Our self-healing ability.          by Dr. Kris Van Kerckhoven (Belgium - Europe)

What is it and how can we enhance (or: improve/enable/incite…) it?

I will not discuss the ‘classics’ of illness and health here, i.e. an unhealthy diet with, on the one hand a shortage of vitamins and minerals, and on the other hand too many harmful substances and a lack of exercise leading to energy blockages and bad circulation. Of course one must eat healthily and get enough exercise, but there is more to it than that. Often, understanding health and illness is like putting together pieces of a puzzle. What follows is just like that — you will see many pieces of our health puzzle, some specific disease complaints, and some reasons behind them. Look at these pieces and observe what happens when we can see the relationships between the pieces as well as the whole picture.

Let me start at the beginning. When healthy children get sick or hurt themselves, they have all the necessary instruments on board to cure themselves. Children heal quickly. They don’t have any blockages, so their energy flows freely and their body is their best doctor. If we compare this to some older people, then it’s obvious that their wounds don’t heal that easily anymore and that diseases often become ‘chronic’.

Consider the self-healing power, which is still intact in a child. It works when there is an acute illness or infectious disease. The child gets a fever and feels tired. This fatigue compels it to rest. The child is in pain, so it doesn’t feel like walking around. It has no appetite and therefore can hardly eat anything. In short, the body gets these symptoms to be able to concentrate on healing. If you want your child or yourself to heal as quickly as possible, the best thing to do is not to take any medication, but to follow your body’s internal language. In case of an infectious disease, give the disease a few days, in expectation of recovery. Do this in confidence. Healing can occur. Put the child in bed (because it feels tired) with a lot of blankets on top of it, because when you are feverish, you feel cold, and let the child eat when it feels hungry. Often you don’t  - or hardly - eat in such a case.

Fever has a function. Because your temperature rises when you’re feverish, your immune system works faster, and bacteria and viruses are weakened. It is therefore very illogical and even counteractive to take antipyretics and artificially cool the body. Rest, so that the energy of your body can go to your immune system. And not eating? What good could that do? Well, a high blood sugar level counteracts the immune system. Bacteria and viruses need sugar to grow and multiply. So, depriving them of sugar is beneficial and usually the body’s natural response.

Let’s look at the chronic diseases, as acute illnesses heal in the end, whatever you do. My experience as a doctor is that too few questions are usually asked when a patient has a chronic disease and that treatment is started far too soon and is mainly symptomatic in nature. A few examples of common chronic diseases are rheumatism, back, neck and shoulder complaints, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

First of all, let’s look at the complaints one by one:

1. Rheumatism: the immune system is overactive, so antibodies are produced against the body’s own cells. As a result, inflammatory reactions occur in the joints. Moreover, these reactions are fierce and can eventually even lead to real deformation of the joints.

2. Back, neck and shoulder complaints: back and neck complaints often go together with disc complaints (bulging of the intervertebral disc or hernia). Back, neck, and shoulder complaints involve tense muscles. As a result of this, the patient can get ‘stuck’ (lumbago, frozen shoulder).

When having back and neck complaints, the nerve can be affected with radiant pain and numbness. Paralysis can even occur.

3. With CFS,FM, and ME, an alternating pattern of many fluctuating symptoms occurs, and usually there are also complaints of fatigue and exhaustion, muscle tensions, pain in tissues, muscles, joints, inflammation, poor sleep, a touch of flu, anxiety, as well as back, neck and shoulder complaints. There is magnesium loss, often a headache or migraine, and gastrointestinal disorders (sometimes even leaky gut and intestinal candida). Concentration and memory problems occur, and a general feeling of not being able to recover. In the morning there is a feeling of exhaustion, like being hit by a tram or having run a marathon, rather than a feeling of being refreshed. Often there are also immunity problems, such as allergies or intolerances, thyroid disease, lupus, eczema, rheumatism or infectious diseases.

Why is the immune system overactive or disordered in the case of rheumatism, eczema, or CFS, FM, or ME? What actually regulates a good functioning immune system?

