Education can be defined as a set of methods which purpose is to transmit knowledge to an individual (child or adult). It is, first and foremost, the action of directing the student on the path of learning.

If the scientific aspect of modern educational teaching differs from the teaching provided by traditional societies, the latter have always transmitted knowledge to the youth around a fire or during the full moon. These customs are apparently strongly related to Phosphenic Mixing, a technique that consists in combining a thought with a phosphene produced by focusing on a source of light for a short time.

With regard to these traditions, could Phosphenic Mixing always have been used in Africa, for the transmission of knowledge to the new generations? What is the state of application of that traditional method today?

I/ A teaching method related to Phosphenic Mixing

As far as the memory of traditional african societies can go, no knowledge related to cosmogony, legends or history has been transmitted without the presence of a source of light (Fire, the Sun, the Moon). The great cosmic truths were disclosed during initiations performed around large fires. After the physical trials, the candidates presented themselves in front of a large fire with enormous flames, in order to receive teachings that, for a long time, were hidden from the profane. This sheds a new light on certain spiritual realities.

It should be noted that the transmission of knowledge was purely oral and, consequently, that it had to be engraved permanently in the memory of the learners.

In our villages, during the telling of stories around the fire, we used to learn social values that we had to integrate in our behavior. Our eyes were fixed on the flames that undulated ceaselessly. And our thoughts followed these rhythms. Sometimes, we would perceive images stemming from the depths of our selves.

Moonlight, the starry sky, also represented chances of learning and being creative. That is why these moments were favorable to the experimentation of new games for young girls and boys. It was rather common for a young child to identify his/herself to a star or another celestial object.

Focusing on sources of light has doubtlessly influenced positively the political, social and cultural development of our societies, whether consciously or unconsciously. The African griots (an oral historian, guardian of the village and of the genealogy of its inhabitants) in the Manding (the Mandingues being a group of populations living in Western Africa) learnt the history of great men by practicing Phosphenic Mixing. It was also the case with craftsmen, weavers, sculptors, potters… who have experienced an amplification of their inspiration thanks to that method.
However, modern educational teaching methods have neglected that technique.

II/ The loss of the method of Phosphenic Mixing because of colonization

The educational system inherited from colonization has been the demise of that method. Our governments have tried many different educational systems ending up today with the method by competence. Such a multiplicity of methods of education reveals a difficulty: the search for a suitable educational method in order to improve the results of students and schoolchildren. However, with the new, so-called evolutive methods, the success rate in our schools has diminished, year by year. Flaws and deviations in our societies soon follow: school failure, corruption, decline of moral values. These situations are the consequence of neglecting an educational method that makes use of Phosphenic Mixing. That method used to contribute to the development of a human being as a whole, intellectually as well as spiritually.

These days are an era of technology and information characterized by the appearance of various tools for simplifying learning. However, there is so much failure! It even claimed that gaming consoles or pen and paper games are adequate means to preserve the freshness of our memory.
In view of such a situation, Phosphenic Mixing appears as a sane alternative, natural and durable. Hence the necessity to valorize or re-valorize it in Africa.

III/ Valorizing learning with Phosphenic Mixing

Today, Dr Lefebure’s research has demonstrated that Phosphenic Mixing (i.e. learning by combining a thought with focusing on a source of light) was the foundation of the influence of Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations. Our traditional societies also used to utilize that technique, consciously or not, for transmitting knowledge.

Dr LEFEBURE has underscored that the decline of the civilizations mentioned came to pass because they had abandoned or forbidden that practice. Consequently, to save Africa from destruction, it is necessary to use that learning method. It is not new, as it is actually the foundation of civilization.

The appropriation of Phosphenic Mixing by Africa will help raising the level of education, increasing the rate of alphabetization, optimizing creativity, among other things. In Ivory Coast for instance, the rate of success to the Baccalaureate exam was 20% in 2009 against 38% in 2008. In 2010 that rate went back up to 24,51%. Everything seems to show that it is the system itself that is unhealthy.

Conclusion

Education, teaching and Phosphenic Mixing can be made compatible in order to lead to a better efficiency. That method certainly has a future in Africa, as it can end the prejudices (confiscation of intelligence, bewitchment…) that are used to explain the school failure of many children.

