Bali for New Years (Dec.30-Jan 1)

Our New Year's was unexpectedly spent in Sanur, Bali. We arrived at the port in the pouring rain, were shuffled into a tiny van full of wet people and bags and off we went. There was us going to Sanur and another group heading for Ubud. Sanur was the first stop and not yet having a hotel we had did not have any particular place in mind. The driver decided to just stop in the middle of nowhere in Sanur in the pouring rain an ask us to hop out. We insisted on a café at least so he found a spot, we jumped out, ran into the café and ordered coffees and hot chocolates. He just happened to drop us at a fabulous café, expensive, but just what we were looking for after the rocky boat ride, heavy rain, no plans and not having eaten for 8 hours.

Once the rain had died down a bit, we hopped into a cab to look for a hotel - not easy two nights before New Year's with no reservations. After a number of tries at hotels that were full we found 2 rooms for the one night only, so we decided to deal with a room for New Year's Eve next day, along with flight plans to somewhere out of Indonesia.

The next day Mark and I walked over to the nearest travel agent and proceeded to search out any possible flight route for that day or the next. We wanted to get to Flores. Flights were booked for at least the next 5 days. We tried other routes, too crazy. Next choice was Borneo. We found a flight to Kuala Lumpur the next day. KL is was not our preferred location but we had to start the process for our Indian Visas which would take over a week to process so we would fly to Borneo or somewhere when that was taking place. This meant one more night in Sanur. So we hopped into another taxi to search for our New Years Eve hotel.

We checked a few places, full. The Hyatt (a massive structure on the water), full. Mark then remembered a hotel we saw the day before called “The Swastika”. It stuck in our heads because of the name. We told the cabbie to go there and we would check. Lo and behold, a cancellation of two rooms!

“The Swastika” to this day has been my favourite hotel of our trip. Set in a lush garden of flowers and plants, with the aroma of Frangipani floating in the air, the hotel was paradise. Our room was set overlooking the garden, with a lovely private terrace where we all enjoyed the sunset and then the final minutes of 2008. It was fabulous.







During the day we walked on the beach, had a great street lunch of Nasi Champur – rice and a scoop of 3 or 4 other vegetarian or meat dishes. We swam in the Swastika pool and then got ready for the evening.

Sanur was in full festive mode. All the locals and tourists were out along the beachfront, sitting down for buffet dinners or festive cultural evenings. After searching and deliberating for hours, many places were booked, but we found a table near the water and had an ok meal. Later was walked along the beach and then joined in some dancing.

On the festive streets





We arrived back at the hotel where we made our first Podcast of the year, blew our New Year's horns and welcomed 2009.

Lianna

Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia (Dec.23-30)

Gili Trawanagan, Bali, Indonesia
Written by Caleb

We quickly finish up the delicious banana pancake and cancel the café latte. Me and Mark run down to the boat to check in. I wait for mom outside while Artemis and Mark go onto the boat. When me and mom get inside, there is only one seat left so she takes it and I sit on the stairs next to the wide open door. The boat ride started out great. Just as we're leaving the harbour, we see some flying fish. And when I say flying I mean flying. Like they flap their wings and stay up for at least 15 seconds. They are so cool. The rest of the ride is a series of hitting my head on the roof and totally being rocked back and forth. It was crazy bumpy and pretty darn scary. Lucky none of us got seasick.

Arriving on Trawangan Mark gets a horse carriage. On Trawangan there are no taxis or cars or mopeds or motorized vehicles of any kind - only horse drawn carriages. It’s pretty fun, but pretty tough to fit all of us plus our four huge bags plus the driver and to top that off the driver’s 4 year old son decided to come along for the ride too.




We look at basically every hotel/villa/bungalow on the whole island. Finally after 5 hours of looking we decide to stay at our friends place, Big Bubble. We met the owner, Lyndsay, on Bunaken, diving. And he was the one that convinced us to come to Gili Trawangan. So we're going to dive and stay at his place. The problem is we can only stay there for three nights. We decided we’ll just figure that out later.

Mom doing Yoga at Big Bubble
Big Bubble accommodation

Mom and dad's room is really nice because they have the deluxe. Unfortunately we just have the standard. The standard has a fan but it doesn’t do anything and the toilet doesn’t flush and the beds are scratchy and small. But we manage.

Sunset on Tarwanagan

That day we head out for a dive. Memorable because underwater I started getting really bad stomach cramps and then I shit my pants. I DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE! When you're 20m underwater and a 30 minute boat ride back to the nearest washroom then you gotta do what you gotta do. Other then that it was a nice dive.


