Merkabah

[Skarekrow]

A couple of pictures and a description of the latest wand I have up for sale...20% off anyone on the forum!
(Or make me an offer...I’m easy)
( @Free working on your butterfly currently!)

Anyhow...this one turned out particularly nice so I wanted to share it with you all...considering keeping it for myself as my own.

Ash Air Element Wand with Black Tourmaline Base!

This is part of the Tornado Wand series, as this branch was torn from the tree by an F1 Tornado as it passed through Battle Ground WA.

It measures 19 and a 1/4 in. long, which is a pretty good size for a wand.

As always all my creations are one of a kind and only good and positive energies have been used to create them.
I would consider this a wand for a more advanced practitioner or someone who doesn’t just want a decoration.
The primary function of the wand is my first priority, attractiveness comes secondary to functionality though I hope you find it attractive as well!


This branch has been carefully selected for it's energetic value and has then been shaped, sanded, and then using Pyrography has been burned with intuitive symbols and protective symbols/sigils (Language of the Angels).
Including the sigil of St. Michael, the alchemical symbol for Air as well as Transmutation symbolizing the energies of Air infused into the wood by the Tornado.
At the top is the sigil for Protection Against Spiritual Energy - together with the black tourmaline help to ensure your protection against negative energies.

The bark of the wood has been painstakingly, though necessarily copper-leafed giving you excellent connection to the wand and infusing the energetic values of the copper.
Two areas of particularly energetic spaces on the branch have been slightly inset with copper wire and the negative space is given a dark stain.
All wands are the products of creative energies and much is created intuitively though also with an understanding of what is being created in the process.
The sigils, symbols, and crystals are not randomly assigned.

The properties of the wand are as follows:

Ash wood - Element of Fire and Air.
The Nords held this tree sacred to Woden (Odin), the Nordic World Tree, Yggdrasil, is an Ash tree and is considered to be the father of all trees. It was upon the Ash tree that Odin hung himself upside down for nine nights to receive the wisdom of the Runes. And it was from Ash that Odin created the first man.

The Welsh associated this tree with the God Gwydion.
Due to the height of many ash trees, Druids felt that the tree was the bridge between the heavens and earth.

Ash trees are prone to lightening strike, thus associating the tree with the elements of fire and air.
Celts felt that spears (a primary weapon of the Celts) made of Ash wood were imbued magically.

Druid wands were often made of Ash wood because of the straight grains.
Nemesis used Ash wood to represent the justice of the Gods.

The traditional Witches besom or broom is made with an Ash handle.
Ash leaves carried on the person are said to attract luck.

Ash leaves placed in dream pillows are said to create prophetic dreams.
Staffs made of Ash wood are said to represent the world tree and the authority is begets.

The Ash wand is an excellent wood for promoting brain activity.
Ash wood magick aids in communication, intelligence, wisdom, and promotes curiosity.

Use ritual applications of Ash wood to remove mental blockages and aid in the promotion of word use and understanding.
Ash is the wood of the scholar, poet and writer.

Ash wood promotes spiritual love and health.
Ash shavings protect against unwanted change.

It is said that warts rubbed on the Ash bark will be absorbed into the tree.
Ash wood shavings are for protection from drowning, magickal effectiveness, sea power, and healing.

Ash wood is used for divination, prophecy, and inspiration.

Ash is best used for protection, finding special roots, horse magick, enhances skills of arts and crafts, justice, weather magick, and for working with the magick of cave and wells.

Copper:
Copper is an excellent conductor of energy, from electricity to the mystical subtle energies emanating from higher planes, etc.
Thus, copper is said to enhance and transmit thoughts, even over long distances.
It is a conductor of the spiritualist's belief system and is able to conduct spiritual energy back and forth between individuals, crystals, auras, the mind and the spirit world.
It is also believed that copper has the power to amplify thoughts when sending and receiving psychic communications. Copper has the ability to ground and transfer a wide array of vibrational frequencies and supports healing by keeping the pathways for healing open.
Copper improves the powers of communication, and it helps with channeling, cleansing, purifying and increasing self-esteem and freeing the user of mental burdens.

Black Tourmaline:
Black Tourmaline is a protective stone which repels and blocks negative energies and psychic attack.
Black Tourmaline also aids in the removal of negative energies within a person or a space. Black Tourmaline will cleanse, purify, and transform dense energy into a lighter vibration.
Ancient magicians relied upon Black Tourmaline, known as Schorl, to protect them from earth demons as they cast their spells.
Today this stone is still revered as a premier talisman of protection, a psychic shield deflecting and dispelling negative energies, entities, or destructive forces.
It guards against radiation and environmental pollutants, and is highly useful in purifying and neutralizing one’s own negative thoughts and internal conflicts, and turning them into positive, usable energy.

Black Tourmaline is piezoelectric (Generates an electrical charge due to physical stress), and pyroelectric (Generates an electrical charge due to temperature change), enhancing the energies of the wand and transmitted through the copper.

Symbols/Sigils

Seal of St. Michael

Alchemical symbol for Air

Alchemical symbol for Transmutation

Sigil of protection against negative spiritual energy.

 

[Skarekrow]

The physical parts must be addressed along with the spiritual and emotional to be successful in controlling depression/anxiety imho.
This article helps with the physical.
Enjoy!

Guts, brains, and hormones:
The role of inflammation in depression

​

When a person experiences fatigue, brain clouding, flat mood, PMS, and constipation, we call it anxiety or stress and we stick them on an antidepressant that they will likely take for the rest of their life.

Where in this protocol have we investigated why he/she is feeling that way?
How have we personalized the treatment to his/her unique biochemistry?

What is the plan for side effects including new and different psychiatric symptoms resulting from this prescription?
We haven't.

We've applied a one-size-fits all treatment to mask symptoms without consideration for the cause.

The Immune System and Depression

Psychiatry has known about the role of the immune system in certain presentations of depression for the better part of the last century, and more recently, pioneering thinkers like Maes, Raison, and Miller have written about the role of altered immune set points and inflammation in models of depression.

Our immune systems are largely housed in the gut and the interplay between the gut and the brain is a complex and profoundly important relationship to appreciate.

We all recognize that anxiety or nervousness can impact our guts - most of us have had butterflies before a date or even diarrhea with extreme performance anxiety?

We are just learning that this relationship is bidirectional; however, and that the gut can also communicate its state of calm or alarm to the nervous system.

We think that the vagus nerve is a primary conduit of information and that inflammatory markers are the vehicles traveling this highway.
Scientists have studied the "protective effects" of severing this nerve when animals are exposed to gut-related toxins that normally cause depressive symptoms.

We are getting ahead of ourselves; however, because we need to better elucidate why inflammation matters, where it comes from, and why it is the universal driver of chronic illness.

How Does Inflammation Start?

When a person feels foggy, run-down, easily overwhelmed, and flat, we know that their hormones as messengers between their gut and brain are out of balance.

From my perspective; however, hormone derailment is a downstream effect of cellular dysfunction from oxidative stress and inflammation.
Inflammation stems from many sources, including, hallmarks of the modern American lifestyle:

• Sugar. Sugar, particularly in the form of fructose and sucrose, spikes insulin and triggers release of inflammatory cytokines. It forms advanced glycation endproducts when it binds to proteins, and oxidizes lipids which form cell and mitochondrial membranes.
• Chemicals. Pesticides, environmental pollution from industrial waste, hormonally-modulating plastics, fire retardants, and cosmetic additives all stimulate our immune systems to varying extents and disrupt optimal production of energy on a cellular level, particularly in vulnerable tissues like the thyroid.
• Pathogens. The aforementioned culprits, and notably herbicides, gluten grains, and genetically modified foods, promote intestinal permeability, changes in our intestinal flora that facilitate growth of pathogenic bacteria, yeast, and fungus which keep our immune systems in a state of alarm,
• Stress. This catch-all term, broadly defined, represents the ultimate link between hormones and inflammation, because stress, whether it's psychological or physiologic, triggers the release of cortisol. Cortisol helps to mobilize blood sugar so that you can run effectively and efficiently from that tiger chasing you. It also acts as a systemic immune suppressant, lowering levels of secretory IgA, an important body guard of the gut mucosa.

