#they had german AND latin editions and i got to turn the pages :)

[chadlesbianjasontodd]

city view of nuremburg, the dance of death, and a scene from the apocalypse: selections from the nuremburg chronicle, 1493.

[bheithann]

MARVIN HEADCANON ( plus some revamping/retcons ) (edit: more information has been added.)

TATTOOS

Marvin doesn’t have Jack’s tattoos. He never wanted them, so he chose not to have them branded on his arms like some others did. Ultimately, he’s not Jack, and never was. Marvin is his own person and wants to show that off to everyone; to the fans, to the other Septics, and even strangers on the street. Marvin instead has tattoos that relate to the fact that he’s a magician, first and foremost. On his right arm is a full-length sleeve.  This is the one he chose to represent what the fans saw in him: the slight-of-hand, the pocket watch, the card tricks. All simple magic that he shows off for fun, for videos, and even when he’s bored. It’s what got him named in his debut video. 

On his left arm, left fore-arm, Marvin wears a symbol of his deity of choice, Cernunnos. This particular tattoo holds some magical energies inside it, a little extra boost of magicka to keep him going when he’s exhausted other energies. Both tattoos are done in black ink, with only added hints of color in his sleeve. It’s just enough color to make it pop. The deity is strictly done with solid black lines, and the magic added to it gives it the tiniest shimmer, seen in direct sunlight.

On his forehead, is a small blue diamond. It’s not large, and it’s supposed to resemble a jewel one might wear. This is nothing more than a personal symbol to the world that Marvin is powerful, and he’s more than just a stage magician, he’s got real magic that he rarely shows off.

These tattoos might not seem much to the average person, but to Marvin and the other Septics, it means he is absolutely not one to be messed with.

DEITY

Marvin worships Cernunnos, the Celtic God of life, animals, wealth, underworld. This ties into his celtic pagan roots, as Marvin probably has a great respect for nature all around. It is not above his nature to keep a small garden of plants and herbs for alchemy, healing use, and witchcraft. But it’s also why Marvin doesn’t personally have any pets: he has a great respect for animals as a whole.  Animals are to be left alone, not toyed with or hunted for sport. Marvin probably also takes his worship up a notch by refraining from animal products, excepting the occasional indulgence.

Marvin doesn’t talk about his worship much, because he’s not sure anyone cares, but he performs a small, daily ritual in order to receive blessings. He does this in private, in his bedroom, long before anyone else wakes up for the day. He’s able to meditate and reflect on why he’s seeking this deity out, and reflecting upon how it’ll help him in his magic use. It’s an arrangement that makes him happy, and he sees no reason to change things up.

To add: Cernunnos was the deity his parents devoted their coven around. The deity is Gaul Celtic, rather than Irish Celtic (Gaul being tribes that aren’t in Ireland). Marvin’s parents would definitely have this in mind, tracing their bloodline back to ancient Belgian tribes. Naturally, Marvin would pick this tradition up as well, after also doing his research on his bloodline and ancestors.

KNOWLEDGE

I’ve said before in threads and various headcanons that Marvin has a thirst for more knowledge. I never specified what kind of knowledge, just that he’s always studying. What he reads into a lot, and even tries to apply it to daily life is the study and practice of Hermeticism. This is a religious and philosophical practice attributed to the writings of Hermes Trismegistus. This practice had people back in the middle ages turning to superstition and magic, because of the idea of controlling nature. Marvin doesn’t have access to any of these writings now, but he is looking into some way to find and translate them, more out of a curiosity for himself. He has also looked into the history and lore of Nigromancy, or the study of black magic. Of course Marvin is going to be tempted and lured by powerful arts, but he has his reasons for staying firmly neutral.

There is so much knowledge that Marvin is constantly seeking out. He has a desire to learn everything he can about his own abilities, when magic came to be, how it works, and how to use it. There’s an entire eternity of things to read about, and he feels like his time is running out.

Marvin would also not be fluent in very many languages. He’s familiar with Latin, and he knows Irish almost fluently. Marvin probably would have also studied German, French, and Dutch, even Arabic. He’s not fluent in many of those languages, though he does know enough to be able to pick up on pieces here and there. Marvin tends to use a translator for what he doesn’t understand to fill in the blanks.

He’s very familiar with, and owns a copy of Picatrix, an Arabic book written somewhere in the 11th century. It’s a 400 page document that mostly consists of magic and astrology, so it would have a very special place on Marvin’s bookshelf.

BACKSTORY

Marvin isn’t an anomaly. He doesn’t have magic, just because. He can trace his family roots back to the 16th century, having roots in pagan worship and general practice. He doesn’t have much knowledge about that, but he does know he comes from a long line of powerful magic users. His own parents were part of a coven, and due to an unpreventable tragedy during a ritual gone wrong, Marvin’s parents were trapped in a void, unable to come back or re-open the portal, and anyone else who could potentially help died. Marvin was only two years old when this happened, and ever since then, he’d been raised by his grandmother. She encouraged him to keep learning and keep practicing until he became stronger. 

His life’s goal is to become as powerful as he possibly could, in order to open that very portal that holds his parents trapped, and to free them. He’s taken years to get to where he is now, and it’s going to take some time longer yet.

Marvin is also aware that one former coven member is still alive, still around, and probably has a lot of answers. Marvin wants to find him and get those answers, but he doesn’t know where to start looking. It hasn’t stopped him from trying anyway. 

WHAT HE KNOWS NOW

Marvin is only dimly aware of the multiverse. He doesn’t have enough knowledge on it to make good use out of it, but he knows enough to know it exists, and that there are multiple realities. He’s run into the same problem: he can’t open the door to other timelines on his own, he’d need some sort of help. He could reach out beyond the veil and seek out another magic user if he really wanted, but Marvin’s got too much pride and is far too stubborn to admit defeat.

He’s also aware that he’s in a sideways universe to our reality. He’s aware he’s a character behind the screen, he’s aware that to us, he’s only an ego. But in his reality, Marvin is very real and very powerful. His powers allow him to see just enough to know he’s not the only one, but not enough to enter. Thus, he studies and practices, and works hard so he can get to that point. The copius amount of studying his own history helps him out a great deal. Without the knowledge of the middle ages and what kickstarted magic, Marvin wouldn’t be as far as he is now.

WHAT HE CALLS HIMSELF

He’s not a mage. He’s not a wizard. He’s not a warlock. He could arguably call himself a sorcerer, but Marvin feels that doesn’t fit either. He’s incredibly powerful, but not powerful enough, so he studies and educates himself. He practices magic religiously, several hours a day. When he’s not studying, he’s using magic in his every day career, as a stage magician. It’s only small shows put on at least once a week for cityfolk, and he tours around for more money. He owns his own theater, he answers to a manager. He doesn’t at all find it degrading; it’s something to do in between his own quest to become more powerful. 

Thus, marvin calls himself a scholar. The education and history is important to him in order for him to understand the whys and hows, and it’s equally as important as the actual usage of magic. No other label or title suits him, and scholar fits quite nicely.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE FUTURE

This doesn’t change his overall personality. Marvin is still an arrogant asshole who places himself first. He’s still distrustful of most people and would stop at nothing to protect the other Septics. He still has powerful enchantments on their home, designed to keep intruders and even lesser supernatural creatures out. He makes use of his magic to help people when they need it, be it healing an injury, a spell to help them rest, or even something to soften their mood if they need to be calmed.

There are going to be more mentions and subtle references to his new arc and lore.. Marvin is going to have more knowledge about the veil keeping the timelines separate, he’ll make references to other ‘septics’ and even quite possible reference the multiverse in general. Marvin is going to be closed off when it comes to actually talking about his family history, because that’s a pain and anguish he’s not ready to share yet.

I might make changes to what powers and magic he currently has, but I’m not going to list everything, just the basics. ‘Everything’ would be a list longer than this post and I’m not really willing to spend that much time and effort into that particular bit of knowledge. We’ll just say Marvin knows a lot of spells, and leave it at that.

Anyway, this post got super long, so I’m going to leave it off here. If I think of anything else, I’ll make a new post to continue this one. Thanks for reading!

[kanaruaizawa16]

Kanaru Abe Presents: Elkin Ramírez, vocals & leader on Kraken until 2017

From: Kraken Photosets Series 7/7

Banner: Photo from the Mägo de Oz Fest 2013 at Bogotá, Colombia, November 9th 2013. Drawing by Kanaru Abe 1- With bassist Luis Ramírez on Vive Latino 2014, on Ciudad de México, March 2014. 2- I don’t know the time where this photo was taken. Found as one of the banners of the official page of the band 3- Again with Luis Ramírez and having him as his “pillow”, apparently performing “Vestido de Cristal”. This photo is from June 20th 2015, his last live, in Royal Center Theater in Bogotá, before he was diagnosed with the illness which would end up taking his life. 4- From 2011, originally was taken for an interview with “El Colombiano” Journal. It was included later on the last pages of “La Fortaleza del Titán” book, written by Rafael González Toro. 5- Full-band photo, in 2013 in México. Apparently the transporter did not pay some taxes and they ended up with the car inmobilized... 6- From a 2012 year live in Bogotá. 7- Being “sandwiched” by Luis Ramírez (left) and Andrés Leiva (right), with Rubén Gélvez (up) being the “topping” of the “sandwich”, on a photo inside their hotel room in México in 2013 year. 8- Playing with one of the cameras who were used for the recording of “Kraken 30 Años: La Fortaleza del Titán“ DVD, at the end of “Sin Miedo al Dolor”, at the Orquideorama of Jardín Botánico of Medellín, Colombia, December 18th 2013. 9- Taking a rest and eating a “cholado” (a typical sweet drink with fruits of Southwest of Colombia) in Cali, Colombia, in March 15 2015, while promoting the “La Fortaleza del Titán” book there.

----

Name: Elkin Fernando Ramírez Zapata Nicknames: El Indio Pepe (childhood nickname), Jefe/Jefecito (”Boss”, by his bandmantes and some fans), Titán (reference to the band, most of the fans call him this way), Nando (”Fernando” variant, by his mother; his parents didn’t call him by his first name) Birthplace: Medellín, Colombia Birthdate: October 26th, 1962 Day of death: January 29th, 2017 (Medellín, Colombia) Entered on Kraken in: June 18th 1984 (founding member) Positions: Vocals, Lyrics, General Director (until his passing) Albums he appears: Todo Hombre es una Historia Demo-EP (1986) (Vocals, lyrics) Escudo y Espada Demo-EP (1986) (Vocals, lyrics) Kraken I (1987) (Vocals, lyrics, cover artwork) Kraken II (1989) (Vocals, lyrics, cover artwork) Kraken III (1990) (Vocals, lyrics, cover artwork) Kraken IV: Piel de Cobre (1993) (Vocals, lyrics, cover artwork, production) Kraken V: El Símbolo de la Huella (1995) (Vocals, lyrics) Una Leyenda del Rock! (1999) (Vocals, lyrics, production) Huella y Camino (2002 & 2005) (Vocals, lyrics) Tributo Nacional al Titán (2004; cover album produced by Andrés Felipe Muñoz, drummer and leader of Tr3s de Corazón) (Vocals on “Escudo y Espada” self-cover by Kraken) Filarmónico (2006) (Vocals, lyrics) Humana Deshumanización (2009) (Vocals, lyrics, cover artwork) Kraken VI: Sobre Esta Tierra (2016) (Vocals, lyrics, production) Kraken 30 Años: La Fortaleza del Titán (live DVD 2014&2017) (Vocals) El Legado (2017; compilatory, limited edition and collector-targeted EP release produced by Psychophony Records) (Appears as vocals in all the tracks; the booklet included some of his manuscript writtings) 

Other bands: Former member of Lemon Juice (1980-1981), Kripzy (1982) and Ferrotrack (1983) Guest vocals for several bands on Colombian rock scene, among them Arckano (”Milicia”, 2012) and Tr3s de Corazón (”La Estupidez de Este Mundo Demente”, 2011)

Other work info: (Former) owner of Athenea Producciones (independent music label, where Kraken is) Former singing private teacher Formation in painting, sculpture, writting and singing; self-taught, since he decided don’t go to University

One day, a nameless band by young guys of Medellín needed a vocal, and then it was recommended a guy with a powerful and skilled voice who was getting some name in the underground rock scene of Medellín. But Elkin already was in Ferrotrack, so he put a condition to the guys: They had to practice a lot for a year, and if they were able of pull it the repertory, he would join them. Clearly, they got it. The day Elkin decided to leave Ferrotrack and join this project was June 18th, 1984. By then it was also decided, by idea of Elkin, the name of that band: Kraken.

The reason Elkin became the de facto leader was because he was the oldest one and he was the only who had the time for manage things such as the money of the lives, representate the guys or travelling in bus for get people for lives, since all his mates were still finishing school or doing University, by then. Also, his mates of then trusted him to write the lyrics of all the songs, something that he always liked.

The demo EPs made enough noise on Medellín, and eventually they earned enough attention to sign a music label contract and record Kraken I, who was successful on the local scene, a major goal, and eventually Kraken II, who led them to mainstream recognizement with Vestido de Cristal.

