The Principle of Spiritual Energy Generation by Owen Waters

As people become more interested in spirituality and how it can change the world and improve their lives, the understanding of spiritual energy becomes a key factor in their growth and development. This article explains the nature of spiritual energy and how it can be used in, for example, distance healing, world healing, or simply for enhancing meditation.

Like the principle of electrical generation, the principle of spiritual energy generation shows how a specific type of energy flow may be generated. In the case of electrical generation, a flow of electricity is created in a certain direction. In the case of spiritual energy generation, a flow of spiritual energy is created in a certain direction.

Spiritual energy is etheric energy conditioned by spiritual intent.

Etheric energy is a primary energy of the universe, while electric energy is a secondary, more dense form of energy.

Etheric energy is also known by many other names around the world, including life energy, vital energy, prana, bioenergy, orgone, ki, chi or qi.

For the last 5,000 years in traditional Chinese medicine, the vital pathways of etheric energy in the human body have been balanced using the healing modality of acupuncture. More recently, the electrical genius Nikola Tesla produced vast quantities of etheric energy using, apparently, very high frequency electricity as a method of attracting etheric energy out of the atmosphere. Because its behavior is very different from regular electricity, he referred to it as ‘cold electricity.’

Just as the atmosphere is filled with electrons, ready to be channeled through an electric generator, so is it also filled with etheric energy. All energies are supplied and replenished by the Sun, including the mental energy that forms the global mind atmosphere or mind belt around the Earth.

The mind belt is conditioned by the thoughts and emotions of mankind. Each person constantly attracts mental energy, conditions it by their thoughts and actions, and passes it back into the mind belt. Every one of us affects everyone else. A spiritual act – one which expresses unconditional love – by anyone anywhere upon the planet improves the mind belt of the whole planet. A destructive act by anyone anywhere upon the planet degrades the mind belt of the whole planet.

Etheric energy is a more subtle energy than electricity, and a more dense energy than mental energy. However, because of its vibrational proximity to mental energy, it responds readily to applied mental pressure.

The human mind can, through visualization and intent, attract etheric energy, condition it in any way desired, and then direct it towards any desired objective.

In 1831, at the dawn of the electrical era, visionary scientist Michael Faraday published his discovery of the law of electromagnetic induction. This law, or principle, states that an electric current will be induced in a conductor when it is moved across a magnetic field.

At the time, it seemed like the strangest thing in the world.

Moving a conductor forward across a magnetic field would invoke an electrical current sideways in the conductor. This discovery showed that, with electrical generation, nothing happened in the same direction as anything else. All three directions in space were involved – a metal conductor that ran forward through a magnetic field that ran vertically, producing an electric current that ran sideways. It was truly awe-inspiring to those who saw this phenomenon clearly demonstrated for the first time. This discovery then opened the door to the generation of electricity in large quantities. As the idea was developed, electricity went on to replace steam as the working medium of the Industrial Revolution, and later gave birth to the field of electronics.

Today, the new frontier of discovery is in spiritual energy.

Realizing that spiritual energy exists, and understanding how it can be attracted, conditioned and transferred, opens up a whole new realm of possibilities in mankind’s use of all types of God-given energies.

Both electric energy and etheric energy respond to pressure.

In the case of electrical energy, voltage is the measure of electrical pressure. The more voltage you have available, the more electrical energy you can move through a circuit. In the case of etheric energy, the application of pressure via mental intent is similar to the principle of voltage. The more intense your intent, the more etheric energy you will move toward your intended objective. For example, if you are sending distance healing energy to a friend at another location, the stronger the pressure of your applied intent, the more healing energy you can generate and transfer to them.

There is a key difference between plain, unconditioned, etheric energy and spiritual energy. Spiritual energy is etheric energy conditioned by spiritual intent. In order to achieve the spiritual conditioning of etheric energy and transform it into spiritual energy, the individual’s consciousness has to first rise into the frequency range of spiritual consciousness.

