Some of you are interested in a meditation that I have to open the chakras - so here's a very simple, easy one that you can do.<P>First some background as to why I'm posting this: We say that the WS is in a 'fog' or living in a 'fantasy world', and often these people have closed base chakras - causing them to be ungrounded and living in the clouds. The base chakra relates to the day-to-day essentials of survival, responsibility, level-headedness as well being 'grounded' - you can imagine what chaos can be caused by a closed base chakra, because we're seeing it in our WS's every day!<P>There are 7 main chakras which are:<P>Base Chakra - situated at the perineum - associated with the colour red.<BR>Sacral Chakra - situated just below the belly button - associated with the colour orange.<BR>Solar Plexus Chakra - situated about 3-4" above the belly button (if you have a sudden shock or fright you feel it in your solar plexus chakra) - associated with the colour yellow.<BR>Heart Chakra - situated at the heart - associated with the colours Green and Pink<BR>Throat Chakra - situated at the throat - associated with the colour sky blue<BR>Brow Chakra - situated in the centre of the forehead - associated with the colour indigo blue<BR>Crown Chakra - situated at the crown of the head - associated with the colour violet.<P>If your WS is willing to meditate, suggest this combination to them:<P>Firstly a 'grounding routine' that should be done before AND after every meditation: Visualise sending down roots from the soles of your feet. These strong roots go down through the layers of earth, through the layers of rock, until they arrive at the earth's centre. The earth's centre is filled with golden light, which you then visualise being sucked up by your roots, back through the layers of rock, back through the layers of earth, into the soles of your feet and then filling your body with golden light. <P>Now for the meditation to open the chakras:<BR>Very simply, and starting from the base chakra, you visualise a flower bud there. The flower gradually opens into a beautiful bloom which is the colour of that chakra (red). From the centre of the flower, (red) light starts to flow and to fill your body. Spend a short while enjoying the feeling of your body being filled with (red) light. Now go on and do the same thing with your sacral chakra (orange), your solar plexus chakra (yellow), your heart chakra (green or pink), your throat chakra (sky blue), your brow chakra (indigo) and finally your crown chakra (violet).<P>When this meditation is complete, and you have grounded yourself again by putting your roots down it is important to protect yourself against negative energies. You should leave your chakra's open, but this also leaves you vulnerable, so you also need to remember to visualise sealing yourself in a golden bubble of protection (When I do this, my bubble builds from the ground up and when I'm completely surrounded by it, I visualise it going very strong and rigid). It's also good if you know you are going into a confrontational or intimidating situation. You can also put others in golden bubbles of protection - such as your kids if they are going on a school trip or similar, your car, plane etc. Just visualise the bubble growing around them or it.<P>If your WS is agreeable, then having them carry around a really grounding crystal, such as haematite or obsidian (both black), or garnet (red). I prefer haematite because it's a very 'heavy' feeling crystal, is excellent for grounding and is cheap to buy! <P>Best wishes, Paint.<P>

Thank you for the information, Paint! I am very interested in all kinds of alternate spiritualities and am glad that you have shared this with us.<P>I hope that others will not be offended by anything you have written here, and if they are, I truly hope they can simply keep it to themselves. <P>I am only afraid that if I envision roots grounding me, I will do it so well I will trip trying to move afterward! <P>------------------<BR>terri<BR><B>Courage</B><P>Whatever course you decide upon,<BR>there is always someone to tell you<BR>that you are wrong.<P>There are always difficulties arising<BR>which tempt you to believe that your <BR>critics are right.<P>To map out a course of action <BR>and follow it to an end <BR>requires courage.<P><I>Ralph Waldo Emerson</I>

I find this facinating. I hope you don't mind my asking, but not long ago I attended a festival and one of the booths there was filled with spiritual stuff and many different colored and shaped stones and runes. I'm not really into this kind of thing, but I was kind of playing around and I moved my hand in a circular motion over the stones trying to pick one out and I noticed that at one point I felt heat rising from a particular group of stones. Does this make any sense? This has happened before. What does this mean? Or is it just my imagination?<BR>

Very basically it's a 'signal' that it is the right one for you - it would be interesting to know what type of crystals they were! The sensation would be in the palm of your hand as you have minor chakra's there. I get a tingling sensation, some people get cold, some hot. <P>Incidentally, I was trained as a research microbiologist, so am very scientifically minded (suprised?). Quartz crystals are used in so many things nowadays (watches, clocks, computers, some medical equipment etc.), because of their ability to regulate some forms of energy - this can include energies from people. I won't go into the 'science' of it all, because it's complicated, and there is a lot of spiritual stuff associated with crystals too (and whether that is 'true' I don't know). I do know that they can be very comforting to have around and to meditate with - apart from being very beautiful.<P>Incidentally - please be careful at these 'metaphysical' fairs - they tend to attract some of the less positive aspects of this trend, such as tarot readings. When I was trained in Aromatherapy and Crystal healing, we were taught to work for the 'highest good' and not necessarily purely for the satisfaction of our customers. There are a lot of unscrupulous practitioners out there who will do/say anything just to make their customers happy and earn more money. There are some things that you are not supposed to know about in advance! I sometimes use a crystal pendulum to answer questions - but often it will 'tell' me that I was not allowed to ask that particular question because it was not for the highest good and is something that you are not supposed to find out about in advance, for whatever reason.<P>Best wishes, Paint.

Now, now Paint, I've been reading Tarot cards for more years than I care to admit right now. I think that like with a lot of things, the results depend as much on the medium as they do the tool. Through the tarot, I've never encountered anything that I wasn't ready to know. I use the deck much as one would use a road map. I know where I want to go, how do I get there? What's in my way? And before enyone asks, yes the deck clued me in to my "real" husband often. I chose to ignore it. Did't look at it for three years up to d-day. <P>But you're right about the fairs. I'm wary of tarot readers who charge more than a good marriage counselor.<P>Snow

Didn't intend to cause any offence Snow - it's just that I think it's dangerous to 'dabble' if you don't know enough about these things, and are neither grounded or know how to protect yourself. I know that occasionally you can leave yourself vulnerable to negative energies, or even entity attatchment. I've seen this happen - a friend of mine was encouraged to 'dabble' in things that they shouldn't and left themselves very vulnerable to attatchment. These 'lost souls' are not necessarily bad, but are attracted by deep emotions such as pain, grief, or sexual fixations. When I saw my friend, I knew something was very wrong - they had lost an awful lot of weight, looked very gaunt and sunken-eyed, and couldn't look me in the eye. There was a very bad 'feeling' around them, but at that time I didn't know what it was. After they had left my house, that bad 'feeling' remained and I literally felt the need to cleanse the entire house with Juniper oil to get rid of it. I was so concerned about them that I called my old aromatherapy tutor and she told me what it was and offered to help clear it. It took her several hours of hard work to send this 'lost soul' on it's way to where it SHOULD be, and clear my friend of it. I saw her again 2 weeks later and she was fine - looked healthy and happy again. <P>Because we are going through such emotional pain here on MB, I felt the need to warn others not to 'dabble', and to be wary of unscrupulous practitioners. <P>Best wishes Snow,<BR>hugs, Paint.