Relaxing Your “Cringe Factor”

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Do you have any mysterious aches or pains? Perhaps a recurring back or neck spasm? An unexplainable stomach ache that comes on unexpectedly?

As many of you know, I am also the author of a book about homeopathy, Impossible Cure. In the world of alternative medicine, symptoms like these aren’t viewed as menaces to be squashed or temporarily covered up. Instead, it is more helpful to realize that symptoms are your friends. They have information for you.

As discussed in the May 2013 issue of the Active Consciousness Newsletter, symptoms like aches and pains are often messages from the Basic Self — a real and spiritual part of you that carries your true inner feelings, whether you are aware of them or not. Your symptom may actually be a message from deep within you. Pay attention!

As I discussed in the July 2012 Active Consciousness newsletter and the September 2013 Impossible Cure newsletter, I have been working hard lately on my posture. One reason is that I have a tendency to subtly tense my neck muscles in a way that torques my head slightly to one side, causing some annoying symptoms for me. When I’m truly relaxed, this doesn’t happen. Indeed, over the summer, when I was vacationing with my husband, I didn’t notice this problem at all. But now that I’m back, it has begun to rear its head occasionally. It can start in very subtle ways, and unfortunately, the symptom is self feeding; once it begins, I become tense about it, and then tense up some more! Sound familiar? Many of us experience symptoms like these.

Recently, in meditation, I realized that my neck problem is a kind of subconscious “cringe.” It can be a fleeting thought that sets it off — one I’m barely aware of. I have begun to realize that, rather than feeding this problem with fear, I need to regard this symptom as a message from my Basic Self. It is usually telling me something like: I’m afraid, I don’t like this, that is annoying to me. Other symptoms might be telling me: I’m sad about this, I’m grieving over that.

So what to do?

Sometimes merely identifying the meaning behind a cringe is enough for a symptom to disappear. But sometimes your Basic Self needs a bit more cajoling. Try speaking out loud and acknowledging your feelings to yourself. Another handy tool is trying EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique — “tapping”) on the problem, which I also discuss in the September 2013 Impossible Cure newsletter.

Of course, there are times when you need to go even further to relax your “cringe.” At the base of most cringes is a fear of some kind. And spiritual wisdom tells us that the antidote to fear is unconditional love — love for yourself and for others.

I admit that this can be hard to achieve. But a good starting place is trust: trusting that things are happening as they should, that there is a reason for everything. I like the Native American way of expressing this — “Trust in Great Spirit.” I say that to my kids when they are worrying about something in their lives. If you can get into a state of trust, you will notice your cringe relaxing. And when you relax, you literally unblock yourself, gaining better access to messages from both your Basic and Inner (Higher) Selves.

Think about it. What if you could really trust that everything is, at base, okay? That you are okay? What if you could drop fear? You could try anything. You wouldn’t be anxious about anything or anyone. You would be more open, but you would also feel protected. In other words, you could love others and yourself quite easily. That is why the opposite of fear is love.

How to find this trust?

My suggestion is to sit quietly in nature, preferably with your feet in contact with the ground. Settle using the techniques described in Active Consciousness — “Feet. Seat. Back.” Experience the sky, the light, the air, the sounds. Empty your mind. Call up trust.

In a world of increasing fear, this is really what we all need more of. This is what young people need in order to meet the challenges of their world — not blind faith, but rather a deep trust in themselves and the fact that, ultimately, Great Spirit will unveil their path. That is what we all need when we cringe in the face of our day to day worries and woes. Instead of spiraling downward, try to give thanks and trust.

Am I On The Right Track in My Homeopathic Treatment?

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I receive Emails every day from people who have read my book and are looking for help and advice. I recently received one very common question, and I thought it might be helpful to many of you to share my response.

I was wondering how to determine if a homeopathic remedy is the correct match. How long does it take to figure this out — how many weeks? Also, when do you know that it is time to change homeopaths? I heard about someone who saw a well known homeopath for about five years, yet his case was only improving, and he didn’t get a complete recovery. So, not every homeopath will find the matching remedy. Do you just have to keep trying different homeopaths, until you find the right one?

