Babaji, Physical Immortality & Om Namaha Shivaya by Pauline Win

One very good reason to have Dharshan (visit) Great Masters is that the vibration of Their Energy Body and Presence directly influence the people sitting in Their Presence. This has been scientifically proved by Dr David Hawkins In his book ‘Power versus Force” he explains his lifelong research using Applied Kinesiology (AK) as a tool for consciousness research. Using AK he developed a map of human consciousness that ranges 1 – 1000. According to consciousness research, Dr Hawkins states that anything below 200 level of consciousness is negative, false, weak, therefore not sustaining and anything above 200 is positive, true, Power and life sustaining. Everything in our environment has an effect on our individual level of consciousness. TV, Books, People, Places, Objects, Thoughts, etc..... Anything below the critical level of 200 weakens us and lowers the level of our consciousness; therefore, we must align ourselves with everything that is positive and life enhancing. Keeping this in mind it makes sense to “hang out” with the immortal Masters that inhabit our planet. In fact if Babaji wasn’t high in the Himalayas using His Energy to influence the world, it, (the world) would, according to Dr Hawkins’ research probably be in a much worse state – God Forbid. Babaji is a genius. He goes directly to heart of any question. I asked him how human beings could attain physical immortality. He said you must defy gravity. More on this in coming ‘Its Elementals.’ Babaji and Om Namaha Shivaya Peter and I have had the privilege of 7 Dharshans (visits) of Babaji. No recording is allowed and generally no photos. He allowed Peter to take this photo. Evidently He likes it because a framed copy is on the wall in His receiving room. He is a recluse and seemingly not interested in being a well known Guru. One must seek permission to go there and all travel to and from is by one of His close devotees. I asked Him about Om Namaha Shivaya. He said we were chanting it incorrectly. The correct mantra is Om Namaha Shivayaha. He then chanted the mantra and the whole room, in fact I think the whole Universe was filled with a mystical etheric, all embracing sound. The mantra filled our whole energy bodies and minds. It was so beautiful. He then went on to explain how, where and why. He said Om Namaha Shivayaha defies gravity, or more correctly, the chanter is insulated from gravity if they sit on a Kusha asana. Kusha is a non conductive dry grass – asana means seat. Without this insulation, the energy of the mantra is largely negated. Other countries will have the botanical equivalent of this grass. In India one can buy a Kusha asana in spiritual shops. We must have new clothes to chant in and kept solely for this purpose. Time of Mantra to be the same daily and frequently is important. Beads are kept in a mala bag and made of seeds and don’t touch your mala to the floor. Om is the Universe and the equivalent of the ‘Big Bang.’ Namaha means going to surrender to Shiva. Shiva is the Lord of Destruction. Sanskrit has 175000 words and each has a rhythm. He said the words of the mantra are of themselves dead. We must awaken the words. There are 3 types of chanting – loud, whispering and silent (thinking the mantra). The vibration of silent mind mantra is most powerful. He said 108 (the correct number of beads) is a science. He said there are 108 dimensions in the Universe and the mala represents and influences these 108 dimensions. Om must be deep like diving into the ocean. The whole mantra must be deep rising up into the throat. Timings of the mantra have to be the same – every 5 seconds per word. He said the starting point of all meditation is pranayama (breathing). He spoke about this extensively – I couldn’t get it all down so will ask again when I go back. If you do japa holding the mala at your heart it will control your heartbeat. Obviously this could be good for anyone with heart problems. He said japa purifies the mind and demonstrated the way to do it. He commented that in Indian tradition you never use your index finger because the index finger is for black magic.

Its Elemental Earth 2017 Newsletter of the Rebirth International Aussie & Kiwi mob

