Author Archives: marcia

June 3-9

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Overall Color for the Week:    Chrome Green

This is a week for catching up on a lot of things.  Once it becomes known on all levels, especially energetically, that you are doing this, many things can come to the fore.  Take a look at them for what they are at this time, in the present moment and do not dwell on what they were then.  The shifts and vagaries of the energies are such that nostalgia and attempts to reinvent the past will be met with frustration, even physical issues.  What has passed was there for you to experience.  The choices you made were right at the time.  There was learning going on, perspective forming.  Now it is time to put it all together.  And there will be ample opportunity for that this week as all sorts of stuff just happens.  You might feel as though someone had pushed the fast forward button.  Do not try to hold onto what is going on, let it go.  The important thing at this time is the overall pattern, the minutiae, well, it just does not mean that much right now. Continue reading →

Coronal Hole

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CORONAL HOLE: Spewing solar wind, a yawning dark fissure in the sun’s atmosphere is turning toward Earth. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the “coronal hole” during the early hours of June 1st:

Coronal holes are places where the sun’s magnetic field opens up and allows the solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole will reach Earth on June 5th – 7th, possibly stirring geomagnetic storms. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras

from:    space weather.com

Questionable Imported Foods – Best option – Buy Local

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Disease Outbreaks Tied to Imported Foods Increasing according to the CDC

By Dr. Mercola

The more steps your food goes through before it reaches your plate, the greater your chances of contamination becomes.

If you are able to get your food locally, directly from the field or after harvest, such as directly from a farmer or farmer’s market, you knock out numerous routes that could expose your food to contamination.

So it is not surprising that new research released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that foodborne disease outbreaks linked to imported foods are on the rise.

As Food Imports Rise, so do Foodborne Disease Outbreaks

Foodborne disease outbreaks linked to imported foods rose in both 2009 and 2010 (data for 2011 is still being analyzed).

In all, 39 outbreaks and 2,348 illnesses were linked to imported foods from 15 countries.

However, nearly half of the outbreaks occurred in 2009 and 2010 …

Most of the outbreaks were due to fish (17 outbreaks) and spices (particularly fresh or dried peppers), which are also among the most commonly imported foods.

For instance, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Economic Research Service (ERS) reveals that 85 percent of seafood eaten by Americans is imported! As rates of food imports rise (ERS data shows that U.S. food import has nearly doubled from 1998 to 2007), it’s likely that disease outbreaks will become increasingly common. As it is, the numbers are thought to be a serious underestimate, as food-borne disease outbreaks are commonly under-reported.

Nearly Half of the Tainted Foods Came From This Region …

The data shows that more types of food, from more different countries, are being linked to disease outbreaks. However, one region still takes the “prize” for the most tainted food … Nearly 45 percent of the foods linked to outbreaks came from Asia.

This may be because this region is also a major exporter to the United States, so the sheer numbers of imports would increase the chances. China is the largest exporter of seafood to the United States. (They’re also the largest U.S. supplier of canned vegetables, fruit juices, honey, and other processed foods.) Wal-Mart, in particular, is one of China’s largest trading partners. However, there are problems with food quality in the region as well.

According to a 2008 Congressional testimony by Don Kraemer, deputy director of the Office of Food Safety at the FDA:i

“In the past, [the] FDA has encountered compliance problems with several Chinese food exports, including lead and cadmium in ceramicware used to store and ship food, and staphylococcal contamination of canned mushrooms. While improvements have been made in these products, the safety of food and other products from China remains a concern for [the] FDA, Congress, and American consumers.”

Since that testimony, a variety of Chinese exports have come under fire for being dangerously contaminated with one poison or another, and in some cases with deadly consequences. This includes:

  • Pet food ingredients laced with toxic melamine
  • Imported livestock quarantined for disease and banned chemical contaminants
  • Catfish filets from Chinese aquatic farms tainted with bacteria and heavy metals
  • Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical
  • Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides

Another Asian country, Taiwan, has also made headlines because of the contamination of numerous foods and beverages withplasticizer chemicals like DEHP. More than 1 million sports drinks, fruit jams, instant noodles containing sesame oil packets, cookies and other food products were taken off shelves due to the toxin. It appears that the chemical was added to foods as a substitute for more expensive ingredients like palm oil, and it’s unclear how long this had going on or whether most manufacturers were aware of the contamination.

Our global food system makes it so Asian foods (and those from many other regions) are easily obtainable at your local supermarket … but when food is produced and distributed on such a massive scale, contamination often occurs on a massive scale as well.

Food Infections Common from U.S. Foods Too

An estimated one in six Americans gets infected every year from consuming contaminated food. Sometimes this results in a 24-hour bout of diarrhea and vomiting that clears up on its own, but in other cases foodborne pathogens can lead to organ failure, paralysis, neurological impairment, blindness, stillbirths and even death.

Over 100,000 people are hospitalized from foodborne illnesses each year in the United States, and 3,000 die. This is not only from imported foods, but from those produced right here in the United States.

You see, just because a food is manufactured on U.S. soil does not guarantee its safety. Most of the meat sold in U.S. grocery stores and restaurants come from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which can house tens of thousands of animals (and in the case of chickens, 100,000) under one roof, in nightmarish, unsanitary, disease-ridden conditions. It’s under these conditions that foodborne pathogens flourish, and indeed studies have shown that the larger the farm, the greater the chances of contamination.

