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If I Can Bend a Spoon With My Mind, What’s Next?
By: Sanderson Sims In the 1970s, I attended a seminar in Honolulu entitled “The Mind Can Do Anything” sponsored by two students obtaining their doctoral degrees. One of the seminar presenters was Uri Geller who was famous for bending metal with his mind. Uri encouraged the audience to bring malfunctioning watches and clocks to the auditorium. He then asked everyone to agree to say to these malfunctioning watches and clocks: “Work!” When he gave the command, this was to be done with all the conviction they could muster. Uri then repeated the exercise a second time, and for those whose clocks and watches had begun to work, he requested…
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The New Normal: Where is it taking us and what can we do?
Written by: Sanderson Sims Yesterday I read an article in Vanity Fair entitled, “Inside the Dissident Fringe, Where the New Right Meets the Far Left, and Everyone’s Bracing for Apocalypse”. Preppers, techies, hippies, and yuppies are converging on the American West, the safest place to “exit” a society gone haywire. After reading this, I felt that it truly did describe and represent one of the current mindsets — a melting pot of perhaps untethered but powerful beliefs. I shall be the first to admit that I have become, like many, somewhat addicted to the news feeds on my phone, computer and watch. Upon personal and professional reflection ( I…
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Upping Your Wattage With Alan Watts
Photo: Alan Watts, Courtesy Alan Watts Organization Written By: Susanne Sims Decades before the digital revolution reshaped our lives, the ethnobotanist and shamanologist Terence McKenna speculated that one day we might all live on posthumously through our websites. This concept of a digital footprint of immortality was not well defined 30 years ago, but today, and indeed after McKenna’s passing in April 2000, it has become a powerful tool for legacy building. So too it is with Alan Watts, a British writer and speaker known for interpreting and popularizing Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism for a Western audience. Through the efforts of his son Mark, the Alan Watts Organization,…
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Edgar Cayce’s Formula for Achieving a More Rewarding Life
Written By: Sanderson Sims My formative years, meaning schooling, were spent in the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s. In those years there was an unbridled enthusiasm for the “Protestant Work Ethic.” Anything was possible if you set your mind to it and worked hard to get there. Coming out of World War II, America was a land of optimism, promise and opportunity. It seemed anything was possible. The game plan went something like this: Get educated, work hard (real hard), make as much as you can, enjoy material comforts, and then at retirement settle back and live out your “Golden Years.” You could say that the future…
- Explorations in Consciousness, Latest News/Trends, Living Life as a Question, Mindfullness/Meditation
How to End Polarizing Political Arguments
By: Sanderson Sims I remember growing up watching the American public affairs show “Firing Line” with conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. He would invite those of opposing points of view to be on the show, and they would both lay out in civil terms their points of view and the logic behind them. There would be disagreements but they were good natured. Emotion had not eclipsed reason. You, the viewer, would be able to see both sides of an issue, realizing that opposing points of view each have elements of truth. In today’s privately owned electronic media environment, much depends on creating an emotional hook, thereby drawing viewers into an…
- Explorations in Consciousness, Journeys, Latest News/Trends, Metaphysical Musings, Mindfullness/Meditation
How My Refrigerator Taught Me to Be Mindful
Perhaps you’ve watched the popular Netflix series Grace and Frankie staring Jane Fonda as Grace, and Lily Tomlin as Frankie. In one scene, Frankie is in her kitchen doing battle with her refrigerator. She has just closed the refrigerator door but forgotten the butter, so she attempts to open it again. Using all of her strength, she finds that she cannot open the door because the refrigerator has a vacuum seal so tight, even Godzilla could not open it. Frustrated, Frankie forces herself to count from one to ten, until the prerequisite time has passed and the seal is released. It’s a comical scene and perhaps one that many of…
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The Very First Thing You Might Want to Manifest
By Sanderson Sims If you are young, you are facing a life of dynamic change the velocity and acceleration of which has never before been experienced. What’s coming next, and right after that? We are currently facing everything from a climate crisis, to a pandemic, school stops and starts, work uncertainty, political and racial chaos, and more. Add to that the personal changes taking place in each of our lives. The only certainty we may have is the speed at which change will continue to occur. Just to put this into perspective, it is said that an educated person in the 16th century was never exposed in their entire…
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There’s Always an Opportunity to Hit the RESET Button
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Inspired Service: What is Your Calling?
