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the Evolution of a Tech Nerd
December 20, 2008

Supreme Science Qi Gong Workshop

Author: lauren - Categories: My Journey

qi revolutionIt’s hard to believe nearly 4 months have passed since we attended the “Qi Revolution” workshop. On one hand it feels like only yesterday, yet also feels like it happened in another lifetime. I think that because the pace of our lives has been steadily increasing, our perception of time feels equally affected. (Cue the Time Warp song!)

Hosted by Jeff Primack and his non-profit Supreme Science Qigong Foundation*, it was 4 days of intense instruction and practice. Although by this time we had an introduction to qi**, we were brand new to the practice of Qi Gong. Neither of us felt particularly called to it, yet the pull to attend the workshop was strong. There were advertisements for it in all of the local New Age magazines that just seemed to leap out at us. Our intuition said it would be a powerful turning point in our lives and we decided to honor those feelings. So despite our non-committal attitude toward Qi Gong itself we felt excited about attending the workshop. It was the first of many workshops/classes we would take on our ascension journey, and it was amazing.

The initial steps of setting aside 4 full days and paying the $140 for us both to attend felt like a victory! Our schedules and finances were a little less flexible 4 months ago. Or more accurately, our confidence in making those kind of self-nurturing decisions was not as strong. At the end of each day we would marvel how very much we gained for the now trivial seeming amount of time/money we put in. It paved the way for making many more decisions like this. “Not enough time or money” is a self-limiting mindset that we don’t operate in anymore, and it is so freeing!

Rather than do a day by day commentary, if you are interested in a very detailed account of the 4 days, I suggest this series of blog posts. The schedule for the San Diego workshop that we attended was the same. Instead, I’m just going to touch on the parts that really rocked us.

On the first day we did a breathing exercise while lying on our backs that they called Breath Empowerment. It’s a good name. We enjoy breath work, but this exercise did seem to break through a mental barrier, enabling us to go deeper with the practice. It’s amazing how intense just breathing can be when you are focused on doing it consciously. This method included a whole lot of rapid, deep breathing to flood your body with oxygen. All sorts of odd bodily sensations happened; tingling, humming, cramping, and feelings of being endlessly huge, strong, and purified. Afterward everyone in the auditorium was tired and hungry and Jeff explained that we could have just burned up to 1,000 calories. Yah, I know… while breathing. It was another tangible realization that we have entered a time where we can choose to receive results from intention rather than hard work. This principle is the same in every aspect of our lives from work to family to how we sculpt our bodies.

blendtec 3 horsepower blenderOn day 2 Jeff did a demo with a badass 3 horsepower blender and showed us how it would easily handle things like avocado seeds, entire fruits and veggies, etc. Oh baby, he had us at the avocado seed. We decided right then that a 3hp blender was in our future. (4 months later, our 3hp Blendtec just arrived in the mail and it RULES. Thank you eBay and your sweet discounted prices.) One detail that was like a lightbulb for us was his comments about apple seeds. He put an entire apple into the machine and commented how each fruit is a whole package deal, meant to be eaten whole. (Excepting for the ones with protective coatings like citrus and pineapples.) As raw foodists we are used to sucking down every bit from a piece of fruit, and actually packed large bags of fruit for us to eat at breaks and at lunch. But what of the cores and seeds? We chucked them like everyone else does, not even thinking that Mother Nature, in her perfect wisdom, might have put those seeds in there for us to chow down on. So now we eat the entire fruit, loving the flavor and texture variance that seeds and cores provide. It was just a comment that he made, but every morning at breakfast I am reminded of it while I devour an apple whole!

By day 2 we were still practicing level 1 Qi Gong forms, and finally getting them down. They’re very simple movements, but the point of Qi Gong, the point of anything really, is to be totally conscious while doing it. The devil’s in the details, as they say. Keeping the breath in sync with the movements, keeping muscles relaxed and learning to let the qi guide the body, watching the instructors while staying aware and in your body, being aware of sensations and emotions that arise, keeping an attitude of gratitude and love… lots of things to do all at once, while it appears that you’re just slowly moving your body! At first it’s like trying to conduct a large orchestra, until it eventually becomes natural and much of it runs on auto-pilot. Each day got “easier” in that way. And it was cool to be moving in harmony with so many people…
qi revolution with Jeff Primack

I think it was at the end of day 2 that we had the Origins of the Universe presentation. Wow, that was another landmark for our journeys. We had been avidly reading about the various frameworks of philosophies that people have regarding, you know, Everything. We were beginning to piece things together and Jeff’s understanding of where we came from and why we’re here coalesced many things for us. It enlarged our vision, gave us new questions to ponder, and strengthened our budding understanding of a Creator who is endlessly, unconditionally loving. We may have signed up for a “qigong” workshop, but that was just the icing on the cake.

