Simple practical weekly inspirations to improve various aspects of your thought patterns, emotions, habits and lifestyle.

A WORD, A THOUGHT, A QUESTION

At the end of the 19th century, a quiet spiritual revolution took place. Lalaji rediscovered the subtlest art of Transmission, connecting us with the center of everything. By activating the flow of Transmission to the heart by the living Master or a certified trainer, the soul’s capacity to connect with the eternal and infinite presence that is always with us through Transmission expands.This month, we celebrate the transformative ancient yogic spiritual essence of Transmission or Pranahuti. We hear from Daaji on Transmission, and a prayer called Dance of Joy, Jason Nutting shares the practice on emergency Cleaning, and Heartfulness practitioners on the experience of Transmission. Senthil Vishwanathan explores the power of zero, Ravi Venkatesan speaks about exceptional listening, and Dr. Sreenath Ananthaneni and B. Rathinasabapathy present the greening of the future. J.C. Little shares an art essay called Art is an Honest Medium, Bhavna Khemlani writes about Unplugging to Reconnect, we receive a prayer-blessing by Amelie Su, and a story by Sara Bubber for children to celebrate World Music Day.We appreciate your patience and understanding in your wait for the June edition of Heartfulness Magazine. Next month, we will be focusing on karma, jnana, and bhakta yoga. We would love to hear from you, so please share your letters, articles, and stories with us at contributions@heartfulnessmagazine.com.

June 2025 Edition

<h3 style="text-align:center;">SPIRITUAL PRACTICES AND ATTITUDES FOR MODERN LIVING</h3><h4 style="text-align:justify;">DAAJI describes the special transformative quality of Heartfulness Meditation, Transmission, which turns the attention inward to the center of the heart.</h4>Transmission is the speciality of <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/heartfulness-mindfulness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Heartfulness Meditation</a>. It removes the inner complexities in our energy field so that the spiritual centers or chakras are cleaned and illuminated, so that we feel light, pure, and simple. Transmission is love, and it makes meditation truly dynamic.The Sanskrit word for Transmssion is Pranahuti, where prana means energy or essence, and ahuti means offering. Pranahuti is offered by a living Guide who is connected to the infinite Source—so they can go on transmitting without being depleted. It is the divine essence flowing through the Guide into the hearts of seekers, like a mother’s love flows naturally to her children for their growth and sustenance.When a Heartfulness practitioner thinks of Transmission, it starts to flow and they receive it wherever they are instantaneously, because Transmission is not bound by physical laws. Even light cannot travel instantaneously! If we substitute timeless velocity instead of the speed of light in <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/transmission" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Einstein’s</a> E=mc2, the resulting energy is limitless, and its source is also limitless. That is Transmission.The other scientific principle that helps us understand the effect of Transmission is entropy. Entropy is the measure of disorder in any system. For the level of entropy to be low, a stabilizing input is needed so that the system does not disintegrate. When our attention is outwards, our system is unstable and entropic, whereas when it is drawn inwards towards our center it stabilizes. Transmission naturally draws our attention inwards, so our system becomes highly stable, leading to lower and lower entropy. And what is our center? It is the soul. We feel the effect of Transmission as relaxation and stillness of the mind, emotional balance, and quietness.The call of spirituality is change: to transform from whatever we are today to what we can become. What prevents us? The heaviness in our energy field created by samskaras, or impressions, from our past. Transmission frees us from these shackles; like wrinkles in clothing have to be ironed out, Transmission irons out impressions. Transmission goes to the very root of the samskaras and brings their vibrations to zero.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/transimssion3_5d559dd54f.webp" alt="transimssion3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:center;">When we are unable to regulate our minds or traverse the various layers of consciousness,&nbsp; it is Transmission that acts like a walking stick or&nbsp; crutch to support consciousness to expand into other dimensions.&nbsp; It helps us transcend from one level to another,&nbsp; to soar into superconsciousness and&nbsp; dive deeper into the subconscious depths of the mind. That is its primary role.</h4>&nbsp;<hr>In the Kena Upanishad, pranahuti is described as pranasya pranah, the ‘life of life.’ The moment we receive the first Transmission, the soul is nourished and there is freshness in our life force and existence, like trees after the first monsoonal rains.When we are unable to regulate our minds or traverse the various layers of consciousness, it is Transmission that acts like a walking stick or crutch to support consciousness to expand into other dimensions. It helps us transcend from one level to another, to soar into superconsciousness and dive deeper into the subconscious depths of the mind. That is its primary role.We receive Transmission in the first Heartfulness Meditation session and when we feel the difference between meditating with and without Transmission, we recognize the shift in consciousness Transmission creates. &nbsp;

