“The mushroom said to me once, ‘Nature loves courage.
Nature loves courage,’ and I said, ‘What’s the payoff on that?’
And it said, ‘It shows you it loves courage because it removes obstacles.’
You make a commitment, and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles.
Dream the impossible dream, and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up.”
Scientists May Have Just Discovered a
Parallel Universe Leaking Into Ours
We may have just, for the first time ever, caught a tantalizing glimpse of a parallel universe bumping against our own.
Scientists say that signals from the furthest reaches of space suggest that the fabric of our universe is being disrupted by another universe.
The discovery could provide proof of the multiverse theory, which says that there are many alternate universes.
We may have just, for the first time ever, caught a momentous glimpse of a parallel universe bumping against our own.
Scientists say that signals from the furthest reaches of space suggest that the fabric of our universe is being disrupted by another universe.
The discovery could provide proof of the multiverse theory, which says that there are many alternate universes.
Dr. Ranga-Ram Chary examined the noise and residual signals in the cosmic microwave background left over from the Big Bang and found a number of
scattered bright spots which he believes may be signals of another universe bumping into our own billions of years ago
Dr. Ranga-Ram Chary, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, examined data from the cosmic microwave background gathered by the European Space Agency’s Planck Space Telescope.
Within this glow left over from the moments after the Big Bang, he discovered a number of spots where the microwave light was far brighter than it should be.
He claims that theses may be signals caused by the interaction between our universe and another one a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang around 13.8 billion years ago.
The existence of multiple universes – a multiverse – has been considered scientifically plausible.
If all these universes emerged from the same Big Bang, then they’re likely sitting together in a row, vibrating.
According to the theory, if these universes touch one another, the resulting collision would leave some sort of evidence.
According to New Scientist, which first reported the Dr. Chary’s research, this is akin to two bubbles bumping into each other.
These so-called “bubble universes”, which are expanding within the multiverse, bumped into each other as they expanded after the Big Bang, leaving an imprint on each other’s outer surface.
Dr. Chary says the signals he has seen suggest the alternate universe may be very different from our own.
He says it could have a ratio of subatomic particles called baryons and photons that is about ten times greater than what we see in our own universe.
This would mean that the physics in this alternate universe could be quite different from our own.
Dr. Chary explained, “The fine tuning of parameters in the early universe required to reproduce our present day universe suggests that our universe may simply be a region within an eternally inflating super-region. Many other regions beyond our observable universe would exist with each such region governed by a different set of physical parameters than the ones we have measured for our universe.”
Dr. Chary came to his conclusions by using models of the cosmic microwave background and subtracting it from Planck’s pictures of the entire sky.
He then removed signals from the stars, gas and dust.
With all these removed, all that should have been visible in the images was noise.
However, Dr. Chary reports that instead he found scattered patches that were 4,500 times brighter than they should have been.
They are thought to come from an era in the universe’s evolution known as recombination, when electrons and protons first combined to create hydrogen.
This era has a distinctive spectrum of color due to the limited number of atoms around, and hence has a unique appearance and anomalies can be easily spotted.
Dr. Chary wrote, “The implication is that collision of our Universe with an alternate Universe that has a higher baryon density is responsible for the enhanced recombination line signature.”
Other astronomers are very excited about his findings. Dr. Jens Chluba, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, told New Scientist, “To explain the signals that Dr. Chary found with the cosmological recombination radiation, one needs a large enhancement in the number of (other particles) relative to photons. In the realm of alternative universes, this is entirely possible.”
The discovery of another universe would be earth-shattering. Excitingly, further study of this possible parallel universe may be possible very soon through NASA’s PIXIE, the Primordial Inflation Explorer whose instruments could more accurately observe and analyze Chary’s light signals and procure more data about cosmic inflation.
Scientists at Goddard Space Flight Center are looking for funding for PIXIE, however that funding might not be awarded till the end of 2016.
Learn more Check out this mind-blowing video, which posits that even the very blueprint for life may be from another dimension leaking into our own…
The world of dreams is a mystery to all.
