It's awfully Late...Am I awake yet??

Hi Everyone,

In keeping with the idea of awareness, I thought you might find the below article interesting. The idea is that, in order to know or lead others, you must first embark on the journey of knowing, and thereby, leading oneself. If one can master this, then one can create a field of awareness that will help lead others.

Enjoy.....



A is For Awareness - A Key Element of Leadership
By Star Dargin

Awareness is a kind of knowledge, of knowing. One dictionary defines "awareness" as "being awake," "of having full consciousness of." Awareness is a skill that can be developed, and it can be applied to different arenas -- there is awareness of yourself, of others, of environments and situations. Being aware of something creates a meaning, or a sense of an understanding about something, that can lead to action. For example, if I am aware of a car weaving on the road, I might attach the "meaning" or inference that the driver is drunk.

A good leader is able to see things that others may not be aware of, and can attach useful meaning to that information. For example someone else might have noticed the same driver was weaving, and in addition noticed that the car had bad tires. Based on the meaning attached to the awareness and observation of a car weaving, the actions taken surrounding the situation might be different. If it was a drunk driver, I might have called 911. If it was a car with something physically wrong, I would have tried to signal the driver to make them aware of the problem.

As a leader, being aware of the values, beliefs, culture, skills, strengths, weaknesses and history of your group is critical for being able to take action that get results. A powerful yet simple example is the word "yes". If you are aware of other factors, you may see that there can be different meanings applied to the word. Saying the word "yes" and shaking your head "no," may mean someone isn't quite sure. In some cultures "yes" means, "I hear you," not "I agree with you" and, a step further, also not, "I will do it. " That kind of subtle distinction in meaning can and has caused serious miscommunications and disappointing results for people, projects, and plans on all seven continents!

Awareness Shortcomings

Too much, too little or not enough of a good things can be a problem. Here is how awareness can cause some leaders to not advance in their skills:

1. I am so Aware - Being stuck in the love of awareness. Sometimes there is a need to summarize or draw a conclusion from one's awareness/perceptions, determine appropriate action, and move on.

2. Move on from Awareness - Ok, so you know! Reliving, revising, replaying, adding more details to support what you already see doesn't help. Time to move on, and at this point there are only three choices for an inner/outer deliberate shift in the situation: Ignore it, Take action, or Accept it as it is

3. Nothing's new - Time to refresh, sharpen, or change your awareness as a leader. Change the questions you are asking yourself or others, try a new focus of awareness, or get feedback from someone or someplace new.

To increase Awareness:

1. Improve your Listening Skills. Do you listen for facts and emotions, to summarize or to marshal your own facts arguments and have your voice heard?

2. Know how to give and receive useful feedback. Useful feedback is specific, descriptive, measurable and timely.

3. Be curious. Ask open ended questions, ask for clarity, ask for history, ask questions to help you understand "why."

4. Know how and when to step back and reflect on yourself and the situation

Awareness is one of the first steps in acknowledging a change is required. Leadership requires awareness. Awareness is a kind of knowledge and knowing. It is a skill that can be learned and improved upon with with practice.

Star S. Dargin, PCC, CPCC

Helping Leaders and Managers with Change
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Bilocation, Doppelgangers and Men In Black

John Keel wrote a book called the Mothman Prophecies that is entertaining, and at times unnerving. However, I felt the truly interesting takeaway from the book is his assertion that all paranormal phenomena, such as ghosts, UFO's, Sasquatch, aliens, Men In Black, and other phenomena such as bi location( a living person being in two places at the same time), clairvoyance, strange electrical disturbances, and the like are all interrelated.

