Piotr Rajski's Blog

Nostradamus (courtesy of Wikipedia) Normally I am not a great enthusiast of prophecies. Taken literally, they often have quite a sway over people's minds, and tend to make people fatalistic, or, at times, paranoid. The most famous are perhaps the prophecies of Nostradamus , that, many people believe, have already come to be, in some parts, true. Full of prophesies are also the sacred scriptures of many religions. However, I find a lot of congruence between what scientists tell us about the upcoming troubles, related to climate change, and the prophecies of Maha Kranti, pronounced in the early 1980s by Haidakhan Babaji . Maha Kranti is typically translated as Great Destruction or Great Revolution. Haidakhan Babaji started talking about Great Destruction quite early in his ministry. He said: "The change of the present which is full of turmoil, will be brought about by bloody revolution. Peace will return only after revolution reaches its zenith. In the aftermath of the...

When do we want it? NOW! I don't have grand-children - yet - but it still concerns me what kind of world we will leave for these little ones. That is why I decided to join the popular climate action march on Sat, 27 Sep, in Edmonton. People gathered in three places in the city. I joined the group on Churchill Square, which grew up, in my estimate, to about 3 thousand people. Many people came with their children, some of them not yet ready to carry a banner. However, the cause of the environment is also on the minds of older folks. Many people arrived on their bikes to demonstrate their effort not to pollute. I took a public bus. From Churchill Square we walked toward Jasper Avenue. Even the police was environmentally friendly that day. We marched nine blocks in freaking cold. The march and scanding warmed us up a bit. Even construction workers applauded! In a smaller street, close to Alberta Legislature, we were better s...

After publishing my post yesterday - Younger Next Year - I had some additional reflections on the importance of physical activity. I would like to share them in this post. The research on, so called, " centenarians ," i.e. people who lived until 100 and longer, clearly indicates that in most cases centenarians remained physically active late into their lives. They would often farm or grew their garden. Japanese study of the centenarians from Okinawa and Shimane regions also indicated other factors: simple diet, low stress lifestyle, caring community and sense of purpose as factors that kept Japanese centenarians alive. Not to look too far, my own grandfather, Bronek, lived to 100. He worked hard all his life, including 30 years as locksmith in a mine. He was always happy to help his neighbors (as in this picture). I saw with my own eyes like, in his late 60s, Grandpa grabbed two buckets of mortar and carried them up on a wobbly board, when he was helping my uncle to bu...

In spite of the recent setback with immortality (see the post On the Death of the Immortal ), I haven't stopped searching for the best ways of living the days that I still have ahead of me. As a part of this search I reached for the New York Times bestseller - a book by Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge, M.D., entitled: "Younger Next Year - Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy - Until You're 80 and Beyond." As I am especially interested in staying "sexy," I picked this title from a plethora of other books on how to live a good life in retirement. In the Chapter Three - The New Science of Aging - Henry Lodge claims that "Some 70% of premature death and aging is lifestyle related." He differentiates between "aging" as a normal process and "decay" caused most often by lack of activity and overeating. Although we are "stuck with real aging," Lodge writes, "decay is optional." The theory behind is, Lodge explains, is that w...

Rebirthing came to my life, one could say, at an ideal moment. The same could be said about Poland. I met Leonard Orr, the founder of Rebirthing, for the first time in the fall of 1982. Earlier that year I had spent 4 months in Uherce prison [i] , interned for my involvement with the Solidarity Movement , and my support for Lech Walesa . I was also fired from my job with the University of Silesia. I was traumatized, scared and paranoid. I was considering emigration.  To survive a few months until then, I thought, I took a job as psychologist in a small addiction clinic in Siemianowice Slaskie. This clinic shared one building with a mental health clinic and a day psychiatric division. It was there where I had a chance to experience Conscious Connected Breathing (Rebirthing), in a group session run by Nora Rutkowska. I have not experienced anything like this before. My whole body tensed up and then released all that tension. The state of peace was unparalleled. It was for the f...

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński Having somewhat more time to read, since I retired, I checked out a few Polish books from the local library. Just by coincidence I found a book by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński , entitled " Wiek biblijny i śmierć. Czekając na czarny obłok. " I would translate it roughly as "The  Bible's age and death. Waiting for the black cloud. " Herling-Grudziński is best known for his book A World Apart ( Inny Swiat ), describing his experiences in the Soviet Gulag system. It was first published in 1951, about 10 years earlier than Alexander Solzhenitsyn 's first book on this subject. " The Bible's age and death " is a book, or rather a sketch for the book, written when Herling-Grudzinski was already in his 80s. It tells the story of Italian Matusalem  - Bartolomeo Spada - who was believed to achieve the age of over 130. Because of his physical strength and sexual prowess (he possibly suffered from priapism ), Spada had become a...

During my recent hiking experience, my friend, Marek, brought a guitar and a songbook with the most popular songs of our youth. One of these songs - Ragazzo da Napoli - (I know, I know, it should be "di" Napoli, but gotta respect the original title) stayed with me. It constantly plays on my mind. It is a fine tune (the music is by the popular in 1970s Italian singer, Drupi ), but nothing too special. No particular reason why my mind should pick this tune over so many others. The lyrics to the song were written by Jacek Zwoźniak , a popular at that time student bard. The song tells the story of a young Polish woman who fell to the charms of "Ragazzo da Napoli," a rather shallow visitor from Italy, who impressed her with his Fiat Mirafiori, when he brought it to the sidewalk ("na sam trotuar wjechał kołami"). As the song goes, the woman allows herself to be taken advantage of, and then feels bad coming back to her Polish boy-friend who, in machismo impu...

Leonard Orr, the Father of Rebirthing-Breathwork, also known as “California guru,” died on 5 Sep 2019. His death is quite a loss not only for his loved ones, but for the whole international Rebirthing-Breathwork community. Over the course of his life, Leonard gave this “gift of breath” to countless people across the globe. I learned this technique from him in Poland, in early 1980s. To this day, I observe how his breathing method brings healing to people who try it. Leonard’s ideas inspired me in many ways and I have considered him to be my “spiritual teacher.” The death of Orr is also significant because he was one of the best-known proponents of Physical Immortality. [i] What a big deal, one could comment sarcastically, yet another “dreamer,” who hoped to “conquer death,” in the end succumbed to it? Still, Leonard’s death seems to call for some sort of reflection, especially within the Rebirthing-Breathwork community. I remember Leonard saying many times that “every perso...