Zaadz: Integral Health

Re: Energy, prescriptions & sleep

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:01:59 -0000

I'm not a big proponent of pharmaceuticals, but Adderal, or any other stimulant, would also have the effect of lowering your seratonin. Many people need to go on an SSRI if they are on stimulants, for this reason.

Coffee is a bad idea, and if you feel the same without it, I suggest getting off it immediately. Sounds like your adrenal glands are shot. These take a long time to recover--months or even longer. Coffee will thwart that process.

Liz

by way of introduction

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:13:01 -0000

{Hi folks, the following is on my profile but I thought I save you the trouble.-P}

About me 1:

“Truth is the First casualty of War. It is also the first condition of Peace”

“Everybody has a piece of the Truth and every body has a piece of the Lie.”

“Violence doesn’t work. Non-violence doesn’t work either. Maybe Healthy Culture will work”

—Piankhy Thompson

We all live in, are infected by, and suffer from, a sick Culture of Apart-ness, of Alienation. This culture, like all culture is comprised of Cosmology, Identity, Ritual, and Infrastructure. In the case of the dominant culture this means; a Cosmology of Apart-ness, an Identity-Politics of Apart-ness, Rituals of (inner and outer) Apart- ness, and Infrastructures of Apart-ness. Education (formal and informal) is the transmission of culture, and in our case it is the transmission of this sick culture. The factional political paradigms or our time (including those based on race, gender, class, political party, nationality, even species) are all symptoms of, rather than cures for, this condition of sick culture. As such, none of them have any potential at all for changing anything that matters in any sustainable way. We have no time for this.

Since sick culture is the problem, it follows that Healthy Culture is the solution. So what is Healthy Culture and how does it manifest on the collective, political Level? Glad you asked. This question is explored on my two motime blogs :integralscience.motime.com and lifedancelog.motime.com. There I write of an extremely small, but vital and replicable, Cultural Pilot Project that is currently going on in the cultural microclimate of Twin Oaks Intentional community in Virginia,(soon to move to England perhaps) involving the practice of Healthy Culture; its cosmology of Togetherness (Integral Science), its Identity-Politics of Togetherness (Individual-Personhood), it’s Rituals of Togetherness (Life-Dance rituals) and its Infrastructure of Togetherness.

Intro from South Africa

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 13:42:54 -0000

Hello Everyone
Just wanted to say hello while I'm getting my feet here on zaadz. I am a holistic physiotherapist (amongst other things) working in Johannesburg. Since I started learning about healing and health I have believed in an integral approach to the whole realm of health care. In SA we are faced with very specific and difficult challenges due to the old dregs of apartheid and the pendulum swinging out a balance. Personally though I tend to deal alot with chronic pain and patients that are done going from therapist to therapist working in the old mode with little result. I find it a great pleasure and woo-hoo type experience to go with my clients on their journeys and be part of their discoveries.

Anymore you want to know I guess there is my blog :)

Namaste
Ivo

Greetings or G'day from "downunder"

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:21:01 -0000

Yup, I'm from Australia and finished a BHSc degree with a major in Homeopathic Medicine last year. I'm in the process of starting up a practice with my current focus being on creating informative content for my practice's website. Although I'm not sure how often I will post here as my focus will be on my practice attempting to spread the word and education people on the benefits of Homeopathic Medicine though I'm especially interested in the integration of different therapies in order to provide the best care for the patient/client. Hence, why I'm joining. Well, look forward to discussing the various nuances of integral health, it'll be an interesting ride no doubt.

Re: Mental hurdles

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:30:30 -0000

All the idea's suggested thus far are really great though I would like to offer a suggestion that has yet to be mentioned: self-examination.

Have you asked yourself why you want to exercise? What is it, specifically, that you want from exercising? It could be to just "get fit" but does something that general help you to focus on one particular exercise or while you are exercising or to get up to exercise?

Also, how about asking yourself what it is about exercising that you have an aversion to? and why do you associate "defeated" with being exhausted and being sore.

What i would suggest is create a kind of mind map for "defeated" and "exercise" then write down all the words that come to mind when you think of those two words or even sensations that develop which are associated with exercising. Also mind map for "dragging" and "exercise" may help.

Anyway these may help to shed some light on the associations attached to exercising.

Your opinion needed, free online directory listing in return.

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:27:17 -0000

Dear Holistic Service Provider,

The answer is getting mainstream consumers to demand integrated healthcare from doctors, insurance companies, elected officials and more. To do that, we have to provide the resource that will help mainstreamers understand why they must demand it.

