Happy New Year 2013!

I mention in "Flipside" how the Tibetan meditation of Tonglen has proven effective in treating depression (Richard Davidson, U of W).

Here's a description of it from Pema Chodren from her book "Tonglen: The Path of Transformation." Practicing it affects the amygdala, source of depression in the brain. By opening your heart to others, you heal yourself.

Happy New Year in Malibu

Worth sharing: http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/tonglen.htm

Here's an excerpt:


TONGLEN IN DAILY LIFE 

BY PEMA CHÖDRÖN

The following is an excerpt from Tonglen: The Path of Transformation, by Pema Chödrön, Vajradhatu Publications.

The everyday practice is simply to develop a complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions, and to all people, experiencing everything totally without mental reservations and blockages, so that one never withdraws or centralizes onto oneself.
-Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Chapter 1

TONGLEN IN DAILY LIFE
All sentient beings without exception have bodhichitta, which is the inherent tenderness of the heart, its natural tendency to love and care for others. But over time, in order to shield ourselves from feeling pain and discomfort, we have erected solid barriers that cover up our tenderness and vulnerability. As a result, we often experience alienation, anger, aggression, and a loss of meaning in our lives--both individually and on a global scale. Somehow, in the pursuit of happiness, we have unwittingly created greater suffering for ourselves.
Tonglen, or the practice of sending and taking, reverses this process of hardening and shutting down by cultivating love and compassion. In tonglen practice, instead of running from pain and discomfort, we acknowledge them and own them fully. Instead of dwelling on our own problems, we put ourselves in other people's shoes and appreciate our shared humanity. Then the barriers start to dissolve, our hearts and minds begin to open.
Before presenting the formal practice of tonglen, I would like to discuss a few ways that you can begin to incorporate the tonglen outlook into your daily life. After all, how you lead your life-- with maitri and compassion for both yourself and others--is really the point. What's more, if you train in the outlook on a daily basis, you will find that the formal practice comes much more naturally.
Trungpa Rinpoche used to tell his students to live their lives as an experiment. In other words, be inquisitive, be open and without expectations, then see what happens and learn from your experience. For this reason, I often suggest that students chose a limited amount of time--say, three months or a year--to work with the tonglen approach, just to see how it affects their lives. But don't think that you will be able to perfect the practice in such a short time. Tonglen is really a practice for the rest of your life.

Sitting Meditation
Practicing sitting meditation, or shamatha-vipashyana, a little bit every day is a good way to start training in the tonglen attitude. It's a way of checking in with your state of mind, like holding up a mirror to yourself. Sitting cultivates both absolute and relative bodhichitta. As an absolute bodhichitta practice, it teaches us not to grasp at thoughts and emotions as solid. As a relative bodhichitta practice, it teaches us maitri and compassion for ourselves.
In general, it's not a good idea to start doing the formal tonglen practice until you have a good grounding in sitting meditation. You especially need to cultivate steadfastness, the courage and patience to sit with whatever arises during meditation. Otherwise, you might be knocked off your cushion by the emotions that tonglen provokes. For that reason, it is always suggested that you begin and end with sitting meditation whenever you do tonglen.
Even if you're not on a cushion or in the meditation hall, you can experiment with the practice of mindfulness and awareness. You can use it as a tool to get in touch with what you are feeling in the present moment. For example, sometimes when I am alone or find myself in a quiet setting--taking a walk in the woods, gazing out my cabin window, or sitting on a bench by the ocean--I let go of my thoughts and try to see what lies underneath them.
Actually, this is the essence of mindfulness practice: always coming back to the immediacy of your present experience and letting go of thoughts and judgements about it. You will probably discover there is something that remains after you drop the thoughts and the story lines. What's left is the immediacy of the sense perceptions--sight, smell, touch, and so on--as well as a feeling or mood.
For example, perhaps the feeling underneath your thoughts is self-hatred. Consequently, when thoughts begin to bubble up, they sound like "bad, bad; good, good; should, shouldn't." When you become aware of such thoughts, you just let them go and come back to the immediacy of your experience. This in itself is the practice of maitri, or making friends with yourself.
Making Aspirations
I am a big fan of making aspirations. I think they are very helpful on our path, because they help us to stay in touch with our motivation to develop bodhichitta. The lojong slogan, "Two activities: one at the beginning, one at the end," suggests beginning and ending each day by reaffirming your motivation to dissolve barriers, to open your heart, and to reach out to people. When you wake up in the morning and go to bed at night, you could make an aspiration. You could use your own words or repeat a traditional aspiration, such as the Four Limitless Ones or the Bodhisattva Vow. (Refer to the "Daily Chants" section on p. 124.)
Sometimes you may feel that the formal practice of tonglen is too much for you. In that case, you could simply make the aspiration: "One day may I be able to open my heart a little more than I can today." With this approach, there is no blame or self-recrimination. There is just a sincere wish to grow.
Equality Practice
Equality practice is a way of connecting with others and realizing that you and they are in the same boat. It is a simple human truth that everyone, just like you, wants to be happy and to avoid suffering. Just like you, everyone else wants to have friends, to be accepted and loved, to be respected and valued for their unique qualities, to be healthy and to feel comfortable with themselves. Just like you, no one else wants to be friendless and alone, to be looked down upon by others, to be sick, to feel inadequate and depressed.
The equality practice is simply to remember this fact whenever you meet another person. You think, "Just like me, she wants to be happy; she doesn't want to suffer." You might choose to practice this for a whole day, or maybe for just an hour or fifteen minutes. I really appreciate this practice, because it lifts the barrier of indifference to other people's joy, to their private pain, and to their wonderful uniqueness.
In The Way of the Bodhisattva, the great Indian teacher and poet Shantideva stresses the importance of meditating on the equality of self and others in this way:

