Need a shot of confidence before your head out to an interview, call a client or ask someone out a date? As we all know, confidence is key to success! When we feel powerful, we are more successful in all endeavors.
While confidence comes naturally for some people, for others it is a less-than-usual state of being. However, even if you currently lack confidence there are some tricks that anyone can use that can inspire confidence. Here are a few:
1. Remind yourself of your finer qualities:
Poor self-esteem often occurs when we beat up on ourselves for all of the things we dislike about ourselves. Create a daily routine whereby you list out all of the things you like about yourself in order to focus more deeply on what makes you proud to be you.
2. Use powerful body language:
Hold your head up high and stand tall. Avoid crossing your arms and legs and instead allow your body to open up and take up space. Confidence people display this type of body language, and by using this body language ourselves, we can trick ourselves into feeling more powerful. Try this out next time you are walking in a crowd, and see how much more confident you feel!
3. Project your voice:
Allow yourself to speak a little louder, and with more bass in your voice. Speak from the bottom of your chest and project your voice a bit. As with the body language, we can fake it till we make it by using a “confident voice.”
4. Practice yoga, tai chi, martial arts, or any exercise that fosters a mind-body-spirit connection:
Exercises like these strengthen the body and the mind simultaneously, and can have a profound effect on how physically (and mentally) powerful we feel.
5. Take a few risks:
Confident people are willing to take risks and go after the things they want in life. To be a more confident people, we must first act as if we are confident, so why not take a few more chances? Start with small risks (perhaps like talking to someone new, or trying out a new hairstyle) then move to more challenging risks when you feel ready. When we take small risks we have the opportunity to learn that we can put ourselves out there a little more and things will still be ok!
6. Listen to empowering music:
There’s a reason why you hear motivating music at football games and other athletic events- it makes the athletes feel powerful! Find some songs that make you feel powerful and listen to them whenever you need a quick shot of confidence.
7. Watch inspiring shows and movies:
Like songs, movies and shows can also inspire confidence and motivation. Select a program about someone who has achieved great things in life, or a story about underdogs or superheroes.
By immersing ourselves in confidence-inspiring behaviors along with motivating music and entertainment, we create a more powerful sense of self, and this helps us evolve into more confident people. Even if we are not “naturally” confident, we can become confident through our actions and choices.
So, the next time you want to feel powerful, try out a few of these tricks. They really work!
Between 1900 and 2015, there have been more than 10,000 “strong” quakes around the world
(Richie Carmichael)
Since 1900, there have been more than 10,000 “strong” earthquakes—with magnitudes of 6 or greater—around the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But what exactly does that look like?
Richie Carmichael, a software developer at Esri, a company that provides geographic information system (GIS) software, has created a visualization of all that seismic activity: an interactive 3-D globe. Using data from USGS and Wikipedia, Carmichael plotted where and how large earthquakes were in any given year between 1900 and 2015.
“A 3-D display is uniquely suited to representing global phenomena,” says Carmichael in an email. “Print and digital 2D maps are often truncated on or near the poles and close the international date line. With a globe it is possible to view quakes in the polar regions and pacific without page breaks.”
Users can rotate the virtual globe to see a specific area, and filter the data by the largest or deadliest earthquakes, as well as by the cause of the quakes—like those brought on by nuclear activity.
In the chart below the globe, the clustering of dots—each dot representing one event—seems to suggest that earthquakes are becoming more frequent. Indeed, a recent study by USGS researchers found that there were more than twice as many “large” earthquakes (defined here as magnitudes 7 or above) in the first quarter of 2014 than there were back in 1979. The planet saw a record number of earthquakes last April, with 13 quakes with magnitudes of 6.5.
“We have recently experienced a period that has had one of the highest rates of great earthquakes ever recorded,” according to Tom Parsons, a research geophysicist at USGS.
But this doesn’t mean “The Big One” is coming. Most researchers agree that the frequency spike is most likely random. Plus, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an uptick in quakes: between 1950 and 1965, the earth shook more than usual, too. As the USGS explains, “A temporary increase or decrease in seismicity is part of the normal fluctuation of earthquake rates. Neither an increase or decrease worldwide is a positive indication that a large earthquake is imminent.” In fact, Parson’s study shows that since 1979, the average rate of major earthquakes has been roughly 10 a year.
What has increased, however, is the quality of surveillance. The USGS has more than 2,000 seismic sensors—many of which are in the U.S—and the agency plans to eventually establish a network of more than 7,000 sensors in the U.S. alone. That will allow for denser coverage in at-risk urban areas. To better track quakes outside of the U.S. border, the agency has tapped into the power of Twitter, monitoring tweets to detect quakes in as little as 29 seconds after an event.
As detection has become more advanced, so has earthquake-resistant technology. Recently, a San Francisco hospital became the first U.S. building to use a thick goo that can absorb 80 to 90 percent of an earthquake’s energy. And in India, civil engineers are testing the use of old crushed tires to strengthen the base of buildings to reduce vibration. Their test has shown that when the rubber is mixed with sand, it’s possible to improve seismic resistance by as much as 50 percent.
This is a good thing, since Bill McGuire, a professor at the geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, suggests that the ever-changing climate could very will shake up the Earth more in the future. As temperatures rise rise—along with sea levels—more stress will be put on the crust of the Earth:
GPS measurements reveal that the crust beneath the Greenland ice sheet is already rebounding in response to rapid melting, providing the potential—according to researchers—for future earthquakes, as faults beneath the ice are relieved of their confining load. The possibility exists that these could trigger submarine landslides spawning tsunamis capable of threatening North Atlantic coastlines. Eastern Iceland is bouncing back too as its Vatnajökull ice cap fades away. When and if it vanishes entirely, new research predicts a lively response from the volcanoes currently residing beneath. A dramatic elevation in landslide activity would be inevitable in the Andes, Himalayas, European Alps and elsewhere, as the ice and permafrost that sustains many mountain faces melts and thaws.
“The bottom line is that through our climate-changing activities we are loading the dice in favour of escalating geological havoc at a time when we can most do without it,” he concludes. We best speed up those tests on infrastructure that can resist quake damage—especially in cities.
Portals appear in many books, movies and video games. Some of them connect distant places, others travel back or forward in time, and the most powerful ones bridge into different dimensions. Most people suppose these gateways exist only in the realm of mysticism or science fiction, but there are some who strongly believe that portals have been opened up in ancient times and, quite possibly, even in the present day.
According to two National Security US Informants, the Department of Defense developed time travel technology over 40 years ago. As early as 1967, the US government was using a fully operational time travel facility built on Tesla-based quantum access. This technology has been used to keep the construction of military installations secret, as well as provide political and economic advantages by way of knowing what the future holds. Some say the CIA confiscated Tesla’s papers on teleportation shortly after his death.
