Jun 2021 – Mine Quick Voice of Aquarius

Beyond Common Knowledge

Last week I ended my blog by saying there is much more to breathing than expelling and intaking air. I daresay you are respectful of people who practise yoga and in particular Pranayama -yogic breathing, which has the purpose of purifying the energy channels in the body, relaxing the nervous system, and strengthening the body, mind, and emotional immunity.

There are three stages of Pranayama as instructed in the Yoga Sutras. Inhalation (Puraka), retention or suspension of the breath (Kumbhaka), and exhalation (Rechaka). Usually practised by one nostril at a time, though it can be practised using both nostrils simultaneously by partially contracting the glottis. The time periods of these stages can be varied to increase the benefits of practise.

Breathing in this manner is usually carried out sitting in a lotus posture, or in movements designed to increase and project BodyMind awareness. And you must be consciously controlling these actions. For sure you can’t properly practise them when you are half asleep after waking, or thumping the pavements on the way to work, driving, or threading your way through crowds in a busy shopping arcade.

But breathe you must -right?

We can’t help ourselves, we do it unconsciously most of time. Now -how would you like to gain the benefits the yogic sutras speak of on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis in a way that doesn’t require you to stop the daily rush of life?

Here’s how -but first you need to know what the function of breath is all about. It begins in the womb of your mother as a pulse activating and developing every part of the BodyMind. It’s a primal function which corresponds to the natural Earthen world our matter and mind is made from -and of course, it is also influenced by your mother’s BodyMind, which whilst it instinctively blends with the natural order of development can also influence the character you create of yourself. When you are born and start breathing a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water, you are immediately connected and influenced by the outside world environment that ultimately govern your perceptive nature. The harmony experienced in the womb is lost and the instinct of survival is born. The uniqueness of your individual self has one overriding purpose -the restoration of harmony.

Easier said than done, eh?

In fact, common knowledge would say it’s impossible. The best we can hope for are periods of relative calm, moments of unity, and the retrospective awareness of harmony, which only goes to show we don’t live consciously aware of our actions.

The ancient masters knew this was our common lot and sought ways in which the primal function of breath could be restored to influence and harmonise our perceptive world. They discovered sound and colour are interrelated and the breath we unconsciously enable encompasses a wide range of frequencies. The higher the frequency the less form/time condition the breath has -the more colour, shape, and movement it experiences. You’ve read about yogis who allowed themselves to be buried alive, and dug up none the worse, days later -yes?

What they were doing were breathing internally -not only a physically able function, but they also invoked the Vach.

The Vach is best described in common English as the sound within the sound -in other words they raised the frequency of breathing until its time/form expression was practically stationary. In today’s world we acknowledge there is a synthesis between sound and colour -we call it Chromesthesia in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of colour, shape, and movement.

Relax! I’m not suggesting a practise that requires you to dig a hole in your garden, bury yourself, to experience harmony.

What I am suggesting is this – for breathing to provide benefits you must take notice of what the three actions of breath do. Make the unconscious conscious.

Allow me to explain how you can make that happen.

Initially take notice of how your breathing operates. It has three parts, in-pause-out. Depending on how you are exerting yourself and/or emotionally and mentally focussed on something, the three parts of breath will vary in their time signature. The more you are mentally and emotionally maintaining a focus on something the inward breath will be shorter than the outward breath and the pause will hardly be noticed. You may even find that is happening as you re-read what I’m writing you about -it’s a sign of heightening stress. If you are physically exerting yourself the inward and expelled breath will be longer, and unless you are puffing from the activity, will find the middle pausing breath will be longer. When you stop doing the activity the middle breath will lengthen, the intaking breath will shorten before the outer breath does.

What this tells us is this -shortened inward breathing stresses the mind, which in turn incapacitates the body. Longer inward breathing which can come from exercising or physically working an activity naturally ceases when the body demands rest. If you work yourself up mentally and emotionally during the activity the benefit the body naturally manages is lost -because it’s being ‘told’ how to behave.