Cortisol and insulin are like stress-response sisters, and high cortisol states will also contribute to insulin resistance, or high insulin and high sugar while the cells, themselves, are starving. Insulin protects fat storage (inhibits lypolisis), and fat cells secrete their own inflammatory signals in addition to aromatizing testosterone to estradiol contributing to states of estrogen dominance, while also increasing DHEA and androgens to fuel that process (as well as acne, hair growth, and agitation).

Cortisol also inhibits the conversion of storage thyroid hormone to active hormone leading to states of hypothyroidism even with normal-looking labs.

What Does Inflammation Do?

Once inflammation is active, it is highly self-perpetuating.
These inflammatory cytokines travel throughout the body causing oxidating stress to the fragile machinery of the tissues and mitochondria, specifically.

In the brain, inflammation serves to shunt the use of tryptophan toward production of anxiety-provoking chemicals like quinolinate, instead of toward serotonin and melatonin.

They produce a replicable collection of symptoms called "sickness syndrome", noted for it's overlap with "depressive" symptoms: lethargy, sleep disturbance, decreased social activity, mobility, libido, learning, anorexia, and anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure).

Psychiatric researchers have observed that patients with higher levels of inflammatory markers (like CRP) are less likely to respond to antidepressants, and more likely to respond to anti-inflammatories.

Where Do We Begin to Heal?

How is any of this good news?
This approach to chronic illnesses like depression views it as a complex, non-specific symptom reflecting a state of bodily disharmony.

It isn't that you were born with bad genes or low serotonin.
It is far more likely that you are experiencing an unhealthy inflammatory balance, driven by cortisol dysfunction, and stemming from a sick gut.

We can come at modifying your system from many angles, but here is a basic starter kit:

• Exercise - Burst exercise is my primary recommendation. It is the most bang for your buck in terms of cardiovascular benefit and specifically enhancing mitochondrial health because it puts a special kind of stress on the body when you move to your max for 30 seconds that then recover for 90. I recommend 8 intervals 1-3x/week.
• Meditation - The effects of stimulating the relaxation nervous system, even through listening to a 20 minute guided meditation, can be far-reaching. Enhanced genomic expression of anti-inflammatory genes and suppression of inflammatory ones was demonstrated in this study.
• Diet - I recommend a diet that controls for glycemic fluctuations through elimination of refines carbs and grains, and through high levels of natural fats to push the body to relearn how to use fats for fuel. This is the brain's preferred source. I discuss some therapeutic foods here.
• Strategic supplementation - Natural anti-inflammatories like polyunsaturated fats (evening primrose oil and fish oil), curcumin (the active component of turmeric), and probiotics to name a few, can help promote a synergy of beneficial effects from the above interventions.

In my practice, despite some suggestion that antidepressants may actually be having their effect through an anti-inflammatory mechanism, these medications have become obsolete.

An appreciation of the role of inflammation and immunity in driving hormonal imbalance which directly impacts mood, energy, and wellness, is at the core of personalizing the definition of "depression”.

Don't be lured into the simplicity of a one disease-one drug model.
There's no room for you in that equation.​

About the author. Dr. Brogan is an M.I.T/Cornell/Bellevue-trained psychiatrist specialized in holistic women's health.
She is a mother of two and has a busy practice in Manhattan.
A passion for understanding the intersection between health, nutrition, and the environment are the bedrock of her wellness approach with patients and at home.
Visit her site at: Kelly Brogan, MD, Holistic Women's Health Psychiatry.

References

Inflammation and its discontents: the role of cytokines in the pathophysiology of major depression.
Miller et al Biol Psychiatry. 2009 May 1; 65(9): 732 - 741.

Cytokines and cognition - The case for a head to toe inflammatory paradigm.
Wilson et al. JAGS 50:2041 - 2056, 2002.

A randomized controlled trial of the tumor necrosis factor antagonist infliximab for treatment-resistant depression: the role of baseline inflammatory biomarkers. JAMA Psychiatry 70:31 - 41.

 

[Skarekrow]

Curious...
​

Super SEALs' elite units to develop brain-stimulating technologies

Hope Hodge Seck
Military,com
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 00:00 UTC



© Halo Neuroscience​

Using a product similar to this headset from Halo Neuroscience, the Navy SEAL community is conducting tests on neuro-stimulation technology.
At a conference near Washington, D.C., in February, the commander of all Navy special operations units made an unusual request to industry: Develop and demonstrate technologies that offer "cognitive enhancement" capabilities to boost his elite forces' mental and physical performance.

"We plan on using that in mission enhancement," Rear Adm. Tim Szymanski said. "The performance piece is really critical to the life of our operators."

Szymanski expanded on his remarks in a brief interview later, saying he has his eye on a number of technologies, including pharmaceutical aids.
But the results of one breakthrough involving the direct application of electrical stimulation to the brain have particularly caught his eye.

"In experiments, people who were watching these screens ... their ability to concentrate would fall off in about 20 minutes," Szymanski said.
"But they did studies whereby a little bit of electrical stimulation was applied, and they were able to maintain the same peak performance for 20 hours."

Transcranial electrical stimulation was one of the technologies touted by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter in July 2016 as part of his Defense Innovation Unit (Experimental), or DIUx, initiative.

Since then, multiple SEAL units have begun actively testing the effectiveness of the technology, officials with Naval Special Warfare Command told Military.com

"Earlier this year, Naval Special Warfare units, working with DIUx, began a specific cognitive enhancement project with a small group of volunteers to test and evaluate achieving higher performance through the use of neuro-stimulation technology," Capt. Jason Salata, a spokesman for the command, said in a statement.

The elements testing the technology include Naval Special Warfare Development Group, the unit known more popularly as SEAL Team Six.
Other teams are also conducting tests, Salata said.

He declined to confirm how many operators are participating in the testing, or to cite specific findings to date.
But there have been positive outcomes so far, he said.

"Early results show promising signs," he said. "Based on this, we are encouraged to continue and are moving forward with our studies."

The company that makes the brain-stimulating device -- a headset that could be mistaken for a pair of Beats by Dre headphones -- is Halo Neuroscience.

And the technology offers not cognitive enhancement, but neuro-priming, Chief Technology Officer and Company Co-Founder Brett Wingeier told Military.com.

Developed for elite athletes, the headset purports to work by stimulating the brain to enter a state of hyper-elasticity, allowing users to learn better and more efficiently.

In physical training, he said, the technology has proven useful in developing explosive power for athletes whose sports require vertical leaps or sudden starts.

For operators, the same system could improve shooting performance, Wingeier said.

"Whatever you're training on as far as a movement-based skill," he said, "if you do deep practice, hard repetition, this accelerates the benefit of that."

In a study conducted with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, ski jumpers observed a 13 percent gain in propulsion force and 11 percent gain in jump smoothness compared with a control group over four weeks of using the device, according to data promoted by Halo.

As testimonials note, marginal improvements can make a big difference for elite athletes -- a statement arguably true of special operators as well.

For the notoriously hard-training and sleep-starved SEAL community, the device offers greater efficiency in training, allowing operators to train less and see the same results, or train at the same level and get a boost in performance.

"They're training at this amazingly high level, and the amount they can train is actually limited by things like physical recovery," Wingeier said.
"They want to be able to maintain those incredible physical standards as efficiently as possible. That helps them avoid injury. If I was to sum it up, it's kind of all about just training a little bit smarter."