There are many signs of being on the right remedy — improvement of your symptoms (even if quite gradual) is the obvious one. Others are: the return of old symptoms; the development of “clearing” reactions, like a rash or an acute malady like nasal congestion or a cold, followed by improvement (these reactions usually pass quickly and on their own); or the temporary aggravation of existing symptoms followed by improvement (aggravations are not necessary, but they can be a good sign, so stick with them — and if they are too harsh, contact your homeopath). You can read more about various remedy responses in Chapter Eight of Impossible Cure. The March 2013 Newsletter also addressed this question.

Next, be aware that there are usually many remedies that can help someone, at least somewhat. Finding the perfect “simillimum” is certainly the ideal, but not always achieved. For most people, their treatment will be a zig zag between remedies over time, as the case unfolds. Usually if a remedy is going to help you, you will know within the first month. However, even if it does not help that much or very little, adjustments in dosing can make a big difference. You should discuss all changes that you are experiencing with your homeopath when you have your follow-up appointment.

As far as complete recovery, this is never guaranteed. There are no miracles. First, there are cases that are incurable. Everyone dies eventually! For some people, especially the elderly, the vital force is simply too weak to make a complete recovery. And sometimes organs have been so damaged that a cure is simply impossible — for example, in Type 1 diabetes. That said, however, there is always hope with homeopathy. Even in such cases, improvement in function can be found. And if it is possible for the body to repair itself, then there is even more hope.

Of course, even if someone is seeing a renowned homeopath, that homeopath may still not find the best remedy. Sometimes they have done all that they can and the case needs some fresh eyes. Many times the homeopath will admit this themselves. There is a saying in homeopathy — “Homeopathy never fails, only the homeopath”. If you have spent a year or two with a homeopath and you feel your case has stalled, first discuss it with them. They may see changes that you do not. Then meditate or search within your heart and decide whether it is time to move on.

Finally, remember that homeopathy is a healing ART — it is not a miracle guaranteed panacea. But the healings homeopathy can achieve are often pretty miraculous nonetheless!

Capturing the Moment

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Why do we take photos? We are on a vacation, at a reunion, at a family event, or just hanging out with friends, and we want to remember the moment. Our memories just don’t seem sufficient. We know that later on, we can see our photos and recapture our experience and savor it once again.

Have you also found that photos can form your memories? For example, when we look back on our childhoods, it is often the moments captured in photos that are most remembered, perhaps because we’ve looked at them so often.

But consider this: perhaps the very act of photographing a moment actually helps capture our memory of it. For example, think of a photo of a fairly pedestrian event in your past (not of something memorable, like a wedding). Think of the scene in that photo. Now, can you relive or reenact that scene in your mind? Does the fact that a photo was taken of a moment in time actually serve as a kind of an access point or trigger that enables you to relive that experience? You might be able to recapture the visuals, feelings, or even sounds and other sensations that you experienced, even from a time long ago.

Now choose a vivid memory from your past — but not one that was photographed. We all have moments like these. Some are traumatic events, while others are joyous times. A few are otherwise mundane moments that are somehow significant to us. For example, I have several “memory snapshots” of my experiences at a summer camp that I attended as a child. Sitting along the lake, praying in a wooded amphitheater, taking a walk by myself in a nearby park. These memories are burned in my memory and I can recall my feelings at those moments, as well as the visuals — especially the light. No photo was taken, and these weren’t particularly important moments, at least from an objective point of view. But somehow, they were significant to me. Those moments help define my memories of my childhood.

As I discuss in Active Consciousness, the so-called “orbs” that many people are talking about and have been captured in digital photographs may actually be what the Buddhists call tulpas — thought forms. Is it possible that these orbs or tulpas are formed when we take mental snapshots that become significant to us? Maybe that’s why orbs tend to form in places like churches, spiritual retreat centers, music halls, parties, and the like. People are really having experiences in those places that will always stay with them.

And consider this. Those experiences may not only be memories etched in people’s minds, but live on as separate entities, with a kind of existence of their own. They can even be photographed! Indeed, is it a coincidence that the very act of taking a photo tends to create a vivid, living memory for us? Does the act of taking a photo also create an orb? Is that why some native cultures are averse to being photographed, fearing that some part of themselves is being stolen? Is it possible that they are right, and that the creation of an orb or tulpa through the act of photography is actually taking some kind of “piece” out of them? Or is the reverse true, with the act of photography actually enhancing their life by creating vivid memories?

