Awarenous Blog

The Shift

2015-03-09T10:58:00.001-04:00

The following blogs were built from October 2011 through August 2012 (see list at bottom of page) and remain available for research during these periods, ending in March 2015, where the project was moved and updated to one blog, see here.

These sites as of this posting have generated over 800,000 visits, and provide an array of alternative news information and transformation occurring during these times.

Everything that was posted here can still be followed exclusively through Twitter as one of five categories. (See widget in sidebar.) Although, now, and because of the transformations occurring, I must move forward and reduce the workload, improve focus, and provide a better platform that reflects the entire house as a course of action.

"It seems impossible to not know what our five senses are being used for. It has been learned that information must include an array of the what we perceive as sensations for preception to occur, that is to say, so that we understand them in context to our environment. Alternative media authors are rapidly working out the kinks in this chain where feelings have been assumed and fed with useless sensational alterations. The truth however, is that these stigmas are not really sensations, they are powerful centers entwined in the octave of life."

Learn more here. You can contact me here.

Postings on this blog may occur in the future for research purposes only. Be sure to visit and bookmark the current posting schedule here.

How To Overcome Porn Addiction (Pornography) - Teal Swan-

2015-03-07T13:51:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Teal Swan, The Spiritual Catalyst | Mar 7, 2015

Teal's web page: http://tealswan.com/
Teal's Meditations: http://www.jointeallive.com/meditations/
Teal's e shop: https://gumroad.com/tealswan

Subscribe to the Podcast of Tea Time With Teal here: http://thespiritualcatalyst.us6.list-...

Pornography is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purpose of sexual arousal. Porn is a multi billion dollar industry. It must be understood that seeking out pleasure is not wrong so it is useless to discuss the rightness or wrongness of porn. We must instead develop perspective about porn. In this episode, Teal discusses Pornography in depth and then offers tips for how people can overcome porn addiction.

http://www.askteal.com
Kuan Yin's Mantra (c) 2002 Lisa Thiel - used by permission http://www.sacreddream.com

Are Smartphones Becoming a Substitute for Thinking?

2015-03-07T07:01:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Activist Post | Mar 6, 2015 | Alex Pietrowski

Our smartphones are like a wealth of information at our fingertips. They help us find directions to new restaurants, offer information about the places we want to visit, and can instantly answer any question about whatever inquiry fills the mind. But are we getting lazy and avoiding thinking about things that we might already know?

A team of researchers at the University of Waterloo asked just that same question and conducted three studies with a total of 600 participants. The study categorized the subjects by measuring their cognitive style, ranging from intuitive to analytical, and it also evaluated verbal and numerical skills. The study also analyzed the participants’ device usage habits.

What the researchers found was that the convenience of smartphones is making us less likely to use our own brainpower. This effect was more noticeable in intuitive thinkers, which are defined as personas that rely on instincts to make decisions. This type of person seems to be becoming lazier when it comes to thinking about a problem or question, and more often turns to the smartphone’s search engine for answers.

“They may look up information that they actually know or could easily learn, but are unwilling to make the effort to actually think about it.” ~ Gordon Pennycook, co-lead author of the study, and a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at Waterloo.

“Decades of research has revealed that humans are eager to avoid expending effort when problem-solving and it seems likely that people will increasingly use their smartphones as an extended mind.” ~ Nathaniel Barr, the other lead author of the paper, and a postdoctoral researcher at Waterloo.

The other type of thinker, identified by the researchers as the analytical thinker with stronger cognitive skills and who is less likely to go with a gut feeling when solving problems or seeking answers, showed a greater eagerness to think without using the Internet for information.

“Our research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence,” said Pennycook. “Whether smartphones actually decrease intelligence is still an open question that requires future research.”

“Our reliance on smart phones and other devices will likely only continue to rise,” said Barr. “It’s important to understand how smartphones affect and relate to human psychology before these technologies are so fully ingrained that it’s hard to recall what life was like without them. We may already be at that point.”

The researchers did not find any correlation between cognitive abilities and heavy use of social media and entertainment apps. An important point they did make is that “avoiding using our own minds to problem-solve might have adverse consequences for aging.”

The body is not the only part of you that needs exercise. Perhaps next time you’re working on remembering a random fact or are faced with a problem, think about it a little bit more and let your brain do some heavy lifting before pulling out your smartphone.

Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150305110546.htm

Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com, where this article first appeared, and an avid student of Yoga and life.

World War 3...Birth Of A Brave New World

2015-03-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Brother Nathanael | Mar 6, 2015

The Inevitable Awakening

2015-03-06T06:02:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Waking Times | Mar 4, 2015 | Zen Gardner

The waking up process is a very personal experience. Once we become aware of the existence of a fabricated world we thought to be real and that our true nature is anything but what we’ve been told, there’s no turning back.

It may appear to be a lonely path, but we are by no means alone in this awakening. It is happening in all walks of life. Whether a banker or corporate employee wakes up to the scam being perpetrated on humanity and pulls out of the matrix, or a normal taxpaying worker realizes they’re contributing to a military industrial machine hell bent on war, control and world domination, we’re all the same.

And those are just surface issues compared to the deliberate socially engineered suppression of man’s innate spiritual nature, whether we call it social liberty or the freedom to create and manifest as we truly are.

Triggers for Awakening

There are many such triggers that wake people up. When a child dies from a supposedly preventative vaccine, or becomes autistic for no reason, things change. Once someone realizes, for example, how the world was scammed on 9/11 and that the powers that be are willing to perpetrate such atrocities to promote their agenda, the digging begins in sincerity. When we realize we’re at the complete mercy of parasitic central bankers more than willing to not only implode the world’s economy, but finance both sides of any conflict for personal gain and control and that our governments are complicit in this scheme, we start to grasp the enormity of what befalls us.

In addition, that we have rapidly devolved into an advanced militarized surveillance police state is driving many to ask some hard questions – and the answers can be startling and difficult to swallow, especially when you realize they have cut off all avenues of recourse.

Another major issue is that it’s more evident by the day that our very health is under attack, again by complicit government and multinational corporations pushing GMOs, adulterated food, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, atmospheric aerosols and the like, all of which have been proven to be extremely hazardous to humanity. Yet they push harder by the day, mandating program after destructive program. Meanwhile, natural and organic farming and foods, as well as supplements, are under intense attack by these very same perpetrators.

The truth about these issues and many, many more including massive planet harming programs such as fracking, electrosmog, and the geoengineering assault on humanity are driving a major perceptual paradigm shift amongst all walks of life as we delve more deeply into who is doing all this and why.

There Is No “They” – Oh Really?

This is often the final breakthrough point for many people. As the true picture starts to crystallize, the horrific realization that the “powers that be” are fundamentally a clandestine cabal with front men comes into focus. These are powerful minions, more interested in total control and weakening and subjugating humanity via health degradation, dumbed down education, mindless “bread and circus” government controlled media, depraved violence and sex oriented entertainment, and a draconian militarized police crackdown. The ugly truth then comes to the fore.

It can be staggering. If you take just 9/11 and other false flag events and realize they were staged to bring about this Orwellian police state where the citizens are now terror suspects, it can be very difficult to swallow.

A quick perusal of history soon follows, where people realize these same false flag/false enemy tactics were used to justify almost every war, leading to such totalitarian states as Stalinist Russia, Communist China and Nazi Germany, each of which descended into horrific pogroms, decimating their own populations of anyone potentially daring to question the new regime.

It’s not all black and white. There are of course good people working for bad people, powers and programs, wittingly and unwittingly. Many are trying to change and improve our existing structure. Many good people are performing wonderful services within this overarching societal program thinking it can be changed constructively. What we’re addressing are the overarching deceitful and destructive powers and mechanisms at play that are attempting to bring humanity into a weakened subservient role to some sort of worldwide fascist control state, eliminating personal and national sovereignty to support and obey a very few powerful self-appointed elites.

And it’s coming on fast. The recent FCC takeover of the internet being a prime example of the internal version, while wanton wars proliferate unchecked while the economic and survival conditions of regular people continues to tank.

This becomes evident as anyone pursues almost any avenue we’re discussing here. To realize this massive program is being orchestrated by some form of “they” soon becomes obvious. The reality of the conspiracy that JFK so eloquently pointed out before he was surgically removed from office via assassination hits squarely home. Please listen to his entire speech.

We Have to Find Out for Ourselves

An essential element to a true awakening is investigating and learning for ourselves. One of the main control mechanisms has been teaching humanity to only trust what they’ve been told by these same agendized so-called authorities. How many times have you heard, “If 9/11 was an ‘inside job’, surely it would have been on CNN. If something was really wrong surely someone would have said something.”

Well, a lot of people have and continue to speak out. And what’s the response? Anything contrary to the official narrative is “outlandish conspiracy theories” as they parrot the phrase “you’re either with us or with the terrorists, which results in the subsequent demonization and marginalization of any form of questioning or healthy criticism.

Waking up from that media and education entrancement is another shocker. Could they do such a thing? Could we really be facing such a totalitarian crackdown? And why?

When I was young there were over 60 media companies vying for audiences. Real investigative reporting, although it’s always been tampered with or suppressed, was still available. Today 6 mega corporations own all of the media. The very same corporations that own much of the corporate military industrial and agra-pharmaceutical infrastructure. Conspiracy is not a stretch – of course these power brokers would twist information to suit their intentions.

The word conspiracy has been stigmatized for a reason – don’t ask questions or there will be consequences.

All of this will take some serious researching, most likely in places people have never dared to look before. And this is good. Don’t let anyone tell you what the truth is, find out for yourself and be convinced in your own mind and heart. That’s a new phenomenon for most, as odd as that may seem, but stepping outside the propaganda mainstream is a must. And it is oh so refreshing.

The Shock Does Wear Off – And Don’t Worry, We’re in this Together

There are so many interconnected “rabbit holes” of similarly repressed, twisted or hidden areas of information that it can be staggering. Once we realize we’ve been lied to about any one of these serious issues, we begin to question everything. And that is extremely healthy. You may not find support for your new found perspective from those around you, but there are millions who are sharing your experience. Thanks to the internet you can find others undergoing the same transformation quite readily and derive a lot of encouragement and support.

Battling through the naysaying of close friends and loved ones seems to act like a chrysalis, much like the cocoon a metamorphosing butterfly has to struggle to escape. And as we know, that is exactly what drives the blood into the wings of the birthing creation that will soon bear the beautiful new awakened soul to glorious new heights and vistas.

One thing that won’t wear off is your absolute disdain for what is being perpetrated on our fellow humans. As the expression goes, “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” If you knew your home was under attack and malevolent forces were coming for you and your children, you would do anything in your power to protect your family. That soon becomes an innate awareness regarding the current toxic social and physical world we’re experiencing and the need for a conscious response.

Awakening Your Spirituality

This goes hand in hand with anyone experiencing this consciousness shift. If things here are so massively manipulated, what lies beyond all of this? What are we being kept from? Why do I sense I am so much more? Where does God or Love or human kindness come in? And for so many with some form of religious or spiritual background or understanding, the question always arises, “Is this some form of spiritual warfare?”

These are very important questions to pursue. There must be meaning in all of this. “Certainly all of humanity is not as wicked as these psychopathic control freaks.” Yes, that’s true. Unfortunately, the aggressor often rules the day in this hierarchy of control our world has adopted for millennia. History bears this out.

The beauty of gaining a new spiritual perspective is that it puts these influences in their place. We discover new ways to perceive our true indomitable nature which gives tremendous peace and confidence in spite of what we’re currently faced with. This sense of profound conscious awareness and spirituality only grows as our pursuit for truth, in love, gains momentum.

Awake, But Never Alone

A sense of isolation following the initial awakening is natural. It’s foreign to everything we’ve been taught, with implications that can be mind-boggling as well as heart breaking. However, we are very much connected and sharing a profound common experience. Knowing we are not alone is very important to keep in mind.

Building community also becomes a priority, where we can contribute to the healing of the planet at every level possible. Whether it’s activist or spiritual associations this is very important. It may only be on-line at first, that’s fine. Find kindred spirits and empowering and informative websites and blogs and even attend meet up events in your area on some of these subjects of concern.

