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The Department of Education is spending upwards of $2.5 million to bring a mindfulness intervention to kindergarteners in Chicago, where kids can go to “calm spots” in the corner to watch nature videos.The National Institutes of Health has spent over $100 million studying the New Age meditation technique, but it is not the only federal agency pouring federal funding into mindfulness. The Education Department has introduced a “Calm Classroom” program into 3,000 schools through its Investing in Innovation fund, costing taxpayers $2,513,093.“Mindfulness is a secular, psychological mode involving non-judgmental focus on present-moment sensations, and has been shown to have a...

Though he had followed Jesus since a teenager, Mark Virkler spent much of his adult life years frustrated because He couldn't hear God's voice. He embarked on a 10-year search to hear the Lord clearly, out of which has come a ministry centered on equipping people to hear God's voice clearly and that includes an astounding track record of success over more than 30 years. Watch Mark explain the four keys to hearing God's voice--and the story behind his discovering them--in this two-part video.

Silence isn't something people usually associate with middle school, but twice a day the halls of Visitacion Valley School in San Francisco fall quiet as the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students meditate for fifteen minutes. And school administrators tell NBC News that the violence outside of the school, which is situated in one of San Francisco's poorest neighborhoods, was spilling into the school and affecting the students' demeanor. "The kids see guns on a daily basis," the school's athletic director, Barry O'Driscoll said, adding, "there would be fights here three-to-five times a week."

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CAROL"Lo! I Arrive To Do Thy Will!"Introduction: Have you ever considered, What is the first Christmas Carol?A carol is a song of joyful praise involving the birth of The Lord Jesus Christ. The first carol goes all the way back to the night in which The Lord Jesus Christ was born. No, it was not the Shepherds! Neither was it the Heavenly host which the shepherds heard. But even before the angels sang, The Lord Jesus Himself sang. Yes, That Little Baby in the manger sang the first Christmas Carol. It was not heard by His parents,...

Isn’t there supposed to be a separation of cult and state? Mindfulness is a New Age kind of meditation that focuses on the present moment “non-judgmentally,” tracing its origins to Buddhism. The growing phenomenon was the subject of a 60 Minutes segment on Sunday, for which May and other fans of the practice were interviewed.The segment featured Rep. Tim Ryan (D., Ohio), a so-called “rock star among mindfulness evangelists” who earmarked nearly $1 million to teach mindfulness to preschool students in his district. The $982,000 project provided deep breathing exercises, and “Peace Corners” for kids in Youngstown, Ohio. I’m sure...

The Church has always professed in what is known as the Four Last Things. This includes the eschatological realities of what are known as 1) Death 2) Judgment 3) Heaven and 4) Hell. Many Saints have always stated that we ought to constantly meditate on these 4 realities, in order to prepare for a Holy Death. 1) Because of original sin, we live in a fallen nature, in which death is one of the consequences of this. This means that death is unavoidable and we will all have to embrace it. The proper Christian way of doing so, is by...

An analysis pointing out the intersection of transhumanism and the occult.

ISON is in an Outburst Now. The Hidden Code This is the quote from the 12 minute 35 second video that BPEarthWatch posted on YouTube.com:"God talks to our DNA." This quote comes from the 3 minute 14 second to the 3 minute 18 seconds part of that video.BPEarthWatch has a lot of information in this video and information that, I believe, should be discussed. He took 200 or 300 pages of information and tried to boil it down to this video and he's talking about ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) Waves and the Earth's Resonance Frequency of 7.8 Hz or...

The Shambhala Times offers this Warrior Tribute to the great Kyudo Master Onyumishi Kanjuro Shibata XX who passed away peacefully on October 21st at the age of 92 in Boulder. His wife Carolyn was with him at their home. Please take this opportunity to post your remembrances and tributes as comments below the article. Below, Shibata Kanjuro XX, circa 1935 Born in Kyoto, Japan in 1921, Shibata began his Kyudo training at the age of eight. At a young age he also began training in bowmaking with his grandfather, Kanjuro Shibata XIX, in the family workshop. In 1959, upon the...

One of the things that most amazes me about the universe is its order. And its order is even more striking for its context of another widespread force: disorder, the tendency of things to fall apart. Let me explain.When we look at things we can observe that, left to themselves, things tend to fall apart and and become disorderly.Consider for example a house in Detroit (Photo upper right). Let’s say that in 1890 human beings assembled basic elements like wood, nails, brick, glass, and so forth and ordered (or assembled) these materials into a complex system known as a “house.”...