Transmission can transform the world, if we want it to

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">NINA RUBINSTEIN ALONSO reminisces about the early days of Heartfulness in the West.</h4><hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Shahjahanpur, India</h4>I’d been in a gloomy mood when my husband Fernando suggested I try <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/on-meditation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">meditation</a> with his friend Jim who lived nearby. He had been to India and met a guru named Babuji. From the first sitting I felt heart-connection. And I wondered where this had been all my life. But I still had questions, and wondered if the calm I felt meditating could be self-hypnosis or fantasy.To be certain, I had to travel to Shahjahanpur and meet Babuji. Fernando came, too, and we spent hours with Babuji every day, spiritual energy flowing in a loving, pure atmosphere. There were no charges, not even for our meals or our room at the ashram, donations optional. During evening meditation the hall doors stayed open and we heard birds chirping as they fluttered to their nests in a high corner, a reminder of the physical world.<hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Dole, France</h4>Hundreds of people are in a huge tent. Chariji scans the crowd then says, “Please start meditation.” I’m deeply absorbed until I hear buzzing, not sure where it’s coming from, suddenly I hear a yelp as if someone got stung or scared by a bee. Then silence continues until Chariji says “That’s all,” ending the sitting. &nbsp;Not sure what happened, I opened my eyes and notice everyone seems fine. The bee, or whatever it was, has gone.<hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Madras, India</h4><a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/heartful-village-life-rural-india" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Group meditation</a> is on the second floor of a building in Madras. We’re seated close together but it’s comfortable, and I’m grateful to be with Chariji though still jet-lagged and fuzzy-headed from hours of travel. Meditation is deep until hollering starts from the building next door, people yelling, then clattering and pounding. Later we learn the racket was from construction, but it didn’t matter as I was so deeply absorbed, noise was happening but it didn’t disturb.<hr>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/interruptions_in_meditation2_e0dc713b72.webp" alt="interruptions-in-meditation2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Manapakkam, India</h4>Years later, we’re at the Babuji Memorial Ashram in Manapakkam, thousands of people in the hall, just settling into meditation when a loud microphone-amplified voice from a mosque nearby starts calling people to prayer, chants repeating on and on. Doesn’t matter, as we’re in another realm, meditation unbroken. The thought arises that we’re all reaching for the divine by various routes, wish everyone accepted differences, didn’t argue, didn’t hate each other, didn’t attack and murder over divergent paths, leaders, histories.<hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Copenhagen, Denmark and Munich, Germany&nbsp;</h4>For weeks we meditated with Babuji and Chariji in a large house in Copenhagen, then came by train to Munich. But this living room is small, latecomers are seated outside in the garden as the weather is mild. After an especially deep sitting Sonia and I are in a nearby restaurant when my heart starts beating so intensely I can’t eat. I ask a trainer what it means, but he’s not sure. I get a chance to ask Chariji, and he looks at me with a deep gaze then says that what I’m feeling is an overflow of love for the Master, beloved Babuji which resonates, feels true. After a few hours the intensity of the heartbeat softens. I always feel heart pangs during sittings, sense the flow of Transmission.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/interruptions_in_meditation3_062182cbcd.webp" alt="interruptions-in-meditation3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr>Paris, FranceWe’re at a university auditorium, and Babuji, elderly and frail, needs assistance walking to his chair on the right side of the stage. Chariji’s sitting in the center preparing to give the sitting when I see ripples of light moving through the air, visible waves of energy like ripples flowing from Babuji’s heart to Chariji, sense that these ribbons of heart light will be transmitted to us during the sitting. I close my eyes and the meditation is intense, so pure and absorbing that I forget what I saw before it started. I only remember those ripples of light years later during another meditation with Chariji, a glimpse of what’s being given to us.<hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">My Ballet Studio, Mass. Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts</h4>We’ve been meditating here Sunday mornings for many years, a rectangular basement space set up for ballet, simple and quiet. A few arrive late, some leave early but meditation is undisturbed by mortal motions. When Covid hits in March 2020, I’m forced to close the studio after teaching there for twenty-six years.<hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Lake View Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts</h4>Construction noise starts early, bulldozers hauling earth in the yard next door. Even after decades of meditation I feel intense emotions while dealing with problems I don’t know how to solve, fears about what’s next. I’m unsure how I'll maintain this house that’s in my name, partly because Fernando already owned another property, mostly because he’s generous and loving. But now he’s gravely ill with lung cancer, enduring years of chemo treatments, and I fear losing him.In 1985, Chariji visits and gives group sittings in our living room, but he notices my anxiety and gives me an individual sitting in my small upstairs meditation room. While walking outside I point out flowers called Forget Me Nots, and he says they’re spiritual reminders of constant remembrance. Later that afternoon he strolls down my driveway carrying a stack of pizzas as he heard that whoever was supposed to coordinate lunch for our Cambridge group forgot. Smiling with loving generosity, he hands each of us a slice.Before leaving he asks to meet my husband who’s been resting in bed all day, and Fernando agrees, slowly making his way downstairs. Chariji shakes his hand and thanks him for his hospitality, and I feel Transmission flowing with love and compassion. Fernando’s love and sensitivity brought me to meditation years earlier, and when he passed away the following year, &nbsp;July 1986, Chariji stayed in touch with me, told me to write, answered my letters with immense kindness and generosity. He told me that meditation sustains us, “change after change.” About the spectrum of human pain Babuji used to say, “So suffering.”A few years later, Chariji came to New York and we met at Kamlesh Patel’s home on Staten Island, the dear one we now call Daaji, guide of Heartfulness. A small group gathered around his dining room table then, but these days our numbers are enormous in Kanha Shanti Vanam and elsewhere as the Mission keeps growing.<hr>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/interruptions_in_meditation4b_9a2b299762.webp" alt="interruptions-in-meditation4b.webp"></figure>&nbsp;