But Kraken also had loads of lineup changes, mostly because of the struggles to stay on a band, responsabilities, and in some cases the economical issue, since Colombian labels weren’t (and aren’t) really interested on support rock. By late 1995, the only remaining original member in the band was Elkin himself. Because of this, he decided to take a decision: To protect the band legally and make it an organization where he would be the general boss, because of suffering of the project because of the greed of the intermediaries. This is because for him, Kraken was not only his band, it was his life project. So, since 1996, he was the legal boss of the band, not only a leader. This did not save the band of too many changes until 00s, but was a warrant of survivance for the project over the years.

Only after of this decision, Kraken could eventually manage to do a live album, the Huella y Camino, their most sold release. But in 2003, Elkin decided to move from Medellín to Bogotá, tired of the stagnation of the scene of his hometown. He even dared to say that if the band stayed in Medellín, it would have disbanded. Only then, he could form what is today the actual lineup, and the project Kraken Filarmónico, pioneer in Colombia and Latin America, as well as a theater-concept live such as the 30 years lives and stay in the scene, with high-quality albums and international tours for several parts of Latin America, even despite of the issues with mainstream media.

But in 2015, he was found with a brain malign tumour, what put temporally Kraken VI in a hold because of surgeries and very expensive treatments, but still he managed to record the vocals. Sadly, after of the release (September 2016), his health decayed fast, though most details of the actual situation were known only by 2017. While his passing was for most fans a shock, because they did really expect Elkin to survive, when the details of the situation were known, it was revealed that by December 2016, his days were already numbered.

The moment I decided to get interested to Kraken, officially, was January 26th 2017, because of a class of German. It was three days before of Elkin’s passing as final result of his illness: January 29th. I still remember the shock and surprise when I did see a tweet of a journal here, as well as remembering my classes. One week later, I looked for them in Spotify, and then my life turned out a madness.

If I have to describe him from what I learned all this time, I realized this guy just caused me a major shortcut in my potato brain. Even after he left this world, his music and legacy had kept touching the hearts of people. It shocked me seriously that he was already describe as kind and humble by others even when he was alive, I remember clearly my drama when I got Filarmónico album, from 2006, and I did read the text of Mr. Jaramillo (director of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá for this album) talking about Elkin. I think it’s a major drama to me because a band like Kraken I found it when I was already dealing with major disappointment of people, and I had became a very gloomy person. I still have some of these traits, but I admit that they had subdued.

It is impressive he had this powerful stage presence, this powerful voice, and at same time being a soft-spoken guy, and very sweet from what I could analyze. I still feel sometimes very angry with myself that I took forever to find about him. But, life allowed me to meet his son and his bandmates of the actual lineup. And, this talks more of him than what I would think: Andrés Ramírez is obvious his sweetness is because he was well-raised and his job for the band had been very good. And the kindness of the actual lineup and their compromise for keep the job, is a good reason to understand why this is the most stable lineup of Kraken.

In March 2016, the guys of the actual lineup organized a pair of small lives as a in-life tribute to their boss. About this, Elkin only said that what he dreamed the most with his band was to have something like a family, and that day he realized that he had it.

With this part I finish the “Kanaru Presents” series with Kraken.

#GraciasTitán

[theattainer]

The Most Amazing Books People Found in a Dumpster

https://thefateofbooks.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/99.png?w=634

https://theattainer.com/the-most-amazing-books-people-found-in-a-dumpster/

The Most Amazing Books People Found in a Dumpster

I spent a long time thinking about whether I really wanted to write this post. A very common misconception about old books is that you can divide them up into two categories: 1) rare and valuable books, and 2) everything else. The first category needs to be given special attention, preserved, and protected; the second category is literally trash. You often encounter this dichotomy in online discussions of old books, and even many of the professionals embrace it uncritically. To give an example, there is an apparently popular TV show about searching for antiques at yard sales, which regularly regales its viewers with a quiz titled “Dumpster or No Dumpster;” the implication being, of course, that if a certain item isn’t fit for Sotheby’s, it can safely be thrown away.

I worried that by focusing on a select few items that somebody had trashed and that turned out to be valuable, I would just be feeding this misconception. If everyone is aware that a tiny percentage of old books can be very valuable, this might get people to research their books more carefully before trashing them. However, once the appraisers predictably discover that 99% of their books have little value, they will nonetheless proceed to throw these books out. While better than nothing, this is not exactly a huge improvement of the status quo.

Pictured: The 99%.

If my readers forgive me for stating the moral of this post in advance, I would like the post to instead help inculcate a deep agnosticism with respect to second-hand books. Yes, some items are obviously very valuable, but even for most books that seem unimpressive at first glance, there is a collector somewhere who is searching for this exact copy. Even when the book itself is common, the signature, library stamp, marginalia, or merely the level of preservation can make it very rare or unique, and even if nobody is interested in it now, somebody might covet this exact copy 50 years from now. Hence, please be nice, help preserve old books even if AbeBooks says they aren’t worth much, and don’t be the person whom future collectors will curse. Well, now that I’ve stated it, without further ado:

1. Tartars in the Library

To get an overview of the insane stuff that can be found among the trash in rich countries, there is probably no better resource than Garbage Finds. This Montreal-based blogger earns a living from the stuff he finds in his city’s trash cans, with the most interesting pieces being posted online. From the dumpsters, he regularly hauls jewellery, gold and silver items, antiques, valuable art, as well as bags of (still valid) coins and rolls of (still valid) banknotes. There doesn’t seem to be a single item out there that would be too valuable for people to throw into the garbage. And while one could use this as an excuse to sneer at Canadians, there is no particular reason to expect Americans, Germans or Japanese to behave much differently.

Our blogger regularly finds books as well, though only the most impressive items make it into his posts. Perhaps the record-holder here is a book he casually mentions in one of the posts, tucked between a spate of other antiques he found in a single dumpster, among them pre-Columbian pottery and a number of 19th century photographs and art. The author of the post is no book expert, so he guessed that the volume might be from the late 19th century as well, but his commentariat quickly set him straight and explained that the year 1610, printed on the last page, is very likely genuine.

It’s hard to be certain based on the pictures that were included into the post, but it seems that the leather-bound volume found in a Montreal dumpster includes at least two separate works which were bound together not long after being printed. The first is a historical work printed in 1610 and dedicated to the elector John George I of Saxony. Since the title page is missing, so is the title, but the last page says that the book was printed in Leipzig by the printer Henning Grosse Jr.

The second book was printed at the same location in 1611, and this time the title page is present. The book is a German adaptation of the travels of Marco Polo, or Chorographia Tartariae, as the book’s Latin name is spelled. At least one map is present, depicting the island of Rhodes, which definitely increases the value of the book. Of special interest to me, however, is the dedication immediately after the title page. Even though the work was printed in Saxony, it is dedicated to Hans Jakob Khisl and Karl Khisl, two members of a Carniolan noble family that was of paramount importance for Slovenian history.

Left: title page of Chorographia Tartariae. Right: coat of arms of the Khisl family and the dedication to Hans Jakob and Karl Khisl.

The Khisls gave their name to Khislstein castle in the centre of Kranj, and they played a major part in the Reformation movement in Slovenia, during which time we got our first printed books. Of interest to book history, they also opened the first Slovenian paper mill at Fužine near Ljubljana in 1579. Next to the former mill, there still stands a castle which used to belong to the Khisls and now houses the Museum of Architecture and Design. I regularly pass by the castle on my strolls down the Ljubljanica River. Fortunately, the castle is too big to fit into a dumpster.

The entrance to Fužine castle. Above the portal is the Khisls’ coat of arms.

The reason why the book was dedicated to the Khisls is that the translator got to know them well during his career. Hieronymus Megiser was born in Swabia and studied at Tübingen, but he spent a big part of his life in Carniola and Carinthia, where he became well acquainted with the Slovenian language. He put this knowledge to good use and brought out the first Slovenian dictionary of all time – more precisely, a huge German-Latin-Slovenian-Italian dictionary – in 1592. Apart from Slavic cultures, he was also interested in lands further east, which led him to compile the first ever Turkish grammar in German. It’s thus no surprise that he was also the first person to translate Marco Polo into German – in the 1611 volume that ultimately ended up in a dumpster.

Megiser look as angry as you’d expect from someone whose books are getting trashed.

In the end, our blogger sold the book to a friend-of-the-blog for 30 dollars, which is a very modest sum even considering the missing pages. However, the whole point of my writing is that when looking at old books, one shouldn’t focus on their monetary worth. Hence, if the book arrived into good hands, then the founder of Garbage Finds did the right thing. I checked online and there doesn’t seem to be a copy of this edition of Marco Polo in any Slovenian library, despite the Megiser-Khisl connection. I know that our National Library looks out for interesting Slovenian books being offered by foreign booksellers, and occasionally buys them for its collection. Maybe it would be a better idea to establish relations with foreign dumpster divers and buy interesting books from them. A lot more could be acquired that way, and for much less money, too.

This particular example bothers me even more than all the others below, and the reason isn’t just the book’s historical importance or its Slovenian connection. I guess the main reason is that (ironically?) I’m kind of thinking like a librarian. Preserving old books isn’t a passive process that just happens, you need to actively make it happen by safeguarding the books from damp and insects and dirt and little children, year after year after year… When you look at a book that’s 400 years old, what you’re looking at is the effort of over a dozen generations to preserve the book against an onslaught of calamities that could easily turn a volume into dust in a matter of days. That alone should give every booklover pause when handling a truly old item. But at the end of all these centuries, some idiot had to come along and chuck the book into the trash. If you’re reading this, f**k you.

2. 1812 All Over Again

There are two factors which make the following story unique: 1) the absurd importance of the salvaged books and 2) the fact that one of the first places where it was announced was Reddit. Just like electronic media have slowly supplanted printed ones as the primary means of record-keeping of our age, they are in turn being replaced by social media platforms such as Twitter and Reddit. Perhaps 22ndcentury historians will have special citation styles for Tweets and Facebook posts, just like we now have special styles for journal articles and conference abstracts.

Back to the story. It doesn’t say whether Max Brown often dumpster-dives for antiques, but at least on one occasion in 2014, he was distracted by a bunch of old cassettes lying inside a dumpster near his California home. Thank God for those cassettes – under them turned out to lie a bunch of old books. Brown pulled out a handful of these, but then, according to the story, it started to rain, so he packed up what he could – 15 books altogether – and headed home.

Once he was home, he took a better look at these books and found out that they were in fact really old, dating to the 18th century and even earlier. What especially caught his attention, though, was an inscription in one of the books, “From the Library of Thomas Jefferson.” I don’t know what went through his head at that moment, but my guess is that it was a feeling not unlike drunkenness. Each collector dreams of such moments, and Brown, if not perhaps a collector, found his.

Left: the inscription on the book’s inner flyleaf. Right: title page of the book in question, On Wisdomby Pierre Charron.

He contacted antiquarian booksellers, who at first told him that the inscriptions connecting the books to Jefferson were not authentic. Not entirely convinced, Brown did some additional research of his own, tracing down the owners of Jefferson’s books after the death of their famous owner. Jefferson, an inveterate collector of books from an early age, had offered his library to the US Congress after the original Library of Congress was burned down during the War of 1812. After some wrangling and debate, Jefferson’s offer was accepted. However, after the transaction was finalized and the books were transferred in 1815, Jefferson’s collecting did not grind to a halt, so he continued to acquire new books for himself until his death in 1826.

This second library of Thomas Jefferson was dispersed after his death. Brown checked out the 19th century sales catalogues of Jefferson’s books and found the same titles that he had recovered from the dumpster. He sought a second opinion about the books’ provenance, and this time, he was told that the inscriptions were genuine. In the meantime, however, Brown had been strapped for cash, so he sold most of the books for 8,000 dollars; not a small sum, but probably only a fraction of what the books would have fetched at a major auction.

Jefferson as a pensioner in 1821. He probably never had more time to read in his life – the biggest distraction were all the tourists who had already started flocking to his Monticello home.

The story, as Brown and the journalists who interviewed him eventually pieced it together, is as follows: one part of Jefferson’s library ended up in the possession of the Kellogg family soon after Jefferson’s death. The ownership of these books can then ultimately be traced down to a descendant of the family by the name of Violet Cherry, who died in 1976. After that, the trail officially goes cold, but it seems that Brown also figured out who the subsequent owners were. Unfortunately, he isn’t sharing names. All he divulges is that they are themselves descendants of Ms Cherry, that they threw the books away during a remodelling in 2014, and that, extremely ironically, they are historians by profession. I hope he changes his mind and makes their names public one day. The very least these people deserve is a proper public shaming.

As the story is presented online, it still leaves a few unanswered questions. How is it possible to have such a priceless book collection at home and not know it? If I had Thomas Jefferson’s books in my collection, there’s no way my kids, or anyone else I know for that matter, would be able to not be aware of this. The descendants of Ms Cherry might have hated books, but it’s really hard to imagine that someone would prefer to throw these books away than to exchange them for a Mercedes.

