Author Archives: marcia

Arcturian Message 5/21/12

Posted on by

Message from the Arcturian Group – May 21, 2012

Arcturian GroupThe Arcturian Group channeled through Marilyn Raffaele.

(Oneness Of All)

May 21, 2012

Dear ones, we come again to remind you of the many changes you are about to see and are now seeing upon your planet. Changes are now taking place within the hearts of many who before this time seemed oblivious, allowing them for the first time, to experience the light of truth. These are the dear ones that you will soon find yourselves helping as you explain to them what is taking place on the earth and in their lives at this time. Awakening humanity is making this shift happen, dear ones. Your light is manifesting in the outer as the higher forms that you interpret as change– higher levels of truth and understanding within all peoples and all facets of every day living.

Many are rapidly becoming aware of the literal stupidity of war. In truth, all life is in and of the One Life. Therefore to treat each other as enemies and evil; killing, torturing, and maiming is simply the continuation of a very unevolved and now obsolete facet of duality and separation. Soon there will be outcries from more of the masses as is already happening in many countries regarding the end of war which lines the pockets of the powerful, and depletes the life force of all the rest.

It is time to embrace means of interaction that honor the differences between cultures, Means that reflects an awareness of all life as Divine and valuable. You say that war is necessary for many do not respect the rights of others and wish harm upon us, but we say to you that war is a very unevolved tool presented to you by those who benefit by war. Much of what you have been told about your security is simply false, made up to keep the masses locked into fear, served on a platter of courage and rights. We also remind you that that which you do to another whether personally or through your support, you do to yourselves for there is only ONE LIFE.

Many of you still carry in cellular memory, warrior energy from lifetimes of the past and still feel its resonance. There is an excitement and a comradery in war that still resonates with many but if you wish to ascend, then it is time to release this now, and experience excitement and comradery on higher levels. That period of the evolutionary journey is finished for any choosing the Light of Truth.

Give permission and intention within yourselves to release all that is old and finished, for much that you are ready to move beyond can seem very true and real as you experience energies still active within cellular memory. Many of you are experiencing aches and pains, rashes, and mysterious physical issues that seem to come from no where. Most of these are temporary; the clearing of old physical, emotional, and mental energy with the accompanying integration of the new, the release of blocked energy streams (blocks can occur through surgeries or injury), and the opening of energy portals within the physical body. Remember this, and simply allow the process, for most of it soon fades and is gone. However, we are not saying that if fear enters in, and you have health concerns you cannot consult your doctor, we do say that it is important to remember that much of what you are experiencing at this time is in and of necessary physical preparation for ascension.

You are in the process of a giant evolutionary process. Nothing is the same as it has been nor will it be again, so as the unawakened keep promoting the pushing of more cards into the many third dimensional houses of cards, there will be disappointment and frustration because the energy is no longer there to support or manifest that which is finished. It is extremely important that you recognize and accept that truth if you have chosen to move forward.

This can for the newly awakened be a difficult time because an unawakened society continues to promote all that which is old and finished through your news, TV, magazines, film,etc. Day after day you are bombarded from all sides with beliefs and concepts that have worked in the past. You may begin to question as to whether or not this whole shift business may simply be another giant hoax being once again played upon the world for the benefit of those who would keep you in bondage.

Not giant hoax dear ones. Gaia, who is a living soul has chosen to ascend and all have been given the choice of going with her or not. Take this within your hearts, those of you who may question, for in your Center you will feel the rightness of it. Always go within for your answers and should you choose ascend with her, you will, but know that you cannot carry suitcases full of the past with you.

All are all feeling the new and increasingly intense energies. It is bringing up all past and present issues needing to be looked at. Many of you are experiencing a sense of failure as you see parts of your life suddenly fall apart. This is not failure but is a graduation, dear ones. Rejoice in what the unawakened world may see as failure, for you are moving beyond the old and finished concepts and beliefs regarding facets of your lives. Know that if these things are to be a part of your experience, they will reform in higher and better ways because consciousness is the substance of all form. You are moving to the next rung of the ladder and doing it bravely and lovingly.

Begin to trust your intuition for this is how you are directed by your Higher self and your guides. It is fine to consult others who may have more information about what you are concerned with, however make sure that the bottom line of any decision you make comes from you. This is the taking of your power back from those it has been given to–organized religions, government, experts, family, friends etc.

The world is experiencing an integration of the Divine feminine (receptive, intuitive) and the Divine masculine (active, be-er, do-er). Divine Consciousness embodies both qualities in perfect balance and harmony and therefore all living things also have both qualities. This is causing problems and resistance with those who benefit from a patriarchal society. There must be the balance for each quality compliments the other, and in this balance is empowerment. A female does not need a male to give her the masculine energy, it is already within. A man does not need a female to give him the feminine energy, he already embodies it. This realization can cause problems in an established relationship if only one partner understands that he is whole and complete with or without the other. The realization of the Divine feminine and the Divine masculine as being two halves of a perfect whole can and will disrupt all facets of life that heretofore have thrived on the imbalance created through the promotion of the masculine as being more perfect than the feminine.

Be aware that like it or not, change is here dear ones, embrace it and sing with joy the songs of new and higher experience.

As always, we are with love, the Arcturian Group

from:   http://consciouslifenews.com/message-arcturian-group-21-2012/1128691/

Solar Winds — Purple Skies

Posted on by

PURPLE SKIES: Earth is entering a high-speed solar wind stream, and this is causing geomagnetic activity at high latitudes. First contact with the stream on May 22nd turned the sky over Cumbria, United Kingdom, deep purple:

“The sky was bright because of twilight, but we could still see these faint auroras,” says photographer Jon Cooper.

