Wednesday, March 30, 2016

"DISAPPEARING OF HEXES AMONG THE SEXES"
by Khalil Somadi

 
On one level or another, from one vantage point or another, Sisters want a sneak peek into a  Brothers' psyche; and Brothers want a sneak peek into the psyche of Sisters.
I think it's only natural; after all, we ARE the only two components of human existence!
But we are more than our reproductive design.
We are social beings.Thinking personas. We are sexual creatures, to various and individual degrees. And we are entwined... even when we are most separate.
We are, (often unconsciously!) bisexual, with overt leanings to heterosexuality.
Or maybe our SoulRhythm beats prominently to the cadences of same-sex attraction.
Maybe some of us are drawn equally to either soul & sexual stance.
And their are even more variations than those!

The common denominator however, must be love.
I'm happy to say that all does not seem lost for us, regarding this love!
These days more than ever I have been privileged to become acquainted with sisters and with brothers operating toward genuine understanding and appreciation of one another. And they are doing it with their feet planted firmly in honesty-- to Self and to One Another. And they're doing it with as much respect for one another's sameness as for one another's differences!
That
 takes
 guts!

But people of any substance have always had to have courage, which is what created their substance in the first place; and committing to complete honesty comes out of that too.
You see along with the openness that honesty encourages, comes also the extinguishing of negatives like misogyny,
penis envy,
homophobia,
respectability politics,
suppression of female sexual expression to escape the label of amoral pariah,
assexuality as emotional self-defense...
All those things that sequester us sister and brother counterparts from one another.

It's not what you do; its how you treat others who do differently.
"It's not what you're called," as Maya Angelou has so eloquently said, "it's what you answer to"!Love in a Black community of Kindred!

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

I just don't feel right this morning.
My vision is off. Something about the inside of my head doesn't feel right. And there's a breathlessness interwoven thru out my being this morning... These things are all physical;  but I'm very aware that they are but physical manifestations of something more profound, and troubling.
Like a harbinger of a calamity...
:-(
#ToWhomDoIPray?

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

"RECOVER THE TEMPLE THAT IS YOUR BODY: EAT TO LIVE!"
by Khalil Somadi

I love both bacon and salt!!!
Bacon and salt however do not give a DAMN about me! Neither does ham, or any other pork!
I have hypertension and both pork and salt raises my blood pressure and cholesterol levels and clogs the arteries to my heart.

Pork and salt
are
not
my
friends!

If you are African American, they are not your friends either!
Why do you think we African-Americans are so prone to have hypertension and heart disease?
I noticed this statistic even before I became ardent about eating to live.
As a black man I was raised on the typical African-American diet, because even though my father was Caribbean, my mother was African American and pork chops, ham, Bar-B-Q Ribs, Fried Chicken, Hot Wings smothered in hot sauce, Collard Greens with fat back (more pork), Mashed Potatoes with home made gravy (pork grease or the grease from the cooked meat of that day, onions, white flour, black pepper, iodized salt and water), with overcooked vegetables and of course KOOL-AID to wash it all down, which was practically filled with a pound of sugar!
Raw fruits and vegetables were eaten too, but were not the norm offered to us on a daily basis.

If you were to calculate the sodium, fat, pork and chemicals we as blacks eat on a daily basis, you too would realize why we are so prone to have high blood pressure and congenital heart disease. I know for a fact that if our people would eliminate pork completely out of their diet and replace all drinks we consume with distilled water or fruit and vegetable drinks, we would lower our blood pressure  and heart disease dramatically.

I'm not going to sit here and suggest that changing our eating habits is easy. Anything worthwhile is usually not easy!
But I WILL tell you that the things I have put into my body in the past, from cigarettes to salt and pork, have landed me in a very unfortunate health position that could have been prevented.

Kindred, let me tell you something:
You don't miss good health until you don't have it anymore!

