i'm having such intense cravings for cucumbers, its sometimes all i think about. in fact, i was so greedy for the bowl of quick pickle i was making a few days ago, i uncharacteristically sliced off the tip of my little finger on the mandolin. i took the opportunity to investigate why i was feeling so compelled and getting so much satisfaction in eating as many as i can. here's what the excellent, 'Healing with Whole Foods [Pitchford]' has to say...

CUCUMBER
Cooling thermal nature; sweet flavour; diuretic; counteracts toxins and lifts depression; cleanses the blood; influences the heart, spleen-pancreas, stomach and large intestine; quenches thirst, moistens the lungs, purifies the skin; acts as a digestive aid, especially in the form of pickles. Helpful during the hot or dry times of the year - treats the effect of summer heat. Apply the juice from cucumbers to relieve all burns, especially sunburn; drink the juice to help treat kidney and bladder infections. Consuming whole cucumber or its juice cools inflammatory conditions including stomach inflammation, conjunctivitis, sore throat, acne, inflamed skin diseases and discharges.

A pack of grated cucumber placed on the face beautifies the skin. If placed over the eyes, it relieves hot, inflamed, swollen, dry, or irritated eyes.

Cucumber contains erepsis, a digestive enzyme that breaks down protein and cleanses the intestines. This property also enables cucumber to destroy worms, especially tapeworms.

Caution: cucumber is not recommended for those with watery mucus or diarrhea.
Dosage: six whole cucumber daily or 1 cup juice.

Cucumber skin is rich in silicon, chlorophyll, and is bitter. Eating cucumber with skin (organic only) enhances its medicinal virtues. A tea of the skin alone is used for swelling in the hands and feet.

here's what naturalnews.com has to add....

Here are 10 Benefits of cucumbers:

1.Quick pick me-up - Cucumbers are a good source of B vitamins. Put down your sodas and coffee and eat a cucumber slice.

2. Rehydrates body and replenishes daily vitamins - Cucumbers are 95 percent water, keeping the body hydrated while helping the body eliminate toxins. Cucumbers have most of the vitamins the body needs in a single day. Don't forget to leave the skin on because the skin contains a good amount of vitamin C, about 10 percent of the daily-recommended allowance.

3. Skin and hair care - If you don't like to eat the skin, it can be used for skin irritations and sunburns as aloe would be used. Place a slice over puffy eyes and its anti-inflammatory properties help reduce puffiness. The silicon and sulfur in cucumbers help to stimulate hair growth.

4. Fight cancers - Cucumber are known to contain lariciresinol, pinoresinol, and secoisolariciresinol. These three lignans have a strong history of research in connection with reduced risk of several cancer types, including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer and prostate cancer.

5. Home care - Eliminates a foggy mirror. Before taking a shower, rub a cucumber slice along a mirror and it will eliminate the mirror fogging up. Instead of WD40, take a cucumber slice and rub it along a squeaky hinge and your door will stop squeaking.

6. Relieves bad breath - Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.

7. Hangover cure - To avoid a morning hangover or headache; eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish many essential nutrients, reducing the intensity of both hangover and headache.

8. Aids in weight loss and digestion - Due to its low calorie and high water content, cucumber is an ideal diet for people who are looking for weight loss. The high water content and dietary fiber in cucumbers are very effective in ridding the body of toxins from the digestive system, aiding digestion. Daily consumption of cucumbers can be regarded as a remedy for chronic constipation.

9. Cures diabetes, reduces cholesterol and controls blood pressure - Cucumber juice contains a hormone which is needed by the cells of the pancreas for producing insulin which has been found to be beneficial to diabetic patients. Researchers found that a compound called sterols in cucumbers may help reduce cholesterol levels. Cucumbers contain a lot of potassium, magnesium and fiber. These work effectively for regulating blood pressure. This makes cucumbers good for treating both low blood pressure and high blood pressure.

10. Promotes joint health, relieves gout and arthritis pain -Cucumber is an excellent source of silica, which is known to help promotes joint health by strengthening the connective tissues. They are also rich in vitamin A, B1, B6, C & D, Folate, Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium. When mixed with carrot juice, they can relieve gout and arthritis pain by lowering the uric acid levels.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/036769_cucumbers_health_benefits_rehydration.html#ixzz23d84NNAm

on kidneys

Psychological resemblence and general ailments:

"Conscious and unconscious emotional experiences and feelings are processed, purified, filtered and released. New energy is released through this; we are constantly transforming. The kidneys symbolize the filtering workings within ourselves. Thanks to this emotional growth, thanks to the elimination of toxins (through urine) we can experience pure joy. We purify ourselves constantly; we take in new experiences through our feelings and emotions, and we transform ourselves through processing these expereinces that also bring up old, unprocessed emotions by association. The old is brought up to the here and now, and through this we can come to an ever growing awareness. Emotional ballast is eliminated; old junk is cleaned up when we are open to this. A free surrender to your nature, a trust in your deepest Self, is necessary for this.

