Crossjostle Gospel

AZ Big 3 Rock Show (Jed's A Millionaire, Love Me Nots, Persuaders) Fri, July 15th

2011-07-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

JED'S A MILLIONAIRE
The LOVE ME NOTS,
The PERSUADERS ...

This Friday. .. July 15th ..

Danny Zelisko presents: AZ Big 3 Rock Show .. at Foundry .. in Phoenix.

Found this video below mentioning the show on Friday:

DZPresents DannyZeliskoPresents

Got plans this weekend?

Three of the BEST bands in the Valley are playing this Friday, July 15th

at the Foundry on First.... http://fb.me/14M8Imex4

thelovemenots thelovemenots

The Love Me Nots, Jed's A Millionaire, The Persuaders | Danny Zelisko Presents | The Foundry on Firs http://fb.me/NHuXXT0f

@JEDatLarge

Did you know the AZ Big 3 rock show is in 2 days, in Phoenix?
Friday, July 15th
Danny Zelisko presents: together for 1 night only

at Foundry on First

in downtown Phoenix, Arizona

Jed's A Millionaire,

The Love Me Nots,

The Persuaders

http://bit.ly/nuSfzB

Jed's..voted 'best rock band' by Twitter International

Jed's A Millionaire .. http://bit.ly/ixxlLQ .. the song, "Give" ~

.Members of Gin Blossoms, Roger Clyne & Peacemakers, The Pistoleros, Dead Hot Workshop

= Arizona supergroup =

The Persuaders .. http://t.co/sozxIiP .. the song, "Drove It All Away" ~

With same raw passion as SF's Psychokitty:

Is this (below) your next favorite, sexy punk band?

The Love Me Nots .. http://t.co/Yjpcugx .. the song, "Do What You Do" ~

------

Also:

Opening for

The Persuaders

on July 23rd is

... The New Westerns http://bit.ly/fGN42b .. the song, "Girl Who Never Was"

dannywestern Dan Frost

by JEDatLarge

Opening for the Persuaders at @ODonoghuesPub July 23rd. See ya there, boyo's!

----------

Basic Field Theory

2010-09-26T11:20:00.001-07:00

Introduction

As self-aware beings, we're not just some blind accident of evolution, thrown here to struggle and die. There is a Source in Consciousness, and we can learn to align ourselves with Its brilliant efficiency, boundless resources, and ingenious organizing intelligence. This intelligence turns the planets, directs the seasons and the tides, and sustains each particle in the Creation, everywhere, all at once, effortlessly.

Why should we find it so hard to believe that this intelligence could be relied upon to bring us the fulfillment of perfect work, prosperity, vibrant health, a wonderful partner, or whatever else has been given to us to desire?

What comes to us in life is not merely a matter of chance; it follows from who we believe we are and what we take to be real. Since we can change these beliefs at any time, we aren’t condemned to repeat the past unless we believe we are. A better reality is always available to us. Willingness, being still, receptive imagination, love for the ideal—these are the keys to the next better version of self and world.

Particle and Field

The idea that we create our reality is at least as old as the Vedas, which state that “Atman” [the individual soul] is Brahman [the Cosmos].” This suggests that the whole of experience somehow resides in consciousness, and that our consciousness actually shapes, informs, and organizes what seem to be random events. Field theory recognizes that our consciousness has the same multiple nature we see in electrons, indeed, all quanta, so our consciousness has “Particle” and “Field” aspects.

Most of the popular New Age material on reality-creating fails because it presumes, mistakenly, that the self that does the creating is the Particle self—our most local identity, the one that says “I” all day, that experiences itself as in the physical body, and so, separate from other “I’s." The Particle self is extremely limited in knowledge, resources, and efficiency, and by nature identifies with things and conditions, e.g., “I am a person,” “I am sorry,” “I am here,” and so on. As Particles, we tend to experience world as cause and the self as effect, and so live in continual reaction to outer conditions; as these conditions appear to be separate from us, we naturally exert our will to improve or avoid them. Our Field identity, on the other hand, is nonlocal; not bound by time or space; unlimited in knowledge, vision, and efficiency; and aware of itself as the cause of worldly experience. Its most fundamental expression is not "I am this or that," but simply, "I AM."

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

Intention and Correspondence

Intention includes what we take to be real, which ultimately comes down to what we identify with. So, for example, the belief, “There isn’t enough money” is rooted in the belief, “I am poor.” This turns out to be a crucial point in Field theory, since our creating follows necessarily from identity, from who we believe we are. This is all we can change, and all we need to change.

The Self that creates reality is not the Particle self, a point that hardly can be overstated. Many people, caught up in popular oversimplifications of “we create our reality” thinking have tried affirmation, visualization, and other consciousness techniques to change their experience in the world, only to find themselves running into walls, because they were unwittingly believing in (intending) the very condition they wanted to change. As long as the I strives to change conditions rather than simply changing its self-definition, conditions have no choice but to persist. The I that would create reality deliberately cannot stand apart from its creation. Paradoxically, this means that we can’t change reality through an act of will, because the very attempt confers the status of reality on the thing it seeks to change. In trying to make real something that it regards as not real, it casts its vote wrongly and secures the very outcome it would overcome. When we try to create conditions, the results are likely to backfire and lead to disappointment. On the other hand, when we recast our identity, conditions change spontaneously and effortlessly as required by the law of correspondence. So, our work is only on ourselves. This is why in Field practice, the aim is alignment, and not manifestation.

Creation is the operating of the law of correspondence between Particle and Field. The Particle, by nature, must intend; the Field must correspond. Following the principles of chaos theory, intentions exert a nonlocal organizing effect, fulfilling themselves whether or not we’re aware of what we’re intending. As we start intending deliberately, this nonlocal effect shows up as happy coincidences, miraculous timing, and other synchronicities, As Field training deals directly with the most fundamental structures of Particle consciousness (identity and reality), conditions tend to improve quickly and dramatically, having no choice but to correspond to who we believe we are. When this changes for the better, everything changes accordingly.

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

Is the Field the same as God?

Some students use these terms interchangeably, but the word God can be loaded with associations that may not be helpful. The Field is the totality and ground of Being, comprising all objects, events, conditions, and Particle identities in the same way that the ocean comprises waves. In expression, the Field demonstrates qualities of vast creativity, intelligence, and Self-giving attributed by most spiritual traditions to a Supreme Being. Still, Field training isn’t a religion or religious; one may belong to any spiritual tradition or none and gain much from its study.

How is Field training different from other models that deal with consciousness-as-cause?

Field training acknowledges certain paradoxes of consciousness that other models do not, the most significant being that if we attempt to create conditions to fulfill desire, whether through acting on the world directly or through consciousness techniques such as visualization or affirmation, we’re immediately caught in a contradiction that interferes with the desired manifestation. Field training sidesteps this paradox by teaching that “the aim of intending is alignment, not manifestation.” The factual fulfillment of Particle desire arises spontaneously out of Field correspondence; it doesn’t have to be contrived. We simply remain aligned, and the facts take care of themselves. Rather than attempting to create a desired condition, we simply allow the version of the self that corresponds to that condition to come to the fore. The method is based solely on the creative power of identity, and on consciously recasting the Particle self.

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

What is a “counterintention?”

Field training holds that we don’t get what we want; we get what we intend. Intentions comprise what we take to be real, and what we identify with. Often, these intentions are unwitting; we are not aware that we are embodying them. When an intention runs contrary to (or contradicts) what we consciously desire, it’s a “counterintention.” To the extent that we counterintend, we suffer. Releasing counterintentions frees us from suffering and allows us to embody the consciously chosen version of self with a sense of joy and relief. Field training provides many ways to clear counterintentions. It’s not necessary to know what a counterintention is to clear it.

What does the term “versions of the self” mean?

Field training borrows the Many-Worlds model from physics to provide a theoretical basis for believing that a desired condition is “already done.” As long as one believes otherwise (e.g., tries to create the condition, sees it as possible, etc.), one is not, strictly speaking, intending it. Television broadcast provides a good metaphor: All the channels exist now, in the air; they don’t have to be created. Because they’re already real, any of them can manifest (incarnate). One simply needs to be tuned to the right channel (version of self).

How do you know that these concepts about consciousness and reality are true?

The best approach for a student to take is to assume that the truth of these principles remains to be seen. Nothing should be accepted solely on the strength of another's authority. We invite all who are willing to make the great experiment to find out for themselves if Field training's ontological claims are true or not. An open mind and heart balanced by careful reasoning soon reveal the profound value of our unique approach.

Why did the Field manifest Itself as separate Particles?

We generally find "why" to be a distraction from the far more fruitful direction of attending to practice. Field training, while providing a thorough and precise ttheoretical model, is ultimately about practical experience, which is rarely improved by grand questions or metaphysical speculating..

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

Field Training

2010-06-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

Out of Hiding

07 June, 2010Posted by Admin in General

Our curriculum, seriously undertaken, becomes a path through which we get to know our beliefs, assumptions, expectations, and identity commitments intimately. This deepened self-awareness gives us a foundation from which to make choices deliberately rather than unwittingly through default reactions. Along the path of heightened self-awareness, we even can catch ourselves in the act of hiding from ourselves in various ways that serve to keep unwitting choices in force. Coming into alignment and entering a stance of greater self-friendliness requires that we face the ways we may have been hiding in old contradictions, and bring these out into the open where they can be faced, acknowledged, and revised within the circle of our creative authority.

There are man ways that we may hide from stowaway contradictions. One is to live in generalities. This amounts to a form of hiding because we do not live generally, but rather in the specifics of the here and now. “God is in the details,” derived from Flaubert’s “Le bon Dieu est dans le détail,” has since become “The devil is in the details.” In any of these forms, we have the realization that the spirit of a thing, whether sacred or profane, is always in its particulars and never in generalities. Students who tend to understand, translate, or interpret Field training in terms of broad spiritual principles are invariably in flight from the details in which both “God” and “the devil” may be found.

Some Field training students hide in the language of Field training itself. Others hide in pretending to know what they in truth do not know, while still others remain once removed from alignment by denying something they know only too well. Some hide in trying to carry responsibilities that rightly belong to others, or in looking away from responsibilities that are properly theirs. We may hide in the past or the future, hide by repressing feelings or exaggerating them, or hide in critical judgments of self and others. And the mind, whose job it is to hold up endless versions of reality for our consideration, is the most popular hiding place of all.

Fortunately for us, we have a faculty within that knows what is true and what is not. Advanced Field Training talks about this faculty as “the Witness.” It knows when we are pretending, denying, ignoring, embellishing, justifying, or rationalizing. Its steady gaze never wavers from the truth, from what is as it is, no matter how we we may twist and turn from it—the way a compass needle faithfully points north regardless of how we may try to get it to do otherwise. For this reason, we say that Field practice begins with accepting things as they are and with being clear about what we want. Both involve setting aside agendas and coming into willing agreement with the truth of whatever has our attention, as it is, right now, in all its particulars. This essential inner gesture involves a simple acquiescence; we do not have to change anything or create a new condition or try to make something happen. The truth in every situation, written in the details, already exists. In the simple act of acknowledging what is, we come out of hiding and take back our creative authority forgotten as long as we are still colluding with contradiction. If indeed the truth sets us free, then the first act of self-liberation is to admit the truth, to step out and meet things as they are. Anyone who thinks this is the best place to begin the work of conscious creatorship is mistaken. It is not the best place. It is the only place.

http://www.fieldcenter.org/realities/

The Ballad of Sheriff Joe

2010-05-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

...no love lost in Arizona for Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio

Page the Village Idiot - "Sheriff Joe 'R Piehole"

Bad Leroy?

2010-04-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

The Deficit: Nine Myths We Can't Afford

2010-04-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Has the federal government run out of money? Will we have to slash Social Security? Will we have to borrow dollars from China for our children to pay back?

The national debate over fiscal responsibility and sustainability is entering a new, critical phase. Today, an 18-member bipartisan commission to examine the government's fiscal problem will meet for the first time. Everything is on the table, including Social Security and Medicare.

With so much at stake, the time has come to examine our fundamental assumptions about government deficits and debt. The danger of accepting oft-repeated orthodoxies has been clearly demonstrated in the recent financial crisis. For decades, free market fundamentalism went virtually unquestioned, and we've all seen the result -- an epic economic catastrophe. We can't afford to make the same mistake on fiscal responsibility. It's time to consider alternatives perspectives before we rush down potentially destructive policy paths that could compromise our future.

The Roosevelt Institute's New Deal 2.0 blog asked seven economic thinkers to address what they see as the most dangerous myths currently circulating on the deficit. Several of these experts will be on hand to educate the public on April 28, 2010 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. at a "Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In."

Myth #1: The government should balance its books like a private household.
Reality: Our federal government is the issuer of the currency, which makes its budget fundamentally different than the average citizen's.

Discussion of government budget deficits often begins with an analogy to a household's budget. People say: "No household can continually spend more than its income, and neither can the federal government". But there are big differences between a household and the federal government. You don't have the ability to print money in your living room, do you? Well, the government does. So how it finances its own debt and spending is different from the way you do.

A government is the issuer of the currency. The household, on the other hand, is the user. Households are restricted by the need to somehow get money into their bank accounts, or their checks will bounce. The federal government, by contrast, doesn't "have" or "not have" dollars. There is no vault or lock box where it "keeps" its money. In fact, it makes all of its payments simply by electronically crediting private bank accounts and there is no practical limit to which it can change those numbers up. Spending by the federal government always creates new money in the system, while taxation destroys it. When households and firms pay taxes, the money does not go anywhere; the government simply debits those private bank accounts by electronically reducing the amount of reserves they hold, i.e., by changing the numbers in those bank accounts down.

Government is constrained only by the inflation it can create by over-spending, but its ability to spend is numerically unlimited. Households are constrained by their ability to get dollars from some form income and from borrowing, and both of those have real limits.

~Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Assistant Professor, Franklin and Marshall College

Myth #2: Fixing Social Security and Medicare will require "tough choices."
Reality: Social Security and Medicare are not facing a financial crisis.

A new poll by the Pew Research Center suggests that nearly 80% of Americans don't trust the federal government. Unfortunately, we appear all-too-willing to trust the government when it tells us that Social Security and Medicare are heading for bankruptcy. Indeed, the same poll shows that fewer than half of us now hold a favorable opinion of the Social Security Administration (down 13% from a decade ago). No wonder. The drumbeat over the so-called "crisis" facing Social Security and Medicare has reached a fever pitch.

The government's message is clear: Both programs face significant trouble ahead, due primarily to the aging of our population. In order to deal with the looming problems, we will have to make "tough choices." Not everyone can have the money they were promised.

If you've been around a while, you've heard this all before. Remember the Greenspan Commission? This is the group that President Reagan appointed to "fix" Social Security in the early 1980s, the last time the system was on the brink of "collapse." Thanks to the "reforms" that were enacted in 1983, Americans are working longer (they raised the retirement age) and paying more (they accelerated increases in the payroll tax rate). And now we're being told it was all for nothing -- the system is broken again?

The truth is, the system was never broken in the first place, because the government's ability to pay benefits does not in any way depend on the balance in the Social Security or Medicare Trust Funds. Benefit checks come directly from the Treasury, and, as Alan Greenspan has admitted, "[A] government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency."

And so the question is not whether the government needs to make "tough choices" in order to keep these vital programs afloat. The question is, will politicians make the toughest choice of all and tell the American people the truth: Social Security and Medicare face no financial crisis now or in the future.

~Stephanie Kelton, Associate Professor, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri

Myth #3: We are passing on debt to our grandchildren.
Reality: Payments on Treasury securities are a matter of data entry, not a financial burden.

Most people don't realize that government debt -- Treasury securities -- are nothing more than savings accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington.

There are about 13 trillion dollars in Treasury securities at the Fed. Collectively, these savings accounts are known as the national debt. The national debt represents a portion of the combined savings of US residents, corporations, banks, and foreign governments. And most folks probably don't know that when a person buys them, the Fed simply transfers the dollars from her checking account to a savings account at the Fed called a "Treasury security."

Tens of billions of dollars of these Treasury securities come due every week. When that happens, the Fed pays off that "debt" simply by transferring the dollars, plus interest, out of these savings accounts and back to the holders' checking accounts.

In the future, when our grandkids make payments on Treasury securities, they will simply credit accounts at the Fed-just as we do today, and as our grandparents did before us. It is a simple matter of data entry, and not a financial burden.

If the government spends and taxes wisely today, our grandchildren inherit roads, dams, parks, public buildings, and, most importantly, an educated and healthier workforce. These things are admittedly hard to value precisely-but there can be no doubt that our grandkids will be much better off having been born into a society that has modern infrastructure and services that our government policies can help to provide.

~Randall Wray, Professor of Economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri

Myth #4: What we don't tax we have to borrow from the likes of China for our children to pay back.
Reality: Paying our debt holders back consists of transferring funds between accounts.

One constantly hears that the Chinese (and other external creditors) "fund" our deficit. The folklore is that when China finally sells off its US bond holdings, those yields will sky-rocket. The dollar will then crash, no one else will want the debt, and it will be the end of America as we know it.

To debunk this myth, you need to know two things. First, all foreign governments have checking accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank called "reserve accounts." Second, US Treasury securities are nothing more than savings accounts at the same Federal Reserve Bank.

How does China get its dollars? It sells things to us. And when China gets paid, those dollars go into China's checking account at the Federal Reserve Bank.

And when China buys US Treasury securities, what happens? The Fed transfers China's dollars in its checking account at the Fed to its savings account at the Fed. We call that "borrowing from China" and "going into debt to China." But it's not really "borrowing" in the sense of creating an external constraint whereby we have to defer spending to "pay back" China. The Fed simply pays off China's "debt" by transferring the dollars, plus interest, back to the holder's checking account, which it can create at the stroke of a keyboard as the monopoly issuer of dollars.

The dollars are nothing more than data entry on the Fed's computer. They have no other existence. And it has no impact on the government's ability to spend as to whether China's dollars are in their checking account or savings account.

All we owe China is a bank statement that shows them where their dollars are. Sadly, they know this. But they also know that we think we are dependent on them, and take advantage of our error.

~Marshall Auerback, Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and Warren Mosler, President, Valance Co.

Myth #5: The government must tax or borrow to get money to spend.
Reality: Government spending is not constrained by revenue.

As explained above, the Federal government neither "has" nor "doesn't have" dollars. The government spends by creating new money and taxes by destroying money, which simply involves changing numbers in bank accounts. Suppose the government pays Social Security benefits to a retired teacher, Mrs. Jones, in the amount of $1,500 a month. At the end of the month, the checking account of Mrs. Jones is credited by $1,500. Did the government need your tax revenue to pay Mrs. Jones? No! It simply changed the numbers up in Mrs. Jones's bank account, basically creating new money. On April 15 Mrs. Jones sends a check to the IRS to pay her taxes. When the government gets the check, what does it do? It simply changes numbers down in Mrs. Jones's bank account, destroying the money.

What about selling government bonds, which is mistakenly called borrowing? These are simply interest-earning assets, similar to a savings account. Suppose Mrs. Jones has $1,000 dollars in her checking account on which she would rather earn interest. So she buys a Treasury security. What happens? Basically a bond sale involves moving funds from checking accounts to savings accounts (Treasuries) at the Federal Reserve Bank.

So if the government doesn't need to tax to be able to spend, why does it tax at all? There are two reasons. First, the government creates demand for its currency through taxation. If the public didn't need the dollars to pay its taxes, it wouldn't be willing to sell goods and services to the government in return for pieces of paper (or numbers in a checking account). Taxes, then, are what give value to money. Second, the government uses taxes to control the public's spending power. When the public has too much spending power, government taxes some of it away to avoid inflation. When there is too little spending so that unemployment results, it lowers taxes to boost private spending.

Any and all financial constraints on government spending such as issuing government bonds dollar for dollar against deficit spending, debt ceilings, and restrictions on the Fed's ability to buy treasury securities are purely political and necessarily self imposed, because they are imposed on us by our chosen institutional arrangements and not by something inherent in our economic system.

~Yeva Nersisyan, Doctoral candidate in economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri

Myth #6: Deficits and government borrowing takes away savings.
Reality: Deficits add to income and savings.

The truth is that deficits add to the total monetary savings held outside of government. To the penny. That's right, if the government deficit was 1 trillion dollars last year, then total net savings of everyone outside of government went up by 1 trillion. Not a penny more or a penny less.

Let's look at a simple transaction where the government deficit spends $100. Say the government sells US $100 of new treasury securities. We buy them and our bank account goes down by $100 when we pay for them, but we have the $100 of treasury securities we bought. Are we any poorer? Of course not! In fact, since we bought the securities voluntarily, we probably did it because we think that purchase made us richer. All we did was exchange $100 that was in our checking account for a $100 Treasury security.

After we pay the $100 for the Treasury securities, the next thing that happens is the government then spends $100 by buying something from us. So we now have both the $100 the government just spent and the $100 of Treasury securities we just bought.

So because of the $100 of deficit spending, we got our $100 back in our checking account, and we also have $100 in Treasury securities. Our monetary wealth is now $100 more than it was before.

The deficit spending of $100 added $100 to our savings. Yet all of our leaders insist that deficits take away from our savings.

You can now understand the reason our savings went up so much last year. It was because the government deficit was so much higher. Now you know more about that than anyone on TV.

~Warren Mosler, President, Valance Co.

Myth #7: We'll end up just like Weimar Germany or Zimbabwe.
Reality: Hyperinflation in both countries was caused by circumstances far different than ours.

The minute you challenge the assumption that the government should not spend when it has a large deficit, out comes the charge that we'll get some horrible hyperinflationary outcome like Weimar Germany or Zimbabwe.

Yes, once the economy gets to full employment, then extra government deficit spending can start driving up prices. But what happened in Weimar Germany was very different. During that time, the government was forced to pay extremely large war reparations in foreign currencies which it didn't have. So it had to aggressively sell its own currency and buy the foreign currency in the financial markets. This relentless selling continuously drove down the value of its currency, causing prices of goods and services to go ever higher in what became one of the most famous inflations of all time. By 1919, the German budget deficit was equal to half of GDP, and by 1921, war reparation payments represented one third of government spending. And guess what? On the very day that government stopped paying the war reparations and selling its own currency to buy foreign currency, the hyperinflation stopped.

In Zimbabwe, the situation is also very different from ours. There, the conditions for hyperinflation were caused by the destruction of nearly half of the country's domestic food production via misguided land reforms, plus a civil war which eliminated much of the economy's productive manufacturing capacity. In response to food shortages, the Bank of Zimbabwe used valuable foreign exchange reserves to buy imported food, leading to a lack of foreign currency to purchase essential raw materials. Manufacturing output collapsed, but the government used much of the remaining foreign exchange to dole out political favors, rather than adding to the country's productive capacity. The end result was inflation and then hyperinflation.

In the US, hyperinflation will not be an issue if the government spends while it has a large deficit because with high unemployment and unused yet functioning factories all across the country, there is plenty of room to cut taxes and/or increase spending to get us to full employment. This is true no matter what the size of the federal deficit. Ultimately, inflation (and then hyperinflation) is about competing distributive claims over real resources, such as oil, gas, water, etc. A "sustainable" fiscal policy, especially with respect to hyperinflationary risks, then, is really about both the establishment of full employment and the implementation of well-crafted policies which deal with the constraints created by, for example, depleting natural resources.

~Marshall Auerback, Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and Rob Parenteau, sole proprietor of MacroStrategy Edge

Myth #8: Government spending increases interest rates and 'crowds out' valuable private sector investment.
Reality: Banks can lend essentially without limit, and the Fed can hit any interest rate target it chooses.

Ask an economist what determines the interest rate, and she'll probably mutter something about supply and demand or "market forces." Ask the same economist what determines the level of saving and investment, and the answer probably won't change very much. This is because most economists were trained using textbooks that have not been rewritten since the United States went off the gold standard after WWII.

Back then, we had a monetary system that really did limit the growth of the money supply, and too much government spending really could force rates higher and crowd out other forms of spending. It is all based on something economists know as Loanable Funds Theory, which describes a market in which there is some limited pool of savings available to satisfy the demand for credit. Thus, deficit spending required the government to compete (with private borrowers) for a portion of these limited resources. Because the capacity to lend was constrained under the gold standard, the added competition could drive borrowing costs (i.e. the interest rate) higher.

Decades later, the monetary system looks completely different. But economists continue to treat governments as if they are the users of the currency (as opposed to the issuers) and to treat banks as passive money lenders -- there simply to broker deals between savers and borrowers. In truth, banks can lend essentially without limit, regardless of what the federal government is doing, and the Federal Reserve can hit any interest rate target it chooses.

~Stephanie Kelton, Associate Professor, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri

Myth #9: The money spent paying interest on the national debt could be spent elsewhere.
Reality: Interest rates can easily be brought to zero and are not an obstacle to federal spending.

Government spending is not operationally constrained by revenues (as outlined above). So interest payments are not an obstacle to any other payments. Further, the Fed (a branch of government) sets the overnight rate-thus, it is a policy variable and can be set wherever policy wants to set it. Right now short term rates are set near 0%, and the Fed could leave them there permanently, which would bring down interest on Treasury securities to near 0%. Finally, Treasury can elect to issue only 3 month bills, which would bring government interest payments towards 0 over time.

Conclusion: Interest on the debt is not currently an obstacle to increased federal spending and/or tax cuts. And it's a very simple matter to bring interest payments down to 0 in any case.

~Randall Wray, Professor of Economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

Seth Godin: We All Need A Tribe

2010-04-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

...

Enjoyed this conversation with Seth Godin around tribes

and why we all need one,

how we should be the best in the world

at what we do.

...

-- Seth also answers why he is not on Twitter. --

Flies Turn in Mid-Air with Shoulder Shrug

2010-04-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

A new analysis shows that the flies’ aerial gymnastics are driven by wing joints that act like wind-up toys, letting the bugs whirl around almost automatically.

Insights from the study, which was published online April 5 in Physical Review Letters, could someday help build better flying robots.

Fruit flies beat their wings about once every 4 milliseconds — much faster than their neurons can fire — and can turn 120 degrees in 18 wing beats. This made study co-author Itai Cohen of Cornell University wonder, “How much of the wing motion is being controlled by the insect, and how much is going along for the ride, being controlled by aerodynamics?”

To investigate, Cohen and his colleagues set up three high-speed cameras trained at the center of a box holding about 10 flies (see video below). A fly crossing the center of the box triggered the cameras to start rolling at 8,000 frames per second. At the same time, a disk of LED lights projected a rotating striped pattern on the inside of the box to trick the flies into making a U-turn.

“The flies see this, and it makes them dizzy,” says study co-author Attila Bergou of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who helped perform the experiments as a graduate student at Cornell. “It generates very reliable and repeatable turns in these flies.”

The physicists analyzed the videos to extract detailed information on the wings’ positions with respect to the body.

“I was surprised that they were able to get it to work as well as they did,” comments Ty Hedrick of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. “Getting the uncertainty of these measurements low enough that you can see what you need to see is difficult.”

The team found that when the fly turns, one wing tilts more than the other, similar to the way a rower pulls one oar harder than the other to make a boat turn. Thanks to aerodynamics, a wing-tilt difference of just 9 degrees is enough to send a fly off in another direction.

“Essentially these insects are swimming through the air, using drag forces to row themselves in whichever direction they want,” Cohen says.

