The prevailing Western lifestyle and food intake is very acidic, which causes both a feeling of low energy and a breakdown of the body, sooner or later. Want to be full of energy, feel good and be healthy instead? Read our prior blog article on alkaline foods to restore a healthy balance in your body.

That article was a basic general primer.

Now I’d like to introduce this follow-on article on alkaline foods and alkaline lifestyle that is a bit more specific. It’s written by Dr. Robert Young ans is called ‘The Top Ten Causes of Death Can Be Prevented’:

“There is a lot you can do to decrease your risk of many of the major acidic causes of death in the US. An alkaline lifestyle and diet and at least 1 hour of exercise a day can increase 15 to 20 years to your life and prevent all sickness, dis-ease and most accidents.

Top 10 Preventions

Here are the top ten preventable deaths in the USA (together with their preventions):

1. Heart Disease

* % of Deaths: 27
* Prevention Methods: maintain the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

2. Cancer

* % of Deaths: 23
* Prevention Methods: maintain the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

3. Stroke

* % of Deaths: 6
* Prevention Methods: maintain the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

4. Chronic lower respiratory disease

* % of Deaths: 5
* Prevention Methods: maintain the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

5. Accidents

* % of Deaths: 4.5 (motor vehicles accidents: 2%)
* Prevention Methods: increase mental clarity, awareness, sharp impulses, visual acuity, a more peaceful and safe driving approach with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

6. Diabetes

* % of Deaths: 3
* Prevention Methods: maintain the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

7. Alzheimer’s disease

* % of Deaths: 3
* Prevention Methods: keep your mind fit by maintaining the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

8. Influenza and pneumonia

* % of Deaths: 2
* Prevention Methods: maintain the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

9. Kidney disease

* % of Deaths: 2
* Prevention Methods: maintain the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

10. Septicemia

* % of deaths: 1
* Prevention Methods: maintain the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. This includes eating and drinking more chlorophyll, oil, alkaline water, mineral salts and exercising at least one hour daily.

14.6% of all mortality in the US is from other causes which are related to acidic lifestyle and dietary choices.

Sickness and disease is not something you get or catch, it is something you do. You don’t get cancer you do cancer with your lifestyle and dietary choices. For example, if you smoke you are doing lung cancer. If you drink alcohol you are doing liver and/or kidney disease. If you eat pure acid like sugar and/or animal protein you are doing diabetes or bowel cancer. The top ten killers in the US are ALL caused by personal dietary and lifestyle choice.”

About the author of ‘The Top Ten Causes of Death Can Be Prevented’

Dr. Robert O. Young is Research Scientist, Author, and Avocado and Grapefruit Farmer.

Over the past two and a half decades, Robert O. Young has been widely recognized as one of the top research scientists in the world. Throughout his career, his research has been focused at the cellular level. Having a specialty in cellular nutrition, Dr. Young has devoted his life to researching the true causes of “disease,” subsequently developing The New Biology™ to help people balance their life. In 1994, Dr. Young discovered the reality of biological transformation of red blood cells into bacteria and bacteria to red blood cells. He has since documented several such transformations.

Learn More about Alkaline Foods

Here are some of the books written by Dr. Robert Young on alkaline foods.

Alkaline Diet and Alkaline Lifestyle Support Group

I discovered that Dr. Robert Young has a ‘pH miracle Fan club’ on Facebook to join.

“What a wonderful experience. I prepared 1/2 the morning for the encounter with the One World Healing. The efforts paid off more than I had expected. I meditated the entire hour (started about five minutes early and finished a couple minutes after because it “felt right”) and finished feeling relaxed yet invigorated and so full of spiritual healing energies. I had several visions but one that will remain with me for quite some time. I would like to share that now…

I was standing on one step of a large stairway of white light. There was a person on each step leading upward very high and very far beyond my line of sight. There were people of all races, creeds, shapes and sizes and we all stood on our individual step. Then someone on the step below me handed me a sickened child. This child was emaciated and full of sores.

