Penney Peirce's Intuition Blog

31 Writers, 31 Lessons—Lesson 1 from Penney Peirce: All Of 2012 Is Inside You—Right Now!

2012-01-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

Katherine Jenkins, creator of a wonderful blog called Lessons from the Monk I Married, asked if I'd write a piece to launch her 2012 blog project, 31 Writers, 31 Lessons. Last year she did 365 lessons, which has been turned into a lovely book.

"I am so excited that Penney Peirce has agreed to participate in this AMAZING event for 2012. I first heard of Penney's work when my husband, the former monk, was lying in bed one night reading the book Frequency: The Power of Personal Vibration by none other than Penney Peirce! He only had wonderful things to say about it and I couldn't put it down when he passed it on to me. I knew from my own experience that the things Penney described about our own personal vibrations were definitely true. On a whim, I sent an e-mail out to Penney and she responded so quickly that I believed our frequencies must have connected! It was meant to be. So here she is to ring in the new year. Her words here are very powerful to me and I absolutely love her poem! Please welcome Penney Peirce:"

http://networkedblogs.com/sewXl

Angel painting, "Blessed by a Winged Being," by Nanne Nyander, Sweden

Sensation of the Mystical by Einstein

2012-01-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical.
It is the sower of all true science.

He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder
and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.

To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists,
manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty,
which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms—
this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religion.

—Albert Einstein

Raise Up Your Arms!!

2011-12-19T20:21:00.000-08:00

You never know what's going to capture your attention. For me, it was yesterday when I saw a little child enthralled with a friendly dog outside our local coffee place. She squealed and raised her arms up over her head in a gesture of outright glee. And I remembered how often I have seen little kids do the same thing at the beach, at the ocean. Perhaps it is the sheer stimulation of something so great, so overwhelming—like the sea and the sky or a joyful dog—that makes the innocent child want to connect with it, to embrace it with their whole little body. The photo, above, is one I took of my niece Julia years ago as she "got into the spirit" of Daytona Beach.

When do we lose the urge to make this gesture? I can't remember the last time I saw an adult raise his or her arms in glee—save for the occasional football player making a touchdown. Do we just become too weighed down by gravity? Are we so encumbered by carrying too many heavy purses and bags that we can't make our arms move anymore? With children, the arms rise of their own accord, no effort required. We adults must set intention first. . .

Try it! When we raise up our arms in this unselfconscious way, something happens to our heart: it widens and opens and the lungs take in air in a big enthusiastic gulp. It actually feels really good. But would we be caught dead doing it in public? Me, below. . .not showing my face!

Cluetrain Manifesto: Part 4

2011-12-15T10:12:00.000-08:00

Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance.
Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them.
Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor.
Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on the corporate web site. Rather, it requires big values, a little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of view.
Companies attempting to "position" themselves need to take a position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about.
Bombastic boasts—"We are positioned to become the preeminent provider of XYZ"—do not constitute a position.
Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships.
Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets.
By speaking in language that is distant, uninviting, arrogant, they build walls to keep markets at bay.
Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what's really going on inside the company.
Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds."

So many of the Cluetrain points speak directly to so many of the stages of the transformation process that I outlined in Frequency. As the world's vibration speeds up, old systems that don't change, that stubbornly fight "ego-death"—like corporations—will fail.

H2O Radio Interview with Penney Peirce

2011-12-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Tune in Saturday night to The H2O Radio Network and host Radiah Nunez, who will interview Penney Peirce. It promises to be very lively! Saturday December 16 at 6pm PT/9pm ET. 60 minutes.

Contemplating the End of Suffering

2011-12-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it is that we are nearing the ominous start of 2012 and its dramatic predictions. But I have been thinking about suffering and how it seems more and more unnecessary to me. Might 2012 be a time when we let go of the terrible weight we load upon the idea of suffering?

Isn't it strange that love has been assigned as the cause of suffering by so many people? Oscar Wilde said, "Now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of suffering that there is in the world." Actually, Buddha, in my opinion, is more correct in his statement that "Attachment is the cause of suffering." Many have misinterpreted that to mean we shouldn't feel, or love in an emotional way. Oscar Wilde also said, "To become a spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life." And our modern philosopher, Woody Allen, partly corroborated this with, "To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving."

I have thought long and often about the causes and cures of suffering. It seems to me that Buddha's statement implies a few more layers of meaning before we can really understand him. When we look to the outside world for a source of love, and give "the other" responsibility for our happiness, and become attached to that person or object or situation as the source of happiness, and then the Flow moves us on, and we experience loss and change—the resistance to that is what causes suffering. The attachment to the old, comfortable reality where love was provided to us by the world is what causes us to be ripped away from being with what is, and finding love in a new form in the present moment and in ourselves.

When we create these sorts of "gaps" in our awareness—for instance, between a desired reality and the way it actually is, or by focusing on what we don't have to such a degree that we create a void where we can't experience the true self, or Soul—then we suffer. We suffer when we don't experience Soul and wholeness. Certainly physical pain is suffering, and it is a powerful distracting force for the mind. Yet ideally, if we can return to center in the midst of physical pain, and come fully present, and direct consciousness to the experience of love and Soul in the moment, pain can dissolve. Here are a few other quotes that begin to illustrate what I want to talk about:

"It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive." —William Somerset Maugham

"The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering." —Ben Okri

"Suffering is not good for the soul, unless it teaches you to stop suffering." —Jane Roberts

The following is a transcript of a talk—a "research reading"—I did many years ago, from a trance state, on suffering. I'm leaving it in the rhythm of the spoken sentences to perhaps convey a certain subtle energy.

"It's deceptive when people advise you to "just love yourself" and everything will be fine. Our predominant model of perceiving is linear, that is, we visualize projecting or sending love to one another. So we naturally use that image when thinking about loving ourself. But how can we get outside ourself to project love back to ourself? You cannot really be separate from yourself in order to see or love yourself. You can only BE yourself, and look out from behind your eyes, and that means if you ARE love, the only thing you can do IS love.

Love is who you are and love is what you do. So, don't love yourself, just love. Just love, just love, just love. "I am Love, I am Loving." Don't try to receive love: Be love. The only time we move into suffering is when we try to receive love, when we try to love other people so they will love us, or when we try to love ourselves by looking at our images through other people's eyes. Then we lose our connection with the central truth: that we ARE love and all we want is to radiate it, share it, experience it, and feel it in motion.

So if you know who you are, why do you ever stop yourself from doing this? Go into a deep state and feel the sense of truth about who you really are, and from that place say, "There's nothing else in this world except me, and I am Love, so my whole world is Love. And I will never allow anything that is not this, that does not have this quality of oneness and love, to exist in my world, in any of my dimensions. So: the alternative to suffering: the statement "I AM."

You must first have the experience of yourself, and second, you must bring that experience into the body, into the here and now. It must become a feeling. How do you do that? You center. Bring your awareness inside your skin: Here. What does "here" denote? It denotes the body, it denotes space. Then you get into the now. Now denotes time. Time and space—you must put yourself squarely in the intersection of time and space where your physical body exists. You are coming into alignment with that location. And as you do you say, "I am Love; and I am Here; and I am Now. 100%. There's not one part of me that isn't Love, not one part of me that isn't Light. I am everything." This is what we might call the warrior's stance—total presence, total conviction, total knowledge, no doubt. So, you are Love, you are Here, you are Now, you are in the body, you have BECOME the body AS the higher superconsciousness, or Soul.

Next start expanding the bubble of your present moment in terms of space and time. So from the awareness of being the body, next become the aura: "I am everything around me for 3 feet, 5 feet, 10 feet, above and below. I am the luminous egg. I have no skin; my body is open. I am light permeating everywhere. I am a collection of particles of light floating in space; a ball of light." Let the light clear until you simply feel its diamond presence in everything around you, and keep expanding yourself, gradually including everything into your conscious awareness, until you reach a point where nothing in this world exists outside you. "I am the world; the earth exists inside my consciousness; the peoples of the world live inside of me. The solar system lives inside my awareness."

You can go as far as you want, making the universe personal—then you can come back again. But realize that as you increase your awareness of size, which is space—you also increase the amount of time you have. You empower yourself for action, because you have unlimited time and space. And, if you have included other people inside your consciousness, they are being created by you and are therefore a part of you, an aspect of you. They must know you. And they must be embodying a certain thought or facet of your identity because they include you as well. So there is a learning here—that as you look at others and say, This is me. How is this me? What is the message they bring?, then you know more about your own inner dynamics and the ingenuity of your creativity.

The skin is no boundary. What occurs inside your mind, the thoughts that are seeded to you from the inner self, are also happening in the outer mind, that which we often refer to as the environment, or your world, or your reality. The environment is your outer self. The inner and outer selves always act in unison, so that if you will start matching up or aligning the occurrences in the world with the same thoughts inside your brain, you will feel bigger, more confident and at peace, and more of your Soul will be available to the conscious you.

To summarize a bit, then: The key to ending suffering is to be fully present, here and now, as your true Soul-self, including others within you as that Self. If your Self is Love, they are Love. If you are in harmony, they are in harmony. If you are Love, your whole world is Love if you have merged with your world. If you are loving, the world is loving, the people in your world are loving, loving anything in their world, and if you come near them, they love you. You are "in love" together. If you are your Soul-self, there is no suffering. And yet there will be people who occur within you who still act as though they are suffering. Just be with them. Don't believe them. Say, "I hear you, and I KNOW you are not hearing your Soul. I am going to be with you, fully, for even just one moment. I am going to see the real You."

Let them feel your presence, let them merge into it as much as they wish, let them become you, as you become them. Let the beingness equalize, and your certainty will transfer to them and they will KNOW. And it won't be you who's done it, it will be the Soul that has done it. It's your alignment with and affirmation of what is already so, being communicated to the part of them that knows this is true as well, to that little spark inside them which has never been blown out. That little spark perks up, says "You are right! That's what I've been waiting for, and now I can come into activation. And I will displace through my own presence all that is not true in this personality." When this occurs, there may easily be instantaneous healings, remissions, sudden personality changes, and spiritual transformations."

Great Holiday Book Deal!

2011-12-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

My publisher, Beyond Words/Simon&Schuster, is offering a special holiday deal of both of my latest books: The Intuitive Way and Frequency, for $18.99 (a $34 value). That's actually a super price for these two guidebooks that complement each other so well. You can find out about it at the Daily Deal for 12/7. . . http://www.beyondword.com/daily-deals/

2-Hour Radio Interview on Serious Wonder

2011-11-22T16:03:00.000-08:00

Penney Peirce spoke with host Gray Scott, host of Serious Wonder Radio, for 2 hours about Frequency and all sorts of fascinating topics. You can listen to Episdode 16 at https://www.seriouswonder.com/radio. The website is cool, too!

Cluetrain Manifesto: Part 3

2011-11-16T14:42:00.000-08:00

What's happening to markets is also happening among employees. A metaphysical construct called "The Company" is the only thing standing between the two.
Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman.
In just a few more years, the current homogenized "voice" of business—the sound of mission statements and brochures—will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court.
Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone.
Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that used to watch their ads on television are kidding themselves.
Companies that don't realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity.

The November 11:11 Magazine

2011-11-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

Radio Host and spiritual leader, Simran Singh, produces an exquisite print magazine called 11:11—A Magazine Devoted to the Journey of the Soul. The newest issue for November/December has the theme of SELF-CARE ARTISAN and features an article on Penney and Frequency. It also features articles about Jack Canfield, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and Iyanla Vanzant.

Seizures and Frequency

2011-11-16T12:51:00.000-08:00

I was contacted recently by a woman whose son had just experienced a seizure, quite unexpectedly, at work. She said, "I know he has been under a lot of stress in all areas of his life—health, relationships, his job is ending soon and he has to move. That may be the cause but I was wondering if you had any insight about seizures and frequency?"

Here's what I came up with; perhaps it may be food for thought for others. . .

It's an interesting question. As I put my attention on it, I get that seizures are often the body trying to adjust itself to a higher frequency or a smoother flow of energy through certain pathways that may need to be opened for the evolution to proceed. Like part of a recircuiting process. If there are blockages, which could be various beliefs, habits of awareness, electrochemical imbalances due to locked in emotional habits, or possibly even too much buildup of "artificial" energies like efts, static of some sort. . .then I sense that the body tries to shudder to throw that off, to shift the pattern, to break old patterns, much like an energetic chiropractic adjustment.

I think being in nature can be a big help to neutralize too much artificial stimulation. Fasting to some degree might also help the system simplify for a little while. Perhaps things like acupuncture, tai chi, smooth and rhythmic movement of any sort (swimming) especially that involves diagonal connections of left and right and upper and lower body, as well as music and sound that can, through regular calm rhythms and continuous tones, smooth the perceptual pathways. . .these things may assist in the shifting of the brain and brain-body pathways.

Great Audio Series on the History of the Brain!

2011-11-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

BBC Radio 4 has a variety of extremely well-done (with professional actors) podcast "mini-series." You might want to check out the first 7 episodes (out of 10), 15 minutes each, of the one in progress now—a fascinating and witty series by Dr. Geoff Bunn on THE HISTORY OF THE BRAIN.

1. A Hole in the Head
2. The Blood of the Gladiators
3. The Origin of Common Sense
4. Spirits in the Material World
5. The Spark of Being
6. The Beast Within
7. Mind the Gap

Cluetrain MANIFESTO: PART 2

2011-11-09T18:01:00.000-08:00

The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.
In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way.
These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.
As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally.
People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.
There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.

Part 1: The Cluetrain Manifesto

2011-11-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations.

Markets are conversations.

Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.

Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.

People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.

The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

from www.cluetrain.com

One Voice in Many: Part 10

2011-10-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

I've been posting bits of an old manuscript I wrote in the late 70s. . .and it's interesting to see that in my attempts then to merge into the collective consciousness and speak from that unified voice, so much of what was said is so simple and true today. The Voice in me could easily be the Divine Voice inside anyone and everyone. Previous parts can be found on Jul 12, Aug 19, Aug 26, and Nov 4, 2010; Jan 15, Feb 9, Mar 30, May 17, and Sep 17, 2011.

THE STILL CENTER
We are caught in a whirlwind of reactive activity based on the dysfunctional logic of the distracting mind. But all dervishes rotate about a still core, an eye that is single. Notice synchronous timing and the grace that is possible, even within activity that is highly accelerated or chaotic. Love is instantaneous and miracles are absolutely natural. Keep this perspective and it keeps you in right relationship to the Divine. You are a loving child and a cocreator with the Divine, working from a higher plan. The Love of the Divine is actually YOUR love, since in the end, as evolution completes, you discover that you, and all beings, ARE the Divine. The experience of love as your core identity inheres in your nature and cannot be prevented from becoming conscious.

There is no separation between you and the Divine, and there is only one energy that is the true substance of the Divine: LOVE. The path back into this experience is a sacred journey, each step is blessed, and your way home is cared for and tended to. None perish, all grow. All succeed on their paths, no matter how divergent or different their processes may seem from your own. Doubt not in times of confusion; fear not in times of panic. Keep the still center. Know that a higher vision encompasses all, misses nothing, shines of you forever. There is no end, except to illusion.

ENLIGHTENMENT
Enlightenment is acknowledgment that this, right here, is the Kingdom of Light. It exists within and without, now, everywhere. It is not out in space nor at a distant time in some future. How much light we see within our own consciousness is how much light we are; and we are identifying with larger and larger spheres of light. As we identify ourselves more and more as the Divine, we have more and more influence in the earth plane as agents of transformation. Somehow, as we are ready, Spirit reveals more of our own light to our conscious mind. How does this happen? How are we paced in the remembrance of who we already are?

Enlightenment, or the end of evolution, is the degree to which consciousness is aware of itself. When fully aware, there is the end of observation. It is gratitude that opens you to the inflow of memory of these deep and true states, these experiences of core identity. Each step you take is a learning, an initiation, and a transition into new levels of seeing. Each step up the mountain gives a new view, each new seeding of a thought or memory into your conscious mind creates a new worldview. Initiations occur commonly, every day, to everyone. Notice those things in your life that stand out—these are marker points, initiations. You no longer need to go into the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid for ceremonial revelations. Major revelatory experiences are right under your nose, sprinkled through daily life.

INITIATION AND REVELATION
To find truth today you must use your inner senses and discern the finest levels of meaning in what occurs around you. Revelation comes from within; the Great Initiator of ancient times is no more, now that facilitator is YOU. There are, of course, nonphysical beings who assist your spiritual growth but in a larger sense they are aspects of you and your growth IS their growth as well. We are all learning to remember and become more of who we already are. Even to the highest ascended masters, where identity as "entity" exists, there is still separation from the Divine.

Revelation and initiation always bring heightened awareness that identity dissolves progressively into unity. So as you become more conscious, we all do. No light can increase its measure without increasing in like proportion everywhere. An initiation only frees you to live more fully within the laws of the universe and through that, to experience true freedom and peace. There is forever the same motion that you now call "work." As you evolve, it is known as joy, as action taken in love.

Copyright by Penney Peirce 2011

Five Levels of Social Consciousness

2011-09-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

I thought this was interesting, as seen as part of the transformation process. . . The Institute of Noetic Sciences bulletin, The Noetic Post, Vol 1 No2, reports:

"The five levels of social consciousness that we have identified include:

(1) embedded, where consciousness is shaped without conscious awareness by social, cultural, and biological factors and which is a kind of presocial consciousness;

(2) self-reflexive, in which people gain awareness of how their experiences are conditioned by the social world through reflection and contemplative practices;

(3) engaged, in which people are not only aware of the social environment but also begin to mobilize an intention to contribute to the greater good in some outwardly directed way;

(4) collaborative, in which people see themselves as a part of the collective and begin to work with others to co-create or shape the social environment by collaborative actions, such as collective inquiry, social networking, and learning; and

(5) resonant, in which people report a sense of essential interrelatedness with others—a field of shared experience and emergence that is felt and expressed in social groups and that stimulates social transformation."

