#rule of thumb being ancestors means suffering

[kurohaai]

“YOu’re a weird persOn, yOu knOw?"

But I never regret meeting yOu.

--

The Retainer ♦️ The Seneschal

[sins-of-the-sea]

The Master's Sermons: ‘Sin’

"Gather round, my children. And let me tell you something interesting about sin and transgression....

"Who is humanity to tell what is right and wrong? Once upon a time, your ancestors had no qualms with breaking open the skulls of rivals in order to feed or multiply. There are beasts who would drown others for the sheer fun of it, or even use their corpses to act upon them what you would imprison your fellow men over. Why is it okay for the dog to rip apart another dog by the throat to protect their territory but not the man?

"'We are not dogs! We are civilized!' says humanity. And you are not wrong. Civilizations evolve over time due to changing values. But who are you all to say your progress is in the right? Once upon a time, different people in what is now known as the Americas allowed people to live as other genders, until the colonizers came and suddenly it is evil and wrong, then have the audacity to prohibit drink but introduce alcohol to these people anyway. Nations say women can dress one way, then the opposite the next, then a different opposite the next. There is never any consistency. And to say 'dress however you want' or 'believe however you want' has its own consequences. You tell people to live however you like until they say something you don't like.... and it would not take long until the pitchforks and torches are raised.

"Humanity is not far from the beasts as they think they are. Their ability to reason and be aware are all only because their brains have more neurons to fire at certain times. You are not special for having opposable thumbs, being able to use tools, or deciding that eating meat is cruel. You wear clothes for the base reasons of either keeping warm, attracting mates, or prancing around on principle. You develop weapons for the purpose to harm and kill. Even things like technology are developed for a very basic reason: to make your lives easier. Are your vessels truly any different from the wings of birds or fins of fish? Are your letters and communication devices any different from the dances of bees or the howls of wolves? So often you all deny you are better than your base natures--your hungers, your thirsts, your arousals. And you would dare to make sins out of them.

"So it is no wonder there is so much suffering among you all, especially as it is amplified through the actions of humanity. You see something you don't understand, you vilify it right away. If something terrible happens, you find someone to blame, be it plagues or famine. It makes you feel good, doesn't it? To feel superior over someone to ride this notion of Virtue over others? Does it feel good to call upon your friends over someone who writes poetry over a beautiful woman? Do you feel justified in having someone lose their livelihood because they chose to raise a child? Do not lie. Do not be dishonest with yourself. You may be human, but you also have your base natures to yourselves. Even with all your posturing on how righteous you are for condemning the sinner, all you do is lie to yourselves on your arbitrary virtue.

"And do not think once you are humble, simple, and kind. That is all a façade, a lie you tell yourselves because of this 'virtue' you supposedly hold. The fact you do not brag or have made grandiose acts of goodness does not make you any better than the criminal and the thug. To say you never lie, cheat, or steal means you are lying to yourselves as well.

"Sin and transgression should not be condemned, it should be praised--for it is your base natures unfiltered, unadulterated by humanity's flimsy definitions of goodness and virtue. Strength and power were always what determines survival in the wild, and it is through the exploits of virtue that allows the wealthy and the elite to rise above you. Why should you play by the rules they laid our, or the ones they abide by? Why continue to let the taxpayer take all your hard-earned money for a king that starves and scourges you? Why let the man whom you loved and trusted live after he condemns you for being honest with yourself? Let not the lies of the Holy Books of the world lead you into self-imposed misery in the name of virtue. Declare that there is no God. Declare that there is no Heaven. And even if they exist…. Are they places you want to go to or people you want to rub shoulders with? To be with kings who defined prosperity by how many backs he broke to overfeed his personal court? To be with the heroes who made entire civilizations extinct?

“The notions of goodness are lies. Lies. They are declarations of beliefs that only serve to extort and exploit. ‘Love’ is just a rush of euphoria a mother has for ensuring her progeny survives, or a mate experiences when finding the right set of genes to make sure his blood lives on. Poets and philosophers–foolish men who have declared plucked chickens as no different from humanity–have made the notions of love, brotherhood, and family more than what they truly are. And due note that it is because of ‘love’ that Christians try to exterminate Jews because of their love for Christ, or fathers banish their daughters when they declare them their sons. Love, in fact, is why I have the Seven with me instead of in the grave. Love is, after all, the reason a child is stuck in a cellar for ten years, or left behind alone in a city. Love is abandonment. Love is exile. Love is scourge on your back, either by man or by God. Tell me I am wrong, and I will show you evidence in the millions I am right.

“I am a speaker of truth eons old, denied by souls who are terrified of the very idea of being wrong their whole lives. By accepting me, I empower. I strengthen. I am a benefactor. I am release. I give reason to not fear Hell, the dark, the depths of one’s sin. And through me, those who bind themselves to me will become greater than what humanity claims to be. And by embracing Sin, one can become greater than their base nature by empowering it instead of denying it. And through me, humanity’s supposed virtues will wash off like foamy droplets of the sea.”

[mashkaroom]

Lengthy analysis of Holes, as promised!. This will include spoilers, which will be marked. Just gonna go through the book and the philosophy/themes/connections I caught onto this time around. Stuff discussed, in order: connections to Camus, on the question of children’s books, systems, cycles, and why Stanley is gay and jewish 😏

Camus:

The first and perhaps most obvious set of texts/theories it makes sense to put Holes in conversation with is the works of Albert Camus. Holes starts out with a description of the sun and the heat, which readers of the Stranger will remember are major themes there. The heat continues to be a prominent part of the story, though thematically, it functions very differently in the two books. In The Stranger it primarily represents the indifference of the universe (or at least so claim a ton of sources and I’m inclined to agree) and the lack of control we exert over our own lives while in Holes it’s basically the opposite of that. The heat and drought is implied to be a semi-divine punishment for a past injustice and, moreover, the elite adults of the camp have air conditioning and access to shade: the sun does not affect everyone equally in Holes as it does in The Stranger (though even that is debatable: I don’t think this was Camus’s intent, but it’s notable that it’s only the white englishman who’s driven to murder by the sun. This could certainly be read as critique of colonizers who cannot/refuse to coexist with the land and environment and how the indigenous population always suffers for it, but I digress). The other Camusian parallel one is immediately inclined to draw is that, of course, of Sysiphus: there’s the repetitive and seemingly meaningless act of digging holes not to mention that carrying stuff up a mountain is both thematically and plot-wise a very important part of Holes. But, once again, it is eventually revealed that both acts do carry an inherent meaning. Holes does not present the image of an uncaring universe: on the contrary, destiny and semi-divine influence plays a major role. The story may start out with a series of seemingly random and inherently meaningless events, but as the story progresses, people, actions, items, and events become increasingly imbued with meaning. In the Holes universe, one must imagine Sisyphus redeemed, not through the act of rolling the stone but by rebelling against it. I have difficulty imagining that Sachar was not thinking of Camus while writing Holes, or, at the very least, that if he encountered Camus afterwards, he must have been struck by the similarities. I don’t know if there was a specific intent in creating a story so embroiled in Camusian absurdism, especially since the target readership is (allegedly) children who almost certainly are not recognizing specific allusions to Camus, so perhaps the similarities are purely aesthetic — after all, everything that is nominally similar does play quite different thematic roles. However, I would never pass up the opportunity to talk about the myth of sisyphus and I think placing Holes in dialogue with Camus can raise some interesting questions about the nature of meaning.

Is Holes a children’s book?

Speaking, though, of the target audience, the audience for this book is in fact children. What about it makes it a children’s book makes it difficult to say: the protagonists are children (and, I would argue, it is not a coming of age story, despite the claims of one piece of lit crit about Holes in which i disagreed with almost every claim made, but i digress once more) and the writing style is fairly simple: you can read it with a second-grader’s vocabulary. Also, of course, being a children’s book doesn’t (and crucially shouldn’t!) mean that it’s lacking in depth and complexity. However, I think most thematically rich children’s books tend to be quite allegorical. The Little Prince is a good example. Holes is just way too specific for its sole market to be children. It’s either intended to be read by multiple generations at once or for child readers to return to it as an adult. It addresses themes of racism (and not just generic racism, anti-black racism in the reconstruction south), homelessness, intergenerational trauma. and the modern carceral system. These are social critiques that will probably go over most kids’ heads (certainly over mine). However, the themes of the text are not inaccessible for children. You don’t have to understand the particular history of the US criminal justice system or even that Sachar is making a comparison to anything specific to get that the system that he’s portraying is unjust. Knowing the real-world context just adds another layer to the text. Holes also has one of the hallmarks of children’s books that I really like, which is a particular type of absurdism that the child characters come up against. This always rang true to me as a kid and well into my teens, when you start understanding that your life is controlled by some set of systems, but you haven’t quite gotten what those systems are or why and how they came about. Like nowadays, I can say “we did this in elementary school because of a state law, that because of a federal law, that because of the history of puritanism, and this because we got a grant for it”, but as a kid nobody tells you these things or really even cares to explain why the rules are as they are, and the systems that govern your world, often with no small degree of violence and almost always with an inherent disregard for your agency, are ineffable and slippery, and good children’s books capture this really well (Series of Unfortunate Events is probably my favorite example of this, where a secret organization that everything is implicated in and more more tragicomic details about it get revealed until the Baudelaire children find themselves to some degree members with mixed feelings is honestly an excellent coming-of-age allegory. oh, not to mention the constant conflict with bureacracy. god that series is so good, everyone read it). Back to Holes, Sachar weaves the more fantastical ineffable elements in with real-world issues so neatly. Stanley’s family is allegedly cursed, which is why Stanley keeps having bad luck, but he also lives in systemic poverty, which is also why he keeps having bad luck. Sachar eschews neither the allegorical elements common in children’s literature nor the more direct systemic critiques more often found in YA and adult lit, and it creates a really unique vibe. I think the story really benefited from having a children’s author, and I would love to see more authors in both children’s and adult lit do this!

Systems

Speaking of the systems, this book is surprisingly radical. Like it’s full-on an abolitionist text. The law is pretty much only ever presented as adversarial, both in the story of Stanley’s present time, and in Kate and Sam’s story. It’s implied if not stated repeatedly that Stanley and the other boys are pretty much victims of circumstance and have been imprisoned pretty much for the crime of being poor. The hole-digging is shown to be cruel and bad for the boys. It’s noted that in digging the holes Stanley’s heart hardened along with his muscles. This is of course very evocative of the system of retributive justice we have in America. Additionally, Camp Greenlake’s existence can ultimately be traced back to an act of racist violence, also in close parallel with our prison system. Hole’s stance on justice is very restorative. Punishments are never shown to work: only through righting the wrongs can true justice be achieved. Moreover, Holes even gives the opportunity for redemption to a minor antagonist when [minor spoiler] Derrick Dunne, the kid who was bullying Stanley in the beginning ultimately plays a small role in helping Stanley regain his freedom [spoiler over].

Cycles

Cycles are a major theme in holes, and Sachar creates a unique temporality to support this theme. There are 3 interwoven stories: that of Stanley’s in the present date, that of Stanley’s ancestors, and that of the land that Stanley is on (though, as I will delve into later, it’s at least a little implied that Stanley is descended from the characters in that story also). The stories from the past reach in and touch the present. You can’t untangle the past from the future. Looking at this again through a social justice lens, it could be seen as fairly progressive commentary on what to do with regards to America’s past wrongs. The past cannot and will not be left in the past: it must be dealt with on an ongoing basis. Even the warden, the greatest villain of Stanley’s story has a sympathetic moment at the end where it’s revealed that she, too, is stuck in a cycle of intergenerational trauma she can’t break free from.

Stanley is gay and jewish

Ok, I will now talk about how Stanley is a queer Jew, but this entire section will be riddled with spoilers, so read the book first and then come back!

A queer Jew?? i hear you ask. You’re just projecting. Yes, 100%. However, I think that interpreting Stanley as both these things adds to the thematic richness of the text. Let’s start with the Jewish bit: it’s not explicitly stated that Stanley is Jewish, but his great-great grandfather is a nerd-boy Latvian immigrant with the last name Yelnats, and his great-grandfather was a stockbrocker, so, like, ya know. Louis Sachar is also himself Jewish, as was the director of the movie, who cast Jews in the roles of Stanley and his family (dyk Shia LaBeouf is Jewish?? i did not), so I know I’m not the only one interpreting it this way. And honestly, does it not resemble the book of exodus quite a bit? They escape what is pretty much a form of slavery and wander in the desert. Sploosh resembles the well of Miriam, and then they ascend up a mountain to the “thumb of god”, perhaps in a parallel to Moses receiving the commandments. Is this a useful way to look at the text? Who knows. But what I think we do get from reading Stanley as Jewish is a more nuanced discussion of privilege and solidarity. If Stanley and his ancestors are Jewish (or at least Jew-ish), then what placed the curse upon his family (and, we see, Madame Zeroni’s family isn’t doing so great either) is the breaking of solidarity between oppressed people. But also, the fact that you are also marginalized does not wash you of the responsibility to other marginalized groups. I don’t think Sachar intended it this way, because I think he probably would have talked about it more if he had, but I would say this book can be read as a call to the American Jewish community to take an active role in forging solidarity with other marginalized groups and actively righting the wrong you, your ancestors, and your community wrought upon them.

Now, why do I think Stanley and Zero are gay? Before I go into how it augments the text thematically, I bring to your attention this passage.

Two nights later, Stanley lay awake staring up at the star-filled sky. He was too happy to fall asleep. 

He knew he had no reason to be happy. He had heard or read somewhere that right before a person freezes to death, he suddenly feels nice and warm. He wondered if perhaps he was experiencing something like that. 

