Sky-pointing Tracheal Flutter

This is a slightly edited version of what also appears on my website with a photo of a snowy egret sky-pointing display at http://www.raysender.com/skypointing.html

Recently, I recalled that the courtship displays of various long-billed bird species (the booby, albatross and snowy egret amongst them) involve a gesture that ornithologists call ‘sky-pointing’ –- the head thrown back and the beak pointing skywards. Birds also tilt their heads back to slide water down their throats –- perhaps there is a relationship between the two gestures (“You’re my cool drink of water, honey-pie!”)?

I tried the sky-pointing gesture lying on my back. A pillow placed under my chest tilted my head back nicely, and that allowed me to place the sound further down into my chest. Smiling widely, with head thrown back (breathe in from the corners of the mouth as well as the nose)

INHALE:
Snoring a loud SNORE on the inhale through mouth and nose, deeply into the chest, rattling the septum and resonating into the chest: KAWWWWWWWWW

EXHALE:
Gargling a loud GARGLE on the exhale, sounding a French 'r' in the back of the throat and the chest: KUNHHHHHHHHHHH

After ten rounds, making sure that I resonate the trachea all the way into the lungs, I can feel my fingers and toes begin to tingle. Why? I think it's because the trachea snuggles up against the aorta, the main artery of the body, as it enters the heart. The tracheal resonance vibrates the aorta and the heart, which pass the vibration out through all the veins and arteries of the body.

For more information on tracheal resonance, do a search on the phrase on line. It will lead you to vocal coaches' websites talking about how "tracheal resonance" is what gives Pavarotti his marvelous voice. "Beautiful chest tones," I believe is the usual expression one hears. But for me, it's just a beautiful feeling.

Not thinking of a fox, and then... not wondering...

My American mother Julia's one-armed Great Aunt Emma's cure for hiccups, was to "Walk around the house not thinking of a fox." Actually not thinking of a fox is a great meditation teaching. But while not thinking of a fox, I also not-wondered what the fox himself was not thinking. I think this photo points this out.



"At the moment of no-thought, no-thought itself is not," said Wu Zhu

Soft Focus - Open Focus

I've been fooling around with this simple exercise:

Open eyes wide in amazement - you naturally smile when you do this.
Keep blinking naturally, but 'soften the focus' and especially relax all
the muscles around - and BEHIND - the eyes.

The minute I do this, a kind of vibration begins - I estimate it's vibrating at about 10 cycles per second - and a flow of energy begins in the solar plexus, arms, hands, etc. I can hold it for about a minute or so, and then seem to 'plateau' out on it - this always has been my problem -- bumping up against my bliss tolerance, so I have to consciously relax more. But I'm really EXCITED about what an easy gateway this is to what writer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined as 'Flow' in his book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience."

Serendipitously, while cleaning up my desktop on the 'puter, I ran into a .pdf I must have downloaded at some point on an 'Open Focus' essay and exercise that seems to be on this same wavelength. It's a little more involved than mine, but looks very good!
I think I may record it and then just listen to it. Here's the basic exercise they include. It's a little more detailed than mine, so why not try mine first (smile):

from The Attentional Foundation of Health and Well-Being
by Lester G. Fehmi, Ph.D. George Fritz, Ed.D.
published in SOMATICS. Spring 1980
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IS IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO IMAGINE OR CAN YOU IMAGINE —

