Category Archives: Health

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Thanks and prayers at Flight 93 National Memorial


Flight 93 National Memorial

Flight 93 National Memorial

By Donald Rubbo:

I took the off-ramp on I-70 to our destination, Somerset, Pennsylvania, and I noticed a road sign in my peripheral vision: “Flight 93 National Memorial.” As the words registered in my mind, I felt a deep quickening, and a bit of shock. I hadn’t thought of the United flight that crashed on this field on September 11, 2001, and the heroes onboard, for many years.

I was supposed to be on that flight, and my wife changed my ticket to the Saturday before so that I could come home early. There but for the grace of God.

We had left California on March 1st, 2013, driving up I-5 to Portland, Oregon, staying a night with my good friend Ed Barrow, and continuing northward to see my long-time friend Chetana Michaan to do healing work on her. Leaving Bellingham, Washington, I had decided that we would travel the northern route, taking I-90 to visit Yellowstone, and then we planned to continue on a northern route. But on March 15, in Gardiner, Montana, after exploring as much of Yellowstone as was open that time of year, we were sitting in a bar/restaurant and I noticed the weather report on the television. A huge storm was brewing, starting in the Seattle, Washington, area and was going to be quickly moving eastward, with massive snowfall predicted. Understanding that the Universe was giving me early warning, I decided the best route would be to go south, to Colorado, and then east on I-70.

We stopped in Ward, Colorado, on Sunday, March 17 to stay with Dennis and KayAnne Solem (my wife’s sister and brother-in-law) for a few days, and planned to get back on the road Tuesday. But we stayed an extra day to help them in their search to replace their car that had previously been totaled in an accident.

Bright and early Wednesday morning, March 20, we packed the car back up and drove off. We stopped in Topeka, Kansas that night, and the next night in Indianapolis, Indiana.

While we were in Indianapolis we looked at the map to decide our next stopover. Cheryl Lynne calculated where we might be after six or seven hours of driving along I-70, and she chose Somerset, Pennsylvania, as our next stop.

Friday evening we pulled into town, and because we hadn’t booked a hotel online (our usual procedure,) we looked around town to see what was available. As we were checking into the hotel, I mentioned to the women at the front desk that it was eerie to find myself in Somerset, as I was supposed to have been on Flight 93 that day. The owner of the hotel, who came out from the back and had overheard the conversation, said to me, “You have to go to the memorial site. Here are the directions,” and he handed me a piece of paper. I hadn’t really planned on going there, my emotions then were mixed, but since the hotel owner was insisting, I thought perhaps it might be a good idea.

The next morning we drove the 18 miles to the memorial, and although it was a cold, late winter day, there was one car ahead of us waiting for the gates to be opened.

The driver got out of his car and picked up some brochures that were by the gate. He walked over to our car and handed me one of the brochures. He started talking, and introduced himself. His name was Max, he was a retired pilot for Continental Airlines, and his plane had been in the queue at Newark Airport the morning of September 11, 2001, waiting to take off, right behind United Flight 93. I told him that I was supposed to be on Flight 93 myself, and only wasn’t because I had decided to return home early. He said, “You have real angels around you,” and I said, “So do you!”

He got back in his car as the gates were opened by a park ranger.

We drove up the long road to the crash site and memorial, and I felt the hair on my body stand up. We parked in the parking lot. The pilot first parked several rows from us, and then drove up and parked next to our car. He seemed to need the closeness. We got out of our cars and together walked slowly up the walkway. He asked to take my picture with his cellphone to send to his wife.

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Max told us that he knew it could very easily have been his plane that was chosen, his flight was scheduled to leave at about the same time as Flight 93, and by the grace of God he, his flight crew and his passengers were spared. The pilot told us his experiences that morning, of his flight to Orlando with a bunch of kids, and hearing bits and pieces from flight control about the unfolding horror. He and his co-pilot were first told that an ‘incident’ had happened, and then a little later that a plane had been hijacked. He told us he called the head flight attendant into the cockpit, and asked her to very casually walk through the cabin and see if any of the passengers looked nervous. She came back and reported that everyone seemed happy and cheerful. He then explained to her what he had been told, and asked her to bring him the crash axe, he was going to lock the cockpit door and if anyone tried to get into the cockpit he would kill them. Flight control directed him to land at another airport, but he requested that since he was so close to Orlando, to be allowed to complete the flight there. As his flight landed, he decided not to tell his passengers the terrible news.

This was his first visit to the memorial, and he stayed close to us as we made our way up to the crash site and the marble wall with the names of the crew and passengers.

There were only a handful of people that early at the memorial, but Max was so impressed that I had escaped the fiery death of Flight 93 that he told everyone, including the ranger standing guard, that I was supposed to be on that plane. One older woman from Minnesota was so overcome that she tearfully asked to hug me, and had her daughter take her picture with me. She said to me, “I am so glad you are still here.”

The unnatural, long rut carved into the ground and the boulder marking the site of the impact gave me a terrible sense of the reality of the crash, how the twisted, unfathomable intentions of a few changed the world forever that day.