It occurred to him that he couldn't remember the last time he felt happiness. It wasn't just being sent to Camp Green Lake that had made his life miserable. Before that he'd been unhappy at school, where he had no friends, and bullies like Derrick Dunne picked on him. No one liked him, and the truth was, he didn't especially like himself. 

He liked himself now.

 He wondered if he was delirious. He looked over at Zero sleeping near him. Zero's face was lit in the starlight, and there was a flower petal in front of his nose that moved back and forth as he breathed. It reminded Stanley of something out of a cartoon. Zero breathed in, and the petal was drawn up, almost touching his nose. Zero breathed out, and the petal moved toward his chin. It stayed on Zero's face for an amazingly long time before fluttering off to the side. 

Stanley considered placing it back in front of Zero's nose, but it wouldn't be the same.

Girl, I’m sorry, that’s gay as shit! It’s such tremendous tenderness, not to mention the traditionally romantic imagery of moonlight and the flower petal. There’s also the non-romantic aspects. Stanley’s inexplicable happiness and suddenly liking himself evokes, for me, at least, the experience of coming out to yourself, of realizing who you are. Later in this chapter, Stanley contemplates running away with Zero despite the fact that it would make them lifelong outlaws. This book, remember, was written in 1998, and homosexuality was decriminalized in 2003, and the book takes place in Texas. It would have been, if anything, even more evocative of gayness when it was published. Now as to how this increases the thematic richness of the text: obviously, in carrying Hector up to the thumb, giving him water, and singing the lullaby, he redeems the wrong done by his ancestor, after which his family’s luck immediately changed. However, after Hector and Zero return to camp Greenlake, rain falls there for the first time. What was redeemed here? Remember that earlier on we learn that what caused the drought was the fact that Sam the onion man (who was black) was murdered for kissing Kate Barlow (who was white) — so what would a [post-factum wronging of that right look like? Zero, as we remember, is black while Stanley is white, so them being in a romantic relationship would be a successful interracial relationship to redeem the one Kate and Sam weren’t able to have. It’s also, as I said earlier, implied that Stanley is descended from Kate Barlow on his mother’s side: Stanley remembers seeing the other half of the lipstick tube with her initials on it in his mother’s bedroom. I’d also argue that Sam the Onion Man is implied to be descended from Madame Zeroni (chronology-wise, I think he’d be her grandson). First of all, there’s no follow-up with Madame Zeroni’s son who moved to America, and pretty much all other plot threads are followed up with in Holes. Secondly, Sam mentions water running uphill, just like Madame Zeroni does. Even without these speculations being true, Stanley and Hector being gay would redeem the land they’re on, but If they are, the parallel with the other ancestral redemption arc becomes to much to imagine it was unintentional.

So anyway, those are my thoughts on Holes, now everyone go read it!

[atarahderek]

Wolfwalkers Review

I confess, I have not taken the time to watch the first two movies of Cartoon Saloon’s Irish folklore trilogy (a fact I hope to rectify sooner rather than later). But I did take the time to watch Wolfwalkers...and I fell in love. The animation, the unique style, the music, the story...it was all beautiful. So I thought I’d give my thoughts on it, trying to keep them as spoiler free as I can.

Wolfwalkers had a limited theatrical release and was later released on Apple TV’s streaming service--which does offer a one week free trial if you want to check out their content. It is not the first Cartoon Saloon animation I’ve seen (I watched Breadwinner a few years ago), but it is easily the most beautiful. Being of Irish descent myself, I’m always happy to see good stories set in the lands of my ancestors. Especially stories that make liberal use of Celtic style music. If you have a Celtic heritage you’d like to explore, Wolfwalkers is an excellent celebration of that heritage and worth watching for that alone.

The story

The plot is fairly simplistic: A girl moves to a new town and has a hard time adjusting, meets a friend who stands out just as much as she does, discovers that friend faces a terrible threat, and tries to do whatever she can to help her friend. In this story, Robyn Goodfellowe and her father Bill have moved from northern England to Kilkenny, Ireland (insert South Park joke here). Bill is a hunter, tasked by Lord Oliver Cromwell, who insists on being referred to as Lord Protector and nothing less, with eradicating the wolves who live in the nearby forest so that the woodcutters can clear the forest for farmland. Well, the wolves in the forest have something to say about that. While trying to prove to her father that she can still be a good hunter despite Cromwell’s wishes that she stay in town and work in the scullery, Robyn comes across a girl named Mebh, who reveals herself to be a wolfwalker; a type of werewolf, for lack of a better term, that takes a wolf form whenever her human body sleeps. After a misunderstanding, Mebh accidentally bites Robyn, causing Robyn to become a wolfwalker herself. But her new form makes her an ally to Mebh, who is waiting for her missing mother to return so they can take their wolf pack and find a new forest untouched by Cromwell. Robyn struggles to keep her new secret form from her father and Cromwell, but when Cromwell threatens the wolves and Mebh directly, Robyn can no longer remain silent.

Cartoon Saloon’s history of giving their stories bittersweet endings makes this plot a little less predictable than it would be if it came from any other studio--and a lot less predictable than if it came from Disney (I love Disney, but sometimes they play things too safe or too true to their own favorite tropes). But the ending is quite satisfactory. It did suffer the plot mandated friendship failure in the third act, but to be fair, Robyn’s heart was in the right place, even if her actions weren’t. This film proves that a story doesn’t have to have a bunch of plot twists or be especially complex to be good. There is an elegance in simplicity.

The characters

Robyn is spunky, independent, snarky and skilled in marksmanship. She understandably does not like the new “cage” she’s found herself in under Cromwell’s strict rules. In England, her father let her go hunting with him and gave her a lot more freedom. In Ireland, he is firmly under Cromwell’s thumb. And as Cromwell is not afraid to punish children as if they were adults, Bill fears Robyn will be taken away from him and jailed or put in the stocks. Robyn has started to hear the phrase, “It’s for your own good,” far more often than anything else from her father, and she can’t stand it--right up until she uses the same phrase toward Mebh to protect her from Cromwell. When she becomes a wolfwalker, she suffers anxiety, wanting to hide her wolf form, but also craving freedom more than ever. Robyn is the type of idealist who always imagines herself easily taking a stand against something she believes to be wrong, but when it comes right down to doing just that, she balks at first. But in the end, she is able to stand strong anyway. Even as a child, Robyn shows strong leadership skills and has a mind for strategy--when she’s calm and focused, that is. When she’s out of her element and panicking, she gets herself into quite a few predicaments. Her strengths and flaws make her a well rounded character and prevent her, a young, falcon-owning huntress in 1650 Ireland, from sliding into Mary Sue territory.

Mebh is your standard wild child. She’s fiercely independent, loves to tease, and tends to make bombastic threats toward people who might offend her. She’s at least a few years younger than Robyn, and it shows. Robyn is 12-13 years old, while Mebh seems to be about nine at the most. Mebh takes promises seriously, expects them to be upheld, and is easily hurt when they are broken. Despite having little in common with Robyn, she bonds easily with her within hours of meeting her, teaching her all that she needs to know about being a wolfwalker. She’s a handful for anyone, a fact that baffles Cromwell, who apparently has very little personal experience with children. Kids Mebh’s age are often portrayed as seeming older or younger than they are, but Mebh is portrayed as a very convincing nine-year-old. She’s properly immature, but also old enough to take care of herself while her mother is away. Though she does have over two dozen furry babysitters to take care of her.

Bill Goodfellowe represents the rare Sean Bean role where his character doesn’t die. He’s a widower who is just trying to establish a good life for himself and Robyn. When he gets called to Ireland, he finds himself having to tie down his free spirited daughter, and it’s plain to see he hates doing it. He wants to protect her from the wolves around Kilkenny, but he also wants to protect her from Cromwell’s retribution against anyone who violates his dictatorial laws. Eventually, he has to stand up to Cromwell to protect Robyn, finally realizing that complying with tyranny will not allow him to protect his daughter; it will only put his daughter in more danger.

There’s not much to say about Mebh’s mother Moll. Her whereabouts are unknown until halfway through the second act, and even in the third act she doesn’t play much of a role. She’s a tough but tender matriarch who acts as something of a living MacGuffin. She's also the plot’s punching bag.

The side characters are mostly delightful. Merlin is your standard animal sidekick, but he’s also a very useful means of communicating, being a bird that can talk to Wolfwalkers. A bully named Paidrig turns out to be a useful tool for Robyn, keeping him from being completely repulsive (but only just barely; I’d rank him just below Eustace Clarence Scrubb in the first half of VDT). And Sean Og is criminally underappreciated. Seriously, we need some more love for Sean Og here.

And as for Oliver Cromwell, I have quite a bit to say about him. I’m going to save that for its own post, since it will involve spoilers. Since he is a historical domain character (unlike the others), the approach taken with him was different from what it was for the other antagonistic characters--and for a lot of villains in general. He’s almost Judge Claude Frollo in John Ratcliffe’s body.

The soundtrack

With an abundance of gorgeous Celtic music and a beautifully fitting rendition of “Running with the Wolves” by Aurora, I have only one complaint about the soundtrack: I CANNOT FIND IT FOR SALE ANYWHERE!!!

In summary

It’s beautiful, it’s so very Irish, it’s a quality story about magic wolves (those are rare), and I sincerely believe it is more than a contender for best animated feature this year. Honestly, I liked it better than Soul. Well done, Cartoon Saloon. Well done. Now, to all of you reading this, go support Wolfwalkers!

[queensdivas]

Hidden Blade Chapter 1

Y’all I’ve been to excited for this because I loved this movie with a passion. (Nothing beats Bohrap btw but damn 6 Underground was awesome not just because of Ben. Though he really made the movie even better.) If you’d like to be tagged in future chapters please hmu! 

Please enjoy and I’ll see you guys in the next chapter or one of my updates. I’m on a train ride to London from Edinburgh so it’s about five hours. I plan on getting a crap done this ride so you might be seeing multiple updates! 

Enjoy! 

Next Chapter

Masterlist

Governments should always be in fear of who they govern over..those who are being governed should never be living in fear of who they are ruled over. Yet we live in a world where those in power abuse it badly so they can live the lavish life of the vices, greed, lust, and even the gluttony of having everything at their feet. Those who suffer under those sadly are living in a society in fear, hate, and uncertainty of whether they’ll be okay by the end of the day. 

That’s where I come in. 

You have to start somewhere small in order to cause a chain reaction. That lovely snowball effect. I start small by cutting off the suppliers resources, such as their plants, dirty shacks, and even the old warehouses. Once the resources are extinguished, I then move up to those in high up positions in order to really cause the rolling to begin. 

Yet I was given an opportunity to do a little more good with a lot less strings attached. Who doesn’t love a little more freedom. But what I was offered was complete freedom and who wouldn’t want complete freedom. 

You ever played the Assassins Creed games? I like to consider myself a walking version of that except no magical abilities, no special creed, or even a long line of ancestors that are meant to look similar and only the first three or four games nailed the similarities. Not the point. For those of you who’ve never heard of those games, imagine someone who's able to scale an entire flat building, stand on top of a metal cross, and even have some really cool equipment to help get the job done. We’ll be getting to those a little later. 

My name is eight. The Assassin. 

What’s the difference between a Hitman and Assassin you ask? One gets paid to do any form of killing for money, the other one does it for either political or religious reasons in this world of ours. But you both kill people? True. Never declared myself a saint anyhow in this world so shush! Story time! 

I pulled up to one of the abandoned planes to turn off my 4runner and climb out. Love the whole abandoned airfield look for the hideout. Really gives that fast and furious sort of vibe. How many movies are in the series anyhow? 

A ram truck came pulling up next to my 4runner as I began grabbing all my junk to hopefully store somewhere that was a little more secure than my new apartment here in California. Keeping a bunch of ropes, weapons, and my vast amount of foreign fruit would get me busted and I certainly love my Nectarine! 

“Glad to know I wasn’t the only one brought into this little adventure.” He appeared in front of me as I swung my duffle bag right on my shoulder. I closed the door as I turned to see him all dressed in american/military gear. An American soldier? Real power move.  

“Glad to see we got ourselves a soldier. Eight.” I held my hand out to him as he shook it. 

“Seven. At Least according to that dude.” He pointed as one came out of a tiny airplane and smiled. 

“Weird to see you not looking like a GAP model.” He showed up at my apartment in Israel looking like he walked out of Sunday church for some god knows reason. At first I thought he was apart of Jehovah's witness but as you can see we’re about to kill some mother fuckers.

“Ah really funny. Come meet the rest of us oh so lovely fellow campers.” We walked into the base as a women with blonde hair was reading a map while another woman was reading what looked like some sort of medical book. 

“Ladies this is seven and eight our newest batch of newbies. The one reading the map is two and in the cap is five. Not sure where the other two are but I imagine they’ll be showing up sometime soon.” I gave them a small wave as I put my bag on the ground next to the large table. 

“Look who finally showed up. Four this is seven and eight our eyes from the sky.” He tossed his hoodie down on the table as he gave us a small smile. The last member came into the room which is what I’m assuming was three. 

“There’s this trick that we all do to get through our day. We take a box and into that box, we place all the horrors of the world, all the wrongs humans do to one another. And then we close the box and pretend it doesn’t exist. Only some of us spend too much time inside the box. We’ve lost our ability to pretend. We know there’s too much unfinished business in this messed up world. Our job as ghosts is to do the dirty work the living can’t or won’t. And we do it from here. This is our haunted house. It’s a lot like the Batcave, except it’s nothing like the Batcave. Seven, eight. You’re dead. You’re gonna be restricted to cities that you’ve never visited before. People that you’ve never met. All of course your fellow ghost, none of whom you’ll know by name, only number, for safety, and so no one gets too close.” I mean. All we need is a butler, some random child to say “geez guys” and I think we would be set. 

“So basically what we’re doing is a sense of a justice league but with no moral codes?” Asking as One nodded. 

