About Emotional Pain

This life can undoubtedly be a valley of tears and no one is immune to trauma and dysfunction particularly those having their root in childhood, our most vulnerable period. To understand why past events wield so much power on us in the present we need to first understand the nature of the subconscious. Contrary to the Conscious which is time bound, the subconscious is independent of time. In other words, any thoughts, memories or emotions that get thrown in there are not appended to a time matrix and will not stay in the past but are free to roam around and come and haunt you when they are evoked by similar events to the ones that created them in the first place. The principle at work is the following: past memories and emotions are "stored" as negative energy or in other words, potential, non realized energy. This negative energy will always look for an opportunity to manifest itself (usually in unwholesome ways) but can only do it in the field of the now, the present. In fact, because we unwittingly relive events of the past, energies that were meant to help sustain us in the NOW, are hijacked and we become emotionally depleted. The more we exist in the now, the more we are fully present in time and space, the more power we have available.

When those awful things happened to you in the past, part of you, part of your soul, left you because its full presence, your full awareness, would be too painful and unbearable (you see, your current pain is a vaccine against a much bigger pain). Have you ever met people who were incapable of loving or letting others in their lives, or people who are never "there" mentally for you when you talk to them? These are people who are missing part of their soul. They lost it in some awful personal tragedy, when they were powerless and vulnerable. But now the soul is invited to come back home because they are grown-ups, they have recovered their powers and can face reality as whole human beings. Power recovery, by the way, is the first step in soul recovery. Power recovery very simply means helping the person find his or her lost sovereign right to full personhood and many techniques are available these days to help with that.

In addition to power recovery, another important point is that you absolutely need to deeply and completely accept yourself even in your present predicament. Never look at yourself with antagonism because that loss of soul was a defense mechanism that allowed you to survive in your body and you are not alone. Truly, conflict, pain, strife and consequently soul loss is how the universe works. Your suffering is not an aberration. Your suffering is legitimate. Therefore acknowledge the loss, be aware of it by welcoming it as a savor of the past, only now the time has come to move on to better things. If you were only to remember one principle out of all this gibberish of mine remember this: never attack an issue from a lateral point of tension and stress, always do it from a relaxed center, you will have more power available. You can find your relaxed center when you renounce your role as victim and you become active participant in your own life. Do you see the paradox: you become relaxed when you become active, you change yourself when you accept yourself. Welcome to my world.

Ever been asked about the difference between soul and spirit? here is a clever answer for you: the soul is the one that goes missing when the spirit gets distracted.

One more thing about emotional pain. The principles I mentioned above apply also to nations. Most of the conflicts we see today are unresolved energies from the past history of humanity (embodied beautifully in our myths and folklore). If individuals suffer traumas, nations do too and these tend to be past on to successive generations and return to haunt like unforgiving ghosts in the form of war and conflict, if not dealt with wisely. Most of the leaders of our modern history are the human form of recycled forces of repressed millenary frustrations and they take the guise of colorful (sometimes very sinister) characters like Hitler, Golda Meir, Arafat, De Gaule, Mussolini , and how could I forget Benladen and lil Bush, are just acting out the scripts written for them by Pharaoh Ramsis, Moses, Father Abraham, the Apostle Paul, or some other grand-grand-grand father of ours. . If we saw history as a continuous passing on of unresolved, pent-up energies, we would probably make more sense of our predicaments and thus more able to solve them. You've always heard that history repeats itself, now you know why. Mark my words, in the next few years we are going to see a complete overhaul and reassessment of how we view history that will change our understanding of the past. When we really know how we came to be what we are, we will realize our place in the universe as a human race and we will, hopefully, all finally be able to live in the NOW.

What Is A Paradox?

A paradox happens when you use "circular" reasoning a you apply it to a linear time and space framework. In other words you take an event (such as the race between Achilles and the Tourtoise in Zeno's paradoxes) and try to reduce it to it infinitesimal components and then attempt to map that into a matrix that has a logical function and structure. The result makes "metaphysical" sense but it leads you nowhere. Paradoxes do reveal the real nature of the universe but they are of no help at allowing us to come up with an actionable framework for solving practical problems.
Another example is found in Vedic Mathematics when the approach to numbers and their properties is circular rather than linear (as it is in Western Mathematics). Vedic math uses the same decimal system (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) but their layout in the digital landscape is circular: it starts with 1 and ends with 9 in a circular clockwise direction and where zero and 9 share the same place in the circle and have a strange affinity in property and characteristic: in Vedic math zero (nothing) and 9 (everything) are of the "same nature". That my friend is the mother of all paradoxes.

About Stereotypes And Symbols

Stereotypes and symbols are static –frozen- representations of what is in fact very dynamic, changing, moving processes. Humans love stereotypes and symbols in the same manner that they prefer the comfort of the status quo to the exacting requirements of change and adaptations to new realities. Stereotypes and symbols are cheap generalizations most of the time but do not be fooled because they are powerful: To create them humans draw from the murky water wells of past unexamined experiences, second hand tales and the ghostly reminiscences of the collective unconscious. Our reaction to them, like a geyser, springs from a deep, mysterious and emotionally incandescent chamber of the soul.

Symbols are never intrinsically good or evil. They represent primordial energies, manifestations and events. They contain both polarities, positive and negative energies. Positive being the active element and negative the potential, virtual element. Nothing to do with moral positivity or negativity. For example, for an "awakened" person - one that transcends polarities and looks at existence in a holistic, cosmic, integrative manner - the color black means the potential, non-manifest energy, the mystery of the cosmos, the feminine principle, the universal forces of inclusion, introversion and nature-centricity, the primordial silence of the night from which all creation emerges, and so on. On the other hand, for an unenlightened being -one that operates at the surface and falls in the trap of polarities -the color black will inevitably mean inhospitable darkness, moral evil and depravity, lack of vital energy, depression and gloom, and so on, and that is why you get so much intolerance and hatred from so called religious people. Why would good and decent people hate women, and blacks, and people of other faiths and those of different sexual orientation? The answer is, they have adopter the wrong principle and are led by the nose by its energies. As I mentioned in a previous topic ("What is Consciousness?"), it is Einstein's formula in action, E=MC2: If you attach your consciousness, your faith, to falsehood and no matter how much sense it may make to you, it is a destructive energy, you are going to get nothing else but mayhem and confusion. Religion is constructive and helps humans be humans only if it transcends good and evil. If it doesn't then religion is a part of the problem and not of the solution.

Some examples of human symbolisms:

- Head coverings: Such as hats, turbans, chadors etc. The purpose of head covering is protection from either sunshine or cold, all other uses are symbolic. Your head is where your ideas come from, covering it with something means that you are holding down your own ideas in favor of the ideas of the group, in other words you are conforming. The same for long hair and crew cuts. Letting your hair grow means you are letting your ideas and creativity flow and come out. Hair (the one on top of your head) is a symbol of ideas, creativity and independence. Cutting your hair short or off all together means you are giving up your own ideas and independence in favor of the ideas of the group.

- Facial hair instead is a differentiator, masculinity as opposed to femininity, grown up as opposed to immature. For a man to have a clean shaved face means basically that he has reconciled all these naturally antagonistic forces and has embraced the bitter-sweet reality of paradox.

- Clothing: What we wear is also a differentiator and a gauge to where we are in our natural and cultural evolution. Clothing evolve with people. Peoples who are culturally stuck in the past will continue wearing the same kinds of clothing their ancestors wore for centuries.

- Music: Peoples and groups who "walk in step" with the times will have music that has melody and harmony while people who are not will have music that is repetitive, dissonant and monotonous. This is why I believe that if you want to help any people advance you should start first by teaching young children to play instruments and sing according to structured rules of melody and harmony. This will hopefully work as a hard reality metaphor and affect and mirror in the daily social life: Harmony in the spirit will reflect in a similar harmony when dealing with each other and the world around us.

My Take On Current World Events

He promises peace but delivers war
The dirty son of a whore
He lies thru his teeth, I can tell
I wish him first earthly punishment and then hell
He his a jerk, arrogant, uncouth and crass
May he spend eternity as the bicycle seat of someone heavy and never wipes his ass
He covets what little there is in people's pocket
I will gouge his eye and crap in its socket
The mother-fudger wants to nip at my already meager salary
Look at him; the cat has swallowed the canary
He is always towing a big fake smile
He opens his mouth, it drips with vile
He inflicts injury and humiliation for sport
Behind him always, brownnosers, a nasty cohort
They say there is no bread, could they just have cake?
He is incapable of compassion that is my take
Vive the proletariat and down with the bourgeoisie
Let heads roll, forget courtoisie
He is clean-cut from the outside but inside disheveled and scruffy
He is evil, wake up and smell the coffee
He conjures tales till heads spin and thoughts are blurry
Suckers are his playground, those who cross him he will burry
He builds on the carcasses of those that in him trusted
Cities and empires conquered, mighty fortresses busted
But do not despair, out of manure beautiful flowers will spring
Rain still falls on the popper and the king
There is nothing new under the sun
Come on, let's all party and have fun
Peace and justice may elude us
Wealth and prosperity will preclude us
God will lower the hills and the valleys exalt
Good men will remain earth's salt
To spice up the bland soup of existence
The almighty will bless the good virtue of persistence
May he give us more poetry, more music and more art
Cause we truly are closer to apes than we are to Mozart

We are very familiar with the concept of "gene" but rarely anyone has ever heard of "meme". Genes are nature's tools for passing on biological information from one generation to the next. Memes, on the other hand, are nature's way of passing on ideological and cultural information. Genes are propagated in chromosomes by the way of sex (in humans) while memes are propagated in ideas by the way of indoctrination. The manifestations of memes are as organic and concrete as the genes'. Keep this in mind while I go to the next point.

Everything in our society is geared to promoting industry and business, in other words capitalism, a soul-less version of it for that matter. Just look at the hierarchy of taught school disciplines: first is mathematics, then Engineering, then physics,and so on. Last on the list is arts. Engineering may help you make a better car but it doesn't help replenish your soul and make you a better human being. Art does. Whoever or whatever is running the world is not doing it for the best interest of the individual human being. Individual well-being and fulfillment is sacrificed for a much broader, and I would say, sinister purpose.

Now let me tell you about an interesting and much significant natural phenomenon. There is a parasitic worm that grows inside crickets. The worm will stay and develop inside the insect until mating time when the worm needs a body of water to reproduce. Now how do you convince the cricket to go into water? You manipulate its brain chemistry: The worm manages to somehow brainwash its hosts into ways that they would not do usually. As a matter of fact, it will cause the cricket to seek out a body of water and plunge in it and practically commit suicide. Another example is a parasite that develops in cats which these excrete and sometimes mice catch it when they hover too long around cat poop. The parasite will tolerate his current host until the time comes to reproduce, which can only happen in the belly of a whisked feline. How does the parasite get itself back inside a cat? by fooling with the mouse's brain and making it think it is supermouse. Literally, the mouse becomes reckless and will not avoid cats as all mice would normally do and finally ends up eaten by a cat.

Do you see a parallel here. Ideas need bodies, political and religious ideas need believers but not for the believer's sake. Take for example a certain political or religious group, lets call it group A. That group becomes enthralled with an idea to the point of madness and starts doing stupid things that threaten the other group's peace and survival. Let's call this other group, B. This groups happens to be much more powerful and resourceful. One day members of group A do a very crazy thing like detonate an atomic bomb in a major city belonging to group B, killing hundred of thousands. The much civilized group B will suddenly loose its culture and temperance and shift into survival mode were all manner of atrocities will be committed indiscriminately, in the name of self defense and the continuity of civilization. The sword will not only fall on those who committed the crime but all members of groups A who by the way have made the job much easier for group B to exterminate them by making themselves a very easy target by their outward appearance and clothing.

The little worm, in the form of an ideology or belief, got into group A's mind and altered its perceptions to the point of madness and collective suicide thus ending up in the belly of the big cat.

Do you think this is far fetched? Auschwitz happened only sixty years ago.

Is Islam A Violent Religion?

Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, are religions which in essence draw their doctrine and faith from the same fundamental mythology, that of an exclusive, extreme, uncompromising and patriarchal god. Refer to the topic "What Happened in the Garden of Eden?" to read about the probable mythological origins of religious violence. Remember that mythologies encapsulate collective, unresolved energies which form our emotional and cultural consciousness, which in turn form our physical and social environment. The outcome of this archaic flux of thought is not automatic but pretty much determined by the most important players in this game, the interpreter and the salesman.