Victor Truviano – Breatharian What follows is bits and pieces of information and quotes from the internet about breatharian Victor Truviano Victor Truviano is probably the most famous breatharian today. Until the age of 20 he used to play the violin and was known as wonder child and “New Mozart”. He stopped eating and drinking over 9 years ago. When Russian scientist Boris Aranovich heard about Victor’s story, he decided to take a close look into the effects of the breatharian method from the scientific point of view. Dr. Aranovich studies bodily energy and uses various methods to measure the needs and deficiencies of the body. Medical examination of Victor’s body was carried out in Helsinki. A condensed report of Dr. Aranovich’s examination reads as follows: “This is a completely new experience for me. Victor’s physiology is entirely different from what is usual. His body cannot be examined by our measuring devices. It seems it functions in a completely different way than usual since he doesn’t drink even water. His physiology is different, his body functions differently, which is why the devices cannot take the measurements. They react as if the cables were disconnected. We cannot carry out the measurements with a regular device that is suited to ordinary people. We would have to produce a new device designed particularly for Victor. It is clearly visible that the level of tension in his body is very low. That is a very good thing. Perfect hormonal balance. His physical energy is 360, which is an optimal result, since the values vary from 150 to 600. 100% brain sublimation. High levels of T-wave activity in the brain. Physical adaptability at 97%. He is 36, but his biological age is 28.” From a conference in Bali in 2015 Victor: “When I was 4 years old I started to receive transmissions from the universe. For a couple of days in the beginning in a natural way I couldn't eat, or drink also but in this space appeared the pranic way. The information started to appear. So when I first received a lot of transmissions, it was a time when I couldn't eat because it is like as if you look at this stone right here, I don’t know if you can eat this stone. It was the same situation for me, I couldn't eat what was on the table. So at the same moment a lot of doors closed but also a lot of doors and windows and everything opened. And this is what happened at the beginning for a few years and every time something completely different happened, because life is like that, it's in every moment completely different. And this is what happened to me, but I'm not going to tell you what you can't do but I want to show you our possibilities. And I'm not talking about becoming breatharian or pranic, I'm talking about something more interesting. Because if we put our attention only on not eating and drinking that would be very superficial and really completely boring to me. I was a musician for many years and for this reason I was almost all day every day by myself and only at the concerts I was around people and I always travelled a lot with my violin since I was 7 years old. I started to work as a violinist when I was 7 years old and I was a professional concertist for 20 years. But I never considered that I was being an artist, for me it was only work. Nine years ago I was living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a crazy city, millions of people in the same place and I was in that Buenos Aires dynamic, stressed, nervous, anxious and a lot of other things. A lot of work, a lot of concerts, a lot of students and at the same time I was giving classes at different conservatories in Buenos Aires, so I was always doing something and now there's nothing for me to do. So nine years ago I was in Buenos Aires and I wasn't able to continue to eat solid food. And overall I couldn't eat anything because I listened to my heart, I listened to what my body was telling me and you know that our heart is completely intelligent and our body also. So I was from then on in a different psychological space and I knew what was happening to me at this time of my life. And I felt that my life wasn't supposed to be

about work all the time. And I thought that maybe I could work in my free time from now on, but that was not possible since it is either work or not work. Life is like this, it's a decision, very clear, yes or no, it's always like this and we are making decisions all the time, every moment. So for this reason I think that at some point we need to make a different space for something new to appear in our life. And I was permitting this space. And I still allow this space up to now, all the time. So nine years ago I was still living with my family in Buenos Aires and I remember that everyone was so worried about me because I was not eating and u can imagine, Italian family without food. For my mom this was crazy, also at the conservatory, all my students and everyone was so completely worried and I noticed that the worries of these people started to affect me a lot. And for this reason I made the decision to live by myself in the mountains very far away from the city. So in this moment I was completely honest with myself because at this time I didn't listen to the fear of the other people. And sometimes the fear of the people around us puts a lot of limits on our life. And I think there always comes the time when we need to be completely alone. So this year, when I was in the mountains I drank only liquids and that was very interesting because in the nature I found all the things I needed, everything was provided by nature. The first months I was only drinking fruit juices and after some months in this way there came a time when my body couldn't accept all this sugar anymore. So my body told me no more sugar, no more juice and after that I started to drink only tea, all the

teas that you can imagine, all of them. So after two months with only tea the body asked me 'no more tea' and that was a very strong process