However, when you fearfully hold on to old emotions, or when you block the flow of your feelings with rational thought, then you slow down a decent functioning of your kidneys. After all, your awareness directs the organs, and not the other way around. A harmonic unity between the feminine and the masculine aspect is necessary. The soft, receptive, intuitive, sensitive… needs to be accompanied in a self-assured way by the aware "I", that organizes and arranges, that lets through and handles the natural aggressive and emotional energies.

The kidneys represent the continual rebirth within yourself, when you wash away old worries and grief, when you let everything flow off your shoulders that is no more than ballast in the present. A wonderful, light feeling of liberation, joy and happiness. Kidneys function optimally when you are open for these transforming powers within yourself, which process energies and transform them into joyous, radiant feelings, on the condition that you don't clamp onto dark and pessimistic thoughts, nor to a burdensome past. Trusting that your Nature will help you always; a deep connection with your nature, with your physical body, with your deepest core of feelings. The kidneys reflect the relation you have with yourself: trust or fear? When it comes to yourself, are you hard and aggressive, or soft and welcoming? Do you despise your body or do you love yourself entirely? Do you let those emotional energies flow through freely or do you block yourself with critisism, with limiting rational thinking? The optimal relation between the inner man and the inner woman, your feelings know themselves to be safely carried in the strong arms of your self-aware Self. The cause of kidney problems are mostly related to issues with the Relationship you have with yourself. Repression of feelings (not integrating the feminine within yourself) as well as denying your self-Worth. Do you destroy yourself by distancing yourself from your body, by living in your head in an exaggerated way, instead of feeling one with your physical nature? A fearful nervous tension, constantly being *too* alert, a feeling of being overwhelmed and suffocated because you don't let your feelings flow freely. The kidneys symbolize your sense of "connection": with yourself and with others. When you truly experience this union, this love for yourself, your kidneys will feel comfy, you will draw friends and a partner toward yourself, with whom you will also feel good and relaxed. To feel connected with life, with all that lives, with nature. No struggle, but peace. No distancing critisism, but an unlimited sense of safety, peace and joy. A fresh fountain, unconcerned and beaming. The kidneys ask for a balance: a guiding and organizing structure, based on common sense on the one hand, and a total acceptance and free through-flow of energies and emotions on the other hand. A marriage within yourself."

Translated from the Dutch version of "The Key to Self-Liberation" by Christiane Beerlandt.

Louise Hay on kidneys...

Under probable cause:

"Criticism, disappointment, failure. Shame. Reacting like a little kid.

Under new thought pattern:

"Divine right action is always taking place in my life. Only good comes from each experience. It is safe to grow up."

Biological Therapeutics Rejuvenate™

The Premier Zeta-Factor 

Every cell in the body has an electrical potential. It is the electrical energy that 

differentiates life from death. The electrical potential, also called the zeta-potential, 

ranges from 70 to 90 millivolts in a healthy human cell. 

A very high zeta-potential is the ability of a molecule to hold an electrical charge. zeta-potential 

is the force that maintains the discreteness of all the cells in our body. As we age or become ill, 

our zeta-potential drops and so does our energy. This is one reason why it is difficult to get out 

of bed, exercise or maintain self-motivation as we either become toxic, older or unhealthy. 

Without energy, without cellular electrical potential, we not only lose our health, youth and drive, 

we have a difficult time absorbing nutrients. 

Introducing Biological Therapeutics Rejuvenate™ 

Biological Therapeutics Rejuvenate™ is by far, the premier zeta-potential nutritional product on 

the market.  By “charging” our systems with Rejuvenate™, it not only reenergizes our cells, it 

also allows better absorption of trace minerals and nutrients to be more bio-available to our 

cells. We call this the CELL THERAPY Zeta-Factor. 

The secret behind the power of Rejuvenate is fulvic acid which helps transport nutrients and 

minerals through to cells and is capable of helping cells recharge with a high zeta-potential, 

restoring and maintaining their potential. The higher the zeta-potential the better the 

environment for carrying nutrients into the cells and carrying toxins out. 

