Category Archives: Of Interest

Looking for Disclosure?

Posted on by

Disclosure?

Find Below a count of the UFO reports for 2014.  Check out the link for more information as well as a list of UFO reports for previous years.  With so many sightings, can it be long before public opinion forces Disclosure?:

(Also you might want to check out this video and links for the Tweets on Washington Campaign of the Paradigm Research Gourp:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4aDTUuo7g&feature=youtu.be)

From http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxevent.html

Reports Count
11/2014 74
10/2014 737
09/2014 808
08/2014 895
07/2014 1071
06/2014 766
05/2014 647
04/2014 657
03/2014 507
02/2014 541
01/2014 707

On ‘Magic’ Mushrooms

Posted on by

11 Odd Facts About ‘Magic’ Mushrooms

by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor   |   November 11, 2014

Psilocybin is found in mushrooms such as Psilocybe mexicana.
 Psilocybe mexicana, the mushroom from which psilocybin was first extracted.
Credit: Cactu, Wikipedia

At first glance, Psilocybe cubensis doesn’t look particularly magical. In fact, the scientific name of this little brown-and-white mushroom roughly translates to “bald head,” befitting the fungus’s rather mild-mannered appearance. But those who have ingested a dose of P. cubensis say it changes the user’s world.

The mushroom is one of more than 100 species that contain compounds called psilocybin and psilocin, which are psychoactive and cause hallucinations, euphoria and other trippy symptoms. These “magic mushrooms” have long been used in Central American religious ceremonies, and are now part of the black market in drugs in the United States and many other countries, where they are considered a controlled substance.

How does a modest little mushroom upend the brain so thoroughly? Read on for the strange secrets of ‘shrooms.

1. Mushrooms hyperconnect the brain
An artist’s image shows neurons sending signals within the human brain.

The compounds in psilocybin mushrooms may give users a “mind-melting” feeling, but in fact, the drug does just the opposite — psilocybin actually boosts the brain’s connectivity, according to an October 2014 study. Researchers at King’s College London asked 15 volunteers undergo brain scanning by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. They did so once after ingesting a dose of magic mushrooms, and once after taking a placebo. The resulting brain connectivity maps showed that, while under the influence of the drug, the brain synchronizes activity among areas that would not normally be connected. This alteration in activity could explain the dreamy state that ‘shroom users report experiencing after taking the drug, the researchers said.

2. Slow it down

‘Shrooms act in other strange ways upon the brain. Psilocybin works by binding to receptors for the neurotransmitter serotonin. Although it’s not clear exactly how this binding affects the brain, studies have found that the drug has other brain-communication-related effects in addition to increased synchronicity.

In one study, brain imaging of volunteers who took psilocybin revealed decreased activity in information-transfer areas such as the thalamus, a structure deep in the middle of the brain. Slowing down the activity in areas such as the thalamus may allow information to travel more freely throughout the brain, because that region is a gatekeeper that usually limits connections, according to the researchers from Imperial College London.

3. Magic mushrooms go way back

Central Americans were using psilocybin mushrooms before Europeans landed on the New World’s shores; the fantastical fungi grow well in subtropical and tropical environments. But how far back were humans tripping on magic mushrooms?

It’s not an easy question to answer, but a 1992 paper in the short-lived journal, “Integration: Journal of Mind-Moving Plants and Culture,” argued that rock art in the Sahara dating back 9,000 years depicts hallucinogenic mushrooms. The art in question shows masked figures holding mushroomlike objects. Other drawings show mushrooms positioned behind anthropomorphic figures — possibly a nod to the fact that mushrooms grow in dung. (The mushroom figures have also been interpreted as flowers, arrows or other plant matter, however, so it remains an open question whether the people who lived in the ancient Sahara used ‘shrooms.)

4. Magic mushrooms explain Santa … maybe
Amanita muscaria mushrooms

On the subject of myth, settle in for a less-than-innocent tale of Christmas cheer. According to Sierra College anthropologist John Rush, magic mushrooms explain why kids wait for a flying elf to bring them presents on Dec. 25.

