Ingrid's Substack Postings
Jun 28, 2023 New Cases of Malaria in the U.S.
Twenty years since the last case of malaria was reported to have been contracted in the U.S., the CDC has stated that five new cases, four in Florida and one in Texas, have been diagnosed. To clarify, there are cases reported every year among people who have traveled abroad, but the five cases creating the latest panic involved people who have not visited any foreign countries.
This news was released yesterday so it would be premature to speculate on the cause, but we can be reasonably certain that many cases are not reported because the crises tend to pass in 6-10 hours. This does not mean that the malaria is gone, merely that the symptoms abate. In short, there have probably been cases here and there that did not become statistics.
Usually, malaria is caused by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. They tend to be more active in the early morning and dusk hours and are attracted by heat and odors, such as carbon dioxide, perspiration, and sometimes cosmetics. In areas with mosquitoes, be more cautious during their foraging hours and avoid exposing your skin. Wear light colored clothing with long sleeves, at least during the high risk times of day. Use a repellent if you hear that annoying buzzing sound.
While almost all cases of malaria track to the tropics or immigrants or visitors from those areas, there are occasional infections traced to blood transfusions, organ transplants, and shared needles. There is always a possibility that some cases are misdiagnosed. Perhaps more important is the fact that West Nile Virus is a much greater concern than malaria, at least in U.S.
Tests
Though testing can be performed by reference to examination of the blood, a failure to find infected red blood cells may not actually mean that there are no infected cells. In perusing the literature, one finds statements referring to percentages of infected erythrocytes, but that is the guestimate based on smears relying on peripheral blood. There are several issues here, the chief one being that infected cells tend to adhere to the insides of arteries so samples would almost certainly underestimate the level of infection. The next concern is the testing methodology itself and how trained the laboratory technicians are. In the U.S., malaria is rare and might be easily overlooked, especially since the symptoms mimic many other diseases, such as the common flu, so correct diagnosis is not guaranteed.
Transmission
Technically speaking, malaria is not contagious, but this does not sound like straight fact to me because in places I have visited and lived for extended periods of time, many of them tropical, it was assumed that if a mosquito bit an infected person and then an uninfected one, she could spread the disease so this is regarded as a community issue, not a problem that will disappear when the mosquito dies. In short, all infected individuals need to be treated so that when an mosquito that is not a carrier bites, it does not become an agent of spread. Think of infected blood as bait that might snare another victim. That’s not good karma.
Soap Box
There is no question but that the entire world was impacted by lockdown. As more and more data is studied, lockdown would appear to have been an overzealous attempt to control the spread of a disease that was of little threat to most, especially the young. In my opinion, this is not true of malaria, the number one killer of humanity in history. If there were to be a genuine epidemic of malaria or fear of such, it would make sense to test tourists who have been to areas where malaria is common as well as all immigrants from such places. However, no such testing is required and illegal aliens can, of course, also be carriers. The will to control this might be weak because there is no vaccine on the horizon and the remedies of choice are the very ones ridiculed during lockdown. In short, health policies are both myopic and in drastic need of review.
This said, malaria is quite easy to manage except among the very young and perhaps those with unresolved health challenges, including malnutrition. At the request of clients, I put together a travel kit of remedies, including Artemisia annua which is the primary herb used in natural treatments in much of Africa and Asia. All of my own remedies can be found on Parasite Herbs.
At times, in the past, I quipped that we live on the entertainment planet of the Universe. In a sense, this is true, not only are we exposed from childhood to stories, but we see them enacted on stage and in film as well as on the Internet. Due to resonance, we respond to what triggers our own buttons. The creative arts lead the way towards the next steps in civilization so we can take inspiration from what is ennobling or descend into the darkness and fears of dramas that may or may not ever play out in reality. Manipulators of humanity and even of Nature exaggerate the darkness in hopes that light will not guide us to our ultimate destination.
Being a music lover, I am perhaps more attracted to opera than poetry or literature. Opera is a complete art since it has a libretto, score, stage, settings, costumes, acting, and singing. In the last post, I referred to our various incarnations as a kind of repertoire. The purpose of today’s post is to draw a parallel between the roles played by an actor or actress — or opera singer — and the many incarnations each of us have had in which we also acted out different aspects of ourselves.
Obviously, all of us understand that performers have repertoires. We have our favorite actresses and actors; and we have seen them in countless roles, some of which won them awards. So, the purpose is take in the idea that the soul also has a repertoire and it may also cast itself in similar roles for many incarnations before developing a new talent.
In L’elisir d’amore, Anna Netrebko sings the role of Adina, a vivacious and flirtatious woman of means who has several aspiring pursuers aiming to tie the knot with her.
Though not acknowledged in the show notes, the tenor is Rolando Villazón. The opera is delightful from the beginning to the end when the heart wins over ulterior motivations.
In April, I posted some links to the glass harmonica, including the mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor with Nadine Sierra. Now, we will see how this scene was handled by Anna Netrebko, not for the purposes of comparing interpretations or operatic talent, but simply to show what repertoire looks like. This is a lovely performance (two videos), but it clearly requires the capacity to project an entirely different personality. .
In Lucia, we see a young woman bullied into marriage by her ambitious brother when she is in love with Edgardo. She goes mad, murders her husband on their wedding night, and shocks the guests. I have seen many performances of this opera and thus many interpretations. This particular one shows a sort of emptiness in her eyes as the fate imposed on her had destroyed her sanity. It is an outstanding performance.
I know there are many professional musicians who read my posts so I want to reiterate that my purpose is not to link my favorite performance, but rather to convey the idea that our lives are also roles. They do also evolve from fantasies that are more typical of youth than maturity. So, today we are looking at three different kinds of marriages. In the Elixir of Love, Adina flirts, but the marries the suitor she actually loves.
Lucia is tragic, but the music is glorious and has survived almost 200 years despite the demands made on the voice. Now, however, I will finally post a link to a Verdi selection. Some of you know that he is my favorite composer.
Macbeth was Verdi’s tenth opera and the first based on a Shakespearean play. It was a huge success when it premiered in 1847. It opens with a witches scene.
I believe that music precedes changes in culture . . . and that Verdi was first composer to use onomatopoeic music, something we regard as normal now. So, the witches and their prophecies are eerie and they sound eerie, not like something out of the bel canto repertoire. With Verdi, the music “announces” the plot so the libretto and singing are matched and evoke powerful emotions. This said, I have never used a Verdi opera in music therapy!
The opera is really more about Lady Macbeth than than the king. I knew someone who believed she was reincarnation of Macbeth. It goes without saying that she had many unresolved issues.
Lady Macbeth has a powerful character weakness and can be strident. "Una macchia" is the sleep walking scene in which Lady Macbeth cannot remove the stain on her hand after the murder of King Duncan.
Many years ago, I was close with an actress from the Royal Shakespeare Company who was famous for her interpretation of Lady Macbeth. I never saw her on stage. We were both living on yachts in Dover at the time. I asked her how she interpreted the role, and she said Lady Macbeth loved her husband and everything she did was out of love for Macbeth. I think Verdi found her more ambitious than her husband and the music speaks to this.
Music Buffs
Several subscribers have expressed curiosity about which performance I would select. I try to balance the choices so as to present a combination of composition, singing, stage settings, and relevance to the topic. In short, I am not always picking my favorite recording, but I might mention that there are many drafts that have not been posted yet. One features Pretty Yende, and I do love her performance in L’Elisir d’amore.
Lucia is a harder one to call. I actually saw it twice in the same week at the Metropolitan Opera countless years ago, one sung by Joan Sutherland and the other by Anna Moffo. The conductor and cast were the same in both productions except for Lucia herself. I definitely preferred the performance of Anna Moffo because her vulnerability was more credible.
Macbeth is very hard to say. I have listened to many recordings, seen it live in several different opera houses, and would say that the Met production with Anna Netrebko was utterly amazing. Right, it is not as “beautiful” but Lady Macbeth had blood on her hands and should not look like an innocent young girl. Here is the blonde Lady Macbeth, still Anna Netrebko, same aria, but it is so different from the Berlin performance.
Musically, this touches me deeply. It is truly Verdi as the forerunner of psychotherapy and ultimately, the pioneer in eradicating social injustice. This last performance is not just gorgeous, it is also majestic, this is just my first post with a Verdi link!
This Met performance is particularly precious to me because my best friend and I talked about it after the Live in HD performance. Gail and I met because of our mutual interest in music therapy. She was a harpist, composer, and professor of music who was declining rapidly with cognitive issues. Our discussion of Macbeth was the last really coherent talk we had.
We facilitated many past life recalls for each other as well as for clients, colleagues, and students. We, of course, had connections in many past lives so I have absolutely no doubt that one day we will meet again.
Jun 25, 2023 Remembering Past Lives
This is my personal attempt to explain dimensions of consciousness and past lives. A little history might be interesting to a few readers. My mother moved to Hawaii on her 45th birthday which happened also to be the day Hawaii was notified that it would become the 50th state. Hawaii was my legal home from 1959-1979. Towards the end of this epoch, Isabel Hickey took a vacation in Hawaii and offered to demonstrate how to access past life memories. I gathered a few of my friends, and we all observed her method which was based on the Awareness Technique. It was while someone was in a slightly altered state of consciousness that I first heard a reference to the third dimension. Before that, I was aware of different states of awareness, but used a more esoteric vocabulary.
Not long after this demonstration, I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I was almost immediately exposed to another method of recall, the Wellsprings Technique. Over time, I developed my own method, but have not given it a name.
The third dimension is the one in which you are reading this. It is the only dimension that is “qualified” by Time and Space. As an astrologer, this is hugely important as well as fascinating. Our measurements of Time are all based on motions, mostly of the Sun and secondarily of the Moon, but there are many cycles within cycles, and all are based on apparent movement of a celestial nature. Interestingly, it does not matter what system of astronomy one uses because the mathematics supporting the different theories is not the issue. Rather, it is the cycles — or apparent movement —not the attempts to explain motion, distance, and light that give us our sense of time. In short, the cycles are the same regardless of the astronomical theories.
Though it is quite difficult for some people to grasp, I will argue that Time is an event in its own right. If we say that all events takes place in Time, it might be easier for most people to understand, but this changes the emphasis from Time to the event. From the other vantage point, Time and the events that occur in Time are inseparable; and these constitute the basis of prediction as well as the retrospective interpretations of events that are always associated with cycles, some of which repeat daily such as sleeping, awakening, having breakfast, going to school or to work, and so forth. Some events are annual, like birthday and holiday celebrations. Some are even longer, and some span several lifetimes that include the drastic interruptions of death and rebirth.
My experience has convinced me that the planning for incarnational cycles spans many incarnations, perhaps all of them. It is simply that in the third dimension, we experience chronology that is both linear and cyclical, i.e., historical as contrasted to eternal.
Mortality is only experienced in the third dimension, and the primary death involves the ego, not the breath or cessation of heart or brain activity. Our experiences and the feelings we have about the experiences are immortal as are our soul and consciousness. These are also timeless because they survive the sojourn in the third dimension and are impervious to cyclicality.
Methods of Past Life Recall
There are many methods for exploring the past. Obviously, the most common methods involve memory, both what is relatively easily accessible as well as what might be unlocked through psychotherapy, hypnotism, or some form of altered consciousness technique. I use mainly music because there are parallels between the sound patterns and the psyche. Moreover, given my understanding of astrology, I can more or less predict which types of memories will surface based on the positions of the luminaries and planets at the time of the session.
My experience is that the information that comes forth is very helpful, but it requires a facilitator because the ego must be quiescent in order for other parts of our psyche to reveal themselves. Yes, this can happen in a dream state, perhaps also with entheogens, but when there is deliberate intent to explore, prompting is essential since once outside of time, there is no volition and therefore no movement. An example of a prompt might be to suggest to the person in the slightly altered state of consciousness that he or she move forward to an event. Based on what has been seen, the event might be a celebration, like a birthday or holiday or perhaps a marriage. In the altered state, a person can read a book in a language that is not known in this lifetime, but he or she has to be prompted to turn the pages.
The precise mechanism that allows the information to come forth is not really understood. What I have, however, observed is that if a person was illiterate in the lifetime being explored, he or she will not be able to read when in the altered state. The social behavior, level of refinement, and attitudes will all be consistent with the memories being retrieved, not with current personality.
For example, one person was living in a chalet type house and could see some figures over the doorway, presumably a date. However, she could not read the numbers, but she could map them with her fingers.
In the sessions I have facilitated, people sometimes spoke ancient languages, dating back at least to mid-Atlantis, perhaps earlier. In the altered state, they understood those languages perfectly and could produce sounds that were completely foreign to the current incarnation. Lest this is unclear, think of how people can learn another language but certain sounds may be difficult to pronounce. In the altered state, this does not seem to occur. In short, they would presumably pass for a native speaker.
In most cases, the other people seen in the past lives are all recognized as people with whom one is acquainted in the present lifetime. The developer of the Wellsprings Technique, Kay Ortmans, was a gifted musician and it was from her that I developed my variation of the recall methodology. I had drafted a book about her work and went to interview her so as to have an archive in which she explained the stages of her exploration. The moment we met in person, she said, “Oh, you!” I had no idea what this meant, but she said she had been waiting to connect for many years.
It seems that a small group of dissidents had sought asylum in a nunnery in which I was an abbess. I had protected them for some time, but they were young, restless, and eager to confront their adversaries. They explained their motivations, mounted their horses, and I said, “If I were you, I would not move forward with this plan of yours.” Those were actually the last words they heard as they met their ends shortly after leaving.
There was, at the time (1984), a Wellsprings Institute in Ben Lomond, California. Several of staff members were members of the dissident group that had enjoyed asylum in the nunnery, and they had been “expecting” me ever since discovering their past lives. Since I had not revisited that lifetime, I was caught by surprise, but when they explained the details, it was really all very clear that any nun would have cautioned them to forge another plan.
Levels of Intimacy
In the normal course of a lifetime, we meet thousands of people, but we have intense relationships with some and perhaps only fleeting relationships with others. However, the same people and patterns seem to recur in different settings. Perhaps we can compare incarnations to acting. A particular actor or actress may play many roles in the course of a lifetime, but we see these as roles because the different performances occur in a specific lifetime. I am not so up-to-speed where films are concerned, but I like to use the example of Anna Netrebko, a Russian opera singer who used to sing mostly bel canto roles, often very lively roles in comic operas like Don Pasquale and L'elisir d'amore. Then, we saw more dramatic bel canto roles as in Lucia di Lammermoor. One would not have expected her to sing Lady Macbeth, but her performance was out of this world stunning. All these repertoire additions have taken place in one lifetime, but it is the same person portraying the characters.
Likewise, from a higher dimensional perspective, all our incarnations appear somewhat like roles. We can see ourselves as children, as adults, as male or female, as rich or poor, as fortunate or unfortunate, but they are simply experiences of the soul while incarnate, very much like the repertoire of a performer. For the same reason, we have interests and aversions that are carried over, and perhaps a bias in favor of certain beliefs, persons, and professions. We have karmic ties and the most intense connections are usually the ones with the most history, including unresolved issues.
Many of us experienced our highest achievements while in male incarnations, but we may or may not want to re-enact those lifetimes. In light of the current epidemic of transgender issues, I would like to say that similar issues did occur in past lives, most notably during the Inquisition when there were witch hunts that sometimes left villages without female survivors. Parents may have encouraged cross dressing as a form of protection. During times of war, the opposite disguise may have helped individuals to avoid conscription and premature death. These strategies are very easy to understand but the bleed through into the current incarnation depends in part on the intensity of the experience in the past and how much has been carried over into the present.
In saying this, I am not suggesting that transgender issues are rooted in past lives. Rather, most of us have had incarnations as males as well as females so the imagination can easily support one or the other preference. We also have issues around stereotypes and peer pressures so my intention is not to oversimplify but rather to suggest that we are probably capable of imagining almost anything. The question is therefore how we imagine, rather than whether we can imagine.
The Soul
There are many techniques for discovering past lives, but it is always more convincing if the person discovers the lives through facilitated exploration as opposed to going to a psychic or channel and being told about a lifetime. Sometimes, the relayed information is poignant and relevant, but often such accounts feel like projections, almost intrusions on the psyche. However, if one discovers the lifetime and experiences more or less without filters, the details are usually poignant.
What some people see is something like a brilliant sun or star with many rays projecting from the core. Once merged in that object, they feel that they are “authorized” to explore certain lifetimes. Each ray leads into a different incarnation, and people are sometimes forbidden to travel some of the rays, but they see the options that are permitted.
They feel like they are traveling down a ray and landing somewhere just vaguely familiar. Usually, the first scene is quite innocent. For instance, a child might be in a meadow of flowers, enjoying innocence and sunshine. Another person may be sipping tea in a café and watching people walk past the table. Others might be at a social function where most of the attendees are friends and family members.
As noted, people cannot guide themselves, so the facilitator can suggest that the child go home before it gets dark. Then, the child will see the other family members and will usually recognize all of them as people they know in the present lifetime. Based on what the person observes, the facilitator will prompt what to explore, but the facilitator needs to be very tuned in so as to make relevant suggestions. It is important to take seriously what the soul has permitted the incarnate individual to explore. This means that if one sees various people one recognizes, time should be allowed to study the previous relationships with the current ones. We will almost invariably see family members and others who are close to us.
In a normal therapy session, one can explore two, perhaps three, lifetimes before the altered state “fatigues” and it becomes harder to focus. The person has to ascend the ray and come back down in the present.
Obviously, many techniques are used so the exact similarities and differences vary from one therapist to another, but a point I would like to make is that if the person can ascend to a high enough dimension, it will be possible to discover the reasons for the Earth incarnations. At each level or dimension of consciousness, the overview is more encompassing and complete. Ultimately, of course, we are all one.
In current state of science, it is becoming the vogue to assume that the entire Universe is holographic. I am not sure this is exactly the case, but the language to explain oneness and individuality requires precise understanding. Perhaps, at the very highest level, there is something similar to what we call a hologram, but it would have to be very close to the level of Source. Within groups of souls, there are still differences and perhaps overlapping vibratory frequencies so the sense of oneness is very intense and beautiful, but not quite holographic . . . at least in terms my own experience as both the explorer or facilitator for others.
It concerns me a lot that people are tapping into higher awareness without much preparation so integration of the insights can sometimes seem interesting but perhaps haphazard.
As a sort of final word for today, it is possible to go “down” into the subconscious as well as to go “up” into the fourth or perhaps an even higher dimension. I have managed to bring a few people to seventh dimension, but this is quite rare. At this level, the entire purpose for all Earth incarnations can be viewed as a whole . . . and everything makes sense.
I do not recommend past life exploration as a sort of entertainment because the material being revealed is very important and usually helpful, but it requires integration into the reality of the present self who, for the moment, is living in Time and Space.
Jun 23, 2023 Insect Repellents
Do-it-yourself projects can be both fun and beneficial. Where insect repellents are concerned, they are also simple and require very few ingredients. The same oils can be used in sprays, diffusers, and in making candles.
To make a four ounce spray, you can use purified or distilled water, 100 ml., with a tablespoon of pure alcohol (vodka or higher proof alcohol), and roughly 30 drops of essential oil. You can attach a spray to the essential oil bottle or use a metal container.
Exact proportions are not necessary, but it goes without saying that more essential oil makes a stronger spray. This may be irritating to the user which is why I strongly recommend spraying clothing rather than the skin because in a worst case scenario, one can change clothes. Keep in mind, a repellent is not an insecticide, but merely an odor that repels, and this odor may not be pleasant to some humans or pets.
Anything sprayed on the skin will be absorbed to some extent so it would be very easy to exceed recommended doses unless sprayed on the clothing. Also, as seen in the short video on use of a candle with oils the volatile aromas are what is important, meaning sprays may have to be used every 15-30 minutes since the oils evaporate and only a trace of the original scent remains after some time has elapsed.
Insect Repellent Essential Oils
Citronella
Lemongrass
Gingergrass
Basil
Rosemary
Thyme
Lavender
Geranium (sweet)
Tea Tree
Eucalyptus
Clary Sage
Clove Bud (very strong)
How to Use Essential Oils
Diffusers come in many styles with different technology, anything from a simple bowl of water on a warm surface with a few drops of oil to a very sophisticated programmable ultrasonic device. With the battery-operated or plugin devices, some are designed to use with water and some are intended to be used with full-strength essential oils. Which is best depends on the use: aesthetic as perhaps in the bathroom or dank basement or perhaps a spa. Therapeutic uses may involve an atomizer or timer so that the beneficial exposure is not exceeded.
Where the goal is to deter insects, every situation will probably vary so finding the right mixture and ratio of oils to carriers may take some trial and error. You want to be sure that you like the blend you have created so this means choosing oils that please your olfactory system. For me, a couple of the oils on this list fail my personal biases, but there are numerous options so it is not really a problem.
Parasites infect both people and animals and come in thousands of types. Think of them as miniature snakes, some of which are visible to the naked eyes and some that are microscopic. Like all living creatures, they forage and eat and digest and, yes, that, too. Inside the body, we can think of them as intraerythrocytic, i.e., dwelling mainly inside red blood cells, as swimming in the plasma, or moving about, perhaps sometimes in the stomach or other parts of the gastrointestinal track but going basically wherever they want. They have means of locomotion and very distinct hunting habits. If we think of snakes as venomous or opportunistic, such as grabbing something through quickness, or perhaps more like a boa constrictor or python, we have an idea of the how the miniature versions function.
Parasitic infections are extremely easy to contract through failure to take adequate hygienic precautions, through ingestion, through penetration of the skin via bites or burrowing under the skin. They lay lots of eggs, thousands of them at a time, and while generally easy to remove or destroy, eggs may hatch so recurrence of symptoms is an ongoing risk.
My own experience in finding parasites in live blood analyses and treating them is that all circulating parasites can generally be killed within 36 hours, most treatments require repetition because of the eggs that hatch and the life styles of patients that remain unchanged.
To make this as clear as possible, if one is living in the tropics, reinfection is very likely unless serious precautionary measures are taken. So, treatment often needs to be repeated at various intervals simply to keep the parasite population to a minimum. If one only visited the tropics and picked up an infection, one can generally clear the parasites from the system in one-to-four months, but the risk of reinfection is much less unless one travels again to the tropics.
The same would be true if living on a farm since the exposures to risk are repeated daily. Basically, it would be necessary for all people and animals and undergo treatment in order to limit the risks to others.
A major source of infection is raw fish, but one can be a vegetarian and order a salad at a restaurant that did not clean the cutting boards and knives sufficiently. Some sources say, one can become infected simply by using a pen at the checkout when signing for a credit card transaction . . . if an infected person contaminated the pen.
Raw food is a dietary choice of many people; but if the produce is not cleaned properly, the risk of parasitic infection is much higher with raw food than with cooked food.
I have described myself as a blood behaviorist. I got my first view of parasites when daring to turn on the light of a microscope belonging to someone else. That was more or less 25 years ago, but I had read a lot about tropical infections after living in Asia for many years.
Intraerythrocytic Parasites
Let’s start with the parasites that incubate inside red blood cells. In darkfield, the infected cells look quite different from normal cells, but the invaders are safe inside the RBCs until the cell ruptures and releases the merozoites into the plasma. This is when the patient feels the worst and has the most symptoms such as fever, achiness, and perhaps vomiting. It is also the best time to administer herbal remedies. Malaria is the most common of the intraerythrocytic parasitic infections, followed perhaps by babesia.
If the herbs are taken when the rupture occurs, long-term risks will be lessened. If ignored, the merozoites will generally infect the liver and some additional red blood cells, so the cycle will keep repeating until the treatment is genuinely complete.
The number of infected cells varies so whether or not the patient will become anemic can be determined by monitoring the blood and paying close attention to symptoms. Many patients shiver despite being wrapped in blankets and being close to a fire or heater.
Parasites in Plasma
The parasites in the plasma are often unnoticed except if seen under a microscope by a keen observer. In general, they do not produce dramatic symptoms, but they are uninvited and have varying manners with respect to the host or hostess. The smaller ones tend to eat nutrients in the plasma, meaning the red blood cells will not have full payloads when delivering what is needed by other cells in the host’s body. Most of larger types of parasites in the the plasma eat red blood cells. The least offensive ones are very discriminating and eat only crenated red blood cells that are not long for this world anyway. The most dangerous gulp RBCs, maybe 25-40 at a time, and the strangest encircle their prey and seem to produce a toxin that kills the RBCs. This often has strange effects on the psyche of the victim.
Despite what textbooks say, RBCs have volition and the capacity to propel themselves. Under certain circumstances, they will flee danger, but with really dangerous parasites, the blood cells are unable to escape. These types of observations are obviously easier to make with a sample on a slide than when parasites are inside a major artery in the body. I am sure that inside the body, they often experience a tidal effect. Also, if there are toxins, there is no escape. However, on a slide, they often can escape. This can be seen when there are mycotoxins or annoying objects such as what Prof. Dr. Günther Enderlein called free chondrits.
Red blood cells can also participate in a coordinated effort. The image above shows how RBCs packed themselves against a parasite to immobilize it. This was all coordinated by a single white blood cell. Once the parasite was unable to move, the RBCs opened a corridor for the white blood cell to spray a section of the membrane of the parasite. It then blistered. This was repeated in numerous locations until the parasite died.
