JANUARY  ♦ NEWSLETTER

Dear Readers,

Merlian News is now translated into over 50 languages! Just go to www.merliannews.com , upper right hand corner to Google Translate and use the drop down menu! Also, don’t forget to check us out on Facebook  & Twitter ! Please take a look at our Website of the Month!

This Month’s Recommended Merlian News Articles:

Spirituality
Astral City: A Spiritual Journey & Chico Xavier
Various sources report, "Based on the best selling book by medium Chico Xavier, the film tells the story of Andre Luiz, a successful doctor who experiences an enlightening spiritual awakening after his death. When he wakes up in the spiritual world, he embarks on a new journey of self-discovery and transformation...until he is rescued and taken to the spiritual Astral City...Chico Xavier (1910 - 2002) was a Brazilian medium in Brazil's spiritism movement who wrote 413 books...Xavier's work produced religious teachings, novels, and works of philosophy. His books sold an estimated 50 million copies, the profits of which were all channeled into charity work. In 1981 and 1982, he was nominated for the Nobel peace prize."

Consciousness
AfterLifeTV with Bob Olson: Searching For Evidence of Life After Death
According to Afterlifetv.com, "A former private investigator, Bob Olson is an Afterlife Investigator & Psychic Medium Researcher. In his search for evidence of life after death since 1999, Bob has tested hundreds of psychic mediums, spirit artists, past-life regressionists and other related practitioners to weed out the legitimate from the phonies, frauds and scam artists. AfterlifeTV.com is the most recent of Bob’s resources to guide and educate you about the afterlife. There you’ll see videos where Bob talks with authors, experts & practitioners, videos of Bob sharing what he’s learned from his investigations and videos of people sharing their afterlife experiences...including a two part video with Anita Moorjani (links inside)."

Dreams
The Threefold Death of Silver Wolf by Robert Moss
Robert Moss explains, "I have recounted this episode exactly as it took place, nine years ago, in the woods in northern Ohio. Silver Wolf, a great shaman of an earlier time, made me know the nature and fate of three aspects of soul and spirit by inviting me to share his experience of what happens after death. The knowledge I gained is indelible, and guides me in my shamanic work and teaching, and in continuing efforts to develop models of the multidimensional self and geographies of the afterworld."

Books
The Electric Jesus - The Healing Journey of a Contemporary Gnostic by Jonathan Talat Phillips

Cheryl Shainmark reviews, "This is not your ordinary spiritual memoir -- think of it more like the illicit love child of Dan Millman and Adam Sandler, (or maybe Dane Cook?)... as in part wake-up call, part snarky kick in the ass. The Electric Jesus is like a jolt of current all right, but of the live saving, paddles on the chest, "Clear!" variety. If ever there was a well needed shot in the arm for the more moribund elements of the New Age, PC, hemp clad, peace-love-beads movement, this is it. Oh, yeah, and it's also a really, really good story...."

Books
Brain Power: Improve Your Mind as You Age by Michael J. Gelb & Kelly Howell
New World Library writes, "...in the past thirty years neuroscientists have discovered that the brain is actually designed to improve throughout life. How can you encourage this improvement? Brain Power shares practical, state-of-the-evidence answers in this inspiring, fun-to-read plan for action. The authors have interviewed physicians, gerontologists, and neuroscientists; studied the habits of men and women who epitomize healthy aging; and applied what they describe in their own lives."

Consciousness
2012 - A New Vantage Point by Triza Schultz
Triza Schultz says, "Welcome 2012 –looking at the world from a new vantage point as we continue to align ourselves within our awakening! We are no doubt earning the rewards from the lessons of discovery, staking our personal claim on the practice of balance and harmony inside our individual lives. It’s a bitter-sweet process to let go of so much and take up residence within more space of the heart. A Buddhist saying sums it up: “It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.” "

Animal World
'Extinct' Galapagos Tortoise May Still Exist by Richard Black

Richard Black writes, "Chelonoidis elephantopus lived on the island of Floreana, and was heavily hunted, especially by whalers who visited the Galapagos to re-stock. A Yale University team found hybrid tortoises on another island, Isabela, that appear to have C. elephantopus as one of their parents. Some hybrids are only 15 years old, so their parents are likely to be alive."

Media
The History Behind Friday the 13th by WoodTV.com
WoodTv.com reports, "In Norse mythology, Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil — a gathering of thirteen — and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as 'Witches' Sabbath.' "

WEBSITE OF THE MONTH:

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

www.drjilltaylor.com

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a trained and published neuroanatomist. Her specialty was in the postmortem investigation of the human brain as it relates to schizophrenia and the severe mental illnesses. Because she has a brother who has been diagnosed with the brain disorder schizophrenia, Dr. Taylor served for three years on the Board of Directors of the National NAMI organization (National Alliance on Mental Illness) between 1994-1997. Currently she serves as President of the Greater Bloomington Affiliate of NAMI in Bloomington, Indiana.

Because there is a long term shortage of brain tissue donated for postmortem research by individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, Dr. Taylor travels as the National Spokesperson for the Mentally Ill for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Harvard Brain Bank) located at McLean Hospital. As the Singin' Scientist, Dr. Taylor delivers this very popular keynote address titled "How To Get Your Brain To Do What You Want It To Do."

But as irony would have it, on December 10, 1996, Dr. Taylor woke up to discover that she was experiencing a rare form of stroke, an arterio-venous malformation (AVM). Two and a half weeks later, on December 27, 1996, she underwent major brain surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to remove a golf ball size blood clot that was placing pressure on the language centers in the left hemisphere of her brain.

It took eight years for Dr. Taylor to successfully rebuild her brain - from the inside out. In response to the swelling and trauma of the stroke, which placed pressure on her dominant left hemisphere, the functions of her right hemisphere blossomed. Among other things, she now creates and sells unique stained glass brains when commissioned to do so. In addition, she published a book about her recovery from stroke and the insights she gained into the workings of her brain. The New York Times bestselling memoir is titled My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.

In May of 2008, TIMEMagazinechose Dr. Taylor as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World and she was the premiere guest on Oprah's Soul Series webcast. In addition, her interview with Oprah and Dr. Mehmet Oz on the Oprah Winfrey Show aired on October 21, 2008.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor - Author, My Stroke of Insight on MerlianNews.com

Thank you once more, for your positive feed back and support!

Merryn & Team

Merryn Jose - Editor & Publisher

Dena Ventrudo- Assistant Editor & Photographer

Cheryl Shainmark- Book Reviewer

Carl Casella - Sound Editor