Читать книгу A Free Spirit - Betty Shine - Страница 11

Each morning sees some task begin,Each evening sees it close;

Something attempted, something done,Has earned a night’s repose.

The Village Blacksmith

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807–1882

It is impossible to communicate with animals unless you can ‘feel’ their world, an environment of sensation, vibration, scent, acute hearing and telepathic communication. It is virtually impossible for a human being to achieve all of these things at the animal’s level, but with patience you can attain some of them in varying degrees. It really depends on how much time you are willing to devote to the project.

I have always been highly sensitive to different energy levels, all at the same time. The pull of one level tugging against another, and then the sensation of going into a slipstream, has been with me since birth. As a small child I was always aware of weather patterns and could forecast a storm three days before it arrived. But the first indication always came from the trees. I could feel them becoming more supple, as though they were shedding a certain rigidity. I knew that within hours they would begin to sway, even on a still day, as though in a light breeze, and at this point I would know a storm was imminent. When it arrived, the trees had become so supple that the branches would bend to a degree that under normal circumstances would have broken them in half.

I know now that the electrical disturbance in the atmosphere before a storm affects many people, but it is that extra something that makes one aware of the changes in all living things and able to understand the messages that are being transmitted through the ether.

Trees also know when they are to be felled. They absorb the content of the woodcutter’s thoughts like a sponge, and they react accordingly. It is not only trees that respond in this way, but nature as a whole. Invisible, inaudible things are happening all the time between species, which enable them to interact with their surroundings.

One would think that you could get nothing from a stone, but stone circles – which were used for supernatural purposes in a past age – are particularly powerful and have been shown to have unique frequencies that cannot be found elsewhere. Whenever I visit the sites of ancient stone circles and place my hands on the stones, it is as if time is rolled back and I enter another age, and I can then perceive a life which was vastly different to the way we live now. If I repeat the process later with the same stones, I might ‘timeslip’ to an entirely different period. In the world of the supernatural there are no rules – it cannot be disciplined, and that is why I find it so fascinating.

On one occasion, whilst I was decoding the messages from a particular stone in the centre of a circle, I realised I could neither hear nor feel the frequencies that are so apparent outside of the circle. I made a study of this particular phenomenon, and had the same experience every time. This makes me believe that the stones themselves create a barrier, warding off harmful rays, and that is why I think I have found the centre of these circles to be so perfect for meditation.

Mobile phones disrupt normal frequencies to such an extent that their effects can be picked up not only by psychics but by people who have no aptitude for the supernatural at all.

I was walking along a cliff top one day with a friend who considered himself to be the most non-psychic person you could ever meet. He suddenly stopped in his tracks, telling me that he could feel something hitting the back of his neck. Minutes before this happened I had also felt a certain bombardment throughout my body. Looking back, we could see two people, both using mobile phones. We decided to stay where we were until they passed. Once they had disappeared into the distance, everything returned to normal. Since then, we have conducted similar experiments with friends, and the same thing happens every time.

My friend no longer believes he is totally non-psychic, but is a little shattered to find that he reacts so badly to something he cannot see. The most unbelievable things in this world are those that we cannot see, sense or touch – that is the magic which can, in an instant, turn your life around when you experience it for the first time. I pointed out to him that these energies affect every living thing, especially birds, who have to find their way through the tangles we have created in the Earth’s magnetic circuit.

Animals, birds and insects are particularly sensitive to negative or black energies, and avoid areas where massacres have taken place – not massacres just of their own kind, but of humans too. Where terrible crimes have been committed, like the horrors that were carried out in concentration camps, the surrounding area is completely smothered by negativity of such a high density that it forms an indelible map which can never be erased. When in the future the whole world begins to use the psyche for survival, evolved humans will be able to read this map and wonder what kind of uncivilisation lived on this planet in earlier times.

The natural world inspires not only artists but those of us who want to interact and learn how to communicate with it. Like the human mind, the life force that surges throughout the whole of the natural world is independent of matter.

Through the systematic poisoning and destruction of the land, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain a healthy environment. Trees, plants, hedgerows and all living matter are affected. It is vital that each and every one of us should take into account the terrible damage that greed has done to our environment and reverse this trend where we can before more major disasters occur.

