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The Alchemical Hero Training is designed so that foundational training addresses places of greatest leverage. That is to say it is design to give you training in the areas where the smallest amount of training will have the greatest impact.
While the Alchemical Hero Training is systematic and developmental, it is flexible and not entirely linear. Each vector of training has a core training and in most cases when a vector of training is a prerequisite for other trainings then only the core of the training is the prerequisite.
The Structure of Alchemical Hero training as a whole is loosely analogous to a tree. In general, each vector of training can be attributed to the root, trunk or branches.
In the root, the core trainings of the vectors establish the root sufficiently to allow the trunk to begin forming and growing. Further training in these vectors deepen the root both adding stability to the tree and tapping new sources of nutrients which can accelerate the growth of all the rest of the tree.
In Trunk, the core trainings of the vectors establish the trunk sufficiently to allow the branches to begin forming and growing. Further training in these vectors thicken the trunk which also adds stability and the capacity to bear more and heavier branches
In the Branch Training Vectors, the core training establish the branch and further training thicken the branch allow it to bear more leaves and fruits and more vitality to those leaves and fruits. Leaves are the on going engagement in the arena the branch is meant to address and the fruit represent specific projects or objective related to the arena of the branch. (Like all analogies eventually do this one breaks down a bit at the fruit level in that often a specific fruit will be fed by many branches.)
The leaves metaphor in this analogy, highlights one of the specific characteristics of the Alchemical Approach of the Alchemical Hero. In the same way the leaves of the tree nurtures the whole tree through photosynthesis, as an Alchemical Hero you nurtures your whole training by your life engagements. Additionally just as photosynthesis alters the atmosphere, so does the Alchemical Heros way of engaging life alter the atmosphere of the environment in which it abides. Furthermore In the same way the photosynthesis of the leaves is dependent on the water drawn from the roots. The ‘Photosynthesis of the Alchemical Hero’s life engagement is dependent on the water drawn from the continuous cultivation of the Embodied VisionaryHeart. Cut of from the root and the tree quickly dies yet it can survive for long periods of time without its leave (we assuming a deciduous tree for this analogy) and whole branches can be pruned. In some trees even the whole trunk can be cut off near the root and a new one will sprout
Root Training Vectors – The Core Cultivation of the Embodied VisionaryHeart
The word ‘root’ has a double meaning. As explained above, it indicates which part of the Alchemical Hero training structures the trainings belong. However it also indicates what the training focuses on. The Root level trainings are concerned with training and transforming Consciousness which is the root of our very existence. The Alchemical Hero Academy training, in keeping with its intention to begin at the most highly leveraged areas begins by focusing on consciousness. With only a little bit of inquiry and contemplation is can quickly be determined that the consciousness in its various aspects is the foundation of all your capacities and the moderator of all your experiences. Alchemy has become to buzzword synonymous with ‘transformation’, however the transformation of alchemy is radical which comes from the latin ‘radicalis’, meaning ‘to the root’ which indicates that what it transformed is the very essence of what make a thing what it is. (See How is the term Alchemy used?)
There is a notion found in many esoteric traditions, east and west, that everything is fundementally mind or consciousness. However it is not required to believe that in order to appreciate the fundamental role consciousness plays in our experience. Even if one outright rejects the notion, believing that there are really and truly external physical phenomena completely separate from consciousness, it can still be readily understood that it is consciousness that perceives and responds to these things and that differences in individual consciousness are a primary factor in determining how these are perceived and responded too. It is, for example, a difference with in consciousness that allows a competent leader to remain clear headed in an emergency while others are panicking. Our capacity to learn anything, be it knowledge or skills, lies within consciousness. Our ability to plan and take action lies in consciousness. Our ability to be happy lies in consciousness. Our ability to influence others, to make decisions, to chose how we relate to others, to get new clients or a job, to chose what we eat or whether we exercise or not, all resides within consciousness. Given that all this is actually rather obvious, once pointed out, it rather silly that training our consciousness is not part of our basic education. It would also be silly think you don’t have time to train your consciousness. You don’t have time not to since it is the single most leveraged thing you can do to improve your life in anyway.
In general, most methods for training consciousness would be identified as a form of Meditation. However most people, even many who meditate themselves, don’t have an appreciation of all that meditation is for, all that meditation can do for them, or how to fully integrate the benefits of Meditation into there lives. Also most people who have a meditation practice that directly only trains one aspect of consciousness and don’t know how and when to take even that one aspect to new levels.
The Root Training Vectors of the Alchemical Hero are a comprehensive progressive, systematic training that addresses all aspects of consciousness that is developmental (ie progressive). It utilizes a combination of time tested methods and supports that take advantage of modern technology to allow maximum results in minimum time. (See Technological Training Support)
The Alchemical Hero training has a single main roots that starts with the Seed Training then it divides into two mutually supportive training vectors, NeuroAlchemical Foundations, and Alchemical Integration that are tightly coiled about one another like the double helix of DNA and these two coiled vectors form the DNA of the whole training.
