Cosmic Lady

Archive for July, 2009

Are you a church leader or are you a member of a church group that is actively looking for ways to improve your congregation, your community, as well as the world in general? If you are, you may be looking to raise money. Whether you are interested raising money that can be used to performed needed church updates or repairs or if you are looking to support a worthy issue and cause, such as cancer research, you may want to examine community dinners, especially those that are used as fundraisers.

Before further examining why community dinners make for the perfect fundraisers, it is best to focus on fundraising first. Does your church regularly hold fundraisers? While many church groups do use fundraisers to their advantage, there are many who prefer to not burden the community. Of course, it is your decision or the decision of your church leaders, whether or not you want to hold fundraisers. With that in mind, you should know that most fundraisers are successful. Individuals, companies, churches, and other non-profit organizations have been relying on fundraisers to help them raise money for decades now. That just goes to show how successful they can be.

If you are still unsure as to whether or not a fundraiser is right for you, you may want to consider brining fundraising to the attention of your church congregation. Although community dinners are a great fundraiser to have, you will find that they are not your only options. That is why it is advised that you do not limit yourself when it comes to fundraising. Asking your church members at your next church meeting or service if they feel that fundraising for your local church group or another needy non-profit organization is a good idea. If the overall feeling is that it is okay, you may want to ask those in your group for suggestions. As previously stated, community dinners are a great fundraiser; therefore, it is likely something that you will hear as a suggestion.

As nice as it is to hear that dinners make for great fundraising events, you may be wondering exactly why that is so. For starters, it is important to focus on the costs. When hosting a community dinner, you do not have to go with fancy or expensive foods. Popular community dinner foods include pizza, affordable barbeque foods, as well as spaghetti. The ability to purchase your food and drinks in bulk may make your next fundraiser an affordable one. It is also important to mention that your church should have tax-exempt status; therefore, many of your needed supplies should be tax-free.

Another one of the many reasons why a community dinner is ideal for a fundraiser is because they are relatively easy to organize. As long as you carefully choose which foods you plan on serving, you should find that planning for and preparing for a community dinner is relatively easy. This also including the cook time. If you would like to offer side dishes or desserts, you may want to ask that some of your congregation members bake a few items for your next community dinner.

To ensure that your next community dinner, should you decide to have one as a fundraiser, is popular, you may want to consider examining large dining areas in or around your community. Many times, you may find that some business owners or hotels will donate the use of their banquet rooms for a few hours, especially for a good cause. A change of scenery may attract more eaters. It is also important to ensure that your meal prices or requested donations are affordable. You may want to consider offering discounts for couples or families.

As outlined above, community dinners can make for some great fundraising events. With that in mind, it also important to remember that you do have other options. For more information on those options, you can use the internet to your advantage or ask those that you know, preferably other church goers, for recommendations.

Studies have shown that there is an increase in the number of children that have been diagnosed with autism. Until now, doctors have not yet found a cure to this illness which is why some parents want to experiment with alternative forms of treatment and one example is acupuncture.

Acupuncture is a holistic approach in treating and preventing certain diseases. Its main tool are very thin needles that are inserted to targeted points in the body. The body has about of them linked through a system known as meridians or pathways. Once these are stimulated, these are supposed to create balance in the body.

Autism on the other hand is a brain disorder that is long term. This disease is characterized by deficits in language, social communication and cognition. Children who are diagnosed with this illness may also suffer from secondary problems such as aggression, irritability, stereotypes, hyperactivity, negativism, volatile emotions, temper tantrums, short attention span and obsessive-compulsive behavior.

Preliminary studies have shown that acupuncture may provide symptomatic relief to children suffering from autism. Although difficult at first, it is believed that it is rewarding in the long run. This is because while conventional therapy and treatment requires that the child stay still, acupuncture doesn’t. Some say it’s a quick prick at the vital points in the body.

A group of children in the US participated in a test to see how effective acupuncture is among children. There are respondents and each of them was given the treatment once every other day for four months.

After the treatment out of the respondents showed remarkable improvement. In fact of them has cerebral blood flow. The only thing that did not change prior to treatment and after was the blood flow between the left and right cerebrum as it showed no differences.

