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Thursday, February 10, 2022
Sunday, September 19, 2010
A study at Macdonald's, and some thoughts on Reiki
John here --
Today I had just finished breakfast and as I passed the waitress I put my hand on her shoulder and said, "thankyou." I pushed myself a little to do it -- I wasn't completely sure if I'd get a positive reaction. She turned and her whole being lit up. "You have a nice day, honey!" she said. It was a little spark of magic. The kabbalists have a thing called "recapturing the sparks." It means pulling all the energy out of negative focuses and endeavors and giving them to the life-suppporting, harmonizing aspects of the world. So I felt like I recaptured a spark with that waitress.
Here's something interesting I read in a book on touch:
Cameras were set up to watch teenagers in Macdonald's in Europe and in America, to measure how often the teens touched each other. They found that the European teens touched each other quite a bit more than American teens. BUT THAT THE AMERICAN TEENS TOUCH THEMSELVES FAR MORE THAN THE EUROPEAN TEENS -- by scratching, fixing hair, putting on lipstick, putting hands to face, etc. So in America since its not as socially acceptable to touch each other, people attempt to do out their repressed desire to touch by touching themselves.
Tyler pointed out the feminine nature of touch. It feels to me that all this living in the head we do -- staring at computer screens, using cell phones, reading, etc. is an ultimately masculine activity, whose focus is in the head. The body, which is by comparison more feminine, is neglected. For many people all the body is is something which drags the head around from place to place.
I love the way touch tends to quiet my mind, sometimes even short-circuit it. That happens especially when I do Reiki, I think because the Reiki touch is steady and ongoing, not just a passing hug or handshake. Reiki is a "being" touch rather than a "doing" touch, a touch that allows you to tap into another person's energy field and simply be with it. You don't have to do anything when you do Reiki -- the Reiki energy does the healing on its own. The energy has intelligence and knows what to do.
Tyler and I have talked about the phenomenon of the weakening of the Reiki energy -- how it seems to have grown more superficial over time. The energy itself, I'm convinced, is in no way superficial or weak in and of itself. The superficiality and weakness come from the way people in general are using it -- only tapping into it in a superficial way, or, like a typical American, just kind of sampling it, dipping into the top two inches of it to get a taste of it and then moving on down the great cafeteria line of healing energies to taste a it of something else. Continuously and compulsively sampling everything can most definitely lead to superficiality.
Reiki is something that needs to be rediscovered again and again every time you do it.
I must go. Please share your ideas, and keep in touch.
With Love, John
Today I had just finished breakfast and as I passed the waitress I put my hand on her shoulder and said, "thankyou." I pushed myself a little to do it -- I wasn't completely sure if I'd get a positive reaction. She turned and her whole being lit up. "You have a nice day, honey!" she said. It was a little spark of magic. The kabbalists have a thing called "recapturing the sparks." It means pulling all the energy out of negative focuses and endeavors and giving them to the life-suppporting, harmonizing aspects of the world. So I felt like I recaptured a spark with that waitress.
Here's something interesting I read in a book on touch:
Cameras were set up to watch teenagers in Macdonald's in Europe and in America, to measure how often the teens touched each other. They found that the European teens touched each other quite a bit more than American teens. BUT THAT THE AMERICAN TEENS TOUCH THEMSELVES FAR MORE THAN THE EUROPEAN TEENS -- by scratching, fixing hair, putting on lipstick, putting hands to face, etc. So in America since its not as socially acceptable to touch each other, people attempt to do out their repressed desire to touch by touching themselves.
Tyler pointed out the feminine nature of touch. It feels to me that all this living in the head we do -- staring at computer screens, using cell phones, reading, etc. is an ultimately masculine activity, whose focus is in the head. The body, which is by comparison more feminine, is neglected. For many people all the body is is something which drags the head around from place to place.
I love the way touch tends to quiet my mind, sometimes even short-circuit it. That happens especially when I do Reiki, I think because the Reiki touch is steady and ongoing, not just a passing hug or handshake. Reiki is a "being" touch rather than a "doing" touch, a touch that allows you to tap into another person's energy field and simply be with it. You don't have to do anything when you do Reiki -- the Reiki energy does the healing on its own. The energy has intelligence and knows what to do.
