The Sage Age Blog

There is no doubt that what we say is a reflection of how we think. In fact, what we think becomes our belief system, that becomes our philosophy, and shifts the culture we live in every day. That is one way our thoughts become reality.

Most every adult in the U.S. remembers when the term politically correct turned into the verb being PC. We began to wholeheartedly embrace the fact that being mindful of our language changes attitudes.

While most of that thought reformation has been targeted toward social justice in recent decades, it’s worthwhile to note the changes it has brought to our rational understanding of reality as well.

It took many years for folks to come to terms with the principles set forth in Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and his work Opticks, which is about the nature of light. After that, scientists were ready to close up shop, stating that everything that needed to be known in physics had been revealed.

Thankfully, human curiosity cannot be so easily satiated. About 100 years later, Einstein showed that Newton’s laws were merely a subset of a larger truth. Einstein’s bold statements began the quantum revolution that ensured we would never stop investigating because the new theories clearly demonstrated the profoundness of our ignorance.

Most of us weren’t alive in 1905 when Einstein released his first papers that changed everything. We have no way to remember what it was like to live through an intellectual revolution of Copernican magnitude. Most believe that E=mc2 was as popular then as it is now. Unfortunately, Einstein suffered the same shunning and disbelief as Newton until others could check the math and see the truth for themselves.

We are sentimental creatures who are hard-pressed to relinquish what brings us pleasure or security in our world. For instance, even though we know full well that we live in a solar-centric system, we are still enamored with the words sunset and sunrise. When folks in the U.S. and in Australia both point up, they are actually pointing in different directions out. And, think about our casual use of the word universal when, thanks to Einstein and every astrophysicist since, we clearly have evidence to show that what we experience on this planet is anything but universal.

Language is a living thing. Currently, there are two key words in cultural flux that are shifting us into another revolution. They are heart and brain. Material realists would have us believe that without a brain, or another physical processing center, there would be no thought. The other philosophy vying for dominance right now is that consciousness is the basis of everything and both matter and energy are an epiphenomenon of it.

The tenuous compromise being struck is that perhaps the organ in the head is not the only intelligence processing center. The term emotional I.Q. came into vogue a few decades ago and now the term heart intelligence is gaining in popularity.

With recent advancements in technology, science has been able to start measuring the subtle energy fields emanating from the hands of healers and Qigong masters. Even molecular biologists are jumping on the bandwagon by showing how our thoughts affect us at the cellular level.

The fact is, the physical body is a sophisticated, multi-faceted antenna system that transmits and receives all manner of informed energies. That’s what the first four chapters of The Sage Age are all about.

We may very well be adopting the language that will lead into another Copernican-level revolution. And our great, great grandchildren will think that all these theories and ideas must have been as popular with us as it is to them. And, they will be able to clearly see that what their great, great grandparents knew was merely a subset of a larger truth.

I’m delighted to be joining the nice folks at Unity Church in Bowling Green, KY for the last live lecture for How Thoughts Become Reality.

This engaging discussion covers the scientific investigation of thought including the PEAR studies, the Global Consciousness Project, mind-over-matter research, and using focused intent for healing. MaAnna will clarify the role of quantum physics in thought research and why Einstein called the ideas of non-locality and entanglement “spooky action at a distance.”

Also discussed are recent breakthroughs in brain-mapping technology that allow hands-free interaction with machines by using thought alone as well as what the near future holds for melding mind and machines.

The talk includes the definition of thought-forms according to advanced intuitive practitioners and how our thoughts affect ourselves and others as well as color our world view. And, there will be a special treat at the end revealing scientific data that will be gathered during the lecture.

The program will be delivered on April 25th at 10:30 a.m. Visit the Unity Church site for location information.

Both as an engineer and shamanka, I sit in awe of trees.

During the winter I marvel at their architecture. It is the perfect example of balancing the need to grow in ways that capture the light while maintaining the core structure. I also know that if humans tried to build anything similar, it would not stand the test of time. Only a living structure could sway with the winds of change and remain intact.

At this time of year, I marvel at the energy necessary to draw sap up three stories without a pump and push out thousands of buds all at once. It has everything to do with frozen sap and gas bubbles in the cellular fibers of the sap wood and the barometric pressure differences between the inside and outside of the tree. Equally important is the sap that runs back down. That’s what plugs the wounds in the tree. Technically it’s a form of latex. And, retreating sap is what’s collected for syrup.

I think of the elaborate mess humans would have to create to set up such a complicated hydraulic system to continuously provide adequate pressure to all those branches for pushing out leaves and growing limbs. Plus, it would need an intricate temperature control device to keep such a sticky substance moving.

Trees are not the silent statues of the forest either. They speak in a variety of ways and they can hear each other. I saw a documentary once where a musician inserted sensitive piezo mics into the sap wood of a tree and recorded it. I was amazed. It was a very steady rhythm that sounded like a conga drum player. I haven’t been able to find a clip of it on the web yet, but if you do, or if you saw that show too, let me know.

If a tree falls in the woods, is it heard? Yes, by the other trees. There is a bit of research on the ultrasonic and superluminal waves emitted by trees. For years, ultrasound has been used to test the quality and wood density of a standing tree. And light measuring equipment has been used to study the health of a forest and density of the canopy, because growing trees need light. But, very few scientists have used similar equipment to listen to trees.

Physicist Ed Wagner has spent a little time listening to trees. He has detected electrical standing waves between trees and recorded blips of them communicating. He calls these transmissions “W-Waves” and has measured them traveling up to three feet per second.

I have to believe that there is intelligent design in nature that could elegantly engineer something so stately and create a being to appreciate it at so many levels.

While all of these scientific findings are fascinating, they don’t really explain the communion I feel with trees and how they speak to my soul. For that, I don’t even need an explanation that satisfies my curious brain. I just receive the gift and marvel at the wonder of it. And that, to me, is the most blessed thing about trees.