What the Doctors Do Not Tell You About Headaches

I was moved to write this blog today after watching CBS news in the morning. They had a headache specialist on their show being interviewed about headaches and what caused them. No where in her talk did she say one word about bad breathing patterns i.e. neurosis breathing or unnecessary muscle tension in the head neck and shoulders. I am not a headache specialist in her league. But I do know that Dr Janet Travell, in a landmark book published in 1983, showed the relationship between muscle tension and head, neck, and shoulder pain. My question is, why did the headache specialist not talk about that relationship and that most people who suffer headaches, also have that muscle tension pattern? In my experience of working with people with all kinds of headaches, I have not seen one person who suffered headaches that did not have the muscle trigger points or knots that Dr Travell discovered. You can find information on her findings on referred pain patterns at the following links.
http://www.triggerpointbook.com/triggerp.htm

http://www.triggerpointbook.com/headache.htm

I know there are many reasons for a headache, but why not first see if the headache can be helped by the most obvious cause for it? Referred pain caused my muscle tension. Remember OCCAM'S RAZOR, named after William of Occam. Given a choice between two explanations, choose the simplest -- the explanation which requires the fewest assumptions. And I would add less money and time to treat.
Now, what role does breathing have in relationship to headaches. Get a mirror. Look at your head neck and shoulders, and chest. Take a deep full breath and hold your breath at the top of the inhale. Look at the mirror. Most of you will have seen your chest and shoulders rise up. You would see the muscles in your neck tense. You would notice your lower jaw push into you upper jaw. Release your inhale. (smile) Notice the illustration of referred pain patterns below. Can you see the relationship between how you breathe and muscle tension in the head, neck and shoulders? I hope you can because it is there.
The headache specialist reported that exercise can cause headaches in some people. True, but did they examine how these people where breathing and holding their head neck and shoulders. The answer is NO!!!!! WHY????

My belief is that the business aspects of the medical community have very little interest in telling the American people about the role of trigger points and the cause of the trigger points in the cause and treatment of almost all headaches. Why? Follow the money. The treatment of headaches is a multi-billion dollar industry. If the medical community dealt with headaches as a bad breathing indicator and a muscle tension problem where would the money go? It would not go to the pharmaceutical industry or the hospitals or doctors. Let me see now, would they give up a multi-billion dollar industry to give you what you really need to help your headaches?What do you think. Hmmm, NO, I do not think they have or they will. That would give them a big financial headache. The money spent of their services and pills would go back in the patients pocket and away from the pharmaceutical industry. What do you think?

I talked with a Korean doctor who was working at the Cleveland Clinic many years ago and we talked about breathing patterns and muscle tension in relationship to headache treatment. He said if he brought this kind of educational treatment up he would be out of a job. There is way to much money in pharmaceutical treatment of headache for any real hope of telling people with headaches about breathing and muscle tension. When it is mentioned it is only in passing and is not actively publicized.

The above illustrations are from Dr Travell's book on referred pain patterns. The x is the place on a muscle that has tension or a knot. The red is where the pain from the knot manifests. If you get headaches, and the pain is in the area of the red on one or more of these illustrations, press around your own muscles where Dr Travell has placed a X. If you get sharp pain, you have a trigger point. Most people will find they have many trigger points.

I urge you to check anyone who has headaches and wants help for trigger points. If you have them, or a friend or loved one has them, what do you do? I would say first, you change your breathing pattern to diaphragmatic breathing See the following link from this site.

http://riverschihouse.blogspot.com/2007/05/breathing.html

Stress in all it's forms causes us to go from diaphragmatic breathing to neurosis breathing. We have to get to the point where we can check our breathing as soon as we notice we are in a stressful situation and if we are breathing badly, change back to good breathing as soon as possible and make sure we stay that way. The physical/mental/emotional effects of stress will be minimized if you do that. I urge you to do Sky Nourishes Earth chi kung untill it becomes second nature to you especially during and after stressful situations.