Standing before the large memorial, gazing at the names of the passengers that were carved into the cold marble, I knew that Divine intervention was the only explanation that my name was not etched into this wall as well. God obviously had some more work for me to do.

Waves of powerful emotions washed over me, and tears came to my eyes.

In 2000 and 2001, I had been traveling to New York about every two months for two weeks at a time, to treat my mother as she went (successfully) through uterine cancer therapy. I always took Flight 91 to New York, and Flight 93 back to San Francisco. In early September my mother underwent surgery, for which I was there, and a few days later, she was well enough (her doctor found no evidence of cancer anywhere in her body, including in her removed uterus!) that I felt confident about my mother’s health and asked Cheryl Lynne to get me home earlier than planned. I took Flight 93 to San Francisco on Saturday, September 8, 2001.

Three days later, in our home in San Rafael, California, on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, we were woken early by the clock radio with the unbelievable news of the attack. We rushed out of bed and turned on the television, and watched, horrified, as the events unfolded.

In the shock and horror of the moment, I didn’t realize that I had almost been on Flight 93, that I had been spared.

The Twin Towers held so much meaning for me, in the sixties and seventies I lived on Canal Street in lower Manhattan, the SoHo area, and I had watched the Towers rise; from the holes in the ground that were dug for the foundations to the very top, the Windows on the World restaurant. As a young child, I was excited to see all the old artifacts brought out of these pits: from wooden ships to ceramics, to glassware, attesting to the fascinating history of early settlements in New York. I had been to the rooftop of Tower One many times, and delighted in the view, in all directions, of the magnificent city of my birth.

My aunt, a Federal judge, worked in one of the Towers; on the morning of September 11, 2001, she watched from her seat on the bus as the planes struck. She called me on her cellphone to let me know she was okay, and to pray for everyone who was in the Towers to get out safely.

My brother, George, worked at one of the restaurants in Tower One, and of all days, he slept in that morning. God spared my family.

I immediately knew that I had to offer my healing prayers to New York, America, and to the world. Feeling the powerful need to do what I could to help, I went out to Gerstle Park to teach my early morning Tai Chi Ch’uan and Qigong class, and I led my students in cultivating and sending out powerful, loving, positive, healing energy.

Two weeks later, we organized a large healing circle in our community, hundreds of people, all of us united in sending out love, healing and restorative intentions to all of the victims of this dreadful attack on our nation, to my hometown, to my country, and to the world.

For most of my life, my purpose has been to help others on their paths to healing, to recovery, to becoming whole, of gathering people together to bring healing and peace to themselves and the world.

Last Saturday morning, standing at the Flight 93 National Memorial, guided to be there that particular day by Divine Providence, I realized that I hadn’t taken the time to process the enormity of how this tragedy impacted my life. Many thoughts went through my mind. As a martial artist, how would I have acted, and interacted, with these passengers who took decisive, heroic actions, knowing they were doomed and acting anyway? Reflecting on my past actions where I had come to the rescue, without thought of danger to myself, of others in distress, I’m fairly certain that I would have been right there with these heroes all the way.

I felt a close kinship and bond with each one of the passengers and crew, and deeply grateful for their heroism. I read Laura Catuzzi Grandcolas’ name, a woman from my adopted hometown of San Rafael, California. There is a memorial to her and her unborn child in downtown San Rafael. We passed it many times, but I hadn’t stopped to consider the coincidence.

I give thanks to the Divine and my Guardian Angel for sparing me that day, and offer prayers to the victims and their families. I have a renewed sense of purpose for my life. Making this world a better place for everyone has always been the fiber of my soul, but now I feel that a part of myself was returned to me last Saturday, I was made whole and my life’s work was affirmed.

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As you raise your consciousness, you help all others to raise theirs


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We are passionate about helping to heal the world, and make this planet a better place to live for everyone. We love sharing our hard-earned wisdom with others, teaching how to permanently shift out of negative thought patterns and self-limiting situations.

In order to learn how to become self-aware, with the Rubbo Energy System of Transformation, you begin with stillness.

Stillness.

Awareness.

Sensitivity.

Wisdom.

From stillness, comes awareness. From stillness and awareness, comes sensitivity. From the integration of stillness, awareness and sensitivity, wisdom arises.

By allowing your mind to become still, and then by observing your ways of thinking and choosing the thoughts that serve your highest will and good, you can raise the vibrational frequency of your body, mind and spirit. We are all connected, each and every one of us. Our negative thoughts and emotions are harming not only ourselves, and keeping us in low-vibrating states, we are harming everyone around us, and our environment, because we can’t help but leak these toxic energies.

So, by mindfully choosing the positive thoughts and states of being, we are helping to raise the consciousness of the world, one loved one at a time.

The smallest seed of light will dispel the greatest darkness. It is therefore up to each of us to make our inner light shine brighter and stronger each day, and add more light to our world.

