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Power belongs to him who knows.

This is a very old axiom.

Knowledge the first step to which is the power of comprehending the truth, of discerning the real from the false

-is for those only who, having freed themselves from every prejudice and conquered their human conceit and selfishness are ready to accept every and any truth, once it is demonstrated to them.

Of such there are very few

Absurdity

there is a still greater absurdity than to speak of a cruel God:

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it is to admit that God, the Great, Absolute Whole,

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could ever interfere in terrestrial or human affairs.
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The infinite cannot associate with the finite;

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the unconditioned ignores the conditioned and the limited.
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The absolute "Intelligence-Wisdom" cannot act in the restricted space of a small globe.
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It is omnipresent and latent in the Cosmos, infinite as itself."
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We find it's only true manifestation in humanity as a whole,

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composed as it is of stray sparks,

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finite in their objective duration,

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eternal in their essence,

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issuing from that hearth without beginning or end.
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Therefore the only God whom we should serve is humanity,

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and our only cult should be the love of our fellow man."
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HPBlavatsky

Big pharma

Literally ten years and billions of R&D dollars after William Potter first sounded the alarm about the placebo effect, his message has finally gotten through.
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In the spring, Potter, who is now a VP at Merck, helped rev up a massive data-gathering effort called the Placebo Response Drug Trials Survey.
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Under the auspices of the NIH, Potter and his colleagues are acquiring decades of trial data—including blood and DNA samples—to determine which variables are responsible for the apparent rise in the placebo effect.
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Merck, Lilly, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Johnson & Johnson, and other major firms are funding the study, and the process of scrubbing volunteers' names and other personal information from the database is about to begin.
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In typically secretive industry fashion, the existence of the project itself is being kept under wraps.
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NIH staffers are willing to talk about it only anonymously, concerned about offending the companies paying for it.
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For Potter, who used to ride along with his father on house calls in Indiana, the significance of the survey goes beyond Big Pharma's finally admitting it has a placebo problem.
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It also marks the twilight of an era when the drug industry was confident that its products were strong enough to cure illness by themselves.
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Before I routinely prescribed antidepressants, I would do more psychotherapy for mildly depressed patients, says the veteran of hundreds of drug trials.
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Today we would say I was trying to engage components of the placebo response—and those patients got better.
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To really do the best for your patients, you want the best placebo response plus the best drug response.
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The pharma crisis has also finally brought together the two parallel streams of placebo research—academic and industrial.
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Pfizer has asked Fabrizio Benedetti to help the company figure out why two of its pain drugs keep failing.
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Ted Kaptchuk is developing ways to distinguish drug response more clearly from placebo response for another pharma house that he declines to name.
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Both are exploring innovative trial models that treat the placebo effect as more than just statistical noise competing with the active drug.
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Benedetti has helped design a protocol for minimizing volunteers' expectations that he calls "open/hidden."
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In standard trials, the act of taking a pill or receiving an injection activates the placebo response.
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In open/hidden trials, drugs and placebos are given to some test subjects in the usual way and to others at random intervals through an IV line controlled by a concealed computer.
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Drugs that work only when the patient knows they're being administered are placebos themselves.
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Ironically, Big Pharma's attempt to dominate the central nervous system has ended up revealing how powerful the brain really is.
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The placebo response doesn't care if the catalyst for healing is a triumph of pharmacology, a compassionate therapist, or a syringe of salt water.
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All it requires is a reasonable expectation of getting better.
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That's potent medicine and big pharma is not doing very well compared to the placebo effect
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NYT

Lies we live with

That 9/11 was as described by the government and media

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That humanity evolved from a chance reaction of chemicals

That modern humanity originated in East Africa

That humanity all descended from one source

That modern man is only a few tens of thousands of years old

That human evolution has been one long trend upwards

That we are descended from monkeys and chimpanzees

That carbon dioxide is the cause of global warming, sorry now changed to climate change

