Silent Wisdom

Silent Wisdom
Photo by Kim Schulz

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

EXPECTATIONS - How to get out of a Speeding Ticket

If you look for the bad in people it isn’t hard to find, especially if your thoughts are focused on the negative aspect of persons personality or beliefs.

Take for instance my dog, Chewy Two Toes.  Chewy gets very excited when friends and family visit our home.  She acts like an overly excited bouncy dog with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), and she has a bad habit of jumping on people as they enter the door making their way to be seated.  Yet I can project how badly Chewy will act before hand, when I am aware of who is going to visit, due to their expectations of Chewy’s behavior.  Her behavior is much worse when others expect her to act badly.

Another example:  A person, who is afraid of dogs, is most likely to be bitten or attacked by a dog.  Animals (and humans) can sense fear.  When someone is fearful of you, you get kind of defensive.  I know I do.  Instead of being an open loving soul, you put a wall up as you ready for attack. 

The same is true if you regard someone as good natured; that goodness will resonate. 

Next time you get pulled over by a cop for speeding or whatever, send good thoughts towards the officer who is pulling you over.  I’ve done this twice and both times I walked away without a speeding ticket.

The first time I was in Ohio, a state that makes a living off of speeders.  I know because I use to live there.  We were visiting from Florida; we had out-of-state tags, and I was doing 80 mph in a 55 mph zone.  My wife was flipping out.  Her daughter was getting married, and she was late for a salon appointment.  Luckily I didn’t get so wrapped up in the drama that I forgot what I was taught.

Right away my thoughts went into action, “That officer is a nice looking young man.  It’s a beautiful day, and he’s in a good mood.  He doesn’t want to give me a ticket.  In a few minutes I’ll be on my way without a speeding ticket or without going to jail for driving so fast.”

And guess what, it worked.  Not once, but twice.  The second occurrence just happened yesterday. 

A deputy sheriff pulled me over for doing 53 mph in a 30 mph zone, as I was exiting the beach.  I just about forgot what I was taught in regards to my thoughts, until the wife asked the question, “I wonder how much this ticket is going to cost?”

Right away, I changed my thoughts as I described in the traffic stop in Ohio, “This kid is a good cop, he doesn’t want to give me a ticket.”  And again, I walked away without a ticket.

The secret is learning to discipline the mind.  The more you practice.  The easier it becomes.  Keep your thoughts pure and choose to see the good in people, instead of the bad.  When you find yourself thinking badly of a person, look at their good qualities and focus on the positive instead of the negative. 

The information is available to us to make the world a better place to live.  We just need to choose to use it.  Make it a loving, happy, positive day ~ expect only the best out of yourself and others.
 
 

Thursday, November 20, 2014

KIDNEY & BLADDER INFECTIONS

(From the book, Natural Healing with Herbs, by Humbart Santillo BS, MH)

Principal Therapy – Blood Purification

Do a three day apple juice fast using an enema every morning adding one tablespoon of apple cider to two quarts of warm water.  Then use the cleansing diet in this book for seven days (avoid meats and sugar) with the addition of two ounces of parsley juice or liquid chlorophyll morning and night mixed in eight ounces of apple juice.

A.  Internal:  Pipsissewa tincture twenty drops and Echinacea tincture twenty drops taken together in one cup of water three to four times daily is a good remedy for kidney and bladder infections.

B. Internal:  Take Chaparral and Echinacea capsules.  Alternate them two every hour until pain stops.

C.  Internal:  Mix the following together:

            1 part plantain

            1 part slippery elm

            ½ pat ginger

            2 parts goldenseal

            1 part uva ursi
     

    Make an infusion. Drink one-half cup every one to two hours.
 
 

***  Now, when I did this cleanse for a mild bladder infection, I did the 3 day apple juice (fast) cleanse and DID NOT do the enema.  After 3 days I continued drinking the apple juice – at least 1 glass in the a.m. and one glass in the p.m., with a cup of Parsley tea.  I would also drink at least two glasses of water mixed with 5 full drops of Echinacea/Goldenseal extract & 5 full drops of Chaparral mixed with two glasses of water during the daytime.  I also would drink a cup of Dandelion Root Tea in the morning and again in the afternoon.  I also drank a glass or two of Cranberry juice sometime during the day.

