Quantum Life Bodyworks

Quantum Life Podcast - Susun Weed

Quantum Life Studios — 2010-02-18T21:13:59+11:00

In this second instalment of the Quantum Life Podcast, I play a conversation with renowned Herbalist and Author, Susun Weed. Susun has been a popular figure in US Herbalism for many decades, and it was delightful to hear some of her accumulated wisdom garnered in over 40 years of the study of herbs, and teaching what she terms the Wise Woman Way. Susun's Website has a wealth of freely available information and I heartily encourage a visit to www.susunweed.com for anyone interested in learning how to empower, nurture and heal themselves through relationships with plants. My own interest in Susun's work was in part how closely her experience of the necessity to form relationships with plants in a real and embodied fashion matches my own, and indeed the central tenets of Curanderismo and Vegitalismo in South America. Please bear with me in the production of this podcast series. Audio production is something of an art and all of said production, as well as all of the associated web design and maintenance is performed by me with basic resources. This on top of the more immediate work of curing which is my daily responsibility. These podcasts are offered in the spirit of healing, in the hope that they will open, illuminate and inspire. ...The podcast with Susun is offered in mp3 form, as well as Apple's extended podcast format which provides images and links to relevant websites. ...This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License

Quantum Life Podcast - Dr Stephan Beyer Singing to the Plants.

Quantum Life Studios — 2009-10-29T13:52:43+11:00

Last week I spoke with Dr Stephan Beyer, author of Singing to the Plants: A guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon. We spoke for an hour and a half about the themes in his book, and his knowledge of Curanderismo in the Upper Amazon. The conversation for me was an engaging one, although we barely scratched the subject matter in the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading the book, and my discussion with Steve, and would recommend the book to anyone who seeks to understand something of the modern work with the Sacred Teacher Plants in the Upper Amazon. The interview is available to listen to directly below, or as a download here. Podcast This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Teresa - Peruvian Project.org

Quantum Life Studios — 2009-09-01T13:50:58+10:00

I have been recently working with a young woman named Teresa Schroeder. ... In her search for healing she made her way to Peru to meet and work with Dr Laura Pacheco, who had cured her own spinal injury using healing modalities of Peru’s Moche culture. Not only has Teresa moved to Lima, Peru to continue her treatment with Laura, she also makes regular trips to the village of Jenaro Herrera, on the Ucayali river in the Peruvian Amazon to work with the medicinal and teacher plants there. In the course of this work Teresa has begun to learn not only of relationship with the plant medicines, but also with her body’s subtle mechanisms, to realise how emotional, mental and energetic blocks impede physical healing. ...I am continuously amazed at the resources of courage, and capacity to will change in the people with whom I work. Both Lima and the Amazon jungle have their challenges for fit, able bodied visitors. To traverse these realms wheelchair bound, and physically dependent upon the assistance of others requires another degree again of strength and courage. I applaud Teresa in her courage to find other alternatives when the medicinal methods of her native United States had reached the limit of their utility. It is of no surprise to me that she was introduced to me by Lakshmi, who this week returns to Iquitos to continue her own courageous journey. As these things go, she will cross paths with Teresa as she passes through Lima.

Icaros

Quantum Life Studios — 2009-08-27T13:49:13+10:00

In an age of viral media sent moments after it's capture, it was an interesting experience to be engaged in the crafting of a modern radio documentary feature. Over three weeks work in the ABC studios, as well of 100 s of hours of collecting, collating and editing material by Liz and myself. Despite script compromises to allow broadcast in that particular manner, and a name I would not have chosen myself, I am pleased with the end result. I feel most comfortable in oral culture's but I think this piece makes a worthwhile contribution to aural culture, and hope people will continue to find a richness in it which contrasts the banality of much of that which washes through the ever broadening media ocean. When I launched my website some years ago I expressed on the home page "Quantum Life Bodyworks draws on a vast array of technologies, from those of archaic shamanism to hyper-modern media manipulation, manual body therapies and entheogenic ecstasies." This program is another step in that project's realisation, and I am heartened that in the nations where the direct experience of the spirits of the Plant Medicines is prohibited, the spirit of the Plant Medicines can still touch the hearts of the people. Big thanks to Liz Thompson, Robyn Ravlich, Robyn Johnston, and Judy Rapley [amongst many others unnamed] for making this possible. The program is available to stream or to download here. Additionally a number of visual vignettes edited by myself and conceived, directed produced and shot by Liz Thompson and I are here and here available for your viewing pleasure.

Yiriman Project - Sharing our Stories

Quantum Life Studios — 2009-08-21T13:47:41+10:00

These old people were concerned for their young people about issues of self harm and substance abuse, and saw the need for a place where youth could separate themselves from negative influences, and reconnect with their culture in a remote and culturally significant place. Through this reconnection young people would gain strength and resilience, and build positive stories which they could take with them back to their towns and communities." ...Some years ago Simon Coate discussed with me a potential for me to be able to assist that community, and the possibility of a mutual benefit in a meeting with John Watson, who founded Jarlmadagah with his brother Harry Watson in 1987. ...I had been working with award winning author and film maker Liz Thompson on a number of film and radio projects, as well as offering technical and conceptual consultation on a number of her many projects. She offered me employment for a week on her digital story telling project, Sharing Stories, to provide technical support during the course of that projects realisation at Jarlmadangah community. When it became obvious that many of the community leaders, young men and boys would be in country on a Yiriman Project walk, it was determined that I could best serve the interests of all there by participating in the walk and collecting various forms of media to document the event for a proposed film documentary Liz in planning. As there were many members of the Jarlmadangah community present on the camp, there was a good deal of cross over of the two projects and many of the young men enthusiastically documented the event with equipment generously provided by Liz and the Sharing Stories project. ...A huge amount of time and effort is given by many, working with a fraction of the budgets that are thrown at Federal policies of intervention and control, and with a seemingly greater rate of success. It was my great pleasure to meet and sit down with all the people I met in the course of my short time in the Kimberly. ... To all who's names I have not mentioned for lack of information about correct spellings and for any who's names I have spelled incorrectly apologies.

Our perceptual filters shape the world

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-08-29T13:41:00+10:00

David speaks of perceptual filters, references a story told by Wade Davis [who's inspiring TED talk I referenced here] of the cultural and geographical landscape I am currently inhabiting, and articulates an experience with loggers very similar to a historical one of my own. ...Those men knew that they were cutting the trees down in a way that ensured there would be no harvestable timber for future generations of loggers, but they saw the trees as the way to put food on the table day after day and make the house and car payments at the end of the month. Some years ago whilst endeavouring to assist in the halting of an illegal logging operation in Central Victoria's increasingly scant state forest, I was greeted by the sight of an aging but virile, chainsaw wielding logger sprinting towards me with anger and frustration writ clear in his eyes and on his weathered face. ..."Yair mate, ya don't need to tell me we're killin' the forest, we know it. 50 year ago mate we used to look after this forest, I could fell two trees over the river and go down half a mile and drink a glass 'a water outta that stream, clear as crystal it were. ...We are not outside or on top of the web of living things; we are deeply embedded in and utterly dependent on it for our survival and well-being. ...Those that do, I feel have simply forgotten, or been taught by state or religion to see with a perspective too narrow to allow for the effect of their actions upon the web of life and consciousness around them. My experience in working with the Sacred Medicines has consistently shown me the incredible power of these Teacher Plants to show each and every one of us that "we are not outside or on top of the web of living things; we are deeply embedded in and utterly dependent on it for our survival and well-being". If, as Suzuki suggests, "without that understanding, we will continue on our destructive rampage", why, when we have the possibility of learning from teachers who can offer us precisely that understanding, are these plants outlawed in most countries in the world? ...He and his team went to Brazil, where the plant mixture can be taken legally, to study members of a church, the União do Vegetal (UDV), who use ayahuasca as a sacrament, and compared them to a control group that had never ingested the substance. ... Unlike most common anti-depressants, which Grob says can create such high levels of serotonin that cells may actually compensate by losing many of their serotonin receptors, the Hoasca Project showed that ayahuasca strongly enhances the body’s ability to absorb the serotonin that’s naturally there [4].

on Looking for Aliens

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-08-29T13:33:31+10:00

The force of culturally sanctioned ideas is tremendous when it comes to the suppressing of those which do not suit the dominant [and i use the word explicitly] cultural agenda. Subsequent to that posting I came across a talk given by Terrence McKenna at a UFO conference. Whilst it is evident this is not his familiar audience, he makes very clear his position, and speaks very much to this issue of where it is and is not deemed acceptable to look in intellectual endeavours. For those unfamiliar with his work, McKenna was known principally as a spokesperson for the Sacred Mushroom [although he would probably have not used the term] made known to the West by the work of Gordon Wasson, and his meeting with Eva Mendeza, [a pseudonym used to protect, unsucessfully, the privacy of Maria Sabina] a mushroom curandera of Mexico. Terrence McKenna's ideas at the outset may appear particularly outlandish, but over and over he displays such erudition, and lays out his case so reasonably, with such voluminous insight into the history of science and it's methods, that he shows clearly the irrationality of science's position insofar as exploration of contact with other sentience in our biosphere. He remains for me one of the most sensible, interesting and amusing voices of the 20th century and, and although I do not agree with everything he says, I heartily recommend an exploration of his prodigious output if you would care to be delighted by the manner in which the word can stretch and shape previously constricting world views. "Everybody knows this who has to do with this stuff [psilocybin], Gordon Wasson, Richard Shulties, Albert Hofmann, the giants know that this stuff is animate. ... It’s something that’s disguising itself as a drug in order not to spread alarm. ...And expecting to meet an anthropoid-like alien with an interest in your reproductive machinery and gross industrial capacity is as culture-bound a concept as searching NGC-321 for a good Italian restaurant. ...I heartily recommend listening to the whole talk here, but Terrence's closing remarks demonstrate clearly the myopic view, with a tendency towards glorifying science and demonising nature, that prevent us as a culture from apprehending solutions and ways of addressing current cultural crises which are literally under our noses.

Some Questions

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-08-26T13:27:27+10:00

I wrote recently about the culturally sanctioned belief [and an incredibly resilient one at that] which flies in the face of ever mounting evidence to the contrary, that quantum effects occur at a quantum level and any observation of them in daily human life is evidence of "magical thinking", superstition or lack of critical facility. Now whilst I agree with Israel Regardie in the matter of their being a great deal of "new age cosmic foo-foo" to sift through in current popular literature around the subject, I believe the matter requires our urgent collective attention, if we are to have any hope of some manner of directing our personal and collective destinies. ...By the definitions of a Western reductionist cultural model such ideas are quirky and amusing idiosyncracies to be tolerated at best, or dangerous pathologies to be medicated out of existence at worst, and yet, "As if it wasn't bad enough for the military to muck about with mind control, they're also bent on creating an online, self-teaching artificial intelligence." ...Why is it that working in collaboration and harmony with the ecological systems we inhabit is a "fringe" solution, and hurling huge sums of money at technological replications of preexistent structures in nature [which inevitably function with more grace and efficiency] is the dominant course of action to try to ameliorate the damage wrought by our current oil addicted economies? Again, a regular occurrence in the work conducted here in South America in collaboration with the plants, telepathy when examined in modern intellectual psychological models is largely discounted, unable to be statistically held up as a possibility worthy of serious attention. ...The use of the such technologies for malefic intent in the Amazon is considered brujeria, or sorcery, yet another notion discounted by modern psychology and philosophy as primitive superstition. and not to be taken seriously. Why are we not spending millions of dollars examining usage [such that has occurred in the Amazon for millenia] in the realms of healing, caring for community and society, and finding visionary means of navigating our way through what is widely held to be a very critical juncture in the evolution of the human species? ...If we are to take responsibility for our own destinies [if indeed that is possible] then we must be aware of the possibilities and technologies of consciousness available to us, and be aware that to redress the significant imbalance in the current global mind, we must work actively with those technologies for the betterment of our individual ecosystems and the collective health of the incredible diversity of relations with whom we share this planet. We must have the courage to ask new questions, perhaps uncomfortable ones, if we are to break out of the stupor of our current spiral of self destruction and life denial, as it is clearly obvious that our habituated questionings are not providing us with the answers we need.