For the whole of humanity, fire was a major discovery, that first took place in the land of Africa.
The utilization of fire has considerably improved the lifestyle of human beings, particularly in the African continent.
Some countries in Africa have known and used fire for long periods of their history.

In the beginning, fire helped trigger the transformation from ‟savage” to ‟human” check ‟genesis” for more information. Though, in ancient times, fire was used mainly for cooking, it was also used a lot for lighting.

The Communities have organized their systems of education in adaptation to the context they were in, serving the objectives of the transmission of knowledge and the sustainability of an original, recognized and dynamic civilization.
In every house, it is around the fire that the Oral Tradition has formed its Teaching System. Evening classes gave the opportunity to peerless Teachers to use carefully chosen words to create sounds, images, which, associated to the light of the bright flames, would durably be engraved in the memory of the learners and accompanied them in their somnolence and their deep sleep.

The learners would wake up the next day, having internalized a considerable ancestral knowledge, a remarkable know-how and a sense of measured social behavior.

Light that shines from the fire, associated to the image created by the Master would blend into each other to produce a phosphene, attracting the children’s attention and rendering them able to memorize vast domains of the oral and traditional African tradition.

Beyond the cognitive, knowledge spreads to psychomotivity and influences the attitudes towards the members of the Community and to the Environment.

Though oral teaching is still very important, the fact remains that the written word has also known its golden age, by producing countless veteran learners, coming from schools of fire.

In Africa, the schools of fire constitute a very common practice, popular and efficient that is still practiced in the villages.

At dusk and before dawn, a circle of learners surrounds the fire and starts a cacophonous performance, as each student recites, in a loud voice, the particular lesson that he or she is learning, from a sculpted plank of wood, filled with writings in black ink.

With its very good rhythm, the cacophony lets also appear sounds as varied as the voices that rise in the night, during which light streams out, is associated to the images and to the sounds and produces miracles; as, after many years, cohorts of learners progress in their training in education. The learners develop prodigious capacities of memorization, become teachers to perpetuate the tradition and watch over the younger initiates.

The learners overcome important challenges and themselves become masters, recognized by all, their peers included.

In spite of a very fast process of urbanization of Africa, these practices still remain effective, particularly in the most rural areas.

In Africa, the schools of fire are an undisputed reality that handsomely contributes to driving back the bounds of ignorance and to favor the blooming of many well-trained youths, able to face the new challenges that Africa must take up. No doubt that the practice of Phosphenic Mixing will contribute to that.

Phosphenic Mixing is a potent and efficient technique for therapeutic treatment as well as for learning, for children and adults alike.
I am a psychotherapist and I conduct training courses in the domain of human resources.
Let me recount some of the applications I have used with with patients.

In the domain of psychotherapy

Deep relaxation

I use Phosphenic Mixing with lateral head sways and the mantra ‟EELLEE”, to relax the patient. The relaxing effect can be felt immediately. To deepen the effect of profound relaxation and the state of modified consciousness, I use the seven colors of the rainbow. I ask the patient to visualize the various lights, starting with the red light, all the way up to the purple light. The patient imagines that his/her body is full of light and radiates the corresponding color (red, orange…) while mixing each color of light with a specific sentence:

Red light: I feel alive, dynamic and in good health;

Orange light: I feel harmonious and radiate a warm communion and benevolence in my relations;

Yellow light: I am awake, spontaneous and creative;

Green light: I respect life and nature;

Blue light: I am calm and perfectly peaceful;

Indigo light: I am serene and I am overrun by mystical joy;

Purple light: I am calm and serene, I feel connected to the positive energy of the entire universe.
Finally, the patient finishes the session with the star phosphene: i.e. the patient looks at the light bulb while moving his/her eyes up, down, right, left, and diagonally, passing by the center. The patient then feels transformed and perceives several options for solving his/her problems.

At the end of the session, I offer a glass of alkaline, ionized water to the patient.

Developing self-confidence

To develop self-confidence, I use Phosphenic Mixing with anteroposterior head sways with the following sentence: ‟As I am confident, I am me, I exist, I have rights, I express myself, I am responsible, I am powerful, I am kind.”
Another example: ‟I can direct my thoughts by telling myself that I am enjoying good results in my studies for this exam.”

