How to build a human {Science/Medical BBC Documentary}

Great BBC mini series - thus far - on various aspects of human cloning.

A four part series, with part one divided into six parts.
I havent watched the other four installments yet, but the first part was really thought provoking.

See if you can think out of the box as you watch the videos before quickly categorizing what is presented as good or bad - you may find that you agree with certain aspects and not others…the point is to allow your mind to ponder the different implications so that you can expand beyond the current limitations of thought.

Series 1of4 (part 1of6)

Found the video at thoughtware.tv - its a good site that brings together the best science/medical video stories from across the web.
The focus is on future technology/science/medicine.

Just a random thought that popped into mind, not really associated with this, but here it is: “Time to educate not legislate.”
A lot of potential growth is stunted due to fear, and fear actually causes harm to the very ones whom resisted new thought.

This does not mean that growth for the sake of growth is good - check out cancer cells that continuously divide and multiply.

The fact is that if humanity does not evolve on a conscious/’spiritual’ level (I use ’spiritual’ carefully as the term is so overused and misused), we will only have cleverness as we continue to advance; and we will eventually destroy ourselves, just as cancer destroys both itself and its host.

Cleverness is not intelligent.

Cleverness seeks its own and divides -
It is usually quite ‘insane’ on a social level… while Intelligence unites and includes.

So the point is not to ‘knock’ scientific advances, but to learn as much as you can, and while doing so evolve on a conscious level.

For this I will specifically point out Eckhart Tolles audio book “A New Earth”.
Listen to it again and again…until you get your thought patterns rewired.
(its not a religion or a belief…we dont need more things to add to our belief system…which does not work, we need practicality, and I believe you will find it in this audio book.)

Its basically teaching you about yourself and human nature - and how to deal practically with its disfunction.

Being an ex-O.C.D. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and now needing no medication (it didnt work anyway) - I can highly recommend E.T. (Eckhart Tolles) audio books.

Those that seek, with all their heart, as Jesus put it…will find. You dont find when you search in the confines of ones pre-defined belief systems.

Those are all conditioned thought patterns brought on by your social/religious milieu - and the thought patterns you take as an identity of who you are. When you identify with something so tightly you cannot see the larger picture and take your way as the only way…

And we wonder why there are endless wars and division between people/nations - all in the name of love/Jesus. (What an irony indeed.)

Well, I have ranted enough, watch the video and enjoy!

Peace

dAlen

Series 1of4 (part 2of6)

Series 1of4 (part 3of6)

Series 1of4 (part 4of6)

Series 1of4 (part 5of6)

Series 1of4 (part 6of6)

Rowling on the defense again. {lessons of ego}

Intro:
BBC Article

I dont get it, well I do, but lets have a look at it.

When you come up with an idea, its in free space.
She owns Harry Potter no more than I do. If we are truly all connected, then all this “you are viloating my rights” is really kind of schizophrenic - as there is not you.

For most this concept is out there…so I will say yes I think there is a place for someone, like Rowling, to make money off of her work - but to what degree is it hers. This can be looked at, perhaps with more ease, by taking a look at the music industry.

Wired:
I read an article, forgot source, I think it was wired, that basically said that the music companies claim an eternal ownership of promo cds, If I understood the article correctly, and that you dont have the right to throw them away, etc.

Yep, it was an article from Wired.

This stuff is really summed up with one word, “Insane”.

With Rowling it appears that she had approved of an online encyclopedia of the Harry Potter World - well approved in that it did not seem to bother her. But when the person wanted to take the info and make a book out of it…oh my, it “infringes on my rights…” - well she did want to right a book and this may affect sales, although she claims money is not the issue.

I believe her.
I think she is so attached to Harry Potter…that she is not quite seeing clearly.

Im not trying to be rude, so let me put it another way.
Parents when they give birth can be not only over protective, but they can tend to act as if they ‘own the child’. They were the vessel in which the child came into the world, and they are the means in how that child will be raised and the environment in which they will learn and grow up…but they dont own the kid.

But actions, way into the adult life of the kid, shows that they indeed take that stance, even if unconsciously, that they somehow ‘own’ (for lack of better terms) the child.

