Myths We Live By

Posted on July 27, 2018 by marcia

American Society Would Collapse If It Weren’t for These 8 Myths

Our society should’ve collapsed by now. You know that, right?

No society should function with this level of inequality (with the possible exception of one of those prison planets in a “Star Wars” movie). Sixty-three percent of Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency. Yet Amazon head Jeff Bezos is now worth a record $141 billion. He could literally end world hunger for multiple years and still have more money left over than he could ever spend on himself.

Worldwide, one in 10 people only make $2 a day. Do you know how long it would take one of those people to make the same amount as Jeff Bezos has? 193 million years. (If they only buy single-ply toilet paper.) Put simply, you cannot comprehend the level of inequality in our current world or even just our nation.

So … shouldn’t there be riots in the streets every day? Shouldn’t it all be collapsing? Look outside. The streets aren’t on fire. No one is running naked and screaming (usually). Does it look like everyone’s going to work at gunpoint? No. We’re all choosing to continue on like this.

Why?

Well, it comes down to the myths we’ve been sold. Myths that are ingrained in our social programming from birth, deeply entrenched, like an impacted wisdom tooth. These myths are accepted and basically never questioned.

I’m going to cover eight of them. There are more than eight. There are probably hundreds. But I’m going to cover eight because (A) no one reads a column titled “Hundreds of Myths of American Society,” (B) these are the most important ones and (C) we all have other shit to do.

Myth No. 8—We have a democracy.

If you think we still have a democracy or a democratic republic, ask yourself this: When was the last time Congress did something that the people of America supported that did not align with corporate interests? … You probably can’t do it. It’s like trying to think of something that rhymes with “orange.” You feel like an answer exists but then slowly realize it doesn’t. Even the Carter Center and former President Jimmy Carter believe that America has been transformed into an oligarchy: A small, corrupt elite control the country with almost no input from the people. The rulers need the myth that we’re a democracy to give us the illusion of control.

Myth No. 7—We have an accountable and legitimate voting system.

Gerrymandering, voter purging, data mining, broken exit polling, push polling, superdelegates, electoral votes, black-box machines, voter ID suppression, provisional ballots, super PACs, dark money, third parties banished from the debates and two corporate parties that stand for the same goddamn pile of fetid crap!

What part of this sounds like a legitimate election system?

No, we have what a large Harvard study called the worst election system in the Western world. Have you ever seen where a parent has a toddler in a car seat, and the toddler has a tiny, brightly colored toy steering wheel so he can feel like he’s driving the car? That’s what our election system is—a toy steering wheel. Not connected to anything. We all sit here like infants, excitedly shouting, “I’m steeeeering!”

And I know it’s counterintuitive, but that’s why you have to vote. We have to vote in such numbers that we beat out what’s stolen through our ridiculous rigged system.

Myth No. 6—We have an independent media that keeps the rulers accountable.

Our media outlets are funded by weapons contractors, big pharma, big banks, big oil and big, fat hard-on pills. (Sorry to go hard on hard-on pills, but we can’t get anything resembling hard news because it’s funded by dicks.) The corporate media’s jobs are to rally for war, cheer for Wall Street and froth at the mouth for consumerism. It’s their mission to actually fortify belief in the myths I’m telling you about right now. Anybody who steps outside that paradigm is treated like they’re standing on a playground wearing nothing but a trench coat.

Myth No. 5—We have an independent judiciary.

The criminal justice system has become a weapon wielded by the corporate state. This is how bankers can foreclose on millions of homes illegally and see no jail time, but activists often serve jail time for nonviolent civil disobedience. Chris Hedges recently noted, “The most basic constitutional rights … have been erased for many. … Our judicial system, as Ralph Nader has pointed out, has legalized secret law, secret courts, secret evidence, secret budgets and secret prisons in the name of national security.”

If you’re not part of the monied class, you’re pressured into releasing what few rights you have left. According to The New York Times, “97 percent of federal cases and 94 percent of state cases end in plea bargains, with defendants pleading guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence.”

That’s the name of the game. Pressure people of color and poor people to just take the plea deal because they don’t have a million dollars to spend on a lawyer. (At least not one who doesn’t advertise on beer coasters.)

Myth No. 4—The police are here to protect you. They’re your friends.

That’s funny. I don’t recall my friend pressuring me into sex to get out of a speeding ticket. (Which is essentially still legal in 32 states.)

The police in our country are primarily designed to do two things: protect the property of the rich and perpetrate the completely immoral war on drugs—which by definition is a war on our own people.

We lock up more people than any other country on earth. Meaning the land of the free is the largest prison state in the world. So all these droopy-faced politicians and rabid-talking heads telling you how awful China is on human rights or Iran or North Korea—none of them match the numbers of people locked up right here under Lady Liberty’s skirt.

Myth No. 3—Buying will make you happy.

This myth is put forward mainly by the floods of advertising we take in but also by our social engineering. Most of us feel a tenacious emptiness, an alienation deep down behind our surface emotions (for a while I thought it was gas). That uneasiness is because most of us are flushing away our lives at jobs we hate before going home to seclusion boxes called houses or apartments. We then flip on the TV to watch reality shows about people who have it worse than we do (which we all find hilarious).

If we’re lucky, we’ll make enough money during the week to afford enough beer on the weekend to help it all make sense. (I find it takes at least four beers for everything to add up.) But that doesn’t truly bring us fulfillment. So what now? Well, the ads say buying will do it. Try to smother the depression and desperation under a blanket of flat-screen TVs, purses and Jet Skis. Nowdoes your life have meaning? No? Well, maybe you have to drive that Jet Ski a little faster! Crank it up until your bathing suit flies off and you’ll feel alive!

The dark truth is that we have to believe the myth that consuming is the answer or else we won’t keep running around the wheel. And if we aren’t running around the wheel, then we start thinking, start asking questions. Those questions are not good for the ruling elite, who enjoy a society based on the daily exploitation of 99 percent of us.

Myth No. 2—If you work hard, things will get better.

According to Deloitte’s Shift Index survey: “80% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs” and “[t]he average person spends 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime.” That’s about one-seventh of your life—and most of it is during your most productive years.

Ask yourself what we’re working for. To make money? For what? Almost none of us are doing jobs for survival anymore. Once upon a time, jobs boiled down to:

I plant the food—>I eat the food—>If I don’t plant food = I die.

But nowadays, if you work at a café—will someone die if they don’t get their super-caf-mocha-frap-almond-piss-latte? I kinda doubt they’ll keel over from a blueberry scone deficiency.

If you work at Macy’s, will customers perish if they don’t get those boxer briefs with the sweat-absorbent-ass fabric? I doubt it. And if they do die from that, then their problems were far greater than you could’ve known. So that means we’re all working to make other people rich because we have a society in which we have to work. Technological advancements can do most everything that truly must get done.

So if we wanted to, we could get rid of most work and have tens of thousands of more hours to enjoy our lives. But we’re not doing that at all. And no one’s allowed to ask these questions—not on your mainstream airwaves at least. Even a half-step like universal basic income is barely discussed because it doesn’t compute with our cultural programming.

Scientists say it’s quite possible artificial intelligence will take away all human jobs in 120 years. I think they know that will happen because bots will take the jobs and then realize that 80 percent of them don’t need to be done! The bots will take over and then say, “Stop it. … Stop spending a seventh of your life folding shirts at Banana Republic.”

One day, we will build monuments to the bot that told us to enjoy our lives and … leave the shirts wrinkly.

And this leads me to the largest myth of our American society.

Myth No. 1—You are free.

And I’m not talking about the millions locked up in our prisons. I’m talking about you and me. If you think you’re free, try running around with your nipples out, ladies. Guys, take a dump on the street and see how free you are.

I understand there are certain restrictions on freedom we actually desire to have in our society—maybe you’re not crazy about everyone leaving a Stanley Steamer in the middle of your walk to work. But a lot of our lack of freedom is not something you would vote for if given the chance.