the space between your eyes. . . . ears...
throat. . . shoulders . . . hips . . .thumb
and first finger on each hand... first and
middle finger on each hand . . . middle
and fourth finger on each hand . . .
the space between all your fingers
simultaneously. . .
that your thumbs are filled with space...
that your first fingers. . . middle fingers .
. . fourth fingers . . . little fingers . . .
hands and fingers are filled with space..
that the region between the tips of your
fingers and your wrists... between your
wrists and your elbows... between your
elbows and shoulders . . . between your
shoulders is filled with space . . .
that the space inside your throat is coextensive
with the space between your
shoulders and in your shoulders and
arms, hands, and fingers . . .
that the regions inside your shoulders,
and the regions between your shoulders
and fingertips are simultaneously filled
with space . . .
the space between your toes ...
that your toes are filled with space . . .
that your feet and toes. . . the region between
your arches and your an kles... between
your ankles and your knees... between
your knees and your hips. . . between
your hips is filled with space . . .
that your buttocks are filled with space..
that your buttocks and the region between
your hips and your legs and feet
and toes are simultaneously filled with
space . . .
that your genitals are filled with space...
that the region between your genitals and
your anus is filled with space . . .
that your lower abdomen ... lower back
is filled with space . . .
that your body from the diaphragm
down is filled with space, including your
diaphragm, your genitals, your anus,
and your feet and toes . . . '.
the space inside your bladder
that the region between your kidneys ...
inside your kidneys . . . between your
navel and your backbone ... inside your
stomach . . . inside your rib cage .. .between
your ribs . . . between your
shoulder blades... inside your breasts..
between your breast bone and your backbone
. . . between your shoulders and
your ribs... inside your neck... between
your shoulder blades and your chin is
filled with space . . .
the space inside your lungs ... inside your
bronchial tubes as you inhale and exhale...
* The reader may wish to participate experientially
in the exercise. If so, in order to experience
beneficial effects, it is important to
allow at least fifteen seconds for each image.
For instance, can you imagine the space between
your eyes . . . (15 seconds). . . ears . . .
(15 seconds) . . . throat . . . (15 seconds) .
the space inside your throat... your nose as
you inhale and exhale . . .
the space between the tip of your chin and
the inside of your throat. . . between the
space inside your throat and the space inside
your ears... between the space inside
your throat and to the top of your head...
between the space inside your throat and
the space behind your eyes . . .
that your jaw . . . cheeks and mouth . . .
tongue... teeth and gums... lips are filled
with space .. .
the space between your upper lip and the
base of your nose . ..
that the region around your eyes and
behind your eyes is filled with space ...
that your eyes . . . eyelids . . . nose and
sinuses ... the bridge of your nose is filled
with space . . .
that the region between your eyes and the
back of your neck... between the bridge of
your nose and back of your head . . . between
your temples is filled with space ...
that your forehead . . . brain . . . spine is
filled with space . . .
that your whole head is simultaneously
filled with space. . .
that your whole head and your face are
simultaneously filled with space . . .
that your whole head, face, neck and your
whole body, includingyour hands, genitals
and feet are simultaneously filled with
space . . .
that your whole being fills with air when
you inhale and your whole being is left
filled with space when you exhale . ..
at the same time that you are imagining the
space inside your whole body, is it possible
for you to imagine the space around your
body, the space between your fingers and
toes, behind your neck and back, the space
above your head and beneath your chair,
and the space in front of you and to your
sides. . .
that the boundaries between the space inside
and the space outside are dissolving
and that the space inside and the space outside
become one continuous and unified
space.. .
that this unified space, which is coextensive
inside and outside, proceeds in three
dimensions, front to back, right to left, and
up and down ...
that, at the same time you imagine this
unified space, you can simultaneously let
yourself attend equally to all the sounds
that are available to you, the sound of my
voice, the sounds issuing from you (and
other members of the audience), and any
other sounds thatyoumay beable to hear...
that these sounds are issuing from and pervaded
by unified space . . .
that at the same time you are attending to
the space and the sounds you can also attend
simultaneously to any emotions, tensions,
feelings or pains that might also be
present. . .
that these sensations and perceptions are
permeated by space. . .
that at the same time you are aware of the
space, the sounds, emotions and other body
feelings, you can also be simultaneously
aware of any taste, smells, thoughts and
imagery that might be present. . .
that you can now admit also to awareness
any sensation or experience which may
have been inadvertently omitted thus far,
so that you are now simultaneously aware
of your entire being, of all that is you . . .
that all your experience is permeated and
pervaded by space...
that, as you continue to practice this Open
Focus exercise, you will increase your ability
to enter into Open Focus more quickly and
more completely and more effortlessly . . .
that, as you continue to practice this Open
Focus exercise, your imagery of space will
become more vivid and more pervasive...
that, as you continue to apractice this Open
Focus exercise, your ability to imagine
space permeating all of your experience
will continue to become more vivid and
ever-present.. .

