Monthly Archives: April 2012

FACTS RIP 4.18.2012

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Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012

In memoriam: After years of health problems, Facts has finally died.

By Rex W. Huppke, Chicago Tribune reporter

April 19, 2012

A quick review of the long and illustrious career of Facts reveals some of the world’s most cherished absolutes: Gravity makes things fall down; 2 + 2 = 4; the sky is blue.

But for many, Facts’ most memorable moments came in simple day-to-day realities, from a child’s certainty of its mother’s love to the comforting knowledge that a favorite television show would start promptly at 8 p.m.

Over the centuries, Facts became such a prevalent part of most people’s lives that Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once said: “Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.”

To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet. Though few expected Facts to pull out of its years-long downward spiral, the official cause of death was from injuries suffered last week when Florida Republican Rep. Allen West steadfastly declared that as many as 81 of his fellow members of theU.S. House of Representatives are communists.

Facts held on for several days after that assault — brought on without a scrap of evidence or reason — before expiring peacefully at its home in a high school physics book. Facts was 2,372.

“It’s very depressing,” said Mary Poovey, a professor of English at New York University and author of “A History of the Modern Fact.” “I think the thing Americans ought to miss most about facts is the lack of agreement that there are facts. This means we will never reach consensus about anything. Tax policies, presidential candidates. We’ll never agree on anything.”

Facts was born in ancient Greece, the brainchild of famed philosopher Aristotle. Poovey said that in its youth, Facts was viewed as “universal principles that everybody agrees on” or “shared assumptions.”

But in the late 16th century, English philosopher and scientist Sir Francis Bacon took Facts under his wing and began to develop a new way of thinking.

“There was a shift of the word ‘fact’ to refer to empirical observations,” Poovey said.

Facts became concrete observations based on evidence. It was growing up.

Through the 19th and 20th centuries, Facts reached adulthood as the world underwent a shift toward proving things true through the principles of physics and mathematical modeling. There was respect for scientists as arbiters of the truth, and Facts itself reached the peak of its power.

But those halcyon days would not last.

People unable to understand how science works began to question Facts. And at the same time there was a rise in political partisanship and a growth in the number of media outlets that would disseminate information, rarely relying on feedback from Facts.

“There was an erosion of any kind of collective sense of what’s true or how you would go about verifying any truth claims,” Poovey said. “Opinion has become the new truth. And many people who already have opinions see in the ‘news’ an affirmation of the opinion they already had, and that confirms their opinion as fact.”

Though weakened, Facts managed to persevere through the last two decades, despite historic setbacks that included President Bill Clinton‘s affair with Monica Lewinsky, the justification for PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and the debate over President Barack Obama’s American citizenship.

Facts was wounded repeatedly throughout the recent GOP primary campaign, near fatally when Michele Bachmann claimed a vaccine for a sexually transmitted diseas ecauses mental retardation. In December, Facts was briefly hospitalized after MSNBC’serroneous report that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney‘s campaign was using an expression once used by the Ku Klux Klan.

But friends and relatives of Facts said Rep. West’s claim that dozens of Democratic politicians are communists was simply too much for the aging concept to overcome.

As the world mourned Wednesday, some were unwilling to believe Facts was actually gone.

Gary Alan Fine, the John Evans Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, said: “Facts aren’t dead. If anything, there are too many of them out there. There has been a population explosion.”

Fine pointed to one of Facts’ greatest battles, the debate over global warming.

“There are all kinds of studies out there,” he said. “There is more than enough information to make any case you want to make. There may be a preponderance of evidence and there are communities that decide something is a fact, but there are enough facts that people who are opposed to that claim have their own facts to rely on.”

To some, Fine’s insistence on Facts’ survival may seem reminiscent of the belief that rock stars like Jim Morrison are still alive.

“How do I know if Jim Morrison is dead?” Fine asked. “How do I know he’s dead except that somebody told me that?”

Poovey, however, who knew Facts as well as anyone, said Facts’ demise is undoubtedly factual.

“American society has lost confidence that there’s a single alternative,” she said. “Anybody can express an opinion on a blog or any other outlet and there’s no system of verification or double-checking, you just say whatever you want to and it gets magnified. It’s just kind of a bizarre world in which one person’s opinion counts as much as anybody else’s.”

Facts is survived by two brothers, Rumor and Innuendo, and a sister, Emphatic Assertion.

Services are alleged to be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that mourners make a donation to their favorite super PAC.

Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

Karen Armstrong on A Pact for Compassion

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Practical Compassion: An Interview with Karen Armstrong

The historian has helped world religions unite behind a single principle. But can a worldwide charter for compassion become more than just a nice idea?
posted Apr 12, 2012

 

heart girl by Adriel O. Socrates

Photo by Adriel O. Socrates

In 2008, religious historian Karen Armstrong was granted a wish. She had recently won the TED Prize, which comes with $100,000 and support in making a single “wish to change the world” come true. Armstrong had already identified a fundamental principle that she believed united the spiritual traditions she studied: compassion. She made a wish to work with leaders and adherents the world over to create a Charter for Compassion, an overarching statement of human morality that could unite us all.

Through a web-based platform, thousands of people from over 100 countries contributed to the writing of the charter; a multi-faith, multinational council of thinkers and leaders edited and signed off on the final document. The charter has now been affirmed by more than 85,00 individuals; city governments, civic organizations, schools, and universities throughout the world are seeking creative ways to put its words into action.

