E Sylvia Architecture and Metaphysics: March 2018

Vacation: Let's go to London and Tour Windsor Castle!

Vacation: Working Remotely Online

This is part of a new series of blog posts about travelling on vacation....starting with places I have actually visited before...and looking into fun things to do, places to stay, and, of course, souvenirs!

If you missed my previous posts in this series, here are the links:
Part I Ocean Liner to the UK: Pet Friendly
Part II Cruises: Pets and MOOCs
Part III Cross Country: Cars and Crystals
Part IV Port of Southampton UK: Cars and Tours
Part V Southampton UK: Vegan and Pet Friendly

As you know if you read my previous articles, my dream vacation has been to take my dogs for a walk at Stonehenge. Because I live in California, this scenario has taken quite a bit of strategy on my part to find a way to get to the destination. The strategies were covered in my previous blog posts, in which I virtually arrived at the Port of Southampton, did some sightseeing and found a place to stay.

I have recently started a new job, so I don't have quite as much time to write extensive blog posts as I've have in the past. What I've chosen to do, instead, is to share cool, vacation and travel-related stuff I notice on my partners' websites.

Because I haven't necessarily purchased everything I write about, this blog post is not always going to be about my personal experiences. What I will do for you, is share the things I feel may be particularly interesting, helpful or fun for a vacation, based on what I am most attracted to at the time I write.

This post is about living a travelling lifestyle that literally supports itself, working from a hotel room for a few hours a day and enjoying a vacation too.

Everyone knows that too much of a good thing can be, well you know. Tours with guides are fun at first. Absorbing foreign fascinating history though, in my opinion, is best done with a little down time in between. And how better to spend that down time than working at a job that can be done from a hotel room?

There are tons of blogs about how to make money online. I'm not going into the topic of how to make money online because, not being an expert on the topic, I'd just be wasting time. I'm sure everyone has seen ads about "work from home" so you can spend more time with family, go on vacation, and buy expensive stuff you don't need. This isn't about that. I honestly don't know how to make the kind of living working from home that would support an extravagant lifestyle.

What I have discovered, though, since my last post is some nice ambient audio from Brain Sync, one my advertising partners whose website claims that just 30 minutes a day will bring outstanding results. Does the audio actually work? It's too soon to tell.

According to BrainSync FAQ, If you are working with a particular goal, such as weight loss or attracting wealth, we recommend that you listen to those once a day for a period of 4 to 6 weeks. Since I've had the full audio for less than a week, it will be at least May before I can give the full report on the purchased program.

For a link to the freebie version I've tested out for the full six weeks, take a look at my last blog post:

Vacation: Restful Sleep After a Day of Exciting Exploration

I wrote that post while I was window shopping around at the BrainSync website. I was not offered any discounts or freebies that aren't available to the public before making a purchase, even though I'm a partner. My shopping experience was pretty much the same as anyone else who tried out the freebie and liked it. At the time I definitely wanted to pay for the full version of the freebie program, and noticed a 4 for 3 mp3 special.

Anyone who loves a sale will understand how this complicates a simple shopping experience. Instead of just buying what I've tried and liked, I had the chance to get more to like at a nice price.

This took awhile because the founder of Brain Sync, Kelly Howell, has been producing this type of audio for literally decades. She has a lot of material to choose from, and it's pretty easy to cross check reviews online. Most of the reviews I've noticed for Kelly Howell and Brain Sync are very positive, across the board. So the rest of this post is about which products I chose to acquire, and how I like them so far.

If you haven't guessed already, I did actually go for the 4 for 3 mp3 downloads. There's also a 3 for 2 special with cd format, but then I would have to wait for the cds to come in the mail. I prefer same-day access, and I also like getting to choose one more audio in mp3 format for the same price as the cds.

The freebie product, the one I wanted to upgrade, is The Secret Universal Mind Meditation. It has Kelly's soothing voice and lots of affirmations that feel reassuring enough to have in the background as I go to sleep.

I also got The Secret Universal Mind Meditation II, which is supposed to work together with the original version. The download for version II includes a music track as well as a guided meditation. Both audios have scientific sounding waves with Greek names like Delta. Version II has both Delta and Theta waves which, according to Brain Sync, are good for falling asleep.

Brain Sync also mentions three other waves, with the names Gamma, Beta and Alpha. According the website, these waves are more for waking hours. My goal, then, as a shopper, was to find audio I'd like to have on during the day, ideally when I'm working from home.

