Smoke and Whistles: Senate Save Us!

Talk about smoke and whistles. I just watched Obama sign the Health Care Reform Bill. First, he spent six minutes spoon feeding the public candy by saying all the good things about the bill. It’s criminal that insurance companies were able to drop a person due to becoming ill and having a limit to what can be spent in order to assist an insured person. Obama just signed a bill forcing you to do business with these criminals.

Clearly, the control aspects of this bill need to be removed. Obama’s representation of the bill during his brief ‘signing speech’ reminded me of how disinformationists work. You have experienced them even if you are not consciously aware, for even a skilled author of fiction will surround a huge impossibility with probability so as the reader will accept it as possible.

Another example of a disinformationist is when they report on something or someone in a way that will get you to disregard the something or someone. So, they have at least 85% facts to pull you in. They manipulate your thoughts by bombarding you with what you already know and believe. Then when they sneak in the lie, the information that is intended to discredit something or someone, you are expected to swallow it hook, line, and sinker, because the disinformationist never lied to you before.

Obama used the disinformation technique of omission. After seven minutes of speaking about the favored laws within the bill, Obama moved onto indicating the people behind the bill, including going for sympathetic approval of the bill by introducing real life stories and people. At 8:55 CA time, he signed it without any mention of the little “nasties” within the bill. To listen to only his speech and know nothing of the details of the bill, is to believe that you still have your freedom.

With the signing of that bill, Americans’ only choice is to purchase insurance in order to not be fined. If insurance companies will not accept the kind of health care a person trusts and seeks, then money for insurance is money wasted. Perhaps the fine would work out to be less wasted money than paying for insurance, and worth it in order to get the government satisfied. At any rate, without an insurance company involved in your personal business, you may keep your private health care issues between you and your alternative practitioner.

Obama is equating only what insurance companies deem acceptable to pay for as “good health.” There are plenty of treatments that insurance will not pay for that, in my personal and professional opinion, are truly health promoting procedures because they don’t make your body more toxic and compromise your health in any way. A drug is not the only solution. How many people who have been brought up on drugs and vaccinations know that? Does the president realize that?

Do any of you realize the trend since the 1930’s? For example, sunlight and color healing were once accepted procedures. But the They cannot charge you too much for that, and insurance certainly wouldn’t pay for those procedures.

Obama’s under the impression that your only choice is to pray when you become ill without insurance. Snowlotus TraumEase essential oil, Snowlotus Oregano essential oil, Grapefruit seed Extract oil, and Sankey's Astral Tree of Life pattern using natural oils instead of needles worked together to rid my body of MRSA (Methicillin-resitant Staphylococcus aureus). Snowlotus Oregano, TraumEsea, and Sinus Clear saved my daughter from a bad bout of bronchitis. There are oodles of treatments for oodles of conditions, but you can’t expect your insurance to cover treatments as these. But I can assure Obama that praying and insurance-accepted-treatments are not your only choices.

This morning your president said that he took up the cause of the Roosevelts, Truman, etc. Is he saying that they too wished to force the American people to buy a product or to be fined? Is he claiming that they wanted us to have less freedom and to go against the Constitution?

Biden, are we setting "a new course" for a form of slavery? Can I not think and choose for myself? Obama signed the bill saying I cannot. Is Obama truly "marking a new season," or has this push to deceive us and strip us of power been going on for some time?

Medical doctors and their procedures are accepted by insurance companies. Where does your doctor receive his or her continuing education units? Is he or she exclusively learning from a pharmaceutical sponsored lecturer? Does the American Medical Association make it difficult or even unpleasant for a doctor to continue learning from outside sources? Find out these answers and then learn for yourself what they are not learning. Then learn how to clear yourself and look at goings on around you from a multidimensional perspective.

Perhaps forcing us to purchase insurance is not what we need. Perhaps people need to become aware of Royal Rife’s technology and all the research that led to health care answers that certain parties don’t want you to know about. Perhaps researching is the answer to reforming your health. Quick, research fast before they make it illegal in this country, too.

If the people who love this country can truly change it, then we won’t stand for a dictator pointing a finger to us and forcing us to bend to his will. Haven’t we seen this on Earth before? Did we like it when we read about it in history class?

Will the Senate save us from being mandated to buy insurance?