Rush said that Siberian shamans used to bring gifts of hallucinogenic mushrooms to households each winter. Reindeer were the “spirit animals” of these shaman, and ingesting mushrooms might just convince a hallucinating tribe member that those animals could fly. Plus, Santa’s red-and-white suit looks suspiciously like the colors of the mushroom species Amanita muscaria, which grows — wait for it — under evergreen trees. [8 Ways Magic Mushrooms Gave Us Christmas]

Feeling like you’ve just taken a bad trip? Not to worry. Not all anthropologists are sold on the hallucinogen-Christmas connection. But still, as Carl Ruck, a classicist at Boston University, told Live Science in 2012: “At first glance, one thinks it’s ridiculous, but it’s not.”

5. ‘Shrooms may change people for good

Psychologists say that few things can truly alter someone’s personality in adulthood, but magic mushrooms may be one of those things.

A 2011 study found that after one dose of psilocybin, people became more open to new experiences for at least 14 months, a shockingly stable change. People with open personalities are more creative and more appreciative of art, and they value novelty and emotion.

The reason for the change seems to be psilocybin’s effects on emotions. People describe mushroom trips as extremely profound experiences, and report feelings of joy and connectedness to others and to the world around them. These transcendent experiences appear to linger. (In the experiments, the researchers took great pains to assure their participants did not experience “bad trips,” as some people respond to psilocybin with panic, nausea and vomiting. Volunteers were kept safe in a room with peaceful music and calming surroundings.)

6. Mushrooms kill fear

Another strange side effect of magic mushrooms: They destroy fear. A 2013 study in mice found that when dosed with psilocybin, the animals became less likely to freeze up when they heard a noise they had learned to associate with a painful electric shock. Mice that were not given the drug also gradually relaxed around the noise, but it took longer.

The mice were given a low dose of psilocybin, and the researchers said they hope this animal study will inspire more work on how mushrooms might be used to treat mental health problems in people. For example, small doses of psilocybin could be explored as a way to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, the researchers said.

7. They make their own wind

Mushrooms don’t just exist to get people high, of course; they have their own lives. And part of that life is reproduction. Like other fungi, mushrooms reproduce via spores, which travel the breeze to find a new place to grow.

But mushrooms often live in sheltered areas on forested floors, where the wind doesn’t blow. To solve the problem of spreading their spores, some ‘shrooms (including the hallucinogenic Amanita muscaria) create their own wind. To do this, the fungi increase the rate that water evaporates off of their surfaces, placing water vapor in the air immediately around them. This water vapor, along with the cool air created by evaporation, works to lift spores. Together, these two forces can lift the spores up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) above the mushroom, according to a presentation at the 2013 meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics.

8. Many mushrooms
Scientists found a species of gilled mushroom in the northwestern United States submerged in the clear, cold, flowing waters of the upper Rogue River in Oregon. What makes Psathyrella aquatica distinct, and a member of this year’s top 10, is that it was o

At least 144 species of mushroom contain the psychoactive ingredient psilocybin, according to a 2005 review in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms. Latin America and the Caribbean are home to more than 50 species, and Mexico alone has 53. There are 22 species of magic mushroom in North America, 16 in Europe, 19 in Australia and the Pacific island region, 15 in Asia, and a mere four in Africa.

9. Experimenting with ‘shrooms

Recently, researchers have begun to experiment with psilocybin as a potential treatment for depression, anxiety and other mental disorders. This line of research was frozen for decades and is still difficult to pursue, given psilocybin’s status as a Schedule I substance. This means the drug is classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as having no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
A woman covers her face with her hands.

In the past, though, psilocybin and other hallucinogenic drugs were at the center of a thriving research program. During the 1960s, for example, Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary and his colleagues ran a series of experiments with magic mushrooms called the Harvard Psilocybin Project. Among the most famous was the Marsh Chapel Experiment, in which volunteers were given either psilocybin or a placebo before a church service in the chapel. Those who got psilocybin were more likely to report a mystical spiritual experience. A 25-year follow-up in 1991 found that participants who got the psilocybin remembered feeling even more unity and sacredness than they said they’d felt six months after the fact. Many described the experience as life altering.