But what can the charter really accomplish in a world where religion drives us into rancorous divides at least as often as it unites us? I recently spoke to Karen Armstrong about the politics and practicalities of compassion.

Heidi Bruce: One of the things that YES! Magazine covers is how to better bridge divides between seemingly opposed groups. What role can media play in helping people with very different beliefs engage one another in a productive manner?

Karen Armstrong: I think the media has a huge role to play—and has to take quite a responsibility for some of the more divisive aspects in our culture. I’ve just written a piece in the Globe and Mail about Islamaphobia in Canada, and the hostile comments that came in were ugly and disturbing—sort of fascist-style comments. Very often, the media has portrayed certain sectors of the community through endless reporting on terrorism, ignoring the wider picture. So, there’s a real challenge here to turn that around.

Storytelling is fine as long as you can encourage people to act on the stories. I don’t want this charter, for example, to degenerate into a sort of club where people exchange compassionate and inspiring stories, because there’s just too much work to be done. If we want to create a viable, peaceful world, we’ve got to integrate compassion into the gritty realities of 21st century life.

I don’t want this charter to degenerate into a sort of club where people exchange compassionate and inspiring stories, because there’s just too much work to be done.

Let’s use our stories to encourage listening to one another and to hear not just the good news, but also the pain that lies at the back of a lot of people’s stories and histories. Pain is something that’s common to human life. When we ignore it, we aren’t engaging in the whole reality, and the pain begins to fester. We need to encourage full storytelling—unless people also talk about the bad things that happen, this is just going to be some superficial feel-good exercise

Bruce: What are some of the more recent practical applications of the charter that have been most inspiring to you?

Armstrong: Pakistan is taking a leadership role in integrating the charter into civic life. This a country right on the edge of the main conflicts that could fill our world—the whole world could implode because of what happens in Pakistan. It’s got Afghanistan and Iran next door, it’s a nuclear power, and it’s had conflict with India since its inception. This is a really explosive situation. And yet the enthusiasm for the charter has been astonishing. I was there in 2011 for the launching of the charter; speaking three times a day, with thousands of people showing up each time. They’re concentrating on education. They’ve created a compassionate character for [the Pakistani version of] Sesame Street; this guy is really cool—not just some simp hanging out with flowers. He’s a positive role model for pre-school children.

On the other side of the Gulf is Jordan, also explosive with Iraq on one side and Israel/Palestine on the other. During Ramadan, people in Jordan and Pakistan ran a web competition where participants were invited to post a compassionate action every day during the holy month. They were only expecting to have a few takers the first year—perhaps ten thousand—but forty thousand people did it every day.

During Ramadan, people in Jordan and Pakistan ran a web competition where participants were invited to post a compassionate action every day during the holy month… forty thousand people did it every day.

I think another interesting fact is that many of the people who have come forward to help me have been businessmen. In Pakistan, for example, a leading business consultant has adapted my book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, as a course for compassionate business. Google is way up in front on this—they recognize that if they treat their employees more compassionately, they get better results. They’ve looked into the abyss of 2008, when selfishness was allowed to run riot and proved disastrous for the economy. This is a very interesting development, a key one, because politicians are not going to be deflected from their course by somebody like me; they listen to business.

Bruce: They certainly do in this country.

Armstrong: They do everywhere now, because the market runs modern society. So that is the way we have to go. Next year in Seattle, for example, we’re going to have a conference on business and compassion.

 

karen armstrong by Seamus Rainheart

Karen Armstrong at the Compassionate Seattle event April 2010.

Photo by Seamus Rainheart

Bruce: Are there examples of governments that have officially shown support of the charter?

Armstrong: The Compassionate Cities campaign is an important development in this regard. What it’s doing is taking this ideal, which could sound New Age-like and perhaps even self-indulgent, and inserting it into the gritty reality of city life. It’s no good just sitting in a glade being compassionate to somebody—it’s got to go into the cities. There are about 80 cities going through the process, as well as universities and schools. Part of where we may have to go—to be quite realistic—is to shame governments into it. If they find other cities being compassionate, saying, “Why aren’t you doing this?” they might be persuaded to begin making changes.

Bruce: Once cities affirm the charter, what concrete steps would you like to see them take in order to implement positive social change?

Armstrong: In cities, it’s got to be something that the city really needs. That will be very different in Pakistan, where people are getting blown up every day, than here in Seattle where we’re much safer at the moment. I think you need a core team of committed activists who can form a sort of “shadow city council” that shadows the work of government segments in charge of homelessness, health care, race relations, housing, or supporting the elderly—keep a weather eye on what they’re doing and hold them accountable.

One of my dreams is to create twin cities. For example, have a city in the Middle East twinned with a city in the United States. People can exchange news and form electronic friendships. Schools and universities can communicate so that some of the apprehensions and distorted views that we have of one another can be eroded. A network of compassionate cities could be a powerful force.

Bruce: In the field of conflict transformation, there’s the notion that, as a precursor to reconciliation between divided societies, a formal apology can be an important first step. What are your thoughts on apologies as necessary steps towards creating more compassionate cultures?

Armstrong: There is a real need for acknowledgement—an apology that acknowledges and demonstrates guilt. I think that is a good idea, but it has to be followed up with consistent action. In the Middle East, we British went in and transformed their societies forever—put in rulers that had no legitimacy among the people and then extracted all their resources. The terrorism we are seeing is largely a result of that massive disruption and dispossession—of people being shunted out of their homes in India, Pakistan, Israel, and Palestine. The point is that the damage has been done and an apology alone won’t set it right; one also has to recognize the irrevocability of what we’ve done.

