Ya Gotta Wonder …. not quite over the top, but close

What would a Beer Bike be?

Some kind of vehicle with up to 22 people and a central bar with many litres of beef careening through the streets of Amsterdam.

Reuters Article

 

Introducing, “The Man from Brazil”

Paulo Celho is a phenomenon … who else has sold 100 MILLION books … and many of them by giving them away.  The interior story is more interesting, still.  He takes a walking 500 mile pilgrimage in 1986 and writes about that.  He then writes, The Alchemist, which sold 900 copies, but since then 65 million … a story of spiritual search, discovery and awakening.  Oh yes, he had a spiritual awakening on the Road to Santiago.  He is amazingly prolific and does not stop … you can discuss The Alchemist with him on line; he checks 2 – 3 times a day to see if someone is there … he has a website called “Warrior of the Light” that has a sharp, incisive piece every couple of weeks. 

To make this all the more challenging, his books mostly start with, “

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who turn to you. Amen

The Prologue to The Pilgrimage, begins the movement from a man as mystic acolyte to the one whose heart opened to the world … read:

‘And now, before the sacred countenance of RAM, you must touch with your hands the Word of Life and acquire such power as you need to become a witness to that Word throughout the World’.
     The master raised high my new sword, still sheathed in its scabbard. The flames on the bonfire crackled – a good omen, indicating that the ritual should continue. I knelt and, with my bare hands, began to dig into the earth.
     It was the night of January 2, 1986, and we were in Itatiaia, high on one of the peaks in the Serra do Mar, close to the formation known as the Agulhas Negras (Black Needles) in Brazil. My Master and I were accompanied by my wife, one of my disciples, a local guide,
and a representative of the great fraternity that is comprised of esoteric orders from all over the world – the fraternity known as ‘The Tradition.’ The five of us – and the guide, who had been told what was to happen – were participating in my ordination as a Master of the Order of RAM.
     I finished digging a smooth, elongated hole in the dirt. With great solemnity, I placed my hands on the earth and spoke the ritual words. My wife drew near and handed me the sword I had used for more than ten years; it had been a great help to me during hundreds of magical operations. I placed it in the hole I had dug, covered it with dirt, and smoothed the surface. As I did so, I thought of the many tests I had endured, of all I had learned, and of the strange phenomena I had been able to invoke simply because I had had that ancient and friendly sword with me. Now it was to be devoured by  the earth, the iron of its blade and the wood of its hilt returning to nourish the source from which its power had come.
     The Master approached me and placed my new sword on the earth that now covered the grave of my ancient one. All of us spread our arms wide, and the Master, invoking his power, created a strange light that surrounded us; it did not illuminate, but it was clearly
visible, and it caused the figures of those who were there to take on a color that was different from the yellowish tinge cast by the fire. Then, drawing his own sword, he touched it to my shoulders and my forehead as he said, ‘By the power and the love of RAM, I anoint you Master and Knight of the Order, now and for all the days of your life. R for rigor, A for adoration, and M for mercy; R for regnum, A for agnus, and M for mundi. Let not your sword remain for long in its scabbard, lest it rust. And when you draw your sword, it must never be replaced without having performed an act of goodness, opened a
new path, or tasted the blood of an enemy.’

     With the point of his sword, he lightly cut my forehead. From then on, I was no longer required to remain silent. No longer did I have to hide my capabilities nor maintain secrecy regarding the marvels I had learned to accomplish on the road of the Tradition. From that moment on, I was a Magus.
     I reached out to take my new sword of indestructible steel and wood, with its black and red hilt and black scabbard. But as my hands touched the scabbard and as I prepared to pick it up, the Master came forward and stepped on my fingers with all his might. I screamed
and let go of the sword.
    I looked at him, astonished. The strange light had disappeared, and his face had taken on a phantasmagoric appearance, heightened by the flames of the bonfire.
     He returned my gaze coldly, called to my wife, and gave her the sword, speaking a few words that I could not hear. Turning to me, he said, ‘Take away your hand; it has deceived you. The road of the Tradition is not for the chosen few. It is everyone’s road. And the power that you think you have is worthless, because it is a power
that is shared by all. You should have refused the sword.  If you had done so, it would have been given to you, because you would have shown that your heart was pure. But just as I feared, at the supreme moment you stumbled and fell. Because of your avidity, you will now
have to seek again for your sword. And because of your pride, you will have to seek it among simple people.  Because of your fascination with miracles, you will have to struggle to recapture what was about to be given to you so generously.’
     The world seemed to fall away from me. I knelt there unable to think about anything. Once I had returned my old sword to the earth, I could not retrieve it. And since the new one had not been given to me, I now had to begin my quest for it all over again, powerless and
defenceless. On the day of my Celestial Ordination, my Master’s violence had brought me back to earth.
     The guide smothered the fire, and my wife helped me up. She had my new sword in her hands, but according to the rules of the Tradition, I could not touch it without permission from my Master. We descended through the forest in silence, following the guide’s
lantern, until we reached the narrow dirt road where the cars were parked.
     Nobody said goodbye. My wife put the sword in the trunk of the car and started the engine. We were quiet for a long time as she carefully navigated around the bumps and holes in the road.
     ‘Don’t worry,’ she said, trying to encourage me. ‘I’m
sure you’ll get it back.’
     I asked her what the Master had said to her.
    ‘He said three things to me. First, that he should have brought along something warm to wear, because it was much colder up there than he had expected. Second, that he wasn’t surprised at anything that had happened up there, that this has happened many times before with others who have reached the same point as you. And third, that your sword would be waiting for you at the right time, on the right day, at some point on the road that you will have to travel. I don’t know either the day or the time. He only told me where I should hide it.’
    ‘And what road was he talking about?’ I asked nervously.
   ‘Ah, well, that he didn’t explain very well. He just said that you should look on the map of Spain for a medieval route known as the Strange Road to Santiago.’