No idea, or religion for that matter, is intrinsically good or evil (Read the topic "About The Attractor Factor" where I blatantly contradict myself). Cultural beliefs and religious doctrines stem from ideals, insights, prophecies and philosophies that are very much subject to interpretation. What makes a doctrine good or evil is not its content but its "interpreter". In the Torah for example, Yehovah calls his people to kill anyone that works on the sabbath, and kill children who rebel against their parents, or those who believe in another god and on and on. The god of the old testament practically inflicted the death penalty of what we would consider today "free expression", a very minor infraction. Those verses in the book of Leviticus and Samuel can linger there for generations and no one would pay much attention to them, until one nice day, some son-of-a-bitch, some angry-peddler-of-doom-preacher who didn't get enough hugs from his dad, comes out of the blue and starts spewing his venomous rhetoric and reminding everyone that god is the same yesterday, today and forever and that he said this and that he said that, and that we should all take the scriptures literally and do what god says. These jerks seem to have no difficulty finding committed devotees because in the ecology of fundamentalisms, critical thinkers are a rare unprotected species. However I do give more credit to the skill of the salesmen. There can never be a fundamentalism without good salesmen. If they can sell you a Ford Taurus, they can sell you anything.

About Cavemen And Cellphones

The question is why didn't progress on the human and spiritual front keep pace with technological and mechanical progress. You look around you, or watch the news and you realize that humans, no matter what time, civilization, country, or race haven't improved much as far as human or soul quality is concerned despite amazing technological breakthroughs: we are all but a tiny step away from committing untold atrocities on each other. In fact we are nothing but cavemen with cellphones.

Now what is the reason for this discrepancy?

The reason why we can fly planes to the moon but can't solve the problem of poverty or drugs for example is due to the manner that our brain/mind solve problems and particularly the Eureka effect. We have heard innumerable times how mathematicians, engineers, chemists, physicists and such, who have tackled a particular challenge in their field, struggle miserably for a while to find a resolution to their dilemma and then one morning, they wake up et voila, they have La Solution. The human brain has the uncanny ability to "dream up" solutions to mechanical and engineering problems (which by the way are what we would consider"finite" problems) and allowed us to accomplish quantum leaps in almost every scientific and engineering field. But not so for human and soul problems. Our brain is incapable of dreaming up solutions to these kinds of problems. Did you ever hear of anyone waking up one morning and, eureka, getting the formula for solving crime, or poverty, or drugs in our cities. The answer of course is no. I can use my cellphone to talk, take pictures, listen to music and even open my garage door, but I still believe that my neighbor and because he is wearing the wrong hat, is going to hell for sure.

If we can get our brains to work in the same manner for soul issues and they do for mechanical and engineering ones, then we will go places.

What Is Imagination?

My mind made love to my soul
Inseminating with prose the abysmal womb
In time, poetry will be born

There are probably two parallel, coexisting realities, one perceived by the senses (the real, tangible world) and one that isn't (the spiritual and the magical), and the ship that allows us to travel between one and the other is called “imagination”. However, Imagination is not uniform across the board: the quality of your imagination is not the same as mine. The imagination of an old soul is not of the same timbre as the imagination of a young one and usually, humans prefer imagination to reality because reality has many limitations while Imagination is free and limitless.

About Jews And Antisemitism

There is no better symbol for the Western Civilization than the Jews. They were there all along, since the beginning of history to our days. Jews, love them or hate them, but they are a hard reality metaphor for the continuity of this civilization and its endurance. So if you asked yourself why of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and the Jewish massacres throughout history, now you know: If you were pissed off at a civilization (or plan to create your own) who would you take it on? those who represent it most of course.

One thing needs to be made clear, the fact that you are a symbol of something doesn't determine the quality of your humanity: a group or a people can be symbols of something cosmically great ( White people as symbol of light and twisted pride, Red people as symbol of connectedness to nature and unbridled passions, Yellow people as symbol of deep community and withered emotions) and still behave like sons of bitches, and vice versa. There is rarely a direct relation between what something symbolizes and what it really is, that relationship gets lost in time. That is why for example Blacks are discriminated against in every host country they find themselves in because some people seem to associate anything that is black ( including human beings) to evil, spiritual darkness and everything that is bad and negative. It is not a question of blaming anyone because these things happen as an automatic unconscious reaction and are carried on without the support of proof or personal experience and it goes without saying that people think and do stupid things all the time. However, symbols are powerful and need to be reckoned with.

About Gods And Bozos

" I am god. But so are you".
Ram Dass

According to author Guy Kawasaki there are two kinds of people: the "gods" and the "bozos" and gods are to be sought and bozos to be avoided at any cost. By "gods" he means people who have tapped into their inner divinity and essence and are at one with the universe. In other words, they have transcended "consensus trance" and have awakened. These people are usually of very good quality, like a beautiful red and ripe tomato, they are bright people who work hard and do things right.

By "bozos" he means dull people who don't give a shit - and if we want to follow the previous analogy, they are rotten tomatoes. Bozos are the orphan children of evolution: they were left behind and thus they are closer to apes than they are to Einstein. If you have been in business for any period of time you may have realized by now the quantity of bozos that litter the workplace, from top management to the absolute base floor. The "gods" are hard to find but when you meet one you know it and it is a real pleasure to do business with them. You meet a bozo and you are looking at some precious time that you are not going to get back. Now seat down and ask yourself: am I a god or am I a bozo? This is my prayer, Lord give us this day our daily "gods" but deliver us from "bozos", amen.

About Being Strong And Being Strong

I don't know how to say this but if you are weaker than the people you deal with, you are going to get the shit beaten out of you when those people get frustrated for whatever reason and need something or someone to vent on. So for goodness sake, go join a gym or learn martial arts or if you have children don't take this lightly: teach them how to defend themselves (physically and verbally) so they won't be the butt of some jerk's whim. When people become aggressive they generally do not target their victims randomly, they size their surrounding for those individuals who appear to be weak and incapable of self-defense and then proceed and beat them senseless. This applies to single individuals as well as to groups and entire nations. Tame and peaceful nations have always been easy prey in the hands of aggressive and war-loving hordes. The meak will surely inherit the earth… but only the dust of it.

ABout George W. Bush

Maybe God sent him to teach us that syntax is overrated or maybe that prose has somehow misbehaved and needed swift (and repeated) punishment. One thing really concerns me about the American president: he is a young soul, and an old soul is what the very complex world we live in today needs in a leader, and the fact that a great and smart people like the American people chose him (well, technically they didn't, the supreme court did) is a sign that something is terribly wrong with the democratic system of this much beloved and admired nation.

Now, what do I mean by young soul and old soul? Your soul doesn't age in the same manner as your body. You can add many years to your soul (and consequently wisdom) by reading the works of poets and writers of the past and of the present; by meeting new people; by traveling around the world and being exposed to different cultures and ways of life; by meditating and exploring many different spiritual paths; by cultivating your inherent artistic possibilities in music, song, dancing etc. In some cases, very young children exhibit the characteristics of an old soul even if they haven't done all this homework. This is most likely due to biological and genetic predisposition that makes them easy receptors of that cosmic flow of wisdom that is right there, hovering over our heads, or, there must be a kernel of truth behind reincarnation in the sense that. Well lets face it, only one lifespan is just too short to get any kind of relevant momentum on this immense and complex terrain called life. Our physical death may just be God's way of saying: " Sorry for the inconvenience. We are shutting our server for a much needed upgrade. The new version will be available for download soon. New hardware may be required."

My Theory Of Knowledge And Intelligence

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
--William Blake

Embleming heaven and earth united now.
Vast beams like spokes of some invisible wheel
Which whirl as the orb whirls, swifter than thought,
Filling the abyss with sunlike lightnings,
And perpendicular now, and now transverse,
Pierce the dark soil, and as they pierce and pass,
Make bare the secrets of the earth's deep heart.
--P.B. Shelley

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die... [ ] And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed... [ ] she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked... [ ] And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed"
--The Book of Genesis

We may actually be learning by subtraction rather than addition. In other words, we may be learning by "unlearning" and genes have a lot to do with it.

There is nothing new under the sun as the psalmist said. We may in fact be born with all the knowledge and data, past and future, coded in our genes, brains or wherever. Our perceptions and intelligence are determined by our genetic makeup and the maturity and state of our physical senses which register only information filtered thru our acquired frames of reference. If this filtering process (or the ability of the brain to match raw information to existing frames of reference) is hampered by whatever cause (normally a lack or excess of genetic material) we get individuals that behave "strangely". But the question is, are these individuals really handicapped or just stunned by the enormity of information that is brought upon them and which their brains can't cope with. In other words these individuals may actually "know" more than the rest of us, it just happens that they get reality in a "whole lump sum" instead of distinguishable, separate entities.

This may explain some weird phenomena observed among people suffering from Autism and Aspergers Syndromes (which I touch on briefly later on) , Also Williams Syndromes, Synesthesia and other extreme behavioral abnormalities: These individuals are missing genes or have extra ones and are obviously not like the rest of us "normal" people but they do sometimes manifest outright supernatural abilities in mathematics, music and other fields even after very little training. How? Math and music are in all of us. Every melody, every harmony, every rhyme past and future is already in us. Every equation, every theorem and model are already in us waiting to be uncovered. Nothing is added, only things are made bare and then manifest to our senses. What we call education, learning, training is just the spotlight that exposes what was already there in the first place. This may explain the incredible wisdom of some ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians, the Greeks or the Mayans; ancient medical arts such as Ayurdeva, Shamanism and others: Modern medicine, for example, is just learning what Ayurvedic healers in India knew for thousands of years.

This theory may seem to contradict the Blank Slate theory of human evolution but in reality it isn't: nothing and everything seem pretty much like the same animal if you look at them from a "cosmic" point of view. I call this theory "Nothing New Under The Sun Theory of Knowledge and Intelligence" or NNUTS (R). How befitting. To shed some more light on the subject read David Bohm's essays particularly "Wholeness and the Implicate Order".

About Superstition

Superstition is not for the simple minded and I foresee a deep change in human perception of what we have previously dismissed as inconsequential rituals stemming from primitive and ignorant minds.

Having said this, life is inherently complex, an intricate web of thousands, sometimes even millions of interacting and mutually influencing events. When faced with this conundrum, humans have the choice of either bask in numbing confusion or keep their sanity and find a “recognizable pattern” and order in what is in fact an outright mess. They normally choose the latter. The universe-and men- will always choose action to confusion. The principle at work is the following: if you focus long enough on a complex phenomenon, a defined, recognizable pattern will eventually emerge. How is this possible?

My theory is : Think of the universe as a giant hologram. If you know nothing about holograms you should just know that any piece of that hologram can reproduce an image of the whole hologram. For example if you have a holographic representation of a horse, and you cut a small piece of that hologram you will not just get an image of a part of the horse but instead you get a smaller –although fuzzier – representation of the whole horse. So when you look at a certain complex event even if not an optical event, something you hear or read for example, that event is a small part of a larger web of events that we call life, existence, the universe or what have you. That singular event and as strange as it may sound, contains coded patterns –called also interference patterns- that represent the whole web of events in the universe. What we normally perceive when we look at a specific event is a function of our frame of reference, our past experience and indoctrination and our aspirations so to speak. This is probably the origin of most human folklore and superstitions, astrology, the medical arts, feng shui, psychic readings and even modern sciences. Most obviously all these are based on kernels of truth that are more than often stretched beyond recognition to fit a religious, political or economic agenda.

About Autism

Let me first say something about how I think the brain works.

What is the function of the brain?

The brain perceives (thesis) : it captures a non-dimensional or mono-dimensional reality and extrudes it into the third dimension (at which point time is born and in this sense time is a construct of the brain) using ingrained, very complex mathematics and geometry.

The brain compares (antithesis): 1) parses reality into distinguishable details (by division) 2) matches reality details to frames of reference : crosses (by multiplication) image of reality to a preexisting information (total personal historic data)

The brain interprets (synthesis): Processes the result and only keeps the resonant points (by subtraction) and discards the rest as irrelevant. This synthesis implies that after parsing the data, the brain will try to make sense of it and put it back together in a way that can be communicated (to self to others) in the form of language. What happens with autistic people for example is that the brain does parse the information into its basic fractional details but fails to put it together into a whole, communicable package. What the autistic person looks at is a a fractionalized image of reality in its most primordial view but an image of reality nonetheless; Actually, one that is more precise and accurate but lacks the integrative and holistic element. This is the reason why people with autism and Aspergers syndrome are so precise and have such a prodigious capacity for fast computation: they don't waste time thinking or counting, they just need to follow their "internal landscape", the answers are all there lined up for them like trees, grass or pebbles. They don't need to think nor have to imagine the picture, they can actually see the real thing. In this sense, "thinking" is well overrated.