The immune system is very complex, but if we have to name one substance that plays a crucial role, it is cortisol. Cortisol has a regulatory function, in particular an inhibitory effect on immunity and the inflammatory reaction. In short, autoimmunity or an overactive immune system and unrestrained inflammatory reactions are signs of cortisol deficiency.

Why would a disc bulge? Because too many burdens are laid on the back?

That is a possibility. But if that were always the case, only dockworkers, movers and bricklayers would have back complaints and that is not the case. Why can a disc bulge at a normal load? Because the dorsal muscles are too tense. So, muscle relaxants are often given in the treatment. Muscle tension is normal, but if there is too much tension too often, then there is no balance. Tension is normally followed by relaxation. That points in the direction of the Orthosympathic Nervous System (OSNS). So, to put it briefly again, a disc bulges as a result of an overload of muscle tension. This also applies to shoulder complaints. And that’s due to overactivity of the OSNS.

How can anyone be already so exhausted in the morning?

In a healthy person, the cortisol levels rise when getting up in the morning. Cortisol has the following effects on the Central Nervous System (CNS): alertness, a feeling of energy, and a feeling of having rested enough. Why would anyone sleep badly? There are many reasons, ranging from psychological symptoms to too much worry and different types of pain. But it is interesting that a good night’s sleep fundamentally requires activation of the Parasympathic Nervous System (PSNS).

Why do you sometimes have a touch of flu?

In humans, temperature is regulated by the hypothalamus. A touch of flu occurs via a disruption of the hypothalamus. Why do you lose magnesium? The magnesium balance in the human body is controlled by aldosterone. So, a loss of magnesium can indicate a problem with aldosterone. That is interesting, because aldosterone is made in the adrenal glands, and so is cortisol. So we can go a step further and ask: why are there cortisol and aldosterone abnormalities? Because there is something wrong with the adrenal glands. But we have already discussed the hypothalamus. The adrenal glands and the hypothalamus are both located in the so-called HPA-axis (Hypothalamus – Pituitary – Adrenal). And it is exactly the hypothalamus that plays a crucial role in regulating the balance of the OSNS and the PSNS.  The pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fit together. Why does your stomach ache and why do you have intestinal problems? A good digestion can only be achieved thanks to a well functioning PSNS. If there are problems, perhaps it is due to an overactive OSNS. Additionally, headaches and migraine are also muscular tension diseases, because these involve tension headaches as a result of the contraction of the muscles around the skull. Migraines are caused by a muscular tension around the blood vessels in the brain. Muscular tension is also an indication of an overactive OSNS.

If we put together all of these pieces of the puzzle and keep asking ourselves why, in the end we come to a final question: why is the hypothalamus not properly regulated? Is the hypothalamus activated by emotions and stress?

Absolutely, howeverr it’s important to make a distinction between primary (non-psychological) and secondary (psychological) emotions.An example of a primary emotion: you are standing in a green pasture and you feel relaxed. You hear something behind you, you look around and all of a sudden you find yourself face to face with a bull! At that moment (and even before you are able to think, hence completely independently of your psyche and totally instinctively!) the hypothalamus is activated. This regulates two things at the same time: the switch from PSNS to OSNS and the activation of the HPA-axis, which results in an increase of cortisol.

If you act on such a primary emotion, or in other words, if you perform the (short) action your body has just given you the energy for, then this hypothalamus activation is merely temporary. In other words: you run away, you jump over the fence and then everything goes back to square one (the hypothalamus normalises, the OSNS weakens, the PSNS is strengthened, and the cortisol level drops again).

If you do NOT act on a primary emotion (for example, if you don’t run away from the bull, if you convince yourself that you can handle the situation, but actually you can’t, if you do some breathing exercises and yoga and think that’ll do just fine, if you try to ‘let go’, or swallow some pills to suppress the complaints), then the hypothalamus remains overactive, the adrenaline level remains very high and if this situation is chronic (i.e. weeks, months, or years on end), exhaustion symptoms and other problems will develop. Your adrenal glands will become exhausted, your cortisol will no longer be able to react properly to stress, you will lose magnesium, the inflammatory processes will work overtime, as will your OSNS, etc.

