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A Labyrinth Story at Kay Torrez's Place in SW Arizona
by Alex Champion

I was at a conference in Phoenix in late April 96, sponsored by Wellness You!, and it was 100 degree weather. I gave a talk there and led a compass and straight-edge layout of a Cretan labyrinth. Next to the last day Kay Torrez invited me out to see her mazes at her ranch, a 2 hour or so drive SW of Phoenix. It was to be a big affair, many people would be there. Why the occasion? There was some window open for some reason. Kay and Marty Cain, both long-time labyrinth creators, dowsed it would be appropriate for me to go, as did another person.

I drove out to Kay's place with Dan Winter and friend. We arrived at Kay's house out in the middle of a fairly barren desert. I remember seeing Saguaros and Ocotillos. The house was large and rambling, not fancy, but friendly. It had a nice feel to it, with 1950's style interior. A main focus of the house was a centrally located, large dining room table that could fit 20 or so people.

One of the things to do there is to sleep in one of Kay's mazes, called the love maze. The love maze is really a very large center surrounded by the much smaller set of 7 concentric circular paths. It is a 7 circuit with a 33 +/- foot diameter center. Eight beds are arranged radially in the center. I was urged to sleep in it, but I must admit I was a little leery of doing it. Some very interesting experiences can occur when you stay at a place that has energy present for many hours. Not all will be pleasant. It could be quite challenging. Well I had just been through a challenge. I gave a talk and led the layout at a conference. I was not interested in a challenge, I was interesting in winding down. But I dowsed it was OK, and so did some other people.

The Mazes

I went outside to dowse to look at the mazes. In the front of the house are three mazes arranged in straight line, which was roughly parallel to the house. Looking from the house one saw the smallest gentle maze on the right, the little larger power maze in the center, and the much larger love maze on the left. They were all 7 circuit and the barriers were stone inlayed in the ground. The mazes were striking, and fit beautifully into the landscape. Between the love and power mazes on the side closest to the house were a couple or three stone benches and a medium size fire pit. I walked to the center of the love maze. Each bed there had a color. I dowsed a bed whose color was pink. The bed was oriented in the straight line connecting the three mazes, which I believe was North/South. It is funny I can not remember the orientation, because this is one of the things I usually note when at a new spot. I find out where the Sun rises and sets.

Sleeping In a Labyrinth

I was tired so I decided to go to bed early. When I went out, Kay and half a dozen other people were sitting on the benches. Donna Miller's friend was playing the guitar, and another young lady with a beautiful voice sang. There was a large fire in the pit. Then Kay Torrez sang a Mexican song. It was a quarter Moon or thereabouts, so I could see many stars. The desert was warm and balmy. We were told at dinner that more people would be coming to join the twenty or so already there. I woke up in the middle of the night, as I usually do, and was not surprised to see a trailer had pulled in behind the mazes and was sitting next to the desert side of the love maze. A vehicle was in front. The trailer behind was one of these 1950's silver rounded (streamline) jobs. On the right I heard a man and women talking in low tones on a bench next to the fire pit. The fire was still going. I was sleeping facing the center, so when I looked to my right I saw the benches and fire pit and the house behind; when I looked to the left I saw the trailer and the great desert behind it. I spent most of the time I looking at the stars. It was a good view as there were very few ground lights in the vicinity.

I fell asleep and woke a little later. I looked to the right and the fire was out. No one was on the benches, but there was someone walking very fast in the power maze. I looked to the left and there was a small intense fire in front of the trailer. I did not see any people. I remember thinking - 'Don't these people ever go to bed?!'