Also, how many books did Brown leave behind him in the dumpster? It’s possible that the other books inside were not from Jefferson’s library (he also salvaged some old photograph albums of the Kelloggs), but it’s also possible that the story is ultimately a very tragic one. I can’t really understand how one could find such beautiful books and then be put off from rescuing them by the rain (even if one didn’t yet know whom exactly these 18th century volumes belonged to), but let’s give Brown a break here. I’m sure he has had enough moments of remorse as it is, and the next time he comes across a pile of discarded old books, he’ll know what to do.

Perhaps the saddest part is that the story was only reported by a handful of regional media. If these same books were stolen from a library or an auction house, I’m sure that the story would hit the headlines the next morning, and scores of policemen would be assigned to the case.  When reporting about major book thefts, journalists often stress that the perpetrators had assaulted our common cultural heritage, and should consequently be given be given exemplary, harsh punishments. But when books of equal value are literally destroyed, nothing happens. Whoever threw these into the trash does not need to fear any sanctions.

3. What does Montaigne know?

Most stories about amazing garbage finds never become public, so the only way to come across them is by word of mouth. I can only guess at what the most valuable thing is that anyone ever found in the trash. We know about this present story only because the finder told it to his friend, a blogger, who in turn wrote a post about it, titled “What Can Be Found in the New York Trash.”

Both the blogger and his friend are Russians living in New York. One day, the friend was going from his house to the store and passed by a large open dumpster which was evidently filled with the contents of someone’s apartment, covered with a layer of snow. There was plenty of furniture and clothes, but also a lot of books, many of them quite old. The passer-by filled a box with books and other items that grabbed his attention, and once he was home, he had a better look at them.

One of the books was an edition of Montaigne’s Essays, printed in 1957 and illustrated by the “great American artist” Salvador Dali. What’s more, the book was a bibliophile edition, produced in 1000 numbered copies that were signed by the illustrator. Even though the outside of the book was scratched, presumably a consequence of having lain in the dumpster, the inside seemed to be very well preserved. When copies of the same edition reach the market, they tend to sell for 1000-2000 dollars, though this one might fetch a bit less due to its imperfect condition.

The inside of Dali’s ilustrated version of Montaigne’s Essays.

Our blogger heard about the amazing find from his friend that same day, and rushed to the dumpster to see for himself what lay inside. He took a number of photos, in which we can see the gigantic dumpster in question, about as long as two of the cars parked next to it. The blogger also took plenty of photos of the finds that he himself brought home, which included paintings, vintage clothes, different paper ephemera, as well as a number of books. He didn’t find anything as valuable as Montaigne’s Essays, but he did salvage several well-preserved turn-of-the-century children’s books. It’s unlikely that our blogger, or anyone else for that matter, managed to get to the bottom of the dumpster and inspect all of its contents. Hence, it’s hard to say whether Dali’s book was indeed the most valuable object to have lain inside.

The dumpster from which Dali’s Montaigne was rescued.

For the first two stories I presented above, we don’t know what the dumpsters in question looked like, or how many people passed by them. In this case, however, we can see clearly from the photos that the dumpster was located at the side of a main street, that plenty of cars and people passed by, and that any pedestrian could see that the container was filled with books. Judging by the layer of snow on top of the books, it also seems that they were left standing inside for quite some time. If a few random people throw valuable books into the trash, this can be shrugged off as an aberration, but when hundreds of passers-by do nothing about it, then that is worrisome. If it weren’t for two Russian immigrants, nothing would remain of the cultural heritage packed within this NY dumpster.

4. Accio Rare Book!

The previous three stories suggest that if a book is old(ish), it might also be valuable. This is not a necessary condition, though, and dumpsters can also yield valuable books of a more recent date. In this last story, a book that would at first glance appear to be the most common item in the world turned out to be as rare and as precious as very few other bibliophile gems. The story also illustrates that it’s not just dumpsters in front of mansions that one should be attentive to.

The book in question is a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which came out in 1997 in a tiny print run of 500 copies, around 300 of which were bought up by libraries. Given what a success Harry Potter became afterwards, this is probably the most sought-after modern first edition of all, with even tattered library copies fetching significant sums. It’s great that libraries support fledgling young authors by buying up their books, but it would be even better if these books weren’t ultimately trashed.

This one was thrown out, along with a few other (less rare) Harry Potter first editions, by a school in Buckinghamshire, which unfortunately remains unnamed, in 2008. The occasion for the trashing was an incoming visit by Ofsted, the school-inspection body of the UK Department of Education. Apparently, the school wanted its library to look pristine for the inspection, and plenty of other items had found themselves in the dumpster. If Ofsted has a policy that libraries aren’t allowed to carry rare and valuable books, then I hope the inspectors never find their way to Oxbridge colleges…

The battered first edition of Harry Potter recovered from the trash (center), along with two other early Harry Potter editions.

The Harry Potter books were taken by a then-teacher at the school, who apparently had to fish them out of the dumpster. Sometimes libraries will at least offer these sort of discarded books to employees before trashing them, but apparently this institution has an uncompromising policy of destruction. As it happens, the teacher brought all of these books home, but at first didn’t consider that they might have any particular value – she simply wanted to have them around for her children and grandchildren to read.

About eight years later, her son noticed that the books, especially the first edition of Philosopher’s Stone, might indeed be valuable. He offered them around to antiquarian sellers, who offered to buy the books on the spot for several thousand pounds, but he figured that the books’ real value might indeed be much higher, and resisted the temptation. Finally, he contacted the Hansons’ Auctioneers auction house, where Philosopher’s Stone went up for auction in 2020 and reached the sum of £33,000, despite being an ex-library copy with significant damage to the spine.

The saddest part of this particular story is probably that when the unnamed teacher was interviewed about her finds, she sounded almost apologetic for having rescued the books from the trash. She explained to the journalist that “it just seemed awful to throw them away” and that taking them home for her grandchildren was “better than seeing them go to waste.” Perhaps the biggest problem, when it comes to books in the trash, is that people are so squeamish about dumpster diving. Even the few who salvage books from trash bags often later feel the need to ask forgiveness for their good deeds.

***

When Rebecca Rego Barry wrote her Rare Books Uncovered: True Stories of Fantastic Finds in Unlikely Places, she included 52 stories into the volume, gathered from fellow collectors and book dealers whom she had gotten to know over the years. Of all these stories, however, only one involves a book that was literally found in the trash. Even then, the book in question, a rare 1920s driving manual for New Yorkers, is not quite as “fantastic” as many of the other highlighted finds.

I was rather surprised by this omission, and I would like to use the opportunity here to publicly invite Ms Barry to focus a future volume entirely on books found and rescued from the trash. I’m certain that there are many stories similar to the four above that haven’t yet been published anywhere, in print or online. Admittedly, most antiquarian dealers are probably too haughty to sift through the trash themselves, but I’m sure each of them has now and then acquired a rare book that, according to the seller, had come from a dumpster. If such a collection of stories helped motivate some of its readers to take up dumpster diving, then that would be the biggest service to book collecting I can think of.

At the end of all this, the reader might ask whether I also have any similar stories of dumpster finds of my own. I definitely do, and at least one of them can compete with the four I have selected for the present post. However, I’ll probably use these stories for blog posts of their own – and I can’t post everything at once. Stay tuned!

Sources:

Что можно найти в нью-йоркской мусорке. January 24, 2014. Accessible at: https://samsebeskazal.livejournal.com/292125.html

Armitage, Stefan. Teacher sells first edition ‘Harry Potter’ book for $40,000 after finding it in school’s trash. May 21, 2020. Accessible at: https://vt.co/lifestyle/teacher-sells-first-edition-harry-potter-book-for-40000-after-finding-it-in-schools-trash

Cutler-Tietjen, Jordan. He found 15 books in a Sierra dumpster. Then he found out they belonged to Thomas Jefferson. July 29, 2018. Accessible at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article214992280.html

Rego Barry, Rebecca. Rare Books Uncovered: True Stories of Fantastic Finds in Unlikely Places. Beverly: Voyageur Press, 2015.

So I found these books in the dumpster while taking out the trash…August 27, 2018. Accessible at: https://www.reddit.com/r/BookCollecting/comments/9ar8vf/so_i_found_these_books_in_the_dumpster_while/

The enigmatic dumpster. February 11, 2015. Accessible at: https://garbagefinds.com/2015/02/11/the-enigmatic-dumpster/

What do you think?

[encephalonfatigue]

radical eschatology and 1Q84

i wrote this as a goodreads review, but i couldn’t fit the whole text there so this is the review in its entirety.

“‘lunatic’ means to have your sanity temporarily seized by the luna, which is ‘moon’ in Latin. In nineteenth-century England, if you were a certified lunatic and you committed a crime, the severity of the crime would be reduced a notch. The idea was that the crime was not so much the responsibility of the person himself as that he was led astray by the moonlight. Believe it or not, laws like that actually existed… I learned it in an English literature course at Japan Women’s University, in a lecture on Dickens. We had an odd professor. He’d never talk about the story itself but go off on all sorts of tangents.”

I think a lot of my writing on this site consists of meandering tangents, only obliquely related to the book at hand — though less useful and interesting than this literature professor’s in 1Q84. Either way I will stick to what I’m comfortable with here. I will start with why I read this obscenely large book. My high school friend who was recently married, hosted a birthday party at a new place he moved into in Etobicoke. I arrived half-an-hour late from the time it was supposed to start (according to Facebook), and was the first one there — which is some indication of the sort of company I keep. As I awkwardly sat around after a brief house tour, he poured me a drink, and we chatted about life and my terrible job. He suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, I almost forgot. There’s something I want to lend to you.” He skips up the stairs and comes back down with a large phone book. On its front cover: a face hiding behind the characters “1Q84” — maybe embarrassed by its bloated constitution. This will help you on your daily commutes from hell, he encouraged me.

I’ve heard that your first Murakami book has a good chance of becoming your favourite Murakami book. That was probably the case for me with “Kafka on the Shore”. I think that book put me onto Kafka, before I would later encounter him in the work of Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, and his late communist ‘wife’, Dora Diamant. But subsequent Murakami books were not as satisfying for me. After reading Norwegian Wood, I decided to try and take a break from Murakami. I had grown a little weary of the Oedipal themes, and Murakami’s recurring Manic Pixie Dream Girl tropes. Around this time, my fourth-year college roommate discovered Murakami for himself, and his first encounter was through 1Q84. He loved it, but what a book to start with, I had thought at the time. I was impressed that he ploughed right through such an enormous millstone of a novel. (I was very intimidated by its size when my friend handed it to me, but got through it in surprising time. Having now read 1Q84, I realize it was actually a very fun book to read, and often quite difficult to put down, so it now makes sense.) Anyways, I was discussing these things with my roommate and another law student who was camping with us at Sandbanks Provincial Park — she also shared similar thoughts as mine on Murakami. Conversation wandered on to Junot Diaz, who she was much more approving of — this of course was before the #MeToo revelations about Diaz. How quickly tides can turn. (Especially when there are two moons in the sky.)

So something about the structure of 1Q84. I am told the first two books are structured after the two books of Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” — each chapter alternating between Aomame (major keys) and Tengo (minor keys). In each book of Clavier, Bach cycles through all twelve tones, a prelude and fugue for each tone’s major and minor keys. So each of Murakami’s chapters in Book 1 and 2 corresponds to a Prelude and Fugue in Bach’s collection of pieces — 48 chapters in all.

I admittedly have a thing for Bach. I have a copy of Gould’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” on compact disc at home. It came in a package of random shit the novelist Tao Lin gathered together from his bedroom and sold online for like $30 on eBay. That is the sort of stupid stuff I wasted my money on as an undergraduate student. Among the zines, postcard sized art prints, manuscript pages from his edits of Taipei, and a copy of “Shoplifting from American Apparel” was a disc of Gould’s “Well-Tempered Clavier”. In one of the preludes and fugues, the disc is scratched, and makes these heavenly wobbling sounds as it skips, and I have grown quite fond of these parts. I also particularly love hearing the infrequent muffled hums of Gould behind his gas mask.

Book 3 of 1Q84 is structured after Bach’s Goldberg Variations. In the past couple years, I’ve listened to this composition likely more than any other, simply because it’s one of the few albums I happened to have downloaded on my phone. It’s Igor Levit’s studio recording of the Goldberg Variations along with his recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated”. I thought it was a clever trio to package in an album. I also recommend Lisa Moore’s performance of other Rzewski compositions put out by Cantaloupe.

I am particularly fond of Rzewski’s “People United” because it recalls for me my first May Day march, where I chanted the Chilean song (from which Rzewski’s title is derived and his piece alludes to) with other people on the street marching on the way to Queen’s Park, while students shouted ‘ftp’ at officers lined on the sidewalk. I was supposed to march with a small contingent from Student Christian Movement, but couldn’t find them at Allan Gardens, so I marched near some York OPIRG students, and in front of a communist who was debating random people the entire march, haha. I had never seen so many anarchists and communists in one place at a time. They sure do like their black and red flags, haha.