On the Diving Boat with Doug

The next day was December 24 and we moved into the deluxe rooms which where WAY nicer. The bathroom was really nice and there was hot water. There was one huge bed and they had to put in a mattress but me and Artemis just switched off.


Xmas Dinner

We woke up on Christmas day at about 8:30 and did nothing. For presents I got a pair of pants and a t-shirt… AND A BLOODY TRIP AROUND THE WORLD! But other than that Christmas was just another normal day in the life of the traveller. The rest of the week went by pretty quick.

Caleb trying on new shorts

Mark on the beach

We moved into a new place because they kicked us out at Big Bubble. We moved into a really nice house with two floors and air conditioning and a TV and DVD player (yay!). It was probably the only place on the whole island with vacancy.

Artemis at the new place, sorry no pictures but there were lots of cats there which she loved

We went on a couple more dives and saw some sharks some huge turtles some cuttlefish (really cool) some huge angel fish, banner fish, morray eels with a head as big as yours, nudibranches (really, really cool. They're about 2 cm long and they have the most vibrant colors I've ever seen. They're really amazing). Oh we saw 2 octopus which where uber cool and a whole bunch of other stuff.

The food in Trawangen wasn’t amazing, just pretty good. There isn’t much variety in Indonesian foods. You have mei goreng (fried noodles), nasi goreng (fried rice) and nasi champour which is rice with a bunch of veggies and chicken. The first night there were not many people on the island and the restaurants were all deserted. We go to some villa for supper. You pay 60,000 rupea (6 dollars) and get a whole grilled fish with an all you can eat salad bar with ROLLS!! We haven’t had bread in like a month. Each of us probably has 8 rolls and that’s before the fish comes. The fish was good and so was the salad. We basically had the whole place to ourselves. We had some more good food and great diving.


Waiting for the boat to leave the island

The day we left we were all tired and it was a nice day. The boat we were getting on to had five 200 horsepower engines. FIVE. When we got on there was a lot of room and then this huge group came. There was still a lot of room. So we are going fast and then it starts to rain. Hard. And it rained during the whole ride back. Fortunately I fell asleep but I didn’t miss the huge waves, god those where treacherous.

But we lived and on we went to Sanur Beach where it continued to pour.
Caleb

Bali (Dec 14-23)

Mark speaks about Bali

We were all looking forward to Bali.
So much so that while making our way south from Pau Bunaken, the diving island north of Sulawasi, we decided not to explore the island of Sulawasi itself, other than our brief stay in Manado, as we were all excited about Bali. Manado was a great experience, as we were the only white people in town. We walked around at dinner time, stopping in at a local satay stand, and then went to the shopping area, which was very crowded and busy. Sulawasi is a mix of Christian and Muslim people, with some women having their heads covered, and others not. It was strange to see "Merry Christmas" signs and banners all over town. We have seen these signs and greetings everywhere, including Malaysia and even here on Borneo.

Manado from the air

Sulawasi is a weirdly-shaped island: it has four narrow arms spreading out in different directions, which makes travel very tough. Boat rides are long, and there are no formal ferries or ferry routes, and the roads are bad, as these arms are quite mountainous as well as narrow. We did want to visit some of the interesting villages with unusual traditions, like huge funerals where they slaughter as many buffalo as they can get money for, including borrowing huge sums of money, as the more buffalo slaughtered, the better off the dead are. But the call of "Bali Ha'i" overcame us, and we flew right from Manado to Denpassar, Bali.

Lianna and I had been there before and loved it. What we didn`t realize was that I hadn`t been there for nearly a quarter of a century, and Lianna had been away 18 years.
Unbelievably, Bali had changed.

Getting out of the airport to our cab we were greeted by a large Starbucks. These sightings are usually met with mixed emotions: "Shit, there`s a Starbucks here", therefore it is not exotic and other-worldly, or "Yes! There`s a Starbucks here, we`ll be able to get anything we want, including great coffee!" (Not necessarily from Starbucks, as the presence of Starbucks usually signals coffee in general, except perhaps in Beijing, where Starbucks was the only coffee shop, except for a Blenz, which was not that great. The weird thing with these places in foreign countries is that they do not have the usual sweets to accompany the coffee, so you only have part of the equation. The pastry display usually has some weird stuff, or not much of anything, or a single piece of cake, which is suspect to say the least.)

