The word shaman originated from a word in Siberia and eventually came to be applied to all medicine men and women of indigenous cultures who’s practice includes the flight of the soul. Anthropologist studying indigenous cultures throughout the world, began to find that for different cultures, there were similarities in the way the medicine men and women worked with healing and connecting to the spiritual aspect of people and the world. While there were differences specific to culture, removing the the cultural reference revealed a core system of practice. The core practices are called core-Shamanism - a phrase coined by Michael Harner.

A Gallery of Spirit Photography from The American Museum of Photography.

The abortive trial of William H. Mumler in 1872 was the start of a decades-long battle between Science and the Séance. In the United States, Britain and France, spiritualists were investigated by expert commissions and spirit photographers were sometimes prosecuted for fraud.

Well into the 20th century, spirit photography had high-profile supporters–including the physicist Sir William Crookes and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Many of the photographs in this exhibition were made under test conditions thought to rule out possible fraudulent acts.

But the skeptics took their toll. Led by the great illusionist Harry Houdini, investigators unmasked spirit mediums, revealing many of their “manifestations” to be nothing more than cynical tricks and sleight-of-hand.

Happy Easter to those who are celebrating it today!

Easter is a universal festival. The ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Norsemen and Scandinavians worshipped the Egg. Norsemen exchanged coloured eggs, at the time of the vernal equinox, in commemoration of goddess Ostara. Hindus believe that the Mundane Egg, in which Brahma gestated, broke its shell in spring. Thus, the symbol of the egg is a universal symbol. The word Easter closely resembles names of different Pagan goddesses—Ishtar, Ostara, and the Greek Astarte. Goddess Ostara of the Northland was worshipped as a beautiful Queen of the Spring-time, and from Ostara, our word Easter comes. The story goes that when Ostara first came to earth, at the very beginning of the world, she noticed how dark and cold everything seemed. She knew that life in everything was sleeping for a while, till it was time to wake again. Then she realized that she was sent on earth to wake things up. Easter celebrates the awakening of life from its winter sleep.

A very interesting website with lots of esoteric articles.

GoldenNumber.Net exists to share information on the pervasive appearance of Phi in life and the universe. Its goal is to present a broad sampling of phi related topics in an engaging and easy-to-understand format and to provide an online community (aka The Phi Nest™), in which new findings about Phi can be shared.

The Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (A.R.E. ®), is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 1931 by Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), to research and explore transpersonal subjects such as holistic health, ancient mysteries, personal spirituality, dreams and dream interpretation, intuition, and philosophy and reincarnation.

With an international headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the A.R.E. community is a global network of individuals who offer conferences, educational activities, and fellowship around the world. More than 300 books have been written about Cayce’s life and work, resulting in “Edgar Cayce Centers” in twenty-five countries, and members in more than 60 countries.

This website has amazing photos and a lot of interesting info! A teaching site dealing with all aspects of spiritual and physical life.

Many seriously believe that there is a common bridge of thought that can encompass all things, however seemingly strange.The difficulty is in finding that bridge, for most of us are full of preconceived ideas, and frightened of anything new.

O.W.L. will be taking a look at different approaches to a Universal Language so profound that it seems complex in its’ simplicity.

Yet it is simply the language of Nature, which is subject to the same universal laws as ourselves.

With a little observation this language can be used as a tool to help us discover ourselves and our true potential, for we can learn to act in time with the natural cycle of our lives.

If we stop considering how wrong others are, but instead look to how right they could be, we may find a way of fitting things together in accord with all thoughts and beliefs, which will lead to greater tolerance and understanding of ourselves and each other.

Amazing information about the isolation tank and the other experiments of John C Lilly.

John C. Lilly, M.D., an unparalleled scientific visionary and explorer, has made significant contributions to psychology, brain research, computer theory, medicine, ethics, delphinlogy, and interspecies communication. His work launched the global interest in dolphins and whales, provided the basis for the movie Day of the Dolphin, and stimulated the enactment of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Lilly’s interest in the nature of human consciousness led him to invent the isolation tank in the 1950s. In the early sixties, Lilly encountered LSD and soon took his experiments with this mindchanger to the isolation tank. The hairraising experiences that resulted formed the essence of the movie Altered States.

It is difficult to understate the importance of the Sun. Its light and warmth provide energy for growing plants, and ultimately makes life itself possible. In our fast-paced modern world, we have become disconnected from the natural world, hence it is easy to take the Sun for granted. In ancient times, however, people understood and honored the Sun’s life-giving power and majesty.

Early agricultural communities watched the Sun and worried about the weather. They marked the coming and passing of the seasons with great interest. They needed to pay attention to the Sun’s movement as planting and harvesting dates might make the difference for that year’s crops. A few poor harvests in a row could threaten the survival of the community. It is not surprising that people from diverse cultures throughout the world, viewed and continue to view the Sun as the source of life.

Tensegrity is the name given to the modern version of the magical passes: positions and movements of body and breath that were dreamt and stalked by men and women seers who lived in Mexico in ancient times, and taught to Carlos Castaneda, Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar and Carol Tiggs by their teacher, don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian from Yuma, Arizona, and Sonora, Mexico, and the heir to a lineage of seers that originates in Mexico of ancient times.

The word Tensegrity is borrowed from an architect, engineer, scientist and dreamer whom Carlos Castaneda admired: R. Buckminster Fuller, who described tensegrity as a combination of tensional integrity, the forces at work in a structure that is formed by a finite network of compression, or rigid elements interconnected through tensile, or elastic elements which give the structure its overall integrity. Due to this elastic property of interconnections, when one element of the tensegrity structure is shifted, this shift is spread throughout the whole structure, and all the other elements shift as well, or adapt for a new configuration, yielding to these shifts without breaking.