 

Dandelion Root is a blood purifier.  It affects the liver, kidneys, gall bladder, stomach, pancreas, intestines and blood. ***

 
 
BLOOD PURIFICATION THERAPY is the therapy that is used to purify the blood and lymphatic system if acids and other poisons are causing disease, imbalances and irritations of glands, organs and body tissue.
 
If the blood and lymphatic system were pure, no disease would exist.  The bloodstream is the river of life during disease and health, the blood is constantly neutralizing poisons and carrying toxins to be eliminated.  Air pollution, chemical preservatives, food waste, the body’s natural cellular waste and stress can cause an accumulation of toxins in the body and result in disease at any organ, joint, or tissue site.
 
In adding blood and lymph cleansing, alternative herbs are used such as burdock root, red clover, Echinacea, chaparral, garlic, yellowdock, dandelion, etc.  Whenever there is an illness, blood purification, along with bowel cleansing (enemas, colonics) should be considered to assist blood purification therapy.  Short fast using water or vegetable broths, raw vegetable juices like carrot, celery, beet, watercress and citrus juices will help neutralize poisons in the bloodstream and will stimulate the cleansing functions of the liver, bowels and kidneys.  Deep breathing and exercise will aid in lung and skin elimination. Dry skin brushing and hydrotherapy help clean the blood and lymph and is very good for elderly people and weak individuals that cannot move around easily and be exposed to more energetic therapies.
 
Some blood cleaners are diuretics, others are hepatics (liver cleansers), others will influence other organs.  Take blood cleansing herbs between meals on an empty stomach.  If they cause nausea or stomach upset, adding some licorice root, ginger or other carminatives to the combination usually will help.  If this fails, take the herbs with meals or change the formula so it can be taken on an empty stomach.
 
The kidneys, lungs, liver, bowels and skin are the major eliminatory organs of the body.  Always consider herbs that will aid elimination through them to help purify the blood.  Stimulating hot and cold alternating fomentations over the weak organs will stimulate cleansing of these body parts.
 
Blood purification therapy is especially indicated during gout, arthritis, rheumatism, skin diseases, all toxic conditions, during fasts and periodically during cleansing and transition diets, acute and chronic illnesses, infections and low grade fevers.
 
Blood purification therapy is used to treat heat/excess, cold/deficient, internal and external problems.
 
In heat/excess the toxins in the blood and lymphatic system have to be removed.  Toxins and poisons produce heat in the body.  During cold/deficient illness an individual is feeling cold because of the organs not functioning properly.  If there is a heavy congestion in certain areas of the body, deobstruent therapy is indicated, but if the organs are receiving toxic, poor blood which is hindering the function of them, blood purification is the suitable therapy.
 
Whether the condition is internal (chronic) or external (acute) the blood needs to be purified.  It is one of the main therapies that can be used along with any other therapy needed.
 
 

 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

THE POWER OF HAIR & PENSACOLA, FLORIDA

Pensacola (Florida) got its name from a Muskogee-speaking tribe of Indians who lived here (the Panzacola or Pansfalaya tribe).  The Choctaw called them the "long-haired people."

Since I live in Pensacola, I find this somewhat fascinating. I have always associated hair with spiritual strength, as in the symbolic biblical story of Samson and Delilah.  Even today’s dream dictionaries define hair as power flowing from the crown chakra; the longer the hair the more power. 

Long hair is often regarded as being outside the mainstream.  In contrast, short hair is often regarded as a symbol of obedience and discipline.  Partially due to its association with the military, police and prisons, but it was also used to humiliate and control the American Indian; cutting of hair often represents submission and defeat of a people.

There’s even a story about how the U.S. Army conducted experiments with Native American trackers during the Vietnam War.  After the newly enlisted Indian’s had their hair cut, they lost their natural abilities and failed to perform as expected in the field.  When questioned, the recruits said that after the required hair cuts, they could no longer sense the enemy; their intuition was gone.