The next step in this fascinating process involves the corpse. If there are bacteria, they will eat the soft tissues of the parasite. This takes 5-6 days, during which time patients feel a little achy and maybe fatigued, but usually not sick enough to stay in bed. This is not a “bacterial infection”; rather, it is bacteria doing what bacteria are supposed to do. If the patient has been taking antibiotics or has somehow managed to wipe out friendly bacteria, the parasite will decompose through fermentation which is a somewhat nastier process.
In general, my observation is that parasites in the plasma are more active during the full moon, secondly at the new moon. To match the herbal remedies to the cycles, I created three formulas that are to be used in a sequence. Arjuna’s Arrows is the first. The story behind this is that being a pacifist, I did not want to kill parasites. I went so far as to have a session with an animal communicator to ask the parasites if they would leave of their own accord and what the conditions for that might be. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that he belongs to the warrior caste and must defeat evil. The formula named after this counsel is to be used in the first 36 hours of the cleansing. While the patient is dealing with the disposal of the parasite corpses, they take Dragon Dreams, named so because many people had strange dreams of dragons during this phase. This is followed by Phoenix Rising to restore health in the plasma and nourish the blood cells, both red and white. Then, there is a respite from the new moon to the next full moon when the cycle is repeated. As noted, some people may need to repeat this several times, but each time tends to be easier and easier because there are almost no mature adult parasites in circulation.
Intestinal Parasites
The third type of parasite is visible and again comes in many shapes and sizes. They can sometimes be coaxed out of the body without killing them. It does not seem to work for everyone; but when it works, people, usually mothers of children under six or eight years of age have interesting stories to tell. One method is to hold a bowl of sweetened warm milk under the nose until the parasites are lured by the smell and voluntarily fall into the bowl. Another method, sorry for the graphic nature of this presentation, is to add black walnut extract to an oil, like sesame oil, and make a very oily soup. The black walnut sedates the parasites so they cannot hold onto the intestinal lining and they get flushed out. One has to be really committed to the doctrine of ahimsa to try this, but it sometimes works.
Otherwise, the same trio of herbs works on “intestinal” parasites as other parasites except that these parasites often forage wherever they think they can find a meal. Thus, the time to take the herbs is when starting a meal because the parasites are much more likely to be in the stomach when the host or hostess is eating. When the host or hostess is sleeping, the parasites can be quite active, and this is not good for other organs of the body like the liver, lungs, gonads, and, alas, even the brain.
This is a little frustrating for me because after writing about Brahmi Elixir, only one subscriber ordered a bottle, but several of the herbs in the formula not only improve memory but are anti-parasitic, acting on the brain and even joints . . . because parasites like synovial fluid.
All of my own formulas can be found on Bioethika International, but there is also a site for parasite remedies.
This is a reminder that questions and comments can be posted by paid subscribers, and I respond to all inquiries. Hitting the like button is a signal to me to keep writing, and I much appreciate the encouragement. Sharing is especially helpful because we are still trying to rebuild after years of censorship.
This dance has nomadic origins and depicts the flights of eagles, speed of horses, and bulls challenging each other. The footwork and body language are marvelous.
It’s been said that many scientists are playing God, but what if they are actually involved in much more sinister endeavors? It’s the time of the year when people are spending more time outdoors; and many are being bitten by mosquitoes, some of which might have been engineered in a laboratory. They could be weaponized, genetically modified, or developed to spread a disease or inoculate against a disease. It behooves all of us to take some protective measures: socks, long sleeves, hats, insect repellent, and internal remedies in case symptoms arise.
The video is only two minutes, but it is only the tip of the iceberg.
If we go back over the known history of humanity, including some archaeological finds, the number one cause of death among our species has been malaria. In the parlance of the Bethesda Naval Hospital, swamps infested with mosquitoes have a mission aborting potential. What could possibly go wrong if engineered mosquitoes are unleashed on unsuspecting communities?
Malaria is not the only disease spread by mosquitoes. Dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever, zika virus, various forms of encephalitis, and a host of other diseases as well as parasitic infections can stem from mosquito bites. The jury is still out regarding Lyme disease can be spread by mosquitoes, but the official answer in mid-2023 is “probably not”. . .
Laboratories have been studying mosquitoes and releasing them, for testing, for decades. A test may involve the release of hundreds of millions of mosquitoes — without the consent of local populations or those responsible for public health. In the U.S., an Experimental Use Permit from the EPA is required. Motivations may vary from simple curiosity to sincere attempts to control disease, including inoculating individuals against their will, or perhaps causing a condition like infertility. The list is always growing and is by no means complete.
Laboratory mosquitoes have been released in Florida, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Singapore, Thailand, Mexico, Australia, and probably Puerto Rico. California and Texas both allowed the release of predominantly male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that were deliberately infected with Wolbachia bacteria under the premise that if they mate with wild mosquitoes, the eggs will not hatch. What could possibly go wrong.
Science likes to work with single hypotheses so the theories behind the experimental releases are often unique to one issue. Wolbachia bacteria are found in many insects, but not Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the most dangerous type where malaria and many other diseases are concerned. Technically speaking, these Wolbachia mosquitoes are merely infected, not genetically modified.
There are probably multiple ways to manipulate genes, but one method used on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes involves altering a gene so that female mosquitoes do not mature. Another gene may create a fluorescent marker to identify the mosquitoes in the wild.
As a kind of aside, one that might give context to this statement, roughly thirty years ago, I sold my clinic in Santa Fe to a researcher who was studying fireflies . . . in order to divest them of their secret as to what makes them glow. Maybe she succeeded in her effort.
My genes come from a lineage in which we observed without manipulating. The motto was:
“If you wish to understand Nature, do not disturb Her.”
For those who spend their lives tinkering, I am sure some revel in the idea that their efforts have achieved something noteworthy. I understand this, but we can protect ourselves to some extent using proper apparel, having screens on the windows, mosquito nets over our beds, and using plants and essential oils to repel mosquitoes. For example, if one likes to sit outside on the patio or garden, try surrounding the area with aromatic plants. Mosquitoes are attracted by warm blood and various odors. Plants can mask odors enough that the mosquitoes are not attracted by the scent of the humans and animals. What you might want to plant depends obviously on your climate, but think about mints, basils, garlic, and perhaps potted plants like geraniums, catnip, and culinary herbs like fennel, dill, tarragon, and cumin. Lantana is very colorful and is a good repellent as are citronella, gingergrass, and lemongrass.
Many of these same plants have essential oils that can be made into candles or put in jars of water where candles float. You can also add herbs to the water so that the aroma wafts close to where you are and protects you from bloodthirsty mosquitoes. This video is only one minute!
There are many projects one can do at home, some simpler than others. Making one’s own mosquito-repellent candle requires some wax, a wick, a mold, and essential oils.
For a major occasion, you can use what we call luau torches, same idea, but bigger!
On a more serious note, some mosquito bites may itch for a while, but even when the irritation subsides, it does not mean that one is home safe. For example, one October, perhaps 20 years ago, I was in a hotel in Germany. The room was really hot and there was no way to turn off the heat so I opened a window. During the night, I was bitten on the ankles. Wheals or bullae appeared every year after that. They were pale in color and occurred exactly where the bites were. They were painful so, against the advice of online pundits, I lanced them, had a look at the fluids under the microscope, and found blistered parasites in the fluid. I presumed the fluid was acidic and fried the parasites, but the mosquitoes seemed to have dumped a payload. I took anti-parasitic herbs and followed up with detoxifying herbs, after which there was no further recurrence.
One of the most famous anti-parasitic herbs is Artemisia annua, also known as sweet wormwood or sweet annie. I have been working with groups in Africa for the last 20 years to promote cultivation of this amazing plant. It is easy to grow and easy to process as an herbal remedy: fresh, juiced, dried and encapsulated, or extracted in alcohol, vinegar, or glycerin. It is not merely protective against malaria, but has been effective in some treatments of cancer as well as viral diseases. I do not really like to rattle my tin cup, but I have an idea for a product that would require an investment so if anyone is interested, please write. Just to be clear, at 80, my goal is to promote wellness, not develop companies, so it is the product information I want to share, not the work to manifest it.
We are nearing the five-month anniversary of launching Substack. My goal has been to focus on one key point in each post, not to write a book on any particular topic. I read all the comments and pay attention to feedback so using the like and comment buttons really helps. We are actively considering adding podcasting, but the decision will be based on feedback from subscribers. Please share your suggestions with Balaji or me.
The next major post will be on parasites. There are many types of parasites. The ones that cause malaria and babesia live mainly inside red blood cells until the cells rupture and they migrate. There are also parasites that live in the plasma. They eat some nutrients but mainly red blood cells. Let’s say they have first dibs on your dinner. These blood parasites are microscopic, but I see them all the time when viewing samples.
There are also parasites that are visible and mobile. They forage. I have developed herbal remedies for all of these conditions, but not many doctors test for parasites unless they were trained in tropical medicine so patients often have to figure out for themselves what the risks are and what approaches are apt to be most effective in their particular circumstances.
Stay tuned!
Jun 15, 2023 Extraterrestrial Visitation
This might be a long post, but we incarnate with some residual memory, usually not nearly enough, but sometimes a quirk remains. One of the telltale signs of memory retention that was ignored by everyone around me was how, as a very young child, I wrote an elaborate return address on mail, usually to penpals. This had the required street address and so forth, but I added Planet Earth, Milky Way Galaxy, and some further details just to be on the safe side. Obviously, no one instructed me to do this, but it seemed prudent to me.
There were other details, but I think fast forwarding will spare you some unnecessary reading. I was, however, obsessed with memory, and this took some concrete forms in college and later. I do however want to say that despite the fact that I grew up in a family with lots of scientists, and that my father was in aerospace, what interested me was unrelated to their professional expertise.
The circumstances surrounding my first major out-of-body experience were a little strange. I had been very far away and memorized the route by drawing pictures in my mind of the constellations passed. When I came back to my body, it would not move. I was in bed in Hawaii, Pluto was stationary, and I could not move any limbs. My mind was clear, but I was stuck so I reviewed all my notes and the maps I had created in my mind. I was not panicked, but had a full schedule of consultations that day and was a bit concerned. It was six hours before I could move, but almost as interesting is that not a single client showed up. No one phoned, but in the following days, everyone had stories to tell about why they hadn’t kept their appointments.
The universe orchestrates things in its own way so I took out a big piece of paper to draw my maps. I had been to Andromeda and was told that it is the heart center of the Universe. I was also told that Earth had been colonized by souls from many different places. Interestingly, some of what I was told tallies perfectly with what some people in the Disclosure community have said, but the alignment is a little less definite with some channels and seers and Internet pundits.
If one thinks of chakras, the system we have in our body applies in other ways to the Earth itself, to the various star systems, and even to galaxies. So, Andromeda would be the heart chakra in its particular universe. I was shown the purpose of my life as well as some past lives, mostly very, very sad experiences. In short, there was a lot to process so it was good that my calendar had been scrubbed.
The journey back to Earth from Andromeda took me past Cassiopeia and many other constellations, but I remember a feeling about Cassiopeia and felt both a familiarity and a touch of melancholy. Geography was always a passion, not surprising for someone with the Moon in Sagittarius, but the maps I drew on that day showed that I had left my body via the Eastern gateway, the portal through which we incarnate, and that I had retraced my steps. This was very helpful information for an astrologer who was on the verge of developing a method of past-life recall.
For those who do not quite understand this statement, think of circuits. We have built our incarnations on patterns, and we can explore the spaces where there is architecture, i.e. etheric circuitry. We cannot just take off on a runway and hope the pathway leads somewhere interesting, We have to use the structures that exist to avoid ending up in limbo.
For several decades, there were occasional out-of-body experiences, including ones offering profound insights into some of the problems we are facing today. One of these is hugely relevant to what we are seeing today, and the understanding is at least partially shared by some people in the UFO world. This has to do with a catastrophe in the Constellation Lyra that was caused by exaggerating the relevance of the mind and failing to appreciate that the manifest world is a yin-yang experience. Mind can exist on its own plane, but it cannot manifest in the fifth dimension. To manifest in time and space requires yin so abstractions and synthetic substitutes for natural are not sustainable.
This is not always self-evident, but we have dimensions of consciousness so we need to understand the characteristics of each dimension. Many people today are claiming to be fifth dimensional. That dimension exists, but it manifests in the third dimension by passing information through our interpretations. If we want to experience pure mind without any containment, we will not be simultaneously conscious in the third dimension.
What we should have learned from the Lyran experience is that mental pride is a form of ignorance that is potentially dangerous. If we live in the third dimension, we need to understand its nature, its properties, and its limitations. Just to be as clear as possible, the third dimension, the one we experience in time and space, is a manifestation in a particular vibrational frequency involving an interaction between radiatory and magnetic energies. It is what we call reality because it has characteristics that we recognize with our conscious minds. Other forms of awareness exist in other frequencies but are not manifest in space and time. This also means that there is more consistency in other dimensions because change occurs in cycles of time.
There is one more point to make. Many people today are tapping into what they call the fifth dimension without mastering the fourth dimension. The fourth dimension is an idealized version of the third. It is beautiful, kind, gentle, loving, and gracious. If each of us manifested the purity and refinement of the fourth dimension, we would have a world of saints. I will postulate that everyone has a fourth dimensional self, a self that operates through inspiration but a self that is not evident 24/7.
In a normal situation, no one should access the fifth dimension before manifesting the perfection of the fourth dimensional self. However, many are dabbling where angels fear to tread so we should keep our antennae up and proceed with caution.
The time has come, I believe, to share my understanding of what is to happen on Earth. I believe, as I have posted previously, that there has been an experiment with free will on Earth. In reality, there is no reason for allowing this experiment to continue because the only options we have are to align with the forces of Creation, which I see as inevitable — whether in this lifetime or another — or to rebel and do something that sows discord and chaos. Since the level of chaos is now challenging the stability of the third dimension, it is time to suspend this experiment.
What I have been shown is that this will occur through a Galactic intervention. Extremely benevolent and wise beings who have been trained for this mission will arrive and secure the resignation of all those who have been contributing to the discord. The superiority of their technology and wisdom will make it absolutely clear that it is pointless to resist.
The timing has been difficult to predict. I have estimated that it would occur at the end of the Pluto transit through Capricorn. Pluto will then probably exit our awareness and cease to influence because it is not really part of this system. This may not be clear even to other astrologers, but it does not obey Bode’s Law so it is merely an intruder and will depart.
At this point, the abuse of power will end and the power of entrainment will make order out of chaos.
I did watch the entire event, hosted a few days ago, by Dr. Stephen Greer at the National Press Club. His style has always been uncomfortable for me, but I concur with his conclusions as well as the implied warning to differentiate between a fake event and a real one. The real one will be completely non-threatening. In evolutionary terms, the Earth is about midway through a very, very long involutionary and evolutionary cycle. What does this mean? Beings first descend into incarnation; and then they forge the skills to evolve the ability to express higher consciousness in a denser environment. Then, they master the art of manifesting the part of the Divine Plan for which they were created. This takes what we might almost be called an Eternity because we do not have the wits or the vocabulary to express what we know on one level of awareness but have yet to manifest in this dimension.
We are multidimensional, but we are functioning largely in the third dimension at this time. When we are trapped in our emotions, sometimes because of shock or the intensity of an experience that parallels something from another lifetime, we might be second dimensional for some period of time. When we are inspired and really full of light and energy, we may be functioning in the fourth dimension with the channels open to the third, which is, of course, exhilarating. Some people may be dabbling in the fifth, even the sixth dimension, but what we need to keep in mind is that the so-called laws of physics that relate to the third dimension are irrelevant in the other dimensions. Thus, it was possible to travel to Andromeda and back in a few hours of elapsed time on Earth. In short, imagining that what we call the speed of light is some kind of limit is a third dimensional tenet and may not even be 100% correct for this dimension.
Where I want to wrap up today is with one more out-of-body experience in which I was taken to Antares. It was explained by my guide, a boy who looked to be about six years old but who had the wisdom of an advanced yogi on Earth, is that Lady Gaia had once been a member of the court of Antares. She incarnated as Earth and is still much beloved by Antareans . . . who are dismayed by what has transpired here.
My guide took me briefly to the court where I saw majestic beings of very high attainment. They were cordial, but my guide was asked to show me the relief preparations for Earth. We went to a sandy beach. There were more than a hundred flying saucers parked along the shore. The guide invited me to board several of the saucers to see what was inside. He explained that all problems on Earth could be resolved by a rescue mission and that the flight time from Antares to Earth is eight minutes. Also, for the record, all the space ships were round, not exactly like the image above, but similar.
The first spaceship we boarded had technology for repairing the ozone layer, a very high priority. The second had botanical species for cleaning up superfunds. I remember seeing very tiny white flowers on some of the plants. I did not recognize the flowers so probably they do not yet grow here. The guide explained that there were new species as well as medical procedures that would be shared with people who are receptive, but who have suffered. In short, the opportunity to create a paradise would be gifted to us by our Antarean brothers and sisters.
I have been sitting on some of this information for half a century and other parts for perhaps half that time. Periodically, I see beings from other dimensions. This is always reassuring. My personal belief is that disaster will not be allowed. It is not only because of the love of the Antareans for Lady Gaia, but because a major disturbance has repercussions for systems beyond the Earth.
What I do see is that life as we know it is changing irrevocably. The primary message from Andromeda was that there must be love for what is natural to Earth. This means that those who live closer to the earth as well as those who believe they are more advanced because of their ability to use technology must meet as equals and reach the point that there is perfect harmony between Nature and Mind. The idea that mind over matter is some kind of achievement is part of the arrogance of the mind. The art of living in the third dimension is that we can interact with both substance and ideation in a way that is fully harmonious and therefore also completely sustainable.
I was shown that many people would be living in small groups, more or less independently of others; and they would develop new systems for living, everything from language and education to religion and technology. They would approach the challenges seriously and not repeat the mistakes of prior generations.
The last comment I want to make is that I have studied my own lessons very seriously and developed methods that allow others, normally my students, to make contact with their soul missions and training. Thus far, no one has ever discovered that he or she was originally from Earth. Yes, I know one person who believes this, but she is not someone who has experienced my methods of recall. Based on my own observations as a facilitator, I can mention a few points. One is that either the person doing the exploring or perhaps me, one of us, is seeing a mirror image. The details are exactly the same but left and right are reversed. Secondly, everyone has a special affinity for the original home. Many came here after a period of mission training on Arcturus, but Arcturus is not necessarily the home. The training and discipline on Arcturus are rigorous so only those who are really ready will go there in preparation for coming here.
Many of the problems on Earth began when a Lyran spaceship crashed in the Middle East. The Red Sea and Nile became something like boundaries between spirituality and materialism. Sirians came to alleviate some of the imbalance. They came in partnerships and are the ones who hold to the idea of twin souls; but this is a view based on their history, not necessarily something that applies to everyone. They did not succeed in integrating with the indigenous civilizations so more immigrations occurred from other parts of the Universe, including lots from the Pleiades. There are some beings from Pegasus, often found in teaching positions. Keep in mind that most people have descended from ancestors who may have a mixture of heritages so that the amount of physiological or archetypal identity from any one ancestor may be quite small and very mixed.
I have often used the example of King Solomon. He had a thousand wives and concubines. Some DNA comes from the patriarchical lineage, half comes from the wives who were of varying ethnicities and origins. Many emperors and sultans had similar harems and people have intermarried so we might have seeds from several ancestors, but one of those seeds is from the true home of the soul.
This is a big subject, and I decided to share it because as the pressure to reveal corruption and thwart the activities of the those who have contributed to the imbalance accelerates, there will be risks associated with the desperate measures some people might consider when their backs are to the wall. What I was shown was that when the real aliens arrive, the elite will surrender . . . and the last cards will not be played.
We must however prepare to build a flawless new civilization that combines the best of all cultures and civilizations. We also need to study the visions various people have for the future and choose our actions carefully so that we support those who are wise and benevolent and ignore those who are unsafe.
There will be sequels to this post over the next months. Please share the content as the spirit moves you, but do not post on your social media or personal websites. You can refer people to Substack. There is context to every statement and decades of time to reflect on the details. This is just an outline so stay tuned.
In today’s world, we tend to categorize memory as either short-term or long-term, but perceptivity, IQ, and pure knowing are much harder define. I will, however, take a dive. . . as well as try to make a case for why memory should actually improve with age!
Short-term memory is a lot like RAM in a computer. If you shut down the computer, the information that was in RAM is gone. When our cognitive faculties are involved, short-term memory can be very brief, such as a string of numbers we have to enter once but is of no future use and thus gets no further attention. Usually, however, we have degrees of remembering such as how much we recall of movie we watched or lecture we attended or even a conversation we had. For all intents and purposes, short-term memory is seldom regarded as important, whether or not it disappears forever or just becomes too faint to use is a subject over which we probably do not need to invest life energy to understand.
Long-term memory is, however, another matter. It is generally archived by a more or less idiosyncratic filing system that is probably different for each individual. The files include details, opinions of the details, and links to other files that can be very interesting as well as unique to one’s personal experiences. To explore a file, we need a synaptic response so barring interference with how our nervous system works, we should have more and more navigable links as we garner more experience.
The experiences that are remembered can be social or academic, meaning we eventually mature emotionally; so we add to our understanding based interactions with others. We develop practical assessments of our world, add school and work experience as well as whatever we pursue in our leisure time. Thus, what is retained in memory vaults varies enormously from person-to-person. Memory is therefore a mixture of highly personal perceptions and the colors we add to the canvases of life souvenirs. For the same reason, we filter based on a mixture of personal bias and fact. There are obviously filters that are similar to those of other people as well as ones that might be very private and perhaps rare. For example, if we are heavily influenced by our religious beliefs, the doctrines become a filter, but one that is shared by others with similar beliefs. The beliefs are nevertheless a filter because other people might have different beliefs and therefore filter differently.
To see life as it actually is, without any filters, involves overcoming all of our biases. Usually, one has to become a sage to achieve this level of clarity.
Let’s try to make this simpler and thus clearer. Experiences that are repeated probably surface easily. Let’s say you want to make a special dessert. If you have made it many times, you might not need a cheat sheet because you can almost make the treat by rote, kind of like learning that fire is hot or paying attention to other traffic when riding a bicycle or driving a car. Anything used on the job is generally accessible so unlike final exams in school, work is often repetitive and therefore easier than academia.
Very exciting or interesting events are also often easy to remember: wonderful vacations, certain movies, dates, or celebrations. If we keep journals or photo albums that we revisit from time-to-time, memories will be activated and perhaps trigger a cascade of sentimental recalls. Memories can also get scrambled as if put in the wrong files. Lawyers know this and exploit the opportunity to discredit testimonies.
If we have a experience that is similar to one read in a book or seen in movie or heard from a third party, we may appropriate bits and pieces and splice them into our personal records. I think this occurs much more widely than imagined. For example, an individual has experienced a trauma but is uncertain about certain details, but a psychologist probes and perhaps asks questions that are actually off the mark, but they are appropriated because the correct explanation is short on details. The epidemic of gender dysphoria probably fits this narrative because it is very unlikely that so many people would jump on a bandwagon unless they were vulnerable due to inability to piece together a correct personal account of their feelings.
Improving Memory While Aging
As we experience more of life, we add impressions, information, and context to our personal memory. Little by little, dots that may have seemed random or irrelevant connect to dots that we rely upon for navigating both routine and perhaps once in a lifetime events. If all is working as it should, we have more than information: we should have knowledge and often wisdom. If we have been maintaining our nervous system and brain, our memories should actually improve with time.
Think about it. When a child is young, words are new, ideas are new, mastering skills comes only with practice and perfection so it is not just a pity to lose access to our hard-earned accomplishments, but the losses should not even occur.
In countries where Ayurveda is practiced, it is not unusual for parents to give brain tonic herbs to infants. For example, gotu kola is incredibly safe and can be juiced, added to salads, or made into medicine that is taken regularly. Mainly of the herbs that benefit memory are also anti-parasitic and some improve or repair nerve endings. Most are also antioxidants and nearly all are said to support longevity.
There are some caveats to observe. Toxic metals interfere with the proper functioning of the nervous system so, for best results, they should be eliminated before expecting miracles. Previous posts to Substack have addressed this matter. Secondly, myelin sheaths are viscous and depend on both high quality oils and buffer zones between the nerves so those who are not consuming enough liquids may erode some of the normal protective covering of nerves. Next, junk food and excessive consumption of drugs and medications may block channels used for communicating signals. Lastly, though this may remain controversial, it is likely that certain frequencies may interfere with the normal functioning of our bodies, including synaptic responses and the action of neurons. The question is probably whether we value our memories and life experiences enough to preserve them in the best condition possible. I have formulated Brahmi Elixir to help those who are at risk as well as those who treasure their memories enough to keep them accessible.
This post has been gestating for years, but it feels like time for birthing because it provides context for the four elements mentioned in some recent posts. This will be a series so it requires a little introduction. I see the Creator as radiating ideas that will manifest IF a magnetic receptor can calibrate the barrage of influences. In the context of music, one can say that the melody is yang and the rhythm is yin.
I watched a fascinating TED Talk video many years ago with Evelyn Glennie, but what you do not realize in this first selection is that she is actually deaf. I did not really want to spill the beans, but when you watch the vibration, keep in mind that she feels but does not hear. She is a world famous percussionist but usually plays the marimba. I know people do not always click on links, but I promise you that if give this the attention it deserves, it will revolutionize how you relate to sound.
If you think about constitutional types, then Evelyn Glennie is an archetypal air type with a vata body and handicap. However, what she has done with her life is an inspiration because while losing her hearing, she remained related to the vibration, which is the important part of experience . . .