The breath ‘key’ is the middle or pausing part -if we can manage that the entire BodyMind benefits.

Earlier in this piece I told you what air is chemically -your lungs are never completely devoid of air comprising majorly of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water. When we exhale, the outward breath composition contains more carbon dioxide and less oxygen. If you are unduly stressing the volume of oxygen ingested (the energy giver) is lessened, which has a domino-like effect causing the unnecessary stress to become resident. The middle breath loses its managing role, benefits are reduced, and problems arise.

Stress is a necessary part of our energy making capability -essential to the well-being of our entire BodyMind -undue stress is the No.1 causal killer!

Every type of illness, however it may be defined to have arisen develops from undue stress -and the ‘key’ that prevents reminds you of its presence 24-7. Get your breathing right, or in the very least make it more efficient than it currently is, and your health overall will improve.

In this world where birth right freedoms are being suppressed by actions intended to defeat viral infections nothing is more important than your health. If you breathe right the immune system will continue to strengthen -even in the over 60’s where science tells us it begins naturally to weaken.

It’s not difficult -you don’t have to be brainy -you just need to modify your habits!

In my next post I’ll show you exactly how to do it.

The poem I share with you this week walks back in time aware of moments when harmony ruled, and time did not govern my senses.

The Seize of Time

Walk with me through the green gate
past the ivy clad barn, the rusted plough,
there let us take shade from the sun
under the spread of the sycamore tree.
Nearby, the gnats cloud the sedge pond

buzz in harmony, chicken’s coop,
geese cackle, and the farm dog barks.
The clack of a hand-turned butter churn
can be heard from the house, the smell
of baking bread wafts on the breeze.

In the far wet-field, revs of a tractor
sound as we sit midst forget-me-not’s,
coriander, dandelion, thistles, and
milkwort, mosses, and warm grass.
Laughing, and making daisy chains.

Out of sight beyond the fields
a distant bell toll seizes time.
Moments that will never age
forever live –of love’s breath
that never shall or can possess.

Mission Impossible

Photo by Domen Mirtiu010d Dolenec on Pexels.com

As promised in my last post I’ll introduce you to the mechanism that can transform our warring parts into a unity -and more to the point begin the training that can enable continuity beyond the grave of the Self you become aware of.

First, let me advise you how the ancient masters introduced their pupils to the way of ways.

Irrespective of the pupil’s station in everyday life, whether they were rich, influential, or poor and uneducated, they would be treated equally. They were given menial tasks to do -never for their own purpose of supposed need, always as benefit for others. These were often the dirtiest jobs possible, like cleaning latrines, and at no time were they given higher purpose teachings.

Needless to say, the fall out rate was high.

Interestingly, a teacher in modern times, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1877-1949) used similar methods of introduction. Born in Alexandropol, Armenia, trained as a priest and physician, he travelled widely the remote regions of Central Asia and the Middle East before setting up his Institute for The Harmonious Development of Man. At the Château du Prieuré near Paris in the nineteen twenties he attracted many young intellectual/university type students. He put them to work preparing foods in the kitchen, cleaning the toilets, and digging holes. He would tell them he was searching for underground springs to supplement the water supply to the château -as you might expect many holes were dug without getting results. Again, the fallout rate was high.

The purpose of this introduction was to engage the instinctual nature of BodyMind with the rationally minded ego, which develops in the day-to-day world as the controlling driver of our consciousness.

Some found this humiliating and accused Gurdjieff (as others had done with past teachers) of wanting to make them servile to him. In reality the teacher intended these ‘exercises’ to give birth to instrumental self-awareness -a life-living form of consciousness, which was able to encompass and activate the higher nature of the BodyMind. The logic of this conversion (if we can call it that) was simply this -eternal self-awareness is only possible when the BodyMind is harmoniously whole -and that must include connecting and expressing the root nature of Self as born into this world.