On a couple of the days we watched a high definition version of the instructional “Press on Qi” DVD series that Jeff has created. These were amazing. They added digital animations so that you could see a representation of the qi energy. Until we humans are more easily able to literally see energy, I think these animations will make a very effective teaching tool. Qi is called “subtle energy” for obvious reasons, and I’ll admit that it was helpful to be able to visually see the direction of the energy in each of the qi gong postures. The production value was just really top notch overall. Well worth the cost.

The hugest thing for day 3 was the 9 Breath circle. Our chairs were all snaked around the auditorium and 300 or so people all joined hands to do the breathing for the purpose of sending healing energy. We sent it to everyone! Our loved ones, our “enemies”, children of the world, leaders of the world, to the city, the state, the entire planet, to ourselves, and to a woman on stage. We were to send loving energy to her with the intent that she reach her life’s purpose. With complete sincerity Jeff told us, “If she achieves her purpose, we all do. For All is One.” Yah, there were a lot of tears during the 9 Breath circle.
9 breath circle

Day 4 was just plain fun. We learned how to qi walk in stealth mode (not pulsing your arms sideways and looking odd), as well as Wuji Style. The latter is freeform Qi Gong, and using several main movements, you just piece it together in whatever way feels organic and right for you. (The swimming move is so fun, especially when you SLOW it down and do the twist!) He cautioned that Wuji is “desert” and should be done after the “dinner” of level 1/2 qi gong, but I gotta say… Wuji feels good and it calls to me while structured qi gong did not, and still does not. OK I said it! I really liked trying Qi Gong, but as a practice for cultivating energy and consciousness, it simply does not appeal to me. So I go Wuji style sometimes, and that “desert” is wonderful for me on it’s own.

Flower of Life - Glyph/Grid style

The workshop closed with a presentation which sparked so many new interests and questions for us. The topic was Sacred Geometry, and as I hope will become evident in future articles, Sean just gravitated to this study and has an amazing knack for it. We learned how Fibonacci numbers and the Fibonacci spiral show up EVERYWHERE in nature and in sacred sites like the pyramids. We heard about an experiment where Nissan tried to recreate a 1/3 scale pyramid in the 1970’s and failed so hard, yet the Coral Castle was said to have been easily built by 1 man using the “technology” that built the Egyptian pyramids. Jeff told us about the healing to be found in drawing and coloring your own mandala. With each new piece of information, our world expanded like a flowering lotus. It was a perfect ending to an incredibly transformational 4 days.

*Supreme Science is a non-profit and that’s why their events are CHEAP. It was only $70/each for the entire 4 days workshop! The goal is to get everybody to the workshops to introduce them to the forms and concepts, then if they feel guided and have the money, they can purchase instructional DVDs and books… which are not so cheap, yet worth the cost :)

**”Qi” has been known by many names throughout the world and over time. Chi, life force energy, cosmic energy, mana, prana, are just some of them.

November 4, 2008

What the Bleep: Down the Rabbit Hole

Author: lauren - Categories: My Journey - Tags: ,

You don’t even know you don’t know…

Talk about seed planting. We saw the original What the Bleep movie in theatres back in the Autumn of 2004. Everything presented was new to us and we struggled to piece things together. We walked out glad we saw it, but confused as to why it was raved about and recommended to us as such an “amazing, life changing” movie. We knew nothing at the time about quantum reality so we weren’t even sure if it was sci-fi, documentary, or parts of both! It was a fun ride, though.

Some of the seeds planted during our first viewing of the movie only started to take sprout several years later. When The Secret got huge, we remembered how What the Bleep talked about “creating your own reality”. When affecting things at a distance - energy healing, Qi pushing/pulling, etc. - presented itself in our lives, we recalled something in the movie about quantum physics being able to explain those otherwise unexplainable concepts. When channeled information finally became a part of our framework for understanding the universe, we remembered JZ Knight/Ramtha’s existential contributions in the movie with interest instead of just a giggle.

cellular memory of emotionsWhen my holistic chiropractor introduced me to Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) that “releases emotion stored in the body”, the cartoon scenes of the colorful dancing blobs began to materialize in my mind’s eye. When we learned that the true quality of water is highly dependent on it’s cellular memory - what happened to that water before it got to us - we recalled with amazement the beautiful crystal patterns of “loved” water shown in the movie. When “ascension into the 5th dimension” became a phrase we were hearing everywhere, I tried so hard to recall what Bleep mentioned about other dimensions. (Note: Down the Rabbit Hole includes a final cartoon that explains 5D as best as anything can right now. So helpful!)