The Pleasure State of the Universe

2011-09-29T14:49:00.000-07:00

Wherever I am, I can dissolve the apparition of the physical world, my body, and my personality-self. I can become a ball of light floating in the center of space and time, totally supported from all directions. As I float here I can raise my vibratory rate and my light changes. It moves from golden to intense diamond, and I "see" myself as a glossy area in the field. The longer I hold this in my awareness, or hold my awareness at this focus, the larger the space of "me" becomes.

The larger the space of me becomes, the harder it is to hold it, and soon a natural motion of expansion takes over for my mind, and the motion moves on its own, and the scope of the space of me adjusts itself according to universal rhythms. The ride is sublime! As I experience the ride I become so much more and less and more of what exists and I don't ever use mind to stop or hold because that would be rude; that would be an uncomfortable disturbance to the natural pleasure state of the universe.

As I continue being with the ride, I become aware of being other beings and groups of beings and in these foci exist streams and webs and intricate lacelike patterns of knowledge and progressions of insights to conclusions that only last a fraction of a millisecond before melting into new flows, and the flow through a knowledge web goes forward, backward, all directions at once. Going into these knowledge webs is another kind of ride where I see that saturating myself into omnidirectional knowledge pathways instantaneously is the most natural form of knowing.

Copyright by Penney Peirce 2011

Free Foreign Editions

2011-09-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

I have several copies of the foreign editions of my books. The cost of sending them abroad is prohibitive, but for anyone in the USA, who would like to pay the postage, I'll be glad to send them to you.

FREQUENCY
3 German
2 Norwegian
7 Danish
3 Swedish
1 Japanese
1 Italian

INTUITIVE WAY
1 Swedish

You may contact me via my website: www.penneypeirce.com

3 Radio Interviews with Penney Peirce

2011-09-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

You can listen to an interview about Frequency and Intuition at:

1. HeartGlow Living Radio with Host Deb Snyder, PhD, Sept 28, 10am PT

2. Whitley Strieber's Dreamland, with Host Marla Frees, Sept 29, 11am PT

3. Conscious Talk Radio with Host Brenda Michaels, Sept 30, 7am PT

SNAKE by D. H. Lawrence

2011-09-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.

In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me.

He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough
And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,
And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,
He sipped with his straight mouth,
Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,
Silently.

Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second comer, waiting.

He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,
And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,
And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment,
And stooped and drank a little more,
Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth
On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.
The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed,
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.

And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.

But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth?

Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?
Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?
Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured.

And yet those voices:
If you were not afraid, you would kill him!

And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,
But even so, honoured still more
That he should seek my hospitality
From out the dark door of the secret earth.

He drank enough
And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,
And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,
Seeming to lick his lips,
And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,
And slowly turned his head,
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.

And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,
A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole,
Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after,
Overcame me now his back was turned.

I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy log
And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.

I think it did not hit him,
But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste.
Writhed like lightning, and was gone
Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,
At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.

And immediately I regretted it.
I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.

And I thought of the albatross
And I wished he would come back, my snake.

For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld
Now due to be crowned again.

And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness.

Thoughts on Meditation

2011-09-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

My Australian friend Susie Surtees and I were talking about intuition and meditation one day and she took these notes and put it together in a really clear way. I just found the document and thought I'd pass it on.

There are two worlds that offer many kinds of perception.

There’s the "outer" world with your eyes open where you see objects and space: we generally become aware of 90% of this world through vision — you know this one well.

We’ve become used to thinking about vision-based perception as the major way of perceiving.

When you close your eyes, though, there’s a different world — an inner reality of energy, imagination, and many levels of nonphysical experience and awareness.

What happens in these inner worlds often determines the way the outer world looks and functions.

There are also three parts of your brain and perception feels different and behaves differently when you’re in each of those parts. Every kind of perception is legitimate and useful, and provides different things.

The lower brain (brain stem/reptile brain) controls automatic functions like breathing, heartbeat, and digestion. It is very connected with your body consciousness.

It’s also about survival and safety, causing the fight-or-flight reaction when we feel threatened.

It can provide you with immediate "energy information" via vibration, in the form of expanded or contracted sensations and feelings.

The mid brain (limbic system) is the center for sensory awareness — vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. It influences long-term memories, motivation, appetites, and sleep cycles. It’s also where you experience similarities, love, affection, and belonging.

Vision is closest to the upper brain functions and smell is closest to the reptile brain functions.

In the upper brain (neocortex) there are two hemispheres.

In the right hemisphere we experience patterns, direct knowing, conceptual awareness, and process experiential learning.

In the left hemisphere we make choices, control lower brain impulses, anticipate consequences, organize thoughts, plan, set goals, and practice critical thinking.

It’s also the center of language, analysis, definition, and meaning.

When you operate in the left hemisphere most of the time, you limit other modes of perception, which limits your potential, and your reality.

You block your ability to know intuitively, through direct knowing. Direct knowing saves time, is accurate, and efficient.

Meditation moves you out of the left hemisphere into the right brain, then drops you into your midbrain and reptile brain, and further into your heart.

It helps you become more conscious of other more expanded ways of perceiving. You realize your body, your cells, and the field of energy around you are all conscious! Together all your ways of knowing form a giant nonlocalized brain.

It helps to tune in to what you’re experiencing physically in your body to develop intuition so that when you’re confused you can cut through the mental chatter and confusion to the core truths.

You’ll learn to do this during everyday activities and to stay consciously aligned with your personal values during times of stress and in all of life.

You’ll become better at regulating your emotional and thinking landscapes and be in a place of calmness and ease during unpredictable times.

Meditation can be active — guided and purposeful, or passive — no thought, just direct experience.

Copyright by Penney Peirce 2011

Passion Is. . .

2011-09-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

There is a door to spaciousness and silence and stillness; step through. Don't think about when you'll leave.

In the moment there are no blockages. These are a function of left-brain thinking. If you're processing rather than creating, your left brain is running the show.

Passion only comes when the heart is open and the body, senses, and feeling ability are fully engaged. Passion is engagement without thought of an exit point or strategy. Passion is motivation fueled by the mind aligned with the soul and the lifetime's destiny. It feels so good and easy, even if challenging, so totally absorbing. Passion is purity of focus and non-selfconscious release through talent. So it pays to develop skill and facility.

I want to make squiggles with a big fat calligraphy brush full of thick black ink and my left brain immediately says, "What a waste of expensive ink! It takes years to have the skill to make good squiggles." But a stubborn part of me, perhaps the REAL me, wants to go through the door to the new space, the place I recognize, to explore the mindless sensation not the form.

Abstract Japanese Calligraphy from the Kazuya Akimoto Art Museum

Join Penney at Kripalu for a Weekend Training!

2011-09-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

Frequency: The Power of Personal Vibration
October 14-16, 2011, Kripalu Center, in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.

Explore leading-edge concepts from Frequency, the best-selling book by Penney Peirce. This workshop will teach you how to succeed in what Penney calls the “new energy reality.” You will learn to master the dynamics of energy, time, and intuition, and unblock the flow so you can easily synchronize with your destiny.

In this intensive, you will learn to

Feel your personal vibration and “home frequency,” free yourself from negative or low vibrations, and keep your energy level high
Access intuition and accurately interpret the nonverbal “energy information” your empathic body receives from the energy field around you
Use “frequency principles”—methods based on the way energy actually functions—to solve problems and create the life you want
Improve your relationships using principles of resonance and “frequency matching.”

Discover how you can apply energetic principles to tasks in your personal and business life so you can make accurate decisions, set priorities wisely, and know when to act.

Recommended reading Penney Peirce, Frequency: The Power of Personal Vibration (Atria Books/Beyond Words).

One Voice in Many: Part 9

2011-09-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

I've been posting bits of an old manuscript I wrote in 1980 or so. . .and it's interesting to see that in my attempts then to merge into the collective consciousness and speak from that unified voice, so much of what was said is so simple and true today. The Voice in me could easily be the Divine Voice inside anyone and everyone. Previous parts can be found on Jul 12, Aug 19, Aug 26, and Nov 4, 2010; Jan 15, Feb 9, Mar 30, and May 17, 2011.

CONSCIENCE
We must find our source of internal wisdom, out teacher part, that will guide and remind us of our true identity. That part is the conscience, though in its truest functioning, the word "should" has no place. The essential conscience speaks of truth and gently reminds us of what is real—really real, not superficially real. Over millennia the conscience has become the watchdog for the mind/ego and we've forgotten its divine function.

When do we question? When do we surrender and trust? When our integrity demands it. Integrity is conscience in the best sense—not shoulds but wants, wants based on truth. Our actions come to be regulated by subtle physical tensions; if we don't act according to truth, it feels terrible to live with it. Sometimes doing what is necessary is temporarily uncomfortable to the mind, but the spirit is rejoicing.

SMOOTHNESS IS TRUTH
Believe in smoothness. This is the quality that reveals spirit in all its manifestations. This ease of creation is the essence of the Divine. Divine will most often operates to create synchronicity, or miracles of timing. Pay attention when events fall this way, for smooth rhythm is truth. When situations seem to occur haphazardly or feel frustrating and rough, look to see what slightly twisted thing might be being created. It is you who are out of rhythm, for the Divine creates perfectly.

Not one thing can be out of place or time in this universe. The Divine knows all and all proceeds under divine super-vision, which is simply another name for the universal laws that guide the flow. Every motion and action in your life is divine energy connected to divine consciousness and ordered by divine sanity. Keep seeing it, keep saying it, keep living it, keep thinking it, and the grace and magic of it all will grow in your life.

DIVINE SANITY
Nothing is given that is not to be used. It would indeed be ridiculous for the Divine to spend life force energy to create dead, unoccupied forms. All universal truths may be known through common sense for they are common. We are made, ordered, and maintained within these compassionate laws, and if you just look and listen they are easy to recognize and know.

Imagine yourself standing before the all-knowing Creator. Become now as this Being knows you. Can you even imagine how well this Being knows you and your capabilities? How much you are valued? You are constantly catching up with your Creator's ever-present, ever-increasing knowledge of your totality. By merging into your inner core, your simple emergence place, you can have a new experience moment-by-moment of this great self who you are, as the Creator reveals you to you. You are being created constantly.

Copyright by Penney Peirce 2011

Milarepa's Wisdom

2011-09-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

"How senseless to disregard one's life by fighting foes

Who are but frail flowers,

How foolish to spend your lifetime without meaning

When a precious human body is so rare a gift."

—Milarepa

Allowing Destiny to Unfold

2011-09-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

I recently found this piece of writing I did after I had had a stream of clients who had lost motivation for what they'd been doing successfully for a long time, and who were now feeling rudderless, not yet able to find the sense of their destiny-direction. I asked my inner voice, or Inner Perceiver, what was entailed in finding and embodying one's destiny.

Notice the feeling of being "stuck" in the old, of resisting what feels old. Notice that this experience is characterized by a sense of contraction or clenching of your energy flow. Your mind is doing this, by trying to identify and define a whole new pattern before it is revealed experientially to your body. The left brain will truly be the last part of you to know, so let it rest. The new life, the new pattern of destiny, must unfold; it doesn't come to you like a ball thrown from the heavens. It is more like a seed sprouting from your center, and gently, in perfect timing, unfolding its shoots, leaves, and roots. Your body and the world around you act as the soil and water, the training of your mind to let go of projecting into the future for answers and instead to drop into the deep dark within-place is the nutritious fertilizer. Faith in your own soul's plan and ability to evolve you effortlessly is the water and sunshine.

Next, look for the shoulds, have-tos, and can'ts that underlie the contractions you feel. Example: "I have to pay the bills, so I can't just stop and start over, or do something I love. I should be responsible." These are ideas that come from the limited mind, the old sacrificial way of being. Pause and temporarily disengage from these left-brain negative, declarative statements. Then, let go of the pictures connected to these statements that cause grief, like imagining your downward spiral into poverty, illness, loss, and abandonment. Unplug from those images. Take the negative electrical charges out of your personal field, by imagining that they are grounded out of existence in the light of your soul, the same way static transfers from your body to another substance. You might experience these charges as your "buttons" or "triggers," fears that cause instantaneous contractive reactions in your personality and organism. Dissolve them. Move into neutrality and openness.

Next, let anything be OK. Be with things in the moment, just as they are. There is no NEED for change, as all is well right now. When you can truly relax into the truth of that, you will next feel that it's fine for anything to occur, and that what comes to you will arise from your soul's wisdom, which is always evolutionary. Pay attention to what you want to do NOW, and do each thing with childlike interest. You have emerged from the dark forest into the sunlit meadow filled with flowers, birds, butterflies, and a gurgling stream. It is a new, spacious world. And not knowing what's possible to discover, not holding an outcome in mind, simply experience each new thing as though you are a highly alert animal. Hear and relay the inner flow, noticing that it is the motive of both your own soul AND the collective consciousness of all souls, not separating from the flow-through to judge it. It will move you naturally from one experience to another.

Notice people again and rejoin the interaction. See their light and how they would be with fully open hearts. Turn around your judgments to allowings and express yourself freely; give what you want to give, what brings you pleasure. As you enjoy the people more will gather. Enjoy basking in your own light—the soft fuzz of its penetrating healing, effortless creativity, and magic. Enjoy the light of the others. Enjoyment is a powerful attractive force.

Now then, thoughts of new interests and the opportunities to experience them will come. Great people will emerge and you will not feel as though you are the misfit or pioneer in the wilderness forever. You are at the center of a large and loving family with perfect understanding and feeling. Allow it to emerge around you.

We, your family, come to you through your vibration, we speak through your vibration, and all action comes on this wavelength. Do this now: stabilize your desired experience of life. Do it first in your imagination. Imagine sweetness with effortless power to create, which means alignment of frequencies among the dimensions of yourself, so soul and flow can be experienced in all its nuances. Focus on a quality of ideas, then on a specific idea at a time. This acts as a magnet to draw better and better ideas and opportunities. When you receive an idea of what you want, ask for help from the collective consciousness, from all the beings. Don't feel you must ever work entirely alone; this is an old idea.

Destiny is not in the future. It resides in you now and fuels your every move. Do not let old mind habits, the clutter of the ages, interfere with your smooth transition.

Copyright by Penney Peirce, 2011

MY NEXT LIFE by George Carlin

2011-09-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

I want to live my next life backwards: You start out dead and get that out of the way.

Then you wake up in a nursing home feeling better every day. Then you get kicked out for being too healthy. Enjoy your retirement and collect your pension.

Then when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work 40 years until you're too young to work.

You get ready for High School: drink alcohol, party, and you're generally promiscuous.

Then you go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, and you have no responsibilities. Then you become a baby, and then... You spend your last 9 months floating peacefully in Spa-like conditions—central heating, room service on tap, and then... You finish off as an orgasm.

I rest my case.

(I have been informed that this piece was actually written by comedian Sean Morey)

Frequency Is Now in Paperback!

2011-09-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

New in paperback (after almost 3 years in hardback!), Frequency now comes with five downloadable audio companions to further enhance your work with your personal vibration and home frequency. Access the downloads page at Beyond Words Publishing: http://www.beyondword.com/penneypeirce/

Writing a Poem as a Sacred Act, Part 2

2011-09-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Looking back through my collection of poetic punctuation marks, I see they describe many very human moments of walking the path toward spiritual fulfillment. The Path has its ups, downs, and sudden turns, yet it also follows inherently orderly principles. I am mostly fascinated with what is simple, ordinary, childlike, and at the same time profound and symbolic of these compassionate universal laws. What creates a living state of awareness, a contagious mood, the timeless pause?

I'm not so motivated to write a great poem structurally, as I am in catalyzing "real moments" and turning on the heart's light switch. I'm also interested in the differences in the way men and women perceive the path to spirit. Culturally, we seem to have accepted a predominantly male priesthood's ideas of abstinence, detachment, and overcoming the sinful body and emotions with mental discipline as the only truths about how to reach heaven.

As a woman, I've always felt that the earth has great dignity, wisdom, and light and is far from being an evil force or a place of suffering. All actions—be they sane, insane, compassionate, or selfish—exist within the body of the Great Knower/Lover. To reject part of our totality is to miss the wide road to enlightenment. I believe human emotion and the capacity to feel is our saving grace; it is what differentiates us from the minerals, plants, animals—even the angelic realm—and makes humanity such an important cosmic experiment. To feel passion and know the inner fire allows us to evolve consciously and intentionally. And thus, we can drive the evolution of the physical plane and accelerate the flow of consciousness through heightened yearning. To me, this is the heart of poetry.

To accept everything about our humanness and love it with the compassion of the Great Mother is to enter into a union with Spirit that gives much greater enlightenment than can be attained by moral dictates. We must learn to trust the natural laws inherent in our cells, in the mechanism of perception itself, and fall into the formless order, as the fast-flying Arrow of Truth ironically sometimes lands in the all-enveloping, deep, dark Lake of Joy.

I started thinking about truth and joy as aspects of the same thing when I received the I Ching's hexagram 58, Tui, The Joyous Lake, as an answer to a question. The hexagram is composed of two identical trigrams—above: The Joyous, Lake, and below: The Joyous, Lake. The description says it is characterized by "the smiling lake," and "joy is indicated by the fact that there are two strong lines within, expressing themselves through the medium of gentleness." It goes on to say that, "Truth and strength must dwell in the heart, while gentleness reveals itself in social intercourse. In this way one assumes the right attitude toward God and man achieves something." The image is described: "A lake evaporates upward and thus gradually dries up; but when two lakes are joined they do not dry up so readily, for one replenishes the other. It is the same in the field of knowledge. Knowledge should be a refreshing and vitalizing force."

Truth is something that really does not have to be regulated and monitored as our left brains are wont to do; it is encoded in the inner blueprint of our etheric body, organizing us from the inside in intricate harmony. We can relax about saving ourselves; we are already saved. We can relax about drowning in the void of the quiet black Lake of Joy; a huge part of us is always "dead," existing in the ecstatic nonphysical realms where diamond light is more evident than emptiness. Writing a poem is the sacred act of merging truth and joy, language and direct feeling, earth with water with fire with air.

