The Gift of Time

I have recently been thinking more and more about my time and what I use it for. Last year and the year before that I was working on my Masters. At that time I was able to teach, coach two sports year round, make artwork, and do all the other work needed for the master's program. I was able to do most of that work at school. This year I can barely stay ahead of the students and I am not getting my masters anymore, and I am not going to coach track this year (due to incoming baby), and I do most of my coaching and other work at home. I haven't had time to work on any art at all. How the hell did I do all that other work before?

I would like to make a note here, that I realize mine is not the only job where there are too many meetings and not enough time. I am just commenting on my own experience and am not trying to make it seem tougher or less fair than any other job. I more want to discuss our best uses of time through the example of my own job.

This year they have added more meetings to our teaching work schedule, taking up more of my plan time (the unstructured time I use to grade, plan lessons, prep metals, make examples, communicate with parents, etc.) Personally, I teach three preps (three different classes), for three grade levels, for over 200 kids. During the day I have a 35 minute morning plan, 2 x 25 minute plans between grades, and a 25 minute lunch. This, in the past, has been enough time to do all of the work necessary to be ready for class with examples made, formative assessments ready to go, presentations done, and have time to work on coaching or my own classes if needed. We have always had some meetings, but it was once a week. This year my morning plan time, which starts right after I finish my morning duty from 7-7:20, has been taken Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays for meetings. Not only that, but we have homework to prepare for these meetings. We have to collect data and presentations to present this data, then comment and reflect to questions about others data and our own presentations. This might not seem like a big deal. It might even seem like a good idea, but for me, its actually been the opposite.

This has nothing to do with my topic, but I think its a pretty fun work of art

The last two years I have been able to really concentrate on my classroom lesson and incorporated a lot of formative assessment and data collection in my room. Formative assessment, for those that don't know, is basically data one can collect quickly to help you teach the next step or to make sure the students understand the concept before moving on. There are a lot of ways to do it, but they are generally not put into the grade book, but merely used to help us guide our lesson and teaching. I was doing a lot of that in my classes. The students were writing about their work and reflecting on their processes and goals. This is the type of assessment that we are focusing on in our Monday and Thursday meetings. Our Tuesday meetings are focusing on literacy practices. This year I have done very little of either of these things in my classroom. Why? I don't have time to plan them out or think them through or prepare the materials for them. Why? Because I am in meetings talking about them and listening to other people present data about them then spending my plan times writing reflections on these ideas I don't have time to implement.

I used these practices all the time in my room the last couple years. I was pretty good at it. Now, with all the time taken from me, I can't get around to doing it and preparing for it. Its the exact opposite effect they wanted. I have stopped doing any coaching work at school. I do that all at home. I don't even break for lunch anymore, I just eat in my room, working, and still there is not enough time to do the real work.

There was a TED talk I listened to once discussing these very ideas. The link follows...

(http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work?utm_medium=on.ted.com-twitter&utm_source=t.co&utm_content=awesm-publisher&awesm=on.ted.com_qqjn&utm_campaign=)

The one idea that stuck out the most was the idea that the greatest gift you can give someone, especially as their boss, is time. Giving people time to think, prepare, be creative, process, research, etc. Time is the greatest thing you can give them. Listening to this video again at first made me feel relief and validation, then anger, because I know I will never get this. I will never be given more time. I will continue to be given less. The public school system is not an organization that allows for quick innovation or brave ideas allowing people and administrations to try new approaches. EVERYONE that works in public education has PLC meetings. I admit that the ideas behind them are sound and seem like they should help, but they often don't.

As I was writing this I realized I wasn't sure if I had done my homework for my next meeting so I quickly checked my email and Monday memo to see what I needed to do. Turns out I have something planned that would fit as the work I was supposed to be doing for the meeting, but it will take place after the meeting. I have quickly decided not to change my plans. What do you know? I had already planned on doing good teaching practices in my classroom without the meetings. Good thing I have that meeting to discuss the stuff I came up with when I had time not in the meeting.