“Yes. Except Wonder Women uses guns and Batman is okay with killing people.” I..okay that works. 

“Each one of us has our own little gifts we bring to the table and now that we’ve required you two, we now officially have a set team.” 

“We’re like the A-Team but on steroids except Mr. T is this guy.” The Spainard commented as everyone just stared him down. 

“In your vast dreams.” One commented.

“Will we be required to wear matching rings?” Asking which made I believe his name is four chuckle a little. 

“Funny. Alright c’mon I wanna show you two something.” We all followed him into another room where a wall covered with nine pieces of paper with a single roman numerals on each one. 

“This is our target hitboard. These nine fuckers have been placing too much shit inside the box. So now they answer to us. Target number one: this prick. The Dictator of Turgistan Roach Alimov.” I walked over to his photo and began studying the guy. Radiates small dick energy already from all the work I’ve done over there, kind of like Kim Jong-Un except he doesn’t flaunt his money. 

“God I’m really craving french fries. Can we finish this over at Luckies?” I believe he’s three asked the group as I began walking past the other eight pieces of paper as I lightly saw their faces. Efrain Gracian. He runs the largest drug cartel in Mexico and has been killing a shit ton of innocent people in their villages. Oh my god they put Kim Jon-Un on their target list hell yeah. 

“So we plan on just killing all these pricks because they keep shitting on their countries and the rest of the world?” Leaning against the wall facing them as one nodded. 

