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Fair enough, challenge accepted. I learned this from Bruce Kumar Frantzis. He is a taoist master and lineage holder. He learned (actually relearned) what he teaches from Liu Huang Ching, who was a well known figure in Bei Jing, Master, Lineage Holder and head of a Taoist Sect. He also was both a Confucianist and a Buddhist, but this is irrelevant to our present discussion. When Bruce got to know Liu, Bruce was already at an advanced level and Liu only accepted to teach him because of a dream he had that night. When they went to speak about standing Liu asked Bruce what he already knew. As Bruce described the various element he has gathered from teachers around China, Liu finally conceeded: Ok you have all the pieces, but you do realise that this is an extreemly uneducated way to learn? Yes, but did I had any choise No, but would you like to relearn everything in the correct sequence and the correct way? So Liu reteached to Bruce all the elements that compose the standing practice. Accoding to Bruce there is no one outside of China, in this moment that teaches the whole set of the 200 postures. Bruce knows them but he does not teches them either. To us the psychic channels elements were given as an en-passant information, just telling us how far did the rabbit hole go, and why asking to know the full set was not an option. the fact that your teacher did not say nothing about them does not necessarily mean that they ignore it: also Bruce did not spoke about "standing postures to open the psychic channels" for more than a decade. But he often spoke about how in Taoist meditation it is possible to connect various points in the brain, how that is extreemly dangerous as (he said) some combinations would give you 'powers' but all the others would make you mad in a way that no one could recover you. I am just repeating what's in his books. There are 30 points. This makes for about 2^(15*30) combinations. Of those maybe 10 or a 100 are ok. This makes 1 on 3*(10^133) circa. If you want to try you do it FULLY on your responsability. And no, I don't think that Bruce himself knows what combinations are feasible. I don't think I can help you much with this. You know how Chia has the ethical position of keeping nothing for himself, and teach everything? Well Bruce has the ethical position of teach pubblicly only material that is safe. Since I only took public courses I was not exposed to that info (only to the fact that it does exist). If I were exposed to that kind of info, I probably would not tell you pubblicly too, as this might have prevented me from learning more from Bruce. But, when I started standing every day I soon was standing with the hands above my heart in the classical tree position. I developed a blockage in the heart, and Frank Allen, told me to go back and stand with the hands by the side. After 6 months the blockage was totally gone, and measurement taken with that computer that measures your aura (or so it claims) gave a fully white energy for my heart. While we were learning standing we were briefly told about how by twisting the tendons around the arms it is possible to open (or was it, it helps open) the skull plates. Skulls of practitioner with skull plates not perfectly sealed have been found. Chia has one in his meditation center, too. To show all this Bruce sometimes moves his skull plates. Before he always asks for the doctors in the room to come near and then tell if they skulls are effectively moving. I have seen this 2 times, and both times the doctors said, "yes it is happening, it shouldn't but it is". I suppose this is the kind of technique you don't want to teach around. Now let's go to Xing Yi. I have a book (not here, you have to trust me on this) about one of the main master from Xing Yi. At the beginning of the century he changed the hand position in San-Ti, from extended out, to fingers pointing up. This because he said the first is better for fighting, but it disperse too much energy. Since people were now practicing San ti for health, the change made sense. Speaking about how to develop Fa Jin. Yes he showed us that position. It was at the end of the fifth day and I was cooked, and not particularly interested in that. It was a sort of tree position (oh my god, now you will assume that everything is a modification of the tree position ), but the hands were twisted. I am not going to describe the way the hands were twisted, but if we meet or you IM me I shall be happy to tell you were you can find a picture of it. The info was given as an answer to a question from an advanced student: Ralph Herber, who was hosting the event. If you contact him you could probably ask more details, as he was suggested from Bruce to actually try this out. For me it was all way above my hair. When Bruce teaches spiralling he usually takes the students one by one and assigns to each a personal position that is supposed to balance his personal imbalances or just bring the person easier to the next level of the practice. I haven't done the course (is considered not a basic one) yet, although by now I am eager to do it. But I have seen people practicing in their personal postures, and believe me, you do have a wide variety over there. I hope you realise, sir, that science is based on reproducibility and measurability. In standing this would mean having a statistical significant set of people willing to stand for about an hour a day, for many days, if not months. All this while you need personal corrections OR you need to take a group of people who already practice taoist arts and know how to stand. Those people would make the whole test fairly inconsistent as any 'unaverage' result might be attributed to their strangeness. Also when you make a double blind you need to have an equivalent body of people who are not doing the practice, but believe they are. This is not easy too, as if you take practitioners, they know how to stand. And if you take non-practitioners, and place them in a wrong standing position for 1 hour a day they would probably develop a structure too. So you would only test for the specific effect of a posture and not for the general effects of standing. Of course you could measure Bruce or other masters before and after a session of standing, and this has been done. I remember the measurement taken on Chia before and after doing the sounds. But what does this tells us? Just that this particular person had those measurements. Considering the level of control that those people have on their body even I wouldn't sign that the reason is in technique alone, unless I personally trusted that they would not alter the state of their bodies in other ways (also physical, like squeezing an organ). So we would have to stand on trust. A fairly unstable base for a scientific test, you would agree. And not significantly different from where we started. Does all this say that standing has no scientific base? Yes, indeed, for now it does. Does it say that standing will never have a scientific base? No, maybe one day we might find a way to test for all those things. And then we will know. In the meantime we have to use anedocte and instructions from people who supposedly are more knowledgeable than us in it. And to conclude, and I am speaking here as a scientist, Science does not cover the whole of reality, and never will. And I have no problem with that. Do you? Thanks, Pietro Edited to add calculation.