Chemists say that zeta-potential is what keeps the billions of cells in the body in circulation. 

Unhealthy foods causing high levels of toxins in the blood, poor oxygen intake and other factors, 

can cause the blood cells to clump together: a condition called Rouleau. This condition leads to 

impairing the transfer of energy within the body and reducing the flow and intake of nutrients. 

From 70/90 millivolt potential, unhealthy, or aged cells can drop to 60/80, 50/70 and so on. 

When ill, electrical potential can drop to 35. In cancer patients, it can drop to 15 or lower. Losing 

our electrical potential is synonymous with dying. When you use Biological Therapeutics 

Rejuvenate™ you increase zeta-potential and cellular electrical energy aiding healing and 

slowing the aging process. In addition, it stimulates the hydration reflex reestablishing normal 

thirst and water drinking habits. 

BIOLOGICAL THERAPEUTICS 

REJUVENATE™

A force that maintains cell nourishment 

Zeta-potential represents a basic law of Nature, and it plays a vital role in all forms of plant and 

animal life. It is the force that maintains the discreteness of the billions of circulating cells, which 

nourish the organism. 

Dark Field Microscopy (Live Blood Cell Analysis) represents the analytic tool which allows an 

expert to directly view red blood cell (RBC) activity and determine how zeta-potential and other 

factors are affecting these RBC!s. Live Blood Cell Analysis may end up solving some of 

society's greatest health problems simply, quickly and far less expensively than months of 

intense therapy, pharmaceuticals, herbs and other remedies. 

Live blood cell analysis is used by both orthodox and alternative medical practitioners 

worldwide, and although it is not formally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 

(FDA) medical professionals are increasingly discovering that this innovative procedure 

provides a level of diagnostic information on cellular activity, dynamics and health far beyond 

standard or even expanded medical blood panels. 

Live blood cell analysis is thus a tool to evaluate in near-real-time, the cellular response of RBC 

to a wide variety of external stimuli (food, water, medication, etc.). The responsiveness to 

various stimuli can then be evaluated in minutes rather than in months and corrective measures 

quickly applied. 

Nutritional absorption is key 

55 out of 100 Americans can expect to die from some type of cardiovascular problem or 

alternatively have to live with severe long-term physical and/or neurological damage. On a 

lesser level, tens of millions of people worldwide are seeking ways to improve nutritional 

absorption, obtaining more effective cellular and bodily detoxification or elimination of 

environmental free radicals, achieving higher cellular and bodily energy levels and increasing 

cellular hydration for increased stamina, energy and overall physical well being. In short, such 

people are seeking healthy RBC. 

A simple analogy of an unhealthy live blood cell would be an automobile engine without a 

carburetor to inject fuel and without an exhaust to dispose of toxic carbon monoxide. Who would 

want to own an automobile like that? As it turns out, the vast majority of people are walking 

around not knowing that their body's cells are not equipped with an efficient exhaust 

mechanism. 

Zeta-potential is a term commonly used in colloidal chemistry. When tiny mineral or organic 

particles are suspended in a fluid, zeta-potential maintains the dispersion or discreteness of the 

particles in suspension. In science, we learn that like charges repel and opposite charges 

attract. In an ideal system like blood, we want all particulates to have a like electrical charge. If 

the particles have no electrical charge, the various particles will clump together and form sludge. 

Therefore, the higher the zeta-potential the better the dispersion of particles in suspension. 

Thomas Riddick, a pioneer in colloidal chemistry, said that without zeta-potential, life could not 

exist. The high Zeta-potential or negative electrical charge on particles entering the bloodstream 

may help to increase the dispersion or discreteness of blood cells by helping to enhance the 

electrical charge on blood colloids which include blood cells. When blood cells are free flowing, 

they expose maximum surface area to the blood and are therefore able to hold and transport 

more oxygen and other nutrients throughout the body. 

Zeta-potential can be imparted to colloidal materials by a number of methods including vortexial 

fluid flow and the presence of certain types of ionic minerals that impart a negative surface 

charge to adjacent objects such as RBC. When the surfaces of adjacent RBC are similarly 

charged with a negative charge, the cells push away or repel each other, much like similar poles 

on two magnets would repel each other. 