Uncompassionate UnHealth UnCare

All this talk about Health Care Reform and what's best for the citizens of this country got me thinking about other countries and how they handle health care.

Then my 103 yr. 7 mth. old grandmother, in Australia, suffered from gastro-enteritis last weekend. The hospital, and possibly hospitals here as well, have a rule: if a person is in an old folks home and need to go to a hospital, a doctor from the hospital has to come out, diagnosis the person, and then either admit them into the hospital, or not.

By Monday, the hospital had still sent no-one. My grandmother vomited and inhaled some vomit.

Tuesday, Wednesday...no-one. Perhaps they figured she would surely die, so why bother. Perhaps, like when she was 102 yrs. old and had double pnemonia, they had no beds in the hospital to spare.

Thursday at 2:45 P.M., a doctor showed up and gave her oxygen. He wrote a morphine perscription for my aunt to go fill. While she was gone, my grandmother slipped away. Thank goodness she knew better than to die on morphine.

In a few days, she will be lowered into the ground after walking above it since 1906.

All I can do is sigh and wonder at any county's health care.

Just cleanse, clear, and create health. Then when you are old, go under a tree. Breath your last breath and go. Don't let a doctor get to be the one to decide if they will help you to live or not.

Hang 'em for Your Health

"The very nature of destruction is creation."-The Magical Household p.9


According to Kevin Trudeau in his book Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, it is best to avoid the electric dryer for those wet clothes. The electric dryer is reported to produce positive ions which escape into the environment as well as cling to clothes. In humans, positive ions have been known to suppress the immune system, cause fatigue, and lead to depression and anxiety (134).

In The Vivaxis Connection, Judy Jacka agrees that positive ions can make a person exhausted (231). She goes on to say, “It has been noted that epidemics and infections are more common when a prolonged period of positive ions in the atmosphere has occurred,” and “Ion imbalances can disturb the lymphatic system” (231). Lymph is pretty important and not something you would want to be imbalanced.

Trudeau states, “Life enhancing negative ions” are abundant near natural water sources and out in the woods. He encourages each person to compare and contrast how he or she feels in such a natural environment to being in a Laundromat near spinning dryers for thirty minutes (134). Trudeau confidently writes that after the thirty minutes near the electric dryer, “Notice how you feel for the rest of the day,” down, fatigued, and generally bad (135).

Jacka says that a slight preponderance of negative ions in our bodies is good and that we feel energetic in such a state. Likewise, she believes an excess of positive ions leads to lethargy (234). She says, “Usually, we feel very tired if positive ions accumulate as they do in many buildings with air-conditioning or heating” (235).

It is worth researching these ideas, especially if your health is compromised and you have enough going on. The sun and its glorious attributes are not always available, but clothes hanging on the shower-curtain pole may be a healthier alternative to clothes spinning in the electric drier.

Vivaxis Exercise #1

This afternoon, I finally bought some carbon in the form of charcoal in order to do Exercise #1 from the book The Vivaxis Connection. The goal of this exercise is to fix the damage from X-rays on the carbon in your bones from the past. As the author of the book, Judy Jacka says, "The purpose of this exercise is to remove the negative effects of X-rays regardless of how long ago you received them. The exercise realigns the carbon atoms of the affected bones in the correct orientation to true north and south via your Vivaxis" (213).

So, I spiritually called in my Healing Team and I invoked the elements Carbon and Calcium, and got to work. This "treatment" immediately felt as an acupuncture treatment does, or a meditation. I felt light and was intrigued by the different energies or personalities of the two elements. I felt activity above my head.

Then there was the pain here and there that took me by surprise. Part of the process is to hit areas of the body. I used a lentil filled stocking that basically was the size of a fist. Many places did not hurt at all. Some felt good being awakened with the hitting. It was neat to contemplate what had occured in the few areas of pain and have it dawn on me that I had, indeed, been X-rayed there. My mother, who was next, noticed similar pain in different places for her.

After, I felt a little different, but am not certain of effects, yet. My mom reported feeling light-headed with weak and tired legs, and is looking forward to seeing how it will all settle.

I will keep you posted about exercise #2. We will be removing foreign fields from ourselves the Vivaxis way!