In one study, more than 23 percent of CAFOs with caged hens tested positive for Salmonella, while just over 4 percent of organic flocks tested positive. The highest prevalence of Salmonella occurred in the largest flocks (30,000 birds or more), which contained over four times the average level of salmonella found in smaller flocks.Organic flocks are typically much smaller than the massive commercial flocks where bacteria flourish, which is part of the reason why eggs (and other products, like meat) from truly organic, free-range sources are FAR less likely to contain dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella.

If you still buy your meat at your supermarket, even if it’s U.S. raised, you should know that you are directly supporting a food system that typically promotes widespread contamination.

And you can bet that as long as there are people willing to buy cheap, contaminated meat, the industry will continue to produce it.Consumer Reports tests indicated that 83 percent of fresh, whole broiler chickens bought at supermarkets nationwide harbor Campylobacter or Salmonella.ii This is clearly unacceptable, and if you start to demand more — meat that is raised in a healthy, humane way, free from toxins and disease — producers will have no choice but to listen.

Buying Local is One of the Best Ways to Avoid Food Poisoning

I encourage you to support the small family farms in your area, particularly organic farms that respect the laws of nature and use the relationships between animals, plants, insects, soil, water and habitat to create synergistic, self-supporting, non-polluting, GMO-free ecosystems.

If you value food safety, you’ll want to get your meat, chickens and eggs from smaller community farms with free-ranging animals, organically fed and locally marketed. This is the way food has been raised and distributed for centuries …

If you opt for imported foods, or those from U.S. CAFOs, your food will go through upwards of 9 steps before it reaches your dinner plate. Public health agencies like the FDA use the term “field-to-fork continuum” to describe the path any given food takes on the way to your plate, and during any of the following steps, contamination is possible:

  1. Open field production
  2. Harvesting
  3. Field packing
  4. Greenhouse production
  5. Packinghouse or field packing
  6. Repacking and other distribution operations
  7. Fresh-cut/value-added processing
  8. Food service and retail
  9. Consumer

I personally purchase my whole chickens from a health food store that gets them from a local farmer and they are grown organically and humanely. They cost a bit more but they are worth it — and when you consider that most of us only spend around 10% of our income on food, it is a bargain to get high-quality food. In most countries and in previous generations in the US, up to 25% of income was spent on food.

If you are able to get your food directly from the farmer, you knock out five potential operations that could expose your food to contamination. The closer you are to the source of your food, the fewer hands it has to pass through and the less time it will sit in storage — so the better, and likely safer, it will be for you and your family. Plus, when you know the person who grows your food, you can ask questions about its growing conditions — an impossibility when you buy food from CAFOs or other countries. If eating locally is new to you, rest assured that you can find a source near you, regardless of whether you’re in a remote or rural area or a big city.

Here’s a list of helpful resources:

  • For a listing of national farmer’s markets, see this link.
  • Another great web site is www.localharvest.org. There you can find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
  • Subscribe to a community supported agriculture program (CSA). Some are seasonal while others are year round programs. Once you subscribe, many will drop affordable, high quality locally-grown produce right at your door step. To find a CSA near you, go to the USDA’s website where you can search by city, state, or zip code.
  • Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
  • Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.
  • FoodRoutes. Their “Find Good Food” map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSA’s, and markets near you.
  • For an even more comprehensive list of CSA’s and a host of other sustainable agriculture programs, check out this link to mySustainable Agriculture page.

 

from:    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/04/food-borne-disease-outbreaks.aspx?e_cid=20120404_DNL_art_2

Vaccines Contribute to Disease

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Pneumonia Vaccine Shown to Actually Increase Bacterial Infections It Is Supposed to Prevent

By Dr. Mercola

It’s estimated that nearly one in 7 U.S. adults have been diagnosed with sinusitis in the past 12 months, which occurs when the mucous membranes in your nose and sinuses become irritated.i In most of these cases (90-98%) a virus is the cause, whereas in 2-10% of cases, a bacterial infection is also present.

These bacterial infections are becoming increasingly drug-resistant and therefore harder and harder to treat, which is why the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recently issued new treatment guidelines for sinusitis.

Alarmingly, however, buried on page 16 of their report is the acknowledgement that certain hard-to-treat bacterial infections in children are on the rise because of the widespread use of the conjugated pneumococcal vaccines!

Story at-a-glance

  • Certain hard-to-treat bacterial infections in children are on the rise because of the widespread use of antibiotics and the conjugated pneumococcal vaccines, including Prevnar
  • A report by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) revealed that the presence of certain types of bacteria in cases of upper respiratory tract infections has “markedly increased” since the widespread use of pneumonia vaccines
  • Pneumonia bacterial strains may change one DNA letter about every 15 weeks, a rate of mutation similar to that of the common antibiotic-resistant superbug MRSA
  • The overuse of antibiotics for ear and sinus infections has also caused these pneumonia bacteria serotypes to become resistant to antibiotics
  • Overall, your best defense against any disease is having a robust healthy immune system

to read more, go to:

By Dr. Mercola

It’s estimated that nearly one in 7 U.S. adults have been diagnosed with sinusitis in the past 12 months, which occurs when the mucous membranes in your nose and sinuses become irritated.i In most of these cases (90-98%) a virus is the cause, whereas in 2-10% of cases, a bacterial infection is also present.

These bacterial infections are becoming increasingly drug-resistant and therefore harder and harder to treat, which is why the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recently issued new treatment guidelines for sinusitis.

Alarmingly, however, buried on page 16 of their report is the acknowledgement that certain hard-to-treat bacterial infections in children are on the rise because of the widespread use of the conjugated pneumococcal vaccines!

