Question: Tanis, you will be holding a five-day retreat from May 25th to 30th in the Black Forest on various forms of meditation. Why is meditation so important for so many spiritual different traditions?

Answer: I think the question should be phrased differently, which is “Isn’t it interesting that meditation is central to so many spiritual traditions?” Surely this is no coincidence that so many great figures like Gautama Buddha or Jesus the Christ have of their own discovered the importance of meditation.

People who we deeply respect and who we think of as spiritual leaders meditate and say that this is the central most important thing that each of us could do to become fully conscious and to awaken to what is real and to what is merely an illusion.

Question: Meditation seems to come from the Eastern spiritual traditions. Does the Christian tradition also advocate meditation and if so, why do we see so little of it?

Answer: Christian monks and nuns from the earliest times, such as the Desert Fathers and Mothers who lived as hermits, have always stressed the importance of meditation, contemplation, solitude, quiet time and prayer.
However in Christianity there has been the distinction that either you are working and living in the busy world and raising a family and then you don’t do meditation, or you live in a monastery as a spiritual community, which supports meditative practice. What Christianity hasn’t done very well, but this is changing, is the integration of meditation in everyday life.

Question: Most retreats and workshops focus on one meditation practice only. Why are you doing a retreat covering various traditions? What is the uniqueness of your approach?

Answer: The reason I like to teach various meditations is because people are different. Just as some people prefer chocolate cake and others prefer vanilla ice cream, various meditation practices are more enjoyable and/or helpful to one person than to another.

In the Hindu tradition, for instance, there are three major paths to enlightenment. These paths, or yogas as they are called, mean union with the divine.

The first path is Jnana Yoga, which is the Path of Knowledge/Wisdom. It appeals to individuals who like to read, who are mental, who want to understand, who like to learn about the rules and laws and to hear and read texts from the different traditions about what various spiritual teachers taught.

The second path is Bhakti Yoga, which is the Path of Devotion. Its core is love and benevolence and this yoga often involves an individual living in a community. It is for people who need a deep connection with their teacher and who prefer an approach that is heart based.

The third path is Karma Yoga, which is the Path of Action. This yoga is concerned with service and practitioners include those who follow Jean Vanier and live in l’Arche communities together with mentally disabled people, or Mother Teresa who took care of the sick and dying in the streets of Calcutta. This form of yoga is good for the will, for people who are active and who need to do something. This, too, is a form of meditation.
So why are people drawn to these different directions? It is because some practices are better suited for them than others. In this upcoming mediation retreat I help participants to become familiar with various forms of meditation and to choose which one is in accordance with them at this point in time. Although over time our preference might change, it is important that we stick with one practice over months, maybe even years, to receive its benefits.

I started to meditate when I was in my twenties. I started with TM (Transcendental Meditation), like the Beatles. Then I studied Tibetan meditation, Kriya Yoga that was brought to the West through Paramahansa Yoganda and then Vipassana for some years. I found that different approaches worked well for me for a time but that sometimes I needed to change.

Question: Is it essential to have a teacher and meditate in a group under supervision?

Answer: I think when you start to meditate it is very helpful to have a teacher to demonstrate the various techniques and to do it in a group. There are several reasons. When more than one person meditates, more energy builds. This makes it easier for all the individuals in the group to experience a state of higher consciousness.

And with a teacher there is always time for questions and, additionally others might have questions that you haven’t thought of and that might be important for you, too. The group is supportive because you are part of the collective energy.

Let me tell you of something I experienced. I was taking a ten-day Vipassana retreat. We were meditating in silence for the entire time. We had one evening of lectures and could ask questions twice. And we were told not to bring anything with us into the meditation hall and to keep total silence.

I sat in one place and there was a woman sitting behind me. She would bring in a glass of water, stand up during meditation, come in late and leave early. She had a cold and was audibly struggling with it. First the person to the right, then to the left and eventually everyone around her left and took up a place somewhere far away from her.

I decided to stay and sat there with her for the entire time. Meditation is a tool. The purpose of meditation is to be free of attachment, and of needing to have the most pleasant circumstances around you when you meditate.

