The most common element that nearly all of these methods share is a focus on conscious breathing, usually as a tool to help you relax before going into the method’s actual practice.  Despite this ubiquity, breathing itself is often underrated.  Having used many self-help methods over many years, I am convinced that ultimately the most valuable self-help tool is breathing itself. One of the reasons that I was drawn to the teachings of the Crimson Circle is the fact that conscious breathing is the main method that they recommend above all others.

As humanity begins to move into new energy, many methods that may have worked well in the past are no longer as effective as they once were.  In some ways much of the new age movement can get stuck in a similar mindset to the religions that it claims to supersede, as they emphasise and hang onto their methods as gospel, when a lot of these methods were only meant to be stepping stones on the evolutionary path.

Breathing is one of the few methods that continues to be important in the spiritual realms.  This may seem surprising, as even those of us who have a conscious spiritual awareness probably tend to think of breathing as being a mainly physical exercise,  and that once we let go of this mortal coil it is no longer needed.  Apparently this is not so, as a form of breathing continues with our consciousness after death.  This should give us a clue that when we breathe there is a lot more happening than just the intake of oxygen and nitrogen and the expulsion of carbon dioxide.  Yoga and other Eastern philosophies teach that what we breathe in is the essential spiritual life force that is the connecting and empowering energy for the whole universe.  In India it is known as prana, and in China as chi or ki.   The philosophy of Breatharianism is based on this idea, such that conscious breathing of prana energy can be utilised to sustain the physical body without the need to ingest food.

Breathing consciously is the most powerful way to move stuck energy.  This can work in all four of the aspects of our beings:  physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.  Physically it releases stress and tension and helps to increase body awareness.  Due to the influence particularly of science and also Western society in general, we tend to believe that it all happens in our minds, such that we become captive to our minds and lose contact with the body.  While breathing consciously it is difficult to keep a mental focus.  This is very useful because to take away the focus on the mind for just a few minutes on a regular basis both releases mental tension and begins to break the hold that the mind can have on us to the detriment of the other three equally important aspects.  Breathing is also one of the best tools for releasing negative and blocked emotions, and it facilitates spiritual awareness.  By inhaling consciously we draw the essential life force into our whole being more effectively.  By exhaling consciously we express this divine energy out into the world.

As breathing is something that we’ve all done all our lives, you would think that we would at least know how to breathe properly.  But I have found through my massage practice – particularly shiatsu massage – that many people don’t breathe properly, including some who have practiced yoga or tai chi or similar methods that normally place a heavy emphasis on the breath.

As our lungs are located in the chest area, it is natural to think that breathing by expanding the chest is efficient.  But this is not so.  The lungs are pear-shaped, and chest breathing only draws air into the top one-third of the lungs.  To actually fill the lungs with air requires you to breathe using the diaphragm and the belly.  The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle that sits below the lungs, and is one of the most important and underrated muscles in the body.  It is the only muscle that works both vountarily and involutarily, keeping us breathing while asleep.  This dual ability means that the diaphragm is a link between the unconscious and the conscious mind.  The lungs themselves have no muscles, so require the diaphragm to contract downwards, creating space in the lungs which draws in air.  If you rely on expanding your chest to breathe deeply, the diaphragm does not contract downwards much, so less air is drawn into the lungs.  It is also more work to expand the chest than it is to contract the diaphragm, so the lesser amount of oxygen that is drawn in when chest breathing is also utilised less effectively.

A useful exercise is to sit or lie comfortably, with one hand on the chest and the other hand on the belly.  Loosen the clothes around your waist.  Breathe deeply, and take notice of which hand moves more as you breathe in and out.  If the hand on your chest is moving more, then you are not breathing deeply or filling the lungs with air.  Practice pushing your belly out as you breathe in, until the hand on your belly moves more than the hand on your chest.  It might feel strange at first, but you will be filling your lungs with air and providing your body with as much as 200% more usable oxygen.

This belly breathing might need to be practiced on a regular basis for quite a time before it becomes second nature, as the bad habits of a lifetime do not usually break easily.  Western fashion and social norms are not helpful, as we are all encouraged to hold our belly in and stick our chest out.  Many types of clothing do not make belly breathing comfortable.  Since I have practiced conscious breathing I tend to favour clothes that are looser and have elastic waists.

But these minor inconveniences are far outweighed by the benefits of conscious breathing :

Over time you will find that you will be more relaxed and calm in the face of stress.

Breathing consciously and regularly will give you some emotional detachment from other peoples’ dramas, enabling you to act from a place of true compassion rather than being dragged into an expected emotional reaction.

You will begin to feel a stronger connection to your body and will become more aware of its needs.

