Hi all. There is a new Enlightenment.Com newsletter out at

http://archive.mail-list.com/enlightenment-com/message/20090923.235300.cd31ff65.en.html

There is a wonderful article by Brandy George, a couple of essays by me, new Ken Wilber Tracks, and a kind of conspiracy theory piece.

Enjoy!

Well, you can hear this for free until Thursday morning at:

http://www.guidedcds.com/seminarinfo

It was a lot of fun to be the person being interviewed, rather than the interviewer.

We speak about "what works," rebounding, enlightenment, and more.

blessings,

Jordan

This was *so much fun*. My uncle is a Sufi, and he led us in Dances of Universal Peace after the Seder.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=82638302493&ref=mf

Below please find the video (also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6iK-XgisfA) and the words from Enlightenment.Com's Happy New Year and 2008 Wrap-Up State of the Site message. This newsletter anounces a new in-depth audio interview, progress on our "Atom of Enlightenment" initiative, and includes a Healing of Grief Musical Reflection starrting Jem.

Note that from the front page of http://Enlightenment.Com, you can Chip-In $5 or $10 or $100 to help support our efforts.



Enlightenment-Com archives
Enlightenment.Com Newsletter: Happy 2009! & State of the Site

Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:44:52 -0800 (PST)
From: jordan@enlightenment.com
Subject: Enlightenment.Com Newsletter: Happy 2009! & State of the Site
Enlightenment.Com Newsletter – 2008 Wrap-Up, Happy 2009!

[Note: This all-text newsletter was sent to the Enlightenment.Com
list today,  December 31, 2008.  If you'd like to sign up to receive
future newsletters, please send a blank message to
Enlightenment-Com-on@mail-list.com. To unsubscribe,
please see the end of this newsletter.]

     CONTENTS of this Newsletter:

    1. Welcome!
    2. The State of the Site: In Video or Words
        [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6iK-XgisfA]
    3. An In-depth Audio Interview with Bonnie Gintis, Osteopath
[http://www.enlightenment.com/media/audiointerviews/Bonnie_Gintis.mp3]
    4. What's Great About '08: An Awareness by Jordan Gruber
    5. A Gem of a Jem of a Healing Journey: A Personal Musical Reflection
    6. Chip-In to support us, if you can!
    7. Thanks.

[Note: This newsletter was written by Jordan Gruber, J.D., M.A.,
Enlightenment.Com's Founder and CEO, who takes responsibility
for all errors and omissions found in this newsletter and throughout
Enlightenment.Com. Please email me, mailto:jordan@enlightenment.com,
if you have any questions or concerns.]

---------------------------

1. Welcome

Welcome back to our new, simplified, plain text newsletter. I've been
writing online newsletters for Enlightenment.Com on and off since
early 1996, which means I've now been at this for over a dozen years.
And honestly, I love it.

That is, I love getting to write for you (I love writing for a caring
audience), I love the fact that (from all reports) a decent number of you
still spend time with at least some of the newsletter's more in-depth
pieces, and most of all, I love that the act of putting together a newsletter
always seems to call upon me to gather up, reflect upon, digest, and then
transmit some of what  I've experienced and learned since
the last newsletter.

So while writing a newsletter for you is always a bit of a personal
undertaking for me, this issue in particular will be more personal
and more challenging  than most, mainly because these times
have been harder than most.

Financially, of course, notwithstanding our Enlightenment-focused
practices, many of us are under great stress right now, and that certainly
applies to me personally. (My biggest client was acquired and no longer
needs me, so if you happen to know somebody who needs a
*great ghostwriter* who can write on anything from law to technology
to financial services to personal growth to spirituality, then
please let me know, or take a look at http://practicalwordsmith.com,
and then let me know.)

And, like many of you, I've had other personal losses in the last year,
including the death of a wonderful, brilliant, beautiful friend in
her mid-40's, and then the disappearance of my most favorite cat. I
lost my dad and wrote about that here some two years ago, but having
my deeply bonded pet disappear off the face of the earth with
absolutely no explanation—well, that rocked my world. I mean, this
cat walked up my body and purred me into bliss literally thousands
of times in the past 7.5 years, so it's not surprising that we were
deeply bonded.

So, you can expect a couple of pretty personal pieces in here, including
a kind of annotated walk-through of the YouTube space for
the Welsh recording artist Jem. Jem's music, synchronistically
magically, and ultimately delightfully, helped me to get through my
pet's loss, and is still helping me heal. This piece is an attempt to
tell that little story, just because it might help somebody else
with some grief at some time.

There will also be an original "awareness" or micro-essay,
"What's Great About '08,"
where I'll share some thoughts about why the great
Financial Crisis of '08 isn't necessarily so bad after all.

There are also a couple of pieces about Enlightenment.Com itself,
including a video (or the words), straight from Mendocino, CA, of
"The State of the Site, January 2009"–address,
just so you long-term fans of our work can stay up-to-date. One thing
I talk about is our new EnlightenRank or "Atom of Enlightenment"
initiative. If you want to go right to it,
it's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6iK-XgisfA

There's also a brand new in-depth audio interview with a fabulous
healer, thinker, and person, Bonnie Gintis, Doctor of Osteopathy. If
you want to go right to the interview, it's at
http://enlightenment.com/media/audiointerviews/Bonnie_Gintis.mp3

Lastly, with the economy as it is, rebounder sales have plummeted,
and so once again we'd like to invite any of you who might have a
few spare dollars to support our ongoing work here at once of the
longest-running Enlightenment-oriented websites in existence.  So,
if you can afford to Chip In, please go to the front page of
http://www.enlightenment.com and do so.