Specifically, his opinion was that they somehow were projections or reactions to human consciousness or human energy, perhaps in another dimension. He thought that what people are experiencing in this realm are individual or collective projections of their own thoughts, conscious or subconscious. He also felt this explained why all of the above phenomena are always ephemeral in nature, often have little evidence outside of witness accounts, and never seem to make themselves easily known when one is actually looking to find them. John was an interesting an entertaining author, and this was a new take on some very well worn topics. He considered himself a Fortean author rather than a UFOlogist

Keel's point was that believers of one type of phenomena rarely believe in another (ESP vs Bigfoot for example), but that all the phenomena share more in common they do actual differences. While this theory is impossible to prove or disprove, it does take me back to the idea that human consciousness and our ultimate understanding of it and the mechanics of the universe is very limited. Perhaps we all have the ability to interact on many levels that we are only dimly aware of, that come to us by way of "intuition", "dreams" or "hunches", but that our logical selves, only recently developed on the evolutionary time scale, blocks out of our daily awareness.

Much like infrared light or X-ray radiation, just because we cannot experientially see or understand a phenomena at will does not negate its existence. It merely means we do not yet have the means to be in control of our awareness of that phenomena. Check out this link for further research of psychic phenomena.

Time out of Mind: All Lines Become Circular

My previous post dealt with how science was slowly but surely nudging up against some truly fantastical ideas about our reality as we know it. Along those lines I offer you my next morsel that may seem a bit, shall we say, mindbending.

Ronald Mallet is a physics professor at The University of Connecticut. Mr. Mallet and I have something in common in that our father's both died when we were fairly young. Ron was all of ten years old when this occurred. However, Ron went on to become a lauded professional earning many awards and commendations for his work.

Oh yes, and he is also working on a time machine that will allow one to go backwards in time. Perhaps not a person, but at the very least, a particle. He is currently acquiring the funding for his experiment, which involves twisting lasers through a medium and creating circular tunnel. The area within this tunnel would be where a particle would travel into the past. From my highly limited understanding, the setup apparently follows Einsteins' theory of relativity and may be possible. I can't seem to get any info on when he will actually attempt this, but if any of you are able to parse out, let me know.

Spike Lee has also bought the film rights to his story, and he has appeared on many TV shows recently discussing his project. My guess is that when the film comes out, if it ever does, he will be front page news. Here is to Ronald, and that his dream becomes a reality

Take a look for yourself

Biocentrism: What does it mean?

Some of you may be familiar with this term, yet it is not as widely known as others. Science and religion have been at odds in the past (Gailileo and the Catholic church anyone?). Even in more recent times, one might call the relationship uneasy. However, in the last 5 to 10 years, as our knowledge of the very small and very large grows deeper, science is beginning to reach an end point and the lines between the spiritual and science are becoming blurry, much to the dismay of certain members of both camps. Case in point: What made the big bang, go boom? If the entire unvierse was, at one time, smaller than the head of a pin, what caused the bang the brought us to our present state? Did it happen spontaneously, for no reason at all?

I personally have always seen them as two sides of the same coin, and it is interesting to see that now a book has been written that attempts to frame this discussion using a modicum of scientific data and research. The name of the book is Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to understanding the True Nature of the Universe. The authors, Dr. Robert Lanza and Bob Berman are no slouches when it comes to their credentials. Dr. Lanza is the Chief Scientific Officer at Advanced Cell Technology and has been lauded in US News and World Report. He is also an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University School of medicine. Bob Berman is an astronomer for both Astronomy Magazine and Discover magazine.

The central thrust of the book is this: Life created the universe, rather than the universe creating life. Sounds like poppycock, right? The book asserts that the universe has always been seen as an outside force from ourselves. We are here, the universe is outside of us, an externality. Like fish in a fishbowl, we exist swimming within the external world of the universe. However, the book asserts that we are essentially, the fishbowl itself. We are both the creator and the observer of the world we live in. Hold on folks, it gets weirder. Below are some of the examples listed in the book to back up this seemingly strange conclusion.