In any case, photographed or not, my guess is that what helps create orbs, tulpas, or vivid memories of particular moments in our lives is our degree of presence. How many of us can recall a particular moment of processing Email, yakking on Facebook, or driving to work — a month later?

But if you are really in the Now, and especially if you are receiving some kind of information, experience, insight, or feeling that is significant to you (perhaps through contact with your inner Self), you may very well remember it. That’s one reason why people are thrill seekers — they have to be in the Now. The creation of a thought form or vivid memory is just a natural byproduct of a thrilling experience.

But every moment can’t be a bungee jump. That’s why it is so important to learn how to be present, to be in the Now. My guess is that the more we capture moments in this way, the more fulfilling our lives will be. We won’t just be doing the “same old, same old”. We will really be living.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Glimpses of the Unseen World

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In a past edition of the Active Consciousness Newsletter, I described how accessing the Now can enable us to hear things that we normally ignore or suppress from typical awareness — the sounds of birds, the wind, and, of course, the ever present noises of civilization.

The same goes for our vision. There is much more to be seen than typically meets the eye! Personally, I enjoy meditating with my eyes open and recommend in my book Active Consciousness that you at least begin your meditations that way. I have found that when I do, I often see things that are normally below my visual radar. These visual gems range from easily visible but somehow unseen wonders of the natural world, to phenomena that are accessible only when I attain a deeper state of awareness. I have found that when we do notice these things, we begin to experience a world that is so much more wonderful and awesome than we normally acknowledge — a world in which there is even more to be grateful for!

Let’s begin with the usually hidden wonders of nature. When I am meditating on my deck in the morning, I often notice spider-web threads floating virtually everywhere. Try it out yourself. If the light catches them just right and you are really attentive, you will notice them. During the long night, the spiders all around us are busy at work. Their threads connect the branches, the chairs, the fencing, the house. How can we not normally see them?

Then, in the dusky hours of the evening, the tiny insects of our world come out to play. Millions of tiny gnats, floating like invisible dust particles on the wind. If you look from one angle they disappear; from another, they seem to be everywhere! Now you see them, now you don’t.

Biological science tells us that almost every type of animal has its own unique form of vision or other perceptive abilities. Dogs may not see as well as we do — they cannot even see color — but their noses enable them to experience an infinitely complex world that is completely invisible (or unsmellable!) to us. Can we imagine what insects or birds see? For example, eagles really do have “eagle eyes.” In the homeopathic proving of bald eagle blood, the test subjects experienced some amazing visual symptoms.

The fact it, the world around us is really composed of millions of interwoven parallel worlds. Each type of creature lives in its own reality. The human world is nothing like that of the dragonfly world. Indeed, every single human lives within his or her own unique world of thought and understanding too.

Given all of this, how can we be so sure that what we perceive with our own personal senses defines the only truth? We can’t even normally see the spider webs floating all around us! And yet, most of us normally close our minds (at least much of the time) to the existence of these parallel realities. If we can expand our belief systems and even our perceptive abilities to include the realm of our higher energy bodies, or even higher spatial dimensions (both of which I describe at length in my book Active Consciousness), how much more amazing our universe would become for us! If we can attain even a slightly deeper state of awareness through meditation, many of us begin to sense and even see the etheric energy body, in the form of auras.

Here is a list of other realms that are typically beyond our “normal” awareness. Some are invisible to us because they move too quickly. Others because they change too slowly. Some simply need to be viewed from a different “angle”. And others can (or potentially could) be accessed through some new form of “technology” — whether scientific, or consciousness-based. Can you think of others? For each one, consider what you might typically be ignoring, simply because you don’t stop and look!

  • The electromagnetic field. (Just think of cell phone and wi-fi radiation.)
  • Nuclear radiation.
  • Climate change.
  • Different psychological or cultural ways of looking at the world.
  • UFOs (Are they real? Many people claim that they simply move too quickly for us to see, or that they operate in parallel or higher spatial dimensions.)
  • Nature spirits or devas.
  • The spirit world of the departed.

