I am excited to unfold the first of a series of blogs about understanding inner vision.

Today is the last day for an early bird discount for our one-day meditation workshop titled “Pathway To Clarity” in New York City Sunday June 3rd. If you register today you can pay $95 instead of the full price of $110.

Now, let’s talk vision!

The techniques we present will help sharpen your vision… and let’s be clear we are NOT optometrists!

So what is vision beyond physical vision?

A simple way of understanding vision is to divide vision into eyesight and insight. Physical vision is your eyesight. Vision beyond the physical is your insight.

The freedictionary.com defines insight as, “The capacity to discern the true nature of a situation”, and, “… grasping the inward or hidden nature of things”, and, “perceiving in an intuitive manner”. Chambers dictionary gives us, “the power of discerning and understanding things”.
Sounds like a useful thing to have!

Let’s flesh out more of the benefits to developing this type of ‘inner’ vision.

Vision of this nature gives you separation from a situation. For example, someone yells, ‘Fire!’ in a crowded auditorium, sending a wave of panic amongst the throng. People desperately clamor for the exit pushing and shoving anyone in their way. The problem here, (apart from the potential for injury in the melee) is that there is no separation between the wave of panic and the peoples panic response to the wave.

The thing that requires vision in this scenario is the ‘wave’ of panic. This is the element that is in-between the emotionally charged cry of ‘Fire’, and the panicked stampede that follows.

The perception of the ‘wave’ of panic at least gives you the choice to decide whether the warning needs to be heeded or not. Even if there is a genuine emergency, panicking will not help. Yet in an everyday context people are regularly getting swept up in these unconscious reactions that precisely rob them of choice.

In fact, you could push this statement and say that whenever something is done unconsciously the element of choice is absent. Now this is fine for breathing – which we all do unconsciously, and are grateful for it. Our heartbeat is another example.

But what about unconscious things we do that remove choice in situations where we’d like to have choice? Any automatic reaction we have to a situation falls into this category: Being overwhelmed with fear at an audition or interview. Being unable to open in an intimate situation. Lashing out if someone seems to be making fun of you. Feeling an ‘I can’t’ in relation to something you want.

To have vision on the internal mechanism or hidden belief that gets triggered would allow more choice. For instance, you are needing to ask someone for help. You approach them – but they answer their cell phone as you start to talk. The deep hurt and vulnerability inside you is masked by an anger. “How dare they be so rude!” You walk off without asking.

Vision in this situation would be to connect to the hurt and vulnerability – and be present to it in the spirit of self empathy whilst staying connected to your goal of asking for this persons help. You can also be aware of the reactional pattern that is wanting to swamp you – the indignant rage. Again gentle holding, and self empathy – saying to yourself, “Wow, this is really challenging! I am so triggered and want to walk away now”.

In most cases people do not see the trigger – they simply justify the reaction by focussing on the perceived wrongdoing of the other person. Later they seek support for their actions – confiding in a friend – “Do you believe what this guy did! People and cell phones = so rude!!” Etc etc etc.
The fact that their actions obliterated the choice to proceed differently is ignored here.

This discussion on vision is to be continued in the coming weeks.

See below for details on the workshop we will host in the City that will deliver practical tools for developing vision and inner stillness.

Warmest wishes,

Matteus Levell

Events

Pathway To Clarity, A One Day Meditation Workshop

This one-day meditation workshop delivers practical techniques to achieve expanded states of Being. Through connected stillness
states of being activate higher functions of consciousness, including intuition and deep states of wisdom.

SKILLS YOU WILL LEARN:
* Cultivate Inner Vision and heighten intuition
* How to quieten the chatter of the mind
* Techniques for dynamic daily awareness
* Relaxation & fast recuperation techniques,
* Listening with presence
* Uplifting to prevent fatigue, and bring inner clarity

“Seeing is one of the highest functions of human consciousness. It is an extraordinary experience allowing you to fathom your own vastness.”
Dr Samuel Sagan M.D., in Awakening The Third Eye.