Most "disorders" are extreme manifestations of otherwise quite common and widespread conditions and they are there to bring emphasis to incongruences in our behavior that otherwise would pass unnoticed. In other words, nature (or the universe or whatever) acts as a voice coach that sings louder with the hope that her students could eventually reach the right note.

Another way of looking at it is that autism (and Aspergers or functional autism) is an extreme manifestation of a condition called "lack of empathy". Autistic children lack the body chemistry (genes, hormones or what have you) that allows for connectedness to other people and to their surroundings. The opposite of "empathetic" is "systematic". What autistic children lack in empathy they make up in an extremely developed, even supernatural, sense of pattern and order. Generally speaking, people who are low in empathy suffer from a mild case of Autism, they are very systematic and focused in their daily lives and that is why they tend to be more accomplished socially and professionally. Nice guys (empathetic) do finish last, not because they are nice but because they naturally lack "system". Who knew that there was actually a gene for being systematic. Male humans are high in "systematizing" while females are high in "empathizing".

There are many more fascinating things about autism that I will touch on later.

How Does The Brain Process Information?

I am not sure but I have a theory and it has to do with “light”. Manifest reality and each one of its individual components can be reduced to what I call a “spectral blueprint”, the universal barcode so to speak and the brain is, among many other things, a glorified barcode scanner. In other words, everything we see, we hear, we touch, we smell or think, is translated into “light/color language” like a computer uses Cobol or Fortram. So before you can hear that sound, your brain has had to generate a “light/color” equivalent to make any sense of it. The same goes for words, numbers, touch, smells and so on. More on this later, hopefully.

Why do people who "suffer" from synesthesia see numbers and musical notes as colors of the spectrum? My opinion is that they very simply catch the brain "in fragranti" while still doing the "dirty job" of translating input stimuli into its color-spectrum equivalent but has not yet finalized a coherent emotive output. To a synesthete for example, the musical note C will first be sensed as a specific color and then be registered as that particular sound. The same for numbers and colors. the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 have very specific (non-abstract) characteristics and vibrational quality. . When the brain hears or sees the number 5 for example, it hears or sees a very unique animal and reacts accordingly: by generating and reflecting its spectral equivalent. In this sense, there must be a direct relationship between the true nature of numbers and that of light.

What About Memory?

Memory also relies on light, but water also has a role but I am not sure how and in what capacity. I suspect that water crystals in the DNA molecule plays the role of resonant element, the canvas where light vibrations etch their elaborate data geometry for either storage, processing or "printing"..

I also believe that nature (and the brain) uses prime numbers (2, 3, 5 7, 11, 13 etc..) in the organization, storing and retrieval of data. Because these numbers are so unique and irreducible (they are divisible only by themselves and one), every living and manifest thing (its underlying mathematical principle that is) is made of a combination of prime numbers. Prime numbers can be used to retrace any phenomena back in time for memory or genetic reproduction purposes. For example lets say that a certain molecule is made of elements that translate mathematically into a specific combination of prime numbers; to reproduce that molecule (or " idea" for that matter) you just have to reproduce that same combination of prime numbers. As a matter of fact, our genes may be nothing more than prime number churning machines, and so are our brains.

About Noble Beginnings And Lowly Endings

Have you seen how human movements and enterprises almost always start as a noble undertaking? They have specific purpose and goal but then suddenly that clearness of vision is lost somewhere along the road and the once noble and purposeful enterprise/idea/movement has acquired its own dynamics and organic instincts. Now it functions not because it needs to but because of the drive of its own gathered momentum and the desire to survive and perpetuate patterns that obviously have no relevance in the present context. Look for example at the so called Terrorist Movements: they almost all start as legitimate popular reactions to injustices and abuses by the powerful elites and they almost all end up a confused ideological mess, not knowing where to draw the line, resorting to indiscriminate murder and destruction of property.

Most ugly aspects of our life are unintended consequences of otherwise very worthy and sane undertakings. Humans think that they can promote ideas and invent things and keep control over them. A man believing that he can own the outcome of his ideas or the final results of his inventions is like a cow believing it owns the farm.

About Hypnosis

In stupor you were made slaves
and in stupor you shall be set free

Hypnosis and Sleep: Hypnosis is in reality more about awakening than it is about putting to sleep, but we generally understand hypnosis as being the action of putting someone's conscious mind to "sleep" so we can access that domain of the self where offending and problematic behaviors take abode and refuse to leave by the mere use of the person's will and volition. The premise is that some of our most stubborn pathologies were created in us in our early childhood (or even before that in our mother's wombs) or as adults when we were in a state of stupor or confusion, in other words when we were not paying attention. The cat was absent and the mouse entered the house, bore a hole in the wall, made a cozy little home and stayed there. You can get the mouse out of the house only if you can recreate the same psychological and mood conditions that allowed the mouse to get inside the house in the first place. That is were hypnosis comes in.

Hypnosis and Patterns: Hypnosis is also the use of language and touch to replace one negative emotional or behavioral pattern by another more positive one. Our life is driven by patterns of energy in the form of emotions, feelings and eventually actions, and some of those patterns happen to be problematic and contraproductive and can make us behave in erratic, antisocial ways and even cause serious pathologies of the soul and the body (Refer to Section One "About Emotional Pain") . The job of the hypnotist is to uncover what those patterns are, what caused them (by sometimes using age regression) and once the problem has been isolated, to take therapeutic action and replace those initial negative patterns -destructive ones- by once that are positive -constructive ones.

About Despots And Dictators

I should start by saying that I personally hate and loath all kinds of forceful imposition of anybody's will over another for the sole purpose of personal profit or satisfaction.

However authoritarian and tyrannical regimes may have had a purpose in the past.

The fact of the matter is that progress happens only when humans dare to cross the veil of the not immediately conceivable or possible. Progress is made of fantastic and outrageous dreams for their time. Imagine the Pharaohs trying to build consensus when planning to build the Pyramids. The Pharaoh will say something like this: Listen guys, I had a dream yesterday night. We are going the erect what will be known from now on as the Pyramids. You are going to hew hundreds of huge boulders out of that mountain; then you are going to spends months chiseling them and sanding them into square shapes; then you are going to haul them all the way here; then you are going to pile them up hundreds of feet high… Is everyone with me?

And all for no apparent purpose. Try finding consensus there.

Despots and tyrants may be unsavory characters to all of us, but within the overall scheme of things they may fulfill the unique purpose of focusing otherwise scattered energies and priorities toward what may be perceived by the rest as farfetched visionary undertakings. In other words and for better or for worst, they got things done.

The reason why we have less and less of them today is because the universe very simply doesn't need them anymore. When nations mature, strong personalities are replaced by strong institutions that are run according to established and agreed upon constitutional mandates. Thus making any kind of individual and indiscriminate imposition very hard if not totally impossible.

Generally speaking, people have also become more creative and resourceful when trying to sell their visions. They win others thru merit, passion rather than force.

To summarize, if you have an outlandish idea and you want it realized, you either have a big stick and force everyone to follow or otherwise you have to be creative and convince others to follow by proving value.

About Terrorism

".. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. In your struggle for justice, let your oppressor know that you are not attempting to defeat or humiliate him, or even to pay him back for injustices that he has heaped upon you. Let him know that you are merely seeking justice for him as well as yourself. Let him know that the festering sore of segregation debilitates the white man as well as the Negro.." -- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr

When legitimate claims fall on deaf ears, some people may resort to violence to get attention when other more peaceful means can't be afforded either because of lack of creativity, lack of time or just because things have gotten out of control. There is absolutely no need to emphasize that terrorism is very effective but not at accomplishing the terrorist goals: it is only effective at making people of different groups hate each other.

The problem is the way human beings are: it takes a blow with a baseball bat between the eyes to get our attention particularly when caving to the other party's demands means some kind of sacrifice or expense. Don't be mistaken, I am not trying to give legitimacy to terrorism, very far from that – I am a staunch pacifist and cringe at the mere sight of blood- but lets face it, rarely has any fringe movement attained recognition without some kind of protest or violence, women's rights, blacks' rights, labor rights, independence movements, you name it. It is unfortunate but that is the way people in powerful positions are, their threshold for sympathy is just naturally very high. What is normally taken for granted by the very wealthy is normally craved for by the very poor. But the irony is that people commit extreme violence on other people not for money or tangible things but for status, dignity and pride. The solution to terrorism most of the time is very simple, make people feel appreciated and give them some hope that they can attain all those good things they see on western satellite television. Why are young people in Muslim countries so angry at the West to the point that they hate it more that they love their own lives? Believe me religion has very little to do with it even if religion is in fact used by demagogues to get power but the real reason is that those young people know how we live in the West and somehow feel that they are stuck in a system that make it impossible for them to attain that same level of freedom, democracy, economic sufficiency, in one word, be a player and not just a purchaser of Western junk. You talk about weapons of mass destruction, forget about Antrax and nuclear bombs, the real “weapons of mass destruction” are young people who are disenfranchised, disillusioned and without jobs and who have come to “love death more than we love life”.

Having said this, modern terrorist movements are generally started by wealthy individuals (or entities) that suddenly become entranced by extreme and idealistic philosophies, either political or religious. Why do I say wealthy individuals? Because they are the ones who have the money, the energy, the resources and the intellect to make things happen. A regular Joe from the street may want something very badly but still not do anything about it either because they can't or they won't. The terrorist type is the one who when he wants something he will try to get it no matter what, even if it implies murdering other human being. Extremely aggressive businesspeople do the same thing except that instead of killing their competition physically they do it …what is the term? Well, you get my drift. The point is that modern terrorisms are extreme manifestations of inherent aggressive human tendencies and egotism and lack of empathy for other people's suffering. Remember that when you see a trait, no matter what trait, expect to see extreme manifestations of that trait, both sides of the spectrum. 

About the situation in Iraq : It is obvious that Saddam Hussein is a ruthless dictator and nobody will be sad if he was removed from power. However, Mr. Hussein is who he is because Iraq is what it is. One thing you should know about Arabs, and I can say this because I am an Arab myself (well sort of, an Arab culturally but not ethnically):

First, we Arabs desperately need RENEWAL. We need our Martin Luther, we need someone bald and with vision to challenge the status quo, call for an end to the bullshit, to make open and transparent what was once obscure and esoteric and be a genuine catalyst for spiritual and social change. Without this renewal any movement, religion, organization or even whole societies (this same principle works also for individuals and businesses) will inevitably degenerate into an empty and hardened husk of anachronisms, dogma and empty rituals with no relevant progressive social value. In the same manner as a body that has stopped feeding on new stuff and is left with the excrements. What we sometimes call social institutions are nothing else but the digested residue of a bygone banquet which has absolutely no remaining social “nutritional” value. Our impressive cathedrals and houses of worship nothing else but giant turds of a well passed glorious civilization.

Spiritual movements that were relevant and vibrant in the past can become stagnant and reactionary particularly when they clash with the political and economic interest of a powerful few. Institutions that were founded to bring forth a new and better world order and that instilled dynamic momentum in the social process will eventually crystallize and become a caricature of their old selves. Those same values and principles that were meant to emancipate the mind and the soul are manipulated and used to imprison and control. The fact that there are not even one solitary Islamic country with solid democratic institutions may be due to this. Apparently there can be no emancipation of the political and social institutions without first a spiritual revolution/renewal of our values and ideas.

Second, we Arabs are cursed with oil. Petroleum has given us (I mean the little people) nothing but headaches and misery. Oil did nothing but put more money in the pockets of our rulers to contain us and control us. Real wealth is in people not in natural resources. When our decision makers start digging in their people instead than in those desert dunes then we will find ourselves and our place in the community of men. 

Third, we Arabs love our dictators, well, actually we love them and we hate them all at the same time. These bastards seem to now what buttons to push. They build themselves into mythic figures and they stand on the pedestals of a troubled and bloody history. Their constituency is made of perennial children that were raised to love a very firm and strong hand. Their voices echo the deep murmurings of our incongruent psyche. They are the dysfunctional, alcoholic husbands and we are their codependent wives: we know we can have a better life without the jerks but we still do everything in our power to validate them and give them excuses for being the way they are and for treating us the way they treat us. The fact of the matter is that we have never known any other type of treatment but abuse. You take Saddam away and we will fall in love with the same kind of vermin again.

Well as you can see we are stuck so don't hate us, help us. We need something to happen, we need change and we need it quick.

Why Don't Rich People Care For Poor People

Very simple. Normally, rich people have become rich by doing exactly that: not caring. Unless of course you have inherited uncle Charlie's estate or won the lottery. It is impossible to become rich if you didn't just care for your own interests and fought teeth and nails to preserve them. Now, that is how you become rich. What we see also is that even after rich people have amassed their fortunes, they still don't care because old habits are hard to be done with. Expecting the rich to care for the poor is like hoping for a zebra to hold a saddle and be ridden. It is just not in its nature. Get it.

