Music Inside Us

Everyone of us has music inside. And it is not an abstract statement, but scientifically proved fact. Molecules of DNA "sound" inside us and it is very important if music from outside is in keeping with music inside us.

Scientists pay great attention to researches concerning music’s influence on human beings. Attention to such researches has increased recently and their results are interesting and convincing. For example, after listening classical music cows have increased their yield of milk and mimosa and petunias have grown faster and burst into bloom 2 weeks earlier. 120 breast-feed mothers took part in experiment in Japan. Some women listened classical music, other women listened pop and rock music. In first group the amount of milk increased in 20 per cent, and in second group - reduced twice.

Such researches are the attempt to synthesise science and art (music). But in ancient India science and art were considered to be the parts of single creative power. All knowledge of ancient India one can find in the Vedas (Holy Indian Scripture) and one of four main Vedas Sama-Veda is entirely dedicated to music. According to the Vedas the creating of the world started from the primordial sound "OM", which appeared while division of the Almighty (Sadashiva) and his creative energy (Adi Shakti). "OM" was the foundation of the universe and the first musical sound.

Human subtle system consists of 7 main chakras (energetic centres) and 3 channels, which rule mental, emotional and physical life activity of person. 7 chakras of our subtle body revolve with certain frequency and form an octave, which consists of 7 tones of proper altitude. Intervals between them should reflect intervals between chakras. These tones were called musical sounds - notes (’svars’ in Indian music). They sound - sa, re, ga, ma, pa, da, ni and they are in keeping with chakras - from first till seventh. 5 notes can change (fall and rise), creating 5 additional sounds (left and right aspects of chakras). Thus, these notes are built-in subtle body and represent the ideal "repository" of information, the repository of those feelings, emotions, wishes and thoughts, which composer or performer has.

While listening music a person receives some influence on subtle level, which later appears on physical body. Same notes can bring destruction or good, it depends on the inner condition of person. For example, anger, aggression, drug intoxication and so on, which have power over the mind of composer or musician, will find the reflection in his music. There are some styles and forms in music which reflect only such bad qualities. Such music may do harm not only the musician, but also a person who listen to it. Clear, inspired people, who have lucid mind will never create such music. They created only folk music with great variety and classical music which has its roots in folk music.

Let’s listen to music, which is in keeping with music inside us.

Article source: Music Inside Us article.

What is Intuition and How Do I Use it?

Intuition is an incredible resource and gift that we have been given to help us live our best life. Unfortunately, not many people know what it is or how to use it. The word intuition means “in to you” in Latin. It’s also been said that intuition is your divine Spirit talking to you. If you will stop for a moment and acknowledge this, you will begin to realize the incredible perspective you have at your fingertips. You have this very amazing power! And you don’t even have to get any special training to start using it. All you need to do is raise your awareness about it and set your intention to harness it.

Intuitive messages range from an inkling to a strong sign or message. Your inner self is persistent and consistent. It will keep trying to get your attention until you finally wise up! An inkling is like a glimmer or passing feeling/ thought that comes from somewhere inside and usually proceeds a hunch or intuitive message. A “hunch” is accurate information from a higher intelligence; therefore, you can rely on it. An intuitive message ranges from hearing actual words, seeing a clear picture, or a deep inner knowing. Some people experience intuition as a feeling, others a gut reaction, others will see images or have a dream, others hear an actual message. Become familiar with how your inner self communicates with you. Once you receive the message, check it out with your research and common

The best ways to get in touch with your intuition are:

1. Be quiet Practice taking time out every day to experience silence. Calm your mind with traditional or active meditation. Release your need to think, analyze, and know everything. The best information comes from the deep recesses of your soul.

2. Be open Open to the gift of intuition and accept what is has to tell you. Many times, our ego thinks it has it “all figured out,” but your true path may look very different than the one you are on. Being open to new possibilities and ways of living is key.

3. Be creative There are many ways to be creative, painting, writing, dancing, designing a website, etc. Do something that helps you get into the “flow,” that place where time seems to fly by and the work is leading you. Creativity is an expression of your soul and goes hand-in-hand with intuitive guidance.