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An encounter with Donald’s father’s spirit, on December 5, 2012


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We had been staying in New York this past fall, with Donald’s brother Thomas, in the Bronx. One day in late October we took the subway into Manhattan, and after walking around a bit, we found ourselves in the East Village. We just happened to be on East 14th Street, and Donald looked around and said, “We’re near the bar where my father died.”

Donald’s father, Don Rubbo, had a long history of heart disease, and had been near death a couple of times before, from heart attacks. Don had hazel-colored eyes, was a heavy drinker, and he had turned bitter from the many setbacks and betrayals he had experienced in his professional graphic arts career. Born in Connecticut on December 5th, 1926, Don was Italian-Irish, and had served time in the Armed Forces during World War II. He had been in the Navy, and was stationed on Guam. Because Don had witnessed, from Guam, the testing of nuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll in the 1940’s, and had seen the mushroom clouds and had felt the powerful and unsettling shock waves from the blasts (and a year earlier had also been appalled when atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) he was vehemently against using atomic and nuclear weapons for any reason.

Don Rubbo passed away in January of 1979, after a long night of drinking at a neighborhood bar near his apartment. He’d been hanging out with his buddies at the bar, and when it closed at 4 am, they went to breakfast together at a nearby restaurant. At 6 am, when the bar re-opened, they all went back to have more drinks. Don said to his friends, “I’m tired now. I’m going to rest.” He put his head down on his arms, which were resting on the top of the bar, and a little while later, the bartender noticed that he wasn’t moving. He was 52 years old.

The previous December (1978), Don had been hospitalized after suffering a massive heart attack. His doctor called Donald (who was living in California) from Don’s bedside. Don was unconscious, and the doctor told Donald that he should get to New York right away, as Don was not expected to live much longer. Donald asked the doctor to put the phone to his father’s ear, and Donald said to his father, “Dad, I’m on my way. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Donald arrived in New York very shortly after that phone call, and found that his father had left the hospital and went back to his apartment. Apparently, right after the doctor hung up the phone, Don woke up, ripped the tubes and wires out, and told his doctor, “My son is coming. I have to go home and get ready to see him.”

Donald walked into his father’s apartment and found him on his hands and knees on the floor of the bathroom, vigorously scrubbing the grout between the floor tiles with a toothbrush. Donald was horrified, and said, “Dad, what are you doing? Get off the floor! You’re sick, you’ve got to go and rest!”

Don looked up at Donald and said, “I’ve got just one more lesson for you, son. No matter what you are doing, whether it’s creating art or scrubbing the toilet, always put your heart into the job, and do the very best you can. Make everything you do a labor of love, no matter what it is.”

That late-October day in Manhattan, in 2012, I took a photo with my cellphone of the outside of the funky neighborhood bar on E. 14th Street where Donald’s father had died, and then didn’t think anything more about it.

During our drive in late November from New York back to the Bay Area, we did not have a set itinerary, just deciding kind of last minute which highway, Interstate 80 or Interstate 40, we would take. After we chose I-40, we took it one day a time, and let the Universe guide us.

While we were in Las Vegas, visiting with our son, Julian, we were hearing on the news about a very large storm about to hit northern California. Although we wanted to go north, and cross into California at Tahoe, we were concerned about the mountain roads closing from heavy snowfall. We discussed going West, to southern California, and then driving north up the coast to the Bay Area.

The morning we left Las Vegas, on December 4th, 2012, we stood in the parking lot of the hotel and flipped a coin. Heads for going West to the Los Angeles area, and tails for going Northwest to Reno and then into California.

Tails it was, and we got in the car. We took 95 North to 80 West, and arrived in Reno around 6:30 or 7:00 that night. While still in Las Vegas, I’d researched rates for Harrah’s Reno, about $75.00, but I hadn’t booked it as we didn’t know what city or town we’d be in that night. We parked the car on a downtown street in Reno, and sat in the car discussing finding a hotel room. Looking to our right, we saw a Vietnamese restaurant, and decided to go inside for dinner. We had the best Pho (rice noodle soup) that we’d had in a very long time.

Full and happy from finding this Pho restaurant, we got back into the care and drove to look at a couple of motels (the rooms were sleazy, dark, small, yucko, expensive $75.00/$80.00!) I got online with my cellphone, and looked at Harrah’s website. They were having a last-minute online special, $23.00 a night, for a huge 4-star room! I booked it immediately, beyond grateful for modern technology.

The next morning, we went outside the hotel to find a cup of coffee, and right at the first corner we came to, we saw a wall plaque that read, ‘Blarney Stone,’ and above the plaque a rock was set into the wall. We stopped to look at it and read the inscription, and we heard a voice behind us.

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“Good morning! That’s a rather interesting rock, isn’t it?” We turned to see an older gentleman, obviously down on his luck and a street person, but since we never turn down an opportunity to connect with another human being, no matter what their circumstance, we chose to continue the conversation. We were very happy we did.

Jimmy Cunningham turned out to be a delightful man, with quite the ‘gift of gab.’ We had a wide-ranging conversation, we talked about politics, Hurricane Sandy and the storms brought on by climate changes, among many topics.