What characterizes our planet is its feminine, watery nature. We are creatures born of water, capable of breathing water as we gestate. We think we leave the liquid state at birth, yet we are really liquid light; our consciousness flows. Our hearts melt. Our fears evaporate. And our soul can feel parched. Our mind can freeze up without poetry and prayer and devotion and awe. In these days, we are returning to Her and the knowledge of an energetically fluid—not solid—world.

The journey into spirit, as I experience it, is not through the air, flying over the flooded rivers and streams, nor into the far reaches of outer space. It's not about collecting more information, even of the highest ilk. To evolve we must dive. First into the waters of our own emotions, and into those of humanity as a whole, then down into matter itself. We must learn to breathe matter, to condense ourselves into stone, losing our superficial sight, where eventually, if we wait attentively, a new spacious world of liquid light appears, which has been present all along. Then, enveloped in a greater freedom, we can hear the original Word, and on that spiral of sound, the Poem, wind ourselves back out to our Home place where every ephemeral dream is dissolved and the one real thing is remembered.

I’m deep down
in the living stone
the breathing rock
news travels slow in here
no sight, no sound
the self squeezed out of me
forced surrender of will
a world of patience and waiting
of sensing with the bones
knowing is sure
pervasive
the stone is the last step
towards God

DIPPING TOWARD SEARCHLIGHT, NEVADA
long long view down Rt. 95 line drive
through lake bottom haze
creosote bush olive green forever
datura somehow rooted in the shoulders
and flowering big white bells
signs declare state boundaries
owners’ imprints shift
but a second until the land,
the land takes authority again
dissolving all definition into
its deep familiarity with itself—
so deep it doesn’t know I’m here
driving so fast and straight
in this old slow dream

Writing a Poem as a Sacred Act, Part 1

2011-09-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

The urge to keep a journal and write poems seized me early. Inspired by several years when my family lived on a farm in Kansas, I penned this preteen masterpiece: "The most beautiful time in Kansas, I think/Is when the sky turns shades of blue, gray, and pink/This is the time when the breezes are few/And this is the time when the insects are, too." Luckily, keeping on does refine one's sensibilities and craft! Yet even in this juvenile rhyme, there's a seed of the reverence I've always felt for nature, for the way it becomes the Teacher if we can really be quiet and listen.

I carry a journal on airplanes and hikes, to mountaintops, beaches, and foreign countries. A poem is such a good way to distill the essence of a confusing or inspiring experience by blending actual detail with feeling to find the core spiritual message. After the last line mysteriously appears, as though from some inner master, I often feel sublimely wide-eyed, relieved, and wiser.

There have been times when a poem pressured me insistently, practically screaming at me to pull the car over and get a pen and paper from my purse. Then it would explode out in a rhythm all its own like a frilly belch or series of comical hiccups. At other times, I'd hear a phrase that felt like a first line, though I had no idea what the poem might be about. Sometimes a round bulge in my solar plexus would rise slowly to my chest, exciting me, and I'd know there was something that wanted to be said. If I could listen closely, and feel for the rhythm, the opening line would slide out, like a baby from the birth canal, setting the tone for the rest to flow upon.

Writing a poem is such a fascinating and magical thing. So often the words aren't there at first. It's just a mood that captures the whole body, and the mood is like a blueprint that patterns the mind and filters the words. If I stay in it, merged and a servant, the pattern picks the particular flow of sounds. The first thought is often only one plain garment that wraps itself around the meaning the poem seeks to reveal. The whole costume comes into view only because I start to dress myself—the lacy blouse leads to the short socks and black flats, to the purple slacks, to the long scarf, to the rakish beret. Et, voila! Zee outfit!

cool breeze
warm fire
full moon
easy chair
empty plates
soft words
sweet songs
tall tales
short sips
long life

Copyright by Penney Peirce 2011

Join Penney and Simran Singh on 11:11 Radio

2011-09-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

Penney will be the guest on the wonderful 11:11 Radio show hosted by Simran Singh, Thursday September 8 at 4pm PT. Please join them for an enlightening hour. The interview will be available on itunes later.

How Real is Loss? Or Emptiness?

2011-08-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

I have recently been having a conversation with a friend who has lost a large number of friends and family in a fairly short time. This, of course, brings up deep feelings of deprivation and sadness. As we discussed the impact of it all, I realized that even a spurt of deaths like this can serve a positive function: perhaps the soul is propelling us quickly through old ideas of sacrifice into a newer more healthy way of being, where everything and everyone is actually available if we'll just feel it—instead of telling ourselves it's gone, or that the world is empty.

I also realized that part of what's going on is that we're learning to live in a new way, in a spacious way, with MUCH greater freedom to create anything. As we become more transparent, it means giving up fixed ideas about the way we've always assumed the world works, or what death is, or how much we can be in any given lifetime. Without the fixed concepts, we first face a strange void, which can be mistaken for sadness, and our left brain can go into its comfortable cycle of feeling "wrong" or taking on the role of victim, wallowing around in what isn't. If we can embrace the openness and really BE with it, we find that the so-called Void actually starts sourcing us spontaneously, giving to us generously, providing exactly what is needed next. The only hitch is that the left brain can't know about it ahead of time, can't plan and control the flow. Here is what I wrote to my friend:

"I know that flat feeling of the open space that's left when old concepts clear out and actually don't need to be replaced by new beliefs. Getting used to living without organizing structures takes some getting used to. It's a new sort of freedom we never hoped we'd be able to have in our lifetime, and it's shocking to think it's ours. I just want to say that because people you know die, doesn't mean you are any less, or your life is any less rich. But you know this; I'm just saying it anyway. Feeling what isn't there can make you feel that you're not there. Better to feel the "departed" ARE there, and you are too. I'm sure that's what they would say to you, or are saying to you.

"Better not to look back at how you grew into who you are now and who you're becoming, with the critical eye of the left brain. Better to just be with what bubbles now. There are SO many pasts. Just one now moment. You're right that the new understanding is like a new seedling. We're all just beginning to get what it's going to be like, and as it comes clear, it's not new, but a joyful memory finding us again and becoming real. Let yourself be blank for a bit, perhaps. Don't push through. The void is the creator, the teacher, and we must have a loving relationship with it; it is the lover."

The Underworld Surfaces!

2011-07-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Here in Northern California, after 23 records for rainfall have been broken so far this year, it seems we have a bumper crop of gophers. My back yard is a mess of mounded tunnels, and yesterday I walked out my front door to find a pile of dirt spilling out from my flower garden onto the sidewalk. In what conjures up fairly comical imagery, I was told that putting unchewed sticks of Juicy Fruit gum down into the tunnels would cause the gophers to have indigestion or something, and leave! So picture me, stuffing gum into holes. . .with not much result. I imagine the gophers chewing the juicy fruit during the night, smacking their little lips and blithely popping bubbles. . .

But as is my wont, I tend to interpret daily "omens" as if they were dream symbols. So what is a gopher tunneling into my yard and garden? I become aware of a subterranean force that I wasn't aware of a year ago. . .a little "varmint" who's decided to invade my subconscious realm, to make me aware of what's just beneath the surface of my neat and tidy reality. He's aerating things! He's making me focus on the roots of the important things in my life. He is like a little messenger, helping me refocus my attention on core truths. There's more to life than the surface harmony of the flower beds and tidy lawn; another world dwells just below the one I waft around in. And it's bubbling up!

Penney Peirce in Baltimore! July 20-Aug 2, 2011

2011-07-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

Please join us if you're on the East Coast! Penney will be working in Ellicott City, MD (Baltimore) for 2 weeks, from July 20-Aug 2. There are a variety of classes and life/business readings to choose from. Contact Pam Sabatiuk at 410-203-2256.

Download the pdf flyer

-Jul 20-Aug 2: In-person Life Readings; 90-min trance sessions and 45-min numerology sessions, available in Baltimore and Ellicott City.

- Th Jul 21: An Intuitive Look at Future Trends, 7-9pm, Ellicott City

- Tu 7/26: Finding Your Home Frequency, 7-9pm, Ellicott City

- Th 7/28: Finding Upscale Solutions, Choices, & Plans, 7-9pm, Ellicott City

- Su 7/31: Intuition and Materialization Workshop, 9:30a-4:30p, Ellicott City

Morning Segment: The Art of Interpretation—Reading Your Life Messages
Afternoon Segment: The Art of Imagination—Creating Your New Reality

Please note: the workshop at breathe books has been cancelled.

The Nanosecond of Non-Time

2011-07-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

My friend, John Petersen, futurist and director of The Arlington Institute, sent a message that came from Ken Carey, author of The Starseed Transmissions, a book which I resonate with quite strongly, and which matches my visions in many regards (see my previous blog post about preparing to live in the permanent present moment). I'm editing it a bit but you can read more at Ken's new blog. I particularly like Ken's phrase that describes what we are likely to experience as "the shift" occurs: "The Nanosecond of Non-Time." Here's some of what Ken has to say:

"If the modern-day mathematicians who have studied the Calendar are right, the pivotal year will be 2012. Yet 2011 is the year predicted by many, if not all the pre-1985 prophecies, and we have seen enough unusual events so far this year, with still a long way to go until the winter solstice. I still favor The Starseed Transmissions' numerous mentions of the Mayan Calendar year 2011, as well as its accurate prophecies of the political changes that occurred during the 1987-1989 years. Personally, and I say this in all sincerity, I hope the 2012 prophecy is the correct one, I could use the extra time to prepare. But just the very fact of this great earth/sun/human convergence of consciousness is so mind-boggling, its effects so far-reaching, to me, the date of its arrival is of far less importance than the blazing reality of the event itself.

With so much at stake, whether the final collective "nanosecond of non-time" happens this year or next seems inconsequential. What I saw, where I went, what I experienced, what the angels so patiently tried to explain during those days when the Spirit was upon me, I, in turn have tried to convey through my books. I have full faith in what I have written. These events, or variations of them, are going to happen.

It is not as it was before when fear commanded more power than love. A new world has risen about us, though only now do we see it. Those who profit by the encouragement of fear-centered human behavior are growing ever more desperate, and ever more visible. The worst of them stage dramatically publicized tragedies to convince us that our world continues to get worse, and "they" are out there doing their best to save us. But all things pass. Has there ever been an era without an end? The alligators found flash-frozen deep in the arctic ice with undigested tropical vegetation still in their stomachs supports a premise of the Mayan Calendar: Not all ages end gradually. Were I to guess (and this is just a guess), indications suggest that the removal of fear's historical dominance of human minds will likely take several years, with the year 2011 their midpoint. The worst of the tribulation will begin immediately after the day punctuated by a nanosecond of non-time.

Today it is no longer about individual human accomplishment, incarnation, or enlightenment. It is about the singularity of human consciousness awakening (in all who can handle it). It is about the Great Tree of Life at the core of our humanity experiencing itself as a single unity, with our individual creativity fear-free to open into becoming its consciously interwoven leaves and blossoms. At times we will be with those in the collective core at the very singularity of consciousness itself. At other times we will be those same true selves inhabiting sensuous human bodies.

But it's about so much more than ourselves. We must include the Earth, and Sun. When their respective centers of consciousness come into perfect alignment with each other, they will immediately have the ability to convey their Emerging Evolutionary Visions to a totally awakened and participating human family. For we, too, will be one with them, sharing the same consciousness and eager to co-create whatsoever we choose from the vast menu of possibilities available to our New Entity.

Earth, Sun, and Humankind will each guide, regulate, and create within their respective spheres, but like a Tri-Circle Logo, each of our creative domains will increasingly overlap as they approach the center. Here we share a common form of communication, a common excitement for joint creations, and a common sense of self. Here our more rapidly evolving human minds and bodies will reside both in and as this much larger physical organism, a body designed for habitation by the Creative Spirit at the Source of Life.

As far as we know, this shared central area will be the first true Biological Organism, born with a precisely equal balance of Energy and Matter. Earth and Sun. Time and Eternity. With human architectural, aesthetic, and engineering input, and our rapidly evolving human tools of pinpoint specificity, Galactic, Solar, Terrestrial, and Human Consciousness will be able to launch a very different form of art. This will be the most fun we've ever had, artists all, creating Beauty through Love as never before, with Biology now included amongst our poetry, paints and songs.

Now, since I have been immersed in 2011, I have become aware of many details hidden back when I was writing about this year a quarter-century ago. Here is what I saw then. From 1978: The Starseed Transmissions. . .

. . .functioning primarily on the frequencies of Love, the coming interval of non-time will literally expand into eternity. These individuals will be able to experience a lifetime, or many lifetimes, in that eternity while still retaining the option to return to their physical projections as transformed representatives of the Being of Life on Earth. These will be our coworkers during the period of Planetary Awakening. Others, not so finely tuned to the forces that will be released at that time, will feel great surges of purifying energy, lasting for an indeterminate period. Some few will experience an intense fear, and many will die. Everything in physical form at this time, every soul in every kingdom, will feel something, something incredible, something that according to all the laws of physics ever known or to ever be discovered, could never happen. But there it will be before all senses, an impossible fact, like the babe in a manger, like the unmistakable feeling in your heart, an incredible vibration, shimmering, scintillating, awakening every nerve, every capillary, every cell of your planetary body. The duration of this interval will be subjectively experienced.

When I wrote the above line, "The duration of this interval will be subjectively experienced," I interpreted it to mean that because everyone is unique and utterly individual, each one's encounter with the interval of non-time would naturally reflect that, and be wholly subjective. Today, I understand that as my fingers flew across the keyboard back in the 1970s, they missed two words. That sentence would have better read: The duration and timing of this interval will be subjectively experienced.

What a wonderful revelation! The implications tilt the entire field in our favor. The Creator would know that if our entire species were to simultaneously experience the interval of non-time, even the most trusting and stout of heart would become disoriented, distracted, and perhaps even disabled by the fear they felt from those around them. Suddenly, everything clicked and fell into place. If human birth takes hours in relation to the seven-or-eight-decade span of a human life, it might be presumptuous to assume that a Starchild would be born on a single day. . . .So instead of a tempered cataclysm, among most of us the interval of non-time will fall as a gentle, almost imperceptible rain, each drop bringing the transformational zero to each individual in their own time, at the moment when their chances of standing upright in the Light are optimal. . . .

In addition to, "No man knows the minute or the hour or the day," when a significantly potent pulse of non-time enters a segment of linear time, it is difficult to predict when the chaos will lift. Non-time is not the only variable here. . . .

No, end would not have been the right word to use back then for the cessation of wild and unpredictable planetary phenomena of this magnitude; for the moment of non-time marks the birth, the beginning of an unprecedented change in the existence not only of earth and humankind but in the very nature and consciousness of our sun/star as well. Our star will now have graduated to a higher rank in the galaxy of understanding. Our life force is that of the same Great Star who is now awakening through us. Human behavior, therefore, has ever-growing influence as to how this 2011-2012 period is going to turn out.

With Our Creator's intelligence looking through our eyes, seeing the same world we see, knowing us better than we know ourselves, I think we can trust that God will not force upon us a global change more rapidly than we can bear. Those operating on fearful frequencies, however, do not have that same assurance Nor does a loving God live in their hearts to inspire and guide their behavior during the most turbulent of the times to come."

Penney on Inspired Mentors Mini-Conference

2011-07-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

Penney is part of a program hosted by Dinny Lansdowne of Inspired Mentors, featuring a variety of mentors covering interesting topics. Penney's segment will air July 14 at 11am PT. You can become a member of the community and participate in the entire program for free, by signing up at http://inspiredmentors.com/vision.html.

You can listen to Penney's segment at http://AttendThisEvent.com/eventid=21133317

or by going to http://tinyurl.com/PenneyPeirce

Please join us; you'll have an opportunity to ask questions!!

Becoming Transparent: Preparing to Live in the Permanent Present Moment

2011-07-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

The dream woke me at exactly 3am, as is the case with every visionary dream I've ever had. In it, I was camping in the desert, "holding a spot" for what seemed like a week or two, just waiting and maintaining a steady vibration, following some sort of higher, intuitive orders. My mother was with me, and as we lounged in our folding plastic chairs, she told me she was worried about the future.

I was reading a book, written in a series of different sized dots and circles. Looking at the pages, they were literally covered edge to edge by a field of these spheres, some yellow, some blue, some purple—looking very much like a closeup of round cells under a microscope. And yet, it made perfect sense to me and I read it by tracking through the field, following various sequences of rotations of the spheres, like tracing the flow of oil through a complex series of gears.

I said to my mother, "Oh, Don't worry. It's not going to be that bad. See? It says right here. . ." And I proceeded to describe what the book depicted. There was a "cosmic event" happening WAY WAY out in the far reaches of the universe. In fact, it had already occurred and had set in motion this particular sequence of rotations, where the collision or spin of one celestial body affected another, and then another, and another, until the wave of spiraling energy would reach our own solar system and planet. When that happened—and it wouldn't be too much longer now—the book said that people would attribute the result to erroneous causes.

The dream scene suddenly shifted and I was standing in a room talking to a male colleague, a healer who was dressed in a gray business suit who had just returned from the big cities of the East Coast. "Those suits are really solid!" he exclaimed. And I thought, the business mentality is hard to get through, or maybe the bodies themselves are like suits. He looked at me and said, "Well, you look fine; you're right on schedule." I looked down and my left arm was transparent up to the shoulder.

As I saw this, memory suddenly flooded into me about what was really going on. We were approaching an important time in the history of the planet. There would be an "event," related the the cosmic event from the far-distant universe, that was called "The Void." I knew I'd been living all my lifetimes, and preparing diligently, to be able to live through this event. In my consciousness, it was something exciting and joyful, yet I knew many people would lose their lives. "How could I possibly have forgotten this!" I thought.

Then a voice said, "To survive The Void you must become like the void." And I knew then that we were all in a process of becoming transparent, every inch of us. To be transparent meant to hold nothing to yourself, to release all ego, to be soft and adaptable, porous and permeable. To be transparent meant that we would learn to live in a state without the need for fixed identity, without a set history, without limitation, without beliefs, without fear and reactionary behavior. Those things make us opaque, solid, and dense.