In a nutshell, this email is offering you a free six-month online directory listing complete with photo (for holistic practitioners only) and requesting your opinion/feedback on an Integrated Health website prototype (www.unitedhpa.org) that will have several of the features of WebMD and more when complete. We are also offering a limited time opportunity to buy a banner ad for only $100 for six months (approx. $16/month), a price you won't find anywhere else in any media. Interested? Please read on.

Do you think there should be an integrated health answer to WebMD? So do we, and we've already begun. Although we have a wealth of talent working on this $100,000 project, it would be a mistake to not include your voice, as an integrated health practitioner, in the process. This website must serve your needs as well as consumer needs - so before we launch a finished website to the nation, we are reaching out to you and your colleagues for your feedback.

You are cordially invited to register your holistic practice in the online directory AT NO COST for six months. You may include:

your photo or logo,
your website link if you have one,
the modalities that you practice and
your contact information.
Our web developer is also working on a bio section in the directory, so you can enter your credentials, testimonials, or anything else that you would like. That bio section should be live within the month.

Simply go to our prototype, http://www.unitedhpa.org/, and scroll down slightly to sign up for our enewsletter on the left of the home page (so I can generate questions for your feedback as to the look and feel of the site and the directory. What is working, what is not working, what modalities are missing, etc.).

Then go back up the page to click the Register link near the login area, and put your practice information in the directory. You must be signed up for the enewsletter in order to be listed in the directory. None of this costs you a single penny.

The prototype of our new website is live and already getting over 100,000 hits a month since May even though the site is not yet complete. We had a 60% increase in unique site visits in June over May, so registration in the directory is going to give you additional exposure to your practice.

If you would like to have a banner ad on the website, we are offering them for as little as $100 for six months if it is in .jpg format and ONLY in response to this email. To see our normal prices and the ads already sold, please visit http://www.unitedhpa.org/store.php?pageId=2.

Our goal is to appeal to the mainstream consumer and become a strong, national integrated health resource like WebMD is for allopathic medicine. The unique database shell has been constructed to help mainstreamers drill down from a condition to their holistic options to a local service provider, something not offered by WebMD. We are in process of entering the data into that database.

This is a huge endeavor that takes huge amounts of time and money to complete - but we are already almost there. Soon the website will have video streaming for testimonials, and a private forum for practitioners to discuss and refer client condition concerns with each other nationally 24/7 - an important resource in our ever-changing field. We anticipate launching the completed site nationally by the New Year.

You don't have to pay for any of it. Simply register in the directory AND sign up for our enewsletter, so I can contact you with questions about the site on a group basis (the enewsletters are broken down by time zone).

Please forward this email to all the holistic practitioners in every modality that you know. There is room in the directory for several thousand practitioners nationwide - and it is very important to show consumers how prevalent and accessible integrated health really is, so the bigger the directory, the stronger the message that integrated health is a viable and important option for everyone.

Again, if you would like to have a banner ad on the website for as little as $100 for six months, simply drop me an email expressing your interest and we'll go from there. You cannot get an ad in any media, much less online, for that price anywhere else, and given our audience is your target, this is a wonderful opportunity and I encourage you to take it.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Be well, be wise, be ready,

Norreida
norreida@unitedhpa.org
http://www.unitedhpa.org/

using Raw Food for healing

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:11:32 -0000

Hi everyone- Has anyone seen the trailer for "Raw For 30 Days". It's a documentary about Six people who normally eat fast food, who try going 100% raw for a month. It features doctors, experts, and raw foodists who are interviewed including Gabriel Cousens, MD, David Wolfe, and Woody Harrelson. I am new to raw foods and very interested in hearing from others who are raw foodists and people who are trying to change their lives for the better. Many people in my family have diabetes and I have changed my diet and gone raw to prevent myself from also getting diabetes. Itâ€™s here: http://videos.zaadz.com/266879/raw_for_30_days_trailer Visit the Raw For 30 Days site at: www.rawfor30days.com Josh

Integral work out : literature

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:45:40 -0000

Hello

I have been doing a little bit of weight lifting for a few months (after a several year's period of not doing it after a period when I had been doing it) to support my integral development. Additionally to physical excersises I have been playing soccer more or less regularly for a few years. So I consider myself a beginner because I haven't adopted yet a postconventional or even a conventional understanding for my scheme or model of training. I am scholar in psychology, and I need to integrate my body building, that is gross body workout, into my daily life. If you have some experience in integral physical development and workout, could you please share your valuable advice with me?