Conversely, the improper type of ionic minerals act as free radicals and neutralize the negative 

surface charges on RBC, making them collapse on top of each other. A lot of the processed 

foods with chemical preservatives, pesticide residue and additives are of a cationic nature. Bad 

for humans. These foods have a natural Zeta-potential lowering effect on the blood. When we 

add negative health items to our diet that have a sludging effect on our blood, the situation for 

health begins to deteriorate. 

Biological Therapeutics Rejuvenate™ with its high Zeta-Factor— thanks to  its fulvic acid 

content— accomplishes these two important objectives: efficient cellular hydration and cellular 

dissociation while dark field microscopy(live blood cell analysis) provides the visible proof of 

these important results. Since the blood is nearly 90 percent water, the addition of the 

Rejuvenate™ to a regular diet may provide precisely the needed components for this de- 

coagulation of the RBC. 

It would seem that a significant reduction in cardiovascular problems could be possible by the 

use of Rejuvenate to enable the zeta-potential effect to be present in the intravascular 

bloodstream. [Biological Therapeutics]

     

     

     

on the whole, this is, at it's most skeletal, compelling opinion, setting aside for the moment how important it is to hear someone speak at last and so clearly about this very particular forged manacle between alcohol and the muse...

(Katha Pollit) So many people have praised Christopher so effusively, I want to complicate the picture even at the risk of seeming churlish. His drinking was not something to admire, and it was not a charming foible. Maybe sometimes it made him warm and expansive, but I never saw that side of it. What I saw was that drinking made him angry and combative and bullying, often toward people who were way out of his league—elderly guests on the Nation cruise, interns (especially female interns). Drinking didn’t make him a better writer either—that’s another myth. Christopher was such a practiced hand, with a style that was so patented, so integrally an expression of his personality, he was so sure he was right about whatever the subject, he could meet his deadlines even when he was totally sozzled. But those passages of pointless linguistic pirouetting? The arguments that don’t track if you look beneath the bravura phrasing? Forgive the cliché: that was the booze talking. And so, I’m betting, were the cruder manifestations of his famously pugilistic nature: as F Scott Fitzgerald said of his own alcoholism: “When drunk I make them all pay and pay and pay.” It makes me sad to see young writers cherishing their drinking bouts with him, and even his alcohol-fuelled displays of contempt for them (see Dave Zirin’s fond reminiscence of having Christopher spit at him) as if drink is what makes a great writer, and what makes a great writer a real man.


So far, most of the eulogies of Christopher have come from men, and there’s a reason for that. He moved in a masculine world, and for someone who prided himself on his wide-ranging interests, he had virtually no interest in women’s writing or women’s lives or perspectives. I never got the impression from anything he wrote about women that he had bothered to do the most basic kinds of reading and thinking, let alone interviewing or reporting—the sort of workup he would do before writing about, say, G.K. Chesterton, or Scientology or Kurdistan. It all came off the top of his head, or the depths of his id. Women aren’t funny. Women shouldn’t need to/want to/get to have a job. The Dixie Chicks were “fucking fat slags” (not “sluts,” as he misremembered later). And then of course there was his 1989 column in which he attacked legal abortion and his cartoon version of feminism as “possessive individualism.” I don’t suppose I ever really forgave Christopher for that.


It wasn’t just the position itself, it was his lordly condescending assumption that he could sort this whole thing out for the ladies in 1,000 words that probably took him twenty minutes to write. “Anyone who has ever seen a sonogram or has spent even an hour with a textbook on embryology knows” that pro-life women are on to something when they recoil at the idea of the “disposable fetus.” Hmmmm… that must be why most OB-GYNs are pro-choice and why most women who have abortions are mothers. Those doctors just need to spend an hour with a medical textbook; those mothers must never have seen a sonogram. Interestingly, although he promised to address the counterarguments made by the many women who wrote in to the magazine, including those on the staff, he never did. For a man with a reputation for courage, it certainly failed him then. (Years later, when he took up the question of abortion again in Vanity Fair, he said basically the exact same things, using the same straw-women arguments. Time taught him nothing, because he didn’t want to learn.)

excerpted from Katha Pollit's
Regarding Christopher | The Nation http://bit.ly/OvIFI0

tissue tonic: young organic coconut water, liquid kelp, holy basil in a plain kombucha mother, a packet of powdered organic gelatin. mix and drink immediately. 

benefits: alkalizes, replenishes electrolytes, detoxifies, anti-inflammatory, probiotic, protein enhancement, alleviates joint pain*, prevents muscle wasting during fasting or detoxifications, reduces the degradation of collagen in bones... for the pirate version, add some fresh lime juice and a little cayenne.