Tyler and I have talked about the phenomenon of the weakening of the Reiki energy -- how it seems to have grown more superficial over time. The energy itself, I'm convinced, is in no way superficial or weak in and of itself. The superficiality and weakness come from the way people in general are using it -- only tapping into it in a superficial way, or, like a typical American, just kind of sampling it, dipping into the top two inches of it to get a taste of it and then moving on down the great cafeteria line of healing energies to taste a it of something else. Continuously and compulsively sampling everything can most definitely lead to superficiality.
Reiki is something that needs to be rediscovered again and again every time you do it.
I must go. Please share your ideas, and keep in touch.
With Love, John
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Why does it even matter?
Why does it matter? Why matter? Why Mater? Mother, Why?
Matter is the feminine aspect of everything. An essential balancing partner to all consciousness. COnsciousness, awareness, light, this is the masculine. Darkness, matter, the fecund earth, this is the feminine. Both are essential for a happy healthy world.
So what does it matter? Well look look around. Do you see the healthy feminine anywhere? Is she in the church? Is she respected in politics? Is she revered in our homes and in our schools?
... think about it.
As a culture we debase and torment femininity in all it's forms. Eve Ensler says that being a GIRL is one of the worst insults in our world. To be feminine is to be emotional, sensitive, vulnerable and embracing.
So if as a culture we have turned our backs on our "mother", then how could our physical bodies or our connection to each other be healthy? We reject our own bodies. When we sneeze or cough we say "excuse me" and act embarrassed. When someone around us suffers we might be courageous enough to offer a brief pat on the shoulder or an awkward side hug but for the most part we have become terrified of any real connection.
Other than fucking, of course. That's ok. I can connect to you but only if it's sexual. And by sexual I mean masculine. We can talk but only if it's intellectual, and by intellectual I mean masculine. We can hang out but only if it's playful and external...and by that I mean, you get the idea.
Look around, I implore you to opwn your eyes and see just where we are as a people and a culture. Please see what no one else wants to see. Please look into the eyes of everyone you meet today and notice what their heart is saying.
We need some healing. Not me. Not you. All of us.
I"m sorry mom. Can I give you a hug?
Matter is the feminine aspect of everything. An essential balancing partner to all consciousness. COnsciousness, awareness, light, this is the masculine. Darkness, matter, the fecund earth, this is the feminine. Both are essential for a happy healthy world.
So what does it matter? Well look look around. Do you see the healthy feminine anywhere? Is she in the church? Is she respected in politics? Is she revered in our homes and in our schools?
... think about it.
As a culture we debase and torment femininity in all it's forms. Eve Ensler says that being a GIRL is one of the worst insults in our world. To be feminine is to be emotional, sensitive, vulnerable and embracing.
So if as a culture we have turned our backs on our "mother", then how could our physical bodies or our connection to each other be healthy? We reject our own bodies. When we sneeze or cough we say "excuse me" and act embarrassed. When someone around us suffers we might be courageous enough to offer a brief pat on the shoulder or an awkward side hug but for the most part we have become terrified of any real connection.
Other than fucking, of course. That's ok. I can connect to you but only if it's sexual. And by sexual I mean masculine. We can talk but only if it's intellectual, and by intellectual I mean masculine. We can hang out but only if it's playful and external...and by that I mean, you get the idea.
Look around, I implore you to opwn your eyes and see just where we are as a people and a culture. Please see what no one else wants to see. Please look into the eyes of everyone you meet today and notice what their heart is saying.
We need some healing. Not me. Not you. All of us.
I"m sorry mom. Can I give you a hug?
Saturday, September 4, 2010
The Everpresent Intuitive
John here...
Thanks, J. L., for your comment. Yes, I feel the truth of what you say. I wish to point out that touch can carry with it is sense of being present, and of deep connection, but touch may also be impersonal. I am a massage therapist. My work can be effective even when my mind is somewhere else. But when I am focusing my attention on what I'm doing -- when I'm ENGAGED in working on someone's body, it greatly intensifies the quality and effectiveness of the work. Since last January I have been engaged in the process of learning cranial-sacral therapy, and in that kind of work the mind is, primarily, what is actually doing the work.
