Ian

My dear old thing, You make you a bit worried, that's my whole point. But seriously, I'm good, the chair is good, be not alarmed. I was just feeling very exuberant, for a monday morning.

Indeed. I am the problem. Other people are not the problem. Other people's ideas and beliefs are not the problem. Other people's ways of expressing themselves are not the problem. Other people's cultivation techniques are not the problem. Other people's teachings are not the problem. Other people's incomes are not the problem. My issues are not the problem. My parents are not the problem. My circumstances are not the problem. My problems are not the problem. I am the problem. (Louder!!!) I AM THE PROBLEM!! (does little dance and heads for the washing up) Happy monday to one and all

Nice. Like it.

Got it from freeform's link, above. A pleasant scottish gentleman assisted me with my enquiries, and it arrived the next day. Just over 30 quid in total for ball and stabiliser and shipping. Don't find the stabiliser makes much difference with the larger ball. I will certainly issue a further report. But be warned that much of my enjoyment may be psychological, in that I can turn up for a gruelling day at the office and see a bright blue ball awaiting me. Incidentally, Spyrelx, I used to have a unicycle but had to give it up after pressure on the perineal area started to make me wee funny. But I have no problem with ordinary bicycles etc. So people may have a different threshold for how pointy and pressing something needs to be before trouble starts.

As I type, I'm bouncing gently from side to side on an 85cm ball, complete with stabiliser. I love it. It doesn't force me to sit well - I can still slouch if I want to - but I'm already inclined to lively active sitting just because it's loads of fun. However for me and the angle I want, 85cm is only just enough and needs to be inflated right until it goes ping. So if you have any size uncertainty aim large - you can always let some air out.

A while back I read this book called something like "Natural alternatives to antibiotics" . The author was, among other things, a practicing homoeopath and he mentioned that people who had taken a lot of a particular antibiotic in the past could undo the damage with a homoeopathic preparation made by diluting the same antibiotic. As I understand it, this comes under what you might call practical rather than classical homoeopathy, and I'm not really up on that particular debate. But my thought is: if it does work for antibiotics, then why not other stuff? How about a homeopathic dilution of cannabis, LSD, ecstasy, etc etc, to wipe away the residual gunk of one's past habits? Anybody know if it's been done? Anyone have any reasonably informed idea of whether the principle is sound in the first place? (I don't mean homoeopathy in general, just this one for one approach.) I figure at least if it's standard level dilutions it certainly won't do any harm. Any thoughts?

Just occurred to me.... Are there any foods particularly rich in Magnesium? Can we achieve a balance without supplements, or is the soil just too poor these days?

Yes, you big oddity. You can't breathe into your head unless it has airbags to hold the air in. You can direct your attention to your head as you breathe in, thereby not expanding your lungs much and reducing whatever you feel there. If you really reckon you can breathe without your lungs, then I'm sure you don't need your nose or mouth either, cos they're only peripheral openings. Let us know how you get on. Sorry, couldn't resist. On the other hand I did hear tell of an 8 hour vhs of a little old man sitting and twinkling with his mouth and nose taped up, but ah aint never done see it.

Entirely. I have been watching people who are exposed to teachings which express your point. It seems that there are two circumstances in which a person will accept the truth that thinking about it simply will not help. One is if they hear it from someone who embodies it, i.e has a profound ability to direct their own resources away from thought. Two is simply if they have suffered enough at the hands of their own thoughts. Preferably both. Otherwise the mind will always find a way to justify its role. It's such a relief to be able to have an attitude of "shut up you, I've heard it all before" Anyway, enough. I'm not quite sure what my point was. Love and peace to all and sundry, Ian

"And the more I acted like I did know, the more it brought me even further away from home. I tried hard, but I could not find it. Of course not! Because there is nothing to find. You can either be it or leave it. Are you willing to surrender to what you can't know? Because that's the truth. You can become a living expression of the core being again, radiating its perfection in the space of the human reality. But when that happens, are you Ok with the fact that it's the most ordinary thing on earth? Because it doesn't contain anything to get, to give or to take. Or do you want to join the herd of people that is meditating to get to that particular place. Good luck. What will you do if you find this place, or state, tonight? You would probably have a new obstacle. Just like you received life, it will disappear from your body one day. Despites all scientific, religious and spiritual theories. This life doesn't come from some place. But from the stillness that you can be NOW. When we start to realize that we will never be able to grasp this (meaning realizing that the ego needs to be left out of the initiation room), we often want to give it up. Many of us, get ill, or even die. Others start to look for kicks that give them a strong body/emotional experience. But its all just a delay. We all drop back inside the body space and feel the quality of our realized state. Art of life is to be in the deep stillness of the being, and allowing its constant process of being birthed through the body. Conclusion: I can say, after 10 years of teaching, I realize that nothing really valuable has changed. Hahaha!" Hope it helps, Ian

Do get in touch with him, if you haven't already. He's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. (Doesn't mean it won't hurt, mind....) I don't know if he does treatments in a commercial sorta way yet, but he should be able to work something out with you. Also I think there's gonna be a couple more introductory courses for the 4-d in Uk in April and June. Not Dirk himself, but opportunities to be brutalised without a big commitment...

I was in a similar situation, he supervising. The person administering my agony was concerned about how much I was sweating and screaming and asked Dirk if I needed a break. The answer, deadpan: "He's had a break for twenty years. He needs a towel."