OK so now you know what can cause most headache pain. So what can you do during a headache? If you want to help someone who has a headache, tell them about the role of muscle tension and breathing. Ask them to take a deep breathe. Show them in the mirror how their chest and shoulders rise as they inhale. Show them how their neck tightens and their lower jaw pushes into their upper jaw. Then teach then Sky Nourishes Earth chi kung. While, they do diaphragmatic or belly breathing and consciously relax their muscles sit with them and place your fingers on the upper sides of the nails of their middle fingers. Those points are called Bladder 17 points in the Koryo Hand Therapy paradigm. See the photo of my hand below. You can find more information on Koryo Hand Therapy on this blog. Touch Bladder 17 points on both hands for a few minutes or more until their head pain is completely gone and then keep doing it for a few more minutes. If the headache returns, repeat the treatment. The key is to help the person understand the need to change their unconscious habits relating to breathing and muscle tension. If you, or the people you are trying to help, can keep belly breathing and keep muscles relaxed, you will have few if any headaches in the future. If you, or they, go back to bad breathing and not noticing and releasing muscles tension, the pain will sooner or later return. Change of breathing and noticing muscle tension MUST become normal for the headaches not to reoccur.

If you have a headache or are filled with tension, put your thumb under one of your middle fingers and treat your own bladder 17 points on the side of your body that has the most head pain. The photo below shows how to do this self-treatment.If you do not have a headache, but are very stressed, either hand will be fine. But while you treat yourself, check your breathing pattern and notice and release unnecessary muscle tension. I recommend Sky Nourishes Earth chi kung while you do this self-treatment.

Now you know. It is on you now. If your head hurts and you go running to the doctor and get expensive medicine and do not have much money left for other things, so be it. But the next time your head hurts, Try something different. Put away the pills and try checking out your breathing and releasing unnecessary muscle tension in your head neck and shoulders. I hope some people use this. Let me know if you do.
My friend Chamki just sent me the following. I love it and it fits so well into this blog.

"I've got a problem, Doc," the new patient began. "We all have problems," replied the doctor, smiling his assurance. "My problem is this, Doc:
I get migraine headaches every time I think of my wife.
I break out in a rash every time I think of my job.
I get cold sweats every time I think of my bank account.
Talk about problems! Boy, have I got them!" "Every problem has its answer, of course,
and I understand this one perfectly," said the psychiatrist, nodding.
"You will need a hundred sessions on the couch,
at seventy-five dollars per session." The patient gulped.
"Well, Doc," he said after a painful pause, "that solves your problem.
Now, how about mine?"

Here is another story that is worth reading. If you are a doctor do not get to uptight. This is just an allegory and only apply to some doctors.

The doctors will die from starvation if nobody falls sick. The doctor's profession is a very contradictory profession. He helps people to come out of sickness, knowing perfectly well he is destroying his own business. That's why poor people get healthy quickly; they are not much of a business. Rich people... the doctor helps the process linger on. I have heard about a doctor who sent his son to medical college. The son came back, and the old man said, "Now that you are a doctor, I can retire. I am really tired" -- because the doctor's profession is such; in the middle of the night he may be called, in the cold night with snow falling, he will be called, and he has to go. Day and night, twenty-four hours he is on duty. "So I am really tired. You have come, now you take charge of the clinic." The boy was very happy. After three, four days the father asked him, "How are things going?" He said, "Really great. The woman that you could not cure for thirty years, I have cured in three days." The father said, "My God, that was our basic income! That woman I have been keeping sick for thirty years. She has so much money, she can afford to remain sick for three hundred years. You idiot -- you cured her! All your education has come from her sickness. Who do you think was sending you money to study in a medical college? It was that woman. If this is the way you are going to behave with my patients, perhaps you should retire; I will do my work. You will destroy the whole business." The boy can be forgiven -- he was not yet aware of the profession. He had just acquired the medical knowledge, but he was not aware that there is a business side to it. He said, "I can understand. Now I know why you were sending me so much money." His father said, "It was all coming from that woman, and that woman could afford it, there was no problem -- I just had to keep her sick." by_Osho