During The Void, which I sensed to be somewhere in the first twenty years of the 21st century, there would be a powerful phenomenon akin to the stopping of time. It would primarily occur in the higher dimensions, the mental and emotional planes, yet it would have an effect on our physical bodies.

I knew that as we experienced this "Pause," we'd have no idea how long it was lasting, because time would not exist. It's like we would blink out, then blink back in again. Those of us who had become transparent—in other words, who were fluid, fully in the moment without expectations or projections into future or past, and who held no fixed ideas—would simply flow with the situation, not experiencing much of a disruption to our ordinary way of being, since we already knew the sort of timelessness or timefulness inherent in the present moment.

People who were still living with the concept of linear time, projecting into the future, rushing to meet deadlines or dipping nostalgically into the past, would have their worldview shattered. There would be a tremendous flood of energy running through the planes of existence, through the "energy bodies," and anywhere there was too much holding on, or holding back, or holding out, that mental fixation would act as an impurity in the system, causing an implosion. With no holding patterns, the energy would simply flow through harmlessly, giving the "transparent" person an experience of heightened divinity and light.

Those who were still "opaque" with fear and controlling behaviors, would likely die from the overload. And yet, there was no tragedy. Those who died physically in the blink of an eye, would not realize what had happened consciously, and they would reincarnate right away onto a planet that was of the same vibration as the one they'd just left. Their earth would function in much the same way as it always had. Those who blinked back in, having absorbed the huge new dose of light, would reincarnate onto an earth that was more etheric, yet seemed just as familiar to them. Neither group would suffer alienation. In effect, there would be a bifurcation of the world, and two planet Earths would exist side-by-side in parallel realities.

Since this dream, which happened about twenty years ago, I have wondered about the process of becoming transparent, wondered if I were making progress. In the past few years, though, I've had a stronger sense that this was indeed happening. More people understand what it is to live in the present moment, and how this kind of centered consciousness literally changes the rules of the world.

We're learning about the new paradigm consciousness, and how powerful the unified field is as a medium of awareness. The more we keep ourselves centered in the now, the higher the frequency of our consciousness. The higher the frequency of our consciousness, the less capacity we have to suppress fear and hold negative beliefs. This means that all the interferences, the impurities in our systems, are now rising to the surface to be dissolved. Misunderstandings ask to be re-understood.

We will see an increase in voluntary loss of ego and overly-structured identity. More people will become beginner shape-shifters, reformulating themselves easily again and again, as the needs of the collective pull new interests and desires up from the collective unconscious. If you are in a period of loss right now, don't worry. It's really a period of gestation, a gift that allows you to drop into your own deep waters and feel what wants to be real NOW.

A friend of mine said she had a dream where she was inside a cocoon, very tight and alone. Suddenly it exploded and she was a swan swimming peacefully on a glassy lake, with many other swans. She said she realized that what was coming would be an experience of greater connectedness with like-minded others, that she would no longer have to do everything alone.

Here are some things you can do to further this process of becoming transparent:

Center yourself repeatedly inside your body, in the moment, and see what you already know about whatever's just been on your mind.

Absolutely STOP self-doubt thoughts, yes, but's, cynical or critical thinking, and negative comments.

Saturate yourself in thoughts of what you love, what excites you, what brings simple pleasure, what opens your heart.

Release other people's ideas that you mistakenly carry and hold as your own.

Release opinions, beliefs about your identity, or what you think you have to do.

Visualize yourself uncluttered by shoulds, old ideas, and negative feelings.

Let yourself experience spaciousness, openness, expansion, clear light all around you.

Let go of any ways you hold on, hold back, hold forth, hold out, and hold up.

Remember: In any now moment you can be transparent. Just focus your whole self into the moment and breathe diamond light, radiate diamond light, and relax any urges to control yourself and the world.

You don't have to know who you are. You're much bigger and more complex than you could ever imagine. The soul will make you into whatever is needed for the next moment of life. Go with it! Discover yourself as you become, then discover yourself anew.

Copyright by Penney Peirce

A Frequency Poem

2011-06-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

in the mirror lately my body eyes cheeks skin
are morphing in and out of moist and dry realities
full and prescient, empty and vaguely worried
I don't quite recognize myself
am I aging or youthing?
today: subdermal heat
frustration builds for the lightning strike
too many tightly timed tasks, long distance errands
too much traffic, too many hotheads, too ahead and behind
stop for coffee
feel down into my Field in bookstore cafe
my body's normal tone,
butter smooth and sweet like a puppy,
is gritty and revving to a buzz saw whine
feel like a helicopter rotor winding up
about to lift outa here
been riding the jagged edge all day
is this too much will?
fear jackhammered loose from below?
the event wave of a coming catastrophe?
no, the voice inside says,
this is a new physical vibration passing through
activating all it touches, eating away the dullness
don't avoid it, don't make extra space for it
just match it
I fall in
the wave pools, overflows and dissolves, pools
and as it builds I feel myself,
have an identity thought, become self-conscious,
feel wooden, irritated, impatient, invisible,
overwhelmed, violated, motivated;
as it dissipates, identities evaporate into diamond light
relief, space, fresh air, no meaning
the three-year-old returns, smiles broadly
with uncontainable knowing

copyright by Penney Peirce 2011

Penney's 2011 Summer Solstice Message

2011-06-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

My new 2011 Summer Solstice Message is finished and available to download. You may also download these:

2011 Letter

2010 Summer Solstice Message

2010 Letter

Jupiter in Taurus: June 4, 2011-June 11, 2012

2011-06-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm paraphrasing much of this from an email I received from Constance Demby. While Jupiter (expansion) is in Taurus (earth), here are some things to focus on:

Creature comforts. The natural and organic has knowledge to transmit. The living library of Earth is a source of wisdom, and can be the inspiration for a sense of the bigger picture. There's much to learn about earth energies, making a living in line with our values, and growing things exponentially in our lives. Resurgence of interest in plant wisdom, nature devas, inter-species communication, Earth ley lines & power spots (vortices).

What feels authentic, enduring, and rich with substance. When you invest creative energy into a true thing, it grows big. This could be a year for big productions that take time. A solid return on your investment. A year to do it right and make it real. Rewards for being thorough, avoiding shortcuts. Finding a steady rhythm of progress. Faith and patience to see it through.

Slow food. Grounded and rooted. Grassroots with a sense of place. Being realistic. Being a solid friend, parent, partner, collaborator.

Exploring sculpture, dance, music, visual arts, architecture, and design. Integrating human life into nature and vice versa. Being inspired by harmony of natural patterns, healing frequencies. Native dances, instinctual rhythms. Admiring craftsmanship, artisan bakers and perfumers, becoming a cottage industry, marketing beauty. Mastering form, or technique, creating a body of work.

Tangible exchange, barter, discerning value. Precious metals, tools, a sunny patch to garden, self-sufficiency. Covering the basics, and building to thrive. Earth-based building materials. Crafts. Making the most of your resources. DIY. Combining wealth in community — commonwealth. Allying to grow a business, a garden, a food collective. Sharing the bounty. Harvest time. Sharing innovative solutions for practical, everyday challenges. Integrating values in business. Local initiatives based on a need. Flourishing together.

Natural law. Visions of restoring Earth as paradise, and Source of life. Dignity of all living things. Instinct to understand profound interconnectedness — the web of life.

Watch the garden revolution take off! More are rediscovering the satisfaction of watching things grow from a tiny seed. The whole of Earth can flourish and be reseeded, restored as a lush, abundant host for life.

Penney Working in Baltimore for 2 Weeks in July

2011-06-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

Penney will be in Baltimore from July 20-August 2. Her schedule includes a variety of talks and workshops, as well as both 45-minute and 90-minute deep-level intuitive consultations. Call Pam Sabatiuk for reservations and appointments, at 410-203-2256.

Download the 2-pg pdf flyer at www.penneypeirce.com

The Future of Publishing

2011-06-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

I'm passing along an article from Penny Sansevieri's book marketing newsletter. Everyone seems to be writing a book these days, and the future trends in publishing are well worth contemplating. . .

A lot of people claim that traditional publishing is broken and will eventually die. I disagree. Much like the changes that have occurred in the past in publishing, the big six will survive and so will agents. I do not have any insider knowledge or hidden agenda, nor do I profess to know everything about publishing. Not by a longshot. But I do know how to read the signs of this evolution or revolution, depending on which side of the fence you are on. I believe there have been many signs. Here is how I foresee they will do it.

Self-publishing: In the very near future, all of the houses will spend some of their equity on self-publishing. In order to survive, they are going to have to reinvent the way they do business. This means digging into the self-publishing arena. It's rumored that two major houses are already doing this, and there are likely more to come.

Hay House, for example, has already lent their name to Balboa Press which is their self-publishing arm. I have no experience with Balboa so I can't speak to their process, but I do know that part of their sales pitch to authors is that a successful book published with Balboa will be considered by Hay House for republication. Does this actually happen? I don't know, Balboa hasn't been around long enough to show a track record. If publishers get into self-publishing, does that mean they won't be publishing traditionally? Not at all. The traditional model won't go away, but with publishers becoming more and more risk-averse, the model has to change if they're going to survive. And, let's face it, while the number of bookstores is declining, opportunities to sell books and flood the market with books continue to increase.

Direct to consumer: While some publishers are dabbling in this, I'm not clear how successful they will be. Consumer engagement on e-commerce sites such as Amazon, etc. will significantly change the way we buy. What does this mean? I think you're going to see a lot more social buying in the future. Social engagement, consumer recommendations, etc.

We're already seeing a lot of this, but I believe we'll see much more of it. Can publishers offer this? Yes, they certainly can, but first they have to overcome the hurdle of consumer awareness. Consumers don't know publishers, they know authors and they know the big e-commerce sites like Amazon, et al. Direct to consumer is great, but when you've been a behind-the-scenes entity for so long, the awareness process can take a while.

The future of the literary agent: I have heard this directly from a few agents - that in five years literary agents as we now know them will be gone, or at the very least strongly diminished. Will agents go away? Doubtful. I believe the savvy agents will stick around and, like publishing, completely reinvent themselves.

Consider this: for years agents have acted as gatekeepers. Ferreting through manuscripts, often editing work and/or suggesting rewrites to the material. They've done more lunches with publishers than you could ever hope to do in your lifetime, and they've schmoozed at more parties than anyone should ever be forced to attend.

What does all this mean? It means they are more dialed into the industry than almost anyone and this puts them in a fantastic position. It's already brewing out there; several savvy agents are taking it upon themselves to become book consultants. Let's face it, while publishing opportunities may diminish vis-à-vis the traditional houses, the number of authors who want to get published will continue to grow. There will never be a lack of material, and agents are perfectly positioned to make sure that the majority of it is quality material.

Consider this: you have a manuscript and you're not sure if it's a marketable topic. You don't even know if what you've written is any good. Yes, you could hire an editor, but their job is to edit your existing work. Some editors won't give you the kind of feedback that could save you thousands of dollars marketing something that has no audience. An agent can. I foresee that agents will rediscover who they are and what they bring to the table, which is considerable in my view.

Book access: The problem that we've always seen in media relations is this: if the book is self-published with limited distribution, it often won't be considered for a major show because show producers know that consumers may have a hard time finding the book. With eBooks and the accessibility of these titles, all of that has changed. Shows are becoming less concerned with how a book is published, they just want topic-related quality titles to discuss on the show. This is great news for authors who previously haven't been able to secure any media for their books because there was no bookstore placement.

What does all of this mean for you, the author? By this time next year the landscape of publishing will look vastly different. There are more opportunities than ever to see your work in print; and moreover, the odd-man-out which used to be self-publishing is finally getting its due. We are going to see a lot more attention paid to the self-publishing market, and the stigma that's always followed it will diminish greatly. Yes, there will always be less-than-quality self-published books, but let's face it, I've seen traditionally published books fall into that same category.

People often lament the end of publishing as we know it. I actually think that's a great thing. Publishing the old way hasn't worked for a long time. It's always been about exclusivity and often seemed like a high school popularity contest. Breaking down these barriers and leveling the playing field will bring many good things with it, including - and most importantly - some extraordinary authors. Here's to the future!

Penney Peirce Radio Interview June 9

2011-06-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Join Penney and Sandie Sedgbeer, host of Conversations at the Cutting Edge, on the Awakening Zone International Network, 12 noon to 1:30pm PT on Thursday, June 9. Call-in: 714-364-4559

On Dealing with Attacks

2011-05-26T18:58:00.000-07:00

I was rooting around in some old folders and found this piece that I wrote, who knows how long ago, as it was undated. It has a strange power and clarity. Perhaps you will find a few useful nuggets. . .

Who is with me?
The Light is with you, sister.
Feel it and you activate it, then know the truth of it.

How do I get out of this entrapment in conflict?
Cease fighting.
Defending is attacking.

When I experience being attacked what do I do?
See the attacker in his or her fear, pain, and vulnerability.
Watch the attack in slow motion as though a movie.
Make no motion to defend. Just allow.
These are the winds of the physical plane, the human experience; storms arise and dissolve, the earth turns, the sun rises, sets, particles form and fall back into waves and all is drawn back into the changeless one.

I allow attack?
Be unconditionally present. Keep the Light in your eyes; it will see for you.
Do not retract into righteous re-action: indignation, retaliation, revenge, hate.
Do not narrow your eyes, harden your chest, leave your body. When you experience anything in unconditional presence, the other person is left alone with their actions and underlying thoughts. They may try to blame but they will not be able to project.

Won't I be hurt?
What is hurt? You are an eternal universal being! You hurt yourself by separating from the experience of this truth. A fear-generated action aimed at you is about the actor. It passes through you unless you stop it and hold onto it. If you believe you can be hurt, you have forgotten your true nature and must return to it.

Shouldn't I show the other person where they're making the mistake?
If you see a mistake it is in the space of the relating, in all the participants. Do not separate yourself from the others.
Bring the mistake inside your own awareness, your own body, and feel its tight twistedness. Feel how it separates you from the Peace and Smile.
Untwist and relax it in yourself, let the Light take it over and possess it. The Light will teach it. When you are smiling and at peace, look back at the others. Perhaps, magically, they too will have released the twist of their own accord.

Are there some people who are so deeply rooted in pain that they will never find the way out? Will they always resort to attacking?
No one will be lost; it is impossible to be separate from the one.
The small mind is powerless against that which is not oppositional.
The urge to fight exhausts and destroys personal will.
When there is surrender of the need for self-preservation, the Gift of Everything is bestowed and there is no past to remember to hold you to smallness.
You reconstitute into the one. Fighting is then meaningless and nonexistent. It never happened.

Copyright by Penney Peirce Communications, 2011

The Shallows: This Is Your Brain Online

2011-05-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

Try reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle, and that, says author Nicholas Carr, is what you're doing every time you use the Internet. Carr is the author of the Atlantic article Is Google Making Us Stupid? which he has expanded into a book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.

Carr believes that the Internet is a medium based on interruption — and it's changing the way people read and process information. We've come to associate the acquisition of wisdom with deep reading and solitary concentration, and he says there's not much of that to be found online.

Chronic Distraction
Carr started research for The Shallows after he noticed a change in his own ability to concentrate. "I'd sit down with a book, or a long article," he tells NPR's Robert Siegel, "and after a couple of pages my brain wanted to do what it does when I'm online: check e-mail, click on links, do some Googling, hop from page to page."

This chronic state of distraction "follows us" Carr argues, long after we shut down our computers. "Neuroscientists and psychologists have discovered that, even as adults, our brains are very plastic," Carr explains. "They're very malleable, they adapt at the cellular level to whatever we happen to be doing. And so the more time we spend surfing, and skimming, and scanning...the more adept we become at that mode of thinking."

You can read the rest of this article. . .and check Carr's blog at http://www.roughtype.com/

One Voice in Many: Part 8

2011-05-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

GRATITUDE

Encourage yourself to get sunshine and laugh with people every day. Praise the earth in its beauty, harmony, and "good nature," then bring out your gratitude and live it. Gratitude connects you to the awareness of unity and opens doors to vision. Gratitude dissolves worry and allows spirit to enter your life in a direct way, literally, through in-spir-ation. As you grow through inspiration, so we also make spiritual progress upon our paths. So take care to be aware of the perfection of each present moment and complete every movement in a sacred way. Do not avoid being sacred yourself. Stop. Be. Face yourself now. If you do not, you will soon meet yourself coming, in every face you encounter. There is no escape from that which you never left. If there were, there would indeed be a Hell.

NONE OF THIS IS DIFFICULT

I must go with what I know and trust that an inkling will lead to a sure footing. Trust that one step allows the next. Persistence and patience are NOT difficult. Trust is not difficult. None of the steps that need to be taken is beyond our ability. The formula is easy: Remember who you really are—the Divine in form. Experience it by meditating and bringing the quality of meditation to your life. Know your natural condition is love and abundance. Have the courage to proceed on intuition or inner flashes, knowing these to be closer to truth than anything logic could devise.

We are so much creatures of habit and our bad habit is perceiving ourselves as separate. Call it the ultimate addiction. But being a servant to the Divine and each other is the greatest of privileges and when the limited mind sees that, it doesn't feel so threatened. It will not be cast aside. All Divine creations fit perfectly in the plan for unfoldment and expansion.

The Hitchhiker by Peter Doig

Live Mastering Alchemy Webinar with Penney and Jim Self

2011-05-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

Join Penney for the LIVE Mastering Alchemy Webinar with Host Jim Self, Monday May 23, 4-5:30pm PT; http://www.masteringalchemy.com/teleclasses.html; FREE; enroll at Jim's website. At least 2000 people will be participating via gotowebinar.com Jim and I have strong alignment in our understanding of what's happening in the world today. Join us if you can!!

