I’m publishing in full a story from the NY Times about a research study into the neurological benefits of walking in the bush, as we say in Australia – or in the woods as those elsewhere would put it. 

The story was sent to me by Dr. Norm Shealy, an esteemed Neurosurgeon and former Professor Emeritus of Neurosurgery at several prestigious colleges in the U.S. Norm is also a spiritualist of the highest order, and has worked closely with Caroline Myss for more than thirty years. 

Both Norm and Caroline wil feature prominently in the film I’m making on intuition.

Here’s the story… 

A walk in the park may soothe the mind and, in the process, change the workings of our brains in ways that improve our mental health, according to an interesting new study of the physical effects on the brain of visiting nature. 

Most of us today live in cities and spend far less time outside in green, natural spaces than people did several generations ago. 

City dwellers also have a higher risk for anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses than people living outside urban centers, studies show. 

These developments seem to be linked to some extent, according to a growing body of research. Various studies have found that urban dwellers with little access to green spaces have a higher incidence of psychological problems than people living near parks and that city dwellers who visit natural environments have lower levels of stress hormones immediately afterward than people who have not recently been outside.

But just how a visit to a park or other green space might alter mood has been unclear. Does experiencing nature actually change our brains in some way that affects our emotional health? 

That possibility intrigued Gregory Bratman, a graduate student at the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University, who has been studying the psychological effects of urban living. In an earlier study published last month, he and his colleagues found that volunteers who walked briefly through a lush, green portion of the Stanford campus were more attentive and happier afterward than volunteers who strolled for the same amount of time near heavy traffic. 

But that study did not examine the neurological mechanisms that might underlie the effects of being outside in nature. 

So for the new study, which was published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Mr. Bratman and his collaborators decided to closely scrutinize what effect a walk might have on a person’s tendency to brood. 

Brooding, which is known among cognitive scientists as morbid rumination, is a mental state familiar to most of us, in which we can’t seem to stop chewing over the ways in which things are wrong with ourselves and our lives. This broken-record fretting is not healthy or helpful. It can be a precursor to depression and is disproportionately common among city dwellers compared with people living outside urban areas, studies show. 

Perhaps most interesting for the purposes of Mr. Bratman and his colleagues, however, such rumination also is strongly associated with increased activity in a portion of the brain known as the subgenual prefrontal cortex. 

If the researchers could track activity in that part of the brain before and after people visited nature, Mr. Bratman realized, they would have a better idea about whether and to what extent nature changes people’s minds. 

Mr. Bratman and his colleagues first gathered 38 healthy, adult city dwellers and asked them to complete a questionnaire to determine their normal level of morbid rumination.

The researchers also checked for brain activity in each volunteer’s subgenual prefrontal cortex, using scans that track blood flow through the brain. Greater blood flow to parts of the brain usually signals more activity in those areas. 

Then the scientists randomly assigned half of the volunteers to walk for 90 minutes through a leafy, quiet, parklike portion of the Stanford campus or next to a loud, hectic, multi-lane highway in Palo Alto. The volunteers were not allowed to have companions or listen to music. They were allowed to walk at their own pace. 

Immediately after completing their walks, the volunteers returned to the lab and repeated both the questionnaire and the brain scan. 

As might have been expected, walking along the highway had not soothed people’s minds. Blood flow to their subgenual prefrontal cortex was still high and their broodiness scores were unchanged. 

But the volunteers who had strolled along the quiet, tree-lined paths showed slight but meaningful improvements in their mental health, according to their scores on the questionnaire. They were not dwelling on the negative aspects of their lives as much as they had been before the walk. 

They also had less blood flow to the subgenual prefrontal cortex. That portion of their brains were quieter. 

These results “strongly suggest that getting out into natural environments” could be an easy and almost immediate way to improve moods for city dwellers, Mr. Bratman said. 

But of course many questions remain, he said, including how much time in nature is sufficient or ideal for our mental health, as well as what aspects of the natural world are most soothing. Is it the greenery, quiet, sunniness, loamy smells, all of those, or something else that lifts our moods? Do we need to be walking or otherwise physically active outside to gain the fullest psychological benefits? Should we be alone or could companionship amplify mood enhancements? 

“There’s a tremendous amount of study that still needs to be done,” Mr. Bratman said. 

But in the meantime, he pointed out, there is little downside to strolling through the nearest park, and some chance that you might beneficially muffle, at least for awhile, your subgenual prefrontal cortex.