Still don’t believe in the power of your hair?  Then tell me, what makes your hair stand up on the back of your neck when you sense danger?

I’ve even read one article that said Kirlian photography can capture the energy field around the hair; when hair is short or no hair at all the energy field of the aura is weakened. 

This brings me back to Pensacola – a place with a strong military presence (strength), and home to many hawks and eagles; visionaries who soar high, close to the Creator (intuition).  Not to mention the strong live oak trees that are prevalent in this area.  New Age and Indigenous beliefs both dictate that there are specific geological locations to have a certain mystic or psychic energy; a spiritual power of their own so to speak. 

The sand on Pensacola Beach is (or was) 96% quartz crystal, before the BP Oil Spill.  I don’t know how accurate that is now, but quartz crystal is known to amplify and focus energy based on thought and emotion.

The Manataka American Indian Council says, “The more pure and sacred your thoughts, the longer, healthier, and vibrant, your hair.”  Could this have been why the Choctaw called the Panzacola Tribe the "long-haired people”?   

I believe Pensacola Beach is a sacred place that has a magnified ability to heal.  It most definitely has drawn some very interesting healers to the area; artist and authors as well.  Some of who I plan to introduce here soon.  In addition there is still a strong Native American presence, mainly Muscogee Creek. 

If you care for and respect the wildlife, the land, and the water, it will return that love and help heal the hurt in you.  But you must keep your thoughts pure and your heart open.  It wouldn’t hurt to grow some hair either.
 
For a truly fascinating read and more information regarding the Native American symbolism of hair visit:  http://www.manataka.org/page1936.html

 
The Santa Rosa County Creek Indian Tribe, Inc
Presents it’s 24th Annual Pow Wow Celebration on
November 22 & 23, 2014
At Historical Floridatown Park in Pace, Florida
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
ADMISSION IS FREE!
 
 
 

Friday, November 14, 2014

CELEBRATING NATIVE AMERICAN MONTH

Did you know that freedom fighters like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson admired the Indians so greatly that they based the Bill of Rights on the establishment of the Iroquois Confederacy?  On October 21st, 1988, the United States Congress passed a resolution that recognized the influence of the Iroquois Nation upon the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (H. Con. Res. 331). 

And in 1990, U.S. President GHW Bush designated the month of November as Native American Heritage Month.  It’s kind of funny that a man whose family is deeply emerged in the oil industry designated this month in honor of Native America.

Unfortunately, historically the Untied States government has done everything in its power to wipe out the Native American culture, including Presidents Washington and Jefferson.  Treaties are still being broke today.  The Keystone Pipeline is only one prime example.

Currently the tribes in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Idaho are defending their lands from the black snake.  Especially now that the mid-term elections are over and the Republican’s have majority power in Congress; Republican’s have vowed to support the pipeline project regardless of the environmental impacts.

But like a squirrel focused on opening a nut, so I can get to the favorable stuff in the middle, I see a lot of good hatching from this tragic episode in American history.  People are coming together regardless of color or cultural backgrounds to protect the beauty and sanctity of their home lands. 

Groups like, Idle No More, a Canadian born Indigenous movement have gotten worldwide recognition and sparked off small groups such as Idle No More Gulf Coast, I.N.M. Minnesota, and many others.  Bold Nebraska is another environmental group bent on stopping the Northern leg of the Keystone pipeline.  Bold Nebraska is a joint effort fueled by area ranchers and tribes.

Not all is hopeless.  I see hearts opening and circles growing.  The walls are falling that kept us separate.  The Earth Mother is calling us together once again, as one family.  We may not be able to change the past, but we can be the future. 
 

Saturday, November 8, 2014

THE OPOSSUM - KNOWING WHEN TO PLAY DEAD

Two times the opossum has come into my life, and both times it was a situation when others were cutting me down behind my back.  Serve the animals, and they'll serve you.
 
(The following is from Ted Andrew's book, Animal-Speak)
 
A number of year ago when my workshops were just beginning to grow in popularity, an individual in the metaphysical field was spreading rumors about me among certain groups, to undermine my work.  Apparently he felt threatened by the increasing attention I was receiving.  After a workshop one evening, several people spoke to me about what was being spread around.  I remember fuming all the way home.  I couldn’t believe that this person would make up stories – after all, we had done some traveling together.  I knew what I was going to have to confront this person.
 