One of these two National Informants, Michael Relfe, is a former member of the US armed forces who claimed he was a member of a top-secret US operation. He was recruited in 1976 and spent the next 20 years helping maintain and expand one of the two or more US colonies on Mars. Those bases served as strategic research points and defense objectives, and in order to preserve their secrecy, they were built in the future.
Relfe said that after serving 20 years on the Mars colony as part of their permanent team, he was age-reversed and sent back in time. He claimed that this was the usual procedure and that staff members would have certain memories blocked or erased before being discharged.
Dr. Andrew D. Basiago was a participant in DARPA’s Project Pegasus (1968-1972) that focused on time travel in the time-space hologram. He claimed that the CIA was actively training groups of gifted American schoolchildren to become the first generation of time-explorers.
Children were better suited for this mission for several disturbing reasons. First of all, they were considered ideal candidates due to their clear minds and lack of impressions or experience. The US government was interested in the effects of time travel over young bodies and minds. The adult volunteers usually became insane after several journeys. Fortunately, naive children had little former experience and beliefs that could drive them mad.
Another use for quantum technology was found in political control. According to Dr. Basiago, future persons of interest would be notified early about the roles they were to play in the future. He said that in the early 1970’s in Albuquerque, New Mexico he was present at a lunch at which George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were informed of their future presidencies.
Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were also paid visits and in 1982, President Obama was rumored to be approached while still a student at UCLA. To further this claim, there are many first witness accounts from people who attended college with Obama that can attest that he would often get drunk at parties and then claim that he would be the future President of The United States. Was this certainty not based on predisposed knowledge?
Basiago claims that in 1971 he viewed images from the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. They had been obtained from the future and brought back for analysis. This implies that the US government knew about 9/11 three decades in advance.
According to the informants and those who support them, this technology is held secret despite being funded by the public. It is also not the first time these missions have been kept declassified because of their immense potential. They say that the people deserve to know what is really going on, the truth about space exploration and the presence of humans on other planets. Teleportation could solve transportation problems worldwide by moving people and goods instantly. It would also immediately help to destroy the current tyrannical power pyramid that is in place.
If they’re right, we’re missing out on some revolutionary insight. To what extent can the Government manipulate our past, present and future lives?
(Truthstream Media) This is a follow up to a report we did back in 2013 on an alarming piece of footage.
It was a national anthem sign-off of The Star Spangled Banner with hidden subliminals to “obey government” among other things straight out of the John Carpenter film They Live.
The clip supposedly came from a film reel found by an employee at a local Alabama TV station. While it appears authentic for the time period, and intact (as in, the subliminals weren’t just edited over an existing film), others have called it a hoax for various reasons ranging from it just seems too “on-the-nose” to “subliminals don’t work so why would they bother”.
Well, a few more things have come to light surrounding that video which lend a little more credence to the belief that it might, in fact, be real.
The Congressional Subcommittee on Transportation, Aviation and Materials held a hearing dedicated to subliminal communication technology. Entered into the record are several interesting tidbits.
First, it’s noted in a Southern California Law Review on Congressional Record that:
According to previously classified documents, the CIA tested subliminal manipulation in movie theatres during the late 1950’s and in a document on these studies speculated “that subliminal projection can be utilized in such a way as to feature a visual suggestion such as ‘Obey [deleted].’”
Wow. Sounds strikingly like the anthem video.
The CIA was talking about putting “OBEY” into a subliminal AND they were already testing subliminals in movie theaters in the U.S. in the late ’50s when the national anthem video would have been created for testing.
Keep in mind, the national anthem video, the declassifed CIA documents, and even the hearing before Congress all occurred before the film They Live was released.
The document goes on to mention:
The Central Intelligence Agency has investigated the possibility of using subliminal communication to implant suggestions or commands, to reduce a subject’s resistance to hypnosis or to affect political outcomes.
and
Recently declassified materials document CIA interest in subliminal communication during the late 1950’s. These documents suggest that government use of subliminal techniques could proliferate and yet remain undisclosed for national security reasons. Therefore, the extent and types of uses to which subliminal communication devices are being put may never be completely determined.
Subliminal technology used by the government is a matter of “national security”. Good to know.
Also interviewed by Congress at the hearing was Dr. Hal C. Becker, president and founder of a company called Behavioral Engineering Corporation, who sold little black boxes to corporations which played behavior-influencing subliminals mixed with music at a level so low, people wouldn’t consciously hear it. The box played the subliminals at the rate of 9,000 times an hour, telling people things like “I will not steal” to cut down on shoplifting or “I love real estate” for employees at a real estate office for example. Over and over and over… 9,000 times an hour.
He calls it “Subliminal psychodynamic activation”.
Some 50 businesses were using these black boxes at the time of the Congressional Hearing, and Becker had even sold one of his devices to an unnamed NFL team to encourage the players to win games.
Dr. Becker was quoted by a 1979 Time Magazine article as saying, “I see no reason why there won’t be audio-conditioning in the same way we now have air conditioning.”
It should also be noted that Dr. Becker has an extensive CV that involves working with known MKUltra-funded Dr. Robert G. Heath, a man who experimented extensively with psychosurgery and implanted electrodes into people’s brains to control their emotions.
Becker began his career as a research associate in the MIT Radiation Lab during the last three years of World War II — a prime time to get involved in secret government projects considering the Manhattan Project was going on at that time and MIT was definitely involved. Becker became an instructor of physics at Tulane University just after that as the national security complex was being erected and the Cold War began. He worked alongside Dr. Heath, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Tulane, throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Becker, in fact, has co-authored numerous papers with Heath, including one titled, “Methods of Stimulation Control and Concurrent Electrographic Recording” published in Electrical Stimulation of the Brain, Subcortical Integrative Systems.
But I digress…
Some people say subliminals don’t work, so who cares if the CIA was experimenting with subliminals added to a national anthem sign-off.
We care that the government was involved in doing this at all.
Beyond that, people with a resumé like Dr. Becker has don’t spend decades of their life pursuing a completely useless technology.
Obviously, at some level, it did work. At some level, it does work.
‘Heal All’ Herb Used For Centuries For About Every Ailment Known To Man
Prunella Vulgaris has a long history of medicinal use. It shows antiviral and antibacterial properties, and in China it is used as an anti-cancer drug. It can also be used for the prevention and treatment of cognitive impairments associated with Alzheimer’s disease or schizophrenia.
Prunella vulgaris var. lilacina Nakai (Labiatae) is commonly known as the ‘self-heal’ herb or heal-all. It is widely distributed in Europe, Asia and North America.
Daily consumption of extracts from Prunella vulgaris var. lilacina may enhance cognitive function in lab mice, says a new study from South Korea. It is often found growing in waste ground, grassland, woodland edges, usually on basic and neutral soils.Once proclaimed to be a Holy herb and thought to be sent by God to cure all ailments of man or beast, and said to drive away the devil, which lead to the belief that Heal-All was grown in the Witches garden as a disguise. The root was used to make a tea to drink in ceremonies before going hunting by one Native American tribe to sharpened the powers of observation.
