“When I think of energy healing, I think of making a connection with another person or a group of people.” ~Betsy Muller
Betsy has been an Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) practitioner for nearly two decades and is presently an EFT trainer. EFT is a form of energy psychology which uses aspects of both Western and Eastern medicine, the latter in particular with its use of “tapping points,” which correspond to acupressure points. EFT is used to manage upsetting emotions as well as upsetting past memories by bringing these to the fore and giving people the tools to deactivate the stress responses triggered by such. Tapping on the acupressure points, instead of acupuncture pins, is part of EFT’s methodology, while, at the same time, using traditional talk therapy.
Energy Makeover, as well as Betsy’s involvement in EFT, stemmed from her own curiosity, concerns and fears about ageing, which included how to make ageing more comfortable. Her journey into energy psychology made her realize the possibilities available, which was why she eventually decided to share it in book form. Her busy schedule played a part in this, as she is now involved in training other EFT practitioners, which cuts into the time she can spend with clients, and as she, herself, mentioned, she loves to give things away if she thinks these can help other people. She wrote it as a conversation, so that it is one which people would find approachable - so much so that, Betty remarks, even if one is wheelchair-bound, one will be able to pick up some things which could help one’s life. She also notes that people don’t have to read the entire book; if all that is needed is one chapter, then that’s fine.
Betsy also has a follow-up book due out in June, 2019, called The Comeback, which is a memoir which uses a lot of the concepts noted in Energy Makeover. The memoir focuses on her husband’s suffering from a serious illness which caused his brain to go without oxygen for a long time, with the doctors resorting to putting him in a coma to help treat him, as well as of her own experiences in using EFT and the exercises noted in Energy Makeover to handle the situation.
Betsy notes that there is a physical component to stress, and that EFT works with human biology, by allowing the amygdala to create a stress response while simultaneously tapping on particular points on the body to relax said stress response. She also remarks that the human endocrine system - the one which triggers the “flight or fight” response - affects the hormones which keep humans young, and that moving one’s body helps keep one young.
Energy, as Betsy explains, is essentially charged power which not only powers electrical appliances but which also affects people, giving as an example the power of love. This rapport, she also notes, enables information to be exchanged amongst those connected, and this exchange is particularly useful in EFT sessions.
Betsy includes, in her book, the five exercises which Tibetan monks use to keep their hair from getting gray, their core tight and their spine aligned over the years, as well as some exercises used by Donna Eden, the founder of the Eden Method, who also works by using energy medicine. According to her, exercising five to ten minutes a day, every day, should be sufficient for everyday use, although this time will increase if there is a major event which takes place. Journaling is also a technique that Betsy recommends noting that words are part of how we human beings process an experience, whether those words are spoken or written down. She also remarks that it is important to take in water, as water helps energy move within one’s body.
Mike had always wanted to write a book, and working with space.com gave him an opportunity to have a front-row seat to the present endeavors of space exploration. As he remarks, we are presently gathering data and conducting actual explorations which would enable us human beings to get a better idea of what might be out beyond the Earth, rather than just letting our imaginations give us those ideas. Mike points out that some of the richest men on Earth are funding efforts to create sustainable manned space travel, such as Elon Musk wanting to create a human colony on Mars.
Mike admits that he got interested in what was out there during the camping trips he took as a kid, when he could see the stars in a dark night sky, and he relates that, with all the stars in the galaxies of the universe, there is likely to be life beyond the Earth.
Where the image of Powehi, the black hole photographed in M87 in April 2019, is concerned, Mike remarks that the visible part of the image is the boundary of the event horizon, as not even light can escape a black hole’s gravitational pull. The silhouette of the black hole is the fuzzy darkness in the middle of the circle of light, and given that it took light from Powehi 55 million years to get to the Earth, it’s not surprising that the image is, as a lot have complained, fuzzy. Mike notes that scientific theories on relativity and on black holes can now be tested using Powehi, and that Einstein’s theories on gravity and general relativity are proven correct.
The most likely form of life humans would run across, Mike opines, would be single-celled, microbial in nature as, based on our own history, microbes have existed alone on Earth for some three billion years before multicellular life appeared. Mike notes that this apparently indicates that there is a hurdle between microbial and multicellular life, which means that multicellular life, while possible, would likely be rarer than microbial life.
Mike notes that it is possible for highly technological civilizations might exist, but we humans would need to overlap in time with the other civilization we would like to get in touch with. It is also likewise possible that a technological civilization does exist, but the vastness of space means that two technological civilizations connecting with each other would be challenging.
