A Little Gift from An Ancient Sage

In the sacred groves of learning, back in ancient times, seekers had to dedicate their life to the study of their chosen philosophy, proving to their teachers that they were serious regarding the information that was to be imparted to them.

Following the journey of the individual who would coin the word, philosopher, Pythagoras began studies as a very young boy with Anaximander and Thales who were well versed in science. The ancient writers stated that the young Pythagoras became a vegetarian, drank only water and severely limited the time he spent sleeping in order to be in his optimum physical condition.

Pythagoras traveled to Syria, spending months in caves meditating, in order to prepare him for his trip to Egypt to learn from the great sages.

Ancient writers state that Pythagoras was refused entrance to the teachings of the Egyptian sages, being that he was a Greek.  Pythagoras had to prove that he was serious and eventually through his determination he was accepted in their great halls and structures of learning. He studied for some twenty-two years visiting every priest and teacher throughout Egypt. In Egypt he learned “astrology, astronomy, geometry and spiritual mysteries.”

Pythagoras later studied with the Brahmans of India. He also studied in Persia until he was 56 years old and decided he wanted to head home to Greece to share his wisdom.
Obviously our access to knowledge is much easier and we virtually have access to all the accumulated knowledge of the world on our cell-phone. But mere knowledge is not wisdom.

The ancients said that learning, knowledge and wisdom are the three divisions of instruction. Learning is shallow and “consists of those things we memorize and are told.” Knowledge is substantial, and consists of those things “we know, and not merely the things we assume to believe.” Wisdom excels all, “being the potent essence composed from experience.”

Through Wisdom we understand all things. All knowledge is belief, but not all belief is knowledge. “In this distinction lies the difference between Wisdom and ignorance, certainty and uncertainty and the real and the counterfeit.” If we merely believe without knowing, we can never be certain of anything at any time. So what is Wisdom…the firm knowing of the reality of something. Not just believing.

Though it seems easy to think of the axiom, Know Thyself, this is far more than just simple words. In the highest sense in ancient times it meant, To Discover Our Own Power. In a very ancient text it stated that when one learns the “cause of the existence of things in the First Value, he who seeks to know must first learn to imagine and deliberate. For Imagination is the mother of deliberation, and wonder is the mother of Wisdom.

Wisdom is the philosopher’s stone and precious above all else.

One step on the journey towards Knowing Thyself is the following action taught by Pythagoras to the students of his academy around 500 BC.

Upon laying your head on your pillow at bedtime, undertake a review of all of your activities in reverse order starting with laying your head upon your pillow. Continue recalling backwards throughout the day as many activities as you remember since you awoke. Now continue if you can recalling any dreams during the night and into the previous day. 
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This is more than just a simple exercise for it has a purpose of breaking the onward ‘flow of time’ that we have been subjected to in this reality. We have one aspect of our Being trapped within this onward ‘flow of time’ and another aspect of our Being that is totally above this ‘flow of time.’ This exercise is a gift of understanding and a step toward recognizing this Higher Aspect.

Don’t rush while viewing your previous activities, don’t immediately judge your actions, but allow any feelings to rise up with you being an observer rather than the actor at the time.

While the seekers of old had many tests, actions and challenges during their journey of discovery, we have the advantages of what they learned and what they have shared. Sometimes the most profound experiences for our growth may appear very simple.

Onward, inward and upward.  With love, in love and through love to you. ​

“The 40-Mile Blow”

Charles Kellogg was not a yogi or occultist. He was a naturalist and an expert with duplicating bird sounds. He drove around in a “Travel Log’, a mobile home made out of a redwood tree to raise awareness of the plight of California forests in 1920s.

Kellogg was born in the high Sierra of California in 1868.  Where he grew up there were no teachers other than and Indian tribe called the Digger Indians.  He played with snakes, birds and various animals and from this he developed a keen eye for observation and an acute sense of smell.

He developed the ability to exactly mimic the sound of almost every bird and insect in nature.  This earned him the title, ‘The Nature Singer.’ Kellogg's ability to sing from the throat instead of whistle the songs had a lot to do with his ability to generate these unique sounds.

He gave more than three thousand lectures sharing his experiences with John Muir, August Rodin, animals and his beloved natures.

Throughout his life he always had a fascination with fire and sound.  He mentions in his autobiography that he was always experimenting with his voice and tuning forks to see how he could affect fire.
A friend of his remarked about one of his lectures, “When the curtain went up Charles had his simple material in his hand and the melody of his matchless bird songs and his words had the very spirit of a woods prophet.”

