U.S. Mobile Phone Use Still in the Stone Age

Connections highlights interesting and delightful folks I'm meeting along The Sage Age journey.

Amy Webb, principal for Webbmedia Group, was a recent guest on NPR’s “Talk of the World” radio show discussing the global use of mobile phones. Several of her comments alluded to the fact that many countries, including remote, or rural areas in Africa and Asia, are far more advanced in cellular phone usage than anywhere in North America. During the show, folks from all over the world called in to discuss how mobile devices were being used in their countries. These applications included banking and cashless transfers of all kinds, like paying for bus fare with the phone.

One of the features that really caught my attention was the use of the phone’s camera to read symbols and take an appropriate action. For instance, Japan has a standardized 2D bar code system that can be placed on practically anything, like a flyer, a sign, or even a billboard. These differ slightly from 1D barcodes, which are the type you see on most product labels. A 2D bar code is square and contains dots. It can hold substantially more information than a 1D barcode.

Once the phone’s camera captures a picture of the barcode, special application software processes it and delivers the appropriate information. It could bring up the company’s Web site or phone number. It could also produce a coupon or a ticket. Since all of the phones in Japan are equipped with GeoTracking, the 2D barcodes can even bring up a map and give you walking directions where you can find the product.

By contrast, cell phone users in the U.S. must contend with at least two proprietary systems that are emerging and competing with one another in an attempt to monetize the system. Instead of streamlining the process and becoming compatible with the other standardized codes already in use around the globe, the U.S. companies have elected to reinvent the wheel.

Among the other interesting points Ms. Webb made during the show, one was an example of how common the use of these symbols are in Europe. During the premier of the movie “28 Days”, flyers where posted all over town with only a 2D barcode and a nuclear hazard symbol. Folks who captured the barcode with their phone’s camera were immediately taken to the movie’s Web site where they could view the trailer and purchase mobile tickets. Webb made the point that no such marketing could be conducted in the U.S. because so many people would not recognize the symbols and may fear that they were linked to some sort of terrorist activity. Several months ago, I published an article titled Is Texting Really an Ancient Art? that delved into the cultural shift brought about by using cell phones as a primary means of communication. Almost every global caller on the NPR show mentioned the importance of SMS texting to their everyday lives.

There were several references during the program concerning the Stone Age use of cell phones in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world. The reasons for this hinged on both greed and fear. Other countries do not issue contracts with restrictive use clauses for phones. Wireless banking is not available for the fear of being hacked. GeoTracking is not being used for fear of Big Brother watching. This mindset about cell phone use is simply not prominent in other parts of the world.

You can hear the entire show from the NPR site. If you would like to have a brief introduction to the uses of 2D barcodes, bnetTV.com has a short video.

The Truth about the Near Death Experience

Connections highlights interesting and delightful folks I'm meeting along The Sage Age journey.

Near-death experiences and life after death seem to be popular topics this week. It was the subject of a local metaphysical group meeting I attended last evening. When I returned home, I found an email from a physicist asking about whether life after death was testable. Today, several of my Twitter peeps (friends) are tweeting about an article that appeared on NPR concerning a near-death episode during an operation.

A couple of months ago my dear friend, Rev. Juliet Nightingale, crossed over. She was a multiple NDEr and devoted her life to educating and counseling folks about NDEs and the aftereffects of them. It’s worth keeping in mind that Juliet spoke openly about NDEs well before it was considered a hip topic. In fact, there was a deep culture of prejudice and fear concerning it. Juliet, and others like her, helped change that, even at great cost to their personal safety at times. That’s just how deeply the prejudices ran then.

There is an official organization that researches the near-death experience. It’s the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS). Juliet belonged to this organization, but always contested that their focus was too heavily shifted toward researching the bodily effects of the dieing process, specifically what happens in the brain, and that not enough support was being offered to experiencers. That attitude is based on the philosophy called Material Realism, where matter is accepted as primary and consciousness is an epiphenomenon of the brain. Juliet subscribed to the same philosophy that several quantum physicists are coming to, which is that consciousness is primary.

Juliet also knew firsthand the bewilderment and overwhelming feelings that many experiencers go through immediately after an NDE. That’s because many NDErs are subjected to a reality that does not jive with their belief system. She also lived with the common aftereffects of suddenly being intolerant to heat, loud noises, and practically all pharmaceuticals.