My 4 Favorite Healing Techniques (Other Than Homeopathy)

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As is clear by now, when it comes to physical or emotional problems, my medicine of choice is usually homeopathy. But sometimes, simpler methods will do. And sometimes, a homeopathic remedy isn’t the best way to get to the root of a problem.

In the January 2012 issue of the Impossible Cure Newsletter (see Healthy Tips for 2012), I spoke about basic, commonsense ways to maintain good health — eating properly, exercising, drinking plenty of water, living in a healthy environment — as well as the curative powers of certain vitamins, apple cider vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide.

In this article, I will talk about four profound healing techniques that I incorporate into my every day life. I believe that each of these techniques helps me and my family to maintain our health and I encourage each of you to explore them for yourself. They are all non-invasive, do not interfere with any health regimen, and may provide you with the tools to overcome many health problems. And if they don’t help you, you always have homeopathy!

The first two techniques are probably less known to you and work directly through physical technique. The second two are a bit more metaphysical, but are becoming widely recognized as paths to good health.

Y-DAN

Y-DAN is a very simple and quick form of Qi Gong exercise. I perform it most mornings and it takes me only 15-20 minutes to do so. Afterwards, I always feel refreshed, more limber, more alert, and ready to meet my day. Like other Chinese forms of movement exercise (e.g., Tai Chi), Qi Gong uses body movements to help improve the flow of qi (chi) — known in homeopathy as the vital force — thereby improving health. Y-DAN is a short and easy form of Qi Gong that is popular in Taiwan. It was supposedly used by the Chinese imperial families and kept secret until recently. It is so easy to do that even elderly and physically limited individuals can usually perform it. I learned about it from a Canadian website, SensibleHealth.com, which also provides useful information about hormonal health. You can purchase a Y-DAN video from that site.

Gokhale Method

For the past year or so I have experienced ongoing physical symptoms that homeopathy could not address. Through much exploration and the help of a few therapists, I was able to get to the root of my problem: my chronic forward neck position — a problem that many of us have to some extent. An underlying root of my own forward neck is that I have been a lifelong mouth breather and tongue-thruster (the way I swallowed was incorrect). So last Fall, I embarked upon a nine-month regimen to retrain the way I breathe and swallow — not easy at age 57. Indeed, my wonderful oromyofacial therapist, Kathy Winslow, mostly works with 10 year olds! However, even after these problems were largely corrected, most of my symptoms remained. The remaining piece was correcting my habitual poor neck posture.

That’s where the Gokhale Method came to the rescue. This remarkable posture therapy has changed my life. I even convinced my 25-year-old son Izaak to attend the class as well. He has poor posture and was already beginning to experience shoulder pain at work. He too felt that the short six week course was life-transforming.

After learning the Gokhale Method, I can tell you that many, if not most, of the physical aches, pains, numbness, tingling, etc. that people experience today is due to our extremely poor posture. Even our chairs are now designed to encourage this poor posture, which only came into vogue about 100 years ago. Through meticulous research, Esther Gokhale found some last vestiges of our more natural human posture (still visible in some non-Westernized cultures) and found ways to teach us to achieve it again. During her six week training program, you can learn once again to sit, stand, and sleep in postures that were standard for humanity until about a hundred years ago. Her excellent book 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back can also provide help if you cannot attend one of her classes. Check it out!

EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)

After homeopathy, EFT comes close to being one of the most miraculous therapies you can learn about. Although seeing an EFT practitioner can be quite helpful, especially until you get the hang of it, EFT can easily be learned and performed by you on yourself or on your loved one.

Sometimes called “tapping”, the technique is quite simple: you repeat a statement of the form:
“Even though problem, I deeply and completely love and accept myself”, while simultaneously tapping on a sequence of acupressure points. It is amazing but true — by following the recommended procedure, you can eliminate many physical and emotional problems, even longstanding problems and phobias.

One of the keys to effective EFT is the use of the technique to uncover even deeper problems that underlie the presenting problem. For example, if you are tapping on your asthma problems, you might suddenly recall a car accident in your youth. Then you would tap on that event. And so on.