This awakening of consciousness is transpiring at an accelerating pace, and it’s something to be very encouraged about. Once you get past the shock of what you’ve “found out” it becomes easier, but it will drastically alter your life.

Enjoy it, be empowered and take action accordingly. Trust your heart.

The darkness cannot put out the Light no matter how hard they try.

Please share this freely with those embarking on this magnificent journey.

Much love,

Zen

ZenGardner.com

Just how Islamic is 'Islamic State'?

2015-03-05T06:03:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: SOTT | Mar 2, 2015 | Middle East Online

IS not only misreads texts, most clerics say, it also ignores Quranic verses requiring mercy, preservation of life and protection of innocents.

Three British schoolgirls believed to have gone to Syria to become "jihadi" brides. Three young men charged in New York with plotting to join the Islamic State group and carry out attacks on American soil. A masked, knife-wielding militant from London who is the face of terror in videos showing Western hostages beheaded.

They are among tens of thousands of Muslims eager to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State group (Daesh). An estimated 20,000 have streamed into the territory in Iraq and Syria where the group has proclaimed what it calls a "caliphate" ruled by its often brutal version of Islamic law.

But how rooted in Islam is the ideology embraced by this group that has inspired so many to fight and die?

President Barack Obama has insisted the militants behind a brutal campaign of beheadings, kidnappings and enslavement are "not Islamic" and only use a veneer of Islam for their own ends. Obama's critics argue the extremists are intrinsically linked to Islam. Others insist their ideology has little connection to religion.

The group claims for itself the mantle of Islam's earliest years, purporting to recreate the conquests and rule of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his successors. But in reality its ideology is a virulent vision all its own, one that its adherents have created by plucking selections from centuries of traditions.

The vast majority of Muslim clerics say the group cherry picks what it wants from Islam's holy book, the Quran, and from accounts of Muhammad's actions and sayings, known as the Hadith. It then misinterprets many of these, while ignoring everything in the texts that contradicts those hand-picked selections, these experts say.

The group's claim to adhere to the prophecy and example of Muhammad (PBUH) helps explain its appeal among young Muslim radicals eager to join its ranks. Much like Nazi Germany evoked a Teutonic past to inspire its followers, Islamic State propaganda almost romantically depicts its holy warriors as re-establishing the caliphate, contending that ideal of Islamic rule can come only through blood and warfare.

Read more..

The Untouchables – Government Employee Can’t Be Fired Despite Watching 6 Hours of Porn a Day at Work

2015-03-05T06:02:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Liberty Blitzkrieg | Mar 3, 2015 | Michael Krieger

At the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), red tape is preventing the removal of a top level employee accused of viewing porn two to six hours a day while at work, since 2010. Even though investigators found 7,000 pornographic files on his computer and even caught him watching porn, he remains on the payroll.

Five years ago, the General Services Administration (GSA) spent more than $800,000 on a lavish conference in Las Vegas. They were served 1,000 sushi rolls costing $7 each and a clown and mind reader were hired for entertainment. Two managers were initially fired but got their jobs back after the MSPB reversed the decision.

The GSA was ordered to “cancel the appellants removals” and give them back pay plus interest. Meanwhile, the organizer of the convention was never technically fired. He was allowed to retire.

From the CBS News article: Red Tape Keeps Some Bad Gov’t Workers From Being Fired
It was just brought to my attention that prosecutors in the General David Petraeus case are suggesting two years probation and a $40,000 fine, rather than the one-year prison sentence his misdemeanor charge carries. If it were you or I, and the government didn’t like our political activities, the feds would undoubtably try to put us in a cage for as long as possible. Must be nice to be an oligarch. After all, insiders don’t jail other insiders. This is not a free country.

It’s not just Petraeus and other oligarchs either. Status quo minions often also receive special treatment for their tireless service to the plutocracy. You know, such as watching six hours per day of porn on the job.

We learn from CBS News that:

In the private sector, if you’re caught viewing porn on company time or intimidating a co-worker, you’d probably be fired immediately; not so if you’re a federal employee.

A CBS News investigation looks at how hard it is for the U.S. government to discipline or fire employees who behave badly. With examples ranging from extravagant to explicit, civil service rules meant to protect public workers from political pressure may be backfiring, and costing you big, reports CBS News correspondent Don Dahler.

At the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), red tape is preventing the removal of a top level employee accused of viewing porn two to six hours a day while at work, since 2010. Even though investigators found 7,000 pornographic files on his computer and even caught him watching porn, he remains on the payroll.

At a Congressional hearing, EPA administrator Gina McCarthy was asked why she hadn’t fired the employee and said, “I actually have to work through the administrative process, as you know.”

He said those rules make it nearly impossible to fire poor performers or problematic employees, even when they’ve committed egregious violations.

A CBS News analysis of cases under review by the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB), an appeals board for federal workers, found other instances of employees who had committed seemingly fireable offenses who were later reinstated to their jobs, often with back pay and interest.

Five years ago, the General Services Administration (GSA) spent more than $800,000 on a lavish conference in Las Vegas. They were served 1,000 sushi rolls costing $7 each and a clown and mind reader were hired for entertainment. Two managers were initially fired but got their jobs back after the MSPB reversed the decision.

The GSA was ordered to “cancel the appellants removals” and give them back pay plus interest. Meanwhile, the organizer of the convention was never technically fired. He was allowed to retire.

Taking into consider administrative leave and the general costs of the procedure itself, Stier said, “There is no question that taxpayers are losing hundreds of millions of dollars, in a conservative estimate. They are losing more than that because they are losing the ability to get the very best out of government.”

Public service indeed.

In Liberty,

Michael Krieger

New Ancient “Mystery Human” Species Identified Shakes Up The Theory Of Evolution

2015-03-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Collective Evolution | Mar 1, 2015 | Arjun Walia

Evolution is something scientists have observed at several different levels in nature, and when it comes to human ancestry, they’ve been able to collect bits and pieces of the giant puzzle that is human evolution. We do know that some form of evolution (scientifically speaking) has occurred on various levels, but there are still many missing links to our evolutionary journey, and new discoveries made every year are continuing to re-write what we previously believed to be true.

It’s important to remember that there is still much we do not know, and the evolutionary tree is far from understood, let alone complete.

A New Species Discovered?

One great example is a discovery that was made just over a year ago where researchers discovered what looks to be an entirely new species of hominin that is currently unknown to modern day science. The discovery was made in a Siberian cave.

A DNA analysis of the subject’s genome detected traces of what is known as a “Denisovan,” who are considered to be the mysterious cousins of the Neanderthals. The alarming part is the fact that the genome also contains odd bits of DNA which seem to come from a completely unknown, unidentifiable group of “people.”

The genome from a Neanderthal was also analyzed from the excavation, and the results suggest that interbreeding occurred among members of multiple ancient human-like groups in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago, “including an as yet unknown human ancestor from Asia.”

“What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a Lord of the Rings type world – that there were many hominid populations.” - (1) Mark Thomas, evolutionary geneticist at University College London.

Again, Neanderthal and Denisovan’s are believed to have bred with anatomically modern humans, thus contributing to the genetic diversity of many people today. That being said, this new discovery suggests that our genetic diversity is far more complex, and again, includes a being (or beings) that has yet to be identified.

“The best explanation is that the Denisovans interbred with an unidentified species, and picked up some of their DNA. Denisovans harbour ancestry from an unknown archaic population, unrelated to Neanderthals.” (2) – David Reich of Harvard Medical School

Who Were These People?

The question now becomes, who were these mystery people that some of our ancestors (like the Denisovans) were interbreeding with? Could they have been a similar group? Could they have been a completely separate, entirely new species?

This finding is one small example of the many mysteries and questions that remain regarding human evolution. There is also the anomaly regarding evidence found which suggests intelligent, extremely advanced (more so than we are today) ancient human civilizations might have existed in our ancient past, from millions of years ago all the way up to recent history.[3] Where does all that fit into the equation? That is, however, a completely separate topic for a separate article.

The amount we do know is but a tiny drop in an ocean, full of unknowns that have yet to be discovered, that will one day shed light on the mystery of human origin.

Sources:

(1) http://www.nature.com/news/mystery-humans-spiced-up-ancients-sex-lives-1.14196

(2) http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24603-mystery-human-species-emerges-from-denisovan-genome.html#.VO9hLLPF_xL

3. http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/03/14/ancient-imagination-or-ancient-facts-prehistoric-flying-machines-2/

A Time of Revelation

2015-03-03T06:17:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Zen Gardner | Mar 2, 2015

I don’t know about you but the schism between truth and lies seems to be widening pretty drastically lately with a lot of confusion and disorientation sewn into the mix.

Just recently I’ve seen friends facing personal upheavals, con jobs, personal attacks from very strange quarters, new and very revealing understandings of personal perspectives and relationships, and just about everything, for myself as well.

It’s like we’re viewing the perceived world as being fractured into shards of broken off new perspectives to be grasped and understood, making the big picture that much more lucid.

If we connect the dots.

I’ve said for a long time the split between the willing awakeners and the willful asleep would widen and we’d see more and more psychotic behavior on the part of the truth resistant. The revelation of what’s really going on within these vectors of society, as well as in the so called Truth movement, are something to look out for and be consciously aware of.

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse means the unveiling, the revealing, hence the term revelation. Quite a far cry from the end of the world, it’s just an end of a very limited understanding and the opening of another.

As the world becomes more and more aware of what is really driving society, via enlightened thought, archeological and scientific or otherwise discoveries of profound truths about our realm and where we came from, our dimensional reality, the real history of our planet etc., things take on whole new dimensions even for mainstream thinkers.

Settled science is famous for concealing not just information, but its implications. That’s really the world we’re up against. “Mustn’t make any rash decisions or paradigm shifts. We’re still processing this data”….yada yada.

We’re in for a fun and wild ride. Things are going to be revealed that are going to peel eyeballs back. Then observers are going to have to deal with the cognitive dissonance as mainstain purveyors make mush out of what could be empowering truth which the unaware will have to swallow. As the information field shifts and steps up its vibrational intensity we’re going to be seeing some real doozies and these seeming controllers won’t be able to keep their tracks covered.

Meanwhile we’re experiencing what we’re experiencing, faster than any mainstream or even alternative narrative can keep up with.

There’s so much being released as this fractured shift and partition of the old paradigm takes place it will be mind boggling. But a great ride to take nonetheless…if you’re conscious, awake and aware…and on the offensive.

The Moral of the Story?

Don’t let it throw you, but pay attention to all of this. It might be seeping up through some personal issues you might have but let it bubble up and see it for what it is. Maybe dreams are surfacing to your consciousness, or old relationships or new situations are under scrutiny. Just pay attention.

Truth invites inspection. Never be afraid.

We are being empowered by the mightiest force in the Universe. The Universe itself. We can steer through this madness with calmness of heart and soul and a determined mind, or let it disturb us and send us into lower level thinking and vibration.

The choice is ours.

Don’t let anything throw you. Examine everything carefully in conscious awareness, and never fear your conclusions, or path along the way.

Trusting our awakened hearts is imperative.

Steady on your way.

Much love always, Zen

Facebook could trigger envy, depression – new study

2015-03-03T06:16:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: RT | Mar 2, 2015

A new study claims that spending too much time on social media network Facebook might have adverse effects on your mental health. RT’s Ameera David takes a look at this new information on how Facebook might be contributing to personal feelings of depression and envy.

Google gives new meaning to “Orwellian” - Becomes Ministry of Truth

2015-03-02T06:11:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Activist Post | Mar 1, 2015 | Jon Rappoport

“…if all records told the same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth.” (1984, George Orwell)

The New Scientist has the stunning story (2/28/15, “Google wants to rank websites based on facts not links,” by Hal Hodson):

“THE internet is stuffed with garbage. Anti-vaccination websites make the front page of Google, and fact-free ‘news’ stories spread like wildfire. Google has devised a fix – rank websites according to their truthfulness.”

Great idea, right?

Sure it is.

The author of the article lets the cat out of the bag right away with his comment about “anti-vaccination” websites.

These sites will obviously be shoved into obscurity by Google because they’re “garbage”…whereas “truthful” pro-vaccine sites will dominate top ranked pages on the search engine.

