What am I always doing? Looking for that big idea. The ever elusive big idea. I get about two a two and one of them usually works out. I find those big ideas typically when I’m getting ready for a trip or actually on a trip. Traveling is my happy spot. My creative spot. The place where the juices flow and the ideas are crystalized.

Why is that you wonder?

It’s as simple as traveling will change your life. It’s as simple as when you’re traveling, you experienced that tingle…that sensation of being reconciled with life itself. That tingle is is because when you when you travel, you open your mind. You become more tolerant. You’re able to understand your prejudices and give yourself time to unravel it slowly as you live through your new vision of the world around you.

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Travel is the most authentic way to get to know the world, but also to really get to know the prejudices we carry around with us, without blinding ourselves to them . We automatically assume that our way of understanding life, our day to day living, is the correct one. And when we travel we discover “how strange” the other people are, and how “strange” we can be too.

“What strange customs these “foreigners” have!”, “Why do they do that?”, “He’s making a fool of himself…” These are phrases you’ve probably heard a number of times, or they might even be phrases that you yourself have pronounced.

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The biggest prejudice: “mine is right, yours is wrong.” We tend to have a kind of bias when we interpret the information we receive all around us. Whatever is our own, whatever is familiar to us, whatever we are used to seeing and doing…that is what we consider to be “normal”. Whatever doesn’t fit in with our own customs is “strange”. It’s as if there’s a dividing line between what is right and what is wrong. Between the proper way of doing and understanding things, and the strange, bizarre way of doing them.

To understand this better, let’s give an example. If you are a calm and composed person, think about how you felt at some point in your life when a sudden burst of anger challenged your powers of self-control. You probably felt strange and awkward at the same time, because people who don’t often get angry, often do not know how to get angry.

The truth is that even if we are normally calm and composed, anger is still a part of us, ready to explode. Our different nuances form and shape us. We shouldn’t try to deny or cover up essential parts of our being simply because they aren’t what we normally express.

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Whatever is our own, whatever is familiar to us, whatever we are used to seeing and doing, that is what is “normal”

Our culture shapes us, but it does not define us. Something similar happens when we travel. We shouldn’t claim that only our understanding of things comes from common sense, and that of others’ comes from a meaningless stroke of luck. People and their customs are shaped from their cultural heritage, social environment and surroundings.

Our surroundings shape and mould us from childhood. And so the experiences in which we relate to people who are different to us, when we leave our usual environment, travel and try out different routines – they are the ones that start to break our genetic mould. When we are able to look at what is “foreign” with the eyes of curiosity and not of prejudice, then we are taking a big step on the road to tolerance.

Claiming that our way of understanding life is the only correct and meaningful one is a very limited way of thinking and one that, rather than enriching us, will bring us poverty, poverty in our soul. We should understand that true wealth comes from the lessons we learn day by day in our lives. Lessons that make us more open and tolerant.

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Look at life with curiosity and with prejudice. If only we could stop contemplating our navel and take a look beyond – a look of generosity and healthy curiosity. A look that is a ticket to other souls, other ways of thinking, other ways of living. I rid myself of my prejudice and look at you, stranger, with open arms. With my soul ready to learn.

You will learn to examine your experiences. You will have time to continue to build yourself as a person, keeping what you want and getting rid of what you don’t want in your life. But if you relate to the world with your eyes closed, you will not be able to see anything. Only darkness. And sometimes a terrifying darkness at that. If you open them, you will see the light.

The light that opens you up to life … the light that will take you on the road to tolerance.

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Isfahan, Iran…The cool blue tiles of Isfahan‘s buildings mix with the city’s majestic bridges, beautiful gardens and immense bazaar.

 

Sinai Desert, Egypt…Since the beginning of time, it seems the Bedouin men of the Sinai were never done drinking tea or coffee. Legend has it that any man who broke a coffee cup would be obliged to buy or make two new ones for the mess. This pact produced jokes at the expense of anyone so unfortunate as to break one. In the process the bonds of friendship were formed.

Essaouira, Morocco…The gateway of Essaouira transports you to a land Essaouira is celebrated for its cabinetmaking and lemonwood carvings. Common to the city is thuja. The arborvitae, or tree of life, is said to inspire artists from around the world.

Cappadocia, Turkey…Nature’s powers are alive in the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia. The moonlike landscapes are formed by the continual erosion of the volcanic landscape by the wind and rain. Many say that if you leave Cappadocia without visiting here, your entire journey would be a waste.

Gabes, Tunisia…Accessible only by channeling across by boat, Gabes—a maritime oasis with over 300,000 palm trees—is a mesmerizing dream in the mist of the arid Tunisian countryside.