Strive at first to meditate
Upon the sameness of yourself and others.
In joy and sorrow all are equal.
Thus be guardian of all, as of yourself.

Jeffrey Hopkins, the Dalai Lama's translator for ten years, tells a story about travelling with him in the West. Wherever he went, His Holiness would repeat in English, "Everyone wants happiness, doesn't want suffering." He would go to an airport or a lecture hall or a news conference and say, "Everyone wants happiness, doesn't want suffering." At first Jeffrey thought, "Why does he keep saying this?" because it seemed so simplistic and ordinary. But after a while the message began to sink in, and he thought, "Yes, I need that!" It is simple, but it is also profoundly true, and it was exactly the kind of teaching he needed to hear.
At first, this practice might seem commonplace or shallow to you. But believe me, it's a real eye-opener. It humbles us, because it shines a spotlight on our habit of thinking that we are the center of the world. When we acknowledge our shared humanity with another person, we connect with them in a surprisingly intimate way. They become like family to us, and this helps dissolve our isolation and aloneness.
Sharing Your Heart
The practice of sharing your heart is twofold: sharing happiness and accepting pain. For the first, when anything is delightful in your life, you wish that other people could share it. For the second, when you feel any sense of suffering, you think that many other people are also suffering and you wish that they could be free from it. This is the very essence of the tonglen outlook: when things are pleasant, think of others; when things are painful, think of others. If this practice is the only thing you remember after reading this book, it will benefit you and everyone you come in contact with.
Sharing Happiness
When you experience any kind of pleasure or well-being in your life--appreciating a bright spring day, a good meal, a cute baby animal, or a nice hot shower--notice it and cherish it. Such simple pleasures can bring us a lot of joy, tenderness, and a sense of relief. We have many of these fleeting golden moments in our life, but we usually speed right past them. So the first part of the practice is just to stop, notice, and fully appreciate them. Next, you make the wish that other people could also enjoy them. As you do this practice more, you will probably find yourself noticing these moments of happiness and contentment more and more.
When you practice giving in this way, you don't bypass your own pleasure or enjoyment. Say you're eating a bowl of delicious strawberries. You don't think, "Oh, I shouldn't really be enjoying these so much. Think of all the other people who don't even have a piece of bread to eat." Instead, you should think, "Wow! This is a fantastic strawberry. I've never tasted anything so delicious." You can enjoy your strawberry thoroughly. But then you think, "I wish everyone could enjoy this, I hope that they will have a chance to enjoy this too."
You could also think of a personal possession that gives you a lot of pleasure, such as your favorite sweater or your favorite tie, then imagine giving it away to people you meet. This practice isn't about actually giving anything away, because you are working at the level of imagination. But it puts you in touch with your habit of grasping, shutting down, and not wanting to share things with others. In the process, you develop confidence in your own inherent richness, that fact that you always have a lot to give others.
Treya Wilbur described this kind of giving practice in the book Grace and Grit, which is about her battle with terminal cancer. She had already been doing tonglen for a long time. One day she lost a gold star necklace that her parents had given her, which was like a good-luck charm because she had worn it through all her most difficult times, chemotherapy and operations. When she couldn't find it anywhere, it seemed like a bad omen and she became depressed. But based on her experience of tonglen, she suddenly got the idea of visualizing millions of these stars and giving them away to benefit everyone she met. During the process of practicing in this way, she became acutely aware of her habitual patterns of desire, attachment, and clinging, and she began to give away anything for which she felt a momentary attachment. This didn't always help her to overcome her clinging, but through this work she developed compassion for everyone else like her who had good intentions but couldn't quite live up to them. Through this practice that she discovered through her own insight, she was able to get over losing the star and, most importantly, learned the joy of dropping attachment and giving to others.
Accepting Pain
The second part of the practice is somewhat more advanced. So don't try it unless you feel comfortable with the idea. First you notice when you experience something that is uncomfortable, painful, or unpleasant. Then you make the wish that other people could be completely free of it and imagine sending them whatever you think would bring relief.
For example, if you start to feel depressed, you say to yourself, "Since I'm feeling depressed anyway, may I accept it fully so that other people can be free of it." Or, "Since I have a toothache anyway, may I accept it completely so that other people may be free of it." Then send them a sense of relief. Just do it very simply, without worrying too much about the logic. For many people, this kind of exchange will seem like too much, too soon. But I present it anyway, because I have personally found it very empowering. It turns around the revulsion and paranoia that we normally feel about anything unpleasant, the feeling that we are the target, and we use it as fuel for awakening the heart.
"Traffic jam tonglen" is a specific instance of this practice. It's about working with all the uncomfortable feelings that you experience when you are stuck in a traffic jam, or perhaps in a very long line at the market: anger, resentment, restlessness, uptightness, fear of missing an appointment. First you look around and realize that all the other people stuck in the jam are feeling the same way you do. Then you breathe in fully whatever you are feeling and send out a sense of relaxation and relief, both for yourself and all the other people in the traffic jam. You realize that, as human beings, you are all in the same boat. Everyone is putting up barriers and using the discomfort of the traffic jam to feel more and more isolated. So you turn the situation around, and it becomes your link with all the other people stuck in their cars. Suddenly, as you look out the window at them, they all become human beings.