We are all born with awareness of the higher nature.

The innocence of the child is a magnet drawing us into their world, and mothers have an intuitional awareness of the child’s nature, which develops in pregnancy and forever thereafter gives them an inner knowledge of the child’s identity. However, as we all know we fast lose that innocence as the consciousness of the outside world gains our attention and presents us with choices. We form personality to protect and guide us into adulthood. Whether we are religious or not, we develop standards of behaviour that enable our interests -and it is those standards that argue fiercely their right to be heard and acted upon.

The herd mentality has standards of behaviour enabling us to be open with others -making us feel wanted and accepted. If we reject the herd mentality, we must hide our standards of self-being -else we are seen as ‘rogue’ and are criticised, ignored, or otherwise branded weird and uneducable.

It is the ‘rogues’ the ancient masters were most interested in because they saw them as having retained the inner awareness of the child, and therefore were most likely to succeed in converting their adult nature into instrumental BodyMind harmony. History shows families allowing their children to live in Ashrams and other like communities as pathways to develop spirituality through service to others.

So, am I saying in our modern technologically driven world we need to retire to Ashrams, monasteries, and other such closed communities to succeed?

No, I am not. Neither am I saying closed community living is a sure way of achieving BodyMind harmony as often religious and philosophical scruples maintain the ego’s rational right to remain ‘King of the castle’.

So, is the true path so narrow all but a few can find and practise it?

No, it is not -there is a way in which you can live and function in the ‘herd’, be acceptable to your friends, loved ones, and neighbours, hold and maintain positions of importance in the secular world -and still be able to develop BodyMind Harmony. And not appear weird or odd!

I called this piece Mission Impossible because it does ask of you actions many would say are consistently unachievable in today’s world.

The reason why history keeps repeating itself is because Man’s habitual self doesn’t work to free himself from the cycle of rebirth.

The first step you take on the self-called ‘narrow’ path is invisible to others!

You need to re-engage the very first thing you did when you entered this world from your mother’s womb. It is to rediscover how to breathe correctly! And believe me -there is much more to breathing than expelling and intaking air! In my next post I’ll advise the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of doing this….

The poem I have written for this week illustrates the difference between ego perceptive consciousness (the Stone Man) and BodyMind awareness.

Song of the Sea

Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea
wherein thespian arts are founded,
on the whisperings of immortality.

Earth genius, maker of machinery
hear before claiming, this invocation.
Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea,

thesaurus more precious than history,
an interlocking alien kingdom:
the whisperings of immortality.

Stone Man, creator of insanity
repeat after me this incantation.
Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea,

where sceptres and crowns were facsimile
long before Archimedes heard in song,
the whisperings of immortality.

Knights and Bishops, guardians of the Tree,
Knowledge, and Faith, have you now forgotten?
Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea,

of mistakes made in your liturgy
by making your God of wisdom, to wrong
the whisperings of immortality?

I wait the last act of this tragedy
powerless to prevent consummation.
Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea

where his soul sits under the Bodhi tree
ever present awaiting earthly union,
to share the whisperings of immortality.

Evolution

Introducing Conor, a young man who has studied with me. This thought provoking piece just goes to prove insight and understanding is not the preserve of older more experienced people. Please comment!

From a collective evolutionary standpoint, it’s a challenge finding ways and means to understand the nature of ‘true-self’.

As such, It’s debatable how many people have the capability to intelligently comprehend their ‘physical’ animal natured existence. Whilst we share the world as equals, we are not equal in the development of the higher-natured self.

The transformative state of spiritual consciousness evolves over thousands of lifetimes and follows a hierarchical line of ascension. The consciousness born of the ‘Animal-natured’ man, ultimately achieves finality as the ‘Higher-natured self’. During this journey the ‘modus operandi’ of Human-nature is represented by the planet ‘Pluto’ (expressive of renewal), whereby old foundations are destroyed. ‘Ego’ and how we relate to ourselves can be represented by the Moon, symbolic of the ‘individual’ emotive nature, and Mercury, the ruling the planet of thought.