I fell asleep again, and awoke when the Sun was already up. I felt groggy like it had not been the best of sleeps, which was noted because I had slept for sufficient number of hours to wake feeling fully rested. I looked to my right to get a good view of the items that had been shadows the night before. When I looked to the left I saw that the trailer had gone. I got a funny feeling when I noticed that a large saguaro seemed to be where the trailer had been. I walked over to the spot, and found no traces of tire tracks or any sign of a recent fire. Very mysterious. I found one of the two people who was talking when I first saw the trailer, and she (Sylvia) did not see anything or hear anything come in, which would have certainly been obvious to any one around. She was also walking the power maze when I saw the fire in front of the trailer, and she said she saw nothing. A fire would have been obvious to anyone in the area as it was the brightest source of light in a dark environment. The only other lights were two low watt light bulbs on the outside of the house. So I established that one lady was present at the two times that I saw the trailer and saw nothing. I also found the lady who came out in the middle of the night and put out the fire in the pit. She did not see a fire or the trailer. Apparently I was the only one that saw the trailer. The atmosphere of the trailer seemed 1950's, so I speculated that I was looking through a time portal of a scene that took place 40 years ago. I dowsed yes. The saguaro was medium size with at lEast one branch. I don't know how to tell the age of a saguaro by looking at its size, but I dowse that it is 45 years old. The event, if a time portal, occurred pre 1952.

We were sitting around the large table and everyone was appreciating my story. Another lady, who had slept in the maze, said she saw the power maze from above and it had streams of energy coming from it. Another lady said "Oh you probably got beamed up by some UFO." I remember being somewhat skeptical, saying something in my mind like "Yea, right!" As I found out later apparently there are a lot of stories around of beaming up by aliens, not your body but your spirit. When you come back and reenter your body you leave at the spot a little pin-prick-size red marking. The usual places are the back of your hand just below the knuckles, or on the analogous spot on your feet, or on the outside of your arm next to your elbow on the hand side. So the second lady said let's look at these areas and she looked first at her hand and said, "Oh yea, there's one, right there. You've been beamed up!"

The Red Spot

At the moment she spoke I felt a shift in consciousness. I looked over to a lady, sitting across - Sue Ellen, a psychic from Indiana, and asked her if she saw any energy changes in my body. She said yes she had. I later dowsed that I had indeed been beamed up! My little red spot was in the elbow area. I had also seen the one on the lady's knuckle. The next day my spot faded to a light brown color. It was gone in a couple days.

Beamed up was consistent with the fact that I felt groggy in the morning. I dowse I went to the spaceship after I fell asleep the second time. I initially felt that the trailer and the beaming up were not connected. However, now it seems more likely they are linked. The trailer was a possibly a disguise of the spaceship. Some UFologists I know thought the trailer was a memory screen, a shielding of their real identity so a human can relate. It was a good disguise as I expected more people, and they could very easily traveled there in a trailer. But why the 1950's trailer, why not a modern day trailer with which I am more familiar?

A Second Try

On that day, Sunday, it was windy outside and a lot of dust kicked up. It was unpleasant to be outside. So everyone spent most of the day inside. I could hardly wait to go out and sleep another night in the maze. I mean if I saw a time portal and got beamed up to a spaceship, what else was in store for me? It was still somewhat windy when I went to bed. In fact the wind came from the North (my head to feet) so I had to pull my sleeping bag closed tight to keep the wind out. Definitely different from the night before and a bit unpleasant. I finally fell asleep, and woke up, per usual, in the middle of the night. The wind had died down. I looked around and nothing was happening; nobody was around; it was quiet.

I soon realized that this night was probably going to be an anticlimax. The real show had been the night before. I turned my attention to the stars again. I started focusing on a group of stars that were South of the big dipper, not far from Arcturus. There was a Cross with circular arcs coming off the four arms, just like the center of a rectilinear Cross in a Cretan design. The top arc was smaller than the bottom three which were of a similar size, as in the Cretan. So I spent a little bit of time memorizing the pattern. (Later I found that the arcs coming off the horizontal arm of the Cross went down in the star pattern and go up in the Cretan. So it was not a Cretan Cross.)