This brings me to the next comment I wanted to make. I was curious about Murakami’s politics and I had a difficult time finding a decent write-up that focuses on this, because Murakami can come across as fairly apolitical, which I think is what his ‘bourgeois individualism’ (I use that term in jest) requires of him. Anyways, I stumbled across a series of blog posts made by a Trotskyist grad student that discuss how Japanese student movement comes up in almost every single novel by Murakami, and he discusses how the student movement was a significant segment of the political left in Japan during that time.

“Some brief highlights of the student movement’s history in Japan will suffice. After the end of the war, university students oriented to the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) took advantage of the new liberal atmosphere to rally for university autonomy, for the appointment of progressive faculty and administrators, and for a student voice in administration… In 1948, students from all over Japan inaugurated the All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Organizations (known by its acronym, Zengakuren) with a leadership largely from the Japanese Young Communist League… However the honeymoon between the students and the JCP was short-lived… The JCP had seen the American occupation as an opportunity to complete the bourgeois-democratic revolution in Japan, which had been the Moscow-ordained task of Communist Parties the world over during the Popular Front (1936-39) and then again after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, when Communists were allied with all “liberal,” “democratic,” and “peace-loving�� forces, meaning those of the ruling class.

…Student radicalism reached even greater heights as the movement entered the 1960s… In militant actions organized by Zengakuren, thousands of students broke into the Diet building twice in 1960, forcing the cancellation of a state visit by US President Eisenhower and the resignation of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi with his cabinet. During this period Zengakuren’s leadership was largely drawn from the “Mainstream Faction,” which had originated the federation’s opposition to the JCP, however during the late 50s the leadership was briefly taken over by students from the Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), a group formed from JCP exiles after the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary, which was influenced by Trotsky’s writings and would affiliate to the Fourth International. By 1964, there were three different organizations taking the name Zengakuren: the JCP supporters, the Revolutionary Marxists (a Tokyo-based split from the RCL) and a unity faction.”

There’s a lot more the Trotskyist grad student blogger (the official title I have designated to this person) goes into, but he essentially concludes that:

“I believe at this point that I have made a solid case for why Murakami, whose early books on the surface are completely apolitical, take their starting point as the destruction of the Japanese student movement, though at no point is the movement itself exactly foregrounded.”

An an earlier conclusion in his first post:

“Based on conjecture from his novels, we can assume he was around the anti-Stalinist left concentrated in the Zenkyoto groups, though he has insisted that he was never a member of any particular faction. “I enjoyed the campus riots as an individual,” he writes. “I’d throw rocks and fight with the cops, but I thought there was something ‘impure’ about erecting barricades and other organized activity, so I didn’t participate… The very thought of holding hands in a demonstration gave me the creeps.”

…Since this is all I have till I learn Japanese, I will have to take his word that he always had a rather superior, hipster attitude toward politics, which is believable enough considering his status as a graduate of one of Japan’s most elite private institutions. And yet, there is something I see in his early novels that undeniably regrets the collapse of the student movement, no matter how much he resented the factions for “impure” organizational work.”

I think Murakami’s disdain for this sort of leftist hypocrisy comes through in a particularly memorable dialogue in Norwegian Wood (which the Trotskyist grad student blogger never mentioned for some reason):

"Have you ever read Das Kapital?"

"Yeah. Not the whole thing, of course, but parts, like most people."

"You know, when I went to university I joined a folk-music club. I just wanted to sing songs. But the members were a load of frauds. I get goose-bumps just thinking about them. The first thing they tell you when you enter the club is you have to read Marx. "Read page so-and-so to such-and-such for next time.' Somebody gave a lecture on how folk songs have to be deeply involved with society and the radical movement. So, what the hell, I went home and tried as hard as I could to read it, but I didn't understand a thing. It was worse than the subjunctive. I gave up after three pages. So I went to the next week's meeting like a good little scout and said I had read it, but I couldn't understand it. From that point on they treated me like an idiot. I had no critical awareness of the class struggle, they said, I was a social cripple. I mean, this was serious. And all because I said I couldn't understand a piece of writing..."

“...And their so-called discussions were terrible, too. Everybody would use big words and pretend they knew what was going on. But I would ask questions whenever I didn't understand something. "What is this imperialist exploitation stuff you're talking about? Is it connected somehow to the East India Company?' "Does smashing the educational-industrial complex mean we're not supposed to work for a company after we graduate?' And stuff like that. But nobody was willing to explain anything to me. Far from it - they got really angry. Can you believe it?"

“...OK, so I'm not so smart. I'm working class. But it's the working class that keeps the world running, and it's the working classes that get exploited. What kind of revolution is it that just throws out big words that working-class people can't understand? What kind of crap social revolution is that? I mean, I'd like to make the world a better place, too. If somebody's really being exploited, we've got to put a stop to it. That's what I believe, and that's why I ask questions.”

"So that's when it hit me. These guys are fakes. All they've got on their minds is impressing the new girls with the big words they're so proud of, while sticking their hands up their skirts. And when they graduate, they cut their hair short and march off to work for Mitsubishi or IBM or Fuji Bank. They marry pretty wives who've never read Marx and have kids they give fancy new names to that are enough to make you puke. Smash what educational-industrial complex? Don't make me laugh!”

This passage actually reminds me of a Japanese exchange student I met as an undergraduate who was really into Murakami and used to perform folk music in her spare time. Even though she was an atheist or agnostic of some sort and really into gender studies, she used to attend an international students bible study that I used to go to at a friends’ house. She’s now doing a PhD at MIT in neuroscience, but that passage in Norwegian Wood always reminds me of her. Anyways, you can see how Murakami’s purity politics requires of him a rejection of fully embracing any comprehensive political or religious system. The individual is always of most importance to him, and I think that comes through in 1Q84 too.

Part of what gets to Murakami I suppose is the pretence involve with a lot of armchair leftists. It recalls for me a passage I read in a book about country music of all things called “The Nashville Sound” by Joli Jensen:

“Students rarely ventured into the Rose Bowl. When they did it was usually to be rowdy and to make fun of the rednecks. One night, as I was waiting tables, four fellow graduate students came in. They did not see me, and I watched in rising fury as they sneered and whispered and laughed among themselves at the people around them. These were my peers, who defined themselves as Marxists and had disdained me as a politically unsophisticated liberal humanist. They patronized me in class and were now in "my" world making fun of "my" friends. Shaking with rage, I went over to the table to take their drink order. Of course, they were stunned to find me working there, complete with sequined Rose Bowl vest, and they left immediately. I had caught them at an unseemly game. But I have come to wonder about the basis for my rage and about what it tells me about how we understand ourselves in relation to our perceptions of others.

At the time I felt superior to them, friends of the working class, indeed! and virtuous in my admiration of, and affection for, Rose Bowl patrons. Later, I began to wonder, was I really any better, turning the Rose Bowl into a mythical venue of "salt of the earth" authenticity? Is it really better to idealize and sentimentalize difference than to ridicule and disdain it? This is a poignant dilemma for the country music scholar and is becoming a topic of discussion among sociologists, anthropologists, museum curators, and social critics.”

Anyways, to move past this thoughtful navel-gazing, I want to get into a dimension of 1Q84 that I found extremely interesting. Probably my favourite part is Chapter 10 of Book 1 (A Real Revolution with Real Bloodshed), where Tengo talks to Fuka-Eri’s current guardian, a former anthropology professor and friend of Fuka-Eri’s father. Fuka-Eri’s father (Tamotsu Fukada) was an academic and Maoist revolutionary, enthusiastic about the Cultural Revolution, who gathered a number of students to start a commune in the mountains of Takao. There is a fascinating section on the splintering of the commune into a moderate faction and a more radical one:

“Under Fukada’s leadership, the operation of Sakigake farm remained on track, but eventually the commune split into two distinct factions. Such a split was inevitable as long as they kept Fukada’s flexible unit system. On one side was a militant faction, a revolutionary group based on the Red Guard unit that Fukada had originally organized. For them, the farming commune was strictly preparatory for the revolution. Farming was just a cover for them until the time came for them to take up arms. That was their unshakable stance.”

This paragraph reminds me of the case of the Tarnac Nine. It is within the realm of possibility Murakami had heard about this case, because their arrest was in 2008, shortly before 1Q84’s first books were published. There’s a commune in Tarnac that was involved in the operation of a nearby general store (Magasin General, Tarnac). Giorgio Agamben wrote a brief post on this affair describing it this way:

“On the morning of November 11, 150 police officers, most of which belonged to the anti-terrorist brigades, surrounded a village of 350 inhabitants on the Millevaches plateau, before raiding a farm in order to arrest nine young people (who ran the local grocery store and tried to revive the cultural life of the village). Four days later, these nine people were sent before an anti-terrorist judge and “accused of criminal association with terrorist intentions.””

The social theorist Alberto Toscano described the event in similar terms:

“On 11 November 2008, twenty French youths are arrested simultaneously in Paris, Rouen, and in the small village of Tarnac (located in the district of Corrèze, in France’s relatively impoverished Massif Central region). The Tarnac operation involves helicopters, one hundred and fifty balaclava-clad anti-terrorist policemen and studiously prearranged media coverage. The youths are accused of having participated in a number of sabotage attacks against the high-speed TGV train routes, involving the obstruction of the train’s power cables with horseshoe-shaped iron bars, causing material damage and a series of delays affecting some 160 trains. Eleven of the suspects are promptly freed. Those who remain in custody are soon termed the ‘Tarnac Nine’, after the village where a number of them had purchased a small farmhouse, reorganised the local grocery store as a cooperative, and taken up a number of civic activities from the running of a film club to the delivery of food to the elderly. In their parents’ words, ‘they planted carrots without bosses or leaders. They think that life, intelligence and decisions are more joyous when they are collective’.”

The Professor’s farming of Akebono (the radical offshoot of Sakigake) are framed in similar terms to the way anti-terrorist police in France portrayed the activities of the Tarnac co-op farm, as a front for revolutionary activity. Of course, if you read the Invisible Committee’s “Coming Insurrection”, allusions to such notions are elaborated on:

“Every commune seeks to be its own base. It seeks to dissolve the question of needs. It seeks to break all economic dependency and all political subjugation; it degenerates into a milieu the moment it loses contact with the truths on which it is founded. There are all kinds of communes that wait neither for the numbers nor the means to get organized, and even less for the “right moment” — which never arrives.”

But this excerpt follows a notion of the commune that is not so easily type-casted into the rural commune of Tarnac:

“Communes come into being when people find each other, get on with each other, and decide on a common path. The commune is perhaps what gets decided at the very moment when we would normally part ways. It’s the joy of an encounter that survives its expected end. It’s what makes us say “we,” and makes that an event. What’s strange isn’t that people who are attuned to each other form communes, but that they remain separated. Why shouldn’t communes proliferate everywhere? In every factory, every street, every village, every school. At long last, the reign of the base committees! Communes that accept being what they are, where they are. And if possible, a multiplicity of communes that will displace the institutions of society: family, school, union, sports club, etc. Communes that aren’t afraid, beyond their specifically political activities, to organize themselves for the material and moral survival of each of their members and of all those around them who remain adrift. Communes that would not define themselves — as collectives tend to do — by what’s inside and what’s outside them, but by the density of the ties at their core. Not by their membership, but by the spirit that animates them.”

There is a strong eschatological element in the writings of the Invisible Committee, that some radical political theologians have picked up on (e.g. see Ward Blanton’s lecture on the Invisible Committee ). Because of Julien Coupat’s arrest as one of the Tarnac Nine, the Invisible Committee has become associated with the journal Tiqqun. In “Theory of Bloom” Tiqqun is defined:

“The French rendering of the Hebrew word Tikkun, meaning to “perfect”, “repair”, “heal”, or “transform”. In rabbanical school, students study mystical texts that view tikkun as the process of restoring a complex divine unity. A tikkun kor’im (readers’ tikkun) is a study guide used when preparing to chant the Torah, or to read from the Torah in a Jewish synagogue. People who chant from the Torah must differs from that written (the Kethib) in the scroll.”

The Wikipedia article for Tiqqun says the word is derived from the “Hebrew term Tikkun olam, a concept issuing from Judaism, often used in the kabbalistic and messianic traditions.”

Murakami certainly alludes to this intersection of eschatology, theology, and politics, firstly in his narrative mechanism which has this Maoist commune turn into a secretive religious cult. He ties the religious and political in this way, but in a manner that I myself find unconvincing. Many of these co-operative farms are anti-hierarchical and I find it difficult to see, even for a commune of the authoritarian left to turn into something resembling Sakigake in the novel. Regardless, I think the intersection of radical religion and politics in 1Q84 to be a fascinating subject to explore, even if I found Murakami’s particular approach unsatisfying. There is of course an eschatological dimension that Murakami gestures towards in various chapters, often in amusing an humorous ways. One of my favourites is in the following chapter (Chapter 11):

As a woman, Aomame had no concrete idea how much it hurt to suffer a hard kick in the balls… “It hurts so much you think the end of the world is coming right now. I don’t know how else to put it. It’s different from ordinary pain,” said a man, after careful consideration, when Aomame asked him to explain it to her.