Renowned activist’s message of nonviolence, mindfulness suffuses Copley SquareWhen the 86-year-old Thich Nhat Hanh was introduced to his audience in Copley Square on Sunday afternoon, he began by saying nothing for 25 minutes. Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk who is an internationally respected peace activist and author, was in Boston as part of a US tour. And as he sat in meditation in front of the crowd of about 2,000, he managed to do something seemingly impossible: He made the city center quiet along with him, to the point where any noise — a skateboard, a car horn, a...

REGRETS Dearest Lord, receive here my regrets, my sorrows for having offended You. I am so sorry; there is nothing I can do to undo the damages I have inflicted on Your all-loving heart and on souls. I can only now beg Your forgiveness and mercy which I know You will grant me with fullness of joy and kindness. My Lord is slow in anger and full of compassion; He knows full well my poverty, my miserable weakness, my total dependence upon His generosity. I come to You, O Lord, like a beggar for Your riches, like a gravest sinner...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) -- The U.S. Marine Corps, known for turning out some of the military's toughest warriors, is studying how to make its troops even tougher through meditative practices, yoga-type stretching and exercises based on mindfulness. Marine Corps officials say they will build a curriculum that would integrate mindfulness-based techniques into their training if they see positive results from a pilot project. Mindfulness is a Buddhist-inspired concept that emphasizes active attention on the moment to keep the mind in the present.

While preparing for overseas deployment with the U.S. Marines late last year, Staff Sgt. Nathan Hampton participated in a series of training exercises held at Camp Pendleton, Calif., designed to make him a more effective serviceman. There were weapons qualifications. Grueling physical workouts. High-stress squad counterinsurgency drills, held in an elaborate ersatz village designed to mirror the sights, sounds and smells of a remote mountain settlement in Afghanistan. There also were weekly meditation classes — including one in which Sgt. Hampton and his squad mates were asked to sit motionless in a chair and focus on the point of contact...

When Rep. Tim Ryan recently published a book touting the benefits of a meditative practice known as mindfulness, the Ohio Democrat had a target audience: anyone and everyone suffering from chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, information overload. In other words, himself. His co-workers. Oh, and pretty much the rest of America, too.

FAIRFIELD, Iowa (AP) - Oprah Winfrey meditated with more than 400 women in southeastern Iowa and also talked to students about her spiritual journey. Suzanne Stryker says she was among the women participating in the transcendental meditation Wednesday at the Maharishi School in Fairfield. She says no one in the meditation group knew the TV personality was going to be there until Winfrey, who heads the OWN television network, arrived with a film crew. The private Maharishi School specializes in "consciousness-based education" for kindergarten through 12th grade.

As Wade Rathke, the New Orleans-born community organizer who founded ACORN, prepared to turn 63 this month, he was at a crossroads. The U.S. branch of the activist organization he turned into a powerhouse and a punching bag for the political right was dead, a victim of internal and external strife. Although Rathke has kept busy traveling to the 12 countries that are partners in ACORN International, he wanted something that would let him do some organizing in New Orleans. So he bought a coffee shop. It isn't just any coffee shop. It is the Fair Grinds Coffeehouse, a two-story...

On Meditation "Consistency in Giving Time to God Is a Fundamental Element for Spiritual Growth" CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 17, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the Italian-language catechesis Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience held at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters, We are still in the light of the Feast of the Assumption, which -- as I said -- is a feast of hope. Mary has arrived in heaven, and this is our destination: We can all reach heaven. The question is: How? Mary has arrived there,...

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.(Psalm 1:1-3)In the first Psalm, God reveals the marks of the truly blessed man. His blessedness comes not from outward...

According to an article written by the “guru” of Reiki, William Lee Rand, the popularity of Reiki (and other energy healing techniques) is growing by leaps and bounds and is becoming common in many US hospitals. “At hospitals and clinics across America, Reiki is beginning to gain acceptance as a meaningful and cost-effective way to improve patient care,” Rand explains. “Personal interviews conducted with medical professionals corroborate this view,” (1) he adds. Rand says that the general public is “turning with ever-increasing interest to complementary health care, including Reiki,” and according to one study, one in every three Americans has...