Solar Clips

updated 1/20/07

Various News Clips of Interest
Latest posted at the top of the page

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Sun May Prevent Cancer
Clips under solar- I'll attach

Scientists Say Sunshine May Prevent Cancer
May 21, 1:15 PM (ET)
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

(AP)

Scientists are excited about a vitamin again. But unlike fads that sizzled
and fizzled, the evidence this time is strong and keeps growing. If it bears
out, it will challenge one of medicine's most fundamental beliefs: that
people need to coat themselves with sunscreen whenever they're in the sun.
Doing that may actually contribute to far more cancer deaths than it
prevents, some researchers think.

The vitamin is D, nicknamed the "sunshine vitamin" because the skin makes it
from ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks its production, but dermatologists
and health agencies have long preached that such lotions are needed to
prevent skin cancer. Now some scientists are questioning that advice. The
reason is that vitamin D increasingly seems important for preventing and
even treating many types of cancer.

In the last three months alone, four separate studies found it helped
protect against lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically,
the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.

Many people aren't getting enough vitamin D. It's hard to do from food and
fortified milk alone, and supplements are problematic.

(AP) Dr. Michael Holick, Ph.D., of Boston University,
poses in a tanning bed at the Boston Medical...
Full Image

So the thinking is this: Even if too much sun leads to skin cancer, which is
rarely deadly, too little sun may be worse.

No one is suggesting that people fry on a beach. But many scientists believe
that "safe sun" - 15 minutes or so a few times a week without sunscreen - is
not only possible but helpful to health.

One is Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a Harvard University professor of medicine
and nutrition who laid out his case in a keynote lecture at a recent
American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

His research suggests that vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each
one caused by skin cancer.

"I would challenge anyone to find an area or nutrient or any factor that has
such consistent anti-cancer benefits as vitamin D," Giovannucci told the
cancer scientists. "The data are really quite remarkable."

(AP) Dr. Michael Holick, Ph.D., of Boston University,
looks toward the sky while posing for a portrait...
Full Image

The talk so impressed the American Cancer Society's chief epidemiologist,
Dr. Michael Thun, that the society is reviewing its sun protection
guidelines. "There is now intriguing evidence that vitamin D may have a role
in the prevention as well as treatment of certain cancers," Thun said.

Even some dermatologists may be coming around. "I find the evidence to be
mounting and increasingly compelling," said Dr. Allan Halpern, dermatology
chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who advises
several cancer groups.

The dilemma, he said, is a lack of consensus on how much vitamin D is needed
or the best way to get it.

No source is ideal. Even if sunshine were to be recommended, the amount
needed would depend on the season, time of day, where a person lives, skin
color and other factors. Thun and others worry that folks might overdo it.

"People tend to go overboard with even a hint of encouragement to get more
sun exposure," Thun said, adding that he'd prefer people get more of the
nutrient from food or pills.

But this is difficult. Vitamin D occurs naturally in salmon, tuna and other
oily fish, and is routinely added to milk. However, diet accounts for very
little of the vitamin D circulating in blood, Giovannucci said.

Supplements contain the nutrient, but most use an old form - D-2 - that is
far less potent than the more desirable D-3. Multivitamins typically contain
only small amounts of D-2 and include vitamin A, which offsets many of D's
benefits.

As a result, pills might not raise vitamin D levels much at all.

Government advisers can't even agree on an RDA, or recommended daily
allowance for vitamin D. Instead, they say "adequate intake" is 200
international units a day up to age 50, 400 IUs for ages 50 to 70, and 600
IUs for people over 70.

Many scientists think adults need 1,000 IUs a day. Giovannucci's research
suggests 1,500 IUs might be needed to significantly curb cancer.

How vitamin D may do this is still under study, but there are lots of
reasons to think it can:

_Several studies observing large groups of people found that those with
higher vitamin D levels also had lower rates of cancer. For some of these
studies, doctors had blood samples to measure vitamin D, making the findings
particularly strong. Even so, these studies aren't the gold standard of
medical research - a comparison over many years of a large group of people
who were given the vitamin with a large group who didn't take it. In the
past, the best research has deflated health claims involving other
nutrients, including vitamin E and beta carotene.

_Lab and animal studies show that vitamin D stifles abnormal cell growth,
helps cells die when they are supposed to, and curbs formation of blood
vessels that feed tumors.

_Cancer is more common in the elderly, and the skin makes less vitamin D as
people age.

_Blacks have higher rates of cancer than whites and more pigment in their
skin, which prevents them from making much vitamin D.

_Vitamin D gets trapped in fat, so obese people have lower blood levels of
D. They also have higher rates of cancer.

_Diabetics, too, are prone to cancer, and their damaged kidneys have trouble
converting vitamin D into a form the body can use.

_People in the northeastern United States and northerly regions of the globe
like Scandinavia have higher cancer rates than those who get more sunshine
year-round.

During short winter days, the sun's rays come in at too oblique an angle to
spur the skin

to make vitamin D. That is why nutrition experts think vitamin D-3
supplements may be especially helpful during winter, and for dark-skinned
people all the time.

But too much of the pill variety can cause a dangerous buildup of calcium in
the body. The government says 2,000 IUs is the upper daily limit for anyone
over a year old.

On the other hand, D from sunshine has no such limit. It's almost impossible
to overdose when getting it this way. However, it is possible to get skin
cancer. And this is where the dermatology establishment and Dr. Michael
Holick part company.

Thirty years ago, Holick helped make the landmark discovery of how vitamin D
works. Until last year, he was chief of endocrinology, nutrition and
diabetes and a professor of dermatology at Boston University. Then he
published a book, "The UV Advantage," urging people to get enough sunlight
to make vitamin D.

"I am advocating common sense," not prolonged sunbathing or tanning salons,
Holick said.
Skin cancer is rarely fatal, he notes. The most deadly form, melanoma,
accounts for only 7,770 of the 570,280 cancer deaths expected to occur in
the United States this year.

More than 1 million milder forms of skin cancer will occur, and these are
the ones tied to chronic or prolonged suntanning.

Repeated sunburns - especially in childhood and among redheads and very
fair-skinned people - have been linked to melanoma, but there is no credible
scientific evidence that moderate sun exposure causes it, Holick contends.

"The problem has been that the American Academy of Dermatology has been
unchallenged for 20 years," he says. "They have brainwashed the public at
every level."

The head of Holick's department, Dr. Barbara Gilchrest, called his book an
embarrassment and stripped him of his dermatology professorship, although he
kept his other posts.

She also faulted his industry ties. Holick said the school has received
$150,000 in grants from the Indoor Tanning Association for his research, far
less than the consulting deals and grants that other scientists routinely
take from drug companies.

In fact, industry has spent money attacking him. One such statement from the
Sun Safety Alliance, funded in part by Coppertone and drug store chains,
declared that "sunning to prevent vitamin D deficiency is like smoking to
combat anxiety."

Earlier this month, the dermatology academy launched a "Don't Seek the Sun"
campaign calling any advice to get sun "irresponsible." It quoted Dr.
Vincent DeLeo, a Columbia University dermatologist, as saying: "Under no
circumstances should anyone be misled into thinking that natural sunlight or
tanning beds are better sources of vitamin D than foods or nutritional
supplements."

That opinion is hardly unanimous, though, even among dermatologists.

"The statement that 'no sun exposure is good' I don't think is correct
anymore," said Dr. Henry Lim, chairman of dermatology at Henry Ford Health
System in Detroit and an academy vice president.

Some wonder if vitamin D may turn out to be like another vitamin, folate.
High intake of it was once thought to be important mostly for pregnant
women, to prevent birth defects. However, since food makers began adding
extra folate to flour in 1998, heart disease, stroke, blood pressure, colon
cancer and osteoporosis have all fallen, suggesting the general public may
have been folate-deficient after all.

With vitamin D, "some people believe that it is a partial deficiency that
increases the cancer risk," said Hector DeLuca, a University of
Wisconsin-Madison biochemist who did landmark studies on the nutrient.

About a dozen major studies are under way to test vitamin D's ability to
ward off cancer, said Dr. Peter Greenwald, chief of cancer prevention for
the National Cancer Institute. Several others are testing its potential to
treat the disease. Two recent studies reported encouraging signs in prostate
and lung cancer.

As for sunshine, experts recommend moderation until more evidence is in
hand.

"The skin can handle it, just like the liver can handle alcohol," said Dr
James Leyden,
professor emeritus of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania, who has consulted for sunscreen
makers.

"I like to have wine with dinner, but I don't think I should drink four bottles a day."

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From: "Wallace Kingston"
Subject: Sunshine

You may find this of interest:
Here Comes The Sun-Best
Char, will go in Solar Clips of Interest, but I'm going to enlarge the number of files in the submenu (and
not attach to the 2003 file)

HERE COMES THE SUN – GET OUT IN IT!
The benefits far, far outweigh the hazards

In the first of a two-part article Simon Best explores the possible
alternative explanations to UV radiation for the rise in skin cancer
and presents some of the growing evidence for the overwhelming health
benefits of sensible exposure to sunshine.

by Simon Best

There was a time when one's immediate impulse on the first sunny
spring day was to get outside and enjoy it. Today, however, grim
warnings from medical mandarins and cancer specialists,
wholeheartedly endorsed by the sun cream industry, make people almost
fear for their lives should they venture forth into the `dangerous'
sun at the wrong time of day or unless covered head to toe with sun
factor 60.

This view, however, is only relatively recent and contrasts sharply
with the very positive medical view of the benefits of sunshine
earlier in the 20th century, when sunbathing and sea bathing were
championed. Growing evidence now strongly shows that the earlier view
was correct and that the benefits of sunlight far, far outweigh any
hazards.

The medical practice of heliotherapy – exposing patients to
controlled amounts of sunlight to cure or alleviate various
illnesses – was accepted practice in many countries from the late
19th to mid-20th century. Dr Auguste Rollier, probably the most
famous heliotherapist of his day, at his peak had 36 clinics with
over 1,000 beds in Leysin, Switzerland. He used sunlight to treat
diseases such as TB, rickets, smallpox, lupus vulgaris (skin
tuberculosis) and wounds, a practice that had been pioneered by
Danish physician Dr Niels Finsen at the turn of the 19th century, who
was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1903 for his treatment of TB using
ultraviolet. Rollier found that sunbathing early in the morning, in
conjunction with a nutritious diet, produced the best effects.

Britain's leading practitioner was Sir Henry Gauvain, who pioneered
sunbathing at a clinic on the south coast and established Lord Mayor
Treloar in Alton, Hampshire, as a leading centre for heliotherapy.
But with the deaths of Gauvain in 1945 and Rollier in 1954, and the
growing power of the pharmaceutical industry, heliotherapy fell into
disuse. Since the `60s the public has been increasingly bombarded
with warnings about sunbathing and the risks of skin cancer, to the
almost complete exclusion of facts about the benefits of sunlight.1

Skin cancer mortality

There is no doubt that the incidence of skin cancers (see box) has
increased over the past few decades and that over-exposure to the sun
can cause premature ageing of the skin. However, almost all non-
melanomas are curable and the number of deaths in 2001 in the whole
of the UK was only 257 and 226 for men and women respectively,
against over 59,000 new cases that year out of a total population of
perhaps 30 million sunbathers. For the far more dangerous malignant
melanoma, the totals were only 856 and 792 respectively. Set against
total deaths for all cancers for 2001 of 80,035 and 74,422
respectively (Cancer Research UK), the death rates for non-melanomas
and melanoma combined represent a very low percentage indeed – just
1.39 and 1.36 percent.

To judge by the Cancer Research UK's website, the impression given is
that the sun is the overwhelming, direct cause of both types. But
growing evidence about factors such as diet, chlorine in water and
artificial lighting – the word `diet' or `vitamin D' is not even
mentioned on the website – tells a different story. Why, for example,
is the incidence of melanoma on the Orkney and Shetland Isles, north
of Scotland, 10 times that of Mediterranean islands?2

It is time to focus on alternative causes and contributing risk
factors for skin cancer and to put the hazards – and benefits for
many other illnesses – from solar radiation into a balanced
perspective. First, let us consider the actual risk from ultraviolet
radiation (UV), the main alleged threat from sunshine.

Types of skin cancer

There are three main types of skin cancer, two of which, basal cell
and squamous cell carcinoma (non-melanomas), are increasing prevalent
but almost entirely treatable, whereas the third, malignant melanoma,
is much rarer but far more lethal.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC), also known as `rodent ulcers', is the
most common form and develops on parts of the body most exposed to
the sun, especially the face and hands, but does not spread.
Untreated, it burrows deeply into underlying tissues causing
disfigurement and serious damage.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is considered to be the result of
cumulative sunlight exposure and usually develops in old age. More
dangerous than BCC because it can spread to other parts of the body,
there is growing evidence that a major cause is intermittent exposure
of skin unaccustomed to solar radiation.