For centuries, Britain has had hedgerows, marking boundaries in a way that made our landscape look like a giant patchwork quilt. Small mammals, birds and insects found sanctuary in the tangled undergrowth, along with wild flowers that sheltered from the wind. Frogs, toads and other amphibians also sought shelter in the ditches that ran beside the hedgerows.

Yet over the past fifty years, the heart has been ripped out of the countryside. Now little over sixty per cent of these havens are left. Without the hedges, which act as natural windbreaks, winds have forged a path through crops and copse, causing considerable damage to the environment. Little thought was given to the consequences until it was too late.

Although farmers are now replacing some of the hedgerows, the land can never return to what it was before. The birds and other creatures which fed on and sought shelter within hedges have gone. Those which survived are few, and many have become endangered species.

The liberal use of poisons on the land has also affected humans, as the sickness in the soil reflects the sickness in ourselves. Over forty years ago, many people – myself included – did all we could to stop the use of DDT. At that time we were considered odd (at the very least) but we were right. Unfortunately, the greed had already set in, and more and more pesticides were approved and used.

It was clear that this insanity would gain ground, so I looked for a way to protect my family from harm and became a vitamin and mineral therapist. It was obvious to me, through study, that life-saving antioxidants were essential to healthy body maintenance.

At that time, whenever I introduced this subject into a conversation, people looked at me as though I was speaking a foreign language. Worse, they didn’t care. Now antioxidants are being hailed as the new science and are being used to treat a host of major and minor complaints. If they had been introduced forty years ago, many lives would have been saved.

‘You are what you eat’ is a slogan that has been used many times to encourage people to cut out unnecessary (and possibly harmful) foods. But it applies equally to so-called healthy food such as fruit and vegetables when it has been grown on contaminated land. It is extremely difficult to find land that is clean, and in some cases it will take a hundred years or more for contaminated land to recover.

If they have a choice, animals, birds and bees will frequent areas that are undisturbed, because their natural instincts tell them that these places have not been contaminated.

Some farmers, who were considered too old fashioned when they kept to the old ways of farming, are now reaping the rewards. People are now prepared to pay a higher price for food that is truly organic, so that their children will have a better chance of health and survival. It is better to eat a not-so-perfect apple, grown organically, than the designer apple which may be suspect.

Wherever you are, even if it is in the heart of a city or at the top of a tower block, you can still close your eyes and allow your mind to visit beautiful places. Free your mind and you will open your life.

At one time I lived in the very heart of the country. Surrounded by trees, woods and valleys, it was easy to enjoy the beauty of all the seasons. But on one particularly gloomy day, I felt as though I needed something beautiful to brighten up my life, so I sat down and dreamed about the colourful birds that I had seen whilst meditating. I suppose my daydreaming lasted about fifteen minutes.

An hour later, I decided to pick some herbs for my dinner that night. I opened the door that led into the back garden and saw, sitting on a wall immediately in front of me, two of the most beautiful peacocks I have ever seen. Our eyes met, and we stood transfixed for about five minutes. Then I quietly moved into the main part of the garden. They didn’t move an inch – and they never took their eyes off me the whole time. I stayed with the peacocks for two hours. Then, when I went back into the house, they flew away.

I lived in that house for four years, but I never saw them again. Then again, I never dreamed about birds from the spirit world again. Magical moments come in small doses, and I didn’t want to push my luck.

To enable you to understand what it feels like to be at one with nature I would like you to take a virtual walk with me. First of all we are going to walk through some woodland.

Because it is spring, there is a feeling of expectancy in the air, and if you are intuitive you will be able to perceive this and absorb the energies. The crackling of the leaves underfoot will open up your senses to the past, and in doing so will automatically propel you into the future. For example, the very sound of the old leaves will remind you that in the previous year they had been fresh and green. Now dry and crunchy, they will decompose, adding nutrients to the earth which will then sustain the new life that is about to burst from the buds. If you close your eyes now, not only will you be able to visualise this, but you should also be able to hear it happening before the event. It may take time before you can experience this, but the more aware you become of your surroundings, and of the creatures that lurk in the undergrowth, the more it will become second nature to you to hear sounds and vibrations that have eluded you in the past.