When I got home and raised my garage door, my headlights flashed on a pair of eyes in the back of the garage.  An opossum had taken up temporary shelter.  I got a broom and tried to unsuccessfully to sweep it out.  Finally, I left the garage door open, hoping it would leave on its own, and I went into the house, temporarily distracted from my fuming.
 
About an hour later I went outside to check the garage, and the opossum had disappeared.  I drove the car into the garage, and pulled on the garage door.  It only moved about five inches and then locked.  I pulled again and still it locked.  Since it was dark, I couldn’t tell if the runners on which it sat were jammed or what was going on.  Finally, I grabbed the handle with two hands and yanked as hard as I could.  The door freed and came down.  As it did, the opossum tumbled off the top of the garage door and fell on top of my head.  I must have jumped six feet.  I don’t know who was scared worse – me or the opossum.  Apparently it had climbed on top of the garage door and was lodged in a way that hindered closing the door.
 
It left rather abruptly, after bouncing off my head and hitting the ground.  It appeared just as dazed and unhurt as I was.  It tried to get my heart started.  I began laughing as I walked back into the house.  My anger from earlier that evening was dissipated.  It was then I decided to not respond.  I would just appear to  play dead or ignorant to the rumors, and my invitations to teach and lecture increased even more.
 
Opossum teaches us how to use appearances.  Sometimes it is necessary to “play dead.”  Sometimes it is necessary to put up a particular front to succeed more easily and effectively.  This what the medicine of opossum can teach.  It also can show you when others are putting up false fronts and deceptions.  Opossum has an archetypal energy that helps us to use appearances to our greatest benefit and that helps us learn to divert attention or to get attention any way we need.
 
Sometimes it is necessary to behave or act in a strategic manner.  We may need to appear fearful or fearless in spite of how we truly feel.  We may need to show submission or aggression.  We may need to be apathetic or extremely caring.  Opossum is the supreme actor, and those in the acting field or that need to learn something of it can do no better that to work with the opossum.
 
The opossum is a nocturnal animal.  It is the only marsupial on the North American continent.  Marsupials are animals that raise their young in a pouch on the abdomen.  When the young are born, they are blind, but they are still able to climb up into the pouch immediately after birth.  There they stay about one month.
 
During the spring, I often stop and check opossums hit and on the road.  There may be young in the pouch if it is a female opossum.  The young can live for a while in the pouch, even after the mother had died, but only for a short while.
 
In the pouch are located the nipples.  Most opossums have 13 nipples.  In a litter, there can be many more than thirteen young, but only thirteen will be able to survive.  This number is very symbolic.  Although many associate it with bad luck, it is also symbolic for the one great sun around which the twelve signs of the zodiac revolve.  It is a symbol of the sun within.
 
The pouch, especially in regards to the opossum’s defense of “playing dead,” links it to the ability to help us draw from our own bag of tricks that which will most benefit us.  It can show you which appearance to draw from the pouch to use for the greatest success.  The milk of the mother is rich in calcium, as young opossums need high concentrations of it.  Those with this totem should examine their own calcium levels.
 
The playing dead that the possum is famous for is a self-induced state of shock.  The pulse becomes minimal.  The heartbeat slows.  A musk scent of death is released, and for all appearances it will seem dead.  The opossum can enter and leave this state abruptly – pretty much at will.  This act serves to confuse many predators.  The surprise distracts them, and the opossum is able to make its escape.  It is this kind of flexibility and ease of appearance that the opossum can teach to those with it as a totem.
 
When opossum shows up as a totem, ask yourself some important questions.  Are you acting or about to act in an inappropriate manner?  Do you need to strengthen your own appearance?  Are others putting up false appearances in front of you? Do you need to divert attention away from some activity?  Are others trying to divert your attention?  Is it time to go into your bag of tricks and pull out some new strategy?  Learning to pretend to act in ways and with realism is the magic that opossum teaches.
 