“I say we finish this thing at Luckies. I’m really feeling a shitty beer to set the mood of introductions.” One began walking out of the fort as everyone else followed except for me as I looked at the wall again. Figured there would be less on the board in all honesty. 

~~~

I slipped into the booth with myself facing the middle of the window and the inside of the restaurant, seven sitting to my left while four was on my right. To think that I’m now officially dead and I cut all my ties off when I left home so no funeral. Bet they thought I was already dead anyhow so this works nicely. 

“So what do you bring to the table?” I was asked as I tossed my car keys on the table. 

“The soundless steps of a killer is what I bring to the table. You guys make a shit ton of noise if I think I know who you are. I’m assuming you guys we’re the one destroying Florence?” His eyes widened a little which makes my assumption correct cause these fuckers really had fun in Florence. 

“Florence was an absolute disaster.” He stopped talking as the waiter came to the group. 

“A round of Heineken for everyone. Then whatever else they want.” I ordered as everyone smiled a little as they began ordering their preferred drinks. 

“Figured you’d be a good match since you graciously just bought us all drinks. So if you’re a soundless killer, who have you eliminated?” You can thank the new democracy in South Sudan, and ending an entire sex trafficking operation in Chad. Both we’re super difficult to achieve but damn I did an awesome job. Both were run by major cunts obviously and took months of planning to even get close to them. 

“Who do you think got rid of the cunt from South Sudan?” Seven looked over at me then leaned across the table. 

“You killed Zafir Bahri?” Seven asked as I nodded. 

“Yup. Yet it was one of my most difficult assassinations since I had to make a break for it in the countryside. Kind of stuck out like a sore thumb till I made it to a reservation station.” The waitress came with the first round of beers. Four took a big gulp of his beer then sighed. 

“Alright if we’re going to show off what our past selves have done. I got the chance to steal a 5.0 carat ruby necklace that had two smaller diamonds that were about 4.2 carats that was about 100,000 dollars worth.” Yet he’s sitting here in an American restaurant drinking some shitty beer and eating high heart attack food? Sounds about right. 

“And here you are in America drinking Heineken and about to eat a very greasy double cheeseburger. Cheers” I grabbed my bottle as he did for us to clink our bottles together. Four seems super chill actually and now I’m kind of curious how he pulled off that heist. 

“So. What’s the absolute best thing about being dead? I mean you don’t have to pay taxes anymore.” Seven asked the entire group as they all had an inner conversation with themselves about the best part of being deceased. 

“No more dmv lines, no more shopping for Christmas.” Christmas has always been stressful for my old life and I didn’t even celebrate it!

“Or backstabbing girlfriends.” Raising my eyebrow at four. Damn someone broke his little heart. I’d play the worlds saddest song on the tiniest violin but not sure if he would get the reference. 

“They should make an “Out of office” reply for dead people. Sorry I’m away from the planet right now. I’m fucking dead.” That’s a bit much but if it makes her feel better about being dead then let her do her own thing. 

“No more tax, no more criminal records, no more getting arrested by the pigs just for being naked and or just the usual stuff. You know, being naked, getting drunk. Casual stuff.” How is being naked casual? Since when is being naked considered casual in any standard? 

“Umm. How is being naked any form of being casual?” He took a drink of his beer as he licked his lips.

“Ya know. Just walking around naked on your balcony or even on your front porch. It’s a casual thing.” I..I still don’t see that as a casual thing. Around the house yes because oversized t-shirt and underwear is always a comfy.

“Is that like when Jersey people say it’s a jersey thing?” Before he could answer One chuckled a little. 

“Guys. You’re all wrong. The best thing about being dead is the freedom. I mean, we’re all gonna die. May as well do it while we’re alive, right? When you’re young, you lock yourself into all of these bad decisions. Marriages, mortgages, and all that kind of stuff. But you die. It’s all escaped. Poof! Gone! From that point forward, all that matters is what you choose. The point is that we should bring seven and eight behind the curtain. You wanna hand me those over there?” Three handed him a bunch of plastic cups as leaned a little more forward on the table. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see him quickly glancing away back at the demonstration. Guess he’s kind of cute, not exactly sure how getting involved with people on the team is viewed. Rather avoid the whole situation. 

“Alright here. A little deminsation, no technology. So this is how to stage a coup in three not so easy steps. Alright you got a country, Turgistan right? These are the people, nice people, going about, doing their thing. Then you got the four generals, cuatro cunts, very bad guys. But there’s one worse guy. That’s the piece of shit dictator, right there at the top.” Sounds about right. That was basically the entire set up in South Sudan. 

“Don’t forget his brother.” Brother? Oh yeah, the guy has a brother that basically has been isolated or off the face of the earth at this point. Gotta love it when Governments hide those wanting a better world, or hiding sick pedophiles when they fake suicides so they don’t go to prison or end up being executed. 

“Democracy loving brother.” So we’ve got a shitty dictator and a loving democratic. Of freakin’ course!

“He’s the key. So we’re gonna hit the four generals. They’re gonna lead us to the brother.” 

“You kill top Generals, you fuck the dictators day.” Three shoved a few French fries in his mouth. 

“Can confirm.” I took a big gulp of my beer as I leaned back against the booth.

“Second thing we're gonna do is free the brother. And the last thing we’re gonna do is we’re gonna say goodbye to piece of shit dictator and hello to democracy loving brother.”

“It all goes down in four months, El Dia de los Muertos, The Day of the Dead.” Kinky.

“Oh that’s it?” Seven and I looked at each other for the both of us to nod in approval of the plan. 

“Um well that’s pretty simple ya know. The cups.” I took a drink of my beer as I began mentally seeing the whole plan in my head. 

“Wonderful presentation.” We’re gonna die aren’t we?

“So we’re all gonna die?” At this point I say that’s a hard yes. 

“Not me.” What confidence she has because there’s something about her that just kind of scares the shit out of me. Must be something federal in her former life.

“She’s not, we all are. Painfully.” Peachy. Real fucking peachy. But hey I’m already technically dead so this works out perfectly in the end. Just when my body shows up at someones house or is found floating on the coast, going to be quite a headache trying to figure out since I’m already dead. 

Maybe I should be more optimistic with this new life. Could be worse. I could be stuck in a work camp in Siberia. Maybe we just see where this goes and if it doesn’t end well I just disappear into the unknown. Sounds like an absolute plan! 

Taglist:

@bonafiderocketqueen @filmslutt @imjustboredso @intoanothermind @4lendow-norris @wickedholland 

@takemetoneverland420 @art-flirt @intoanothermind @raylan-c

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Ninety-Nine: A Promise ] [ Uchiha Fugaku, Hyūga Hiashi, Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Shisui, Hyūga Hinata, Hyūga Neji, Hyūga Hanabi ] [ SasuHina, blood, gore ] [ Verse: Then It All Went Wrong ] [ AO3 Link ]

“We share the same roots, you and I. Generations ago, your people and mine were brothers. Does that mean nothing now?”

“Our bloodlines are tied, true...but it was your ancestor that tried to tear this village apart, Fugaku. Not mine.”

The dark-eyed patriarch sighs, mouth set in a firm line. “And even now, generations later, we suffer prejudice and suspicion! Madara’s folly was his own. There was a reason none of us followed him into the dark.”

“And what of the Kyūbi?”

“That was not our doing.”

“Easy enough to claim.”

“I swear on the lives of my sons: my kinsmen and I had nothing to do with that attack. If it was an Uchiha...it was a traitor, just like Madara. Why would we attack the village we live in?”

“And yet now you ask me for backing in a civil war…?”

“Because I have no choice!” Fugaku’s voice rings out in the quiet. “...my people...have lived in the shadows of Madara’s mistakes for far too long. It began with Tobirama’s hatred of us, and has continued down the Senju-biased line. I had hope with Minato in power, but…” His head bows, pain evident on his face. “...that hope is gone, now. I refuse to let my people continue to suffer under the thumb of this village. If they will not hear us...then we will try other methods. I refuse to lie silent in the face of my people’s oppression. We helped found this village…! We keep it safe! And how are we thanked? With glowers and whispers, pushed to the outskirts of our home. I don’t want my sons growing up in an era of persecution for crimes they weren’t even yet born to be blamed for.”

His gaze narrows. “...and there must always be a scapegoat, Hiashi. If the village rids itself of us...you can’t know what will happen next. It’s clear the village fears our power. And it’s more than evident that your line and mine are arguably the strongest within Konoha. They may find flaw in you, next. And what will happen then to your daughters? Will you see them treated like my sons…?”

Hiashi’s brow hardens.

“...this village owes us its ear. And they have refused us. If they are afraid of our might...perhaps we should show them why they feel that fear. Stand with us, my brother. Help me correct this injustice. Lend the might of the Hyūga to the Uchiha. If we stand together, they will not be able to refuse us.”

Silence falls, interrupted only as Hiashi sighs deeply. Arms crossed, his head bows, eyes closed as he thinks. “...do you seek a bloody coup to seize power?”

“No. Only our rights.”

“The rest of the village will not see it that way. They will see you as Madara’s second coming: someone seeking to rule over them by force.”

“If worse comes to worse, we will leave.”

Pale eyes actually widen. “...you would abandon Konoha…?”

“It has already abandoned us. If we cannot have our freedom here...we will seek it elsewhere.”

“You would turn your backs on your allies?”

“No. I, at least, would not raise my weapons against Konoha...not unless they struck first.” Fugaku’s expression turns raw, uncensored. “...I am tired, Hiashi. Day in and day out, I listen to the cries of my people as we’re spurned. And then I approach the council with a new compromise. I’ve lost count of the times they’ve turned me away. I can’t bring myself to keep failing my clan. They deserve their freedom. If we cannot have it here - if they will not listen, even with force - then I will leave. Or I will die trying.”

“And go where…?”

“...I don’t know. North, maybe - to the mountains along the border. Anywhere Konoha will think us too far to chase.” A hand drags down the Uchiha’s face. “...but I would not expect you to follow. I just need an ally as I challenge the council. Perhaps, if I no longer stand alone...they would listen. If not...I will do what I must.”

“You realize my standing with you may damn us as well?”

“...would you want to stay within a village that would do so?”

Hiashi heaves a curt breath. “...you’re not making this easy, Fugaku. Five generations of my people have lived within Konoha’s walls. And yours! The alliance of the clans of Hi no Kuni set an example for the other lands. It brought about the hidden villages!”

“And what of it? Three wars we’ve had since then, in those five generations. The lands are still divided. We still fight as we did in the era of the warring clans. The pieces are simply bigger, now. Thousands of lives lost. And you know well that this village is not perfect. It holds its shadows. And it abuses its own people based on nothing but rumors and hearsay of an era long past! My people have striven to find our place here...but they will not let us have it.”

“Then you will take it by force?”

“...I fear if I don’t...they will instead use force against us. I am trying to be preemptive, Hiashi. I will not be caught off-guard, my throat slit in the night by someone I once called brother.”

The Hyūga’s expression goes grim at the image. “...very well. I will stand with you. But we must be cautious...and be ready for anything. I will not let my children take a fall for something they are too young to comprehend.” His chin ducks, staring at Fugaku. “...you must promise me they will not be harmed.”

“There is no one I will fight harder for than the children. They are our futures. I will begin to make arrangements: a failsafe to entrust to Itachi. He can take them somewhere where they’ll be safe.”

“Where?”

“...I’ll figure something out. You have my word, Hiashi. They will be safe.”

“Sasuke, come - this way!”

“Nīsan, where are we -?”

The brothers flinch as an explosion sounds one street over. Itachi bends his form over Sasuke, shielding him from a cloud of debris.

“Come on you two - we gotta move!” Shisui shouts, standing at the mouth of the alley.

“Sasuke, no time for questions - tōsan told me -”

“Now, Itachi!”

Gritting his teeth, the elder brother simply throws Sasuke atop his back. “Hold on!”

Burying his face in Itachi’s shoulder, Sasuke can’t help a whimper, eyes pinching shut.

This never should have happened…! Their home...their compound...is now a warzone. Hyūga and Uchiha alike do their best to defend against the onslaught of other Konoha nin.

But the trio of boys sneak around the rear as Fugaku instructed.

“How much farther?”

“Just a few blocks - we’re supposed to meet with -”

“There you are!”

Turning, they all stiffen as the sight of Fugaku. Blood runs down from a temple, and a hand is severed, stump charred by katon to cauterize it. “...ojisan,” Shisui murmurs, shocked at the sight.

“The Hyūga trio are waiting by the Naka - you’ll follow it...out of the village.” From his leg pack, Fugaku draws a scroll. “Take this...it’s a map. Follow the path marked on it, but stay off the roads. Whatever you do...you must stay safe…”

“Tōsan!” Sasuke cries, reaching for his father as Shisui takes the scroll.

Fugaku steps back, expression clear the act takes all his strength to refuse his son. “...you must promise me...you will live.”

Tears pour down Sasuke’s face, and even Itachi’s eyes glisten with unshed droplets. “...w-we will,” the elder brother replies. “...tōsan, I…”

“Don’t. All is forgiven, my son. Our future...rests with you. Do not let the Uchiha flame die. Nor the Hyūga. Promise me…!”

“...yes, sir.”

“Now go...go!”

For a long moment, the three linger, Sasuke trying one last time to reach Fugaku. But the patriarch turns away, determination in his eyes.

If nothing else...he has to give them time.

It’s all he can do, now.

Moving to the back of the compound where the Naka flows through, the three Uchiha boys make their way atop the water, chakra keeping them afloat. “They’ll be at the north end,” Shisui murmurs, tantō drawn and Sharingan blazing. “From there, we keep going. We’ll have to find someplace to make camp, but we have to get some miles in first.”

Face drawn, Itachi merely nods, hold tight on his brother.

Sasuke’s silent.

Eventually, they find three figures along the west bank. A boy, no more than eight; a girl Sasuke’s age; and in her arms, refusing attempts to quiet her, a two-year-old toddler girl cries.

“Neji, Hinata, Hanabi?” Itachi asks, to which the elder two nod.

“Come with us - we’re getting out of here,” Shisui murmurs. “Here, give me the kid.”

Hinata hands over her little sister, watching as Shisui uses a spare sash to tie her to his front. “W-where are we going?”

“North,” Itachi responds, tone short. “But all that matters now is that we run. Don’t stop. Don’t look back. No matter how tired you get...we can’t rest until we know they’re far behind us.”

She nods alongside Neji, letting Shisui pack her atop his back...and the six of them flee into the night.

     An upload in the middle of the day? What sorcery is this? :O      ANYWAY. Whokay, I SERIOUSLY like this idea, and I think at some point I DEFINITELY want to make a full fic out of it. I've seen ideas of the Hyūga also taking the fall with the Uchiha before, and it's a concept I've always wanted to toy around with. And today I got my chance! I like the idea of the few "main" Hyūga and Uchiha kids being left behind when the alliance goes south. And it might give me a chance to introduce a few of my own concepts in a way that makes them less...intrusive, lol      For now though, with all the other projects I have going (including this one), I doubt I'll have time to really flesh this out for...a good long while. But it's one I definitely want to give more depth to in the future. Along with like ten other things I've come up with during this challenge, haha!      But, either way: thanks for reading!

[goodvibesatpeace]

Researchers Believe That Humans Are Not From Earth – We Originated From Another Planet

Many researchers have come to the conclusion that human beings are not from Earth.

The American ecologist Dr. Ellis Silver has proposed an incredibly intriguing new thesis that suggests that human beings might not be indigenous to the planet Earth. Silver’s arguments which hinge primarily on human physiology suggest that human beings did not evolve with the other life forms on Earth but that they came from another portion of the universe thousands of years ago.

Ecologist suggests that human beings did not evolve on planet Earth

“The Earth approximately meets our needs as a species, but perhaps not as strongly as whoever brought us here initially thought, ” said Silver. He says that the human race’s inability to cope with the planet Earth without developing some form of chronic disease strongly suggests that the species adapted and evolved in a place with a weaker pull of gravity than this Earth. “We are all chronically ill, ” says Silver. “Indeed, if you can find a single person who is 100% fit and healthy and not suffering from some (perhaps hidden or unstated) condition or disorder (there’s an extensive list in the book) I would be extremely surprised – I have not been able to find anyone.” Specifically, Silver points to the prevalence of back pain and disorders in adults and the fact that women find it exceptionally difficult to give birth, which is not a trait shared with any other animal on Earth.

Silver also attributes a great deal of the chronic illness to the inability of human beings to cope with the number of hours in a day. He said; “I believe that many of our problems stem from the simple fact that our internal body clocks have evolved to expect a 25 hour day (this has been proven by sleep researchers), but the Earth’s day is only 24 hours. This is not a modern condition – the same factors can be traced all the way back through mankind’s history on Earth.”

Dr Silver has also claimed that human genetics strongly suggests that human beings are strongly different from the other creatures on Earth. He said that there are 223 extra genes in human beings that are not found in any other species on this planet. This line of thinking has been mirrored in several new pieces of research in recent years which have suggested that the human genetic code has been engineered or manipulated in some way.

Here are the reasons that Silver thinks humans didn't evolve on earth... in more detail:

Bad Backs

If we evolved on this planet, why does just standing up on it hurt us?

Silver argues that the gravity on our home planet must've been stronger, and so we're progressively growing taller and taller with each generation, causing us to have bad backs. 

It is thought, in the wider scientific community, that on planets with stronger gravity, human-like life forms would evolve to be much shorter and stockier to deal with the extra gravity bringing them down. 

When that gravity isn't there, we apparently start to grow like forced rhubarb, ending up so tall and willowy that our own skeletons can't support us very well.

There could also be a counter argument that the gravitational pull on our home planet is, in fact, weaker, and the fact that our bodies will slowly bow to the pressure of Earth's gravity over our lifetimes is proof that we evolved to deal with weaker gravity. 

As we grow older, we hunch over and even shrink, gravity slowly wears us down, starting with a crick in the neck and ending with a hunchback.

Silver also wonders about the possibility that the food on this planet is more nutritious than on our home planet, causing a growth spurt. 

