We have all experienced the feeling of communion that develops when we sit down and write someone a letter. When we focus on that person, it is almost as if they enter our physical presence. For a few minutes, the miles fall away and we share a moment with them. Sometimes they enter so deeply into the room that we feel their presence lingering long after we've sealed the envelope and put it out for tomorrow's mail. Is this felt sense of contact just our imagination? How often does the phone ring in the middle of such a letter, and there they are on the other end of the line, moved by some impulse to call us? A similar sense of communion, of shared experiential space, sometimes rises in reading groups, when it feels as though our experience of reading a book is being augmented by the experience of people we know reading the same book on the same week.

From two decades of teaching, I am convinced that when groups of people gather together frequently and with well-focused and strong intention, there grows around them a living field of energy that reflects their common purpose and collective experience. When students gather in a course week after week, their mental/emotional energy gathers momentum, and slowly creates something like a standing wave in the subtle-energy patterns of the universe. This standing wave gathers and focuses a field of energy that embodies the sum of their collective experience in this project. Around a class that is frequently taught, say, "Introduction to World Religions," there grows a particular field of energy that is specific to the content of that course. It is a field of mental or pranic energy generated by these particular people coming together as a group to engage these particular ideas. This field is a living energy created by the act of coming together for the purpose of sharing certain experiences, and it can become a potent force in the collective unconscious. Rupert Sheldrake first articulated this fundamental insight in 1981 with his principle of formative causation and morphic fields. When we join his insight to the cosmological vision of an integrated, living universe that is

emerging in many circles today, we can suggest that these fields will be even more potent if the people gathered are of good heart and compassionate intention, for then their efforts align more easily with the One Heart that beats inside all of us.

I have felt and observed these fields for so many years that I have no doubt about their existence and power. It is this conviction that fuels my expectation that these fields can and will form around our digital community as well. We do not need to gather together physically to begin to generate a "learning field" like those generated in a classroom. What is required is that we come together robustly and consciously, that we open our minds and hearts to each other and be genuinely present to the exchange that is taking place between us, right here, right now.

Underneath any physical exchange of information, such as these words appearing on your computer screen, is a deeper exchange of energy taking place at a more subtle level. When you read what you see here, know that before those words were typed into the computer, they were a thought held by a human being. That thought has a certain energetic power, a "glow." I believe that once it is formed, a thought has power that is truly operative in the universe, alive in ways that we are only slowly beginning to recognize. When you read the words in this online publication, what you are doing at a deeper level is connecting your living mind to the power of these living thoughts. Through your reading and attending, you are creating a bridge of intention that is just as real as when you sit in a sweat lodge and listen carefully to the person speaking across the circle. We do not have to be physically in the same room for this deeper energetic exchange to take place between us. Our scientific studies suggest that the power of mind does not fall off at the square of the distance and is therefore not diminished by the miles that separate us. What is required is not physical proximity but clearly focused intention, and the Internet gives us the means of achieving just this intention.

The pictures and discussion in this article represent the brilliant work of Japan's Masaru Emoto. The photos have been published in a gorgeous book called The Messages of Water. If you still doubt that your thoughts impact the world around you, viewing Emoto's work will erase this doubt forever.    

The first four pictures are courtesy of Rebecca at DolphinSwim, http://www.seaswim.com. The rest were captured directly from Emoto's book.    

Emoto has been conducting worldwide research on the effect of ideas, words, and music upon the molecules of water, and the descriptions below are taken from the book of his published results.

The photo on the left is of a frozen water sample from the lake at Fujiwara Dam, in Japan. As you can see, the water's structure is dark and amorphous, with no crystalline formations.

After the above water sample had been taken, the Reverend Kato Hoki, chief priest of the Jyuhouin Temple, made a one-hour prayer practice beside the dam. After that, new water samples were taken, frozen and photographed. As you can see (at right), the change is stunning--the ugly blob of the former sample has become a clear, bright-white hexagonal crystal-within-a-crystal.

At left, for comparison purposes, is a representative photograph of "untreated" distilled water. Different samples of distilled water showed different formations, but none were crystallized. Then this water was treated by taping words or people's names to the bottles, playing music to them, or exposing them to floral essences... Here are some other effects that Emoto claims to have found in his research:

Water from clear mountain springs and streams has beautifully formed crystalline structures, while the crystals of polluted or stagnant water are deformed and distorted.

