Merlian News wishes everyone a Happy Spring as we bring you new articles and book reviews! Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook & Twitter! Also, be sure to see our Website of the Month!

Alternatives hosts Monday talks at St James’s Church, Piccadilly and weekend workshops in spirituality, creativity, wellbeing and self development. All their events are offered in the spirit of love, joy and service. They are dedicated to the exploration of diverse ways of living and being. They honour all spiritual traditions and welcome people of all cultures. Speakers include Joe Dispenza, Debbie Ford, Bruce Lipton, Byron Katie and many more cutting edge minds!

” We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli–the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.“

This book is designed to inspire “ordinary people” to take an active role in bringing more peace, more healing, and more holism to their daily life experiences. The Seven Symphonies of Extraordinary Love details the seven roles in which we relate to others with this type of love. These roles include parent-child, friend-sibling, student-teacher, lover- beloved, man-community, husband-wife, and self-higher self. The text includes quotes by some of the most famous philosophers and thinkers including Aristotle, Rumi and Lao Tzu.

“As a nondual (advaita) vision of existence, Sanatana Dharma speaks to the awe, opportunity, quantum uncertainty, and situational ethics of every conceivable aspect of life. From its consciousness-matter integrated field cosmology and prescribed ethics governing conflict as depicted in the Bhagavad-gita and in Gandhian activism, to the plethora of Yogic pathways activating demonstrably the deepest of psychophysical potentials, this living tradition has accumulated some 9000 years of (largely yet-untranslated) research.”

“The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth’s rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday… The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds…”

“It is said that when an aspiration begins to reach the worldly existence of mundane life consisting of food, survival, procreation and fulfilling our desire nature, that it initiates a response from our own Soul, the first connection each of us has to the Godhead. Once we receive that response, a downpour of spiritual light descends into our personality vehicles, and outer lives as the Soul goes to work purifying the lower vessels to make them ready to receive the higher vibrations. “

“Damanhur is an internationally renowned center for spiritual research. Located in Valchiusella Valley, in the Alpine foothills of northern Italy, Damanhur is a Federation of Communities and Regions with over 800 citizens, a social and political structure, a Constitution, 40 economic activities, its own currency, schools and a daily newspaper …Community life encourages the creation of a social model based upon solidarity — a strong expression of which is voluntary work — with respect for others and the environment and the sharing of ethical and spiritual values.”

“My musical journey began when I was young. Drums were a regular part of our lives. In the summer were the war dances, now called powwows. As kids, we would imitate the drummers on my mother’s galvanized washtub. The very first time I heard the flute, I was a young boy living on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation located in Southeastern Montana. Grover Wolfvoice was the flute man playing this wonderful music. The music was beautiful to my ears, yet it scared me. There was much poverty and depression at that time. The sound of the flute touched my heart, where there was much pain and uncertainty. Through all of the hardships of reservation life, the beauty and wonder of our homeland beckoned to me.” -Joseph FireCrow