Heal-All is edible and medicinal, can be used in salads, soups, stews, or boiled as a pot herb. Used as an alternative medicine for centuries on just about every continent in the world, and for just about every ailment known to man.
Prior to World War II, it was used to staunch bleeding and for treating heart disease. A decoction of the leaves was used to treat sore throats and internal bleeding. Although in western medicine it is used externally for treating minor injuries, sores, burns, bruises, it has far more powerful applications therapeutically.
The plants most useful constituents are Betulinic-acid, D-Camphor, Delphinidin, Hyperoside, Manganese, Oleanolic-acid, Rosmarinic-acid, Rutin, Ursolic-acid, and Tannins. The whole plant is medicinal as alterative, antibacterial, antipyretic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, astringent, carminative, diuretic, febrifuge, hypotensive, stomachic, styptic, tonic, vermifuge and vulnerary.
A cold water infusion of the freshly chopped or dried and powdered leaves is a very tasty and refreshing beverage, weak infusion of the plant is an excellent medicinal eye wash for sties and pinkeye.
It is taken internally as a medicinal tea in the treatment of fevers, diarrhoea, sore mouth and throat, internal bleeding, and weaknesses of the liver and heart. Clinical analysis shows it to have an antibacterial action, inhibiting the growth of pseudomonas, Bacillus typhi, E. coli, Mycobacterium tuberculi, which supports its use as an alternative medicine internally and externally as an antibiotic and for hard to heal wounds and diseases. It is showing promise in research for cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and many other maladies.
Cognitive Enhancements
New data from scientists from Kyung Hee University and CJ Foods R&D indicated that two weeks of intake of the ‘heal-all’ extract was found to directly or indirectly activate the NMDA receptor in nerve cells, which is linked to synaptic plasticity changes.
“The results of present study demonstrate that the sub-chronic administration of [the standardized ethanolic extract of Prunella vulgaris var. lilacina] EEPV enhanced cognitive performance in the passive avoidance task in normal naive mice,” they wrote in Phytotherapy Research .
“To our knowledge, the present study marks the first report of the role of EEPV in cognitive improvement resulting from adult hippocampal neurogenesis and the activation of various signaling cascades.”
Commenting on the potential bio-actives, the researchers point to rosmarinic acid as the key mediator of cognitive improvement.
“You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop, and what you reinforce.” ~Tony Gaskins
I highly value being loyal, honest, empathetic, and supportive. I am also partial to advocating for the underdog. As a result, I have historically attempted to be a ‘hero’ in situations of difficulty, tension, conflict, or stress.
I take pride in being the person who others can turn to for support, guidance, and empathy after an upsetting experience.
When a friend was going through a troublesome period, I literally dropped everything to race to her and give her a hand. I drove her everywhere when her car was destroyed in an accident. I sat with her in the car for hours each day and listened to her troubles in the driveway when dropping her home.
I often answered the phone late at night when this friend was having a crisis. I barely spent time with my husband as I tended to her needs, even when our marriage began to show cracks as a result.
I would fall prey to her criticisms and insults when she was distressed and seemingly needed a ‘punching bag,’ or when I didn’t respond as quickly or as perfectly as she desired. I regularly defended her behavior and tried to cheer her up when she questioned her value as a friend, in an attempt to help her feel better.
I convinced myself that it was a stage that she was going through and that she needed my support—that despite the emotional manipulation and unreasonable expectations—a good friend would stick by her, no matter what. Besides, she was a beautiful person and a wonderful friend in many respects.
When another friend wanted to provide a quote on a personal project, despite my intuition warning me against mixing friendship with business, I proceeded out of concern that I’d offend him if I did otherwise.
When he made a number of errors and contradictions, was significantly late with his submission, and quoted a much higher figure than initially indicated, I continued to reinterpret his behavior and make excuses for him.
Even upon first hearing that he had then proceeded to lie about conversations and events to others, my initial reaction was to defend him and make excuses for how he might have been misled by other influences (when this was very unlikely to be the case).
When a single friend who liked to frequently sleep with different women who he met at a bar each weekend suddenly got upset by the fact that he hadn’t met his soul mate, I’d regularly open the door to him at three in the morning if he wanted to have a drunk DMC about his life and situation.
When a man came at my friends and I with a baseball bat in a Melbourne train station, I tried to reason with him and determine why he was so worked up and how I could help deflate that— before my friends dragged me away to safety in disbelief.
I could provide many more examples of where I have put the needs of others before my own, to the point where I have been hurt or experienced significant difficulty. I bet that if you’re still reading this article, that you can do the same.
I thought I was being a loyal, giving, and kind person who continuously chose to see the good in people. I took pride in this, and identified with it being a core part of who I was. But then I started to notice a painful pattern.
My own health, happiness, needs, and desires were continuously neglected. I was so busy helping others that prioritizing my own needs wasn’t possible.
I implicitly told people that I didn’t have boundaries, so it was understandably a shock to the system when I tried to put them in place at a later date.
I also demonstrated that I held an impossible expectation for myself to be perfect in a relationship, and people started to hold me to that level of perfection and expect it from me 100 percent of the time (even when they did not hold their own behavior to anywhere near the same level or quality that they expected from me).
And what hurt most of all is that I started to notice that people often didn’t do the same for me. They didn’t risk putting their neck out on the chopping board and they certainly didn’t hang around to fight for our relationship when even the slightest bit of difficulty appeared. When I started to better manage my own energy and space, they would ‘dump’ me in a flash.
I suddenly realized that I needed to change.
I needed to respect and value myself and my needs more. I needed to make me a priority. I needed to stop being a martyr. I needed to introduce and maintain boundaries.
I needed to find a way to balance being big-hearted, loyal, and generous with taking care of myself and protecting my own energy and interests.
It was a difficult period—a period of adjustments and lessons, that are still continuing to a lesser degree. But at the end of the day, my increased emphasis on taking care of myself was not only good for me, but also for the people that truly loved and valued me.
But how could it be a good thing, you might ask? You lost friends, you suffered, you learned that many people you loved wouldn’t be there to back you up when you needed them. How is that a good thing?
Please, let me explain. When I ‘lost’ or better managed those who drained energy from me and disregarded perfectly reasonable personal boundaries it:
Freed up more time for me to support and enjoy the company of those who did respect, value and cherish me—those who were uplifting and supportive
Led to me respecting, valuing, and honoring myself and my own needs more, which allowed me to feel more energized, vibrant, happy, healthy, and ‘on purpose’ than ever before
Allowed me to learn more about myself and what I valued in a relationship and to be more cautious about spending time with people who didn’t align with these values
Helped me further fine-tune the art of boundary setting, a skill that I believe can impact on your life in so many ways
Encouraged others to start treating me with more respect
Inspired others to start taking better care of themselves and their needs too
Helped me learn how to say no and to ask for help—two valuable skills to have in your internal wellness toolkit
The above are only examples, of which I am sure there are many more, of the benefits I have experienced from setting boundaries and learning to prioritize myself and my own needs.