This is wonderful if you believe what the CDC tells you about vaccine safety and efficacy. The CDC: an agency that opens its doors every day with lies and closes them with more lies.

The New Scientist article continues: “A Google research team is adapting [a] model to measure the trustworthiness of a [website] page, rather than its reputation across the web. Instead of counting incoming links, the [ranking] system – which is not yet live – counts the number of incorrect facts within a page. ‘A source that has few false facts is considered to be trustworthy,’ says the team…The score they compute for each page is its Knowledge-Based Trust score.”

Right. Google, researchers of truth. Assessors of trustworthiness. Who in the world could have a problem with that?

Answer: anyone with three live brain cells.

Here’s the New Scientist’s capper. It’s a beaut:

“The [truth-finding] software works by tapping into the Knowledge Vault, the vast store of facts that Google has pulled off the internet. Facts the web unanimously agrees on are considered a reasonable proxy for truth. Web pages that contain contradictory information are bumped down the rankings.”

Right. Uh-huh. So Google, along with its friends at the CIA, will engineer a new and improved, greater flood of (dis)information across the Web. And this disinfo will constitute an overwhelming majority opinion…and will become the standard for measuring truth and trustworthiness.

Think about what kinds of websites will rise like foul cream to the top of Google page rankings:

“All vaccines are marvelously safe and effective, and parents who don’t vaccinate their kids should be prosecuted for felonies.”

“GMOs are perfectly safe. ‘The science’ says so.”

“The FBI has never organized a synthetic terror event and then stung the morons it encouraged.”

“Common Core is the greatest system of education yet devised by humans.”

“People who believe conspiracies exist have mental disorders.”

In other words: (fake) consensus reality becomes reality. Which is the situation we have now, but the titanic pile of fakery will rise much, much higher.

Also, think about this: the whole purpose of authentic investigative reporting is puncturing the consensus…but you’ll have to search Google for a long time to find it.

In the field of medical fraud, an area I’ve been researching for 25 years, the conclusions of standard published studies (which are brimming with lies) will occupy page after page of top Google rankings.

Let me offer a counter-example to the Google “knowledge team.” Here is a woman who has examined, up close and personal, more medical studies in her career than the entire workforce of Google. She is Dr. Marcia Angell. For 20 years, she was an editor at The New England Journal of Medicine.

On January 15, 2009, the New York Review of Books published her stunning statement:

It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.

In two sentences, Angell carries more weight than 20,000 blowhard “science bloggers,” to say nothing of lying drug companies and that criminal agency called the FDA.

Angell torpedoes an entire range of medical literature, based on her hard-won experience.

But you can be sure that when it comes to “medical facts,” the Google “truth team” will ascribe absolutely no merit (ranking) to her conclusion or its implications.

You may say, “But these search engines are already slanting the truth.”

The new Google program is going to double down. It’s going to set up its own Ministry of Truth. It’s going to standardize algorithms that unerringly bring about officially favored lies.

Stories on vote fraud?

Stories contradicting the official line on mass shootings?

Stories on the US government funding terrorist groups?

Stories on the hostile planetary intentions of Globalists?

Stories on corporate criminals? Secrets of the Federal Reserve?

Stories on major media censoring scandals?

Counter-consensus stories on 9/11, the JFK assassination, the US bankers and corporations who funded both sides in WW2? All anti-establishment versions of history?

After Google launches this Ministry of Truth program, you’ll have to put on diving gear and go deep underwater to find any trace of them.

Welcome to a new day.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” (Opening line, 1984, Orwell)

Let’s take all this one step further. Google’s director of research is Ray Kurzweil, who many people know as the promoter of a “utopian” plan to hook the population up (through direct brain-machine interface) to a vast super-computer.

The super-computer will pass along virtually all human knowledge. Kurzweil believes such a momentous breakthrough will endow humans with a mystical level of consciousness.

Even if this technological wet dream could be realized, we can now see what “connecting to all human knowledge” means:

It means accepting all official knowledge. Being blind to counter-knowledge.

It’s time to reverse AI (Artificial Intelligence) and call it IA (Intelligent Androids).

IAs would be humans who are programmed to be androids. IAs accept truth as it delivered to them by official sources.

Google makes its contribution by promoting official sources.

And hiding other sources.

Yes, this surely seems like Nirvana.

You will be fed the Good and protected from the Evil.

Sound familiar?

Thank you, Google. When are you going to apply for non-profit status and open your Holy Church of Information?

“Today’s sermon will be delivered by the director of the CIA. It is titled, ‘Data: everything you need to know, everything you must not believe.’ Breathe deeply. Your neuronal circuits are now being tuned to our channel…”

Jon Rappoport is the author of two explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed and Exit From the Matrix, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

Meditation may slow brain matter loss due to aging

2015-02-28T14:13:00.001-05:00

Courtesy: Natural News | Feb 28, 2015 | PF Louis

As this author has stated before, science likes to intervene in just about all human activities to give an "authoritative" perspective on whatever all of us do or don't do. Wrong, right or indecisive, most folks need "scientific authority" to grant a stamp of approval or disapproval on almost anything we do these days.

But even when unnecessary, their findings may be interesting and even reassuring. Most people don't meditate, and pretty much the same amount of folks don't think there's any merit in it.

Those who do meditate usually do to gain an insight into who we really are, spiritually. The side effects of calmness and equanimity under what most consider stressful situations is but one "side effect" of the pursuit of absolute truth through meditation.

There are other health benefits among those side effects, such as improved heart health and better sleep (even with less hours), and faster recoveries from common illness such as the flu and colds have been observed in other studies.

A meditation study performed by UCLA researchers

It's common knowledge that aging usually promotes brain shrinkage and a loss of gray matter. And this starts without fanfare or much notice even before one turns 30. Gray matter is where neurons are stored, which communicate with nerve cells that transmit nerve signals to and from the brain at up to 200 mph.

According to some sources, unlike other cells in the body, brain cells cannot regenerate after damage. But there have been two instances reported by Natural News where comatose patients recovered from extreme brain damage with massive amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.

The UCLA Brain Mapping Center was looking for decreasing gray matter loss due to aging without the adjunct of cannabis, which has been discovered to maintain brain cells.

So they recruited 50 people who don't meditate as a control group and 50 who do to compare their brain scans from high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging.

Each group of 50 was comprised of 28 men and 22 women ranging in age from 24 to 77. Those who meditated had been doing so for at least four years and up to 46 years, with an average of 20 years.

Although all the older subjects, both meditators and non-meditators, showed signs of diminishing gray matter, the researchers discovered that meditators did fare better. Large parts of the gray matter in the brains of those who meditated seemed to be better preserved.

As a matter of fact, according to Dr. Florian Kurth, a co-author of the study and postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Brain Mapping Center, the researchers were surprised by the magnitude of the difference.

"We expected rather small and distinct effects located in some of the regions that had previously been associated with meditating," he said. "Instead, what we actually observed was a widespread effect of meditation that encompassed regions throughout the entire brain."

It could turn out that, if this study gets out enough, the baby boomer population may have another tool for preventing dementia or even reversing it to some degree. And it's beyond cross-word puzzles.

Meditation not only slows brain cell loss but helps the immune system by allowing recovery from fight or flight hormones, especially cortisol, which builds up with even minor chronic anxiety and worry to the point of inviting, rather than warding off, more illness.

Reducing chronic cortisol reduces inflammation, and inflammation is the root of almost all disease. So physical health is enhanced from meditation as well.

Meditation involves assuming a relaxed "witness" position of not judging or trying to change thoughts or thinking of "getting rid" of all thought. Simply observe them and let them come and go like clouds in the sky. Not chemtrail clouds, of course.

Sources:

http://newsroom.ucla.edu

http://newsroom.ucla.edu

http://journal.frontiersin.org

http://www.enchantedlearning.com

The Meditative Journey - Joseph Goldstein, 2003

2015-02-28T07:02:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: chasefukuoka61 | Feb 27, 2015

A very insightful Dharma talk from Joseph Goldstein speaking on June 21, 2003 at the end of a month long mindfulness retreat. He talks about the nature of dukkha, human suffering, how we cling to a false sense of identity, to emotions, thoughts and attitudes. He then explains in detail how our practice of mindfulness, ethical action

Best Of: Science as the New Religion

2015-02-27T06:01:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Local Org | Feb 26, 2015 | Tony Cartalucci

Irrational faith in corporate R&D is not science, it is a modern day cult.

February 26, 2015 (Tony Cartalucci - LocalOrg) - When money and power are involved, those standing to gain the most will say and do anything to push their agenda forward. Five centuries ago, saying and doing anything involved exploiting people's superstitions and their faith in religion. Today, saying and doing anything means also exploiting science.

Science, engineering, and design are amongst our most practical and effective tools to make real and meaningful change. But because they are so powerful and appealing, the potential for their abuse in the wrong hands is immense. Compounding this is the naivety of those who are fascinated by science's promise but blind to its potential abuse.

It wasn't long ago when big-tobacco had armies of "scientists" citing the latest "studies" confirming the health benefits and safety of smoking. Of course these were paid liars, not scientists, even if many of them had PhDs. And it was lies they were telling, even if mixed with shades of science. Today, special interests have refined this practice of filtering lies and exploitation through the lens of science regarding everything from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to the false debate on climate change, to the questionable interests behind global vaccination programs.

Read more..

The Mystery of Consciousness | Interview with Dr. Michael Clarage

2015-02-26T06:02:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Thunderbolts Project | Feb 25, 2015

Perhaps the greatest mystery of human experience is consciousness itself. Today, the fields of neuroscience and neurotechnology provide astounding insights into the electrical and chemical processes of the brain. Consequently, institutional science proposes with confidence that the brain alone creates conscious experience. Yet despite all that science has learned, the very source and essence of consciousness remains a puzzle. Thunderbolts colleague Dr. Michael Clarage shares with us his thoughts on the enduring mysteries of consciousness.

Tiny Brain no Obstacle to French Civil Servant: http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/0...

Man With Tiny Brain Shocks Doctors: http://www.newscientist.com/article/d...

The Man with the Missing Brain: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/bo...

Recent video presentations on the mystery of consciousness:

Dr. Gary Schwartz interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-6ho...

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4henA...

Dr. Clarage received his PhD in physics in 1992 from Brandeis University, studying the biological and statistical behavior of proteins. Prior to that, he spent several years studying binary pulsars at the Arecibo radio telescope. With his brother, he gave traveling lectures about their discoveries in the areas of fractional calculus, fractals, and chaotic systems. Over the past 15 years, he has presented public lectures on such topics as Relativity and Dimensions, Metaphysics in Biology, Transformation in Supernova and Metamorphosis in Biology. Dr. Clarage is currently a lead scientist with the SAFIRE Project.

Want to network with other like-minded individuals? Join us at EU2015 Conference: Paths of Discovery, June 25-29, Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. Start your journey here: https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015...

Subscribe to Thunderbolts Update newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ETy41
The Thunderbolts Project Home: http://www.thunderbolts.info
Essential Guide to the Electric Universe: http://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/eg-co...
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Electric Universe by Wal Thornhill: http://www.holoscience.com/wp/
Electric Universe T-shirts and Gifts: http://www.thunder-stuff.com

One-third of America on the brink of financial disaster – survey

2015-02-24T06:02:00.000-05:00

Reuters / Kevin Lamarque

Courtesy: RT | Feb 23, 2015

Thirty-seven percent of Americans have credit card debt that equals or is greater than their emergency savings, according to a new survey, leaving them “teetering on the edge of financial disaster.”

A poll of more than 1,000 adults in the United States by Bankrate.com found that about 24 percent of Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings, while another 13 percent have neither credit card debt nor emergency savings.

“Not only do most of them not have enough savings, they’ve all used up some portion of their available credit — they are running out of options,” said Greg McBride, Bankrate.com’s chief financial analyst.

The 30 to 49 age group are in the most peril, with 32 percent of respondents reporting that they have credit card debt higher than their emergency savings. Twenty-five percent of those aged between 50 to 64 said the same, as did 21 percent in the 18 to 29 age bracket and 14 percent of those 65 and up.