What do we mean by ‘Animal-natured’ man, and the Higher-natured self?

Simply put, Animal-man lives for his earthly desires and has single-minded trains of thought; the end justifies his means. The ‘Higher-natured self’ lives to serve, in accordance with the laws of spiritual evolution, able and expressive through the incarnate nature. To say we are in part animal-natured evokes the question; is Man animal-like? Why such a connotation?

During the ‘infancy’ stage of man’s development the mind-state is raw, and naturally combative. Animal-man views his existence as a ‘battle-field’. His predisposition creates irrational ‘animistic’ thought, such as jealousy, envy, and greed. On observing animals, domestic or other, a ‘likeness’ in relation to the thought process is apparent, comparatively, the thought pattern animal-natured man expresses, is like any animal species able to manipulate, or otherwise, challenge any adversary to get ‘needs’ met.

As the animal-natured man magnetically follows his earthly desires, his consciousness remains chained to physical experience, causing him to re-visit his physical animal consciousness once-more -the path marked with sudden shocks and blows aiding transformation. We may call animal-natured man ‘uncivilized’ but this is unfairly derogatory, many will identify with the ‘Intellectual-man’, an intermediary ‘step-up’ on the ladder of evolutionary consciousness,

Intellectual animal-man has greater control over the ‘impulse’ nature, but is equally capable of committing wrong-doing out of frustration or other such factors.

Whilst this can describe ‘Animal-natured’ man at the beginning of physical incarnation, animal-natured consciousness latently remains present in the ongoing states of human development.

Each stage of evolutionary ‘spiritual’ consciousness can be assigned an ‘octave’ or ‘governing influence’ of the mind-state – The animal-natured man engages life through the vibratory octave of Mars, in the outer-most circle of their awareness, here, animal man is dominant, and the lower-mind is the major influence, whilst Intellectual animal-natured man, who is aspirational of change, views physical existence through Saturn’s octave. Saturn in this sense enables greater control over the thought and action process, but not without restriction. Thought has begun to vibrate, even though it is linked with self and desire, they are still a circle nearer the true Self, for the ‘Animal’ man is now transforming into the intellectualized Man.

From the logos of Saturn, Mercury is born, the labour of the saturnine-minded Man is influenced by the intuitional mind of the ‘Buddhic plane’ the plane of wisdom.

When the Martian and Saturnine vibrations have accomplished their work, animal-minded man and the intellectual-minded man transfigure, and the Higher-natured intelligence is born. The soul having learned its evolutionary lessons, develops sympathy through painful experiences. The selfish and personal side having been crucified, signals the end of personal desires. The soul stands ready to receive the influx of divine wisdom and enter a new state of ‘Unified’ consciousness.

Higher-natured Man views life through an ‘individuated’ conscious state, and the planetary octave of Uranus, the ‘visionary’.

In general, higher natured man is sacrificial, and knows the evolutionary intent is to be of service to others. Early on insight is gained into the nature of ‘higher-self’, here ‘known’ consciousness extends across multiple ‘worlds’ simultaneously, as past life memories blend with ‘real-time’ consciousness. Such awareness naturally leads the Higher-natured man to question his own sense of ‘reality’, the effect of Uranus in this case enables ‘freedom’ from ‘known’ consciousness.

One shouldn’t assume ‘Higher’ man is dropped into ‘physical embodiment’ with an “all-knowing” awareness, as with animal-minded and Intellectual-minded man before him. Any sense of consciousness awareness is ‘outwardly born’, and unfolds through the veil of life, therefore it remains Higher man’s objective to ‘discover’ himself.

