Scientists Create Material With “Artificial Metabolism”

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A new biomaterial exhibits metabolism-like behaviors. It appears in some ways to act like a living thing, blurring the line between biology and machinery.

Slime Mold

Scientists just got one step closer to creating living machines — or at least machines that mimic biological life as we know it.

A new biomaterial built in a Cornell University bioengineering lab uses synthetic DNA to continuously and autonomously organize, assemble, and restructure itself in a process so similar to how biological cells and tissues grow that the researchers are calling “artificial metabolism,” according to research published in Science Robotics last week.

 We Can Regrow It

It’s clear that the scientists are dancing around the idea of creating lifelike machinery. They stop short of straight-up claiming that their metabolizing biomaterial is alive, but the research begins by coyly listing the characteristics of life that the material exhibits — self-assembly, organization, and metabolism.

“We are introducing a brand-new, lifelike material concept powered by its very own artificial metabolism,” Cornell engineer Dan Lui said in a university-published press release. “We are not making something that’s alive, but we are creating materials that are much more lifelike than have ever been seen before.”

Worming Along

The biomaterial mimics a biological organism’s endless metabolic cycle of taking in energy and replacing old cells. When placed in a nutrient-rich environment, the material grew in the direction of the raw materials and food it needed to thrive — not unlike how a developing brain’s neurons grow out in the direction of specific molecules.

Meanwhile, the material also let its tail end die off and decay, giving the appearance of a constantly-regrowing slime mold traveling around toward food.

While the little bio-blob isn’t alive, it does appear to move and grow like a living thing, suggesting that scientists are blurring the line between life and machine more and more.

READ MORE: FORGET ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE; THINK ARTIFICIAL LIFE [Hackaday]

More on biomaterials: Scientists Manipulated a Material for Robots That Grows Like Human Skin

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Scientists Create Material With “Artificial Metabolism”

Center For Resource Management | Resource Based Economy

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To tackle these important challenges, the Center for Resource Management will have over twenty buildings, including housing for a few hundred people who will work towards these goals.

The entire facility will be designed to be as self-sustaining as possible, with all of the energy coming from renewable sources and food grown onsite. Located in the central area will be a Museum of the Future. This unique museum will present educational exhibitions to help people both understand the state of present-day technology, as well as its potential when utilized humanely within a Global Resource Based Economy. There will be accommodations for visitors who want to stay for more than a day, and educational seminars will be provided for them to learn more about this social direction.

The Center for Resource Management will also house facilities for producing a diverse array of media to help further these aims through films, a CGI studio, and an arts and music center. Residents and visitors will live in single- and multi-unit apartments, with onsite acute medical care also provided. Waste and water will be treated as important resources to be reused. Facilities management cannot be overlooked and will be provided for with a machine shop. R&D labs will be included as well for researchers who want to do related scientific work. An access center will provide on-demand access to a wide variety of goods, similar to how libraries today provide access to books. The whole complex will operate like a leading-edge, green university campus, all immersed in lush landscaping, with winding streams and paths for biking and walking.

The building designs are taken directly from the over 5500 design sketches that Jacque Fresco produced over the last 41 years, with the design layout arranged by Roxanne Meadows. Adam Bouzane, D.EDDT, a Building Technologist, System Administrator, is Project Managing the technical drawings and specifications.

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Home | Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care …

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(1) Humanities and the Illness Experience (literature, film, the creative arts, poetry, narrative medicine) are intended to elevate student appreciation of the subjective experience of illness in the lives of patients, their families, and caregivers. Only by closely observing the illness experience can students begin to connect with patients as persons, replete with narratives of hope, anxiety, fear, love, loss, meaning, goals, culture, and treatment preferences. Student attentiveness to this narrative opens up the possibility of their encountering patients not just biologically, but as persons rather than mere puzzles. This awareness is at the very center of the art of medicine, of healing in any full sense of the word, and it naturally enlivens deeper empathic capacities.

(2) Virtues ( empathy, compassion, respect, humility, justice, loyalty, benevolence, diligence) all unfold from the uptick in narrative consciousness made possible through detailed humanistic observation. For empathic care to be sustained over the course of a career the professional virtue of self-care is also important. The humanistic virtues build the secure relational foundation of trust that is needed for good communication with patients, and for effective ethical decision making.

(3) Clinical Ethics ( attentive listening, , respect for autonomy, empathic communication, confidentiality, patient advocacy ) is more than the application of a set of principles or procedures for approaching the challenging decisions that patients, families, and caregivers confront daily. Clinical ethics requires a close attentiveness to the humanistic as well the scientific details of each case, a skill that can be finely honed through the medical humanities. Empathic virtues as habits of daily clinical interaction create a safe space for meaningful dialogue with patients around their values, goals, and choices in which their autonomy is respected. These humanistic assets can be developed as workable communicative skill sets with both cognitive and affective dimensions. Clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and provider meaning and well-being are all enhanced when ethical decision making proceeds in the context of the humanistic virtues.

Our three concentric circles exist in a surrounding field of healthcare systems including the healthcare system and finance, health law and policy, justice and access to care, the science of compassionate care and posthumanism. Compassionate care drives clinicians and students toward concern for justice according to patient need. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote famously of the love that does justice. Often patients are as stressed by navigating insurance and the healthcare system as they are by their illness itself. Clinicians committed to the good of patients are driven by compassion to advocate for access to needed medications and other necessary treatments, as well as ultimately to matters of population health.

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Europe’s Migrant Crisis | Reuters.com

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CAPE TOWN (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It was after nightfall when the folded sheet of paper was slipped under the door of the Mission to Seafarers building in South Africa's Cape Town harbor.

WEIDEN, Germany Omar Alnifawi was 16 when he fled Syria's civil war with his family. After four years working menial jobs in Lebanon to help pay for their journey on to Europe, he had given up on ever going back to school. |Video

CASTEL VOLTURNO, Italy (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Once a holiday dream for middle-class Italians, Castel Volturno is now a dilapidated seaside nightmare where Nigerians open their homes to migrants wanting cold beer and quick sex.

YAOUNDE/DOUALA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In early January, with Christmas lights still twinkling in the streets of Yaounde, Cameroon's capital, Christelle Timdi received the phone call she had almost given up hope of getting.

BERLIN Angela Merkel's face-saving deal with her conservative allies in Bavaria shows how indispensable the chancellor is to her party - even if she is weakened.

ZURICH Marco Bueter, a gastric surgeon from Germany, knows from his work at University Hospital Zurich and other clinics how much Switzerland depends on foreign doctors.

ROME In less than a month as Italy's combative interior minister, Matteo Salvini has won a reputation as Europe's Donald Trump on immigration.

DAKAR When Fatou Kine's failed attempt to reach Europe left her jobless and penniless in Algeria, she turned to an agency she had heard helped migrants return home. |Video

CARACAS/MADRID/LIMA Often arriving thin and penniless in South American capitals after long bus trips across the continent, many Venezuelan migrants blame President Nicolas Maduro for the crushing economic crisis that forced them to flee.

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The Red Heads – 7,667 Photos – Performing Arts – Montreal …

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Clines presentation of Lady Gaga in the top 100 most influential personalities of the year by TIME magazine. -----La prsentation de Lady Gaga par Cline dans le top 100 des personnalits les plus influentes de l'anne par le magazine TIME (voir la version franaise ci-dessous).

"I love Lady Gaga, and I think shes got one of the greatest voices in the world: powerful, convincing, passionate and sensitive.

Shes definitely one of the most inventive artists weve ever seen. Her artistic expression has no rules, no boundaries. When she first came on the scene with her outrageous style, she didnt care what the critics said. She marched to the beat of her own drum, knowing that her message of individuality was a way to express her inner strength. What makes her even more special, and such a powerful influence on society, is that she empowers her fans to adopt the very same values in their lives to stand up for what they believe in, despite what others might think. By doing so, she gives her followers strength and confidence to believe in themselves. Whether its her unstoppable support for the LGBTQ community, or her anti-bullying campaigning, Lady Gagas voice is being heard where it really counts.

Yes, shes an amazing musician, composer, performer and, as we saw in A Star Is Born, an incredible actress, but her legacy reaches well beyond show business. She will continue to inspire love and freedom around the world, for generations to come."

--

"Jaime Lady Gaga, et je pense quelle a lune des plus belles voix du monde : puissante, convaincante, passionne et sensible.

Elle est rellement lune des artistes les plus inventives que lon ait vue. Son expression artistique na ni rgles, ni frontires. Quand elle sest fait connatre avec son style extravagant, elle ne se souciait pas des critiques. Elle avanait son rythme, sachant que son message dindividualit tait une manire dexprimer sa force intrieure. Mais ce qui la rend encore plus spciale et ce qui la place en tant que grande influenceuse de la socit, cest quelle donne ses fans les moyens dadopter exactement les mmes valeurs dans leur vie de se lever pour ce en quoi ils croient, malgr ce que dautres pourraient penser. En faisant cela, elle offre ceux qui la suivent la force et la confiance de croire en eux-mmes. Quil sagisse de son soutien infaillible la communaut LGBTQ ou de sa campagne contre le harclement, la voix de Lady Gaga se fait entendre l o cela compte vraiment.

Oui, elle est une musicienne, compositrice et performeuse magnifique et, comme on la vu dans A Star Is Born, une actrice incroyable, mais son hritage va bien au-del de lindustrie du spectacle. Elle continuera inspirer amour et libert partout dans le monde auprs des gnrations venir."