Wingeier said the number of Halo devices being used by elite units for testing is "in the double digits," adding they are being tested at five military installations.

Even compared with the athletes the company has previously worked with, he said the focus and determination of SEALs is impressive.

"It was a real learning moment for us about special operations and about the military.
It's super impressive just how enormously skilled everybody is," he said.

"They spend a lot of time thinking about what they do and honing their craft.
A lot of what they're interested in is, in terms of physical training, they want to build and maintain these amazing physical skills, but to just do so as efficiently as possible."

Although some experts have warned that the full long-term side effects of using neuro-priming to improve performance may not be known, Wingeier said lab tests have repeatedly proven that the product, which is commercially available in a sport configuration, is safe.

But Andrew Herr, CEO of research firm Helicase and an adjunct fellow with the Center for a New American Security, suggested the question of side effects should be approached more leniently when dealing with troops whose lives are at risk in combat.

In the context of medical or pharmaceutical performance aids such as modafinil -- commonly used by fighter pilots -- or amphetamines, he said there has been significant resistance in the medical community to prescribing them as performance enhancements because of their inherent side effects.

"The concept's that if you're not healing, then no side effects are worth it or acceptable," he said.
"[But] when you're sending people into combat situations where their lives are on the line, the ethics are flipped ... I think actually we are thinking about ethics all backward in this field because the military has a unique requirement. And it's even more powerful in the special operations field."

The most useful proven performance aids are much lower-tech than transcranial direct-current brain stimulation, Herr said.
They include things such as performance nutrition, supplements, legal stimulants such as caffeine, and even meditation, which has been proven to improve focus and attention and decrease the effects of not getting enough sleep.

In addition to neuro-priming, Herr said technologies, including application of light frequencies and biometric feedback, have been shown to boost performance and cognition.

Regardless of the technology or method, he said it is important that the military conduct robust tests and demonstrations on aids to human performance, contributing resources to making the warfighter stronger and more resilient the way it did to developing cutting-edge aircraft and gear.

"You really want to test these things in high-end training environments, which could tell you, do these matter in a warfare scenario," he said.
"We need to really believe that investing in the human makes sense."

Szymanski signaled an interest in testing other performance-enhancement technologies, as well as pharmaceutical aids such as blood testosterone in the future.

But he said he's approaching the field of enhancements carefully, with an eye to side effects, and warning operators not to take the first steps on their own.

"I'm always anxious, because I'm in a community of risk-takers," he said.
"Guys may want to try experimenting on their own, which is against policy and has to be completely drug-tested and those types of things. So I'd want to do that in a very systematic kind of way."

 

[Skarekrow]

The link between patience, willpower and imagination



How often do you act impulsively without considering the consequences?
What if you could learn how to be more patient?​

By using functional MRI (fMRI) to look inside the brain, neuroscientists Adrianna Jenkins, a UC Berkeley postdoctoral researcher, and Ming Hsu, an associate professor of marketing and neuroscience at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, found that imagination is a pathway toward patience.

Imagining an outcome before acting upon an impulse may help increase patience without relying on increased willpower.

Scientists call this technique, "framing effects," or making small changes to how options are presented or framed.
And the method may increase a person's ability to exercise patience.

The findings can be found in Jenkins and Hsu's study, "Dissociable contributions of imagination and willpower to the malleability of human patience," forthcoming in Psychological Science.

The authors' approach stands in contrast to previous research, which has mostly focused on the exertion of willpower to positively affect a person's patience.

"Whereas willpower might enable people to override impulses, imagining the consequences of their choices might change the impulses," Jenkins says. "People tend to pay attention to what is in their immediate vicinity, but there are benefits to imagining the possible consequences of their choices."

Hsu and Jenkins conducted two experiments to explore the role of imagination and willpower on patience.
In the studies, participants made choices about when to receive different amounts of money depending on how the offer is framed.

The actual reward outcomes were identical, but the way they were framed differed.

For example, under an "independent" frame, a participant could receive $100 tomorrow or $120 in 30 days.
Under a "sequence" frame, a participant had to decide whether to receive $100 tomorrow and no money in 30 days or no money tomorrow and $120 in 30 days.

The first experiment replicated past research, which found that framing outcomes as sequences promotes patience.
122 participants saw both independent and sequence framed options and expressed stronger preferences for the larger, delayed reward when choices were framed as sequences.

The second experiment involved 203 participants who had to make a choice based on one frame: 104 people had to choose under an independent frame; the other 99 had to choose under a sequence frame.

The result: participants in the sequence frame reported imagining the consequences of their choices more than those in the independent frame.
One participant wrote, "It would be nice to have the $100 now, but $20 more at the end of the month is probably worth it because this is like one week's gas money."

In contrast, participants exposed to the independent frame demonstrated less imagination.
One participant commented, "I'd rather have the money tomorrow even if it's a lesser amount. I can get the things I need instead of waiting. Why wait a month for just $20 more?"

By framing the options in the second experiment, the researchers found that the participants escalated their use of imagination.
The more participants imagined the consequences of their choices, the more they were able to be patient in order to receive the greater reward.

In the fMRI portion of the experiments, Jenkins and Hsu measured participants' brain activation while the participants made a series of choices in both frames.

They found the areas of the brain that process imagination became more active when participants were more patient during sequence framing.
In contrast, in the independent framing, the researchers found patience more strongly linked to brain regions associated with willpower.

"There is a long tendency of behavioral interventions, ranging from promoting healthy eating to reducing drug dependence, to appeal to willpower.
For example, 'commit to be fit' or 'don't do drugs'," Hsu says. "Our findings highlight the potential benefits of interventions that change the nature of the impulses themselves by encouraging people to imagine the consequences of their choices."

The researchers acknowledge that using brain scans to study human cognition has its limitations because it relies on certain assumptions about the links between brain regions and their functions.

This is why the experiments combined several methods, which all converge on a similar conclusion.

"We know people often have difficulty being patient," Jenkins says. "Our findings suggest that imagination is a possible route for attaining patience that may be more sustainable and practical than exerting willpower."

 

[Skarekrow]

Intuition Can Lessen The Influence Of Cognitive Biases


Cognitive biases impact all your perceptions and decisions. All of them.​

Professionals like to talk with pride about how they make "data-driven" decisions.
They express faith in logic and disciplined analysis.

Many scoff at others who confess to trusting their gut and going with their intuition.

Today, I'd like to ask a question to all of you highly analytical decision makers:

How do you adjust for the 175 cognitive biases that tend to push all human beings away from rational decisions?

To save time, you don't have to explain to me - or even to yourself - exactly how you compensate for all 175 biases.
Since you are a rational, data-driven decision maker, I assume you have memorized all 175 and you have a unique and effective strategy for dealing with each one.

But to refresh your memory, please just take a minute and mentally review your strategy for seven of them I've listed here (all taken from this Wikipedia page):

Automation bias: The tendency to depend excessively on automated systems which can lead to erroneous automated information overriding correct decisions.

Confirmation bias: The tendency to search for, interpret, focus on and remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions.

Conjunction fallacy: The tendency to assume that specific conditions are more probable than general ones.

Empathy gap: The tendency to underestimate the influence or strength of feelings, in either oneself or others.

Illusory correlation: Inaccurately perceiving a relationship between two unrelated events.

Neglect of probability: The tendency to completely disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty.

Overconfidence effect: Excessive confidence in one's own answers to questions. For example, for certain types of questions, answers that people rate as "99% certain" turn out to be wrong 40% of the time.

You have compensation strategies for all seven, right?
Just like you do for all 175, right?

Wrong.
You don't, and neither do I.

Perhaps Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger do, but not 99.999% of leaders and professionals.

Cognitive biases impact all human decisions and all human creations.
You know that data-driven software you rely on to provide objective answers?