A Breathing Meditation

The above photo is of Osho a Mystic Teacher. You can find more about him and other meditations he teaches at the following link.

http://www.osho.com/Main.cfm?Area=Meditation&Language=English

This was sent to me by my good friend Chamki. I think it is good to know this information,
Thank you wondrous Chamki.
THE MIND ALSO BECOMES TRANQUIL BY ALTERNATELY EXPELLING AND RETAINING THE BREATH.
Patanjali gives other alternatives also. If you can do this: being happy, with happy people, friendly; compassion with the miserable, joy with the virtuous, indifference with the evil ones; if you can do this, then you enter from the transformation of the mind towards the supermind.
If you cannot do, because it is difficult, not easy, then there are other ways. Don't feel depressed.
Says Patanjali: THE MIND ALSO BECOMES TRANQUIL BY ALTERNATELY EXPELLING AND RETAINING THE BREATH.
Breathing and thinking are deeply connected, as if they are two poles of one thing. You also sometimes become aware, if you are a little mindful, that whenever the mind changes, the breathing changes. For example, you are angry: immediately the breathing changes, the rhythm is gone. The breathing has a different quality. It is non-rhythmic.
When you have passion, lust, sex takes over, the breathing changes; it becomes feverish, mad; when you are silent, just not doing anything, just feeling very relaxed, the breathing has a different rhythm. If you watch, 'and Patanjali must have watched very deeply... he says if you watch deeply you can find what type of breathing and its rhythm creates what type of mind.
If you feel friendly, the breathing is different. If you feel antagonistic, angry, the breathing is different. So either change the mind and the breathing will change, or you can do the opposite: change the breathing and the mind will change. Change the rhythm of breathing, and the mind will immediately change.
When you feel happy, silent, joyous, remember the rhythm of the breathing. Next time when anger comes, you don't allow the breathing to change; you retain the rhythm of breathing as if you are happy. Anger is not possible then because the breathing creates the situation. The breathing forces the inner glands in the body which release chemicals in the blood. That's why you become red when you are angry: certain chemicals have come into the blood, and you become feverish. Your temperature goes high. The body is ready to fight or take flight; the body is in an emergency. Through hammering of the breathing, this change comes. Don't change the breathing. Just retain as if you are silent; just the breathing just has to follow a silent pattern, you will feel it impossible to become angry. When you are feeling very passionate, lust, sex takes over. Just try to be tranquil in the breathing, and you feel sex has disappeared.
Here he suggests a method: THE MIND ALSO BECOMES TRANQUIL BY ALTERNATELY EXPELLING AND RETAINING THE BREATH.
You can do two things: whenever you feel the mind is not tranquil , tense, worried, chattering, anxiety, constantly dreaming, do one thing: first exhale deeply. Always start by exhaling. Exhale deeply: as much as you can, throw the air out. With the throwing of the air the mood will be thrown out, because breathing is everything.
And then expel the breath as far as possible. Take the belly in and retain for few seconds , don't inhale. Let the air be out, and you don't inhale for few seconds. Then allow the body to inhale. Inhale deeply, as much as you can. Again stop for few seconds. The same should be the gap as you retain the breath out, if you retain for three seconds, retain the breath in three seconds. Throw it out; retain for three seconds. Take in; retain for three seconds. But it has to be thrown out completely. Exhale totally and inhale totally, and make a rhythm. Retain, in; retain, out. Retain, in; retain, out.