The next step is to hold out your hands as you approach a tree. Take note at what point your hands begin to tingle. This way you can judge the health of the tree by the size of its aura. The size of the aura will also depend on the type of tree you are dealing with. As you get closer to the base of the tree the strength of the aura will increase, and if you lean against the trunk, you will feel the full impact. In summer, when there is a canopy of leaves, the aura will naturally become more intense, because every leaf has an aura of its own.

If you would like to experiment with self-healing, then you can do no better than to sit under an ancient oak tree. Noted for their longevity – a life-span of three hundred years in some cases – they also have magnificent auras. Their auras are so powerful that under favourable circumstances they can elicit a mental ‘timeslip’ which can allow you to decode the memory blueprint contained in the tree and propel your mind into a bygone age.

Once you are able to feel the aura of trees, you will be able to detect when they are diseased, even if there are no outward signs. Walking around the perimeter of the aura, slowly closing in on the tree, it is possible to make an accurate diagnosis and pinpoint the diseased areas. I have often used this method of diagnosis, and in many cases it has prevented the need to cut down the whole tree. It is also possible to use this process for the whole of nature, because every living thing has an aura.

Don’t forget the birds that frequent these same trees. Each species has its own call, its own language, and yet they all have a sixth sense that enables them to understand and react to the whole. We have to make this sense our own before we can even begin to understand them.

When I was living in the middle of the woods, my garden was frequented on a daily basis by three types of woodpecker. The lesser-spotted woodpecker is tiny and secretive, so you are less likely to see it than the greater-spotted and green varieties. It was a joy to watch them as they took food from the bird table. In fact they were quite tame. This might have been because I used the garden for healing and meditation, which always casts a calm spell over the immediate vicinity.

Back to our walk. Whilst you are standing in the middle of the woodland, close your eyes and visualise the bird you would most like to see sitting in the trees above you. Then imagine it in the palm of your hand. If your particular favourite has coloured feathers, gently move the feathers and separate the colours. This action will enable you to feel the heartbeat and warmth of its body. When you have interacted with the bird for several minutes, open your hands and let it fly away. From that moment on, the sense of belonging to the world of birds will be with you for ever. You might also want to repeat the process to bring back the magic of those moments.

Feathers themselves are fascinating. When you hold one in your hands, you will automatically stroke it. I know people who cope with stress by stroking their cheeks with feathers. They have strong associations – without them a bird could not defy gravity and fly above the Earth. They are symbols of a free spirit.

Try this exercise. Find one or two feathers – the size is immaterial. Stand out in the open, preferably on a hill, and hold the feathers in the air. Close your eyes, and when you feel a strong current of air, let them go, knowing that all of your problems are leaving with them.

Sometimes, rather than floating away, the feathers will turn around and drop at your feet. When this happens, it is a sign that you have to become stronger and more determined in your efforts to bring calm into your life.

Repeat the process until the feathers disappear. You will have taken the first step to inner peace.

Feather magic has been practised since the beginning of time. If you find a feather, make a study of the bird and its habits. You may find that the feather is trying to tell you something. For example, if you find the feather of a dove and place it on a table in the centre of a room, it will bring you peace. If you are lucky enough to find a feather belonging to a bird of prey, it might tell you that you need to be free of encumbrances, to soar above the earth, to find the stillness you seek.

The easiest way to achieve this is to meditate. Allow your mind to soar, to travel through invisible curtains which will show you that gravity cannot keep you locked in.

There are many pocket books on birds that you can buy, and reading through them can help you enhance the image whilst you’re practising this exercise.

Here is a self-healing exercise. Sit under an oak tree, and feel the energy currents running through your body as you absorb the tree’s aura. Then, holding a feather in your hands, take a deep breath and then breathe out through the feather, knowing as you do so that you are ridding your mind and body of toxins. This feather must never be used by others.

You can use feathers for physical healing too. You should keep a particular feather for healing, and store it in a box when it is not in use. When you need it, place the feather over the part of the body giving you a problem and blow through it.

To the uninitiated, feather magic might seem a bit far-fetched, but you’ll never know whether it will work for you until you try.

I have spent many hours looking at the sparrow hawks that hover over the South Downs. Circular in flight, they climb into the sky then plunge to earth to claim their prey. For a long time I tried to imagine what it would be like to come face to face with this bird.