- A classic test called the "double slit" experiment involves shooting light through a two identical slits and watching the pattern they make on a detector set up behind. The light, as proven through multiple experiments, behaves differently when it is being observed than when it is not being observed. In other words, the light knows when someone is watching, and behaves accordingly...every single time. In other words, particles behave differently based solely on a human observers intention.

-A discussion of the "Goldilocks" idea that the universe, the outcome of which was the result of an infinite number of possibilities of chemical, physics, etc, formed perfectly to create life...purely by chance. Any gambler would tell you the odds of that happening, of it being "just right" for life given the number of possible outcomes is almost statistically impossible as a random occurrence. The universe is fine tuned for life at the smallest levels of matter.

-The smallest particles can transmit information to each other faster than the speed of light over enormous distances, in apparent violation of Einsteins' law

-space and time are only properties of the perceiving organism(us) and do not exist outside of that context.

- The universe was created to observe itself through us.

So, that is probably enough to keep your head spinning for quite some time. I read the book 6 months ago, reread it, and am still trying to fully grasp it. I would imagine many scientists who are familiar with the work would question much of it. My interest is only to present the ideas for your review. Those among you who don't like dense science content may not appreciate the book, but I have linked to several reviews and Amazon for those interested.

Here is the Amazon page

Here is a review of the book.

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Chopra's Stunning passage

Those followers of the spiritual may be familiar with Deepak Chopra, another respected voice within the realm. His books are widely read and he is known as an authoritative voice within the community.

I have read his book The Book of Secrets, a former NY times bestseller. The book is good and touches on a lot of common themes, but there is one passage that I found particularly stunning, so much so I questioned whether it was true. I often wonder if such questioning is a defense mechanism, part of a cultural bias, or just an unwillingness to accept that which is radically different. It is probably a combination of all those things. Either way, it had an effect on me.

Anyway, the passage is in Secret #13, which is toward the end of the book. Chopra, who is originally from India, starts the chapter by conveying an episode where he listened to a traditional priest reading Jyotish, or Indian astrology, foretelling his future from a piece of bark with inscriptions on it. Chopra conveys his own severe skepticism at the nature of the proceedings, but agrees to sit through it due to the fact a friend had begged him to come. Chopra states in the chapter that he has avoided all brushes with this Jyotish because he considered himself a child of modern India that rejected such archaic traditional belief systems.

However, unlike traditional western astrological "chart" drawing and future telling, the point of this Jyotish priest was to foretell Chopra's present, past and future from ancient strips of bark, known as Nadi, that had been created many generations before anyone in the room had been born. Keep in mind, that Chopra had never met the priest before in his life, and did not understand his native tounge of Tamil, which is a completely different language than what he spoke.

Upon interpretation of the Nadi, he accurately gave information about Chopra's birthdate, his parents name, his wife's name and his children's name. The priest even managed to correctly read that Chopra's mothers' name had been changed earlier in her life, a fact that Chopra did not even know, but confirmed later upon speaking with his mother. Keep in mind that these Nadi's already exist, they are not created, and must be located as they can be scattered all over the country and may have been created over a thousand years ago. Furthermore, Nadi's do not exist for everyone, but ONLY for the people who will eventually show up for a reading at some point in time. They may also discuss past lives and future dates such as illness or death.

While one can debate endlessly as to the meaning of this, Chopra states that knowing the day and hour of his death had radically altered his outlook (fortunately, the date was far in the future) and the idea that someone centuries ago knew more about him than he knew of himself. He also floats the term 'nonlocal cognition' to describe such knowledge.

Take from it what you will, but I will be addressing this concept of nonlocal cognition and other ideas similar that have some limited basis in recent scientific discovery. For now, I hope you are all well. I have also included a link to Deepak Chopra's website for anyone who may wish to explore his work in more detail.

Deepak Chopra

The Power of Tolle? Now!