Interruptions in meditation

<h3 style="text-align:center;">THE HEARTFUL LISTENER SERIES</h3><h4 style="text-align:center;">RAVI VENKATESAN describes the four qualities of Heartful Listening.</h4>“Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have rather talked.” &nbsp; —Mark Twain&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/qualities_listening2_02feec41d2.webp" alt="qualities-listening2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;Listening, truly, deeply listening, is an act of love and <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/excellence-in-leadership" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">leadership</a>. It requires more than our ears; it calls upon the entire heart. In this chapter, we go deeper into the four transformative qualities that empower great listeners: Empathy, Open-Mindedness, Presence, and Sincere Interest. These are not just soft skills as contemporary management theory would have you believe, they are powerful levers for human connection.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Empathy—Feeling With, Not Just For</h4>Empathy is not sympathy. Where sympathy says, “I feel bad for you,” empathy says, “I’m here with you.”Practically, Empathy is often non-verbal—a warm glance, a nod, a silence that holds space.When President Obama met the families of Sandy Hook victims, he didn’t bring notes or talking points. He sat quietly, cried with them, hugged them. Later, he described the weight of simply listening to their pain without trying to explain or fix it. “Sometimes, all we can do is hold their grief with our own,” he said. His deep empathetic presence turned a tragedy into a moment that reflected true human connectedness.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Open-mindedness invites diverse perspectives&nbsp; without needing immediate resolution or agreement.</h4><hr>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Open-<a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/do-you-forget-things" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mindedness</a>—Suspending Judgment</h4>Open-mindedness invites diverse perspectives without needing immediate resolution or agreement.Practically: It’s the pause before reacting. It’s the willingness to say, “Tell me more.”Despite being ideological opposites, US Supreme court judges, Justice Ginsburg and Justice Scalia maintained a famous friendship. They listened to one another’s arguments not to agree, but to understand. Ginsburg once remarked, “He made me better at my reasoning because I had to address his sharp mind.”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Presence—The Power of Now</h4>Presence is attention. It says: You are the only thing that matters in this moment.Practically, put down the phone. Breathe. Make eye contact. Let go of the need to fix.Maya Angelou’s charisma came not from commanding a room, but from commanding the moment. Oprah described meeting Angelou for the first time: “She leaned in and said, ‘I’m here with you.’ I felt as if time stopped.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/qualities_listening3_0f076d3a6a.webp" alt="qualities-listening3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Presence is attention.&nbsp; It says: You are the only thing&nbsp; that matters in this moment.</h4><hr>&nbsp;<h4>Sincere Interest—Listening with the Soul</h4>Sincere interest asks nothing in return. It is a pure desire to know and connect.Practically, ask open-ended questions. Mirror back what they said. Say, “That’s interesting, go on.”Mr. Rogers, famous TV host, visited a young boy with cerebral palsy who had stopped eating, he didn’t give medical advice. He sang with him. And when the boy asked Mr. Rogers to pray for him, Rogers said, “I will, but will you pray for me too?”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Before and After Listening&nbsp;</h4><figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/qualities_listening4_0bfb174cb8.webp" alt="qualities-listening4.webp"></figure>There is a difference between advice and support. Many times we offer advice when the other person needs and seeks support. Being fully present, and listening with empathy, open mindedness and sincere interest, is one of the best ways to support someone. The world doesn’t lack great advisors, but it certainly lacks great listeners. When we bring these great qualities of listening, we don’t just connect more deeply, we transform each other.Practice these four qualities in at least one meaningful conversation this week. Describe what shifted in your journal. In subsequent articles we will explore listening behaviors that are important and skills that can be developed to listen better.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/qualities_listening5_1f5df327b4.webp" alt="qualities-listening5.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Being fully present, and listening with empathy,&nbsp; open mindedness and sincere interest,&nbsp; is one of the best ways to support someone.&nbsp; The world doesn’t lack great advisors,&nbsp; but it certainly lacks great listeners.&nbsp; When we bring these great qualities of listening,&nbsp; we don’t just connect more deeply,&nbsp; we transform each other.</h4><hr>&nbsp;

