A vow of silence (mauna) has one main focus — to awaken awareness. Cultivating awareness, means being in the present moment at all times and experiencing each and every action with full consciousness.

If you are drinking a coffee, you don’t drink the coffee while reading a newspaper, all the while your mind is thinking about what tasks the day holds for you. You drink the coffee and are conscious that you are picking up the cup. You lift it to your lips, you feel the sensation of taste, you put the cup back down and your mind is fully in the present moment and the task at hand. By living in the present, you increase your awareness. It is like switching off your auto pilot and removing yourself from routine life.

A vow of silence further enhances this awareness and gives you the shake you need, to finally break the mold. Known as a spiritual awakening or state of enlightenment.

1. You Change the Definition Of Yourself

Without others we have no definition of ourselves. We determine who we are by the perception of others. When you take a vow of silence, you can no longer prepare your response and react to the circumstance. When you can no longer think and talk your way through situations, you have no choice but to let go of your societal mask.

This mask is the “you” that you were told you were. The role that you play, in the game you were playing.

2. You Enhance Your Perception

Your senses become overflowed with energy. This energy was chewed up by thinking and speaking and so when they open up, they take on a new tremendous intensity.

Sunsets will appear more vivid, flowers become enchanting, and the whole world comes alive. The stars look brighter and your connection is deepened, as you delve into your miraculous and spontaneous sense of being. Continue reading →

This article was originally written and posted at/by Collective Evolution.  Posted here with their permission.

Did you know that we can change our biology simply by what we believe to be true? The placebo effect is defined as the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health or behaviour not attributable to a medication or invasive treatment that has been administered. It suggests that one can treat various ailments by using the mind to heal. For example, if two people have a head ache and one takes tylenol while the other is given a pill that contains nothing (sugar), both could report that the pill was successful and the headache is gone.

The difference is, the one that was given the pill which contained nothing still believed that they were given a tylenol that would alleviate their headache. In doing so,  their headache was cured because of what they believed to be true. This has happened on numerous occasions, many studies have shown that the placebo effect is real and highly effective.

The placebo practice is known, but widely dismissed in medicine. The placebo effect should be a major topic of study in medical schools. Unfortunately drug companies study patients who respond to the placebo effect with the goal of eliminating them from early clinical trials. It bothers pharmaceutical manufacturers that in most of their clinical trials the placebos prove to be just as effective as their chemical ridden drugs. Examining the placebo effect would give rise to a whole new category under science, which would probably be consciousness.

This is why it’s not examined thoroughly, the power of our perception and its ability to create our reality and even change our biology would open the door to a multitude of other questions, possibilities and potentialities for the human race. These potentialities would most likely wipe out many industries on the planet, from health all the way down to energy. These concepts are also heavily examined and illustrated by quantum physics.

The placebo effect should be the subject of major, funded research efforts. If medical researchers could figure out how to leverage the placebo effect, they would hand doctors an efficient,energy-based, side effect-free tool to treat disease.

Energy healers say they already have such tools, but I am a scientist, and I believe the more we know about science of the placebo, the better we’ll be able to use it in clinical settings – Bruce Lipton, Ph.D (3)

A Baylor School of Medicine study, published in 2002 in the New England Journal of Medicine, (1) looked at surgery for patients with severe and debilitating knee pain. Continue reading →

I was really nervous when I first realized that I wanted to teach Tantra. What would people think? Would they be offended? Talking about sex is such a no-no. I live in a very small conservative community, how was this going to work?

But then a good friend said to me, “Do you realize what you’re offering people? Tantra is essentially the OPPOSITE of porn.” Once I realized this, I never looked back!

Porn is a funny thing. Despite some opinions, I believe that it isn’t inherently evil. Lots of people truly enjoy watching porn, including many couples who use it together to have a new experience. Yet it is seemingly undeniable that there are some real dark sides to porn.

Besides the obvious violence and anything involving children, there are much more insidious issues:

1) What We Look Like Is Everything

Porn focuses on being stimulated through the body. And so we are subconsciously told that sexuality depends on what your body looks like. You must be young, fit, have perky breasts and a large penis, otherwise you can’t be a good lover.

And ironically this sets up a huge self-worth issue in everyone, particularly those who don’t see themselves as young, fit and perky.

And for the ones that do, they still quite often don’t see themselves as perky or big enough. Ultimately, no one leaves happy with themselves.

2) It’s All About Successfully Pleasuring The Other

Porn focuses on pleasing the other. Now obviously there is some part of us deep down that knows that the desire to please our partner is actually a wonderful thing. But that isn’t usually how it comes across in porn. It comes across as the only thing that is important. Continue reading →

Ayahuasca is a potion that is made out of two Amazon herbs. One of the herbs contains the psychoactive molecule DMT. The Amazon tribes have been drinking this potion for thousands of years; they use it for physical, psychological and spiritual healing. It’s all about the approach of deep wisdom, associated with visions and guidance.

Ayahuasca is a ‘healer’, teacher, the key to a door that opens the inter-dimensional world. The ones who have consumed ayahuasca claim that they experienced spiritual revelations about the nature of the Universe, about their purpose on Earth.

Some say this is a spiritual awakening equally associated with rebirth. People report that they’ve reached higher spiritual dimensions after consuming the potion and at the same time they were able to communicate with various spiritual or extra-dimensional beings, who may act as guides or healers.

Amazon tribes and Westerners as well, have reported some of the experiences after consuming the ‘holy’ herb – Ayahuasca. These are some of them:

Everything is consciousness. Everything is vibration, even thoughts, ideas and emotions. Everything is made up of the same fundamental geometries. 

There is no separation. Consuming ayahuasca may help you enter the state of non-duality or the unity of consciousness. Since being in such state, you’ll know that separation is an illusion. All life forms and matter are connected with the source – the universal consciousness. The perception of separation, powered by the ego, prevents us from learning the Truths.

Love and light are the foundation of everything that is. Love is a vibration, it is the fabric that makes up all-that-is. The darkness only exists to help us understand the light. The contrast needs to exist to create balance.  Continue reading →

Has the world entranced your mind into needing cigarettes? Has the overwhelming stress of every day life gotten too much? It’s not your fault you smoke cigarettes, they have been designed to keep you on them.

When they were first being introduced, doctors would recommend men smoke them because it’s was good for their stamina; it made them stronger. Smoking was allowed everywhere – even on planes.

Today we have woken up to the truth about what we are doing to our bodies. If you are a long time smoker, quitting on the spot can be literally impossible. LITERALLY. The chemicals in your brain have shifted into making you feel like you cannot live without one. My amazingly brave partner just quit smoking a pack a day for the last 20 years. He knew his body had reached a limit and it became very dire that he stop immediately. It does come down to a choice, but you don’t have to do it alone.

This is what happens to your body after you stop smoking: Continue reading →