TED Tuesday: The 'Gandhi' neurons

Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.

More than just biology

Guest post generously contributed by Elisabeth Manning, founder of Concsious Conception. Elisabeth is a former assistant to NIKE founder Phil Knight and spent her twenties in corporate life trying to figure out what was missing. From the asking came Guidance, and a series of events led her to her true awakening to her purpose. She is now a Certified Spirit and Creation (fertility) Coach living in the San Francisco Bay Area facilitating others in stepping into their own true creations. She works with clients one-on one-by phone, and currently speaks about Conscious Conception and the Energy of Fertility (and Pregnancy), especially during IVF. Elisabeth also teaches a popular phone meditation called BabySpirit to call in and welcome a little-one into being and activate a healthy and fertile journey to parenthood. She lives in San Anselmo, CA with her beloved dog, Elliot. Rather than giving birth t children of her own, she is more strongly called to assist others in bringing forth their creations, thereby being a midwife in service to the many.

Conscious Conception, a Visionary approach to Fertility, Became About Birthing Myself First

[Image source] I was called to a very unique way of life when I was in utter despair. God’s honest truth. I was miserably searching for my ultimate calling to be serving the highest good, yet I had no idea what that meant. It began a journey of a lifetime, and I coached myself to find out more about me. I learned a lot, uncovered a lot, yet still didn’t know how it was going to piece together in some way that can actually be my life’s work. It was when I contacted a psychic that my life began to feel remotely part of something bigger.

I will never forget her saying to me I have ‘a lot of children in my space’, that I would be working with children, but that she doesn’t see me having any children of my own. I was both puzzled and infuriated; I was convinced she had it completely backward. I had NO desire to work with children and yet one day well …one day I most certainly would …or should…shouldn’t I? have a child of my own…or at least that was what my mother always s told me and well, that was just what I and always assumed.

That was the first time I began questioning my beliefs and whether they worked for me or not. I became aware that maybe I was living by my mothers dream and not my own because, weren’t you supposed to have a desire for something first before actually having that something come into being? I never really had. I had always loved children, I just thought that psychic must have had it backward is all.

My childhood was full of love, but not much consciousness from my mother. A single alcoholic on welfare “because she wanted to spend more time with me” became my life, and yet I knew I was deeply loved. “The world is your oyster-you can do anything” was my mother’s message to me, yet, my world of examples was welfare and beer and low self-esteem. So you see, I became fascinated with self esteem and human potential and the disparity of the two was so apparent in my own life. But I had no idea this awareness, this passion to find peace between the two would fit into my future, not to mention my growing fascination with scientific research bridging spiritual pursuits.

One fine day, it hit like lightning. I had a conversation with a doula (at the time I knew nothing of what a doula was, which now is something we never should be without when we are new at birthing and motherhood.)

She told me of the parents in a wealthy part of where I live in California who have all the money but seemingly aren’t very sensitive as parents. It got my attention, but nothing much more than that. Then, I learned of IVF (I knew nothing of what that was which I found out, is conception in a Petri dish with the help of very advanced medical technology) and how much it cost (20k for ONE try) for about 20% success rate.

My whole body suddenly shuddered and I found myself saying ”Oh my gosh! No wonder the success rate is lower than it should be: The parents are nervous and stressed when the mommy takes this fertilized egg home inside of her which is NOT a vibrational match for this little light being inside her, and second, nobody is holding a proper sacred space energetically in the Petri dish! Being that we are electrical beings, literally, it makes sense that a vibration similar to the mini Big Bang (as conception would certainly be), that the “current” ought to also be high in the “container” holding space for it? . And what of the welcoming of the child consciously? And what of science yet to find the “”current” of love as a viable healing source, not to mention the key missing ingredient in medical intervention with fertility and IVF? This is the piece we have yet to discover, and I believe we most certainly will. Just look at IONS and Heartmath, Bruce Lipton and Carolyn Myss, to name a few of the pioneers who have definitely made headway in the area of mind/body connection and science.

Everything suddenly flooded in like a download. I was ‘hit’ with my purpose.

I called my mentor and ranted “Somebody ought to be doing something!” She said, “And that somebody will have to be you Elisabeth. Nobody is thinking like this, therefore you must be the one.” I started weeping. “But I don’t know anything!” She said you know more than you think you know. You have been studying consciousness for how many years now? And Quantum physics? And creation and nature and the essence of manifestation? It sounds to me you must begin talking about what you know and share your ideas with other visionaries. You have a vision.” I wept some more. I was so afraid of what I saw, of what to make of this big thinking that seemed so much bigger than me. What if I was wrong?

Then I started to see, that psychic was absolutely right. As I began on my journey, I began to see my past waw what I needed to prepare me, my mother being my perfect teacher. The ‘
children I was working with’ just happen to still be in the process of crossing over into the physical. They also happen to be teaching me about what their parents need and how they need to be a vibrational match for their level of consciousness, and that for the purest souls to enter in they need their parents to take on the highest consciousness, and purification of mind, body and soul as humanly possible. I also learned since then that this is nothing new, for example, for the Essenes it was a way of life, especially for Mary to prepare for Jesus. They had been preparing her since she was about 4 years old.

So imagine what a little awareness and preparation might do for your child? We won’t know unless we try. All I know is I am called to serve in the highest Light for tomorrow’s children, for tomorrows potential.