4. Ask questions When you ask yourself questions, you gain additional insight and clarity. When you ask a question like “What is the next step I need to take?” know that you already know what you need to know. Trust yourself. You already have everything you need inside.

5. Journal When you write, you tap into thoughts, feelings, ideas and direction that you are not consciously aware of. Writing allows the truth to come forth and is an easy way to gain insight from your inner self.

You can further develop your intuitive guidance by preparing yourself by gathering the necessary information and experiences to provide more of an opportunity for your intuition to surface. Intuition cannot be forced; you need to allow it. After loading up your mind with information about the issue, give your intuition time to work on it. And then become open to the answer. You will likely experience an “Aha” moment, which is a moment of instant awareness, where the answer sprouts from “out of the blue.” If you have an important decision to make and are not 100% sure about something happening, stop and think before making a decision. Usually this is your intuition trying to tell you that something is not quite right. Likewise, if you feel that you should go for it, do it, so you don’t miss a valuable opportunity. Intuition is your very own best friend. It is always there for you. It waits patiently for you. It gives the absolute best advice, and all you have to do is ask! Like any good friendship, all it takes to nurture it is a little time and attention. If you decide to be close and intimate with your intuition, I promise that your life will transform into something wonderful.

Michelle L. Casto, M.Ed. Whole Life Coach, Speaker, and Author of the Get Smart! LearningBook Series. Her coaching practice is called Brightlight Coaching--- she empowers people to come up with bright ideas for their life and to freely shine their brightlight to the world. Areas of expertise: Attracting Your Life Mate, Discovering Your Life Purpose, Living a Balanced Life, and Empowering Life Strategies. Visit virtually: www.getsmartseries.com & www.brightlightcoach.com.

Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique

Bio-Energetic-Synchronization-Technique...(B.E.S.T.) is a non-invasive method of aligning the Body, Mind and Spirit. BEST utilizes the fact that for every motor neuron there are ten sensory neurons. That means that each muscle fiber pulling a joint into subluxation (out of proper alignment, causing malfunction and pain) is doing so as the result of misinformation from ten sensory nerves.

We live within these incredible bodies that of themselves can not get sick or even harm themselves. It is we the operators of these bodies that create the disease, the harm. The location of every joint and organ in the body is the result of a muscle or muscle group. The pulling things into or out of normal position is the body following the instructions of either our mind, the consumption of what we call food/beverages or both.

The mind may be our biggest handicap only because we’ve been taught so little about it. Basically the mind has three parts: 1.) Superconscious, 2.) Conscious and 3.) Subconscious. The Superconscious is said to be our connection to Source, God, Universal Intelligence..however you may relate. The Conscious is the decision maker and exists only in the now. The Conscious has no past and no future, it is only now. The Subconscious holds our history. The Subconscious has every experience, thought, dream, etc. in storage with a phenomenal capacity to retrieve that information.

This information retrieval is based on everything going on in the now, for the Conscious mind uses the Subconscious to understand everything. Without the Subconscious you have no personal history...you would not know your name, where you are from, what you are about to do, etc. It may be suggested that the Alzheimer patient has no Subconscious retrieval access.

However, because we have not learned how this mechanism works and have not acquired the tools to deal with this information, we have maintained an attitude of not having time for most of what the Subconscious brings out of storage. And so we deny its contents and end up with massive amounts of copies of that information. The Body is not immune to this denial. The denial plays out in the body where the body attempts to get our attention through the use of pain...which starts out mild becomes acute and then chronic.

Then you see, if you believe “you are not good enough” etc., your body will play that out also along with all that you may be denying. Remember, your body is like a team, it listens to the coach and you are the coach of your body.

Then there is the food/beverages that we consume to alleviate our hunger for gratification and neuroses. (Notice I didn’t say food for maintenance). I am not going to say much here. Most of what is consumed as food/beverage in America is not fit for our pets much less us.

I have one last explanation of BEST. This is the breaker switch concept. In this format, I use the example of Phantom itch or pain. When all the electrical appliances of a household are plugged into one standard 15 amp outlet and all turned on, there is too much electricity being pulled through the line and in order to not have an electrical fire, a breaker switch goes to the off position and all electricity through that line is stopped.