We dream every night when we go to sleep, though sometimes we remember our dreams and sometimes we do not.
It can be a lot of fun to relay your dreams to friends and coworkers the next day, but often their significance is only perceptible to yourself and you end up boring your audience with a long, drawn-out recall of the previous night’s adventures.
Have you ever woken up from a dream so real that you were overcome with whatever emotion had been triggered in the dream, such as sadness, anger, bliss, or excitement?
How about waking up with a huge sigh of relief that it was only a dream?
Dreams can seem so real to our minds that our bodies actually respond as if they were. Despite all our years of studying and trying to interpret dreams, the age-old question remains, what is the significance of dreams and do they actually mean anything in relation to waking life?
Many people dismiss dreams as random thoughts formulated from the subconscious mind, but what about the concept of precognitive dreams – dreams about events or experiences that haven’t yet occurred, but end up taking place at a later point in reality?
The very notion goes against what we know to be true of time and relativity; if time is linear, then precognitive dreams simply cannot be possible.
Is It Possible To Accurately Dream About The Future?
Dr. Stanley Krippner, Professor of Psychology at Saybrook University, has devoted his life to the research and experimentation of parapsychology, precognitive dreaming, and shamanism for the past forty years.
He claims that this phenomenon of precognitive dreaming is not only possible, but his research can back it up.
In an interview with Geraldine Cremine of Vice Motherboard, Krippner explained one of his most significant laboratory studies on precognitive dreaming:
Each night, the subject dreamer would go through an ordinary night of dreaming, with an intent to dream about an experience he would have the following morning.
The dreamer was woken 4-5 times throughout the night to relay his dreams to an experimenter.
The following mornings, experimenters randomly selected an experience from a number of prearranged options, and the dreamer was subjected to that experience.
Dr. Krippner said there was no way for the participants to know what experience they would encounter before it was selected and administered.
The following is a specific example of a dreamer who, one night, had several dreams about birds in various different settings and circumstances.
The following morning, the dreamer was exposed to one of the experiences selected at random.
“The experience was to have him sit with earphones on,” Dr. Krippner said. “And what was played?
Bird calls.
He was also played a video.
And what was played?
Pictures of birds.”
After the experiment, which lasted 8 days, was over, outside judges who were not a part of the original experiment were called in to determine the dreams of the dreamers versus the experiences they were subjected to upon waking.
For each participant, the judges were able to find at least one match between a dream and the random experience on most nights of the experiment. Even if we were to accept – at least for argument’s sake – that this phenomenon of precognitive dreaming is possible, we are still left wanting an explanation.
And unfortunately, we simply don’t have one yet. What we do know is that the unconscious mind is capable of having deep revelations during the rapid eve movement (REM) state of sleep, aka: the dream state.
Through this image, he conceived the benzene ring, revolutionizing organic chemistry in the process.
But people come to much more mundane understandings during sleep all the time, as I’m sure you yourself have on one or more occasions, perhaps explaining where the phrase, I’ll sleep on it comes from.
Could Quantum Physics Be The Answer?
Quantum physics offers one theory for precognitive dreams, suggesting that during the uninhibited state of REM, the brain may be capable of identifying some kind of a signal that we aren’t aware of in our conscious state.
These signals could assist with awareness of the future.
This idea links to theories of quantum entanglement and the idea that two separate particles or points in time can interact as if connected to one another despite being spatially separated.
Consciousness as an emergent feature of highly integrated networks and complex systems.
This is the materialist viewpoint, but I like to try and represent a variety of opinions here so…
Enjoy!
What makes us conscious?
Do you think that the machine you are reading this story on, right now, has a feeling of “what it is like” to be in its state? What about a pet dog?
Does it have a sense of what it’s like to be in its state?
It may pine for attention, and appear to have a unique subjective experience, but what separates the two cases?
These are by no means simple questions. How and why particular circumstances may give rise to our experience of consciousness remain some of the most puzzling questions of our time.
Newborn babies, brain-damaged patients, complicated machines and animals may display signs of consciousness.
However, the extent or nature of their experience remains a hotbed of intellectual enquiry.