Touch is about one person's boundary -- skin -- coming in contact with another person's boundary -- more skin. But, first of all, it isn't necessarily so important if clothing intervenes. And also, there is a kind of touch that is more superficial, and another kind that feels as if it goes beneath the skin, actually enters the body. A pat on the shoulder can be generic and perfunctory and may even feel superficial -- of, if the person patting pats with presence, it can be like the touch of a magic wand -- it can light a person up.
The fact of the matter is, whether we believe it or not, we're all psychic. Buckminster Fuller said that all vehicles of communication can be objectified and quantified, but that WHAT IS COMMUNICATED THROUGH ANY AND ALL OF THOSE VEHICLES IS ALWAYS INTUITIVE. And touch is a form of communication -- I feel who you are, anywhere from a little bit to alot -- when I touch you -- and you feel, to a greater or lesser degree my essence, my nature, as well. All touch is psychic contact.
Thanks, J. L., for your comment. Yes, I feel the truth of what you say. I wish to point out that touch can carry with it is sense of being present, and of deep connection, but touch may also be impersonal. I am a massage therapist. My work can be effective even when my mind is somewhere else. But when I am focusing my attention on what I'm doing -- when I'm ENGAGED in working on someone's body, it greatly intensifies the quality and effectiveness of the work. Since last January I have been engaged in the process of learning cranial-sacral therapy, and in that kind of work the mind is, primarily, what is actually doing the work.
Touch is about one person's boundary -- skin -- coming in contact with another person's boundary -- more skin. But, first of all, it isn't necessarily so important if clothing intervenes. And also, there is a kind of touch that is more superficial, and another kind that feels as if it goes beneath the skin, actually enters the body. A pat on the shoulder can be generic and perfunctory and may even feel superficial -- of, if the person patting pats with presence, it can be like the touch of a magic wand -- it can light a person up.
The fact of the matter is, whether we believe it or not, we're all psychic. Buckminster Fuller said that all vehicles of communication can be objectified and quantified, but that WHAT IS COMMUNICATED THROUGH ANY AND ALL OF THOSE VEHICLES IS ALWAYS INTUITIVE. And touch is a form of communication -- I feel who you are, anywhere from a little bit to alot -- when I touch you -- and you feel, to a greater or lesser degree my essence, my nature, as well. All touch is psychic contact.
Touching Reasons
John Says:
The first thing I thought about when I read your blog, Tyler is INTENT. People are always wondering what another person's INTENT is in touching them. Of course, it seems, the most basic of INTENTS is CONNECTION. And possibilities of various sorts of connection are:
the desire to be taken care of -- like a child reaching out to mommy to be held.
Protection is another one -- touching because you are seeking to be defended.
Also, maybe a feeling of emptiness -- I want love so I'm reaching out to you to fill me.
And, of course, the ever-present possibilitiy of SEXUAL OVETURE.
I don't even know where I'm going with all this, other than to say touch is COMPLICATED, and our world is very into repression, and when you want to be repressed, it seems that editing out touch is a MUST. And then when the repression builds up enough pressure you found you're touching someone with a gun or an atomic bomb, which is really nothing more than an elaboration of a FIST. So touch can be hostile also.
But what Tyler and I are advocating -- and Tyler, if I'm speaking wrongly for you, please correct me -- is touch as direct expression of pure healthy feeling that comes from your core, which always carries the energy of self-expression, love, and support.
One of the things I love most about touch is that it gets beyond the logical mind -- it goes beyond the limits and boundaries of reason. Touch coming from the center feels like it carries for me layers and layers of meaning -- only some of which I am conscious of but many of which I can feel to a greater or lesser degree, and has all sorts of harmonizing and positively stimulating effects on my being.
And I realize that all this stuff I'm saying about how complicated touch can be implies that maybe we need to be careful with it and about it. But if your care and caution is just going to support your repression you're better off to go ahead and reach out without thinking and do some awkward groping and see what happens rather than repress your urge to touch and just go sit in front of the TV.
I strongly believe that if positive touching were to proliferate enough it could have such a great impact on the world that we wouldn't even really know how powerful that impact would be until we did it.