Sound Made Sacred

“Sound frequencies, like Vivaxis energies and high potency homeopathic remedies, have no physical form.”
The Vivaxis Connection, by J. Jacka, p. 45

Sacred Sounds: Magic & Healing Through Words & Music author and healer Ted Andrews says, “To hear one’s astrological chart played musically is at once eerie and awesome” (58). Listening to the musical interpretation of an individual’s personal astrological chart is one way to achieve higher states of consciousness and can help a seeker of personal truth to gain insight. Composers of this kind of music work with a client’s birth chart and hand him or her a musical copy of how the planets sounded upon the client’s first breath. Andrews says that it is inspiring and deeply moving to be immersed into personal sound on this level. This metaphysical guru goes onto say, “Pythagorus created the modern musical octave in an attempt to reveal the relationship between musical notes and the mathematical principles of the universe” (5). For those interested in following this concept, Esoteric Acupuncture and Sacred geometry may be two subjects worth investigating. Through personal music, meaning the sounds and vibrations of the planets at our first breath, we have another tool to help us understand how our astrological charts are affecting us. As Andrews says, “Astrology and music are tools to help us to understand the energies within us and how to bring them into harmony” (54). But music in general, as a tool, is far more convenient and available to us than hiring an astrological chart musician.

Ted Andrews acknowledges the commercial and artistic aspects of music. He further encourages “music needs to be considered in a third way- as a power of universal force” (30). Andrews feels that respecting this third aspect once again, as sacred sound, is long past due. All vowel sounds and also words resonate to various parts of the body, various chakras, and to an individual’s different states of awareness. Because of this, listening to different vowel sounds can help with various physical ailments throughout the body.

With all the technological diversions in our world, it is worth looking at what he has to say. From the healing aspects of speech, to tones, to music in general, sound, whether from an instrument, from a voice, or from a machine, is able to affect the body. Let’s take a look at this concept. Physically, sound enters through the ear. Ten of the twelve cranial nerves communicate with the ear and from the ear have an impact on other parts of the body. Some scientists theorize that this is why a baby, for example, may get an acute (sudden) stomach ache from loud noises.

The chakras (spinning energy points) and the subtle bodies (Etheric, Astral, etc.) also play a part in the effects of sound on the physical body and on a person’s consciousness. “The chakras are the primary mediators of all energy already in the body and all the energy coming into the body” (34). Chakras are not a part of the physical body on the physical level, yet they contribute to physical health and are also affected by one’s physical health. Chakras are situated along the midline, back, and front, of the Astral body, corresponding with the midline of the physical body. Andrews feels it is important for individuals to understand the chakras system and how each relates with our various bodies and energies. Plenty of books have been available for a long time on this subject. You will learn the basics, such as which gland corresponds to which chakra, and from there a whole new world will open up to you.

In Andrews' view, each chakra communicates with a particular subtle body. He states, “The normal life-force from each subtle body enters into its own particular chakra,” then sends its energy to the spine, blood stream, and finally to the organs (35). Likewise, sound and tones from the outside offer calm or discordant energy to the chakras. The energy enters the chakras and travels to the spinal sound resonator vertebrae in the form of vibration and, as energy from the subtle bodies, is then sent along the nerve pathways of tissues and organs.

When balanced, the subtle bodies and chakras are able to dictate what can enter a person’s experience and change it or leave it as is. Further, prior to the physical body, the subtle bodies are adversely or positively affected first by outside influences. Andrews writes, “The higher and stronger our own energy fields are, the less likely they are to be impinged upon from outside sources, and the more we can adapt them to resonate to a wider spectrum of forces, people, and conditions of life”(23). Talk about preventative medicine! Basically, this is like strengthening your aura so as when socializing in a huge crowd, you won’t feel like you need to take a shower to rescue yourself from the crowds’ stuff. Your subtle bodies support you in handling anything that comes your way.

What if the subtle bodies are adversely affected? They will be unable to discern incoming impressions, and therefore, will be unable to protect the whole person against these incoming vibrations. Andrews recommends that in this era of technology and dissonance, people reestablish the use of Sacred Sound, for anyone with vocal abilities can make sounds and intentionally direct these sounds somewhere within their Being with a purpose. For example, anyone who is able to hear can at least direct the sound internally without vocalizing, simply by being able to recreate the note in their mind. Thought application of sound affects the subtle bodies, chakras, and our auras, so we can produce a remedy to a physical malady by sending a vocal sound with thought only. Of course, it is best to also physically send the sound vocally to the area of physical discomfort.