A leading authority on the near-death experience is Dr. P.M.H. Atwater. She is an experiencer, but more importantly, she is a top-notch investigator and researcher. She has interviewed well over 3,000 NDErs and has written multiple books on the subject. She has helped build a bridge between the science researchers and the experiencers. She has also dedicated herself to education and counseling. I highly recommend starting with her book The Big Book of Near Death Experiences, which illuminates many factors of the experience including the difference between the experiences of children and adult NDErs and documenting facts like the Hollywood depiction of light at the end of the tunnel being a minority experience.

After reading this one book, you may find the NPR article as sensational and misleading as I did. It does not further our education on NDEs. It simply stirs up the controversy by depicting a minority experience that is refuted by doctors and an anesthesiologist, all of whom are not well versed in the subject.

If we truly intend to move forward in another direction together, we must remove ourselves from participating in this dualistic pendulum swing of “we say – they say” that only stirs controversy, and begin to educate ourselves on the truth, as much as we can know what that is for ourselves.

Following are links that I hope you find helpful in your research.

Dr. P.M.H. Atwater’s main site where you can find links to her books:
http://www.cinemind.com/atwater/

Dr. Atwater’s blog:
http://pmhatwater.blogspot.com/

Juliet Nightingale’s main site (that is still being tended for now by her daughter):
http://www.towardthelight.org/

The NPR article:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104397005

Happenings with the Sage Age

It's been a busy spring full of meeting great new folks. I just finished up the local lecture tour for How Thoughts Become Reality. Met so many wonderful seekers who are focused on helping to build a bridge between science and intuitive wisdom.

Recently, the REG device results that were taken during the lectures were also made public. Had to keep them under wraps until the tour was finished so new groups would not know that we were doing the experiment until the end of the lecture at which time we intended to influence the device. You can see the results here.

Right now I'm making illustrations for a new class on Acoustics for Intuitives. It will be ready by this fall. It's for anyone who uses music or sound in their intuitive practice whether that be for healing sessions or just meditation. We'll be playing with simple harmonic oscillators like pendulum and springs and, we'll learn circles in motion have to do with waves. It will be a fun class and I'm looking forward to enjoying it with others who use sound in a variety of ways.

I'm also excited that several members of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, including the new President have joined Twitter. It's a delight to read their posts every day. It's also a good way to keep up with the latest movies on the changes and opportunities we are now facing including "The Living Matrix" and Dr. Amit Goswami's recent release "The Quantum Activist". See the sidebar for my recent Twitter posts and to join the conversation.

I'm also looking forward to upcoming meetings with local metaphysical groups. I've already met some wonderful folks there and hope to visit with them more often this summer.

Be sure to subscribe to this blog's RSS feed to stay updated with news and announcements. Things are changing so quickly and new opportunities pop up all the time.

Excerpt from The Heart of Marketing

Following is an excerpt from the introduction to The Heart of Marketing. If you are an intuitive practitioner, I would encourage you to explore more sites on the tour because many of them will feature additional excerpts. You may be particularly interested in the excerpt explaining the difference on ROI (return on investment) and ROE (return on experience). The book can be found at http://www.theheartofmarketing.com/

INTRODUCTION

This book is about marketing. But more important, this is a book about you, the soft sell marketer, and your desire to market and sell your products and services online or off without compromising your values or what you believe about how people should be treated.

In short, it's about putting your heart into marketing.

As former therapists who ventured into online marketing just four years ago we had to overcome our technical deficiencies and learn to make friends with the computer. Even more so, we had to open our minds to an entirely new way of being in the world, a whole new and very different mindset-a marketing/business mindset.

We kept hearing from Internet marketing teachers about this strategy and that technique, and all we had to do was apply what we were learning and we would surely become successful Internet marketers. After all, they did, and, as they kept insisting-"You Can Too!!"

So we applied exactly what we were told, step-by-step, word-for-word-with some financial success. But all along we labored under the feeling that something was wrong. Or to put it more accurately, something just wasn't right. But what?

The answer began to emerge at the various Internet marketing conferences we attended.