Walking into my conservatory one day, I saw a sparrow hawk sitting on a windowsill as if transfixed, and it looked at me with its huge yellow eyes. I stood quite still – in shock I think – because it was the last thing I’d expected to find inside my house. It was difficult to see how it had got in, as the gap in the door leading to the garden was so small. I believe now that it must have followed one of the many finches that sometimes found themselves in the same position whilst helping themselves to the bird seed that I stored inside the conservatory.

The bird was as beautiful as I had imagined, and I was loath to let it go, but because I had no idea how long it had been there – and thought that hunger must have caused it to get into this predicament – I knew I had to release it as soon as possible. Walking slowly to the door, I gently pushed it open and walked into the garden. Standing at a distance, I watched as the bird turned its head towards the doorway, then freed itself in a flash and disappeared behind a hedgerow, no doubt looking for its next victim.

Deciduous woodland has layers of vegetation which provide many different kinds of habitat needed to house the numerous species that dwell there. Scuttling in the undergrowth are shrews and wood mice, whilst badgers tunnel into the earth to create their sett, usually amidst elder trees which provide them with warmth, security and a safe haven within their intertwined roots.

A more common sight are the squirrels which perform their acrobatics in tree canopies. Their favourite venues are oak, sweet chestnut and sycamore in which to make their dreys, an untidy mass of twigs and dead leaves which are easy to spot in the winter. At night, the treetops are frequented by bats, which can be seen quite clearly at dusk.

On the edge of the woodland you will find hedgehogs, rabbits, hares, stoats, weasels and polecats. Hares love the open fields but are now increasingly taking to the woods in an attempt to preserve their own numbers.

If you live near woodland that slopes down to a river, you are likely to hear the nightingale singing day and night during the summer months. They migrate to Africa during the winter.

When your psyche opens up, enabling your mind to become a free spirit, you will be entering a magical world that will change your life. Becoming adept at visualisation will certainly make it easier for you to make contact with the wilder aspects of nature.

Whilst walking my dogs one day, I suddenly realised that it would be dark before I returned home. As there were no lights in the area, I made my way home carefully in the dusk, but as night drew in I stumbled across a rough field and fell over. As I got to my feet I threw my arms in the air and laughingly shouted, ‘Let there be light!’ Within minutes, I came across the longest line of glow-worms I had ever seen. I watched them for several minutes before resuming my journey. The light may have been minimal, but I thanked God anyway – at least He tried!

I walked this hill in the dark for many years but never saw the glow-worms again. When I was young, they could be seen everywhere, but now they are a rare sight, yet one more beautiful thing we have destroyed with insecticides.

The real challenge comes when you use your powers to try to out-fox a fox. This animal is naturally cunning and uses its coat – which has many variations of colour – as a camouflage. I have often caught a glimpse of one slinking through the undergrowth, and in the autumn they blend in perfectly with the changing leaves.

To mentally connect with foxes, you have to think like them, and occasionally I have been able to do this. One fox in particular used to frequent my garden and snatch the bird-cakes from a post near the house, even though I’d left food for it outside the gate. I tried to make contact telepathically, but to no avail. Eventually, I conjured up a picture in my head of an enormous hound dog with a fox in its mouth and sent the picture to the animal. Though it still collected food from outside the gate, it never entered the garden again.

With success comes the release of self-doubt, a negative attitude that prevents us from achieving the seemingly impossible. Many people have told me that although they would like to commune with nature, they simply don’t have the time to sit and stare. But they are content to sit in front of their televisions and computers, and most of the time they are not achieving anything – certainly nothing that is going to last a lifetime.

Every individual must take on the mantle of responsibility for the health of our planet and for all the life it supports, otherwise the damage will spiral out of control. Time and time again I have been told that there is nothing that ordinary people can do to stop the decay. My reply is that there are billions of ordinary people who could turn the tide in any country if they were so inclined. The reason it doesn’t happen is because there are too few people of courage prepared to save us from the disasters that threaten our environment, whilst the rest do very little or nothing at all.

Ecologists know what is going to happen. Others bury their heads in the sand, too lazy or too greedy to stop the rot that is threatening the whole world. People in previous generations who could have done something have ignored the issues until they felt their contribution would be ‘too little, too late’. If we all do a little now, it need not be too late to save ourselves and our children from environmental destruction.