OCD & Rituals of Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year 4709- the year of The Water Dragon

Chinese New Year begins today, January 23, 2012, on the new moon, and is the biggest holiday in China. This one is particularly big, as the Dragon year is the most auspicious and popular of all.

According to www.chinesefortunecalendar.com  legend has it that dragons come from heaven and 9 of them were sent to help the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. When it was time for them to return, the emperor tried to keep them by putting the 6th dragon under a magic spell so he couldn't leave. The other dragons wouldn't return without him, but they all refused to work for the Emperor and changed their identities and remained in China.
Since then, they have been used as symbols:

Dragon #1 is carved into music instruments, such as violins.
Dragon #2 is on many different handles of weapons.
Dragon #3 is the symbol of safety, harmony and peace.
Dragon#4 can be found on the big bells as a symbol of protection and alertness.
Dragon #5 s the symbol of fire and smoke. His image is often found in temples and on incense burners.
Dragon #6 is a symbol of strength, longevity, and good luck.
Dragon #7's symbol can be found in law offices, courts, and jails.
Dragon #8 is the symbol of knowledge or education and can often be found on books.
Dragon #9 is the water dragon, and is the symbol used to prevent fire and disasters.


Chinese New Year is celebrated for weeks and there is much preparation. Chinese history is steeped in traditions, and as the Water Dragon is the luckiest year of all in Chinese culture, it is the year more people will marry, give birth, buy homes, and open businesses because of increased chances of success. Also, many rituals will be performed in order to attract luck. In addition, there are many  superstitions which they will adhere to. These may pose difficulties for some people, especially people with OCD and related disorders, because of fears of misfortune if the superstitions are not heeded.

This is from   http://gohongkong.about.com/od/hongkongfestivals/tp/CNYsuperstition.htm "Chinese New Year may be a time for friends, family and fun, but is also a time for foreboding as the festival is riddled with superstitions. The Chinese, including Hong Kongers, place much stock in the rites and rituals in Chinese New Year superstitions. Check out our top Chinese New Year superstition tips below.
1. Dirty Doings
Put your feet up and relax. Certainly the most enjoyable of the Chinese New Year superstitions, sweeping and cleaning is strictly forbidden. The Chinese believe cleaning means you'll sweep all of your good luck out the front door.
2. Time to Come Clean
Before you can enjoy number two, you need to give the house a full spring clean, before putting cleaning tools in the cupboard on New Year's Eve.
3. Read Between the Lines
Be sure to stock up on reading materials before Chinese New Year, as Hong Kong's bookshops will be padlocked tight. In Cantonese, book is a homonym for 'lose'.
4. Choppy Waters
Make sure you avoid rough seas in the new year by not buying shoes over the holiday period. In Cantonese, shoes are a homonym for 'rough'.
5. Balance the Books
If you're in debt, it's time to dip into your pockets and pay people off. The Chinese believe that if you start the new year in the red, you'll finish it the same way.
6. Ghostly Conversations
Caught round a campfire over the holiday period? No ghost stories. Tales of death, dying and ghosts is considered supremely inauspicious, especially during Chinese New Year.
7. Lady in Red
Chinese New Year is packed with colors, and while all the colors of the rainbow bring good luck, it's the color red that is considered the ultimate luck bringer.
8. Sweet Year
Hong Kongers have a sweet touch at the best of times, but Chinese New Year offers the perfect chance to raid the sweet shop, as eating candies is said to deliver a sweeter year.
9. Feel the Breeze
Welcome in the New Year with a blast of fresh air, opening your windows is said to let in good luck.
10. Get to the Point
Sharp objects are said to be harbingers of bad luck, as their sharp points cut out your good luck, pack them away.You should also avoid the hairdressers or you'll have your good luck chopped off."

Besides this, your own personal horoscope will determine whether or not you will have a good year. This year, 2012, is supposed to be good for "rabbits," not so good for "dogs," and neutral for "rams." also, the unlucky direction is "Yellow 5," so don't have any repairs done this year, until next February 9th, in the southeast part of your home or else you will bring bad fortune upon your household. I would be here all day if I tried to explain everything else, like how the 5 elements, water, fire, metal, air, and earth factor into this.

I am exhausted from just reading these things! In any event, I wish you all a very Happy and Healthy Chinese New Year!

OCD & Can Human Energy Manipulate Electronics?

Can human energy manipulate electronics- and what effect do electronics have on people? Some people claim electronic devices freeze or malfunction when they are near, or emotional. This is a something I have been wondering about for a long time. It is one of those controversial subjects- some people believe it and others think it is total quackery.

I found this interesting, as I have personally experienced "electronic madness" and increased OCD symptoms during emotional times. I thought perhaps it was because I became so nervous that I wasn't operating my electronics correctly, causing them to misbehave. But how would that affect lights that blew out? Some people who know me will attest to this happening.

Also, lately it seems as if everything I touch generates a nasty shock, and not just in winter. I found out that this is because of a build up in the “electric field strength” which interacts with electrons and ions. I guess my personal electric field conducts the air around me more than others.

 There is much well-known evidence that people can manipulate their personal energy, but does this translate into manipulating electronics? Personally, I studied Tai Chi for many years, and the principal was to move your “Chi,” your personal energy, above the waist so it can flow through you and give you strength and energize you. I also took Yoga, which is about “Prana,” – the vital, life-sustaining energy force that nourishes the body. I could feel my energy move around while in a Yoga pose, and after practicing Tai Chi I could feel the energy in the palms of my hands, like a magnet.