* Ball State University Newscenter: Gelatin found to reduce joint pain in athletes

in the same way the mind takes familiar experiences and sorts and interprets new ones in order to reinforce habituated expectations... things that have a 'first letter last letter' that evoke some past condition or learned behaviour are gonna be subject to our meaning-seeking minds and the way it likes to 'fill in the rest.' we are, for the most part, constantly mistaking what we 'see'. we rarely realize we're interpreting according to this developed human need to 'read' what's going on around us instead of participating in it from a place of agenda-less freedom...

"The organism will react in a purposive way to overcome the stress impinging upon it from the outside, and this reactive capacity is not determined by the physical structure of the body as expressed in its anatomy and its physiology. The body creates new modes of reaction in consequence to the challenge impinging upon it from the outside. In fact, the body can, as it were, create out of nothing (ex nihilo) a way of dealing with external stress."

Harris Coulter discussing vitalism in empirical approaches, The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 9, No.3, 1994

EVERY PERSON IS DIFFERENT FROM THE AVERAGE: "The primordial relationship in medicine is the doctor sitting on one side of the desk and the patient on the other side of the desk, or the doctor standing by the bed and the patient lying in the bed, or whatever. The patient tells the doctor a lot of things, and the doctor can see more with his (or her) own eyes. Also various tests can be done to develop data from and about the patient. The question is: What does the physician do with these data once they are available?

 "The Empirical physicians viewed these data as possessing ultimate value in and for themselves. They did not attempt to penetrate beneath the surface, did not attempt to speculate about what was going on inside the patient's body, but used the symptoms as the data upon which to base diagnosis and treatment. In other words, they mistrusted anatomy and physiology as sources of medical knowledge — because anatomy and physiology are general and, as such, run counter to the Empirical principle of individualization. Whereas certain physiological and pathological processes occur in humans as a class, the individual presenting patient may or may not represent that particular class of patients. Every person is different from the average. The average is an abstraction. Every patient is different and is unique — this was always the strong conviction of the Empirical physicians."

 Harris Coulter, The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 9, No.3, 1994

"Society today is paying a heavy price in disease and death for the monopoly granted the medical profession in the 1920’s. In fact, the situation peculiarly resembles that of the 1830s when physicians relied on bloodletting, mercurial medicines, and quinine, even though knowing them to be intrinsically harmful. And precisely the same arguments were made in defense of these medicines as are employed today, namely, that the benefits outweigh the risks. In truth, the benefits accrue to the physician, while the patient runs the risks."

Harris Coulter (Divided Legacy Vol 3)

a note to the wise

Dear Friends,

Two thousand years ago Marcus Aurelius wrote:
"Our anger or annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us".

Most of the time, you will find this to be true. Negativity strengthens the ego, but it weakens you. It prevents true intelligence from arising and dealing with situations and people. When you recognize its futility and harmfulness, it begins to subside. You can then face and accept situations and people as they are, without this unnecessary inner baggage. This is the beginning of wisdom in action.

With love,
Eckhart Tolle

on the recent new moon in aquarius

[excerpted from Robert Wilkinson's AQUARIUS PAPERS]

The next 4 weeks is a time to fulfill your understanding of things, and see clearly what needs repair or reconstruction. We can all understand the need for new standards to admire and newer, more "perfect" ways to secure a better life. Keep establishing new connections, new emergent possibilities, and let go of any lurking ambivalence as you stand at yet another "portal of initiation." Here we are reintroduced to a whole new way to do our Being which involves walking on into the unknown. While some of this may seem like an ordeal, it's the logical result of what you claimed in 2005 that set up the new initiatives of 2010-2011.

Keep attuning to the invisible world, open to the larger field of light/life we all share, and find humor in a lot of the changes. The atmosphere may be "cool and dry," but there will also be some form of "cosmic visitation" that can electrify our lives and leave us in awe of how perfect Spirit works its magic. Take care of details, work or rework the plan, see what fits where, and renounce old roles while searching for a new effectiveness in your world. Find a fresh point of view uncontaminated by social or mental preconceptions, and allow your imagination to be guided by Spirit into a "vibrant simplicity."

...

Keep finding clear visions, information, and communications, and then figure out how to act to make those real or relevant to your emergent life. Find what your mind thinks it needs to make clear decisions, follow through in practical actions, and then feel what must be felt, experience what must be experienced, and get clear about what you're feeling so that you can find even newer views and understanding.