Malignant melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer; it can
spread very quickly and, unless caught early, can be very difficult
to treat. It develops from cells called melanocytes in the outer
layer of the skin, which also produce melanin, a pigment that helps
protect the deeper layers of the skin from damage.

Melanomas usually start in moles or in areas of normal-looking skin.
However, melanomas can also occur in other parts of the body not
necessarily exposed to the sun such as the eye, the rectum, vulva,
vagina, mouth, respiratory tract, GI tract, and bladder.Research is
revealing many causes of skin cancer (see text). However, Cancer
Research UK (see www.cancerresearchuk.org telephone 0207 009 8820),
while identifying what they accept as the risk factors, imparts the
very strong message that solar radiation is by far the most
important – which view is now being strongly questioned by research.

Effects of ultraviolet radiation

Ultraviolet is divided into three main frequency ranges, A, B and C
(see box). Of the sunlight reaching the Earth, approximately 37 per
cent is visible, 60 per cent infrared and a mere 3 per cent UV.

Virtually all UVC is shielded from reaching the Earth by the ozone layer. Both UVA and UVB promote tanning and can burn but UVB is
essential for the photosynthesis of vitamin D, which critically
determines the uptake of calcium and other minerals, as well as many
other processes.

Contrary to general belief, there is no evidence that reduction in
the ozone layer, observed at the poles, has caused any increase in
melanomas.3 Even a study of Punta Arenas, the largest South American
city close to the Antartic ozone hole, showed no increase in health
problems related to depleted ozone. In fact, UV measures were too
small to have any noticeable effect.4

Ultraviolet radiation

Light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum comprising wavelengths
from about 380 nanometres (violet) to about 800 nm (red). Besides
producing images in the visual cortex via the retina, light also
stimulates the hypothalamus to produce serotonin, which in turn

suppresses the pineal gland's night-time production of melatonin, and the pituitary to stimulate the endocrine system and its multitude of
hormones.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which is more intense at higher

altitudes, nearer the Equator and during the summer, begins beyond visible violet and is divided into near long wave UVA (380-320nm),
middle (UVB:320-280nm) and far (short-wave UVC:280-180nm). UVA is
mainly responsible for the tanning response, UVB activates the
synthesis of vitamin D which is crucial for the absorption of calcium
and other minerals, while UVC, almost completely filtered out by the
Earth's ozone layer, is germicidal and kills bacteria, viruses and
other infectious diseases.

Although it is potentially harmful on direct exposure, US and Russian
doctors have used a UVC frequency (254nm) to irradiate the blood to
treat many diseases, with remarkable success.

Eye hazard

Indeed, even the idea that UV causes cataracts, for which there is no
good evidence, has lead to sunglasses that block UVA and B, when in
fact exposure to these frequencies may be necessary for the eye. The
eye may require the full spectrum of sunlight to stimulate pathways
and organs in the brain to maintain the immune system and other
functions.

The pioneering American photobiologist, Dr John Ott, offers evidence
on these benefits and argues that sunglasses significantly upset and
negate the eyes' natural accommodation reflex in his classic work
Health and Light (Ariel Press, Columbus, 1973). Ott reported that in
research with the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia he studied the
pigment epithelium cells in a rabbit's eye through different-coloured
filters and observed that the colours of the filters significantly
affected the biological responses within the cells themselves.
Crucially, he found that these cells would divide only if low levels
of UV were projected onto them. It was from this and other work that,
except in conditions of high glare (water, snow or desert), he
strongly recommended wearing a hat, rather than sunglasses.

American optometrist and light pioneer, Dr Jacob Liberman, in his
book Light: Medicine of the Future, supports Ott's view, suggesting
that our indoor lifestyle, `coupled with our excessive use of
sunglasses, may be blocking out the UV radiation necessary for normal
cell division, thus resulting in certain degenerative eye diseases,
such as macular degeneration'.5 He points out that it was research
reported in the American Journal of Opthalmology in March 1982 by WT
Ham and his colleagues that led a generation of eye specialists to
conclude that any amount of UV is harmful to the eye. Using monkeys
tied down and their eyelids pried open with lid clamps, their fully
dilated pupils were exposed to beams from a 2,500-watt xenon lamp for
16 minutes. The intense light contained high levels of UV, which,
quite naturally under the circumstances, caused some retinal damage.
But, as Liberman points out this was highly abnormal exposure that
would never happen in real life since animals' and humans' pupils and
eyelids would naturally adjust and close to protect their eyes.

Evidence indicates that the increase in cataracts in sunny parts of
the world may be due to other factors, including malnutrition
(diarrhoea can lead to severe demineralization), smoking, pollution
and poor diet. For example, a diet rich in unsaturated fats and their
oxidized products has been linked to the risk of UVB triggering
increased cataract formation,6 whereas those who eat a more balanced
diet, supplemented with vitamins C and E, appear not to get
cataracts, even with prolonged exposure to the sun.7 However, both
Ott and Liberman condemn the use of sunlamps, which produce UVA and
can cause skin cancer, including melanoma.8

Occupational exposure

A further argument against the idea that simple exposure to UV rays
causes cancer is observation of people constantly exposed to them.
Melanomas seldom occur in outdoor workers. A study of the risk in US
Navy personnel between 1974 and 1984 found a higher incidence among
sailors who had indoor jobs than those working outside. Those working
both indoors and outdoors showed most protection, with a rate 24
percent below the US national average.9

Findings like these support other studies that indicate that while
severe sunburn may trigger melanoma, regular sunbathing may actually
prevent it.10 Indeed, evidence indicates that regular, moderate
sunbathing can actually reduce its risk. The fact that melanomas can
occur on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet indicate that
UV is only one of a number of possible causes and possibly not even
the most significant. Although melanoma has been rising among pale-
skinned populations worldwide, there has been no corresponding rise
among dark-skinned people, who have only one-tenth to one-third the
incidence. Their skin's much-increased melanin level does protect
them but they also tend to spend much more time outdoors in much
higher levels of UV. Dr Damien Downing points out that melanin, the
pigment that helps protect the deeper layers of the skin, also
protects against free radical damage from sunlight. The skin also
uses sunlight to kill bacteria. `It seems that even without
ultraviolet light, skin lipids will take up some oxygen from the air
and use it to kill bacteria. However, this effect is much more
intense under UV.'11

It seems that ultraviolet may not be the total scourge so
many `authorities' portray it to be and that we need to look at other
risk factors, not least the substances they urge us to rub all over
ourselves for protection.

Sunscreens – help or hazard?

Some commercial sunscreens, which are meant to protect the skin, have
certainly been suspected of promoting skin cancers (see box).

Researchers have found that high levels of oxybenzone, used
extensively in high-factor creams, can be absorbed into the body. As
this particular chemical has had few studies on its possible toxic
effects, what this is doing to your body is anyone's guess. The
Lancet article recommended that sun creams should not be applied on
large areas of the body repeatedly over an extended period of time.12

Other research has found that children who use a lot of cream and oil
are more likely to get freckles and thus may be at higher risk of
developing melanoma.13

There are now some 1,140 drugs that are known to cause
photosensitization, with possibility of interacting with other
sunscreen chemicals rubbed into the skin.

Finally, a poor diet laden with fats and processed foods may be
crucial in predisposing a person to sunburn or worse. American
nutritionist Dr Zane Kime, in his book Sunlight Could Save Your Life,
stated:
`… sunbathing is dangerous for those who are on a standard, high-fat
American diet or do not get an abundance of vegetables, whole grains
and fresh fruits.'14

Indeed, the heliotherapists of the last century placed great emphasis
on diet to maximize the sun's benefits. Rollier insisted that
nourishing meals were an integral part of treatment, suggesting that
well-nourished skin responds better to sunlight than skin deficient
in minerals.

Sunscreens – their benefits and hazards

Sunscreens protect usually in two ways: either by using a physical

sun filter, such as talc, titanium oxide or zinc oxide, or by using chemicals, whose active ingredients include methoxycinnamate, p-
aminobenzoic acid, benzophenone and other agents that absorb certain
frequencies while allowing others to pass. Sunscreens normally
indicate whether they protect against UVA, UVB or both.
Sunscreens are rated according to a sun protection factor (SPF),
which indicates how many times more it protects than the time someone
would normally take to burn without lotion, eg. an SPF of 15
indicates that it should protect for 300 minutes someone who could
normally stay in the sun for 20 minutes without burning. SPF only
indicates the amount of protection from UVB, not UVA. But the
effectiveness of sunscreens can wear off well before the calculated
time, requiring generous amounts to be continuously applied to give
protection. This can also seduce sunbathers to stay in the sun much
longer than it would normally be wise to do. Also concern is growing
that some of the chemicals used may be harmful and may in fact
increase users' risk of melanoma. Such suspicions have caused some,
such as 5-methoxypsoralen, to be discontinued.15

Beneficial effects of sunlight

Countering the ill-informed warnings and scaremongering of vested
interests, there is evidence that a number of other factors are
important in causing or predisposing someone to skin cancer besides
exposure to the sun.

In part two these will be investigated further, together with the
mass of evidence supporting the sun's beneficial effects in promoting
health and reducing disease, including many cancers, especially
breast, colon, ovary and prostate, as well as reducing or combating
diabetes; MS; heart disease and high blood pressure; osteoporosis;
psoriasis; SAD and even tooth decay.

The early heliotherapists found that gradual, daily exposure to the
sun, coupled with a nutritious diet, could cure many illnesses and
promote robust health. Research is now proving them correct thus
rejecting the unbalanced negative propaganda; it is leading us back
to our senses to the appreciation that sunshine is an essential
nutrient and sensible sunbathing is overwhelmingly good for you.

Tips for safe, healthy sunbathing

Dr Richard Hobday (p111) lists important factors to plan a sensible
sunbathing strategy:

1. Identify your skin type. He gives six grades: the most sensitive
(those of Celtic extraction, often with red hair), who hardly tan and
burn easily, usually after about 20 minutes of British midsummer sun,
to the least, ie people with brown to black Afro-Caribbean skin and
hair who can spend long periods in the sun without burning. Their
skins' high melanin level filters out a lot of UV but, once they move
to more moderate climates, like the UK, they often need to get extra
exposure to maintain vitamin D levels.

2. Don't try to do all your sunbathing in two or three weeks (eg on
holiday).

3. Frequent short exposures are better than prolonged exposure.

4. The most useful time of year to benefit from exposure is spring
and early summer, early morning sunshine being especially benign.

5. The body needs to receive the full spectrum of sunlight, including
UVB to synthesize vitamin D, so do not cover yourself with sunscreen.

6. Wear a hat so that the more sensitive skin of your face, head and
neck is protected.

7. If you are especially sensitive to sunlight, sunbathe
progressively by exposing first the feet and legs, before exposing
the abdomen and then the chest.

8. If you want to tan, observe closely how your tan develops. Assess
your tolerance to sunlight before exposing the more sensitive parts
of your body.

9. Watch your diet and eat wholefoods, not refined, and plenty of
fruit and vegetables.

10. Stay alert to ensure you do not burn.

In addition, rather than using sunscreens that contain questionable
chemicals and block UVB's ability to stimulate vitamin D synthesis,
consider using natural substances such as olive oil and aloe vera.

References
1. Dr Richard Hobday (ra.hobday@virgin.net) has charted the
development and decline of heliotherapy, and the new evidence for the
benefits of sunshine on a range of illnesses, with its implications
for building and hospital design, in his highly recommended book, The
Healing Sun (Findhorn Press, 1999).
2. Science 1991;254:114-5.
3. British Journal of Cancer research 1992; 65: 916-21.
4. American Journal of Public Health 1995;85(4):546-50.
5. Light: Medicine of the Future, Bear & Co, Santa Fe, New Mexico,
1991, p150.
6. Can Research 1985;45:6254-9.
7. Ophthalmol 1998;105:1836; Am J Clin Nutr 1997;66:911-16.
8. American Journal of Epidimeology 1994;140:691-9.
9. Arch Environmental Health 1990;45(5):261-7.
10. Lancet 1982;2:290-3.
11. Day Light Robbery, Arrow Books, 1981, out of print.
12. Lancet 1997;350:863-4.
13. J Nat Can Inst 1998;90:1873-80.
14. World Health Publications, Penryn, Calif, 1980.
15. BMJ 1996;312:1612-13. Also see BMJ 1979;3 Nov:1144.

......................................................................
....................