Bruce: In your personal life, what challenges you most in striving to live more compassionately?

Armstrong: For me, the most challenging part is to constantly be talking to people.

Heidi: My apologies!

Armstrong: [Laughs]. I’m solitary by nature. I live alone and I’m a sort of hermit. Normally, I write, but that’s had to go to a large extent. I seem to be able to speak easily when I get on a platform; I feel like a weary old circus horse that hears the music, smells the sawdust, and starts prancing around and recovers its energy. But it is challenging not to get cross and snap at people when I travel around so much. That is hard. Also, I get quite a lot of abuse—some very ugly since September 11th. That’s when I have to remind myself of the Golden Rule and what it’s like for people who are continuously exposed to this kind of defamation.

Bruce: What are some of the sources of abuse that you just mentioned?

Armstrong: It’s from people who don’t like Muslims. I was speaking to someone in the U.S. State Department whose mandate is to look at anti-Semitism around the world; yet what worries her most is rising Islamaphobia. We’re seeing exactly the same mechanism of mythology that was used against Jews. This is very ugly and worrying for our societies because it’s corrosive; it’s a gift to the extremists because it plays right into their hands. It also corrodes our spirit because it goes against everything we’re supposed to stand for in terms of tolerance.

Bruce: When people talk about the negative impacts of globalization, themes that often emerge are scale and pace. Do you feel that the tenets of the charter are more challenging to implement now than they were perhaps a hundred years ago?

Armstrong: Certainly great harm has been done in the past 100 years; two major world wars, nuclear weapons, massive displacement of peoples—it was a terrible century. But on the other hand we’ve got new ways to communicate, including social media, which is really how the charter’s operating a lot of the time. This string draws us together in a way that we weren’t all together before. We’ve created a global market where we are all connected, whether we like it or not. Poverty over there will redound on our own economies. We’re all involved.

But we can’t expect quick results; otherwise they’re going to be superficial. People in the west are not good with that—we want things turned around fast. It will be hard work. Compassion is hard work.

Dr. Jeff Masters on Hurricanes & Tropical Storms

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Today is my last day in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where 700 of the world’s hurricane experts are gathered to attend the 30th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology of the American Meteorological Society. It’s been a great week of learning and catching up with old friends, and I present below a few final summaries of talks I attended.

Impact of Tropical Cyclones on drought alleviation in the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts
Dr. Pat Fitzpatrick of the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi discussed how landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes can alleviate drought. The biggest winner tends to be the Southeast U.S. states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, where about 20% – 50% of all droughts between 1960 – 2009 were busted by a landfalling tropical storm or hurricane. It is uncommon for Texas to see a drought busted; less than 10% of all Texas droughts have been ended by a hurricane or tropical storm. This occurs because the Southeast U.S. can receive heavy rains from hurricanes moving up the East Coast, or moving through the Gulf of Mexico, while relatively few storms track over Texas. Over the course of a year, hurricanes and tropical storms contribute 15 – 20% of rain along the Gulf Coast, and 3 – 16% along the East Coast. The length of a drought does not seem to affect whether a drought can be ended by a hurricane or not. Hurricanes have been able to end both short (< 3 month) and long (> 12 month droughts) equally well.


Figure 1. Example of a drought-busting tropical storm. Moderate drought (Palmer Drought Severity Index, PDSI, ≤ –2.0) was present in 52 percent of the Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina climate divisions in May 2006. The percentage decreased to 29 percent after Tropical Storm Alberto passed through on June 11 – 15, 2006. Image credit: U.S. Drought Monitor.


Figure 2. Rainfall in inches from the passage of Tropical Storm Alberto in 2006. Image credit: NOAA/HPC.

According to the U.S. drought monitor, over 90% of the area of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina are currently in moderate to exceptional drought. There is 1 – 2 inches of rain coming to much of the region over the next few days, but that will not be enough to bust the drought. Based on Dr. Fitzpatrick’s research, there is a 20% – 50% chance that the drought will be broken by a tropical storm or hurricane. The first storm on the list in 2012 is Alberto again; let’s hope we get another Alberto this year that imitates the 2006 version of Alberto.

Patterns of rapid intensification
Peter Yaukey of the University of New Orleans studied patterns of hurricane rapid intensification in the Atlantic from 1950 – 2009. The Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean saw the most rapid intensification events, and the Northeast Atlantic the fewest. Interestingly, he found that rapid intensification events did not peak in September, but tended to be more common in June and July. Hurricane are less likely to intensify in the late afternoon and early evening (near 00 UTC), and more likely to intensify just after midnight, at 06 UTC.

Jeff Masters

from:    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2076

El Hierro Update 4/20

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El Hierro Volcano : Green and Yellow – Pevolca changes alert status from Yellow to Green

Last update: April 20, 2012 at 12:23 pm by By 

 

Update 20/04 – 12:17 UTC
– Joke Volta’s images of today April 20. Calima (African desert dust fog) has finally gone and the pictures are getting more colorful.

 

Update 20/04 – 07:50 UTC
– NO listed earthquakes since midnight

Update 19/04 – 23:55 UTC
– A third El Hierro earthquake at 18:59 today. Magnitude 0.7, depth 12 km. Epicenter here.
– We have changed the title a little bit to reflect the current situation. No immediate risk to the island anymore, but still some minor volcanic activity (mainly earthquakes and a little degassing) around the main vent.