Aomame gave some thought to his analogy. The end of the world?

“Conversely, then,” she said, “would you say that when the end of the world is coming right now, it feels like a hard kick in the balls?”

Aomame was called in and instructed to rein in the ball-kicking practice. “Realistically speaking, though,” she protested, “it’s impossible for women to protect themselves against men without resorting to a kick in the testicles. Most men are bigger and stronger than women. A swift testicle attack is a woman’s only chance. Mao Zedong said it best. You find your opponent’s weak point and make the first move with a concentrated attack. It’s the only chance a guerrilla force has of defeating a regular army.”

The manager did not take well to her passionate defense. “…I don’t care what Mao Zedong said—or Genghis Khan, for that matter: a spectacle like that is going to make most men feel anxious and annoyed and upset.”

If there’s any guy crazy enough to attack me, I’m going to show him the end of the world—close up. I’m going to let him see the kingdom come with his own eyes.”

The Witnesses’ rendition of the Lord’s prayer is recurring theme that surfaces throughout the novel, and even if it is presented in a cynical manner by Murakami, I think it still evokes a particular mode of contemplation that I found interesting. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are the obvious allusion Murakami is making and their pacifism is even explicitly mentioned by Ushikawa: “They are well known to be pacifists, following the principle of nonresistance.”

Pacifism, of course, more associated with the radical Christians of the anabaptist tradition, although I have yet to encounter the connection between Jehovah’s Witnesses and Anabaptism, other than certain millenarian impulses they might share. Anyways, I think this an interesting node that Murakami marks, posing the question of violence and justice: revolutionary violence (of Akebono), assassination (Aomame’s side gig), and sexual violence (experienced by the women that the dowager tries to protect). What causes aversion to political and religious radicals, fundamentalists, etc?

Murakami’s answer is coercion and the denigration of the individual. This is epitomized in a dialogue Aomame has with the dowager, where the dowager asks:

“Are you a feminist, or a lesbian?” Aomame blushed slightly and shook her head. “I don’t think so. My thoughts on such matters are strictly my own. I’m not a doctrinaire feminist, and I’m not a lesbian.”

“That’s good,” the dowager said. As if relieved, she elegantly lifted a forkful of broccoli to her mouth, elegantly chewed it, and took one small sip of wine.

This is very similar to the sort of ideology that Jordan Petersen subscribes to. It is a ‘higher than thou’ purity politics that looks down on any sort of collective organization that betrays any sort of hypocrisy. Yet most religious traditions recognize that any sort of collective organizing is bound to live in contradiction with its ideals. Within the Christian tradition, thoughtful adherents recognize the Church as a ‘fallen’ institution composed of ‘sinners’. I think it is important to recognize and confess the short fallings of previous attempts to realize ideals while not abandoning the ideals because people that came before us have severely fucked it up. Another world is possible, and I think if we fall back into our silos of individualism we will not realize this other world. Murakami provides an almost Kierkegaardian framing of what is essentially ritual rape in the novel — and I found that disturbing, though in the realm of magical realism, I’m not qualified to make any meaningful commentary. What I will confess is that my own life betrays a certain sort of ‘bourgeois individualism’ but I have not yet reached a form of cynicism that celebrates it, and I hope I won’t anytime soon.

Anyhow, beyond these critiques, I enjoyed this novel a lot, and I think it brought up interesting questions to contemplate. I found the Proust jokes hilarious, some of the funniest moments in the book. Curiously, I have never finished reading Orwell’s 1984. I was supposed to have finished reading it for a Grade 12 literature class, but I recall that period of the semester as a tremendously busy one for me. I do intend to finish it one day soon, and Orwell’s democratic socialism is a fascinating lens through which to also examine many of the themes that Murakami explores, including those of agency and freedom. There are these strange lines in the book that I don’t quite know what to make of: 

“He leaned against the wall, in the shadows of the telephone pole and a sign advertising the Japanese Communist Party, and kept a sharp watch over the front door of Mugiatama.“

There are funnier allusions to this like:

“Have you heard about the final tests given to candidates to become interrogators for Stalin’s secret police?” “No, I haven’t.”

“A candidate would be put in a square room. The only thing in the room is an ordinary small wooden chair. And the interrogator’s boss gives him an order. He says, ‘Get this chair to confess and write up a report on it. Until you do this, you can’t leave this room.’ ”

“Sounds pretty surreal.”

“No, it isn’t. It’s not surreal at all. It’s a real story. Stalin actually did create that kind of paranoia, and some ten million people died on his watch—most of them his fellow countrymen. And we actually live in that kind of world. Don’t ever forget that.”

...“So what kind of confession did the interrogator candidates extract from the chairs?”

“That is a question definitely worth considering,” Tamaru said. “Sort of like a Zen koan.”

“Stalinist Zen,” Aomame said.

I have my own views on Murakami’s crypto-Calvinist sections, which is not unrelated to Murakami’s interwoven narrative technique, and in excerpts such as the one I opened with about the etymology of ‘lunatic’. Also, I actually quite enjoyed the way Murakami alluded to Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor passage from the Brothers Karamazov — where Satan frames miracles as a sort of spectacle when trying to tempt Christ in the wilderness. I’ve always thought that there’s certainly some Debordian comment that can be made with respect to that. In fact, the notion of spectacle, and this process of reducing agency such that we become mere spectators, is itself thematic in Murakami’s fiction, especially here. Again, it is this crypto-Calvinist notion of fate, that one’s future is already predetermined and no matter what one might try, it is inevitable. (This must be related to Murakami’s quoting of Carl Jung: “Called or not called, God is there”.) And so one becomes almost a spectator to one’s own life unfolding under the predetermined path of capital. Yet curiously, Tengo and Aomame do escape from Leader’s prophetic claim that was to befall Aomame, out from 1Q84, back up the stairwell back to the path of 1984. If only escaping from “late declining capitalism” (Murakami’s term) was that simple.

Though I had many reservations, 1Q84 was breezy read and I think that’s a testament to how fun Murakami’s writing can be, and this was one of those books where this was very much the case.

[torentialtribute]

Lionel Messi urged to fight on by Argentina’s press after Copa America exit

Alas, it wasn't to be.

Beaten 2-0 by bitter rivals Brazil in their Copa America semi-final in Belo Horizonte, the 26-year wait for Argentina to lift a major trophy continues and the quest to end that drought is likely to be commanded by someone other than Lionel Scaloni.

This obviously means then that his namesake, one Lionel Messi or Barcelona has similarly gone 12 years himself now in his unsuccessful pray to taste glory in blue and white

Lionel Messi's wait to win a major international trophy goes on after Copa America exit

Tasting defeat for the first time in the 2007 edition of South America's premier international competition, again to Brazil at the final hurdle in Venezuela, there were also two penalty shootouts against Chile in 2015 and 2016 before adding 2014 extra-time heartache at the hands of the Germans in the World Cup in 2014.

In total, Messi has completed nine senior international tournaments for La Albiceleste without lifting silverware at their conclusion – a staggering return from an individual who has clinched th he Champions League and Ballon d'Or on no less than four and five occasions respectively.

Though both he and Argentina were at the best they had been all tournament at the Mineirao on Tuesday night, with Messi clipping Alisson's post in a ferocious start to the second half which almost saw them turn the tides, his stats across five outings in Brazil were hardly flattering.

Messi usually has the blame for Argentina's failures but the press urged him to stay

Blaming everything from the quality of the pitches around Latin America's largest nation, and on Tuesday night both the officiating and Conmebol, Messi didn't provide either an assist or a goal in open play at the 2019 Copa America with his only solid contribution and equalizing penalty against Paraguay in Argentina's second Group B fixture.

Yet this doesn't paint the whole picture. In fact, Messi, complimented by Scaloni for his work rate and being the 'flag bearer' or their homeland here, completed the most take-us and most shots, created the most chances and won the most fouls. Was it a case or doing it all for Argentina? Or doing too much?

Naturally, the Argentine press dug its heels over the hours that followed yet another big stage disappointment.

La Nacion praised Messi's performance and said he was" the leader of Argentina's offense "

By Ole in their 'Uno por Uno' (One by One) rankings, he was given the highest mark of seven among his teammates. 'The 10 played his best game in the Copa but had no reward. Marked by several [players] and with various systematic faults [in Argentina’s tactics] he managed to complicate [Brazil’s] defense. ' it judged.

Over at La Nacion, Messi also received the same points for being "Active, [and a] leader of the offense." 'Brazil tried to corner him and cut the line of passes. He crashed a shot against the post and Alisson saved a magnificent free kick. ' It was added.

Elsewhere, the national newspaper's Francisco Schiavo added further analysis with a lengthy piece on 'another disappointment in [Messi’s] obsessive search for a title with the Argentine national team.

Despite their 2-0 defeat against Brazil, Argentina's press believe good times are coming back

"Messi's task in the Copa, like that of all of Argentina, went from minor to major" Schiavo wrote. 'Because the captain played the best match so far in the contest last night. More dynamic and participatory, [he] ignited the attack with those electric runs so characteristic of him. "

Moving on to Messi's long course in the Copa America", Schiavo noted that "generational differences came to the surface 'after he was bled in Argentina in the late 2000s. At the turn of the decade, the likes of his idol Juan Roman Riquelme, Juan Sebastian Veron, Esteban Cambiasso, Fernando Gago, Javier Zanetti, Roberto Ayala and Gabriel Heinze all hung up their boots or were deemed surplus to requirements.

That Messi, save for his 'old cronies' Sergio Aguero and Angel Di Maria, as Schiavo called them, has had to carry on surrounded by less talented colleagues that have failed to fill the void has not gone unnoticed.

Still, in the Mixed Zone at the Mineirao, when not in conspiracy fashion, the quiet genius offered to carry on and seemed enthusiastic at the current crop of young stars already in the team and coming through, who may pave his path to glory at long last.

Messi said he liked playing with this group of players and believes Argentina's future is bright

"Something new is on the horizon" Messi insisted. 'The truth is I have got on very well with this group of players and if I have to help in some way I will. This is a great group which is growing and if I can join them I will, 'he expanded.

Likewise, those back home wish that he will stick around too. 'Continue, master. Good times are coming ”Nelson Manulak on TyC Sport's social media page.

“ I want to keep watching your magic ”confessed Ariel Fernando Lopez. "There are people who speak bad about you because in life they were losers."

From Arnaldo Ariel Yapura, it was implied that Messi should stick around not just for next year's joint-hosted Copa America, but perhaps also Qatar 2022, by which he will be 35 yet could inspire those under him.

'There's Messi to teach this new generation so that this new generation can bring excitation back to the Argentines' it was claimed.

Some of the press even feel Messi, 32, can still help lead new generation of players to glory

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[natural-testosterone-booste-blog]

Discover whether Earthing Therapy is the perfect anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant for people recovering from inflammatory diseases?

Earth Therapy is only for wuu woo barefoot hippy, nudist natural health nuts?

“Earthing the Most Important Health Discovery Ever!” First published in 2010 (now in it's second edition), translated into more than 12 languages, a book I think should be read by every health professional, so that's why I dove in and created this review, just for you.

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 Earthing therapy "Earthing" three authors, Clint Ober, Steve Sinatra, and Martin Zucker have put together their individual earthing experience, expertise, research, and down to earthing, writing skills to prove their point: that they have found the earthing therapylink to the exponential increase in immune and inflammation related diseases over the last 20 years.  Maybe you suffer from one of them too.

The authors claim to have found a cure that they deem “the most important health discovery, ever”! And on the “praise for Earthing” title page, author Ann Gittleman’s third party authority statement reads, ”Earthing therapy ranks right up there with the discovery of penicillin.”

"Earthing Therapy"?  How on earth can that be?

In my mother language, the German synonym for earthing, “erden” is an electrical term, meaning “grounding”. So that title is right on, and I am not going to google it now, because the bare footprints on the book cover give it away.  Anyway, in my youth, barefoot health seekers were a common sight, wading in line through morning wet meadows glistening in the sunlight.  Folk doctor Pfarrer Kneipp’s health recommendations still reverberating in their ears. I remember just how enthusiastic they seemed. Now these people are looked upon as health nuts, or what they are doing as something even ridiculous, or at least unscientific.

Finding myself in that kind of mindset while taking a first glance at the book I found it hard to believe, what I was reading. That merely by touching the ground with your bare feet or merely touching the surface of the earth, you could get the wide benefits of earthing therapy by being electrically charged up with energy, just like a rechargeable battery.

That the earth has an electrical charge, and that it is negative, and that the body has a voltage with a positive charge that accumulates when out of touch with the earth, and so on, all that I did not have the foggiest idea earth therapy, or at least was not fully aware of.

Doubting the claim that merely grounding yourself was supposed to literally charge you up like a car battery and thus take care of major illness, I read on.

I was familiar with the concept of the body as a battery, from using a microcurrent device on myself, but at least that is running on double AA batteries. The concept that the earth itself, or “herself” I am tempted now to write, that “Mother Earth”, (how unscientific a term), should give off these healing forces directly, off grid, even without Double AA batteries, did not settle so easy yet in my brain. The earth having current and giving it off to us with every barefoot step we make?

