SUBJECT – Books/Travel/Light Touch Therapies/Craniosacral Therapy/Ancient Sites/

PHOTO –

The North Star, Polaris

WORD COUNT – 504

TITLE –

“SPIRALS WITHIN SPIRALS: STONES HAVE STORIES TO TELL,”  BY JAMES NEMEC, LMT, CST-D, NOW LIVE ON WORLD HERITAGE SITE, IRELAND

MEATH, IRELAND – December 21, 2009 – Do stones have stories to tell?  Spirals Within Spirals: Stones Have Stories to Tell, prepared by James Nemec LMT, CST-D for the World Heritage inspired site, Knowth.com, demonstrates how to approach ancient places with a sense of invitation and utmost respect.  What happens when we include the wisdom in our bodies, not just our minds?

Ready to get connected?

Travel with celebrated, light touch facilitator, and founder of CraniOcean, James Nemec, to ancient Ireland and explore how light a light touch can be!  The author of the books, Touch the Ocean: The Power of Our Collective Emotions, and Journeys: Stories Our Bodies Can Tell, visits the ancient Knowth. “It was an awakening,” he says, “to purpose.  Authentic purpose.”

After decades of fine theories, ideas, and opinions about Newgrange and Knowth, what is it to appreciate the beauty of these ancient places in a fresh, new way?  With a light touch?  And what of other World Heritage Sites, such as Machu Picchu and Sarnath in India, also included in the adventure, not to mention the ancient stones of the Holy Land, itself a colossal World Heritage site for planetary designation, in the author’s view?

With a background as a playwright, and a natural funny bone that keeps us turning the pages, we journey with Nemec’s journal on a reading adventure we will not soon forget, from Dublin to ancient Knowth, to the spiraling Joyce Tower in Sandycove, Ireland, and finally to return the United States to discover what it is to apply a light touch to the stones of a modern church or cathedral in South, Florida, where Nemec now practices.

Along the way, aficionados of the fine literary structures of Irish author, James Joyce, will enjoy an extra treat, with thoughtful references to Nobel Prize winning, Doris Lessing, and her soft science fiction series, Shikasta, also, the Giants mentioned in the Book of Genesis, Ben Stein on evolution, Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and a list of illustrious spiritual teachers and thinkers.

The first page of, Spirals Within Spirals, went live on the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2009 because according to Nemec, “this time was honored in ancient Ireland, and it’s the way the Irish like to do things.” For our preoccupied 21^st Century, each of the 9 pages of Spirals Within Spirals will be posted over 9 weeks on FaceBook, Twitter, Knowth.com, http://knowth.com/knowth-nemec1, the Author’s website, http://craniocean.com, other online locations, through February, 2010.

James Nemec, LMT, CST-D, grew up on the ocean in South Florida, is an award winning playwright, and has also worked with very well-people of all ages, from infants to the elderly, as a licensed massage therapist and certified craniosacral Diplomat for more than 15 years.  An innovator in his field, the Harvard Coop notes, “Nemec is celebrated for his ability to combine science and intuition to heal those previously beyond help.”

This event marks a milestone or midpoint for Nemec in the writing of his four book series, to be followed by, Awake and Asleep, and finally a book he describes as, “a total and delightful surprise!” At the end of Spirals Within Spirals, he washes his hands of it all and walks away, standing his personal, serendipitous discoveries upside down, to again challenge us to find out for ourselves!

Knowth.com/CraniOcean Media

http://knowth.com/articles.htm

http://craniocean.com/media

-30-

MEATH, IRELAND – December 21, 2009 – Do stones have stories to tell?  Spirals Within Spirals: Stones Have Stories to Tell, prepared by James Nemec LMT, CST-D for the World Heritage inspired site, Knowth.com, demonstrates how to approach ancient places with a sense of invitation and utmost respect.  What happens when we include the wisdom in our bodies, not just our minds?

Spirals Within Spirals: Stones Have Stories to Tell

We all take the gifts of the Earth for granted, even on our best days, and we take our own bodies for granted.  We have as many theories and ideas about the proper care of the Earth as we do about the proper care of our bodies, some more accurate than others, but what can we learn from our bodies, or even from old stones?

Ready to get connected?