Aside from traditional acupuncture to help children with autism, a preliminary study in Hong Kong is trying to see if tongue acupuncture can produce better results.

Results have showed that of respondents in the test, majority showed functional improvement of various degrees depending on the age and severity of their disabilities. Some improvement was noticeable within a few TAC sessions, especially for drooling, spasticity (scissoring or tiptoeing), ataxia, and poor balance in walking. Functional improvement was noted after one to two courses of TAC. Most children tolerated TAC well, with only occasional pain and minor bleeding in some patients.

The reason why tongue acupuncture is being experimented with is because there is a connection between the tongue and the heart through the meridians that spread to all the organs in the body. It is believed that the points on the tongue can influence the state of the other body organs thus giving relief to the one suffering from autism.

But many believe that acupuncture alone cannot help autism sufferers. It has to be combined with other things like maintaining a certain diet to help improve one’s mood and communication schools. Although it is only short term, it is better than nothing until a cure is found.

When will the cure be found? Only time can tell as there are many other questions that have to be answered in order for doctors to further understand neurological disabilities. Doctors who are conducting research believe that an interdisciplinary approach is needed given that acupuncture has shown positive results in helping children with autism.

If you are a serious astronomy fanatic like a lot of us are, you can probably remember that one event in childhood that started you along this exciting hobby. It might have been that first time you looked through a telescope. But for many of us, it was that first time we saw a rain of fire from the sky that we eventually came to know as a meteoroid shower.

At the time when you see the first one, it’s easy to remember the movie “war of the worlds” or some other fantastic image of aliens entering our atmosphere in droves to take over the planet. But with some guidance and explanation of what was going on, we eventually learned that these showers were not at all threatening or any kind of invasion. For the most part meteoroid showers are harmless, part of nature and very fun to watch.

So what are these strange lights in the sky? Are they aliens invading from Mars? Are the comets coming to start the next ice age? Or perhaps asteroids burning up as they enter the earths atmosphere. The answer to the above questions is no to the first and “yes and no” to the other two.

A meteoroid is actually a small piece of space rubble, usually dust or small rocks that come from either a comet or the break up of an asteroid in space and that eventually plummets toward the earth. We say “toward the earth” because the lights you see are the friction of the atmosphere burning up those small space tidbits and creating a spectacular show for all of us as they do so. A particularly exciting moment to witness is when a meteoroid breaks up or explodes on entry. A meteoroid that explodes is called bolides.

There are some interesting details about the life of a meteoroid that make the viewing of shooting stars even more fun. To be seen, a meteoroid only needs to weigh as little as a millionth of a gram. But the thing that makes them so spectacular to see is the tremendous speeds they reach as they enter the atmosphere. Before burning up, a meteoroid will reach between and kilometers per second which is times faster than a speeding bullet.

We tend to think of t seeing a shooting star as a freak event and we associate it with superstition (hence, wish on a lucky star). But there are actually thousands of them every year so it really isn’t that rare to see one. In fact, scientists tell us that over , tons of space matter enters the atmosphere each year and burns up on entry.

Comets are a big source of meteoroids because of the nature of those long tails. A large amount of dust, ice and other space debris gets caught up in a comet’s tail as it moves toward the sun. Then as the comet moves away from the sun in its orbit, tons of this matter is thrown off into space to disperse. As the Earth moves in its routine orbit around the sun, it often crosses through clouds of this discarded matter which becomes one of those “meteor showers” that are so popular for viewing.

These showers of shooting stars are pretty easy for astronomers to predict so you can get into position to see the excitement at just the right time of night and be looking at the right area of the night sky. Usually the astronomy magazine or site will give you a general time and location to be ready to look when the meteoroids start to fall.

Now keep in mind, this is a phenomenon of nature, so it may not observe the time table exactly. Also note that there is a notation system for where the meteoroid shower will occur based on what constellation is its backdrop. The section of the sky to focus on for the show is called the “radiant” because that is where the entering meteoroids begin to glow or radiate. The radiant is named for the constellation it is nearest too. So if the meteor shower is going to occur in the constellation of Leo, then its radiant will be called Leonid. This will help you decipher the listing of asteroid showers in the publications.