That's it. Enjoy the newsletter, and feel free to send me feedback.
I read it all.

Blessings from, in, and around Mendocino, Dec. 31, 2009

Jordan Gruber

---------------------------

2.  The State of the Site 2008-2009

The State of the Site message is viewable in YouTube video
at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6iK-XgisfA
It's about two minutes and twenty-three seconds long.

Here is the transcription:

Hi, I'm Jordan Gruber, the Founder and CEO of Enlightenment.Com.
This is the annual State of the Site message, and I'm coming to you
from beautiful Mendocino, California; I don't think you are going
to be able to see the waves, but they're out there, right through
these windows. And on behalf of myself and my partners
Jeramy Hale and Gabriel DeWitt, let me wish you a great 2009.

2008 has been a hard year for many of us. So let's have a great 2009.

So, three quick points.

One, we're still here. We're still putting up new content, we're still
putting up interesting audio interviews, and we've got a brand new
initiative that I'm very excited about that I'll tell you about in a
minute, and you know, ultimately, we're excited and delighted
that we continue to have the opportunity to serve you as we have
since 1996. 

Second, we could use a little bit of help. Our main means of support
has been rebounder sales, but those have plummeted in the current
financial crisis. So, we've put up a Chip-In icon on the front page.
If you can Chip-In $5 or $10 to help Enlightenment.Com, to show
your appreciation, or because you're excited, then please do so.
We'd greatly appreciate that.

Third, we do have a major new initiative. It's very exciting, and it
comes close to the heart of what Enlightenment.Com has always
been about. It's codenamed the "Atom of Enlightenment"
or the EnlightenRank project, and involves
a way to take different facets or characteristics of psycho-spiritual
websites and present them to you, and get feedback from you,
so that we can really evolve a system of what's most likely to
work for people.

My partner Gabriel DeWitt and I have spent many hours working
through a way of showing what the means, and the goals, of a
website are.

So is the goal more about enlightenment, or is the goal
more about manifestation?

And is the means more about participation, with the people,
on the website, and their events and energy, or is it more
about real-time knowledge that you can take advantage of,
already on the site?

Which is it? How do those work together? It's not as simple as
you think, but we do think we've found a way through it, and
we're very, very excited about sharing it with you.

So, that's it. We're still here;
Chip-In if you can (from http://www.enlightenment.com);
and look for the "Atom of Enlightenment" initiative.
Have a great 2009, and I'll see you soon. Bye-Bye.

---------------------------

3. An In-depth Audio Interview with Bonnie Gintis, Osteopath

A little over a year ago I met with Bonnie Gintis to receive an
osteopathic treatment and to interview her. I thought the book
she had written, *Engaging the Meaning of Life*, was a fabulous
read—check it out at http://www.amazon.com/dp/1556436076 –as
it pulled together much of what I thought and knew about
the body and was completely applicable to rebounding. Through
her writing, Bonnie's mind expanded my mind and my body,
and I quickly knew I wanted to meet her and interview her.

We had a great time, and then I let the interview sit for many
months. Then, earlier this month, I remembered that I told
Bonnie that I'd get to it within a year, so I took it out and
managed to finish the audio editing on the 364th day. So
now, without any further ado, I'd like to invite you to
listen to our conversation at:
http://enlightenment.com/media/audiointerviews/Bonnie_Gintis.mp3
 
If you give it a couple of minutes, I can promise you that we
have a truly fascinating and stimulating conversation.
If you want to expand the boundaries of your views about the
body, water, energy, medicine, structure, movement, healing,
thought, and more, then please give this interview a listen.

---------------------------

4. What's Great About '08: An Awareness by Jordan Gruber

I know, I know. The sky is falling. Some of it hit me, even.
But still, amidst the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
there always seem to be bright notes, different possibilities,
alternative futures.

So while we sit and weep amidst the Financial Crisis of '08,
or whatever it will eventually officially be called,
we have to keep our eyes open for the bright notes, the bits of
ying in the middle of the yang, the unperturbed flow of
coherent life vectors amongst the chaos.

My friend Harmon Hathaway wrote me as follows, about a
month ago, when the markets had been down more than
they had been down for a very long time. He wrote:

"My World centric view is not completely unhappy with the
contraction happening all around. It will give us all more time for
breathing and being happily alive."

How simple is that? How brilliant is that?

Yes, we are in crisis, rather, crises. But there's always a
bright side, and the bright side here is that we can see where we
are personally and civilizationally out of alignment, and
then make adjustments.

We can see where we're not spending enough time on
what's really important – on our relationships, on
ingesting/digesting/living the truths of our spiritual knowledge,
on taking care of others, ourselves and our planet –
and do more of that. It's pretty simple, actually.

Meditation, for example, is completely free, yet certainly
makes a difference.

And a kind word is certainly without cost, yet it can
change a life. Or many lives.

And putting down the
blackberry/iphone/laptop/ipod/headphones/Bluetooth
while walking on the street or riding a bicycle or
just hanging out at home usually, if anything, saves you money,
yet it can rapidly improve both your inner awareness and
your outer environment. (It's hard to safely maneuver your
body or give a delicious hug when you're mind, and therefore
your body, are somewhere else.)

I learned long ago that if I was receiving serious, ongoing
feedback about something, usually experienced as pain,
then there was almost always something I
needed to pay attention to.

Well, it seems pretty obvious that we,
collectively and individually,
and with some but not that many exceptions,
are precisely responsible for the mess that we,
collectively and individually, find ourselves in.