The same thing happens in the reverse direction when we injure ourselves. There is too much electricity, information, energy headed for the brain from the injury. The brain throws breaker switches to the off position. Consequently, in the example of the individual having lost a limb, his or her brain has real mixed messages because parts of the brain do not know the limb is gone. The information of the injury never got past the breaker switch.

Furthermore, I know that the breaker switch is spring loaded to go back to the on position. So, people that have had terrible experiences such as war, rape, etc. cannot tell you about the ordeal because they haven’t let go of the breaker switch. They “believe”/”know” that the war, rapist, terrorist is right there with them even though it has been years since the incident. They “know” that the incident is in that information that is being kept out of the brain by the breaker switch. Therefore, to release the breaker switch “feels” like certain death if not horrific pain. This is where people are with PTDS.

When the individual can find what they perceive as real safety and have the technology, the advocate or both; the breaker switches can be released to go to the on position. An excellent example of this is a gentleman in his fifties who while supine on the table had his left leg lift up and out with such vigor I thought he was going to lose his lace up shoe. I was gently holding points on his head while this happened.

He looked up at me and asked what I had done to his left ankle. I replied that I hadn’t done anything and asked what had he done. His response was that he hadn’t done anything either, that he was lying, relaxed on the table. I again asked what had happened to that ankle. He said that that wasn’t possible. I asked him to relate to me what had happened any way. He said that his left ankle had “caught” an AK47 round twenty plus years before in Viet Nam. I said, “Well, your mind just found out”.

I also know that the breaker switch phenomena is not just for adults, adolescents, children or babies. If a pregnant mother believes she is going to be injured physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually, not only will she throw breaker switches, so will the fetus. Consequently, many of us are born with breaker switches in the off position. And of course this experience becomes “normal” even when it’s not. Your body holding those breaker switches in the off position uses an enormous amount of energy. It both drains, “fatigues” and sets the stage for pain and dysfunction. BEST updates “your bio-computer” creating increased health, energy and well being. Schedule an appointment today. Your body-mind will love BEST. For a wonderful testimonial on BEST go to http://anextstep.com and click on Chronic Pain under BEST.

Demonizing and Discrediting Metaphysical Practices

Contrary to what many have been told, metaphysical practices or disciplines such as clairvoyance, numerology, astrology, handwriting analysis, meditation, past life regression, tarot, and others are very much in harmony with ancient (before the Catholic Church) Christian teachings. The Church, since its early days, has demonized these practices in an attempt to keep their followers' focus on Church doctrine instead of elsewhere.

To provide more clarity, we've included the following excerpt from our book, Your Love Life and Reincarnation: Why the Past is Affecting Your Present and How to Fix it:

"Whether the Bible is to be taken literally or figuratively, there are those who claim that reincarnation was once discussed and accepted. According to Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation by Noel Langley, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (483–565 A.D.) ‘summoned the Fifth Ecumenical Congress of Constantinople in 553 A.D. to condemn the Platonically inspired writings of Origen.’ These writings apparently referenced the pre-existence of the soul.

Moreover, according to The Christian Conspiracy by Dr. L. David Moore, the Bible was edited for more than 500 years for political reasons after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ:

‘Although it may be somewhat difficult for some to believe, the Bible in its present form didn’t always exist. In fact, there is a lot of historical evidence which states that the old Testament, in its present form, didn’t exist until some 60 years after the death of Christ; and the New Testament in its present form didn’t exist until almost 300 years after that. The major point to be understood is that the Old Testament upon which so much of early Christianity depended in order to have a historical basis and to become legitimized, didn’t officially exist until well after Christianity had been established and even after much of what later became the New Testament had been written. In addition, one major reason for establishing the Old Testament as canon was because during the first century C.E., Christianity was distorting the historical record in order to enhance their own new religion.'

