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LIVING THE FIELDDIRECTED INTENTION

LIVING THE FIELD

LIVING THE FIELD

Lesson 1 Can our thoughts shape the future? 5Lesson 2 The spirit of place 7Lesson 3 The power of the collective 9Lesson 4 Peace through group power 11Lesson 9 The prayer of the singing mantra 13Lesson 11 The brighter side of life 17Lesson 30 Peak intensity 21Lesson 32 Moving aside 23Lesson 33 On the same wavelength 25Lesson 34 The mental dry run 27Lesson 36 Heavenly bodies 29

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Contents

LIVING THE FIELDDirected Intention

LIVING THE FIELDDirected

Intention

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LIVING THE FIELD

Thought is a tangible energy that canhave a physical impact on events, andon living and non-living things. Thissection explores how to use positiveintention in daily life as a positive,infectious energ y, and how to shieldyourself from negative intention.

Our connectedness implies thatour intentions are an energ yforce that can shape our world.

Evidence from Princeton and otherresearch centers around the world indi-cates that human consciousness is a non-local energy force that can influence liv-ing and non-living systems, and createo r d e r.

Many studies show that the quantumfrequencies that make up thought are ane n e rgy that is not sensitive to time orspace—once we have an intention, it cana ffect our future or our past. PhysicistHelmut Schmidt showed that people cana ffect the results of random electronicdevices days after they’ve been used.1The evidence suggests that present orfuture intentions act on initial probabili-ties and influence what events actuallycome into being.

If that is the case, can our thoughtstravel into and shape the future? Somescientific evidence suggests that theycan. New evidence shows that we canactually ‘store’ our intentions and putthem to use whenever we need them.

The extraordinary studies of DrWilliam A. Ti l l e r, professor emeritus ofphysics at Stanford University, illustratethat we can ‘embed’ these consciousintentions in a simple electronic devicewith a standard electrical circuit gener-ating less than 1 microwatt of power andthat, once captured, these intentions canbe used at some future time to affect aliving system.

Tiller has successfully carried outstudies in a variety of labs throughoutthe US in which black boxes, orIntentional Imprinted Electrical Devices(IIEDs), as he calls them, ‘charg e d ’ w i t hparticular human intention, have suc-

cessfully produced a number of desirede ffects. The system has changed the pHof solutions (by a full pH), sped up thelarval development of fruit flies (by upto 15 per cent), changed water and airtemperatures, and increased the activityof the liver enzyme alkaline phos-p h a t a s e .2

In Ti l l e r’s study series, he enlistedfour highly experienced meditators andsat them around a table bearing an‘ u n i m p r i n t e d ’ IIED. The meditators wentinto a deep meditative state and, aftermentally ‘cleansing’ the entire spacearound them, they mentally held a spe-cific intention for the device for about 15 minutes. After mentally ‘sealing’ i ntheir intention to prevent ‘leakages’ o ftheir imprint signal, the IIED was physi-cally sealed in aluminum foil and placedin a special cage, designed to block elec-tromagnetic interference. The boxeswere then shipped 2000 miles to a labwhere the experiments were successfullycarried out over the next two to threemonths.

Even more incredible, Tiller foundthat when a lab participates in studies ofconscious intention, the Zero Point Fieldwithin the lab soon develops coherence,or a higher degree of order (measured by highly sensitive instruments). W h i l econducting his experiments, it becameapparent that a kind of ‘conditioning’was going on around the site of the IIEDtests. Tiller and his experimenters beganto observe oscillations in air and watertemperatures, water pH and water elec-trical conductivity. No such changeswere seen in areas more than six feetaway from the test sites. The sites them-selves began to develop similarities inthe physical environment, even whenthey were as much as 900 feet apart.3

What appeared to be happening wasthat the intention ‘charg e ’ released somesort of organizing principle, whichchanged the natural thermodynamicprocesses. These changes, which violat-ed conventional physics, tended to aidthe process of change sought by the

Directed IntentionLesson 1

5

Can our thoughts shape the future?

LIVING THE FIELDintention. Indeed, this coherence tendedto grow the more the IIED devices wereused.

Here was specific, physical proofthat intention is a power which alters theworld, irrespective of time or space.Human intention, even when capturede l e c t r o n i c a l l y, appears to have an infec-tious power that extends out and aff e c t sthe world.

That human will can be collected in ablack box, and stored and shipped foruse at a later date to affect any process or object around it has enormous impli-cations for every possible aspect of ourlives. Could we, for instance, use ourintention to affect the outcome of sur-g e r y, make a business grow quickly, pre-vent a child from dying or end a worldconflict?

If we can use simple human intentionto affect the chemistry of an array ofsubstances, then we can speed up, slow

down or improve many chemicalprocesses. It may be possible for us toa ffect the development of breakthroughdrugs by improving their targeted eff e c-tiveness and minimizing their side-e ffects. A doctor could improve the per-centage of his patients who get better bythinking his waiting room into a healingplace. A s u rgeon could improve hisp a t i e n t s ’ outcome by thinking positivethoughts during surg e r y. The power ofhuman intention could potentially aff e c tevery technology on the planet.

Each of us is a potential Franken-stein, with the awesome power to aff e c tthe living world around us.

Lynne McTa g g a rt

1 M c Taggart L. The Field: The Quest for

the Secret Force of the Universe,

London: HarperCollins, 2001; 170–1

2 Mat Res Innovat, 2001; 5: 21–34

3 Sci Med, 1999; May/June: 28–33


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LIVING THE FIELD

Is there such a thing as a spirit of placeor ‘genius loci’—a mysterious qualityor power exuding positive energy andaiding your intention?

Ancient peoples were sensitive tothe earth’s signals, and claimedto read and pay attention to cer-

tain configurations. Indigenous popula-tions claim to have built their sacred siteson ley lines or ‘vital currents’ runningthrough the earth over vast distances, andearly cultures like the Mayan actuallyprefigured many of these lines.

New evidence shows that these leylines may indeed exist as a result of geo-magnetic activity in the earth’s crust, oras accumulations of the electrical chargefrom groundwater seeping throughporous chalk deposits, which is particu-larly prevalent in the UK. This type ofcharge accumulation can be redistributedand spill over into other sites on theground, offering a ‘moving target’ forelectrical discharges coming from the air,thus creating a moving line of energy.

In the case of sacred sites such asStonehenge or the pyramids in Egypt, arethey sacred because their use over thecenturies has invested them with thatquality, or is there a subtle quality imbuedin the site from the beginning, leadinghumans to naturally select it for that pur-pose? Does the energy of the inhabitantscoalesce at a site like an energetic whorl,or is some sort of energetic resonancealways present?

The latest scientific evidence suggeststhe former: that we create our own spiritof place, depending upon its use overtime. In the ‘black box’ experiments ofWilliam Ti l l e r, a group of meditators‘charged’ a ‘black box’ (an IntentionalImprinted Electrical Device [IIED] withintention which was replayed later at adifferent lab (see Lesson One). The exper-imenters not only found that they couldsuccessfully produce their desiredeffects—changing the pH of a solution,changing water and air temperatures,

increasing enzyme activity or speeding upthe development of fruit flies. They alsofound that they were ‘conditioning thespace’ in the particular labs where repeat-ed tests with IIEDs were carried out.

As the studies went on (for more thanthree months at any lab), changes in airand water temperature, water pH andwater electrical conductivity were noted;indeed, the amplitude of the electricalconductivity of water exceeded by 100times the sensitivity of their detectionsystems. Changes occurred such that thelevel of free energy was raised, manifest-ing different material properties, like acharged environment.