She is a tough act to follow so I will simply nudge you to watch both videos and absorb her message.
Years ago, there was a raging fire in New Mexico that came perilously close to Los Alamos Laboratories where thousands of barrels of nuclear waste were stored in 55 gallon drums outdoors. Many people were praying for rain, but if there were a downpour, the risk of a mudslide would have been enormous. This would have gone into the Rio Grande and contaminated the river all the way into the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. The fires were visible from my home to the west of the town of Santa Fe.
On one occasion, I was sipping coffee with a guest from Australia at the La Fonda Hotel, and we were talking about praying for the highest good instead of wind or rain. Tens of thousands of people were no doubt each praying for what they thought would resolve the danger when I suddenly felt a shift of energy. I turned to my visitor and said, “Ammachi must be very close to town now.” We looked out the window, and it started to drizzle. It stopped and then drizzled again. This repeated and we both burst out laughing because the highest good was obviously not a monsoon type of deluge because the Earth had to have time to absorb the water. We then relaxed since the situation was obviously coming under control in the wisest way possible.
There must be times when my age shows. I have these stories, but if there is wisdom to harvest, the retelling has potential value . . . even if told by an octogenarian.
The current world situation is tense. The emigration-immigration issues are splitting the seams of some countries. Volcanic eruptions are adding to the pressure to evacuate and relocate. Politicians are babbling about nuclear war as if such would solve any problem at all. Fires are breaking out all over the place, and there are many other concerns that have people on edge: finances, food shortages, health, and sustainability of our life styles and perhaps even our Planet. We can submit our petitions to the highest political and spiritual authorities, or we can bring our own vibrations into alignment with the highest good. I believe this is the solution that is most needed because, as is often said, the best way to eliminate darkness is to share light.
At various times in my life, I have had visions, visitations, guidance, insights, and perhaps windows into the future. In 1972, I was shown that civilization as we know it would change irrevocably during the transits of Saturn and Pluto through Capricorn. This is almost complete. We cannot cling to the past, but we can create the future. It is not the end of the world; but rather the end of a cycle, one we now see as predatory and unfit to lead. Everyone wants to be safe and to experience happiness, not just humans, but our pets, wild life, plants, and most likely even metals and stones. If these desires and expectations are not met, there is suffering. Should we wallow in tears or envision a world that is safe for all creatures, that is beautiful beyond our imagination, and that gives us the encouragement and leisure to develop creatively?
At times, I have traveled out of body to other systems in the Universe. There is something like a gigantic relief mission stationed in Antares. I saw more than a hundred space ships, but these will only be dispatched if the situation becomes perilous. If this happens, the experiment in free will that has been in place will be suspended, perhaps permanently cancelled. Many people believe that we have free will and that we can use it as we wish. What do we want? Do we want something that belongs to someone else? Do we want power over others? Do we want more than other people have? Do we want safety? love? respect? opportunity? understanding? the ability to leave the world better than we found it?
I am going to make a suggestion, not one that takes 20 seconds of your time before falling asleep, but one you convert into a habit, 24/7. If this is implemented, I believe the world will change for the better within a short time. Starting now, refrain from all criticism. Make constructive suggestions in as courteous a manner as possible, but be sure the proposals are feasible. Do not listen to vulgarity. If you are watching something online and the person is not using civil language, close that window and search for something more edifying. Finally, when you pray, remember to ask for the highest good. This cannot be a mistake. The spirit world does have the capacity to influence, but to receive the benefits, one’s frequency must be in actual alignment with Source. There is nothing stronger than the Energy behind Creation itself so if we yield to it, we will be in alignment. There is no sane reason for resisting because entrainment is inevitable . . . we simply delay it when we resist Divine Intent.
Lastly, I believe there will be authentic aliens who make themselves visible, but there could also be fakes so pay careful attention to the energy and vibrations and ignore everything that adds to our fears. We will all be fine if we accept the guidance of those who are wise and benevolent.
Jun 7, 2023 Energetics of Food
Balaji announced that I would be posting vegetarian recipes. Actually, I was in the middle of writing on why memory should actually improve with age . . . so sit tight, that post is in the queue!
Deciding where to start is a challenge. In Ayurveda, foods are classified according to how they affect us. For example, a yogi eats mainly or even exclusively sattvic foods. These are calming and do not stir up energies. They are nutritious and also comply with the spiritual dedication to a life of ahimsa, harmlessness. Sattvic foods are fresh and can be eaten raw or lightly cooked. Spices are used sparingly and are not as hot as rajasic spices. For example, one can use fenugreek as well as fennel, dill, basil, small amounts of ginger, turmeric, and/or galangal, and coriander seeds and leaves¹, but not chili peppers! The sattvic diet is a little on the sweet side with many fresh fruits, some nuts, but not peanuts, which are really legumes, as well as whole grains like quinoa and rice. The sattvic diet usually includes aged honey, milk, and ghee, but vegan alternatives are an option since there are many alternatives to milk varying from coconut milk to milks made from nuts or oats or many other options. I am very partial to cashew and coconut milk with a dash of Himalayan salt. For me, this is tastier than milk made from almonds or hazel nuts, but I have yet to try macadamia and pistachio nuts. I am sure both are delicious if the nuts are fresh. This would be true of Brazil nuts also if they are really fresh, but what we get in our supermarkets is nothing like what one finds in Brazil!
Unlike the four food groups that we studied in school, the Ayurvedic approach relies on the particular action of the foods and whether the food contributes to clarity, action, or dullness. Lest anyone think that they cannot adjust to a vegetarian diet, think again. Tulsi Gabbard is an example of someone who loves to share her recipes and family feasts. She is a vegan as is Rumble journalist Glenn Greenwald. The list of vegans and vegetarians is very long and includes athletes, actors, politicians, entrepreneurs, and famous individuals from Leonardo da Vinci to Mahatma Gandhi. As mentioned in the last post, a person may be born into a vegetarian family or make the decision to change the diet for health or philosophical reasons. If making the change later in life, some new culinary skills may be required.
Years ago, I published my recipe for kicharee, a dish made from lentils and rice with vegetables and spices to taste. It can be used indefinitely as a fast, but many people find it time consuming to make so they freeze or refrigerate it. According to Ayurveda, this makes the food tamasic, dulling. Not only has the food lost some vitality, but reheating food can affect the chemistry of the food, especially the oils.
For some people, the ideas I want to share are totally new and for others, it is too basic, but let me create some scaffolding to make it easier to put the pieces together, but first, a little story.
Years ago, a colleague told me about a way to rejuvenate that is called kaya kalpa in Ayurveda. This involves a special diet, normally of milk and herbs, and 40 days in total darkness. Usually, people go into a coma for part of that time, but there are watered down versions of this that are less austere. I won’t say much right now except that there are preparations to make, and I found that even with absolutely fresh raw milk, I was producing too much mucus so I looked for a truly comparable substitute for milk and tried it on myself for more or less three years.
To give this a little more context, soy alternatives are easily found, but soy milk is made from beans, not from cows. It is vatagenic, meaning that it aggravates the gaseous substances without actually having a profile similar to milk which is kaphagenic. These words may not be familiar to everyone, but everything that is created has a matrix that is etheric and then a combination of four elements that in descending order of vibration are air, fire, water, and earth. What does this mean? Air is not nothingness but rather wind that causes movement. If there were no air, there would be total stagnation. I will even argue that it is air that causes blood to circulate. We all agree that the respiratory system depends on air, but if we take blood from the body and watch it under a microscope, it moves volitionally without any pumping by the heart. Think about it. Air is inherent in everything that is created and even bone tissue has lots of holes that are filled with air which is why fractures are likely when the vata dosha is aggravated. Vata conditions are also painful because our tactile sense is acute with the air element. Worded a little more simply, the sense of touch is ruled by air so sensations are very strong when the air element is elevated. If you are unsure of this, watch what happens when someone is startled.
To complete this outline, fire rules light and the sense of sight; water governs the sense of taste; and earth is related to the sense of smell. This leaves the sense of hearing, and this is etheric so sound is what shapes structure and is therefore very important to everything that is, even rocks.
Now, try to think of all food as a combination of elements. Ether and air combine but if exaggerated, they produce vata disorders. This affects the nervous system and all the “empty” spaces in the body that are “space filled with air” which is why our lungs can breathe, and we can speak using the mouth with the tongue in various positions to affect the exact sound produced. To function perfectly, the spaces must allow for freedom of movement so mucus deposits, plaque, and congestion interfere with circulation and the correct functioning of air element.
Fire is needed for digestion. All the chemicals in the gastrointestinal system are governed by fire, and all transformation of dense nutrients into substances the body can utilize depend on the action of fire. Likewise, purification involves some fire so the reality is that everything we ingest is cooked internally even if consumed raw. This is why even a yogi may benefit by some food that is cooked or that has spices added.
To make this as clear as possible, we can use milk as an example. Warm milk, perhaps with some elegant spices like cardamom and galangal (sometimes called Thai ginger) will be easier to digest than cold milk straight out of the refrigerator. However, yoghurt and kefir are easy to digest because they are acidic and contain probiotics. Likewise, lassi is easier to digest, but ice cream is hard to digest, not only because of the sweetness but the combination of cold and sweetness makes ice cream kaphagenic. I have a recipe for homemade ice cream that overcomes this obstacle. I make it with carrot juice, milk or coconut milk, and lots of ginger and cardamom with honey or maple syrup crystals for sweetener. It is very easy to digest and tastes incredible. One can also add essential oils or CO2 extracts of plants to homemade ice cream, and this can be tasty as well as making the ice cream easier to digest.
For all intents and purposes, most foods, even beans and lentils, can be rendered more digestible by adding spices, and also making sure that the beans are thoroughly cooked and tender. Warning: do not add salt before the beans are thoroughly cooked!
Now that we have this foundation, we can see that substituting tofu for dairy products does not usually have the desired outcome. Yes, it is a protein as are dairy products, but tofu aggravates the vata dosha whereas dairy products aggravate the kapha dosha. Both extremes can be alleviated with spices, but the effect will still be different since the main ingredients are still what they are. Substituting a nut for dairy products usually works a little better, but I have not seen marvelous substitutes in grocery stores. Yes, there are some liquids, but they generally fail the taste test. These are however easy to make at home in a blender and will be superior in taste and texture. Non-dairy cheese is a little more challenging. It may or may not melt in the same way as cheese or retain its shape as tofu does. The taste may be passable, but sometimes the aesthetics leave something to be desired.
To round out this installment, a bridge to what we learned in nutrition classes might help. Protein is vatagenic, fats and oils are pittagenic, and carbohydrates are kaphagenic. In order to apply this, think of realistic amounts of each food. Because so many people are calorie conscious, they might be tempted to lower their intake of fats and oils, 9 calories per gram, but this may adversely affect digestion, nerve sheaths, and joints. It would be wise instead to use extremely high quality oils in the recommended amount. All oils are sensitive to light, heat, and exposure to air. Making sure that oils come from organic sources, that they are cold pressed, and that they are in containers that do not allow light to penetrate is important. Think of the rows and rows of oils in supermarkets in transparent bottles, even displayed in windows with sun beaming down on them! Many people can experience a 30-50% improvement in health simply by using proper quality oils . . . and keeping the lid on except when pouring!
As people age, many have creaky joints, dry skin and wrinkles, and perhaps nervous twitches. My favorite oils are ghee, pumpkin seed oil, poppy seed oil, and sesame oil, but sunflower is totally acceptable and usually less pricey.
Jun 4, 2023 Excellent Post by Ellen Brown
This might be a little off from my usual content; but, while working for the State Department back in the mid-sixties, I was put in charge of fiscal reform in Vietnam. Just to widen our understanding of taxes, let me take a moment of your time to explain the options that I could see as a young economist in a country ripped apart by war.
Having once been a French colony, Vietnam inherited a system of taxation that involved filing financial information with the Ministry of Finance. Unlike the American system, only the data was submitted, no payment. Auditors would review the numbers and send a bill. If no request for payment was received within three years, the window of opportunity for collection passed.
All but three auditors had been drafted so not many returns made it to the top of pile, and Vietnam was consequently running deeply in the red. My job was to find a way to generate enough revenue that the government could operate without subsidies, i.e., Vietnam could stand on its own feet, presumably therefore making it easier for the U.S. to withdraw.
After considerable thought, I proposed converting from an income tax to a consumption tax that completely exempted necessities and had varying rates for other purchases depending on a sort of luxury yardstick. Just so this is as clear as possible, a bicycle might be tax exempt but a basic car would be taxed, and a Mercedes or other high-end car would be quite heavily taxed. This seemed equitable because anyone who could afford to buy something that exceeded some basic standard was obviously wealthier than others who were most likely struggling to survive. The Minister of Finance liked the proposal so he set up a work space in his office where my Vietnamese assistant and I worked with his staff until we completed the entire reform of the system. The plan was adopted by the South Vietnamese government and copied by several international organizations for use in other third world countries.
In short, I am more than qualified to recommend this absolutely brilliant concept for taxation discussed in a recent post by Ellen Brown. If you think reading about taxes might be boring, think again. In this proposal, income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and the IRS could all disappear forever along with national debt. Did you hear “brilliant”?
Jun 3, 2023 Transitioning to Vegetarianism
Justifiable or not, the climate pundits are howling about farming and saying that people have to become vegetarians. I have been a vegetarian for more than half a century and can definitely help others to understand what is involved in making a safe and delicious transition to a diet based mainly on plants. Fortunately for me, I had lived in India for two years and met countless people who had been vegetarians since birth so none of the arguments posed by family members and doctors set off any alarms with me.
There are many reasons one might consider becoming a vegetarian, but climate was never on my short list of why people might want to change their eating habits. The main motivations for changing eating habits are usually either health or a desire to live in a more humane manner. There are certainly powerful arguments in favor of vegetarianism, but there are countless health counselors who claim they could not make the change or who advise others on the need for animal protein.
My most popular work for many years was called “Kitchen Doctor” and has two main components. The first is to recognize the uniqueness of one’s own constitutional type. It is usually described by the Moon in the horoscope and therefore has nothing to do with ethnicity, blood type, or family cuisine. My concerns germinated in the context of fasting because some people have very strong metabolisms and need to be careful when fasting whereas others thrive on very long fasts so long as they are taking in enough fluids and perhaps juices from plants, either fruit or vegetable juice. However, as time went on, I expanded my material to cover diets in general and wrote a cookbook for cancer patients . . . sorry to say the manuscript was stolen so all that work needs to be redone.
The second part of “Kitchen Doctor” was focused on the pharmacology of food and learning to eat what is best for each body type. For example, those with poor digestion may need to eat foods that are easier to metabolize. Some of the adjustment can be made by adding acidic foods to the diet and some by using more spices. For example, fruits have acids and many people thrive on a diet of berries, grapes, apples, and melons. Others may prefer cooked foods, but then the food should be prepared with warming spices like ginger, curries, or paprika. While emphasizing such adjustments may benefit those with sluggish digestion, fire types may not thrive on what works well for others.
The “mistake” some people make when becoming vegetarians is that they do not compensate for the missing protein. In India, people rely on yoghurt, lentils, beans, and often a type of cheese called paneer as well as nuts. My observation of elderly Indians was that they rarely suffer from the degenerative diseases that are currently an epidemic in some parts of the world. Diet is usually influenced by a combination of tradition and finances. If one can afford proper food, one can usually thrive.
When working on the cancer cookbook, I had a clinic in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and my office manager bought every book she could find on cancer diets. One day, she came into my office with an armload of books and asked, “Is there anything on which authors agree?” I said, “Maybe white sugar and white flour.” Because diets are so deeply rooted in family eating habits and indoctrination by the educational systems, agreement seems unlikely. Moreover, because of our habits, certain cravings are very persistent and may interfere with good intentions.
In all my years of study, I have almost never seen a nutritional analysis of a food in which distinctions were made between fresh and organic food and commercially grown food that very often was not even ripened naturally. Once in a while, there is a column for raw versus cooked food, but some important considerations are usually entirely missing; and hardly anyone has compared a farm to table menu with a cafeteria in a school or company. More irksome even than this, the antioxidant properties of food are not assessed in a proper manner, and we all need lots and lots of antioxidants.
I remember my first vegetarian meal. It was at a Zen restaurant in Japan that had a very long waiting list for reservations. Basically, they mastered the art of making tofu interesting.
A few years later, I had my first real job. It was at an investment bank on Wall Street; and, as the only woman in the research department, I was initially put in charge of the food and beverage industries. The way this works is that companies host banquets for stock brokers and investment bankers where they promote their products and stock. This was before genetically modified food was on the horizon, but soy substitutes were a major goal for several companies. The bottom line is that the planning that precedes what becomes mainstream may occur years before the products actually hit the market . . . by which time the investment in the “future” has already been made. Thus, even before we had to read the labels carefully to avoid GMO soy, meat substitutes were appearing on our supermarket shelves. Most of these are somewhat hair raising. Soy is vatagenic, meaning that the air element is aggravated so it will make some people nervous; but even worse than this, many of the alternative products are laced with fungi that will cause allergic reactions in some people and disasters for a few.
So, the farm to table or personal garden to table is the solution to the roulette we play when consuming packaged food.
Given the turbulence in our world today, we can take a moment to decide whether having the equivalent of a modern victory garden makes sense. I believe that we would benefit both from the improved quality and freshness of the food as well as whatever added security there might be. Part of the benefit we receive from food is from the prana, the vitality of the food that is captured while the plant is growing. This dissipates with time so while the calories and chemical constituents might remain, fresh food is more energized and thus more beneficial. This fact is perfectly demonstrated in Kirlian photography where we see the loss of the aura surrounding the food in time-lapsed images taken over a period of days and weeks.
So, what might be the motivation for growing one’s own food or at least a percentage of one’s own food? We harvest what we need when we need it. We might save a little money. Knowing we have a garden may enhance the feeling of security. The quality of the food will generally improve with time because of proper soil management. This may have significant long-term health benefits.
In my case, I was suffering a crisis in conscience that undermined my desire to be in harmony with my ideals and pacifism. So, I opted for a non-violent diet without thinking at all about health since I already knew many perfectly healthy Indians. I was also used to eating Indian food so the transition was relatively easy once some old habits were put to rest. As mentioned, this was a long time ago. Since that time, my understanding of both diet and health has developed. I am 100% weaned from the indoctrination of the four food groups. It has been replaced by the six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter, and astringent. With commercial food, there is always a need to extend shelf life so many people are consuming too much sugar and salt. Our arteries are suffering accordingly, not to mention our blood sugar. So, there are valid arguments for eating more fresh food. This said, habits are sometimes very hard to break so motivation needs to strong in order to succeed when making changes. We can opt for gradual transitioning or just go for it and start this minute . . . but then one has to prepare for cravings that sneak in out of nowhere and disturb our resolve!
It is very nice to have a holiday, but my thoughts have been reeling around the time I spent in Vietnam and the tensions in the world today. Searching through the archives of my psyche, the challenge has been to find the key to peace. Sages will, of course, always insist that we must first find peace within, but does this actually depend on love, on harmony, on respect, or renunciation of the desire to force an outcome? I contributed a great deal to the withdrawal plan for Vietnam, but when I look back, this was about saving face, not about peace. The war had become so unpopular and protracted that it could not be sustained without political loss. It was not about admitting fault or failure, it was about hiding the tail between the legs in the best way possible.
There were endless official visits to Vietnam, and I was, at the age of 24, a hostess for some of these visits, including a delegation from Hawaii, the head of which was a member of the State Legislature and life-long friend. He begged me to leave before my psyche was damaged. I don’t know that the experiences in Vietnam harmed my psyche, at least not permanently. I was always a pacifist and always had a deep inner life; but, of course, we have nerves and some were shattered.
The sages are hence correct about peace arising within, but can this be shared? If I am peaceful, will this make any difference to anyone else? Is peace something we each have to discover one person at a time? On what is my peace based? First, I believe, peace relies on integrity. If one’s motivations are not pure, one cannot be at peace with oneself. Secondly, there should be an absence of self-interest. One cannot want something that belongs to someone else. This implies respect for others even if they seem to be too weak to defend themselves against predators. So, respect is the third attribute that is necessary for the harmony on which lasting peace depends.
On the level of corporatocracy, there cannot be greed for the natural resources or land of another country. It does not matter whether we are talking about destroying the rubber industry of Vietnam or coveting the oil in the Middle East or lithium in Bolivia and Peru or coltan in the Congo, what matters is fairness, including a willingness to take responsibility for the environment and prevent damage to the ecosystems upon which we all depend.
Again, using Vietnam as an example, besides the total waste of human lives, the use of Agent Orange and other toxins — 73 million liters of chemical agents — left a trail of environmental and health hazards that still to this day have consequences. The havoc in Kosovo, in the Gulf War and Afghanistan, and now Ukraine is perhaps even worse because depleted uranium may have consequences for many generations.
The spraying in Vietnam was originally dubbed “Operation Hades” (later renamed), and it affected allied troops as well as Vietnamese people. I probably had some minor exposure when visiting Montagnards in the Highlands with my Vietnamese assistant. In fact, Lily and I must have been divinely protected.
As noted, I was very young back then, but also observant. To the best of knowledge, there was no justifiable reason for the war, certainly no reason for a single person to have died. If there were some concerns, skilled diplomats should have been able to solve the problems, but I did not see any effort going in that direction. For the most part, this would appear to have been the case in later misadventures as well. What, then, was the agenda? I was privy to some highly classified documents so without breaching anything that might still be classified, I can say that nothing I read suggested that the reason for the war in Vietnam had anything at all to do with Vietnam.
Aside from rubber, much of which was destroyed, the only other export from Vietnam at that time was duck feathers. That business was 100% owned by an Australian whom I knew . . . and that might be a story for another time.
Despite many efforts to persuade me to carry a weapon, I always refused. I said clearly that my purpose was not to harm anyone so I did not require a weapon. They kept up the pressure for over a year and half, but never persuaded me. I also went to great pains to say that I was on the side of peace, not war, and felt equal compassion for everyone: the family and friends of those who were fighting, the brainwashed people who thought there was a reason to risk their lives, and those who felt they were defending their country from hostile foreigners. The plans for such enterprises are hatched in the minds of psychopaths, and others are the victims of their agendas.
So, how do have peace. We find it in ourselves and refuse to deviate from our truths. Ultimately, the resistance becomes stronger than the war propaganda. There will always be those who say Gandhi was a one-time event in history, that a man in a loin cloth cannot bring down an empire. He did not bring down an empire. He led a resistance movement that brought down an empire, and this always works.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
John F. Kennedy
May 28, 2023 Mountain Children
This is charming and hardly needs any introduction or commenting. Mountain Children was originally composed for a zither, but is here played on the harp.
Morrnah Simeona said that before healing can take place, the cause of disease has to be corrected. Centuries earlier, Ayurvedic doctors directed attention to causal factors by putting the emphasis on healthy life styles and living habits as way to avoid illness.
This is a very quick note in response to those who wrote asking for suggestions to correct visual losses that several people associated with the recent epidemic.
As you know, I have been dealing with issues with my eyes since I was three, but herbs only came on the radar in 1972. At that time, I tried the usual recommendations: eyebright, bilberries, and all sorts of orange fruits and vegetables. I cannot actually say any of these measures helped, but schisandra has made a world of difference for my eyes.
As all of you know by now, connecting dots is one of my proclivities so here we have an adaptogen that is very well known in both Chinese and Russian herbal medicine. As you can see, it is a beautiful berry. The taste, in my experience, is predominantly sour, but the name in Chinese, wu wei zi, refers to five tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, warm, and salty taste. The Chinese system of tastes is not quite the same as the Ayurvedic which differentiates sour and astringent. Pharmaceutically speaking, this is correct because the sour taste comes from acids and the astringent from tannins that make the mouth pucker up a bit. Schisandra does actually have astringent properties.
This hugely famous member of the magnolia family is used in countless circumstances, including as an energy booster when on long journeys. Schisandra is hard to explain in a few words, but it benefits neurotransmitters so performance is enhanced by improving both concentration and endurance.
As a little aside, I became interested in adaptogens when anxious mothers were trying to help their sons in the military. Some parents sent huge quantities of herbs for sharing with others so that everyone on duty was alert and fully responsible. I am a pacifist and am 100% against war, but I fully understood the concerns of the mothers and did my best to keep everyone safe.
Sometimes, I take herbs just to experience their actions so I was not expecting such great benefits for my eyes when I tried schisandra for the first time. If there is any fatigue or flickering or blurriness, schisandra seems to correct everything for me within at least 20 minutes, sometimes faster. Obviously, different conditions might respond in other ways or perhaps not at all, but regardless of the precise actions, schisandra is a remarkable herb.
Keep in mind that to qualify as an adaptogen, the herb must be safe for long-term use so schisandra can be trusted not to cause undesirable side effects. It is known to improve lung function and to reduce coughing, to regulate both blood sugar and cholesterol, to aid sleep, to alleviate motion sickness, and to relieve nerve pain. Many claim it promotes faster recovery from injuries and surgery and that it helps to overcome sexual dysfunction and menstrual discomfort. Schisandra is a true adaptogen, but whether it helps vision might depend on many factors. I suspect it works primarily by improving circulation to the eyes, but this is already a great benefit.
As always, there can be interactions between herbs and medications. People on blood thinning or anti-seizure medications should always proceed cautiously.
May 25, 2023 Past, Present, and Future
If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.