Jimmy was a Vietnam Vet, had been homeless for years, and was an admitted alcoholic. He had hazel colored, drink-reddened eyes, he was Irish-English-Italian, and had served in the Navy. He had been stationed on a nuclear submarine during the war.

Because of his experience on this nuclear submarine, he was adamant that the United States ban all nuclear weapons and close all nuclear power plants. Jimmy thought nuclear power was too dangerous, especially, he said, after what happened in Japan after the tsunami hit.

After we described the healing and transformative work we do around the world, he asked us, where did we think God was? I said to him, “Well, why don’t you tell us where you think he is.”

Jimmy replied, “God is in every molecule, in everything that is alive.” We couldn’t agree more.

As we stood there on that corner, on that cold, blustery day in early December, Donald and I both (as we later discovered) had a felt-sensation of Donald’s father, Don Rubbo, looking out at us through Jimmy Cunningham’s shiny hazel eyes.

On that cold, blustery December 5th day, in downtown Reno, in front of the Blarney Stone.

On that cold, blustery December 5th day, Don Rubbo’s birthday.

Just the other day, as I was looking through the photos on my cellphone, to delete some to make room for more, I found the photo I took on October 26th, 2012, of the dive bar on E. 14th Street, in the East Village of Manhattan, where Donald’s father had died in 1979.

I hadn’t noticed before, the name of the bar is:

Blarney Cove.

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Have the flu or a stomach virus and can’t eat? Try Asian rice porridge,


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If you are suffering from the flu, or the latest nasty stomach flu, and can’t eat any solid foods, here is a great recipe to build your strength and immune system. It is absolutely the best for anyone who is having trouble eating food, during any illnesses.

We used to cook this all the time in our immersive, sleep-away retreats, to give our retreatants extraordinary nourishment and strength-building breakfasts, for the strenuous practices we put them through!

Jook, congee, Chinese rice porridge, Vegan recipe:

1 cup white or brown basmati rice, washed
2 (or more) quarts water

Place the rice and water in a soup pot, over high heat until it comes to a rolling boil.

Turn down the heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for two or three hours, until creamy, and the rice is completely broken down.

Garnishes:
Fresh ginger, sliced
Scallions, chopped
Soy sauce to taste
Roasted sesame oil to taste

You can make a large batch, and keep in the refrigerator. Eat this nourishing, strengthening breakfast daily.

Jook, congee, Chinese rice porridge, Chicken recipe:

1 cup white or brown basmati rice, washed
2 (or more) quarts water
1 ½ pounds bone in chicken legs or thighs, skin removed and excess fat trimmed off

Optional: for more flavor, brown the chicken in the soup pot, with a little bit of olive oil, before adding the rice and water.

Place the chicken, rice and water in a soup pot, over high heat until it comes to a rolling boil.

Turn down the heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about an hour. Remove the chicken, put aside to cool.

Continue to simmer the jook for another two hours, until creamy, and the rice is completely broken down.

Once cool, shred the cooked chicken and discard the bones.

Garnishes:
Fresh ginger, sliced
Scallions, chopped
Soy sauce to taste
Roasted sesame oil to taste
Cooked chicken

You can make a large batch, and keep in the refrigerator. Eat this nourishing, strengthening breakfast daily.

Check out the Wikipedia page on Asian rice porridge for the history of this great, restorative dish!

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BreatheStrong, and our battle with the Lance Armstrong Foundation


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We’ve read that Lance Armstrong is scheduled to do an in-depth, ‘no-holds barred,’ interview with Oprah Winfrey on January 17, 2013.

Here’s a question we’d like Oprah to ask Lance:

Why would you allow your nonprofit organization, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, to persecute and sue small nonprofits for ‘harming the brand LIVEstrong’ by their use of the words BarkStrong, PurrStrong and even, in our case, BreatheStrong (among other nonprofits using ‘strong’)? Many other organizations and companies have attached the word ‘strong’ to another word, with absolutely no damage to LIVEstrong, such as ElderStrong, HerbStrong, HealthStrong, etc.

According to the tax returns of the Lance Armstrong Foundation – the organization’s 990’s which are publicly available – the Lance Armstrong Foundation spent ten cents of every donated dollar on attorneys’ fees. That is a whopping percentage.

We have personal experience with this persecution.

In the situation of the Paul D. Pickens II Research Foundation, we created a ‘deep-breathing for health’ program that we named BreatheStrong. This name was chosen to represent the instantaneous, long-lasting, profound health benefits of deep, full, abdominal breathing. This type of breathing has been proven in the medical and scientific fields to be among the greatest self-administered therapies for maintaining and restoring health.

From our files: “BreatheStrong is a proactive system of self-care, incorporating time-tested deep breathing methods and life-style modifications.”