Finally, the patient finishes the session with the star phosphene: i.e. the patient looks at the light bulb while moving his/her eyes up, down, right, left, and diagonally, passing by the center. Of course, I explain to the patient the meaning of the sentence he/she has chosen and that corresponds to their current objective or to the problem they want to solve.

For instance: I am me means that I have my own values, beliefs and needs to satisfy. And, it is up to me to do it, solely for myself, among the others, rather than for the others, neither against them. I am responsible for my well-being, for my actions.

I am powerful means that I am conscious of my feelings, of my emotions, of my thoughts and that I express them in the here and now. I state what I think and I do as I say. I feel coherent and harmonious.

I have rights means that I have the right to exist, to have needs, I have the right to express what I want to express, I take my place, I have the right to love and be loved in an unconditional manner.

Phosphenic Mixing creates a new neurological pathway; the message is imprinted in the brain and comes into action through the idea-motivity phenomenon. During the first session, the patient immediately feels confident as if he/she had had a ‟change of skin” or was ‟wearing new clothes”.

The patients can practice that exercise on their own, three times a day. Once in the morning, just after waking up, it is the auspicious moment for fixing or stimulating the message; once in the evening, before sleep, to message the brain what it needs to integrate during the period of regulation; and one more time during the day so that the message becomes unconscious and automatic.

Example: a student in psychiatry is anxious and fears that he is going to fail his exam in spite of the work he has generated to learn and revise his lessons. A single session of Phosphenic Mixing has given him ‟the bones of a good psychiatrist” who thoroughly knows the subjects he is dealing with. The self-confidence that he has developed has helped him successfully passing his exam.

Practicing triangular or square breathing instantaneously reduces stress.

In an airport, a woman who is waiting for her flight to take off is anxious. She is chain-smoking, walking relentlessly up and down the hall, asking ceaselessly and aggressively the airline employee for the time of departure as she is scared that she is going to miss the connecting flight. She then has coffee, sitting next to me, I suggest that she should practice a bit of triangular breathing to dissipate the stress she is accumulating. She does that and, one minute later, she feels calmer, friendlier. She thanks me and we exchange interesting conversations on other subjects.

A child who is described as hyperactive at school.

A mother asks me if I can give her some help treating her 8-year old son, described as an hyperactive by his teachers. He is always chatting with his schoolmates and cannot remain calm. He is restless.
I evaluate him as an intelligent boy, bright, spontaneous, a bit of a rebel.

Je commence à faire le phosphène avec lui et je lui demande de bien observer les formes et les couleurs des lumières qu’il voit se dérouler, les yeux bandés. Je lui demande de me faire une description à haute voix. L’exercice se fait en trois fois et dure une dizaine de minutes.

I start by doing a phosphene with him and I ask him to observe closely the shapes and the colors of the lights that follow one another, while he is wearing a sleep mask. I ask him to describe them in a loud voice. This is a powerful game of concentration as, during the entire exercise, he is fascinated by the dance of the colors and his whole body remains still. He enjoys this game of changing colors.
Afterwards, I ask him to repeat, in a loud voice, ‟I am calm and relaxed” while he is practicing Phosphenic Mixing with anteroposterior head sways.
At the start, he repeats that sentence in a loud voice for a minute, then he repeats it mentally ‟in his head” for another minute, then again in a loud voice for the third, final minute. The exercise lasts approximately ten minutes.

His mother is present during the session and she notices the instantaneous change in her son’s behavior. She purchases the Pocket Lamp so that her son can practice more exercises on his own.

Learning

A girl in the fourth grade cannot memorize certain mathematical laws and formulas. She gets it wrong every time. Her father, a financial director, does not manage to help her memorizing adequately.

I start by doing a phosphene with her and then ask her to observe closely the shapes and the colors of the patches of light that appear in her field of vision, while she is wearing a sleep mask. I ask her to describe them in a loud voice. The exercise is repeated three times for a total duration of approximately ten minutes.

Then, she writes down the formula clearly, in big letters on a sheet of paper. She recites it in a loud voice. She closes her eyes and tries to picture the written formula and repeats it in a loud voice.

First, she focuses on the lamp for thirty seconds and then closes her eyes while reciting and placing the formula in the phosphene.

