Latest Posts

Children Will Teach Themselves To Read When They’re Ready

Children Will Teach Themselves to Read When They’re Ready

Annie Holmquist

Late last week, The Washington Post highlighted a bit of a rant titled “What the modern world has forgotten about children and learning,” by author Carol Black.

In essence, Black’s article takes issue with the modern education system’s insistence that every child fit into its timetable of learning. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the area of reading.

When people really want a skill, it goes viral. You couldn’t stop it if you tried.”

According to Black, Americans during the time of the Founding Fathers were regularly reading difficult material, and learned to do so from many sources, only one of which was the education system of the time. “They could read,” she notes, “because, in a literate population, it is really not that difficult to transmit literacy from one person to the next. When people really want a skill, it goes viral. You couldn’t stop it if you tried.”

Black goes on to note that this is the same motivation behind the way the current society has learned to operate computers: “We don’t know how to use computers because we learned it in school, but because we wanted to learn it and we were free to learn it in whatever way worked best for us.”

Yet despite seeing this natural learning take place with computer usage, we’re still reluctant to put it to practice in the realm of reading:

“In the modern world, unless you learn to read by age 4, you are no longer free to learn in this way. Now your learning process will be scientifically planned, controlled, monitored and measured by highly trained ‘experts’ operating according to the best available ‘data.’ If your learning style doesn’t fit this year’s theory, you will be humiliated, remediated, scrutinized, stigmatized, tested, and ultimately diagnosed and labelled as having a mild defect in your brain.”

Black’s comments remind me of a concept long promoted by Dr. and Mrs. Raymond Moore. As they explain in their book Better Late than Early, the Moores have “analyzed over 8000 studies of children’s senses, brain, cognition, socialization, etc., and are certain that no replicable evidence exists for rushing children into formal study at home or school before 8 to 10.

Such a suggestion is shocking, particularly in an age in which we’re trying to get students reading by the time they leave kindergarten. Won’t such a practice damage children and set them on a course of functional illiteracy for life?

Not necessarily. In fact, the Moores have found that giving children time and space to explore and learn to read on their own timetable may actually set them on a path to greater understanding and maturity:

“Read, sing and play with your children from birth. Read to them several times a day, and they will learn to read in their own time – as early as 3 or 4, but usually later, some as late as 14. Late readers are no more likely to be retarded or disabled than early ones. They often become the best readers of all – with undamaged vision and acute hearing, more adult-like reasoning (cognition) levels, mature brain structure[,] less blocking of creative interests.”

If what the Moore’s research says is true, then is it possible that the educational decline America is experiencing is partly due to the push to get students into formal education environments at earlier ages? Would we get better results if we relaxed compulsory education laws and let learning take a more natural course until children reach age 8 or so?

Sourced from: https://fee.org/articles/children-will-teach-themselves-to-read-when-theyre-ready/

Doctors Now Prescribing Music Therapy for Heart Ailments, Brain Dysfunction, Learning Disabilities, Depression, PTSD, Alzheimers, Childhood Development and More

Doctors Now Prescribing Music Therapy for Heart Ailments, Brain Dysfunction, Learning Disabilities, Depression, PTSD, Alzheimers, Childhood Development and More

Written by Didge Project director AJ Block and guest author Gracy Liura.

music therapy

Music has proven time and again to be an important component of human culture. From its ceremonial origin to modern medical usage for personal motivation, concentration, and shifting mood, music is a powerful balm for the human soul. Though traditional “music therapy” encompasses a specific set of practices, the broader use of music as a therapeutic tool can be seen nowadays as doctors are found recommending music for a wide variety of conditions.

1Music Helps Control Blood Pressure and Heart-Related Disorders

According to The Cardiovascular Society of Great Britain, listening to certain music with a repetitive rhythm for least ten seconds can lead to a decrease in blood pressure and a reduced heart rate. Certain classical compositions, if matched with human body’s rhythm, can be therapeutically used to keep the heart under control. The Oxford University study states, “listening to music with a repeated 10-second rhythm coincided with a fall in blood pressure, reducing the heart rate” and thus can be used for overcoming hypertension.