The evolutionary consciousness of the soul, now unified, is at odds with the consciousness of the Ego in the ‘individuated’ state – Inner conflict for the Higher-man now stems from the opposition of dual consciousness, the task of Man is to bridge this divide.

Higher-man’s evolutionary state leads to the realization of his nature as an ‘individual’, a sense of alienation entails as he no longer identifies with the ‘collective’.

A question is commonly asked concerning the idea of reincarnation, “Why do I not remember my past lives if I have lived before?” – It is important to understand what does not ‘reincarnate’ to clearly appreciate the difference between the ’Ego’ and the Animal-man, whose brain is played on by the ‘Ego’ or ‘Thinker’. This is indeed the crux of the matter, which tends to make the theory of reincarnation difficult to understand.

Animal man is born, and the Ego becomes linked to him, using the brain and body of the animal man as a vehicle for expression on the physical plane, the ego is always the unit-consciousness and remains one, but it has the power to inform multifarious personalities.

In one life a ray of consciousness may inform the brain of John Smith; in another Joe Bloggs, but is it the ‘Thinker’ (Ego) that reincarnates, the Animal man never does.

This ‘Thinker’, connected with and informing the animal man, imparts to the lower nature as much as of its own capacities and inherent powers as animal man is able to manifest, and these capacities inherent in the thinker are recognized by us and the brain-mind or the “lower-mind”. The memory of lives once lived belongs to the thinker, and it is the reincarnating ‘thinker’ alone that can recall each earth life, and not the ‘brain mind’ that it plays upon, without this ‘thinker’ we are all animal men and women.

There is a new vehicle, as it were, in each re-embodiment made ready for the driver. But the vehicle cannot remember its path, only the driver can recall his journey.

We each have a new brain for every life, and this brain or instrument (together with the body) only lives once and consequently cannot remember a past in which it took no part.

We see then, that the question we are so often asked “Why do I not remember my past lives if I have lived before?”, is really based upon a misconception of the theory of reincarnation; for while I personally have never lived before, that I of consciousness has lived over and over again and will continue to do so until perfection on the physical plane is reached, and the brain of the animal man has become responsive to the consciousness of the Higher-self, choosing to sacrifice, and guide.

In the case of ‘Higher-natured’ man the soul waits in suspended animation for such a vehicle instrumentally ‘fit’ for task.

New Wine in Old Bottles

Amongst other things, I’m a Complementary Health Therapist, and have been practising for more years than I care to remember, but it didn’t start out that way. I was naturally mediumistic as a child and unaware of the lifestyle implications -when it suddenly mushroomed into consciousness in my early twenties creating a host of questions.

I sought help to control it (you see, I had other ‘career’ plans), and became aware of other dimensions of reality. The shock to my system wasn’t the newness of knowledge -it was precisely the opposite, I already knew of it, but until then had been a ‘sleeper’. It was like I had suddenly woken up to who I was -and needless to say, my plans, which at that time was to take my dancing skills into musical theatre, vanished overnight.

I became aware of a timeless knowledge

and thereafter all that I have been verbally taught or have understood from others actions and writings has served to give thought, word, and action to the inner understanding I was aware of. It doesn’t mean I accept everything which gains my attention. For example, I have a clairaudient ability and a doctor guy by the name of Heinrich Schroeder who often assists me when I’m healing others will, as required, tell me things about my patients’ health condition and suggest ways they can help themselves. If I’m not previously knowledgeable of that advice, or he mentions words I don’t understand -I check it out and will only pass on that guidance when it makes sense to me.

What this means -is this; our individual needs are entirely unique, and no matter the appraised value of what you hear or read -your acceptance is the touchstone to enable, change, or reject. “And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. Luke 5:37, King James Version.

Which brings me to the subject of Mindfulness.

I’m all for any practise which puts emphasis of living life more fully in the here and now. It’s currently fashionable to talk and engage in the practise of Mindfulness -so, where did this spring from?

