markern

I figured it would be a good idea to make a thread were we can post links to and excerpts from studies that show evidendce of the effects of meditation, yoga, qigong, herbs etc. I will be posting some myself. Good double blind studies are particualry welcome.

I had an idea the other day. Since pulse diagnosis can be used to asses your health quite precisely it could possibly be used as a form of biofeedback. Since it is possible to learn to control things like relaxation, bloodpressure (I think) and various other things using a devise wich creates a sound or color to show you have your state is and that changes accordingly if you change your own state. If one can listen to ones own pulse and nows what an ideal state is one could presumably in the same way learn how to put ones body in that ideal state by seeing what makes the pulse go in the right direction and what makes it go in the wrong direction. Since pulse diagnosis embarces all aspects of health it would presumably be the best all round measure of the state you want to move towards. To feel ones own pulse in this way seems very advanced so doing it directly would probably be a very advanced practice. But if one could find something that measured the pulse according to the various criteria of CCM and have that translated into colours sounds or numbers people with not so much experience could presumably make dramatic changes in health. I realy have no idea if this could work but thought it sounded possible. What do you think?

Student comes to his master asking "master where is my mind". The master replies "well were do you think it is?". Student replies "I think it is in my head, right behind the eyes". The master steps on the students foot as hard as he can and says "where is your mind know?".

Dig your post. Especialy for energy practices but also for wisdom paths I think loving kindness practice is very important because the developed compassion will help you stay focused on the real goal and not energetic experiences or power, or in the case of insight practice al the strange phenomena, energies and beings you might or might not encounter on your way.

There has been a few claims here about womens suposed moral, personal and spiritual superiority. I find that ridiculous. A very intereseting experiment was done to test male and female tendensies towards aggression. People were asked to play a video game where they bombed people and how fiercly they bombed was noted by the researchers. There was a clear difference with the men bombing people a lot more. However, this was when other people were present. When people did not think they were being watched the women were in fact more aggressive with the bombing than the men. It turned out it was just social control that made the women less agressive in playing the game. Being more likely to vield to social pressure is not in my ind spiritualy very mature. A number of other experiments have found the same. Also studies to see how much agressive thoughts men and females have during the day have found women to have slightly more so then men. Another interesting fact is that while women supposedly are nicer, men are much more likely, according to researchers, to help strangers on the street etc. This holds true for very smal acts of help but especialy for interwiening to rescue someone in dramatic instances. However, researchers also found women to be more helpfull towards people that they were frinds or neighbours with. It seems niceness is very contextual and that might be a large part of why popel belive women are nicer. A striking fact almost no one knows is that most children who get hit by a parent get hit by their mother, not the father. This has some to do with who sees the children the most, but if you see your children at all and are likely to hit them you are probably going to and as such end up in this statistic so we could probably presume men and women have about an equal tendency to hit their children. Interestingly that is completly different from what almost everyone belives and from how violence against children are portrayed in the media. Another interesting fact is that although the men are in most cases responsible for the domestic violence that has serious physical consequences, women are slightly more likely to hit their partner. If you look at homosexual and lesbian copules you find a pattern extreemly similar to heterosexual couples with the number of people who hit their partner without serious damage (a slap or a single punch) being about the same and the number of people that inflict serious damage and terorizing their partner being about the same. That means that women (lesbians) have the same likelyhood of being responsible for the extreeme violence that some men do to their wifes. What this shows is taht when women are the physicly strongest partner, as one of the two always will be in a lesbian relationship, they are as likely as men to peform also the extreeme violence. With women then being more inlcined to hit their men with a single slap or punch and as likely to inflict the extreeme levels of violence if they are physcly the strongest it is clear that one of the most important myths about men and females, their level of violence, is a lie and that should lead people to seriously reconsider how they see women. Not only in this regard but also in others because when the reality in such a serious case is completly different from what most people think in this instance, it is likely to be comletly different in others as well. Other interesting facts that counter conventional wisdom is that altough men are more likely to kill their own children when they are older women are more likely to kill them when they are very young. An other interesting fact is that women (in western Europe at least) cheat as much as men do. If women were on a higher spiritual plane than men they would progress a lot quicker spiriutaly. Jack Kornfiled writes that in Monastaries in Thailand the women progress slightly quicker than the men. Not much but slightly. More women are also interested in these things then men are. However, men are much much more likely to go al out and realy do the work required to get somewhere with meditasion. Women tend to spread their priorities on many things while men focus most of their energies on a few things. I see this, for example, in hte fact that although few, there are disproportionaly many men teraching yoga or having an advanced practice compared to how many men there are amongst the students. Saying something general about women and men in this gegard is just stupid anyway as the men I know that have taken an active role in spirituality are so much more evolved then the average woman is that somehow seeing the average disinterested woman as being on some sort of higher plane then these guys is just plain stupid. And you do end up with something almost like that if you realy strongly emphasize that women are not just perhaps a bit more inclined to spirituality but actualy on a different plane altogether. Interestingly enough Deida says that although men have a harder time then women connecting their sexual and emotional energies, once they are there the men usualy are much more inclined to take that further to a more universal, spiritual conciousness than women who more easily get stuck on the personal level. Although I don`t realy have an opionion on that in particular I think such a view, with women a nd men having slight tendencies to progress at different paces at different levels of practice to be quite plausible. So much for matriarchy!