Update 19/04 – 15:21 UTC
– It looks like the volcano doesn’t like Pevolca or Mr. Armas :) !.  Almost together with Mr. Armas tweet, the ground was shaking again, a M1.2 earthquake at 13:01 UTC at a depth of 10 km, here

Update 19/04 – 14:09 UTC
– More details have been reported a little later, such as :
* the alert level of the island itself will change from Yellow to Green
* the area surrounding the main vent is downgraded from Red to Yellow (in other words, some limited vigilance remains around the volcano)
* The BIO Las Palmas (Oceanographic vessel), who made some extensive bathymetry last week, measured the depth of the cone at 86 meter.
* Today’s images of Joke Volta

Update 19/04 – 12:09 UTC
– In a short twitter message from the Cabildo de Hierro (office of Mr. Alpidio Armas),  the Green Alert of the entire island has been declared by Pevolca. Due to the very slim activity of the last couple of weeks (only faint stains and degassing), the Alert level change seems logical to Earthquake-Report.com

Update 19/04 – 11:03 UTC
– We have noticed one M2.2 earthquake at a depth of 32 km at 08:32 UTC at a very unusual place, which may explain the difference in depth.

Update 18/04 – 21:32 UTC
– ER reader John commented on our remark from this morning that we did not know where CHIE station was exactly. He said : found the location of CHIE it is Latitude 27.72700 Longitude -17.96070 . Information found athttp://www.isc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/stations?listr=Canary+Islands:Europe. Thank you John.
– 1 new earthquake at 14:37 UTC at a depth of 1 km (mostly IGN revises these shallow depths which has not been done so far)  ! Magnitude : 0.5. Epicenter here

Update 18/04 – 12:12 UTC
– Joke Volta images of today April 18, a “Calima” day (special regional weather type). Joke hasn’t seen anything special today, but nevertheless she continues to make pictures mainly to have a full series of visuals.

Update 18/04 – 10:52 UTC
– 1 earthquake since midnight. Magnitude 1.4 at a depth of 13 km. Epicenter here
– ER reader Leona has commented that it looks that the thickness of the CHIE HT line has increased since more than 24 hours now. We have the same feeling and have therefore increased the line with the same factor today and 4 days ago. Of course this should not mean anything, as it maybe temporary noise or even instrumental error margin. We neither have an idea where CHIE comes from. El Hierro has a lot of different instruments.

Comparison in amplitude of CHIE graph El Hierro

Update 17/04 – 14:40 UTC
– Both the Chile, Valparaiso Mw6.7 earthquake and the Papua New Guinea Mw6.8 earthquake can be seen on the CHIE El Hierro graph.

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/

Amit Goswami on Creating Your Reality

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The Real Secret of How We Create Our Own Reality

by AMIT GOSWAMI on NOVEMBER 28, 2010

Certain spiritual teachings can be very confusing when we first hear them, whether we are scientists, or not. When back in the 1970’s, the physicist Fred Alan Wolf created the evocative phrase “we create our own reality,” it sounded good, but gave rise to many disappointments. People tried to manifest fancy automobiles, vegetable gardens in desert environments, or parking spaces in busy downtown areas. Wolf based his phrase on the work of mathematician, John von Neumann, who first introduced the idea of the “collapse” of consciousness, which occurs when the quantum wave of possibility “chooses” one of its facets, which then becomes actualized.

Yet many attempts to follow through and create our own reality produced a mixed bag of outcomes because the would-be-creators were unaware of something important:

We create our own reality, yes, but we don’t do that in our ordinary state of consciousness, but in a non-ordinary state of consciousness. The paradox of Wigner’s friend, articulated by Eugene Wigner, a Nobel laureate physicist, helps to clarify this.

Wigner approaches a quantum traffic light which offers two possibilities: red and green. Simultaneously, Wigner’s friend approaches the same light from the road perpendicular to Wigner’s. They both choose green, but their choices are contradictory. If both choices materialize at the same time, there would be pandemonium. Obviously, only one of them gets to choose, but who?

An understanding of narcissism offers an insight as we go about trying to create our own reality. How could it be that only one person in the world is sentient, and the rest of us only exist within this person’s imagination?

Three physicists independently resolved Wigner’s paradox.  They were Ludwig Bass in Australia, myself at Oregon, and Casey Blood at Rutgers, New Jersey. The solution was simply this: Consciousness is one, nonlocal and cosmic, behind the local individuality of Wigner and his friend. Although both men want the green light, the one consciousness chooses for both of them, avoiding any contradiction. The one consciousness chooses such that the result dictated by quantum probability calculations is validated: Wigner and his friend each get green fifty percent of the time. Yet for any individual crossing, a creative opportunity for getting green is left open for each.

In formulating my theory about this, the underlying question was: What is the nature of consciousness that enables it to be the free agent of downward causation without any paradox?

The answer was: Consciousness has to be unitive, one and only for all of us. This oneness of consciousness is the basis of our theories about it.

When my paper proclaiming this was published back in 1989, a University of Mexico neurophysiologist Jacobo Grinberg-Zylberbaum noticed it. Grinberg was studying novel transfers of electrical brain-activity between two people. Intuiting that my theory was relevant to his research, he asked me to visit his laboratory, check out his experimental set up, and the data, to help him interpret it. Soon Grinberg and collaborators wrote the first paper proclaiming a modern scientific verification of the idea of oneness of consciousness.