When you look into it -this is what it claims to do. It is a way of training the mind, to achieve a deep state of consciousness, free of judgments about our sensations, feelings, or thoughts. A process of paying attention to what is happening inside ourselves on a moment-to-moment basis. It actively encourages questioning of our habitual way of thinking and the mental patterns our lifestyles have wrought. The mind control objective is to give practitioner’s the ability to observe their thoughts with perspective, without immersing themselves in their content.

Benefits claimed from the practise of mindfulness include improving the perception of pain in chronically ill patients, resulting in greater emotional well-being. Improved ability to concentrate and apply your attention, which results in greater efficiency when performing any task. Gives ability to manage stressful situations and release anxiety states, as it helps reduce cortisol levels (stress hormones) in our bodies. The practise is an aid to a good night’s sleep and can relieve insomnia. In general, the practice improves our emotional intelligence, since it allows us to face our thoughts and emotions and interpret situations with perspective, without judgement.

Now, who would argue these benefits are of no value? I certainly don’t, but is this the ‘old wine’ they claim it to be? If they assert that it is, I have some issues with it.

Firstly, let’s put the history into context. The Buddha didn’t invent Mindfulness, and he never used that term. He won’t mind me saying so, because he himself was aware of the harmonising practises having a history many millennia before his time. Secondly, what the Buddha was addressing by his lifestyle and practises, was the root problem that has bedevilled Mankind since his inception -how to cojoin our warring parts by processes to harmonise and evolve them.

Man is a complex hybrid creation -the character and composition of his consciousness is born of the Earth. The inner nature of our energies has higher form and non-form timeless counterparts, intelligence we cannot comprehend at source, and are only aware of it through the filter of our time/form Earth born consciousness.

We cannot achieve awareness of the higher realities by mind alone -it is only achievable when mind and body are in harmony, and then -surprise, surprise! We are no longer logically in charge because our instinctual nature has become an intuitional guide! That doesn’t mean you lose the power of thought or cannot be objective in action -but it does mean the rational mind is no longer the source power. There are many psychic development processes, including mindfulness as a westernised practise, which educate the rational mind as the source of power and transformation. The ancient masters (including the Buddha) never took this approach, for them harmonisation is achieved by radically changing our mode of perception.

They recognised that Man, as with all other forms of life, are in essence, open systems. Perceptibly it would appear life has no go borders, differences abound, and many life forms are so diversely different they do not relate or engage harmoniously with others. The complexity of Man has given him cause to develop a buffer zone of consciousness -its purpose is to protect his perceptive time/form world of consciousness from non-perceptive forms of life.

In short, Man’s hybrid nature gave birth to the Ego -a self-aware mechanism to give purpose to the warring parts. The rational mind was born.

And when these ancient masters looked at the world, and to the worlds beyond ours, they found no evidence of rationality in any other form of life. In the process of achieving samadhi, as the Buddha sat motionless beneath the Bodhi tree, he was not empty of humanness -he was attuned and in active communication with all forms of life that interacted with his BodyMind.

The Buddha, as had other Masters of Light before him, discovered the mechanism to transform his warring parts into a unity that enabled continuity beyond the grave.

In my next post I’ll introduce you to that mechanism -and you will see why you can’t put old wine into new bottles, and why incidentally history keeps repeating itself ad nauseam.

The poem I have written for this week is a pointer to the problem we all face.

In Memory of Sarah King

Had you known your granite headstone
would be flanked by two unknowns
you might have thought it significant;
as yours stands tall like one chosen
compared to their drunken faces.

The tree that shadows where you lay
Its sloughed bark being last to view
the moonlights felicitations;
In your day sinewy green with youth;
has suffered change like you have.

The proud and leafy head is burnt,
broken and lifeless; its branches
blackened antlers gouging the sky;
the knuckled roots naked of earth
Reshape the form you left behind.

The unknown blistered facing flags
askew upon the biers they mark
wedged between the tree’s webbed feet
Is living proof that men must fear;
names mean nothing to nature here.