The child is its own:
Once something is birthed its now its own.
In the case of Harry Potter, how I approach Harry is not necessarily how she approaches it.
She was amazed how so many people liked snape, back when she tried her best to paint him black…well first they liked the actor and that played a role in how they perceived snape.

Just like a child, she had not control how the audience perceived her work, her creation.

The story is what the individual makes of it:
Truth is, she is not that great of a writer. (Well, dont get me wrong, Im not even claiming to be a writer). I find that the beauty of her work is what I take into it when reading it, and what I get from the movies created by the producers/directors and again my perception of it.

I will say it again, because the point is simple, though I dont feel I can properly get it out the way I would like. And that is, once the idea is birthed, its owned by the collective.

Funny, there is a movie called “Troll”, I believe made in 1986, which had the main character, if Im not mistaken, whose name was also Harry Potter (Jr.)
This is pre-Rowling, and now the guy wants to remake the movie.

Sure you could argue to ride off of the J.K. Rowling Harry Potter success, but I dont think that alone would do enough to drive it.

Another Harry…pre-Rowling Potter.
Warner has either threatened to or is suing him if he goes forward with making the remake, saying they will stick to their claims to Harry Potter.

Well, hate to say it, but no one owns the name Harry Potter.
Its a name for crying out loud!

Now J.K. Rowling claimed she never read “Troll” (but did she know of it?)…
You know, when there is an idea, it usually pops up somewhere across the world.
I remember as a kid coming up with the wackiest name, “whatcha-ma-call-it” and then not long after they made a candy bar with that name. Now my mom was convinced I had just saw the commercial and forgotten.

100 Monkeys:
But lets look at the 100 monkeys.
What is it…I believe the concept is that after a certain point, say 100 monkeys learn something new, all of a sudden all the other monkeys already know it.

Forget about the 100 monkeys, I have seen quite a few times where one idea would pop up in a country in science, and supposedly it was secret, and then they find out that another country found the same thing…and then they are amazed.

Im telling you, and you dont have to believe me, but there is something to this quantum entanglement.

Conclusion:
But what does this have to do…or rather, how does this solve Ms. Rowling woes?
Well it doesnt, until she realizes that she needs to let the bird fly…its a gift to the world and she is not going to ‘miss’ anything.

The fear is there and it ends up running a persons life.
As she claims she has lost inspiration to write a Harry Potter Encyclopedia now, and has stopped writing some other book she had started due to this issue bothering her.

See, her life, is now being wasted, so to speak, because she is living with some tight identity around something that does not really belong to her. Again, if I have not made my point clear above in what I mean, then this will be taken the normal way that the mind sees things, such as, “well it is hers because…” but anyway…

Attachment to form, this includes thought form, is ego - and it doesnt really help anyone get anywhere. If she would let it go then the universe would take care of the situation, and perhaps she would see/realize that there is no situation to be taken care of.

Peace

dAlen

Monsanto {Documentary}

Intro:
There is much that could be said about this, but I will let you watch the video for yourself.
Its quite long, so pull back a chair, get something to drink and munch on and relax.

If you find it a bit dry at first it will pick up toward the end when they start talking about India & Mexicos corn, etc. The first part gives you more of a background into the company itself.

When you watch the bit about the Mexican corn and how N.A.F.T.A. affects this, (well with Monsanto, of course), you will be surprised.

Mexico & India:
In fact put that info with the fact that in India they (farmers) have to buy cotton seed basically from only Monsanto - as Monsanto has bought up most, if not all, of the major seed suppliers to farmers - not only do they have to buy this seed that grows with pesticide genetically engineered into it…(Im not against science or genetic engineering, but chemicals, pesticides in the plant? Science is a tool only…neither good nor bad. It is only that which the hand that wield it cause it to be. And in my view point, Monsanto is on the ‘bad’ path. My thought would be to understand nature & its benefits fully before trying to play god with plants turning colors…potatoes…and plants having pesticides in them…cotton…etc.)