Victor Truviano

Heaven’s Gate, China

because everything is about taste here, everything is taste. I started to drink only water for the last two months of this year. And as I was drinking water I started to notice that water is the most heaviest that exists on the planet. I could feel the mountain in my mouth, all the minerals and everything. So after two months of just water I couldn't drink the mountain anymore because it was really too much for me. So now it has been eight years that I haven't been drinking anything. We or our body, every day has the capacity to further simplify our life and I am at this time in another process of simplifying my life. I'm working on something new and I am very close to touch on that, very soon. But during this time I still continued playing the violin and giving concerts. At some moment different people started to come from different parts of the country and around the world and they arrived at my home in the mountains and they all called me Victor, they didn't know that Victor was my first name and they arrived at my house asking for me, for Victor and they told me that I would have a transmission for them, so in this moment I was not thinking that I was crazy because this was something real that happened all my life and for this reason, because of all the information that I was receiving I was tired because I didn't understand it, because the information was not for me but it was for other people. So after that these people from other countries told me 'maybe Victor, you can come to my country' and everyone made me that same offer and so for 8 years now I travel without stop all around the world, and it's a part of my life. Did you experience physical changes inside of you and in energy? Victor: I was at three different times outside of my body, I was dead three times in different places with different people and you know the heart didn't work for those two or three days in the same way. Sometimes when I speak about this people ask me 'what happened when you were not in your body?' Please do not ask me this question. Whenever I came back my friends were very worried because I was like violet or blue but after all these situations I came back to my body and that's when the cellular retro-alimentation appeared in my body. And we are how our cells are, if the cells are for whatever reason a certain way then our body is in the same way. You know, when I was three years old, I was reading sheet music perfectly, so my eyes were working very hard for many years, for that reason I was wearing glasses, because I couldn't see nothing really. So the first consequence that I received through the retro-alimentation was a very deep pain for about three months in my eyes and when I was wearing my glasses I couldn't really see anything and I was very worried because I thought that I might would have to increase the gradation but the doctor told me 'no Victor, you don't need to increase the gradation, you don't need to wear any glasses any longer'. And this was the first consequence of the cellular retro-alimentation. So I remember that about seven years ago I was sharing a retreat in Bolivia and I was feeling a lot of pain in my teeth and I was feeling pain all around my jaw. So I went to another doctor again in another place and another country and I went to a dentist clinic in Sorata, Bolivia and I asked about my pain and the doctor couldn't tell me anything about it because she didn't know what was happening to me but I was feeling a lot of pain. So a week later I returned to the clinic because my pain was so deep and very strong I wasn't feeling the pain just here but also in my head and it felt like my third teeth were about to come out because I felt like something was coming out and I was also very worried because a lot of my teeth were loose and the dentist told me 'no that is not possible, we can only change our teeth only two times', so that's why I decided to see another dentist and he took x-rays and on the screen it showed that my third teeth were coming out, so it was a process of about 7 month with a lot of pain and that was another consequence of the cellular retro-alimentation in my body. Thank you and if anyone likes to know further details about this you are welcome to ask… On Babaji… Victor: When I was a child I was always very afraid to go to sleep, I was always very afraid of the darkness but overall for a specific reason. When I laid down there appeared an Indian person or being appeared before me with long hair and he was always so very serious and I was completely afraid almost every day. After these three years this being appeared when I was 17, and maybe about 25 but not every day like before. And one day I was at my friend’s house and on the table there was a book that completely drew my attention and I picked up the book 'The Autobiography of Yogananda' and I opened the book and in this moment I looked at the being that had visited me every night all these three year when I was a child. That was the first time that I pronounced the name BabaJi and from that moment on my life started to change completely. So BabaJi, at this time when I was in the mountains and when I was also in this change and in this different internal space, this being was completely present in me and it is with me now. So at this time I am in a different very deep process with BabaJi and BabaJi always brings something new, it's not something static, it always changes like our aura, but I know that BabaJi is with us all the time and I know that the BabaJi consciousness generally appears in the space of darkness, because in this space is where we can reflect on our life and if this space wasn't there then life wouldn't exist. For this reason BabaJi supports us all the time. Sometimes when I mention that BabaJi appears in a dark and different space, people think or tell me that this is not possible, that BabaJi is pure light but I didn’t actually tell you anything opposite, because people relate the black color with something negative. But the universe is black, do you think that's something negative? So the universe is black, BabaJi is black but he created all and everything in this space. It's also like BabaJi is the silence where we can create music, so if there wasn't any silence there wouldn't be any music. BabaJi is