The Seed Training – This Training includes the conceptual foundations of the entire Alchemical Hero approach as well as the development of skills that both of the other Foundational training vectors require.
The Following the Seed Training are the two mutually supportive training vectors that form the main root of that is the Cultivation of the Embodied VisionaryHeart. These are The NeuroAlchemical Foundations (of the Embodied VisionaryHeart) and Alchemical Integration. They both address the training and transformation of Consciousness but each emphasis different aspects. Without first explicating on the aspects of consciousness it is difficult to explain how the differ. However, such an explanation is not required to understand each training in its own terms.
NeuroAlchemical Foundations: The Vessel of Quicksilver Training – Regardless of how one goes about cultivating the Embodied VisionaryHeart(even though VisionaryHeart is a new term, people have been cultivating that which it refers to for millennia), its cultivation has clear, often measurable (with the right equipment), correlates in ones physiology and particularly in ones neurology. These correlates are used both as a framework for the structure of this training and to allow for the use of modern technology to support the correlated cultivation. This training is a progressive, systematic and comprehensive meditation training that deals especially with training of the mercurial aspects of consciousnesses (attention – both stability and flexibility, states, window of arising content and structural activation). It is not directed specifically at the development or transformation of structures except those that relate to the mercurial aspects. However, the transformation of other structures is often a beneficial side effect of these trainings.
In particular, this training focuses on two correlates that are, with the right equipment easily measurable. You won’t be needing to measure them to do this training (however that is an easy, moderately priced and valuable option for Heart Coherence)
Heat Coherence – The actual correlate that is measured is called Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Heart Coherence is a term for an interpretation of the data. When the HRV data shows the more optimal possibilities it is called High Heart Coherence. The less optimal is called low Heart Coherence. The Free Alchemical Hero Starter kit has preliminary Heart Coherence training that gets expanded upon further in the seed training which then gets reinforced and deepen in the this training.
Heart Coherence Training is very powerful in and of themselves, and an essential foundation for the other aspects of this training. One of the great Meditation masters of the 20th Century, Dudjom Rinpoche said (and I am paraphrasing some technical terms) “Many people engage in advance meditation practice and have profound experiences, but if they have not done the foundational work of awakening the heart then these experiences will not change them and be wasted.” Most people who try to use technology to study or assist meditation focus on the brain. The techniques they use may(in some but not nearly all cases) produce profound experiences but when they leave out the heart their value can be greatly lessened or even negated.
Brainwaves – Many people who know that there is a correlation between brainwaves and state and speicifc kinds of mental activities have a very incomplete understanding of the nature of the correlation especially in regard to meditation. Often it is assumed one class of brainwaves is special or that one class equals a more profound mediation. This is not at all accurate. No specific frequency or class of brainwave or even any specific pattern of these is ideal in in all situations or even all types of meditation practice. In creating the NeuroAlchemical foundations of the VisionayHeart all classes of Brainwaves are important and addressed with goal of creating a neurological flexibility that allow for the right specific pattern to be present in the right situation.
To create this flexibility the NeuroAlchemical Foundations Training guides you in systematically developing the capacity for a generalized pattern that was discovered by one of the earliest pioneering scientist to study the relationship between Meditation and Brainwaves, C. Maxwell Cade. This pattern being generalized is not an exact pattern of specific frequencies but is characterized by an inclusion of 4 classes of brainwaves (which was all that were identified when Cade was doing his work.) in significant amplitudes and in a pattern that was more or less the same in both hemispheres of the brain. The average person in ordinary waking activity, the Beta class dominates and there may be significant amounts of the Alpha class but rarely is there significant amounts of Theta and Delta which are most commonly associated with dream and dreamless sleep respectively. Cade found that master meditators, regardless of the tradition they practiced in, displayed this displayed all four classes in significant amounts even while not meditating. The specific ratios between the different frequencies would change depending on what they were doing but all four classes remained significantly present in almost all cases. He dubbed this the Awakened Mind Pattern. His Protege Anna Wise went on to discover that masters of specific activities, be they artists, athletes or businesspersons, would display this pattern or one approximating it while engaging in their area of mastery at peak levels. She gave this pattern the additional designation of the High Performance Mind Pattern to be inclusive of these new findings. As this clearly shows the value of being able to generate this pattern has very broad applications and ramifications beyond what most people consider as the value or point of meditation
The NeuroAlchemical Foundations training will help you systemically develop the capacity to generate the High Performance Mind Pattern and to stabilize is as an on going baseline and integrate it with a high degree of Heart Coherence. This training will also include a Fifth class of Brainwaves, Gamma, that had not been identified in Cade’s time and was never incorporated into Anna Wise’s work (as far as her published work demonstrates at least). Studies have shown that this class of brainwaves plays a significant role in, among other things, unreasonable happiness. One rather famous study found it to be present in highly significant quantities and amplitudes in a group of long time Tibetan Buddhist meditators both as a baseline and especially while doing a very specific kind of Mediation (which was, I believe the only kind studied)
The nature of this training is such that is will have significant in pact on any activity that requires any kind of intelligence be it conceptual (linguistic and mathematical-logical in Gardner Model), emotional, athletic, somatic, social, spatial, musical, spiritual etc. In other words, pretty much everything worth doing well.