If we spent all our time back home chewing on tough, woody vegetation (yum), then were sudden plunged into a world of strawberries and fillet steak, it's possible that all of those abundant nutrients made us shoot up like a 14-year-old boy who lives on McDonalds and Red Bull.

Childbirth

In further expanding his argument, Silver points to the excessive nutrition on earth and a possible cause for the difficulties of human childbirth.

The fact that humans have to spend hours screaming in pain to bring new life into the world, whereas the rest of the animal kingdom can drop a sprog in their sleep, has long puzzled anthropologists. Why is it such an ordeal for us to have kiddies when it's literally our only biological purpose?

Silver thinks that the high levels of nutrition that we get could cause our babies to grow far bigger in utero than our bodies are designed to cope with. 

Indeed, it is a well-known phenomenon that people with diabetes have much larger than average babies due to the high sugar levels in their blood - this demonstrates that there is, in fact, a clear link between high nutrition and baby size. 

Whether or not that means that diabetics are even more alien-y aliens than us regular aliens, Dr. Silver doesn't specify.

Perhaps this is also a result of our newer, willowy frames (thanks to the lack of gravity, remember?). Perhaps, back on our own planet, there are a load of stocky, troll-like beings happily squeezing babies out of their wide, childbearing hips left, right and centre.

The Sun

Ahh, it's that classic summer scene. The moment there's a little bit of sun, every spare bit of grass, beach or garden is littered with people turning gradually pinker.

But why is that? Why does our own sun do us so much harm?

This is one of Ellis Silver's arguments for our alien origins. Humans will easily burn through sun exposure, whereas many creatures won't.

Humans, in contrast with other species, cannot sunbathe for more than short periods at a time without getting sunburned. This indicates that the human body is not effectively adapted to constant exposure to our sun, which is a funny thing for a species that have no protective layer of fur.  

Our own sun, from which all life on Earth draws its energy in one way or another, will literally give us cancer if we stay out in it too long, other creatures have evolved so that this doesn't happen. A lizard, for example, can sit out all day and not get so much as a tan line and some corals even produce their own SPF to protect themselves. 

Silver thinks that this is because we evolved with a much weaker sun, or perhaps we originated on a planet with lots of cloud cover.

Another thing that he highlights as odd is the fact that humans seem to suffer from seasonal mental disorders such as Seasonal Affective Disorder. Other animals migrate, hibernate or just tough it out when it comes to surviving an Earth winter, but humans just can't seem to hack it.

We can't cope with a lot of sun, we can't cope with a lack of sun - why are we so ill-suited to the comings and goings of the seasons if we've spent millions of years evolving on this planet?

We Look So Different

Right, so what's the deal with this bipedal thing? How come everything else on the planet has remained perfectly happy with a low centre of gravity and sturdy base, whereas we wobble around on two legs?

Perhaps it's just because we're looking at it from the inside, but you have to admit that we tend to stick out a bit. Two legs, extremely fine coat, hair growing out of odd places, opposable thumbs, huge heads, big, flat feet - we look much more like aliens than natives.

Silver points to our lack of body hair as a particularly odd feature of humans. It is necessary for humans to wrap themselves in the furs of other animals, just to stop ourselves freezing to death, even on the hot African plains where we are supposed to have evolved. 

The theory is that perhaps on our home planet, the temperature didn't fluctuate so much between night and day and at different latitudes. Possible reasons for this could be a thicker cloud layer that insulates the planet (a bit like on Venus), a binary star system (so that the sun effectively never sets), or even that the crust of the planet is much thinner, allowing the heat from the molten core to come up through the ground.

As a weird side note: Our relatively high levels of subcutaneous fat and almost total hairlessness, as well as our bipedalism, would actually make us excellent swimmers. Maybe we were some kind of race of semi-aquatic dolphin people on our home planet.

We're Too Advanced

The most conspicuously different feature of the human race, is just how much more advanced we are when compared to the rest of life on Earth.

Why are we so far ahead of every other animal? It sounds like classic human arrogance, but for all our talk about how intelligent dolphins are because they can recognise themselves in a mirror - they didn't invent the bloody mirror, did they? 

Okay, how about if we argue that inventing things like wheels and mirrors and social media executives isn't necessarily an indicator of intelligence? It's still drastically different to what everything else on the planet is doing. 

Why are we such outcasts from the natural world? It could be because it's not our natural world.

If we arrived on a primitive Earth with a head start, it could explain why we appear to be leaps and bounds ahead of every other species. Dr. Silvers also cites that fact that the "missing link" that would connect us with our common ape ancestors is still, er, missing (it's not, but never mind).

We could have come from a planet where a number of species were similarly advanced - perhaps that's even the reason we left, to go and rule elsewhere.

It all seemed to happen at once too. Evolutionarily speaking it took us fricking ages to get the hang of sharpened rocks, then, all of a sudden, we invented agriculture, writing, language, art, electricity, machinery, chemistry, quantum physics and pretty much everything else around us today. What the hell happened?

We Can't Sleep

One of Silver's arguments is that the human circadian rhythm is out of whack with the actual day-night cycle on Earth.

The circadian rhythm is the thing that regulates your sleeping and eating patterns. It means that you're tired at night and awake in the morning and is the reason why you feel jet-lagged after a long haul flight. As the Earth's day and night cycle lasts for around 24 hours (not including leap seconds because come on), it would make sense for our circadian rhythm to also be on a 24 hour cycle, but it's not.

Dr. Silver uses the argument that the human circadian rhythm is on a 25-hour cycle, meaning that it makes more sense that we should have evolved on a planet with 25 hour days. Unfortunately, Silver is wrong with the 25-hour figure, but not about the fact that it doesn't match up.

It used to be thought that our circadian rhythm was a whole hour off, turns out it's actually anything from a quarter to half an hour off. This doesn't seem like much until you realise that (providing you stuck to your natural circadian rhythm) it would only take you a month to potentially be 7 hours out of whack. That's a whole night's sleep for most people.

This means that our home planet could have been slightly bigger than Earth, in order to have longer days (although, again, it's not quite that simple), and so this also feeds into Silver's theory that our home planet had slightly higher gravity.

We Don't Like It Here

Evolution generally means that a species adapts to its environment, but we don't seem to want to play that game.

A big part of the theory comes down to the fact that we have altered the planet to fit us, rather than the other way around; we just can't seem to bear living in the natural world. The fact that we have altered our environment so drastically makes it seem as though we're just not suited to living in earth's natural habitat.

In fact, what we're doing appears not to be evolving, so much as terraforming.

Another of Silver's arguments is that we're seemingly terrible at reading our own planet. Many animals have built-in sensors for natural phenomena such as earthquakes, tsunamis and even just the ability to predict the weather, whereas we have had to intervene with our technology in order to keep up with them. 

It could be that we came from a planet that is not so geologically active, meaning that there would be no benefit for us to be able to predict earthquakes.

Then, we have the fact that we can't eat most of the food on this planet without altering it in some way. Whether it's by cooking it, or through selective breeding, most of the food that we eat is not as nature intended it. 

We're not saying that our home planet had hamburger trees and rivers of lemonade (if it does then book us a one-way ticket to Alpha Centauri), but that fact that most animals, apart from us, are perfectly fine eating grass and raw zebra is a bit weird.

Rapid Overpopulation

Humans are spreading, and they're spreading fast. 

As of 2015, there are over seven billion of us crammed onto this tiny little planet and the number is always going up. Not exactly a balanced eco-system. 

It's almost as though we're an invasive species.

What happens when you introduce a new species into an environment that they did not evolve in? A lot of the time, they take over. 

This is due to the fact that they do not have any natural predators and the local fauna are not equipped to defend themselves against them. This means that the non-native species has free reign to hunt, eat and breed, with the potential to decimate the local environment.

This does sound an awful lot like how we interact with the natural world. We're so far up the food chain, that we don't even feature as the apex predator in it, we actually exist outside of earth's eco-system. It does seem to scream foreign species.

Even with other invasive species, the ecosystem will ofetn find a way to restore istelf back to normality. With "normal" imbalances in nature, that balance can be quickly restored as the food runs out, and the invading species will quickly begin to reduce in number again. This doesn't appear to have happened to humans so far. 

Perhaps, when the resources finally do run out, we'll go the way of many other species and simply become one rogue algea bloom in the long natural history of the planet.

A Prison Planet?

One of Dr. Silver's slightly more esoteric theories is that the Earth may actually be a prison colony for a society of galactic beings.

It is apparently our naturally violent, vengeful, lustful, criminal natures that makes him think this. The fact that you don't often observe this kind of behaviour in the animal kingdom makes Silver think that it could well be because these are traits that come from a completely different race of people.

The theory is that we could have had our memories wiped and been dumped in a primitive backwater by a civilisation of space-faring beings as a sort of "cooling off" period, presumably after becoming too much of a menace to intergalactic society.

Perhaps they hoped that we would integrate with the natural world on a young planet and become a peaceful race of hunter-gatherers, or something. 

But actually what happened is that we almost immediately wiped out the Neanderthals and set about transforming the Earth to suit our anti-social ways, so they left us here.

To be fair, given our earthbound history of shipping criminals off to somewhere out of sight and out of mind, this does sound like exactly the sort of thing we'd do if we ever became a planet-hopping race of pan-galactic beings. The question is, has it already happened?

So if the human species did not originate from this planet, where did they come from and why? Dr. Silver suggests that human beings arrived from another planet between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago. It has been suggested that this mass transport of the species might have been carried out by far superior alien race which wanted to segregate humanity from their population because of humanity’s propensity for violence and destruction.

So Where Did We Come From?

In order to figure out our origins, Dr. Ellis Silvers then takes us through the practicalities of colonising another planet, and he's certainly given it a lot of thought.

So, if we presume that this ancient race of humanoids has developed the technology to travel at near light speed, they would need to originate from somewhere that can be travelled to within a human lifetime. Say, 30-ish light years away.

Silver reckons that these early settlers could well have brought frozen embryos with them to kickstart the whole breeding process, as they would have been elderly by the time they arrived (although this does sort of ruin the whole "Earth is a space prison" thing).

Dr. Silver then goes on to list his top picks for our potential homeworld, including Alpha Centauri A and B (1 lightyear), Epsilon Eridani (10.5), 61 Cygni A and B (17), Epsilon Indi (20) and Tau Ceti (22). Do let us know if one of those names stirs something primordial in you, it could be the proof we need.

The Alpha Centauri binary system eventually claims the top spot due to its proximity and the fact that it's a binary system (remember our earlier discussion about the sun that never sets?). It would mean that, at even a fraction of the speed of light, it would still be reachable within one lifetime.

Although, fair-minded as always, Dr. Silvers also allows for the idea that a race of galactic beings could well have harnessed the use of hyperspace and wormholes in order to reach our humble little Earth from pretty much anywhere in the universe. 

So that doesn't really narrow it down.

[theouijagirl]

Think You’re Being Haunted? Think Again.

I’ve written before about how to tell if you’re being haunted, and where the misconception of becoming haunted after playing the Ouija board comes from. But lately I’ve had to describe to people what are not signs of a haunting more than I have about the actual signs and symptoms.

There are many different aspects to a haunting, and many people find one tiny one and believe they are severely haunted. It’s similar to getting a cough, Googling “cough”, and thinking you’re dying of Ebola. If you have one common symptom of a deadly virus, you definitely don’t have a deadly virus. Same goes for a haunting. So instead of going over what to expect in a haunting, here are common things you will not expect.

Feeling watched

First, and by far the most common one that I get all the time, is the feeling of being watched. A lot of people play the Ouija board, then spend the night feeling like there’s someone in the room with them, watching them. Not to mention, a lot of ghost shows use that “feeling of being watched” as evidence, especially when they don’t have enough actual evidence to make their investigation scary and spooky. But the feeling of being watched is actually a really common safety mechanism that your brain creates with a chemical called adrenaline. Adrenaline is what keeps up alert, and can make us hyper sensitive to things around us. We can thank our ancient ancestors for this, as they used that adrenaline rush to prevent attack from predators or other humans. Those who did not have sufficient adrenaline pumping in their brains were killed by saber-toothed tigers, or murdered. Therefore, that trait is passed down to all of us. You feel that adrenaline rush whenever something scary happens, like almost getting into an accident, or watching a scary movie, or even playing the Ouija board. Your body senses danger (even if you aren’t in any actual danger) and will pump that adrenaline: your heart rate goes up, you could sweat, you feel tense and upset, among many other things. One of the lingering effects is that feeling of being watched, because your brain still wants to keep you alert in case there is a saber-toothed tiger coming for you. So if your only symptom of a haunting is that you feel like you’re being watched, you are not haunted.

Same goes for hearing any kind of tiny noise. That adrenaline rush makes you hyper-sensitive to anything, whether it be sound, sight, or even taste. Your brain is preparing you to either fight or run after a scary situation, and is making you as alert as possible. That’s why a lot of people say that they hear noises at night after playing the Ouija board, when it’s really just common household noises that you wouldn’t normally hear when your brain isn’t rapidly producing adrenaline, like the walls settling, or birds outside, or other people quietly moving around the house.

Nighttime symptoms

I’ve written many times about sleep paralysis and how it is not paranormal, not even a little bit. Sleep paralysis occurs either when there’s a disrupt in your sleeping pattern, or could occur if you’re awoken in the middle of your REM cycle. It’s considered a sleep disorder, and is basically the opposite of sleepwalking. The person awakens to find they can’t move and can experience audible and visual hallucinations, most commonly of shadow people. Throughout history, people would think they were being held down by the Devil, or a succubus/incubus, but we now know, thanks to modern science, that our brain locks down our movement while we sleep, and if we are woken up before our brain realizes it, it will keep us locked down and will try to keep dreaming. Having sleep paralysis does not mean you’re haunted, and again, especially if that’s your only symptom. I’ve talked to people who have never experienced it before, only to experience it the night after playing the Ouija board. Remember that correlation does not equal causation, and that their fear after playing is what caused it, not the actual spirits.

On that note, a lot of people blame scary dreams on spirits, which baffles me. We don’t understand fully how and why dreams work, but we know that if you experience something scary, you’re likely to dream about it. One thing we do know about dreams is that our brains use them as a way to prepare us in real life, so it may play out a scary scenario so we are better equipped to handle that situation if it really does happen to us. If you play the Ouija board while scared, or even watch scary Ouija board videos, your brain will remember that it scared you, and will make you have a scary dream about it in case it happens again. These kinds of dreams are not caused by spirits. Most importantly, the Twitter story about Adam Ellis’ haunting falls under this category. He convinced himself he was haunted because he kept having a weird series of dreams. Dreams are always weird, and deciding that you are haunted by the ghost of a little boy because you keep dreaming about a little boy is positively medieval thinking. And while it’s true that spirits could contact us during dreams, a) it’s extremely rare, and b) they wouldn’t do it with the intention to scare you, they would do it to try to pass on a message.

This also includes night terrors. I once talked to a lady who played the Ouija board, then that night her son experienced a night terror. Night terrors are vivid nightmares that cause your body to react, usually by screaming, even though you are still asleep. They are also super common in young children aged about 3-6 (which was how old the lady’s son was). Just a rule of thumb, any and all sleep disorders are not caused by spirits. We have science that can explain all of them.

Hallucinations

Having hallucinations sounds terrifying, but they’re actually more common than you might think. Again, our brain creates hallucinations in order to help keep us alert and alive. The brain thinks it’s helping us, but all it does is create confusion. One of the most common hallucinations that everyone experiences are audible hallucinations as we are falling asleep. I’ve found that for most people (including myself) that the most common audible hallucination is hearing your name being called out by a strange voice. It’s really creepy to hear, but it’s just your brain again. Your brain is entering “sleep mode”, and it has a whole process to do so, and for some reason one of them is to create audible hallucinations (probably to prepare you for dreaming). I get a lot of messages from people that hear spirits, only to find that they only hear them at night before falling asleep. That is not the case at all. (Also, just a note, I’ve found that listening to relaxation videos greatly reduces audible hallucinations, as well as that feeling of suddenly falling.)

Visual hallucinations are also pretty common. A lot of people see something out of the corner of their eye, only for it to vanish instantly. Whenever I would bike through this one park at night, I would pass a trash can that somehow looked like a squatting person out of the corner of my eye, and it would freak me out almost every time I road past before remembering it was that trash can. Again, it’s our body preparing to fight or run, and is what kept our ancient ancestors alive. If you see anything blip in the corner of your vision, whether it be a light or a human figure or anything, it’s your brain. As a person who sees spirits, and sometimes in the corner of my eye, it’s important to discern the difference between a visual hallucination and an actual spirit. My test is to keep my eyes on it; if it disappears right away, it’s my brain, if not, it’s a spirit.