I was looking at the Cross region when I saw a small object way high up moving at a relatively slow pace. I have seen plenty of satellites and that is what it looked like. I was not surprised to see it. I had been watching it for a few moments when, very quickly, it shined brighter by far than any star in the sky. Then just as quickly, the light faded back down to satellite size. I remember saying, out loud, - "Wow". I then focused hard on the satellite. I was able to follow it for a little ways and then I lost track of it and never found it again. After the light-show the satellite started to move in a curvilinear path as compared to a rectilinear mode pre-show. I figured it was the UFO that had beamed me up last night just going by and saying hi. It also could have been a satellite that momentarily reflected some light off the Sun. If a satellite, why did it change directions and then disappear? I dowse it was the space ship. That's my SW Arizona maze story.

© Alex Champion, Philo, CA, USA 13 Aug 96

A Brief Biography

Alex's daughter walking in a garden maze (14 by 20 feet) in the front yard of his home in Albany, California (before we moved).

Alex's new home in Mendocino County. Note the apparent alignment of 3 sites on the left side. The sites for the double spiral and the LH Cretan (not dug out) were dowsed. The third site with some mounds is a spot (divine yin/yang energy) that was dowsed, as well as the RH Cretan earth maze with Joan and Alex walking in it. He did not notice the alignment until this aerial photo was taken.

Alex Champion has a Ph. D. in biochemistry from UC Berkeley, and practiced science for over 20 years. Ten years ago he began his work designing and building earth labyrinths. Since that time he has completed numerous earthwork projects throughout the United States. Many of his labyrinths are original designs which integrate his knowledge of the natural sciences and sacred geometry. An experienced dowser, he has studied subtle energy patterns and their relation to earth labyrinths, and is currently writing a book on the subject. He is also the author of the book, Earth Mazes., and the booklet, Earth & Other Mazes, a pictorial resume of his work, and owner of Earth Symbols.

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by Joey Korn

Until recently, I thought that beneficial earth energies, such as energy leys and power spots, were to be left alone, that we should simply be thankful if we are lucky enough to find any in our living environments. What I've recently discovered in my own dowsing research has changed all that. Now I know that each of us can create our own unique energy environment designed to support us in our efforts, using only dowsing and prayerful statements of intent. We can consciously attract beneficial energies into our living environments and we can change detrimental energies into beneficial energies. This understanding has not only helped me tune into Nature in working with these energies, it has also helped me realize my true potential as a spiritual being to understand more fully the potential we all have as co-creators with the Eternal.

When I attended the Appalachian Dowsers Conference in the Summer of '96 in Asheville, North Carolina, I noticed an old friend on the workshop schedule Bob Slack. I had learned from Bob in the past, so I attended his program.

Near the end of his session, we went outside for a dowsing demonstration. Bob had already located a power spot and three of us volunteered to dowse it. We validated that it was a power spot, and we all agreed that two energy leys intersected it.

Bob stood in front of the spot and swung a pendulum for less than a minute. He then said, "Dowse it again and tell me how many leys you find."

When we did, all three of us counted three leys! We told Bob what we had found and, with a grin of satisfaction on his face, he said, "Bet you didn't read about that in the ASD Digest."

"What did you do?" I asked, eager to hear his reply.

"Well, I had already found another ley nearby, and I just asked my angels to divert it to the power spot," he answered.

This blew open new doors in my understanding of these energies. When I returned from the conference, I immediately went to work on the first power spot I had found in my back yard, the one Jim and I had marked so diligently with chalk to delineate the spiraling energies. I knew that three leys intersected the spot, but I dowsed them again just to make sure. I said my prayers, asked and received permission, and went to work.

The first thing I did was approach the power spot with my L-rods from about 20 feet away, with the intent:

Show me the beneficial range of this power spot for human beings.

I wanted to know how close a person had to be to get significant benefit from the energy of this power spot. I got a dowsing reaction at about 12 feet away. I decided to "go for the gusto" and work to increase the beneficial range of this spot to encompass our entire house, the nearest part of which was about 20 feet from the spot. (I hadn't realized yet that there there were many power spots inside my house too.)