Some times during that retreat I became frustrated. Other times, when I regarded her as my teacher who was teaching me a valuable lesson, I was amused and saw the humor in the situation. After the retreat, when we could talk again, the woman came up to me and thanked me with heartfelt gratitude. She told me how much it had meant to her that I stayed beside her all the time and that she knew that I was there, not judging her and being supportive with my presence.

And others also came up to me and said I must be a saint to have stayed beside that woman all during the retreat. I explained to them that this experience was like the real world where we have to face plumbers, screaming children, difficult neighbors and demanding jobs. Sitting there with that woman had brought the real world into the room.

Question: Finding time seems to be one of the greatest challenges when starting your meditation practice. What would you recommend to a novice?

Answer: I would recommend that people go to a retreat so they get off to a good start. But even if they don’t have time for that they can still read different books about meditation. There are various studies that show the importance of meditation, such as a study on Alzheimer’s disease conducted by the University of Pennsylvania last year. for 12 minutes each day over 8 weeks participants did Kirtan Kriya Yoga, a chanting meditation involving hand positions. A control group listened to Mozart’s violin and piano concertos for the same amount of time each day and the meditation group improved significantly more.

Many studies have proven that meditation develops brain function. It helps to maintain equilibrium in that we have access to more of our brain capacity than the three percent studies show that we usually use.

Meditation leads to the integration of both hemispheres of our brain, which then creates more coherent patterns. This leads to both a rational and intuitive leap in consciousness so that we can bring together the small and the big picture, as well as the past and the future —and all in the present moment. All of these qualities are very desirable if we are to function well in the world.

One of the major difficulties with our daily practice in the Western world, though, is that we value doing over being. If we do not do we feel we are wasting our time. That is the central difficulty. Meditation is a being experience. And the Western world favors the Yang experience, the masculine principle, the doing and undervalues the Yin. We find it is more valuable to speak, which is Yang than to listen, which is Yin. Prayer, too, is Yang, because we are talking to the Creator (God) and usually asking our Creator to do something for us.

Meditation is Yin, it is listening to the Divine. With meditation we are in a state of being. As we turn to more balance between being and doing, the Yin and the Yang, we become more integrated. Meditation becomes part of our daily life, in every minute. It is the space between the words, the silence between speaking and listening, the still moments in our life.

Question: Is there any practical advice you would want to give to a reader who might be thinking about meditating or actually meditates regularly?

Answer: I think at this time in history when people feel beset by the difficulties that they are encountering in the world: environmentally, financially, in their families, not having enough time, having too much to do, being overwhelmed by the pressure, being confused about which way to go that it is important to get off the treadmill, to take time out for meditation. Being time is very important.

Meditation is a discipline like all else, it grows a muscle, grows qualities. It’s like mountain climbing, or canoeing. It helps people and it is more important than ever in our modern world.

Inside:

• Leprechaun books now in EPub for Tablets
• Feature Article on Meditation

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by Verena Deeken
QUESTION: Tanis, I understand that you are giving a course on hybrids. How would you describe a hybrid?

ANSWER: I write about hybrids in my new book Decoding Your Destiny and I have been teaching about them for the last five years. This has evolved from my teaching on elementals as many people in those courses came because they felt they could be an elemental hybrid.

We can see hybrids in nature all the time. Nature is continuously producing hybrids. Take, for instance, Canada and the US arctic where there are two kinds of bears: the grizzly bear and the polar bear, which have mated and brought forth a hybrid bear that is fertile, thus creating a new kind of bear. Or take the bottlenose dolphin, as another example, which has mated with an orca creating a new species called the false orca, which is also fertile.
You could say this happened by accident. Or, likewise, you could say this happened consciously in nature and in evolution and that our Earth is continuously making new hybrids, because they have a certain purpose.

QUESTION: You’ve explained the concept of hybrids in nature – but does this also hold true for humans?

ANSWER: I think the hybrids that we witness come because there is a consciousness in nature that allows this to happen. Some of those hybrids are sterile, take a mule for instance that is parented by a horse and a donkey. Others, as we have seen, are fertile and start off a new species.
Even in early human history there have been hybrids. The Neaderthal man and Cro-magnon man mated and created hybrids. And I believe that there are far more hybrids than those we can witness in the 3rd-dimensional, the physical world. More hybrids are evolving.