Try building a fire in a parking lot to keep warm in the winter.

Try sleeping in your car for more than a few hours without being harassed by police.

Try maintaining your privacy for a week without a single email, web search or location data set collected by the NSA and the telecoms.

Try signing up for the military because you need college money and then one day just walking off the base, going, “Yeah, I was bored. Thought I would just not do this anymore.”

Try explaining to Kentucky Fried Chicken that while you don’t have the green pieces of paper they want in exchange for the mashed potatoes, you do have some pictures you’ve drawn on a napkin to give them instead.

Try running for president as a third-party candidate. (Jill Stein was shackled and chained to a chair by police during one of the debates.)

Try using the restroom at Starbucks without buying something … while black.

We are less free than a dog on a leash. We live in one of the hardest-working, most unequal societies on the planet with more billionaires than ever.

Meanwhile, Americans supply 94 percent of the paid blood used worldwide. And it’s almost exclusively coming from very poor people. This abusive vampire system is literally sucking the blood from the poor. Does that sound like a free decision they made? Or does that sound like something people do after immense economic force crushes down around them? (One could argue that sperm donation takes a little less convincing.)

Point is, in order to enforce this illogical, immoral system, the corrupt rulers—most of the time—don’t need guns and tear gas to keep the exploitation mechanisms humming along. All they need are some good, solid bullshit myths for us all to buy into, hook, line and sinker. Some fairy tales for adults.

It’s time to wake up.

If you think this column is important, please share it. Also, check out Lee Camp’s weekly TV show “Redacted Tonight” and weekly podcast “Common Censored.”

Lee Camp

Lee Camp is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and activist. Camp is the host of the weekly comedy news TV show “Redacted Tonight With Lee Camp” on RT America. He is a former comedy writer for…

from: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/american-society-would-collapse-if-it-werent-for-these-8-myths/

GMO’s, Health, Survival

Posted on July 23, 2018 by marcia

THE PERIL ON YOUR PLATE: FILM EXPLORES THE HUMAN HEALTH EFFECTS OF GENETIC ENGINEERING AND CHEMICAL AGRICULTURE

June 27, 2018

Dr. Mercola, Guest
Waking Times

After being told by her doctor that genetically engineered (GE) food and pesticides could be responsible for her son’s food allergies, Ekaterina Yakovleva set out to investigate. Her quest for answers was captured by the Russian Times in the featured film, “The Peril on Your Plate: Genetic Engineering and Chemical Agriculture.”

The film shows Yakovleva and her team traveling the world to meet “the people who lift the lid on the perils of GMOs and the chemicals used in the industry,” as well as proponents of GMOs who argue that genetic engineering is a “high-tech” solution to feeding the world’s growing population. Advocates for genetic engineering tell Yakovleva that the technology is beneficial to farmers in that it increases resistance to pests and disease, as well as produces higher yields. But Yakovleva isn’t convinced.

She learns nothing could be further from the truth after witnessing the devastation caused by mass farmer suicides in India as a result of the failure of Monsanto’s Bt cotton. Yakovleva visits the U.K. where she meets Lady Margaret, Countess of Mar, a member of the House of Lords and a former farmer who suffered from chemical use, and then to the U.S. where she meets with Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America about the link between GMOs, pesticides and chronic disease in humans.

What Is Genetic Engineering?

In order to better understand genetic engineering and its impact on human health, Yakovleva starts to research the technique and how it’s used. She learns that genetic engineering enables DNA to be transferred not only between different kinds of plants, but even between different kingdoms, meaning scientists can take DNA from an insect or animal and insert it into the genome of a plant.

Many GMO proponents claim that genetic engineering is just an extension of natural breeding methods, and just as safe. Nothing could be further from the truth — on both counts. Genetic engineering is radically different from conventional breeding techniques used to improve a crop. For starters, it’s a laboratory-based technique allowing scientists to create a food that could never be created by nature.

Claire Robinson, editor of GM Watch and coauthor of the book, “GMO Myths and Truths: A Citizen’s Guide to the Evidence on the Safety and Efficacy of Genetically Modified Foods and Crops,” says:

US Leads World in GM Crop Production

Yakovleva learns that an estimated 190 million hectares (469.5 acres) of GE crops¹ — an area three times the size of France — are cultivated in 28 countries worldwide.² The U.S. leads the world in GM crop production, growing about 40 percent,³ while Brazil grows 27 percent and Argentina 13 percent. Canada and India each grow 6 percent.⁴ GE crops currently in production include squash/pumpkin, alfalfa, sugar beet, potato, papaya, rapeseed oil, corn, soy and cotton.

Monsanto, soon to forgo its name and merge with Bayer, controls a vast majority of GE crops including 80 percent of GE corn and 93 percent of GE soy in the U.S. The first GE crop to hit the market was tobacco. It was genetically modified in 1983 to be resistant to an antibiotic.⁵ It was later altered for other reasons, including to remove a gene that turns nicotine into a carcinogen in tobacco leaves,⁶and to increase the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.⁷

The first genetically engineered food crop was the Flavr Savr tomato, produced by Calgene, a California-based company later bought by Monsanto. The tomato was genetically modified to stay riper longer by inhibiting a gene responsible for producing a protein that makes a tomato soften.⁸ Calgene is reported to have been transparent in its marketing of the tomato, clearly labeling the product and adding an 800 number for people with questions. Monsanto later removed the Flavr Savr tomato from store shelves.

A Growing List of Countries Say No to GMOs

The film highlights regions that are completely GMO-free, including Romania, which stopped cultivating GE crops despite being the first country in geographical Europe to introduce them.⁹ Portugal and Spain have reduced the amount of areas under GE crop cultivation,¹⁰while a number have enacted a total ban including France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Greece, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Russia forbids GE crop cultivation,¹¹ but does not prevent GMOs from entering the country’s food chain, according to the film. Yakovleva travels to the Agrarian University in Moscow to meet GMO proponent Arkady Zlochevsky, chairman of the Russian Grain Union. She confronts him about the human health effects of eating GE foods.

“There is absolutely no risk to the human body associated with eating GM foods compared to traditional equivalents, not a single one,” he says, adding that GMOs are “high-tech” and have “significant advantages.” He even went so far as to say that glyphosate, the key active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, is safer than 100 percent manure.

Glyphosate Doubles as Herbicide and Suicide Poison in India

Unconvinced, Yakovleva travels to India where glyphosate doubles as a lethal human poison. The Punjab region, formally known as the bread basket of India, is now known for colossal suicides among farmers, particularly young farmers between the ages of 20 and 35.

Yakovleva meets with families of farmers who committed suicide. She learns that thousands of farmers have taken their own lives after agriculture corporations granted them loans they could never repay to purchase seeds and pesticides that ultimately failed to provide the profits that were promised.

Inderjit Singh Jaijee, chairman of Punjab’s Baba Nanak Educational Society, says farmers who commit suicide often take drugs, drink alcohol or even take a swig of glyphosate to muster up the courage to go through with it. Singh Jaijee, who is on a mission to raise awareness about the serious issue of suicides in Punjab, says that young farmers are more susceptible because they don’t yet have the experience older people do to survive.

Thousands of Indian Farmers Commit Suicide Over Faulty GE Crops

The amount of suicides in the Punjab region is so massive that some people are making a profit removing dead bodies from a local canal. Ashu Malik, an underwater diver, uses surveillance cameras to monitor the canal for floating bodies. If a body is not claimed, it’s placed back into the water, he says. Ending up in the canal as a result of suicide is so common in this region that families built a house on the canal’s shoreline for them to stay in while they search for their loved ones who are missing.