#ClineDion #LadyGaga #LasVegas #Time: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty

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The Bahamas: All-Inclusive Beach Resorts & Luxury …

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Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Charlotte (CLT) Daily 2hr 15min Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Chicago (ORD) Daily 3hr 20min Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) Daily 55m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) Daily 55m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) Daily 55m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Houston (IAH) Mon, Thu 4hr Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Minneapolis (MSP) Sat 3hr 47m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Montreal (YUL) Wed, Sat 3hr 47m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: New York City (JFK) Daily 3hr 05m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: New York City (JFK) Daily 3hr 05m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Newark (EWR) Daily 3hr 15m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Orlando (MCO) Daily 1hr 15m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Orlando (MCO) Daily 1hr 15m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Philadelphia (PHL) Daily 2hr 55m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Tampa (TPA) Daily 1hr 55m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Toronto (YYZ) Daily 3hr 10m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Toronto (YYZ) Daily 3hr 15m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Washington, D.C. (DCA) Daily 2hr 40m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Washington, D.C. (DCA) Daily 2hr 40m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Washington, D.C. (IAD) Sat 2hr 50m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: Washington, D.C. (IAD) Sat 2hr 35m Gateway: Airline: Schedule: Duration: West Palm Beach (PBI) Daily 1hr 10m

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THE 10 BEST Bahamas Hotel Deals from $86 (Apr 2019 …

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396 properties in Bahamas

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"Featured" sorts properties using exclusive TripAdvisor data, including traveler ratings, confirmed availability from our partners, prices, booking popularity, location and personal user preferences. It also takes into account any compensation that may be paid to us by accommodations and booking sites.

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The Bahamas travel – Lonely Planet

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Nassau Rum and Food Walking Tour

In downtown Nassau, meet your friendly tour guide and head to your first stop, the Pirate Republic Brewing Company, on Woodes Rogers Walk. As you enjoy your first sample of rum, try to imagine the days more than 300 years ago when the unruly pirates of the Caribbean roamed these streets, inebriated on their demon water. Continue walking through downtown Nassau to three more local establishments, where youll fill up on rum cocktails, savory snacks and sweet, boozy treats. Enjoy bites ofhomemade boozy rum cupcakes for dessert! As you get to know the citys rum and food scene with your guide, discover off-the-beaten-path sites and hear madcap stories about the islands swashbuckling and rum-running history. Passing historical buildings, learn how they once played a role in the profiteering business as storage space for liquor about to be transported across the ocean. Fittingly, your tour ends at John Watlings Distillery, located on the islands Buena Vista Estate. Learn about how rum is made here, from fermentation to aging in white-oak barrels, and hear about the mysteries surrounding 17th-century pirate John Watling, for whom the distillery is named. Tastings include (subject to change): 6 rum tastings 2 cocktails Bites of Bahamian conch fritters Rum-infused white chocolate bon bon Rum soaked truffle Homemade boozy rum cupcake

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What Are Stem Cells? Research, Transplant, Therapy, Definition

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Stem cell facts

What are stem cells?

Stem cells are cells that have the potential to develop into many different or specialized cell types. Stem cells can be thought of as primitive, "unspecialized" cells that are able to divide and become specialized cells of the body such as liver cells, muscle cells, blood cells, and other cells with specific functions. Stem cells are referred to as "undifferentiated" cells because they have not yet committed to a developmental path that will form a specific tissue or organ. The process of changing into a specific cell type is known as differentiation. In some areas of the body, stem cells divide regularly to renew and repair the existing tissue. The bone marrow and gastrointestinal tract are examples of areas in which stem cells function to renew and repair tissue.

The best and most readily understood example of a stem cell in humans is that of the fertilized egg, or zygote. A zygote is a single cell that is formed by the union of a sperm and ovum. The sperm and the ovum each carry half of the genetic material required to form a new individual. Once that single cell or zygote starts dividing, it is known as an embryo. One cell becomes two, two become four, four become eight, eight become sixteen, and so on, doubling rapidly until it ultimately grows into an entire sophisticated organism composed of many different kinds of specialized cells. That organism, a person, is an immensely complicated structure consisting of many, many, billions of cells with functions as diverse as those of your eyes, your heart, your immune system, the color of your skin, your brain, etc. All of the specialized cells that make up these body systems are descendants of the original zygote, a stem cell with the potential to ultimately develop into all kinds of body cells. The cells of a zygote are totipotent, meaning that they have the capacity to develop into any type of cell in the body.

The process by which stem cells commit to become differentiated, or specialized, cells is complex and involves the regulation of gene expression. Research is ongoing to further understand the molecular events and controls necessary for stem cells to become specialized cell types.

Stem Cells:One of the human body's master cells, with the ability to grow into any one of the body's more than 200 cell types.

All stem cells are unspecialized (undifferentiated) cells that are characteristically of the same family type (lineage). They retain the ability to divide throughout life and give rise to cells that can become highly specialized and take the place of cells that die or are lost.

Stem cells contribute to the body's ability to renew and repair its tissues. Unlike mature cells, which are permanently committed to their fate, stem cells can both renew themselves as well as create new cells of whatever tissue they belong to (and other tissues).

Why are stem cells important?

Stem cells represent an exciting area in medicine because of their potential to regenerate and repair damaged tissue. Some current therapies, such as bone marrow transplantation, already make use of stem cells and their potential for regeneration of damaged tissues. Other therapies that are under investigation involve transplanting stem cells into a damaged body part and directing them to grow and differentiate into healthy tissue.

Embryonic stem cells

During the early stages of embryonic development the cells remain relatively undifferentiated (immature) and appear to possess the ability to become, or differentiate, into almost any tissue within the body. For example, cells taken from one section of an embryo that might have become part of the eye can be transferred into another section of the embryo and could develop into blood, muscle, nerve, or liver cells.

Cells in the early embryonic stage are totipotent (see above) and can differentiate to become any type of body cell. After about seven days, the zygote forms a structure known as a blastocyst, which contains a mass of cells that eventually become the fetus, as well as trophoblastic tissue that eventually becomes the placenta. If cells are taken from the blastocyst at this stage, they are known as pluripotent, meaning that they have the capacity to become many different types of human cells. Cells at this stage are often referred to as blastocyst embryonic stem cells. When any type of embryonic stem cells is grown in culture in the laboratory, they can divide and grow indefinitely. These cells are then known as embryonic stem cell lines.

Fetal stem cells

The embryo is referred to as a fetus after the eighth week of development. The fetus contains stem cells that are pluripotent and eventually develop into the different body tissues in the fetus.

Adult stem cells

Adult stem cells are present in all humans in small numbers. The adult stem cell is one of the class of cells that we have been able to manipulate quite effectively in the bone marrow transplant arena over the past 30 years. These are stem cells that are largely tissue-specific in their location. Rather than typically giving rise to all of the cells of the body, these cells are capable of giving rise only to a few types of cells that develop into a specific tissue or organ. They are therefore known as multipotent stem cells. Adult stem cells are sometimes referred to as somatic stem cells.

The best characterized example of an adult stem cell is the blood stem cell (the hematopoietic stem cell). When we refer to a bone marrow transplant, a stem cell transplant, or a blood transplant, the cell being transplanted is the hematopoietic stem cell, or blood stem cell. This cell is a very rare cell that is found primarily within the bone marrow of the adult.

One of the exciting discoveries of the last years has been the overturning of a long-held scientific belief that an adult stem cell was a completely committed stem cell. It was previously believed that a hematopoietic, or blood-forming stem cell, could only create other blood cells and could never become another type of stem cell. There is now evidence that some of these apparently committed adult stem cells are able to change direction to become a stem cell in a different organ. For example, there are some models of bone marrow transplantation in rats with damaged livers in which the liver partially re-grows with cells that are derived from transplanted bone marrow. Similar studies can be done showing that many different cell types can be derived from each other. It appears that heart cells can be grown from bone marrow stem cells, that bone marrow cells can be grown from stem cells derived from muscle, and that brain stem cells can turn into many types of cells.

Peripheral blood stem cells

Most blood stem cells are present in the bone marrow, but a few are present in the bloodstream. This means that these so-called peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) can be isolated from a drawn blood sample. The blood stem cell is capable of giving rise to a very large number of very different cells that make up the blood and immune system, including red blood cells, platelets, granulocytes, and lymphocytes.

All of these very different cells with very different functions are derived from a common, ancestral, committed blood-forming (hematopoietic), stem cell.

Umbilical cord stem cells

Blood from the umbilical cord contains some stem cells that are genetically identical to the newborn. Like adult stem cells, these are multipotent stem cells that are able to differentiate into certain, but not all, cell types. For this reason, umbilical cord blood is often banked, or stored, for possible future use should the individual require stem cell therapy.

Induced pluripotent stem cells

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were first created from human cells in 2007. These are adult cells that have been genetically converted to an embryonic stem celllike state. In animal studies, iPSCs have been shown to possess characteristics of pluripotent stem cells. Human iPSCs can differentiate and become multiple different fetal cell types. iPSCs are valuable aids in the study of disease development and drug treatment, and they may have future uses in transplantation medicine. Further research is needed regarding the development and use of these cells.

Why is there controversy surrounding the use of stem cells?

Embryonic stem cells and embryonic stem cell lines have received much public attention concerning the ethics of their use or non-use. Clearly, there is hope that a large number of treatment advances could occur as a result of growing and differentiating these embryonic stem cells in the laboratory. It is equally clear that each embryonic stem cell line has been derived from a human embryo created through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or through cloning technologies, with all the attendant ethical, religious, and philosophical problems, depending upon one's perspective.

What are some stem cell therapies that are currently available?