Alchemical Integration – Alchemical Integration is the art and science of be empowered by all all experiences, both the ones that are occurring now and the ones that have occurred in the past.
Alchemical Integration is the art and science of befriending everything and making the universe both your playground and your artist canvas. By befriending everything I mean your emotions, all aspects of yourself, all aspect of life and reality. Exactly as it appears to you in each arising moment.
The foundational method of Alchemical Integration is the EESECT – Emotional-Energetic Solve et Coagula Technique. Solve et Coagula is traditional Alchemical formula in Latin which means to dissolve and then reform. In this context solve could called digestion and Coagula, assimilation. The EESECT helps you digest and assimilate your life experiences in a way that nurturer and supports the Cultivation of the VisionaryHeart, and your capacity for inexhaustible benefit and unreasonable happiness.
The Core process of EESECT is essentially Vivation, which was developed by Jim Leonard, with only subtle modifications mostly in the form special supports to the main method. When first learning the EESECT it is done in a 3 part session consisting of a Set up, the core process and closure. Once one has gained some basic competence in the core process it is possible to do the core process while engaged in life activities. The Set up process gets you in the ideal energetic and mental state for the core process making it both more productive and smoother. You will find it very beneficial to keep doing the focused sessions even after you are doing them as part of daily life. Chief among the reasons for continuing to do sessions is that everyone(who isn’t already enlightened) has a huge backlog of undigested and poorly digested experiences that are either unassimilated or assimilated in a way that obstruct the cultivation of the Embodied VisionaryHeart and your capacity for inexhaustible benefit and unreasonable happiness. The full sessions will help you integrate much more of these more quickly than only doing the core process while engaged in other activities.
There are two versions of the core process, subtle and heroic. The only difference in them on the level of technique is in the kind of breathing you use, but this difference in technique makes a huge difference in experience. Until one has gained some experience with the component skills the heroic version may create an intensity that is uncomfortable enough to cause you to want to stop the process. It can take a bit of an heroic attitude to keep going to complete assimilation especially before you have enough experience to know that assimilation always occurs if you just keep going long enough. You can learn to do the Heroic Session alone through independent study. If you are already the kind of person who will stick with it the process until integration occurs no matter how intense it gets then you can pretty jump right into doing heroic sessions and get amazing results. However, for many people the best course, it to either spend a bit of time developing competency in the component skills using the subtle sessions or to get live coaching which will give both the guidance to keep the intensity down to a more comfortable level as well as give the support to not quit prematurely. At the moment I am the only one who can offer live coaching in EESECT sessions that include all the sections but if lack of geographic proximity make it difficult to get them with me you may be able to find a Vivation coach. I would still recommend doing the Alchemical Integration training as it uses special technological supports to accelerate training in the component skills as well as teaching the set up and closing procedures that you can do before and after your session with a Vivation coach.
You can start with either one or, if you can make time, you can do them concurrently. They very directly support each other Competency in one will directly support competency in the other.
Trunk Training Vectors
Emotional Brilliance – The core of the Alchemical Integration Training is also the core of Emotional Brilliance Training, Emotional Brilliance training adds supportive skillful means for amplifying many aspects of Alchemical Integration to cultivate ones capacity for unreasonable happiness.
Genius Genesis – A training vector expressed through the formula A.L.I2.V.E – Accelerated Learning (of knowledge and skills), Intelligence Increase (across multiple intelligences), Visioneering (Combining Vision and Engineering to cover both “right” and “left” head brain creative expression) and Enthusiasm (could also be Essence) and connotes access to the VisionaryHeart
Dynamic Life Congruence – Making all of your actions congruent with your heart centered visionary intent.
Alchemical Health and Fitness
Alchemical Communication
VisionaryHeart Alchemy – An indepth Esoteric Training of which the NeuroAlchemical Foundations Training is the core. Beyond that core it is not a prerequisite for any other training except more advanced training along its own vector and elective extensions of other Vectors. While designated as an optional Trunk training it has specific applications
Alchemical Inquiry
Branch Training Vectors
Alchemical Relationships
Alchemical Parenting
Alchemical Leadership
Alchemical Wealth Building and Business
Alchemical Networking
Alchemical Organization Design