Judging and Assessing Ourselves: Left Brain vs. Right Brain/Body/Heart

2011-05-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

It's so easy, when you're focused in your left brain, to criticize yourself, to not "measure up." Remember that the left brain, which dominates the overall perception and mores of our Western culture, is isolated from the rest of the organism. In its action of analyzing and making meaning, it must separate to gain perspective and to describe the object of its attention. Thus it stands apart and can easily feel either that it is at the effect of a huge, unwieldy, dangerous world (victim-thinking), or that it is superior and "the leader" or even the dictator of what occurs (narcissism).

In reality, the left brain's compartmentalization helps to discriminate finite observations and a scientific, logical understanding of discrete facts. This is a fantastic ability, and not to be belittled. But the left brain doesn't know enough to run the world. The left brain focuses on provable facts and what it knows from the past. When you identify with your left brain, you too may feel isolated, fearful, and critical of ways of being that are not logical and structured, or based on history. You may tend to make authoritative declarative pronouncements about life, or project sharp criticisms onto others who don't align with your worldview.

I repeatedly see that I, and my clients, say that we are "stuck" when we are simply identifying ourselves with the limited options provided by our left brain. We know there is a bigger reality close at hand. We know things are meant to be effortless, and so much easier. We know that we want a much more expanded experience of love. Yet we hesitate to leave an abusive mate, or a job where we are surrounded by people who don't question reality, who don't want greater depth. We, and our culture, are so attached to a worldview rooted in skeptical, cynical left-brain dominance that we have forgotten what it's like to be a functioning, sharing, fluid, supported part of life's loving flow. We stand outside life and complain that we can't feel love, can't feel connectedness, don't feel like we belong. Here's the good news: We're experiencing life this way because we describe life to ourselves this way. Change the self-talk and your understanding changes, and as you really "get it" through and through, your life changes and expands.

I am sharing a section from my book, The Intuitive Way, about making the shift from the left brain worldview, which I call masculine awareness, into the right brain/intuitive worldview, which I call feminine awareness. When you can remember to do this, you'll immediately release the logjam of your stuckness and the flow will reappear, carrying you somewhere new.

SOFTENING YOUR AWARENESS: THE FEMININE MIND

Once you’ve made peace with your surroundings and assured your body that it will be safe, it’s time to activate your intuition. It starts with a shift into softness.

First, though, think how you feel when you’re concentrating on pushing hard to meet a deadline and do an excellent job. Your brow is probably furrowed, you’re bent to your task, all distracting input effectively shut out. This is what I call the “masculine mind,” because to accomplish specific goals, both men and women must use dynamic male energy. We’re in our left-brained “masculine mind” so often, we’ve come to identify it as normal. We forget there is an equally powerful, complementary state of consciousness, which is tension-free: the “feminine mind.” Here’s how you can tell if you’re using the feminine mind: 1) you’re not in a hurry; 2) you don’t have an opinion; 3) you don’t need to change anything; 4) if it changes, that’s OK too; 5) you’re willing to wait and see; 6) you’re content with yourself. How often do you intentionally enter this state of mind?

Lao Tsu says, “Be aware of your masculine nature; But by keeping the feminine way, You shall be to the world like a canyon, Where the Virtue eternal abides, And go back to become as a child.” Intuition starts when the masculine mind stops. Since we push ourselves to maintain focus and goal-orientation so relentlessly these days, when it’s time to shift into softness, it often happens unconsciously. Something just “comes over us,” makes us space out and temporarily turn into zombies. With so many deadlines to keep, the unconscious shift toward intuitive knowing can at first feel like some sort of sabotage, or the early onslaught of senility! We can avoid this blurry “nobody’s home” feeling by becoming conscious of the stages of feminine awareness. Next time you notice that you’re wound too tight, or you’re too far ahead of yourself, try this:

NOTICE WHAT IS
Relax your brain-mind then draw your attention back to your body, redirecting it to start noticing details of your current physical state. Follow your breath in and out. Come inside your skin. Slow down enough to describe the things you feel in a simple fashion, just the way they are, as though you’re taking inventory. “I notice I’m sitting in my desk chair; there’s some tension between my shoulder blades, my feet are crossed at the ankles. I notice a slight nervous feeling at the base of my sternum. I am hungry. I can feel my pulse in the bottoms of my feet.” By noticing things, you connect with your world. Connectedness spawns intuition.

In these times of rapid growth, it's important to cultivate the habit of catching yourself when you've identified yourself with the left brain's worldview, and make a conscious choice to shift to the right brain/body/heart/cells/personal energy field worldview, which is characterized by immersion and nonseparation, or total belonging and participation in the unified field of life. When you do you will experience love in an entirely new way.

Discover the Gift Blog

2011-05-16T11:17:00.001-07:00

You can read Penney's contribution to the Discover the Gift blog at http://discoverthegift.com/penney-peirce-empath-and-visionary-on-the-intuition-age

Penney is one of the contributors to the excellent new film, which will be in stores in mid-June.

Healing with Secret Love

2011-05-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

Several dear friends of mine, married couples, are dealing with the healing of cancer in one person in their relationship. This is always a test of courage and a challenge to each person to call forth the soul to infuse and dissolve the fear that clings to us, and which we hold partly because our family and our culture value negative drama. When one person materializes the illness, I sense that the other person holds the latent pattern of it, like a negative and its corresponding positive print. The healing of one is the healing of both. It is "fear of something" that has caused the contraction and internal panic in the cells of both people—and the healing is the deep relaxation and return to the true spiritual nature, through and through, in both people. No gaps, no holdouts, no yes-buts, no withholds. There is a sort of total surrender to the love of spirit that is required. A new experience of faith in our true nature.

In one couple, the cancer-manifesting partner recently materialized a car accident which totaled the auto of their partner, but left not a scratch on the cancer-manifesting person. The car was nearly pulverized. And yet, the cancer-manifesting person was protected and released from tragedy. Thinking of the people, I heard: "The car is showing you how much better off you are than it is. It's sending you a message that you are going to heal." In actuality, the car was entirely replaced by the insurance company and new life and capacity for forward movement ensued. I couldn't help but feel that the car, in all its loving consciousness, sacrificed itself to move energy into its people; to give life. More and more lately, I've been experiencing the reality of the life force, and love, that exist inside supposedly inanimate objects. Everything is alive! Everything is full of love.

My friends' "death" of their beloved car reminded me of an experience I had many years ago, when I went out for a hike after a big rainstorm, on Mt. Tamalpais in Mill Valley, CA. It was on a stretch of trail that led through a redwood forest, and it was foggy and the moss was bright green and standing at attention, dripping with moisture, when I came across 3 redwood trees that had fallen during the night. It moved me almost to tears and I wrote the following poem. We never know what sentient beings have given up their lives so that we might receive a burst of vitality and renewal, that we might carry on. Let us never forget to give thanks, even to what we might not be able to identify as the cause of our beneficence.

SECRET LOVE
during the night while everyone slept
and the downpour flooded our dreams
3 noble redwoods in a divine triangle
fell all at once
in the rain-soaked woods,
gave up their grip
on this watery earth
crashed away from center
and far away from those they saved,
now in silent sacrifice
they lie, cradled
in the arms of their friends,
pointing out

copyright by Penney Peirce 2011
Illustration by Sarah Hollander

Early Reviews for Discover the Gift Film

2011-04-28T19:12:00.000-07:00

Reviewers are raving about DISCOVER THE GIFT!

EXAMINER.COM says in a 5-star review:

“Every so often, a film comes along that is not only a work of art and a labor of love, but is in its essence a true ‘work of love.’ Discover the Gift is such a film, a tale of a journey that began with a rekindling of love and then the asking of a simple, yet deeply profound question….[It] both enlightens and inspires.”

SPIRIT & DESTINY magazine says:

“This compelling and personal film is sure to be a word-of-mouth winner…. Discover the Gift follows the siblings’ [Lichtenstein’s and Aziz’s] journeys towards fulfillment, joy and unconditional love, as they reveal that we all have special gifts within us waiting to be awakened and shared. Theirs include storytelling and being visually creative. As well as their own uplifting and heartwarming stories, you’ll be inspired by the wisdom of more than 40 of today’s transformational leaders who share their experiences on finding and working with your gift.”

Discover the Gift will be included in the 2011 Awareness Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

7:00 pm

REGENT SHOWCASE

614 N. La Brea Ave.

LA CA 90036

Tickets are available for preorder now

This week, the Guest Blogger at www.discoverthegift.com is Barbara De Angelis: read her words on “Discovering the Light Within.”

Passing of Great People

2011-04-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Not only did Sai Baba, who many consider a Christlike figure, die this past weekend, but I just have news that an old friend, John Kimmey, has also passed. John was dedicated to spreading the word about the Hopi prophecy, and bringing transformation into reality. You can read about him at http://www.dancingawakethefifthworld.com

I wonder how the passing of people who are major light-holders actually affects the planet and those of us still here in bodies. Perhaps as we become higher frequency ourselves, we will not feel them as gone, but still radiating their essence, in perhaps an even purer way, through the earth's field, or energy body. It makes me think of the many many souls who have incarnated during this time of transition, to assist others and the planet itself, in making the shift to higher frequency awareness and energy. Surely they themselves have benefited from the focused work, but I also think about the fact that they may not be in a physical body to experience what transformation will feel like on the planet. And is that something truly desirable? Anyway. . .so my musings go. My deepest feeling is of gratitude for these lives, and the many other lives that may go unnoticed, of souls who dedicate themselves to helping the conscious evolution process. Bless you all.

2011 Remote Viewing Conference

2011-04-25T10:23:00.001-07:00

If you're interested in Remote Viewing, one of the interesting ways to apply intuitive abilities, you might like to attend the remote viewing conference, which will be held June 17-19 at the Green Valley Ranch, Resort and Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada. http://www.irvaconference.org

April Issue of Penney Peirce's Newsletter is Out!

2011-04-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

You can read the latest issue of The Intuitive Way eNews at www.penneypeirce.com/newsletters/Newsletter042211.htm

Visit the newsletter archives to read past issues (each one has a short editorial on What's Going On Under the Surface. . .) at www.penneypeirce.com/newsletterarchives.htm

Screen Addiction

2011-04-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

I look around these days and what I mostly see is people looking into, or talking or typing into, lit-up screens of varying sizes. Riding to the airport on the airporter bus at 4am, my fellow passengers are checking email on their phone screens, playing music on their ipods, or loudly and self-importantly telling someone somewhere, "I'm on the Golden Gate Bridge now. Now I'm on 19th Avenue. Now I'm just arriving at the terminal." Glancing down into the commuter cars next to the bus, the passengers are texting furiously in an electronically-induced trance, ignoring their drivers. On the plane, people pull out their ipads, laptops, and kindles, and can barely be forced to shut them down for takeoff and landing. We are addicted to SCREENS.

I recently heard some radio reviewers describing a huge computer convention in San Francisco; they were talking about the new phenomenon of "3D Sound," which is different than Surround Sound. It requires large computer memory capacity and involves a way of recording sound at various distances from the body—or something like that that I don't yet comprehend. And they said, "The real Wow Factor at the show, though, was a virtual room, where each wall and the ceiling was a huge video screen, each programmed to give the person inside a vivid experience of a virtual reality.

This got me to wondering about today's "advancements" and what is to become of the generations of people who are mesmerized by these miniature, artificial "realities" and who are experiencing what some clever psychotherapist has dubbed "Nature Deficit Disorder." What is the attraction of merging into a tiny screen or projecting oneself into a 3D television experience on a giant TV screen? Is this a very odd way of seeking inner experience? Is this perhaps a technological shot in the arm, helping people develop collective consciousness by checking Facebook and Twitter all day long and in the middle of the night? I have read articles recently that tell of young people, girls especially, who sleep with their iphones so they won't miss anything that's going on with their entourage of "friends."

Is Spirit perhaps trying to get through to people, in a mass consciousness way, by directing their attention into any means of concentrating, into any means of focusing into something? I wonder why people want controlled 3D realities to project into, to be surrounded by, when they're already in the most amazing 3D reality which surrounds and embraces them totally and responds to their every thought like a supersensitive video game—their own LIFE! I was talking to a young woman at a coffee place this morning, asking for something, and she dourly turned immediately and walked into the back room to get it, never making eye contact, never speaking to me. Perhaps screen addiction is robbing people of interpersonal skills and kindness, as well as a connection to nature and life and their own deeper self? Perhaps screen addiction is a particular kind of mental training which will pay off if and when the internet goes down. Without screens, people will need to transfer their attention to the screen of what's materializing in their present moment. Or there will be the biggest global panic known to mankind, as billions of people are forced withdraw from their windows to electronic worlds.

Lately I hear the ads for ATT vs Verizon concerning new iphone coverage. ATT says they're superior because people can text AND surf online AT THE SAME TIME! Let's hear it for multitasking! People don't seem to value doing one thing at a time with full attention anymore. It's not about pacing oneself or presence, it's about speed and volume and how fragmented we can be without totally falling apart from a nervous breakdown.

How many people are sacrificing their intuition for supposed left brain speediness and the seduction of flashing lights and communication arising magically from the worldwide web? How many people have no idea what it means to be in their body? How many lack intimacy skills in person? How many are emotionally undeveloped? The more fragmented our awareness, the less able we are to access intuition. The more we're separated from our body, living from our mental zone, the less able we are to access intuition. And today, intuition is the way we are going to know what's just right for us to do, each step of the way. As the world moves more into the chaos that ensues as negativity, hatred, and violence surface, we need clear guidance from our soul, or our home frequency, which only flows when we're in the present moment, in our body, and tuned to silence. Intuition is the voice of the Soul. Several college students I've talked to recently tell me they cannot even study unless they have their huge list of music, on their mega-memory ipods, blasting into their heads.

So how about this, if you're a screen addict: leave your ipod at home, turn off your cell phone for one entire day, do one thing at a time with full attention, listen only to the sounds of nature for one hour, go somewhere without your GPS, don't take in information from screens, but let yourself OUT by making art and being creative, by using the senses you forget to notice most of the time. Try striking up a conversation with someone near you instead of looking into your phone. Don't even turn on your computer! OMG! LOL! LIL: Life Is large!!!! It may be a positive sign, though, that we seem to be evolving from the "i" generation (ipod, ipad, iphoto) to the "wi" generation.

The Soul Knows Radio Interview April 20

2011-04-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

Join Penney Peirce and Host Rhonda Hohmann on "The Soul Knows," on Contact Talk Radio, live at 1pm PT Apr 20, and in Seattle on 106.9 HD Ch 3.

www.contacttalkradio.com

Call-in: 877-230-3062

Archives: http://feeds.feedburner.com/thesoulknows

Flash of Spirit Radio Interview April 14

2011-04-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

Join Penney and Hosts Meredith Smith and Gillian Holloway on Flash of Spirit, on Sedona Talk Radio, April 14, 11am PT. Listen live: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flash-of-spirit

Archives at itunes or http://www.sedonatalkradio.com/flash-of-spirit

One Voice in Many: Part 7

2011-03-30T17:59:00.000-07:00

I've been posting bits of an old manuscript I wrote in 1980 or so—and it's interesting to see that in my attempts then to merge into the collective consciousness and speak from that unified voice, so much of what was said is so simple and true today. The "We" voice could as easily be a divine voice inside anyone and everyone. Previous parts can be found on Jul 12, Aug 19, Aug 26, and Nov 4, 2010; Jan 15 and Feb 9, 2011.

There are no mistakes; recovery from loss is not necessary because to Spirit there is never loss; in truth, there is no meaning to that word. There is knowledge and experience of true self or lack of experience of true self. There is expansion, contraction, forming, and dissolving, all aspects of true self, but to call something a mistake is to stop this flowing oscillation of Spirit. You do not need to work to reverse any tide; all is a moving on toward evolution. Come from the still space where you are the true self and the tide turns naturally, no monumental force of will is necessary. There is always, and only, one simple choice. One choice and one moment. Sink back into the present and your choice becomes evident.

Open your heart to others first and foremost and all else flows with ease. There must be trust and after that, obedience to the Word—as YOU hear it. Trust, trust, trust! Be one who listens and moves in faith and certainty about the appropriateness of each choice. Dissolve doubt like a vapor. Toss away indulgence in worry, guilt, pain, and other needless things of the mind. Allow the light that is rightfully yours to shine out of you.

The many beings who make up the collective consciousness of the unified field are always with you, and even in you. And you are inside them. This is an intimate bond of mutual inclusion, and when you take time to feel it deeply, it fosters love. This experience is the maximum comfort, the most sense of good family you will ever know, the best divine marriage, the greatest loyal friendship. Put your attention on it, choose to experience it, and it will absolutely set you free.

The choice is simple. Remembering to choose is something to attend to every day and hour. This is the Path. This is the way Home. Use your personal will to choose the Divine Will. Your purpose is to serve your soul as the soul serves the collective and the collective serves the Divine. All parts cocreate and cooperate, in perfect harmony, with the perfect fit of need and provision, to expand the light of the world until it knows itself as Divine Light. Service is law. Freedom is law. And they are the same law.

What the Divine wants for you is much greater than you can imagine for yourself. No need to limit yourself with dreams of grandeur or glamour, but let those go and you will know a speechless glory that lasts forever. Don't plan. You limit the Divine Plan. Don't try to shape. You limit Divine artistry. Don't look back. You limit your unfoldment. Move on in total trust. At the start of the day, all throughout the day, and at day's end, attune to the Divine-in-Life, the Love-in-Form. Oh, joy! You are a vital part of this world and a cocreator with the highest ones.

Painting by Peter Doig

Get Your Spark of Madness On for Holy Fool’s Day!

2011-03-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

I heartily recommend Gail Larsen's Transformational Speaking work. Here is her latest newsletter editorial; the bold is my emphasis.

“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” —Robin Williams

Lately I’ve been applying the above words from Robin Williams, one of my favorite philosophers, to the art of transformational speaking. Most of us tame our madness to fit into what others expect and never use our inherent spark to become the wildly unforgettable speakers and change artists that are needed in these times of shocking transformation.