 

2Listening and Playing Music Helps Treat Stress and Depression

When it comes to the human brain, music is one of the best medicines. A study at McGill University in Canada revealed that listening to agreeable music encourages the production of beneficial brain chemicals, specifically the “feel good” hormone known as dopamine. Dopamine happens to be an integral part of brain’s pleasure-enhancing system. As a result, music leads to great feeling of joy and bliss.

It’s not only listening to music that has a positive effect on stress and depression. The Namm Foundation has compiled a comprehensive list of benefits of playing music, which includes reducing stress on both the emotional level and the molecular level. Additionally, studies have shown that adults who play music produce higher levels of Human Growth Hormone (HgH), which according to Web MD, is a necessary hormone for regulating body composition, body fluids, muscle and bone growth, sugar and fat metabolism, and possibly heart function.

For more on how music can be composed to benefit the brain, read about States of Consciousness and Brainwave Entrainment.

3Music Therapy Helps Treat Alzheimer’s Disease

Music therapy has worked wonders on patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. With Alzheimer’s, people lose their capacity to have interactions and carry on with interactive communications. According to studies done in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, “When used appropriately, music can shift mood, manage stress-induced agitation, stimulate positive interactions, facilitate cognitive function, and coordinate motor movements.”

4Studying Music Boosts Academic Achievement in High Schoolers

Early exposure to music increases the plasticity of brain helping to motivate the human brain’s capacity in such a way that it responds readily to learning, changing and growing. “UCLA professor James S. Catterall analyzed the academic achievement of 6,500 low-income students. He found that, by the time these students were in the 10th grade, 41.4% of those who had taken arts courses scored in the top half on standardized tests, contrasted with only 25% of those who had minimal arts experience. The arts students also were better readers and watched less television.” This goes to show that in the formative stages of life, kids who study music do much better in school.

5Playing Guitar (and Other Instruments) Aids in Treating PTSD

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs shared a study in which veterans experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) experienced relief by learning to play guitar. The organization responsible for providing guitars, Guitars For Vets “enhances the lives of ailing and injured military Veterans by providing them free guitars and music instruction.” Playing music for recovery from PTSD resembles traditional music therapy, in which patients are encouraged to make music as part of their healing process. Guitar is not the only instrument that can help PTSD. In fact, Operation We Are Here has an extensive list of Therapeutic Music Opportunities For Military Veterans.

6Studying Music Boosts Brain Development in Young Children

A research-based study undertaken at the University of Liverpool in the field of neuroscience has light to shed on the beneficial effects of early exposure to music. According to the findings, even half an hour of musical training is sufficient to increase the flow of blood in the brain’s left hemisphere, resulting in higher levels of early childhood development.

The Portland Chamber Orchestra shares, “Playing a musical instrument involves multiple components of the central (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral (nerves outside the brain and spinal cord) nervous systems.  As a musician plays an instrument, motor systems in the brain control both gross and fine movements needed to produce sound.  The sound is processed by auditory circuitry, which in turn can adjust signaling by the motor control centers.  In addition, sensory information from the fingers, hands and arms is sent to the brain for processing.  If the musician is reading music, visual information is sent to the brain for processing and interpreting commands for the motor centers.  And of course, the brain processes emotional responses to the music as well!”

7Music Education Helps Children Improve Reading Skills

Journal Psychology of Music reports that “Children exposed to a multi-year program of music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers.” In the initial stages of learning and development, music arouses auditory, emotional, cognitive and visual responses in a child. Music also aids a child’s kinesthetic development. According to the research-supported evidence, a song facilitates language learning far more effectively than speech.