Tonglen On the Spot
This practice is really the essence of the tonglen approach. Because I have found it very helpful for myself, I like to recommend it to all my students. Even if you choose not to do the formal tonglen practice, you can always do this on-the-spot practice. Once you get used to it and practice it regularly, it will make formal tonglen practice more real and meaningful to you.
This is a practice that you can do for a real-life situation you meet in daily life. Whenever you meet a situation that awakens your compassion or that is painful and difficult for you, you can stop for a moment, breathe in any suffering that you see, and breathe out a sense of relief. It is a simple and direct process. Unlike the formal practice, it does not involve any visualizations or steps. It's a simple and natural exchange: you see suffering, you take it in with the inbreath, you send out relief with the outbreath.
For example, you might be in the supermarket and see a mother slapping her little girl. It is painful for you to see, but there is really nothing you can say or do at that moment. Your first reaction might be to turn away out of fear and try to forget it. But in this practice, instead of turning away, you could actually start to do tonglen for the little girl who is crying and also for the angry mother who has reached the end of her rope. You can send out a general sense of relaxation and openness or something specific, like a hug or a kind word, or whatever feels right to you at the moment. It's not all that conceptual; it's almost spontaneous. When you contact a painful situation in this way and stay with it, it can open up your heart and become the source of compassion.
You can do tonglen on the spot when strong emotions come up and you don't know what to do with them. For example, you might be having a painful argument with your spouse or your boss at work. They are yelling at you and you don't know how to react. So you can start to breathe in the painful feelings and send out a sense of spaciousness and relaxation with the outbreath--for yourself, for the person who is yelling at you, and for all the other people who are dealing with a similar difficult situation. Of course, at some point you have to react to the person who is yelling at you but, by introducing some space and warmth into the situation, you will probably deal with it more skillfully.
You can also do this practice when you feel some blockage to opening and developing compassion. For example, you see a homeless person on the street who is asking you for money and seems to be an alcoholic. In spite of your desire to be compassionate, you can't help but turn away and feel disgust or resentment. At that point, you can start doing tonglen for yourself and all the other people who want to be open but are basically shut down. You breathe in the feeling of shut-downness, your own and everybody else's. Then you send out a sense of space or relaxation or letting go. When you feel blocked, that's not an obstacle to tonglen; it's part of the practice. You work with what feels like blockage as the seed of awakening your heart and as connection with other people.
Tonglen On the Street
This practice is to walk down the street, perhaps for just one or two blocks, with the intention of staying as open as possible to whoever you meet. It is a training in being more emotionally honest with yourself and being more emotionally available to others. As you are walking, you could relax your posture and have the feeling that the area of your heart and chest is open. As you pass people, you might even feel a subtle connection between their heart and yours, as if the two of you were linked by an invisible cord. You could think to yourself, "May you be happy," as you pass them. The main point is to feel a sense of interconnectedness with all the people you meet.
If you are feeling somewhat exposed and embarrassed by doing the practice, just acknowledge it and realize that other people are probably feeling the same way. You may notice how people glance briefly at you as they approach--usually at a safe distance, so it isn't obvious--in an automatic gesture of reaching out. Perhaps they are looking for someone who would be friendly to them and say hello, someone they could genuinely connect with. Sound familiar?
As you encounter each person, acknowledge your thoughts and emotional reactions toward them. Notice if you feel a sense of attachment, aversion, or indifference toward the people you pass. But don't add any self-judgement on top of it. You might see someone smiling, which could cheer you up on the spot and make you open further. Or you might see someone looking depressed, which could spark feelings of tenderness and compassion.
Notice when you begin to shut down or open up. But if you do find yourself shutting down, you don't blame yourself. You can simply empathize with all the people who are shutting down in the same way and aspire to be more and more open. Also, if you feel a sense of delight or pleasure on your walk, you could wish to share it with the people you meet.
Stepping Into Others' Shoes
This practice of exchanging yourself with others is presented in Shantideva's The Way of the Bodhisattva. It is more of a contemplation and, unlike tonglen, it isn't synchronized with the in- and outbreath. It can help you open up to, and empathize with, the so-called neutral or indifferent people in your life, as well as those you find really difficult.
First imagine the person you are working with as vividly as possible. Be very inquisitive and spend some time really trying to stand in their shoes and see the world as they do. What do they feel? What do they want? What do they fear? Just taking this much interest in a person can go a long way in developing appreciation and concern for them.
To take it a step further, think that you are them and they are you. You are standing in their shoes and you are now looking at yourself as the other person sees you. How do they see you? As just a neutral person, as a potential friend, as an enemy, as an arrogant person, as a warm person? What would they like for you to give them: a hug, an encouraging word, an open and attentive ear, appreciation for their intelligence and their talents, an apology, forgiveness?
By trading places, you discover that what the other person wants is pretty much the same as what you want. In that way, you are equals. Perhaps you also discover that you have never really seen them or heard them before, that you haven't appreciated them or treated them fairly. Based on this new understanding, you may open to them more the next time you see them.