Tiller tested this by placing a direct-current magnet under a pH vessel withone pole pointing upwards for severaldays, then turning it over so that the oppo-site pole faced upwards for several days.In ordinary reality, electric and magneticdipoles do not exist. However, in thesecharged spaces, conventional physics wasviolated, and both electric and magneticdipoles coexisted and functioned—simi-lar to the reality supposedly present inexotic physics theories such as supersymmetry states.

They also found profound changes inthe ambient Zero Point Field. Somehow,the ordinarily random fluctuations of theZPF were becoming more ordered. Therealso seemed to be a kind of local coher-ence developing in their results. Strongcorrelations were seen between data frommultiple test sites, even when these siteswere more than 900 feet apart.

I n t e r e s t i n g l y, Tiller also discoveredthis special ‘super-symmetry’ physics inone other place in nature: at sites alongthe meridian system of the human body.Unlike conventional electromagneticfields, these points also contain a higherelectromagnetic energy system.

Tiller’s results appear to mirror thoseof the former Princeton EngineeringAnomaly Research (PEAR) scientist DrRoger Nelson concerning the nature ofsacred sites. Nelson tested several sites—


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The spirit of place

LIVING THE FIELDsuch as Wounded Knee in the US, and theQueen’s Chamber in the Egyptian pyra-mid—using a random-event generator(REG), an electronic device that can reg-ister any changes in the randomness in the ambient Field.

In some of these sacred sites, largeeffects were registered on the REGs, as ifthe location itself continued to hold a highdegree of resonating consciousness, a sortof vortex of coherent memory.

Even more incredible in the case ofTi l l e r, this ordered environment wassomehow aiding the outcome of theexperiments. Tiller’s results were betterafter three months—after ‘conditioning’of the lab space had occurred. Controllabs, which had received IIEDs that didnot contain stored intention, failed todemonstrate any changed outcomes orimprovements over time.

Tiller’s results offer a scientific quan-tification of a phenomenon that is well-known to inventors—the so-called‘garage-inventor effect’. In this situation,

an inventor finds that he is able to pro-duce spectacular results in his owngarage, where his experiment has beenrepeated over and over. However, once hewishes to bring forth his discovery to theworld and attempts to carry his experi-ments out in another laboratory, he sim-ply cannot replicate his earlier results.

Tiller’s findings also suggest severalprofound elements not only about thepower of intention, but also about theplace where we choose to carry out ourintentions. In effect, our intentions are, ina sense, infectious and reach out into ourworld to create an ordered environment.This order then helps us to achieve betterresults, the more we use it. Choosing oneparticular space in which to carry outthese intentions will enhance their effectsover time. It may be that, for best results,we should choose a special room in ourhouse and ‘condition’ that space overtime by making it the one place that weuse for healing or any directed intention.

Lynne McTaggart


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LIVING THE FIELD

If the intention of one person is an ener -gy with a physical effect in the world,does the signal get stronger when mul -tiplied over an entire group? Is it tru ethat a group of us can literally be on thesame wavelength or establish some sortof heightened group coherence, part i c u -larly in a situation of heighteneda w a re n e s s ?

The answer would appear to be yes, according to a few interest-ing studies that grew out of work

first developed by the PrincetonEngineering Anomaly Research pro-gramme in Princeton, New Jersey, usinga random-event generator (REG), the21st century equivalent of an electronictoss of the coin.

The random movement of thesemachines (to either heads or tails) is controlled by the white noise you hearwhen you turn the dial of your radio inbetween stations—that tiny roaring surfof free electrons. This provides a mecha-nism by which to send out a randomlyalternating frequency of positive andnegative pulses. The results are dis-played on a computer screen, then trans-mitted online to a data-management system.

With machines using such a process,you’re dealing in the realm of probabili-ty and fluidity—a machine governed byatomic particles that, in turn, are gov-erned by the probabilistic universe ofquantum mechanics. Their output con-sists of perfectly random activity which,in physics, is viewed as a state of ‘disor-d e r’.

If some information transfer orordering mechanism were going on—what physicists like to term ‘negativeentropy’, or ‘negentropy’ for short—itwould represent a move away from ran-domness, or disarray, to order.

If it could be shown that the partici-pants in a study had altered some ele-ment of the machine’s output, theywould have changed the probabilities of

events occurring—that is, shifted theodds of something happening or alteredthe tendency of a system to behave in acertain way. It is like persuading a per-son standing at a crossroads, momentar-ily undecided as to whether to headdown one road rather than another. T h e ywould, in other words, have createdo r d e r.

When a participant pressed a button,he would set off a trial of 200 binary‘ h i t s ’ of 1 or 0, each lasting about one-fifth of a second, during which time hewould hold a mental intention to, say,produce more than 100 ‘1s’. The PEARteam usually asked each operator tocarry out a run of 50 trials at one go, aprocess involving 1000 button presses,but taking perhaps half an hour. T h eresearchers examined scores for eachoperator in blocks of 50 or 100 runs(25,000 or 50,000 trials, or 5 million or10 million binary ‘hits’)—the best-sizedchunk of data, they determined, for reli-ably pinpointing trends.

These kinds of tests use a tried-and-tested statistical device called ‘cumula-tive averages’, which entails continuallyadding up your results for each trial,averaging it and plotting it on a graph.This would show the mean or averageand standard deviations—margins whereresults deviate from the mean, but notsignificantly so.

In trials of 200 random binary hits,the machine should throw an average of100 heads and 100 tails over time—giv-ing a bell curve with 100 as its mean orhighest point. If you were to plot eachresult every time your machine ran atrial, you would have individual pointson your bell curve—at, say, 101, 103,95, 104—each representing a score. But,as any single effect is very tiny, it is dif-ficult to see an overall trend.

But if you continue to add up andaverage your results, any effects youhave, no matter how slight, will lead to a steadily increasing departure fromexpectation. Cumulative averaging high-


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The power of the collective

LIVING THE FIELDlights any deviation from the norm inbold relief.

REGs were used at PEAR to deter-mine if the intention of individual opera-tors could affect them. They were thenused to assess the ability of an intentlyfocused group consciousness to order orinfluence these machines. As the REGmachine is so exquisitely sensitive, itwas thought that it might just pick up onwhether there were good vibrations—at,s a y, a prayer meeting or orchestral con-cert—so that the consciousness of thegroup might somehow be able to func-tion as a magical whole.

Experimenter William Rowe decidedto test this hypothesis by examining thecoherence of the group attending a seriesof intensive three-day Spielraum work-shops in Vi rg i n i a .1 Spielraum sessionsconstitute a method of combining playand creative work with the goal to quick-ly bring forth the artistic and creativespirituality within each workshop partic-ipant. These sessions have becomeknown for producing a feeling of groupe n e rgy so palpable that the participantsthemselves claim to feel it.

During the studies, Rowe plantedREGs in the Spielraum groups and keptthe machines running continually. Healso asked an observer as well as all theother ‘sensitive’ members of the group to record those times of what he consid-ered ‘focused group intention’, the timesthey felt the group had reached a kind of coherence.

After 11 experiments, eight werefound to show a significant correlationbetween the REG’s output—when itdanced well away from its random activ-ity to order—and those times when thesense of the group achieved a moment ofintense likemindedness. The machine’soutput even paralleled a day when thegroup held a non-engaging businessmeeting, and when it turned into anintense celebration.

R o w e ’s conclusion was that theREGs provide direct evidence thatepisodes of focused group energy occurthat are both sensed by the individualparticipants and physically measurable.

Lynne McTa g g a rt1 J Sci Explor, 1998; 12 (4): 569–81


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LIVING THE FIELD

P e rhaps the most impressive body ofevidence for the positive effects ofg roup intention has been put togetherby adepts of Maharishi Mahesh Yo g i ,who brought Transcendental Medita-tion (TM) to the We s t .