“There was something in that physically fit, mentally keen and spiritually responsive personality that proclaimed him every inch a master in any emergency.”  “I realize he is one of those dedicated spirits who are untiring in their search for what is beautiful and true.”
From his autobiography – 

“I planned with a friend in San Jose, forty miles from Oakland, to help me in an experiment. I coached him that while I was on a radio station, forty miles away, I would give a signal over the radio, a cricket sound, and then he was to turn on a gas flame, within a tube to its highest point of two feet high. I would affect the flame in its height and then extinguish it. I did not tell anyone of my experiment at KGO radio.”

“My friend called me immediately after the radio program and informed me that every experiment was a success. At a distance of forty miles, with my bird voice, I had extinguished through the radio, a two-foot gas flame, and caused the tall, yellow flame to become a blue roaring Bunsen. When I told them at KGO station what I had done, they were astounded and asked if I would be willing to repeat the experiments before the professors of physics at the University of California in Berkeley.”

“On the evening of September 6th, Prof. A. T. Jones, University of California, introduced me before the microphone at KGO in Oakland. He gave a short explanation of how the “sensitive flame” is affected by only the very highest vibrations and what I intended to do had never been done before. In LeConte Hall in Berkeley ten miles away, a group of scientists and physicists, headed by Dr. Elmer Hall, were at the receiving end with the “sensitive flame” apparatus before them. The line was kept clear over the telephone so those in the hall in Berkeley could give signals to me in Oakland, and report the results at once. I was to cause the flame to dance (become agitated) and to again make the two foot yellow flame become the Bunsen.”

“Every experiment and the exact time the scientists wanted them done, were successfully completed. Over the radio, ten miles away, I put out the flame several times, and made the Bunsen several times. Representatives of AP and UPI, were in Le Conte Hall waiting for the scientists to authenticate the experiments. The then put an account and pictures throughout the world.”

In his autobiography Kellogg makes it clear that that at times he generated sounds with devices like a tuning fork and at other times he generated sounds with just his voice. Both ways he could have an effect upon a large and intense flame. Here is a wonderful example of someone, who in his relationship to nature, developed an ability that most of us would not believe is possible, affecting a flame with his voice.  Interestingly enough in several tests Kellogg showed he generated sounds beyond the normal range of the human voice.

Yogananda in his ‘Autobiography of a Yogi,’ also mentions Charles Kellogg.  “Charles Kellogg, the California naturalist, gave a demonstration of the effect of tonal vibration on fire in 1926 before a group of New York firemen.  Passing a bow, like an enlarged violin bow, swiftly across an aluminum tuning fork, produced a screech like intense radio static…Instantly the sound extinguished a six inch high flame inside a hollow tube.”

You can feel his love pouring throughout his autobiography.  As he recounts his adventures in great detail one has an even greater respect and love for nature, wildlife and beauty.

In one of his last chapters, ‘Fire and Sound in Far Off Fiji,’ he recounts his experience with natives of Fiji in 1925 and how he observed fire ceremonies that were never seen by outside people.  There is fire walking and then there are these ceremonies where people stood lingering in the middle of the fire.

And finally Kellogg mentions something even more amazing.  He brought the sensitive flame device to the island.  “Following their fire-walking performance I also did a demonstration.  I put out the ‘sensitive flame’ with my voice at a distance of ten feet, with no sound that even their acute ears could hear.” Think about what he did for a moment.

As we explore that which lies within, we will embark on a journey of what more is possible without.

To inspire and empower with love, in love and through love.  Have a beautiful day.

Qigong, Chi Kung, Chi Gung, Chi Real

In 1987, LaVerne, the co-founder of World Research Foundation, and I received an invitation from the Central Government in Beijing to spend 17 days visiting medical and traditional academies of healing in China. We traveled to Beijing and I made presentations at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences as well as visited Traditional Research centers in the cities of Hangzhou and Xian in China.

In the city of Hangzhou, I was introduced to the practice of Qigong. I was led into a room where a very old woman was lying on her back. I was told through a translator that she had a paralyzed right arm. Then Dr. Huang Rui Sheng walked into the room. He spoke a few words (in Chinese), took her pulse and then stood behind her, out of her sight. Without saying one additional word, various parts of her body began moving in concert with the doctor’s arm movements. She held her legs in positions that would be hard for younger people. The doctor moved his arms left, right, up and down and the legs moved exactly with his movements.

The doctor then pointed, still out of sight of the patient, to the patient’s right arm and it began to vibrate and then move up down, left and right. Some minutes passed and then Dr. Huang walked to the woman. She got up and was moving her right arm. I was surprised, but was looking for mirrors in the corners of the room that she might have been seeing his movements behind her.