How would your life be different if you didn’t care what others think? I sometimes ask that question in my classes and when an astute participant responded, “What if I didn’t care what I think?” I realized she was on to something. So armed with both those questions, and assuming you could give up editing and rehearsing yourself around what others may think, or what you yourself may think just for a moment, how then might you express your spark of madness? Would you be the first to speak rather than first feeling out whether your listeners would agree? Would you sing all the songs you know that have the word “blue” in them while waiting in line for a bus as Elizabeth Crook and I did at last year’s Folk Art Market ? (It took folks about 15 minutes of gawking before they joined in.)

Would you voice a wildly unpopular opinion and kindle a new discussion? Would you show up with laughter yoga at a public place like Katie West does regularly? Would you launch a new movement using social media and organize your own demonstration against injustice or corporate domination or nuclear power? Whatever you do, don’t get attached to the outcome. Just go for it, like a group in Santa Fe did on Christmas morning when they showed up on the plaza with signs offering free holiday hugs. (The scrooges I saw who refused missed some fun interaction with some very good-looking people, including local songstress Nancy Nielsen!)

I suggest you no longer try to lose or suppress your spark of madness and instead give it a voice on April 1, which I have taken upon myself to rename Holy Fool’s Day. This festive and often annoying holiday suggests we play tricks on others with a jovial spirit and once we’ve duped them to yell with delight, “April Fools!” Yet comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell talked about the archetype of another kind of fool: the Holy Fool. The Fool is the most dangerous person on earth, Campbell explained, the most threatening to all hierarchical institutions. He has no concern for naysayers, and no one has power over him (or her). She is not limited, not stoppable, nor controllable. She knows what she has to do and is doing it, no matter what.

I think of the Holy Fool as similar to the Court Jester, the only person in the Royal Court who dares to speak truth to the King without consequence. Or the Koshari of the Hopi and Pueblo peoples of the Southwest, who in the midst of sacred ceremonies makes us laugh at ourselves by mimicking our behavior so we can see ourselves in a new way. Just this year on New Year’s I went to the turtle dance at a New Mexico pueblo and at two different times was the recipient of the untoward attentions of such “sacred clowns.” Their role is to create lessons at the expense of another’s seriousness, recognizing that laughter is a great shape shifter of old habits and patterns. I often wonder if the striped ceremonial dress of the Koshari isn’t designed to remind us that getting out of our self-imposed jails isn’t a really good idea.

So here’s a suggestion. How about on April 1 we engage in a dialogue with our inner Holy Fool and Spark of Madness and ask what she most wants to express, convention be damned. Ask where you are being duped day in and day out and not shining the light of your truth. Let’s stop concealing our greatest passions and be willing to say what we love and what we know without editing and rehearsing ourselves into oblivion. Let’s declare April 1 Holy Fools’ Day and engage the madly passionate part of us that has something important to say—and just say it!

Rumi said (and I paraphrase):

I used to be like you.
Calm, rational, controlled.
Now I am seized by passion.
Watch out!
No one’s safe!!!

© Gail Larsen 2011

How Interconnected We All Are!

2011-03-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

WEST PALM BEACH - The devastating earthquake that shook Japan appears to have caused the water table throughout much of Florida to rise and then fall up to three inches.

The South Florida Water Management District reports that a network of groundwater gauges registered a jump of up to three inches in the water table from Orlando to the Florida Keys about 34 minutes after the quake struck on March 11. The oscillations were observed for about two hours and then stabilized.

"We were not expecting to see any indication of the geologic events in Japan given the island's great distance from Florida," Susan Sylvester, the water district's director of operations control and hydro data management department, said on Saturday.

Shimon Wdowinski, an earthquake researcher with the University of Miami, said the water table likely rose because of Florida's porous limestone, which allows water to easily flow beneath the earth's surface and respond to changes in pressure caused by a wave.

He said the flow of Florida's aquifer is quite fast. "It's good because we can filter a lot of water through there," Wdowinski said. "But it's bad because in the case of pollution, it can travel very quickly."

Changes in groundwater levels were also seen in South Florida after the Haiti and Chile earthquakes. Wdowinski said a 20-foot rise was seen after a 9.2 earthquake in Alaska in 1964.

photo copyright by Penney Peirce

New Video Interview: Lilou and Penney!

2011-03-24T11:32:00.000-07:00

French Author and Journalist Lilou Mace and her crew came to my house and did a new video interview a few weeks ago; she's traveling on her "Juicy Living Tour." It was really fun, and I think you'll enjoy the interview. Watch it at:

http://juicylivingtour.com/raising-vibrations-following-intuitions-and-dreams-penney-peirce/

Polaroid photo of Penney at age 15.

Solar Flare Warning in South Africa

2011-03-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

Mar 7, 2011 - The Hermanus Space Weather Warning Centre (SWWC) on Sunday said a large solar flare was currently being experienced in South Africa. The solar flare would result in higher radiation levels from the sun.

SWWC’s forecaster Kobus Olckers said people should be careful when they go outside. "People must wear high sunscreen factor at the moment or preferably go shopping," he said.

A powerful solar flare could overwhelm high-voltage transformers with electrical currents and short-circuit energy grids, with one such event in 1989 disrupting power across the Canadian province of Quebec.

However, solar flares are nothing new, with the first major solar flare being recorded by British astronomer Richard Carrington in 1859.

http://technology.iafrica.com/science/711810.html

Earthquake Strategy

2011-03-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this because there has been some confusion about the most recommended way to find safety in an earthquake. This clarifies things for the United States, and perhaps for other countries with construction standards like ours:

http://www.bpaonline.org/Emergencyprep/arc-on-doug-copp.html

A Letter from Sendai - 3/14/2011

2011-03-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

I'm passing this along, as it is so inspiring. . .

From Anne Thomas • published online @ Ode Magazine

Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out a sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

It's utterly amazingly that where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."

Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.

We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet come on. But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do not. No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.

There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses a mess in some places, yet then a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs. All happening at the same time.

Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains are Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.

And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.

They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes, for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls, shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, so far this area is better off than others. Last night my friend's husband came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.

Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don't. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that is much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent.

Thank you again for your care and Love of me. With Love in return to you all,

Anne

Photo copyright by Penney Peirce

Discover the Gift Premiere

2011-03-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

I will be attending the Los Angeles Premiere of the new film, Discover the Gift, Friday, March 18, at Michael Beckwith's Agape Church. If any of you are in the LA area, please come! I will participate in a panel with some of the film's other participants afterward.

Click here for information about the Discover the Gift Premiere.

More information:
www.DISCOVERTHEGIFT.com

The Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVBEEcmf9pI

What IS Lack of Motivation?

2011-03-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

I've noticed something I was calling “lack of motivation” in myself lately, and wonder about it, as it seems unlike me. Am I blocked? Am I resting? Am I waiting? Am I finished? Is Saturn sitting on one of my major aspects? I decided to do some direct writing about it, to see what hidden influences and insights might be involved. What IS lack of motivation?

Spiritually speaking there is no such thing as lack of motive. Motive does not need to be generated because it is the life force itself, and if you're alive you have plenty of it. There is the possibility, though, of being unable to experience the natural life-flow. For example, certainly in these times of high vibration and accelerating frequency, it is common for subconscious holding patterns based on fear to shake loose and rise into your conscious mind. These residues of survival instincts from the near or distant past might include ideas like: "I will be abandoned if I outshine my mother," or "I will be punished if I pursue selfish interests." You can identify these by the "if, then" statements connected to the feeling of contraction or avoidance, and the relative silliness of the thought, once you bring it into the light as a mature human being. These outdated ideas are what you call blocks, and of course, you must unplug from them and not feed attention and energy into their reality or they maintain the life that you give them. Without fuel, eventually they will fade and not bother you.

But there are other situations that can give the impression of lack of motivation. You may have recently completed a period of karma or a growth phase and may now be in the process of integrating it and realizing the finality of the old, while simultaneously sensing and registering a new sense of what is to come. It takes awhile to break old familiarities and thought/behavior habits, and to set the new in motion. Old habits of identity and worldview can act as a severe form of clutter and it takes time to even recognize them for what they are since they are so intrinsic to the creation of your reality. Remember that at this time it is not just that you might move on to do something new, but you are moving on to understand how an entirely new reality will function. Though there are huge changes going on below the surface, to the mind it may seem that “nothing” is happening.

For instance, you may be shifting from an “old” purely will-based mode of ambition—ambition that comes from a desire for goals that distract from feelings of unworthiness, for example—to a more Intuition Age-based mode where creating comes from the desire for joyful service and fulfillment of destiny. This brings a variety of internal shifts that are emotional and physical as well as mental. The adrenal glands are stimulated less and the heart more, for example. This can affect neurotransmitters and hormones. Deep energy patterns are changing—ie, the way energy connects and flows is withdrawing from one entire constellation of logical procedures and is seeking new subtle pathways and braintracks for expression. This takes time to become normal and equalize through all the levels of self.

You may subconsciously still be operating from the habit of forcing a new flow by moving from the left brain: What "should" come next as a logical outgrowth of what's come before? Who will I be as an extension of who I identify myself as in the world? Yet your soul would have you move from the right brain, heart, aura, and cells, staying in harmony with what the collective consciousness wants you to do for the joy and coevolution of all, including yourself. When the left brain rules, the bigger part of you that wants to evolve will rebel against the authority of the old way of driving motivation or of achieving goals for the "wrong" reasons. At a certain point, your inner self won't let you proceed from false motives. You don’t lack motivation, but are learning to sense a new kind of motivation.

Another reason you could feel a lack of motivation is that you may not yet be able to see what you will be doing—because it doesn’t exist yet. Your awareness may be a few "frequency degrees" from being able to envision a new development that will involve you. You may be missing vital information. The world is evolving rapidly and new opportunities and forms of expression are constantly being birthed. Your new direction may be one of them, due to appear any moment. You can feel it coming, but sense timing isn't quite right. Perhaps the other people who will be cocreating with you are not ready yet. So without a tangible goal that your body can be excited about, you simply wait. Your mind may misinterpret this lack of information or inner sense of premature timing as lack of motivation.

It’s easy during these transition times for your left brain to take over, since it is used to running things. It detests voids and pauses, and wants to fill every space with certainty, even if it’s a negative certainty. So when you are invisibly gestating a new life, your left brain loves to make pronouncements about how wrong-bad-flawed-hopeless-old-unlovable-or-dumb you are. Thus you may be tempted to give up, to become apathetic and lethargic. The turtle withdraws head and legs. This would be fine if, in the stillness, you could fill up with your essence and feel what your true self feels like, then come back into the world with childlike wonder and personal loving connection to all things. But too often, the left brain-egomind keeps thinking about the projected end result of “nothing happening”—death. It is contemplating its own death actually—ego death—but if you identify with this voice you'll assume you yourself are going to die, or that you should even kill yourself.

So when awareness of motivation fades, let your left brain rest in the quiet. Shift into feeling and directly experiencing the aliveness within arm’s reach. Don't project into the past, future, or positive or negative visions, but merge with what you have now, to experience it and know it personally—that what's with you in each moment is actually a living part of you and appears through the great love and service motive of the collective consciousness and unified field. Find a tiny motive rising from your depths—something mundane, close, and simple. Something that comes naturally, the way a child changes from a blue crayon to a red one just because it seems fun. Enjoy following your attention into the process of doing, and seeing how the doing becomes a physical result. And how you feel satisfaction at each stage along the way. And how attention waves away then comes back home to settle and rest, then rises again to flow into another endeavor.

Practice this in a small way again and again until you can recognize consciously the way this natural creation cycle works—in contrast to the joyless, uninspired, should-based cycles of creativity you may have routinely experienced in the past: “I have to wash the dishes again.” Stay with this new habit and slowly, more complex and expansive ideas will arise, which will seem easy to do and as thrilling as drawing with a red crayon.

Trust this: that while you are alive your soul—the real YOU—is being carried along with all other souls in a process of evolution, and like a stream, the flow sometimes dawdles and burbles, sometimes rushes and crashes. But that evolutionary stream IS your motivation and it will source your Inner Perceiver; it will give you curiosities and thoughts to consider and urges to follow. And what will further you is what gets through to you; you can trust this. Even if you have a blindspot and cannot see what's before your nose, even if you stall, it is only temporary. The stream will shift around your logjam and move through you in a slightly different way, so you see and know freshly. The life force does not stop. So do not worry about losing motivation because motive does not come from you, but from the Flow itself.

You are built to shape energy and awareness in a particular way and you will be used for that because you belong in the unified field and the collective consciousness. As you allow the Flow to move through you, it evolves you and what you're built for evolves so that you become capable of so much more, and interested in new ideas and goals. This is a natural process and requires no effort except noticing what you want to pursue with your attention, what experiences engage you totally and bring deep pleasure. As you do these things, change your self-talk so that you say things like, “I love this! This is really fun. No matter how many times I do this, it always feels new. I am always entertained by the surprising turns that bring new views and experience.” In this way you will reinforce a new habit of being synchronized with your own creative wave. Motivation, or lack thereof, will never be a worry.

Would the Bard Have Survived the Web?

2011-02-19T16:07:00.000-08:00

By SCOTT TUROW, PAUL AIKEN, and JAMES SHAPIRO of the Authors Guild

Archaeologists finished a remarkable dig last summer in East London. Among their finds were seven earthenware knobs, physical evidence of a near perfect 16th-century experiment into the link between commerce and culture.

When William Shakespeare was growing up in rural Stratford-upon-Avon, carpenters at that East London site were erecting the walls of what some consider the first theater built in Europe since antiquity. Other playhouses soon rose around the city. Those who paid could enter and see the play; those who didn’t, couldn’t.

By the time Shakespeare turned to writing, these “cultural paywalls” were abundant in London: workers holding moneyboxes (bearing the distinctive knobs found by the archaeologists) stood at the entrances of a growing number of outdoor playhouses, collecting a penny for admission.

At day’s end, actors and theater owners smashed open the earthenware moneyboxes and divided the daily take. From those proceeds dramatists were paid to write new plays. For the first time ever, it was possible to earn a living writing for the public. Money changed everything. Almost overnight, a wave of brilliant dramatists emerged, including Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Ben Jonson and Shakespeare. READ MORE

Astrology Intensity from Stephanie Austen

2011-02-18T14:21:00.000-08:00

Important alignments:
February 17: Sun conjunct Neptune

February 18: Full Moon; Venus square Saturn; Sun enters Pisces
February 19: Sun conjunct Chiron
February 20: Mercury and Mars conjunct Neptune
February 21: Mercury enters Pisces
February 22: Mercury conjunct Chiron; Mars enters Pisces
February 24: Mars conjunct Chiron
February 25: Jupiter square Pluto

We are experiencing profoundly transformative effects from several recent solar flares, the strongest in 4 years, with more to come. According to Phil Chamberlin at NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: "This is the first of probably many more X-class flare to occur over the next 2 to 4 years, as we reach the peak and then descend back down from solar cycle 24 maximum."

From the Hathors, via Tom Kenyon: "Your Sun, the solar star of your planetary system, is increasing its energetic potential and is entering a period of increased volatility, solar flares and magnetic storms. While these actions will create real problems for you in terms of your telecommunications and weather patterns, there is also an immense evolutionary potential within this solar activity..."

And from The Group, via Steve Rothers: "We tell you that just recently the critical mass of humanity has now shifted in favor of love over fear...anytime you see a solar flare, it will be felt in your own magnetic, emotional structure on planet Earth roughly 76 hours later...let this energy come in and go through you, leaving you cleansed instead of upset or in drama..." Spend extra time in nature, meditation, creativity, and rest if you are feeling unusually tired, out of sorts, and/or stressed; this is a significant evolutionary 'rewire'.

The next full moon peaks on Friday, February 18 at 12:36 AM PST at 29º Leo-Aquarius. This is the fifth of five full moons in a row occurring at the end of a sign, catalyzing important revelations and breakthroughs, major endings and beginnings, for everyone. This is also the first of six SuperMoons this year, when the Moon is both at perigee, its closest approach to the Earth, and at syzygy, in line with the Sun and Earth. Gravitational tugs and the morphing of the Earth’s electromagnetic field are intensified, facilitating greater shifts in consciousness as well. (Other SuperMoons will be March 19, April 17, September 27, October 26, and November 24, 2011.)

Aquarius is the sign of the individualist and the inventor, the rebel and the reformer. The archetype of Aquarius dares us to question authority, to remember that we are part of a larger whole. The 11th sign in an archetypal cycle of 12 is innovative, democratic, and synergistic; no one person has the answer, but each person has and is part of the solution. Aquarius reminds us we are never alone, that there are many other like-minded souls who share our ideals, and that together, we can and will change the world.

Leo is the sign most concerned with the discovery and expression of one’s authentic self. Leo is associated with the Sun, the star at the center of our solar system, as well as our own solar plexus, the center of the body, and with the heart, the central pump of our life force. The spiritual task of Leo is to act from one's center, from the heart, from the Light within. This full moon illuminates what needs to be center stage now in our lives, and what we were born to do at this amazing time on Earth.

Mercury, Mars, Ceres, Neptune, and the Sun are all in Aquarius during the peak of this full moon, emphasizing the need for progress, equality, and teamwork. The Sun’s placement between the ongoing Neptune–Chiron conjunction signals a spiritual revolution — a change of heart, as well as a change of mind. Einstein noted that a problem cannot be solved at the level at which it was created. Our current social, economic, and environmental crises cannot be resolved from the mindset that generated them. We are being forced to think and live out of the box, as the centuries-old structures supporting patriarchy, materialism, and “might makes right” topple around us. There is no going back. We have passed the 11th hour, and this Full Moon with five planets in the 11th sign illuminates where each of us is being called to make a difference.