I said my prayers of protection and guidance, and then asked and received permission to do the work. I didn't want to find another ley to divert to the spot as Bob had done; I felt it best to leave it all up to Mother Nature. I hadn't really thought about what to say, so I simply defined my intent. I stood over the spot, started swinging my pendulum in my search swing, back and forth, and said:

If it be Thy Will, may the Powers of Nature converge to increase and enhance the beneficial energies in this area to cause the beneficial range to encompass our entire house. May these energies be beneficial for our family, our friends, our pets, for anyone who comes into our house or yard, and for all of life, for now and into the future, for as long as is appropriate. Amen. (I was learning to cover all my bases.)

As soon as I finished this "call," I began swinging my pendulum in my search swing, back and forth, and it began oscillating in a manner I was accustomed to when I use the "conditions" portion of Walt Woods' multi-purpose pendulum chart in his wonderful little booklet, Letter to Robin . It oscillated over to the right, back to search, and then to the left several times until it finally stabilized at my search swing. I then asked, "Is our work complete for now?" and I got a "yes" response with my pendulum.

I dowsed the power spot again, walking in a circle around it, and I counted four energy leys! I was excited. This process really worked. Once again, I dowsed the area with the intent, "Show me the beneficial range of this power spot for human beings," to determine how close a person had to be to get significant benefit from this power spot. This time, I walked away from the power spot rather than toward it, looking for my L-rods to open. I walked past the 12-foot range I had dowsed before and got all the way to the house without a dowsing response from my L-rods, telling me that the beneficial range was farther out. So I went back to the power spot and walked in a direction that would allow plenty of walking space, keeping the same intent in mind. I ended up walking about 100 feet from the power spot before my L-rods opened up, indicating that I was at the end of the significantly beneficial range of the energies. When I looked over at our house, it was obvious that if I made a circle around the spot at that distance, the circumference would be just large enough to encompass our entire house, just as I had defined with my intent.

Knowing how suggestible dowsing is and that sometimes our dowsing results simply indicate our wishes or our beliefs, I was willing to accept that this could be just my imagination. But I was also willing to accept that it could be real. It would take more dowsing experiences, striving to be as objective as possible, to determine if I were really making a change in the energies by calling on it to happen in a prayerful manner. I have since done so much work with these energies that I am now convinced.

At this point, I'd like to explain what I envision to be taking place during this process. I see the energy as swirling vortices, like tornadoes, but much more subtle, of course. When I call on changes to take place, I feel that these energies swirl in one direction for a while and then in the other direction, while Mother Nature does her work with the yin and yang energies. I feel that when my pendulum is swinging toward the right, the energy charge is primarily yang, or positive, and yin when oscillating toward the left. These could be just the opposite for you; it depends on your programming. (You can program the reactions to indicate what you wish them to be.) When the pendulum finally stays in my search swing, at 0 or Balanced on the chart, I see this as an indication that the work is complete for the time being.

Whenever I make a prayerful call, I simultaneously dowse with my pendulum, swinging it in my search swing and then just letting the energies move it to the left and right, as though I were using Walt Woods' Chart. This not only tells me whether the energy work is in yin or yang, it also keeps my intent focused on the work. I feel that this is an important part of the process, keeping us "on task" until the process is complete.

The Pendulum

I'd like to emphasize that there is no power in the pendulum.. This not doing the dowsing; we are. The pendulum merely acts as an indicator to us that something is taking place, gives us an answer to a question, or tells us when we hit a search target. All of these responses involve reaction to energy.

I purposely swing the pendulum in my search swing rather than simply letting it hang, waiting for it to move. This way, it is much easier for the pendulum to respond to the changing energies. Imagine trying to swing a hundred pound pendulum hanging from a tree. It would be difficult to get it going at first, but then with each swing, a little push will get it moving better. It would also be very easy to change the swing direction a little with each push. This is why it is easier for your swinging pendulum to respond to changing energies. It's the changes in the pendulum swing that tell us what we're looking for, not the swinging itself. This also works better when you are dowsing with a pendulum while walking, searching for a target.