There is quite a lot of information about EFT on the web, including instructive videos and books, so I will leave you to explore them yourself. Here are some useful links:

Meditation

Numerous studies have demonstrated the physical and emotional benefits of a regular meditative practice. As I describe in my book Active Consciousness, meditation can create measurable beneficial changes in the brain. Even eight weeks of regular practice has been shown to enhance immune function.

So why not start meditating today? Attend a local meditation class, or consider buying and reading Active Consciousness, which provides a series of useful exercises that will introduce you to the world of benefits that can be achieved through meditative practice.

Dealing With Back-To-School (or Work) Jitters

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For many yefile0001321608732ars, my son Izaak always needed a visit to the homeopath at the start of a school year. As an intrinsically anxious kid, the back-to-school period was always difficult for him as he adjusted to new classes or a new school.

Of course, the remedy that always helped Izaak the most was his constitutional remedy — the remedy that was selected to match him overall. Because his tendency to be anxious in new situations was an element of his overall state, it made sense that a remedy selected based on this characteristic, along with his other physical, emotional, and mental symptoms, was the most helpful for him.

However, there are times when nearly anyone can become anxious or nervous — for example, when we have to give a presentation or speech. Luckily, there are homeopathic remedies that can help us through. Here are three common remedies that you might find helpful when anticipatory stress gets the better of you.

Gelsemium Semperivirens

Gelsemium, one of the primary remedies for flu, is also an important remedy for anticipatory anxiety. Maybe that’s why many of us get the flu when we’re under stress! The keynote of Gelsemium is trembling and weakness. A person needing this remedy will feel paralyzed and will want to be left alone. They may feel weak and dizzy, with a heavy feeling. Gelsemium can also be helpful when a deep fatigue comes on after a prolonged period of fear, anticipation, or mental effort.

Argentum Nitricum

The remedy Argentum Nitricum, in contrast, has a very different picture. The person needing this remedy is jittery and hurried. They may have anxious diarrhea and will want to talk to other people about what’s bothering them. Some other keynotes of Argentum Nitricum are a fear of heights and a love of salty and sweet things.

Aconitum Napellus

Another remedy to consider in acute situations, especially when fear is involved, is Aconite. This remedy presents a truly panicky picture, with fear of death, sudden panic attacks, extreme restlessness, and a hot feeling. Interestingly, Aconite is also a key remedy for colds that come on suddenly from fright or cold air.

 

If you decide to take a remedy for anticipatory anxiety, a 30c potency is a good place to start. Remember to  take only as needed.  The remedy should help after one or two doses, and once your symptoms do improve, only redose if symptoms return. As always, it is best to consult with your homeopath, since taking this or any other remedy might interfere with your overall treatment. And if anxiety is a general problem for you, constitutional treatment will be the best solution in the long run.

Potency — What Does It Mean? Or, Why the Quackbusters Know Nothing About Homeopathy

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One of the common strategies used by “quackbusters” (like James Randi) to debunk homeopathy is to stage dramatic events where they take “overdoses” of remedies — thereby (supposedly) proving that homeopathic remedies are “nothing.” For example, Randi once  took a whole bottle of “homeopathic sleeping pills” and said that he had no noticeable effect; he did not become sick from them, and not only did he not become sleepy, he felt wide awake! It is one of Randi’s aims to remove all homeopathic products from the shelves of the nation’s stores.

By engaging in these stunts, of course, quackbusters only demonstrate their complete lack of understanding of homeopathy and how it works. Such events also demonstrate how easily the issue of potency is misunderstood.

First of all, remedies are simply not like conventional (and toxic) medicines. The fact that it is almost impossible to be poisoned by homeopathic remedies is a wonderful feature!

Homeopaths will readily acknowledge that their medicines do not contain material doses of the substances from which they are made. Any remedy of potency higher than 12c has been diluted to the point where a single molecule of the substance is unlikely to remain. Thus, taking 1 pill or 1000 pills at the same time will generally have the same effect for most people (except perhaps the most highly sensitive). The reason is that what the pills are imparting is more like a quality, not a quantity.

As reported in previous articles I have written, scientific studies (conducted by both material scientists and Nobel-prize winning medical scientists), have demonstrated there is something measurable in homeopathic dilutions that is unique to the substance from which they are made. But this measurable thing is more akin to a vibration than a material substance. In other words, the effect of a remedy is more like listening to a musical note than swallowing a chemical pill.