These adepts have carried out over500 experiments in group inten-tion—called the Maharishi Eff e c t

—to test their influence over militaryescalation in war zones, crime levels incrime-ridden areas and even the Londonstockmarket. For each experiment, eachadept practices TM until he reaches whatthe Maharishi describes as ‘transcendentalconsciousness’, a state of restful alertnessthat is distinct from normal waking,dreaming or deep sleep. In this heightenedstate, says the Maharishi, we are creativeand dynamic, and can be more effective inour own lives and—here is the nub—inthe lives of others, too.

This conscious intention can have apositive impact on collective conscious-ness. The Maharishi defines conflict insociety as stress in the collective con-sciousness of a nation and the world.These stresses are ultimately caused by‘violations of the laws of nature’, actionsthat are not in accord with the laws thatgovern progress, development and happi-ness in human life, says the Maharishi(see box, page 12).

Each experiment has been carefullyconstructed to meet exacting scientificstandards, says the Maharishi, and theresults have all taken into considerationany other factors that might have other-wise influenced the figures.

Perhaps the most extraordinary eff e c t shave been achieved with the 22 studiesthat have tested the positive impact of theMaharishi Effect on crime levels. Oneconcentrated on 11 American cities withpopulations greater than 25,000 people.Each city was matched with a control cityof a similar size and with similar crimelevels. Between 1972 and 1973, crimelevels fell by 16 per cent in the cities

receiving intention compared with thec o n t r o l s .1

A similar experiment was repeated inthe Netherlands over a 10-year period inwhich the adepts endeavored to influencelevels of crime and traffic accidents. Onevery occasion that they intended a dropin crime and traffic levels, the levels dulyfell, as confirmed by the Dutch CentralO ffice for Statistics.2

Since 1979, a group of TM partici-pants, ranging from a few hundred to 8000 people, has met twice a day at theMaharishi International University (MIU)in Fairfield, Iowa, to create coherencewithin the US as well as the rest of theworld. Their efforts were monitored until1985, and a significant reduction in thenumber of violent deaths—homicides,suicides and traffic fatalities—was report-ed. Crime levels fell in New Delhi by 11per cent in 1980 when 3000 T M - S i d h iexperts met in that city,3 whereas crime inthe city of Washington, DC, dropped by76 per cent between 1981 and 1983, a fallthat was attributed by some to the inten-tions of TM groups.4

These experiments in crime and traff i caccident levels have been repeated manytimes around the world in different cities,and each has had an effect—albeit, onoccasions, a small one.

But even advocates of the MaharishiE ffect might have their credulity testedwhen it comes to the experiments onseemingly inanimate constructs, such asthe stock exchange or unemploymenti n d i c e s .

One group of adepts sought to influ-ence the ‘misery index’—the sum of infla-tion and unemployment rates—in theU S A and Canada between 1979 and 1988.Indeed, the index in the US fell by 40 percent and, in Canada, by nearly 30 per cent.

A similar result was achieved duringthe same period when another group wasattempting to influence the A m e r i c a n‘misery index’, and the monetary growthand crude-materials price indices. In thiscase, the misery index fell by 36 per cent


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Peace through group power

LIVING THE FIELDand the crude-materials price index fell by 13 per cent. Although the growth rateof the monetary base was affected, it wasonly by a small margin.

Economic indicators can, and do, fluc-tuate dramatically over long periods oftime, and critics could argue that it was the inevitable cycle of the economy, ratherthan the effects of a T M - g r o u p ’s intention,that was being witnessed.5

Nevertheless, leaving to one side thee ffects on economic measurements, thereis little doubt that the TM groups have hada positive impact on crime. Many skepticshave pointed to other factors that musthave influenced the figures, such as a dropin the number of adult males during thatgiven period of the research, or perhapsthe fact that a local community was sud-denly seeing the benefits of an education-al programme that may have been insti-gated years before.

But the Maharishi groups say that,where they have been aware of any possi-ble confounding influences, they haveallowed for them when arriving at thefinal statistics. Each of the studies intocrime has controlled for population, col-lege population, population density, geo-graphical region, percentage of young

people, ratio of police to population,neighborhood watch projects and so on.

This perhaps gives us the ‘how’, butthe more interesting question of ‘why’remains unanswered. An understanding ofcollective consciousness as described bythe Maharishi may help (see box below),but the reasons for its possibility werewell put by astronomer Sir James Jeans.He once said:

“When we view ourselves in spaceand time, our consciousnesses are obvi-ously the separate individuals of a particlepicture, but when we pass beyond spaceand time, they may perhaps form ingredi-ents of a single continuous stream of life.As it is with light and electricity, so may it be with life; the phenomena may be individuals carrying on separateexistences in space and time while, in thedeeper reality beyond space and time, wemay all be members of one body. ”

B ryan Hubbard1 Sci Res Maharishi Transc Med TM-Sidhi

Prog Coll Papers, 1976; 1: 639–48

2 Ibid, 1989; 4: 2566–82

3 Ibid, 1989; 4: 2583–8

4 J Mind Behav, 1988; 9: 457–85

5 Proc Am Stat Assoc, 1988–9: 491–6,

7 9 9 – 9 0 4


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The power of consciousness

Consciousness can affect consciousness—more exactly, directed and coherent con-

sciousness can ‘organize’ incoherent consciousness that violates the laws of nature,

or so the Maharishi maintains.

Each of us has a consciousness that gives us our identity, a sense of who we are.

S i m i l a r l y, argues the Maharishi, a family has a collective consciousness, as does a

local community, city, nation and the world. It may be easier to understand this con-

cept at a simpler level: a family or neighborhood can be of a ‘type’, and even a city

has a ‘feeling’ about it. However, at this level, it is harder to see the single, unifying

consciousness that determines it.

Even at the macro level, the collective consciousness is ultimately made up of

individual consciousness. Our own consciousness influences the whole just as the

whole influences us—in a kind of symbiotic exchange.

But how many people are needed for an intention to have a positive impact?

According to the Maharishi, it takes the square root of 1 per cent of a population—

or 1600 people to have a positive impact on the USA. To influence the world on

this reckoning, 7000 people would be needed.

LIVING THE FIELD

R e s e a rchers have discovered thee x t r a o rd i n a ry effect that a group canhave on intention experiments—theg reater the number of participants, theg reater the concentration or magnifica -tion of the effect, it seems.

As with group intention, so withgroup chanting: the more peoplechanting in the same room at

the same time, the greater the eff e c t .(Nevertheless, it appears to help individ-ual chanters take a deeper, inward jour-ney whereas group intention is, by defi-nition, an outwards movement). Indeed,some forms of group chanting involvechanting the name of one of the partici-pants, so it’s not surprising that an indi-vidual may feel affected—or evenhealed—by the group.

If the idea of group chanting is asecret, it’s one that has been shared withevery religion in the world—and forthousands of years. Worshippers havealways gathered together to sing hymns,chant or pray, so perhaps someone,somewhere, knew about the magnifyinge ffect of the group.

Setting up your own ‘church ofc h a n t ’ could not be easier. All you needis a large, airy and light room, andenough chairs to go round. People canstand, or everyone can agree to sit on thef l o o r, but provide chairs for those whoseback problems make sitting on the floorfor long periods uncomfortable or evenp a i n f u l .

What is important is for the group toform a circle, with the person to behealed lying down in the middle.Everyone should have their eyes closedso that the concentration is on the soundsbeing generated.

If you all decide to chant the person’sname, try to do so in his or her funda-mental tone, if this is known. (For moreinformation about the fundamental tone,see Lesson Eight). A l t e r n a t i v e l y, the per-son could instead choose a tone that heor she likes intuitively.