PDP II Research Foundation spent its donors’ hard-earned dollars on this important, life-changing program. PDP II built a beautiful website (BreatheStrong.org), researched and designed elegant jewelry that would vibrate at self-selected intervals to remind people to take deep breaths, and wrote and printed ‘The Extraordinary Breath’ book to educate the public on a time-proven system of stress relief, health restoration and life-enhancement. Some of our volunteers translated the word BreatheStrong into many languages, and some of our volunteers even helped Donald write a song for this program.

PDP II Research Foundation was accused by the attorneys for the Lance Armstrong Foundation of irrevocably harming the brand LIVEstrong, and told to to immediately abandon its trademark for the BreatheStrong vibrating jewelry, to delete the website BreatheStrong.org, and to cease and desist in all of our activities pertaining to helping the public maintain and regain their health through the BreatheStrong program.

We fought this unfair attack for as long as we could. Through the attorney PDP II Research Foundation was forced to hire, we explained that the target demographic for BreatheStrong were people in all walks of life, in all stages of health; healthy people as well as those who were dealing with ANY and ALL illnesses and diseases. Deep breathing techniques benefit everyone in the world, not just people with cancer.

After two years, when our organization could no longer afford to defend itself against the attorneys of the multi-million dollar Lance Armstrong Foundation, we sadly abandoned the BreatheStrong program.

Not long afterwards, deep breathing methods and techniques could be found on the Lance Armstrong Foundation website.

Although the Lance Armstrong Foundation succeeded in bullying this small health education nonprofit (that has had immense global impact) into shutting down a vital public health program, our spirits were uncrushed and we immediately morphed the program into The Extraordinary Breath.

PDP II Research Foundation released a free digital eBook, The Extraordinary Breath, which features the One Part Breath from the larger version of The Extraordinary Breath book. This free digital eBook has been translated into seven other languages, with more languages coming.

PDP II Research Foundation has also sponsored ‘The World Takes a Breath Day,’ an annual global health event with worldwide participation, millions breathing the Extraordinary Breath (intentional breathing for love, compassion, health, tolerance, joy and peace). December 12, 2012, was the third annual The World Takes a Breath Day.

You can visit http://www.ExtraordinaryBreath.com to see how not even one of the largest organizations in the country could keep PDP II Research Foundation from flourishing and growing in its mission to improve the health our global community.

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Let’s Honor our Differences and Embrace our Commonalities – 12.12.12 at 12:12 pm


Breathe Peace

Let’s Honor our Differences and Embrace our Commonalities

We want to remind you how important it is to honor our differences, and embrace what we have in common instead of fearing each other.

This is now the time for humanity to focus more on what we have in common, than to allow ourselves to continue to be divided by our differences.

The conflicts that we are witnessing, all over the world, have their origins in our perceiving others as different from ourselves. The struggles in the Middle East, in Egypt, in Syria, in Myanmar, even the recent election here in the United States, are rooted in allowing others to state the terms of whether we create cohesiveness or divisiveness in our societies.

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We’ve noticed during our extensive travels the last few years, that although most people have good hearts and good intentions, so many are using both hands to hold their own lives together, holding up their own world, that they feel their burdens are so overwhelming they can’t extend a hand to help another in need for fear their problems will come crashing down around them.

Donald and I are here as Re-Minders, and as Donald likes to say,’ Many hands make light work.’

When we focus on our differences, it generates fear, and when we focus on the commonalities of humanity we can generate love. There are only two emotions, from which all other emotions arise: fear and love. Ask yourself, which state of being would you rather cultivate? We attract that which we focus on, and then that becomes our beingness.

Your mind is the fertile field in which these seeds take root, and the thoughts and emotions of fear, worry and doubt are the pesticides of your garden.

So be still, breathe and till the soil of your garden with love and plants the seeds of abundance: breathe peace, breathe tolerance, breathe happiness, breathe joy; for yourself, for your family, for your loved ones, for your community, for your nation, and for our world. You are the gardener of your life experience.

Uplift each and every person on this planet, with the same innate reflex as a flower stretching to reach the rays of the sun, expand yourself outward to include all, with the intention of love, peace, understanding, cooperation and abundance.

Create your future, one thought at a time.

“The underlying foundational structure of the human body is water, each person is an individual drop of water, and as we are an inseparable part of this vast ocean of humanity it is impossible to remove these drops from the ocean.” Bryan Singleton

Join us in creating a better world for all, on Wednesday, December 12, 2012, at 12:12 pm, WORLDWIDE, and take a meaningful breath with the intention of what you wish to experience in your next moment.

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We’ve received some interesting feedback on using commendations from two United States presidents.


To quote one of our country’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, “We must all hang together, or assuredly, we will all hang separately.”

We’ve received some interesting feedback on our using commendations we’ve received from two United States presidents.

Some people are offended by our being so bold and being proud of our accomplishments and showing what we have achieved.

There are so few people in the world who have received accolades from the highest office in this country, and even fewer people in the world who are doing the work we do. We honor and respect all those who have given of themselves to make this world a better place.

Although Obama and Bush, the Presidents who have praised our work, may not always be in alignment with our core values, the fact of the matter is that they are in the positions of being two of the most powerful and influential people in the world.