Though Earth has held your name upright
slow moving time has wrought its change;
skeletal remains seeking rebirth
remarry to achieve what you could not;
path to Mecca: world without end.

Learning to be Self-Aware

Today I would like on the one hand to remind you to think for yourself and otherwise underwrite the good sense you have.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCD’s) and lifestyle related health conditions have burgeoned in the last 50 years. Civilised communities have become sedentary, dazzled by food choices that inflate appetites, and working practises heavily influenced by technology, demanding continual attention, have raised unavoidable stresses to unhealthy levels. We can be tempted and easily succumb to screen time over the need of sleep -the mind remaining alert to receive calls, texts, and things to do reminders.

We might be living longer,

assisted by medications and supplements, but are now far more likely to die from non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and organ failure, than we are from contagious diseases. Having said that vaccines, antibiotics, and antidepressants have impinged upon our natural immune response to such an extent, we either have to take more to get well or counteract them with some other form of medicine to maintain a healthy balance.

COVID -19 reminds us that infectious diseases can severely impact our immune systems

-and be reminded yet again, Flu is a virus, and were we to count up the number of people affected by Flu yearly -that too can be statistically classified as a pandemic. Worldwide and upwards of half a million deaths are attributed to Flu. While COVID -19 grabs our attention, guidance (which is by no means new) to take care and strengthen our immune system has been pushed into the background by the media noise championing the need for vaccination. Science does not claim complete protection from vaccines -it’s impossible for any vaccine to 100% protect because viruses mutate faster and more unpredictably than we can re-engineer and test.

There are four types of vaccines.

Live attenuated vaccines use a weakened form of the virus which still grow and replicate but does not cause illness, inactivated vaccines contain live viruses whose genetic material had been destroyed by heat, chemicals or radiation so they cannot infect cells and replicate but can trigger an immune response. The other three are Nucleic acid which uses genetic material from a disease-causing virus to trigger protection, Protein subunit vaccines use fragments of protein from the virus to give immunity, and lastly Viral vector-based vaccines which use a harmless virus to smuggle the instructions for making antigens form the disease-causing virus into cells and thereby triggering protective immunity against it.

The current batch of vaccines are all trying to achieve the same thing

– immunity to the virus, and some might also be able to stop transmission. They do so by stimulating an immune response to an antigen, a molecule found on the virus. In the case of COVID-19, the antigen is typically the characteristic spike protein found on the surface of the virus, which it normally uses to help it invade human cells.

The last three vaccine types mentioned above are currently rated for emergency use only -the earliest of them, the AstraZeneca and Pfizer are not due to complete their verification for general use until 2023. Governments worldwide have taken the view -emergency use is justified to slow and eradicate the pandemic. Just how they reach a consensus to declare the pandemic is over and can be classified epidemic I really don’t know.

Voices at the up-and-coming G7 are proposing to jab the world.

Infectious diseases and noncommunicable disease are not mutually exclusive. NCD’s are a leading risk factor for becoming seriously ill if you do catch an infection. And the waves of death associated with both infectious pandemics and other seasonal (flu) infections are often followed by an increase in the average annual death rate, due to other causes, notably heart attacks and strokes -indirect consequences caused by our immunity’s inflammatory response.

We have around 25’000 genes in our body -we each have a similar set of these genes but those that vary from person to person are our immune system’s compatibility genes.

This makes the immune system almost as specific to each individual as our fingerprints!

What this means is we all have different reactions to viruses -and for that matter, vaccines. There is no magic ‘pill’. So, governments reaction to the Covid pandemic and the millions of permutations of ill health the virus could produce, is to roll out vaccines that can minimise the effects of Covid and lock everyone down until the death rate eases. As some might say they are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

What else could they do? Faced with the impossible task of having scientists create millions of individual ‘nutcrackers’ -it was Hobsons choice.