Hysteria

One of the reasons why we have so many misconceptions as to what a haunting is and isn’t comes from a) a lack of understanding of science, and b) hysteria. The origins of hysteria are really shady (it comes from the Greek word for uterus, and was considered a disorder women suffered from if they didn’t want to get married, liked sex, or were irritated during their periods) it now means to become uncontrollable with emotion. A person could react with hysteria if they are in a scary situation they don’t understand, such as playing the Ouija board. Many people have told me how their friends would shake uncontrollably, or suddenly feel really sick. This behavior happens largely in part because it’s what scary movies have taught us happens when we play the Ouija board. The same goes for any other form of hysteria: you scream and jump uncontrollably at a concert or sporting event because everyone else is, and it’s the learned behavior of what to do. People at certain religious services collapse and speak in tongues, because everyone else is, and it’s the learned behavior. If you are playing the Ouija board, and your friends are all freaking out because it’s spelling Zozo or Satan or whatever, you could start to shake, or blurt out words, because that’s the learned behavior. I’ve spoken with many people who watched their friends become hysterical, even by speaking in tongues and running around the room, and were afraid they were possessed. But no, that’s hysteria, not possession, especially since there has never been a case of possession caused by a Ouija board.

Another really common thing that happens, including to me, is that weird feeling of becoming freezing cold while you play. It’s really eerie; you feel it creep up your fingers until your whole hands are ice cold. When I was younger, I used to think this was due to a spirit putting their hands on the planchette over yours. Then one day I told one of my aunts about it, since she was really skeptical of anything to do with spirits, who promptly said, “That’s your blood circulation.” And of course, it makes perfect sense. You’re sitting very still, usually for over an hour. Of course your blood circulation wouldn’t be ideal. I can also never forget the ask I received one time, where someone was playing the Ouija board on the floor while sitting on their feet, and after an hour started to feel their feet falling asleep, and was worried that they were being possessed. Nope, just your blood circulation.

And finally, I want to talk about anxiety. Anxiety is another common disorder that can be dealt with if treated properly, and is typically triggered by stress. It cannot be triggered by spirits. Your fear of spirits could trigger it, but a spirit cannot enter your body and cause you to feel anxious. I know that sounds weird, but you’d be surprised how many people message me because they’re worried this is the case. I can guarantee you, it isn’t.

Among other things

-feeling a temperature change in the room does not mean it’s a spirit. It could be a number of things. This is just a common trope ghost shows use, again, when they are lacking evidence.

-don’t worry if your pet suddenly acts weird. Pets can act however they want, whenever they want. It doesn’t mean a spirit is freaking them out.

-spirits cannot do things to your phone or computer. They can’t open web pages, access apps (especially Ouija board apps), or send texts. Period.

-while it’s possible to capture a spirit in a photo, it’s incredibly rare. When dust hits the light just right, it could appear in photos or film as floating orbs. These are not spirits, only dust.

-scratches, bruises, and bumps are really common to get without realizing it. Everybody wakes up one day to find a weird bruise on them that they don’t remember getting, or got when they moved around in their sleep. It doesn’t mean you’re haunted.

The most important part of dealing with spirits is to debunk anything and everything around you. If there’s any rational explanation for something strange happening around you, you have to rule out the paranormal. I used to live in a house where a door would slam every afternoon if left open, and I always thought it was a ghost or something, until one day I noticed it only happened when this one nearby window was open. I had to conclude that the slamming was caused by the wind coming through the window. To go on thinking that it was paranormal, knowing that it only happened when the window was open, would be completely moronic. If you ignore rational evidence in favor of spooky ghosts, then you are willingly choosing to live in a fake fantasy world instead of the real world.

Actual symptoms

Like an illness, if you have one symptom, you probably don’t have it, but if you have multiple, you probably do. Same goes for a haunting. If you have only one thing on the following list, you’re probably not haunted, and there’s probably an explanation for it. If you have two or more, you’re probably haunted. Actual haunting symptoms are

-strange things happening with electricity and electrical devices

-objects being moved around your home

-feeling yourself being touched by something that isn’t there

-hearing an intelligent response to something around you, and hearing it with your ears and not in your mind (for example, if you’re watching TV and you think you hear a weird voice, it’s probably an audible hallucination, but if you hear a voice go “I hate this commercial”, that’s an intelligent response.)

-knocking or tapping on walls intelligently, as in, the knock can come once for yes, twice/no times for no

But the main thing that can happen once and can pretty much guarantee that you’re haunted is that you see the spirit, straight up, either in shadow form or a full apparition. If you actually see the spirit in your home, or witness actual poltergeist activity (and not something being slightly moved, like something being drastically moved) then you’re haunted.

In conclusion, here is a post about what to do if you’re haunted (basically, don’t worry about it, as long as it isn’t a violent or threatening haunting, you’re fine) and just for fun, here is my latest masterpost about Ouija boards.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask anytime.

[dfroza]

it matters what kind of foundation your life and heart is built upon

whether upon truth or a lie.

Today’s reading from the book of Luke:

On a certain Sabbath Jesus was walking through a field of ripe grain. His disciples were pulling off heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to get rid of the chaff, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing that, breaking a Sabbath rule?”

But Jesus stood up for them. “Have you never read what David and those with him did when they were hungry? How he entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat? He also handed it out to his companions.”

Then he said, “The Son of Man is no slave to the Sabbath; he’s in charge.”

On another Sabbath he went to the meeting place and taught. There was a man there with a crippled right hand. The religion scholars and Pharisees had their eye on Jesus to see if he would heal the man, hoping to catch him in a Sabbath infraction. He knew what they were up to and spoke to the man with the crippled hand: “Get up and stand here before us.” He did.

Then Jesus addressed them, “Let me ask you something: What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?”

He looked around, looked each one in the eye. He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out—it was as good as new! They were beside themselves with anger, and started plotting how they might get even with him.

At about that same time he climbed a mountain to pray. He was there all night in prayer before God. The next day he summoned his disciples; from them he selected twelve he designated as apostles:

Simon, whom he named Peter,

Andrew, his brother,

James,

John,

Philip,

Bartholomew,

Matthew,

Thomas,

James, son of Alphaeus,

Simon, called the Zealot,

Judas, son of James,

Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Coming down off the mountain with them, he stood on a plain surrounded by disciples, and was soon joined by a huge congregation from all over Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seaside towns of Tyre and Sidon. They had come both to hear him and to be cured of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many people healed! Then he spoke:

You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all.

God’s kingdom is there for the finding.

You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.

Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.

You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.

Joy comes with the morning.

“Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—skip like a lamb, if you like!—for even though they don’t like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.

But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made.

What you have is all you’ll ever get.

And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself.

Your self will not satisfy you for long.

And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games.

There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.

“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.

“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

“Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

“I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”

He quoted a proverb: “‘Can a blind man guide a blind man?’ Wouldn’t they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn’t lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.

“It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

“You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.

“Why are you so polite with me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.

“If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was a total loss.”

The Book of Luke, Chapter 6 (The Message)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 3rd chapter in Joshua where God held up the waters of the Jordan to allow the people to cross on dry ground:

Joshua was up early and on his way from Shittim with all the People of Israel with him. He arrived at the Jordan and camped before crossing over. After three days, leaders went through the camp and gave out orders to the people: “When you see the Covenant-Chest of God, your God, carried by the Levitical priests, start moving. Follow it. Make sure you keep a proper distance between you and it, about half a mile—be sure now to keep your distance!—and you’ll see clearly the route to take. You’ve never been on this road before.”

Then Joshua addressed the people: “Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow God will work miracle-wonders among you.”

Joshua instructed the priests, “Take up the Chest of the Covenant and step out before the people.” So they took it up and processed before the people.

God said to Joshua, “This very day I will begin to make you great in the eyes of all Israel. They’ll see for themselves that I’m with you in the same way that I was with Moses. You will command the priests who are carrying the Chest of the Covenant: ‘When you come to the edge of the Jordan’s waters, stand there on the river bank.’”

Then Joshua addressed the People of Israel: “Attention! Listen to what God, your God, has to say. This is how you’ll know that God is alive among you—he will completely dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. Look at what’s before you: the Chest of the Covenant. Think of it—the Master of the entire earth is crossing the Jordan as you watch. Now take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the Chest of God, Master of all the earth, touch the Jordan’s water, the flow of water will be stopped—the water coming from upstream will pile up in a heap.”

And that’s what happened. The people left their tents to cross the Jordan, led by the priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant. When the priests got to the Jordan and their feet touched the water at the edge (the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest), the flow of water stopped. It piled up in a heap—a long way off—at Adam, which is near Zarethan. The river went dry all the way down to the Arabah Sea (the Salt Sea). And the people crossed, facing Jericho.

And there they stood; those priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant stood firmly planted on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground. Finally the whole nation was across the Jordan, and not one wet foot.

The Book of Joshua, Chapter 3 (The Message)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for Tuesday, August 4 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

[personalcoachingcenter]

3 Human Traits That Haven't Changed for the Last 10,000 Years

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/3-human-traits-that-havent-changed-for-the-last-10000-years/

3 Human Traits That Haven't Changed for the Last 10,000 Years

By placing too much emphasis on what’s next, companies risk overlooking and undervaluing the things that remain constant.

January 18, 2019 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Every December, the internet becomes awash with prophecies, predictions, trends and forecasts that paint a picture of a new year, completely different from the current — thanks to the rise of AR, VR, AI, ML, voice search and more. The main ingredient in these reports is change and the impact of change on business and society. There’s no doubt, technology is accelerating the pace of change. But what about the things that aren’t changing? By placing too much emphasis on what’s next, companies risk overlooking and undervaluing the things that remain constant.

There’s tremendous value in understanding the basic principles of human nature. Bill Bernbach, one of the fathers of advertising once said “It took millions of years for man’s instincts to develop. It will take millions more for them to even vary. It is fashionable to talk about changing man. A communicator must be concerned with unchanging man, with his obsessive drive to survive, to be admired, to succeed, to love, to take care of his own.”

Here are three human traits that have remained unchanged, since the dawn of civilization.

Related: How to Evolve Into the Person You Want to Become

1. We make irrational decisions.

We humans like to think of ourselves as rational animals, making decisions based on facts, logic and reasoning alone. In reality, our decision-making process is riddled with systematic errors, as proven by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in the 1970s with the discovery of cognitive biases. These biases act as mental shortcuts or rules of thumb — simplifying the decision-making process when faced with an infinite number of choices.

In truth, most of our choices are pre-determined by the unconscious part of the mind governed by instinct, associated memory and emotion. We often make automatic decisions and post-rationalize them through the prism of logic. By understanding our cognitive biases, we can begin to apply nudges to change individual or group behavior.

A simple nudge can increase the number of registered organ donors, help people save more for retirement and reduce spillage around urinals by 80 percent. Having a good understanding of nudge theory and choice architecture is a valuable asset for individuals who want to progress in their careers, companies that want to win new business and governments that want to improve the lives of citizens.

Related: 10 Psychological Tricks to Boost Your Website’s Sales

2. We love a good story.

Storytelling is an integral part of the human experience. In fact, the human brain has been programmed to tell, process and enjoy a good story. We have always used stories to improve collaboration, spread information and create a shared sense of identity. In 335 BC, Aristotle stated “a story that is whole has a beginning, middle and an end.”

Today, if you look at the blockbuster movie Black Panther or best-selling book Becoming by Michelle Obama or the outstanding advertisement, Dream Crazy by Nike, you will see that the recipe for success has pretty much remained the same. Recent developments in neuroscience reveal that a well-told story aligns our brain with the narrators. Stories have the power to shape our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Companies like Walt Disney, Apple and Airbnb know stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone and have mastered the art of storytelling to build salient brands.

One of the most practical templates for crafting a compelling narrative is Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. Whether you’re an aspiring public speaker, a start-up looking for funding or a global brand planning your next advertisement; the core tenants of storytelling can be applied to improve your chances of success.

Related: Win More Business by Copying Nike’s Storytelling Playbook

3. We give and we take.

The rule of reciprocity is simple — when someone does something for us, we feel obliged to return the favor. From an evolutionary perspective, reciprocation enhances our species chances of survival. Social groups that cooperated achieved far more than individuals who worked in isolation. In contrast, people who received without giving back suffered social exclusion.

Today, our propensity to reciprocate is as strong as when our ancient ancestors first roamed the African savannah. The deep unconscious need to reciprocate explains why Spotify offers a 30-day free trial, restaurants give away free samples and online businesses share valuable advice and information via blogs. Savvy marketers have long recognized that consumers are more likely to pay for a service when you first gift them something of value.

Reciprocity can be a powerful tool for getting people to agree with your request. A simple act, gesture or gift has the potential turn a default “no” into a sincere “yes.” The keys are authenticity, respect and delivering real value to your counterpart.

Related: How Being Vulnerable Can Make You a Stronger Business Leader

Conclusion.

There have been very few biological changes to the human brain in the last 10,000 years. Of course, the outside world has undergone radical changes with the expansion of civilization and the use of ever more sophisticated tools. But the way we process things and make sense of the world has pretty much remained unchanged, shaped by the evolutionary need to survive.

Tapping into the unconscious mind is one of the most powerful means of influence. Applying a nudge can change behavior in a low-cost way, without reducing the number of choices available. Telling a compelling story can connect you with your audience more effectively than facts alone. And the act of giving is one of the best ways of getting people to agree and say yes.

Now, before you start using these deep human insights for business gains, please remember the eternal words of Spiderman’s Uncle Ben: “With great power comes great responsibility.” We have the opportunity to use these techniques for the greater good of humanity.

Go To Source

[seaofstardustrp]

Factions (Optional)

Not everyone on the ship identifies with a faction, but this post offers insight into the types of groups and tensions on the ship. Members are encouraged to join factions, manipulate their trajectories, or add their own. If you would like to add a faction, dm staff.

A PEOPLE FOR ELECTED DELEGATES

Unsatisfied with lottocracy, APED wants to go back to democratically elected representatives from each biome. Many people find this idea unsettling because the last group of elected officials ordered deadly force used on protestors. APED says this could have happened whether they were elected or not. They believe that a farmer or lab scientist couldn’t possibly understand well enough what was good for the ship. APED believes they need people versed in civics, communication, and mediation. They fear those unprepared are doomed to make disastrous decisions. Some of their grievances line up with that of the Vega Syndicate, but APED takes a more... refined approached. APED meets secretly, influences council decisions, and sows discontent among the population by building rumors and misrepresenting information. They use propaganda to infiltrate the minds of the crew. Some worry it's working. The current lottocracy, they say, leaves too much room for swinging decisions. One body might say one thing, then the next says another. And APED points to the recent edict forbidding naturally conceived babies as an example of poor leadership and decisionmaking.