Being able to quantify consciousness would go a long way toward answering some of these problems.
From a clinical perspective, any theory that might serve this purpose also needs to be able to account for why certain areas of the brain appear critical to consciousness, and why the damage or removal of other regions appears to have relatively little impact.
One such theory has been gaining support in the scientific community.
It’s called Integrated Information Theory (IIT), and was proposed in 2008 by Guilio Tononi, a US-based neuroscientist.
It also has one rather surprising implication: consciousness can, in principle, be found anywhere where there is the right kind of information processing going on, whether that’s in a brain or a computer.
Information and consciousness
The theory says that a physical system can give rise to consciousness if two physical postulates are met. The first is that the physical system must be very rich in information.
If a system is conscious of an enormous number of things, like every frame in a film, but if each frame is clearly distinct, then we’d say conscious experience is highly differentiated. Both your brain and your hard drive are capable of containing such highly differentiated information.
But one is conscious and the other is not. So what is the difference between your hard drive and your brain?
For one, the human brain is also highly integrated.
There are many billions of cross links between individual inputs that far exceed any (current) computer.
This brings us to the second postulate, which is that for consciousness to emerge, the physical system must also be highly integrated. Whatever information you are conscious of is wholly and completely presented to your mind.
For, try as you might, you are unable to segregate the frames of a film into a series of static images.
Nor can you completely isolate the information you receive from each of your senses.
The implication is that integration is a measure of what differentiates our brains from other highly complex systems.
Integrated information and the brain
By borrowing from the language of mathematics, IIT attempts to generate a single number as a measure of this integrated information, known as phi (Φ, pronounced “fi”). Something with a low phi, such as a hard drive, won’t be conscious.
Whereas something with a high enough phi, like a mammalian brain, will be. What makes phi interesting is that a number of its predictions can be empirically tested: if consciousness corresponds to the amount of integrated information in a system, then measures that approximate phi should differ during altered states of consciousness.
Recently, a team of researchers developed an instrument capable of measuring a related quantity to integrated information in the human brain, and tested this idea. They used electromagnetic pulses to stimulate the brain, and were able to distinguish awake and anaesthetised brains from the complexity of the resulting neural activity.
The same measure was even capable of discriminating between brain injured patients in vegetative compared to minimally conscious states. It also increased when patients went from non-dream to the dream-filled states of sleep.
IIT also predicts why the cerebellum, an area at the rear of the human brain, seems to contribute only minimally to consciousness.
This is despite it containing four times more neurons than the rest of the cerebral cortex, which appears to be the seat of consciousness.
The cerebellum has a comparatively simple crystalline arrangement of neurons.
So IIT would suggest this area is information rich, or highly differentiated, but it fails IIT’s second requirement of integration.
Although there’s a lot more work to be done, some striking implications remain for this theory of consciousness. If consciousness is indeed an emergent feature of a highly integrated network, as IIT suggests, then probably all complex systems — certainly all creatures with brains — have some minimal form of consciousness.
By extension, if consciousness is defined by the amount of integrated information in a system, then we may also need to move away from any form of human exceptionalism that says consciousness is exclusive to us.
Neurotheology helps settle relationship between science, spirituality
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.” — Carl Sagan
There is a new kid on the scientific community’s block: neurotheology — also known as spiritual neuroscience or the neuroscience of religion.
It is defined as “the study of correlations of neural phenomena with subjective experiences of spirituality and hypothesis to explain these phenomena.”
It describes the scientific study of the neural correlates of religion or spiritual beliefs and practices — as opposed to the psychology of religion, which studies psychological, rather than neural, states.
The term neurotheology was first used by English writer Aldous Huxley in his utopian novel “Island,” which was first published in 1962.
Up until the late 20th century, the mainstream scientific community characterized it as a pseudoscience.
It is an extremely rapidly growing area of scientific exploration.
It is probably the only discipline that seeks to integrate science and theology.