Diagnosing the chakras through noticing an off pitch voice is also possible, for “off-pitch sounds usually indicate imbalance in one or more of the chakras”(73). An example of changes occurring in a chakra and being mirrored on the voice is when a youngster goes through puberty and has a cracking voice. Andrews writes, “The cracking and changing voice indicates the opening and activation of the base chakra from a new level. It indicates the movement of the individual to develop and assert his or her own independent and individual energies” (73). Asserting one’s will is therefore related to the chakras, too.

When the chakras are imbalanced, it is as if they hurry to gather energy from the subtle bodies (Etheric, Astral, etc.) in order to establish balance, therefore, “in many cases, simply restoring the proper balance and functioning to the chakras will correct the imbalance, or at least alleviate it” (37). Assist the chakras, and you will assist your subtle bodies. Assist your subtle bodies, and you will assist your chakras. His remedy to restore this proper balance? Sacred Sound.

Andrews says, “The more we are exposed to beneficial sounds, the greater and the more permanent the effect they have upon our own individual energies”(21). Sound Therapy International CDs are beneficial in this area. Listening to them at the movies, for example, blocks out the incredibly loud noises. At the same time, offering music that has been run through Tomatis’ Electronic Ear will exercise the ear as well.

The voice is a powerful tool. Andrews states, “Tuning energies with voice, sound, or music will affect people in different ways, but since sound is basic to all life, it will affect everyone to varying degrees”(183). The meridians traveling up the center of the front and back of the body can be balanced by singing, toning, or playing middle C and high C simultaneously (192). The tongue is to be placed against the teeth when silently toning (meaning hear it in your head) with the inhalation. Visualize energy traveling up the spine, and as you exhale, tone audibly, visualizing energy traveling down the front of the spine or front of the body (194). A secretive way to carry this out in public, or to just give yourself a quick tune up without the visualization, is with humming. Andrews says that humming “carries sound internally,” harmonizing all our subtle bodies and various aspects of ourselves (195).

In 2003, I was in an evening hypnotism class with a fellow acupuncturist. She had had an awful stomach ache all day, having tried herbs and attempts at needling herself to no avail. I had just finished reading Ted Andrews' book and asked her if, on the short break, she would let me attempt a toning treatment that I had just learned to do through the book. She felt she had nothing to lose, so we went into an unused room and together attempted this unusual treatment. The best thing is we needed no equipment. Also, people do not need a medical degree of any kind to conduct this treatment on themselves or friends.

She stood facing me. I was about two feet away from her naval area toning a raspy, throaty sound, “aw,” as in the American way of saying “saw.” I moved closer and up, down, and out following the feeling of where the edge of her aura was and the exact spot being a key to where her trouble was. She did as I did. Upon our inhales, we mentally sent the sound to her second and third chakra locations, and upon the exhale we toned, sending the sound to the same place. I explained to her that Andrews says that this technique affects the subtle bodies as well as the physical body. We weren’t always toning the same notes nor were we in unison. It did not sound pretty!

Suddenly, something seemed to shoot out and expand. Then her aura felt calm and settled in that spot. Our short break was up, so I figured that was pretty good timing because we had to stop anyway. Back in class, she looked at me with dazzling eyes and proclaimed her stomach ache was gone. “What was the name of that book again?” she asked.

Even if you do not think you are talented, singing encourages freer, fuller breathing, so it is worth doing daily. There are other benefits as well: “It can improve the posture, enhance our speaking voice, and helps bring emotional awareness and fulfillment” (196). Singing energizes and balances qi and the subtle bodies, assisting in healing between acupuncture treatments. The chromatic scale consists of thirteen tones, including sharps and flats, and all can balance the chakras. Like Esoteric Acupuncture, these tones can also “unblock and balance the energy pathways (meridians) from the chakras”(187). In Esoteric Acupuncture, the order of needle insertion and removal is important. With Sacred Sound, the order of notes played along with the rhythm can also set up a particular energy field for balancing. Also, just as it is with various New Encoding Patterns within the Esoteric Acupuncture system, rhythms and tones in various combinations can have specific effects upon our individual subtle bodies, which in turn show the results in our physical body. Andrews notes, “Part of the spiritual quest for any individual is to find the spiritual center within- the center which has all power and all balance and all healing”(205). As with Esoteric Acupuncture, using Sacred Sound helps you find and work from your center.