Some of you may be familiar with Eckhart Tolle. He has become pretty big within certain circles after publication of his book The Power of Now. What I find interesting about him is not so much his ideas, which are essentially a westernized synthesis of many of the ideas of Buddhism and Christianity mixed in. It is how his ideas are presented in his own unique style of writing. Straightforward, common sense, but at the same time, answering many of the questions or criticisms a reader may have as the move through the text.

The concepts are high level and have obviously struck a chord for millions of readers. The central theme of his thesis is that we all identify with our ego, our desire for more and our constant focus on the past and the future and how it relates to the ego. Such focus on the past and future causes us to never live "in the now" or in the single moment we occupy for our whole lives.

He would assert that people confuse their ego with who they are, and thus become unconscious in their actions and a drive for continual gratification through external forms such as money, possessions, power, substances, etc. However, these needs are never filled because the ego always wants more, and this always leads, eventually, to unhappiness and misery. I believe it was Bruce Springsteen who said "Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king, and the king ain't satisfied until he rules everything".(sorry, I couldn't resist)

However, you don't need to take my word for it. Take a look at the interview below. I also have included a link to his site if you are so inclined. Personally, I recommend his books to anyone who may be feeling a bit lost given the current situation. They have provided much calm and confidence in my outlook, and maybe they can do the same for you, no matter how difficult things may appear.

Eckhart Tolle interview excerpt

Tolle website

IONS - Institute of Noetic Science

Hello All,

I wanted to throw this link your way I stumbled upon a while back to the institute of Noetic science. What does Noetic mean? (that was my first question as well) Per their website it is

"Noetic sciences are explorations into the nature and potentials of consciousness using multiple ways of knowing—including intuition, feeling, reason, and the senses. Noetic sciences explore the "inner cosmos" of the mind (consciousness, soul, spirit) and how it relates to the "outer cosmos" of the physical world."

Yes, a bit esoteric, but what gave me a pause is that the institute was founded by an ex Apollo moon astronaut by the name of Edgar Mitchell, who had an epiphany of sorts coming home from the moon and seeing the vastness of space surrounding the earth, and realizing that something much bigger was at work than conventional religion could explain. Apparently, this was the impetus of the beginning of the institute. What impressed me is, these astronauts were highly vetted and chosen because they were NOT considered esoteric, irrational or non-logical in their thinking. If space could get to one of these folks, than there must really be something to this idea that Mr. Mitchell came up with. At least I thought so.

Here is a link to their site, take a look for yourself at ION site

Angst, Evolution and everything else

Hi everybody, I picked this up along the way for anyone interested in self-help or spiritual enlightenment.

Chapter 1: The Human Dilemma

"Seen in retrospect, evolution as a whole doubtless had a general direction, from simple to complex, from dependence on to relative independence of the environment, to greater and greater autonomy of individuals, greater and greater development of sense organs and nervous systems conveying and processing information about the state of the organism's surroundings, and finally greater and greater consciousness. You can call this direction progress or by some other name."
THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY

LIFE. WHAT IS IT? Where did it come from? What does it mean? One need merely pause and reflect to realize that, whatever it turns out to be, for now life is still a mystery. Possibly the most helpful clue to the puzzle in recent history is the theory of evolution. If the theory holds true, and at this point all indicators suggest that, generally, it is sound, then each living being is a receptacle and reflection of three and a half billion years of experience, a manifestation of all that came before it as well as a gauge on the possibilities lying in the beyond. It is a "Grand Experiment;" one in which all
of creation, past and present, participates. Humans, it seems, now find themselves in the position of evaluating the results of the experiment so far.

For the human animal, with its ability to snatch experience from the flow of time, abstract it into language and art, and share it with other members of the species in order to affect and confront the environment, the present moment is a testament to the reality of duration. How else to explain the emergence of countless species of living organisms? Life endures, along with the artifacts of human history literature, technology, art and architecture. Duration, in turn, proves invaluable in gauging the accuracy of evolutionary theory. These two phenomena, duration and evolution, are the impetus from which the following inquiry begins. However, in order to realize a fact-based probability concerning the authentication of the experiment to this point in time, the focus of the study will be narrowed to the concepts of evil and the unfolding of potential. Recognition of evil sparks many a thought about the nature of life. The unfolding of potential, one might argue, is the essence of biological life. The choice to focus in this way stems from the hope that a study of that which appears to be against life (evil) may very well shed light on the potential it strives to destroy.