I feel that I am not integrally informed about body building and stuff, so I would really appreciate your advice about very good literature on this subject. When I read different accounts on that topic they somehow contradict each other and I feel there's a lot of studying should be done to supplement the physical work out. What literature about body building should I read to become integrally and AQALly informed about integrating weight lifting into daily/weekly life?

I know there is Integral Life Practice kit (which seems quite expensive, and I would have to order it from across the ocean), but my interest in studying makes me feel like I would like to work with a few primary sources. I have foundational training in physiology, neurophysiology & medicine as well as some other subjects (including psychology and clinical psychology, of course), so I would appreciate links and lists of literature and articles of any kind of difficulty. The only thing is that I ask you to help me form an integral view on weight lifting in integral life practice so that I can use this knowledge to develop an integral program for my weight lifting training.

Thank you!

Re: Integral work out : literature

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:38:34 -0000

Hey there,

There really isn't a lot of literature on integral weight training, although you might check out Integral Strength a pod grown by Rob.

There's a lot of good information about weight training available on the web. Here a few places where I feel the information is solid (taking into account that every "expert" has a different perspective).

T-Nation
John Berardi
Weight Training & Kinesiology
Paul Chek

As far as an integrally-informed practice, the most important thing (to me) when weight training is to generate maximum effort in the smallest period of time. That means doing multi-joint lifts (squats, rows, presses, olympic lifts, etc) rather than single-joint lifts (curls, leg extensions, and so on). When doing cardio, aim for interval work rather than steady-state cardio. In both of these (weights and cardio), focus on controlled breathing.

Something that helps me a lot is to think of weight training as a meditation session. I try to be absolutely present to what I am doing -- not looking at the pretty women, watching what other people are doing, or whatever. When I'm doing squats, I have to be fully present to my form, the weight, how my muscles feel, etc, or I'll get crushed by the weight. Same thing on power cleans -- a break in concentration and I'll be injured. So I look at weight training as a way to practice focusing attention.

The other part of the equation is diet. Proper nutrition, whether trying to gain weight or lose weight, is about 70% of the struggle. Because we are human beings, I aim for an 80/20 rule -- if 80% of your diet is clean, the 20% that isn't won't cause much damage.

Moving more toward AQAL, emotions, motivation, and discipline all play a huge role in how we train. If these things are not working for us, no amount of good information will make much difference. So it helps to see weight training/cardio/diet as part of our emotional work. If we have shadow stuff (for example, parts that tell us we're too fat, too small, too whatever to be in a gym; or hyper-critical parts that won't let us do anything because we might fail, etc) that gets in the way, we need to become aware of these things and do the work to remove these blocks.

Another part of the battle is choosing a location to work out that is close to our line of travel. It may seem silly, but if it's not convient, we won't stick with it.

Back to weight training -- if you have specific questions, I'd gladly try to address them.

One last thought. When we are learning to train, it's important to learn what is called the mind-muscle connection. We need to be able to activate the muscles we are working, rather than simply generating force from nearby muscles. This does two things -- it helps us learn to work our muscles more efficiently, and it helps us develop a better connection with our bodies (which has great carry-over into emotional work, since most emotions begin in the body).

That response was all over the place, but I hope it can generate some discussion.

Peace,
Bill

Re: using Raw Food for healing

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:11:45 -0000

Hi Josh,

Back in the early 80s I worked for Victoras Kulvinskas, who helped promote the raw food diet, who wrote the 1974 bestseller, Survival Into The 21st Century (which helped popularize wheatgrass). Victoras was a computer consultant for the Apollo Project when he was diagnosed as schizophrenic and later credited his healing from even that psychiatric illness to his full immersion in the raw food regimen.

I haven't looked at the trailor for "Raw For 30 Days" but I do recall the month(+) when we conducted a clinical trial for Dick Gregory's Bahamian Drink Mix. The participants were all adults who had grow up on and had continued to live on "fast foods". The resident psychologist for that trial was Harry Swain from Philadelphia, who attributed his loss of literally several hundred pounds to Gregory's dietary advice. Dick Gregory himself had gone raw and salvaged his health from obesity and toxicity following a decade of indulgence durring his career as a comedian.

As a serious student of the methods and practices of M.K.Gandhi, Dick would council his adherents to fast and pray, recognizing that the process of detoxification that accompanies weaning oneself from highly processed foods is often a psycho-spiritual reorientation as well. I'll leave what I say about the clinical trial at, that after the first week and a half of an exclusively raw diet on the part of the participants, I was asked by Dr. Swain to "hide the knives".

