Featured image at https://pixabay.com/photos/world-earth-space-hands-globe-3268457/ by DarkWorkX from Pixabay

Philip Jamieson and Marianne Schmidt

The world is in the middle of a viral pandemic. Hundreds of thousands have died, many millions have been infected. There is a need for healing. There is a need for change.

Global meditations

Earlier this year organisations such as Unify and Global Peace Meditation sent out a call for action. They proposed a worldwide mass meditation.[1] It was planned to take place for some 20 minutes on the evening of 4 April, from 10.45pm EST that evening (timed to coincide with the energies of a Jupiter/Pluto conjunction). More than a million people participated.

One of the stated aims of this global meditation was to help address the pandemic. And indeed the daily number of known new coronavirus cases worldwide which had been consistently growing in the days before, was noticeably lower over the next several days.[2] Clearly, there appears to have been a temporal relationship. But was it causative? Such variation has hardly been unique to these specific dates. The number of daily new coronavirus infections around the world has been consistently fluctuating. Equally, while there is no necessarily causative relationship, this correlation in time does invite consideration of whether there is other evidence that in conjunction could support such a causative relationship.

And indeed there are other temporal associations that may support a causative link. Addressing the viral pandemic was only one of the goals of the meditation. It sought planetary healing and ascension, anchoring energies for peace, harmony, abundance, freedom and healing.[3] In the hours that followed the meditation, the Earth experienced a peak in the power of its geomagnetic field (as reflected in an increase in one measure of that field, the Schumann Resonance).[4] Normally resonating with a dominant harmonic energy at a frequency around 7.83Hz, it peaked at 76Hz.[5] Later that month, on 22 April, more mass meditations were held around the world in celebration of Earth Day,[6] and again, the following day, the Schumann Resonance spiked, this time to 140Hz.[7] While clearly these correlations do not of themselves establish a causative connection,[8] considered in combination they are sufficiently suggestive to beg the question whether there may in fact be causative links.

The Maharashi Effect

The global mass mediation of 4 April has been described as an attempt to harness what is called the Maharishi Effect.[9] This was popularised from the 1960s by the Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who predicted that as little as 1 percent of any given population practising transcendental meditation could effect measurable improvements in the quality of life of the entire population.[10] Indeed, with more advanced meditative techniques, the formula was revised in the late 1970s, predicting that this influence could be achieved with the involvement of as little as the square root of 1 percent of the population. In a world population of 7.8 billion, the effect would be achieved with fewer than 9000 meditating participants.

At base, the Maharashi Effect embodies a belief that “coherence and positivity” in collective meditation can influence both our social and natural environment.[11] What may surprise some is that studies dating back to the 1970s have supported the existence of the effect.[12] Dr David Nicol, in his 2015 text, Subtle Activism, has noted that since the 1970s revision of the formula:

…[the effect] has … been tested in more than forty published studies, including twenty-eight in academic journals, many of which maintain stringent peer-review procedures and are considered highly prestigious in their field (e.g., Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Mind and Behavior, Journal of Crime and Justice, Social Indicators Research). The results of the research have consistently shown highly statistically significant correlations between the practice of [transcendental meditation] and the more advanced techniques in large-group settings and improvements in a broad range of indicators of social harmony in nearby populations, including crime rates, auto accidents, fires, war deaths, and other measures.[13]

While there is clearly strong support in these studies for the existence of the Maharashi Effect, it is nevertheless true that the science explaining the mechanics of the Effect has been slower to emerge. But it is emerging. Moreover, while the focus of the studies considered in Dr Nicol’s text has been upon the reality of the Maharashi Effect in impacting a broad range of indicators of social harmony, the developing scientific understanding in explanation of its mechanics is also supporting its application in respect of the natural environment, particularly in the context of the Earth’s geomagnetic field (as measured for example by the Schumann Resonance).