Researchers in the neurotheological field venture to interpret the neurological basis for religious experience, such as:
perception of timelessness, unity;
spiritual awe and wonder, a sense of sacredness or reverence or a feeling that what is experienced is holy or divine;
oneness with the universe (holoverse), union with the absolute/infinite/God;
ecstatic trance;
enlightenment/transcendence; and
altered states of consciousness — any mental state induced by physiological (prayer, meditation, contemplation), psychological, or pharmacological maneuvers or agents, which diverge from the normal state of consciousness.
The first book published in this field was in 1994, by an educator and businessman by the name of Laurence O. McKinney: “Neurotheology: Virtual Religion in the 21st Century.”
He basically states (and I am keeping this simple) “that the brain creates questions such as ‘where did I come from’ and ‘where does it all go?’
He describes the experience of death as a “peaceful regression into timelessness as the brain dies.”
The “high priest” of neurotheology is the author of a book published in 2010: “Principles of Neurotheology” — Andrew B. Newberg, M.D. He is an associate professor in the department of radiology and psychiatry and holds an adjunct appointment in the department of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is co-author of: “How God Changes Your Brain” and “Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief,” which both explore the relationship between neuroscience and spiritual experience.
According to Newberg, “with the development of the cognitive neurosciences, many fields are exploring their link with the brain.
Thus, neuroeconomics, neuroethics and psychohistory have all arisen in recent times as a way of integrating current scientific knowledge with longstanding disciplines.
It is reasonable to do the same with religion and theology.”
Anyone who hasn’t lost their sense of wonder would identify that neurotheology may help us study such issues as the “nature of religion, the existence and nature of God, the basics of human consciousness, the possibility of universal consciousness (interspecies communication?), the best manner for attaining good health and well-being, and how all human beings may advance to a new stage of understanding.”
We should not be afraid of this new avenue of scientific exploration.
As T.S. Eliot stated:
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
More poignantly is what Alfred North Whitehead said:
“More than anything else, the future of civilization depends on the way the two most powerful forces of history, science and religion, settle into relationship with each other.”
Another thing I noticed looking back now during all three entheogenic experiences was the movement of my hands.
Most of the time I kept them together as if praying, but this would inevitably lead to all kinds of shapes and manipulations of my hands.
Then I would pause occasionally, and open them like a book to see what was there - and there usually was, some kind of brilliant geometric pattern.
Then it would fade and I would go through the motions with my hands again.
And I didn’t really think about it much, or think it could mean anything…and then it clicked that I was doing Mudras with my hands on some kind of subconscious level or other worldly level…some were rather complex and I wish I had someone to record just which ones I was using.
When I did the energy healing on my dog I was also making complex patterns with my hands and in the air over him as well as chanting, though I couldn’t say what I was chanting…it was almost a whisper, followed by deep breaths.
Fascinating.
So this was by far the most intense one that has taken place yet…which is why it as taken me a little while to let it sink in to my mind and heart and spirit.
I purposefully pushed the boundary a bit from the last time for two reasons - the first being that higher dosages that bring more intense experiences have been shown to have more powerful perspective changing properties and the effects against depression/anxiety have been shown to last for longer periods of time (in some cases people feel they don’t need them anymore after they reach a certain point) as shown by the studies done around the world.
Also I prepared it a bit differently and I think that effected the whole thing as well.
I put all the dried pieces into the Magic Bullet with the coffee grinder attachment and ground them into a espresso grind ;-)
Except for two…which I chopped up and ate ahead of time with some juice.
The rest I made into a rather foul tea…though I have noticed that the more sour you make it, the less the taste is disgusting…I brewed it with some Rose-hip tea, which is fairly sour and high in Vitamin C, no caffeine.
As the tea was steeping I could feel the other two quite fast, and was almost hesitant about chugging down the rest of this brew I had made - I knew this would be super-intense just judging by the two small ones I ate first…but I said, to hell with it - chugged it down…didn’t get all the tiny bits but most of them…I got the tasty sludge at the bottom of the cup anyhow…plus, having steeped, you can actually strain the bits out and just drink the liquid if you like, I hear it’s rather insignificant in the effect size…plus it was ground so fine.