Physicists Seek Answers to Quantum Correlations [curanderos continue to utilise them]

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-08-18T02:06:14+10:00

The physicists, led by Nicolas Gisin from the University of Geneva, arranged their experiment by sending two photons down fiber optic cables to detectors in two Swiss villages located 18 km apart. ...This is one account of 100's who have witnessed demonstrable physiological, emotional and mental changes as a result of healings conducted by me from 10's of thousands of kilometers away. ... This may seem miraculous, but in my opinion we must accept these things, with gratitude and respect of course, as part of the natural order of this universe. There is a huge body of evidence as to the existence of so called psi phenomena, yet it is continued to be regarded as "paranormal". In actual fact human's every day perspectives, have been governed and informed by non local entanglement, engagement with unseen realms and higher orders of consciousness for the history of the species. We need to alter our language to accommodate that which many of us know in our hearts to be truth, rather than erode our own knowledge by using the language of a narrow minority who practice scientism. I do not, in any way, encourage the dispensing of rationality or discernment in this, but in the face of the evidence of the immediate quality of felt experience, the positions of conservative science on issues of health and consciousness are definitively irrational. ...Just because things are invisible, or their causes can not be immediately gleaned, does not mean they do not exist, or should be dismissed out of hand as irrational and unuseful. ...It seems to me the way that Western medicine works is basically two fold: it’s chemical, what’s in the medicines, what’s in the prescriptions; and it’s physical, going in there and cutting out your appendix. It also seems to me the way these shamans work is two fold: it’s chemical, which is what is in the plants or the insects (since we know that they use insects), and the spiritual, which through the prism of Western science is nonsense, magic, mumbo jumbo, placebo, whatever you want to call it.

Peru declares ayahuasca part of cultural heritage

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-08-18T02:03:25+10:00

The decision of the peruvian Government, signed by the Director of the National Institute of Culture, Javier Ugaz Villacorta, was published on the Saturday edition of the country’s official daily newspaper, El Peruano. ...This is a very welcome decision by the Peruvian legislature, as it makes it less likely that those treating illness using Ayahuasca will be charged for practicing medicine without a license, and will confer more legitimacy upon Ayahuasca as a medicine in other legislatures throughout the world. ... The traditional use of coca, legal only in Peru and Bolivia, is under threat from the international law making bodies, a subject which I will be soon addressing in this space. ...Particularly of interest is the distinction between traditional and touristic use, an issue of need for discussion with the rise of "Ayahuasca tourism", which is certainly obvious in Cusco, where I am currently living. Peru’s Government states that the effects produced by Ayahuasca have been extensively investigated due to their complexity and are different from the ones usually produced by hallucinogens. Part of that difference consists on the ritual of consumption, that leads to several effects, however always within a culturally limited margin, and with religious, therapeutical and cultural purposes" says Javier Villacorta. ...There is a need for protection of the traditional use and the sacred aspect of the Ayahuasca ritual, differentiating it from the Occidental use, which is out of context, consumerist and with commercial purposes" allerts the statement of the National Institute of Culture. As I say, the issue of Ayahausca tourism is a pressing one, and I have personally frequently attended to the needs of "occidentals" here and in Australia, who have partaken of Ayahuasca in circumstances less than ideal, or where the intentions of the facilitator have been unfocussed or actively malicious. ...Whilst I enter ceremonies with the utmost respect for the traditions of those who hold them, I believe that Ayahuasca has clearly moved beyond a construct of indigenous, jungle usage, and that the manner in which new cultures of Ayahuasca usage develop should not be limited by the limited world views of a particular patriarchy. I feel that Ayahuasca herself will determine how and when these new modes of working unfold, but any attempts to control the usage of Sacred Medicines should be diligently examined by all who care for the freedom and evolution of human consciousness.

on Poetry, Language and Culture

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-07-09T13:13:33+10:00

Lacking the resources afforded by a BMW sponsorship, $33,000 ticket prices for my speaking engagements or indeed rudimentary web coding skills quantumlife.tv remains in an ongoing process of development. Nonetheless I wanted to share an inspiring talk by Wade Davis, who I referenced in a recent post, at a TED gathering in 2003, so am doing so here.
I will be referencing other TED presentations in the future, but encourage you to browse the wealth of inspirational material which is freely available at their website. ... ...

Message in a Bottle

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-07-07T03:39:27+10:00

I mentioned in my previous post a bottle of water, and whilst I appreciated that particular gesture, one of the disturbing aspects of travel in the third world is the amount of waste one generates in the purchase of bottled water. Whilst this issue is somewhat alleviated when one is in a position to boil water, the injudicious use of plastics in Peru, and the lack of consciousness around their impacts is obvious. This issue obviously pertinent to my current journey as the chemicals in plastics often mimic estrogens and have strong links to the development of breast and ovarian cancers. So, in the course of visiting Peru to attempt to cure cancer, one maximises one's exposure to the very chemicals which may be causing the problem in the first instance. ...Now we’re learning that the stuff in plastic water bottles may be more harmful than anything in our tap water. ... It is found in clear, hard polycarbonate plastic commonly used in household and commercial water coolers and some reusable bottles, and it’s just one potentially harmful substance associated with plastic containers. ...It takes close to 17 million barrels of oil to produce the 30 billion water bottles that U.S. citizens go through every year. ... Canadians consume more than two billion litres of bottled water a year, and globally, we consume about 190 billion litres a year. ...There’s also a danger that governments may use the growing reliance on bottled water as an excuse to avoid their responsibility to ensure we have access to safe drinking water. ...If you’re worried about chlorine in your drinking water, put it in a pitcher and let it stand overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate – or consider buying a carbon activated filter for your tap.

on Action

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-07-07T03:35:28+10:00

The actuality of their situations may be told at a later date, but suffice to say that both had been pronounced incurable by the medical systems available here to them and, whilst for many Peruvians the quality of medical treatment available is poor, the same diagnosis would probably have been made in Australia. ...In both of these instances it is obvious that a large part of the capacity to effect change came about by virtue of my capacity to communicate non verbally, as neither of these individuals had, at that time, the capacity to communicate verbally. Probably the most common explanation of this manner of communication would be to refer to words such as clairaudience or telepathy, which may or may not be the case, but I find the common language available in this instance limiting and divisive because both have a pejorative weighting and are not seen as particularly applicable to "real world" curing. ...I can say that the healing afforded these people was a result of grace, and the assistance and direction of the Apus and Pachamamas, the spirits of nature, and celestial sentient beings, which indeed it was, and those who were witness to the events would concur that the winds assisted and the material realm was demonstrably altered by the processes of consciousness enacted therin, but that will not afford me much credibility if I want the cooperation of a mental health research institute in Florida. ... I cannot don the intricate weavings of a Q'ero p'aqo, take an initiation and expect to have mystical powers conferred upon me, but I am not so chauvenistic in the house [as it were] of these spirits to suggest that they are a fiction and because I do not believe in them, that they do not exist. ...In my view this has to be a good thing, and we could afford to spend more time and effort examining how to do this on a much broader scale than I am able to as one individual. In fact, it may be as Davis suggests, that the thoughtful (as opposed to romantic or fanciful) examination of the wisdom of other cultures that, along with our own culture's technological wizardry, offers us a way through the rather dire mess we as a species find ourselves in on a planetary scale. ...I am not suggesting that indigenous cultures are perfect, far from it, nor am I denying my enjoyment of the health and material prosperity which my modern culture offers me, but I am suggesting, as the picture above shows in no uncertain terms, that something is completely and utterly out of whack! ...I have seen many people come to disappointing realisations about the motivations and idealogies of mestizo curanderos in the last months, and I myself am under no illusions about the nature in which much old knowledge is applied today in Peru. ... Whilst it is so that the old people, the carriers of wisdom in indigenous cultures have much to offer we in the West, so too have we much to offer their cultures insofar as manners in which they can limit the destructive elements of this culture which now touches every inch of the planet, and at an ever increasing pace.

Mas Media

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-07-04T07:56:08+10:00

As she had previously effected a successful cure of multiple sclerosis with the assistance of myself, Dr Valentin Hampejs, Ayahuasca, Huachuma and a bevy of other spirits, she asked for my assistance in seeking a cure in South America with the medicines which had prior offered her so much healing in her life, physical, mental, emotional and energetic. ...During the course of my own preparations to follow her and support that curing and healing process, I had engaged in a dialogue with my friend Liz Thompson about a project we had been discussing for some years, being a feature documentary film about the teacher plants, and South American curanderismo. ...Dan had planned to journey to Peru to meet his mother there, but upon hearing Ysabel's perspective that a ceremony with Lakshmi, Dan and Rob together would be a powerful manner in which to heal the ancestral condition, Dan decided he would like to travel with me to Peru to facilitate that process. ...A series of delays ensued, which bordered on absurdity, but eventually after interminable airport waitings and a long taxi journey through the coastal deserts (a 2m hole had appeared in the runway at Chiclayo overnight prior to our arrival, so we made the final leg of our journey from Trujillo 3 hours south) we arrived at Pimental, a small coastal town just to the West of Chiclayo where Lakshmi, Rob and Purdie had made their home. ...I was not prepared to make such definitive pronouncements, given the magnitude of the journey Lakshmi had undertaken, and encouraged her to seek other advice in the jungle, where I felt the opportunity to work with Ayahuasca would afford her the opportunity to see for herself the emotional and mental antecedents to the disease process. ...Nonetheless shortly thereafter Lakshmi, Rob, Purdie and Dan arrived in Iquitos, and Lakshmi's meeting with dona Othelia confirmed my own intuitions, and she made arrangements to settle in for what has eventuated as a long stay in the jungle some 50km from Iquitos. ...Being in the Andes has afforded the opportunity for some rest from what has been an arduous journey, and the opportunity to further my own work with Huachuma and the Apus and Pachamamas that I began in this very location some 12 months ago. ...In an effort to offer more than I am able in one to one sessions, I have embarked upon a project of creating, gathering and sharing information about healing, particularly about the plants, spirits and traditions of this continent which so obviously deeply informs my personal work. ...I feel that Lakshmi has been most generously supported in her curing, and this is precisely the nature of healing in which I wish to participate, where all are recognised for their particular gifts and skills, and the actions of the whole recognised as integral to any one individual's health. ...So, if I am not too presumptuous in doing so, insofar as support for Lakshmi's healing journey I would like to thank directly my wife Jo, my daughter's Ruby and Maya, Rob, Purdie and Dan, Kerrie, Helen, Ysabel, Olinda, Liz, Simon and their daughters, Othelia, Nicholas, Nino, Carlos, Justin, Ferdinando, Gerry and Alana, Ron, Huachuma, Ayahuasca, Huaca Purana, Ajo Sacha and all the other healing and teaching plants.

on Media

Quantum Life Studios — 2008-03-18T07:28:06+11:00

The healing vision of Quantum Life Bodyworks has always included more than solely the laying on of hands. It was with great pleasure that in November of 2007 I met with Rachael Kohn of Radio National to discuss something of my understanding of the nature of plant based shamanism in the South Americas, and the way in which my work was informed by these traditions. I was grateful for Rachael's openness in discussing seemingly arcane topics, and exponentially gratified by the reception of many throughout the world who called and emailed to thank me for the manner in which the interview shifted their perceptions, and helped them to understand things that they themselves had long sought to articulate. That particular venture has paved the way for a collaboration with award winning documentary film-maker Liz Thompson to explore at length the curing traditions based around the usage of the Sacred Plant medicines... More news on that subject later, but until then the Radio National interview is available in mp3 format below. Radio National The Spirit of Things

July News

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-07-18T06:11:17+10:00

The last months have been busy indeed, with the engagement in and integration of the Africa journey, a series of workshop processes, not to mention the quotidian process of working with individual clients. Thanks to all who have made these processes so rich along the way. I am intending to share various medias gathered during these processes [some wonderful recordings of Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa for example] and will publish them just as soon as I have a moment! I will be attending a conference and subsequently in retreat during the latter half of July until mid August, and as such in sporadic email contact. Please be patient if you are trying to contact me in this manner. I will be unreachable by telephone. I will be available for individual consultations again from August 20th in Bellingen, and returning to Avalon for individual consultations from 29th of August until 2nd of September. If you are in Avalon and requiring an appointment, please contact Kerrie on 0410 488 247.