So when you’re suddenly standing in front of that bull and you have all kinds of chronic complaints like exhaustion, muscular tension, and inflammations, in my opinion it is a wrong and short-sighted attitude to ask for a pill to be able to cope with the situation. On the other hand, addressing your self-healing powers is far more satisfactory. Medication will try to suppress some of your complaints, but will never be able to have a permanent effect, because you’re not eliminating the cause of the illness. Therefore you better run away from the bull, as you would normally do and not go against your nature. Get yourself to safety. After such a strenuous moment there should be relaxation. The body does what is necessary naturally.

You address your self-healing power by trying to obtain a well-functioning HPA-axis and a well-balanced OSNS and PSNS. This can be achieved when you stop suppressing your primary emotions and when you learn to act accordingly. It is quite a process to learn what primary and secondary emotions actually are. Because working with the secondary (the psychological) emotions doesn’t help, doing so can even make things worse. It is certainly difficult to learn to respond to your primary emotions and not to suppress these emotions any longer. Changing bad habits is not always simple.

Moreover, it may help to do some physical exercise, because suppressed emotions settle themselves in your body. Often this is learned behaviour, which is sometimes difficult to recognize. Positive thinking, faith in nature, or being spiritually active are also effective because they are all PSNS-stimulators.

To some, these insights may seem new, but none of them really are. You can easily find them all in medical literature, except perhaps for the distinction between primary and secondary emotions. Yet in medical practice, little is done with this knowledge. There is still an almost sacred belief in medication.

This can, however, be changed through scientific research and through open communication with others. And this is exactly one of the life goals of the undersigned.

Do you wish to learn more about the author? Please visit: http://krisvankerckhoven.blogspot.be/

07-05-2015, 15:16 geschreven door catherine wheels  

04-05-2015, 00:00 geschreven door catherine wheels  

Reflections and future directions in medical ethnomusicology  

by Dr. Benjamin Koen (China)

Origins and Expressions

To say that the relationship between music, health, and healing is as ancient as music itself, perhaps creates a false dichotomy that, in their origin, music and healing were separate or unrelated entities, and could therefore be combined into a relationship. Rather, perhaps in the earliest human experience the two were one unnamed reality and practice—what we might today call musichealing, musicwellness, or musicmedicine. In one track of contemporary research that explores the dynamics of music, prayer, and meditation in cultural and clinical contexts of health and healing, a similarity exists where, although music, prayer, and meditation can have independent and combined expressions to effect healing, they also very often are one and the same—an indivisible whole.¹

Reaching into the past to unearth some semblance of the origins of things, or to answer contemporary questions that relate to the human condition, always brings with it even more questions to fuel our inquiry—the path can be endless, albeit a great adventure. To provide a detailed account of music and healing (musichealing, musichealth, musicmedicine) in the human experience, moving from the mist of speculation about origins and pre-history, into ancient and modern history, and finally the present, and future directions would be an impossible task in the space provided here. Indeed, the ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, musicians, healers, researchers, practitioners, therapists (e.g. music, dance, drama, and expressive arts therapists), physicians, social and health scientists, among others that have in various degrees contributed to laying the foundations, the creation, establishment, and development of medical ethnomusicology are far too numerous to mention here.

Moreover, medical ethnomusicology is certainly not the only discipline concerned with the subject of music and healing. There are multiple areas and disciplines within and without academia, research, and applied practice that often share goals and approaches with medical ethnomusicology—indeed, at times there is such a common ground between disciplines or people involved in this work at the levels of research, application, and practice, that differences become secondary, if not irrelevant. This is often, but not always best seen in people who have significant experience, have studied, or hold degrees or certifications in more than one area, or who have in-depth study and practical experience apprenticing or learning from culture-bearers and traditional teachers. At the same time, many programs are increasingly approaching their discipline-specific education and training from an integrative or holistic knowledge perspective—that is, significantly drawing from any and all areas of knowledge that directly inform any given subject within their discipline.