Universe in your head

[Image source: MSNBC]

“Everyone creates their own reality.”

“Thoughts become things.”

“Observer collapses the wave-function merely by observing.”

These lines were made famous by the “new age-y” documentaries like What the bleep do we know?! and The secret. May be not all of you have heard of them. But these and many other works by leading scientists and spiritual leaders have lead to a paradigm shift amongst those who are open to such shifts. Research into understanding of mind-body interaction has gone way beyond neuroscience, which is the popular face of this kind of research. I’m sure most of you would have heard / seen the term “New age” in regards to classification of books, music, ideas etc. The term points more towards the rise of a “new age” of sorts in human thinking and doesn’t really mean that human beings are discovering something new. It is a mere rediscovery if one considers the ancient texts of numerous cultures as not mere mythology.

Many (re)discoveries in the cutting edge research in quantum physics, neuroscience, cognitive sciences and biomedicine are now hinting towards the existence of ‘consciousness’ and its significant importance in how we perceive the world, the “reality”. Cosmic Log on MSNBC.com describes itself as “Quantum fluctuations in space, science, exploration and other cosmic fields… served up regularly by MSNBC.com science editor Alan Boyle since 2002.” It showcases the book ‘Biocentrism’ by biomedical researcher Robert Lanza which is generating controversy by arguing that our consciousness plays a central role in creating the cosmos. As one of the reviewers of the book says, this may not be an entirely new idea but it is worth repeating. The physicists who should be declaring this out loud to the general populous aren’t doing so because it would mean a HUGE paradigm shift; may be the one that we’re not yet ready to handle. But if YOU think you are ready, give the book a read. We successfully made the shift from ‘geocentric’ model to ‘heliocentric’ model. May be now it is time to try a bigger leap, to the ‘biocentric’ model.

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TED Tuesday: Habits of happiness

What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard says we can train our minds in habits of well-being, to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfillment.

9 types of intelligence

[Image source]

When we talk about someone intelligent, we usually mean it in a way that the person has done well in studies, academics or some such intellectual faculty. Would you call someone who has great sense of direction and never needs a GPS, intelligent? Would you call someone with a great ear for music and composition, intelligent? Or how about a hiker with incredible stamina? I’m sure most of you would go, “What? No! These things have got nothing to do with intelligence.” Well, think again.

Melissa Breyer writes in Care2‘s ‘Healthy and green living’ section about 9 types of intelligence. Dr. Howard Gardner is the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has developed the theory of multiple intelligences, going beyond the IQ test to discover the many ways humans are smart. He identified intelligent abilities including language, music, spatial reference, kinesthesia, naturalistic, and possibly existential intelligence.

Once you read this article and Dr. Gardner’s theory (and may be even more depending on how interested you get) I am sure you’re way of judging someone as ‘not intelligent’ will change. I also think knowing that we possess different kind of intelligences which are not necessarily reflected on our marksheets is important. So many people would realise that they have at least one, if not more, kind of intelligence in them. You would think yourself much more worthy than you did till now. And more importantly, I hope, you will stop making your kids slog insane hours to get that A grade in academic subjects. And would appriciate their A grade in sports equally.

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TED Tuesday: What is consciousness?

Philosopher Dan Dennett makes a compelling argument that not only don’t we understand our own consciousness, but that half the time our brains are actively fooling us.

TED Tuesday collection

Since I have shared quite a few TED videos with my readers to the day, I thought it would be a good to write a post where links to all those are collected together. So here goes …..

• Spirituality made easy (Jill Bolte Taylor)
• Learn from the nature (Janine Benyus)
• Homo Evolutis (Juan Enriquez)
• Fresh fruit and veggies (Mark Bittman, Ann Cooper)
• African fractal design (Ron Eglash)
• Swimming with the Sunfish (Tierney Thys)

TED Tuesday: Spirituality made easy

As I was watching this fascinating and inspiring video by Jill Bolte Taylor, I couldn’t help but think of what I read in Eckhart Tolle’s book, Power of Now. The functioning of the two halves of the brain that Jill describes in this talk fits very accurately to the concepts of “mind” (left half) and “spirit” (right half) as described by Tolle (which are based on Hindu and Buddhist philosophy). The left half does the logical thinking and dominates our everyday routine. The right half connects us to the world, literally, but is almost always running in the background of sorts. So then, I thought, is spirituality, enlightenment, feeling one with the world mean the moment when our right brain dominates over the left? It sure looks like that to me after listening to Jill. May be this is already well-known in the world of neuroscience and psychology. But it is a new thought for me personally. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Looking outwards….. and inwards

In the same day, in fact within a span of few hours, I’ve come across two drastically different approaches of human beings to expanding the horizons of our knowledge.

One points its attention outwards. NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft blasted off a few hours ago to its journey into deep space to look for “other Earths”. After coming home from Borders, where I discovered the other object I mention below, I read this news on Space.com.

The other one points inwards. Eckhart Tolle‘s well-acclaimed and appriciated book, Power of Now, that takes one on a journey within themselves to understand the purpose of life. This books has been around for a few years now but I bought and read it today for the first time. And I just found out that by amazing coincidence, Eckhart was giving a lecture today in Sydney, which I was completely unaware of. But somehow I got inspired to look for his book only today!

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