We could hear that what the speakers were teaching was logical and credible. But we always felt a sense of displacement, a feeling of not belonging, of somehow being outsiders. We hadn't had years of business experience, no formal business education, and no family business connections. So we accepted our discomfort as just part of the newness we'd jumped into.

But at those same conferences we began to hear others who had the same complaint. "I don't feel right, somehow." We heard their complaints often enough that a pattern became clear. All those who voiced this kind of discomfort were service providers, care-givers, change agents of some kind, men and women who had dedicated their lives to helping others-heart-to-heart.

These people didn't have big money as their foremost objective. To be sure they all wanted to make money-a commensurate return for the value they provided. But equal to making money was their need to serve the well-being of their customers and clients, and in so doing, earn the income they desired-not the other way around.

They also expressed their resistance to and sometimes downright objection to competing and keeping score-i.e. making money for money's sake. And some uttered the word "selling" as though it were a profanity. It became clear that there was a segment of the Internet marketplace that was not being served. That segment is peopled by soft sell marketers-all of us who are care-givers and life-change artists as distinct from accumulation artists whose focus is money first and foremost.

If you relate to what we're saying, The Heart of Marketing is written to you and for you.

Several Objectives

We have several objectives that make up the overall intention of this book.

First, no competition: we make a clear distinction between soft sell marketing, which is emerging in the marketplace, and traditional hard sell marketing, a marketing style so common that it's assumed to be "natural" and most people take it for granted.

There is no competition between soft and hard sell. They are different and serve different customers. They each function from a different marketing mindset with different objectives. As we've just said:
Soft sell marketers serve the well-being of their customers and clients as their primary objective, and in so doing earn the income they desire-not the other way around.
Hard sell marketing focuses on money first and foremost and, in so doing serve its customers- not the other way around.

Second, heart-based: we validate and support the value of the heart-to-heart connections brought to the marketplace by soft sell marketers. Their need for a felt connection between seller and buyer creates a level of emotional authenticity and transparency that adds a dimension to a sale beyond a mere commercial transaction.

Even on the Internet, where a customer may be on the other side of the world, the soft sell need for connection is expressed through the intent to create a relationship as the basis for the commercial transaction.

Third, commercially successful: we present the principle that Selling Is Spiritual Service with the intent to heal the split that soft sell marketers feel between their desire to be of service and their need to be paid, and paid well for what they do. Care-givers, whose lives are grounded in heart-to-heart connections, have historically been viewed as those who should work without ambition for money, because it was thought that money would corrupt the value of tending to those in need.

We repudiate that notion and point to the validity and social value inherent in soft sell marketers' ambition to generate money as it ranks second but equal to their concern for the well-being of their customers and clients.

Finally, spiritually rewarding: it's our aim to provide support for and articulate the internal aspects of marketing, because a successful sale is more than just numbers and product delivery. Every successful sale, whether soft sell or hard sell, is a co-creation of both the buyer and the seller, regardless of whether either or both are aware of their fundamental interdependence.

Quoting John Muir, naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club-"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."

The interconnectedness in which we all live is the signature statement of Creation. So it does all of us well, financially and spiritually, to keep aware of this undeniable fact. And when we do, we market through a broader lens of consciousness and a deeper sense of conscience.

That's why our objective is to open and inspire your soft sell imagination and set a foundation for your understanding and use of soft sell marketing.

772 Questions

The Heart of Marketing is based on an online survey we took while promoting our second "Bridging Heart & Marketing" Internet marketing conference which was held in September, 2008. We simply asked-

What Do You Most Want To Know About Soft Sell Marketing?

We received 772 questions from respondents all over the world. Their questions were split between external, tactical requests-"Where to begin?"- and internal, mindset requests-"How do I resolve the emotional conflict between my desire to serve and my desire for money?"

We've chosen 45 questions that best represent the key concerns expressed by those who answered our survey, and they form the basis for this book.

In answering these questions we begin with "What IS marketing?" and "Who are soft sell marketers?" and end with "Do you see soft sell marketing as a trend in the future?"