In addition to medical ethnomusicology, the areas that are concerned with music, sound, health, wellness, prevention, and healing are increasing and include medical anthropology, the medical humanities, cognitive ethnomusicology, applied ethnomusicology, applied anthropology, music performance, social medicine, medical sociology, global health studies, music therapy, dance therapy, expressive arts therapy, art therapy, arts in medicine, drama therapy, poetry therapy, sound therapy, sound studies, sound healing, the arts, and several disciplines across the research, scholarly, and professional areas in medicine, including holistic, integrative, complementary, and alternative medicine (HICAM), psychology, psychotherapy, neuroscience, cognition, the social and health sciences and allied fields. Additionally, new tracks within music studies are increasingly including similar concerns in their endeavors—this can be seen for instance in the new tracks of music and community engagement and music and wellness.

Notably, as this list expands and becomes more diverse, there is a corresponding increase in unity of thought with respect to an awareness and acceptance among scholars, researchers, and practitioners that music and related practices can play a significant role in human health, wellbeing, prevention, and cure. Now, the time is propitious for this journal’s readership to significantly advance endeavors within and across disciplines, within and without academia, in research, applied practice, and treatment with respect to music’s multiple and diverse beneficial, functional, therapeutic, medical, preventive, wellness engendering, and healing roles for human beings.

01-05-2015, 20:12 geschreven door catherine wheels  

"I am Dr Ravindra Gangwani practising alternative medicine Ayurveda for last 18 years in Pune (India). I have been benefitted greatly throughout my career from the professional development and rich and supportive environments, where I have been fortunate to able to develop my practice. I have behind me a wealth of experience which I feel has contributed to my expertise in the field of Healthcare. I am thankful to share my experience of Healthcare in the western countries. I was asked by my friend from Belgium Anne Marijn Somers, who is a writer, to write about my personnel views and experience about Healthcare in the western countries. Last year I was fortunate to travel to Belgium for three weeks and this year in Germany for four weeks. After doing health consultation with many people here in Europe I developed my views to understand about Healthcare. Also many people from Europe as well as from different countries come to me in India for the treatment in my MBS Ayurvedic Center (Mind Body n Soul) in Pune. While describing about the healthcare in Europe it will be easy for me to describe about the illnesses that people are suffering in Europe. The commonest illness was like Cancer and Nervous Disorders like Alziheimers, Parkinsons, Neuralgia etc. When we refer the textbooks of western medicines the cause of the diseases is unknown. When we don’t know the cause, how can we cure the illness? So yes this is the big question mark and challenge for today’s Healthcare system. So when we treat the illnesses like this we take the pills which work on the symptoms and that is not the cure. In short people have to bear it rest of the life. Also at the same time people start searching Healers and Alternatives medicines from country to country, but where this journey come to an End?  Yes my friends it ends at HOPE. During their journey of Hope some of them come to me with Hope. OK! Now you will be curious to know how I treat these people. Yes sure I will tell you. I show them the way of Life, the path of Health along which they will reach their destination. We all know “WHEN THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY” So I increase their will power to fight and conquer against their illnesses. Yes this is called Holistic way of Healing with Nature. 

Above all in today’s jet age, no time, everybody wants to run the race of Life at the cost of Health and they stop only when something goes wrong with their Health. Why not people follow the Quote which all of them have learn in the school when they were young. Yes you are Right. “PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE” As in the above conditions there is no cure, but there is of course Preventions of the illnesses. So am the Doctor who beliefs and practices Preventive Healthcare Systems. So for you and your children you should follow Preventive Healthcare System which is not expensive and affordable as compared to the cost of illnesses and Painful sufferings. As you pay your bills regularly like insurance etc. kindly make a small bill for Preventive Healthcare on regular basis.