As a 2014 survey by American Express reported, emergencies are more frequent than many would like to think. Half of Americans who responded to the survey had to deal with a fairly major unforeseen or emergency expense in the past year. Forty-four percent said the expense was health related, while 46 percent said it was for a car repair.

"People don't have enough money for unplanned expenses, and if they have more credit card debt than emergency savings, it's a double whammy," McBride said. "In the event of unplanned expenses, their options are limited."

Despite the discouraging numbers, more Americans are better off this year than in 2014, the Bankrate survey found. About 58 percent said they have more emergency savings than credit card debt, compared with 51 percent last year.

With effects of the Great Recession still lingering for many, and with decades of stagnant wage growth in several key work sectors, Bankrate’s McBride said that putting a priority on saving has not been “a high enough priority for American households."

"It's difficult for people to really move the needle on savings when their income hasn't grown," he said.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, meanwhile, reported last week that the quantity of student loans in the US overdue by 90 days or more has risen to 11.3 percent, its highest point in a year.

In 2013, Americans ages 25 or younger held nearly $150 billion in student loan debt, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found, while those between the ages of 25 and 49 carried about $700 billion in student debt. Those between the ages of 65 and 74 had around $150 billion in student debt.

Overall, debts in the US went up in the fourth quarter of 2014 – rising $117 billion from October through December to a total of $11.8 trillion, the New York Fed reported.

Logan’s Run (1976) – Our Technocratic Dystopia Unveiled

2015-02-21T07:06:00.000-05:00

The 23rd century, where pleasure
rules in a synthetic society.

Courtesy: Jay's Analysis | Feb 19, 2015

The 1970s were a hot era for science fiction films that took a decidedly dystopian turn. With Planet of the Apes at the close of the 60s, films like Soylent Green had infected the mass mind with the threat of the coming apocalypse, to be followed by a spate of 80s post-apocalyptic B movies and cult classics like Mad Max. One of those highly revelatory 70s films is the 1976 film adaptation of William F. Nolan’s novel, Logan’s Run, directed by Michael Anderson. As with all the dystopian films, especially 70s installments, they all seem to contain a puzzle piece of the overall real-world plan of the technocrats preparing us for the coming of the new aeon.

The setting for Logan’s Run is a technocratic utopian society situated in a self-contained biosphere dome based around a death cult that participates in a monthly ritual (The Carrousel) where all citizens are killed in a “renewal” ceremony reminiscent of a Katy Perry Super Bowl halftime show. Convinced that renewal results in reincarnation, the youth are color-coded to determine their caste, with those reaching 30 considered aged and primed for sacrifice.

Hedonism rules, as the pleasure-seeking synthetic society is run by a giant A.I. SmartGrid, with the central computer tracking and tracing every movement and thought of its citizens. Segregated into various “quadrants,” different classes match up to a roughly Platonic model of Philosopher King/central computer system, the guardian class (Logan 5, played by Michael York), and the populace, some of whom are sex slaves, having offered themselves to the guardian class through a vague 70s version of the Internet. This net, however, can transport you directly to the guardian’s quarters. Meanwhile, offspring are no longer produced through sexual interaction, but grown in test tubes by unknown donor parents, recalling Huxley’s Brave New World. Ominously, the BBC has recently reported on UK legislation allowing three parent babies, where DNA will be blended from multiple donors.

Give your soul and body to the Red Lotus Death Cult’s Carrousel.

With a façade of perfection, the death ritual indicates a society that has succumbed to the ultimate dictates of scientistic quantification, where sustainability “dictates” that for every citizen born, one must die to maintain balance in the ecosphere. Thus Logan’s Run images the very plan the Royal Society and United Nations envision, with mandated euthanasia and death panels determining the time of death according to one’s astrological chart. It seems Logan’s technocratic society is not immune to the digital state’s manipulation of religion, with the Buddhist and Hindu imagery coming to the fore in the red lotus crystal which, in Buddhist traditions, references the heart and passion. The lotus is also a reference to the Flower of Life in Pythagorean and Platonic mysticism, signifying the unity of the ecosphere as a whole, built up from the platonic solids. Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Thuan comment in their work on these connections, The Quantum and the Lotus, citing Platonist Roger Penrose:

“To me this spontaneous insight supports the idea that when the mind makes mathematical discoveries, it enters into contact with a realm of Platonic mathematical concepts. Roger Penrose is adamant about this:

The Lotus Flower of Life.

I imagine that whenever the mind perceives a mathematical idea, it makes contact with Plato’s world of mathematical concepts… When mathematicians communicate, this is made possible by each one having a direct route to truth, the consciousness of each being in a position to perceive mathematical truths directly, through the process of ‘seeing’.

In various traditions of “Sacred Geometry,” the platonic solids are the building blocks of nature itself and we can surmise with the red lotus here the imagery is a sacrifice inverting the principle of life found in the symbology of the Lotus. Platonism is thus the presupposition of the utopia, even in its esoteric and religious concepts. Far eastern traditions have long seen a spirit of an age, a zeitgeist, at work behind long periods of time, the darkest period called kali yuga in Hinduism, for example.

Borrowing from these far eastern strands, Aleister Crowley proclaimed a “new aeon of Horus,” the crowned and conquering child, where youth and immaturity would overthrow the previous Age of Pisces, dominated by Christianity. It is precisely this aeon Logan finds himself, where the death state reigns supreme, under the ruse of a synthetic utopia removed from nature, where plastic surgery and bodily alteration permeate Logan’s utopia.

Having plumbed the depths of nature and mastered its secrets, this future world’s utopia is in fact a dystopia, the golden age a kali yuga, where the police state agents known as “Sandmen” zap any prospective escapees (“runners”), turning them immediately to dust, hence, “sandmen.” Logan 5 is one of these guardian class sandmen, who, as you can imagine, begins to question the authenticity of his society. Coopted by the central computer to infiltrate the subversives who have escaped to the mysterious “Sanctuary,” Logan is commanded to become a runner, adopting their ankh symbology to go undercover.

Initially suspicious of Logan and his sex slave love interest, Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter), the rebels inform Logan that “Sanctuary” is much further underground beneath the city. Journeying deeper and deeper, the Dante-esque journey displays the ultimate deception – the whispers of “Sanctuary” as believed by the rebels is also not true. “Sanctuary” is a giant freezer facility run by an insane A.I. bot named “Box” that imprisons successful escapees in a cryogenic tomb due to his programming, viewing man as a mere resource to be exploited like the fish and plankton. Fiction once again presages reality here, with the recent proposals to alow IBM’s Watson super computer to manage healthcare for U.S. citizens as Obamacare begins. It’s no longer far-fetched and outlandish to consider the possibility the coming SmartCities will also incorporate this centralized A.I. monitoring control grid, engaging in every totalitarian tyranny from “pre-crime” to computer-determined healthcare, as IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty glowingly declares.

Having sabotaged Box’s cryogenic tomb, Logan and Jessica crawl out of their platonic cave for the first time to see the blinding light of the sun. Once again Platonism is the underpinning of the narrative, where the city dwellers are captivated by the shadows and virtual phantoms dancing around them, never being enlightened by the light of objective Truth and the realms of higher existence. In my recent article on Plato and Crystals, I cite the profound references in the dialogue Pheado, where Socrates reveals the earth’s dwellers toil away in a subterranean, mundane existence, unaware of higher dimensions, freedom and the true nature of reality. I wrote:

“The study of crystallography demonstrates much of this, and crystals are a big piece of this mysterious metaphysical puzzle, pointing is in the direction of higher, spiritual realms. Amazingly, in Phaedo, Plato speaks of the higher realms (something akin to heaven) as possessing aether like we possess air. This higher dimension is also directly connected to crystals, as the crystals we possess in our world are mere shards of the wonders of that realm in 109-111:

“Also I believe that the earth is very vast, and that we who dwell in the region extending from the river Phasis to the Pillars of Heracles inhabit a small portion only about the sea, like ants or frogs about a marsh, and that there are other inhabitants of many other like places; for everywhere on the face of the earth there are hollows of various forms and sizes, into which the water and the mist and the lower air collect. But the true earth is pure and situated in the pure heaven—there are the stars also; and it is the heaven which is commonly spoken of by us as the aether, and of which our own earth is the sediment gathering in the hollows beneath. But we who live in these hollows are deceived into the notion that we are dwelling above on the surface of the earth…

Of these and other colours the earth is made up, and they are more in number and fairer than the eye of man has ever seen; the very hollows (of which I was speaking) filled with air and water have a colour of their own, and are seen like light gleaming amid the diversity of the other colours, so that the whole presents a single and continuous appearance of variety in unity. And in this fair region everything that grows—trees, and flowers, and fruits—are in a like degree fairer than any here; and there are hills, having stones in them in a like degree smoother, and more transparent, and fairer in colour than our highly-valued emeralds and sardonyxes and jaspers, and other gems, which are but minute fragments of them: for there all the stones are like our precious stones, and fairer still.”

Logan’s Dome City or Epcot Center?

Stunned at the light of the sun, Logan is still disillusioned from the disappointment of both his utopia and “Sanctuary” exposed as shams. Seeking some refuge, Logan and Jessica wander upon the ruins of Washington D.C., which had apparently been destroyed centuries before in some environmental cataclysm. That Logan’s Atlantis is built upon the ruins of America is not accidental – this is precisely what Richard Bacon predicted in his esoteric work, The New Atlantis, prognosticating the discovery of the new world would be the future site of the coming technocratic wonder state, founded upon the empirical scientistic methodology of the Enlightenment. Atlantis in Logan’s day eventually suffers the same fate as the myths of ancient Atlantis tell, where unbridled technology in the hands of a detached elite becomes self-destructive.

Robot mind control!

Like the unbelievers of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Logan discovers the dome-dwellers will not believe his discoveries of other lands and worlds outside the biosphere, and realizes he must face the central A.I. computer system. Placed under an MK ULTRA-style brainwashing procedure, Logan battles the central system and somehow overcomes, resulting in the breakdown of the mainframe and the self-destruction of the dome. Fleeing the collapse, Logan and Jessica lead the survivors to the proof of the “old ways,” the sight of an old man who functions as the Jungian sage and repository of gnosis of the old ways.

Life returns to normal with the youthful refugees discovering their own alienation and divorce from nature, where they had so long subsisted in a self-imposed tech prison erected on a false religious ideology. In essence, Sanctuary was real, it just wasn’t found anywhere in the nihilistic, hedonistic frauds of the system. The pro-life message of Logan’s Run is refreshing in contrast to the death culture obsession of modern Hollywood productions. Indeed, it appears we are on the verge of the end of the old ways, as we prepare to enter into the “final revolution” of the Fabian technocrats, who have prepared a zoo-like existence in the coming virtualsphere for the enslaved herd. But don’t worry – we can always look forward to the red death lotus ritual next year, where Katy Perry and Madonna will celebrate the ritual sacrifice of our troops for the glories of the Global Death State.

Shadow of the Shaman: 5 Reasons Being a Shaman Sucks (is Awesome)

2015-02-20T08:27:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Zen Gardner | Feb 20, 2015 | Gary Z McGee

“It is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one’s steps to the upper air — there’s the rub, the task.” –Virgil

Ghost talker? Vision poet? Soothsayer? Oracle? Bridge between worlds? There are many ways to describe shamans and the shamanism they practice, but basically shamanism is the most ancient spirituality, and for the most part you don’t choose it –it chooses you. Shamanism is mankind’s primordial soul-signature, tapping the cornerstone of the human leitmotif. Shamans are psycho-ecological vehicles for spiritual entanglement, and they realize that we are all unique expressions of the same ubiquitous energy. But they also realize that very few of us are actually aware of that fact. And even fewer are able to do something about it. As such, shamans are unique expressions of the human condition who are aware of their connection to all things, and who have acquired mysterious methods for doing something about it.