Now this might sound great in theory, but I know from personal experience how difficult it can be to start setting boundaries and to prioritize your own needs, desires, and dreams. Some suggestions to help you get started include:
1. Begin to take notice of who you spend your time with and how they make you feel.
Do you enjoy their company? Do they make you feel supported and uplifted? Do they bring you joy? Or do they deflate you? Make you feel bad about yourself and your character? Suck the energy from you? Perhaps it is time to consider how you manage your time with these people in the future.
2. Take time out to reflect on and identify your own needs, desires, and dreams.
Do you have a self-care and me-time practice? Do you make time for activities that you enjoy? Do you feel satisfied with your work, home life, health, or other areas that you value? Commit to making a conscious effort to start prioritizing these areas more in your life.
3. Actively look for ways to make time for you.
What can you organize or change in your schedule to make this happen? Where can you find efficiencies or introduce systems that will make time for you? Where could you ask for help or delegate work or tasks to free up time? What items can you cull from your to-do list in order to drop some balls and pick up the self-care ball?
4. Practice saying no.
Putting a stop to the automatic “yes machine” and learning to say no are vital steps for setting boundaries and learning to place more value on yourself, your time, and your desires.
Learning to say no can take practice. I suggest that you start with a ‘buying time’ script, where instead of responding with a clear “yes” or “no” straight away, you tell people that you are busy and that you’ll check and get back to them. This buys you time to formulate a more considered response in line with your own needs and desires.
At the end of the day, please remember that you matter. Your life matters. Your needs and desires matter. And when you take care of yourself, you are in a much better position to be of service to others and the world.
In finishing, I’d love to leave you with a quote from Dodinsky that sums up one of the main points of this article: “Be there for others, but never leave yourself behind.”
These five facts will inspire you to ditch refined, processed flour for good.
Refined, white flour is one of the main perpetrators to many modern-day diseases of affluence. It is now well known that white flour spikes the blood sugar, is devoid of most nutrients, and can block the internal villi in the intestinal membrane, contributing to ailments such as leaky gut syndrome (a root symptom to many ‘diseases’ today).
But those aren’t the only ill effects caused by consuming a diet high in refined foods which include white flour. Following are 5 shocking facts about white flour that will inspire you to switch to whole, unprocessed foods for good.
1) White Flour Has NO Nutrients
Because foods have been processed and refined, manufacturers have to fortify certain nutrients (which your body does not metabolize and utilize as efficiently as when derived from whole foods) because they no longer contain them! Concerning white flour and bread(s), when the wheat seed’s bran is removed, it’s six outer layers and the germ (which contains 76%) of the vitamins and minerals is lost. 97% of the dietary fiber is also removed, which is why constipation and cancer of the bowel are so prevalent in ‘developed’ nations.
In addition, processing and bleaching white flour removes ALL of its vitamin E, 50% of its calcium, and 70% of its phosphorous, iron, magnesium, and B vitamins.
So what you’re paying for when you spend less on white bread and baked goods is… literally nothing. Except a hefty healthcare bill down the road if you don’t start consuming real foods right now.
2) Carcinogen Potassium Bromate Is Added – You Don’t Want This
Once all the layers, nutrients, and fiber are removed, flour is bleached, preserved and aged with chlorine dioxide. Manufacturers continue to further refine it by adding chalk, alum, and ammonium carbonate to make it seem more appealing texture-wise and visually.
Unfortunately, they then add potassium bromate to the mix. This ingredient is a very powerful oxidizer that damages cells. Potassium bromate is also considered to be a category 2B carcinogen (= possibly carcinogenic to humans), as classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Banned in most developed countries in 1994 (including all countries in the European union, UK, and Canada – but NOT in the United States), it is an ingredient every household should avoid.
3) White Flour Is A Natural Insecticide
Like harmful glyphosate-containing insecticides produced by Monsanto, white flour will KILL bugs that creep into bags of it and begin to consume it.
It KILLS bugs that attempt to live off of it. What could make one think it’s ideal for human consumption, then?
4) Contains The Amino Acid L-Cysteine
Yes, you need amino acids (the building blocks of protein) to survive, but this non-essential amino acid is introduced to most conventional baked goods only to speed industrial processing. Perhaps this is also another link in the huge allergy epidemic many people experience in the US when they consume baked goods, but not in Europe where more quality and care is given to producing food.
L-cysteine is found in most pizza doughs, cookies, pastas, pastries, and fast food buns. While it can be produced for cheap, more economical sources include duck feathers and human hair. Other L-cysteine sources include chicken feathers, cow horns, and petroleum byproducts. Most L-cysteine sources also come from China, where there is a history of poor regulation.
We don’t know about you, but that’s disgusting.
5) White Flour Is A Known Contributor To Diabetes
Diabetes has quickly become a global epidemic, and it is now predicted to become the 7th leading cause of death by the year 2030. The ‘disease’ is largely caused by a diet high in refined foods (including baked goods made from white flour and artificial sweeteners), not enough fiber, and less than the daily recommendation of unprocessed fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens.
One way white flour is a main contributor to this disease of affluence is that it contains the ingredient alloxan, which is what makes bread look fresh and clean. Studies show, however, that alloxan destroys the beta cells of the pancreas. In fact, the effects of alloxan are so severe, the Textbook of Natural Medicine calls the chemical “a potent beta-cell toxin.”
Unfortunately, the FDA still deems this ingredient to be “safe,” and, therefore, companies continue to use it and include it in many foods. Yikes.
According to research done by Dr. Gary Null, however, which is documented in the Clinicians Handbook of Natural Healing, vitamin E effectively protected lab rats from the harmful effects of administered alloxan. That means, fortunately, that it is possible to reverse the dreadful effects caused by alloxan production.
First step: ditch all white flours from your diet; second step: start eating more almonds, avocado, and healthy sources of fat with abundant stores of Vitamin E. You’ll likely notice your skin improves from these added nutrients, as well.
All in all, refined, white flour is utilized in many products of today because it is cheap. But if there’s anything that should be common sense by now, it should be the understanding that there are no shortcuts in life. The human body hasn’t even fully adapted from the inclusion of grains in the last 10,000 years; and now, it’s quite evident that a diet of processed, refined junk (including refined sugar and white rice) is devastating to the system.
There’s been a lot of buzz about pot and wine recently. It’s hard to separate the toga party contingent’s thirst for a potion into which two psychoactive substances have been crammed, from the more sober, scholarly consideration of the 3,700+ year history of fortifying wine with cannabis. And the allegedly potent healing powers of cannabis-wine are almost always overlooked, advocates complain.
