For those of you who have not yet read “The Alchemist” by Paolo Coelho, you must drop everything and buy that book. There is a reason why this book has sold over forty million copies! In my opinion this fable is the best story ever written on how following your dream brings about the best in you. The book encapsulates spirituality, power of our mind, creating the life that we want, belief in one-self and the magic of life.
Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coelho introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he’s off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream. During his journey he learn a lesson or two about life. Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman’s books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists–men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the “Soul of the World.” Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy’s misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. “My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.
Here is a quick summary*:
When Santiago, a young shepherd boy from the Spanish countryside of Andalusia , has a dream that reveals the location of a hidden treasure buried at the Egyptian Pyramids his simple life is suddenly torn in two. Part of him wants to take the chance to go searching for it and the other part of him wants to continue his easy life as a shepherd.
A mysterious king named the king of Salem in Tarifa convinces Santiago that he has succeeded in discovering his Personal Legend. The old king tells Santiago that following his Personal Legend to its conclusion is a person’s only real obligation in life.
Santiago listens to his heart and decides to go on a dangerous search for the treasure. He sells his flock of sheep and heads to Africa, where he is quickly robbed of all his gold and left despondent on the streets. He decides that he was foolish to believe in his dreams and quickly gets a job with a crystal merchant in order to save up enough money to go back home.
After almost a year working for the merchant, Santiago has made a success of the shop and has plenty of money to do whatever he wants. As he’s walking the streets to go back home he suddenly decides to take a chance and continue his search for the buried treasure.
He joins a caravan to make the dangerous crossing across the desert and as he rides the long, slow days away he begins to listen to his heart and to the desert. He begins to understand what the Soul of the World is, and how he fits in.
When the caravan makes it to the oasis, Santiago meets a girl he falls in love with the moment he sees her. The local alchemist, a mysterious man who reminds Santiago of the old king, helps Santiago continue his journey across the desert and teaches him more important life lessons along the way. Although Santiago does not know it, he is becoming wise, and a master in the art of living to the fullest no matter what. Although he has left his true love back at the oasis, he is resolved to follow his dream to its end.
After many adventures, dangers, and important life lessons Santiago finally reaches the Pyramids. His joy at finally being at journey’s end overwhelms him, and he is grateful that he got the chance to follow his dream.
He begins to dig deep into the sand looking for treasure, but before he can get far a pack of thieves shows up, beating and robbing him. They force him to continue digging, and then leave when no treasure is found. One of the thieves, as destiny would have it, tells Santiago an important clue and when they’re gone Santiago can’t help but laugh, because now he knows where his treasure truly lies.
It ends up being right back where his journey began, under the very tree where he had the prophetic dream years before. He digs and finds a beautiful chest full of gold and gems. His next and last journey will be back to the desert to be reunited with the woman he loves.
Even if you have read this book once or several time before, it will not fail to give you a boot and make you wonder whether there indeed is a higher power behind what we call life.
Q Moayad is the Naked Healer. We have entered a new era of Quantum healing, quantum coaching, quantum mechanics, universal healing, universal energies, life coach, life healing, energy healing, sexual healing. You can see this all around you: in the stock market, your career, your relationships, your children and even your health. What used to work is no longer working. This era requires a new set of life tools. It calls for you to integrate your life actions with the power of international living.
Once upon a time there was a poor Scottish farmer. His name was Fleming. One day, while trying to eke out a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman’s sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
“I want to repay you,” said the nobleman. “You saved my son’s life.”
“No, I can’t accept payment for what I did,” the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer’s own son came to the door of the family hovel.
“Is that your son?” the nobleman asked. “Yes,” the farmer replied proudly.
“I’ll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he’ll grow to a man you can be proud of.”
And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming’s son graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the nobleman’s son was stricken with pneumonia.
What saved him? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.
His son’s name? Sir Winston Churchill.
Someone once said that what comes around goes around.
Reading this wonderful story reminded me of the book “Life of Pi”, where at the end, after having recounted his adventure, or was it an ordeal?, Pi offered a different, much more sober version, leaving it to the Japanese officials, who had traveled halfway across the globe to interview him, to decide which one they preferred.
I chose to believe the original and not the sober version.
Also here you can choose for yourself whether you would want to go with the above version or go with the version that is provided by The Churchill Centre and Museum.
Q Moayad is the Naked Healer. We have entered a new era of Quantum healing, quantum coaching, quantum mechanics, universal healing, universal energies, life coach, life healing, energy healing, sexual healing. You can see this all around you: in the stock market, your career, your relationships, your children and even your health. What used to work is no longer working. This era requires a new set of life tools. It calls for you to integrate your life actions with the power of international living.
I have delved into many nutritional theories over the years. While I never promote a single theory, as I totally buy into the “bio-individuality” concept, where one man’s food is another man’s poison, I still have become a keen fan of Weston Price thoughts, findings, and theories and thus wanted to share them with you:
Weston A. Price, DDS was a Cleveland dentist, who has been called the “Charles Darwin” of Nutrition. Searching for the causes of dental decay and physical degeneration he observed daily in his dental practice, he turned from test tubes and microscopes to study “people with fine teeth” – the isolated “primitives”.
Traveling worldwide, Dr. Price found that beautiful, straight teeth, freedom from decay, stalwart bodies, resistance to disease, and fine characters were typical of primitives on their traditional diets.