Travel with celebrated, light touch facilitator, and founder of CraniOcean, James Nemec, to ancient Ireland and explore how light a light touch can be!  The author of the books, Touch the Ocean: The Power of Our Collective Emotions, and Journeys: Stories Our Bodies Can Tell, visits the ancient Knowth. “It was an awakening,” he says, “to purpose.  Authentic purpose.”

Knowth and Newgrange are the oldest, most sophisticated upper Earth structures known on Earth, predating even the pyramids of Egypt.  Since they were first unearthed from a farm field, or “grange,”  in the early 1940s, painstaking research has gone into the communal use and purpose of these mounds.   The ancient mound of Newgrange was set up specifically to calibrate the position of the sun at the time of the Winter Solstice. Each year, at the same time, the stones in the deep, inner chambers of this mound are lit by the light of the Sun.

Why, and for what purpose?

Were they burial mounds?  Places of worship?  Astronomical laboratories? After decades of fine theories, ideas, and opinions about Newgrange and Knowth, what is it to appreciate the beauty of these ancient places in a fresh, new way?  And what of other World Heritage Sites, such as Machu Picchu and Sarnath in India, also included in the adventure, not to mention the ancient stones of the Holy Land, itself a colossal World Heritage site for planetary designation, in the author’s view?

What are we not seeing?  Nemec proposes there are worlds of insight we might have missed by neglecting to ask what these places might mean to each of us, personally, in our own experience.  Whether we have light touch palpation skills or not, he encourages us to observe the very real sensations and impressions in our very physical bodies when we visit ancient sites, such as Knowth or Machu Picchu or Tikal, and not just depend on ideas alone.

Inspired by the light touch palpation skills Nemec applies in complementary medicine and the “blending ‘ taught in the new healing art of Craniosacral Therapy, developed by Dr. John E. Upledger, Spirals Within Spirals: Stones Have Stories to Tell, is as much an education in light touch “craniosacral therapy,” as the recently unearthed sites of Knowth and Newgrange.  In his 2007 book, Touch the Ocean, Nemec observes that when he would perform craniosacral therapy with clients in the ocean itself, the bodies would spontaneously unlock and move in wide circles or arcs, then later he found these were not circles, but spirals.

With a background as a playwright, and a natural funny bone that keeps us turning the pages, we journey with Nemec’s journal on a reading adventure we will not soon forget, from Dublin to ancient Knowth, to the spiraling Joyce Tower in Sandycove, Ireland, and finally to return the United States to discover what it is to apply a light touch to the stones of a modern church or cathedral in South, Florida, where Nemec now practices.

Along the way, aficionados of the fine literary structures of Irish author, James Joyce, will enjoy an extra treat, with thoughtful references to Nobel Prize winning, Doris Lessing, and her soft science fiction series, Shikasta, also, the Giants mentioned in the Book of Genesis, Ben Stein on evolution, Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and a list of illustrious spiritual teachers and thinkers.

And what of gravestones?

With the subheading, “With a Light Touch: Spiralling Impressions from Knowth to the Joyce Tower,” Nemec asks, if he can experience this, can others experience this too?   Can you?  You won’t know unless you find out for yourself, Nemec suggests.  And don’t forget to bring along your sense of humor! When we take ancient and sacred sites too seriously there is much that we can miss!

The first page of, Spirals Within Spirals, went live on the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2009 because according to Nemec, “this time was honored in ancient Ireland, and it’s the way the Irish like to do things.”  For our preoccupied 21^st Century, each of the 9 pages of Spirals Within Spirals posted over 9 weeks on FaceBook, Twitter, Knowth.com, http://knowth.com/knowth-nemec1, the Author’s website, http://craniocean.com, other online locations, through February, 2010.

This event marks a milestone or midpoint for Nemec in the writing of his four book series, to be followed by, Awake and Asleep, and finally a book he describes as, “a total and delightful surprise!” At the end of Spirals Within Spirals, he washes his hands of it all and walks away, standing his personal, serendipitous discoveries upside down, to again challenge us to find out for ourselves!

James Nemec, LMT, CST-D, grew up on the ocean in South Florida, is an award winning playwright, and has also worked with very well-people of all ages, from infants to the elderly, as a licensed massage therapist and certified craniosacral Diplomat for more than 15 years.  An innovator in his field, the Harvard Coop notes, “Nemec is celebrated for his ability to combine science and intuition to heal those previously beyond help.”

