Terry: Absolutely. All those things are completely legitimate aspects of practice that can be used skillfully. I've shifted in terms of not emphasizing them whereas before they were the main thing I was emphasizing with my company, and now I don't generally talk about them that much because I see them as being auxiliary tools that can empower somebody's meditation or somebody's holistic health practice and maybe working around certain patterns of, you know, whatever ADD or other kinds of things that one might want to use them for. I think they are completely legitimate and perhaps really good. I just...
Rob: Are there any in particular that you now think about that didn't most effectively, most nicely with Integral Life Practicing?
Terry: You know, I wouldn't really privilege one over another, Rob. I know you have worked really extensively with neurofeedback and I have a lot of respect for that. In my own personal practice, I have a float tank. I float regularly. And I use bile circuits which I wrote a book about, you know, at the beginning of 'Tools for Exploration' which are simple energy balancing tools sort of like acupuncture without needles that I used to even manufacture, and I continue to use those. At times I will use binaural bead tongs.
And occasionally a little bit audio visuals stimulation, but they are less frequently a part of my practice because my meditation is pretty deep without any training wheels.
Rob: Training wheels. Interesting. And training wheels are tools that you use after a while you don't need them anymore, which is the ideal way that these technologies should be used, I think. So we've really got to kind of come to the end of this. Do you have any message that you would like to give to the listeners?
Terry: Well, I think the core is that the world needs us all right now. We live in a time that is bewilderingly strange. It seems as though some of the threats that are going on could extinct us. And yet, there are breakthroughs going on in consciousness and awareness and even community and a kind of care and an opening of the heart that could, you know, if they could fulfill their highest promise almost usher in a golden age. And it is wild to have your own lifetime coincide with the time when the whole evolutionary history of the planet is going through a major squeeze. What we do matters.
So what I would want to say to people is what you do matters, and practice, therefore, matters. So take it seriously to wake up, to become more aware to open your heart, to open your circle of care, to show up, to be present, to cultivate your own capacity. Because if you live in that way, you can make a difference on a scale that's almost unimaginable.
Even though there're six billion of us and it seems like each one of us doesn't matter, you are at a chaos point in a chaotic system that is ready to make a leap to a higher order. You lean in and you make a difference.
Rob: All right, Terry. Terry Patten is the coauthor of "Integral Life Practice." His website is integralheart.com. This is Rob Kall, Futurehealth Radio. Terry, it has been wonderful. Thank you so much.