In addition to the extensive editing and rewrites of the Bible, there was the influence of the Inquisition or the Holy Calling (1231–1820). This was established by the Papacy to punish anyone who expressed a belief in reincarnation or practiced anything metaphysical that would threaten the universal control of the Church. They proclaimed these beliefs as the work of the devil and any believers were sent to dungeons, tortured, or burned to death. Countless people have died because their beliefs (or beliefs of which they were accused) went against those of the Church, including the millions put to death for "witchcraft" from 1484 to 1775. Fears of persecution may remain in the subconscious minds of many alive today. We are conditioned to believe that anything metaphysical is invalid in part because "inquisitional viewpoints" still exist.

Organized religion continues to provide support and structure for those who choose to use it. However, some organized religions, which may be based on fear and guilt, continue to openly condemn and spread misinformation, intentionally or unintentionally, about metaphysics. This is unfortunate, since many have found that both their metaphysical viewpoints and their traditional religious background can exist together peacefully."

Finally, it's interesting that people who condemn metaphysical practices as “evil” or "dark" usually have no experience with them whatsoever, aside from what they've seen in Hollywood movies. The best way to understand the truth of metaphysical practices is by letting go of the fear-based conditioning, adopting a receptive, yet objective viewpoint, and by deciding for yourself, through experience, what is valid and what is not.

Copyright © Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo

Scott Petullo and Stephen Petullo are identical twins and have been exploring metaphysics since the early 1980’s. They are experts in the fields of prediction, personal fate, love life, and past life regression and are natural psychics and mediums. Get their free report: 13 Spiritual and New Age Myths and 11 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Psychic. Free Report: 13 Spiritual and New Age Myths and 11 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Psychic at www.MYSTICTWINS.COM

History Of Dream Catchers (Indian Dreamcatchers)

The history of dream catchers (or Indian dreamcatchers) can be traced to the Native American Ojibway Chippewa tribe. The Ojibways would tie strands of sinew string around a frame of bent wood that was in a small round or tear drop shape. The patterns of the dream catcher would be similar to how the Ojibways tied the webbing for their snowshoes (the Ojibways were located far enough north that they experienced all four seasons)..

Traditionally, Indian dream catchers were only a few inches across and it would be finished with a feather hanging from the webbing. Wrapping the frame in leather would also be common.

Originally, dream catchers were made as a charm to protect sleeping children from nightmares. The legend is that the dream catcher will catch one’s dreams during the night. Bad dreams will get caught in the dream catcher’s webbing and disappear with the morning sun.

Meanwhile, good dreams will find their way to the center of the dream catcher and float down the feather. The dream catcher is therefore considered a filter allowing only good, pleasant dreams to get through. Dream catchers are also believed to bless those who are sleeping with good luck and harmony.

Dream catchers started to get popular in other Native Indian tribes such as Cherokee, Lakota and Navajo. Today, dream catchers are made in practically every Native Indian tribe in the United States and Canada. Pretty well any Native Indian event such as pow wows or festivals will have authentic dream catchers for sale. The dream catcher was even featured in an episode of the Star Trek Voyageur television science fiction series.

However, like many other Native Indian crafts, cheaply made dream catchers have been recently mass produced by non-natives and foreign souvenir producers in Asia. So it is very important when shopping on the internet for a Native Indian dreamcatcher that one deals only with reputable businesses dealing with authentic dream catchers made by Native Indian artisans.

In addition to children’s nurseries, dream catchers today are hung in windows, heads of beds, walls and even on the rear view mirrors of vehicles.

Clint Leung is owner of Free Spirit Gallery (http://www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca) , an online gallery specializing in Inuit Eskimo and Northwest Native American art including carvings, sculpture and prints. Free Spirit Gallery has numerous information resource articles with photos of authentic Inuit and Native Indian art as well as free eCards.

Love in Toubled Times

If you wanted a peaceful life today, you chose the wrong lifetime to be born. We live in times of global anxiety, change, and danger. However, you can still flourish, even in unstable times - it is still a choice! This is a chaotic world with sunshine and storms and you have got to learn to weather the storms.

Because these are troubled times, doesn’t mean you need to have a troubled mind. You can train yourself to face your fears without anxiety but with courage, love, faith, and compassion. You can train yourself to be the magician – the one who brings love, peace, light, and service to this troubled world.

If you are choosing peace, love, and service then you need to control your mind by controlling your thoughts. Peace of mind does not come from absence of challenges, but from the deep inner knowing that you may have a lot of problems but you can deal with them - that you have the ability to reach within and connect with spirit.