Immediately you will feel a change coming into your whole being. The mood is gone. A new climate has entered into you.
What happens? Why is it so? For many reasons: one, when you start creating this rhythm, your mind is completely diverted. You cannot be angry, because a new thing has started, and mind cannot have two things together. Your mind is now filled with exhaling, inhaling, retaining, creating a rhythm. You are completely absorbed in it, the cooperation with anger is broken: one thing.
This exhaling, inhaling, cleanses the whole body. When you exhale out and retain for three seconds or five seconds as much as you want, as much as you can - what happens inside? The whole body throws all that is poisonous into the blood. Air is out and the body gets a gap. In that gap all the poisons are thrown out. They come to the heart, they accumulate there, poisonous gases, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, they all gather together there. You don't give a chance for them to gather together. You go on breathing in and out. There is no gap, no pause. In that pause, a gap is created, an emptiness. In that emptiness, everything flows and fills it. Then you take a deep inhalation and then you retain. All those poisonous gases become mixed with the breathing; then you again exhale and throw them out. Again pause. Let the poisons gather. And this is a way of throwing things out.
Mind and breath are so much connected - have to be, because breathing is life. A man can be without mind, but cannot be without breathing. Breathing is deeper than mind. Your brain can be operated completely; you will be alive if you can breathe. If the breathing continues, you will be alive. The brain can be taken out completely. You will vegetate, but you will be alive. You will not be able to open the eyes and talk or do anything, but on the bed you can be alive, vegetating for many years. But mind cannot. If the breathing stops, mind disappears.
Yoga found this basic thing - that breathing is deeper than thinking. If you change breathing, you change thinking. And once you know the key, that breathing has the key, you can create any climate that you want: it is up to you. The way you breathe it depends on it.
Just you do one thing: for seven days, you just make a notebook of the different types of breathing that happen with different moods. You are angry: take a notebook and just count breathing , how much you inhale and how much you exhale. Five counts you inhale, three counts you exhale - note it down.
Sometime you are feeling very, very beautiful - note it down, what is the proportion of inhalation and exhalation, what is the length, is there any pause - note it down. And for seven days just make a diary to feel your own breathing, how it is connected with your moods. Then you can sort it out.
Then whenever you want to drop a mood, just use the opposite pattern. Or, if you want to bring a mood, then use the pattern.
Actors, knowingly, unknowingly, come to know it because sometimes they have to be angry without being angry. So what they will do? They will have to create the breathing pattern. They may not be aware, but they will start breathing as if they are angry, and soon the blood rushes in and poisons are released.
And without being angry their eyes are red, and they are in a subtle anger state without being angry. They have to make love without being in love; they have to show love without being in love. How they do it? They know a certain secret of yoga. That's why I always say a yogi can become the most perfect actor. He is! His stage is vast, that's all. He is acting - not acting on the stage, but on the stage of the world. He is an actor; he is not a doer. And the difference is that he is taking part in a great drama and he can remain a witness to it and he can remain aloof and detached.
from the book :"Yoga - The Alfa and The Omega" Osho comments on the Sutras of Patanjali. quote from Volume 2 - Chapter 9