One thing I have learned during my "recovery" transition is that once I learned better, I was compelled to do better. That means not lamenting over what I was "denying myself" and focusing on the old way...letting my impulses rule my reason.
Our minds are amazingly strong; we must reinforce what we learn with our health-conscious intent, i.e. experiment with tastes in areas that replace those unhealthy habits we've committed to let go of.
We must allow ourselves to become excited about the New Us, about new healthy food discoveries just waiting to delight our taste buds, and about having a healthy heart and clean articles and stepping out of that racial stereotype created by bad eating habits passed down and endlessly repeated.

Eat to Live, Kindreds!
Eat. To live!

Saturday, March 19, 2016

"WINGS: THE BEGINNING "
  Part I of The Wings Trilogy
  by Khalil Somadi

They were mine before my birth,
before I came into this realm you know as Earth,
thru my father's chosen seed
and my mother's womb where I was hence conceived.
Like a sea shell transported by water to another Place & Time,
I came to be Here, and my fledgling wings were mine.

But something evil took control of my earth father,
and my wings became a bother
to his soul.
He pinned them down
at first, then tore them from me to behold
as bloody trophies
hung high in our closet dark
with calculated torture aimed
to maim my weakened heart.
He left me earthbound with no learning,
yearning
for the nurturing that comes with love--
something he had lost all knowledge of.

But he began to know
My wings would never cause his own stature to grow,
for they were mine
by God's design;
and they would keep on living,
even unattached,
until the day when I was strong enough to stand and take them back.

WINGS ll:

"THE CALLING OF MY WINGS"
Part ll of The Wings Trilogy
by Khalil Somadi

Day turned into Night
turned into Day;
and the more time passed, I felt the Light's ballet
in the center of my soul.
It made me bold.
It made me know
how much my wings were needed now.
I came to vow
without the need for words,
that day when yearning came to feel like birds
lifting in flight
to instant heights,
to take my wings
as mine again.
I felt the calling
for my rising
with no further compromising,
even tho appalling
revelations reigned
against my brain,
and tho my body bore the stain
of metaphysical corruption,
interruption
of Becoming
left my heart and spirit wanting.
On my back grew deepening stings
from the absence of my wings!

Somehow I still loved my father,
The Immoral Scholar,
tho his demons now have left him ruined.
So the power in me brewing
frightened me:
It will certainly  come down to Him or Me...
More and more I felt the calling,
and another night would soon be falling,
then another day
since he ripped my wings away....

(To be continued in Wings III?)

Friday, March 18, 2016

THE POWER IS ALREADY YOURS
Khalil Somadi

I want you to realize something Kindreds...
You can't look to other people to validate your worth; and I'm speaking here and now to a specific aspect of validation where I see our people still getting it twisted, and that is 
feeling you do not measure up in this society of white supremacy. 
Don't look to be validated by the white man. For one thing he nor anyone else is authentically capable of validating your worth. He however wants you to BELIEVE, is in fact COUNTING on you to believe! that he can and will, 
so that when he withholds it from you, you will be left not knowing what to do with your feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. He WANTS you to feel those things, because it plays into his own superiority complex and his attempts to systematically puppeteer us as a people.

But we have the power to validate ourselves. It is ours already. 
And the first step to exercising it is to realize it, then claim and embrace it. 
Validate your own self worth Kindred! There is nothing more affecting than a people who love themselves and need no exterior validation of their worth. Psychological warfare cannot conquer you if you do not surrender your mind to it. Question EVERYTHING they attempt to feed you mentally and use logic and the information you uncover on your own fact-finding missions to substantiate your footsteps. 
As 'Mr. Brown' is famous for saying: "The Devil is a liar! "