CONGREGATION OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIMAGE

Selena Khote, the founder of CEP, was one of the original builders of Phoenix. She helped develop the AI running the ship, and she was of the first generation to leave Earth. All her life, her focus was on the ship’s AI. She nurtured it like a mother their child, and Selena was well respected throughout the ship. Many looked to her for leadership when representatives were still chosen and elected by vote. She always humbly refused. In her old age, 50 years after they left Earth, Selena became a recluse. She spent more and more time with the ship’s AI, speaking to it, teaching it, learning from it. No one knew quantum computing as well as she did and none could explain the patterns of code they saw when they looked at it.

Slowly, quietly, Selena emerged and spoke of God in the AI; she was convinced that which she did not understand in the AI was proof of a God. Some of the younger generations found her convincing and listened raptly as Selena said the ship wanted us to go onward, beyond Trappist to coast the expanse of space. On and on they will fly, charting planets and stars, until they reach the confounding edge of space.

When Selena was 86 years old, she was blocked from communicating with the AI. Engineers claimed she was poisoning the ship’s logic. They erased much of the AI, and it was as if they killed Selena’s child. Riots spread. One of the biomes suffered a cataclysmic fire which took decades to recover from. And Selena Khote, respected and beloved genius, was killed in the fire. The Pilgrims wept and surrendered, seeing dead shipmates all around them.

Without their leader, CEP was allowed to remain. Many people were sentenced to death of personality, and the congregation shifted from open protest to quiet prayers and demonstrations in an attempt to convert others to the belief of limitless potential in traveling through space. CEP now holds their own counsel. Recently though, the group has become more vocal as Deceleration Day approaches. For all their attempts, they’ve been unable to convince many on the ship that they should not slow down but continue onward. Keep the engines thrusting, for they see their destination, not in Trappist, but forever in the twinkling stars of uncharted systems.

The scars from the Revolt of 59 have faded. Most don't even know the AI once had a personality. All they know is CEP protested, security responded, use of force was issued, and a cataclysmic fire killed many shipmates and destroyed precious land. CEP is seen an oddity and a freakshow of zealots now.

CLANKERS

The term Clanker was is often used a derogatory one, but young cybernetic enthusiasts started using the slang as a badge of honor. Such enthusiasts abound on Phoenix. Many people feel like the future of humanity is part human and part machine. They see technology and body mods as a right to every individual, and space requires more than the human body is capable of. They have been a minority since leaving Earth, but Clankers study the feeds from Earth (an Earth 20 years ago due to the time delay), and they see the continued advancements of bionics and mechatronics. Because they are in the minority, they usually thumb their noses at authority and many even have records. Once mods are installed, it is risky and costly to remove them, but getting caught doesn’t mean you walk away without much trouble. Unauthorized body and tech mods land people in undesirable sectors, cleaning carp ponds and slug beds and squeezing into tight and dangerous places on the ship. Their mods are then used however leadership might see fit, especially if this clanker has been a thorn in their sides. It’s not illegal to have unsanctioned mods, but it is stigmatized.

RETURNERS

It was never the decision of these current generations to go coasting through space to some foreign star system. Returners feel their ancestors were stupid, blinded by the what-ifs and the dream of charting the stars. Returners see a mission doomed to fail. They ask different what-if’s from their predecessors. Such as what if the planet is uninhabitable? What if the biomes fail (as some say they already are)? What if the reason we’ve found no aliens is that no one is meant to leave their home planet? Returners believe the best chances are behind them, to fly back toward Earth, their true home, and forget about populating the stars. There are some within this faction that do thought-experiments on taking over the ship, staging a mutiny and reprogramming the route. No one outside the Returners thinks much of such rumblings. They are a minority after all. They are considered craven. They are laughed at and told they wouldn’t even live long enough to make it back home. Returners don’t care. They think it was unnatural to be put in this space ship in the first place.

VEGA SYNDICATE

A lot of people don't pay much mind to the youth gangs roaming the ship. Those who give them much thought usually call them ferals because it's rumored that some of them sleep in the wilds. They use the depths to navigate throughout the ship, stealing, hoarding from others, and spying, but most are just dispassionate youth. The system doesn't work for everone—the tests, the rules, the structures. Even the humanities are stifling. The youth group is mostly harmless and they are called Vegas in a dismissive tone. However, some of the youth do end up being absorbed into an organized underground.

The Vega Syndicate is named after Aamil Vega, a worker in the Maintenance sector. The man was known as a bull who defended his workers vehemently. He was vocal in his protest of some of the work given to the sector, the dangerous jobs in the wilds, the risky spacewalks, and the tough life of cleaning up after everyone on the ship. Aamil felt he and his fellow workers were exploited. It was suspected that when a student showed no aptitude toward science or art, they were funneled into maintenance. They were dumb wrench monkeys. Aamil Vega started to help people disappear. It might sound impossible in a closed system, but the wilds of the ship are difficult to navigate, and maintenance knows it better than anyone. They helped people leave their unsatisfying lives and work and live on their own.

Aamil Vega was eventually caught and charged for sowing discord and sentenced to death of personality as an extreme measure because they feared his charismatic reach. He took his own life within 6 months after the erasure. Now, the organization specializes in synthetic drugs and bionics. Some members believe in the original mission—freedom of choice—and they still see Phoenix as a cage. The ship could be better. Their lives could be better.

[nerdshed]

I Believe in America

Bonasera famously begins the Godfather with the words, “I believe in America. America has made my fortune.” Those words have sung out to me from the first time I saw Godfather. I did not see it until the early 90s. It was a bizarre April or May blizzard in Boston and I worked the 7 to 3 shift at the Charles Street Garage. Since there was no T service or cabs on the unplowed streets, I had hiked to work for triple pay in 1-2 foot snow drifts. By the time I cabbed home, it was in the low sixties and the snow banks were melting so fast that the water was backing up to the grates in all the corner drains.

My roommates were all puffing joints and getting ready to start the movie they had rented from Blockbuster…or Videosmith…. That’s right, you heard me. They rented a tape from one of two or more video stores that were walking distance to our apartment.

I told them I had never seen it and everyone gave me the same:

“WHAT???”

“Really? You? McFadden?”

“DUDE,  kinda need to see this.”

I think the big part of the disbelief is the previous quarter,  I had performed a satirical Brando-esque Voodoo mob boss. The movie was called Akira Kurasawa’s Knuckle Sandwich. It was a voodoo gang vs a Kung Fu gang. It sounds better than it is, but it was all Moxie, I can guarantee that.

So I had phoned in a ridiculous performance of Brando mimicry, down to the cheek stuffing I used to blow up my still-developing jowels.

We started the movie and I was immediately sucked in. The Corleone family dynamics and the wedding scene that goes on and on. I have often thought if just the wedding itself could be a stand alone movie. It is insane. It is a genius device to introduce the large set of characters we are going to see play out over the next few hours.

The Godfather, to me, is not really a gangster movie. It is a movie about America. The crime family is more of a metaphor to me. Behind every great fortune is a great crime. America hasn’t paid for hers yet, and our living in denial of those crimes is why the Don Vito/Don Michael plan to go straight or legitimate is a fool’s quest. When Michael confesses to the priest in III, the priest says, “Your sins are terrible and you deserve to suffer,”

Are any of us living today directly responsible for the great crimes that led to our great fortune? Not really, but some our ancestors are still in living memory. While the world has changed so quickly over the last 130 years, It has made dealing with the trauma’s of the era very hard to comprehend.

Think of it how our food systems work. In my grandparents time, they almost all worked constantly. People could pretty much eat what they wanted as it was all burned off on the farm. A great majority of us burned thousands of calories a day. Within two generations we went from waking with sun to milk cows before school to sedentary office cows that drink fake creamer. Historically, there is no other rapid change like this that I aware of. Of course, we got obese with a quickness. People didn’t understand how much we changed, how much the world changed.

It is the same with the trauma of our history. Large portions of our population were dragged here in bondage, add in a whole bunch of religious zealots considered to weird for Holland…HOLLAND! To round out this fine setup is a colonist movement that relied on the unknowing killing of probably 90 percent of the locals by disease to make landfall, then voluntary genocide of those people that had survived the smallpox.

We were basically handed an easy conquest. Now, before you jump in and say, “But, Nate, this was hard work and rugged individualism and so forth,”  — Yes, shit was hard, I would never survive this era without my creature comforts. That being said, compared to most things of the time, it was a piece of cake.

So why do I love America? It is because it is a place of aspiration. The American story that always hooks me is the idea of making things better. Yes, the beginning was total bullshit — White men with property…you’ll notice this head start has been almost impossible to overcome. Some folks hit the lottery, both figurative and metaphorically, but generally you stay where start for the first 150 years of this great experiment. I didn’t used to think it was possible, until I did it.

America loves mythology, looking back and saying, “It was bound to happen!”

Sigh….it’s a load of hot freedom.

Usually it is about being at the right place at the right time. Granted if you can be less risk averse you will do better with your wave when it crests. Yes, I worked hard to get where I am, but I took a few huge risks. Also I had the help of a lot of people and programs. Scholarships, student loans, assistance…they all helped me. I didn’t even graduate college, but I did the hustle, and did the work. If it had not been for all the help though, I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.

For all of my poking a thumb in the eye of authority my entire life, I take being a citizen of the US pretty seriously. I fully acknowledge my privilege as a white man. It is not guilt and it is not shame about who I am or what I am. I owe this place for the tremendous opportunities it has given me. It informs a lot of things I do. (Much of which I don’t discuss publicly — It’s the Winchester Rule…from MASH…)

The two words that run through my mind about America are Liberty and Justice. A lot of white Americans or privileged Americans love to talk about liberty. Freedom don’t mean shit without justice. For the those with privilege it is easy to get caught up about liberty. I’ve been there. I didn’t know what it meant to be denied justice, at least on no scale that counts! (I’m looking at you decision to ban me from Facebook for 24 hours for photoshopping a dong to Mitch McConnell.)

So how to reconcile these two things? America was a place I could jump up to a higher class and be accepted there. I have immense gratitude. I also know it still isn’t as possible as it could be for others, and that is horseshit.

That is where we are the most broken, too. I used to get all those people that said, ‘it don’t matter who you vote for’, which is the more depressing and less poetic way to say, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing else to lose.”

The more all of us feel that we have a stake in what we do and where we live, the more we will be less likely to give our freedom away to oligarchs here and abroad.

That’s right, socialism saves democracy AND freedom AND justice.

No atonement means suffering our sins.

[180brg]

Luke 6

In Charge of the Sabbath

1-2 On a certain Sabbath Jesus was walking through a field of ripe grain. His disciples were pulling off heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to get rid of the chaff, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing that, breaking a Sabbath rule?”

3-4 But Jesus stood up for them. “Have you never read what David and those with him did when they were hungry? How he entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat? He also handed it out to his companions.”

5 Then he said, “The Son of Man is no slave to the Sabbath; he’s in charge.”

6-8 On another Sabbath he went to the meeting place and taught. There was a man there with a crippled right hand. The religion scholars and Pharisees had their eye on Jesus to see if he would heal the man, hoping to catch him in a Sabbath infraction. He knew what they were up to and spoke to the man with the crippled hand: “Get up and stand here before us.” He did.

9 Then Jesus addressed them, “Let me ask you something: What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?”

10-11 He looked around, looked each one in the eye. He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out—it was as good as new! They were beside themselves with anger, and started plotting how they might get even with him.

The Twelve Apostles

12-16 At about that same time he climbed a mountain to pray. He was there all night in prayer before God. The next day he summoned his disciples; from them he selected twelve he designated as apostles:

Simon, whom he named Peter, Andrew, his brother, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Simon, called the Zealot, Judas, son of James, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

You’re Blessed

17-21 Coming down off the mountain with them, he stood on a plain surrounded by disciples, and was soon joined by a huge congregation from all over Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seaside towns of Tyre and Sidon. They had come both to hear him and to be cured of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many people healed! Then he spoke:

You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all. God’s kingdom is there for the finding. You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry. Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal. You’re blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning.

22-23 “Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—skip like a lamb, if you like!—for even though they don’t like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.

Give Away Your Life

24 But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made.    What you have is all you’ll ever get.

25 And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself.    Your self will not satisfy you for long. And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games.    There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.

26 “There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.

27-30 “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

31-34 “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

35-36 “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

37-38 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”

39-40 He quoted a proverb: “‘Can a blind man guide a blind man?’ Wouldn’t they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn’t lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.

41-42 “It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

Work the Words into Your Life

43-45 “You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.

46-47 “Why are you so polite with me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.

48-49 “If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was a total loss.”

[lotsofdogs]

5 Steps to Better Gut Health

What Is a Healthy Gut and Why Does It Matter?

More and more attention is being paid to the digestive system. We know that we feel better when our stomachs are happy.

Issues like gas, bloating, constipation and diarrhea are not fun to deal with. In fact, they have a significant effect on mood and mindset.

However, scientists are discovering that digestive or gut health has more of an impact on overall health than previously thought. In fact, digestive problems have been linked to:

Autoimmune disease

Arthritis

Allergies

Skin rashes and acne

Chronic fatigue

Mood disorders

Autism

Dementia

Diabetes

And even cancer

The more they learn about the bacteria in your digestive tract, the more they discover just how vital it is to optimal health. In fact, according to scientists, there are 500 species of bacteria in your gut. They average a whopping total weight of around three pounds.

This vast collection of bacteria helps digest the food you eat. They regulate your hormones, help eliminate toxins from your body and they even produce vitamins and other nutrients that support good health and a strong immune system. If this balance of bacteria becomes tipped, meaning there’s more bad than good, then it can cause serious health problems.

Chances are that you’ve also suffered from the occasional bout of digestive discomfort. You may have been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux, or even Crohn’s or colitis. You’re not alone – more than 100 million Americans have digestive problems.

In fact, there are more than 200 over-the-counter (OTC) remedies for digestive disorders. Unfortunately, many of these remedies cause more problems than they solve. They can interfere with the proper functioning of your digestive system and worsen the problem or create new issues.

Taking steps to achieve good gut health helps you prevent or reduce your risk of developing gastrointestinal problems or illness. Before you can achieve good gut health, though, it’s important to have a basic understanding of how your digestive system works.

How Your Digestive System Works

Your digestive system is a series of several parts. In addition to accessory organs like the gallbladder and liver, you have your stomach, small intestine, large intestine and pancreas. Each part of the path, from your mouth to your colon, is responsible for some part of the digestive process. And it’s a complicated process.

Your body needs to add fluid and enzymes to break food down, then extract the nutrients. Fluid is constantly being added and removed from the system to facilitate the processes. Bacteria, bile, and water are all players in the digestive process, as are enzymes.

If any of these elements are out of balance, your digestion is affected. Bacteria can grow out of control, and they can die too. Your enzymes may be deficient.

You may have too much or not enough fluid. The fluid balance is often the difference between constipation and diarrhea or absorption and malabsorption. So fluid balance is important for proper functioning. What you put into your stomach can have an effect on fluid balance.

For example, if you eat salty foods then your body has to pull fluid from your cells to help balance the ratio in your gut. This can cause dehydration and ultimately it can lead to constipation and digestive problems.

Eating a low fiber and high fat diet can cause problems too. Fiber essentially pushes material through your gut. If the waste becomes stuck in your digestive system it can injure the delicate lining of your gut.

This not only causes pain and discomfort, it can also cause an immune response and food sensitivities. Diverticulitis is one example of food particles becoming trapped in the lining of the intestines and causing severe pain and damage.

Your gut has a lot of tasks to manage and each task is responsible for keeping you healthy – both physically and mentally. When you have good gut health, you’re better able to manage any challenges that come your way and you’re less likely to become ill.