I myself have found the raw and even vegetarian diets not nearly grounding enough for my personal constitution and, what may be genetic predispositions.

Regarding diabetes, I recently saw, on the tv series NOVA, that a Swedish researcher had found a correlation between the diet of paternal grandparents at the ages of ten, and the incidence of their grandsons developing diabetes.

May you use every option within your control, and may you add your success story to the pools of knowledge of these complex challenges.

Kerry

Re: Integral work out : literature

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:38:32 -0000

I just ordered Weight Training for Dummies -can't complain about $1.25 and I'm interested in reviewing, laying a foundation for the absolute basics. Not that I have no knowledge of the topic, but it's all been through word of mouth and so forth. This book also looks wonderful and seems to be popular. Any knowledge of either from anyone?

Also, is there any nice contemporary review of the science, studies and so on that anyone knows of?

Peace, Tim

Hello!

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:50:16 -0000

After almost a year without a computer, I'm happy to be back on-line and able to get involved again. I'm an artist, living on a small island in northern Lake Michigan.
I weighed one hundred pounds for most of my adult life (I'm only 5 foot tall). I have always been a walker, and have been able to maintain my weight without much thought. That has all changed in the last ten years. Now I struggle to identify the person that I see in the mirror, and diet and exercise are big challenges. Knees hurt; joints don't flex the way they used to; my stamina is diminished; my waistline, disappeared.
I'm excited for the opportunity to share ideas and compare notes.

Re: Hello!

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:00:36 -0000

Welcome Cindy!

I see a lot of clients (I'm a fitness/nutrition coach) who have the same concerns.

Are you still walking? How is your diet? It sounds (from your profile) that you lead a pretty busy life. Your age indicates that there could be issue of menopause involved (hormones and such).

I'd be happy to help you explore ways to feel better -- and there are other member here who no doubt have good information as well.

Peace,
Bill

Re: Hello!

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:29:43 -0000

Hi, thanks for your response, and good questions.
Yes, certainly menopause is an issue. I started menopause, quit smoking, started having thyroid trouble and changed jobs all in a year, about 10 years ago. Within two years time, I had gained 35 pounds. I have maintained that for several years now, so feel that I'm not doing too much wrong, but still carrying more weight than I like.
I walk two miles a day, almost every day, at a pretty good clip. Lately I've been doing sprints (run for one minute, walk for five) to get a bit more of a workout in the time I have. I am slowly building up more stamina that way. Twice a week, I meet a friend before work for a half-hour walk as well. My present job - though much more sedentary than the waitressing I used to do - involves quite a bit of walking, climbing stairs and ladders, lifting, etc. I do some easy yoga, but rarely more than 2 or three times a month; the same for strength training.
My work day is long - almost 11 hours away from home - and I work 3 or 4 hours a day in the studio as well, so the time I allot for exercise is about all the time I have.
My diet is reasonable with lots of whole grains and beans, vegetables and fruits. I'm not vegetarian, but rarely buy or cook with meat. Portion control is an issue I'm working on, however.
Thanks for your interest...I'm looking forward to good conversations and ideas shared.
~Cindy

Negative Calorie Foods [Sort of]

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:15:34 -0000

[image source]

Bootstrapper posted an entry called Negative Calorie Foods: 15 Foods That Actually Burn More Calories Than They Contain. Unfortunately, the calorie burning part is a bit of a myth, but these are great snack foods that won't bust your diet.

By Laura Milligan

No, we’re not advocating the battle to see how few calories you can consume each day or promoting crash diets in any form or function; however, if you’re a snack-o-holic who can’t stop munching and crunching in between meals, try snacking on one of these negative calorie foods instead of gobbling down a cupcake or big bag of chips. Your body can burn more calories just by chewing and processing the snack than the food contains already. In other words, you’ll be able to keep eating throughout the day without packing on extra pounds.