The above is an excerpt from Tonglen: The Path of Transformation, by Pema Chödrön, Vajradhatu Publications. For further information about Vajradhatu Publications and a catalogue of dharma books, videos, and audio tapes.

The events in Newton, Connecticut

I've been doing research on what people say under deep hypnosis about the afterlife - and the between lives realm.  It's based on the extensive work of Michael Newton, who gave his lifetime to this research.  Over 7000 people have said basically the same things about the process, about the journey, about what and how and why we show up on the planet.

I started filming people under deep hypnosis that I chose - people I knew who were skeptical, or who had never heard of Michael Newton.  They all had the same results.  I've published that in my book "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" and in my documentary "Flipside: a Journey into the Afterlife."

When tragedy strikes, as it did in Newton this past week, it's difficult to try to put anything into perspective.  We are all suffering as a result of this tragedy.  My children have a teacher who knew the principal - so I have the extra benefit of hearing about how wonderful and bright and captivating she was.  I have also wept at the stories of individual courage and fearlessness... but I wanted to say a few words of solace.

Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung

I ran across this message on the internet this morning, it comes from "Matthew's Messages" - Matthew is a young man who passed away a few years ago, but has been able to keep in touch with his mom.

He weighs in on the tragedy, and all I can say is that it's pretty much what people say from the spirit realm about why tragedies occur.  I might add that whether one believes that Matthew is talking to his mom is beside the point - what he says (or what her subconscious is saying) is identical to what thousands under deep hypnosis have said about why tragedies occur.  Here's an excerpt from her blog "Matthew's Messages"


"Their soul level agreement to participate in their respective roles was for the higher good of all humankind, and the participants who are in Nirvana (Note: "between lives realm") are rejoicing about the agreement’s success. The massacre’s profound message, now ingrained in the collective consciousness, is that the human heart and mind no longer can be inured to killing, killing, killing, no longer is humankind willing to endure it! The shock and grief in Newtown, Connecticut, shook the world and unified people in an outpouring of prayer for everyone affected by the tragedy. 

Matthew

For many years the abhorrence of similar inexplicable acts of violence has been registering with increasing strength in the collective consciousness. A powerful occurrence—the shooting of those youngsters in school—was needed to solidify the collective desire into the intention to end senseless killings everywhere. And the intensity of high vibrations that are affecting everyone in your world is expanding that intention to include all preventable deaths—international wars, genocide, “legal” execution, and starvation and disease in the impoverished populace."

There are some predictions of future events, and an ultimate reason for why and how - I add a note of caution that no particular individual can predict the future, even our spirit guides, as after all, they aren't all knowing or infallible. However when they communicate with us, it's from a place of higher knowledge - people have free will and can screw up the future at any time. But in terms of the "why" of some events occur, it's quite similar to my research.

It's not that "Karma" is involved - "The law of karma" as its been translated (sanskrit: action) doesn't seem to apply to the research that Michael Newton has done regarding between lives. It's been translated as reincarnation is dictated by past actions, and free will has nothing to do with who and what we are. If you read Michael Newton's research, his accounts of what thousands say under deep hypnosis about the afterlife, we find there are a myriad of reasons for why someone might choose a difficult lifetime - and those reasons are thought out in advance. So there is free will involved - people choose lifetimes to examine a myriad of issues, many that are extremely difficult to conceptualize or examine from a learning perspective. But that's what the research shows. We don't suffer as a result of something we did in a past life - rather out of compassion, love, caring - we choose difficult lives to help other people.