Control: Ownership of the worlds food supply
So as you see, the problem isnt only with what they are selling, but they are owning nature.
You buy their seeds, you cannot collect it for planting for the next year. (This is tradition.) And they are ruthless if they think that you kept the seed for next years harvest. - Again, not that I would ever want to have their seed in my field…fact is many dont, and organic farmers have either come close to, or have been shut down by Monsanto because of these ‘false flags’ saying the organic farmer had Monsantos patented seed on their farm lots. What? Monsanto is the reason they went organic.

Revelations:
Ah, where was I?
Anyway, as you watch this video think of Revelations where it says no one “will buy or sell without the mark…” - well, make that “no one will buy or sell except Monsantos seeds”.

This whole fear/greed based mentality needs to come to a halt. It is self-destructive and companies like Monsanto is driving society into a mess. Well, they would like to think into their hands so that they control all that happens and thus retain power. But I see differently, people are waking up to a lot of the non-sense in the world and that type of fear/greed based mentalities time is up.

So without further ado, here is the link:

Peace

dAlen

Still Attached to Ego {Eckhart & Aikido}

Intro:
As many of you who have been following my post know by now, I am a student of the material presented by Eckhart Tolle.

The material that E.T. (Eckhart Tolle) presents is by no means religious, and that is something that must be clarified up front - why? Because most people are caught up in the cycle of the next thing to believe in…or clinging to an old belief system that just does not work…

About Life:
With these teachings, there is nothing to believe in…its more about living life… practically.
No more theories, ideas, etc. - it reaches to your core (or mine at least…)

This does not mean, however, instant ‘arrival’. And I use that term loosely as there technically isnt anything to arrive to. The main thing you begin to realize and to see clearer is that words are indeed pointers going beyond themselves. All to often we hear a word, think we know its meaning based upon the view that our cultural/religious milieu has placed upon it and then totally ignore what is truly being said.

It happens all the time, and its why no one wins a debate…or if you do, the other side does not go away convinced.

Now moving on.
I apologize but the intro, I felt was necessary as people are at different points in their own walk that read this. I try to speak to as broad an audience as possible, but I still get comments which show that a given point was totally misunderstood.

So, here I am, years into listening to the teachings from Eckhart on the ego.
I have learned to recognize it, and I must admit that being a former O.C.D., which drugs like Prozac didnt even help…to not taking anything and being perfectly fine…I would say I came a long way.

However, why stop?
You see whenever any fear, which shows itself as being envious, hateful, etc. shows up…its a sure sign that your like the parable in the Bible…your the seed who has now sprouted out of the ground…but you need to go beyond being a little seedling.

Im a seedling.
Much like Neo, “there is a difference in knowing the path and walking it”.
I would say that Im taking extreme baby steps with the knowledge that has been given to me by Eckhart.

You know pain is a good way to cause growth…you suffer and you have motivation to change.
My OCD was rough for a period of about 12+ years and finally in my seeking I found the answer. (and it wasnt big pharma). See who needs or wants to rely upon an external source anyway? Beside the fact prozac did not do a thing anyway…except grab money from my parents wallet.

So out of great suffering came an answer and relief.
But then things can slow down, so to speak, and you can get used to living in a certain buzz of discomfort. i.e., complaining.

Complaining is just the ego and is a main outlet for the ego to feed in the majority of people.
I catch myself doing it quite frequently and even justifying it when I do.

Now the key is not to condemn oneself for ‘failure’…you are where you need to be at…now.
The real key is just to see this response in yourself. You would be surprised at how much we do not really know ourselves…we know about ourselves, or at least what we want to know.

Aikido and ego
Aikido is a martial art, (a soft one) that has been extremely spiritual to me in nature.
From the very get go it has challenged every aspect of the ego in me hidden in nooks and cranies that I could other wise over look.

Part of what drives this challenge is the language.
First you have to learn the Japanese terminology…fine.
But, Im learning from Hungarians, and quite frankly, besides asking where the toilet is and if the restaurant is expensive…my Hungarian sucks.

I have to admit after some time I do understand, or catch on to a bit more…but to truly communicate…next to impossible.

Challenge:
Look at me, I blog all the time, I write novels about something that could be said in 2 sentences.
Here I am, helpless as it were, and unable to express myself about issues that arise during lessons.
Not only that, but I get to deal with other peoples strong egos as well, which of course is like gasoline ready to set the remnant of my ego on fire.