So far the solar wind has not caused a full-fledged geomagnetic storm, but this could change during the next 24 hours. NOAA forecasters estimate a 15% to 20% chance of storms around the poles as the solar wind continues to blow

from:    spaceweather.com

On the Importance of Trees

Posted on by

Why Trees Matter

By 
Published: April 11, 2012

TREES are on the front lines of our changing climate. And when the oldest trees in the world suddenly start dying, it’s time to pay attention.

North America’s ancient alpine bristlecone forests are falling victim to a voracious beetle and an Asian fungus. In Texas, a prolonged drought killed more than five million urban shade trees last year and an additional half-billion trees in parks and forests. In the Amazon, two severe droughts have killed billions more.

The common factor has been hotter, drier weather.

We have underestimated the importance of trees. They are not merely pleasant sources of shade but a potentially major answer to some of our most pressing environmental problems. We take them for granted, but they are a near miracle. In a bit of natural alchemy called photosynthesis, for example, trees turn one of the seemingly most insubstantial things of all — sunlight — into food for insects, wildlife and people, and use it to create shade, beauty and wood for fuel, furniture and homes.

For all of that, the unbroken forest that once covered much of the continent is now shot through with holes.

Humans have cut down the biggest and best trees and left the runts behind. What does that mean for the genetic fitness of our forests? No one knows for sure, for trees and forests are poorly understood on almost all levels. “It’s embarrassing how little we know,” one eminent redwood researcher told me.

What we do know, however, suggests that what trees do is essential though often not obvious. Decades ago, Katsuhiko Matsunaga, a marine chemist at Hokkaido University in Japan, discovered that when tree leaves decompose, they leach acids into the ocean that help fertilize plankton. When plankton thrive, so does the rest of the food chain. In a campaign called Forests Are Lovers of the Sea, fishermen have replanted forests along coasts and rivers to bring back fish and oyster stocks. And they have returned.

Trees are nature’s water filters, capable of cleaning up the most toxic wastes, including explosives, solvents and organic wastes, largely through a dense community of microbes around the tree’s roots that clean water in exchange for nutrients, a process known as phytoremediation. Tree leaves also filter air pollution. A 2008 study by researchers at Columbia University found that more trees in urban neighborhoods correlate with a lower incidence of asthma.

In Japan, researchers have long studied what they call “forest bathing.” A walk in the woods, they say, reduces the level of stress chemicals in the body and increases natural killer cells in the immune system, which fight tumors and viruses. Studies in inner cities show that anxiety, depression and even crime are lower in a landscaped environment.

Trees also release vast clouds of beneficial chemicals. On a large scale, some of these aerosols appear to help regulate the climate; others are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral. We need to learn much more about the role these chemicals play in nature. One of these substances, taxane, from the Pacific yew tree, has become a powerful treatment for breast and other cancers. Aspirin’s active ingredient comes from willows.

Trees are greatly underutilized as an eco-technology. “Working trees” could absorb some of the excess phosphorus and nitrogen that run off farm fields and help heal the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. In Africa, millions of acres of parched land have been reclaimed through strategic tree growth.

Trees are also the planet’s heat shield. They keep the concrete and asphalt of cities and suburbs 10 or more degrees cooler and protect our skin from the sun’s harsh UV rays. The Texas Department of Forestry has estimated that the die-off of shade trees will cost Texans hundreds of millions of dollars more for air-conditioning. Trees, of course, sequester carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that makes the planet warmer. A study by the Carnegie Institution for Science also found that water vapor from forests lowers ambient temperatures.

A big question is, which trees should we be planting? Ten years ago, I met a shade tree farmer named David Milarch, a co-founder of the Champion Tree Project who has been cloning some of the world’s oldest and largest trees to protect their genetics, from California redwoods to the oaks of Ireland. “These are the supertrees, and they have stood the test of time,” he says.

Science doesn’t know if these genes will be important on a warmer planet, but an old proverb seems apt. “When is the best time to plant a tree?” The answer: “Twenty years ago. The second-best time? Today.”

Jim Robbins is the author of the forthcoming book “The Man Who Planted Trees.”

from:    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/opinion/why-trees-matter.html?_r=1

Japan Coastal Earthquake

Posted on by

Very strong dangerous earthquake along the coast of Hokkaido and Honshu, Japan

Last update: May 23, 2012 at 6:08 pm by By 

Update 16:13 UTC : The data below is a little confusing for some people as USGS indicates “only” a max. MMI V (moderate shaking) and JMA a 5+ (equivalent of MMI VII). JMA Japan is a highly specialized seismological agency and we always tend to believe the local agencies. The testimony below shows that JMA Japan is right. We do not expect a lot more Experience reports as there are very few English understanding people living in these areas. Our Experience reports in Japan are mostly coming from Expats working in the country.

Intensity map, courtesy JMA Japan (dark orange = strongest shaking)

Update 16:01 UTC : Other intensity values :
JMA5- : Noheji-machi Tabasamizawa*, Noheji-machi Noheji*, Higashidori-mura Odanosawa*
JMA 4 : Aomori-shi Hanazono, Goshogawara-shi Sakaemachi, Goshogawara-shi Shikishimacho*, Hiranai-machi Kominato, Hiranai-machi Higashi-tazawa*, Itayanagi-machi Itayanagi*, Sotogahama-machi Kanita*, Hachinohe-shi Minatomachi, Hachinohe-shi Uchimaru*, Hachinohe-shi Nangoku*, Towada-shi Nishi-nibancho*, Towada-shi Nishi-junibancho*, Misawa-shi Sakuracho*, Shichinohe-machi Shichinohe*, Shichinohe-machi Morinokami*, Rokunohe-machi Inuotose*, Tohoku-machi Tonosawayama*, Rokkasho-mura Obuchi, Gonohe-machi Furudate, Gonohe-machi Kuraishi-nakaichi*, Aomori Nambu-cho Taira*, Aomori Nambu-cho Tomabechi*, Hashikami-cho Dobutsu*, Oirase-cho Nakashimoda*, Oirase-cho Kamiakedo*, Mutsu-shi Kanamagari, Mutsu-shi Kanaya*, Mutsu-shi Ohatamachi-nakajima*, Mutsu-shi, awauchimachi*, Higashidori-mura Sunagomata*

