Beginning today and running all through next week (and even spilling into the following week!), we'll be running videos from the Raw Spirit Festival (RSF East 2009) held in Upper Marlboro, MD, last weekend. If you've never attended a RSF event, you absolutely must. They're the best ever!
Today's installment covers the trip down, during which we stopped to visit Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, a historic spa town visited by the likes of George Washington and other famous folk. Of course, the spring there was in use long before this country was known as America. You can read the basics in this pic:
Yes, super fantastic, clean, pure, (and FREE!) mineral-rich water!? We haven't yet written much here at Pure Jeevan about the importance of drinking great water, but it's actually been a subject near and dear to our hearts for many years. When we first moved into our home nearly 12 years ago, one of the early imporvement projects was to install a whole-house water filtration system. We're on the public water system here, and have never been big fans of fluoride, chlorine, and all of the other additives (not to mention the well-documented concern about pharmaceutical residues present in almost all water these days). So, we "upgraded" with a state-of-the-art water filtration system. But, that's another post. Let's get back to the Berkeley Springs story...
So, we were all sitting with our legs in the spring overflow, chatting idly, absorbing the fresh air and pleasant West Virginia sunshine, literally drinking the healing mineral waters there, when the subject of "ormus" arose. I'd been reading David Wolfe's book "Amazing Grace" lately, and Berkeley Springs just seemed like a rather "ormus-rich" kind of place, based on what I'd been reading. Okay, so what is "ormus" ? Well, according to Wolfe, you could think of ormus as a kind of subtle energy present in things -- a kind of "strange matter" made of high-energy metaphysical particles that you of course won't read about in science books. This isn't a concept that will sit well with strict rationalists. So, it's naturally a bit "out there" to a lot of people. But, the water did have a living quality to it (if you were in the proper mindset to pick up on that) and, if you can imagine that the water really does contain some sort of magical awareness, then maybe you can see it too. Personally, I was loving it!
Anyway, Berkeley Springs has a wide variety natural and/or alternative shops. I found this quite surprising and unexpected for a West Virginia mountain town. (That's a good lesson about stereotyping: Keep an open mind and try not to prejudge, eh )? Luckily, there was a farmer's market there that day. Only one of the growers was organic, which was a real shame because some of the peaches sitting at the conventional farmer tables looked amazing. (But, peaches are really one of the major no-nos when it comes to ingesting foods grown "conventionally" -- i.e., using pesticides. So, we all looked but didn't buy.) But, the organic farmer had some superior-looking heirloom tomatoes. I bought a bag of them and ate them right there in the street just as though they were apples or something. Absolutely delicious. Amazing cukes, too!
We then walked into an herbal shop (I can't recall the name) and browsed for a while at their teas and books and various herbal decoctions. And, what do you think we found ? There was a salve available called "Ormusol." And guess what? It was made right there in Berkeley Springs!? According to the shop owner, there's a local man who takes the Berkeley Spring mineral water, processes it in order to capture and concentrate the ormus essence, and then uses that to make this salve.
So, I said, "Wow, this is a powerful salve. We should all try it!"? So we did.
Now, I can't speak for everyone, but I felt supercharged after applying it. I'd been soaking in the energized spring for hours, had eaten some beautiful locally grown heirloom tomatoes (nonhybridized ancient tomatoes grown organically), and had topped it all off by rubbing some ormus-rich salve on my hands. I tell you, I was humming with miraculous possibilities.
Here's the amazing part... A few minutes later, I walked into an antique shop on a lark and asked the guy there if any of the dealers sold old piano sheet music (a collecting hobby of mine). Over the years, I've invested countless hours into this hobby, having visited literally thousands of antique dealers all around the country. If I'm lucky, I'll find a box or two of this stuff for sale. Usually I find none at all. But what did I find while soaked in supercharged metaphysical energy ? Try 20+ huge crates of it for sale! I've never been so overwhelmed. I could only laugh and remark to Dave Sokulski, "It's the ormus!!!"? I think maybe he was skeptical, but it absolutely blew my mind.
So that's a fun story from our trip down. Anyone else care to chime in on ormus?
Original Comments
Below, we have included the original comments from this blog post. Additional comments may be made via Facebook, below.
On September 3, 2009, wrote:
Awesome video and pictures!!
I am really looking forward to hearing the interviews! (I'll be away a few days, but I'll catch up when I get back.)
I had so much fun at Berkeley Springs and RSF....it was great traveling with you!
~ Melissa
On September 3, 2009, wrote:
I love the deaprture segment! I took pics of the back of my van too ~ funny! Surprisingly, I did not take any coolers though and just winged it. It worked out and I had plenty to eat - AND I lost 2 lbs to boot! Wow! What a fabulous weekend....I will be around more to comment on the upcoming videos....we missed you Wendi!
Hugs, Tina
On September 4, 2009, wrote:
Great article! It was such a blast seeing you! Wish we could have hung out more :) can you drip me a line about this spring? Is there drinking water available there too! I think Ry and I might head over there this weekend (yehaw long weekend!) and check it out. Your article hit some sort of nerve!
On September 4, 2009, wrote:
Sure, just google "Berkeley Springs, WV." Just drive there & head downtown to the spring area, which is right in the middle of the town (just a few blocks on the right side before you get to the Sheetz). (It's pretty easy to find, as there isn't much else in the town.) Yes, they have free water there 24/7, straight from the spring. Bring lots of jugs! Lots of great alternative shops there too. (Oh, and wear shorts and/or bring a bathing suit so you can walk around / swim in the spring.)