Routine use of stem cells in therapy has been limited to blood-forming stem cells (hematopoietic stem cells) derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood. Bone marrow transplantation is the most familiar form of stem cell therapy and the only instance of stem cell therapy in common use. It is used to treat cancers of the blood cells (leukemias) and other disorders of the blood and bone marrow.

In bone marrow transplantation, the patient's existing white blood cells and bone marrow are destroyed using chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Then, a sample of bone marrow (containing stem cells) from a healthy, immunologically matched donor is injected into the patient. The transplanted stem cells populate the recipient's bone marrow and begin producing new, healthy blood cells.

Umbilical cord blood stem cells and peripheral blood stem cells can also be used instead of bone marrow samples to repopulate the bone marrow in the process of bone marrow transplantation.

In 2009, the California-based company Geron received clearance from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin the first human clinical trial of cells derived from human embryonic stem cells in the treatment of patients with acute spinal cord injury.

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What are experimental treatments using stem cells and possible future directions for stem cell therapy?

Stem cell therapy is an exciting and active field of biomedical research. Scientists and physicians are investigating the use of stem cells in therapies to treat a wide variety of diseases and injuries. For a stem cell therapy to be successful, a number of factors must be considered. The appropriate type of stem cell must be chosen, and the stem cells must be matched to the recipient so that they are not destroyed by the recipient's immune system. It is also critical to develop a system for effective delivery of the stem cells to the desired location in the body. Finally, devising methods to "switch on" and control the differentiation of stem cells and ensure that they develop into the desired tissue type is critical for the success of any stem cell therapy.

Researchers are currently examining the use of stem cells to regenerate damaged or diseased tissue in many conditions, including those listed below.

References

REFERENCE:

"Stem Cell Information." National Institutes of Health.

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What Are Stem Cells? Research, Transplant, Therapy, Definition

5 Stem Cell Therapy Benefits, Uses & How It Works – Dr. Axe

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Clinical research regarding stem cell therapy benefits has grown dramatically in recent decades. The most promising thing about stem cell therapy and similar prolotherapy treatments including PRP is that they offer relief for patients with chronic pain and difficult-to-heal injuries, all without medications or risky reconstructive surgeries. Today researchers are also uncovering ways to apply stem cell treatments for common chronic conditions such as heart disease,neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes.

The most common use of stem cell treatments in prolotherapy is managing pain. Most consider stem cell therapy to be a form of interventional pain-management, meaning its a minimally invasive technique. Treatment involves injecting stem cells (along with an anesthetic and sometimes other substances) around painful and damaged nerves, tendons, joints or muscle tissue.

What specific types of conditions can stem cell therapy help treat? Some of the most common include osteoarthritis knee pain, tennis elbow, shoulder pains or rotator cuff injuries, tendonitis, Achilles tendon injuries, ACL injuries and now cardiovascular diseases likeatherosclerosis.

There are now more options available to patients than ever before for various types of prolotherapy treatments, but the type of prolotherapyI recommend the most is the unique approach to stem cell therapy offered by the Regenexxclinic. I have personally visited the Regenexx clinic in the Cayman Islands to receive treatments performed by Dr. Chris Centeno, Dr. John Schultz and Dr. John Pitt for back and tendon injuries. The form of stem cell therapy offered by these doctors is considered to be one of themost thoroughly researched and effective in the world.

Stem cell therapy is a type of treatment option that uses a patients own stem cells to help repair damaged tissue and repair injuries. Its usually performed relatively quickly through injections, and is a simple outpatient or in office procedure.

This type of treatment has also been found to help:

According to the National Institute of Health,

Stem cells are important for living organisms for many reasons. In the 3- to 5-day-old embryo, called a blastocyst, the inner cells give rise to the entire body of the organism, including all of the many specialized cell types and organs such as the heart, lungs, skin, sperm, eggs and other tissues. In some adult tissues, such as bone marrow, muscle, and brain, discrete populations of adult stem cells generate replacements for other cells that are lost through normal wear and tear, injury, or disease.

The California Stem Cell Agency reports that there is no limit to the types of diseases that could be treated with stem cell research. Because of their amazing abilities to help with regrowth, stem cell therapy treatments are now being used (or continuously researched) in regards to treating:

Stem cells are usually taken from one of two areas in the patients body: bone marrow or adipose (fat) tissue in their upper thigh/abdomen. Because its common to remove stem cells from areas of stored body fat, some refer to stem cell therapy as Adipose Stem Cell Therapy in some cases. (1)

Once stem cells from removed from one of these locations, they are placed in a centrifuge machine that spins them very, very quickly and concentrates the substances that are most valuable (including up to seven different types of natural growth factors). The sample of concentrated stem cells is then injected directly into the patients affected, painful area allowing the cells growth factors to go to work immediately, building new skin cells, connective tissue and so on.

What exactly makes stem cells so beneficial and gives stem cell injections the power to do this healing? Stem cells have the following unique characteristics, uses and healing abilities:

The type of stem cells being used in the most cutting-edge orthopedic practices including those offered at the Regenexx clinic mentioned above are called Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). A growing body of research shows that MSCs have the capability of differentiating and forming new orthopedic tissues that make up muscle, bones, cartilage and tendons, ligaments and adipose tissue. (3)

Research suggests that in treating orthopedic problems,fat-derived MSCs tend to under-perform bone marrow derived stem cells, therefore bone derived is the preferred method. (4) This is especially true when bone marrow cells are dramatically concentrated using advanced centrifuge equipment. Certain studies have found that these advanced samples can contain up to 25 different growth factors and other beneficial rebuilding substances.

In studies regarding orthopedic care such as those used for cartilage replacement,bone repairand soft-tissue repair bone marrow stem cells injections have been found to: reduce chronic pain, heal stubborn injuries, improve functionality and return patients to their normal routine sometimes within just one week.

Wondering if MSCs for orthopedic injuries are safe? There is no evidence of overgrowth of MSCs in damaged tissue or reason to believe theres risk for tumor growth. Advanced clinics such as Regenexx actually count cells before injecting them and carefully monitor progress. According to research used by Regenexx, MSCs safely stop proliferating once they physically contact each other, because this signals to them that the affected area has reached its full potential in growth. (5)

Cardiovascular diseases can deprive heart tissue of oxygen and cause scar tissue to form which changes blood flow/blood pressure. Research suggests that stem cells taken from adult bone marrow have the ability to differentiate into those needed to repair the heart and blood vessels, thanks to the secretion of multiple growth factors. Several ways in which stem cell therapy is now being used and further researched in regards to improving recovery of heart disease are:

Although more research is needed to assess the safety and efficacy of this approach, stem cell types used in heart disease treatment include: embryonic stem (ES) cells, cardiac stem cells,myoblasts (muscle stem cells), adult bone marrow-derived cells, umbilical cord blood cells, mesenchymal cells (bone marrow-derived cells) and endothelial progenitor cells (these form the interior lining of blood vessels).

Studies have found that stem cell treatments can help improve the growth of healthy new skin tissue, improve collagen production, stimulate hair growth after loss or incisions, and help replace scar tissue with newly formed healthy tissue.

One of the ways stem cells help facilitate wound healing is by increasingcollagen concentrations in the skin, which shrinks as it matures and thereby strengthens and tightens the damaged area. This same mechanism also applies to treating connective tissue injuries related to collagen/cartilage loss, such as those caused by osteoarthritis or overuses that affect ligaments or tendons.

Recent progress in the treatment of diseases like Parkinsons, Huntingtons, Alzheimers and stroke recovery show that transplanted adult stem cells can be used to form new brain cells, neurons and synapses following cognitive degeneration or brain injuries. (6) Research conducted by the Research Center for Stem Cell Biology and Cell Therapy in Sweden is still underway, but current findings show that stem cells can improve synaptic circuits, optimize functional recovery, offer relief from degeneration symptoms, slow down disease progression and potentially even more.

Some of the ways that stem cell injections/grafts work in neurodegeneration treatment are: normalizing striatal dopamine release, impairing akensia (loss of voluntary movement), replacing neurons destroyed by the ischemic lesions following strokes and halting destruction of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons.

Immune rejection is the term used to describe damage to healthy tissue and cells in patients with autoimmune disorders and other inflammatory conditions. In people who suffer from type1 diabetes, for example, the cells of the pancreas that normally produce insulin are destroyed by the patients own immune system; in people with thyroid disorders, the thyroid gland is attacked and damaged.

Research continues to show us that certain adult stem cells are capable of differentiating and producing needed cells, such as insulin-producing cells that eventually could be used in with people diabetes. This strategy is still being researched extensively and is not yet widely available, as scientists continue to experiment with reliable strategies for generating new cells/tissues that will not be rejected or harm the patient once implanted.

Meanwhile, a promising clinical trial led by Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern University that explores the potential benefits of stem cell therapy for multiple sclerosis is underway as of March 2018. The 110 patients participating either received a drug treatment or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).The clinical trial looks promising given that after one year of treatment only one relapse occurred among patients in the stem cell group compared with 39 relapses in the drug treatment. And, after about three years, the stem cell transplants had a 6 percent failure rate compared with a failure rate of 60 percent in the control (drug treatment) group.

The researchers note that stem cell therapy doesnt work for all cases of MS and its not an easy process. First patients must undergo chemotherapy to destroy their faulty immune system. Then stem cells that help make blood through a process called hematopoiesis are removed from the patients bone marrow and reinfused into the patients bloodstream. These fresh stem cells, which are not affected by MS, rebuild the patients immune system. Despite this challenging process, preliminary results demonstrate that this could be an effective treatment in the future. (7, 8)

For decades researchers and doctors primarily used two kinds of stem cells taken from animals and humans, especially when they were still embryos (not yet born). These are calledembryonic stem cells and non-embryonic (somatic or adult) stem cells. In the late 1990s, it was discovered that stem cells could be taken from human embryos and grown inside of laboratoriesfor reproductive purposes, including for in vitro fertilization.