The first thing I thought about when I read your blog, Tyler is INTENT. People are always wondering what another person's INTENT is in touching them. Of course, it seems, the most basic of INTENTS is CONNECTION. And possibilities of various sorts of connection are:
the desire to be taken care of -- like a child reaching out to mommy to be held.
Protection is another one -- touching because you are seeking to be defended.
Also, maybe a feeling of emptiness -- I want love so I'm reaching out to you to fill me.
And, of course, the ever-present possibilitiy of SEXUAL OVETURE.
I don't even know where I'm going with all this, other than to say touch is COMPLICATED, and our world is very into repression, and when you want to be repressed, it seems that editing out touch is a MUST. And then when the repression builds up enough pressure you found you're touching someone with a gun or an atomic bomb, which is really nothing more than an elaboration of a FIST. So touch can be hostile also.
But what Tyler and I are advocating -- and Tyler, if I'm speaking wrongly for you, please correct me -- is touch as direct expression of pure healthy feeling that comes from your core, which always carries the energy of self-expression, love, and support.
One of the things I love most about touch is that it gets beyond the logical mind -- it goes beyond the limits and boundaries of reason. Touch coming from the center feels like it carries for me layers and layers of meaning -- only some of which I am conscious of but many of which I can feel to a greater or lesser degree, and has all sorts of harmonizing and positively stimulating effects on my being.
And I realize that all this stuff I'm saying about how complicated touch can be implies that maybe we need to be careful with it and about it. But if your care and caution is just going to support your repression you're better off to go ahead and reach out without thinking and do some awkward groping and see what happens rather than repress your urge to touch and just go sit in front of the TV.
I strongly believe that if positive touching were to proliferate enough it could have such a great impact on the world that we wouldn't even really know how powerful that impact would be until we did it.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Good Morning Vietnam...! The war is on.
Hello you Brave wise men, you scared little boys, you giant titans of rage and sorrow, you meek and peacful children of God.
My name, at times, is Tyler. I am just a guy, a human, doing my best to get through life and have a bit of fun on the way, In my adventures I have experienced many things that have given me a slightly unique perspective on the world and people and I'd like to share my world view in the hopes that it may serve you in someway. I"ll go into my training a bit more deeply at another time but for now I'd like to say simply that I work as a massage therapist focusing on myo-fascial and craniosacral techniques. I"m classicly trained as a healer, licensed and insured in missouri as a massage therapist and I'm an approved educator of advanced therapeutic techniques in missouri. SO there! :-)
My friend John and I were chatting the other day, as we do, about the nature of the world and our experience with others. We happened upon a particular topic that has been churning in my body-mind for some time now but being a primarily private practitioner I seldom have the opportunity to speak openly about these ideas.
The basics are that we as a culture have stopped touching each other. That's it. Simple, Obvious, and yet quite troubling.
Take that basic truth and begin to expand upon it. Look at all of the different ways in which we suffer as individuals and in community simply because it has become the law of the land that you "keep your hands to yourself". We're trained as second graders that touching others is simply not acceptable and infact punishable by law. SO what happens when you like someone? WHat happens when you're angry or sad? What happens when you're married, have children, take care of pets? all of our relations from the most casual to the completely intimate involve physical contact in various forms and we as a country have become seriously handicapped in this arena.
My sincere hope in my bodywork practice, this blog, and my personal relations is to give people permission to begin touching others again, and allowing themselves to be touched thus bringing us all closer to a peaceful, balanced and healthy existance.
The plan so far is to go Old School with the classic Taoist format of question and answer lessons. John and I will conduct dialogues on this blog format so as to reveal more information, insights and hopefully questions on this topic. There will be challenges and there will be homework should you choose to be brave and follow us on this adventure so stay tuned and please bring us any questions, comments, stories, fantasies or personal challenges that you want add to this discussion.
Much love to you all and may life always give you enough.
This is Tyler, over and out.
My name, at times, is Tyler. I am just a guy, a human, doing my best to get through life and have a bit of fun on the way, In my adventures I have experienced many things that have given me a slightly unique perspective on the world and people and I'd like to share my world view in the hopes that it may serve you in someway. I"ll go into my training a bit more deeply at another time but for now I'd like to say simply that I work as a massage therapist focusing on myo-fascial and craniosacral techniques. I"m classicly trained as a healer, licensed and insured in missouri as a massage therapist and I'm an approved educator of advanced therapeutic techniques in missouri. SO there! :-)
My friend John and I were chatting the other day, as we do, about the nature of the world and our experience with others. We happened upon a particular topic that has been churning in my body-mind for some time now but being a primarily private practitioner I seldom have the opportunity to speak openly about these ideas.