 
 
 


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

PEOPLE & HOSPITALS

Today I went to the hospital to visit a friend who just had surgery yesterday.  When I was leaving, I stepped into an elevator full of people.  A woman to my left said, “Your hair smells good.”

At first, I didn’t realize she was talking to me.  I guess it was the dead silence afterwards that caught my attention, “Are you talking to me?”

I heard a laugh to my right, as the woman to my left smiled and replied, “Yes,” as she reached towards the back of my head and stroked my hair once.

Some people may have been offended by a stranger touching them, but I just had to smile as I thanked her for the compliment. 

You put people in hospitals and they become your best friend.  They are so much more compassionate.  Before you leave, you will know no stranger.  And I’m not talking about patients, nurses or doctors; I’m talking about those who visit their loved ones.  Like the people in the elevator. 

“But hospitals are so depressing,” I hear this all of the time.  And yes, I believe that visitors are just as vulnerable as the patients, maybe even more.  As a result people open their hearts to perfect strangers.  And it works both ways.  Not only do they wish to talk about why their loved one is there in the hospital, they want to know your story too. 

Grab a seat in a waiting room, and you’ll see what I mean; especially in an intensive care unit.  Families of ten or more will camp out in an I.C.U. waiting room.   The more intense the illness, the more friendly they are. 

Maybe it is because the threat of death reminds us that we are all in this boat together, when facing our immortality.  Or maybe it’s simply that healing energy we bring to those we care for, who are weak.  Either way, if you have lost your faith in humanity, then visit a hospital.  I guarantee you’ll see the best of humankind.
 
 

Friday, October 24, 2014

HALLOWEEN 101

You can surf the Internet until you’re blue researching the origins of Halloween, but this is how it was explained to me, while attending fifth grade in Catholic school.

Halloween began as a Catholic tradition.  Parishioners would dress up as their favorite saint, and then go door to door and collect money for the poor.  Considering the name, “Hallow” means to make holy, and the occasion is celebrated on the eve of All Saints Day (also known to some as All Souls Day), I tend to believe that Halloween began as a Holy day.  As humans evolve, so do our holidays.

When I was a kid, we use to steal Farmer Brown’s field corn.  His field was only a block from our house.  All of us neighborhood kids would get together and collect ears of corn, then take them back to my house and spend a few hours shucking the corn from the cob.  It was really hard and rough on your hands, because the corn was very firm and fixed.  Still, we stood over a trash bag and all of us did our part.

When the night would arrive, we would fill little paper lunch sacks with the corn, and begin our little adventure.  We would run up and down the streets throwing the corn on the front porches of our victims, who were relaxed and cozy in their homes watching prime time television. 

CRASH!  The corn would explode loudly against the aluminum screen doors and siding, as it bounced along the porch.  If you were on the other side of the door, it would scare the ba-Jevus out of you!  I know, because there were times when I was grounded and not allowed to join my friends, and they would corn our house.

Those were the best days of my life as a kid.  People would get mad and chase you down the street, only because you scared the crap out of them.  The corn didn’t do any damage to the house.  It was good clean entertainment.  Our parents even knew what we were up to and most times they did not object. 

When I reminisce on the experience today, I know it was wrong to steal Farmer Brown’s corn, but other than that, it was fun!  Farmer Brown would even sometimes sit in his field with a salt gun and shoot at us.  I never was hit, so I can laugh about it.

Still, I do not know of anyone who corns houses today.  It was one of those traditions that quietly slipped away.  Just like a holy custom becoming a tradition of terror and hell raising. 

I’m much older now.  As close as I get to scaring people these days is sitting in a dark house by candle light allowing my imagination to run wild while watching horror flicks.  If I’m in an ornery mood, I’ll dress up and scare the kids who come a knocking for candy.  Blow their little minds away!

I use to play scary sounds on cassette tape, but then most of the kids were too frightened to approach the house.  So I toned it down a bit after that.  Not many kids trick or treat in our neighborhood as it is.  Most of the little trick or treaters don’t even wear a costume anymore.

Come as you are . . . the real world is much more scarier anyway.  Who knows?  Maybe it’s the birth of a new Halloween custom.