In the human heart lies the doorway from material consciousness to spiritual consciousness. As explained in my book, “The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness,” there are two levels of heart-centered consciousness, and they resonate at different frequencies. It’s a yin and yang situation. The lower, passive level is heartfelt consciousness, where the person adjusts to the experience of unconditional love. The higher, active level is heart-powered consciousness, where the person puts that heart-centered awareness into action.

The doorway to spiritual consciousness is between those two levels of heart-centered awareness. There are two major tiers of human consciousness, each tier containing six stages. The basic tier has a materialistic focus and ranges from the earliest historical expression of human consciousness, all the way through the evolution of empowered action and achievement, and into heartfelt awareness. In this heartfelt state of consciousness, humans shift from supporting, for example, mindless commercial expansion into an awareness where the environment becomes an important issue.

Humans then progress into the second tier of six stages of human evolution. This is the spiritual tier and, by stepping into it, mankind today is making a quantum leap in awareness.

This is the essential nature of The Shift that is transforming today’s society. As each human spends more and more time in the spiritual tier, they engage in more and more heart-powered action, changing the world through applied unconditional love.

The average person in Western society today is still in the commercial expansion stage of consciousness, and yet with one foot very much planted in the heartfelt consciousness of ecology issues. Meanwhile, today’s pioneers of The Shift are spending more and more time venturing into the spiritual tier of consciousness and, as a result, expanding the awareness of all of humanity.

In conclusion:

The generation of spiritual energy is carried out through spiritual intent applied to the universal supply of etheric energy. The spiritual tier of consciousness begins with heart-powered consciousness and is entered through the doorway of the heart. The degree of intent determines the amount of etheric energy that will be conditioned into spiritual energy.

Intent is also used to direct the spiritual energy towards the desired objective, such as distance healing, world healing, or simply for enhancing meditation.

In summary:

The Principle of Spiritual Energy Generation states that spiritual energy is generated by the mental direction of etheric energy, conditioned by spiritual intent.

This article was written by Owen Waters, author of “The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness” - Available in hardcover or via immediate download at:

http://www.infinitebeing.com/theshift

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By Katie Bird :21-Apr-2008

Increased fruit and vegetable intake may help weight loss in overweight adults, according to a recent study.

An increased intake of fruit, vegetables, dietary fibre, vitamins C and B6, beta-carotene and folate were found to independently increase weight loss in a population of overweight adults, according to a study published in Nutrition Research.

Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, calculated the effects of dietary components on weight loss independent of exercise and total energy intake over a six month period.

Fruit and vegetables help weight loss
According to the study, led by D.S. Sartorelli, each 100g increase in fruit consumption is associated with a reduction of 300g of body weight after a six month period, with results adjusted for age, sex, differences in physical activity and total energy intake.

Similarly, a 100g increase in vegetable intake was found to be associated with a 500g reduction in body weight.

An increase in fibre intake was also associated with weight loss – each1g increase in total fibre and fibre from fruit and vegetables was associated with a reduction in body weight of 115g and 180g respectively after the six month period.

In addition, differences in vitamins C and B6, β-carotene and folate intake were also associated with weight loss, according to the study.

The study included 80 overweight adults between 30 and 65 years old who attended a nutrition counselling program during 6 months.

Participants were divided into two groups, control and intervention. The intervention group had three individualised dietary counselling sessions and dietary suggestions provided by a nutritionist including increasing olive oil, fruit and vegetable intake and decreasing saturated fat, as well as the receiving the written information and 30 minute group session reserved for the control group.

Food intake was estimated from a questionnaire and measurements of body mass and body mass index were taken at the beginning of the study and after six months.

Fibre and feelings of satiety
The research findings support a body of evidence suggesting that a fibre rich diet can help weight loss.

One hypothesis to explain such results is the feeling of satiety experienced from a high consumption of fibre.

However, the researchers highlight previous studies that suggest naturally fibre rich foods are associated with greater weight loss than fibre-added goods, indicating the role of other compounds in the fruit and vegetables that are not related to the fibre content in weight loss.

They conclude that: “Further prospective investigations are necessary to elucidate the independent role of fruits and vegetables on weight control.”