     This writing crackles with authenticity … I have the main works in electronic form.  Let me know if your appetite is whet enough. 

     He believes in peer-to-peer sharing of books and even created a Pirate Cuelho site to distribute his books.  Got him in trouble with his publisher, HarperCollins.

More Mind/Body nagging for attention

I was going to put this down the article as evidence, but let’s start with it because it really illustrates the most poignant aspect of the human condition/suffering/samsara:

I am a TMS Dr. Sarno veteran. I understand all the concepts. I first started reading his teachings in the early 90’s. After applying the principals, the pain would disappear in about 3-4 months BUT I would always have a recurrence every 4-5 years. At one point my back pain went away and I had TMJ for 3 years. Not until I realized TMJ could be TMS did it disappear. QUESTION: Why do I keep having recurrences? I am having one right now and haven’t been able to get rid of it for 6 months. I even ordered Dr. Sarno’s video lecture. Can you tell me why I have recurrences and why does it take 4-5 years to occur? I am concerned that this time it is hanging on even longer. Can you help me?

Here is what Dr. Sarno says about that:

Sarno's "Symptom-Imperative" is most important. If a physical symptom caused by the brain is relieved, the brain simply creates another (substitute) symptom to "protect" us and keep us unaware of the REPFs. Repressed Emotional and Psychological Factors.

Now, if you’re still with me and want to learn more, here is a link that introduces Dr. Sarno’s ideas and Dr. Schechter’s therapy and links further etc.  At first just scroll down a bit to see the scope.  I’m going to copy the key points in case you don’t want to link right now:

Some Profound Implications of Sarno's Mindbody Paradigm!

• Many common ailments, regarded by the "medical establishment" as having a physical origin, in reality stem from "repressed emotional and psychological factors" (REPFs)
• The human brain has a mechanism to "protect" us from REPFs by keeping us unaware of them -- they're too severe for us to experience.
• The brain causes physical symptoms to distract us so we don't get consciously exposed to the REPFs.
• The brain can cause physical symptoms by reducing blood flow to parts of the body, and by other means.
• Some of these symptoms can be relieved through drugs, surgery, and other treatments.
• Sarno's "Symptom-Imperative" is most important. If a physical symptom caused by the brain is relieved, the brain simply creates another (substitute) symptom to "protect" us and keep us unaware of the REPFs.
• The solution for an individual with brain-caused symptoms is to understand the Sarno Paradigm, to become aware of the REPFs and to deal with them consciously.

"As psychiatrist and theorist Wilhelm Reich explained it, the personality is created around moments of pain so uncomfortable that they are blocked off. A person's character or persona is thus a chronicle of where he or she has been alienated from his or her self. Ways of coping with psychic pains, which are themselves assiduously avoided, create our individuality -- that's the real reason why the ways of coping are so (boldly) defended. We hang on to our cocooned pain because the thought of looking directly at it seems unimaginably worse than what we suffer living around these cocoons." -- Jennifer Michael Hecht (Doubt: A History)

In case it’s not obvious, this is the same argument as in Answer Cancer, n’est pas?

I’m curious as to whether Windhorse, Tonglen or Forgiveness can go right to core of this, or do we need more specific paths to address these “wounds”?

The Difference between an Evangelist and a Comedian … don’t expect the audio meter to tell.