So even though our first viewing felt like it went way over our heads - and it did - it served as a launchpad for many great future realizations. Life is like that :)

Mastering the Art of ObservationTo continue this chain of beautiful synchronicities, in early 2008 I was at the library and saw a DVD that sounded intriguing. Dr. Joe Dispensa’s “Mastering the art of Observation“: a 60 minute presentation that proposed “becoming a skilled observer may empower us to exercise a greater degree of mind over matter”. (We saw more of the “pay attention to have an intention” equation in Ian Lungold’s videos.) I remembered Dr. Dispensa from What the Bleep as “the guy who said he created his reality every morning”. I scooped that DVD up so freaking fast and we watched it that night. Production value aside (that aspect is MST3K worthy), the scientific explanation of mind over matter was amazing and it left us hungry for elaboration and practical ways to apply it. That’s when we found out that a new version of What the Bleep had been released and that it contained hours of extra footage. Score!

love yourself

Questions like who am I, where did I come from, what should I be doing, why am I here, where am I going, etc. are the biggest questions we will ever have. What the Bleep Down the Rabbit Hole helped give us some insight on them. But better than that, it raised even more questions! (Cuz you know you’re on the right trail when you find more questions than answers.) I might even say that the movie helped us better form those questions and to begin to see how they are all inter-related. Nothing is random, nothing is outside the scope of anything else. Truly, All is One. You’re asked in the beginning of the movie “how much about your true nature do you really want to know”? Well, it came at a time in our lives when we were ready to throw ourselves head first down that rabbit hole, and we’re so thankful we did…

Dr Quantum in FlatlandWhere this movie really excelled for us is it’s accessability. Sean’s and my mind work similarly: very logical and analytical, yet appreciating the right brain stimulation of a fun “how to”. We both latched onto the format of having quite detailed interviews being interspersed with scenes of “drama” that gave examples of how the concepts looked in real life. The visualizations it provides for concepts that felt impossible to understand otherwise were also invaluable! The colorful blobs of emotion really brought the point home about the chemical dependency we all exist in with respect to our emotional states. The Dr. Quantum in Flatland cartoon at the end was invaluable for helping us wrap our head around 5D. We know what height, width, depth, and time are like, but what will the 5th dimension look like? (Answer: we don’t know. We can’t even imagine yet, but it’s going to be amazing.)

A funny aspect about future viewing for me is that I understand things differently each time, because of the current “filters” that I am viewing through! Like the first time I watched the movie in 2004, I had little real involvement with spirituality. The “religious” aspects were not a trigger for me. Upon first watching Down the Rabbit Hole, my spirituality had changed drastically. I remember one speaker on the DVD got my goat because of the derogitory way he spoke about Christianity. It was the lens, the filter that I was observing through. Now I watch him speak and think “Ooooh, I see what his points are now. He may not be very respectful about it, but I can see the Truth in his statements”. Each of us are ever-evolving, and I theorize that if you are actively trying to improve and educate yourself that you will also find successive viewings of Down the Rabbit Hole to be enlightening in new ways. I mean the name Down the Rabbit Hole couldn’t be more appropriate. The more we immerse ourselves in the search for Truth, the deeper we realize the “rabbit hole” goes…

If you haven’t seen Down the Rabbit Hole yet, you can get an affordable copy from Amazon, eBay, or Half.com. Your local library might even have a copy! Ours didn’t so we bought a new copy and are donating it after we watch it a couple more times. Gotta get the info out there…

October 13, 2008

Conscious Eating: Raw Food is Living Food

Author: sean - Categories: Living Food, My Journey

I really enjoy eating, as I’m sure most people do, and I believe we are meant to greatly enjoy the experience of nourishing our bodies. Sean eating raw-some pizza.I feel that bringing awareness, being conscious, of what I’m fueling my body with has had a profound effect on my spiritual growth.