Site Changes

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-06-12T23:39:17+10:00

As can be seen, there are a significant number of site changes, one of which is the migration of data from the Typepad weblog, such that Quantum Life Bodyworks news can be read at this site. Please be patient as this process unfolds.

Quantum Life Bodyworks

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-07-20T19:14:14+10:00

Here is the first post in a journal pertaining to the unfolding of Quantum Life Bodyworks. I will be posting Avalon dates of availability, as well as other information I feel is pertinent to the nature of the work I am endeavouring to facilitate. A commenting facility will be available, so please fee free to contribute to the dialogue here. ...I will still be sending out email notifications of the dates of my visits to Avalon and such, but the nature of the network [particularly spam filters] means that some emails do go astray, and this forum will provide another avenue for keeping a flow of information occurring. ...To that end, I will be returning to Avalon for appointments between the 7th and 11th of September. All bookings for that period are full, but I will also be available in early October, and will confirm dates for that arrival soon. ...sixnon [at] yahoo [dot] com [dot] au ...quantumlife [at] optusnet [dot] com [dot] au ...This site is new and will, no doubt, change over the coming months. I hope it will be of use to all those who access it.

Loneliness

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-08-29T22:50:37+10:00

I have been thinking about loneliness of late, discussing it with my selves and others, and wanted to express the relationship of my work to loneliness. I say "my" work as a linguistic convention, for I realise there is very little by way of ownership of this facilitation of a process that is omnipresent in the world and in humanity's relationship to it. ..."I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know. Lonliness does not come from having no people about one but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissable.... ...Carl was a product of his culture, and his observation does not apply to solely to the male gender. ... We live in an extremely mediated society, and many find that their immediate quality of felt experience does not match the view that culture at large holds. ... It is my hope that this forum can become a space for the telling of story, and the realisation of the fact that actually our stories as humans are very similar, and all equally important. In the weeks to come, I shall be posting recordings of various interviews with exceptional people. Exceptional not necessarily because of their cultural achievements, but because they have had the courage to pursue the path of their heart's knowing, and have grown beyond their own expectations in the process. ...I hope that this process, and others that I engage in, can in some way ameliorate the prevailing sense of loneliness and separation that is so much a part of the current human story.

Language

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-08-30T09:09:25+10:00

Those of you who have worked with me know the particular importance I place upon the use of language, both in communication with others and in internal dialogue. Following my previous post, and in the face of an increasing sense of helplessness in the face of massive global change, I would suggest that one very real manner in which we as individuals can effect change in the world around us is to change our language. The corporate media know full well the power of langauge and daily manipulate our vernacular in order to secure the interests of various mechanisms of control. I feel that it behooves us all to question and modify those structures of language which do not serve our collective evolution. ...Below is an example of the kind of language that is an ever increasing part of our linguistic consumption. The inference that nature is a force of aggression which "beseiges" humanity's defences serves only to further separation, fear and denial of the fundamentally biological nature of our existence. If we are "at war" with nature, then we are at war with our very selves and those about us we purport to love and support. ...BBC NEWS | Americas | Storm batters southern US coast:
Mayor Ray Nagin said he had received reports that some water had already breached the defences.

Bellingen Studio Closure

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-09-06T10:04:18+10:00

For those of you without access to the Bellingen media, or indeed it's grapevine, Quantum Life Bodywork's Bellingen studio was closed last Friday, 2nd September. In the immediate future, I will be unavailable for private consultations in Bellingen. If and when that situation changes, I shall make note of it here. Information about the other aspects of QLBW's unfolding will be regularly posted here. I can be contacted at the email address in the "About" menu if there are any further queries Simon

Language (Redux)

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-09-06T10:40:54+10:00

I realised that my previous post about the situation there may have seemed offhand in the face of so much human suffering. This was not the case, and I have been deeply saddened by the seemingly perpetual resistance to the real opening of heart in the American psyche as expressed by it's corporate media. The obsession with rapes, shooting deaths and other acts of violence seems to leave little room for discussion of what must be the myriad of acts of human compassion in times of stress and loss. I was, it seemed, witnessing yet another great possibility for healing being subverted by forces of greed, violence and manipulation. ...The problem is that they can't rally against nature - this is actually a huge national lesson which will wind its way into the heart. Think of it...there will be inevitably the shock of the "empty boat" story, in the dead of night, a boat hits another, wakes up and angers the captain, who storms out on deck, gun in hand...only to find the offender an empty boat...what happens to the anger? ...
This is being played out in self-talk and the process of mind all over the country. ... Hatred has no more pitiful image than the blinded cyclops, at one time so feared, and soon, willing to hold a child's hand out of the labyrinth. This, I think, may well be a moment of the heart as it emerges. ...I sincerely hope he is right, and that the many acts of heart's compassion become the norm rather than the exception

Communication Only Occurs Between Equals

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-09-07T09:10:50+10:00

From "Angel Tech: A Modern Shaman's Guide to Reality Selection". ..."The Teachers walk amidst our daily lives prepared to share the appropriate information when we are ready for it. ... For those of us who are too headstrong to learn from other human beings, lessons will duly arrive in the guise of Situations, Dreams and other Self-generating activities. The rest of us who can learn from each other directly, will share the opportunity of meeting the Teachers in the flesh. They are us. We appear in a vast array of masks, cloaks and roles and many of us will not even take the credit for something which comes as natural as helping each other. These Teachers, however, have been recognised in the following services: Gas Station Attendants (Self-Serve), Grandmonthers, Stumbling Drunks, Astronomers, Cats, Landladies, Ferns, Newscasters, Mozart, Hardcore Punk Music Madmen, Crystals, Children, Presidents, Indian Chiefs, MOvie Stars, Plumbers, Telephone Operators and the listgoes on forever. ...It is my repeated observation that those of you who come to work with me, do so precisely because of the impeccability of the timing of Spirit, in it's collective and individual manifestations. Most certainly I have certain skills of perception and manipulation of matter (specifically bodies, both physical and energetic), but primarily my role is to hold space so that you may more clearly see your Self. This makes me no more or less important than any of the abovementioned Teachers. You are the centre of your perceptual framework, and all information received from the world around you must be absorbed, organised and communicated through that framework. ...If my perceptions match those of your Heart's knowing and so provide space for a more fruitful expression of your Self, I consider myself blessed, as I have communicated successfully with an equal.

African Journey

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-09-14T13:44:44+10:00

When I returned to the fire, chest heaving from my exertions, the environment had changed, peace and clarity were obvious and the faces of those around the fire reflected the absence of fear. ...I was puzzled, as I had discussed the ancestral shaman with him earlier, and he had told me of his origin in the Vaupess region of the Amazon. ...I enjoyed the peace and clarity of the collective mind, free of fear and thought little more of it until four or five days later as I was assisting the shaman in the preparation of medicine for the coming week's ceremony. ... He said that he had not worked with Kenyan shaman but had met with a shaman from South Africa named Credo. ...A few days later, I sat in ceremony with Edwin and, in the dawn light sang quietly at his side an Icaro recently taught me by the medicine. ... As the dead, corrupted water poured over the brink, it fell away to a great chasm filled with jagged rubble and the moans of despair of millions of people. ...As I walked away , however, I felt the strong current of spirit in support of that meeting, such that I turned back, surprised by the intensity of it, to tell her. ...Some months later, I had the opportunity to work with LIz, and so, the spirits of the land of Africa. ...To that end, I have made the decision to trust in the language of Spirit, the language of the heart, and travel to Africa this coming November to meet with Credo, and share the journey with Liz. ...As always my focus remains upon the healing of the heart, and I would welcome the company of like minded, open hearted people to share with us what promises to be a magical journey to the land which gave birth to Humanity.

Avalon Arrival

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-09-18T12:47:07+10:00

Thanks again to all in Avalon who contribute to the beautiful energy and unfolding at "The Light House". I speak without a hint of self deprecation to say that work of Kerrie, Deborah and Helen is integral to the healing that occurs there, and without them it would simply not occur with all the magic that so regularly arrives in that space. That and all the honest acknowledgment of what does occur there by all who visit makes "my" work so much richer, for it is my view that any healing for the individual heals the collective, and the earth upon whom we depend for this opportunity of embodiment.

I will be returning to Avalon for appointments from Monday 26th until Wednesday 28th of September, and will again be available from Wednesday 19th until Sunday 23rd of October.

Kerrie Ferguson will make appointment arrangements so please contact her as soon as possible if you wish to see me.

Please contact me by email if you have any more specific queries. ...

Africa Journey [addendum]

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-09-18T16:25:07+10:00

In my post of the forthcoming journey to Africa, I presented a truncated version of the synchronicitous unfolding of my journey to Colombia and Brasil insofar as it related to my intention to travel to Africa. During that journey's unfolding I kept another online blog to keep friends and family informed of what was occurring in my world. In my recent account I intimated a troubled period in that journey which prevented me from continuing connections I felt important. I shall recount that period at a later date here, but suffice to say that it's impact also prompted me to withdraw my online account of the journey. I saved a PDF document which captured the essence of my experience [although hyperlinks and comments are inaccessible and the format is a little unsophisticated]. It gives some idea of the complexity of the structures weaved through the worlds of people and things which have led me to this particular moment of evolution. It also shows the naive heart writ large...

Download journeyblog.pdf (267.2K)

New Bellingen Studio

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-10-28T09:26:36+10:00

I will be available for appointments in Bellingen at the new premises at 46 Martins Road, Bellingen. All other contact details remain the same. I am retaining a Bellingen concession rate, however my fee structure now stands at; $65 for 1 Hour session $90 for 90 min session appointments are limited to Thursdays and Fridays, so please make your bookings as far in advance as possible. With Love Simon

Venezuelan Christmas Seminar with Dr. Valentin Hampejs

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-10-31T11:45:46+11:00

%20Shamanic%20Power-Hike,%20Me%CC%81rida,%20Venezuela,%20landscape.jpg','popup','width=648,height=486,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"> Shamanism in the Andes of Venezuela ... Christmas Seminar

News from the Edge

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-11-03T23:52:25+11:00

The proposed Africa Journey with Liz Watters has been postponed for various reasons, but a new opportunity for growth and healing expressed itself in a meeting with Dr. ... His Christmas healing seminar offered excellent prospects for those interested in the healing potentials of the Sacred Plant Medicines of the Amazonian and Andean regions of South America. ...This weekend in Avalon, Jessie Ayani will be conducting a workshop and has made herself available for private sessions. I do not know Jessie personally, but her energy has been presenting in my own work during my last visit to Avalon, so I felt to mention it. I believe there are a number of spaces still available for the workshop, and hope that it's belated presentation here will not preclude those who can use this information from benefiting. ...Ankya of Ankya Design has a range of beautiful images in various forms available for the Christmas season. I offered to host the information here, however my web design skills are rudimnentary to say the least, and I am currently able to offer the catalogue as a downloadable document rather than as immediately viewable html. Please take the time to view Ankya's work or visit her website and help support a business who's focus is the heart. ...Apropos the perceived blockages I mention above, I would suggest that this is a energy currently being felt in the collective psyche, and indeed reflective of a deeper process in the unfolding of the Earth's evolution, not simply something occurring in my personal sphere. Any discussion of how that manifests in individual lives is welcomed, and I believe useful, as it may "ameliorate the prevailing sense of loneliness and separation that is so much a part of the current human story".