Tornado Tracks for the Last 56 Years

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Stunning Visualization of 56 Years of Tornadoes in the US

by NANCY ATKINSON on MAY 31, 2012

The tracks of tornadoes in the US during the past 56 years, categorized by F-Scale. Credit: John Nelson

It’s a wonder of nature, baby. Using information from data.gov, tech blogger John Nelson has created this spectacular image of tornado paths in the US over a 56 year period. The graphic categorizes the storms by F-scale with the brighter neon lines representing more violent storms.

Makes you want to hang on to something solid.

Nelson also provided some stats on all the storms in the different categories:

The numbers represent total deaths, total injuries, average miles the storms traveled
F0: 7, 267, 2
F1: 111, 3270, 6.58
F2: 363, 10373, 11.4
F3: 958, 18160, 17.80
F4: 1912, 28427, 28.62
F5: 1013, 11038, 38.87

 from:    http://www.universetoday.com/95561/stunning-visualization-of-56-years-of-tornadoes-in-the-us/

Know Your Sunscreen

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7 Important Issues You Need To Know About Sunscreen

By NaturalNews

Ask somebody about sunscreen and you’re likely to receive an earful of disinformation from a person who has been repeatedly misinformed by health authorities and the mainstream media. Almost nothing you hear about sunscreen from traditional media channels is accurate. So here’s a quick guide to the 7 most important things you need to know about sunscreen, sunlight and vitamin D:

#1) The FDA refuses to allow natural sunscreen ingredients to be used in sunblock / sunscreen products.

It’s true: If you create a truly natural sunscreen product using exotic botanicals with powerful sunscreen properties, you will never be able to market it as a “sunscreen” product. That’s because the FDA decides what can be used as sunscreen and what can’t, regardless of what really works in the real world. And there are really only two natural ingredients the FDA has allowed to be sold as sunscreen: Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.

Any other non-chemical sunscreen ingredients, if sold as “sunscreen,” would be considered mislabeled by the FDA and result in your products being confiscated… even if they offer fantastic sunscreen protection!

Not surprisingly, this whole monopoly over sunscreen chemicals is designed to protect the profits of the chemical companies while marginalizing the natural product companies which could easily formulate far better solutions. I have personally spoken to the founders of several health product companies who have figured out amazing sunscreen formulations using nothing but natural botanicals, but the FDA won’t let them market their products as sunscreen products! It’s just another example of the FDA standing in the way of health innovation.

#2) Nearly all conventional sunscreen products contain cancer-causing chemicals.

Read the ingredients list of any sunscreen product sold at Wal-Mart, or Walgreens, or any other mainstream store.

You will not be able to pronounce most of the chemicals found in the ingredients list. That’s because most sunscreen products are formulated with cancer-causing fragrance chemicals, parabens, harsh alcohols, toxic chemical solvents and petroleum oils. A typical sunscreen product is actually a chemical assault on your body. That’s why research shows that using sunscreen actually causes more cancer than it prevents (http://www.naturalnews.com/023317_s…)

#3) In the US where over 70% of the population is vitamin D deficiency, sunscreen actually blocks vitamin D production.

Vitamin D deficiency is perhaps the most widespread vitamin deficiency in North America. According to the research, 70 percent of whites are deficient in vitamin D, and up to 97 percent of blacks are deficient (http://www.naturalnews.com/030598_v…).

Chronic vitamin D deficiency promotes cancer (http://www.naturalnews.com/031560_v…), winter flu and infections, depression, osteoporosis and hormonal imbalances. Depending on whom you believe, vitamin D alone can prevent anywhere from 50% to nearly 80% of all cancers (http://www.naturalnews.com/021892.html).

By blocking vitamin D production in the skin, sunscreen products actually contribute to cancer-promoting nutritional deficiencies.

This doesn’t mean you should never wear a sunscreen product, of course. If your skin is really pale and you’re planning a day on the beach in Hawaii, you will obviously benefit from some level of sun protection using a truly natural sunscreen product. But an informed health-conscious person would try to allow their skin to achieve a natural, healthy tan (yes, a tan truly is healthy if it’s combined with good nutrition, see below) through sensible exposure levels that activate vitamin D production in the skin.

#4) You can boost your internal sun resistance by changing what you eat.

Here’s the real secret about sun exposure that no one in conventional medicine is talking about (because, as usual, they are woefully ignorant about nutrition): You can boost your internal sunscreen by eating antioxidant-rich foods and super foods.

The supplement astaxanthin, for example, is very well known for boosting your skin’s natural resistance to sunburn. Its fat-soluble carotenoids are actually transported to skin cells where they protect those cells from UV exposure.

The more natural antioxidants you have in your diet, the more sunlight your skin will be able to handle without burning. Nearly everyone mistakenly believes that a person’s sunlight burn response is purely a genetic factor. They’re wrong. You can radically improve your resistance to UV exposure through radical dietary changes.

I’m a great example of this, actually, as I used to burn in just 20 – 30 minutes of sunlight when I was on a junk food diet years ago. But now, as someone who eats superfoods and high-end nutritional supplements every day, I can spend hours in the sun and will only turn slightly red (which fades a few hours later and does not result in a burn or skin peeling).

Except for one time on an all-day visit to a water park, I have not worn sunscreen in over 8 years. I spend a large amount of time in the sun, and I have absolutely no concerns whatsoever about skin cancer. My skin, most people tell me, looks significantly younger than my biological age. That’s not from sunscreen; it’s from nutrition. Sun exposure does not make your skin “age” if you follow a high-nutritional density diet.

The below video is about “The Truth About Sunlight, Cancer and Vitamin D”
by the Health Ranger from Natural News.

#5) UV exposure alone does not cause skin cancer.