REGISTRATION:
For more information or to register contact: Samantha info@vitalswitch.com or cell 206 954 1717

INVESTMENT:
$110 for the day, with Early Bird Discount of $95 until May 15th.

LOCATION:
NY Core Center, 115 East 23rd St. 12th Floor, NY NY 10010

VITAL SWITCH:
Based in New York City Vital Switch offers one and two day workshops, weekly trainings, and individual sessions in the area of meditation skills, vitality enhancement and stress reduction.
The Vital Switch team are highly trained in a unique system of meditation-based work called Inner Space Techniques (IST), developed by the Clairvision School of meditation (www.clairvision.org)

Intimacy is one of my passions. Thankfully I am not alone, as intimacy is something that many people crave. Physical intimacy is so important to babies that if they do not receive human touch they die. Yet most of our emotional issues are triggered by intimacy. How is it that the thing we crave is also the thing that we find most difficult?

Read on to find out more, or see below for information about Vital Switch upcoming events in New York and Florida.

Lately I have been reading that wonderful book, The Road Less Traveled: A new psychology of love, traditional values and spiritual growth by M. Scott Peck, M.D. It is likely most of you have read it, or at least heard of this book as it was written in 1978. And it is such a beautiful work of writing about the concept of human love.

Peck has a definition of love that I really like. He says love is an action, it is commitment, with wisdom. The commitment to helping someone’s spiritual growth, or our own. He says that the “feeling” that we call love is just an emotion that comes and goes and is not love at all. It is “cathexis” which is the investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object or idea. The Greek word cathexis is chosen for Freud’s term Besetzung, which in short is defined as an investment of libido.

Peck says that real transcendent love is not cathexis at all. Rather that when a person truly loves, it is a decision, and it is there whether or not the love ‘feeling’ is present at any one time. For example, a parent may say they love the child and then behave as an alcoholic and treat the child badly. That is not love. Another parent may put a lot of work, and effort into listening to the child, being present for the child, caring for the child, even when they do not feel that ‘love’ feeling that is so nice and pleasant.

Peck says:
“Love, then, is a form of work or a form of courage. Specifically, it is a work or courage directed toward the nurture of our own or another’s spiritual growth. We may work or exert courage in directions other than towards spiritual growth, and for this reason all work and all courage is not love. But since it requires the extension of ourselves, love is always either work or courage. If an act is not one of work or courage, then it is not an act of love. There are no exceptions.” (pp 120 A Road Less Traveled.)

Stretching our sense of who we can be in relationship with a partner, children, or people that we work with, can be an act of love if we decide to come from that place of courage or will where we are going to aim for a pathway that is moving towards spiritual growth. This could be among the most rewarding approaches to life available, at least as far as I can see.

One practical way to do this is to make a real effort to listen to the people in your life. Listening is probably one of the most important skills, and among the most neglected. Modern life ensures that it is increasingly challenging to really listen to the people we work with, our partners, and our children. Distractions make it easy to lose focus when we need to hear what people are saying. Listening is so much more than hearing the words though. Real listening requires being able to put yourself aside, to be with the person fully. A powerful way to connect with people you care about comes through allowing yourself to sense the spaces of consciousness from which they speak. Feel where they are at, as well as listening to their words. This is an act of will, and often an act of courage too.

At Vital Switch we work with clients on a one-on-one basis to help them to develop the skill to listen to themselves, which is a first step to listening to other people. Listening to ourselves deeply is the first step to being able to listen to others.

Our tools include executive coaching, meditation skills and ISIS sessions. The sessions are tailored to the individual needs of the client.

All of our ‘methods’ used to help one-on-one clients come out of our meditation background, particularly using skills of mapping or understanding different spaces of consciousness. This is such an incredible field of discovery, unfolding new things every single day. It is never boring.

If you would like to know more about the different techniques that we offer at Vital Switch, please drop us an email at info@vitalswitch.com or call on 206 954 1717.

