symptoms, restore vitality, and improve your overall health.

Ask about Tea with a Homeopath events or beginner study groups.

Are you looking for a smarter way to heal your body from nagging chronic issues?

By appointment only: Online AND In-person (Northampton, MA)

Homeopathic care is holistic and individualized, taking into account all of who you are and how you experience life – mentally, emotionally, and physically. Whether

ABBY BEALE, CCH RSHOM(NA) homeopathyhealings@gmail.com HomeopathyHealings.com k 413-426-1024

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

If everyone demanded peace instead of

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

another television set, then there'd be peace.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

www.spiritofchange.org

— John Lennon SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 73

Mediumship | Psychic Soul Direction Reading

Natural Products

Ask questions and gain insight during this interactive hour-long reading.

Luxurious SEAT AND FEET CUSHIONING

SHEEPSKIN

MAMA

Ethically Sourced Sheepskins

• Kundalini Yoga • Meditation Room • Healing Reiki • Outdoor Fun • Motorcycles Seat Cushioning • Many Colors Available

Private Readings, in-person or by phone

Messages From Heaven Healing and Learning Center 646 Central St., Leominster 978-297-9790 | bonniepagemedium.com

Connecting to Spirit for inspiration, sustenance and support for your life’s journey

SOUL ART Nancy offers sessions in the Akashic Records to open to your Soul. She will sketch while she reads. You will receive your art a couple weeks later.

SHEEPSKINMAMA.COM

Nutrition Holistic Nutrition Services, LLC BETH COLON, M.S., BCHN

Nutrition Counselor Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition Certified GAPS Practitioner Specializing in digestive wellness

Come on a journey with me to improve your health with holistic nutrition.

PROGRAMS: ✳ Digestive Wellness ✳ GAPS ✳ Liver Health and Cleansing ✳ Brain Health ✳ Cancer Recovery ✳ Lymphedema Management

978-340-0448 www.HolisticNutritionServices.com

Nancy guides you into a connection with spirit and your soul for guidance, healing and direction. Connect with a loved one who has passed or receive Soul messages in a session with Nancy. Ask about package discounts and mentoring relationships.

READINGS AND SESSIONS IN

Spiritual mediumship Spirit portraits of loved ones in Spirit ✦ Akashic record life readings ✦ Group sessions and classes ✦ Akashic Training ✦ Soul Art ✦ ✦

Readings KELLE SUTLIFF

Kelle is often a guest on television and radio programs talking about her work and will do live readings on the air. She is featured locally on programs and on national circuits.

q

PSYCHIC MEDIUM | NEW AGE AUTHOR PSYCHIC INVESTIGATOR Call for Readings: ✺ 978-420-8213 ✺ psychicmediumkelle.com Kelle Sutliff’s work has been seen on ABC, CBS, and FOX News Networks, and in The Boston Herald, The Boston Globe, and Working Women.

Kelle’s yearly predictions have been covered in over 170 media markets.

Her credits include predicting the 45th President of the United States 18 months before President Trump was elected, as documented in The Boston Herald newspaper.

Kelle’s psychic predictions for 2016 were #1 on Google out of 1.5 million psychic predictions for the new year.

Her website, psychicmediumkelle.com, features her blog which was awarded “Top 100 Psychic Blogs” for her writings.

A Little Bit of Everything Reading • Mediumship (reaching loved ones in Heaven) • Intuitive/Psychic (career, love,relationships) • Your Soul Life Purpose

“I am a psychic medium, author and psychic investigator who has been practicing for over eighteen years. I love to read for others and enjoy being the conduit for my clients. I consult, as a medium and psychic, so my clients get a lot out of my readings.

“It truly is a gift to be able to do this work and by that I am honored daily with the work I do.”

Look for Kelle’s new mini book, Your Spirit With IN You out Summer 2019. It’s a small book with a powerful message.

Her last book, Listen Up, The Other Side IS Talking, won two awards — “Readers’ Favorite” and “Mom’s Choice Award” in 2014. Her books are available on Amazon and psychicmediumkelle.com.

Her North Andover, MA office is located at 800 Turnpike Street, Suite 300 for in-person appointments. She also reads via Skype and phone at 978-420-8213 for national and international clients.

Sessions are $225 per hour and $160 per half hour. At least 24-hour booking advancement is required.

I look forward to having the opportunity to read for you.