Update 15:56 UTC : An ER reader living in Misawa, approx. 75 km from the epicenter wrote a few moments ago :

Woke me up, I think midnight.  I was so scared that I jumped up too quickly and ended up with a cramp in my leg.  It was long too and was getting stronger so husband and I stood under doorway of lodging until subsided a little then went outside. She described the shaking as a strong shaking. Misawa is labeled as a JMA 4 intensity. Some people must have felt it a lot stronger (see above)

Update 15:52 UTC : Based on JMA data (Japan Seismological Service), the max. shaking will be 5+ at Tohoku-machi Kamikita-minami*. 5+ is considered by Earthquake-Report.com as “moderately dangerous”. JMA uses a 0 to 7 scale.

Based on theoretical data from USGS, the max. shaking will be moderate and felt by 76,000 people.

Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude :  M6.0 (JMA Japan)
UTC Time : Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 15:02:25 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 12:02:25 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 50 km (JMA Japan)
Geo-location(s) :
Approx. 60 km from Mutsu, Honshu, Japan
107 km (66 miles) NNE of Hachinohe, Honshu, Japan
119 km (73 miles) ESE of Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
127 km (78 miles) ENE of Aomori, Honshu, Japan

–

Update 18:05 UTC :  Minor damage
4 schools in Noheji have broken windows. Other damage has been reported in the museum of Noheji (damage to the ceiling). We will keep you updated if new reports are published.

Update 16:57 UTC : FDMA Japan has issued a new report on 16:40 UTC – good news, still no sign of any damage.  ER expects that the highest intensity area will probably remain damage free.

Update 16:44 UTC : FDMA Japan (Fire brigade who also works as SAR and Emergency forces during earthquake are currently making an assessment of the situation. The heaviest shaking is in the Aomori prefecture. Until now no damage reported as yet. The report has been issued 1 hour ago.

Purple line is subduction fault line – seismic hazard map courtesy USGS

Update 16:30 UTC : We have noticed and reported a very curious swarm of earthquakes more to the south.  A lot of these earthquakes had the same Magnitude than this one but due to the distance from the coast (150 to 200 km) we have only described the phenomenon in our daily lists.  This earthquake as well as all the other earlier ones and the great March 11 destructive one in 2011 are triggered by the same fault. The purple line at right is the subduction fault line where the pacific plate subducts the Eurasian plate. The depth today is a very good illustration of this subducting process. The pacific heavier plate glides below the Eurasian plate and hangs frequently.  When the pressure mounts, it suddenly breaks and generates an earthquake.  The friction points are mostly seen in a rather wide area (a few hundred km’s) along the subduction faults.

Update 16:20 UTC : The earthquake occurred just after midnight and a lot of people must have been already sleeping. Hard to get up this way.

Update 16:20 UTC : There are NO tsunami advisories in effect. In general earthquakes below M7 generate rarely stronger waves

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/05/23/very-strong-dangerous-earthquake-along-the-coast-of-hokkaido-and-honshu-japan/

Sofia, Bulgaria Vicinity Earthquake

Posted on by

Strong dangerous earthquake near Sofia, Bulgaria – Summary update

Last update: May 22, 2012 at 1:55 pm by By ll

Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.6 ?
UTC Time :   00:00
Local time at epicenter :
Depth (Hypocenter) : 10 km ?
Geo-location(s) :
23 km (14 miles) W (274°) from SOFIA, Bulgaria
116 km (72 miles) SE (128°) from Nis, Yugoslavia

Shaking map courtesy USGS

Update 00:46 UTC :  The people from Sofia, Pernik and all the surrounding towns are gathering in the streets out of fear for aftershocks.
At Earthquake-Report.com we believe that damage will be inevitable.

Update 00:46 UTC : Our Experience Database is unfortunately down, we are sorry for this. Cause : too high demand.

Update 00:45 UTC : Following the theoretical calculations from USGS,  95,000 people will have felt a very strong shaking (MMI VII).  MMI VII means for earthquake-report.com a potential danger for damage.
932,000 people will have felt a strong shaking.

Update 00:37 UTC : The earthquake happened 10km from Pernik. The nearest populated places are: Studena (18km), Radomir (14km), Rudartsi (18km), Tsurkva (14km), Rayko Daskalovo (17km). The closest civilian airport is Sofia / Vrazhdebna (32km).

Recent Updates:

Summary Update 13:33 UTC 
– The people living at the greater Pernik area have to deal with another problem, heavy rain. Some roofs are seriously damaged and it rains inside the houses.
– No massive destruction but a lot of broken glass, brick pieces, mortar to be cleaned
– The overall damage is told to be superficial, but still widespread in the direct epicenter area and in Pernik
– A lot of people who were afraid to re-enter their houses  have spend the night in their cars. There are still people doing this at this moment.
– 50% of the people in Pernik are reported to have no drinking water
– The chimney of a thermal power plant collapsed in Pernik
– Bulgaria is one of the European countries who has adopted the European EC8 earthquake resistant building code. New buildings will be surely protected against very strong earthquakes, but older buildings will always be problematic
– 60 aftershocks have been recorded since the mainshock at 00:00 UTC. The majority of these aftershocks are too weak to be felt by people.

Earthquake-Report.com wishes to thank the people who shared their experience with this specialized earthquake site. In doing this you are part of an Open Source Press Agency that informs other people in the country minutes after it happens.  These reports may not be underestimated and are as important as the Earthquake data itself.