the silence and he supports us also, BabaJi is empty space where we can put all our things, so BabaJi is completely abstract and is pure art and we are the consequence of BabaJi's art, this is our life philosophy. What is taught in Bali? Victor: I learned my English in 3 months, I need more time. So I don't think we are here to learn something, and if we are not here to learn something, then there are no teachers, and I always want to be very original with my answers and I don't want to tell you what everyone else says that we are here to remember, but quite honestly, we are here to remember (laughing) and I am not here to help you because nobody can really help you with anything, but I'm here to accompany you and to remember together, you know when I studied medicine a long time ago and I was in a clinic where there were many many babies, and you know when one baby started to cry all of them started crying and I think we are doing something like that also, when someone remembers something then everyone else does and that is my desire for you. Thank you very much. Part of a transcrioption by Miriam Schaefer from a live recording by Jaivera Correa at conference in August 2015 in Bali. Quotes: “We are all artists, no matter what we do in our lives – we are the consequence of the artistic spirit around us.” “The first human being was completely abstract and creative, and my philosophy is simply to try to be more like him.” “While I was falling unconscious, I was actually coming to real consciousness.” “I am still not sure whether a different path chose me or I choose it.” “People ask about stool and urine, but it’s logical – if nothing comes in, nothing goes out.” “But eating is only a chance for organism to receive more energy. It is not a requirement. Once you learn this, you will find peace in many things.” “Why don’t I apply my teachings in Africa? Nobody invited me to do so and I am not a guru, promoter, herald or teacher.“ “Don’t stop eating and drinking, that’s a diagnosis and a disease. Breatharianism is a call felt only by individuals.” References: http://atma-evolution.com/people-who-willingly-abandon-eating-and-drinking-this-man-is-the-best-known-breatharian-today/ http://www.sacredmountainretreat.org/victor-truviano-talks-on-breatharianism-and-the-babaji-state9 Years non eating http://www.victortruviano.com/

I want to describe again how you must be diligent in your work.

The world demands hard work and constructive action, so you

must apply yourselves fully to your work. Do not fall back but

instead go on. Each step you take will benefit the whole world.

The seeds of righteousness have been sown in your hearts for you

to kindle the hearts of others. I seek the general good for all

people in the world. You must all do work to perfect humanity.

By saving humanity, everyone will be saved.

Kindle the light in yourself, then kindle it in others! Like

spreading light by lighting one candle from another all around a

room, — so we should spread love from heart to heart!

Babaji

King Island, Bass Strait

Things I Learned from the Earth by Prem Geet Any time we can spend more time enjoying a relatedness with the Earth, we experience quieting, renewal and rejuvenation. Walking a beloved trail, visiting a park, taking a picnic, tending a garden—time spent with the Earth element has a way of resetting our natural peace and calm. The Earth practice, is another spiritual purification practice with ancient roots, as described by Leonard Orr, master healer and father of Rebirthing Breathwork, an American new age pioneer and teacher of millions. Leonard says, “The body is a great teacher, when we listen to its feelings, sensations, symptoms, and are open to what it is teaching us. Most of the time, the body is a pleasant place to be. We can be thankful. We have to continue working on the purification of the mind. If we can heal the mind fast enough, the body is always a pleasant place to be. “ According to the Veda, the planet we live on continuously filters the four elements, each related to a function of the self. For example, in the past two articles of this series, we looked at the water element related to the eternal spirit and our emotions, and fire as it relates to the eternal spirit and transformation. The Earth element relates to the eternal spirit in matter and the physical body. These elemental containers of eternal spirit are why Immortal Avatar Babaji has called the eternal sadhana of earth, air, water, and fire, and spiritual community “a very simple gospel.” Leonard’s devotion to simple practices over many years is worthy of study and acceptance by a world longing to quiet itself and heal itself with the natural energies of fire, water, earth, and conscious breath, the elemental context we live in and are made of, but mostly ignore. The daily purification practice is to spend time alone with each element as a conscious meditation. I really enjoy this in addition to doing my daily Osho meditations. According to Orr who cites the immortal yogis and their very simple practices using the four elements. “The secrets of the elements are beyond mind,” he says. In surrendering mind to each element, we can experience that god is in it. After years of hiking and skiing Alaska’s cross country trails, I can always count on Earth to help me feel better and reset to feelings of refreshed and neutral. An early morning walk on my favorite trail reveals nature as a green cathedral. Walking mindfully, I recall reading Immortal Avatar Babaji who reminded us to slow down, saying, “Slowliness is holiness.” I appreciate Earth and know: Earth is a playground for the imagination.