Four core qualities of listening

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Greening the future: science, care, and sustainability

Changing lifestyle to design destiny

A sacred confluence of nature and spirituality: Asana Mandala Garden

War over a fragrant flower

The earth laughs

How to build a community

The preconditions for love

Adventure of consciousness

The hole in the boat

Emergency cleaning

The dance of joy

Restlessness to calm

Remembering and forgetting

Experiencing pranahuti

The power of zero

Attention inward

The tree of knowledge

Uniting the fragments

Prayer - from meditation

Art is an honest medium

Unplugging to reconnect

Elements of the practice

Frameworks of fluidity

Meditation for centeredness

Human intelligence, artificial intelligence

Whispers of winter

The foundation of exceptional listening: state of being

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">ROSALIND PEARMAIN speaks of the attitude of softness, the world of the senses—of hard and soft, force and forcelessness, warmth and cold—and how we harken to a more profound and beautiful world at the core of our being through the heart.</h4>&nbsp;We are living in a time of hardening edges, of ever harsher decisions affecting millions of our fellow human beings.On the other hand, Babuji stressed from the very origins of Heartfulness that it was fundamentally based on a forceless force—on softness.Another Heartfulness Guide. Chariji, often reminded us of the strength of a tiny plant root in breaking up rocks:“What is this miracle, you see, that the softest thing can penetrate the deepest, hardest substance known? Whereas a hard thing can only up a hard thing. Can you break water by bashing it with a crowbar?“It was a tremendous risk that the Masters took, Lalaji and Babuji. Because it’s like building a house of butter and then asking the people who come in to have torches in their hands. The whole thing would melt. But they had this almost nonsensical stupid faith, that a soft thing can never be broken.“And we have also, in our fairy tales, that when the wind blew, all the hard trees which would not bend were just blown down, and the soft things which were willing to bend, bent almost to the Earth, recovered. It is the soft which wins the battle always. Not the hard, you see; the hard is broken. It survives until it meets something harder than itself. But the soft, nothing in the universe can break it. Nothing in the universe can destroy it.”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Our journey in forceless force</h4>It seems that as human beings our souls choose to inhabit a specific existence in time and space as it unfolds on our planet and in relation to all creation.So we find ourselves inhabiting a field of feeling unique to each. Is it woven from DNA and patternings that have been transferred into this lifetime? This field of feeling has many layers and dimensions and knots that we perceive through different sensory gateways. They could be in terms of color or light, density and heaviness, warmth and cold, sound, or as qualities of touch. With the help of a being who is attuned to subtlest dimensions, we can harken to a more profound and beautiful world that is ours at the core, and long to return to this original part of creation.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_power_of_softness2_6da4490505.webp" alt="the-power-of-softness2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;The core of this sensibility is in the organ of the heart which integrates energetic information from the nervous system, from the organs, from viscera, from the brain, from soul. Furthermore our heart can be seen as a kind of organ of sensibility and perception whose intelligence can refine throughout life as it links with the capacity of the mind to focus <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/lack-of-awareness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">awareness</a> with the array of feeling at the most subtle levels.In this vein, then, our existence is a field of vibratory exchange with environment, with all sentient life forms, with human beings. This vibratory array is like a glimmering or a shimmering, sometimes soothing sometimes discordant, similar to the domain of music.It seems to me that the <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/spirituality-in-daily-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spiritual journey</a> can bring us closer and deeper to the source of all manifestation of life, as a sound of love resonating through all creation. It is potentially experienced by us in layers of a kind of infinite softness that absorbs and transforms and brings everything into a larger field of connectivity which can keep expanding and softening as it moves towards a steady flow of coherence that can integrate increasing complexities within evolving life.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_power_of_softness3_b5a40fe2a1.webp" alt="the-power-of-softness3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">It seems to me that the spiritual journey can bring us closer and deeper to the source of all manifestation of life, as a sound of love resonating through all creation.</h4><hr>Heartfulness gives us a resource emanating from the most profound and subtle level of vibration; the very original stir, in which to be reminded through a silent soft intimation felt within the heart of our source. This awakens our dormant longing to be dissolved into this field, and resonate in harmony with a nameless and marvelous ultimate. It is in the service of coherence, beauty, truth, and infinite love that we feel our longings for this return to our origin. Our individual journey is shaped by our intrinsic uniqueness and the kinds of samskaras and tendencies that need to be dissolved and reconciled with this core longing.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4><hr>