The exact number of suicides occurring annually in the Punjab region remains unknown. One estimation found the annual suicide rate to be about 2,200. However, Singh Jaijee’s research estimates it to be closer to 4,000 suicides per year, while farmer organizations estimate up to 6,000. Shocked by what’s become a normality for agricultural communities in India, Yakovleva interviews agricultural scientist Kiran Kumar Vissa to learn more about Monsanto’s Bt cotton, the crop responsible for placing so many farmers into debt.

Monsanto’s Bt cotton was marketed as a solution to the challenges faced by cotton farmers, many of whom were in crisis; however, it ended up causing farmers more problems. There are many places where Bt cotton is not suitable for cultivation, including dry, nonirrigated areas, explains Vissa. The packaging says that Bt cotton is suitable for both irrigated and nonirrigated conditions, but it’s not true, says Vissa, adding, that it’s deceptive to farmers.

Big Ag Uses Images of Rich, American Farmers to Sell GMOs Abroad

Next, Yakovleva meets with renowned scholar and environmental activist Vandana Shiva, who blames the mass suicides solely on the corporations that sell the seeds and chemicals. Monsanto spends huge amounts of money on advertising. Between the fiscal years 2011 to 2017, Monsanto spent more than $500 million on advertising worldwide.¹²

Shiva explains that seed and chemical agents show farmers in India images of American farmers with big tractors and promise them that if they just take this seed, which they can pay for later, they will be rich. But what they don’t tell the farmer is that they can’t save the seed and that it might fail because the seeds aren’t meant for dry, nonirrigated areas, says Shiva.

So, the farmer takes it on credit, not having a good understanding of the costs involved, and the seed fails, Vandana explains, adding that in two years’ time the agents who sold the seed and pesticide return and repossess the farmer’s land because he could not pay his loan. Shiva tells Yakovleva that she has personally spoken to widows whose farmer husbands committed suicide and when she asked what their debt was, they showed her packages of Monsanto’s Bt cotton seed.

Are Farmers Risking Their Health by Using Chemicals?

Yakovleva’s investigation proceeds to the U.K. where she meets with Lady Margaret, Countess of Mar, a member of the House of Lords and a former farmer who suffered from chemical use.

While serving organic tea and pudding, Lady Margaret says she had to give up farming after she was exposed to harmful chemicals while dipping sheep. The sheep dip contained organophosphates, the same class of chemicals to which glyphosate belongs. The chemicals are used as both flame retardants and pesticides. According to National Geographic:

Within weeks of being exposed, Lady Margaret says she began to suffer from intense fatigue and neurological problems. She even felt suicidal. At one point, she was forced to rely on an oxygen tank for up to 16 hours a day. Lady Margaret was ill for three years before doctors diagnosed her with organophosphate poisoning.

Most of Americans Have Glyphosate in Their Bodies

Humans are increasingly testing positive for residues of glyphosate.¹⁴ In tests conducted by a University of California San Francisco lab, 93 percent of the participants tested positive for glyphosate residues.¹⁵ In the European Union, when 48 members of Parliament volunteered for glyphosate testing, everyone one of them tested positive.¹⁶ Humans are exposed to glyphosate via the food they eat, the air they breathe, the water they drink and the lawns, gardens, parks and other environments they frequent.

What impact is this having on human health? To find out, Yakovleva and her team head to the U.S. to meet with Honeycutt, who blames chemicals in our food for the rise in chronic disease. A number of chronic diseases have been linked to pesticides, including autism, cancer, food allergies, endocrine disruption, diabetes and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.¹⁷

One in 4 females over the age of 30 now has a gluten intolerance, says Honeycutt; however, she believes it’s not gluten that’s the problem, but the glyphosate that’s applied to wheat as a drying agent prior to harvest.

“It’s destroying their gut lining. They can’t process it and then the body acknowledges it as a gluten intolerance,” says Honeycutt, adding that food today not only has more chemicals, but is also less nutritious. Chemical-intensive agriculture has depleted our soils of essential nutrients and has drawn out vitamins and minerals that make our food healthy, she adds.

Long-Term Safety Studies Are Sorely Lacking

Yakovleva and her team reached out to Monsanto regarding the public health concerns tied to its Roundup weed killer, but the company refused to comment, instead directing them to its website which, of course, states that all of their products are safe and environmentally friendly. The deceptive GMO talking points Yakovleva received from the seed and chemical industry failed to convince her that GE crops are safe for human consumption, as there’s no real evidence to support this claim.

While few in number, longer-term animal feeding studies have been published over the past several years showing there’s definite cause for concern. Liver and kidney toxicity and immune reactions tend to be the most prevalent. Digestive system, inflammation and fertility problems have also been seen. A major part of the problem is that safety studies conducted for regulatory purposes to gain market approval for a GE product are too short to show the damage that could occur from life-long consumption of the GE food.

Some independent studies looking at lifetime consumption of GMOs have found rather dramatic health effects, whereas the safety studies used to promote GE foods as safe have all been short-term. There seems to be an agreement among biotech scientists to not test GE foods longer than 90 days in rats, which is only about seven to nine years in human terms. That’s nothing when you consider the average human life span is somewhere in the 70s, and the current generation is fed GMO food from Day 1.

How to Protect Yourself From Toxic Agriculture

The biotech giants have deep pocketbooks and political influence and are fighting to maintain their position of dominance. At the end of the day, we must shatter Monsanto’s grip on the agricultural sector. There is no way to recall GMOs once they have been released into the environment. The stakes could not be higher. Will you continue supporting the corrupt, toxic and unsustainable food system that Monsanto and its industry allies are working so hard to protect?

For more and more people, the answer is no. Consumers are rejecting genetically engineered and pesticide-laden foods. Another positive trend is that there has been strong growth in the global organic and grass-fed sectors. This just proves one thing: We can make a difference if we steadily work toward the same goal.

One of the best things you can do is to buy your foods from a local farmer who runs a small business and uses diverse methods that promote regenerative agriculture. You can also join a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, where you can buy a “share” of the vegetables produced by the farm, so that you get a regular supply of fresh food.

I believe that joining a CSA is a powerful investment not only in your own health, but in that of your local community and economy as well. In addition, you should also adopt preventive strategies that can help reduce the toxic chemical pollution that assaults your body. I recommend visiting these trustworthy sites for non-GMO food resources in your country as well:

Organic Food Directory (Australia)	Eat Wild (Canada)
Organic Explorer (New Zealand)	Eat Well Guide (United States and Canada)
Farm Match (United States)	Local Harvest (United States)
Weston A. Price Foundation (United States)	The Cornucopia Institute
Demeter USA	American Grassfed Association

Monsanto and its allies want you to think that they control everything, but they are on the wrong side of history. It’s you, the informed and empowered, who hold the future in your hands. Let’s all work together to topple the biotech industry’s house of cards. Remember — it all starts with shopping smart and making the best food purchases for you and your family.

Biotech Companies Are Gaining Power by Taking Over the Government

to read the rest of the article, go to: http://www.wakingtimes.com/2018/06/27/the-peril-on-your-plate-film-explores-the-human-health-effects-of-genetic-engineering-and-chemical-agriculture/

How Safe is the Impossible Burger?

Posted on July 21, 2018 by marcia

News Release: “Bleeding” veggie burger has “no basis for safety,” according to FDA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Creators of a fake-meat burger made with a high-profile genetically engineered ingredient may have landed their experimental industry in a sizzling food safety mess, casting doubt on a Silicon Valley foodtech investor bubble.

As reported on in today’s New York Times, recently obtained documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reveal that Impossible Foods, maker of the Impossible Burger, the meatless burger that supposedly “bleeds,” was told by FDA officials that it hadn’t provided adequate proof of safety for a genetically engineered protein that gives the burger its meat-like taste and color. Impossible Foods put the genetically engineered product on the market for public consumption even though the company privately admitted to the FDA that it had not conducted or designed safety tests. The FOIA-produced documents state that the “FDA believes that the arguments presented, individually and collectively, do not establish the safety of SLH for consumption, nor do they point to a general recognition of safety.”

