Patterns in Nature: Island Aerials

Foaming waves lap the shores of Bora-Bora as twin peaks Mount Pahia and Mount Otemanu rise from an extinct volcano on the island. An overseas territory of France, Bora-Bora is in the Leeward group of French Polynesia's Society Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

What's Wrong With "Politically Correct" Nutrition?

Nutritional Guidelines
A Better Paradigm!
40% Carbohydrates, 30% Protein, 30% Fat

What's Wrong With "Politically Correct" Nutrition?

"Avoid saturated fats."
Saturated fats play many important roles in the body. They provide integrity to the cell wall, promote the body's use of essential fatty acids, enhance the immune system, protect the liver and contribute to strong bones. The lungs and the kidneys cannot work without saturated fat. Saturated fats do not cause heart disease. In fact, saturated fats are the preferred food for the heart. Because your body needs saturated fats, it makes them out of carbohydrates and excess protein when there are not enough in the diet.

"Limit cholesterol."
Dietary cholesterol contributes to the strength of the intestinal wall and helps babies and children develop a healthy brain and nervous system. Foods that contain cholesterol also provide many other important nutrients. Only oxidized cholesterol, found in most powdered milk and powdered eggs, contributes to heart disease. Powdered milk is added to 1% and 2% milk.

"Use more polyunsaturated oils."
Polyunsaturates in more than small amounts contribute to cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, learning disabilities, intestinal problems and premature aging. Large amounts of polyunsaturated fats are new to the human diet, due to the modern use of commercial liquid vegetable oils. Even olive oil, a monounsaturated fat considered to be healthy, can cause imbalances at the cellular level if consumed in large amounts.

"Avoid red meat."
Red meat is a rich source of nutrients that protect the heart and nervous system; these include vitamins B12 and B6, zinc, phosphorus, carnitine and coenzyme-Q10.

"Cut back on eggs."
Eggs are nature's perfect food, providing excellent protein, the gamut of vitamins and important fatty acids that contribute to the health of the brain and nervous system. Americans had less heart disease when they ate more eggs. Egg substitutes cause rapid death in test animals.

"Restrict salt."
Salt is crucial to digestion and assimilation. Salt is also necessary for the development and function of the nervous system.

"Eat lean meat and drink lowfat milk."
Lean meat and lowfat milk lack fat-soluble vitamins needed to assimilate the protein and minerals in meat and milk. Consumption of lowfat foods can lead to depletion of vitamin A and D reserves.

"Limit fat consumption to 30 percent of calories."
Thirty percent calories as fat is too low for most people, leading to low blood sugar and fatigue. Traditional diets contained 30 percent to 80 percent of calories as healthy fats, mostly of animal origin.

"Eat 6-11 servings of grains per day."
Most grain products are made from white flour, which is devoid of nutrients. Additives in white flour can cause vitamin deficiencies. Whole grain products can cause mineral deficiencies and intestinal problems unless properly prepared.

"Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day."
Fruits and vegetables receive an average of 10 applications of pesticides, from seed to storage. Consumers should seek out organic produce. Quality counts!

"Eat more soy foods."
Modern soy foods block mineral absorption, inhibit protein digestion, depress thyroid function and contain potent carcinogens.

Patterns in Nature: Island Aerials

Patterns in Nature: Island Aerials

A dramatic collar of coral reefs rings Mondriki Island, foreground, and Monu Island, background, two of Melanesia's Fiji Islands. The Fiji Islands are made up of 333 islands in the South Pacific, known for their sparkling beaches, coral gardens, and lush rain forests.

"It's Just Not Fair"

"It's Just Not Fair" by Steve Andreas a leader in the hypnosis /NLP world:


"People invariably say this when they are narrowly focused on a situation in which someone else has more of something valuable (dessert, money, good looks, etc.) than they do.

"It's just not fair that she is pretty and I'm not" " that he is rich and I'm not," etc. It is then a very short trip to feeling victimized and sorry for yourself, and complaining that someone else should do something about it (an "ill-formed outcome" that I have little or no control over).

... Since "It's just not fair" depends on examples in which someone else has more of something good, a counterexample will be any way that the other person has less of something good (or more of something bad). "It's just not fair that he is in a wheelchair and I'm not," "that she is poor, and I'm not," etc.

Whenever I fall into thinking that life is not fair, I use this as an internal mantra, filling in whatever convenient content I see around me.

...For those who might be curious to know more about how we get lost in generalizations like "It's just not fair," let's take a closer look. There are only four words or five, really, since the full statement is "It is just not fair."