Then in 2006 a breakthrough discovery was made that some specialized adult stem cells could be reprogrammed and used in many other ways to help repair damaged tissue. These are referred to as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and are the type used in many of the treatments described above.There remains a lot to learn about the potential uses of stem cell therapies, and how scientists can continue to explore transforming unspecialized adult stem cells into the types of specialized cells needed.

The NIH reports that in future years some of the primary goals of stem cell therapy research are to: identify howundifferentiated stem cells become the differentiated cells that form the tissues and organs, determine how stem cells can turn humangenes on and off, learn to predictably control cell proliferation and differentiation, and investigate more uses for stem cells in serious medical conditions such as cancerand birth defects.

The hope going forward is that stem cells can also be used as a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat common and serious diseases without the need for organ transplants or surgeries, including: maculardegeneration, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.

Cancer treatment is a particular important area under investigation, as early studies are showing that stem cells are safe and well-tolerated in patients with acute and chronic leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and other cancers. (9)

Stem cell treatments are offered by various doctors who practice pain-management and other techniques, including orthopedics and anesthesiologists.Depending on the type of treatment needed, its also possible to visit a neurologist, cardiologist, etc.Commonly these treatments are offered at clinics with ateam of doctors who work together to specialize in diagnosing, preventing and/or correcting a range of musculoskeletal, neurological or connective tissue disorders/injuries.

If youre planning on visiting a doctor for pain management, look for a physician who has board certification through an organization like the American Board of Anesthesiology orAmerican Board of Pain Medicine. I recommend viewing this Physician Finder tool to locate a practitioner who performs the advanced type of stem cell applications described above.

Personally, I most suggest checking out Regenexx, one of the only organizations to run large-scale analysis of patient stem cell procedure outcome data. It has published numerous findings from tracking their own patients on their website. Much more detailed information on improvements that can be expected following PRP procedures including those for knee meniscus, arthritis, hip dysfunction, knee pain, wrist/hand injuries, ankle/foot pain and shoulder/rotator injuries can be accessed through Regenexx directly.

Once you find a qualified physician, heres a brief overview of what you can expect from stem cell therapy treatments:

Although stem cell treatment is considered to be very safe, there are also side effects that are possible. Make sure to find a qualified practitioner and let them know if your experience following a treatment does not sound like the typical one described above.Like other types of non-invasive treatments and prolotherapy techniques, some mild side effects after injections are normal. Side effects of stem cell treatments can sometimes include:

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5 Stem Cell Therapy Benefits, Uses & How It Works - Dr. Axe

50 Spiritual Awakening Quotes Celebrating Enlightenment

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These spiritual awakening quotes will inspire self-improvement and long-term positive change.

Spiritual awakening involves moving beyond your limited reality and gaining a broader and clearer perspective. When you make the shift to a higher level of consciousness, you become more aware of reality as it exists beyond the confines of the self.

Having a spiritual awakening leads to self-realization and a well-adjusted existence. It leads you to a blissful and content life. No matter the circumstances of your life, youll enjoy a stress-free natural existence.

Just like a butterfly emerges from its cocoon, when you finally reach that state of spiritual enlightenment, youll be able to spread your wings and find your true self and your true path. It will allow you to experience a sense of inner peace, a feeling of purification, and have more compassion and empathy.

Though it can be a painful process as it requires you to make difficult choices on how you move forward and live with your new perspective, once your inner transformation to a higher level of consciousness is complete, youll be happy that you went through the whole experience.

To celebrate the shift to higher consciousness, below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and positive spiritual awakening quotes, spiritual awakening sayings, and spiritual awakening proverbs, collected from various sources.

1.) We are all equally capable of spiritual awakening. It may not seem that way, at times. Some of us are so caught up in the drama of our day-to-day existence that we have lost track of who we really are. But eventually, all of us will make the discovery of our true nature. Victor Shamas

2.) You are heir to a heavenly fortune, the sole beneficiary of an infinite spiritual trust fund, a proverbial goldmine of sacred abundance beyond all common measure or human comprehension. But until you assert your rightful inheritance of this blessed gift, it will remain unclaimed and forever beyond your reach. Anthon St. Maarten

3.) We are not the only ones affected by our recovery. The spiritual awakening heals the world one person at a time. Marta Mrotek

4.) You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. Swami Vivekananda

5.) Maturity is the ability to think, speak and act your feelings within the bounds of dignity. The measure of your maturity is how spiritual you become during the midst of your frustrations. Samuel Ullman

6.) It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up. Eckhart Tolle

7.) Within you lies opportunity to grow in spirit. Keep your feet on the earth, but lift your face towards the heavens. Surrender to the light with a tranquil mind, and a heart full of the love of God. White Eagle

8.) You can have a spiritual awakening and discover a new side of you at any age. And best of all, love can happen at any age. Life can just start to get exciting when youre in your 40s and 50s. You have to believe that. Salma Hayek

9.) In the place of stillness, rises potential. From the place of potential, emerges possibility. Where there is possibility, there is choice, and where there is choice, there is freedom! Gabrielle Goddard

10.) Be kind to yourself as you proceed along this journey. This kindness, in itself, is a means of awakening the spark of love within you and helping others to discover that spark within themselves. Tsoknyi Rinpoche

11.) Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha

12.) Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge. Eckhart Tolle

13.) There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein

14.) The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love.- Marianne Williamson

15.) The awakening of the soul to its bondage and its effort to stand up and assert itself this is called life. Swami Vivekananda

16.) The real spiritual progress of the aspirant is measured by the extent to which he achieves inner tranquility. Sivananda

17.) The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece. The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning. The experience of spiritual power is basically a joyful one. M. Scott Peck

18.) The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It cant be organized or regulated. It isnt true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth. Ram Dass

19.) Awakening is about liberating yourself from the prison that is the world of the mind and daring to be here as all that you are. Leonard Jacobson

20.) Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. C.G. Jung

21.) The solution to the problem of the day is the awakening of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity within. Hazrat Inayat Khan

22.) Awakening is dynamic. Constantly evolving in accordance with lifes realities. Unfolding from ego-self to compassionate self. From enclosed self to open self. From foolish self to enlightened self. Taitetsu Unno

23.) Many of lifes failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Thomas Alva Edison

24.) Glorify who you are today, do not condemn who you were yesterday, and dream of who you can be tomorrow. Neale Donald Walsch

25.) In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us. Jack Kornfield

26.) Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening. G. I. Gurdjieff

27.) It is reality that awakens possibilities, and nothing would be more perverse than to deny it.- Robert Musil

28.) Do not try to approach God with your thinking mind. It may only stimulate your intellectual ideas, activities, and beliefs. Try to approach God with your crying heart. It will awaken your soulful, spiritual consciousness. Sri Chinmoy

29.) The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best that is in us. It is only through our own personal awakening that the world can be awakened. We cannot give what we do not have. Marianne Williamson

30.) Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.- John ODonohue

31.) Times are difficult globally; awakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal. Its becoming critical. We dont need to add more depression, more discouragement, or more anger to whats already here. Its becoming essential that we learn how to relate sanely with difficult times. The earth seems to be beseeching us to connect with joy and discover our innermost essence. This is the best way that we can benefit others. Pema Chodron

32.) Through spiritual maturity you will see new ways to avoid unnecessary suffering; wiser ways to endure unavoidable hardships with grace, and opportunities to turn your pain into lessons of service and healing for others. Your hard journey has had a great purpose! Your pain was always a part of a plan to open your heart to love. Have faith. A miracle is happening in your life; the miracle of pain is transforming you to your highest self. Bryant H. McGill

33.) Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.- Vernon Howard

34.) True happiness comes not when we get rid of all of our problems, but when we change our relationship to them, when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice, and to learn.- Richard Carlson

35.) There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. Louis LAmour

36.) Upon awakening, let the words Thank You flow from your lips, for this will remind you to begin your day with gratitude and compassion. Wayne Dyer

37.) We need limitations and temptations to open our inner selves, dispel our ignorance, tear off disguises, throw down old idols, and destroy false standards. Only by such rude awakenings can we be led to dwell in a place where we are less cramped, less hindered by the ever-insistent External. Only then do we discover a new capacity and appreciation of goodness and beauty and truth.- Helen Keller

38.) The next time you find yourself in some way trying desperately to land safely, your compassion might be what finally gives you the courage you need to let go of the controls. In doing so, you might discover that each time you let go, it becomes easier and easier to re-enter the atmosphere of your own aliveness. Gradually youll come home to the flow of your own living presence, the warmth and space of your awakening heart.- Tara Brach

39.) First, we become aware of that which is Divine around us. Then we become aware of that which is Divine within us. Finally, we become aware that all is Divine, and that there is nothing else. This is the moment of our awakening.- Neale Donald Walsch

40.) He who is free in the body, but bound in the soul is a slave; but on the contrary he who is bound in the body, but free in the soul, is truly free. Epictetus

41.) The enlightened give thanks for what most people take for granted. As you begin to be grateful for what most people take for granted, the vibration of gratitude makes you more receptive to good in your life. Michael Bernard Beckwith

42.) History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster. Douglas MacArthur

43.) Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.- Mahatma Gandhi

44.) It isnt until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within that you can begin to take control.- Oprah Winfrey

45.) Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force that thoughts rule the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson

46.) Once you awaken you will have no interest in judging those who sleep. James Blanchard

47.) The spiritual path is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just dont know it. Marianne Williamson

48.) The essence of spirituality is, to be constantly aware of the oneness of all; at the same time to celebrate the uniqueness of the individual. Jaggi Vasudev

49.) I think a spiritual journey is not so much a journey of discovery. Its a journey of recovery. Its a journey of uncovering your own inner nature. Its already there.- Billy Corgan

50.) You think of yourselves as humans searching for a spiritual awakening, when in fact you are spiritual beings attempting to cope with a human awakening. Seeing yourselves from the perspective of the spirit within will help you to remember why you came here and what you came here to do.- Neale Donald Walsch

Spiritual awakening has many benefits. It leads to self-realization and can help you lead a blissful and content life.