Will things get better on the outside? Maybe. From
a new President in the U.S. to all sorts of scientific
and other developments, there's a whole lot going on in
the outside word, and it's moving faster than ever.

The real question is: what will you do to be in alignment
with the changes that have been occurring so that things
will get better for you on the inside?

From strengthening your commitment to your practice
to determining that this is the year you take the
necessary risks that only you know of,
the time, once again, is Now. The place, once again, is Here.
And the Point of Power, to quote Seth (yes, Seth), once again,
is Now.

So, before it's too late,
realize what's great
about now-gone '08:

A chance to re-state,
what you need to up-date
to up-grade your fate!

---------------------------

5. A Personal Musical Healing Journey: A Gem of a Jem of an Artist

   Part 1: Background–The Loss of An Exceptional Companion

As I stated in the "Welcome" to this newsletter, this has been a tough
year for me in some ways. I have lost a friend to brain cancer; our
big construction project had some truly unnecessary (and expensive)
delays (but I am thankful to be back in our house); and worst of all,
my very favorite cat, Shadow, an exceptionally friendly, loving,
and handsome 10-year-old Maine Coonish fellow, simpl…
disappeared. (He had a collar and tag, and an ID chip in his shoulder,
but we haven't ever heard anything definite about what happened to
him, and we are, at this point, unlikely to.)

The fact is, when he disappeared, I was beyond crushed. Unwilling
and unable to fight back the tears for weeks, at one point I was on
the verge of calling my doctor for tranquilizers. As one close friend
said, "Really, in many ways it's like losing a child."

Now, many times when someone I know has lost someone, I have
recommended that they buy Peter McWilliams's little
book, *How to Survive the Loss of a Loved One.* At less than
$8 on Amazon.com – see http://www.amazon.com/dp/0931580439 –
this book has proven to be a tremendous resource for those
in need of support.


   Part 2: Right Place, Right Time

But this time around, I needed something else, and I
synchronistically found that something else in the music and lyrics
of the Welsh recording artist Jem  Griffiths, usually just known
as "Jem." (Jem: I see in your liner notes to "Down to Earth"
that you have a 'Mendocino Family.' Mendocino! Well, if you're
ever here when I'm here, I'd just love to buy you a cup of coffee
and interview you for Enlightenment.Com.) Jem, who is 34,
has a very eclectic world musical style, and her music has been
used for the movie Sex & the City and elsewhere.

In fact, the very last night I ever saw Shadow was the
very first night that I was introduced by a close friend to
Jem's music. Over the next 6 weeks (until right now, essentially),
not only have I listened to both of Jem's albums, but I have allowed
and encouraged myself to go on a musical healing journey with her.
I'll begin describing that musical journey in a minute,
after I give the "Instructions" for the rest of this
annotated voyage, and after I just say a couple of more things
about Jem.

So, let me first admit, straight up, that I am currently completely
enamored of Jem. This has happened to me many times before,
most recently with the great Leonard Cohen, and before that
the Indigo Girls, and at earlier times in my life with a variety of
other recording artists and groups.

One of my all-time favorites has been and remains David Bowie.
It has always seemed to me that certain Bowie albums, both very
early (like Hunky Dory) and very late (like Reality), are put together
in such a way that Bowie, from the inside out, seems to know what
I'm thinking and feeling, and what I need to hear. That is, his music
is just absolutely perfect for me at certain times, like it was divinely
scripted to provide me with the insights, and emotional and spiritual
nourishment, that only great music and a great musician can provide.

Well, for me, with Jem, it has been the same way. From the moment
I knew Shadow was gone, her words and music – and more
importantly, the energy behind them – served as my refuge and
rock of healing. Now, in what follows I'm only going to briefly
describe five of her songs from her two albums and the impact
they've had on me. But both her newer album, "Down to Earth,"
and her first album," Finally Woken," are fabulous, and it really is
only in the context of both works taken together that I have
benefited so much from her. She's got great beginnings, great drums,
heart-felt lyrics, a sense of fun, a sense of spiritual profundity, and
is also quite fetching. If you feel moved to do so,
please support her by purchasing her music.


   Part 3: Instructions

OK, if you've read this far–if you've ever lost a pet or a person and
were devastated with grief and want to see how I got through it
this time, or if you just want to get turned on to some very cool
psycho-spiritually oriented music–then let me gently suggest that
you follow the following instructions:

     Listen to the video or audio on YouTube, following
     the YouTube link I give here, before going on and reading the
     text below each song.

So, it's kind of like a show and tell–you go to the URL, and spend 4 minutes
or so listening to the show–and then I do the telling
of what I found so compelling.


     Part 4: Five Gems by Jem

As I mentioned, I first heard my first Jem song the very night that was
the last night I ever saw Shadow. That song, oh so appropriately
named,is called "It's Just a Ride." There's a great YouTube video,
by Jem, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90KyZ1GbJGI.
[Please watch it and listen to it now, if you can.]

From the first lines, I knew I was hooked:

     Life, it's ever so strange, it's so full of change,
     think you've worked it out, then Bang!
     Right out of the blue, something happens to you,
     to throw you of course and then you…break down."

That's how I felt. Bang! Right out of the blue, my beautiful cat
was simply gone, with no explanation. I was crushed.
But then Jem exhorts us not to "break down," because:

     It's just a ride, it's just a ride, no need to run, no need to hide
     it'll take you all around, sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down
     it's just a ride, it's just a ride, don't be scared, don't hide your eyes
     it may feel so real inside, but don't forget, it's just a ride.