The Good News Experiment: We Are One?

Since then, four separate experiments have shown that quantum consciousness, the author of downward causation, is nonlocal, and unitive. Quantum physics provides an amazing principle to operate with—nonlocality. The principle of locality says that all communication must proceed through local signals with speed limits. Einstein established the speed of light as the speed limit. This precludes instantaneous communication via signals. And yet, quantum objects are able to influence one another instantly, once they interact and become correlated through quantum nonlocality. In 1982, physicist Alain Aspect and his collaborators confirmed this with a pair of photons (quanta of light). There’s no contradiction to Einsteinian thinking, once we recognize quantum nonlocality for what it is—a signal-less interconnectedness outside space and time.

Grinberg, in 1993, was trying to demonstrate quantum nonlocality for two correlated brains. Two people meditate together with the intention of direct (signalless, nonlocal) communication. After twenty minutes, they are separated (while still continuing their unifying intention), placed in individual Faraday cages (electromagnetically impervious chambers), and each brain is wired up to an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine. One subject is shown a series of light flashes producing in his or her brain an electrical activity that is recorded in the EEG machine, producing an “evoked potential” extracted by a computer from the brain noise. Surprisingly, the same evoked potential was found to appear in the other subject’s brain, and viewable on the EEG of this subject (again minus brain noise). This is called a “transferred potential,” but is similar to the evoked potential in phase and strength. Control subjects (those who neither meditate together nor can hold the intention for signal-less communication during the duration of the experiment) do not show any transferred potential.

Obviously, the experiment demonstrates the nonlocality of brain responses, but it also demonstrates the nonlocality of quantum consciousness. How else to explain how the forcedchoice of the evoked response in one subject’s brain can lead to the freechoice of an (almost) identical response in the correlated partner’s brain? As stated above, the experiment, since then has been replicated several times by the neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick and collaborators in 1998 in London, by Jiri Wackermann et al  in 2003, and by the Bastyr university researcher Leana Standish and her collaborators in 2004.

The conclusion derived from these experiments is radical, and can integrate science and spirituality, Vedanta style. Quantum consciousness, the precipitator of the downward causation of choice from quantum possibilities is what esoteric spiritual traditions of many traditions call God. (In Sanskrit, Ishwara.) In a sense, we have rediscovered God within science. However it is within a new paradigm of science, based not on the primacy of matter as in the old science, but on the primacy of consciousness. Consciousness is the ground of all being which we now can recognize as what the spiritual tradition of Vedanta calls Brahman, and what esoteric Christianity calls Godhead, or Christ.

The Power of Intention

Grinberg’s experiment also demonstrates the power of our intention, which parapsychologist Dean Radin has also studied. One of Radin’s experiments took place during the O. J. Simpson trial, when many people were watching the trial on TV. Radin correctly hypothesized that the intentions of the viewing audience would widely fluctuate depending on whether the courtroom drama was intense or ho-hum. This activity, he theorized, might influence random number generators. Radin asked a group of psychologists to plot and note down in real time the intensity of the courtroom drama. Meanwhile, in the laboratory, Radin measured the deviations of random number generators. He found that the random number generators maximally deviated from randomness precisely when the courtroom drama was high. What does this mean? The philosopher Gregory Bateson said, “the opposite of randomness is choice.” So the correlation proves the creative power of intention.

In another series of experiments, Radin found that random number generators deviate from randomness in meditation halls when people meditate together (showing high intention), but not at a corporate board meeting!

I’ll bet you’re wondering how to develop the power of intention. We all try to manifest things through our intentions, sometimes they work, but less often than not. This is because we are in our ego, rather than higher consciousness, when we intend.  But how do we change that?

I propose a four stage process: An intention must start with the ego since that is where we ordinarily are, local, selfish. At the second stage, we intend for everyone to go beyond selfishness. We don’t need to worry, we haven’t lost anything. When we say “everyone” that includes us, too.  In the third stage, we allow our intentions to become a prayer: if my intention resonates with the intention of the whole, of quantum consciousness, then let it come to fruition. At the fourth stage, the prayer must pass into silence, become a meditation.

You may have seen a recent movie, The Secret or have read a book by the same name. The movie talks about the secret of manifestation through our intention. The main message is good. To manifest, the book and the movie teach us, not only do we have to actively intend, but also have to learn to passively wait. Maybe the intended object will come to us. That’s why I too recommend that we end in silence, waiting.

If we wait too long, however, we may forget what we were intending. So we cut short the waiting and be active again in our search. In this way the real secret of manifestation is an alternation between doing and being. I sometimes call this a do-be-do-be-do lifestyle. In India, we are in a be-be-be lifestyle, haven’t you noticed? In America and the West, of course, it is do-do-do. The connoisseur of manifestation via intention-making takes the middle path, do-be-do-be-do.

There is one final secret: How do we know what consciousness intends so we can align our intention with it? The answer is creative evolution. Consciousness intends to evolve us toward greater good for everyone through creative evolution.

from:    http://ervinlaszlo.com/forum/2010/11/28/secret-create-our-own-reality/

Gulf Fish & Sea Life Deformities Continue —BP

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Gulf Seafood Deformities Raise Questions Among Scientists And Fisherman (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post  |  By  Posted: 04/18/2012 12:59 pm Updated: 04/18/2012 5:31 pm

While the true extent of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was not known for about 4 years, as Al Jazeera notes in the video above, the repercussions of BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico may become apparent more quickly.