Those techniques, conscious dream, poly sleep, Poly relationships , are all much easier if you have no internal dialogue & if you live the life of a monk (tao monks are great in poli relationships! ) . One of the thing that came out in the blog I refered to, is that babies are naturally polyphasic. We learn night cycle later. And much of the work in taoism is about going back to when we were near the tao, like babies. So no doubt that if you are there, all those techniques are just doors that automatically open. The question remains, how much can you open thos doors... before you have reached that level. And each thing might help you to progress or hinder you.

Found some cool quotes today on this subject: Via BuddhaNet "Most psychotherapy tends to work with the contents of consciousness, with the aim of reducing pain and conflict and enhancing the capacity for love and work. This can be characterised as working on the content of the dream, exchanging nightmares for happier, more peaceful dreams. Ideally, spiritual practice is aimed at waking up and becoming aware of the nature of the dream and who the dreamer is. At its best, transpersonal psychotherapy aims at doing both. Both psychotherapy and spiritual practice contribute to psychological health and spiritual growth. Unresolved psychological issues can impede healthy developments at any stage, and sometimes such issues surface only after much spiritual practice. The seeker must beware of the limitations of both therapists and spiritual teachers. Expertise in one domain does not make one an authority in the other, and few individuals are well trained in both. Psychological and spiritual development are inextricably intertwined, and both continue throughout life. In practice both psychotherapist and spiritual teachers do what they can to relieve suffering and help people grow in consciousness." Via Ken Wilber "The true part of the recaptured-goodness model is that at any of the stages of growth--purple to red to blue to orange to green to integral--the potentials of those stages can be repressed, oppressed, alienated, fragmented. 'Therapia' then involves a recontacting, a releasing, a liberating of the repressed potentials--a regression in service of further growth. The main 'problem' with the Enlightenment was not the emergence of rationality (orange)--that, in fact, was one of its extraordinary accomplishments--but a rationality that was captured by empiricism and positivism and thus reduced to instrumental rationality (monological, not dialogical): what we at IC call 'flatland.' The other potentials of reason (dialogical, communicative, moral, practical) were thus buried, became atrophied and withered. The 'therapia' for this is not regression to red or purple--recommended by Romantics and eco-primitivists--but recontacting the lost potentials of reason and carrying them forward into second-tier integral embrace. See The Marriage of Sense and Soul and Sex, Ecology, Spirituality."