The cadence and rhythm are similar, as is the intensity … there the roads part and Bill Cosby delivers a graduation address that will lift your spirits as well as your heart.  From the first phrase, replacing “Ladies and Gentlemen” with “NERDS” you’re in for something different.  Twenty minutes to increase your self-confidence.

high fashion that makes you think?

Dries van Noten is a Belgium designer who woke me up last night with this Fall Collection.  These are worth waiting for in HQ … just start them in HQ, pause, wait for a few minutes and click play icon.

If this whets your appetite for more and more visual feasting on clothing that awakens your appreciation for texture and colour, then his Spring 2006 Collection and Fall 2006 Collections might do the trick. 

Catching up to Paul Levy

The Alchemy article got my attention big-time … amplified by both of your interests.  I then read We Are All Shamans in Training … and at this moment in the Audio interview he is talking about supersaturated solutions crystallizing and I’m experiencing cascading synchronicities.  Somewhere in the middle, I read the first chapter of the Bush book … you gotta luv the sense of humour … diagnosis Malignant Egophrenia or ME disease aka Mad Emperor syndrome.

“Malignant egophrenia is an expression of, and is at the root of, the extreme polarization and dissociation in both the human psyche and the world process at large. The disease is archetypal in nature, which is to say that it has eternally re-created itself and played itself out over the course of history. We can even say that it’s the "bug" in the system that has in-formed and given shape to all of the conflict and disharmony of human relationships. ME disease is as old as the human species. However, we’re now at the point in our evolution where we can finally recognize it, see it, give it a name, and diagnose it.”

News you can use … Best Flu Protection – who knew? Walk in the Light said the old hymn.

… from David Wilcock discussing the recent “pandemic” …

“My friend and confidante "Henry Deacon" — a whistleblower who was placed in a variety of extremely classified projects — again reminded me recently that simply taking vitamin D3, either at 2400 or 5000 IU, can almost entirely eliminate the threat of viral infection and disease.

And the best way to ‘take’ vitamin D is to simply get 15-20 minutes of direct sunlight on your skin, without sunscreen, each day.  “

… so back outside kids and please don’t stop to put on that sunscreen which is probably more dangerous than the sunshine.

Nah, they can’t be serious, say it ain’t so, Joe

Evidence of Government Manipulation of the Stock Market … don’t tell us The Plunge Protection teams are back!  I’m actually relieved that someone else can see this stuff … anyone, who, like me, is watching it in real time, goes, “Whaaaaaaat is that?”and how could you possibly trade it?  

… and on a more sombre note, Obituary for Leonard Schlain mentioned far below in an earlier post.

Leonard on BBC … especially for Marilyn

Link to video from a Japanese youTube type site … the first cut, late 80’s version of First We Take Manhattan, has him way more “outside” as the jazzmen would put it … slashing the lyrics across the music, tempting the synchronization to keep up … yeah!

note: you can goto fullscreen with the little box in the lower right of the video applet

Deep Thoughts from Jeremy Grantham

Quarterly Letter to Investors from a veteran ... if you want to get the flavour of how one can think with both sides of ones mind and speak as objectively as is currently possible ...

(this applet lets you see enough to tell whether you want to click on the link. above the applet window which will take you to the full page view of the document. You can toggle full screen with the X or square in the top right corner of the applet or use + or Ctrl + to magnify in the applet window.)

JGLetter_1Q09

You Wanted a Simple Explanation … the global financial crisis in Pictures

Here it is … The Global Financial Crisis in Pictures … did that help?  I didn’t think so … following up on the previous article, there are some things which are beyond comprehension and are best left that way. 

If it could be agreed that we are ALL part of something and that ANY solution must pass the test of best for EVERYONE, not just for me and my gang

….

       ….. things might become more and more comprehensible.

While it is usually best to stick to one topic, this morning the news that a bunch of whales of the insurance industry (life, property and auto) have been made eligible for US govt bailouts has to be a footnote here … what would result if these fear merchants were allowed to collapse and people began to realize that betting your life is maybe not the best way to experience peace and serenity.

Finally someone, and in this case, the US President, says that US Long-term debt is unsustainable.  That being said, exactly how is the withdrawal going to be managed?

Ooops, one more … a discussion of the Mar – May rally with the middle part on the role of Quant funds quite illuminating … if nothing else, the machinations of HUGE funds in the market are being challenged by the, wait for it, self-correcting nature of market itself … who would have guessed.  It’s hard to believe the bets made by the quants, but this has been the story for the last few years … new and more risky attempts by the sharpy numbers guys to get an edge which unravels now almost before the skater gets up on it.  Per our fairness doctrine, here is the contrary view

We’ve Reached a Turning Point

I want to admonish you, gentle reader, that a turning point in our journey has been reached. For those of you who have forgotten the Psychic Apocalypse, please click on the reference link in the header of this blog to refresh your memory … I want to get a bit more serious about this topic and argue, persuasively, I hope, that the challenges of our time are Good News, that it is Just Time for certain experiences and perceptions to occur and for the individual and collective human journeys to change.

