Here is the first in my PodCast series, in honor of our chakra cord connection to one of the two most important people in our lives: the mother. The wonderful woman in the picture above is my own mother, who passed away several years ago.

PodCast Two will be available late-January, 2009.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It does look like the world is hunkering down around financial worries, with no end in sight. As we all know, these events come in cycles, and we will undoubtedly weather the storm. But the present economic situation is making the travel and accommodation costs in attending educational workshops and seminars prohibitively expensive for many people. One solution to the problem is for students to enroll in a teleclass. A teleclass is where you dial into a telephone bridge (conference) line from the comfort of home, and follow along with the teacher’s presentation on a class handout. You get the information you need at a budget price and minus travel costs, hotel charges, and inconvenience to your life. How cool is that?

Of course, there are some understandable limits. You will not be able to work on a practice client, or get feedback from the teacher on your skills. You won’t get the physical experience of meeting your fellow classmates and perhaps making a new friend. But, in this time of temporary financial downturn the teleclass option means you can still add to your education without going into debt. This is a good thing.

I’ll be starting a series of teleclasses in 2009. If you are interested please send me an email to get on my Teleclass Mailing List. The first three topics are:

* A Teleclass for Energy Healers: Working with the Astral World (module 1)

* A Teleclass for Psychic Singles: The Essential First Three Dates, or “How to assess your new date for potential problems or possible bliss”.

* A Teleclass to Develop your Psychic Ability to the next level: for both newcomers and experienced psychics.

All three teleclasses comprise of three one-hour classes, and cost $120 (plus your calling costs into the bridge line). Go here for dates and times of each class.

UK or European resident? Email Dean if you are interested in a GMT-based Astral Healing teleclass.

If you miss a class because of a scheduling conflict simply download the mp3 class recording to your computer, or iPod.

Since beginning my studies of the auric energy field I’ve been fascinated by how spiritual healing is applied in different cultures. At its most basic level energy healing is about one auric field touching another, allowing a pranic transmission from the more highly-charged person towards the one with a weaker charge. But the passing of spiritual energy requires a relational connection: chakra to chakra, understanding to understanding, and is far more sophisticated than a simple energy download.

If you are working within your culture-of-origin you already possess much of the social and relational understanding needed to connect with like-minded others. But if you leave your country, or if you need to connect to others from a different land, challenges in connection do occur.

Now that I am old enough to have had experience in several cultures I better understand one important mechanism: each culture possesses a consciousness matrix made up of social, spiritual, and cultural energy. To tap into a culture other than your own you must tap into the energetic consciousness of their unique matrix. Yui Wang first pointed this out to me, as we walked the streets of Tokyo, on my first visit to Japan. I had almost been hit by a cyclist coming up from behind me. I had expected him to be responsible not to hit me. He had expected me to feel him coming, to be aware of the space around us both, and to move out of his way. I didn’t move, and he almost hit me. “You have to feel the Japanese “grid” around you”, said Yui. “The Japanese cyclist expected you to “feel” him coming up from behind, and to “fit in” with him. It’s the consciousness of the village, and not of individual rights.”.

I began to experiment energetically connecting into the social grid in Japan, both personally and professionally. Sure enough, the connections with the culture had a specific experience to relational awareness. But I could also see that you needed to live in the new culture for a while in order to experience it. Both time, an intention to understand others, and experience in talking or working with local people was essential in order for the local social consciousness to gain access to your auric system.  This has recently started to happen here in Sabah, Borneo, where I recently moved. A few weeks ago I felt something “click” into my energy field.  Suddenly, I was in the flow of local life in a new and more pleasurable way. I was no longer stumbling around like a Western tourist; I was a fish amongst other fish. I felt I had somehow just become a citizen of the town. The local social grid had taken me in.

Of course it takes many years (including language acquisition) to truly understand any new culture. Expect this process to impact, or challenge, some of your long-held relational assumptions, such as what is polite and appropriate, personal boundaries, and what is expected from others. The hunter-gatherer Western societies are tremendously different to the rice-growing Asian consciousness, as many well-traveled authors such as Rudyard Kipling have noted. And in an evolving global economy understanding others as culturally different from you will become increasingly important. For those of us who are also on a spiritual quest, and seeking wisdom from other cultures, understanding their social energy grids will help us gain what we seek. Because if we expect someone from another culture to be like us, true connection will not occur. Personal and business needs will not be supported. Relationships will not deepen. And without strong relationships, we cannot heal and grow, learn and prosper, or enter into mutually beneficial arrangements.

