Energies

Ah, the things we learn. Things that absolutely cannot possibly work, yet...do.

To wit: being able to discern the desirability of a given substance by pressing it into one's solar plexus while someone presses down on one's extended arm. If the arm is more easily pressed, the food, drink, drug or what-have-you is a poor choice for the individual; if the arm seems to grow stronger, then the individual will benefit from the substance.

I have not yet read the studies, so I withhold judgment until I've seen some of the experimental details, but David Hawkins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_R._Hawkins
appears to have done quite a few interesting pieces of research. I've got his book, Power vs. Force, coming from the library

And I've done the testing myself, on family members, and had them do the same to me. Fascinating stuff. Of course, it cannot possibly work, yet it does. Go on, try it - you know you want to: Stand with your left arm out and have your partner put his/her left hand on your right shoulder and try to push your arm down using the index and middle fingers of his/her right hand. The strength with which you can resist this pressing supposedly is an indicator of your general energetic health. (http://www.innersource.net - we love Donna Eden. Thanks, Katrina.) Now you hold the substance in question in your right hand, pressing it firmly into your solar plexus. Arm stronger = good for you, arm weaker = bad for you. We've even done rough double blind testing, and still the results come back: aspartame is really bad for everyone, sugar is bad for my husband (mr. pre-diabetes) but not so bad for me, various vitamins are better or worse for different family members. Those are the ones that get me - different results for different folks.

Can't you just hear Horatio muttering something about this being wondrous strange?

My next odd-but-true is a well-documented phenomenon in persons suffering from multiple personality disorder (itself, in my book, an odd-but-true.) It seems that one personality can be diabetic -or allergic, whatever - and another personality can be not so afflicted. Same body, different energies.

Next week sometime, assuming it Does Not Snow Any More - we got another 18" of the sloppy wet white stuff - I'll be getting back to work. Before I do, though, I'm going to a therapist (hold your applause, please) to be regressed through my past lives. This is another thing that cannot possibly work, yet appears to, and from my standpoint, whether or not something is "true" or understandable from a certain perspective is not nearly as important as whether or not its practice helps the individual.

Strange doin's on Jackass Hill.


Horatio: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

Hamlet: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.