Barry Long's Men are Evil View Barry Long writes: "No matter how much a woman loves her man and wants to give her love to him, she will not and cannot give up all her divine energies if he is not yet himself, fully integrated or aligned with love." I agree that if you don't feel truly safe with another you aren't going to fully open to him. Barry Long writes: "A woman is only ever less than her true nature because of man’s lack of love." It's not a secret that women are more heart centered then men; and if she doesn't feel fulfilled from the primary perspective which she moves from (the heart) then yes she will feel less than fully satisfied. If a man doesn't feel like a woman is accepting of his physical affections then he too will be less than his "true nature" because of a woman's lack of affection. If a woman really does accept a man's way of expressing affection, it will lead him to give her the love that she craves because he will love her for accepting his gift of himself. Barry Long writes: "She went off into her dream of love to escape his sexuality." His theme that the male expression of sex is bad is tiresome. Barry Long writes: "Her babies have long been a substitute for his love." I've seen women who have stronger emotional ties with their children then their husbands and use their children to find some sense of emotional fulfillment, so he has a point there. On the other hand men seek outside sexual relationships because their wife doesn't give them what they need. Barry Long writes: "Unlike man, a real woman can exist without sexual intercourse or masturbation. She waits for love, not sex." Here we go with men are bad bad bad because they like sex, and only misaligned women like sex ... again because of that bad man who won't love her. This is a very negative view towards male sexuality and implies that only good girls want to be loved and don't want sex with those bad dirty men. jeeesh how long will it take for people to accept the whole person? You could ask "Unlike woman, a real man can exist without relating every detail of his day. He waits for a physical connection" Barry Long writes: "It is man’s world and he built it on the strength of sexual aggression. Male domination began in sex and in sex it continues unabated." Here we see his real view of male sexuality as an act of violence. On the topic of violence, just because men are physically violent, and it's easy to see it's affects, doesn't mean that women are not just as violent. If a man is hurt he lashes out physically. If a woman is hurt she tends towards withholding herself and lashing out emotionally with personal attacks when she feels she has the upper hand. It's more of a siege warfare mentality geared at personally destroying him. Just because the violence is more subtle doesn't mean it is any less vicious, and I would go so far to say it is more personally destructive than physical violence. Barry Long writes: "It means to know inside herself what is right and true and stick to that, even if it means the man leaves her. Woman is love. All she has to do is realise that, by giving up her self doubt and fear." If a woman doesn't understand the "language" of how a man primarily perceives and expresses himself she will never get what she wants because she will only accept a man that acts like a woman. So if she follows Barry's advice she will never find a man. What is needed is an understanding of how men and women give and receive love, which by Barry's description man only expresses his sexuality as animal lust and domination. This obsessive focus on one type of sexual expression is just plain wrong and denies the full expression of male sexuality. I am frustrated that Barry has bought into the lie that the only good man is a neutered man. I am also frustrated at the portrayal of men in the media, and society in general, that men are sex and alcohol obsessed idiots that couldn't get through the day without the oh so much superior woman telling him what to do. How many positive male roles are shown on TV? Not many. If that isn't destructive enough the feminists push a male model of approaching the world on women that just causes them to move away from their authentic selves. No matter how much you want you can't get away from the yin and yang energy that colors how men and women primarily experience the world. Understanding, patience, and kindness will go a lot further than trying to push people into being something they're not. Barry does have some good points but they are colored by a negative view of being a man.

I know. Damn family members and once in a lifetime ceremonial events. Reminds me of the weekend I had to skip Winn's dream practice retreat to do one of my other sisters graduation. I guess I can get the flow fit DVD atleast.