The Universe as a Hologram

Want to expand your understanding of the universe?
(Or perhaps you already have! Michael Talbot's classic "Holographic
Universe" was a great introduction. He published this
essay in The VILLAGE VOICE, September 22, 1987, pp. 31-34.)

The Universe as Hologram
Does Objective Reality Exist, or is the Universe a Phantasm?
by Michael Talbot

In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. You did not hear about it on the evening news. In fact, unless you are in the habit of reading scientific journals you probably have never even heard Aspect's name, though there are some who believe his discovery may change the face of science.

Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn't matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart.

Read the rest at
http://www.earthportals.com/hologram.html

Current reading

> Did you guys see this? Very well written by Paul Krassner. Peter Coyote speaks,
> http://www.nypress.com/18/32/books/paulkrassner.cfm

Thanks, C, for the pointer to the Krassner article! Great quotes from Gaskin, and the Libre book sounds like a winner! Anyone who's tasted communal life I'm sure has experienced the group consciousness that evolves. That's what 'tribe' is all about, and tribal psychedelic trips played an important role in merging individual consciousnesses. The only 'church' I'll ever attend is the true democracy of natural entheos.

I'd like to emphasize that life moves forward in a spiral, just like the earth spirals around the sun and the sun spirals around the galaxy. Orbits ARE spirals, which means that although we come back to the same part of the orbit, the space we're in has changed.

I love 'hippie green,' and it always will be my tribe just as Gaskin reports, but I also believe we've bumped up two levels since then, like it or not (see color codes below).


From "A General Introduction to Integral Theory and Comprehensive Mapmaking by Sean M. Saiter. For the full article: http://www.cejournal.org/GRD/Mapmaking.htm
For this quote, scroll down to the Spiral Dynamics section. (Hippies are the Greens on the top level of Tier One, but then Tier Two begins to kick in.)

[QUOTE]
Spiral Dynamics is organized around waves of human unfolding called vMEMEs. A vMEME is shorthand for value meme. Briefly, a meme has been called a "mind virus" because it behaves like a virus though I find calling it a virus is a bit too value laden.[59] It is an independent idea, value, set of thoughts, beliefs, etc. that has the tendency to "infect" or be passed like a virus from person to person, group to group, or culture to culture. Memes are also likened to genes yet they are not physical in any way. In fact, strangely enough they would have no existence outside of human minds yet they exhibit properties that seem to be self-creating (autopoiesis) even at the cost of human lives.[60]

A vMEME specifically refers to a type of meme that is at once "a psychological structure, value system, and mode of adaptation, which can express itself in numerous different ways, from worldviews to clothing styles to governmental forms."[61]Spiral Dynamics outlines eight distinct and basic vMEMEs with the potential for more to be added as time and consciousness develop. These levels have been assigned different colors to represent their respective characteristics and to serve as convenient signifiers. Furthermore, they are divided into two "tiers." Again, I will use Ken Wilber's summary of the vMEMEs to describe the distinct characteristics of each stage:

First Tier:
1. Beige: Archaic-Instinctual. The level of basic survival; food, water, warmth, sex, and safety have priority. Uses habits and instincts just to survive . . . 0.1 percent of the adult population, 0 percent power.

2. Purple: Magical-Animistic. Thinking is animistic; magical spirits, good and bad, swarm the earth leaving blessings, curses, and spells that determine events. Forms into ethnic tribes. The spirits exist in ancestors and bond the tribe . . . 10 percent of the population, 1 percent of the power.

3. Red: Power Gods. First emergence of a distinct self from the tribe; powerful, impulsive, egocentric, heroic . . . The basis of feudal empires power and glory. The world is a jungle full of threats and predators . . . 20 percent of the population, 5 percent of the power.

4. Blue: Conformist Rule. Life has meaning, direction, and purpose, with outcomes determined by an all-powerful Other or Order. This righteous Order enforces a code of conduct based on absolutist and unvarying principles of "right" and "wrong" . . . Rigid social hierarchies . . . Law and order; impulsivity controlled through guilt; concrete-literal fundamentalist belief; obedience to the rule of the Order . . . 40 percent of the population, 30 percent of the power.