Update 08:53 UTC : Deputy Prime Minister, Power, Police
– The Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister has stated that there are no casualties, no serious injuries and no significant national infrastructure damage
– The Deputy Prime Minister said that the situation is totally under control
– Power cuts were experienced in Radomir, a town West of Pernik, but the power has been restored now
– Police patrols have been dispatched all over the country to avoid looting while people where out of their houses out of fear for aftershocks

Summary 07:00 UTC :
– 30 people were slightly injured and all have been released from hospital
– 1 house was destroyed in Rudartski. Only slight damage occurred to other buildings like fallen plaster
– Damage assessments are currently been undertaken.
– This was about as damaging as the 1965 earthquake.

Update 06:36 UTC : From the CATDAT Damaging Earthquakes Database, the following major damaging earthquakes have occurred close to this epicenter.

1555, 1641, 1818, 1848 – major damage near this epicentre.
1858 – multiple earthquakes caused major damage in Sofia with 4 deaths.
1904 – multiple large earthquakes in Gabrovo region.
Late 1938 – Damaged houses in Sofia, and overturned chimneys. From a mild earthquake.
According to Associated Press reports, an earthquake caused damage to several houses in Transylvania on August 30 1941
6 April 1942 – A Rome broadcast heard in London, England, reported that a temblor caused damage at the Bulgarian town of Tutrakan. One hundred houses were said to have been destroyed, but there was no report of casualties. BSSA:
28 January 1965 – Bulgaria; slight damage (intensity VII) in the towns of Rodomir and Pernik and in the villages of Kladnitsa and Roudartzi in the mountainous massif about 30 km south-west of Sofia (Grigorova and Rijikova, 1965)
Late 1977 saw damage in the region of Velingrad from a M5.5 earthquake.

Update 06:19 UTC :

30 people have required medical treatment however, no other casualties have been seen.  The children’s ward in Pernik hospital was evacuated.

Victims who came to the hospital are numbered around 30, most of which were bruised and lacerated by fallen plaster or objects. These were not serious injuries.

The Pernik fault on which the earthquake occurred has not been activated for 100 years.

Update 03:19 UTC :
One of our Sofia readers reports : The Bulgarian networks report for a demolished house in Rudartsi but no casualties except for some people from Sofia and Pernik suffering from high blood pressure from the stress.

Update 03:08 UTC :
– The last local reports we could see was that 1 house was collapsed to the west of Pernik.  A lot of people have been treated for a nervous breakdown, but we have no word on injuries based on the shaking
– A dam in the earthquake area has not been damaged
– We can advise our Bulgarian friends to read the following good article on how to behave during and after an earthquake
– About 30 residents of the city required medical treatment, mainly because of problems with blood pressure after suffering a stress.

Update 02:48 UTC :
– We expect better reports from the 15 km radius of the epicenter in about an hour when daylight will disclose more details.  So far we haven’t heard anything from the villages to the west of Pernik and information out of Pernik, a city with 81,000 inhabitants, is extremely limited.

Update 02:24 UTC :
– Another strong aftershock just occurred in the earthquake zone

An Earthquake-Report.com reader is commenting : Keeps shaking, it\’s scary. The first time the walls shook for around 20 secs, bottles, books, frames falling. It increased before easing off, there were two more shakes right away, and two more in an hour and half and in about two hours. Online advice says it\’s better to stay at home, next to an inner wall, a sturdy furniture or under a bed/table, away from mirrors, windows, kitchen and electricity devices. I am alone with the kid, it\’s scary. I feel a series of  small aftershocks.

Update 02:24 UTC :
– Entire walls are reported to have collapsed in the Western city of Pernik as a result of the earthquake.
– EMSC has reported a lot of aftershocks so far. 2 of them measured 4.7 and 4.6. Not dangerous for normal constructions but they can make people crazy after an earthquake.
– The Sofia area is not the most dangerous in Bulgaria but nevertheless has been labeled as an area with a potential Magnitude of 7.

Landscape near Pernik – Image courtesy Dennyl

Update 02:05 UTC :
– The city of Pernik has a lot of apartment buildings
– The confirmed damage so far is broken windows, fallen chimneys, cracks in walls etc.  We are now 2 hours after the mainshock and this is good news. If the damage should have been widespread, the news must certainly have arrived already in Sofia. The Magnitude is dangerous but not as dangerous as initially reported.
– It will take a few hours more until daylight before a better picture can be made from the damage

Update 01:58 UTC :
– Our I Have felt It system can hardly follow with the many experienced we receive from within Balgaria and from the neighboring countries
– Aftershocks in the -5 range are continuing to strike in the epicenter area. Unless houses became unstable, we do expect no serious damage from these aftershocks.
– Our attention goes to the direct epicenter area to the North West of Pernik. The situation is still very chaotic at the moment.
– Local press in Pernil is saying that the epicenter is in between Pernik and Rudartsi. Other people are claiming the epicenter to be in Radomir.

Update 01:41 UTC :
– EMSC has located the earthquake’s epicenter almost below Meshtitsa. The mayor of Pernik was merely concerned about Batanovtsi from were she has received damage reports.
– A bad sign for eventual damage is the merely soft soil in this area. A lot of farming fields means that the wave propagation can be powerful. More or less the equivalent of the Italian earthquake.

Update 01:38 UTC :
– USGS has decreased his Magnitude from 5.8 to 5.6, which is a big difference in energy. Depth remains unchanged.
– EMSC maintains the M5.7 Magnitude at a depth of 10 km.
– So far we haven’t heard from Pernil, which is a bif city very close to the epicenter
– A lot of people are reporting cracks in the walls
– The Mayor of Pernik Rositsa Yanakieva have gone to town Batanovtsi, which is located near Pernik, since there is evidence that has damaged buildings.