The tempo of the chanting can beslow or fast, although slow may be aneasier pace for a group to follow; eventhen, it may be a good idea to elect a ‘ c o n d u c t o r’, who can indicate when tostart, when to change syllable and whento stop, at least for the first run-through.Once everyone is sure of the tempo andthe changes, it’s safe to close the eyes.

Each syllable should be sounded forup to two seconds, and there should be apause between syllables. For instance,your group could be healing someonecalled Barbara, which would go some-thing like this: BAAAAA ( b r e a t h )B A A A A A (breath) RAAAAA ( s t o p ) .This can be repeated for up to two min-u t e s .

Broken down into long syllables, itceases to be an identifiable name andbecomes a vibration instead, which somemystics believe your name is anyway.

Chanting someone’s name can bevery powerful; it is, after all, our mostfundamental identifier, and there is aschool of thought that believes thatnames have a mystical power. Musicol-ogist James D’Angelo wonders if agroup of people chanting the word ‘tree’could cause a tree to grow healthier rootsand stronger branches.

This may not be quite as bizarre asfirst it sounds. Examples of the magicalpower of names are littered through var-ious religions and ancient cultures; theAborigines of Australia still believe theworld is ‘sung into being’ whereas, inthe Christian Bible, Adam named all theanimals. (For more examples of thepower of names and words, see L e s s o nS e v e n) .

Singing mantrasWe’ve seen that we can sing vowels,consonants and even people’s names.But probably the most effective form ofchanting is with mantras, considered by every religion to be holy sounds thatwill bring us closer to the Creator or creative force, or expand our conscious-


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The prayer of the singing mantra

LIVING THE FIELDness. They can also have a more prag-matic effect, such as ridding us of nega-tive thoughts and feelings of ill will, orencouraging greater calm.

Most mantras can be chanted on onetone, and should last from between fiveand 10 minutes at a medium-to-high volume. The sound should fall away asyou near the end, until your vocal chordsare merely shaping the sounds withoutactually making the sound. This innersilence can continue for up to 20 minutesafter the chanting itself has finished.

Perhaps the most famous mantra isthe OM sound. To the Hindu faith, it represents the echo of the divine word,or the universe beyond form. But it alsohas resonance with other cultures; inLatin, o m n e s means ‘everything’, andthe Mayans of Mexico and SouthAmerica thought of the OM sound as the bridge between Heaven and Earth.The Hindus also believe that the OMsound represents the beginning and end-ing of the world, which coincides withthe first syllable of the Greek wordo m e g a, which means ‘the last’ (as inAlpha and Omega).

When chanting the OM sound, themovement of the sound should go fromthe head, where it begins, down into theb e l l y. This is more easily achieved if youbegin with the AHHH sound, so that OM sounds like AUM. The A H H Hsound should be made with a mouth thatis wide open.

You can take it even one stage beforethe AHHH sound by beginning with theERR sound. This is achieved by movingthe lips, and it should be sounded for justa few seconds before launching into theAHHH sound.

As you can see, there are severalinterpretations of the OM sound and, toa large extent, it depends on personalchoice. You could, for example, be morephonetic, and just stick to the OHHHsound before moving to the MMMMMchant, so creating a sound closer to OMitself.

A p r a y e r-like mantra is OM SHAN-TI, which (very roughly) translates into:

‘May you live in the peace of the univer-sal sound’. It still incorporates the OMsound, but then adds to it the SHAHHNand TEE sounds. The tempo of this chantis, again, down to personal choice, buti t ’s usually best to begin slower, even if you are naturally inclined towards arelatively fast tempo. To begin with, tryto work on the basis of one beat per second; giving two beats to the OMsound, one beat for SHAHHN and threebeats for TEE. If breathing is diff i c u l t ,stop between each syllable, and thenextend the TEE sound beyond two beats.

Another wonderful mantra isSOHAM, or SO-HAHMMM, whichmeans: ‘I am That’, a profound expres-sion from the Ve d a s. Its purpose is tounite you to universal consciousness.

The two sounds are supposed to rep-resent polarities: SO is the male Ya n ge n e rg y, and HAM is the female Yin. Italso joins inspiration, or cold, and expi-ration, or warmth. Unlike most mantras,it can be sounded inwardly, or you canchant the SO silently, and the HAMa u d i b l y, or you can chant both syllablesout loud.

The SO sound should be produced onthe inbreath by drawing in air throughthe mouth which, with the help of thetongue, can make a snake-like hissingsound as it enters. As the air reaches thethroat, create the OH sound almost as aw h i s p e r. Then, on the outbreath, thewhispering should change to a HAHsound. Finally, close your lips to createthe final MMM sound, which will bealmost inaudible.

According to the Buddhist tradition,the OM MANI PADME HUM mantra isone of the most sacred. The OM soundhas the same meaning as in the Hindufaith, while MANI refers to the divinethat lives in all our hearts, and PA D M Eis the lotus. At the end is us, the individ-ual, a finite spark from the eternal con-sciousness, represented by the HUMsound. Chant OM for two beats, thenMA, NI, PAD and ME for one beat each, and finish with HUM, sustainedfor three beats.


14

The Islamic faith offers the A L L A HHU mantra, both sacred sounds for‘God’. Usually, the ALLAH sound, splitinto two syllables, with one beat given tothe A H L sound and two for the LAH, isrepeated a number of times before theHUU sound is introduced. The HUUsound should be held for nine beats. T h eSufis, the esoteric arm of Islam, oftensing the HUU sound over a series ofnotes rather than a single note.

The Christians also have theirmantras, such as AMEN. But a beautifulone for any chanter is A L L E L U I A ,which means ‘praise the Lord’ o r, moreliterally from Hebrew, ‘praise yeYahweh’. As with the ALLAH mantra,there is a strong emphasis on the ‘L’sound, requiring the dexterous use of the tongue on the upper palate. The A H Lsound requires two beats, the LAY o n e ,and the LOO sound three beats, as doesthe YAH, which can finish with acadence before you take a well-deservedb r e a t h .

F i n a l l y, no collection of mantraswould be complete without one from theNative American culture, famed for itschanting. These chants work well in agroup, and can be accompanied by asimple drum or rattle. One such mantrato try is W O A YEA, which is pro-nounced ‘woe ya’. You can extemporizeand ‘go with the flow’, possibly repeat-ing each of the syllables 10 times ormore, and across a few notes.

It reminds me of the last lines writtenby the ballet dancer Nijinsky in his diary.He wrote that his little child was singingsome nonsense such as ‘da-da-da’. “Id o n ’t know what he is saying,” wroteN i j i n s k y, “except that life is good.” A n dso it is with the mantras of the NativeA m e r i c a n s .

B ryan Hubbard

F u rt h e r reading D’Angelo J. Healing With the Vo i c e .

London: Thorsons, 2000


15


Intention

16

LIVING THE FIELD

Now that we’ve learned how to deter -mine what thoughts make us weak ors t rong, we can begin learning some ofthe basic ways to send out an intention.This article is the first of a series ofintention exercises—developed from am i x t u re of those used in scientificexperiments and those used in tradi -tional cultures—to effect changes invarious aspects of your life for yourc h i l d ren, yourself, your home, yourc a re e r, your community and even theplanet. Begin keeping an intentionworkbook for the exercises over thecoming lessons.

When we think of our thoughts,desires, wishes and inten-tions, we think of them as

something locked inside our heads. Astrong intention, to our minds, is a pur-poseful aim to accomplish a desiredresult.

