At Monroe (Wow!)

The program at Monroe is intense. Hemi Sync™ (binaural sounds under the music that affect brain waves and produce meditative states, some quite deep) taped exercises with headphones in a soundproof (-ish) bed, debrief, taped exercise, debrief, get grounded (food or physical exertion or both), more taped exercises and so to bed. The group of 22 has a collective funny bone a mile wide, good humor and genuine bonding. I have three that are FFLs (friends for life). The Monroe population in general over the years has been split equally between men and women, with over 70 percent having post-graduate degrees.

The exercises take you progressively deeper into your own consciousness, and build in you a tool set that can be used after the program either in a Hemi Sync™ induced state, a similar brain wave state (alpha, etc.) reached without using the tapes, or at street level consciousness.

Already I can see future uses for myself, in healing, problem solving, and life decisions requiring clarity unhampered by emotion.

We will head home Friday, and I will post again soon after that.

Dropping off Petey

I left Petey at a LOVELY place in the Nelson County hills. He met a pom named Mia and fell in love. While I was finalizing with the kennel lady, Petey and Mia were running shoulder to shoulder around the property as she showed him the dog space. I will need to get Petey a sister as soon as possible.

This is Petey's vacation place.

Just About to Shut the Door

Petey and I are in a motel in Waynesboro, VA. Tomorrow I will drop him off at the kennel and go to Monroe Inst. We have been driving for days, just days and days. We had a lovely night at Jack and Barb's house (brother & sis in law). I like these people and it pleases me to be related to them. Jack is fond of Rachel Ray and always cooks her food for me when I visit. Good idea! Great meal!

I set the Garmin to go to the kennel from Jack's house, figuring I would scope out the kennel, then find a motel nearby. Nuh-uh! Lady G routed me up a very scary windy narrow mountain road into the George Washington National Forest. I kept saying to Petey, "At least it's paved, at least it's paved." Then along the top of the world (Blue Ridge Parkway?) and down again. Backroads all the way. And we never found the kennel. Nor are there motels in that place. Back to I-64 and civilization. The motel is about 2 min away from where we left Hwy 81, and a half hour from the kennel. So why did the Garmin take us the looooong way around, endanger our lives (or so it seemed) and use up all that time, courage, and gas. (I paid $3.60 in VA for gas! Sheesh!) I need to learn to read a map while using the nav system and save myself another experience like today's. On internet, got clearer directions to the kennel. Left a wakeup call for 6am.

Tomorrow I will go off-line for a week. I expect to gain a personal operating system upgrade, and come home with serious new skills and insights. I will journal the best of it, and post to this blog when I get access again next weekend. What an adventure coming up!

Stopover

I am at my brother’s house now, outside of Asheville, NC. He lives on the very top of a mountain, view forever, BUT, you need to negotiate the one lane windy road, with a ditch on the hill side and a drop off on the down side, gravel. I forgot how scary it was and kept on driving up and up past the point of no return. I will ask my bro to drive my car back down. He doesn’t think it’s scary at all. Sheesh!

P.S. I love to spend time with my bro and his wife, Barb!

It is so hard to get all the mallards aligned. Didn't leave until 10am. On the road all day, no adventures, one real nice encounter.

Here is Stone Hawk, who I met at a rest stop on I-95. He was cutting willow poles near the Everglades at dawn to build a sweat lodge. At a prison in Jesup, which I believe is near Brunswick GA. Such a nice man, easy conversation.

His tribe is Nanticoke, from Delaware, near Rehoboth (Eastern Shore). A sweat lodge is very cleansing and healing. Great gift to give to prison inmates. I have participated in two sweat lodges, one with Wallace Black Elk and one with Sun Bear. Profound and moving. I am glad Stone Hawk is doing his sweats in a prison.

I have lost my phone book! No addresses, no phone numbers, no email addys. If you are not in my speed dial, I can't reach out. Sheesh!

Lady G tells me (she is the person living in my Garmin) that it is six hours or so to my brother's house, so tomorrow ought to be sweet and pleasant.

P.S. Sonny's BBQ is not all it should be. Tell Guy Fieri not to bother.

Petey and I are headed out on the road again. I am excited. We will go to see brother & family, Jack & Barb, in Asheville. Then Petey will spend a week in a living room kennel and I will go to take the Gateway Voyage experience at Monroe Institute. The idea there is to use stereo sound signals to maximize use of all brain functions and raise consciousness. Whew! Take a look. Here is link to Gateway Voyage. I have been to Monroe and taken the GV experience before. I view it as a chance to upgrade my operating system software.

http://www.monroeinstitute.com/program.php?program_id=8

After that we plan to go up Chesapeake to see my friend Dorothy, and down to Virginia Beach to see Jill and Sean Mitchell and son Harry. Jill is Petey's godmother.

After Bucky passed away, Jill spent her lunch hours trolling the internet for another Yorkie for me to love. This is my very pretty Bucky.

This is Petey when he came to me.

Petey is a super success. Both of us say, "Thanks, Jill."

Then we will trickle down the Outer Banks and the Carolina coasts, looking for scenery, crab cakes and BBQ, taking pictures and talking with everyone and anyone. Should be fun.