So get new information, new understanding, and new views of what's possible in the future that helps you separate from the past. Then do what must be done with decisiveness so you can experience your emergent life with new feelings. Venus in Pisces with Jupiter in Taurus can make our lives much more tender and compassionate, so take the chance to feel deeper than before now, and you could become more universal and non-separate in the process.

Mars and Saturn are both on the threshold of going stationary retrograde. Saturn will retrace the final 8 degrees of Libra, so the next few months we'll be taking a new look at lessons we've been moving into since October. Mars will move back to early Virgo, so expect slowdowns and returns or renewals wherever you have Virgo, Aries, and Scorpio.

There are hard turns coming through easy understanding, so keep it simple, accept rewards when offered, see the broader context of your mission, and promote efficiency. This time can help us "cut to the chase," see the openings resulting from the "liberating ordeals" of August 2011, and be our "sculptor self."

Curb pessimism, think outside the box, and cultivate your spiritual rapport with others. If appropriate, study, read, and write, or at the very least, get a grip on your mind and speech, but without rigidity or narrow thoughts dominating the process.

Follow through, remember that some limitations are more boon than bondage since they help us focus our potency, exchange ideas to further fellowships, and figure out what you really venerate rather than the old social roles that squashed your individuality. There is a tremendous liberation and new ways of being an individual promised by this Lunation, so think, decide, and then feel with an eye to getting in shape for the stable harmonious future to come that's been promised by what we've cared for this past Autumn.

We've been through two "cosmic visitations" and two revelations of a new way of being that renders our old patterns obsolete. Welcome to the third "cosmic visitation" that will complete your understanding of the larger rhythms swirling around us. More rewards and harvests to come through mid-March!

[read Robert Wilkinson's full article here]

the role of detachment in self-realization

adversarial dynamics are key to developing not just awareness of self but the power to transform limits into new gates to unbroken horizons. during times of interpersonal conflict, an able-ness to resist the temptation to counter-offensives, retaliation and revenge-schemes is the arena within which real detachment can be practiced.

only when you can take the lash of outright slander and not flinch, not even feel the stroke in its harm intention, only then does one have the chance to exercise this potent skill of practical magic. feigning detachment when circumstances permit, or as a pretense masking a more chronic indifference and lack of engagement with reality, these might con one into thinking a sort of personal liberation has been attained. unfortunately these are the sorts of false consolations that verily lead to the brittle and smug self-assurance which prevents the deconstruction and shedding of old skins and distorted lenses.

the art of war sagely advises that one should never completely humiliate or strip down the dignities of the adversary if peace, security, and non-violence are core aims. sometimes, when the opponent is powerful in their reach but impossibly mesmerized by self-justifying perceptions, a temporary theater must be constructed to lead the opponent into the delusion most suited to maintaining the ego's cherished immunity, protecting it from inconvenient truths.

this means elevating your resonances above the level where the conflict chooses to play, turning the other cheek, and failing to actively obstruct anyone's dissembling and falsehood schemes. instead, the holy trickster empowers the opponent with what appears to be an inevitable and assured endgame victory. thusly distracted by their own unchecked certitudes, the easiest disengagement is to be had, for you've left them as you've found them. in their drama. because other people are not your business. meanwhile the hardest practice of all, not returning fire with fire, poison with poison, or passing on exponentially increasing pain and karma, has been faced, engaged, and profited from. this is the road less travelled where you will always find kin, the hunters everywhere of wisdom, love and freedom.

Until you've found pain, you won't reach the cure
Until you've given up life, you won't unite with
the supreme soul
Until you've found fire inside yourself, like the Friend,
You won't reach the spring of life.
Rumi ♥

equations may guide but they may also mislead...

wherever you have distortion, you'll find a compensation. its a law that operates in the plastic-fantastic structural world, within the play of informational substances in the blood, even in our psychology. the trick is to never assume simple equations like 'this always equals that.' while there are generals, its the idiosyncratic particulars that point to the inner argument that even the self in distress can't articulate or see for plain...

irrational rules

the net dynamic between unconscious and conscious centers is of an irrational, non-deterministic nature. things that don't make sense according to causal laws or probability trends, things which bypass reason and impact at the level of numen are the things which transform the hard fist of inner noise and self-hypnotism. thusly no matter how intractable a complex seems, no matter how tempting to apply the heat of even more analysis, in a startling reduction the following mantra always applies... 'your only problem is that you think you have a problem...'

