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Hello, I'm Tony Bates
and welcome to our "Gathering of Light Minds".
Our guest today is spiritual
visionary, channel and renowned acting coach, Lisa Dalton. Lisa has given workshops in Russia,
Europe and throughout the Unites States. She is an award winning actress, producer and director.
Today, we are here to learn more about a technique she calls "Spiritual Gestures."
T:
Welcome, Lisa.
L: Thank you Tony.
T: Can you tell us
what a Spiritual gesture is?
L: It is a large
physical movement that expresses an intention or desire you want to achieve, an emotional state you
feel inside or spiritual idea that you would want to "embody". You can develop a spiritual gesture
that is used in the same way as an affirmation- you might even call it a physical affirmation or
moving mantra.
T: Why would someone want to do
this?
L: To heal themselves, To anchor new
belief systems more deeply, release old ones, identify unconscious negative energy patterns, raise
the body’s ability to hold higher vibrational energies, develop channeling abilities and
experience the positive potential. It is great for actors, and, it’s really fun!
T: How does this work with other spiritual processes?
L: My suggestion is that Spiritual Gestures are something
you might add rather than substitute. It is a way to support other growth, healing and ascension
processes.
T: How so?
L:
All energy is in motion and this is true of our whole being. When
we are born, our potential range of motion is quite flexible and expansive. Then, we begin to limit
our movements to fit our personality patterns and to be able to sit, walk, etc. By the time we are
about 5 years old, we tend to settle into about 5-7% of our potential. The energies we use
repeatedly affect how our bodies grow-our physical, etheric, emotional and mental bodies. Later, if
we learn new psychological and spiritual ideas, we are then able to hold higher vibrations in our
mental and spiritual bodies. However, our physical bodies are still moving according to the old
belief systems. Our bodies are not prepared to hold the higher vibrations of the new knowledge.
Therefore, we experience the frustration of knowing and wanting to change, but our body
unconsciously sets us back.
T: I "hate" when
that happens.
L:
Me too! So here’s a cool way to deal with it.
Spiritual Gestures re-mind your body of its full potential, preparing it to hold the higher
vibrations. It unifies the multidimensional layers of the human. A spiritual gesture is done with a
strong image from the mental body, a powerful emotion from the astral body, a dynamic passion from
the heart and strong effort from the physical body.
T: Is there a set of gestures like yoga? Or do we each have our own?
L: Actually the answer to that is Yes! We have both.
Like yoga or tai chi for example, there are universal balancing gestures one can do as a daily
workout. There are also personal gestures that you can use for specific events, daily inspiration,
to address certain issues or as an overall expression of your most desired spiritualized form.
T: How do you find the personal gesture?
L: There are several ways to discover a personal gesture and
one of the ways leads us into how spiritual gestures complement your other studies.
You
can have a private consultation where we identify your goals, current studies or activities and
develop the gestures with you. Or, you can take a workshop to learn the ideas and then create your
own.
If you are interested in astrology, for example, each sign of the zodiac has its own
gesture. The same would be true for each goddess or god archetype, for numerology, emotions,
angels, native american animal symbols, the four directions, Buddhist precepts, familiars, chakras,
colors, Jungian sub-personalities and saints. Each of these is a way of categorizing sets of
energies. By "gesturizing" the energy pattern of the images with which you are working, you can
experience it on a physical or visceral level. This results in increasing the depth of integration
into your entire energy field. It can increase the speed of manifestation.
T: How else can I find the gesture?
L: By talking about your concerns very expressively with your
hands- pretend you’re Mediterranean for example. Your body will instinctively do what I call
an emphatic gesture. An emphatic gesture is a natural movement that tries to help you emphasize or
clarify the meaning of your words. Often your hands will be making a movement while your brain is
struggling to find the right words. This shows how the words begin with an invisible gesture. If
you recognize this small movement and the intention behind it, you then expand it into the biggest
possible version your body can do. The movement is done passionately with the most powerful
emotions you can access and the clearest intention. In this way, the gesture bridges the mind,
feelings, will and body, engages the etheric energy field, the astral body, mental body and
physical body. You can also do a workout that covers the range of archetypal or universal movements
based on laws of nature and physics. These are some of the things you would learn in a
workshop.