H o w e v e r, our understanding of quan-tum physics makes us realize that inten-tion is an energy with a corporeal formthat is every bit as real as the chair youmay be sitting in at the moment. We alsoknow from earlier lessons that reality isnot fixed, but fluid, or mutable, andhence open to influence, and that livingthings are central to the entire process asmaster influencers.

Human thoughts and intentions arean actual physical ‘something’—a tangi-ble energy—with the astonishing powerto affect our world. The latest scientificresearch proves that every thought wehave is a tangible energy that changes the molecular structure of the object ofour intentions. Our thoughts—ourhopes, desires, wishes—have an inde-pendent energy that transforms thenature of our world.

This inexhaustible and simpleresource can be called upon to focus our lives, heal our illnesses, clean up ourcommunities and improve the planet. A sFrank B. Robinson, founder of the NewThought religious movement called

‘Psychiana’, put it, “A thought is aTHING.”

This suggests that directed thoughtcan have a physical impact on every-thing in your world that may be practi-cally used—from increasing the chancesof your baby being healthy to makingyour garden grow. We know alreadyfrom scientific research that intentioncan be used to affect computerized sys-tems, influence living systems, calmdown or help to focus nervous or dis-tracted people, heal remotely, affect thegrowth of plants, transform our body andeven change the physiology of our brain.

An intention with power doesn’thave to be a singleminded aim that you‘ e ff o r t ’ to accomplish. A powerful ande ffective intention can be a simplethought that you continue to think of asoften as you can and from which youwill not be deflected. Consequently,using intention effectively is a matter ofdisciplining your mind to learn how todirect energy and how to harness yourthoughts.

Every moment of every day, yourthoughts—all the endless chatteringinside your head—is manifesting itselfas your reality. If your internal voice is amonologue that constantly criticizesyour every move as a failure (“Look howyou muffed that one, Ace.”), you willfail. If you think you can’t do math, youw o n ’t be able to do it. A n e g a t i v ethought about yourself (“I’m untalentedand lazy.”) or your children (“He’s sucha slob.“) may manifest as a physicale n e rgy that makes such a statement self-fulfilling. If you keep thinking that yourchildren can’t do math because youc o u l d n ’t, they too will prove to be poorat sums.

So, the first important exercise is tostop thinking negatively. Here are someexercises to help you do this:◆ Clear your mind of the negative

thoughts that fill your head everyd a y. No intention is going to work ifyour real desire doesn’t match your


17

The brighter side of life

LIVING THE FIELDinternal monologue. Your innerthoughts are your real intentions—the ones your subconscious reallybelieves. Write down how many ofthe following thoughts are regularlyplayed out in your mind:❖ Why does everything have to

happen to me?❖ I t ’s going to be a hard slog.❖ I just don’t have enough money.❖ Nobody loves me.❖ Things are getting worse and

w o r s e .❖ I’m confused and lost.❖ I’m frightened and alone.❖ I t ’s hopeless—there’s no way

o u t .

❖ I’m going to fail.❖ The answer isn’t out there.

◆ Write down any others of this varietythat regularly claim your thoughts.R e m e m b e r, these thoughts are yourr e a l i t y. In the beginning, you mustreplace the negative with the posi-tive. Every time you catch yourselfthinking or saying something likethat, simply replace it with a newblueprint, the sort of thoughts sucha s :❖ I am going to have a positive

day—all good things will flow to me and everything that’s supposed to happen will happen.

❖ I have all that I need.

Directed Intention

Lesson 11

18

Intentionality goes mainstream

Psychiatrist Dr James S. Gordon, the chair of the White House Commission on

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Po l i c y, recently commented, “We're just

beginning to think about how to apply some of the ways of looking at things that come

out of the new physics, such as understanding the influence of the observer on the

o b s e r v e d . ”

These ideas have even begun to filter into mainstream medical practice, with many

medical schools experimenting with the power of intentionality. Teaching hospitals

such as Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and Harvard Medical School now

advocate that hypnotists teach self-hypnosis techniques to surgical patients to help

speed recovery. Increasingly, doctors are referring their patients to one of the

country’s 1000 or more certified hypnotherapists.1

Furthermore, in September 2003, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

hosted a weekend conference, attended by many renowned scientists, to examine the

latest findings on the power of meditation, including the ability of trained Buddhist

monks to affect their environment through thought alone. Indeed, Eric Lander, a leader

of the Human Genome Project, announced before the group that the time may soon

come when the US Surgeon General will advise Americans seeking to improve their

health to put aside one hour several times a week for “compassionate” meditation.

This remark was sparked by the presence of Surgeon General David Satcher last

June as the keynote speaker at a special forum—the Congressional Prevention

Coalition—inspired, and partly organized, by the Institute of Science, Technology and

Public Po l i c y, on the use of meditation for improving heart disease.

R e c e n t l y, the US National Institutes of Health funded research into the effective-

ness of Transcendental Meditation in reducing cardiovascular disease in high-risk

populations.

1 Carey B. Hypnotic reach: Doctors find recovery is aided by helping patients into healing trances.

Los Angeles Times, 5 January 2004: F. 1

❖ I am cherished and loved.❖ Things are getting better and bet

t e r.❖ I know where I am headed.❖ I’m going to succeed.❖ I will trust that the universal

mind will send me the answer.◆ In your journal, list your typical

thoughts and write underneath eachone your new positive alternatives—where you want to end up.

◆ Refuse ever to destructively criticizey o u r s e l f. You are human. Let your-self off the hook when you slip upand use mistakes as a learning expe-rience.

◆ Simply refuse to entertain a negativet h o u g h t. Every time you catch your-self thinking a negative thought, ban-ish it and replace it with the positiveone you have noted down.

◆ Go through your day without a singlenegative thought ( i t ’s more diff i c u l tthan you think). Any negative

thought—about the weather, anotherd r i v e r, the woman across from you in the train, your spouse, your chil-dren, your coworkers—is banishedimmediately! All critical thinkingabout your work, your looks, yourlove life, your salary, your home oryour pets goes out.

◆ N o w, decide what thoughts you wantto put in their place about yourself.These new thoughts can also bewhere you want to end up. Set your-self one clear, challenging, achiev-able goal. From the science, it seemsevident that specific intentions workbest. So be highly specific in yourgoals (to pay off your credit-card bill,to learn yoga or Spanish, to earn£5000 more each year). Write themdown, make an intention poster andlist it so you can look at it every day.Work on the new image and thesegoals as your internal chatter.

Lynne McTa g g a rt


19


Intention

20

LIVING THE FIELD

In this first of a series on sending inten -tion, we examine the importance ofreaching a peak of aware n e s s .

The received wisdom among thescientific community is that, dur-ing psychic events, the brain

slows down. Much of the electro-encephalographic (EEG)-based researchon meditation shows that meditationleads to an increase in alpha rhythms( s l o w, high-amplitude brainwaves of frequencies of 8–13 cycles per second).In our ordinary waking consciousness,our brain operates on beta waves (around13–40 Hz).

A rich body of meditation literaturehad shown that an alpha and theta statepredominates during meditation.1S i m i l a r l y, the literature on meditationand researches into parapsychology havestressed the importance of the alphas t a t e .