Thursday, March 17, 2016

THE AMERICAN HOLIDAY TRAP
by Khalil Somadi 


We need to pause and think before year after year continuing to celebrate all these European holidays that Americans jump on the bandwagon for! 
Just about every popular U.S. holiday celebrated Today has very negative history attached to it and race usually plays a part in that history in some way or another!
Keep in mind if you will that white oppressors have always celebrated their most atrocious bloodletting--  from public lynchings of blacks,  which were entertainment at their  picnics, to pub crawling on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate "Saint" Patrick who committed genocide against an entire tribe of Africans. It has all become so desensitized that none of Us think twice about it, we just go with the flow. 
It's time to change the flow and the  current though Kindred! 
Don't just celebrate these bullshyt holidays because everybody else does, or because you've always celebrated them, or because you never took the time and care to check out for your OWNSELF what a popular holiday is actually founded on. 
And then once some of Us DO find  out the truth, we still go right on celebrating them and making excuses to celebrate them and being complacent because it feels easier to do than stepping outside the robot mill and doing differently.  
Supposedly once we know better, so said Dr. Maya Angelou,  we do better, right? Where is the logic in doing otherwise???
Wake up Kindred. Wake up!



"MEETING GRANDFATHER"
by Khalil Somadi

My grandfather died the day i was born, and I've missed him ever since
in the way that you miss heat up against
your skin
when all you can feel within
is the cold.

My mom told me about him when I was ten years old.

His name was Sam.
I was told that I am
"the spitting image of him".

Tall, dark and grim!

And that even tho you didn't see either of us smile on the outside much,
you knew we were smiling inside,
in that place where we hide
our secret treasures safe from any human touch...
I missed my grandfather so much!

And that's peculiar,
since we never met.
And since I didn't even get
to see his face
because my mother's only picture of him sadly got misplaced
that time we were evicted,
when our lives became afflicted
by our drought.

Important things we went without.

Like someone to talk to because we were too afraid to talk to one another.
Instead we clung to our need to smother
inner cries
with ugly and unspoken lies
we were forced to act on just the same.

So I made up a friend and I gave him a name.
I named him Sam.
He was just like I am...
born in the wrong Time,
in the harshest place
where it felt like a crime
to show your real face
if it was different--
we were ignorant
as to why.
Because as boys we were so different, we could fly!
Sam and I...
escaping ghetto sounds infiltrating our block
where peace was mocked,
and we created entire towns
from verbs and nouns,
where adjectives did vivid painting
while our adverbs kept complaining
it was useless work
as long as shadows from the real world lurk
like dark storm clouds blocking the horizon.
But we needed our own Zion.

So we worked in the storm cloud's shadow,
and we borrowed
my grandfather from the Other Side to come back and reside
as my friend Sam,
who is just as I am...
born in the wrong Time and the harshest place.
My grandfather, whom I faintly remember
passing one September
on my journey into the world when he was on his journey out of it...
My soul is reminiscent
of who the man he once was.
And our peculiar bond I've come to know as love...

Monday, March 14, 2016

YO, ALEXANDER HAMILTON!
Hey, what's shakin bruh? As you probably already peeped by now to know, I'm somewhat of an art zealot-- poetry, painting, dance, the theater, pretty much the whole nine yards. And there's this Hip Hop musical called HAMILTON happening right now in remembrance of you and how you did yours. This artistic production is what led me to check you out really...
All in all you weren't a bad guy. Actually we had a few things in common: We were both Caribbean-born. Both writers... Men of Letters, to use the vernacular of your day. Both of us, passionate about injustices and intense in our mental/emotional disposition; we also have no problem telling mufukkas off when the need arises! And we both have skills growing and managing money, (shyt I could be in charge of the Treasury right now as you were then and I'd be better at it than that guy Jack Lew who's the current Secretary of Treasury!)
I commend the help you provided Haiti. And I join you in your distaste for that hypocrital-assed Thomas Jefferson who was all about slavery while wearing the title Founding Father. It was cool too how you ran with the abolitionists and wrote papers defaming slavery and promoting that ex-slaves had the right to bear arms. (Cuz I know damn well I will always bear mine!)
But Alex I've gotta say this, bruh... you should've never subscribed to that European bullshyt concept of shooting up into the air during a duel. Okay?
Not only did you advise your son who took part in a duel before you did to shoot the air rather than shoot the opponent who is expected to shoot him, but you yourself did the same shyt when the time came and it didn't end well, for your son or for you!
What the hell were you thinking???
Yeah I agree men must demonstrate honor, and that doing so can invoke others to do the same. But I'm not ever willing to bet my son's life or my own on another man's propensity to do the right thing!
Now see if you were raised differently, like me and countless other Blacks for instance,  you would've known to prepare for the worst and to come ready to counter it. I could've helped you out with that...
:-)
Anyway, just wanted to tell you that. And to say that the Hip Hop musical HAMILTON is dope...(wonder if you'd feel complimented by the diversity of the cast ballin to the music written to tell your story? You know how we artists are...forever starting shyt!)
Well, wherever you are, keep raising hell; only this time do it smarter, like a Brotha would!
Nice meeting ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!
#NoHateTho
I'm out...