Update 01:24 UTC :
– As could be expected, a lot of aftershocks are hampering the area
– There is information about damaged walls, chimneys, plaster, broken windows, etc. Based on our experience, this is a bad sign and will lead to a lot more damage.
– Earthquake-Report.com also fears for the strength of a lot of houses and buildings. They are mostly build out of brick , which if it not reinforced for earthquakes, collapses easily.

Update 01:17 UTC :
– There is no immediate evidence that the power would have been gone.
– The earthquake was followed almost immediately by two aftershocks of almost equal strength.
– The civil protection and fire brigade departments across Bulgaria have been alerted about minor damages to walls, ceilings, and windows. ER : based on our experience, this is only the beginning. We expect more damage as the time passes.

Update 01:11 UTC :  The earthquake was well felt in the neighboring countries from Macedonia, Serbia and Greece.

Update 01:10 UTC :  The first earthquake measured M5.8. The depth is still unsure. The shaking went on for about 10 seconds. The mainshock was followed by a M4.7 aftershock.

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/05/22/strong-earthquake-in-bulgaria/

 

On Love & Transformation

Posted on by

Heart of Transformation: How Courageous Is Your Love?

22nd May 2012

By Jack Adam Weber

Many view love as a purely positive force. It is positive, but for love to live up to its advertising as the most powerful energy on the planet, it must be bigger than the feel-good experience we claim it to be. Love must embrace everything from euphoria to devastation, selflessness to utter selfishness, on both the personal and collective level. For love to be the all-encompassing force we intuit it to be, love must also be able to fully embrace and reconcile the darkness and suffering of the world. The transformation of pain and suffering into positivity, deep compassion, and healing service is the way that love achieves this and grows into its own heart to embrace all of life. This way, seeming opposites are united—Yin and Yang become one dynamic whole, and life flows deeply, courageously and robustly through and from us.

Because life is full of loss, grief must be part and parcel of love. Grief must allow us to love more, not less. When we conceal grief, we stymie the transformation of love from pain and suffering into pleasure, deeper beauty and genuine compassion. Reciprocally, love must allow us to grieve more. And it does, for the more we care for and love this world the more it breaks our hearts. Ultimately then, a sure measure of our integrated love is the degree to which our hearts have broken open and recapitulated that breaking by staying profoundly open. In this, paradoxically, we can find both a concrete and ineffable wholeness, beauty, appreciation, and an abiding care for the welfare and fulfillment for all of life.

When we grieve something we realize how much we love it, how much it has meant to us. This experience opens us to value other things that we love; that is, if we are not afraid of grief and its attendant heartache. In one way, religious notions of salvation can be a seen as another way to stave off feeling badly, as can the idea of romantic love—that someone else is going to make us happy and whole and disappear our problems.

I do not advocate seeking out heartache, but it is amazing the lengths to which humanity will go to stave off psychological pain, to the point of pervasively denying reality. Perhaps this is because pain is a taste of literal death, as are illness and trauma. We intuit that nothing will feel as bad as to die, literally. I go so far as to say that our fear of pain, as a taste of final death, is at the root of personal and planetary suffering. For we equate feeling badly with suffering. But, pain is not suffering. Suffering is, in fact, the refusal to risk or to deal with pain. Ironically, suffering is what happens when we see things non-poetically, one-sidedly, rather than paradoxically, more wholly, as the interdependence and inter-promoting properties of dark and light, Yin and Yang.

Yin-Yang theory is one of the few practical, non-dual gems of ancient wisdom we have to illuminates spirituality in everyday life. Yin and Yang are integral to Taoism, the pragmatic philosophy of living in harmony with nature, and to the practice of Chinese medicine. I am grateful for my training in Chinese medicine, to be been versed in this dynamic, profound and ultimately practical model of living that allows us to richly appreciate healing, spirituality, sustainability, ecology, economics, and all aspects of life. The key to Yin and Yang theory, and its stamp of validity for me is both its poetic and literal embrace of dark and light, good and bad, visible and invisible, happy and sad, positive and negative. These are the paradoxical, dialectical truisms that comprise the ever-changing, ever-diminishing and simultaneously regenerative flow of life.

The unity of Yin and Yang, as depicted in the Ying-Yang symbol, can be summed up as the fundamental interplay and unity of dark and light. Only when dark and light transform into and promote one another do we achieve true wholeness. This is the law of nature to which we are all subject. All of reality as we know it follows the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. When we can celebrate this cycle in our daily lives, we live a taste of the great fear at the end of our lives for which we invent our religious beliefs and unduly protect our attachments—to avoid facing the inevitability of death.

Daily disappointments and losses cut our attachments, exposing our fears and vulnerability, challenging our instincts for survival on all levels. Yet, if we can breathe deeply and allow our hearts to engage their transformational nature, of turning pain into positivity, then we can find more peace, freedom, and wholeness. The bonus of embracing and being transformed by our daily declines—our small deaths—is that we get to live more fully while still alive. Is it any wonder then that the French word for orgasm, petit mort, translates literally as “small death?”

Figurative death, when it is transformative, (as all declines potentially are) is ultimately an ecstasy, an orgasm of the heart. At our literal death, we do not get the opportunity to transform our lives; all we really know is that our physical bodies decay. Ironically, when we unilaterally deny and try to avoid death via our rejection of embracing the relatively smaller daily heartaches, our lives become a kind of sleepwalk. This happens when we do not have the courage to embrace the inherently transformative nature of our own hearts to allow pain to transform us into a generous and integral spirituality. When we do not embrace our petit morts, we perpetuate the horror we supposedly fear so much in the future. The antidote is to die, figuratively, today, so that we can truly come to life while we are still alive.