I took the child and held him close to my body and let love flow from me into him and I felt the tears form in my eyes. I turned and then handed the child to the person on the step above me who in turn loved and healed the child then passed him to the next step up. I then took another child from the person next to me and this child was ill but not with the same sickness as the previous child. I did the same… I loved the child and felt heat and light pass from me to her and then turned to hand her to the person on the next step. I could see that the children were being healed as they passed upward on the stair! Way of light and healers. They became healthier and plumper and full of joy.

My tears were warm on my cheeks as I turned to take the next child and saw the line down the staircase to be long and with no end in sight. A constant line of people of all faiths and nations handing children up the stairway to one another and adding their love and healing on the way.

But I noticed the children being handed to me were healthier and “cleaner” than the earlier ones. As if they were being healed more quickly and I soon found myself with a whole child loving and laughing as I took her into my arms.

A child that was healing me in return as I held her and loved her unconditionally. What a peaceful loving embrace that we parted reluctantly as I handed her to the step above and saw her changing even then before my eyes. Changing into a woman full of grace and life and light. A healer was born before my eyes on that stairway of light.

Then the vision changed…

I will hold this vision dear and know it was a confirmation from the Universe that I was indeed “hooked in” to this beautiful World Healing experience. I also know the Universe is telling me that our selfless efforts are working and we are healing our world one child… one soul… one moment at a time and raising a new generation toward the Light to carry our healing forth to all the World.

Namaste!”

By Tony O’Connor
Participant in We Are One World Healing at http://www.therapeuticreiki.com/blog
Crew Member at thembonez.blogspot.com/
Happy Contributor to www.worldcommunitygrid.org

Second. repeat.

Third. For those of you who are not that familiar with Reiki healing: it comes with a set of fundamental principles which to live by. One of these Reiki principles is the deceptively simple creed: ‘Just for today, … do not worry’. By taking the stress, worry, and anxiety off our own shoulders for a whole day, we are free to… ENJOY the day!!! At the end of the day, we realize, we didn’t miss anything. Instead, we gained a whole, pleasurable day of your life. At times, part or all of the problem we could have been worried about has resolved all by itself by day’s end.

Fourth. Complementing this Reiki principle, is one of my own personal sayings and belief: ‘The world is a perfect place’. To me, this means that while sometimes things are not exactly to our liking in the short term, in the long run they are for our highest good.

Trusting and affirming that the world is a perfect place helps us to be firmly in this world. Also, when we mediate, go to a place of oneness, and embrace all of life in its totality, we may be able to acknowledge and understand that a re-balancing, a shift, can only bring us closer to enlightenment.

Being in a state of ‘need’ can help us create a stronger sense of community… It takes us out of our comfort zone and can help us to take a step out into the unknown that is a completely new and wonderful world for us. I reminiscent of last year’s long power outage causing entire streets to have outdoor group BBQs in the freezing cold but in warm spirits…. They may have never met their neighbors before.

Fifth. If all this wasn’t enough for you to put your worries to one side for a day or more, economic downturn tends to make us more spiritual. This makes us aware: … We are not alone in this world! There are archangels, angels, and highly evolved spirit guides who are waiting in the sidelines to help us find and further ourselves on our path of most light. All we have to do is ask or pray for their help.

As well, quite some time ago, Rena wrote a wonderfully light-hearted, little article about some specific saints to pray to when you’re stressed. I’m naming the Saints here, but you can find a tat more details at her blog and using the saintly references below:

a. The Asian Goddess of Mercy, Quan Yin
Helps lost travelers, comforts sufferers, listens to prayers of the stressed.

b. Saint Jude
He is the Patron Saint of lost causes & desperate cases.
A specific prayer to him:
“Most holy apostle, St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor who delivered thy beloved Master into the hands of His enemies hath caused thee to be forgotten by many, but the Church honors and invokes thee universally as the patron of hopeless cases, of things despaired of. Pray for me, who am so miserable. Make use, I implore thee, of that particular privilege accorded to thee, to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and succor of Heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly — (Mention your request) and that I may praise God with thee and all the elect throughout eternity. I promise, O blessed Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, and I will never cease to honor thee as my special and powerful patron, and to do all in my power to encourage devotion to thee. Amen.

c. The Italian priest Padre Pio
His advice is: “Pray, hope and don’t worry.”
Padre Pio held masses in which miracles occurred.
He bore the wounds of Christ (stigmata) for fifty years.

d. The Italian Saint Francis of Assisi
Saint of nature/animal-related worries.