Although it’s a deeply powerful form of spirituality, it should not be taken lightly; or if it is taken lightly, it should be taken with a wholesome helping of “humble pie” along with a healthy side of “a humor of the most high.” This is because shamanism is a lopsided double edged sword. The ecstasy on the one side cuts deep and can be genuinely ecstatic, but the agony on the other side cuts to the soul and can be devastatingly dismal. The pain that comes from such knowledge can be a crippling thing, especially coming from a culture that’s hung-up on the bliss of its own ignorance. Like Wei Wu Wei said, “In order to be effective truth must penetrate like an arrow — and that is likely to hurt.” The truth hurts, but cosmic truth hurts most of all. Shamans are the one’s becoming intimate with such pain. Here are five ways being a shaman totally sucks but is also secretly awesome.

1.) You will be shunned by friends and family:

“What is it we are questing for? It is the fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself. There is nothing you can do that’s more important than being fulfilled. You become a sign, you become a signal, transparent to transcendence; in this way you will find, live, become a realization of your own personal myth.” –Joseph Campbell

Shamanism grabs your Destiny by the throat and does not let go. Once it clamps on with its death-grip hold, there is no going back. The shamanic initiation can appear spontaneously, as a blunder, or as an unlucky (lucky) break. It can arrive through super-serendipity, as a chance occurrence, or a cruel twist of fate. It can come through new life, or through unexpected death, or both. It can come from another shaman, or even a raging thunderstorm. There’s no telling when or where it will happen, but when it happens you know it. The universe lines up like a divine fisherman, and you are the magical fish caught on the hook of primordial Time. The kind of knowledge gained is a bone-knowledge, a marrow-deep wisdom, a soul-caliber comprehension. This will, in small and large ways, cause complete havoc in the hyperreal world of the average person. Such havoc is scary for most people, and since your friends and your family include most people, they will more than likely be scared of your newfound unorthodox spirituality.

Their shunning is a double edged sword: you will be dubbed crazy, insane, and eccentric on the one side, and arrogant, conceited, and even selfish on the other side. But they don’t even understand the nature of selfishness; as Oscar Wilde wrote, “Selfishness is not living your life as you wish. It is asking others to live their life as you wish.” You understand that it’s society itself that’s being selfish for asking you to live the way it wishes. Your refusal to be pigeonholed by the status quo is why they despise you. Anybody who takes up the lifestyle or attitude of artificiality will not be able to stand you, because you have become a natural being. You are now of the earth. You have re-discovered your roots, through soulful self-interrogation and self-rewilding. By your very presence you catalyze. You are a great fermentation. The unconscious of anyone living in an artificial manner will sense you as doubly dangerous. Everything about you will irritate them, especially your sense of humor. They sense nature in you, and they are scared shitless of it. But don’t lose heart. You are vitally necessary to tonalize this otherwise atonal world.

2.) Love itself becomes a painful ability:

“If you love and have desires, let these be your desires: To know the pain of too much tenderness; to be wounded by your own understanding of love; and to bleed willingly and joyfully.” –Khalil Gibran

Here’s the thing: we live in a world filled with victims who have been victimized by a victimizing culture. Victims are victims precisely because they are afraid. Once they cease being afraid, once they quit allowing their fears to control them and become intimate with Fear instead, they cease being victims and become warriors. Shamans are spiritual warriors par excellence precisely because they are healers of fear. They help people move from a state of fear and expectation to a higher state of awareness where imagination is free to reimagine itself. Like Stephen Levine said, “To heal is to touch with love that which was previously touched by fear.” They realize that fearlessness is not the rejection of fear, it is intimacy with fear. It’s in the intimacy where the healing takes place. That’s where the ashes can be transformed into a Phoenix. Like Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Love itself is the seer’s tool, the shaman’s soulcraft. Just as only love can drive out hate, only love can drive out fear. Only intimacy with fear can transform fear into courage. The catch: this particular flavor of intimacy is excruciatingly painful. It tears apart the soul with its counterintuitive energy, but then it puts it back together again with the unconditional glue that maintains the unity of opposites. It’s a deep, cosmic love, an absolute love that subsumes the slings and arrows of vicissitude, but also leaves its practitioner in a constant state of existential pain that he/she must be able to resolve in the hear-and-now while also understanding that it will ultimately never really be resolved. Almost like the joy of the journey is always now, whether or not the goal of the journey is ever achieved. Only the “joy” is no joy at all but rather an intimacy with pain, a primordial jouissance. Like Joseph Campbell said, “The schizophrenic is drowning in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight.”

3.) You will experience Soul-crushing loneliness:

“The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” –Albert Einstein

Never underestimate the ignorant power of “the armor of the ‘I.’” It forms itself under the naïve assumption that things are separate. It is constructed under the desperate assertion of maintaining a separate identity. It closes you off until all of your powers of perception can only “see” through the narrow chinks of the all-too-human cavern of self-bias. Most of us grow up in a world where this sort of armor is constantly being manufactured. We become attached to it. It becomes a kind of hyperreal skin. Shamans are the ones ripping that skin off, which is likely to hurt. But we have only to remember that it’s no skin at all –it’s metal, it’s machine-like. It is not you! It is a prison disguised as you. A shaman can help you by opening the door to your prison, but only you can walk through it to taste the freedom on the other side. But, fair warning: it is going to hurt like hell. You will experience one of mankind’s most debilitating pains: loneliness.

Here’s the thing: you have to feel lost and lonely in order to feel the real You as you. You are a microcosm within a macrocosm, a desperate tiny thing in an otherwise calm universe, but you are also an aspect of the universe. You can no more separate the micro from the macro than you can the human from the natural; both are needed to put the whole into holistic. This is the great lesson of loneliness: it’s only when you’re alone that you realize you’re never alone. Like Nietzsche said, “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” Such privilege is a double-edged sword. It will liberate you on the one side, but it will crush you with loneliness on the other side. Do not balk. Self-pity is poison for a shaman. Like Rumi said, “Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.” Seek the center of your loneliness and transform it into interdependence. Loneliness is merely the shadow of the self. Embrace the shadow, dance with it in the abyss, and you will never (always) be alone again.

4.) You will be destroyed over and over again between worlds:

“The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.” –Andre Malraux

Your soul will constantly be forced to eat itself. You will face death every day in the abyss. You have to constantly be able to “die” and rebirth your own energy. Like Henry Miller said, “We must die as egos and be born again in the swarm, not separated and self-hypnotized, but individual and related.” You must be able to destroy yourself and then rebuild yourself. This is the shamanic dance on God’s forehead, the eternal dance on the Divine Third Eye: the uncanny ability to be born, to die, and to be reborn, over and over again, and in each new life, to become a thing which is more capable of subsuming cosmos than in the life before. Where you are receptive to stimuli to which, in the time before, you were insensate. This is done between worlds. It’s done in the shadowy unconscious of the soul. It’s done in the abyss of the human condition, where the You of you is the same thing as the They of them. In short, it’s the death of your ego. And perhaps nothing hurts more than ego-death.

The death of the ego is no easy task. Ego-death is identity-death is self-annihilation. It leads to a dark night of the soul. And if you are lucky (unlucky) enough to have multiple ego-deaths in your life you will reap the rewards (penalties) of having multiple dark nights of the soul as well. If all that weren’t enough, you will also experience the ego-death of other people, and the dark night of their soul will usually prove to be more excruciating than your own. In fact, the more times your soul is forced to eat itself, the more times your ego dies and is reborn again, the more interdependently connected you will become with the experiences of others. This too is a double edged sword, but the sharper the double edged sword the smoother the ego-death; which basically just means it gets easier with practice. Indeed, existential masochism becomes an art form at this level, and provides the perfect platform for meta-empathy to emerge.

**5.) You will experience soulbreaking meta-empathy**:

“Undifferentiated consciousness, when differentiated, becomes the world.” –Vedanta

Shamans are neither scientists nor priests, but artists. They are Technicians of the Sacred, immersed in the numinous tapestry of the cosmos. A vital aspect of that tapestry is the human condition, and when it comes to the human condition, the artistry of the shaman shines like gold in dark times. The secret of their art is both very simple and very difficult: healthy detachment. It’s simple because all you have to do is realize that everything is connected and all things are in a constantly changing dance of interdependence. It’s difficult because you imagine that you have a static sense of self (ego) which seems at odds with your dynamic sense of connection (soul). But it’s not at odds at all. Your ego is just as much a tool as your soul is, you simply have to let go of what you think your ego wants in order to make possible what your soul intends. This requires heartbreak. It requires breaking your heart so wide open that the universe has no other choice but to fall in. Heartbreak equals soul-awake. And once your soul is awake, that’s when the real shamanic process begins: soulbreak.

Soulbreak, like heartbreak, opens us up to the vast knowledge hidden within the nature of pain, but it also teaches us detachment. Soulbreak is detachment in the moment. If you are truly detached, your mental-spirit-body becomes a mighty tool for clear seeing. Detachment is existential seeing. Existential seeing is meta-empathy. You must be able to act with compassion, but without attachment. Most love is conditional, most compassion is indiscriminate. As a shaman you have to come from a place of unconditional love. The shamanic experience involves tremendous self-discipline and the will to be focused even when such focus is painful. And it is painful. With this ability we move to the depths of another person’s emotional state and we can “see” from their worldview and understand what makes them healthy or not. When they are unhealthy, you feel it. And in a world where the majority of people are unhealthy, you become the walking personification of pain. Indeed, meta-empathy even becomes ecological. You feel deeply the unhealthiness of the broken system and the painful disconnect between Mother Nature and the human soul.

At the end of the day, it is the job of shamans to shake people out of ordinary, habitual states of mind and to reawaken latent faculties. This can be a soul-quaking experience of world-shattering pain. But there is a vast reservoir of knowledge in such pain, and shamans are the ones seeking it out and imaginatively and courageously transforming it into soul, into art, and into new knowledge. Through daily acts of courage and a willingness to reveal symbolic ways to transcend the darkness of the human condition, shamans are the personification of being the change they wish to see in the world. They are free to triumph over terror. They are no longer interested in the petty pursuit of meaning. They would rather the power that comes from creating it.

Gary ‘Z’ McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide awake view of the modern world.

Source: Waking Times

Trash Your Pineal Gland: This Movie Symbol Shows How Society is Programmed for Self-Destruction

2015-02-18T09:39:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: TruthStream Media | Feb 18, 2015 | Melissa Melton and Aaron Dykes

It was a subtle and quick moment in the film, but one worthy of pointing out.

Terry Gilliam’s latest The Zero Theorem portrays a near-future society run by scientific materialism, a place where hyper-stimulation through the ever-present telescreens, billboards, targeted advertisements that literally follow you down the street, pop music, signs and other continuous stimuli have created a dumbed-down, consumerist society with little meaning.

Only slightly ahead of where Western culture has already brought us, the film portrays a shallow and narcissistic culture obsessed with smart phones, tablet devices and even new religions based upon pop figures and superheroes (hinted at in references to the Church of Batman the Redeemer, for example).

In this context, Gilliam slips in a street scene with colorful trashcans and recycling bins which are probably familiar to most – yet with a slight but important alteration to those paying attention.

Compare the screenshot from the film above to the cutesy waste/recycling bins from real life, like the ones seen below:

The bins in Gilliam’s film are ALMOST conventional… but not quite: notice where the trash is thrown away – not in the mouth, but in a hole between the eyes in the forehead of the anthropomorphic receptacles.

This is the exact location of the so-called “Third Eye,” which marks the location of the pineal gland behind the forehead and the position of the 6th chakra, which many ancient cultures have associated with intuition, knowledge, and insight. As Eden Shetiyah of In5D wrote:

The pineal gland, referred to as the Third Eye, the Eye of Horus or the Seat of the Soul, is a small pine cone shaped organ inside your brain that secretes hormones like melatonin, serotonin and DMT (Dimethyltryptamine), also known as the Spirit Molecule. Melatonin and serotonin are responsible for sleep or meditative states, and emotional states of well-being, bliss and euphoria.

On the energy level, the pineal gland is the physical manifestation of the 6th Chakra – Ajna, associated with true mystic potential, perception of non-physical reality and spiritual wisdom.

Because of its pine cone shape, the pineal gland is often symbolized by a pine cone.

This means that in Gilliam’s latest dystopic world (like his masterpiece, Brazil), the population is literally “trashing” its third eye.