Emotional transformation is a radically creative effort. Transformation is the key to unite the polarities, the paradoxes as seeming contradictions, of life—dark Yin with light of Yang, as the circle of life. Staying close to paradox is to stay to the path of courageous spirituality, wholehearted love. The key to living with a heart of transformation is courage, the courage to honestly and frankly face and embrace the painful aspects of life at face value, yet to deal with this pain in an utterly creative way. After all, happiness is not the opposite of suffering. Transformation is. The great irony, the pitfall in the unilateral pursuit of pleasure, is that suffering results as the attempt to avoid feeling bad. The more we avoid inevitable or extant pain, the more deeply our suffering becomes entrenched in our hearts and the farther we arrive from freedom, deep love, and connecting with —especially giving to—the world in a meaningful way. Indeed, when we avoid the beauty of paradox we live out the horror of its irony.

When we can embrace the difficulties and pains of love and transform them into the feel-good qualities of compassion, depth, richness, gratitude, appreciation, beauty and wonder, we make love more all-encompassing, holistic in the deepest sense. This way, we allow love to be as powerful, as big, as whole, as unifying as what we bill it to be. We transform our hearts into the strongest emitters of energy on the planet, figuratively speaking anyway!

As part of humanity’s long history of denial and attempt to stave off feeling badly, we invented a heaven where everything is perfect. We believe in reincarnation so that death becomes not as terrifying as it really is. We abdicate our sensibilities to a distant, invented God, or an imagined perfect “light,” instead of discovering the inherent nature of morality and compassion in our own hearts via the embrace of darkness for light. We have invented millions of rituals to stave off anxiety. We have created fairy-tales of resurrection to justify a belief in our own immortality. We pray to make ourselves feel better, as wishful thinking to avoid facing the difficult and tragic realities we cannot control. These same challenges, ironically enough, free, deepen, and honestly spiritualize us. At some point we discover first-hand that a hellish life is what we live for having invented a hell and heaven in the first place.

When we take away the magical props of religion we are left with the cold hard facts of life. If we take away our addictions, obsessions and compulsions we are more apt to encounter more cold hard facts of life. If we dare to abandon, even temporarily, our compulsion to pursue the less benign assuagers of anxiety and disappointment, such as excess sex and culinary indulgences, we are also left with more of the same facts of life.

But the hard facts of life are really not so bad. To the sincere and grateful, to the insightful and courageous, the facts are certainly more desirable than chasing a life of superficial pleasures, religious delusion, and New Age fantasies. Why? Because life’s challenges and pains hold within their seemingly impenetrable shell, their seemingly endless spooky corridors, a graceful, deeply compassionate path to freedom, fulfillment, and ease in our own skin and in the world. When we relinquish escape into fairy-tales we are left in the seat of real possibility for transforming our lives and our spirituality, if we have the courage and creativity to appreciate and persevere through the paradoxes that integrate our spirituality in the world.

About the Author

Jack Adam Weber is a licensed acupuncturist, master herbalist, author, organic farmer, celebrated poet, and activist for Earth-centered spirituality. He integrates poetry, ancient wisdom, holistic medicine, and depth psychology into passionate presentations for personal fulfillment as a path to planetary transformation. His books, artwork, and provocative poems can be found at his website PoeticHealing.com.

from:    http://wakeup-world.com/2012/05/22/the-heart-of-transformation-how-courageous-is-your-love/

On the Dangers of Soy

Posted on by

The Dangers of Soy Are Real–and Much Worse Than You Might Think

21st May 2012

By naturalhealthstrategies.com

Promoting soy foods as health foods while ignoring the dangers of soy and soy derivatives should be considered a crime against humanity. If you think this statement is too extreme, read this article to the end, and then see what you think!

The dangers of soy are thoroughly documented in the scientific literature, which makes it hard to believe that many health and fitness communities and counselors, and most health food stores, still promote soy products as ultra-healthy foods.

Hopefully this harmful misrepresentation of soy foods will begin to change as the dangers of soy become better known.

A Summary of the Dangers of Soy

 

 

– Soybeans and soy products contain high levels of phytic acid, which inhibits assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc.

– Soaking, sprouting, and long, slow cooking do not neutralize phytic acid.

– Diets high in phytic acid have been shown to cause growth problems in children.

– Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may causepancreatic disorders.

– Test animals showed stunted growth when fed trypsin inhibitors from soy.

– The plant estrogens found in soy, called phytoestrogens, disrupt endocrine function, that is, the proper functioning of the glands that produce hormones, and have the potential to cause infertility as well as to promote breast cancer in adult women.

– Hypothyroidism and thyroid cancer may be caused by soy phytoestrogens.

– Infant soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.

– Soy has been found to increase the body’s need for vitamin B12 and vitamin D.

– Fragile soy proteins are exposed to high temperatures during processing in order to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein, making them unsuitable for human digestion.

– This same process results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine andhighly carcinogenic nitrosamines. (Doesn’t sound like anything anyone would want to eat, does it?)

– MSG, (also called free glutamic acid), a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing. Many soy products have extra MSG added as well. (See video on the dangers of Aspartame, MSG’s chemical first cousin.)

– Soy foods contain elevated levels of toxic aluminum, which negatively effects the nervous system the kidneys and has been implicated in the onset of Alzheimer’s.

If this list of the dangers of soy isn’t enough to make you run out the door of your local health food store, keep reading. It gets worse.

Feeding Babies Infant Soy Formula Is Like Giving Them Birth Control Pills

– It’s been found that babies given infant soy formulas have 13,000 to 22,000 times more estrogen than babies fed milk-based formulas.

– Babies fed exclusively on infant soy formula are receiving the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least four or five birth control pills per day! You read that right. Four or five birth control pills per day! Here’s the reference so you can check this out for yourself. [Irvine, C. et al., “The Potential Adverse Effects of Soybean Phytoestrogens in Infant Feeding”, New Zealand Medical Journal May 24, 1995, p. 318.] By contrast, dairy-based infant formula contains almost no phytoestrogens, nor does human milk, even when the mother eats soy products. (Sally Fallon & Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.)