{a really useful aside for those who yet to discover that on most browsers Ctrl + enlarges the page, so those of us with senior challenged vision can read almost anything. Ctrl – reduces the size … that’s The Ctrl key held down while pressing the + sign key over at the far right on most keyboards. Mac users probably use that special key you have instead of Ctrl)

Now the following quote from the theologian who coined the phrase: “Ground of Being” as a modern way to talk about god …

suggests, to me, that we have, here described, a test for how we are doing … that if we are NOT taking refuge in clinging to the past (and failed) we just might be facing the present and emerging future in a useful direction. I would suggest that we are seeing around us the surprising behaviour of many people and groups, in many different contexts to be more like deer in the headlights than like Ku Klux Klansmen … and that if this pause to digest the present perception does not collapse into some kind of reactionary spasm, we might have a chance to navigate our times. And this means you, too … if you are you are not looking for that lost scripture to guide you, but are experiencing a gap in understanding … good on ya!

Here is some potential guidance/advice:

This is a summary of the Sedona Method invented by Lester Levinson in 1952 at age 42 when he was told he had 2 weeks to live. In 3 months time, doing the above repeatedly and Releasing everything he could dig out of his unconscious realm, bring it to consciousness and let it go, Lester was healthy, free of dis-ease and lived another 42 years. He would say to himself, “Could you let _____ go?” … “Would you?” … “When?” … one of his disciples has suggested that the answers are Yes, Yes and Now … again and again means to release over and over on that area until it is clear … this is felt experientially.

And finally, lest you think I have gone feeble minded on you, there is some method to my madness … (here you might need to magnify as described above with Ctrl +)

So, perhaps, we can take some heart, dear reader, that the complexities and confusion around us are the inevitable development of a new phase in evolution for humans, our societies and our global culture. Renate asked the wonderful question: Is hyper-inflation possible when everyone is printing money as fast as they can?

_______________ bottom line __________ relative to what?

Current tidbits from the US financial swamp

Refi fever takes hold. The rush of homeowners to refinance mortgages at lower rates is sparking a boom in home lending, prompting banks to hire thousands of new employees. The Mortgage Bankers Association estimates lenders could originate up to $2.78T in new mortgages this year, 80% of that involving refinancing. Economists estimate U.S. homeowners could save $18B on mortgage repayments this year if they refinance.

Take the money, or else. We already knew that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson twisted bank executives' arms to accept a combined $125B in TARP money, but documents obtained yesterday by watchdog Judicial Watch shed new light on the extent of the coercion. "If a capital infusion is not appealing, you should be aware that your regulator will require it in any circumstance," CEOs read in a set of Talking Points handed out by Paulson. The documents "show our government exercising unrestrained power over the private sector," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement, and alleges the Obama administration continues to cover up present Secretary Geithner's role in "this infamous bankers meeting."

Banks sue MBIA over split. Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan (JPM), HSBC (HBC), Barclays (BCS), and 13 other large financial institutions are suing bond insurer MBIA (MBI), over its decision to split its businesses earlier this year into "good" and "bad" banks. The group claims the split was fraudulent, and left the insurance arma virtual shell company, with no ability to pay the banks' claims.

Dare we question recent rule changes? ... do we overlook unfairness because "our side" is winning

During the financial crisis era (fall - winter), I have been bothered by the way the common man's hatred has been deliberately focused on the banks and the Wall Street establishment. Not that I believe these titans to be without blame or innocent in any way. It's just that there are distortions in our perceptions when we get emotional, and there are larger distortions when we are in anger and hatred.  This post from the ever vigilant “Tyler Durden” reprints a letter from one of the dreaded hedge-fund managers which in a well-argued way points out the attempt by the current US administration to change the rules in favour of their supporters, much like the previous administration made sure the rules were changed (deregulation) to favour their supporters.  For those of you who don’t want to delve into the details, let me simply state the current case:  Bankruptcy (think Chrysler) is a process to evaluate who should get what of the “remains” and usually bond holders are ahead in the line because they were willing to accept less profit in order to ensure that place in line in the event of a failure of the business.  Mr. O has sarcastically suggested that the bondholders or their representatives have been unwilling to sacrifice for the common good, by insisting that they should indeed be first in line, ahead of the unions as the rules have stated.  It gets pretty close to suggesting lack of patriotism, just as Mr. B did when people questioned his rule changing a few years ago.  This is disturbing because it demonstrates where politics has always failed us and may well continue to do so.