Love and Fear

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-12-01T17:29:03+11:00

Love and Fear ...
There are only two feelings. Love and fear.
There are only two languages Love and fear.
There are only two activities. Love and fear.
There are only two motives, two procedures, ...
Love and fear. ...
Michael Leunig

Ghosts of War

Quantum Life Studios — 2005-12-03T10:40:07+11:00
...Whilst searching for information about the poetry below, I came across an article written by Michael Leunig on Anzac day of this year. ...I heartily encourage it's reading, as it is a brave and thoughtful observation. One point which is most pertinent to me and the nature of the work I am endeavouring to share is excerpted below.. ..."And even more surreptitious are the myriad ghosts of war, which return from the battles, banalities and atrocities and attach themselves to the civil situation, entering destructively into the living culture of the nation. This inevitable, postwar militarist invasion of the homeland demands much reparation and imposes hugely on civil society, domestic life and the new generation. Grim authoritarianism, paranoia, guilt, fundamentalism, hostility, bitter or brutal outlooks and a difficulty with Eros, beauty and the feminine are all aftermath qualities that insinuate or assert themselves into family and institutional life with profound consequences. ... The violent, frightened mentality and fetishism of war, the domineering impulse, and the addiction to the "evil other" forever corrupt, disfigure and limit the societies that wage and prosecute the violent solution. ...Whether one adopts the metaphor of Jungian archetype or Shamanic Underworld or Buddhist Realm of Hungry Ghosts, there is an almost ubiquitous cultural recognition of the power and autonomy of these realms of consciousness. ... I feel that it behooves us all to recognise that we live in a nation which is at war, regardless of our acceptance of that position or otherwise, and to be particularly attentive to the currents of consciousness which that engenders .

Greetings and Salutations for the New Year.

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-01-15T11:52:36+11:00
As many of you know, final preparations are underway for the rapidly approaching departure for a rescheduled seminar with Dr. ... I will be in Merida with Deborah, Kerrie and Justin until February's end whereupon they will return, and I shall remain. ... I can adjust the start time of the seminar within a few days in order to accommodate the limited flights to Venezuela from Australia. Anyone inspired by the forthcoming journeys of the brave Avalon pioneers mentioned above, please contact me as soon as possible to speak of possibilities. The information provided here and here gives Dr. ... Please read both documents carefully as they provide all material details of the seminars, as well as his perspective on Shamanic Medicine. ...I will be available for appointments in Avalon and Bellingen upon my return to Australia, but cannot give specific dates as yet. ... I hope to be keeping an ongoing description of the Venezuelan unfolding (subject to network availability) so will update my plans as they arise and pass away (those of you who have been witness to the machinations of the airline flight booking system for the coming journey are permitted here a wry smile or indeed a hearty guffaw). ...Despite many obstacles, I feel very grateful to have this opportunity to share with others what I find to be a most profound and efficacious healing process. ...I apologise if my absence from Avalon and Bellingen inconveniences those who wish to see me, but the nature of my work is very much informed by the connection with the Sacred Medicines of the Amazon and Andes, and I dearly wish to have the opportunity to share these great healing teachers with others in a safe, supported and state sanctioned environment.

Heart of Place

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-01-19T15:31:17+11:00

As previously mentioned, it is my intention to support other heart centred business by providing a node in the network of information distribution.
I have often been asked to clear physical space by clients who have been impressed by the efficacy of the energetic clearing within their bodies. Whilst I am capable of performing such tasks, it is not my particular area of expertise, and as such I have regularly referred to William Cadman's Heart of Place. William has recently offered me some documents which explain the nature of his work, and I am making them available here, so that others may have a glimpse of his unique view of the world of healing.
Heart 1.doc Heart of Place introduction
Heart 2.doc Heart of Place Introduction 2

Sedition and Terror

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-01-22T10:37:45+11:00
There is a bumper sticker campaign in Bellingen currently. "Free Speech is not Sedition" and "Free Speech is not Terrorism". As any headline editor know We Humans, being exceptionally well adapted to pattern recognition tend to see the patterns which are dominantly programmed (via parents, teachers, media and all other manner of cultural propogation), and the cultural mind of the moment seems hell bent [pun intended] on diving into fear. As such there is a tendency in the instance of a car flashing past to see "Sedition" and "Terrorism" . Many of us are able to recognise the machinations of the controlling mind, but the reminder is needed that the reminder of such things is not! ...It seems there has another meeting of the Bellingen chapter of "the body against sedition laws who produced these stickers", and consensus has been reached with regards to a course of action in relation to this conundrum. The word "not" is to be crossed out with permanent marker and the word "now" inserted in it's stead. ...I decided upon a different approach, searching for anagrams to utilise the now superseded stickers somewhat more poetically. ...whilst I honour the work of those who seek to limit the impact of repressive legislations within the political system, I have often seen in my life the impact that being in opposition to things makes upon individual lives, and indeed collective psyches. As a middle point between opposition and apathy, I am suggesting that we become ontological cut-up artists, find poetic anagrams of our internal linguistic make-up and, as individuals and as a collective, become objects of art, poetry, and beauty shining our light as inspiration to others into the world....

The Archaic Wound

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-01-22T10:49:51+11:00
Further to my thoughts below, Kerrie has recently mentioned to me her feelings that perhaps people felt themselves "not dysfunctional" enough to warrant interest or active engagement in the pursuit of healing of the manner Dr. ... Certainly his interest, as a MD in Neurology and Psychiatry, is in the curing of "endogenous depression", but it is my experience that the reach of the Sacred Medicines is far deeper than the relief of immediately obvious symptomatic response. It is my feeling that these Sacred Medicines can teach us much about the nature of our individual beings, and the relationship of our individual selves to broader aspects of ourselves, our species and all the species with whom we share this beautiful planet. Without doubt there is, in this time, a prevailing sense of inability to find a meaningful place to stand amongst a species which shows many signs of rampant self destruction. There is often found a feeling of inability to make any real change within a cultural paradigm which seem to support deeply unhealthy and dysfunctional relationships with community and environment. I would suggest that there is a deeper cultural, and perhaps global malaise which all of us carry somewhere within our being. It is this realm that, in my experience, the Sacred Medicines work within and help us to address. As with any teachers, they show us the way, and the work of healing is effected by the individual with a delicate balance of honesty, courage and grace. ...I believe that love is the healer, and I believe that you have to see with your third eye, and hear with your inner ear in order to find the soul, because it is so stricken. ...So you have to be extremely careful with bodywork, because the body often carries a psychotic corner, a rejected psyche.

Kerrie's Story

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-01-22T12:34:26+11:00
So much so that I knew without any doubt that this was an answer to what had surfaced only days before as a longing to break through the invisible constraints I sensed I had placed upon my life. ...I did not have visitations from angels, demons, plant devas or my ancestors but instead I was melted and moulded ever so gently into the arms of the Mother. As I sang, in ceremony, I travelled with my sound to what felt for me to be the matrix of creation. ... I saw how the essential structure of my life is created by what I evoke from the subtle vibration of thought, the denser words that I utter consciously and unconsciously into the world and the pure sounds of sacred chanting I love so much¬í. ...I am deeply held by softness and am told that I have been opened to the true strength and presence of the feminine essence within me.
My efforts to support myself and others for so long have taken me far from my only source of true support. The armouring of effort is being dissolved, and I feel in myself how the tension created by my solitary acts of doing immediately creates a blockage of the conduit to my inner guru, to the knowing beyond my ego stories¬í. ...
It is lying in the arms of the Great Mother, where I am thought and moved by her, and where I feel her great love and compassion for the human condition. ...I have just realised that the bliss accompanying this new state of being I keep safely hidden, for fear that there is no place for it in this in world. I sense that it will challenge the broader consensus view of reality and that the sheer weight of this view will somehow crush it out of me.

Site Matters

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-01-23T08:51:31+11:00

Especially during this month when I have not been physically present in Avalon, there has been a significant amount of telephone based consultation. People often ask how to pay me for this service but i do not have, nor do I intend to have at this time a scheduled fee for this service. I have, however, added a donation button at the bottom right of the screen. Those who feel to make a donation as exchange, please use this facility at your discretion. Alternatively there is a link to a site called Kiva which details a program of micro-loans for African small business. Although I cannot vouch for it personally, it strikes me as a sound practice, and I would be happy if loans were made there as a form of exchange. ...These options are just that, and there is never any pressure or obligation in that regard.
...

Archaic Ritual

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-01-25T19:04:10+11:00
...A life of an individual appears in time as a landscape viewed from above such that to the the people moving about within that landscape the geography is three dimensional, but they cannot see beyond the horizon in each direction. From the heightened perspective, it is possible for me to see how the interactions with the past and the future are influencing the current situation (which includes those pasts and futures because they are, infact, contained within the individuals). ... From their perspective, they may have no idea of what lies in front of them, but from a higher vantage point, one can see that the path of another (if a consistent direction and velocity are maintained) will cross theirs at a given time. ...Now the implication differs depending upon the intent of the movement and the mover, but it shows me the truth behind the indigenous perspective that humans are needed to recreate certain vibrations (in song, dance, ceremony) in order to assist in the healthy functioning of the planet. I do not purport to know all of the mechanisms in which this function is carried out, but I am deeply aware of and respecting of my immediate quality of felt experience when the spirits of the environment communicate with or through me. ...In that deep knowing, I am aware that the planet, a being moving through it's own cycle of evolution and movement through consciousness, is deeply in need of the intentional support of those I would call "her children". ...There was no question that I - the Earth - was a living organism, and intelligent being trying to understand myself, struggling to evolve to a higher level of awareness, and attempting to communicate with other cosmic beings. ...
account of a Holotropic Breathwork session of a young German woman in Stanislof Grof's, "The Adventure of Self-Discovery: I : Dimensions of Consciousness : II : New Perspectives in Psychotherapy (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanist)" (Stanislav Grof)

In my absence..

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-01-29T17:28:00+11:00
.... from Bellingen, I can heartily recommend the work of Claire de Valero for those in need of Craniosacral work. Claire has trained with Franklin Sills in Craniosacral Biodynamics which addresses even deeper tidal motions within the craniosacral system. ...
Craniosacral Biodynamics is an approach to the teaching and practice of Craniosacral Therapy which acknowledges the deepest foundations of the human system. In this approach, we, as human beings, are seen to be an expression of the wholeness of life itself. Life is experienced to be undivided and the human system is perceived to be an expression of this whole . In this concept, a vital life force is perceived to express this wholeness within all of manifestation. This vital force is perceived to express a biodynamic potency within the human system. ... It is considered to be the basic ordering and healing principle within the human system and maintains and integrates all of its life functions. ... It arises quite literally at the core of the body; in the brain and spinal cord, and the fluids which bathe them." ...
from The Karuna Insitute website

A BigSky blessing...