It has biases built into it, too.
Humans designed and programmed it

Buster Benson did a beautiful job of organizing all these 175 biases into "four qualities of the universe that limit our own intelligence and the intelligence of every other person, collective, organism, machine, alien, or imaginable god."

They are:

1. There is too much information for anyone to process

2. There is not enough meaning in raw information

3. There is not enough time to thoroughly consider all information and possibilities

4. There is not enough memory in our brains or computers to store all relevant information

When I looked at this shorter list, one perception immediately occurred to me: coping with these four qualities is the fundamental role of intuition.

Yes, the people who deride intuition as being too vulnerable to human biases have it all wrong.
Intuition is our way of getting to the right answers despite all our cognitive biases.

Intuition is what allows a scientist, analyst, or strategist to look at an overwhelming amount of data and say... this is what we can ignore for now so that we can focus on these other possibilities.

It is an essential skill, given that we lack enough time and memory.

Does this mean that intuition is free from human biases?
Of course not.

But it is an extremely valuable tool in navigating those biases successfully.
Unless, of course, you have 175 proven strategies for coping with each of the 175 cognitive biases.

(I'm still waiting...)

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Kgal]

Bahahahahaha.....

Don't you just hate when that happens???? LOL

Of course...the pragmatist in me says....yes...but...it's an opportunity to forgive one's self for those 'terrible' things.
Sigh.... I'd rather groove with the Sun and the Tree.

 

[Skarekrow]

Feel free to steal as an avatar!

 

[Skarekrow]

Evolution of the Brain, Consciousness and Lucid Dreaming
Rudolph Tanzi

Rudolph Tanzi discusses the evolution of the brain and consciousness,
his research on the genetics of neurological disease aided by meditation and lucid dreaming.

This interview is featured in the upcoming "Science and Nonduality Anthology Vol.5". http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/p...

Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University, and Vice-Chair of Neurology and Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Tanzi co-discovered all three familial early-onset Alzheimer's disease genes and several other neurological disease genes including that responsible for Wilson’s disease.
As leader of the Alzheimer’s Genome Project, Dr. Tanzi has identified many other genes for the common late-onset form of AD. Dr. Tanzi serves on dozens of editorial and scientific advisory boards, and as Chair of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Research Consortium.
He has received numerous awards, including the two highest awards for Alzheimer's disease research:
The Metropolitan Life Award and The Potamkin Prize.​

 

[Skarekrow]

Want the Change

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Want the change.
Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.

The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?

What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.

Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.

Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive.

And Daphne, becoming a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.​

 

[Skarekrow]

The Sacred Body:
Returning Our Experience to Its True Source and Substance of Awareness

By Ellen Emmet


image: Hengki Lee​

She runs down a hill.
Warm air caresses her skin, and the pounding of feet on earth bring an intoxicating counterpoint to the expanding of her heart.
Her body unravels like threads of light into the the surrounding space, and in a moment out of time, she surrenders into its open embrace.
The liquid dancing world anoints her vibrating body with its loving substance …

We all remember blessed moments in which our true nature of pure undivided and universal Awareness echoes at the emotional, tactile and sensual levels of experience.

Our body then is felt to be transparent, without borders, suffused with a subtle quality of vibrating sensitivity.
It feels less personal yet shares itself intimately with all that is met.

For most of us however the body has been deeply and lastingly conditioned by the belief that “I” refers to an individual and limited person, located inside a body, separate from others and from the world out there.

Thus the feeling of the body is rooted in a set of repetitive psychosomatic habits, creating feelings of solidity, density, emotional inertia and contraction designed to validate and perpetuate the projected image of the “I” that seems to live at its center, with one’s past and future on either side.

Such a body’s inherited dynamism is ruled by the complex and restrictive impulses to protect, defend or affirm itself.

In this way, the body-mind seems to become the envelope or the cage in which “I” appear to live in and the stuff that “I” seem to be made of, whilst the real “I” of undivided Awareness seems to have shrunk itself into confinement, limitation and fragmentation.

When we awaken to our true nature of Awareness in the presence of a teacher or of a teaching, we submit our thinking rational mind to the pure light of intelligence that is its source and substance.

With open, limitless Awareness as our invisible reference, we hear and understand that the ordinary awareness that is perceiving whatever is perceived in this very moment, “I”, is not contained within a body or located in time and space.

We hear and understand that “I” is the Open Awareness in which all experience arises unfolds and dissolves, including thoughts, sensations, feelings and perceptions (mind, body and world.)

We hear and understand that this Awareness is not a perceived experience, yet is that which perceives all experience, and is not an object, yet is found at the heart of all experience as its only and invisible substance.

My identity fits not in any name or form.
Nor am I held captive between birth and death.

I am not the blood that runs through my veins or the warm breath that flows through my nostrils or the mouth that breaths.
I am not the memory of myself or the hopes that skips like stones into the future.

Past and future ripple through me as the wind of time, whilst space is the echo of my infinity.
I am not this I am not this I am not this, yet I am the lover of all things, and find myself at the heart of all that has a name and form.

However, it is important to further deepen our exploration to include the level of feelings, sensation, tactility and perception.
Taking our stand as the field of open Awareness in which all experience arises, we listen to our experience of the body directly, as if for the first time, free of any labels, without any mediation from the past or any agenda for the future.

We take our time, descending below the threshold of rational experience, allowing thought to relax in the background whilst opening to the flow of tactile sensation and subtle vibration that is our actual bodily experience.

We are invited to see and feel that the body flows through myself, Awareness, as does all experience.

When the welcoming of the body is open, uninvolved and global it is as if the body like a frightened animal feels an unconditional invitation to come out into the open space.

In this friendly loving field, the body stands naked and naturally begins to liberate what it had been holding in and as itself: the crystallized energy of separation that lives as layers of contraction and tension in the cellular, muscular skeletal and nervous systems of the body.

As the body unravels in this way, the “me” charge that lives embedded in its layers is returned to the openness of Awareness.

Gradually the body is left free to open to, relax into and reunite with the openness that surrounds it.
It is as if each feeling and sensation like an offering, gives itself back to the invisible altar of Awareness, telling its true story on the way.

In time this allows a gentle and natural realignment with the felt understanding that the body’s essential nature is this very openness.

When I make of my body a thousand paint brushes dipped in gold

Everything takes on the form of you

And buries itself in my heart to make it bigger and softer

So that the world can overflow from it endlessly and everywhere

Returning ordinary days to infinite life

Over and over in this exploration, for which we may use guided meditation, postures, visualisations movement and breath, we are led to see and feel that in truth we cannot say that a sensation appears in “my” body, just as a sound does not appear in the world out there and a thought is not to be found inside a head.

We see rather that sensation, thought and sound all appear in myself, non-located open Awareness without any separate individual existence of a body mind or world.

Over and over again we realize that like sounds and thoughts, the bodily feelings and sensations are subtle in nature.
They are not solid or tangible cannot be held or measured.

Rather they are like vibrating ripples appearing on the surface of myself, intimately one with myself, made of my own invisible substance.
We feel and know that the body is the openness that “I” am.

Unlike most of the conventional approaches to the body that are taught in the world, this one is not a pragmatic endeavour intended towards the physical or energy body, to increase well-being, strength or flexibility, or even encourage expensive states of consciousness.

Rather it is a sacred and devotional practice that surrenders the body back towards into its source of Open Awareness: what we only and always are.

Every time the offering is made, the body is returned as it truly is, limitless, transparent, relaxed easeful and loving.
It is realized as the very breath of the universe.

 

[Skarekrow]

Life Is Not A Concept

By Eric Baret​

In time it becomes evident that life is not a concept.
That life cannot be thought.

The mind cannot understand.
The only thing we can do together is to come to see what is not.

Yes, is not.
The mind wants to choose, but then you come to see very clearly at some point that something is stopping you.