Come on. Isn’t pot-wine just an elevated partying tool? Or can it actually help people who suffer from various maladies? Also – is it any good? And where can we get it?
Historically, wine fortified with cannabis hasn’t been guzzled at the average Thirsty Thursday happy hour. Instead, pot-wine has been consumed during religious rituals and used as a form of anesthesia in surgery. Yes, it’s that powerful.
Records of the marijuana plant being utilized for medicinal purposes date back to the 28th century B.C. In China during the second century A.D., archeologists found records showing that the founder of Chinese surgery, Hua T’o, used wine fortified with cannabis resin to reduce pain during surgery.
Religious initiates of various stripes also drank psychoactive wine as part of their practice. Participants in the Eleusinian Mysteries (initiations held yearly for the cult of Demeter and Persephone in ancient Greece) and early Christians (including, allegedly, Jesus Christ) are two of the most noted groups of cannabis-wine enthusiasts, but far from the only ones, according to Carl Ruck, a professor of classical studies at Boston University. He coined the use of the term “entheogen” when discussing the use of psychoactive substances during sacraments to free the topic “from the pejorative connotations for words like drug or hallucinogen.”
And unlike the sophomoric Cheech and Chong-esque cackles of glee greeting most discussions of weed-wine, the professor’s pronouncements on the subject are refreshingly staid, reeking more of damp tweed than patchouli oil. The tradition of adding “fortifying herbal additives to wine [have been] documented by archaeological evidence” he says, noting that “entheogens were at the very origin of religion.”
Don’t worry: not everyone whipped out the pot-wine for the E.R., temple and church, even back in the day, Dr. Ruck explains. There were a few Bronx agers who are thought to have used pot-wine as a shortcut to fun. (Toga! Toga! Toga!)
A personal wine cellar in a palace in modern day northern Israel was discovered a decade ago. Dating back to 1700 B.C. it’s the oldest (and probably the coolest) cellar that has ever been found, with a personal stash of more than 500 gallons of wine (it would fill about 3,000 modern bottles) infused with cinnamon, honey, mint and … psychotropic resins.
About 572,762 Californians are thought to be card-carrying cannabis users (out of a population of more than 38 million).
And though he refrained from commenting on the “advisability” of renewing the practice of brewing weed-wine, he did say that “cannabis would be one of the less dangerous additives” to make a comeback, of which there are a few other less promising entries in the wine fortification market. “Evidence for the additives comes from folkloric traditions and the practice is apparently often employed in the making of home brews,” Professor Ruck explains. “One with salamander venom is marketed in the Balkans. Modern Greek retsina is fortified with toxic terpenes.”
Let’s all agree to forget the salamander venom Balkan wine, shall we? Unless you’re up for making a home brew yourself, Marijuana wine is (somewhat) available and legal in America, and probably will become increasingly so in the years to come. (About 53% of Americans support marijuana legalization now, compared to roughly 42% of Americans in 2010, according to Pew Research). Four states – Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska – and the District of Columbia have passed measures legalizing marijuana use, 14 states have decriminalized certain amounts of possession and 23 states plus D.C. have legalized medical marijuana.
While the exact recipes for the pot-wines of yore aren’t available, a commonly used manufacturing method now is cold-pressed, never heated. It may not have the exact psychotropic effect one would expect. Instead, cannabis acts more like an herb would, adding depth of flavor and structure to wines. Melissa Etheridge, who became an unlikely, vociferous advocate of medical cannabis after going through a bout of chemotherapy, has created a line of pot-wine through Greenway in California, called “No Label.”
In California, it’s legal to possess and cultivate cannabis for personal medical use given the recommendation or approval of a state-licensed physician. Patients are commonly issued a cannabis ID card. About 572,762 Californians are thought to be card-carrying cannabis users (out of a population of more than 38 million). Greenway, founded in 2005 in Santa Cruz, the first dispensary in California to be backed by both the city and the state, embraces both the medicinal and the recreational possibilities of cannabis, and is at the forefront of making cannabis consumption as delicious and sophisticated as possible.
“Cannabis is highly medicinal,” Lisa Molyneux, Greenway’s founder-farmer says. “And even when people think they are just using cannabis recreationally or to relax, it probably has an underlying medical or psychological component. Personally, I abhor grain alcohol. Many years ago, I tried cannabis-infused wine that a winemaking friend of mine made for his own personal consumption and I loved it. I got the recipe from him and I started working on my own batch seven years ago. As it turns out, I misunderstood his directions, but even he agrees that my results are better.”
Ms. Molyneux’s products – which consistently win accolades from patients and the press, including coveted awards in the annual High Times Cannabis Cup – come in many forms, including edibles, concentrates, balms and capsules. Her cannabis-wine, developed for her own personal use initially, became a secret cult favorite among California’s in-the-know cannabis consumers who are more interested (or at least just as interested) in the medical uses of the plant as they are in the blissed-out high the toga contingent is after.
Getting the benefits of cannabis from edibles and tinctures are popular alternatives to just smoking the stuff, but Ms. Molyneux’s disdain for the taste and effects of grain alcohol prompted her to try to get her wine tincture on the market, especially when Melissa Etheridge got ahold of her brew and approached her about turning it into the first commercial cannabis-wine available in the U.S. The Grammy-award-winning singer-songwriter is eagerly embracing her role as a “ganjapreneur” and it’s hard to think of a better place on earth than California to launch another wine revolution. California wines are known for their robust, daring flavors and vertiginously high alcohol content (consumers are demanding fuller-bodied flavors from wines, so producers are leaving grapes on the vine for longer to ripen, which ends up imparting more flavor but also packing more alcohol) and California culture is known for it’s paradoxically assertive and laid-back approach to launching and then dominating new, upstart markets and ideas. And winemakers in Northern California have allegedly been making it for decades – it was probably just a matter of time before someone canny capitalized on the opportunity.
“I am a wine-lover and I truly believe that a glass of wine a day can be medicinal too,” she explains. “The problem is, few people stop at one, so the health benefits kind of fly out the window when you’re downing three or four glasses a night. Once I got clearance from my legal team and was able to sell a wine tincture at Greenway, I heard from a lot of wine-loving customers that two ounces of the tincture was all they needed to get the relaxing effects of wine. Ironically, my wine tincture is probably helping people drink and smoke less!”
It tastes just like wine, but you get the herbal kick in the back of the throat from the cannabis.
Ms. Molyneux, who grows Greenway’s roughly 20 strains of cannabis in her backyard in Santa Cruz herself using organic, sustainable growing methods, pairs carefully selected “hybrid” strains with specific varietals. (At last check on Leafly, there were 1,548 strains of cannabis, categorized as Indica, Sativa or hybrid). She has been making cannabis-wine for several years, but because it’s so expensive and time-consuming (her secret recipe and method involves barrel-aging and extraction for about one year), she can only experiment with pairings and batches one barrel at a time; still, at any time, she has about a dozen different tinctures to choose from, and she always has core customer favorites (hers is the Syrah and the Viognier, Ms. Ethridge’s is the Grenache, she believes) on tap.