Let’s review an emotional scale from the bottom up:  Apathy, Grief, Fear, Lust, Anger, Pride, Courage, Acceptance and Peace.

Politicians are tempted to roil the lower group as long as we allow that to play.  As we move ourselves up the scale, those strategies fail to move us, but we may be called upon to help calm our neighbours.  (Self) righteousness is ultimately painful as well as mean, so beware the temptation the title points out.

Good Environmental Policy is Good Economic Policy

Non other than the remaining Kennedy lineage holder makes the above point in 2 minutes.  I’m glad someone is making this all too obvious point, because we are going to be tempted to forsake the environment for short term fixes again and again.

Not exactly a counter point, but a broader view of the environment than is usually taken by the “green” folks, is made by Peter Huber.  Would you believe that many of the pet green proposals will end up with more carbon in the environment?  Read this and draw your own conclusions.  It is all too clear that the environmental debate has become as polarized as the political debates and voices from the centre are needed to move forward.

Who is Tyler Durden?

.… well most people know “him” as a character in the movie The Fight Club, which is really not about fighting although that might be easy to miss if all you see are surfaces … “Tyler” now appears in other guises by those who realize that an almost perfect foil, perhaps the first since John Galt in Atlas Shrugged has appeared, barfed up by the zeitgeist and run with by among others, a guru to pickup artists and, what this article is about, an amazingly, screamingly fast becoming inevitable Market commentator … read someone else’s take on this. 

When the someone, who is no one is able to become someone else and from that amazingly free platform say whatever one wishes … you have Zero Hedge … and, probably just in time.  Note the header:  "ON A LONG ENOUGH TIMELINE, THE SURVIVAL RATE FOR EVERYONE DROPS TO ZERO"  ….

Working backwards to the philosophy of the movie character, here is a summary, useful for, well, everyone.  Especially Creatives!

Here is the pure Zero Hedge link, just refresh it in a couple of hours and you’ll see how prolific whomever is.  After reading this for several days, it is clear that this source is akin to the massive “AI’s” in Gibson’s Neuromancer.  Check out this bitchy little dig at Goldman.  Read this guy/gal/collective even if you understand less than 10% of what is being written.  You’ll begin to understand the brave new terrrain.  We’ll soon be saying post 10-07 or something like that and it will mean a LOT more than post 9-11.

Another Answer to Cancer

Dr. William Donald Kelley, a dentist who cured himself of liver and pancreatic cancer, independently found, much like Max Gerson that diet is the KEY … and fresh is best.  For this he was much persecuted, but managed to see 33,000 people, assisting them with the process of cancer.  He did become a bit paranoid in the end and Section II reflects that, but the first part of the book is potentially very helpful.  Read it here on the web.  I believe that these explorations of cancer are MORE valuable to those of us who have yet to manifest symptoms of what is becoming all too prevalent as time goes on.  That our food supply has passed from the hands of farmers into the hands of business is tragic and we all must find ways of relating to the consequences.  This is further light in that dim room.

A Beacon is set in NYC … Energy Retrofit of Empire State Building, all 6500 windows.

RMI = Rocky Mountain Institute

April 6, 2009 saw one of the most significant announcements in Rocky Mountain Institute’s history. The Empire State Building, New York’s most iconic skyscraper is set to undergo a groundbreaking energy efficiency retrofit. RMI, serving as a technical advisor, helped design a program that will lead to a 38 percent reduction in the building’s energy use. This will cost $13 million, save approximately $4.4 million per year in energy costs, and thus yield a 3-year payback on investment! If you think this is exciting news, you are not alone. So far, over 500 news publications around the world have featured stories on The Empire State Building's “going green.”

Through The Empire State Building program, RMI and its partners revolutionized the process for analyzing and retrofitting existing buildings to use energy more efficiently. By taking the right steps in the right order and reducing loads before looking at supplying additional energy to the building, they set a great precedent for the retrofit of other aging buildings around the world.

The integrative design approach RMI introduced will yield about double the normal level of savings in such projects, yet at comparable or lower cost, by optimally combining a whole package of improvements. For example, 6,500 windows will be remanufactured onsite—a world first, saving a huge amount of truck traffic—into “superwindows” that nearly triple their insulating value and are almost perfect in letting in light without heat. The better windows and state of the art lighting will cut the cooling load by one-third. This lets the old chillers be reduced and renovated rather than expanded and replaced…saving capital that helps pay for the other improvements.