8Listening To Music Helps Improve Sleep

According to The Center for Cardiovascular Disease in China, listening to music before and during sleep greatly aids people who suffer from chronic sleep disorders. This “music-assisted relaxation” can be used to treat both acute and chronic sleep disorders which include everything from stress and anxiety to insomnia.

9Playing Didgeridoo Helps Treat Sleep Apnea

 

A study published in the British Medical Journal shows that people suffering from sleep apnea can find relief by practicing the Australian wind-instrument known as the didgeridoo. Patients who played the didgeridoo for an average of 30-minutes per day, 6 days per week, saw significant increases in their quality of sleep and decreases in daytime tiredness after a minimum period of 3-months of practice. Dr. Jordan Stern of BlueSleep says, “The treatment of sleep apnea is quite challenging because there is not a single treatment that works well for every patient. The didgeridoo has been used to treat sleep apnea and it has been shown to be effective in part because of strengthening of the pharyngeal muscles, which means the muscles of the throat, as well as the muscles of the tongue.”

Sourced from: http://didgeproject.com/therapeutics/doctors-now-prescribing-music-for-heart-ailments-brain-dysfunction-learning-disabilities-depression-ptsd-alzheimers-and-more/

Mass Consciousness – Your Energy And Intention Are Needed NOW

Hello beautiful people of Mother Earth~

We are in unprecedented times.  It is so important that we as a collective whole make the conscious effort to Remember Who We Are.  Turn off the outside world and go within to find again that powerful, still quiet voice that leads us Home to Self.  Let me help you by reminding you of some things you may have forgotten.  Say each one slowly and repeatedly. Let yourself FEEL the energy of the words in your body.

I Am a Powerful, Master Creator.

I Am God/Goddess/Source Energy.

I Am Whole, Beautiful and Worthy as I Am NOW.

I have the ability to totally change my reality and make it into the reality I want. Continue reading “Mass Consciousness – Your Energy And Intention Are Needed NOW”

UFO’s, The Paranormal and Conspiracy Theories: What Are We So Afraid Of?

I have been having paranormal experiences since I was a child.  I define paranormal as anything outside of our known scientific, human understanding.  One of the first experiences happened when I was 9 when I awoke to find an Angel standing at the foot of my bed.  She was beautiful and looked like my mom only I knew it was not my mom (I believe this Being chose to do this as to not frighten me).  She had a Light and a presence about her I had never seen nor felt from another human, my mom included.  She glided beside my bed, looked down at me and gave me such a look of Love and tenderness, it nearly took my breath away.  Then she looked out my window, back down at me again, walked to the end of my bed again and disappeared.  Since then, I have seen “ghosts”, UFO’s, aura’s and have communicated with those who have passed on.  I have had also premonitions of events, including The Challenger crash and 9/11.

Given we’re still watching the UFO in the sky each night, it’s a topic of conversation with neighbors now and then.  Tonight I spoke with one such neighbor who said they had to stop watching as they couldn’t wrap their mind around it, and so chalked it up to a Star.  When I said we and a neighbor had watched it continuously on several occasions and each time, it came to a standstill where it ceased to move any further – at least for 45 minutes to an hour (which is when my mate and I would go to sleep),   “Hmm,” was the response.

Thinking outside of the box of our little realities we create is a challenge.  Some are more comfortable exploring than others.  I happen to be the type of person who wants to KNOW.  I want to know the TRUTH.  I have a near-obsessive curious nature.  I can recall in my 20’s having my first conversation on UFO’s.  I was so excited, thinking that finally I had met someone willing to discuss the topic and held the belief that we aren’t alone in the Universe.  Interestingly enough, that is a belief most humanity believes in, yet paradoxically many of those same people do not believe in UFO’s – at least those visible in our little neck of the woods.  Why is that?