An easy choice, which I felt might do everything all-in-one, is Brain Power. This is the only audio that has all five of the waves mentioned on it. Brain Power has plenty of good reviews, and is advertised to improve memory and concentration, “Big Picture” thinking, perception, and clarity of thought. Fine with me.

So now for the last audio, the fourth of the 4 for 3 special. This last audio was the most challenging to select, for a few reasons. With so many options to choose from, ranging from love, fitness and success, to wealth, spiritual growth and creativity, it wasn't obvious where to start.

After a short time out from window shopping, I decided to work with Maslow's classic 20th century needs theory, which places fundamental needs on a more basic level than emotional desires or aspirations for self actualization.

The most fundamental need I have, and which many bloggers have, is financial. Just how do I make money to support my lifestyle? My choice, then, would be success or wealth. In many ways, I already feel successful. I have access to the internet, a computer, a website, and other things. I also feel prosperous, which seems related to success as well.

In my opinion, a person who doesn't have a lot of money can feel successful in non-financial ways, and may also experience prosperity. Who cannot look into the night sky and see the stars? Who does not enjoy the change of weather in spring?

In the purest sense, many of us prosper in so many non-financial ways. So, narrowing this down, my most basic need isn't success. Nor is it prosperity. My most basic need, at a most basic level, is money. Money can't buy love, and money can't buy happiness, but without enough money it's hard to be happy and difficult to place a value on love.

Money, in the absence of success or prosperity, is merely wealth. It's not necessarily the wealth of a highly successful or prosperous person, although that would be nice too. In my opinion, wealth is directly tied to finances, and the success or prosperity that is represented by money itself...cash, a reliable paycheck and money in the bank.

I've narrowed down the topic, and now to select the product. This is where the going gets tough. I still have four choices:

The Secret of Attracting Wealth and Attract Wealth both have plenty of great reviews. They both use Theta waves, which might be effective for relaxation after work.
Attract Wealth While You Sleep sounds good, yet I don't see any reviews for it anywhere online.
Attract Wealth While You Work sounds great! Again, though, no reviews...

After thinking about this for awhile, I decided that someone needs to be the first person to review a product. Since I'm basically getting it for free on a 4 for 3 deal, maybe that first reviewer should be me. Someone's got to do it. It's only fair. I've received reviews, and although I'd like a lot more reviews than I do, if there were no first reviewer I wouldn't have a single review to my name.

Every person, every product, every service has to start somewhere. With Brain Sync, it's not like I'm in uncharted territory. Most of the product line has good to excellent reviews already. I chose Attract Wealth While You Work.

When I work I want to get paid for doing it. I can do lots of work (prosperity) and I can be published online (success). But the bottom line is, am I getting paid for what I do (wealth)? Isn't wealth the reason why people work? Isn't it true that people work to attract wealth?

On the other hand, people don't usually get paid for relaxing and sleeping, even though that sounds enticing. Sometimes I do see unexpected e-deposits appear overnight into my bank account, but that is based on work I've done in the past, and it honestly doesn't happen as often as I'd like. And, besides, my evening hours are already allocated to falling asleep with both of The Universal Mind Meditations. I don't want to complicate things.

Finally, after exhausting myself window shopping at Brain Sync, I made my purchase. The mp3s took awhile to download, maybe because the files aren't zipped. My four mp3 selections each had up to 60 minutes of audio for listening, pdf and/or audio instructions and a cover graphic, all as separate download files. I created separate file folders for each of the four packages while I was downloading, before reading the instructions, to have it all organized.

After the downloads were completely finished and filed, I read the instructions. Then I created three playlists: one to play before I start work, another to create ambiance while I'm working, and one for when I sleep. This is the way I've decided to use the audio, and not necessarily exactly how the instructions suggest. I don't have the time or patience to use headphones. Instead, I want to use the audio as background music rather than as relaxation sessions.

At the moment, I'm looping the playlists to repeat throughout the evening, which is how I listened to the freebie over the last six weeks.

I'm also looping the day playlist and adjusting audio levels based on my tasking. I like having the audio super low when I'm on the phone, instead of turning it completely off. When I'm writing or doing tasks that don't require audio communication, the sound level gets turned up.

