December A 2018
Cover Story 28
Deva Premal - The Medicine of Mantra
Health & Wellness 46
Feeling Winter: A New Medicine Approach
Metaphysics 114
The Cosmic Vibrations of Numbers 120 The Power of Thought 124 How Do You Know That You Have Incarnated Before
Spirituality
Personal Growth
OM Living
World Vision
54 58
66 72 76
82 86
Are You Really There Love Is a Fire
35 Affirmations That Will Change Your Life Love Your Neighbor As Yourself Creating Success In Business The World is your Drumming Circle The Search for the Loneliest Whale
Relationships
100 Know the Things that Differentiate Love from Passion 106 Is Your Style of Relating Successful or Problematic? 110 How to Know You Have A Past Life Connection
132 How Grief Reveals the Light
138 Should an Enlightened Society be Guided by the Ethics of Care
Books
144 Sweet Sorrow - Finding Enduring Wholeness after Loss and Grief
The Medicine of Mantra Deva Premal Interview by Sandie Sedgbeer
Over the past few decades, chronic illness has skyrocketed worldwide. Meanwhile, since their debut album was released 20 years ago, musicians Deva Premal and Miten have received letters from people across the Omtimes.com
globe, sharing dramatic stories of healing from listening to and chanting along with their signature Mantras. Numerous scientific studies now verify that music has the power to heal us, both emotionally and
physically. Even where the big guns of conventional medicine have failed, Deva Premal and Miten decided to celebrate the launch of Deva’s new album of signature Mantras with a live Facebook event series on The Medicine of Mantra in partnership with top doctors across the globe.
were already deeply immersed in Eastern spirituality, especially mantra. He took it to such a deep level–four hours every night, 2 to 6 am in the morning, walking around the city walls of Nuremberg. Chanting mantra. That’s the kind of person he was; he would do everything very thoroughly in a German way.
Sandie Sedgbeer: Before we talk about how it’s possible for music in general, and mantras in particular, to facilitate healing, I’d like to take a little trip back in time and share with our listeners a little bit about your own journey with music and in particular mantra.
On the other hand, he was so not German because he was so at home with yoga and meditation. He studied Sanskrit. He made himself a German Sanskrit Dictionary because he couldn’t find one. So, I grew up with his influence and my Mum’s. Also, they chanted mantras for my sister and me when we were born and, as a good night ritual, we had the Gayatri mantra every night three times. As a kid, I did it because I was asked to, or told to, and I had no idea what I was doing. Also, I was a little embarrassed at what I was doing, it was different to what other people around me were doing, and didn’t really know the meaning. My mum once told me it was cleansing, so I knew there was something good in it, but I didn’t know what it was; I didn’t know this was called the Gayatri Mantra, and
Deva Premal: Yes. Both of those things, music, and mantra entered my life right from the very beginning because my mother was a classical musician. She played medieval music on old instruments like the viola that combined the harpsichord and everything. My father was the wild card in the family. He was an artist, a painter, and he got into drumming Persian style around the time I was born, so I grew up with him always drumming, and even before we were born, my sister and I
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“Are You Really There?” By John Holland
I want to share with you the following special story of a dad’s love, in showing that he really is there for his son and family. Just this week, I gave out two of my books that had ‘sand dollar’ connections. I was out enjoying the day in the beautiful town of Newburyport, MA and
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came upon an artist who was displaying her creative work using real sand dollars. She had jewelry, night lights, and colorful plaques. With each item, there was a story of the sand dollar and how they relate to the five doves that visited the three kings on that special night in Bethlehem. I told her that they
also had a special meaning to someone else I know. I told her the following story below and said it was in a book. She said: “Now that’s a book I’d read!” That day in Newburyport was also a day I decided to do what I’ve often done in the past, which was to leave my latest book: Bridging Two Realms – Learn to Communicate With Our Loved Ones On The Other-Side in a random place for someone to find. I trust that the right person will find it and it could be just when they need it. I didn’t even have to leave it somewhere, as I felt the urge to give it away right then and there! I reached into my bag and gave this woman a book. She offered to pay me, but of course, I refused the money. The book was meant for her! Then the very next day, I was at a local food store that I often frequent and noticed that the cashier had a tattoo of a fisherman on her forearm. She could see that I was admiring the tattoo and she told me it was in memory of her husband and that he passed away from a sudden heart attack a few years ago. She went on to say that tomorrow