Breathing

The above illustration can be found at the following link. You will find more information there on breathing. http://www.geocities.com/flutepower55/breathing.html


I had hoped to do today's blog on the mind and emotions but no. I feel I must add one more thing about breathing and muscle tension.

Learning about the importance of proper breathing and releasing unnecessary muscle tension throughout the day is easy to learn intellectually. Internalizing this important knowledge into our day to day life is not easy. The human mind can only remember consciously so much for so long. Then the knowledge or awareness fades away and old habits resume their dominate place in our lives. For instance, we learn diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing in a class that deals with any number of disciplines like singing or playing the flute. Perhaps we learn it in a yoga or chi kung class. Or we are taught belly breathing as a form of stress reduction or for meditation.

We learn belly or diaphragmatic breathing and we are very conscious about doing it. Then we are done with the class or we put down the instrument and we go on with our lives. Within seconds to minutes most people are back to breathing from and to their upper chest. This type of breathing is often called neurosis because it can help to produce neurosis. So the reality for the vast majority of people who know about diaphragmatic breathing is that they do not do it enough to really impact their mental/physical/emotional/social health. There is a saying in the Christian Bible, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." That is very true about diaphragmatic breathing and muscle awareness.

It is only by making a clear and consistent intentional commitment to do diaphragmatic breathing all through the day in all kinds of circumstances especially stressful ones, that you have any chance to really change your breathing pattern. It is only by committing to noticing your breathing throughout the day that you can be aware of when you have slipped back into neurosis breathing and change back to diaphragmatic breathing. It is an on going meditation. Many schools of Buddhism teach breath awareness as something one should do all day everyday. This intentional commitment and life long practice of being aware of your breathing is totally necessary, and there is no way around it. I know because this is the only way I have been able to do it.

What is true about what it takes to get the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing, is just as true about noticing and release muscle tension. It has to become a conscious and intentional part of our everyday life or the results will be minimal. There is no way to get away from disciplined commitment and consistent work if you want anything worth having in this life.

If You Want Help, You Must First Be The Help

People suffer from all kinds of problems. Physical and /mental/emotional, and social life inevitably produce painful situations. In the words of a song from the 60s., " There is no way to delay that trouble coming everyday." When problems come to us or our loved ones that do not match our coping skills life gets pretty rough for most of us. Then we have to face the fact that we need help. What to do? A friend of mine wrote a song back in those days that went something like this, " Dogs in the dog house,cats up a tree, and the whole worlds crying, oh please Mr Fireman won't you please save me."

We want to be saved from whatever pain invades our lives or the lives of our friends or families. When the easy or familiar ways do not work, we pray to God. We rush to the doctor or the shrink and hope like hell that the problem will go away. If it does not go away, or God forbid, it gets worse, what do we do? We pray more, or go to new doctors or therapies. Still nothing? We give up, or get angry or depressed or suicidal. We reach for a drink or a drug. At that point, life sucks.

I wish I could say something wonderful now. I wish I could give you the magical answer or call the Big Fireman and get you or your loved one out of the tree. But I cannot.

All I can do is tell you what I was told by an an old Sufi guy I met back in 1972 at a summer retreat in Holland. " In the persistence of your desire lies the answer." If your desire or intent is strong and determined and you dedicate yourself to being a good student of your situation no matter how it manifests you will find what you seek. It may not be exactly what you hoped for, but it will be worth finding.

I was told by someone else that most people give up just before they could have arrived at the resolution of their problem. History is full of examples of people who have tried over and over again to accomplish something and finally did it just as it seamed impossible. History is also full of people who failed no matter how much effort they expended over long periods. Life is like that. There are no guarantees. We have to live with that reality. We will fail many times, we will get hurt or sick and suffer. We will have to watch many of our loved ones suffer and die and be able to do very little or nothing about it.

This does not seem to be a very happy blog entry so far does it? Ces't la framage. C'est la vie.

I face the reality I am writing about all the time. Believe me I know what being helpless in the face of suffering is about. I know it for myself and I know it for my loved ones. I am sure most of you do as well. That is why I have this blog.

My intent is to be a place people can come and find some possibilities of help for themselves or their friends and family, and maybe help a stranger or even an enemy or two. There are no guarantees on my blog. No sure cures or easy fixes. There is just good information. Information about things that have helped others in similar situations or with similar problems you might encounter or are encountering now.

In my years of healing work I have found there are a few things that can make almost any situation a little better. The first one is to understand how to breath properly. For those who have read through this blog, I know you have heard this before, but are you doing it? For the new people make sure you are belly breathing. That is make sure your lower abdomen is going out as you breathe in and in as you breath out. It is that simple. If you are not doing that, start doing that. And keep belly breathing. The link below has more information on belly breathing. When a person is in a stressful situation they will usually forget to belly breath and the results will always make things worse. When you are stressed out check your breathing pattern are you belly breathing? If not and before you do anything you do not have to do immediately, return to belly breathing. Belly breathe as consciously as you can all through the stressful problems. If you want to help others who are stressed by one thing or another, teach them about belly breathing.