I was just thinking about this topic recently. I was actually having a conversation in a dream with someone about it I think last night or the night before. My dreams have been insane lately..sometimes really good sometimes really fucking sick. Here is what I have read. I think I first read this in the magazine "Tricycle:The Buddhist Review" like 10 or 11 years ago. Basically what they said..and I was talking to someone about it in a dream last night or the night before..is therapy is working on the story of your life. That you were born in such and such a place at such and such a time and a and b happened to you and your Mom and Dad were loving or unloving or controlling or didn't care or whatever and you did this and that. And it is working on working those things out for you psycologically. So that you can feel better about the story of who you are. I am not sure this is totally accurate I havent gotten into therapy and some teachers I respect alot like Ken Cohen seem to think therapy is a good thing but that was what the zen or Buddhist/Taoist dude was saying. Now, spiritual practice, the article went on to say, is not working on the story but working on that thing that transcends the story. The thing that is unborn and does not die. You probably can get a sense of this listening to those Adyashanti retreat cd's that he is getting at trying to awaken you to something that is beyond your personality. Or your ego. Or the person that you are in this lifetime. You "wake up" from the dream of the ego/seperate self identity that is a kind of prison for your personality. Then when you do this the personality you have is just a kind of funny(or not so funny) not self so creation that is pretty much held together through the minds discriminating activity. I can't explain it the way he can but basically it is way beyond just making you feel better about Mom and Dad or your childhood or your Wife and kids and job. Not that that isn't important probably it is but probably one is way more profound then the other. My guess. Since we are on the topic..does anyone else get this really tense sense of contraction from people who are really into themselves or there own ego? It seems that those who are more awake have this more expanisive sense to their personality that isn't contracted into this something. I got a sense of this from master Yoda hanging out over Thanksgiving but even some so called high level Buddhist or Taoists have this kind of contracting energy that is always sort of giving energy to the ego instead of always expanding out and opening to new possibiilites. Not that I never "contract into my ego" myself but it is intresting how with more energy work I am starting to actually sense and experience how people do this on subtle or not so subtle levels.

Sign up for the course, then login .. go to the common room and then the course material page. I learned just a basic overview of the astral realm and how it interfaces with the dream world ... how it's a really ideal place to cultivate, etc. I've stumbled onto the astral plane a few times and really enjoyed my experiences there and I love sleeping, so ...

http://www.gnosticweb.com/index.php?PageID=333 I'm starting it. Not sure how long I last, my attention span is rather slim the last few weeks, but I always wanted to learn how to do this. Sean [edit]Of course notice the PageID ... I'm cursed.

I don't remember the exact quote or story from RJ, but its something like, If you're doing this much (spiritual exercise) work then how will you do it when you're dead. I don't know if our path ends w/ death or its a detour or road block. But energy/consciousness exercises, bardo, dream yoga, etc. point to things to do while ^less corporeal^? Michael

EYE POWER: DA EYES BE YANG, DA REST O DA BODY BE YIN. MAN CAN ONLY ARISE ABOVE DARKNESS N DEATH N OBLIVION BECAUSE OF DA YANG POWER O DA EYES. DA EYES BE LIKE A THIN CANDLE FLAME AT FIRST , BUT THEY HAVE DA CAPACITY TO IGNITE DA WHOLE BODY. AT NIGHT, DA VISION POWER RETTREATS INTO DA LIVER, WHERE DA DREAM ACTIVVITY TAKES PLACE. THRU DA POWER O VISION, ONE CAN ACHIEVE LUCID DREAMIN AS WELL. So that pretty much wraps up the highlights of Ron's Philosophy as recorded on taobums. Simple and sweet.

DA POINT BE NOT JUST TO REMMEMBER DA DREAM, DA POINT BE TO *CONTROL YER ACTIONS* IN DA DREAM. LUCID DREAMMIN BE JUST DA PRE-CUM-DITION, BUT DA BRAKE-TRHU OCUR WHEN YA CAN MAKE DICCISIONS N IMPLEMMENT EM IN YER DREAMS, EVVENTUALY YA CAN SIT N PRACTICE DA CIRCULLATION O DA LIGHT WHILE DREAMIN N THAT BE DREAM YOGA. BUT TO ACCHIEVE THAT YA GOTTA GO LIKE YER VERRY HEAD BE IN FLAMES. THAT MEAN, YA GOTTA MAKE A METTER O LIFE N DEATH OUTTA IT. BYE NOW RJ