H o w e v e r, there have been notableexceptions. During his sessions withMichael Persinger, master remote-view-er Ingo Swann, who’d been wired up to an EEG machine, showed bursts offast beta activity, which were found to be in the gamma range (35–40 Hz),intermixed with alpha rhythms in thetemporal lobes during rest. Persinger’salgebraic equations showed that thosebursts of high frequency (consisting of7-Hz spikes) occurred primarily over theright occipital region of the brain, andcorresponded to moments when Swannwas receiving information. Swann, itseemed, had calmed himself down sothat he could enter a superconsciouss t a t e .2

Other studies of deep meditationhave shown that, during the deepeststates, experienced meditators havebursts of high-frequency beta or gammawaves, often associated with moments of ‘ecstasy’ or intense concentration.During these moments, the heart rate canalso accelerate.1 In fact, in a study where investigators took the EEGs of

six Protestants while praying, it was dis-covered that, rather than their brain-waves slowing, they actually sped up.3

Research by Daniel Goldman, authorof Emotional Intelligence and otherbooks about the science of meditation,also shows that the brain’s neocortex inmeditators ‘speeds up’ while being cuto ff from the limbic system, and that portions of the brain are selectively‘switched off’ so that the brain can con-centrate on a particular area with height-ened perception, without the overlay of emotion or meaning.4

Other researchers have discoveredthat different forms of meditation canproduce strikingly different patterns onEEG. Yogis strive for anuraga, or a senseof constant fresh perception, whereasZen Buddhists strive to eliminate allresponse to the outer world, and studiescomparing the two have found that med-itation can lead to a heightened percep-tual awareness or inner absorption,depending upon whether the type ofmeditation practiced is ‘object-based’ o r‘object-less’.

Yet other studies show that medita-tion can actually shut down the responseof the limbic emotional center andenhance perception of the neocortex.5

Sara Lazar’s functional magnetic res-onance imaging (fMRI) work on experi-enced practitioners of mindfulness med-itation (see Science of The Field) showsthat signals are significantly increased in the neural structures of the braininvolved with attention.6

And new evidence of hers using ordi-nary MRI shows that, in practitioners of meditation, those portions of the brainassociated with attention and sensoryprocessing are thicker in people whomeditate compared with controls andthat, like Davidson’s results, thesechanges are ‘dose-dependent’: theincreases in cortical thickness are pro-portional to the amount of time the par-ticipant has spent meditating in his orher lifetime.


21

Peak intensity

LIVING THE FIELDOther brain research shows that cer-

tain repetitive practices requiring a highdegree of attention, such as playing amusical instrument or even juggling,cause similar increases in cortical vol-ume.

Although the thickness of the neocor-tex usually deteriorates with age, regularmeditation appears to reduce or reversethe process. Also, over time, it causes the brain to increase the cognitive andemotional processing for only those spe-cific activities that the meditator regular-ly engages in. Those who pay strictattention to their breathing or to sensorystimuli, for example, will have ‘taught’their brain to be hyperaware.

So, if the brain is simply a giantreceiver picking up and beaming out var-ious frequencies from its environment,then it is possible to create, in effect, al a rger radio.

L a z a r’s meditators were working onmindfulness, a state of peak attention.They had turned their attention receptorsto peak awareness, and it is likely, aswith Ingo Swann, that they had trainedtheir brain to pick up more than onechannel.

Lynne McTa g g a rt

1 Murphy M. The Physical and

Psychological Effects of Meditation: A

Review of Contemporary Research.

Big Sur, CA: Esalen Institute, 1988

2 Percept Mot Skills, 2002; 94 (3 Pt 1):

9 2 7 – 4 9

3 Psychol Rep, 1978; 43 (1): 135–43

4 Am J Ps y c h o t h e r, 1976; 30 (1): 41–54

5 Am Sci, 1975; 63 (3): 314–24

6 NeuroReport, 2000; 11: 1581–5

Directed Intention

Lesson 30

22

Peak intensity for intention

◆ Practice daily meditation for at least 30 minutes

◆ Focus on something—your breathing, a mantra, a sound or tone or mindfulness,

the practice of non-judgmental awareness of present-moment sensory stimuli

◆ Observe your own state of awareness

◆ Make gentle note of times when your awareness moves from simple relaxation to

a state of calm, but focused, peak intensity—a sense of hyperawareness of every-

thing happening outside of you

◆ Practice until you are able to reach a peak intensity with regularity.

LIVING THE FIELD

In a number of studies of healers, theone common thread within a huge vari -ety of techniques is a willingness to s u rrender to a greater healing forc ebeyond themselves. They put out theirintention and then step back—a tech -nique we can all use in our every d a yl i v e s .

California clinical and forensicpsychologist Allan Coopersteinhas examined the common

thread among 20 healers for his doctoralt h e s i s .1

Overall, what distinguished themfrom any other type of ordinary healerswas their conscious attempt to get out of the way. The essential thing for themwas to merge with the sea of conscious-ness, experienced by some as an energ ysea, by others as a vision of spiritualbeing and by yet others as extra-humanabilities suddenly manifesting in them-selves.

The important first step was to usesome technique to prepare themselvesfor accessing this other state. For this,they modified their attention, their senseof self and separateness, and also theirentire means of processing information.

Most of these healers found that theyhad to work hard initially to concentratetheir attention to a single focus. T h e yused meditative techniques or prayer tocenter themselves, or sought some wayof making their intention real. Someused verbal affirmations as a kind ofautosuggestion, mental imagery or evenbeliefs without pictures—all as a sort of warm-up exercise to loosen the tightgrip of the everyday on physical reality.

U s u a l l y, they began with a strongintention to enter the other state andincrease all of their cognitive processes—and then, at a certain point, it just hap-pened. In most instances, they had toconcentrate on some internal or externalfocus and censor out the everyday dis-traction. In one instance as a techniquefor focusing attention, the healer decided

to saturate his entire consciousness withthe goal that he was trying to produce.Sometimes, they had to make use ofsymbolic or mythical ideas to augmenttheir own sense of reality.

I n i t i a l l y, it required a peak of atten-tion and an increase in control (seeLiving the Field Lesson Thirt y). But thisintense concentration seemed to dissolvetheir own boundaries. At some point,inner chatter would cease and, some-times, the only thing left was purei m a g e .

E v e n t u a l l y, increased effort and con-trol gave way to an effortless entry intoa heightened awareness of inner process-es and, ultimately, a sense of beingengulfed by aspects of the person theywere focusing on. One healer actuallyfelt his body changing, with shifts in thepatterns and distributions of energ y.Although healers don’t usually actuallytake on the pain, there could be a sensingmechanism for it. They might imagine asituation producing the desired change.

Blurring the boundariesCooperstein discovered that, in everyinstance, his healers began to think in ad i fferent way. Their perception wasmarkedly altered, their preferenceschanged, their motor skills diminished.They might pick up the image of a circlebut, in the healing state, the circle wouldtake on an altogether different and moresignificant meaning.

Time also took on an expanded pres-ence, so they were unaware of time pass-ing.

These healers began to feel a sense ofe n e rgy as wave-like oscillations, rever-berations, currents or even thermalchanges—either increased warmth orcoldness—almost like an atmosphericlayer around the body. If certain prob-lems of excess, such as a spine with toomuch calcium, felt intensely hot, otherproblems, such as spinal cord injuries,could feel freezing cold, as though noneof the body’s own energy had managed


23

Moving aside

LIVING THE FIELDto reach this damaged outer boundary.

What had been ordinary intentiongrew impersonal to the point wherewhatever personal will they’d been exercising before began to slip until theyjust let go. As one healer put it:

“My conscious control is completelysidestepped, like I’m standing, watching.Then something else takes over and forme that’s a very spiritual time. I don’tthink that I ever lose complete awarenessthat I’m sitting there.”

At this point, they also felt a sense oftotal surrender—to a higher being, or tothe process. All of the healers had abelief that they themselves were beinglifted up to be a part of a larger whole.

With this change of consciousnessand expanded awareness, they had whatfelt like an open line to the subcon-scious, offering flashes of information,symbols and images that appeared tooriginate from beyond themselves.

Words would appear, seemingly fromnowhere, giving them the diagnosis;they realized that something beyondtheir conscious thought was doing all thework. Even if they were still conscious,clearly they were operating on two l e v e l s .