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Can earthing therapy cure you and relieve screaming pain?

Could it then do the same like my electrostim device claims it can do,could do, reduce pain, energize, and rejuvenate, including taking care of illnesses, as the book claims? Even solving the current health crisis like the authors claim?? In my opinion, only a miracle could do that.

In that book full of miracles, “Autobiography Of A Yogi”  Yogananda quotes that very image of the body as battery when he writes about teaching a class of boys a secret technique, how to charge themselves up with energy.  “Realizing that a man’s body is like an electric battery, I reasoned that it could be recharged with energy…”.  But he goes on saying, that it was done with “powers of the human will”, i.e. mental power. Yogananda does not mention the electric charge of the earth, as far as I know.

And this is something most of us are not aware of even nowadays with all the talk about physics and even biophysics.

But most medical doctors did not know.

Steve Sinatra, M.D. comments on this, “electrical engineers know, that the earth is pulsating with free electrons. Medical scientists didn’t know that, but they did know that the body is electrical in nature” and that only a man like Clint Ober, was able to “put two and two together”, with all his knowledge of electricity and grounding cable TV systems that helped him to grasp grasped the idea of earthing therapy with all its health implications.

Clint Ober, as an electrical engineer knew about interference. Being disconnected from the earth created that.

It made him think further...

It slowly dawns on me, that grounding earth therapy or going barefoot indeed can charge us up enough to get over our health problems, as the book suggests, such as pain, sleep problems, arthritis, fibromyalgia, even diabetes and heart problems, all inflammation related.

And In this book there are plenty of studies, research results, tables, charts which prove it, and lots of testimonials, from doctors, therapists, practitioners, and clients.

One might get worried, thinking, am I going to read all about diseases and research? Is the book maybe too technical for my scope of understanding? The answer is, yes, and no. Yes, it does challenge your attention span and willingness to learn something new, and no, it is written for the lay person in search for a better world.

No medicalese or in Latin!

Even better, this reads like a book written with a cause, with passion, human touch, personal anecdotes, and enthusiasm, and it is definitely about health, not just sickness, and comes with a grand vision and solution, and it is written in an endearing style by these down to earth authors: First of all, Clinton Ober, (see the bio section at the back of the book), who as stated before but stated again because it makes a good story, started as a cable TV salesman, rising into the largest U.S. cable marketing and service industry and then crossing over into computer streaming.

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Then there is Gaetan Chevalier, biophysicist and electrophysiologist, “specializing in the body’s electrical wiring” who contributes and covers the science side.

And they all claim, their “ Earthing” is “the most important health discovery ever!” And, “we believe this book is the first ever written about Mother Earth’s natural vibes and how they keep us healthy...

The first earthing therapy book ever written, how can that be?

Did not folk doctor Kneipp have it down already? The book even mentions several other names, predecessors in the barefoot tradition, an Adolf Just, who already in the early 1900 wrote a book on earth power, “Return to Nature”, advocating walking barefoot and sleeping on the ground.

Then there was the late Dr. William Rossi, a Massachusetts podiatrist, quoted at length, who in his writings strongly disapproved of fancy dress shoes, identifying them as the culprit and emphasizing the “intriguing connection between the foot and the ground”, and also a Frenchman Matteo Tavera who in 1969 in a “largely unnoticed book” wrote about the unhealthy insulation from the ground, blaming separation from Nature as the cause of degeneration and illness.

More or less it’s the same reasoning then as now, only that today we have arrived at a level of degeneration and illness where medicine is unable to prevent nor treat all this chronic inflammation and the wave of illnesses that stems from it. Inflammation and inflammatory disease, the book quotes, is the number one most researched yet unsolved health problem that cuts through all age groups, even children. There is, globally, an ”unprecedented rise” in inflammatory and immune dysfunction, like allergies, just to name one, and the mind puzzling question keeps researchers occupied, with 20,000 new studies on inflammation now every year.

However, author Clint Ober insists, and already has, for 15 years now, that he has found the missing link, and it is grounding people to give them earthing therapy.

I must admit, not until I got to the part when coauthor and cardiologist Steve Sinatra writes in detail about the multiple studies he did on grounding, that I stop doubting the book and its claim. Is it, because he has an M.D. to his name? How brain washed can I get?

Is it that same prejudice, that Clint Ober had to endure when he tried to break into the scientific community with his discovery?  Turning to doctors and scientists to back up his observations on grounding people and what it could do, and only getting shrugs, or even laughter, as a response. And only that, until, finally, at an electromedical conference in San Diego, he meets a like minded doctor in Stephen Sinatra, and showing him back to his RV in the parking lot,  introduces Sinatra, and two other scientists, to his earthing hypothesis. As Sinatra puts it in the book, for him at that moment, “a door to a new healing frontier had been pushed open”, and that, “by the most unlikely of individuals”, Clint Ober, a man (,here we go again), successful in the cable TV and computer worlds.

As Ober describes, the whole idea about earthing came into being, when, one day he was resting on a bench, focused on tourist’s feet how they moved in and out of his field of vision. This scenario, maybe not by accident, happens to take place in Sedona, which attracts tourists for its new age power place appeal, vortexes and “earth magnetism”. Could it be, Ober reasoned there, that thick soled running shoes, as they were worn by these tourists, could insulate them from “Mother Earth” and so interfere with their health? Ober was getting on that train of thought, because he himself  was suffering  from terrible chronic pain, was on pain and sleeping pills, constantly, and was seeking a solution.

Wondering about and asking himself that question about these running shoes, he got impressed by the possible consequences.

Suddenly he felt, he had found an answer to a mystery that would solve the riddle and it made him feel that suddenly, he had found his purpose in life, something he had been looking for all this time and up to this point. Getting hooked on earth therapy and that connection he made between the running shoes and health, right there and then he decided to take off in his van and go to California. He wanted to prove it, first to himself, and then, to other people that grounding was the answer. Little did he know how hard it would be to convince others once he had proven it to himself. Nobody had even thought about any of this. As he remembers ...

“ I came to the conclusion that nobody had researched the grounding-health connection”.

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Sinatra writes, “he had just a bare beginning of scientific evidence to back up his observations”. It had been a long haul even before he got counsel from university sleep lab students on how to conduct double blind studies which would count in a scientific world. To begin with, he had grounded countless families knocking on thousands of doors in search for volunteers to do a study on grounding, with a nurse in tow who was very helpful in making the connections and following up on grounding tests, for many years. And then venturing into manufacturing products to make earthing more attractive and even doable took years.

The way Ober describes it, and again, this makes a good story, following his self inflicted mission must have been sheer agony and no joking matter, but Ober jokingly remarks,

“I never for a moment thought I would be in the sleeping or bedding industry”,

when suddenly there was a demand and he came to design viable grounding bed sheets, which nowadays are readily available on Amazon.

“Gratification of seeing people losing their pain...kept me going everyday on an adventure that has been exhausting, challenging, and, at times, quite lonely.”

Reading through his story was worthwhile for me, just to get an idea how resistant people as a society could be to

“anything out of left field”

not only the doctors and scientists but myself included, because I admit, when I first read about it, earthing being a "earthing therapy" sounded hard to believe, that merely walking barefoot you could reverse inflammation and the most serious health conditions.

And what exactly is it about the earth’s earthing therapy influence on the body? Here I quote Ober’s explanation:

"the natural frequencies of the Earth (and he spells it always with a  respectful Capital “E!” )…”are waves of energy caused by the motions of subatomic particles called free electrons...Electrons have a negative charge.

It is these electrons that give the Earth’s surface a natural, negative charge….Maintaining contact with the ground allows your body to naturally receive and become charged with these electrons.

When thus “grounded”, you automatically absorb them, which in turn reduces electrical imbalances in the body and the oxidative free radicals involved in chronic inflammation and multiple diseases. The body’s natural electrical state is restored.”

At the same time, he humbly states:

“Neither I nor the researchers and doctors I have worked with have a full understanding of the depth of physiological changes that occur with Earthing.”

From the huge amount of measured evidence in scientific tests done, one could say, it’s not just one thing earthing therapy does. A father-son doctor’s team in Poland, the Sokols, after many studies on grounding, preferred to summarize in a more general statement, that

“Earthing influences human physiological processes”, ... helps “regulate correct functioning of the nervous system and significantly influences the electrical activity of the brain”.

Amazing, (and here we go again once more), that a medical lay person like Ober coming from cable TV’s electric engineering would visualize a medical breakthrough like that, when doctors could not come up with any of this, nor would most of them even listen to him.

Ober had shared with Sinatra his

“frustration with the medical and scientific community that had shown little or no interest in grounding”.

To that Sinatra replies,

“he was having a hard time getting his foot inside the door of science.”

With Sinatra joining in, and with other names in electrophysiology and biophysics, like Gaetan Chevalier, biophysicist James Oschman, Ph.D., author of “Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis”,and another cardiologist Richard Delany, earthing therapygrounding studies started really rolling, revealing and measuring f.e. dramatic thinning and decoupling of blood cells, after 40 minutes of grounding.

Another study measured a 270% improvement in zeta potential (degree of negative charge on surface of red blood cells which repels, preventing unwanted aggregation), after two hours of grounding. Sinatra explains: zero zeta potential means sludge, thick slow flowing blood with more risk of clumping or clotting, causing “traffic jams”.   After grounding and earthing, red blood cells moved along briskly, whereas before there was barely any movement observed through a dark field microscope.

What a big leap from Ober trying at first in vain to make doctors lend him volunteer patients for his first grounding studies. And then, while getting his hair cut hearing people talking about their health and figuring

“that a beauty salon could be a good source of volunteers.”

The reward for volunteering was always “improved sleep and feeling rested from it”, which for Ober was always significant even only as subjective statement, especially since there are an estimated 70 million people in the U.S, with sleep problems, and then there was another volunteer’s statement, “pain reduction”, a subjective measurement also.  These initial discoveries led Ober to study the Earth’s electrical properties. He reasoned,

“Earth’s electrical charge is always negative,” and…”.. able to reduce a positive charge. “ And since grounding reduced people’s pain, “that suggested”, that “pain is related to positive charge”.

Then Ober, after his own sleep study with volunteers, had lucked out in winning over a doctor who, at least, wanted to “prove” him “wrong”.

“Whereas the first study was based on people’s subjective statements, this second study measured cortisol levels, “thus providing an objective measurement of how earthing would improve sleep problems, pain levels, and stress”, or not.

The study, published in the “Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine” showed “an alteration and significant stabilization toward normal cortisol levels”! What a giant step from humble beginnings. (Link below)

It takes a good mind to follow in the definition of “inflammation”, by now identified as the source of all trouble. Inflammation is a response from the body needed for healing, initially.

Only when it gets out of hand “taking a progressive shift”, switching “ into overdrive” and, turning into chronic inflammation, it starts overproducing rampant free radicals that attack and oxidize healthy tissues causing a multitude of inflammation related illnesses. There is a table in the book with a long list of them, and even heart disease is among them as one of earthing therapy benefits. I am surprised to hear that, but should not have been.  I learn that already Virchow,  German pathologist in the mid 1800

“had recognized that injured and inflamed arteries might be a source of heart attacks”.

Nowadays, the cholesterol theory is going strong, and the lowering of cholesterol “has become a medical obsession”, the book states. However “medical research has shown that half of all heart attacks and strokes occur among people with normal cholesterol levels”. Harvard cardiologist Paul Ridker, M.D. observes that normal to low cholesterol levels can lull people into complacency, when instead it is elevated CRP( indicating the presence of inflammation) that can put them at ”increased risk for cardiovascular trouble” without them knowing about this. Dr. Ridker, lead researcher in this Harvard heart disease study, concludes that “we have to think of heart disease as an inflammatory disease”.

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After reading all this evidence given from tests done with grounding, and the implications for medicine, things get really exciting for the reader.

Suddenly all my doubts are gone, and while I keep reading I get my partner to order a grounding sheet and grounding pillows, after I have taken a pass on getting too distracted on line by all the different kinds of attractive grounding shoes and sandals, just for now.

All kinds of products are being designed now to ground and to take care of the rampant “electron deficiency” humanity is suffering by living modern lives, the book informs.

Luckily we now get to know, the earth surface has an abundance of negatively charged electrons, and by being in touch with it, electrons  are replaced in our electron deficient bodies, the inflammation generating free radicals are nullified, and health can start happening again.

So finally, as coauthor Martin Zucker puts it aptly, and with humor, earthing would mean, “exploiting our planet- for a change in a most magnificent way”. The book’s contributing scientist, electrophysiologist Gaetan Chevalier, UC Irvine, writes, under the  headline “The Physics of Earthing, simplified”: “Our research leads us to conclude that a lack of grounding leads to internal electrical instability” which becomes a “precursor” for dysfunction and illness.

Are you electron deficient?  Then Earth Therapy is your answer.