Here's a post from the RJ's final flame out thread: POOR ME BE GONNA RETTIRE IN A WINE BARREL LIKE DIOGENES DA PHILLOSIPHER EXCEPT MINE BARREL WILL STIL BE FULL WHEN I MOVE IN. I JUST WANTED TO ADD 5 THANGS, VIZ., 1) DO DA BIG DRAW. YA NEED TO PHYSICALLY DE-CUM-GEST DA HUEVOS N PROSTITE N DA BIG DRAW DO THAT BY ACTUALY SQUEEZIN OUT DA FLUIDS BESSIDES MOVIN DA CHING. 2) ARROUND 3 MONTHS TO 100 DAYS FROM START O RETTENTION, YALL HIT A WALL, BE PREPPARED FOR THAT. 3) EVVENTUALY, IF A KEEP SHAGIN N RETTAININ, YALL HAVE A WET DREAM N LOSE IT UNLESS YA LEARN DREAM YOGA. WHAT HAPEN BE, SUCCUBUS ENTITTIES LURE YER CHING N SUK IT UP UNLESS YA BE LUCID IN YER DREAMS. 4) KEEP OPENIN DA CHANNELS, NOT JUST DA MC BUT ALSO DA SUSHUMNA , DA MACROCOSMIC, DA BELT CHANEL N YA CAN JUST GET AN ACCUPUNTURE BOOK N OPEN AS MANY AS YA LIKE. THEN REMMEMBER TO STORE DA CHING IN YER BONE MAROW AS WELL. UNLESS YA DO ALL THIS EVVENTUALY YA OVERFLOW OR CUM-GEST YER HUEVOS N PROSTITE. 5) KEEP IN MIND THATIF YA KEEP AT IT, ONE WOMMAN WONT BE ENUFF NO MORE FOR SEXUAL SATTISFACTION, SO YA EITHER END UP SEXUALLY UNSATTISFIED OR YALL HAVE TO BANG MORE THAN ONE PEACH, OR YALL HAVE TO GIVE UP SEXUAL CHI KUNG. DA TRHANG BE, YA CAN VIRTUALY SHAG FOR DAYS AT A TIME, BUT A SINGLE WOMMAN WILL PAS OUT BEFORE THAT OR JUST GET DRAINNED N BORIN. THAT BE DA SECRET FOR DA REASON O DA ANCIENT INSTITTUTION O DA HAREM, THOSE KINGS O OD NEEDDED A BUNCHA PEACHES TO GET SUM KINDA SATTISFACTION N THEY COULD FUCK FOR DAYS AT A TIME. OF COURSE BECCAUSE THEY WERE PAST MASTER O RETTENTION. BYE NOW QUOTE(Yoda @ Aug 12 2005, 07:08 AM) Here's Ron's instructions: 1. For a kinder, gentler America, alternate between using your weiner and your tongue--stay away from max stimulation. 2. use the three finger/million dollar technique as an emergency backup. You find the indentation between the balls and the poopy place, but closer to the poopy place. Just experiment with it. 3. practice circulating the energy or you'll blow up "in a geyser of cum." Ron's refering to microcosmic orbit. Yoda's commentary: Ron and many others say that the million dollar point shouldn't be used as a regular practice, just as a backup. Others say that it is fine to use as often as you like with no long term problems. Once you figure out the exact location and the exact kind of pressure I feel that it is safe, but some have had bad experiences with it.

Here's another aspect of the tao of Ron: one seriously focused practice--retention and circulation. That's it. In the waking and dream state. A focused intention and a simple practice go hand in hand. To catch the vibe of RJ, these three works are helpful background: Chia's Taoist Secrets of Love, The Golden Flower, and Luk's Taoist Yoga. Chia's book goes over the basics of retention, Golden Flower discusses the principles of building the immortal fetus that Ron was way into, and Taoist Yoga discusses the microcosmic orbit in a spirit close to RJ's presentation. That is ground zero. He also had many misc. teachings--bennonite (sp?) clay for brushing the teeth, penis ballooning and enlarging principles, practices like running while visualizing your ancestors running behind you, running while mco/Mco, his chemtrail thing, his diet theory toggled around a bit but there always was something going on, trigger point theory for overcoming physical injuries, hindu squats for knee health, bridging practice, one arm pushups, boxing, lots of running. Well that's a good basic overview of the basic structure. Maybe I'll dig up some quotes here and there. One quote perhaps sums it up best: "IF YA DONT CIRCULATE THE ENERGY YOU WILL ERUPT IN A GEYSER OF CUM!!!"