Simon Best produces the quarterly news report Electromagnetic Hazard
& Therapy, and mans a live Helpline (0906 4010237 premium rate). For
details, send an sae to: 9 Nine Acres, Midhurst, W Sussex GU29 9EP or
see www.em-hazard-therapy.com .

This article is updated and expanded from a previous one appearing in
What Doctors Don't Tell You, July 2001 (www.wddty.co.uk).

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Sungazing - Sun Worship quotations and books. (References to sources will be looked up some day and added!):

Surya - Sun From The Mahabharata Vana Parva, Section III, Translated by Sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli

Vaisampayana said: Thus it is that the sun is the father of all creatures. Do thou, hence, take refuge even in him. O illustrious one, listen to the one hundred and eight names (of the sun) as they were disclosed of old by Dhaumya to the high souled son of Pritha.

One hundred and eight names of the sun

Dhaumya said: Surya, Bhaga, Twastri, Pusha, Arka, Savitri, Ravi, Gabhastimat, Aja, Kala, Mrityu, Dhatri, Prabhakar, Prithibi, Apa, Teja, Kha, Vayu, the sole stay, Soma, Vrihaspati, Sukra, Budha, Angaraka, Indra, Vivaswat, Diptanshu, Suchi, Sauri, Sanaichara, Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Skanda, Vaisravana, Yama, Vaidyutagni, Jatharagni, Aindhna, Tejasam, Pati, Dharmadwaja, Veda-karttri, Vedanga, Vedavahana, Krita, Treta, Dwapara, Kali, Full of every impurity, Kala, Kastha, Muhurtta, Kshapa, Yama, and Kshana, Samvatsara-kara, Aswattha, Kalachakra, Bibhavasu, Purusha, Saswata, Vyaktavyakta, Sanatana, Kaladhyaksha, Praja-dhyaksha, Viswakarma, Tamounda, Varuna, Sagara, Ansu, Jimuta, Jivana, Arihan, Bhutasraya, Bhutapati, Srastri, Samvartaka, Vanhi, Sarvadi, Alolupa, Ananta, Bhanu, Kamada, Sarvatomukha, Jaya, Visala, Varada, Manas, Suparna, Bhutadi, Sighraga, Prandharana, Dhanwantari, Dhumaketu, Adideva, Aditisuta, Dwadasatman, Arvindaksha, Pitri, Matri, Pitamaha, Swarga-dwara, Prajadwara, Mokshadwara, Tripistapa, Dehakarti, Prasantatman, Viswatman, Viswatomukha, Characharatman, Sukhsmatman, the merciful Maitreya.

These are the hundred and eight names of Surya of immeasurable energy, as told by the self-created (Brahma). For the acquisition of prosperity, I bow down to thee, O Bhaskara, blazing like unto gold or fire, who is worshipped of the gods and the Pitris and the Yakshas, and who is adored by the Asuras, Nisacharas, and Siddhas. He that with fixed attention recites this hymn at sunrise obtains wife and offspring and riches and the memory of his former existence, and by reciting this hymn a person attains patience and memory. Let a man concentrating his mind, recite this hymn. By doing so, he shall be proof against grief and every object of desire shall be his.

Vaisampayana continued: Having heard from Dhaumya these words suitable to the occasion, Yudhishthira the just, with heart concentrated within itself and purifying it duly, became engaged in austere meditation, and worshipping the maker of day with offerings of flowers and other articles, the king performed his ablutions. Standing in the stream, he turned his face towards the god of day. And touching the water of Ganga (Ganges river), the virtuous Yudhishthira with senses under complete control and depending upon air alone for his sustenance, stood there with rapt soul engaged in Pranayama.

And having purified himself and restrained his speech, he began to sing the hymn of praise (to the sun).

Yudhishthira sang: Thou art, O sun, the eye of the universe. Thou art the soul of all corporeal existences. Thou are the origin of all things. Thou art the embodiment of the acts of all religious men. Thou art the refuge of those versed in the Sankhya philosophy (the mysteries of the soul), and thou art the support of the Yogis. Thou art a door unfastened with bolts. Thou art the refuge of those wishing for emancipation. Thou sustain and discover the world, and sanctify and support it from pure compassion. Brahmans versed in the Vedas appearing before thee, adore thee in due time, reciting the hymns from the respective branches (of the Vedas) they refer. Thou art the adored of the Rishis. The Siddhas, and the Charanas and the Gandharvas and the Yakshas, and the Guhyakas, and the Nagas, desirous of obtaining boons follow thy car coursing through the skies. The thirty-three gods with Upendra (Vishnu) and Mahendra, and the order of Vaimanikas have attained success by worshipping thee.

By offering thee garlands of the celestial Mandaras (celestial flowers of much fragrance) the best of the Vidyadharas have obtained all their desires. The Guhyas and the seven orders of the Pitris - both divine and human- have attained superiority by adoring thee alone. The Vasus, the Marutas, and the Rudras, the Sadhyas, the Marichipas, the Valikhilyas, and the Siddhas, have attained pre-eminence by bowing down unto thee. There is nothing that I know in the entire seven worlds, including that of Brahma, which is beyond thee. There are other beings both great and endued with energy; but none of them has thy lustre and energy. All light is in thee, indeed, thou art the lord of all light.

In summer thou drawest, by thy rays, moisture from all corporeal existences and plants and liquid substances, and pourest it down in the rainy season. Thy rays warm and scorch, and becoming as clouds roar and flash with lightning and pour down showers when the season cometh. Neither fire nor shelter, nor woollen cloths give greater comfort to one suffering from chilling blasts than thy rays. Thou illuminest by thy rays the whole earth with her thirteen islands. Thou alone are engaged in the welfare of the three worlds. If thou didst not rise, the universe becomes blind and the learned cannot employ themselves in the attainment of virtue, wealth and profit. It is through thy grace that the (three) orders of Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas are able to perform their various duties and sacrifices (e.g. Adhana, Pashubandha, Ishti, Mantra, Yajna and Tapa-kriya).

Those versed in chronology say that thou art beginning and thou the end of a day of Brahma, which consists of a full thousand Yugas. Thou art the lord of Manus and of the sons of the Manus, of the universe and of man, of the Manvantaras, and their lords. When the time of universal dissolution comes, the fire Samvartaka born of thy wrath consumes the three worlds and exists alone. And clouds of various hues begotten of thy rays, accompanied by the elephant Airavata and the thunderbolt, bring about the appointed deluges. And dividing thyself into twelve parts and becoming as many suns, thou drink up the ocean once more with thy rays. Thou art called Indra, thou art Vishnu, thou art Brahma, thou art Prajapati. Thou art fire and thou art the subtle mind. And thou art lord and the eternal Brahma.

Thou art Hansa, thou art Savitri, thou art Bhanu, Ansumalin, and Vrishakapi. Thou art Vivaswan, Mihira, and Dharma. Thou art thousand rayed, thou art Aditya, and Tapana, and the lord of rays. Thou art Martanda, and Arka, and Ravi, and Surya and Saranya and maker of day, and Divakara, and Suptasaspti, and Dhumakeshin, and Virochana. Thou art spoken of as swift of speed and the destroyer of darkness, and the possessor of yellow steeds. He that reverentially adores thee on the sixth or the seventh lunar day with humility and tranquillity of mind obtains the grace of Lakshmi.

They that with undivided attention adore and worship thee, are delivered from all dangers, agonies and afflictions. And they that hold that thou art everywhere (being the soul of all things) living long, freed from sin and enjoying an immunity from all diseases. O lord of all food, it behoveth thee to grant food in abundance unto me who am desirous of food even for entertaining all my guests with reverence. I bow also to all those followers of thine that have taken refuge at thy feet - Mathara and Aruna and Danda and others, including Asani and Kshuva and the others. And I bow also to the celestial mothers of all creatures, viz., Kshuva and Maitri and the others of the class. O, let them deliver me their supplient.

Vaisampayana said: Thou, O great king, was the sun that purifier of the world, adored (by Yudhishthira). And pleased with the hymn, the maker of day, self-luminous, and blazing like fire showed himself to the son of Pandu. And Vivaswan said: 'Thou shalt obtain all that thou desire. I shall provide thee with food for five and seven years together. And, O king, accept this copper vessel which I give unto thee. And, O thou of excellent vows, as long as Panchali will hold this vessel, without partaking of its contents fruits and roots and meat and vegetables cooked in thy kitchen, these four kinds of food from this day be inexhaustible. And, on the fourteenth year from this, thou shalt regain thy kingdom.'

Vaisampayana continued: Having said this, the god vanished away. He that, with the desire of obtaining a boon, recites this hymn concentrating his mind with ascetic abstraction, obtains it from the sun, however difficult of acquisition it may be that he asks for. And the person, male or female, that recites or hears this hymn day after day, if he or she desires for a son, obtains one, and if riches, obtains them, and if learning, acquires that too. And the person male or female, that recites this hymn every day in the two twilights, if overtaken by danger, is delivered from it, and if bound, is freed from the bonds. Brahma himself had communicated this hymn to the illustrious Sakra, and from Sakra was it obtained by Narada and from Narada, by Dhaumya. And Yudhishthira, obtaining from Dhaumya, attained all his wishes. And it is by virtue of this hymn that one may always obtain victory in war, and acquire immense wealth also. And it leads the reciter from all sins, to the solar region.

Vaisampayana continued: Having obtained the boon, the virtuous son of Kunti, rising from the water, took hold of Dhaumya's feet and then embraced his brother's. And, O exalted one, wending then with Draupadi to the kitchen, and adored by her duly, the son of Pandu set himself to cook (their day's) food. And the clean food, however little, that was dressed, furnished with the four tastes, increased and became inexhaustible. And with it Yudhishthira began to feed the regenerate ones. And after the Brahmans had been fed, and his younger brothers also, Yudhishthira himself ate of the food that remained, and which is called Vighasa. And after Yudhishthira had eaten, the daughter of Prishata took what remained. And after she had taken her meal, the day's food became exhausted.

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The Sun Sutra

In the Vibhuti Pada, Patanjali states that samyama on the Sun will give a yogi knowledge of the worlds.

How can it be possible that a meditation on the Sun will give the practitioner knowledge of the worlds? Meditation on the Sun is important because the Sun is the most conscious Being, Spirit, Force and object in the solar system. In this modern era of materialism, scientists conceive of the Sun only as an object- as a star. For the Siddhas, knowledge of the Sun is comprehensive. According to the philosophy of the Siddhas, consciousness, illumination and intelligence are synonymous. The more luminous or more brilliant one is, the greater is one's intelligence. Within our solar system the Sun is undoubtedly the most luminous object, which makes the intelligence and energy represented by the Sun exemplary. This type of consciousness is highly desirable to the Siddhas. The methodology they adopt to obtain the consciousness of the Sun is simple. It is based on the philosophy that one becomes what one thinks. If one constantly thinks about the Sun then one becomes the Sun and acquires all of the Sun's intelligence. The Sun is synonymous with life. The Sun knows every form of life because all life is a transformed version of solar energy. This is how, by meditation on the Sun, one acquires knowledge of the worlds. The meditation on the Sun is as exhaustive as the rays that come out of the Sun. Each ray of the Sun represents a specific type of power and intelligence. It would take modern science millions of years of study to understand the full range of the Sun's powers. The Siddhas found a short-cut to an understanding- they found a way to access The Sun's power through a simple meditation technique. And that is why Patanjali instructs Siddhi students to do samyama on the Sun.

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Subject: sungazing URLs

http://theopenline.cc/sun_gazing.htm

http://www.rawpaleodiet.org/sun-sungazing-1.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20011109090415/http://moorfields.org.uk/ef-solret .html

http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/vision/Galileo.html#religious

Mason Dwinell's http://www.Sungazing.com

Healing effects of near-infrared LED light: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,60786,00.html?tw=wn_techhead_12

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Rodney Collins' "Theory of Celestial Influence" that I mentioned in a previous posting. Chapters Three, Four and Five, are on line under the subtitle "A convincing description the Solar System as a living being". Collins is very sound, and derives from the Ouspensky-Gurdjieff schools:

http://www.sumeria.net/cosmo/chapiii.html

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More on the nature of light from Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh by Matthew Fox:
_ Matter is frozen light (David Bohm).
_ Light and matter are ultimately interchangeable. "There is no ultimate physical substance to matter."