Now, in addition to the words and music with its fun driving beat
and harmonies, as well as some really fun visuals of things
happening to Jem (things that might cause someone to "break down"),
I love watching her head going back and forth,
side to side. The first time I saw Jem do these motions,
she struck me as being some kind of Hindu deity,
or reincarnated special being, letting us know that
on some level this is all illusion, that this is all just a ride.

Then the song comes to its dénouement:

     Slowly, oh so very slowly
     Accept that there's no getting off
     So live it, just gotta go with it
     'Cause this rides never gonna stop

Ultimately, then, it's just a ride, so "don't be scared, dry your eyes."

     It's just a ride, it's just a ride, no need to run, no need to hide
     it'll take you all around, sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down
     it's just a ride, it's just a ride, don't be scared, now dry your eyes
     it may feel so real inside, but don't forget, enjoy the ride.

So, "Just a Ride" got me some of the way there. I could take a step
back, move forward through Kubler-Ross's healing stages, and begin
to get to acceptance. But I was still feeling pretty bad a day or two later
when I purchased her second album, "Down to Earth," and listened
to her song "You Will Make It." There's no Jem video for this one, but
you can still listen to it on YouTube here at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wQVuALdpJw
[Please listen to it now.]

Well, this song was absolutely remarkable for me. Every word,
every line, seemed to be written just for me, just for my situation.
In fact, this is a spectacularly heartfelt grief song, appropriate
for a wide range of grief situations. I shared it with a therapist
friend of mine last week, at a small party, over my LG Dare phone,
and he was very moved and immediately said he would share it
with some of his clients. Let me give you the beginning lyrics now so you
can get a taste of it:

     Go to bed everything's alright
     Don't know the whole
     world's changing
     As you sleep through the night
     Wake up slowly and it's a
     different world

     Hear the news and the
     floods begin
     Screams so loud but only
     felt within
     Heart is shattered
     The pieces can't be found

     I feel your pain, I wrote this
     song for you, for you
     You will make it, you will
     make it through
     I promise you, he would
     want you to

So, yes, I went to bed when everything was all right, and woke up
to a world that was changed, with a shattered heart. And I really,
honestly, believe that when Jem says "I feel your pain, I wrote
this song for you," she actually did so. For me, personally, as well
as for everyone else who has suffered loss.

Such insight and pathos…For example, one lyric is:

     Helping hands but you
     push them away
     How could they understand
     Don't wanna share your pain
     Afraid to heal, 'cause that
     would be goodbye

The notion that sometimes we are afraid to heal in these kinds of
loss situations because that would mean really and finally saying
"Goodbye," struck me like a thunderclap. That was part of where
I was stuck, and now I knew it.

Then, after time passes, things change. We start to remember our
lost one in a different light, a positive light, like so:

     One day sunlight hits
     a photograph
     And it makes you smile
     The memories dance
     around you now
     And they make you smile
     You're not alone
     You'll never be
     Just like the stars
     They oversee
     And they whisper to you
     You're still, you're still,
     You're still, you're still alive

Then, after the "I feel your pain, I wrote this song for you" chorus,
Jem reads a poem (I'm told it's well known, but I'd never heard it)
where the lost one is now to be found….everywhere:

     Do not stand at my
     grave and weep
     I am not there I do not sleep
     I am a thousand winds that blow
     I am the diamond glints on snow
     I am the sun on ripened grain
     I am the gentle autumn rain
     When you awaken in the morning's hush
     I am the swift uplifting rush
     Of quiet birds in circled flight
     I am the soft stars that shine at night
     Do not stand at my grave and cry
     I am not there; I did not die

The song ends with some beautiful male vocalizations, and
trails off leaving the listener—leaving me—cleansed and
refreshed. My beautiful Shadow is still there, on the glints
of the ocean outside the window, in the gentle autumn rain,
in all the places where previously I only felt pain.

So, by this point, I was feeling…well, more human, more healed.
Then I turned towards this song, "Good it Good,
which you can listen to at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-l6LCpAvJY

This is a fun little song about gratitude, and I'll just give you a little
bit of the lyrics here:

     Got a soul, got a mind
     Got a heart that beats in time
     You've got a smile, got a voice
     Got the gift of love
     You've got it good
     Don't forget how lucky you are
     Darling, darling, use it to connect with everyone

Then there was Jem's great inspirational song, "It's Amazing."
You can hear it and see the lyrics at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHdA6RVTX7A

This song tells you that you can do it, that you must use your gift,
and that nothing can compare to "deserving your dreams." Jem
talks about her own rejections here, about hitting the wall, and
what it takes to move forward. The chorus is simple but empowering:

     It's amazing, it's amazing
     all that you can do
     it's amazing, it makes my heart sing
     Now it's up to you.

Then, near the end, Jem does a kind of electronic synthesized voice
as hypnotic induction, that is really pretty cool. The words are:

     Don't be embarrassed
     Don't be afraid
     Don't let your dreams slip away
     It's determination and using your gift
     And everybody has a gift
     Never give up
     Never believe the hype
     Trust your instincts and
     most importantly
     You've got nothing to lose
     So just go for it.

Well, this song made my heart sing, and has further inspired
me to re-commit to my most important projects.

Finally, take a listen to "On Top of the World" at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peZVH846Kos. There's a great
part in this song, almost like a sudden epiphany or theophany
(an "in-breaking of the Divine"). The words go:

     All of a sudden
     The people, the talking, the telephone all fades away
     You visit a place in a timeless dimension where
     All of your fears are at bay.
     You can fly away….