Fear.  Plain and simple, fear.  I am observing that with this UFO I am seeing in the sky.  People want to explain it away as a star or a planet, which of course given it’s trajectory and behavior it is neither.  This object is obviously in it’s own orbit, doing it’s own thing.  Stars and planets don’t do that.  Only consciously/intentionally controlled objects do that.  And yet when I have pointed that out, numerous times, I receive the blank stare and the “hmm” only to hear “it’s a planet” or “it’s a star” the next time the conversation arises.

We want to think we’re in control of our realities, something I can laugh at today. Well, for the most part.  Life continuously proves otherwise.  I can either go along with it and open my mind to something new or I can refuse to acknowledge whatever it is I am running from.  However, once the seed of “hey what’s that” has been planted, there really is no turning back.  You can run but you can’t hide.

Take, for instance, the belief I hold which has so much information to back it up, it’s really a Truth: the political system is rigged, the MSM cannot be trusted and the entire system itself is controlled by a very small number of people (if I can even call them that).  I’m sure you can imagine I have been questioned, even grilled on that one.  When I am eventually asked, “How can all of this be true?  How can we be so controlled and lied to by so few?”

“Your disbelief and refusal to believe such,” I say.

Slowly, as more people awaken, things such as UFO’s, the paranormal and conspiracy theories are becoming more acceptable and thus mainstream.  I imagine a day where I turn on the news (only because it’s actually based on Truth) and can take my pick on such topics being presented in a fashion that isn’t insulting or obviously biased and thus dismissive.  Until then, as I continue expanding my own awareness and mind, as I continue to share my experiences and Truth with others, I will do my best to remain grounded and thoughtful when I encounter those still stuck in their own illusion and fear, for I was once there myself.

Searching For My Tribe

I subscribed to an e-mail newsletter awhile back on finding your tribe. The guy claims to have found his on some ranch in the southwest.  Although reading further into his newsletters, he claims you can find your tribe anywhere you are.  Sort of like the “bloom where you are planted”.

I disagree.

While I have been able to find connection pretty much wherever I have lived, I have continued to have this longing for my tribe for as long as I can remember.  For those people who are not only like-minded but who totally and completely just “get” you.  You know what I’m talking about. You can talk about a subject or topic or feeling no matter how out there and you get the nod of the head.  The “me too!”.  The hug or pat on the hand.  And all of that just feels like HOME.  Nothing pretend about it.  You have made complete authentic 110% connection with someone.  You have found a part of YOU. Continue reading “Searching For My Tribe”

As We Shift – A Disclosure Manifesto

Editor’s note: TOTALLY spot on agree with this.  This resonates 100% with me and I have had such thoughts for a long while now.  Love HELPS. Love NEVER watches suffering and claims “sorry you aren’t ready yet for help”. How in the hell are we, as a species, supposed to stop the insanity of the psychopaths who are hell bent on destroying us?  They have technology that we don’t stand a chance against on our own without outside helpers who have the means to at the very list, ASSIST us.  Work with us.  So yes star beings – Disclosure NOW.  Show yourselves NOW.  Humanity demands it.  

Picture

The response to this edition of the newsletter was off the charts.  What you are about to read is a nice summary of most of them.  It was penned by a reader and edited by me.  It is meant to be shared, so please post freely.  The people are speaking.  Now let’s see what kind of answer we get…

Hi Sophia,
I’ve just finished reading your newsletter of 9/2/2016 that describes your conversations (in late February 2016) with an off planet being named “Ra” regarding the extension of Disclosure for another 100 years.
I am appalled and very upset (as I know you are also) at the possibility of such matters being discussed without any representation by Humanity.  I would like to respond to some of the issues you raise Sophia and to Ra and all other beings that are responsible for FULL DISCLOSURE:

“We, the collective of planet earth, are approaching 8 billion in number.  Imagine, 8 billion strong, what a group we are, what a force of sheer power, & I love them all.  How could I, I’ve never met them you say, and I say because I’m connected to them. I’m connected to 8 billion people, yep, that is the lifesaving part of this human construct we enjoy.  You see, the conscious & unconscious part of ourselves connects us to other people whether we know it or not.