5. Orange: Scientific Achievement. At this wave, the self "escapes" from the "herd mentality" of blue, and seeks truth and meaning in individualistic terms--hypothetico-deductive, experimental, objective, mechanistic, operational--"scientific" in the typical sense. The world is a rational and well-oiled machine with natural laws that can be learned, mastered, and manipulated for one's own purposes. Highly achievement oriented, especially (in America) toward materialistic gains . . . 30 percent of the population, 50 percent of the power.

6. Green: The Sensitive Self.[62] Communitarian, human bonding, ecological sensitivity, networking. The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma, and divisiveness; feelings and caring supercede cold rationality; cherishing of the earth, Gaia, life. Against hierarchy; establishes lateral bonding and linking . . . Emphasis on dialogue, relationships . . . this worldview is often called pluralistic relativism . . . 10 percent of the population, 15 percent of the power.

Second Tier:
7. Yellow: Integrative. Life is a kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies [holarchies], systems, and forms. Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have the highest priority. Differences and pluralities can be integrated into interdependent, natural flows . . . Knowledge and competency should supersede rank, power, status, or group. The prevailing world order is the result of the existence of different levels of reality (memes) and the inevitable patterns of movement up and down the dynamic spiral. Good governance facilitates the emergence of entities throughout the levels of increasing complexity (nested hierarchy).

8. Turquoise: Holistic. Universal holistic system, holons/waves of integrative energies; unites feeling with knowledge [centaur]; multiple levels interwoven into one conscious system. Universal order, but in a living, conscious fashion, not based on external rules (blue) or group bonds (green). A "grand unification" is possible, in theory and in actuality. Sometimes involves the emergence of a new spirituality as a meshwork of all existence. Turquoise thinking uses the entire spiral; sees multiple levels of interaction; detects harmonics, the mystical forces, and the pervasive flow-states that permeate any organization.

Second-tier thinking: 1 percent of the population, 5 percent of the power.[63]

The difference between the two tiers is crucial. The overriding characteristic of first-tier thinking is the inability to perceive the world from the perspective of the other vMEMEs. First-tier thinking believes its worldview to be "better" than any of the other memes, including second-tier. People in the first tier have a chronic lack of ability to step out their values. It cannot grasp the entire spectrum of interior and cultural development. Second-tier thinking, on the other hand, doesn't have this problem. Second-tier thinking is characterized by the ability to consider the other vMEMEs in their own right and is not afraid of dynamic hierarchical systems based upon this meta-perspective. It is in the second-tier where all worldviews are beginning to be integrated and balanced into a "higher" way of perceiving.[64]It is a multileveled, multidimensional, richly holarchical view.[65] Second-tier thinking is rare. However, according to many, it is emerging on a greater scale now than it ever has especially with many "green memers" moving up the spiral at the same time:

With only 1 percent of the population at second-tier thinking (and only 0.1 percent at turquoise), second-tier consciousness is relatively rare because it is now the "leading edge" of collective human evolution. As examples, Beck and Cowan mention items ranging from Teilhard de Chardin's noosphere[66] to the growth of transpersonal psychology, with increases in frequency definitely on the way--and even higher memes still in the offing.
[END QUOTE]

Ramon comments: Last sentence of second-to-last paragraph:
"However, according to many, it is emerging on a greater scale now than it ever has especially with many "green memers" moving up the spiral at the same time." I think that's where a lot of us commune grads are evolving.

Note that these new Tier 2 levels INCLUDE all the previous ones, so it's not a cop-out, just a 'new spiral.' Do check out the main website for a brain-expanding bunch of very interesting essays on various topics.
http://www.cejournal.org/gpage.html

Beyond that particular 'map,' I've been reading this amazing conversation between Terrance McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake and Ralph Abraham titled "The Revolutionary Mind." McKenna is really an amazing mind, with the ability to look into what Stewart Brand calls 'The Long Now,' although according to McKenna, there seems to be an encounter lurking at 2012 with the unknown.

(Now where's that damn lug wrench...)