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The interview with Dr. Norm Shealy was fabulous.

It will be a highlight of the film.

Here is a man who was a Harvard educated neurosurgeon, held the Chair of Neurosurgery  at some of America’s most prestigious medical colleges, regarded as one of the top research scientists in his field of pain and stress management – and he’s become a self avowed mystic.

I spoke at length to Caroline Myss this morning on the phone and she described Norm Shealy as a wizard. They have worked closely together for the past thirty two years.

And Norm struck me as being like a wizard – charismatic, impish, radiating an energy that would light a dark room, and supremely intelligent.

His interview lasted 90 minutes.
We covered a lot of ground.

From the biochemical activity of the pineal gland and its function in intuition, to how the Third Eye works, to angels and demons, to the quantum nature of intuition – all his responses given with a charm and erudition which was eminently watchable.

After we left his grounds (he has a teaching institution on farmland outside of Springfield), we then headed to the airport to fly to Los Angeles. The flight would take us via Dallas.

We should have known that things would come unstuck when, on checking in, Jennifer couldn’t find her carry-on case with her and my computer in it.

We tore around the airport trying to find it – then realised that it had been left in the rental car. Luckily Hertz hadn’t garaged the car, so we were able to retrieve it.

But that presaged a series of events which led to one of the most disruptive days of travel any of us have had in recent memory.

But we got to LA. Eventually,

Jennifer and I didn’t get to our hotel room until 3:45am this morning Springfield time.
Pieter and Priyanka had to stay overnight in a hotel in Dallas and came in later.

The highlight of today though was my talk with Caroline Myss. What a truly delightful lady. She will make a very important contribution to the film.

Back to Norm: He does 90 minutes of exercise each day, he doesn’t eat wheat or pasta, no sugar, no salt – he doesn’t use a smartphone – he calls them “dumb” phones because they sap your attention – he showers of an afternoon, not of a morning, and doesn’t watch tv.

It was a privilege to have spent time with him.

On Friday we interview James Van Praagh – a mystic who has become a major television star. Author of many books, including some co-written by Doreen Virtue, he promises to bring some fascinating insights to the film.

Tomorrow I have meetings with some potential distributors here in the US – plus we’re meeting the folks at Infinitum Nihil – Johnny Depp’s company. They’ve been big supporters of PGS for some time now.

The film has taken on its own heartbeat.

Dr. Norm Shealy

Yesterday we left the Most Beneficial Galatic Cosmic Rays of Dallas.

I had picked up a beast of a truck from the airport, when I’d picked up Pieter CE (Cameraman Extraordinaire), and yesterday we drove away from Dallas in this big BBQ-eater’s, Republican voting, Paid Up NRA member, Budweiser guzzling, Fox News watcher’s, morbidly obese, truck.

It’s a Chevvy Tahoe. You wind it up and point it in the right direction and it gets you there, at 10mls per gallon.

I like the word “Chevvy.”

It reminds me of the classic American road movies, like Two Lane Black Top, and Vanishing Point, and Sugarland Express.

We drove some 450mls yesterday north into Oklahoma for a bit, then into Missouri.

Piet and I in the front talked about the film’s visual style, and lenses and focal lengths and really really interesting stuff… Jennifer and Priyanka in the back talked about Higher Self connectedness and Past Life Regression therapy and Aliens under the bed and really really Weird & Whacky stuff.

We got into Springfield early evening. We’re literally on Route 66, We got our kicks later at a beautiful Italian restaurant.

It’s early morning here now – I can’t sleep – because in a few hours we meet Dr. Norm Shealy – formerly one of the world’s top research scientists studying the brain, now a self avowed mystic.

It should be a fascinating interview!

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With the Mother Ganga spiritual tour of India, we now have to finalise train and flight passengers details. 

So this is the very very best last chance to join us if you’ve been thinking about it. 

Details are on the Gone Tours website – 

http://www.gonetours.com

It promises to be a life-changing tour. 

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Last full day in Dallas, and cameraman extraordinaire Pieter de Vries flew in from Sydney. If there’s a better documentary cameraman in the country, I don’t know him or her.

Then again, I don’t get out much.

Pieter and I go back to 1981-82, when we both worked for the ABC documentary show A BIG COUNTRY. I was an upstart producer/director, and Pieter was a cameraman with an impressive reputation, even then.

