I have a Dream
A friend of mine used to say “It’s too dangerous to dream, you need to keep your feet planted firmly on the ground in reality”
I want to share with you, MY Dream.
Just a word about dreaming first.
In ancient Chinese culture, there’s an idea of learning to lucid dream. This is essentially being awake in the dream-time.
It’s possible to teach yourself to be more cognisant during periods of sleep.
I had a teacher who was able to see and direct the following days classes and lectures and organise his work in the dream space.
We are told that the “American Dream” is the way to live our lives.
I was brought up on a diet of the American Dream – the dream of Brittania Ruling the Waves was already over, the dream that was put in place of that, was crafted for us by the post-war government of the United States.
We were told what to dream by the Ad Men of Madison Avenue.
In a way, the United Kingdom had been forced to sell it’s dream time to the good old “US of A” as part of the War reparations.
The cost of having America enter the war and turn the tide was that British dreams were set aside and we were all swept up in the burgeoning enthusiasm of America, rebuilding itself. We couldn’t afford our own dreams.
Dreams are so powerful; our dreams are the seeds of our future.
If we can manipulate the dreams consciously, then we are using more time (than just the daytime) to align the mind with what it is we want.
It is a fact that we use our consciousness to create our reality. Quite obviously, every choice you make leads you down a different path.
Every moment is filled with pregnant potential – it’s only when our brain selects one bifurcation or the other that things change. Crucially, we can make these choices both consciously but also subconsciously.
The brain can be a very lazy device it would seem. It would much rather just plough a regularly used furrow, than break out and look for a new path.
We are patterned thinkers. From the earliest of ages, we are learning patterns to use as a shortcut, to make life easier and safer.
You look out of a window, and see a “Red sky in the morning – a sailor’s warning” and think – “looks like it’ll rain, better take an umbrella”
It’s a useful shortcut piece of information, that can save you a little bother.
We have millions of patterns stored away over a lifetime. Not all of them are good.
From a man’s perspective -one partner cheats on us, therefore all women are likely to be unfaithful, or from a woman’s perspective – one man abuses us, therefore all men are abusers…
Our patterns are there to protect us, but they also limit us.
In stress situations, we are most likely to go from A-B swiftly, rather than bother to see what lies on the path of A to C…
These shortcuts can ruin our lives as well as being useful helpers
Our Minds are the second most powerful device in the universe.
Normally they should be powered and governed by our Hearts
It’s often said that LOVE is the most powerful force in the Universe.
The Heart being the seat of love, this makes the heart Emperor of all it surveys.
The issue with modern life is that “Information” is the new drug.
As with everything in Chinese Medicine, balance is required.
For thousands of years, the accumulation of wealth was the target.
These days, the accumulation of information is one of the surest ways to gather riches.
We hold our Tech Billionaires in high esteem, generally the reason that these people are so rich is that they are exceptionally clever scientists in their own rights. They have then attracted to their sides, more smart people.
Canny investors don’t need to have giant brains, they just “buy” these huddles of clever people, and use them to make money.
Our professors have always been held in high esteem, it’s the conjoining of brains with money and the “mining” of information from the Universe that’s fuelled the latest excesses.
Information then is the latest highly prized commodity.
Dr Pang realised this in the 1970’s – He was the first person to really see the structure of the Universe from a Qi perspective, as being Qi, Space and Information
It’s fair to say that in the 1920’s Niels Bohr was being recognised for demonstrating the same understanding in terms of western physics. (Even Dr Pang was standing on the shoulders of giants..)
Dr Pang understood that if you can change the Information of Illness, then you can change the course of illness.
Essentially, his suggestion is that all illness issues from a pattern.
Some are much more difficult to see than others.
Perhaps you were “drilled” by your father to believe that hard physical work would only ever be the way to earn money.
Perhaps he believed that failure was not an option, and that one should never stop until one reached the top of the tree. Perhaps he had actually achieved this, and looked down on everybody else from this lofty perch. (Perhaps this is also why he died at 67 years old, but nobody mentions this, and certainly it’s not enough of a warning gun to stop you trying!)
You follow in his footsteps, you set yourself unreasonably high personal targets, and by your early fifties, you can’t understand why you feel so tired and ill.
You still have your father on your back, riding you like a premium race horse. His “patterns” are making YOU ill..
In answer to the question, “how did you get cancer?” – it doesn’t make much sense to say “my father gave it to me” – but in reality, it’s pretty close to being true.
You have made the life choices, but all along the way, his ideology has been the baseline for each decision. You feel like you have been driving your life, but now you realise that you are sitting in the back of the Limousine and the guy in the front, in a smart Chauffeurs cap is actually your father!
The information that you have slowly absorbed all through your life is what drives you.
It’s rare that we actually stop to think.
A job opportunity shows itself, we think “I could do with the extra money” – we rarely stop and think “can I handle the stress” – and when we’re young, we feel pretty “bullet-proof” anyway. We allow ourselves to be drawn into more and more toxic situations, because we don’t stop and listen to our Hearts.
The Information is so seductive.
We put such a high prize on our particular set of information that we have accumulated.
“I was one of the best lawyers, doctors, businessmen…” is not going to help you when you are lying on your deathbed aged sixty-five, or god forbid much younger.
