In June of 1997, I swallowed every prescription in the medicine cabinet (there were quite a few) and chased them down with tequila – after drinking all day with a “friend.” In the wee hours of the morning, wearing only a tee shirt and my underwear, I dragged my blankie and curled up on the railroad tracks out in the woods to die.

Somehow someone found me and I was rushed to the hospital and stomach pumped. I spent two days in progressive care and then four days in the ward where they take all sharp objects and shoelaces away and have only one handle on the door – on the other side.

For years I could not recall anything about that event but awareness began leaking into my consciousness. Now I know that I was crying out to and was praying for help like I had never prayed before - desperately, and from the depths of my soul.

Fast Forward to 2008

The universe was trying to tell me something. But all I heard was noise–the commotion that was coming from across the street. My neighbor was demolishing his driveway. He was breaking old pavement into pieces with a jackhammer; I could feel the vibration in every room of my house.

There was no escaping the sound of reconstruction. No matter where I went, it followed me. Leaving home was not an option. My husband had taken our only car to run errands.

This was not the quiet Saturday I had planned. I couldn’t read my book or write in my journal. I couldn’t meditate or take a peaceful walk around the block. All I could do was take aspirin and pray for the noise to stop.

The project continued for hours; the noise was relentless. At one point my head was pounding, so I sat on the basement stairs, closed my eyes and made myself breathe. While I was covering my ears with my hands, thoughts surfaced out of nowhere. Maybe I’m hearing this noise for a reason.

As of October 23, 2009, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to inundate us with chilling swine flu tales: 46 states report a swine flu outbreak; 20,000 hospitalized with the Swine Flu since April; 1000 swine flu deaths in the US alone. In response, President Obama declared the Swine Flu outbreak a national emergency.

Chilling facts but There's Other Information

Behind this statistical mask, the pharmaceuticals tout their latest miracle drug to combat this enemy. In turn, our government urges and even demands our participation in a massive inoculation.

Panicked, many of us respond in fear. Due to this, people across the country wait in line to receive the swine flu vaccine. In Los Angeles County, according to Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, the county's director of public health, the county clinics vaccinate about 300 people an hour.

Given this information, what would Buddha do?

We landed late in the evening and yet it was hot. A dry heat hugged me when I stepped off of the plane and first touched her. I know now why Africa is called the "Motherland".

I first truly felt her about 12 hours after we landed. She moved so slowly and deeply and anciently. I felt the vibration reach through me and touch a place within and deeper than my bones...a place I had not yet consciously visited in this lifetime. She felt more like the Great Great Ancient Primal Grandmother to me as I allowed myself to experience her.

This was not the vibration of Mother Earth that I was used to feeling in the mountains of North Carolina or at the edge of the ocean or even in the western US. This was deeper than the deepest resonance I had known.

She worked diligently in my bones the entire time and birthed my energetic and physical systems from new depths. Frequencies I had not yet experienced burst forth from beneath my flesh and moved through me.

Ancient Memories

Dowsing: A Path to Enlightenment — by Joey Korn

When most people think of dowsing, they think of an old-timer using a forked tree branch to find a place to drill for underground water. That's what I used to think too. Now I see dowsing as a powerful tool for self-exploration, for understanding the natural forces of the Universe, and for working knowingly with the Divine and with Nature in our lives.

I learned to dowse in 1986 from a kindly old gentleman who helped me find our septic tank with a pair of cut up coat hangers. He had fashioned them into L-shaped wires (that's why they're called L-rods) and he walked with the long parts pointing ahead of him, using the short parts as handles.

Dowsing for Objects

The following is an excerpt (slightly edited) from the book, Sixth Sense, by Jock Brocas. What I love about this story (and the book) is that it emphasizes the idea that 1) we all can cultivate sixth sense skills. Also, 2) it shows the utter practicality of so doing. During these times of tremendous change, I believe it to be very important to reach for intelligence and perceptions beyond our old ways. Perhaps our collective survival will depend upon it.

Undercover Agent Cultivates a Sixth Sense

by J Brocas

Bridging the physical, mental and spiritual is the sixth sense. Everyone has five physical senses: hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste. But there are more senses – inner senses. The most common is generally described as the ‘sixth sense’, also known as gut instinct, intuition, feelings, vibes, inner knowing or perception. As you develop, you will be able to distinguish between different types of the sixth sense.

The Wake Up Call — by Michael Levy

Every so often an event occurs in a persons life that makes them wake up to the notion that what they believe in all their life may be false. To illustrate that point I can relate to an incident that happened a few years ago which helped a woman understand there is more to life and death than meets the eye.

One sunny day in spring, about ten years ago, an old friend from my hometown in the UK called me on the phone. I will call him John and his wife Jane to protect their real names. John told me his mother-in law was dying and she lived about 15 miles from my home. He and Jane were staying with her until she passed away and would continue to own the condo as a vacation retreat.