When you finally reach that higher shift in consciousness and understanding, youll be able to enjoy a fulfilled, meaningful life. Hopefully, the above quotes will inspire you to wake up so that you live the life of your dreams and attain the success you desire.

Did you enjoy these spiritual awakening quotes? Which of the quotes was your favorite? Let us know in the comment section below.

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50 Spiritual Awakening Quotes Celebrating Enlightenment

Spiritual Enlightenment PDF EPUB Download Cause of You …

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The Power of Now – Wikipedia

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The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment is a book by Eckhart Tolle. The book is intended to be a guide for day-to-day living and stresses the importance of living in the present moment and avoiding thoughts of the past or future.

Published in the late 1990s,[1] the book was recommended by Oprah Winfrey[2] and has been translated into 33 languages.[3] As of 2009, it was estimated that three-million copies had been sold in North America.[4]

The book draws from a variety of "spiritual traditions",[5] and has been described by one reviewer as "Buddhism mixed with mysticism and a few references to Jesus Christ, a sort of New Age re-working of Zen."[6] It uses these traditions to describe a "belief system based on living in the present moment".[7] Its core message is that people's emotional problems are rooted in their identification with their minds.[8] The author writes that an individual should be aware of their "present moment" instead of losing themselves in worry and anxiety about the past or future.[2]

According to the book, only the present moment is important,[5] and both an individual's past and future is created by their thoughts.[6] The author maintains that people's insistence that they have control of their life is an illusion "that only brings pain".[5] The book also describes methods of relaxation and meditation to aid readers in anchoring themselves in the present.[5] These suggestions include slowing down life by avoiding multi-tasking, spending time in nature, and letting go of worries about the future.[9] Some of the concepts contained in The Power of Now, such as the human ego and its negative effects on happiness, are further elaborated in the author's later books, in particular A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (2005).[7]

The chapters of the book are: "Introduction", "You Are Not Your Mind", "Consciousness: The Way Out of Pain", "Moving Deeply into the Now", "Mind Strategies for Avoiding the Now", "The State of Presence", "The Inner Body", "Portals into the Unmanifested", "Enlightened Relationships", "Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There Is Peace" and "The Meaning of Surrender".[10] Various chapters emphasize a philosophy of destroying the destructive dominance of the mind and ego in an effort to overcome the pain body.[7] According to the author, his philosophy is directed towards people and their search for personal happiness and also has the potential to give insight into historical disasters like the justification of an evil political system such as Communism.[7]

In the book's introduction the author relates his past experiences of continuous anxiety with periods of suicidal depression. Later, when he was 29 years old, he had a personal epiphany and writes: "I heard the words 'resist nothing' as if spoken inside my chest." He relates that he felt as if he were falling into a void and afterwards "there was no more fear."[11]

In Chapter Two, Tolle tells the reader that they must recognize their personal ego "without the ego creating an antagonistic response to its own denial or destruction" and explains the purposelessness of the "mental pain and anguish" that people hold on to.[12] According to the book: "The pain-body consists of trapped life-energy that has split off from your total energy field and has temporarily become autonomous through the unnatural process of mind identification."[8] In this chapter the author writes: "pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible".[8] The author goes on to write that "many people live with a tormentor in their head that continuously attacks and punishes them and drains them of vital energy. It is the cause of untold misery and unhappiness."[5]

In Chapter Three, the author writes: "In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness, the power and creative potential that lie concealed in the Now are completely obscured by psychological time. You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present. Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be."[8]

In Chapter Four, Tolle says that "tomorrow's bills are not the problem" and can be a "core delusion" that changes a "mere situation, event or emotion" into a reason for suffering and unhappiness.[13] The book also calls "waiting" a "state of mind" that we should snap ourselves out of.[13]

The book was originally published in 1997 by Namaste Publishing in Vancouver. It was republished in 1999 by New World Library, and this edition reached and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for years afterwards.[8] The book has been translated into 33 languages, including Arabic.[3][14]

In 2000, the book was listed as recommended reading in Oprah Winfrey's O magazine and, according to Winfrey, the actress Meg Ryan also recommended it.[2] A Christian author, Andrew Ryder, wrote a dissertation saying that "Tolle moves the traditional [Christian] teaching forward by illustrating how our obsession with the past and the future ... [prevents] us from giving our full attention to the present moment."[15] William Bloom, a spokesperson for the holistic, mind-body-spirit movement in the UK, wrote that "Tolle's approach is very body aware. He's done it in a nice accessible way for people."[8]

Some reviewers were more critical of the book. According to a review in the Telegraph Herald, the book is not very well-written but contains some good teachings.[5] Andrea Sachs wrote in TIME magazine that the book is "awash in spiritual mumbo jumbo" and "unhelpful for those looking for practical advice".[16] An article in The Independent said that "there is not very much new about The Power of Now" and described it as "a sort of New Age re-working of Zen."[6]

When Paris Hilton was incarcerated at the Century Regional Detention Facility in California in June 2007 she brought with her a copy of The Power of Now.[8] Singer Annie Lennox chose The Power of Now as one of her "desert island books", as did the comedian Tony Hawks.[8] Singer Katy Perry stated that she was inspired to write "This Moment", a song from her 2013 album Prism, after she heard the audio book of The Power of Now.[17]

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The Power of Now - Wikipedia

Enlightenment | Enlightened Beings

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By Jafree Ozwald

To experience enlightenment right now, takes absolute total surrender to What Is. The natural basic pure simple Isness of existence. To experience this, start with letting go of all efforting to get somewhere better than here now, and start playing like a curious kid again. What is here now is the God Source, what could be better than that?

Deep curiosity will bring you closer to enlightenment. You have to drop the mind however somehow. You already have unlimited divine potentiality and exquisite imagination happening inside the mind. Use the mind, just dont be used by it. Let your mind fly free. Fly along beside it. Yet do not get attached to any feeling, thought or desire. Only then you can know true freedom and truly be the master of your mind.

The greatest cosmic joke of all is this. On the deepest level of existence, your unlimited presence is already divine, it is already abiding in The Highest Enlightened State. This is who you really are. Pure Presence, unencumbered by the mind.

Realize this core truth and youll see that you are already free from all your imaginary sufferings. You are FREE to leave this experience of suffering at any time. You already have an out of jail pass. You can open your mind and let the sky, the Universe, with its all-loving, accepting, sensual energy take you in! Let this Enlightened Universe cradle you like a baby. Relax and let yourself be supported by its majesty.

The greatest action you can do to become enlightened today is to just relax. Not kind of let go, relax half ass, or relax for a few minutes. Relax deeper into yourself, more than you ever have in your entire life. Let go of all tensions on every level.

You have the power inside you to let go of whatever your minds clinging to. This clinging inside you is perpetuating your suffering. Dont be afraid to be separated or unattached to anything. You are already connected in the most intimate ways to everything. Just relax with whatever you cannot relax with.

When you just cannot relax, spend your time welcoming the feeling of real magical freedom into your body. You are a magical being. Your thoughts are always creating your reality. You can imagine anything you want!

Life is eternal. You will get the chance to have another body, another life, after you die. Your spirit is forever. You are a spiritual being who cannot be killed. Feeling into the truth of this timelessness, this spacious existence is soooo deeply liberating. The door opens to enlightenment when all attachment to the material world has resigned.

This ego of yours is here for one purpose, to melt into the ocean of existence. So everyday when you wake up choose to dissolve, surrender and melt into this living state of bliss. You will quickly transcend any block that comes your way. This is a benefit of Enlightenment!

All rivers of thought come from and return to the ocean of Existence. They were never separate thoughts that were privately yours. This is the nature of reality. When you live in the flowing river of thought, knowing there are infinite bandwidths to listen to, you discover your true spiritual essence and your lifes awakening mission.

You are here to have a highly enjoyable experience of being human. You were given a body to feel profound sensual pleasures. You were given skin so you could be sensually touched, taste buds to enjoy drinking and eating, ears to hear music and sensual sounds, eyes to see the Divine beauty all around you, and a nose to smell sacred fragrances around you. Enjoy living in this body, do not resist enjoying it.

Breathe, relax, and accept all the amazing freedom that is available to you. You are human AND divine! Play while youre still alive. Choose to be young at heart, let go of your burdens and explore life! This freedom is available today. It is yours nowyou can reach out and take it.

Feel the pain that is created from clinging to heavy contracted thoughts and feelings. Feel how these old illusions make you feel and believe that youre separate from an Infinite Loving Source. Only through feeling this pain will you realize this is not the path to enlightenment and youll begin to naturally effortlessly choose to be free from your suffering. Just commit yourself to being honest with your experience of life and play!