Saintly References
Quan Yin
St. Jude
Padre Pio
St Francis of Assisi

Last. In my recent Roman travels, I came across the saying ‘action is the antidote to depression’. Don’t get worried. Don’t get depressed. Do something constructive.

When I contact angels, archangels and/or my spirit guide, I receive help often in the form of great ideas. I am convinced that even if you’ve never once prayed before: when you become open to receiving answers to your prayer, you too will receive ‘divine inspirations’ to take certain actions, to make certain calls, to take certain turns.

So, Act with faith and love.

Copyright 2008 Astrid Lee, Reiki Master Teacher.

Learn how Reiki heals & book a Reiki session at www.TherapeuticReiki.com

Reiki, spiritual healing, alternative therapy, healing energy, distant Reiki

None of this is to suggest we shouldn’t be cautious or aware or concerned, that we shouldn’t be proactive in caring for ourselves or our children, and taking normal precautions for health and safety. But simple things like wearing seatbelts and washing hands will do more to protect you than refusing to talk to strangers or carrying a gun.

“To fear is one thing,” says author Katherine Paterson, who wrote Jacob Have I Loved (HarperTrophy, 1990). “To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.”

Nobel Prize Laureate Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, logician, essayist and social critic, suggested, in 1950 when we were dealing with all sorts of still familiar concerns, there are two ways of coping with fear:

“… one is to diminish the external danger, and the other is to cultivate Stoic endurance. The latter can be reinforced, except where immediate action is necessary, by turning our thoughts away from the cause of fear. The conquest of fear is of very great importance. Fear is in itself degrading; it easily becomes an obsession; it produces hate of that which is feared, and it leads headlong to excesses of cruelty. “

In “We are Not Afraid,” Homer Hickam, author Rocket Boys (Delta, 2000) (which was made into the film, October Sky) , drew on his experiences growing up in the brave and resilient community of Coalwood, West Virginia, a town were the threat of death was constant, but fear was not. He said Coalwood residents take a four pronged approach to fearlessness that he sums up in something like a set of mantras:

• We are proud of who are
• We stand up for what we believe
• We keep our families together
• We trust in God but rely on ourselves

Hickam also says something profoundly Buddhist early in his book. He says that despite the ills of our society, we largely live among compassionate, kind and optimistic people who are striving to do good. “As an American,” he says, in a line that would make the Dali Lama proud, “you have a duty to be happy. It says right there in our Declaration of Independence that we have god given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So do your duty. Learn how to be happy and keep this in mind: You can’t be happy unless you stop being afraid.”

Senator. John McCain (R-Ariz.) puts it less poetically: “Get on the damn elevator! Fly on the damn plane! Calculate the odds of being harmed by a terrorist! It’s still about as likely as being swept out to sea by a tidal wave. Suck it up, for crying out loud. You’re almost certainly going to be OK. And in the unlikely event you’re not, do you really want to spend your last days cowering behind plastic sheets and duct tape? That’s not a life worth living, is it?”

Fear, Hickam says, is mostly a habit.

“The habit of fear and dread,” he writes, “can be compared to having a chronic disease. Some of us have gotten so used to having it, we don’t even know we’re infected. A symptom of this disease is that we walk around with slumped shoulders and drag one heavy foot after another. We dread getting out of bed in the morning, certain that only awful things are going to happen when we do. We never have anything good to say about anything, and that includes ourselves. We don’t like the way we look. We feel victimized. We’re envious of others and assume the world is filled with meanness. In fact, we think the world is a terrible place. We moan and groan. We eventually lose our family and friends. We become sorry sights and we don’t even know why. Worse, the disease we have is infectious. Innocent people we encounter are susceptible to catching fear and dread from us, including our children. We know something’s wrong, but we don’t know how to be cured.’