Are you a church leader or a member on your church’s board of directors? If you are, you may be dealing with a number of important issues. These issues may include a decrease in church membership, as well as having the goal of expanding the size of your church congregation. If these are goals of yours or issues that need to be dealt with, you will want to continue reading on.

When it comes to improving church membership numbers or even just attendance at Sunday services, there are many church members who are unsure as to where they should start or what they can do to generate interest in their community. What you will soon find is that you have a number of different options, including educational community event nights, fundraisers, advertisements, and so forth. With that in mind, you may want to place a focus on music, as music has always played an important role in religion and its focus is being emphasized on today.

Over the past few years, the allure of religion and music has greatly expanded. In the past, many church groups were well known for having choirs. These choirs often still exist today, but many churches have also developed church music groups. These music groups are just like “traditional,” bands, but a focus is often placed on religious music and tunes. If your church currently does not have a church band and if you are interested in having one, you may want to get started with that formation right away, as there are a number of benefits to using religious music to help improve your membership numbers, as well as your attendance levels at Sunday services.

As great as it is to hear that you may want to use music as a way to reach out to those in your community or those who may be looking to find a new church to join, you may be wondering exactly how you can go about doing so. For starters, you may want to consider incorporating your church’s music group into your Sunday service. There are many congregations who are now having their church music groups, filled with singers, guitarists, and drummers, play at the beginning or at the end of church services. This approach is ideal if your regularly find yourself with new guests in attendance at Sunday services.

Another one of the many ways that you can go about using music as a way to reach out to your community, in hopes of generating interest in your congregation is with the use of community events. By hosting a free concert or a public concert as a fundraising event, you may be able to generate the interest that you are looking for. This is particularly ideal if you are able to host your concert, whether it be a free community concert or a fundraising concert, at a public location, like a park. Taking away the presence of your church, even just temporally, may give many community members the comfort needed in inquire about your services and so forth.

In today’s society, you will find that many individuals, including those in your community rely on the internet for their news and entrainment. If your church congregation has an online website, you will want to use that online website to post information on your church choir or your church band. In fact, you may also want to post audio files of each performance or even videos. This approach is ideal, as you may be able to generate interest in your church at just about any point in time, even in the middle of the night!

If you would like to learn to open your Personal
Akashic Records, gain deeper wisdom, heal past issues,
pain and limitations and liberate your spirit then you
should look into attending an Akashic Records
workshop.

An Akashic Records workshop can shift a person’s
energy to a place of peace and empowerment.

The Akashic Records hold the individual records of
each Soul’s journey since the beginning of time. At
the workshops, you can also learn why the Akashic are
now available to us and how to use them to improve
your daily life.

During an Akashic Records workshop you will be able to
experience a profound life transforming process
through connecting with the energies of your Akashic
Records.

You will be able to learn to enter and access your own
personal records in order to be able to do so at a
future date.

You will learn how to create new choices in life from
a point of clarity and guidance as well as access
profound healing and gain deeper understanding in your
life path.

You will learn how to resolve issues from your past
and open a brighter future as well as experience the
wisdom and freedom of your Devine Self.

During a two-day workshop, your guide will demonstrate
to you just how to open your own records, answer your
personal and global questions and share profound
information from the Akashic Records regarding your
past, present and future.

You will learn to open your mind and deepen your
connection with the Devine. These workshops can indeed
be a life changing and life affirming experience.

Holistic healthcare by definition is being able to cure an illness through the use alternative means. This means no medication is given to the patient and an instrument like a bunch of needles could do the trick.

Acupuncture has been around for than years. It is only recently that this holistic form of healthcare has reached the US. Studies have shown that it can treat minor problems and prevent some from happening.

The needles used in acupuncture are very thin but thicker than the human hair. This makes it smaller than those used on hypodermic needles.

Most patients that undergo acupuncture will not feel any significant change after one session which is why a few sessions are needed. Best of all, it is painless so your body will not feel sore afterwards.