--Khalil Somadi--

The discovery of Self, of "Who Am I" is both priceless and timeless!
While there are people who seem to come into the world knowing who they are and why they are here, for the most part the human journey appears to be very much about asking this question and allowing its answers to guide us on our paths.
So when we find ourselves in the heart of unknowing, we can have faith that we are merely  in a very "human" place.
#GrowingIntoYourDivinity
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When it comes to her son, Jill Scott is just one of those celebs who’d prefer to keep his face out of the blogs, off your TV screens and no where near your desktop. It wasn’t until recently (now that he’s getting older) that the Golden brown singer acknowledged him at her show. During her performance at InterludesLIVE, she pointed to the rafters and said, I love that little man up there.
“Jett? He’s the coolest person I ever met,” she spoke of her little gent with a sparkle in her eye to InterludesLIVE host Smokey Fontaine. “He’s funny. He’s smart,” she continued. “And he’s so loving. I can’t get over him. He’s romantic at this age. There are some times I’m like ‘Is that sexy?’”
Jill is raising Jett to be a strong and socially conscious Black man in an era when Black men are being murdered at alarming rates at the hands of the police. She admits she’s had to instill in Jett a sense of awareness around his humanly rights.
"RIGHT VERSUS MIGHT"
  by KhalilSomadi

In Yoruba, "Emi oluko"  means Teacher.
Emi oluko teaches: When Our opposition is a creature
who grows stronger from Our flesh and blood
and celebrates his blows to Our body, dancing to the music of each sickening thud,
We put Our fists up and We fight,
throwing punches left and right.

But, wildly so?

Will We be like them whose passion stole
away their brain,
so that their useless movements seem insane???

We must see Our steps before We even make them...
sense the enemy stalking at Our heels and shake them...
making time to strategize
and realize
a FightingPlan.
For We aren't fighting with a solitary man;
We're fighting manufactured menaces in this bloodthirsty land--
all propelled by that alabaster overlord
against whom We cannot afford
to ever drop Our hands.

But We need a FightPlan.

Not a striking out blind,
blows landing out of time
with no effect,
allowing cannibals to sink their thieving teeth repeatedly into Our necks!

We must fight smart, fight steady.
Set a fire in the ring when We are ready!
And We'll all use the timbre of Our elevated voices
to dislodge the stony floor beneath the feet of our old bosses!

All a part of the fight to set things right...

Emi oluko gave Us Light!

Sunday, March 13, 2016

How come the man won't be executed if he isn't a virgin?
That patriarchal bullshit is so oppressive and ridiculous as hell! It is said in the bible that God is a just God. Why then would He subscribe to a philosophy such as this? And to what beneficial end?
This mentality is rooted in the ego of MAN, and all the various practices which operate out of this patriarchal, oppressive mindset center around or have to do with supremacy and oppression...from misogyny and classism to homophobia and racial discrimination.
This is important to understand, because to understand this is to realize why black people must have solidarity and represent as One people to war against the ways in which white supremacy manifests power and influence over our daily lives.
Gender, sexual disposition, political persuasions, poor or middle or upper class economic status, etc. must all be inconsequential to our unity.
We are linked by our melanin.
We ascend through solidarity.
And we are strengthened by Light (which is Truth)...revealing proverbial snakes grass that is designed to appear safe and dedicated to your welfare!

