Quarterly News Roundup, March 2014
Crimea’s Takeover Isn’t a Crime
The Obama Administration and the mainstream media here in the States paint Russia as a villain for sending in troops to take over Crimea, that little peninsula off the southern coast of Ukraine. After the takeover, the US Administration imposed some sanctions against Moscow, booted Russia out of the G8 group of nations, and rattled some swords to stir up European animosities.
It’s little more than middle-school politics… like a jock rallying his buddies to rough up another student for asking a cheerleader out on a date.
They don’t get it. The fact is…
Crimea is like all the other former Soviet regions, subject to a fair law allowing Russian and other minority languages an official status as secondary languages. That’s been a good thing in Crimea, since most Crimeans are ethnically Russian and identify more with Russia than with Ukraine.
Well, in recent months the nationalistic Ukrainian parliament decided to revoke the law and pull Crimea more tightly under the umbrella of Ukrainian government. That upset the Russian majority in Crimea and forced a decision to be made. A referendum (vote) was held to determine whether Crimea’s future would be Ukrainian or Russian. More than 96 percent of Crimean voters decided to cut ties with Kiev (Ukraine) and reunite with Moscow (Russia).
The natural reaction among political minds in the US, of course, was to cry election fraud. We are, after all, experts on the subject.
The nationalistic Ukrainian parliament resisted the popular decision to turn Crimea over to Russia, and it took a brief show of force by Russian troops to enforce the referendum.
Read more about what really happened in Crimea here… and here… also here…
Similar to the National Guard going into Alabama to enforce integration in 1963.
Bad-Mouthing the 12-Step Program
In a book published this month, retired Harvard psychiatry professor Lance Dodes (along with his co-author son Zachary Dodes) dismisses Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and its many off-shoot 12-step programs as ineffective.
One of his main criticisms is that the 12-step program is spiritual, not scientific.
They don’t get it. Fact is…
The material world is maya… illusion… and the only ultimate reality is found at the center of everything—what religions have called God or Brahman. While healing material-world ills and imbalances can be facilitated with material-world treatments, complete healing can only occur through one’s connection to that central source. That’s especially true of addictions to material-world behaviors and substances, in which the illusion can seem profound… almost insurmountable.
The fundamental truth—that spirit is the ultimate reality—is ignored by science and psychiatry, though it’s at the very core of every 12-step program.
Through years of experience, the spiritual foundation of AA has been cloaked in such a way as to provide spiritual benefits to people who are not spiritually inclined. The word “God” is usually replaced by “a power greater than ourselves.” The key step in the program is turning one’s will over to that power… which is also the key to any great spiritual tradition.
Some addicts in the program define “GOD” as the Great OutDoors. Others think of it as Good, Orderly Direction… or Getting Off Drugs… or Gift Of Desperation… or Grow Or Die… or Great Omnipotent Designer…. Whatever the label, it represents that power to which one relinquishes one’s ego and hormones and the other savage forces within all of us that drive us to drink… to carouse… to gamble… or to otherwise pull us off course from our soul purpose or higher calling.
Without that surrender of our savage side to our spiritual roots, healing from addiction cannot be complete. Period.
In fairness to Dr Dodes, though, his research uncovers some important facts about human behavior and addiction. If you don’t have time to read his books, there’s a pretty good summary of the research available online.
Get a glimpse of Dodes’ findings….
In my opinion, if you combined the knowledge and rich experience of the 12-step program with the findings of Dr Dodes into a nearly complete picture of addiction recovery, more than 95 percent of the picture would be created by the 12 steps, and less than 5 percent would consist of Dr Dodes’ research.
Zachary happens to be around the age I was when I had my epiphany. It’ll be interesting to see if he, too, has a spiritual awakening and realizes that life is but a dream amid pyramids, grand spiritual traditions, and eternal truths… or if he follows the worldly direction of his educated father… row-row-rowing his boat gently down the course of denial.
These diagrams depict 1) the agitated alcoholic mind while detached from its higher self and reaching out for that connection (left), 2) the calmer alcoholic mind when integrated with its higher self into a more peaceful state (center), and 3) the more selfless alcoholic mind, part of an integrated spiritual-physical being, as a vehicle of the higher mind to do service in society for the greater good (right). In the course of treatment through the 12-step program, an addict begins to move among the three stages… eventually spending more and more time in the third stage. The dot represents “that power greater than ourselves.”
The Kochs’ Empire and Fox News
David and Charles Koch (pronounced like Coke) are American multibillionaires who seem determined to buy American democracy and to tailor it to the needs of the rich.
They insult America’s poor by denying they face any real problems…
While fighting against aid to the poor, they accept government entitlements for the rich.
And the Kochs’ hucksters at Fox News add glitz and glamor to the spin so that a large share of the general public sympathizes more with America’s rich than with America’s poor. Fox News has become the most trusted US news source by seducing viewers of all income levels into the conservative, super-rich mindset.
They don’t get it. Fact is…
America’s poor are in worse trouble than ever.
Read more here… and here…
The best solution I can think of would be a basic income program (a monthly, tax-free stipend given to every adult American) subsidized for the first two years by a wealth tax. That could get everyone in the country to at least a subsistence level and pay off much of the national debt while lessening the monumental gap between America’s rich and poor.