Again - I think we all have to translate whatever messages come from spirit into our own consciousness - but in essence, he's saying that the event was planned so that others can benefit from their sacrifice. That gun laws will be passed, that mental illness issues will be addressed, and that many more lives will be saved as a result of this selfless act.

In terms of the gun laws issue: it's about gun safety, not control.  We have a myriad of laws that protect us in the workplace, at home, we need to craft laws that prevents certain kinds of weapons from coming into the marketplace (as they did with plastic guns) and we need to examine how people can obtain permits for what kinds of weapons. We need to address these issues whether or not the gun makers want us to.

In terms of mental illness, nearly all of these incidents from Columbine to Aurora include an SSRI drug element.  These drugs are being used, prescribed, to medicate depression, mental illness - and the end result (according to a Doctor I know, 15% of the population can't tolerate them because of an enzyme issue, and there's a simple test to measure for that enzyme) - is suicide or mass shooting, or some other psychic break.  it's not just video games and culture of violence - we have kids whose brains have been altered by these drugs, and as a result they can't help but commit these acts of violence.  (The film director Tony Scott was taking an SSRI drug when he suddenly decided to kill himself.)  We have to address this issues whether or not the drug makers want us to.

Here's testimony given before Congress by a victim of Columbine in 2004:

Mark Taylor and his book re: Columbine

Mark Taylor'stestimony before the FDA 9/13/2004

"I am Mark Allen Taylor and I am a victim of the SSRI antidepressant era. I took six to thirteen bullets in the heart area in the Columbine High School shooting when Eric Harris on Luvox opened fire that now infamous day. They almost had to amputate my leg and my arm. My heart missed by only one millimeter. I had three surgeries. Five years later I am still recuperating. I went through all this to realize that SSRI antidepressants are dangerous for those who take them and for all those who associate with those who take them.

I hope that my testimony today shows you that you need to take action immediately before more innocent people like me, and you, do not get hurt or die horrible deaths as a result. As Americans we should have the right to feel safe and if you were doing your job we would be safe. Why are we worrying about terrorists in other countries when the pharmaceutical companies have proven to be our biggest terrorists by releasing these drugs on an unsuspecting public?

How are we suppose to feel safe at school, at home, on the street, at church or anywhere else if we cannot trust the FDA to do what we are paying you to do? Where were you when I and all of my classmates got shot at Columbine?

You say that antidepressants are effective. So why did they not help Eric Harris before he shot me?
According to Eric they "helped" him to feel homicidal and suicidal after only six weeks on Zoloft. And then he said that dropping off Luvox cold turkey would help him "fuel the rage" he needed to shoot everyone. But he continued on Luvox and shot us all anyway. So, why did these so called antidepressants not make him better? I will tell you why. It is because they do not work.We should consider antidepressants to be accomplices to murder."

For a graphic display of how invovled these drugs are, here's a LIST OF SSRI RELATED SHOOTINGS.

Then there's the story of the mom who is dealing with trauma from her son's illness:

Liza Long's Blog

In the story she speaks of how they gave her son SSRI drugs and sent him home.  It's a viscious cycle - we are poisoning our children (with chemicals in our food, in our furniture, in our plastics, who knows what else?), then when they're ill from what we've given them, we give them drugs, and when they act out we give them more drugs.

Richard Davidson's breakthrough research

There are solutions: check into the research or Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin where he's shown that practicing the ancient Tibetan meditation of "Tonglen" can alleviate or end depression.  That "one session alone" can actually change the shape of the amygdala in the subject.  (the locus for depression in the brain).  I attended a lecture he gave at UCLA and the room was filled with psychiatrists trying to find a way to get kids off of SSRI drugs.

Study of depression and meditation

Proof that Tonglen can help alleviate depression

I mention this because there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Just as Matthew said above - there is a reason for these events happening, and it's to help save others from the same fate.  Whether you believe that or not is moot - we have come to a crossroads in our civilization on this planet - and we can choose to move forward to help the rest of humanity, based on their sacrifice.

 No question that this act has brought trauma, heart ache, sadness and horror - but as a selfless act that is a sacrifice to all of humanity - even just to conceive that might be the case - is to really see that we are all connected, all part of source, and that in order to stop senseless killing and violence we have to come together and consider the common good. At the very least we need to honor their sacrifice through action that helps humanity. At least that's my two cents on it.

Flipside: Talks in Virginia Beach and Orange County IANDSA

Here's the Orange County IANDS talk - careful, my hands have seem to be telling a tale of their own. I dedicated this talk to the Near Death Studies group in Orange County to my cousin Matt who passed away last week - and his first word on the planet was "Sunset."