Useless to go into details, truth is it is rather silly what kind of challenges I have, but mind you its the petty type of issue such as wanting to be recognized and “be somebody”.
Quite hard to be someone when you cant fake a role and even are misunderstood by other peoples egos who are seeking to either put down or to latch onto an ego bigger than itself.

I do enjoy the art of Aikido, interestingly enough.
Why is this interesting? Well the fact is I like to work alone…for the most part.
Im very selective about who is in my inner circle, and its based on seeing how ’stupid’ the world is.
From Christian to non Christians in the work place, I have seen people talk behind peoples backs just to smile at them in their face like nothing happened.

Superficial:
Same happens here in the Aikido class…why should I be surprised.
It amazes me for one reason or another that people are so superficial.

See, I tend to lay things on the line, and often have been taken the wrong way.
But I say it as I see it and move on. Now as I said, I definitely have my ego, because I want people to understand my point regardless of if they agree or not…of course they will agree if they understand.

Basically what Im saying is common to all of us in one form or another.
But its this sillyness that we tend to either overlook or just live with.

Fear beget:
Fear creates, as mentioned, jealousy, hate, inferiority compelex, worry, etc.
Just as love is the cure, Fear is that which entangles us. And as a former boss of mine once said, “The Bible tells us not to fear…its a command - not a suggestion.” How true indeed.

Love is acceptance of oneself first and foremost, so you can reach out and love others.
How can you love others if you inwardly hate yourself? This is something Im still going at.

I dont love the guys at my Aikido class…I suppose they are just props for my ego to want to use to either stroke myself or run away.

Well I did run away for 5 months. I stopped Aikido for awhile and just started back up.
It had to do with ‘fairness’ and ‘recognition’ or the perceived lack there of.

Some may be amazed at my openness. But in truth Im only saying that which the world experiences, even if its another type of experience.

The root is fear that drags down, as mentioned, and the solution is love.

Conclusion:
So here I am…when I reach out and love it physically does something.
See its not a goody goody feeling. Love is a choice. Remember, love is acceptance.
This is not saying someone is right, but realizing that no one can touch who you are…there opinions, etc. are theres to have. And more than that, thoughts, opinions, and any form is not who we are.

All forms (including thought) are just, how can I say it…part of the script that we read aloud in this play called life.

Or rather, Life dances and we are the dance. (Life is more real than us…our physical forms are just a mere shadow on this stage called life.)

Different ways to look at it, but it all brings home the point.

At the end of the day, I know these things, and its good to remind myself of them…its as Paul said, “Be changed by the renewing of your minds.”

Non judgement:
So thats what I must do…I must continue to watch myself…not judge - in watching I can then reflect on the choices I can then make. When I begin to make conscious choices, I will eventually see this way of life become permanent in me. Same goes with all of us.

I would love to write eloquent blogs that revolutionarized the world…truth is I am just happy I can spit out my thoughts sometimes co-herently. The words come faster than I can type and so many points to connect. But the point for me is that I enjoy to write…so I do.

A side note on Eckhart. I watched him with Oprah and this dude actually lives out what he teaches.
If you listen enough you can watch when and how he responds to things that would typically get at us if it were our ego up there. In fact being in the lime light, so to speak, its amazing he hasnt given into the ego…but this goes to show you can be grounded when you get the truth…the truth will set you free indeed.

This is the stuff that Christians talk about but dont fully grasp. Its the things all religions are made of but they typically get side tracked and dominated by the ego. The very thing they oppose is what possesses them. This indeed is the irony it would seem.

Peace

dAlen

Extracting the Light from the Dark Side of Nature {Scientific look at Psychedelics}

Here are a few excerpts from a good article at Scientific America on Psychedelics.