Welcome and enjoy!
Judith & Jim

The Heart of Marketing is a great resource for anyone looking for solid marketing strategies and tactics with a Soft Sell, heart-based approach to create real profit and long-term customer relationships. Order your own copy of The Heart of Marketing within the next 24 hours and receive over $8,400 in bonus gifts from experts around the globe. Go to http://www.theheartofmarketing.com/

Getting to the Heart of Marketing

I first began the research that eventually turned into the notes for The Sage Age as a way to educate myself on the terminology and philosophies I found so often used in movies and books that attempted to blend science with intuitive wisdom. After three years, I realized that the information I had collected would be invaluable to others seeking the same clarity. That’s when I decided to publish the material. In all, it took over four years to complete the research and another six to eight months to produce the first draft.

When I finally presented the manuscript to my editor, I began talking with her at length about the book business. I used to be in the music business and found it much the same with the exception that few publishers offer any assistance with marketing and that the bulk of that duty would fall to me. As if all the time and work of researching and writing the book were not enough, now I had to take a crash course in marketing.

Even though The Sage Age is about the rational sciences and the intuitive arts, it would need to be cross marketed in the “spirituality” genre. What I found there disgusted me. Spirituality had been co-opted into a multi-billion dollar business of using hard sell hype to push cotton candy. Let me explain. Cotton candy consists of sugar and fluff. Guerilla marketing tactics were being used in “squeeze pages” to hype folks into making a decision to purchase material that would help them get high on affirmations, platitudes, and hype, but rarely help them produce long-lasting changes. It was mostly sugar and fluff. Some of the worst of it came from folks hyping a “secret” of “attraction” that was singularly focused on the accumulation of wealth.

I don’t particularly enjoy sales. What I do enjoy is interacting with other people and discussing our common passions. I was delighted to find social networking sites and am thrilled that more folks from all over the globe are participating. I’m not so delighted with the fact that some of these sites are spammed by folks monitoring keywords used by intuitives, and other terms connected to spirituality, and then sending those who write the words an ad for a money-making scheme.

This trend continues to give a bad name to well-intentioned practitioners who use social marketing and other online resources to discuss their services. It also continues to aggravate a problem many intuitive practitioners have faced for the last 100 years, and that is the deifying of science and the devaluing of the intuitive arts as viable services.

But the tide is changing. Users of social networking sites are demanding that the emphasis remain on the social aspect. They are beginning to turn off rock star salesman in favor of folks who are offering helpful information. In sales, the trend is turning from “me” to “we” and those who are adopting these new soft sell techniques are gaining favor.

Recently, I had the pleasure of being invited to participate in a virtual blog tour to promote a book titled The Heart of Marketing. It was written by Judith Sherven, PhD & Jim Sniechowski, PhD. who both have devoted many years to private practice therapy. I want to tell you why I accepted that invitation.

In the very first section of their book, Judith and Jim (as they liked to be called) addressed head-on the distaste many feel toward sales, both as the seller and the purchaser. They also take a stance of non-competitiveness between hard sell and soft sell tactics, meaning that each has its place. One of their objectives with this book is to address the changing tide and “validate and support the value of the heart-to-heart connections brought to the marketplace by soft sell marketers.” They also “present the principle that Selling Is Spiritual Service with the intent to heal the split that soft sell marketers feel between their desire to be of service and their need to be paid, and paid well for what they do.”

I’m a geek and while taking a crash course in marketing, I compiled notes that documented the process of developing an online presence. At the urging of my editor these eventually became a set of e-books that I promote through Just the FAQs sites (blog and website). I could very well have used those sites to participate in this virtual book tour, but I chose to publish it here because I believe it will be most helpful to the large intuitive practitioner audience that The Sage Age has attracted.

Look for more information on the book here tomorrow as the tour swings by. I hope you find it helpful and that it gives you tools to bring your marketing into alignment with the vibe of your intuitive practice, services, and products.

Lecture in Nashville and REG Results

Thank you so much to Anya Ruth and the nice folks at the Nashville Metaphysical Group for hosting the lecture on How Thoughts Become Reality.

Due to the nature of the experiment, I am only now making public the results of the Random Event Generator (REG) results that were collected during each lecture. The participants weren't told a REG device was being used until the end of the lecture at which time we did a guided meditation to see if we could influence the device.

The results from all of the lectures plus another group meditation can be found on the Sage Age site.

