Beneath the U3 elevated train line, the weekly open air Isemarkt spans a kilometer. Ambling through its walkway, you pass through organized pockets of different scents. A pungent, barnyard punch of aged cheese. The rich, warm, buttery caramel comfort of Kaiserschmarrn. The sweet, green, ocean scent of fresh fish. The entire scene is abuzz from every angle with the clear, pronounced consonant sounds of the German language. As far as you can see, people are investigating the stalls, picking up items for careful consideration. Buying their daily meals. Trying on cashmere sweaters. Tables spill over with vegetables and fruits so lavish in color and perfectly shaped, they look like they ought to be painted rather than eaten.

In Hamburg, everybody stares. It is one of the most confronting differences you will notice upon arrival here. At first, it feels personal. In most of the world, a strong and unblinking gaze goes against the social norms. Social norms tend to favor both ease and comfort and to stare is perceived as aggressive and even predatory. But in Germany, this prolonged, unblinking stare is common. It is even called the “Germanic stare”. In Hamburg, everyone stares at everyone. This extended eye contact is hard to interpret. It is done with neutral expression, so you can’t tell whether the person staring is interested or curious or taken aback or approving or disapproving. You can’t tell what they are thinking. And that can be very unnerving at first.

Hamburg and Amsterdam could be sister cities. They are both Port cities with rich histories in world wide trade. They were both key members of the Hansa (Hanseatic League), an alliance of towns and merchant guilds in the North of Europe during the medieval era. This shared history is still palpable in both cities. Both Hamburg and Amsterdam are shaped by waterways and canals. They both boast terrible maritime weather, governed by the North Sea. They both have infamous red-light districts. But just like two sisters, though they have similarities, they are very different. The metaphysical nature of Hamburg is especially different to that of Amsterdam. It is profoundly connected to the trade taking place in the whole world. At this level, it is both an end point and starting point for a vast network of economic connections especially with China, South Korea, Singapore, Poland, Sweden, Finland, The Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary. Watching the energy flow to and from Hamburg and these other places, is like watching an organ pump nutrients through arteries and veins.

The confluence of several streams in the mountains far away in Czech Republic, forms the Elbe River. Hamburg was built on its banks, a gateway to the North Sea. This river still carries the vibratory frequency of the granite of its birth place. And as such, energetically speaking, it is like liquid rock. An artery carrying the medicine of stabilization, strength, fortification and endurance through the landscape. But it is a hard energy, not a soft one. Aside from this, the energy field of this city is in constant flux, specifically with the hourly ebb and flow of water.

The dominant negative vibration of Hamburg is: Concealment. To wrap your head around this vibration, I want you to think about the energy around four situations. The first is a cargo shipping container, which is recorded as carrying clothing, but is really carrying smuggled cocaine for a drug cartel. The third is a person who is completely obsessed with Lord of the Rings. They have even learned Elvish. They happen upon one of the main actors from the films sitting at a coffee shop and they sit there at another table, unable to breathe with shock and excitement. But they don’t let on. They carry on as usual, with a blank expression on their face. The third is a person who is on their way to commit a crime. They are walking hurriedly through the city streets, hiding a knife that will be used in a stabbing. The fourth is a group of girls, they sit at a café and laugh over memes, but one of them has been seeing a psychologist. She has been struggling with suicidal thoughts. None of the rest of the girls even know. The city of Hamburg is rampant with things that are hidden… And the negative effects of hiding those things. To understand the detrimental nature of concealment, all you need do is to ponder the potential negative consequences of hiding whatever it is that is being hidden. For example, a potential negative consequence of concealing information is that the information is not known by others. And so, people may make an uninformed decision and suffer the consequences. Or for example, a potential negative consequence of concealing things about yourself is that you are not actually understood and known by others. You have created a gap between you and them. This separation creates intense levels of isolation. You become a deeply lonely person even though you technically have “friends”.

The dominant positive vibration of Hamburg is: Self-Determinism. The people of Hamburg are self-determined and they determine things for themselves. They exude an aura of personal agency. This makes them quite dichotomous because true to the German stereotype, they love things like rules, order and efficiency. However, they also want to reserve and exercise the sovereign, autonomous right to govern themselves. They love freedom. You can see this reflected in the political sphere. Hamburg has its own constitution, legislative, judicial and executive powers from the rest of Germany. They especially won’t go along with things that don’t make sense. So many of the conflicts you will see in Hamburg are about one party thinking that the other party ‘makes no sense’. The problem is, each individual decides for themselves what is and isn’t sensical. And generally, a person’s decisions, behaviors and actions make perfect sense; to themselves. This is a direct, straightforward, no games, no nonsense and no sugar-coating culture. And the people of Hamburg especially hate when things don’t make sense.

