What Were Alchemists Of Old Up To?

Alchemy

Folks today oftentimes think the alchemists of old literally changed lead into gold. However, the alchemists were working on a metaphorical level, and changing lead-heavy consciousness into golden light. The world alchemy, from the Aramaic, means “working within and through the dense darkness inside.” Thus, the truth of what alchemists were actually doing.


How to Heal Toxic Thoughts
Sandra Ingerman

What Is The Significance Of Consciousness?

Consciousness

The significance of consciousness comes from what it brings to the human mind, and from what it subsequently allows the mind to discover.

Consciousness makes mental experiences possible, from pleasure to pain, along with all that we perceive and memorize, and recall and manipulate as we describe the world around and within us, in the process of observing, thinking, and reasoning.


Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious
Antonio Damasio

What Is Qi?

Chinese character for Qi


Energy of Life

Qi (pronounced chē) is the energy that fuels living – it’s the circulating life force whose existence and properties are the basis of much Chinese philosophy and medicine.

In Chinese philosophy, we are born with Qi, or prenatal energy, which we get from our mothers, and we receive energy from various outside sources such as the food we eat, our environments, and from rest.

Worldwide Concept

Qi is Chinese — similar words and concepts can be found throughout a wide range of culture and history, including:

  • Prana in Hindu/Sanskrit  
  • Ki in Japanese
  • Pneuma in ancient Greek
  • Lung in Tibetan
  • Mana in Hawaiian
  • Ruah in Hebrew
  • Bioelectricity in contemporary scientific language
  • The Force in the pop cultural language of Star Wars


Cultivating Qi: The Root of Energy, Vitality, and Spirit
David Clippinger

What Was “In The Beginning”?

In the Beginning

In the beginning was not the word; that much is clear. Not that the universe of the living was ever simple, quite the contrary. It was complex from its inception, four billion years ago. Life sailed forth without words or thoughts, without feelings or rea­sons, devoid of minds or consciousness. And yet living organisms sensed others like them and sensed their environments. By sensing I mean the detection of a “presence”—of another whole organism, of a molecule located on the surface of another organ­ism or of a molecule secreted by another organism. Sensing is not perceiving, and it is not construct­ing a “pattern” based on something else to cre­ate a “representation” of that something else and produce an “image” in mind. On the other hand, sensing is the most elementary variety of cognition.


Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious
Antonio Damasio

How Can We Achieve Excellence?

Steps Toward Excellence

  • Starve your distractions, feed your focus.
  • Set goals.
  • Read every day.
  • Time is non-refundable — use it with intention.
  • Have a vision.
  • Live inspired.
  • If you don’t go after it, you won’t have it.
  • Make mistakes and pursue failure.

Physicist Richard Feynman