It is a complete medical myth that “UV exposure causes skin cancer.” This false idea is a total fabrication by the ignorant medical community (dermatologists) and the profit-driven sunscreen companies.

The truth is actually more complicated: Skin cancer can only be caused when UV exposure is combined with chronic nutritional deficiencies that create skin vulnerabilities.
To create skin cancer, in other words, you have to eat a junk food diet, avoid protective antioxidants, and then also experience excessive UV exposure. All three of those elements are required. Conventional medicine completely ignores the dietary influences and focuses entirely on just one factor: Sunscreen vs. no sunscreen. This is a one-dimensional approach to the issue that’s grossly oversimplified to the point of being misleading.

The medical industry, it seems, does not want people to figure out they can literally eat their way to healthier skin. It’s amazing, actually: Your skin is made entirely out of the food you eat, so how could your diet not affect your skin health? Yet no one in conventional medicine — not the dermatologists, not the doctors and not the health regulators — has the intellectual honesty to admit that what you eat largely determines how your skin reacts to UV exposure.

#6) Not all “natural” sunscreen products are really natural.

Be careful when shopping for so-called “natural” sunscreen products. While there are some good ones out there, many are just examples of greenwashing, where they use terms like “natural” or “organic” but still contain loads of synthetic chemicals anyway.

A good guide for checking on sunscreen products is the Environmental Working Group guide (EWG) at: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/

Some of the products that are truly natural include Loving Naturals sunscreen and Badger All Natural Sunscreen. Read the ingredients labels to see for yourself. Don’t use any sunscreen product containing ingredients that sound like chemicals:
• Methyl…
• Propyl…
• Butyl…
• Ethyl…
• Trieth…
• Dieth…etc.
Always buy unscented sunscreen unless for some reason you just enjoy coating your skin with artificial perfume chemicals. A typical sunscreen product is made with over a dozen cancer-causing fragrance chemicals, and they’re absorbed right through your skin. Most sunscreens, when applied as directed, are really just toxic chemical baths that heavily burden your liver and can give you cancer.

#7) Many “chemical free” sunscreens are loaded with chemicals.

Search Amazon.com for “chemical free natural sunscreen” and you’ll see a listing for:
Jason Natural Cosmetics – Earth’s Best Sun Block Chemical Free, 4 oz cream
Click on the product and you’ll find a listing of its ingredients which includes: C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Sorbitan Isostearate, Sorbitan Sesquioleate, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Ethyl Macadamiate, Calcium Starch Octenylsuccinate, Stearalkonium Hectorite
So how are those not chemicals? Ethylhexyl Palmitate is NOT a chemical? Who are these people kidding? The Amazon.com description (title) of this product is false and misleading. In all fairness, however, this product title looks like it was added into the Amazon.com system by the vendor and not the Jason company itself. But it’s an example of how the information you see from online vendors can often be misleading.
Always read the ingredients of any sunscreen product before using it. Don’t poison yourself with sunscreen!

Beware the disinfo minefield surrounding sunscreen products

Perhaps more with sunscreen than any other personal care product, the “official” information distributed through the mainstream media is hopelessly misleading (if not downright false). Remarkably, no one in the media or the government is even willing to admit that fragrance chemicals are bad for your health. Similarly, no one is willing to admit that the chemicals you put on your skin get ABSORBED by your skin.

Without those two truths being acknowledged right up front, the rest of whatever they say about sunscreen is worthless babble. Any honest talk about sunscreen must acknowledge the simple truth that the chemicals you put on your skin get absorbed into your skin, and that most sunscreen products are made out of a chemical cocktail of cancer-causing substances.

This is the truth about sunscreen that both the sunscreen industry and the cancer industry doesn’t want you to hear. It’s the dirty little secret of sunscreen: The more you use, the more you CAUSE cancer in your body! (And the more money the cancer centers make “treating” your cancer with yet more deadly chemicals known as chemotherapy.)

So buyer beware. Sunscreen products are a minefield of lies, fraud and disinformation designed to keep you ignorant of the importance of sun exposure as well as the health risks associated with using cancer-causing chemicals on your skin.

Stick with truly natural sunscreen products (when needed) and try to build up a healthy tan while consuming large quantities of superfoods and antioxidants in your diet. Consider taking astaxanthin or other fat-soluble nutrients on a regular basis. Engage in daily juicing of fresh fruits and vegetables which are loaded with living nutrients. Time your sun exposure to build up a healthy tan so that you don’t need sunscreen at all. Contrary to all the misinformation we’ve all been fed, a healthy tan is actually a good sign that you’re achieving adequate vitamin D synthesis in your own skin

from:    ttp://wakeup-world.com/2011/07/11/7-most-important-issues-you-need-to-know-about-sunscreen/

On the Number 5

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The Number Five

31st May 2012

By Jelle U. Hielkema

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

‘Penta’ = 5/23 = ‘Nature’

In Music, to which’ condition all Life aspires as the Universe is a musical symphony, the so-called ‘Perfect Fifth’ is the most consonant (stable) musical interval within tone ladder. Both the names ‘perfect’ and ‘fifth’ have the same ‘26’ “Partnerships” vibration of also the name ‘Pythagoras’ so little wonder that He came up with this first ‘String Theory’! And, ‘A Perfect Fifth’ is a ‘17’ “The Magic Star of Venus” like the word ‘Music’ itself as well as ‘Logic’. What’s more, “Music’-‘Logic’- ‘Life” = ‘33’ = ‘Aspiration’!