Life on other worlds does not necessary have to rely on the same kind of chemistry of life on Earth, but Mike notes that carbon is commonplace throughout the universe and works well with liquid water, which is why carbon-water based life is probably the most common kind of life in the universe. That said, silicon has similar chemical properties as carbon, which means that silicon-based life forms might exist. Mike also notes that there are presently unproven, but presently possible, theories that life on Earth could have started by organic substances which were brought to the Earth by the rocks and dust that fell to it (panspermia).
At present, human space travel is on “an upward trend,” according to Mike, due mainly to privately funded efforts, rather than efforts funded by the United States government, which are at the mercy of political whims. Propulsion for space travel will, for the next decade or two, be based on rockets, and Mike notes that some other possibilities to get up to high speeds for interstellar travel would be engines powered by fusion reactions as well as by energy sails which would get energy from either the sun or an Earth-based laser.
Antimatter is essentially a “bizarre version” of the matter we humans are used to, like positrons, which are positively charged particles which have the same mass as electrons, and are thus the antimatter equivalent of an electron. When an antimatter particle meets its matter counterpart, an explosion takes place, releasing energy in a 100% conversion from mass to energy. This makes for a powerful energy source, but large amounts of antimatter are difficult to create, and the antimatter itself has to be trapped in a magnetic field so that it can’t touch any matter.
Multiple universes can exist, and Mike notes that most theoretical physicists believe that these do exist, with our own universe just being one of these. The other universes also do not have to look like ours, as they can exist with more dimensions than we are used to, and universes where magic is more prevalent than physics can likewise be possible. Where our own universe is concerned, Mike points out that present theories of the universe, based on our observations, indicate that the universe is likely to be infinite; and if our own universe is infinite, so, too, might those other, alternate universes. An infinite universe also presumes that whatever one can think up can come into being, such as an imaginary creature, and that there could also be alternate versions of everyone who has existed on earth, although these would exist far away; and the possibilities increase with multiple universes.
Where the universe’s final end is concerned, based on present observation, there isn’t enough mass in the universe to slow down the present state of acceleration that is being observed; indeed, the universe is still expanding, according to such observations. Without the necessary mass to slow the expansion of the universe, matter will eventually tear apart until only subatomic particles will exist in an environment that is near absolute zero.
Mike hopes OUT THERE gets across to people the sense that something big is happening in science and exploration, and he hopes that people can connect with the wonder and the energy that is present in today’s space exploration efforts. He believes that it will take ten to fifteen years before we can get answers to some of the questions we have been asking for a long time now.
“Life doesn’t have to be this battle, so we don’t have to make it one. We have everything we need, in our own mind.” ~Kimberly Friedmutter
Kimberly had been asked to write Subconscious Power from someone who had heard about her, and Kimberly decided to do just that, as the six core principles she espouses in her book are easy and actionable, as these were the ones her clients most responded to over the years of her practice.
Where hypnotism is concerned, Kimberly, herself, has been a subject of such, in pursuit of self-improvement, for years before she created her practice.
The subconscious, according to Kimberly, is one of the two parts of mind, the other being the conscious, which is the critical thinker that plans things out. The subconscious is the part of the mind that runs the body’s systems as well as the intuitive and instinctive aspects, and Kimberly describes it as a “hard drive” which, when corrupted, gives rise to such behavior as addictive behavior. The subconscious, Kimberly notes, is active even when people are awake, and shows up with an unconscious prodding or some unprovable instinct comes up.
Kimberly points out that there is a broader knowledge about all human beings and that we are all energy – something which is now coming out now in a new light, even though it has been around since ancient times.
Hypnosis, according to Kimberly, is similar to meditation, except that, where meditation focuses the individual to focus on something, hypnosis is where an individual thinks of nothing. Hypnosis is a very relaxed state of being, and Kimberly gives several daily examples of these.
The subconscious holds the greatness within all of us, Kimberly believes, comparing it to an eight-year-old child “who knows everything” and who isn’t afraid to say what he or she thinks. This greatness is un-taught over the years by such things as social expectations and insecurities, and it is these which corrupt the “hard drive” that is our subconscious. Hypnotism works by overwriting the corrupted part of the “hard drive” and giving it new direction to create the kind of life one wants, so that one once again reconnects with one’s own eight-year-old self and its greatness. The subconscious is also a powerful resource, and Kimberly emphasizes that using it is our “divine right.”
The six principles Kimberly espouses are:
Come into accountability – know where, who and how you are.
Tap into the subconscious.