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-01-30T19:58:26+11:00
Aside from the usual enthusiasms about site ‚Äì yes, it‚Äôs been raining, yes it‚Äôs cool and yes the neighbours clacking bamboo chimes tilt and clank in the wind, but oh! ... This is what needs to arrive before your departure ‚Äì a kind of hymn told in the best Celt spirit to you, and your brave four who are setting out into the void: ...Strike deep, young man, the chasm, and there find the serpent with the jewel. Enjoy the rest of Ma Cactus as she feeds you soup with a spoon. Light out across those clouds and settle into rocks, early morning, where your feet sit rested on the ground. ...Enjoy again the meal of generations as you ripen and fall as fruit from the tree. ... Carry and hold and care for your community and allow intrigues early escape. An upturned bowl is the sky ‚Äì and you shall drift as you are eaten. Mother Cactus will return you to your bed, sated and plain. ...That was a half-willed, half watched ‚Äì a dream cultivated into prophecy.

Christopher's Tale

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-02-11T05:44:48+11:00
JPG','popup','width=2848,height=2136,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false">Still as the medicine began to effect us each in a different time, V was not leaving much space to dream, his incantations were continuous for hours and his almost lecturing style had me fall in and out of connection, with the waves of San Pedro being handled by his sheer domination. ...To remark of just the light show would be remiss of me, not just because of the lack of respect it shows to the nature of the teachings of ceremonial medicines, but also because I have been recently advised by Mescalito, through Shiva, to begin making less importance of what I think my story in Shamanic initiation should look like. Last night, now 6 days into our work, Shiva took me to the heart of my keeper-ship and led me to the face of the healing required to fully align the prodigious and capable energies that await in support of the role I accepted to begin this life. ...I was already siting cross-legged at the fire, my hands finding their own way into the frequencies of the new spectral realm, working like antennae, giving me a clear indication from where the process was coming, and where to hold light space for the now chirruping, squawking, and ripping work of Shiva and the sympathetic upheavals felt by us all, none more than our host, Maria‚Äôs soul twin, V. ...A further 30 or so minutes of heaving, hooooching, hacking, scraping and searching, all with the same uncompromising resolve, and Mescalito had helped Shiva bring the voice of the Milky Way to the farmlands of San Rafael, and so these two men of the trees gave Maria back to the medicine, and V got back his medicinal miss. ...Last night went on to be an inexhaustible account of heart and fire, though for mine, the most significant moment of all, the recognition of an unfeasibly spiritful man and his hardweilded feral s(words), by a lucid old Shaman of experience and pedigree not explicable without sitting with him, San Pedro, and a healthy respect for the dangerous conditions governing the journey into the Shamanic Ecstasy of Consciousness.

I am Blessed

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-02-13T09:44:45+11:00
I am blessed to be in the company of the people with whom I share this journey. One of the things which the Sacred Medicines teach, is the complexity of exchange between groups which is rarely acknowledged outside of this space which ceremony provides. ...In the first instance, his language in this respect proved challenging for the group, but I am grateful for the grace of Christopher, Lakshmi and Durga reflected in the rapidity with which they realised the the reaction was indeed their own, and saw through to the devotional heart of the man who has offered us all so much teaching and healing in such a short space of time. ...As a result of my idiosyncracies, and the San Pedro's recognition of me as a useful ally, my relationship with Se√±or Valentin has been very rapid and direct in it's development. I have been honoured to meet directly with the spirit of the San Pedro, and to offer some measure of return to Se√±or Valentin for his long years of service to this most beneficient of teachers. ...Valentin said in our first ceremony that "for some reason, it is difficult for Westerners to approach with Jesus", and I certainly recognise my own reaction to the language of the Christian church. What I have come to see behind the words, however, is a man who works tirelessly to assist and facilitate the healing of others, with the tools which best suit his approach to spiritual practice. He is a deeply spiritual man, with a great love for his family, which extends to all the brothers and sisters he meets along the way from his broader human family. He has a huge range of intellectual, spiritual and practical knowledge which he graciously shares, and has the capacity to facilitate, with the assistance of the Sacred Medicines, the healing of the deep energetic roots of illness and dysfunction. ...I wholeheartedly recommend and support this man in his work.

Christopher's Tale....unfurled

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-02-14T06:57:42+11:00
The site for what followed was a glittering cascade known as the Dragons Veins, a place of such healing force that we were moved immediately to the waterfall to wash and connect with the many spirits that belonged to the space. ...This went on for some time, the soupy current of the air slowing everything to a vibration so pace-less, that the shifting across multi-dimensional fields of truth, and the interplay of countless Nature spirits, brought me a strong grab of the divine order of the cosmic domain. ...‚ÄúYou too‚Äô I think, and a vision of Shiva and my work as a healer in his time here on Earth, steals away the bliss and sets the heart off into the next encounter with Mescalito. ...However, the window to the wisdom of the Heart is wide open at this time, and those brave enough to ask to be shown their keeper-ship, will never be left without the support of Nature to carry out the role and the work that comes with it. ...The constant seduction of the whispering and cajoling faeries and sirens of the mulch and moss, matched by the imposing language of these most magnificent tree spirits, and the important wisdom of ageless rocks, urging me to stop and listen and play, at one point pulling me into the under-story of a close by little bushel. ...I was so happy to find her domain and to know that she is with the spirits of her ancestors, and a capable and powerful spirit in her own world. ...The last kink in the obstruction that has held me from my capacity was ironed out, but the nature of its undertaking too personal to share here and now, but I will tell you about it when I see you. With presence and assistance from the Wise Goddess that is Durga, along with Lakshmi, whilst constantly engaged in her own magnificent healing, the four of us made our pact and shared a timeless reunion with all the tears, and laughter, howls and roars and love and light that is bearable. ... But friends, he is willingly in it up to his neck, and this tireless worker of light has all our backs, and not for the first time do I give thanks that this impossible man, is weaving for our side. ...If you are at a point where you know you can be more, but cant find the door through, San Pedro, amongst many things, is the Gatekeeper, and all you have to do is knock.

Christopher's tale....a new chapter

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-02-21T04:12:51+11:00
I am fully confident in my experiences, not enough to totally decipher the intuitive implanting of universal medicine that is inherent in these plants, yet I know that the healing experience with Ayahuasca was a deep vibration that set up the capacity for me to decode information into a grounded form for our time here on earth. Just as a physical process, imagine the revitalized state that comes from physically drawing from the depths of your body, all the old foot-holes and head-loops that your lives have installed - protection for the deep patterning of the illusion of your separation, your victimization, or your addictions, or your fears of your own shadow, largely re-materialized and purged. ... for 12 plus hours in this ceremony, after some sleep the following day, my capacity in asana was beyond what its has been when I have been in personal practice for some 15-20 hours per week. ...There is an oppressive air to this for me, in this particular form here with V, and it is hitting me hard, now we are just hours from our fifth ceremony in two weeks. ...We slept on it and woke, today, to more intensity, from my end trying to follow my own intuition which was further disrupting the group, but also not wanting my choices to impact in the sacred space we have been, and are still, holding. ...What has come from our working through it is the reunion of the group energy and the protection of the healing work that the enormous trust we have put in each other has assisted the medicine to manifest. ...In our struggle to stay connected to a force we are constantly evolving from, and work with that force as healers, we witness the flux of power to placebo and risk being drained by the nature of humanity in all its disposable, yet beautiful form. In learning to trust the often unbelievable work of Shiva, I have been shown a doorway to the world, not just of the Shaman, of which he is an extravagant example, but also of facilitation in the opening of everyday folk who wish to act upon the information that they receive. The maps around the body are changing rapidly, the energy centers are receiving differently, our simple languages cant hold the truth that we are conducting, the new age and its cousins have failed through our own need to feel shiny and new : for healing, like the medicines of the Shaman, we can not just wash ourselves off from the outside. ...The nature of my learning is confronting in the extreme, and I have now to work on how to move forward from here in the trust that we have reaffirmed.

Just a Word

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-02-21T05:07:07+11:00
Obviously Christopher's impetus to describe his process has been stronger than mine, and I have been happy to share this space with him. ...The reason for my lack of description is partly because I have been busy with other things, and partly because I have nothing yet to share that is not being shared in manner's far more efficacious than the written word. I realise that this may appear odd, but I am sure many of you who read this site will understand that the written word is not my sole manner of communication. Those of you who know me personally will understand that I am far from laconic when the moment for storytelling is upon me..
To all who offer their love and support to we who offer you ours, I thank you.
You are always in our hearts. ...With Love ...Simon (aka Shiva Das)

La Casa de El Senor de Pipa

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-02-24T08:56:44+11:00
We can avoid the person with whom we have a disagreement, and modern relationships are significantly less bound in social mores than a generation ago...if a relationship reaches a point where personalities cannot reconcile, it can be dissolved with little societal repercussion. ...We who remain here in San Rafael de Tabay have found ourselves as a group grappling with the issue of how to deal with the very real needs of individuals (our individualities after all, very certainly a construct of our cultures) within an equally real and obvious group construct. ... My feeling was that there was also a less mentally conscious yet strong intuitive desire to extend the group's energy in support and love of Durga in her solitary journey back to our much loved land. This, coupled with the strong catalytic effect of the Sacred Medicines and remaining in a cultural context very different to our own, generated some anxiety and confusion and the subsequent decision to suspend the ceremonial aspect of the work we were doing. ...My own commitment is strongly to the message offered by these medicines, as I feel that they are intrinsic to a way of understanding which can lead to great healing for a deeply wounded species. To be sure there are other ways to receive the same wisdom, but we humans appear to need all the help we can get at this time, and it behooves us to drop our perceived need for defence and listen to all of the teachings which we reject due to a narrow cultural or intellectual viewpoint. ... It was this commitment which suggested a need to put aside my own feeling to take this opportunity to learn with the medicines for the stability and cohesion of the group which had been strongly woven these last weeks. ...Despite the cessation of ceremony the medicines have been strongly with us, and this process of finding balance in such a crucible that being held together in a foreign land creates has been strong indeed. ...Christopher and I worked in the cactus fields today, assisting Valentin in preparing the earth for the transplanting of his much beloved friends (for to him, the San Pedro cactus are indeed family). ...Navigating the needs of what are undoubtedly strong personalities in a time of heightened pressure is no easy task, and Christopher, Lakshmi, Valentin and Maria have been remarkable in their capacity to see the truth of the heart behind the minutia of daily needs.

Closing of the Circle.

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-03-03T06:35:11+11:00
I do know something of my role, however, and it is obvious to myself and others that the plants are very keen to work with and through me. ...This suggestion is certainly not without precedent amongst "important" thinkers in our culture, and yet those experiences which offer a marked increase in the possibility of contact with broader reaches of conciousness than mundane egoic habituations are routinely banned in our society. ...The possibility of these Sacred Medicines to offer individuals the very real opportunity to see themselves in a much more integral light is without question. ... The medicines in their respectively unique fashions hold up an often startling clear mirror to allow the individual the opportunity to see aspects of themselves as individuals in a vast web of life that they may previously have lacked the courage or the tools to look at. Even after such an experience the efficacy of the healing thus afforded is obvious, and even the most petulant would have great difficulty denying the great gift that access to these conciousness' offer. ...The opportunity to sit in nature and receive the wisdom of San Pedro's teachings is profound, and it was with some sadness that we began the walk back to Valentin's house to prepare for an Ayahusca experience that evening. ... One of the great gifts of the integral perspective which the plants afford, is the opportunity to see hitherto unknown aspects of conciousness which have an existence of their own within the psyches and bodies of those who might consider themselves beyond such "superstitions". Once the nature of a thing is known it is much easier to work with, and to see "disease" as a personality offers the opportunity to work with it in a very different manner than is usually known in the West. ...The realisation that Australia is in a unique position to offer much to the energetic healing of the planet was obvious to all there, as was the need for much singing of sacred song and dancing of sacred dance. ...Valentin's usual pronouncements to stay upright gave way to the offer of lying on one's belly, and offering all the sickness which did not belong in your body back to Pachamama, the Mother Earth.