About Wars And Plagues

The universe grows according to the principle of spiral dynamics [as opposed to linear progressive] which means two steps forward and one step backwards. The two steps forward are accomplish thru education, rebellion, invention, open-mindedness, courage, sacrifice, industry, democracy, good legal systems, good economic policies, stock market booms and so on and so forth. The one step backwards happens thru ideological reactionisms, social apathy, stupid policies and politicians, wars and conflicts of all kinds, religious and political fanaticisms, despotisms and intolerant movements, stock market busts, diseases and epidemics etc…

About Millionaires And Billionaires

Individuals that are gifted at amassing wealth in extraordinary quantities suffer from a psychological condition called "compulsive hoarding", they are happy only when they see their bank account grow bigger and the mere sight of a wad of green bills gives them an hard-on. These kind of people are relatively few but absolutely necessary to humanities natural growth. You can think whatever you want about their morality, their values, their character or their honesty, but these people are tools for the gathering and allocation of resources to make this world richer and more interesting. It happens in the same manner as when a parasitic organism attacks the shell of the pearl oyster, the oyster becomes irritated and secretes a shiny coat to use as a barrier to protect itself. The final product ends up adorning the necks of women everywhere. Extremely wealthy people are arrogant, unscrupulous, ruthless, not always honest and a pain to deal with but the universe doesn't mind as long they can accumulate bundles of money and that money and resources are used to build big dreams, the universe's "dreams".

About Poverty

There are two main driving forces in society: the entrepreneurs (individuals and corporations) and the politicians (including lawyers and religious institutions), the politicians being the most powerful: ask Bill Gates or any Russian oligarch and they will tell you. Politicians and corporations are like father and daughter: if one sleeps with the other it is incest.

The main purpose of the entrepreneurs is to create wealth thru excess: excess of work, excess of creativity, excess of productivity, in a few words, excess of everything. The main purpose of the politicians is to create a livable environment for everyone (the wealthy and the poor) thru balance. We do need balance but believe me, we won't be experiencing the prosperity we have today if it wasn't for this excess, but when the politicians cater only to the wealthy and fail to bring that so much needed balance, society runs amok.

One of the greatest human dilemmas is that those rich sons of bitches you so much love to hate create wealth and wealth is what makes the economy go around. The problem we have with the increase of poverty today particularly here in America is not that the rich are nasty and indolent but rather that most of our politicians are greedy and stupid and are in cahoots with the powerful banking interests and "money changers" that have been behind every major financial decision for the last two hundred years. Some believe that central banks and reserve institutions far from bringing sanity to the markets they indeed cause most of its aberration and failures producing untold misery and pain to millions of unsuspecting investors and regular citizens around the world.

We tried overtaxing the rich (in Northern Europe for example) and what we got was a generation of people whose entrepreneurial spirit was crushed as they found no real incentive for taking risks. Well, think about it, that is how we create jobs, we take risks. We also tried to undertax the wealthy by giving them huge subsidies and tax cuts. What we got was people who were given back money they don't really need and a huge budget deficit so we couldn't fund social programs that were absolutely necessary to the smooth running of our cities.

What we really need is a new breed of politicians, men and women with a priestly commitment and dedication, genuine, good quality human beings, honest, hard working and intelligent politicians who have a deep sense of urgency, who can make a drastic change in priorities, who know how to create an environment where the less fortunate are given a decent shot at doing better and where the entrepreneurial elite is incentivized but not spoiled rotten. Because in the end, lets face it, we are all in it together.

Now, this is something that someone from planet Neptune may hope to see because we Earthlings know that politics will hardly attract people with these lofty qualities and will most likely remain the domain of the corrupt and the cunning. Corruption is to politics what stink is to shit. You can't have one without the other. Can't draw a much clearer picture for you.

About Growth And Complexity

Life evolves thru diversity and the continual increase in the numbers of its individual biological components. But life evolves most of all because of the incremental complexity of the biological and intellectual processes involved in its functioning.

Growth in the universe is accomplished mostly thru sexuality and the creative process, but complexity is generated when a system (from bee colonies to human legal systems) is challenged by either the environment, outside biological entities or the “criminal mind” within. The system is then challenged to provide more and better strategies to encounter the new threats. New threats are countered by new laws -new defenses- which in turn call for better “criminals” and so on and so forth. At the end what we get is a system whose components become extremely specialized and that is so overloaded with rules –defense mechanisms- that it becomes unfathomable to the individual components of that system… and that is when the system becomes its own entity, drawn by forces and principles quiet different from those applying to the individual parts… the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Why Do Words Have So Much Power?

The fundamental building blocks of life may actually be words rather than atoms. Just think about it.

Language is one of nature's greatest and most powerful novelties. In the same way as money, legal and political systems, automobiles and cellular phones are novelties. Words when used constructively and skillfully can be bulldozers that can clear a path in the forest of fear, unbelief and confusion. Words establish a point of reference in a universe that has none, a platform for leverage, a place to rest our feet and a catapult to launch our souls with confidence toward a future that is in essence unknown and uncertain. Words give concreteness to our ethereal lives. Words are the mantle that covers our naked spirits and protects them from the merciless winds of doubt and worry.

In the same manner negative and hostile words can accomplish exactly the opposite. Whoever said that ‘sticks and bones may break my bones, but words will never harm me' was in denial: sticks, bones and words are made of the same essential ‘atomic' elements, the difference is just in the way there are used.

How can simple intonated sound waves have so much effect on us? I believe that this is because there is a relationship between words, their attached meanings and their vibrational quality (this term is just recently being popularized by movies such "What the blimp do I know" and "The Secret") that effects chemical and hormonal reactions in our bodies. Positively charged words will resonate and create euphoria while negatively charged ones will ‘dissonate' and bring depression in the same way as the sight of beautiful human faces makes us smile and the sight of ugly ones makes us cringe. Like we all learned in physics class, positively charged particles have something to give away while negatively charged ones lack something and are out there roaming looking to get it. The interplay and exchange between these two kinds of particles is what makes the universe go around. The same for words, positive words on their own have no power nor do negative words. The action, reaction and interplay of the two is what creates power, positive or negative depending on the ‘differential atomic composition of the particles' and their resonant or dissonant properties.

What Is Faith And Belief?

“I am an atheist, thank God” - Luis Bunuel

Faith and belief are transforming and building mechanisms of the mind. They make concrete what in essence is abstract, ethereal, paradoxical or just barely grasped. There would be no belief or faith without language so faith is a purely human phenomenon.

When you "believe" you basically make conceptual bricks out of the malleable clay of what is observed. It is clear that it is impossible to build a meaningful existence without these bricks but we shouldn't forget where these bricks came from neither.

Faith and belief –no matter what kind- are not inconsequential: Different beliefs make different spirits, which make different people, which make different cultures and environments. What you believe pretty much determines how you are now and what you will become tomorrow (Check previous section in "What is Consciousness?").

Different faiths and worldviews imbue people with different characteristics and tonal –vibrational- quality, a different "spirit" so to speak, and may also influence (and this is one of my many wacky theories) the effect of gravity on our bodies… Good spirits make us feel light, bad spirits make us feel heavy. Apparently, there is a direct relationship between "belief" and gravity. Who would have guessed.

What Is The Meaning Of Life?

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function"
--F. Scott Fitzgerald.

'What is the meaning of life? State of functional activity characterized by organic metabolic reactions.'
--Tim Mawson

We do not have enough data to fully comprehend why we are here on this earth and what is the meaning of life and I doubt that we will ever have. There will be no question about life's meaning if we didn't have "thought". The fact that humans think is the main reason why we have such a dilemma. Can you imagine a baboon pondering about why his ass is red? Of course not. The reality is that humans think, and are storytellers by nature and will always try to find patterns and meanings in their experiences and environment (even if sometimes there aren't any) so they can later tell the STORY around a campfire. However, thought may not get us there. We are practically asking the mind to look at itself and tell us what it sees, without the help of a mirroring object. I checked on Ebay, there are no mirrors on the market that can do that.

Having said this, there are three things I understand about life and reality that allow me to keep grounded and functioning: Life is paradoxical, life is fuzzy, and life advances through strife. 

Life is paradoxical : Life can be opposite things at the same time. Life is life but it is also death (death is not something that happens after life, but it is part of life). Life is joy but also sorrow. It is sanity but also madness. It can be at the same time made of waves and of particles, both linear and spiral, dynamic and static, finite and infinite, mechanical and holistic, soft and hard, empty and full, concrete and abstract, real and illusory, true and fantastic, present and absent, we choose our destiny and we are predestined- look how sometimes your life seems scripted by the gods and then you take the wrong plane, it crashes and you are gone. Yes, it is true that life is full of meaning and order but it can suddenly become completely random and up-hazard, and this is absolutely OK. If you don't understand this "quantic" aspect of life, you will live life confused and full of unanswered questions. 

Life is fuzzy:  Most human phenomena are “moving targets” and are impossible to pigeon-hole. So no definition, recipe or formula will work all the time. As soon as we have gotten a concept pinned down, we promptly find out that its essence has already moved somewhere else. 

Yes, life is fuzzy, continually shifting and chaotic by nature and everyone around you wants you to believe that there is something concrete and pre-defined about our human existence. Why do they want to do that? Because it is really hard to build a “material” life on a platform of uncertainty so we are making the whole thing up to make some sense of the mess… A very serious warning, know this but do not act on it under no circumstance… play the game you idiot… like the rest of us mortals.

Indeed life is not clear-cut; its edges are blurring and fuzzy. No human intellect, no matter how powerful and intelligent, can penetrate or explain the whole reality of things. If you say you do, you may be trying to make money out of fouls who should know better or are just simply deluded. Life is fuzzy and that is why no one can find a solution to the Middle East conflict. Life is fuzzy and that is why Enron can manipulate solid and established accounting systems and fool a whole community of financial experts. Life is fuzzy and that is why no one knows what to do with issues such as abortion, sexual ambiguity, euthanasia, death penalty and so on and so forth.

Another manifestation of life's blur nature is found in our brains and how they are configured. Have you ever asked why we have a two sided brain instead of just one single, whole lump of matter? The answer may lie in the fact that reality is in its nature garbled and needs processing before it can be grasped and understood by our intellect. Our eyes and ears are not exactly cameras and microphones, they are rather lenses and radars that capture optical and sound elements and then bounce them between the left and right hemispheres of the brain which in turn reconstruct that information into intelligible pictures or sounds. The left and right brain hemispheres, in this case, work as the Object Beam and the Reference Beam. What I call 'object beam' is basically the part of the brain that receives the factual data (in wave, raw and unprocessed form) and the 'reference beam' is that part that matches that information with existing frames of reference, experiences etc. For example, we know "black" because we know "white", we know "old" because we already know "young" and so forth. We learn and perceive by contrast and comparison. This is also the reason why we can, both you and me, look at the same object, experience the same thing, and still get two completely different impressions: because our frame of reference/culture/background/experiences are different and this is one more reason why we should be respectful and compassionate to people who may think differently than us. Also, a very important point to keep in mind is that what we call memory and intelligence do not reside only in the brain, they are found all over the body. The main function of the brain is to capture and process information fed to us by the environment, make sense of it and provide us with relevant reactive outputs. For more detailed information about this new model of communications, visit my website on Holography at http://www.enteleky.com/holography. 

Life advances through strife: Life advances and affirms itself through the tension and conflict of opposing ideas, temperaments, actions and interests. Players in this conflict (besides Nature) are the two main human types: the Introverts and the extroverts. I am sure they are other types but big players in any game are always the one at either extreme of the spectrum.

The introvert has simply internalized the energies generated by personal, family and social conflict (let's face it; we are all emotionally messed up). This gives him or her a more receptive, passive and reconciliatory disposition. Introverts are good quality and very creative human beings but they should not be placed in positions where aggressiveness and thrust are required. Introverts do not, generally, make good salespeople, managers or in any other leadership role. They are better off working in creative and humanitarian fields such archeology, art, writing, poetry, singing, spirituality, biology, medicine, software programming, chemistry, physics, healing, preaching, psychiatry and so on.

On the other hand, the extrovert is the one who has externalized the energies generated by personal, family and social conflict and turned those energies against his surroundings. These give the extrovert drive, stamina, power, thrust, aggressiveness, desire to control people and situations. Extroverts make good business owners, soldiers, stock brokers, salespeople, marketers, managers, leaders. 