Enlightenment is already yours. You dont have to do anything to deserve it. You are already worthy of it. You were born worthy. You are already with whatever energetic/spiritual connection that Buddha and Christ had. This is found through meditation, the merging of your higher Self with your lower Self.

Another golden key to enlightenment is learning to live the quality of trust. This is about surrendering everything over to God. The all intelligent Universe is ultimately in charge of itself. It wont always give you whatever your ego wants if there is something better for your enlightenment available.

Know yourself. Realize that your ego is a wanting machine that cannot be turned off. Its job is to desire, so that you move, take action, to grow and become divinely creative. The Universe never makes mistakes, the deepest darkness makes the stars bright.

Embrace and move through every imprisoned feeling that arises inside you. Release whatever arises in you, and relax into the oceanic experience of your being through your day. Explore what its like to truly let go of everything and just BE!

Believe it or not, letting go is easier than you think! Its absolutely easy and effortlessness to relax your grip on life. Its your mind and ego who is holding on to something and creating your suffering. Simply experience the vast infinite Universe in this moment and drop any clinging you have to it. The moment you drop your suffering, a part of you dies and is reborn.

You might as well ask, How can you tell that the sun is shining upon your face? You cannot see the Sun light hitting your face, yet you feel it and the warmth is delicious to your soul. This is what Enlightenment is like. It will be so obvious that you cannot miss it.

Enlightenment is remembering that you are the Sun. It is your innermost being. It is the Source of existence, your existence. Your Universe will not exist if you do not exist.

There is an awesome Universal intelligence right here, right now, that is guiding you every step along the way. Ask it to guide you into your deepest enlightened state of being. Through this deep and simple surrender into what is here now, you will find that you were always guided everyday, and the greatest Universal intelligence exists inside you.

The more you can surrender to life, the more open you become to experiencing this supreme enlightened consciousness that is the core of your very being. It is your essence. Enlightenment is your natural state of being and is seen, felt and known when the mind is not clinging to anything.

Now is the only time that there is. The past and future are fabrications of the mind. Without the mind you experience this entire Universe unfolding perfectly, magically. The now contains your doorway to enlightenment. No other time will do.

Open your eyes, spread your wings, disappear into the wondrous Light of your inner most being. Your spiritual essence is here now to be experienced. All of your lifetimes have been merely a great preparation for you to wake up to realizing and exploring this great experience, right now. Now is the only time you can relax and truly know that you are as brilliant, bright, and beautiful as a newly born Sun.

Enlightenment is an awakening to the Light in you. It also happens at the speed of light! Enlightenment may take you many months, years, or lifetimes of deep self-inquiry, inner exploration, and letting go. Yet, this experience is the main purpose why you came here. You have all the time you need to experience it. Just be very careful and watch out for everything in the world that will distract you from this purpose.

All your problems, issues, distractions, negative feelings/thoughts, and judgments are your fuel that are propelling you forward into this light of your Divine Consciousness. The world will always deliver to you the perfect people, situations and stumbling blocks that you are needing to stand up in this light.

Your life is always bigger than what the mind can imagine.

Within each chaotic moment there is something called the Spiritual Cyclone. When you bring all of your attention into the present moment you can feel it. It is the most enlightening, wondrous, divine and orgasmic cyclone of energy because at its very center there resides a deep stillness and divine awareness. This is no ordinary awareness, this is looking at the world through peace-filled eyes and an open heart bursting with appreciation.

How to access this enlightened spiritual space when trapped within the chaos and suffering? Look towards the stillness that is found in the very center of your innermost core and being. It is only in this place you will discover peace. A powerful spiritual knowledge always exists here that will make you completely aware that there is nothing to fear.

Abide in this center for the next 24 hours and you will see. Commit to living daily from this space and you will feel a deep surrender to this divine creative Universe. You will find yourself automatically manifesting a rich life, full of meaning, clarity, depth and bliss in every connection with everyone you meet. Eventually, you will discover that YOU are never separate from The Divine Enlightened Source. Be patient and yet persistent with the process of surrender. One day you will see that everywhere you go is the infinite source of love, intelligence and power. Simply dive deep withinthe clouds will soon part and you will truly see.

Enlightenment is a continual freeing of your old thinking patterns that opens you to a cosmic presence and loving energy everything. Its realizing that God is here now always. It is seeing each person, circumstance and outcome in the most positive ways.

How to know when you meet a person who is on the path to enlightenment? The enlightened person will always remind you of the powerful God-Being you already are. They will always help you discover that no matter how stuck you may feel on the inside, there is an unforeseen path that is limitless, loving and free. The enlightened person will not say they are enlightened for they know this is an infinite path and they will be forever in the enlightening process. You will know them by the sparkle in their eye and the warmth of their heart. The true enlightening being knows that true power comes from the connection with the Universal Source inside.

When you are on the path to enlightenment you are 100% devoted to God. This is not just an external God, but an internal God-Source as well. Its a connection that brings you a deeper healing, love, freedom, trust and a knowingness that YOU are much more than your body and mind. Its a devotion that asks for nothing in return. Its purpose is simply for the spiritual connection with Source. This devotion brings such a deep clarity of life purpose and absolute success in everything you do, every day of your life.

Enlightenment is about empowering others and yourself to discover that inner peace is your most natural state. This inner peace breeds the greatest self-confidence and transformation in ones energy and perspective. It is the most effortless, easy, and essential core of who you are. Enlightenment is about reaching out to others with a great compassion and acceptance, no matter how negative they are. We are all alchemists by nature, meaning our ego is here to transform itself into what is more light, joyful, loving and free. One who discovers this hidden truth within themselves, can find it in those who are hiding their God-Source from the world.

Enlightenment is being free from your past, from all your karma. You are fully in this moment, 100% aware and relaxed, totally open, deeply available to life, and feeling everything that arises 24 hours a day.In the enlightened state you are ONE with the Ocean of Existence. You feel and know there is no separate you. This knowingness creates a rediscovery in each moment that the real YOU is perpetually found within everything and everyone. You see that the world is your mirror. Youre aware of your reflection everywhere you go, and feel an intimate oneness with the entire Universe.

Sitting quietly, simply doing nothingbut being present to your infinite presence the grass, trees and you continue to grow and reveal their sweet divinity.

I have a little enlightening homework assignment for you. I want you to look deeper inside yourself for the next 7 days to see that you are an Infinite Being. I want all your friends and family to look at you next week and realize how amazing you are truly are. It will be so wonderful for them to experience something truly magnificent in you. What if every person on the street begins to feel your warmth and divine presence when you walk by, as if you were a relaxing gentle breeze gliding along the Ocean shore.

I want you to realize how easy it is for YOU to joyfully live out your highest dreams and aspirations. I want you to LIVE each day as if THIS WAS the greatest day of your existence!! What if you decided to remind yourself everyday that your life is a magical journey which you are continuously creating? What if you started to believe that you are ALWAYS connected to an ever-powerful and loving magical source of energy ALL the time? What do you need right now to feel a deeper sense of power and relaxation inside?

Just who do you want to be tomorrow? Perhaps your future is not set in stone. Just maybe it is ALL yours to create, imagine, and decide to manifest however you want it to be. What if you repeatedly imagined your future every morning EXACTLY as you wanted it to be? I bet it would soon become your reality.

What would today be like if you knew there is a brilliant conscious light inside everything and everyone?

I want you to do something very very radical right now. I want you to stop and think about that ONE fear that has been running and controlling your life most of the time. Replace that fear with an invincible love for yourself and forgiveness. Whatever your fear is, it is not worth clinging to. It is here to teach you how to let go, and how to love again. Your fear is just an illusion your mind made up! It is not as important as LOVE, so let it go and dive back into loving something else!

Why is it important to find, catch and release this fear? You can experience the whole perfection of the Universe right now when this fear is freed. So you can be totally free! Once you realize the depth this fear has been running behind the scenes of the show, you will let it go. Then your mind will have the energy to start generating all kinds of thoughts that are beneficial to you and the people around you.

An unlimited supply of freedom is available inside you right now. It is waiting for you to become courageous enough to let go of your suffering and taste it!

Do you want to have even more fun? Go tell your neighbor how amazing they are. Flow out a constant river of appreciation to everyone you meet for the next 24 hours and see what happens! I dare you. Why wouldnt you have the guts to do this? So what if people think you are a crazy fool. If you are experiencing an overflowing river of aliveness then they are the one who is missing the point of life. I want you to practice this feeling of freedom and reaching out to connect with everybody on the planet. There is already so much life and love around you. If you dont see this, you are looking in the wrong direction! This divine loving energy is flowing through everything, God is hereNow!

Let go of everything that is stopping you right now from being at peace. Make this a conscious choice every moment of every day. Being in this divine Source of love for life is to consistently choose to come home to the peace within yourself.

Know that deep within your heartat the very core, YOU are perfect, whole and complete exactly as you are. This moment right now is your golden opportunity to enter the divine. After you enter, you will be wide awake.You will know the absolute Truth, that you are without flaws.

This door to exploring this flawlessness inside you is always open. Take this precious day of your life and move through this door. Your life is precious, so very precious. Do not waste it on trivial matters. Open this door, discover the wonders at the core of your being. This is time and the place to reveal your greatest most enlightened Self. This is the peak experience of your existence. YOU!!

You are an infinite ocean of consciousness, an immortal being who knows no boundary or limitation. Surrender to that!

By Emmett Fox

This is a story of a man who became a prisoner for some misdeed that angered the King of his particular country. He was arrested and shut up in a dungeon beneath the castle. A ferocious-looking jailer carrying a long key escorted the man down a dark stairway. The door of the cell was opened, and the man was thrust into a dark hole. The door shut with a bang, and there he was.