"It's" or "it is" is the familiar "lost performative." The person making the statement is lost, and the object of the statement is also missing. Expanding "It's" into its full meaning, we get "I'm saying it's not fair to me." Of course the "it" is not specified, but that is usually clear by the context, or specified by statements that precede or follow the "It's not fair." The "is" also specifies that a belief, in the form of a complex equivalence, is present. (It = not fair.) "It" is some event or condition, while "not fair" is the meaning attributed to it, joined by "is," which is equivalent to "equals." "Is" is also the word we use to describe being or fact (in contrast to appearance or opinion). When we say "That is a cat," it carries the implication of incontrovertible fact, not to be questioned.

When a single word has many meanings like this, it is said to be "semantically packed," because so many meanings are packed into it. Usually most of the many meanings are processed unconsciously, and the person responds to most of them largely unconsciously.

"Fair" is also a semantically-packed word. My dictionary lists the following meanings: "light, pleasing, beautiful, free from stain or blemish, open, frank, honest, equal, just, reasonable, equitable, good, unobstructed, smooth, even, according to the rules, frank, candid, characterized by favorable conditions, clear and sunny."

These meanings can be grouped into three basic categories:
1. light-colored (fair hair)
2. good (fair weather)
3. equal, just, equitable.

Although the last meaning is the one that is most applicable, the other meanings are also being elicited in our minds when we hear the word "fair." What may not be obvious is that "fair" in the sense of "equitable and honest" can only be applied to human agreements, exchanges and transactions, not to the natural physical world, which just is.

If I say, "It's not fair that I'm short and he is tall," that is actually a "selectional restriction" violation, equivalent to saying "the pregnant rock," or "the angry storm." Rocks can't be pregnant, and storms can't be angry. (A storm may seem angry to us, but that is only because we project our emotion into it.) Being short or tall has nothing to do with being fair.

While occasionally someone may use "It's just not fair," to describe a human agreement or transaction, more often it is used to describe things or events in the natural world that we simply don't like.

While it's fine to say "I don't like something," (and better yet to do something about it when I can), it's inappropriate to say "It's not fair," just because I don't like it.

We might as well scold a rock for not getting pregnant! To say "It's not fair" just makes us into whimpering victims, and diverts us from finding and taking useful actions to make things better.

... "Just" is a fascinating word, even more semantically packed than "It's" or "fair." The main meaning here can be best characterized as "only." "Just" is a "tunnel vision" word that says "Don't pay attention to anything else; this is the only thing that matters." "Just" can be used either as an adverb to modify the verb (in this case "is") or as an adjective to modify an object, in this case, "not fair." I don't know how a grammarian would decide "just" is used in this case. I'd say it is ambiguous, which means that our unconscious language processing will process it in both ways (no matter how the grammarian decides).

When "just" is used as an adverb it can mean "barely" as in "I just missed the train," or it can mean "a short time ago," as in "He just left." Although both these meanings are inappropriate here, all the other meanings do apply: "only," "quite," "exactly." When used as an adjective, "just" has even more meanings.
My dictionary lists eight:
1. upright, honest, righteous
2. equitable, impartial, fair
3. exact, accurate, precise
4. correct, true
5. deserved, merited
6. legally right, lawful, rightful
7. right, proper
8. well-founded
"Synonyms: exact, honest, impartial, precise, proper, upright."

In short, "just" means all that is valued as right and good.

"Not" has the simple meaning of negation, and although it really negates "fair," "just not" also can be easily read as "not just" which has the same meaning as "not fair."

If you negate all the meanings of "just" listed above, we find that "It's just not fair" means that all that is right and good has been negated.

Putting all these pieces together we can see how "It's just not fair" can transform a situation in which I don't like something into a situation in which all that is good and fair has been violated, even if fairness doesn't actually apply. Life is not fair.

Recognizing this, we can seek out ways to make it more fair for all of us. "

©2002 Anchor Point, Vol. 12, No.3, March, pp. 43-46

Interdependence Day: The Evolution Has Begun

New Jersey Hypnotist James Malone shared this:
"I was emailed this time piece yesterday and just had to share. Swami Beyondananda (aka Steve Baehrman) is rare creature- a social activist with a wonderful sense of humor.
Although his politics may strike some as a bit left of center, its hard to not appreciate his gift for wordplay. And really what would be so bad about choosing a new precedent and declaring our interdependence?"
James Malone http://www.njhypno.com/


Interdependence Day:
The Evolution Has Begun

"It's time to celebrate our independence, and recognize our interdependence."
Remember that movie from a few years ago, Independence Day, that portrayed a horrific disasteroid scenario from the future? Well, it may certainly seem that such a future is in the offing, particularly with all the offing that's being done right now. But that's only if we follow the current script.