Further analysis using computer models of the fly and aerodynamic simulations showed that the fly’s wing joint acts like a torsional spring, the kind found in wind-up toys or old clocks. To change its wing tilt and set up a turn, all the fly has to do is twitch the muscle that controls the spring.

“The insects don’t have to do any thinking whatsoever,” Cohen says. “They have a natural system that provides just the right amount of torque to the wing.”

The physicists are planning comparative studies in other flying insects, like bees and dragonflies. Cohen hopes the findings could help design more-maneuverable flying robots that take advantage of insect aerodynamics.

“Really the idea is, how do we start to build more efficient and smaller robots that take advantage of aerodynamics to do the things they do, rather than brute force the way we usually do these things?” Cohen says. “We’re in the dark ages as far as building anything like that. We’re nowhere in the ballpark.”

Jed's A Millionaire - "Invincible Summer" songs - fan faves in haiku

2010-04-17T23:42:00.000-07:00

... view through a window ...

... cottonfields

my desert bloom ...

... an alleywaykiss ...

Emerson's Note: All songs are from the new JED'S A MILLIONAIRE album, "Invincible Summer." ...Released 04/03/2010.

We Forget About Whatever It Is We Wanted to Forget About

2010-04-16T21:15:00.001-07:00

“Forget about it.” This is the slogan that made it on to the tee shirts we gave out at our recent Waves of Change Conference. Of course, it took mere minutes for somebody to start reciting the line in his best New York accent a la Joey Tribbiani in the Friends television series. All well and good. The humor is part of the forgetting, since “Forget about it,” more than anything else, reminds us to take our mind’s hands off whatever project concerns us, and give the Field right of way.

Like so much in Field training, this little slogan, taken as instruction, poses the problem of how you deliberately forget about something, but the paradox, as usual, is resolved in practice, since forgetting about something means getting on with other things, those things that are, in the language of the Course, “before us to do,” and as we do this, we forget about whatever it is we wanted to forget about, and we forget that we forgot. Our attention naturally follows the natural course of events as they arise, releasing all agendas, willfulness, and attempts to manage or control outcomes. Forgetting, in this sense, is a by-product of getting on with other things. This is why Field training students who practice what they know come across as people grounded in the living present. They have released themselves from the endless distractions of willful living.

There is more to the story, however, and that is how the Field responds when we “forget about it.” Giving the Field right of way in our affairs does more than return us to a more attentive, mindful, and therefore efficient engagement of the present. It also evokes nonlocal efficiency, for the Field takes up our cause the instant we put it down. In this lies another paradox—that we can have what we want if we can walk away from it. Some may think this means that we have to come to a point where what we want doesn’t matter to us anymore, but this is far from the truth. Rather, we have to come to a point where what we want doesn’t rule us anymore. We have our desires, but they no longer have us. We stop being obsessive, having seen through the Particle assumption, unsupportable on even cursory examination, that nothing will happen if we don’t make it happen. In forgetting about it, we discover the extraordinary efficiency of letting things happen, of getting out of the way so that something greater can come into play in our behalf.

There is a surprising surge of confidence that comes with this getting out of the way, a confidence rooted in delegating to that intelligence that created and sustains the universe each moment, and the sense that the Field is working on whatever we have released. The willingness to have what we want goes hand in hand with the willingness to let it go. To be willing to “forget about” is to take up our authority as co-creators, for what we forget in this way, the Field remembers for us, and remembers with the efficiency that set the stars burning.

The More Joyful You Are

2010-04-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

The Universe

is not punishing you

or blessing you.

The Universe is responding

to the vibrational attitude

that you are emitting.

The more joyful you are,
the more Well-being
flows to you.

...

And, you get to choose

the details of how it flows.

Abraham-Hicks

Serenity Now

2010-04-15T14:29:00.001-07:00

-

Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.

It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control.

It's presence is an indication of ripened experience,
and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws
and operations of thought.

A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself
as a thought-evolved being, for such knowledge necessitates
the understanding of others as the result of thought.

...

As he develops a right understanding,
and sees more and more clearly
the internal relations of things
by the action of cause and effect,
he ceases to fuss and fume and worry and grieve,
and remains poised, steadfast, serene.

...

...

The more tranquil a man becomes,
the greater is his success, his influence,
his power for good.

...

The strong calm man is always loved and revered.

He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land,
or a sheltering rock in a storm.

...

How insignificant mere money-seeking looks
in comparison with a serene life -
a life that dwells in the ocean of Truth,
beneath the waves,
beyond the reach of tempests,
in the Eternal Calm.

How many people we know who sour their lives,
who ruin all that is sweet and beautiful.

...

It is a question whether the great majority of people
do not ruin their lives and mar their happiness
by lack of self control.

...

Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are controlled
and purified,
makes the winds and the storms of the soul obey him.

...

Self-control is strength.

Right Thought is mastery.

Calmness is power.

Say unto your heart, "Peace, be still."

Thomas Troward

radiofreedoghouse - "The Last of the Mercy Killers"

2010-04-12T06:44:00.000-07:00

In memory of Doug Hopkins (of Gin Blossoms), whose birthday would have been yesterday.
Thanks, Liz, for the reminder.

The New Westerns - "The Girl Who Never Was"

2010-04-09T23:38:00.000-07:00

Keith Richards: Books, Blues & Screwy Dewey Hooey

2010-04-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

>SHHH! Keith Richards, the grizzled veteran of rock’n’roll excess, has confessed to a secret longing: to be a librarian. After decades spent partying in a haze of alcohol and drugs, Richards will tell in his forthcoming autobiography that he has been quietly nurturing his inner bookworm.

He has even considered “professional training” to manage thousands of books at his homes in Sussex and Connecticut, according to publishing sources familiar with the outline of Richards’s autobiography, which is due out this autumn. He has received a reported advance of $7.3m (£4.8m) for it.

The guitarist started to arrange the volumes, including rare histories of early American rock music and the second world war, by the librarian’s standard Dewey Decimal classification system but gave up on that as “too much hassle.” He has opted instead for keeping favoured volumes close to hand and the rest languishing on dusty shelves.

Richards has also acted as a public library, lending out copies of the latest Bernard Cornwell or Len Deighton novels to friends without much hope of getting them back. And, like the Queen at Balmoral, he leaves favoured books by the bedside for guests staying at Redlands, his moated Elizabethan farmhouse near West Wittering in West Sussex and in Weston, Connecticut.

In his autobiography, Life, due to be published in October, Richards will reveal how, as a child growing up in the post-war-austerity of 1950s London, he found refuge in books before he discovered the blues.

He has declared: “When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is a great equaliser.”

Richards has signed up to the Little, Brown Book Group and will share writing duties with James Fox, the author of White Mischief, which charted aristocratic excess in pre-war Kenya.

Nassim Taleb: Climate Change and "Too Big" Polluters

2010-04-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

I have been asked frequently on how to deal with climate change in connection with the Black Swan idea and my work on decision-making under opacity. The position I suggest should be based on both ignorance and the delegation to the wisdom of Mother Nature since it is older than us, hence wiser than us, and proven much smarter than scientists.

We do not understand enough about Mother Nature to mess with her --and I do not trust the models used to forecast climate change.

Simply, we are facing nonlinearities and magnifications of errors coming from the so-called "butterfly effects" we saw in Chapter 11, actually discovered by Lorenz using weather forecasting models. Small changes in input, coming from measurement error, can lead to massively divergent projections --and that, very generously, assumes that we have the right equations.

We have polluted for years, causing much damage to the environment, while the scientists currently making these complicated forecasting models were not sticking their necks out and trying to stop us from building these risks (they resemble those "risk experts" in the economic domain who fight the previous war) --these are the ones now trying to impose the solutions on us.

But the skepticism about models that I propose does not lead to the same conclusions as the ones endorsed by anti-environmentalists, pro-market fundamentalists, quite the contrary: we need to be hyper-conservationists ecologically, super-Green, since we do not know what we are harming with now. That's the sound policy under ignorance and epistemic opacity.

To those who say "we have no proof that we are harming nature", a sound response is "we have no proof that we are not harming nature either" --the burden of the proof is not on the ecological conservationist, but on someone disrupting an old system.

Furthermore we should not "try to correct" the harm done as we may be creating another problem we do not know much about currently.

One practical solution I came up with, based on the nonlinearitities in the damage (under the assumption that harm increases disproportionally with the quantities released), and using the same mathematical reasoning as the one that led to my opposing the "too big" concept, is to spread the damage across pollutants --should we need to pollute, of course. Let us carry a thought experiment.

Case 1: you give the patient a dose of cyanide, hemlock, or some poisonous substance, assuming they are equally harmful (and no synergetic, superadditive effect

Case 2: you give the patient a tenth of a dose of ten such substances, for the same total amount of poison.

Clearly we can see that Case 2, by spreading the poison ingested across substances, is at the worst equally harmful (if all the poisonous substances act in the same way), and at the best close to harmless to the patient.

Socrates' Advice

2010-04-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

One day a man rushed up to Socrates, saying “I have some news to tell you!”

Socrates put up his hand to stop the excited man.

“First let me ask you three questions.” Socrates said.

“Ah, er, okay” said the man.

“Is the news you are about to tell me something you personally know to be true?”

“Well no,” replied the man. “I heard it from a good source though.”

“Then let’s go to the second question” Socrates said “Is the news you want to tell me about someone you know personally?”

“Well no,” the man said “But I think you know the person.”

“I see” said Socrates “Then let me ask you my final question. Is this news positive or negative?”

“Well, it’s negative”

“Let me see now,” said the wise Socrates, “You want to tell me some news that you don’t know personally to be true, about someone you don’t know at all, and that is negative”

“Well it sounds bad when you put it like that!”

“I think I’ll pass.” Socrates said.

Reach Beyond What-Is

2010-04-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

Looking at the things that you don't want

will never make your world more

as you want it to be.

It will only drag you down into the discord of that.

As a creator, you are better off with those things you don't want in your world,

than if your world was, by your standards, perfect in every way,

because those things cause you to reach beyond what-is.

And if you do not find reason to reach beyond what-is, then you stand still,

and none of us can do that.

There is only motion forward. Contrast assures that.
We are all free, or none of us are free.

And so, if you like being able to choose the things that you like to choose --

then it must be alright with you that others choose the things that they want to choose.

Abraham-Hicks

Addiction, Recovery, Marc Maron & Happe Talk

2010-04-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

A 'surviving addiction' conversation with Marc Maron on HAPPE TALK.

Audio Podcast HERE.

~ Happe Talk is an online call-in TV Show, hosted by Michele Happe. ~

Marc Maron discusses his life philosophy and his recovery from addiction. Marc is a stand-up comic, and was a well known radio personality on Air America Radio; most recently having co-hosted "Break Room Live" with Sam Seder.

Michele focuses on developing health and happiness thru Buddhist Principles ... as well as traditional methods for therapeutic growth. She is an addiction therapist who uses Buddhist principles to aid in recovery and to help promote happiness.

(Her website is www.mhappe.com)

Even Gandhi Was a Jerk to Work For

2010-03-17T13:59:00.001-07:00

…

“Elephants are terrific bullshit artists,

and are never doing quite as well

as you think they are.

This audacity makes them great,

if slightly smelly.

…

The elephant cannot be ignored.

It must be understood and directed this way and that.

It can be done, because for some strange reason,

in spite of all their size and power,

elephants need direction and know it.”

A funny, transcendently simple, ultra-enlightening and very Zen guide

that helps you to manipulate and control the large, grey behemoths that run the world,

otherwise known as your boss.

In Throwing the Elephant, Fortune magazine columnist Stanley Bing describes how to manage your boss. Simultaneously satirizing the self-help, self-discovery and business management genres, Bing stumbles upon more than a few truths that, although delivered tongue-in-cheek, merit serious consideration.

Bing says he learned a basic truth early: "You can't choose your boss."

Thus, your only choice is to mold the one you have into someone you can tolerate.
When you control your boss, you can "throw the elephant."

And just how do you achieve this nirvana?

Bing turns to Zen Buddhism, adapting its sacred principles to boss/employee interactions.

Bing identifies four truths that underlie professional life:

* Work is suffering. "The ability to boss other people around destroys much of human decency," writes Bing. "Evidence suggests that even Gandhi was a jerk to work for."

* Desire is at the root of suffering.

* Suffering can be conquered.

* There is a path to end suffering.

Your only hope: mastering "Zen and the Art of Managing Up." Sure, you can trust the elephants, Bing writes, but only as far as you can throw them. "This is the first time we come face-to-face with the need to actually throw the elephant."

So how do you get to that point? First, you discover how to handle the elephant, then how to manage it, then finally how to toss it. "That you are willing and able to do actual work gives you incredible power over a creature that by no means wishes to ... do any," writes Bing.

Another advantage you hold over elephants: They are large, you are not.

"Elephants are not afraid of big things, or are at least unwilling to admit such fear," Bing posits.

"Elephants are therefore left only the option of being afraid of little things that sneak up and surprise them. Such things include mice, loud noises, spreadsheets, ... unannounced visitors [and] word of the displeasure of a higher executive."

Equilibrium is essential to the elephant's survival, says Bing. You control small matters that can easily destabilize the elephant.

Bing concludes with a chapter titled "Finding the Elephant in You."

Adopting the tone of a self-help guru, he counsels readers on how to think of themselves in the boss/employee continuum: "Elephant? Or human? You can't be both.

The choice is in your hands. ... Think about it.

Or better yet sit down and don't think at all."

Mike Frost is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va.

3 Things That Would Transform the World for Better

2010-03-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

ONE: as individuals, we step out of the fear

of what other people think of us

because that is the prison that most people live in.

And once you're in the fear of what someone else thinks,

you are not living YOUR life in YOUR truth;

you are living someone else's version

of what they think you should be.

In other words, you're in the herd now.

