You might think that Alchemy and Las Vegas don't mix. You'd be wrong. Both are about transformation, albeit from slightly different perspectives.

Dennis Wiliam Hauck, who runs the conference, is a moving speaker who brings the ancient art of Alchemy to life. I arrived knowing little about traditional Alchemy and left with the basics well-implanted.

One evening, my head  full of planets, precious metals, tinctures, and spagyrics, I wandered down to the craps table. After watching people place bets for a while, I decided I have a better chance of coming to grips with Alchemy than learning craps. Then I saw the similarities. The wheel of life/wheel of fortune, each with their arrays of symbols. Like it or not, there is an eerie synergy in the numerology of both. Vegas and Alchemy. The zodiac of the wheel of fortune. The quadrants of roulette. Man and his eternal symbols. Changing fortunes. Someone will write a book on it.

After my Sunday lecture, a young journalist named Victoria Alexander (pictured above) approached me, saying she was going to do a write up on me in her weekly Vegas blog review. Sharp as a tack, and she'd had a Kundalini experience, to boot! Catch her full review in...

Permanently activating Kundalini through Golden Flower Meditation (GFM) reopens the damaged nerve channels and starts once again pumping vital growth energy into the brain, which revives that region of the brain that governs the affected limb. As a result, the affected region is also revitalized.

Doctors know about this. They use electrical implants connected to nerve endings to stimulate the affected region. Trouble is, the implants used in this outside-in approach often become infected.

On page xvii of Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time, I describe the process thusly. "And that's the difference between outside-in and inside-out. A foreign object implanted under the skin, the electrical stimulator works from the outside-in. Using the body's own hidden resources, GFM works from the inside-out. It activates the healing power of the Life Force, which, in turn, repairs the damaged members by sending vital energy throughout the nervous system. Through meditation the nervous system is stimulated such that the natural chemical substances of body are recombined and used for healing."

I know this is difficult for some people to believe - that we actually have within our very bodies, the resources to revitalize our beings.
 

Driving to Las Vegas is not Driving Miss Daisy meets Leaving Las Vegas; it's the story of my trip to Vegas.

 

I was supposed to take the plane from SFO early Friday morning on the 10th. Well, I got there alright, but just as I was ready to board, I was informed that my baggage (a suitcase, a small backpack, two foldable banners for the Life Force Books booth) would cost $290. That's $10 more than the price of my ticket. The agent told me, "Sir, you can leave your stuff here and get on the plane."

I replied, "Here as in...?"

"Right where your standing, sir."

Well, needless to say. I picked up my bags, took the bus back to the long term parking lot, loaded up the car and drove to Las Vegas. Got there at 4:00pm - 9 hours of driving.

I understand that times are tough, but who do the airlines have working for them? When the passenger is informed at the last minute that four measly bags riding in the hold are worth more to them than the passenger, I'd call this a shakedown. Don't they have anyone with a sense of proportion? That a ticket worth $280 is all of a sudden, at the very last moment, going to cost $570. Doesn't that send up logic alerts? Boing! Something's not right here. Let's huddle with the customer to make this work!

Well, the story did turn out okay. Yesterday, I called United and one of those offshore Customer Service reps that Americans are always badmouthing actually refunded my unrefundable ticket in full. Hoorah for Vijay!

EXTRA CREDIT
QUIZ: How many of California's prisons are on the route between San Francisco and Las Vegas? And what are their names? Hint: I took the 46-99-58.