I sincerely hope and wish that you've enjoyed this little
recap of my healing journey thanks to Jem,
and that you get the same kind of value from her that I have. She
truly is a gem, and I feel very lucky to have found her, for in
her words and music I have seen my own true face reflected
much more clearly.

And if you happen to be in grief right now, then, well,
I wrote this piece for you.

---------------------------
 
6. Please Chip-In to Help Enlightenment.Com

In the transcription from my State of the Site message above, I wrote:

Lastly, with the economy as it is, rebounder sales have plummeted,
and so once again we'd like to invite any of you who might have a
few spare dollars to support our ongoing work here at once of the
longest-running Enlightenment-oriented websites in existence.  So,
if you can afford to Chip In, please go to the front page of
http://www.enlightenment.com and do so.

While we don't like having to ask for money, we do think we have
been doing and continue to do good and important work. We're
very excited about the new EnlightenRank ("Atom of Enlightenment")
initiative, and hope to bring that to you in a powerful way in the
coming year.

So, if you can Chip-In just $5 or $10 (or more), please do so.

---------------------------

7. Thanks!

Thanks for reading this newsletter. Thanks for sticking with
Enlightenment.Com for the long-run. Thanks for all your personal
work and practice and discipline and energy. Thanks for being
who you are. Special thanks to all those who have over the
years supported me and the website. Thanks to my two
partners, Jeramy and Gabriel. Thanks to all our lovely
families and friends and pets, those here and those gone.

So, thanks for many reasons,
and we at Enlightenment.Com wish all of you
a very wonderful New Year and a Great '09.

Best Blessings and Warmest Wishes,

Jordan Gruber, J.D., M.A.,
Founder, CEO, Enlightenment.Com

May this act, and all acts,
be dedicated unto the complete liberation
and supreme enlightenment
of all beings everywhere
pervading space and time,
so mote it be.

May the benefits of practice, ours and others,
come to fruition,
ultimately and immediately,
and we remain in the state of presence.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Enlightenment.Com c/o Jordan Gruber, CEO   205 Pope St.   Menlo Park, CA  94025

As a kid, playing in the ocean every day of the summer, week after week, year after year...Even today, when I feel my body as the ocean that it is, I feel peaceful.

I wondered about, and continue to wonder about, what happened to my truly wonderful and loving cat, Shadow. How could he just disappear off the face of the earth? Why is the Divine this cruel?

Enlightenment.Com  just posted a new newsletter. You can read it below in this blog post, or read it  online at http://archive.mail-list.com/enlightenment-com/msg00003.html

Contents include:

• an original Jordan Gruberessay entitled "Be Somewhere Else Now: Is the Internet De-Enlightening Us?"
  
• a link to an in-depth audio interview with Russell Targ, psychic spy facilitator
• an initial explanation of the Scoreboard at http://www.enlightenment.com/scoreboard/index.cfm.
• an invitation to an enlightening Movie Premier: Stealing America, Vote By Vote, by Dorothy Fadiman
  

Enjoy!

-----------

Enlightenment.Com Newsletter -- Late July '08


    Contents of this Enlightenment.Com Newsletter:

1. Welcome to our 3rd plain-text newsletter.
2. An enlightening Movie Premier in New York and L.A.
3. An audio interview with psychic spy facilitator, Russell Targ.
4. An Original Essay:
     Be Somewhere Else Now: Is the Internet De-Enlightening Us?
5. Bungy-based Rebounders: Shipping Hiatus; Price Increase.
6. Here comes the Scoreboard!
7. Thanks!

[Note: This newsletter was written by Jordan S. Gruber,
Enlightenment.Com's Founder and CEO, who takes responsibility
for all errors and omissions found herein.
Please email me, mailto:jordan@enlightenment.com,
if you have any questions or concerns, or just want to say 'Hi.']

---------------------------
1. Welcome to the 3rd edition of our new plain-text newsletter.

Welcome to this newsletter, and thanks for taking whatever time
you can to peruse its contents.

Notwithstanding the 4-month interval since our last newsletter,
this edition had to be somewhat hurried at the end because of
two real-world timing considerations. First, there is a movie premier
in New York and Los Angeles that I very much you to know about.
Second, those of you who have been holding off should know
that there is a fast-approaching temporary stoppage in the shipping
of Bellicon's Ultimate bungy-based rebounders (as well as a price
increase starting August 18th).

New content includes an essay on whether the Internet is
making us spiritually superficial, as well as a free, in-depth
audio interview with Russell Targ who founded and ran
the CIA's "psychic spying" program at SRI.

Finally, it's time that we introduce you to the Scoreboard,
which is up and running as to Alexa traffic rank, as well as to
some additional concepts that we are actively working on.

OK, on to the rest of the newsletter.  Note that if you'd like to
unsubscribe, a link is provided near the end of this newsletter.

---------------------------
2.  An enlightening Movie Premier

[When you're ready, please click through to
http://www.concentric.org/stealingamericascreenings
to see when and where the movie premiers.]

We usually don't go out of our way to promote specific movies--
especially for movies that might seem to contain a political
agenda--but in this case we'll make an exception, and I'll
explain why shortly.

The movie, "Stealing America: Vote by Vote," is
Dorothy Fadiman's effort to tell the stories (with Peter Coyote
as narrator) of the people who, during the last presidential
elections, found their votes not counting or actively being
"switched" on electronic voting machines. It's an amazingly
chilling and important movie.  I urge you to go see it if possible,
and to let your friends in New York and Los Angeles know about
the premiers in those two crucial cities.