So know all get ready for the Change in Life, I would like to share some Healthy Guidelines to follow for Healthy Future:

1) Routine or Regime: First and foremost important thing one should follow is proper routine or regime designed by one own self. The basic rule is “whatever we can do for ourselves to improve our own health is more effective in the long run than what another person or doctor can do for us” Only when we have failed in our own efforts does the healthcare professional or clinical facility become necessary. Even then their value is temporary, to bring us back to the point of properly caring ourselves. Often small things we do for ourselves, such as giving up wrong foods, do more than taking many medicines or consulting many doctors. In short there is no substitute for our own right living. One has set him/her self to right regimen of particular body type covering all aspects of our nature, physical, psychological and spiritual.

2) DIET: Diet can be an effective treatment in itself. Dietary treatment is usually the safest therapy. Right diet is the main factor in the treatment of the physical body that is built up by food. Without changing our diet we cannot expect the body, which is its product, to change fundamentally whatever else we may attempt. Wrong diet is the main physical cause of disease. By correcting the diet, we eliminate the fundamental cause of disease. “We are what we eat” What we eat affects our emotions and can create a predisposition for both psychological and physical disorders. Just as wrong emotions can upset our digestion, so wrong digestion can upset our emotions.

Ayurveda has described the origin for all the diseases is “LOW DIGESTIVE FIRE”. In Sanskrit language it is said “ Sarva Roga Appi Mandaagni”  This means all disease have their origin from low digestive fire that is “Indigestion” and “Indigestion” is because of wrong food. So my experience in the practice about diet was all opposite what was mention in Ayurveda. Many people are having habit to eat cold storage food, bread etc. which is very low in digestive fire energy, which over the period of time leads to indigestion, the starting point for the process of illness.            Many people had habit to cook once a week and eat the same food for whole week and this is one of the predisposing factors for Cancer.                                                                                       In females use of hormones beyond certain limits in their younger age also increases the chances of Cancer. It was shocking for me when the females in their teenagers are given contraceptive pills right from the age of 12 to 14 years for a very long period of time, like 10 to 15 years.  There are many such more experience which I got during my practice with the western population. 

3) Deficiency of Vitamin B12 leads to many nervous disorders like Alzihmers  which is also on the rise in the western population and again the cause is related to your diet habits and metabolism.

So now you all got the idea how indigestion leads to the all the diseases. So we at our center do all the detox programs. {Panchkarma } Panch means Five and Karma means therapies, so there are five different Purifications therapies described in Ayurveda for detoxifying your Body and Mind. One of the detox program which we do for Indestion (Low in Digestive Fire) is colon cleansing. Most of us suffer from an accumulation of toxins, undigested food particles or waste materials, called Ama in Sanskrit. Ama (Toxins) not only causes diseases, but also blocks the assimilation of nutrients. Without first clearing this accumulation, the right herbs and foods cannot be absorbed properly. Most diseases are Ama-caused or Ama-related, including chronic disease like allergies, arthritis and cancer.Ama weakens the immune system, causes the body to attack itself, and imbalances the metabolism. Ama is opposite in qualities to Agni or Digestive Fire. When the Agni is good, Ama will not be formed. When Agni is Low Ama easily increases.   

So for preventive and curative purpose one should do Ayurvedic colon cleansing.                                                                                                                                

Of all the vital organs in the body, the one that suffers the most abuse from modern dietary habits is the colon. A healthy colon will completely eliminate feces, toxins, parasites, bacteria, and dead cells. In many instances, though, this waste accumulates over months and years, becoming impacted over time. Astonishingly, it’s estimated that many people have 10-12 pounds of rotting and undigested feces and food in their digestive tracts.            Colon cleansing is done with Ayurvedic medicated enemas.

Why is the colon so important? (small story)

One day the body got together and decided to have a board meeting. Here’s what went on behind closed doors. There was intense discussion to determine:

WHO WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE BODY?            