Back to my story. It had been several weeks since Jim and I had marked the spirals on the ground around the power spot ( see Joey's article, " Of Spirals and Rings") , and heavy rains had completely washed the chalk away. I envisioned what it would look like if I marked it again, indicating not only the spiraling energies extending from and drawing in towards the center, but also delineating the intersecting energy leys and the streams of water extending from the center. I thought it would make a beautiful pattern on the ground, especially if I marked it with various colors of chalk, and I knew I would learn from the experience.

So, again, I began approaching the spot with my dowsing rods, marking the position of each opening and Crossing of the rods on the ground with two different colors of chalk powder, one color for yin and one for yang. Once I felt I had enough markings on the ground, I began connecting the dots. It was much easier than when Jim and I did it because I knew I would end up with two interconnected spirals.

Then I walked to the center of the spirals to dowse and mark the intersecting energy leys, and I got a surprise; it was about three feet away from the original power spot! I remembered very well where the original spot was located because I had been working with it for a couple of years. I dowsed and found the original power spot with the same number of leys three. It hadn't changed at all. I dowsed the center of the newly marked spirals again and got that there was a new power spot with four intersecting leys. I figured that since I had called for such a large increase in the energies enough to encompass our home that the Powers of Nature had brought in a new power spot with four new leys. This was a validation that it is best not to define exactly what you want; let Nature decide. Now I had two power spots within a few feet of each other, one with three intersecting leys and one with four. Aha! A new realization:

If we can unconsciously attract these energies, as we had in the house, then we can consciously and willfully draw them into our living environments.

I now feel that this is an on-going process, whether we realize it or not, so we might as well work consciously with Nature. She wants to work with us. It's in the "natural" order of things.

This also helped me understand what was happening with the energies in our house why they were so strategically located at desks, at beds, and other high use places. "Nature Supports Us in Our Efforts" We had unconsciously drawn these energies into our living environment with our intent. Why not purposely call in the energies we want for the appropriate purpose of each of our projects in life? Why not work to keep the energies in our homes and offices "tuned up" on a daily basis?

Dowsing and Our Thoughts

I feel that we define our intent with our thoughts, our wishes, our prayers, and our fears. Yes, I also include our fears. What we get in our dowsing is sometimes what we fear, especially when we are asking yes/no questions about life circumstances. We actually attract detrimental energies with our fears and negative emotions. We create the world around us with our intent.

When my wife, Jill, positions a piece of furniture, she always thinks loving thoughts about how perfect the furniture is placed and she envisions, with love, how it will be used by the family. In effect, she unconsiously calls in beneficial energies with her intent.

I have called in many power spots since that first time in our back yard. I must admit, at this point, that I don't know whether I actually attract water domes, but the dowsing checks out. In other words, am I actually causing channels of water to rise from deep below the surface of the earth and split into streams? See Billy Gawn's article "Up and Down and Round and Round."

Domes of Water

As far as I know, the existence of water domes has not been proven scientifically. Water domes , like energy leys, are in the realm of dowsing, but most dowsers accept their existence as reality. If you're not interested in dowsing, you've probably never heard of domes and leys. The best physical evidence of domes that I've found so far is anecdotal. Sig Lonegren told me about Master Dowser, Jack Livingstone, who purposefully drilled into a dome. According to the story, as soon as the drill bit penetrated the dome, the pressure was released, and the drill bit chased the water down the neck of the dome! It's a great story, but it's still not proof.

Possibly, I'm simply drawing in the energy of a water dome. Or maybe it's just energy that we're working with anyway, and there is no physical reality in domes. Either way, domes are real for us dowsers.

However, I'm beginning to see the power spots I work with more as any place where two or more beneficial lines of energy intersect. When that happens, a vortex is created and the two interrelated spirals can be dowsed. Just standing in one beneficial energy line strengthens our energy fields, but standing in an intersection of at lEast two of these energy lines greatly increases the beneficial effects. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

On the other hand, an intersection of two or more detrimental, or yin, energy lines is significantly more detrimental to us than one. An intersection of these lines creates a detrimental power spot, a vortex of energies that saps our own energies. The more lines that intersect, the more detrimental. That's why it is so important to be aware of them and to be aware of our ability to change them into beneficial energies with prayers statements of our intent. Yes, that's all it takes.