Esoteric Acupuncture and Sacred Sound, like Geomancy (Feng Shui), also both employ the use of the Yantra, because they all access geometric shapes. Andrews says, “Yantras are essentially visual tools to help in centering. When used for healing or worship purposes, the energy associated with them is evoked and symbolizes some divine aspect of the universe” (200). Toning in groups where the participants are assembled into various shapes, representing the Yantra, with a person in the middle, enables the “patient” to effect change for all those involved. The geometric shapes and the toning work together to ground the work into the physical.
Think of the people your voice affects if you are a school teacher, a radio disc jockey, or an actor. Even as a client. Wouldn’t you want your health care practitioner to use an appropriate timbre? Andrews assures us, “Through practice, we can learn to create physiological and spiritual changes in ourselves and others through altering the timbre of our speech and by employing the timbre of various instruments to elicit specific effects” (25). Sacred Sound takes Intentional healing to a whole new level while you are working to integrate the spiritual self with the physical self “within the circumstances of your present life” (46), and while taking the perfect voice into that next meeting with your boss, principal, or group you trying to persuade. The prepared voice is ready to create. As Andrews says, “One who sings, prays twice” (196).

Convenient First Aid

According to herbalist, teacher, and author Cathy McNease, garden plants and various foods in your kitchen can become first aid remedies as well as long-term support for health. Having a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner on your healing team is a good idea, for they can guide you in the use of everyday items to bring immediate comfort, can give aid while en route to their office, and can offer information on how to prepare and ingest certain foods on a daily basis for continued health. Self-education is great, but when facing a situation, it is recommended that you communicate with your TCM practitioner to verify that the remedy truly fits your constitution and ailment. The western herb, goldenseal, for example, is a fantastic anti-biotic, but its nature is cold and therefore not recommended for at least half the population, unless taken in a way that acknowledges the cold person or the person with the cold condition.

The mulberry leaf, Sang Ye, is widely known as food for silk worms, but it has benefits for humans, too. Mulberry trees do not flower, they give fruit. The plant can grow in a wide space in your sunny yard, and you may start with a cutting as well as seeds. To get a cutting of a plant, cut a piece of the stem, removing the bottom leaves and top bud of leaves off a friend’s plant, for example. Energy will travel down within the cutting, and roots, instead of buds, will grow. McNease says, “Plants that have a woody stem, like a mulberry tree cutting, or more difficult to root plants, are easiest done in soil.” Take the mulberry stem, dip it in Rooting Hormone, which is a powder you can purchase from any gardening supply store, and simply plant the cutting into moist soil. McNease warns, “Rooting Hormone is not used in water rooting, only when done in soil.” Eight to ten feet are required between the fence and this tree when planted. Whether planted initially into a pot or into the ground, remember to use good, soft, moist soil. A Pakistani variety of mulberry is McNease’s favorite because of its size and taste: they are two to three inches long and have a very sweet, delicious flavor. After years with various varieties, perhaps you will have a favorite, too. Books are available on the subject of gardening in general and growing plants from cuttings. Books, like McNease’s Tao of Nutrition, are also available, providing helpful information about the properties of plants as foods and other potential uses.

So, your child comes home from school with a cough, headache, fever, or even a sore throat. The child’s eyes are watery, possibly a little red. Perhaps the youngster has only one of these symptoms. Mild tasting Sang Ye is ready and waiting in the backyard. First, pick enough of the huge leaves for a serving of tea now and for later. McNease suggests, “When dry herbs are used to make tea, a handful of crushed dry leaves are used for a cup.” A child’s handful or an adult’s handful is used depending on for whom the tea is intended. Sang Ye is mild and non-toxic, so large doses are no problem, but remember the handful measurement to guide you with other herbs. When fresh leaves are used, just rinse off any dust. McNease recommends scissors for the task of cutting up the leaves, stating, “It really doesn’t matter if you use the leaf whole or not, but you can get a little stronger tea if the leaf is cut or crushed. When the leaves are fresh, use two to three times more of the amount used than when dry.” Pour hot water over the dry or fresh leaves in a pot, let the tea simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes, and then strain it and sip it. Be certain not to catch a chill. If you should start perspiring, be mindful of changing your clothes and avoiding a draft.

