Leela Music Newsletter, February 2007Michael Stribling Here's an overview of what you'll find in this issue:
There are several exciting developments to report for the month of February. Previously, I mentioned that Songs of Hope and Healing was nominated in five categories for the 2006 New Age Reporter Lifestyle Music Awards. In February, the CD reached the finals in two of those categories: Best Electronic Album and Best New Artist. Winners will be announced March 4. I'll keep you posted. Songs of Hope and Healing is also featured on a new sampler CD, and I am interviewed in a feature article, in the Italian magazine, New Age Music and New Sounds (at least, I think that's the title; my Italian is not that good :-). It's a beautiful magazine, and I wish they had an English-language version we could all enjoy. Anybody out there read Italian? Out of the Darkness, Into the Light was released on January 1, and it reached the #2 spot in its first month of release on New Age Reporter's Top 100 List. The February rankings should be out in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned. Finding time to write new music is an ongoing challenge. However, I'm happily involved in three or four new pieces, so I'm glad to say the creative process is continuing. In fact, I had the chance to meet up again with an old college buddy at a recent concert. Eugene Friesen is a grammy-award winner, who's played for many years with the Paul Winter Consort, among many other musicians (check his website, www.celloman.com, and you'll see what I mean). It was great to hear him play again, and Gene offered to play on one of my future projects. That's very exciting for me to contemplate.
According to David R. Hawkins, the path to enlightenment is simple. It's not easy, but it's simple. I put it this way: seek higher levels of awareness and consciousness, live in the now, and dissolve the ego. (Hmm. Sounds like the liner notes of an album or something :-) So, what does all that mean? "Seek higher levels" refers to the concept of entrainment, which rather simply means "birds of a feather flock together." Or, to use another pithy saying, "if you lie down with the dogs, don't be surprised if you get fleas." The idea is that we acquire the characteristics of the people we hang around, the ideas we hold, etc. If you stay close to the fire, you stay warm; if you hang out in Chernobyl, you get radiation poisoning; etc. (Boy, I'm just full of metaphorical expressions, aren't I?) We are attracted to people and ideas because of the level (frequency) of awareness we've attained. Like attracts like. So, if you want to move to higher levels, of anything, hang around the people who exhibit those characteristics you want to develop. Simple enough idea. We just don't always make the effort to seek those higher levels; instead, we become more entrained to the level we're already on. If you hang around a healthy environment, you get healthier; if you hang around a toxic environment, you get unhealthier. Okay. I guess I've made that point, huh? What about "live in the now"? Eckhart Tolle has written about this in his book, The Power of Now. The idea is that this present moment is all there is, it's all that truly exists. The past is gone, and the future hasn't arrived, so all we have is the Now. Our challenge is that we spend so much time and energy regretting the past or worrying about the future that we pay very little attention to the only reality we have: this present moment, the Now. Enlightenment includes living in the Now, instead of the past or future, i.e., living in the "here and now" rather than the "there and then". The primary obstacle to enlightenment is the ego. I'm not talking about the ego as it's referred to in psychological circles; I'm talking about the spiritual ego. It's that aspect of ourselves that we've inherited as part of being a human being. In evolutionary terms, the ego has served some important survival functions, most of which are no longer an issue in the 21st century (e.g., being attacked by a saber-toothed tiger). However, the ego tends to think that it's a real entity, instead of a servant of our true nature. In order to maintain the illusion that the ego is real, and essential to our survival, it specializes in creating drama in our lives (without which it could not exist), and it perpetuates the illusion that we are (it is) independent and separate from everyone and everything else. Fortunately, as we become more aware of how the ego works, it loses its power over us. As we begin to just observe its antics, instead of buying into them, it gradually loses its power over us (dissolves) and we become increasingly freer to rise to higher levels of awareness, rather like cutting loose the sandbags and allowing the balloon to rise. Hawkins has spent five books discussing all this. I think it's time for me to re-read them all again, and again. I invite you to do the same.
What would it be like to gain the benefits of meditating by just wearing headphones and listening to some special recordings? One of the speakers featured on The Secret is Bill Harris, who developed an interesting audio technology, almost 20 years ago now, that does just that. It's called Holosync. Without getting too technical, my simplistic explanation is that this technology induces brain wave patterns that are good for you. (Yeah, that's pretty simplistic, all right.) Four brain wave patterns have been described over the past 30 years or so: beta, alpha, theta, and delta (sounds like a fraternity, huh?). Each of these brain wave patterns occupies a certain frequency range, and each of these patterns are famous for certain attributes, e.g., beta is the normal waking state, delta is the deep dreamless sleep state, etc. So what? Well, among other things, getting your brain to vibrate at various frequencies can help with all kinds of things: increased memory, learning retention, concentration, increase of beneficial neurotransmitters, etc., but one benefit stands out in my mind above the rest. Practicing Holosync raises what I call the "freak out" threshold (Bill Harris uses different terminology.) Here's what I mean. We all have a freak out threshold; it's that point beyond which we get overwhelmed and just can't seem to handle things very well anymore. In fact, we tend to regress to more primitive coping methods when we freak out. Holosync raises that threshold so that, over time, the things that used to freak us out just don't seem to bother us anymore. That means we have more peace and serenity in our lives, along with all the other benefits described above. Testimonial time. I've been using the method for two months now, and I am enjoying the process, and the benefits. If you're interested in learning more, Bill Harris will be happy to send you all the information you could ever want, plus free CD samples, etc. Here's the website: www.centerpointe.com. I invite you to check it out for yourself.
Every issue, I give away a free CD (autographed, of course :-). If you're on the mailing list, you're automatically entered in every drawing. This month, the winner is Ike Guerrero. Congratulations! ============================================================ That's it for this issue. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you liked, or didn't like, in this issue, and any recommendations or requests you have for future editions. Thank you for your support. Please invite your friends to visit my website and sign the guestbook. Oh yeah, it's okay to order some CDs, too! They make wonderful gifts :-). I also have a page on MySpace.com. Have a look and join the list of friends at www.myspace.com/leelamusic I wish you peace, joy, and love. Namasté, Michael Stribling If you would like to be removed from my mailing list, please reply to this email and type the word "unsubscribe" in either the subject line or the body of your reply. Leela Music Newsletters
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