Earth says, “Look, there are always new horizons everywhere all the time.”

Earth is a theater for the Life-Death-Rebirth Show.

Nature is very creative.

Earth is highly interactive.

Feeling too spiritual, get your hands in the dirt.

Earth waits patiently for a full moon kiss.

All of Earth’s life is movement resting on stillness.

Feeling the Earth’s core deep under our feet.

Walking with awareness is a primal feeling of Being.

Earth absorbs stress and negative emotions.

Earth is generosity and patience.

Cleaning up the Earth, even a small act, feels good.

Plant a garden and feel the awe.

Many cultures say the Little People live in the center of Earth.

Earth is the healer and receiver of divine energies.

We always call it Mother Earth but try walking on Father Earth!

Resting on Earth, we feel at home and are reminded to come home to our bodies in feeling and breath.

Earth says, “You are here. You are really really here.”

Earth is alive. I am alive!

And finally, the great poet Rumi says: “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Author and group meditation facilitator Prem Geet is on Facebook (Prem Geet Dallas) and her essays are found at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/MysticRoseTherapy

Pauline celebrates 70th My 70th birthday was held at my sister Suzanne’s place in Split Apple Rock Bay in the Nelson area in New Zealand. Her and her husband John’s place overlooks the beautiful Marlborough sounds. The views from their windows are stunning. All my brothers and sisters came except Jeff. Paul (son) and Matoula came from Greece and Jeni (daughter) from Australia. We had a fantastic holiday. During our stay we went to visit the grave of my great, great, great grandfather who came to Nelson from Wales on the first ship to bring the early settlers to New Zealand. Paul and Jeni loved it and it gave them such a kick to see all the other relatives that were buried in the same grave yard. They said it gave them a context to view their beginnings in New Zealand. The Win family [father mother and 2 boys aged 12 and 14} arrived in Nelson on one of the first ships to come from Wales to settle in NZ. Their name was Gwynne and they changed it to Win.

Pauline age 3

Pauline with her brothers and sisters

You could remain in these bodies indefinitely Are we saying that you could reach what you consider to be a prime human physical condition and that you could maintain it or a s long as you remain physically focused in this body? The answer is … absolutely yes. And it does not mean reaching your prime and then jumping off a cliff the same day either. It means reaching your prime and basking in the deliciousness of that. Now why is anything other than that the more consistent experience? Because almost everybody is looking around and vibrating in response to what they are seeing. So what is the solution? Look around less. Imagine more, until your imagery is the most familiar vibration that you have. You could remain in these bodies indefinitely if you would allow your environment to continue to produce new, continuing, life summoning, pure, un-resisted desire. You could be one who opened your vortex to continually find new things to want, and those desires would continue to summon the life Force through you. In other words, you are living raucously; you are living joyously; you are living rambunctiously, and you are living passionately… and then, from that same framework, you make a conscious decision to make your transition.

Every death is self- imposed The best reason to make you transition into the Non-physical is not because the physical is miserable. It is because you have a sense of completion in physical- and you are looking for another vantage point. Death is a withdrawal of Consciousness; it is like taking attention from here and putting it there. Every death is brought about by the culmination of the vibration of the Being, There is not an exception to that. No one, beast or human makes their transition into the non-Physical with it being the vibrational consensus that is within them, so every death is a suicide because every death is self-imposed. You are an eternal Being always projecting from Non-Physical, and sometimes that projection is into a physical personality. When the physical personality is complete for this time, then there is a withdrawal of focus. It is sort of like: here you sit, and sometimes you go into a movie, and sometimes you come back out of the movie, but you are always the you that went into the movie, whether you are in the movie or not. Here is a rule of thumb that will help you; If you believe that something is good, and you do it, it benefits you. If you believe that something I bad, and you do it , it is a very detrimental experience. There is nothing that you can do that is works for yourself than to do something that you believe is inappropriate, so get clear and happy about whichever choice you make, because it is your contradiction that causes the majority of the contradiction in vibration. Make a decision about what you want, focus your attention there, and find the feeling-place of it- and you are there instantly. There is no reason for you to suffer or struggle your way to or through anything.