That Columbus discovered America

That Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil

The pyramids are only 11,000 or so thousand years old

Stonehenge is likewise around the same age

Acupuncture does not work

Homeopathy does not work

That the causes of cancer can be found in the physical body

Ditto many other diseases

That mobile phones cause no long term problems

We have no soul

We only have one life

Your sins can be forgiven by priests

That the end of this life is a big black hole of nothing

That 7/7 in London was as the official reports describe

That vaccines have no side effects other than those admitted

And if we accept these things without question then we have missed an important reason why we are here in this life

We are here to use our brains

We are here to learn discernment

We are here to question

We are here to challenge

The points above are common knowledge and yet they are just plain wrong

They are not accurate

You are told that they are

Does it matter if they are or not?

Yes because they influence our lives

Saying that the Earth is flat made a difference

Saying Columbus found America when he sailed with a Portuguese map of America in his ship is denying reality and makes a psychological difference

And with so many other things the truth is around us, however we accept what we are told and usually without murmur

Do we care?

The decisions we take in the coming period of time about the environment. global climate change, the economy, emigration, and the rest can determine what happens to us and our planet

If the information we base our decisions on is wrong then our decisions can also be wrong

And if that is not enough we are cursed with malfunctioning systems of government in most countries

Governments not renowned for far sighted unbiased decision making

Governments easily influenced by special interest groups also not renowned for their far sighted publicly spirited decision making

So being clear in our own minds about what is true and what is not is important

Numerically there are enough of us globally to influence and help shape our thinking on issues of concern to us

The question is will we all get involved and make our contributions?

Thinking about the past

And what might have been

What could have been

It wasn't though was it?

Fact is you didn't

So here you are now sad for opportunities lost

What a waste of space!

Looking back is only useful when it helps you grow

Helps you learn

Adjusts your memories in a more honest way

Making the memory more accurate

Allowing you to let it go

To move on

Memories held have a strength in them until you let them go

Good memories yes they linger with a nice taste

Bad memories are draining over time because every time you look back with anger or frustration you feed them

This is why many people cannot move on they are held hostage by their bitterness and memories

Not realising that by looking back in this way they are creating a self feeding loop of negative energy

In it's extreme form this can cripple

If you hold bitter memories let them go

If you really want to let them go try saying it was my fault
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I was wrong
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Even if you were not
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You are choosing voluntarily to stop feeding the negative energy of the memory
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How does that feel?
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And if you cannot go that far
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Say out loud I am letting this go and I choose to move on with my life
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Live now in this moment bitter memories just poison and can serve no useful purpose
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If you live for revenge this too will cripple you, poison you
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As a friend's poster says "The best revenge is living well"
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Heed it
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The advice is sound

Helping the planet

Wanting to save it maybe?

How many times do we hear that

Many

And then the question to us what should they do

We say heal yourself

They ask what do you mean

We point out that saving the planet starts with yourself

Once you have sorted yourself then maybe just maybe you will be able to go and save the planet

Healing yourself is not easy and is not accomplished in five minutes

In fact five life times or so might get you there and only then after mega effort on your part

Why so?

Because so few of us know ourselves

False perceptions and refusal to be honest with ourselves being just two issues

Learning to control our minds being another major major one

How many of you can still your mind for thirty seconds at will, whenever you want to?

If you cannot then how are you going to pretend that you are in any way shape of form the master of yourself?

And if you are not the master of yourself then how can you know who or what you truly are?

Just not possible so as you see there are several things that get in the way of saving the planet

Simply stated if you cannot master yourself how do you know what to save let alone how to do it?

Harsh?

Not really saving the planet is a tall order witness some of the half baked ideas being presented as serious issues at Copenhagen

Just how can these issues seriously be presented as those that will save the planet?

So we come back to reality

Sure all of us want to make a contribution, but getting real we need to start with ourselves

Doing that will keep us busy enough and along the way we can make our contributions as and when the opportunities present themselves

It does not matter the scale or situation what maters is that we do our best

Doing it because it is the right thing to do not for any reward or prestige

Helping the planet in reality is all of us doing what we can to support those in need

Doing what we can to help others

Along the way we learn a lot about ourselves and that indeed takes us towards mastery of ourselves

That's real and also helping the planet

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Why?

