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 18 Jan 2004 @ 09:38, by fleer. Activism
Shakespeare was right. There is something wrong in the state of Denmark. The biggest Danish producer of meat, Danish Crown , was under scrutiny after a home video was shown on TV2. The video was shot after ISS personel had finished cleaning. Or so they thought. The picture here is from that video. More >
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 17 Jan 2004 @ 21:43, by magical_melody. Shared Purpose
A Year later... 18th of January
Happy Anniversary Max!
Heart Story More >
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 17 Jan 2004 @ 17:14, by ming. Violence, War
Why would an educated person, a lawyer, and a mother of two choose to strap explosives to her body and go and blow up herself and a lot of random innocent people?
Hanadi Jaradat did just that in October, killing 21 Israelis in Haifa.
Artists Gunilla Skoeld Feiler from Sweden and Israeli born Dror Feiler created an artwork titled "Snow White and the Madness of Truth" for an exhibition in Stockholm, to make people ponder the incomprehensibility of this. On a pool of blood a little sailboat is floating, with a picture of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat as its sail. "When I saw her picture in the paper, I thought she looked like Snow White, that's why I gave that name to the piece" said Gunilla Feiler.
The Israeli ambassador didn't ponder the incomprehensibility of the scenario. He went amock and destroyed the piece the moment he saw it, and subsequently got kicked out of the museum. I suppose that illustrates well another angle of the problem. And it instantly made the art piece much more famous than it could have been otherwise. Anyway, he should probably find himself another line of work. More >
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 16 Jan 2004 @ 13:35, by ming. Children, Parenting
Here an article by Denise Breton and Christopher Largent about conditioning by rewards and punishments. The page shows badly in my browser, so I'm taking the liberty of including the text at the bottom. They mention the extensive research of Alfie Kohn on the negative effects of reward/punishment conditioning. Here are some of the problems: • Rewards and punishments teach power-over relations. That’s the model. And when being on the receiving end of this model gets tiresome, we begin the mad race to be on top.
• Rewards and punishments corrupt human relationships, starting with the relation between those "higher" and "lower" in the reward-punishment hierarchy. Those under can’t tell the truth to those above them for fear of how "bad news" might further reduce their underling status. Even more commonly, those above don’t want the truth to be told. A May 1999 Frontline on the military career of Admiral Leighton "Snuffy" Smith, for instance, featured Smith confessing that during the Vietnam War (when he was a pilot), his superior wouldn’t let him report that he had failed to achieve his bombing objective. The higher-ups didn’t want the truth; they wanted only "we’re winning the war" reports.
• Rewards and punishments teach image management. Appearing to be good is more important than being good.
• Rewards and punishments require surveillance. We must be seen to be doing good or doing bad to get what we "deserve," so someone must be observing us—all the time.
• Rewards and punishments replace internal motivation with external motivation. This is a biggie, and the crux of it all. We don’t do what our inner guides tell us, what we love to do, or what we feel is right. We do what rewards us outwardly. Our inner motivation, what we get from our souls, is not controllable. For us to be made controllable, we must be unplugged from our soul source, and something external must be put in its place—something others can control. Given this agenda, rewards and punishments are inevitably soul-denying.
• Rewards and punishments teach selfish manipulation: "What’s in it for me?" "Can I avoid being caught?" In Beyond Discipline (p. 22), Alfie Kohn quotes eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant: "If you punish a child for being naughty and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and discovers that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself." It is rather obvious, really. The conditioning approach pre-assumes that you are a mindless robot who can't tell right from wrong, so you need to be trained into the proper pavlovian responses. Right answer: you get a piece of cheese. Wrong answer: you get an electric shock. That is a horribly barbaric view, and a false one. But, seeing that this is the predominant method used in the world of educating us into knowing how to act, it is no great wonder at all that we're rather messed up. • Rewards and punishments hide real consequences, replacing them with artificial reward-punishment consequences. CEOs don’t think about real-world consequences—polluted air and water or human suffering; they think about financial rewards.
• Rewards and punishments replace inner integrity with the model that everyone "has a price." When people work only for rewards and behave selfishly, it doesn’t mean that they’re bad people or that humanity is innately greedy. It means they’re behaving exactly the way the culture has programmed them to behave—and then told them that they’re bad for doing it. How’s that for crazy-making? Well, read the whole thing, this is vital stuff. And I'll give you a gold star. More >
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 14 Jan 2004 @ 11:35, by scotty. Sexuality
This conversation (taken from the Mediation Room ) came about after my having read about yet another poor woman being murdered - because of family honor !
Family Honor - a question of morality - a belief system ...
I didn't want it to get lost in the rolling dialogue so - here it is here - to be continued perhaps !
************************************************************ More >
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14 Jan 2004 @ 09:49, by craiglang. Altered States
We just got an upgrade to our cable service - and last night, just before going to bed, I was channel surfing on some of the newer upper-band digital cable channels. One channel (one of the few, actually) that really seems to be worth it's bandwitdth is the Science channel. It has refreshingly little editorialism, relatively few commercials, and alot of very interesting content. It does an excellent job of describing some of the leading edge topics in science.