Mini Leys

I'd like to point out that I am beginning to see the energy lines I work with on a daily basis to be like mini-leys much smaller versions of the major Earth energy leys that Sig works with, which I also find when I look for them. As Sig says, they could be considered fractals of the major leys, like capillaries extending from arteries. I believe that we "borrow" the energy of major energy leys in creating an energy configuration to support us in our efforts. This is how Nature works with us, feeding us and all of life with the Life Force. And it happens whether we dowse or not. Dowsing just gives us the tools to "see" and experience these energies. I even find beneficial energy lines intersecting food that has been prayed over and blessed. I like to call in these energies when I am preparing our meals, not just when we are about to eat them.

Labyrinths

In the past few years, labyrinth builders have reported domes and leys "appearing" in their labyrinths, where previously none were present. (See Sig's article "Dowsing and Labyrinths: External Tools For Listening to Your Inner Guide , Summer Solstice '97) . The labyrinth is the precursor to the maze. Labyrinths are constructed on the surface of the Earth to be walked in a meditative or prayerful manner. Walking a maze is rational; you have to figure out how to get out of it once you enter it. Walking a labyrinth is intuitive; as long as you keep going, you'll get to the center. When you turn around and keep walking, you'll get back out. It has only one path. Walking labyrinths is believed to bring about physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental healing. Sig has posted much information on labyrinths in this wonderful Web site.

Some labyrinth builders feel that it is the labyrinths themselves that are attracting the power spots. I feel that it is the people who build and walk the labyrinths with prayerful or contemplative attitudes that attract the domes and leys, not the labyrinths themselves. The human connection is crucial. The labyrinth is a tool to help us focus our intent, or relax our thinking, as the case may be, though I do believe that the shapes or designs of labyrinths are important. I feel that the best labyrinths are intuitively created in accord with Nature.

As I alluded to earlier, I've found that we can change detrimental energies, such as noxious rays, EMF's (electromagnetic fields) associated with electrical wires and appliances, and Hartmann and Curry grid lines, into beneficial energies, simply through dowsing and prayerful statements of intent. I modify the basic prayer I used to call in the power spot as described above, stating the intent of what I want to accomplish. The detrimental energy fields simply change into beneficial energies. An intersection of several detrimental energy lines, or noxious rays, turns into an intersection of beneficial energy lines, creating a power spot. I have come to believe that a detrimental energy line is simply a beneficial energy line with a reverse polarity or frequency.

Thought Forms?

I still find significant resistance to my techniques and ideas among some of the leading dowsers in the world, however I'm slowly but surely converting them to my way of thinking. When I demonstrate to doubtful dowsers how we can actually attract power spots, and they validate it with their own dowsing, they often say that I am simply creating thought forms. I disagree. I don't say, with my statement of intent, "Put a dome with two leys in this particular place." If I did, I might agree that I am creating thought forms. What I do is call on Nature to "balance the detrimental energies and increase the beneficial energies" in a general area for a defined purpose. After the call and the process I go through, energies simply change. I have to dowse before and after to determine the changes. If what develops turns out to be thought forms, then I submit that water domes, energy leys, power spots, and other dowsing phenomena are also thought forms. But I believe they are more than that.

The power of what I am realizing in my dowsing explorations is not just to find these energies, change them and call in new ones. It is much more than that. Working with what I call the Powers of Nature to create a unique energy environment to support us in our efforts brings us closer to the Divine. It empowers us. Dowsing is more than just a method to find things it is a path to enlightenment.

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by Tom Bender

The front page of the November 6, 1997 Los Angeles Times announced that a National Institutes of Health advisory panel has strongly endorsed use of the ancient Chinese medical practice of acupuncture for treating certain conditions. They noted "very clear-cut evidence" of its successful action, and that it is less invasive, and with few side effects compared to conventional treatments.