--K. Somadi--

Friday, March 11, 2016

"THE REAL VALUE OF BLACK HISTORY IN PRESENT DAY AMERICA AND THE CRIPPLING EFFECT OF MENTAL MYOPIA IN THIS COUNTRY"
             by Khalil Somadi

   Let me say this to my sisters and brothers regarding Black History and the importance of it: There are are some people, both black and white, who feel that talking about slavery in this day and age is living in the past. Dredging up old wounds. That slavery as it did occur should be relinquished to some Parthenon of Yesteryear; what Was should not and does not have any bearing on What Is.
   To those people I inform you that you are  suffering from Mental Myopia.
Don't be shocked; many people suffer from it. It's a condition, similar to the eye disease Myopia, where a person sees only things that are near. But unlike the eye condition, Mental Myopia is a condition one adopts willingly, and that's what makes its effects more tragic and widespread. To allow yourself to be mentally myopic is to exist and function in non-reality. Which means people get dealt with according to a view that is warped.
And here We are.
   Black people who are proud of who they are, yet who see no value Today in black history,  which does includes slavery, need to ask themselves this question: do you realize just to what extent you are a product of your environment? You are a product of slavery. Today. Because slavery in this country produced a set of circumstances that actually shaped the landscape in which you presently live.
   Why do you think so many black people nowadays are embracing their heritage by telling one another to love their black skin and black features? Why do you think many blacks speak and teach of African kings and African Americans of greatness?
And by the same token, why do you think racial-profiling happens in this country, and other kinds of racial discrimination happens in this country?
Because slavery marked this country in a way that has not been and cannot be erased. We can build forward from it, but the change did occur, and people act and react out of the environment that was created by the cancer that was slavery in this country.  
   There is something wrong with an environment where a person living in it has to mentally instill it in his brain that he is of worth. It SHOULD be automatically presumed and understood. But it often isnt. Not by blacks. And not by whites either. Our environmental climate and history here in America is so marked by slavery that there isn't a continent or country in the world where the Black Man isn't known and remembered as a product of subjugation on a massive scale, and the connotations are huge and various!
   Black history IS of value. But it must be about more than citing black achievements during the month of February, or chanting black power in the streets, or even remembrance of slaves who lived demoralization, even while building the country they were shackled to.
   Black history should be celebrated each an every day...Mentally... by realizing our behaviors and the behaviors of others-- both black and white-- which are products of this climate that came out of slavery; and once  realized, act to correct your stance in it, one mental occurrence at a time. This especially applies to how you view and treat yourselves, which in turn will dictate how you allow others to treat you.
The landscape that is America can no longer afford Myopia.
1. The Rope Technique: This technique has been formulated by Robert Bruce and is one of the most effective techniques around. A key ingredient to this projection technique is an invisible, imaginary ROPE hanging from your ceiling. This ROPE will be used to exert dynamic pressure at a single point on your astral body to force its separation from the physical.

Reach out with your imaginary HANDS and pull yourself, hand over hand, up the strong, invisible, imaginary ROPE hanging above you. You will feel a slight dizzy sensation inside you as you do this. This feeling of vertigo will intensify the more you pull on the rope.

Keep climbing, hand over hand, ever upwards, and you will feel the vibrations start. Your whole body will seem to be vibrating and you will feel paralyzed. Concentrate single minded, on climbing your rope. Don’t stop.

Next you will feel yourself coming free of your body. You will exit your body in the direction of your imaginary ROPE and will be hovering above your body. You’re free at last!