was a big day for her and her family. Then I ask her why? “Is it the date you lost your husband?” She said: “No, tomorrow my daughter starts high school and she is nervous, and we so wish that my husband was going to be there to support our daughter.” As she started to well up with tears, I once again realized the ‘sand dollar’ story needed to be told. Now, she doesn’t know me personally, or what I do for a living, so I had to tread lightly. I went outside and grabbed a copy of my book and told her the sand dollar story and that I felt the story and book would help her because it is so similar to what she’s going through. She took the book and thanked me, wiped the tears and put the book aside to help the customers that were now in line. I hope the following extract from my book somehow helps you (or forward this to a friend in need) by confirming that your loved ones are around and they will do anything they can to reach out to you and give you the love and support you so need.
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Love Is a Fire
“Whoever stands near me stands near the Fire,” declares Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. The Qur’an concurs, “Blessed is the person near this Fire, and those around it” (Q 27:8). Similarly in Hinduism,
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“The journey to the Atman … begins and ends in fire.” Divine love is a blazing fire, and it burns alike in East or West. “God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29), and the yearning for God, truth, or love is itself this same fire burning in the heart. The mystical journey is a process that transforms the human disciple into this living fire of love. “One who knows the Fire knows all that is, the secret of all being.... All the worlds are but the declension of Fire: beyond it there is Nothing.” To unite with the fire of love, one must become this fire, on its terms. This is the secret fire of divine love, without which no true spiritual transformation can take place.
Fractal of Divine Fire The fire of divine love burns on every level of existence— from the heart of the sun, to the human heart, to each tiny cell in the human body, to the subatomic particles and the core of every star across all galaxies. It is a grand
fractal fire of love. Although physics distinguishes between chemical fire and nuclear fire, the fundamental forces of fire—the strong and weak nuclear interactions, and the electromagnetic interaction— are believed to be a single unified force. Love is a transforming fire. Like all fires, it ignites, incinerates, purifies, and shines with brilliant light and warmth. There is no force in the cosmos as powerful as love, and nothing propels spiritual evolution as swiftly as love. Ultimately the fire of love burns away everything that is not love. “Set your life on fire,” proclaims Rumi, and “seek those who fan its flames.” Why? Because in the absence of divine fire, no transformation can take place. There is a crucial need for disciplined spiritual practice that kindles the fire of divine love, and for the allimportant sincerity and depth of aspiration that fuels
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35 Affirmations That Will Change Your Life
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Words are responsible for everything we hold to be true; We believe the things we believe because someone spoke them to us. But in our day to day lives, we rarely
recognize the magnitude of our speech. We tell ourselves both good and bad things every day, often without paying attention to what we’re speaking into existence. Out of habit we might say, “I’m scared,” I’m tired,” “I’m desperate,” “I’m stuck,” or “I’m not good enough.” What we don’t realize is that such phrases eventually become the truth of our lives. Because what we keep thinking, we speak. What we keep speaking, we do. And what we keep doing, we become. A major step to changing your life is changing the way you relate to your problems, and by extension, the way you speak about them: When a problem comes up, what words do you use to describe the situation? Do you tell others that you’re “helpless” and a “victim?” Then you will continue to be. You have to take control of the things that threaten to take control of you. This process starts with a simple “I am.”
