The trend back towards "organic" first started in the food industry.
After all, there is a direct and identifiable connection between what we eat and the way we feel. Our diet has a noticeable effect on our wellbeing.
More recently, those of us in the "aware" community have also been paying a lot of attention to the fabrics we wear and the materials in our bedding.
This is especially true of baby items but interestingly the mothers are now beginning to insist on organic for themselves and the rest of the family. There are several explanations for this:
- Natural therapists have made us aware that we absorb chemicals in our environment through our skin and lungs and into our bloodstream. This is a cumulative process and a lot of the chemicals used in textiles are difficult to eliminate. Literally millions of people in Australia are suffering from allergies and multiple chemical sensitivities.
- As conditions in our world deteriorate with spiralling shortages and pollution, many of us are refusing to buy products that are made unsustainably. We are using our purchasing dollars responsibly, to help create a better world for ourselves and generations to come.
- Many of us are sensitive to the vibration of textiles. We respond positively to organic products that are produced with a level of consciousness, and we feel negatively about conventional textiles that are saturated with chemicals. This is quite identifiable with the help of Kinesiologists and other therapists. Chemicals create stress for our energy fields resulting in loss of life force and illness.
Clothing is certainly important to our well-being, especially underwear. So much of our clothing now comes from China, saturated in softeners such as Formaldehyde and coloured with highly toxic dyes. There are absolutely no government controls over these factors, despite recent publicity in the media.
Bedding is even more important. We spend so much of our time in bed and unfortunately, the toxic content is even greater. The bedding industry as a whole has no awareness that the mattresses it produces are potentially lethal. Only very recently some manufacturers are hopping onto the organic bandwagon in response to public demand, although without a genuine ethical base, the resulting products are usually a compromise.
There is another reason why organic bedding is so important and that is that our bodily heat acts like a catalyst in a chemical reaction, causing an out-gassing to take place. So we become blissfully captive to these vapours, all the more defenceless as we sleep.
Dr. James Sprott of NZ identified chemicals in bedding as the main cause of SIDS (cot death). The mother’s immunity wears off after a month or so and during the first year of it’s life, the infant is highly susceptible to chemicals in it’s environment.
He explained that there are 2 methods of prevention: One, to cover the mattress in a plastic sheet; and two, to use an organic mattress. As organic mattresses did not exist at the time, he developed and marketed a cover which dramatically reduced the incidence of cot death.
At Blessed Earth we have been largely instrumental in pioneering organic mattresses and our wool mattress is the first in the world to be fully certified by Demeter. On a daily basis we talk to people all over Australia about their chemical sensitivities, so we are fully conversant with the problems they confront. It’s all about toxic overload – you can only pour so much into the cup before it starts to overflow and when it does, the consequences can be devastating.
Most of us, hopefully, will never get to be that ill. However we can view our sensitive friends as the mine canaries, telling us that things aren’t right and that to a greater or lesser extent we are being affected if our bedding isn’t pure.Bio-dynamics
Organic textiles are certainly a great start, although the word "organic" has been pretty much butchered in it’s application.
The web is full of businesses claiming to be selling organic this and that and it really doesn’t mean much unless the product itself carries a certification number- which it rarely does… Maybe the cotton was grown organically, but maybe it was processed and dyed conventionally, as is the case with many Department store organic products. It’s very difficult for the consumer to know about these things. Green-washing is rife!!!
Bio-Dynamic (Demeter certified) products are the ultimate as there are no shades of grey involved. No optic whiteners are allowable, for example, but more than that, the whole process has a metaphysical overtone which takes the end product to a higher vibratory level. It is energetically enhanced organic. We notice that a lot of children pick up on this.
Over half of the cotton grown in Egypt is now Bio-Dynamic, thanks to the pioneering efforts of SEKEM. Working with the Egyptian government they achieved 30% greater yields in controlled trials and convinced the government to ban all aerial spraying, to eliminate the possibility of spray drift. Many would argue that we shouldn’t be growing cotton in Australia due to it’s water-dependency. With abundant irrigation water from the massive Aswan dam, Egyptian B-D is a natural alternative.G.M. Fibres
The G.M. movement is essentially an attempt to control nature for corporate control and gain, "The seeds of deception" is an excellent treatise on the subject. Some 80% of the cotton grown in Australia is G.M.
G.M. cotton is never grown without chemicals, (although one of it’s claims to fame is that it uses less chemicals), so it would be nearly impossible to test the G.M. aspect of it energetically. It is simply a corrupted product, as is all conventional cotton.
It’s all about consciousness.
Conventional practices seek, at all levels, to control Nature through technology, in a convoluted process of self-righteous second-guessing. Such practices are inextricably linked with the acceleration of degenerative diseases in our world today.
Organic practices seek to work with Nature in a joyful interplay between humans at their best and the Devic realms.
They represent our only hope of a return to a saner and healthier world.
Raithe Handiman for
Blessed Earth
128 Main St. Montville QLD 4560
rai@blessedearth.com.au