For nausea and/or a dry cough (perhaps with yellow phlegm), the huge, oval, dark green leaf from the loquat tree, Pi Pai Ye (Eriobotrya japonica), may be prepared as a single herbal remedy. It has the function of descending the rising force behind rebellious stomach qi (chi) and lung qi, which is responsible for the maladies. This leaf can clear heat from the stomach and heat and phlegm from the lung. Consulting with your TCM practitioner before preparing Pi Pai Ye tea is a good idea to rule out conditions caused by cold. Prior to breaking or cutting the leaf, or leaves, into a cup, check the back of each leaf for a scaly insect. If found, remove it. It is a parasite, not part of the leaf. The leaves are fuzzy, so when a tea is ready, it will need to be strained through a coffee filter or else the fuzz may irritate your throat.

Patchouli or Huo Xiang (Agastache rugosa) is terrific at stopping stomach flu and food poisoning symptoms. Although it is best to seek treatment for mild cases or situations when you are unable to seek immediate help - late at night or during a disaster, for example, picking some Huo Xiang leaves, pouring hot water over them, and then slowly sipping the remedy may bring some relief. McNease recommends also placing a hot water bottle on your midsection. This sometimes calms the rebellious qi, stopping the qi from moving downward too strongly and other qi from moving up too strongly during, for instance, diarrhea and vomiting. Through allowing the qi to communicate and harmonize, and by “transforming turbidity,” stomach flu and food poisoning symptoms may be relieved. A few twenty degree Southern California nights prompted McNease to shelter her Huo Xiang in a protected porch. This is a benefit to having this particular plant in a pot where it thrives.

Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is from the mint family and may be grown from a cutting. McNease says, “Plants in the mint or geranium families can easily be rooted in water, but change the water every week.” This means you may take the cutting and simply keep it in water until the root-hairs have grown sufficiently for planting. I found that my scented geranium cutting did not like being in a really sunny hot spot, so I moved it to a counter not in the path of direct sunlight. Just be aware of your cuttings and their surroundings. During extremely cold weather, these delicate plants, as well ferns and lemon trees, need to be protected. That is easy enough if they are in pots, but the ones rooted in the ground may be protected by gently placing ordinary bed sheets over them, as McNease would do in this situation.

Catnip has a hairy, square-like stem and it usually grows three to five feet high. This wonderful herb may be used indirectly for a colicky baby, for the baby does not ingest the tea directly; the mother does. Through drinking the mother’s milk, the baby’s spasms, cramping, and nervousness calm down. It has been used for diarrhea and bronchitis. Catnip and its mint relatives, spearmint and peppermint, may also be made into a tea in order to relieve the beginnings of a sore throat, a cough, and/or a slight fever, referred to as wind-heat in TCM. The mints may make you sweat, so, again, protect yourself from getting a chill.

Mullein has a soft leaf, a two-year life cycle, and can grow nine to ten feet tall. McNease says, “The first year it produces a basal rosette of furry leaves. The second year it sends up the tall flower stalk. In our mild California climate, it may last a third year with more flowers.” A tea made with the mullein leaf can resolve phlegm and can therefore aid infected lungs presenting with a cough and congestion. Its temperature is cooling, so it is best in dry and hot conditions; however, if fresh ginger is added, it may be used for cool conditions as well. Mullein flowers may be prepared for an ear infection by soaking the flowers in olive oil for a few weeks, covering the flower with at least a half an inch of the oil. Being aware that the temperature in the house is not too hot to turn the oil rancid and not too cold to turn the oil solid is tricky. Strain off the oil from the flower and keep the mullein oil in the refrigerator. When someone has an ear infection, two to three drops may be dropped into the ear.

Plantago seeds or Che Qian Zi is also known as White-man’s Foot and as plantain. They have parallel veins that are raised on the leaves. The early settlers of the U.S. brought these seeds with them as they journeyed westward, some purposely to use medicinally, some inadvertently on their shoes. The flat, broad, ribbed leaves are growing as troublesome weeds, are grown as a crop intended for bird’s food, are raised for a leafy vegetable intended for human consumption, and are still grown for medicinal reasons. The good news is, Che Qian Zi can grow anywhere. Perhaps it was so important to the settlers because it functions to clear heat and toxins. Red eyes and cough may be relieved by this versatile plant. It is great for stopping the itching from bug bites. Steep the chopped up leaves in a cup or bowl of hot water, then place the leaves on the affected area. Larry W. Mitch, author of “Whiteman’s Foot: Broadleaf Plantain,” an article in Weed Technology July 1987, said that in the past, plantain poultices were used on scorpion and snake bites, Puritans used it for deep cuts and sore feet, and the young leaves may be used in any fashion, like spinach, or can be eaten in a salad. Do not ingest this herb if pregnant, and if feeling weak, consult with your practitioner first.