“It left me with a completely unquestioned certainty that there is an environment bigger than the one I’m conscious of,” one told the researchers in 1991. “I have my own interpretation of what that is, but it went from a theoretical proposition to an experiential one. … Somehow, my life has been different knowing that there is something out there.”

10. The counterculture cultivator

Leary’s psychedelic experiments are part of hippie lore, but the man who did the most to bring magic mushrooms to mainstream U.S. drug culture was a writer and ethnobotanist named Terence McKenna. He had been experimenting with psychedelics since his teen years, but it wasn’t until a trip to the Amazon in 1971 that he discovered psilocybin mushrooms — fields of them, according to a 2000 profile in Wired magazine.

In 1976, McKenna and his brother published “Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide,” a manual for cultivating psilocybin mushrooms at home. “What is described is only slightly more complicated than canning or making jelly,” McKenna wrote in the foreword to the book.

11. Animals feel the effects

Psilocybin ‘shrooms grow in the wild, so it’s perhaps inevitable that nonhuman animals have sampled these trippy fungi. In 2010, the British tabloids were abuzz with reports that three pygmy goats at an animal sanctuary run by 1960s TV actress Alexandra Bastedo had gotten into some wild magic mushrooms. The goats reportedly acted lethargic, vomited and staggered around, taking two days to fully recover.

Siberian reindeer also have a taste for magic mushrooms, according to a 2009 BBC nature documentary. It’s unclear whether the reindeer feel the effects, but Siberian mystics would sometimes drink the urine from deer that had ingested mushrooms in order to get a hallucinogenic experience for religious rituals.

from:    http://www.livescience.com/48704-odd-facts-about-magic-mushrooms.html

1000 Year Old TOmb Found in China

Posted on by

1,000-Year-Old Tomb Reveals Murals, Stars & Poetry

by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor   |   November 11, 2014

The full scene on the north wall.

 The full scene on the north wall.
Credit: Photo courtesy Chinese Cultural Relics

A 1,000-year-old tomb with a ceiling decorated with stars and constellations has been discovered in northern China.

Found not far from a modern day railway station, the circular tomb has no human remains but instead has murals which show vivid scenes of life. “The tomb murals mainly depict the daily domestic life of the tomb occupant,” and his travels with horses and camels, a team of researchers wrote in their report on the tomb recently published in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.

On the east wall, people who may have served as attendants to the tomb’s occupant are shown holding fruit and drinks. There is also a reclining deer, a crane, bamboo trees, a crawling yellow turtle and a poem. The poem reads in part, “Time tells that bamboo can endure cold weather. Live as long as the spirits of the crane and turtle.”

he tomb also contains images of what appear to be the occupant’s pets. On the north wall, there is “a black and white cat with a red ribbon on its neck and a silk-strip ball in its mouth,” the researchers wrote, with the same scene also showing “a black and white dog with a red ribbon on its neck and a curved tail.” Male and female attendants are shown beside the cat and dog, with an empty bed lying between the animals. [Photos: 1,000 Year Old Tomb Found in China]

The tomb’s ceiling contains stars painted in a bright red color. The “completed constellations are formed by straight lines connecting the stars in relevant shapes and forms,” the researchers wrote.

Archaeologists also found a small statue of the occupant. The statue is 3.1 feet (0.94 meters) tall, and shows a smiling man who is wearing a long black robe while sitting cross-legged on a platform. It could be that the statue was used as a substitute for the body in the burial, the researchers said, noting this practice wasn’t unusual among Buddhists at the time.

The tomb was found in Datong City and was excavated in 2011 by a team from the Datong Municipal Institute of Archaeology. The researchers reported their finds, in Chinese, in the journal Wenwu, and their article was recently translated into English and published in Chinese Cultural Relics. The excavation team was led by Junxi Liu.

Who was he?

The tomb was robbed in the past and the name of the tomb owner has not survived. Judging by his statue, and the decoration of his tomb, researchers said it’s likely that the occupant was a Han Chinese man of some rank and wealth.