For a major governmental player in the US medical establishment to make such an endorsement of a practice based on chi is remarkable - particularly with the panel noting "there is no evidence that confirms this theory". What is perhaps most remarkable is that in endorsing something denied by our conventional scientific concepts, they are challenging the adequacy of those very scientific concepts!

It is an indicator that a fundamental shift is occurring in the basic beliefs of our culture. That shift is from a materialistic view to one that acknowledges, as over a hundred cultures have in the past, the existence of an underlying "life force" permeating all of Creation. The chi underlying acupuncture is the same chi in the earth which is central to the Chinese art of feng-shui, used for aligning ourselves with the energetics of place. And all appearances indicate that this earthly chi is the same energy as the earth energies involved in European-based geomancies, dowsing, and various practices in other cultures.

Millions of people in our own culture have now experienced this chi - in martial arts, tai-chi, meditation, hatha yoga, bodywork, acupuncture, dowsing, or other contexts. Even with our sciences having yet to pin down its specifics, implications of its experience are immense. It requires acknowledging our connectedness with all life. It requires acknowledging cellular and psychic communication, and that we cannot lie. Beneath any false words, truth communicates instantly and unfailingly. It requires acknowledging the diseases of the spirit endemic in our culture, and the value of the health of all Creation to our well-being. Acknowledging chi changes our whole world view. Even the Marines are now using Akido training!

An interesting picture has emerged from a recent reexamination I've made of the energetics of place in different cultures. Every culture has of course emphasized and developed certain aspects of place energy, while virtually ignoring others. The feng-shui tradition of China provides us with a broad and relatively comprehensive philosophical basis for energetics of place. It gives us probably the most impressive written record of approaches dealing with chi in the environment. The Chinese have also demonstrated extensive approaches to environmental modification for improving local chi patterns. They have made extensive use of astrological information in siting. Yet there are major gaps in their approach and dimensions where other traditions have pushed the frontiers of understanding even further.

The mapping of energy flows and concentrations in the earth has been well developed in the European geomantic tradition, which also has located buildings relative to that energy in the earth. The Australian Aboriginal tradition has developed use of such energy lines in the earth even further, using them for long distance communication.

Relative to the built environment, the Japanese have developed the role of li or intention to great refinement and great power. Contemporary work in our own culture has not reached the refinement of the Japanese, but is developing a tradition specific to our own conditions and time. The Khmer culture in Cambodia shows immensely powerful roles that our built environment can fulfill in connecting us with energy from the spirit world. The Yoruba in Africa have shown the emotional power that can be developed afresh in our building drawing directly upon intimate connection with that world.

African cultures - from the !Kung to the Yoruba and the Dagara, along with the Wiccan tradition in Europe and many other cultures, have worked powerfully with community raising of energy, and the roles it holds in cultural survival and health.

Energetics of place also involves information and communication. African cultures have worked strongly with personal interaction with energy to access ancestors and other beings in the realms of energy. Native American, Aboriginal, Celtic, Greek, and many other traditions work with direct communication with, and through, the individual elements of nature. The Australian Aboriginal tradition has developed to a high level use of the unique and specific connections to the spiritual realm from different natural sites. The Khmer tradition in Cambodia has demonstrated how buildings can be used to enhance such connections.

These are only a few examples that stand out, for their special developments, from the almost universal use of chi in cultures worldwide. What is exciting is that these are living traditions which can be learned from, shared, melded, and forged into a living tradition for our own culture.

Chi and Healing

The role of chi, li, and other energetic concepts in human health and healing has been the first dimension of our culture to develop sophistication and clarity approaching that of traditional cultures. Faith healing in Christian Pentecostal churches, use of chi in meditation and health, hands-on energetic healing in many contemporary spiritual traditions have all developed similar vision and effectiveness. That clarity can now be brought to bear on extending our understanding of interplay with those dimensions in our surroundings.

Collectively, these dimensions of energetics leave us with a grasp of immense new possibilities. They leave us also with a need for research, testing, combining, and transformation into a living and valid dimension of our own lives. They give us, as well, sources from which to begin to gain that wisdom.