Several studies have been conducted about acupuncture and there have been positive results. For instance in the UK, participants who were suffering from migraines claimed they felt better after months worth of sessions.

In the US, acupuncture has also proven to be effective in helping people deal with arthritis because the needles help the body fight against this chronic illness that is much cheaper and more effective than conventional medicine.

Acupuncture can do more than just helping patients deal with arthritis or migraine. Clinical tests have shown that it can help obese people lose weight and those who are suffering from insomnia.

In some countries, acupuncture has even been used to replace chemical anesthesia prior to surgery as there are some patients who are not able to tolerate regular anesthesia.

Another field which acupuncture has proven to be effective is helping patients deal with their addictions such as alcohol, drugs and smoking. One study of smokers revealed that the average patient will cut down by half the number of cigarettes they consume after just one treatment. Just imagine the potential after a few more sessions!

This has resulted in the establishment of clinics nationwide that only use acupuncture as the means of rehabilitation.

Acupuncturists in the US charge from $ to $ per session. This usually gets lower in the succeeding treatments. The person will probably have to undergo to treatments to times a week but this really depends on the condition of the patient.

Before you go to one, you should check if this is covered by your insurance. If it isn’t, perhaps you should suggest that it should be included as it is much cheaper than having to undergo surgery.

Although there are risks if you decide to go undergo acupuncture, these can be avoided as long as the one doing it is a licensed professional who makes sure that the needles used are sterilized before they are inserted into the body.

These days, a lot of people in the medical field have accepted the fact that alternative medicine such as this can also help the patient which is why they may refer someone when it is needed.

So, if you are tired of experiencing the side effects of conventional medicine and want to try a holistic form of healthcare, why don’t you see what acupuncture can do for you? It is painless and cost effective. In fact, it is just one of many you can try to help treat a chronic condition.

In the world of New Age, there is a commonly known
place called the Akashic Records, but even though many
have heard of it, not all know just what the Akashic
Records are.

So what are the Akashic Records? What can they do for
you? Can you actually access this information on your
own?

The Akashic Records is basically a system that holds
all the information from the past, present and future,
back to the beginning of time. It is a universal
filing system that records all thoughts, words and
actions.

The Akashic Records record all human events and
experiences. They record talent and knowledge and are
similar to a cosmic consciousness. They are not actual
books or scrolls as many people believe, or even see
when they access them.

The Akashic Records are actually an energetic
vibration. The energy is recorded and translated into
images, forms, symbols and language that the common
mind can understand.

This Universe’s super computer system is also known as
the Book of Life in many sects and religions. The
Akashic records contain the entire history of every
soul.

These records connect each one of us to each other.
They are an inspiration for dreams and invention.

Reading of the records provides us with valuable
information of past, present and future and can guide
us on how to live a better, more fulfilling life. We
can be guided through problems and trouble and can use
the Akashic Records to sort out all sorts of problems
we are faced with on a day-to-day basis.

Akasha is a Sanskrit word meaning sky, space or
aether. The term Akashic Records is from Hinduism and
was incorporated into theosophy meaning a collection
of mystical knowledge.

This mystical knowledge is encoded in a non-physical
plane of existence. These Akashic Records are supposed
to contain all knowledge.

They are metaphorically described as a library.
Supposedly the records are constantly updated. The
concept of Akashic Records originated in the th
century and remains prevalent in New Age beliefs.

The Akashic Records are often compared to a universal
computer or the mind of God. They are said to contain
every thought, word and action in the universe and are
impressed on a substance called Akasha.

The records are similar to a collective consciousness
and they have been referred to by different names
including the cosmic mind, the universal mind, the
collective unconsciousness or the collective
subconscious. Some people also think that the Akashic
Records are what make psychic perception possible.

It is believed that the events recorded on the Akasha
can be read in certain states of consciousness. These
states can be induced by certain stages of sleep,
weakness, illness, drugs and meditation.

This means not only mystics can tap into the Akashic
records, but ordinary people can also.

According to believers, the Akasha are the library of
all events and responses concerning consciousness.
Every life form contributes and has access to the
records if they know how to tap into them.