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The power of softness

Ravi Venkatesan and Mark Milton explore listening skills and empathy.

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The superpower of listening

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">This World Storytelling Day, March 20, we bring you a story by SARA BUBBER, based on a common folk template. May the stories within the story entertain you!</h4><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Stories have been a tool in the passage of rites from one generation to the next since time immemorial. Entertainment, knowledge, wisdom, and education was passed down in the form of stories.</h4>Once upon a time, the Earth was an open canvas. People lived a nomadic life. Traveling from one place to another for food, shelter, and clothing was a common sight. With no radio, television, and phones the only way to entertain each other was to tell stories. Stories about new roots, giant trees, and scary tigers. Travelers were given lodging in exchange for stories, work could also be done by telling stories.One such day, a group of friends were traveling. After a long day they were tired and were trying to decide who would fetch firewood and cook for the group. They tried many ways of deciding but then saw a young girl who was coming the same way. They thought they could get her to cook for them while they rested. They asked her where she was from and if she cared to listen to some stories.The young girl loved stories. She immediately agreed. The group of travelers asked if she wanted to make the story session interesting. They placed a little bet. The travelers would tell the girl a story that was absolutely impossible. If the girl said that the story was impossible, she would have to cook food. The bet also went the other way. The young girl would tell a story, and if the travelers would say that it was impossible, they would cook for her instead.The story session began.One of the travelers started: “My grandfather was a poor farmer who worked in a rich household. He was always called names for working as a slow and careless worker. He prayed to God every day. However much he tried, he couldn’t work faster and was scolded endlessly. One day, the God he prayed to appeared in front of him and when he woke he had great strength. The next day as he was scolded, the energy he had felt rushed through his veins, he grew in size, lifted the house, and took a big leap. The house shook, the cupboards fell, the beds flew out and the windows shattered. He kept flying high until his employer begged him to stop. His employer not only stopped calling him names but also gave him the place of a family member.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales2_7bab8dfbf1.webp" alt="tale-of-tales2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;“How was the story? Does someone disagree?” No one disagreed.Another traveler continued: “Once there was a famine in my grandfather’s land. My grandfather was a very weak person. One day, in a fight with his brother, he had to leave home. He thought of finding fame for himself. He walked into a forest and came across a man painting. He painted a deer and, as my grandfather continued watching, to his surprise the deer came alive. He thought it was such an amazing device, that he wanted to possess it. When he got the chance, he went ahead and painted a boat with the owner of the brush in it. He added winds on the lake and blew the owner away. Now he had full possession of the paintbrush. He took the brush back and painted clouds and grains which solved the problems of his village. He became the treasurer of the village and one day, he created a son from the paintbrush. He was so exceptional that there was no girl to match him. Then he created a fully grown young girl as a match for his son. And thus, I was born from parents who were painted. The brush is gone, but it seems like my smooth hair is a gift from the paintbrush. I use the best herbs from the best orchard that my grandfather painted.