Then, she focuses on the lamp for thirty seconds, then she reads the written formula in a loud voice, through the phosphene, using a second amp to dim its glow and be able to read through it.

The action of the phosphene increases concentration and clarifies memorization, making it sharper, more precise. Phosphenic Mixing creates a new neurological pathway to store the information.

She continues the exercise with the other formulas she needs to learn, following the same protocol. After the second week, her father compliments me because his daughter does not make mistakes on the mathematical laws any more and has good marks at school.

As for me, there is no doubt: Phosphenic Mixing is an efficient method of learning, it develops self-confidence, concentration, memorization, helps recovering regular sleep patterns and favors healing.

Every night, before I go to bed and every morning, when I wake up, I practice Phosphenic Mixing.
I feel calm and serene throughout the day. When I have to travel and suffer from jet lag, rhythmic breathing and head sways help me greatly to maintain a clear head and a high level of energy.

My daughter uses Phosphenic Mixing to improve her studying of foreign languages and other subjects. She is in the sixth grade and believes her good results are due to the practice of Phosphenic Mixing. My son is in the fifth grade and since he has been using Phosphenic Mixing, his grades have improved, in all the subjects.

Educational protocol

1- Observation of the phosphene with a description of the colors perceived
2- Exercise of Phosphenic Mixing with a positive sentence
3- Exercise of reading with the post-phosphene
4- Test of comprehension and memorization
5- ‟Star phosphene”: i.e. the patient focuses on the light bulb while moving their eyes up, down, left, right and following a diagonal that crosses the center
6- I give a glass of alkaline ionized water to the patient
7- I provide a lamp for practicing exercises at home

Conclusion: For my part, I practice everyday different breathing exercises, head sways and mental imagery. My children have started practicing and introduce the method of learning with the phosphenes to their circle of friends.
With my patients, I use phosphenes systematically and I provide them with lamps and some practical information, according to their situation.

Finding persons buried in rubble or missing after an earthquake, using divination.

I work in the humanitarian domain and, thanks to my function as the leader of a team specialized in the rescue of persons injured during disasters, I am often active in remote areas of the world, helping unprivileged populations. In order to provide you with a more precise idea of what I do, I am going to try to illustrate my situation by relating some of the things I experience during these interventions.

First of all, my participation in trying to find people buried alive under rubble is efficient only because I have had the opportunity, thanks to my many trips around the world, to receive many initiations, including Dr Lefebure’s. During that long quest, I encountered various techniques and teachings, I always made sure that I understood their practice through the basics that Dr Lefebure had taught me personally. That way, I have been able to avoid many pitfalls and dead ends…

A dog trained to search for survivors under rubble can only locate injured people for a short period of time, because their scent loses its sharpness very quickly. For my part, I can detect 10 times more persons.
In a word, I am able to detect physically, without using any aid like a pendulum or any other instrument used for divination, injured people buried underground, whatever the state of their wounds, by stretching my hands above the zones of rubble produced by the disaster.
I perceive everything through the chakras in the palm of my hands.

As a mark of recognition from the persons I save from certain death, I only accept a piece of fabric that they have owned. The quality and the cleanliness of the cloth or fabric does not matter.
Thanks to these ‟offerings”, I make a thick screen by sowing the pieces of fabric together. I then contemplate the sun through this patchwork, this cloth charged with ‟vibrations of pain”, during hours or sometimes days.

In this ‟posture”, I try to immerse myself in these vibrations and channel the perceptions into my hands. As a complement, I do phosphenes with the reflection of the sun on water, and project the phosphenes on my hands. That is how my hands have become genuine tools of divination. I do not need a pendulum nor any other equipment, I use only my hands for divination.

After an intervention, having faced extreme distress, it is absolutely necessary for me to evacuate the accumulated tension; that is why, after a field operation, I systematically enter retreat. I use my time in retreat to regenerate myself with the rhythmo-phosphenic techniques.

I would also like to highlight the fact that, since my early childhood, I have evolved in initiatory circles, and that allowed me to develop my latent psychic faculties at an early age. But, without the help I found in Phosphenism, i.e. without Dr Lefebure’s works, I would NEVER have reached my present level.