Last night, what captured my attention was a documentary on some of the current questions in cosomology. How did we start? And where are we headed? The effect it had on me was to get my mind into a beautiful "searching mode". This was the state of mind I was in just before I went to sleep. And in the morning as I awoke, I found this "searching" sensation continuing.
I can only describe it as the compelling sense of there being so much more beyond what we know now and the powerful desire to somehow be a part of that. It is a feeling that I can only describe as a yearning for the sky - to opening to the something beyond. I felt as though if I opened or expanded my mind, I could sense the presence of something just beyond the known.
I imagine that this is the sense that all through history, has driven explorers, scientists and mystics. It moves us to push the envelope, to look over the next hill, to allow our minds to "boldy go" beyond the boundaries of our world. It is the compulsion to explore, the need to see, experience and understand just a little bit more.
This morning I also read some more in the newspaper about the possible US plans for a rejuvinated space program (which I think is fascinating, regardless of political views), and the latest photographs from the Mars rover. Checking my e-mail in the morning, I noted that there was another report of something fascinating that another UFO witness had observed in the sky (the Minnesota skies have been somewhat busy as of late). The effect was to fill me with a great sense of mystery, wonder and hope.
As I continued through the day, I again thanked God for the sense of curiosity and questing, the love of mystery, and the joyous feel of "something beyond" the known. And I can only rejoice in this wonderful property of the mind and soul that helps make us so uniquely and beautifully human. More >
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 14 Jan 2004 @ 04:41, by susannahbe. Spirituality
Image: Airtight inspection cover by Susannah Bec.
"I will carry my gods within me, swallow my divinity whole.
The responsibily that clarity unveils...as I become the face of my soul."
Psychic Pollution
Psychic pollution spread by the popular media in the form of newspapers, television and advertising is toxic and detrimental to our divinity. We are sensitive instruments and our vibrationary level/frequency is affected by our observations.
Like a tuning fork we tend to vibrationally attune to the object/subject of our observations.
"News" is "some news", everyday at every minute everything that you could possibly think of then more is happening somewhere on this planet of ours. The news that is reported is little bits of usually negative stuff that we are publically told is newsworthy.
We then observe, reinforce and strengthen by our observation and attention whatever the "news" happens to be. We are not usually told of all of the wonderful things that are happening every single second all over this planet too. It is our decision where our attention is focused. It makes a difference where our attention is focused, it makes a difference how we "vibrate".
We hold the key to changing and helping to birth a new consciousness…the control panel lies within.
Eliminate or reduce your exposure to TV, to the "News" to newspapers, to advertising, take a few steps outside of "the consensus reality" and then look again. When you are within it you are attuned to it. Step outside and realise a new world lies within each of us but we must detach from the "programming" as that keeps us only able to access certain levels of consciousness.
Mass reality has a ceiling…get above that and there is a vastly different view.
.... More >
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 14 Jan 2004 @ 03:42, by ming. Violence, War
Via Metafilter, an article, "Terrorism's new Mecca" by Jessica Stern. It examines the causes of terrorism.Several possible root causes have been identified, including, among others, poverty, lack of education, abrogation of human rights, the perception that the enemy is weak-willed. I've been interviewing terrorists around the world over the past five years. Those I interviewed cite many reasons for choosing a life of holy war, and I came to despair of identifying a single root cause of terrorism. But the variable that came up most frequently was not poverty or human-rights abuses, but perceived humiliation. Humiliation emerged at every level of the terrorist groups I studied — leaders and followers.
The "New World Order" is a source of humiliation for Muslims. And for the youth of Islam, it is better to carry arms and defend their religion with pride and dignity than to submit to this humiliation. Part of the mission of jihad is to restore Muslims' pride in the face of humiliation. Violence, in other words, restores the dignity of humiliated youth. Its target audience is not necessarily the victims and their sympathizers, but the perpetrators and their sympathizers. Violence is a way to strengthen support for the organization and the movement it represents. It rings true more than anything else. No, it is not people who "hate freedom". It is people who's family, who's culture, who's religion, who's countries, who's leaders have been humiliated. And it is people who's pride and dignity are more important to them than their lives. It shouldn't be that hard to understand. Stop carrying out programs of organized humiliation. Better yet, help these folks having something to be proud of. More >
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14 Jan 2004 @ 03:20, by ming. Government, Public Sector
More on the U.S. national debt, from Al Martin Raw, the article "Scoreboard 2003". Seems to be in the member area, but somebody sent me an e-mail copy.The total national debt of the United States on a fully realized basis, inclusive of federal, state, county and local debt stood at a record $20.613 trillion (83.73% of said debt having been created from 1981-92 and from 2001 to present.) The total public and private indebtedness of the United States ended the year 2003 at $39.384 trillion. The total public and private assets of the United States ended the year 2003 at $26.134 trillion. Thus, the United States by the end of 2003 has a negative net worth of approximately $13 trillion. The total debt service of the United States ended the year 2003 at 309.4% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). These are numbers never before seen. This is a higher debt to gross domestic product ratio than any other country on earth, which still services its debt. Doesn't sound good. I'd like to see some other sources on that, of course. The periods he's mentioning, 81-92 and 2001 to the present, where 83.73% of the debt were generated is when Reagan and the two Bushes have been presidents. More >