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Because we are the planet

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So helping ourselves and others is helping the planet

Greed and beyond

Even the word has something grrrr about it!

Notice how we are being told that as we are now into difficult times greed is allegedly becoming unfashionable

The rich should tone down their ostentatious lifestyles magazines and pundits tell us

What pray will half the world's media, who feed endlessly breathlessly on the doings of the rich, give us instead?

And do those who take a vicarious pleasure in the doings of the rich and famous want to be fed anything else?

Probably almost certainly not

However for those who want to move on it is time to see that greed is "so yesterday" but then it always was!

Where to go then?

If we are to move away from greed and we all talk about greed, how is it actually defined?

"Greed is the excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of money, wealth, and power

It is generally considered a vice, and is one of the seven deadly sins in Catholicism"

People believe greed is based on incorrectly- connecting material wealth with happiness.

This is caused by a view that exaggerates the positive aspects of an possessing an object; that is to say, acquiring material objects has less impact than we imagine on our feelings of happiness.

This view has been corroborated by studies in the field of happiness economics, which confirm that beyond the provision of a basic level of material comfort, more wealth does not increase happiness

So if greed is self defeating and leads only to an addiction for ever more things leaving us increasingly empty inside..............

What is happiness?

"Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy"

A variety of philosophical, religious, psychological and biological approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources.

Philosophers and religious thinkers often define happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing, rather than simply as an emotion.

Happiness in this older sense was used to translate the Greek Eudaimonia, and is still used in virtue ethics.

While direct measurement of happiness presents challenges, tools such as The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire have been developed by researchers.

Positive psychology researchers use theoretical models that include describing happiness as consisting of positive emotions and positive activities, or that describe three kinds of happiness: pleasure, engagement, and meaning.

Research has identified a number of attributes that correlate with happiness: relationships and social interaction, extraversion, marital status, employment, health, democratic freedom, optimism, religious involvement, income and proximity to other happy people

So now you know

Does that really tell you anything you didn't know before?

Possibly the definition of greed and when you read it you think, no I do not want to go down that road thank you very much

The happiness option doesn't really help too much in telling me what to do either as it merely describes the state and not how to get there

It does give clues

It does name those things that are associated with happiness

How many do you have?

How many are you working on?

Are you consciously moving towards greater happiness?

Because if you are then a great big fat point is missing from both the definitions of greed and happiness

Fear

Fear is often if not always at root the driving force behind greed

Fear is often if not always at root the inhibition that prevents us experiencing happiness

So why do they not talk about this?

Maybe they don't know

Maybe they don't know the way out

We all have fears

Just a question of how much they dominate your life

So to move beyond greed and towards happiness we need to let go of fear

Letting go of fear is a major part of the journey of life

It is at root what we are all here to learn about

Wherever you are on this journey

If you can be honest with yourself about your fears then you are on your way

To leave greed and selfishness behind and move towards happiness learn your own fears

Just that, and it's not easy because we all like to pretend that we don't have any or that we can control them

Not so for most of us we prefer to shuffle through life ignoring the signs

Be different, find them, get them out, talk about them, it reduces their power over you

And this allows you to move on

Happiness is not the goal but more of it is nice to live with!

Prohibition

Prohibition = Hypocrisy = Politics = Vested interests

Certainly we can all understand how many interest groups derive money from the continuance of prohibition on different substances

Certainly we can see the damage inflicted, the waste of lives

More difficult to ignore is the proof that prohibition does more harm than good

The clear and continuing message that humans will always do those things that bring them personal pleasure

With or without prohibition

Certainly we can see the political advantage of prohibition

What is more difficult to see is why journalists cannot rouse themselves to fight once in a while

Certainly we see that the media is controlled by those who are in league with politicians

But with the screamingly obvious like prohibition

Can they not rouse themselves?