You can read more about the movie and see some clips here:
http://www.stealingamericathemovie.org/.

The New York premier is on August 1st, and the Los Angeles
premier in on August 15th, with other premiers coming to
other cities around the country. You can read about the premiers
at http://www.concentric.org/stealingamericascreenings

So, why am I recommending this movie in the
Enlightenment.Com newsletter? First, I've seen the movie,
and I personally feel it is very, very important to realize that
democracy itself is hanging by a thread.

Second, the award-winning filmmaker, Dorothy Fadiman,
is a close friend of mine, and her other movies, including
the psycho-spiritual classic "Radiance," are truly superb. Dorothy,
through her production company, Concentric Media,
(http://www.concentric.org) has tackled many tough social issues,
and I can guarantee you that she completely dedicated
-- with all her heart, spirit, and mind -- to serving the
collective good.

Additionally, Dorothy's husband, Jim Fadiman, is one of
Enlightenment.Com's best and longest-term supporters.
Jim, who is a former director of the Institute of Noetic Sciences
and who co-founded the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,
has three different interviews (two written, one audio) on
Enlightenment.Com and can be accessed from the front page
at http://www.enlightenment.com.

Bottom line: It's crucial that as many people as possible
see this movie in its opening weeks so that it is picked up
nationally and so that the extremely important message
it delivers reaches public awareness generally. So if you know
anyone who is interested in such issues, please forward the
announcement to them. Thanks in advance for your help.

---------------------------
3. An Audio Interview with ESP-Expert Russell Targ

[See http://www.enlightenmentchannel.com/Russell_1.html]

Russell Targ, physicist and founder of the CIA-supported
remote viewing program at Stanford Research Institute,
has recently come forth with his memoir, entitled
"Do You See What I See? -- Lasers and Love, ESP and
the CIA, and the Meaning of Life."

The book itself (published by Hampton Roads, 2008) is a
fine read, as Russell has personally known many fascinating
people (e.g., he is Bobby Fischer's brother-in-law, and as a
young man he attended salons with Ayn Rand), and more
importantly, has done many fascinating things. Russell is
a great story-teller as well. For those interested in ESP,
PSI, and psychic functioning generally, this is a must-read.

And more to the point, the in-depth interview that I very
recently conducted wit Russell is now available to you,
free of charge, from our Enlightenment.Com home page,
at http://www.enlightenmentchannel.com/Russell_1.html.

You can download and listen to individual tracks, or
download the entire interview in either good quality or
high quality .mp3 format. Russell has some fascinating
things to say about why and how ESP and PSI work,
and he is also very adept and explaining Buddhist and
Advaita Vedanta ideas about self-liberation, enlightenment.
and the idea that we "give all the meaning" to everything
that has meaning for us (as in A Course in Miracles).

---------------------------
4. An Original Jordan S. Gruber Essay:
     Be Somewhere Else Now:
     Is the Internet De-Enlightening Us?


About a month ago I was saying to some friends that I
wasn't sure that I wanted an iPhone or the equivalent thereof
because I already felt, well, over-connected to the web.

"One of the first things I do in the morning is turn on my
computer," I pointed out, "and even when I have no particular
reason to be online, even when there are other productive
real-world things I'd rather be doing, I find myself ineluctably
drawn to seeing if I have new emails, reading the latest
news, and checking in on my social networking sites and
other interests."

Well, a few days later, as if on cue, in its July/August 2008
issue, The Atlantic magazine came out with a cover story
entitled, "Is Google Making Us Stoopid? – What the Internet
is Doing to Our Brains." The author, Nicholas Carr, begins with
a comparison to a scene near the end of Kubrik's
"2001: A Space Odyssey," where the supercomputer HAL is
being disassembled and is pleading for its mind: "Dave, my
mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it." Carr then writes:

"I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I've had an
uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been
tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry,
reprogramming the memory. My mind isn't going—so far as
I can tell—but it's changing. I'm not thinking the way I
used to think."

Carr then points out that he and many other people he's spoken
with have a much harder time than they used to in sitting down
and reading a real book or in-depth magazine article. These
days, he notes, many  us now kind of "skim" when we take in
information, surfing and hyper-linking from site to site, going
from article to article to article in a never-ending search for the
next piece of information or the next image  that will satisfy our
data cravings. (Irving Biderman, in a Los Angeles Times op ed
piece entitled "The Crackberry yields clues on our data-driven
desires," reviews brain research showing that finding the next
piece of "new data" gives us a neurologically rewarding,
opiate-like, "fix.')

As Carr also points out, technological advances that change
the way things have previously been done have been noted
and decried for centuries. From language to writing to the
printing press, each time a watershed innovation comes along
there's also a fundamental change in the way we humans
think and process information.

So what's wrong with this? Isn't it possible that yielding to the
iPhone and the need to nearly always be online is more of an
evolutionary development than something to try and fight
against? So what if we read fewer full books than before?
So what if we're not even as capable as we used to be of reading
the kind of in-depth materials that we were raised on in
high school, college, and beyond?

The fact is, we all have far, far more access to a much
wider range of information than we've ever had before, including
information on spirituality, enlightenment, and the psycho-spiritual
tools, techniques, teachings, and teachers that are the long-term
focus of Enlightenment.Com. So why not just assume
that all of this a positive development, and let it go at that?


The Real Problem

The real problem isn't that the way we're taking in and using
information is changing. Instead, the crux of the problem, as I
see it, is that we are much less frequently present in the moment,
in our bodies, in the skin-encapsulated psycho-spiritual framework,
the only place (I believe) where something like "enlightenment"
is really possible.