_ "Matter is nothing but gravitationally trapped light."
_ The afterglow of light from the original fireball of the universe is so significant that "for every one atom of ordinary matter in the Universe there exist 1 billion light particles."
_ While most of the energy of the universe resides in matter, almost all particles in the universe are those of light.
_ For every particle of matter, there are 1 billion particles of light. "Matter is just a minor pollutant in a Universe made of light" (Ilya Prigogine).
_ At the origin of the universe, all the light of the universe was compressed in a volume smaller than the point of a needle.
_ All the other chemical elements of our bodies (40 percent of the atoms of our bodies) were forged in the interiors of stars. They are "recycled star dust."
_ Light is a vital ingredient in all atoms and in molecules and life-forms (including human ones) that are made up of atoms.
_ The human body stores immense amounts of light: The 100 trillion atoms in each of our 100 trillion cells together store at least 10 28 photons. This is enough light to illuminate a baseball field for three hours with I million watts of floodlights.
_ All nine planets began with the same elements, spun by the same star and burned with the same energy. _Only Earth was the proper size so that a balance between gravity and electromagnetic energy happened, allowing a temperature range to develop where complex molecules could form.
_ The solar cloud that eventually birthed the sun was 5 million times the diameter of the sun.
_ The sun contains 99.86 percent of all the substance in the solar system. The Earth contains only 1/332,000 of the sun's mass. The sun is 1 million times larger than the Earth - one million Earths can fit inside the sun. The moon's entire orbit around the Earth can fit inside the sun.
_ Flying at 500 miles per hour, it would take 21 years to reach the sun from Earth, which is 93 million miles away. _Ancients considered the sun eternal, but it was born about 5 billion years ago and will die in about 5 billion years.
_ The sun is composed "of the same substances as the Earth and, in fact, the Universe as a whole." An intensely hot sphere of gas, 78 percent of the sun is hydrogen and 20 percent is helium.
_ The temperature on the interior of the sun is about 29 million degrees Fahrenheit.
_ The sun emits more energy in one second than humankind has consumed in the whole of its history. One second of the sun's energy is 13 million times the annual mean electricity consumption of the United States.
_ The Earth receives only 2 parts per billion of the sun's total energy output - but this is 10,000 times greater than the total energy presently consumed by the human race.
_99.98 percent of all energy passing through the atmosphere originates in the sun's core. (The remainder is from starlight, cosmic rays, and tidal and geothermal energy.)
_ Wood and coal are stored-up solar energy; wind and ocean currents originate from the sun's radiation, as does our food. _When coal burns, hibernating sunlight that was imprisoned for millions of years emerges.
_ Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to travel from the sun to Earth, but previously it took 20,000 years to emerge from the sun to travel into space.
_ Photons (or sunlight) take 100,000 years to cross from one edge of the Milky Way galaxy to the other.
_ The Milky Way is spiral, and in this kind of galaxy a kind of creativity happens that is absent from elliptical galaxies. Generation after generation of stars recycle the interstellar medium and build increasingly complex chemicals along the way.
_Stars fill only 1 part in 100 million of the volume of space.
_ If stars were closer together than they are, invisible high-energy radiation would kill most life-forms living within 2 or 3 light-years."
_ The Milky Way is one of maybe 100 billion galaxies in the universe and one of 30 billion spiral galaxies. _Our sun and solar system lie about 30,000 light-years from the center of our galaxy. A car traveling at 100 miles per hour would take 201 billion years to drive to the center of our galaxy - which is about 20 times the age of our galaxy.
_ Every 18 days our galaxy gives birth to a new star.
_ The energy of the Big Bang may have equaled the total energy of 10 million billion quasars, each of which equals 300 billion suns in light energy alone. _Helium constitutes about 25 percent of the universe. With little or no helium, the universe would have no stars, no light, and no life.
_ If helium were 30 percent of the universe instead of 25 percent, our sun would be dying now; and life would not have happened on Earth. If the intense background radiation had been less during the first second of the universe, this would have happened.
_ At the beginning of the universe, light was trapped and did not escape for hundreds of thousands of years.
_ Several hundred thousands of years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled enough that electrons married nuclei and created little hydrogen and helium atoms. From these were born galaxies, stars, planets, and us.
_ One second after the Big Bang the radiation era began. _At the 700,000-year mark, the radiation era ended and matter separated from radiation and hydrogen was created. In a few billion years, hydrogen and helium formed the first galaxies and stars.
_ Hydrogen is the "blood of the universe.
_ When the universe was 9.6 million years old, it was expanding at 1.98 million miles a second or 10 times faster than the speed of light. Thus space, not matter, was doing the expanding. A spaceship traveling this fast could get from Earth to Pluto in less than 25 minutes.
_ The oldest fossil in the universe was a fossil of radiation discovered in 1965. Coming from every direction of the universe, it was a remnant from 1 million years after the Big Bang cataclysm.

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I used gold front-surface mirrors for solar gazing for years when I was really in to it. I had experiences where my watch, a Rolex Oyster Perpetual, would speed up or slow down by many hours in one day. Reflected light under the right circumstances is polarized. Multiple mirrors can create circular polarization left and right handed. These all have very profound effects on the energy systems of the body.

The Aztecs and Mayans used polished black obsidian mirrors as well as gold mirrors in their solar gazing practices.

I had polished black obsidian plates made for me and also used those for solar gazing with both eyes wide open. I really like the black mirrors more than the gold ones.

I am currently using polished Specular Hematite mirrors. The best thing is to find a store that sells crystals and other minerals, or a commercial lapidary shop. Tell them what you want and they and make slabs of polished black stone for you. I spent about 18 years researching the effects of plane and circular polarized light on plants, human cell cultures and also the effects on EEG (brain waves). Some of the most powerful effects came from near infra red circular and plane polarized light. Black surfaces (dark) tend to create the strongest polarization. Our eyes can easily detect polarized vs un-polarized light. With a little training, we can also detect circular polarized light.

I think you are missing out on some really powerful effects by ignoring the mirror gazing.
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Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov was a very sun-oriented teacher, now departed From the planet. His followers have published almost all of his spoken talks and essays. The best in my opinion are:

http://www.prosveta-usa.com/

"Toward a Solar Civilization" and "The Splendour of Tipharet" (Complete Works Collection, vol.10)

"A New Earth, Methods, Exercises, Formulas and Prayers," Complete Works - Volume 13,

"Lighting the Path: The Solar Yoga of Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov" by Georg Feuerstein

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The Gayati Prayer to the Rising Sun
Om. Bhur bhuvar svar, tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi dhiyo yo nah pracodayat.

"Om. Earth. Midspace. Heaven. May we contemplate that most excellent splendor of God Savitur, so that He may inspire our visions."

For thousands of years, pious Hindus have recited this Vedic mantra in praise of Savitur, the quickening aspect of the life-giving Sun. In our own time, this ancient solar teaching has had a most ardent and convincing spokesman in the person of Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov. For this Bulgarian-born gnostic master made the life-bestowing solar being the focus of his whole life and teaching.

When traveling in India, in 1959-60, Aïvanhov was welcomed by several renowned Hindu sages, including Swami Nityananda, as an accomplished master from Europe. One adept hailed him as a "solar rishi." Although that Hindu sage was not at all familiar with Aïvanhov's teaching, he could not have characterized him better.

The Vedic rishis were visionaries, spiritual seers. Aïvanhov, too, was such a seer. It was on the basis of his own spiritual realization and of his reading of what he called the "Book of Nature," that he, like the rishis before him, discovered in the Sun a great secret. In one of his talks he observed:

As soon as the Sun gets up he pours forth his light, his warmth and his life, and it is that light, warmth and life that encourage men and women to get up, too, and go to work . . . The daily rhythm of human life is patterned on the rhythm of the Sun's movement. And it is the Sun, too, who is at the origin of all culture and civilisation.*1

Aïvanhov reproached us moderns for taking the Sun's existence for granted, ignoring the fact that without it, there would be no life on Earth. All animate and inanimate things, Aïvanhov noted, are nothing but condensed sunlight.

The Sun is the origin of life. More than that, the Sun is the primordial teacher. For, without the Sun there would be no human society, religion, morality, arts, philosophy, and technology. In one of his earliest talks, given in 1938, Aïvanhov remarked:

Everything good comes from the Sun. It is God's highest manifestation and through it, He sends His blessings.

Elsewhere Aïvanhov observed:

Deprived of sunshine men could never have existed . . . Without his light they could never have had the faculty of sight, and not only on the physical level but also on the intellectual level: they could never have had understanding, for understanding is a higher form of sight.*3

This view coincides with ancient Hindu teachings. Thus, in the Bhagavad-Gîtâ (4.1), the God-man Krishna explains to his disciple Prince Arjuna that he, Lord Krishna, proclaimed his "immutable Yoga" to Vivasvat who then taught it to Manu, the progenitor of the human race. Vivasvat ("He Who Shines Brightly") is none other than the solar being, more specifically the creator aspect of the Sun.

Aïvanhov saw in light the first emanation of the Divine, retaining the Divine's qualities more than any other manifestation. As he insisted:

Light is a living spirit which comes from the Sun and which establishes a direct relationship with our own spirit.

Aïvanhov further claimed that, as a supremely intelligent being, the Sun is completely responsive to our spiritual intentions and aspirations. He viewed the Sun as an "open door to Heaven."*5 This reminds one of the famous line in the beautiful Îsha-Upanishad, which speaks of the lid that covers the Truth. Aïvanhov also stated that the Sun has been his principal teacher and that "the Sun's replies are given in a flash, like an electronic machine."*6

Aïvanhov gave the name Surya Yoga, "Solar Yoga," to the conscious cultivation of that solar umbilical cord to the Divine.

He explained: "By the practice of Surya Yoga you establish a link between yourself and the power that governs and gives life to the whole Universe: the Sun. That is why you must necessarily get results! . . . No book can give you what the Sun gives you if you learn to have the proper relationship with him . . . If you want to create a bond between you [and the Sun], you have to look at him in all consciousness. If you do that there will be a communication of vibrations between the Sun and you in which forms and colours, a whole new world, will be born."

An important part of Surya Yoga is to contact the Sun at dawn, which requires proper mental preparation. In order to be able to approach the rising Sun in a meditative disposition, the solar yogis should live a balanced life, involving dieting, perhaps even fasting, adequate sleep, and, above all, an uncluttered mind. Making peace in their own heart, the solar yogis are able to gather their energies and project themselves into the Sun.

This projection is made possible by the fact that, on subtler planes of existence, we are already fully in touch with the solar being. Aïvanhov put this fact more succinctly when he said that the human being already dwells in the Sun.

This statement has its striking counterpart in the sacred literature of Hinduism. But Aïvanhov's teaching sprang from his own inner experience rather than any study of the Hindu scriptures. He discovered for himself that, esoterically, the human being is modeled after the Sun. We participate in the Sun's splendor, though we are habitually unaware of this fact. Aïvanhov's unique contribution is that he has made age-old esoteric knowledge accessible to modern students.

Aïvanhov affirmed many times that by focusing on the Sun, and by attuning ourselves to the solar "wavelengths," we are made whole. He spoke of "eating" and "drinking" light, the primordial food of the universe. As he put it:

We go to the sunrise in order to nourish ourselves with light . . . Man needs to feed on light in order to nourish his brain . . . Light awakens those faculties that enable man to penetrate the spiritual world.

Aïvanhov, who was a very practical man, recommended this exercise:

In your thought, with your imagination, try to draw some of these divine particles [of the Sun] into yourself. In this way, little by little, you will completely regenerate all the materials of your being. Thanks to the Sun you will think and act as a child of God.

Aïvanhov further stated: "There is no more worthy, more glorious or more potent work than this work with light."

Aïvanhov's Surya Yoga furnishes us with a vision of our solar system and human existence that is truly magnificent. It replaces our egocentric view, which sees everything revolving around the human individual. Simultaneously it relieves us of the burden of having to play God, and instead facilitates our native ability to transcend the ego and to find the bliss of the Divine in our life. The ego is the ultimate black hole. It sucks in light but emits none.

The Sun is the exact opposite of the ego. It ceaselessly bestows life upon the world. Its life is a true sacrifice. This secret message was clearly understood by the ancient rishis.

Aïvanhov reminded us of the fact that we inhabit a far more wondrous universe than science would have us believe—a universe that is patiently waiting for our conscious, mature collaboration.

About Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov was born in 1900 in the small Macedonian village of Serbtzy. He was a precocious child and early on became fascinated with spiritual matters. At the age of sixteen, he was plunged into a state of ecstasy in which he experienced everything bathed in, and suffused with, light—an experience that left a lasting mark on his understanding of the nature of existence.

A year later he found his teacher in the saintly Peter Deunov (Beinsa Deuno), a gnostic master, who had a following of tens of thousands. At his teacher's behest, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov emigrated to France in 1937 to spread the teaching of light outside his homeland. He lived and tirelessly taught in France for nearly half a century until his death in December of 1986.