2. Watch yourself going to sleep: Lie down comfortably on your back, facing the ceiling. Relax your body and clear your mind of unwanted thoughts. Relax even more.

Tell yourself that you are going to watch yourself in the act of going to sleep. You must be very clear about your intent. You’re going to let your body sleep while your mind will remain alert throughout the entire process. Tell yourself you will retain consciousness even while your body is going to be in complete “trance”.

As you relax completely, you must learn to recognize the rather strange, distinctive sensations you feel as your body moves into the sleep state. You MUST stay aware as this unfolds. At a certain point, you will feel that your body is feeling heavy and numb.

You are on the right track! Pay close attention to all your bodily sensations. You may feel yourself swaying or floating. You might even find certain parts of your body tingling. There might be vibrations running from your head to toe. You might even hear a strong buzzing sensation in your ears. Whatever the sensations, do not panic as these are very good signals that you are on the verge of experiencing an OBE.

You have to then visualize that you are rising up from your bed and floating towards the ceiling. How would it feel if you could actually float? Try to make the experience as real as possible. Hold this image for as long as you can. If everything goes on well, you might suddenly find yourself outside the body, floating near the ceiling!

3. The Monroe Technique: Dr Robert Monroe, one of the foremost authorities on Astral Projection devised this method.

You have to first relax your body. This is a very important step.

Then try to go to sleep, but don’t fall asleep. Maintain your awareness between sleep and wakefulness. This is known as the hypnagogic state. Then deepen this hypnagogic state and start to clear your mind of unwanted thoughts. Simply look through your closed eyelids at the blackness in front of you.

Then you must enter an even deeper state of relaxation. The next step is to induce vibrations throughout your body and intensify them. These vibrations have to be controlled and intensified further. This is the moment when the Astral body will separate from the Physical body. You then simply have to “roll-over” and you will find yourself out of your body.

4. OBE From lucid dreams: Lucid dreams are dreams in which the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming. In a Lucid Dream a person is already “out” of his body.

In order to achieve Astral Projection from Lucid Dreams, you have to first become obsessed with OBEs and you must really DESIRE it. You must read everything you can about it. You must think about it every free moment that you have.

Once your mind is besotted with the thought of OOBEs we will need triggers and affirmations so that you have a Lucid Dream. During the day keep thinking: ‘Tonight I’m going to have a Lucid Dream’. Remind yourself of this all day long. And – and this is the important part – keep asking yourself during the day “Am I dreaming now?”

With a few days of practice, you’ll have programmed your sub-conscious to induce a Lucid Dream.

Once you are in a Lucid Dream, and know that you are dreaming, you would also know that you are not in your body. You can then will yourself to see your bedroom. In most cases, when you do this, your dreamland will suddenly disappear and you will find yourself in your bedroom, floating above your body.

5. Displaced-awareness technique: Close your eyes and get into your usual trance-state. Try to sense the entire room, at once. Feel yourself just above your shoulders and seeing all around. Be very passive about what is going on.

Then imagine that your Astral Body is slowly rotating by 180 degrees. Once you finish your mental rotation, your astral head should be where your physical feet are, and your astral feet would be where your physical head is! With this firmly in your mind, try visualizing the room from this new direction.

The idea is to forget about where you really are, and displace your sense of direction. When you do this correctly, you will find yourself getting dizzy. This is normal.

When you are comfortable with this, the next step is to imagine floating towards the roof. Try to make it as real as possible. You may suddenly find yourself “popped” out of your physical body!

6. The Jump Technique: The Jump Technique, when done well, can wake up anyone in their dreams and make them Lucid. However, it does need to be done well.

This is how the technique works: We repeatedly need to ask ourselves during the day whether we are in a dream or not. It is important that we do this not just for the sake of asking ourselves the question, but because we really want to know where we are. We should really doubt that we are in the Physical. So in order to prove where we are, we jump as if we were going to fly. If we are in the Physical, we will land back on the ground. But during a dream, when we jump, we will defy gravity and float.