At the time he lived, about 1,000 years ago, the area where his tomb is located was controlled by the Liao Dynasty (sometimes called the Liao Empire). This dynasty was controlled by people called the Khitan, who held territory in modern- day Mongolia, northern China and parts of Russia.

Historical records indicate that the Khitan ruled a multicultural empire that incorporated Han Chinese into the government.

“The Khitan system of rule worked on a principle of dual administration, with its nomadic, pastoral, and mostly Khitan subjects in the north under the northern government and its agricultural, sedentary, and largely Chinese and Bohai subjects in the south under the southern government,” writes Nicola Di Cosmo, a historian at the Institute for Advanced Study, in a chapter of the book “Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China’s Liao Empire” (Asia Society, 2007).

Although we may never know the identity of the tomb occupant, or the position he held, this unknown man has left behind a colorful tomb full of life.

Chinese Cultural Relics is a new journal that translates Chinese-language articles, which were originally published in the journal Wenwu, into English. The mural tomb was included in its inaugural issue.

from:    http://www.livescience.com/48671-tomb-china-murals-stars-poetry.html

 

Comet Landing Tomorrow

Posted on by

HISTORIC COMET LANDING TOMORROW: The European Space Agency is about to make history: On Nov. 12th, it is going to land on a comet. The action begins Wednesday at 08:35 UT when ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft drops a probe named “Philae” onto the core of Comet 67P. This video shows what happens next:

In the past, nations of Earth have landed on planets, moons, and asteroids, but never before on a comet. This is an important and daring first. “A comet is unlike any other planetary body that we’ve attempted to land on,” says Claudia Alexander of the US Rosetta Project at JPL. “Getting Philae down successfully will be an incredible achievement for humankind.”

“How hard is this landing?” asks Art Chmielewski, the US Rosetta Project Manager. “Consider this: The comet will be moving 40 times faster than a speeding bullet, spinning, shooting out gas and welcoming Rosetta on the surface with boulders, cracks, scarps and possibly meters of dust!”

Philae will take 7 hours to fall 22.5 km from the spacecraft to the comet–an interval some mission scientists are calling “The Seven Hours of Terror.” Confirmation of the landing will reach ground stations on Wednesday at approximately 1600 UT. You can follow the descent as it happens by tuning in to ESA’s #CometLanding webcast.

fr/spaceweather.com

Veracruz, Mexico UFO

Posted on by

UFO Over Nuclear Plant On Nov 5, 2014, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: November 5, 2014
Location of sighting: Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Station, Veracruz, Mexico

This is the second UFO video to come out of Mexico in the last 2 years with a UFO over a power planet. There was another in March 2012. Aliens are interested in our technological advances and how we make energy, while impacting the Earth with pollution. Or, if their ship is damaged in some way, they may be harvesting some of the plants energy to help them get home. SCW

News states:
This short video was taken by an engineer at nuclear electric plant in Veracruz, Mexico where a UFO was recorded fortuitously like a cross.

from:   http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2014/11/ufo-over-nuclear-plant-on-nov-5-2014.html

On Parallel Worlds

Posted on by

Parallel Worlds Exist and Interact with Each Other, New Theory Says

http://themindunleashed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/paralell.jpg
The idea of parallel worlds is one of the more favorite topics of science fiction writers, but also a popular subject of interest for many researchers. If you watched the Fringe series, you will remember that there were two simultaneously existing versions of the same world with slight differences between them. It seems that something like this could be possible, according to a new quantum theory.

A group of Australian and US physicists suggests that there may exist multiple versions of our universe, which can interact with each other on a quantum level. Dr. Howard Wiseman and Dr. Michael Hall of Griffith University in Australia, together with Dr. Dirk-Andre Deckert from the University of California, published their so-called “Many Interacting Worlds” (MIW) theory in the journal Physical Review X.

It is a known fact that quantum mechanics display strange phenomena which violate the principles of cause and effect. That is why it is so difficult to explain the nature of these phenomena. “Any explanation of quantum phenomena is going to be weird, and standard quantum mechanics does not really offer any explanation at all–it just makes predictions for laboratory experiments,” Dr. Wiseman wrote in an email to the Huffington Post. “Our new explanation…is that there are ordinary (non-quantum) parallel worlds which interact in a particular and subtle way.”