Petra, Jordan…”No hurry, no worry!” says the Jordanian fruit salesman as he provides refreshment near the famed stone city.

Doha, Qatar…Olivier Rochus of Belgium (in blue) dashes to make a return to Davide Sanguinetti of Italy at the Qatar Mobile Open.

Originally published in ALO magazine (www.alomagazine.com) by The Media Guy (that’s me!, Michael Lloyd).

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People from all walks of life are finding that “mental days” in Egypt are just the passport in improving life perspectives.

For some, the search for inner wellness starts in Giza.

The chants resonated from deep within the Pharaoh’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza: aaaaaa (a as in ah), eeeeeee (e as in eat), ooooooo (o as in oh), uuuuuuu (u as in blue), mmmmmmm (m as in room).

These eerie sounds alternately invited me and haunted me. They made me pensive, but at the same time I felt a strange desire to giggle. All the while they urged me forward, releasing my curiosity and untapped energy, so this chanting would not be wasted. The trip up to the innermost part of the pyramid was not like anything I had ever personally experienced. Mysterious. Dark. Laborious. The oxygen was sparse, or at least seemed that way, and the humidity was abnormally high. I stopped frequently to catch my breath.

This was a far cry from the cult-like chant fest I had expected when I first heard those strange sounds in the pyramid. Instead, here was a group of new thinkers, open to augmented spirituality. One that would not override or infringe on their long practiced faiths. And these were not gullible fools, but people in their prime, like so many well educated members of spiritual tours, who tend to be doctors, engineers, business consultants or have other respected professions.

“Sure I get chuckles and finger pointing,” says Parmet. “That’s not a concern of mine. I am here on a different kind of adventure travel. Some people find their peace by climbing mountains and looking at the world below them or going to the spa and pampering themselves for a day. I climb inside pyramids and elevate my mind to improve myself.”

New Age tours are big business these days. Emad Al-Aziz, of Summit Tours in Egypt, reports that his trips for furthering understanding of spirituality and metaphysics have grown 70 percent in the past three years. His tours cover such marvels as Citadel, Al Abaster Mosque, Hanging Church, Bab Zuwela, Khan El Kalili bazaars, Giza Pyramids, Khufu Pyramid, Khafra Pyramid and the Great Sphinx.

The cosmological ideas of Egypt were long told through a series of myths and symbols which easily translate into metaphysical concepts,” Al-Aziz says. “Based on the interest in these kinds of trips and the fulfillment of our clients, we can only expect more growth in this type of travel around Egypt and the entire Middle East.”

There is a great belief among spiritual travelers that they derive much spirituality from great places on earth that were built for specific reasons known only to the most powerful people of their eras. As Parmet explains, “We know that the most intelligent engineers of the world built their great creations—the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, Stonehenge—on the points where the most powerful energies existed. But we are taught that the pyramid is the ideal shape for this type of energy and power.”

The idea that a simple geometric shape or drawing could generate an energy field seems absurd at first. The nineteenth-century Scottish mathematician and physicist James Clerk Maxwell’s famed mathematical studies showed that luminiferous ether flowing into mass is the cause of gravity, magnetism, inertia and other fundamental forces, and if such, then it is deduced that certain geometry could disrupt the flow slightly to generate an energy field. The energies produced by the cone of the pyramid proved the cone to be the best collector of energy because that shape interacts better with ether.

As we spoke of energies and inertias, Parmet was eager to demonstrate how luminous and palpable they could be. She whipped out her camera and produced her evidence: pictures with brilliant loops of illumination, even though there wasn’t enough light in the chamber, which to her was proof positive that orb spirits were dancing in celebration to the chanting and the readings of Thoth.

“Living in Dallas pushes me so far from the center of New Age culture that I need to reconnect once a year,” she goes on. “It helps me escape the misery of seeing criminals parade in front of our justice system day after day. I sometimes imagine that if these wayward people could have found a way to connect with their inner world better, they would not have strayed from a balanced, focused and good life.”

Journey to the Center of the Pyramid (Click image to enlarge) The journey to the King’s Chamber (aka Pharaoh’s Chamber) is a claustrophobic one. Walking bent over through a long, 45-degree crawl space no more than four feet high and wide is no easy task. An opening in the grand gallery allows you to stand and ascend carefully up a sharply inclined path lined with long wood planks. After reaching the top of the grand gallery, you go on your knees through two three-foot-high passages to reach the Pharaoh’s Chamber at the center of the Great Pyramid.

Originally published in ALO magazine. Photographs and article by the Media Guy, that’s me(!), Michael Lloyd.

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