Scientific support

So what is this supporting science? It has been progressing on a number of fronts, though perhaps the most well known is in our growing understanding of quantum physics, and notably the phenomenon of nonlocality (or “action at a distance” – that an object may impact another object although they are spatially separated).[14]

Moreover, as cell biologist Dr Bruce Lipton has observed, long before Western scientists discovered the laws of quantum physics, Asians honored energy as the principal factor contributing to health and wellbeing (fn 27 at 145). He points to the overwhelming evidence of our biological connection to the Earth’s electromagnetic energies:

Hundreds upon hundreds of … scientific studies over the last fifty years have consistently revealed that “invisible forces” of the electromagnetic spectrum profoundly impact every facet of biological regulation. These energies include microwaves, radio frequencies, the visible light spectrum, extremely low frequencies, acoustic frequencies, and even a newly recognized form of force known as scalar energy. Specific frequencies and patterns of electromagnetic radiation regulate DNA, RNA, and protein syntheses; alter protein shape and function; and control gene regulation, cell division, cell differentiation, morphogenesis (the process by which cells assemble into organs and tissues), hormone secretion, and nerve growth and function. Each one of these cellular activities is a fundamental behavior that contributes to the unfolding of life. (at 149)

We would also draw attention to the important contribution being made in the interdisciplinary, heart focused research of the HeartMath Institute.[15] Its work has been strongly supported by several independent lines of evidence.[16] Given the “well known”[17] fact that resonant frequencies in Earth’s magnetic fields, such as the Schumann Resonance, directly overlay those of the human brain, autonomic nervous system and cardiovascular system, the Institute launched its Global Coherence Initiative (GCI) in 2008, a global network of ultrasensitive magnetic field detectors designed specifically to measure these resonant frequencies with a primary goal of determining the effects of collective emotional responses being reflected in the Earth’s energetic fields. Its research is part of a wider body of research supporting the existence of a global information field that utilises Earth’s magnetic fields to carry biologically relevant information connecting all living systems and consciousness.

It is postulated by the Institute that through collective consciousness humans are able to work co-creatively together in a heart-coherent state to increase coherence in this global information field, not only thereby promoting collective harmony and well-being, but also directly affecting the physical world. The Institute hypothesises that human emotions and consciousness not only encode information in the geomagnetic field but also interact with it in a feedback loop between all human beings and the Earth’s energetic systems. Research has demonstrated that global collective behaviours and numerous physiological rhythms in humans are synchronized with solar and geomagnetic activity with the consequence that disruptions in the Earth’s magnetic fields are associated with adverse impacts on both behaviours and health. The Institute’s work is suggesting that such adverse impacts can be significantly reduced simply by learning to better self-regulate our physiology and emotions. We note that, given the Institute’s hypothesised feedback loop, another mechanism for this outcome could be through the collective consciousness helping re-synchronise these disruptions in the Earth’s magnetic fields.

That the collective consciousness may interact with the physical world is a thesis supported by the work of other researchers in the Global Consciousness Project (GCP).[18] This even more long term experiment has sought, since its establishment in 1998, to identify correlations between human consciousness and our surrounding environment. On the hypothesis that the behaviour of random systems may be impacted when human consciousness becomes coherent, the GCP has utilised a global network of physical random number generators looking for subtle correlations at times of significant world events and concurrent periods of collective human attention or emotion. Across a dataset of more than 500 such events, a subtle structuring in the GCP’s network of random number generators has been found with odds of one in a trillion that the effect is due to chance. We agree with the assessment of this research as suggesting that “some aspect of consciousness may directly create effects in the material world … a provocative notion, but … the most viable of several alternative explanations”.[19]

The findings of the GCP are given as one of several examples of scientific research outlined by Richard Gordon in his 2017 text, The Secret Nature of Matter,[20] demonstrating the capacity of the mind to affect our physical reality.

While this developing body of research supports our thesis that the April global mass meditations may have impacted the Schumann Resonance, the HeartMath Institute’s research in particular also has implications for such environmental impacts at both a social and even personal level.

In fact, the work of the Institute is perhaps most readily understood if we turn to consider their research at the personal level – that of the individual – and in particular, their heart. It may surprise some to learn that the individual’s heart generates an electromagnetic field approximately 100 times stronger than that of the brain. The Institute has found that this field can be detected by the nervous systems of other people, as well as by animals. Indeed, when we are in a state of heart coherence (where our heart rhythm patterns are more ordered and sine wavelike at a frequency of around 0.1 hertz), the Institute’s research has shown that not only are we more sensitive to detecting what others are radiating into the information field, but our heart will also radiate a more coherent electromagnetic signal into the environment around us. In fact, it has found that the electromagnetic fields of our hearts can actually mediate a range of physiological synchronisation between us.