I have been reading Deida today to see if I had him wrong and I think I did. I have been reading finding good through sex and in it he has advice for women and for men. In the enlightened sex manual which I read years ago he, I think, only has advice for men. In finding God through sex it is pretty clear to me that what he demands of women is equal to what he demands of men. He also give them an equaly active role to women in helping men opening up to love by themselves being open. Not at all does he say that men always has to take the first step. Maybe in some instances he thinks this is so, but in the pages I have read he gives women an equaly active role in being open to men when the men hurt them or are not being strong enough or clear on their purpose or are losing focus of their integrety etc. This is completly different from the impression I had of him but also completly different from what has been said here by some about men having to take the first step in pening up because they are yang by nature. I will write the page numbers were he writes this tomorow or during the weekend. What I read years ago was the enlightened sex manual. Possibly I just got him wrong, or possibly it is easy to get such an impression when you only read the, quite demanding, advice given to men, or maybe he frased himself differently or thought diffrently then. I am still pretty sure his examples of testing in that book would still be something I view as unhealthy but I will see when I read it again. Anyway in finding God through sex he is very clear that most good testing will not be hurtfull and will not be the type of payback bitching that many women put their men through a lot. He writes a lot about how women shal works towards not doing that but being more generous. It also seems clear to me that being open in love towards your partner during such an incident does not rule out being quite harsh in the respons if they cross the line of deacency. It seems one can easily tread wrong trying to do these things. He also writes about how, as they grow spiritualy both the man and the woman will need these things less and less from each other but be much more self contained. This duality will still be apreaciated but less and less needed.