“I am” is the single most important phrase you will ever speak, because what follows these two words dictates who you are: what you believe and invite into your life. “I am” becomes even more meaningful when you re-define yourself throughout the day: “I am confident,” “I am beautiful,” and “I am ready for love,” are just a few of the endless declarations you can make to replenish your well-being and re-center your soul. You will feel calmer and more grounded. The right words, recited with purpose and conviction, can shift your perception entirely. The key is to personalize your mantras so that they come from your heart. Make them specific to your circumstances. So instead of saying a vague, “I am powerful,” say, “I am powerful enough to overcome my breakup and attract a dedicated, loyal partner.” Pick your favorite phrases from the list below, change them as needed, and
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Love Your Neighbour As Yourself by Isha Judd
Certain principles are universal truths, and they appear in most religions. The golden rule “Love your neighbor as yourself� is an aspect of compassion, based on the principle that we recognize Omtimes.com
others as an aspect of ourselves. It is so universal that in 1993 it was included in the “Declaration of world ethics by the Parliament of the World’s Religions,” and signed by leaders of the main religions of the world.
as self-denial; but wellunderstood charity “begins at home.” When we learn to accept and be kind and loving to ourselves, these qualities overflow into our environment, as an extension of our love and acceptance.
But why is it so difficult for us to comply with this golden rule? Because we lack love for ourselves. The violence, discrimination, and repression that humanity “inflicts on others” is a reflection of the judgments and rejection we feel for ourselves. We are often our own worst enemies, judging ourselves with more intensity than anyone else can, repressing and punishing ourselves, and striving to behave differently than we naturally are.
India, perhaps more than any other country, shows us that religions can coexist peacefully. With its unique cultural diversity, it hosts followers of almost all the religions of the world. During a recent visit to New Delhi, I met Ezequiel Isaac Malekar, leader of the Jewish community in India, who told me that this is the only country in the world where Jews have never been persecuted, where there has never been antiSemitism. India is a profoundly religious country, and this attitude of mutual respect shows that religions do not necessarily have to disagree. If we preach tolerance and love, peaceful coexistence should be a priority.
This golden rule relates to the emphasis on service, which is shared by religions. Giving is the blissful extension of a realized heart because when we experience inner fulfillment, our greatest pleasure is to extend our bliss towards others. Charity, in many cultures, is perceived
Hinduism is the predominant religion of India. I wonder if the acceptance of other forms of worship in that country is
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Things that differentiate Love from Passion By Ascending Hearts
Passion and love are two powerful feelings, but we already know that ... And however related, they are entirely separate, and it is in this part that the confusion begins!
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Can you identify what passion and love characterize? Psychologists, philosophers, and even neurologists are dedicated to studying these feelings and on delimiting the differences between each one. In order not to err when it comes to self-declaration, recognize that what you feel is love or passion! The Attracting Factors Psychology defines passion as the manifestation of the phenomenon of projection, that is when the person projects his idealizations on the partner. That is to say, when we are in love, we are drawn to the idealization of our partners, and not necessarily real or coherent to the person they may be. Typically, when we are in love, the characteristics that attract us most are the physical ones, be it the
beautiful eyes, the lips, the soft skin or the smile, for instance. But when we are genuinely in love, we can see beyond appearances, we start to identify the so-called “inner beauty” of the person, that is, their values, their authenticity, and personality turn out to be as or more exciting and attractive than a beautiful smile. Illusions also tend to disappear with love. People who love each other can truly identify their partner’s qualities and shortcomings, and even with their fights, they choose to deal with adversity despite difficulties for an ordinary shared life of two. Passion: When does it start and when does it end? Several authors describe passion as an “overwhelming feeling” and, and just like a great storm, often do much damage, but
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Is Your Style of Relating Successful Or Problematic? By Marcia Sirota Author, speaker, coach, and MD
In working with people for over 25 years, I’ve identified five styles of human interaction. Two of them work really well to create positive personal and
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professional relationships; the other two are more problematic and the last one, can go either way. If you want to be happy and successful in your relationships, you’re going to have to learn which of these styles of interaction you’ve been using and exchange the problematic ones for the ones more likely to succeed. What do I mean by five styles of interaction? I’m describing the ways that people relate to one another based on what’s driving them internally and how much awareness they’re bringing to their relationships. The more aware you are of yourself and other people, the more empowered you’ll to be to make use of the more successful styles of interaction. Some people are lucky enough to have naturally adopted the more successful styles of interaction. For everyone else, these can be learned. More importantly, the problematic
styles can be unlearned.