Therefore receiving an acknowledgement for the good work that WE do in the world is just that. And, not all that good people do in the world is good, and not all that bad people do in the world is bad.

This is where the power of discernment comes into play, otherwise we as humans through our ignorance throw the baby out with the bathwater and find nothing to unite us or find what we all have in common, which is why we chose the simple, human act of breathing. And including intentions with our every breath, such as love, greater health, success, safety, peace and harmony worldwide, sets these positive intentions into the Universe and the more people who join in this movement the greater the vibrational frequency of these positive thoughts and emotions permeate and take permanent root in our collective consciousness.

And this is exactly what our movement is about, finding what we all have in common and setting aside those seemingly insurmountable differences. We work for peace, peace all around the world.

Some people are offended by what they perceive as the failings of President Obama in enacting, or not enacting, many of his policies, and direct their anger at him. By supporting the positive aspects of what Obama is saying and doing, we are creating the conditions and energy for these positive aspects to grow and benefit millions of people. We don’t just sit and ask ourselves, “Well, how can Obama make our lives better, and why isn’t he?” That is our responsibility, and we work every moment of our lives to bring this into our reality, but not just our own reality, for the good of the whole world.

How do we achieve peace and acceptance of our differences if we don’t find it first within ourselves?

Rest assured that your intentional breath merged with  the collective powerful, positive intentions are always present to help you, and everyone else, in your evolution to your highest potential.

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Our Extraordinary Breath Campaign on Indiegogo!


In our ongoing quest to merge cutting-edge technology with ancient wisdom, we are delighted to find the popular, fast-growing online phenomenon of crowd-funding websites. In this time of economic uncertainty, crowd funding has become a way for people, start-ups, established businesses and nonprofits to get financial support to realize a wide variety of activities. You may recall the extraordinary success of the campaign to raise funds for a vacation for Karen Klein, the bullied school bus monitor. Although the intention of the person who created the campaign on Indiegogo.com was to give her a vacation, this Campaign highlighted the culture of bullying in our schools, and went on to change the conversation of bullying across America, even across the world.

Early on, we saw the trend toward the inevitability of a more digital world, and we were among the first to self-publish an eBook, The Extraordinary Breath, Making the Power of Deep Breathing Work for You, in 2007, while many others, including the publishing industry, were fighting against the tide of technological progress. Now, of course, the sales of eBooks totally eclipse printed books.

And so now we are taking it to the next level and have launched our own crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo.com.

We chose Indiegogo for three reasons, first, because of the cultural importance of the Karen Klein campaign, second, for their Flexible Funding option (which other sites don’t have), and lastly, for the future-forward philosophy of its founder, Danae Ringelmann.

Our goal, with this crowd-funding Extraordinary Breath Campaign, is to enhance the health and wellbeing of everyone, providing easy-to-use, future-forward tools and events to bring people back to automatic, full deep breathing.

Over a decade ago, we were inspiredto distill our (up to then) combined 60 years of experience in the martial, meditation and health and wellness fields into the Extraordinary Breath. It’s a simple, effective and instant method to achieve profound, long-lasting health benefits, and as we wrote above, we published The Extraordinary Breath in 2007. Then in 2008, during the devastating global financial collapse, we saw widespread suffering and the failure of the banking systems and the world’s economies, which created an atmosphere of collective fear and anxiety, which then contributed to stagnation and further collapse.

As human beings we always have choice, even in the darkest of times, and we chose to make a difference. We knew we had a time-proven, quick, self-administered way to alleviate the stress and fear that was paralyzing our world so we released the first chapter of our book as a free digital eBook. Our intention was to encourage hope, recovery, fearlessness and limitless expansion for humanity. To reach as many people as possible, our extraordinary volunteers have translated it into six additional languages, and more are coming.

An Extraordinary Breath: our intention and our breath are one.  Every long, deep and even breath consciously balances mind, body and spirit.

We’d love to have your support for this important Campaign. Please join our global movement to celebrate the profound health benefits of intentional deep breathing and unite communities in peace, love, health and harmony worldwide.

The Extraordinary Breath is different than other deep-breathing methods, this system is more than merely bringing a greater volume of air into your body; as you inhale and exhale, long, deep even breaths, your positive intentions are synchronized with your breathing.

Science has proven that every time you think a thought, feel an emotion, or perform an action, your neuro-circuitry changes. When you take charge of this process, through the Extraordinary Breath, the positive changes can become limitless!

We encourage people to find within themselves what we all have in common, and we chose the breath as a focal point because it is one of the most overlooked and underutilized superpowers in the human experience, and it is the most basic element of our existence. As Donald teaches, we (you, me, every human!) can live for weeks without food, and days without water, but only moments without breath. The Extraordinary Breath, intention merged with breath, connects the human race on the deepest level possible.

As visionaries, we know that mind body-medicine is the medicine of the future, and scientists are now creating models of treatment based on an individually tailored approach to curing illness and disease.