Bright ideas and joint efforts flow, as both Mercury and Mars conjunct Neptune on February 20 (29º Aquarius), and as the mythic Messenger of the Gods and the God of Passion move on to rendezvous with Chiron at 1º Pisces on February 22 and 24 respectively. Venus squares Saturn (17° Capricorn–Libra) just a few hours after the peak of this Full Moon, urging us to re-evaluate our strategies and priorities, especially in relationship to the Earth and each other. The fact that Venus and Saturn are also in mutual reception (when each planet of a pair is in the sign the other rules) strengthens the cosmic imperative to love and respect each other and our planet. Jupiter makes its third square to Pluto on February 25 (7° Aries–Capricorn), heralding another wave of far-reaching developments and disclosures. A square marks a turning point; this alignment, along with everything else, confirms that we are poised for yet another quantum leap, individually and collectively.

Stephanie Asten is at www.EcoAstrology.com

The Power of Why

2011-02-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

Simon Sinek’s TED Talk from TedxPuget Sound (Sept 2009) is awesome. He starts with the question Why is Apple so innovative? Why is it that Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement? and Why were the Wright Brothers able to figure out controlled power manned flight?

http://www.innovationamerica.us/index.php/innovation-daily/top-articles-of-2010/9912-the-power-of-why

Art: Bird Kachina by Tom Perkinson

What Sony played at its annual shareholder meeting this year

2011-02-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing little video! Gives you a good idea why innovation is SO important now.

http://www.innovationamerica.us/index.php/innovation-daily/2024-what-sony-played-at-its-annual-shareholder-meeting-this-year

Art: Shaman by Tom Perkinson

One Voice in Many: Part 6

2011-02-09T20:02:00.000-08:00

There is no way to know yourself but through love in action. Being is synonymous with love. If you can be, you can love. And you cannot not be, therefore you are love. Come to love any way you can. Will your parts to come together cooperatively, in love. The desire for love is really the desire to know yourself and the Divine. And no matter what desires people have, it is always for more, which is the evolutionary path.

Don't be confused by the dictates of the limited, linear mind. Finding your level of achievement on the spiritual path means nothing and has no effect on your actions because in each moment there is always the same choice: Act from the Divine will, which is your own inner voice of deep pleasure. Cooperate and be as loving as you can. Be your true self as totally as possible. Do not seek to understand before you be loving. Be loving and you will understand.

So it is not stories of soul evolution or grand accomplishments that are important, but the living of love that both radiates and creates a quiet dignity within. This allows others access to their own reservoirs of love and makes it safe for more love to be expressed in the world. "Love thyself," even if you don't know the fullness of who you really are yet, others know and support you in finding that fullness. By you being an example of one who chooses love, in difficult times as well as easy ones, others will learn so much more than a book can show. By being willing to share your process and vulnerability with people, they may be encouraged to risk revealing their own caring side. Courage and beauty touch others when words cannot.

Do not worry over lack of expertise. Be brave, be persistent, be patient. Remain open to new possibilities and keep experimenting. Don't be afraid to fail, because even in this there is a wealth of useful information for everyone involved. Even if you feel you are not succeeding, others may be learning something of great value from you that you had not envisioned.

How Great Entrepreneurs Think

2011-02-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

This is a fascinating article, from Inc. Magazine (February 2011) about the differences between entrepreneurial thinking and CEO/Managerial thinking. The author calls the first one "effectual reasoning" and the second "causal reasoning." It's interesting that the entrepreneurial way of approaching things is focused strongly in the present moment, on the feelings of doability, on living visions that become real to the body, and on an enjoyment of surprise and adaptability. These are all traits that promote the flow of soul and intuition.

Here's a quote: "(The author) likes to compare expert entrepreneurs to Iron Chefs: at their best when presented with an assortment of motley ingredients and challenged to whip up whatever dish expediency and imagination suggest. Corporate leaders, by contrast, decide they are going to make Swedish meatballs. They then proceed to shop, measure, mix, and cook Swedish meatballs in the most efficient, cost-effective manner possible. That is not to say entrepreneurs don't have goals, only that those goals are broad and—like luggage—may shift during flight."

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/how-great-entrepreneurs-think.html

FUTUREdition from The Arlington Institute

2011-02-05T13:05:00.000-08:00

PUNCTUATIONS
An editorial by John L. Petersen, founder of The Arlington Institute

Something strange is happening. UFOs are showing up over major global cities — on schedule.

Of course, UFOs show up all the time all over the place. If you're not aware of that, then you're really not keeping track of what's going on in that space. YouTube is full of amateur videos. One guy put up a compilation of snips of NASA footage from over the years that certainly show lots of anomalies. Almost six million people have looked at that one already.

A year ago there was a very large pyramidal "thing" over the Kremlin. In China, the government shut down major airports in the last few of months because of "craft?" in their airspace which were witnessed by hundreds if not thousands of people. In March there were strange shapes hovering over London.

Then Stanley A. Fulham, a former Canadian Air Force officer said he had information that UFOs would show up over the sky of New York on the 13h of October. They showed up. Then there was one near Washington, DC's Dulles airport in November.

Fulham said that the "objects" would be over Moscow and London again in early January of this year. Here's video footage from the 16th from Moscow. And just a couple of days ago something was flying over Jerusalem.

Looks like a trend to me.

----------------
You can subscribe to The Arlington Institute's FUTUREdition newsletter, which keeps track of global trends, at: www.arlingtoninstitute.org

Penney's 2011 Letter Is Available

2011-01-29T14:42:00.000-08:00

Last year I began to write a letter about what I sense happening under the surface for the year ahead, and I've just finished the 2011 Letter. It is available as a pdf at my website:

http://www.penneypeirce.com/pdfs/Peirce2011Letter.pdf

If you'd like to read the 2010 Letter, which is still quite pertinent, it's available at:

http://www.penneypeirce.com/pdfs/Peirce2010Letter.pdf

And finally, if you'd like to read the Summer Solstic message I sent last June, it's available at:

http://www.penneypeirce.com/pdfs/PeirceSolsticeMessage62110.pdf

Latest Issue of Intuitive Way eNews is Out!

2011-01-18T12:35:00.000-08:00

You can read my latest editorial about "Screen Addiction" in the January 17 issue of my newsletter, at www.penneypeirce.com/newsletterarchives.htm

Each newsletter contains an editorial about what's happening just below the surface of our awareness. You can sign up at www.penneypeirce.com/newsletter.htm

Your Psychic Potential: A Guide to Psychic Development by Dr. Richard Ireland

2011-01-18T10:22:00.000-08:00

This newly released book comes to us courtesy of my friend Mark Ireland, son of Dr. Richard Ireland, one of this country's most well-known, and accurate, psychics. This is a compilation of Dr. Ireland's journal writings, never seen before. Dr. Ireland was the teacher of two of my favorite friends and colleagues, trance mediums Kevin Ryerson and Lin David Martin. Mark Ireland has published his own inspiring book, called Soul Shift, which is recommended for anyone wondering about life after death.

Written by preeminent twentieth-century psychic Richard Ireland in 1973, Your Psychic Potential didn’t reach the author’s son, Mark Ireland, until August 2004, twelve years after his father’s passing. Since then, two psychic-mediums with no knowledge of the manuscript have delivered messages to Mark suggesting that his father had deliberately delayed the book’s discovery and was now nudging along its twenty-first century release.

Your Psychic Potential strives to increase readers’ awareness of the subtle spiritual and psychical forces that form a part of the invisible world and yet are constantly weaving themselves in and out of our everyday lives. Anyone interested in discovering their extrasensory talents and achieving some conscious control over them will find this an indispensible guide. The book provides simple methods to aid psychic development, including meditative exercises that promote the natural unfolding of abilities and tools to cope with any fears that may arise along the way; a discussion of the four spheres/levels of psychic activity; an exploration of the relationship between artistic talents and the psychic; tests and experiments that help discover your psychic potential; and a psychic’s diet that supports the freer flow of abilities. Both charming and informative, Your Psychic Potential will appeal to the psychic-curious and to novice and advanced psychic practitioners alike.

Born into rural, depression-era Ohio, Richard Ireland developed his psychic skills at an early age and later became a full-time minister as well as a counselor to such celebrities as Mae West, Amanda Blake, and Glenn Ford. Ireland founded his own interdenominational University of Life church in Phoenix, Arizona, appeared on radio and TV shows, and gave demonstrations everywhere from Las Vegas nightclubs to large venues in Los Angeles, New York, and London. He died in 1992.

One Voice in Many: Part 5

2011-01-15T20:20:00.000-08:00

Work with Your Imagination

2011-01-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

Here's part of an article from Martha Beck, from the December O Magazine:

Step One: Pick a goal, any goal.

Think of a typical noun-verb goal, something for which you frequently hanker. Be honest rather than politically correct. Some people may have deep desires to establish world peace, stop global warming, and end poverty, but maybe you actually think more about, I dunno, reaching your target weight. And that's okay. This is not a beauty pageant (those contestants can afford to wish for world peace; they've all reached their target weight). What I want you to do is fess up to your real desires. Now pick the biggest, most ambitious one.

Step Two: Gaze into the future.

You don't need a crystal ball to see what's up ahead; the three pounds of gray matter between your ears will do fine. Use your brainpower right now to imagine what your life would be like if you realized the goal you just identified. Create a detailed fantasy about it. Loiter there awhile, observing your dream-come-true with your mind's eyes, ears, nose, skin. Then, clear your mind and your throat: It's time for the magic words.

Step Three: Generate adjectives.

This is the heart of a really effective goal-spell. Begin listing adjectives that describe how you feel in your dream-come-true scenario. This is a simple task, but not an easy one. It requires that you translate holistic, right-brain sensations into specific, left-brain words. Author Craig Childs compares this to "trying to build the sky out of sticks." Spend enough time in your imagined situation to let your brain leaf through its vocabulary, scouting out accurate adjectives. In goal setting as in fairy tales, the minimum magic number is three. Don't stop until you have at least that many ways to describe those lovely feelings.

My clients frequently try to squirm out of the process by muttering, "It's hard to explain," or "Oh, I don't know," or "I can't describe it." Well, of course it's hard to explain; yes, you do know; and if you keep trying, you can too describe it. Your adjectives don't have to be eloquent; use simple words like energetic, focused, delighted, and fine. But you owe it to yourself to persevere until you've found some reasonably descriptive words. Three of 'em. Write them down and then share them below in the comments:

1.____________________

2.____________________

3.____________________

Step Four: Focus on anything that can be described with your adjectives.

Drop the fantasy situation you imagined in step two and concentrate on those adjectives. You might notice that these three words bring your stated goal into sharper focus. For instance, if your New Year's resolution is to lose ten pounds—a noun-verb goal—but your adjectives are strong, confident, and healthy, you might realize that your actual aim is to get fit. You would see that the strategy you came up with to diet (i.e., eating your weight in hydroponic cabbage) might leave you thinner but also recumbent on a couch without the energy to leave the house—which isn't what you really want. Thanks to adjectives, you can fine-tune your strategy: Swap a fad diet for a meeting with a nutritionist, and sign up for weight training classes at the gym.

Sometimes tweaking isn't enough. Your adjective goal might utterly contradict your stated goal. Time to rethink that original target. For example, if you think you want to win an Academy Award, you may imagine your Oscar acceptance speech, and feel "valued, satisfied, and unstoppable." If you think that only a night at the Kodak Theatre will lead to those feelings, you might spend years obsessively pursuing movie stardom, ignoring everyone and everything except your ambition. Odds are you still wouldn't win an Oscar, but you'd probably get a rapacious ego that could inhale all manner of rewards without even noticing them. On the other hand, if you immediately begin focusing on aspects of your present life that make you feel valued, satisfied, or unstoppable, you'll feel an instant lift. All sorts of things may happen. Sure, you might win an Oscar. But if you don't find yourself onstage, blurting out that the statue sure is heavy, you'll be left with...a pretty good life. You might even find that as you follow the things that make you feel appreciated, you've tripped into an entirely different career. So starting now, survey your life for anything (I mean anything) that can be described with any of those three words. Putting all your attention on those aspects of your life will make you happier right now and help you create future situations that fulfill your true desires.

Photo by Henri Cartier Bresson

Frequency and Relationships Radio Interview

2011-01-13T12:15:00.001-08:00

You can listen to the latest radio interview with Penney Peirce and Dr. Karen Kan, on Frequency and Relationships, at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drkaren/2011/01/10/frequency--the-power-of-your-personal-vibration-in

Imagination and Magical Creativity

2011-01-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

Jill Badonsky of The Muse Is In, wrote in one of her newsletters, "I know that I'm a teacher because when I discover tools that work for me I have a run-into-the-house-and-do-it-right-now kind of compulsion to share it with others. It can be inconvenient when you're in the middle of holding a ladder for someone up a tree..."

I am the same way. I sit in meditation and when the quiet takes over, it's challenging to remain in the formless, as my particular kind of mind begins generating amazing teaching visions and insights, which I feel I must not lose, so I rush back to jot it all down on a notepad I keep by my chair. Many of these things have gone into my books and workshops. I know I'm an artist, similarly, because I feel the same urge to translate and shape visionary content into writing, and sometimes into graphics and other kinds of art, enjoying the surprise of how it comes through the filter of my own kind of awareness.

I am lately focusing on the importance of keeping imagination alive and active, of going into that workshop space of the imaginal realm to cocreate new realities with the magical force that lives there. For that reason, I was taken with parts of this article, which features bits from John Updike, published in The Authors Guild Bulletin, Winter 2009. Part of it is from an essay titled, Why Write, from Picked-Up Pieces (1975), and part is from an interview for The Paris Review, Winter 1968.

"Think of a pencil. What a quiet, nimble, slender and stubby wonder-worker he is! At his touch, worlds leap into being; a tiger with no danger, a steam-roller with no weight, a palace at no cost. All children are alive to the spell of pencils and crayons, of making something, as it were, from nothing; a few children never move out from under this spell, and try to become artists. . .

"In my adolescence I discovered one could write with a pencil as well as draw, without the annoying need to consult reality so frequently. Also, the cave beneath the written page holds many more kinds of space than the one beneath the drawing pad. . .

"Storytelling, for all its powers of depiction, shares with music the medium of time, and perhaps its genius, its most central transformation, has to do with time, with rhythm and echo and the sense of time not frozen as in a painting but channeled and harnessed as in a symphony. . .

"My first thought about art, as a child, was that the artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and that he does it without destroying something else. A kind of refutation of the conservation of matter. That still seems to me its central magic, its core joy."

photo by Henri Cartier Bresson

Radio Interview January 10

2011-01-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

I'll be speaking with Dr. Karen Kan, at 9am PT Monday, January 10, about Frequency and Relationships. You can tune in at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drkaren/2011/01/10/frequency--the-power-of-your-personal-vibration-in

Listen to Penney's Latest Radio Interview

2010-12-16T21:00:00.001-08:00

You can stream or download Chai with Nanice Ellis, recorded this week on LA Talk Radio, with the theme of "The Power of Transparency" at: http://latalkradio.com/images/Nanice-121310.mp3

The Numinous In Wordsworth's Poetry

2010-12-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

My friend, Rod McDaniel, in Heidelberg, sent me a copy of an old essay from 1930 from The Hibbert Journal, which was evidently quite popular in its day. It is titled, "The Numinous in the Poetry of Wordsworth," by W. A. Clayton. There are some good points in it, which I want to pull out for you. It is so refreshing to read and feel the deep spiritual experiences of the sensitive and thoughtful people who have lived before us.

First, the author describes the numinous as: "that which is non or supra-rational in religious experience," which excludes those elements that can be precisely conceptualized—ie, religion's innermost core, the ineffable of the mystics. It is something that fills the mind with blank wonder and astonishment. He calls the faculty of our mind that can apprehend the numinous: "divination."

The author then describes how the numinous experience is stimulated and brought about by appropriate sense impressions. This higher, visionary experience is often incited by beauty and sensual experience in the world, until becoming "gradually purer, it disengages itself from this and takes a stand in absolute contrast to it."

"Wordsworth's experiences were not gained by his opposing himself to the outside world; they came naturally as he abandoned himself to his environment. The mountains of the Lake Country, with their austerity and severe economy of sense impressions, favored the evocation of the numinous experience, which was frequently stimulated in addition by that which baffles sensory apprehension—darkness, mist, the void sky, vastness without clear shape, silence or the formless and incessant murmur of the winds." Wordsworth "valued his environment above all for the knowledge it gave him of the Uncreated."

Wordsworth speaks of "aesthetic intuition" that gives rise to the perceptions that lift him,

". . .the gentle agitations of the mind

From manifold distinctions, difference

Perceived in things, where to the unwatchful eye,

No difference is."

Here is a powerful passage that demonstrates the connection of aesthetic intuition to something deeper or beyond. Wordsworth is describing the horizon as a craggy ridge, and "Far above/Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky," until suddenly the grim shape of "a huge peak, black and huge" towered up between him and the stars, and seemed to pursue him as he rowed away from it.

"After I had seen

That spectacle, for many days, my brain

Worked with a dim and undetermined sense

Of unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughts

There hung a darkness, call it solitude

Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes remained, no pleasant images of trees,

Of sea or sky, no colors of green fields;

But huge and mighty forms, that do not live

Like living men, moved slowly through the mind

By day, and were a trouble to my dreams."

Wordsworth gave "a moral life" to every aspect of nature, and linked his aesthetic and moral intuitions, so that one constantly evoked the other. He was a passionate lover of natural beauty, especially that beauty that "hath terror in it" and which could inspire the noblest associations—"thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

Wordsworth's writing, as his friend Coleridge reminds us, "was intended for such readers as had been accustomed to watch the flux and reflux of their inmost nature, to venture at times into the twilight realms of consciousness, and to feel a deep interest in modes if inmost being, to which they know that the attributes of time and space are inapplicable and alien, but which yet cannot be conveyed, save in symbols of time and space."

Finally, a few words about Wordsworth's conception of the imagination: "Before (imagination) the vision of the senses melts and dissolves, but melts into a revelation of permanent supersensual realities." To him, imagination is not just the aesthetic faculty, however heightened in its functioning. In the supreme moment the message of the senses is forgotten for the revelation of the invisible world. Imagination is but another name for divination.