Distilled water exposed to classical music takes delicate, symmetrical crystalline shapes.

When the words "thank you" were taped to a bottle of distilled water, the frozen crystals had a similar shape to the crystals formed by water that had been exposed to Bach's "Goldberg Variations" (see right) -- music composed out of gratitude to the man it was named for.

When water is treated with aromatic floral oils, the water crystals tend to mimic the shape of the original flower. At right, water crystals were exposed to aromatic essence of chamomile.

Of great interest for healing and just day-to-day well being is the extreme effect upon water crystals of negative words and ideas. When the words "Adolf Hitler" were taped to a bottle of distilled water, the results seen at left were obtained.

Here, you can see the results of taping the words "You Fool" to a container of distilled water. Interestingly, the pattern made by "You Fool" was almost identical to the pattern that emerged when heavy metal music was played. Masaru Emoto wonders in his book whether perhaps heavy metal musicians look upon people as fools...

Sometimes, when we cannot see the immediate results of our prayers and affirmations, we think that we have failed. But, as we learn through Masaru Emoto's amazing photographs, that thought of failure itself becomes represented in the physical objects that surround us. Now that we have seen this, perhaps we can begin to realize that even when immediate results are invisible to the unaided human eye, they are there. When we love our own bodies, they respond. When we send our love to the Earth, she responds.

For our own bodies at birth are 70 percent water, and the percentage of water in our bodies remains high throughout life (depending upon weight and body type). Also, the earth's surface is 70 percent water. And now we have seen before our eyes the proof that water is far from inanimate, but is actually alive and responsive to our every thought and emotion. Perhaps, having seen this, we can begin to really understand the awesome power that we possess, through choosing our thoughts and intentions, to heal ourselves and the earth. If only we believe.

But whether you...participate in...global meditations, or simply do this inner work in the quiet of your own loving mind and heart -- we can heal the body of our Mother and recreate a clear, pristine world to hand down to our children and our children's children for seven generations.

--S. Barber

..Co-creation is the act of reaching out to embrace the expanded view of a multi-dimensional macro system of life and a reaching in to touch that inner and individual place deep within the heart and soul which is the microcosm of creativity. When these two sentient worlds of inner and outer creativity are connected then the human spirit is free to engage

Co-creation is key to fulfilling our human search for meaning that goes far beyond the simple pursuit of happiness. This inner search transcends the desire and acquisition of material possessions, for it is a journey of Spirit. It will eventually bring us into the realm of innovation and shared global destiny. Co-creation will be our collective response to Life's call for the human family to take its rightful place in the greater scheme of things. It is this deep evolutionary urge that is moving us from competition to cooperation and ultimately onward to co-creation: our true business on the Earth.

Much of our conditioning in western traditions for the last one and one half millennia has invited us to "ask" that specific circumstances in our world change through divine intervention; that our prayers be answered. In our well-intentioned asking, however, we may unknowingly empower the very conditions that we are praying to change. For example, when we ask, "Dear God, please let there be peace in the world," in effect we are stating that peace does not exist in the present. Ancient traditions remind us that prayers of asking are one form of prayer, among other forms, that empower us to find peace in our world through the quality of thought, feeling and emotion that we create in our body. Once we allow the qualities of peace in our mind and fuel our prayer through feelings of peace in our body, the fifth mode of prayer states that the outcome has already happened.

Quantum science now takes this idea one step further, stating that it is precisely such conditions of

Through the words of another time, the ancients invited us to embrace our lost mode of prayer as a consciousness that we become, rather than a prescribed form of action that we perform upon occasion. In words that are as simple as they are elegant, we are reminded to be "surrounded" by the answer to our prayers and "enveloped" by the conditions that we choose to experience. In the modern idiom, this description suggests to us that to effect change in our world, we are invited to first have the feelings of the change having happened.

As modern science continues to validate a relationship between our thoughts, feelings and dreams with the world that surrounds us, it becomes more likely that a forgotten bridge links our prayers with that of our experience. The beauty of such an inner technology is that it is based upon human qualities that we already possess. From the prophets who saw us in their dreams, we are reminded that in honoring all life, we accomplish nothing less than the survival of our species and the future of the only home we know.

http://www.greggbraden.net/lost_mode.php3

...So may we make each moment count and may all our thoughts and actions be inspiring and constitute acts of caring and kindness that bring healing and unity instead of further darkness and separation to our world. This is the time for spirit to be seen in action. After all, the best peace demonstration is the one that shows that we can actually practice what we preach.