An often noted anagram: Heart = Earth ♥ = 🌏

These findings move us beyond the individual to the social setting, supporting what the Institute has noted to be the growing body of evidence suggesting that an energetic field is formed among individuals in groups through which communication among all the group members occurs simultaneously – “[i]n other words, there is an actual ‘group field’ that connects all the members.” And, as we have seen, this concept of “group” has implications that may extend globally.

All of this supports what Professor Stephen Edwards has noted to be the “many, rigorous studies [that] have provided a substantial evidence base of the science and praxis of personal, social and global coherence”.[21] It also seems apparent that the three interact together in “three inextricably interrelated spheres”[22] operating as envisaged by the HeartMath Institute within a feedback loop between human beings and the Earth’s energetic/magnetic systems. Given that our brain and heart frequencies overlap the Earth’s magnetic field resonances, in this feedback loop coherence as understood by the Institute runs in both directions – we are not only receivers of biologically relevant information but feed information into the global field environment. The Institute’s bottom line is that living systems are interconnected, communicating with each other via biological and electromagnetic fields.

Indigenous practices

Science is speaking strongly to the existence of an energetic planetary interconnectivity and, in particular, expressed as a feedback loop between human consciousness and the Earth’s energetic/magnetic systems, a loop in which that consciousness may even effect change in the material world. This relationship has long been recognised in the practices and beliefs of indigenous cultures. While indigenous peoples certainly don’t need modern science to validate that recognition, it is noteworthy that modern science is increasingly supporting its validity.

Professor George Nicholas has recently observed that indigenous knowledge (in our view also properly described as indigenous science given its derivation from a time-tested, lived experience of observation and experimentation)[23] has become a highly valued information source for archaeologists, ecologists, biologists, ethnobotanists, climatologists and others.[24] That is so when it comes to concepts that support or supplement current scientific understanding, like the medicinal properties of plants or environmental management practices. That recognition has allowed modern science to catch up with what indigenous peoples have long known. But as he notes, where that indigenous knowledge challenges scientific “truths”, falling outside the four corners of current scientific understanding, it is questioned or dismissed as myth. That has long been the scientific view of indigenous belief in an energetic planetary interconnectivity, a worldview in which everything is interconnected, everything is interrelated. This dismissiveness is gradually changing.

Professor Edwards, for example, has observed that the HeartMath Institute GCI research “tends to support some enduring cultural beliefs and practices of indigenous peoples, promoted over millennia by intuitions, insights, meditations and life experiences of the sages, indigenous healers, doctors, diviners, prophets, priests and counsellors”.[25] Indeed, he concludes that there is now “considerable evidence”, “scientifically grounded”, for “this contemporary dynamic systemic approach” which “resonat[es] with the phenomenological insights of the ancient sages”.[26] Similarly, with a focus on “the world of quantum physics, in which matter and energy are completely entangled” (interconnected), Bruce Lipton has observed that “the latest science leads us to a worldview not unlike that held by the earliest civilizations, in which every material object in nature was thought to possess a spirit” – “rocks, air, and humans; all are imbued with spirit, the invisible energy”,[27] and so, as noted by Elizabeth Ferguson, connected.[28]

And why would we not expect indigenous practices to have foundation? As Professor Nicholas has stated:

These knowledge systems, developed over countless generations, are based on individual and collectively learned experiences and explanations of the world, verified by elders, and conveyed and guided experiential learning, and by oral traditions and other means of record keeping.[29]