In moments when your mind is overwhelming you with repetitive and negative thoughts and their accompanying fear-based emotions, being able to stop and breathe deeply will help to release such thoughts and emotions, so you will become more aware of your deeper feelings.  The diaphragm is the physical bridge through which your gut and your heart communicate.  It enables your intuition and true feelings to connect with one another.

Conscious breathing connects us to the present moment.  When you maintain a focus on your breath it is difficult to dwell in the past or worry about the future for any length of time.

Deep breathing facilitates spiritual growth, particularly if combined with meditation.  This will become more important for all of us, as one of the results of the current acceleration in the evolution of human consciousness is that the veil between the physical and spiritual dimensions is getting thinner. More and more people are beginning to have experiences of the spiritual realms.  To be able to breathe consciously and deeply at will is the best tool for integrating such experiences.

It is easy to understand the attraction of conspiracy theories that claim that the planet is controlled by a relatively small group of nameless faceless men, who between them hold enough strings to control their puppets – the political and business leaders – to maintain the inequitable status quo, that ‘to he who has, more shall be given, and to him that hasn’t, even the little he has shall be taken away from him’.   This mysterious group has been called by many different names: the Illuminati, the secret government, and the shadow government just to name a few.  It is claimed that its members are have links with - and possibly control - other organisations such as the Bilderberg group, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, Skull and Bones, the Neo-Conservatives, and the Freemasons.  Some of the more extreme conspiracy theorists claim that even the United Nations , the environmental movement and the New Age movement are controlled by this Global Power Elite.

Many theories about this Global Power Elite circulate on the internet.  Some of the more well known conspiracy theorists include David Icke, Alex Jones, William Cooper and Henry Makow.  Illuminati News lists the 13 families they believe to control the world.  Many of these sites make uncomfortable reading, not least because of their often cluttered layouts, creative grammar and tendency to shout at the reader by their overuse of capital letters.   But also because many of their arguments have an air of plausibility.  Even if only half of what they say is true, they paint a disturbing picture.  Such that they often give the reader an effect similar to one of the Global Power Elite’s purported methods, that of instilling fear.

Less well known are the views that come from the other side of the veil. Many channellers and spiritual teachers allude to the existence of the GPE, though few go into detail.  Those that do, however, have similar ideas to the conspiracy theorists.  They say that the GPE has held an extrememly powerful position for Earth’s recorded histroy.  In order to perpetuate the belief that this is simply the natural order of things, they have exerted enough control to wipe out much of the evidence of past egalitarian societies.  What evidence that has not been destroyed has simply been locked away, often for centuries.  Their work has been effective enough that mainstream historians who have no connection with or knowledge of the GPE vigorously defend the version of history that we are taught, and ridicule evidence that might suggest otherwise.

The GPE has a core group of a small number of families who have carefully orchestrated marriages between their members in order to keep their bloodline in power and control. The European royal families would often push their princes and princesses to marry into the royal families of other nations, and despite the reduction in power of monarchies today, this practice continues. Many of the US presidents, for example, have been claimed to have been related to each other, as well as to the British royal family.

Many spiritual sources claim that the GPE have links to extra-terrestrial entities, possibly reptilian in nature.  Although they don’t go as far as David Icke – probably the world’s most extreme well-known conspiracy theorist – who claims that the American Presidents and British royalty are actually reptilian ETs disguised as human beings, and that in some of their secret ceremonies they have revealed their true nature.  It is these more extreme views that generate the most attention for Mr Icke, often overshadowing his more plausible theories.

The GPE – whoever they may be – have never completely controlled the world.  Humans have always had free will, even if we have chosen not to exercise it.  But the GPE have always exerted enough influence over society’s major systems and institutions – governments, education, science, religion, military, police, judicial, electoral, banking, business and the media – to keep themselves rich and powerful and their machinations exempt from investigation and prosectution. Their greatest tool these days is the mainstream media, itself a field where a small number of people wield the greatest influence.  Mainstream media hides behind a facade of independence, consistently magnifying and and dramatising local and world events in order to promote confusion, uncertainty and fear.  Investigative journalists who dare to ask the hard questions are few and far between, usually quashed by their editors.

But as the evolution of human consciousness has lately accelerated, the power of the GBE has begun to wane.  They are not immune from the consciousness raising, and significant numbers of them are moving away from their traditional practices.  In recent years they have undergone a schism, and much of their energy and attention has been diverted by their two warring factions.  Although still dwarfed by the mainstream media on the internet, alternative media has been given a voice, and the word is getting out.