One way to rid yourself of this infection, says Hickam, is to “stand up straight and ….be proud of who you are.” To do that, he says, it’s necessary to know who you are, and how you’re connected to your family and your community. That involves talking to family members, to community members - and passing their stories on to your children and other family members. To be unafraid, you have to be connected to something larger than yourself, says Hickam.

The habit of fear and dread also causes timidity, says Hickam, a tendency to avoid confrontation, especially in defending our opinion. That one’s probably not quite as big an issue here for us - we have lots of opinions and fling them around easily here. But how about “out there”? “If you act as if what you think isn’t important, it’s the same as believing *you* aren’t important,” writes Hickam. “An attitude like that can squeeze the life right out of anybody.”

One of the best ways to overcome that aspect of fear and dread, he says, is “to take up for those who can’t take up for themselves.”

“There’s always someone who needs you help. How can you be afraid if you’re the protector of someone else in a dangerous world? Sometimes, just acting brave is enough to make you brave. “

But there’s more to it than just faking it till you make it. Hickam says you should also teach that person to stand up for himself, too, so that he can keep his dignity. Hickam cautions that standing up for what you believe “does not mean that every time you feel you’re being slighted, you should erupt with loud, hateful behavior. Standing up for what you believe has nothing to do with being violent or being obnoxious because of some perceived oppression. This attitude ahs to do with a quiet determination to have your opinion explained and heard. To be effective, it also has to be respectful and fair. … The most effective way of standing up is always going to be the nonviolent way, quiet but determined.”

Keeping our families together can actually be one of the harder tools for fearlessness, observes Hickam, but it’s a vital one. “An intact, functioning family works to not only provide a loving refuge, but also fills in the cracks of our own personalities. Where one family member is weak, another is strong. A cohesive group is always stronger than an individual, no matter how smart he is, or how many muscles he ahs or anything else. The family can be a shield against the world, and also the springboard to a better life.”

And finally, Hickam says trusting God but relying on yourself is a sure way to rise above fear. “The people of Coalwood were against calling on God any time they needed help,” he recalled. “For one thing, it was considered impolite. God had a lot of things to worry about after all, without including everything that got in the way of one particular human being. The way folks in the town saw it, God had already provided them with most of what they needed to get past a scrape, including their own good common sense.” Mostly, he said, they reserved their prayers for thanks.

While others often ponder why bad things happen to good people, Hickam ponders something he says as more amazing: “Why, in a universe and a world where everything must work hard to simply survive, did that which we think of as decent and fine get embedded into our souls? Why is that we crave goodness, seek out honesty and strive to be honorable, even when evil is so much easier? How is that evil, the desire to destroy and hurt others, hasn’t been the driving force in our species and our world and our universe? Some great goodness is out there, and it’s here, too. It is everywhere.”

We’re two parts, says Hickam, “one spiritual and the other physical. Both are important. The design of the human body and mind is evidence of that great truth. We have to trust in the spirit that is everywhere around us and in us. But we also must use our hands and minds to keep our families safe and build a better world.”

A world in which we are not afraid.

“We are not afraid.”

Say it slowly, and savor it, says Hickam, like we should savor the world and each moment. This sacred time of year honors the timeless changes of our lives, and offers us a rare opportunity to look death in the eye and give it a wink and a nod.

“There is no reason to fear life or dread what might be coming your way,” writes Hickam. “Every hour of every day, recall all the people who came before you, all those who make up who you are, and stand tall and be proud. No matter how perilous the times, they will always be with you…”

Bertrand Russell would agree. “We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world,” he said. ” — its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it. …We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time toward a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create.”

As Samhain reminds us, death is not an end, but a transition, a time to look forward to new beginnings, when we will be born anew as the wheel of the year turns on and on.

And there is nothing to be afraid of.