He lay in that dark dungeon for twenty years. Each day the jailer would come, the big door would be opened with a great creaking and groaning, a pitcher of water and a loaf of bread would be thrust into the cell and the door closed again.

After twenty years the prisoner decided that he could not stand it any longer. He wanted to die but he did not want to commit suicide, so he decided that the next day when the jailer came he would attack him. The jailer would then kill him in self- defense, and thus his misery would be at an end.

To prepare for the next day, he decided to examine the door carefully. When the prisoner went to the door, he caught the handle and turned it. To his amazement the door opened, and upon investigation he found that there was no lock and never had been. For those twenty years he had not been locked in except in belief. At any time during that period, he could have opened the door and been free.

He thought it was locked, but it was not. He groped along the corridor and felt his way upstairs. At the top of the stairs two soldiers were chatting, and they made no attempt to stop him. He crossed the great yard without attracting attention. The armed guard on the drawbridge at the great gate paid no attention to him, and he walked out a free man.

He went home untouched and lived happily ever after. He realized that he could have left at any time throughout those long years since his arrest if he had known enough, but he did not. He was a captive, not of stone and iron, but of false belief. He was not locked in; he only thought he was imprisoned.

In may be safe to say that we all are prisoners, to some extent, of own making. We may find ourselves imprisoned by anger, resentment, remorse, or the belief that there are no other options for us in our lives and jobs that we are locked into doing what we are currently doing.

What kind of prison might you be living in that you would like to get out of? Remember, the prison is in our thoughts and the key to our release is the desire to be freed from limiting thoughts

>>>>> Enlightening Affirmation for Today <<<<<

Just for today I am soft, open and receptive to life! I am leaving my inner prison of fear, doubt and worryand entering a new life devoted to total freedom in this amazing Divine Existence!

Many blessings to you,Jafree

Perhaps you are already awake and have realized that we are all riding on the wave of experiencing a global enlightenment.

As the world has stepped into the 21st Century and we are all realizing that weve reached our outer physical limits of exploration and are needing to find the inner world as our endless route of discovery. The inner world is this territory and is being prepared for ALL of us to move deeper into and discover our own divine consciousness and develop our true God given manifesting powers. This global awakening leaves only one place left for everyone to explore the God Source of our very nature and being.

The real truth is that the future is so amazingly bright, flawless and perfect already that our limited minds/Egos cannot imagine its perfection happening to us. Thus we create a darkness inside to protect us from that which we fear exists. These fears only really exist in our own minds interpretation of the Light and our imagination.

In Reality, the MIND is causing all our problems and delusions. There is only Light, and lesser degrees of Light. There is no thing thats 100% evil, wrong, bad or void of God. The mind will make you and everyone around you believe there is darkness here. There is actually soooo much light and consciousness inside each one of us that if one courageous person came out of hiding he/she would change the way the entire world thinks forever.

How long can you wait to experience THIS truth of your existence? How long can you personally pretend life is meaningless and comes to a dead end? How can you NOT believe its a miraculous magical ride all the way home? It is up to you. New communities of awakened beings are popping up ALL around our society, in every country around the World. Now is the time to jump on the Awakening Train and take action with the knowledge you have been given and share your life energetically and generously with the people on this planet today.

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Enlightenment | Enlightened Beings

Spiritual Enlightenment Marilyn Murphy

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A little bit about who I am and what I do:

I was born and raised in San Rafael, California. My mother was a native Hawaiian, born and raised. She was a healer, intuitive, and clairvoyant .My father was a gifted intuitive and a master of meditation and all knowledge in regards to the metaphysical realms. I consider myself holistic, thats how I was raised.

I am a Healer- Ascension, Reiki, Shaman release work, Advanced Crystal Therapy, Emotion code release work and sound healing.

I am a Medium, Clairvoyant, Clairsentient and Empath. I channel spirit.

I am a Teacher. I offer many different classes and circles. Sometimes, I get Infused Knowledge. It can happen when I look into your eyes. I get a glimpse of your past life.

For the past nine years, Ive organized, worked and hosted the Wellness Metaphysical Fairs in New Berlin. I am in the process of writing a book on my lifes work and how I became, who I am today.

Let me explain what these terms below mean for those of you who are unfamiliar:

Intuitive-I can read your energy.

Medium I work between the worlds. Spirits on the other side come to me with messages for their loved ones here on earth. I bring comfort, and closure to those who have lost loved ones.I am able to see, hear and experience spirits from the other dimensions who operate at a higher frequency levels than ours on earth. I am the messenger, between you and the spirit world.

Clairvoyant-Its the ability to see beings, objects or information that originate from the other side, objects from the past that no longer exist in the present or visions of future events. Clairvoyants have whats sometimes called second sight, which allows their eyes to perceive a wider range of input and frequencies than normal.

Clairseitience-Is the ability to receive a silent thought, message or projected emotion, from nearby or from the other dimensions, and experience it as an actual physical and emotional sensation. Its empathy in hyper drive. I feel peoples pain and grief, and sometimes I see a reenactment of an accident, murder, or cause of death.

Infused Knowledge-This one is hard to explain, but Ill try. People always ask me how do you know? My reply is, I just do. Infused knowledge is a fascinating phenomenon in which information is directly transferred from one mind to another with no involvement at all from the five senses. But unlike other mind-to-mind communication, like telepathy, for example, the receiver is given information he had no knowledge of before, without having any conscious awareness of where it came from.

Healer-Shaman Energy Healing is a powerful deep level of Healing work. It can help release long standing issues so you can move forward on your life path. Your session may include body/Aura cleansing, release of past-life or karmic imprints, Ancestral Healing, Cord releasing, and more. Sometimes messages from spirit come through too. Ascension, Laying on of Hands Healing Reiki, Clearing trapped Emotions, advanced crystal therapy. and sound healing.

As I work spirit guides me to what it is you need to release, unblock, remove, whatever it is ?Sometimes people feel things leaving their bodies. Others see colors. Clients always tell me they feel lighter. Thats due to all the things we removed from your body that has been with you for a very, very long time. I remove things that are no longer serving you.

I have been blessed with many gifts. I know my lifes purpose is to share what I know and see, and bring Peace, Comfort, Healingand Guidance to those here on earth.

We are all spiritual beings, living a human experience.

Sometimes before a reading, a spirit will start giving me information in the most unusual places.I dont have a clue who the message is for initially, but spirit always knows before I do. He puts that person in my path, and I intuitively know who the message is for. The spirits are funny, and they have the same personalities as they did when they were here on earth! They will hound me constantly day, after day, until I give the message to whom ever its for!

My hope is that if you have Questions that need answers or if you just need guidance in your life, or Comfort and Closure on a loved ones passing, I hope you will allow me to help.

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

To see what I offer in :Readings/ Private parties/ Events/Classes/and Testimonials. Please click on links.

Live, Laugh, and Love

Blessings,

Marilyn

For an appointment please call: (414)530-5477

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Spiritual Enlightenment Marilyn Murphy

Spiritual Enlightenment and Sound Amara Strand

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If youre one of the growing number of people who experience sudden spiritual enlightenment, you may be surprised by all the sound effects that arise from your newly expanded awareness.

This is the constant sound at the very base of manifested reality. Its similar to OM, but much richer than you could previously have imagined.

Hearing this is constant, for a while. Dont worry, it does recede after some time. Or at least, it did for me. This went on for around 4 months and now I usually only hear it when I focus on it.

This one stopped me in my tracks. I could not even pretend to pay attention to anything else when it came on. This is the sound that happens when your perception of time slows down ( or expandsits really hard to find words for it ) to the point where you actually see reality collapse and then burst back into fullness. Its like the pulse of reality. Nothing we see is stable, it collapses into the Void and then, Bangit burst back out. Its a bit like slowing down a movie so you can actually see the individual frames, except that in between frames, everything collapses into the Void.

Of course, the first time it happened to me, I said, wait, did you see that?! I was chatting with a friend at home in my living room. I must have seemed like I was on a permanent, years long drug trip to the people who lived with me. And I could not imagine that I could see and hear such things that were so vivid and apparent, while no one else did.

Everything has a name, and that name is a vibration, a sound. If the sound stopped, the thing or person, or whateverwould cease to be. The thing is the sound. You may hear the sound, or the name, of people, furniture, plants, animals. This is the least distracting of all the sounds. Its actually quite beautiful.

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Spiritual Enlightenment and Sound Amara Strand

Path to Spiritual Enlightenment – Inner Engineering

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How you can reach enlightenment and live an enlightened lifeThroughout history, there have been human beings who lived very powerfully. We call them the spiritually enlightened. They had a special kind of wisdom, insight and deep awareness about life. Many were unknown, they just simply lived and some were known to the point where religions were formed around them. Others became a doorway for others to achieve enlightenment, while some became a simply an inspiration and testament to spiritual enlightenment. The way they lived showed others that spiritual enlightenment is possible.If you are reading this, you must be curious about how to achieve enlightenment. Perhaps you are not able to define spiritual enlightenment yourself, but you may be wondering, what is enlightenment, who am I? why am I here? where did I come from and where am I going?Question: How to reach enlightenment? Is there a specific path to reach spiritual enlightenment?Sadhguru answers: In India, enlightened beings have been referred to as Dwijas. Dwija means twice-born. Once, you were born out of your mothers womb; it happened unconsciously. You did not make it happen nature did it for you. When you were born, you came with a certain innocence and blissfulness. A child is innocent and blissful by himself. But since this blissfulness did not happen consciously, anybody can corrupt it in no time. In no time, they will take it away For some of you, it was taken away by the time you were 12 or 13 years of age; for many it was already taken away when they were 5 to 6. Children are becoming tense at 5 to 6 years of age today because their innocence gets corrupted in no time, depending upon the volume of influence that people around have on them.Now, if you have to be born once again, you must die first. If you are not willing to die, the question of being reborn doesnt arise. This does not mean dying physically. If you leave this body, some other nonsense will be waiting for you. But if you die the way you are, if you destroy everything that you called myself, then you are born once again. This kind of birth happens 100% consciously. Once again you become blissful and innocent, but fully aware. Now, this blissfulness cannot be taken away by anybody. So, what you call enlightenment means a conscious self-annihilation.