Next, I help people understand the importance of noticing any unnecessary muscle tension in their bodies. I urge them to learn how to move their awareness through their bodies and notice and release any unnecessary muscle tension especially in the head neck and shoulders areas. Notice your own body. How is your breathing? Move through your body, from head to feet. Notice any unnecessary muscle tension. Release it when you do. How does it feel? See what I mean? If you master the art and skill of belly breathing and notice and release muscle tension especially in time of stress, your life will be a lot less stressful and painful, all other things being equal, then the people around you no matter what the situation.

I urge you to go to the following link and learn a technique called Sky Nourishes Earth that combines belly breathing and muscle awareness.

http://riverschihouse.blogspot.com/2007/03/sky-nourishes-earth-again.html

Once you have Sky Nourishes Earth down, I urge you to look at how your mind and emotions interfere with your life in general and with your ability to handle difficult situations in particular. Ignorance can be a very good excuse for prolonging suffering. Before you understood that your breathing patterns and muscle tension were adding to your problems you had an excuse for continuing along without changing them. There is an important saying, "With increased knowledge goes increased responsibility" Before, bad breathing and muscle tension producing bad effects within you was not your fault. You were innocently ignorant, If you have a good understanding of how bad breathing and unnecessary muscle tension can be harmful, you are no longer an unconscious victim of their effects. Now you are responsible. If you continue to breath badly and keep your muscles tight, then you are no longer a victim, You are a self abuser. Instead of making your situation better, you are helping to make it worse. Change it or live with it consciously.

Once you have Sky Nourishes Earth down, I urge you to start to look at how your mind and emotions interfere with your life in general and with your ability to handle difficult situations in particular. I will write about this in the next entry, inshAllah.

The steps are as follows:
First get your breathing together.
Then get control of your muscles.
Then learn and gain mental/emotional control.
Then you can begin to learn how to go on a journey of exploration.

As they use to say in the old movie serials. "Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of Buck Rodgers confronts the evil Dr Doom."

Below is a blog entry I wrote a few months ago that is related to this one. to this one.

The Truth Will Set You Free But First It Will Piss You Off.

How do you balance and strengthen your energy body? The mystical sufi poet, Jahladin Rumi, has a line in a poem that says: "There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Well there are hundred of ways to strengthen the energy body as well. The most beautiful way is the way of love. The more you love the more balanced and stronger your energy body becomes. Remember I said earlier that God treats you like you treat your lover. It is also true that God gives more attention to those who give God attention. I am not talking about religious attention. I mean the attention a lover gives to the beloved.Mantak Chia, a Taoist chi kung teacher and author, writes about the relationship between a chi kung student and the Universe in his book Tan Tien Chi Kung. "By transcending the separation between oneself and the universe and honoring one's intrinsic unity with it, the universe becomes one's own body.The Chi of the Universe can only be absorbed to the extent that we open our hearts to the universe and extend our consciousness and Chi to it as a token of our love. Only then will it respond. We will only receive the love energy of the universe to the extent that we acknowledge and honor our love relationship to it.This first of all implies that we acknowledge that the universe is alive and that we are it's children. Unless we awaken to this and bring it into our lives, it will be difficult to realize that we are part of it. We will tend to see ourselves as the center of the universe and to relate to the universe and the earth as objects to be conquered and manipulated. However, with increased sensitivity to our interconnectedness with the universe and the earth, a sense of responsibility, love and compassion for the universe and the world will grow.This experience of interconnectedness, rooted in the cultivation of love and compassion, is summarized in the ancient saying, "Embrace the universe as the mother her newborn child." Through the practice of chi kung, we become grounded and connected and begin to feel at ease and relaxed in our body, this sense of unity is cultivated and reinforced."You can cultivate and develop your energy body without a conscious relationship with God i.e. the Universe. Practice chi kung exercises long enough and you will grow stronger and more powerful. But in the end you will be like a wealthy man who has no family or friends with whom to share his life in all its manifestations. Western medical studies have found that people in good relationships tend to be healthier and live longer than those who do not have good relationships. For me the three most important relationships are between a human being and God, a man and a woman (or between a gay or lesbian couple) and between parents and children. If these relationships are vigorous and loving the people in them will benefit themselves and each other in innumerable ways. If they are toxic the people in them will sooner or later manifest sickness and imbalance in other areas of their lives.When a new student comes to me and asks me to help them learn chi kung or recover their health I always tell them the same thing. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I can usually help. The bad news is that you must do most of the work." I tell them they need to open themselves to becoming students not only of chi kung but of themselves. In order to learn and recover balance and strength they need to re-examine themselves and the Universe in new and challenging ways. As Einstein said, "you can't change the situation with the same mindset that created it." The truth will often set you free but first it will cause you pain and piss you off. Let's face reality, who wants to examine themselves and their relationships on a fundamental level. And who wants to really commit to doing the work to act on what they find? See what I mean? Do you still want to learn and practice chi kung? Do you still want to recover your health?