By Guest Blogger:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Theresa_Willingham

“Until 2001,” he writes, ” far fewer Americans were killed in any grouping of years by all forms of international terrorism than were killed by lightning, and almost none of those terrorist deaths occurred within the United States itself. Even with the Sept. 11 attacks included in the count, the number of Americans killed by international terrorism since the late 1960s (which is when the State Department began counting) is about the same as the number of Americans killed over the same period by lightning, accident-causing deer, or severe allergic reaction to peanuts.”

Further, Meuller noted that transportation researchers at the University of Michigan calculated than “an American’s chance of being killed in one nonstop airline flight is about one in 13 million (even taking the Sept. 11 crashes into account). To reach that same level of risk when driving on America’s safest roads — rural interstate highways — one would have to travel a mere 11.2 miles.”

Driving is, in fact, one of the most dangerous things we do, and yet most of us are quite willing to accept that risk. Author Bruce Schneier, in Beyond Fear (Springer, 2^nd edition 2006), observes that, “In America, automobiles cause 40,000 deaths every year; that’s the equivalent of a full 727 crashing every day and a half — 225 total in a year. As a society, we effectively say that the risk of dying in a car crash is worth the benefits of driving around town. But if those same 40,000 people died each year in fiery 727 crashes instead of automobile accidents, you can be sure there would be significant changes in the air passenger systems. Similarly, studies have shown that both drivers and passengers in SUVs are more likely to die in accidents than those in compact cars, yet one of the major selling points of SUVs is that the owner feels safer in one.”

Many of our fears, of late, involve children - everything from being afraid for them to being afraid *of* them. Surveys have found that kidnapping tops parents’ list of concerns for their children. Yet the biggest safety issue for kids is basic simple safety measures in homes and public places. The risk of kidnapping by strangers remains incredibly small - under 1% of the nation’s more than 64 million children are seized by non-family members and actually returned. A far smaller number die.

And those killer Columbine type kids? They’re statistically almost non-existent. 80% of our nation’s counties never experience a juvenile homicide.

But are things getting worse? “There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know, “said Harry Truman.

“A new army of 6 million men are being mobilized against us, an army of delinquents. Juvenile delinquency has increased at an alarming rate and is eating at the heart of America,” declared a Juvenile court judge - in 1946.

There are “predatory beasts” on the streets, hordes of teens and preteens running wild in city streets, “gnawing away at the foundations of society,” said a commentator - in the 19th century. In 1850 in New York alone, there were more than 200 gang wars fought mostly by teenage boys.

The youngest American ever executed for murder was 12 years old. She killed the baby in her care - in 1786.

So how did we get so scared? Our fears, suggests Glassner, are carefully and repeatedly fed by anyone who wishes to create fear, often by manipulating words, facts, news, sources or data, in order to induce certain personal behaviors, justify governmental actions or policies (at home or abroad), keep people consuming, elect certain politicians, or distract the public’s attention from allegedly more urgent social issues like poverty, social security, unemployment, crime or pollution. The most common techniques for social haunting include:

• Careful selection and omission of news (some relevant facts are shown and some are not); (reporting that the number one problem teachers faced in 1940 was talking and gum chewing, and in 1990, pregnancy, suicide and drug abuse; distorted from a National Center for Education Statistics survey inquiring with principals, not teachers, about crimes - when actually asked, teachers today site problems parent apathy and lack of text books as their biggest problems)
• Distortion of statistics or numbers (declaring 800,000 children missing each year, but failing to break those statistics down meaningfully)
• Transformation of single events into social epidemics; (going “postal” isn’t a postal service epidemic - that remains one of the safest occupations)
• Corruption and distortion of words or terminology according to specific goals;
• Stigmatization of minorities, especially when associated with criminal acts or degrading behavior;
• Generalization of complex and multifaceted situations;
• Causal inversion (turning a cause into an effect or vice-versa).

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In the early 1990s, there was a dramatic increase in the public perception of crime as the most important problem facing the country - 52% of Americans, in 1994, felt that crime was of utmost concern. Based upon data from 1978 through 1998, results suggest that this “big scare” was more a network TV news scare than a scare based upon the real world of crime. The television news alone accounted for almost four times more variance in public perceptions of crime as our most important problem, than did actual crime rates, which - believe it or not - have actually gone down in the last fifteen years.