The healers lost awareness of theboundaries of their own bodies. T h e yfelt taller, lighter. As they began to iden-tify with the patient and also The Field,their bodily sense of self also began todrift away.

The most important aspect of all wasthe surrender, the willingness to give uptheir sense of cognitive control of theprocess—to allow themselves to becomepure energy and to merge with T h eF i e l d .

Lynne McTa g g a rt

1 J Am Soc Psychical Res, 1992; 86:

9 9 – 1 3 3

Directed Intention

Lesson 32

24

Merging with The Field

◆ M e d i t a t e. Use your breath and meditation exercises to reach a relaxed state

◆ Power up. Keep highly focused on the present, on every detail, and take note of

when you reach a moment of quiet hyperawareness

◆ Fo c u s. Keep focused on your intention in your mind, and be highly specific

◆ Ask for the outcome. Ask the higher powers to allow this to occur

◆ S u r r e n d e r. Observe when you feel your self slipping away into the warm bath of

The Field.

LIVING THE FIELD

In Lesson T h i r t y, we discussed how to‘power up’ to peak intensity. The nextstep is to become entrained with theobject of your intention.

Entrainment refers to two oscillat-ing systems, such as two pendu-lums, moving in synchrony.

Physicists believe that entrainment resultsfrom tiny exchanges of energy betweentwo systems until the two are in phase.

During acts of intention, the recipi-ent’s brainwaves, as measured by elec-troencephalography (EEG), becomeentrained with the sender’s. Studies showthat, during healing, the healee’s EEGpatterns synchronize with the healer’s.1Some seven studies done since 1963demonstrate that, under various circum-stances, the brain’s electrical signalingbetween people becomes correlated.2

All the studies were similar. Two peo-ple wired up for EEG (and sometimesother devices) were placed in differentrooms, and one stimulated by some-thing—an image, a light. Their EEGswere then assessed to see if the ‘receiv-er’s’ brainwaves mirrored those of the‘sender’ when being stimulated.

Scientists at the University ofFreiburg in Germany gave the sendervisual stimulation in the form of an alter-nating black-and-white checkerboard—called a ‘pattern reversal’, known toevoke high-amplitude brainwave poten-tials. The EEG of the distant, shieldedreceiver began to show the same brain-wave patterns. The two were becomingentrained.3

Neurophysiologist Jacobo Grinberg-Zylberbaum, of the National AutonomousUniversity of Mexico in Mexico City,used the same protocol, but sent lightflashes to the sender. Again, the sender’sbrain patterns were mirrored in the brainof the receiver, sitting in an electricallyshielded room. Grinberg - Z y l b e r b a u malso made an important discovery: syn-chrony only occurred among pairs of participants who’d had a chance to estab-

lish some sort of connection by spending20 minutes with each other in meditativesilence.4

Recently, investigators from BastyrUniversity and the University ofWashington gathered 30 pairs of peoplewith strong emotional and psychologicalconnections, and a good deal of practicein meditation. The pairs were placed inrooms 10 meters away from each other,and hooked up to EEGs from the occipi-tal (visual) lobe of the brain. The studyused the alternating checkerboard, usedby the Freiburg group, as the image thatthe sender was to attempt to send to hispartner.

Of the 60 people tested, five, or 8 percent, showed significantly more brainactivation during the times their partnerwas ‘sending’ his visual images.2

The Washington researchers thenwired these five participants up to a func-tional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)monitor and repeated the experiment.During the times the thought was ‘trans-mitted’, the recipients experienced anincrease in blood oxygenation in a portionof the brain’s visual cortex. This increasedidn’t occur when the sending partnerwas not being visually stimulated.5

In every one of these studies, some-how, the brains of the pairs had becomeentwined; the recipients were ‘seeing’ orfeeling what their partners actually saw or felt, in real time.

G r i n b e rg-Zylberbaum and othersremain staunch proponents of the viewthat this ‘transferred potential’, as heterms it, is only seen after some sort ofpsychic connection has been established,and only among those who’d createdcoherence in their own brainwavesthrough mental preparation, usually someform of meditation.

Research by Rollin McCraty of theInstitute of HeartMath shows that touch,or even focus, on the heart is a powerfulmeans of causing brainwave entrainmentbetween people. When two people touchwhile focusing loving thoughts on their


25

On the same wavelength

LIVING THE FIELDhearts, the ‘coherent’ heart rhythms ofone can entrain the brain of the other.6

Lynne McTaggart

1 Cade M, Coxhead N. The Aw a k e n e d

Mind, 2nd edn. Shaftsbury, UK:

Element Books, 1986

2 J Altern Complement Med, 2004; 10

(2): 307–14

3 Neurosci Lett, 2003; 336: 60–4

4 Physics Essays, 1994; 7: 422–8

5 Richards T et al. Preliminary evidence

of correlated functional MRI signals

between physical and asensory isolat-

ed human subjects: Two case studies

[abstr]. Proceedings of the Quantum

Mind Conference, March 15–19, 2003,

Tucson AZ

6 McCraty R et al. The electricity of

touch: Detection and measurement of

cardiac energy exchange between peo-

ple, in Pribram KH, ed. Brain and

Values: Is a Biological Science of

Values Po s s i b l e ? Mahwah, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998:

3 5 9 – 7 9

Directed Intention

Lesson 33

26

Entrainment and compassion

Before you set your intention, create an empathetic connection:

◆ Try this out on someone with whom you already have a strong bond—a partner,

child, sibling, a dear friend

◆ With someone you don’t know, exchange an object or a photograph

◆ Get to know the person: go for a walk together or meet

◆ Spend a half-hour meditating together first

◆ Ask the person to be open to receiving your intention while you are sending it.

During your own meditation:

◆ Concentrate on the breath and be mindful of the present (see Living the Field

Lesson Thirty)

◆ Focus your attention on the heart, as though you are sending light to it. Observe

the light spreading from your heart to the rest of your body. Send a loving thought

to yourself, such as “May I be well and free from suffering”

◆ On the outbreath, imagine white light radiating from your heart while thinking: “I

appreciate the kindnesses and love of all living creatures. May all others be well.”

Buddhists recommend first thinking of all those you love, then your good friends.

Move on to acquaintances and finally to those people you actively dislike. For

each stage, think: “May they be well and free from suffering”

◆ Concentrate on the kindness and compassion of all living things, and their contri-

bution to your wellbeing, then send your message of compassion to all people

and living things on earth

◆ N o w, direct your loving thoughts to the object of your intention

◆ Hold his or her hand.

LIVING THE FIELD

In our earlier lessons, we learned howto create a space, power up and moveaside. This lesson is about making yourrequest highly specific.

Start with smaller goals—somethingrealizable within a reasonabletimeframe. If you are 40 pounds

overweight and your goal is to be a size 8 by next week, that is not a realistic timeframe.

Think of intentions in terms of grandand smaller schemes. Take on the grandschemes in stages, so that you send outyour intentions in steps leading towardsachieving the grand scheme. But alwayskeep the big picture in mind. While youare still practicing, start small and buildup as you gain experience. Learn to over-come a natural tendency to dismiss theprocess.

God is in the detailsMake sure that your intentions are highlyspecific and directed. If you are trying toheal the fourth finger of your child’s lefthand, specify that finger and, if possible,the problem with it.

State your entire intention, andinclude what it is you’d like to change aswell as to whom, when and where. Usethe following as a checklist (as newsreporters do) to ensure that you’ve cov-ered every specific detail: who, what,when, where, why and how. Be highlyspecific, as specific intentions seem towork best—the more detailed, the better.It may help if you draw a picture of it, orcreate a collage from photos or magazinecutouts. Place this somewhere that youcan look at often.