There is no freedom, there is nothing pre-determined either, they are both concepts of the mind.
You cannot have one concept without the other.

So yes, you say: “see that you have a story”, and yes you can say: “there is no such thing as a story”, because there is no one there to “have any story”.
So what do you do with that?

If you follow the two lines of feeling very deeply you come to a blank state and in this blank state there is dissolution.
And you see it is not the one, nor the other.

They are both concepts.
But these concepts have been recalled from memory.

In time it becomes evident that life is not a concept.
That life cannot be thought.

That’s why you can never say: “I understand something.”
This realization will knowingly remain as a constant background present before any upsurge of understanding.

All knowing is included in not knowing.
The moment you say ” I know this ” you exclude the opposite.

So of course you challenge the knowledge later on and it is very upsetting to the mind.
We realize that wanting to understand was a need to grasp what cannot be grasped.

It goes against what we have said that there is no sense in anything.
You may hear that and feel very happy.

To make sense out of the idea that there is no sense in anything gives you a feeling of security.
Then someone tells you: ” Look you are making sense out of it ” and then the mind becomes crazy because it sees that it cannot not make sense out of it.

Because when you understand that there is no sense in anything, you are saying to yourself: ” that makes sense “.
You are falling into the trap.

So you have to constantly observe yourself because you constantly want to grasp what you cannot grasp and for the mind of course it is very upsetting. But it works.

You must see the mechanism of understanding there is nothing to understand.
There is nothing to understand, — you hear that and say: “Yes, now I understand that” and again you fall into the trap.

So you must stop knowingly before understanding.

 

[Skarekrow]

An interesting take on current events...

Kosmic Citizenship Part 1
Drawing on Wider Truths in an Age of Post-Truth

By Kavita Byrd​

When the new post-Trump altered reality hit in November, it left me, like many others, reeling in shock and confusion.
I had been involved for years in an attempt to forge an alliance between spiritual and progressive forces, but suddenly this seemed far too naïve and hopeful in the face of the dark realpolitik before us.

Yet as time passed, in that strange and mysterious process by which our psychic forces re-group in the face of a new reality, something re-constellated; a new, more expanded perspective to accommodate the challenges of this unprecedented situation.

It even struck me that this was the gift hidden in the catastrophe, the phoenix that rises from the ashes.
For when things break down we are forced to re-constellate; we are impelled from within to re-evaluate where we are, and re-configure at a higher order.

I’d just like to say here that however devastating the Trump election and the rise of right-wing regimes around the world has been, I do believe there is a positive effect to the shake-ups it is causing.

However shattering it may be, it is forcing us, particularly those who believe we stand for the good of the people and planet, to look again at our lifestyles and our actions, and ferret out any contradictions lurking in the shadows, our tunnel-vision, denial and distraction, which have impeded us from acting in our highest integrity and with a passion equal to the crises that confront us.

It forces us to re-configure our view of what’s happening in the world, and where we choose to stand in it.
With disruptions so enormous they can no longer be ignored, this is truly a time of reckoning, with ourselves and the state of our planet

When there is a problem so all-consuming it eclipses all others, we tend to lose sight of the background.
Yet this is not a time to be distracted, so caught up in reaction, so consumed with fighting the symptom, that we lose sight of the cause.

It is rather the time to look deeper, act deeper, ask ourselves how we got here.
It is a time to widen our perspective, not narrow it; enlarge, rather than contract, our aspirations, horizon.

A shake-up of this magnitude should ignite a renewal; wake us up to a vision of where we are, and the future we want to see.
A wake-up call of this magnitude should shake us to our very roots, igniting a revolution from the most profound depths of our being.

Many have been shocked at the seemingly sudden and inexplicable upsurge of right-wing forces, but the reasons are not far to see.
The reason right-wing forces have come into power is that we had a host of problems we were not addressing.

It is not that they are the “bad guys” as opposed to the good guys, but that many of us who think of ourselves as the good guys were simply not acknowledging the deep flaws in our system, so long as we were enjoying the “good life’ off its spoils.

Because these problems were not addressed in a truthful, wise and compassionate way, reactionary forces surged into the vacuum, using the opposite methods – lies, hatred and brutality.

Let’s back up a bit and see how we arrived here.
After the 1980’s, when the right-wing agenda of neo-liberal corporate globalization was launched by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, the left or liberals also became increasingly swept up in it, as even the democratic administrations that followed ceased to question its logic or its inevitability.

While paying lip service to social inclusivity, most liberals were sitting on the rising side of a sky-rocketing economic divide, enjoying exclusive privilege; conveniently ignoring the fact that in a world of rapidly depleting resources and impending climate disaster, their consumption patterns, far from being available to all, were decimating livelihoods, cultures and the planet.

Formerly the educated elites on the left had made cause with the common people, but with the growing economic divide driven by the neo-liberal agenda, the contradiction of such a claim became more and more glaring, even as it was denied.

For thirty-some long years, then, both the right and the left converged in the neo-liberal agenda, leaving the people and planet undefended, and ethics, compassion and caring by the wayside. (Globally, this void also provided fertile field for religious fanaticism and terrorism to arise.)

And now it’s all come to a head.
It is not surprising that, with the progressive (and spiritual) forces so weak, far-right forces have been able to manipulate the anger and fear of those left behind, playing on their vulnerabilities and confusion to scapegoat minorities and monger hate rather than addressing the real issues.

All the more reason for us, however, not to give up, but to take stock, re-examine, re-commit to the values that truly matter to us.
And this means understanding that we cannot leave anyone behind, nor anything outside the scope of our care; that inclusivity means finding the common causes that unite us all; that everything — every person, every culture, every species, rainforest, tree — is a part of our own being.

The shock and confusion of recent events has also re-affirmed for me the importance of stepping back and seeing the big picture – who we are, in the largest sense, where we are, and where we want to be going.

“Big pictures” may be unfashionable in this post-modern relativist world, but given the crudity, chaos and small-mindedness into which our world is descending, I think they are more necessary than ever.

Without the motivation and inspiration they give us, we are lost, swept along in the chaos ourselves, with no rudder in the storm.

After Trump’s election, I felt more than ever the need for a greater sense of meaning, a bigger picture that can override the sense of despair and futility, and make life worth going on for.

I realized that, at least for me, not only one “big picture” was needed, but two: the eternal and the evolving, the spiritual level but also its outer expression, a positive vision of where this world is heading.

There is both the eternal, and the evolving dimensions of our being.
We exist on multiple dimensions, with multiple identities, like concentric spheres, from our common Spirit or universal Consciousness at the core (the eternal, unchanging dimension) to the individual, local, global and Cosmic (the evolving) dimensions.

More than ever today we need a context large enough to recognize these dimensions, and draw upon their connections.
When we expand our vision to include them all, we vastly enhance our power to transform our world.

Identity politics can set us apart, but if we expand our identity, can rapidly bring us together.
In this time of accelerating fragmentation, there is a growing need to identify with the Whole.

We may identify ourselves as citizens of our own community and country, but today we must expand our understanding of citizenship to embrace as well the global and Cosmic levels.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that our evolution depends on it, as well as our very survival.
If we do not learn to identify with that which is greater than ourselves, that which is greater than ourselves will likely cease to sustain us.

Identifying with the Whole is not an abstraction – it is the recognition, and ever-widening inclusion, of the multiple dimensions of our identity: as individuals, local citizens, global and Cosmic citizens.

Each of these identities has its own role and power, and, at a time when we need all the resources we can muster, none can be neglected.
Each of these dimensions supports our evolution, personally and collectively, in an essential way.

It is only by expanding our consciousness to embrace our true all-inclusiveness, that we can transfigure our consciousness and transfigure our world.