These two kinds of people are valuable, necessary and complementary for the smooth and effective running of our societies, companies, villages, cities, etc. However and for some strange reason, society tends to morally exalt the Introvert and materially reward the extrovert. Generally, the introverts are the ones that follow the rules. They are polite. They are the hard working ones, the ones that come up with the new ideas. The extroverts are the ones that get the credit, the raise and the promotion. 

If you noticed, this does not apply only to individuals, but also to whole human groups, on a global scale. Look at how wealth is distributed around the world. The aggressive extrovert cultures (western and Christian) have material, industrial, technological and military predominance over the more introvert, passive cultures, located predominantly in the southern hemisphere of the globe. Why almost all the poor live south and almost all the rich live north? You can find a tentative answer to this question at the bottom of this page.

Now, how can the introverts gain ascendance and some respect in society? Life has allowed introverts and extroverts to be, because it intended for them to work in teams and conjointly for the accomplishment of a common goal. When the task was accomplished, everyone would get the same credit and reward and we all benefited. What we have today is because of a civilization that emphasizes and exalts the masculine qualities and patriarchy, and has relegated all feminine qualities to a subordinate and merely supportive role and does not view them as qualities of the same standing. To make things worst, our modern social and family pedagogy (we always teach boys tae-kwan-do and teach girls ballet) has perpetuated this trend. But this, thank God, is changing. Just look at how modern women are discovering their masculine qualities and are taking their place in business and leadership. 

My hope is that all people would be aware of the conflicting feminine and masculine forces within them and learn how to use these as tools for affirmation and positive and constructive participation in society. If you are the creative type, don't let those aggressive jerks use you, bully you or take credit for what is rightfully yours. Learn how to act like a jerk from time to time. Just don't be one. Remember that if you accept a position of weakness you will be taken advantage of no matter what. The only way to get respect is to boldly and creatively affirm ones own presence and rights.

What Is My Life's Purpose?

Your life is a dream. Your dream or someone else's dream. Before you see it or touch it, it was in someone head. The house you live in, the country of which you are citizen, the legal and political systems that run your life, the currency in your wallet, the business from which you draw a livelihood, the car you drive, the television and the movies you watch, the faith that sustains your soul were all once somebody's dream, somebody's idea that was realized and brought forth for all of us to either suffer or enjoy.

If there was ever a purpose in life that should be to dream, to reach into the realm of the not immediately possible, even the utterly outlandish and unreasonable, to churn the milk of consensus reality and liberate the butter of hidden human potential, to undertake the ultimate inner voyage and consult with the stars within for they know of the constellations without. Truly our purpose in life is to dream and realize as many of our own dreams as possible. I frankly cannot think of any better gauge for a purposeful life than this. Just think of the great significant people you know or heard about and ask yourself what is so special about them. You will realize immediately that in fact these were men and women of “dreams” and that they were capable or just lucky enough to realize them. They wove conceptual cloaks that we were all eager to put on or invented gadgets that we were all excited to adopt.

About Leadership

Leadership is nothing else but a glorified, well developed sense of direction. It is true that leaders and bosses impress us with their personalities, intense energy, charisma and the uncanny way they seem to get things done, but a leader is most of all an individual who has been biologically and genetically equipped to take the rest of the group in the general direction of universal evolution by helping it survive and eventually evolve and grow. So now you know, the essence of visionary leadership is not about individual success or impressive oratory but is most of all about direction, good direction.

These are some characteristics of good leaders:

-Good leaders are not idiots: they know their shit.
-They look confident: they may not have a clue about anything but you would never know that by watching them, they are always in control of the situation or at least they appear to be.
-They are never surprised: they have played all possible scenarios in their head.
-They can squeeze excellence out of people that otherwise would be mediocre.
-They are dramatic and deal with people and situations according to a very well studied and structured approach.
-They are very generous in reprimand and reward
-They take their people out for beer from time to time. Is anyone listening here?

What Is Charisma?

What we generally describe as charisma or "presence" may be nothing else than heat radiation emanating from a person with a high metabolism rate. What we generally describe as the Alpha types. These types seem to transduce earth's magnetic forces in unusual and powerful ways. There bodies have the right crystalline pattern constitution to allow for such resonance. And because of this supernormal flow of magnetic energy, their bodies and cells are in continual biochemical turmoil and consequently produce more heat than is necessary for work and other activities. They also breath deeper and digest sugars better that the average person. These people also are characterized with a low heart rate: for them time flows slower than for the rest of us thus allowing them to capture more information from their surroundings and can do more "work" within the same time slot. So now you know, extraordinary people breath deeper, have high metabolisms (produce more energy) and low heart rates (they live in relatively slow motion).

What Is The Greatest American Characteristic

The most admirable thing about America is the resilience of its people: you can screw us until we cry but instead of keeping a grudge we happily "write if off" as a necessary business expense and we move on with our lives. That is how we have built a powerful economy and become such a great nation. We surely are big suckers, but we won't let that stop us, won't we? We laugh at those less enlightened peoples who can't handle a little fraud or scam now and then. Look at us, we drink that stuff like Gatorade and our pride is not even tickled.

About Sales And Marketing

Let me first say that salespeople and marketeers, even the sleaziest among them, are essential to our cultural and social progress. They stir the pot of our indecision and misgivings about materialism and pour in our plates the sweet soup of an energetic and dynamic social marketplace not only of stuff (even the utterly useless as seen in some infomercials) but also of ideas. They are as important as the inventors and the industrialists.

Marketing is about differentiation: you use marketing to distinguish your product from the vast array of similar products in the marketplace. In other words you use symbols to create conceptual differentiations that will help enhance your product's recall in the minds of potential buyers. In this sense it is a kind of mating game between the public and the company that sales the product, the advertising agency being the matchmaker and playing a crucial creative role in this dance. In addition, effective marketing does not only promote products, but it creates a reality where the product is the protagonist. Effective marketing does not only tell you the story of the product but it also shapes its cultural and social context by carving appropriate niches in the consumer's consciousness.

Why Some People Feel Lost And In Continual Pain?

We feel lost so we can finally experience the ecstasy of being found… The fact of the matter is that If you feel lost you are normal or actually you may even be more evolved that the rest of us: Once your eyes are open to the real nature of things, what else is there by a vast darkness sprinkled with a few points of light here and there. So quit whining, you are OK.

Why Is The True Reason Of Obesity?

I can cite a thousand biological and psychological reasons why some people can't stop eating and end up morbidly fat, but the real and core reason why this happens lies in a principle in which the universe tends to seek balance and compensation. Remember Newton 's Third Law about fundamental symmetry principles of the universe? As weird as this may sound to you John Smith from Brooklyn is obese and can't stop eating is because Sunil Kumar is starving in Bangladesh . John Smith is of course getting help from the very "successful" American food industry which makes hamburgers so abundant and cheep.

I am feeling I am going to go on a tangent here but this principle works also in other areas. When you see for example some countries becoming highly materialistic and ‘mercantilistic', be assured that the universe will make sure that other countries will rise who are completely the opposite: moralistic, romantic and spiritualistic. This polarization is automatic and the intensity of one side matches the one in the other side. That is exactly what we see today.

When universal balance is achieved (which happens often but for very short, quasi imperceptible periods of time) we will have relative tranquility, until of course the next stock market boom and the ensuing prosperity and obscene ostentation of wealth, which in turn will trigger that famous ‘universal compensation” nerve which by the way uses people like Hitler and Bin Laden to scare the shit out of everyone and set our priorities right.

Remember that the universe grows thru excess but survives thru balance. The reason why the ‘good guys' seem to always win in most world conflicts lies in the fact that universal growth can only happen in the positive direction. The ‘bad guys' are there to destroy, to take away, to smash the china dishes to get your attention and make sure you do not go out of control. They are the 2x4 that smacks you on your mule head when you think you have attained godhood. The so called ‘bad guys' were never meant to take over the world… I surely hope so anyway.

About Introverts And Extroverts

It is probably chemicals in our body that make for the difference. It is most likely Serotonin -or other endorphin or hormone. An excess of Serotonin in your blood stream will make you less energetic but you will be calm, laid back, peaceful, composed and even happier. A lack of Serotonin will make more energetic thus irascible, quick-tempered, testy and confrontational. In other words, more of it makes you a saint, less of it makes you a jerk. Criminals for example have very little of this hormone and that is why they can crash your head with a hammer and not feel a thing and have no remorse whatsoever. They are biologically unable to empathize. So don't go around asking some people why they aren't behaving like normal decent human beings because believe me they have no idea what you are talking about. On the opposite side, people who care too much have an abundance of this hormone and cannot help but be nice and accommodating. So now you know that

if your neighbor is behaving like a gremlin
it is because he is lacking serotonin

About Northern Rich And Southern Poor?

Spirit revolves around the West/East axis of the earth and that is why we have Western/Occidental and Eastern/Oriental civilizations, one being the antithesis of the other. Matter instead, revolves around the North - South axis and that is why we have septentrional (of the north) and meridional (of the south) economic blocks. Septentrional provinces, in almost every country, are more industrious and prosperous than meridional ones.

It is a fascinating phenomenon. Why do we see more industry in the northern latitudes than we see in the southern ones? It is probably all pure luck -not likely- and surely not because the peoples of Europe and Asia are smarter that the peoples in Africa, Oceania or South America even if some people "of good stock" may dispute this notion. But the following is what I think are some factors and principles that determined how we got where we are today:

1. Grace of God: The Romans, the Greeks of Alexander the Great, The Islamic expansion, the British Empire and on and on… Some nations or groups seem to suddenly experience a kind of unyielding “restlessness” -like if God himself came down from heaven and put hot peppers up their rectum-, they become imbued with quasi-supernatural energy and aggressiveness, then they go out and conquer other weaker nations and groups. The “warrior and conqueror spirit” may actually come down on people from the "sky", or may be just something in their diet (most likely mind altering and physically enhancing mushrooms like Psylicibin, herbs like cannabis and some particular fruits and essences).

2. The environment and the effects of overcompensation: Peoples in southern, warmer latitudes are generally less concerned with clothing and shelter than their northern counterparts, as nature easily provides both of these: it is warm enough to sleep under a tree or go catch fish in the ocean. Peoples in northern, colder latitudes have to worry about clothing and shelter as they can't afford to be without them and they do have to work hard to provide these to themselves, their families and communities. This worry puts everyone in high gear to produce enough provisions. This creates a surplus, more stuff, and consequently more wealth that it was initially necessary. And that is how capitalism started. This is of course a very simplistic view as there are more factors at work than I can afford to mention in a few pages. The fact of the matter is that things happen not because of one solitary factor, but because of a relationship between different elements and forces and only when the time is ripe and the environment is conducive. As a matter of fact, some groups just happen to live in an environment that is conducive to wealth building such as the availability of agricultural products (wheat, grains, etc.) and domesticated livestock. Don't forget that the word "capital" comes from the Latin "capo" which means head, head of cattle. Nature seems to have favored settled, agricultural communities to hunter-gathering ones.

3. Technology: Some groups just happen to get key technological ideas (such the invention of money or steel) earlier that others and consequently acquire a competitive advantage so to speak and cultural, economic and sometimes military predominance over those who do not possess that particular key technology.

4. Colonialism: indigenous populations all over the world were overpowered by the technologically superior people of Europe : there were wiped out either with guns or with diseases decreasing their genetic pool and any chance for them to constitute any relevant resistance to the invaders. Why did the European diseases kill the indigenous people and not vice-versa? European-carried-viruses were generally acquired thru domesticated animals and which thru the centuries; local European people acquired immunity against. Not the case with indigenous peoples in America and Africa which barely domesticated any animals and mainly hunted and gathered their foods.

About Wealth Creation And Saving?

Remember this principle: material wealth is created thru inventiveness, exchange (buying and selling) and excess (living beyond ones means).

1. Inventiveness creates new objects-systems-services. New objects-systems-services create new markets (or expand upon existing ones). New markets create new economic agents. New economic agents require money. New money is acquired thru bank (or government) debt. Bank debt creates new currency. New currency backed by true value and high productivity generates new wealth and so on. One important point I need to bring to the forth. Wealth creation thru debt (thru issuance of bonds that require the payment of interest for examples instead of bills that are interest free) has proven to be quite problematic and possibly the reason of many of the market instability we see today.

2. Exchange creates momentum and dynamic energy in the marketplace. Exchange does not create new value in se, but it is crucial to allow the process to loop and then spiral (like a fountain that renews itself) to new, higher levels. Sometimes this process goes out of whack and we get inflation, but it doesn't need to be that way: we can work at minimizing factors that influence excessive fear and greed and by keeping the levels of optimism and euphoria at decent levels (mood and emotions are intricate and very influential factors in the marketplace -ever heard of the Elliott Wave Principle, it is a fascinating subject ).