Read more about a basic income program for the US…
Rebooting the Medical Industry
A couple of years ago I posted an article about a treatment that could transform the war on cancer… and why the multibillion-dollar medical-pharmaceutical establishment invariably resists such transformations. That particular treatment involved the work of Dr Stanislaw Burzynski, who isolated certain molecules that are plentiful in healthy people but almost nonexistent in cancer patients, infused those molecules into the bodies of cancer patients, and watched the cancer tumors disappear… with no harmful side-effects.
Now there’s another transformation underway… but it too is being largely ignored by the medical industry despite the fact (indeed, most likely because of the fact) that it would drastically reduce health care costs.
This transformation involves a set of apps, collectively referred to as iDoctor, that can be downloaded onto smartphones to perform EEGs and other expensive procedures virtually for free.
Read about that… or watch the NBC news clip…
How many doctors employ these apps or encourage their patients to use them? I don’t know any.
They don’t get it. Fact is…
The main aim of the medical profession should be the health and well-being of patients and the general public. Here in the States, the primary aim is to protect the outrageously expensive system of modern, high-tech healthcare and the profits of the pharmaceutical industry, which has entwined itself around the medical profession like a venomous snake.
Japan’s Low Fertility Rate
Earlier this year Japanese officials announced that the country’s fertility rate has been declining, causing alarm among modern economists… who seem to think that anything but grow-grow-grow on all fronts is a sign of economic weakness.
Such is the mindset of today’s growth economists. Growth is a sign of economic health… be it growth in sales or in profits or in population. It’s all good.
By that measure, cancer (the unrestrained growth of cells) would be indication of a healthy body.
They don’t get it. Fact is…
The real sign of a vital economy is an abundance of resources in relation to a nation’s resource needs.
By that measure, a declining population implies a growing abundance of resources. Japan is a small island nation that can’t support a large population. A smaller fertility rate makes perfect sense!
Worshiping the Fetus
Here in the States, conservative politics has entwined itself with Christian fundamentalism, which considers abortion a sin and believes that sanctity of human life should be afforded to an embryo.
Young mothers who miscarry are being tried as murderers.
They don’t get it. Fact is…
Abortions performed for good reason have no spiritual consequences, according to my afterlife research. The beauty of ITC is that it can give us an unfettered view of life on the other side. Our spirit friends told us on one occasion:
Abortion is not a topic of importance here anymore as it is on Earth. Here the emotions and feelings of guilt that arose on Earth about abortion no longer play a role. One of the women who had an abortion on Earth met the human being here, a young person who would have developed out of the aborted fetus and grown into a young man on Earth. The young man did not know the young woman who stood in front of him. Neither did he understand the emotions she felt when she saw him face to face. He knew nothing about the problems she was confronted with when making this decision on Earth. The short stay in the physical world inside the female’s body left no memories in his mind. He was now enjoying his existence and had found his way. Only now did the woman realize that nobody was bearing a grudge against her. Nobody in her new life was judging her, and she managed to free herself from her feelings of guilt.
Read more about ITC research and abortion…
Musical Hallucinations and the Human Spirit
A small percentage of humans have a strange disorder in which they hear orchestras, piano concertos, and other complex music performances wherever they happen to be. No one else hears the music.
These musical hallucinations are being studied by scientists as brain disorders.
They don’t get it. Fact is…
Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto number 2 in C minor can’t simply be created by neurons and chemicals in the brain of a person who hasn’t heard the piece before.
The most likely scenario is that spirit-world performances are being picked up by certain people on Earth who have the ability to tune in to them.
It’s well known among afterlife researchers that people carry their talents with them into the next life after they die. Artists can continue to paint, musicians can continue to play their instruments of choice.
It’s also well known among afterlife researchers that certain people on Earth have mediumship abilities, in which they can tune in to the thoughts and ideas of people in spirit. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that some people can also hear the music being produced on the other side.
An Angry Outburst Can Ruin the Day; Add a Gun and It Can Ruin Lives
A vocal minority of Americans love their right to own guns and detest the idea of government restricting that right. They’re supported by the National Rifle Association, which exerts strong pressure on government officials to keep the rights of gun owners intact.
As a result, lots of Americans keep handguns close by for protection.
It’s natural for us noble-savage humans, in a fit of anger, to want to hit someone. Sometimes we do, and then a fight breaks out, and it pretty much ruins the day.
A handgun, as its name implies, becomes an extension of the hand. Unfortunately, it’s all too tempting and all too easy for a gun owner in a fit of anger to go a step further… to grab his gun and shoot someone. That destroys lives.
Guns in the USA injure or kill a child every hour.
Earlier this year a white man at the mall grabbed the gun in his glove compartment and killed a black teenager because he was playing loud music.
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is becoming common among Americans wounded in their own neighborhoods.
Within a year or two, if trends continue, more young Americans will be killed by guns than by car accidents.
And still, that vocal minority insist that gun ownership is a vital cornerstone of American society.
They just don’t get it.
Your Cat Thinks You’re Just a Clumsy Cat
Scientists who have spent decades studying pet cats claim that the cats view their owners as big, lumbering cats… not some advanced species.
They don’t get it… or maybe they do.
Even humans get a little confused on that point.
As Uncle Albert (played by Ed Wynn) said in the Mary Poppins movie:
When the lady answered the door, there was a man there, and the man said to the lady, “I’m terribly sorry, I just ran over your cat, and I’d be happy to replace him.” The lady replied, “That’s fine with me, but how are you at catching mice?”
Noble Savage World 