The word ‘SUN’, ‘spelled’ as ‘365’ is a 5/14, called “Movement and Challenge”, like the following selection: ‘GOD’ ‘ALL LIGHT’ ‘QUANTIZATION OF LIGHT ENERGY’  ‘ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD THEORY OF LIGHT’ ‘ELECTROMAGNETISM’ ‘TIME’’ ‘MIND’ ‘BRAINS’ ‘TEN’ ‘ALL THOUGHT’ ‘EYES’ ‘IDEAS’ ‘TEAM’ ‘DAY ONE’ ‘BIRTH’   ‘MYTH’ ‘GALAXY’ ‘ALL THERE IS’  ‘PHI’ ‘QUASAR’ ‘QUBIT’ ‘BIG BANG THEORY’ ‘BIG BANG MACHINE’ ‘ALL IS ENERGY’ ‘MASS-ENERGY’ ‘BINARY MODE’ and Albert Einstein’s immortal formula ‘E=MC^2’,  and, funny and good enough, ‘LUCK’, ‘JUNK’ ‘PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE’ ‘META’ ‘MAYAN CULTURE’ ‘COSMOTHEOLOGY’ ‘ALL BEING’ ‘A SUPREME BEING’ ‘ROYAL’ ‘A STEADFAST BEING’ ‘TELECOMMUNICATION’ ‘CHAKRA’ ‘MULTIPLICATION BY TIME’  ‘THE TRUTH IS IN THE HANDS OF NATURE ONLY’ and ‘THE TRUTH IS IN THE HANDS OF GOD ONLY’ and ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ ‘SMILE AT LIFE AND LIFE WILL SMILE AT YOU’  ‘PHILOSOPHY OF MIND’  ‘PERFECTIONING THE WHEEL’ and ‘IN NATURE WE TRUST’  ‘A TRANSCENDENTAL EVOLUTION’  and….. ‘IN THE BEGINNING’, ‘A MATTER OF TIME’  ‘EVERYTHING HAS ITS TIME’ ‘A MOMENT IN TIME’  ‘A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE’ ‘BIG TURN’ ‘IN REALITY’ ‘SAY YES’ ‘BACK TO BASICS’  ‘MAKE A DIFFERENCE’ and….’MATHEMATICS IS NOT AN OPINION’ and  ’CONSCIOUSNESS MATTERS’ and ’A THEORY OF EVERYTHING’

It is to be recalled that Baruch de Spinoza, renowned Dutch-Portuguese philosopher of the 17th Century, with great foresight ‘formulated’ the nature of the Cosmos in three words: MODES, a 5/23; SUBSTANCE, a 5/32 and ATTRIBUTES, also a 5/32 as well. These are all Mercury vibrations, the planet closest to the Sun and first recipient of its ‘information’! As to the obvious question why all of this comes out of the woodwork right now, as you probably know, all of us are about to leave the ‘Age of Pisces’ and on 23 January 1999 we  have  arrived on the threshold of the much sung-about  astronomical ‘Age of Aquarius’.  A Kabbalah numerological analysis of this and related facts yields the following rather circumstantial evidence in connection with the above, to start with a selection of the 5/23 vibration:

‘URANUS’, the Aquarian Ruler, ‘MERCURY’ ‘THE MESSENGER OF THE GODS’  ‘TEN NUMBERS’ ‘DNA AS NUMBERS’ ‘ALL IS ONE GEOMETRY’ ‘PENTA’  ‘NATURE’ ‘OUR COMMON NATURE’ ‘MASS-ENERGY-CONSCIOUSNESS’ ‘A LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT’ ‘LOGIC AND REASON’ ‘MORAL UNIVERSE’  ‘I EXIST, THEREFORE I AM’    =     ‘I AM, THEREFORE I EXIST’ ‘HUMAN BRAIN’  ‘NATURAL CREATIVITY’ ‘GOOD IDEA!’  ‘FANTASY’  ‘WORLD SOUL’ ‘SYMBOLS’  ‘COSMIC BALANCE’  ‘COSMIC VIBRATION’  ‘COSMIC ORDER’  ‘HUMAN INITIATIVE’ ‘PLATO’ ‘A SHARED VISION FOR A BETTER WORLD’   ‘DEALISTIC THOUGHT’  ‘REALISM AND DEALISM’  ‘THE WORLD WE LOVE’ ‘TIME TO RETHINK EVERYTHING’  ‘MIND AND HEART’ ‘MORALITY’  ‘HEALTH’ ‘ETHICS CULTURE’  ‘GLOBAL PEACE’  ‘CIVIC LIBERTY’ ‘MY HOUSE IS MY CASTLE’ ‘TALKING ABOUT A REVOLUTION’  ‘HEAL THE WORLD’  ‘THE LIVING PLANET’ ‘THE POWER OF SIMPLICITY’  ‘SO ABOVE, SO BELOW, SO ABOVE’  ‘THE HUMAN EMERGENCY’ and ‘THINK DIFFERENT’…..‘THINKING OUT OF THE BOX’!