By: Paula Mantel Education is very dear to my heart. I have always felt moved by the Latin origin of the word, educare, which means to draw out. Life has taught me that learning is fulfilling when it is interest-centered and enlivening to oneself, family, community, and global society. I did not enter the teaching field with a degree in education. Instead, I fell in love with teaching when I volunteered as a grassroots leader with The Hunger Project. This global, nonprofit organization was founded in 1977 and is committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. The suffering of millions who die daily of chronic, persistent hunger concerned me greatly. Thus, with conviction…
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There’s Always an Opportunity to Hit the RESET Button
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The Art of Recognizing Manifestation
I recently wrote about my experiences with Peter Caddy, a co-founder of the Findhorn Spiritual Community in Scotland. The concept discussed was conscious manifestation: how by focusing on what we want to see happen in our lives, believing that it will, then allowing things to develop, we become more powerful architects. Many of us are truly unaware of how we create our own reality. One of the main issues keeping us from this awareness is recognition. We may not recognize our thoughts nor be attuned into what is actually taking place on the material plane. Recognition is so difficult that often, when something does occur, we don’t believe or…
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A Century of Wisdom – Paramahansa Yogananda
“By the practice of meditation, you will find that you are carrying within your heart a portable paradise” – Yogananda From time to time great avatars incarnate on Earth to assist humanity in our spiritual awakening. Such a master was Paramhansa Yogananda, one of the most influential teachers of the 20th Century. This year marks the 100th anniversary of his arrival in the West. Born in Gorakhpur, India on January 5, 1893 to a Bengali Hindu family, he was first known as Mukunda. By the age of 17 he had found his own beloved teacher and guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, under whose tutelage he would train and study for ten…
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You Are More Intelligent and Capable Than You Think
We all come into this world endowed with different gifts and talents. Harnessing our natural skills and abilities can lead to greater creativity and opportunities in life. But how do we go about discovering what they are? Some people might feel disadvantaged when it comes to academic learning, but are highly skilled at making friends and influencing people. Others may have a particular craft, physical ability, or trade that they excel in. Still others can possess a mind capable of effortlessly solving mathematical and computing problems. Know Thyself is a popular ancient Greek axiom used by Socrates, Plato, and spoken by the Oracle of Delphi. Remarkably, these words were also…
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My Earth Day Apology to Greta Thunberg
In her recent interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg expresses her disappointment with ‘the olds’. She is referring to older generations and baby boomers who appear apathetic when it comes to acting on climate change. Is Greta right? Have we lost our fighting spirit? It was ‘the olds’ who fought in the 1970s to put into place five of the most effective and important pieces of environmental protection: The Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Montreal Protocol, the Clean Water Act, and Reformation Plan №3 which led to establishing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and setting forth the components of the National Oceanic and…
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There’s Always an Opportunity to Hit the RESET Button
The Corona virus, economic chaos, and climate change have turned everything upside down and on its head. As I reflect on life, I think about how different the world was some 50 years ago. Now, as an elder, I ask myself if there is any advice I could possibly offer someone young, or someone who is working to make a fresh start, that could help amidst all of this chaos. With mandates to remain sheltered at home, many of us may be experiencing an abundance of time. There was an old axiom that said, “time is money.” But with technology moving so fast, the new paradigm is “money is time.”…
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An Optimist and a Prepper Find Common Ground
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An Optimist and a Prepper Find Common Ground
Two weeks ago I ran into my neighbor Bill, someone with whom I’d never had much contact. He reached out to me and said he was not doing well, admitting that he was lonely, worried, and needed someone to talk to — even if it was just for an hour. How nice that he could be so honest and vulnerable. This would never have happened pre-Covid! I agreed to meet Bill outside in the building’s garden courtyard and made some fruit salad and iced tea to share. For the next hour we got to know one other. Bill was agitated and immediately began to unload. From the news sources he…