However…. We are said to learn as we make mistakes, or to put it another way, as we find results are not meeting expectations, so what are we learning?

What are the two-common links between all pandemic and epidemics?

Believe it or not, we’ve known what they are for centuries -but just try putting that question into Google and you won’t get it answered. The answer is massed population and sanitation.

Whoa! Sanitation may have been a major cause of the Black Death -but in 21st century??

This is why medical authorities advised at the outset of Covid-19 to wash your hands. But it’s more than that -we don’t have open sewers anymore, leastways we don’t in most countries. No. the sanitation problem is much more than personal hygiene. The open environment, especially in towns and cities the air is far from clean. Add to that the chemicals we ingest in our 21st century food chain (which stays edible for longer because the distances food has to travel before it gets onto your plate), you yourself can become immune suppressed simply by eating the wrong stuff and walking about in unclean areas.

And all fresh food is not equally nutritious.

For example, the soil in Denmark has been so overworked it lacks in magnesium and B6. Result? They have a high rate of kidney stone infections. Is your water clean -well of course it is, water companies treat it with chlorine or chloramine which they add to kill parasites, bacteria, viruses and germs -how naturally clean is that?

The second thing we were told at the outset of the pandemic was to socially distance and wear masks, mostly interpreted to mean keeping a two-metre distance from others in shops and open spaces, whilst this may be said to help, it does not address the root of the problem.

There are many areas in our cities and towns where living accommodation is closely packed together.

High rise flats where all must use lifts to enter and exit mean there are spaces continually shared. Build-up of carbon dioxide from expelled breath and a lack of cleansing air conditioning make these viral transmittable areas. Add to that large families sharing space where the bread winners must enter and exit on a regular basis, and you have the likelihood of the majority living there catching the virus. Masks may protect you from coughs and splutter from someone who is infected but at the same time they create a catchment of carbon dioxide and thereby reduce oxygen rich air from reaching your lungs and needlessly overwork the immune system.

Restricting the movements of peoples also disrupts mental and emotional attitudes which can lead to overindulgence of sugars and alcohol -both of which hasten the transmission of viral infections.

For all these reasons and because your individual immune system can never be entirely protected by restrictions of movement or by vaccines, viral infections will always be present in our communities.

Your saviour is your own immune system -properly managed it will prevent death and serious illness, which means you need to be more self-aware, not only what you eat, combating unhealthy stresses, and exercising, but also as I’ve been advising over the last year -the need to question your lifestyle and make changes accordingly.

Happiness and contentment are our purpose -BodyMind harmony.

The poem I’ve written for today is a reminder that the natural world still has much to teach us…

The Rook

In the stone-hard furrows
of a winter fallow field
head down
pecking the ground
the rook -knows a lean meal
when he sees one.

With a non-stop brain
in the belly unlike you
-‘I’ brain conscious,
his beak keeps pecking
burning calories
getting little and less.

Until slowly
little is no more
and weakness halts him.
Observer and naturalist
take note
the rook has no name.

This bare faced
creation of feather and bone
constant host
of protozoa
is an avatar
not found in your books.

His smallest parts
are self-known
unicellular kingdoms
unbounded by form and time.
He knew that before
his face was feathered.

The half-closed eyes
have no regrets
as he caws
the one last time.
What does
your looking tell you?

Do you suppose learning
comes from observing,
dissecting, magnifying?
Can you rise above sympathy?
If so, why can you not
reveal the mystery?

He caws not for bread
or his mate
long since dead
he caws for his life
that bounds
from his head.

See –now
the wings
no longer lift
the legs do not move.
The order to rest
is final.

Perfect.

Learn from that
if you can.
The rook who didn’t need name
whose belly forever guided his brain
shows you life’s three-fold harmony
how life transforms without pain.

Wheeling as you do
caged between
Earth and Heaven,
what release
does your harmony bring
self-appointed surrogate King?