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales3_5c925060a1.webp" alt="tale-of-tales3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;“This is my story, do you agree?” “Yes we all do.”Now it was the little girl’s turn. She began her story. “My grandparents possessed many things. They were well respected in their community, and helped many people achieve greatness. They possessed hulk-like strength and various magical possessions. One day, in a civil strife, the servants of the house ran away with the chest of hulk strength and some of the magical possessions like a wish-granting paintbrush. My parents looked for it all their life, and today I set off in search. I have finally found all my family possessions with you. It seems you are the long lost servants of our family who have our possessions.&nbsp;“This is the end of my story. Do you agree?” “Yes we do.” The little girl continued, “That is wonderful news, now, give my possessions back.” “But… no we do not agree,” said the group. “Oh, then you must cook for me.” And the little girl, using her wit, rested as the team cooked for her.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales4_c3079e9217.webp" alt="tale-of-tales4.webp"></figure><hr><h3>Interesting facts about stories</h3><h4> &nbsp;Aesop’s Fables</h4>Aesop was a slave who lived in ancient Greece. He wanted freedom more than anything else. He noticed the supervisor of slaves and began to tell stories every day. The supervisor was impressed and one day asked Aesop what he wanted. Aesop asked for food for all his fellow slaves. His selfless gesture made the supervisor give Aesop and his community the freedom they deserved. These tales were combined into the <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/once-upon-a-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aesop’s Fables</a> that you have all loved growing up!<h4>Grimms’ Fairy Tales</h4>Grimms’ Fairy Tales is a German collection of fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, first published on December 20, 1812. It is considered the seminal work of Western children’s literature and is listed by <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/master-yoga-2024-unesco-paris" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UNESCO</a> in its Memory of the World Registry.<h4>Panchatantra&nbsp;</h4>Panchatantra is a collection of stories from ancient India based on politics, behavior, communication, and economics. These stories are based on the Vedas, Upanishads, the Ramayana and Mahabharata as a trove of wisdom. The princes of Amarasakti had no interest in pursuing their studies and thus a teacher, Vishnu Sharma, made a comprehensive manual for these princes to be taught in the form of stories. The Panchatantra started the story within a story form of learning, which delights young readers to this day. &nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales5_3adb201b5e.webp" alt="tale-of-tales5.webp"></figure><hr><h4>Activity 1</h4>Guess these popular stories from the details: 1. A young girl who loses her shoe that gives her the chance to marry a prince:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2. A boy who climbs a tall natural element that grows from magic beans and finds treasures in the clouds:&nbsp;…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. A prince who moves to the forest with his brother and wife to live for fourteen years. The wife is kidnapped and he goes to rescue her with an army of monkeys:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4. A little creature born into a family of ducks goes into the world alone to find his true form:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5. Two unusual friends who come together near a riverbank. The friendship ends when one large friend asks his tree-dwelling friend for his heart:&nbsp;……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………<hr><h4>Activity 2</h4>Write your own story here. It can involve animals, kings, kingdoms, humans, plants, or anything else that tells a story.Create a story with a beginning, some problems that come up, and a solution to end the story.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">AI generated images</h4><hr>

Join Sara Bubber’s adventure tale this World Storytelling Day.

