Bankhead

Have you ever heard the expression: he is on a different planet than the rest of us or, she's living in her own little dream world. I turned on the news the other day and listened for about a minute, and realized that it had absolutely nothing to do with my life. Apparently there are all sorts of worries about the economy, and war, and terrorist attacks, but I now see only the good stuff. So I guess someone could say that I was divorced from reality. (Funny thing is, I feel so much better, now that I am no longer a news junkie. I notice that 99% of the stuff that is on the news is negative, but when I look around at life, I see 99% positive. Something is a little skewed, I'd say).

Through the subtle energy transfer of vibration, your thoughts and beliefs about life place you in vibrational proximity to those of like mind. This process is sometimes obvious, as you find yourself in a stadium watching a baseball game, and sometimes not so obvious, as you wind up at a job interview with someone who seems predisposed not to like you.

If you are continually worried about terrorism for example, you will probably attract something negative into your life sooner or later. Maybe not a terrorist, but something you don't like. The Law of Vibration guarantees that if you are worried about something, you are activating that feeling within you. When that vibration is activated, you begin to resonate more and more to it, like a tuning fork that is continually struck. Then you begin to find yourself in physical proximity, then more strongly, to persons and situations which are a match to the vibration which you have activated. The content of the experiences you have will never be identical, but they will all be self-similar, because the carrier wave of your vibrational signal is the same.

People eventually become so used to hearing the same note that it isn't even noticeable anymore. Even though they are continually striking the tuning fork with the vibration of 'worry about the economy' or 'fear of disease', it just becomes a habit. People get resigned to doing the darndest things! The point is that the Universal Operating System (my name for the set of five universal principles) guarantees that EVERYONE lives in their own little world. Essentially, we create our own vibrational islands of personal experience.

Inga's family is into sports, camping, games, and having fun, and so was Inga until a few months ago, when she took a look at her life and didn't like what she saw anymore. Inga quit her job in a sports consulting firm and began taking meditation classes. She now works in a new age bookstore, for far less money, and her family and old friends are confused about where she's at. There is now a vibrational separation vibration between Inga and her family. She is on a different wavelength, literally, and so much of what Inga thinks, says and does is no longer real to them. If Inga continues on this vibrational path, there will be more and more physical separation between them. This is not good or bad, it is just the way the Universal Operating System works. The law of 'like attracts like' guarantees that Inga will meet up now with people of similar interests. She may lose some of her old friends, because their vibrations now clash with hers, like playing a melody note with a natural 7th and a chord with a flat 7th.

The idea that people can be on different planets and live next to each other is nothing new. I remember when I was a kid, I never even saw my neighbor who lived 2 doors down from me, even though we lived in that house for 8 years! I'll bet many others have experienced similarly.

The point is, what passes for the common reality in a family or group is usually just what most of the family or group agrees on. What passes for the common reality in a nation is what the majority of the people agree on, which usually means, what is on the news every day. But these realities have no more validity than the reality of any individual. It is just that more people have bought into them. The geniuses, the successful business people, those who prosper in any field are always those who decide to do something and then continue along their path, no matter what anyone else says. So many of us, when we see the maverick, will be quick to criticize. This is natural, since the ideas the maverick is offering are different from those agreed upon by the society at large.

What many do is pull back. Inga might say to her family and friends: Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I am going a little too far with that meditation stuff. I'll behave myself from now on. Inga might quit her job at the bookstore and justify it by telling herself that it was just a whim. She might even get her old job back. She may now feel more comfortable when dealing with family and friends, but if Inga is truly dissatisfied with her life and continues to frequent the same places and deal with the same people, she will become increasingly irritable.

Being different just means having your internal vibration set at a different bandwidth than the people you are hanging around with. You can either stay with the old crowd and be miserable, or march to the beat of your own drummer. If you do decide to change, be assured that the laws of the universe will work for you. You will find yourself, inevitably, meeting up with new people and situations to match your new set of preferences! And if you stay happy, the process of changing your life will be effortless. You will gradually meet up with people more in tune with you and gradually the others will fade away, with no upset or resentment at all.

Don't give up on your dreams because they happen to be different from the crowd. Blazing your own trail may sometimes result in a clash of vibration, which won't feel so good. This does not mean your goals are impossible, or wrong, it is just the Law of Vibration telling you that you are now not resonating to the old ways anymore. That's a good thing, because it means you have truly shifted. It isn't all in your head, you are making it real enough for others to respond to. The laws of the universe guarantee that there are plenty of people out there who you can connect up with in your new life. It may take a little time, but if you stick with it, the people and resources you need must come to you.

Kenneth James Michael MacLean has written 6 books and dozens of articles.
For more information, go to www.kjmaclean.com/

For free eBooks, go to www.kjmaclean.com/Products/Freeebooks.html

"When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. The throwing ourselves away is the act of creativity. So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play, or an artist at work, then we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we also escape our self-conscious selves." -- Madeleine L'Engle

Action
We must take action to create our art. We must play at it, as a child approaches playing. I love this quote, and want to share with you how we can escape into our art, and to open the door into the sumptuous world of our own creativity.

Play
What was your favorite game or pastime as a child? Think back to how you spent your time. For example, I loved playing Capture the Flag, or exploring nearby wine grape vineyards, or getting full of burrs playing in abandoned. I also loved curling up with good adventure stories like Misty of Chincoteague. What did you love about the games you played? Dig beneath the pleasure and describe its elements. With reading, for example, I'm always on an adventure and this I love.