Followed by these clearly connected 5/32’s which carry the name “Communication”:

‘THE AGE OF AQUARIUS’ ‘THE GUARDIAN OF LIGHT’  ‘THE TRUTH IN NUMBERS’ ‘MATHEMATICAL  NATURE’  ‘THE MAGIC OF NUMBERS’  ‘MOTHER NATURE’ ‘QUANTUM MIND’ ‘NUMBERS A LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT’ ‘THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE IS SOUND’ ‘NATURE SPEAKS WITH A THOUSAND VOICES’  ‘DOWN TO EARTH’ ‘INTUITION AND INTELLECT’  ‘ALL LIVING FORMS ARE IN FLUX’  ‘DEGREES OF FREEDOM’  ‘IT IS THE TONE THAT MAKES THE MUSIC’  ‘VIBRATIONS’’ and ‘GOOD, GOOD, GOOD VIBRATIONS’  ‘MUSIC IS THE SPIRIT OF REALITY’  ‘THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE’ ‘BEING TOUCHED BY NATURE’  ‘TRANCENDENCE’  ‘AWESOME POWER’  ‘SEIZING THE MOMENT’ ‘COLLECTIVE DNA’ ‘NATURE IS CONSTANT’ SMALL IS STILL BEAUTIFUL’  ‘FREE AS THE BIRDS’         ‘THE ART OF THE LONG VIEW’ ‘NATURE AND HUMANITY PARTNERSHIP’ ‘THINGS SHOULD BE CLEAR AND SIMPLE’ ‘AND NEW PHILOSOPHY PUTS ALL IN DOUBT’   ‘PYTHAGOREAN THINKING’         ‘THE COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW, SO PRETTY IN THE SKY’ ‘WHAT YOU SAY IS WHAT YOU ARE’ ‘TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT’  ‘THE TRUTH IS ALWAYS IN THE MIDDLE’ ‘THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH’  ‘SPINOZA’ ‘SPEAK SOFTLY BUT CARRY A BICK STICK’ ‘FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE’ ‘NEUROSCIENCE’ ‘NEUROLOGICAL CAPACITY’ ‘SYNCHRONICITY’ ‘SPIRALS AND DOUBLE HELIX’ ‘THE THEORY OF CELESTIAL INFLUENCE’ ‘COUNT TO BE COUNTED!’  ‘PYTHAGORAS AND PLATO’ ‘BORN TO BE ALIVE’  ‘BLESSING IN THE SKIES’ ‘THE UNIVERSE IS A SYMPHONY’ ‘MUSIC IS THE VERY ESSENCE OF THE UNIVERSE’ ‘MUSIC IS OUR NATURE’  and ‘FOOD FOR THOUGHT’!

Take that in on 31 May 2012, by the digits of the date a ‘14’ like the ‘365’ of ‘SUN!

About the Author

Jelle U. Hielkeman is of Dutch/Frisian farmer’s origin (1947) and has lived in Rome since 1975, where he has been working for the United Nations for thirty years in the field of Earth Observation from space in the context of global Food Security. His frequent travels across the globe spanning five continents, coupled with a keen interest in the interaction among philosophy, science, religion, and politics, enabled him to make a wide range of observations on the relationship among names, language, and numbers with rather amazing findings.
More about these Thoughts and what to possibly do with them can be found on rainbow21122012.org andgci.org.uk

from:    http://wakeup-world.com/2012/05/31/the-number-five/

Oh, Those Scientifically Attuned Infants!

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Babies Are Born With “Intuitive Physics” Knowledge

27th January 2012

University of Missouri

While it may appear that infants are helpless creatures that only blink, eat, cry and sleep, one University of Missouri researcher says that studies indicate infant brains come equipped with knowledge of “intuitive physics.”

“In the MU Developmental Cognition Lab, we study infant knowledge of the world by measuring a child’s gaze when presented with different scenarios,” said Kristy vanMarle, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science. “We believe that infants are born with expectations about the objects around them, even though that knowledge is a skill that’s never been taught. As the child develops, this knowledge is refined and eventually leads to the abilities we use as adults.”

In a review of related scientific literature from the past 30 years, vanMarle and Susan Hespos of Northwestern University found that the evidence for intuitive physics occurs in infants as young as two months – the earliest age at which testing can occur. At that age, infants show an understanding that unsupported objects will fall and that hidden objects do not cease to exist. Scientific testing also has shown that by five months, infants have an expectation that non-cohesive substances like sand or water are not solid. In a previous publication, vanMarle found that children as young as 10 months consistently choose larger amounts when presented with two different amounts of food substance.

“We believe that infants are born with the ability to form expectations and they use these expectations basically to predict the future,” vanMarle said. “Intuitive physics include skills that adults use all the time. For example, when a glass of milk falls off the table, a person might try to catch the cup, but they are not likely to try to catch the milk that spills out. The person doesn’t have to consciously think about what to do because the brain processes the information and the person simply reacts. The majority of an adult’s everyday interactions with the world are automatic, and we believe infants have the same ability to form expectations, predicting the behavior of objects and substances with which they interact.”

While the intuitive physics knowledge is believed to be present at birth, vanMarle believes parents can assist skill development through normal interaction, such as playing and talking with the child and encouraging him/her to interact with objects.

“Despite the intuitive physics knowledge, a parent probably cannot do much to ‘get their child ahead’ at the infant stage, including exposing him or her to videos marketed to improve math or language skills,” vanMarle said. “Natural interaction with the child, such as talking to him/her, playing peek-a-boo, and allowing him/her to handle safe objects, is the best method for child development. Natural interaction with the parent and objects in the world gives the child all the input that evolution has prepared the child to seek, accept and use to develop intuitive physics.”

The study, “Physics for infants: characterizing the origins of knowledge about objects, substances and number,” is published in the January issue of WIREs Cognitive Science

 from:    ttp://wakeup-world.com/2012/01/27/babies-are-born-with-“intuitive-physics”-knowledge/

Tips for Watching the Venus Transit June 5-6

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Transit of Venus on June 5 Is Last for 105 Years: How to Watch

by Geoff Gaherty, Starry Night Education
Date: 30 May 2012 Time: 07:30 AM ET
Venus Transit 2012 Sky Map
The transit of Venus will take place June 5-6, 2012.
CREDIT: Geoff Gaherty

On Tuesday, June 5, skywatchers in North America will have their last chance to see Venus pass in front of the sun for over a century. Because of the International Date Line, this event will occur on Wednesday June 6 in Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe.