“The FDA told Impossible Foods that its burger was not going to meet government safety standards, and the company admitted it didn’t know all of its constituents. Yet it sold it anyway to thousands of unwitting consumers. Responsible food companies don’t treat customers this way,” said Jim Thomas of ETC Group. “Impossible Foods should pull the burgers from the market unless and until safety can be established by the FDA and apologize to those whose safety it may have risked.”

“Under no circumstances should any food company ignore FDA safety warnings and put consumers’ health at risk,” Dana Perls, senior food and technology campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “The FDA must be the authority when it comes to determining food safety, and that means overhauling the broken regulatory process so that companies like Impossible Foods cannot self-regulate and rubber stamp their products as safe.”

The FDA’s safety designation of “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) allows a manufacturer, like Impossible Foods, to decide for itself, without FDA input, whether or not a product is safe. The self-determination does not require notice to the public or the FDA, and may apply to food chemicals regardless of industry conflicts of interest, or whether the chemicals are new or not widely studied.

U.S. government documents, obtained by ETC Group and Friends of the Earth U.S. through the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that Impossible Foods was warned by FDA officials that its key genetically engineered ingredient, “soy leghemeglobin” (SLH), would not meet the basic FDA GRAS status. SLH, or “heme,” is a bio-engineered protein additive that adds meat-like taste and color. Impossible Foods recognizes that SLH has never been widespread in the human diet in its natural or genetically engineered form. Despite touting the color properties of the engineered “heme,” Impossible Foods did not seek FDA approval as a color additive, which has stricter safety regulations.

In discussion with FDA, Impossible Foods also admitted that up to a quarter of its “heme” ingredient was composed of 46 “unexpected” additional proteins, some of which are unidentified and none of which were assessed for safety in the dossier.

The case of Impossible Burger raises concerns that surpass this one patty and implicates the extreme genetic engineering field of synthetic biology, particularly the new high-tech investor trend of “vat-itarian” foods (meat, dairy, and other animal proteins grown in a biotech vat instead of from an animal). While Impossible Burger is the poster child for this vat-grown approach, other companies such as Perfect Day (synthetic biology cow milk) and Clara Foods (synthetic biology egg whites) appear also to be racing to market. Just as biofuels were pitched as a “clean tech” fix to climate change a decade ago, the vat-itarian venture capitalists are now attempting to capitalize on animal welfare concerns through “molecular farming.”

While the health and environmental damage caused by large-scale industrial livestock production should not be minimized, the success of non-animal burgers like the non-GMO Beyond Burger demonstrates that plant-based animal substitutes can succeed without resorting to genetic engineering.

A 2013 US National Survey by Hart Research found that 61% of respondents felt negative about synthetic biology-produced food additives. Polls also show that consumers increasingly want GMOs to be labeled as such, but so far, most companies selling products with synthetic biology ingredients, including Impossible Foods, are not labeling on the products or menus.

Friends of the Earth and ETC Group reached out last week to Impossible Foods, inviting the company to a discussion on the safety of the Impossible Burger.

###

Impossible Burger FOIA documents are available here.

For further information and analysis see ETC Group’s on-line searchable database of synthetic biology derived ingredients, including Impossible Food’s “heme”.

See Friends of the Earth’s blog on synthetic biology animal replacement products “Is ‘Food-Tech’ the Future of Food?” and website for additional information on synthetic biology’s risks to our health and environment.

from: http://www.synbiowatch.org/2017/08/bleeding-veggie-burger-has-no-basis-for-safety-according-to-fda/?lores

Are You Too Smart for Love?

Posted on July 21, 2018 by marcia

Your Level Of Intelligence May Be The Reason You Can’t Find Love

Being single doesn’t have to be a horrible experience. In fact, being single can be fun, but only if you know how to make the best of the situation. You don’t have anyone to slow you down; you don’t even have anyone to tell you what and when to do things.

While you are single, you will have all the time in the world to learn more about your self. Being single and being lonely are not synonymous. In actuality, someone who is involved in a relationship can be lonelier than people who are single.

Being single means you have time to understand your own inner thoughts. It means you have time to think about who is perfect for you.

If you are single, it means you are not rushing into a relationship. It means you are looking for the perfect match. When you are waiting for your better half, you can be single for a very long time.

You may go on frequent dates and not be able to find someone for you. You may even get the feeling that someone more special is bound to come into your life.

Intelligence is one of the things preventing you from settling down. The smarter a person is, the longer they go without settling down. This is because they are taking their time in finding their true love.

INTELLIGENT PEOPLE HAVE SELF-AWARENESS

An intelligent person’s self-awareness causes them to know what they like and dislike. They are able to tell faster than unintelligent people if they like someone.

This means they won’t spend a lot of time getting to know someone.

They will know after the first date if things are going to click or not. Intelligent people aren’t able to simply be with anyone: they require a real connection.

INTELLIGENT PEOPLE HAVE SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

Intelligent people already know what they are looking for in a partner. This means they aren’t getting to know a person they are dating. Instead, they are seeing if a person meets their criteria.

This can be an extremely long process. Someone that doesn’t meet these requirements won’t even get a second date from an intelligent person. These requirements range from interests to hobbies and all points in between.

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE CAN MATCH THEIR INTELLIGENCE

Having similar intelligence is an important part of getting along with someone. No one likes a know-it-all, and if you only date people below your own intelligence that is exactly what will happen.

An intelligent person wants a higher quality of conversation. Most people won’t be able to keep up with their conversational topics. Being attracted to someone is more than just physical: it is mental as well.

INTELLIGENT PEOPLE REQUIRE CONSTANT BRAIN STIMULATION

Boredom is a serious problem for someone of higher intelligence. Intelligent people lose interest after figuring something out.

They are ready to move on to something else once they have something down.

Intelligent people need to constantly be introduced to new ideas and thoughts. It can be hard to find someone with these same personality traits.

INTELLIGENCE IS A HEAVY BURDEN

Intelligent people tend to put a lot of thought into things. They like to spend a lot of time alone while analyzing their thoughts.

This can lead to them being reclusive. This is why intelligent people need someone who is similarly minded.

INTELLIGENT PEOPLE AREN’T EASILY TRICKED

An intelligent person needs someone who is honest. Intelligence has nothing to do with morality, but intelligent people are able to tell when someone is lying. A liar and an intelligent person simply won’t be able to get along.

Source: apost

from: https://gostica.com/love-vitamins/your-level-of-intelligence-may-be-the-reason-you-cant-find-love/

What’s Inside Your Head?

Posted on July 21, 2018 by marcia

The multi-dimensional universe hiding inside your head

A model from the Blue Brain Project describes the brain as being made up of ‘multi-dimensional’ geometrical structures and spaces

A fabric of complex structures in our brain could be the key to understanding how the organ works, according to a new study. It could even provide an answer to mysteries like where our memories are stored.

The human brain is one of the most complex structures in nature, and we are still a long way from fully understanding how it works. Now, a group of researchers from the Blue Brain Project is bringing us closer to this goal using complex computer models.

Its latest model describes the brain as being made up of ‘multi-dimensional’ geometrical structures and spaces.

“We found a world that we had never imagined,” said neuroscientist Henry Markram, director of Blue Brain Project and professor at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“There are tens of millions of these objects even in a small speck of the brain, up through seven dimensions. In some networks, we even found structures with up to eleven dimensions.”

The structures form when a group of neurons – cells that transmit signals in the brain – forms something called a clique. Each neuron connects to every other neuron in the group in a specific way, to form a new object.

The more neurons there are in a clique, the higher the ‘dimension’ of the object.

It is important to understand these structures do not exist in more than three dimensions in space. Only the mathematics used to describe them uses more than three dimensions.