Celery: A staple on most party veggie trays, celery (without the ranch dressing) is a crispy snack that you can enjoy without worrying about taking in any calories. It is high in sugar and sodium, but still much healthier than pigging out on brownies or salty peanuts.
Oranges: Before you leave for work in the morning, toss an orange into your bag for a mid-morning or late afternoon snack. An orange typically contains only 45 calories, so feel free to eat the whole thing!
Strawberries: Strawberries are a popular negative calorie food because of their natural sweetness and juiciness. Sprinkle a few on your breakfast cereal to give your metabolism an extra jumpstart early in the day.
Tangerines: A smaller, more tart version of the orange, tangerines are another negative calorie food that’s both tasty and portable. Enjoy one or two for a snack throughout the day to stimulate your taste buds without having to dig through the candy drawer.
Grapefruit: As big as it is, grapefruit –without the extra sugar on top– is a surprisingly negative calorie food. One-half of a grapefruit only contains 36 calories but a whopping 78% of your daily value of potassium.
Carrots: Carrots don’t just make your eyes sparkle; they also let you snack guilt-free. Snack on baby carrots instead of chips and salsa while you make dinner, or keep a bag in your office refrigerator when you feel the need to eat due to stress.
Apricots: Indulge in nutrient-rich apricots for a sweet snack with negative calories. Your higher metabolism and thinning waistline will thank you.
Lettuce: There’s a dirty little rumor in the magazine industry that the girls at Vogue keep lettuce in their desks to snack on when the hunger pains strike, but they can’t afford to compromise their stick thin figures. We’re guessing you’re not about to go through the day dizzy with starvation, but you can make yourself a hearty salad with lots of lettuce (and other negative calorie veggies!) once you get home. Don’t forget to take it easy on the dressing.
Tomatoes: Chop up a tomato to give your sandwich, salad or egg whites omelet extra flavor without adding any calories.
Cucumbers: Your salad can’t survive on lettuce alone. Cucumbers are another negative calorie food that are great for crunching on when your mouth is getting bored. Check here for tips on growing your own cucumbers.
Watermelon: A traditional summertime treat, enjoying a watermelon is almost fun and delicious as eating candy because of its super sweet, super juicy nature. Plus, you’ll burn off all the calories crunching, digesting, and of course, spitting out the seeds.
Cauliflower: Another party platter vegetable, raw cauliflower is naturally low in fat and of course, calories, so don’t be shy about piling up your cocktail napkin.
Apples: An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but when eaten as a snack instead of candy bars or chips, apples will also keep the calories at bay. With only 81 calories per apple, your body also works a lot harder and longer to digest the fruit many other snack options.
Hot Chili Peppers: Excess seasonings and dressings pile on lots of fat and calories to otherwise healthy meals. To avoid gaining weight simply because you’re a condiments junkie, experiment with more natural seasonings like hot chili peppers, which is a negative calorie food.
Zucchini: Zucchini is a versatile, negative calorie food that can be baked, steamed, fried (not recommended), or prepared in many other ways. With just 15 calories per 100g, make zucchini your new diet staple.

Implementing negative calorie foods into your daily diet doesn’t just help you lose weight by cutting calories; it also speeds up your metabolism and introduces healthier items like fruits and vegetables into your regular food choices and favorite recipes. So no matter how you look at it, you’ll come out ahead.

Eat your fruits and veggies -- or at least have a V-8.

Health Is a State of Mind

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 18:19:24 -0000

[image source]

I always try to impress upon my clients the value of being mindful of what they do in terms of eating and exercise -- and their beliefs around these topics. Awareness is an important part of making any kind of changes in our life.

The New York Times posted an article today that suggests that simply thinking of ourselves as healthier can have a dramatic impact on our health. This probably would not work with desk-bound people, but the study is interesting (even though they don't really understand what mindfulness means).

Mindful Exercise
By CHRISTOPHER SHEA
Published: December 9, 2007

Simply by telling 44 hotel maids that what they did each day involved some serious exercise, the Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer and Alia J. Crum, a student, were apparently able to lower the women’s blood pressure, shave pounds off their bodies and improve their body-fat and “waist to hip” ratios. Self-awareness, it seems, was the women’s elliptical trainer.

Multimedia

At the start of the study, Langer and Crum quizzed 84 maids at seven carefully matched hotels about how much exercise they got. Fully a third of the women said they got no exercise at all, while two-thirds said they did not work out regularly. Langer and Crum took several measures of the women’s basic fitness levels, which indicated that they, indeed, had the poor health of basically sedentary people. Then just over half the women were told an unfamiliar truth: cleaning 15 rooms daily — pushing recalcitrant vacuum cleaners, scrubbing tubs, pulling sheets — constitutes more than enough activity to meet the surgeon general’s recommendation of a half-hour of physical activity daily. The researchers even provided specifics: 15 minutes of scrubbing burns 60 calories, 15 minutes of vacuuming burns 50. The basic message and the details were then posted in the maids’ lounges in the hotels where the 44 women worked, to serve as reminders, while a control group was left in the dark.
A month later, Langer and Crum checked back with the women to find, as they reported in the February issue of Psychological Science, remarkable results. The average study-group maid had lost 2 pounds, while her systolic blood pressure had dropped by 10 points; by all measures the 44 women “were significantly healthier.” Yet there were no reported changes in behavior, only in mind-set, with the vast majority of the women now considering themselves regular exercisers. Langer sees the study as a lesson in the importance of mindfulness, long a subject of her research, and which need not involve Buddhism or meditation, she stresses. “It’s about noticing new things; it’s about engagement,” she says.
But for the study’s white-collar readers, a corollary to its results might be dispiriting: Made freshly aware — mindful — of just how sedentary their work lives are in contrast to a housekeeper’s, might they not suffer a corresponding decline in health?