Earlier this year we had the opportunity while travelling to Central Australia to explore some of these indigenous understandings amongst local Aboriginal communities. We have already related some aspects of our experience in three previous posts, but in this piece we will explore their understanding of our interconnectedness with nature in particular through their use of “increase ceremonies” – the experience gained over many millenia (and as we have seen, now being conceptually validated in developing scientific understanding) that certain rituals will increase (or sustain – as perhaps more accurately expressed given they are generally an attempt to maintain the regular rather than the extraordinary)[30] natural species and resources. In We are NOT Alone: Thoughts on Comets and Meteorites – Where Life Began? (recently published in New Dawn), we described our visit to Gosses Bluff (called Tnorala in the local Western Arrernte Aboriginal language) believed to have been formed by cometary impact in ancient geological times. We related that an information board at the site described that singing and rubbing the cometary debris created or boosted the production of certain bush foods. Billy Griffiths’ similarly recounted in Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia Australian anthropologist Charles Mountford’s observations of elders rubbing rocks “to release their life essence in the course of ceremonies to maintain and increase natural resources”.[31]

The tradition that ceremony could serve to maintain and increase natural resources is one we also found reflected in the Arrernte’s Caterpillar Dreaming creation story. The story, recounted in our post Central Australia’s Caterpillar Dreaming: Gleaning an insight into Indigenous ritual and ceremony, revolves around three powerful caterpillar ancestral beings (Yeperenye, Utnerrengatye and Ntyarike/Ntyalke) considered to be the major creative ancestors of Mparntwe (the area in which the township of Alice Springs is now to be found). Each of these caterpillar ancestoral beings is a living (though threatened) presence in the Mparntwe region and a traditional food for the local Arrernte. However, before the settlement and urban growth of Alice Springs, they were much more abundant and an important food source for the Arrernte people.[32] The Arrernte people point to the impact of that urban growth as having severely compromised many sacred sites in the region,[33] resulting in the abandonment of increase ceremonies[34] and a resultant decline in caterpillar numbers.[35]

Indeed, increase ceremonies have been carried out amongst Aboriginal peoples across Australia[36] and many examples can be found recounted in the literature,[37] sustaining natural species (both flora and fauna) as well as natural resources (such as rain). The highly acclaimed 2015 Australian documentary, Putuparri and The Rainmakers, brought into the public eye the rainmaking ceremonies of the Wangkajunga Aboriginal people who for generations have conducted rainmaking ceremonies – rituals to bring rain – at Kurtal, a significant ceremonial waterhole in Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert.[38]

Nor are these practices unique to Australian Aboriginal culture. One well known example, still performed today especially in the southwestern region of the United States, is native American raindancing.[39] In another example from Africa it seems rituals may be used with the opposite intention – of stopping excessive rainfall (it seems in aid of removing possible impediment to their advancing army).[40]

It is pleasing that scientific developments are now finally starting to validate the benefits of these long established indigenous practices. It is also significant that these practices recognise that this is an interdependent relationship, operating within a feedback loop as envisaged in the work of the HeartMath Institute. For example, while the correct performance of increase rites by Australian Aboriginal communities provides assurance that these natural resources or species will be sustained, the converse is that if these are not performed there is no such assurance.[41] This Aboriginal understanding has long been known to Australia’s non-indigenous community, as expressed many decades ago by Australian anthropologist A.P. Elkin:

Their life is based on a ritual co-operation with nature and if they fail to do their part, there is no certainty that nature will be able to perform hers; indeed, it is almost certain that she will not be able to do so. [42]

For Australia’s Aboriginal peoples a consequence of this interdependent relationship is that “[a]ctivities such as cutting down a sacred tree or digging into sacred ground may disturb the Spirit Ancestors … [which] may have consequences both for the person causing the disturbance, and for the Aboriginal people who are custodians for that place”.[43]

Scientific support is growing to confirm such understanding, validating enduring cultural beliefs and practices of indigenous peoples reflecting their worldview of an interdependent relationship between humanity and our environment. Indeed, if we choose to look, Western culture has within it its own longstanding tradition of Mother Earth as a living being. It was upon this tradition, embodied in the Greek Goddess Gaia, that in the 1970s chemist Dr James Lovelock drew in proposing the “Gaia hypothesis”, postulating the Earth functions as a self-regulating system.[44]

Conclusion

There is a burgeoning interest in our relationship with Mother Earth. It is being vitalised by mounting scientific evidence of a global energetic interconnectiveness between humanity and our surrounding environment. That science is increasingly suggesting that there may well be causative relationships in the recent temporal associations, noted at the beginning of this paper, between mass human mental focus and aspects of our natural environment.