So far I'm enjoying the ambient sounds during the day, and I don't notice the subliminal messaging at all. Sometimes, maybe because of the waves used, I find the audio distracting and just turn it off. As background sounds, the ambiance is pleasant and non-intrusive, with slowly shifting musical textures and nature effects. My plan is to continue using the playlists every evening, and during the day when I'm working.

After about six weeks of ambient sounds and music, I may write another blog post about my Brain Sync audio experiences. Maybe sometime around the beginning of summer.

To be continued...

Resources

Brain Sync | The Leader in Brainwave Technology
www . brainsync.com/about-us/about-brain-sync . html

Frequently Asked Questions
www . brainsync.com/faq

Maslow's hierarchy of needs - Wikipedia
en . wikipedia . org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Vacation: Restful Sleep After a Day of Exciting Exploration

Vacation Exploring Roman Britain: Design of a Spiritual Place

This is part of a new series of blog posts about travelling on vacation....starting with places I have actually visited before...in this post: England!

If you missed my previous posts in this series, here are the links:
Part I Ocean Liner to the UK: Pet Friendly
Part II Cruises: Pets and MOOCs
Part III Cross Country: Cars and Crystals
Part IV Port of Southampton UK: Cars and Tours
Part V Southampton UK: Vegan and Pet Friendly

As you know if you read my previous articles, my dream vacation has been to take my dogs for a walk at Stonehenge. Because I live in California, this scenario has taken quite a bit of strategy on my part to find a way to get to the destination. The strategies were covered in my previous blog posts, in which I virtually arrived at the Port of Southampton, did some sightseeing and found a place to stay.

In my actual visit to England, which happened as a family vacation years ago when I was in my teens, my parents chose to visit many different places. Because one of my parents was born in the UK, our focus was connecting with and meeting our extended family members. We also visited historic castles, churches, and went sightseeing What fascinated me at the time was the tremendous spiritual energies of history that could be felt in an almost tangible way, unlike anything I had previously experienced in the USA.
In recent years, people from around the world have shared their opinions and answers to practically every question imaginable on the internet. I have discovered online what British people have known for centuries:

The tremendously rich spiritual history of the UK is influenced not only by the native religions, but also by having been part of the ancient Roman Empire.

Although the beautiful statues of Roman antiquity rarely appear so far from their source as England, inscriptions to Roman deities may be found in places like the baths of Roman forts. Ancient Roman British temples and foundations have been found at a few different archaeological sites in the UK.

Inspired by the idea of vacationing in England and exploring what remains of that Roman Britain place of Empire in ages past, I recently awoke from a dream and began my day inspired with a new idea. The idea is a theory of design that might incorporate ancient and contemporary spirituality in the same place, with the architectural design and layout of a temple site. The design theory is based on two things:

Contemporary interpretations of some ancient Roman religious decrees hold that neither animal sacrifices, nor statues of the deities, were deemed appropriate for Pagan Roman religious worship during the reign of the Roman King Numa. This interpretation, accepted by numerous contemporaries, confirms an early expression of humane and vegan offerings to the divine. These vegan offerings may be ethically emulated for educational dramatization and historic reenactments of Pagan religious holidays, or for rituals held at spiritual sites.

I have also been inspired by reading a recent book by internationally renowned British voice coach and author Stewart Pearce, whose writing has greatly influenced my feelings about integrating ancient and contemporary New Age style spirituality. The book is The Angels of Atlantis. The book contains illustrations of cards which are available as separate items. I do not own the cards, although the images are lovely.

The book is quite amazing, and describes relationships between archangels, Atlantis, locations on earth, the heavens, and a theory that the names ascribed to deities of the ancient Egyptian and Greek mythological spiritualities were actually the names of Atlantean priests and priestesses of angelic energies.

The energies I feeling emanating from a piece of pink Himalayan rock salt have also been a strong influence. The rock salt, in the form of a tea candle holder, rests in an arched wall niche in my home. Beside the rock salt, and sharing the same niche, are a small replica statue of a Roman Goddess and a flower vase made of a seven day candle with the image of the Lady of Guadalupe wrapped around it. Of these three objects, my sensual impression is that the rock salt feels stronger energetically.

It is possible that the divine, having always been associated with the unknown and the unknowable and in current practice often referred to as being "of the heavens", may have been the result of extraterrestrial energies felt on earth. I'm not saying that aliens arrived on space ships or anything like that. However; the energies of the sky and the stars have been an enormous inspiration to people from times long before recorded human history. These energies may been among the unknowable divine that ancients worshiped.