Kosmic Citizenship: The Arc that Bends Towards Justice, Truth and Beauty

Right now there is extreme disintegration at the global level, threatening the survival of life on this planet.
In the face of overwhelming odds and overwhelming setbacks, I believe we need, as never before, to draw upon the perspectives and powers of these other dimensions to motivate and guide us.

It is particularly by calling upon the deepest and widest levels of our identity – our deepest spiritual core and our widest identification with this evolving Cosmos – that we access wonder and awe, the deepest source and widest horizon, from which to draw inspiration, energy and guidance to heal our global crises.

First of all we must recognize that evolution is not a linear progression in time – it is a deepening of perception that brings to light levels of our identity that have always been there, but have thus far remained unidentified or latent.

When we can draw upon these deeper, wider identities, the whole spectrum of dimensions of which we are a part, we access enormous resources, that can jolt even the most entrenched patterns in our psyche and society, into a new constellation.

When we see our historical moment in the big sweep of space and time – and even more so, beyond them: the quantum field where they come together, the miracle of this universe, and the mystery of its source — whole new possibilities open to us, inspiration for the long haul.

We are plugged into deeper and higher powers.
These deeper and higher powers are not outside but within us, the power of our interconnection with our own Source and the Cosmos.

If we look at the global level alone, we are likely to feel overwhelmed, helpless.
In the same way, while local resilience is essential, if we confine our focus to the local level alone, our actions are likely to feel ineffectual, unable to make a dent in the larger forces of destruction hitting us now with a vengeance.

These days we need not only to think global and act local, but to open our hearts to the Kosmos, and the deeper, wiser inspiration and guidance that flows from its widest vista.

Kosmos is the intersection of Consciousness and Cosmos, the deeper, eternal, internal intelligence that overflows as the Cosmos.
It has created us and continues to do so, moment by moment by moment.

When we align with it consciously, we become co-creators in its unfolding Creation: we board a great arc in space and time; an ark beyond time and space itself, that lifts us beyond the present storms and helps us to navigate them.

Sacred Action in A Holographic Universe

We know what it means to see our self as a local citizen, and even perhaps a global citizen, but what does it mean to see our self as a Kosmic citizen? And how does this help us at the level of practical, critical action?

A Kosmic citizen works at the local and non-local levels both, tapping into the ripple effect of this holographic universe.
He recognizes that whatever we do at the individual level ripples out to the local and global levels; that each of our actions is informed by, and in turn informs, the whole, the greater quantum field in which we are all connected.

The Kosmic citizen, at her best, embraces both the depth and breadth of our being, and taps into that eternal level, beyond time and space, where all is already perfect, Whole, bringing its healing power to bear on the conflicts and divisiveness of this world.

To be a Kosmic citizen is to draw on the widest arc of time, and our deepest source in the timeless, and bring the inspiration that springs from both into healing life on this planet.

Each of us has a passport to the Cosmic and quantum dimensions, and to bring their powers home.

There is a dimension where all is already perfect, all is already Whole.
And there is another dimension that departs from that Wholeness, devolves into division and evolves back into Wholeness.

We are at the nadir of that phase of division (the Kali Yuga), where devolution becomes dissolution; from this space, a re-immersion into the Source of the Whole, and its open potential for renewal at a higher order, can then re-emerge.

In one way we are always home, in another we are on an infinite, open-ended adventure.
When we remember both, we are home-free, resting in who we truly are, and also always unfolding, an intimate part of this participatory universe…

Mostly we live in between, but we can learn to lean into the infinite depth or the infinite breadth of our being; in fact, we are always held in them, inseparable from our infinite source (Consciousness itself) and its infinite, boundless Cosmos.

The consciousness of a Kosmic citizen thus both goes beyond time and space and includes them, forging the quantum connection between the eternal and the levels of its ever-unfolding evolution.

We align with the bigger picture of our true eternal, undivided nature, and the evolutionary impulse to bring its expression more and more faithfully into form, at the individual, local and global dimensions.

Drawing on each of these levels, we weave their powers together into a dynamic, exponential force.
The universal, non-local field of cosmic intelligence that is our source, flows, unobstructed, into expression at all levels: personal, local and global.

Actions at these levels, in turn, detonate the power of the non-local, multiplying in impact and scale, ripping across the unseen field that cuts across time and space and interconnects us all.

In a fractal, holographic world, everything reverberates.
Far from being helpless, the effect of each of our words, each of our acts, is limitless.

This gives us not only greater power but greater responsibility – in both senses, the ability to respond, and the willingness to do so.
We come out of the tunnel-vision of our own self-interests and recognize how they converge with the Whole.

When we recognize this power, the nature and scope of our actions shift – we cease to be reactive, and become pro-active, co-active.
The rest of creation is not outside us; we join it in a dance of co-creation.

We become channels ourselves for the unfolding of the universe, in its process of unending revelation.

Eternal and Evolving Faces of Truth

To live in truth is to live in the truth of our interconnection, with all the spheres of our being, and thus ultimately with all Being — none of us is alone, everything we do rings out through the universe, through all time and space.

As Kosmic citizens we are guided by the universal template of wisdom within us, universal yet flowing through us in its own unique way…
Conversely, all the spheres of our being, nature and the Cosmos nourish and support us, infuse us with their own part – the energy and information they carry — in the vast intelligence and the vast love of the universe, its infinite orchestration…

We are not solid, separate, but the ever-evolving edge of a collective, Cosmic process, the evolution of Consciousness (God) through material form.
We are the far end (so far) of a chain of Consciousness evolving through ever-more-complex material form, but we are also the beginning of the chain, always connected with our original, eternal nature as Consciousness Itself.

There is a timeless big picture, and a big picture in time, of the eternal dimension and its evolution.
Depending on which philosophy one believes in, the phenomenal world either dissolves back into the light of the eternal, or evolves into greater transparence and reflection of it – its sacredness, peace and unity.

Perhaps both; that is, through repeated cycles of dissolutions into the light of the eternal, the emergent level becomes more and more congruent with it. Each time the manifest level emerges, on each upward turn of the evolutionary spiral, it becomes a more and more faithful reflection of its own Source and true nature.

The eternal perfection is always there; to find the perfection, or even movement towards it, at the evolving level, is much more challenging.
Evolution, as we have said, does not proceed in linear time, as the linear mind would have it, but by waves, huge crests and troughs of progress and apparent regression.

We have to see beyond these waves, huge arcs of historical time, to see the dynamic perfection of the phenomenal level.
Deeper still, we need to divine that point in the evolutionary timeline where time itself merges into the timeless, where the local falls though a wormhole in time into the non-local; where the horizontal march of time suddenly bottoms out into a vast expanse of timeless, infinite depth.

Here the evolving and the eternal themselves converge into one, and our perception of their perfection, waves and troughs notwithstanding, itself becomes undivided.

Even conflict and crisis, seen from this space, are saturated with grace.

A Pro-Active Vision, Not a Fait Accompli

To anyone who argues that the evolutionary vision presented here is hopelessly idealistic, that the world is clearly devolving rather than evolving, I would say that the vision I offer here is prescriptive rather than descriptive.

It is up to us to put our energies into making this a better world, it is not a fait accompli.
This should motivate, not depress us, inspire us to galvanize out highest potentials, all the more so when the outcome is not decreed.

Precisely when the challenges are so daunting, we can rise to our highest moment.
The very fact that the odds seem so heavily stacked against us makes this a choice we must consciously make, and a choice of the highest order.

Life was not designed to hand us our freedom on a plate; in fact, by its very nature it can’t be enforced from outside us.
It is up to seize it, to recognize and rise to the highest potentials within us, for our own lives and the world…

When we recognize that we are multi-dimensional beings, the perennial question of free will begins to look very different.
We have multiple levels of evolution within us – some past, some future, some ever-present and timeless — which do we choose to align with?