Discovering eyeless shrimp, lesioned fish and other mutated and underdeveloped seafood, fisherman in the Gulf are pointing fingers at the BP spill. Biologist Dr. Darryl Felder told the news agency that Gulf seafood populations are dropping at alarming rates and that species richness is “diminished.”

The Gulf Restoration Network‘s Scott Eust explained the bizarre shrimp deformities. “We have some evidence of deformed shrimp, which is another developmental impact. So, that shrimp’s grandmother was exposed to oil while the mother was developing, but it’s the grandchild of the shrimp that was exposed grows up with no eyes.”

Al Jazeera reports that both the government and BP maintain that Gulf seafood is safe. BP released a statement last week, saying, “Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is among the most tested in the world, and according to the FDA and NOAA, it is as safe now as it was before the accident.”

A study published last October in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that the FDA allowed “up to 10,000 times too much contamination” and didn’t identify the risks to children and pregnant women posed by contaminated seafood. Additionally, the study charged that the FDA’s “scientific standards [in 2010] were less stringent” than after the Exxon Valdez spill, reported OnEarth.

Government testing standards were questioned months after the spill. In December 2010, a toxicologist with a team challenging the FDA’s seafood testing said, the “FDA simply overlooked an important aspect of safety in their protocol,” reported MSNBC.

Despite sales dropping precipitously following the spill, the Gulf’s seafood industry was given a boost after the government’s Defense Commissary Agency began selling Gulf seafood products on 72 East Coast military bases in early 2011, reported AP.

from:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/18/gulf-seafood-deformities-raise-questions_n_1434268.html?ref=green

April 19 Large Earthquakes

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(Major) Earthquakes list April 19, 2012

Last update: April 19, 2012 at 4:00 pm by By 

M 5.1      2012/04/19     01:58     Depth  18.8 km     TAIWAN
09:58:07 AM at epicenter
Moderate shallow earthquake felt as far as Taipei

M 4.5      2012/04/19 14:35     Depth 10.0 km      OFFSHORE OAXACA, MEXICO
169 km (105 miles) SE of Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
M 4.7      2012/04/19 07:42      Depth 46.8 km      IRAN-IRAQ BORDER REGION
M 4.8      2012/04/19 06:30      Depth 14.8 km      NORTH INDIAN OCEAN
M 4.7      2012/04/19 05:00      Depth 32.1 km     NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
M 5.2      2012/04/19 03:33      Depth 18.0 km      NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
M 4.9      2012/04/19 02:48      Depth 18.2 km      VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
M 5.1      2012/04/19 01:58      Depth 18.8 km      TAIWAN
M 4.8      2012/04/19 01:41      Depth 14.9 km      NORTH OF SVALBARD
M 4.7      2012/04/19 01:14      Depth 52.3 km      COQUIMBO, CHILE
M 4.8      2012/04/19 00:24      Depth 71.8 km      KURIL ISLANDS

Label info : M = magnitude, D = depth (km), Time = UTC – Click here for conversion in your local time.
[quake date=”2012-4-19″ location=”-80,80,-179,179″ Number=”100″ magnitude=”>4.5″][/quake]
Data sources courtesy : USGS – EMSC – GFZ – GEONET

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/04/18/major-earthquakes-list-april-19-2012/

April 15-21

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Due to some computer issues and the fact that I have been traveling, this week’s Chromoscope is greatly abbreviated.  Thanks for your understanding.

Overall Color for the Week:   White Quartz

So, it is pretty obvious that something is up this week, and how you will relate to it, where you stand in relation to it, and how you will be affected by it are all up to you.  There is much going on on the outside with people. places, and things in turmoil, much of which they are attempting to shift onto others.  You must decide what is your and what does not belong to you.  Stay in your power and do not take on stuff that is really someone else’s concern.  The lessons continue and ‘s/he who does not learn from history is forced to repeat it.’    Look back on what you had realized last week, and know that there is more to come.  There can be some similarities in the lessons as you are being given an opportunity to get out of the stuckness.  Emotions will be close to the surface.  There will be tears.  There will be laughter.  Stay centered and grounded;  The patterns are beginning to emerge.  Tribes are beginning to form.

On the larger scale, there will be very little consistency.  Everything will b e in a state of turmoil.  In this kind of energy, there can be upsets in many areas, including politics, finance, weather, health, Earth movements, etc.  It is a good time for new inventions and revelations to come out.  There are a number of different strands at work here, so be aware.  Some of the things that may be touted as terrible, awful, disastrous, can turn out to be the very best things ever.  There is a Trickster at work in the Universal energies, and he sees the larger pattern.

Thursday, April19:    Grainy White

Very little is clear today, so do not expect things to come out into the open.  This can lead to some frustration as there are those out there with agendas and schedules and many have targeted this date.  This is a common occurrence in this energy, where things are mapped out and programmed for a specific time, but it just does not come together.  Your reaction will determine how you are handling the energy.  Right now everything in your super-world rests upon  you, your decisions, your actions, your preparedness, your spirit, your connectedness.  Take it from there.  But do look within and see things with an objective eye.  The energies are very crazy right now. and we are not always in control.  You need to know how much you own of all of this.  Take time to ground and center.  Work from your core.  The true eyes of the Heart Connection will bring everything into focus.  Th evening brings an interesting parting of the energies.  You can find a new clarity in this.