Knowth.com/CraniOcean Media

http://knowth.com/articles.htm

http://craniocean.com/media

-30-

The Intihuatana stone at Machu Picchu is arranged to point directly to the Sun at the Winter Solstice, and then casts no shadow.  How is this similar to the ancient sites of Ireland?

The Intihuatana stone at Machu Picchu

Thus the following excerpt from, With a Light Touch: Spiralling Impressions from Knowth to the Joyce Tower, by James Nemec LMT, CST-D, now posted for your reading pleasure at the sacred sites of Ireland website, Knowth.com See what happens when an American Tourist and an authentic Irish encounter the ancient site of Ireland’s, Knowth, in a new way — !

” “Did you happen to touch the stones?” I said to Eileen.
“What?”
“Did you touch the stones?”’
“Of course not,” she answered. “I’ve done that a million times at Newgrange.”
“It’s not the same,” I said.
“What?” We were going over another hill.
I said, “I’ll bet it’s not the same.”
“Nothing ever is,” she said above the noise.

The closest that I could come to remembering anything like this feeling was when I was visiting Machu Picchu with my Dad in the 1990s. The sense of using the body to interact with the stones was similar to my sitting on what was called, for short, “The Needle.” The actual name of the stone is the Intihuatana, or “hitching post for the sun.” The Needle was an ancient stone structure that looked like a giant seat and roped off from the tourists. The most important shrine at Machu Picchu, it was used by Inca astronomers to predict solstices and played into the mythology of the ancient Incas. I thought of the way the high priests of Machu Picchu would gather around this Needle while the common people prayed on the wide grounds below, but to me, it was just a big rock that looked like a seat.

After two days of being there, I slipped in under the rope and sat down on the smooth part. I began to feel a spine-tingling and sudden, powerful resonance. It was so strong as a focal point that it alarmed me. I felt if I sat longer the sky would open and split apart, or my brain would! After a minute or so, I got up from The Needle and went back under the ropes, and looked at it from there like a good tourist. The Kerbstones I’d touched at Knowth had the same kind of deep resonance, but it was clean and present and NOW. I just couldn’t place it. At Knowth, my body felt safe, and this feeling of safety, even of reassurance from the deep center of our star system, was very unlike the feeling I’d had while sitting on the powerful Intihuatana, at Machu Picchu …. “

All Rights Reserved

James Nemec LMT, CST-D

With courtesy of, Knowth.com

With a Light Touch: Spiraling Impressions from Knowth to the Joyce Tower, will be posted page by page in a series, upon completion.  This is a photo I took of the legendary Ashoka pillar from Sarnath, India, just north of the Holy City of Benares, also known as the city of Varanasi.

The Ashoka pillar is only a short walk away from the ancient Stupa at Sarnath, pictured below.

Veterans of PTSD and Craniosacral Therapy

This continues CraniOcean’s blog entries on,

What is it to fight a war without purpose, or without a sense of purpose?

What is it to anything without a purpose?

There is always a purpose, of course.  Everything always has a purpose.   A car can be a delightful means of transportation or can be a lethal weapon, notes Dr. Robert Rhondell Gibson.

Why not let’s consider taking on a purpose in our own lives as we observe these active duty men, and what can happen with any of us:

“Tired, Strained, Confused” — Why U.S. Troops Have Hit the Breaking Point in Afghanistan, by Martin Fletcher

And the world rolls on. In the midst of this calamity, research on PTSD continues to be canceled.  For example, posted on the blog, The Great Beyond:

Gulf War Syndrome research contract cancelled - August 27, 2009

And here is CraniOcean’s comment:

It’s quite reasonable to treat Gulf War Syndrome, PTSD, and so on, without medications, surgeries, or years of counseling, specifically with a very light touch approach that gently addresses the environment immediately surrounding the central nervous system.

Our services were also offered to the VA through West Palm Beach, Florida, and summarily rejected, time and again.  Who does it benefit to prolong the unpleasant conditions and feelings of being ill-at- ease?  For American civilians, this is quite understandable, as we have seen demonstrated. Not so for Veterans.  This is tragic.