Trashing something which most people never even learn the significance of in the first place…

In this parody of society as depicted, people have learned to love their servitude. They are trained to obey, consume, and waste without any long-term critical thought on the matter, not only about the environmental impact of a disposable society (where we are considered as disposable as our disposables), but about the literal long-term price of eating and drinking from cheap plastic containers filled with endocrine disrupting chemicals like BPA; consuming what essentially amounts to garbage — energetically dead, genetically modified foods filled with dangerous, potentially carcinogenic synthetic additives and tainted with pesticides; and a world completely saturated with wi-fi and electronic stimulation under an ever-present big brother police state.

People are consuming garbage, then throwing the garbage of that garbage into an anthropomorphic trashcan’s third eye in a cartoonish mirroring of themselves like the wasted system slaves they’ve so clearly become.

Beyond that, if we never connect to the ancient spiritual wisdom buried within each of us, we may never know our own true power as individuals, just as the powers that shouldn’t be would prefer to keep it.

Trashing our third eye…

This scene is found in a film based around a disconnected main character who, while working for a big brotheresque company called Mancom whose logo is literally an all-seeing eye, is searching for the meaning of his life while his corporate overlords have assigned him the task of proving the so-called “Zero Theorem” — a theorem which supposes that “100% of everything adds up to nothing” — to prove the matrix version of reality is “real” to the masses even though it is a totally false reality where we all turn into nothing when we die in a disconnected, entirely random, spiritually void universe where essentially everything is meaningless.
Here’s the trailer. The film is available on Amazon instant video and DVD.

Is this interpretation going to far? Is this beyond the intended meaning of the director?

Art is meant to be interpreted, and Gilliam is one of those directors who never seems to leave anything in any scene to chance. Consider that in another part of the film, the female love interest Bainsley played by Mélanie Thierry, is overheard at a party commenting something along the lines of:

‘This drug is great, they should put it in the water like fluoride.’

Despite assurances by public figures that water fluoridation — dumping a toxic chemical byproduct of fertilizer manufacturing into our public water supplies — is both safe and beneficial for teeth, actual scientific research has found that fluoride lowers IQ in children, leaches calcium from bones, contributes to bone cancer, dental fluorosis and cardiovascular disease for starters – and yes, calcifies the pineal gland, thus blocking deep, critical thinking and the pineal gland’s function in regulation the endocrine system and bodily hormones.

In her scientific paper, researcher Jennifer Luke from the School of Biological Sciences, University of Surrey, discovered that fluoride is accumulating in the pineal gland in strikingly high levels due to unrestricted exposure to fluoride in the bloodstream, as the pineal gland is not protected by the blood-brain barrier:

As a calcifying tissue that is exposed to a high volume of blood flow, the pineal gland is a major target for fluoride accumulation in humans. In fact, the calcified parts of the pineal gland (hydroxyapatite crystals) contain the highest fluoride concentrations in the human body (up to 21,000 ppm F), higher than either bone or teeth. (Luke 1997; 2001). Although the soft tissue of the pineal does not accumulate fluoride to the same extent as the calcified part, it does contain higher levels of fluoride than found than in other types of soft tissue in the body — with concentrations (~300 ppm F) that are known in other contexts to inhibit enzymes. While the impacts of these fluoride concentrations in the pineal are not yet fully understood, studies have found that calcified deposits in the pineal are associated with decreased numbers of functioning pinealocytes and reduced melatonin production (Kunz et al., 1999) as well as impairments in the sleep-wake cycle. (Mahlberg 2009). (Source)

The consequences of this calcification of the pineal gland may well be contributing to any number of degenerative diseases. Dr. Mercola wrote:

Interestingly, Alzheimer’s disease is associated with reduced REM sleep and a calcified pineal gland. Sleep disorders are also linked to autism as well as other neurological diseases, including depression, schizophrenia, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, and others.

If one recognizes that heavy metals play a part in the modern-day epidemic of neurological diseases, then part of the explanation for the sleep disorders encountered in various neurological diseases may be that both aluminum and mercury (thimerosal) disrupt the pineal gland and its ability to make sulfate. When the pineal gland’s ability to make sulfate is impaired, this, in turn, reduces production of melatonin, all-important for adequate and healthy sleep. The pineal gland is particularly susceptible to aluminum and other heavy metals because it is not protected by the blood-brain barrier and has a very high blood perfusion rate.

Both In5D and Humans Are Free explain how removing fluoride and avoiding other toxins, including aluminum, mercury and pesticides, as well as detoxifying your body and focusing on spiritual issues can all help to repair a damaged pineal gland and restore healthy function.

• Use only natural fluoride-free toothpaste and decline fluoride gel treatments at the dentist
• Drink purified or filtered water, and keep in mind that bottled water can also be fluoridated
• Eat fresh organic food – the more processed the food is, the more fluoride it contains
• Avoid processed beverages like sodas, juice drinks, instant and bottled teas, and sports drinks
• Avoid cooking with non-stick pans, they increase the fluoride content of food
• Drink organic wine. Wine (particularly red wine) is proven to be good for you in moderation, but because of heavy use of fluoride pesticides on vineyards in the United States, wines that are made from U.S.-grown grapes are the main source of fluoride
• Avoid any kind of processed meat (e.g., chicken fingers, chicken nuggets) – a mechanical de-boning process contaminates the meat with higher levels of fluoride-laden bone particles
• Drink teas that are made from young leaves (e.g., “White tea”) or yerba matte – a herbal tea from South America
• A lot of fluoride is absorbed through the skin when taking a shower or a bath. I know some people like taking a long shower or a nice long relaxing bath, in which case I recommend installing a fluoride filter in your bathroom. Otherwise, try rinsing your body and turning the faucet off, then lathering up, and then rinsing the soap off at the end. This way you’re conserving the water and minimizing your fluoride absorption.
• Avoid calcium supplementation as it is not absorbed into the bones and just ends up clogging your organs, including the pineal gland.

After that, In5D recommends that those wanting to clean up their pineal gland – and ultimately reconnect with the spiritual purpose of our existence – must literally take out the trash… relating back to the metaphor slipped into Terry Gilliam’s film symbolism here.

While his main character goes on a journey for meaning, it is clear enough that the masses of society will do no such thing. They will be controlled, in large part, through engineered chemical and physiological limitations placed upon them by the system, much as Lord Bertrand Russell eerily predicted in his unsettling but important 1952 work:

“Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible.

Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so.” – Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society, 1953

‘Pornography Is What the End of the World Looks Like’

2015-02-17T05:59:00.000-05:00

A scene from “Fifty Shades of Grey.” (YouTube)

File: Truthdig | Feb 15, 2015 | Chris Hedges

BOSTON—“Fifty Shades of Grey,” the book and the movie, is a celebration of the sadism that dominates nearly every aspect of American culture and lies at the core of pornography and global capitalism. It glorifies our dehumanization of women. It champions a world devoid of compassion, empathy and love. It eroticizes hypermasculine power that carries out the abuse, degradation, humiliation and torture of women whose personalities have been removed, whose only desire is to debase themselves in the service of male lust. The film, like “American Sniper,” unquestioningly accepts a predatory world where the weak and the vulnerable are objects to exploit while the powerful are narcissistic and violent demigods. It blesses this capitalist hell as natural and good.

“Pornography,” Robert Jensen writes, “is what the end of the world looks like.”

We are blinded by self-destructive fantasy. An array of amusements and spectacles, including TV “reality” shows, huge sporting events, social media, porn (which earns at least twice what Hollywood movies generate), alluring luxury products, drugs, alcohol and magic Jesus, offers enticing exit doors from reality. We yearn to be rich, powerful and celebrities. And those we must trample to build our pathetic little empires are seen as deserving their fate. That nearly all of us will never attain these ambitions is emblematic of our collective self-delusion and the effectiveness of a culture awash in manipulation and lies.

Porn seeks to eroticize this sadism. In porn women are paid to repeat the mantra “I am a cunt. I am a bitch. I am a whore. I am a slut. Fuck me hard with your big cock.” They plead to be physically abused. Porn caters to degrading racist stereotypes. Black men are sexually potent beasts stalking white women. Black women have a raw, primitive lust. Latin women are sultry and hotblooded. Asian women are meek, sexually submissive geishas. In porn, human imperfections do not exist. The oversized silicone breasts, the pouting, gel-inflated lips, the bodies sculpted by plastic surgeons, the drug-induced erections that never subside and the shaved pubic regions—which cater to porn’s pedophilia—turn performers into pieces of plastic. Smell, sweat, breath, heartbeats and touch are erased along with tenderness. Women in porn are packaged commodities. They are pleasure dolls and sexual puppets. They are stripped of true emotions. Porn is not about sex, if one defines sex as a mutual act between two partners, but about masturbation, a solitary auto-arousal devoid of intimacy and love. The cult of the self—that is the essence of porn—lies at the core of corporate culture. Porn, like global capitalism, is where human beings are sent to die.

There are few people on the left who grasp the immense danger of allowing pornography to replace intimacy, sex and love. Much of the left believes that pornography is about free speech, as if it is unacceptable to financially exploit and physically abuse a woman in a sweatshop in China but acceptable to do so on the set of a porn film, as if torture is wrong in Abu Ghraib, where prisoners were sexually humiliated and abused as if they were on a porn set, but permissible on commercial porn sites.

A new wave of feminists, who have betrayed the iconic work of radicals such as Andrea Dworkin, defends porn as a form of sexual liberation and self-empowerment. These “feminists,” grounded in Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, are stunted products of neoliberalism and postmodernism. Feminism, for them, is no longer about the liberation of women who are oppressed; it is defined by a handful of women who are successful, powerful and wealthy—or, as in the case of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” able to snag a rich and powerful man. A woman wrote the “Fifty Shades” book, as well as the screenplay. A woman directed the film. A woman studio head bought the movie. This collusion by women is part of the internalization of oppression and sexual violence that have their roots in porn. Dworkin understood. She wrote that “the new pornography is a vast graveyard where the Left has gone to die. The Left cannot have its whores and its politics too.”

I met Gail Dines, one of the most important radicals in the country, in a small cafe in Boston on Tuesday. She is the author of “Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality” and a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College. Dines, along with a handful of others including Jensen, fearlessly decry a culture that is as depraved as Caligula’s Rome.

“The porn industry has hijacked the sexuality of an entire culture and is laying waste to a whole generation of boys,” she warned. “And when you lay waste to a generation of boys, you lay waste to a generation of girls.”

“When you fight porn you fight global capitalism,” she said. “The venture capitalists, the banks, the credit card companies are all in this feeding chain. This is why you never see anti-porn stories. The media is implicated. It is financially in bed with these companies. Porn is part of this. Porn tells us we have nothing left as human beings—boundaries, integrity, desire, creativity and authenticity. Women are reduced to three orifices and two hands. Porn is woven into the corporate destruction of intimacy and connectedness, and this includes connectedness to the earth. If we were a society where we were whole, connected human beings in real communities, then we would not be able to look at porn. We would not be able to watch another human being tortured.”

“If you are going to give a tiny percent of the world the vast majority of the goodies, you better make sure you have a good ideological system in place that legitimizes why everyone else is suffering economically,” she said. “This is what porn does. Porn tells you that material inequality between women and men is not the result of an economic system. It is biologically based. And women, being whores and bitches and only good for sex, don’t deserve full equality. Porn is the ideological mouthpiece that legitimizes our material system of inequality. Porn is to patriarchy what the media is to capitalism.”

To keep the legions of easily bored male viewers aroused, porn makers produce videos that are increasingly violent and debasing. Extreme Associates, which specializes in graphic rape scenes, along with JM Productions, promotes the very real pain endured by women on its sets. JM Productions pioneered “aggressive throat fucking” or “face fucking” videos such as the “Gag Factor” series, in which women gag and often vomit. It ushered in “swirlies,” in which the male performer dunks the woman’s head into a toilet after sex and then flushes. The company promises, “Every whore gets the swirlies treatment. Fuck her, then flush her.” Repeated and violent anal penetration triggers anal prolapse, a condition in which the inner walls of a woman’s rectum collapse and protrude from her anus. This is called “rosebudding.” Some women, penetrated repeatedly by numerous men on porn shoots, often after taking handfuls of painkillers, require anal and vaginal reconstructive surgery. Female performers may suffer from sexually transmitted diseases and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And with porn mainstreamed—some porn video participants are treated like film celebrities by talk show hosts such as Oprah and Howard Stern—the behavior promoted by porn, including stripping, promiscuity, S&M and exhibitionism, has become chic. Porn also sets the standard for female beauty and female comportment. And this has had terrifying consequences for girls.