The recent work of dowsers and energy workers such as Joey Korn, Jim Wallace, Sig Lonegren and others has shown that earth energies are not immutable. They move and change. We can ask the balancing of negative energies, the focusing and relocation of positive ones. We can call upon them, and they respond - it would appear almost consciously - to our requests for aligning with our lives and activities.

The Energetics of Place

Just as human energy bodies are damaged by rape and abuse, we've found that the energy bodies of our communities are damaged by place rape and abuse, from greed-based activities such as overlogging, overfishing, extractive agriculture, energy and material mining And we've found that healing of those energy bodies is both possible and essential in both cases if true healing is to occur.

We're learning how the chi of place and people interact; how our love or anger remain in a place to affect the next users; how gifts of honor and pilgrimage are bestowed on both a place and its subsequent visitors. We're learning how to generate and direct group energy to sustain the joy and health of our human communities and the natural communities within which they live. The potentialities for people working with earth energies are expanding in scope, depth, and concrete application.

We are also discovering through the energetics of place strange and amazing things that recently seemed to exist only in the land of mythology. Reincarnation, the ongoing existence and accessibility of our ancestors in the realms of energy, the roles of our minds and hearts in our interaction with the worlds on both sides of our skins, the coexistence of the past and the future in our lives, the role of sacredness are all part of this suddenly expanded world we are being brought to acknowledge. Such things are changing our sense of the world we inhabit.

The energetics of chi in place holds value to our individual and community well-being equal to the energetics of chi in our bodies and our individual health. We're learning to create places with souls, gardens for our spirits, and ways to pattern our relationships for nurture rather than exploitation. In short, we're learning to move, live, and act in the realms of energy as well as the material realms they generate.

Science and The Energy of Place

This restored vision of energetics of place gives also a challenge to our sciences. We know the power of those sciences in what they have unleashed from the atom, from material resources, and into rather insignificant end uses. Those sciences contain power, but not wisdom to guide that power. Much of that wisdom lies within the realms we touch through energetics.

Our sciences have also become timid. They have become more comfortable filling in details of the known, and following the lead of funding for short-term material profit rather than addressing the great remaining areas of unknownness. Those areas now beckon with great opportunity.

The Invisible

Energetics is one example of the Chinese chih chung - invisible relationships at a distance. It is an example of the "invisible" which has been directly experienced and confirmed by many, and whose actuality can no longer be denied by our sciences. But it is only one of many.

Electricity, and the energy of the atom were not long ago both elements of this invisible realm, though static electricity and lightning gave visible hints to researchers. But ask a physicist today about magnetism. What is it? How does it transmit power through space and vacuum? And what about gravity? Here is an incredible thing, right before our eyes, of which we really know virtually nothing. What immense forces it relays invisibly over immense distances! But how?

Look up at the Moon tonight. Its mass is immense. Simple mechanics tells us what incredible forces gravity applies to the Moon to keep that mass in orbit and from shooting off on a tangent into space. This is far more than invisible rubber bands. What is it....and how does it work? What power, that the Moon and Sun are able through enormous distances to pull the entire oceans of our planet six feet into the air twice a day! This, too, we experience, cannot deny, but cannot yet explain.

The Challenge

We lay a challenge here for our sciences - to learn and understand these things, to reach for the wisdom they contain as well as the power, and to find the fullness and connection that we have seen implicit in them. It may take a new generation of scientist - raised with open hearts and spirits, with less hubris, and willing to risk opening themselves to the powers involved in these realms. Whatever it takes, the challenge and opportunity are before us.

That opportunity is there also for our entire culture. There to see and test what is for us a new vision of our universe and our relation to it. This a vision proven through 100,000 years of continuous culture, yet a vision that has to be reborn, reconfirmed, and transformed in each moment in each of us. It is the missing dimension of connectedness, wisdom, and meaning for which our souls and our planet have ached. It is essential to our survival and to the evolution of which we are part.

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