3. Excess, or as I call it the E Factor, is the secret ingredient in all great accomplishments, personalities and even economies and societies. It is just how the universe works. My point is that excess (meaning not only living beyond ones means but also that mental tension that compels us to live beyond the realm of the readily available resources) is necessary for a society to move from a mere point of equilibrium (negative feedback) to a process of dynamic growth (positive feedback). There is a place for wise financial management and saving, but what may be reasonable at an individual and micro-economic level may be quite contra-productive at the macro-economic level. If saving is our only priority then we risk thwarting the continual flow of money within the economy, which like a human body needs to have its circulation moving. If people save too much, who would buy the products made? And if products are not sold, companies go out of business. When too many companies go out of business, people go out of work. When people don't work, they have less money to spend and the vicious cycle is initiated. Japan, for example is known for its high level of saving per capita (20% plus savings rate). The US is known of its high level of spending (The actual saving rate in America is negative). Saving is often thought of as a virtue and overspending as a call for trouble. But who is doing better today? Ironically, the United States and why? It is true that Americans are inveterate spenders, but it is not the spending in se that makes them live better. It is the positive feedback that is generated by a combination of factors among which are high productivity, unprecedented optimism and euphoria, widely available credit (which eventually backfires causing depressions and contractions in money supplies), mass stock market investing, high productivity because of new and improved technologies and new opportunities created by the internet. According to the above mentioned Elliott Wave Principle, societal mood and optimism (or pessimism) are the most important factors: once people's disposition turns sour, so does the economy and not the opposite. This is one reason I personally believe that mysterious earth forces and magnetic fields may have something to do with this.

Why Get Rich Schemes And Motivation Seminars Don't Work?

Unless you can affect a physiological and biological change in a person, words alone will not do. Knowledge and instruction are always good, but individuals who are capable of extruding ideas of prosperity and success into the three dimensional world have a very particular history and are of a specific metabolic and mental make-up. Remember this, your genius and extraordinary skills are demons that dwell in your hells, not gifts that stem from your virtues.

What Happened To The Dinosaurs?

An asteroid hitting the earth? Possibly. I will venture another explanation. In my opinion, and very simply, dinosaurs disappeared because nature decided to "streamline". You know, when nature does something she does it with great care and in the most economical way possible. Nature doesn't waste resources and if she lets a species or two go it is because she has no other option.  Nature, like every other comparable intelligent system on this side of the cosmic membrane, learns thru trial and error. Ever wondered why Dinosaurs were so huge? Just think about human inventions, the first computer, the first engine, the first cellular phone, the first television, they were all huge. Why should nature be different. Once “technology” improves, old –bigger- stuff makes room for new –smaller- stuff: it is called streamlining. Dinosaurs appeared and practically took over the planet, which had limited resources and could only sustain a limited number of living creatures.It is like if nature had a second thought and said oops... too big... eat too much... mountains of shit everywhere... not possible...so it made tabula rasa and restarted with smaller creatures.

How did Nature get rid of the dinosaurs?

First theory: Mother earth cranked on the gravitational lever thus increasing its pull and consequently making movement-and survival- impossible for this massive earthly creatures. Monster sea creature like the whales were spared because gravity is attenuated by water. This theory -that gravity was weaker thousands or millions of years ago than it is today- may also account for how massive stone structures like the pyramids, stonehenge and Easter Island moai were possible to build.

Second theory: Dinosaurs were part of an ecosystem and their survival depended on the balancing acts of nature -enough water, enough vegetation, enough prey, livable weather, etc...- If one of these goes out of whack, the whole system goes to hell. For example if we take the example of weather: sudden and brutal changes in temperature and weather (which in this case I suspect was caused by the cyclical reversal in the earth polarity) are deadly particularly for huge, massive animals such dinosaurs. The more massive the creature is, the hardest it is for it to adapt to sudden changes in the environment. Also extended periods of extremely warm weather or frost can make it very difficult for these huge creatures to reproduce, find food to eat or water to drink. Remember that dinosaurs were egg laying creatures which means that once the eggs are laid they are pretty much at the mercy of the elements and that is why I think nature went “mostly mammalian” from then on.

Is There Really An Evolutionary Missing Link? 

Actually, there may not be one. Scientists have been wondering for years and looking for the missing element between the monkey and the Homo Sapiens, or between the Neanderthal man and the Homo Sapiens. My theory reconciles both the creationists and the evolutionists in the sense that I believe there is in fact a biological continuity between the first, primordial life elements and modern man. But somewhere in between, something extraordinary happened that we could not explain by using a purely evolutionary model. In other words, somewhere between Chita and Adam and Eve, a quantum leap happened, the same kind of leap that inventors, poets, writers, creative individuals experience in a moment of illumination and inspiration. Great acts of life lasting and changing creativity by God or by man, imply a jump in the infinite dimension that defies logical continuity and reasoning. If you study how creativity happens you will recognize a few stages that are quite characteristic of all creative breakthroughs:

1. The encounter (of the feminine/negative and male/positive principles) : there is no creativity without extraordinary encounters and meetings of minds that pollinate and influence each other. Someone sows an idea in your mind which ends up bearing fruit.

2. The intent (the drive of latent energies to manifest, what is also called the entelechy) : There is no creation without some kind of intention or design. I think. To accomplish a certain (apparently impossible) goal or objective you first need to WANT to initiate the process.

3. The search (the skunk works, the experimentation, the learning process) : You start learning, gathering information about your subject, experimenting with new ways of doing things.

4. The impasse (bringing the process to maturity): You reach a cul-de-sac or impasse where you feel that none of the information and knowledge you have gathered seem to help. What is really happening here is that you have reached the edge of infinity and you need "different tools" to get to the other side, where the goodies are.

5. The incubation (waiting for the quantum leap) : You go thru an incubation process where you ruminate and reprocess the information back and forth, upside down,you bounce it with other ideas and experiences but nothing seems to take you to the other side of the ravine. In my opinion, Incubating, proto-imaginary, waiting-to-be-manifest events is what constitute a black-hole. I believe a black-hole is another word for cosmic birth canal.

6. The breakthrough (the quantum leap): Suddenly, you wake up one morning and ,eureka, you have the solution. I believe that dreams and other unconscious or semi-conscious processes have a lot to do with it. These are the "different tools" we spoke about earlier. Man was nothing else but God's greatest Creation (at least in theory), so don't be looking around for Missing Links, because there aren't any. Refer to previous section "What is a Quantum Leap?".

Why The World Is In Such A Constant Mess?

First reason: We talk but we don't act and we remember but we don't think. When talk is valued more than action and memory more than thinking, you basically get a mess of a society.

Second reason: Money is vital to everybody on the face of this earth. Unfortunately the flow of money is handled by a few and very shady individuals and families that have no other interest in mind but their own and will stop at nothing (including sinking 2/3 of the world's population in abject squalor) to reach their profit goals.

Third reason: 10% of the world's population owns 90% of its wealth, but 100% of the world's population has the same dreams and aspiration: live in dignity and provide for themselves, their families and their communities. The negative disparity between a man's aspirations and his actual condition pushes him to rage and to frustration. Most violence is due to frustration and a feeling of loss of control of ones destiny. If it wasn't for religion, soccer and carnivals we will be in constant turmoil and social unrest. So thank God for these.

Fourth reason: There are currently two main cultural camps in the world: one that is aware of Einstein's theory of relativity and another that isn't. What I mean by this is that one of the main contribution of Einstein to humanity is his idea of the universe being relative -not black and white but more in shades of gray- and that the hardest "reality" –even accounting systems, remember Enron- is in its essence flexible and malleable, not absolute and predetermined, and that perceptions are more important than so called facts. Marketeers, lawyers and politicians for example are aware of this, dogmatic people aren't. If you look back in history, most human troubles were started by people who became inebriated with idealisms and were convinced that they could build either the perfect race (Nazi Germany) or the perfect class (Russian proletariat) or what we see today, the perfect religion (Islam). While they seek to impose their own version of “the perfect order” on everyone, they bring nothing to the world but darkness and destruction. Why aren't we learning the lesson? 

The religious haggling we see today, particularly between the three main monotheistic religions -Christianity, Judaism and Islam- is due to the fact that religious politicians and beaurocrats have hijacked these beautiful spiritual ideals and from paths of unity, they made them into bones of contention. Politicians will always follow the maxim of "divide and conquer" because that is how you consolidate your power. They start by polarizing sentiment (my faith is the only true saving faith), then they create assertive competitiveness and eventually confrontation and violence and then they just seat back and watch the drama unfold. After the blood is washed from the streets and the bodies counted, they reappear from their smoky rooms and tell their constituency how much they (the bureaucrats) are needed to solve the problems that they themselves created in the first place.

The fact is that if you have an absolute believe that your way is the only way to “eternal salvation”, it is not far away where you will believe that killing or oppressing others who don't believe like you do, will be justified as good and necessary for their salvation. That is why orthodox Jews in Israel see it as their birth right to occupy a foreign land and oppress a whole population into misery and poverty. That is why Christian fundamentalists, in the name of defending the lives of babies, kill abortion doctors. That is why Bin Laden, a Muslim fundamentalist, calls for Jihad against the “infidel” Americans and sends planes to crash in buildings and kills thousands. All in the name of "the only truth that can save". Having said this, I still think that is all by design. If you are a reasonable person you would ask why are people so attached to their beliefs even if those beliefs have no bearing on reality. The answer in my opinion lies in the fact that a group's faiths and beliefs are not meant and do not need to be "reasonable" but are meant instead to cement and set apart (from the outsiders) the groups identity and characteristics. Remember that the main player in the political arena, today and always, is not the pope, nor the politicians in Washington , London or Moscow … and no, it is not the Jews nor the Illuminati neither - sorry to disappoint all of you conspiracy mongers - it is Nature. Yes Mother Nature. Ideological diversity, like biological diversity, is a way for nature to grow and evolve, and competition between diverse groups and religions is just a way for nature to have her way, even if to realize its goals blood is shed and millions of people die, nature apparently doesn't seem to mind.

Can You Imagine A World Without Sports Entertainment?

1. A world without sports is big trouble for civilization: with no other alternative outlets for their aggressive tendencies, testosterone-driven creatures will be surely taking it on each other with more serious games, such as wars, gang fights and the like.

2. A world without sports is big trouble for politicians. People will have more time to "think", and more time to monitor and make sure that rulers and law makers are doing what they are supposed to do.

Why Were The Greeks so Smart?

Not all Greeks, just the elite and the wealthy ones. Well let's face it, rich people anywhere are not only smarter, they are also healthier, have whiter smiles, look better and live longer than poor people. Don't let anyone convince you of the contrary.

One plausible explanation of why Greeks were so smart is that it was something in their food, some herb or substance they smoked or a mushroom they ingested with their wine. No one gets that smart with just water, bread and shish-kabob. No one can think like Aristotle, write like Plato, Euripides or Sophocles while "sober". I am saying this and I am not even Irish.

Another explanation is that they learned from previous civilizations like the Egyptians and adopted most of their philosophy and technology and built on it. It is surely much easier to copy from other smarter people than to start from scratch and the Greeks were no exception. In addition, our modern civilization is a continuum of knowledge contributions made by peoples from diverse cultures and across many millennia.

Other reasons may have been that some Greeks accumulated wealth (land and money) in a manner that freed them from daily chores and other material preoccupations. Slaves did most of the work, so the Greek lords had more time to devote to "thinking". The fact of the matter is that within any society of human group, creative thinking arises when gifted individuals are protected and sheltered from the crude reality and requirements of daily life, such as having to earn a living for example, and are allowed to devote their time to coming up with new things and new ideas. Most artists, from antiquity to modern days were people moneyed and protected by wealthy individuals, kings, princes. Money and material surplus is the greatest catalyst for creativity.

When I read about the Greek and Roman civilizations I can't but marvel at the sophistication and complexity of their peoples and societies even in today's standards (the Romans special knack for gore notwithstanding). I just wonder what would have happened to our world if these cultures were allowed to naturally progress and their legacy carried on to our days without the long hiatus that came to be know as the Dark Ages. The Renaissance was nothing else but the time humanity rediscovered the glorious culture of the ancient Greeks and Romans and when the love for knowledge and science was rekindled once again. This is a genuine reflection of the cyclical nature of time and history which are made of ups and downs, renaissances and dark ages.

What After Communism? 