If we step out of the fear of what other people think, as individuals, and say, to use the title of one of my books, I Am Me, I Am Free, and if you don't like it, that's fine-you have a right not to like it-but this is me!

At that point we cease to be a sheep.

And if enough of us do it, we cease to be a herd of sheep.

-

SECOND: we allow everyone else to express their uniqueness, even though it differs from ours.

You know, "What a crime; call the police; my goodness me,

this person thinks different than me!"

Once we do that, we cease to be a sheep dog for the rest of the herd.

Just those two things alone, and this whole edifice of imposed power starts to crumble

because the very basis of it is crumbling.

-

THIRD: the balance point...

No one seeks to impose what they believe on anyone else,

so all are respecting everyone's free will,

so that my belief is not imposed on anyone else.

-

-David Icke-

JED'S A MILLIONAIRE debut new song, "Alleyway Kiss"...

2010-03-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

... ahead of CD release party on April 3rd.

Jed's A Millionaire

CD Release Party on Saturday, April 3, 2010

The Compound Grill

from

8 p.m. to Midnight

The Compound Grill

7000 E. Mayo Boulevard, Bldg. 21

Phoenix, AZ 85054

Phone – 480-585-5483

http://www.thecompoundgrill.com/

What’s Before Us To Do

2010-03-15T11:14:00.001-07:00

Field training students often are curious about the role of action in deliberate intending.

In our view, actions follow naturally, spontaneously, and inevitably from intentions.

So how we move through the world corresponds to the identity choices we’re making, wittingly or not.

The only reference to action in the Course is in the direction to “do what’s before us to do,” with a note that this may or may not have anything obvious to do with what we’ve deliberately intended.

For example, I may be deliberately intending financial success, and find that what’s before me to do, right now, in the living present, is wash the dishes. In that case, washing the dishes is the right action, because failing to do what’s before us to do invariably arises from counterintentions.

It isn’t surprising, then, from a Field training point of view, that failing to wash the dishes when washing the dishes is before us to do may move through the nonlocal concatenation of causes and effects in a way that somehow postpones financial success—or whatever other fulfillment we’ve claimed inwardly.

Action, of course, would not be central in any consciousness-as-cause model, except insofar as it contributes to one’s deliberately chosen state of consciousness relevant to the action.

In Seth/Jane Roberts’s book, The Nature of Personal Reality, Seth/Jane advises us, after making the required alteration in consciousness, to make some gesture to show ourselves that we believe in what we’re doing, meaning that we believe in the new identity.

Jed's A Millionaire

In the case of intending financial abundance, it might mean spending a few dollars more than we may think we can afford in the faith that somehow the money will come into our reality.

There’s a similar idea in the approach Huna takes to conscious creating—Huna being Polynesian shamanism as practiced by the kahunas. They, too, regarded a gesture, some action in the world, as an important part of the creative process.

Field training doesn’t include this idea for the simple reason that, in practical terms, the idea almost entails the strategic, premeditating approach that Field training diligently avoids, holding as it does that any such approach immediately implicates us in the contradiction of believing in the very condition we’re aiming
to change through belief.

Even in Seth/Jane’s book, the essential gesture is described as having the aim of convincing us that what we’ve claimed inwardly is true.

So, the action serves as something like an anchor that gives the new belief greater credibility in what might be regarded as a kind of biofeedback reinforcement.

Field training prefers the idea that such “gestures” occur spontaneously and naturally, commensurate with the thoroughness of our alignment in the new identity.

Believing wholeheartedly that one has financial means that one believed, in the previous identity, one lacked, naturally expresses itself in the sort of actions that Seth?Jane/Huna regard as part of their “method.”

You can see in this word method the first inkling of strategy that Field training considers problematic. If our alignment is not thorough—that is, if we’re still “bilocated” in the language of Field theory, then a situation will come up that presents us with two options, each one representing one of the bilocated identities.

Often test situations come unexpectedly, and we don’t realize until later that we were tested—that is, confronted with a situation in which we had to choose, wittingly or not, to remain true to the new version of self or revert to the former identity, complete with its payoff and price.

These aren’t tests that one can pass or fail; they simply reveal in the most practical terms, who one is being, thus giving us the opportunity either to express our alignment or to deepen it in newfound resolve.

In our view, the new sense of oneself is like a stone thrown into the center of the lake of reality. From it, ripples move out in all directions, showing up as new thoughts and feelings, new actions, and new conditions—all moving effortlessly through the medium of our being-here, while we rest at the center.

source

Quant-anamo, Curly & Larry

2010-03-09T21:41:00.000-08:00

Scott Patterson, the author of the new book, "The Quants," was on "The Daily Show" last night to talk to Jon Stewart about the physicists and mathematicians who he says were a driving force behind Wall Street's downfall. These geniuses, whom Patterson calls "quants," created equations which allowed them to place huge bets on the stock market.

Scott Patterson

www.thedailyshow.com

Scott Patterson believes Wall Street is controlled by quants using their skills to price securities. Airdate - 03/04/2010

On the 'Purple Cow' Tip: JED'S A MILLIONAIRE Goes Green with New CD

2010-03-04T22:50:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Here's a song.

Jed's A Millionaire

www.twitter.com/jedsamillion

The legendary Arizona rock band

is about to release their long-awaited 4th album

Invincible Summer

in a digital format online...next month.

JED'S A MILLIONAIRE sits down with "Let's Go!", quotes Albert Camus,

offers life reflections on music, & discusses soon-to-be-released new CD...

"The next thing you know...

Sometimes you just figure it out. ...And the next thing you know: Jed’s a millionaire.
The perfect name for a band.

Front-man R. Shawn Harrington has a band, and he named it Jed's A Millionaire, a reflection of conversations had with his older brother when they talked about succeeding in the music business.

“You do this, you do this, you do this,” Harrington said. “The next thing you know, Jed’s a millionaire.”

Harrington and his four band mates are not yet millionaires, but they are working hard at it. And you never know. The next thing…

Well, you get it.

Harrington, and his co-leader Aaron Ploechl, sat down with Let’s Go! on a sunny Saturday to talk about what’s on the horizon for the “alternative, accessible brand of rock and roll.”

First up is another gig in Fountain Hills. JED will headline the St. Patrick’s Day Celebration on Saturday, March 13th. The band hits the stage at 6 p.m.

Jed’s A Millionaire will release its fourth album at a party set

for April 3. The band also is the headliner at Fountain Hills’ St.

Patrick’s Day Celebration Saturday, March 13.

JED is a familiar band in Fountain Hills. They have played the Alamo for a long time, and they have entertained at other local venues, as well as in Scottsdale.

Their next big date is April 3, when they have a release party for their fourth album. The event will be at the Compound in Scottsdale, a setting that enables the band to bring their families and have fans bring theirs.

The new record, “Invincible Summer,” will be released in a green format.

“We want to minimize production, so we’re releasing a digital format online,” Harrington said. “

Harrington is a serious guy.

He loves his music, he loves his band, but he has a stoicism that makes you know he isn’t messing around when it comes to doing music.

“I think the sole purpose for my being on the planet is to play music,” he says. “I’m

not good at anything else. It’s a necessary thing in my life. I can’t imagine my life without it.”

And in a bit more open way, Ploechl has the same feelings about music.

“Being in this band is kind of like a painting by five different artists,” he said. “We all bring something different to the music, and when we are together making that music, it is amazing. It is just a really cool experience.”

Fountain Hills attorney Allyson Shepston is the band’s manager. She said the group works “really, really hard to make it all come together.” Harrington is upbeat and looking forward to the new record release.

The band’s last album, HAUNT, came out several years ago with a different group of musicians.

“The album is amazing,” Harrington said. “But putting it together was really difficult. There was a lot of negativity around it. Everything became unfun. Subsequently, the band suffered, and I had to leave.”

He changed the lineup in the band, adding Ploechl, Jamie King on bass, Dan Frost on keyboards and Andy Ziker on drums.

“This is a great bunch of guys,” Harrington said. “They’ve made it very easy for me to be better than I’ve ever been before. We do have fun.”

And as he quotes the French philosopher, Albert Camus, that in the midst of his (Harrington’s)

miserable winter and the making of Haunt, Harrington found his invincible summer."

And the next thing you know...

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

-- Albert Camus --

(Special thanks to Allyson Shepston and Tracey Gepson...for the original posting of article.)

Roses from Bob

2010-03-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

Bill Maher's New "Sex Addict" Rule

2010-03-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

New Rule: Stop saying "sex addict" like it's bad thing.

In the wake of Tiger Woods' heartfelt apology that he gave to his fans, his friends, his foundation - and just to be safe, Elizabeth Edwards - the media has been interviewing sex addicts: on CNN one addict said, "The day Mount Saint Helens blew up, everyone was talking about it. But I didn't even know it happened because I was having sex all that day." Oh, the humanity! Please get this man some professional help soon, before he has a hot three-way and completely misses a tornado.

Now, I haven't commented on Tiger Woods much because, well, he's just a golfer and it took me this long to give a shit. But all this talk about sex addiction now - please - sex addiction is just something Dr. Drew made up because he had no other way to explain Andy Dick. And that's not just me saying that - it's also the American Psychiatric Association, which does not list sex addiction in its manual; it does not regard it as a real psychological syndrome, like delirium or bipolar disorder or any of the other things Glenn Beck suffers from.

You want to know the surest way that you can spot a "sex addict?" He's got a penis. That's why Tiger was having sex with more women than even a black celebrity needs to have sex with, and thereby threatening to unbalance the delicate ecosystem of playas and ho's.

But before Tiger moves on there's one more apology he really should make, and that's to Buddha, for dragging him into this mess and proving once again, that whenever something unspeakably tawdry, loathsome and cheap happens, just wait a few days. Religion will make it worse.

Now usually, when famous cheaters are looking for public redemption, they go to Jesus, but Tiger went old school, and claimed that sleeping with 2/3 of the waitresses in America had made him a failure as a Buddhist. He said Buddhism teaches you the way to inner peace is letting go of desire - and if that doesn't sound like marriage, I don't know what does.

Personally, if I was a golfer, I'd go with Jesus - because he's a Trinity, so when you walk with him, you've got a foursome. Christianity is for rubes. Buddhism is for actors.

And it really is outdated in some ways - the "Life sucks, and then you die" philosophy was useful when Buddha came up with it around 500 B.C., because back then life pretty much sucked, and then you died - but now we have medicine, and plenty of food, and iPhones, and James Cameron movies - our life isn't all about suffering anymore. And when we do suffer, instead of accepting it we try to alleviate it.

Tiger said, "Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves" makes us unhappy, which confirms something I've long suspected about Eastern religions: they're a crock, too.

Craving for things outside ourselves is what makes life life - I don't want to learn to not want, that's what people in prison have to do. Buddhism teaches suffering is inevitable. The only thing that's inevitable is that if you have fake boobs and hair extensions, Tiger Woods will try to fuck you.

And reincarnation? Really? If that were real, wouldn't there be some proof by now? A raccoon spelling out in acorns, "My name is Herb Zoller and I'm an accountant." ...something?

People are always debating, is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy: it's a religion. You're a religion if you do something as weird as when the Buddhist monks scrutinize two-year-olds to find the reincarnation of the dude who just died, and then choose one of the toddlers as the sacred Lama: "His poop is royal!"

Sorry, but thinking you can look at a babbling, barely-housebroken, uneducated being and say, "That's our leader" doesn't make you enlightened. It makes you a Sarah Palin supporter.

The Vatican's Top Ten Album List

2010-02-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

L'Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican,
released its Top Ten Albums list this past week.

They are:

1: Revolver...The Beatles
2: Dark Side Of The Moon...Pink Floyd
3: (What's The Story) Morning Glory...Oasis
4: Thriller... Michael Jackson
5: Achtung Baby...U2
6: Rumours...Fleetwood Mac
7: The Nightfly...Donald Fagen
8: Supernatural...Carlos Santana
9. Graceland...Paul Simon
10. If I Could Only Remember My Name...David Crosby

As a fervent Beatles fan, I am always happy to see an album by the Fab Four reach the top of anyone's list of favorites. More than likely, one of the reasons that "Revolver" was chosen Number One by the Vatican is the repeated observation of "I know what it's like to be dead" in "She Said She Said". However, that doesn't explain the selection of an album containing "Eleanor Rigby" in which "no one was saved". Still, a compelling rationale for "Revolver" as the Church's top choice might be "Taxman", made in eternal thankfulness for their non-taxable holdings. Obviously, the album, "Rubber Soul", was never in the running.

Apparently, in the selection of "Thriller", the Vatican has granted absolution to the late Michael Jackson for crotch grabbing in his videos. "Achtung Baby" could be an indirect acknowledgement of the Church's role during the Holocaust.

As for David Crosby, whose music I greatly enjoy...if I could only remember that album. The glaring omission of "The Stranger" from the Top Ten list signals that the Holy See is not ready to forgive Billy Joel for "Only The Good Die Young". As for "Supernatural" by Carlos Santana...I saw an image of the "Last Supper" in this morning's breakfast toast...perhaps the editor at L'Osservatore Romano had a similar experience.

Sources tell me that the B'nai B'rith is coming out with their own Top Ten List.

Rumor has it that they have selected "Magical Mystery Tour" by The Beatles as its top album based on a misunderstanding that one of the songs is entitled, "Your Mother Should Only Know".

[No Dylan in that list. Osservatore Romano, now edited by with-it Gian Maria Vian, dissed him because he “had turned Messianic” after converting to Christianity, and because he had written “three-note songs” that “tried the ears and patience of listeners.” Editors.]

7 Dwarfs go to the Vatican

The 7 Dwarfs go to the Vatican and, because they are the 7 Dwarfs, they are immediately ushered in to see the Pope. Grumpy leads the pack.'Grumpy, my son,' says the Pope, 'What can I do for you?'
Grumpy asks, 'Excuse me your Excellency, but are there any dwarf nuns in Rome?'