“Outside of physics, high-dimensional spaces are frequently used to describe complex data structures or conditions of systems, for instance, the state of a dynamical system in state space,” professor Cees van Leeuwen, from KU ⁯Leuven, Belgium and reviewer of the paper, told WIRED.

“The space is simply the union of all the degrees of freedom the system has, and its state describes the values these degrees of freedom are actually assuming.”

“When you take a complex network like the brain, you try to associate some familiar objects with it so that you can try to understand what it does,” Ran Levi from Aberdeen University, who worked on the paper, told WIRED. “Without it, all you see is a mess of ‘trees’ i.e. neurons firing at what appears to be random patterns.

“What we did is we took the complex structure of the brain network and mapped it to this universe. thus picking up very precisely defined high dimensional objects that give us a key to understanding structure and function.”

The team used a mathematical branch called algebraic topology to model these structures within a virtual brain, generated using a computer. Experiments were then carried out on real brain tissue, to test the results.

When the researchers added a stimulus into the virtual brain tissue, cliques of progressively higher dimensions assembled. In between these cliques were holes, or cavities.

“The appearance of high-dimensional cavities when the brain is processing information means that the neurons in the network react to stimuli in an extremely organised manner,” said Levi.

“It is as if the brain reacts to a stimulus by building then razing a tower of multi-dimensional blocks, starting with rods (1D), then planks (2D), then cubes (3D), and then more complex geometries with 4D, 5D, etc. The progression of activity through the brain resembles a multi-dimensional sandcastle that materialises out of the sand and then disintegrates.”

The next step will be to see what practical role these structures play in the brain. For example, neuroscience has also been struggling to find where the brain stores its memories, and the holes could be a solution.

“They may be ‘hiding’ in high-dimensional cavities,” Markram speculates.

The research is published in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience.

from: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/neurons-multi-dimensional-network-brains

What’s Stopping You?

Posted on July 20, 2018 by marcia

The One Thing That Stops Each Zodiac Sign From Achieving Their Life Goals

July 19, 2018

We all have a life goal that we constantly dream about. Whether it’s big or small, it helps keeps us going and working hard at what we actually desire.

Whether we want to get a dream job, to master a skill, or even become Instagram famous, we all have that one life goal that we just have to achieve.

Yet, we often find ourselves feeling completely overwhelmed as it feels like the whole world is against us. It’s easy to get discouraged when everything isn’t going our way and we feel like we’re just never going to succeed.

It’s totally the worst feeling in the world and is the last thing we want to feel.

AQUARIUS: FEELING PRESSURED BY THOSE AROUND THEM TO NOT GO OUTSIDE THE BOX

As an Aquarius, you’re definitely fine in taking the back seat and just going with the flow. You have no crazy desire to do things your way and are fine following someone else’s orders since it’s much easier.

However, you’ve finally figured out your dreams and understand that you want something completely different from what the people around you want.

Yet, you’re so used to doing things with those around you it almost feels wrong to do your own thing. You feel pressured by others to stick to what you’re already doing and feel like you can’t grow.

It’s time you jump outside of the box and follow what you’re truly passionate about! You’ll feel so much better when you start to follow your dreams.

LIBRA: THE HARD WORK THAT GOES ALONG WITH IT

As a Libra, you’re so used to having a good time and hanging out with friends that the concept of hard work almost feels foreign to you. Even though you know what you want to achieve, and what you have to do to achieve it, you just don’t feel like putting in the necessary effort to get it done.

It’s time that you ditch your old ways and begin trying to figure out what you have to do to reach your goals.

You’re going to have to incorporate the element of hard work, even if you totally don’t feel like it. While it might not be glamorous and fun, it’s an absolutely necessary step in order to achieve your true dreams.

GEMINI: FEELING LIKE YOU’RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS

Even though you’re one of the fiercest and strongest Zodiacs out there, you’ve been way too hard on yourself lately. It feels like you just aren’t completely obsessed with yourself and don’t think you have what it takes to achieve your goals.

However, we’re here to tell you that we totally think otherwise and are completely positive that you have what it takes to reach any goal you set.

You have to take a look at all of the awesome qualities you have that will help you reach your dreams. It’s time you forget about everything you’re poor at, and triple down on the qualities you’re completely awesome at!

CAPRICORN: ALWAYS STRATEGIZING AND PLANNING ON HOW TO GET TO THEIR GOAL

As a Capricorn, you’re incredibly strategic and logical in everything you do. You definitely believe that it’s best to plan something out rather than just jumping into something blind.

We couldn’t agree more, yet are here to warn you that your constant planning is getting in the way of actually achieving your goals.

Your endless strategizing and planning is getting in the way of you actually acting on achieving your dreams.

We understand that you don’t feel like you’ve completely mapped out what you have to do, but you never will. Instead, it’s time for you to finally start working at achieving your goals rather than just thinking about it.

VIRGO: YOUR WORK ETHIC IS LACKING

While it might be hard to hear this out loud, you definitely know this is the issue that’s stopping you from reaching your dreams. You simply have no work ethic what so ever and it’s the critical thing in the way between you and your dreams.

It’s time you stop hoping you’ll reach your dreams if you’re watching Netflix all day.

Hard work is absolutely critical and is the secret to success. Sit down and make a schedule as to how you’re going to use your time wisely to get what you desire.

You’ll be absolutely blown away when you realize how easily you’re starting to achieve your dreams once you put in the work!

TAURUS: BEING TOLD YOU WON’T ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL

It’s time for things to change, and especially your mindset. As a Taurus, you often like to get people’s opinions on different matters, but you shouldn’t on your dreams.

Stop caring what people around you think and start following your passions.

It doesn’t matter that the people around you see your dreams as unattainable. If you believe in yourself and your dreams, you can do anything.

If instead you agree and ditch your dreams you’ll live your life in constant regret of ‘what if’. We can guarantee that this will absolutely break you. Instead, grow some thick skin and ignore any negativity around you.

SAGITTARIUS: KNOWING YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN

Since you’re such a social extrovert, knowing that achieving your goals requires a lot of alone time is something you just haven’t come to terms with.

While you can keep wishing that reaching your dreams is a group effort, the stress is all on you.

You’re not exactly ready to have to face all of the obstacles that are about to come your way, and it’s completely okay.

You can completely go at your own pace and don’t have to follow anyone’s direction rather than your own. We’re absolutely positive that you’ll eventually feel powerful enough to achieve your desires on your own without anyone’s help.

LEO: TERRIFIED OF LOSING WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE

We definitely understand your fear of losing the life you already have to follow the one you’ve always dreamed of. You have to take the risk of it not working out and being left with nothing. Yet, it’s better than living in constant regret of not taking the chance.

It’s time you understand that you’ll have to risk everything you have for everything you want.

While this question keeps you up at night, deep within your heart you know what you have to do. Simply remember that if you work hard enough at your goal, you’ll surely achieve it and feel relieved with your decision!

ARIES: A STRIKING FEAR OF DISCOMFORT

Trust us when we tell you that this is one of the most common fears out there. Everyone is terrified of jumping outside of their comfort zone, even if it’s what’s necessary to get what he or she has always desired!

That’s why we’re here to tell you that you’ll feel so much better once you take the next step.

If you keep living inside of your little safety bubble, you’ll never be able to experience the wonders of life.

Staying within your comfort zone will prevent you from growing into the person you’re meant to be. Having goals is the best way to begin your journey of growth and success!

PISCES: CONSUMED WITH PROCRASTINATION OUT OF FEAR

While you feel like you know what your dreams are and what to do to achieve them, you often find yourself not working at them.

Instead, you procrastinate for fear of not being able to achieve your dreams. Perhaps, you also procrastinate for fear of not wanting to put in that hard work to get what you desire.

Yet, it’s time to put yourself in check and realize that this procrastination is ruining your life.

You’re never going to achieve your dreams if you’re not willing to put in the work. Whether it’s fear or laziness, you have to change your ways and work at bettering yourself.