The title Omraam, bestowed on him by Neemkaroli Baba, when visiting that Indian sage, is the French spelling of the two sacred syllables om and ram.

Master Aïvanhov never wrote anything, but his countless talks were recorded and collected by his disciples. Today many of these impromptu talks are available in various languages. Thus, over forty volumes of talks are in print in the English language, with hundreds more being planned for publication over the coming years. His life and teachings are presented in Georg Feuerstein's The Mystery of Light, which was newly released in Spring 1998.

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Dr. John Ott, pioneer in full spectrum light research.
see my article: http://www.raysender.com/ott.html

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"Light : Medicine of the Future," by Jacob Liberman is a good introduction to the growing field of light therapy. (Syntonics)

"Our Relationship with Light & Color," by Dr. Annette M. Patterson

http://www.wellbeinginst.com/Rep&Art_Relationship.htm

In studying the work of Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D., I discovered that it has been scientifically proven that light is responsible for "turning on" the brain and the body. It enters through the eyes and skin. When even a single photon enters the eye, it lights up the entire brain. It triggers the Hypothalamus, which regulates all of the body's life-sustaining functions, our autonomic nervous system, endocrine system, and our body's master gland, the pituitary. The Hypothalamus is also responsible for our body's biological clock. This gland then sends a message, by way of light, to the Pineal Organ, which is responsible for releasing one of our most important hormones, Melatonin. Melatonin's release is directly related to light, darkness, colors, and the earth's electromagnetic field. It affects each and every cell in our entire body, and turns on each cell's internal activities, making them able to harmonize with each other, and nature. It is believed the Pineal is the part of us that allows the feeling of oneness with the universe, and sets the stage for our most intimate relationship, that of our inner being with the environment. Animals come by this naturally, living in nature.

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Also check the following

"Syntonic Optometric Principles," Samel Pesner, O.D.
"Phototherapy," David Olszewski BrainBreiling
"Learning Abilities Response to Light," Mary Bolles
"From Light to Enlightenment," Jacob Liberman
"Brief Strobe Phototherapy," Steven Vazquez
"SAD Disorder," Lee Hartley
"PTSS results with Light Therapy," Robert Dubin
"Neurophysiological Effect of :Lumitron Therapy," John Downing
"EEG response to Photostimulation," Norman Shealy
"Light in Chiropractic," Ward Lamb
"Lumitron Therapy Comments," Robert DUbin
"Malillumination Syndrome" Michael Terman

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Light
by Eric Ashford

Light is your understanding. Light is the knowing, and not the knowledge. Light is being compassionate with yourself. Light is not clinging to anything. Light is wanting nothing. Light is knowing you have everything worth having. Light is seeing what is, in what appears. Light is the understanding of children. Light is your sensual nature and your spiritual reality. Light is your divinity. Light is your acceptance of humanity. Light is your awareness of the love you are. Light is your open and unashamed heart. Light is your forgiveness. Light is the content of form. Light is beauty in all things. Light is no thought in thought. Light is soul awareness. Light is growth, decay, and renewal. Light is gratitude. Light is releasing all that has gone. Light is knowing you are at the very point of perfection now. Light is an awakening from fear. Light is awakening from littleness. Light is the gift of grandeur. Light is the home of peace. Light is the bloom of creation. Light is your breath in God. Light is God on your breath. Light is where you came from. Light is where you are. Light is where your going. Light is anything that is open. Light is recognition. Light is the bud of manifestation. Light is the bloom of holiness. Light is the vibration of infinite energy, infinitely expressing itself. Light is Love. Light is the eternal in the atom of this moment. In all the world there is only you.

Shine.

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(from the Maitreya newsletter, I queried Wendy, but received no further information in her response.)

Solar Pitris After "40 days" Maitreya destroyed the body and returned the particles, the tiny Devic lives (Solar Pitris) which made it up, to the sun from which they came. check Shady response in 'Conversations'

Solar Pitris Wendy, one item in the current Share: Maitreya mentions "tiny Devic lives (Solar Pitris)" in his discussion of returning the particles making up Jesus' light body to the sun. I'd like to read up on these 'solar pitris,' since in one of my 'in depth' interviews with Shady he/she/they identified themselves as a community of tiny beings living in the sun. thanks ahead, once more!

(I guess I'm gonna have to read Alice Bailey again...)

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This force, upon awakening into conscious activity, weaves from the auric "substance" upon the ideal archetype it contains (which is the energy body) the personal expression of the fullness of consciousness. This unlimited personal vehicle of self expression is termed in Greek the augoeides, the "shining form."

In the Apocalypse the augoeides is secretly called the "solar body" (to soma heliakon). The solar body makes its appearance in a brief but very important allusion.

The author describes the solar body graphically and fancifully as a "new city." This new city descends from the heavens.

"And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."129

Dr. George W. Crile's radiogens

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Shardza Rinpoche's Rainbow Light Body

--- In Guruevents@y..., "purushaz" wrote: this entails a physical Ascension into higher dimensions without bodily deterioration, either before physical death, afterwards (Jesus, after being Resurrected according to Christian Tradition); or at death. In the case of Shardza Rinpoche, the Rainbow Light Body involves a rare biological ascension, the body literally vanishing from sight; thus no mortal decay. He's mentioned on the Namkai Norbu website at http://www.aroter.org/images/lamas/norbu_rinp.htm jiva

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Ben Hassine NDS

The pure I AM is the mirror of Reality. To dive into the I AM means to go beyond the I AM. The I AM is also called the Heart. When the Heart opens you merge with the "I" which is beyond the I AM.

*** This and only this is what is called Self-Realization

The soft and spacious seat of the blazing Sun of the "I" is called I AM or Heart.

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from http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/sungazing/
Subject: The sun: an instrument or a master?

People may start Sungazing (SG) mostly for a purpose or mostly for liking to watch the sun. I fully agree with Vinny's comments on the unhappy and happy persons linked with the motivation for SG. What I want to add is that most happy persons, who do SG just because they feel good while doing it, have also a personal relationship with the sun. For them the Sun is something alive, a spirit. For the unhappy persons, the sun is just a celestial body, an object on duty, doing mechanically its job for millions of years, an object which did not change a bit in millions of years, the most still object that exists in our solar sistem. But the essence of any spiritual path is stillness, the suppression of the movement of the body and of the mind. From this perspective, the Sun is the ultimate master. That's what my inner feeling says. Acharya Jowel said it with these words: "The sun's rays collide with our thoughts and create silence. The mind is too powerful to be managed by ordinary human consciousness. The photons from the solar system help to control the mind." I think that SG without feeling a close relationship with the Sun will fail to deliver any spiritual growth. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (3:26 ) tell about samyama on the Sun, meaning identification with the Sum, or as Drago said "The Sun and I are One", as the gate (or Star Gate) to the seven worlds, corresponding to the seven charkas. Patanjali does not mention anything about SG, apparently because it is an inferior for of connection to the Sun, samyama, or intense meditation on it being superior to the tratak (eye focusing without blinking) on the Sun.

Petre

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A Posting to a meditation list:

For about 35 years I've meditated (chanting the Gayatri) on the rising sun as a conscious divine being (Surya Yoga). About a month earlier than the Taoist connection, I did a 'solar meditation' search on the Internet that brought me to the site of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov's disciples and his transcribed works, of which "The Splendour of Tiphareth (Complete Works Collection, vol.10)" absolutely delighted me with its enthusiastic description of the insights to be gained from sun yoga - a nature-inspired approach to no-mind that has always worked for me -- i.e. 'Things seem brighter when you're in love' but the other way 'round... http://www.prosveta-usa.com

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Surya Yoga really begins with the Sun Greeting, the Surya Namaskar series of 12 yoga postures. Once learned along with the Gayatri, I find they combine well. Start with 'Bhur' on the inhale with the first postures of clasping together of the hands, and say 'Yo Naha' as one word on the second-to-last.

"The light is everywhere -- even buried in the deepest darkness!"

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Two decades ago, a scientist in California recovered from a very bad heart attack of the sort few. Few people that have that very bad heart attack recover. He just used a water that was exposed to the Sun for 12 hours and was kept in a wooden cup. Johana Brandt cured her inoperable stomach cancer by eating grapes and exposing her body to the Sun and Sun-water. There are many examples like that... Drago

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Solar Heartbeat - Astronomers from the National Science Foundation's National Solar Observatory (NSO) have discovered a solar "heartbeat" in the motion of layers of gas circulating beneath the sun's surface. Their research shows that some layers speed up and slow down about every 16 months. This internal motion provides clues to understanding the cycle of activity observed on the surface.

Human Pulse Rates by age Adult Males about 72 Adult Females 76 to 80 Newborns up to 140 Children about 90 Elderly 50 to 65

36 years equal one minute for the sun lifespan ten billion years cycles per second for human voice (average) 2000 cps

2 years = 1 solar second (more or less). There are 31,536,000 seconds in a year. To 'hear' a solar voice, we would have to speed up frequencies with a pulsation anywhere in the 1000 per year range approximately 63,072,000 times. Solar periodicities include: 11-year sun flare cycle (bet 9.5 and 12.5 years) 22-year 'double cycle" 250-year suncycle should play in 6.90 minutes

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Carl Jung in "Memories, Dreams and Reflections:"

"Our conversation took place on the roof of the fifth story of the main building [pueblos at Taos]. At frequent intervals figures of other Indians could be seen on the roofs, wrapped in their woolen blankets, sunk in contemplation of the wandering sun that daily rose into a clear sky....

As I sat with Ochwiay Biano on the roof, the blazing sun rising higher and higher, he said, pointing to the sun, 'Is not he who moves there our father? How can anyone say differently? How can there be another god? Nothing can be without the sun.' His excitement, which was already perceptible, mounted still higher; he struggled for words, and exclaimed at last, "What would a man do alone in the mountains? He cannot even build his fire without him.'

I asked him whether he did not think the sun might be a fiery ball shaped by an invisible god. My question did not even arouse astonishment, let alone anger. Obviously it touched nothing within him; he did not even think my question stupid. It merely left him cold. I had the feeling that I had come upon an insurmountable wall. His only reply was, 'The sun is God. Everyone can see that'....'

[from a another conversation with the Pueblo chief] "I therefore asked him" 'You think, then, that what you do in your religion benefits the whole world?' He replied with great animation, 'Of course. If we did not do it, what would become of the world?' And with a significant gesture he pointed to the sun.... 'After all,' he said, 'we are a people who live on the roof of the world; we are the sons of Father Sun, and with our religion we daily help our father to go across the sky. We do this not only for ourselves, but for the whole world. If we were to cease practicing our religion, in ten years the sun would no longer rise. Then it would be night forever.'" (Memories, Dreams Reflections 248-52).

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The Solar Phallus man.

The story begins in 1906 when Jung treated a patient at the Burgholzli hospital who experienced a strange vision. The man was E. Schwyzer and he was born in 1862. Schwyzer suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and on occasion was allowed to walk unattended in the hospital whereupon one day Jung saw him looking out of a window, staring at the sun. He was moving his head from side to side in a weird fashion. Jung said, "He took me by the arm and said he wanted to show me something. He said I must look at the sun with eyes half shut, and then I could see the sun's phallus (penis). If I moved my head from side to side the sun - phallus would move too, and that was the origin of the wind". Four years later, in 1910, Jung obtained a book by Dieterich that had a translation of an ancient papyrus text. This text virtually described his patient's dream and the point that amazed Jung was that his patient had not read the text or even heard about it. The ancient document had only just been translated. Jung wrote, "The vision of my patient in 1906, and the Greek text first edited in 1910, should be sufficiently far apart to rule of the possibility of cryptomnesia on his side and of thought - transference on mine."

In 1959, in a television interview, Journalist John Freeman asked Jung, "Is there any one case that you can now look back on and feel perhaps it was the turning point of your thought?" In answering Jung identified the Solar Phallus man case.

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From the "Is The Sun Conscious" conference
Presentere included Rupert Sheldrake, Bernard Carr, cosmologist Queen Mary College (UK); Ida Urso, educator and esotericist; Christopher Clarke, physicist; David Lorimer, director of the Scientific and Medical Network.

"In August, 1997 the followers of the Bulgarian teacher Peter Dhunov, would be gathering in Bulgaria to commune with the spirit of their deceased master and other illuminated beings who would be meeting in the Sun at the same time!"

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A friend was talking with some of the people who were going with me to a workshop near Mexico City. After the workshop he was talking about the fact that he was surprised because people were complaining that their parents didn't love them enough. People were sharing about their experiences in life and several of them were talking about suffering for many years because their parents didn't love them enough.