To read more buy Angst and Evolution: The Struggle for Human Potential

Food for thought

Hello all- I thought this had a nice 30,000 foot view of the "the big picture". The recession has made us all a little more introspective and I thought this attempts to place it perspective.


When tough economic times hit, there is always the question as to whether greed is the cause of our economic problems. However, this isn't necessarily the root of the problem. It is a bit more complex than that. Railing against the greed in capitalism doesn't take into consideration the other factors that are equally present. Greed can also be for power. Power comes with money, but it isn't always the money people are after. This is why big government is as dangerous as corporate monopolies. The people who have consolidated significant power tend to be corrupted by it. As human beings, we all tend to lean toward materialism in our actions, and find our personal significance and value in things we control and own.

There is a spiritual aspect to the problem of materialism. It is a worldview that fuels greed. Our society has been increasingly embracing the worldview of naturalism, of which materialism is a part. Naturalism holds that knowledge is limited to what we can see and that everything must be thought of in physical terms. Naturalism ignores the spiritual aspects of life, considering them more like superstitions. So we tend to move toward seeking our personal value in the things we possess and the things we control. To make matters worse, we also discount objective truth. The end result is there are no standard set of values we all hold common, and that means there is no foundation for society to build on.

So in America, we have come to equate financial wealth with a higher level of happiness. This is partly what is wrong with the caste system in India. The belief behind it is materialistic. This worldview is illustrated well in the movie Slumdog Millionaire. However, what we really need is a purpose for our life. But we can't find purpose in physical things. Since we have decided that objective truth can only be found in scientific conclusions, we have dismissed the existence of truth beyond what we can see, hear, feel, taste, or touch. Yet there is a non-physical reality where we find our sense of purpose and meaning in life. We are ignoring half of the knowledge we could be gaining by ignoring the knowledge from the non-physical realm. In Hosea 4:6 in the Old Testament, it tells us what happens when we lack knowledge. There are moral shortcomings that lead to a downfall. The ways of the people are characterized by self gratification and greed.

So the real solution to our economic and financial problems doesn't lie in putting our trust in an economic theory about what will restore our economy, but rather it lies in recognizing the thinking that has led us astray. As a nation we are turning away from the Bible as a source of moral authority, which was certainly in the minds of the founders of our country. It is found throughout the federal and state constitutions, as well as our Bill of Rights. It even says on our money "In God We Trust". It was this moral compass that has guided legislation in the early years of our country. But, as we have strayed from those original moral principles, we have caused the problems we have today. We have led our citizens to strange ideas about how the world works, and they have adopted them. We have let the marginalization of faith and the emphases on a materialistic worldview dominate, governed by a postmodern philosophy that denies any objective truth. It confuses our laws and destroys the core of what made this country strong.

Each individual can rise above this problem by returning to the Bible as a moral guide for their own lives and no matter what happens to us as a nation, they will find the strength through their faith in God to do what is good and right. They will find a sense of purpose that will give them the power to overcome adversity and will be the last ones standing in the end. These will be the people who were able to recognize their faith in God and the truth of the Bible heeding the wisdom of Proverbs 3:5 where it tells us to trust the Lord and not lean on our own understanding. We know what God teaches us in the Bible is reliable, and if we place our trust in that most reliable source, we've gone a long way to rising above the problems we have today.

Lucid Dreaming

The theory of lucid dreaming sounds simple and fantastic; yet few people can have lucid dreams while the majority doesn't even remember their dreams.