The five styles of interaction I’ve identified are: Empathetic, Playful, Transactional, Strategic and Reactive. Empathetic: This style of interaction comes out of the desire to connect with other people. People who use the empathetic style of interaction have an open heart and are in touch with their emotions. If this is you, you’re sensitive, and the way you deal with other people is driven by your empathy. The empathetic style works well because it enables you to get close to others. People feel that you care and they respond accordingly. In the empathetic style of interaction, everyone feels seen and heard, and it’s easier to build trust. With empathy driving your interactions, people see you as safe, warm, present, emotionally available, and easy to be around. Playful: The playful style
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How to Know you have a Past Life Connection? 4 ways to discover you already know someone from another life. By Humanity Healing
We often wonder if we have ever met a person before, whether by great affinity or a strange feeling that you may have already met her in a past life. Although this phenomenon is thought to be rare, it is not impossible that we have already met many souls in our various past lives. We have lived with many different people, but can you tell if you have seen someone in a past life? Here are some ways you can try to find that out. Omtimes.com
“Have you ever met someone for the first time, but in your heart you feel as if you’ve met them before?” –JoAnne Kenrick THERE IS A STRONG LOVE CONNECTION BETWEEN YOU If you have ever loved someone in the past, the chance that you will love them again in this life will be greater. Generally, the souls you have met in a past life generate
an immediate connection. It is possible to know if this love is not new by the ease of relationship and the reality of that feeling. And you know when that happens. When it does occur, remember that person may be someone who has lived in a past life with you, and that feeling of love has been marked so strongly for some reason. Try to understand that there are reasons for this love to return. “The love that you withhold is the pain that you carry lifetime after lifetime.” –Alex Collier NEGATIVE FEELING WITHOUT REASON For some time in your past life, you must have lived with someone who did not do well or was not necessarily your friend. Sometimes, this feeling is maintained during the transition to a new life, and so we recognize a negative feeling to a person for no apparent reason. The feeling may be a red flag for you, warning you, but it does not mean that you should hate that person. We strongly suggest you to get to know her before you judge her. This is how we evolve and grow as human beings.
YOU FEEL A TELEPATHE UNION Some people live with us who can understand very well how we are feeling. Such a person can know what is happening without speaking. It is that person that you think of her, and soon she comes in contact with you. If you know someone like that, she must be a person with a strong connection to your soul in the past. That is the reason why you can understand us so well, and there is a strong connection to our lives. THE LINK OF LAST LIFE IS IDENTIFIED IN THE LOOK The souls that meet again identify with only the look. His past life has well recorded the gaze of a known soul, and the eyes show this recognition of someone familiar. Reincarnation specialists believe that these recognitions are not accidents. So, pay close attention to a person’s eyes when you find it. “I do not fear death. I see what has gone before, through eyes that are not of this body. When I dream, my visions are of days yet to be.” –Cathy M. Donnelly
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The Cosmic Vibrations of Numbers
Numbers hold special significance for many people. Some believe they have a lucky number, while others notice that significant life events tend to occur in pairs, threes or other groupings. Omtimes.com
Some people even feel a simple, inexplicable affinity for a particular number. These people may have naturally tapped into something with roots that stretch back through the millennia to ancient Egypt and Babylon — Numerology, or the study of numbers and their cosmic vibrations. In Numerology, each number, from one through nine, is believed to have its own symbolic meaning. When applied to a person, a number — referred to as a Life Path Number — reveals that a person’s personality, challenges, and potential. Life Path Numbers are calculated by adding together the eight separate digits of a person’s birthdate (the two-digit day and month, and the four-digit year). Let’s take, for example, a birthdate of December 1, 1975. This would be written numerically as 12/01/1975 (or 01/12/1975 — either method will produce the same Life Path Number). Adding those eight digits together (1+2+0+1+1+9+7+5) results in a total of 26. As this is a two-