The way I see it Deida says a lot of goood stuff. I agree in general about men finding their purpose, that being very attractive to women and the value of men being able to stay ventered and strong in a relationship and how women respond to that etc. However, I have huge problems with how he describes womens testing of men. The type of testing he often describes I would characterize as very emitionaly unhelathy bordering on evil and bullying. Dieda uses the example of the man coming home proud because he made a million at work. Instead of giving the man positive feedback the Dieda woman starts bitching about lack of attention or something wich isen`t realy true in his example but done in order to see if she can push the man of center or if he will stand strong wich will make her feel good. Thain my opinion is just sick.On a broader and lighter level I agree with parts of what he says about testing. I know about it and how to handle it from the pickup community so I am familiar with the dynamic, I know its there and I know it does not ever stopp completly. But, the realtionships I see with strong loving men who has a clear purpose and healthy women do not work like that. Testing is extreemly unfrequent, when it is done it is much more moderate and inocent. If the man is in a bad financial situation for a while the women do not see if they can get him off center by picking on his insecurities in this regard but support him as any healthy person would do. The only realtionships I see that have such and extreeme and harsh testing dynamic are were the woman is quite disturbed often with a bad relationship to her father and she is dating a realy not good badboy and they have an intense dymnamic of conflict and passionate resolution. You could argue that if the mand responded with the right kind of loving reply it would be different but what I observe is that healthy women test little, and in a much more inocent and less evil way. Anything else would be bullying. In general I find that in realtionships between strong loving men and healthy females the women settle in to a comfort because of the mans masculinity and do not continue with these ridiculous paterns. Deida celebrates the continuing and intensifying og such patterns in its harshest form in terms of what the women do. I also have a huge problem with the lack of ordinary communication skills and conflict resolution as taught in a lot of more normal couples therapy. This sort of thing works wonders if taoght eraly on and is a well resaerched finding amoung couples who stay together. Someone saud that since such a man makes the wopmen happy and men are happy to be such men it is not a problem that so much more work is demanded by the men. I would say that a man of such quality would not put up with Deidas little brats with no self esteem and find a real quality women that puts as much into the relationship as he does. David shade I think speaks well on this. I also have problems with Deidas "loving" aproach. When women, or anyone, act as badly as they do in his examples they need to be ut in their place. That can be done with a clear communication of an underlying love, but they should be met with a quite forcefull but fair verbal response in my opionion. The way a zen master or Ajhan Cha scolded people harshly but still communicated a lot of love would be a good example of the genral aproach. In milder cases of testing a milder aproach is in order. Deidas respnse seems to me to be more in line with replying "someone needs a hug" when to woman belitles you for having a smal penis or something like it. It was said that the womans role of surrender was equaly hard work. When met by such a strong and loving response to ones bitching surredering is what most women do easily so no. Still huge task for the man and no work for the women. I also have a problemn with the way women are robed of agency in Diedas relatuinshipmodel. In reality I see happy and juicy couples with masculine men and feminine women often having a much more complex and often different dynamic. That the man always has to be the first to show love because he is yang just does not put up to reality testing of what happens in such good relationships. Maybe there should be about 70/30 or something but as a genreal rule this just is not the case in succesfull realtionships. It belitles women (or any feminine partner) and men to say that they are not able to make the mans harshnes melt by meeting it wioth strong love. I also have problems with Deidas ideal for men being to be always strong, never vulnerable, never resting, always centered always loving. To me this is totaly inhuman and a borderline fascistic ideal. It should be the way of superman rather than superior man. What happens when the man is weak for a while, a very human thing, does the woman start despising him, closing of her love, and testing hiim by pushing his buttons about his weakness?? I think a good analogy can be found in the pickup community. David Deangelo, Mystery and many others preach presenting and ideal of yourself that is always strong, always masculine, never weak etc. always alpha. Juggler on the other hand says that being alpha is never being afraid of being yourself including being week and he is a mcuh better pickup artist I am open to the possibilty that I have Deida wrong and I will read his books again to give him a second chance but I do think the fact that many of his former followers are very critical of exactly these things. Anyway I do find a lot of value in his stuff just not in following his exact advice or ideals.

Get your point but I still see this as the man being required to do a enormous amount of work and the woman to do the bare minimum of what is required of a person. Actualy still less. What is the work a woman is required to do that is as demanding as what the man is required to do?

I have read the enlightened sex manual, and some of the way of the superior man. I was also struck by how incredibly good a lot of Deidas writings were. However, I found his aproach to male female relations on the whole to be very problematic. As far as I could see the man is suposed to show incredible strength and enormous generosity of heart while the woman is expected to do basicly nothing other than indulge in being an emotionaly irresponsible brat that is being a real bitch "testing" her man in order to feel his power and love by being overcome by the strength of the mans love and character. I might very well have gotten Deida wrong here and it is a very long time since I read his books but this is the impression that I got. I also googled him and found that a lot of people that have taken numerous workshops with him and been dedicated followers truly trying to live his teachings in their relationships found that it was a very faulty teaching that actualy wrecked havock on their realtionships. The reason in large part was the strange disrcrepancy between what is required from a man in terms of strength and maturity in contrast to a woman but also they found the whole thing hopeless to actualy live up to. I might be totaly wrong here, I am very interested to hear what you think about this and I still think that there are a lot very insightfull things in Deidas books despite my vague memory of there being something very wrong about his teachings.

