The five senses provide information in a way that allows the majority of people to understand the world around them. Some people, however, are certain they’re able to receive information beyond what they see, taste, smell, hear, and touch. If information is actually received beyond what the everyday physical world reveals, how can we be sure we’re able to recognize, receive, and understand that information?

One of the first signs is that a major life-changing event normally precipitates the ability to know something that cannot be explained with the five senses alone. These life changing events can be in the form of Near-Death-Experiences (NDE), Out-of-Body Experiences (OBE), trauma, catastrophic illness, or any other life event that causes one’s world view to change dramatically. Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences often leave people in complete awe of what they’ve experienced. The merging with light, the ability to see one’s own body from a vantage point, communicating telepathically with other beings, and so much more, brings shock and often confusion about what the physical world is really about.

What Is Grounding?

When I refer to grounding, I am referring to the act of planting your two feet firmly on the ground and being completely present in the moment. When we worry or overthink things, are stressed, or work with technology too much, we can sometimes “unground” ourselves. Meaning, we disconnect from the present moment and “float” in our imaginations.

We unground ourselves as a means of escaping the everyday for one reason or another. Sometimes we escape into our imaginations when we’re worrying about something or doing something we don’t enjoy, or simply because we are overwhelmed by the task at hand.

Being ungrounded can create feelings of anxiety, brain fog, confusion, or tiredness.

Why We Need To Ground

We are here on this Earth for a reason. We need to take part in our existence actively. An interesting study was published by Harvard University a few years ago where the participants were asked various questions at random points during the day to determine whether their mind was wandering, if they were daydreaming about a pleasant or negative topic, and what their happiness levels were at the time.

Ben Rich is a UCLA engineering alumnus who was also the director of Lockheed Martin’s super high tech aircraft division called Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991. Rich admits that the key to space travel among the stars is not necessarily advanced mechanics, or the ultimate rocket fuel, but something more esoteric – ESP.

One of the main hurdles to mankind in reaching other worlds off-planet has been the sheer distance and time it would take to get there. Our current space shuttles (at least with the horse-and-buggie-like technology that has been released to the public) only travel 17,500 miles per hour. This means that visiting the second nearest star to our planet, Proxima Centauri, a meager 4.22 light years away, would take several life times. Of course, then there are fuel costs, which would be more than prohibitive using conventionally imagined space travel.

Worm holes could be used like short cuts through Sunday traffic, and ‘warp drive’ or anti-gravity, which Boeing has admitted to working on could also shorten the ride, but we’d still be looking at more rocket fuel than Exxon, Saudi Aramco, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, and BP combined have ever even sneezed at.

Pompeii was still recovering from widespread destruction from a previous earthquake back in 62 AD when on the 20th of August of 79 AD a series of earthquakes started to become more regular. Over the next four days the region was shaken by rumblings beneath the earth. The quakes became ever more frequent and intense; on the 24th of August 79AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted spewing out a deadly cloud of stones, ash and fumes to a height of twenty miles. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius destroyed the city of Pompeii which was buried beneath metres of volcanic ash. An estimated 16,000 people died from the eruption. The people of Pompeii were unprepared and did not take the warning signs seriously. There were no attempts to evacuate Pompeii or the surrounding areas prior to the eruption.

The story of Mt Vesuvius and Pompeii helps explain creeping normalcy. Creeping normalcy is a term used to describe how gradual changes can be accepted as the normal situation if these changes happen slowly, or incrementally...

It’s the cultivation of years of hard work and patience conducted by Artist and Syracuse University professor, Sam Van Aken. He is responsible for creating an absolute wonder – a tree that bears 40 different kinds of fruit, achieved by harnessing an ancient technique called “chip grafting.”

The blooms of this magnificent tree are breathtaking enough, with hot pink, white, purple, and fuchsia bursting forth every spring and summer season like an Andy Warhol painting on steroids.

What is even more fascinating is that the tree preserves many heirloom varieties of stone fruit, from peaches to nectarines, and even almonds! All on the same tree!

Utilizing what Aken calls “sculpture through grafting,” he says that “I can design and essentially sculpt a tree and how it blooms.”