I Must have been Sleeping

Just discovered DharmaNet … well see for yourself the feast that is offered here.  Even some vintage Trungpa video from 1974 Summer at Naropa I think.  This is a place for the post post-modern student to hang out.

It’s Just Time … in as many ways as you can imagine

This is the most significant piece of information I have come across since the beginning of the financial crisis … it’s worth reading even if you don’t understand 90% of it, because you will still have 25 new ideas and/or perspectives.  The best introduction to the piece is this blog article from Seeking Alpha.  The comments contain the links you will need to check out the background on Martin Armstrong who writes the paper I am recommending on an old typewriter from his jail cell, where he is, from his point of view, a political prisoner. 

It’s Just Time is a relatively short (71 Page) manifesto describing the interaction of various cycles to produce forecasts which, in the past, were very accurate.  The second half of the article describe his situation, why he is in jail and what he thinks should be done to rescue the current economic situation.  You can get a lot from the article without understanding the numbers or the math/physics and the 2nd half is a great adventure story and, perhaps, cautionary tale.

Wikipedia article on Martin  …  Martin’s 1999 article “The Business Cycle and the Future”

Even if you think this man is a crook, the ideas in the article(s) may still be of great value to you and the times.

Have we turned the corner?

This week Nouriel Roubini aka Dr. Doom, one of the harshest critical voices on the economist front, found a way to see a light at the end of the tunnel of recession and said we will not go into depression.  The markets were frisky and frothy and would not give up their euphoria that started when rumours of the toxic asset purchase plan first surfaced a few short weeks ago.  The Dow has moved from 6500 to 8000 in that time.  Those who bought the relative junk of General Motors and Shitibank at around $1 per share 3 weeks ago made triple their money.  Treasury Secretary Geithner is insisting that this is workable without disaster a necessity.

However, master trend analyst Gerald Celente is predicting Great Depression or worse levels by 2012, with 25 % unemployment, a commercial real estate crash, ghost malls with the only possible salvation the discovery of some new form of energy equivalent to the discovery of fire.

Who knows?  If you were betting you would have to go with the trend master, because trends are the most reliable way of predicting future events.  But with the relative ignorance of this present moment in history, all bets are off!

Across town, so to speak, the young musician brothers Benjamin and Daniel Stewart have followed up their Zeitgeist-like Esoteric Agenda with another internet video movie entitled Kymatica.  In this one they step forward, stepping on fear into the Warrior’s World … seeing the human struggle for wisdom and in the end seeing the essence of that struggle.  They urge us to recognize that the world we see is a reflection of what is going on inside of us and relate to our own dark shadows, rather than project our anger onto a world we cannot understand without the clarity on the other side of that transition.  Voices like these that urge us to take this moment to heal ourselves from our own ignorance and fear rather than to  see excuses outside for sinking into despair, are a welcome, refreshing and ultimately hopeful sign that a spiritual renewal is beckoning.  There is a koan-like suggestion in the middle of this movie that we are not who the State would like us to think we are, that YOUR NAME capitalized is not really you at all unless you go along with this bizarre residue of naval commercial law.  This is definitely worth the time to view and contemplate.  Kymatica

Some People will never accept that Karma is fair

with more than one tongue in cheek

Is Somebody Monkeying Around?

Twice in the last 2 days and increasingly observed recently … for example this morning the New Homes Report is reported something like this … New Home sales rose surprisingly 4% over last month when they were expected to drop 2 % although the figures from the previous month were adjusted lower 7% … does anyone else find this at least weird if not suspicious.  If you don’t monkey with the previous month’s data, the current month will be pretty much inline with expectations.  But with the radical adjustments to the previous month, the current month looks much better than expected and the lemmings buy the market with gusto.  If this is an intentional manipulation of the data, then it has an additional advantage.  The previous month would have looked WAY worse at the time if the Real figures had been reported.  Why bother doing that, when we can hold the bad news in our pocket, look like we are being dedicated to accuracy LATER and have a way of deflecting the bad news in the present at the same time.  Aren’t we supposed to be going for Win-Win as much as possible?  Oh, my bad, I forgot; we are in an illusions and what does it matter if some one appears to be distorting their version of it.

This is what the statement in the report itself actually looked like, but it is NOT what is reported in the financial press:

Sales of new one-family houses in February 2009 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 337,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  This is 4.7 percent (±18.3%)* above the revised January rate of 322,000, but is 41.1 percent (±7.9%) below the February 2008 estimate of 572,000.