I was invited to speak about "Flipside" in Virginia Beach this summer.  Here are the two clips from the event.  One is at the Edgar Cayce Center A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, speaking to the IANDS (International Association of Near Death Studies) group in Virginia Beach and the other is at the Fellowship of the Light Church in Virginia Beach the next day.

A couple of errata: I mention that I was asked by Charles Grodin to produce his show in NYC; he asked me to come and produce comic segments for the show, not the show itself.  The other is that when I refer to myself in Angelina Jolie's trailer while working on the movie "Salt" it's a metaphor; I was only in her trailer once to take notes for her and the Director of the film, when I refer to it here, it's to describe the variety of work someone does on a film.

That being said one is 90 minutes long with 30 minutes of questions, the other is 30 minutes long and I'm addressing people who had all come to the church to share their prayers and intentions for the health and well being of loved ones - and hence why I shared the "Tonglen" Meditation. This meditation can be found online, it was used by Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin in studies that showed that this form of meditation can help with depression.  Here they are:




And here is the half hour in the Fellowship Church the following day:

Flipside in Virginia Beach

Hi, just got back from a trip to DOPS at the University of Virginia where I got the rare opportunity to speak to some great scientists about the research in "Flipside."  We had a really interesting, lively discussion about the possibility of examining this work from a more scientific point of view - I'm happy to say they were open to what I was saying - even though it's not in the scientific lexicon to use hypnosis as a form of investigation - but we discussed possible ways it might be able to be studied in the future.

Then I was able to speak to the Virginia Beach IANDS group (International Near Death Studies group) at the Edgar Cayce institute A.R.E. about "Flipside" - a two hour chat that was videotaped and will be available asap.  In the afternoon we screened the documentary and spoke about it for quite some time.

For those of you not familiar with Virginia Beach, it's the only place I've ever been where people speak about past lives, and spiritual journeys in the same breath they speak of the weather.  It's an amazing group of really interesting people who've had some really interesting experiences - I was invited to a pot luck dinner and the conversation went from a gentleman who remembered a past life where he was murdered on a slave ship to a person who had a Near Death experience that changed her life, to a woman whose son had passed away the week before and he had appeared to her just afterwards to say "stop crying mom, I'm ok, I'm fine."

They invited me to their fellowship meeting on Sunday morning where they shared prayers and songs and wishes of good hope, and I spoke for a half an hour about practical methods to deal with helping people in spiritual need, talking about the Tibetan meditations - "the Jewel Tree of Tibet" as it was taught to me by Tenzin Robert Thurman, and "Tonglen" as it has been studied by Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin, where he's used science to prove it to be an effective antidote for depression.

If you enlarge you'll see odd "orbs" on my head that are in many
 pix from this event. I think I know what they are, I mention them in "Flipside"
but never saw any pix of myself with them floating about. (Pic: Dick Dinges) 

Here's a letter of recommendation that was forwarded along to me - in case someone would like me to come and speak about "Flipside" wherever you are....

I am the President of Virginia Beach Friends of IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies). Our group hosts speakers who have had transformational experiences, and we present them once a month to an average audience of around 50 people at Edgar Cayce's A. R. E. in Virginia Beach, VA.

I have been scheduling speakers for the last several years.This past Saturday, Sept. 1, Rich Martini of Santa Monica, CA was our speaker, and he was wonderful. His topic was perfect for us, and his delivery was exciting. One of our Board members, Jeff, told me that Rich was the best speaker we have had so far. I can't think of anyone I enjoyed more.

Rich lost a friend to death, and wanted to be in touch with her if he could. His path led him to be regressed in the manner Dr. Michael Newton taught. Rich went into his regression as a skeptic, but came away convinced that what he experienced was real and true. He saw his friend. After that he interviewed Dr. Michael Newton. He filmed many regressions and interviewed many people on their experiences. Now his passion is to tell what he has learned. This is what he feels is the purpose of his life

Rich tells his story in his book, FLIPSIDE: A TOURIST'S GUIDE ON HOW TO NAVIGATE THE AFTERLIFE, and documentary movie of the same name.

I am writing not only to recommend a speaker who has become a friend, but also to promote what I feel is the new perspective on the meaning of our lives. (I write this as an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ who taught from the Bible for most of my 26 years of pastoral ministry.) This is how I understand it. Our lives on Earth are dramas we create together in our soul groups in the spiritual realm. We write the parts, we put on the human costumes, and we live out the dramas. Then our physical bodies die and we return to spirit to find among other things that the villains in our dramas were really only other actors in our soul group. Then we work with our Guides and group to create a new drama for fun and growth in our capacity to love.

There is no fear in this perspective. There is no division. We are all part of the Oneness. We have unlimited opportunities to experience all the facets of life. That's what thousands of people say after having been regressed. What a message for the world! I want to help promote that message. That's why I am recommending Rich Martini .