There's a new movie in production called Interdependence Day where we humans write an entirely different story. In this one, when some celestial being asks, "How did the human race turn out?" we can proudly declare, "We won!"

Independence began with great promise. Eleven score and twelve years ago, America's revolutionary founders cut us loose from the Old World model where the rule of gold overruled the Golden Rule, where mining took precedence ("that's mine, that's mine, that's mine"), and the lowest common dominator was king. But the revolution was barely over before the devolution had begun, and 230 years later those same creeps we declared independence from have crept back into power.

We have a new King George who has overruled the rule of law, and this abuse is enabled by an unholy alliance of wholly-owned legislators who do the bidding of the highest bidder. The original multinational corporation, The British East India Company, has now spawned hundreds of imitators, many of whom are predators that live off shore and only come on shore to feed. These nonliving entities have been granted unlimited life and all the rights of human beings without the burden of human "weaknesses" like conscience and compassion.

All too often they use their energy -- what the Chinese call "ch'i" -- to gain unfair advantage. This practice is called "ch'i ting."

No wonder the body politic is rife with sociopathogens! Meanwhile, fear-gnomes -- little gnomes of gnawing fear -- have been interjected into the mainstream, making us more susceptible to Mad Cowboy Disease, not to mention Truth Decay and Deficit Inattention Disorder.

As biologists tell us, when we are put into a state of fear, the blood flows from our forebrain to our hind brain, making us less intelligent and more likely to behave like butt-heads.

So what's the good news? The good news this July 4th is that we don't need a revolution in this country. We've already had one. What is needed now is the American Evolution, where we the people realize we are the leaders we've been waiting for and restore the all-important missing ingredient in government of, by and for the people -- the people. If fear has hijacked the American dream, we the people must higher-jack it.

We must overgrow the fear-based state of emergency, and declare a love-based state of Emerge 'n See instead. We must emerge from our fearful state of separation and see we are all in this together. Biology is now confirming what our spiritual teachers have been trying to get through our thick skulls for millennia:

Life is not about survival of the fittest, but the thrival of the fittingest.

Each of us is a remarkable community of 50 trillion cells, all working together in harmony. In the society beneath our skin, there is universal health care and full employment, truly no cell left behind. Unlike most human nations, the "nations" of cells known as organs cooperate for the benefit of the entire organism. You rarely if ever read about the liver invading the pancreas and laying claim to the Islets of Langerhans.

In this shrinking world that could use a good shrink, we cannot shrink from this profound realization: Human life will not survive without a healthy environment. No matter how fit we might be as individuals, without a planet we are nowhere. If you thought The Man Without a Country was a sad story, that's nothing compared to The Person Without a Planet.

And so on this Fourth of July, 2008 we hereby declare our independence and our interdependence. We declare our independence from the limiting belief system that when push comes to shove, whoever does the most pushing and shoving wins. We declare our independence from the dysfunctional, politically-immature "don't ask, don't tell" policy we've adopted regarding our government -- we promise not to ask them what they are doing, they promise not to tell us. We declare our independence from the corporate media, who have disabled the body politic with weapons of mass-distraction. Yes, when it comes to intelligently informing the American public, they stop at nothing.

We need more than nothing. We need nothing less than the truth. We declare our independence from reality TV and join the cast of a far bigger, and far more amazing show -- reality! Extreme Planetary Makeover ... a world win campaign where the whole world can win. We declare our independence from blame and vengeance. The laws of karma work well enough, or as Groucho Marx once said, "Time wounds all heels." We would do better to withdraw our attention from wounding heels, and focus on healing wounds instead.

We declare our independence from the obsolete positions of left and right, and we come front and center to face the music and dance together. We see there are no sides, only angles ... and when seen from the right angle, we are all on the same side. We declare our independence from the notion that we are better than or less than any other human being. Consider this: Each of us is totally unique, just like everyone else. And finally, as truly independent, one-of-a-kind entities we declare our interdependence as well. We declare that each of us is an independent, interdependent cell in the body of humanity, here to regrow the Garden and have a heaven of a time doing it.

As interdependent independent beings, we declare a transparent conspiracy to end the apparent trance that has given us the neocon nightmare we have today. That's right, a conspiracy to end cons' piracy.

To conspire means to "breathe together," so anyone who breathes can join our conspiracy to create a world where everyone can breathe easier.

At a time when most of those in power prefer to leave Orwell enough alone, we declare interdependence because the only way to overgrow Big Brother is through bigger brotherhood -- and sisterhood. As independently interdependent citizens, we hereby declare an American Evolution that will officially begin with the election in November and inauguration in January. For indeed, when these big shots are fired, it will truly be heard -- and cheered -- around the world.
-Swami Beyondanda
http://www.wakeuplaughing.com/links.html