There is a particular mantra (word or phrase used during meditation) of which I am very fond: Baba Nam Kevalam. It is written in the sanskrit language and I have heard it translated into English many ways over the years. “God’s name only” is a very simple, direct and useful one, but I tend to translate it differently for my yoga students. “Everything is an expression of God” or “Everything is an expression of the supreme consciousness.” Whether that is the best translation or not, I can not say, but it works for me, and I believe the statement to be the truth and furthermore that the realization of that truth by a person will result in a dramatic transformation in him/her. A transformation from the “normal” to the sublime, from the tortured to the blissful, from the ignorant to the wise, from the harmful to the benevolent, from the unconscious to the conscious.

Sometimes when I simply reflect on the word “conscious,” I become euphoric. It is so simple, yet so liberating to be truly conscious of something, anything. No big mystery. To be “aware” of something is another way of saying it. If I notify my kids that it is snowing outside, they will immediately run to the window to verify the story, and assuming I have told the truth, they will soon become “conscious” of the snow. They run to the window, not because they don’t trust me, but because they are hungry for that experience of awareness of the snow. Snow is something they have seen before but only rarely in the rainy area we live in. Yet, it is something they love for many reasons. Snow gives them great joy and they drink in the “vision” from the window. What a blessing it is that holds their attention (another word for consciousness I believe) so firmly. The snow is so white and pure, and it floats so gracefully to the Earth seemingly from Heaven. Ten minutes ago they might have been bickering over a toy they don’t even want to play with, but now they are sharing a window as they both witness snow. Their minds are focused, joyful, one with the snow. For my kids, snow is fulfilling the purpose of art, lifting their minds up from their normal existence to a more lofty state.

But what is consciousness? It is something we all have to some extent, some people seem to have more of it than others, and if we get hit on the head too hard, we lose if for a while. But is it something we can cultivate and grow? Can we expand or somehow strengthen our consciousness? I am not talking about the intellect. That is something completely different. That is the computer, the information manipulator, the little puzzle solver. I am talking about consciousness. The consciousness that tells us “I am breathing”, “I am cold”, “The sun just came up”, “I am hungry”, “I exist” “You exist” “I have a blissful feeling in my heart.”

I propose that we consider consciousness a valuable commodity that can be expanded/developed, and something that can be used to an extent we would never have dreamed possible. Furthermore, I am going to go very far out on a limb now and tell you I believe we can use this “super-consciousness” to revolutionize our personal existence and give us undreamed of powers. Next, I would like to introduce the concept of “intuition”. Here is a word we are all familiar with, but not generally in terms of religion. Sadly intuition is thought of as not much more than a lucky hunch here and there, but I think it is a natural albeit undeveloped personal ability, which is both reliable and nothing more than an extension of that day to day “consciousness” that I mentioned above.

So what’s the problem? Why aren’t we all brimming over with the power of intuition? Because:
A. We are drowning in a sea of mental noise
B. There is no “B”

OK, hold on to your hat; this is the way I see it…. Our primary existence is consciousness. Essentially, we are nothing more or less than a pinpoint of pure consciousness. That pinpoint is surrounded by the rest of the cosmos, which I will call “reality.” We are the subject, “reality” is the object (signal) we are trying to be “conscious” of, but (for better or worse) in between we have a layer of noise, which I will call the “ego”, a fictitious sense of self, a misunderstanding of who we are, and that persistent belief that we are this absurd dream identity is the only thing preventing us from experiencing heaven right here on Earth.

So, how do we get rid of the noise and attain this super consciousness? For want of a better word, let’s call it “yoga.” Yoga directly translated means “union,” similar to the translation of the word “religion” by the way. Yoga promises to unite us with our true nature known in yoga circles as “the Self.” The full nature of yoga practice goes way beyond the scope of this short essay, but for the benefit of the novice who may hold the misunderstanding that yoga is merely a set of stretching exercises, I will briefly run over the 8 “limbs” of yoga as originally presented by the great yogi Pantanjali:

1. Yama (a group of 5 morel rules of the road)
2. Niyama; some additional guidelines for day to day behavior (study, helping others etc)
3. Asanas; the physical exercises that have become popular in the West
4. Pranayama; best known as breathing exercises
5. Pratyahara; withdrawal from the senses (preliminary to mediation)
6. Dharana; concentration exercises (meditation)
7. Dhyana; Attention to spiritual phenomena (contemplation)
8. Samadhii; Complete absorption in spiritual experience

I highly encourage anyone interested to seek instruction from a qualified instructor. For more information on yoga and the Baba Nam Kevalam mantra, please visit http://www.babanam.com.

Baba Nam Kevalam

In a Hypnotist practicing Therapeutic use of Hypnosis, important qualities required are: Imagination, Concentration and Motivation. These are also the qualities desirable for a subject.

Hypnosis is sleep of the nervous system. So there is a decrease in the rate of respiration, decrease in blood circulation thus sluggish brain waves. Under the normal consciousness, the brain waves are at Beta wave level. However, with hypnosis, brain waves slow down to alpha waves than to theta waves. Delta waves are brain waves possible in children, & generally no adult can experience the slowing down to delta wave level.

Hypnosis can be practiced one to one i.e. one Hypnotist & one subject, or it can be one to many. This is the case of group when persons has gathered with the main motive of experiencing Hypnosis.

Hypnosis has excellent power of releasing subconscious mind. It is time taking learning process & requires regular practice. After learning it can useful to advance many facets of your life.