Abraham interpreted by Esther Hicks, from the book Ask and it is Given

Human brain hard-wired for rural tranquillity Humans may be hard-wired to feel at peace in the countryside and confused in cities – even if they were born and raised in an urban area. According to preliminary results of a study by scientists at Exeter University, an area of the brain associated with being in a calm, meditative state lit up when people were shown pictures of rural settings. But images of urban environments resulted in a significant delay in reaction, before a part of the brain involved in processing visual complexity swung into action as the viewer tried to work out what they were seeing. The study, which used an MRI scanner to monitor brain activity, adds to a growing body of evidence that natural environments are good for humans, affecting mental and physical health and even levels of aggression. Dr Ian Frampton, an Exeter University psychologist, stressed the researchers still had more work to do, but said they may have hit upon something significant. “When looking at urban environments the brain is doing a lot of processing because it doesn’t know what this environment is,” he said. “The brain doesn’t have an immediate natural response to it, so it has to get busy. Part of the brain that deals with visual complexity lights up: ‘What is this that I’m looking at?’ Even if you have lived in a city all your life, it seems your brain doesn’t quite know what to do with this information and has to do visual processing,” he said. Rural images produced a “much quieter” response in a “completely different part of the brain”, he added. “There’s much less activity. It seems to be in the limbic system, a much older, evolutionarily, part of the brain that we share with monkeys and primates.” The effect does not appear to be aesthetic as it was found even when beautiful urban and “very dull” pictures of the countryside were used. Professor Michael Depledge of Exeter University, a former Environment Agency chief scientist, said urban dwellers could be suffering in the same way as animals kept in captivity. He said the move to the cities had been accompanied by an “incredible rise in depression and behavioural abnormalities”. “I think we have neglected the relationship that human beings have with their environment and we are strongly connected to it,” he said. “If you don’t get the conditions right in zoos, the animals start behaving in a wacky way. There have been studies done with laboratory animals showing their feeding is abnormal. Sometimes they stop eating and sometimes they eat excessively. How far we can draw that parallel, I don’t know.” The study was part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund Programme and European Social Fund Convergence Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Dr Frampton was one of the coordinators of the research, which was carried out by Marie-Claire Reville and Shanker Venkatasubramanian, of the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at Exeter University http://www.independent.co.uk/

Science finds Soil can Help Depression By Tanja Taljaard, http://upliftconnect.com/

How you can Benefit from Antidepressant Microbes in soil A couple of years ago, a friend of mine was recovering from a serious illness. While reflecting on that time in her life, she mentioned how her garden, and gardening, played a big part in her own healing. Walking with her in her vibrant garden, I could see and feel how being surrounded by these beautiful plants and using homegrown, organic vegetables and herbs as medicine would be healing on many levels. Most ardent gardeners will concur that the act of gardening can reduce stress and improve your mood. When you think about it, there are obvious benefits from tending a garden. You’re outside in the fresh air and Vitamin D producing sunshine (which helps regulate your serotonin levels), rather than being cooped up inside. But now science is proving through experiments that there are actual microorganism in the soil that affect our sense of wellbeing. There are actual microorganism in the soil that affect our sense of wellbeing Playing in the Dirt There are actual antidepressant microbes in soil. Mycobacterium vaccae is found in soil, and activates the release of brain serotonin. Serotonin and dopamine are two chemicals that boost our immune system and keep us happy. Both Dopamine and Serotonin are neurotransmitters, chemical messengers in the brain. Dopamine affects your emotions, movements and your sensations of pleasure and pain. In the brain, Serotonin regulates mood, social behaviour, libido, sleep, memory, and learning. Interestingly, 95% of our serotonin is manufactured in the intestines, not the brain; therefore someexperts consider serotonin a hormone as well as a neurotransmitter. When you are gardening, M. vaccae is on your skin when you have your bare hands in the soil, you inhale it when you breathe, or it gets into your bloodstream through a little cut perhaps. Serotonin and dopamine are two chemicals that boost our immune system and keep us happy.