For those who say there is no hope, I’d say: even if there’s no hope in the world — and perhaps even more so — the hope has to come from our hearts.

Life is speeding up.
The consequences of our delusions and self-delusions are also speeding up.

They are hitting us in the face, there is no escape now.
And this is good – not in a moral sense, that suffering is necessary or necessarily good, but that by our stubbornness and complacency in the face of our own self-destructiveness, we ourselves make it so.

Many, it seems, will not wake up until the consequences of our actions become so extreme that they have no choice – either to face it and change our ways, or go under altogether.

In these times of escalating chaos, the universe is delivering us an ultimatum: to align with its higher power and truth, or forfeit our precious privilege of participating in the miraculous journey of its further evolution.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the common thread in the reflections I’ve shared here: how the negative events in our lives, while at first they seem out to destroy us, in fact are neither random nor malevolent, but exist to drive us deeper to the light we truly are.

Once we see that, we begin to surrender to the wisdom of those events, to the light itself behind them, and to shine it in the world.
This is true both for the life events that challenge us individually and collectively.

As a healer I guide my clients to turn their negativities inside out, to dive into the darkness and retrieve the jewel.
Today we are in the midst of a global healing crisis.

If we recognize this, surrender to it, and learn to shine the light that is our birthright and deepest nature onto the darkness of these times, we will surely pull through.

Source: http://www.kosmosjournal.org/news/k...wing-on-wider-truths-in-an-age-of-post-truth/

About the author:

Kavita’s main interest is in bringing together spirituality, healing and social transformation, with an emphasis on evolutionary spirituality and the role of the feminine. Since 2007 she has been working with the Global Peace Initiative of Women, writing reports for their international conferences on these themes. Kavita is a faculty member of the Consciousness and Spirituality Academy of the New Earth Institute.

A dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia, Kavita has been based in India for the last twenty-four years, studying and practicing the teachings of non-dual spirituality, Advaita Vedanta, in the line of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

For more about her background and her vision for a living community for Evolutionary Spirituality, see her website: http://www.shakticentre.blogspot.com/.

 

[Skarekrow]

Remember, you have all you need...
There is nothing you can buy right now (unless you are starving or living under a bridge) that will “complete” your life or any part of “you”.
We are already complete...it’s only our fickle minds and the media that like to tell us we are lacking.
How easily we judge others and ourselves...how easily we compare our lives...how easily we can condemn or condone.
There is no material possession you are missing that would significantly change your life and daily outlook on it.
Money comes and money goes...to stress about it is easy to do...but really it’s make believe...it has no real worth...it’s an exchange for goods.
It’s like playing Monopoly...the original intent of the game was not to win, it was made to show that there is no winner unless you screw everyone else.
I never liked board games much...I like games people play in life even less...I guess you could say that I never enjoyed or had this drive to enrich myself with stuff and things and more and more money....or a desire to compete or “win”.
Yes, money can buy you relaxation and an amount of freedom...freedom to travel in comfort, etc.
But it will never kiss you goodnight and tell you that it loves you.
It will never smile or laugh as only a child can.
It won’t set you free.
(unless you need bail money)
It won’t set YOU free.
Only you can realize that you are free already.
If you cannot realize that in your life or your mind then it is a worthy goal to set imho.
Even if we struggle for our whole lifetime to understand - so be it.
Cultivate thankfulness, cultivate compassion, cultivate kindness and forgiveness, cultivate selflessness, cultivate peace within yourself - even if you hate yourself intensely.
All those reasons for hating yourself are gone...in the past...this is a new day, even if it is just like that last...don’t give in to the cynicism.
Remind yourself and learn to recognize when you tell yourself untruths.
We have a habit of looking at the faults within ourselves, or the mistakes we have made in our lives...they do not define you.
You define yourself.
So choose to be who you want to be...we are what we think we are, we become what we believe be it good or bad.
I don’t have any wise answers that you haven’t already heard somewhere in some form before.
Just know that you are complete...if you don’t believe it, then fake it till you make it.
I’m not saying to be untrue to yourself...I’m saying to purposefully attempt to side on the positive regardless of the situation, because negative reactions only cause more pain, and is usually self-perpetuating...why is it so easy to perpetuate the negative things in our lives and so difficult sometimes to perpetuate the positive instead?
It’s not easy to shift your focus from what we perceive we lack, to seeing all we already have.
It must start though within us...you must want the freedom you already have.
The freedom you gain when you can find those moments of peace within your heart, mind, your spirit and “self”.
If not for yourself, then try with the understanding that bettering yourself is for your benefit, but also the benefit of those you love and the whole of mankind.
Is anything else really worth the effort?

 

[Skarekrow]

Left-hand path and right-hand path

​

In Western esotericism the terms Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path refer to a dichotomy between two opposing approaches to magic.
This terminology is used in various groups involved in the occult and ceremonial magic.

​

In some definitions, the Left-Hand Path is equated with malicious black magic and the Right-Hand Path with benevolent white magic.
Other occultists have criticized this definition, believing that the Left–Right dichotomy refers merely to different kinds of working and does not necessarily connote good or bad magical actions.

In more recent definitions, which base themselves on the terms' origins in Indian Tantra, the Right-Hand Path, or RHP, is seen as a definition for those magical groups that follow specific ethical codes and adopt social convention, while the Left-Hand Path adopts the opposite attitude, espousing the breaking of taboo and the abandoning of set morality.

Some contemporary occultists have stressed that both paths can be followed by a magical practitioner, as essentially they have the same goals.

Right-Hand Path
The Right-Hand Path is commonly thought to refer to magical or religious groups which adhere to a certain set of characteristics:

• They divide the concepts of mind, body and spirit into three separate, albeit interrelated, entities.
• They adhere to a specific moral code and a belief in some form of judgement, such as karma or the Threefold Law.

The occultists Dion Fortune and William G. Gray consider non-magical Abrahamic religions to be RHP.

Left-Hand Path
The historian Dave Evans studied self-professed followers of the Left-Hand Path in the early 21st century, making several observations about their practices:

• They often reject societal convention and the status quo, which some suggest is in a search for spiritual freedom. As a part of this, LHP followers embrace magical techniques that would traditionally be viewed as taboo, for instance using sex magic or embracing Satanic imagery. As Mogg Morgan wrote, the "breaking of taboos makes magic more potent and can lead to reintegration and liberation, [for example] the eating of meat in a vegetarian community can have the same liberating effect as anal intercourse in a sexually inhibited straight society."
• They often question religious or moral dogma, instead adhering to forms of personal anarchism.
• They often embrace sexuality and incorporate it into magical ritual.

Criticism
Criticism of both terms has come from various occultists.
The Magister of the Cultus Sabbati, Andrew D. Chumbley, stated that they were simply "theoretical constructs" that were "without definitive objectivity", and that nonetheless, both forms could be employed by the magician.

He used the analogy of a person having two hands, a right and a left, both of which served the same master.
Similar sentiments were expressed by the Wiccan High Priest John Belham-Payne, who stated that "For me, magic is magic.”

Vamachara

Vāmācāra is a Sanskrit term meaning "left-handed attainment" and is synonymous with Left-Hand Path or Left-path.
It is used to describe a particular mode of worship or spiritual practice (Sanskrit: sadhana) that is not only heterodox (Sanskrit: Nāstika) to standard Vedic injunction, but extreme in comparison to prevailing cultural norms.

These practices are often generally considered to be Tantric in orientation.
The converse term to Vamacara is Dakshinachara (glossed "Right-Hand Path") which is used to refer not only to orthodox (Āstika) sects but to modes of spirituality that engage in spiritual practices that not only accord with Vedic injunction but are generally agreeable to prevailing cultural norms.

That said, left-handed and right-handed modes of practice may be evident in both orthodox and heterodox schools of Dharmic religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism and are a matter of taste, culture, proclivity, initiation, sadhana and dharmic lineage (parampara).