They even have children

What will they tell them?

They were too busy to get involved?

Too frightened?

Too lazy?

Whatever the truth

Prohibition raises again the question as to what rights do governments have to interfere in the choices their citizens make with regard to what they consume?

On the one hand governments feel it is fine to force increasing numbers of inoculations on children and society at large

On the other they say you may not take or consume this or that substance

So they want it both ways

You may not consume this

But you must consume or take that

Out of control

The nanny state has overstepped what is reasonable

Prohibition is not a solution to any problem

Time to fight both prohibition and enforced vaccination programs

Mobile advances

In the grand scheme of telecoms history, mobile phones have made a bigger difference to the lives of more people, more quickly, than any previous technology.

They have spread faster than TV or PCs and proved the easiest and cheapest new technology to adopt.

Even a few years ago the idea of connecting everyone on Earth was considered Utopian

Laughable even

But now It is now clear that the long process of connecting everyone on Earth to a global telecommunications network, which began with the invention of the telegraph in 1791, is nearly complete

Mobile phones will have done more than anything else to advance the democratisation of telecoms, and all the advantages that come with it.

Leaving aside the unknown or undeclared risks from the long term use of mobile phones it is clear that mobile phones are having a greater positive impact on the lives of more people than other single device

And yet ten years ago they were clunky and in the possession of only a few

Today they are within the reach of almost all, if not to own, then at least to use

For the poor mobile phones offer an increasing range of possibilities only dreamt of a decade ago

Mobile phones allow many advances in life possibilities for the poor

Health monitoring, support and advice

Agricultural information

Advice on prices

On crops

On social and sports events

Weather warnings

But maybe the single most important is the transfer of money

Putting those too poor to open a bank account in a position to hold money safely

To transfer and pay bills

This last aspect is well developed in Kenya, Indonesia the Philippines, and some other countries where there is competition amongst network providers

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But in countries where there is only one provider, such as Ethiopia usage is limited, the uptake slower the costs higher and the services fewer

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The next steps allowing greater transfer of data through internet access promise another jump in connectedness

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Sadly as so often is the case greed and corruption slow this advance in many countries

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Ironically the mobile phone itself is slowly helping to loosen these constraints through greater awareness and communication

Where else will mobile usuage take us, all of us?

Who knows!

New brains

One of the interesting developments arising from the use of programs like Twitter is that we are literally changing our brains

Rewiring them if you will

They are responding quicker over greater periods of time, days, months, years at a new pace and intensity

This new brain might be quicker but it encodes information more shallowly and the record lasts less long

Twitter might seem to record our thoughts and feelings, but for the most part does nothing other than record simple information like where I am, what I am doing

We do so in a practical way using our digital instruments that merely record our inputs

One person called the fixation of some users with Twitter and other interactive devices "time greed" and in a way this encapsulates what is happening

Many people are becoming addicted to their digital instruments to the point where this becomes and is their world

Seldom far away from the beep or demand of their digital devices

They break conversations, move away from others to text and speak totally absorbed in their digital world

The demand of their devices overriding any other relationships

Never stopping, their life totally at the beck and call of the digital devices of choice

Devices designed to aid communication are becoming that communication

Why?

Because Twitter and the like are creating the illusion of involvement, importance and reality

When in fact they are often nothing but accelerators of banality

As the old saying goes garbage in garbage out

And who would argue that 90% of twitter communication is less than stellar?

And our brains that accept this as an imperative are changing

Removing the interest and depth which makes inter human communications so rich and valuable

By increasing the speed of life and accepting the demands of the digital domain we risk losing so much more

Maybe this is why we are seeing the emergence of so many "slow movements", the best known of which is the slow food movement

These are fighting the relentlessly increasing tempo of life

Just as we are ruining the natural environment by our accelerating greed for resources

So we risk damaging our essential humanness through the overloading of our temporal realm

Destroying the core element of our humanity

Let us hope that those coming after us learn to handle their digital realm with more balance than many do today

"Time greed" is unsustainable as many will discover