TCM uses the whole dandelion plant (Pu Gong Ying/Taraxicum officinalis) by cutting it into a salad. Cut it in spring, though, as it is too bitter in summer. Dandelions are loaded with minerals and work to clear heat and toxins from the body, so may be used for the situations mentioned above. Also, new mothers experiencing mastitis will be happy to know that the dandelion leaves may be steeped in boiling water, removed, and place on the affected breast. This method works well for insect bites as well.

It is nice to know that our gardens may help us with some acute (sudden) and chronic (long term) conditions. Once we begin with one or two plants and learn to know which one to prepare for which condition, we have the option to add other plants and remedies to our gardens. Later, if we find ourselves in our TCM practitioner’s office, no matter what treatment with which they have aided us, they can always add, “Hey, cook yourself up some such and such when you get home.” They may say that the root, twig, stem, fruit, flower, or leaf is indicated for the condition we are experiencing at that moment. Each plant and plant part may address different meridians (pathways) within the body and various conditions.

For more information on food temperatures and foods appropriate for certain constitutions and conditions, please read Tao of Nutrition by Cathy McNease and Mao Ni. For a plantain recipe, please read Wild Plums in Brandy by S. Boorman, 1962.

Why Humans Have the Ability to Dowse

According to…Judy Jacka, N.D., “Dr. Robin Baker at the University of Manchester in England, has added to our understanding of the magnetic sense by locating a magnetic focus at the back of the nasal passage and just in front of the pituitary gland-the ethmoid sinus.” Jacka states that this means humans are indeed capable of internally locating magnetic north. We are like bees, birds, salamanders and fish!

Dowsers are people who usually use two metal rods in order to receive information. Information may be desired on where to locate water, or perhaps to learn about pathogenic Qi (energy) in an environment. The rods move and dip in response to the question. To outsiders, it may look as if the person is using their muscles to move the rods, when in reality the movement comes from a communication between the Earth and the magnetic sense of the Dowser. A pendulum, a weighted object at the base of a string, is another way to “dowse” for information. For example, a practitioner may gain knowledge about a person’s chakras by holding a pendulum over each chakra of a client who is lying down. Both the dowser using rods and the practitioner using a pendulum are utilizing their “magnetic sense.”

In The Vivaxis Connection, Jacka mentions a medical researcher named Robert Becker. Long ago Becker indicated “that the sophistication of modern instruments has revealed that living creatures are intimately related to the Earth’s geomagnetic field and derive vital and basic information from it.” Humans are living creatures. Jacka also refers to the work of a French scientist Professor Yves Rocard regarding the magnetic sense. Rocard claims to have located “magnetically sensitive points on the body,” such as brow ridges and the bony protuberance of some vertebrae. From Rocard’s point of view, in dowsing, these bones are “crucial receptors of information and energy.” The pineal gland and the “magnetic organ containing minute crystals of magnetite” are connected to the nervous system. This is the magnetic sense that makes humans able to dowse.

During Vivaxis exercises, a person will tap into their magnetic or dowsing sense in order to perform the techniques correctly. As with dowsing, tiny responses “in response to the question” occur in the nervous system of the person who performs the exercises. The question may have been an actual question held in the mind, or it may be a desired goal. At any rate, as with the rods and pendulum, the body part will transmit the response.

It is true that dowsing may be performed in a way that requires more of a psychic or Astral sense. Jacka feels that our ability to dowse is also related to our chakras, but since chakras reside in the Astral body, they are not considered further in this strictly physical look at dowsing. A psychic avenue is harder to document and defend. In The Vivaxis Connection, Jacka is focusing on the magnetic sense organ and the physical techniques associated with dowsing. This should help something as occult and strange as dowsing seem less out of the ordinary for those who are uncomfortable exploring outside the third dimension.

For more information on dowsing, please visit John Butler’s website at www.ascensiontools.com.