Do you move toward or away? Are you someone who moves away from the things you dislike, or someone who moves towards the things you like?
Judge thyself and thy neighbor – being ecological with oneself and moving with momentum with others.
Give to get – energetic systems are symbiotic, so one must first give before getting.
Playing big – getting into action with the things that allow oneself to progress.
Kimberly calls “drought” as when one perceives lack in some way, and these come in three forms:
Passive drought – something along the lines of a fender-bender or a bad hair day.
Lingering drought – a change in one’s life, such as a death in the family or a change in jobs; something which throws one off for a few months.
Habitual drought – a longer-lasting thing where one just cannot seem to get out of one’s own way.
One of the examples Kimberly gives is about finding something that was lost. She notes that frantically focusing on finding it should be replaced with one’s sense of how one feels about and connects with it.
“Emotion needs to be taken out of business and negotiation.” ~Lydia Fenet
Lydia began thinking about writing a book for a few years before a reporter from a magazine followed her around to do a “day in your life” piece. At the end of that day, after the reporter asked her what she did when she got home, she replied that she either read books or worked on a book that she was writing. It was after reading the reporter’s transcript that Lydia realized that she should either go ahead and write the book or stop talking about it, as she had been talking about it for some time. She thus wrote a proposal and sent it to an agent, who posted the proposal on the day that the “day in your life” piece was published. Lydia sold her book to Simon and Schuster a week later, and as she was given three months to write it, she “dug deep” and did so.
The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You may be part memoir and part life lessons drawn from her decades of experience, but Lydia notes that it is meant for everyone, pointing out that she had male friends who read it and remarked that they were able to pick things up from it that they could use in their lives. Lydia remarks that the book is essentially all about finding confidence in one’s voice (which helps a lot in selling), and also adds that, while she had, as part of her job as an auctioneer doing 70 - 100 auctions a year, found her voice onstage, she wasn’t applying those principles to her everyday life. She notes that being with a company for twenty years enabled her to chart her growth, as the company was the main constant in that time.
Lydia remarks that women may have the skills to succeed at selling whatever it is they want to sell, be it an idea or a proposal, but that rejection and fear inhibit them from doing so. She notes that negotiation is not about being liked, and that emotion and business negotiation are two entirely different things. Lydia noted that, in her own family, she, her mother and her sister had difficulty negotiating, whereas her brothers and father did so easily. Lydia encourages practicing negotiation in her own team by allowing them to ask for better pay, pointing out to them that, while they might not get it, the effort is good practice where getting over the fear of asking is concerned.
Telling the truth is very important where sales is concerned, according to Lydia, and to illustrate this, she told a story of a place she rented for her husband’s birthday, one which she thought was well-appointed but which turned out to be more like “the set of a horror movie.” She points out that, if she sold something that she was untruthful about to someone, that person will have told all of her friends about it, and she wouldn’t be able to get a sale from either that person or her friends again, and that nobody would believe a word she said. Lydia notes a sales equation that, if someone has had a good experience, they will tell one person, and if that person has had a bad experience, they will tell nine people.
Sales is all about listening, Lydia points out, remarking that: “The truly good salesperson is the person who sits back and takes note of what the other person is saying, and then weaves their sales pitch into what that person is saying.” Sales is thus a two-way conversation, and where things that are difficult to sell are concerned, Lydia recommends that a salesperson has to figure out what is being sold, who that item is being sold to, what would appeal to the person being sold to and be truthful about any pitfalls to what is being sold. Doing so helps create a good reputation for the salesperson, which could lead to future sales. “Think of the long game in sales,” Lydia advises. “You want to be in the picture, time and time again.”
Authenticity is also important, according to Lydia, and she told of how she learned of this when she finally, after spending a lot of time emulating some of the more successful, British, male auctioneers, conducted an auction just as herself, as she was then sick and too tired to emulate anyone else. Authenticity enables people to engage others, and Lydia advises that people think about what there is in one’s personality that others would be drawn to, giving the example that people who love humor can use jokes effectively to engage others.
The “strike method” is Lydia’s term which she named after the sound of a gavel hitting a table, which attracted people’s attention. In practice, after she hits the gavel at an evening party, Lydia has thirty seconds to say something which would engage her audience, most of whom don’t know that an auction will happen at that event. The application to this is when salespeople pause before starting a sale, then having their first line ready to go, to catch the attention of the other people in the room to engage them right from the start.