Despite the GPE’s very public influence over the 2000 and 2004 US Election results, this influence was not able to be sustained against the powerful grass-roots campaign of Barack Obama.  He still had to play along with them to a certain extent in order to garner enough of their support to get to the position that he is in.  Some of his choices of his support team have shown to be members of the afore-mentioned organisations, though it is not publically known where they stand in relation to these organisations.  Many politicians from both sides are either members of the GPE or under their influence, and so Obama – despite his strong mandate – will need time to reveal his true agenda.  Of course there are also situations that are so highly classified that he did not know of their existence or extensiveness prior to being sworn in as president, so he will be taking steps to learn about all the cancers in the country’s institutions, before he can begin to change them.  According to many spiritual sources Barack Obama is a highly developed being still yet to come into his full awareness.  As he does so he will be less and less influenced by the GPE.

That is not to say that Obama is a messiah who will save us from the GPE. The downfall of their system is inevitable due to its inherent structures that are built on greed and oppression. They simply cannot be sustained in the new consciousness energy. Although the GPE had a large influence over the creation of the housing bubble and the crash that followed it,  they were very much unprepared for the scale of the financial meltdown.  Many of them have no idea how the orchestrated crash has got so out of hand so quickly, and many of them will not survive it.  Though many around the world will suffer as a consequence, the collapse of the GPE will leave a void.  As their house of cards falls – this will continue for some time – their illegal and unethical methods that drive money and power upwards will be exposed.  The global economy will continue to plunge downward until its root causes are eradicated or reformed.  New systems, structures and institutions will then be born from truer and fairer democratic processes, along similar lines to the principles of equality and openness embodied in the internet.

The important thing here is not to give in to the fear that the GPE are propogating, especially through the media.  It’s a well-established method that they use – to orchestrate a situation that frightens a population who seem powerless to stop it, so we call on them to fix it.  In doing so we have given away our power and allowed them to tweak the system a little more in their favour.  The current situation is something that they cannot fix, indeed most of them have no idea what is going on.  They will be just trying whatever they can to hang on to their money and power.  For those of us on a conscious spiritual path who are tuning in to the expanded consciousness, there is no reason for us to give in to fear, even if it seems overwhelming at times.  The shift to higher consciousness now has too much momentum to be stopped or even slowed down by a Global Power Elite, many of whom will not survive the transition to the new energy if they are not prepared to change and relinquish their addiction to power.

Some helpful hints on how to survive this period of transition:  Breathe deeply on a regular basis, especially if you are feeling overwhelmed.  Stand back as much as possible from the global picture as painted by mainstream media. Don’t get caught up in the drama of it all – that’s what the GPE wants. Get involved in positive movements in your local community, they will help to sustain us all through the economic difficulties. Take time out for yourself, connect with nature, listen to music that soothes and inspires you.  Get in touch with your true divine nature, develop your spiritual awareness, be gentle with yourself.  It may be the end of the world as we know it, but we can envision a better world based on fairness, integrity and love!

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Much of the information in this article was inspired by the teachings of the Crimson Circle, The Matthew Books, and the Pleiadians.

Further suggested reading for unconvinced conspiracy theorists: the excellent article Why Truthers Need to Vote for Obama, by Todd Putnam on OpedNews.com

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius

Apparently the astrological combination of the first two lines  - with Jupiter aligning with Mars in Aquarius – has actually occured twice since the musical’s release, in 1973 and 1998.  It occurs again this year along with other alignments – Neptune, Chiron, the Sun and the North Node are also in Aquarius – at 7.25am (GMT) on Valentine’s Day, February 14 2009.  All the other planets are also in astrologically significant positions emphasising change, co-operation and creativity.  This rare alignment inspires the possibility for transcendental breakthrough in seemingly intransigent situations.  Sounds like it might be just what humanity needs at the moment!

There are many differing opinions by astrologers on the Astrological Ages. Most of them agree however that astrological ages occur based on the rotational cycle of the Earth’s axis, known as the precession of the equinoxes. One complete period of this precession is called a Great Year of about 25,860 years, and each sign of the zodiac has a corresponding age lasting on average 2160 years.  It is widely believed that we are now in the cusp period, leaving the Age of Pisces and entering the Age of Aquarius.  The Age of Pisces is represented by two fish, and one of its main characteristics has been the dominance of Christianity.  The Age of Aquarius is symbolic of spiritual transformation, computers, flight, democracy, freedom and humanitarianism. This transitional period between two ages is considered to be a process that occurs over many years, not on an exact day or year.  And whether the writers of the ‘Aquarius’ song had any astrological knowledge is not clear.  Certainly most of the themes explored in Hair are just as relevant today, if not more so…

However the alignment 0f 14 February 2009 is very powerful for anyone who believes in the influence of the planets on Earth events and consciousness. And even if you don’t hold much faith in astrology,  many people around the world will enough attach significance to this date to collectively energize a wave of intention around the globe.  This will surely nudge along human consciousness a little closer to a new age and many believe towards the 5th dimension (coincidentally perhaps?) where we will move beyond war, greed and oppression.

So let love steer the stars, on Valentine’s Day!

For more information see Cure Zone, Astrological Investing and Book of Thoth