CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Media and Clara
POPULAR MEDIA
"Lost and Found: How My Time with the Aliens Helps Me Lose 130 lbs. and Find Love,” interview with Clara Ackerman Branon, Ph.D., by Esperanza Enlaces, O Magazine [Oprah Winfrey’s periodical] September, 2014 Earth Date
Around Five Feet and Wide
During one of Clara’s “fat years,” as she calls them, she daydreams of starting a clothing line for people shaped like her, named: Around Five Feet And Wide (AFFAWs). “I can’t be the only person who is short and round,” she reasons. But, being a fashion designer is not her calling.
Weight Watchers at 13, with her dad
“In 1967, I am 13 and 5'1" but I stop growing. I am getting ‘chubby.’ Since my dad is about 40 pounds overweight, my mom suggests we go on Weight Watchers together,” she winces. “Clear memory: I cut one slice of spongy, white bread into two vertical slices, put 2 oz. of cottage cheese on one slice and cook the ‘grilled cheese’ in the toaster oven. It is actually quite good. I lose 10 pounds and make the cheerleading squad. That is so cool!” But, this is just the first diet of dozens Clara experiences before the Many Worlds Collective comes late in 2012 and changes EVERYTHING, not just for her.
Dieting/Exercise vs. Choosing Re-set
“The MWC methods give us all the choice to go the ‘regular’ route or choose to Re-set to solve some of our problems,” Clara explains. As most of us now know, Re-set is not as simple as it may seem. “You have to ask the hard questions of yourself. Being fat for many periods of my life changes so much for me: whom I socialize with, how I socialize, what I eat, whom I eat with…. Do I want to change all that just to be thinner, now?” She hints at her quandaries but doesn't go into details.
MWC Training Better Than Re-set
“Who knew being the ‘Chief Communicator’ [CC] would help me lose weight better than any diet!” Clara exclaims. The MWC delegation works with Clara 5 – 6 times a week most weeks, training her as Earth’s main liaison.
Holograms Don’t Eat !
When I ask her how the MWC training works, Clara replies: “I am so busy and so focused. The schedule is intense. I have no urge to snack. Meals are for survival, not entertainment: holograms don’t eat!”
Health Issues Make Losing Weight Difficult
Clara tells me about her many previous health issues which cause her to gain and make it hard for her to lose weight. “Too many to list, here,” she tells me. “My exercise is swimming, which I try to do 5 times a week. But, it isn’t enough. I get up to 265 pounds, BPC [Before Public Contact], and I’m only 5 feet tall!”
Creeping Weight Gain
“My blood pressure medicine [a beta blocker] is known for causing people to gain about 10 pounds per year; it’s called ‘creeping weight gain,’” she says. “But I can’t go off it even when I’m thinner, because being overweight is not the cause of my type of hypertension.”
What to Eat? Chocolate!?
Some diets make her other health problems worse. Trying to find a diet that meets all nutritional needs without increasing her problems becomes a puzzle no one seems able to solve. “Plus,” she admits, ruefully, “I love chocolate!”
MWC CC Training is A Lot Like Being on a Meditation Retreat or in Love
“The CC training is a lot like being on a meditation retreat,” Clara tells me. “My most successful weight loss and good weight times, besides on retreat, are when I am deeply in love,” she confides. “I am less hungry, my metabolism goes up and the pounds just leave.” In Clara’s first year as CC, which is also the same year she gets together with her husband, Epifanio Dang, she loses 95 pounds.
What about Love?
“Oh, yes!” Clara grins, widely. “Love is in my life, again.” I ask her to elaborate but she declines. “Let’s just say that, if I still weigh 265, I doubt if I am with anyone right now. I don’t feel much like ‘bonding’ with anyone when I can hardly move, if you know what I mean!” I think we all do, I tell her.
Down 130 lbs. and Feeling Great
“So, now, I’m at a good weight for me: 135, which is 10 pounds more than I weigh in high school.” Clara sounds relieved. Does the weight stay off? “I feel great! I hope so. Love is here to stay and the training has barely begun!” Clara smiles.
NEWS MEDIA
March 25, 2014
Dr. Clara Ackerman Branon, Ph.D., the “Chief Communicator” or official human liaison between Earthers and the Many Worlds Collective since 2012, was announced as the recipient of the 2014 Templeton Prize this morning. She is one of only four women in over forty years of recipients to be selected; she is also one of the youngest, at 59.
In their citation, the John Templeton Foundation notes (among other things) that Dr. Branon has “encouraged the development of intraplanetary respect and communication to unprecedented levels and pioneered interspecies communication and collaboration across the multiverse.” In addition, they cited the inclusion of students as young as 9 and as old as 95 in the ESP (Excellent Skills Program) trainings provided by the MWC Delegates and herself as “the singlemost inclusive educational endeavor ever attempted.”
The ESP trainings are designed to increase empathy, compassion, respect, acceptance, generosity, kindness and cooperation for each trainee and among all species. These accomplishments and others she has assisted with bringing to Earthers APC [After Public Contact] reflect “the deep interest of the founder of the Templeton Prize, the late Sir John Templeton, in seeking to bring scientific methods to the study of spiritual claims and thus foster the spiritual progress that the Prize has recognized for the past 40 years.”
Dr. Branon will receive the Templeton Prize at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on May 12th, following a news conference with the recipient. Both the award ceremony and the news conference will be webcast live at their website.
Gathering in London with Dr. Branon will be several past recipients of The Templeton Prize, including: His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama (2012), the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists; Dr. Martin Rees (2011), theoretical astrophysicist; Dr. Bernard d’Espagnat (2009), philosophical physicist; Dr. Charles Taylor (2007), scientific philosopher; and Dr. Holmes Rolston III (2003), environmental ethicist.
Established in 1972 and named for the noted philanthropist, the Templeton Prize honors an individual who has “made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works.” The Prize itself is worth about $2 million, making it “the world’s largest annual monetary award given to an individual and honors a living person who has made exceptional contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“The Future of Earth and the Many Worlds Collective,” Panel Discussion at the Ceremony for the Retirement of the Chief Communicator