On September 4, 2009, wrote:
Yeah, it would have been pretty easy to wing it @ RSF for food. I brought a ton of fruit & ate pretty much just that over my 5-day trip. Well, that and some raw junk foods (Gopals power wraps, etc.). I did try a raw taco and grabbed a superfood smoothie in the food court area one day. Meant to try onf of Jeff Rose's (Natural Zing's) Merlin's Elixir chocolate bars, but never got around to it. I'll have to order one. **Great** hanging w/ you, Tina!!! -Jim
On September 4, 2009, wrote:
Yeah, what a magical place. Can't believe we've all lived so close to it for years and never visited! Oh well... at least we know now! Yeah, we all really did have a super time. It was fun to camp out together & hang out at our tea-candle campfire.
On September 5, 2009, wrote:
Yeah now see this is what I was talking about when I made my post on finding some local water that was pristine pure. While I didn't call it "ormus" I did talk about a similar experience I had visiting the place. Wendi wrote on this post http://www.yardsnacker.com/ p=1288#comments
"The energy that you feel when you are around water (or in nature, or the air after a thunderstorm) is produced from negative ions. It's actually able to be measured by science--not at all some sort of metaphysical thing going on. :-)"
Honestly, lol it was kind of a downer comment because everything for me is metaphysical! Especially when you get really clean, you can pick up on it more I think. At any rate, seeing how this is Jim writing this, I would be curious as to how the pragmatic view Wendi made correlates to your ormus view of water? Are you guys on the same page as far as being "out there" in your words or do you tend to be more scientific? Curious!
On September 6, 2009, wrote:
I hope you'll be sure to post more about the water system you have in your house. I know that pure water is important, but am having difficulty coming up with a plan of action. We have a water softener, but i totally know that is not the answer. So please explain further. Soon! Thanks!
On September 8, 2009, wrote:
LOL... I just went to your site & read Wendi's comment and your comment back to her. It was funny to me because, a few years back, that would have been kind of a typical comment from *me* (i.e., a scientific explanation for a metaphysical anomaly). And now here I am talking up the metaphysical energy within spring water...
So, it's highly interesting to me that you said, "Especially when you get really clean, you can pick up on it more I think." That's been my experience, too! There was a *huge* shift for me when I went 100% raw a year ago. Soon after, that whole metaphysical world really opened up for me as never before. A lot of it isn't really so raw-food-related, so I don't write about it here much, other than oblique references now and again. But, yeah, wow...
Wendi's been away from being online lately (for a *while* now) because she's really fighting this (we think) Lyme disease. The arthritic symptoms have been quite severe with her. (It actually hurts her to use the computer for too long these days.) However, she did read your comment and felt bad for having made a downer comment to you! She wanted me to mention to you that she never would have written such a comment had she not read an article about ions and water just *moments* prior to reading your post that day!
I think we're both fairly balanced people, really -- interested in science, yet also open to a lot of "out there" stuff. When we're not frantically blogging, attempting to sell our home, or pursuing other this-worlly affairs, we actually have plenty of scientific, philosophical, metaphysical, and spiritual exchanges. We often do stress the *holistic* nature of Pure Jeevan, which references nurturing mind, body, spirit, and emotions. So, as they say, it's all good.
As for the spring water and whether she's with me vis-a-vis the ormus consciousness therein... Well, I just found out while at the RSF, via a Mayan calendar expert, that Wendi's official symbol is in fact "universal water." So, if she's not quite there yet, maybe in 2012 she'll come around. LOL...
On September 8, 2009, wrote:
Hi D2-
Well, at the time we installed it, the state of the art (as far as our concerns were) called for a system that used a two-filter process. The first was called a "KDF Media" filter. You can probably Google that to find info on the merits. The second was just another standard round mesh filter. It was quite a job to install -- really gave me a lesson in soldering. (70+ soldered joints in the entire system!)
Since then, however, we've all been so inundated with so many shocking reports about the presence of pharmaceuticals and other toxins in our tap water... We've actually since reverted to bottled spring water (glass bottles) for much of our drinking water needs. (Of course, we still bathe, shower, brush our teeth, prep food, etc. with our cleaned, filtered tap water.)
Personally, I don't drink a lot of water. As a fruit lover, I get most of my hydration via fresh organic fruit. This method of hydration is recommended by a number of prominent nutritional authorities (although it's all based on theory and not necessarily physiologically certain, as far as I know, that it's better, for example, to eat some grapes when you're thirsty rather than taking a swig of spring water). I think it's just personal preference, really. I simply happen to prefer to grab fruit when I'm thirsty. I find it refreshing!
I don't think that fully answered your question, though -- mostly because I'm aware that there are better filtration systems out there than what we have. However, I'd need to do more research in order to identify them for you. Perhaps if any other readers know and/or want to chime in, that would be great...
-Jim
On September 9, 2009, wrote:
lol thanks Jim for taking the time to respond. I really hope that when I said "downer" maybe I should have said, grounding...you know what I mean? It's so easy to get caught up in it all and when you feel so great you just want to turn into a great dane and slobber kisses over everything so it's all good! Sorry about Wendi not feeling good! You guys are a mazing!
On September 9, 2009, wrote:
Sam the Great Dane! LOL... I'll pass that along to Wendi. All my best to you, Heidi, and Caleb!
On September 11, 2009, wrote:
Water filtraion system for homes.....sounds like a good upcoming story/post on PJ...I need this....not sure what to do in house that is somewhat affordable.
Hugs to all, Tina