I guess, after reflection and coming to terms with the fact that I will never be given more time to solve problems, I am just upset that I lost something I didn't know was so important to me. I used to have time enough to load my kiln during the school day with all the students work. I used to have time to make examples during the school day. I used to have time to grades at school. I used to have time to research ideas and plan lesson at school. I didn't realize how precious this time was until it was taken away from me. I didn't realize how frustrating it would be to talk about the good things we should be doing, even though I was doing them, and then not have time to do them.

Its like if I was coaching (I coach cross country at a high school) and I spent the entire time having the kids read articles on running and injury prevention and then report out what they read and ideas they had about it. Then we watched short videos on running and motivation videos to get excited. We would get in groups and discuss our goals for the week in running as relating to the season and how it would help us get better. Then I would expect them go home and come back 2 days later with evidence that they had put all these ideas into practice with evidence that they improved. You know what they wouldn't really have time to do much of? Running!

I am sure many other professionals and jobs fee this way. You just want to tell the people in charge to just let you do your damn job. As a teacher, trained with 8 years experience and an ever growing expertise in art, sometimes I just need time to do my damn job. Let me teach! I realize that there are times where meetings and coming together have helped create new ideas and better approaches. I am arguing that these get togethers would be far more meaningful and helpful if they were done with much less frequency. Give me time to teach, research ideas, make examples and try out techniques. Give me time to think of ways to push the kids intellectually and developmentally. Right now I am barely ahead of them  in the projects. I need time to think and try things out, and... God forbid... fail at a few things so that I, too, can grow as an educator.

We talk a lot about letting kids fail to learn these days. Giving them time and encouraging them to try and fail and figure out why. We need these times as well. I don't want to fail at something because I didn't have time to get it right. I want time to come up with ideas that are new and have time to develop them and try them. If they fail after that, so be it, but I will have learned something. All I feel I have learned this year is that I need to stay one step ahead of the students. That isn't pushing them or me to get better.

Language Creates Reality

I've been wanting to write about this topic for a week after hearing the idea mentioned in Terence McKenna's book Food of the Gods, but I wanted to do some more reading about it first. Food of the Gods is very interesting as well and I plan on going into other ideas about it soon enough. These ideas about language, though, have been floating around me lately, so I wanted to dive into them.

In his book, McKenna was making a point about our reality, that is to say, the reality that one experiences everyday that is unique to each individual. How can "reality" be unique to each individual? Isn't it the same "place" for everyone? The answers to these questions lie in the language one uses to describe their reality. In the world today, there are over 6,500 different languages being spoken, although about 2000 of them have less that 1,000 speakers. That still means more than 4,500 languages are used in the world by a lot of people. (Check out http://www.linguisticsociety.org for more interesting facts about languages and language development) Ferdinand de Saussure, a linguist and structuralist, pointed out that if words were "natural" instead of "cultural" everyone would just speak the same language as everyone else. There would be no reason to have different languages. But that's not true, is it? We don't have a "natural" language. We have tons of different language. Let's get into that.

Because how we speak and communicate changes the way we view and experience our world and reality, we can say that there are at least 6,500 different realities happening on earth right now. That's kind of crazy to consider. Different cultures have different languages to express the reality they are living or their views on the world and how they want to live in it. Some languages won't have certain words for things that just don't exist within their reality. Why would a tribe in the Amazon need a word or term for "stock market"? I am making assumptions here, but this idea of the "stock market" probably doesn't exist for them. They don't need it. It doesn't exists in their reality. To them, it isn't necessary to the way they live or see the world. There's no concept behind it, thus no word or phrase, thus it doesn't exist. The Piraha people in Brazil have no concept of time beyond the present. The concept of the past or future doesn't even exist in their reality. The only thing of importance that is worth communicating to others in their culture is what is being experienced at the very moment. Their culture created a language that reflects their morals and values, and thus, their reality is shaped by the language. They have a different reality from ours.

Isn't it?