A big step for me was back in 1999 when I began eating 100% vegetarian, aka vegan, food. In the beginning it was to bring awareness to the millions of animals, that I felt, were unnecessarily being used for our “nutrition”. I felt it wasn’t right that they were raised in unfit conditions, fed unfit food, shot full of chemicals, (the list goes on, but I don’t want to focus on that here) and then slaughtered by a machine just so I could get a meal faster and cheaper. That brought me to doing more research on the subject, asking more questions, and how I could do an even better job supporting my goals.

raw dinnerIt was over the next 9 years (1999 -2008) of being vegan that made me aware of the larger impact a simple change such as your food intake can make. I learned and became interested in how my food choices can effect the animals, the workers in the animal agriculture business, the environment, my social interactions, a grocery store or restaurants purchasing decisions, and even friends and family’s food choices. It really is amazing what one decision can influence over the years.

It was only the past 4 years (2004-2008) or so we started accepting, reading more about, and experimenting with raw living foods. It felt like the next step to take for maximum enjoyment from our food experience. Each year or so we started incorporating more and more living foods into our everyday meals.

Now (since July 2008) we thrive on 100% amazing raw living foods all day everyday. You can see all the beautiful variety of foods we get to consume on my Living Raw Foods Picasa Gallery. This gallery of pictures is what’s being displayed on the right hand side of my site and throughout this post.

So what makes a food “raw”? Whenever you are eating food unprocessed from it’s natural state (ie. straight from the tree, ground, etc.) it’s considered raw. If you don’t kill the enzymes in the food (usually by never heating above about 110 degrees) or mutate it’s composition in any way with heat then it’s still raw and ideal for your body.
This keeps the food in it’s natural state, and thus is easiest for your body to consume/digest/process/assimilate, whatever you want to call it. Your body only has so many enzymes with which to break down food over your lifetime, which is why as we get older it’s harder to digest and assimilate the same cooked foods we’ve been eating for years. When we are younger our body has plenty of enzymes to throw into the digestive track to help break down all the gluey flour, gummie treats, and cooked food we throw into it. This is all in an effort to break down the food into a state to where we can get all the actual nutrition, if any, found inside that our body needs to keep functioning and growing.

So why not make it easier on ourselves and eat the food in it’s raw, living, whole form, while it still has all the enzymes we need to break it down right there in the food. Nature is smart, in fact, Mother Nature is perfect and within each fruit, vegetable, etc. is all exact enzymes needed to break it down to a cellular level.

Delicious PeachOK, so our bodies, enjoy it better, how about our mind? By simply being aware of these facts, and of what you are actually eating you are expanding your awareness!
Then you start to think of how each magnificent peach you eat was once a small seed. That seed was then, with the help of nature, grown into a tree on a farm, the very peach in your hand was picked by a farmer, and lovingly brought to your local food co-op, or farmer’s market. Then you happened to buy that very peach from that very farmer. Then you brought it home, washed it off, and got to enjoy it’s soft fuzzy flesh and deliciously juicy insides while it nourished your body. You get to appreciate the entire process. That’s conscious eating.
Try doing that with a box of cereal, or [popular brand name] candy bar. First you have to read the ingredients (good luck), then know how those were harvested (or shall we say created), try and appreciate the metal machines and conveyor belts that help put it all together with little to no human interaction, then try and taste each individual ingredient as a flavor or texture… it’s just not the same is it?

Truly being aware of your food/ingredient intake and giving thanks to those that bring it to you in every step of the way and those who prepare it for you brings you in touch with your food and makes you more aware. Our connection with food - our body’s fuel - has been lost over the years, and it brings deeper enjoyment to give thanks to that connection with every bite. I’ve come to greatly enjoy and cherish that connection. Plus since raw food is unprocessed, it has the most nutrition availability possible. It is the most nutritionally dense food available.

Another big factor is that living food is high vibrational food. If you’re following a spiritual path and/or consciously trying to raise your vibration, you can greatly aid the process by consuming high vibe raw foods.

Now every meal I eat is the best meal ever, every bite I take is the best bite ever, and I give thanks to all those who make it possible for me to nourish my body with such enjoyment.

Recommended raw food links and resources:

We Like it Raw - Entertaining News in Blog format and Community.
GoneRaw - For recipes and community.
Living-Foods.com - For lots of recipes and more.
Our favorite Rad Raw Recipes

Raw Food Pictures on Picasa - on Flickr
Raw Food videos on YouTube - on Google Video

David Wolfe’s Sunfood Nutrition - Buy raw super foods to be most efficient.