When this is done for a few days, you will soon find yourself in a dream in which you are jumping to check whether you are in a dream or not. As soon as you jump, you will find yourself floating, thus triggering a Lucid Dream and an OOBE.

7. Muldoons Thirst Technique: This is not one of the most pleasant or effective methods designed by Sylvan Muldoon.

In order to use this technique, you must refrain from drinking for some hours before going to bed. Throughout the day increase your thirst by every means you can. Keep a glass of water in front of you and stare into it, imagining drinking, but not allowing yourself to do so!

Then before you sleep, eat a pinch or two of salt. Place the glass of water at some convenient place away from your bed and rehearse in your mind all the actions necessary to getting it: getting up, crossing the room, reaching out for the glass, and so on. You must then go to bed, still thinking about your thirst and the means of quenching it. At night, you might awaken in your dream and you will find yourself walking towards the glass of water. With any luck the suggestions you have made to yourself will bring about the desired OBE

8. The Stretch Out Technique: Lie down, shut your eyes and relax your body. Imagine your feet stretching out and becoming longer by just an inch or so. Once you have this picture in your mind, let your feet go back to normal. Do the same with his head, stretching it out an inch beyond its normal position. Then, get it back to normal. Then alternate all between head and feet, gradually increasing the distance until you can stretch out both your feet and head to about two feet or more. At this stage imagine stretching out both at once. This exercise will make you feel dizzy and often start the vibrations.

After some practice, you will experience floating sensations and you can then tell yourself to rise up towards the ceiling. You are out!

9. The Hammock Technique: Visualize yourself lying in a bright white hammock, stationed between two palm trees on a secluded beach. Imagine the feeling of swaying in the wind, and recreate that feeling now as you visualize yourself swaying from side to side in the hammock. Repeat this visualization for as long as it takes to bring forth the vibrations, and when you feel the vibrations, just “roll-out” of your body.

10. Do the relaxing thing. Get to where you can’t feel your body. Repeat this saying in your head, and focus on it as much as possible. Don’t get discouraged! Say it slow if you have to…

“I am going to have an out of body experience.

I am going to let myself go to sleep, but I am going

to bring this waking consciousness with me wherever

I go. I am going to leave my body with full awareness.”

Keep saying the phrase even when you feel tired and you feel like rolling over….

Roll over if you have to in order to stay comfortable, and keep doing it. If you feel any tingles or see any lights that seem to flash, don’t let them throw you off. They are perfectly natural. If when you’re tired you struggle to remember the words, just recite something shorter like ‘Mind awake, body asleep’, and do it until you lose consciousness.

Source: The Mind Unleashed

2 Former Los Angeles Gang Rivals Created a Catering Business

Trap Kitchen LA is the brainchild of former Bloods and Crips members.
Posted: 
 
8_1457540588046_957392_ver1.0_640_360
Malachi Jenkins and Roberto Smith
INSTAGRAM
One spent years repping the Bloods. The other spent years repping the Crips. But now two former gang members are repping one thing: food.
Malachi Jenkins, a former member of the Crips, and Roberto Smith, a former member of the Bloods, both got tired of running the streets and hustling. And when a mutual friend introduced them, despite their involvement with the gangs at the time, they hit it off and then shortly realized they both had had enough of the lives they were leading.
Jenkins, aka Chef Spanky, enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu, and after graduating, he started posting pictures of his dishes on Instagram.
After becoming Instagram famous, the two started their new business venture, Trap Kitchen LA.
“The gang stuff, the shootings, now that I’m in this kitchen, I don’t go through none of that,” Smith said.
And since Instagram is where they started, it’s how their business is operated. A photo of the daily menu is placed on the Instagram account, and you can arrange pickup or delivery. Their dishes range from chicken and waffles to steak and potatoes. With one look at their Instagram account, you can see why they’re picking up business.
Congratulations to these men!