We (speaking of American now) can/must worry about the future and the past. We can/must worry about all the diseases we might have that are played in tons of commercials. We can/must worry about space and the cosmos and if an asteroid is going to kill us someday. We can worry about all these things because our language and educational allow us to do so. Our language in actually very concerned with time. In research done by the Anderson Institute, an organization concerned with time and time research, America is one of the fastest-paced countries in the the world. Japan was the fastest. They decided these rankings based on walking speed, working speed, and accuracy of clocks. According to the Anderson Institute's web site:

"As time goes on, slower-paced countries and cultures are harder and harder to find. Unlike America and the Western European countries mentioned above, 'Being late to an appointment, or taking a long time to get down to business, is the accepted norm in most Mediterranean and Arab countries' (Devereaux and Johanson). Latin American countries and Native American countries are also known to have a slower paced lifestyle, partially due to the fact that much of their lifestyle is controlled by the past, whereas fast-paced countries like America are constantly rushing into the future."

This lifestyle choice is based on the language we use. We are often told in our culture not to dwell on the past. This is usually for good reason. It makes sense to move forward past uncomfortable or sad things and situations, but that is a cultural choice. Because of this, though, the pace of our lives are fast and often unrelenting. Older adults often remark on how fast their lives went. I feel this all the time. I get up, get stuff done, shower quick, eat quick, work fast all day, come home, get home stuff done, do more work, prep for the next day, go to bed, start again. This type of day is held up by our cultural values, though. The industrialist mentality would see this day as a success. I got a lot of "things" done. But is that really how we should measure a successful day? By how much of my checklist I completed? I won't lie and say it doesn't feel good to take things and tasks off of it, but there will always be something to replace it. Always. Think about what we say to each other when we get home. We ask, "How was your day?", or "What did you do today?" These are questions about the past, but what we are really asking is, "What did you get done today?" What if we asked, "How are you right now?" or "What do you feel like doing right now?" I'm not saying this is a better way of thinking, just different.

One of Wayne White's many great works of art

I can see how some people get upset at the idea of needing to learn a new language, or some people get way too upset about others not learning English. Forcing someone to learn a new language is forcing them to learn a new way of seeing reality, even if the differences are small. Here's a question, though, that I might need to research: Are some languages better than others for learning and discussing math, science, literature, art, etc.? Not the language that is used most because of the numbers of people using it, but the best for conceptualizing these subjects and understanding them. I found an article on Slate.com explaining that English is the best language for science, but the reasoning was because there are more scientists coming from English speaking areas than others. That doesn't mean its a better language for understanding it. A different article from the Wall Street Journal, though, explained how other languages, like Chinese, are better for learning math at a younger age because of the simplicity in which the language represents and conveys numbers. Chinese has less words for numbers and it all works as a base-ten numbers system.

When it comes to education, the idea that language creates reality has some implications for teaching. In thinking on this idea, I now realize how important, or at least not trivial, learning vocabulary can be. I often move through vocabulary quickly. I don't want to have a vocabulary test or use crossword puzzles, etc. But, as I think about it, when I am introducing and teaching new vocabulary to students I am altering their reality. Maybe not in a huge way, but in some way. If they don't know how printmaking, glassblowing, or ceramic processes work, when I introduce them to these words and ideas, I am introducing a new concept into their reality. I feel I should put more weight into these exercises and activities now, considering their real importance.

As an art teacher, I am also often showing students images to go with our concepts and projects of art processes and artworks. I think of it often as needing to fill their mental image banks, but I don't believe that's how I should think of it. Lately I've been using different ways of introducing lessons and looking at images. These activities actually back up my new way of thinking. I now often give a small group of kids one image of an artwork and have them break it down instead of showing the whole class 15-20 examples of artwork in a short period of time and having me talk about them. In this way, they can spend more time with that artwork and concept, allowing them more time to understand it.

If language creates our reality and different language can change our reality, can an image do the same? I'm sure there are tons of examples of people seeing an image and having it change them. I remember very distinctly sitting in the hallway in 1st grade and looking at The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali. We broke down each component and discussed the ideas and what they could mean. Thinking on it now, it probably changed the course my life. I love surrealism and teach it all then time. That image, after really getting into it and breaking it down, had a profound effect on my life, changing my reality.