So this is serious stuff, and people don’t seem to be aware of any danger signals. In much detail he explains Earth’ negative charge, and under another heading,  “Technical Notes on Grounding and Earthing Methods”. These details would involve studying more in depth for a lay person like me, and I cannot responsibly reiterate but I am glad I browsed over them, because it reassures that all this is scientifically sound and grounded, and measurable.

“Contact with the surface of the Earth maintains the body’s electrical stability, and its “self regulating and self healing mechanisms”. That remark stands out for me, and  now I can’t wait to test out for myself if grounding alone can do the things my microcurrent device has done for me, like “recharging my battery,” energize, reduce pain, relax, even rejuvenate.

I can’t wait, to go ahead and start earthing, and, like Martin Zucker puts it in his dedication “To Rosita”, with the “prospect of exploiting our planet- for a change in a most magnificent way”.  I can’t wait to follow James Oschman’s suggestion, in the book’s foreword, earth’s “limitless healing energy, “it’s there and always there, and yours for the taking”.

P.S.

I have not gotten far enough in my grounding and electricity studies to have my many questions  answered. Or are they possibly “ungrounded”?  Is my double AA battery run microcurrent SCENAR or DENAS doing a similar, or even the same thing? Is it “just” the earth frequency of 7.8 hertz that I am getting with grounding?  How does that compare to the 7.8 hertz with a special micorcurrent frequency in my DENAS PCM 6 device.  Do both approaches to remedy the electron deficiency in the body have the same result? Could they be used interchangeably? What does one add to the other? Do they complement each other? What are the differences? How is earth electricity different from microcurrent?  Can they replace each other? But that would be a whole different discussion.

Dr. Sinatra does mention microcurrent devices, but his focus in this book is naturally on researching grounding, and in the meantime the answers to these questions will have to be found elsewhere.

P.P.S.

I wanted to conclude this Part One of my review with some good news, the grounding sheet has arrived yesterday and I already have been tested it out last night. Since we live off grid here on home made solar power equipment, on the Big Island of Hawaii, we had to fix up a socket in order to be able to plug into a grounding wire, and I slept grounded, even felt slight tingles, and had an good night.

In part two I will go over more research data, mining out the book once more, and update more of my own experience with grounding and earthing therapy.

Author Lin de Berger

Author Lin de Berger: a German documentary maker turned psych and alternative nurse used microcurrent to recover from 10 years of COPD.  She is a strong advocate of daily use of microcurrent.  Retired in Hawaii she practices yoga daily and loves gardening.

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Other related articles:

References:

Electrical Grounding Improves Vagal Tone in Preterm Infants

Effects of Grounding on Body Voltage and Current in the Presence of Electromagnetic Fields

The biologic effects of grounding the human body during sleep as measured by cortisol levels and subjective reporting of sleep, pain, and stress.

Grounding After Moderate Eccentric Contractions Reduces Muscle Damage

One-Hour Contact with the Earth’s Surface (Grounding) Improves Inflammation and Blood Flow—A Randomized, Double-Blind, Pilot Study

The Effect of Grounding Earthing Therapy the Human Body on Mood

Grounding the Human Body during Yoga Exercise with a Grounded Yoga Mat Reduces Blood Viscosity

Research Review: The Effects of Grounding (Earthing) on Inflammation, the Immune Response, Wound Healing, and Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Inflammatory and Autoimmune Diseases − Journal of Inflammation Research

Grounding the Human Body Improves Facial Blood Flow Regulation

Differences in Blood Urea and Creatinine Concentrations in Earthed and Unearthed Subjects during Cycling Exercise and Recovery

Earthing Therapy (Grounding) the Human Body Reduces Blood Viscosity—a Major Factor in Cardiovascular Disease Additionally, to view the Blood Viscosity Video Clip click here

Earthing the Human Organism Influences Bioelectrical Processes

Research Review: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth’s Surface Electrons −Journal of Environmental and Public Health

The Neuromodulative Role of Earthing Therapy

Emotional Stress, Heart Rate Variability, Grounding, and Improved Autonomic Tone: Clinical Applications

Earthing the Human Body Influences Physiologic Processes,   Editorial: Chronic Disease: Are We Missing Something?

Pilot Study on the Effect of Grounding on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness

Changes in Pulse Rate, Respiratory Rate, Blood Oxygenation, Perfusion Index, Skin Conductance, and Their Variability Induced During and After Grounding Human Subjects for 40 Minutes

The Effect Of Earthing On Human Physiology, Part 2

The Effect Of Earthing On Human Physiology, Part 1

The Effectiveness of a Conductive Patch and a Conductive Bed Pad in Reducing Induced Human Body Voltage Via the Application of Earth Ground

The Biologic Effects of Grounding the Human Body During Sleep as Measured by Cortisol Levels and Subjective Reporting of Sleep, Pain, and Stress

Medical Thermography Case Studies on Earthing 2004-2005

Earthing Commentaries

James Oschman, Ph.D., Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D., A. Clinton Ober, Biophysics of Earthing Therapy (grounding) the Human Body, in Bioelectromagnetic and Subtle Energy Medicine (CRC Press), 2015.

Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D., The Earth’s Electrical Surface Potential A summary of present understanding

James Oschman, Ph.D., Can Electrons Act as Antioxidants? A Review and Commentary

James Oschman, Ph.D., Charge Transfer in the Living Matrix

James Oschman, Ph.D., Perspective: Assume a spherical cow: The role of free or mobile electrons in bodywork, energetic and movement therapies

James Oschman, Ph.D., Earthing vs. “Good” and “Bad” Free Radicals

Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D.,Earthing, Inflammation, and Aging – Something to Think About

Matteo Tavera: A French naturalist’s vision of the importance of “natural electricity” to life

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[ebodyfusion]

Discover whether Earthing Therapy is the perfect anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant for people recovering from inflammatory diseases?

Discover whether Earthing Therapy is the perfect anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant for people recovering from inflammatory diseases?

Earth Therapy is only for wuu woo barefoot hippy, nudist natural health nuts?

“Earthing the Most Important Health Discovery Ever!” First published in 2010 (now in it's second edition), translated into more than 12 languages, a book I think should be read by every health professional, so that's why I dove in and created this review, just for you.

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 Earthing therapy "Earthing" three authors, Clint Ober, Steve Sinatra, and Martin Zucker have put together their individual earthing experience, expertise, research, and down to earthing, writing skills to prove their point: that they have found the earthing therapylink to the exponential increase in immune and inflammation related diseases over the last 20 years.  Maybe you suffer from one of them too.

The authors claim to have found a cure that they deem “the most important health discovery, ever”! And on the “praise for Earthing” title page, author Ann Gittleman’s third party authority statement reads, ”Earthing therapy ranks right up there with the discovery of penicillin.”

"Earthing Therapy"?  How on earth can that be?

In my mother language, the German synonym for earthing, “erden” is an electrical term, meaning “grounding”. So that title is right on, and I am not going to google it now, because the bare footprints on the book cover give it away.  Anyway, in my youth, barefoot health seekers were a common sight, wading in line through morning wet meadows glistening in the sunlight.  Folk doctor Pfarrer Kneipp’s health recommendations still reverberating in their ears. I remember just how enthusiastic they seemed. Now these people are looked upon as health nuts, or what they are doing as something even ridiculous, or at least unscientific.

Finding myself in that kind of mindset while taking a first glance at the book I found it hard to believe, what I was reading. That merely by touching the ground with your bare feet or merely touching the surface of the earth, you could get the wide benefits of earthing therapy by being electrically charged up with energy, just like a rechargeable battery.

That the earth has an electrical charge, and that it is negative, and that the body has a voltage with a positive charge that accumulates when out of touch with the earth, and so on, all that I did not have the foggiest idea earth therapy, or at least was not fully aware of.

Doubting the claim that merely grounding yourself was supposed to literally charge you up like a car battery and thus take care of major illness, I read on.

I was familiar with the concept of the body as a battery, from using a microcurrent device on myself, but at least that is running on double AA batteries. The concept that the earth itself, or “herself” I am tempted now to write, that “Mother Earth”, (how unscientific a term), should give off these healing forces directly, off grid, even without Double AA batteries, did not settle so easy yet in my brain. The earth having current and giving it off to us with every barefoot step we make?

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Can earthing therapy cure you and relieve screaming pain?

Could it then do the same like my electrostim device claims it can do,could do, reduce pain, energize, and rejuvenate, including taking care of illnesses, as the book claims? Even solving the current health crisis like the authors claim?? In my opinion, only a miracle could do that.

In that book full of miracles, “Autobiography Of A Yogi”  Yogananda quotes that very image of the body as battery when he writes about teaching a class of boys a secret technique, how to charge themselves up with energy.  “Realizing that a man’s body is like an electric battery, I reasoned that it could be recharged with energy…”.  But he goes on saying, that it was done with “powers of the human will”, i.e. mental power. Yogananda does not mention the electric charge of the earth, as far as I know.

And this is something most of us are not aware of even nowadays with all the talk about physics and even biophysics.

But most medical doctors did not know.

Steve Sinatra, M.D. comments on this, “electrical engineers know, that the earth is pulsating with free electrons. Medical scientists didn’t know that, but they did know that the body is electrical in nature” and that only a man like Clint Ober, was able to “put two and two together”, with all his knowledge of electricity and grounding cable TV systems that helped him to grasp grasped the idea of earthing therapy with all its health implications.

Clint Ober, as an electrical engineer knew about interference. Being disconnected from the earth created that.

It made him think further...

It slowly dawns on me, that grounding earth therapy or going barefoot indeed can charge us up enough to get over our health problems, as the book suggests, such as pain, sleep problems, arthritis, fibromyalgia, even diabetes and heart problems, all inflammation related.

And In this book there are plenty of studies, research results, tables, charts which prove it, and lots of testimonials, from doctors, therapists, practitioners, and clients.

One might get worried, thinking, am I going to read all about diseases and research? Is the book maybe too technical for my scope of understanding? The answer is, yes, and no. Yes, it does challenge your attention span and willingness to learn something new, and no, it is written for the lay person in search for a better world.

No medicalese or in Latin!

Even better, this reads like a book written with a cause, with passion, human touch, personal anecdotes, and enthusiasm, and it is definitely about health, not just sickness, and comes with a grand vision and solution, and it is written in an endearing style by these down to earth authors: First of all, Clinton Ober, (see the bio section at the back of the book), who as stated before but stated again because it makes a good story, started as a cable TV salesman, rising into the largest U.S. cable marketing and service industry and then crossing over into computer streaming.

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Then there is Gaetan Chevalier, biophysicist and electrophysiologist, “specializing in the body’s electrical wiring” who contributes and covers the science side.

And they all claim, their “ Earthing” is “the most important health discovery ever!” And, “we believe this book is the first ever written about Mother Earth’s natural vibes and how they keep us healthy...

The first earthing therapy book ever written, how can that be?

Did not folk doctor Kneipp have it down already? The book even mentions several other names, predecessors in the barefoot tradition, an Adolf Just, who already in the early 1900 wrote a book on earth power, “Return to Nature”, advocating walking barefoot and sleeping on the ground.

Then there was the late Dr. William Rossi, a Massachusetts podiatrist, quoted at length, who in his writings strongly disapproved of fancy dress shoes, identifying them as the culprit and emphasizing the “intriguing connection between the foot and the ground”, and also a Frenchman Matteo Tavera who in 1969 in a “largely unnoticed book” wrote about the unhealthy insulation from the ground, blaming separation from Nature as the cause of degeneration and illness.

More or less it’s the same reasoning then as now, only that today we have arrived at a level of degeneration and illness where medicine is unable to prevent nor treat all this chronic inflammation and the wave of illnesses that stems from it. Inflammation and inflammatory disease, the book quotes, is the number one most researched yet unsolved health problem that cuts through all age groups, even children. There is, globally, an ”unprecedented rise” in inflammatory and immune dysfunction, like allergies, just to name one, and the mind puzzling question keeps researchers occupied, with 20,000 new studies on inflammation now every year.

However, author Clint Ober insists, and already has, for 15 years now, that he has found the missing link, and it is grounding people to give them earthing therapy.

I must admit, not until I got to the part when coauthor and cardiologist Steve Sinatra writes in detail about the multiple studies he did on grounding, that I stop doubting the book and its claim. Is it, because he has an M.D. to his name? How brain washed can I get?

Is it that same prejudice, that Clint Ober had to endure when he tried to break into the scientific community with his discovery?  Turning to doctors and scientists to back up his observations on grounding people and what it could do, and only getting shrugs, or even laughter, as a response. And only that, until, finally, at an electromedical conference in San Diego, he meets a like minded doctor in Stephen Sinatra, and showing him back to his RV in the parking lot,  introduces Sinatra, and two other scientists, to his earthing hypothesis. As Sinatra puts it in the book, for him at that moment, “a door to a new healing frontier had been pushed open”, and that, “by the most unlikely of individuals”, Clint Ober, a man (,here we go again), successful in the cable TV and computer worlds.

