After 30 years of being “the better half” of a couple, I just marked my newfound single-dom (singlehood?) with a trip to Belize and Guatemala, my first solo international travel. Getting away from New York had become imperative: in the space of three months, in what has been officially dubbed “The Longest Winter of My Life,” I had to learn to live alone for the first time, then had foot surgery and learned to live alone with a cast and crutches. As a final salvo, while still on crutches, I got snowed in with no company whatsoever for 10 consecutive days.

The PEAR Program : Combining Engineering and Consciousness — Princeton University has long attracted some of the finest minds in the world, including the likes of Einstein and John Nash of “A Beautiful Mind” fame. But did you know that some of the brightest and the best spent years there researching topics such as remote viewing, how the mind affects matter, random event generators and the existence of a global consciousness?

2014: An Introspective Year By Elizabeth Summers, Esoteric Numerologist

Several prominent themes will move through the filaments of life in 2014. To find the predominant theme for 2014 year, we add 2+0+1+4=7. The Number Seven can be a bit difficult to grapple with, as it is like holding a cloud in one’s hands. Certain buzz words need to be kept in mind as we travel through this rather unusual energy of 2014. Choice, discernment, silence, spirituality and ethics will show themselves as guideposts to be aware of and put into practice.

Experience healing with John of God at Omega: 9/30/14 – 10/2/14 Meet the Brazilian healer who has been featured on Oprah, ABC’s Primetime TV show, written about in The Huffington Post, and more. John of God has helped thousands over the course of his career as a healer. From their website at www.eomega.org: “Omega is pleased to welcome John of God (João Teixeira de Faria) back to our Rhinebeck, New York campus in 2014. This is a special opportunity to experience physical, emotional, or spiritual healing with one of the world’s most revered spiritual healers and mediums from Brazil, where John of God has seen millions of visitors from around the world.

Polaris, the North Star, is a time-honored symbol of constancy and dependability. Boy scouts and other travelers know that — from locations in the Northern Hemisphere — this star can always be found in the northern sky, at a height above the horizon that corresponds to your latitude. Thus Polaris has guided travelers, no doubt for millennia. But Polaris is not constant in brightness. The single star we see as Polaris, which actually consists of a main star and two smaller companion stars in a triple star system, is a variable star.

Meditation for Beginners: 20 Practical Tips for Quieting the Mind by Todd Goldfarb at the We The Change blog. Meditation is the art of focusing 100% of your attention in one area. The practice comes with a myriad of well-publicized health benefits including increased concentration, decreased anxiety, and a general feeling of happiness. Although a great number of people try meditation at some point in their lives, a small percentage actually stick with it for the long-term.

God is in the Little Things – Messages from the Animals by Patricia Brooks Review by Cheryl Shainmark This slim memoir is like a little jewel, perfectly faceted and pure in it’s beauty. God is in the Little Things is a moving testamonial to the author’s spiritual journey, and the wonderous happenings that led to, and accompanied her awakening. Patricia Brooks has truly captured the emotional roller coaster of “the dark night of the soul” and the long road to grace.

“…the easiest way to become a lucid or conscious dreamer is to spend more time in the twilight zone between waking and sleep, or between sleep and waking. The learned name for images that come in this liminal state is hypnagogia It is a state of relaxed attention in which it is possible to embark on grand adventures, make visits or receive visitations and forge creative connections that are elusive to the everyday mind. If you can develop the ability to enter and remain in a state of relaxed, free-flowing awareness before or after sleep, images will come.”

The February Newsletter is out! 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 and please take a look at our Website of the Month!