They can be accessed through yoga, meditation,
pranayama, prayer and visualization.

Today, more and more people are being drawn to the
healing of the Akashic Records. In fact, there are
more people seeking out this sort of healing than at
any other time in history.

People seem to be ready and eager to achieve that
which their souls long to accomplish. People no longer
wish to wait to see what the future holds in store for
them.

They would rather see in advance and therefore better
prepare themselves for what is to come. Most people
cannot get in touch with the Akashic Records, so they
seek out a reader to help.

This reader is able to read the Akashic Records and in
turn empower you to take control of your life.

You are given insights to behaviors you may have
including self-defeating, addictiveness and negative
habits. With an Akashic reader you are able to release
blocks to your purpose, path, health and growth, often
immediately.

Depending on the person doing the reading, the Akashic
Records can be accessed in many ways. Some are able to
access the records while in a sleep-like trance,
telling they are not able to channel accurate
information at a conscious level.

Others claim to have accessed the Records through
methods derived from Greek Oracles, Christian
mysticism and the Kabbalah.

Today, the methods are expanding rapidly since more
and more people are granted access to the Akashic
Records.

These people are finding access through sacred prayer
and other imparted rituals. It is even reported that
people are able to access information without any
effort at all. They are actually born with the
connection.

There is a moment in the life of any aspiring astronomer that it is time to buy that first telescope. It’s exciting to think about setting up your own viewing station whether that is on the deck of your home or having a powerful but mobile telescope set up to take to the remove countryside to really get a good shot at some breath taking star gazing.

The last thing we would want to do is to take away any of the “fun” of your hobby of astronomy because the joy of what we do as star gazers is a big part of the appeal. But unlike many other hobbies, ours is a passion of science, of learning and of discovery. And don’t kid yourself, even a hobbyist with a limited telescopic set up can see some amazing things in the stars. So let’s be sure you invest in a solid piece of equipment that you can continue to grow with as your knowledge and ability as an astronomer grows. But how do we do that?

Meet the Geeks.
Now we use the term “telescope geeks” lovingly because any of us who are devoted to our love of astronomy eventually become telescope geeks. And these are the type of people who will know exactly how to evaluate your needs in terms of where you are right now and where you want to go as your hobby grows with you. So if you have not yet associated with a local astronomy club, now is the time to do it.

Start rubbing elbows with people who live and breathe telescopes. Their input is a hundred times more reliable than what a sales brochure or that salesman might have to say because the “telescope geeks” have been where you are, made the mistakes and are eager to help you avoid those same mistakes.

Size Matters
In the world of telescopes, the sales people see, to try to baffle us with all the bells and whistles of their hottest selling model. One of the big check points that is often pushed is the amplification level of the telescope lens. While that is a factor that is worth noting, when it comes to a telescope lens, the old phrase “size matters” is a good guideline.

Just remember that your telescope lens works best when it takes in the most light it can from the object you are viewing. So the wider the diameter of the lens, the better a view you are going to get. So don’t fall for the amplification level only. Carefully evaluate the lens size so you have the right fit for what you want to do.

It Has to Stand on Its Own Feet.
If you are going to set up a permanent telescope station, then you can bolt the unit down so it is well supported. But many of us have to take our telescopes out into the country for optimum use. So the stand has to be strong and flexible so we can set up the telescope on uneven turf but still feel secure that this important and expensive piece of equipment is going to stand on its own without fear of it falling during our observation time.

We already mentioned strong and flexible as evaluation guides for the telescope stand but add in ease of use as well. You have to be able to set your telescope up and break it down quickly and easily when you are on a remote viewing. You may even find yourself setting up or taking down your telescope in the dark or by lantern or flashlight if you are taking advantage of the great star displays in the late night sky that make this hobby so exciting.

These are the basics of what to look for in your new telescope. Finally, make sure the telescope can be enhanced and expanded without having to throw the first unit away and buy something completely new. You want your telescope to grow as your knowledge and skills grow. If your first telescope meets all of these requirements, you are off on the right foot on a long and enjoyable career as an amateur astronomer.