For example, how can we really believe that all of nature and a being as complex as man started out as a one cell organism in a gaseous soup millions of years ago and that all the animals and diversity come from this. They have come because there is a consciousness behind evolution. Every being here on Earth is evolving to higher levels of evolution. And the driving force of this consciousness is Spirit, or the Creator, or Divine Mother, or God depending on what tradition you come from. There is a consciousness working behind what we see in nature.

Many individuals report encountering angels, UFO’s, elementals and other beings. It has become almost commonplace in our world to accept that these beings exist. All through history there have been myths about light beings, elementals and other conscious beings in nature. The Maoris speak of the children of the Mist and many others of the little people.

Just because not everyone sees them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There are actually many people who do see them, and they do exist. And if angels, elementals and UFOs, to name a few, are here on this Earth, there might be other beings as well visiting Earth, interacting with humans, breeding with humans and creating hybrids.

The ancient Greeks said that dolphins are the people of the sea. This was 4000 years ago. Now with modern science we know that the brain of a dolphin is more complex than that of humans and that it has more weight per body mass than ours – both we take to be indicators of highly developed intelligence – and that the its flipper contains all the bones that are found in a human hand and arm. They are, indeed, the people of the sea. The dolphin hybrids developed from a physical body that evolved on two paths: on part stayed on land and developed into man as we know him and the other went into the sea and became the dolphins and the whales.
In the Mediterranean mermaids and mermen play a large role in the topic of hybrids. One of the oldest gods of the Sumerian civilization was named Oannes who was part fish part man. He brought civilization to humanity. And there are numerous other places where mermaids and mermen are known, for instance Scandinavia, where Hans Andersen even wrote a piece called the “Little Mermaid”.

And there are a lot of these kinds of myths. They are about dragons, unicorns, angels, elementals and selkies in the Celtic traditions of Ireland and Scotland to name but a few.

Just as grizzly and polar bear have interbred, is it not possible that humans and some of these other species could have created hybrid offspring—with the assistance of the supreme consciousness behind evolution. These hybrids could be living today looking completely like humans, behaving like them but at the same time feel different about themselves somehow alien. It is important now in our evolution that we open up this idea for examination. We need to reconcile ourselves with where we come from and embrace our strengths and weaknesses especially if we are of hybrid nature. We need to relate to what we are part of and see what specific contribution it is we could be making to the world.

I think that it is not enough to just look at the physical dimension and see the results of certain species here in the world. We need to see the spiritual and consciousness that are behind evolution and how this affects humans as well.

QUESTION: Have there always been hybrids here on Earth or and are their numbers increasing?

ANSWER: People are becoming more aware because they are becoming more sensitive and reaching an ever higher spiritual frequency. We are guardians of the Earth engaged in co-creation with the spirit to create a healthy Earth.

It is essential that we understand this idea because humanity itself is engaged in creating hybrids. We are making Chinese pears by crossing an apple with a pear – and the result is delicious. But not all hybrids that we are creating are actually in alignment with the Earth. Some are not positive, long-term, desirable products. For example Monsanto specializes on creating hybrid seeds. They take fertile seeds that have grown all over the world. Seeds that are well-equipped to grow in their specific environment and that have sustained especially the small farmers from the poorer regions.

Monsanto and Dupont have taken control of the seed banks to genetically modify the seeds so that they are sterile. And one of the reasons they have done that is so that everyone is dependent on Monsanto and Dupont. We are fully able to live without a computer, or TV or air conditioner but we are just as surely not able to live without food.

And this is why Monsanto has been giving seeds to farmers in Africa. The farmers soon find that they are totally dependent and caught in a vicious cycle of debt, poverty and famine. What this amounts to is a kind of genocide.

The wheat we are all consuming now is genetically modified and scientists have found that it has a DNA that has never been seen before. It is a totally hybridized product and it causes diseases, as William Davis in his book “Wheat-Belly” has shown. More people are getting diabetes, arthritis or heart problems and allergies are building up in our bodies that are no longer able to digest the intake and the constant stress it causes in the body. And hybridized wheat is highly addictive, it has a higher sugar rush than pure household sugar.

That is why we must engage in the topic of hybrids. If we humans with our little limited minds are able to genetically modify so many plants and animals, might we imagine, that there are higher beings than us who are creating hybrids.