Whatever the demons that drive us, it’s our responsibility to start to examine and exorcise them.
As Socrates says, “A Life unexamined is a life not worth living”
You, my regular readers, know that the therapy that I engage in with my One to One clients revolves around digging through lives, and trying to put things in perspective.
The wider healing classes that I run on a Wednesday do the same thing in a more general way, they are geared to make you ask questions about your belief systems.
Dr Pang’s dream was cut short.
In the year 2000 Qigong was repressed in China, and is still struggling to get back to its feet even now, twenty five years later.
He was in the process of building a Qigong town, with the plan for it to eventually expand into a city.
I’ve seen photos of the buildings, that were already starting to be inhabited – then it all fell to pieces.
What a dream, a consciousness community of people who were all trying to manage their information in a different way.
They were coming together with Qigong as the centre point of their lives, rather than commerce or the hoarding of Information as it’s driver
(Don’t get me wrong, I have heard stories of the fabled Medicineless Hospital that are less than flattering. There were sects of people, who didn’t mix with each other, there was unhealthy competition between the healers – in short, there’s always Human Nature to contend with!)
I think that the community at Findhorn (one of the longest lasting ethical communities in the UK – over sixty years old..) has faced black times where the people have all but decided to give it all up and walk away.
When thinking of living in community I think one has to assume that there will always be clashes of character, I believe that Findhorn has pioneered many systems to keep each other from destroying the whole.
So, what of my dream?
Part of it was ignited by one of my teachers, a rather eccentric man called Leonard Orr.
He had started several “alternative currencies” in the 60’s to try to get away from the grip of the Dollar. He had very “Hippy” views about ownership and governance back then. He was one of the original founders of the Hippy movement, living in California in the late 60’s.
He came to believe that some of the most healing things in life were “sitting with fire” and Bathing. He used to say, “we are the luckiest generation -we can go back to our houses, and switch on a gas fire, or draw a hot bath instantly” – his point was the hassle of living in a cave, collecting dry wood.. or the process of boiling kettles on a range, to pour into a tub in the middle of the living room…
For Leonard, our “energy fields” could be cleansed by sitting next to a fire…
There were many nights that we sat round his hearth in Virginia, deep in meditation, as the wonderful fire crackled away in the grate and the Polar Vortex whistled and moaned outside.
He suggested Meditating in the bath for at least an hour per day.
What a luxurious path to enlightenment!
One of his greatest ideas was that “religion” should be superseded by a new type of public space, where people of all beliefs and denominations could come together to bath, as the Romans did, but also be able to sit beside beautiful fires too.
Meditation temples to Fire and Water…
I was lucky enough to spend a while working with the excellent Caroline Reed.
When we first met, she was examining the potential of communal living.
Together we worked on the Heartland Project, attempting to bring together a conscious community.
Initially the idea was a workspace, it was to have a visitors hub, in which we could show off the latest innovations in renewable energy, sustainable farming, sustainable building, evolutions of Learning/Teaching and Health innovations.
Heartland was to have a Conference Centre that would host speakers from the cutting edge of Spiritual, Scientific and New Age thinking.
As the project developed, it enfolded other ideas, such as my Medicineless Hospital, a New age Business centre and business Incubator, and eventually a sustainable Village.
The last iteration of our business plan included 300 sustainable houses, with a village school, restaurants, shops and cafes..
(If you have a spare £32m in your back pocket, we are still open to negotiations!)
The centre of the centre was a building that was raised out of the ground that it stood on. It was designed to be made of “Rammed Earth” and local timber.
It was to be the Heart of Heartland.
The idea isn’t dead in the water!
I’m still investigating the possibilities here in Portugal.
I have been offered an 11-hectare tract of Olive grove and mixed trees, with a stream running through the middle as a potential site. Interestingly, there are many such places in Portugal, but none however with Zhineng Qigong at their beating heart.
Recently, I asked myself the following “What’s the most I can do to bring lasting change to this planet, during this lifetime?”
Still the best answer that I could come up with was “Provide a space for Consciousness Change, for as many people as possible”
This is my life’s work.
Who knows if I’ll even manage it in a significant way, but at least I have this as my guiding star. I put it out there from time to time, asking for partners.
I’ve always been a dreamer and a planner, but have never had the part that some people have to amass the fortunes required.
Recently, I read a comment “chose your greatest weakness, and understand that it’s actually the doorway to your greatest skill”
It really struck me. I have never been able to make huge amounts of money – interestingly, I have never been badly off either. I have always wondered at this inability, and seen it as my weakness.
I now see that it’s actually one of my skills! I have always managed to make things happen, but without a vast financial pool at my disposal. I’m always able to achieve what I want, but usually it’s by using the “long way round, and not the shortcut”
Every skill I have even needed, I have had to learn rather than buy. This makes one into a resourceful being. I’m powered by belief and a great stock of Tiger Yang Qi…(Tiger is my Chinese Star sign!)
It would seem that again, I’m being offered some amazing land to work on, this has happened several time in Portugal already, but not yet been exactly right.
So, there it is, my dream is out there.
I’m looking for financial partners to work with to create a community space where we can live, and where many other can come to heal themselves from the patterns of the twenty first century.
Let me know if you’d like to be part of this journey!
As Dr Pang says “Hao La!” – translated it means “everything is good already!”