74 Spirit of Change SPRING/SUMMER 2020

~

Much blessings, Kelle

Nancy Johansen RN, CCH, RMT

SOUL ART MENTORING Nancy Also offers Soul Art Mentoring over a period of time. This mentoring includes Akashic healing work, sketches to help you on your way, and a final piece of art that commemorates your Journey and gives you a vision of you on your Soul’s path.

Interested in finding out more about training or mentorship? Contact Nancy for a FREE discovery session 978-835-0005 ✦ nancy@angelscapes.net Haverhill, MA ✦ angelscapes.net

Connecting you with your Angelic Dream Team, creating your Happily Ever After Angel Readings ✳ Past Life Regression Angel Therapy® ✳ Reiki ✳ Hypnotherapy

at Angeltouche

Soulful Life Coaching Psychic Intuitive ✳ Angel Therapy Practitioner ®

Private sessions in person or distance by phone and e-mail.

Classes and workshops ~ Franklin, MA Nancy@Angeltouche.com www.Angeltouche.com ✳ 508-577-4552

Skin Care, Salons and Spas

Holistic Skin Care Body and Soul A warm amethyst bed awaits you, along with transporting scents, hot stones and healing hands in this total relaxation session, that rejuvenates your skin and nurtures your whole being.

“I feel I’ve been blending products and potions for centuries. I love meeting your skin and wellness needs from season to season. Healing with oils and essences is always a life-giving blessing to me, as is sharing the gift of health with all I teach about personality and self care.*” – Nikki Davis MA, Holistic Therapist

* FREE uplifting astrological insight graces each session For an appointment with Nikki, call 617-332-0890 or visit HolisticOasis.com

Spiritual Practices The Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism ARLINGTON MASONIC TEMPLE 19 Academy St., Arlington, MA (off Mass Ave., easy access by T via Harvard Sq.) The Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism embraces a religious and spiritual belief blending ancient wisdom with contemporary thought. Services are held at 10:30 AM every Sunday, with mediumship, live music, inspirational talks, and healing by laying on of hands.

As an evolving spiritual community, The Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism offers weekday evening classes in mediumship, healing, and meditation; mediums days are the last Sunday of the month; and seminars and workshops through the year.

For a brochure with upcoming events, or to speak with the Pastor, call us. Visit our website for current events or more information.

An affiliate of the Spiritualists United Network (SUN) and the International Spiritualist Federation

Our mailing address: 40-44 Spring St., Watertown, MA 02472 617-923-4334 GreaterBostonChurchofSpiritualism.com

Please contact us or visit one of these New England locations:

When we change... the world changes.

Methods of achieving stability and clarity of mind become more and more essential as our social, political, and economic structures change dramatically. Raja Yoga is a simple but powerful form of meditation that can help you to develop peace of mind, resilience, and inner strength.

The Brahma Kumaris is a worldwide spiritual organization, affiliated with the UN and recipient of seven Peace Messenger awards. Classes include meditation and a range of other practical tools for self-transformation. Workshops, group meditations, and retreats are held regularly.

All activities are offered free of charge, as a community service.

❂ Brahma Kumaris Learning Center for Peace

75 Common St, Watertown, MA 617-926-1230 • bknewengland.org boston@us.brahmakumaris.org ❂ Inner Space Meditation Center & Gallery

1110 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 617-547-1110 • innerspaceharvardsq.org info@innerspaceharvardsq.org ❂ Shrewsbury @ ATFS Center

433 South St, Shrewsbury, MA 617-926-1230 shrewsbury@bknewengland.org ❂ Providence

123 North Main St, Providence, RI 401-354-2693 providence@bknewengland.org ❂ Manchester

575 W. Willow St, Ste 209, Manchester, NH 603-622-5500 manchester@bknewengland.org

Yoga

Ann Bissanti

Worcester Yoga Center Hatha Yoga begins with refining the physical body but does not stop there. The exercises involve slow precise stretching, strengthening, and breathing techniques, which not only tone the muscles but affect internal organs, nerves, skin, and virtually

all body systems, making Yoga a superior wholistic method for physical fitness and preventive and corrective health care.

Certified Yoga teacher and therapist Ann Bissanti, trained in India by B.KS. Iyengar, has studied Yoga and meditation for the past 30 years. She has taught Yoga at Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick, at various fitness centers and adult education programs, and privately.