That science is also suggesting that through our collective consciousness we may impact not only our natural environment, but also each other. Our individual heart coherence allows us to radiate a more coherent electromagnetic signal into the environment around us, which acting together will enable us to work co-creatively to increase global coherence and collective harmony.

We hope that awareness of the supporting science for this global energetic interconnectivity, validating indigenous practices deriving from many millenia of lived human experience, will serve to help overcome scepticism and inspire the community to work towards the cooperation and connectivity we need to effect positive change in our social and natural environments.

Note: Marianne and I had the opportunity to present on this topic to the Northern Beaches Theosophical Society Group on Saturday, 6 August 2022.

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Endnotes (internet citations current as at 7 July 2020)

[1] This background has been drawn in particular from Global Unity Meditation (https://www.facebook.com/events/unify/join-the-global-unity-meditation-live-broadcast-concert/1559886537514202/), Global Peace Meditation, Global Meditation for Planetary Healing and Ascension on April 4^th/5^th 2020 (http://www.globalpeacemeditation.com/planet-healing-and-ascension-meditation.html), Global Peace Meditation, Congratulations to over 1 million meditators! (http://www.globalpeacemeditation.com/congratulations.html).

[2] See statistics available at Statista, Number of new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide from January 23 to July 5, 2020, by day (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1103046/new-coronavirus-covid19-cases-number-worldwide-by-day/), Worldomenter, Coronavirus Cases (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-cases/#daily-cases).

[3] See, for example, Global Peace Meditation, Global Meditation for Planetary Healing and Ascension on April 4^th/5^th 2020 (http://www.globalpeacemeditation.com/planet-healing-and-ascension-meditation.html).

[4] The frequency at which certain electromagnetic waves resonate within the space between the surface of the Earth and its ionosphere, on which see a useful explanation by Neil Wakeling, Schumann Resonance – Is it changing? (25 April 2020) (https://www.soundintentions.com/2020/04/schumann-resonance-is-it-changing/).

[5] For example, noted in Jelelle Awen, “Energy Update: Schumann/Gaia Resonance Spike In Response To 5D New Mass Meditations” (5 April 2020) Soul Full Heart Blog (https://soulfullheartblog.com/2020/04/05/energy-update-schumann-gaia-resonance-spike-in-response-to-5d-new-earth-mass-meditations/), Luke Miller, “Global Mass Meditation Coincides With Spike in the Earth’s Geomagnetic Field” (6 April 2020) Truth Theory (https://truththeory.com/2020/04/06/global-mass-meditation-coincides-with-spike-in-the-earths-geomagnetic-field/), Paul Seaburn, Massive Meditation Event May Have Been Seen on Earth Frequency Measurements (12 April 2020) (https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2020/04/massive-meditation-event-may-have-been-seen-on-earth-frequency-measurements/).

[6] A quick search of the internet reveals many. One is that at Free Meditation Worldwide (22 April 2020) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9QY-0FWcA).

[7] Noted in Jelelle Awen, Soul Full Heart Blog: Energy Update: Schumann/Gaia Up To 140 HZ In Response To Earth Day Honoring & 3D Detox (23 April 2020) (https://soulfullheartblog.com/2020/04/23/energy-update-schumann-gaia-up-to-140-hz-in-response-to-earth-day-honoring-3d-detox/).

[8] As noted in Miller, note 5, Seaburn, note 5.

[9] Seaburn, note 5.

[10] The background material presented about the Maharashi Effect is drawn in particular from Maharashi International University, Research: Maharashi Effect (https://research.miu.edu/maharishi-effect/).

[11] See the Maharashi International University reference in the previous footnote.

[12] David Nicol, Subtle activism : The Inner Dimension of Social and Planetary Transformation (State University of New York Press, Albany, 2015) at 55, 105ff. And on this, see also Maharashi International University, note 10, and David Orme-Johnston, Truth About TM: Effects On Society (https://www.truthabouttm.org/societaleffects/). The book by Charles Alexander et al (eds), Transcendental Meditation in Criminal Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention (Routledge, New York, 2004) is also of interest. A general discussion, including criticisms, appears at Wikipedia contributors, “Transcendental Meditation”” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transcendental_Meditation&oldid=962420989).