the thing about the affects

we're conditioned to find them one way but they partake of duality just like we do. there is a healthy, righteous and lovely side to anger just like there's a base expression of it. the interpretation and spin are ours to own. anger simply shows up in the drag we insist it wears, but its pliable enough to show a different face anytime we like.

talking cures in isolation

the talking cure guilds have had to acknowledge of late the abysmal success rates achieved among the more intractable psychological problems, a reflection of their limited, dogmatic contents and rather lacking methods for therapist self-assessment and skill development. the injection of consciousness and language itself seems to defeat the quest for illumination and change. i'm starting to believe you really have to get your hands on a person to help break through structural amnesias and distortion zones.

and there's a fantastic safety mechanism involved. it can only work if the appropriate bodyworker with the right tools matches up with a person ready to deconstruct their old patterns and explore new ones. thusly, though it can feel like someone is 'working on you,' the client still has to take an active role in the experience and as much responsibility as the worker. you can't really say the same of a talking cure scenario. you can unintentionally mislead your therapist far afield from the critical understandings that might aid you, but the body under an awake hand cannot lie.

the science delusion

finally.... serious counterargument apropos the fixed madness of whitecoat scientific dogma, the articles of faith that have so curtailed progress and enlightenment... trade in old robes of rationalist fancy which by definition must exclude inconvenient facts for more comprehensive models that demand new paradigms and ways of looking... exciting! bravo rupert!

you can order an advance copy prior to the May 2012 US/Canada release through this UK purveyor...

Jung on wholeness

"Wholeness is represented by the family, and its components are still projected upon the members of the family and personified by them. But this state is dangerous for the adult because regressive: it denotes a splitting of personality which primitive man experiences as the perilous 'loss of soul.'

In the break-up the personal components that have been integrated with such pains are once more sucked into the outside world. The individual loses his guilt and exchanges it for infantile innocence; once more he can blame the wicked father for this and the unloving mother for that, and all the time he is caught in this inescapable causal nexus like a fly in a spider's web, without noticing that he has lost his moral freedom.

But no matter how much parents and grandparents may have sinned against the child, the man who is really adult will accept these sins as his own condition which has to be reckoned with. Only a fool is interested in other people's guilt, since he cannot alter it. The wise man learns only from his own guilt. He will ask himself: Who am I that all this should happen to me? To find the answer to this fateful question he will look into his own heart." [Psychology and Alchemy]

bates eye method in a nutshell

a good practicum for understanding sight
but also a non-local metaphor for how to best navigate the world of experience...

Bates Method in a Nutshell
The Basics of Better Eyesight: Instructions on how to improve your vision with simple eye exercises and visual habits

Written by Alex Eulenberg in 1995, based on Better Eyesight Without Glasses by William H. Bates (New York: Henry Holt, 1981), Chapter 24, "Fundamental Principles of Treatment", pp. 193-200. Last revision, May 18, 2009.

The means to better vision is through relaxing the eyes. Rest makes vision better, strain or effort makes vision worse. There are several ways to rest the eyes.

Close your eyes. While doing this, think of something agreeable.

Cover your eyes. Called "palming". If you cover your eyes so as to exclude all light, the eyes will be able to achieve a greater degree of relaxation. Cover both eyes with the palms of your hands, your fingers crossed on your forehead. Note: in order to be successful, you must be able to relax while palming. Some people cannot do this, and palming becomes counterproductive. The blacker the field you see, the more relaxed you are. But if you "try" to see black, this may cause more strain. Don't try to see black: it is better to imagine a concrete, familiar object or scene.

Observe the swing of things. As you move your gaze from one point to another, things seen should move in the opposite direction. For example, if you look at the upper left corner of the letter "H" and then shift your gaze to the lower left corner, the "H" should appear to move, or "swing" up. If it doesn't, this is a sign of strain. There are a variety of exercises to practice the swing. You can gently swing your whole body to the left and to the right, and watch a distant tree swing to the right and to the left, you can move just your head, or just your eyes. The better the vision, the shorter the swing can be made to be.

Use your imagination. By seeing things with your mind's eye, and remember them in precise detail, you increase your ability to see actual objects better. The perfect memory of any sensation can be produced only when one is free of strain. It also helps, when practicing with a test card, to imagine that the part of a letter that one is looking at is blacker than the rest of the letter, or to imagine a small letter within a small black spot of a letter. In this way you direct your mind to appreciating finer and finer detail.