I’m thrilled to bits that he’s now joined us to shoot this next important stage of the intuition film.

Our day started with a very ordinary breakfast in a touristy downtown bar/restaurant – the kind of place where they automatically bill you a 20% tip because they think you’ll low ball the waitress.

Bad form.

Priyanka has now been with us a few days and she brings a lovely energy to this shoot. Calm, very very smart and very inquisitive.

Already she has been very effective in sourcing investment for us, and she’s accompanying us to learn more about the process of making this film – but also to meet some of the extraordinary people we’ll be interviewing.

Priyanka is personally very aligned to what we’re doing with PGS.

This evening we were all invited to Joni and Daniel’s house for dinner. We walked into their gorgeous house to a fine dining spread that was just incredible. Daniel used to own, and be head chef, of a celebrated French restaurant in Dallas, and his cooking is amazing.

Preston and Austin, and Preston’s girlfriend Kelly, were also there to join us for dinner – and we were treated like family – with love and generosity. The bond with Joni and Daniel gets stronger each time we meet – and this evening it was strangely strengthened by a chance background music track.

We were sitting down finishing dinner and I heard a few bars of an unmistakable song that had been such an important part of my youth – an obscure track by Stevie Winwood and Traffic called The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. 

I loved that song when I was young – and it turns out it was Joni’s favourite song when she was growing up. There aren’t many people know that song, much less regard it as one of their favourites, and Joni, Daniel and I laughed at the weird synchronicity of it all.

I don’t fully understand the Dallas connection, and the Most Beneficial Galactic Cosmic Rays, other than whenever we’re here, good things happen.

For instance, I think it’s no coincidence that Australia whupped England in the cricket today – winning the 2nd Ashes test by 405 runs, and totally humiliating the Poms.

I completely put that down to me being in the Cosmic Rays here in Dallas. It’s just a shame I can’t hang around here until Edgbaston.

(I hope you realise I’m having a lend of you here…!)

Anyway, tomorrow we drive out of Dallas and head north to Missouri, to begin our filming. Our first interview is with Dr. Norm Shealy, the neurosurgeon who brought the concept of Intuitive Medicine to the west – and who is regarded as the Father of Holistic Medicine.

He’s an incredible man.
More on him in a future post.

I’m excited at the way the film is now taking shape and picking up steam.

We have some important interviews lined up in the next couple of weeks, which will bring very real substance to the film.

Today I met Mr. Trammell Crow again. 

He is a delightful gracious man. 

For those of you new to this blog, Mr. Trammell Crow is one of Dallas’s richest citizens. Which makes him a billionaire. He’s also a staunch environmentalist – he’s a huge supporter of Global Earth Day – and his collection of Asian Art at his downtown  Art Museum is renown throughout the world. 

Since our last meeting in November, he’s lost none of his eccentricity. And his interest in my film has only deepened. 

We spent two and a half hours talking tonight, at his beautiful home. 

At the meeting was Jennifer, and Priyanka. Trammell was very interested in Priyanka’s jewellery business, and very kindly gave her contacts at the highest levels into Dallas’s prestigious department stores and major jewellery stores. 

He asked me many piercing questions about the film. I was able to answer them just fine. In fact, more than fine. 

I’m now going to introduce him to some influential Holy men in India, and he is going to introduce me to some influential money men in Dallas. 

Towards the end of the evening, he took us to his son’s garage where he keeps stacks of gifts, and gave each of us a gift.

Is Mr. Crow going to be personally involved? Who knows – but he might come to Bhutan with us. 

Wouldn’t that be cool! 

Irrespective, I like the man enormously and have huge respect for what he’s doing to try and save the planet. I don’t care if he invests or doesn’t invest. I value any time just spent talking to him…

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When i was in Dallas last year, weird stuff happened.

A woman came up to me and told me she was my guardian angel.
I got a three hour meeting with one of America’s most eccentric and elusive billionaires.
I saw portentous lights on the ceiling of my hotel room.

Since arriving in Dallas this time, and plunging into the Cosmic Rays again, more weird stuff has happened.

I’ve received more investment into the film.
I’ve received offers of distribution.
I’ve confirmed a second meeting with the eccentric elusive billionaire.

But this morning, a really weird thing happened.