Note the fabulous standard deviation  4.7%^ (+/- 18.3%)

The “bottom line” is probably pretty close to correct, i.e. 250,000 less new home sales this year than last.  So, what is not a pretty picture is monkeyed around with until it looks, well, better than expected, which still does not equal anything like good.  The buying based on this begins the moment a better than expected number is seen … Mr. Market did sell it off at the expense of the idiots over the next 30 minutes.  But don’t be surprised if the evening news is still trying to find this as proof that the recession is over.

Oh, it’s actually better (or worse) than this when you read the US govt report.  It turns out they are now making adjustments which result from them having miscounted houses for years … hmmm … if you can’t count houses, better not try fingers.

Introducing Leonard Shlain … an escaped Renaissance hominoid

Listen up as this surgeon turned polymath explains the unusual patterns he sees in the web of human activities from Type to Sex.  This is the kind of gentleman who was disappearing from academia as I entered in the 60’s … the iconoclastic genius valued because they were different … somehow this one survived and found a way to express himself in books.  Three so far and one on the way.  The Alphabet Versus the Goddess came to my attention some years ago arguing that when the alphabet is received into a culture it becomes psychotic and violent for a period as it assimilates a new way of perceiving its world.  Not what most of us would imagine over breakfast.  Art and Physics argues that artists had the breakthrough ideas later discovered in science about 50 years later.  Would that be nature or nurture?  So enjoy a listen while watching such a mind peer into the upper realm to answer the questions of Conversations with History.

One thing after another … life goes on and on

This week the big inspiration was this talk by Paul Hawken about how there are a gazillion groups out there running around trying to help things change for the planet, whether it’s the environment or social conditions.  He argues that the total of these seemingly random movements amounts to a Movement that functions something like an immune system.  If you’re short on time the first 20 minutes will get you the main stuff.

Then Juan Enriquez describes how the economic collapse is going and how there is a possible reboot on the horizon from the convergence of work with bacteria, tissues and robots.  This is heady, almost disturbing stuff.

For those of you who think that the gender wars contain possibilities for personal transformation, here is an audio that will make you laugh while, perhaps, shocking your preconceptions into focus for you.  David Deida is a spiritual teacher who uses Sex as his headline and mines his subject deeply and thoroughly.  You have not heard this before.

Perspective ... who has it and how to get it?

Well in a period where the new Headline has already been coined: The Greatest Depression ... we could do worse than consult someone who understands what happened in the Soviet Union and already uses the acronym FUSA. Dmitry Orlov recently, Feb 13th, a Friday for you cognoscenti, gave a talk linked as follows:

Social Collapse: Best Practices

Thanks to Frank and Billy for the reference to Orlov. Mr. Orlov's blog has more if this works for you. Particularly significan in these parts is this piece on Local Food

On a different but related note, I watched a Lindsey Williams video last night. He predicted $50 oil in July and was laughed out of the room. The intiguing thing about him is his insistence that "The Elite" are bound by their moral code to tell everyone ahead of time what they are going to do and that he gets his material from them, not from some kind of prophecy despite him being a Baptist minister. This stuff is even almost too fringe for me, but in these times, keep all the items on the table.. Rev Williams has a book arguing for the oil game as a manipulation, entitled The Energy Non-Crisis ... he makes fun of the Bushies "God Bless America" suggesting these are code words of the New World Order ... and distinguishes them from his faith and belief. He sees US being pushed into hyperinflation and the $ destroyed within the next 12 months.

For those who think that it is time to pray, listen to George Michael suggesting we begin to pray for time ... first sung in 1996

In Honour of Joseph Vincent Brophy ... the closest of my generation to pass on ... a Ballad of sorts

This has shocked me, prodded me and nudged me along ... various dimensional lines ... he is so like us, mostly self-educated and iconoclastic ... he did the work and self-study to get all the naval tickets. I got to know him in the early 80's when he was studying and writing the 1st Mate ticket and stayed with me. He eventually got his Captain's papers and worked at sea for 30 years. In 1983 he was clipped by a snaking cable on a supply vessel and his right leg was shattered. In the recovery from the accident he received some of that famous tainted blood and hepatitis C which was unknown to him until the late 90's showing up on a health exam during a mortgage application. Hep C reduces the liver function which normally has about a 10 fold excess capacity which all of us take far too much advantage of during what is considered a normal lifetime,. Joe, like many of us has no love for doctors and their snake-oils, so he did not do much about the condition that was not all that apparent and when more acute trouble came refused biopsy because he had had one at some point and did not like the feeling of it. He also believed that if you receive a label you tend to play out the labelled role. I am going on about this for the living, especially those of the stubborn male persuasion, because health and well being centres around the liver, which is trying its best to detoxify the human experience. As long as it can, we generally thrive irrespective of our behaviours. While Joe waited too long to begin working with his liver, he did discover a Way to cleanse and rejeuvenate the liver which could be of great benefit ongoing, especially if there is an increase in the environmental toxicity. The nutshell version of the Gerson Therapy and a key link to the Gerson Videos Tapes 1 - 4 A doctor's report describing the AMA attacks on Gerson... disclaimer: the American Cancer Society is against this approach (maybe that makes it more attractive)