Because the people of Hamburg are self-determined, they like to make up their own minds. They like to be free to choose what to believe. They want freedom of religion and freedom of political opinion. They don’t want to be told how to dress. They want to be allowed to go for whatever goal they individually have in mind. This dominant vibration has flooded the city with the feeling that each person has the ability and freedom to control their own life and make their own decisions about their future. And as such, each person seems to be on the path to pursuing their own desired outcomes, working diligently to ensure those outcomes come about.

For so many reasons ranging from spiritual to physiological to environmental to medical to ethical, my diet is very different to most people’s. My diet is: Vegan, organic, zero gluten, lectin free, no refined sugar, no alcohol, no coffee, and as little processed foods as possible. This makes travel very, very hard. It means that whenever I travel, I have to rent places with kitchens because it is so rare to find places where I can eat. In Hamburg, Germany this difficulty proved fortuitous in two respects. Demeter Foods and Harry Potter. An unlikely combination…

Years ago, I entered a German food market and was totally stunned when I saw a row of different types of apples being sold. One particular collection of apples had an energy field that was about 6 times larger and emitted more light than all the other apples. This apple, was a Demeter certified apple. As I meandered around the store, I found the same to be true of everything else in the store that bore that label. The products that had the largest energy field and that were the most vital, were Demeter products. And ever since this day, I have had a love affair with Demeter foods. It is the thing that excites me the most about visiting Germany. Named for the Greek goddess of grain and fertility, Demeter is a nonprofit umbrella organization that represents both the global biodynamic movement and the Demeter certified biodynamic farms. Demeter products are so, so far beyond just organic. In the 1920s, there was a philosopher named Rudolf Steiner. He laid the Philosophical groundwork for biodynamic farming. And as such, biodynamic farming is profoundly spiritual. It treats soil, plant growth and livestock care as a single intertwined system. It promotes sowing and planting according to astrology. It uses herbal and mineral additives to enhance the food, such as ground quartz. Biodynamic agriculture is a rabbit hole that I highly recommend going down. Long story short, I was in heaven with the Demeter foods that I found in Hamburg. And because I needed a kitchen for them that was close to the Synchronization Workshop venue, I ended up renting a place that was themed this time. The theme was Harry Potter.

This place I rented in Hamburg ended up in second place on my favorite places I’ve ever rented on tour list, specifically because of its energetic vibration. Whoever set up the place, did it in elaborate fashion. Starting with the fact that in perfect alignment with the wizarding world itself and our dominant negative vibration of Hamburg, the place is concealed in a completely unsuspecting location. Upon arrival, in a somewhat industrial feeling area of town, you think you have made some sort of mistake. You go up a flight of stairs in a dingy apartment complex and find yourself standing at a door boasting the image of the Fat Lady who guards the Gryffindor common room at Hogwarts. You open the door and you find yourself in another world. Every inch modeled after the wizarding world and Hogwarts. Upon entry, you see the dark, grey castle like walls with portraits of every Hogwarts teacher, stacks of old suitcases and letters with the sorting hat sitting on top of it. A rack full of wands for the choosing. Every single element of the house is embellished to make it feel more and more like you have literally entered the world of Harry Potter. I slept under a ceiling that is designed to look like a magical storm, complete with active lightning strikes through the clouds. And this place had the highest vibration of any place I have stayed in a major city. The reason for this high vibration is the people who have stayed there before.

The wizarding world was not some abstract fantasy world for many people. It was a place that many people felt like they truly belonged. It was more home to them than any home that they knew ever was. As a result, so many people have intentionally rented the place to be in this wizarding world and they have come through the doors only to feel so happy to be there and so relieved and so at home there, that their happiness is everywhere. It has seeped into the woods. It has permeated the fabrics of the couches. It has created imprints and thought forms of nostalgia. The house has an energetic field now that is truly precious. I was not happy to leave it. I too felt more at home there and more comforted than I have in most homes I’ve ever set foot in. I wanted to stay in that epicenter of human happiness, ironically concealed in an area of the world that is neither welcoming nor particularly friendly; with my little collection of Demeter foods. Alas Prague, my favorite city in the world, is calling.