These energies, which we may know as angelic in contemporary practice, were honored in groves, stone circles, and so forth...both in human-created and naturally created spaces. Early temples, so to speak. The temples may have had a presiding priest or priestess. However; as time went on, people had more things to do than preside as a priest(ess) over a temple space. And so, images of the priests/priestesses may have been created to appear to serve the space, when human priests were absent.

Because the images may have represented priests/priestesses who could "put in a good word" with the angelic, extraterrestrial, heavenly, unknowable divine, people may have left presents or offerings near the statues. Not as divine offerings, but as offerings to the priest or priestess. Over time, the statues may have became conflated with divine energies, and at that point people might leave offerings for statues which were, perhaps, never intended to represent the divine. Only to represent the presiding, yet absent, priests/priestesses.

And because ancient "deities" had very human traits and foibles, it stands to reason that those whom we refer to as ancient deities may, in fact, have been human beings who acted as priests/priestesses.

Outlandish stories arose about the priests/priestesses and their powers, perhaps because of peoples' desire to believe in the impossible...and perhaps, as it is in the present, it's kind of fun. Disneyland indeed has its ancient precedents. Maybe Venus was an exceptionally beautiful and charming priestess of the angelic energies. Maybe Mars was a warrior for his "main profession", that is when he wasn't serving as a priest. And so on...

And again, before carving rock was invented by humans, the most ancient icons of worship would not have been statues representing the divine as human. Instead, the earliest focal points of worship would probably have come from nature. Inspiration may have come from trees, animals, rocks; for example a large black meteorite that fell from heaven to earth was highly regarded as divine.

So, with this theory in mind, it is very possible to construct a new style of temple which includes Pagan statues of Mars, Venus, Jupiter and so on...as part of the design, yet not as the main focal point of worship, which could be a natural grove, the heavens, rocks, or what have you.

So, the temple design becomes, perhaps, an entry point which is promenade or column-lined path, in which the path is formed of statues relegated to the priests and priestesses from our shared ancestral history, as an experience of ancestral reverence rather than as a focal point of worship (aka statues of ancient deities, and also perhaps revered priests and priestesses throughout the ages all displayed within the same context).

Then the promenade or path leads to the sacred space, which does NOT have statues within it. The space could instead celebrate the miracles of the natural world. The place may be a grove, a circle of rocks, one big rock, or another type of natural area which is sacred for reasons that were created by divine energies rather than by human hands.

If an external space is not available, the sacred space might be a lavishly decorated room within a larger building, perhaps to include natural rocks, plants, a water feature, an atrium and/or skylights for example...the sacred space, again, being designed without statues or human images within it. Statues and imagery, when desired, may appear leading to the space, as a part of the pathway of experience within a larger space, and as a remembrance for our shared ancestral human heritage.

This is my vision, perhaps, for a temple which attempts to combine concepts expressed in some contemporary worship systems, such as the idea of avoiding iconic images within a divine worship system, or that angels and deities exist as divine energy and not as created sculptures or images, while (whilst?) giving a nod to the images we human beings enjoy creating, sharing and experiencing, which represent a collective, human, ancestral past we share together.

Comments, please?

To be continued...

Resources

BBC - Ancient History in depth: an overview of Roman Britain
www . bbc . co . uk/history/ancient/romans/questions_01.shtml#five

Roman sites | English Heritage
www . english-heritage . org . uk/visit/places/roman/

Exceptionally rare Roman statue unearthed in City of London building site - Telegraph
www . telegraph . co . uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/10411832/Exceptionally-rare-Roman-statue-unearthed-in-City-of-London-building-site.html

Falling Stars and Black Stone: Humanity's Worship of Meteorites | Ancient Origins
www . ancient-origins . net/unexplained-phenomena/falling-stars-and-black-stone-humanity-s-worship-meteorites-001901

Numa tradition - Nova Roma
www . novaroma . org/nr/Numa_tradition

On sacrifices, a guide for practicioners of the Religion Romana
www . societasviaromana . net/Collegium_Religionis/sacrifices.php

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Vacation: Let's go to London and Tour Windsor Castle!

Vacation: Working Remotely Online

Vacation: Restful Sleep After a Day of Exciting Exploration

Vacation Exploring Roman Britain: Design of a Spiritual Place

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