– There has been an increase of delayed physical maturation among boys, including lack of development of sexual organs.

– Conversely, many girls today show signs of puberty, such as breast development and pubic hair, before the age of eight, and some even before the age of three.

– Both of these abnormal conditions have been linked to the use of soy formulas as well as to exposure to “environmental estrogens” such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene)a breakdown product of DDT.

Would you want to knowingly expose your tiny infant to the dangers of soy formula?

But Don’t Oriental Cultures Eat Lots of Soy?

It seems that historically, Oriental cultures consumed mostly traditionally fermented soy products such as miso, tempeh, natto, shoyu and tamari. (Tofu is not fermented, and falls into the dangerous soy foods category.) They consumed these soy foods in small amounts, as a condiment.

– Soy foods account for only 1.5 percent of calories in the Chinese diet, researchers found. (1977 Chang KC)

– The actual soybean consumed today is not the same one used by traditional Oriental cultures.

Problems with Soy Protein Isolate

– Furthermore, modern soy foods are very different from those consumed traditionally in Asia. Most are made with soy protein isolate (SPI), which is a protein-rich powder extracted by an industrial process from the waste product of soy oil manufacturing. It is the industry’s way of making a profit on a waste product. The industry spent over 30 years and billions of dollars developing SPI.

– In feeding studies, SPI caused many deficiencies in rats. That soy causes deficiencies in B12 and zinc is widely recognized, but the range of deficiencies was surprising.

– Although SPI is added to many foods, it was never granted GRAS status, meaning “Generally Recognized as Safe”. The FDA only granted GRAS status to SPI for use as a binder in cardboard boxes. During the processing of soy, many additional toxins are formed, including nitrates (which are carcinogens) and a toxin called lysinoalanine. It was concerns about lysinoalanine in SPI that led the FDA to deny GRAS status for SPI as a food additive.

– In spite of all these dangers of soy protein isolate, SPI is the basic ingredient of soy infant formula. The FDA even allows a health claim for foods containing 6.25 grams SPI per serving.

Scientific Studies Showing Adverse Effects of Dietary Soy

The Weston Price Foundation has a list of studies carried out from 1971 to 2003 showing the adverse effects of dietary soy.

To give you an idea of how condemning these studies are, here are just a few summaries. There are over 50 more!

1986
Fort P and others. Breast feeding and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in children. J Am Coll Nutr 1986;5(5):439-441. Twice as many soy-fed children developed diabetes as those in a control group that was breast fed or received milk-based formula. It was based on this study that the American Academy of Pediatrics took a position of opposition to the use of soy infant formula. This objection was later dropped after the AAP received substantial grants from the Infant Formula Council.
1994
Hawkins NM and others. Potential aluminium toxicity in infants fed special infant formula. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 1994;19(4):377-81 (1994).Researchers found aluminum concentrations of 534 micrograms/L in soy formula, as compared to 9.2 micrograms/L in breast milk. The authors concluded that infants may be at risk from aluminium toxicity when consuming formula containing more than 300 micrograms/L.
1999
Sheehan DM and Doerge DR, Letter to Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305) February 18, 1999. A strong letter of protest from two government researchers at the National Center for Toxicological Research urging that soy protein carry a warning label rather than a health claim.
1999
White L. Association of High Midlife Tofu Consumption with Accelerated Brain Aging. Plenary Session #8: Cognitive Function, The Third International Soy Symposium, Program, November 1999, page 26. An ongoing study of Japanese Americans living in Hawaii found a significant statistical relationship between two or more servings of tofu per week and “accelerated brain aging.” Those participants who consumed tofu in mid life had lower cognitive function in late life and a greater incidence of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
2001
Strom BL and others. Exposure to soy-based formula in infancy and endocrinological and reproductive outcomes in young adulthood. JAMA 2001 Nov 21;286(19):2402-3. Although reported in the media as a vindication of soy infant formula, the study actually found that soy-fed infants had more reproductive problems and more asthma as adults.

The FDA Had the Scientific Information about the Dangers of Soy but Chose to Ignore It

You might think that people probably just didn’t know about the toxic effects of soybeans, that the food industry and the FDA must have just been misinformed about the supposed benefits, and very real dangers, of soy. Unfortunately for the FDA’s credibility, this was not the case.

If you simply do a search on ‘soybean’ at the Poisonous Plant Database of the United States FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, you can see this information yourself.

Right there in black and white you’ll find 288 studies on soy, many focused on the toxic properties and effects of soybeans. It’s not very easy to understand or get access to the actual studies, but it is cause for great concern that the FDA had this information and knowingly chose to ignore the dangers, just as it has done with so many other additives and pharmaceuticals.

It’s tragic to think of the human suffering that could have been avoided had the FDA just been more cautious and listened to their scientific advisors.

And it’s mind-boggling to think that the very federal agency whose mandate is, among other things, “to promote and protect the public health, to monitor products for continued safety after they are in use, and to help the public get the accurate, science-based information needed to improve health,” could knowingly do the apparent opposite.

This is one more example that highlights the need to educate yourself by finding good sources of information to base your health and diet decisions on, rather than relying on the FDA’s stamp of approval.

More Confirmation on the Dangers of Soy: Medical Conditions Possibly Attributable to Soy Consumption

  • Asthma
  • Chronic Fatigue
  • Depression
  • Diabetes
  • Heart Arrhythmia
  • Heart or Liver Disease
  • Infertility/Reproductive Problems
  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome
  • Learning Disabilities/ADD/ADHD
  • Pancreatic Disorders
  • Premature or Delayed Puberty
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis
  • Thyroid Conditions:
  • Auto-Immune Thyroid Disorders (Graves’ or Hashimoto’s Disease)
  • Goiter
  • Hypothyroidism
  • Hyperthyroidism
  • Thyroid Nodules
  • Thyroid Cancer
  • Other thyroid disorders
  • Uterine Cancer
  • Weight Gain
  • Weston Price Foundation

Symptoms of Disorders Possibly Attributable to Soy

  • Always feeling cold or warm
  • Anemia
  • Behavioral problems
  • Brittle nails
  • Eczema
  • Hair thinning or loss
  • Hyperactivity
  • Learning deficiencies
  • Lethargy or low blood pressure
  • Sore bones and joints
  • Watery or swelling eyes
  • Weston Price Foundation

Do You Still Think We’re Exaggerating the Dangers of Soy?