Different Levels of Hypnosis

Everybody can not practice Therapeutic hypnosis as it requires highest state of concentration. However, the basic or medium state of concentration also brings benefits of relaxation and peace. While lighter level hypnosis gives feelings of relaxation and calmness as level goes higher individual can experience physical effects such as tingling sensations in the fingers, blinking eyelids, a sensation of heaviness in some parts of the body. The intensity of these feelings boost up after few weeks of practice.

In initial phase hypnosis most people do not have good perception of time with more experience they can have better awareness of the passing time.

In the medium level physical perceptions becomes more enhanced. The subject has pronounced tingling sensations in the fingers, blinking eyelids, a sensation of heaviness in some parts of the body. Some subjects even experience floating sensations. These feelings appear as being very existent by the subject. In medium stage the Hypnotist has better access to subjects mind. In this stage Hypnotist can bring more benefits of hypnosis to the subject.

As the level gets higher further the conscious awareness grows fainter leading to top level i.e. the somnambulistic (sleep awareness) levels of hypnosis. This level leads to the best mental and physical responses. In this level several physiologic responses associated with deep sleep, such as the Rapid Eye Movement, can be observed.

In this stage the subject experiences complete conscious forgetfulness. It makes the subject virtually absent from the real surrounding. This level brings hallucination. The effect of the illusion remains even after the hypnosis.
Hypnosis is most often used for the following purposes:

– Weight Loss and Maintenance
– Health eating
– To cease bad habits like smoking and drug abuse
– To overcome phobias & anxieties
– To suppress pain during medical procedures

In short, hypnosis comes to your help in case some normal point of view or logical thinking becomes barrier in solving any problem of yours. It frees you from problems you want to while in conscious or subconscious state.

Learn more about how Easy Hypnosis can help you and your loved ones, friends and others improve the quality of your lives. And share the news with others, too.

“Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom”
Anatole France

Do you ever tutt at the news?

I used to spend fifteen minutes or so, once or twice a day, watching the news, moaning about politicians messing things up, feeling horrified at human nature and getting frustrated about things that were way beyond my scope of influence. Then for a decade I pretty much shut myself off from the media and ignored it all. All that’s changed now.

Stepping Up

Back in February this year I wrote an article called Are you Stepping Up? At the time I wrote this emotive article I was considering taking my son out of education at aged thirteen, against strong opinion from family and friends. But there were two other issues on my mind that called me to step up too. I couldn’t write about them then, but I can now.

Back in February, when I published Are you Stepping Up? someone had just approached me with an opportunity. Meantime I was in discussions with someone else about new projects.

For now – so as not to confuse things – let’s just talk about the first opportunity.

At first glance it occurred to me that this opportunity wasn’t something I’d normally have gone for. But when I thought about it I realised that it wasn’t normally my thing because I knew very little about it. And while making one very informed decision – a la Stepping Up – I was on the verge of making this other decision in complete and utter ignorance.

Ironic, isn’t it, that I’d do that – make a decision in complete ignorance while at the same time making another decision in full knowledge, while writing an article which highlights the importance of making informed decisions!

Thankfully I’ve become aware enough to notice when I do silly things. So, I put a stop to my ignorance and got curious about this opportunity life has sent me.

To be honest, the decision facing me seemed even bigger than deciding to remove my son from school and taking all the resulting flack.

Perhaps I felt like it was all too much – all these big decisions in such a short time span. But when I began to explore this other opportunity, I came to understand something important about it and about myself.

Through my work I promote self-development and overcoming your personal obstacles. I believe that when we resolve our differences with our shadow personalities we can be of greater service to others since we approach things with a more whole and complete outlook.

But here I was, nice and content doing what I did, writing to my readers each week, drafting a book and coaching. That’s when the Universe gave me a nudge and said, ‘Oi, Neil, get off you’re butt.’

‘I am off my butt,’ I responded.

‘No you’re not,’ it said.

So, I set about researching the first opportunity. Oddly, I began to find it was entirely me. The I researched the other opportunity and discovered that that was entirely me too. Making the decisions, after undertaking some investigating, made the choices incredibly easy.

As a result of the first opportunity I become a Parish Councillor. This means making a contribution to my community, helping to care for my neighbours and the land that sustains us. It also means that rather than moaning about things, locally, that might have been outside of my control I can influence them, or at the very least understand why they turn out the way they do.

The second opportunity is about taking my work to a wider audience. My work is about helping more people find solutions to difficulties and hardships and then turn their life around and make gold out of all that happened before.

The reason why I feel I can now begin watching the news again is that I feel I’m contributing something that can help to create change. Viewed like this, the news becomes a resource that shows the next steps to take.

Breaking the Spell

Often our decisions can be made based on past results. If things didn’t go well in the past, we may have no good reason to believe that a new situation will turn out any better. This creates a belief. Also, new situations are unfamiliar and we may have reservations or even fears about them. The problem is: when our decisions are made based on past failure, future reservations and fears, it paralyses us and keeps us from moving forward.

It’s not uncommon for us to push aside an opportunity even before we’ve considered it, thus missing important information and obscuring us from empowering possibilities. This sends us back into a loop of more of the same hard-work and difficulties.

Continuing a loop is like being kept within a spell. If you are happy to continually experience the same things over and over this is fine, but if you want to transform your life you must lose the attachment, to what has happened before or what might happen in the future, and view the situation based on the present possibility.

A way to begin breaking the spell is to take two minutes every hour to quieten your mind. This allows what is happening to settle in your mind. Also when things get stressful, for example, when one of your children yells at you, you might decide to take a few moments quiet time before responding – kids can find silence more shocking than shouting!

With Love and good wishes

Neil