Lao Tzu
May 24, 2023 The Cause of Disease
A physician who fails to enter the body of a patient with the lamp of knowledge and understanding can never treat diseases. He should first study all the factors, including environment, which influence a patient's disease, and then prescribe treatment. It is more important to prevent the occurrence of disease than to seek a cure.
Charaka
The term “charaka” refers to wandering physicians. The medical compendium of Ayurvedic Medicine called Agnivesha Samhitā was revised by the scholar and became one of the foundational texts of this ancient system of healing. It became known as Charaka Samhitā. The precise date is not known.
The wisdom in the simple counsel of the sages of history should be much appreciated in today’s world where hazards are pervasive and often ignored. We can begin with our water and ask its source, purity, and even vitality. If you watch animals bathing, they will instinctively go to places where there is a lot of movement and froth. This water is naturally ozonated and can alleviate many conditions.
It is fair to say that we are all downstream to some extent since some water comes from ice and snow melt and flows into the rivers and valleys where it often becomes polluted. Municipal water is recycled and treated, but not at a standard that supports health.
Because of chemtrails and air pollution, many people are not getting good quality air so they are devitalized. Air should be rich in prana, not smoggy or poisoned by industrial by-products.
We also have electromagnetic impacts, both in public and in our homes where many people use microwave ovens, routers, and Wi-Fi devices. Even the wiring of the house may be unsafe for sensitive individuals.
Billions of people are affected by issues over which they have limited control so a typical medical intake skips these questions and relies heavily on symptoms, i.e., the complaints we have as a result of stressors that are ignored.
My own work in medical astrology began with an analysis of stress as seen in the horoscope. Almost all people have some stress patterns, but they are not always active. A catalyst is needed to trigger a pattern.
According to experts like Hans Selye, the alarm reaction is followed by resistance and then fatigue. As an astrologer, I have tried to introduce nuance into the attempts by many psychologists to quantify stress. We are all sensitive to stress, but what saps the vitality from one person may not have the same effect on others. For example, some people have baseless fears, meaning that what they fear will probably never happen. However, the fear is stressful whether the concern is imaginary or real. This is typical of vata types, so careful analysis of the facts may help to dismiss some of the anxiety. It is not unusual that one worry is put aside but quickly replaced by another, and this poses a lot of wear and tear on the individual.
All stress requires adaptation, even that which is more or less welcome such as taking a new job that requires relocating and many adjustments. One may love the new job as well as the new neighborhood and home, but there are still many routines that have to change so flexibility is needed to reduce wear and tear. There is a category of herbs called adaptogens that help us through stressful periods. To qualify as an adaptogen, the herb must be absolutely safe for long-term use, must not have any unwanted side effects, and must support the adrenals so that cortisol levels do not rise.
Even though the term “adaptogen” only came into use in 1947, Ayurvedic Medicine actually has a long tradition in which the properties were recognized. Though there are subtle differences between rasayana preparations and adaptogens, there is considerable overlap.
You may remember the “rasa” part of this word from the essay on the Dhatus. Rasa is basically the fluids or essence that carry the nutrients in the body and “ayana” is the pathway. The relationship to the circulatory system is obvious, but this is the river in which all that is needed for repair and regeneration is transported.
All rasayana herbs are antioxidants, and all are considered supportive of health and longevity in Ayurveda. Of these, one of the most famous today is ashwagandha, but it is one of a few dozen herbs with such life-sustaining properties. The herbs have different properties, meaning some support the nervous system and brain while others increase the capacity to cope.
Not quite as famous as ashwagandha is a substance called shilajit. It is highly regarded for the power to enhance the outcome of any protocol. It contains many minerals and is collected in the Himalayas during the summer when the sun hits the sides of the mountains.
As the story goes, an island that was near Australia floated north and collided with the Asian landmass causing the Himalayas to be formed. Shilajit exudes from crevices in the rocks and is sticky and semi-fluid when the rocks are warm enough. It contains a mixture of plant and mineral materials; and because of the collection methods, every batch is a little different. Recent research suggests that the mineral component of shilajit resembles fossilized mollusk shells. The botanical component remains a bit of a mystery and probably varies depending on where the shilajit was collected. It comes from very high elevations and harvesting can be dangerous. The raw shilajit has to be processed. Pebbles are removed and then there are numerous steps involving purification. These use rasayana herbs. Supply of authentic shilajit is very limited. I have 33 one-ounce pouches arriving today, but I probably will not be able to get more more some time.
Meanwhile, I believe everyone should be aware of the herbs that help us to deal with stress, including the stress of uncertainty. If we look at the world today, we are faced with wars, various illnesses, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, financial woes, and all kinds of social tensions. We may escape one hazard but not another. Regardless, adaptation is necessary.
Stress is cumulative so we never know which straw will break the camel’s back, but when that straw is added to the load, our bodies become symptomatic. As said in the Charaka Samhitā, we should correct as many of the local issues as possible in order to avert a future crisis. Taking adaptogens makes implicit sense, and the selections can be tailored to how we handle stress. Are we more nervous, more inflexible, more sorrowful, more angry, more self-destructive or more self-protective? All of my Ayurvedic herbs can be found on the Ayurvedic Bazaar website and there are many rasayanas, adaptogens, and adrenal tonics.
May 22, 2023 Ribbons and Red Boots
This video has been in the queue for months. I was saving it in hopes that a cessation of violence would be cause for jubilation and celebration. The costumes and dances are Cossack in origin and kept me enthralled as a child . . . along with sword dances and other very fast and challenging folk dances. They are called prisyadka and obviously take a lot of practice!
I probably have some Cossack genes and enough fire to appreciate the virtuosity and practice required; however, peace is what I pray will come soon!
For the last several years, I have been working with someone to develop both a community focused on holistic healing as well as projects to alleviate some of the environmental devastation that has been occurring on a broad scale. Because of a request from a reader, permission to share the outline of some of the projects was requested and granted. If there is an interest in becoming involved, feel free to contact us via Substack.
The pdf is beautifully designed but it is a big file! This might be the time and place to mention that I was ordained into the International Assembly of Spiritual Healers and Earth Stewards. This is the pdf about that stewardship. There is another about healing.
May 21, 2023 Morrnah Simeona, Kahuna Lapa'au
The ho’oponopono ceremony is overseen by a senior person, sometimes a family member, but often a kahuna with a special talent for psychological issues. All persons who might be even very tangentially related to the patient are present and no one can leave the room until the session is complete. There are no exceptions so the pressure does mount after a point. Using the language Morrnah herself sometimes used, the goal is to spill one’s guts in as safe a way as possible. People sometimes blame others for their issues so the accuser and defendant are each supported in the effort to explain the mountains of complaints from the past. Solutions are sought, and because the ceremony is spiritual, not legal, blame is lifted, and harmony is restored. Once completing the ceremony, further accusations over ancient grievances are forbidden, but the expectation is that atonement will include self-correction so that there are no recurrences of the issues.
Over the years, I have very occasionally tried to function as the elder in a family situation but without the backing of the Hawaiian culture, this has not gone particularly well. For instance, there were often family members who refused to participate as well as those who would not allow the talking stick to change hands. I don’t have enough earth to hold the boundaries when there is so much resistance, but the concept has merit and works in the right circumstances.
The second major teaching is that what does not feel good to the subconscious will be resisted. In short, if the treatment or therapy is theoretically beneficial but emotionally or physically painful, the unihipili will not go along with the protocol. This is a very important teaching that is easily dismissed by those who put mind over matter. The unihipili is an authority in its own right. It is sometimes translated as the inner child, but Morrnah saw the structure of the human psyche as sort of pyramidal. The base is enormous and powers the conscious and superconscious components of the incarnate being. Language is important here. The unihipili does not supply the content of the ego and its opinions nor the inspiration of the soul. It bases its assessments on incarnate experience and feelings and instinctually rejects what does not feel good.
This issue first arose in the context of a question someone asked about Rolfing. Morrnah was an expert in Hawaiian massage, called lomi-lomi. I will tell a little story. A few of us were in Honolulu and Morrnah asked me to lie face down on the floor. It was a hardwood floor. She weighed 165 pounds (according to what she told me in another context on a different occasion). I was probably about 125 pounds at that time. She stood, with her full weight on the bottoms of my feet, so try to visualize her feet and weight on my feet and no cushion under me. She proceeded to walk up my ankles and legs, rocking occasionally to address something she sensed. Though the weather was hot and humid, her feet smelled like flower petals. I felt that I was in paradise, especially as she got to my back and shoulders, but she walked on my head also. I remember this as pure bliss, but when people imitated her, there was no bliss at all, just reckless copy cat attempts that were humiliating and sometimes harmful.
Rolfing, as many people know, is not usually comfortable at all so while Morrnah said nothing against it, the comparison to lomi-lomi made the answer clear to everyone. When the unihipili assesses the other components of our psyches, it tends to view the uhane, the conscious self as ignorant and arrogant. It rarely accepts anything on the basis of theories or erudition. It is entirely experiential and draws its conclusions based on feelings and outcome.
We could take food as an example. If one hates the taste of something, but someone argues that it is good for health, the unihipili is very unlikely to change its opinion based on what mom or the nutritionist say. “Yucky” is yucky and that is straight fact to the unihipili.
Likewise, the unihipili can disagree with the aumakua or higher self. It has noble justifications for making sacrifices, but the unihipili thinks something along the lines of “Last time your idealism got in the way of my realism, we died. You are reckless, and I am sensible.”
These are simple examples, but there are some situations that are very clinically challenging because trauma can displace the coordination between the three selves so the voices cannot be reconciled into a singular course of action. For instance, I have seen patients who are catatonic as well as ones that keep repeating the same thing for days and weeks and sometimes months on end because they got stuck with a feeling and cannot wrestle their way out of that nightmare.
We don’t always know where the buttons are so we don’t know what issues will trigger which responses.
Well, perhaps it’s best to listen to Morrnah in her own words!
May 20, 2023 EU Parliament on Covid
When there were still only a handful of Substack subscribers, I started a series on viruses that began with the history of variolation. This was the transition point from historic treatments to vaccines, and I do plan to cover the history of vaccines.
Meanwhile, Dr. David Martin gave an excellent talk in Brussels earlier this month. It is succinct, cogent, and supported by years of research. There is a transcript under the video on Rumble. I did notice a few errors in the transcript, some that had been anticipated.
https://rumble.com/v2ncp8w-dr-david-e.-martin-phd-covid-summit-european-union-parliament-may-2023.html
The talk speaks for itself so no comments are required on my part except to note that thousands of scientists and journalists are adding to the volume of literature daily so it is easy to get lost in the forest.
If you found merit is Dr. Martin’s presentation, you might also want to listen to Glenn Greenwald’s comments on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s years of work on vaccines:
https://rumble.com/v2oje24-system-update-show-84.html
Again, there is nothing really to add here, but I will chip in a bit anyway.
Some journalists have said that RFK Jr’s speech issues were iatrogenic. I have not verified this, but it pushed some buttons because I have had lifelong challenges since age three when taken to a fire station for a smallpox vaccine. I fussed and instead of being understood was told I was a coward. The batch was contaminated, and there was a localized epidemic of scarlet fever. I ran a very high fever for days, and never developed binocular vision. I can see. Sometimes, I can see things others cannot see, but I only experienced what I think is normal vision for a split second in an optometrist’s office when he was changing lenses very fast and asking better or worse? It was going so fast that we were never ever to replicate that moment. I had eye surgery in Sweden shortly before my 12th birthday. It eased constant headaches but did not solve the vision problem. In college, they challenged my depth perception in one test after another. The doctors argued that I could not possibly have depth perception so they ended up accusing me of cheating. I asked how I could cheat. All I had to do was line up two objects in a dark box. I did it perfectly every time, but since the textbooks say this is impossible, what other explanation could there be but that I was somehow not using my eyes. Maybe there was magic?
I could never pass the eye exams, but I can see. Apparently, I don’t see what others see so the university doctor said I could not participate in certain sports. I told the doctor that I play tennis almost every day. She insisted I could not possibly see the ball. She argued so much that I said, “Well, I listen for it.” She said, “That makes sense.” Actually, it didn’t make sense at all, but it ended her insistence.
Compared to people with spectrum disorders, I got off light, but my eyes have been a tremendous source of suffering for most of my life. All I can say to those with normal vision is that I learned to compensate. I do have depth perception, and I have won some tennis tournaments; but nothing about vision has been easy. Sometimes, I have had to take solace in St. Francis to get a grip on the challenges.
In Vietnam, I was forced to get vaccines of one type or another every couple of weeks. I contracted typhoid despite the vaccines and thus came to understand that protection, if it exists at all, is relative to a very specific strain and may not relate at all to the local risks. Ultimately, I had three yellow cards stapled together that opened like an accordion, and I was sick for 12 years.
Since leaving the State Department in June 1970, I have never seen another medical doctor. I have relied 100% on natural medicine; and, of course, after more than half a century, my skills have developed considerably. Even my eyes are a little better, but I still have almost no idea what normal vision is like.
Not everyone has the luxury of spending a lifetime doing the kinds of exploration I have done, but there were obviously some sacrifices as well. They were my choices so I am responsible for both the choices and the experiences that ensued.
This said, modern vaccines are not just “vaccinations” because unlike the practice of variolation and the early kinds of smallpox vaccines, there are many adjuvants, stabilizers, preservatives, and undisclosed ingredients in vaccines, including some that offend my spiritual beliefs. I completely understand the risks of contagion and what the dangers of real epidemics are, but the option to isolate and remain quarantined must be a protected human right. Lockdown was never a formal method of quarantine for Sars CoV-2; and whether or not it served any useful purpose remains for history to decide.
Like many others, including both of my parents, I was exposed to the same indoctrination that still dominates the views of many “influencers.” Dr. David Martin is absolutely correct in saying that the situation will not self-correct unless companies have complete liability for all consequences of the use of their products.
In the U.S., pharmaceutical companies have a free ride where vaccines are concerned, but this is not the case in many other countries where both companies and politicians are being sued for promoting an agenda that had no possibility at all addressing the alleged challenges. However, the topic is so volatile that the most damning studies are rarely even cited.
My purpose today has not been to raise alarms or incite action . . . and it has certainly not been to bore anyone with my own history. I feel that like many political agendas that were conceived behind curtains, the Truth has surfaced. It is therefore time to stop repeating last year’s propaganda and to get the facts straight. At the moment, the person most maligned by bogus journalism is probably Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The world owes him an enormous debt of gratitude for effort he has made to protect our environment and health.¹ His work is meticulous and effective. It is important to listen to what he says as well as to the very professional and dignified manner in which he explains his positions.
May 20, 2023 Music from the Pleiades
The new moon yesterday was in the Pleiades, and the Sun right now is conjunct Alcyone, one of the stars that is hugely important to us Earthlings. Perhaps, on another day, we can cover this in more depth. The Pleiades are sometimes called the Weeping Sisters, and many First Nation people as well as several other ethnic groups on Earth came here from the Pleiades. This also means that there are no doubt countless Starseed and alien beings among us. My wonderful friend, Gail Barber, was a Pleiadian. Today, I am left only with memories as she is on the other side of the veil now.
My computer didn’t want to boot this morning, but when it finally behaved, I read your many comments on Substack and Jerry Markoe came to mind. He was a composer that I met late in his life. He was a graduate of Juilliard (B.A.) and the Manhattan School of Music (M.A.) and composed many scores for Broadway musicals. Under tremendous stress to complete the compositions before opening night, someone gifted him a reading with an astrologer. He became fascinated. By the time we met, he was lecturing on music as it applied to astrology. It goes without saying that we had many interesting conversations over the years.
The selection below is from the album called Sacred Music from Seven Stars. It is obviously very different from the types of selections I normally post, but those who like New Age music will probably find it pleasant. That probably did not sound encouraging, but I do not like digital synthesizers . . . because of the impact on the subconscious. See what you think and feel.
It is very hard to summarize the work of someone who was so prolific, but I will start with a few basics as teasers, and we can perhaps develop the conversation from there. He did customized compositions based on horoscopes. Here are some minor details that you can consider.
Start with the idea of a string on a musical instrument. The is an octave. Press it exactly in the middle. This is the difference between a male and a female voice, one octave. This is the relationship between the first house and seventh house (marriage and partnerships). Divide the two halves of the string into quarters. These are the children, another octave higher. This brings in all four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. The family, in his view, rests on having four pillars that together combine all the manifest elements, but the relationships between the individual family members and the elements can lead to squabbles. This discord has to be worked out through harmonization.
He expressed what astrologers call aspects as chords and the elements related to octaves, earth being lower, then water, and then fire and air. The chords can be in any octave, major or minor, and can be dissonant or consonant. Obviously, this can be endlessly complicated and certainly interesting for those who wish to explore further.
May 19, 2023 Four Month Milestone
This is the four-month anniversary of my launch on Substack. There have been over 70 posts during this time. Guesstimating the interests of the readers is not always easy. Both Balaji, my assistant, and I study the statistics, mainly opens and views, whereas Substack places the heaviest emphasis on likes, shares, and new subscriptions.
I do wear a few different hats, but, overall, my sense is that people are seeking material that will give them a firmer grip on the many challenges we are facing. Food security is very important, and I confess my thinking around this has focused on community and family/households. This is partly due to the deterioration of the environment and nutrient quality of the food, but also to the very high price we pay for transportation as well as the health consequences of poor nutrition and sometimes dangers of industrially produced food (and medicine).
Food and Medicine
There have always been risks associated with agriculture, everything from locusts to droughts and natural disasters. Diversification provides security when something like blights lead to famine. My recent posts have focused on inexpensive nutritious food that can be easily grown in a tiny space, conversion of lawns to food forests, and community-based projects involving schools, churches, clubs, and even landscaping surrounding commercial buildings and hospitals. I have not yet discussed roof gardens on Substack, but this is something that is growing fast in congested cities like Singapore as well as forward-thinking industrial complexes. These gardens are also pollinator-friendly because bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds are safe from predators like cats and honey-hungry bears.
Prophecy
The next area that seems to interest readers is views of the future and what we might expect if we master our current issues. I have avoided politics, but obviously have opinions on this matter. I think we need more than noise. Candidates should have their feet held to the fire so that they explain clearly how the ills of our times will be resolved. These include financial and food security, safety from the countless threats that disrupt lives, privacy and freedom, environmental trusteeship, and harmony with neighbors and other countries. Candidates who are running on single issues may qualify for a position with an agency, but not for president or prime minister.
For instance, anyone running for high office in any country should have concrete plans for revitalization of the economy that are long-term, not necessarily more factories, but more focus on the quality of our air, water, food, and medicine. We should have investment in infrastructure like roads and dams. We should have serious law enforcement and retraining of both police and prisoners so we feel safe in our homes, communities, and when traveling.
Realistically, when someone is light years ahead of the crowd, he or she is at risk of not being heard. People have been indoctrinated and many are addicted to gadgets and consumerism; but are we thinking clearly about sustainability and the quality of life? Are we clear about what generates a sense of satisfaction, pleasure, pride in our achievements, and what fulfills our destinies as souls.
Music
As some people are aware, we live in a matrix of sound so what we hear actually has a huge impact on us. When my subscription list was hosted on my own server, I posted some music around the Christmas and New Year holidays, but I have been a little bolder with Substack, and am finding that some people, many more than expected, share my love of music. I am myself an opera buff and have gone very light in this area, not even posting a single Verdi selection . . . and he is my favorite composer. I almost did this for mother’s day . . .
This is what I nearly posted on Mother’s Day . . . because it is about an angel in heaven, but then I thought it’s not quite right since I knew my mother had reincarnated. It is part of the the first act of a mid-Verdi opera about a widower hunchback who is a court jester for a debauched duke. Rosa Feola sings Gilda, the ill-fated daughter of Rigoletto who is beautifully sung by Quinn Kelsey.
I wrote a book on music therapy and reincarnation back in 80s. It is still unpublished, but it may actually be the most important work I have done in this lifetime. The thesis is that inspiration is the beginning of a process that sets in motion manifestation. This, in turn, affects the fabric of society and what unfolds. As time goes on, the ideas are grounded and begin to reshape how we think about life.
Opera is complex because it actually involves all the art forms. There is a story, the libretto. There is a stage with sets, singers with costumes, and an orchestra with many instruments. There is acting and emotion, and often ennobling moments that elevate our vibrations.
In a time when people are talking about awakening, becoming fifth dimensional, or functioning as souls, what we hear and what we say is very important. We are bombarded by rubbish day in and day out. I am surprised sometimes that anchormen and women are so strident, irritating, and often ignorant. Do the people behind the scenes think we do not listen and that bombast is needed to be heard?
In music therapy, as I have said in previous Substack posts, the option is to use lightning and thunder or seduction. Having Pisces rising, I prefer to lure a memory out of hiding than to force it out by breaking barriers. When a person feels safe, he or she will speak freely and become interactive. When cornered, some people clam up and others fight. I’m the frozen canary type and will look for ways to escape when bullied.
This is leading to a point I feel is important with all our media consumption. For me, it is irritating to hear people purporting to be enlightened while using vulgar language and sounding like they might be more interested in beer than enlightenment. There is a time and place for being serious as well as for relaxing in whatever way one chooses, but we need to know when we are on the air and when we are unwinding.
Healing
As everyone knows, I am a medical astrologer who has studied many systems of medicine since the sixties. More than half of my studies have focused on Ayurveda, but I have actually studied many other systems going back to ancient Egypt and Greece, some indigenous systems, and herbal medicine. I have been formulating for years and have my own line of herbs and essential oils, but what is unique is how darkfield microscopy has opened insights into exactly how food and herbs affect the plasma and blood.
There are many incomplete projects, one of which is to create a community in which food and herbs are grown, studied, and administered in state of the art residential facilities.
It helps me tremendously when people leave comments after reading posts because having fingers on the pulse is a way to be more interactive in a world in which some of our relationships are only virtual.
May 18, 2023 Solar Ovens and Dehydrators
In March 2009, I posted an essay about Solar Cooking to my subscribers, ten times more subscribers then than on Substack! I had been doing some minor charitable work for some projects in Africa and realized that for a pittance, one could be cooking without any fuel costs.
This post is a minor update. I was encouraged to send it by a subscriber who is not quite homesteading, but she has an organic farm. She was very surprised to learn that solar cooking has been successful even in the winter in places like Norway where the days are very short and the snow is deep. In any area with sunshine, this option is certainly worth knowing about.
For quite some years now, I have followed various solar projects and have a small portable solar stove that can be used in an emergency or for travel. The projects can be very simple or really sophisticated, like supporting an entire village with rows and rows of ovens or setting up bakeries and kitchens that depend 100% on the sun for cooking.
Read on!
In the shameless current state of affairs, many ought to be thinking about solar alternatives to conventional heating and cooking. This includes anyone who is concerned about energy costs or his or her own energy footprint, anyone who lives in makeshift housing as in the tent cities that now span the globe from refugee camps to suburbia, anyone who is progressive, innovative, and wants to be first in the neighborhood to step up to the plate, and anyone who just loves to be a tad different.
Let's take the practical matters first, solar cooking uses the rays of the sun, not the heat. There many videos on youtube.com posted by people who tested solar cookers in the snow in subzero cold, and the ovens work, oven reaching a boiling point in twenty minutes. Most attention is however placed on poor countries where deforestation is an issue because several problems can be conquered by one simple solution.
The simplest solar ovens involve lining a cardboard box or umbrella with aluminum foil. This saves money if people have been using kerosene or propane. It saves time if people, usually women, walk long distances to collect wood. It also reduces the risk of rape if women are alone in remote areas. They can spend more time with their families and perhaps engage in some remunerative work.
Additional Advantages
Many users have reported that solar cooked food tastes better. The food is more moist. Food does not burn and does not require stirring. Solar cooks thus avoid burns and their pots are easy to clean. Most importantly, they inhale less sooty smoke. Solar cookers can function as ovens or ranges, and those who like to grill can use the sun for this as well.
Options
There are countless, I mean countless, plans online for making your own solar cooker. You can also buy something as simple as a $30-40 portable grill or build a commercial model for a bakery or restaurant.
Basically, all that is needed is a reflective surface and sun. One can use aluminum foil, sheet metal, or glass, probably even sea shells. To absorb solar rays instead of reflecting them, pots need to be dark, not shiny. Temperatures reach up to around 400 or even 425 degrees Fahrenheit, that's over 200 degrees Celsius! Depending on the weather, it is possible to bring water to a boil in as little as 20 minutes. Because of the glare and reflection, eyes need protection. Wear sunglasses!
The simplest solar cookers are made of tin foil. Some people attach the tin foil to cardboard to give it more rigidity. Some line the inside of an umbrella and devise clever ways to track the sun so that the angle can be adjusted as the sun moves.
The most elegant units are built to last, often on cob or adobe pedestals with recessed areas for the pots and a glass enclosure. These can have externally mounted additional reflectors so that one takes full advantage of early morning as well as late afternoon sun even though the midday sun is the most valuable.
There is nothing much easier than putting a pot of rice or beans into a solar oven and then going about one's business for the day and coming back later to find everything ready to eat.
Over the last years, I have visited dozens and dozens of web sites with material on solar ovens. Some are providing ovens for as little as $5 to the people who are impoverished. This is a one-time expense for the user, and they will no longer have to cut trees or buy fuel to cook. Why didn't humanity invent this hundreds of years ago? If one compares solar cookers to gas and electric appliances, it is practically as though, technologically speaking, we are still rubbing sticks together to make fire. We don't need fire to cook, just the rays of the sun!