Learning how to have a lucid dream is quite simple. You don't need to have a set of special skills or costly devices in order to have a lucid dream. You only need to be able to sleep, which is something that comes naturally to everybody. Still, many people fail at lucid dreaming. What could be the reasons for this?

The world is full of information about lucid dreaming. You only have to search the Internet to prove the truth of this statement. There are hundreds of techniques to induce a lucid dream; if one doesn't work for you, you can always try another. So, it isn't lack of information or techniques of inducing lucid dreams that is responsible for so many people failing at lucid dreaming.

The actual reasons are different...and absurdly simple.

Most people don't quite understand the concept of "reality checks." To have a lucid dream, you should be able to perform a reality check every now and then. This helps you determine if you are dreaming or experiencing something in real.

Many people think that performing a reality check means asking themselves if they are dreaming or awake. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. The idea of performing reality checks is to train the self to be more aware, to pay full attention to what is going on.

Most people go through life in a half-conscious or totally unconscious state. They perform their daily activities lost in their own thoughts. They hardly register what is going on around them, simply because it is all so mundane. The purpose of conducting a reality check is to train the mind to live in the moment, to be fully aware of the present, and to be present.

The key to enjoy a lucid dream is to effectively perform reality checks. Learn the true purpose of a reality check. The purpose is not to check whether you are dreaming or awake. It is to train your mind to be aware and alert always. Most people cannot have a lucid dream because they cannot understand the significance of reality checks. They give up in despair because they fail in their very first step-performing reality checks.

So, be alert! Live in the present moment! Pay attention to the present momentt! Don't get lost in thoughts!

Pay attention to your dreams...this will help you recall your dreams better and create a better dream journal.

Watch yourself as you drift off to sleep...you will soon be able to have that lucid dream.

Abhishek is an Astral Projection expert and he has got some great Astral Projection Techniques up his sleeves! Download his exhaustive 350-Pages eBook, "Astral Projection Underground", from his website http://www.AstralProjectNow.com.

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Interesting Article- The Power of Intention

Given the recent movie release of The Secret, everyone thinks that the secret of intentional wealth is the law of attraction. The law of attraction states that what you think about and focus on is what manifests in your reality.

They are wrong. Well, in part. The law of attraction is a law and it does create the reality of each and every one of us. But, the secret to actually creating what we want is in knowing how to apply the law of attraction to manifest what we want in our daily lives.

The next generation of law of attraction experts, such as Margaret Lynch and Joe Vitale actually teach you applicable methods focused on ensuring that manifestation works in your life.

The Secret is Learning How to Control Your Subconscious

Most of us know how to control our conscious thinking. However, our conscious thinking is less than 20% of our overall thinking. The remaining 80% is your subconscious thinking and these thoughts and feelings are generated automatically in your system as a result of years of programming.

This is where everyone who begins to study law of attraction gets frustrated. They think about and write down the goals they want to manifest and then do not understand why the law of attraction is not working.
This is because it applies to 100% of our thinking and there is part of your other 80% that is causing blockages to your manifestation.

How do you get the remaining 80% of your thinking to focus on wealth, prosperity and manifesting money and freedom in your life?

Practicing Actual Methods Is the Secret

Applying the law of attraction in your subconscious realm requires the application of underlying methods and these methods are not ones that come to you naturally. You need to first know about them and then practice applying them.

Think about any other practical skill you have learned. For example, playing tennis. You cannot just know that you have to hit the ball hard with a racket and then you become a tennis start. You have to actually learn how to hold the tennis grip and how to conduct a perfect swing. Then, you need to get out on a court and practice, practice, practice.

The good news about wealth manifestation is that in the past few years, practitioners have perfected fast and effective methods and tools that work for anyone. The great thing is that some methods only take 7 minutes a day and will eliminate blockages that were caused by years and years of negative thinking and teachings.

You can now learn to create intentional wealth in your life by practicing simple methods that take very little time in your life.

Free Tapping into Prosperity Program

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