Identify
Identify the thing you love about your writing. Identify it and sink your teeth into it. I'm in love with my current piece of fiction: its characters, setting, and problems. I can't wait to return to that world so that I can sit in the angst of the problems I've created and move my characters to some kind of resolution.

Time to take act
Set the time for 20 minutes or so. Write about all the reasons why you can't do your art. If you find yourself writing about other things, great. The point is to move pen across page without stopping until the buzzer rings. Or, write about what you want your creative project to really be like.

Tracking
You are ready to work. Your art materials are laid out in front of you, the computer is on, or the clay is before you. In a notebook, track your progress. When you write what you've done and for how long, it shows that you've done it!

MAP
Greg Norte teaches that a MAP is a Major Accountability Partner. This person is a colleague or creativity buddy. Call them weekly to report in, celebrate your successes and shore up any challenges. I have MAPs in all areas of my life. Go team!

List of Twenty
One of my favorite exercises, appeals to both the left and right brainers out there. It's great for story and idea generation in any area. Five steps to implementing this simple yet powerful tool:

Step One: Set your intention for the list. Decide what you're going to use the list for. For example, you could decide to list out twenty possible plot ideas, or answer the question "what do I really want with this creative project?"

Step Two: Get ready! Number your page down the left hand side, 1-20.

Step Three: Get set! Know that you will list twenty items, even if you repeat yourself.

Step Four: Go! Write your list of twenty. Don't stop until youve reached the end.

Step Five: Read your list with amusement and neutrality and congratulate yourself. You did it. If you are so inspired pick one item and work on it right now.

Fieldtrip
When I need inspiration, and something to jolt me into action, I take a little field trip down the hill thru my neighborhood. I go to one of my favorite coffee shops, sit in the little plaza enjoying the mural, and the passersby while I write.

Where can you go to mix things up, get inspiration, feed your fire? It may only be a seven and a half minute walk away.

Hopefully now you have been inspired to action, to choose a few or all of the above exercises to help you "wholly concentrate" and "share in the act of creating" with your art, and to lovingly and kindly get the hell out of your own way.

Now, Go Play!

Surf the Internet in search of "Japanese bondage" to find an answer to the question "where did it come from". Guess what, you will get at least a hundred different answers and a couple of thousands compilations of these.

The following may be a stunning fact but ....... the problem is there hardly is any Japanese bondage history. And most certainly not a linear one.

You see, like almost all erotic styles, games and techniques, Japanese bondage is a compilation of many techniques and influences. And unfortunately - as is often the case - there are many pseudo-experts in the field.

Fancy words and mysticism

Let us start with some facts: probably the oldest written documentation about sexuality and forms of restraint, pain and the impulses that come with this is the KamaSutra. No, that is not an ancient sex/book, but actually a book of wisdom. It dates back to several thousands of years before Christ and Vatsyayana, the monk that wrote the book, actually did little more than writing down what had been oral teachings until that point for thousands of years.

Sexuality is an important - one of three actually - pillars under Veda, the mother-wisdom of both Hinduism and Buddhism. In short, Veda acknowledges the three areas of wisdom: sexuality, social/economical and spiritual. From there the knowledge spread out, mainly accros the orient. And the knowledge adapted and changed according to local, regional differences, development and increasing insights.

I will spare you the hundreds of different forms and shapes, both Buddhism and Hinduism have taken since.

Enter "martial arts".

Fighting is as old as mankind. So is sexuality. So is spirituality. All three usually go hand in hand. Power eroticises and reproduction is important to the species. All three are about life and death, the eternal cycle the cosmos revolves around. And all three will sooner or later - in some combination - find their way to the bedroom, to legislation and to "crowd control" (or social or religious control if you like).

Mystifying and using fancy words is an important part of all this. If I know something you do not I have better chances and better chances in love and in bed. This is the thing that has brought entire kingdoms to enormous success and to their knees.

Modern day sexuality

Let us take a giant leap into the contemporary world of iPods, Internet, cellphones, fast cars and television.

Two things have changed dramatically over the last decades. One: people have lost touch with their roots and as a result you see an increasing in spirituality. Two: anyone can be almost anything and mass-communicate that over the Internet in seconds. Remember: "I know something you do not" has been an important power-instrument ever since the first ape started to walk on twe legs.

So, what do you do to "sound important"? You either find something that not many people know about, or you simply invent or modify something. It happens everywhere. The "financial world" largely revolves around rumours and expectations. "Wine connaisseurs" seem to have forgotten that wine in its essence is a simple, yet enjoyable beverage made from grapes or other fruits. And sex is no different.

The reality of Japanese bondage

Japanese bondage (a.k.a. Shibari, a.k.a. Kinbaku-bi) has many, many different influences. In contemporary Japanese bondage you will find influences from 12th century Japanese theater, from the geisha culture, from other art forms, from a 17th century suicide ritual, from Buddhism, from Ki-energy manipulation (best known as acupuncture), from several different oriental cultures and from martial arts. In other words, it has no linear history - it is an evolving thing.

Back to your Internet search. What you will soon see is that there are fierce debates going on about who has the "real knowledge". Well, that is the Internet for you. Remember the old joke about how many chatbox members it takes to change a light bulb? (hundreds, most of them discussing the correct spelling of the word light bulb).

It is like the wise man said - all religions hold a small piece of the actual truth, no has all of it, neither the exclusive rights to it.

Hans Meijer, a Dutch former journalist and government spokesmen, is the chairman for the Powerotics Foundation. This organisation is dedicated to provide quality information about alternative lifestyles.