I almost immediately went to the bedroom where I had prepared…I put on my crucifix for added protection - though earlier I had smudged the whole house and made it quite clear that it was off limits to anything negative, as were those inside or those who are there occasionally like my son. That only good and positive things may influence me and those that I love. I prayed to my Dad…asked him for guidance.
Took some deep breaths and began to meditate…I had on some earbuds and was listening to a various mix of binaural beats and music and chanting and bells and chimes etc, etc.
I could feel the trance like state coming on…as I did I began to see multiple colors, though mostly green…as if it were wisps of smoke (no it was not the incense I had lit). They would change too rapidly to really be smoke anyhow…the geometric patterns became quite clear and this is about when I started to unconsciously do the Mudras with my hands. Sensiko remarked how she watched me do this through the crack of the door for a while.
I travelled places…I remembered dreams that I had long since forgotten.
I could see through the walls into other realms, felt myself go there if only briefly…three or four dimensional visions filled my mind and my eyes.
Eventually I took the earbuds out and just focused on the trip itself…by this point I was filled with such a feeling of deep beauty and gratitude that I was actively crying at how indescribably beautiful it all was.
I got up to blow my nose and whatnot…pee.
I turned off the lights in the bathroom as it was pitch black and sat on the edge of tub…I could feel my Dad so close, I could feel everything so close…I can also understand why a human could not function in a normal manner or survive like we have needed to with our mind open so wide.
It is far too intense and there is just no way.
Again, I never felt afraid…and part of this is preparing yourself ahead of time…with meditation, with expectation, with your will…a lot of it has to do with what you choose to focus on IMHO. If you go into the experience really afraid, then I believe you are more likely to have a fearful experience and vice-versa.
By this time I was balling my eyes out…but not because I was sad or depressed or afraid or stressed, but because I felt so much love and peace in my heart…the peace I felt had been lacking for so long…it felt so good it was overwhelming.
I felt like I spoke to people, or spirits while in there…I know I spoke to my Dad a lot…I remember saying how I wished he was able to meet my son…to have gotten to know him, and I had an powerful feeling that he had…that again, this life is so momentary, shorter than the blink of an eye.
Turning on the light there were some interesting ‘Alice in Wonderland’ sensations of first being gigantic and then shrinking down small, the bathroom was much bigger than I remembered it being haha.
I walked around the house after that…I stepped outside into the backyard and watched the wind blow through the long grass that need to be mowed.
I could see the colors and the energy as it coursed through it (or so it seemed)…it was a windy day just like the last time…but the wind is my fav. so…
Came back inside, Sensiko was asleep on the couch, I prayed over her…I asked that her mind be calm and peaceful, that she may sleep deeply and restfully.
This whole time I am randomly bursting into tears and crying because I can feel the love of the source….I could see how much my depression had effected me and those I love very clearly.
It was highly emotional, almost religious in the general feeling of the love and peace.
As I was coming down, I smoked a bit of weed…which was nice.
And now for the really bizarre part…and you can say it was all just a hallucination and in my head but I might argue with you on that.
So again…my dog…he has an obviously larger front ankle and has been limping a bit…it isn’t swollen though which leads me to think it’s arthritis.
Anyhow…I talked to him for a while and he lay down on his side.
I began to chant over him…taking in deep breaths in-between whatever I was saying…was doing very specific hand motions and Mudras - though I’m not sure I could tell you exactly what I did.
Anyhow…I focused my energies on to his ankle…mind you, I am not touching him at all at this point and the visual experiences had just about gone completely.
I sent 4 or 5 waves of energy into his ankle after building up whatever I was building up…each time I sent out a wave, I could actually see his ankle getting slightly smaller…which could easily be dismissed as - okay, you were still tripping…except for the fact that each time I did this (again, not touching him) he cried in pain as if it were hurting him…the 5th time he yelped and I stopped.
Sensiko woke shortly after that and said she slept deeper than she had in a long time….I told her what happened with the dog and for the rest of the evening his ankle was noticeably smaller and he hardly limped at all.