Emerging from two separate illnesses in the last several weeks has reminded me of an important axiom of any healing crisis. The events that threaten our physical existence can offer us spiritual awakening. If we allow it they may awaken us out of the sleep of everyday consciousness. When we return from the Stygian depths of illness, perhaps with renewed vigor and focus, an opportunity is presented. To continue in the old way, along the same path. Or, to stop and drop within, listening to deeper parts of ourselves. The healing crisis says: hold on there, take a pause, wake up a little more as to why you are here. Not much physical time is left, your soul whispers to you. It is true you will return to a new life after death but the soul’s eternal challenge is always to regain what it once had before any leap to a new level. For most of us physical incarnation and spiritual development comprise of one step forward, two steps back. Everything counts, today, even though there will be more sunsets ahead.

The view out of my window is beautiful tonight, as a glorious sun once again sinks into the South China Sea. Tomorrow will be a brand new day. My prayer for all of us is that when the sun rises again we will awaken a little, just a fraction more, than yesterday. May we move ever forward, and less back.

I’ve been miserably sick with an ear infection for a week, along with feeling saddened by the recent events in nearby India. “Write about something that cheers you up.” Yui suggested, as I began to function well enough to fire up my brand-new Mac Book Pro. OK, then. How about: the arrival of the cruise ship “Diamond Princess” in Kota Kinabalu. . As I looked out of my condo window this morning, in she sailed. An ocean-going Star Trek-looking vessel, complete with an impressive bridge and engine pods. Basically a floating luxury hotel, big enough to hold 2,600 guests, four swimming pools, internet cafe, casino, and all the luxury extras. Only four years old and built in Japan, she weighs 113,000 tons and is 290 meters long. That’s a big four-year-old.

I’m not usually a cruise-lovin’ person, except for a small longing to sail up the Nile one springtime with my Asian wife, and see me some pyramids. But as the Princess sidled sexily up to the docks below my apartment complex I found myself pining for exotic lands far away.  And, later this evening when Yui and I returned home from dinner we drove past the Princess, lit up like a Christmas tree. Yui made fun of me checking out Little Miss Nautical Hottie with my binoculars before she sailed away into the night. Clearly, I was feeling better.

I wonder how much a cruise up the Nile would cost us?

It’s a fascinating idea. That human beings are inherently sensitive to future trends, and drop hints about what is coming our way through their everyday internet activity. What if you were smart enough to send out internet software spiders programed to harvest emergent memes, and then attempted to interpret the results from a global perspective? Would it be a techo crystal ball and allow you to look into the future? That’s the question being explored by Cliff High over at www.halfpasthuman.com, a brilliant experiment in tracking future trends through human casual conversation.

Cliff wryly notes that his intention in developing this software technology was originally to look for a way to predict stock market trends and make a little money. But he says he soon became entranced in the potential of how vast amounts of data could be organized into various meaningful domains or “entities”: areas of common interest which he labeled “Markets”, “Populace/USofA”, “GlobalPop”, “TPTB” (The Powers That Be) and even a mysterious segment of UFO/ET or space-based influences named the delightful “SpaceGoatFarts”. Awesome.

If you are curious about predictive linguistics you can find Cliff giving interviews on several internet radio shows this year, such as  Coast to Coast AM, and the latest Journeys with Rebecca (Nov 15, 2008). You can also subscribe to the ALTA reports on Cliff’s web site. What to take away from all of this? Probably it is time to really pay attention to what is barreling down on the US of A this Winter: a huge financial meltdown that will prove immune to President Obama’s charismatic smile.

Since my last blog entry the world has continued to change rapidly, leaving me feeling like a passenger on a small boat, tossed around by the waves of fate. I’m finally back in Borneo, after a long teaching trip to Japan. Concluding the fourth in the series of my Tokyo public seminars, Yui and I then made our way to Kyushu, the third-largest island, in the south of Japan. We enjoyed a hot spring spa writing retreat after which we headed to our final destination: Kyushu University, where as a visiting professor I taught a one-day course on relational therapy to undergraduates.