My last thoughts are on how we can use this information to help our daily lives. We have all heard things about thinking positively and to think about how we say things, etc. I always believed this was an energy idea. Thinking and saying things in a  positive or constructive way changed your energy for the better. That could still be very true, but I now also believe that maybe we can alter or change our reality by using different language. Positive mantras and word choices might help flip a day around. Instead of discussing the kids who were screwing around in class when I get home, I should talk about the awesome things they did. Not only will it feel better energy-wise, but my reality of the day will be different after doing so. We see athletes all the time talking to themselves or "chattering" positive and encouraging things. Teams that are losing or about to lose are quiet. I think we can use language as a way not only to create reality, but make it better for ourselves. Now I just need to put my ideas into practice.

"My dog Sammie" or "She's Going to Be Okay"

I was going to write this morning about the theories about global consciousness. I thought about writing about a few things actually, but I feel the need to write about my dog, Sammie Sprinkles (full proper name). Sammie is small Chocolate Lab of 2 years old. She's only 53 pounds, and is a lean ball of energy. She has a great temperament, is wonderful with little kids, loves to practice training but only follow through with it at home if its convenient for her, loves frisbees, looks to sit atop the couch and look out the window like a cat, and wiggles her butt excessively when you get home. I have never had a dog before and I feel blessed this is our first one.

The other day while we were playing in the yard she started limping on one of her front paws. I thought maybe she jumped off the deck wrong or something, but after a day the limp was still there, so we took her to the vet. It turns out she has dysplasia in her elbow, causing a lot of arthritis. Its something she was genetically predisposed to and there's nothing that could be done about it. I have been told that Labs get this sort of thing. Our options are to manage it with anti-inflammatories, fish oil, glucosamine, and pain killers when and if needed (but hopefully only sparingly if at all). We will do this for her for the rest of her life. Its not bad yet, but eventually it might get bad. She has never actually showed any signs before. I'm kinda glad she started limping so we can start helping her.

My wife was the one that took her to the vet and told me I didn't need to go and meet her after practice and to just go home and do the lawn work I planned on getting done. I now wish I had gone. My wife had Yellow Labs as a kid. One of them, Maggie, had hip dysplasia. Jen always felt really bad for her dog and the pain she was in. Last night, my very lovely and very pregnant wife, was a bit of a crying, balling mess, bless her heart. This information about Sammie combined with her hormones created a lot of sadness and slobbering.

I always had cats that I loved very much. When it was time to put Katie down, I cried all day, at 20 years old. I brought her to the vet with my dad and brother, and we all were crying a lot. We made everyone else in the vet cry. It was a mess.

Its funny how pets can make us feel this way. A small animal, like a cat, who really only needs you for shelter, petting, and food, and wouldn't look back after escaping ( I had a few cats that did this), make us feel important and make us feel happy and complete. We tell them of our problems and want them to sit with us and just be near us.

It could be our need to be close to nature as humans. We are becoming so far removed form nature now, pets may make us feel conned ted somehow. with all of our technology growing and improving at such a rapid rate, the hardware we were born tight, our bodies, may still need a stronger connection to nature. Our old school hardware hasn't evolved at the same rate as technology. I imagine, way back in the day, we had a very loose arrangement with some wolves that allowed both parties to get food, but didn't go much deeper than that. Now we have dogs of all shapes and sizes. We keep all sorts of animals as pets, although most probably hardly notice. Does a snake give a shit if its you or someone else feeding him a dead mouse? Maybe. I wouldn't know.

Currently my dog is pulling out every dead animal pelt she has from her bin of toys. These are the pelts and faces of former toys that looked like other animals. My dog is incredibly sweet, but she keeps an collection of her kills in a box. If something we give her has a face one it, that is the first thing to go. Natural instincts I guess. Even though I know she has some leg issues, I plan on treating her the same for the most part, because she seems to be happy.