Rich speaks spontaneously and enthusiastically. He has a hundred stories to tell and he doesn't need any notes. He speaks with humor and expressive body language. Finally, let me describe one incident that Rich reported in his talk. Rich was observing a regression. The subject asked his Guide, "What is God?" The Guide answered. "God is greater than the human mind can comprehend. But God can be experienced by opening up to everyone and every thing."

Dick Dinges, Virginia Beach

Rich Martini

SEPTEMBER 1: Saturday morning from 10:00-12:00 p.m., at Edgar Cayce's A.R.E.

From 10 – noon Mr. Martini will describe his after-death communication (ADC) with his close friend, actress Luana Anders, which started him on an exploration to understand where we go when we die. That exploration led Rich to the work of Michael Newton, to meeting Dr. Newton, and to his own profound past-life and life-between-life regression. During that session, which was filmed, Rich recognized his present family members and came to understand the role they play in his life today. Suggested donation at the door is $5.

From 2:30 – 4:30 Mr. Martini will present his documentary film, “FLIPSIDE: A TOURIST’S GUIDE ON HOW TO NAVIGATE THE AFTERLIFE,” which goes hand-in-hand with his book of the same name. Admission is $10. Refer to www.vbiands.com for complete information, and Contact Dick Dinges at (757) 575-2759.

In the film, Mr. Martini explores startling new evidence for life after death by documenting the life-between-lives experience. Based on the evidence of thousands of such regressions, we learn that after physical death we return to be with our loved ones, soul mates, and spiritual teachers, and together with them we choose how and when we will reincarnate. The movie and book present interviews with hypnotherapists trained in the method pioneered by Dr. Michael Newton, as well as actual between-life sessions, including Rich Martini’s own session.

Death by Prozac: curing yourself from depression via Tibetan meditation

FROM THE BBC.CO.UK WEBSITE:

Anti-depressants' 'little effect'

Anti-depressant prescription rates have soared

New generation anti-depressants have little clinical benefit for most patients, research suggests.

A University of Hull team concluded the drugs actively help only a small group of the most severely depressed.

Marjorie Wallace, head of the mental health charity Sane, said that if these results were confirmed they could be "very disturbing".

But the makers of Prozac and Seroxat, two of the commonest anti-depressants, said they disagreed with the findings.

A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Seroxat, said the study only looked at a "small subset of the total data available".

Reviewed data

And Eli Lilly, which makes Prozac, said that "extensive scientific and medical experience has demonstrated it is an effective anti-depressant".

There seems little reason to prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients Professor Irving Kirsch University of Hull Q&A: Anti-depressant study Popularity of 'happy pills'

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, has announced that 3,600 therapists are to be trained during the next three years in England to increase patient access to talking therapies, which ministers see as a better alternative to drugs.

Patients are strongly advised not to stop taking their medication without first consulting a doctor.

The researchers accept many people believe the drugs do work for them, but argue that could be a placebo effect - people feel better simply because they are taking a medication which they think will help them.

In total, the Hull team, who published their findings in the journal PLoS Medicine, reviewed data on 47 clinical trials.

They reviewed published clinical trial data, and unpublished data secured under Freedom of Information legislation.

They focused on drugs which work by increasing levels of the mood controlling chemical serotonin in the brain.

These included fluoxetine (Prozac) and paroxetine (Seroxat), from the class known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), alongside another similar drug called venlafaxine (Efexor) - all commonly prescribed in the UK.

The number of prescriptions for anti-depressants hit a record high of more than 31 million in England in 2006 - even though official guidance stresses they should not be a first line treatment for mild depression.

There were 16.2m prescriptions for SSRIs alone.

The researchers found that the drugs did have a positive impact on people with mild depression - but the effect was no bigger than that achieved by giving patients a sugar-coated "dummy" pill.

People with severe symptoms appeared to gain more clear-cut benefit - but this might be more down to the fact that they were less likely to respond to the placebo pill, rather than to respond positively to the drugs.

Lead researcher Professor Irving Kirsch said: "The difference in improvement between patients taking placebos and patients taking anti-depressants is not very great.

"This means that depressed people can improve without chemical treatments.

"Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit."

Professor Kirsch said the findings called into question the current system of reporting drug trials.

Reviewing guidance

Dr Tim Kendall, deputy director of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Unit, has published research concluding that drug companies tend only to publish research which shows their products in a good light.

These medicines have been licensed by a number of regulatory authorities around the world, who looking at all the evidence, have determined that they do work better than placebo Dr Richard Tiner Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Readers' experiences

He said the Hull findings undermined confidence in the ability to draw meaningful conclusions about the merit of drugs based on published data alone.

He called for drug companies to be forced to publish all their data.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently reviewing its guidance on the use of antidepressants.