Call us for more information.

Worcester Yoga Center 21 West Street, Worcester, MA 01609 WorcesterYogaCenter.com | 508-829-6300

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

— Albert Einstein www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 75

Directory of Holistic Specialties ANGELS

EM HEALING

PAST LIFE THERAPY

Ross J. Miller, psychic. Meet your angels and spirit

Sacred Resonance Healing. Bena Phillipo, EM Level

Ross J. Miller. Relive past lives and release blocked

guides. 617-527-3583. Visit www.The MysticWay.com

ANIMAL SERVICES

4 practitioner. Holy Fire III Karuna Reiki Master/ Teacher. Southborough, MA. 508-303-0366. www.SacredResonanceHealing.com.

MASH Integrative Veterinary Care, since 1982. Dr. Margo Roman & Associates. 508-435-4077. MashVet.com

FENG SHUI

ARVIGO THERAPY

Rutkowski, MS, RN. Consulting and education. www.FSSone.com.

Noreen Cerqua, LCMT and certified Arvigo®

Feng Shui Services of New England. Julie Pelletier-

energy. 617-527-3583. www.The MysticWay.com

QIGONG Eastover Retreat and Eco-Village. Classes, retreats,

energy healing with authentic qi masters. 430 East St., Lenox, MA. 866-264-5139. www.eastover.com

READINGS

practitioner. Walpole, MA. 508-397-8287. wwwWombCareAndConnection.com.

GHOSTS REMOVED

ASTROLOGY

medium, healer. Call 617-527-3583. www.The MysticWay.com

REIKI

HEALTH FREEDOM INFORMATION

Malloy Ramaci. Holy Fire III Advanced/RMT. 508230-3680. Womenofwisdominc.com Libby Barnett, MSW, MSW, Reiki Master Teacher and author. 38 years Reiki experience. 603-654-2787 www.reikienergy.com. CEU’s.

Patricia Warren, Reiki Master Teacher. All levels of Reiki Jin Kei Do training plus Buddho Healing.

508-528-5888. PatriciaWarren.com

Eric Linter, over 25 years experience. Readings,

classes, daily forecast. stars@ericlinter.com. 508-541-4115.

CHILDREN’S HEALTH Touchstone Community School. Education for ages

From Your Home/Aura. Ross J. Miller, psychic

Health Freedom Action Massachusetts is dedicated

to passing health freedom legislation in the Bay State. www.hfama.org

4-14. Grafton, MA. 508-839-0038. www.touchstoneschool.com.

HERBS

COLON HYDROTHERAPY

workshops, herb walks, and consultations. www.hillsideherbals.com

Genesis Alternative Health. 34 years of experience.

I-ACT certified instructor. NBCHT certified.

603-347-1861. detoxgenesis.com

COUNSELING & THERAPY Joel Perlmutter, PhD. Licensed 35 years. Stress,

anxiety, relationships. Stow, MA and Putnam, CT. 978-897-9797

CRYSTALS

Elemental Energies With Chris Ann and Jeff. Over 1,000 varieties of crystals from around the world. www.chrisann-jeff.com Portal Crystal Gallery, Arlington Center.

489 Mass. Ave. (open 7 days, 12-5pm).

Kyle@PortalCrystalGallery.com. 617-771-5119

DEPRESSION & ANXIETY TREATMENT Healed in 2 Hours. Ross J. Miller, psychic healer. 617-

527-3583. www.TheMysticWay.com

EMF PROTECTION The Rejuvenizer®, protection from EMFs and other

damaging frequencies. www.lighthealing.com. 512-301-2999

Hillside Herbals. Rachel Ross, RN, CNM. Classes,

HOMEOPATHY Abby Beale, CCH. Certified in classical

homeopathy. Online and in person. Homeopathy relieves symptoms and restores vitality naturally.

HomeopathyHealings.com

HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY Hyperbaric Vermont Oxygen Therapy offers

treatment and chamber sales for home use. www.communityhyperbaric.com. 802-472-8900.

MEDICAL INTUITIVE Sue Singleton, Nearly 30 years, 9,000+ readings.

Incomparable detail, accuracy and action plan.

Compassionate advanced healing restores health.

978-834-0341. TheWayToBalance.com/medicalintuitive-readings.