Catch those flashes. When your eyes finally achieve a state of relaxation through swinging or palming, you will see a "clear flash"; paradoxically, the sight of everything in focus is such a surprise that it causes strain, and the blur returns. So before the clear picture blurs out, close your eyes and remember the image in its full sharpness and clarity.

Keep your vision centered. When you regard an object, only one small part should be seen best. This is because only the center of the retina -- the fovea -- has the best vision for detail. Farther away from the fovea, the retinal receptors get progressively less able to pick up fine detail. Therefore, trying to catch all the detail with all of your retina at once causes strain because it cannot be done! To be able to see all the details of an image, put each detail into the center of your visual field, where it can be seen best, one at a time. Allow each detail to become less clear as you move away from it and center in on the next detail.

Enjoy the sun. Get out into the open and enjoy every sunny day. It is especially relaxing and stimulating to the eyes if you close your eyes and let the sun shine onto your lids as you sway back and forth.

Practice with a test card. Keep an eye chart on the wall. To practice, stand from 10 to 20 feet away, and read the smallest line that you can without straining. Then look at one of the letters on that line and close your eyes. Remember that letter -- go over every detail in your mind; shift from part to part, from curve to corner and so on. When you open your eyes, you will see not only that letter better, but also the one below it. If you find yourself staring at the letters, which results in the line becoming blurred as soon as it comes into focus, it is best to close the eyes before this can happen. When you open them, shift to another letter on the same line. If you close your eyes for each letter, you will become able to read the whole line. Practice every day for five minutes or more and keep a record of your progress.

McLuhan on being an amateur

"My education was of the most ordinary description, consisting of little more than the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic at a common day school. My hours out of school were passed at home and in the streets." Michael Faraday, who had little mathematics and no formal schooling beyond the primary grades, is celebrated as an experimenter who discovered the induction of electricity. He was one of the great founders of modern physics. It is generally acknowledged that Faraday's ignorance of mathematics contributed to his inspiration, that it compelled him to develop a simple, nonmathematical concept when he looked for an explanation of his electrical and magnetic phenomena. Faraday had two qualities that more than made up for his lack of education: fantastic intuition and independence and originality of mind.

Professionalism is environmental. Amateurism is anti-environmental. Professionalism merges the individual into patterns of total environment. Amateurism seeks the development of the total awareness of the individual and the critical awareness of the groundrules of the environment. The groundrules provided by the mass response of his colleagues serve as a pervasive environment of which he is contentedly unaware. The "expert" is the man who stays put.

"There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago." [Robert Oppenheimer]

biomimicry

‎"Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a new discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example.

"The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most important, what lasts here on Earth. This is the real news of biomimicry: After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival."

[excerpted from Janine Benyus' Biomimicry Institute website]

uranus-pluto and material energy

"The Uranus-Pluto conjunction of 1705-16 coincided with the invention of the steam engine and the discovery of the use of coal for iron-smelting furnaces that began the Industrial Revolution and the age of steam, iron, and coal. The following conjunction of 1845-56 coincided with the discovery of petroleum oil as a fuel, a discovery that began the petroleum age whose cultural, ecological, and geopolitical consequences are still unfolding. And the following opposition of 1896-1907 coincided with the birth of the nuclear age with the discovery of radioactivity in uranium, the isolation of radium and polonium, and Einstein's E = mc2 formulation." [Richard Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche]

reactor-free medical isotopes developed

always good to hear report of ongoing disentanglements between manufacturers of weapons-grade uranium and western medicine. isotopes are used to deliver radiation to direct targets from inside the body as opposed to getting radiated from the outside. unfortunately, the truth that there's no good use for radiation (or nuclear weaponry industries dressed in energy industry garb) is rarely reported...

"Medical isotopes could be made without a nuclear reactor"
Canadian researchers are racing to perfect a safe, clean, inexpensive and reliable method for making isotopes used in medical-imaging and diagnostic procedures.

piriformis or SI joint pain?

interestingly, the piriformis not only stabilizes the femur, its the key muscle responsible for the lateral rotation of the hip joint, meaning it's the muscle that allows us to open the groin and make ourselves vulnerable. i say interesting, because of how chronic we, the western population as a statistical pool, go into rigid spasm, locking down the front by seizing up in the back instead... humans. looking one way while doing another since, um, forever...

here's the best discussion i've come across on the guiding features that distinguish SI joint pain from piriformis entrapment of the sciatic... Piriformis or SI Joint Pain? by a Certified Advanced Rolfer...