Hopi Elders' Prophecy – Inspiration for “We Are The Ones”

The inspiration for my original song “We Are The Ones”, which was written seven years ago this month, came partially from a writing of the Hopi Elders that was circulating the web during that time. It is still quite pertinent. I was impelled to search for the exact quote today when I discovered that there is another Obama video with the exact same title that has over a million hits! For many years I have been on a quest to know when, where and how to put the songs that have been gifted to me to the best use for humanity. It is with great humility and gratitude that I celebrate the giving of this gift at this poignant time.

Oraibi, Arizona, June 8, 2000

You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered. . . .

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?

Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for your leader.

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.

And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.

The time of the one wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

“What the Bleep?” meets “Honor Who You Are”

Dr. Candace Pert is an internationally recognized psychopharmacologist who popularized her groundbreaking theories on consciousness, neuropeptides, and reality in the film, “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” She is currently developing Peptide T, a therapeutic for the treatment of HIV.

Many years ago, before the movie was released, I was so inspired by Candace Pert’s book, “Molecules of Emotion”, that I sent her one of my original CDs. I felt that somehow there was a resonance with Dr. Pert’s journeys and discoveries and the messages in my songs.

At least a year and a half went by before I received a response in an email from Candace describing her personal experience with one particular song that she found herself listening to repeatedly during a challenging time in her life. She was planning to produce a guided imagery and affirmation CD, which would be called, "Psychosomatic Wellness: Healing Your BodyMind”. In her quest to choose a song as the capstone, she asked permission to use my song “Honor Who You Are”, which she felt captured the healing essence of the entire project. Of course I enthusiastically agreed to just gift her the usage rights, retaining the copyright, thrilled to have the message birthed into the larger world in such a miraculous manner.

Dr. Pert has used the guided meditation and song extensively for her own healing and thousands of others. “Honor Who You Are” is a tribute to the power of each individual’s gift to humanity through honoring their true self through the changes that are inevitable in life.

"I got connected with Bentley's beautiful songwriting through magical circumstances. I featured a new arrangement of her beautiful song "Honor Who You Are" as the capstone of my guided imagery and affirmation CD "Psychosomatic Wellness: Healing Your BodyMind". As I did, hundreds of people have responded to its simple and clear call to appreciate ourselves here and now to" bring your heaven to your earth". It's an inspiring message for me and many others who are often "trying too hard" in an unnecessary struggle--a beautiful selves-esteem building tune ..Thank you Bentley!" --Candace Pert, PhD

“Bentley Kalaway is a brilliant songwriter, whose passion and life’s mission is to tell the story of the Bodymind connection and our personal and collective journey to healing and awakening consciousness through the power of love, truth and forgiveness. Although she has now been recognized by one of the world’s leading edge researchers, the true depth of the profound power of her songwriting is still untapped.” -- Keith Ranney

Dr. Candace Pert received her Ph.D. in pharmacology from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, served as Chief of the Section on Brain Biochemistry of the Clinical Neuroscience Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), held a Research Professorship in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC, and is currently the Scientific Director of RAPID Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Pert appeared in the feature film What the Bleep Do We Know!?? and Bill Moyer's TV program Healing and the Mind. She is the author of the book Molecules of Emotion: The Scientific Basis Behind Mind-Body Medicine (Scribner, 1997), Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d (Hay House, 2006), and the musical guided imagery CD Psychosomatic Wellness: Healing your Body-Mind.

We Are The Ones-It's About You (Obama Speech Remix)

I am in the midst of the exhilarating feeling of experiencing a dream of possibility on the cusp of being launched into the world. Hopefully this will inspire people everywhere to begin to believe that we as individuals and collectively can have an impact on healing our world. Each and every one of us has something to offer. In my own experience, there have been many times when I’ve neglected to follow through on what seemed at the time to be a brilliant idea. Perhaps it wasn’t received well, or it seemed too much of a struggle to push it forward. A week ago, I embraced the following possibility that was set before me. Here are the exact words from a middle of the night journal writing which describes the conception of the idea for the use of my song, “We Are The Ones”, and merging it with the energy of hope and promise I had heard in Barrack Obama’s speech two days before.

From Journal August 30th, 2008

Internal voices woke me up. They showed me “We Are The Ones”, with Obama’s speech interwoven as a viral video. There were pictures from the Democratic Convention especially emphasizing the “We”. I saw specific images for different parts of the song. “We are the hands” showed people waving the signs of change. For “We are the eyes” people were crying for hope and “We are the fire” depicted the fireworks coming out of the stadium. I heard the chorus “We Are The Ones” set to visuals of the huge stadium and the cheering. And the most moving part of Obama’s speech was set over the guitar solo. YES!!

The next morning I took sound bites from the speech and an audio version of the song and began to imagine how they would fit together. I began to search the web for compelling photos from the Democratic Convention. My partner Keith Ranney and I then went into his media studio where the video began to weave Obama’s inspirational and profound message with a song that describes how it really is up to us to create the world we want to live in. Barack Obama repeats, “It’s about you!”. My song resounds with, “We Are The Ones”. For the past several days Keith has been researching the tech side of how to get this information to the most people effectively, while I have continued my music gigs and employment as a substitute teacher.

We are going to launch the video on September 8th.