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Namaste Spiritual Community in Ajijic, Mexico
I came to Ajijic, Mexico for all the right reasons. I was looking for a place to retire that was affordable, had a great climate, access to good healthcare, and a nearby international airport. I also wanted to find a thriving ex-pat community that is actively involved with the host culture. The small village of Ajijic (pronounced a-he-heek) located on Lake Chapala just south of Guadalajara, met all of these criteria. What I did not know, and was delighted to find out, is that Ajijic is also a Mecca for those who are interested in finding a spiritual community of kindred spirits. Paramhansa Yogananda, the highly regarded Indian teacher of…
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CORONA VIRUS – A SEARCH FOR MEANING
As the world comes to grips with the reality of a new global pandemic, it seems this is a critical moment to reflect. Perhaps an interesting place to start is to consider the word “corona” itself. What does it mean? 1. A small circle of light seen around the sun or moon, due to diffraction by water droplets. The sun’s corona is normally visible only during a total solar eclipse, when it is seen as an irregularly shaped pearly glow surrounding the darkened disk of the moon. 2. Anatomy — a part of the body resembling or likened to a crown. In the first definition, the corona appears…
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Breaking Free: Tyke The Elephant Outlaw
Photo by: Brodie Vissers One of the best known and worshiped deities in the Hindu pantheon is the elephant-headed God Ganesha. He is known as The Remover of Obstacles, The Lord of Beginnings, and The Deity of Good Fortune. I will never forget that Saturday, August 20, 1994 in Honolulu. On this day, a courageous circus elephant broke free from captivity and told the world that she would no longer be imprisoned. Like Ganesha, she removed the obstacles in her way and in doing so, created a new beginning for performing animals in captivity. I was living in Honolulu at the time and working only a few blocks from…
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A Transcendent Journey
As I have written before, part of our ever changing challenge in life is to pay attention to intuition and synchronicities. The former gives us direction and the latter confirmation. It is this conscious practice that makes the uncertain more certain, and allows us to live in the present, with assurances that we are on our right path. Years ago a good friend of mine was a passenger on the last round-the-world flight of the Concorde supersonic airplane. They went luxuriously to the great wonders of both the man-made and natural world. I asked him to reveal the greatest highlight of his journey. He responded with a…
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FIVE THINGS THAT MAKE A GREAT TEACHER
I attended the Miami Book Fair years ago where I took a workshop in fiction writing. Our teacher, Colin Channer, opened my eyes to the qualities and dynamics of what makes a teacher truly exceptional, and I am inspired to share those observations. 1. For starters, a great teacher is truly enthusiastic about what they are teaching. Their joy is infectious and contagious. Colin’s enthusiastic examples made us really want to jump in and do the assignments. 2. There is a focus, not on how much information can be given but on how a few key concepts can be imparted, then practiced and, hopefully, realized by the student. For…
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Why are We Drawn to Danger?
I was in Cape Town a few years ago, an exquisitely beautiful city on the tip of Africa. During that trip we ventured out to a wildlife reserve. Aside from riding around in a partially open vehicle through areas with lions, elephants, buffalo, and rhino you could, for an extra fee, spend time with the cheetahs. I learned that cheetahs are capable of being domesticated and they were the cats of royalty. Yet, they are wild animals with an instinct to kill for survival built into their DNA. On one hand I was attracted to this experience, and on the other, I realized that within a nano-second this animal…
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Art Transcends Politics
I have been writing about serendipity, and lately have gotten a bit lazy in my writing regimen. However, last night I serendipitously watched “Under African Skies” the story of how Paul Simon enabled art to magically do what it can under the right circumstances. This was a PBS special which told of how Simon, in an effort to reach for a breakthrough idea, fused the magic of South African music and the music of the West. It culminated in the production of “Graceland,” an album which was transcendent in its nature. While accomplishing this musical miracle, the law of unintended consequences reared its ugly head. He had failed to…
