Category Archives: Politics

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BreatheStrong, and our battle with the Lance Armstrong Foundation


BreathStrong_042108

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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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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Qigong Tui Na – Gentle techniqes and methods


We winced as we watched the patient on the video squirming in obvious discomfort while the practitioner applied force and torque to her torso and various limbs as she lay on the table. The voice-over of the practitioner was telling us about his method and the positive results he was achieving in this patient, and many others, with his forceful Tui Na techniques.

We saw this video at a Traditional Chinese Medicine conference, while we were presenting our Five Element Balancing Qigong workshop, and this was but one of several videos shown by different presenters. We noted that all the patients featured in these videos showed signs of mild to extreme discomfort. The practitioners who were showing these videos claimed 100% positive results by the use of force or violence from the afflictions suffered by their patients.

We’re not claiming that hard Tui Na techniques are not good, and shouldn’t be used, in fact some of our teachers did incorporate the more forceful applications along with the lighter-touch hand techniques.

However, our philosophy is to treat our patients as we would treat our mothers, or a baby. You can get the same, and sometimes even superior, results from the gentle, painless Tui Na methods, techniques and mind-training exercises in our soon-to-be published eBook.  These methods are based on our decades-long immersion in the martial, healing and meditation arts, and are time-tested and effective.

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Quantum States of Healing


We are very excited to announce that we have formed a new company, Quantum States Inc., which is a subsidiary of PDP II Research Foundation. Quantum States Inc. will produce our latest mind-body medicine cognitive restructuring project, a revolutionary product that will change the field of healing for generations to come. This, we believe, is the future of medicine. 

We have many visionary experts on board, including a consciousness scientist, a world-renowned Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner and a brilliant psychologist, and there is a lot of support and excitement in others we’ve consulted.

This cutting-edge project blends the latest in technology with proven, effective mind-body medicine practices, to bring relief to millions suffering from many illnesses and diseases.

 To bring this product to market, we have incorporated as a Benefit Corporation, a brand new type of company in the United States, a new class of corporations that are required to create a material positive impact on society and the environment and to meet a higher standard of accountability. B Corps emphasis the Triple Bottom Line, People, Planet and Profits.

We are very proud that last year, it was our very own San Rafael Assemblyman, Jared Huffman, who introduced the historic Assembly Bill 361, allowing California for-profit companies to file as a Benefit Corporation in order to pursue social missions AND tap the capital markets to raise money.

Our new company, Quantum States Inc., is a subsidiary of PDP II Research Foundation, but it is a stand-alone corporation, able to receive investments from venture capitalists, angel investors and companies.

We are gathering together our team of visionaries, raising start-up funds for Quantum States Inc. This exciting project will have countless benefits for humanity, we sincerely hope that you will join with us as we bring this state of the art, transformative mind-body medicine to humanity.

We dream of a better world………….

We give thanks and gratitude for all our blessings, including YOU!


Blue Lotus

Blue Lotus, Central Park, NY

You are amazing, and we want to thank you for being in our lives.

You give meaning to our work, and we are so grateful for your support and love.

I know it’s easy to ignore all the blogs that are out there, and I am glad that you didn’t ignore this one.

From me, and from all of the thousands of global citizens who have benefited from our work: thank you for helping us make the world a better place!

We truly 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.

As a nonprofit organization, we define success in terms of enriching people’s lives and building healthy communities.

By joining your good intentions with ours, you help us heal the world, one person at a time. That is no small thing, and it is very important work, especially in this time of turbulence and uncertainty.

Our values and our commitment to you and to the planet:

  • Providing you with the most current health information
  • To reach into all corners of the earth with free digital eBooks in all languages to uplift mind, body and spirit
  • The highest quality organic and natural supplements and products available.
  • Our standards are very high, and we expect the same from our suppliers and from our clients. We know that there is no substitute for quality, and we sell only those products that we have tested on ourselves.
  • Our Mission: To bring you only the highest quality sustainable products with integrity, excellence and honesty.
  • Our Philosophy: Sustainables by Rubbo products are created with the greatest care and compassion for the earth and our customers.
  • Imagine peace.

Cheryl Lynne

Paul D. Pickens II Research Foundation

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http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Secrets-of-Qigong-Masters-8-1-11–Talk-Show-Interview–Donald—Cheryl-Lynne-Rubbo.html?soid=1102763268330&aid=QZZpAM4GVxg


http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Secrets-of-Qigong-Masters-8-1-11–Talk-Show-Interview–Donald—Cheryl-Lynne-Rubbo.html?soid=1102763268330&aid=QZZpAM4GVxg.

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Health and Fitness in the Swiss Alps


Shao Lin Chuan in Scuol, Switzerland

We just completed the first session of our annual Rubbo Retreat in Switzerland, and we are so delighted to be creating magic with our Swiss students once again.