Visualize, visualize, visualizeYou also need to plan what you want tovisualize well ahead of time. As with eliteathletes, the best way to send an intentionis to visualize the outcome you desirewith all your five senses in real time.

Visualization, or guided imagery,involves using images and/or internal

messages to obtain a desired goal. It canbe used for any desired outcome—tochange or improve your living situation,job, relationships, physical condition orhealth, state of mind (from negative topositive), outlook on life, or even a spe-cific aspect of yourself, including yourpersonality—or you can send your inten-tions to a loved one.

Self-guided imagery is a little likeself-hypnosis. When carrying out visuali-zation, many people believe that youmust ‘see’ the exact image clearly in yourmind’s eye. But, in fact, it isn’t necessaryto have a sharp internal image or, indeed,any image at all. It’s enough to just thinkabout an intention, without a mental pic-ture, and simply create an impression, afeeling or a thought. ◆ To visualize your intention, first work

it out carefully ahead of time as estab-lished fact.

◆ Now, create a picture in your mind’seye of the desired result. Imagine it asalready existing, with you in that situ-ation.

◆ Try to imagine as much sensory detailas you can about the situation (thelook, smell and feel of it).

◆ Think about it in a positive, opti-mistic, encouraging way, and usemental statements, or aff i r m a t i o n s ,that confirm that it has or is now hap-pening (not that it will happen in thefuture). For instance, for someonewith a heart problem, say to yourself:“My heart is healthy and well”.

◆ For healing, try to imagine yourselfbeing filled with healing energy (per-haps as white light or as your person-al deity), and observe it healing thatportion of your body that is ill—say,‘seeing’ a diseased organ turning intoa healthy one. Imagine the ‘hero’ cellsbattling or eating up the ‘bad guys’.Visualize damaged cells or tissuechanging into healthy cells, or picturehealthy cells replacing diseased cells,or imagine your entire body with thatspecific part in perfect health.


27

The mental dry run

LIVING THE FIELDVisualize yourself often as being per-fectly healthy, carrying out your dailyactivities. Find an image of the bodypart on the Internet or in a book as itlooks when it is healthy, and imagineyour own body part looking like that.

◆ If you are in pain, try to picture thenerve endings in the whole of yourbody and ‘see’ healing energy beingtaken in with every breath, flowingthrough your muscles and blood cells,

through your arteries to the nerves,until they are soothed and healed.

◆ Send out the visualization often, bothduring meditation and throughout theday.

◆ Keep firmly fixed in your mind thedesired outcome and don’t allowyourself to think of failure. Dismissany it-won’t-happen-to-me type ofthoughts.

Lynne McTaggart

Directed Intention

Lesson 34

28

LIVING THE FIELD

The re s e a rch conducted to date sug -gests that mind-over-matter intention(or psychokinesis) works best when thee a rth experiences increased geomag -netic activity.

Is it possible that increased geomag-netic fields (GMFs) affect them i n d ’s ability to alter the physical

world? Psychologist Stanley Krippnerhas demonstrated this with his work withBrazilian sensitive Amyr Amiden. In aseries of studies, Krippner comparedA m i d e n ’s famed psychokinetic abilitywith the local GMFs.

K r i p p n e r’s team concluded thatA m i d e n ’s psychic abilities precededboth a rise in his diastolic blood pressure(the pumping of the blood as it returns to the heart) and a rise in geomagnetica c t i v i t y. (Blood pressure tends to riseduring times when geomagnetic activityis turbulent.)

They also found a significant correla-tion between his psychic feats and thedaily geomagnetic index for the entireSouthern Hemisphere.

In one instance, two religious medal-lions appeared to drop to the floor fromthe ceiling. These sorts of strange occur-rences usually preceded a blip in thee a r t h ’s geomagnetic calm. The same didnot occur after the event. It may be thathumans anticipate geomagnetic noise,and that such anticipatory ‘windows’o ffer them more psychokinetic powerthan usual.

When Krippner’s team compareddays that Amiden performed the mostfeats with the daily Geomagnetic IndicesB u l l e t i n for March 1994, they found thatthe two most magnetically ‘disturbed’days of the month were also the dayswhen Amiden performed the most feats.The day that Amiden produced nothingmuch out of the ordinary was March20—listed in the I n d i c e s as the quietestd a y, magnetically, of the month.

Psychologist William Braud has alsostudied the effect of geomagnetic fields

on the ability to send intention to humanblood cells and to other people. LikeK r i p p n e r, he discovered a significanttrend: that the success of intention waslinked to a ‘noisy’ sun producing highgeomagnetic activity.1

Other research demonstrates that thesuccess of intention depends on the timeof day.2 The best results (an increase ine ffect size of 380 per cent) occur around1 pm local time, the midpoint in thes u n ’s daily journey—known as ‘localsidereal time’. Other peak times occur-red every 13.8 days, which correlate toroughly twice the sun’s rotation, theusual time of modulations in solar wind.

British scientist Peter Fenwick, whohas extensively studied near-death ex-periences and altered states, discoveredthat we all possess an internal cycle inwhich the brain peaks from morning tillnoon, hits a low at 3 pm, rises again until9 pm, then falls to its lowest state ofactivity around 2 am in the morning.

This brain activity is independent ofspecific neural activity and of how busywe are, but determines how well wementally or physically perform through-out the day. Various math tests demon-strate that the time of day the test istaken is crucial in determining how wellwe do.

Another critical element is our bodi-ly position. Studies show that the brainmore actively generates thoughts whenwe are sitting than walking. But it ismost active of all when we’re lyingdown.

F i n a l l y, the air quality and the type of ions in the air also plays a role (seeLiving The Field Lesson Fourt e e n) .Several researchers investigating thee ffect of air quality on consciousnessand health have discovered that low concentrations of either positive or negative ions will produce fewer alphafrequencies in the human brain. Higherlevels of positive or negative ions pro-duce rapid and profound brain wavechanges, changing the alpha frequencies


29

Heavenly bodies

LIVING THE FIELDin the EEGs of individuals exposed tothem after just 30 minutes.3

Lynne McTa g g a rt

1 Percept Mot Skill, 1989; 68: 1243

2 J Sci Exp, 1997; 11 (2): 1–17

3 Krueger AP, Sobel DS. Air ions and

health, in Sobel DS, ed. Ways of Health:

Holistic Approaches to Ancient and

Contemporary Medicine. New Yo r k :

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979

Directed Intention

Lesson 36

30

The right time and place

◆ Send intentions only during days of high levels of geomagnetic activity. To find the

current geomagnetic levels, visit the following websites: h t t p : / / s e c . n o a a . g o v /

t o d a y 2 . h t m l, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s

Space Environment Center (SEC) website, America’s official source of space

weather activity; h t t p : / / s o h o w w w. n a s c o m / n a s a . g o v /, the Solar and Heliospheric

Observatory (SOHO) website, a joint project of the European Space Agency and

the US’ NASA.

◆ Remember: geomagnetic activity is measured on a K index, with 0 being the most

quiet and 9 the most turbulent. The a index is similar, but uses a larger scale—from

0 to 400. When you’re sending an intention, plan to do so on a day when the K

index is 5 or more (an a index over 200).

◆ Send your intentions during local sidereal time (about 1 pm).

◆ Lie down on your back when you are sending your intention.

◆ Fill your intention space with negative ions by installing an ionizer—unless you

live in the mountains and can open your windows to clean mountain air. Adding

plants and a source of water, like an indoor desk fountain, will also improve ion

levels in your intention space.

◆ Keep your intention space free of electrical gadgets and computers, which can

give off electrical emissions of up to 11,000 volts, creating a positive charge on

any ions within range.

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