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The tale of tales

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">LYNNE McTAGGART is one of the central authorities on the new science of consciousness, and the award-winning author of seven books, including the internationally bestselling The Intention Experiment, The Field, The Bond, and The Power of Eight. Here, Lynne is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the transformative power of intention, the profound impact of group intention, and the potential for individuals to create significant change in their lives and the world.</h4>&nbsp;Q: Lynne, welcome. You are known for your pioneering work in the science of intention in <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-journey-of-total-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">consciousness and healing</a>. You’ve explored this science behind intention so deeply. Can you share how you personally define the power of intention?&nbsp;LM: Okay, well, first of all, it’s important to understand that our thoughts aren’t locked inside our heads. They’re trespassers, and they can go out and affect other people and things. We’ve seen that from countless studies on everything from single-celled organisms to human beings. In my own work, I’ve seen that we can affect everything from making plants grow faster, to purifying water, to lowering violence in war-torn and violent areas, and even healing people of things like post-traumatic stress disorder. And I’ve seen it in big groups and small groups. Essentially, thoughts are energy, just as everything else in the body is a collection of energy and energy fields of different varieties. And those thoughts can go out and affect things.I see an intention as a focused thought. You and I are having about 80,000 thoughts a day, and most of them are undirected, most of them are negative. And they oftentimes undermine our life because we’re focusing on negative outcomes, instead of intending for what we want.So, I always teach intention as a respectful and very specific request to the universe. And I find it gets amplified in small and large groups.Q: During your intention experiments, have you encountered any surprising results? Are there poignant moments, epiphanies, which have made you stop and think? What has defined or redefined your expectations of these intention experiments?LM: I think many of the peace intention experiments really surprised me. I wasn’t at all sure they were going to work when we started in 2007. We started with simple things, trying to affect the light emissions of a leaf. And then we moved on to seeds, trying to make them grow faster. And then we moved on to water, trying to purify water, then trying to lower violence in areas.My first experience of something mind-blowing was the seed experiments. I did my very first seed experiment in 2007 when I was speaking in front of an audience in Sydney, Australia. I worked with the University of California’s Dr. Gary Schwartz, a noted psychologist who has a special laboratory with the Laboratory for Consciousness and Human Evolution. He prepared four sets of seeds, each set with 30 seeds, and had his team photograph them and send them to me. And I showed these to the audience and allowed them to select one of the four seeds to send an intention to. So we sent an intention to seed group A for ten minutes. After we were done, I called Dr. Schwartz and told him we were done, but I did not tell him which seeds we sent the intention to. I told him as that was the cue for him to plant the seeds.Five days later they measured the seeds. After they’d measured them, I unblinded the study and told them which seeds we’d sent an intention to. And lo and behold, those seeds grew taller than any others.We did this five more times in different locations with different-sized audiences. And every single time the seeds that were sent an intention grew taller than the controls. But here’s the fascinating part—I was with my audience in Sydney, Australia, and the seeds were back in Tucson, Arizona, 8,000 miles away. Plus, we weren’t sending an intention to the seeds themselves, only to a photograph of the seeds, a symbolic representation of the seeds. So I realized from that very early time that we essentially create a psychic-internet when we make an intention in a group scattered around the globe. That I could see over and over again with the other intention experiments.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Essentially, thoughts are energy, just as everything else in the body is a collection of energy and energy fields of different varieties. And those thoughts can go out and affect things.</h4><hr>Another one that blew my mind was a Sri Lanka peace intention experiment we ran in 2008, when Sri Lanka was in the midst of a 25-year civil war. We did a peace intention for 10 minutes a day over eight days with 15,000 people participating from around the globe. Now, during that week, to my alarm, violence went up rather than down. And I had a professor of statistics doing the analysis. It then plummeted after that. But a more interesting thing happened. The government won a few decisive battles during that week that turned around the entire course of the war. For some time, both sides had been at a stalemate. Then, within a few months, the government was able to take back the north, which was held by the rebel forces. And a few months later, that 25-year intractable war was over.Now, did we do this? Well, it turned out that during the week of our intention pivotal battles occurred, and that was cause for an extraordinary surprise. When you do one experiment like that, it means nothing. There are too many variables in a war. But when you keep doing it and keep getting results, as we’ve done with peace intention experiments, they start becoming interesting.For instance, in 2017, we ran an experiment to lower violence in St. Louis, Missouri, officially the most violent place in America. And we chose a neighborhood called Fairground that was the most violent of all. We had very accurate police data. I once again asked Dr. Jessica Utz from the University of California to analyze data from several years beforehand to six months afterward, to look at the effect of our intention. She found that violence had been going up in all areas of St. Louis, and continued to go up everywhere except the neighborhood we intended where violence went down by 43%. And so it’s happened over and over again.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp" alt="intention-revolution2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 110w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 353w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 529w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">I always teach intention as a respectful and very specific request to the universe. And I find it gets amplified in small and large groups.