> I love this Doctor > > Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong >life. Is this true? > A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... >don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding >up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can >extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? >Take a nap. > > Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables? > A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? >Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing >more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your >system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of >field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% >of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products. > > Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake? > A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled >wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get >even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. >Bottoms up! > > Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio? > A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to >one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc. > > Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular >exercise program? > A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No >Pain...Good! > > Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you? > A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! ..... Foods are fried these days in >vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more > vegetables be bad for you? > > Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around >the middle? > A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You >should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach. > > Q: Is chocolate bad for me? > A: Are you crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans ! Another vegetable!!! It's >the best feel-good food around! > > Q: Is swimming good for your figure? > A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me. > > Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle? > A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape! > > Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have >had about food and diets. > > And remember: > 'Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of >arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to >skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body >thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO, What a >Ride' AND..... > > For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on >nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those >conflicting nutritional studies. > > 1. The Japanese eat very little fat > and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. > > 2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat > and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. > > 3. The Chinese drink very little red wine > and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. > > 4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine > and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. > > 5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats > and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. > > CONCLUSION > > Eat and drink what you like. > > Speaking English is apparently what kills you. >

How long does one round of the five tibetans take and about how long does 21 rounds take? How good is it for building core strength and giving you the ability to move from the core compared to pilates and other methods with a core focus? What benefits do you get from doing it? How does it effect you energeticly? Very gratefull for answers Markern

Thank you bakenko! I want to do it partly for energetic reasons and partly because it seems to emphasize core strength which I realy need. I love pilates and the way it makes by body physicly correct and centered but it does not give me much of teh energetic effect/does not produce so much chi as my yoga does. I want to find practices that does what I feel I need physicly while at the same time producing and balancing chi in a good way. Realy happy to hear about the central channel. I want to prioritize anything that works it well. But how much time does one round take?

Sounds like you keep ending up in the friend sone and actively put yourself in it by gmaking it a friendship first. You need to escalate to a sexual vibe ASP, put yopurself out there and lead the interaction in a romantic/sexual direction. That in itself is attractive because it is masculine. Check out charismaarts.com

Santiago taught me a few simple things to do for grounding. When I do them they work very well. I also bought his Guru Secrets book about hatha yoga and there is a lot of good stuff in it.

From reading about it my impression is that the version of cranio sacral therapy that follows what is called the social engagement protocol is the best version.

I am sure the Hopis have preserved their traditions well and the Hopi elders are wise old Shamans but untill someone shows me evidence that someone that the Hopis themselves would characterise as the Hopi elders or Hopi Shamans with authority I am extreemly sceptical of something like that having been said at all. The reason is that I read a lot of prophecies supposedly given by Hopis, some south american indians and some african tribes. I googled the claims a bit and found that the south american claims came from a guy that had no authority within his tradition and was basicly a flaky maverick saying exactly what new age people wanted to hear. When I looked at the Hopi stuff I found some of the same combined with complete disagremment about what the Hopis actualy were saying. Same thing with the africans. In general the new age are expert at making what they themselves wish or feel to be true facts, and they rarely if ever check anyting out with rigor or scrutiny. Combine that with how infromation changes content when passed from one person to the next and then to others, specialy online, and you have a whole range of belives and claims about what indians and other tribes people say about this or that. By the way I also came a cross a guy claiming to be a north american indian shaman teaching indian tantra that turned out not to be an indian and teaching his own self invented sexual teachings. This has not stopped his teachings being widely redistributed by people as genuine north american indian sexual teachings. So when claims are made about stuff like this I either see sources for the claims or presume it is more likely new age fluff then true.

Have you considered bodywork? The good thing about bodywork is that it tends to bring out the stored emotions and "trauma" by itself and then usualy the issues get resolved by letting the emotions play themselves out. Medtation tends to bring this stuff out but sometimes a lot of stuff just is not reached in meditation for some resaon. For a lot of people, including myself, meditation is the missing piece that lets us get in touch with our emotions and dissolve old blocks and trauma but for some it just does not work that way, Jack Kornfield spent 5 years in asian monastaries and did not get in touch with his emotions at all through it. I am currently doing a form of rolfing that will eventualy also include cranio sacral thereapy. It is realy great. It both restructures your fascia and entire bodystrucutre correctly but also releases a lot of stored emotions. I saw Santiago and Tao recomending it on their site as well. There are also a bunch of other good bodyoriented therapies. I realy like the secret smile and it seems much more powerfull than the normal inner smile but I will continue to do the inner smile on the side because of the way it works directly with the organs. For me there is something very important in that as well and it is very good for getting in touch with your emotions and regulating them. Same thing goes with healing sounds but it ads more cleansing to the process. Eventualy I think Fusion of the five elements does this realy well and deep if you do it right (learn it from Andy Fretwell). My meditation teacher says that a in a very powerfull meditation session I had some years ago was actualy doing a part of fusion. I just stumbled into a type of visualisation and intuitively did some stuff to my imotions and they just transformed into healed energy. I sat for a realy long time just trying to find more and more bad emotions to transform. It was great. However since I did not have a clue what I was doing I could not reproduce it. There are also specific awareness based meditations for working with emotions. In Jack Kornfileds a Path with Heart he gives instructions for several I believe. Journaling sounds good.