In terms of the third world use of solar ovens, my web surfing led me to conclude that most of the larger exports are being handled by religious charitable institutions (all creeds and denominations) and there are plenty of dot org solar sites. I do not see any comparable organization of effort in the U.S. or Europe. Given the magnitude of our poverty and homelessness, solar options should be a no brainer.
Solar ovens do not stand to replace conventional stoves in the near future but they can sterilize water, bake bread, cook casseroles, and perhaps most important of all is they tend to be more useful in the tropics because of the angle of the sun . . . and this just happens to be where we need to preserve our rain forests, ease the burden on impoverished people, and reduce the risk of fires. However, they work in the snow as seen in the one minute video below.
Solar cookers can also be used for food and herb dehydration. This extends the shelf life of produce so that foods can be used long after harvesting. They can be rehydrated when used in soups and casseroles, added as garnishes, blended to make teas, and used to make herbal medicines.
May 15, 2023 Sprouted Sesame Seeds
This very well done video goes a step beyond mung beans to something with excellent nutritional value and interest. Most of us are familiar with sesame seed oil, tahini, halva, and seeds that are sometimes added to energy bars, stir fries, or used as a garnish on bakery goods; but few people sprout sesame seeds. However, as you see in this video, sprouting is not only easy, but very little time or space are required!
When consumed as seeds, the black seeds have more protein and less carbohydrates and fat than the white. They also have significantly more iron, six times more iron, so they are more useful for building hemoglobin whereas the white seeds have a little more calcium. Sprouting reduces the two least desirable chemicals in sesame seeds: phytate and oxalate. Sprouting also improves assimilation of the minerals.
Many studies of the benefits of sesame seed have been done. A rough summary suggests that sesame seeds improve both red and white blood cells, lower blood pressure, reduce blood sugar, and very interestingly, reduce arthritic knee pain by 63% over a period of just two months. The intake was 40 grams (about three tablespoons) of powdered seeds, but, as noted, sesame seeds can be consumed in many forms. For instance, it is an excellent substitute for peanut butter and tastes fabulous on noodles and pancakes. The tahini form can be easily jazzed up with a dash of salt, hot sauce, raw honey, or garlic. You can also add it to a smoothie.
Powdered sesame seeds can be substituted for flour and are often recommended for women facing menopause. They are phytoestrogenic and ease the transition women face when their reproductive systems are retiring.
When you buy sesame seeds, make sure they are organic and clean. You can always rinse them several times to be on the safe side. One last warning, some people are sensitive to sesame because the seeds are heat producing. If you are one of these people, do not eat the seeds in hot weather or skip them altogether.
May 14, 2023 Life After Life of Shared Experiences
I have been thinking of this post for weeks, but have been indecisive. This morning, I awakened with a different idea.
Perhaps what I most loved about my mother was the music she played. She played mostly Chopin, Viennese waltzes, and operettas, but she could do musical character sketches of people to break the ice when people were not socially comfortable.
My mother was a very gentle person. She was a Piscean with her Sun on my ascendant. She was very sensitive, deep, kind, and interesting. She never raised her voice, not even once in the 44 years we had together in this incarnation. She had lovely manners, but she defined a lady as someone who never made other people uncomfortable, and this was perhaps her highest virtue.
When she was very near the end of her life, she stayed with me for many days and saw my Ayurvedic teacher, a former yogi, daily. We discussed her life and future incarnations.
What people sometimes ask is how I knew my mother had reincarnated. Well, everything is orchestrated on the level of the soul for countless incarnations in advance. We often reconnect with both friends and foes. Relationships with those we love are generally easier than when we have to sort out issues that are unresolved.
One of the things my mother said in the last days of her life as my mother was that she wanted to reincarnate in a situation in which she met a lot of people of influence but had few responsibilities. There was a party in the home of her new Greek family. People from all over the world were gathered, and the little girl was sitting in the corner singing. A Swedish diplomat asked where the child had learned the folk song she was singing. Her new Greek mother said, “Oh, she just makes up songs.” He said, “No, this is a popular Swedish folk song.” He walked closer to her, and said, “Oh, my gosh, she is singing in perfect Swedish.” I knew immediately exactly what she was singing and sent a little green book of folk songs with my mother’s sheet music, including all the classical music, to her new family.
Her mother played the piano, but the small child said, “You won’t be able to play that piece.” Her mother said, “That’s rude.” She said, “No, it’s not rude, but your fingers aren’t long enough.” My mother used to stretch her fingers so she could reach from C of one octave to G of the next octave.
E-flat is my favorite key, and I used to play this nocturne during the long nights of martial law in Vietnam. I feel that E-flat is Sagittarian, but perhaps others have different ideas.
This is a response to questions a subscriber asked via e-mail rather than as comments on the Kali Yuga post. There were a lot of issues raised in the e-mail, but I will try to concentrate on the important ones. (For Paid Subscribers)
This is a casual post for subscribers only, not intended for sharing or circulation. I want to explain a few of the possible reasons that there is no concurrence as to the dating of the yugas. My assistant is Tamil as I am sure I was also in some past life. According to Balaji, Tamil astrologers and astronomers believe that we are still in Kali Yuga. …
963 Hz is the Solfeggio frequency for higher consciousness. If you really want to get the most out of his magnificent performance, try using headphones.
May 10, 2023 The Source of Knowledge
This post is a humble attempt to direct some attention to a fascinating but neglected history of how our civilization acquired the knowledge it has. The topic is immense, and there are more qualified people than myself who have published on the Siddhars, but it is nevertheless time for me to take the risk and to deal with the repercussions of daring to explain and perhaps speculate on topics that are sometimes lacking links between the dots. This is like a deep dive into a ocean without any idea of what the water is like . . . bear with me.
According to accounts, everything that is created in time and space has cycles of manifestation separated by intervals of rest. As humans, our souls incarnate and then leave our bodies, only to return again as another person with a different identity. These events take place in the dimension with which we are familiar. They have been recurring with variations since the beginning of what we know as Time.
We have golden ages in which people are truthful and righteous, and then there cycles such as we are currently experiencing in which corruption is rampant and only 25% of incarnate humans are sincerely trying to uphold virtue.
The current cycle of degeneration began around 3102 BCE, but whether this was Dwapara Yuga or the beginning of Kali Yuga is not clear. There are many views, the most popular current one relates to the teachings of Sri Yukteswar, the mentor of Paramahansa Yogananda.
Prior to the Bronze Age, very advanced civilizations existed. Testimony to their existence can be found among archaeological treasures with occasional written records, artistic legacies, and architectural structures serving as evidence of illustrious human ancestors in places like Peru, Egypt, the Mediterranean civilizations, and India.
What happened more or less 5000 years ago is that the lust for wealth and power set in motion various forms of warfare and imperialism. Instead of reverence, rulers compared themselves to gods and elevated themselves above the masses who have been exploited ever since.
During these unholy times, Truth is manipulated, disease is rampant, and life expectancies are short. Anticipating such cycles, a small group of exceedingly wise beings archived their knowledge and taught their disciples what needed to be preserved. According to tradition, there were 18 Siddhars, each of whom had students. This subject is so vast that today I only want to talk about Bogarnathar, the particular Siddhar who has always fascinated me the most. He was Tamil and was initiated by Siddha Kālangi Nāthar who transmitted his knowledge to Bogar prior to entering samadhi for an intended 3000 years. This transfer included the knowledge of longevity.
However, before going too much further, we need a little more structure. The word “siddhi” refers to remarkable attainments, what modern researchers might call paranormal gifts. Under correct guidance, perfection is achieved through spiritual practices that open understanding of higher dimensional awareness. The person who has mastered himself becomes enlightened and nearly always shares his wisdom with students who carry on the traditions. In short, there is a succession; and the Bogarnathar lineage includes the Mahavatar Babaji who has been living in the Himalayas for hundreds of years as an immortal.
Bogarnathar was, among other accomplishments, the one who formulated the elixir of life, but I do not want to jump too far ahead. Over the years since I lived in India, I have had many discussions with friends and pundits about the Siddhars. There can be no question at all that they were historical beings who were prolific writers. Due to various calendrical issues, exact dates are hard to determine, but we can more or less establish the general era for Bogarnathar since he spent time in China where he revived a dead body and became known as Lao Tzu. When I first discussed this with an erudite Taoist colleague who had studied at the White Cloud Temple in Beijing, he balked. After simmering down for a few days, he said, Lao Tzu basically appeared out of nowhere as an old sage with white hair so perhaps the story is true. It is widely asserted in Tamil literature as straight fact but seems less well known in China where he was sometimes known as Bo Yang.
Bogarnathar had many means of travel. On his initial journey to China, he sailed along the established trade routes; but he returned to India on foot over the Himalayas. He is also reported to have traveled to South America where he taught subjects related to astronomy, calendars, and astrology to the Muycas of Chile. There, he was known as Bocha to the local people. He traveled to many other places such as the Arabian Peninsula and what is now Italy. He seemed to have had both the capacity to teleport as well as to use some mechanical means of transport such as a prototype of a flying machine.
In reference to Taoism, the similarity between the understanding of the duality of yin and yang is very similar to Siddhar teachings surrounding the interaction between the feminine energy of Shakti and the masculine of Shiva. The secret of harmony and immortality is hidden in these forces.
Learning of Bogarnathar’s teachings on astrology and astronomy as well as his travels brought closure to a question I had had since childhood as to why so many divergent cultures came up with seven-day weeks named after the same deities or planets.
One of my Indian friends believes the Siddhars were aliens. My view is that there has been ongoing migration to Earth from other parts of the Universe ever since the conditions became hospitable here. This is not hard to believe if one considers how modern man is searching for ways to travel in space and perhaps to colonize other planets. Even on our Earth, we see humans migrating and colonizing so we might suggest these habits are in our DNA.
This said, the origin of the Siddhars is not actually crucial to our understanding of them. They were probably what we call Avatars in the spiritual meaning, not what this means in the world of the Internet. What is relevant is that the ancients were aware of the cycles from Golden Ages to decline so they gathered the sages and codified the most important knowledge so it would not be lost when humans descended into ignorance.
These cycles are very long, and there are arguments about where to put the decimal points, but the ancient texts say that destruction will occur when we are the most ignorant. Then, after a period of rest, a new cycle will begin. This goes on for over four billion years. We are around the midpoint now of this larger cycle, meaning there are millions of years ahead before the Earth itself goes through a rest cycle.
By polemics, the threshold will close without opening for years to come.
Cycles of Consciousness
As noted, when life was descending into ignorance, an effort was made to preserve as much understanding of the divine as possible. Realizing how serious the situation was, substitutes for realization were developed as alternative paths, temporary paths that would appeal to our nobler instincts and love. These relied principally on charitable instincts and devotion. By service to others, we limit the erosion of some of our virtues. Likewise, love for what is holy is a form of worship that protects us from pursuing reckless paths.
If, since the Renaissance, some people have moved in a more humanitarian direction, we might posit that between common sense and fear of annihilation, the end of war may be in sight, perhaps not in my lifetime, but hopefully very soon. Likewise, as we cease from attempting to satisfy our cravings by coveting what belongs to others, a shift away from colonialism and exploitation of both labor and Nature will shift towards trusteeship. When we see this as the main thrust, we will know with certainty that Kali Yuga is no longer casting a shadow on our potential to function at a much higher level of consciousness and responsibility for life.
Bogarnathar is said to have lived for 300 years and 18 days. Then, he entered samadhi. His primary disciple, Pulippani, moved a stone to block the entrance to the room where his teacher would remain in deep meditation, perhaps for thousands of years. The cave is near the base of the Murugan Temple in Tamil Nadu. It has been closely protected by disciples for centuries.
So, how did Bogarnathar and the other Siddhars manage to live so long. First, we might speculate that they actually belonged to another yuga in which there was both more harmony and longevity. This, however, is not a totally satisfactory explanation. It is far more believable that through arduous pursuit of personal perfection, they overcame some of the factors that lead to the degeneration of bodies and life force. They also practiced yogic breathing techniques and sometimes spent long periods of time in seclusion, like the Mahavatar Babaji. However, Bogarnathar was unique in his mastery of alchemy. He created tablets containing 35 herbs that induced a coma that resembled death. Upon revival, the body was rejuvenated. Not only did he do this for himself, but he shared these tablets with a disciple and his dog when returning to India after his life as Lao Tzu. This is called kaya kalpa, and it confers longevity when properly formulated and administered.
Bogar was a master alchemist who combined herbs and metals. He developed remedies that would cure every disease known. This knowledge forms the foundation of Siddha Medicine. The many poems and mantras are to be used in a ritualistic manner to maintain contact with the divine. With Bogarnathar in particular, special emphasis is put on Wednesdays. This time of struggle was anticipated so the teachings left by this Siddhar were to help us to remain connected to Source while the world is overwhelmed by greed and materialism. He anticipated drug abuse and felt the poems he left would substitute for dangerous chemicals. Very pious people, especially those with past life connections to the Bogar, sometimes connect with him in his astral body. He is not “dead”. He is in samadhi, a state of very deep meditation in which he can still continue to guide others.
"By breathing, my energy will be roused, spreading over all the petals and opening them like flowers."
The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar by T.N. Ganapathy
Everything in the Universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is conscious: i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind and on its own plane of perception.
Helena Blavatsky
This was a live performance in Holland, but the bagpipes and kilts seem appropriate for the coronation of King Charles III on the day of a lunar eclipse!
In keeping with the spirit of lunar eclipse in mid-Scorpio, I chose one of my favorite Japanese songs that speaks to the moonlight and its disappearance. Taki Rentaro was one of first Japanese musicians to study abroad. He composed in a sort of mixed Japanese and Western style. Kōjō no Tsuki is one of his most famous songs and dates to 1901. It is about moonlight over the ruins of Oka Castle. Some people may recognize the song because a seriously jazzed up version was popularized by Thelonious Monk and later a keyboard version by George Winston was included in his Montana: A Love Story album.
As always, choosing a particular performance was challenging. This version with flute and harp is elegant and is deeply emotional. It also carries the feeling of the traditional shakuhachi and koto. The flutist is Jean-Pierre Rampal and Lily Laskine plays the harp. Neither are still among us, which speaks to the Scorpio association with death. Their music, however, lives on!
Flowery feast in spring high up in the castle
Cups of sake were passed around
Lit by the moonlight through the old pine branches
Where is that old moonlight now?
Encampment in autumn was white covered with frost
A number of geese honked as they flew across the sky
The moonlight shined on the swords thrusted upright into the ground
Where is that old moonlight now?
Now at midnight the moon is right above
For whom does it shine like in the past?
Nothing remains on the rampart but some ivy
Nothing to hear but the rustle of pine branches in the storm
Up in the sky the moon and the stars remain unchanged
But in the earthly life, rises and falls come and go
Does the moon hang there to reflect those changes?
Ah! the midnight moon over the ruined castle
https://lyricstranslate.com
May 2, 2023 Lunar Eclipse May 2023
Sometime in the mid-seventies, there was a small gathering of few people in the living room in the host’s home in Honolulu. Thinley Norbu Rinpoche was the guest of honor and was very excited to learn that I am an astrologer. He asked if I would provide him a list of eclipses. I said it would be my pleasure, but would he care to explain why he wanted the list. He said that eclipses intensity the effect of whatever one does so he would schedule meditations.
This was interesting. The rule in Western astrology is that eclipses tend to affect those in high positions more than common people. I always suspected that such ideas are based on the fact that historically, only people of rank could afford astrologers and they also usually kept meticulous track of the birth times.
A lot of ominous prognostications have been published about eclipses and what they portend, but the reality is that we survive 4-7 eclipses every year so if you multiply that by your age, you probably will not reach for the panic button. Eclipses are however important IF they touch off configurations in the birth chart. They are also sometimes prophetic if we are trying to guestimate what might happen in the future.
They occur in 19-year cycles so you can go back to 2004, 1985, and 1966 to see if anything stands out as important in terms of world events or your own life. The 57-year cycle is the most significant because it resembles more closely the current eclipse . . . although it must be noted that the planets will all be in different positions, even if the sun and moon are repeating a pattern.
1966
What jumps out at me when comparing 2023 to 1966 is that there were several major events that protected our rights. The first was perhaps the Supreme Court decision “Miranda v. Arizona” in which people must be read their rights before being questioned by law enforcement.
The very next day, the Vatican suspended the 'Index Librorum Prohibitorum', the list of banned books that was instituted in 1557. Then, on the fourth of July, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act.
In terms of the recent admissions of alphabet agency involvement in social media, Facebook and Twitter have provided ample testimony and evidence, but the puppet master is many steps higher up the ladder. Moreover, these tech giants are not the only prominent online and print press companies kowtowing to the powerful elite. Voluntary or coerced, there has been both censorship and manipulation of information, as well as invasive use of personal data that violates our right to privacy.
Congress seems basically toothless since most members are beholden to invisible forces whose objectives are rarely in the public interest. However, there is often a tipping point. In the present situation, the rock and hard place are the constituents and the paymasters. Thus, if there is to be a parallel in 2023 similar to 1966, it might take the form of some kind of restraint on meddling by ostensibly private enterprises and government agencies . . . or the free press will simply become stronger and stronger. It goes without saying that what governments want is usually not what is in the interest of the people. So, what we see is efforts to hold the reins tighter and tighter. Brazil is currently the best example of overreach.
The issues go beyond interventions and freedom because disinformation has also played a major role in swaying public sentiment. The “Russian collusion” allegation has probably run its course so they have to find some new hypercharged fiction.
1985
There were a lot of events in 1985 but the one that stands out is that Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released. My thinking as to the possible parallel is the new everything app announced by Elon Musk.
2004
In 2004, the CIA admitted that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If we go back, there was no Gulf of Tonkin Incident either, but Wikipedia has not corrected the account despite the publication of the Pentagon Papers. This would not be worth mentioning unless the narrative is used to defend actions than would otherwise be indefensible . . . and unless the false narrative remains uncorrected despite being disinformation.
2023
Global tensions are very high. Everyone is aware of the senseless destruction of lives and property in Ukraine, but there is conflict in many other places, like Sudan and North Korea.
Food and fuel supplies are threatened; inflation is out of control, and leaders lack a sense of responsibility to their constituents. Many are predicting World War III. I think it will be avoided, but a lot of chaos is still likely.
Our planet has experienced many wars, and they are often supported by the Military Industrial Complex which sometimes profits by sales to multiple parties. I feel the reporting on Ukraine will come under scrutiny, and we will have to come up with answers regarding the Nordstream 2 Pipeline, the biological weapons labs, and the various mercenaries taking part in the war.
Moving away from conflicts, though it may pinch a nerve or two, I see a slight parallel between same sex marriage and our current situation. In the U.S., the first legal same sex marriage took place in Massachusetts in 2004. The current parallels are arguments favoring lowering the age of consent to include minors and allowing surgical sex change operations on minors.
Personally, I do not think that these are liberal versus conservative issues. They reflect a loss of reason. Where same sex marriage is concerned, there is no reason to deny the same rights to every couple that wishes to tie the knot in an official manner. Marriage customs vary enormously from culture to culture, but when two people are officially married, there is a legal contract that affects shared assets and inheritance. The ability to protect one’s interests should be supported by law. Other issues are a matter of consensus, belief, or personal choices.
However, lowering the age of consent to well below puberty is not designed to protect children but rather to cater to deviant adults. In short, while gender is a common denominator, the rest of the parallels fail the litmus test.
It actually does not matter what opinion anyone holds about partnering so long as the relationships are between consenting adults, but where I see a conflict now is that not only are there stages of gender changes, but issues such as in sports. I do not think that a biological male should be allowed to compete against biological females. The size and muscles are different so this is unreasonable.
In general, I think civilization should rise to level that all people are entitled to equal protection under the law. It does not matter what the race, religion, or gender is when it comes to entitlements, but certain handicaps preclude equal opportunity in certain capacities.
To this, I would add that Biden’s cognitive issues should be a disqualification for office. Unless he can prove he is coherent, responsible, and fully in control of himself, he should gracefully step down. Again, there is a parallel to 1966 because it was presumed that Lyndon Johnson would run again in 1968, but he did not.
This, I believe, is one of the issues being ignored by most talking heads. The assumption that the next major election will be a contest between the same two aspirants as the last election ignores the possibility that Biden’s downward spiral is unlikely to reverse.
As for Trump, he has to survive many law suits. It is entirely possible that he can hold up under the pressures, but the paramount issue, I believe, is the role of technology, including artificial intelligence, algorithms, and the risks associated with data. To the extent that much, if not most, of what we take as fact is actually fiction, we do not know how data will be interpreted, but this is only one tiny part of a much bigger issue that has truly significant parallels to the 1966 movements to allow greater access to information that has been hidden from public view. It also has parallels to the advances in technology and changes in social norms.
Apr 30, 2023 Psychic Prediction
In times past, I often posted an informal essay about something of personal interest on Sundays. My muses seem to have chosen the day of the week, but lately my circadian rhythms have not been paying proper attention to the calendar. However, earlier today, I was thinking about a prediction a psychic made way, way back in life, maybe in the 1980s. I rebelled strenuously when she said I would take on the reform of the publishing industry. I already knew how corrupt it is, but as I have often said, I am committed to sharing what I feel is helpful to others. I am not into law enforcement. This said, today feels like a time to share a few thoughts that are relevant to our times.
The publishing industry is ancient and vast. In our lifetimes, we have seen a revolution in the industry, and depending on your interests and exposures, the industry spans everything from comic books to museum quality reproductions of ancient papyri and highly formal peer-reviewed papers and books.
The rules in each area vary from reporters who must protect their sources to complex publications with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of footnotes. The industry includes fiction, satire, news coverage and commentary, textbooks, reference books, and materials that are printed, digitalized, and sometimes enhanced with voice, images, and video. It includes social media, blogs, podcasts, and all avenues for reaching audiences.
With the recent dismissal of Tucker Carlson by the Murdochs and their Fox News Channel, many have speculated about what happened behind the scenes and what the ramifications are for the future of journalism. I actually expected this to happen because Carlson had been off-script on numerous occasions, and the question about the latitude an anchor has for expressing himself arose in my mind several months ago.
In case you are new to my Substack, I touched on the broader considerations of this subject in a post called “Different Sombrero” about a month ago. In that post, I put the emphasis on the inherent conflicts of interest between corporate stockholders, employees, and customers. I used herbal medicine as an example, but the same sorts of issues arise in every industry. Where publishing is concerned, the public probably wants a mixture of entertainment and information. The employees want excellent working conditions, job security, and a feeling that their talents are recognized and rewarded. So far as Tucker Carlson goes, he was apparently the highest paid anchorman in our times, and he is at no risk of landing on skid row. So, we have to look at the corporation.
Moments before going to trial, the litigants settled the Dominion law suit and sealed many documents related to the case. The ostensible reason was, of course, to the avoid the risk that one or both sides would suffer as result of exposure of facts related to the libel suit; but the other argument was that faith in the electoral system must not be undermined. To the best of my understanding, this relates to speculations, not official statements by the litigants.
What we can also consider is that over and above the conservative leanings of Fox News, the system itself must be preserved so a decision was made that the stockholders would take an unprecedented hit. Besides the settlement, views fell through the floor, the stock plunged, but what is most important is whether or not advertisers will be willing to pay as much as before if the programs do not have a following. We are probably no where near the last word on this event, but I want to frame is that what serves the highest good of the public and what serves the highest good of the stockholders can vary enormously.
It goes without saying that vaccine hesitancy is not in the interest of Big Pharma, but hidden in the ethers somewhere is the idea that Fox News is not actually Republican but is benefiting in some way by sustaining the idea that the election outcome satisfies their actual agenda. This does not ipso facto make the Biden administration legitimate, but the powers that be must be sleeping better with a figurehead suffering from serious cognitive decline than someone crowing about draining the swamp.
Meanwhile, isn’t it curious that the talking heads act as though the next election will be a repeat of the last one, usually forecasting the same result as before. There are many other hats in the ring in both parties, some of whom are articulate and less blemished.
Alternative media is giving voice to some of the candidates. On the Democratic side, the main contender is arguably Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He is very clear about his goals and has a long history of supporting human rights and environmental trusteeship. Like his father, he is anti-war. Marianne Williamson might be trailing, but she is articulate, and this is her third attempt at the White House. She favors reparations to African Americans, free health care, and free education.
On the Republican side, there are actually many contenders. Ron DeSantis is the most visible even though he has not officially thrown his hat in the ring. The top aspirants might be Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, but there are probably a dozen or more candidates. Personally, I am suspicious of those who have served previous administrations, but I very much enjoyed reading some of the goals of the various contenders, most especially, perhaps the argument Ramaswamy made for gender change surgery being an elective measure for adults. He used other laws to support the idea that if someone wants to drink or smoke, the individual can make that decision once an adult, not before. As mentioned in a previous post, I think the surgical procedures involved are extensive, complex, and irreversible. Dealing with peer pressure and other sociological challenges is part of growing up so creating more obstacles to irrevocable measures seems compassionate and wise . . . at least to me. I don’t care if people want to cross-dress or change their names; but cutting up the body is not a decision for a child, nor those caring for and advising the child.
Okay, that’s my rant. I have no intention of devoting myself to the reform of the publishing industry, but I think we are simply in a situation in which we must understand that the level of influence intervention is extreme. My very first post to Substack was on “Homo Borg Genesis” so what we need to understand is that transhumanism and cyborgs are highly dependent on data. As has been disclosed in the testimony of Mark Zuckerberg to Congress and the revelations from Twitter, the alphabet agencies have access to all content and have censored to influence outcome.