I hope you are all enjoying the beauty of Spring blossoms in New York. We look forward to hearing from some of you soon.

Warmly
Samantha

Events

• Free talk: From Clutterdom to Freedom

Date: Thursday April 19th
Time: 6.30 – 7.30pm
Venue: KIMA, New York. 7 West 22nd St, 8F, NY 10010
Cost: Free
RSVP Contact: Annette annette@red-alchemy.com or call 530.708.0740
http://vitalswitch.com/category/events/

• Clutter Free – Focus Class

A 4 hour workshop led by Annette Kurtz on Saturday April 21st in New York City.
This stand alone module will focus on a particular aspect of clutter. Annette will lead you through this focus class in a fun way. It is designed in a more compact format for people who wish to focus on the often neglected category of unfinished business. You will learn about the deeper meaning of keeping matters pending and outstanding; and the draining effect it has on your life. This is best recommended as an add-on for participants of the “Clutter Free from A to Z’ weekly class or those people with prior experiences in clutter clearing.
Date: Saturday April 21st
Time: 10am – 2pm
Venue: KIMA, New York. 7 West 22nd St, 8F, NY 10010
Cost: $85.00
RSVP Contact: Annette annette@red-alchemy.com or call 530.708.0740
http://vitalswitch.com/category/events/

* You might notice from the last newsletter that Annette Kurtz has delayed her trip to New York. She will be here for a free talk 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Thursday April 19th, 2012, and a half-day focus workshop Saturday April 21st 10am – 2pm. She will also see private clients for space clearing during that week.

• Weekend Meditation Workshop, Winter Park FL

May 5, to May 6: Saturday 10am – 5pm, and Sunday 10am – 5pm
The Venue: Matworkz Pilates Studio, 1331 Palmetto Ave, Suite 202. Winter Park FL
Registration Essential: Contact Susie Pecuch emailsusie@mac.com or cell 407 310-6386

About the Workshop
This weekend meditation workshop is an introduction to the work of the Clairvision School, a school of meditation and the techniques of Samuel Sagan, M.D., its founder. It presents a systematic process to begin developing the third eye, which is the command center of the body of energy.
The workshop teaches techniques for meditation and opening spiritual perception, as well as giving participants an opportunity to understand and learn about their body of energy. This style of work is designed for people who want direct perception of spiritual worlds.

Techniques you will learn at the workshop:
Activate the third eye & learn techniques for dynamic daily awareness
Third eye-based meditation techniques
Energetic protection & grounding – seal your energy; prevent fatigue
Night Practice – relaxation & fast recuperation, peaceful sleep

Presented by Samantha Keen
Samantha is passionately engaged in delivering teachings about personal growth, and meditation. She helps people break through limitations and lead extraordinary and fulfilling lives.

Prices: Two Day Workshop: $195.00, Early Bird price: $170.00 (before April 17th), Student & Seniors Price: $165.00, Returning Price: $125.00

I want to pose a statement here based on my experience: Meditation is like sitting on top of a mountain, just through closing your eyes and going inside. If you want to see for yourself, you have the opportunity to try it out this weekend in New York City!

I am really looking forward to the weekend meditation workshop scheduled for this coming weekend, February 11th and 12th. It is going to be a wonderful weekend, and we do have a few places left for anyone who has a last-minute desire to participate. Already there is a lovely group coming and a sweet space of inner peace landing for the weekend.

The following weekend, Matteus Levell and myself will be in Ottawa, Ontario Canada running a weekend workshop there. That is also shaping up to be really special and again there are a couple of places left if anyone wants to join.

The meditation weekend that we teach is based on the methods of the Clairvision School of meditation. This is a very practical school with solid theory behind it. We teach the techniques at Vital Switch with an emphasis on meditation skills. This means that along with a solid instruction in meditation techniques for sitting in silence, you will receive techniques for developing inner vision, centering, grounding, increasing your vitality, in your life.