Six months later in 1988, our organization was holding our second world congress on energy medicine, so we invited Dr. Huang and two other Qigong doctors to Las Vegas. None of these doctors had ever been out of China and none of them even had showers in their own homes. Only one of the doctors spoke English and acted as our translator. To say it was quite a change from their homes to Las Vegas would be a gross understatement. They had never seen a television remote or shower fixtures that were in the hotel.

Here was our plan to investigate Qigong. We had approximately 1500 people attending our conference. I would ask some of the American doctors (local attendees) to bring their patients to the conference. The patients were not to have ever heard of the practice of Qigong, and I would not allow the doctors to see the patients until they were on the stage of the Sahara Hotel. Also, the doctors themselves were not versed in Qigong.

I selected the following people: A woman with multiple sclerosis, another woman (wife of one of our presenters) could not walk without assistance and needed a knee replacement, and another person who would be used to demonstrate what could be done with Qigong. The two women needed to be assisted to reach the stage and to lie on a table. This had all been arranged by me personally, so there was no deception.

Dr. Huang stood behind the table where the patients were placed, at times more than fifty feet away, and completely controlled their bodies. Arms, legs, torso would lift and remain suspended in the air for as long as the doctor orchestrated their movements. After it was over, the women walked off the stage shaking their heads in amazement regarding how they were feeling. I followed up with the doctor’s wife three years later. She never needed a knee replacement, and the woman with MS made a remarkable recovery. The third person had been placed into positions that even an athlete would find hard to hold for the length of time she exhibited.

A group of our friends, all doctors, continued to press me during the conference asking if this was just a show. Most people who know me realize that I love to joke and have fun. I told them it was real. They asked if we would allow them a private test with the Qigong doctor. They brought a healthy woman into a room and she laid on a bed. The Qigong doctor was located in another room on the other side of the wall. From where the doctors and I were standing, we could see the doctor working through the wall as well as the woman on the bed. With each movement he made, she made a corresponding movement at the same time, suspending her body parts as he held his hand steady. The exhibition was awesome.

Since I was in Las Vegas, I had one final thing to investigate. For experimental purposes only, how would the doctor do at gambling? We went to the gaming area of the Sahara, and I asked the translator to see if the doctor could sense any energy coming from a machine. Dr. Huang moved to a quarter machine and pointed. I placed in the five quarters and we hit for $75. I remained calm as the quarters continued to pour out. For further experiments we went across the road to Circus Circus. This time we went to the dollar machines and I waited for him to point at one. First time, first pull, we won $275. This was great since the doctors monthly salary was $15. Now that was exciting! (I did it for science.)

When the conference was over, the doctors were staying for another week, so we brought them back to Los Angeles. They wanted to see the desert, which is a four hour drive, but this gave me time to think of a little joke to play on my visitors.

I asked the translator, had they ever heard of American Qigong? I heard Chinese being spoken in a hurried manner. The response was they had not. I decided to take them to my condo in Granada Hills. I stopped my car in front of the garage door, and I grabbed my remote with my left hand, out of their sight. I raised my right hand as I pressed the hidden remote. I moved the door up and down in short movements demonstrating my version of American Qigong. As they piled out of my car I asked if they had ever moved something that size. They had never seen a remote control in their lives and didn’t know how I did it.
In Los Angeles I asked the doctor how he had gotten started in Qigong. (In 1988, he was 64 years old.) He said, through the translator, that when he was a young man he was a guard in a jail. There was a prisoner he was guarding that he noticed had vanished through the wall. Some hours later the man was back in the cell. The doctor told the prisoner, "I saw what you did."

Now I stopped the translator and said, "You mean the prisoner left through the door." The translator said, "The wall."
I got up and touched the door and the wall. "You mean door."
"No, we mean wall."
The doctor asked the prisoner, "Why did you return?" The man answered, "I was placed here, but I had things to take care of." (Sounds like the old Kung Fu television series.)
The doctor asked, "How did you do this?" "Qigong." was the reply.

So, the Chinese doctor had learned from the prisoner after his release. "Also," the doctor stated, "anyone could learn this same thing." The doctor explained that he had two directions he might take in his training: One would be for the ability to produce phenomena, the other for medical.

Before they returned to China, they shared many of their techniques and unique exercises with us.

I am sharing this because I can assure you that this is all possible. The doctor stated that all people can do these things. I was blessed with learning directly from this man. Too many people hear these things and think they are too difficult and can't be done. We need to have these abilities in our group consciousness. Instead of thinking how hard it is, think of how helpful, beautiful and healing these techniques can be.
We are energy. The doctors were regular people, who were not deeply philosophical, but they live in a culture that accepts what they do. We are all capable of many things.

To inspire and empower with love, in love and through love.