Connecting with nature can have many positive benefits from relieving stress to developing your intuition. I talk about connecting with nature in The Intuitive Warrior and highly recommend it for connecting with and developing your intuition.

The Nature environment is conducive to the the brain wave states that are necessary for opening to our intuition and higher self or soul level communication.

Whether  you garden as I often do, walk on a beach or in a forest you will ground out all the electromagnetic residue that you acquire from cell phones, computers, TV’s, electrical appliances or negative thought patterns. Ideally you should walk around outside barefoot for at least half an hour a day. Pets are actually great grounding devices as well and will absorb your negative stuff and take it outside and ground it for you.

The longer you are in nature the greater chance you will have to advance your intuition. Plan trips with the intent to commune with nature and develop your intuition and you will have the greatest results.

My wife Tracy and I just recently returned from a 6 day Grand Canyon river rafting trip. The intent was there all along to connect with the intense energetic energies that exist within the canyon and we were well rewarded. We went with a 28 person group from Earth-Keeper.com and had an amazing time. The river rafting company that we used was

and not only did they accommodate our special spiritual group but they gave us a vacation of a lifetime. Incredible rapids, scenery, gourmet food – when was the last time you had shrimp cocktail and ice cream while on a camping trip? – narrative about the canyon and rapids,hikes to amazing side canyons and waterfalls, crystal blue waters in feeder rivers and streams into to Colorado River and perfect campsites every night with the sound of rushing water to lull you to sleep.

We also had a full moon and the Grand Cardinal Cross while in the canal to add to the amazing energy already present.

Since the Fall of 2008, the planets in our solar system have been slowly moving to create a rare and unique planetary pattern, called the Cardinal Grand Cross.

A cross is created when four planets are connected as follows: two planets are in opposition to one another, and are then connected at 90 degree angles to two more planets (also in opposition to oneanother).

The Cardinal Grand Cross involves four planets (Uranus and Jupiter, the Moon’s South Node, Mars and Saturn, and lastly, Pluto and the Moon’s North Node) that will be in the Cardinal signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, respectively, in the summer of 2010.

Having spent much of my life on in and around water I was definitely in my element. I was in the SEAL teams for over 24 years and around rubber inflatable boats most of that time so it was like old times again but with a twist. I have locked in and out of submarines with and without dive gear, spent many days and nights on boats of all description from aircraft carriers, high speed Cigarette speed boats to small inflatable rafts, diving for hours underwater when most people are sound asleep, to swimming though huge surf but none of that compares to the thrill of riding the rapids in the very front of one of western rivers boats!

Of course I would ride on the most exposed portion of the boat during one of the most notorious rapids of the entire river. Hermit rapid would teach me a lesson in humility. When we hit the rapid I knew we were in for the biggest rapid we had hit in three days. The drop off and thunder of the water was incredible and we started to buck, shake, dive into deep troughs and smash into giant walls of water that crashed over the entire boat. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Right there on the right front tube I was exposed to a wall of water that everyone described as far taller than the boat, one moment I was holding on with all my might and snugged in tight to the tube, the next I was flipped through the air and miraculously caught one of the bow lines that connect the tubes together. My body was facing in the direction the boat was hurtling and crashing through the waves created by the rapids. I looked back at everyone looking at me in horror and saw one of our guides (who was the only female guide for the group) leap through the air and grab me by both arms and begin to try and pull me in. My wife Tracy who was sitting right behind me and fortunately had switched spots with me just before the start of the rapid was also grabbing me and trying to hall me in when another huge wave lifted me and flung me safely back into the boat. Wow what a ride! The powerful energies of the river does not differentiate between a Navy SEAL veteran or anyone else for that matter.

Look at the above picture and visualize a wall of water rising higher than the boat on the right side.

See where that tube sticks out into the water and has no floorboard. That’s where I was when we hit that wall of water with the right tube where I was plunging into it. When water traveling rapidly downstream at Thousands of Cubic Feet per Second and encounters rocks or boulders in this case it will shoot a massive column of water straight up. That’s what rocketed me off my perch and my lovely goddess wife said she saw my legs flip over and saw me land on the lines you see all the way in the front of the boat. The raised seat where you see the people sitting is where our brave guide Lindsey leaped and grabbed me.

Later that day we were just starting to head up a stream when our head guide Mark called out a flash flood! We had been getting rain showers in the afternoons and this particular canyon stream had gotten hit by a rush of water. We fortunately had just started getting into it when the flash flood hit. Mark, the leader of our group, James and my wife and I were the only ones in the water and we quickly scampered out. I ran back towards our boats parked back up the river away from this feeder stream and from Marks direction told the other guides to bring life-jackets and rope. Mark had spotted a group of people trapped in the flash flood getting washed downstream and our guides were able to rescue them.

Not a bad day for miracles! It pays to be with a group that’s into spirituality.

If you are interested I have a bunch of photo’s from the trip posted on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22084&id=100000257506389&ref=mf

I was nicely humbled by the river which is an ongoing process that has helped me connect with my intuitive abilities more. Ego will shut down the intuitive side so the humbler you are the greater your ability to tap into the intuitive side of your brain.

I had been getting a new development in my intuitive abilities just before the trip of clairaudience or the term for psychic hearing. With the increased sensitivity that comes from a consistent program of  meditation, one can open one’s mind to hear sounds on the astral. In the early stages of opening one’s mind, astral sounds can be heard inside of the head; the same as with thoughts. When one progresses, sounds can be heard outside of the head and are much more powerful. Clairaudience usually begins with hearing astral sounds inside of one’s mind. I had been getting that I was in danger whispered in my head all day but I thought I was getting that for an upcoming trip overseas and discounted it. After I almost got washed off the boat I realized it was talking about current time not future. As with my other intuitive abilities clairaudience is a welcome new ability in my ongoing intuitive development. I did get the sounds in my mind the next two days and heeded them and thanked them for trying to help me earlier. I also got that I would be protected even though I was in danger and I was. Everyone that witnessed my event in the bow of the boat thought it was miraculous that I didn’t go completely off the boat and so I do believe I was protected. It was also an interesting confirmation to our group that we were on a journey that was going to be special.

Interestingly the rescue that our guides performed was on the news later in Las Vegas when we returned a few days later and was the talk of the town.

Being in the environment of nature and the canyon with it’s water energies had a great effect on pushing my intuitive abilities to a much greater level. Get in nature as much as you can and enjoy the natural development of your intuition and creative abilities.

Our group ended our trip in Vegas after the rafting trip with a visit to the Cirque Du Soleil The Beatles Love show at the Mirage. What a fantastic show and a great way to end our group rafting trip with Love!

With LOVE, Cirque du Soleil celebrates the musical legacy of The Beatles through their timeless, original recordings. Using the master tapes at Abbey Road Studios, Sir George Martin and his son Giles Martin have created a unique soundscape ofThe Beatles music for the show. The exuberance of The Beatles is channeled through the youthful, urban energy of a cast of 60 international artists. With panoramic sound and visuals, the audience experience The Beatles as never before… Only at The Mirage.

Tracy and I did another show the next night to wrap up our trip with Criss Angel.

It was interesting to see the two extremes of real magic like we had witnessed in the canyon and the illusion of real magic. Quite a difference in the show which was very entertaining and experiencing real magic in nature. Which do you choose?