This brings me to the topic of this blog:

How can you learn to see land energies?

To begin with, the techniques of Awakening the Third Eye that are the basis for the workshop we teach are a fantastic entry into seeing land energies as they really are. The book “Awakening The Third Eye” by Dr. Samuel Sagan, founder of the Clairvision School is a great way to start this practice if you cannot come to the workshop. Available on www.clairvision.org

There are several ways to see or have a real experience of land energies. The first, most obvious way to see this level is through observing your own energetic experience when you are getting to know a new place. The most effective way is to walk around, and observe how you feel there. Do you feel soft, and spread? Are you comfortable? Or is your experience more contracted and tight?

Vision of land energies and the level of qi or prana in general is most easily developed through experiencing your own body of energy. Rudolf Steiner, founder of Anthroposophical medicine and Waldorf education, called this level of the human subtle body system, the etheric body.

The etheric body corresponds to a layer of your energy that you experience when feeling tingling, buzzing, flowing or vibration. For a practical pathway to experience your body of energy, and perceive land energies try this meditation on center of energy (or Chakra) known as the third eye. See the link http://www.clairvision.org/books/ate/free-download-awakening-the-third-eye.html for a free download of a book that teaches meditation to awaken the third eye.

Another way to observe land energy is to see it through people of the area. How does the particular land energy of a place affect or color the energy of the people who live there?

From vision, people in different cultures around the world do tend to reflect the energy of the land where they grew up. For example, my friends from Chile (where there is a lot of volcanoes) tend to have a certain fire in their temperament.

One final point, to perceive land energy you must go out into nature. Land energies are far more obvious when you are closer to nature. In Munich, Germany where I lived for 2 years, the sunshine is far more prevelant even in the winter. And the air is fresh off the Alps, carrying the lightness of life-force that exists at the top of high peaks. This is a city that does reflect some qualities of the crisp land energies of the area but you will have more understanding of that energy if you go to the source, climb the Alps.

Each time I have walked up the Alps, there was such a lightness of vibration, a freshness of air, a crisp quality of life force. I was elevated not just by the physical experience of climbing but through the elevation of qi or prana at those heights.

Wishing you all the best for 2012!

Samantha

The Beach, Nambucca Heads, NSW Australia

A timely quick reminder that January 31st will be the last day for the Early Bird Discount of $25 off the full price for the weekend workshop scheduled for February 11th and 12th. It is going to be a wonderful weekend, with an emphasis on meditation skills. This means that along with a solid instruction in meditation techniques for sitting in silence, you will receive techniques for developing inner vision, centering, grounding, increasing your vitality, and much more….

One way that life is enriched through meditation is the expansion of your ability to know things, or see from a sense of inner vision. For me one of the richest experiences of life that has come from my meditation practice has been the increasing ability to know or see land energies.

I had the joyful experience of visiting my family in Australia over the Christmas and New Year, bathing in the blissful ocean of northern New South Wales every day that I was there. The water was amazing. Fresh, alive, bright, vibrant, bubbly, tingling, LIFE. There is no ocean like that which you can experience in Australia.

Landing back in New York, grateful for a mild winter, I cannot help but reflect upon the difference in land energies in the many places that I have traveled. Traveling with an ability to tune into land energies is so much more exciting, and interesting. Much like the difference between looking at a picture postcard and being in the 3 dimensional experience of life.

Traveling around the world is always fun and interesting purely from the perspective of experiencing new cultures, landscapes and climates. When the experience of travel is accompanied with a desire to learn about subtle bodies, land energy and the esoteric aspects of being human on the Earth, it becomes simply fascinating.

In total, in the 40 years of my life so far, I have lived in around 38 different locations or houses, across 5 different countries, and 6 different cities. I have traveled to many more different countries and cities around the world and had a wide range of experiences in those journies.