</h4><hr>Perhaps the one that amazed me the most is an intention experiment I did that same year, at the end of 2017, with eight Arab cities and a large audience of Israeli Jews. I had special equipment so we could put cameras in eight different locations in Arab cities. Each different Arab city had an audience there. And the ninth camera was with an audience of Israeli Jews. I asked them all to make an intention to lower violence in an area of Jerusalem that was suffering from a high degree of violence.Before that, I had to broker the entire thing, as nobody was speaking to anyone else. They started talking, because I could call on the different places. They would talk to me, and then they would also communicate with the people in all the other locations. And they started sending love to each other, they started sending “Your God is my God,” talking about beautiful visions of people coming together from both sides. There was a big love fest. I found that every time I put together polarized and hated enemies, they seemed to come together after these intention experiments.Since 2008, I’ve run 41 intention experiments, and 37 have shown measurable significantly positive effects. I also surveyed the people involved, and for those who responded, about 40% have reported more peace in their own lives. They’re getting along better with estranged partners or parents or children. They’re getting along better with bosses and coworkers. They’re feeling more love for everybody, and around 50% consistently report they feel more love for everyone they meet.Essentially, they’re hugging strangers and peaceful things happen in their lives. Also, about one-third have reported an improvement in a health condition or a downright cure. So that is the biggest and most amazing effect, the mirror effect of these intentions: the people who are sending intentions are being healed as much as the targets.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">So that is the biggest and most amazing effect,&nbsp; the mirror effect of these intentions:&nbsp; the people who are sending intentions&nbsp; are being healed as much as the targets.</h4><hr>Q: I was blown away by the seed experiment. How has the scientific community embraced this, or conversely, what are the challenges you’ve faced to try to share this with them?&nbsp;LM: I'm not interested in the scientific community because they aren’t going to accept it. Scientists are supposed to be explorers and very few of them really are. There are a lot of reasons for that. People lose their positions at universities for stepping out of the accepted paradigm. So I don’t need to convince scientists. There are enough scientists who are true explorers, who are fascinated by my work, and who have helped to measure the work.I work with people at prestigious universities to run the intention experiments—Princeton, Penn State, University of California, University of Arizona, and others in Europe. I choose people who are open-minded enough to do decent research.There are skeptic organizations who attack my work, but they attack it in the flimsiest of ways. My book, The Field, had more than 400 solid scientific references. I had interviewed exhaustively—frontier physicists, biologists, etc.—and had them check every last fact in that book to make sure I had written it correctly. The skeptics have said the book was based on nothing more than Star Wars, which is just incorrect, close-minded, and ignorant.So, I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in getting this information out to people so they can understand that we have extraordinary capabilities waiting to be unleashed, and we are very different from what we are told in mainstream orthodox science.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp" alt="intention-revolution3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 214w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Orthodox science is only 300-plus years old, and new studies and discoveries are being found in universities, in little pockets of academia here and there, that are completely transforming the way we think about ourselves and our world. And we’re far greater than we’ve been told!Q: Thank you for that very candid response. For someone who’s intrigued by your work, who’s curious about your work, and who wants to start applying this <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/how-to-manifest-peace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">power of intention</a> in their own life, how can they begin?LM:&nbsp;They can join my community and my website. When they join, they receive some basic tools and information about how to do intention and how to form a group. They can also read my books. <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-intention-revolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Power of Eight</a>, the last book published on this topic, has basic descriptions of how to do intention in a group. For people who really want to learn more, I have a whole series of foundation courses.I also have a <a href="https://lynnemctaggart.com/courses/intention-masterclass/the-power-of-eight-intention-masterclass-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">year-long masterclass</a>, my kingpin course, where I work with people live and interactively for a year. Participants start working in groups after six weeks, and each group meets once a week. Under my instruction, they use intention for relationships, for health and healing, for finances and career, and for life purpose. There’s specific information and instructions, and I coach them throughout the year.So there are all kinds of things at all kinds of price points, including free, and every intention experiment is free. I feel everybody should be able to participate.Recently, Gaia released a documentary about my work with large and small groups, The Power of Eight, plus the intention experiments. They interviewed the various scientists who’ve worked with me, and numerous people who have had extraordinary healings with The Power of Eight, too. And it will culminate in an intention on February 1, 2025. I’m going to have a live audience at Gaia’s headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, and we’re also going to livestream it around the world.It's an invitation. So everyone can take part by going to <a href="https://lynnemctaggart.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://lynnemctaggart.com</a>, where there are instructions.Q: I am really looking forward to it.To be continued.

Explore Lynne McTaggart’s groundbreaking work on intention and its transformative power in healing.

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 Unleashing our extraordinary capabilities