March 20, 2008

Self-Experimenters: Psychedelic Chemist Explores the Surreality of Inner Space, One Drug at a Time

By David Biello

Alexander Shulgin is the world’s foremost “psychonaut.” The 82-year-old chemist has not only created more of the 300 known consciousness-altering (or psychoactive) compounds than anyone living or dead, he has, by his own account, sampled somewhere between 200 and 250 of them himself—most of them cooked up in the musty lab behind his home in the hills east of Berkeley, Calif., where he has shared many a chemical voyage with his wife of 26 years, Ann…

…He has paid the price for his avocation. Some of his creations have induced uncontrollable vomiting, paralysis and the feeling that his bones were melting, among other terrors…

…As a student at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1950s, Shulgin’s gateway drug was mescaline, a naturally occurring psychedelic found in peyote and other groovy cacti. “It introduced me to new colors which I had never seen before,” Shulgin says. “It allowed me to interpret whatever I was looking at with an entirely new vocabulary…. And yet, what a simple structure!”……

In the 1960s, while working as a biochemist at The Dow Chemical Co. in San Francisco, he couldn’t resist tinkering with the potent mescaline molecule. He synthesized entirely new compounds that retained similar, trippy qualities. Some variations were less potent, but others were even more powerful or imparted their own unique twist….

…Shulgin, who left Dow in 1965 to consult for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) among other pursuits, offered the best of his new chemical darlings to Ann, his second wife; the most promising of these were passed along to a close circle of 10 friends until the mid-1990s, when the DEA, no longer paying for his services, raided his lab and revoked his license to work with illegal drugs….

…”Peculiarly, not only did we make them illegal, but we backed away from them scientifically,” says neuroscientist Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, one of the researchers who is restarting basic research into psychedelics. His lab has shown that psilocybin, the active ingredient in the variety of fungi known as magic mushrooms, can bring on lasting feelings of well-being. This may indicate that it could be harnessed to help clinically depressed or addicted patients….

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: Psychedelics, Medicine, Nature, Science, God, Love, Life, Holistic, Mind,

Many people tend to stick their heads in the sand when it comes to such research.
Again, the full article can be found here at Scientific America. Article by David Biello.

Enjoy,

Peace

dAlen

Righteousness {A comment to Pastor Bob}

Intro:
I have to say I totally dig Pastor Bob as an individual.
Not to many ‘famous’ pastors are so transparent, and I appreciate this of him.

Below is a comment I made on his blog about Righteousness…
{Not that Im an authority, infact its quickly written and kind of long winded.}

Intro Comment:
The style you have with your writings work.
Not because of any righteousness you may or may not have…but because its honest…authentic…you.

I used different words above, as they (words) are so easily misunderstood - they carry with them the baggage & weight of a certain view point enforced upon it by any given milieu, so that the words are no longer pointers to the truth but are ‘idols’.

Its great we have Christ Righteousness.
(Again, that is so christianized of a phrase Im sure it doesnt hit the point…but misses the mark ’sin’ completely)

In other words…
I like to remember the actions of Jesus as portrayed in the N.T.

The struggle:
For a long time life was viewed as a doing or a getting their and a becoming this or that. The truth of ‘he is the author and finisher of my faith’ not only eluded me…but I didnt get it. I knew what the words meant, but practically…well, just didnt get it.

When I looked at the story with Jesus and the sinners I suppose I took this view point, which Im sure many Christians take.

“People changed after meeting with Jesus (i.e. prostitute, etc) because there is no way they could stay a prostitute, etc. ‘in sin’ and be with Christ.”

The above concept was more than stated above…it was more of a “Jesus loves them because he knows they will change.” And for sure no one who studied the Bible would word it like this at all, but when you analyze ones own life and perceptions it basically boils down to that.

Why people change/changed was lost.
Righteousness became a future goal, as you put it, something always outside of our reach.

But then one day (not long ago really…) it dawned on me the truth of what was happening.

Jesus never saw a prostitute.
You say, “right on bro, of course he didnt…he loved the sinner, but not the sin.”

I would say…
“no…he loved the person, and did not see a sinner”.
This…and only this is what brings about the formula for any (lasting) change (without struggle) to come about in ones life.

Now words are tricky, as they first go through a heavy grid filter of the individuals mind who is conditioned by their surroundings and cultural & religious milieu.

So much so that even denominations have a hard time understanding each other…let alone when one feels safe to ’seek with all their heart’ and go outside of their comfort zone to find jesus in all of creation.