SCORPIO: KNOWING IT MAY NOT EVER HAPPEN

It’s a pain deep in your heart as you ponder the truth that you just may never be able to achieve your dreams. It’s hard to give up everything you already have in hope of achieving something you may never actually achieve.

This is the one thing that’s holding you back from working towards your dreams.

It’s time that to come to terms with the fact that you may never achieve your goals, and get to work trying to attain them.

Don’t let this negative perspective stop you from getting what you truly desire. We can almost guarantee you that if you put the proper work and effort in, you’ll for sure reach your goals!

CANCER: NOT KNOWING WHERE TO EVEN START

As a Cancer, you often get totally overwhelmed when things get a little tough. It feels like the world is against you and that you’re suffocating under everything that’s going on. That’s why we’re here to let you know that you have the strength within you to achieve your goals.

Simply calm down, breathe, and make a plan as to what you have to do.

The hardest step is the first one, and that’s the one you have to take. Once you do, you’ll realize that it’s not as difficult as you thought and that you have the power to achieve those dreams you’ve always longed for!

Source: thetalko

FROM: https://gostica.com/astrology/the-one-thing-that-stops-each-zodiac-sign-from-achieving-their-life-goals/

Rethinking the Hope of Psychedelics

Posted on July 19, 2018 by marcia

JUL 16, 2018

The Psychedelic Experience, 50 Years On

The name for The Doors occurred to Jim Morrison after a weekend experimenting with psychedelics. (Wikimedia Commons)

Editor’s note: John Densmore is the legendary drummer of The Doors. To learn more about Densmore, listen to Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer’s interview with the musician here.

All this to say—if you are up against that wall—in a place where it feels like there are no options—and your intuition says it’s right … go ask Alice.

I’m 73 years old and still feeling quite good about myself. Well, I know I’m on the descent, but it’s a nice ride … right now. I know it’s going to get more difficult, but if I can just hang on to what I experienced 50 years ago, I’ll make it to where I’m supposed to go.

So play the game “Existence” to the end … of the beginning, of the beginning

Fifty years ago, my friends and I were street scientists, experimenting with then-legal psychedelics. At Monday rehearsals, we would all share what happened on our weekend “trips.” On one of those Mondays, Jim suggested we call our new group The Doors, after the Aldous Huxley book, “The Doors of Perception.” It seemed the esteemed British scholar had written a little book about his mescaline experience. The new name quickly became unanimous. All of us went through the gauntlet—tough moments that lasted for a few minutes, or quite a while. A few friends never came back fully to their former mental selves, and actually, all of us were in some way changed forever—mostly in quite positive ways.

Lifting the veil is dangerous, but if the environment is supportive, the outcome can be life-changing. I only took the trip a few times, but the opening is still with me. I realized these experiments were extremely rigorous on the nervous system, so I found myself heading toward a less shattering route: meditation. But the initial couple of liftoffs have definitely impacted my life permanently.

Now, 50 years later, I still can touch the feeling of wonder that I got from these initial excursions. It’s hard to describe any more than that; kind of like trying to describe God. My 90-year-old cousin, who is a diligent thinker, laments the loss of the framework of organized religion. I told him that the impact of a tab of acid made a much bigger impression on my spiritual life than the communion wafer at mass. And I can’t go back. Even though Pope Francis is challenging my renegade Catholicism because he is so wonderful, I still can’t go back. The great mythologist Joseph Campbell says that the new mythology might take 100 years or so to fully form. So I comfort myself with a patchwork cosmology: a little Hinduism here, a dash of Buddhism there, and a whole lot of indigenous wisdom.

Let me be clear—I am not advocating indiscriminate drug use. But recent studies have shown that used carefully, some psychedelics can actually help treat addiction to other drugs. Plus, carefully conducted scientific studies from nonprofit organizations and major universities are showing many physical and psychological benefits, including a powerful treatment for PTSD and anxiety in people with serious illness. Even the much-maligned weed is showing stunning evidence as an important medicine that fights diseases like epilepsy and cancer.

These are very exciting studies, but psychedelics still have a stigma: the old patriarchal, mistaken outlook that all drugs are the same. We now know that “Just Say No” is an extremely simplistic and misleading response to a very complex issue. As Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance said years ago, the appropriate phrase is “Just Say Know.” This is apparently lost on the new U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, who is trying to go back in time with tough policies that have failed. Sessions’ predecessor, Eric Holder, has called this “dumb on crime.”

Of course, there are those who will quickly judge this rant as a “hippie flashback.” If that’s what this is, then bring it on. I have raised a family, have grandkids, written three books, a significant amount of music, and many articles. No slacker’s or stoner’s rant is this. In fact, I’m very careful now about what I put into my system, and those early days of exploring my mind were key in forming my values and my spiritual path.

Now here’s the cosmic part (you saw it coming): when I stepped outside while under the influence of LSD, I saw God in every leaf. OK, now you expect me to say I started eating those botanicals since I was so loaded, but what I really came away with is a sense (which is still with me) that this moment in time is not the only moment happening at this moment! This might sound like double-speak, but there are other realities going on right now outside of our awareness.

But before I stepped outside, I had a few minutes of absolute terror. My friend, who was also “tripping,” pulled me out of it by laughing hysterically. You see, in those days, we didn’t have doctors like today at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore carefully monitoring our voyage. Due to our early experiments, and of course centuries-old shamanic cultures, researchers are now clear about the safe boundaries needed to make the excursions the most fruitful. Knowledge is often surrounded by danger. You have to get out on the edge to see the whole clearly.

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream … It is not dying, it is not dying

Every night when we choose to go to bed, we are accepting a “little death,” giving up our conscious daily life. We know we need rest to reset our body for another day of sentient life. In effect, it’s a small rehearsal for the big “D” coming at the end of our time here on planet Earth. When that time arrives, going peacefully is what we all want. For thousands of years, Tibetan Buddhists have believed it is crucial to be calm in the moments before crossing, or you won’t get to where you’re supposed to go. Now we are seeing terminal cancer patients receiving effective help via psychedelics with the “little death” rehearsal.

Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void … It is shining, it is shining

So once again, the U.S. government is very slow to get the message and continues to interfere with the availability of traditional indigenous medicine. Bipartisan support for criminal justice reform has been halted. Medicine that has helped people for centuries is once again under attack. It’s sad, because Vietnam vets that have been metaphorically stuck in the jungle have been finding their way out of years of mental and emotional torture thanks to medicinal plants.

Retired Sgt. Jonathan Lubecky, who served in Iraq, says about MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, “This treatment has made it possible for me to watch my son grow up. He will not be presented with a folded flag on behalf of a ‘grateful nation’ in recognition of a parent who took his own life.” So unfortunately, there are more roadblocks to the “good” drugs, but thank God for human enterprise. No wall can keep out the human spirit, which seeks healing.

All this to say—if you are up against that wall—in a place where it feels like there are no options—and your intuition says it’s right … go ask Alice. Make sure you have planned your excursion, have a guide, and this is really what you need to do. Then you will build a bridge or dig a tunnel into your soul and find yourself.

from: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-psychedelic-experience-50-years-on/

The Power of Creativity & Individual Freedom

Posted on July 18, 2018 by marcia

Breakout from the controlled ordinary mind

by Jon Rappoport

July 16, 2018

When I was about to release my collection, Exit From The Matrix, I wrote several introductions. Here is one I didn’t publish. It shows how seriously I take what others consider a merely “quirky tendency” of humans to imagine a better and different future for themselves and this piece of space called Earth:

Suppose everything that is happening in the human world is taking place in a synthetic space, a grossly reduced arena; and suppose you could stand outside that space and look in. You would be seeing a great deal more than ‘what is going on’. You would be seeing how it is playing out, shot through with delusions at every turn; and of course the main delusion would be the space itself, as if nothing could be happening anywhere else but there, in that place. This is what the mind, all the minds, are telling themselves, as they fight over scraps. Humans have defined themselves as social constructs in small-time stage play.