And he said to them, "I can't understand what you say. You are very sad because your parent didn't love you enough. What can I say? I didn't know my father. When I was born there was no father there, and I lived like that. But I don't feel sad, because my father is with me, can you see that? It is the sun. The sun is with me wherever I go."

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Dr. Sudhir Shah reporting on Shri Hira Ratan Manek's 411-day sungazing/fasting experience:

Today, it is the 411th day of Shri Hira Ratan Manek's fast. (on the14th February 2001) He started fasting from 1.1.2000. He is on a total fast as per Jainism. He is consuming only boiled water daily between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. only and no other liquids and just no other food, No I\V or I\M injections. Medical checkup commenced few days before fasting program & continued until today. It consists of daily written record of pulse, blood pressure, respiration, Temperature, water intake, urine output, weight etc. Relevant Hematological and biochemical (basic and few advanced) tests are done periodically i.e. monthly or fortnightly. ECGs are taken regularly. Ultra Sonography, EEG, CT. Scan and M.R.I. Brain have been taken at the end of one year and a team consisting of general practitioners physicians, surgeons, Cardiologists, endocrinologist and a neurologist have been examining him regularly and periodically from first day of fasting. Except for loss of 19 Kg weight, (Which is now stable with no further weight loss for last3 months) a slight reduction of pulse rate and B.P. and definite reduction of respiratory rate (from 18 to now 10/minute) amazingly, there is no other medical abnormality. Even the brain and mental capacities are absolutely normal. There are hardly any findings. He has stopped passing stool after 16th day of fasting and urine output is maintained at around 600to 800 c.c. His blood sugar is between 60 to 90. Rest of the parameters are all normal.

Most surprisingly, he had himself climbed the famous Shatrunjay mountain (Palitana hill) on 4.4.01, on 401st day of his legendary fasting along with 500 fellowmen without anybody's help, within 1.5 Hrs. only.

It is just amazing. Isn't it ?

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Ramon:
Hello, Hira: I'm so glad to be in touch with you! I've been very impressed with your ability to switch your body over to operating on sunlight! I spoke with Vinny a little about the work Sri Aurobindo -- well, especially his Sweet Mother Mira -- did towards the divinization of the physical. A very interesting book regarding this is Satprem's "The Life of the Cells." Satprem was Mother's daily companion for many years, and kept many notes of their talks. I also spoke with him about Omraam Michael Aivanov's life and experiences, again recommending the book that I believe is mentioned in my letter that Vinny posted on his website. It seems that you were in the Bay Area recently, and that unfortunately it was a 'missed opportunity' for me. Do let me know whenever you plan to pass through here again! As someone who has never had anyone with whom to share the solar divine experience, you cannot imagine how excited and pleased I am to have made contact now with what looks like a network of sungazers! Looking forward -- and upward!

Beams and Blessings from She who manifested first in our star system,

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Message: 2 Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 17:41:27 -0700
From: Ramon Sender

I was delighted to have a visit at my place of work today from Mason Dwinell of sungazers.com -- also now reading on this list. Welcome, Mason! And thank you for your inspirational visit. It's so exciting for me to be meeting other sungazers in person -- and even 'virtually' on this list!

It seems that there may be 'something' happening, with so many people coming forward to talk about living / healing themselves directly on the Source. But it's also good to remind ourselves that we already are that same Source on the 'inside' that we are merging with on the 'outside.' Once we succeed in merging these two lights - that inner light within our very cells and the outer light that creates and maintains our planet - we will then learn how to transfigure the human form into what it is capable of becoming. Like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, our caterpiller selves will be transformed -- on the physical plane, is the promise!

The fundamentalists have it partially correct with their "Rapture" theory, although I believe that the Christ returns daily at sunrise and merely awaits patiently our awakening to the reality of the Presence daily in our lives. Then we can discover that this planet is the Garden of Eden, and set about re-planting and recovering our original paradise.

The curious thing about the Power of Darkness is that the light lies buried even in the deepest darkness, only awaiting our awareness to bring it forth.

Beams and Blessings,

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Ramon:
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 20:27:30 -0700

I agree with other replies that these solar flares are not harmful. There was a video of a solar flare on TV last night -- truly inspiring! It looked as if the sun was blowing a kiss to the planets!

I've always wanted to do an experiment with a solar telescope, and engage in conversation/prayer with the Solar Being and see if there is any immediate visual response. I have a feeling there will be, but then I'm considered somewhat eccentric by some for my view that all elements of our so-called physical universe are conscious. Light=Consciousness=Love Sat=Chit=Ananda Being=Consciousness=Bliss

My favorite name for the sun is made up of all the vowels, and by odd coincidence (not so odd, really) duplicates one of the names of God from the Old Testament - Yahweh. I spell it phonetically, starting with a wide smile on the exhale: EEEEE-AHHHH-OWWWW-OOOOOH- and the inhale: EHHHHHHHHH

It turns into a sort of full-circle breath mantra on all the vowels. How wonderful to name our God as the breath, so we can some day actually return to Her/Him on our final exhale...!

The Muslim name for God, Al-lah, I always think of being based on the heartbeat. Try saying 'la-la-la' in time with your pulse.

This makes me wonder if the historic tension between the Israelites and their surrounding brethren evolved from an ancient argument about whether God's name is the breath or the heartbeat. Of course, one can combine the two: (BIG INHALE)

Exhale: EEEEE-AHHHH-OWWWW-OOOOOH-EHHHH Inhale: La-la-la-la-la (on the heartbeat)

"Eloheem" is also a beautiful name for the Solar Being, and places the mouth at the end in a smile.

I adore the wonderful Sun Mother/Father who gives us life and keeps everything growing so that we may embrace each other in love and understanding.

And I believe that as we "awaken" to the Truth of solar consciousness, and as it spreads across the planet, we offer the Sun a mirror reflection of His/Her glorious self and in return She/He will help us break open the old shell of materialistic/dualistic thinking and that has been like our 'pupa stage' as a species and spread our wings in the light of a higher evolutionary plane as "sun-children of a marvelous dawn," to quote my favorite part of Sri Aurobindo's epic poem "Savitri". (I'll append the full quote below).

So let's keep spreading the word, and throw away the Kali Yuga darkened incomprehension of and paranoia about the Light!!!

My favorite "Savitri" quote:

I saw the Omnipotent's flaming pioneers
Over the heavenly verge which turns towards life
Come crowding down the amber stairs of birth;
Forerunners of a divine multitude
Out of the paths of the morning star they came
Into the little room of mortal life.
I saw them cross the twilight of an age,
The sun-eyed children of a marvelous dawn,
The great creators with wide brows of calm
The massive barrier-breakers of the world
And wrestler with destiny in her lists of will,
The laborers in the quarries of the gods,
The messengers of the Incommunicable,
The architects of immortality.
Into the fallen human sphere they came,
Faces that wore the Immortal's glory still
Voices that communed still with the thoughts of God,
Carrying the magic word, the mystic fire,
Carrying the Dionysian cup of joy,
Approaching eyes of a diviner man,
Lips chanting an anthem to the soul,
Feet echoing in the corridors of Time,...

High priests of wisdom, sweetness, might and bliss,
Discoverers of beauty's sunlit ways
And swimmers within rapture's laughing, fiery floods
And dancers within rapture's golden doors,
Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth
And justify the light on Nature's face.

As children in elementary school we used to sing:

These things shall be, -- a loftier race
Than ere the world hath known shall rise
With flame of freedom in their souls,
And light of knowledge in their eyes.

New arts shall bloom of loftier mould
And mightier music fill the skies,
And every life shall be a song,
When all the earth is paradise.

The original poem by John Addington Symonds contains several extra verses between these two, but we only sang the first and last.

Despite the anguish and suffering that we currently experience planetside, I still believe this dream can come true in a flash, in a second. If enough of us awaken to solar consciousness, I think we can trigger a wave of awakening that will sweep across the planet -- in fact, to my way of thinking, it's already starting right HERE!!!

Who's going to be the 'hundredth sun yogi?'

Beams and Solar Blessings,

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Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 12:49:57 -0800 From: Ramon Sender
Hello, fellow voyagers!

V wrote:

>If a practice is not ease-filled and relaxing and peaceful, it is one sign that this is not meant to be....

Over the past few years I've experimented with various home-grown exercises to increase my bliss tolerance. I operate on the theory that our upbringing, for most of us, taught us a very wrong lesson: that we must somehow 'deserve' or 'earn' love. For a very interesting view on this topic, I suggest an article "Love Can Not Be Given" that I archived here: www.raysender.com/lovecannot.html

In my view, before we can hope to evolve to more subtle energy levels, we must 'feed the baby,' by which I mean learn how to fill ourselves to satisfaction with warm, bubbly currents of 'chi' or 'prana' or 'orgone energy' or 'joy'. I am referring to that 'relaxation response' place that most of us humans only tend to experience awake in the post-orgasmic state or perhaps when enjoying an especially tasty snack or candy bar (this is where the whole problem of overweight arises, in my opinon), because many people have forgotten how to feed their baby from the endless pool of bliss that we melt into every night in sleep, that great mother ocean of ecstasy from which our individual 'waves' emerge upon awakening.

Now sungazing feeds the baby some lovely light snacks (smile), and I like to turn around the popular phrase "Things seem brighter when you're in love" to read: ""When you gaze at our brightest star, your heart melts into raptures of adoration."

On the other hand, at my office I face a north window and the sun only enters the west window for few month of the year. However I began to get these energy waterfalls a few years ago, and this began a search for their cause. Out of this evolved an article, "Why Is The Buddha Smiling?" www.raysender.com/smile.html and a poem www.raysender.com/rabbit.html and the technique of nursing on my uvula first thing upon awakening in the morning, before the 'ocean of sleep bliss' completely subsides into unconsciousness. The uvula is that odd fleshy thing that hangs down from the back of your throat. Science has never discovered a physiological use for it, but I think I have discovered why it's there. Now I have tried to share this with various friends, but must confess that uvula-nursing seems to only work best for me. So I reference it here as a variation of the kechari mudra, which I also practice in a unique manner in the following tongue exercise:

Stick your tongue out as far as is comfortable. Hold it in position with your upper and lower teeth, but not as to cause any discomfort. Now see how S L O W L Y you can bring your tongue back into your mouth by pulling it back against your teeth. The slower the better. Finally you will be holding just the tip of your tongue between your front teeth, a mudra (gesture) we unconsciously make when we are concentrating on a task, such as threading a needle.

The tongue is an amazing bundle of nerve endings, and as such is a wonderful resource for lowering one's bliss threshhold -- or as I prefer to call it, 'raising your Eudaemony ceiling.' Usually what happens, when we hit our Eudemony ceiling, is we 'space out,' by which I mean that we begin to think about what's in the fridge or maybe something good is on the boob tube, or it's time to 'do something.' But I suggest that next time you reach that spot, pick whatever exercise got your there and KEEP GOING!

Other techniques I use include various vocal resonance methods (OM-ing of course is the most well-known and no doubt the best), including an extended self-taught course on learning how to purr (snore on the inhale, gargle a French 'r' on the exhalem, and then try to merge the two so that they come from the same place in the back of the throat). Extended OM-ing or purring -- or other vocalizations will melt what Wilhelm Reich named 'body armor,' the lateral tensions (especially in the chest area) that impede the flow of energies. After a period of resonating, I find that just my ordinary speaking voice echoes out to my toes and fingertips in a pleasant manner, as if my whole insides have become an echo chamber.

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Message: 7 Date:
Thu, 27 Nov 2003 22:24:46 -0000
From: "fuertepazmado" Subject: another description of The Khechari Mudra

from http://www.kamakala.com/vama-2.htm

"Another powerful technique we will use is the Khechari Mudra. Like the Shambhavi, this Mudra is also a very effective method to channel energy into the brain. Khechari Mudra does this through a specific position of the tongue. "

THIS NEEDS MORE INFO
'
I very much respect and admire Ron Marling's website mentioned above. It's well worth the effort to read through his set of exercises. The only part of them I would crtique are the hatha yoga warm-up postures, which in the view of a hatha yoga techer friend are not 'balanced and complimentary'. Instead, I would recommend the Surya Namaskar sequence while reciting the Gayatri prayer. The words of the prayer adapt very nicely to the series of postures, I have found.

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"Vinny and I have both learned a remarkably simple and totally amazing all-encompassing Self-improvement method called the Release Technique: http://releasetechnique.com/ Very powerful!"

Would you share with us what the 'release technique' involves?

The best techniques are also the easiest and also are the ones right in front of our eyes, readily available to everyone for free or at a very inexpensive price.