We headed to Kuta beach, where Lianna had booked a landing hotel. A landing hotel for us is a place we can go to straight away and stay the first night until we find a better place, unless we are lucky enough to have our landing hotel be a great hotel, which is rare (it did happen in Beijing, and we stayed 10 days). As we drove to the hotel we were all surprised by Kuta - for Lianna and I by the explosive growth; for the kids, by the presence of Dolce and Gabanna, Versace, Billabong and other large brand-name stores. Again, these were met with mixed emotions: "Yes, we are back in civilization", and "Shit, we are back in civilization".

Our fist day at Kuta was fun. We went right for the beach, as it was HOT. The surf was good, and we body-surfed for a few hours. The next day was quite strange however, as went to the beach with the intention of Caleb taking a surfing lesson, but when we got there, the beach was now absolutely filthy!!! It was completely covered in debris of all kinds, including coconuts, palm leaves, pieces of wood, and lots of garbage. Everything from plastic bags and water bottles to sunscreen containers, juice boxes, dead fish (two puffers and and exhuasted small turtle, which was still alive), paper and plastic wrappers of every description. Caleb and I ventured in anyhow (the girls had gone bathing suit shopping), but were quickly repelled by the floating debris in the water, which made even wading knee-deep disgusting. We walked down the beach to see if there were any clear spots, which there were, on the beach, but the water was still filled with floating detritus, and eventually we had to get out.


We had arranged for a surfing teacher to meet us at 2 p.m. The guy who rented us the beach chairs said we should have gone with him, as he would only have charged us 15, instead of 20. By 2:45 Caleb's teacher had not shown, so he went with the chair rental guy, which ended up to be great despite the garbage. Caleb got up a few times, and had a good few hours of surf time. I, on the other hand, got a sun burn despite swimming and walking around with a T-shirt and lying under an umbrella, ella, ella, hey hey (sorry about that - copywrite Rianna, all rights reserved).

We found another hotel after our landing hotel, which was fantastic, with a great pool and WiFi which worked.

Lusa Hotel in Kuta

Walking around Kuta was strange however, as we were nearly the only people in town, despite it being a week before Xmas!! We would go to restaurants, shops, bars and be the only people there. Shop owners were literally begging us to buy stuff from them, as they had not sold a thing in days.

Empty road in Kuta area

It was a bit disconcerting, like shooting fish in a barrel. For the first time since September, the effects of the financial crisis seemed to be showing itself. That, and the execution of the Bali bombers, and the Australian govt's constant warnings about the dangers of travel in Bali, meant a 50% reduction in tourist traffic.
Sunset at Kuta beach. best part

Kuta's unbridled growth and the filth of its beaches got to us after a few days, and we decided to leave for Ubud - the artistic centre of Bali. Lianna and I had fond memories of Ubud and it's gorgeous guest houses and picturesque rice fields. Well guess what: it had changed.
Rice fields had been replaced with hotels; dirt roads had been paved; squatter toilets replaced with Western-style sitters and mandies with showers; informal restaurants now had white table clothes and Western-oriented over-priced menus; small stalls and stands were now very fancy air-conditioned boutiques, with ornate displays and price tags to match. It was still beautiful, with beautifully carved fountains and statues adorning every shop and street corner, but Ubud had definitely gone high-end.



We found a quaint little guest house right in the centre of town. And again, walking the streets of Ubud, we were nearly alone.

Balcony of Guest House - Sari Nari

Stores all had "Sale" signs in the windows (when I was there last they did not have windows, let alone sales!), and every price quoted in a shop was followed by: "But that is negotiable". We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant one evening. It was overlooking one of the few remaining rice fields near town, and we were alone, except for one Canadian guy in the corner. Shop owners were ready to deal big-time, which worked in our favour, as we were able to bargain down prices from 2.5 million IR to 1 million, on more than one occassion!
Sculptures everywhere in Ubud

Art everywhere in Ubud

While in Ubud we went to see the famed Kecak dance, where a chorus of dancers chant "chack chack chack chack, chackalack-chack" continuously, as well as Legong and Barong dances, all of which were fun and interesting, and had NOT changed, thankfully. There was the Monkey Temple forest as well, with the Monkey Temple still there, and still beautiful and lush and enchanting, with monkeys roaming freely and playing and preening each other all day.

Posing at the Monkey Temple




We also caught a Hindu festival, where woman walked, or were driven on motor bikes, with large offerings on their heads. That is something that had not changed in Bali: Balinese Hinduism, and the beauty of it.