I read a story once that went all over Facebook and I'm sure many of you have seen it. Its where a family is sad to be losing their dog and the little boy says he knows why they don't live as long. The more exact quote is as follows.
"He said, "Everybody is born so that they can learn how to live a good life - like loving everybody and being nice, right?" The four-year-old continued, "Well, animals already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

I know thats really cheesy. I know it. But I like it. I like that sentiment. It has nothing to do with the lessons they are here to teach us (how self centered) or about us placing our religious ideas upon their existence. This little kid summed up the reason for us, humans, being on this planet and in this life AND why we love our pets in a one swoop. We are here as just one step in a  line of transitions we need to make on our consciousness' journey. This step is about learning how to love and act with our fellow man. Our pets know how to act already.... most of them. They don't need our help figuring it out. They aren't put here for us. We keep them around because they remind us of how we wish we could be. We wish we could just care about food, playing, sleeping, and meeting other people. Dogs and cats, in particular, have that shit figured out.

We envy our pets. The bond with them is very real, though. We get sad when they must leave us, but the ideas we have behind their deaths and our own don't line up. If a dog is in pain, sick, sad, and can't live a happy life, we make them comfortable and let them out of this terrible place of pain. If we are old and sick and can't move or do anything, we have people around just keeping us alive with meds and gross food. We sit around watching TV or doing puzzles until our body goes out. Maybe there's more to learn from our pets than just how to live. Maybe we should learn how to transition to our next step gracefully and without fear.

I love my dog very much and I plan on keeping her healthy, safe, and enjoying herself for as long as SHE can. She's a beautiful being with a beautiful spirit and I'm glad I will have a little boy that will get to love her as well.

"Recovery for running and racing 101" or "I hope this works"

Scroll down if you are just looking for ideas and workouts to use for 5K workouts or recovery workout ideas. Its OK if you skip the preamble, although it explains why we did what we did.

My high school cross country team is nearing the end of their season. Every year is tricky when it comes to the end of the year and trying to peak the kids to get the best race out of them at the right time. You have to plan out the whole season ahead of time and hope that you ideas and workouts will ultimately add up to PR's (personal records) and awesome races or the kids. We have our League Championship next week. I usually try to peak them for this race, but then we are dead for the Regional Championship the week after. I decided to try a new approach this year around a long peaking process. I usually do a one week, all in, peaking process. this year I've stretched it way out to try to avoid ruining their Regional race.

The last few weeks have been tough, though. My team is beat up. We aren't very deep on kids. We have talent in the top 5-7, then it drops. Don't get me wrong. I love all the kids and train them all the same and try to get the best out of each one of them. But if one of my top kids go down, I don't have any back up plan.

A few weeks ago, the kids had a couple of amazing races back to back. Really good times, awards, medals, etc. Then they almost all told me they were hurting. My top girl's leg goes numb sometimes and now its doing it a lot. Another top girl is just a mess everywhere. Another has knee issues. Shins splints are everywhere. Tendentious is becoming abundant.Tired, sore, etc. etc. With still a few weeks left in the season, I decided to implement a recovery week and recovery plan. I would usually never sacrifice the training plan like that, but what good are the trainings if we are hurt everywhere?

What follows is a plan that doesn't work miracles. My kids are still tired and sore, but they have run pretty well the last two races. Many of them are setting new personal records or season bests. I am hoping that this plan and these recovery tactics will help them hold on for one more race.

Recovery training plans: This recovery workout system might work, but it also might not. Ultimately, rest is the best, but if you must race on, maybe some of these ideas can help. 

Our usual training plan has been to work on hard intervals near the beginning of the week, Monday or Tuesday. This would be followed by a long recovery run, between 6-10 miles, the next day. If we had time for one more workout that week, we might do a shorter run with hill repeats afterwards or 150m strides x 6 or so. If we had time, I would have the kids do some weight lifting after their runs for added strength. With recovery week, I took the same approach, but changed how we did it as well as the work we did after. So, after a Saturday meet, leading up to a Friday meet, here is what the week looked like:

• Monday 
• Normal warm up (warm up includes 1 mile jog barefoot on football field, active stretches, training skips, etc.) We do this every day. 
• 6 x 50m easy strides
• Full body stretch routine as a group
• Tuesday
• 3 x 800 at reasonable speed (not quite race pace), with 3 minutes rest in between
• 8 min break
• 4 x 600, same speed, same rest
• barefoot cool down (2 laps)
• Injury prevention stretches
• 1 leg squat dips of aerobic box, 2 sets f 10 each leg (for knees and glutes)
• Calf rockers, 2 sets of 15 (for shins and calves)
• Standing ABC's (while standing on 1 foot, write the ABC's with the other leg, good for balancing muscles in leg)
• Sitting ABC's (sit on floor,  bend knees with feet on floor but put 1 foot up over opposite knee so its hanging off of it a little, then write the ABC's with your foot... good for shins)
• Myrtl routine (check out this link... http://www.njsportsmed.com/files/myrtl_routine.pdf) It works great for the hips, IT band, etc. 
• Wednesday
• Easy recovery run (5-7 miles)
• Full stretch routine
• Thursday
• Warm up
• 6 x 50m form strides
• Injury prevention stretches (see Tuesday)
• Friday 
• Race

That Friday the kids ran very well. I told them to ease into the race. Feel out the first mile or two. If they felt good, push it, if they were hurting, just stay at pace and use the race as a workout. 

The next week, we also had a race Friday. The workouts were almost exactly the same, except I changed the intervals into 400's. and we switched the days we stretched or did injury prevention. We ran the 400's at goal race pace. For our top guys, that was at 85 seconds, or 1:25. That felt great. Not too fast, but not too slow. More invigorating than anything else. We did 2 sets of 5 x 400's with 3 minutes rest between and a 10 minute break between sets. It looked like this. 

• Monday 
• 3-4 easy miles
• 6 x 50m easy strides
• Injury prevention workouts
• Tuesday
• 5 x 400 at goal race pace, with 3 minutes rest in between
• 8 min break
• 5 x 400 (see above)
• barefoot cool down (2 laps)
• Full stretch routine
• Wednesday
• Easy recovery run (5-7 miles)
• Injury prevention workouts
• Thursday
• Warm up
• 6 x 50m form strides
• Injury prevention stretches (see Tuesday)
• Friday 
• Race

At the meet Friday, I told my kids to back off if they weren't feeling it. My guys came up with a plan to pack run for as long as they could. Their times were slower, but they weren't dead after, which is fine. We need to run fast for Leagues, not this race. Here's the plan for next week. 

• Monday 
• 6 x 200's at stride pace with 3 min rest
• break 12 minutes
• repeat 6 x 200's
• barefoot cool down, 2 laps
• full stretch routine
• Tuesday
• Recovery run, 4-6 miles
• Injury prevention workout
• Chalk talk and race prep***
• Wednesday
• Warm up and easy strides at course
• Thursday
• League Championship race

***We will go over the course and discuss strategies for each section. We will also do something that has become tradition... race visualization. I have them lie down on their backs, close their eyes, and I walk them through the race visually. It seems to help them mentally. Then, since I'm not good at big speeches, I try to come up with one phrase to use. Lately its been "Have no regrets". 

I am really hoping that next week's plan with added recovery helps. I have been feeling like a failure as a coach for putting the kids through this pain. Its been tough. Every year I feel anxiety about whether I trained them right or not. I feel like its my fault if they run bad times or are hurt or have a bad race. I am their trainer, coach, and health expert. If they can't perform, who else is there to blame?

This recovery workout system might work, but it also might not. Ultimately, rest is the best, but if you must race on, maybe some of these ideas can help.

UPDATE: My athletes all performed very well at our League Championship. My top boy got some terrible cramps part way through the race, but the rest of my runners either ran a PR or a season best. My girls took 2nd. Last year they won by a little bit, this year they lost by a little bit to the same team. I knew it would be a stretch to win it, but I'll take 2nd all day! My guys finished the best they ever have finished in the history of the school... 3rd. Last year we were 4th. We moved up a spot with a commanding lead over the 4th place team. It was a great race. Now on to Regionals to see what we can do there!

Astral Projection might be real?

Astral projection (or astral travel) is an interpretation of an out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it.