Marjorie Wallace of Sane commented: "If these results were upheld in further studies, they would be very disturbing.

"The newer anti-depressants were the great hope for the future.... These findings could remove what has been seen as a vital choice for thousands in treating what can be a life-threatening condition."

Dr Andrew McCulloch, of the Mental Health Foundation, said: "We have become vastly over-reliant on antidepressants when there is a range of alternatives.

"Talking therapies, exercise referral and other treatments are effective for depression.

"It is a problem that needs a variety of approaches matched to the individual patient."

Dr Richard Tiner, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said there was no doubt that there was a "considerable placebo effect" from anti-depressants when treating people with mild to moderate symptoms.

But he said no medicine would get a licence without demonstrating it was better than a placebo.

Dr Tiner said: "These medicines have been licensed by a number of regulatory authorities around the world, who looking at all the evidence, have determined that they do work better than placebo."

Some years ago I met this Swiss filmmaker in Moscow. She was there with her husband's film at the film festival, and was in mourning because he'd just killed himself. I asked what she thought happened. She said "I don't know - he was happy, ready to come to this festival, and he went to his doctor because he was exhausted, and he gave him some pills and the next thing I know he kills himself." I asked if the pills were Prozac. She said yes.

I told her about another friend, in Italy near my ancestral home town in Cadore. This guy was in his 60's, a happy go lucky fella who didn't have a care in the world. He told his doc he was tired, and needed something to help him sleep. Same story. Started taking Prozac, killed himself.

Most people don't know that Congress had hearings to try and figure out why so many people were killing themselves after taking psychotropic drugs. The results? Zippo. Inconclusive. Hard to prove someone didn't want to kill themselves.

Look at most of the gun shootings in high schools and you'll find psychotropic drugs were involved with the students (Columbine included) Here's the deal as I see it:

We have a fight or flight part of our brain that keeps us on the planet. When you're driving down the street, you don't turn into oncoming traffic because of this modulator in your head. I once did a series of interviews with severely depressed people, one of whom described walking "around the planet, trying to figure out ways to kill himself." This part of his brain was malfunctioning - telling him to kill himself instead of to protect himself.

Apparently, up to 10% of the people who take psychotropic drugs have a 'side effect' which disrupts this mechanism in the brain. So.. they stop having the ability to feel happy or sad, because they're being modulated, and they lose the ability to tell the difference between their inner and outer worlds - if they feel rage, but have no outlet for it, it can translate into 'let's pick up a gun' or 'let's kill ourselves.' Or as I call it "Death by Prozac."

When history looks back on this era, it's going to be the time of the drugs which altered people's psyches. I'm not a fan of Scientology, I firmly believe that it's a fantasy religion created from L. Ron Hubbard's psyche, and has no more roots in reality than Joseph Smith did. (I also believe they probably had similar psychic experiences that influenced them profoundly, but that's a topic for another time). However, the Scientologists, Tom Cruise included, are spot on when they try to point out that psychotropic drugs are bad for you. Where we differ greatly is how to cure depression. I don't think getting clear is the answer, as it's another panacea, and leaves your treatment in someone else's hands. I think the most promising research in the area has been done by Richard Davidson of the Univ of Wisconsin.

(Davidson with HHDL, photo Waisman Center, Univ. of Wisconsin)

I recently attended a conference at UCLA, filled with psychiatrists, who had come to hear Davidson talk about his research into the amygdala, the part of the brain that regulates depression and happiness. And basically, as Time magazine noted, he laid out the skills that people can learn to make themselves happier, less depressed, and drug free. The questions from the audience were from doctors concerned about giving teenagers psychotropic drugs. Davidson's work is profound, and I think should be included in every doctor's bag - even pediatricians. Here's an article from Science Daily a few days ago.

The cure is pretty simple. A Tibetan meditation called "Tonglen." (I know it's Tonglen because I asked him after the lecture which specific Tibetan meditation he asked his subjects to use to get the profound results.) I won't describe the meditation here, because in order to learn it requires a certain amount of skill, education, and perhaps a guided teacher. You don't have to study under the Dalai Lama to learn it, however, it would be better if you sought out a teacher of meditation, a yoga class for example, which can teach the breathing meditation to begin. Once you've mastered ten minutes a day, you could graduate to a next level. However, Davidson did tell me that in his version of the Tonglen meditation, he asked his subjects not to meditate on curing the ills of a particular person, but on the society in general. This note will make sense to those of you who know about Tonglen meditation, and for those who might be depressed and want to learn about it, check out Davidson's work, or Tibetan meditation in particular.

Anyways, if you have a loved one who is depressed, or if you're depressed, I'd think it would be worth trying to figure out a natural method to cure it, before risking that you'd be part of the ten percent who die from this drug use. What have you got to lose?

That's a wrap.