Bali's vibe is largely derived from Balinese Hinduism, which is interpreted with daily - hourly! - offerings on the streets, statues with incense burning on them, beautiful temples, gates and house temples, all with lush greenery, mossy statues and an ethereal feel. The Balinese are mellow and serene, and it is - I believe - largely because of their religion, and their constant connection with the divine.

There is a very palpable difference between Bali and islands with either Christian or Muslim dominated religions (I realized this after returning from Gili Trawangan - a very chill island, but mainly Muslim, and definitely missing the Bali vibe). The Balinese are generally happy people. There are depictions in classical Balinese art of a simple island paradise, with bare-breasted women walking with loads on their heads (OK, this is appealing to me in general), men working the beautiful terraced rice fields, and children playing, and even today, you can still get this feeling on the island, and it is different from any other island.

Continuing on our travels, we rented a car (9 dollars a day!!) and drove around the east coast of the island. Before heading to Tulamban - our final destination, famed for its wreck dive of the USAT Liberty, which is a mere 25 metres off shore and begins at 5 metres below the surface, going down some 30 metres - we did a day trip around Ubud, going to the elephant cave temple, which dates from the 11th Century. The cave was dug into the mountainside, with little alcoves in the walls for meditating.



It had been forgotten for centuries, until two Dutch archeaologists found it in the early 1900s. We were met with a guide there, who explained the temple to us, and then took us through the forest and rice fields to see another ancient temple in a nearby town. On the way we passed Mr. Buddha, a wood carver with a small snack stand in the middle of the rice fields. We stopped for some black rice pudding (a Balinese specialty) and fresh orange juice - both excellent, and made magical by the surrounding rice fields.

Rice Fields near Mr.Buddhas place

From here we went on to Tampakshiring, a gorgeous temple also set into the hillside, with waterfalls and springs pouring out of it. The temple is surrounded by more terraced rice fields and running water. When we were there it was drizzling a bit, but quite warm still. We went swimming in the water, along with some local boys who stripped down and jumped in up river. On the way back we were caught in a downpour, and stopped in an artist's stand for shelter. He was quite a talented modern artist, and we ended up buying 2 paintings from him, and two carvings from a wood carver with exceptional skill, who had carved Sita in deep, rich ebony to which I could not say no.

On the way to Tulamban we passed through a village which had satay stalls all along the main street. We stopped, and it turned out to be some kind of local fish satay which was amazing. Even the kids loved it. A big lunch there cost us around 2 dollars. Tulamban, which is Balis most famous and busiest dive sites, was empty. We were nearly alone at the dive resort we stayed in, and it was THE dive resort, as it was right across from the Liberty! At the resort we met a single Jewish guy from Montreal travelling on his own (hi Ben! Thanks for reminding us it was Channukah!), and a couple from Korea. So we got a great deal on the diving and accommodation, and had two fantastic shore dives. Diving Tulamban was amazing (please see our underwater videos, taken by our dive-master/photographer). Our first dive was at 6:15 a.m. We met up with a school of giant bump-head parrot fish (see vidoe!), as well as a barracuda, and a giant school of big-eyed Trevally. Our second dive we finally made it to the wreck, which was really fun. We swam through it and around it, taking pictures (see flickr) of us holding a steering wheel, or something that looked like one. Caleb and I got bitten by a clown fish! Clowns gone bad. Barracuda, no problem; little clown fish - beware!



Shots of Mark, Caleb and Artemis diving the Wreck

The drive home was a mixture of getting lost, fighting about which way to go, and visiting Beseki, Bali's mother temple, in the pouring rain.

Returning to Ubud was like coming home. The next day Lianna I ran around Ubud doing our last minute shopping. We had already bought lots of things, and left a large box at the postal service while we were away. We filled the box - overfilled it actually, and had it shipped off on a slow boat home. The next day we left for Gili Trawangen, a tiny island off of Lombok. Trawangen has no motorized vehicles at all, with horse carts being the main mode of transport, as well as bicycle. On Bunaken we met a group of British people. Lyndsay is the owner of a dive shop on Trawangen, which is why we went there.

It was co-creation at its best: we saw pictures of the place on Bunaken, and a few weeks later, there we were, at Big Bubble on Gili Trawangen, in the pool with Lyndsay Doug and Julie! Johnny and Elfie had headed off to dive spots around the world on their honeymoon.