Think of Ram Das saying, "Be here now," or Eckhart Tolle's great
theme, "The Power of Now." When you are online,
are you Being Here Now or Being Somewhere Else Now?
Of course, one might argue that those who are online or who are
communicating by cell phones are, in fact, in their own cyber-now,
but in my experience, it just isn't the same.

Remember, we have a very long tradition in the West of either
ignoring or, more directly, vilifying our bodies. In my experience,
many of us "spiritual types" are woefully weak in terms of the "body"
part of the body/mind/spirit equation. Being online rarely involves
us in our bodies the way many other simple real-world activities do.
(For a very interesting take on where there is "more" information,
online or offline, see Bill McKibben's great book, "The Age of
Missing Information," with our book review available
at http://www.enlightenment.com/media/bookrevs/mckibben.html.)

So, if you're finding yourself constantly pulled to check your voice
messages, check your email, and go online and play with your
cyber-friends, then there's a good chance that your other
psycho-spiritual practices are suffering somewhat.
If it's easier to go online than it is to meditate or pray, and going
online is neurologically rewarding and socially stimulating, why
bother meditating or praying? If it's easier to go online than it is to
engage in your physical disciplines or to interact with or serve
those immediately around you, why bother with the real world?


The Drive to Enlightenment

There was another very interesting article in the July/August 2008
Atlantic magazine. In "Distracting Miss Daisy," John Staddon
compares the state of American versus British traffic signs. He says
that while America has many more traffic signs of all types,
the accident and fatality rates are both generally higher. Why?
Because traffic signs train Americans to look at traffic signs rather
than the road, and we come to rely on traffic signs rather than
what's going on in real-time as we drive. Paying attention in real-time
to what's actually happening right in front of you, Staddon says,
is far more valuable than assuming that the signs will take care of
everything if you just place your full attention on them.

The analogy here is obvious: the ubiquitous data-web, whether
through cellphone or laptop or desktop, gives us lots of signs,
signals, and other information about what's happening in the world
beyond where we happen to actually be physically and
psycho-spiritually located. The more attention we pay to this
online data-flow, the less attention we necessarily pay to
the real world that we are actually embodied in and locally part of.

(The studies on cellphone use are very clear: the real safety issue
isn't about whether or not you're driving hands-free, as California
law recently mandated, the real issue is that when you're on the
phone with anyone, you pay far less attention to driving. As brain
scans have convincingly shown, when you're on the phone, reaction
times are slower, accident rates are higher, and using a headset or
speakerphone changes this very little.)

Now, I'm no Luddite. I have multiple Macintosh computers, and I
even just got a new cell phone (no, not an iPhone, but an LG Dare).
And I love my Casio EX-F1 that shoots in super-slow motion.
(See my slo-mo bee starting at 29 seconds in at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4fnFLWEL78 .)

However…I recognize that I, like many others, have a tendency to
get over-involved in technology at the risk of ignoring that
unbelievably complex and generaly underused piece of
equipment – the human bio-computer and body/brain
co-creation device – that we are all issued as part of our
ticket into this world.

Proper appropriate use of technology is fine, but knowing when
and where  to draw the line is absolutely critical. Most importantly,
it's crucial to have a sense of whether our technology is
unconsciously deflecting us from our chosen psycho-spiritual
practices and pursuits.

When I once asked Ken Wilber about the viability of entheogens
as a spiritual practice, he said, "Well, don't just do drugs. Make
sure you have a spiritual practice." I think the same thing
holds here: don't just surf psycho-spiritual websites; make sure
that you have an ongoing, integral, practice that really serves
you in the short- and long-run.

Truly, there's no doubt that the Internet is amazingly cool, and
that it has brought us worlds of wonder and serves as a fantastic
data and information, and perhaps even knowledge and wisdom,
resource. But the primary material for your own ongoing evolution
and transformation is something that you can already
tune into -- in real time and in real space -- without any electronic
interface. Too much of anything, including the Internet,
is unlikely to be good for us, so be here now most of the time,
rather than usually, virtually, being somewhere else.
(And then...you can blog about it.  ;-))

---------------------------
5. Ultimate Bungy-Based Rebounders:
     Shipping Hiatus; Price Rise

[Go to http://www.enlightensource.com/buybellicon.html to
order your bungy-based Bellicon Ultimate Rebounder.]

Fans and followers of Enlightenment.Com know that for
the past year we have been supporting the site solely through
the sale of Bellicon's bungy-based rebounders, which are,
in my experience, the best rebounders in the world. (And,
needless to say, I think that rebounding is one of the best
integral exercises in the world.)

(For a quick review of what rebounding is, go to
http://jordangruber.com/rebound.php, and for a
lot more information--everything from FAQs on equipment
to video to a free downloadable .pdf book--go to
http://pods.gaia.com/digital_darshan .

So, just in case you were thinking that it was time for you
to invest in a bungy-based rebounder, you should know
that ALL ORDERS MADE AFTER THIS COMING
TUESDAY, JULY 29th, WILL NOT BE SHIPPED UNTIL
AUGUST 18TH. Also, prices will go up noticeably on
August 18th as well.

Put differently, if you want a bungy-based rebounder
at the current price -- see
http://www.enlightensource.com/buybellicon.html -- then
you have to order by August 17th. And if you want to get the
rebounder in the next week or two, you have to order by this
Tuesday, July 29th.

Blessed Bouncing, Blessed Be;
Make Your Body, Light with Chi!

---------------------------
6. Here Comes the Scoreboard!