Last Words with Christopher

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-03-05T02:30:06+11:00
On the following tuesday we walked to the waterfall called Los Leones, the Lions, and made a ritual with San Pedro, and the closing of the circle was that night with the mother Ayahuasca in the traditional site at Valentin's house in the mountains in Tabay. ...So much has happened in that time that I am finding it hard to write of individual moments, there have been so many illuminating experiences in these final ceremonies. Imagine a wave of consciousness carrying you for 30 days through the entire visionary and emotional spectrum of these indigenous story telling medicines, and you can imagine the level of deconstruction, the nature of information, the velocity of expansion that has delivered an unknowable ambience to our very blood, our cells, our neural pathways and beyond. ...In this materialisation of the magical dance, as light moves over dark, are all its histrionics - the psychodelic wheeling of both visions and hallucinations bringing both ancestors and demons across the earth and skies to reconcile in the domain so meticulously held by Valentin's invocations to Nri Shringam Dev, and Shivas pantheon of illuminati. ...In my personal battles through the last ceremonies, I have purged deeply and relieved my body of the energies of my past addictions and the energetic structures that are imbibed along with those un-inspirational drugs. ...His work with me that night and in the space he has held in our month in circle, is literally of another universe. ... I have learnt not to ask many questions, and for that I have been shown, with the gracious permission of 6, fields of information through the eyes of his seemingly indominable spectrums of influence. ...In his permanent communion with his God, and his willingness to share the perceptions accorded to him through nearly 30 years of exploring the Shamanic Ecstacy of Consciousness, Valentin Hampejs, the man, the shaman, the story teller, the healer and the hero is, if he is any of this, the devotee. ...As an initiation into the Shamanic Medicines, my time with you has proven to be a lynchpin for the holding of safe and protected spaces in which the four of us will continue to work toward the sharing and healing and awakening of many. ...There are many teachings to be found in our world, and so it is with the utmost of humility that I offer this instruction I received from Mescalito at ther Waterfall of Los Leones...

Work

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-03-13T08:05:43+11:00
As with Terrence, this is not a situation I place myself in because of some perceived moral or developmental superiority, to me it is a matter of common sense. If I purport to love my family, my friends, all my brothers and sisters of my human and non-human family then this work must continue once the dust of the ceremony is washed from our feet. ... If I hide them for fear of upsetting the firmly held beliefs and intellectual structures of others, then I do not honour the gifts graced to me in ceremony by the plant teachers, and by all the other amazing teachers who have presented themselves throughout my life. I do not suggest that I am without stupidity, closed mindedness, racism, sexism, consumer materialism or selfishness for these currents run deep in the unconscious of individuals, nations and indeed the species. ... Again I am honour bound to work with those structures within myself so that I contribute as little as possible to the force of those structures in the world, and indeed give language to the possibilities of the grace and fluidity afforded by subsuming them into the heart felt acknowldgement of what it is to be truly human. ...The work with the Teacher Plants is by no means easy, nor are they panaceas, but they do offer us the very real opportunity to set aside the language of our own habituations, and observe ourselves much more honestly that our personalities allow. Not only that, they offer the opportunity to have an intimate relationship with an "other" which is not human, thus giving us an opportunity for viewing ourselves as part of a much greater system of conciousness. By default this offers us also the opportunity to see our responsibilities within that network, and in an intellectual and political climate of increased individualism, perceived resource insecurity and the intellectual justification of preemptive aggression to grab whatever one wants at whatever the human and ecological cost, this opportunity is in dire need. ...The medicines, and the spirits associated with them, do work at a biophysical level with amazing dexterity and efficacy, but the simple opportunity to see oneself with a lens cleared of the accumulated dross of a lifetime of cultural and personal thoughtforms offers the body/mind/soul a tremendous catalyst to healing. This opportunity to see the individual as a fluid part of a greater system, rather than as a machine at the disposal of an autonomous "I" allows the incredibly sophisticated internal self healing mechanisms of the being to come into play.

Reentry

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-05-16T18:42:42+10:00
After leaving the safety of the circle, it seems I have set about "upsetting the firmly held beliefs and intellectual structures of others" (and indeed myself) making for a very bumpy reentry into my much missed land. ...I suggested that "The work with the Teacher Plants is by no means easy", and this has indeed proved evident. Nonetheless I am aware of much new energetic and informational structure, and am now in a position to share it more broadly. I will go into more detail soon, but the purpose of this post is to advise that I will be available for appointment in Avalon from 25th-29th of May. ...Appointments may be made with Kerrie on 99743223 or 0410 488 247 ...One of the things that I have learned in my recent journey with the Sacred Power Plants is my tendency to overextend my own energy in service of others, leaving myself little in reserve. I realise this situation is unsustainable, and contrary to the desired outcome of my work. As one means of redressing this am changing my fee structure. Sessions will now be charged as below. ...I trust that the value of the work will be recognised and this decision honoured without undue difficulty for those who work with me.

Winter Wholefoods with Gwynne

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-05-21T11:46:47+10:00
For those of you in Avalon looking for a little culinary inspiration, I can personally attest to the wholesome, nurturing, medicinal nature of Gwynne's food. She will be holding a winter wholefoods workshop soon, the details of which are below. ...Simon ... ...Learn & join in the preparation of beautifully delicious Vegetarian Whole Food that is Real, Organic & in season for you, your family & friends. ...Discover simple, easy meals & techniques which harmonise us with the season and support us with balanced health happiness & vitality! ...Wed 7th June 10-2pm or Sat 10th June 1-5pm ...Session will be full of information, hand outs, recipes, hands on demonstration, preparing & eating real food with fun and love! ...Bookings essential ...
Call Gwynne 0414 579 446

Weaving Stories betwixt Worlds

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-06-01T14:32:50+10:00
But even those who do not attain True Enlightenment find some peace and inner serenity through our way. ...Like others, but probably with a double life‚Äîbesides the day job they may have a life in the arts. ...We like to say, ‚Äúin the world, but not of the world.‚ ...
Sagredo: Tell me, how would you characterize the difference between that world and this one? ...I‚Äôll get back to you when it‚Äôs time to dance, instead of this Zen stuff, like being wise. But let me ask you, do you find that there are some who are so ensnared by the Illusion that they haven‚Äôt even glimpsed that there is anything else? ...The experience shows people that there is more to the world than they could ever have imagined. ...In our ordinary mind we forget, we say ‚Äúit‚Äôs this‚Äù or ‚Äúit‚Äôs that.‚ ...I blinked and they had merged back together, into Salviati, who was lounging at the base of a tree, just loafing, chewing on a spear of summer grass. ...tag=ws%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=1562790692%2526tag=ws%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/1562790692%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002">"Pharmako/Poeia : Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft" (Dale Pendell)

On efficacy....

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-06-04T18:48:54+10:00

Thirty-three years old already, for chrissakes. And in all that time, after all that therapy, only one thing worked on my depression‚Äîan ayahuasca "cleansing" with Amazonian shamans.

speaks Kira Salak in a recent National Geographic article

Similar Message

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-06-08T22:34:48+10:00

...An inconvenient truth is that for some the notion of a plant consciousness trying to communicate to humans that the ‚Äútime to wake up and listen to the Mother Earth is NOW‚Äù is a little unpalatable. An ex VIce President of the United States is making a similar call, to quite some critical acclaim
more here and here
Technorati Tags: Al Gore, Documentary, Inconvenient Truth, Climate Change, Film

More good food with Gwynne

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-06-19T17:08:42+10:00
Good nutrition habits can have immediate benefits to quality of life, but also pave the way to a significantly improved mental, physical and emotional health later in life. Gwynne is again conducting workshops in Avalon teaching teens delicious dishes which also provide great nutritional foundations. ...
A day of Exploring, Cooking, Tasting, Creating, Finger Licking Fun!! ...
Yummy meals using Real Alive Organic Wholefoods (vegetarian & sugar free). ...
Confidence & understanding about different foods in our life, how they make us feel & how we can be well, happy, calm, balanced, confident with vitality & energy. ...
a big spoonful of love & laughter ...
Menu: Pumpkin Soup with baked Rice Balls, Home style Baked Beans with Guacamole & toasty Taco‚Äôs, Sweet Bliss Balls. ...
Bookings essential: call Gwynne 0414 579 446
Dates: Monday 10th July 10-2pm, Wednesday 12th July 10-2pm, Friday 14th July 10-2pm ...
Technorati Tags: Healing, health, Food, training

Bellingen Yoga Retreat with Jo Cunningham

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-06-20T10:29:07+10:00
Jo Cunningham will be conducting a Yoga workshop in Bellingen on Saturday, July 29 at the Bellingen Yoga Studio from 9am until 4pm. ...Jo Cunninhgham studied classical yoga under the guidance of Swami Maha Devananda at the Sivananda Vedanta Centre in Kerala, India. She has been teaching yoga for the last six years in Victoria and NSW, and is a member of the YTAA. Jo has taught, prenatal yoga, postnatal, teenagers, beginners, and intermediate students. ... Jo has an active interest in body movement and dance. Her classes are much appreciated for their classical nature, with a focus on breath awareness and flow. ...I will be available for individual sessions for workshop participants on Sunday 30th of July. ...Details of the yoga retreat in PDF format can be downloaded by clicking the image below. ... ...
Technorati Tags: Bellingen, health, breath, retreat, yoga

July Workshop with Mirta Rodriguez

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-06-28T00:38:17+10:00
I will be facilitating a workshop in Avalon with Mirta during the weekend of the 8th and 9th of July. Mirta is well known in Avalon for her work with Light Languages, and I for my own unique manner of healing. The format remains fluid at this moment, but the combination of energies promises a powerful weekend. The focus will be upon empowering the individual's healing such that their own process acts as a catalyst for the healing within the collective and the body of the Mother Earth.
The cost for attendance will be $350, at a venue to be confirmed.
We will keep you informed of the process' unfolding...
...
Technorati Tags: Earth Healing, shamanism, Healing, health, training

New Course with Liz Watters

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-07-06T16:22:10+10:00
LIz Watters, long standing Avalon resident, healer and African tour leader will be beginning an eight week course designed to make a foundation for spiritual and shamanic understanding and practice. The course starts Friday 21st July at 10am - 12:30 and will run for for eight weeks thereafter. Cost of the course is $400 with concessions available. LIz may be contacted by email;
lizzywatters [at] hotmail [dot] com
(please fill in the usual details for the email address which is formulated thus to prevent spam)
...
Technorati Tags: healing, shamanism, training

Singing the Soul Back Home

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-07-11T21:07:43+10:00

Speaking for itself...