And as pioneers in the mind-body medicine field, we were among the first to bring complementary medicine (known now as mind-body medicine) practices into America’s hospitals. This was in 1994, and we had been invited by Leslie Davenport, the director of the Humanities Department at Marin General Hospital, to design and run a Wellness program. This successful program ran for thirteen years, and had a tremendous impact on the health and wellbeing of our community in Marin County.  We also worked with other Bay Area hospitals and HMOs and the V.A., helping them develop their own Wellness Programs.

In the early years, in order to dissolve the walls of resistance and fear put up by many doctors and powerful medical associations toward these new (to them!) holistic views of health and healing, we had to vibrate only in wisdom, knowledge, love, compassion and understanding. Although change came slowly, we were helped on this path by many brave, forward-thinking doctors, nurses and alternative care practitioners. Now every hospital and doctor’s office in the country offers a more holistic approach to caring for their patients.

“Donald’s presence and healing gifts have been a tremendous resource to many of our patients who have pursued complementary healing modalities along with conventional medical care. He is such an asset to the community.” — Leslie Davenport, MFT, Institute for Health and Healing, Marin General, Novato Community Hospitals, California Pacific Medical Center.

Letter of support from President Obama

We have dedicated our lives to making the world a better place for everyone, in our every moment; our work is our passion, our heart and our life. Our global health education nonprofit, The Paul D. Pickens II Research Foundation, has been in the forefront of positive change in the health and wellness fields since its founding in 1997. P.D.P. II Research Foundation is a 501 (C.) (3), founded by us in honor of Cheryl Lynne’s brother Paul, who passed away in 1995 from complications from HIV.

P.D. P. II Research Foundation’s mission is to improve health and elevate consciousness worldwide by raising awareness of the profound health benefits of ancient healing systems. We do this through teachings, eBooks, Youtube videos and DVD’s, and by creating global healing events, that give people the tools to take control of their health and their lives. As a nonprofit organization, we define success in terms of enriching people’s lives and building healthy communities. We believe in the power and potential of every person to control and direct their own free will, and we want to see everyone, everywhere thrive in a sustainable manner.

We need the help of everyone who reads this, and we ask that you forward this on to as many people as possible. We know our Vision for this Extraordinary Breath Campaign is on a grand scale, and we believe, with your support, it is achievable. And, although we are keeping our Goal amount at a reasonable level, we’d like to fund all of the areas of expansion listed in the Campaign. We hope that we raise more money than our target amount, and rest assured that we’ll put all of the funds into continuing to manifest these worthy Extraordinary Breath projects.

The inspiration for our work is every single person in the world, we continually strive for ever greater heights of accomplishment, for a healthy future for everyone.Let’s work together to give humanity the breath for hope, healing, love, understanding and peace.

Go here to for more information and to Contribute to the Extraordinary Breath Campaign

You can help boost our Gogofactor by ‘Liking’ the Campaign, and/or making a Contribution, of ANY amount. With your support, Indiegogo will feature the Campaign on their homepage, and interest the Press!

Thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.

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How can your body and mind not be the embodiment of the Five Elements?


It seems that our article, “Tai Chi Ch’uan Inner Practices  – Embodying the Five Elements” which was adapted from our latest eBook, The Art and Mastery of Bio Energetic Healing, and posted on the Into Mountains, Over Streams online Taoist journal, has stirred up some controversy.

Peter Gilligan, a Tai Chi and Qigong teacher in Scotland, asked, “Your descriptions of your ‘felt sense’ of the wu xing does not correspond with any Chinese description that I am aware of. Have you made any attempt to correlate your experiential research with that of Chinese tradition and practitioners?”

Richard Ellis, a Tai Chi and Qigong teacher in Milan, Italy, wrote, “The article referred to (“Tai Chi Ch’uan Inner Practices – Embodying the Five Elements”) has an interesting take on the 13 postures, but originally, the 13 postures referred to the 8 techniques (Ward-off, Rollback, Press, Push, Shoulder, Elbow, Separate, Pulldown) and the 5 directions (forward, backward, right, left and the middle). Because these 8 techniques and 5 directions are the essence of all styles of Taijiquan, the term “13 Postures” is synonymous with ‘Taijiquan.’”

We appreciate the opportunity to dialogue with these esteemed teachers, and delighted to present a further clarification on our understanding of these profound truths from our decades of immersion, research, and experience in the Taoist arts.

How can your body and mind not be the Five Elements, and every movement in the Tai Chi Ch’uan form not incorporate the directions of the Five Elements? For those of the highest advanced levels, one realizes that there is more than one element (in fact all) being expressed in every single movement.

Let’s first examine Mr. Ellis’ statement. The 5 directions correspond to the Five Elements, you are always in the middle no matter where you are, middle (Center) is the Earth Element. Forward is in front, which, according to the Chinese compass, is North and the Water Element. Backward is behind you, South, the Fire Element, right is East, the Wood Element and left is West, the Metal Element.