The Pope wrinkles his brow at the odd question, thinks for a moment and answers, 'No, Grumpy, there are no dwarf nuns in Rome'

In the background, a few of the dwarfs start giggling. Grumpy turns around and glares, silencing them.

Grumpy turns back, 'Your Worship, are there any dwarf nuns in all of Europe?'

The Pope, puzzled now, again thinks for a moment and then answers, 'No, Grumpy, there are no dwarf nuns in Europe.

This time, all of the other dwarfs burst into laughter.

Once again, Grumpy turns around and silences them with an angry glare.

Grumpy turns back and says, 'Mr. Pope! Are there ANY dwarf nuns anywhere in the world?'

The Pope, really confused by the questions says, 'I'm sorry, my son, there are no dwarf nuns anywhere in the world.'

The other dwarfs collapse into a heap, rolling and laughing, pounding the floor, tears rolling down their cheeks, as they begin chanting......

'Grumpy screwed a penguin!'
'Grumpy screwed a penguin!'

Relationship With Your Cat Gone Stale?

2010-02-16T05:29:00.000-08:00

Of No Concern to You

2010-02-14T22:31:00.000-08:00

When you understand
that unwanted things

cannot assert themselves
into your experience,

...

but that everything is
invited to you, and by you,
through thought,

...
you never again feel threatened by

what others may be choosing to live,

even if they are very close by.

For, they cannot be a part of your experience.

Abraham-Hicks

Cialis for '3-Ways'

2010-02-10T15:52:00.000-08:00

... Ashton Has His Way With All The Women On "SNL" ...(video)

The Mind-Money Connection

2010-02-10T15:39:00.000-08:00

You could be the most optimistic person on this planet -- consciously believing you deserve bundles of cash and heaps of lovin' -- yet you can still remain blocked from getting all you want.

How can that be?

Because although your conscious mind might be thinking many, many, many, fabulous thoughts about you -- your subconscious mind can simultaneously remain very busy thinking its limiting glass wall beliefs.

How do you know you have glass walls beliefs? ... That's easy. Your life is difficult.

By Karen Salmansohn

Read Post |

| The Balanced Life

Jon Stewart visits the O'Reilly Factor

2010-02-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

Addictive Voice Recognition Technique (AVRT) to Lose Weight

2010-02-03T17:06:00.000-08:00

Stalking the Feast Beast (click link at left to read paper) ... synopsis below

This paper discusses the use of Rational Recovery (RR) as a counseling technique in treating people who feel fat, particularly women. Fatness is viewed as a philosophy, not a physical condition. Cultural influences defining and stressing ideal femininity come down hard on women whose physiques or appearances do not measure up. RR gives people simple information and then encourages people to take responsibility for independently solving their own problems. Recovery from fatness may be achieved by learning dietary discipline. The Addictive Voice Recognition Technique (AVRT) is a stand-alone method for losing weight on any well-chosen diet. In RR the sole cause of food addiction is the Addictive Voice, called the Feast Beast, which is of mid-brain origin, animal-like, and survival oriented. The AVRT proposes that instead of being "in denial," overeaters are of two minds about eating. Among addicted people, the Addictive Voice is dominant, while the "true self" is a faint background awareness. AVRT helps people dissociate from the Addictive Voice through the use of intelligence, self-monitoring, dissociation, and neocortical authority. RR does not encourage a one-day-at-a-time struggle toward a weight goal, rather it encourages a permanent plan for eating correctly, "I will never eat incorrectly." (JBJ)

Thin For Life: How it Works

2010-02-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

... Anne Fletcher's 10 Keys to Success are a cornerstone of her book. ...

They are:

1. Believe that you can become thin for life. "The masters' stories will help you believe in your own power to lose weight and keep it off forever," writes Fletcher. "The masters at weight control are living proof that weight destiny need not be controlled by your genes or by the fact that you're a 'slow burner.' The masters have learned how to 'stifle' their genetic legacy."

2. Take the reins. Make the decision to take action, choose a way to lose weight, and begin making day-to-day decisions about food. You must face the truth about your weight, how you eat, and how you look. "Develop a kind of selfishness about yourself and your weight," she writes. "Accept that it's not easy, it's not always fair. Be persistent."

3. Do it your way. "If you want to lose weight, you have to find what's best for you," says Fletcher. For example, Ernie L. says, "For me, it was a combination of exercise, psychological and philosophical enlightenment, and healthy diet - low-fat, low-protein, low-alcohol, and low-carbohydrate." Structured weight loss programs work for some people; others like Ernie develop their own schemes, which rarely involve a stringent diet.

4. Accept the food facts. You can't eat whatever you want. You have to make low-fat eating enjoyable, writes Fletcher. She describes her Six-Week Non-dieting Weight-Control Plan and lists lots of substitutions for high-fat products used in cooking. She also includes a detailed chart listing fat and calorie content in many common foods.

5. Nip it in the bud. Tackle on a day-by-day, meal-by-meal basis, says Fletcher. Closely monitor your weight. Establish a weight buffer zone ('I will gain no more than five to 10 pounds'), and be adamant about not exceeding it. Have a set plan of action if you hit your upper limit - like exercising more or stopping snacking. Plan how you will handle high-risk eating situations like parties.

6. Learn positive self-talk. Learn to control your mental dialogue, the ongoing conversation in your head. When negative, self-defeating self-talk outweighs the positive, coping thoughts, you're not going to do well in weight management efforts. With positive self-talk, you'll come to believe in yourself more and more, writes Fletcher.

7. Move it or lose it. Commitment to exercise is the single best predictor of keeping weight off. It's not necessary to be an exercise fanatic - but exercising consistently and enjoying it are essential, she writes.

8. Face life head-on. Learning how to cope with life's ups and downs - without turning to food - can make a big difference in overcoming a weight problem, Fletcher says. Those who have mastered weight loss have put an end to the instant gratification of overeating. They've learned to deal with life's problems in constructive ways, without turning to food.

Feel the gratification that comes from regaining control over your emotions and your weight. When you get cravings, simply wait them out. Talk yourself out of eating. Get counseling from a psychologist - it could help immensely.

9. Get more out of life. Balance your lifestyle, and your sense of craving and deprivation will decrease, writes Fletcher. People who succeed at weight control tend to develop new hobbies, interests, friendships. A healthy lifestyle improves your self-esteem, which gives you confidence to make other changes in your life.

Make a list of things you like about yourself - to give you the strength to do better. List things you've always wanted to do, then figure out a way to do them. Reward yourself - but without food.

10. Don't go it alone. Support from family and friends can be critical to long-term success at weight control. For many people, individual counseling (from a registered dietitian, social worker, or psychologist) is very helpful. Others prefer group support like Weight Watchers' group meetings.

Anne M. Fletcher

How to Feel Good About Ourselves

2010-02-02T19:27:00.001-08:00

It's Not the Circumstances, It's Us

2010-01-28T16:21:00.000-08:00

I recently read a great quote from Ben Franklin that I hadn't seen before. He said, "Joy doesn't exist in the world, it exists in us."

... While the quote was new to me, the concept wasn't.

However, as I began to think it more, I realized that even though I "understand" this wisdom and do my best to live by it and remind others of it, more often than I'd like to admit, I find myself living as though I'm simply a victim of the "things" that go on around me and in the world -- especially the stuff I don't particularly like, agree with, understand, feel like I'm on top of, or enjoy.

The circumstances of our lives, especially when they seem stressful or intense (as is the case for many people I know and work with these days) do have an impact on us, for sure. However, all too often we give away our power to these circumstances and situations.

We act as though it's a foregone conclusion that we will feel a certain way based on specific circumstances (i.e. the economy, the weather, our health, our level of activity, the state of our romantic relationship or lack thereof, the behavior of our children, our families, the state of our career or business, our environment at work, and more).

Our experience of life (grateful, worried, peaceful, angry, excited, sad, alive, depressed, joyous, or anything else) is much more of a reflection of us and what's going on within us, not a reaction to what's going on around us.

We've all had many examples of times in our lives when things were going "great" on the surface or we accomplished or experienced some "wonderful" external success, only to feel a sense of disappointment or sadness underneath because whatever it was didn't satisfy us at a deep level.

And, on the flip side, most of us have had moments of incredible joy, excitement, and bliss that weren't directly connected to anything "worthy" of these feelings externally.

Even though we know this dynamic to be true, we still seem to get caught in the hypnotic, erroneous notion that if we just got rid of some issues, altered some circumstances, manifested some increased success, or changed some specific situations in our lives -- then, we'd be happy, peaceful, and relaxed (or whatever it is we say we want to experience).

Author and teacher, Byron Katie, says, "The definition of insanity is thinking that you need something you don't have. The mere fact that you exist right now without that which you think you need is proof that you don't need it."

What if we lived our lives with a deeper and more conscious awareness of the fact that we get to create our experience of life at any moment? Imagine what our lives, our careers, and our relationships would look like if we stopped blaming our experience on other people or on external circumstances. We would free up so much positive energy and take back so much of our personal power.

Here are a few things you can do to enhance your capacity to own your experience of life in an empowering way:

1) Admit where you play victim and give away your power. As is always the case, "The truth will set you free." Take a look into your life, especially in the areas where you find the most pain, suffering, and struggle right now. Without judging yourself, can you find places where you're acting like a victim of your current circumstances (as though it is simply "happening to you")? The more honest and specific you can be about this, the more freedom it will provide for you.

2) Acknowledge, own, and express your underlying emotions. Whenever we go into victimhood there is something we don't want to deal with, take responsibility for, experience, or express emotionally. Even thought it can be a little painful and scary initially, by dealing directly with the emotions we're avoiding, we go to the source of the issue and address it at the root. Ironically, once we're able to acknowledge, own, and express the emotion(s) involved, much of the suffering and struggling go away -- if we're willing to really take responsibility for and express what we're truly feeling.

3) Make a commitment to fully own your experience. Declare to yourself and those close to you that you're willing to take 100% responsibility for your experience of life. This doesn't mean that "stuff" won't happen, but it does mean that you make a commitment to live your life by design, not default. It's also likely that you'll forget, slip up, and fall back into victimhood from time to time (or often). However, making a commitment to yourself and to others -- and also asking them to hold you accountable with honesty and kindness -- can create an environment (within you and around you) conducive for you to enhance your capacity to live your life with power and responsibility.

Give yourself some space and have a lot of compassion with yourself and others on this; most of us have been trained, educated, and encouraged to live in "victim consciousness" -- even though it doesn't work or give us what we want ultimately. When we're willing to tell the truth, express our real emotions, and make a commitment to live as designers of our experience -- we can literally transform our lives in miraculous ways.

Mike Robbins is a sought-after motivational keynote speaker, coach, and the bestselling author of Focus on the Good Stuff (Wiley) and Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken (Wiley). More info - www.Mike-Robbins.com

Massachusetts: Principal Bans Four-Letter Word - 'Meep!'

2010-01-25T17:06:00.000-08:00

... Meep. Meep. ...

Utterance from The Muppet Show was used repeatedly to interrupt school.

Who knew "meep!" was a four-letter word?

The utterance favored by bungling lab assistant Beaker of The Muppet Show has been banned at Danvers High School in Massachusetts after students said it to repeatedly interrupt school.

Principal Thomas Murray says the word was part of a disruption planned using Facebook.

The Salem News reports that parents recently got an automated call about "meep!" from Murray. He warned them that students who said or displayed the word at school could be suspended.

Murray says the warning was needed because students didn't heed his "reasonable request" to stop the meeping.

Danvers High sophomore Melanie Crane says it doesn't mean anything in particular.

Scenes of Chaos and Joy in Public Places

2010-01-24T13:19:00.000-08:00

Associated Press - Hundreds of New Yorkers have been riding the city's subway trains in their underwear.

They stripped down to their undies on Sunday for the ninth annual No Pants Subway Ride.

The idea is to act like nothing unusual is going on.

Participants met up at six locations throughout the city. They formed groups and dispersed to subway stations to catch trains. Once inside the subway cars, they began calmly removing their pants and folding them up.

Most people read magazines or chatted with their companions like any other straphanger.

The event started in 2002 with just seven people. It has spread to other cities.

The stunt is organized by Improv Everywhere, a group that says its mission is to cause "scenes of chaos and joy in public places."

6 Logical Fallacies That Cost You Money Every Day

2010-01-19T15:28:00.000-08:00

Today, man sits atop the food chain, picking steak from his teeth
with toothpicks made out of more steak.

But instead of spraying champagne into one another's eyes
while chanting "We're #1!" at zoo animals,
we've taken up a new pursuit: getting rich.

The good news is that, despite what 50 Cent may tell you,
we generally don't die if we lose.

The bad news is, evolution hasn't exactly helped us adapt to this new lifestyle,
and as a result, your brain continually tells you to do some things
that will keep you poor forever.

For instance, ...

#6. Your brain... Thinks The Future Is an Urban Legend

Back when natural selection stopped picking us off for things like "thought that grizzly bear just wanted a hug," the future was far less reliable. Back then, when you had to choose between eating a rat now or holding out for deer a week from now, your brain told you to make with the rat stew. And it was right! Being able to imagine how good a deer would taste in 100 days had no evolutionary advantage, and so we just never got around to being good at it.

Today, the future is about as predictable as it's ever been. If the government guarantees to pay you $200 when you turn 65, there are laws in place that say they have to do it. But our brains don't know that. So when a guy in a white lab coat walks up and offers to pay us $100 in a year, or $50 right now, our brains still tell us to go for the rat stew.

This is what's called hyperbolic discounting, a scientific term that means your brain is about as far from rational as it can get before they're legally required to keep you in a zoo enclosure. We're only half kidding. Hyperbolic discounting puts us on the level of pigeons and rats in the realms of fiscal responsibility.

It's not just a lab experiment. There are entire industries that rely on your inability to think rationally about the future. Our whole economic crisis was kicked off by borrowers taking on loans they couldn't afford, after lenders offered them lower payments (or no payments at all) for the first year. Credit card companies still rely on your brain to make purchases now that you won't be able to pay for at the end of the month. Top Gun drill sergeants rely on your ego to write checks that your body can't cash.

The real pioneers in the art of hyperbolic discounting are the cigarette companies and drug dealers, who do a pretty swift business delivering a momentary and fleeting fix in exchange for a little cash, and the right to bankrupt or murder you at some point down the line. We're pretty sure not even the pigeons would go for that deal.

#5. Your brain... Believes It Can Use Its Own Stupidity as a Time Machine

But hey, we're nothing if not resourceful, right? Back when your genetic line was sailing around in the man pouch of a hunter gatherer, you only made it through a long winter by making every last deer testicle count. How can that be a bad thing?

Well, that's left us with a brain that's really worried about making sure we don't waste money we've already spent, or as it's known in the field of economics, "money that's not fucking yours anymore."

For instance, let's say you're in the market for a replacement computer, and the best thing for what you want is a $500 PC. However, you've always been a Mac user and recently dropped $600 on a wireless Apple keyboard (yeah, you went with the cheap one). Now, even though you like everything better about the Dell (it comes with its own wireless keyboard that wasn't built for someone with tiny, elf-hands), and it's twice as cheap as the nearest Mac equivalent, your brain will tell you not to waste the money you spent on the keyboard.

So, in the name of not letting the keyboard go to waste, you buy the Mac.

This is what's known as the sunk cost fallacy: a mechanism in your brain that tells you to spend money on something, simply because you've already spent money on it. In the above scenario, if you were a perfectly rational being, you'd realize that the ship has sailed on that $600, and it had every cent of every purchase you've ever made on board. The only thing that should figure into any economic decision is the money and possessions you have in the present tense, and how they can be best used to make your life better in the future.

But thanks to the way your brain is wired, you're likely to go about this exactly backwards: screwing over your future self in order to stay loyal to decisions you made in the past.

#4. Your brain... Won't Let You Get Rid of Useless Shit

But wait a second: Why not just buy the Dell, then go on eBay and sell the useless Mac keyboard? Nothing wrong with that in theory, right? Fits perfectly with the "making your current possessions work for you." But something in you resists the idea. As a result, you're about to get screwed again thanks to the disposition effect.

This is the brain mechanism that tells you to wait for a better price on something that, in reality, will never go up in value. Investors suffer from this all the time; when a stock is losing value, instead of selling it and taking what they can get, they hold onto it. It's not optimism that it's going to go up (they'll do it even if all evidence says it won't) but rather being too pissed off at the idea of selling it for less than they paid.

Of course, this means your brain is much more likely to sell off a good investment, like say that comic book some chump is willing to pay $20 for.

It's the same impulse that makes people hoard useless stuff, unable to grasp the fact that it'll never be useful again. How many of you have cardboard boxes in the garage or basement full of dusty old hard drives and video cards, as if that shit is going to come back in style one day?

Here's another industry profiting off our malfunction: self storage companies. Yep, your brain is apparently perfectly willing to pay $200 a month to store a bunch of useless crap you no longer want or need, instead of just selling it or doing something REALLY tacky, like donating it to charity.

That can is probably dirty anyway.

#3. Your brain... Throws Good Money After Bad

The competitive instinct is not just a phrase football commentators invented to give words to the tingly feeling they get watching Brett Favre play football. Our brain's natural tendency towards competition is arguably the reason your family survived the hunter gatherer knife fight of 2000 BC.

And as countless uninspired armies and poorly coached teams have demonstrated throughout the years, your ability to compete tends to be directly proportional to your ability to convince yourself that you're doing the right thing. This leaves us with a brain that loves to compete, and is awesome at convincing itself that it's right.

In the financial realms, when these two instincts collide, your brain will play a retarded game of chicken with reality that economists have termed "irrational escalation of commitment".

This applies to more than finances

As we've already established, when faced with the prospect of a $3,000 repair on your shitty car, or purchasing a slightly less shitty car for $2,500, your brain will tell you to go with the repairs because you "already sunk ten grand into the shit box." (Yes, we just quoted your brain. It talks like a little girl. Deal with it.) But what happens the next time your car needs a repair? Well thanks to something behavioral economists have termed post-purchase rationalization, your brain will have convinced itself that the last decisions was a great idea. And since you've now sunk 13 grand into the shit box, it's going to seem like an even better idea to keep piling up the bad decisions.

Throw in a little competitive instinct and pride, and it's not hard to see how this can go horribly, horribly wrong. Your brain will keep pushing your head further and further up your ass, piling up bad decisions with the ferocity of a rabid Glenn Beck.

The real world implications are everywhere, and tragic. For instance, it can justify escalation of a war. In 2005 America's President said that we "owed" the 2,000 American soldiers who had died in Iraq to "finish the task that they gave their lives for." Regardless of what your politics were, to a certain part of your brain, that sounds like a logically constructed argument. Why do these men have to die? Because these other men died, of course! And only the deaths of these additional men will cause those first men to come back to life!

After all, what else can we do, cut and run?

#2. Your brain... Has No Idea What Money's Worth

It turns out your brain is really, really bad at understanding that a $20 and twenty $1 bills are the same thing. That's why entertainment venues from strip clubs to arcades make you use tiny denominations: they know you'll spend a lot more. This is called the denomination effect, and while it'd be easy to claim that this is because we "lose track" of how much we're spending when we've got a gangster role of Washington's in our fist and some titties in our face, the study that coined the term says differently.

The scientists conducting it just gave two sets of (presumably confused) people either a $5 bill or five $1 bills and watched as the people with the fives held on to them while the folks with the ones, who had no titties in their face or time to lose track of the money, splurged on Jerky and trail mix.

This leads scientists to the depressing conclusion that your brain basically views the amount of money you make as a number, instead of what that money can actually buy.

This is called the money illusion, because in reality, your money is only as good as what it can buy. If you've got twenty dollars in your wallet, you should be thinking of it in terms of what it can buy you: Four beers, or two movie tickets, or a blowjob from any cast member of "The Facts of Life". But that's a lot of shit to keep track of, so your brain prefers to just stick with the number, and assumes a higher number means more beer and orgasms.

Which is important, as shown in the official USDA Man Pyramid

Of course that's not always the case. Your boss can give you a two percent raise in a year when inflation is expected to be four percent. But because your brain isn't built for complex concepts, you'll be thanking him as you and your family eat your breakfasts out of a can of Bush's.

#1. Your brain... Sucks at Figuring the Odds

In the olden days, your brain wasn't punished for locking in on some detail, and assuming it had some significance that wasn't there. Worst case scenario, you spent a few winters worshiping at the altar of the sun God, and sacrificing the kid who was born funny looking. These days there are people who know that we're all pattern seeking creatures who will look at a man winning money while wearing purple pants and go out and blow all of our money on purple pants.

As we've mentioned before, your brain sucks, and sucks hard, at probability. But there are all these wonderful ways in which, in the face of odds that makes the rational part think "This isn't such a good idea", the rest of your brain rams the pedal to the medal right into the brick wall of stupid.

There are two that really screw you in regards to that lottery, though: the gambler's fallacy and the focusing effect.

The gambler's fallacy is the belief that short term actions have an effect on long-term odds. You see the roulette ball fall into red three times in a row and you think it's due to fall into black next, or that the color red is somehow on a hot streak. Of course in reality, every time the ball is dropped into the wheel, your chances are exactly 50/50 of each color coming up. You're just looking at a display of total and utter randomness, and seeing a pattern that isn't there.

The gambler's fallacy is a permutation of the focusing effect, also known as anchoring. Your brain has a tendency to latch onto something and never let it go. It served you well back in the day when you were as likely to see the negative and positive consequences of people's decisions, it was a good thing, helping you remember what happened to that farmer who tried to feed his family by burying a bunch of meat in his field.

But in modern times, we're far less likely to see the negative consequences. You hear about some hick winning $300 million and your brain latches onto that, conveniently forgetting that for the one guy who paid a buck and won $300 million, there are $299 million or so losers who might as well have paid a buck to get a swift kick to the shins.

Screw your rightness about the future, Orwell

There is one piece of good news to report: It turns out that one of the things that the focusing effect is most likely to make us over-value is how happy material wealth will make us (good health and being in love are much more likely to make you live a happy and fulfilled life - it's science).

In other words, maybe it's time we all bought a bottle of champagne, took a trip to the zoo, and told those Tigers who's number one.

http://www.cracked.com

The Perfect Universe

2010-01-18T14:04:00.000-08:00

THE ONE WHO DESIRES TO HEAL must stop seeing, reading about, discussing,

or listening to conversation about sickness.

There is no other way under the sun except as we let go of that which we do not desire,

and take that which we wish to have.

There is too much of this deceiving ourselves into thinking that we can do two ways at once.

We may deceive ourselves and possibly other people, but the law remains the same,

a Law of mental correspondences, and nothing else.

We cannot go beyond our ability to realize the truth, water rises only to its own level.

In our patients as well as in ourselves and our environment

we will reflect what we are,

---

not at our best in the few moments of silence, but...
---
...in the long run of ordinary life and thought.

To acquire the larger consciousness is no easy task.

All that we have believed in which contradicts the perfect whole
must be dropped from our thought, and we must come to realize
that we are now living in a perfect universe,
peopled with perfect spiritual beings, each of which
coupled with the Great Divinity is complete within himself.

We must see that we are one in the great one,

...and then we will not separate or divide, but unite and add to,
until in time we will find that we are living in an entirely different world
from that in which we had once thought we were living.

Of course, this will meet with much opposition from those unenlightened souls
whom we must contact in the world.

But what of that?

Remember, the great man is the one who can keep in the crowd,

...the calm, even thought,...the deep divine reliance on principle.

And more, this is the only way to help or to save the world.

In time all people will come to the same understanding.

You are lifting up the standard of life, and those who are ready will follow.

You have no responsibility to save the world except by exemplifying the truth.

The world must save itself.

All are alike; there is no difference between one person and another.

Come to see all as a divine idea;
stop all negative thought; think only about what you want,
and never about what you do not want,
as that would cause a false creation.

Too much cannot be said about the fact that all are dealing with only one power,
making and unmaking for man through the creative power of his own thought.

If there is something in your life that you not want there,

stop fighting it---forget it!

Ernest Holmes

Rebel. ...Just Because.

2010-01-18T08:07:00.000-08:00

...Let's go for a ride & break some laws together...

Did you know?...

In Alabama, it is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church.
You may not have an ice cream cone in your back pocket at any time.
Boogers may not be flicked into the wind.

In Arizona, it is illegal to take naked photographs before noon on Sunday.
You may not have more than two dildos in a house.
School teachers who bob their hair will not get a raise.
Donkeys cannot sleep in bathtubs.

And, in Tucson, it's illegal for women to wear pants.

In Arkansas, it is illegal to mispronounce the name of the state.
A law provides that school teachers who bob their hair will not get a raise.
Alligators may not be kept in bathtubs.

In California, it is illegal to set a mousetrap without a hunting license.
Women may not drive in a housecoat.
It is illegal to eat an orange in your bathtub.

Connecticut still retains an old law forbidding any sexual behavior between consenting adults.
Town records may not be kept where liquor is sold.
In order for a pickle to officially be considered a pickle, it must bounce.

In Delaware, it is illegal to get married on a dare.
You may not sell dead people for money without a license.
It is illegal to fly over any body of water, unless one is carrying sufficient supplies of food and drink.

In Florida, having sexual relations with a porcupine is illegal.
Unmarried women who parachute on Sundays may be jailed.
No farting in public places after 6 p.m.
If an elephant is left tied to a parking meter, the parking fee has to be paid just as it would for a vehicle.
It is illegal to sing in a public place while attired in a swimsuit.
Men may not be seen publicly in any kind of strapless gown.
It is considered an offense to shower naked.

It is illegal in Georgia to use profanity in the presence of a corpse.

In Hawaii, coins are not allowed to be placed in one's ears.

In Idaho, riding a merry-go-round on Sundays is considered a crime.

In Indiana, it is illegal for a liquor store to sell cold soft drinks.
Drinking from a bottle in a bar can lead to your arrest.

In Iowa, a man with a moustache may never kiss a woman in public.
Kisses may last for as much as, but no more than, five minutes.

It is illegal to put ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.

In Kentucky, you need a license to walk around nude on your property.

In Maryland, you will receive a $10 fine for being in a public park with a sleeveless shirt.
Men may not buy drinks for female bartenders.
A woman may not go through her husband's pockets while he is sleeping.

In Massachussetts, children may smoke, but they may not purchase cigarettes.
It is unlawful to deliver diapers on Sunday regardless of emergencies.
It is illegal to put tomatoes in clam chowder.

A Michigan law states that a wife's hair legally belongs to her husband.
You may not swear in front of women and children.

In Minnesota, it's illegal to tease skunks.
A person may not cross state lines with a duck atop his head.

In Mississippi, it is illegal for a male to be sexually aroused in public.

In Montana, it is a felony for a wife to open her husband's mail.
Also, it is illegal to have a sheep in the cab of your truck without a chaperone.

In Nebraska, it is illegal to sleep naked in a hotel room.
It's illegal for a mother to give her daughter a perm without a state license.
A man is not allowed to run around with a shaved chest.

In Nevada, it is still legal to hang someone for shooting your dog on your property.

In New Hampshire, it is illegal to inhale bus fumes with the intent of inducing euphoria.
Citizens may not relieve themselves while looking up on Sundays.
The state forbids you from tapping your feet to the music in a tavern or a restaurant cafe.

In New Jersey, it is illegal to delay or detain a homing pigeon.

In North Carolina, it is against the law to roller blade on a state highway.
The state forbids sex outside of marriage, or 'fornication'.

In North Dakota, beer and pretzels cannot be served at the same time in any bar or restaurant.

In Ohio, it is illegal to get a fish drunk.
No one may be arrested on Sunday or on the Fourth of July.

In Oklahoma, it is illegal to have the hind legs of farm animals in your boots.
Females are forbidden from doing their own hair without a license from the state.
It is illegal to have sex before you're married.

Where are the Good Guys?

2010-01-17T22:07:00.000-08:00

The Forces of Light do more to show the door than to force people to walk through it. That is the idea behind the Law of Non-Interference. And the door must be shown in a careful way to maximize freewill. There are specific individuals who either cannot or will not currently choose higher knowledge. What will the Forces of Light do about them? Nothing really, except make sure that those who have chosen the light are given just enough protection and guidance to pull their own weight and face their own consequencies without unnecessary interference.

Look, the times ahead – and here I mean the next 5-10 years – will see more polarization. That is, a turning up of the contrast. When you take a muddy picture and turn up the contrast, rather than everything becoming brighter, merely dark gets darker and white gets whiter. Same here… there will be entire segments of the population who will become stronger in their ignorance and darkness as time goes on. If all you see is them, then you’ll think we’re all doomed. However, at the same time, those who already carry the light within and are open to its growth or germination, these will also grow in strength. So— a growth in strength more so than a growth in number… that is what’s happening. Number isn’t everything, sometimes it’s more about quality.

The Forces of Light are performing surgery on our planet… that means a delicate operation that works through us rather than upon us, which involves incarnating into human bodies and turning over the system from the inside while the other half of the team stays in the higher realms and makes sure those below get a fair shot at doing their jobs. To come in and force things is not just a violation of freewill, not just impossible if some Creator force prevents it, but would also screw up the learning course of this planet.

For instance… if free energy technology right now were suddenly unleashed upon the world, that would change things so drastically that a lot of the learning lessons masses have yet to go through will be denied. It’s like a movie whose dilemma is suddenly resolved halfway through, then the rest of the movie is a waste of time. That is why free energy inventors who are too overzealous in getting their stuff out there receive preventative assassination from the dark powers and why the forces of light do not have much authority in helping them prematurely end the world script.

So – everything in time. It takes faith. Forget the stupid people, put aside the darkness, focus on what is lightening up within you and waking up within the few that you know to be waking up… strength matters more than number.

There is a plan, and it is being implemented, but it must also be subtle and delicate and sophisticated…perhaps so sophisticated that not even we, the foot-soldiers, are always aware of its workings.

http://www.montalk.net

notes ... links

Metaphysics, World Events & Conspiracy

2010-01-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

Something to keep in mind is that dark forces operate on both metaphysical and physical levels. Most redpills are familiar with the physical side of the conspiracy: Federal Reserve, Bush, Iraq, Bilderberg, Trilaterialists, international bankers, engineered genocide, JFK, media propaganda, etc… You can watch this conspiracy unfold in the news.

Waking up to what’s going on in the world is important. But this calls for caution when you consider the metaphysical side of the conspiracy: higher density controllers, soul frequency manipulation, spiritual disinformation, timeline steering, and so on. In short, dark forces can further their metaphysical conspiracy by exploiting the very avenues that seem to undermine the physical conspiracy.

Take the news, for instance. Awareness of world events gives you a certain level of lucidity concerning what we’re facing. Getting “outraged” at shocking stories of corruption and injustice can make you feel self-righteous, motivated, and awake. But from a metaphysical point of view, if this bitterness leads to persistent pessimism and a darkening of your heart, then despite getting politically smarter you become spiritually dimmer. This has metaphysical consequences that outweight anything gained through awareness of the physical conspiracy.

Why is metaphysics important? Because by thinking, perceiving, and acting at that level you can do things that are impossible on the physical. It is a greater order of power that works on the quantum, chaotic, nonlinear level of reality. Dimming your spiritual light through emotional preoccupation with lesser orders of awareness scews you over at that deeper level. It cuts you off from those higher abilities and perceptions you need to really make a difference.

This makes no sense to those stubbornly stuck in the physical ways of doing things. And it’s also not as naive as saying that darkness can be erased through denial. The opposite, in fact…but awareness of a higher order than mere physical. Being metaphysically potent means acting according to a higher understanding of how consciousness shapes experience and vice versa. It requires being aware of both the physical and metaphysical currents of experience. Read my article “Realm Dynamics” for some relevant concepts to ponder.

Some might wonder, “But being that we are third density, how are we to know what fourth density principles are and how to apply them?” Well, remember that the lower realms are subset of the higher, meaning the workings of the higher are all around and within us. By being observant and intuitive yet discerning, you can put the pieces together and learn some things. All you have to do is try, make your best guess, test it out, and learn through trial and error.

The agnostic mind likes to moan “but how can we even know such a thing?”, “but how can we be sure?”, “but how can we know we’re not deceiving ourselves?”—but but but… By taking your best step instead of vacillating over whether it is the absolutely right step, you can get much farther in the long run. Nothing is without risk, and errors aren’t that big of a deal if you learn from your mistakes.

So to summarize, it is important not to fall for the metaphysical conspiracy by ignorantly limiting yourself to mere understanding of the physical. Countering the metaphysical deceptions requires opening your eyes and your heart. In other words, be aware and be positive, strive to know yourself as much as you seek to know the world, and get to know the metaphysical world just as much as the physical. That is balance…that is covering all your bases.

http://wwww.montalk.net

notes ... links

Reality Creation

2010-01-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

Some say we have power to create our own reality, that through belief and intent we can and should specify our personal future. And yet experience shows reality is already predicated upon a design more elegant than anything we can specify through our ephemeral desires.

Others therefore say we should go with the flow and accept what comes. And yet experience shows that while some things are destined, more mundane things are left to choice—if not choice, then chance. The law of chance is without design and without mercy, and abandoning the responsibility to choose invites the law of chance into one’s life with often unpleasant consequences.

The bigger things in life we cannot change. The smaller things we can. Life is a river whose flow we cannot reverse, yet we have freedom to navigate within that flow. Near the shore we move slowly and roughly; near the center we move quickly and smoothly. We can humbly accept the bigger things and still actively direct the smaller things. We can and we must.

For what is within our power and wisdom to specify, we may intend. For what is beyond our power to direct or wisdom to specify, we may make a request. Intending and requesting are two of the most powerful tools we have for shaping our experiences within the framework of destiny.>

Intend for the mundane things you know you need. Intend for a good parking spot, intend for the perfect product or service at the perfect price, intend for a good job when you’re looking for one, intend for a positive and exciting day, intend for anything that is inconsequential to destiny and respects freewill. Intend or it will be left to chance.

Be specific when you intend. Mentally outline or visualize what you want. This sharpens the focus of conscious energy upon that selected probable future. If you want a blue shirt under ten dollars, then visualize the blue shirt and intend that it be under ten dollars. If you want compensation for the money you just spent on a book, then intend that you be doubly compensated. If you want a safe road trip, then go over each potential complication and intend that it not arise. Whatever your intent, be specific. You are projecting your own energy into the matrix of probable futures and selecting a particular one to manifest.

For the more important things, make requests. Request knowledge, wisdom, insight, guidance, protection. Request an answer to a puzzling question, request illumination, request that you learn your lessons as smoothly and efficiently as possible, request that you are given the best opportunities for fulfilling your potential. You cannot intend for these because they are beyond your wisdom to accurately specify. Therefore leave their fulfillment to the discretion of wiser forces like your positive Higher Self, the Universe, and divine forces. Be general and earnest in your request, and have faith and patience. By being general you leave the outcome entirely open and thereby allow possibilities to manifest that you could never have imagined.

Intending is commanding, and when done wisely commanding is the proper exercise of spiritual power. Over time reality will tell you what is mundane and what is significant, and you’ll get better at intending for what is within your place to intend.

Requesting is humbly knocking on the door to assistance by wiser forces. Such forces respect freewill and only assist when you request. Never requesting anything keeps the door closed. Disappointment means reality has something better in store for you at a better time.

Requesting when you should be intending is a form of wishing and only robs you of power. Intending when you should be requesting spits in the face of higher wisdom and is a display of spiritual hubris, while intending for what clearly goes against destiny and freewill is black magic. The lesson: don’t pray to Jesus for a new car, intend for a new car; don’t command reality into unraveling for you a mystery, request it or else you might learn the right thing at the wrong time or wrong thing at the right time. To intend is to command, to request is to ask.

Requesting is easy. When you feel like you need assistance, call up from within the feeling of gratitude and humility, then state your request verbally while paying full attention to the meaning of your request. Remain silent for several seconds and wait to receive a feeling of comfort that your request has been acknowledged. Then go away in certainty and relief that your request will be answered in the right way at the right time.

Intending is also easy. Just hold in your mind exactly what it is you want and then go do something else. Just like ordering something through the mail. In between intending and manifesting must be a temporary period of forgetting. If you want a good parking spot, give yourself enough time to forget about your intent before you get there. If you are intending for a good day, do it when you first wake up. This gives reality some breathing room to reshuffle the timeline.

The only real difference between intending and requesting is whom you address and how specific or general your intent. By intending, you acknowledge yourself as the source of power influencing reality. By requesting, you humbly address forces wiser and more powerful than yourself.>

Attention freezes the object of attention, so restlessly anticipating something will put it off. This is simple quantum mechanics. The sooner you think about something else the sooner reality can get to work. Anticipation kills the future – it is better to have doubt than to anticipate, it is better to have patience than doubt, and there is no easier way to be patient than keeping yourself busy with other things.

These are metaphysical tools to catalyze the flow of experience and assist rather than undermine destiny. Most people only understand the physical side of life, that getting anywhere requires planning and physical action. Of course, doing is central to getting anything done, but direct action is only part of the equation.

To summarize the rest: intend wisely, request earnestly, and go with the flow gracefully.

http://www.montalk.net
notes ... links

Martin Talks About...

2010-01-17T19:58:00.000-08:00

Martin Talks About...

(A series of brief filmed interviews on One Open Space)

Introduction:

"How I Healed Myself of Cancer"

"The Point of Power"

"The Healing Technique"

"When the Healing Happens"

"Healing and Science"

"How is the Universe Designed?

http://www.healer.ch/martintalks.html

'Segment Intend It'

2010-01-16T23:55:00.001-08:00

Deliberate Creative Control (exercise)

We encourage you to be aware

of the natural segments of your day.

There are not two of you who experience
the same SEGMENTS,
for each of your life experiences are different,
but we will give you some examples here:

When you wake up in the morning,
the time that you remain in bed after you are awake
is a segment.

After you get out of bed, the time that you are in your house,
making preparation to leave for work, or other activities
is a segment.

When you get into your automobile, the time that you are in your automobile,
moving from one place to another
is a segment.

When you answer the telephone, it begins a new segment.

When someone walks into your office, it begins a new segment, and so on.

IF YOU WILL RECOGNIZE THAT YOU HAVE BEGUN A NEW SEGMENT,
AND AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH SEGMENT,
IF YOU WILL TAKE A MOMENT
TO CLARIFY WHAT YOUR DOMINANT INTENTIONS ARE
WHAT YOU MOST WANT TO RECEIVE, OR GIVE, DURING THAT SEGMENT
-
THEN YOU WILL BE IN DELIBERATE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCE.

You are beings who hold many intentions,
and every intention does not apply
to every moment of your life experience.

Some of your intentions are more appropriate in some moments,
while others are more appropriate in others.

And it is necessary for you to identify which intentions
are most important during which moments
in order to be in complete and deliberate control
of your life experience.

For example:

When you get into your automobile, as you are buckling your safety belt,
intend safety, keen awareness,
and perceptiveness of what other drivers are intending.

Clearly, it is more appropriate to intend safety when getting into your automobile
than when you are reading a book at home.

When you answer your telephone, take a moment, once you know who is calling,
to intend that which you most want to communicate to that person.

Intend clarity of thought and clarity of expression.

Intend brevity if it is important. ... Intend to uplift the caller.

It is more appropriate that you intend clarity of communication
as you are speaking on the telephone
than when you are swimming alone in your pool.

Most of you do not take time to think about what you generally want,
let alone thinking specifically about what you want,
moment by moment
as you move through your day.

But as you identify each new segment
and intend clearly what your dominant intentions are for that segment,
you will have deliberate control of your life experience.

We are aware that it would he cumbersome to stop in every moment
to identify what you most want,
-
but it is not cumbersome to divide your day into segments
and to take a few seconds in the beginning of each segment
to identify what you are wanting.

In a short time you will find it is very easy for you
to identify the beginning of a new segment,
-
and the few seconds that it takes to intend what you are wanting
will not only streamline your life,
providing much more time to do those things that you are wanting to do,
-
but you will find much more joyous contentment within each day
as you are receiving that which you have deliberately intended.

-Abraham-Hicks-

SETH quotes

2010-01-15T22:00:00.000-08:00

The Law of Allowing

2010-01-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

How to Love Yourself

2010-01-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

Louise Hay offers
these helpful suggestions.

Try them! They really work.

1. Stop all criticism: Criticism never changes a thing. Refuse to criticize yourself. Accept yourself exactly as you are. Everybody changes. When you criticize yourself, your changes are negative. When you approve of yourself, your changes are positive.

2. Don't scare yourself: Stop terrorizing yourself with your thoughts. It's a dreadful way to live. Find a mental image that gives you pleasure (mine is yellow roses), and immediately switch your scary thought to a pleasure thought.

3. Be gentle and kind and patient: Be gentle with yourself. Be kind to yourself. Be patient
with yourself as you learn the new ways of thinking. Treat yourself as you would someone you
really loved.

4. Be kind to your mind: Self-hatred is only hating your own thoughts. Don't hate yourself for having the thoughts. Gently change the thoughts.

5. Praise yourself: Criticism breaks the inner spirit. Praise builds it up. Praise yourself as much as you can. Tell yourself how well you are doing with every little thing.

6. Support yourself: Find ways to support yourself. Reach out to friends, and allow them to help you. It is being strong to ask for help when you need it.

7. Be loving to your negatives: Acknowledge that you created them to fulfill a need. Now you are finding new, positive ways to fulfill those needs. So. lovingly release the old negative patterns.

8. Take care of your body: Learn about nutrition. What kind of fuel does your body need to have optimum energy and vitality? Learn about exercise. What kind of exercise can you enjoy? Cherish and revere the temple you live in.

9. Mirror work: Look into your own eyes often. Express this growing sense of love you have for yourself. Forgive yourself looking into the mirror. Talk to your parents looking into the mirror. Forgive them, too. At least once a day, say: "I love you, I really love you!"

10. LOVE YOURSELF - DO IT NOW! Don't wait until you get well or lose the weight, or get the new job, or find the new relationship. Begin NOW - do the best you can.

...Just Love Everybody

2010-01-15T15:25:00.000-08:00

Just love everybody that interacts with you no matter how personally, or how peripherally, involved with you they are.

The efficiency of the people who deal with you... everything is orchestrated by the manager called Law of Attraction. And your vibration is setting all of it into motion. Everything affecting you is a reflection of the vibration that you are emitting.

Spend more time focused upon your dream than upon the reality. The reality gives birth to the dream - but the dream is where you are wanting to put your attention.

Abraham-Hicks

The Unseen Self

2010-01-15T07:51:00.001-08:00

...from the Field Center

The body, the form we see in the mirror and with which we identify the “I” is not inherently alive. This can be a startling idea until one reflects upon it, but the truth is that the body only expresses life as long as it is quickened by consciousness. In these terms, the tongue is not aware of what it is saying, the eye does not know what it sees, and so on. Once the enlivening consciousness is withdrawn, neither the tongue nor the eye is able to express life any longer, and the body’s inherently inert state is revealed. Thus the body cannot die, because it is is never alive, except insofar as the consciousness dwelling within it for a time animates it, and this consciousness, the true and unseen self, cannot die. The ancient Vedas have this to say of it:

The Self is not born; it does not die.
Fire does not burn it; water does not wet it.
Birthless, deathless, it goes on from age to age.

This truth prompted Seth/Jane Roberts to state that “we’re as dead now as we’re ever going to be.” The difficulty in experiencing this comes from the Particle self’s tenacious identification with the body, for it is our nature as Particles to measure reality by what is seen rather than what is unseen, and in this, from a more expanded perspective, the Particle has things exactly backwards.

It is only partly correct, then, to state that the self is “in the body” since, from a more awakened vantage, the body is in the self. The experience of this, however, goes far beyond the mere stating of it. One way to get at this experience is to regard the one we see in the mirror as a construct, a version of us much like the one we might see in a dream. In any dream in which we behold ourselves in this way, in this or that situation and so on, we likely would not notice that there we are existing simultaneously as the dreamer. In other words, we are observing some Particle version carrying out the local action of the dream story, and this Particle version is the self, but the one observing, the one who is not in the dream but from whose point of view the dream is unfolding, that is also the self. As protagonist in the dream and as observer, we are bilocated, with one version of self local and the other, not.

The same model can be “caught in the act,” as it were, in our waking experience, for the one who is aware, despite identifying with the body, is not “in the body.” Rather, the body is in it in the same way that the dream is in the dreamer.

If one catches this angle of vision, something nonlocal turns inside out. It is difficult to lock into language for the simple reason that language is a Particle invention, and as a rule presupposes Particle assumptions. There are ways in which language can point to or perhaps evoke such fringe meanings, however. Poetry, for example, has this power. So does humor in certain forms. Zen koans are famous for this iconoclastic effect.

The point to contemplate here is captured beautifully in a poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez, a Spanish poet who translated the verses of Tagore from the Hindu. The poem is entitled, I Am Not I:

I am not I.
I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
the one who remains silent while I talk,
the one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
the one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
the one who will remain standing when I die.

Encountering this “I that is not I” illuminates conscious creating from the inside out in a way that cannot be imagined in strictly Particle terms. It is the doorway of homecoming and immortality. To know this less local I is to wake up from the long sleepwalk of Particle life and, as another poet, T.S. Eliot describes, “to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

Interview with Barbara Marciniak ..

2010-01-13T16:19:00.000-08:00

Barbara Marciniak

Barbara Marciniak is an internationally acclaimed trance channel, inspirational speaker, and best-selling author of Bringers of the Dawn, Earth, Family of Light, and Path of Empowerment, which collectively have been translated into more than twenty languages and have sold over five hundred thousand U.S. copies. She has a BA in social science, and is the publisher and editor of the quarterly newsletter The Pleiadian Times. Her extensive worldwide travels, astrological studies, and a lifetime of alternative free thinking augment her personal understanding of the material she channels.

The Pleiadians are a collective of multidimensional spirit beings from the Pleiades star system, and have been speaking through Barbara Marciniak since May of 1988. The Pleiadians are here to assist humanity with the process of spiritual transformation in the years leading up to December 2012. Their distinctive style blends wit and wisdom, common sense, and cosmic knowledge in teachings that encourage expansive thinking and personal empowerment, and which have been compared to native shamanism.

“You are living in a time when opportunities for self-empowerment, expanded awareness, and spiritual growth appear to be unlimited.” — The Pleiadians

Man's Bank Quip Earns Him Champion Liar Title

2010-01-13T08:46:00.000-08:00

... "I just realized how bad the economy really is. I recently bought a new toaster oven and as a complimentary gift, I was given a bank." ...

Milwaukee - A jab at the woes of the nation's banks has been named the top tall tale of 2009.

The Burlington Liars Club bestowed its highest award Wednesday for this line: "I just realized how bad the economy really is. I recently bought a new toaster oven and as a complimentary gift, I was given a bank."

The quip earned Larry Legro of Sun Prairie, Wis., the dubious - but serious - distinction of being the year's World Champion Liar.

"I was ecstatic," said Legro, 58, a state health inspector. "I told people all year I was planning to win this contest."

Legro told The Associated Press he had been submitting entries for four to five years, even if his wife didn't share his enthusiasm.

"When I told her I won I could see her roll eyes like, 'Why do you want to do this?'" he said. "Because it's there. Somebody's got to do it."

The Liars Club got its start in 1929 when local journalists Otis Hulett and Mannel Hahn fabricated a news story about a lying contest between the Burlington police and fire departments. The police chief won, they said, after he said he'd never be good at lying because he never told a lie.

The club is based in Burlington, a town of about 15,000 about 35 miles southwest of Milwaukee. It has more than 2,000 members around the world, said Joel Weis, the club's president.

Over the years, the top entries have been about random topics. Last year's winning line was: "My grandson is the most persuasive liar I have ever met. By the time he was 2 years old he could dirty his diaper and make his mother believe someone else had done it."

"A good lie isn't just a tall tale or exaggerating," said Garth Seehawer, 72, the Oconto Falls man who came up with that gem. "You have to have something fun, not believable but impossibly true."

But Weis said this year's panel of three judges picked Legro's lie out of more than 100 entries because of its relevance. It alludes to the fact that the government spent more than $700 billion to bail out the banking industry in the last year or so, and more than 100 banks collapsed nationwide.

"It comes down to timing," he said. "I think historically we'll be able to look back at this one and laugh. This definitely will have its mark in time."

The four runners-up include a fib about a man who was so speedy that he could have been a baseball superstar. But his dreams were derailed because whenever he hit a line drive to right field, he rounded the bases so fast that the ball hit him as he approached second base - and he would be called out for interference.

Another said this year's bug season is so bad that even a photograph of his dog had ticks.

A lifetime membership in the Liars Club costs $1. It grants the holder the right to submit an unlimited number of fibs each year.

Legro said he came up with the winning entry while exchanging e-mails with his older brother about the economy. He said he wasn't sure if younger people who don't remember when banks gave out appliances would get the humor.

Still, he's grateful for the notoriety that comes with being a champion liar. "I don't know if this qualifies me to be politician," he joked. "I guess we'll see."

ALL PUNS INTENDED...

2010-01-11T23:17:00.001-08:00

1. Two antennas met on a roof,
Fell in love and got married.
The ceremony wasn't much,
But the reception was excellent.

2. A jumper cable walks into a bar.
The bartender says,
"I'll serve you,
But don't start anything."

3. Two peanuts walk into a bar,
And one was a salted.

4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

5. A man walks into a bar
With a slab of asphalt under his arm,
And says:
"A beer please,
And one for the road."

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown.
One says to the other:
"Does this taste funny to you?"

7. "Doc, I can't stop singing
'The Green, Green Grass of Home."
" That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome."
"Is it common?"
"... Well, It's Not Unusual."

8. Two cows are standing
Next to each other in a field.
Daisy says to Dolly,
"I was artificially Inseminated
This morning."
"I don't believe you," says Dolly.
"It's true; no bull!" exclaims Daisy.

9. An invisible man marries
An invisible woman.
The kids were nothing
To look at either.

10. Deja-Moo:
The feeling that you've heard
This bull before.

11. I went to buy some camouflage
Trousers the other day,
But I couldn't find any.

12. A man woke up in a hospital
After a serious accident.
He shouted, "Doctor,doctor,
I can't feel my legs!"
The doctor replied,
"I know you can't
I've cut off your arms!"

13. I went to a seafood disco
Last week...and pulled a mussel.

14. What do you call a fish
With no eyes?
A fsh.

15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall.
The one turns to the other
And says,"Dam!"

16. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak
Were chilly, so they lit a fire
In the craft.
Unsurprisingly it sank,
Proving once again
That you can't have your kayak
And heat it too.

17. A group of chess enthusiasts
Checked into a hotel,
And were standing in the lobby
Discussing their recent
Tournament victories.
After about an hour,
The manager came out of the office,
And asked them to disperse.
"But why," they asked,
As they moved off.
"Because," he said,
"I can't stand chess-nuts
Boasting in an open foyer."

18. A woman has twins,
And gives them up for adoption.
One of them goes to a family in Egypt,
And is named "Ahmal."
The other goes to a family
In Spain; they name him "Juan."
Years later, Juan sends a picture
Of himself to his birth mother.
Upon receiving the picture,
She tells her husband
That she wishes she
Also had a picture of Ahmal.
Her husband responds,
"They're twins! If you've seen Juan,
You've seen Ahmal."

(Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good)

19. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know,
Walked barefoot most of the time,
Which produced an impressive set
Of calluses on his feet.
He also ate very little,
Which made him rather frail
And with his odd diet,
He suffered from bad breath...
This made him
A super-calloused fragile mystic
Hexed by halitosis.

20. And finally,
There was the person
Who sent twenty different puns
To his friends,
With the hope that at least
Ten of the puns
Would make them laugh.
No pun in ten did!

Synchronicity: The Profound and the Meaningless

2010-01-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

...

Crossjostle Gospel

AZ Big 3 Rock Show (Jed's A Millionaire, Love Me Nots, Persuaders) Fri, July 15th

Basic Field Theory

Field Training

The Ballad of Sheriff Joe

Bad Leroy?

The Deficit: Nine Myths We Can't Afford

Seth Godin: We All Need A Tribe

Flies Turn in Mid-Air with Shoulder Shrug

Jed's A Millionaire - "Invincible Summer" songs - fan faves in haiku

We Forget About Whatever It Is We Wanted to Forget About

The More Joyful You Are

Serenity Now

radiofreedoghouse - "The Last of the Mercy Killers"

The New Westerns - "The Girl Who Never Was"

Keith Richards: Books, Blues & Screwy Dewey Hooey

Nassim Taleb: Climate Change and "Too Big" Polluters

Socrates' Advice

Reach Beyond What-Is

Addiction, Recovery, Marc Maron & Happe Talk

Even Gandhi Was a Jerk to Work For

…

A funny, transcendently simple, ultra-enlightening and very Zen guide

that helps you to manipulate and control the large, grey behemoths that run the world,

otherwise known as your boss.

3 Things That Would Transform the World for Better

JED'S A MILLIONAIRE debut new song, "Alleyway Kiss"...

Jed's A Millionaire

What’s Before Us To Do

Jed's A Millionaire

Quant-anamo, Curly & Larry

On the 'Purple Cow' Tip: JED'S A MILLIONAIRE Goes Green with New CD

UPDATE: Here's a song.

Jed's A Millionaire

Roses from Bob

Bill Maher's New "Sex Addict" Rule

The Vatican's Top Ten Album List

Relationship With Your Cat Gone Stale?

Of No Concern to You

Cialis for '3-Ways'

The Mind-Money Connection

By Karen Salmansohn

Jon Stewart visits the O'Reilly Factor

Addictive Voice Recognition Technique (AVRT) to Lose Weight

Thin For Life: How it Works

How to Feel Good About Ourselves

It's Not the Circumstances, It's Us

Massachusetts: Principal Bans Four-Letter Word - 'Meep!'

Scenes of Chaos and Joy in Public Places

6 Logical Fallacies That Cost You Money Every Day

The Perfect Universe

Rebel. ...Just Because.

Where are the Good Guys?

Metaphysics, World Events & Conspiracy

Reality Creation

Martin Talks About...

'Segment Intend It'

Deliberate Creative Control (exercise)

SETH quotes

The Law of Allowing

How to Love Yourself

...Just Love Everybody

The Unseen Self

Interview with Barbara Marciniak ..

Man's Bank Quip Earns Him Champion Liar Title

ALL PUNS INTENDED...

Synchronicity: The Profound and the Meaningless

Fish Liberation (The Battle for Swear Words) ...