The BRAIN was the first to speak. “Without me, nothing would be accomplished.”
Then the HEART spoke up. “Without me, pumping blood to your brain you could not function.”
The ARMS laughed. “You’re both wrong, without me to put food in the mouth, nothing would work.”
The LEGS quickly added. "Without me you couldn't get your food"
The STOMACH said, “Without me, your food would not digest.”
The LUNGS bellowed back, “Without me, you couldn’t breathe.”
The EYES blinked, “Without me you could not see.”
The KIDNEYS snorted, “Without me, you could not detoxify and eliminate.”
The COLON meekly spoke up. “I am important. You need me to eliminate all of the garbage from your systems.”
Everyone laughed and made fun of him. “How can you be as important as we are. You’re just a smelly old sewer.”

Diet modifications

Drink pure water. Reduce coffee and all other caffeinated beverages, carbonated drinks, high-protein animal foods, refined sugar, frozen food and processed food. Eat lots of fresh green vegetables, fruits and fruit juices. Include whole grain cereals - they promote the production of the brain neurotransmitter serotonin, which induces a greater sense of well-being. More diet can be plan individually according to the Body Type described in Ayurveda.

So my dear friends  there is no end to my writing about my experience in the field of healthcare. So to conclude with the note CHANGE in Diet and Lifestyle is the need of hour to Live Healthy and Beautiful Life. So if you follow Preventive Healthcare Model you can LIVE YOUR LIFE TO THE FULLEST. know your health, you are your own Doctor. Talk to yourself, listen to your Body, and Love yourself.       

BE HAPPY AND HEALTHY.

Dr. Ravindra Gangwani (BAMS,PGDHHM,PGDEMS,PDCR).

29-04-2015, 11:14 geschreven door catherine wheels  

20-04-2015, 00:00 geschreven door catherine wheels  

- I think that everybody is born equal (woman and man, all races etc...) and stays equal (men's individual worth is not related to status or money I mean)

- I think you can learn by reading books, by being at school but you learn the most by life experience, by living between men, with your feet 'on the ground'

- I think you can learn from the poor and the rich, from the intellectual and the non-intellectual

- I think the environment/earth is now a big concern for everybody

- I think we've to work together to face our problems, we can't no longer ignore that cooperation makes us strong

- I think everything is connected, 'is one'. So everything you do has also a consequence (the law of action and reaction, so sometimes it will be better not to react to step out the never ending circle, but to reflect)

- I think everybody is born gifted, but you have to search those talents if you don't see them immediately

- I think everybody has a selfhealing power, a big potential that he/she can explore

- I think everybody can be considered as a co-creator of his/her own life. You have to do some thinking, set goals, act....

- I think men have a spiritual/philosophical nature, but the spread of religion is cultural, geographical and even political minded

- I think charity is very important but can never be related to other goals, than we speak about opportunism and not about charity

- if there is a God, God can not be claimed by any religion, because that God loves us all. We can even not abuse that God or our religion to find a reason to fight or to make war, to make difference or distinction between men

- to me God is awareness, love and compassion but what God means to you is up to you because there is freedom of thinking

- there is good and bad in the world. What is good, 'feels' good but than you may not loose the ability to feel (by being angry, by being too disappointed in men or by being too rational).

- What is bad can be felt as bad by everyone unless dogmatic rules we claim will avoid us to make the difference between good and bad.

- I'm a spiritual person too, but I took wise things out of different religions. Sometimes I don't even know where I took it originally as I traveled a lot (my age: 49) and I spoke to so many different people from all over the world. I consider myself as neutral or impartial but in my opinion, I think that's okay too.

- I live among men, not above, not below. I’m almost invisible

- I don’t claim these values, I only try to collect them, spread them by the word and take them as the lead in my own life by living my own life experience. Sometimes I’m successful and sometimes I fail because I’m not a profete, just someone like you

- for this reason, Catherine Wheels is not my real name, so you can not confuse me with these values. I mean, I can’t claim them.