The new theory is an alternative to the ‘Many Worlds’ concept, which was proposed in 1950s by American physicist Hugh Everett to explain the ability of quantum particles to be in two states simultaneously. He suggested that both states co-exist in different realities, that is why quantum particles can seemingly occupy two places at once. Thus, in accordance with the ‘Many-worlds interpretation’ hypothesis, each version of reality branches into a bunch of new realities, which exist separately and can’t interact with each other. From this point, the “Many Interacting Worlds” theory is totally different, as it speculates that multiple universes can overlap and influence each other.

There are three key points to understanding the MIW theory: first, there is a gigantic number of universes, some of which may be nearly identical; second, all of these universes are equally real; third, there is a force of repulsion between similar universes, which is a cause of quantum interactions between them.

“The beauty of our approach is that if there is just one world our theory reduces to Newtonian mechanics, while if there is a gigantic number of worlds it reproduces quantum mechanics. In between it predicts something new that is neither Newton’s theory nor quantum theory. We also believe that, in providing a new mental picture of quantum effects, it will be useful in planning experiments to test and exploit quantum phenomena,” Wiseman noted.

In spite of some negative criticism, such as the article by Czech physicist Luboš Motl in which he called the MIW approach “a hopeless enterprise and a huge waste of time,” prof. Wiseman and his team are optimistic about the prospects of their research: “I think there are many who are not happy with any of the current interpretations, and it is those who will probably be most interested in ours. I hope some will be interested enough to start working on it soon, because there are so many questions to answer.”

The biggest challenge now is to come up with the ways to test this hypothesis and find the indications of possible interactions with other universes. As for the possibility that someday humans might establish contact with other universes, Dr. Wiseman said: “It’s not part of our theory… But the idea of interactions with other universes is no longer pure fantasy.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anna LeMind is the owner and lead editor of the website Learning-mind.com, and a staff writer for The Mind Unleashed.

Featured image: Commons

from:    http://themindunleashed.org/2014/11/parallel-worlds-exist-and-interact-with-each-other-new-theory-says.html

Reflections on the Monetary System

Posted on by

Is it Time for a New Monetary System?

http://themindunleashed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/monetary.jpg
No matter what problem we look at today, regardless of scope or gender, demographic statistic or geographic location we can provide a solution; if we throw enough money at it…

And therein lies the actual problem.

The fundamental problem the human species faces today is the current monetary system. I submit that only by completely revamping the monetary system will we be successful as a species.

Currently the monetary system is controlled by a “for profit” Central Banking system. The major problem with this system is the idea of profit itself. Profit means “to obtain a financial advantage or benefit”. Unlike barter, the concept of profit necessitates a winner and a loser in any transaction. Most people are not aware that the current monetary system is a for profit system designed to create wealth and power for those that control the system, just as one would profit from the oil or manufacturing industry. Central banking is the business of controlling the monetary system to enrich only those that wield control of the system.

“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes its laws” ~ Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

The business of banking rests on two pillars. One is foreclosure, the other is usury, or more commonly called interest.

When a man or company or Government takes a “loan” from a bank, the bank actually creates a new digital entry into the system under the borrower’s associated account. It is imperative to understand that this is a digital entry for new “never before been in existence” digital currency.

Regarding the business of foreclosure, if the “borrower” never pays the “loan” back, the bank can foreclose on an outstanding “loan” and then gains control of a tangible asset like a car or a property. Yet the fact is that the bank never risked anything to begin with. The digital currency created at the time of the “loan” is not a tangible thing. It doesn’t exist. It’s like getting the “blessing” of the Bank to go and purchase something. This is a simplification of the system but it is basically a correct understanding. This scheme has worked like a charm for them…

“They will be stripped of their rights and given a commercial value designed to make us a profit and they will be non the wiser, for not one man in a million could ever figure our plans and, if by accident one or two would figure it out, we have in our arsenal plausible deniability”. ~ Edward Mandell House