When there is a pretty good possibility that something is harmful, as is the case with soy, common sense dictates that it’s better to avoid it!

The corporations who make billions from selling soy would like us to believe that until the dangers of soy are proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, we shouldn’t worry about them. This reminds me of Russian roulette: if a gun had a hundred chambers, and only one was loaded, I wouldn’t risk putting it to my head and pulling the trigger. Would you?

Or, as Roger Eichman, DDS, succinctly summed up the precautionary principle: “The precautionary principle requires action once the possibility of harm exists. It does not require proof beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

There’s more than enough sound scientific evidence to convince me. I used to think soy was a good dietary choice, but not anymore. I quit eating it a long time ago.

For more information about the dangers of soy, go to the Weston Price Foundation.

from:    http://wakeup-world.com/2012/05/21/httpwww-naturalhealthstrategies-comdangers-of-soy-html/

Michael Beckwith on Super Wisdom

Posted on by

Extended Awareness

by MICHAEL BECKWITH

There is an inner impulsion within the human being which is commonly interpreted as the engine that drives personal success, that earns credentials and accolades which result in magnificent acquisitions—the external more, more, more of which there is never enough to satisfy.  For even when we have succeeded in meeting many or most of our outer goals there remains an awareness of an illusive “something,” an emptiness that is yet unfilled.

Is there any validity to this awareness?  Is there something woven into the fundamental fabric of our being that urges us to seek fulfillment beyond the offerings of the external world?  Affirmative evidence is offered by Andrew Newberg, M.D., in his book on brain science and the biology of belief, Why God Won’t Go Away:

“As Gene and I sifted through mountains of data on religious experience, ritual, and brain science, important pieces of the puzzle came together and meaningful patterns emerged.  Gradually, we shaped a hypothesis that suggests that spiritual experience, at its very root, is intimately interwoven with human biology.  That biology, in some way, compels the spiritual urge.”

According to both ancient and contemporary spiritual traditions, there is a passageway into an extended awareness of our true nature, that aspect of ourselves that can be accessed when the preoccupations of the conscious mind are quieted. As we enter through this passageway, we lift the veil that hides the inner paradise in which we truly live, move, and have our being.  India’s great philosopher, Sri Aurobindo, aptly describes it this way:

“The full delight of being is intrinsic, self-existent, automatic; it cannot be dependent on things outside itself. In the spiritual knowledge of self, the first step is the discovery of the soul, the secret entity, the divine element within us.”

From this wisdom we can conclude that there is no permanent or ultimate fulfillment from anything outside of our essential Self, our soul-self. This leaves little wiggle room for us to postpone seeking out spiritual practices by which we may evolve an extended awareness of our at-onement with First Cause, which some call God, Brahma, Spirit, or no name at all.

Jill Bolte Taylor, a 37-year-old Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the rational, time-oriented left side of her brain. Within a four-hour time span she lost the ability to walk, talk, read, or write. Her knowledge of how the brain works allowed her to recognize that she was having a stroke and seek immediate help.  At the very outset of her eight-year recovery period, her consciousness shifted into the right brain where she experienced a state of nirvana, what she described as an extended awareness of herself being “at one with the Universe.” Andrew Newberg explains this extended awareness:

“… various key brain structures and the way information is channeled along neural pathways leads us to hypothesize that the brain possesses a neurological mechanism for self-transcendence.”

The degree to which we activate this innate capacity to self-transcend, so do we cultivate an extended awareness of the Self.

As we progress in self-transcendence, the sense of separation or involvement with the personal mind expands into an awareness of the unique emanation that each of us is as an individualized expression of the One Mind that is everywhere in its fullness.  That which is happening cosmically begins to happen through us locally.  In such a state of awareness the plenitude, beauty, peace, joy, bliss, compassion—these transcendent yet eminent qualities of being are activated within us.  It is a process of awakening to our true nature which places us in harmony with the fundamental order of Existence. Modern Zen master Huang Po describes the ultimate state of being he calls One Mind in this way:

“All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but One Mind, beside which nothing exists. Only awake to the One Mind.”

This One Mind is the very life force that animates and sustains existence, the evolutionary impulse within the universe and each individual.

The personal mind—predominantly the left side of the brain—wants to figure out how all of this happens. The demand to know “how” is actually a delay tactic of the ego, a defense mechanism so that our sense of being a separate self doesn’t dissolve right on the spot!  Self-transcendence is our birthright.  Everything that we need is already within us, announcing itself through the inner impulsion to grow, develop and unfold.  How do we cultivate an extended awareness of Self?  First by an identity shift which acknowledges our at-onement with the One Mind. We then grow confidence in our capacity to become a fully enlightened being.  As an enlightened being, we live from a state of cosmic consciousness, a conscious awareness of our oneness with all life.

When we consider current scientific studies of the brain relative to the field of quantum consciousness, the evolutionary possibilities for the individual and our global family are limitless.  A genuine state of cosmic awareness expressing through an individual or a whole nation is distinguishable as scientific knowledge of life, life lived in attunement with cosmic laws.  Living from such a state of consciousness holds the potential for governing our world by a kind of super-wisdom which results in cooperation rather than competition, in unity rather than division, in oneness rather than separation.

from:    http://ervinlaszlo.com/forum/2010/06/13/extended-awareness/