highest recorded scores in his ability to recognize the emotional states of individuals in photographs flashed for one fifth of a second or less. Talk about theta states being able to improve empathy! And amazingly, our monk demonstrated something researchers had never seen before: the almost complete absence of a startle response in his facial muscles while in a meditative state when exposed to the sound of a gunshot at close range. In these tests, not even police marksmen with years of experience with firearms could suppress this startle response.
Wow, when a gunshot can go off next to your head, and you don’t flinch, I guess you really “don’t mind what happens.” Truly, this is the peace that passeth all understanding.
Interestingly, newer iterations of BBF technology, such as Dr. Jeffery Thompson’s Gamma Meditation System, capitalize on this recent research and entrain gamma and hyper-gamma waves. Imagine a mental workout that gets our mind in shape to think happy, compassionate thoughts, with no monthly gym charges, just a one-time CD or download charge. Plus, just think, you won’t freak out so much when the next drive-by shooting happens in the neighborhood.
My experience with BBF has been quite positive. When I first heard of these audio recordings, I was so excited that I told myself I was going to listen every day. Well, that turned out to be three or four times a week in reality. But within a week, I noticed that I could stay more focused on my clients during sessions, my meditations deepened, and I experienced more intuitive flashes. Additionally, I found that my meditations were deeper, even without the headphones. Although I am new to the gamma and hyper-gamma audios, the first time I used them, I experienced a number of head rushes, similar to Kundalini-type experiences that I had had in other settings.
At times when I have had difficulty sleeping, I have found delta sleep audios a godsend, although I don’t always stay asleep with them, they almost always get me to sleep.
Where to start?
A good introduction to this work is a beautiful CD by Dr. Andrew Weil, called Sound Body, Sound Mind. It has an almost hour-long track that starts in Beta, meeting you in regular waking state, gradually taking you down to Alpha and Theta, with thirty minutes in “the deep,” a lovely little sonic tonic, that helps you relax, regroup, and may well boost your immune system. Then it gently returns you to your regularly scheduled program of waking consciousness in Beta. Whenever I feel myself getting sick, I use Sound Body, Sound Mind to head off colds and flus, and it usually does the trick. It’s also helpful when I have grief I need to attend to. Yes, I know that is not the same as a randomized double-blind placebo controlled study that might constitute a bit more proof, but since we are getting so close, I thought you might like to know if it was good for me.
Dr. Jeffrey Thompson’s Brainwave music system offers the listener journeys into alpha, theta, and delta states in a setting of tranquil tones and the sounds of nature. Let’s not forget Hemi-Sync, the company that pioneered the technology. Go to their website and you can peruse BBF CDs and downloads that offer everything from focus and concentration to (theoretically) astral travel. Sorry, but my out-of-body travel is limited to brief excursions catalyzed by listening to political pundits on TV.
But . . .
For more than twenty years, our government pumped millions of dollars into a remote viewing program in which trained soldiers, who had demonstrated potential intuitive skills, were to become so-called “psychic spies.” After some preliminary preparation, the first place they sent trainees was the Monroe Institute, to listen to—you guessed it—Hemi-Sync audios to boost their psychic abilities. Legion of Merit award-winner Joseph McMoneagle, widely regarded as the most accurate of the military’s remote viewers, also worked with Monroe audios using Hemi-Sync to both improve his abilities and also better control his spontaneous out-of-body experiences. After all, Cayce said that everyone “has clairvoyant, mystic, psychic powers” (Edgar Cayce reading 1500-4), but they had to be developed. Why not put the very best training tools in your corner?
Welcome to the future of your mind.
4
Past Lives, Future Lives, and the Afterlife: Understanding Your Karmic Arc
“[Under hypnosis] the conscious mind becomes subjugated to the . . . superconscious or soul mind . . . From any subconscious mind information may be obtained, either from this plane or from impressions left by individuals that have gone before.”
Edgar Cayce reading 3744-3
Not So Sound Bites
The television camera was all but looking over my shoulder as I began to take my subject back to another lifetime. The conditions were hardly ideal. For starters, I was outdoors on the patio of a chain hotel; the Sacramento spring air was close and muggy, and periodically people were passing by. My client sat in a lawn chair, a last-minute volunteer whom I had never met, pressed into service by a bubbly young female reporter to “demonstrate” past-life regression therapy for a local network affiliate. To top it all off, the woman I was hypnotizing, a kind and gentle soul, was hard of hearing.
“It’s okay,” she said a bit loudly, when she volunteered. “I read lips pretty well.”
That was of great comfort to me, given that most of the time she was hypnotized, she would be sitting there with her eyes closed.
I had flown into California to essentially keynote at a weekend event called The Healing Arts Festival, produced by my friend Marci Mortensson. As the featured speaker, I would be offering a couple of abbreviated group past-life regressions as well as an exercise called Discover Your Destiny, that had helped lots of people intuitively grasp their life’s mission and even apparently see a glimpse of their future. The trip seemed like a good idea at the time, especially when I had conspired with my best friend, Jack Morrison, to piggy-back some R&R after the conference. He would fly in and meet me, and we would drive over the mountains to hang at Lake Tahoe. Marci had told me—no, warned me—that the media might be there.
Television is anything but a patient medium. Media today is all sound bites and snippets. Heaven forbid that anyone spend more than ten seconds on any subject. I knew I needed something visual. I decided on a rapid-induction technique I had learned when I trained under Dr. Brian Weiss, the leading authority in the field and the author of the best-selling Many Lives, Many Masters. Basically it was a technique that would put someone under hypnosis all but instantly . . . but not something that you would want to screw up on television.
Mary was seated in front of me, and I was standing. I asked her to place her open palm in mine and to look up at me. I tipped my head down, burning my gaze into her eyes.
“Look at me, Mary. Look at me. You are getting sleepy, sleepy. Your eyes are tired, heavy, limp, loose, relaxed. You can’t fight them . . .” I said firmly. She began to glaze over slightly.
“Your eyelids are so heavy, so very heavy, you can’t fight it—sleepy . . . heavy . . . limp . . . loose . . . relaxed . . .”
Her eyelids began to blink rapidly.
“Sleep!” I commanded.
Her eyelids snapped shut, her shoulders collapsing, her chin falling to her chest. As I recall, I literally