Re: Hello!

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 11:46:31 -0000

Hi Cindy,

As I see you're doing well on the exercise and nutrition part, so the solution to your problem has to be sought elsewhere. I know that EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) can help you in many ways, as I saw it happen with clients and friends. This gentle tapping technique is easy to learn, and you can download the free Manual written by the founder, Gary Craig, clicking here.
If you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact me here, and I'll do my best to assist you.

Regards,

Eva

Re: Hello!

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 14:38:03 -0000

Thank You, Eva...I'll look into it.
~Cindy

What a wonderful place!

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:19:19 -0000

Hello all!

My name is Tamela. I am the executive director for a nonprofit that supports people with herpes and hpv.

As you can imagine, the members of our organization have had some very interesting experiences with the healthcare system. Most often with them treating the disease and forgetting the whole person: the dating/social person, the sexual person, the emotional/psychological person. We have started our organization, in part, to raise awareness of these issues with the medical community.

I look forward to talking with everyone on this group.

Thanks!

Tamela

Leou Aeon’s Virtual Studio

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:24:33 -0000

You are cordially invited to visit Leou Aeon’s Virtual Studio and to meet the artist, Wednesday August 13th, at 8am, 12pm & 6pm PDT (Pacific Day Time), in the Second Life environnement. This inaugural event is the result of many months of hard work and preparations: in March 2008, Leou Aeon was accepted as an artist in residence on Angel Gate Island, and he has since then conceived and built his studio/residence. This unique and integral space takes the shape of a multi-platform complex composed of a classroom, an art gallery, a lounge and several meditation areas.

Second Life is a 3D virtual reality that offers unique, unexplored and infinite possibilities of artistic expression. This new environment makes it possible to create gigantic or very small works of art, to control gravity, to choose the time of the day, to meet and collaborate with people from all over the world, and much more.

Leou Aeon’s Virtual Studio, floating above the ocean and the clouds, reflects Leou’s complexity, creativity and multidisciplinarity; through it he has found a way to adapt his art to this new revolutionary medium. The main areas, conceived by Leou as a perfect blend of East and West, sacred and profane, are:
The Virtual Gallery, which is now featuring the exhibition titled “Abstractions”. It presents Leou's latest artwork, original ink drawings on paper. The artist's mindblowing, transcendental & symbolical style is an aesthetic & spiritual experience to remember.
The Integral Living Area, the classroom where Leou Aeon gives his weekly class on Integral Practice and hosts various other discussion groups. This educative space is also a park where people can relax or study.
The Shiva Lounge, a sacred space where one can meditate, while surrounded by sacred sculptures.

An artist, speaker, consultant and teacher, Leou (his real name being Nicolas Lehoux) is a visionnary who is constantly recreating himself and yet manages to stay himself. Under the name of Leou Aeon, he has recently broadened his audience to Second Life's virtual reality, through his style, creativity and leadership. Dematerializing reality through Art, making it intelligible and miraculous, and rendering the inexpressible beauty of Being, represent at the same time the end and the means of Leou’s artistic body of work. Through his comics and paintings he initiates a dialogue between the abstract and the figurative, lightness and depth, Being and ego.

Angel Gate is a non-profit creative community that explores and encourages emerging real life/metaverse artistic and therapeutic mediums. Besides being a creative asset for this community, Leou Aeon’s mandate is linked to Angel Gate's Therapy House. His role is to welcome visitors and discuss with them on spiritual practice, art and its therapeutical, philosophical and metaphysical aspects.

This is an open invitation to all setient beings for a revitalizing immersion in the universe of a great artist.

Leou Aeon’s Virtual Studio
http://slurl.com/secondlife/AngelGate/234/209/475

To see photos of the studio
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artleou/

www.leou.ca