Source: Nutrition Research
2008, Issue 28, pages 233-238
High intake of fruits and vegetable predicts weight loss in Brazilian overweight adults
Daniela Saes Sartorelli, Laércio Joel Franco, Marly Augusto Cardoso

(c) NutraIngredients.com

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An “unprecedented” clinical trial on a high street anti-ageing cream may change the face of the skin care market in this country, dermatologists say.

At present there is a lack of clinical data to prove which creams really do slow down the skin’s ageing process.

Industry is thought to have shied away from major trials in part for fear products, if effective, could then be deemed medicines and tightly regulated.

But the trial on a Boots moisturiser may prove if these fears are founded. There was a run on the chain’s No. 7 Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum after the BBC’s Horizon programme last year suggested it might be one of the more effective creams on the market.

Chris Griffiths, professor of dermatology at the University of Manchester, has just concluded a clinical trial on the lotion, involving 60 volunteers over a period of six months.

The data is now being analysed before being submitted to a scientific journal for peer review – in what is thought to be an unprecedented process for a high street skin care product.

“If it is proven to work – and there is certainly no guarantee that’s what we’ll find – then the debate will start on whether there is a point at which a cream is so effective it becomes a medicine,” he says.

The active ingredients in the cream include white lupin – a flower extract – and retinyl palmitate, on top of a plain moisturising base. The trial will not establish which, if any, is effective, but how the combination works together.

Rules ‘vague’

If a product is deemed to be a medicine there are significant regulatory implications: it can no longer be sold over the counter and can only be obtained via prescription.

Companies are therefore seen as caught in limbo: keen to prove to consumers their products work but not at the expense of being unable to sell them.

The European regulation which governs UK practice acknowledges that many cosmetic creams do produce an effect but that this needs to be “more than significant” for rules on medicines to kick in.

“This is actually very vague and there is immense room for manoeuvre,” says Dr Richard Weller, a lecturer in dermatology at the University of Edinburgh.

“The public want products which are scientifically proven to reduce wrinkles and the question for the cosmetic world is this: are they prepared to take the risk and take on the regulatory authorities? I think they could win.”

Chris Flowers, head of the Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association (CTPA), said firms did have to walk a “legislative tightrope” when it came to science and regulation but stressed many products already underwent rigorous laboratory testing to validate claims.

“There are consumers out there who do want the science, but equally there are those who feel it can be a ruse to push prices up. We need to cater to both – those who want the extensive trials and those who want a simple product that doesn’t cost the earth.”

In the meantime, and in the absence of major clinical trials, many dermatologists say the most effective skin product is a simple sunscreen.

BBC News – 22nd April 2008

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Being an advocate of all-natural products, I am really quite squeamish about the idea of botox – not only on principle, but also the idea of injecting a toxic chemical cocktail into my facial muscles & paralysing them!

So it was with great delight that I came across this article … what more reason do you need for telephoning me to book a nice facial rejuvenation massage?!

* * * *

‘Frozen face’ might not be the only hazard – now tests show toxins can spread to the grey matter

By Rachel Shields – Sunday, 6 April 2008

It is one of UK’s most popular cosmetic treatments: the “no-scalpel facial”, smoothing out the foreheads of everyone from yummy mummies to stressed-out politicians. But new research suggests that the deadly poison in Botox jabs may actually be able to spread from the face to the brain.

Researchers from the Italian National Research Council’s Institute of Neuroscience who injected botulinum toxin into the faces of rats found that it moved away from the site of the injection and could be detected just days later in brain stem cells. The poison was not only still present in the rats’ brains six months later, but was able to travel from one region of the brain to another.

“We suspect that this spread is a common occurrence after toxin delivery,” said Matteo Caleo, who led the study. He pointed out that even minute quantities of botulinum toxin – which is one of the most poisonous substances in the world – are enough to interfere with nerve signalling elsewhere in the body.

Celebrities including Sir Cliff Richard, X Factor judges Simon Cowell and Sharon Osbourne, and Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher have admitted to using Botox injections, which work by temporarily paralysing facial muscles, reducing the contractions that cause new wrinkles and ironing out existing ones. While the procedure was once the preserve of celebrities and the wealthy, Botox shots are now available from cosmetic surgeons and beauticians for as little as £99.