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 13 Jan 2004 @ 13:34, by ming. Investigation, Intelligence
I have meditated. I've done Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Kung Fu, DahnHak, Pranic Healing, Tensegrity and Access. I've been healed, acupuncturized, massaged, rebirthed, exorcised and hypnotized. I've done the Scientology advanced levels. I'm an NLP master. A Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist. I'm an energetic healer. I've seen hundreds of past lives. I have had out-of-body experiences, I've done astral traveling. I've been abducted by little grey aliens. I've talked with dead people. I've met my future selves. I've channeled, done automatic writing and psychic readings. I've seen the beginning of the universe, and the end. I've bent spoons and walked on burning coals. I've watched UFOs over Area 51. I've seen shamans and psychics and channelers. I've gotten all my questions answered. I came from Arcturus and I spent some time in the Orion Empire. I've talked to crystals, gotten aromatherapy, ayurvedics, color therapy. I only use holistic health care: naturopatics, homeopathy, herbs, oriental medicine. My DNA is supposedly evolving to 12 strands and I'm well on my way into the 5th dimension. I've gone to hundreds of rituals and danced, chanted, drummed and prayed. I've gone to sacred sites, feng shuied my house. I've gotten my horoscope analyzed many times, my numerology has been done, my palms read. The tarot has given me valuable insights, and I know what shape my chakras are in. And there's probably a lot more I'm forgetting.
Now, to a New Age person all of that is rather normal. Not even particularly impressive. Most people who've followed some kind of metaphysical, spiritual, new age type of path for a number of years will have done a lot of this, and a lot of other things I didn't happen to run into.
And what is cool is that if I recognize somebody else as what can be loosely identified as a New Age Person, we can talk about any of this, and they will most likely not have any reservation about sharing experiences and insights. I don't have to prove anything, and it won't even be an issue. They will measure the truth by what it feels like.
But yet I'm also a bit tired of the New Age. Oh, I'll happily talk about any of this, and tell you what I think worked or didn't work, and why and how. And I enjoyed all of it. But my perspective has changed somewhat. I'm more focused on ordinary everyday life. I'm more skeptical. I'm more interested in keeping a little bit of a distance to the multiple possible explanations for why things are the way they are. I'm interested in bridging different realities and world views. While I live the life that is in front of me. Which is often quite ordinary, sometimes hard, and usually not particularly fantastic.
The New Age became a little too mainstream at some point. Where before it was a bit of an underground activity, pursuing experiences and wisdom out of the ordinary, where the rest of the world was really rigid, limited and analytical. But somehow it became something more watered-down, commonplace, lacking distinctions. So that New Age for many became synonymous with flakyness and lack of critical thinking. Or it became synomynous with "anything goes" and that any weird idea or practice is equally valid as any other. And it all became a good deal less useful. So, personally, I will continue to stretch the boundaries of my existence, and I will continue to choose the tools in my life that work, even if others think they're strange. But I'll probably evaluate things one at a time, and certainly avoid assuming that I'm part of a group that all shares the same views.
Life is a rather fantastic thing in the first place. Full of experiences and possibilities and insights. They might be small or large, deep or shallow. But you don't really need to invoke any fancy belief system to talk about it. The experiences and what you think and feel about them might be enough. And of course you can notice the patterns that link things together. But part of my different perspective is that I try to avoid having all the answers in advance, and rather keeping my mind open to the newness of things.
Now, as I write here in my blog, my new agey friends, or friends from specific metaphysical traditions, might well be puzzled that I wrap things up more than they would expect me to under other circumstances. I.e. I write a lot more conservatively and tentatively than I might otherwise. Referring sort of distantly to news items and books with interesting but theoretical subjects. Where I could just as well provide the straight dope. It is just that I don't necessarily think the dope is quite so straight as it might have seemed. And I no longer claim to know exactly what it is.
And then my more 'normal' friends might be puzzled that I sometimes write about strange hocus-pocus subjects. Borderland weirdness, unproven pseudo-science, conspiracy theories and general superstition. And I might well lose some of them, if they expect that I should just write about RSS Aggregators and blog programming. But I guess I can live with that.
I write about whatever I feel like. But my compromise is that I try to write so that multiple types of audiences might read it. I do believe it is possible to both be authentic and well-balanced.
So I both attempt to write about things I feel the urge to write about, whether it is likely to be generally accepted or not. But I also try to frame what I say in such a way that it might better be understood by more people, and so that I reasonably well can stand behind what I say.
I guess what I'm trying to explain is why I'm writing less new agey than you'd expect. Or more new agey than you'd expect. Depending on who you are. I believe in what I've experienced, what works for me personally, what makes sense, and what I can defend logically. And I keep an open mind to adopting something new that comes along if it proves to work better, or reject it if it doesn't. For some that will mean I'll believe in some outrageous things. For others that my views are pretty tame. More >
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