THIS ALSO NEEDS FIXING

Your Release Techniques gent Lester wants $229 up front. I don't know about you, but $229 is expensive in my neck of the woods. Experience has taught me that those who 'sell' enlightenment for a fancy price are still enmeshed in the coils of the dragon named 'greed.'

The true teachers/gurus never ask for money for their advice.

Beams and blessings from those Mothers who first manifest from Nothingness (we call the 'stars'!).

R

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Fasting fakir flummoxes physicians By Rajeev Khanna
BBC correspondent in Ahmedabad
Doctors and experts are baffled by an Indian hermit who claims not to have eaten or drunk anything for several decades - but is still in perfect health.
Prahlad Jani, a holy man, or fakir, who is over 70 years old, has just spent 10 days under constant observation in Sterling Hospital, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. During that time, he did not consume anything and "neither did he pass urine or stool", according to the hospital's deputy superintendent, Dr Dinesh Desai.

. . . . He says he has survived several decades without food or water because of a hole in his palate. Drops of water filter through this hole, he says, sustaining him. "He has never fallen ill and can continue to live like this," said Bhiku Prajapati, one of Mr Jani's many followers. "A hole in the palate is an abnormal phenomenon," says Dr Desai. His colleague, Dr Urman Dhruv, told the BBC a full medical report is being prepared on Mr Jani's 10 days under observation. Doctors say they cannot verify his claim to have not eaten or drunk for decades - but by observing his feat under laboratory conditions, they hope to learn more about the human body. It is likely that doctors will want to examine Mr Jani again in order to solve the medical mystery he has presented them with. -

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Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 06:26:29 -0800 (PST)
From: HRM
Subject: Re: Pineal Gland and leaking away of solar energy

Pineal increases in size if it receives any source of cosmic energy and more or less the size is 3x6 or 8mm but in me even at this age of 65 they found appreciably increased than normal and so it can be concluded that it has increased though it was not measured earlier. Once your body becomes like a solar chip than even if you skip sunlight or earth nothing adverse happens and even daylight which is a solar energy keeps everything ok. One has to make the body like a solar chip that's all and than no cause of worry. As a matter of fact though nothing adverse happens in absence of sun gazing etc. we out of fear or emotions think that way and so we feel such happenings. If we do not think of any adverse effects nothing adverse happens. Many times we think of unnecessary things and feel that such things are happening though in reality they are not. Sun energy even gets recharged or regenerated with normal daylight. We read experiences of so many and these readings revolve in us and in many cases even without real things happening because of our lack of positive thinking we take it as something adverse happening. Sun energy does not easily get discharged from us and so don't worry when you are unable to do the practice and think positively that even daylight recharges you and of course daylight is lesser sun energy. Don't think too much and do the practice whenever possible and always feel that sun is taking care of you and than sun will definitely take care of you. Your devotion or faith on sun definitely reaches sun and sun than is bound to help you. We do not understand how this signals from us go to sun but they do go. Hence remaining positive for sun is a must.(take SUN AS A Super satellite). sun energy and our autosuggestions give the results we desire. So simple yet we fail to use it. I believe I have answered to your questions and if something is missing I will be always ready to answer. Thanks

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"Solar Empowering: Nutrition & Nurturing"
Transcribed and adapted by the SUNGazers.

This is the adaptation of a lecture given by HRM December 01, 2002.

This talk is about the renewed Sun Science that will give a new direction to humankind and solve many of the ills of the present day human society. Solutions on all fronts -- be it related to physical, emotional, mental and/or spiritual diseases. As a matter of fact, it is the rebirth of a science practiced in ancient times throughout the world. HRM is reviving and regenerating this lost practice. In different part of India it is known as Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutations. Similar practice was in Greece, Egypt it was called Heliotherapy, and so too in the Americas –Brazil, Mexico, Peru. The Inca civilization, which spread over S., and N. America practiced it. INTA means sun. Example is the health resort sun temples in Machu Pichu, Peru. Ancient writings found on this mountain top describe how to garner energy through the sun. Energy from sun has been used since times immemorial. We know it is a scientific fact that without sun or its energy nothing will move, every movement of every creature even the various energies electrical, magnetic, wind directly or indirectly sources itself to the sun.

Now days we rarely use the sun energy willingly as we are scared of the solar radiation and treat it like the enemy. Many human crises occur due to lack of use of sun energy. First major crisis is mental tension and worries. Lack of self-confidence. Negative thinking. Fear, anger, irritation, greed, hostility, and lack of compassion. All these are ailments of the mind. Can we overcome all these setbacks easily? Can the present human kind - - each and every one of us, become a good-natured person contributing to world peace?

Yes, if we make use of the sun energy.

Next crisis, after psychosomatic disorders come physical diseases and then lastly spiritual ignorance. We can ourselves hardly liberate us from these problems and diseases. As we age we have the onset of geriatric diseases Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s. The biggest setback we have encountered is lack of immunity. Most of us suffer from poor immunity. We have no energy to tackle day-to-day living. We can overcome all this by taking sun energy. It is an established fact that total health includes – mental, physical and spiritual wellness.

We have a super computer in our bodies give to us by nature. This is our brain. HRM calls it the “brainutor”. The brain is more powerful than the most advanced super computer. Each and every human being is gifted with innumerable talents, and infinite inherent powers by nature. Individuals should never underestimate themselves. Everyone is gifted. If we make use of these powers we can take ourselves to great levels. Unfortunately these infinite inherent powers are programmed in that part of the brain that is largely dormant and goes unused. Even medical science agrees we hardly make use of the brain but about 5-7% – the most brilliant of humans like Albert Einstein is reported to have used only about 32% of his brain.

If we can activate the human brain and awaken these infinite powers stored in us then we can raise ourselves to higher levels. We can achieve any results we want. In order to operate the brain effectively it needs to be activated. Being a holistic entity it needs a holistic power supply. Sun energy is the source that powers the brain. Sun energy can enter and leave the human body or the brain only through one organ and that is the human eye. Eye is the Sun Energy’s entry door to the human brain. Eyes are also known as the window of the soul. Recent research has found out that the eye has many more functions than that of vision. And more information is continuing to be revealed about the functions of the eye. The eyes are a complex organ and they have 5 billion parts much more than a spacecraft that has about 6-7 million parts. By this you can see the immense capacity of the human eye.

HRM asserts that the rainbow is in eye not in the sky. The seven colors of the sun is only the reflection of what is in the eye. We can create a rainbow anytime we want – go to the garden just observe below a source of flowing water as the sun moves above. There you will see the rainbow. Eye can receive the entire spectrum of the sunlight. It’s like having a glass window. Eye is the perfect instrument to receive all the colors of the rainbow.

Since eyes are a delicate part of the body we have to use it in such a way that our purposes are served as well as that it doesn’t get damaged. Present day teachings and ideas such as don’t look at the sunlight at all --you will damage your eyesight; never go out in the sun as you will get cancer, is causing needless hysteria and paranoia. The more you are away from nature the more there is cause for illness and you will automatically support global corporations. There are definite foolproof ways of getting from nature the benefits it has to offer not exposing ourselves to its adverse effects.

Receive sunlight only in the morning or evening hours 1-hour after sunrise or 1-hr before sunset. It is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that at these times one is free from UV and IR rays exposure. The UV index remains at 2 all through out winter. Best times to take sunbath other than winter times are the 2-hours window before sunset and/or after sunrise. Gazing has the added advantage that you get vitamin A and D during the 1-hour window. Vitamin A is necessary for the health of the eye, the only vitamin that the eye requires. If you gaze, the spectacles and the associated power in the eye will go away. This is better eyesight without glasses. It is safe to gaze during the one-hour period of sunrise and sunset or during winter when the intensity is less.

Actually there is no sunrise or sunset. It how we define it. Sun is fixed it is we on earth that rotate. HRM experimented on his own body for three years and devised this method based on trial and error. This can be accomplished by anyone in any part of the earth in any part of the year. HRM is not a unique figure anyone can do this. Now thousands are using this and achieving results. In Brazil, Australia, Germany, more than 3000 people are remaining on light. There are thousands eating light around the globe -a rebirth of a science that was practiced long time ago. Food has bid goodbye to them it is not that they have stopped eating. Originally this was a spiritual practice now it is a scientific practice. It can be followed by anyone.

When the results become reproducible it will become scientific. This practice will become a challenge to conventional medicine. This is a simple program for humanity. HRM has gone through 125 complementary alternative holistic modalities – in all of them he infers they rely on the sun energy. HRM has one intention that is to have humanity become truly independent. We all love to be independent. Are we independent? We become independent if we solve our own mental, physical, and spiritual problems. We can achieve this with the use of the brainutor given to us by nature. As we make use of sun’s power supply and we make use of the energized brain it becomes less and less dormant

To determine when the sunrise is or the sunset period check the local newspaper to get the daily timings. Both times are good for practice – it depends on individual convenience. Day by day this practice is becoming popular and is being known as the HRM phenomena. HRM envisions that it is the acronym for human resource management!

Sun gazing is a one-time practice of your lifetime. Look at the rising or setting sun – one time per day. First day look for a maximum of 10 seconds. Second day look for 20 seconds at the rising sun adding ten seconds every succeeding day. So at the end of 10 continuous days of sun gazing you will be looking at the sun for 100 seconds i.e. 1 minute and 40 seconds. Stand on bare earth with bare foot. Eyes can blink and/or flicker. Stillness or Steadiness of the eyes is not required. Why don’t you watch the sun instead of the TV? The intensity of the TV is much more than the rising or setting sun. If you can watch TV you can easily watch the rising or setting sun safely. Have a belief component in you that the sun rays or light that you are getting into the eyes is of immense benefit and will not harm you. This will give you earlier, quicker and better results. Without fail, even with out a belief component also you will get results if you follow the practice – it will take longer time --that’s all. YOU need not restrict any of your normal daily routines in life. There are no restrictions. No fasting, enjoy your food. Hold on to your food like a parent holding on to the infant baby. It is hunger that will disappear, food that will leave you. Fasting will happen.

Consider gazing from the same place at the same time daily. Following circadian patterns has its advantages. Adding sun gazing to your daily routine will not disturb the flow of the daily routine. If you pray, you can have any prayer of your choice. Any prayer. No particular one is suggested. Prayer is not a requirement. As a precaution have your eyes examined by your doctors. This is to be on the safer side form the scientific viewpoint - so have periodic check ups. Also, you can buy photo sun-cards which is priced at about $2/= to monitor UV or IR radiation (when cards are kept in the sunlight). There is no need to buy an expensive 500$ photosensometer. If your cheeks get heated up then stop gazing. Use common sense.

When you reach three months you would have gazed at the sun 15 minutes at a stretch. When you can watch TV for 3 hours, surely you can see the sun for that long? What is happening as you go up to 15 minutes? The sun energy or the sunrays passing through the human eye are charging the hypothalamus tract, which is the pathway behind the retina leading to the human brain. As the brain receives the power supply through this pathway it activates into a brainutor. One of the inherent brain’s software program has started running. We realize we are a different person now. No mental tension or worries. We have the self-confidence to face life problems. We no more think negatively only positive thoughts arise. We are not fearful. We become fearless -our psychosis has disappeared -so has all the ills of the mind. All this within 3 months. The first power has awakened.

We human have good and bad qualities -they are 2 sides of the same coin. In the absence of sunlight we develop bad qualities. When sunlight enters the brain --good qualities come on the surface and replace bad ones as they evaporate. Eventually even spiritual ignorance goes away. Sometimes more we hear and read we get confused. We get contradictory information. Red wine is good for you. Alcohol is bad for you. We are baffled with life’s problems and detest decision-making. But after 3 months of sun gazing we develop a sense of confidence and know the answers for ourselves spiritually. There is a balance of the mind; we are in a position to judge personal answers – the correct answers. We develop powers that are already inherent in us. Bad qualities disappear, anger, greed, jealousy leave you. You become a lovable creature. Everybody likes you. You will do no wrong. If you are positive or fearless, you will not harm anybody nor pain anybody. You will become a compassionate person. This is a great contribution to world peace. A positive approach creates solutions to problems and waste in society. There will be no need for environmental engineers. We won’t throw waste as there is no away. By 3.5 months everything changes.

Mental depression will go away. Psychiatrists are observing that SAD is caused by lack of sunlight. With the practice of sun gazing --not only in winter but you will not have depression in your whole lifetime. We will achieve a perfect balance of mind. Fear of death goes away. The state of mind is such that we will welcome death. What is to happen let it happen. No worries. Everyone has some sort of mental disorder. This is our biggest human crisis. Thinking. Sunlight definitely removes your mental diseases.