Regarding the business of usury, whenever a “loan” of non-existent currency is created there is also an interest charge built into the contract. When the borrower pays back the “loan” they are also required to pay back an interest charge that is over and above the newly created currency. The point to understand here is that the interest due was not created along with the new digital currency and thus a shortfall of currency is actually built into the system. Thus bankruptcy is a fundamental component of the current monetary system because there is always a shortage of currency. If every dollar of debt in existence today were to be paid back right now, all the interest would still be outstanding. This is the mathematical formula that has been used for centuries in order to steal tangible wealth from the actual creators of that wealth.

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. ” ~Henry Ford

Having said all that, you might be intrigued and start to gain the understanding that only the bankers can win, but you might also say “so what”? People should be able to profit, after all, profit is the motivating factor in our world.

I submit that the concept of profit is the fundamental core of what is destroying the human species. If a larger, stronger man takes control of another man and subjugates him simply because he can, that is tyranny, and we as a species have evolved to see that this ethically wrong. Now we as a species have to evolve our understanding of the current monetary system to see that we are being subjugated into continuing to propagate the greatest control mechanism ever developed on this planet.

Let’s play the “If” game for a second.

If profit was taken out of the equation; do you think that cancer would still be a major threat to our species?

If profit was not a requirement; do you think that we would be using oil as the fundamental energy source used throughout the world today?

If the concept of profit was not in the human consciousness; do you think that “health” centres would ever refuse to treat the ill? Or actual cures for diseases would be shelved by Big Pharma?

If profit was not the driving factor of agriculture; do you think that we could easily feed the population of the world?

If everyone on the planet never had to worry about shelter or having enough food to eat or clothes to wear, would having more than you need be a consideration?

The concept of “profit” is what is holding us back as a species. We have been indoctrinated into a short term “take what we can NOW” philosophy that is based on the fallacy of continuous growthand competition. I submit that we would be far better off if we forged our future by cultivating the creative use of our finite resources using a co-operative intellectual methodology.

Study after study has shown that the world’s hunger and housing problems could be solved very quickly if a certain amount of money where to be thrown at those two problems. Studies show ending world hunger would cost around 30 billion dollars per year (vs $684 billion for the 2010 U.S. military budget). The fact that we as a species have not eliminated hunger proves that this problem is actually being facilitated. Is that acceptable to you? If it is, then all of us (but the few of the elite at the top of the control pyramid) are doomed.

Profit stifles as much creativity as it generates. Just look at the alternate technologies that have been suppressed because they would have upset the current paradigm, technology such as almost free and truly sustainable energy and anti-gravity devices. If either of these technologies ever went main stream the oil economy would take a huge hit and there would be an immediate shift in the controlling power structure.

The concept of profit is the paradigm that must be shed in order for us to move forward as a compassionate, free and intelligent species. It is the concept of profit that is the shovel we use to dig our own graves.

“Problems are best solved not on the level where they appear to occur but on the next level above them….Problems are best solved by transcending them and looking at them from a higher viewpoint. At the higher level, the problems automatically resolve themselves because of that shift in point of view, or one might see there was no problem at all.” ~David R. Hawkins

Abandoning just one concept, the concept of profit and our species will thrive for centuries to come.

About the Author

Rod Morin operates Barrie Tai Chi & Qigong studio in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, focusing on Yang-style Tai Chi, Taiji Qigong and Ziran Qigong. Rod has taught hundreds of students basic tai chi and energy work while striving to incorporate the profound teachings of taiji philosophy into his daily life. Please visit his website at www.barrietaichi.com.

For more ideas and a potential solution to economic subjugation, please visit Secodnary Money System.

Sources:

 – David R. Hawkins. 2009. Healing and Recovery. Sedona, AZ; Veritas Publishing, p. 176.