Tantra and Madame Blavatsky

​

The occidental use of the terms Left-Hand Path and Right Hand-Path originated with Madame Blavatsky, a 19th-century occultist who founded the Theosophical Society.

She had travelled across parts of southern Asia and claimed to have met with many mystics and magical practitioners in India and Tibet.
She developed the term Left-Hand Path as a translation of the term Vamachara, an Indian Tantric practice that emphasised the breaking of Hindu societal taboos by having sexual intercourse in ritual, drinking alcohol, eating meat and assembling in graveyards, as a part of the spiritual practice.

The term Vamachara literally meant "the left-hand way" in Sanskrit, and it was from this that Blavatsky first coined the term.

Returning to Europe, Blavatsky began using the term.
It was relatively easy for her to associate left with evil in many European countries, where it already had an association with many negative things; as the historian Dave Evans noted, homosexuals were referred to as "left-handed" while in Protestant nations, Roman Catholics were called "left-footers”.

This association with negative aspects of society can be traced back to the Bible, in which it states:

And he shall separate them one from another,
as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.​

And he shall set the sheep on his right,
but the goats on his left.
— Matthew 25: 32-33​

Adoption into the western esoteric tradition
In New York, Madame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society with several other people in 1875.
She set about writing several books, including Isis Unveiled (1877) in which she introduced the terms Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path, firmly stating that she herself followed the RHP, and that followers of the LHP were practitioners of Black Magic who were a threat to society.

The occult community soon picked up on her newly introduced duality, which, according to historian Dave Evans, "had not been known before" in the Western Esoteric Tradition.

For instance, Dion Fortune, the founder of an esoteric magical group (the Society of the Inner Light) also took the side of the RHP, making the claim that "black magicians", or followers of the LHP, were homosexuals and that Indian servants might use malicious magical rites devoted to the goddess Kali against their European masters.

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Aleister Crowley further altered and popularized the term in certain occult circles, referring to a "Brother of the Left-Hand Path", or a "Black Brother", as one who failed to attain the grade of Magister Templi in Crowley's system of ceremonial magic.

Crowley also referred to the Left-Hand Path when describing the point at which the Adeptus Exemptus (such as his old Christian mentor, Macgregor Mathers) chooses to cross the Abyss, which is the location of Choronzon and the illusory eleventh Sephira, which is Da'ath or Knowledge.

In this example, the adept must surrender all, including the guidance of his Holy Guardian Angel, and leap into the Abyss.
If his accumulated Karma is sufficient, and if he has been utterly thorough in his own self-destruction, he becomes a "babe of the abyss", arising as a Star in the Crowleyan system.

On the other hand, if he retains some fragment of ego, or if he fears to cross, he then becomes encysted.
The layers of his self, which he could have shed in the Abyss, ossify around him.

He is then titled a "Brother of the Left-Hand Path", who will eventually be broken up and disintegrated against his will, since he failed to choose voluntary disintegration.

Crowley associated all this with "Mary, a blasphemy against BABALON", and with the celibacy of Christian clergy.

Another of those figures that Fortune considered to be a follower of the LHP was Arthur Edward Waite, who did not recognise these terms, and acknowledged that they were newly introduced and that in any case he believed the terms LHP and RHP to be distinct from black and white magic.

However, despite Waite's attempts to distinguish the two, the equation of the LHP with Black Magic was propagated more widely in the fiction of Dennis Wheatley; Wheatley also conflated the two with Satanism and also the political ideology of communism, which he viewed as a threat to traditional British society.

In one of his novels, Strange Conflict (1941), he stated that:

The Order of the Left-Hand Path...
has its adepts...
the Way of Darkness is perpetuated in the horrible Voodoo cult which had its origins in Madagascar and has held Africa,
the Dark Continent, in its grip for centuries.​

Later 20th and 21st centuries

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In the latter half of the 20th century various groups arose that self-professedly described themselves as LHP, but did not consider themselves as following Black Magic.

In 1975, Kenneth Grant, a student of Aleister Crowley, explained in Cults of the Shadow that he and his group, the Typhonian Order, practiced the LHP. Grant's usage takes meaning from its roots in eastern Tantra; Grant states that it is about challenging taboos, but that it should be used in conjunction with the RHP to achieve balance.

When Anton Szandor LaVey was developing his form of LaVeyan Satanism during the 1960s, he emphasised the rejection of traditional Christian morality and as such labelled his new philosophy to be a form of the Left-Hand Path.

In his The Satanic Bible, he wrote that "Satanism is not a white light religion; it is a religion of the flesh, the mundane, the carnal—all of which are ruled by Satan, the personification of the Left Hand Path."

In Russia there is a tradition of Left Hand Path practices within the Rodnover community under the influence of Volhv Veleslav, and within the Odinist community with Askr Svarte, and in England with Nikarev Leshy.

Veleslav has also written numerous books on Tantra and the Left Hand Path.

Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D. of the Temple of Set states in his book Lords of the Left Hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent there are two criteria to be considered a true Lord of the Left Hand Path and they are Self-Deification and Antinomianism.

Usage in Tantra
Tantra is a set of esoteric Indian traditions with roots in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Tantra is often divided by its practitioners into two different paths: dakshinachara and vamachara, translated as Right-Hand Path and Left-Hand Path respectively.

Dakshinachara consists of traditional Hindu practices such as asceticism and meditation, while vamachara also includes ritual practices that conflict with mainstream Hinduism, such as sexual rituals, consumption of alcohol and other intoxicants, animal sacrifice, and flesh-eating.

The two paths are viewed by Tantrists as equally valid approaches to enlightenment.
Vamachara, however, is often considered to be the faster and more dangerous of the two paths, and is not suitable for all practitioners.

The usage of the terms Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path is still current in modern Indian and Buddhist Tantra.

Left-Hand Path relation to Tantra in Hinduism
The difference between the right hand path and the left hand path is eloquently explained by Julius Evola in the book The Yoga of Power:

"There is a significant difference between the two Tantric paths, that of the right hand and that of the left hand (which both are under Shiva's aegis).
In the former, the adept always experiences 'someone above him', even at the highest level of realization. In the latter,
'he becomes the ultimate Sovereign' (chakravartin = worldruler)."​

Left-Hand Path relation to Tantra in Buddhism
Robert Beér's Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs clarifies widespread taboos and deprecation that associate the left hand as dark, female, inferior and 'not right':

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Padmasambhava in Yab-Yum

"In Buddhist tantra, the right hand symbolises the male aspect of compassion or skilful means, and the left hand represents the female aspect of wisdom or emptiness.

Ritual hand-held attributes, such as the vajra and bell, vajra and lotus, damaru and bell, damaru and khatvanga, arrow and bow, curved knife and skull-cup, sword and shield, hook and rope snare, etc., placed in the right and left hands respectively, symbolise the union of the active male aspect of skilful means with the contemplative female aspect of wisdom.

In both Hinduism and Buddhism the goddess is always placed on the left side of the male deity, where she 'sits on his left thigh, while her lord places his left arm over her left shoulder and dallies with her left breast’.

In representations of the Buddha image, the right hand often makes an active mudra of skilful means—the earth-touching, protection, fearlessness, wish-granting or teaching mudra; while the left hand often remains in the passive mudra of meditative equipoise, resting in the lap and symbolising meditation on emptiness or wisdom."

Beér's preceding explanations correspond to Yab-Yum (father-mother) symbolism and contemplation on or practice of sexual rituals associated with Vajrayogini and Anuttarayoga Tantra.

Yab-yum is generally understood to represent the primordial (or mystical) union of wisdom and compassion.
The metaphorical union of bliss and emptiness is commonly represented within Thangka paintings of the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra depicting the sexual union of the deity Saṃvara and his consort Dorje Pakmo.

 

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