Returning to the world of news I was happy to see the oil price had dropped and was staying low, but less than happy to see gold slump into unexpected (and manipulated) lows. At least Iran has not yet been attacked, an outcome that may have been shifted into the next few months. I caught up on my reading about the so-called US financial bail-out (looks more like a bank heist, to my eyes) forced upon an unwilling American populace, an event then followed in rapid succession by the election of now President-Elect Obama. I am a little concerned at my own cynicism with Mr Obama, though. I guess after witnessing many of these political “changing of the guard” events in the past I’m less impressed by the rhetoric of change, more impressed by radical departure from the status quo. Thus far, Mr. Obama looks like political business as usual, albeit marketed to us with a likable and charismatic smile. Choosing Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff sends quite a Zionist signal to the world. Anyhow, like most of us I’m just delighted that the Bush Administration is almost a part of history. They can’t do any more damage at this point, can they? Well, just don’t bet the farm on it.

But the main reason for a low incidence of recent blog entries, my traveling notwithstanding, has been the relocation of this web site to an Australian server, in anticipation of possible problems with the US internet backbone. Time will tell whether this is a prescient business move or just a waste of time, but at least my Australian and Asian readers will enjoy faster download times compared with my previous US-based server.  I’m grateful to Bradley Spencer, my WordPress consultant and SEO professional, for all his work in making the server transition go smoothly. So, now I’m back on board the Internet again plans are afoot for more web site articles, as well as a series of education audio programs teaching how to use energy healing for self transformation and relationship health.

There’s something very healing about a good rock song that celebrates our love of dysfunctional love affairs… it connects us with the human condition, and helps us make it through many a dark night of the soul. When such a song is combined with Juan Mann’s “Free Hugs” mission we have an unbeatable combo for the YouTube generation: the simple act of reaching out to other human beings and emotional background music. Sniff, sniff…

This video spawned similar events all over the planet, with young people heading out into the malls and the streets holding “Free Hugs” signs. Of course, hugging strangers for no profit elicited the social control grid to do a double-take and sadly, in some cases, harass the kids. But it’s a great beginning, to see a new generation beginning to awaken and make an impressive end run around the Main Stream Media (MSM). Awesome.

Enjoy the video, buy the song (Aussie Indie band, The Sick Puppies), and give someone a hug today. Or, play the song one night and reminisce about that obsessive love affair you had so many years ago…and sing along with the rest of us.

I love open-air Asian markets. It’s fun for me to join the throng of a gentle crowd, moving slowly among the tables (or wares displayed on the ground), each radically different from the previous one, maybe a local food, or craft. As I compare my retail experiences in American shopping malls with this moment I recall the cool, disinterested distance between myself and others. But here in this street market I am flooded and enveloped with a sensory contact with other human beings. The locals flow past me, shopping for family needs for the coming week, or looking to mingle, drink coffee, or hang out with friends. It’s not just shopping; it’s a community event.

This Sunday morning market in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah displays the eclectic mixture of cultures living here, each happily coexisting with each other and thriving in the economic emergence of twenty-first century Malaysia. Even the inconsiderately cleavage-exposing Western tourist is tolerated without hostility, despite the presence of some local women in modest Islamic clothing. But the market people don’t mind; tourists spend big money, and that’s just fine with them.

Occasionally in the fish-shoal experience of navigating through the market stalls  I’ll lose Yui, as something interestingly edible catches her sharp, almond-shaped eyes. I happily wait to one side of the ambling crowd, people-watching until she re-emerges into view clutching a new discovery, no doubt some fried rice something, or a banana leaf-wrapped goodie. Then we continue on in that non-goal frame of mind, wandering in blissful silence amidst the hustle and bustle.

It’s been many years since my nervous system has been this relaxed, I now realize. My emotional body began unwinding over the past fourteen months since leaving San Francisco for Hawaii, but it is here in the market that I am deeply aware of the impact left on my auric system of twenty-five years living in America. The dialectical motifs of US culture - “Right” versus “Left”, conservative versus liberal, support-the-troops versus tell-the-truth, corporate agendas versus the needs/legal rights of the citizen - continually erode meaningful human contact, sadly encouraging a soul-sapping suspicion about other people. While this cultural distancing clearly supports the corporate and political agendas in the United States, it doesn’t make for an ideal life for their citizens. Here in this simple, open-air market the populace is happy. Islamic woman walks safely by Christian man, Borneo tribal man walks respectfully by Western woman, and life goes on in a wonderful way. When I leave the market I am filled with the sights and smells of all humanity. I am enriched, and at ease.

Maybe I’ll stay awhile.