16-04-2015, 19:10 geschreven door catherine wheels  

At random impressions of New York (winter 2014-2015)

Although I was almost persuaded I was going to hate this big city, because of the concrete and the tarmac, and the lack of sunlight and greenery maybe? But this was not the case. It's even a rational use of space, not spoiling the open space (soil and see). I had it all wrong. My son and I we liked New York (Manhattan) very much. Why? Because of the favorable people who walk their daily tracks between home and working place and back, because of the amusing atmosphere, because of the mixed up cultures who live together in peace and without fighting, because of the people with headphones who were singing their favorite song aloud and without blushing? Or because there were less tourists in february, and less tramps too because of the cold (minus 20°)? Beggars do confront me with poverty and the big differences in luck between people in the world. So I feel sad at once. In Africa, Europe, Asia and America. New Yorkers seem to live peaceful together in a melting pot, but total equality between races, I don’t think so. I do did notice black people did more jobs on the streets, regarding garbage, delivering pizza’s… No equal chances in life? Not in America and not n Western-Europe when you have a darker color?When I was there for a few days, I was totally absorbed as being one of them. One of this colourful melting pot. Quiet often tourists asked me to show them the way, but why did they take me for a New Yorker? Probably because I had no tablet in front of my face to take pictures, and I was not looking as if I was a lost person with a backpack on my back. Anyway, there is nothing difficult about it, because those roads and lanes have numbers. Just count the numbers please.I talked to a christian Egyptian cap driver who only lived there for three years. He had been a teacher in Egypt, even studied the Koran of the islamists. They all have to in Egypt because different world religions are represented in this country. He emigrated because with that salary he could hardly rise his family. If he liked his new job? I miss the teaching, but it’s okay. I have a better live here. I met a black female guide on the hop-on-hop-off bus. Here explanation was so different from her male colleagues, but I guess it was because she led here soul speak, about situations of nowadays and in the past, about the history of places. She let us fantasize about the past: “Imagine, you were that Irish woman, who came by boat, to find a better future in America…” A guide with a personal voice, a broad view. She mentioned New York offered the tramps free beds in an old psychiatric clinic. A fine gesture, but did people forget that those dark buildings have stored a very dark energy too…? Are they really feeling better, by being kept in scary buildings? I met a young guy who had recently discovered Jesus. Before he was without religion, and just purchasing good notes, lovely girls, a good job with a lot of money and nice cars. Like every school boy, so he said. But he had it all and still he felt empty. Now he had found new goals in live, and his new believe made him feel more complete… He showed me the old baroque theater that was turned into a temple for christian people. He was very enthusiastic and didn’t want to readdress or force me in his direction. He didn’t knew about the revelation of scandals in West-Europe done by the church, but he seemed to understand that a purification had to be done. Not by making war or fighting, but by revealing those abuse done by bishops and priests. Institutes of power have a strange effect on people. Some people think they have to obey (and boarding school children or orphans don't have a choice), and others think that they became untouchable. Why should religious representatives be untouchable, they can get of the road, get mad and starting acting like criminals too! He asked me for my personal goals in life, and about my family and than he said some prays aloud. I thanked him for his kindness.  

What I did hate in America were the news reports. In a big country they like to simplify things, so it seemed to me. T simple to be true. They think between frames they install themselves. But is that reporting about truth? Is it even objective? Being a journalist myself, I even became so mad that I wanted to visit a journalist of the Fox News myself. But that was not possible. You can address them a letter, so they answered. But I’m here now, my hotel is only 100 meters away.  But that letter will of course be without answer...  (I posted one, so I found out.) Those news stations define the views (or the glasses?) of the American people on the rest of the world. And because there were things told about  the situation (attacks) in Belgium at that moment, I could see that their vision didn’t stroke with reality at all. The perspective of people, and bad news reports from ivory towers who put filters on the world) can poisoning our mind. Images and even live films seem to give prove, but they're only trying to convince you with'so called evidence'. The press can be so dangerous for world peace. Not only in America, in England, in Belgium.... everywhere. Our world is full of communication, but what about the quality of real interaction between people...? Did computers replace everything? Do invite them distortion because of the lack of human contact and double reality check...? Or is our reality only our cultural loaded illusion?

Bijlagen:
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Our oldies in western countries as for example Belgium...