QUESTION: When and how did you get involved with topic of hybrids?

ANSWER: I became aware of the importance of hybrids about 30 years ago when I first started working on information with regards to my book Decoding Your Destiny. At that time I became aware that pigs are hybrids that were genetically engineered in Atlantis by scientists.

Not long ago I did a workshop with doctors. And in the break they invited me to lunch and asked me, if there was something I did not eat. I said I ate no pork, which I am always hesitant about saying because this leads to my reason where I need to introduce the topic of Atlantis and people may feel a bit alienated. But one of the doctors turned to me and said: “Is it because a pig is closer to the human than any other animal.” When I answered, “yes” and she told me, that she was working with pigs and how they could be put to use for humans in medicine. For instance the skin of pigs is taken in case of severe burning for skin grafts, or their valves are used for heart transplants. When people in dire straits are forced to eat human flesh they say it tastes like pork and it is reported that cannibals on eating pork says it tastes like long pig, their word for humans.

We have been engaged in creating hybrids a long time ago and we are doing it again. And we must work with spirit consciously in order to not create monstrosities.

QUESTION: How does our knowledge about hybrids help in daily life?

ANSWER: If we understand hybrid evolution and where we came before our current human evolution on Earth we will use our strengths in a positive way.

Dolphins-human hybrids, for example, may have been in dolphin evolution in the ocean for many thousand years before they re-entered human evolution on the land. This means that they will always be a bit different than humans who evolved on the land. The quality of the dolphin-hybrid is deep listening in order to know the essence of things and to sense the rightness of the other. Also dolphins are very sensuous and sexual. They engage in sex and play all the time. This may also be true of dolphin-human hybrids who are very sexual beings and like things to do with touching. Dolphin-human hybrids might also be attracted to water and swimming. And they may have an affinity to whales and dolphins, protecting them or leading expeditions.

Some individuals are hybrids of elemental evolution. There are very different elemental types. For instance, there are people who are like elves, they are physically beautiful and tallish and often drawn to the arts. Many actors are of elves ancestry like Kate Blanchet or Orlando Bloom. Often these people dance and others sing or dance beautifully.

Some elementals are more crafts-oriented. Leprechaun hybrids, for example, work with leather and pottery. Elementals are attracted to beauty and joy. They can be easily addicted because they love stimulation. They love sex and they are amoral, because they don’t see any problem having sex with different people. Their laws differ slightly from the human’s code of conduct and that sometimes brings them in trouble.
Some people also come from outside of Earth evolution such as from Sirius, the Pleiadies or other solar systems. The ancient Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris were said to have come from Sirius and to have brought the cultivation of grains and wine to the Earth.

Understanding where we come from gives us more solidity on the Earth, more commitment to being here and to serving a purpose in its evolution. It helps us understand that we all have a role to play here.

There are many more individuals that are hybrids than we would have guessed. We learn about them as soon as we allow the possibility of human hybrids form from other evolutions to exist. There are many interesting aspects and questions to be dealt with: how do you deal with a hybrid husband, a hybrid child.

That is basically what we will be doing in our next steps.

Inside:

- Happy Spring
- Certified Trainers and Graduates
- Hybrids: So You Thought You Were Human

Link Here for our April Newsletter

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Dance has been a pathway to opening my heart and a joyful part of my personal and spiritual transformation.  I did not receive dance training as a child or youth; about 10 years ago, In my early forties, I “accidently” found a group of men and women who met weekly to learn and explore contact improvisational dance. The Saskatoon Contact Improvisational Dance Collective, founded by Linda Ruban, has provided me the opportunity for expression, creativity, playfulness, fun, friendship, growth and learning.  Contact improvisational dance is a skill-based, organic and spontaneous movement form. We dance together to create an interesting, engaging, beautiful experience for the “imagined” audience. I suppose the audience is God or the God within each of one of us. We are each free to bring our skills and techniques, energy, and personality to the dance and magically, this becomes a co-creative effort that transcends the boundaries  between us.  My heart opens and my soul dances free.