digit number, the two and six are then added together to produce a final Life Path Number of eight for this particular birthdate. When calculating a Life Path Number, we reduce most birthdates that add up to two-digit numbers to one digit, ranging from one to nine, as in the example above. There are, however, three exceptions: 11, 22 and 33, the three Master Numbers of Numerology. Those whose birthdates add up to one of these numbers have an extraordinary life path. The Master Numbers are thought to denote both extra challenges and extra strengths, and people with these as their Life Path Numbers have the potential to face significant adversity, yet also make significant achievements in their lifetime. Following are brief descriptions of each of the twelve Life Path Numbers. Once you have calculated your own Life Path Number, use this information as a starting point to explore the vast Omtimes.com
The Power of Thought by Jim Dreaver
The more awake and freer we are, the more we consciously use thought and intention as a creative tool to direct and guide us in the process of living. This is the Law of Attraction in its most potent form. Omtimes.com
After all, thoughts, while not “real” in the sense that we cannot find them anywhere (they fleetingly come and go), are enormously powerful.
What’s going to happen to me?
Everything human-made began as an idea, a thought, a vision, an imagining, or an intuition in someone’s mind. Everything from the tiniest microchip to the largest bridge, building, tanker, or jumbo jet, started as a flash of inspiration between someone’s ears not to mention books, movies, and the whole media complex.
How will I make it on this amount of money?
That’s the power of thought. And the freer we are, the more ideas becomes available to us as an amazing, dynamic, creative tool. Indeed, the possibilities are limitless. Just consider what is happening today with the internet, artificial intelligence, and social media, and how deeply our creative lives are entwined with cyberspace. Most of the noise in people’s minds is from thinking about themselves, their life, their problems, their hopes, doubts, fears, and desire, and often to the point of obsession, as in:
Why is this happening to me? Does he or she love me?
What should I say or do now? God, I feel so lost/confused/ unhappy! This endless “self” obsession, which people engage in when they still believe that their thoughts are real, creates all kinds of emotional havoc, not to mention physical stress and illness, in the body. Believing they are this ego “self,” people either cling to the idea of “positive” thinking in the hope that things will turn out well for them or remain mired in negative thinking, with all its conflicting emotional reactions. And yet the emotional havoc is completely unnecessary once we see or understand the connection between thoughts and emotions. We are left with all the beauty and creative
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How do You Know that You have Incarnated Before? 6 signs you have already undergone a reincarnation process.
Reincarnation is a belief that is present in several religions but has differences according to the place where one lives. It is a controversial subject, and even in the ancient and ancestral religions there Omtimes.com
is no logical proof of its existence, but the indications are many. In some faiths especially Western religions - it is believed that souls can return to earth for different reasons but always to inhabit
another human body, in Eastern religions it is already believed that if the soul has been unfortunate in past lives, it may reincarnate in animals. Be that as it may, the signs of reincarnation are similar in the various religions that believe in it, see the main symptoms that you have reincarnated on this planet. “I know I am deathless. No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. I laugh at what you call dissolution, and I know the amplitude of time.” –Walt Whitman
Déjà vu Do you know that “I’ve seen this scene before” or “I’ve lived this moment” feeling? It is a feeling where the person believes that he has been there, has lived that moment or knows someone he has never seen before. Déjà vu scientific explanation is a failure of the mechanisms of Memory, when an event is stored directly in the memories of the long or short term, without going through the immediate, so we have the sensation of having already occurred.
6 SIGNS THAT YOU HAVE LIVED BEFORE
But what does spirituality say about it?