Dr. Price’s classic volume, “Nutritional and Physical Degeneration”, published in 1939, is available from the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation at www.ppnf.org and describes the fieldwork he did in the 1920s and 1930s among various world cultures, with the original goal of recording and studying the dental health and development of pre-industrial populations including tribal Africans and Pacific islanders, Inuit, North and South American natives, and Australian aborigines. His book contains numerous photographs of the people he studied, and includes comparison photographs of the teeth and facial structure of people who lived on their traditional diet and people who had adopted or grown up on industrialized food. In certain instances it was possible for Dr Price to examine and photograph traditional with industrialized eaters from the same family. These photographs illustrate in an unforgettable way the physical degeneration and problems that occur when human groups abandon nourishing traditional diets in favor of modern convenience foods: such as arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, intestinal problems, and chronic fatigue.
His worldwide findings clearly showed that dental caries and deformed dental arches, resulting in crowded, crooked teeth and unattractive appearance, were merely a sign of physical degeneration, resulting from what he had suspected – nutritional deficiencies or as he called them “impoverished foods of civilization” – sugar, white flour, pasteurized milk, and convenience foods filled with extenders and additives.
Price also noticed that his younger patients were suffering from dental problems such as crooked teeth, overbites and pinched nostrils. These children also suffered from problems of infections, allergies, asthma, poor vision and behavioral problems.
As Price made these discoveries, he also came up with an idea. He set out on a global trek to examine other primitive societies and their health conditions and teeth. He found that those in other cultures had diets that were at least four times higher in minerals and vitamin C and B complex than the diets of Americans. Many of the healthy groups of people that Price studied ate special foods like cod liver oil, fish, eggs, organ meats, cream and butter and raw unpasteurized whole milk from grass-fed cows.
Price then formulated his findings into the Weston Price Diet. This diet goes against 20th and 21st century popular diet recommendations, which emphasize a low-fat diet. Instead, the Weston Price Diet, and through the funding efforts of the Weston A. Price Foundation, advocate for an eating style that is nutrient-dense, natural and unprocessed.
The Weston Price Diet espouses that the modern diet is the reason for chronic disease as well as the surge in overweight and obesity trends. The program encourages a diet that is generally low-carbohydrate with the basis of calories coming from natural and animal-based food sources.The following foods are allowed on the Weston Price Diet:
- Butter, cream and whole raw milk
- Organ meats, such as liver
- Pasture-fed meats, dairy and eggs
- Wild fish, shellfish and fish roe
- Organic vegetables and fruits
- Traditional lacto-fermented foods
- Healthy lacto-fermented soft drinks
- Homemade bone broths
- Properly prepared whole grains and traditional sourdough breads
- Unrefined salt
Foods to avoid are:
- Modern soy foods
- Pasteurized, homogenized dairy
- Margarine and trans fats
- Processed vegetable oils
- Dry breakfast cereals
- Artificial sweeteners and additives
- Fast foods and sodas
- Refined sweeteners and fruit juices
- White flour products
- Factory-raised meats and farm-raised fish
The diet also encourages eating locally when possible as well as choosing foods that are raised without pesticides, antibiotics, hormones and fertilizers.
Some of the tenets the Weston Price Diet maintains are:
- Animal fats do not cause heart disease, cancer and obesity but actually protect us against these conditions.
- Modern soy foods contribute to thyroid problems, digestive disorders and endocrine disruption.
- Low-fat diets can lead to many health problems, including emotional instability.
- Vegetarians do not live longer; vegan diets do not protect against cancer and heart disease.
Diet’s pros:
- Promotes getting nutrients naturally from animals and foods that are unprocessed
- Dental health can be linked to overall health
- Diet recommendations are clear and straightforward
- Recommends eliminating processed and refined foods
- Eliminates white flour, refined sweeteners and vegetable oil
- High fat content will enhance satiety
- Backed by some scientific studies
Diet’s cons:
- Considered a controversial diet because of its promotion of raw milk and high fat, albeit natural foods
- Requires a tremendous amount of diligence since diet prohibits eating processed foods as well as many grains
- Not vegan- or vegetarian-friendly
The Weston Price Diet may be considered a controversial program but its basic message deserves a listen to, namely that fat is not to be feared as long as a whole-foods and nature-based diet is steadily consumed.
While vegetarians and vegans won’t find much comfort in this lifestyle eating plan, its promotion of a general low-carbohydrate, nutrient-dense, unprocessed diet as way to maintain health and stave off disease has shown some promise in scientific research studies.
The Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF), co-founded in 1999 by Sally Fallon (Morell) and nutritionist Mary G. Enig (PhD), is a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to “restoring nutrient-dense foods to the American diet through education, research and activism. Its goals include disseminating the research and dietary advice of dentist and nutritional researcher Weston A. Price, who studied the foods and health of isolated non-industrialized peoples around the world, and supporting the scientific validation of traditional diets.
Q Moayad is the Naked Healer. We have entered a new era of Quantum healing, quantum coaching, quantum mechanics, universal healing, universal energies, life coach, life healing, energy healing, sexual healing. You can see this all around you: in the stock market, your career, your relationships, your children and even your health. What used to work is no longer working. This era requires a new set of life tools. It calls for you to integrate your life actions with the power of international living.
