Hemi-Sync® Journal 1998-1 (Winter)

--- PAGE 1 (OCR) --- Journa Vol. XVI Winter 1998 No. 1 A Research and Educational Publication of The Monroe Institute IN THIS ISSUE DANGEROUS WOMEN: HEMI-SYNC AND THE‘QUEST; 5 5 4 sss.ssnssrecnessiaee e889 i Focusing primarily on peripheral issues can fragment women, divorcing them from their essential natures, talents, and desires. In this paper Joan Lundgren explores HemiSync as a therapeutic resource for easing the return to center after half a lifetime on the rim. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. ..... iv CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS.............. iv DANGEROUS WOMEN: HEMISYNC AND THE QUEST by Joan Lundgren, PhD Joan Lundgren, PhD, is director of the Interdimensional Insight Institute, Walnut Creek, California. Dr. Lundgren is a transpersonal psychotherapist and researcher, licensed marriage, family, and child counselor, certified hypnotherapist, and EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) facilitator. She brings her background in business, psychology, and spirituality together to counsel, teach, and write. She has conducted individual research in the use of Hemi-Sync tapes on a variety of topics, including the psychological and spiritual development of women during midlife and beyond. Her book, The Rose Turtle: Explorations in Interdimensions, is in process. Dr. Lundgren has been a member of The Monroe Institute Professional Division since 1996. She participated in the Institute's first Trainer Development and Assessment Program in September and is now completing the workshop presentation phase required for final accreditation. Somewhere in our late thirties, the gentle wind of change starts blowing. Soft and subtle, its voice is just out of range of hearing. The first noticeable sign is that our relationships start to change. It is as if Mother Nature had kept the wind quiet during all those years so we would do whatever needed to be done to keep our relationships running smoothly. Now, as the breeze ripples the water of our lives, we find there are things, even in the best of our relationships, we are no longer willing to tolerate. The wind of change pushes us forward into our forties. The energy increases, causing a restlessness and a need to outwardly express the power moving through. “Do whatever you need to do,” the voice whispers, “before it is too late.” © 1998, The Monroe Institute 62 Roberts Mountain Road, Faber, VA 22938 804-361-1252 --- PAGE 2 (OCR) --- HEMI-SYNC® JOURNAL As we come to the end of our forties, the wind of change increases to hurricane force, uprooting, changing, and re- arranging the world around and within us. We try desperately to hold on to what no longer exists. Stripped naked, we find no place to hide. The voice is no longer quiet—it rages and asks questions we do not want to answer.’ In 1989, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay Area where I lived and was the catalyst for my research into intuition and the natural development of women. My intuitive experience before the earthquake, followed by days of working with death and loss on a large scale with clients, created a crack in my psyche through which slipped the awareness of my own aging, menopause, and inevitable death. I started the research as a way to quiet my personal fears and confusion. | felt like a “Lone Ranger”—a woman in my fifties, alone with those fears, asking questions no one wanted to hear. The next years were spent interviewing, researching, studying, exploring, and working with hundreds of women, individually and in groups. Out of this work came a fivestage, lifespan model of the psychological, sociological, and spiritual development of women, the Rim Model®,’ which focuses on the transitions of midlife and beyond. Eight years later, this “Lone Ranger” is one of an estimated thirty-seven million American women who are in the fifth stage of the model (postmenopausal). That figure is expected to rise to fifty million in the next twelve years. By sheer numbers alone, this group of women has the opportunity to make waves throughout the universe and possibly change the course of history. In my work with women who successfully navigate the stages of the Rim Model, a prototype emerged that I call “Dangerous Women.” In my definition, these are women who are no longer controlled and held back by old conditioning and limited identities, but who are selfempowered, have a voice, and are willing to take their special places in the birthing of the twenty- first century. It was pointed out by a participant at The Monroe Institute 1997 Professional Seminar that “hormones are consciousness- altering substances and what happens in this transition is analogous to moving through the Focus levels.”’ I find this to be accurate. The experience of intentionally moving through different states of consciousness, as in the GATEWAY EXPERIENCE exercises, is excellent preparation for navigating the confusion, fear, and anxiety that the new experiences of this transition can bring. The tapes are also powerful tools in working with challenges that can arise—ranging from physical issues of insomnia, hot flashes, and lowered energy to emotional issues of unhealed childhood wounds and existential questions of “Who am I NOW?” and “Why am I really here?” As an adjunct to counseling, I play METAMUSIC contin- uously in my reception room and encourage clients to come early for appointments so they can “move into a place of balance” before starting. Many report this helps them move more easily into their sessions and thus accomplish more. Between appointments, they are welcome to come sit in the room, listen to the tapes, and read or meditate. DANGEROUS WOMEN: 1997 PROFESSIONAL SEMINAR PRESENTATION When I present “Dangerous Women” workshops, I take a small white vase that has pear-shaped outlines of women holding hands painted all around the outside. | lovingly call this the “Big-Butted Women” vase and pass it