The basics are that we as a culture have stopped touching each other. That's it. Simple, Obvious, and yet quite troubling.
Take that basic truth and begin to expand upon it. Look at all of the different ways in which we suffer as individuals and in community simply because it has become the law of the land that you "keep your hands to yourself". We're trained as second graders that touching others is simply not acceptable and infact punishable by law. SO what happens when you like someone? WHat happens when you're angry or sad? What happens when you're married, have children, take care of pets? all of our relations from the most casual to the completely intimate involve physical contact in various forms and we as a country have become seriously handicapped in this arena.
My sincere hope in my bodywork practice, this blog, and my personal relations is to give people permission to begin touching others again, and allowing themselves to be touched thus bringing us all closer to a peaceful, balanced and healthy existance.
The plan so far is to go Old School with the classic Taoist format of question and answer lessons. John and I will conduct dialogues on this blog format so as to reveal more information, insights and hopefully questions on this topic. There will be challenges and there will be homework should you choose to be brave and follow us on this adventure so stay tuned and please bring us any questions, comments, stories, fantasies or personal challenges that you want add to this discussion.
Much love to you all and may life always give you enough.
This is Tyler, over and out.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Feeling it out
Everything is connected which is not a concept or a speculation but a fact. And the ego is a force which attempts at all times to maintain an illusion of difference, separateness, and superiority -- one of its primary tools being the repression of touch.
Everything is touching. Skin touches skin, tongue touches taste, nose touches perfume, ear touches sound, eye touches light. Tyler said to me today in so many words that if you be yourself and stop holding back lots of touching will happen. Because the impulse to touch is what is continually arising in us. It feels to me that if everyone were to do this a great unwinding would occur. It is about allowing interaction to happen. It is about confrontation -- a word around which negative associations have grown. But confrontation can be a vehicle for love, a joy to engage in.
So I, John Sandbach, suggested to Tyler to write a blog. Much comes out of his mouth about touch, and about many other things, which are all touching each other.
Touch is an art, and everyone is an artist, but most people are horribly frustrated artists suffering a long and terrible bout of artist's block. You don't need more confidence or preparation. You just need to give way to your own impulses. The Kabbalah says there are two paths you may choose -- one is the way of suffering where everything in you suffers until all the karma is burned out.
The other path is where you just surrender to your own creative spirit and on that path only one thing suffers: your ego. It writhes around until it shrivels up and finally dissolves, and then you realize that what seemed so scary at the time really was the best thing that ever happened to you. Or so I've been told...
I hope you will give us your feedback. Your assignment, if you are open to being given one is: touch more people everyday.
--John
Everything is touching. Skin touches skin, tongue touches taste, nose touches perfume, ear touches sound, eye touches light. Tyler said to me today in so many words that if you be yourself and stop holding back lots of touching will happen. Because the impulse to touch is what is continually arising in us. It feels to me that if everyone were to do this a great unwinding would occur. It is about allowing interaction to happen. It is about confrontation -- a word around which negative associations have grown. But confrontation can be a vehicle for love, a joy to engage in.
So I, John Sandbach, suggested to Tyler to write a blog. Much comes out of his mouth about touch, and about many other things, which are all touching each other.
Touch is an art, and everyone is an artist, but most people are horribly frustrated artists suffering a long and terrible bout of artist's block. You don't need more confidence or preparation. You just need to give way to your own impulses. The Kabbalah says there are two paths you may choose -- one is the way of suffering where everything in you suffers until all the karma is burned out.
The other path is where you just surrender to your own creative spirit and on that path only one thing suffers: your ego. It writhes around until it shrivels up and finally dissolves, and then you realize that what seemed so scary at the time really was the best thing that ever happened to you. Or so I've been told...
I hope you will give us your feedback. Your assignment, if you are open to being given one is: touch more people everyday.
--John
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