All That Glitters

There are several television shows that call me periodically to speak on “newsworthy” topics. After participating in dozens of these segments over several months a couple of years ago, I opted to stop. They send a limo and driver, put my books up on camera, treat me like a celeb, and do the whole hair-and-makeup bit. But I started to realize that I always left feeling horrible. So I stopped. Sometimes I see their numbers on my caller ID and I don’t pick up.

Today I happened to pick up. It was a big show and, as usual, it was tempting at first: I’d have a captive audience for a couple of minutes, and the thought that I might inspire someone to begin their process of growth and freedom was tempting. Whereas most of these segments are between 2 and 3 minutes, this one, at a whopping 7 minutes, was distinctly alluring. I also found the subject matter compelling and fun: the forbidden ad by PETA created for the Super Bowl. You can see it here at  www.peta.org/content/standalone/VeggieLove.

I was ready to make up an excuse for not being able to participate—particularly when I learned that they wanted to pigeonhole me as a vegetarian and pit me against a carnivore (you know how I repel labels)! But instead I felt like maybe I should do it this time; maybe this time would be different.

I bought myself some time to consult with my inner compass. I reminded myself of all the reasons that I stopped doing these news blocks and why I felt so awful afterwards. For one, these newsrooms are places of profoundly inharmonious vibrations. Hectic energy spins and flashes like lightning around everyone—everything popping, seconds ticking, next guest appearing, 15 screens going at once, teleprompters flashing… The MO: create drama, keep the masses watching, keep the interest growing, make mountains out of dung balls!

It’s a mad frenzy even by my standards—and I’m a New Yorker, for carrot’s sake, who’s used to a certain amount of frenetic energy! And then, of course, there’s hair and makeup. Do you know they airbrush your face until you look like plastic (most of the anchors are airbrushed to the hilt; guys too). Once you are adequately caked up, you move into the next room to get your hair teased, ironed, and sprayed, and then you’re off into the freezing production room where you are given mere seconds to try to educate the viewers about one of the most profound subjects of our day. But you never really get to say anything at all because the treatment of the topic is shallow and you only have a few seconds of air time to answer questions that are staged to create drama and ratings—not to benefit the viewers at all!

All in all, it’s an afternoon squandered at the feet of the beast, not one of useful, life-generating activity. After all this commotion, I have not served to illuminate anyone, but merely contributed to the chatterbox of sound bites that feed the human programming machine, keeping the culture numb and addicted to infotainment fast food.

The shows, like the magazines and other manufactured images that inundate and subliminally program us, are part of a mass illusion. I realize now that this was the reason the whole experience made my skin crawl. My inner compass was telling me loud and clear through its alarm bells that these forms of media were not for me. If people were ready for this cleansing information, they would have to find it some other way.

However, the experiences taught me so much about myself and even reflected my own evolution. I used to think I needed the major media channels to reach people or build my “platform.” That was part of the old energy model, which will become increasingly antiquated as more people wake up and create channels of life-generating information and entertainment.

It also taught me a lot about what goes on behind the scenes of television shows. When you watch those newscasters, don’t be fooled by the illusion of their radiant skin and confident demeanors. Often, they are suffering from the same bodily abuse as their mainstream viewers; they just have the help of technicians to make them appear healthy. The “airbrush makeup” actually does make your skin appear flawless. Lights and other products do the rest. As for the appearance of confidence and calm, well, that’s an illusion too. However, what’s under the surface of these illusions cannot be airbrushed.

This is the launching point to a bigger issue I’ve wanted to hit on for some time. We live in a world of fake appearances—it’s all smoke and mirrors: the magazine photographs, TV shows, and, of course, the grand dame of all, plastic surgery! You can mimic the image you admire with all the masking technology available today, but doing so won’t help you escape the ravages of imbalanced living inside. You can cover and glitz up all you want on the outside, you can get nipped and tucked and create the illusion of beauty, but the body can’t keep your secret inside for long. The body doesn’t forget the abuse of unfit consumption and lifestyle choices. Sure, there are drugs to help suppress symptoms, but they cannot undo the destruction to the cells, tissues, and organs that lead to cancer, Parkinson’s, gastro-intestinal disease, and myriad other manifestations of “normal” living. You can get a facelift and “smart-lipo”, but you’ll still have to explain your colostomy bag!

Sometimes women ask me, “Natalia, why do I have to work so hard and do all these healthy things? My friend Jane doesn’t do any of this and she looks great!”

“How do you know?” I reply. “Do you have X-ray vision? Quantum vision maybe? Have you looked at the state of the atomic structure within her cells? Oh, and take away the Prozac, the coffee, the cigarettes, the aspirin, and her credit cards, and see how fine Jane is.”

Nothing personal, Jane! But people appear to be fine when they have all the stimulation that keeps them on an even keel, but they are desperately addicted to the substances that keep them from shaking like a cocaine fiend coming off a fix. They are not okay just because they seem okay for 15 minutes in the grocery store checkout line. If they are living “normally” and are over a certain age, they are ravaged by toxicity.