Seeking physical well-being is one thing. Seeking enlightenment is something else.Seeking physical well-being is one thing. Seeking enlightenment is something else. To enhance physical well-being, you need to learn different techniques of self-preservation. Enlightenment means a conscious annihilation of yourself. For most people, it will take a certain amount of time and maturing to understand that whatever you make yourself to be, in the end, it is frustrating and not enough. However wonderful you make yourself, still it is not enough. Only when you disappear, everything becomes wonderful.So, if right now all someone wants is to be peaceful and happy, and do better in the activities they are doing lets have that, its okay. That doesnt mean enlightenment is ruled out, but such a longing has not come yet. Still, the basic longing is to live better. You are not yet finished with life you want to live well. When you have lived enough and you know that living better is not going to get you anywhere, then you want to go beyond life. So this desire to go beyond life is the beginning of walking the path to spiritual enlightenment. India is home to traditions which have produced paths for people to walk towards becoming enlightened. For thousands of years and up until today, there is a direct transmission of the knowledge of how to reach enlightenment from teacher to student. This is a deep relationship based on one goal: reaching spiritual enlightenment.There is a popular saying, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. The seekers sincerity will surely guide them on becoming enlightened by walking the path to spiritual enlightenment. This is the case, for when the curiosity of a seeker reaches its zenith and one looks for a path to spiritual enlightenment. It is also the responsibility and privilege of the tradition to provide a path to spiritual enlightenment for future generationsto protect and safeguard the teachings, methods and instructions. This creates a deep sense of authenticity and therefore, trust in the seeker on the path to spiritual enlightenment.

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Path to Spiritual Enlightenment - Inner Engineering

Sunday Service Speakers – The Center for Spiritual …

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Ani Rinchen Khandro became ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1988. In addition to participating in Kunzang Palyul Chling's (KPC) 24 hour prayer vigil and being an active member of the KPC community,Ani Rinchenhas facilitated beginning meditation at the temple, talked about Buddhism in the Montgomery County public schools, shared meditation practices with the Interfaith Meditation Initiative and taken Buddhist teachings and practices into the Maryland State Correctional System. Her practice is to accomplish the two-fold purpose: the benefit of self and the benefit of other.Ani Rinchen'slife is full, sometimes very challenging, and always becoming wider in scope and deeper in understanding and compassion.

Nancy Ryall is an Evidential Medium, Trance Medium, Teacher, Healer and Minister who travels throughout the United States. Nancy Ryall is a member of the National Spiritualist Associations of Churches and the International Spiritualist Federation.

Karen Clark-Stone serves the CSE as a member of the Board of Directors and the Membership Committee. In addition to serving as a CSE student healer, Karen is a Reiki Master, a certified Level 1 and 2 Spring Forest Qigong (chee-gong) Instructor and certified Spring Forest Qigong Healer. She leads a qigong practice group that meets at the CSE. Karen volunteers as a Reiki Practitioner at the Virginia Hospital Center Reiki Program for Oncology patients. Shes also a faculty member and volunteer at the Institute for the Advancement of Service in Alexandria. Karen is a retired Registered Nurse, having last served as an Advanced Practice Psychiatric Mental Health nurse at the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The Rev. Dr. Rosemary Calderalo is an NSAC ordained minister and holds the NSAC credentials of certified medium, commissioned healer and National Spiritualist Teacher. She is a member of the Morris Pratt Institute as well as a member here at CSE. Among other volunteer work, Rosemary serves as the General Secretary for the International Spiritualist Federation. Her focus on healing first brought her to a Spiritualist church in 2006; she has served churches throughout the country and recently for the first time internationally at Seafordspirit Centre in the UK. Rosemary holds a doctorate in adult education and consults with nonprofit organizations on resource development. Originally from New York City, she now lives in Pasadena, MD.

April 21stAni Rinchen

June 9thRev. Rosemary Calderalo

Rita O'Connor is a member of the Pastoral Committee here at CSE. She is an NSAC ordained Spiritualist minister who has served CSE for many years, both on the board and as a speaker and healer. She was first attracted to Spiritualism by the phenomena, but it was the philosophy that led her to become a minister. Rita has a background in education and in IT, with degrees from the University of Maryland. Rev. OConnor co-authored A Book of Spiritualist Prayer which is available through the NSAC bookstore, and her articles are published occasionally in The National Spiritualist Summit.

The Rev. Dr. Rosemary Calderalo is an NSAC ordained minister and holds the NSAC credentials of certified medium, commissioned healer and National Spiritualist Teacher. She is a member of the Morris Pratt Institute as well as a member here at CSE. Among other volunteer work, Rosemary serves as the General Secretary for the International Spiritualist Federation. Her focus on healing first brought her to a Spiritualist church in 2006; she has served churches throughout the country and recently for the first time internationally at Seafordspirit Centre in the UK. Rosemary holds a doctorate in adult education and consults with nonprofit organizations on resource development. Originally from New York City, she now lives in Pasadena, MD.

Carol Caesaris a life-long Spiritualist originally from California who began attending development classes when she was eleven and studied under physical medium, the Rev Anna Franz until she was eighteen. In college she started her own Home Circle and upon graduation, moved to our area. She has been a CSE member for twenty years and has served since 2004 as speaker, healer, chairperson, orientation class teacher, and often leads the Friday Night Meditation Hour. She has completed her MPI coursework and Pastoral Skills Training towards becoming a Commissioned Healer and Ordained Minister. She is a Certified Dementia Practitioner; prompted due to caring for family members with Alzheimers/Dementia. She enjoys studying Spiritualist history, cooking organic foods, and being married. Her motto is, Thankful for Every Day.

May 12thRev. Rosemary Calderalo

The Center for Spiritual Enlightenment

Al was born into a Spiritualist family and is a 4th generation Spiritualist. He has spent several years studying altered states of consciousness and practices as a trance healing medium. When not involved with healing he devotes his time to the study and teaching of Spiritualist philosophy. He has authored three books on Spiritualism and conducts workshops, lectures, and offers private healing sittings in Canada, England and the United States..

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Cloud computing: A complete guide | IBM

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Enterprises eager to undergo digital transformations and modernize their applications are quick to see the value of adopting a cloud computing platform. They are increasingly finding business agility or cost savings by renting software. Each cloud computing service and deployment model type provides you with different levels of control, flexibility and management. Therefore, its important to understand the differences between them.

Common convention points to public cloud as the delivery model of choice; but, when considering the right architecture of cloud computing for your applications and workloads, you must begin by addressing the unique needs of your business.

This can include many factors, such as government regulations, security, performance, data residency, service levels, time to market, architecture complexity, skills and preventing vendor lock-in. Add in the need to incorporate the emerging technologies, and you can see why IT leaders are challenging the notion that cloud computing migration is easy.

At first glance, the types of cloud computing seem simple: public, private or a hybrid mix of both. In reality, the choices are many. Public cloud can include shared, dedicated and bare metal delivery models. Fully and partially managed clouds are also options. And, in some cases, especially for existing applications where architectures are too complex to move or the cost-benefit ratio is not optimal, cloud may not be the right choice.

The right model depends on your workload. You should understand the pluses and minuses of each cloud deployment model and take a methodical approach to determining which workloads to move to which type of cloud for the maximum benefit.

Dive deeper into specific cloud service and deployment models, cloud computing architecture and cloud computing examples

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Cloud Computing – Yahoo

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Background

Whats all the fluff about cloud computing? There are plenty of reasons its the most talked-about trend in technology. Starting with the fact that it helps reduce the up-front capital needed to build IT infrastructure and develop software. Cloud services are so appealing that the total market is expected to nearly triple from 2010 to 2016. (Yep, you read that right.)

Of course, technology companies have clamored to add cloud computing to their repertoires, leading to lots of M&A activity. Software and Internet deals represented 57% of transactions closed in 2012, a figure that has grown steadily over the last two years. All of which leaves the cloud looking like a lot more than a passing storm.

We identified US-listed stocks and American Depository Receipts of companies that are engaged in activities relevant to this watchlist's theme. We then filtered out companies that have a share price of less than .00 or a market capitalization less than 00 million, and excluded illiquid stocks by screening companies for liquidity i.e. average bid-ask spreads, dollar volume traded etc. Finally the proprietary Motif Optimization Engine determined the constituent stocks. Learn more about how we select our watchlists.

Motif is an online brokerage built on thematic portfolios of up to 30 stocks and ETFs. Founded in 2010 by Hardeep Walia, Motif combines complex proprietary algorithms with skilled advisers to develop these thematic portfolios. Learn more about our team.

First, we determined each company's percentage of total revenue derived from this watchlist's theme. Second, we applied a pure-play factor to give greater relative weight to companies that derive a higher percentage of their revenue from this theme. Finally, we weighted each company by its market capitalization adjusted for revenue exposure to the theme.

More details on how we build and weight watchlists are available here.

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Cloud Computing - Yahoo