What does it mean to ingest a sound? Will ingesting more of a sound really be different than simply ingesting the sound? However, if someone listens to a sound repeatedly, day after day, it may indeed begin to have an effect on them, no matter what the sound is. That is closer to understanding what a remedy does.

Before I continue, let’s distinguish between three features of a remedy pill (or liquid):
* the potency system that was used in making the remedy;
* the actual potency number of the remedy;
* the remedy source.

The various different potency systems of homeopathy (X, C, LM) are all about how the dilution process was conducted. X potencies are made through repeated dilutions of 1:10; C potencies are made through repeated dilutions of 1:100; and LM potencies are made through repeated dilutions of 1:50,000.

The potency number indicates how many times the dilution step was done. For example, to make a 3C remedy, first a unit of substance is diluted in a mixture of alcohol and water (or is ground into milk-sugar) in a ratio of 1:100, then a unit of THAT is diluted in a ratio of 1:100, and then a unit of THAT is diluted in a ratio of 1:100. In other words, the dilution is done 3 times. After each dilution step, a process of vigorous shaking or grinding occurs. This is the critical thing (which even modern scientists have discovered) that imparts the quality of the substance into the dilution.

Because of the different ratios of dilution that can be used, each of the potency systems creates remedies that have a different quality to them. I like to think of X potencies as the “edgiest”, and LM potencies as the most “smooth”. You might think of X potencies as being like more boxy waves, and LM potencies as being very smooth undulating waves.

Within each of these potency systems, though, the higher the potency number (i.e. the more it has been repeatedly diluted), the more specific and deep the effect. I like to visualize it this way. A low potency is like a gentle wave. A high potency is like a wave with deep spikes. That’s why low potencies tend to have broader gentler effects, and higher potencies have deeper, more specific, and usually more long-lasting effects.

Each remedy source imparts its own wave pattern or signature. If a remedy source pattern matches a patient’s energy pattern (is homeopathic to their state), then it will have a curative effect on them. If it’s totally not a match, it won’t mesh at all with their state of being and they will feel no effect. If it’s close, it might mesh a bit and have some effect, and sometimes even cause more aggravations because it’s not quite right. Similarly, if it matches but it’s too high a potency for their state, it might amplify that state too much and aggravate them. If it’s too low, it might not have so much of an effect.

So let’s face it: the Amazing Randi is not so amazing!! He doesn’t even understand the first principles of homeopathy — something that is quite surprising given that he has been baiting homeopaths for so many years! The philosophy of homeopathy quite clearly states what would happen when he ingested a bottle of homeopathic sleeping pills:

  • If he was not in a state of insomnia that matched the remedy and was completely insensitive to the remedy’s vibration, nothing would likely happen, no matter how many pills he took at the same time.
  • If he did suffer from an insomnia pattern that matched the remedy, they might help him sleep better.
  • If he took the pills over and over again, day after day, or if he had at least some kind of sensitivity to them and the potency was too high, he would likely begin to experience a homeopathic proving — that is, he would begin to experience the symptoms that the remedy causes (and therefore can cure) — sleeplessness! In other words, he would become more awake, not more sleepy. And indeed, that is what happened to him.

The bottom line though is this: we all deserve the right to use the type of medicine we want to use. If the Amazing Randi does not want to benefit from the wonders of homeopathic medicine, he is free not to do so. But for him to try to destroy that opportunity for the rest of us — through publicity stunts and big-pharma funded media campaigns — he is being unjust and manifesting hubris, close-mindedness, and mean-spiritedness.

Finally remember this: if you do read about these stunts in the media, chime in and tell them the truth. In fact, you are free to supply a link to this article if you want to do so!

Amy Speaking on “Resonance: The Secret Behind Homeopathy and Active Consciousness”

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August 5 Interview of Amy on Homeopathy World Community Radio

Amy spoke on the topic  Resonance: The Secret Behind Homeopathy and Active Consciousness on August 5, 2013 as part of the Health Inn Show, aka Homeopathy World Community Radio.  You can watch the archive here: