MonthJuly 2008
Big WOW! Who whould have thought that any government would ever release statements like these: “the effects produced by its consumption are equivalent to entering the secrets of the spiritual world…” and, “knowledge of ayahuasca states is required for all members of Amazonian societies at some point in their lives, and is essential for assuming the role of privileged individuals…”
(Thanks Danny Chaoflux)
This is for all you documentary addicts out there:
“At SnagFilms.com, you can watch full-length documentary films for free, but we also make it easy for you to take our films with you and put them anywhere on the web. When you embed a widget on your web site, you open a virtual movie theater and become a ‘Filmanthropist.’ Donate your pixels and support independent film! And click on ‘info’ on any widget to learn more about that film and a related charity you can also support.
With a library of 225 documentaries, and rapidly growing – browse by topic or go through the alphabet from A-Z – you’re bound to find films that resonate with your interests. There is a widget for EVERY film, so any film you like can be snagged. [..] Enjoy your visit, snag a film, and keep checking back because we’re adding great news titles daily.”
(SnagFilms.com. h/t: The Daily Galaxy)
“More American soldiers kill themselves than are killed by the enemy, and many others suffer the effects of post traumatic stress disorder. As many as eighteen soldiers a day are committing suicide and most of those soldiers kill themselves after they return home. Their divorce rate has tripled since the beginning of the war and substance abuse among veterans is four times the national average. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg according to Who Will Stand producer/director Phil Valentine.
The two hour documentary covers, in detail, the plights of more than a dozen soldiers who have returned either physically or psychologically wounded, including hard-to-measure effects of post traumatic stress disorder. ‘Nobody is surprised that war creates amputees, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, but very few people are aware of the enormous rates of these issues,’ said Valentine. ‘And almost no one is aware of the psychological issues that nearly 100% of combat soldiers suffer with, namely Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.’ Many of the films on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan take sides on whether we should have gone there, whether we should still be there and when we should leave. Who Will Stand covers none of these issues, focusing instead on the plight of returning disabled American veterans.”
(via Alternative Approaches. See also: “Soldier in Famous Photo Never Defeated ‘Demons'” via MSNBC)
“At first glance, Cesare Bonizzi looks like the archetypal Capuchin monk – round-faced, stout, with twinkling eyes and a long flowing white beard. But beneath his robes beats a heart of metal. Brother Cesare is the lead singer in a heavy metal band which has just released its second album. A former missionary in the Ivory Coast, he lives in a small friary in the Milan hinterland.
The 62-year-old monk’s love affair with heavy metal began when he attended a Metallica concert some 15 years ago. “I was overwhelmed and amazed by the sheer energy of it” he says. Hard rock and heavy metal have, over the years, been criticised as the work of the devil. It’s a claim which Brother Cesare, also known as Brother Metal, says is nonsense. He started playing and recording cassettes, firstly with “lighter” metal music, but gradually he realised that what really moved him was the hard core.”
(via BBC News)
Intergral Praxis has an interesting post up with videos from Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at UCSD, who discusses consciousness, qualia, and self. An interview with David Chalmers discussing his theory of consciousness, the hard problem, and the explanatory gap, and part two of a BBC documentary called “The Century of Self”. This part is called ‘Engineering Consent’, and tells the tale of how power elites used psychoanalytic theories to try and control human populations in an age of mass democracy and global capitalism.
(via Integral Praxis)
“Welcome to Thoreau-FDA.com, a website launched and operated by current and former US Food and Drug Administration staff who believe public health is being put at unnecessary risk. These concerned civil servants and ex-civil servants have either experienced or are aware of wrongful directives by US FDA upper management – directives that put public health at avoidable risk. Thoreau-FDA stands for Thorough – High – Objectivity – Review – Ends – Are – Us – FDA. Here at Thoreau-FDA.com, you will find articles by its members that describe their efforts to protect all of us and our pets from harmful drugs and other medical products. And there are also reports of ordeals of other US FDCA staff, who are not involved in setting up this web site.
You can join others in discussion about the US FDA’s broken system by clicking on the link to FDA-blog.com. Or submit articles that will be considered for publication on our site by going to ‘Contact Us.’ Finally, we ask for your help. Read as much content on the site and related links as you need to convince yourself of the truth. Then, join an effort to effect real change at US FDA by sending a letter to the Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. A sample letter is already prepared – but you can edit the letter to reflect your perspective. It prompts answers from the US FDA Commissioner about the effectiveness of the FDA’s ‘Values and Vision’ effort – a program that is supposed to correct many of US FDA’s problems that have persistently gotten worse over the last few years.”
(Thoreau-FDA.com. h/t: Pharma Law Blog)
“Picture the scene: you are in a room with more than a hundred adults. Sitting at one end, with a microphone in his hand, is a man with long white hair who is encouraging everybody to introduce themselves to each other. ‘Go up to somebody,’ he says, ‘and say one honest, true thing about them that strikes you immediately. Then have them do the same back to you. But before you do that,’ he goes on, ‘please take off all your clothes.’
Welcome to the ‘most radical self-help workshop in the world’, as this hip new 10-day residential retreat is dubbed. Led by the Birmingham-born life coach guru Paul Lowe, it is not a place for the shy and retiring. As well as being encouraged to voice compliments to each other, such as ‘you make my vagina tingle’, discuss innermost feelings in intense, nude ‘sharing’ circles and take part in sensual massage sessions, participants will also be invited, during the course of the workshop, to explore their sexuality with multiple partners (yes, actually in the workshop). In Lowe’s eyes, you see, monogamy is one of those ‘ludicrous, unnatural social conventions that stand between you and spiritual enlightenment’.
(via The Times Online)
There are three obvious category of the sort of spiritual seekers who are drawn to esoteric schools: the student, the teacher, and the disenchanted. After fruitful or at least interesting years as a student, Ouspensky gets hung somewhere between teacher and disenchanted-a limbo hardly clarified by his teacher’s insistence that man is entirely asleep, a machine unable to awaken without, well, a teacher. Unable to stay with Gurdjieff, who was a harsh task master and a domineering personality, Ouspensky nonetheless stays with ‘the Work,’ becoming a teacher in his own right, but losing-in Lachman’s well-supported view-the vivacity, friendliness, and romanticism of his earlier years, when his writings were the most creative, the most Ouspenskian. (After completing In Search of the Miraculous, Ouspenksy wrote nothing for decades and then croaked.) At the end of his life, the now thoroughly alcoholic Ouspensky shocks his students by finally and publicly repudiating the work, becoming, in his presentation to them, almost more of a ‘crazy wisdom’ teacher than G. himself.
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