Videos are available on the continuing success of craniosacral therapy in the relief and treatment of PTSD with Vietnam Veterans — unfortunately, the program ended soon after due to a lack of funding.  Deja vu?

Meanwhile, if there are any active duty servicemen or veterans who might be reading this, here we can offer what comfort we may.  One might ask, for today: “What is my purpose?”

Or, “What is ‘the’ purpose?”

Even in The Lord of The Rings, the Extended version(!), when the purpose of going into battle with the endless troops of the Dark Lord is at all questioned, the Lady of Rohan finally says to the Hobbit, “For our friends.”  This is a movie based on a book with a theme about friendship and love.

For more on purpose, why not visit this page?  It’s a talk given by Dr. Robert Rhondell Gibson, or “Dr. Bob,” about having a purpose.  And a talk given on purpose!

School Talk #24 Purpose

(Just scroll through the hard parts, but it’s quite interesting for these interesting times.)

Thank you

Again, just posting these few links as notes from the internet for the Facilitator’s contemplation.

First, a tragedy in Vietnam is soon followed by a much larger tragedy on a massive scale.

Mob. police force nuns to leave Vietnam monastery. (event September 27, 2009)

Second, the massive tragedy (who remembers?):

In Vietnam (event September 30, 2009)

In Indonesia, BBC (follow up October 1, 2009)

Just curious.

Concerned Friends of CraniOcean have sent these links in.  Posting these for one’s own reference and contemplation, later on.  Prescription pain killers are now more common than heroin as street drugs sold by Pushers?  Although this research is interesting, the Facilitator is not into seeking anyone else’s agreement that this is interesting, or even useful, information at this point.

Canadians abusing prescription painkillers more than heroin

Prescription painkillers now more common than heroin as street drugs.

On the other hand, a short documentary about another well known street drug …

Healing Power of Hemp Oil?

Curiouser and curiouser.

As a note, it’s best to observe any reactions to these emotionally charged articles and come back to free and easy flow and health.  See what happens when in a good mood.

Thank you

Dolphins and our inter-dependence with nature play a huge part in Touch the Ocean.

Here is a video in from a Friend.  Sit back, relax and enjoy.

Thankfully, without over – analyzing, we can perhaps agree that there are some suggestions that are nurturing and nourishing.

Thank you. This is the about end of the CraniOcean Blog, for now.

Be well and Have fun!

We’ve had fun following the Health Care Reform debate, haven’t we?  It’s been hard to follow the thread, for everyone. As much as one might respect private insurance in this country, in the past two weeks, the whole debate seems to have taken a dark turn.  It appears that even the Insurance companies are now pushing for the “public option” (whatever that is) reform, because “reform” will potentially mean that each and every person in America will have to buy Health Insurance, by Law.  Whether they can afford it or not.  Like car insurance.

Why bother when 72 percent of Americans favor Universal Health Care (whatever that is) and about 60 percent Doctors.  And would Universal Healthcare work in this country?  Well, something called “single payer” (whatever this is) has worked in San Francisco, a city that put it into law for those who could not afford private insurance.  Here’s a report on  San Francisco.

At this time, however, Single Payer is not a solution? Too many special interests?

Shhhhh … Single Payer is used by Members of Congress, and by the USA Military active duty Forces … and that it works is  a big secret!  Or so we’ve been told.

Universal Healthcare is not the same as Single Payer, and still involves lots of private insurance companies making the rules.

Can you tell that I hardly know what I’m talking about in this debate? Well, who really does.  So how about a Field Guide to this Zoo of Words, provided by PBS. Here you will find the major players, and the major definitions — from “public option” to “single payer,” and so on.

And so on.

How about navigating the crazy?  With Ze Frank of TIME?

O-kay.

All of this is interesting, none of this is important.  It’s not worth getting anxious over, or the price of your own precious health.

Thank you.

Giving.. Receiving … pollinating … in gratitude.

Watching this video, an insight in butterflies and butterflying arose.

Is it true that if you’ve seen one Monarch Butterfly, you’ve seen them all?  And is it true that if you’ve heard once grain of true wisdom, that you know it all?  For those who have the eyes to see, the ears to hear …

Liked the Coral Blue best (naturally