The controlled mind thinks in the same patterns, over and over. It reworks familiar territory, and when that becomes insufferably boring, it lowers its energy output and initiates shutdowns.

Then it looks for outside stimulation that will replace thinking. The type of stimulation hardly matters, as long as it moves adrenaline through the system.

The decline of a society or civilization can be viewed in the same step-down fashion.

Occasionally, in passing, a writer makes reference to the creative impulse as a missing social factor, which could be remedied, for example, by restoring funding for arts programs in schools, as if that would repair a bureaucratic failing and thus restore balance to education and “the culture.”

Which is like saying Titans, who have developed profound amnesia about themselves, could recover their consciousness and power by shampooing their hair more frequently.

The individual human being, apart from the welter of his social relationships, is sitting on a volcano-range of creative energy, about which he knows almost nothing. This ignorance is purposeful. It enables him to fit into a small life defined by habits and shrunken subjects of interest and routine interactions. Within that space, he forms opinions and preferences and aversions. He says yes to this and no to that. He cultivates a passive tolerance for differences, as if he were auditioning for sainthood.

But whoever he is and wherever he is, underneath it all, something is waiting for him. A part of himself is waiting.

It is the part that can conceive of everything that isn’t, that never was. It is the part that dreams beyond the ordinary facades of time and space.

It is the part that refuses to believe habit and repetition and routine and systems are the core of life.

It is the part that knows something new and unprecedented and stunning can be invented at the drop of a hat, and that this is the unlimited territory of the individual.

It is the part off-handedly referred to as imagination, which over time has been sold away into oblivion. But which never dies.

The elites who try to control and define the common space of humanity would like to render imagination to the junk heap of history, never to be recalled. They would like to do this by replacing the individual with the group, which has no creative impulse, but is merely, with few exceptions, the lowest-common-denominator expression of any idea.

In Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), the overarching government slogan was: “Every one belongs to every one else.” One group, indivisible, with non-liberty and injustice for all.

Huxley’s slogan is now also the number-one elite propaganda message on Earth. It can be made to mean almost anything that derides and minimizes the individual and his repressed creative power.

In his 1954 short story, The Adjustment Team, Philip K Dick approaches the transformation of the individual into the group as an instantaneous, blanketing, mass-programming operation. Salesman Ed Fletcher, through an error, isn’t included in the “great change.” Instead, he witnesses it. Therefore, he is transported into the sky to meet the Old Man, the Chief, for a judgment:

Ed: “I get the picture…I was supposed to be changed like the others. But I guess something went wrong.”

Old Man: “Something went wrong. An error occurred. And now a serious problem exists. You have seen these things. You know a great deal. And you are not coordinated with the new configuration.”

The new configuration, at a deep level, is not new at all. It has existed since the dawn of history. It’s the self-fulfilling prophecy that, except for a few gifted ones, humans have no creative power, no wide-ranging imagination. Thus, they must surrender to the “shape of things as they are.”

Here is a statement about reality-creation that is crucial. —Philip K Dick, his 1978 speech, How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later:

“…today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups…So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms…And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.”

Philip Dick was talking about the elite invention of a synthetic common space for human activity. And on the other hand, he was talking about an individual’s invention, through imagination, of other spaces.

These other spaces aren’t mere fantasies. They’re as real as real can be—and they can be injected into the world, into the common space, to change it, and to wake people up from their group-think trance.

The bottom-line goal of all mind control is the removal of the individual’s knowledge that he has great creative power, that this capacity gives him enormous untapped energy, that it solves problems by rendering them irrelevant and defunct.

Suppose he brings back what he has lost? Suppose, finally, he takes a stand and refuses to see himself as a victim of circumstance?

Suppose he remembers that he holds the sword of his own imagination, and can invent reality?

Suppose he exercises that capacity and thus proves to himself how far-reaching his power is?

In his 1920 novel, A Voyage to Arcturus, which spawned generations of science fiction, David Lindsay writes: “To be a free man, one must have a universe of one’s own.”

This is no flippant observation. This is psychology light years beyond what Freud and his offspring concocted. This is the power of imagination, linked as it should be, to individual freedom. Nor was Lindsay recommending some closed-off fantasy existence. He was realizing that, with “a universe of one’s own,” the individual can then comprehend and participate in the common space we call the world—at a new level of unlocked and untangled power.

I dedicate my work to explaining these factors, and more importantly, providing many exercises that, when practiced, can reawaken and restore imagination as the unlimited dynamo it actually is. These exercise are contained in my mega-collections, Exit From The Matrix and Power Outside The Matrix.

(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, Exit From The Matrix, click here.)

from: https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2018/07/16/breakout-from-the-controlled-ordinary-mind-2/

Being True to Self

Posted on July 18, 2018 by marcia

Transcending the Tribe

By Caroline Myss

All of us are born into a “tribal mentality” of various forms. These include our family unit, religious background, country of origin, ethnicity, etc. The tribal mentality effectively indoctrinates an individual into the tribe’s beliefs, ensuring that all believe the same. The structure of reality – what is and is not possible for the members of the group – is thus agreed upon and maintained by the tribe.

While the tribal mentality has definite benefits in terms of establishing common ground and ensuring group survival, it is not a conscious agreement. We are born into it. Yet at a certain stage, both personally and collectively, the tribal mentality must be challenged. People can then begin to recognize the need for a personalhonor code independent of the tribe. If humanity is to progress, we need to learn how to treat everyone – regardless of tribal affiliation – with honor and respect.

Every one of us is plugged into the tribal mind. We support tribal belief patterns by directing a percentage of our life force into maintaining our affiliation with the tribe. This involves an implicit agreement to think like the tribe thinks, to evaluate situations and people the way the tribe does, and to believe in right and wrong according to tribal values and ambitions. As long as the tribal mentality within us remains unexamined, we unwittingly subject others to our tribal laws.

When we are plugged into tribal thought forms, we can easily believe in nonsensical prejudices held by the tribe. Tribal mentality allows us to hold harsh, judgmental positions or attitudes about an entire group of people: “All fat people are lazy,” or “all Irish are drunks,” or “all Muslims are terrorists” for example.

A rigid tribal thought form may have little truth to it, but individuals hold to such beliefs because that perspective is what the tribe has agreed to believe. Innocent children, born into the hatred and prejudice of their parents and ancestors, grow up inside a tribal mentality that sponsors an endless march toward war against the tribe’s perceived enemies. People grow up hating other people – people they have never seen – based on group affiliation. This is the shadow side of the tribe.

Inevitably, some among us come to a point where we want to break out of the inflexible tribal mentality. At some point, these individuals want to explore, develop, and manage their own consciousness without the judgments and limitations of the tribal mind.

It is easy to spot these mavericks when they start to question and unplug from tribal mentality – they hang out on the periphery looking bored and restless, or whimsical and dreamy. Others may act out the agitated hot-head as they challenge tribal ways.

The unspoken assumption of the tribal mind is that everybody loves being part of the tribe. And in many ways, we do. Knowing where and to whom we “belong” is crucial to our self-concept and sense of safety in the world. Yet when we begin the real deep journey of questioning, “What do I believe?” and start to individuate from the tribe, we often enter a dark night of the soul. It is, by necessity, a passage we take alone.

It’s one thing to reject what we don’t want to believe anymore. It’s quite another to begin to explore what we do believe. All we know as we enter the dark night is that we can’t go back – even when the tribe is the only world we’ve ever known.

At this critical point in our development, the tribe doesn’t feel right anymore. It no longer offers us comfort. Previous feelings of security and familiarity begin to feel like a trap constraining our individuality and hampering our efforts to discover deeper levels of who we really are.

This dark night passage pushes us to look at our false gods – the tribal belief patterns in which we’ve become invested and to which we’ve given our allegiance.