The effects of the soil bacteria were discovered accidently by oncologist Dr Mary O’Brien. She created a serum out of the M. vaccae bacteria and gave it to lung cancer patients to boost their immune system. She noticed that another effect of the serum was that the patients felt happier, more vital, and they suffered from less pain. Building on this, researchers Dorothy Matthews and Susan Jenks administered M. vaccae to mice and performed behavioural tests. Jenks says, “What our research suggests is that eating, touching and breathing a soil organism may be tied to the development of our immune system and nervous system.” They found that not only were the mice less anxious, they showed improved cognitive function by navigating a maze twice as fast as the ones that did not eat the bacterium. Matthews states “It is interesting to speculate that creating learning environments in schools that include time in the outdoors where M. vaccae is present may decrease anxiety and improve the ability to learn new tasks.” Healthy Soil, Healthy Body Mycobacterium vaccae is one of a vast spectrum of microbes that have been interacting and co-evolving with us. The well-being of our immune system and psychology is enhanced by frequent exposure, in our early childhood, to a diverse group of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and worms. Our gastro-intestinal tract develops a hundred trillion microbes over time, determined in part by genetics and in part by what bacteria live in and on those around us. Prof Graham Rook refers to these creatures, which interact with us through our skin, lungs, and gut, as “Old Friends”. He says that deficiencies in microbial exposure could be the key to the recent increase in chronic health problems, including autoimmune diseases and depression. There is undeniable evidence that we need a diverse range of these organisms (found in animals, plants, soil, water and air) for the optimal functioning of our immune and nervous systems. the well-being of our immune system and psychology is enhanced by frequent exposure, in our early childhood, to a diverse group of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and worms

Green is good for you Simply seeing or looking at plants, trees and nature impacts your mental, social and physical well-being. Researchers have found that even viewing representations of nature can help the body to heal. Roger S. Ulrich, PhD investigated the effect that views from windows had on patients recovering from surgery. He discovered that patients whose hospital rooms overlooked trees recovered better than those whose rooms overlooked brick walls. Patients who could see nature got out of the hospital faster, had fewer complications and required less pain medication than those forced to stare at a wall. Looking at plants, trees and nature impacts your mental, social and physical well-being Gardening is a physical activity, sometimes quite a vigorous workout, as many gardeners would tell you. Gardens can create community. There’s also something magical about being part of the creative process, tending and nurturing seeds and seedlings into fully-grown plants. Permaculturist Robyn Francis talks about the Harvest High – the release of dopamine in the brain when we harvest products from the garden. “Researchers hypothesise that this response evolved over nearly 200,000 years of hunter gathering, that when food was found (gathered or hunted) a flush of dopamine released in the reward centre of the brain triggered a state of bliss or mild euphoria. The dopamine release can be triggered by sight (seeing a fruit or berry) and smell as well as by the action of actually plucking the fruit.” Dr Daphne Miller has written extensively on soil health and the health of the people who eat from that soil. Perhaps the best place for us each to begin is with our own backyard plot or window box. Planting a rainbow of seeds, avoiding garden chemicals, nourishing the soil with plant matter, digging with our hands and eating the bounty – while not guaranteed to replace a pharmaceutical grade antidepressant – is a wonderful chance to hang out with “Old Friends

The never ending birth story It never ceases to amaze me, the impact of my birth experience on my life. Every time I integrate an aspect of my birth, my life improves dramatically. I was a ‘held back’ baby, coming in too fast for the attending doctors comfort. This piece of my birth script has been causing me trouble for years. Try as I might I could not shift my rage about this. I would often go there while breathing to no seeming affect, I would feel wild but nothing would move – exactly how it was during my birth. It manifested in my daily life with people (mostly men) telling me how to do things, or telling me I was not doing ‘it’ right. When this happened I would either defend myself or feel completely powerless, deep down I felt wrong. It turns out that me trying to change this pattern was the very thing stopping it from moving. I realised recently that being held back at birth was a giant gift just waiting for me to unwrap it. The key to all the struggle and fighting I have been experiencing in myself and in my relationships with others. As a baby birthing I followed my flow and came up against a block, I had the choice then of retreating inside myself to discover the way to approach the block or I could fight it, I chose to fight/try/struggle and had been fighting/trying/struggling ever since. When I look back I can see I was close to solving this puzzle many times, I had the thoughts I needed to have, but just didn’t take the last step of appreciating the doctors role in my path once I found this the whole thing into pure joy and bliss, what a relief! Now I am getting a giggle from my new manifestation, people (mostly men) will give me a long lecture on why I shouldn’t do it that way or why I cant have what I want and then at the end they will tell me I can do it the way I want or I can have what I want. Maybe I’ve got a bit more to go on that… Love Joanne Eisemann