The latest findings come two months after the drug was linked to 16 deaths in the US, thought to have been caused when Botox used to treat muscle spasms migrated from the injection site to other parts of the body, weakening the muscles used for breathing or swallowing. This new research will be seized on by campaigners demanding tighter regulations on Botox, first approved for commercial use in 1989.

As it is a comparatively new treatment, knowledge of the long-term side effects is limited, although droopy eyelids and expressionless “frozen faces” are common. Despite these uncertainties, many practitioners have questioned the significance of the latest findings.

“There is no chance that this could happen to a human,” said Dr Douglas McGeorge, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. “Botox is a poison and a single unit of botulism is a 50 per cent lethal dose for a white mouse, but it is very different for human beings. The doses [used here] are relatively much smaller and it has much more local effects.

“If used appropriately, Botox is a wonderful drug, and you are much more likely to encounter problems from injecting it into the wrong area than from it migrating anywhere.”

(c) The Independent

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MATTHEW MANNING, INTERNATIONAL HEALER

presents “The Healing Intent”

on Saturday, 24 May 2008

A one-day workshop, 10am-5pm, his first for 5 years – don’t miss this wonderful opportunity!

(Also touring: Lavenham, Buxton, Bournemouth, Edinburgh & Bristol)

Venue: Havant Borough Council Civic Centre, PO9 6BB.

Parking and refreshments – bring own lunch.

For further details and booking form please email: rose.mcmurray@tiscali.co.uk

www.matthewmanning.com

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John Bremner and Anna Sawkins, partners in the UK-based innovative alternative health company, Sweet Cures of York , are leading a call for clinical trials of new drugs to also test the drugs against natural remedies, both new and traditional.

This, Anna says, “Would solve at a stroke the appalling situation where a drug is accepted and brought into use just by virtue of having been ‘trialled’ even though its performance was barely better than placebo, and is then the preferred choice for treating whatever disorder it is aimed against.”

She makes the point that if the new drug and its side effects had been tested against one or more natural remedies, as well as against placebo, the trial would put the drug in its true perspective. “You could well find that a new drug is more effective and has less side effects than treating the problem naturally,” he says, “but the opposite could also be discovered, and wouldn’t that be a great thing to know?”

Testing new drugs against natural remedies would also, at a stroke, solve the problems of the providers of natural health solutions not being able to afford the huge costs of well-run clinical trials. The information revealed would be invaluable to our sum of knowledge about natural remedies, not only about what works, but about what doesn’t work.

John Bremner reinforces the point, “The public really want this. There is a huge need for people to know what works and what doesn’t work, and traditional, natural and food-based remedies don’t have the evidence-base needed for people, therapists, and doctors to be able to determine the best way to treat particular problems.”

They suggest that trials could also include nutrition and lifestyle change treatment options. So for example, if a new drug to slow or reverse the progress of colon cancer is being proposed, wouldn’t it be great to know if doing 10 minutes exercise a day, going on an organic diet and taking high doses of flax-seed oil achieved a result that equalled or bettered the drug being tested?

What if just taking a plate of porridge in the morning worked better than the proposed new drug? Or what if taking a tablespoon of olive oil proved as effective?

The idea behind their proposal is to uncover these possibilities. As John Bremner continues, “To compare a new drug to placebo is great, but let’s compare proposed new drugs to our huge legacy of natural health cures. The pharmaceutical industry is barely a hundred years old and does not have all the answers – which is one reason they are busy trying to harvest and patent the active ingredients of natural ingredients that they already know to be effective. Natural remedies and lifestyle answers to health problems are based on a legacy of thousands of years of trial and error, finding out what works and what doesn’t work.”

To quote James Duke, PhD, (The Herbal Insider) discusing whether natural remedies work as well as drugs, or better, “Until tamoxifen and raloxifene are compared to standardized bean soup (40 milligrams of isoflavones per cup) and/or to kudzu (our best source of the natural phyto-estrogen, daidzein) no one knows for sure–not you, me or the ACS.”

There would seem to also be a case for extending the new guidelines to cover surgical trials. For example, olive oil and lemon juice are traditionally used to get rid of gall stones. Logically it would seem to make sense to test the risks of the operation to remove the gall bladder against this natural method of making them slip out of the body.