Unexplained fears and attitudes
Spirituality believes that this happens if you are facing a situation that you have experienced in a past life, and so have experience through time remembering something that happened in another life.
Some fears and phobias have no logical explanation: for example, fear of water without ever having experienced the sensation of drowning or fear of ladder without ever having fallen from one. These inexplicable fears and attitudes may be the result of a problem that occurred in the past life, a soul that died drowned can reincarnate and bring that fear to the new being reincarnated.
By the vision of spiritual people Déjà vu are memories of past lives, it is as if the brain could not hide the recollection, and presented “a bug” in the system, releasing a small remnant of what we
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How Grief Reveals the Light by Jayita Bhattacharjee
When grief pushes you down to your knees, and you stare at the space knowing you have hit rock bottom—such a pang of sadness descends on you,
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that you carry it wherever you go. And your life is never the same. Isn’t that the whisper to your heart? While the pain chases us, no matter how hard we try to escape it—the truth is, every loss reveals a light inside. Every sadness leaves a beauty behind, and that is something which has eluded our eyes. We wander from place to place, wearing the most beautiful smiles, while carrying the sadness inside. Beneath our sweetest smiles, there come the streaming tears, that the world knows nothing about. Every loss has something to give. And as we open ourselves to the pain, it breaks our hearts, to reveal a thousand wonders. We open to joy, as it unravels in delight. Every time, the pain knocks our hearts, it says something. If only we can hear it with the heart and not the head.
Every loss carries pain, and that is the reality that stares at us, no matter how hard we try to escape it. Every time we revisit the past wounds, we feel the silent stab that seems to still our life in a wordless pain. Life slows down, and we lose the rhythm. Though we try our very best to deny it in our secret depths, the more we deny, the more it chases us. And we run from ourselves, fearing, what if we crash— but then, what if we land— what if, we rise in a new light, in the most authentic version of ourselves? As the pain gets so acute—it becomes a signal for us to stop and see new pathways, new directions. We learn how to react to the pain. And a conscious change fills our eyes with a new light, that was unseen before while we were sinking in the sea of sadness. We begin to rise in the light of a new beginning. The sense of losing someone
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Should an Enlightened Society be Guided by the Ethics of Care? Bioethics - The Ethics of Care By Cathedral Of the Soul
The Ethics of Care is a normative ethical theory that holds that moral action centers on interpersonal relationships and care or benevolence as a virtue. [1] Ethics of Care holds that the basis for our ethical concerns should be our emotional responses to Omtimes.com
these concerns. In this line, it also argues that special relations generate special moral duties, something that other theories (primarily those that defend impartial considerations in the ethics) reject. The Ethics of Care is one of the perspectives of contemporary ethics that emphasizes emotions and human relationships in contrast with the so-called ethics of justice, which deals with principles and rights. The philology of the word ‘care’ points to its derivation from the Latin Cura (Curative), which is a scholarly synonym of care. In the earliest form of Latin, the word “Cura” or “Care” is written in a context of love and friendship, to express an attitude of attention, concern, consideration, and devotion for the loved one or a pet. Philological studies indicate another origin for the word ‘care,’ deriving it from cogitare-cogitatus, which means to cogitate, to think, to pay attention, to show interest, to reveal an attitude of care and concern. As can be seen, the nature of the word ‘care’ includes two basic meanings, closely related to each other:
the first is an attitude of care, caring and attention to the other, and the second concern and concern arising from the involvement and relationship with the other by the caregiver. Thus, it seems that the philology of the word ‘care’ indicates that caring is more than a singular act; it is a way of being, the way one structures and realizes oneself in the world with others. It is a way of being in the world that establishes the relationships that are formed with things and people. One might think that because of this, the Ethics of Care could provide a basis for an anthropocentric point of view that excludes non-human animals. The reason would be that, since we generally have stronger relationships with humans, we should give priority to their interests and pay less attention to the welfares of nonhuman Beings. I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.–Abraham Lincoln This argument was rejected by advocates of the consideration Omtimes.com
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