“Women are told in our society they have two choices,” Dines said. “They are either fuckable or invisible. To be fuckable means to conform to the porn culture, to look hot, be submissive and do what the man wants. That’s the only way you get visibility. You cannot ask adolescent girls, who are dying for visibility, to choose invisibility.”

None of this, Dines pointed out, was by accident. Porn grew out of the commodity culture, the need by corporate capitalists to sell products.

“In post-Second-World-War America you have the emergence of a middle class with a disposable income,” she said. “The only trouble is that this group was born to parents who had been through a depression and a war. They did not know how to spend. They only knew how to save. What [the capitalists] needed to jump-start the economy was to get people to spend money on stuff they did not need. For women they brought in the television soaps. One of the reasons the ranch house was developed was because [families] only had one television. The television was in the living room and women spent a lot of time in the kitchen. You had to devise a house where she could watch television from the kitchen. She was being taught.”

“But who was teaching the men how to spend money?” she went on. “It was Playboy [Magazine]. This was the brilliance of Hugh Hefner. He understood that you don’t just commodify sexuality, you sexualize commodities. The promise that Playboy held out was not the girls or the women, it was that if you buy at this level, if you consume at the level Playboy tells you to, then you will get the prize, which is the women. The step that was crucial to getting the prize was the consumption of commodities. He wrapped porn, which sexualized and commoditized women’s bodies, in an upper-middle-class blanket. He gave it a veneer of respectability.”

The VCR, the DVD and, later, the Internet allowed porn to be pumped into individual homes. The glossy, still images of Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler became tame, even quaint. America, and much of the rest of the world, became pornified. The income of the global porn industry is estimated at $96 billion, with the United States market worth about $13 billion. There are, Dines writes, “420 million Internet porn pages, 4.2 million porn Web sites, and 68 million search engine requests for porn daily.” [To see excerpts from Dines’ book, click here.]

Along with the rise of pornography there has been an explosion in sex-related violence, including domestic abuse, rape and gang rape. A rape is reported every 6.2 minutes in the United States, but the estimated total, taking into account unreported assaults, is perhaps five times higher, as Rebecca Solnit points out in her book “Men Explain Things to Me.”

“So many men murder their partners and former partners that we have well over a thousand homicides of that kind a year—meaning that every three years the death toll tops 9/11’s casualties, though no one declares a war on this particular kind of terror,” Solnit writes.

Porn, meanwhile, is ever more accessible.

“With a mobile phone you can deliver porn to men who live in highly concentrated neighborhoods in Brazil and India,” Dines said. “If you have one laptop in the family, the man can’t sit in the middle of the room and jerk off to it. With a phone, porn becomes portable. The average kid gets his porn through the mobile phone.”

The old porn industry, which found its profits in movies, is dead. The points of production no longer generate profits. The distributors of porn make the money. And one distributor, MindGeek, a global IT company, dominates porn distribution. Free porn is used on the Internet as bait by MindGeek to lure viewers to pay-per-view porn sites. Most users are adolescent boys. It is, Dines said, “like handing out cigarettes outside of a middle school. You get them addicted.”

“Around the ages of 12 to 15 you are developing your sexual template,” she said. “You get [the boys] when they are beginning to construct their sexual identity. You get them for life. If you begin by jerking off to cruel, hardcore, violent porn then you are not going to want intimacy and connection. Studies are showing that boys are losing interest in sex with real women. They can’t sustain erections with real women. In porn there is no making love. It is about making hate. He despises her. He is revolted and disgusted by her. If you bleed out the love you have to fill it with something to make it interesting. They fill it with violence, degradation, cruelty and hate. And that also gets boring. So you have to keep ratcheting it up. Men get off in porn from women being submissive. Who is more submissive than children? The inevitable route of all porn is child porn. And this is why organizations that fight child porn and do not fight adult porn are making a huge mistake.”

The abuse inherent in pornography goes unquestioned in large part by both men and women. Look at the movie ticket sales for “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which opened the day before Valentine’s Day and is expected to take in up to $90 million over the four-day weekend (which includes Presidents Day on Monday).

“Pornography has socialized a generation of men into watching sexual torture,” Dines said. “You are not born with that capacity. You have to be trained into it. Just like you train soldiers to kill. If you are going to carry out violence against a group you have to dehumanize them. It is an old method. Jews become kikes. Blacks become niggers. Women become cunts. And no one turns women into cunts better than porn.”

4 Reasons Human Beings May Not Be Mammals

2015-02-16T06:01:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: Prevent Disease | Feb 13, 2015 | Josh Richardson

Compared to the length of time the Earth has existed, humans have only been here a very small fraction of that period. One thing that is very confusing about our biological classification is that we are labeled as mammals and part of the animal kingdom. However, mammals do not behave the way we do. I realize that our classification has more to do with our biology rather than behavior, but hear me out. Our behavior is so unique that it aligns with something else--something not living at all.

Mammals share specific characteristics which separate them from other animals. There are different types of groups of mammals such as bats, carnivores, cetaceans, elephants, marsupials, primates, rodents, treeshrews and many others. They are found all over the world in all different climates. They nurse their babies with mother's milk, maintain a constant internal temperature, protect their young, have hair, more developed brains and many other shared physical features.

All mammals strive to instinctively:

- maintain a natural equilibrium within their ecosystem
- consume nutrients to maintain a homeostatic balance
- reproduce up to the limitations that natural resources can provide

Modern humans don't follow any of the above instincts, if they have them at all.

Humans:
1) destroy the natural equilibrium within the environment they inhabit
2) expend energy and resources to destroy cells within the body
3) reproduce to the point of exceeding the capacity of natural
resources of the host environment
4) will latch onto other environments to repeat the same process and will teach other humans to do the same thing

Behaviorally, there is no other mammal that does what humans do. Our capacity to destroy our environment makes us practically pseudo-living organisms in this respect.

There is one other organism that does mimic our behavior. It's called a virus. Viruses have insinuated themselves into the genome of our ancestors for hundreds of millions of years. They typically have gotten there by infecting eggs or sperm, inserting their own DNA into ours. There are 100,000 known fragments of viruses in the human genome, making up over 8% of our DNA.

Unlike mammals, what's interesting about viruses is that they're not alive. They don't grow, produce/utilize their own energy, cannot independently reproduce, or move on their own. Are human beings headed in the same direction?

As soon as humanity stops living like a virus, consciousness will evolve to an infinite source of power, abundance and prosperity for our species. The only thing we need to do is recognize it.

Sources:
discovermagazine.com

Josh Richardson is blogger, healer, and a constant pursuer of the natural state of human consciousness.

Paid by Monsanto: How Corporations Invade Universities

2015-02-14T08:37:00.002-05:00

Courtesy: Farm Wars | Feb 13, 2015 | Barbara H. Peterson

I want food that Grandma ate. How hard is that to understand? I don’t want it chemically lobotomized and coated with poison. I don’t want it genetically spliced to become something between a salamander and a tomato. I don’t want it radiated and mutated. I don’t want a virus inserted in its DNA. I don’t want its RNA tampered with to change its traits. I just want good, old fashioned food. The kind you grow in your garden and use to feed your family and critters. The kind the bees like to collect pollen from and not go belly up the minute they enter the hive. The kind that you can pick with your bare hands and eat right from the plant. The kind that won’t turn your stomach into a pesticide factory and your guts into mush.

I actually have the gall to want food that is edible and good for me, not just something a chemical company threw together sporting a pretty label and packaging that says it is. Is that really too much to ask?

Well, according to Monsanto et al, it is. And the agribusiness giants have taken over the universities.

These corporate GMO and chemical farming pushers are brainwashing whole generations of young adults and senior adults that GMOs are safe, have been around for thousands of years, and are a perfectly natural alternative to Grandma’s garden, made by Monsanto. The chemical/life sciences company. You know the one. The one that appears to poison the very ground that it sits on along with the people around it.

Just how were Nitro citizens exposed to dioxin? Monsanto was producing the toxic herbicide Agent Orange in Nitro, and dioxin is a chemical byproduct of the substance. It is known to cause serious health conditions. The factory which produced Agent Orange was opened in Nitro in 1948 and remained in operation until 2004, even though usage of this herbicide in the past (in Vietnam and other Asian countries) was fatal to millions of citizens and the war veterans who were exposed to it.
http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-ordered-pay-93-million-small-town-poisoned-herbicide/#ixzz38ZTuFLvq

Is this what we want for our children? Our planet? Our dinner plates?

Monsanto laughed all the way to the bank while covering up the toxicity of its industrial shenanigans as Anniston, Alabama’s children played in and ate dirt soaked with PCBs at yet another toxic superfund site created by Monsanto.

On the west side of Anniston, the poor side of Anniston, the people ate dirt. They called it “Alabama clay” and cooked it for extra flavor. They also grew berries in their gardens, raised hogs in their back yards, caught bass in the murky streams where their children swam and played and were baptized. They didn’t know their dirt and yards and bass and kids — along with the acrid air they breathed — were all contaminated with chemicals. They didn’t know they lived in one of the most polluted patches of America.
http://farmwars.info/?p=664

That is what Monsanto is about. Greed and avarice. Not feeding a starving world as the PR would have you believe.

And this is the company my friends, that is hell bent on owning the foundation of the world’s food supply, including that snack you are munching on, organic or not. And we are supposed to trust its good intentions? I’ll just bet those kids who played on that toxic soil in Anniston are feeling the love about now, as they inhale their last breaths through a respirator in the cancer wing of the local hospital.

Want to know why supposed “scientists” from universities such as UC Davis can get by with purporting to be “not receiving funds” from the biotech industry while spouting Monsanto propaganda? Because the money they receive is laundered through the universities they work for. They don’t receive it directly from Monsanto, they simply receive their paycheck from the university that does. Or the foundation that does. Or whatever biotech sinkhole that will accept money for services rendered.

http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/PublicResearchPrivateGain.pdf

Land grant universities’ dependence on industry money has corrupted the independence of public science, as academics align their research projects with the ambitions of the private sector. Industry funding also diverts academic resources and attention away from projects that benefit the public, including research that challenges corporate control of food systems.

Donors can and do influence the outcomes of research to meet their business needs. More than 15 percent of university scientists acknowledge having “changed the design, methodology or results of a study in response to pressure from a funding source.”

Individual examples of pro-industry research abound… [A] study found that around half of authors of peer-reviewed journal articles about the safety of genetically engineered (GE) foods had an identifiable affiliation with industry. All of these produced favorable results to industry sponsors, while very few acknowledged having received industry funding.
http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/PublicResearchPrivateGain.pdf

The future of a major research deal between UC Davis and the Monsanto corporation brings the role of the university into bold relief. How far can a university go in collaborating with private industry before its mission of contributing to basic knowledge becomes distorted? How will we know when it’s gone too far?
http://nature.berkeley.edu/srr/Alliance/novartis/davis.htm

Here is a link to a letter confirming only one of Monsanto’s many contributions to UC Davis:
http://www.cheeseslave.com/wp-cont…/…/2012/10/grfx_c3_31.pdf

The following is a portion of a Sacramento Bee article that has been removed from the newspaper’s site:

A “who’s who” of international biotechnology companies fund work at UC Davis. They include Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Bayer. Some grants pay for specific research, but many arrive with no official strings attached. Whatever the form, the companies get something in return – access to the university’s talent pool and, often, first crack at its scientific breakthroughs.

“The public is having a hard time figuring out where the corporate door ends and where the university door begins,” said Bill Liebhardt, former director of the UC system’s sustainable farming program, which promotes nonindustrial farming methods.

Small farmers — the very people agricultural colleges like UC Davis were established to help — feel neglected. “The university is being led by industry,” said Judith Redmond, co-owner of Full Belly Farm, an organic vegetable farm in Yolo County. (Source: Sacramento Bee)

But don’t worry, Monsanto and its cohorts are feeding the world. What’s left of it when they get through is anyone’s guess.

