Oneness Blessing: extraordinary new spiritual practice
By Joseph Dispenza May 23, 2008 San Miguel de Allende
Lectures
Oneness Blessing
Michael & Jennifer Grais
Sunday, May 25, 10:30am
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Posada de la Aldea
Ancha de San Antonio 15
Free
Sun, May 25, 4–5pm
LifePath Center
Recreo 80
50 pesos, drop-ins welcome
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Until a few months ago, I had never heard of the Oneness Blessing. Then one day we were approached by a Oneness Blessing practitioner, suggesting that she set up an office at LifePath Center. I called my cousin and fellow spiritual seeker in Atlanta (a senior vice president at UBS Financial Services by day) and asked him if he had ever heard of the Blessing.
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“It is sweeping Atlanta,” he said. “The practitioners here have waiting lines. If you can get a Oneness Blessing practitioner to work with you at LifePath, do it, do it.”
In the last few years, this extraordinary phenomenon called Oneness Blessing or Deeksha emerged out of India and is touching millions of people around the world. Deeksha, which means “benediction” or “initiation” in Sanskrit, is a form of spiritual transmission and healing.
Now San Miguel has its own Deeksha-giver: Jennifer Grais. She and her husband, screenwriter Michael Grais (Poltergeist, 1982), studied in India to become practitioners of Oneness Blessing. She maintains a private practice bestowing the blessing at LifePath Center.
Experienced practitioners like Grais give a Oneness Blessing—the transmission of divine energy—by placing their hands on a recipient’s head for a few minutes. The effects are cumulative and can enhance physical healing, generate greater intimacy in relationships, promote material well-being and, most significantly, may result in a spontaneous and effortless “awakening into oneness.”
The Oneness Blessing as given by the Graises, under the auspices of Oneness University, is the initiation of a process that leads to what is referred to as the flowering of the heart. In this process a neural biological cleansing and restructuring takes place in the human organism that leads to a shift in perception and the eventual dissolution of the sense of the self as a separated entity cut off from the rest of life. The end result is the direct experience of the self as One with all life and creation, enjoying its own true nature as joyful and blissful. This is not merely a psychological phenomenon but a true, direct and permanent experience.
Once initiated within the individual, the transition is directed by one’s own divine inner intelligence working in a balanced, integrated way without interrupting the basic functionality and flow of one’s personal life and activities.
Jennifer Grais is an intuitive healer. During her private sessions, she uses the hands-on Deeksha. Her private sessions bring about an internal shift, which helps people accept new possibilities and open to the Divine. She also uses the shamanic teachings from several masters she studied with over a period of 10 years.
Contact her directly for more information: jennifergrais@gmail.com.
Joseph Dispenza is an award-winning author, Atención columnist and co-founder of LifePath in San Miguel. You can read more of his articles at www.lifepathretreats.com.
Listening to Your Body
By Richard Adelman
Rediscovering the pleasure of your body: The Wave
| Do you take a fatalistic attitude toward pleasure, thinking of it as something that depends on external stimuli that happens to you from the outside? Do you feel victimized by your aging process, which may be accompanied by physical pain, stiffness and awkwardness, shrinking of your social identity through loss of significant others and diminishing of the “juiciness” of your body tissues? Rather than giving in, as many do, to anger, depression, or denial, would you like to have a means to help yourself? | |
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One possibility is to reduce pain, renew your flexibility and re-enliven yourself with a gentle rhythmic movement from the Feldenkrais Method called “The Wave.” While reducing stress, improving your breathing and posture, loosening your hips, back and neck, you may be able to evoke an overall feeling of bodily integration and harmony. Being able to generate the experience of pleasure and well-being from inside your own body can be a powerful antidote to challenging emotional states and overdependence on others. By supporting yourself in this way, you give yourself something even deeper and more enduring than pleasure: satisfaction.
Orientation: Rather than a compulsory “exercise” to be gotten over with quickly, envision a soft, gentle, pleasurable movement to be relished and enjoyed. Allow it to become a movement exploration or somatic meditation, a ritual of self-contact. Please do only what is easy, reducing your effort if you encounter pain or discomfort, stopping if it continues. You could devote from 10 to 30 minutes to this movement as often as once daily.
Caution: Although this movement is a deep and natural part of our human animal heritage, it may be confusing or difficult physically or emotionally for some people. This is particularly true of relaxing the neck to allow the head to move and coordinating the breathing rhythm with the movement. Of course, it may touch on issues of sexuality and loneliness. Please be gentle with yourself.
Settling in: Lie on your back on a firm bed or padded floor surface. Bend your knees, placing your feet a comfortable distance apart, and a thin pillow under your head. Can you begin to slow down your thoughts and settle into yourself and the support of the floor? Take a few minutes.
Figures A and B (breathing): With your hands resting on your belly, feel how they follow the movement of your belly rising and sinking with each breath. Feel the air flowing through your nose or mouth. Take a few minutes to allow your rhythm to emerge.
Figure C (flattening the back): As you exhale, gently press your feet into the floor until your pelvis begins to curl under your torso. Your pubic bone will move toward your head and your lower back will move closer to the floor. Continue until your lumbar region rests flat on the floor but do not go farther and actually lift the pelvis. Slowly release the pressure and repeat with the next exhalation.
Figure D (arching the back): As you inhale, gently move your tailbone in the direction of your feet, producing an arch in your back. (Do this while resting, not pressing, your feet on the floor.) After a few seconds, release the arch and repeat for several minutes.