Yes - down: For the 10-year trend, from 1996 to 2005, the FBI reports that violent crime declined nearly 18%. Murder decreased 15% in 2005 compared to 1996. In this same time period, robbery offenses decreased 22%. Even motor vehicle theft decreased, down more than 11% in 2005 compared with 1996.

So just what are we so afraid of? If you’ve managed to avoid the crime scare, modern media has some other worries for you: How about dying in an airplane accident? Getting cancer from …well, anything at all? Virulent breeds of superbugs resistant to every known antibiotic? Food safety? Organ trafficking? Killer bees? Having your child kidnapped? Hooked on drugs? Or finding a razor blade in their Halloween candy? Lead in toys?

For what it’s worth, the Halloween razor blade thing never happened, and most of those other concerns are overblown as well. Barry Glassner, author of The Culture of Fear (Basic Books, 2000), calls these “pseudodangers”, and says the media, advertisers, politicians and various companies and organizations thrive on them and the money (or votes, which ultimately translates to money) that your fears bring them. Pseudodangers, suggests Glassner, represent an opportunity for us to avoid facing problems head-on. Rather than address - or perhaps, better said, because of our inability to address — poverty, we fear the criminals that poverty can create. Our inability to address foreign policy issues renders us terrified of terrorism.

“In just about every contemporary American scare,” says Glassner, “rather than confront disturbing shortcomings in society, the public discussion centers on disturbed individuals.”

Our fears, however, are often far worse than our realities.

According to John Meuller, the Woody Hayes Chair of national security policy and professor of political science at Ohio State University, we’re suffering from a national false sense of insecurity.

Click here for a continuation of the article.

At its core, Samhain is about the night when the old God dies and the crone Goddess mourns him deeply for the next six weeks. The popular image of her as the old Halloween hag stirring her cauldron comes from the Celtic belief that all dead souls return to her cauldron of life, death and rebirth to await reincarnation.

Despite efforts by the Christian church to recast the sabbat, or seasonal festival, by turning it into a day of feasting and prayer for saints (All Hallow Eve, preceding all Saints Day, is still one of the holiest days in Catholicism), Samhain lore and practice remained popular and the church was forced to diabolize it as a night “boiling with evil spirits.”

Masters of cultural blending, the church declared that the evil spirits were dispelled only the ringing of church bells on All Saints Day. Although terror has nothing to do with this pagan holiday, the idea of Samhain being a night of unleashed evil took hold in the collective mind.

The affect of this unfortunate misinterpretation is that a great opportunity to reflect on life and death, on the endless cycle of seasons, and ultimately, on confronting and overcoming that which frightens us, has become lost. Halloween has become an extremely commercial holiday, second only to Christmas in decorating and candy sales, or a celebration of the macabre, leading to fearful rejection by religiously conservative groups, or wanton abandon by those happy to unleash their versions of the hounds of hell.

Very few people however, seem to take the opportunity Halloween presents to face our fears, which is interesting - or maybe understandable — America appears to be one of the most frightened places on earth. According to a NY Times poll in 2006, nearly half of Americans feel “somewhat uneasy or in danger.” Compared with five years previous, 39% of Americans said they feel less safe now, while only 14 % said they feel safer.

While there don’t seem to be any exact figures, turn on the television at almost any given time, and it’s clear that there’s been an increase, in recent years, in the number of crime dramas and crime related news coverage. We’ve got show like the venerable America’s Most Wanted reminding us that violent predators are loose in every city; CSI solving dramatic murders in at least three states; 20/20, PrimeTime and 48 Hours, with their companionable reporters warning us, with great concern for our well-being, about scams, crooks and thugs of every variety; and horrific slasher films, available on cable, right in our own homes and enhanced with the best blood-letting computer graphics to bring it all home.