It was sunset on Trawangen, and I was walking along the beach in my sarong. I was serene, beautiful, and island paradise. I thought, "I could choose to be anywhere I wanted at this moment, and I have chosen here, and I am really happy I did."
Mark

Happy New Year! - first PODCAST

It is 2009! and we continue to travel the world. The postings are behind a few weeks but will be caught up soon. Meanwhile here is our first PODCAST to open the New Year. Check it out on our FLICKR account at:

Watch our New Year's Podcast!


Love Mark, Lianna, Caleb and Artemis

Bunaken Island ,Silowesi, Indonesia (Dec.9-13)

Artemis Walden
Thoughts and impressions

We are driving to the airport in a tuk-tuk. I’m in Cambodia, Phnom Pen. The tuk-tuk diver stops in front of a large building presumably the airport. The flight we’re about to take includes a 10 hour wait in Kuala Lumpur airport from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., yeah not too excited about that. Although we are taking a airplane and I always get exited about flying. The driver gets out and starts to take out are bags. We thank him and proceed into the airport. After that it all goes by pretty quickly. We do all the usual airport stuff. When we finally get on the plane I read the whole flight. We land. Find a comfortable seat and 10 hours later where on are second flight, next thing you no where in Northern Sulawesy, Indonesia mounting a boat to go to Bunaken (an island about one hour from Manado the city we landed in).

Boat packed to go to Bunaken

We pull up to shore. About 20 meters away from shore it starts to have trees growing in the water witch is strange because it’s an ocean. There isn’t much of a beach, but I could live with that. We all get out of the boat, get handed are bags and look around. This is a hotel well you could call it that but it was more of a resort. I could see some stairs that looked like they leaded up to the huts (where you would live if you stayed here). There is a little bar to my right and to my left is a building that is the lobby and where they probably hold all their scuba gear. A man comes over to us, we ask him if we can see the rooms he tells us to follow him and he leads us up the stairs (I new it!)

Three different places and five hours later we are all to tired to care were we stay and end up at two fish. It was the most convenient since we would be diving with theme at 8:00 in the mourning and it would be to much of a hassle to walk down there from another place. I did like the two fish rooms the most. It was also three meals a day included and a snack between lunch and dinner. All in all it was the nicest and my favourite place out of the three.

Bunaken Resort

We finally got all are bags in the right rooms and then we all crashed. After a sleepless night at the airport and a two day travel we were all pretty dead.
When it was super time we meet everyone because there was only one long table in the dining room (well there were two, but who wants to site alone?) Everyone that was there was really nice and they all had English accents. I’m pretty sure we all had a good nights sleep that night. I was so tired I collapsed on the bed and fell asleep so fast I cant remember being awake on the bed at all.

The next morning dad and Caleb left for scuba diving at 8:00 am.
Caleb underwater

I was to tired and decided to take the day of and do nothing. I woke up at 10:00 and missed breakfast. The resort was really beautiful and cosy. It had a big garden all around the resort. There was the eating area witch consisted of two long big tables and a big wooden roof to cover everyone. There where rooms and huts. Mom and dad stayed in a hut while Caleb and I stayed in a room on the first floor (there where two floors of rooms and each floor had about 4 rooms). The boys came back at around 12:00 in the afternoon we all had lunch with the other divers. Caleb and dad said the diving was amazing, by the end of the day I was so exited and nervous to dive tomorrow.

The next day I wet diving. I don’t know how but I managed to wake up at 7:15am everyone had breakfast then we got on the boat. I’m always so nervous before the dive even on the boat but once I get in the water all my fears disappear. We talked to everyone else on the boat ride to the dive site and I had a great time.

Artemis ready in wetsuit

Mark, CAleb and Artemis getting ready to plunge

Mark getting some help with the tank

Caleb getting ready

When we finished the second dive and started to head home it got really wavy and started to rain! I swear the boat almost tipped over! It was really nauseating. The diving was amazing! Better than Koh Tao. We did mostly wall diving; witch is basically diving on the side of a cliff that goes strait down and all you can see if you look away from the wall is blue water, never ending. It was like someone painted coral everywhere. There was not one place where there was no coral, life or color. The wall goes strait down, you can’t see the bottom. I saw my first shark on the second dive of the day. It was swimming below us maybe 5 meters down. It didn’t even look up, it just swam right by. I wasn’t even scarred; witch is weird because before I saw that shark my one fear of diving was seeing a shark. It was a white tip reef shark, 2 meters long.
Everyone coming back after the afternoon of diving