And again, isolated rare sugars or combinations of these can reverse antibiotic resistant kidney, urinary tract, bladder, and prostate infections that allopathic treatment finds difficult or impossible to address without causing the individual long-lasting damage. Should alternative remedies not be tried before a kidney is allowed to deteriorate to the point where it needs to be removed?

One of the points John Bremner and Anna Sawkins are making is that the pharmaceutical industry will also benefit from their suggested incorporation of natural remedies rather than just placebo into trials. New drugs are often arrived at by extracting active ingredients from plants that have been traditionally used as remedies. If a pharmaceutical company is successful in deriving a new drug that is more effective than, say, a tea made from the leaf or flower of the plant, then they can prove that point in the clinical trial. It will also show up natural or traditional remedies that don’t work better than placebo, adversely affect the condition being treated, or produce significant side effects.

On the other hand, if the pharmaceutical industry is allowed to continue ignoring alternative remedies in its clinical trials, we are in danger of losing them altogether as the industry uses its enormous financial influence and lobbying power to bury all alternative remedies so deep in the mire of complex legislation and regulatory costs, that no provider of alternative remedies or healthcare will be able to survive.

To Take Further Action: In the UK you can write to the Health Minister Dawn Primarolo, and propose that the guidelines for conducting clinical trials should be amended to include trialling of natural remedies alongside placebo. It’s exactly the right time, because she is currently working on new legislation to make drug companies more accountable.

http://www.waterfall-d-mannose.com/

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Your thoughts create your world and your words indicate your thoughts. When you eliminate complaining from your life you will enjoy happier relationships, better health and greater prosperity. This simple program helps you set a trap for your own negativity and redirect your mind towards a more positive and rewarding life.

“Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake or deficiency so that it can be put right. And to refrain from complaining doesn’t necessarily mean putting up with bad quality or behavior. There is no ego in telling the waiter your soup is cold and needs to be heated up – if you stick to the facts, which are always neutral. ‘How dare you serve me cold soup…?’ That’s complaining.” - Eckhart Tolle, “A New Earth”

How it Works

Scientists believe it takes 21 days to form a new habit and complaining is habitual for most of us. As Twain said, we must coax our old behavior down the stairs. The purple bracelet is a powerful tool to remind you of how well you are creating your life with positive intention.

Begin to wear the bracelet, on either wrist.

When you catch yourself complaining, gossiping or criticizing (it’s ok, everyone does) move the bracelet to the other arm and begin again.

If you hear someone else who is wearing a bracelet complain, you may point out their need to switch the bracelet to the other arm; BUT if you’re going to do this, you must move your bracelet first!

Stay with it. It may take many months but when you reach 21 days you will find that your entire life is happier, more loving and more enjoyable.

A Complaint Free World, inc. is a non-profit organization which provides Complaint Free purple bracelets and other materials to help people affect positive change in their lives. For more information on the Worldwide Complaint Free movement visit: www.AComplaintFreeWorld.biz

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Dr John Briffa always writes such entertaining, common-sense articles in his regular newsletters. Here is a great update on the dangers of aspartame …

New review catalogues the myriad of ways aspartame can mess up your body and brain

2 April 2008

Back in October I wrote about the artificial sweetener aspartame. This food ingredient is perhaps the most controversial of all: its manufacturers and official bodies claim it’s safe, but a stack of anecdotal evidence and a fair degree of science says it’s not. Tellingly, whether a study finds for or against aspartame seems to be intimately related to, err, who paid for it. In one on-line review of the evidence finds that while 100 per cent of industry-funded studies conclude aspartame is safe, 92 per cent of independently funded research and reports identified aspartame as a potential cause of harmful effects.