The Language of Wounds

For a large segment of the population, the language of wounds has become the new tribal language of intimacy. Prior to the current age of personal therapy – which only really took off in the 1960s and 70s – the tribal language of intimacy largely involved the sharing of only superficial personal and family data. Deeper matters such as family secrets like sexual abuse or a mad aunt or uncle were shared with exceedingly few, if any.

Divorce and financial information were also considered very intimate. People would almost never talk about such matters, or about their inner life and emotions. They talked only about the details of what was going on in their external lives. The tribal mentality at the time kept people from revealing intimate matters or deep wounds or traumas even with their family and close friends.

The current age of personal therapy has brought about a very different situation. Now, the tribal mentality has shifted such that we not only share our intimate feelings more openly and willingly, many have even begun to define themselves by their wounds. Let me give an example of how this phenomenon plays itself out.

I was in an Indian restaurant in Scotland talking with two men friends when the woman friend I was to meet for dinner walked up and greeted the three of us. After I had introduced her, another man walked over and asked if she was free on June 8th, as he thought she might like to attend a lecture on that date. The question required little more than a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ answer.

Instead of a simple answer, she began an elaborate discussion about June 8th. “Did you say June 8th? No, no. Any other day would be fine, but not June 8th. That’s the day my incest survivor group meets and I have to be there because we never let each other down.” She went on and on for at least a full minute with this.

Later, I asked her, “Do you realize that in that brief introduction, you told two men whom you have never met before that 1) you had experienced incest, 2) you were still in therapy about it, 3) you were angry about it, 4) you were angry at men, and 5) you needed to determine the course of the conversation – all in one minute?”

She replied, “Well, I am a victim of incest.”

To which I replied, “I know that. Why did you have to let them know that?”

She was operating from a tribal mentality. The group mind within the incest survivor community has a belief about how this particular wound should be healed. The tribe says, “You need a group.” The tribe says, “You have a right to be angry.”

People now get together in support group tribes that function within many of the same rigid frameworks of ethnic, national, or family tribes. Some feel that the comfort and security of belonging to a group or tribe is more important than venturing alone in the direction of real healing.

Tribalism in Relationships

The tendency toward tribalism can keep us stuck in repeating negative cycles in our intimate relationships, and can wreak havoc when a relationship is ripe for transition. Tribal mentality often teaches a righteous stance in relationships: an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. When we feel violated, the first thought is vengeance, rather than forgiveness.

Tribal mentality even has gender-specific undercurrents – women do vengeance differently than men. Yet for both genders, what rules the day is the tribal mentality that holds “breaking up is painful” or “betrayal warrants retaliation.”

Healing revolves around this crucial question: “Do you want to make different choices?” Are we willing to let go of old, constricting tribal patterns? Sadly, the answer quite often is “No.” Being healthy isn’t always the most appealing option. Quite frankly, in many cases, it’s not appealing at all. What is most appealing is being out of pain. Old patterns are difficult to relinquish because they do serve to relieve pain, even if it is only in the short run.

Change is terrifying for many precisely because short-term pain relief must be given up. Deep healing requires learning to tolerate the pain that comes with change. Fortunately, the growing pains that come with new behavior – with making the choices that will change your life – are often short-lived.

Thought alone doesn’t heal. Nor does action without thought. For deep healing to occur, we need the chemistry of conscious thought and direct action combined. Every thought or attitude we have – whether consciously chosen or unconsciously adopted through the tribal mind – invests a part of our life-force into that thought or attitude. This is true whether the thought is one of betrayal and vengeance, or of understanding and forgiveness.

What matters is that a whole system of consciousness – the old tribal mentality – no longer holds us enthralled. We no longer have faith in those limiting patterns of thought. Through this transformation we learn a whole new level of trust. We break the habit of telling tribal lies which bring short-term comfort but long-term pain. We develop a new sense of self-worth and of trust and honor.

In spite of all the heavy tribal conditioning, we now have hope because tribal mentality the world over is going through a vast transformation. And each one of us can play a vital role in this transformation.

With increasing numbers of individuals changing and transcending limiting tribal beliefs, the codes of the tribe are being affected. As we collectively change and evolve, the tribes around us gradually change and evolve with us. Yet ultimately, the journey upon which we are embarking is an incredible solo flight of transcending the tribe to find our own trust, honor, and new sense of self-worth and meaning in life.

Note: Caroline Myss (http://www.myss.com) is a medical intuitive, mystic, and author of numerous books and audio tapes, including three New York Times best sellers. The above is an edited excerpt of her essay titled “Leaving the Wounded Relationship Tribe,” taken from a compilation of essays by various authors in the enlightening book, The Marriage of Sex & Spirit, edited by Geralyn Gendreau.

The above is an essay from one of the free Personal Growth Courses offered by PEERS

from: https://www.personalgrowthcourses.net/stories/myss.relationship_transcending_tribe

Remembering Your Dreams

Posted on July 12, 2018 by marcia

7 Steps of Dream Recall

by Dr. Doris E. Cohen

Step 1: Recall and Record Your Dream

Place a voice recorder or notepad and pen within easy reach of your bed.
When you begin to feel yourself drifting off to sleep, repeat aloud three times: “I will remember my dreams clearly and well, and will record them when I wake up.”
When you awaken, whether in the morning or the middle of the night, quickly record whatever you can recall from your dream.
Be very literal. Jot down the first images and feelings that come to your mind without judging or analyzing, Whatever comes to your mind, just note it and let it be.

Step 2: Give Your Dream a Title

Familiarize yourself with titling by paying attention to newspaper headlines and magazine story titles.
Let the title be the first word or phrase that comes to mind.
If you have trouble, try saying aloud a very basic summary of the dream’s content to help identify its central themes.
Repeat your title aloud, slowly, and think about what the word or phrase means or suggests to you generally.
Set the dream and its title aside.

Step 3: Read or Repeat Your Dream Aloud – Slowly

Repeat or reread your dream aloud.
Speak slowly, keeping in mind that the dreamer is always dreaming about the dreamer.
Verbalize your thoughts and feelings yourself, so that your brain fully absorbs the information. Don’t let others do it for you.

Step 4: Consider What Is Uppermost in Your Life Right Now

Quickly review the title and/or summary of the dream with which you are working.
Assess what is uppermost in your life right now, looking carefully at your work, your family, your relationships, etc.
Be instinctive. Whatever first comes to your mind is most likely what your dream addresses.

Step 5: Describe Your Dream as if Talking to a Martian

Consider which details stand out the most in your dream.
Describe those details as if talking to a Martian, or someone with absolutely no shared frame of reference.
Belabor the obvious. If something seems to go without saying, say it anyway. Explaining the obvious aloud offers clues to a dream’s meaning.
Think about symbols that commonly occur in your dreams and familiarize yourself with their meaning and intent. This helps you to interpret dreams more quickly and easily as you move forward.

Step 6: Summarize the Message from Your Unconscious

Reflect on the work you have done in steps 1 thought 5.
Try to summarize your dream’s content in one or two clear messages from the unconscious.
Remember your interpretation simple, grounded in common sense, and relevant to your current, waking life.
Honor your work. Though it may initially be challenging, step 6 prepares you to understand the dream’s guidance.

Step 7: Consider Your Dream’s Guidance for Waking Life

Repeat aloud the message you summarized in step 6.
Consider the symbolic solutions offered in the dream.
Translate the symbolic advice into commonsense guidance related to current situations in your waking life.
If the dream does not seem to offer solutions, consider what steps you can take to address the issues raised in the dream.
Consider one or two tangible actions you can take in response to the dream’s guidance.
Honor your baby steps.

For more detail and guidance, look to Dr. Cohen’s new book Dreaming on Both Sides of the Brain: Discover the Secret Language of the Night.

from: http://drdorisecohen.com/blog/