I recently was invited to attend a peace workshop in Houston. The workshop was led by Rita Marie Johnson from BePeace–The Rasur Foundation International. This workshop turned out to be information on bringing peace into the world by bringing peace into oneself–and the method is based on scientific research!
I was profoundly affected–to the point of being so spiritually moved that I felt I had been pierced and could not even speak to anyone or listen to anything else but the prayer going on in my own heart for over an hour.
You can find the links to The Rasur Foundation and the research and initiative sites at the end of this post.
The scientific research affirms what many spiritual communities have been attesting to for thousands of years, that the mind is in the heart. How is that we keep relearning ancient truths when we think we are actually advancing as a people group in a linear fashion? It appears to me that we are advancing in a spiral, always cycling back to remember the lessons we’ve learned before but forgotten.
The heart has its own brain. I heard that discovery a couple of years ago, but only now have I made any real connection to how that affects the whole of one’s spiritual and physical life. Not only does the heart have its own brain, it has the “Pendulum Effect” over the entire physical and mental body. See, the old adage, “change your thoughts change your life,” isn’t the whole truth. What science has discovered is basically what spiritual mothers and fathers have known for a very long time, but there hasn’t been the scientific proof to satisfy the western mind. Now there is and that is the heart-brain is more powerful than the one in our heads.
Change your thoughts works well, unless you are under stress, emotional, anxious, frustrated, etc. When one’s heart is not in “coherence” with one’s brain, the thought patterns travel a “fast track” to the amygdala, which is the primitive mind and one reacts to stimulus irrationally.
One must learn to change one’s feelings so that if the stimulus to the brain triggers an emotional memory, one taps into the heart, brings up an image of appreciation, breathes through the heart while holding onto that image, and then the stimulus is allowed to move through the brain more slowly, does not get sent to the amygdala and a rational, intelligent response is given. (This is a simplified explanation.) In fact, when one practices this method, one becomes more creative and able to use the mental brain to a fuller capacity, operating with a higher level of intelligence and creativity.
This, my friends, is the truth behind a discipline of meditation. They key factor is engaging the heart.
As we sat in the room and watched this method being taught and practiced, in less than an hour the “feeling,” the vibrations in the room changed. Most of us were quiet as the heart was obviously speaking its own language to other hearts in the room. And, yes, there was a scientific explanation for that, too.
The heart has an electro-magnetic field around it. It extends up to three feet around a person, in most people. As we were sitting closer than three feet to one another, our hearts were having an effect on other hearts. When the heart and the brain are in coherence with one another, the electromagnetic field is balanced and positive. It radiates out and works on other electromagnetic fields. Can you see the power behind this?
What a difference we can make in ourselves, who then radiate out into our homes, our communities, and yes, the world. Rita Marie, a very practical business woman who has learned to listen to her heart rather than solely relying on her thoughts, is not naive in any sense. She is aware that there are those in the world trained in hate and evil, trained to inflict harm on this world of ours. She is also aware that this method of peace-making is not the only answer and that we will always be learning about peace–both inward and outward.
She learned a lot in Costa Rica and I suggest you read her story. How the whole country abolished its army, how an epic poem infiltrated a culture and helped change it for the better, how teaching children to Be Peace graduated to it now being taught at the university and governmental levels–as law.
I continue to believe the true way to peace really does begin in the heart, that a spiritual practice of meditation and appreciation affects the whole of one’s being, and can affect the whole of one’s community. Our feelings matter. When this practical woman, Rita Marie, was asked if there really could be world peace in our lifetime, she answered, “Yes.”
Magdalena's Musings 