[13] Nicol, note 12 at 55 (footnotes omitted from the quote).

[14] The scientific evidence of the phenomenon of nonlocality is explored in detail by Nicol, note 12 at Chapter 3.

[15] The work of the HeartMath Institute described in this paper is drawn in particular from HeartMath Institute, Science of the Heart: Exploring the Role of the Heart in Human Performance – An Overview of Research Conducted by the HeartMath Institute (esp at chapters 4, 6 and 11) (https://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/global-coherence-research/), Rollin McCraty et al, “The Global Coherence Initiative: Creating a Coherent Planetary Standing Wave” (2012) 1(1) Global advances in health and medicine 64–77 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3833489/), Rollin McCraty and Annette Deyhle, The Science of Interconnectivity: Exploring the Human-Earth Connection (2016) (https://www.heartmath.org/assets/uploads/2017/09/science-of-interconnectivity.pdf), Rollin McCraty et al, “The influence of heart coherence on synchronization between human heart rate variability and geomagnetic activity” (2018) 1(2) Journal of Complexity in Health Sciences (Online) 42–48. (https://www.heartmath.org/assets/uploads/2019/01/influence-of-heart-coherence-on-synchronization-human-hrv-and-geomagnetic-activity.pdf)..

[16] As noted, for example, by Stephen Edwards, “Heart intelligence: heuristic phenomenological investigation into the coherence experience using HeartMath methods” (2017) 34(3) AI & Society (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320673526_Heart_intelligence_heuristic_phenomenological_investigation_into_the_coherence_experience_using_HeartMath_methods/link/59f351ccaca272607e2909bf/download) .

[17] Rollin McCraty et al, “The influence of heart coherence on synchronization between human heart rate variability and geomagnetic activity” referred to at note 15.

[18] On what follows about the Global Consciousness Project, see in particular the following entries on its website: The Global Consciousness Project: Meaningful Correlations in Random Data (http://global-mind.org/), The Global Consciousness Project –Formal Results: Testing the GCP Hypothesis (http://global-mind.org/results.html#alldata), Roger Nelson, GCP Historical Background (http://www.global-mind.org/science2.html). For a recent detailed critique of its findings, see for example Peter Bancel, “Searching for Global Consciousness: A 17-Year Exploration” (2017) 13(2) Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing 94–101.

[19] Roger Nelson, “Detecting Mass Consciousness: Effects of Globally Shared Attention and Emotion” (2011) 14 Journal of Cosmology (http://journalofcosmology.com/Consciousness102.html).

[20] Relevantly excerpted in Conscious Lifestyle Magazine: Richard Gordon, Mind Over Matter: 4 Cutting-Edge Scientific Experiments Proving Your Mind Affects Physical Reality (7 July 2020) (https://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/mind-over-matter-experiments/).

[21] In his “Heart intelligence” paper, note 16.

[22] As noted by Stephen Edwards, “Empirical and Heuristic Phenomenological Case Study of the HeartMath Global Coherence Initiative” (2019) 16(7) International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 1245 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6480448/).

[23] See recent examples in Jens Korff, “Aboriginal knowledge for the science curriculum” (20 June 2020) Creative Spirits (https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/education/aboriginal-knowledge-for-the-science-curriculum), Gloria Snively and Wanosts’a7 Lorna Williams (eds), Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science, Book 1 (updated 4 June 2019) (see especially Gloria Snively and John Corsiglia, “Chapter 6 – Indigenous Science: Proven, Practical and Timeless” at https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/knowinghome/chapter/chapter-6/).

[24] George Nicholas, “It’s taken thousands of years, but Western science is finally catching up to Traditional Knowledge” (15 February 2018) The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/its-taken-thousands-of-years-but-western-science-is-finally-catching-up-to-traditional-knowledge-90291). See also, for example, the material referred to in the previous footnote.

[25] In his “Empirical and Heuristic Phenomenological Case Study” paper at note 22.

[26] Ibid.