Q. what is capitalism?
A. it is the exploitation of man by man.
Q. What is communism?
A. it is the opposite .
--Author not known

In the early nineties, peoples in Eastern Europe discovered that their leaders lied to them about communism. In the late nineties the same peoples discovered that those leaders were right about capitalism.
--Author not known

There would have been no communism without capitalist money. History tells us that powerful western bankers financed Lenin to spite Czar Alexander who was vehemently resisting their attempts to establish central banking in Russia. Of course Alexander experienced the same end expected of everyone that challenges the money changers, as Jesus before him, Lincoln, Garfield, Kennedy and many many other courageous leaders.

Communism (in the same manner as yesterday's Nazism and today's Islamic fundamentalism) is the result of universal polarizing forces namely the romantic (Eastern orientation) and pragmatic forces (Western orientation). Communists are the romantics while Capitalists are the pragmatics. Unfortunately for the romantics, the universe is pragmatic and Communism was just there to play the role of the nemesis, the virtual enemy, the healthy 'competition' so to speak. As we all know, without direct competition and challenge, any enterprise's vitality will grow obtuse and decline eventually. Communism was the boogeyman that all capitalist countries pointed to when things got out of control and they needed to join ranks, both within individual countries and within the capitalist community at large. Aren't you amazed how the universe can do these things?

Now that communism is gone, who is going to play the role of the boogeyman? Well, politicians and military people have to act more creatively now. I believe that frictions and tensions will always be there and will not disappear but will just take other forms such as an exacerbation in internal party conflicts (democrats and republicans), an increase in cultural claims such as the ones made by indigenous people and religious groups all over the world, such as in the Middle East, South America and South East Asia.

What About Drugs?

This section is only for very discerning individuals. Persons “that lack the pre-required mental structure” are very kindly asked to skip to the next section.

I contemplated the horrors
That fill my surrounding
And decided to find other worlds
no matter what cost and how weird it’s sounding

-----------------------

With humans I got no beef
But can’t stand the liar and the thief
Who rob me of times of happiness so brief
Instead of wallowing in sorrow and grief
and hiding my shame with a leaf
I find my relief in kif

------------------------------

'Come gather round people wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a changin'
--Bob Dylan

Can any mortal write those famous lyrics from the sixties and seventies and not be on something. My own very humble opinion is that drugs and other consciousness altering substances (Refer to previous section "About Altered States of Consciousness") were and are instrumental in human physical, intellectual and social progress: they jolt us out of our “social consensus” infinite loops or give our bodies superhuman energy to accomplish very hard tasks. Remember that there are two evolutions going on at the same time: one is biologic the other is “ideologic”. Drugs (and I only mean natural plants, fungi/mushrooms and essences that are not addictive and are proven by thousands of years of usage) are instrumental in both. Certain drugs (in combination with good data gathering and implementation skills) give us an edge and without that edge we become road kill. The ingestion of a particular kind of mushroom for example, psylicibin, will increase your eyesight (make you a better hunter) and afterwards will make you very horny (makes you a prolific procreator).

When I see an individual whose yield, creativity or energy are off the charts I can tell you right there he has a "little helper". Since time immemorial, drugs -in the form of herbs, mushrooms, beverages, vapors and incense- were used to induce trance and visions. I am not predicating that we shall all indulge in drugs but only that we be aware of this predicament and ask ourselves why are drugs good for social and cultural progress – no one can possibly deny the role of tobacco, coffee, tea, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and LSD in what we have become- but deadly to our own personal lives. Are we just cannon fodder for “civilization” to get its way. What principles are at play and if we are [as individuals] screwed by civilization –which we always are- how can we outwit her. How can we shmooze with the gods without being squashed by them.

Drugs were for a long time taken within an accepted social and spiritual context: the Romans and the Greeks had wine (as a matter of fact the Greeks and particularly their priests had mastered the art of trance induction thru chemicals that they burned and whose vapors they inhaled, remember the Oracles of Delphi?); the Aryans had Soma (no one -or just a handful of people- know the recipe for this one); the Egyptian had the blue lilly, the Chinese had opium; the American Indians chewed coca leaves, drunk ayahuasca and ingested peyote; in Europe shaman used mushrooms like amanita muscaria and people all over the continent were getting high-intentionally and sometimes unintentionally- on molded rye bread (or ergot from which LSD is synthesized). They all did it either to enhance life, socialize, acquire courage for battle, be strengthened physically, heal ills and wounds, alleviate pains or reach states of altered consciousness for the purpose of healing, or receiving visions and insights into life and the future. My quick and very personal observation is that drugs tend to harm, both the individual and society at large, when taken to escape from life. Not so when taken to enter and discover life.

First problem with drugs: Drugs and science

The problem with drugs like cocaine, heroine, and tobacco is that they are generally taken in a concentrated, adulterated, scientifically and chemically altered form. Incas for example have been chewing -natural- coca leaves for centuries and we don't see this causing the acute addictive problems we see in the American and European inner cities. Healthy, non-addictive drugs are natural drugs.

Second problem with drugs: Drugs and culture

Some drugs go well with some cultures but not with others: Alcohol goes well with the naturally aggressive westerners -Americans and Europeans, and marijuana and opium with the contemplative and "reverous" Orientals and some other indigenous peoples. You give alcohol to the Indian and he won't know what hit him (look at the situation in modern Indian reservations). You give opium (or one of it derivatives, heroine or morphine) to the European or American and look at the situation in American inner cities. Most drugs are not culturally interchangeable.

Third problem with drugs: Drugs and the law

Drugs are legal or illegal mainly because of societal consensus and political reasons

• Societal Consensus: Why is it that in America , alcohol is legal and marijuana isn't when alcohol is involved in most traffic accidents and much of the violence killing tens of thousands of citizens while marijuana has never been known to cause such devastation? That is because Americans perceive alcohol as being complementary and even enhancing to their naturally aggressive predisposition. Marijuana, instead, is that stuff that" black and brown" people take. Each culture exalts its own preferred "local" drug and wages war against all other unfamiliar ones.

• Political Interest: The "war on drugs" is a smoke screen. It is just one way for politicians to look busy when in fact there isn't any known or proven way of eradicating the drug problem because the decision makers do not understand the real cause of the problem. How can you cure something if you do not know what caused the disease. Politicians are not interested in long term solutions, they prefer quick fixes, enough patching to stop the bleeding to get them thru next elections. Unfortunately the "war on drugs" seems to have the same effects as Prohibition had the 20's: create hidden and black markets and consequently, very powerful criminal and mafia conglomerates. The war on drugs is without any doubt an absolute idiocy, an idiocy that pays for a very few but harms society as a whole.

Fourth Problem: Drugs and business:

Very simply Prozac can't compete with marijuana and alcohol can't compete with coca leaves. Entrenched business lobbies such as pharmaceuticals and alcoholic beverages companies are threatened by any attempt to legalize any of these drugs.

So what is the solution?

I am an optimist by nature but I do not see a solution in sight. We are frankly screwed in this one. The same problem with gun proliferation: we are just too deep in doodoo to do anything about it any more. We can manage it and do things to make our communities more livable, but drugs and guns are there to stay.

What Is Happening In The Middle East?

The situation in the Middle East emanates from many complex factors, among them probably:

1. There are so many resources and so much energy allocated to this conflict that I sense the Universe has some kind of morbid interest in keeping the “action” going in this area (Read Howard Bloom's Books the Lucifer Principle and The Global Brain for an explanation of what I mean here).

2. The Middle East is cursed with oil. You take oil out of the picture and you get instant peace, guaranteed. People who make money out of this conflict benefit from fluctuations in the oil market caused by political instability. Speculators make more money when the prices go up by going long on the market, and also make money when prices go down by shorting. There is very little money to be made for speculators when the market is flat and nothing is happening.

3. Palestine (and the Middle East in general) is the quintessential battlefield where the two main worldviews clash: the worldview of spirituality and romanticism (Eastern orientation, or values that exalt spiritual values to material ones ) and the worldview of pragmatism (Western orientation or values that seek material comfort and gain above all else). In the previous era the battle was between the Capitalist West and the Communist East, but today it is between the Secular West and Fundamentalist Islam (particularly the Wahhabi or other extreme and radical sects of that religion).

4. It took the “highly civilized” Europeans hundreds of years of war and bloodshed to get to the point they are now with the European Union, so I don't understand why we should expect better from Jews and Arabs.

5. The Jews in Israel are perpetuating the pattern of abuse they have been subject to as a people and a collective entity for thousand of years. The Jews were without any doubt one of the most repressed and abused communities throughout history, counting from Hitler and going back to the times of Old Egypt. You would think that a people that has experienced such a humiliation and abuse will never try to impose the same treatment on other peoples under their care. Wrong. Humans never learn from suffering. An individual who has experienced abuse by a parent or authority figure will grow and impose the same kind of treatment on his offspring no matter how much he promised himself that he will never do it. Abuse tends to perpetuate itself from the strong to the weak that becomes strong. This applies to individuals as well as to nations. Some form of collective therapy and awareness of the fact that there is an abuse problem by the abuser and collective reconciliation ceremonies may be a possible a solution.

6. There is always an original sin somewhere. We are dealing with the Holy Land after all so it is OK to use a religious metaphor. In my opinion the original sin may simply be:

a) Jews do not like Arabs and Arabs do not like Jews. Jews do not like Arabs because frankly some Jews do not like anybody except members of their own sect, this of course doesn't apply to all Jews just to radical sects, as a matter of fact even Jews within Israel do not like each other: Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe are known for looking down at Sephardic Jews which came mainly from Morocco and other Middle Eastern countries. Arabs on the other hand do not like Jews for no particular reason – besides of course the fact that the Israelis treat the Palestinians so badly- they are just brought up that way, like some White Christians hate Jews and Blacks without really knowing why… well I mean a reasonable reason… forgive the redundancy.

b) The occupation of Arab territories by Israel in 1967.

c) The Balfour Declaration which basically established a Jewish State in the heart of the Muslim world by the Europeans and the Americans (both of these have quite a responsibility of what is going on right now in the region)… Was it just the famous law of unintended consequences or was there a more sinister and diabolic strategic purpose behind the move? As a matter of fact Most intelligent historians sustain that the Americans and the Europeans did not create the state of Israel to give the jews a homeland, but their main purpose was to establish a beachfront, a friendly policeman, for their powerful economic and strategic interests in the oil rich middle east. In any case, the history of the region is one bad decision after another culminating in the massacres of the latest Intifida.

The parties should work hard at identifying the original sin-or sins-, the one that is really causing all the problems, deal with it and confess their transgressions against each other. Only them they will be “saved” and move on with their lives. Actually this principle can be applied to any conflict where true and complete resolution is found only when the original transgression is identified and dealt with.

Having said this, don't get your hopes too high in this one. These guys have gotten themselves so deep in doodoo that I doubt they will recover… not before a hundred years or so. When both are in complete denial of what is going on in reality, and when they are both continually threatening each other with extermination, it is impossible that we will see the end of the tunnel and everybody trying to help them does nothing but exacerbate the problem. Clinton (Camp David Accords) tried to help but what he did really is make things worst as the parties were then made aware of the practical impossibility of a real accord: It is incredibly hard to get people to use their heads and talk calmly when they are afraid (Israelis) and angry (Palestinians), or when their priorities lie somewhere else. As a matter of fact, why are we to assume that Israelis and Palestinians want peace. They may actually be interested in war more than peace. War may be the easy way out for many in that region.

7. There is an incredible lack of good leadership in the region. There is not one man of vision in either the Palestinian nor the Israeli camps -with all due respect, Sharon and Arafat are just two old men who won't change (It is baffling to me that these guys were actually elected by their people with a large majority: this tells you about how messed up they are emotionally). You take Sharon and Arafat out of the picture and you increase the chances for peace about 50%. Yes, there is not one man that would know “how to hew a stone of hope from a mountain of despair”. Not one man that will try to “make the crooked path straight” so that their peoples can come to the “mountain top and see the glory of the Lord”… I have a dream… and it is a nightmare.