Nancy Smith, spiritual medium and Akashic life readings. 978-835-0005. www.angelscapes.net

Holy Fire III Training. Women of Wisdom. Katie

The John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing.

603-899-3288. www.learnreiki.org

Sacred Resonance Healing. Bena Phillipo, Holy Fire III Karuna Reiki Master/Teacher. Southborough, MA. 508-303-0366. www.SacredResonanceHealing.com.

Sacred Song Reiki and Sound Healing. Priscilla

Gale, Reiki Master/Teacher. SacredSongReiki.com.

Northeast Reiki Center. All levels of traditional Reiki

Training. 508-808-5696 www.northeastreikicenter.org

RETREAT CENTERS Brahma Kumaris Peace Village Retreat Center.

Haines Falls, NY. 518-589-5000. www.peacevillageretreat.org

TACHYON The Sanctuary for Celestial Empowerment. Tachyon

of experience. 781-449-5368. www.wendymarks.com

healing and anti-aging sessions, and Tachyon energy products. www.celestialempowerment.com.

PAIN RELIEF

YOGA

Pat Lebau, MA, ERYT-500, Kripalu Yoga teacher, offers Integrated Positional Therapy sessions. Discover how to relieve your pain. PatLebauyoga.com

Worcester Yoga Center. Ann Bissanti, CYT. Over 30 years experience Iyengar yoga. 508-829-6300. worcesteryogacenter.com

Intuitive Healing with Wendy Marks. Over 25 years

Add your listing! Next deadline: July 31, 2020. Email advertise@spiritofchange.org.

76 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2020

ASTROLOGY YOUR DAILY READING.

Visit spiritofchange.org for astrologer Eric Linter's daily word.

HYPNOSIS Kathryn McGlynn, Certified Hypnotist. Past Life Regression and metaphysical hypnosis.

Schedule your private or group session today for a transformative experience. (781) 3402146. ybglum@juno.com. www.hypnosis.ws

REALTORS

SPIRITUAL SINGLES Ready for a conscious, evolved relationship?

Our amazing members value spiritual growth, yoga, meditation and sustainable living. 20 years online! Join now — Meet your soulmate. www.SpiritualSingles.com..

VOLUNTEER

BUSINESS SERVICES Save on your credit card processing fees!

Contact Merchant Services Consulting Group in Upton, MA today! (508) 720-1514. www.MSCGNE.com

DOWSING

Make a Difference and Become an Ascend Hospice Volunteer in Massachusetts

All About Dowsing. Discover the science of dowsing. Self-instructional DVD’s, books, Original Cameron Aurameter. www.dowsing. com. (805) 649-5721. Catalog: PO Box 30305, Santa Barbara, CA 93130.

Contact one of our Volunteer Supervisors for more information Jennifer.Fenuccio@ascendhealth.com Kelly.Bollman@ascend.com 508-229-8390

GUIDANCE Intuitive advisor available to counsel and guide your direction. Over 30 years experience.

Contact Linda at A Creative Insight.

(781) 599-8275.

Visit our website to learn more about our specialized hospice care and services AscendHospice.com

HELP WANTED

WOMEN'S HEALTH

Health freedom office support volunteer needed to track lobbying efforts and data for 2020 legislative efforts. Work from home. Flexible hours. Join a great team! Contact Carol Bedrosian at carol@spiritofchange.org

Getting Older, Getting Better

HEALTH RESOURCES

Individual or group sessions for your next life stage.

Develop your own strategic life plan.

RETREATS Ground yourself naturally with a stay at Inn Nature BandB, located in the foothills of the Berkshires. Walk barefoot onto the green roof, work in the garden, enjoy solitude in the gazebo on the hilltop. www.innnature.com

SPACE AVAILABLE

Find Alternative Medicine Practitioners, Products, Books, Magazines, Blogs, Workshops and More!

Newton Center Office Space For Rent. Full-time/part-time availability.

Inviting, furnished psychotherapy suite includes private office, waiting room, clerical space and bathroom.

Contact Chris Gruener (617) 965-6552, crossroads-counseling-services.com, chris.gruener@comcast.net.

SPIRITUAL GOODS

SUBMIT YOUR AD Fall/Winter issue deadline: July 31, 2020 Email advertise@spiritofchange.org or call (508) 278-9640 x5. www.spiritofchange.org

BetweenHeavenAndHell.boutique. 5500+ eclectic, unique, spiritual gifts for the soul.