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

fr0om:    http://themindunleashed.org/2014/11/time-new-monetary-system.html

Incoming CME

Posted on by

CME TARGETS EARTH, AFTER ALL: On Nov. 7th, when an X-flare from AR2205 hurled a CME into space, at first it appeared that the cloud would miss Earth. Follow-up computer modeling by NOAA analysts suggests that the CME might deliver a glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field after all. A complete forecast follows this movie of the eruption recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory:

The CME left the sun traveling approximately 600 km/s (1.3 million mph) albeit not directly along the sun-Earth line. If the computer models are correct, the outskirts of the cloud should reach Earth mid-day on Nov. 10th (Universal Time). First contact could spark a G2-class geomagnetic storm on Nov. 10th subsiding to G1-class on Nov. 11th. NOAA forecasters are citing storm probabilities as high as 75%.

These storms in the forecast are mild, not extreme, so there is no danger of power outages or communications blackouts. However, the CME impact could spark some beautiful auroras around the Arctic Circle. The lights might even spill across the Canadian border into northern-tier US states such as Maine, Michigan, Minnesota and the Dakotas.

fr/spaceweather.com

On ‘Conscious Capitalism’

Posted on by
Conscious Capitalism: How Millennials are Shaping the New Economic Paradigm

Conscious Capitalism: How Millennials are Shaping the New Economic Paradigm

Story by: Dr. Kelly Neff

http://themindunleashed.org

 

Capitalism has become a dirty word in our culture, synonymous with cronyism and greed, not consciousness. Since the 2008 financial collapse in the US, we have been inundated with stories of poverty, injustice, corrupt banking institutions and companies that have lied, cheated and stolen to meet their bottom line, often scamming their employees and harming the environment while the bigwigs sit back and cash checks.

What is Conscious Capitalism?

In light of the corporate scandals over the past several years, it is refreshing to hear that the new paradigm of conscious capitalism has emerged. This is due in large part to the evolving spending power of Millennials, the generation of 95 million or-so Americans born between 1982 and 2004. Millennials are more health and socially conscious than other generations, meaning that we put a strong emphasis on healthy living and well-being, and our consumer trends reflect this.

Conscious capitalism refers to businesses that serve the interests of all major stakeholders—customers, employees, investors, communities, suppliers, and the environment. According to Whole Foods Founder and Co-CEO John Mackey, who has built his company’s success using a conscious model and recently co-authored the book Conscious Capitalism,  this is a model where business is “grounded in a higher sense of purpose to enhance its positive impact on the world.”

The Energetic Impact of Spending

Many Millennials (myself included!) share an understanding that the way we spend our money will shape our world and our children’s worlds. This is a pretty simple energetic strategy for manifestation: Withdraw energy (money in this case, but it can also be thoughts, attention, ideas, and efforts) from products and companies that are not in line with your core values, and direct your energies/money towards products and companies that are in line with your values, like sustainability, compassion, progress, social consciousness, and so on.

Data compiled over the last several years indicates that the world’s economic paradigm is shifting as consumers are starting to favor conscious-minded business.

Consumer Data Shows Trends Towards Conscious Capitalism

A 2102 NPD and Civic Science poll showed that 74% of consumers today say that the “social consciousness” of a company was either ‘very important’ or ‘somewhat important’ in determining where they shop, and what they buy. According to a 2012 Edelman poll, when quality and price are equal, “social purpose” as a purchase trigger grew 26% between 2008 and 2012.

Nielsen’s Global Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility showed that 43% of all consumers are willing to spend more for a product that supports a good cause. This was highest among the Millennial age groups, with 48% of people aged 21-24 and 52% of people aged 25 to 29 willing to spend more money for product that supports a good cause.

According to the 2012 Edelman Good Purpose Survey, 47% of consumers buy at least one brand that supports a good cause every month, an almost a 50% increase between 2010 and 2012! The most frequent purchasers of socially conscious brands were Millennials, Gen-X’ers, people employed at management positions and above, married people, and moms. Nearly three-fourths of respondents (72%) said that they would also recommend a brand that supports a good cause, an increase of almost 40% in only two years. Given the significant rise in socially conscious spending practices between 2010 and 2012, one can only imagine what the data might look like for 2014!