Where scripting is concerned, Lydia notes that being authentic needs to be brought into this, whenever possible. She recommends that people do research on the people they will be dealing with, giving the example of being able to converse with a potential client for two hours by simply talking about their grandchildren. Failure, as far as Lydia is concerned, is exercise: “The more you do it, the better you get.” She acknowledges that it’s not always pleasant, but that one is better because of it – and the same likewise goes for rejection, pointing out that, if one fails or gets rejected often enough, the time will come when one doesn’t care about getting a “no,” one can then ask for anything. She also notes that a lot of people are willing to help and need only to be asked to do so.
For Lydia, one of her biggest takeaways when writing The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You was that no one can advocate for oneself other than oneself. “Stop looking around for everybody else to tell you what you want to do and what you already know that you can do,” she remarks.
In this interview, Howell Woltz talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com, about his novel, The Lawyers Guild.
“You can’t obstruct justice when there isn’t a crime of reality to be investigated.” ~Howell Woltz
Howell figured that writing a true story about real experiences and the cases he has worked on would “cause a lot of yawns,” so he decided to package these all into a novel to create an entertaining and informative story. Doing so created its own challenges, as Howell wanted the facts within the novel to stand up to scrutiny while still keeping being able to keep a reader’s attention.
The only character who isn’t based on a real person, according to Howell, is Professor Quinlan, who is a character that Howell admits he could be, while everyone else is a person who lives in real life, albeit with some names altered. He also remarks that the stories about said people are real, as are the essential facts which are noted in the novel. One such figure is that of 7.3 million Americans either in prison or on parole or probation and some 71 million (as of 2010) who have been convicted of a crime. This, combined with a University of Columbia study which showed that 73% of those convicted of capital crimes are actually innocent. Howell noted that most of those who have been labeled as convicted felons, whom he met, are either “blacks or brown,” and he opines that this was done essentially to disenfranchise unwanted groups, as convicted felons cannot vote.
Howell remarks that, based on his research, the Progressives began making inroads into the American government in 1913, with President Woodrow Wilson, who was a self-admitted Progressive. It was during President Wilson’s tenure that the Federal Reserve, which is a private bank, was created so his backers could essentially gain control of the economy, as it is this institution which prints America’s currency, as well as when the 17th Amendment was passed, when the representation of states in Congress was eliminated, allowing power to flow into a centralized government. He notes that it took the Progressives may not be large, but they are a powerful cabal, and it took them fifty years before they sold their own narrative to the American public.
Where the depiction of the President in the novel is concerned, Howell admits to his being “imperfect,” comparing him to John F. Kennedy, someone whom Howell calls a “true Conservative” and who had the interests of the nation at heart. Both Presidents remind Howell of King David in the Bible, a man who had hundreds of wives and concubines and who sent a soldier out to get killed in battle so he could have that soldier’s wife, but whose psalms are still begin sung and who was “revered for the good things he did.” Howell admits that he hasn’t met such other people mentioned in the novel, such as Julian Assange and George Soros, but he has done his research on those individuals’ backgrounds and histories, which he has thus included in the novel.
At the end of the novel, the United States returns to the Constitution, and all such past decrees which are not aligned with it are negated. While the federal organizations created by such decrees will be dissolved, Howell believes that there will be no change where the safety and security of the average American is concerned. Howell notes that everything that affects the people’s lives is a matter of the state, which is where true power should lie in the first place, and believes that the dissolution of such agencies will benefit America, as these organizations are involved with the Progressive agenda to break the law and the rights of the average person.
Where the Mueller report (a summary of which was released by Attorney General Barr a few days before this interview was conducted) is concerned, Howell notes that the man himself, Mueller, allowed FBI informant and criminal “Whitey” Bulger to murder sixteen people while he was an informant, and remarks that Bulger likely stayed free for thirteen years thanks to Mueller’s influence. Howell notes that Mueller’s initial investigation was into collusion with Russia, but then morphed into a case of obstruction of justice for firing the head of the FBI, even though the head of the Department of Justice had recommended it and Democratic Congressmen had asked the President to do just that, when Mueller apparently didn’t find evidence of such collusion.
Where the press is concerned, Howell noted that 82% of the world’s media is controlled by a few Progressives, and that the news brought out by these media outlets apparently follows the methodology of a program created by the CIA, called the Mockingbird, where the same terms and talking points are used by different groups. He thus remarks that people shouldn’t just accept the news at face value but should, themselves, dig deeper to get at the truth.
Energy, as Betsy explains, is essentially charged power which not only powers electrical appliances but which also affects people, giving as an example the power of love. This rapport, she also notes, enables information to be exchanged amongst those connected, and this exchange is particularly useful in EFT sessions.