In saying that let me give some more pointers to help clarify what I said about jesus seeing a person and not a sinner, and how this truly revolutionalizes a persons life…where its no longer a mental concept they are trying to grasp…but truly what one could say, “the spirit doing the work in them”, but that is to Christianized as well.

Lets look at Jesus again.
He goes and eats at a tax collectors house with a prostitute or two.

He doesnt go:
“You know, Im going to eat with a bunch of sinnners and show them my glorious love…and after that they will swoon and automatically change from their wretched ways.”

Again, that is how most Christians view the scenario.
Jesus loved them unconditionally…BUT…they must change, and will change. (Thats more the pharisee thinking, but Ill get to that soon…maybe.)

So, lets step back and see how and what was happening.

Jesus goes to a house.
He sees his creation.
At that moment the ‘tax collector is not ‘tax collecting’ - so he is not a tax collector.
At the moment the woman is not in the act of having sex outside marriage for money…so she is not a prostitute.

See the issue?
We have been socially conditioned and trained to define people, as well as ourselves by mental labels. We identify strongly with forms, and that includes thought forms.

Its easy to see why. We spend the majority of our time in our trade.
“I am a Producer” - “she is that”, etc.
It helps us feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, but even more so…it tends to divide.

Even in the Christian work realms…I have seen teams divide and even work against each other out of fear for their position that they so strongly identified with.

“I am the art director and I dont care what the I.T. guy says…he didnt go to art school and Im not listening”

After all, if the I.T. guy has some good input, what purpose do I have? I feel like “Im dieing”. Well that is actually the ego or false self dieing, and this is good.

Reminds me of the Matrix Reloaded (2nd film) where Mr. Smith says, “You took away something from us that we will now take away from you…purpose…” (paraphrase), but that is the ego/false self all the way.

And then rises the fear of, “But then that gives people a permission to sin.” It truly amazes me, even amongst people who believe in eternal salvation how this continues to trouble them.

It troubles them as they look at it as someone getting away with something that they should be able to get away with.
Now they may never say this or realize it, but its the same as my example with the art director vs. the I.T. guy.

The persons sense of false self gets threatened.
“I have worked in your fields all day Lord, but this person comes up and works the last hour and you give them the same as me…”

See, the work was false, it was a sense of ego…it was a label they were working on to protect. The false self that Pastor Bob was talking about.

Practicality.
So practically speaking lets take a look at the scenario again.

Jesus goes in a house and sees people.
They are just there and he is there with them in the ‘now’.
(notice God is the ‘I Am’, not ‘I was’ or ‘I will be’. He is ever present and so are we, though we like to project ourselves to a past or future…that only exist in the present in our minds.)

So that is the chain. And the release is this:

Jesus met people where they were and loved them.
He let them be. That simple. Thats love. Read Pauls text.
(Does not remember wrong.) He let them be and saw through their egoic stories of, “Im the prostitute” or “Im the alcoholic, oh poor me!”

Jesus didnt feed the story, he fed the soul.
This is what it meant that he loved the sinner and not the sin.
He didnt see a sinner (lost in words again) he saw the person and did not identify them with their sin.

Jesus came “once and for all”.

Its this freedom…this looking through the false labels and all the self righteous clown talk that allowed them to choose to not do ’sinful’ (missing the mark is what sin means) acts.

Whenever you identify with something, it becomes a burden and its impossible to escape. You will count the days until you break down, do it again, and get more into it from guilt and shame.

When 23 hours and 11min you werent doing whatever ’sin’ it is you are so obsessed about.

Jesus said his yoke is easy, and he wasnt joking.
It doesnt get much easier than this.

People worried about getting away with sin…who gets away with bondage? Are you truly envious of someone getting away with a struggle?

Or is the problem that you really think its cool and desirable and you are not being true and honest to yourself?

Conclusion:
Well, I suppose this has wrapped itself up.
Again, Bob, I appreciate your straight forward talk and not trying to put up a fake front to where you are or arent. (Because you are where you are supposed to be.) That last sentence may throw a few off, but it definitely has more weight than what you see on surface level.

Peace

dAlen