As Crazy Smooth, artistic director of Bboyizm  says “Dance to express, not impress.! Consider the enthusiasm of children as they express themselves through movement; the joy adults exude after a ballroom dance class; the profound emotional response of audiences and their reflections after a powerful dance performance; the incredible energy generated in a room when everybody starts to boogie; and the passion and history reflected in traditional and cultural dances. Imagine how desolate a world without dance would be.”

I became involved with the Improv Dance Collective about the same time I began my Spiritual Transformation Guide Training with Tanis Helliwell. It’s interesting to reflect on how dance has given me so many spiritual gifts.  Because I’m talking about the Joy of movement, I want to define what I understand Joy to mean in the context of movement; take what you like and leave the rest: Joy is the capacity to be fully in the moment, engaged completely (captivated) by some thing, activity,  person or being; without ego; not thinking;  a state of positive well-being, a level above happiness;  a sense of connection to the whole;  blissful ; and being in the Flow or having a “flow” experience.

My love of dance has taught me to:

• be more playful and spontaneous
•  be less serious
•  drop judging others and myself
•  become  more comfortable transitioning from my private self to my public self (going from inside to outside myself). This is also about expansion and contraction.
•  allow others their space and freedom of expression
•  accept differences
• honor  others’  boundaries and establish my own boundaries.
• let go, lighten up and laugh
• explore my edges and take risks
• allow rhythms to guide me and to dance outside of rhythms (to my own beat)
• move in new ways: break old patterns, habits, and routines,  be less linear and repetitive
• allow others to be a part of my dance

I’ve discovered:

• Structure supports creativity: within a safe, guided, supported environment, it’s easier to freely express oneself.
• When I dance I stop thinking.

Here are two of my favourite lessons from one of my dance teachers, Jill Henis Gnoato:

1. Open my window.

This means allowing others to really see me and taking responsibility to be clear and honest in what I reveal through my movement. As a dancer, I’m supposed to engage, include, excite, challenge, and/or wakeup others who are in some way participating with me (could be an audience member or other dancers, or even me!) Opening my window is showing the authentic “me” and in doing so, giving the watcher permission to be authentic, too.

1. Don’t let my movements become “precious”.

It’s easy to become attached to a particularly yummy or favorite habitual movement; this is letting the movement become “precious”.  In other words, keep the movements real and honest, always.  This I believe is the practice of detachment in dance- being fully present, engaged, and committed, and deeply enjoying without getting attached to a particular movement or phrase.  Improvisational dance is a wonderful teacher because there is a constant shift and flow of movement, energy, intention, and emotions. There’s no choreography to attach to! The key learning here for me is I need to be vigilant about getting too self-absorbed in my own dance.

On April 29^th, find a way to enjoy dance – try a class, watch a performance, dance in your living room.  Here are a few ideas from my own life: hula hoop, Zumba Fitness™, aquaFitness, Nia™, ballet, ballroom dance and Salsa. Happy International Dance Day! May the Joy of dance be with you.

Laura Harris is a graduating student with Tanis Helliwell and the International Institute for Transformation. Skilled and trained in adult learning and movement, Laura has a Masters degree in Physical Education and a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. Laura’s mission is bringing wellness into people’s lives.

This month’s column, Food in the 21st century, is devoted to the Earth and how she sustains us both physically and spiritually and what we can do to share our abundance with others in the 21st century.

Inside:

- Happy St. Patrick’s Day
- Ebooks on Kindle!
- Food in the 21st Century

Link Here for our March Newsletter

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Inside:

- Guest Article: All you need is love

- Embraced by Love

- Video!

- Graduation in Hawaii

Link Here for our February Newsletter

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Tanis Helliwell’s poetry evokes the mystery of spirit in its beautiful forms—be it lovers, beloved friends, nature, or God. A term sometimes used to describe this kind of poetry is ‘sacred poetry’ because it contains teaching lessons that assist us in our spiritual transformation.

Reminiscent of the witty and intimate teachings of Hafiz and Rumi and the celebration of love and life found in the words of Pablo Neruda and Mary Oliver, Embraced by Love urges us to wake up and love in all the forms that love takes. Each poem breathes life into our heart, soul and mind and calls us to open closed doors and embrace all life – beautiful just as it is.

“Tanis Helliwell’s poems are pearls distilled from over twenty-five years of her journey of heart and spirit. Each nugget is naked and true and worthy of contemplation. … Ann Mortifee, singer-composer, recipient of The Order of Canada.