Organic Raw Chocolate - Taste why raw chocolate is an awesome super food.

Raw Family - The awesome Boutenko family that really inspires us.
The Garden Diet - Another awe inspiring raw vegan family.

October 7, 2008

The Religious Step in my Journey

Author: sean - Categories: My Journey - Tags: , ,

As I’ve now had time to look back upon which events in my life have made solid stepping stones for my conscious evolution I must include the involvement of Organized Religion, specifically, Christianity and how it helped shed light into my life.

A brief background on my religious past:
None. :) No, I’m kidding. Growing up, church just wasn’t something our family did. No big deal. We didn’t look down upon it, nor did we feel uncomfortable that we weren’t attending. Later in life I asked my Mom why and she said we tried out a few, but never really felt welcomed, or that we fit in. I believe these were all Christian based churches. As I got older (teen years) I always had a vague sense there was a God, but never interested enough to do any of my own research (book wise or introspectively). I only attended church if I was with a friend’s family for the weekend or on a rare holiday. We only said grace at the table when it was Thanksgiving and we were at Grandma’s house. I was basically only versed in what was shown to me on through popular culture and took it at face value. I also had a hunch Eastern religions had some truth to them as well, so I was turned off to the idea of having to make a decision on which religion to start believing in.

Fast forward to about 1999 through 2006 I started to attend church every now and then when my partner got the itch and I wanted to be supportive, plus I was genuinely curious how things went down. (I didn’t know it too well then, but I was longing for a connection as well.) I felt a little uncomfortable going to church still, but not enough to make me stay home. There always seemed to be something (a way of thought, ideas about life, etc.) to disagree with/didn’t resonate with us when we went to a new church.

Jesus Loves Everyone

The real stepping stone was when we found a nearby church to our new home that accepted ALL people. It was a Christian church (Disciples of Christ) that accepted and embraced ALL people. We were amazed and actually felt comfortable attending. I was able to let my guard down, as they spoke of Jesus’ love for all and how He invited everyone to His table.

That was very powerful for me. I resonated with that idea very much. I then realized my vision of God was someone who loved all, for we are all His creation. This also resonated with my thoughts on some Eastern religions and how they seemed to embraced all beings.

I actually attended on a regular basis for over a year. I even volunteered and attended special events (that’s a long way from not going to church at all). It was at this Christianity based church where I learned and became comfortable with the idea of giving thanks for everything, what role worship played in life, how everyone can be included in your ideas of faith, and how much love is the core of so many things in life.

I feel this place helped me water and nurture the seed of Love inside me so that I could grow it into a beaming light inside and eventually have it overflow for everyone to see and feel. The atmosphere there made me comfortable enough, to think and talk things over with my partner so we could both grow spiritually. It gave me some solid ground to walk on, experiment with new ideas, and expand my consciousness.

This is why I give thanks to my awesome local church, to Jesus, his teachings and acceptance of ALL, and to God, true source, our divine creator.

Thanks for reading and I hope, through my sharing, you too can find the Love inside you to share with everyone.

September 10, 2008

A Turning Point in my Journey

Author: sean - Categories: My Journey - Tags: , , , ,

I’m going to start documenting some really great information I’ve come across that has influenced me through my journey in life. A big part of, or perhaps just the beginning, was one lecture by Ian X. Lungold made in 2005. I didn’t view it until around Summer of 2008.

I’m not sure how we came upon these videos (one lecture), but I know after watching them we were compelled to search out more answers. I can see now that we were ready for the information, because I don’t think this info would have resonated so well with us if we found it just a few years, or even months earlier. Timing is so perfect when you get to look back on it.

These videos are from MayanMajix.com; found in the Learning Lab under 2005 - The Mayan Calendar: The Evolution Continues. DVD part 1 and part 2.

Part 1:

Part 2:

These are long-ish I know, but crammed full of so much info, you’ll want to watch twice. This makes much more sense than the Dooms Day hype TV focuses on.

What I really liked about this lecture was his presentation, keeping it simple yet deep, and the message of paying attention, having intention, and living it out with integrity. As well as the ultimate graph/scale of the evolution of consciousness showing where we’ve been, how the patterns match up so well, and where we are headed. I’m a sucker for earth sign based logic and graphs.

I will be posting other info I’ve come across that have resonated really well with me and definitely broadened my views and opened up a new world for me to explore. This will be my documentation of my transfer from focus on outer technology to inner technology. Hopefully this can inspire others as well.

Thanks for coming by.