around at the beginning of each gathering. Hundreds of women have held it, voicing their thoughts, fears, challenges, love, and hope. Created by a woman, it had not been touched by male hands, and I protected this sacred object of women’s energies like a mama bear. Even though my presentation at The Monroe Institute was for a mixed group, I decided to take the vase with me and just ii --- PAGE 3 (OCR) --- Winter 1998 have it in the room. The research really belongs to “the women of the vase,” and I like their energies present when I present the Rim Model. The night before the presentation, another earthquake occurred. This time it was not a shaking of the physical earth, but of my beliefs and attachments to wounds from the past. It was wonderful to be back in the luxury of a familiar CHEC unit in the Nancy Penn Center with a Hemi-Sync sleep tape playing softly through the night. However, toward morn- ing, I was wakened with the thought, “You are to pass the vase around the group tomorrow and include the men.” “Say what!” I sat upright in bed, fully awake and alert. “Where in the world did that come from? No way!” With that resolved, I lay back down, return- ing to gentle sleep. In the morning, I woke as the sleep tape faded and music filled “That sounds like Christmas music.” I thought, the unit. “Who in the world plays Christ- mas music in July?” Then I smiled, “The people at Monroe, of course!” As I lay there enjoy ing the music, my long-held belief that Christmas music is to be played only at Christmastime dissolved. And with that went the belief that the vase was to be held only by women. During breakfast, when thoughts surfaced that it is not safe to let men enter the sacred circle of women and that to allow them to hold the vase would be a betrayal of the women who had held it, I would hear the voice from the middle of the night. I did not understand the reasons but knew to trust the guidance. At the beginning of my presentation, I shared the story of the vase and for the first time released it into the hands of a man. My stomach tightened. I felt I was sending an unprotected child out into the world. I continued with the presentation, acutely aware of the energy of the vase as it passed through the room. I watched as different men held it, some quickly passing it on and others holding it for several minutes. As the vase made its rounds, the energy in the room softened. Reality, as I had perceived it, was shifting and changing before my eyes. My sense of needing to protect was moving into a willingness to release and share. As I watched the vase being welcomed by the open hands of both men and women, I knew an integration was happening. The old was being deathed and something new was being birthed. It WAS Christmas in July. Thave been to The Monroe Institute many times and each has been a special experience of exploration and growth. However, this time was more than special—it held a message loud and clear. As I stood before the group with the words “pass the vase and include the men” ringing in my ears, my con sciousness expanded in the tradition of a good old GATEWAY experience. The message was: “We are at the window of a new time and we hold in our hands a sacred vase. This symbolizes the wisdom and experience of all that has gone before and holds the opportunity to put things together in new ways, to create from our visions and expanded con- sciousness, and to move with clear pur- pose into the future.” Stan Townsend expressed it beautifully when he wrote about his experience of holding the vase: “Thad the feeling, while holding/looking at the vase, that something young/new was deserving of gentleness. The vase felt full, completely filling my cupped sup- portive hands, and was warm. | had a feeling of completeness and then passed ie ont it on. References 1. J. Lundgren, “Dangerous Women: The Spiritual Quest in Midlife and Menopause,” The Association for Humanistic Psychology, Perspective, July/August 1993, pp. 14, 15. . J. Lundgren, The Experience of Menopause: A Phenomenological Investigation (Ann Arbor, Mich.: U.M.I, 1993). 3, J. Lundgren, “Dangerous Women: Hemi-Sync and the Mid- life Spiricual Quest” (presentation at the 1997 Professional Seminar, The Monroe Institute). 4. S. Townsend, personal written communication, July 29, 1997. Nn iii --- PAGE 4 (OCR) --- HEMI-SYNC® JOURNAL Dr. Lundgren finds that many of the Hemi-Sync tapes are useful for more than one purpose and the decision of which to use depends mainly on the needs of the individual at the time. She usually starts with The Way of HemiSync. The following is a sample of tapes she has found useful for specific symptoms. Please note they are not intended to replace appropriate medical diagnosis and treatment. HP = HUMAN PLUS MA = METAMUSIC GE = GATEWAY EXPERIENCE MF = MIND FOOD HL = HEARTLINE Anxiety, Depression — HP Let-Go; Relax; De-Hab. MF Surf. MA Higher; Holomovement and Ecstatic (CDs). Attention, Focus, Memory — HP Attention; Brain: Repairs & Maintenance; Concentration; Imprint; Recall; Reset; Think Fast. MF Retain-Recall-Release. MA Remembrance; Einstein's Dream. Body Changes — HP Hypertension; Immunizing; PMS; Restorative Sleep; ‘Synchronizing. MF Pain Control. MA Inner Journey. Insomnia — MF Flying Free; Guide to Serenity; Sleep; Sound Sleeper; Super Sleep; TimeOut for Sleep (CD). MA Sleeping through the Rain (CD). Libido — HP Sex Drive (see also Body Changes, above). Listening to Inner Guidance—Moving On—Co-Creating Your Own Reality — HP Mobius West; Options; Sweet Dreams; Wake/Know. MF Moment of Revelation; Morning Exercise; The Visit. MA Remembrance; Dreamer's Journey. HL Opening the Heart. Lowered Energy — MF Energy Walk. HP Recharge. Medical and Dental Treatment — SURGICAL SUPPORT Series. Stress — HP Deep 10 Relaxation. MF Soft and Still; Guide to Serenity. Weight Gain — HP Eat/No Eat; Nutricia; Mobius West; Tune-Up. Who Am I? Why Am | Here? GE Wave Ill—Freedom, Five Questions; Wave IV—Adventure, Five Messages.