Click here for part 2 of the article

To some people in the world, today is a special day…

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. From one perspective, Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man. However, the focus is on it being a Day of Judgement ~ being judged by God for the coming year. In essence, it places God on the throne.

Three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, wherein the fate of the ‘wicked’, the ‘righteous’, and those of an ‘intermediate class’ are recorded. The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life, and they are sealed ‘to live’. The middle class are allowed a respite of ten days, until Yom Kippur (another core Jewish holiday), to repent and become righteous; the wicked are ‘blotted out of the book of the living’.

Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown. While some Jewish communities observe only the first day, others observe two days worth of prayer and celebration.

In the afternoon of the first day, the practice of tashlikh is observed. This includes the reciting of prayers near natural flowing water, and symbolically casting one’s sins into the water. Many also have the custom to throw bread or pebbles into the water, to symbolize the “casting off” of sins.

Rosh Hashanah in the beginning of a ten-day period of looking back and evaluating your thoughts, words and deeds of the previous year, and of resolving to improve them in the coming year. This is a time of prayer, for God’s forgiveness and mercy.

No Jewish holiday exists without an abundance of prayer, rituals, symbolism, and of course, delicious food! Round bread symbolizes the cycle of time. Apples with honey honor the sweetness that is hoped for in the new year.

What I like about learning about other cultures and faiths is receiving new opportunities for creating fresh starts and for creating depth and meaning into one’s life. Anyone can use today as a time to take stock of one’s own ’sins’ of the past (year), and to start afresh with realizing your dreams and insights of who you truly are meant to be in the new year, with all your goodness and talents.

I wish you all “shana tova umetukah” (”may you be written and sealed for a good year”). After throwing your pebbles into the river, feast on some apples with honey! Give yourself a long week of reflection to realign.

May you use this day and this period, to realize your life mission of being loving kindness itself.

Throughout the mass, I felt there were many angels present. I know I was purified during the mass, and so were many others. The result: a feeling of inner strength and peacefulness.

There was a very good feeling of ‘oneness’ amongst the community throughout the ceremony. 250,000 people, all eager to see the pope. Yet, they were friendly, patient and polite, letting others go ahead first instead of pushing their way in. It was kind of amazing. Beyond this, the event was extremely well-organized with many volunteers which brought a sense of safety and care despite the large numbers present.

The German-born pope held the entire mass, including his address, in French. In the sermon, he set out that the passion for possessions, power and money diverts man from his true end, from the joy of living eternally with God. The pope aimed to help the French Catholics find their way back to the church and spirituality. French Catholics show one of the highest rates of non-attendance in Europe: 79% of French citizens no longer attend Sunday Mass.

Personally, I have to agree that the habit of ‘buying things’ can be a strong one. Now detoxifying from this life-long habit, I find new time, interest and emotional energy freeing up for other matters.

Being responsible with personal power and money is a good thing. Many people are working on this. However, intense hunger for power and money can be a cover-up for fear. Fear of not being provided for. But we do not need this fear. Anyone who has hit ‘rock bottom’ once, knows that we are provided for, at all times.

It always works. A fellow human, who understand oneness on some level, helps you out in times of crisis.

And likewise, it is through your heart and hands that the Divine Essence manifests.

“The power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us.”
~ Pope Benedict XVI

Copyright 2008, We Are One World Healing - all rights reserved. A Therapeutic Reiki Initiative

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The Medicine Buddha is the healing Buddha. He is a very powerful and important deity in Tibetan Buddhism. While everyone can pray to the Medicine Buddha, a Rimpoche (high lama) can attune individuals to the Medicine Buddha, making their prayers to the Medicine Buddha more powerful.

In my case, first studied the Medicine Buddha (oh, and I have still a lot more to learn…) and obtained Medicine Buddha attunement. Then while painting, I alternated sending Reiki to the painting, reciting the Medicine Buddha prayer and the Medicine Buddha seed mantra. It took 2 months to complete this painting.

Medicine Buddha Mantra

Tayata
Om bekandzeh
bekandzeh maha
bekandzeh radza
samungateh
Soha

Medicine Buddha Mantra Chant