Next, Physical diseases will start being cured. 70 to 80% of the energy synthesized from food is taken by the brain and is used up in fueling tensions and worries. With a lack of mental tension, brain does not require the same amount of energy as before. As you proceed in sun gazing and as your tensions decrease food intake goes down.

When you reach 30 minutes duration of continuously looking at sun you will slowly be liberated from physical diseases …since by now all the colors of the sun reach the brain through the eye. Brain regulates the flow of color prana appropriately to the respective organs. All the internal organs get ample supply of the required color prana. The vital organs are dependent on certain sun color prana. Kidney red, Heart yellow, Liver green etc… Colors reach the organs and address any deficiencies. This is how color therapies work --Reiki and Pranic Healing. There is a lot of information available on color therapy. This is the process of getting liberated from physical ailments over a six-month period. After 3-4 months you can become cured of your physical ailments with auto-suggestion --imagining and visualizing healing your ailments while sun gazing. Scientific methods such as the Solariums, crystals, color bottles, natural stones, gems, all utilize sun energy. Sun energy is stored in these natural stones. You can keep natural color stones in drinking water to further hasten healing.

In solariums there is usually a platform at height of 100 feet where 7 glass cabins each one for one of the VIBGYOR color are constructed. This platform revolves around the sun whole day and according to the nature of the disease diagnosed, the patient is placed in the appropriate color for healing and cure. Similarly glass drinking water bottles with different colors are kept in sun for 8 hours. The water gets solarized and water develops medicinal value and is used to treat different diseases.

Photosynthesis does not mean you need chlorophyll. This concept also we very wrongly understand. Only the plant kingdom needs chlorophyll. Human body can do it with a different medium. Photosynthesis is transforming the sun energy into an usable energy form. This is how Photovoltaic cells work and electricity is produced, similarly water is heated, food is cooked in solar cooker, and solar batteries run automobiles.

Eyes receive the entire spectrum of the sunlight. And Brain distributes it to the different parts of the body on a need per basis. And one is cured of all diseases. A 3rd intermediate medium is avoided. You are your own master within 6 months. As you continue gazing the sun energy is no longer being utilized to attend to mental impairments or physical ailments and hence its storage level increases in your body. 7.5 months and 35 min of sun gazing this is when hunger starts going down very palpably. Food intake decreases. No one needs to eat more than his or her hunger levels. Hunger comes because of energy requirements, body requires energy and energy is a must. But food is not a necessity for the body to function. Only energy is. Conventionally we are indirectly getting sun energy while eating food that which is a by-product of sun energy. No sunlight --no food will grow. What we eat is 2ndary sun energy. In 6-months time we are staring to eat the original form of micro food – Our Sun. Also, when we eat secondary energy we put in a lot of toxic waste into the body. This can be totally avoided.

So as we consume the Original form, the sun, hunger goes down. Then hunger starts to disappear. By eight month you should see hunger almost gone. 9 months or 44 minutes for a dull or weak student or with no belief. Max. 9 months or 44 minutes. Your hunger disappears forever. All mechanisms associated with hunger like aroma, cravings, and hunger pangs disappear. No appetite for food. Energy levels are at a higher level. There is a judgment (having had this experience) that the brain is well activated with the sun energy. We become a solar cooker.

We have to give up sun gazing now. Solar science prohibits further gazing after 9 months or 44 minutes for the sake of eye care. The body will get discharged when we stop sun gazing. So we have to recharge. The charge will last for only 6 days. Now we have to start walking on bare foot on bare earth for 45 minutes daily. Relaxed walking only. No need to walk briskly, jog or run. Any convenient time of the day preferably when the earth is warmer and sunlight is falling on your body. When you walk bare foot an important gland in the brain’s center called the pineal gland or the third eye is activated. The big toe of the foot represents this gland. 25 years ago it was considered a useless gland. Now it has become an important gland for study and about 18,000 papers have been published in the recent times. It has always been known as the Seat of the soul. The Pineal gland has optic nerve endings. The remaining four toes represent glands too -- pituitary, hypothalamus, thalamus and amygdala. Amygdala for the last 2 years has been gaining importance in medical research. It’s a nucleus of the sun energy or cosmic energy and plays the important part of photosynthesis via the sunlight reaching the brain through the eye. When you walk bare foot, your body weight stimulates all these 5 glands through your toes. This is strengthened by the earth heat/energy and the sun prana falling on the head or the crown chakra. The chakras are not in the spinal cord that is an imaginary location; they are definitely in the brain. All these create a magnetic field and the body/brain recharges with the energy of the sun entering in you. Relax. Walk 45 minutes for one year and food continues to be without you. After one year of recharging, if you are satisfied with your progress you can give up barefoot walking. Few minutes of sun energy falling on you once in 3-4 days is enough.

But if you want the immune system to be strengthened then keep on the bare foot walking. Also if you want memory power or intelligence to increase please continue the walking practice. As you increase the sun’s heat on your feet the brain will activate more and more. Pineal gland will become more active. The Pineal gland has certain psychic and navigational functions. Navigational means like the birds one can fly. We can develop psychic skills of telepathy, televisioning, produce your body at different places simultaneously. Science has validated human psychic functions and medical experiments are being done to ascertain this. Different body parts and its organs get purified once you stop eating due to detoxification. The different internal organs play different mechanical parts for the purposes of space travel and flight. There is another utility value (other than food digestion) for the internal organs. All the glands have lot of functions and can perform at optimal level via sun energy. If you are fortunate to activate the brain optimally you surely will reach enlightenment. You can read past, present, and future. Sky is the limit at the same time even limited success is possible. This method can be safely applied to control obesity. Almost all problems get solved.

Lot of people have remained without food historically. Accordingly in 1922 the Imperial Medical College in London decreed that solar rays is the ideal food for humans. But no one has mentioned what their technique is -- For e.g. Yogananda in his book ‘autobiography of yogi’ interviewed many saints and mystics to find out the secret of their lack of eating food…common reply was that the sun energy is entering through a secret door and reaching the medulla oblongata in the brain. They did not divulge their secret. This knowledge was lost to common folk.

An International team of 21 Doctors supervised HRM in Ahembadabad for 411 days. He remained only on a diet of water. There were volunteers that were on –round- the- clock -supervision. Although sun energy is ample for HRM’s energy requirements he takes coffee, tea or buttermilk to satisfy his family and doctors.

After the excitement of the findings at Ahmadabad HRM was invited to Thomas Jefferson University and State Univ. of Penn in Philadelphia. They wanted to observe and examine his retina, pineal gland and brain. Some of the initial results are that the gray cells in HRM’s brain are regenerating. 700 photographs have been taken. Neurons are reported to be active and not dying. Pineal gland is not shrinking which is typically what happens after mid fifties and its max. average size is about 6 x 6 mm. But for HRM its been measured to be at 8 x 11 mm.

Sun gazers are volunteering to be tested but due to monetary crunch are not able to document the various physiological results. Sun gazing is the only answer for arthritis, migraine and thrombosis. Thrombosis is a common problem now a day because we sit on chairs and legs are always dangling and hanging. Kneecap replacement has become fashionable. Even when it is not required expensive invasive surgeries are performed due to medical malpractice and greed. Let us not be dependent on an external sources. Let us become our own masters. Let us do sun gazing.

You can break up the practice in three phases. 0 to 3months, 3-6months and 6- 9months. You have to walk barefoot for 45 minutes for the rest of your life. Food makes us commit the maximum pain to others and exploit others.

The uniqueness of HRM is that he has surrendered his living body for observation and experiments to the scientific firmament. Brain functions are complicated and one cannot explain why food is not required. How sun gazing is doing wonders is not explained? Although scientists are agreeing that hunger is definitely being eliminated. HRM recommends these books for the curious: Light medicine of future by Jacob Lieberman The Healing Sun: Sunlight and Health in the 21st Century by Richard Hobday

The cover pages of both these books ask one to get rid of sun -- glasses earlier the better. We are avoiding the beneficial effects of the solar winds. Nobody is asking you to look at the sun during the day between ten and three o’clock. Also do not use sunscreen. When body gets heated up you perspire and sweat is a waste product and needs to go out of the body. When you are painted or coated with lotions and creams -- they get degenerated and the chemicals enter your body. It is our malpractice -our wrong use- why blame the sun for the skin cancers. Sun bathing during the day is to be avoided.

There is a practice in getting energy on a temporary basis in the Americas. To get energy for their body natives take sunbath by standing in the sun for two hours exposing max. parts of their body and they don’t need to eat food on those days. They sustain on micro food of the sunlight. When clouds gather we become gloomy. We see the sun and get energetic.

In this world there are no miracles everything is a science. There is an explanation for everything. Everything is possible. The possibilities are unlimited as is the human imagination. Make use of the sun energy in a safer way and not for harmful purposes.

HRM’s request is that to please use this practice for personal welfare/development and for humanity.

Best wishes from HRM.

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Sun worship

By Nina Benjamin

"SURYA Yoga is above religion. Many Christians and Muslims are practising it," says Acharya Jowell K Gopinath, popularly known as Surya Swami, a spiritual leader who teaches the technique of tapping the radiant energy of the Sun. Surya Yoga is said to revitalise energy and negate illnesses of the mind and body.

That sunlight has great therapeutic value is accepted the world over. The importance of Sun was realised very early by the ancient civilisations. It was given the status of a god and worshipped from time immemorial. Today, the worship of Sun has been redefined with a new spiritual system developed by Surya Swami.

Hailing from the picturesque Idukki district of Kerala, Jowell Gopinath dropped out of college in 1989, after which he set out in search of truth. "I used to constantly gaze at the sun, and wondered how it kept burning bright day in and day out and what would happen to life if it were to suddenly disappear one day," he says.

After years of wandering in the Himalayas and meeting innumerable enlightened souls, Gopinath took up the mission to educate the masses about the importance of the Sun as an instrument of God-realisation. Surya Yoga, according to him, is done in nine steps, and when perfected can activate the body chakras or power points, opening up the path to self-realisation.

"The photons from the sun can help smoothen and enlighten the body, prana, mind and soul to come together in a straight line. The omnipotent Surya's presence can change, arrange, reduce, remove imbalances and organise the chemical, bio-chemical, bio-electrical and bio-magnetic powers in living beings," claims the Swami.

Surya yoga is a blend of yoga, nada (sound), rishi gyan and Buddha stage (silence). It is an advanced form of yoga that helps an individual merge with nature. The best time to practice Surya yoga is at sunrise or sunset when the harmful ultra-violet rays are not present. Ten minutes of daily sun-gazing is sufficient for a beginner.

The followers of Surya yoga do not believe in ceremonies and rituals. The Swami says, "The reality is within ourselves, the inner struggle as it is called. To meditate you need a powerful technique. We cannot imagine a life without Surya. The sun controls the day, the night and the seasons and the earth revolves around the sun. Only the sun can germinate the seed inside you. And this is most natural. People are moving away from nature. Here we are calling, come to nature."

According to Acharya Gopinath there is no need to believe in human Gods. "A spiritual aspirant does not need a guru. I have never had a guru. My only guru is Mother Nature. The sun is my guide and my source of energy. It is a tax-free source of knowledge, and we needn't look to any other source for guidance." He claims that through Surya Yoga "it is even possible to resolve the problem of terrorism as it brings clarity to mind." He considers Surya Yoga as nothing but the worship of Nature.

Nina Benjamin
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Ramon (Ray) Sender:

As for cloudy weather, I have lived on the foggy coast of northern California for many years, and actually find the fog a useful 'attenuator', although I must confess that our recent 'perfect' sunny weather over the last four months has been just a heavenly time. Sungazing during thin overcast or occasional clouds can be just as productive, in my opinion. And winter sun in these climes has a very special quality, sort of like a rare vintage of champagne.
Also, I think it's important to develop a childlike relationship to the Solar Being, who as the creator of all life and source of all goodness appreciates some sort of occasional recognition from her children (I sometimes approach the Sun as Mother Sun in the same way as the Japanese). Imagine these strange humans who have 'abstracted' an invisible god to worship (somehow I find an invisible god a good source of paranoia -- 'Is He watching me? Oh dear!!!' and just ignore the reality, which is that 'the Solar Christ 'returns daily out of love for Her creations and blesses (blisses) you with warmth, health, life and light.
So I talk to Her and give her various pet names, as well as chanting that most ancient of prayers, the dawn prayer, The Gayatri, which in Sanskrit reads:

Om, Bhur Bhuvaha Svar
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Deevasya Dheemahi
Dyo Yo Naha Prachodayat
OM TAT SAT
Translations vary, and I change-polish mine frequently. Currently I am partial to:

Aum, oh earth, oh air, oh golden light
Oh, that brilliance, most adored!
We drink the splendor of that One
Who