8. Very simply human nature. Human groups tend to prefer to dominate that being dominated. Well daaa! Nothing new there. It is true. Everyone prefers to be at the top than being at the bottom of the social hierarchy because life is much happier up there. In Palestine today the Jews are at the top and they want to remain there and who would blame them. The Palestinians are at the bottom and they hate it and who would blame them neither. This conflict is normally exacerbated when the players are of diametrically opposed genetic or religious make-up. Each one would like its own world-view to be the dominant one. This leads sometimes to genocidal tendencies and that is very close to what is happening today in the Middle East . Now, when the Palestinians say they want justice and fairness what they mean really is that they would prefer to be at the top rather that at the bottom where life is really shabby and money really scarce. You see the paradox here? Someone has to be at the top and someone else at the bottom and this is unfortunately inevitable unless we outwit nature. Nature is not fair: The strongest gorilla gets all the females; the big fish eats the smaller fish; blood thirsty barbarian human tribes invade and destroy much higher and complex civilizations that theirs. the history of humanity is riddled with occupations, invasions, massacres by dominant human groups of other weaker human groups and if you look carefully at the wealthiest classes in most cultures you will realize that they are made primarily of the descendants of former invaders: The Saxons become the ruling class after they invaded the British Isles. The same for the Vikings in Russia, the Arabs in North Africa, the Aryans in India, The Anglo-Saxons in America, the Spaniards in South America and so on and so forth. So the Palestinians are not alone in their predicament. The really unfortunate thing about this particular conflict is that both peoples, Jews and Arabs, are practically lead by the nose by parties in their societies-the religious right and the fundamentalists- that are frankly too emotional, too hot-headed to see the big picture and act accordingly. In my opinion the end of this conflict will happen only when the silent majorities in both camps are given a voice and the acrimonious rhetoric and propaganda gives way to a more intelligent. more future-oriented and more accepting attitude for one another's positions. A Jew should look a Palestinian in the eye and see a full human being. A Palestinian should look a Jew in the eye and see a future potential trade partner. Demonizing the competition used to work in the past: you convince yourself to demonize your opponent or look at him as a subhuman entity, so you can attack or oppress him and still keep your sanity and a clean conscience. It is quite harder to subdue, oppress, kill or mistreat someone you think is your equal. The fact of the matter is that unless Palestinians recover their dignity, you will never have peace. Remember a principle I mentioned in past insights: the antidote for violence is not peace [agreement] but ritual and creativity. There are no demons in this drama, just people who need help and we absolutely need to break this cycle, for our children's sake.

9. This may sound crazy but when I look at the situation in the middle east today I also see both Jews and Palestinians" behaving like two people in a bad marriage: One partner (the Jews) refuses to treat the other partner (the Palestinians) as an equal, for fear that if he did offer equality, the partner would not respect him and run all over him. And this is why there is so much frustration and anger among the Palestinians: they know they have come of age and just cannot take the bullshit anymore and they just want to be treated as equals.

10. Too many sacred cows: like what they say in my home town, too many sacred cows, gets you tons of holy doodoo But seriously, it is amazing the things you can learn about present events in the Middle East by studying the history of both peoples who by the way draw their identities pretty much from the same mythological and religious accounts. This is another principle of mine, the mythology you have adopted, either personal or collective, will pretty much determine who you are and what you become. You remember Abraham, Isaac and the whole gang. There is a particular passage in the Bible about Isaac, the son of Father Abraham, who blessed one son, Jacob, and rejected the other, Esau "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated". Jacob won his father's affection and blessing pretty much by trickery and subtle manipulation- well, Jacob (the Jews) was in other words a better marketer than Esau (the Arabs). The significance of this passage to the current events in the Middle East is that we have three main players in this conflict: The West, particularly the United States , the Jews and then you have the Arabs. Father Abraham, played here by the United States , loves Jacob, played here by the Jews and hates Esau, the Arabs. The Arabs feel rejected and humiliated and are desperately seeking acceptance and blessing. They are not getting it so they do what any child who has feelings of abandonment does, that is act out the "family" dysfunctions. If you looked at the mess in Palestine from this family dynamics perspective you would learn very quickly that the resolution of the conflict may very likely lie in the West coming to terms with their impartiality and start to love the Arab as much as they love the Jew. Another possible solution is for someone to come out of the Christian Palestinian community, someone of the stature and vision of a Martin Luther King Jr. or a Jesus and inspire people to view their predicament in another light, someone who will arm people with soul and compassion and forgiveness, not with Kalashnikovs. If you know how to pray, pray for the prince of peace. That he may come and soon.

11. Too many conflicting interests: I firmly believe that the reason why no solutions appear to be insight to resolve the conflict is due also to the fact that there are groups such as oil companies, arm dealers, rogue politicians and countries in the region, including politicians within Israel and the Palestinian Authority, who have a vested interest in keeping the region incandescent and instable. It does make sense, because those who are making money out of this conflict or just want to stay in power, are taking advantage of this instability to gain political and economical leverage. Look at the situation with a cool head and you will see that in this mess both the ordinary Jew and Palestinian of the street end up screwed, even if the Palestinians are somehow getting the thorniest side of the stick.

What can be done? It does not appear that there will be a resolution any time soon but one thing is sure, violence is not helping much. It is true that bombs and bullets is a way Arabs and Jews communicate -have you noticed that every peace accord in the region (Camp David, Oslo), have come only after some kind of extreme violence by the Palestinians. Violence is bringing them to the negotiating table but before the ink has dried on the paper, here we go again. Why? Because the core problems have not been dealt with –remember the original sin. What I would do is first to take both Israelis and Palestinians thru therapy. I wished it was possible. I have an idea for a new profession: ethnic conflict therapist. Second, a wide sweeping and very aggressive political and economic plan should be implemented in the region by either the US , Europe or other moderate Arab countries in the region, because apparently there is no intelligent plan coming from neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians. The fact of the matter is that any attempt we make to bring the two camps together will fail until they both stop spinning (Israelis are masters at that), calling each other names and start loving each other… well that is a stretch, may be just stop shooting at each other. This is a harrowing task giving the fact that neither Jewish nor Muslim cultures have mythologies that encourage giving the other cheek. The Alternative is just too grim to even consider.

WHAT DO EMPIRES FALL?

Emperors and captains of industry are mostly paranoid individuals, megalomaniacs, who tend to blow things out of proportion, both their egos and situations. A Strong ego can come handy when you are building something such as a company or an empire. Once that thing is established, a strong ego can prove to be contra productive. How? Big organizations, empires, companies and fortunes fall very simply because a healthy process of feedback within the organism is lacking. Why is it lacking? That is because no one dares take the bad news to the freaky, ego-centric and paranoid person at the top. They would rather see the ship sink that take the rage of the obsessed boss. If the head doesn't know what is going on in the rest of the body, the right decisions are just not made, entropy takes over, and everything goes to the dumps.

What About The Stockmarket?

The stock market is not like a fish market but is rather like a casino or a magician's playground where trickery, deception, confidence games and “slight of mind” are the tools of the trade… that is my kind of place: as you may know I am an avid stock trader. The stock market is where finance wizards draw colossal fortunes out of thin air. The stock market is the airport where money flies away from the fool and goes so swiftly to the cunning and smart. The stock market is “the resource shifter” – a mechanism that tends to channel resources from the poor to the rich- par excellence: it gives more to those who already have a lot and takes away everything from those who have just a little.

It has been the same story since the times of the tulip mania in the 17th century Holland , and passing thru the South Sea company in England and the Mississippi Company in France in the 18th century, and The bull market in America at the start of the 20th century. This is how it almost always starts: an individual or a group of financial engineers come up with an idea, or take advantage of a social, industrial or technological trend. They promote and hype the stocks of a particular "promising" industry, and they do it in such a skillful way that they get everyone, from the richest to the poorest elements in society, in a "must have it" mood. A buying frenzy is triggered, madness takes over the markets, stocks are valued at hundreds of multiples of their actual worth, and the trend continues until the bubble bursts because of... well you can stretch lies only to a certain point after which truth transpires, and then just plainly, hell brakes loose: Regular People as well as institutional investors loose confidence –confidence and trust are the main foundations of trade- and start selling. This “run to the bank” and too many people selling at the same time creates an overwhelming downward momentum that brings prices to rock bottom levels. Et voila you got yourself la depression.

I do not mean that greed is the cause of stockmarket booms and bust, because causality is hard to attribute when you deal with an essentially circular and wavelike phenomena. The driving force is fundamentally mysterious but there is no doubt that intentional manipulation by powerful financial agents (by expanding and constricting the money supply at will) is instrumental in the booms and bust of the past two centuries.

Periods of unprecendented prosperity are inevitably followed by times of retraction or even full blown depressions and the biggest the binge, the worst the resulting hungover. Economic downturns have grizzly consequences for both poor and rich but particularly for the poor who lack the necessary padding. The savings of a lifetime just evaporate overnight (well some of it does evaporate because it was on paper to start with but most of it ends up into other people's pockets) and for some time, the economy is in shambles. But as strange as it may sound, this booms and burst, euphoria and the ensuing insecurities and fears, are apparently necessary for wealth creation in the long term. How is this so? The Stock Market is a kind of "animal", an organic entity and like any other organism it needs to be fed; it needs energy to function. Energy happens because of the interplay of positive and negative forces. You can't have the positive if you can't take the negative. During this times of "irrational exuberance", tremendous energy is infused into the markets, more money is in it, more products, more services, more resources, and even if, the market do eventually go down, the fact of the matter is that the market -as a whole organism and because of that incredible energy- has been already taken to a higher level in its spiral growth. In other words, the market as an organism, has evolved. In times of depression, wealth doesn't exactly disappear, it just changes hands, usually from the poor and middle class people to the already very wealthy and that is why bankers and plutocrats love a good crash ones in a while.

What Is The Real Nature Of Demon Possession?

What we popularly call "demon possession" is just the human creative powers gone awry. This is how it happens according to my own personal observations of people that were characterized as 'demon possessed": A "demon possessed" is generally , but not exclusively, a young, not mature individual (mostly females) who lives in a family and social environment that are regulated by strict moral or religious rules. The young person experiences deep emotional trauma (most likely sexual abuse or other moral or physical violation), or comes to know about a shameful family secret (we all have little, nasty family secrets) or witnesses a violation of a social or religious taboo by a family member or a community leader, or any other reason that shutters her own sense of social reality, coherence and meaningfulness. In mild cases she will just retract and will adopt a reserved and untrusting personality and will eventually become con artists at worst or actor and entertainer at best: individuals who live lives they don't like learn to "fake it" from a very tender age and that is why they sometime make excellent actors and comedians. In Extreme cases the individual will experience a split of personality (part of the soul leaves) where she will give up consensus reality and will take abode in a new reality, her own. She will create (both consciously and unconsciously) a new reality, a more "meaningful" one, her own story, with a whole set of original characters (demons) and dramas. Refer to previous section "About Emotional Pain".

When we speak of possession what we really mean is that the soul of the person has left and the body was overtaken by unfamiliar energies. These demons or primordial energies, will eventually take a personality of their own and end up running her live, and that is exactly what happens with those mental characters that we spoke about earlier. The individual looses control over those personalities and becomes a 'mental ward" for a horde of emotions and behaviors.

Now, this is bad demon possession, but is there a good demon possession? Yes, there would be no extraordinary art, or music, or dance, or scientific, literary or philosophic genius without some kind of possession. Refer to previous section "How Do You Become the Best in Your Field?'

About Casting Our demons ?

The core reason behind "demon possession" is the loss of the soul and consequently ones own personal powers. To reinstate the individual to "normality" and to help her regain control over her life, you have to provide her with tools for empowerment. Classical psychiatrists and physical doctors cannot, generally, help in these cases as the cause of the ailment lies deep within the soul. Many techniques are available these days to help in these case such as hypnosis where the therapist uses words, comforting statements, conveyed using soul-coded, mythical approaches, stories told with a specific tone and delivery. There is also shamanic breathwork where connected fast breathing routines are used in combination with trance music. These are just a few of the many ways of beating the path for the "possessed" individual to come back "home". It is without saying that sometimes the damage is practically irreversible but most of the time it isn't and there is hope for complete recovery.

What About Suicide?

People tend to want to commit suicide when they feel that their presence in this world is inconsequential and useless. Not only this, but people seem to “die more easily” -from illness and accidents- when they are depressed and hopeless. The saddest thing about people who commit suicide is that, generally speaking, they are some of the best quality individuals you will ever meet, and when they go, the universe really misses them. Jerks rarely commit suicide. They will bury all of us before they do that. So, from the bottom of my heart, if you are reading this and you are contemplating suicide, please reconsider, we need you down here. Your predicament may be simply chemical and you may just need to change your diet or a simple therapy. And if you still believe that your problem is deeper and more complex and that there is no other way out, remember, there is a huge possibility that you may be completely wrong, so give yourself a second chance, may be what everybody else is not willing to give you.

What Is The Greatest Mysteries In The Universe?

1. The amazing variety of facial features despite the fact that our skulls are configured with very limited variations. There are billions of people in the world and no two of them look alike (except for twins maybe). The same goes for music. There are only seven musical notes and look at the hundreds of songs and melodies that are composed in the world every day, and most of these are unique and never heard before.

2. No matter what country you go to, no matter what people, no matter what race, plumbers just cannot keep the crack of their ass from showing. I can explain anything, but not this great mystery.