In the publishing world, editors are tasked with the review of content and verification of statements. The wire services may provide content, but not every network publishes the content. The question is whether or not these huge companies have a civic responsibility. I do not know the answer. I think magazines, educational institutions, and independent journalists on places like YouTube and Rumble have absolute control over content, but where exactly is the line with companies regulated by the government? Is there a line?
Throughout history, censorship has been a tool of the elite, of those who want to control others. Books have been burned, deleted from the Bible¹, and banned. I plan to discuss this in the next post which is about the forthcoming lunar eclipse. In truth, in today’s world, education is very often a boring process of memorization of factoids that have little or no relationship to life in the real world. We are rewarded for regurgitation, not originality. Progress depends on the ability to innovate in meaningful ways, in ways that are sustainable and not a threat to survival. We need clarity and a careful balance between individualism and harmonization with others. If everyone conforms to some standard dictated by committees, we will not discover our uniqueness . . . in which case, we have to ask why we incarnated? Do we have the answer to that question?
In 1995, I sustained multiple spider bites on my thigh. The pain was so severe that the borderline between pain and paralysis was thin. It took almost a full year to recover, and I published the protocol for my recovery. The venom was nothing compared to the bacterial neurotoxin, and it took immense effort to walk again. While recovering on the sofa in the living room, I used the remote control and listened to a lot of music, heard voices, often found myself lingering between dimensions with awareness of both sides of the veil. Ultimately, the recovery was complete as there has not been any necrosis nor need for any medical interventions.
Some months ago, I stumbled on the aria La Tarántula and was enchanted. After posting it, I was thinking of an encore and found this budding young ballerina.
The tarantella is a Sicilian folk dance.
Consider this post a sort of bonus and tribute to the late Masanobu Fukuoka (February 2, 1913 – August 16, 2008). Fukuoka-sensei came from a well-to-do family and was educated as an agricultural microbiologist. He worked initially as research scientist in plant pathology. In his mid-20s, he was hospitalized with pneumonia; and, like St. Francis of Assisi hundreds of years earlier, Fukuoka-sensei had a profound inner experience that led him to cultivate simplicity over sophistication. He came to question modern agricultural methods, quit his job, and returned to the family farm on the island of Shikoku. It is never possible to get completely inside the mind of another person, but it might be fair to say that he became an deep observer of Nature, and this caused him to distance himself more and more from human interventions.
When I first came across the work of Fukuoka-sensei, I was immediately enchanted. He felt a little eccentric to me, like a Zen master who teaches by awakening people. They come to trust themselves and to realize what “is” instead of parroting what they have studied. When a student has this experience, the student becomes more confident of his or her own ability to observe and interpret experience. I embraced Fukuoka-sensei’s ideas and discussed them on landscapingrevolution.com. There had been baby steps before the advent of Fukuoka-sensei, but there had not been a quantum leap. It’s been roughly 20 years now since I began both implementing his ideas and observing what happens when Nature is allowed to be itself. The timing was good for me. I had not been in the Pacific Northwest for very long, and this was my third major gardening endeavor once fledging from family influences. Each of my three adventures took place in radically different environments: the Big Island of Hawaii, the high desert of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the sea level and endless rain of this part of the world. One of my first observations was that the intensity of the colors of flowers is much deeper here, but one truly has to understand the terrain and climate to create a garden paradise.
Enjoy the videos! The first one is an interview with the grandson!
There are many videos of Masanobu Fukuoka’s work. He traveled around the world, to places like India, Greece, and lands where there was severe desertification. One of my favorite videos is an hour, but worth the time. YouTube prevents it from being posted, but the link works.
As with most professions, astrologers come in many descriptions, and they do not always agree on every detail though there is usually much more consensus than conflict. To play it safe, I am going to cover, in separate posts, the Sun and the Moon in the horoscope. At the end, I want to play a little game with you and will describe it when posting on the Sun.
Some people call me a lunar astrologer, but the Moon is only one of the four cornerstones of my system of medical astrology. It relates to memory so we cannot understand it until we understand memory itself. Psychologists describe memory as short-term and long-term. If we want to draw analogies between human memory and technology, we could postulate that short-term memory is similar to RAM, and much of it is not saved to a hard drive. Long-term memory is very much like the filing system of a computer. We can only view one document at a time on the screen, but we can open a document, edit it, and overwrite the saved version.
What this means is memory is not a precise historic record but what we might call the composite of amendments and revisions. If you want a correct version of your personal history, you might have to maintain a journal or visit the Akash.
Maybe a little story about my Akita rescues will set the stage for understanding the last paragraph. I learned so much when I adopted a dog with a very sad history. One quirk was that if she wanted to go out, that went smoothly, but she seemed afraid to come back in the house. In the middle of winter with snow falling, I would sometimes have to keep the door open for five hours before successfully bringing her back into the house. I went through my entire repertoire of temptations: treats placed just over the threshold and bigger and better treats if she stretched to reach one, and then a giant reward when her tail finally crossed the threshold, but this took both of us hours and was always touch and go because she would retreat back outside if one hair was out of place. I could put her on a leash, take her out of the yard, pretend we were going for a drive and then sometimes successfully come into the house through the front door, but even this did not always work.
A colleague recommended an animal communicator. This changed my life forever and was well beyond fascinating. As the story unfolded, a young boy was responsible for caring for the dog, but he was not always tuned in to her needs so little things happened and the boy’s father would beat the dog by the back door. She was understandably terrified, eager to go out and reluctant to come back in.
Knowledge is one thing, communication is another. She had to know that I understood her hesitancy, and I had to understand that patience would eventually be rewarded. Little by little, her fear diminished and this was replaced by the joy I always wanted her to experience when laying out the treats. Tears streamed down my face when we overcame this challenge.
Over time, it would probably be safe to say that we not only succeeded in modifying her behavior, but the memories that were related to her fear became more and more faint.
The picture above shows the backdoor where she would be stuck for hours. You can see that she could be happy, but not at the threshold. Here she is, joyously exploring the potato patch, when she first came to live with me.
The relationship of the Moon to water is well understood in terms of scientific evidence of magnetic influences; but with the work of Emoto-sensei, we learned that water holds memories . . . but the memories can be overwritten by changing thoughtforms, music, and/or prayer. “Negative” thoughts cause structural changes in the water that can sometimes be ghastly so purification takes on an entirely new meaning when we accept that beauty, respect, compassion, joy, as well as alignment with our cultural and spiritual traditions makes a huge difference in the primary substance of our yin selves, water constituting roughly 70% of our bodies as well as the Planet where we are living.
For me, this understanding supports the need for recognizing that food is a blessing are cordial conversation and lovely music when eating.
In the horoscope, the Moon symbolizes the composite of our incarnational journeys and is our line of least resistance. Our inner self has had a lot of experiences and has categorized these events and applied labels such as pleasant, frightening, appealing, dangerous, and just about every memory has an associated folder and adjective. Do you have a favorite color or number? What about art and music preferences? When choosing entertainment, do you prefer romance, adventure, sci-fi, historic dramas, comedy, sports, safaris, inspirational films, or documentaries? What foods do you like and which cause you allergic reactions?
Let me make this a little personal. My Moon is in Sagittarius in the ninth house. I have traveled all my life, studied numerous foreign languages, love anthropology and philosophy, and when I describe my mother, I often refer to the fact that she was Swedish, i.e., “foreign” in the sense that we lived in the U.S. My sister had the Moon in Cancer and hated everything foreign, never wanted to travel anywhere or try new cuisines. She saw our mother as a home maker.
Interestingly, our mother spoke Swedish to me and English to my sister. Once, my sister was babbling on and on about our parents, and I interrupted her to ask if she was talking about our mother or father. She said, “Mother” but I thought she was talking about our father, but I did not actually recognize either parent in what she was saying. In short, even what we observe and feel is circumscribed by what our antennae allow us to perceive. If no signals are detected, no response is elicited.
In general, this “lunar composite” symbolizes our interests as well as aversions, and it is projected onto the primary female figure in our lives, usually therefore the mother. A four-year old came up to me a beach party one evening and said, “Three of my brothers and sisters have Capricorn Moons, and my Moon is also in Capricorn. Does this mean my mother is a strict disciplinarian?” I was dumbfounded that such complex sentence structure and words came out of a child, but she would have made a fabulous student. She captured the essence of this unusually heavy focus on Capricorn and drew relevant conclusions . . . for which she appeared to be seeking confirmation.
Most likely, these four siblings would have agreed on many of the mother’s traits because they shared the similar lens filters. In my family, one or the other of us was probably the proverbial black sheep though we might have had higher priority issues to sort out than which one of us didn’t fit where we found ourselves.
I often reference the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali because he made a very clear distinction between conditioned consciousness and unconditioned consciousness. Lunar perceptions are always “conditioned” because we have so many biases that we cannot see things as they are when having so many idiosyncratic filters. I have called this “Miasms of the Moon” and have lectured extensively on this topic. One of the esoteric terms is “Dweller on the Threshold” but this is less clear, I think, than “miasms” because our perceptions are conditioned by our own experiences which are blurred by our tendencies to note certain particulars and miss other details.
To see “accurately”, we must transcend the filters, and this produces very significant changes in the body because the pituitary body, the master gland, goes from functioning in a lunar manner to seeing clearly, i.e., without the miasms. When people reach a stage in life where they want to explore deeply, they may undergo some type of therapy that eventually includes seeing other people and incidents as they are rather than as they feel or felt at the time of the event. This is very important for both psychotherapists and their clients because at some point, we may want to understand the “conditions” that contributed to our views and to see each person as that person would perhaps see himself or herself. For some people, this feels detached and converts the experiencer into an observer rather than participant.
With this background, we can take the understanding of the Moon a little further. The signs, well, two of them, have been mentioned. The signs have interests and attributes that are either quite well developed or in the process of becoming so. Some people refer to advanced souls or young souls, but it is actually far more complicated because on some level, we are already perfect so what is evolving is our ability to manifest who and what we already are.
There are many ways to explore past lives so when we are fortunate enough to meet a good facilitator, we can begin to see how we got to where we are now. Usually, long before this, there were hints.
For instance, in my childhood, sometimes a minister or teacher would talk about something and whole complex scenes appeared before my mind’s eye. I could see historic events as they appeared to me at the time they happened. Pay attention to the words, “As they appeared to me” which is like a movie in my mind or a dream that is particularly detailed and colorful. Other times, one could sit in a pew or classroom and be bored almost into oblivion by the “irrelevance” of the subject matter. These might have been hints. Being strongly affected by something is a potential trigger to recall. If we pause and allow ourselves to do a deep dive, we may find ourselves in another realm having experiences that could not possibly be happening on Earth as we currently know it.
If using Vedic astrology, the Moon is also in a particular nakshatra that provides additional insights. In all systems of astrology, the houses are also considered because they define specific areas of interest that will, throughout life, require more effort in life. Unfortunately, we must know the correct time of birth in order to reference the houses.
Western astrologers depend heavily on what are called aspects. These are angular relationships between planets. They actually have a foundation in physics that my father explained is called gravitational vectoring. He was in aerospace and took up astrology later in life. If you can remember the time when radios and televisions depended on antennae to get a clear signal, you will understand that the angles reference reception. For example, can you really be clear about what you are trying to say or are your feelings so tangled up that others cannot make sense of what you are conveying? Maybe, it is also true that certain details go missing when there is an attempted interaction. It is like the record button never lit up.
An example is that when the antenna is exactly at a 90 degree angle to the transmitter, there is no reception. Move the antenna just a little and the snow appears. This “square” is also considered to be the most difficult aspect in astrology.
Next, the Moon makes contacts with planets and these reveal things like curiosity or resistance to new ideas, ease of learning versus difficulty processing information, fears associated with poverty or confidence over affluence, religious polarization or persecution, tendencies towards being trusting or gullible, phobias around hygiene and health, and even insanity. This list is by no means complete but how we perceive is heavily influences by aspects between planets.
There are experiences that are so horrifying that they push us over the edge. If we leave the memories at edge, we may have what some shamans call “lost soul” but this is another term I usually define differently. There is memory fragmentation, but whether or not we need to reclaim all the pieces is a choice each person can make at the time it suits that individual.
I take a very soft view of “the edge” because many incidents we have experienced were truly shattering. People have been raped, forced into battle, burned at the stake, subjected to inhumane treatments in institutions, had terribly disfiguring and painful diseases, died of hunger on the streets while watching others eat, been abandoned by family and tribe, lost loved ones at an early age. It’s hard to imagine all that might have happened, but we are each of us more sensitive to certain experiences than to others. Betrayal is hard for some people to accept, but others are more cynical and withhold trust in order to avoid disappointment. The point here is that we have scars, usually a lot of them. We also have open wounds and vulnerabilities so we see certain traits more clearly than other behaviors; and because we tend to see only what we recognize, we see some incidents factually, but at times we color or project from our own memory archives. Then, the mother or mother figure can function as the screen on which we see the projection.
We usually see the father more like he really is or was, but we, of course, miss whatever our own radar fails to detect. If orphaned or exposed to multiple surrogate parental figures, we still see through our own lenses, but we usually have unique vulnerabilities revolving around rejection, loss, abandonment, and love.
This overview would not be even minimally complete unless the elements were mentioned. Astrology uses four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. Each element has affinities for certain types of interaction and expresses feelings that are consistent with the element.
Fire experiences an arousal of passion that can lead to anger or righteous indignation, but it is useless unless there is a commitment of energy towards resolving the issues that are out of balance. When the issue is personal, the goal should be on whether there is sufficient passion to correct the imbalance. When fire is passive, as when listening to someone else’s lament, it is often thinking about how to fix the problem. There may be deep concern and compassion, but fire is feeling that “this person needs help” so whether repairing broken furniture or healing from a disease, fire is feeling that action is being sought to resolve the issue. It does not usually come naturally to fire types to think that some people are just explaining themselves and their situations, and they are not necessarily asking for help. What others most need to understand about fire is that besides all the annoying traits, fire is loyal, courageous, and idealistic. If the emotions are focused, fire can resolve injustices.
Earth is practical and wants stability so attention will usually go into strategies that preserve the status quo or protect the interests that are at stake. Where fire is idealistic, earth is realistic, so what feels best is whatever will provide security and prevent the boat from capsizing. If unable to resolve issues that arise, earth can become depressed and rigid, i.e., less interactive and less responsive to outer influences. Earth can handle the facts so laying the cards face up will help in navigating any issues that arise. It is important to be clear, dependable, and practical when trying to reach mutually acceptable accords.
Air is social and interactive. Up to a point, air wants stimulation. New topics and differences can be interesting even if they do not sway. Air is the least judgmental and most tolerant of the elements, but there is a point when space is needed so a little downtime helps to keep the energies from fraying. Otherwise, air will tend to multitask, become scattered and perhaps enervated. The nervous system of air types can be overstimulated so there are vulnerabilities towards minor oversights, exaggerated and baseless worries, exhaustion from fretting over issues that exist mainly in the imagination rather than reality. Air needs information and conversation to remain engaged. They usually function best if they have friends and a social life in addition to partnership. Air types can be progressive if they have sufficient understanding and clarity surrounding whether or not innovations are realistic. Otherwise, the ideas can excite but remain ungrounded. When interacting with air types, do not say anything that will generate fear or anxiety. If there is a serious issue, allow time to interact. Do not bring up an important subject and then walk out of the room.
Water sees others in terms of relationships. For instance, a mother might refer to her husband or child without using a name because her feelings are usually directly related to the expectations and complications inherent in relationships that have enduring value. The most accessible emotion is sadness so there can be tears but also empathy and compassion for others. Bonds are very important but can easily be misinterpreted if people are not on the same page. Water is protective and seeks commitment. When disappointed, water is usually unprepared and needs to be consoled. Water can be a good organizer if everyone has a role and knows what is expected. Water can be very nurturing and protective of those most dear but will often have expectations that are consistent with the perceived relationship. Children can model themselves after parents and eventually mature and become good parents, maybe even matriarchs or patriarchs of families and groups such as religious, charitable, and corporate assemblies where lots of people need to have both a niche and role model.
These are thumbnail sketches. I have written whole books about just one element, but this will help some people to recognize that people have different primary emotions and needs. Some people want a lot of independence and some some want protection. We all need to be understood and accepted for who we are so we can start with one toe in the water!
Gerónimo Giménez (10 October 1854 – 19 February 1923) was a Spanish composer. He was born in Seville but spent most of his childhood in Cadiz. He was a musical prodigy who spent much of his life writing zarzuelas, a musical style that is very dear to Spanish people and has spread to Latin America and even the Philippines. Typically, the zarazuela is a song or a short drama, like a musical or operetta. “La Tempranica” is an operetta in one act with three scenes. It premiered on 19 September 1900 after much anticipation and lengthy delays. It is arguably the composer’s best work. The title refers to a 16-year old headstrong woman. One of the arias, a trouser role, is about a tarantula. It’s lively and entertaining. The first selection includes the music (roughly 3m13s to 5m) but does not have a voice; so, for fun, I added the aria about the tarantula. Choosing just one interpretation was challenging but Andalusian Diana Navarro brings a gypsy-like quality to the lament over the nasty the hairy spider.
https://youtu.be/kEpLbLyXNmI
She tells her mother that she went into the barn the day before and that’s when the shaking disease set in. She says she must have been stung by the spider that has a guitar on its belly. Mother, “I’m really ill and having sweats. Dancing is the only cure for this terrible disease.”
https://youtu.be/jpWDgaIhpTE
La tarántula é un bicho mú malo;
No se mata con piera ni palo;
Que juye y se mete por tós los rincones
Y son mú malinas sus picazones.
¡Ay mare!, no zé que tengo
Que ayé pazé por la era
Y ha principiaito a entrarme
Er má de la temblaera.
Zerá q’a mí me ha picáo
La tarántula dañina
Y estoy toitico enfermáo.
Por su sangre tan endina.
¡Te coman los mengues
Mardita la araña
Que tié en la barriga
Pintá una guitarra!
Bailando se cura tan jondo doló.
¡Ay! ¡Mal haya la araña que a mí me picó!
No le temo á los rayos ni balas
Ni le temo á otra cosa más mala
Que me hizo mi pare;
Más guapo que er gayo
Pero á ese bichito lo parta un rayo.
¡Ay mare! yo estoy malito.
Me está entrando unos suores
Que me han dejaito seco
Y comío de picores.
Zerá que á mí me ha picáo
La tarántula dañina,
Por eso me he quedao
Más dergao que una sardina.
¡Te coman los mengues,
Mardita la araña
Que tié la barriga
Pintá una guitarra!
Bailando se cura tan jondo doló.
¡Ay! ¡Mal haya la araña que a mí me picó!
Lyrics: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-tarantula-tarantula.html
Tarantula: Amwu | Dreamstime.com
Apr 25, 2023 A Revolution in Landscaping
When consulting in Germany, a beekeeper patient described a catastrophe facing bees, later referred to as colony collapse disorder. That was about twenty years ago, and I would like to share my response to the global issue of food quality and food sovereignty.
Back then, I was still recovering from mold exposure and infection and did not have a whole lot of energy, but I wanted to do my part to help the bees. Because of the mold challenge, I had studied a lot of plants and had come to revere them.
The first thing I wanted to do was grow some herbs and encourage others to do the same. All the domain names I wanted were already taken, and after days of trying, I ended up with LandscapingRevolution.com which I came to love because, for one, it ties botany to astrology. The word “revolve” refers to the motion of the planets, meaning that the changes we make bring us into harmony with the Universe. Like many, I used to think of revolutions as rebellious and potentially violent, but the stars were with me because I stumbled on the work of Masanobu Fukuoka, the author of One Straw Revolution which is a masterpiece that became the catalyst for the permaculture movement. We might also suggest that Fukuoka-sensei taught the Zen of gardening. He devised the easiest and most natural system of agriculture in recorded history: no till, no dig, no machines, no chemicals, and almost no weeding.
This suited my energy level perfectly. I was around 60 then, not decrepit, but not game for anything strenuous. My house sits on half an acre, most of which has big trees; but from a real estate perspective, the house and landscaping are totally conventional for the Pacific Northwest, not one iota of imagination. The floor plan suited my life style, but otherwise there is absolutely nothing to get excited about. There was a fairly large lawn in front of the house, totally visible from the road so this is where my revolution was to begin.
Inspired by Fukuoka-sensei, I decided not to tear up anything. Boxes arrive all week long so there is always plenty of cardboard. I removed the tape and covered the lawn with cardboard. This was kept from blowing away by a truckload of topsoil.
To nourish pollinators, a huge variety herbs and medicinal plants were cultivated, mostly from seeds but sometimes with cuttings or treasures found at the local farmer’s market. To prepare, dozens of e-mails had been sent to entomologists, botanists, beekeepers, organic farmers, and seed savers to determine what was most needed by bees and butterflies. Once flowering, it was up to me to observe the preferences, and there were many touching experiences, for instance, I watched one bee fall asleep inside a rhododendron flower.
Another looked paralyzed, and I helped him to reach easy to gather pollen from the Autumn Joy sedum. This turned out to be the greatest help because the flowers bloom late in the season and provide much needed nutrition, sometimes all the way into November.
To document everything, I took thousands of pictures, but the next step was to build some motels, first for the mice that were unwelcome visitors and then for the bees. This was a lot of fun, and felt like a joint venture with Nature.
Ultimately, I observed desperation as butterflies competed with bees and hummingbirds for the available food and medicine. The next step was therefore to bring more people on board, keep up the momentum of the revolution, but put the emphasis on service so I registered the domain name seedseva.com, and started with plants I knew were helping pollinators. People sometimes need motivation so we should understand that we will eat grains if the pollinators can’t keep up with their jobs.
To be honest, the biggest challenge has been to arouse more commitment among others. Thus, with all the threats to our food supply, I am now launching a new round of endeavor. People are worried about food shortages and food prices. My mother discussed this when I was still in my early teens. Her view was that when people are desperate, they will do whatever it takes to survive, including stealing from others. We are already seeing this on a large scale, but the goal should be to produce enough for everyone so I did a little math, not very sophisticated so don’t panic.
The U.S. supposedly has a couple billion acres of land. It’s not the biggest country in the world. It is only the fourth largest. Russia, Canada, and China are bigger. Brazil and Australia are almost comparable in size. The devil is, however, in the data. The U.S. has more turf grass acreage than all the land devoted to growing corn, wheat, and fruit. To be self-sufficient, one only needs a little space, even a few containers is enough. Absolutely no one anywhere in the world needs to starve if we change a few of our reckless habits, some of which are very water-intensive.
My projects kept growing and growing. My backyard is fenced because I do Akita rescue and need a very secure area for my adoptees. The favorite bee food turned out to be figwort, Scrophularia nodosa. I put the first bee motel near those plants. They also loved African purple basil. To leave room for the dogs to romp, I left a wide trail and put raised beds to the side. Later, I built a tiny greenhouse, 6 x 8 feet.
This is the time of year when people have spring fever and an urge to get outdoors. If neighborhoods, churches, schools, hospitals, community centers, and even parks all got on board, the homeless would have enough to eat and the pollinators would have safe places to forage. If people worked in groups, they could convert a lawn to a food forest in a weekend. It took much longer for me because I did so much myself, with just a little help once in a rare while from a professional landscaper.
Fukuoka-sensei was absolutely right that after a short time, almost no weeding is required. The soil, instead of eroding, builds up. Over the last years, I have added 6-8 inches of soil. This is obvious by observing along the base of the fence. Meanwhile, all the leaves and twigs were mulched; trimmings and kitchen waste were composted so the difference between natural farming and commercial farming is enormous. Absolutely no chemicals have been used, no “yard waste” has been trucked away, and most plants have thrived, not all. Like many others, I lost all my rosemary one winter; but, for the most part, everything is doing well. Regardless of the climate, there is a solution for everything. Over the next months, I will share some experiences with particular plants as well as strategies for arid areas and places with hard winters.
In a time of pervasive gender dysphoria, it would probably be prudent to maintain a high level of silence on such a charged topic. Would it be responsible? I never see myself as an old fogey, but then there are not many mirrors in my world!
This is such a complex subject that it is hard to know where to start. We are all both yin and yang; and, truth be told, we should aspire to a level of balance so that we can express both energies gracefully.
Yin is magnetic and yang is radiatory. In the late seventies, I published on this in international journals.
Creation is a projection and therefore causal, but nothing comes into manifestation without receptivity. Yin has the option of integrating or rejecting the influences that attract or offend her. So, yes, yin is feminine and yang is masculine, but each chakra spins in the opposite direction of the one above or below so it is entirely possible to feel yinish in one chakra and yangish in another.
The chakras are associated with endocrine glands and the trigger mechanism is normally in the aura and chakras, not the physical body.
If the subject matter is narrowed to gender, then pheromones would trigger distinct responses in specific individuals, meaning not everyone would respond in the same way to the same catalyst. Think of body language, perfumes, sounds, and we realize what turns on one person may actually be offensive to another.
We have inherent preferences and aversions based on the memories we bring into incarnation, and one very strong association is often with what we might call success or social status. In most cultures, males were more celebrated for their achievements than females. This said, many women may be very content in roles that they find satisfying, such as homemaking, looking after family members, and enjoying the love and praises of those who appreciate the safety of devotion.