Every strain of cannabis, like any herb, imparts different flavors and Ms. Molyneux pairs them accordingly with Pinot Noir, Syrah, Cabernet, Grenache, Chardonnay and Viognier varietals (she uses grapes from wine-makers who grow their grapes organically, but she won’t reveal their names and says that in five years she hopes to have her own organic wine vineyard). Ms. Molyneux says always use hybrid strains because many people report anxiety or rapid heartbeat after consuming sativa strains and pure indica strains can have a somnolent effect.
“Because of the way I make the tincture, it’s much better for you medicinally than grain alcohol tinctures, and it tastes incredible,” she says. “It tastes just like wine, but you get the herbal kick in the back of the throat from the cannabis. The process of making the wine tincture is also superior to grain tinctures because it’s not heated, it’s just cold-pressed, so the slow process of extraction reacts differently in your body. The TCH in the cannabis isn’t activated in the same way as it is in edibles and tinctures that are heated. It’s slower, longer lasting, and more subtle. You won’t feel the euphoria, it’s more like a full-body and mind happy relaxation. My patients with sleep issues, gastro-intestinal problems, especially Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and anxiety problems have told me that the tincture has helped them enormously. Seriously, two ounces at dinner is perfect, and while it won’t make you sleepy, people tell me it delivers the best night of sleep four hours after drinking it that they’ve had in years.”
Anytime a rock star is involved in marketing a legal drug, interest, both genuine and of the gawking variety, will ensue. Ms. Molyneux reports that they’ve had so many inquires from the whole state, her legal team is currently focused on how to ensure that more people in California can legally access it. “It’s a gray area,” she sighs.
But while her lawyers attempt to slash through the red tape cordoning off intra-state cannabis-wine transportation, Ms. Molyneux is tinkering with a new pet project: “I’m working on a cannabis beer now!” she exclaims. “So far, I’ve made an IPA and a Kolsh, both were incredible. Of course, I am only making them in 40-bottle batches and everyone’s mad at me for not making a larger sampling. As soon as it goes through corporate, I should have some on the shelf.”
The beer will likely be much less expensive than the wine, which averages about $16-$20 an ounce, with a six-ounce minimum purchase. “The cold-extraction cannabis drink is seriously the best way to enjoy your meds,” she says. “It really is just a matter of time I think before other makers around the country will be finding ways to get wine and beer tinctures on the market. It will be good for everybody.”
Ms. Molyneux’s recipe is proprietary, and more than likely requires more gear and know-how than home vintners can muster. While we would never encourage illegal activity, DIY cannabis wine-making is a thing, and recipes are available online, most of which point to an original piece in The Daily Beast. It’s not as simple is garnishing a glass of Syrah with a bud. Aspiring cannabis wine-makers have to actually make wine because it’s the fermentation process that extracts the THC from the wine. Here’s a quick guide:
1. Buy a kit, available online or in home brew shops.
2. Drop 1 lb of cannabis into a cask of fermenting wine. The fermentation process converts the sugar in the grapes into alcohol, and the alcohol extracts THC from the cannabis.
3. Wait a minimum of 9 months before bottling.
4. What you do with that wine when it’s finished is between you, your doctor and your toga.
So many forecasts for rain in the US West no longer develop. In recent years this scenario has become the rule, not the exception. The stated purpose for “solar radiation management” (SRM) is to block the sun with light scattering particles and thus to create as much atmospheric haze or cloud cover as possible (no matter how toxic that cloud cover is). Excessive atmospheric particulates cause profound disruptions to precipitation. All too often in recent years, rain that should have fallen in the US West has consistently been blocked by two primary means, atmospheric aerosol saturation and the “ridiculously resilient ridge” of constant high pressure that has been consistently maintained over the US West. This scenario has been used to keep the Eastern US cooled down at the cost of catastrophic drought and heat in the West.
The engineering of the “polar vortex” cool-downs of the Eastern US was repeated again and again during the winter of 2014-2015
This GISS global surface temperature map reflects “departure from average high temperatures” for a two year period from 2013 to 2015. The extremely anomalous below average temperatures stand out with glaring clarity in the eastern half of rhe North American continent
When moisture is allowed to flow over the West, it is commonly scattered by the jet aircraft aerosol spraying assault. This spraying creates too many cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). When the quantities of CCN’s are too high, moisture droplets cannot combine and fall as rain, thus the moisture just continues to migrate.
The images shown are the same, only different filters are used. The public is generally not shown any photos with enhanced infrared imaging as the clearly visible spraying would likely create great concern with the population which the power structure is trying desperately to avoid.
Geoengineering is causing catastrophic drought and fire activity. How consistently and aggressively have the climate engineers suppressed desperately needed precipitation from the US West? How much of the moisture that should have fallen in the West was blocked by engineered high pressure domes and/or migrated over the West to the East by constant and extensive aerosol spraying? The must see 1 minute video animation below clearly illustrates with shocking clarity the effects of the scenarios just described.
Video credit: Grace Raver/ NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
How catastrophic are the drought conditions in the Western US? The drought monitor map below shows conditions that are already unprecedented and getting worse by the day.
Homeopathy is here to stay. Despite relentless criticism from skeptics and fundamentalists, homeopathy has withstood the test of time.
“…and this little piggy cried, woo woo woo, all the way home.”
Since its inception over 200 years ago, homeopathy has been the target of almost constant antipathy from the prevailing school of orthodox medicine. Given so much organized resistance from the mainstream, one would think that if homeopathy were much ado about nothing it would not have endured. It would have withered on the vine a long time ago. And yet it has persisted. No, it thrives—all across the globe—for a number of very good reasons.
When a German physician named Samuel Hahnemann discovered that a miniscule dose of a medicinal substance designed to mimic the symptom pattern of a sick person could paradoxically provoke a healing response in that same person, a medical revolution was set in motion. Dr. Hahnemann referred to this surprising phenomenon as the law of similars. As opposed to the conventional medical approach, which uses opposites to combat symptoms (antidepressants, anti-inflammatories, antihistamines, anticonvulsants, etc.), homeopathy represents a different approach to healing, one that uses “likes to cure likes.”
The standard treatment for a bee sting or a case of poison ivy might involve the use of an antihistamine to suppress the inflammatory swelling, redness, and itching. A homeopathic practitioner, on the other hand, might recommend a highly diluted dose of a medicine made from the honeybee in the former case, and a similar dose of a medicine made from the poison ivy plant in the latter. It’s a little bit like the use of anti-venoms to treat snakebites, only the doses used in homeopathy are much smaller.