Technorati Tags: breath, chanting, healing, retreat, Song, Sound

Site Matters

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-07-22T14:28:26+10:00

The somewhat confusing FeedBlitz subscription service has been replaced with a Feedburner subscription. This service seems considerably easier to manage. If you would like to receive updates to this site via email, please enter your email address above the "Subscribe" button to the right and then follow the instructions provided.
Simon

Middle East Peace

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-07-23T11:28:09+10:00
Recent events in the Israel and Lebanon have been give such a wide variety of written responses that it makes little sense to me to inject my own opinion into the sea of opinion masquerading as objectivity in the datasphere. ...If women all over the world stand up and proclaim for all to see, hear, and know with certainty that all women, on all sides of every conflict, are sick of sacrificing their children to the abomination of hatred, cruelty, and unnecessary death, we could change things. ...I propose that on that day at precisely 10 AM (in each time zone), all women everywhere on the planet stop whatever they are doing and step out into the street, or up to their government headquarters, or gather in a prominent public place and proclaim with one voice ¬ìNO MORE WAR!!! ...
If we could find a way to communicate with and unite all women, even for a moment, our stand will pass like a great wave around the world, and soften the hearts of fathers, uncles, brothers and government leaders who believe that aggression and retaliation are the only valid responses to current world situations. ...
I offer this idea as a seed that can be watered by your thoughts and input and passed on as a collaborative effort to unite women and create peace. My hope is that if we circulate this message through all our networks and circles, we will reach enough women by September 21 to make a difference. ...You can send me any ideas or suggestions and I will post them on my new page, http://www.shamanicjourneys.com/womenforpeace.html. Hopefully, our message will find its way into Darfur and Iraq, into Israel, Lebanon and Palestine, into our own urban war zones, and into all places that are being torn apart by conflict. ...
One could say, that the power structure (etheric body) of the Earth, within the framework of the Earth changes has become strong enough, to be able to transform conflicts into creative processes, capable to bring forth proper solutions. ...
Technorati Tags: Earth Healing, healing, Middle East, Peace

The Age of Nations is Past

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-07-24T23:04:04+10:00
So wrote Teilhard de Chardin the visionary Jesuit author, geologist, paleontologist, and philosopher-theologian in 1955. 8 years prior in his 1947 work "La formation de la Noosph√®re" he elaborated upon Verdansky's notion of the noosphere ...With every day that passes it becomes a little more impossible for us to act or think otherwise than collectively." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (The Formation of the Noosphere, 1947) ...My point in raising the idea is that the notion that collective human action and intention can have profound material consequence is not a new one, nor is it a singularly "spiritual" one. Terrence McKenna in one of his many entheogenically inspired ramblings suggested. ...Phillip K Dick, the visionary science fiction writer who gained much noteriety after his untimely death suggested in his Man, Android and Machine that; ......the noosphere...no longer served as a mere passive repository of human internal information (the "Seas of Knowledge" which ancient Sumer believed in) but, due to the incredible surge of charge from our electronic signals and information-rich material therein, we have given it power to cross a vast threshold; we have, so to speak, resurrected what Philo and other ancients called the internal linkLogos. ...We have been made intimately aware of the capacity of humanity to turn this potential for manifestation into the 'dark Satanic mills' of Blake's visions, or the scarred war torn landscapes which are available for our vicarious viewing from the safety of our loungerooms at the flick of a switch. One must look considerably deeper than the monolithic, corporate state's vision of reality to see the vision of hope and faith in the potential for good in the species which has appeared again and again in the history of thought, art and deed. ...We stand at a crucial moment in the evolution of the species, and it is well within our power in this moment to realise our interconnectivity, our place within the species and upon the planet and bring to bear our considerable personal power within that process to realise that which has been intimated by many who have come before us. If we do not, it seems, we acquiesce to a social order which believes it can only be maintained by 'external violence' and control and in doing so denigrate the very great gift of life that we are offered. ...
Technorati Tags: consciousness, evolution, Middle East, Peace, Teilhard de Chardin

Planetary Mind

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-07-30T14:58:16+10:00
Back at the turn of the millennium, the local government I was working for asked community members to contribute their vision of the municipality in the year 2025. ... In their envisioned future, they imagined a community with only indoor parks. Beyond these parks, there would be no trees, no plants, no birds, and no animals. Freshwater would be gone, because lakes and streams would either be dried up or too polluted to support life; drinking water would have to be created from desalinization plants on the coast. In the future these children predicted, universities and colleges would be closed because everyone would learn -- alone -- through their personal computers.... Why would children who lived in an idyllic natural environment -- surrounded by trees, a rich diversity of plants and lush gardens, abundant wildlife including deer and cougars, large forested parks, and fish-bearing streams -- imagine a future that was ecologically dead? ...the full article can be found here AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Our Planet's Future Isn't Dead ...I recently discovered this article by Karen Hurley whilst examining a link to my site from the Future Hi website. It, to me, segued nicely from my previous post, pointing to the need to acknowledge our collectivity, the power of our stories to be made manifest, and the very real need therefore to be conscious of and in the stories we tell ourselves and our children of our present and our future. ...
Technorati Tags: children, Climate Change, consciousness, Earth Healing, evolution, health, story

...and so a positive story

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-07-30T15:47:10+10:00
For most people, eating organic means a trip to the local whole- foods store and, often, a hit to their wallets. For the Dervaes family, eating organic requires only a trip to the garden. The family of four raises 3 tons of food each year -- enough to supply three-quarters of their diet and maintain a thriving organic produce business to boot.

Jules Dervaes, along with his three grown children, lives on 1/5 of an acre in suburban Pasadena and cultivates about half the property, or 1/10 of an acre. Given that the average American's diet requires 1.2 acres of farmland per person, the Dervaeses are eating quite well off one-fiftieth of the land the rest of us require.
Full article here from the same publication which posted this (by way of juxtaposition) discovered at Grist magazine.

Technorati Tags: Climate Change, consciousness, Earth Healing, evolution, Food, health, Middle East, Oil dependance

..and at a practical level, closer to home

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-07-31T00:47:38+10:00

.....another option for the creation of more sustainable, sustaining stories......

Technorati Tags: consciousness, deep ecology, healing, retreat, council of all beings, story

September News

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-09-13T09:44:28+10:00
A reminder that registrations for Singing the Soul Back Home retreat will shortly be closing, please contact Kerrie or Karen directly if you wish to spend the weekend in song with them at the beautiful Govinda Valley Retreat centre. ... Gwynne Jones will again be offering teachings of culinary delights as medicine in her Celebrate Spring workshop. Details may be perused in the document available here. ...As ever Kerrie will arrange bookings and can be reached on 0410 488 247. Why not speak to her about Singing the Soul Back Home! ...On the whole we have been conditioned to imagine ourselves unable to participate in the makings of health, confronted by a monolithic, paternal and bureaucratic mechanism which cares more for management than care. I say this not to detract from the exceptional work done by many individuals in the hospital and healthcare system, but in recognition that something is fundamentally wrong with the health of the community. The reductive, statistical, management and control model is floundering in the face of antibiotic resistant bacteria, mutated disease forms, potential pandemics and excessive resource use compounded by lack of funding. ...By actively participating in healthcare, which is to say creation of health at an individual and community level we empower ourselves and reduce dependance upon crisis care and symptomatic relief. ... What better way to redress the imbalance of these onslaughts than to create economies at a community level which support health, harmony and beauty, nurture life and promulgate Love. ...
Technorati Tags: breath, Food, healing, health, Song, Sound, training, workshop, yoga

Lakshmi's Story

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-09-18T20:33:25+10:00

One of the participants of our recent journey to Venezuela, for work with the Sacred Medicines there recounts her personal journey toward healing... ...The first page of her account is reproduced below, the remainder of which can be accessed as a PDF by clicking Download LakshmiStory-2.pdf (170.3K) ...Please note that this document has been edited to remove a quote from Alan Shoemaker which Valentin and his wife Edna felt defamatory. The document was edited at their request. Apologies are offered for any unintentional hurt that this reproduction of Alan's quote has caused.

Technorati Tags: consciousness, Earth Healing, healing, health, retreat, shamanism, story

More Yoga with Gwynne

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-10-22T18:38:20+10:00

... ...Open your Heart ...
Yoga for abundant energy & power in the body. ...
Yoga to improve & strengthen our body function & energy flow through ...
strengthening the small intestine digestive (absorption) function & opening the heart energy (communication within & around us). ...Gwynne is teaching a 6 week seasonal yoga course (Japanese yoga) to open into summer ‚Äì an open expansive Heart
Focus: strengthen & tone the lower body (power in the belly) and release (soften) upper body tension. ...
No casual attendance as this is a closed class for pre paid course attendee‚Äôs. ...
Technorati Tags: health, training, workshop, yoga

Snr Valentin Hampejs

Quantum Life Studios — 2006-10-29T12:54:07+11:00

A short documentary (Spanish language) with Valentin Hampejs speaking of the Sacred Medicines of the South American tradition.

Technorati Tags: Ayahuasca, Valentin Hampejs, Sacred Medicine, San Pedro, shamanism

Africa Safari

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-01-09T11:34:29+11:00

More information about the journey available here. Please use the email me link to the left to contact me should you wish to participate in this remarkable opportunity.

Technorati Tags: Africa, Credo Mutwa, healing, Liz Watters, safari, sangoma, shamanism, Simon Green

Happy New Year

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-01-09T16:37:00+11:00
I hope that 2007 changes that, as any increase in transmission of constructive information, and means of self, collective and plantetary empowerment must surely be preferred to the ocean of fear, violence and banality which has become the diet of the majority of modern media consumers. ...Mystical Journey to Africa with Liz Watters and Simon Green. ... For those of you who are joining us, I will say that the energy for the event is very present and building, and I will be very pleased to meet with all of you for our departure at Sydney airport on March 9. ...Sacred Medicine Seminars. I had planned to make myself available for a group to journey to Venezuela immediately after the African safari for work with Sr. Valentin Hampejs and the Sacred Medicines but have decided to postpone that event until June or July. ... I will offer further news in that regard when I have it, but would recommend that those who have a definitive desire to share the experience let me know their intentions at their earliest convenience so that the needs of the group can be clearly gauged. ...Ordinary Graces will be a collection of individuals tales of the manner in which grace has unfolded in their lives, allowing them access to realms of spiritual growth of which they had previously not conceived. ...Although I am no proponent of the "pick and choose spiritual supermarket" of the worst of "New Age" excesses, it is very clear to me that each individual must make their own point of connection with the myriad manifestations of the Divine. ...Those of you who have worked with me will see that my personal association with the realm of business takes a certain amount of energy which could be more healthily utilised elsewhere. ...At this juncture the best way to keep informed of regularly updatedinformation provided in this weblog is is to use the Feedburner subscription link at the bottom right hand side of the Home Page at Quantum Life Bodyworks. ...
Technorati Tags: Africa, Ayahuasca, Bellingen, consciousness, Credo Mutwa, Earth Healing, healing, health, Liz Watters, Sacred Medicine, safari, San Pedro, Simon Green, story, training, Valentin Hampejs, workshop

on Spirits

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-01-18T22:23:54+11:00
One of the most difficult aspects of my work to articulate from within our current cultural world view is the notion of non corporeal consciousness' which interact very tangibly with the human realm. This is partly and obviously due to the current climate of scientism built upon a cultural framework of aristotelian logic and judeo-christian moral values, but also due to what I perceive as a kind of intellectual non-dualism popularised by a superficial reading of Eastern thought. In these cases notions of "spirits" are often met with expressions of "that's just ridiculous superstition" from the former perspective and "that's merely a projection of your mind" from the latter. ...I do not purport to know ultimate truths, I simply recount my observations, and these observations seem to often make a good deal of sense in the moments in which they are articulated. ...At this stage of my evolution, it feels to me that something is rather systemically and generally awry with the way we are conducting ourselves collectively on this beautiful planet. Something is fundamentally wrong with the way I am culturally conditioned to think about the world around me, and I see the evidence of of such poor conditioning in the relationships which others about me have with their worlds. ...This grief, I have noticed, often feels so overwhelming and so much bigger than an individual that individuals can make 'no sense' of it, and so set about contorting themselves into strange intellectual positions in order to allow them to continue their daily lives. ...My proposition is that the nature of this grief is not simply that of the individual, and I feel that the intuiting of this is what stimulates the strong control mechanism of the culturally conditioned mind. ... Now the notion of a collective human consciousness of a Jungian nature is not particularly threatening to the modern cultural mind, but I am speaking of a broader collective. ...
Technorati Tags: deep ecology, Earth Healing, evolution, healing, Peace, Sacred Medicine, shamanism, spirits