The connection is always there; like picking up the phone and talking.   When we focus a great deal of our energy within our own inner world in order to solve a problem, another parallel energy arises (at the same time) in the people & the situations around us.  This parallel energy is our communication line.  In this way, we can amplify our powers of creation.

This is perhaps the most powerful force individuals have at their disposal. It assists them with all parts of their lives. Further, even when we are not around each other physically, what we do in fantasy and imagination goes out through the collective unconscious and is felt by everyone.

Anyone can communicate with 8 billion brothers and sisters – what a family, not counting our Star Brothers and Sisters (who at the moment we cannot see).  The nice thing about all this is we don’t need smart phones!

I am going to estimate there are 500 people that run the planet (a quick number to keep it simple).  What’s most important to understand is the proportions, for therein lies the rub – 500 people vs 8 billion people?  Scales are really tilted aren’t they?

Keep this in mind as you read through this missive.   There is a game going on here, a very hurtful game that has been going on for centuries.  It’s time to stop!  Demand that it stop! Send a message throughout our planet.

This group of individuals (known as the Cabal) & their ancestors has controlled earth for a very long time.  For example:

“The Draco made an agreement 16,500 years ago with the indigenous people of Earth and we have been under the Draco’s global martial law ever since. Believe it or not, the Galactic Council and Universal Protection Unit felt they had to honor that agreement and so the predation and persecution that was going on before the agreement was allowed to continue.”

That is a great deal of CRAP that we carry.  In addition:

(2) “The Draco came into Atlantis covertly and collapsed that society causing a global catastrophe and ice age.  Humanity barely pulled thru that.” The Draco’s are not nice neighbors!                                                  (1)(2) https://americankabuki.blogspot.com/

Sophia has documented a conversation with Ra in February 2016.

Ra said: “The holdup is deemed necessary in order to preserve order.  We are not following the Will of One; order must be maintained to prevent destruction of too much life…”  Order maintained to prevent destruction of life, you’ve got to be kidding me, you’ve really got to be kidding me?   That’s all we have here is planned destruction of life!

What are you saying “Ra” that you know better than the Will of One?   Is chaos and poor judgement entering the higher realms too?  Why aren’t you following the Will of ONE?

(I’ve always complained about this, that the some of the higher beings were out of touch with us, and that can be very deadly for us as a whole).

What the heck is going on now, we have murder, famine, starvation, poison water, poison air, poison food, totally corrupt government, worthless money, a complete breakdown of the feminine principle, (chips are implanted in our bodies, our DNA is taken without our permission, machines are made that generate an electromagnetic field  that keep us at lowered vibrational frequencies that promulgate states of depression, anger, tension, hopelessness, aggression, division, separation, and the list is endless), programs developed to pit male and female genders against one another,   racism,  ethnic cleansing,  wars all over the planet, millions of people displaced, millions of homeless , the sale and kidnapping of children, giant pedophile rings, entire nations turned upside down, towns fighting against towns, cities against cites, false histories being published, lies laid upon us year after year to hide our origins and our power, every imaginable darkness has been put on us …and you “Ra” call this maintaining order.  You are hysterical, don’t make me laugh!

Because the 9-9-9 Portal Gateway is the completion of the 3rd Dimension, this planet will never be the same again after this month.  That means all vibrations that allow for separation will no longer be perpetuated or tolerated.  I fully realize my words & thought forms promote separation and division,  but I’m not a “Galactic correct” person yet, and I find your “utterances” very stressful, so there is no time for decorum.

It’s total chaos here, and with another 100 yrs. extension it will get worse, humanity would not survive and I am sure Gaia would not approve.   She is our beautiful Mother, Protector, and Sustainer …She has “felt” all that we have gone through so it would be a transgression of Her Will also.  We, the 8 Billion of the planet  Earth will not stand for another extension, not even one second beyond the time planned by the Will of ONE.