To overcome your insecurities and fears, spend less time focused on your weaknesses and more time consciously being loving and of service to others. Your fears will dissolve and be replaced by an inner peace and the ability to feel greater love, this I promise you.

I often talk of the power of the mind – your thoughts can flicker like a candle in the wind unless you ground yourself in the now and learn to focus and hold steady your thoughts.

This is where getting readings, meditation, and use of a mantra can be so helpful. It can be your anchor so you can hold steady your mind. Only a steady mind can release the emotion of fear and anger, transforming a negative into a positive. One of my favorite mantras is "Om Namah Shiviya." I find it gives my mind something to focus on and it grounds me back in the present moment where peace and loving kindness exist.

Every human being lives in fear. Our fears are deep within our subconscious, well hidden, and manifest when the mind gets churned by external events. You can learn how to leave behind the world of fear to live in the world of love.

Through meditation, positive thought, and right action you can realize the Divine unity in which all life is one. You will still need to take precautions for safety, but can do so without fear.

When you know you and I are one – that you do care for me and you know that I care for you, what is to fear? Fear will leave your life.

Become a visionary, breathing a new reality into existence and anchor it through love and dedication to service. Today can be a rededication to the passion of living, the passion of loving, allowing you to appreciate the miracle of this moment in time. Allow yourself to connect with spirit in whatever way you choose, then share the love in your heart and in your soul with those around you.

When your mind is at peace your heart can be filled with love!

Affirmation

I celebrate the miracle of living a life of love. I can and do deal with my fears, for God is my partner. I bring light, love, and laughter to everyone I meet today. I say yes to Love!

Please share this with someone you love.

Blessings of light, fulfillment, affluence and

Love, Love, and more Love!

Averi

About Author:

AVERI, Malibu’s Psychic to the Stars - For more than 30 years, thousands of people worldwide - including Fortune 500 executives, Hollywood Celebrities, Congressmen, and U.S. Presidents - have sought out AVERI’s psychic guidance and powerful insights to enrich their careers and personal lives. Star-studded Malibu’s most respected mystic, AVERI empowers her clients to use their own natural psychic ability to gain control of their lives. Don’t trust your life to anyone less gifted! 310.457.4406

Interesting Dream Facts From the Scientific to the Surreal

Dreams or dreaming have always been a part of man's life. So ordinary it is that some people would feel deprived if they didn't have a dream or two for a particular night. For as long as a person lives, he surely would have a dream story to tell. Dream stories that are sometimes easy to understand, although usually vague and even weird.

Many consider dreams as an essential part of man's life. In fact, many scientists believe that dreaming has co-existed with man. In the course of our history, we see records about great men and women and their incredible dreams. Some of these dreams have even become integral to the shaping of our history.

But while man has long been sharing a history with dreams, not much has been made to make the ordinary man fully understand dreams or dreaming. Many great personages have dedicated much of their lives to discover what dreams are and why they happen. Many people have also tried to decipher the meaning of dreams. All of them, however, seem to have come short of making dreams and their meaning clear to the ordinary person.

Not all was put to waste, however, for all of these oneirologists and oneiromancists. Today, we have a great deal of accepted facts that try to explain dreams, why they happen and what they mean. Today, we have a large collection of interesting dream facts coming from different sources. These facts ranges from the scientific to the surreal. In this article, we try to present a few of them.

Fact # 1: Everybody dreams.

Dreaming has always been associated with REM sleep, which is that part of the sleep cycle where we sleep the deepest. Thus, for as long as a person undergoes REM sleep, he would actually dream. Failure to recall a dream from sleep doesn't mean that the person did not dream at all.

Fact # 2: Dreams occur in all humans with about the same frequency per amount of sleep.

In normal sleeping (that is, a sleeping period of about 8 hours), a person would dream for an average of one to two hours. In this dreaming period, a person would normally have 4 to 7 dreams. So if an individual feels that he did not dream or had only one dream in a particular night, his must just be a case of poor dream recall.

Fact # 3: Five minutes after dreaming ends, half of its content is forgotten. After 10 minutes, 90% of the dream is erased from memory.