http://riverschihouse.blogspot.com/2006/08/in-search-of-miraculous.html

http://riverschihouse.blogspot.com/2006/09/swimming-in-ocean-of-chi.html

Remember Where We Have Been!

Then We Can Decide Better, Where We Want To Go!

I was invited to a 360 blog today and found a entry he had written for today about the Hippie's.

You can find the blog by clicking the following link.

http://360.yahoo.com/profile-jHKlDAo1Y6hDqjne2p8kZA--?cq=1

My response is after his entry.

The Hippie Culture - Misunderstood by society?

"I just finished watching this documentary on the History Channel called "Hippie". It was made to introduce things about the Hippie era that most people would no idea about. For example, the Hippie era was actually born in Switzerland?!? We all known that LSD was the starting point for all of the flower children in the Haight, but what you probably didn't know was that it was created by a chemist in Switzerland who mixed a chemicals together and drank a large amount of it as an experiment. When he was riding his bicycle home, he began to experience strange images. The drug was then brought to the US which is mostly looked upon as a negative thing. OK, so people introduced the Make Love, Not War idea and the lets be one with the earth idea. So many people think that the Hippie Era was drugs and music. Now, drugs and music were certainly a big part of it...but there was much more too it such as politics, sex, and the idea of doing wrong. "

"I have to write this in response to your entry about the birth of the Hippie culture. Having lived through it and often reflecting on it I have this to say.The so called Hippie days started way before that bike ride. It roots were many and deep within the psyche and soul of mankind. Among many other things, it was a reaction to the empty and meaningless and scary days of the 1950s after World War 2, with the McCarthy era and the atomic bomb hanging always over our heads and the beatniks and the start of the civil rights struggle and the war in Viet Nam. It is deep in history, going back to the roaring 20s and the Gay 90s and the writings of poets like Walt Whitman and the Transcendentalist like Emerson and Thoreau and the Romantic poets like Byron, Shelly, and Keats to the birth of Romantic love in the royal courts of Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. Elenore of Aquitaine and the troubadour helped plant many of the seeds of the sixties. The Sufi mystics and poets like Rumi and Hafiz had their part to play and on and on. That is only the Western roots. Looking East are many others.The people who lived the Hippie days also made it themselves, one life at a time one choice at a time and ended it the same way.

Those days are gone, but many seeds were planted then. Indeed, new seeds are still being planted, one life and one choice at a time. And new flowers and times and name are developing even as you read this. LSD and other psychedelics were important factors and Goddess knows, they changed my life. But the restlessness I felt and the transformations that occurred in my and other's lives started way before LSD and other psychedelics became common in the U.S.A.

To those who are reading my Blog, I would like to hear your thoughts about this.

Remember Where We Came Through And Give Thanks

My wife, "My" and and I send our love on this Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day To All Mothers Everywhere!!!

I bow with deep love and respect to my mother and my wife, the mother of my step-children, and all mothers and the THE MOTHER of all things. Thank you for my life and thank you for your love. May I never forget. May you always know, that I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love River