The eight techniques, Ward Off, Roll Back, Press, Push, Shoulder, Elbow, Separate, Pull Down, upon close examination, all refer to the Five Elements and directions, and therefore have all of the qualities and embodied movements inherent in the Five Elements.

Tai Chi Ch’uan incorporates the theory of Yin Yang, after Wu Ji (emptiness) opposing movements are born (the two, Taiji) as I move down I also move up, as I move forward I also move back. And from the two comes ten thousand things, the Five Elements and the Eight Directions and everything that is within them.

Sifu Kuo Lien Ying taught us, “Be the movement, penetrate the movement. There is no movement before the one you are doing, and no movement to come after the movement you are doing.” So therefore, the movements within the form of Tai Chi Ch’uan are actually more than ‘felt-sensations,’ it is a beingness.

Mr. Gilligan, you are right, our descriptions of the felt sense of the wu xing might not correspond with any Chinese description that you are aware of. That, of course, does not invalidate the truth that we are not separate from the Five Elements. And as we are thinking, feeling beings, how can we not have a ‘felt-sense’ of what we are not separate from?

Let us direct your attention the chapter on A Mnemonic of Thirteen Tai-Chi Chuan Movements, in Tai-Chi Chuan in Theory and Practice, by Kuo Lien-Ying, North Atlantic Books, page 19, line 9:

“Remember to be mindful of every single movement by trying to feel its meaning.”

Page 20, lines 16 and 17:

“Carefully observe and investigate and convince yourself that

Your way of bending or straightening, your closing-in or throwing-open should never be as you will them to be, but as Nature wills.”

As when a particular philosophy, art, science or way of being from another country is planted in new soil (for example the internal arts of China brought to the United States many decades ago) the knowledge and skill grow in the minds of the new adherents and they become the future-forward advocates of this wisdom.

The information that was made available to the sages of ancient China, as they pondered the mysteries of man, the earth and the cosmos, is, wouldn’t you agree, still available to anyone who takes the time to enter into a state of all-encompassing awareness and connect to the same Source to which the ancient Chinese sages connected.

Donald has been studying and applying all of the knowledge that is available in the Classics to those who know how to search, and we have both studied extensively with pre-Cultural Revolution Chinese masters of the internal arts.

The deeper we delve, with open hearts and receptive minds, into the mysteries of the Tao, the more profound our knowingness of fundamental truths become an inseparable part of our bodies, minds and spirits.

As we have said for decades, from stillness comes awareness, from awareness comes sensitivity, and from stillness, awareness and sensitivity, arises wisdom.

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Donald and I reveal how to harness the infinite power of mind to access divine miraculous healing.


We are so excited to announce the release of our latest eBook, The Art and Mastery of Bio Energetic Healing – Rubbo Energy System of Transformation.

It is truly a labor of love, and it was a delight to write. Donald decided to pull out all the stops, he’d been asked for years to write about his methods of achieving the highest levels of healing in his clients, what others would call miracles. The words just flowed out of us, with ease and grace, and we knew that the Universe was guiding us, in fact prompting us to share this wisdom with the world.

Here are some excerpts:

“We have experienced this co-created healing effect time and time again in our private practice, our clients come to us with life-threatening illnesses, and through our work they transmute their illnesses and bodies into states of extraordinary good health, and transform their lives.  You can read an account of our client’s (Dan Reich) inspiring journey, from being diagnosed in 2002 with a brain tumor and told by his doctors that he had six months, to a life of full wellness, here:  http://www.danreichandfriends.com/Survival.html .

In 2001, Maria Rubbo (Donald’s mother) was told by her doctors that her body, according to numerous tests, was riddled with cancer that had begun in her uterus. Donald spent days at a time with her, in deep meditative healing practice, for almost a year, and immediately after surgery to remove Maria’s uterus, her doctor was stunned to find no evidence of cancer in Maria’s body.  She did not require radiation or chemotherapy, and Maria is cancer free to this day.”

and:

“We are proud to be pioneers in the Mind-Body Medicine field. In 1997, Leslie Davenport, then director of the Institute for Health and Healing at Marin General Hospital, approached us about starting a Wellness Program featuring Qigong at the hospital. Leslie knew about our work because Donald had been teaching Tai Chi Chuan, Shao Lin Chuan and Qigong in Marin since 1980, and at that time Leslie’s thirteen year old son Andrew had been studying with Donald for almost ten years. Leslie asked us to audition by leading a Qigong class for the decision makers at the Institute and invited guests.  She told us that the Institute was also going to audition other Qigong and Tai Chi Chuan teachers, including some from San Francisco. After our audition class, we didn’t hear anything for a couple of months, and then Leslie called us to say that our audition class had been the overwhelming favorite, and when could we start?”

Qigong for Wellness, 1999, Marin General Hospital

and:”Priming the practitioner’s mind: The frequency of the feeling of love is the highest vibration of thought/wave. We recommend love as the foundation of your healing intention, and as you become familiar with the exquisite frequency of love you can then create infinite layers and levels of intention.”

Check out the eBook at our website ASustainableBalance.com!