As Millennials continue to make up a larger and larger chunk of the U.S. economy, consumer attitudes about responsibility for social change are also shifting. For example, 2012 was the first time EVER that U.S. consumers believed that “people like me” are the most responsible for addressing social issues, as opposed to government and corporations. In other words, we are truly waking up as a society and realizing we have the power to make sweeping changes with our dollars.

Conscious Companies: Who are They?

Whole Foods Co-CEO John Mackey says the are “thousands” of companies in the US operating from versions of a conscious capitalism model, including Southwest Airlines, REI, Google, Nordstrom, Patagonia, The Container Store, KIND healthy snacks, The Body Shop, Timberland, Stonyfield, Ben & Jerry’s and more, resulting in “win-wins for customers, employees, suppliers, communities and the environment.”

One great example is Panera Cares, owned by Panera Bread, who have shown that compassion and consciousness can become integral parts of a successful business model. At five Panera Cares locations throughout the US, people are asked to pay only what they can afford while others are willing to pay a little more to help out. The company still makes enough to cover all of its direct operating costs, while also covering the cost of food for those who cannot afford it, and creating programs to job train at-risk kids.

Conscious companies have seen unprecedented success in the last decade. Marketing professor Raj Sisodia reports that conscious brands’ investment returns are 1025% over the past ten years, compared to only 122% for the S&P 500 and 316% for companies selected purely on their ability to deliver superior returns to investors. Furthermore, according to the IEG Sponsorship report, ‘cause-based’ marketing programs in 2012 were worth $1.7 billion in North America alone.

The Future

According to a 2013 Forbes Magazine article titled Only Conscious Capitalists Will Survive, conscious capitalism will be “one of the defining mechanisms of profit in the future.” Based on the statistics discussed in this article, we can expect conscious capitalism to continue to rise over the next several decades, as Millennials become a larger and larger percentage of the population and continue having children (have we mentioned that Millennials already have over 10 million children?)

Will the rise of conscious companies be paired with the fall of non-conscious companies? Only time will tell. Forbes cites the interesting dichotomy between Target and Walmart, two huge corporations who seemingly do the same thing, but have very different levels of conscious capitalism. While Walmart leads on sales, it posted three straight quarters of declines in 2013 and is often plagued by strikes by unhappy employees. Even though they are paid roughly the same, Target employees have not been striking because they have high employee happiness ratings and a much better overall work environment. In a future when people continue to speak with their dollars, even huge companies like Walmart may benefit from amending their business practices to become more consciously geared towards consumers, employees and the environment.

Overall, the re-imagination of capitalism as a conscious phenomenon is indicative of a shifting paradigm we are seeing across our world, where Millennial consumers are taking responsibility for using their dollars to improve our planet and promote progress and change. After only a few generations of conscious spending and sustainable business practices, the association between capitalism and crony greed could become a distant memory. This rapid evolution speaks to humanity’s urgent need to reach a state of balance across economy, ecology and society.

If you own a business and you would like to make it more conscious, or if you are thinking about starting a conscious business, check out marketing professor Raj Sisodia’s six tips for conscious success.

Whatever you do, remember that your spending habits have the power to direct energy into creating the world you want. Spend wisely, and spend consciously. Blessings and Love! <3

from:    http://spiritofmaat.com/magazine/november-2014-the-divine-mother/conscious-capitalism-how-millennials-are-shaping-the-new-economic-paradigm/

Hyper Flare from Sun 11/01

Posted on by

HYDER FLARE MISSES EARTH: Earth-orbiting satellites detected a solar flare on Nov. 1st. Usually solar flares come from sunspots, but there were no sunspots anywhere near this blast. A movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows what happened:

The C3-category flare was caused by a filament of magnetism, which rose up and erupted between 0400 and 0600 UT. Some of the material in the filament fell back to the sun, causing a flash of X-rays where it hit the stellar surface. That was the flare. The rest of the filament flew out into space, forming the core of a massive CME. A movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shows the CME billowing away from the sun. NOAA analysts say it will not hit Earth.

Flares like this, which happen without sunspots, are called Hyder Flares. They help keep solar activity high even when sunspot counts are low.

fr/spaceweather.com