That kinda blew my mind.
This whole experience blew my mind…I was exhausted and went to bed…don’t remember any dreams.
Woke up feeling still very tired and slept most of the next day as well.
However, on the third day I felt fantastic…depression is lifted, anxiety still comes and goes but isn’t constant like it is sometimes and I can make it go away now with meditation whereas that didn’t always work before.
This is the only thing that has ever worked in my whole life for depression - and I have been depressed most of my life.
If I need to do this once a month, or every other months…whatever, however long it lasts, I now at least feel confident that I have something that works…and not only works but it is an amazingly beautiful, peaceful, overwhelmingly intensely inter-connective experience to everything and everyone.
I will add more as it comes to me…as I am still receiving bits of info or introspective solutions to it all.
I am not sad, I am not depressed, I am more patient, I am less judgmental of myself and others.
So far so good…keep your fingers crossed that the effects are lasting.
What is an ‘Empath’? An Empath is someone who has what could be a called a ‘gift’ for being able to understand the emotional state of another person.
There are many kinds of empaths.
Just as other gifts are used and exhibited, in many different ways, so there are different types of Empaths with certain abilities and talents.
Then there are the Heyokas. Heyokais a Native American term meaning “sacred clown” or “fool”.
Seems an odd terminology for what we now consider to be the most powerful type of Empath. The translation of heyoka gives us little clue into the true meaning the Native Americans tried to put behind the word. In English, it would be more appropriate to describe a Heyoka Empath as someone who sees the world differently and acts in a way that is the opposite of normal.
The Spirit of a Heyoka Empath
When you meet a Heyoka in person, they act as a great emotional mirror. What you see in them will show you what you must work on to grow and evolve spiritually.
Connecting with a heyoka can be an emotional experience.
You may leave feeling angry or leave feeling an incredible sense of love.
As an emotional mirror, whenever a Heyoka senses an emotional reaction in you, they use it as a guide of what to reflect back to you that will help you most on your journey. Sometimes they do this unconsciously.
Say you leave a Heyoka feeling irritated and angry because of their ‘arrogance’.
In reality, this is the Heyoka’s way of showing you your need to be humble.
Maybe you leave a Heyoka filled with a sense of love.
The Heyoka may be trying to convey to you the importance of self-love and acceptance.
The guidance will be individualized to each person a Heyoka meets.
This is what makes them so powerful.
Your ability to understand what they are trying to teach you will depend on how ‘open’ your eyes are and whether or not you are tuned into your intuition.
Traits of a Heyoka Empath
How can you know a Heyoka when you meet one?
Is it possible that YOU are one?
The traits of a Heyoka Empath vary but there are some signs that are common, including:
being born breach (entering the world backwards)
developing some traits slower than normal people and other traits incredibly fast
being dyslexic
being emotionally unpredictable
doing things backwards
outside of the box thinking
appearing younger than their age
A true Heyoka will never claim to be one.
It is a knowledge they carry inside of them as sacred, private and unique.
A heyoka can recognize another heyoka when they feel their energy.
They are deeply sensitive to another’s energy (like other Empaths) and can see how emotions of various people play out and affect each other on a large scale.
In Native American tribes where Heyokas were respected and revered for their abilities, Heyokas would be the ones to open people’s eyes to new possibilities and different angles of a situation.
They also had the ability to shift the energy of a group through their understanding of emotions. In our modern society, a Heyoka may be a peacemaker or someone who is particularly good at working with people and keeping energy in a group balanced.
The gift of the Heyoka
Heyokas help people who are stuck to see that there is more than one path in life.
They are able to look at a situation and see the backwards way.
They have an inept ability to change people’s lives in a single meeting by bringing them outside of society’s one-track way of thinking. Some people say they hold the medicine for chaos.
Feeling the energy of an Empath can be both a powerful and a potentially unsettling experience.
However, this disruption will never be one meant to harm or destroy, but to give us hope for growth and enlightenment.
In the eyes of a Heyoka, we will be able to see a mirror of truth and, if we are humble enough to see it, see ourself as we truly are.