We’ve got a great group here, it’s a joy to share our wisdom with open hearts and receptive minds.

There’s a great range of ages practicing the aerobic martial art Shao Lin Chuan with us, from 25 to 75.  Although Shao Lin is traditionally taught to young people, we believe that anyone can do this health-enhancing system and have watched with joy as our students who are seniors move with grace, confidence and power across the court.

Of course we’ve included our breathing exercises in this retreat. Scuol is at 4,000 feet, and deep breathing exercises done at this altitude will increase lung capacity for not just here (leading to greater health, endurance, clarity of mind, power and effortless energy) but for the lower elevations also.

Elaine, Frank and Mikko doing Chinese pushups

The Shao Lin Chuan Group!

The second session of our retreat began this morning, Awakening the Inner Healer ( Erwecke Deine innere Heilkraft). We are all healers, and at this session we are teaching how to cultivate and express your innate healing abilities. We’ve noticed big shifts already in our retreatants, such a delight to facilitate those aha! moments.

We usually give a name to our tours, previously we had the Rubbo Magical Mystery Tour (a spiritual journey to India, Nepal and Thailand in early 2010), the Rubbo Love is the Answer Teaching Tour (last year in Europe).

We were waiting for the universe to indicate the name for this current teaching tour, and it came to us a few days ago: The Rubbo Limitless Love and Gratitude Teaching Tour. We are infusing our all of our teachings with love and gratitude and transmitting to all of our students the felt-sensations of limitless love and gratitude, for them to appreciate all of the blessings each of us receive, from the universe, from our families and friends, from our communities and from the world.

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Peter Max’s painting of Donald’s father, Don Rubbo


Several years ago we heard that Peter Max would be signing copies of his new book of paintings at a Borders store in San Jose. I insisted to Donald that we go to the book signing.

We drove down to the Borders store and purchased a copy of the book, and then stood in a long line. One of the employees announced that if you wanted Peter Max to sign the book to a particular person, to write the name of that person on a slip of paper.

We wrote down ‘Don Rubbo’ on a piece of paper. We know that Peter Max hadn’t seen that name in many, many years.

In 1962, Peter Max, Tom Daly and their mentor Don Rubbo started a small Manhattan arts studio together, the Daly & Max Studio. Although his name wasn’t listed, Don Rubbo joked that he was the ampersand in Daly & Max Studio.  In 1963, Daly, Max and Rubbo did the illustration, design and color for Helga Sandburg’s (the daughter of poet Carl Sandburg) children’s book Joel and the Wild Goose. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Rubbo)

At the book signing, we waited patiently for our turn, inching slowly up to the table where Peter Max sat hunched over the books as he was signing them. He rarely looked up, only glancing over at the slips of paper and writing a quick inscription.  Finally we reached the table, slid our book to him and placed the piece of paper with ‘Don Rubbo’ on top of the book.

He stared at the piece of paper for a few moments, and then looked up at Donald with a big smile. He leaped over the table and grabbed Donald in a bear hug, exclaiming, “Your father taught us all!”

As the long line of people watched, Peter and Donald were engaged in a lengthy conversation, and finally Peter said to Donald, “Send me a photo of your dad, and I will make a painting of him for you!”

Several years passed, and recently I emailed him again, gently reminding him of his offer, and saying how much it would mean to Donald to receive the painting. I sent again a photo, one that Don Rubbo had taken of himself sitting with his sons, with Donald just behind his shoulder.

Peter’s assistant called me, and said she thought the photo was so exquisite, and that Peter would be creating a painting for Donald and that it would be shipped soon. We were beyond excited, so thrilled and honored, and looking forward to seeing the painting.

It finally arrived, and it is truly a magnificent piece of art. We are deeply grateful to Peter, and as Donald examined the painting, he could feel the energy and love that Peter put into every brush stroke.

Thank you, Peter!

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Please help us imagine a world where women are safe, respected, honored and loved.


We want to send our love and gratitude out to all the mothers in the world, for Mother’s Day.

Although we will be traveling that day, we will hold in our hearts our own mothers and sending them our eternal love.

We got an important email from enoughproject.org, about a conversation Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem had with John Prendergast, the co-f0under of Enough, about the mothers of eastern Congo, and how the illicit trade in Congo’s conflict minerals is fueling the ongoing conflict. They are urging Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to step up efforts to resolve this terrible situation and end the violence in the region.

This prompted me to write on our Facebook page: “Imagine yourself creating peace for the women and children of Congo for Mother’s Day. Encourage Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a loving mother, to help resolve this crisis NOW! As many of you know, this issue is a burning desire of mine, I feel deeply the pain, sorrow and unnecessary suffering of these women.”

Here is the link to sign the petition to Hillary:

http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/mothers-day/?link=2.

Please help us imagine a world where women are safe, respected, honored and loved. Thank you.