Figures C and D (The Wave): Now that you have practiced each phase of the movement, you are ready to combine them into the complete Wave. Slowly alternate between arching and flattening your back, seeing if your breathing rhythm can guide you when to move and if you can permit your head to be “waved” by the pelvic movement. Do not pause in the middle, simply alternate slowly between flattening and arching your back. The head should tilt up as the back flattens and down toward the chest as the back arches. If it is difficult to synchronize this movement with your breathing, just breathe however you wish.
Have you been able to abandon trying hard and to allow yourself to contact your own personal rhythm? Were you able to create the experience of being grounded inside yourself? Were you able to discover a range of movement, a tempo and a gentleness which gave you a taste of a vibrant, flowing, sensuous inner self?
Richard Adelman (M.A., psychology) is certified in both Feldenkrais and Pilates, and has nearly 40 years’ experience as a movement educator. His San Miguel cell is 044 (415) 114-3069; email richardadelman@gmail. He practices monthly in San Miguel at LifePath (www.lifepathretreats.com).
Body, Mind and Spirit
By Dr. Andrea Pennington
Lecture
Dr. Andrea Pennington
Thu, May 29, 3pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos
Editor’s note:
In upcoming issues of Atención Dr. Andrea Pennington begins a series on current affairs affecting health and well-being. Her unique integrative treatment style blends conventional medicine with acupuncture, fitness, nutritional consultation, positive psychology, counseling and motivational support.
Nationally recognized as a wellness expert, she was featured twice on the Oprah Winfrey Show educating the viewers about obesity and how to eat well for disease prevention.
Dr. Andrea regularly speaks at conventions and leads seminars teaching people how to live with increased vitality by overcoming destructive habits and addictions.
She regularly provides expert advice on anti-aging medicine and incorporating realistic changes into daily life on CNN and Fox News Channel as well as in Essence, Self, Health, and Real Simple magazines.
You have the power to reclaim wellness
In my upcoming lecture I want to address the capacity of all people to reclaim the health and vitality they experienced when young. A very disturbing trend as people are aging is the self-realization that they are in poor physical, emotional and spiritual states, dead-end relationships, and uninspiring careers. What’s worse is that most people feel powerless and helpless to overcome their condition despite the fact that the contrary is true: The power to improve your entire life lies within you.
What is affecting wellness today?
Many overlook, fail to recognize or deny the root cause of their suffering and attempt to ease their pain by self-medicating with drugs, food or destructive behaviors. This is unfortunate because these detrimental activities are the very slippery slope to poor health. With the often-frenetic pace of the typical North American lifestyle, most people are unable to focus their attention and efforts in a sustained or meaningful way to improve their health and well-being. Others do not even realize that greater health and well-being are possible.
My initial medical experience and conventional training revealed that we have an innate capacity for wellness. I have found that a genuine tendency toward vitality is inborn and only becomes inactive through the conditioning of the mind—through socialization. Fortunately, we can reactivate this tendency.
Understanding the 3 powers of “being” in reactivating wellness
The body, mind and spirit operate together, each element affecting and influencing the others. To thrive like children naturally do, even in the face of illness, we must learn to recognize the proper function of each aspect of our being. Then we must balance and integrate them for total life fulfillment. This is the foundation of my approach to reclaiming wellness.
If you deny or neglect any part of your being, you become unbalanced and you perpetuate illness. By becoming conscious of your innate personal power and by gaining more understanding of the intricate connection between your mind, body and spirit, you will see dramatic improvements in all areas of your life.
There are no magic spells, potions or pills to put you into a perfect state of health. But you do possess the tools; they lie within, and over the next few weeks I will show you how a five-step plan can work miracles.
As we continue you will learn that you are not mind alone. You are not flesh alone. The real you is spirit. You will learn that through your spirit you have access to enormous energy and power to ease or possibly erase disease and live your destiny. The exciting news is that you can take steps toward your own personal wellness goal from where you are right now.
Dr. Andrea Pennington, a physician, acupuncturist and empowerment coach, is the president of Pennington Empowerment Media. Her recent book, The Pennington Plan: 5 Simple Steps to Vibrant Health, Emotional Wellbeing and Spiritual Growth, is receiving rave reviews. For more information visit www.AndreaPennington.com.
Men are like dogs, women are like cats
By Colin Hanlen
Lecture
Men are like dogs, women are like cats
Colin Hanlen
Mon, May 26, 3–5pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
Donation 50 pesos
During a recent discussion, the group was not sure if men were from Mars and women were from Venus. But we decided that there are many similarities between men and dogs and women and cats. Men are so right out there and need to be bathed frequently or they smell just like dogs. Women are so dignified and refined, even self-cleaning and always smell wonderful.
Some people think all dogs are alike or all cats are alike. Every species has its own personalities, from warrior dog or alley cat to lapdog or princess cat. Come explore your own personality or the personality of an acquaintance. “Why?” you may ask. It is my experience as a counselor that most often male and female expectations cause problems. A woman or man generally won’t or can’t act like the other. With understanding and by living with compassion, men and women can be helpmates and have fun more together.
American Indians and other indigenous people tend to watch the behavior of their children and notice which animal each child’s behavior models. This animal then becomes the child’s totem. This is similar to Catholics who choose a favorite saint to be their model for behavior.
I have a few favorite stories about dogs and cats and hope that you will bring your favorite story about a dog or cat, puppy or kitten. Then we will see if we can agree on our interpretation of the story. The worst that can happen is that this will be a group of barking or yappy dogs, or scaredy cats snarling and hiding under the furniture.
At best it will be a happy afternoon using our imaginations and creativity to explore ways that men and women can enrich their lives and the lives of their favorite “others.”
Colin Hanlen is a therapist who uses graphology, astrology and tarot cards for fuller understanding.