It reminded me of the “iron rails” on the ceiling last year, which really weirded me out. Here are the blog posts of what happened last time –

Dallas – Day 8 / pt1

Dallas – Day 11 /pt1

Okay – so here’s what happened this morning. But before I go into it – some background:

I’ve had a cough since the Assisi pilgrimage about two months ago, and I haven’t been able to get rid of it. I’ve been to doctors who have given me different rounds of antibiotics, and still I haven’t been able to shake this cough.

Early this morning at sunrise, I woke up and began coughing. My hacking rasping cough woke up Jennifer. The coughing was insistent. I couldn’t stop.

She said to me: Okay Bill, I’ve had enough. This cough is all about your reluctance to embrace change. Change doesn’t mean failure. Change means success. As soon as you accept that, you’ll stop coughing.  

I turned away from her, and I looked at the opposite wall.

And then something strange happened.

A ball of light suddenly appeared on the wall that I was staring at. The ball was bright, and edged with rainbow colours. It was incredibly pretty.

I turned and realised that at that particular instant, the rising sun was on such an angle that it was coming through the security peep-hole in the hotel room’s door. And what had suddenly appeared on the wall of my room, directly in my eyeline, was a refracted image of the sun.

I was shocked. Because this ball of light – an image of the sun – had appeared the exact moment Jennifer had told me that I should embrace change and accept the notion of success.

It was like the Cosmic Rays were emphasising what Jennifer had just told me. Marking it with a luminescent planetary exclamation mark.

Change means success.

I got up and took a couple of photos, and then the ball of light disappeared. Presumably the sun had risen higher, out of the line of the peep-hole.

I got back into bed, and the cough disappeared – just like the ball of light. I went back to sleep, slept for a further four hours without any coughing, and woke up refreshed.

I thought back on that night last year in Dallas when the “iron rails” had appeared on the ceiling above me, reminding me that “The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run.” 

Like I say, weird things happen to me when I’m in Dallas…

I’m back in the Most Beneficial Galactic Cosmic Rays of Dallas.

For those of you familiar with this blog, a Vedic Astrologer in Bombay last year told me that I had to come to Dallas Texas, and spend as much time as possible over the next eleven years in the Cosmic Rays, and if I did, then certain things would happen:

1. I would do something that would be of great help to mankind.
2. I would be treated like a King and afforded universal respect.
3. I would acquire lands and elephants
4. I would acquire more wealth than I would know what to do with
5. I would donate my newly acquired wealth to the service of mankind

Pretty impressive list, huh?
I like them all, except #5.

For those of you who followed my adventures in Dallas last year when I first came to bathe in the Most Beneficial Galactic Cosmic Rays, you might remember that some remarkable things happened, including my being approached by a beautiful woman who claimed she was my Guardian Angel.

At the time, that seriously unsettled me, because there was something quite ethereal and other-wordly about her that made me not discount her as a loony. On the contrary, I actually believed her, because I could find no other reasonable explanation for her telling me what she told me. And now, some six months later, I’m still convinced that I had some contact with a spirit that was sent to give me advice.

If you want to read those blogs, a good place to start is:

Dallas – Day 10 / pt2

So now I’ve come back to Dallas.
Why?
Not to chase down that Guardian Angel…
…but to meet Mr. Trammell Crow again.

Mr. Trammell Crow is the very eccentric billionaire that I met last time. We spent about 3 hours with him at his mansion, and he wanted to know all about the film. He’s a staunch environmentalist – he’s a big supporter of Earth Day – and he has an Art Museum in downtown Dallas that specialises in Asian Art. They also hold daily (and free) meditation classes there. So Mr. Crow has interests in Eastern spiritualism.

He’s asked to meet again at his mansion later in the week. I have no expectations. i will not be elated if he agrees to invest, nor will I be disappointed if he decides not to invest. It really doesn’t matter. The right thing will happen for the film. It’s out of my control.

The thing about this film – it’s making itself.
It chooses who will be involved.
I really don’t have much say in it.

Right from the start, I’ve said that there is only one rule in the making of this film – it has to be made intuitively. As long as I keep my hand very gently on the tiller, I know that everything will work out. If I try to grip the tiller and point the film one way or another, then I know that things will very quickly go awry.

So hang tight, because for the next several weeks, Jennifer and I and some other folk who’ll be joining us shortly will be criss-crossing this giant country, filming with some extraordinary people who will tell us their views on intuition.

The film is building a momentum now which is unstoppable. And the Most Beneficial Galactic Cosmic Rays of Dallas Texas are aiding and abetting…

This morning didn’t start well.

I nuked a frypan.