This type of behavior is unacceptable by any standards. The Universities are essentially bought off by corporate biotech interests such as Monsanto’s and tasked with unleashing a technology with relatively unknown consequences on the general public under the guise of a love for humanity; a PR campaign designed to sell as much of the stuff as possible. This type of behavior is not only unethical, but criminal. Yet, that is exactly what Monsanto has a sordid history of doing and getting away with. With the government’s blessing and complicity. Money talks, reason walks. Along with common sense, compassion, and any spark of humanity left in the souls of those wretched creatures who are pulling the trigger on humanity one gene-spliced concoction at a time.

@2015 Barbara H. Peterson

America’s Colleges Have Become Political Correctness Indoctrination Centers

2015-02-14T07:05:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: End of the American Dream | Feb 9, 2015 | Michael Snyder

Most parents assume that when they send their kids to college that they will receive training which will prepare them for a lifetime of employment. Sadly, the truth is that very little time is actually spent imparting practical skills to students at most of America’s colleges. Instead, an extraordinary amount of classroom time is spent telling students what they should think and what they should believe. At this point, most institutions of “higher learning” in this country have been transformed into political correctness indoctrination centers. There is a reason why college towns have a reputation for being extremely liberal. The truth is that they are bastions for “progressive” thought. Each and every day, millions of young adults all across America are literally being systematically brainwashed. In case you are wondering, I know what I am talking about. I spent eight years getting three degrees at public universities. And it doesn’t even really matter what area of the country you attend school. The “education” that students are receiving at schools in very liberal states is virtually the same as the “education” that students are receiving at schools in very conservative states. Our young adults represent the future of this nation, and they are receiving a level of indoctrination that is so comprehensive that it would make Joseph Goebbels proud.

Colleges and universities all across this nation spend an extraordinary amount of time and effort to alter the belief systems of their students. This even extends to teaching them what words are “appropriate” to use and which words are not. For example, just check out what is happening at the University of Michigan…

Dozens of posters plastered across the University of Michigan caution students not to say things that might hurt others’ feelings, part of a new “Inclusive Language Campaign” at the state’s flagship public university that cost $16,000 to implement.

Words declared unacceptable through the campaign include “crazy,” “insane,” “retarded,” “gay,” “tranny,” “gypped,” “illegal alien,” “fag,” “ghetto” and “raghead.” Phrases such as “I want to die” and “that test raped me” are also verboten.

But this isn’t just an advertising campaign. In fact, University of Michigan students are actually being asked to sign a pledge that they will use “inclusive language” from now on…

Students have been asked to sign a pledge to “use inclusive language” and to help their peers “understand the importance of using inclusive language,” according to campaign materials.

If you think that this is just an isolated incident, you would be wrong.

One survey of 409 colleges conducted in 2013 discovered that 62 percent of them have “speech codes” that “severely departed from First Amendment standards”.

Meanwhile, these “institutions of higher learning” are failing miserably at what is supposedly their primary task.

Today, the average college freshman reads at a 7th grade level. In a desperate attempt to get as many students through the system as possible, most college courses have been so “dumbed down” that the family dog could pass them.

If only parents knew. The amount of useful knowledge that their kids are actually receiving is very small. But most parents are utterly clueless and they just keep writing huge tuition checks semester after semester.

It would be hard to describe how utterly useless some of these college courses are. For instance, there is one college in upstate New York that is offering a course entitled “The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media“.

Do you think that is going to prepare your child for the real world?

And here is a list of some other actual college courses that have been taught at U.S. colleges in recent years…

-“What If Harry Potter Is Real?”

-“Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame”

-“Philosophy And Star Trek”

-“Learning From YouTube”

-“How To Watch Television”

-“Oh, Look, a Chicken!”

Are you starting to get the picture?

No wonder so many students “graduate from college” but are still dumb as a rock.

The following are some numbers about the quality of college education in the United States that come from an article that appeared in USA Today…

-“After two years in college, 45% of students showed no significant gains in learning; after four years, 36% showed little change.”

-“Students also spent 50% less time studying compared with students a few decades ago”

-“35% of students report spending five or fewer hours per week studying alone.”

-“50% said they never took a class in a typical semester where they wrote more than 20 pages”

-“32% never took a course in a typical semester where they read more than 40 pages per week.”
But even with so little being demanded of them, most college students in the United States still cannot manage to graduate from school on time.

Federal statistics show that only 36 percent of all full-time students receive a bachelor’s degree within four years, and only 77 percent of all full-time students have earned a degree by the end of six years.
Instead of studying hard, most college students treat college like one giant party.

No wonder so many of them want to extend it for another year or two or three.

And when these kids get away from their parents, their morality tends to go into the toilet.

For example, just check out what one survey discovered about male college students…

A third of male students questioned in a survey admitted they would rape a woman if they could get away with it.

The study found that 31.7 per cent of the mostly white American participants questioned admitted they would force a woman to have sex in a ‘consequence-free situation’.

Academics quizzed volunteers on how they would act in a situation where they could have sex with a woman against her will ‘if nobody would ever know there wouldn’t be any consequences’.

These are the leaders of tomorrow?

Are you kidding me?

Our system of college education is deeply, deeply broken. Like I stated above, I speak from experience. I earned three degrees from “good schools”, and I saw firsthand how pathetic the system is.

So what do you think?

Is there any way to fix our institutions of higher learning?

Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below…

American Sniper & ‘dehumanizing’ media targets in Chapel Hill aftermath

2015-02-13T06:22:00.000-05:00

@MahyarAhmadi

File: RT | Feb 11, 2015

A top Arab-American civil rights organization linked anti-Islam sentiment in the US to the popularity of ‘American Sniper,’ while a friend of the Chapel Hill shooting victims blamed media for “constantly dehumanizing Muslims.”

Abed Ayoub, the legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told The Independent in the United Kingdom that Islamophobia in the United States is encouraged by US foreign policy, the movie industry, and right-wing media.

“[The North Carolina murders] may not be directly linked to the film, but the overall way that Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment are moving in this country is portrayed in the words of those who watched American Sniper,” Ayoub said.

“The film gave us a look into how these individuals were feeling and for the first time we were getting raw, real messages – and they were frightening.”

American Sniper is the largest-grossing January opening for a movie in history. and is nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture.

Former navy SEAL Chris Kyle, on whose memoirs the movie is based, wrote “I hate the damn savages. I couldn’t give a flying f**k about the Iraqis.” He was killed by a former Marine at a shooting range in Texas in 2013.

Read more..

Hebron is Beautiful: Life through the eyes of a Palestinian teen

2015-02-12T06:18:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: SOTT | Feb 10, 2015 | Alex Shams

The short documentary "Khelil Helwa (Hebron is Beautiful)" follows a young boy from Hebron's Tel Rumeida neighborhood as he goes about his daily life, uncovering the matrix of Israeli military control that defines every aspect of life in the occupied West Bank. For Palestinians, the footage may at first appear somewhat unremarkable, and the scenes of soldiers barking orders and even arresting the film's 15-year-old star, Awni Abu Shamsiya, are heart-breakingly familiar. But for Israeli-American filmmaker Yuval Orr, it was the hope of showing the footage to Israeli audiences that motivated production. "I want Israelis to see more films that challenge what they think they know, or challenge the moral stance that is very easy to take at a distance," he told Ma'an during an interview in West Jerusalem. "How many Jewish Israelis really go to Hebron if they're not soldiers or settlers?"

'Quiet before the storm'

The film, which was produced as part of the ActiveVision film collective, spans a mere nine-and-a-half minutes but manages to offer a complex and insightful look at daily life in central Hebron through the eyes of one of the city's own children."Khelil Helwa" is surprisingly unburdened by statistics, maps, or figures, allowing the potential viewer - particularly if Israeli - to sympathize with Awni's perspective regardless of their political perspective.And while Orr concedes that this approach risks depoliticizing the inherently political nature of the struggle facing young Palestinians like Awni, he argues that it also opens up other opportunities for outreach."All of the words that we use to describe the 'conflict,' the 'occupation,' or the 'situation' are extraordinarily flawed, and as hard as you try to remain objective with language, its very difficult," he told Ma'an.

He said he did not want to "color viewers' perspectives and allow them to shut down, or be primed for a film they are going to identify with."

Instead, by allowing the viewer to experience Awni's life directly and without introduction, he said the the film forces them to confront the humanity they share with the teen.

These concerns also motivated Orr's decisions on which scenes to include in the film. He told Ma'an that he hesitated at times about whether to depict moments of violence that occurred on camera or to instead focus on the many daily struggles and humiliations that characterize the life of young people in central Hebron.

"It was important for me to have those moments of relative calm where you see the soldiers twirling their whistles at the checkpoint or yawning, because so much of life in Hebron is that. It's these moments of intense quiet before the storm, and then shit gets crazy."

"In moments of violence it's very easy to draw the lines, but it's more difficult in moments of quiet, where you feel the weight of what it's like to live there. It becomes very difficult to deny the humanity of this kid," he told Ma'an. "It's a struggle to walk that line."

Hebron is 'extraordinarily uncomfortable'

Although Orr grew up in the United States, he studied Arabic for years in Egypt and Morocco and speaks Hebrew as well. Part of his family traces their roots in Jerusalem back more than 400 years, and he told Ma'an that he comes from a line of rabbis originally from Morocco and Spain. He admitted that the family's roots in Palestine are so deep that his grandmother even occasionally admits to considering herself Palestinian, if he "catches her on the right day," he said, laughing. For Orr, working on the film was part of his own journey back to Israel to confront his relationship to the occupation and the realities of Zionism. He told Ma'an that he was drawn to Hebron because of the uniquely difficult situation there.

The process of making the film itself was also full of difficulties and strange experiences, he said, as filming was frequently blocked by Israeli soldiers who forced him to turn off the camera or demanded to know what he was doing.

Once while following Awni's journey to school, meanwhile, a Palestinian police officer stopped the filming, concerned about a man following a child with a video camera in an area where Jewish settlers frequently stalk and harass locals.

"There's something about being in Hebron that's extraordinarily uncomfortable," he told Ma'an. "I wanted to personally to face that down, and to force other people to face that down as well."

"Hebron is the worst of the worst, and the kids who grow up in that environment are the most underprivileged, the most oppressed by the system, the ones who feel the occupation on a daily basis the hardest," he added.

'A little spark of hope'

Indeed, Hebron is distinguished from other areas in the West Bank by the existence of Jewish settlements inside the city itself. Israeli authorities have shut down hundreds of Palestinian shops in the last few decades and paved the way for the flight of thousands in order to ensure the security of the few hundred Israeli settlers who have taken over parts of the Old City. One scene in the film tackles one of the most pressing issues facing the area, the system of mass incarceration deployed against local teens by soldiers as punishment for even the most minor offenses. Awni is seen standing on a street in the neighborhood when stopped by soldiers, who accuse him of having harassed a group of male settlers in their 20s who were walking by. The soldiers then grab him and forcibly take him away, in what was the third such arrest in his life. Orr told Ma'an that since he finished filming, Awni has been arrested yet again.

Unlike previous times, when he was put away for a few days and then released after his family paid a large fine, this time, Orr said, he is being charged with throwing stones at a checkpoint. Under a new Israeli law, for Palestinians the charge of throwing stones can mean years of hard jail time.

"It's a terrible situation and a terrible reality," Orr told Ma'an. "The film shows exactly how harsh it is to live under occupation, but not even, because there are so many things that will happen to him in a day, in a week, in a month, or in a year that are not in the film. He'll tell me about a 2 am house raid (by Israeli soldiers), but I'm not capturing that on film."

"I walk away from the film in amazement that Awni and his entire family are able to hold on to their dignity and to their humanity, in a situation that I think most people born into those circumstances would not be able to. For a 15-year-old kid, he's incredibly wise, incredibly humane, incredibly brave, and those are also things I take away from the film and hope that others will take away as well."

With Awni potentially facing years in an Israeli military prison, however, it's unclear whether the qualities that have helped him persevere and which have made him so strong until now, will manage to survive much longer.

"There's that little spark of hope that's there," Orr told Ma'an. " But then you break it."

Source: Desertpeace