“Embraced by Love is the work of a tender heart committed to the deeper journey. Beautiful.”… Paul Horn, legendary flutist-composer of Inside the Taj Mahal.

Link - Review by J.B. York

Author and Artist Review

with J.B. York

Embraced by Love – Poems by Tanis Helliwell seems, at first, to be a book of simple love poems but then the depth of spirit intoned by these simple words begins to work in the subconscious and soon you find yourself wanting more. Once you realize that these poems are small slices – ‘morsels’ of the author’s soul, it becomes difficult to put the book down.

It can be said that poetry is the art of using words to elicit an emotional response. One might think that whent he subject matter is as universal as ‘Love’, it would be an easy task to write a poem about it but one would be wrong. The author’s willingness and ability to expose herself in such a naked and brutally honest fashion is ultimately the reason why the emotional responses that these poems elicit are so powerful.

The book is set out in three distinct sections based on the three types of love. The first is Eros – thelove of the physical body, the heat and the passion. “Womanhood Reclaimed – Love in middle-age, juices flowing suddenly again. Caught me by surprise being fifteen a second time, shy, nervous and yearning.” The honesty in these words triggers an empathetic response, and then throws a spotlight on the reader’s own unfulfilled and fulfilled needs and desires.

The second form of love is Philia – the love we feel for our family and close friends, the love of the heart – not the gonads. “Grieving Your Absence – Sharing a glass of wine, sitting together for dinner, chats on the sofa, holding your hand: these memories I treasure. But best of all was your kiss goodnight.” Suddenly we are transported back to our childhood and to memories of our own mothers and fathers.

The third kind of love is Agape which is the love that God, The Creator, The Beloved has for us and for all life. “Do You Want This? – Beyond the door nothing. Nothing to speak. Nothing to hear. Nothing to touch nor taste Beyond the door Peace Stillness Silence All that is wanted and all that is not.”

Embraced by Love – Poems by Tanis Helliwell is a gem. A book of poetry that is easy to read but hard to forget.

J.B. York was a professional musician before starting his writing career in 2001. His articles have appeared in various Canadian publications. He has been the Book and CD Reviewer for Synchronicity Magazine since February, 2005.

Elementals and Nature Spirits DVD

Link Here to buy Elementals and Nature Spirits DVD

Learn to work and play with elementals, also called nature spirits, in this informative and engaging DVD with real images of elementals. Tanis Helliwell, well-known for her work with elementals, also called nature spirits, brings us easily into her world. Her new DVD is informative while being entertaining. With the good-humoured spirit akin to an Irish story-teller she brings us on a journey to learn more about elementals.

Tanis’ DVD has real images of fairies and lovely visuals that create a warm, natural environment that enhance her words. Viewers, who are both new to elementals, and those that have read a great deal, and even those who have encountered nature spirits, will find this DVD engaging.

Some of the topics which are covered are:

• Purpose of Elementals
• The Body Elemental
• The Four Elements
• Meeting Elementals
• Learning from Elementals
• Birth of the New Earth

You will come away from this DVD with an appreciation of the beings with whom humans share this planet as well as tools to work with them. You will understand why it is essential that humans learn to co-create with natural and spiritual laws in order to become guardians of the Earth-which is our purpose. This timely DVD assists us to more fully embrace all consciousness on Earth and to take responsibility for our place in the plan.

Available at Amazon.com and CreateSpace.

View a video preview on YouTube
The Elemental and Nature Spirits DVD is a wonderful companion to her newly published Summer with the Leprechauns: The authorized edition.

Praise for Summer with the Leprechauns:

• “This delightful book is not only great fun to read, but makes most interesting and intelligent suggestions about the reality and work of this particular branch of the nature world. It can help us open our minds to fascinating dimensions that do exist on the planet.” Dorothy MacLean, co-founder of Findhorn and author of “To Hear the Angels Sing.”
• “Opening this book opens a door in the imagination. Whether you take it as fact or fiction, this book carries a message of planetary priorities.” Julia Cameron, author of “An Artist’s Way.”
• “This is a magical and important book, one that deserves to become a cherished classic.” Ann Mortifee, author of “In Love with the Mystery.”