They don't live with younger families anymore.  They even get little respect. We often see them as a burden. Sometimes it is reality.  Not everyone was kind to his children.  They didn't all take care for their children, so what can you expect as a service on return?  Intitutional care. If they can be of any utility, they are often overexploited by joung families or by one of the many one-parent families. Otherwise grandparents set too many limits and youth are on their own, what is very difficult at this time.They are often very dominating during education, but grown up with other postwar values. Such interferences are shunned by younger generations. The toll for all this kind of disagreements is very high.  Even for the state.  Not uncommon there were generation conflicts whereby old parents were avoided.  They may take care of the grandchildren, but they better keep their mounth shut.  Or they better take their medicines that make them dependent from the care system.  Too much parents depend on drugs.  That's why they aren't themselves anymore.  They vegetate.When they are not capable of taking care of the children nor themselves, they are often placed in homes, where they are strongly uprooted and disoriented.  Some parents choose to go by themselves, but let's be honest, they will only go if they can afford a housing that is big enough, humane care, enough freedom and nice leisure.  Or else, it will feel like imprisonment you must stay in until you die.Only if you can afford the luxury, you can choose 'yourself' for an uprooting from the community in which you have spend the biggest part of your life.  In most cases, rest spots are forced by the children who do not want to care. Nevertheless to spread the care is not that heavy.  Kangaroo houses are also a good solution because you don't live together nor completely unrelated.  You respect eachother.

Real friendships in homes are often terminal friendships and this makes them extremely depressed, because one disappears after the other.  They remain limited to the warmth of the staff, because they hardly see little children who are the source of lifejoy.  It is the only (but time-limited) warmth those people can get.  Those carers keep the contact  superficial for self-protection, because after a short period, they see them leaving. They cannot afford a concatenation of losses and they have too less time per 'patient'.  Time is money and dislocation is a good word in this situation.

13-04-2015, 00:00 geschreven door catherine wheels  

 In my opinion, we do come from the stars and as a soul, we are already 1000s of  years old.  Our mortal body is only a vehicle for that soul.  Together, they give us life, but often our soul is too much separated from our ego.  This is often problematic because how can you feel 'one' or how can you feel good with eachoter or become 'one' with all and 'the all'?  Even the connectedness with nature is then hard to find. 

I think, our life has a spiritual basis.  If you can't fill up the void in yourself by 'believing in' your connectedness with the cosmos (but you can also entitle it as believing in God or JHWH = the unnameable, the reason why there are no vowals) and can not handle no morality in your life or not sufficiently consistent, you wander about aimlessly.  Some fill up this void by looking for fame, stardom, business status or having power of money, loveless sex. They somethimes fill it up in knowledge, but it remains imperfect or not satisfying the gap.

Love in broadest sense, is what we miss by the separateness  and computers do help because they almost reduce personal contacts etc and the real life. I experience it myself, because I make less efforts to meet people.  To come back to some people who ask me for rational evidence, often they are investigating spiritual things very intensively, but this desire remains even unsatisfied, because they hope to find by rational proof and because I can not give them this about irrational things (I cannot  pass on my personal spiritual experiences to them), they can really got upset about that.  The only thing he has to do is letting go his holy faith in science.  Science is good of course, but not if it blocks experiences or put limitations on those experiences (double blind proves etc…) Besides, our universe contains basically mathematic laws.  Laws we cannot possibly understand with our limited brains.  We will never be God, even if we have that much knowledge, hidden knowledge, a divine spark in us.  Consequently, we remain limited, but at the other hand, we are bigger and stronger than we think.  Via our spiritual strength, we can for example cure ourselves etc...because a lot of diseases are trauma-bound and have therefore a pycho-emotional basis.  We must at the same time remember our real strenght and not give it to others and at the same time, we have to experience our own rational limitations.  This is, in my opinion, 'heaven and earth'.  Not floating whereby you lose grounding.  Not imagining yourself to be divine by a holy faith in science or religions, but keeping your feet on the ground and staying connected with everything what determines your identity...

13-04-2015, 00:00 geschreven door catherine wheels