I found this site, http://www.exploreyourspirit.com/blog/2010/05/28/can-human-energy-fields-affect-electronics/- where the author, Kala Ambrose,, answers a readers question. the following is from her blog and the picture of the human energy fields is from her web site…

 "Thanks for writing with a most intriguing question. You ask – “Are there people who can affect clocks, etc without knowing it”?...The short answer is Yes and it has been studied, researched and discussed by people in both the spiritual and scientific realms.

"As an intuitive, I’ve seen auras since childhood. Over the years, I began to study what I saw in the aura, observing the energetic patterns and shapes as well as short energy bursts that I would see erupting from the body, similar to what occurs when the sun emits a solar flare. These energetic bursts are capable of disrupting electronics and are felt by other people who have intuitive ability and are sensitive to energy. Some people are aware of the energy they can build and for others it is a complete surprise when it occurs.

 I receive reports each year from people who have experiences including turning street lights on and off as they pass by them. Others affect the performance of radios, clocks, computers and televisions or cause lights, security alarms and other electronics in their home to turn off and on repeatedly. For many years, I was not able to wear a watch, as invariably, when I did, the watch would malfunction or stop completely.

There are a variety of physical, emotional and spiritual reasons for why this happens. For some people, it occurs only when their emotions are running very high and for others it was a random event occurring only when they were going through puberty. Some of these people are tapping into what is described in parapsychology as psychokinesis/telekinesis (PK/TK). While there are skeptics who will say that the human body is not capable of affecting these fields, those who have experienced doing so first hand see the results…

A form of psychokinesis/telekinesis was recently featured in the film with George Clooney entitled The Men Who Stare at Goats, which focused on the US Army’s research into psi abilities. Another example would be the fictional book and film by Stephen King entitled Carrie, which displayed an extreme and negative show of psi ability with PK/TK force."

There has also been notable scientific parapsychological research on what is known as “The Pauli Effect.” This is about Wolfgang Pauli, a well known physicist.  Seems that Pauli and I have something in common…

From the website http://www.library.ethz.ch/exhibit/pauli/effekt_pauli_e.html  I found out that The Pauli Effect “ is a phenomenon that was greatly feared among Pauli's colleagues, particularly the experimental physicists: the "Pauli Effect". The latter manifested itself in that technical installations would unexpectedly fail in the presence of Pauli: experiments were unsuccessful, machines gave up the ghost, apparatus was broken. Otto Stern is said to have forbidden Wolfgang Pauli to enter his institute for fear of such malfunctions. Pauli himself was conscious of this peculiar talent and was delighted with such comic events.

I found this to very thought provoking and interesting. I recently watched a show titled ‘Superhumans,” where a man could make metal objects stick to him. He was scrutinized in a secure laboratory environment, and was deemed to be “authentic.” It is a well known fact that high electromagnetic fields can cause nervousness. In researching, I came upon web sites that claim there are electronic weapons using electromagnetic energy that can freak people out, and even burn houses down. Who really knows what humans are capable of doing?

Speaking of electronics, here is a product  that may enhance yours…

Camtica enables you to create professional screen recordings, presentations, tutorials and more. You can record any desktop activity with voice, webcam and animated mouse clicks. The resulting video can be saved in various formats including AVI and WMV.

Check it out here...

http://jiteco.com/screen_recorder_software.html

OCD & Is 2012 the End of the World?

As we know, this stands to be a very interesting year in several ways. In the forefront, this is the year that Mayan calendar ends, and some people predict that means the end of the world. Looking around, I came across many websites completely dedicated to this. One of them is  http://www.december212012.com/  Here I found a treasure trove of articles about the Mayan and Hopi prophecies, galactic alignment and consequential polar shift, the I Ching, Edgar Cayce- even Einstein, and it all points to a global disaster of epic proportions occurring on or near December 21, 2012. There is also something entitled The 11:11 prophecy- people that are drawn to those numbers are being given a signal, there is a message being sent to them. They are chosen to usher in the “Age of Aquarius,” a new spiritual beginning due to occur on 12/21/12.

Further research informed me there are people compiling survival kits, hoarding supplies, and stockpiling food and water. There is an “end of the world” countdown clock in Mexico, and an end of the world calendar for sale- “the last calendar you’ll ever need.” There are several end of the world blogs as well, and it seems as if  peopleare getting rich selling end of the world supplies from the Internet.

While some people may find this all amusing, others are severely stressed out by the approaching date. Some people with OCD or related disorders may be having a difficult time right now, ritualizing in order to stop the feared event. I came upon this article by Jay Michaelson- http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/5474/religious_belief_or_mental_illness/ Michaelson says that we are being caught up in a general anxiety, which is being fed to us in the form of movies, and other media that are preying on our doubts and fears. As doubt and fear are huge components of OCD, it is easy to see how certain people can become really freaked out!

There are many other sites that state the world will NOT end, that the calendar marks an astronomical event, which is the earth in the center of our galaxy, but they weren’t as entertaining or dramatic as the doomsday ones. I did find out that the ancients knew quite a bit about Astronomy and I question where they got that advanced knowledge. However, I believe that since they wrote their calendars many thousands of years ago, all ancient civilizations simultaneously ended their calendars with earth in the galactic center, as the astronomical cycle would begin again.

I don’t believe the world will end, or that anything will happen at all, except for what humans do to each other as the date approaches. Remember the Millennium and Y2K? I think we should realize that there are people who will try to take advantage of others at this time. Stop and think about this- if the end of the world is really coming and these people really believe it – why are they making lots of money? They are obviously planning for their futures. TV shows make money on advertising for these programs, and movies can rake in millions.

So, to those of you who are worried about the end coming- stop and think about why there is so much commotion about it – MONEY- and money will be no good to anyone if the world ends, will it? I hope we all make lots of money this year and I hope you enjoy the New Year stress free. I wish everyone a GREAT 2012!