Let Peace Prevail on Earth.

One may ask, what has the moon got to do with it? The energies of light and love and the will-to-good are always available to those who can contact them in meditation. But in all aspects of our planetary life there are cycles in the ebb and flow of spiritual energies with which groups, as well as individuals, can consciously cooperate. One of the major energy cycles coincides with the phases of the moon, reaching its peak, its high tide, at the time of the full moon. This is a time, therefore, when the channelling of energy through group meditation can be uniquely effective.

The moon itself has no influence on the work; but the fully-lighted orb of the moon indicates a free and unimpeded alignment between our planet and the sun, the solar centre, the energy source for all life on Earth...That this realisation is part of humanity's ancient intuitive understanding is verified by the many religious festivals which are fixed by reference to the moon or a zodiacal constellation.

Today countless serving groups large and small meet regularly throughout the world at the time of the full moon each month for meditation work. It is helpful to realise that such meetings for group meditation as a service to humanity have been held for many decades now. So the work does not start anew every month or every year. Over the years a usable group channel for energy distribution has been created which continuously grows and builds on what has been achieved, and which demands of us at all times a deepened understanding and an increased ability to penetrate to new levels of consciousness, so lifting the consciousness of humanity as a whole even by an immeasurable fraction.

That this may be difficult for newcomers is understood. But with the emphasis on the contribution each one can make in meditation, and in view of the group nature of this work, which includes individuals at various levels of growth and understanding fused together through group effort into a functioning unity, it is possible to maintain an

In undertaking the service of full moon meditation, the aim is to work imaginatively as members of the new group of world servers, dedicated to world service. Spiritually and telepathically the group is one and the work is one...Group meditation is, therefore, the intention of groups coming together each month.

We do, however, have three vital factors always in mind:

The work we do is based on the fundamental fact of occultism as the science of energy, which recognises that all is energy and energy follows and conforms itself to thought.

It is also based on what has been called the central idea of occultism - that even the smallest atom of substance contains within it that which can respond to spiritual energy and stimulation.

A passage from the book Discipleship in the New Age provides the human and planetary framework in which our work proceeds:

The effect of human meditation at this time is to change conditions, to invoke higher, spiritual potencies, to work with concentration - both vertically and horizontally - within the world of men and within the Kingdom of God. This vertical and horizontal activity holds the secret of creative meditation. It is invocative of the higher energies, and creates a channel of contact between soul and spirit. This is brought about by what I have called "vertical meditation". It is also evocative and creates a ferment or dynamic movement in the level of being which must be affected or changed, and this is the horizontal aspect. Both the vertical and the horizontal activities are descriptive of the method of invocation and evocation, as employed by all the linking groups between the various planetary centres.

It's no wonder Smith is so skilled at accurately and carefully voicing his thoughts. At an age when most children are just mastering the art of convincing their parents to extend their curfew, he has already spoken to and worked with some of the most powerful public figures of our day. Media tycoon Oprah Winfrey, 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams of Northern Ireland, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Russian President Michel Gorbachev and former President Bill Clinton to name a few.

..."When I was 7 years old I knew, there must be a way that I can make a difference," Smith said.

Smith wasted no time. As a seven-year-old he started an organization called IEM for non-violence -- "I" for inspiration, "E" for education and "M" for motivation.

Smith's quest to benefit children in need throughout the world continued as he entered college and founded the International Youth Advocates soon

after. The organization connects youth groups across the globe and promotes the protection of children and their rights.

"Starting from when I was very young I saw the suffering of children around the world, and I knew that there must be some way that I can make a difference," he said.

Although Smith excitedly recalled moments with figures such as Clinton and Williams, he ultimately named his most inspiring contacts -- the children he has encountered through his travels.

"The most amazing people I meet are whenever I travel around the world, and whenever I see the horrific conditions and when I meet the children," he said. "The children that have so little ... but that still have hope for the future ... that's my true inspiration."

As Smith looks to the future, he said he hopes to continue spreading his messages of peace and children's rights, and perhaps someday do so from the Oval Office. One of his dreams is to become President of the United States...

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but Smith's intense curiosity and desire to explore and improve the world seem to be the driving forces in what has been, and looks to be an amazing life.

To read more go to Gregory's website at: http://www.gregoryrsmith.com/index.html