Awakened crystals, large activated skulls, gemstone bowls, apparel, accessories, home decor, art prints, handcrafted wearable art jewelry, 14K gold, sterling, holy medals, prayer lockets, vintage, art deco, more!

Catherine DeLorey has more than 40 years experience as a health coach and women’s health advocate.

Catherine DeLorey Women’s Health Institute Catherine@alumni.harvard.edu 617-739-2923

YOGA Certified Yoga teacher and therapist Ann Bissanti, trained in India by B.KS. Iyengar, has studied Yoga and meditation for the past 30 years. She has taught Yoga at Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick, at various fitness centers and adult education programs, and privately. Call for more information.

Worcester Yoga Center

21 West Street, Worcester, MA 01609 WorcesterYogaCenter.com (508)829-6300

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Alternatives for Health................................... 31 American Society of Dowsers.......................... 7 Amma............................................................... 63 Ananda Church of Southern Maine............... 5 Anastasia’s Health Happenings...................... 56 Angels Teach.................................................... 58 Angelscapes.................................................59,74 Angeltouche..................................................... 74 Arvigo Therapy................................................ 31 Ascend Hospice............................................... 77 Aspire Magazine................................................ 4 Rebecca Austill Clausen................................. 58 Awake to Your Dreams................................... 63

Optimism Plus................................................. 11 P

Index of Advertisers Spring/Summer 2020

B Balance Within................................................ 36 Libby Barnett.................................................... 72 Beadniks........................................................... 36 Abby Beale........................................................ 73 Bethany Jewell Yoga........................................ 33 Bhavna's Wellness Group............................... 25 Biomed Center of New England, The........... 73 Bliss Through Yoga.......................................... 33 Boston School of Herbal Studies, The........... 69 Brahma Kumaris.............................................. 75 Mark Braunstein.............................................. 31

D Dancing Jaguar Inspirations.......................... 55 Deb’s Firefly Massage School........................... 9 Dinno Health................................................... 47 E Easton Yoga Center......................................... 33 Eastover Estate and Retreat............................ 35 Eclectic Institute of Aromatherapy and Herbal Studies, The..................................... 69 Elemental Energies.......................................... 13 Enchanted Fox................................................. 19 F Kathleen Farris................................................. 73 FrogPond Yoga Centre.................................... 33 G Gabrielle Publishing House........................... 70 Arthur Gertler.................................................. 26 Dan Gilman...................................................... 36 David Goulet.................................................... 50 Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism........ 75 Groton Wellness Center................................... 9 Gracelyn Guyol................................................ 55 H HandTales......................................................... 43 Harmony Integrative Bodywork.................... 33 Hawkeye Home Inspections.......................... 23

R Relax Saunas..................................................... 21 Rhys Thomas Institute...................................... 7 Ridgefield Playhouse....................................... 19 Maryann Roefaro............................................ 40 S

Fall/Winter 2020 deadline: July 31, 2020

(508) 278-9640 • advertise@spiritofchange.org

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

C Cambridge Health Alliance............................ 49 Yvonne Chen.................................................... 68 Church of Scientology.................................... 59 Circles of Wisdom........................................... 23 Kevin Conklin.................................................. 50 Core Connection, The..................................... 33 Cosmic Cat....................................................... 50 Crystal Reiki..................................................... 72

Bonnie Page.................................................56,74 Path to the Present.......................................... 70 Pets and Spirits................................................. 58 Phoenix Rising Healing.................................. 51 Monique Pommier.......................................... 68 Portal Crystal Gallery..................................... 71 Pyramid Books................................................ 21

— George Orwell

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Healing from the Body Level Up................... 27 Healthy Spirit................................................... 70 Heaven and Earth Studio................................ 24 David Helfand.................................................. 61 Higher Brain Living........................................ 39 Hillside Herbals............................................... 73 Holistic Nutrition Services............................. 74 Holistic Oasis................................................... 74 Holistic Wellness Center...........................25,72 Joan Holzman.................................................. 71 Hyperbaric Vermont....................................... 29

Life Force Reiki & Aromatherapy................. 73 Light Unlimited............................................... 79 Eric Linter......................................................... 68 Lotus Flower Living........................................ 15 LoveLight Illuminations................................. 10 Lucid Path Wellness........................................ 38 Andrew Lutts.................................................... 63 Dawn Lynn, Medium...................................... 57