Good to hear that things are looking up. Perhaps you should also consider the secret smile meditation: http://www.thetaobums.com/Dr-Morrisand39s-...mbs--t9719.html AS young as you are and working with the tools you are working with I am sure you will have a realy great life.

It is very good. I have been doing it for the last week and i like it a lot, but mixing inn aroused sexual energy did not seem to work so well for me. A good deal of the aroused energy sort of stayed with me throughout the day and anyoned me quite a bit, so for now I have left that part out. I am guessing it is the most important part and the sexual energy amplifies the emotions and gives them a lot more power so I am looking to put in this part as soon as it feels like it is working well for me. Yesterday I modified it by recalling some past blissfull experiences in meditation and that seemed to work much better than remembering my best orgasms. However, I suppose that meditative bliss, which is more or less unaroused sexual energy I think, does not have the same ability to amplify emotions as aroused sexual energy so it probably is best to change to memories of orgasms as soon as possible?

Let Santiago help you. He can work directly with your energy an is an expert on working with grounding and balancing out messed up energy. I am getting help from him myself with grounding etc. Chunyi Lin is an other alternative. The advice to use healing sounds and inner smile is very good. They will clean out and balance stuff in a harmonious way. Pilates could also be a very good idea. It will structure your body and especially your dan tien in an extreemly precise way physicly and when that gets done the energy follows. Because it works strictly through physical means it is not likely to aggravate energetic issues and hence is perfect for energy crisis of all kinds. I would also experiment with jogging or similar excercise. It will produce lots of endrophins that will help your depression and help you get back to neutral in a way that should not provoke your energy. Walks in nature will also help ground and rebalance to a natural state. Accupuncturist might work very well. If you are going to do any energy work (and it might well be that you should not) do standing poses. WHen you have regained your balance you need to find a teacher and a system to follow. I would also say you should emphaises a very basic foundational practice for a long time. By that I mean something like some quite ordinary qigong sets or asanas, straight forward meditations like just concentrating on the breath and inner smile, and for breathing practices not much more than stuff like alternate nostril breathing and moderate bastrika et.c with NO retention. Stick with something like that under the guidance of a teacher for three years or something and then first go onto more serious practices and when you do that stay within a system and with a teacher.

What is the difference between Umaa Tantra and KAP? Does anyone practice Umaa Tantra or perhaps both? And what about books like Santiagos Secrets the Gurus will Never Show You, Visual Stepping Stones to the Absolute and Secrets of The Chakras, Miracles of Esoteric Anatomy. HAve anyone read or seen these? What are the relationship between these and KAP and Between these and Umaa Tantra? Roughly what is in these books and DVDs?

Is it realy the Hopi elders (whoever that would be) saying this or just a few Hopi teachers claiming to speak for the Hopis? I ask this because I have seen south and north american indian teachers claiming all sorts of absurd stuff that their tribes and more conventional spiritual teachers do not agree with. I think many indian teachers are either just saying what New Age people want to hear or are quite confused themselves. I am not saying it is not the case that someone that can be considered genuine Hopi elders actualy say this but I would definitively check my sources

Interesting! I don`t know if there is anything different about budhist grounding. My teacher said though that in indian ashrams they buidl a higher vibration through somewhat different means than in Tibet one of which is through a vegetarian diet. Other than that he seems to think of grounding energeticly in the same sense as taoists an uses a lot of taoist and qigong methods himself, however he is much much more into grounding through wisdom and psychology than I usualy see most other teachers are. If you are fearfull your energy goes up tpwards the head and if you have problems facing life as it is you also escape up into your head and bring the energy with you there, If you build your core muscles you get more in touch with the core of your being emotionaly but if you get in touch with the core of your being emotionaly by other means it will also help ground you despite having poor core muscles etc. Makes a lot of sense to aproach stuff this way as well I think.