We demand Disclosure, many of us know of it already, what’s the point. Oh! You’re afraid…… “A few of us would be frightened and panic” …when we see our Star Brothers and Sisters?  I politely disagree.  Bringing access to technology that affords healing, food, free energy and sustenance on all levels will be supported by all humanity.   Our Star Brothers and Sisters can handle any eventuality that arises, I’m sure of it.

“Ra”, it is not necessary to project yourself as the protector of human life, while at the same time directly sanctioning chaos, suffering, pain and agony. You and the committee are no better than are earth’s current controllers.  This is not living in the Truth. It is deceitful, criminal and in complete violation of natural law, divine law, and the Will of One.  This is not a personal judgement, these are facts that are in plain view and can be viewed by anyone.  There are 8 billion of us looking at you…you are in opposition to US!  I have communicated this information today to my Brothers and Sisters here and they have awakened.

As Sophia has said, “What gives any race the power or right to withhold what would only promote life and expand the possibilities for the human?”  The order that you are proud of maintaining keeps mankind subservient and enslaved, and is against the Will of One.

We the collective of planet earth, all 8 billion people, united as ONE,  in ONE voice and as Co-Creators with the Will of ONE  not only request but DEMAND our release from the predation, persecution, and enslavement by the forces that have ruled this planet for thousands of years.  We DEMAND the reunion with our star brothers and sisters. They are our beloved family that we have been separated from for centuries.  We further demand the release of all technologies that afford us healing, food, free energy and sustenance on all levels. This is the Will of ONE.  What we demand is rightfully ours, all 8 billion of us. So be it!”

Jack Sturgeon ~ edited by Sophia Love
Sourced from: http://www.sophialove.org/my-blog/as-we-shift-a-disclosure-manifesto

Return Of The Divine Feminine – Honoring Women And The Roles We Serve

For far too long, the masculine energy has dominated this reality, creating imbalance in all lifeforms.  Masculine energy, when balanced, is protective.  It gets things done.  What we see today is the disease of imbalance – control, competition, greed, abuse and a blatant disregard for the well-being of others and all forms of life.

The feminine energy is nurturing and caring.  It is soft.  Supportive.  Feminine energy has been suppressed, largely because of how we value women and the roles we play.  This suppression comes into play as well when we look at those words – nurturing, caring, soft.  Those words are seen as “weak” and therefore of lesser value than the masculine roles of “get ‘er done” and “protection”. Continue reading “Return Of The Divine Feminine – Honoring Women And The Roles We Serve”

Another Example Of The Mandela Effect

Or better known as – what the heaven is happening to reality?  Watching this video, at mark 1:34, this was NOT in this video a few month ago.  “Our spirits…… are alive and well in the 5th dimension….And we won’t have to die to join them.”  NEW WORDS.  Mate first experienced this phenomena then I did.  Check it out and comment.

 

Kids Vs. Feds: Climate Change Lawsuit

A critical hearing in the landmark climate lawsuit brought by 21 youth plaintiffs across the U.S. will take place in just four days at a federal courthouse in Eugene, Oregon.

On Sept. 13, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken will hear oral arguments representing all of the parties on Juliana, et al. v. United States, et al, which was first filed in 2015 by the young plaintiffs, ages 8-19, and climate scientist Dr. James Hansen.

According to the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, “the plaintiffs are suing the federal government for violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property and their right to essential public trust resources, by permitting, encouraging and otherwise enabling continued exploitation, production and combustion of fossil fuels.”

Judge Aiken will review an earlier decision from U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the same federal court. In April, Judge Coffin surprisingly ruled in favor of the young plaintiffs despite motions from the government and the fossil fuel industry to dismiss the case. The fate of the historic lawsuit is now in Judge Aiken’s hands, who will determine whether the case will either proceed toward trial or to appeal.

Sourced from: http://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-lawsuit-2000937126.html