T: How are those different from yoga,
tai chi, or other movement trainings?
L: One
workshop can teach you the idea and then you can use it as often as you like. Some people wake up
every morning and create a gesture that expresses how they would like their day to go. Then at
various times in the day, they do it again or even just think of doing it and it affects their
thoughts, emotions, desires, behaviors in a positive way.
Yoga, dance, Tai Chi are
wonderful activities and require dedicated time on a continuous basis. The exercises will often
address the energy flow and imagination as Spiritual Gestures do, but they rarely connect to the
individual concerns of emotional and psychological life. They usually must be done a certain way in
order to truly be affective and may not be very doable by handicapped, ill, elderly or children.
Even the fully capable adult left by oneself often questions whether their form is "right"- whether
they are doing it "right".
Generally, the yoga-tai chi
exercises serve certain specific physical tasks such as strengthening and stretching certain body
parts, opening chakras, leading to overall improved health by counteracting the weak energy flow
with increased flow of chi. One could say that is addressing a symptom but not the metaphysical
cause of the low flow. As soon as the exercise period is complete, our body begins to move in the
same patterns that weakened the energy flow in the first place. Adding a spiritual gesture based on
the metaphysical cause into your workouts will help sustain the chi you buildup through the other
activities. Once you learn the idea, you then explore and develop ability to sense when it’s
working. You don’t need any equipment, and you are taking the healing act completely into your
own creative responsibility.
T: Can you give me
an example of a universal movement based on physics?
L: Certainly. Lets take a very basic concept of energy- it is always in motion. So what
pattern of motion is most basic? That of expanding open and contracting closed. If you look around
your life, you can notice all kinds of things expanding and contracting- perhaps described in other
words-like getting bigger and smaller, growing and decaying, gathering and dispersing, draining and
overflowing. One could say the pulse of creativity is found in this dynamic- the shift between
expanding and contracting.
The earth is doing it, the
cosmos, the football huddle, the senate, your heart and lungs and the traffic. We have the
potential to expand and contract in our bodies, minds, and spirit. The average human being selects
a limited portion of their potential to expand or contract. Let’s say you select "shyness"
over "aggression". The body develops a contraction in the shoulders and chest. This limitation
imprints itself in the aura, the quality of movements and the thinking process. If you then want to
embody your higher self-esteem, it will be difficult to maintain. The form of your body will be
producing chemicals that counteract empowerment. So, repeating the expanding gestures will retrain
the body to hold the new thought of confidence. Another set of universal energies are those of the
elements- earth, water, air and light. Each of us should readily be able to move like any of those
elements because we are made of them.
If you don’t move with enough earth- chances
are you may twist an ankle, if you have too much air, you may get a flat tire. Not enough water in
your movement could result in a pulled muscle requiring you to soak. By exercising these energies,
you consciously balance yourself in a fun way.
The decision of how much or how little we
use of the universal potential is influenced by our reactions to our environment and heredity.
Later, we reach a stage in life where we must change who we are as reactive beings to become what
we want as creative individualities.
Then we begin seeking help- growth- often, that
usually is focused on one aspect of the being-better diet, exercise, and bodywork for the physical,
or psychology for the mind or metaphysical-training for the spirit.
By doing universal
spiritual gestures, we restore our original range of energies. Thus, your new metaphysical
knowledge and more balanced psychology can be more readily absorbed into the body. You could call
this process Meta-psycho physiology.
I am sure you’ve heard of the many astonishing
events that have occurred leading scientists to reevaluate the actual location of the "mind". There
is an increasing belief that the mind is in every cell. We are trying to address this with
this concept.