In October’s post I explored some of chemistry of aspartame, and provided evidence also that this food component has the capacity to harm. I focused specifically of one of aspartame’s components – methanol – and it’s breakdown product formaldehyde (which, by the way is used to preserve dead bodies). In a review published this month in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scientists in South Africa assessed the potential effects not just of methanol, but aspartame’s other constituents (phenylalanine and aspartic acid) on the brain. The review is long and detailed, and is supported by more than 50 scientific references. In their review of the effects of phenylalanine, the authors detail the ability of this chemical to disrupt the chemistry of the brain, including its potential to lower levels of key brain chemicals such as serotonin (which may adversely influence all sorts of things including mood, behaviour, sleep and appetite). The authors note that phenylalanine also has the potential to disrupt amino acid metabolism, nerve function and hormonal balance in the body. They go on to suggest that aspartame’s ability to destroy nerve cells and this damage may mimic or even cause Alzheimer’s disease.

When the authors of this review turn their attention to aspartic acid, they highlight this chemical’s ability to stimulate or ‘excite’ the nervous system.

In their analysis of the effect of methanol in the body, the authors describe the ability of this substance to create formaldehyde, along with the cancer-causing agent diketopiperazine and a ‘number of highly toxic derivatives’.

Here are the conclusions that come at the end of this review (I’ve added some detail in brackets here and there to aid clarity and understanding):

It was seen that aspartame disturbs amino acid metabolism, protein structure and metabolism, integrity of nucleic acids (which are the building blocks of DNA), neuronal function, endocrine (hormonal) balances and changes in the brain concentrations of catecholamines (brain chemicals such as noradrenaline and dopamine that can affect, among other thing, mood).

It was also reported that aspartame and its breakdown products cause nerves to fire excessively, which indirectly causes a very high rate of neuron depolarization (which basically means aspartame has the capacity to ‘excite’ nerve cells).

The energy systems for certain required enzyme reactions become compromised, thus indirectly leading to the inability of enzymes to function optimally.

The ATP (the basic currency for energy in the body) stores in the cells are depleted, indicating that low concentrations of glucose are present in the cells, and this in turn will indirectly decrease the synthesis of acetylcholine, glutamate and GABA (chemicals that play a part in nerve and brain function).

The intracellular calcium uptake has been altered, thus the functioning of glutamate as an excitatory neurotransmitter is inhibited.

Mitochondria (the miniature ‘engines’ that generate energy in the body’s cells) are damaged, which could lead to apoptosis of cells and infertility in men and also a lowered rate of oxidative metabolism are present, thus lowering concentrations of the transmitters glutamate and production of GABA.

The cellular walls are destroyed; thus, the cells (endothelium of the capillaries) are more permeable, leading to a compromised BBB (the ‘blood brain barrier’ – a structure which, in health, keeps certain substances from making their way from the blood stream into the brain). Thus, overall oxidative stress and neurodegeneration are present.

From all the adverse effects caused by this product, it is suggested that serious further testing and research be undertaken to eliminate any and all controversies surrounding this product.

Read this study in full (or even this short summary of it), and it’s difficult not to come away with the idea that aspartame has considerable potential for harm. The best thing, I think, is if this substance was banned from the diet. At the very least, I’d like to see the potential problems with aspartame to be widely known, so individuals can at least make a properly informed decision about whether to consume it or not. Here’s hoping that this latest review of aspartame gets the publicity it deserves.

References:

Humphries P, et al. Direct and indirect cellular effects of aspartame on the brain
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2008;62:451–462

(c) Dr John Briffa
http://www.drbriffa.com

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Visit The Pink Martini, sit back, relax and enjoy the site with all the interactive features that is on offer. Best of all, it is mostly free to use. You can shop, sell, blog, showcase your work, write articles, add events, chat in the forums, create my space style pages and do some serious networking. But before you start all this, shake up a martini (or anything you fancy) The Pink Martini style.

Feel free to use your knowledge in the form of articles, blogs, forums, or use the other interactive features that is on offer.

As The Pink Martini doesn’t pay article providers, you will be allowed to post your signature, contact details, a link in your article to your website, business or worthy cause. If there is a category or subject missing on the site or forums, contact me through the contact pages and I will add these for you.

The Pink Martini is mostly free to use and not only can you submit articles, you will be able to sell your items or services in the market place, add events, create myspace type pages, add recipes and more.

The Pink Martini 

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This article recently appeared in The Independent … do you agree with its sentiments?