This explains why nightmares that cause us to suddenly wake up from sleep are more vividly recalled than other kind of dreams. This also explains why a person recalls his dream better if he is awoken from sleep by something (e.g. the sound of the radio, an alarm clock) than if he wakes up in the normal transition from sleeping to waking up.

Fact # 4: Blind people do dream.

While dreaming has always been associated with visual images remembered during sleep, vision is not the only sense that makes dreaming possible. Blind people also dream, and whether they dream of visual images or not depends on whether they are blind from birth or not. Most blind people, however, have dreams that are based on sound, taste and smell.

Fact # 5: Dreaming is not only for humans.

Recent studies have revealed that dreaming is not only experienced by humans; it is also experienced by animals. These studies show that animals, mammals in particular, exhibit the same brain actions in some parts of their sleep just as humans would do while dreaming. Except for those mammals that don't sleep at all, mammals do dream, although the subject of their dreams is hard to determine.

These five facts are just a few of the many interesting facts that our scientists have discovered about dreams and dreaming. Reading books about dream and searching the web for articles about dreams would introduce you to more of these facts. All of this information may not be enough to fully explain the nature of dreams and their meanings; but at least, they give us an idea of what the thing is and encourages us to know more of the interesting facts about dreams and dreaming.

About Author:

Jennifer Ambrose is the author of the ebook "Unlock the Mystery Of Your

Dreams" which teaches you how to interpret your dreams and understand

them. Download it at http://www.MysteryOfDreams.com

What Is Destiny? Is There Some Thing Called Free Will?

One of the greatest and everlasting debates of humanity has been about the role of destiny in the lives of human beings. There was a time when it was almost an accepted fact of life that each and every event was governed by destiny of human beings. Astrology was considered a science. Then with the advent of modern times the importance of role of destiny as a concept started losing weight. Today, belief in destiny is considered a superstition by majority of people. And rightly so, since there seems to be no evidence for the irrevocability of destiny.

There are three schools of thoughts about fate. The most prevalent these days seems to be the one which says that there is nothing called destiny or fate. This line of thinking says that human beings do possess free will. All our successes, failures and actions are governed by the decisions we take. If we take correct decisions and act accordingly, no one can prevent us from achieving what we want to. If we fail, it must be due to something wrong on our part. We have the option to take decisions using our free will. In this line of thinking, fate is considered a superstition at worst and at best one can regard it as a psychological defense system to cope with the failures in life. Whenever you fail in some endeavor or whenever something happens which is not in accordance of your wish, you use it as a convenient scapegoat. You say, it was your bad luck which caused you to fail. Otherwise, how could you fail? You are never ready to accept that it was you who was responsible for the failure. It may have been due to some bad planning, lack of efforts in the right direction or outright failure to correctly judge the realities of your goal. But since it hurts to accept that you were the one who committed the mistake, you take shelter behind the concept of fate and blame it on your karma. This relieves you of the terrible pain of knowing and accepting the defeat.

This line of thinking has gained currency mainly because of the persons who subscribe to this theory. Among the votaries of this theory, one will hardly ever find people who can be called a failure in their lives. Almost all of the people who are considered as successful in their lives agree with this line of thinking. They say there is nothing called fate, they believe in themselves and in the existence of free will. Other people, looking at the supporters of this theory, grudgingly start accepting it since the logic, that one must be right if he is successful, comes into play.

This theory leaves many a questions of life unanswered. For example, this theory does not even begin to answer the question of differences between different people at the point of their birth. Why one is born to rich parents and another to poor ones? Why are some children born healthy and some sick or crippled in some way? There are many such questions, but for starters such questions suffice. Apart from offering the word "Coincidence", it has no credible sounding answers. There can be many arguments for and against this theory, but the debate is bound to remain inconclusive.

It must be said at this point that once a successful person, who does not believe in destiny, starts experiencing failures, he slowly begins to accept the existence of fate. Perhaps, the experiences of people are the strongest arguments in favor of destiny.