Some people might never have experienced these emotions so they have sought rewards in the outer world, a world that is much more competitive and hierarchical than inclusive and bonding. This is again a dichotomy because yin is integrative and yang is more individualistic.
Sex is determined by chromosomes so whether or not one is XX or XY remains constant regardless of whatever preferences a person may have at any particular time in life. What is happening at this time in our world is that many chemicals act as hormone disruptors that very often exaggerate the influence of “fake” female hormones, xenoestrogens.
When this was first reported in fish, I flirted with the idea that the world would become a softer place if estrogen competed with testosterone for dominance. It is however not this simple.
With fish, it was found that male fish were not developing the reproductive organs necessary for sustaining the species. In this particular instance, it was fish, not the canary in the coal mine, who signaled a warning.
The first transgender person I saw clinically was born a female and was transitioning to becoming a male. In those days, extensive protocols were followed such as psychological and psychiatric counseling which at no time raised the question as to future partnering aspirations or intentions. I was dumbfounded that anyone considering gender reassignment surgery was never asked about dating or partnering preferences and the role they would play in the future.
The process involved little steps in the direction of becoming the opposite gender, like dressing as the other gender, using restroom facilities for the other gender, getting used to social responses when people see the person, such as a male rather than female. Then, synthetic hormones are introduced. In this case, they had the undesirable side effect of contributing to acne. This is because the body recognizes the hormones as foreign and tries to eliminate them, a process that one would expect to go on indefinitely because the immune system is supposed to monitor what is exogenous and, in its opinion, undesirable.
This was the ostensible reason for consulting me. The problem was that anything I could think of that might address the acne would most likely also affect the beard the client was trying to grow.
Up to this point, all the preparatory actions are reversible, meaning that if they were suspended, the person would revert to the former self, perhaps with the added insights of three years of psychotherapy.
However, once the doctors have signed off on the patient’s desire to change genders, the procedures are not reversible. Worse, the amount of surgery involved is truly extensive. All surgery involves disturbance of meridians and energy flow, and sometimes many complications and unknowns.
In theory, the adult making these decisions is determined, well-informed, and mature enough to understand the ramifications of loss of body parts and various indeterminate health risks.
However, when the procedures are undertaken before puberty, there are countless additional factors to consider, not the least of which is that the hormones of the reproductive system cap the ends of bones so that they stop elongating. At what age should these hormones be active?
As an opera fan, I had occasion to study castrati, and came to understand that to preserve the soprano voice, the procedure had, of course, to be done before puberty. The person would then be tall and have extremely long vocal cords which would dazzle audiences . . . as shown in the brilliant film Farinelli.
For those who have not studied the production of the film, it took audio specialists about four years to create the merger of a male and female voice. The soprano voice is that of E. Małas-Godlewska and this was merged with the voice of Derek Lee Ragin, a counter tenor. Unlike Stefano Dionisi who played Farinelli in the film, the historic singer was “unusually tall” and this was confirmed by exhumation in 2006.
Castration was, sadly, a very common practice so many people may actually have been through this horrifying experience in one or more past lives. Besides the effort to save the beautiful purity of a boy’s voice, eunuchs were put in charge of harems and captives were castrated as a form of humiliation. This was the case of Admiral Zheng He that I have mentioned from time to time in relationship to exploration and Chinese foreign policy. In 1381, he was captured and castrated by the Ming Armies who were fighting Mongols. He was ten at the time.
Likewise, there have been women who cross-dressed to avoid being tried for witchcraft or other zealous forms of persecution or subjugation. It is very likely that many women not only took male pseudonyms but may have lived decades in which hiding their identities preserved their lives.
My own experience as someone who has done astrological readings for thousands of people and facilitated regressions for some is that we do always incarnate with residuals of past lives. There may be positive and negative associations with each lifetime. We are also deeply impacted by our family experiences and will almost always favor one parent over the other. In times in which couples both have to work to make ends meet, some traditional roles have been redefined; and sometimes bonding is incomplete so behavior is so objectionable that one or both parents fail to meet the needs of the children.
Though it may sound cold, on some level, we chose to be born when and where we find ourselves so the mature approach would be to seek insight into what we can learn from the experiences we have had. If we complete this work, we may accept our pre-birth choices, or we may want to make changes, but from a position of self-knowledge and understanding.
In my professional opinion, no child is mature enough to make a decision about gender preferences. Playing games in which one pretends to be a cowboy or pilot or Santa Claus is one thing, but surgical transformation is a very big decision that should only be contemplated by an adult who has thoroughly explored all the medical and psychological ramifications of change. It is entirely possible that some people will function better in the opposite gender than their birth choice, but many will come to see that fads and social pressures affected them adversely when they were too young to understand what they were doing.
April 18, 2023 Pachelbel Canon in D
I remember when I first heard this charming piece. It was in Hawaii in the 1970s and I told my neighbors I was in love. They were disappointed to find out it was this piece of music. I have been looking for “the perfect” presentation for a couple of months, everything from a kalimba to a cabaret performance in France, but after listening to pianos, guitars, cellos, violins, and full orchestras, it seemed like the most authentic was the most ancient, i.e., circa 1680.
For the record, Johann Pachelbel was from Nuremberg, and was an organist and prolific composer. The Canon in D was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo, played today by a cello.
This post may be quite challenging, but I will be as delicate as possible. However, some introductory remarks will make a useful backdrop.
As you know by now, I have been walking in the same sandals for decades . . . and there were pivotal moments that contributed to where I am now. One of these was a visit to the Peace Museum in Hiroshima in the early sixties, 1962-3. Technically, I was an exchange student in Japan because the East-West Center had declined to accept my resignation. If I returned to Hawaii, my expenses in Japan would be reimbursed, but I applied to grad school in New England so the reality was I was on my own in Japan.
People in Hiroshima were incredibly eager to share their stories. I found them exceptionally friendly, open, and dedicated to showing the world the importance of avoiding nuclear war. If anyone sees the pictures of what happened, there is basically no escaping the impact on the psyche.
When the reactor in Fukushima was becoming increasingly threatening, I created the Institute for Invisible Epidemics. “Invisible” was defined as all the conditions likely to be overlooked by conventional medicine. Radiation is invisible and the testing equipment required is prohibitively expensive . . . if we are talking about the impact of exposure on the food supply or people. Obviously, the Atomic Energy Commission has the equipment, but how are we going to test the mushrooms and seaweed and dairy products with the gadgets available online?
IIE is not exclusively dedicated to radiation. In fact, I am just as concerned about Lyme disease, chemtrails, parasites, fungal infections, additives in our food and medicine, Morgellon’s disease, as well as autism and Alzheimer’s disease. The reason is that patients who have had exposure are seldom getting the relief they need so the conditions become chronic and debilitating.
One thing led to another and I became heavily concerned with what might be termed the militarization of medicine. Way back, I cannot remember exactly when, I read that 175,000 children under the age of five had arthritis. This was shocking, but statistics can hide a lot of details. There was no mention of the demographics, such as that these cases were clustered around Long Island and Connecticut.
As it turned out, Lab 257 on Plum Island was the source of Lyme disease. The distance between Lab 257 and the Old Lyme where the Plum Island ferry docked in Connecticut is 12 miles. Lab 257 was a level 3 bioweapons facility with ties to Operation Paperclip Erich Traub, a Nazi veterinarian and virologist who happened to be the former partner of the father of a friend to whom I made a deathbed promise. We either have to believe in Fate . . . or that the world is actually much smaller than we think. My friend was living in Holland and chose to be euthanized rather than to continue suffering from the double challenge of cancer and Lyme disease.
Another piece of this puzzle is that I had become acquainted with bioweapons through several more “coincidences”, one of which involved parasites. You will recall that the first time I looked through the eyepieces of a darkfield microscope, I saw parasites coming into existence. The person who owned the scope gave me a stack of books to read, and I stumbled upon a specialist at Bethesda Naval Hospital who described parasites as having a “mission aborting potential.”
The conquest of tropical regions of our Planet has been impeded by all kinds of illnesses affecting troops, basically everything from malaria to syphilis, a disease that spread rapidly in military camps and was almost always fatal in the first 70 years of the outbreak in Europe.
To-date, no one knows the origin, i.e., whether Europeans spread the disease during the Age of Discovery or whether they contracted it in the Caribbean. Why do these dots seem so unrelated? In fact, they are not. It took many years to discover the cause of Lyme disease. “Credit” went to Willy Burgdorfer who worked at a level 4 bioweapons facility in Montana . . . and who did his doctoral dissertation on borrelia spirochetes from Africa.
Now, let’s try to pull the dots a little closer together. The goal of the research on Plum Island was to create a disease that would affect livestock in the former Soviet Union. The problem, of course, is that diseases do not recognize borders so “blow back” is an international risk. This may be the explanation for what happened on Plum Island, but the Truth may be even more sinister. We do not really have the facts to prove anything one way or another. As I have gone to pains to explain, my role is do my utmost to help people who are victims. Justice is another department, and I leave that to the Lords of Karma.
Lyme disease is often misdiagnosed as syphilis. This is like adding insult to injury, but if we are seeking a cure, we have to find the cause. Both diseases are caused by spirochetes which are mobile and can pass the blood-brain barrier. The diseases begin with lesions that are visible on skin and they go deeper and deeper into the system and may cause neurological symptoms and eventually interfere with cognitive functions. Though spirochetes are classified as bacteria, they behave a lot like parasites.
The most successful cure for spirochetes involves a substance found in guaiacum, a tree that grows in the Caribbean. It is highly endangered which is why I got permission from Oxford University Press to republish some old research in a museum quality edition . . . and why when you go to make donations to IIE, you see an image of the book cover.
Now, some more dots are connected. Everything we thought we knew about guaiacum depends on whether or not we understood how to process the gummy exudate and to use it properly. Cases of 100% cure were found when patients were able to travel to the Caribbean, but the European imitations of the Caribbean treatment had a so-so efficacy.
Lyme disease is pervasive. The infection rate may be as high as 99% in some areas, especially New England, and it has been found in penguins in the Falkland Islands. Remember, it was a veterinary biological weapon at the outset, but we humans are after-all a kind of animal though allegedly one that exists higher up the evolutionary ladder.
I will digress a moment and mention that I have made arrangements with a number of people in Mexico and the Caribbean to plant trees, but this is a very long-term project since the first harvest would be no sooner than 15 years from now and perhaps more like 30 years. In scheme of things, this is still realistic because diseases do not necessarily disappear. We still have both malaria and syphilis so think it through.
Changing hats for a moment, I would like to mention that when a disease becomes epidemic, the herbs that are effective in treating the disease may become scarce, endangered, and, of course, expensive. This is true whether we are talking about cancer or something that is contagious.
Okay, now the delicate part . . .
In studying the treatments for syphilis, I investigated the historic protocols and tried to differentiate the symptoms related to the disease and the side effects of the treatments.
Having a passion for the arts, I did a lot of biographical studies, including of Gaetano Donizetti whose mad scene I posted last night. In the opera, Lucia’s madness is brought about by her brother who forced a marriage on her when she was in love with someone else, Edgardo. She murders her husband on the wedding night, and, in most productions, comes down the stairs in a blood-stained nightgown with knife in hand and mortifies the guests who are still wining and dining in celebration of the union. Of course, everyone is shocked, but they see that her mind is out of order.
As mentioned in the first video, Donizetti might already at the time of composing Lucia have had neurological complaints. He picked up the disease in France and underwent treatment for years. At a certain point, his health was so bad that he tried to compose as much as possible before his sand ran out. I have not found a complete account of the treatments, but ointments with mercury were common in the mid-19th century so it is hard to distinguish between the deterioration attributable to the spirochetes and the symptoms related to the toxic chemicals like arsenic and mercury, which, for the record, are still mentioned as treatments in the medical texts used in universities today.
The problem with Lyme disease is that co-infections make the treatment very much more complicated.
I realize I have been all over the map and some people may think that many of the dots are irrelevant, but I am often dominated by curiosity . . . and the dots are actually connected. In fact, I made a rather extensive study of the effects of neurological decline on how creativity is expressed. This, of course, led to linking a few more dots that will help to keep the mind in order when toxic metals and creepy critters cross the blood-brain barrier.
Often, there is some “stuck” place where people are fixated on a particular sound, often one that is very high pitched, like the eerie sounds of the glass harmonica which were brilliantly portrayed in the video I posted.
Taking care of the mind is very important. To-date, I have posted on removing toxic metals, decalcifying the pineal gland, and now I want to cover some herbs that protect memory and cognitive function. One of my best formulations is Brahmi Elixir. It contains both Brahmis, bacopa and gotu kola, as well as boswellia that is very specific for tumors. It does contain Tamarind as well as three very important Rasayana herbs that are antioxidants: Amla, Ashwagandha,and Guduchi. Anyone who feels vulnerable to cognitive decline should consider this formula.
My apologies for the hiatus. I promised to devote the 100th post on Substack to the history of reincarnation in Western civilization. This is a subject very dear to me since the doctrine was part of esoteric Judaism and early Christianity. The Fifth Ecumenical Council was held in Constantinople during the reign of Emperor Justinian. The Pope declined to attend, but over 150 bishops participated, none, however, from Italy. This is a big story; and I want to tell it very carefully, but I have had a number of different computer issues for almost a month. All my Substack files are on a separate drive that is not displaying anything at the moment. I hope to resolve this shortly.
Rest assured that everything will regain its normal rhythm soon. In the meantime, I wish everyone a peaceful transition into the new world that is coming into manifestation as we speak.
This is a casual note as we wrap up the first three months on Substack. The plan is to post two more essays on oral health to complete that part of health management for 2023. These goals were actually explained in the posts in early January, but they have not had many readers. There were to be three months devoted to each of four general areas: Detoxification, Immunity, Regeneration, and Removal of Obstacles to Spiritual Awareness. This latter covers such tricky topics as cutting through disinformation and developing confidence in one’s own powers of observation. It should end with understanding and trusting inspiration and guidance. These are ambitious goals so I have sprinkled in some music and lighter topics here and there.
It took a while to make the decision to go with Substack, and there are still only a handful of subscribers compared to the list that evolved over a period of around 25 years. The problem was censorship, and we ought to look at this subject very carefully because what passes for information is often biased or out and out disinformation. The world is in a very precarious situation, and there really are only narrow margins for error lest disaster becomes the norm rather than the exception.
Whether we are talking about financial shenanigans, contamination of our food supply and food shortages, health, crime, or war, our leadership has been failing us and cannot be trusted to exercise foresight and the type of responsibility needed so as to guarantee a secure future. People are very polarized which means that divide and conquer are serving the interests of enclaves of individuals who seek to control rather than to build for posterity.
My goal is to avoid contributing to divisiveness, and the best way I know to achieve this is to encourage people to trust their own perceptions. There is probably no better way to accomplish this than to spend quiet time in Nature. Watch how plants grow, how bees pollinate, how rain nourishes, how birds nest. Watch the sun rise and set, how the clouds move, how the night sky reminds us of the vastness of the Universe . . . and minimize exposure to strident talking heads who are paid to propagate what their puppet masters dictate.
There is instability in every corner now so there are opportunities for change as well as risks to navigate. We can only make a difference if we start with ourselves, but every action has a ripple effect, and we do not know exactly how this works. Sticking to my own niche, the post on Dental Restorations had a 50% open rate but 2.5 times more readers than subscribers so the people who read the post generated ripples five times greater than a single click would make. This gives poignancy to the word “share”.
Now, if we take every issue of consequence and each person generates ripples, we will eventually have the world we want: one that is first of all safe, secondly healthy, and then rich with opportunity to develop lives of meaning. We are sometimes derailed by challenges that are not of our own making. People are losing valuable time and energy dealing with health challenges that never should have occurred, like autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Lyme disease, various forms of respiratory illnesses, and low vitality in general. Many of these problems are rooted in environmental degradation and/or failures in the health care system. If we dig deeper, we may find that collusion between corporations and the regulatory agencies has resulted in a crisis, but as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in his talk at Hillsdale College, there are solutions, and he has been on the frontline of the environmental issues for forty years.
When I was twelve, I heard a voice explain to me the choice between justice and compassion. Having Pisces rising, I chose compassion. What was interesting was that in my thirties, my mother asked me what happened. I asked her to be more specific. She said, “You didn’t have any green in your aura when you were born, but green appeared at age 12.” We were on a ship, returning to the U.S. from Sweden, and we both remembered exactly when this happened, but we hadn’t ever talked about it.
The choice is whether to go after the perpetrators or help the victims. There is no right or wrong, perhaps merely a calling. I am very committed to sharing and can promise to concentrate on the cure by maintaining as high a level of harmony and balance as possible.
Music teaches us a lot about emotions, memories, dissonance and consonance, and rhythm because to manifest, we must be able to take an idea and bring it into reality. The idea may come in a flash and take one or more lifetimes to complete, but the manifestation involves timing which we learn when listening deeply to music.
Though I am myself an opera buff, I have not posted too much of an operatic nature. For me, opera is like taking all the proverbial muses and building one work out of a story, sets, costumes, and sound. I have been flirting with a post on Verdi tuning, A=432 Hz. Verdi is my favorite composer, perhaps because he truly understood the voice as well as the need for the music to convey the drama. I would go so far as to say that if there had not been a Verdi, there never would have been challenges to social prejudices nor the evolution of various forms of psychology. So, I weave my threads in and out of understanding of food and herbs, healing, astrology, and music.
The reason I see it this way is that we are building the Divine Idea on Earth, but this begins with the Idea and a flash of inspiration in which fragments of the Idea spark a response in an individual. That individual develops the Idea, brings it into manifestation, and gradually the ripples occur.
Verdi also lived in a time of censorship. For example, in Rigoletto, the censors insisted that a king cannot be depraved. The libretto was based on a play by Victor Hugo, Le roi s'amuse. So, the licentious king became a duke in the opera. In La Traviata, he managed, against the pressure of critics, to make a courtesan the heroine. Think about it. Soldiers could be heroes, return from battle victorious, like in Aida, but a courtesan could not be a heroine, unless Verdi insisted . . . which he did.
This is how creativity works. We awaken to Divine Impression and then unfold our gifts and refashion the world to make it more like heaven!
Apr 10, 2023 Horoscope Patterns
Even though I am a medical astrologer, I do occasionally get roped into doing the usual bread and butter types of consultations on compatibility . . . so I felt to devote one tiny essay to this topic.
Most of us are not perfect . . . yet. So, we are incarnating with a mixture of, shall we say, assets and liabilities. We have mastered a few gifts from the Creator and were perhaps born with talents that were quick to manifest. Then, we have some lessons to learn; and we may not even realize what is a lesson and what is an experience of some description or other.
Let me preface this with a little story. My father was in aerospace, very nerdy; but after my mother left him, he did some Jungian analysis and later took up astrology. I was pushing 30 when he handed me a piece of paper. I said, “What’ this?” He said, “I’m going to marry her.” I blurted out, “Another Piscean named Ruth!” He replied, “Yes, it’s easier to make a mistake you are used to than a brand new one.” The really funny thing is my mother also remarried, and her new husband had also previously been married to someone named Ruth.
The partner in the horoscope is denoted by the seventh house which my teacher, Ivy Jacobson, said was where you agree to disagree. Some people are real challenges whereas others might be so easy that partnering is not really an issue for either person. Alas, this is often not the case so we need some insight and humor to navigate the landmines.
Besides what every astrologer knows about compatibility, I have two little tricks. The first is to take a pattern and try to give it a name that is both fitting and a little warm and fuzzy. It goes without saying that some patterns are more vexing than other patterns, but I will try to keep this civil.
There are people who adapt very easily. Let’s say the issue is what to eat for dinner or what to watch on television.
“What would you like for dinner?”
“Oh, anything you want is fine with me.”
This is rarely, however, straight fact.
“Actually, I am tired of cooking and want to go out to dinner, maybe to a Thai restaurant with wonderful atmosphere. Come to think of it, some music would be nice. How about a pizza place with an phenomenal guitarist? Truth be told, I’m salivating.”
“Actually, honey, I was thinking of something quick and simple so we can watch the baseball game tonight.”
What happens? If they end up with finger food and a humungous bowl of popcorn, there is probably a highly versatile and flexible geisha in the room, someone who can perhaps play an instrument and dance or talk golf until the sun sets.
If they end up at the pizza place, there is a very accommodating gigolo who will help put on a coat, do the driving, pull her chair out for her, and ask her what looks most appealing on the menu.
An astrologer who gets in the middle of this dynamic is surely not going to want to hear what is said behind the back, but the fact is that at least one person is probably not being authentic. Sometimes, neither person will compromise, and sometimes, both will bend over backwards to please. Unless tangled up with a narcissist, we generally expect some give and take; but the fact is that some people are always yielding and others take advantage of their acquiescence.
So, the game is to identify the pattern and give it a name, like the Geisha-Gigolo Complex. Now, we know that the goal is to express one’s interests and desires more openly and clearly so there can be more balance in the interactions. Both people in the relationship need to accept the goal and then to find ways to encourage more give and take. Giving a nickname to the game and the pattern helps a lot.
Over the years, students and clients have sometimes been fierce and used very strong words to define the more forceful person in the relationship, you can imagine a tyrant being forced to see his or her reflection. I encourage humor.
In the past, which may be long gone, there was a fabulous greeting card shop in Santa Fe, and I started by sending my students there. They were to select three cards that represented different parts of themselves: Moon, Sun, and Rising Sign. If they wanted more than three cards such as the Moon at its saddest and Moon at its happiest, that was fine. They were to keep these cards forever and share them with the people closest to them when the time was just right, meaning when the important other is really paying attention and listening.
The Internet ought to provide a few alternatives to the brick and mortar card shop.
The next step was to take a nickname that represented the issues that were unresolved. If there were issues in the relationship, both people were to have nicknames that could be spoken when tensions were building up. These are not always as simple as the Geisha-Gigolo Complex. One person may be a real nightmare, and some people really know how to fight; but unless the underlying issues are resolved, there is just a lot of unpleasant noise, and, with any luck, an eventual apology. Of course, some people are absolutely always right, and this is going to take a lot of effort to balance.
The point is to take one very deep breath before unleashing the demons and then try to resolve the issues before hitting critical mass. So, this is when you softly speak the nickname. That is a signal for time out and peace to handle the issue with more maturity and respect.
The nickname sometimes comes very easily and sometimes takes a lot of effort. One can begin by thinking of characters in novels or films, people in history, or one can think of adjectives such as those associated with hobbies or special interests. Maybe you want to look at Putin and think to yourself, “Perhaps, his idol in life should be Gandhi, not Napoleon.” Should the nickname be Gandhi? Should the warning refer to Napoleon? Maybe neither, but how will history remember him? If I suggest something like this; I am not really taking sides, but I do not believe anyone should shoot another living being so the real issue is skillful means, not the place in history.
One might want to invoke the deeply buried love of peace by just having one word that we associate with Gandhi like "Ahimsa” or maybe the reference is to the Salt March or just a simple “Namaskar” greeting.
This takes us a bit off topic because I started with archetypes of people who go out of their way to please rather than to seize. We can however find the right names. For instance, I had friend who visited very often and took over my kitchen so I called her Pasta Mama. It was always said with warmth and humor, but clearly meant that in addition to whatever she was making, she was hogging the counter space. She was, fortunately, a good cook so it was fine, but this was also a habit brought from her house to my house where there were no children to feed.
In the comments section, you can share your ideas of nicknames you found that helped you to navigate issues and perhaps empower people who were abdicating their sovereignty in an effort to get along with others.
Apr 6, 2023 Mercury Contamination in Fish
This post is something for your reference only. There is a not a single word that is original with me, but I saved this Wikipedia page when addressing toxic metals in relationship to dental materials and had meant to share it when the time was right.
Mercury Levels in Commercial Fish and Shellfish ¹
Mean (ppm)
1.123 Tilefish (Gulf of Mexico)
0.995 Swordfish
0.979 Shark
0.730 Mackerel (king)
0.689 Tuna (bigeye)
0.571 Orange roughy (perch)
0.485 Marlin
0.454 Mackerel (Spanish)
0.448 Grouper
0.386 Tuna
0.368 Bluefish
0.361 Sablefish
0.358 Tuna (albacore)
0.354 Tuna (yellowfin)
0.354 Patagonian toothfish
0.350 Tuna (albacore)
0.287 Croaker white
0.241 Halibut
0.235 Weakfish
0.233 Scorpionfish
0.182 Mackerel (Spanish)
0.178 Mahi-mahi
0.167 Bass
0.166 Snapper
0.161 Monkfish
0.150 Perch
0.144 Tuna (skipjack)
0.144 Tilefish (Atlantic)
0.137 Skate
0.137 Buffalofish
0.126 Tuna
0.121 Perch (ocean)
0.111 Cod
0.110 Carp
0.107 Lobster (American)
0.095 Pickerel (American)
0.093 Lobster (spiny)
0.090 Sheephead (California)
0.089 Whitefish
0.088 Mackerel (chub)
0.081 Jacksmelt
0.079 Hake
0.078 Herring
0.071 Trout
0.065 Croaker (Atlantic)
0.065 Crab
0.058 Butterfish
0.056 Flatfish
0.055 Haddock
0.051 Whiting
0.050 Mackerel (Atlantic)
0.050 Mullet
0.038 Shad (American)
0.032 Crayfish
0.031 Pollock
0.024 Squid
0.024 Catfish
0.022 Salmon
0.016 Anchovies
0.014 Salmon
0.013 Sardine
0.013 Tilapia
0.012 Oyster
0.009 Clam
0.009 Shrimp
0.003 Scallop
Medical Cases and Exposure to Mercury
In the United States, the EPA provides advice about the levels of mercury that are non-fatal in humans. Symptoms of exposure to high levels of methyl mercury include disturbed vision, hearing, and speech, lack of coordination, and muscle weakness. Medical studies have examined the correlation of fish consumption and health issues. American studies have presented evidence of fish consumption and its effects on child development. Longitudinal studies agree that human activities release mercury that accumulates in marine life. Addressing the issues of fish consumption forces health officials to recognize the sources of mercury in the human body. Specific Native American tribes are vulnerable to a high exposure of mercury. Studies have determined that these native peoples in the United States suffer more from mercury poisoning and illness than any other cohort group in the country. This is due to the fact that fish is a main source of protein. Exposure risk was assessed through a medical study, thus raising judicial issues of whether the public health of these groups is a priority in the United States.¹
Minamata Disease
In the 1950s, inhabitants of the seaside town of Minamata, on Kyushu island in Japan, noticed strange behavior in animals. Cats would exhibit nervous tremors, dance, and scream. Within a few years, this was observed in other animals; birds would drop out of the sky. Symptoms were also observed in fish, an important component of the diet, especially for the poor. When human symptoms started to be noticed around 1956 an investigation began. Fishing was officially banned in 1957. It was found that the Chisso Corporation, a petrochemical company and maker of plastics such as vinyl chloride, had been discharging heavy metal waste into the sea for decades. They used mercury compounds as catalysts in their syntheses. It is believed that about 5,000 people were killed and perhaps 50,000 were to some extent poisoned by mercury. Mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan, is now known as Minamata disease. ¹
This video has some interesting background on Robert F. Kennedy’s environmental efforts over the last 40 years. He directly references fish. The video is 15 minutes.
¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_in_fish
Apr 8, 2023 The Other Side of the Veil
This is a scene from the afterlife where Giselle has gone after dying of heartbreak.
As a special thank you to supporting members, I am inviting you to download this pdf on Mold Remediation. (For Paid Subscribers)
Apr 6, 2023 Fungi in the Blood
This is the third post on Rasa Dhatu. If you haven’t read the previous two posts, you might want to start at the beginning.
“Dhatu” means something like “that which sustains” and Ayurveda regards the seven dhatus as the building blocks that support the structure and function of the body. Rasa refers to liquids, and rasa dhatu contains the nutrients needed to nourish the body.
In modern medicine, there is an immense focus on illness and the destruction of disease, but Ayurveda places more emphasis on health than on disease. Think about it. We are fighting disease, waging war on it, and often causing collateral damage in the process. Ayurveda puts the emphasis where it belongs: on staying healthy and supporting what we might even call the invincibility of a healthy person.
The process of regeneration involves providing the food and natural medicine needed by the body. The body is organic and can only be nourished by what is organic. The red blood cells are part of the delivery system. They do much more than transport oxygen. They deliver nourishment to every tissue of the body, collect carbon dioxide and waste, and expel these substances. Then, they refill with more oxygen and nutrients and make another delivery round.
If the plasma is full of toxins or pathogens, red blood cells will not be able to perform their work, and the body will begin to degenerate.
In the previous two posts, toxic metals, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, as well as parasites were covered. Yeast and mold are next on the list.
Yeast and mold can both be ingested, but they can occur as secondary developments also. For example, when parasites die, they are normally devoured by bacteria. Most bacteria is friendly and helpful so we should not be so aggressive in destroying it. When people are taking antibiotics or destroying bacteria in other ways, parasite corpses start to ferment and bubble and putrefy the plasma. Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words:
You can see that the red blood cells nearest to the dead parasite are not healthy because the putrefaction is nauseating. It will take much longer for the parasite to be broken down this way as opposed to via bacteria.
Yeast infections can become systemic and can have a severe impact on health so understanding what is happening in the bloodstream can be a strong motivator to commit to a healthier life style. This often begins with a very sharp reduction in the intake of sugar and converting to a gluten-free diet.
Mold is a little different, and I earned my expertise the hard way. It is safe to say that the source of the infection was inhalation, not ingestion; but I was so ill that I began to slur and could not remember the name of my best friend. There were many additional symptoms such as unbelievable fatigue, water retention, disorientation, and itchy red patches on my skin. It took a long time to recover completely, but here I am more than 20 years later and can share the cure with others.
Fungi have sometimes been regarded as plants, but they had the distinction of becoming the fifth kingdom of nature. Unlike plants, they do not produce chlorophyll and unlike animals, they do not have either mobility or stomachs. They relocate with the help of wind or intervention of some type. They protrude hyphae to harvest the nutrients needed for their survival. These are a bit like straws. They plunge the hyphae into their food source which may be cheese or fruit or perhaps some tissue in the body. There are acids inside the hyphae, and mycotoxins may be sprayed on vast numbers of blood cells, all of which become a banquet for the fungi. Under a microscope, this is both eerie and fascinating, but those who suffer from such infections are in desperate need of help.
Now, we know that it is important to remediate mold in homes, schools, office buildings, concert halls, and every place where people and animals visit or live. This can be very expensive, but it is life or death for many.
Monitoring the success of the treatment is a process that often spans months or even years. Microscopists are not generally trained to find such dangers so even if they have a sample, they may or may not zero in on what is critically important.
People can commence a protocol, but they usually need some guidance, periodic evaluation of progress, and tweaking along the way. My products can be found on Mold Herbs.
Some people are allergic to mold so they must be many times more cautious than the three-quarters of humanity who are not allergic. The fact that someone is not allergic does not translate into meaning that there is no risk. Mold that is vegetative is living on organic materials and will colonize tissue and sometimes be mistaken for a tumor. In short, it will devour what it needs for its own survival.
My purpose is not to scare anyone, but I assume that no one reading this still believes that the blood is sterile. I also hope that everyone reading this realizes that health depends on the details of one’s life style. You have control over this. You can choose what food to eat, what herbs to take, what risks you are willing to manage, and how much effort to make to recover health.
My next post will have some practical suggestions for perfecting rasa dhatu. If you found this post useful, please share it.
Apr 6, 2023 Sentimental Waltz, Op. 51 No. 6
Something to help one go within and explore what is important!
If you are just joining the conversation, please read the previous post on The Concept of the Dhatus. It may also help to review the essays on oral health that cover toxic metals, fluoride, and hormone disruptors. The evidence of these foreign substances is found both in tissues and plasma. What was added to the list in the first post on Dhatus is a host of other issues such as hydration, various pharmaceutical and chemical toxins, fungi, and parasites. In short, detoxification is not just important to health but also to regeneration since all the nutrients needed to keep ourselves in optimal condition are assimilated from whatever we take into our bodies, largely through ingestion and more coincidentally via inhalation and contact with the skin, including the water in which we swim or bathe as well as cosmetics, insect repellents, and substances that are absorbed through the skin. After posting the last essay, I read some nonsense about the reason juice fasting is a hoax is that the body takes care of detoxification on its own without support from herbal supplements or carefully prepared organic foods and juices. The source for this contention was Mayo Clinic, but I wonder if they can explain why people are on waiting lists for organ transplants? Why aren’t people who are sick more proactive? Anyone who is getting worse rather than better should take the time to assess what might be done differently so as to enjoy a happier outcome.
I saw my first blood parasite when looking through a microscope back in the 1990s. It was fascinating, and I managed to video tape what I saw. Since then, I have read dozens of books and taken at least a thousand still images of parasites. This is a complicated subject, and even pathologists often get confused when I ask questions. If one wants clear medical explanations, it is best to consult a specialist in tropical medicine.
Finding a parasite is proof of infection. Failure to find the parasites may be due to poor lab skills or absence of evidence in one particular sample; but such infections are common and may be intraerythrocytic, as with malaria and babesia, or in the plasma. These parasites are microscopic and pervasive and obviously circulate wherever the lymph and blood circulate.
Parasites are like miniature snakes and they come in as many varieties as snakes, meaning some are relatively harmless but for the fact that they forage, mostly on red blood cells. Some are very discerning and only eat crenated red blood cells, and some are gluttons that gulp down 25-30 blood cells at a time. Try not to be shocked because contrary to what I read in medical textbooks, treatment is really simple.
Anyway, we have to finish this section. Except for the parasites that just devour what is close, there are some with distinct hunting patterns, very similar to snakes, meaning some are more like pythons, some like boa constrictors, and some like cobras. Only a few that I have seen are highly toxic. In my opinion, some have the capacity to influence human behavior. They create cravings for certain foods and sometimes have effects on the personality.
For the record, some of the textbooks I read contained statements that these parasites are generally commensal and harmless, maybe even beneficial. I beg to differ. They may dine at the same smörgåsbord as red blood cells, but they are not well-behaved guests. At minimum, they are pirates. Since the standard protocols generally rely on toxic metals, the textbooks often state that the cure is worse than the infection. Wrong!
The cure is actually very simple, but there are some risk factors to consider. The first is that parasites lay tens of thousands of eggs so one round of treatment usually only wipes out the adult parasites. The second issue is reinfection. This depends a lot on the life style. In the tropics, people are often bitten many times every day, and they are continually reinfected. Then, there are those who are in contact with animals that are infected . . . and, next, are the sushi eaters. This is not to suggest that all sushi poses risks, but it is kind of like roulette, and no one can be sure if only the blanks are served as meals.
My book on botanical cancer treatments was translated into German (also Bulgarian and Spanish). So, I was invited to consult in clinics in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. A few nuances can be shared.
Der Spiegel ran a series of articles on the dangers of amalgam fillings. The German government paid for removal of the amalgams but not chelation. I found more parasites among German patients because mercury was not inhibiting parasites. In Switzerland, I found extremely high levels of metal toxicity and far fewer parasites. However, the patients came from all over the world, and many had traveled in the tropics and picked up exotic diseases.
There are a couple of caveats that might contribute to the coherence of some of my statements. Several microscopists have published pictures of parasites, and they have attributed the infections to the jab. Dr. Ryan Cole¹ has more or less dismissed this claim, and I agree with him. More to the point, these parasites have been around for eons. This said, many of the alternative treatments for the current virus are well-known anti-parasitic remedies so this is something to keep in mind.
Anyone who is even loosely interested in medical anthropology or ethnobotany knows that every indigenous system of medicine has countless cures for parasitic infections. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the diversity of plant life means that there are often hundreds of anti-parasitic herbs, often right in one’s own garden.
For some months, I have been considering a post on artemisias. There are at least 200, maybe 400, species of this genus, and all probably have some anti-parasitic properties. The most famous in Europe is no doubt A. absinthium. It is in many historic formulas, wines, aperitifs, and the famous green fairy, Absinthe, a liqueur that was very popular in certain circles such as that of van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec, and Picasso. It was eventually banned but is now once again available in both Europe and the United States.
Wormwood was used by Nostradamus and was made very popular in recent times by Hulda Clark. It is a quite strong herb, but has a cousin that is softer and very popular as a treatment for malaria. It is A. annua, or Sweet Annie. It has been found very useful in certain kinds of cancer treatment also.
For cooks, the most familiar artemisia is tarragon, A. dracunculus. It is used extensively in the cuisine in many cultures and is the secret of success with Béarnaise sauce. If you are a little lazy, chop it up and add it to fettucine Alfredo or cream cheese. If you are vegan, make a nice cashew butter with some coconut milk and add tarragon, a little salt, cayenne pepper, and whatever else you fancy. Smear this on corn, pour over asparagus, or use as a dip for artichokes. You can also add tarragon to pesto, smoothies, and juices.
Lucid dreamers as well as women with hormonal issues are probably familiar with mugwort, A. vulgaris.
The last two artemisias I want to mention today are davana, A. pallens, and Owyhee, A. ludoviciana, both usually used as essential oils for purification. Davana is often misted as a fumigant, more or less as frankincense is used in churches. It reduces airborne risks to health. The leaves are also fed to livestock as they are anthelmintic in action. In the west, davana is often used in perfumes and skin care products. The aroma is sort of fruity. Owyhee is from Oregon and is used in place of Roman chamomile in some perfumes. Like mugwort, it is often found in women’s health care products, but is also used on rashes and wounds.
Well, in a few paragraphs, I managed to cover six artemisias, but the real goal today is to explain how anti-parasitic herbs work because it is probably not what you think.
For many years, I collaborated with researchers in South Africa and then with various charities working with malaria in the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Most were using Artemisia annua that was grown locally though production in Madagascar has become an important export, sometimes to laboratories that are extracting artemisinin. Almost all patients turned the corner in six days, but recurrences were unfortunately common. An Austrian I knew had 42 bouts of malaria and was hospitalized numerous times in Kenya.
What I saw in darkfield microscopy is that all the blood parasites are dead within 36 hours after treatment is commenced. Patients usually experience a reduction of symptoms and relief very quickly, but they often feel yucky on days three to five when the body is trying to clean up the plasma. Sorry if this is too graphic, but the dead parasites are either eaten by bacteria or they decompose through fermentation. Which happens depends on the immune system, and sorry if I sound like a broken record, but also on whether there are toxic metals interfering with immune system. By day six, surely by day seven, people start feeling more normal.
So, I created three formulas. The first is called Arjuna’s Arrows because I had a hard time dealing with the murder of parasites. I went so far as to have a session with a highly gifted animal communicator who could talk to the parasites and explain that they had a choice. They could leave voluntarily or be killed. I have to say, the parasites were very brave but not particularly cooperative.
You all know now that I majored in Asian Studies and worked for the State Department in India. In the Mahabharata War, Arjuna struggles with his conscience but is told by Krishna to defeat evil. So, this explains the strange name; but, in Germany, the doctor called this formula Para 1. It takes about half an ounce to accomplish the mission, and this is best consumed within the first 36 hours.
Para 2 was named Dragon Dreams because many patients had strange dreams after starting the cleanse. Interestingly, tarragon’s botanical name refers to little dragons: dracunculus. I was not aware of this when naming the formula, but I was obviously tuned in on some channel. Dragon Dreams is used to support the clean up so it starts after Arjuna’s Arrows and stops on day seven.
Para 3 is called Phoenix Rising because everyone feels better and hopefully all the parasites are enjoying a safe and happy afterlife. It stabilizes the patient, supports the immune system, and is taken for a week.
Most people start right before the full moon. From the new moon to next full moon, no anti-parasitic herbs are taken, but it is fine to use a little mugwort or tarragon in culinary form.
It is important to repeat this cycle so the three bottles cover two months or two cycles. This will be enough for some people but not for everyone. It will work with some intestinal parasites as well. This would, however, be a slight change of subject from rasa dhatu to parasites. For now, the goal is to perfect the condition of the plasma so that further progress can be made.
I formulated a very tasty lymphatic tea that really supports maintaining correct pH and cleaning the lymphatic channels and nodes. It is based on cleavers and all of these products are found on my websites, especially Bioethika International.
This is my one and only video on youtube.com.
Apr 2, 2023 Elias Parish Alvars
In a way, this piece requires no introduction, but since subscribers are writing to me privately, I will say a little more because it does relate to music therapy as well as the soul and its journey through many incarnations.
In the mid-sixties, I was engaged to someone who played the cello. We had a little routine. When we were able to see each other after an absence, we played the Boieldieu Harp Concerto, and when we parted, we played his choice, obviously a cello concerto.
Time went by, destiny showed its might, and then one day, I remembered a past life in which I heard a harp. Years passed, lots of years, and then Gail Barber came into my life, very long and wonderful story, but she departed this plane some years ago. I still run a little website for her. We spent many years developing a system of music therapy, and I learned a lot more about the harp. Gail said that Parish Alvars was the Chopin of the harp. This remarkable performance by Veronika Grabovskaya certainly makes this clear. Prof. Grabovskaya is harpist with the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus.
Obviously, after the Casta Diva, this is a sort of encore, but now on my favorite instrument by a very talented harpist.
@ 0:00 Intro
@ 2:03 In mia man alfin tu sei
@ 3:15 I Variation
@ 4:08 II Variation
@ 5:38 III Variation
@ 6:30 IV Variation
@ 8:14 Cadenza
@ 8:35 Sì, fino all'ore estreme
@ 9:12 Finale
Apr 1, 2023 Concept of the Dhatus
Several people have requested that I share a little background so as to create more of a framework for understanding of the steps along my path. My parents divorced, and my mother moved to Hawaii on her 45th birthday, which happened also to be the day the governor of Hawaii received a call from Washington, D.C., notifying him that Hawaii would become the 50th state. She was at the palace when the news was announced and was immediately approached by the governor who asked her to help him with the meals and entertainment for guests from the mainland. It was an interesting development, but I was certain the move to Hawaii was going to mess up the plans I had for my life.
I was wrong, and in June transferred to the University of Hawaii and almost immediately enrolled in courses associated with the third East-West Philosopher’s Conference. As fate would have it, I was seated between D. T. Suzuki and Wing-tsit Chan at the banquet at the end of the conference. Painfully shy that I was, I thought about questions to ask these eminent scholars. Suzuki-sensei was still like a mountain on my left and Prof. Chan was a chatterbox on my right. If we think in terms of energetics, it would be fair to say my fire was trapped between earth and air. Despite being adept with chopsticks, I ate very slowly because I was contemplating something important enough to ask these great pundits. I have long since forgotten the question, but I will never forget Suzuki-sensei’s answer. It was simple, like page one of a Zen text, but I was only 16 and had not yet seen those texts though I read a little bit of Alan Watts in high school. Suzuki-sensei said, “When you eat, eat.” According to the manners drilled into me by my mother, the ball was now in his court.
The campus was quite small and soon after this banquet, Suzuki-sensei and I found ourselves walking towards each other. A greeting was in order, but he looked at me. I was, of course, about ready to make the same mistake; but he said, “When you walk, walk.” Then, he motioned to me to sit on a bench next to him, and he said, “When you talk, talk.”
I was so young and so shy that my tongue was tied, but I understood that my mind was restless, not as restless as that of my professor of Chinese philosophy; but it was definitely not quiet, and truth be told, it was not peaceful either. I changed my major to Asian Studies and ended up studying Zen for ten years. My goal was to conquer my mind, keep it focused, calm, observant, but not restless. As time went on, questions arose. Zen has practices, not answers to questions, so I began studying Tibetan Buddhism after being posted in India during the late sixties.
On my first day in New Delhi, the father of a friend of a friend, asked if I would like to accompany him to visit Prof. Dr. Lokesh Chandra, a great scholar and mentor. When finished with my duties at the State Department, I would drop by his institute. He shared so much with me. I will always be grateful.
One day, he asked me if I would drive his wife to see a doctor. Of course, I obliged and that was the beginning of a very long and complicated journey into the world of natural healing.
There was a little bookstore in the lobby of the embassy, and I probably bought more than a thousand books, but the ones on Ayurveda were truly a nightmare of incoherent English and Sanskrit word salads. The pieces did not start fitting together until meeting my primary Ayurvedic teacher, the late Dr. Shrikrishna Kashyap.
Towards the end of her life, my mother met Dr. Shyam and said she had finally met a perfect man. I would perhaps have worded this a bit differently, “the most perfect man I have ever met” but he was not quite a god yet. He had been a yogi in the Himalayas (Rishikesh mostly) and always seemed a little bewildered in the West, but he was a truly gifted healer, great teacher, and wonderful person.
All traditional systems of healing involve astrology to some extent. Ayurveda is no exception, and the easiest bridge for a medical astrologer is the part dealing with the elements and their influences on the senses, chakras, and pharmacology of food and herbs.
This is not, however, where I want to start my posts on Ayurveda. I want to take up the subject of regeneration because it is hugely relevant to the issues we are today facing worldwide. For this, I would be remiss if I failed to mention Dr. Vasant Lad because his writings on this part of the Ayurvedic curriculum are very clear and deep. He has devoted a lifetime to making Ayurveda accessible to Westerners, and I will try to do justice to my teachers when introducing the concepts to lay persons, intelligent subscribers who are not formally enrolled in schools offering courses in Ayurveda.
If this introduction is too long, I apologize, but I felt it necessary to give this background because while I have been studying Ayurveda since 1968, what I know today is based on the kindness and erudition of people much more qualified than I am. That said, it is obvious I am no longer a beginner.
Plasma
When I was in school, we were told that blood is sterile. This is an absolutely ridiculous idea that will not at all hold up to scrutiny.
One of my students died of a blood transfusion given at a first class university hospital when undergoing a five-hour operation due to an injury. Many people have suffered from transfusions of infected blood and residues of medications and vaccines in the blood.
How absurd is the idea of sterility when the disease that has claimed the most lives in human history is malaria. This involves an Anopheles mosquito bite and infection with Plasmodium falciparum which has many stages of development, including as merozoites that feed on hemoglobin inside red blood cells.
Now that we know that blood is not really sterile, we might ask what blood actually is. The bulk of the fluid we refer to as blood consists of plasma. Red and white blood cells as well as thrombocytes and some nutrients float in the plasma. These components are normal. It is not for me to define sterility; but, in theory, these constituents are not harmful . . . that is, unless infected.
Plasma consists mainly of water, but there are proteins, ions, and nutrients from food and medicine. There are also some waste products. This substance can be compared to the water in which fish live. The water must have a specific pH, contain the substances necessary for life, and be free of threats to survival. Though the definition of the first dhatu is a little broader than plasma, it basically refers to the fluids in the body that circulate. The Ayurvedic term is rasa which has many meanings, including something we might call juice or liquid.
In my experiments using darkfield microscopy, it is clear that certain nutrients are assimilated very quickly and can be seen in the plasma within minutes. This is very easy to understand if we consider reactions to injections, allergens, and/or alcohol. Exactly how long does it take for someone to become tipsy and perhaps to begin slurring or acting silly. For the most part, it is the amount consumed that determines the chemical changes that reduce inhibitions and initiate behavioral changes, but this happens quickly, not over a span of days or weeks. The point is that what we ingest finds its way into the plasma very quickly.
There are many videos online purporting to show reactions to vaccines. Many are simply showing what is called rouleaux which might be due to technique or dehydration. To give a deeper perspective, the patient should drink some water or juice and be retested after 15-20 minutes. If there is much less rouleaux or none at all in the second test, the issue is probably related to fluid intake rather than the jab or some other influence. In short, rouleaux is very common and not necessarily related to vaccines.
This is a photomicrograph taken using a darkfield microscope. The plasma is the dark area. It is actually amber in color as seen in the image further up this page. The red blood cells that are stacked like this refer to a condition called rouleaux. The white blood cells are whitish and not in very good condition.
There is much more rubbish in the plasma than most people realize. Continuing with malaria as an example, the parasites cause a rupture of the red blood cells and then enter the plasma. There are countless other parasites that are also often found in the plasma. I must have more than a thousand photomicrographs of these parasites. In addition, there are microscopic bits of toxic metals, bacteria, and various kinds of fungi. We do not necessarily see the chemicals, but we can see damage to both red and white blood cells and deduce that the plasma contains harmful substances.
Fortunately, plasma is very easy to address through juicing, dietary changes, and detoxification. Compare this to changing the water in an aquarium after it has become inhospitable to fish.
Juice is particularly wonderful because fruits and vegetables contain exactly the right amount of water in relationship to their nutritional and indigestible components, like fiber. After seeing countless patients in clinics in many countries, I am 100% convinced of the benefits of fasting. Moreover, the benefits are easy to assess using microscopy.
What is crucial to understanding the regenerative theories of Ayurveda is that no regeneration can occur until the plasma is itself healthy and capable of supporting healing. This is because each dhatu provides what is needed in the next stage of regeneration so the sequence is important.
After my book was published, I consulted in many different clinics in Europe. If a patient presented in very poor condition, juice fasting was recommended. Often, the patients on juice improved so fast that by the second or third day, their plasma and blood cells looked better than that of the patients with relatively minor complaints. This said, we always added herbs to the juice or used them separately.
Over the years, I have formulated herbal blends to aid detoxification and regeneration, mostly based on Ayurvedic tenets. One of these is named after the Medicine Buddha. It was originally developed to relieve some of the suffering associated with Lyme disease and is intended for somewhat long-term use, which in the language of herbalism usually means months, not years. It relies on regenerative herbs that in Ayurveda are called rasayanas. All of these herbs are antioxidants. The Medicine Buddha holds haritaki in His right hand. It has the highest antioxidant rating of any herb or food except for sangre de grado, an herb I discussed on my Institute website.
This is a little long. I have enjoyed sharing with you, and if you have found this post helpful, please give a like and feel free to share it with others.
This is a lovely piano rendition of one of opera’s most challenging arias.
As some of you know, I am an opera buff, but I have not posted any traditional operatic selections . . . so far. Maybe this is a bridge?
Translation of the aria:
Virtuous Goddess, covering with silver
these sacred ancient plants,
turn towards us your fair face
cloudless and unveiled.
Temper, oh Goddess,
you temper the ardent hearts
furthermore temper the audacious zeal,
spread on earth the same peace
that make you make reign in heaven.
Complete the rite
and the sacred forest
should be cleansed of the profane
when the Spirit irate and gloomy,
will ask for the blood of the Romans.
From the Druidic temple
my voice will thunder.
He'll fall; I can punish him.
But my heart doesn't know to punish.
Ah! Come back to me beautiful
to your loyal first love;
and against the whole world
I shall protect you.
Ah! Come back to me beautiful
along with your serene radiance
and life in your womb,
and I'll have homeland and sky.
Ah, come back again as you were then,
then when I gave you my heart,
Ah, come back to me.
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/casta-diva-virtuous-goddess.html