Once you learn the idea, you then explore and develop ability to sense when
it’s working. You don’t need any equipment, and you are taking the healing act completely
into your own creativity. All of us who are listening to this are pursuing a holistic path. With
Spiritual gestures, you are undertaking something that truly addresses your whole being in one
modality. I believe one of our goals is to spiritualize the physical form, to bring spirit in to
matter- into the earth. I think understanding the intention behind a movement is an exciting
challenge. This process increases your awareness of idiosyncratic physical movement that you may
not have noticed. Knowing that this way of moving is preceded by an idiosyncrasy in the invisible
self, can inspire us to seek the invisible pattern of movement and change it.
As
scientific research advances, the power of the mind body spirit connection becomes increasingly
evident.
T: How does it fit into the
Consciousness Movement?
L: That’s an
important question Tony. At this time, there are many different paths of consciousness raising
available to those who are interested. Often, these involve reading, listening and studying
information that will alter your understanding and perceptions. Others will involve meditation,
mantra, affirmations to connect our invisible selves with divine flow. And then there are those
that use practitioners- Reiki, massage, chiropractors, etc. and pilates, yoga, tai chi and ecstatic
dance. To this, we can add nutritional improvement with biodynamic foods, supplements, etc.
All of these are definitely important and effective and believe me, I try to do them. But when
we understand the human being is a multi-layered interdependent energy system, we then know that we
must do something that unifies the mind, body and spirit. I don’t want to have to leave my
body every time I want to experience divine energy. I can express the I AM that I AM on all those
levels at once with a spiritual gesture that I create each time with a passionate heart.
T: How did you come upon this process?
L: I have been teaching an acting technique for 15 years that
was developed from the brilliant Russian Actor, Michael Chekhov, in the 1920’s. He was
strongly inspired by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian scientist/clairvoyant. The central concepts
were originally parts of many ancient mystery schools. Steiner brought them back in the form of
Eurhythmy movement.
As an acting technique, it is
almost unknown because it was too mystical and taboo for the early and mid-1900’s. Now, its is
ready to lead the way in bringing acting back to its true task of healing, uplifting and
transforming audiences with spiritual impact.
For a specific character, we create a
personal spiritual gesture- called a "psychological" gesture. This technique has been used by
Anthony Quinn, Jack Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins, Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe and many more great
performers.
When I began studying it in
1980, the teachers either didn’t know its spiritual potential or were too paranoid to share
it. It had cost lives in Russia.
When I learned these amazing
exercises they brought out an awesome ability to transform- physically without make up, emotionally
with out any specific justification, rhythmically different characters, and to affect audiences in
deeply profound ways. I developed an ability to experience the character incarnating in me. I was
able to impersonate other people, take on their qualities and rivet audiences. And the best part
was, that when I was less than brilliant, I was not in any pain about it. I found an appreciation
for where I was, when and how. I could redefine perfection by seeing the beauty of the now. and my
life got better and better. As I taught people from over 40 countries around the world, I started
receiving letters from actors who had taken only brief workshops, telling me years later, how their
lives had changed. In my private consultation work, I began specifically blending gestures with
channeling, with voice dialogue, muscle testing, past life issues and found that it worked
beautifully.
As an acting technique it is so freeing and inspiring. Often an actor gets an
idea for how they want to do the role. Then they go to do it and it doesn’t come out at all
the way they "saw" it in their minds. This is a body-mind gap, which the universal energy exercises
will close. The expansion and contraction energy is the most basic pattern of energy movement and
the four elements are how the energy expands or contracts. This brings in tempo, rhythms of nature.
Anything you might envision can be analyzed according to these energies. So we train to be able to
fluidly move from one to the other. Then when the idea appears, we can do it without
self-consciousness.
T: Well, I am really looking
forward to trying some of these gestures. So how do we do that?
L: Well, I have a website up now that is focusing on the acting
aspect of this- but in the calendar section you can look up information and dates for the
Spiritual Gesture workshops.
I have a telephone number for you it is 818 220 3074 for
further information and to schedule consultations.
In addition, the flip side of this tape
has a guided workout of the universal spiritual gestures that you can follow. (Tape available in Products category
)
T: And that ends our
Gathering of Light Minds today.
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