The homeopathic principle of similars can be used to treat not just physical illness, but also mental and emotional issues. For example, in my own practice I have used homeopathic doses of a plant called Stramonium to successfully help hundreds of children who had suffered from nightmares, were afraid of the dark, and were unwilling to be alone at night. Ingesting Stramonium in its crude form can induce a type of delirium characterized by severe agitation and a tremendous state of fear. In its homeopathically diluted form, it is the antidote to similar states of fear and agitation. It can be a lifesaver for these kids and their families.
In its heyday in the latter half of the nineteenth century, there were more than 100 homeopathic hospitals in the United States, 22 homeopathic medical schools, 700 homeopathic physicians in New York State, and thousands more across the country. Homeopathy in the U.S. experienced a decline in the early 1900s, largely due to increased regulatory pressure from orthodox medicine. The same lack of vision regarding the future of health care is not necessarily true of other countries. Today, there are well over 200,000 homeopathic practitioners in India alone. Is it possible that so many doctors and patients could be wrong about a medical therapy that they rely upon for their own personal health and well-being? I think not.
Criticism of homeopathy
In spite of the remarkable growth of homeopathy and the testimony of millions of satisfied patients who swear by its effectiveness, critics insist upon spreading a number of unsubstantiated falsehoods regarding this unique healing modality. The worst offenders are the ones who call themselves scientific “skeptics.” Although they claim to speak for science, their willful refusal to consider the facts exposes them as anti-scientific defenders of scientistic dogma. Their pathological disbelief in all things holistic and unconventional is a violation of the open-minded spirit of genuine scientific inquiry.
Let me be clear; for those who seek to discredit homeopathy purely out of bias there should be no obligation on the part of homeopathy to defend itself. It is a waste of energy to quarrel with a relatively small band of medical fundamentalists who wish to argue their case using disingenuous tactics. The truth of homeopathy stands on its own merit for any open-minded individual to examine for him or herself.
Nevertheless, I will venture to answer skeptic’s criticisms for the benefit of innocent bystanders, many of whom are puzzled by the Salem Witch Trial-like atmosphere that surrounds homeopathy. Let’s examine these objections to homeopathy one by one and see how they stand up to scrutiny.
Objection 1. The principle of similars is not logical. It does not make scientific sense.
Some object to homeopathy on the grounds that treating an illness with a substance that can cause symptoms similar to that illness just doesn’t make sense. They fail to grasp that this is essentially the same idea behind many allopathic therapies including allergy shots and vaccines. The same principle applies to stimulant drugs used to treat hyperactive children. Amphetamine analogs like Ritalin and Adderall are known to have a paradoxical calming effect on the nervous systems of children with ADHD. The difference is that while these conventional treatments involve crude and potentially toxic doses that are administered uniformly to all individuals, homeopathy tailors its treatment to each individual with doses that are far smaller and, therefore, far safer.
Skeptics tend to dismiss homeopathy due to its so-called “implausibility.” This is a fancy way of saying that, given our current understanding of biology, it is not plausible to assign a cause-and-effect relationship between homeopathic doses and their observed effects. This is really just a tautological argument—a bogus use of logic—employed by skeptics to deny the validity of a phenomenon that medical science cannot explain in conventional medical terms. In essence, the claim is that, since homeopathy cannot be explained, it therefore cannot be possible. If we were to adopt this attitude toward all new unexplained medical phenomena, then medicine would remain forever static and impervious to change. The implausibility argument amounts to nothing more than a ridiculous self-fulfilling defense of conventional medical dogma.
Objection 2. Homeopathic doses are too small to have any effect. They are nothing more than placebos.
Homeopathy-hating skeptics love to mockingly claim that homeopathic medicines are nothing but water. After all, they surmise, if these medicines are diluted to the extent that homeopaths claim, then they must be devoid of all medicinal properties. Any observed effects are assumed, therefore, to be placebo effects.
Now, this might be true if homeopathic medicines were just another class of conventional drugs. Drugs are pharmaceutical grade chemicals that act on a biochemical level to alter or arrest physiologic processes. Although homeopathic remedies are regulated by the FDA as if they are drugs, no homeopath believes that they act in the same manner as conventional drugs.
Unlike drugs, which must often be taken on a regular basis to maintain their suppressive effects, homeopathic remedies act as bioenergetic catalysts designed to provoke a healing response from the life force. Dr. Hahnemann, himself, attributed all genuine healing to the innate wisdom of the “vital force.” Homeopathy is based upon a stimulus-response model of treatment. An effective prescription acts as a stimulus that initiates a self-healing reaction from the bioenergetic field of the human organism. Once a healing response has begun, there is no need to repeat the stimulus unless its effect begins to wear off.
Although analysis reveals the presence of material nanoparticles in homeopathic medicines, their impact on the life force is a bioenergetic one, not a material one. The bioenergetic strength of a remedy is not something that can be measured in quantitative terms. It is an energetic property that is gauged by the intensity, depth, and duration of effect that it has upon the living organism. As an energetic phenomenon, the mechanism of action of homeopathy is best studied by medical professionals with backgrounds in physics.
Chemical drugs have a reputation for the side effects that they can produce. As chemicals, their sphere of action and the extent to which they can influence biological systems is limited. Homeopathic remedies, on the other hand, can have a powerful and far-reaching energetic effect on the entire system. Those who insist that homeopathic medicines are placebos because there is “nothing there” make the mistake of applying a biochemical model to a bioenergetic therapy. They simply do not know what they are taking about.
Objection 3. Homeopathy is not scientific.
It’s not hard to see how someone who thinks that all medicinal agents must act on a biochemical basis, according to the tenets of mechanistic medicine, would automatically assume that homeopathy is unscientific. But this would be a naïve conclusion based on lack of information. When critics who have already made up their minds hear that homeopathy is really a form of energy medicine, their eyes start to glaze over and they begin to chant that familiar mantra, “woo woo, woo woo.”
The great irony is that most diagnostic imaging is energy-based. MRIs, CT scans, ultrasound testing, and thermography all involve energetics. They are made possible thanks to physics. I don’t hear critics crying, woo woo, over MRIs and CT scans. Even a treatment like radioactive iodine therapy, used to destroy the thyroid gland in cases of hyperthyroidism, is an energetic intervention. While radioactive iodine is an example of the destructive use of energy, homeopathy represents the cutting edge of the constructive use of bioenergetics designed to improve health and promote healing. Those who claim that homeopathy is unscientific because it is based upon bioenergetic principles demonstrate their lack of scientific understanding.
Homeopathic methodology itself is the very definition of scientific method. Medicinal substances are gathered and their capacity to cause symptoms in the human organism is studied. These substances are administered in diluted form to volunteers who are not told what they are receiving. The symptoms reported by these study subjects are then recorded in great detail. The symptomatic profile of each medicine is developed and documented in reference texts called materia medicas. Highly diluted doses of these medicines are then given to sick persons who exhibit similar symptom profiles. The responses are noted and used to confirm the symptom profiles of these substances and to expand the database of information regarding their uses.