I Illuminating Light Healing Center................ 69 Inner Light Boston.......................................... 63 Inner Traditions............................................... 19 InSpiral Iridology............................................ 26 Integrative Health Techniques....................... 59 J John Harvey Gray Center............................... 72 Barbara Johnson.............................................. 71 Johnson Compounding and Wellness Center................................... 50 Journeyworks................................................... 36

M M.A.S.H.......................................................41,57 Maha Yoga Center........................................... 33 Marconic Recalibration.................................. 53 Tina Marian...................................................... 38 Linda Marks..................................................... 73 Massachusetts Satsang Society, Inc..........42,49 Massage Envy..................................................... 2 Mari McCarthy................................................ 15 Colin McCullough........................................... 17 Carolyn McGee...........................................12,70 Metrowest Thermal Imaging.......................... 35 Ross Miller..............................................15,49,63 Lori Miller-Freitas........................................... 70 Mountainbrook Yoga...................................... 33 N

Nicole Kehoe-Barbosa.................................... 73 Jane King........................................................... 55 John Koenig...................................................... 69

Kathleen Nagy.................................................. 42 Natural Living Expo........................................ 80 NE Institute of Reflexology............................ 69 Signe Nelson..................................................... 71 Northeast Reiki Center.............................69, 71

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Ed Langan......................................................... 70 Pat LeBau.......................................................... 47

Olson Media Group.......................................... 4 Opening Lotus Yoga........................................ 33

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Sacred Resonance.......................................35,72 Sacred Rivers Yoga.......................................... 33 Sacred Song Reiki.........................................9,39 Sacred Stone Academy.................................... 11 Sanctuary for Celestial Empowerment, The.................................... 24 Scalar Energy Healing..................................... 55 Science of Spirituality..................................... 38 Andrea Seiver................................................... 70 Sheepskin Mama............................................. 74 Sohum Yoga...................................................... 33 Spa Tech............................................................ 69 Spirit Hollow.................................................... 21 Maureen St. Germain...................................... 61 State of Grace Yoga.....................................17,33 Sturbridge Herbfest......................................... 17 Kelle Sutliff....................................................... 74 Sweetfern Center for Wellbeing..................... 19 T Tong Ren Station............................................. 39 Touchstone Community School.................... 69 Linda Tumbarello, Author.............................. 26 V Vendetti Wellness Group PC......................... 11 Veg Fest........................................................52,77 Tina Vesely....................................................... 15 Vesta.................................................................. 61 Carrie Vinson................................................... 12 W Way to Balance,The........................................... 3 Web of Light Expo........................................... 59 Wellness Roundtable, The.............................. 10 Austyn Wells.................................................... 13 Westborough Yoga.......................................... 33 Trish Whynot................................................... 71 Women of Wisdom....................................43,68 Worcester Yoga...........................................33,75 Wu Healing Center.......................................... 37 Y Yoga Anita........................................................ 33 Yoga at the Ashram....................................51,33 Yoga Studio, The.............................................. 33 Your Health Matters........................................ 23

THE REJUVENIZER Phyllis Light, Ph.D & Telepathic Healer

®

A LIFETIME OF HEALING AND PROTECTION

“Since wearing the Personal Rejuvenizer, I’ve seen a real difference in my health and energy level. When I’m around people who are sick with colds and the flu, I don’t get sick anymore, like I used to. Also, I used to be so tired, I’d practically be dragging myself around, and I don’t feel that anymore.”

THE REJUVENIZER IS DESIGNED TO HELP :

• Protect you from EMFs and other

R.R., Manchester, Connecticut

damaging frequencies

(from computers, cell phones, microwaves, TVs, satellites, wireless internet, etc.)

BEFORE

• Combat fatigue, headaches, and eyestrain

• Protect you from other people‘s negative energies

• Strengthen the

This woman had only a few hours sleep the previous night and felt exhausted at the time this photo was taken.

immune system

• Uplift you spiritually

AFTER

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After wearing the Personal Rejuvenizer for only 20 minutes, she reported feeling more awake, energized and refreshed.

Light Unlimited www.spiritofchange.org

(512) 301-2999

www.lighthealing.com SPRING/SUMMER 2020 | Spirit of Change 79

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