Friday, April 20:    Deep Purple

Things today seem somewhat muted and toned down.  There will not be a lot of clarity coming to the surface, but the hints are there of the changes that are stirring.  You will see this in how people are behaving towards you.,  You will feel it in your changed response to ordinary things.  Take time and space to look at this.  You have been changing your patterns, ideas, preferences, etc.  Much of this has gone unnoticed by you, b ut the current energy is asking you to slow down and see what is going on.  There is much to be gained from this.  You will see that your priorities are shifting.  Honor that, but know why and wherefore.  SOme interesting messages are out there for you today.  Be alert for them.

Leon Lewis on Higher Consciousness

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Expanding into higher consciousness

By Leon Lewis

In my previous article in the February 2012 edition, I explored the subject ofconsciousness beyond conditioned thought, and emphasized the importance of attuning to the natural environment and honoring universal principles in support of a deeper relationship with all of life. The subject of higher consciousness and the associated realms is infinite and may be interpreted and experienced in as many ways as there are self-aware entities. In this and further articles I aim to draw from the experience of my personal journey with the purpose of inspiring others to reach more deeply into realms beyond the limitations of societal conditioning. The inspiration for my written work comes from aspects of my inner guidance, with no exclusive allegiance to any particular creed or dogma.

‘Expanding into higher consciousness’, briefly stated, describes the process of becoming one with the Source; completing the current evolutionary cycle, having gained experience that contributes to all of life. This journey is about progressively embracing Oneness. It does not necessarily imply that mastery has to be attained within all realms in order to live as a spiritually aware, universal being.

However, as implied in my previous article, the journey of conscious evolution does entail releasing (or healing) the limiting aspects of our conditioned existence, some of which include subconsciously motivated tendencies regarding our attitude and behavior. The journey involves enjoying the gifts and beauty that our earthly experience offers us and embracing the lessons that we receive from our lower nature. Nevertheless, it is also necessary to work with those aspects of the lower nature that might once have served us and now no longer serve, so that they might either be released, or transmuted and integrated – by choice. If not consciously worked with, unexamined tendencies can develop into what might be understood as compulsive behavior, or the creation of comfort zones beyond which it becomes progressively difficult to remain balanced and fulfilled.

Releasing the nature of being conditioned (including the inclination to subscribe to the culture of control) initially creates a vacuum that we are challenged to fill with new experience as we ascend the ‘ladder of awareness’, so that we align with the greater and more expanded aspect of our being – that which I refer to as the higher nature (and which some describe as the higher self). The higher nature (or higher self) is you, but ‘more’ of you.

I use the term ‘higher nature’ to convey the image of the expanded, inclusive self, which is connected to the Source of all of nature. This includes the nature of who it is that we are in this lifetime and beyond; in other words, that which we might describe as the eternal ‘soul self’. Therefore, the experience of the higher nature characterizes the evolving experience of the soul self in its awakened state, as we achieve this connection from our current perspective.

The deepening of the connection between the higher nature and the soul (or super-conscious) realms, and between the lower nature and the dense (or subconscious) realms is part of the goal towards which evolving consciousness aspires – via the bridging nature of the heart, which animates us and allows us to express who we are and aspire to be, with love, joy and dynamism.

Therefore, in becoming a bridge between realms, we are continuously challenged to release ourselves from the shackles created by conditioning that effectively holds many within society in a state of hypnosis. Empowerment involves change, upon change, upon change. That which resists the tide of evolution becomes stagnant and looses momentum – ultimately leading to a state of disempowerment.

The early steps require deliberately and meticulously becoming aware of each aspect of conditioning, and then actively releasing it; in so doing releasing ourselves into a freer and more expansive state of being. This journey, however, involves taking upon ourselves new and higher responsibilities – for freedom and responsibility are intricately linked. We cannot exist within our expanded, eternal state without exercising the choice to love, to care, to understand, to be mindful, and to practice compassion and discernment.

These are some of the contributing attributes that open the portal which beckons us onwards into a broader acceptance and experience of our universal nature; that we might thoroughly immerse ourselves in that which we came to explore as our birthright; in that which each soul has yearned to know – each doing this in their unique way. ‘Uniqueness’ characterizes and motivates the journey within the third dimension, and that very quality is diminished by many of the societal norms which pervade.

The act of embracing this new level of responsibility and experiencing the opening of the portal to ‘the beyond’, signifies the event of the conscious connection with our higher nature – or soul self. This is a significant initiation, a great celebration, experienced and described in different ways within various spiritual traditions. This initiation signifies expansion beyond superficial cultural boundaries. As we release limiting beliefs and reach through this portal into our greater, inclusive self, we remember and begin to experience ourselves as truly universal beings.

The journey through the portal involves the opening of the heart and an amplified experience of love. It also involves an enhanced perception of light and life, beyond that which is generally experienced from the perspective of the third dimension. We recognize that we are of that light and that the light is ‘of us’. This might be described as the light of Soul, the light of balance, or the light of unity. In truth, one of the great miracles of being self-aware lies in discovering the nature of the link between love and light within the context of our lives.

A key to understanding this process is that graduation through the portal is not about leaving something behind. It is about soul development, in which we retain the facilities that have been acquired within our lifetimes. We unite these facilities with those aspects that could not be expressed through us as material beings and therefore had to be left ‘in abeyance’. Thus we ‘re-member’ ourselves as expanded beings, within the sphere of enhanced experience that we have attained.