Thank you Karen. As ever, you're a mine of information. Inevitably, I have a few more questions arising from what you've said. Such as: Can you recommend good drainage remedies? Would they be specific to the individual, or is there anything reasonably "all-purpose"? How would one go about making an isode of cannabis, it not being water soluble? Would you actively disrecommend an isode, even if one got advice about when to take it, if it's not an acute situation? I'm thinking of someone (no Mum, not me!) who has a massive accumulation of hard feeling yurk in exactly the spots around the eyes mentioned above, which is a big hijacker of meditative attention as said attention aims to go lower. Is there anything you would particularly recommend for the above circumstances? would nux vomica apply? How does one take calamus? (what are you doing with it, neimad?) Many thanks, Ian

From the article: This information .........was given to me as a result of my spending some years deeply probing a celestial immortal ........... Now that's what I call research!

Much as Karen says. Mr Vonderplanitz is clearly a bit of a freak, but after the life he reports that's hardly surprising. I've only read the first book. There are clear examples of people recovering from the brink of death with his raw diet. I'm personally convinced that if you want to eat dairy, then raw is infinitely better for you, providing all the important stuff above about how it's produced is followed. And I'm personally convinced that "normal" dairy is bad for pretty much everyone. However, I'm inclined to believe that there are some people who are better off without dairy, raw or otherwise. Pietro sounds like he thrives, but he's a great hairy man-beast with a very primitive aspect. In zoos when animals are orphaned, or abandoned by their mothers, cow milk doesn't work across species. Goat milk does, however. The old greek term for goat, apparently, meant universal mother, for this reason. So even unpasteurised milk is still meant for calves, and the molecule is much much bigger than that of human milk. Having said that, I drink it whenever I can get it, cos it's just so nice. And the cream..... And unpastuerised goat milk I've only found frozen, which is a whole new argument.... So gee, I dunno. Try it, you might like it...

Re raw dairy: The farmers market in Notting Hill on Saturday mornings has raw milk and cream. It's more or less behind Waterstone's. And at a lot of such markets you can get raw honey still in the comb. Or I know someone in Oxford, if you want to make a habit of it. And Watkins in Cecil Court may well have a second hand copy of "we want to live", if no-one has bought it since I sold it to them! Happy new year from New Zealand I

I've worked out what it is. Most of us have, and give off, this sense of discussing, sharing, being equals, helping each other. But you, Max, sound like a teacher. Like you are sure you could never be wrong, or your understanding could never be incomplete, or refinable further. Maybe that's so. We've never met, I've no idea. But I am sure you would get a much more positive response from people if you just wrote a little less like you were their superior. It's not that difficult, believe me. I'm an arrogant bugger myself, and when I've got something I really think is true I tend to lay it on with a trowel. So I try, not always successfully, I'm sure, to write like I remember that I'm just another fool. Doesn't take much. Just add a few clauses. "My experience, while doing x, is that y happened." "my impression is...." "I really do believe, based on x months of practice, that...." If you share your own experience, rather than writing like you're presenting infallible doctrine, you will be so much better received. Nobody likes having a point of view given to them as if it's unchallengeable. It just makes us want to argue. Why not just present the evidence, and let people draw their own conclusions? After all, your reason for sharing what you believe is true, or what you experience as truth, must be to help others and guide them towards beneficial practices. Yes? Yet your style has been having the effect of actively putting people off the direction in which you might hope to lead them. Honestly, don't try to convince anyone of anything in one post. Especially not that what they do is bad for them. People only accept that from someone they have already placed in the teacher category. If you want to lead people in your direction, just be friendly, offer tips where appropriate, let the fact that you yourself are happy and serene gradually diffuse through your writing. Finally, please let me assure you that I only see fit to say this because I see myself doing exactly the same. And my understanding, my commitment to practice, and my depth of meditation are, from what I glean, all much less than yours. So if I find it hard not to preach about what little I've understood, I'm sure the temptation must be many times greater for you. But if you simply bear in mind that you are currently, merely by style rather than content, thwarting your own goal, well, that may help. I, for one, look forward to hearing a lot more from you.

Buckminster Fuller used to do it, on a fairly permanent basis. I'm told that most sleep time is "wasted" in circling down through the subconscious to get to the bit where we are genuinely unconscious and being refreshed, that this deep bit can be as little as 5-20 mins, and that we often take 2-3 hours each way to get there and back. (seems to contradict, or maybe run alongside, the 90 minute thing. I dunno.) I've also heard strategies for getting directly to the deep bit, which mainly involve getting semi comfortable and doing gentle chi kung until you just zonk off. So maybe giving you system no alternative will direct it in a similar way. Will try one day. Not any time soon, tho.

I just read an autobiographical book called "the wheel of life", by elizabeth kubler-ross, the lady who wrote "on death and dying" She had quite a freaky ride, one way or another, and the book touched me a lot. But the reason I mention it is that she collected a lot of data from people who had "died and come back". And while there's no "proof" that their experiences aren't merely "the deranged fanstasy of their disorganised minds undergoing death", as the man said, there is remarkable consistency beteween the people's experiences, and great similarity also to what Barry Long has written. And it's valauble to get descriptions which are not coloured by a previously ingrained belief system, I think. Check out some of her stuff. She is a little "unsophisticated" in her expressions, but I think that's the main reason she has been able to spread so much kindness.

Couldn't agree more. Not easy, tho, until it is easy....