The other side of this journey was the discovery of Answer Cancer a rather disturbing book that insists that disease is a subconscious self-mutilation program. Run the other way, you might urge ... I didn't because of the auspicious coincidence of "finding" the book on my laptop in an odd moment in Halifax, when it would ordinarily have been lost in the thousands of info bits this collector cannot stop gathering, but they do erupt in interesting ways ... why is this important? I have been faced with my own seemingly self-sabotaging behaviour for, well, ever and Joe related to the information of his tumour development in what for someone so meticulous in other ways, was out of character. The author of the book points out that the body is leading physicians on a symptoms hunt, "you fixed my hip ... I have another hip and a knee and ... " when the root cause is an event between conception and 4 years old that is resolved by later life illness ... a radical, disturbing idea. Well I just watched a friend behave in ways that led to his physical demise far sooner than might have been and I find myself and most of the people I know involved to some extent in the same kind of confusion. I know, a good buddhist, would just say, "Samsara" but that is not satisfying for me. I believe this is the personal apocalypse that parallels the transformation the larger culture has engaged at this time. The book can be engaged in less than an hour and I urge you to do so and comment on your own experience.

My daugher Heidi who has a university science degree, said "Gerson doesn't have any labs" ... after 30 minutes I emailed her saying that he used the best laboratory, the human body ... it's old school meticulous observation and an insatiable search for what works, changing course even reversing at times ... the opposite view from reductionist labs of the present. Tape 1 is that part of the story. At any rate, thank you Joe for letting us be involved with your life and death. In the end, he had to endure the medical nightmare and got his electrolytes out of whack causing even more confusion, but finally surrendered and was able to pass on within 24 hours of that.

This about Sums it UP ... we don't know more than we know

A US Congressman, head of the Capital Markets committee admits the impermanence of $$$$

How will the formerly unthinkable happen?

Here is a comment about the extent of the financial tables turning OR more properly called, redistribrution of wealth movement

Several months back I came across some frightening news from the Fed which is just as relevant today. It revealed what a real house of cards we had been living in. Just in the third quarter 2008 alone, U.S. households lost $647 billion in real estate; $922 billion in stocks; $523 billion in mutual funds; $653 billion in life insurance and pension fund reserves; plus $128 billion in private business interests.

Total destruction of household wealth in the third quarter: $2.8 trillion, the worst in recorded history. That's four times more than the government's entire $700 billion bailout package (TARP). Total destruction of household wealth in the last year: $7.2 trillion or over TEN times more than the $700 billion TARP package.

Some of us have been talking about how from Universities to Grade Schools, and almost every government department imaginable, not forgetting the changing perception of BANKS, changes are imperative. ... these are institutions seemingly indestructible and tremendously resistant to constructive change ... we may be seeing what only a poet like D. H. Lawrence could imagine:

When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego
and when we escape like squirrels turning in the
cages of our personality
and get into the forest again,
we shall shiver with cold and fright
but things will happen to us
so that we don't know ourselves.
Cool, unlying life will rush in,
and passion will make our bodies taut with power,
we shall stamp our feet with new power
and old things will fall down
we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like
burnt paper

One of those days ... not one of those days

... greeted this morning with an email that touched off an emotional storm ... my friend who has been ill, may well be dying ... when we think we are ill, all may well be well ... but ... when we think we are dying ... so it brought me to a STOP and may be the seminal gesture for the emergence of Stop 1st from its chrysalis ... i am already feeling the loss, without that being "on the table" ... what is this feeling of loss?  Who is losing What?

... i don't want you to think me cold, when i am as warm as i have ever been ...

now sinking deep in the 2nd attention ... the world is becoming a cubist puzzle visually, but awareness is peaceful, serene and bright ... realization that what we lose is the piece of "ourselves" we have identified as the other ... what may well be our entire experience of the other ... what we have "given" to the other ... perhaps why the situation surrounding death is so uncomfortable for the living ... we begin to think of ourselves just when our presence is most needed beyond that imagination ...

... at any rate it brought me to an edge ... and this evening reminded me of Edge.com and the words in memorium of the late john brockman ... and for those of you who missed it, here is the link to the downloadable book