In recognizing and acknowledging this new experience, it becomes a beacon and progressively replaces our illusory third dimensional beacons. As we recognize the beacons presented to us in the context of our higher consciousness, so we have the opportunity to remember, and to weave their qualities into our every thought, word and deed. Our every-day experience and activities change, of necessity, in order to support this experience of expanded awareness.

We then naturally embrace areas of radical personal change, which includes our various practices and interests. We might choose to dedicate more time to solitude and adopt practices that support the understanding of particular aspects of life more deeply. For, the highest pursuit within the realm of our current experience is its in-depth exploration. Thorough involvement with the universal environment becomes our guiding practice. In exploring density, the subconscious mind and the diverse aspects of life that surround us, we discover who it is that we are as universal spiritual beings.

In taking these progressive steps, we engage opportunities that ultimately lead inwards towards to the attainment of Oneness (or unity consciousness), which is the balance between all things. We become balance. From having been entities who explore and study opposites, we become the resolve, we become the solutio leon.sacredcall@gmail.com.n – we become unity. Unity consciousness surrounds our universe; encompasses our universe. It is therefore available to us, as a parent’s love is available to the child.

In the state of unity consciousness we touch what might at best be referred to as the inner or ‘unspeakable’ realms, from where we are able to bring into our experience the change that we become – our knowing, our increased love, compassion and desire to create.

As we focus again on our outer day-to-day life and apply that which we have acquired, or remembered, our magnetism changes. Our energy changes and our abilities therefore change. Our attitude broadens enormously and thereby brings about a shift in our sense of inclusiveness. We are then also able to infuse many of our activities with conscious love – activities that previously might have been habitual. In doing this, our ‘beingness’ expands far beyond the physical body, so that we radiate as we involve ourselves in that which we recognize as our higher calling.

It is our birthright to be embraced by and embrace higher consciousness and, in so doing, bring forth our essence as universal creator beings.

Leon Lewis

Leon can be reached @

from:   http://www.spiritofmaat.com/apr12/expanding_into_higher_consciousness.html

Connection Sun-Moon-Earthquakes?

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Earthquake Sun Moon connection

Dr A Rajagopal Kamath
Freelance researcher in Astronomy and Cosmology.
Popular Science author in Malayalam
For the last two decades I am closely monitoring the occurrence of Earthquakes and its connection with the position of astronomical bodies like Sun and moon.
The following interpretations were arrived at, based on the study.
The occurrence of earthquakes in the earthquake vulnerable areas is more during the full moon days. Mainly, areas in the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, Andaman etc are most vulnerable for earthquake.The closeness of the moon during the lunar perigee phase ( perigee-closest to the earth ) trigger earthquakes near subduction zones. Subduction zones are areas where the tectonic plates slip under another plate thus creating a displacement. Java trench, where the boundary between Indo Australian plate and Eurasian plate is vulnerable for earthquakes. This resulted in the Sumatra earthquake.
The recent Japan earthquake occurred where the Pacific pate slips below north American plate.
Sun affects the earth in many ways. When there is full moon or lunar perigee, if a Solar flare occurs there is strong chance for an earthquake in earthquake vulnerable areas where strain is accumulated in the subduction zones where the tectonic plate boundary lies.
As I said earlier Solar flares trigger earthquakes. . A solar flare is a large explosion in theSun‘s atmosphere. Solar flares affect all layers of the solar atmosphere (photosphere,chromosphere, and corona), heating plasma to tens of millions of kelvins and acceleratingelectrons, protons, and heavier ions to near the speed of light. Sun is getting violent duc to the condition called the approach of Solar maxima which is from 2011-2013.
Please note that the 2004 Dec 26 earthquake was preceded by a prominent solar flare
Similarly the Japan earthquake of March 11 2011 was preceded by a solar flare.( report on solar flare attached. Link is given below.
The position of moon affects the formation of tides. The earth’s interior is in liquid form. That liquid is also vulnerable to the moon’s pull. This pull results in the displacement of tectonic plates, resulting in earthquakes. So if there is a full moon or new moon approaching and if a solar flare occurs then there is chance for an earthquake.
Points
Dec 26 2004 was full moon day. Sumatra earthquake( magnitude 9.3) occurred on that day.
Sept 30 1993 the day before full moon day. Deadly earthquake in Latur( magnitude 6.2)
Oct 23 1991 two days before full moon. Deadly Uttar Kasi earthquake ( magnitude 6.6)
March 27 1964 Alaska earthquake ( magnitude 9.2) occurred before the full moon day.
Nov 21 1833 Sumatra earthquake( Magnitude 9.2) two days later was the full moon day.
Feb 27 2010 Chile earthquake(( Magnitude 8.8) next day was full moon day.
On Jan 19 2011 Pakistan earthquake occurred. It was fullmoon.
Feb 22 2011 Newzealand. Feb 18th was full moon
Now full moon is approaching and it is the time for the SUPER MOON. That is moon is closes to the earth on 19th . It will be less than around 358000 Kms from the earth.
This approach of the moon is the reason behind the occurance of March 11 Honshu earthquake and the fore shocks and after shocks.
There is a chance for a major earthquake especially in the plate boundaries in the Pacific and near Java trench ( Indonesia)during this period. Indian subcontinent is also vulnerable.