Still My Absolute Favorite All-Time Quote

Here is kernel of the essay, "Love can not be [received or] given"
from a talk with Wolter Keers in Gent on January 18, 1978.
http://www.ods.nl/am1gos/am1gos3/index.html
This remains at the top of my favorites list. If you read
this and 'take it to heart,' it dissolves every possible
question.
[Quote]
I had a meeting yesterday evening with a group of
psychiatrists and psychologists. There I defended the
proposition that there is only one psychic obstacle and
that you can reduce all of psychology and
psychotherapy, and all psychiatry to that one obstacle.
That one problem is that we have forgotten that we are
love. It was told to us when we were little that we got
love from our mother and father and so on. And when it
all maybe went wrong later in all sorts of ways, we
discovered that we had not received enough love. And
so love became for us something like a sack of potatoes
that you can give and get in a big sack or a small sack
and the like.
This has nothing to do with love. What we actually
are is the most humble of all humble things, that in
which everything arises. That is the light itself. Nothing
is more ordinary, common, everyday than that light; we
have known nothing except that. Love is the discovery of
myself (the light) in the other; the recognition of the
Silence that I am in the other. That is love. Love cannot
be given to anyone, you cannot get love; you can't make
water wet, because water is wetness. Neither can anyone
give you love, no one can receive love from you, you
can only recognize love in yourself and you can
recognize love in others. The moment that it happens,
there is naturally no other anymore, because you indeed
recognize in other, in the most literal sense, notice well,
in the most literal sense; yourself. I never speak to
anyone except myself, and you never hear anyone
except yourself. I cannot underline enough how literally
true this is. Love is to recognize yourself in the other, in
what you unjustly saw as 'an other' until that moment.
But it is yourself that you see there because there is only
one Self. There is only one light. There is only one love.
The recognition of yourself in the other, of the Silence
that you are in the other, of the light that you are in the
other, that is what we call love. It is not a question of
giving, it is not a question of receiving, it is a question
of recognition.
What is well true is that when the recognition has
taken place there arises in us a reversal of movement.
When I have not yet recognized it, I have a calculating
machine going and then I find you to be nice or not
nice: then I can either earn money from you or not, then
you will say friendly words to me, or give me trouble,
and so forth. That is all calculated with a centripetally
directed mentality. But the moment I recognize myself
in the other, who then is no longer an 'other', because I
am speaking to myself behind the eyes, at that moment
a centripetally directed movement become a
centrifugally directed motion. You need only have been
in love once to know that you are as large as the
universe.
Fear is one obstacle. And every fear is the fear of
losing love. I am afraid to let myself be seen as I am
because the you may think that I am crazy or bad, or
something or other. And then there is the wall: then
there is 'I' here and the other there. I am afraid that I
am going to lose the love of the other. You see,
whenever I think that love is something that I can
possess than I am afraid then I am going to lose it. But,
when I have seen with my entire being that I am that
Love, what then? Water can never become wetness,
because water is wetness: you can't lose love because
you are love. Seeing that clearly dissolve all fears one by
one; fear of death then becomes laughable. Then you
can also be totally yourself in a psychological sense; you
can drop all your resistances, because what others think
about you is then their problem; 'you' are that which
the others are seeking. And if they project a mental
picture on you it is because they project a mental
picture on themselves; they see themselves as a
personality and therefore they see all living beings as
personalities.
As long as I take a position as something that I am
not, namely as something that could possess Love, as
something that searches for Love, just so long am I
subject to the laws of desire and fear. And where there
is fear and longing there is karma and the whole story.
As soon as I see what I am this imaginary world falls
apart in pieces. The moment that I recognize this -
always unexpected - a subtle explosion takes place and
this material world turns out to be nothing but a dream,
exactly the same as a nightly dream, there is absolutely
no difference; both are nothing else than movements in
Consciousness, and the movement that is there for a
given moment is seen by me as real - in the day time it
is the waking state, the world, the primary feeling, and
at night it is the dream world, which is then just as real
for me as the dream world now. But if I look at the
experience that the dream world and the waking world
have in common then I see that they are nothing other
than movements in that One Consciousness that I have
always been. I don't have to do anything to become it
because I am it. I am the One Experience. In everything
and everyone, in every movement I am this One
Experience.
When this becomes a lived Experience then there is
no more psychic fear possible; there may be pain,
but suffering is no more possible. I recognize that in all
people, I recognize That as myself in all people, and
because I know as a lived Experience - not as a theory
that there is nothing else than love I love all people,
because I see Myself also through the eyes of the
schizophrenic or the criminal or whosoever.
Last time we discussed the image of the water and
the waves; first we all think that we are a wave and that
the neighbor wave is a competitor, then at a given
moment, we discover; I am water and the neighbor wave
is also water, and the more we pay attention to the
water the clearer it becomes, until we are totally in the
depths where there is nothing else but water, then we
see that we are that one water and all the waves and by
means of these waves the water speaks with itself.
In terms of religion; this Light is what religious people
call God. We are that Light, each of us consists of
nothing else than that Light. Every great tradition and
religion says it; that God is omnipresent and is Light and
Love. Not only Christianity but all the great religions say
that in one way or another. In other words: John is not
speaking with Peter, but God is speaking with himself,
through the one and through the other.
If this is seen and all the old ballast and ideas, such
as 'I am a thing weighing so many kilograms' have
disappeared, then what remains is the one lived
Experience. That is what one calls Enlightenment or
Freedom. It is never something new. It is That which you
are now and have always been, and whoever says that he
can give it to you is a swindler.