This event, called a transit of Venus, is one of the rarest sights in astronomy. Transits of Venus occur in pairs 8 years apart, each pair separated from the next by over a century. The last pair occurred in 1881 and 1889, and the next pair will occur in 2117 and 2125. This week’s transit is paired with a transit which occurred on June 8, 2004.

This graphic shows Venus position in its orbit on June 5, 2012, the day of the transit of Venus.
On Tuesday June 5, 2012, Venus will be exactly between the Earth and the sun. Venus’ orbit (shown in grey in this edge-on view) is tilted 3.4 degrees to the Earth’s orbit (shown in green).
CREDIT: Starry Night Software

Why are transits of Venus so rare?

As the graphic associated with this guide shows, Venus’ orbit is tilted by 3.4 degrees as compared to the Earth’s orbit. As a result, most of the time Venus passes either above or below the sun when Venus is inferior conjunction with the sun (between the sun and Earth). Only when both Venus and Earth are at the points where the two orbits cross can we see Venus in front of the sun.

Venus transit observing safety

WARNING: It is always dangerous to stare directly at the sun!The sun’s heat, when concentrated by your eye’s lens on your eye’s retina, can literally cook your sensitive retinal cells. The result can be a permanent blind spot in your eye. You only get one pair of eyes, so don’t risk permanently damaging them.

There are only two safe ways to observe the transit of Venus

One way is to block the sun’s damaging rays with a dense filter. The only safe filters are a #14 welder’s glass, sold only by specialized welder’s supply stores, or “eclipse shades”: special glasses available only from telescope stores and astronomy clubs. Either of these cost less than a couple of dollars, so there’s no excuse to endanger your eyes.

The only other safe way to observe the sun is with a “pinhole camera.”

This can be made from a large cardboard box, such as a mover’s “two-cube.” Make a small hole in one end of the box, about a millimeter or two in diameter, which acts as the “lens,” and place a white sheet of paper in the opposite end to serve as the viewing screen. Place the box over your head resting on your shoulders, and watch the transit on the screen. [Video: How to Make a Pinhole Camera]

Much simpler pinhole cameras can be improvised from any object with a small hole, but the advantage of using a large box is that it keeps stray light off the screen, allowing you to use a smaller pinhole, for a sharper image.

If you’re observing with binoculars or a small telescope, there is no substitute for a proper full-aperture solar filter. Unless you block the sunlight from entering the telescope, you run the risk of concentrating the sun’s light.

It was once common for solar observers to use their telescopes to project an image of the sun with an eyepiece. That was in the days when telescopes were made of metal and glass. Nowadays there is much plastic, and even cardboard, used in making telescopes and eyepieces, so that you run the risk of “meltdown” or even fire. It’s just not safe.

Venus Transit 2012 World Visibility Map
World visibility of the transit of Venus on 5-6 June 2012. Spitsbergen is an Artic island – part of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway – and one of the few places in Europe from which the entire transit is visible. For most of Europe, only the end of the transit event will be visible during sunrise on 6 June.
CREDIT: Michael Zeiler, eclipse-maps.com (via ESA)

The 2012 transit of Venus: How to watch

So, when is the best time to observe the transit?

In North America the best time will be in the hours before sunset on Tuesday afternoon. In Europe, Africa, and Australia, Venus will be in transit as the sun rises on Wednesday morning (June 6). In most of Asia and across the Pacific Ocean, any time during Wednesday should work. Detailed times are shown in the table accompanying this guide.

Astronomers chronicle Venus transits in terms of “contact.” First contact is when Venus first touches the outer edge of the sun. Second contact is when Venus is first entirely on the sun. Similarly, third contact is when Venus touches the sun’s edge from the inside, and fourth contact is when it is totally off the sun.

This chart shows the times of "contact" between Venus and the sun during the transit of Venus on June 5, 2012.
This chart shows the times of “contact” between Venus and the sun during the transit of Venus for major cities on June 5, 2012.
CREDIT: Starry Night Software

What will you see?

For most observers, Venus will be a tiny round black disk, but large enough to be clearly visible with the unaided eye, properly protected by eclipse glasses or welder’s glass. If you’re viewing with a telescope, the most interesting times will be as Venus is entering or leaving the sun’s disk.

One of the things to look for is the so-called “black drop” effect.

Here’s an example: Hold up your thumb and forefinger in front of a bright background so that they are almost touching. You will see an interesting optical illusion whereby a black ligament appears to bridge the gap.

For the Venus transit, a similar illusion occurs just after second contact and just before third contact, when a dark ligament appears to join Venus to the dark sky. But is this entirely an optical illusion? Remember that Venus has a dense atmosphere which could contribute to this effect.

Many observers have reported seeing Venus as a bright ring just before it enters the sun’s disk and justafter it leaves. Mikhail Lomonosov, who organized the observations of the transits in the 1760s, correctly deduced from this that Venus had an atmosphere, illuminated from behind by the sun.

One difference between this transit and the one eight years ago is that many amateur astronomers now have telescopes which allow them to view the sun in hydrogen alpha light. It should be possible to see Venus silhouetted against prominences and the corona, before it moves in front of the chromosphere.

from:    http://us.mg6.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=191d426aj86r5

Jean Houston on Spirituality & Mysticism

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Spirituality and the Meaning of Mysticism for Our Time

by JEAN HOUSTON on JUNE 15, 2010

What is real spirituality but the art of union with Reality? Mysticism is a particularly focused part of spirituality; the mystic is a person who aims at and believes in the attainment of such union. In its classical spiritual form it is a heroic journey, and valiant efforts are required to follow the path.