I left it on the stove and went off to handle some emails. Next I hear Jennifer calling out from upstairs: Is something burning?

Burning alright.

The frypan was burning so much that it had welded itself to the hotplate. It wasn’t burning, it was melting. I couldn’t physically pull it off the stove. I had to turn off the hotplate, wait till it cooled down, then jemmy it free.

Jennifer put it into the garbage bin – she said it had turned toxic, and couldn’t be used anymore.

Next, she asked me to make her some toast while she went out into the garden to plant snap dragons.

So I put on some toast.

When the toaster popped I wasn’t happy with the result – the toast wasn’t crispy enough. It needed a bit more heat. So I  put it on again – figuring I’d pop it part way through the cycle and it would be perfect.

Then I went off to handle a few more emails…

And of course I forgot about the toast and this is what I ended up with –

It hasn’t been a good morning for me. I’ve been anxious about this trip coming up. Usually I head off on a filming trip with great excitement. This time I’m anxious.

I have some real heavy hitters to interview this time – including Carolyn Myss, Dr. Judith Orloff, Dr. Norm Shealy, Dr. John Geiger, and James Van Praagh.

Later if I have time I’ll give you more detail on these people – but suffice to say they are “headline acts” when it comes to intuition. And I want to make sure this next phase of the filming goes well, because it will constitute the core of the film.

Over the last couple of days I’ve been packing, but I haven’t been able to find my favourite summer jacket.

It’s a smokey blue jacket, which I bought in Rome last year for €90. I bought it for filming around The Vatican –

But I haven’t been able to find it – and for some crazy reason all my anxiety about this upcoming filming trip has morphed into an anxiety about this blue jacket.

I have other jackets that I could take.
I have a nice brown jacket.
But I wanted to take the blue one.

So this morning, after the nuked frypan and the nuked toast, Jennifer sat me down in our front sun room, and talked me through what was happening.

She told me my emotional body was running amok – and she was right.

Actually no, she was wrong. It wasn’t running amok – it was running like a burning man consumed by flames racing from room to room, screaming, looking for a fire extinguisher.

Anyway, she was right. I told her about my anxiety, and she said that my emotional body was like a monster with a giant hammer pounding into dust all the good work I’ve been doing to strengthen my spiritual body.

My emotional body was pulverising me, she said. And I had to do something about it because soon my emotional body would have full control.

She said I had tools at my disposal – tools I knew how to use: yoga; meditation; even stopping for half an hour to sit in the sun and contemplate.

She said I could also allow myself to be drawn to a book, open it up at any page, and read – trusting that what I would read would be of help.

In other words, allow my Personal Guidance System to do its job.

I said yes, I could do all that. And in fact I did 40 minutes of yoga this morning, I did 30 minutes of meditation last night, I’ve been reading Dr. Norman Shealy’s book on Intuitive Medicine, which is extraordinary – but…

I STILL CAN’T FIND MY BLUE JACKET!!!!

Jennifer sighed, knowing that I was indeed the burning man, still consumed by flames, running from room to room, screaming, looking for a blue jacket.

(The blue jacket being my fire extinguisher.)

Where have you looked? she asked.

I’d looked everywhere. For days and days. I’d looked in my wardrobe. In the spare wardrobe. In the spare spare wardrobe. In the wardrobe in the spare room. In the wardrobe under the stairs where we keep the hiking jackets.

A jacket isn’t like car keys. You lose your car keys, they could be anywhere. Down a crack in a lounge chair, under a book, in the ignition. With a jacket, particularly a conspicuous blue jacket, there are only a few places in a house it could be. And I’d searched them all.

Of this I was certain – the blue jacket was not in the house.

All I could think was that I’d taken the jacket to our daughter’s place in Sydney and left it there to be dry cleaned. But when I called her, she couldn’t recall having seen it.

Jennifer had no recollection of having seen the blue jacket recently –
But she said: Let me take a look.

She went upstairs.
Within twenty seconds, she called out: I’ve found it! 

She’d found the jacket on a bed in a spare bedroom. It had been partly covered by some other clothing. She’d found it almost immediately, because she’d been calm.

She came down and told me that my emotional body had prevented me finding it, because I was anxious. Anxiety, which is simply a form of fear, robs us of our clear connection to our true selves.

When we have a clear connection to our true selves, there’s no such thing as loss.

Oh and by the way, I’ve decided to take the brown jacket instead…