Inner transition: outer transition
The benefits of intention, healing, meditation and prayer in saving the planet and ourselves.
Join us in regular healing meditation!
I was thinking about what Joanna Macy says about the need for using the ‘hands, head and heart’ in the way we approach the changes that need to happen to save the planet and ourselves. I have also been thinking about the permaculture principle of assessing what resources we have available that can be used in a more effective and sustainable way to benefit the whole system e.g. Glastonbury in transition.
When pondering on this I realised one of the greatest resources we have that we could use to much greater effect with very little effort is in fact ourselves, and in particular our thoughts and intentions (the head and the heart). I looked into this and have found a large amount of research and evidence that shows how effective this is. I have given just a few links below that illustrate this which I think make fascinating and inspiring reading.
This is obviously not a new idea but it is one that TTs could use for much greater benefit . We do not have the material or financial resources of the trans-national corporations involved in destroying the world through greed and the desire for power and control. We do however have one another and we can through our minds and hearts tap into a much more powerful and vast resource. The sum total is greater than its parts and if enough people start to think in a certain way the indications our that we can change things for the better. In permaculture terms it is a resource that we have in abundance so it should be utilised much more ~ brought more into the ‘design’, and it is inherently sustainable and very cost effective in terms of time and energy.
Links that show how effective this can be:
1. Book review and website: ‘Healing, Intention & Energy Medicine: Science, Research Methods & Clinical Implication’ by Wayne Jonas MD, www/nursingknowledge.org
2. Book and website: ‘The Intention Experiment’ by Lynne McTaggart (author of ‘The Field’), www.theintentionexperiment.com
3. Article online and link: Meditation, Prayer & Spiritual Healing: The Evidence’ by Marilyn Schlitz PhD. Considers over 1600 studies that show overwhelming evidence. http://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/sum05/evidence.htm
4. Article online and link: Scientific Research of Prayer: can the power of prayer be proven? By Debra Williams DD. http://www.plim.org/PrayerDeb.htm
5. Website and book: Experiments using shamanic healing and toning to clean water that was polluted and other shamanic ways to help the planet. ‘Medicine For the Earth’ by Sandra Ingerman. www.medicinefortheearth.com and articles on this in www.shamanicvisions.com
6. Article online and website: Spiritual activism and ritual in the shamanic magazine The Sacred Hoop: www.circlelivingearth.org about the alchemy of social activism.
7. Book and websites: ‘Alchemy of Light’ by Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee. About the power of spiritual consciousness as an agent of global change. www.goldensufi.org and also www.workingwithoneness.org
This idea also reminded me of the story from just after the 2nd world war when some leading Nazis were interviewed and asked why they think they lost the war, they said something along the lines that they thought it was due to the British using a secret weapon that helped to counter act everything they did which was associated with the 9pm one minutes silence where people throughout Britain and the world stopped what they were dong and concentrated their thoughts on good will and peace, a link to this is: http://bahai-library.com/index.php5?file=pole_writing_ground
I suspect quite a few people involved in TG or other transition towns probably already have a spiritual practice or a quiet time. Myself and my partner Jane Sanders for example try to meditate morning and evening, we do not always achieve this but we manage to do it fairly regularly. I also know Marke Pawson of TG meditates and sends out healing every morning, so Marke has made a start on this idea already.
Having talked with Marke about this idea at the transition tea yesterday we decided to go public to invite you all to join in. Marke usually does his meditation anywhere between 7.30 and 8.30am I think, so we are going to try and do the same as well as roughly the same time in the evenings. We do not think it is absolutely necessary to be all meditating at exactly the same time as long as enough people join in.
Maybe we could also think an appropriate time for a one minute silence which does have a specific time everyday ~ any suggestions most welcome?
With best wishes from Andrew Johnson