The first thing I do when I arrive at a new location is to tune into the energy of the land. By this I refer to the life force, qi or prana that the landscape of the area exudes. Just as a human being has a body of qi or life force, the Earth too has something like a body of qi. This energy is significantly different from one continent to another, and even from one major land formation to another. The change is not the aesthetic or physical aspects of the land formation, but the energy or qi of the area.

There is, for instance, the rich, cleansing, energy of the ocean, in Nambucca Heads, New South Wales, Australia where my family resides. The ocean there is a dark-blue green color that seems to wash through my whole being and leaves me feeling totally alive and tingling with joy all over after I swim. The whole coastland is colored by this energy of the ocean.

By contrast, traveling in the rural parts of the Philippines, the ocean there is more tropical and light in color. It makes you feel sweet and soft. Most interesting to compare this fresh, light energy on many of the Philippine islands to the harshness of Manila where the sprawling, dirty city with its overt poverty and pollution possesses a stifling, heavy energy.

In the next blog I will give more tips on how to tune into land energies. For more in depth instruction on using techniques of the third eye to know your environment, and develop inner vision come to our workshop in New York City on February 11th and 12th.

See our events page for further information. Or go to the Clairvision website to learn more about the style of meditation that we teach.

Wishing you all a very happy Chinese New Year, and all the best for 2012!

Samantha

Dear Friends,

I hope you have been enjoying the beauty of the fall. Here in New York City, the trees have shown us the elegance in letting go of the old, and the wonder of allowing for the process of death that happens each year at this time.

This message is simply to let you all know that the next New York meditation meetup will be on Saturday December 3rd at 3-5pm at 80 E11th ST, suite 516. We will, as usual, serve Zhi Tea at the end of the meditation allowing people to mingle and ask questions freely.
See our events page for further information.

Also we are now happy to take registrations for the next weekend meditation workshop will on Saturday and Sunday February 11th and 12th at the New York Core Center, 115 E23rd St, NY, NY. The weekend will be a wonderful opportunity to go deeper into your meditation practice, learn a lot about energy management and subtle bodies, and – if the last two were anything to go by – it will be a really beautiful experience for all involved.
See our events page for further information. Or go to the Clairvision website to learn more about the style of meditation that we teach.

Wishing everyone a joyful festive season for the last part of 2011!

Warmly

Samantha Keen

Sacred Spaces

There are a lot of exciting events happening for Vital Switch this Fall, but first I want to express my excitement and gratitude that we are going to have some art work done in our Vital Switch office in New York by Yohanna Jessup, an artist and the creator of Painting Sacred Spaces – a process combining meditative awareness and wall painting techniques. We are going to have a small mural based on our logo painted in our office. I cannot wait. Yohanna is in New York October 17th – 24th and does have room for more bookings. If you want to know more, she writes a great blog sharing about the process of creating sacred spaces.

NY Meditation Meetup Saturday Oct 15 @ 3pm

I am looking forward to the next New York meditation meetups tomorrow, (Saturday October 15th) 3-5pm at the NY Core Center, 115 E23rd St, 12th floor, NY, NY. There will be another one two weeks later, Saturday October 28th 3-5pm. See our events page for further information. (Due to overwhelming demand, we have a new venue which allows more people to come to the meeting tomorrow!)

New York Meditation Weekend Workshop

The next weekend meditation workshop will be on February 11th and 12th at the New York Core Center. It will be a wonderful opportunity to go deeper into your meditation practice, and if the last two were anything to go by, will likely be booked out. See our events page for further information.

Vital Switch in Toronto & Ottawa, CA

I am also delighted to announce that I will be going to Canada to host events, and see 1-on-1 clients in both Toronto and Ottowa.
I will be in Toronto November 11, 12, 13 and 14th. I will then be in Ottawa the following week, November 19 – 22nd.
There will be a free information evening about meditation in Ottawa on Monday evening November 21st.
Details to come on the Vital Switch website soon.

Wishing everyone a warm and joyful Fall!

Warmly

Samantha Keen

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