We've all heard of out-of-body experiences. They usually come from individuals who have almost died, come back to life, or taken some form of psychedelic. Astral projection, though, proposes that one is able to allow the should to leave the body at any time given the right frame of mind and circumstance. 
I first heard of astral projection in high school. Our Psychology teacher, a loose term for what he actually taught us, told us about it. He told us about of a lot of crazy stuff. At the time, I thought it was crazy, but now I wish I could go back and pick his brain. He talked a lot about energies, chakras, positive and negative energy clouds, aliens, etc. I wish I could go back and take that class again with the wider lens I have now. It's not that I wrote it off at the time, I just wasn't able to fully believe it or get it. 
Skip a few years down the road to me right after college. I was at a used book store in my hometown. (I love used book stores). I saw a book on astral projection and immediately thought of my best friend Steven J. I bought the book as a gift for him and the idea we would try it together.
I'm gonna back up a little... In my early college years I tried mushrooms with my friends John and James. We got great advice and were told to do it when you had nothing else to do, could be outside, were not far from our dorms, and with people we trusted. It was a great experience. The world looked like a living painting, like in that movie What Dreams May Come. More happened with that, but this post isn't about that. Anyways, I enjoyed my mushroom trip. I told Steve about it. He was interested. We got  him some and I told him I would just take care of him that night. He also had a positive experience. Neither of us ever did anything harder than mushrooms, but we did them a couple times. 






Those experiences got us interested in other experiences that might be of the same type.... thus, astral projection. We decided to try it one night at Steve's apartment in Chicago with our friend HP. Steve, in his theater classes in college, had learned some very interesting warm ups for voices, for the mind, and for the spirit. These were things like humming at the same pitch, repeating syllables almost like monks, etc. We had used these before for fun. We decided that these might help us get to the right frame of mind to project astrally. We also had a bit to drink, which seemed like a good idea, but I now know was probably the opposite. 
We all three played on the floor, heads together in, in a circle and did the chants. we then really concentrated on helping our should leave our body. The frame of of mind stuff worked. I was in a very relaxed state. We stayed quiet and unmoving for a long time, until Steve rustled and decided that was enough. 
I remember visualizing the Earth from above as I lifted away from it. I remember seeing the Earth's aura. I didn't go to another dimension or see other astral beings, but I did visualize floating around all over the place far form the surface of earth. Now, I say that I "visualized" it because it could have just been half asleep in my relaxed state. Basically, I am not at all convinced I projected, but maybe I did.

Now, looking back after my floating session recently, I think that maybe I really did project and that it wasn't a dream. That state of being where you're not sure if you are asleep or awake seems to be where most people find these experiences. 
So, this subject matter came to my attention recently after listening to another The Human Experience Podcast. They had on the "world's foremost expert on astral projection", Robert Bruce. I really tried to keep a very open mind listening to this episode. A lot of what he said and talked about seemed like it could be very legitimate and real. I'm still not sure I believe in astral projection, but some what he was getting at with energies and there being a lot more to the universe....I could buy that. Then is got weird. He started talking about a lot of stuff that just seemed like he made it up on the spot. He might not have and I could be very wrong, but I became super skeptical of this guy. 






He discussed being attacked by astral beings and them sucking your energy out and how to combat it. One of the first things to do would be to get in the shower or leave your house because they can't follow you. Really? They can't follow you? These beings living on another plane of existence that supposedly exists will be thwarted by showers or leaving the house? That seems made it. Again, maybe its not, but......

Here's what the one that got me to almost turn off the podcast... then later wonder if he was right. 

He discussed that a bee came to him and was communicating with him... yes....a bee. Apparently bees have strong energy powers and astral abilities, according to Robert Bruce. This bee hovered right by the area between hi eyebrows and beckoned him o follow. He did for days, ending up at some weird commune or something, as crazy as that sounds. 

Here's the funny thing. The next day I was outside for morning duty at school thinking about this podcast and the crazy, trying to decide what I thought I believed and didn't. Then a bee came up to me and made its way around me. I don't freak out about bees. I just let them decide if I'm a flower or not and then they will move on. This bee stayed awhile, hovering around. Then spent a little time hovering right between my eyebrows, then buzzed away. I am not at all sure what to make of that. It could be 100% coincidence. Life is weird on its own without help. But maybe the bee wanted me to follow it......