Because your gut health is so important, the remainder of this report is dedicated to providing you with steps to build and maintain good gut health.

Five Steps to Good Gut Health

We’re about to share five different steps that you can take to improve your digestive health. Each one of these steps independently will have a significant impact on your overall mental and physical well-being, as the two are intricately linked.

Attempting to adopt all these steps into your lifestyle can and will feel overwhelming. Take it easy on yourself and focus on one step at a time. Set goals, create a plan and give yourself several weeks to make each step a habit and part of your daily routine.

Some steps will be easier and will resonate with you more than others.

It’s okay to start with the step that seems most approachable and reasonable for you right now. Keep in mind that you don’t have to be 100% perfect. For example, if one step is to get eight hours of sleep each night and you only get five hours of sleep tonight, that isn’t a sign of failure nor is it a signal to give up.

Assess what happened, make changes, and move forward. Don’t let mistakes or bumps in the road set you back. Good health and well-being is a lifelong pursuit, not an overnight achievement.

On that note, let’s start with the first step towards good gut health – it may be the most difficult yet most powerful step you can take for your health.

Step #1 Eat Whole, Unprocessed Foods

Busy lives mean that many of us turn to foods that are quick and easy to eat. We eat boxes of cereal, frozen pizzas and food that comes in a can. These foods are processed. The nutrients are often seriously depleted and fat, sugar, and chemicals are added to make them taste appealing.

These foods can wreak havoc in your gut. Not only are the chemicals detrimental to the bacteria in your gut – the fat, sugar, and sodium levels cause digestive issues which over time can result in disease.

Whole foods are foods that have little or no processing. We’re talking about foods that don’t come in bags or boxes but rather as nature created them. Meat, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains are examples of whole foods.

One rule of thumb that makes it easier for some people to differentiate between whole and processed foods is to ask the question, “Did your great grandmother eat it?” Processed foods are a relatively new commodity and one that our ancestors didn’t have access to.

So how do you make sure to eat more whole, unprocessed foods when you’re so busy? The key is to plan ahead. Find recipes that work for you and your lifestyle.

Make time to cook, even if it’s on the weekends, and stick to the produce section when you’re shopping. Whole foods can be quick and easy too.

For example, you might hard boil a dozen eggs on Sunday and have hard boiled eggs and a piece of fruit for breakfast during the week. That’s faster than a run through the fast food drive through and better for you than a bowl of sugary cereal.

Why whole foods? The simple answer is fiber. Fiber helps the good bacteria in your gut thrive. It also reduces any bad bacteria by moving material through your system in an effective and efficient way.

When material is allowed to sit in your gut, that’s when the bad bacteria have an opportunity to thrive. It’s when the lining of your digestive system can become irritated and inflamed and toxins can be produced.

Step #2 Identify and Eliminate Food Sensitivities and Allergies

It’s becoming more and more common for people to suffer from food sensitivities. On a very simple level food sensitivities and allergies can cause gas, bloating, and diarrhea or constipation.

On a more serious level they can cause skin irritation like acne or eczema; they can also cause inflammation, malnutrition, and depression or neurological symptoms.

The key to identifying if you have any sensitivity is to go on an elimination diet. Don’t worry; it’s not as difficult as it sounds. In fact, it’s pretty simple. You eliminate the most common allergens from your diet for two weeks.

You then gradually add them back into your diet one by one and assess how you feel.

For example, corn is a common irritant. If you eliminate it for two weeks and then add it back into your diet, you might get a headache. That’s a sign of sensitivity.

Common irritants include gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs and nuts. Consider keeping a journal to help you identify signs of sensitivity. Elimination diets aren’t difficult to manage with good planning, and they can be invaluable to help you identify foods that are making you sick.

AllergyEase Food & Chemical is a safe, non-addictive, natural remedy containing 100% homeopathic ingredients especially selected to provide relief from exposure to chemical irritants or over-sensitivity to the environment. This safe and effective remedy eases a full range of symptoms, including mucous congestion, headaches, gas and bloating, itchiness and mild swelling.

Formulated by our team of experts in natural medicine, AllergyEase Food & Chemical is a FDA-registered OTC homeopathic medicine that naturally offers fast-acting symptom relief from food and chemical allergy irritation. It should be used as directed to provide relief without the risk of addiction and other side effects.

AllergyEase Food & Chemical is taken internally and helps the body restore balance at a cellular level. Presented as a taste-free medicine in a pure water base, it is easy to ingest and hassle-free with no artificial colors or preservatives.

Learn more about AllergyEase Food & Chemical now. Why do we promote this?

Step #3 Balance the Bacteria

As previously mentioned, there are millions of bacteria in your gut and the vast majority of these bacteria are essential for your good health. When we’re in our mother’s uterus, we’re free from bacteria. The process of being born immediately exposes us to bacteria.

Scientists believe that the first few months of life essentially set the tone for the types of bacteria in and around our body. They call it the “Microbial cloud.”

We each have a somewhat unique cloud based on the home and family we’re born into – we are exposed to our parents’ bacteria and thus they become our bacteria.

Environmental influences and the food we eat can then tip the scale and support good gut health, or it can deplete the good bacteria in our gut and cause health problems.

You can keep your healthy bacteria in check by:

Cutting back on sugar – Bad bacteria thrive on sugar, so reducing it or cutting it out of your diet will help.

Getting more fiber in your diet – We’re back to whole foods including fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. Fiber helps move material through your system and creates a healthy environment for good bacteria to thrive.

Adding prebiotics to your diet – Prebiotics are nutrients that help create a healthy environment for good bacteria. They’ve been shown to reduce gastrointestinal diseases as well as improve digestion and absorption. While there are now supplement forms of prebiotics, the best sources are natural food sources. Onions, leeks, garlic, green leafy vegetables and whole grains can be excellent sources of prebiotics.

Add probiotics to your diet – Probiotics are actual organisms that impact digestion and help you enjoy a healthy gut. You can obtain probiotics by eating fermented foods, eating yogurt or cultured foods, and by taking supplements.

Common probiotics include:

Bifidobacterium lactis

Lactobacillus reuteri

Lactobacillus rhamnosus

Lactobacillus casei

If you’re adding probiotics to your diet via supplementation, take care to add them slowly. Adding too much, too quickly can cause digestive problems including nausea.

Step #4 Heal Your Gut

There’s a good chance that you have some irritation and inflammation in your gut already. If this isn’t repaired, it can become a problem down the road.

Chronic inflammation is the precursor to most if not all disease.

There are some easy ways to heal your gut including:

Getting enough Omega 3 fatty acids – Eat cold water fish several times a week or take an omega 3 supplement. It reduces inflammation throughout your body and healthy fats are great for your organs and vital systems.

Scientists have established the effectiveness of Omega 3 in a number of health areas, including your Heart, Brain, Joints, Skin, Immune system, Vision, and Digestion.

Like any product on the market today there are ‘good fish oils’ and there are ‘bad fish oils’! With a bad one you may be unwittingly introducing substances into your body that you DO NOT want… such as Mercury and PCB’s for example. We impose tougher standards on the purity of our fish oil than any other known manufacturer.

Our Omega-3 QH Ultra is an exclusive blend of omega 3 fish oils with high levels of DHA and EPA for extra strength, special ingredients for skin protection and repair, and CoQ10 Ubiquinol for heart and muscle health and cellular energy for over 40’s

Learn more about Xtend-Life’s Omega-3 QH Ultra now. Why do we promote this?

Get enough calcium, magnesium, glutamine and zinc – these nutrients have been shown to facilitate digestion and cellular repair as well as heal the lining of your digestive system. They can all be found in food sources. You can also supplement.

Cut back on unhealthy habits like drinking alcohol and smoking – both nicotine and alcohol cause inflammation throughout your body. If you are a drinker (more than two drinks a day) or a smoker, then cut back to improve your digestive health and heal your gut.

Step #5 Reduce Stress

Not too long ago people believed that stress caused ulcers and many digestive disorders. They now know that this isn’t true. However, chronic stress does release the hormone cortisol.

Cortisol reduces your immune system which increases inflammation. It also changes how you digest and absorb foods. It slows digestion down which can lead to constipation and bloating. It also causes an increase in stomach acid which can wear away at the lining.

All combined, stress causes significant damage to your digestive system.

There are many ways to reduce stress including but not limited to:

Exercise

Meditation

Participating in activities that bring you joy

Biofeedback

Aromatherapy

Massage and touch therapy

PureCalm – Herbal remedy to relieve anxiety, nervousness & symptoms of stress, plus calm moods

Remember that you don’t have to implement all of these steps at once. Identify one that you want to focus on and make it part of your life.

Even something as simple as taking a daily probiotic and adding vegetables to every meal can make a significant difference in your digestive health.

Using Herbs to Naturally Clean, Flush Your Colon

ColoFlush is a 100% safe, non-addictive natural herbal remedy formulated by our team of experts in the field of natural medicine to support the healthy functioning of the digestive system and support all organs involved in the body’s removal of solid waste.

ColoFlush can especially benefit those individuals who wish to naturally rejuvenate their digestive systems. The herbs used in ColoFlush promote healthy digestion and also support the systemic health of the colon, yet are gentle enough not to cause a loose, ‘crampy’ stomach.

ColoFlush may be used regularly to promote cleansing of the colon or be used prior to routine colonic procedures such as colonic irrigation.

The formula remains true to the whole spectrum method of herbal extraction, ensuring the bio-availability and balance of all the active ingredients contained in the remedy. This method of manufacture also significantly reduces the likelihood of side effects and maintains all active ingredients in perfect balance – exactly as nature intended!

All Native Remedies products are manufactured in an FDA-registered and cGMP-compliant pharmaceutical facility under the supervision of an expert team of herbalists, naturopaths, homeopaths and responsible pharmacists.

Learn more about ColoFlush. Why do we promote this?

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[personalcoachingcenter]

3 Human Traits That Haven't Changed for the Last 10,000 Years

New Post has been published on http://personalcoachingcenter.com/3-human-traits-that-havent-changed-for-the-last-10000-years/

3 Human Traits That Haven't Changed for the Last 10,000 Years

By placing too much emphasis on what’s next, companies risk overlooking and undervaluing the things that remain constant.

January 18, 2019 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Every December, the internet becomes awash with prophecies, predictions, trends and forecasts that paint a picture of a new year, completely different from the current — thanks to the rise of AR, VR, AI, ML, voice search and more. The main ingredient in these reports is change and the impact of change on business and society. There’s no doubt, technology is accelerating the pace of change. But what about the things that aren’t changing? By placing too much emphasis on what’s next, companies risk overlooking and undervaluing the things that remain constant.

There’s tremendous value in understanding the basic principles of human nature. Bill Bernbach, one of the fathers of advertising once said “It took millions of years for man’s instincts to develop. It will take millions more for them to even vary. It is fashionable to talk about changing man. A communicator must be concerned with unchanging man, with his obsessive drive to survive, to be admired, to succeed, to love, to take care of his own.”

Here are three human traits that have remained unchanged, since the dawn of civilization.

Related: How to Evolve Into the Person You Want to Become

1. We make irrational decisions.

We humans like to think of ourselves as rational animals, making decisions based on facts, logic and reasoning alone. In reality, our decision-making process is riddled with systematic errors, as proven by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in the 1970s with the discovery of cognitive biases. These biases act as mental shortcuts or rules of thumb — simplifying the decision-making process when faced with an infinite number of choices.

In truth, most of our choices are pre-determined by the unconscious part of the mind governed by instinct, associated memory and emotion. We often make automatic decisions and post-rationalize them through the prism of logic. By understanding our cognitive biases, we can begin to apply nudges to change individual or group behavior.

A simple nudge can increase the number of registered organ donors, help people save more for retirement and reduce spillage around urinals by 80 percent. Having a good understanding of nudge theory and choice architecture is a valuable asset for individuals who want to progress in their careers, companies that want to win new business and governments that want to improve the lives of citizens.

Related: 10 Psychological Tricks to Boost Your Website’s Sales

2. We love a good story.

Storytelling is an integral part of the human experience. In fact, the human brain has been programmed to tell, process and enjoy a good story. We have always used stories to improve collaboration, spread information and create a shared sense of identity. In 335 BC, Aristotle stated “a story that is whole has a beginning, middle and an end.”

Today, if you look at the blockbuster movie Black Panther or best-selling book Becoming by Michelle Obama or the outstanding advertisement, Dream Crazy by Nike, you will see that the recipe for success has pretty much remained the same. Recent developments in neuroscience reveal that a well-told story aligns our brain with the narrators. Stories have the power to shape our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Companies like Walt Disney, Apple and Airbnb know stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone and have mastered the art of storytelling to build salient brands.

One of the most practical templates for crafting a compelling narrative is Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. Whether you’re an aspiring public speaker, a start-up looking for funding or a global brand planning your next advertisement; the core tenants of storytelling can be applied to improve your chances of success.

Related: Win More Business by Copying Nike’s Storytelling Playbook

3. We give and we take.

The rule of reciprocity is simple — when someone does something for us, we feel obliged to return the favor. From an evolutionary perspective, reciprocation enhances our species chances of survival. Social groups that cooperated achieved far more than individuals who worked in isolation. In contrast, people who received without giving back suffered social exclusion.

Today, our propensity to reciprocate is as strong as when our ancient ancestors first roamed the African savannah. The deep unconscious need to reciprocate explains why Spotify offers a 30-day free trial, restaurants give away free samples and online businesses share valuable advice and information via blogs. Savvy marketers have long recognized that consumers are more likely to pay for a service when you first gift them something of value.

Reciprocity can be a powerful tool for getting people to agree with your request. A simple act, gesture or gift has the potential turn a default “no” into a sincere “yes.” The keys are authenticity, respect and delivering real value to your counterpart.

Related: How Being Vulnerable Can Make You a Stronger Business Leader

Conclusion.

There have been very few biological changes to the human brain in the last 10,000 years. Of course, the outside world has undergone radical changes with the expansion of civilization and the use of ever more sophisticated tools. But the way we process things and make sense of the world has pretty much remained unchanged, shaped by the evolutionary need to survive.

Tapping into the unconscious mind is one of the most powerful means of influence. Applying a nudge can change behavior in a low-cost way, without reducing the number of choices available. Telling a compelling story can connect you with your audience more effectively than facts alone. And the act of giving is one of the best ways of getting people to agree and say yes.

Now, before you start using these deep human insights for business gains, please remember the eternal words of Spiderman’s Uncle Ben: “With great power comes great responsibility.” We have the opportunity to use these techniques for the greater good of humanity.

Go To Source

[dfroza]

what does your heart worship while here in this world?

we all have to choose what our most sacred treasure of the heart will be (i’ve chosen Love who is Light)

this is seeing clear to me. it is grace. nothing in the world can take its place nor steal it from the inner room of who i am. it is the path that leads my spirit “Home” whenever that time will be.

the whole journey of earth in a physical body is a temporal experience that opens the door to the eternal [here, & now]

and so i’m not chasing after spiritual things apart from the Author who created my spirit, who is Light and Love itself

the closing track #13 from ‘98 off a self-titled album by Clear

and a portion from the ancient Script from Today’s reading in the book of Luke that mirrors this search of the heart:

You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all.

God’s kingdom is there for the finding.

You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.

Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.

You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.

Joy comes with the morning.

“Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—skip like a lamb, if you like!—for even though they don’t like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.

[Give Away Your Life]

But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made.

What you have is all you’ll ever get.

And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself.

Your self will not satisfy you for long.

And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games.

There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.

“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.

“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

“Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

“I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”

He quoted a proverb: “‘Can a blind man guide a blind man?’ Wouldn’t they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn’t lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.

“It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

[Work the Words into Your Life]

“You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.

“Why are you so polite with me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.

“If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was a total loss.”

The Book of Luke, Chapter 6:20-49 (The Message)

my reading from the Scriptures for march 2 and 3, day 72 and 73 of Winter and day 61 and 62 of the year