Another great thing about two fish was that it was so homey. The food was great , they put it out like a buffet and you took what you wanted. We got free water, tea and coffee (if you wanted a juice or a sprit or something like that you needed to pay extra).
Group walking to the village

One day after diving a bunch of us walked down to the village. It was a really cute little town and everyone was smiling and happy. A weird thing about the village was that it was Christian. So here you have a tiny cute town with a huge church in the middle of the town and Christmas lights everywhere (we were there around 2 weeks before Christmas). One little girl was so happy to see white people she shook moms hand and kissed it! She was adorable.
Church on the tiny island

We stayed at 2 fish 4 days and I did 5 dives. The last knight we were there we used the TV they had and played one of are movies called “Run Lola Run”. We pulled up all the chairs and everyone watched it (great movie).

The morning after that we had to catch a ferry back to the city Manado (where the airport is).

I had a really fun time at Two Fish Resort on Bunaken . I will never forget it.

By Artemis Walden

On small miracles and illness

Written by Lianna - Random writing
Each of us only possesses a small backpack to carry everything for this trip. Because of this we have to be very frugal with what we possess. Books are the most difficult to accumulate, being heavy and cumbersome. I have already 3 books I carry and that alone takes up a large amount of space as well as creates weight. So we trade books as we go along on our Journey.

One book I did not take and I had been wanting to read again was “ The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book”.

We were on Koh Tao in Thailand at the time I had this earge to read it. After dinner one evening, the kids and Mark were watching a movie, “Wanted” one I do not particularly like, on the big screen at the restaurant when I decided to check out a second hand bookstore nearby.

I walked around the bookstore looking at all sorts of titles, thinking first maybe I would find a good novel or maybe an interesting book on the politics of Thailand. Nothing intrigued me. I then remembered what I was there for. I told myself very clearly that the book I wanted was here.

Finally stumbling upon the section of books left somewhat unclassified, I scanned the titles. I stood there in amazement as I read the binding, “ The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book”. One has to realize that this book is not easily found even in bookstores of North America. It was in excellent condition as well as being a copy published in 1974, I believe a first edition, a gem and practically an antique. Who knows how long it had been sitting there in this little remote island off of the southeast coast of Thailand.

Dec.10
I have just finished reading a section from “The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book”, on an exercise to generate energy to create reality or cure an illness through.

I have been wanting to strengthen my eyesight. Last year I was prescribed with glasses after having headaches from working on the computer and realizing reading was becoming more and more difficult. So I have done what is explained below. And I will try it a number of times. I have also every morning recited to myself that “I have strong, healthy eyesight. My eyes are beautiful and able to see clearly and precisely”.
I have held beliefs that eyesight gets worse as one gets over 40 years old, as I think many of us do believe. I do realize that we age and grow older and then eventually die, but we can age healthily and strongly and there is no reason to believe that sickness has to be a part of aging. So it can not hurt to strengthen beliefs in health and certainly can not hurt to try some simple and fun exercises.

So here is the exercise Seth explains to help with any illness.

“Imagine yourself a portion of an invisible universe, but one in which all the stars and planets are conscious and full of indescribable energy. You are aware of this. Think of this universe as having the form of a body. If you want to, visualize its outline brilliant against the sky. The suns and planets are your cells, each filled with energy and power but awaiting your direction.
Then see this image exploding into your own consciousness, which is unbelievably bright. Realize that it is a portion of a far greater multidimensional structure, spread out in an even richer dimension. Feel the entity sending you energy as you send energy to your cells. Let it fill your being and then direct it physically any place with your body that you choose.
If instead there is a physical event that you strongly desire then use that energy to imagine its actual occurrence as vividly as you can. If you follow there directions and understand the meaning for them as given, you will find the results most starling and effective. Energy may be directed to any portion of the body, and if you do not block its actions by disbeliefs, that portion will be cured. Remember, however: If you hold the belief that you are a sickly person, that can hinder you. In that case, then, to change that particular kind of belief is your first concern. One of the purposes of this book is to tell you that no one is born to be a sickly person, so reading it can help you there.

In your terms, if you believe that you chose illness to compensate for a past-life deficiency, then it will help you to realize that you form your reality NOW in your present, and can therefore change it.

Later we will discuss such matters as birth defects. Here we are speaking about conditions that CAN be physically corrected-but not the growth of an arm if you were born without one, for example, or the correction of other lacks in the body at birth.”

“the nature of personal reality: A Seth Book” by Jane Roberts, session 637, page 186-187