It’s all based on polarity, and cause and effect. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The scales of justice are neither arbitrary nor optional. If you place a substance in the body that doesn’t belong there, your body will have to work hard to get it out—if it’s lucky enough to manage it. Everything that enters the body must be metabolized. That which fails to leave and becomes stuck in the intestinal tissue creates blocks in the body which accumulate. The body becomes a bacteria breeding ground—rotting on its own waste from within.

You can smear yourself all you want with expensive creams and cover yourself up with trendy clothes, but you’ll only be fooling yourself. All the spas and Park Avenue surgeons in the world cannot reverse internal decay. There is only one way out: diligent application of intelligent cleansing principles, which will eventually unblock the pathways and bring the life force back to the cells. When the cells start to conduct electromagnetic current again, you will discover what true beauty looks and feels like. This is the only beauty worth having.

You won’t get information like this in the mainstream news media any more than you’ll get real news on real world events from them. It’s all smoke, glitter, and illusion, my friends. I know you already know this, but sometimes it’s good to be reminded because it’s easy to fall prey to the facades and masks in our world of airbrushed images.

After graciously declining to do the show, I added, “If you ever decide to do a program that explores this subject matter more deeply, I would be very interested in participating.” The producer said he’d keep that in mind. I’m not expecting a phone call anytime soon.

I’m not opposed to being on television, but to the way it’s done. When it is produced in such a way that honors life and the lives of the viewers, I’ll be there. Otherwise, I’ll be at home hanging out with my family in the Life-Light—where all that glitters is PURE GOLD!

Speaking of real gold, check out the glitterati from my recent trip to South Africa at: <a href=”/about-photos.php”>detoxtheworld.com/about-photos.php</a> with my family. (No retouching or airbrushing, I promise!)

In the Life-Light,

Natalia

The Necessity of Winter

Landing back in the harshness of winter and the even harsher reality of the U.S. recession was nothing short of a brutal reentry after three weeks of being blissfully cocooned in South Africa. Instead of going on about our joyful days in Cape Town and the surrounding area, I’ll post a few new pics on the photo page so you can see for yourself. I’d rather take this opportunity to dive right into the state of confusion and suffering in the here and now—a very harsh reality for a lot of people.

Along with most of you, I know a number of people who have lost their jobs and many more who have lost their nest eggs and fortunes (both modest and whopping). I even received the shocking news that one friend took his own life over the holidays. The only way that I can make sense of it and ensure that he and others in similar despair do not die in vain is to point out that they are reflecting the dire consequences of our social values.

The extreme panic that would lead one to deploy death as his or her only option betrays much about the social structures we’ve been idealizing. It reveals what our group values really are, and what really motivates our choices. Yes, it is high time that the walls of over-consumption and selfishness come crumbing down! While it’s never comfortable to experience enormous shifts as we now are, the chaos, fear, confusion, panic, and suffering are all part of a necessary crumbling of social and corporate structures that no longer serve our greatest good.

Change is a funny thing. People often say they want to be healthier, happier, spend more time with their family, be more creative, etc., but unless the old structures that prohibit our attainment of these goals are dismantled, we will be blocked from living these ideals. So, if we want change, we need to allow change to happen within and around us. We can’t put a new dress on top of our old sweats and then go to a fancy dinner. We can’t grow our adult teeth without first losing our baby teeth. We can’t live on our own without first moving out of our parents’ place. Change requires and begets change. We must leave some things behind forever, and never look back.

Our country has overwhelmingly supported our new president’s message of change. Change is what we wished for, and now here change comes. But in order for the new structures of hope and healing to arise, there has to be some demolition. If well directed and not feared, intelligent change can give rise to improved systems.

I encourage you to make friends with this changing world and remember that the tearing away of the old structures that supported over-consumption and selfishness will make way for more mature, mutually supportive structures. Change is the great law of life—after we build this new structure, an even better one should emerge after that—never stopping to stagnate, as stagnation is the seat of deterioration.

Pain persists when we try to shove new structures into old ones, insisting that they will fit, instead of adjusting to the natural evolutionary growth. In his time, Christ warned against resisting change by pointing out that one would never put new wine into old wineskins.

The same holds true for how to feed and care for our bodies. As we learn that the old ways of consuming food and drink are not life-supporting, let’s stop trying to shove the principles of our evolved detox lifestyle into our old lifestyle box. Trying to make this new knowledge conform to the deteriorating (albeit widely accepted) nutritional structures will only wear us down. Let’s not put our new wine into old bottles. Through this phase, however long it may last, let’s remember that the falling away of the old is as much a part of the lifecycle as leaves falling off trees in autumn. As we allow the old to fall away, we can expect a new and more beautiful paradigm to replace it.

It is appropriate that we heed this message of change in the midst of a brutal Northeastern winter because, like winter, this painful stage is deceptively beneficial. Beneath the ice-cold struggles, the seeds of revival are taking root. We will see the fruits of this season in seasons to come. We may not have a harmonious new world in place this April—it could take many months and even years for the seedlings of our deepest desires for a more life-generating society to spring their tender leaves. But, it will happen.

Yes, winter will eventually turn to spring, and when it does, it will be the most marvelous spring we’ve ever experienced. We will live with more harmony, intelligence, and beauty in this magnificent garden that we call Earth.