We’re here. We’re fat. Get used to it

The backlash has begun, with a size-16 beauty queen and ‘fat acceptance’ all the rage

By Susie Mesure
Sunday, 30 March 2008

A size-16 Miss England finalist; a new single from an over-sized girl band called Plus; and Coleen McLoughlin, not Kate Moss, lauded as Britain’s most influential fashion role model: an early April fool or a backlash against size zero? Well, neither, actually, but evidence instead that Britain and its retailers are finally waking up to the reality of life for the average woman.

From John Lewis installing size-14 mannequins to advertisers choosing real curves to sell ranges such as Katie Price’s new underwear line, the tide is starting to turn against an anti-fat bias that has dominated for generations. In the US the change has been dubbed the “fat acceptance movement”; over here advocates prefer to talk of “size acceptance”. They are most vocal online, where blogs written by fat people have spawned a “fatosphere”.

A UK web-based magazine, Just as Beautiful, which is aimed at plus-sized women, says it has a monthly readership of 30,000 just over a year after its launch. “There were no publications that cared about women who were bigger than a certain size,” said the publisher, Ronnie Ajoku. “The only magazines out there featuring plus-sized women were to do with porn.”

It was Just as Beautiful that launched a hunt last year for the first girl band with a difference: women had to be at least a size 16, the national average. Next month Plus release their first single – a cover version of Inner City’s 1980s dance hit “Big Fun”. Hannah Lee, one of the band’s five members, said she had abandoned her dream of making it in the entertainment industry until Plus came along. At just under 14 stone for her 5ft 6in frame, she made the cut for “just being normal, not majorly overweight”.

Plus’s aim, according to the band’s publicist, Kizzi, is to “break down the prejudices that the music industry seems to have against people who are average sized”. Hannah Lee added that she thought attitudes were starting to change, with “talent beginning to break through, not just size”. She pointed to Adele, the teenage singer-songwriter who was Just as Beautiful’s latest cover star.

The message is more than just big is beautiful. Bloggers and plus-sized journalists dismiss the prevailing obesity panic, which decrees that being fat is akin to writing your own death sentence. Their mantra boils down to four words: health at every size. They point to research suggesting that the body mass index, which is based on height and weight, is flawed, or studies showing that fatter cardiac patients are more likely to survive hospitalisation and invasive treatments than thinner ones.

And fat is, apparently, the right word – so long as it’s used in the right context. Jo Morley of Big People UK, the British answer to America’s National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, said: “We’re fat. We’re not big boned. We’re not overweight. We’re fat. A lot of people find the word hard to say but it’s about empowerment if we use it.”

Not that Chloe Marshall, the size-16 model who will compete to be crowned Miss England this July after winning her Surrey heat, calls herself fat. To her, she is “curvy … beautiful, but not a size zero”. Nor is Kate Dillon, the face of the Italian plus-size label Marina Rinaldi, fat as such, although some years ago she made a conscious decision to stop starving herself.

Monica De Bellis, fashion co-ordinator at Marina Rinaldi, said: “Kate was so sad when she was modelling as a size six or four but now she is so happy with her body. She transmits a very positive message.” The Italian designer label is still one of just a handful of clothing lines designed specifically for the average-sized and above (from 12 to 26), although retailers are slowly waking up to the strength of the “plus-pound”.

Too slowly, though, for Jo Morley who bemoaned her lack of options on the high street. Even a recent trip to Marks & Spencer’s flagship Marble Arch store confirmed to her that the store’s collections “just reinforce that you’re dowdy, fat and frumpy”. (Callie’s note: M&S no longer hold instore sizes above 24 – when she challenged them in writing, it was obvious that they still were desperately seeking the ‘fat pound’, just that you had to order online or instore … why not boost our ego’s some more, M&S?!)

Fatima Parker of the International Size Acceptance Association added: “We’re not calling for people to be obese or couch potatoes. We just want people to recognise that you can be sexy or beautiful at any size. Our goal is health, not obesity.”

(If you would like to read Just as Beautiful, please browse through this site …. Callie writes monthly articles for them!)

(c) The Independent

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