". . .In such strength

Of usurpation, when the light of sense

Goes out, but with a flash that has revealed

The invisibe world, doth greatness make abode,

The harbors; whether we be young or old,

Our destiny, our being's heart and home,

Is with infinitude, and only there;

With hope it is, hope that can never die,

Effort, and expectation, and desire,

And something evermore about to be.

photo copyright by Penney Peirce

The Future of Print

2010-12-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

The University of Cincinnati magazine features this article on our evolving print media by John Bach. Thinking about coming innovations seems really good to me because I think we must now do everything to stimulate our imaginations and really use our imaginative ability to create possibilities for our own new lives. Here's the first part: Imagine a mobile device that looks and feels like paper yet delivers books, your morning news and even high-resolution color video. Now picture yourself rolling it up and stuffing it into your pocket.

UC experts say that is an accurate description of where publishing is headed over the next decade. Furthermore, research in UC electrical engineering labs is helping to get it there. Using a technique called electrowetting, UC's Andrew Steckl is sleuthing a way to print complex circuitry on bendable paper stock or e-paper. Unlike competing devices, Steckl's rollable display — which stacks pixels as opposed to arranging them side-by-side — will show more than washed-out grays and deliver full-color multimedia, while being easy on the eyes, even in bright-light conditions.

Social Networking Increases Oxytocin

2010-12-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

In an article in the July/August issue of Fast Company magazine, Social Networking Affects Brains Like Falling in Love, by Adam Penenberg, we learn a surprising finding. . .

Neuroeconomist Paul Zak has discovered, for the first time, that social networking triggers the release of the generosity-trust chemical in our brains. Here is an excerpt: "The question is simple: Will social networking increase my levels of oxytocin? Will my brain react to tweeting as it reacts to, say, a dinner conversation with good friends? I start tweeting and alert my followers that I'm engaging in a Twitter experiment with a neuroeconomist. I leave wondering whether anything of value could come of such a short, typical, and somewhat dull dip into my tweet stream.

Yet six weeks later, when Zak shares the results with me, my blood tells a more dramatic story. In those 10 minutes between blood batches one and two, my oxytocin levels spiked 13.2%. That's equivalent to the hormonal spike experienced by the groom at the wedding Zak attended. Meanwhile, stress hormones cortisol and ACTH went down 10.8% and 14.9%, respectively. Zak explains that the results are linked, that the release of oxytocin I experienced while tweeting reduced my stress hormones. If that's the case, says Zak, social networking might reduce cardiovascular risks, like heart attack and stroke, associated with lack of social support. But there's even more to our findings. "Your brain interpreted tweeting as if you were directly interacting with people you cared about or had empathy for," Zak says. "E-connection is processed in the brain like an in-person connection."

Other studies support this idea. One Australian experiment discovered that people with a sizable network of friends were less likely to pass away over a 10-year period than those with a small circle of friends -- and that the distance separating friends made no difference. Another study showed that people with friends get sick less often than those without. Again, proximity didn't affect the result. Two researchers from Washington University in St. Louis scanned the brains of fiction readers and discovered that their test subjects created intense, graphic mental simulations of the sights, sounds, movements, and tastes they encountered in the narrative. In essence, their brains reacted as if they were actually living the events they were reading about.

Taken with my Twitter test, all of this research reinforces the idea that we are biologically driven to commingle, and suggests that online relationships can be just as real as those conducted offline.

Cityscape Art by Mary Blair

Aesthetic Meditation

2010-12-12T12:38:00.000-08:00

Randy Williams, an artist and professor, suggests trying "aesthetic meditation"—looking at objects with a concentrated focus. Experience your own visceral response to the object and at the same time, refrain from naming, categorizing, or describing it. In other words, stay out of your left brain for a few minutes! By not comparing the object to something else in your internal dialogue, you maximize direct experience. Just let the thoughts come in and go right out again, while "feeling into" the object.

Another technique Williams uses is to write for a maximum of 10 minutes about a recent event. Then distill the writing into 12 essential words, then six, then 3, and finally, one. This final word is the true essence of the experience. I suspect that a similar sort of exercise could be done with abstract drawings that distill the essence of feelings.

Principle of Astrology Proven to Be Scientific

2010-12-12T10:34:00.000-08:00

Here is part of an interesting article from NaturalNews.com:

Skeptics must be further bewildered by the new research published in Nature Neuroscience and conducted at Vanderbilt University, which unintentionally provides scientific support for the fundamental principle of astrology — namely, that the position of the planets at your time of birth influences your personality. In this study, not only did the birth month impact personality; it also resulted in measurable functional changes in the brain.

This study, conducted on mice, showed that mice born in the winter showed a "consistent slowing" of their daytime activity. They were also more susceptible to symptoms that we might call "Seasonal Affective Disorder."

The study was carried out by Professor of Biological Sciences Douglas McMahon, graduate student Chris Ciarleglio, post-doctoral fellow Karen Gamble and two additional undergraduate students, none of whom believe in astrology, apparently. They do, of course, believe in science, which is why all their study findings have been draped in the language of science even though the findings are essentially supporting principles of astrology.

"What is particularly striking about our results is the fact that the imprinting affects both the animal's behavior and the cycling of the neurons in the master biological clock in their brains," said Ciarleglio. This is one of the core principles of astrology: That the position of the planets at the time of your birth (which might be called the "season" of your birth) can actually result in changes in your brain physiology which impact lifelong behavior.

Learn more:

http://www.naturalnews.com:80/030698_astrology scientific_basis.html#ixzz17vLaD2ru

Penney on LA Talk Radio Dec 13

2010-12-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

I will be a guest on "Chai with Nanice" live on www.LATalkRadio.com Channel 2, at 4pm PT, Tuesday Dec 13.

Two Views

2010-12-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

At times I see the world situation as hopeless—the hatred, poverty, sickness, ego, greed, inhumanity, control games, corruption—it seems like it feeds on itself and will go on forever. When I try to deal with the political craziness in the world with my mind alone, I get so frustrated that I feel like that old commercial where an egg is frying in a red-hot skillet: "This is your brain on drugs." Except that it's "This is your left brain on fear."

But when I shift out of my left brain into my right brain, home frequency, and heart perception, and remember that I'm a soul living in a field of light and love (pure consciousness and perfect cooperative interconnection with the All), when I saturate with THAT field, the whole view turns inside out and suddenly it's not so difficult. The Field can do the work of shifting the fear patterns, Love is bigger than all of it, and can suck the reality out of suffering with such finality that we will think we just dreamed it, a long time ago. . . It's evident when I'm in my "right mind" that all the difficulties and pain I see in the world are a result of the bad habit we all have of feeling separate and perceiving through a filter of separation.

photo by Nick Brandt

A Prayer from 1993

2010-12-06T19:33:00.001-08:00

I pray: When I die, let me feel very happy about how full my time has been, how many chances I took, how many commitments I made, how many times I let go when it was time. Please bring me out of my old point of view and bring my awareness to: the perfect next level, episode, people, work, interests. I will not hesitate to act, as soon as I am shown. I keep my eyes, ears, and skin open for the clues, for what lights up. Please help me change the View so I can let the new lines and dots and waves of the new circuitry shift into being in my living body: HERE.

copyright by Penney Peirce

Penney Radio Interview Dec 7, 7-8pm PT

2010-12-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

I'll be a guest on the radio show, Living in the Quantum Field, with Katie-Lynne Garnett, 7-8pm PT, Tuesday night, Dec 7, on www.contacttalkradio.com Please tune in or pick up the interview on their archives.

Tune in to the Astrological Time

2010-12-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

I thought this latest announcement from astrologer Jacqueline Lasahn covers some important points that line up with what I've been experiencing energetically.

Sagittarius New Moon December 5, 2010 9:37 am PST

Uranus direct December 5

Mercury retrograde December 10 - 29

Universe of chaos,

Universe of divine design.

Instability. Surprise. Opportunity.

Seek the higher ground

Choose wisely.

Challenge to realize the uneasy truth

and translate it into a conscious outlook

and careful speech.

Ethics, morals, manipulation,

righteousness and justice

are in the headlines;

we each have our own story.

The power of truth

pushes each one of us to reach higher,

dig deeper, search farther.

Claim your authority.

Beware of fanaticism and "pushing the river."

The cosmic river has been moving swiftly

and we're riding the rapids.

Be mindful, be awake, be aware.

11/27 Pluto conjunct Moon's North Node

12/4 Mercury conjunct Moon's North Node

12/5 Mercury conjunct Pluto, Uranus direct, New Moon Sagittarius

12/10 Mercury retrograde

12/13 Mercury, Mars and Pluto all line-up in Capricorn

More than simply a notorious Mercury retrograde.

We are called to live with purpose, meaning and integrity.

There is energy to harness, power in focus.

Grabbed by tension, pulled in opposite directions,

plans may be immobilized

or willfully forged ahead.

Be aware of where you are persisting

and what you are resisting.

Squeezing through the eye of a needle,

assimilate what is essential,

shed the excess.

Avoid sharp attitudes, harsh, tactless speech.

Consider your mind as a laser,

your tongue as a sword

and your will as a transformative agent towards our future.

The consciousness and practice of intentions is of the utmost importance now.

Sagittarius New Moon Contemplations and actions:

What is the truth emerging at this time? What is my truth?

How may I focus my aspirations with integrity?

A Blessing

2010-11-30T08:29:00.000-08:00

One of my clients, Johanna Brocker, sent this to me recently, and I'm sharing it because it has heartfelt reality:

Let us Call Down a Blessing

May the Divine Feminine bless and keep us;
May she support us in peace, health and harmony;
May she surround us, within and without, with love,
so that we may love others with an open heart;
May we love ourselves—the spiritual, physical, and emotional self—
with unconditional love;
May gratitude and kindness be our first expressions,
May our lives be wondrous and continue to unfold.
May those we love and those we want to love
Share this journey with us.
Let us call down a blessing.

Blessing copyright by Johanna Brocker
Photo copyright by Penney Peirce

Happy Thanksgiving from George Carlin

2010-11-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

"On Thanksgiving at our house we like variety, so we don't have turkey every year. Last year we had swan. It was nice; everyone got some neck. Another year we had seagull. Delicious! It's a little fishy, but at least there's no need to add salt. . . This year we're expecting a few people over, so we're having flamingo. And I'm getting the leg that folds up. They say the meat is sweeter and more tender because the flamingo doesn't use it much."

—from Brain Droppings

Latest Intuitive Way eNews is Out!

2010-11-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

Read the latest messages at:
http://www.penneypeirce.com/newsletters/2010/Newsletter111110.htm

Rise and Fall of Emotional Language

2010-11-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

http://www.halfpasthuman.com/nunums.html

My friend John Petersen, director of the Arlington Institute, a group of futurists, sent this. It's an interesting idea to track the emotional language on the internet via spyders. . . Perhaps an interesting experiment to watch our own personal emotional language trends as well.

One Voice in Many: Part 4

2010-11-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

I've been posting bits of an old manuscript I wrote in 1980 or so. . .and it's interesting to see that in my attempts then to merge into the collective consciousness and speak from that unified voice, so much of what was said is so simple and true today. The "We" voice could as easily be a divine voice inside anyone and everyone.

"We see each of you as both student and teacher, as it is the function of light to constantly shine both in and out. We cannot forsake you; it is impossible; we cannot separate from you. We always hold a lamp to guide the way. Remember, in turn, not to hide your own light or withhold it from neighbor or stranger. Choose to be at peace, as you remember that We are with you, right up close, even when you feel lost. Simply remember your connection to Us, have courage to proceed into unmarked territory, and trust in your own innate light. Things will unfold aright.

Be patient—in the present moment—and have faith in the reality of spirit. Spirit is the experience of home, the memory of who you really are. It is relaxing and exhilarating! BE as much as you can, express your love to the fullest you know how. You are more than the limited mind and are not alone against the world. We are One in Spirit, and together We move forward. We simply wait for you to accept the larger view. Feel. Listen. Soften your heart. The way is laid wide and open. Relaxing brings the ability to move forward in truth, to be open to change and lack of structure, and the desire to commit to becoming the Light. Proceed from deepest yearning. Step forward. Where will your foot land? You don't know and really don't need to care too much; yours is just to pick up the foot again and let it land where the Flow, the Us, the Divine, places it.

Begin your day in a place of silence. Move out from there and return there when you feel the tension of frustration, unresolved emotion, or lack of answers. All tension is incompletion and in the moment, in the silence, you return to what is whole and complete. You return to personal truth. Ask in your heart to know the divine in everything. By doing this you cultivate an awareness of unity, and through unity, which is love, comes clarity. Through clarity also flows love, because love and truth are aspects of the same force and point to each other to reveal the whole.

So let's keep life simple, eye on the luminous inner nature of form. Let's watch together the joining of separations through common bonds of love. Let's look for the kindness and vulnerable places within others. Where fear materializes, there is an opportunity for the powerful radiation of love."

Why We Like What We See

2010-10-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

The reason a logo, or symbol, communicates effectively is a great exercise in intuitive perception. You may be interested in some of the insights shared by the people in the following 2 articles.

Gap Redesigns Logo ... But Why?

by Erik Hayden

Some clothing companies adapt well to changing times, and Gap seemed to be one of those venerable brands. Apparently not. With little fanfare, the company decided to redesign its logo and post it on its website. Not too long after, waves of criticism from design firms, mainstream publications and just-plain bewildered bloggers started rolling in. The company, which has apparently heard the cries of outrage, turned the redesign into a crowd-sourcing exercise on its Facebook page. No word yet on whether that was the official plan all along, or if it was just a knee-jerk reaction to all the bad press.

• Looks Like it Cost $17 From an Old Microsoft Word Clipart Gallery notes Abe Sauer at Brandchannel, who deemed it a "monstrosity." The writer explains: It "demonstrates a prototypical brand panic move. With things not going in its favor, the brand decides to change the one valuable element it has going for it."

• Makes Old Navy 'Look Like a Luxury Brand scoffs Armin Vit at Brand New: "The shaded square on the corner doesn't help at all either — I'm not one to critique something by saying it looks as if it were done in Microsoft Word but this one is just too unsophisticated to warrant anything more than that."

• This Doesn't Make Any Sense writes David Brier at Fast Company. "It's all a cosmetic band-aid which is so unbelievable for a brand as big and 'mature' as Gap. I'll be surprised if a few people won't lose their jobs as this is basic Branding 101."

• Gap Sales Are Declining Anyway dismisses Jim Edwards at BNet. "There's a clue to what might have triggered the misstep in the fact that same-store sales at Gap are down 4 percent. ... Brand managers need to resist that temptation when they see revenues decline. There are lots of reasons sales might be down — the recession, lack of discounts, off-trend product — and not all of those respond to a new trade dress."

• Everybody Hates The Logo...Except Us Time Newsfeed writer Nate Jones goes out on a limb saying that he "personally does not mind Helvetica, and so this new logo brings to mind visions of a streamlined, technologically dominant future America where everyone wears white suits and cool glasses. Sure, it's generic, but don't you know that in the future everything looks alike?"

Neuroscience study analyzes Gap logo disaster

from an Australian Marketing Magazine

Neuroscience market research company NeuroFocus claims to have discovered the reasoning for the consumer backlash to the short-lived Gap logo. In a paper released today, NeuroFocus says the new logo failed to resonate with consumers on key metrics like attention, emotional engagement and memory retention. Using brainwave activity measurements, NeuroFocus concluded that the new logo did not score impressive reactions for 'novelty' (something new and different) and 'style' attributes from the sample.

"Our counsel to companies is: when there is a redesign of a brand, an identity, a logo, a proposition, a tagline, a package or a product feature, such a design must deliver a scientifically significant and substantive change in the novelty metric," said Dr. A. K. Pradeep, chief executive officer of NeuroFocus. "In this instance, Gap's new logo failed to do that. Our recommendation would have been: without a significant increase in novelty, this redesign will not succeed." Pradeep says Gap also lost "critical ground at the deep subconscious level" for style.

"For a retail apparel marketer seeking to reach and motivate their target audience, this loss of brand value in the 'stylish' category marks a major cause for concern." NeuroFocus also recognised that the new design violated six basic neurological best practices. Dr. A.K. Pradeep evaluated the new Gap logo against best practices...

— Overlays equal overlooked: Neuroscience research reveals that when words overlay images, the brain tends to ignore or overlook the word in favor of focusing on the image. "In the new logo, the 'p' superimposed over the blue square is essentially bypassed by the brain; the brain tends to ignore the word in favor of the image," Pradeep says. "Not a good thing when that's your brand name."

— Sharp edges unsettle the subconscious: "Forcing the brain to view a sharply-angled box behind the letter 'p' provokes what neuroscience calls an 'avoidance response'. The hard line cuts into the rounded shape of the letter. We are hard-wired to avoid sharp edges — in nature, they can present a threat. Our so-called modern brains are actually 100,000 years old, and they retain this primordial reaction."

— Interesting fonts work: Neuroscience research has shown that the subconscious prefers fonts that are a little unusual. Gap's original typeface was just different enough that it tended to stand out to the brain amidst the clutter of other corporate IDs.

— High/low contrast: "The original logo presented the brand name in sharp, strong contrast — white letters 'pop' against the blue background, and the brain loves pop-outs," Pradeep says. "Conversely, the new logo has the 'p' losing that contrast against the blue box. Again, the brain simply tends not to register the letter well as a result."

— Stronger semantic content: "In the new version, the capitalized 'G' followed by the lower case 'a' and 'p' cause the brain to read the three letters as part of a word, and therefore seek semantic content. In the original execution, all three letters are capitalized, making them more logo-like than word-like, which is what you want for a logo," and

— Lost legacy: "The Gap sells a lot more than just blue jeans today, but relegating the blue of the original logo to minor 'legacy' status in the new version loses that essential connection in the consumer's subconscious to the brand's core origins. We always emphasize to companies: depict your source. When it comes to products, the brain seeks to know from whence you came. Instead of honoring their past, unfortunately the Gap relegated that past to lower relevance."