The REG device used for these experiments is made by Psyleron and is a continuation of the type of experiments conducted at the PEAR labs. They are also the same type of devices used in the Global Consciousness Project (EGG Project).

I have been in contact with several other groups in the Nashville metro area that have been conducting group meditations for some time and hope to be able to record one of their sessions with the REG soon. I'll also be using it during the upcoming class series of Acoustics for Intuitives.

Lecture at New Earth Center

It was such a joy to be with all the nice folks at New Earth Center. My warmest thanks to the owners Paula and Mikala White Wolf for their unlimited hospitality. I was also delighted to see Diana MorningStar, who was kind enough to lead us through a group meditation after the lecture.

From L to R: Diana MorningStar, owners Paula and Mikala

Some of the nice folks I had the pleasure of meeting.

The lecture series on How Thoughts Become Reality continues next week at the Nashville Metaphysical Group on Monday, May 11th. Check the On Tour page for details and to RSVP.

Lecture at Unity Church of Life

My heartfelt thanks to Rev. Felicia Searcy and the nice folks at Unity Church of Life for their hospitality in hosting the lecture. It was a delight to speak to such warm and open-minded seekers. And, I truly enjoyed dialoguing with this group for an hour afterward and discussing the insightful questions posed.

Some of the nice folks who attended the lecture at
Unity Church of Life in Murfreesboro, TN
Rev. Felicia Searcy is to my left.

Here are a few resources for further reading on some of the topics we discussed:

Physicist David Bohm - see The Sage Age site's Article page for Dancing to the Same Score
The Schumann Resonance - see the Articles page for New Lightning May Affect Our Psyche
The cooked rice experiment - see the Articles page for Dr. Emoto's Other Experiment
Annie Besant's book Thought Forms

The lecture series on How Thoughts Become Reality continues this week at the New Earth Center in Hendersonville on Friday, May 8th. Next week, I’ll be with the Nashville Metaphysical Group on Monday, May 11th. Check the On Tour page for details and to RSVP.

Twitter Folks Who Blend Science with Intuitive Wisdom

Connections highlights interesting and delightful folks I'm meeting along The Sage Age journey.

Twitter is quickly becoming the social media site of choice for those who want to stay up-to-date with the latest happenings. Some wonderful new folks have recently entered the Twitter-verse. Among them are movers and shakers who are actively participating in creating a better world. Below is a short list of folks you may want to follow. In case you’re not familiar with Twitter, the @ symbol in front of the person’s handle (screen name) is the appropriate way to address them on Twitter.

Thanks to my Tweep (Twitter buddy) @thomasclifford - Thomas Clifford - for helping with the list.

@MarilynSchlitz – Marilyn Schlitz - President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences
@DeanRadin – Dean Radin - Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds
@quantumactivist - Amit Goswami - theoretical quantum physicist
@LynneMcTaggart – Lynne McTaggart – author of The Field
@wholescience - Kerry Needs - Founder of Whole Science
@StephenDinan - Stephen Dinan - Founder of Shift in Action

There are lots of interesting folks on Twitter who tweet (post messages) on these topics. Come join us for the conversation. Be sure to tweet me @MaAnnaS and say hey.

Internet Radio and Podcast Shows for May

On the Air - Upcoming podcasts and internet radio shows

The Institute of Noetic Sciences has a weekly internet radio program that features illuminaries dedicated to creating a better world. The April line-up includes:

- May 5th - Corinne McLaughlin & Gordon Davidson - Cocreating the New World of Synthesis
- May 12th - Lawrence Ellis - Embodied Leadership for the Great Turning
- May 19th - Walter Link - Global Leadership and Social Entrepreneurs
- May 26th - Marilyn Schlitz - Toward a Global Shift

The show airs live on Voice of America at 9am PT and rebroadcasts at 9pm PT every Tuesday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just Energy Radio, with host Dr. Rita Louise, features weekly interviews with folks who discuss "Where Science And Spirit Meet". The schedule for April includes:

- May 22 - Duane Elgin - Living In Our Universe - A New Cosmology
- May 29 - Russill Paul - Spiritual Teachings: Uniting East & West

Just Energy Radio airs every Friday night from 7-9pm CST.