Leaning one-half second ahead into the NOW

I received this question: "How does one lean one half-second into the NOW? (I know it is figurative, but I still don't get the picture)."

quote originally posted by rabar

"By then I can feel my pulse in my chest, and just use it as the 'wave' for
the samyama surfboard to ride. There's a sort of 'right position' on the wave, and surfing is a good metaphor for me because the position seems to be just ahead of the
crest of the relaxed breath, sort of leaning one-half second into the NOW."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ramon replied:
Sorry that I didn't make myself clearer, although it's hard to describe a pre-verbal state verbally (smile)... I think you know where it is, that place of immaculate perception, but maybe just haven't thought about it in those terms. Tilopa's "Song of the Mahamudra" is a supreme attempt. Two translations:
http://www.allspirit.co.uk/mahamudra.html
and
http://www.keithdowman.net/mahamudra/tilopa.htm
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
I include two translation links because each has something to offer. The second includes a better description of the Tibetan exercise of blue-sky-watching, which triggers the so-called Ganzfeld 'white-out' effect.
Quote:

Gazing intently into the empty sky, vision ceases;
Likewise, when mind gazes into mind itself,
The train of discursive and conceptual thought ends
And supreme enlightenment is gained.

For more about the Ganzfeld Effect and how to experience it with the aid of
two ping-pong balls cut in half (I say two in order to avoid the trademark stamped on
them), see:
http:brain.web-us.com/ganzfeld.htm

The "leaning" image comes from the surfboard metaphor, and I retard the relaxed breath one-half second (or perhaps less?) because the moment the breath is slowed, the mind observes it with interest, as if saying to itself, "Oh, something is happening to the breath. I should watch it," thus gluing the mind to the breath, so to speak. It does seem paradoxical that a half-second 'retard' of the breath should lean one forward more into the Now, but isn't that what Vipassana claims to do? I'm also wondering if it increases carbon dioxide levels in the same manner that breath retention does, and whether these increased levels also play a role. Someone wrote me
just yesterday about a certain hypoventilation technique invented by a
Russian Dr. Buteyko who claims to have cured thousands of ill people by
teaching 'shallow breathing.' See:
http://www.buteyko.co.nz/buteyko/media/story11.cfm
Also
http://www.normalbreathing.com/Book1Ch1.html (which I have yet to read(
All this hypoventilation material is brand-new to me, so I really cannot
comment further.
I've experimented with hypoventilation as a method to stay warm in cold weather, and was able to drip with sweat standing naked outdoors in 45-degree weather - not much compared to the Tibetan 'tumo' practitioners, but at least I could see where they might be heading.
Hope this clarifies! Thanks for asking.