[27] Bruce Lipton, The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles (Hay House, 2008) at 252.

[28] Noted in the context of Native American belief by Elizabeth Ferguson, Einstein, sacred science, and quantum leaps a comparative analysis of western science, Native science and quantum physics paradigm (Thesis, OPUS, University of Lethbridge Research Repository, 2005) at 110 (https://opus.uleth.ca/bitstream/handle/10133/253/MR17392.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y).

[29] Nicholas, note 24.

[30] As noted, for example, by A.P. Elkin, The Australian Aborigines (Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1979) at 228, Ian McNiven, “Increase Rituals and Environmental Variability on Small Residential Islands of Torres Strait” (2016) 11(2) The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 195–210.

[31] Billy Griffiths, Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia (Black Inc., Carlton, 2018).

[32] Emma Sleath, “Sacred caterpillars plentiful after the rain” (8 February 2015) ABC Alice Springs, referring in particular to the Yeperenye caterpillars in relating the teachings of Senior Eastern-Arrernte woman, Veronica Dobson (http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2015/02/05/4174922.htm).

[33] Emma Sleath, “Sacred sites: Alice Springs Aboriginal elder leads tours in bid for better understanding” (7 September 2015) ABC News (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-07/sacred-sites-alice-springs-aboriginal-elder-leads-tours/6744524).

[34] Jane Resture, Australia: Aboriginal Mythology – An A-Z spanning history of the Australian Aboriginal people from the earliest legends to the present day (http://www.ourpacificocean.com/australia_aboriginal_mythology/index1.htm).

[35] David Brooks, The Arrernte Landscape: A guide to the Dreaming tracks and sites of Alice Springs (IAD Press, Alice Springs, 1991) at 6.

[36] M. H. Monroe, Australia: The Land Where Time Began: A biography of the Australian continent – Increase Ritual (28 June 2010) (https://austhrutime.com/ritual_increase.htm). See also Bryce Barker et al, “The Mine Island Aboriginal stone arrangements: spiritual responses to late Holocene change on the central Queensland coast” (2016) 82(3) Australian Archaeology 232–247, Kim Doohan, “Making Things Come Good” Aborigines and Miners at Argyle (Thesis, November 2006) (http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/145) (see Chapter 6: The Aboriginal Cultural Context, especially at 231).

[37] Some examples are to be found in Luke Taylor, Connections of Spirit: Kuninjku: Attachments to Country at 26 (http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p175041/pdf/ch02.pdf), Ian McNiven, note 30, Susan Mcintyre-Tamwoy, “Hunting magic, maintenance ceremonies and increase sites exploring traditional management systems for marine resources in Northern Cape York Peninsula” (2011) 23(2) Historic Environment 19–25, Elkin, note 30 at 178, and the material referred to in the previous footnote.

[38] See Sandy Toussaint, “Putuparri and the Rainmakers: a remarkable story of national significance” (14 March 2016) NITV (https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2016/03/08/putuparri-and-rainmakers-remarkable-story-national-significance) (originally published in The Conversation).

[39] Indians.org, Rain Dance (http://www.indians.org/articles/rain-dance.html). See also Bonnie “Spirit Wind-Walker” Butterfield, Native Americans: The True Story of Sacagawea and Her People – Rituals, Beliefs and Customs of Native American Culture (http://www.bonniebutterfield.com/indian-culture.htm). Indeed, rainmaking ceremonies have been practiced in cultures throughout the world: Gosiame Amy Goitsemodimo, National Museum Publications: Let It Rain (30 November 2017 (https://nationalmuseumpublications.co.za/let-it-rain/), Azriel ReShel, Uplift: The Ancient Indigenous Art of Rainmaking (8 January 2020) (https://upliftconnect.com/ancient-indigenous-rainmaking/).

[40] Alice Werner, Africa: Myths and Legends (Senate, 1995) at 231.

[41] Noted in Elkin at 181-182, referred to at note 30.

[42] Elkin at 182.

[43] Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority, Why protect sacred Sites (https://www.aapant.org.au/sacred-sites/why-protect-sacred-sites).

[44] Wikipedia contributors, “Gaia hypothesis” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gaia_hypothesis&oldid=964385022).