Hello, Yoda, eventually I started my own version of a Tao Wiki. I called it the Tao Te Wiki. I made a page on it with your post, and I intend to add any other contribution that comes up. Personally I would add: the importance of having a straight intention. That is, you REALLY must want not to ejaculate. This links to dream practice to avoid having wet dreams. P.S. Have you got Al email address? Pietro

I'm thinking of putting together something for the article section about the teachings of RJ. And I'd like to brainstorm some of his contributions to our forum. Here are some of the things he taught that come to mind: retention to intensify energy mco during/after sex practices and as a formal practice to redistribute energy. three finger technique for emergencies running and exercise for processing energy mco/Mco during exercise. importance of mco in dream practice importance of direction of gaze to influence direction of energy importance of resting after x number of thrusts, or his 10 minute max stim rule. During the rest, switch to cunnilingus and do mco. Or just chill in solo, of course. That's the list that comes to mind, any other pointers anyone can remember? -Yoda

Language is such a tough thing. if you don't think you are already "awakened" or "enlightened" and look up to certain people as "enlightened ones" or "masters" you probably will never find that pot of gold for yourself because you've already defined it as something that someone else has but you don't. i can deal with "awakened". For a spiritual term i use "awaken in light". whatever that means. but really i detest the term "enlightened" as refernce to a certain person as "enlightened" like yoda pointed out it's a bit too much end game. so you say this person is enlightened and this one is not is such b.s. but as a single or even lasting experince i can deal with "enlightenment" as i've so many light experinces now and more and more look out to the world from the center thru a spectical of vibrant, multidimensional light. isn't a native american thing, "to awake from the dream" means to die. and be reborn... there's certainly light involved there. oh sorry to ramble on, thinking on this i often talk of this "event" or vibration as a "cosmic opening" .... expanded inner and outer awareness to express my own experinces. but really for the awakening of psi or clarvoyant, claraudiant etc. experinces all of the above terms are quite inadequate! in our light, Jeremiah :-)

It is very difficult to say as I have a very "out-of-balance"-style of living at the moment. Sometimes working during daytime, sometimes at night... currently when working at daytime I get up at about 6 or 6.30 in the morning... this time seems to be the most difficult to handle the monkey mind. It seems like still being in a dream state where it does what it wants and my "real me" just having to live with all that chatter... then at about 8 o'clock it seems to naturally calm down for several hours without me even noticing any real chatter... the rest of the day is too busy to notice... by the way. Have you ever figured out which is the "real" organ time? I mean: it is said to swap every two hours, but we in Germany for example change times 2 times each year: winter & summer and the clock gets either turned forward an hour or back again... I assume the body isn't really interested in that shift and hardly adapts to it... does it? & maybe you want to try that "I am"-meditation... I honestly feel it to have real potential in the long run... and just yesterday I started that Zhunti Mantra & it really helps to continue a mantra over and over again I feel. Just in the morning minutes getting up it is really tough to stay on track... Harry

Actually Jeremiah posted something like(should have pasted it)'in the winter he's doing more passive, stillness meditations'. Going still and deep makes sense in the winter. Eating hardier, winter rootery foods. I haven't really made a conscious decision to 'do' winter, but I should. Sleep more. Exercise wise? Slow down, don't test limits, move gently into deeper endurance? Let Spring be a time for growth, Winter a time for sustaining, deeper inner growth, more sitting, more dream work. Thoughts? Michael

Hey, Thanks, That avatar & all my stuff is made in Photoshop cs on a Mac G5. It took 70 hours, there are about 50 layers in a 5 gig file. The colors and design came in a series of lucid dreams transmitted from a 400+ year old white oak tree that sits only a few feet from my bed. A golden dragon also helped. It was spining in my dreams. I made it for myself at the same time i made the much simpler healing tao / kan & li logo for michael. oh and a note on the bugua for you alchemists if you notice on the healing dao one & mine that it is an inverted early heaven bugua. it originally had it in the normal way but one night michael email and said he had a dream that it is inverted and when we flipped it woow it was very powerful that way. That's what happens to the bugua (and you) after do too much kan & li so watch out! take care mike :-)