on Community

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-01-19T00:55:45+11:00

David Abram in his book The Spell of the Sensuous says; ..."Any healer who was not simultaneously attending to the intertwined relation between the human community and the larger, more-than-human field, would likely dispel an illness from one person only to have the same problem arise (perhaps in a new guise) somewhere else in the community. ...For true healing to occur, i feel, relationships must be known and felt, such that the breakdowns in those relationships may be addressed clearly and decisively when they arise (thus limiting dis-ease). ... In many instances throughout our day, relationships are conducted through the exchange of small pieces of plastic which have scant relation to the nature of our embodied presence in the world, and the impact such transactions have upon our world. Our culture defines itself by the exchange of money for things, and the imbalance of this situation is demonstrable in the breakdown of human to human relationship and the relationships of humans to the broader world that they inhabit, the "more-than-human field". ...These notions are perhaps difficult to assimilate for a mind conditioned by a modern, industrial society, but the notion that we humans are the sole agents of sentinece in the cosmos seems to me to be the height of hubris, certainly as illogical as any tales of other dimensional beings which the European and Christian empires have tried to brutally suppress in indigenous peoples around the world. ... ...
Despite our great technological advancements (which allow me in part to communicate this now) there is so very much that we do not know, but we do know in our hearts, that the way that we are currently conducting ourselves is not serving us well. ...I recently had the great pleasure to meet with Kulavadhuta Satpurananda and when I discussed with him notions of spirits he suggested that we need to understand that what we call spirits are simply the projections of our minds upon Spanda, the subtle creative pulse of the universe as it manifests into the dynamism of living form. ... Until, however, I attain and exist in that ultimate attainment, I am, in part a member of the human community, and as such have a relationship to all the myriad other manifestations of Spanda in the worlds, human, spirits, deities and demons.

on Entities

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-01-19T01:24:41+11:00
Yet another perspective unravelled verbally by three remarkable men, Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham and Rupert Sheldrake. ...From Matrixmasters.com ...Trialogues at the Edge of the West
"Entities"
1989-1990 Tape 6 Side A ...Trialogues at the Edge of the West
"Entities"
1989-1990 Tape 6 Side B

that which gives you Life

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-01-27T14:00:32+11:00

The sun is currently giving mixed signals to scientists. From NASA's website
Solar cycle 24, due to peak in 2010 or 2011 "looks like its going to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago," says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. He and colleague Robert Wilson presented this conclusion last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

on Madness

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-01-31T13:27:43+11:00
Whilst on the subject of the Sun, it has been heartening to see a large turnout for local Bellingen events hosted by John Seed and including screenings of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. ...Not so heartening was this perspective which was recently recounted on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald.
"The US government wants the world's scientists to develop technology to block sunlight as a last-ditch way to halt global warming, the Guardian has learned. It says research into techniques such as giant mirrors in space or reflective dust pumped into the atmosphere would be "important insurance" against rising emissions, and has lobbied for such a strategy to be recommended by a major UN report on climate change, the first part of which will be published on Friday. ...
The US has also attempted to steer the UN report, prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), away from conclusions that would support a new worldwide climate treaty based on binding targets to reduce emissions - as sought by Tony Blair. It has demanded a draft of the report be changed to emphasise the benefits of voluntary agreements and to include criticisms of the Kyoto Protocol, the existing treaty which the US administration opposes."
When will we have the courage collectively and culturally to say what we know to be true in our hearts. ...
Technorati Tags: Climate Change, consciousness

on Thought

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-02-01T01:11:42+11:00
Unfortunately said automation was interpreted retroactively and set about responding not only to new emails, but also the 5,000 odd prior emails I had received which were still in my inbox. ...Similarly, poorly constructed thought forms can propagate themselves temporally long after the originating thought is set in motion, and can apply themselves across a wide variety of situations, most of which bear very little relation to the original situation which set the whole structure in motion. ...Certainly that is a relatively simplistic metaphor for the incredibly complex functioning of the human psyche, but many process' are simplistic and simply need articulation so that they can be recognised and dealt with in future. ...The end result of which caused the Earth to tremble, as the story goes, in that moment and it certainly has had that effect historically as the impact of one man's awakening has spread around the world and through the passage of centuries. ...Well I often don't feel the need to have one, nor do I profess to, but I feel it certainly worth considering that the eschewing of the examination of our own negativities for the sake of "projecting positivity" can have (and has had) disastrous consequences, and I feel strongly that there is plenty of room in the debate about consciousness and how it relates to health of the individual, the cultural body and the body of the Mother Earth for the examination of what is actually there, rather than what we would like to be there. ...Many of us take delight in the telephone call from the person we were moments ago thinking of, enjoying the feeling of connectedness, but few perhaps consider the possibility that our less than compassionate thoughts of others may also have an impact outside of our immediate sphere of consciousness. ...Larry Dossey MD suggests that "unless health care practitioners acknowledge the capacity of our thoughts for harm, we will remain blind to the harm we cause others through our mental behaviours" in a heartfelt examination of the topic of The Dark Side of Consciousness and the Therapeutic Relationship. ...The Gnostics suggested that the action of the Archons in the world was through "a kind of subliminal invasion at the level of thought and language (i.e., mental syntax)"1, yet these perspectives seem to elicit a distinct discomfort if brought to the light of conversation or debate. ...I am certainly not suggesting that one wallow in the negativity that abounds in this epoch, but recognising it's existence and naming it, calling it for what it truly is, offers a very real possibility of personal and cultural freedoms from old, unconscious and extremely destructive patterns of thought and subsequent behaviours, something that all the beings on this Earth are now in need of. ...
Technorati Tags: consciousness, evolution, healing, puppy, shadow

Conversely...on Joy, Fun and Happiness

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-02-01T01:33:15+11:00
...A Partner Yoga Class
with Gwynne ...Monday
12th February
6pm ‚Äì 7.30pm ...Breathing & laughing together, finding safe support through a creative fun practice to explore & encourage wellbeing & fulfilment in our lives in a safe and nurturing environment. ...
United in posture with a friend, lover or a fellow yogi deepens our understanding of us & awareness of others. Have fun learning & exploring yoga postures that you can do together share the fulfilment of an open heart & a connected yoga practice. ...
Where: The Breathing Space in Avalon, Chelsea Lane

Tonic Gold

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-02-10T21:14:28+11:00
I have been, for the last month or so, making a trial of a product which has come to my attention by the name of Tonic Gold. ... ...I rarely use supplements and am wary of the claims of many, but must say that in my experience, and in the experience of others that I have witnessed, I feel that the efficacy of this product is profound indeed. ...I am struck also by the care and dedication that is evident in it's making. ...I will be stocking and recommending this product as I see relevance, but for those who feel a resonance with it, and wish to contact the Australian distributor directly, she is Judith Horton, and can be contacted here; ...
LAKSHMI PRODUCTS
1227 Tantawangalo Mountain Rd
Tantawangalo NSW 2550
(02) 6493 2026
lakshmiproducts@acr.net.au

on Sacred Activism...by Andrew Harvey

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-02-20T18:54:00+11:00
I have been advised that the image displayed in the embedded video is the result of the Google algorithm which picks the frame to display for any given video...just watch the video! ...I just discovered that the link to the Google Video seemed to have been hacked with an image of Hitler. I am all for transmuting the negative with the force of the Love of the Mother, but found the image somewhat offensive to display here, so suggest finding the video directly at Google. ...Andrew Harvey, Oxford scholar and visionary, believes that our survival depends on Sacred Activism, a fusion of profound mystical awareness, passion, clarity and sacred practice with wise, dedicated, radical action. Andrew has a very similar perspective to my own, albeit coloured by the experiences of his particular personality. I said a number of posts prior that; "any increase in transmission of constructive information, and means of self, collective and plantetary empowerment must surely be preferred to the ocean of fear, violence and banality which has become the diet of the majority of modern media consumers." Andrew Harvey presents here, the very kind of constructive media that I was speaking of, the kind of media which not only inspires, but empowers to action. ...
Technorati Tags: Andrew Harvey, empowerment, inspiration, puppy, Sacred Activism

on Mass Extinction

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-03-04T20:33:17+11:00
"It is not too late, we have all that it takes to care for the world we inherited. We have only to make up our minds to do it..." A trailer for a documentary which seems to be expressing much of that which I have been divining in the bodies of clients, yet from a scientific rather than intuitive perspective. We need to find the language to weave all these stories into a common cultural reversal of the madness which weighs heavy in the hearts of us all... and we can do it.. With Love Simon

Healing Arts Vibrational Essence Workshop

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-06-05T16:13:18+10:00

This workshop will be conducted over three days on the 15th, 16th and 17th of June in Whale Beach by Joanne and Maria, who will also be offering individual healings on the 12th, 13th and 14th of June, prior to the workshop.
Details of the event can be obtained by contacting Corrie on 02 9974 3009.

Technorati Tags: healing, health, Energy Medicine, workshop

on Shamanism, Secrets and Stuff

Quantum Life Studios — 2007-06-09T15:10:58+10:00
‚ÄúAbove all else, we who say that we are ‚Äúfree‚Äù in the economically advanced and democratic nations of the world, and who arrogantly set up our societies as models for others to follow, need to pause and reflect. ... And on what authority do we portray our kind of ‚Äúfreedom‚Äù as a universal example, or claim to possess great and useful knowledge about the human condition, when we ourselves are denied the freedom that is still granted today to any peasant-farmer or hunter gatherer drinking ayahuasca in jungle clearings in the Amazon - namely the freedom to investigate the mysterious depths of our own minds?‚ ...This assumption of superiority and possession of pivotal understandings comes ready and neatly packaged in such populist productions as The Secret and Graham Hancock highlights the fact that we in ‚Äúadvanced and democratic nations‚Äù do not have the ‚Äúfreedom to investigate the mysterious depths of our own minds‚Äù. ...
In comparative mythologist John Lamb Lash's excellent book, "Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief , Derrick Jensen describes our position thus.. ...Abrahamic, monotheistic religions have convinced us as a species (in fact mainly the male of the species) over the last 2000 years, that our position on Earth is that of landlord, able to exploit the Earth and her creatures as we see fit. ...This attitude unfortunately feeds very conveniently into centuries of psychic programming, that of retribution wrought upon sinning humans by a wrathful father deity for their sinfulness, leaving those who do not "manifest" their desires responsible for their own failure, thus further entrenching the notion that they are in fact flawed. ...
The narcissistic attitude that the universe is geared entirely for the individuals wish fulfillment, that indigenous mythologies and practices can be culled of their more irksome notions and subsumed into a safe, effortless intellectual process to further the spread of an increasingly neotenised global human culture would be laughable, if it did not have the potential for such disastrous consequences. ...It seems in this culture, despite thousands of years of accumulated wisdom of indigenous and mestizo populations, that work with the Sacred Medicines, with the Plant Teachers is not only decried by those who purport to be transpersonal in their perspectives, but prohibited by law! ...
I am certainly not alone in my perspective that we are at an increasingly precarious position in our species evolution, and although there is tentative hope, averting catastrophe seems to require concerted and collective efforts, the recognition that there is not ONE way to proceed, respect for all life on the planet, and a vast and immediate reconsideration of our cultural mechanisms.