There is another school of thought which seems to be the most logical line of thinking. It says you are free to take the first step, but as soon as you take it, your second step becomes inevitable and predictable. You become bound by the different laws of life which govern the outcome of an act. Let us take an example. Say, you are going to plant a tree. As long as you have not done it, you have plenty of options. You may choose not to plant the seed at all. You may choose the type of tree you wish to grow. But once you have taken that decision and acted upon it, your freedom is curtailed by many degrees. If you plant a mango tree, then no matter what you do you cannot get any other fruit from that tree. Of course, even for reaping the harvest of mangoes you have to keep you fingers crossed. You cannot guarantee that the seed you just planted will grow to a big tree at all. It may also happen that the tree grows, bears fruit, but you cannot taste even a single fruit. There might be plenty of reasons for this. In other words, your freedom is limited to the actions you take but not to the outcome of that act. This sounds logical because the outcome of any act depends on so many factors that one cannot realistically hope to have control over all those factors. That is why even the best laid plans of the mightiest and most intelligent people turn to dust. This concept is called "Law of Karma".

In the eastern philosophies, like Hindu or Buddhist philosophy, there is the concept of reincarnation. It says, we all keep taking birth after birth. This cycle of birth and death has been continuing since eternity, and will keep on repeating itself till a human being attains "Enlightenment". This state of enlightenment has been described differently by different sages. Some have called it Self-Realization, some have called it Self-Actualization. It is also known as attaining Moksha, Nirvana or Kaivalya. Only after one achieves it, one can break out of this relentless cycle of birth and death.

The law of Karma says that all that happens in one's life is result of his own deeds. One can never escape the fruits of whatever he has done. Just like different plants take different time spans to grow up, different actions also take different time spans to bear fruit. It may be that the result of some act may take more time to fructify than the remaining life span of the person who committed that act. In such cases, the person has to bear the results of such actions in his next life.

Now we come to the theory which says that all events are predestined. There is nothing called free will. We are all like instruments in some grand design and nothing else. All our thoughts and actions are predestined. I would give two arguments in favor of this theory.

Let us first examine the subject of Astrology. It has also been a subject of a great and inconclusive debate. Is there some truth in the astrological sciences( see Astrology: A Science or Superstition)? I think that while it is not possible to establish the efficacy of Astrology beyond any doubt, it is perhaps more difficult to deny it altogether. Most of us have had some experience with astrologers where some of their predictions came out to be astonishingly accurate. It can be argued that a majority of astrological predictions fail. But I am not talking of failed predictions. There can be many reasons for that. I am focusing on the predictions which turn out to be true. How can it be possible for someone to predict some event of future?

Let us consider for a moment a journey from one place to another. Someone who knows the route can tell us that city A will come after city B. Now it is only possible if the landscape remains unchangeable. If someone can change the location of cities then it would be impossible to predict this order. Similarly, the very fact that it is at all possible to predict future events, proves that future is unchangeable. And if it is so, then where is the place for free will?

The second argument derives itself from the knowledge of modern science. It says that the whole universe is a continuum. What this means is that there is no part of the universe which is isolated from other parts. Whatever happens in one part of the universe influences the whole of it. This effect might not be detectable, but that it occurs cannot be denied. For example, if I throw a pebble in the Pacific Ocean then the disturbance it will create is bound to travel to the other end of the ocean and affect the water molecules there. It is entirely another matter whether we are capable of measuring that effect or not. Similarly, take the case of stars billions of light years away from us. Since the light from those stars eventually reaches us, it must be influencing us in some way or the other. We also understand that for any event to take place there must be numerous events in the past which make this event possible. Each event is a culmination of innumerable events in the past as well as forerunner of some other event in the future. For example, for me to have taken birth the births of my parents was a necessary precondition and so on. If we start tracing back the turn of events which made my birth possible, we will have to go back to the very beginning of the universe. Now let us consider the insignificance of a human being in the scheme of the universe. Even a drop of water in the largest ocean has more significant presence in the backdrop of that ocean than a human being has in the universe. What this signifies is that it is impossible for a man to change the course of events, since the causes of those events lie not in his domain but in the whole of the past of the universe.

Can one realistically hope to negate the whole tide of the past considering the limits of his much less than insignificant strength, thought or will?