[Go to http://www.enlightenment.com/scoreboard/index.cfm.
But note that the Scoreboard sometimes goes "down" still,
so please be patient with us.]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Since Enlightenment.Com was first conceived in 1995, the
eventual creation of something akin to a Consumer Reports
rating system has always been one of its goals. Now, with the
Scoreboard 1.0, we have begun the task of sorting out who's
who, and what's what, among the vast number of websites that
have enlightenment* as one of their primary goals.

The Scoreboard, version 1.0, lists 50 or so
enlightenment-oriented websites, and ranks them according to
their total traffic (as taken from Amazon.Com's Alexa service, with
lower numbers being better or standing for higher total traffic).
The goal here at this early stage is to begin to determine
"what works" in the pscho-spiritual universe by seeing which sites
are the most popular in terms of total web traffic rank.

We recognize, of course, that the Alexa traffic rank is a
poor proxy for how good, true, or beautiful
an enlightenment-related site is, but we have to start somewhere.
In the near future, we are going to present a kind of
"EnlightenMatrix" or "map" of the online psycho-spiritual space that
will enable us all to get a much better feel for what different sites
(and the impetus behind them, and the leaders behind them) are
really like. We will add User Ratings as well, and eventually let
you sort the Scoreboard by different factors.

Another way to use the Scoreboard is just as a jumping-off point,
a tool for exploration. Why are these the most popular
enlightenment-oriented websites? What of value is there in them?
How can they be made better? Yes, there's Google and
many other listing of psycho-spiritual sites, but the mix of
interests you'll find here is a bit different than anywhere else on
the web, because, after all, we are...Enlightenment.Com.
(Live the name; live the entelechy.)

All feedback will be considered. If we're missing a site that has a
traffic rank of 100,000 or less, or there's a site that should be on
there that isn't, then let us know, at
mailto:scoreboard@enlightenment.com.
We take ourselves both very lightly and very seriously, but in
any case, we know that enlightenment is now a group activity,
a planetary endeavor, and therefore we both ask for,
and welcome, your input and assistance.

[*For our purposes, as always, "enlightenment" refers not so much to
the Western notion of "The Enlightenment," the great Age of Reason
that shaped modern European thought and brought us science and
the modern world as we know it, but rather, the crossing point where
spirituality, mysticism, Eastern and Western estoric thought,
self-development, self-growth, health consciousness, and many other
"off the beaten path" types of practices and experiences
come together, from the mundane to the quite wild and "out there."

So while we rely on no one single definition of "enlightenment,"
if you examine our website's pages, feel our vibe, and resonate
with who we are, what we've done in the past, and what we're
doing now, it's likely we share a great deal. (For a list of one way
of categorizing the online enlightenment universe, see our chart
of "20 Types of Psycho-Spiritulaists" available under the "Essays"
pull-down menu on our front page at http://enlightenment.com.
As you'll note, there are many, many different types of
psycho-spiritual seekers out there.)]

---------------------------

7. Thanks!

Thanks for reading this newsletter. Thanks for sticking with
Enlightenment.Com for the long-run. Thanks for all your personal
work and practice and discipline and energy. Thanks for being
who you are. Special thanks to all those who have over the
years supported me and the website. Thanks to my two
partners, Jeramy and Gabriel. Thanks to all our lovely
families and friends and pets. So, thanks for many reasons,
and we at Enlightenment.Com wish all of you
a wonderful rest of your Summer.

Best Blessings and Warmest Wishes,

Jordan S. Gruber
Founder and CEO, Enlightenment.Com

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One of the reasons I see rebounding taking off dramatically in the next few years is that, plain and simple, it's a whole lot of fun. It just *feels* really good, and I frequently enter periods of flat-out ecstacy.

From the very first time I got on a quality rebounder 6 years ago (I'm not counting my experience with a cheap rebounder in 1984), I simply really liked the way it felt. There's a physical and energetic expansion which, coupled with the wave-like motion of rebounding, naturally pulls me (entrains me) into states of physical and psychological bliss.

And while video doesn't quite capture the actual feeling, I think that the look on my face in these three videos can give you a pretty good "taste" of what you have to look forward to from a regular rebounding practice.

Hello there all rebounding people and potential rebounding people!

On December 14th I interviewed Matthew Mogen (who works for Zaadz/Gaia Community) on his year-long commitment to rebounding daily. (You can read that previous post here, along with some comments, and listen to the previous interview as well: http://enlightenmentdotcom.gaia.com/blog/2007/12/rebounding_45_days_straight_an_audio_interview_w_matthew_mogen)

Well, about a month ago I had a followup interview with Matthew. To listen to the .mp3, go to http://www.jordangruber.com/media/matthew_2ndcheckin.mp3. Matthew has some fascinating things to say about his rebounding practice. Matthew and I talk about:

• his 25 pounds of weight loss (all fat, he says)
• how he also went off sugar
• how he also got a spring-based rebounder for a trip, and how he likes supplementing his bungy-based rebounding with his spring-based rebounding
• some useful information about rebounding once you have a cold

Matthew also states that he plans on rebounding for the long-run, and that, in general, he's very happy with the changes that he's seen as a result of it.

Please come to my pod on chibounding if you have any interest in rebounding, and if you want to get what I believe is the best rebounder available, please come to http://www.enlightensource.com. NOTE THAT, UNFORTUNATELY, PRICES ARE ABOUT TO RISE AGAIN ON THESE UNITS (the production has moved entirely into Germany), so if you want to get the current prices, kyou have to act by June 15th.

And you can always feel free to write me with any questions.

best bouncing,

Jordan