In this sense, homeopathy is the most empirically reliable medical methodology ever devised. It is based upon direct experience and real time, real life clinical outcomes and patient feedback. Just because the mechanism of action of homeopathy is as of yet undetermined does not mean that it does not qualify as a science. No scientist in his or her right mind dismisses an unusual phenomenon simply because it cannot be explained. Homeopathy utilizes a sound scientific methodology that can yield remarkable results.
Objection 4. There is no scientific evidence to support homeopathy.
This particular objection to homeopathy is perhaps the most egregious of all. It is simply untrue. By any objective standard, it is a flat out falsehood. There is a growing mountain of research that demonstrates the positive benefits of homeopathy. Nevertheless, diehard skeptics who show no interest in factual evidence continue to spread lies to the contrary. When you hear the statement that there is no scientific evidence in support of homeopathy, you know you are dealing with someone who is either uninformed, willfully ignorant, a scientific zealot, or a mercenary for PhRMA.
Many who insist that there is no evidence are usually just parroting propaganda that they’ve heard elsewhere. At best, a skeptic will acknowledge the existence of a particular homeopathic study, only to then nitpick over the supposed flaws in that study. This is a common tactic employed by fundamentalist devotees of scientism. In any event, the studies are there to examine for all who are genuinely interested. A small sampling of homeopathic research references is provided at the end of this article.
When it comes to medical research, there are some real issues worth discussing. One such issue is the increasing unreliability of scientific studies, which are often funded and conducted by vested interests. When drugs approved by the FDA are taken off the market with such regularity, then the research that justified their approval in the first place must be called into question.
Another problem is the way in which we define scientific evidence itself. Modern scientists have convinced themselves that experiential evidence is not real evidence. Patient’s reports of their own experiences and physician’s firsthand observations of the patients that they treat have somehow become second-class forms of evidence. Skeptics tell us that this type of evidence is merely “anecdotal.” We are supposed to believe that direct firsthand experience is inferior to the abstract statistical data produced by modern research trials. A belief like this can only come from armchair quarterbacks who are out of touch with patient reality. As far as I am concerned, I glean far more practical information from individual patient case studies than from artificially homogenized trials involving large groups of patients.
It appears that the Emperor of Research is wearing no clothes. Society as a whole is dazzled by quantitative data—and seems to have lost its capacity for common sense and sound judgment. We have been bamboozled into believing that our own experiences cannot be trusted. This, to me, is the true crisis engendered by modern medicine. Its misguided beliefs regarding experiential evidence have had a dehumanizing and disempowering effect on doctors and patients alike.
This issue is particularly important to homeopathy because it is an empirical science. In other words, it places a great deal of emphasis on patient experience. Homeopathic evaluations are heavily influenced by the subjective information provided by patients regarding their own perceptions of their illnesses. The standards of evidence used by homeopathy are much broader than those of conventional medicine. Homeopathy is more inclusive because, in addition to research findings and objective diagnostic information, it respects the value of subjective patient input.
Conventional medicine places much higher value on objective factors like lab results and imaging tests. It shows little interest in the subjective evidence that is so important to homeopathy. However, none of this mitigates the fact that there are numerous conventionally designed clinical trials that point to the benefits of homeopathy.
Objection 5. Homeopathic treatment is dangerous because it prevents patients from obtaining the “real” medical care that they need.
This objection is just another red herring. Homeopathic treatment is known for its lack of side effects and unparalleled safety record. When compared side-by-side, allopathic medicine is far more prone to iatrogenic dangers including allergic reactions, side effects, adverse events, and complications.
Furthermore, the course of illness is not always predictable. Even a well-chosen antibiotic, for example, may not work, during which time the patient’s condition can worsen. A doctor may diagnose indigestion in a patient who later turns out to have appendicitis. These types of events occur all the time. And they can happen to practitioners of all stripes; allopathic, homeopathic, and otherwise. All practitioners have patients who take turns for the worse, and who get sick in spite of their best efforts. To argue that this is unique to homeopaths is ludicrous.
The reverse is also true. I have seen my share of patients who, in my medical opinion, could have avoided the side effects and complications from various drugs or surgical interventions had they chosen to consult me for homeopathic care in the first place. In fact, homeopathic physicians have an advantage in the sense that they have training in both conventional and homeopathic approaches. As it turns out, “real” medical care is not the exclusive province of orthodox medicine.
Homeopathy is here to stay
In spite of relentless opposition, homeopathy has withstood the test of time. It continues to endure deliberate misinformation campaigns designed to undermine its good reputation. Hard core skeptical ideologues hurl epithets like “junk science” and “pseudoscience.” Much of the rhetoric coming from these anti-homeopathy mercenaries amounts to defamation of character. They need to be identified for who they are and held accountable for their libel and slander. These self-proclaimed defenders of science are the most unscientific hucksters of all.
Homeopathic remedies are manufactured by legitimate pharmacies, regulated by the FDA, and in popular demand among consumers. But few U.S. physicians show any interest in learning about how homeopathy can help their patients. Furthermore, the corporate medical establishment views homeopathy as competition. PhRMA can’t own homeopathic medicines exclusively because they cannot be patented. You can draw your own conclusions about the motivating reasons behind FDA and FTC’s recent scrutiny of the marketing of homeopathic products.
Homeopathic medicines are exceptionally safe precisely because the material quantities involved are so minute. As such, the likelihood of an allergic reaction or adverse event is virtually nil. One can quibble over whether homeopathic medicines act as bioenergetic catalysts or whether the life force is a real thing or not. It doesn’t really matter, because the final results are what count. Millions of doctors and patients around the globe can attest to the positive benefits of homeopathic treatment.
As bioenergetic catalysts, homeopathic remedies have broad and all-encompassing effects on human health. Homeopathy is truly holistic because it acts on the whole person. Because homeopathic remedies have such deep effects, they are capable of getting to the root of chronic health problems. When a homeopathic remedy gets to the root of a problem, the life force ceases to generate symptoms because there is no further need to call attention to the problem.
Homeopathy is safe, inexpensive, and effective. It represents the cutting-edge of Space Age futuristic medicine precisely because it transcends the pitfalls of material medicine. In the immortal words of Bones McCoy, “I’m a doctor, Jim, not a car mechanic!”
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There’s been a lot of buzz about 
The Grammy-award-winning singer-songwriter is eagerly embracing her role as a “ganjapreneur” and it’s hard to think of a better place on earth than California to launch another wine revolution. California wines are known for their robust, daring flavors and vertiginously high alcohol content (consumers are demanding fuller-bodied flavors from wines, so producers are leaving grapes on the vine for longer to ripen, which ends up imparting more flavor but also packing more alcohol) and California culture is known for it’s paradoxically assertive and laid-back approach to launching and then dominating new, upstart markets and ideas. And winemakers in Northern California have allegedly been making it for decades – it was probably just a matter of time before someone canny capitalized on the opportunity.