Sean. I'm being intentionally opaque. And I'm giving you a hard time, since much of what I wrote is a bit rethorical. Now I'm probably dangerously close to being a wise ass. But so is Zen. If I continue to give you a hard time now, it's because I recognize so much of my own way of looking at things in your post, it's uncanny, and I do so respectfully. There is no such thing as magic, from the perspective of practice. You come to class, tune in, dream with your eyes open, see yellow mists, take a cup of tea, go home and watch Magnum P.I(I dig Higgins), and maybe have a fight with your girlfriend. Nothing special. I just sensed i your posts a trace of dualistic thinking, and if I may try to dissect it, it boils down to a reaction to an overly instrumental, rationalistic society, where all the good stuff is replaced for "sound common sense" and a paycheck at the end of the month. I may be wrong, and if so, I apologize. There really is no separation between the mundane and the sacred. I am not trying to say there is no such thing as magic because it's bogus. The way of looking at reality as either "we're all just another brick in the game" vs "Santa Claus really exists" is bogus. Santa Claus really exists. I probably confused you even more now.... h

Hi Cameron, Did you ever think of setting up a blog where you would discuss these dream matches and possible outcomes? Have your friend pay for advertising on it and start getting other schools to do the same..that would be cool and could lead to things. Thaddeus

My dream job is making those artistic intro sequences that you see in some movies. Like all the James Bond movies have them, "Seven" had a great one that was really industrial and had like this man's hand cutting out pieces of dollar bills and making strange collages, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon had one if I remember correctly, Catch Me If You Can, both of the Spiderman movies ... It's not really a "job" though is the thing, because there is not just one person who does them or even anyone known for doing them (as far as I know). I imagine they are each done by different people that are very close to each particular film that decides to have one.

Dream jobs. --writing articles all the live-long day --herbalism, or if someone could pay me just to sit outside --internet research type work what's stopping me? $$$$$, steep competition, thorough background checks, and the fact that i have a liberal arts degree. do you want fries with that? I also would like to work in a cafe one of these days... Maybe organizing the open mics and other events or something.

Pretend there are no limits. If you could be or do anything you wanted in life, what would it be? A friend of mine owns a MMA clothing company and also holds BJJ and MMA tournaments and whenever we talk I always like to get into who should fight who next in UFC, PRIDE, or BJJ/Submission wrestling. So I think one of the coolest jobs for me would to be the matchmaker for a big show like Pride or UFC. And I also think I would be really good at this. As a backup to this I would want to own my own business that gives me enough time and money to do what I like: Qigong and martial arts and whatever else I feel like. Which is sort of what I am on track to do now. Anyone have a dream job that they would love to do? What is preventing you from doing it?

Interesting thougts Sean. Talking from experience, synchronicity is closely connected with awareness fused with intentionality. In practical reality that means, when you consiously or unconsciously are focusing your intention in some direction, your awareness is also receiving a response. Basically it's quite causal. Like karma. I'm not familiar with the magickal traditions, but - the idea that chaos is "evil" is only a very narrow ortodox Christian notion. A famous qigongmaster in China bases the success of his practice by aligning himself with chaos. He plainly states that the universe is chaos, and if you try not to be too systematic, too rigid and try to shake things up abit, energy will be abundant. Basically he feels that energy is a dynamic relationship between shifting polarities. If you try to freeze the polarities and fix them, energy dissappears. All the great spiritual traditions (including Daoism) base their understanding of the universe of the amoral relationship of chaos and cosmos. The chaotic dimension is the destructive, non-ordered, non-rational dimension. But it's not evil. Aligning with chaos is aligning with its power, which is neither good nor bad. (I start sounding like Nietzsche!) Talking about synchronicity: I remember a dream I had about 10 years ago. I was skiing down a white mountain, and when I was almost down by a dry riverbank, overlooking a big fjord, an indian was suddenly standing there out in the water, holding up a hand to signal me to stop. I stopped and went back the way I came. 5 years later, I was sitting in an IMAX theatre watching the "IMAX Extreme" film. (It's awesome btw: Surfing, climbing, skiing, etc in imax format.) Suddenly there was a scene where the camera was descending a white mountain face, down towards a riverbank by a fjord. An old indian was staning there holding up his hand, singing. It was the same indian. Ps: My girlfriend can tell the future by picking up random things from her purse. Not that's chaos theory for you!! h