Many of the spiritual teachers of the world have likened our lives to “a sleep and a forgetting.” The mystic path is predicated on awakening, on going off robot and abandoning lackluster passivity to engage co-creation with vigor, attention, focus, and radiance, characteristics we might note we often find in our animal friends.

Thus the mystical variant of the spiritual experience is perhaps the greatest accelerator of evolutionary enhancement. Through this experience, as Ervin Laszlo noted in his series ofposts on Quantum Consciousness, we tap into wider physical, mental, and emotional systems, thereby gaining entrance into the next stage of our unfolding, both individually and collectively. Once the province of the few, the spiritual experience, and within it the mystic path, may now be the requirement of the many—a unique developmental path for self and world.
In a lifetime of studying the art and science of human development, I have found no more powerful, practical, and evolutionary practice than the mystic path. When I have studied or talked with seekers who have had this variety of the spiritual experience, they have told me of a joy that passes understanding, an immense surge of creativity, an instant uprush of kindness and tolerance that makes them impassioned champions for the betterment of all, bridge builders, magnets for solutions, peacemakers, pathfinders. Best of all, other people feel enriched and nourished around them. Everyone they touch becomes more because they themselves are more. Perhaps we have needed the changes and accelerations of our time to put the flame under the crucible of becoming so that such inward alchemy could take place.

Mysticism, and spirituality in general, seems to rise during times of intense change and stress. Add the sufficiency of current shadows and the breakdown of all certainties, and we have the ingredients for the current universal pursuit of spiritual realities. We live in a time in which more and more history is happening faster and faster than we can make sense of.  The habits of millennia seem to vanish in a few months and the convictions of centuries are crashing down like the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. And yet, the deconstruction of traditional ways of being may invite the underlying Spirit, of which we are a part, to break through.

So how can we birth this miracle within ourselves? How can we foster our natural birthright of spiritual presence?

Many have written of the mystic path and tracked its myriad adventures and planes of development. I have found Evelyn Underhill, writing early in the twentieth century, to be one of the finest guides to the experience. In her great work Mysticism, she presents the mystic path as a series of eight organic stages: awakening, purification, illumination, voices and visions, contemplation and introversion, ecstasy and rapture, the dark night of the soul, and union with the One Reality.

In the first stage, “awakening,” one wakes up, to put it quite simply. Suddenly, the world is filled with splendor and glory, and one understands that one is a citizen in a much larger universe. One is filled with the awareness that one is a part of an enormous Life, in which everything is connected to everything else.

The second stage of mystical development is called “purification.” Here one rids oneself of those veils and obstruction of the ordinary unexamined life that keep one from the knowledge that one has gained from awakening. One is released from old ways of being and recovers one’s higher innocence. In traditional mysticism it can take the form of a very intense pursuit of asceticism. It can also take other forms of trying to create purity and beauty in the world, as, for example, the path of Saint Francis of Assisi, who rebuilt a church as part of his purification, or Hildegard of Bingen, who planted a garden so that God’s nose might be engaged.

The traditional third stage is called the path of “illumination”: one is illumined in the light. The light of bliss—often experienced as actual light—literally pervades everything. One sees beauty and meaning and pattern everywhere, and yet one remains who one is and able to go about one’s daily work. The stage of illumination is also one that many artists, actors, writers, visionaries, scientists, and creative people are blessed to access from time to time.

The fourth stage is called “voices and visions.” One sees, hears, senses with more than five senses—an amplitude of reality including things one has never seen before, such as beings of different dimensions, angels, archetypes, numinous borderline persons, or figures from other times and realms. It is a state of revealing and interacting with a much larger reality—including those spiritual allies that lie within us.

The fifth stage is what Underhill and others call “introversion,” which includes entering the silence in prayer and contemplation. It is a turning to the inner life, wherein one employs some of the vast resources of spiritual technology to journey inward to meet and receive Reality in its fullness. It results in daily life as a spiritual exercise, bringing the inner and the outer life together in a new way.

The sixth stage is referred to as “ecstasy and rapture.” Here the Divine Presence meets the prepared body, mind, emotions, and psyche of the mystic, which, cleared of the things that keep Reality at bay, now can ecstatically receive the One. It involves the art and science of happiness.

But, alas, after all this joy and rapture, the next stage, the seventh, is what is termed the “dark night of the soul,” obeying the dictum that what goes up must come down. Suddenly the joy is gone, the Divine Lover is absent, God is hidden, and one is literally bereft of everything. Here one faces the remaining shadows of old forms and habits of the lesser self, preparing one to become more available to the final stage.

The eighth and last stage is called the “unitive life.” Here one exists in the state of union with the One Reality—experiencing the Oneness Laszlo claims is the hallmark of deep spiritual experience. One is both oneself and God. For those who enter this state, it seems as if nothing is impossible; indeed, everything becomes possible. They become world changers and world servers. They become powers for life, centers for energy, partners and guides for spiritual vitality in other human beings. They glow, and they set others glowing. They are force fields, and to be in their fields is to be set glowing. They are no longer human beings as we have known them. They are fields of being, for they have moved from Godseed to Godself.

from:    http://ervinlaszlo.com/forum/2010/06/15/spirituality-and-the-meaning-of-mysticism-for-our-time/