As Ober describes, the whole idea about earthing came into being, when, one day he was resting on a bench, focused on tourist’s feet how they moved in and out of his field of vision. This scenario, maybe not by accident, happens to take place in Sedona, which attracts tourists for its new age power place appeal, vortexes and “earth magnetism”. Could it be, Ober reasoned there, that thick soled running shoes, as they were worn by these tourists, could insulate them from “Mother Earth” and so interfere with their health? Ober was getting on that train of thought, because he himself  was suffering  from terrible chronic pain, was on pain and sleeping pills, constantly, and was seeking a solution.

Wondering about and asking himself that question about these running shoes, he got impressed by the possible consequences.

Suddenly he felt, he had found an answer to a mystery that would solve the riddle and it made him feel that suddenly, he had found his purpose in life, something he had been looking for all this time and up to this point. Getting hooked on earth therapy and that connection he made between the running shoes and health, right there and then he decided to take off in his van and go to California. He wanted to prove it, first to himself, and then, to other people that grounding was the answer. Little did he know how hard it would be to convince others once he had proven it to himself. Nobody had even thought about any of this. As he remembers ...

“ I came to the conclusion that nobody had researched the grounding-health connection”.

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Sinatra writes, “he had just a bare beginning of scientific evidence to back up his observations”. It had been a long haul even before he got counsel from university sleep lab students on how to conduct double blind studies which would count in a scientific world. To begin with, he had grounded countless families knocking on thousands of doors in search for volunteers to do a study on grounding, with a nurse in tow who was very helpful in making the connections and following up on grounding tests, for many years. And then venturing into manufacturing products to make earthing more attractive and even doable took years.

The way Ober describes it, and again, this makes a good story, following his self inflicted mission must have been sheer agony and no joking matter, but Ober jokingly remarks,

“I never for a moment thought I would be in the sleeping or bedding industry”,

when suddenly there was a demand and he came to design viable grounding bed sheets, which nowadays are readily available on Amazon.

“Gratification of seeing people losing their pain...kept me going everyday on an adventure that has been exhausting, challenging, and, at times, quite lonely.”

Reading through his story was worthwhile for me, just to get an idea how resistant people as a society could be to

“anything out of left field”

not only the doctors and scientists but myself included, because I admit, when I first read about it, earthing being a "earthing therapy" sounded hard to believe, that merely walking barefoot you could reverse inflammation and the most serious health conditions.

And what exactly is it about the earth’s earthing therapy influence on the body? Here I quote Ober’s explanation:

"the natural frequencies of the Earth (and he spells it always with a  respectful Capital “E!” )…”are waves of energy caused by the motions of subatomic particles called free electrons...Electrons have a negative charge.

It is these electrons that give the Earth’s surface a natural, negative charge….Maintaining contact with the ground allows your body to naturally receive and become charged with these electrons.

When thus “grounded”, you automatically absorb them, which in turn reduces electrical imbalances in the body and the oxidative free radicals involved in chronic inflammation and multiple diseases. The body’s natural electrical state is restored.”

At the same time, he humbly states:

“Neither I nor the researchers and doctors I have worked with have a full understanding of the depth of physiological changes that occur with Earthing.”

From the huge amount of measured evidence in scientific tests done, one could say, it’s not just one thing earthing therapy does. A father-son doctor’s team in Poland, the Sokols, after many studies on grounding, preferred to summarize in a more general statement, that

“Earthing influences human physiological processes”, ... helps “regulate correct functioning of the nervous system and significantly influences the electrical activity of the brain”.

Amazing, (and here we go again once more), that a medical lay person like Ober coming from cable TV’s electric engineering would visualize a medical breakthrough like that, when doctors could not come up with any of this, nor would most of them even listen to him.

Ober had shared with Sinatra his

“frustration with the medical and scientific community that had shown little or no interest in grounding”.

To that Sinatra replies,

“he was having a hard time getting his foot inside the door of science.”

With Sinatra joining in, and with other names in electrophysiology and biophysics, like Gaetan Chevalier, biophysicist James Oschman, Ph.D., author of “Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis”,and another cardiologist Richard Delany, earthing therapygrounding studies started really rolling, revealing and measuring f.e. dramatic thinning and decoupling of blood cells, after 40 minutes of grounding.

Another study measured a 270% improvement in zeta potential (degree of negative charge on surface of red blood cells which repels, preventing unwanted aggregation), after two hours of grounding. Sinatra explains: zero zeta potential means sludge, thick slow flowing blood with more risk of clumping or clotting, causing “traffic jams”.   After grounding and earthing, red blood cells moved along briskly, whereas before there was barely any movement observed through a dark field microscope.

What a big leap from Ober trying at first in vain to make doctors lend him volunteer patients for his first grounding studies. And then, while getting his hair cut hearing people talking about their health and figuring

“that a beauty salon could be a good source of volunteers.”

The reward for volunteering was always “improved sleep and feeling rested from it”, which for Ober was always significant even only as subjective statement, especially since there are an estimated 70 million people in the U.S, with sleep problems, and then there was another volunteer’s statement, “pain reduction”, a subjective measurement also.  These initial discoveries led Ober to study the Earth’s electrical properties. He reasoned,

“Earth’s electrical charge is always negative,” and…”.. able to reduce a positive charge. “ And since grounding reduced people’s pain, “that suggested”, that “pain is related to positive charge”.

Then Ober, after his own sleep study with volunteers, had lucked out in winning over a doctor who, at least, wanted to “prove” him “wrong”.

“Whereas the first study was based on people’s subjective statements, this second study measured cortisol levels, “thus providing an objective measurement of how earthing would improve sleep problems, pain levels, and stress”, or not.

The study, published in the “Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine” showed “an alteration and significant stabilization toward normal cortisol levels”! What a giant step from humble beginnings. (Link below)

It takes a good mind to follow in the definition of “inflammation”, by now identified as the source of all trouble. Inflammation is a response from the body needed for healing, initially.

Only when it gets out of hand “taking a progressive shift”, switching “ into overdrive” and, turning into chronic inflammation, it starts overproducing rampant free radicals that attack and oxidize healthy tissues causing a multitude of inflammation related illnesses. There is a table in the book with a long list of them, and even heart disease is among them as one of earthing therapy benefits. I am surprised to hear that, but should not have been.  I learn that already Virchow,  German pathologist in the mid 1800

“had recognized that injured and inflamed arteries might be a source of heart attacks”.

Nowadays, the cholesterol theory is going strong, and the lowering of cholesterol “has become a medical obsession”, the book states. However “medical research has shown that half of all heart attacks and strokes occur among people with normal cholesterol levels”. Harvard cardiologist Paul Ridker, M.D. observes that normal to low cholesterol levels can lull people into complacency, when instead it is elevated CRP( indicating the presence of inflammation) that can put them at ”increased risk for cardiovascular trouble” without them knowing about this. Dr. Ridker, lead researcher in this Harvard heart disease study, concludes that “we have to think of heart disease as an inflammatory disease”.

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After reading all this evidence given from tests done with grounding, and the implications for medicine, things get really exciting for the reader.

Suddenly all my doubts are gone, and while I keep reading I get my partner to order a grounding sheet and grounding pillows, after I have taken a pass on getting too distracted on line by all the different kinds of attractive grounding shoes and sandals, just for now.

All kinds of products are being designed now to ground and to take care of the rampant “electron deficiency” humanity is suffering by living modern lives, the book informs.

Luckily we now get to know, the earth surface has an abundance of negatively charged electrons, and by being in touch with it, electrons  are replaced in our electron deficient bodies, the inflammation generating free radicals are nullified, and health can start happening again.

So finally, as coauthor Martin Zucker puts it aptly, and with humor, earthing would mean, “exploiting our planet- for a change in a most magnificent way”. The book’s contributing scientist, electrophysiologist Gaetan Chevalier, UC Irvine, writes, under the  headline “The Physics of Earthing, simplified”: “Our research leads us to conclude that a lack of grounding leads to internal electrical instability” which becomes a “precursor” for dysfunction and illness.

Are you electron deficient?  Then Earth Therapy is your answer.

So this is serious stuff, and people don’t seem to be aware of any danger signals. In much detail he explains Earth’ negative charge, and under another heading,  “Technical Notes on Grounding and Earthing Methods”. These details would involve studying more in depth for a lay person like me, and I cannot responsibly reiterate but I am glad I browsed over them, because it reassures that all this is scientifically sound and grounded, and measurable.

“Contact with the surface of the Earth maintains the body’s electrical stability, and its “self regulating and self healing mechanisms”. That remark stands out for me, and  now I can’t wait to test out for myself if grounding alone can do the things my microcurrent device has done for me, like “recharging my battery,” energize, reduce pain, relax, even rejuvenate.

I can’t wait, to go ahead and start earthing, and, like Martin Zucker puts it in his dedication “To Rosita”, with the “prospect of exploiting our planet- for a change in a most magnificent way”.  I can’t wait to follow James Oschman’s suggestion, in the book’s foreword, earth’s “limitless healing energy, “it’s there and always there, and yours for the taking”.

P.S.

I have not gotten far enough in my grounding and electricity studies to have my many questions  answered. Or are they possibly “ungrounded”?  Is my double AA battery run microcurrent SCENAR or DENAS doing a similar, or even the same thing? Is it “just” the earth frequency of 7.8 hertz that I am getting with grounding?  How does that compare to the 7.8 hertz with a special micorcurrent frequency in my DENAS PCM 6 device.  Do both approaches to remedy the electron deficiency in the body have the same result? Could they be used interchangeably? What does one add to the other? Do they complement each other? What are the differences? How is earth electricity different from microcurrent?  Can they replace each other? But that would be a whole different discussion.

Dr. Sinatra does mention microcurrent devices, but his focus in this book is naturally on researching grounding, and in the meantime the answers to these questions will have to be found elsewhere.

P.P.S.

I wanted to conclude this Part One of my review with some good news, the grounding sheet has arrived yesterday and I already have been tested it out last night. Since we live off grid here on home made solar power equipment, on the Big Island of Hawaii, we had to fix up a socket in order to be able to plug into a grounding wire, and I slept grounded, even felt slight tingles, and had an good night.

In part two I will go over more research data, mining out the book once more, and update more of my own experience with grounding and earthing therapy.

Author Lin de Berger

Author Lin de Berger: a German documentary maker turned psych and alternative nurse used microcurrent to recover from 10 years of COPD.  She is a strong advocate of daily use of microcurrent.  Retired in Hawaii she practices yoga daily and loves gardening.

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Other related articles:

References:

Electrical Grounding Improves Vagal Tone in Preterm Infants

Effects of Grounding on Body Voltage and Current in the Presence of Electromagnetic Fields

The biologic effects of grounding the human body during sleep as measured by cortisol levels and subjective reporting of sleep, pain, and stress.

Grounding After Moderate Eccentric Contractions Reduces Muscle Damage

One-Hour Contact with the Earth’s Surface (Grounding) Improves Inflammation and Blood Flow—A Randomized, Double-Blind, Pilot Study

The Effect of Grounding Earthing Therapy the Human Body on Mood

Grounding the Human Body during Yoga Exercise with a Grounded Yoga Mat Reduces Blood Viscosity

Research Review: The Effects of Grounding (Earthing) on Inflammation, the Immune Response, Wound Healing, and Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Inflammatory and Autoimmune Diseases − Journal of Inflammation Research

Grounding the Human Body Improves Facial Blood Flow Regulation

Differences in Blood Urea and Creatinine Concentrations in Earthed and Unearthed Subjects during Cycling Exercise and Recovery

Earthing Therapy (Grounding) the Human Body Reduces Blood Viscosity—a Major Factor in Cardiovascular Disease Additionally, to view the Blood Viscosity Video Clip click here

Earthing the Human Organism Influences Bioelectrical Processes

Research Review: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth’s Surface Electrons −Journal of Environmental and Public Health

The Neuromodulative Role of Earthing Therapy

Emotional Stress, Heart Rate Variability, Grounding, and Improved Autonomic Tone: Clinical Applications

Earthing the Human Body Influences Physiologic Processes,   Editorial: Chronic Disease: Are We Missing Something?

Pilot Study on the Effect of Grounding on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness

Changes in Pulse Rate, Respiratory Rate, Blood Oxygenation, Perfusion Index, Skin Conductance, and Their Variability Induced During and After Grounding Human Subjects for 40 Minutes

The Effect Of Earthing On Human Physiology, Part 2

The Effect Of Earthing On Human Physiology, Part 1

The Effectiveness of a Conductive Patch and a Conductive Bed Pad in Reducing Induced Human Body Voltage Via the Application of Earth Ground

The Biologic Effects of Grounding the Human Body During Sleep as Measured by Cortisol Levels and Subjective Reporting of Sleep, Pain, and Stress

Medical Thermography Case Studies on Earthing 2004-2005

Earthing Commentaries

James Oschman, Ph.D., Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D., A. Clinton Ober, Biophysics of Earthing Therapy (grounding) the Human Body, in Bioelectromagnetic and Subtle Energy Medicine (CRC Press), 2015.

Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D., The Earth’s Electrical Surface Potential A summary of present understanding

James Oschman, Ph.D., Can Electrons Act as Antioxidants? A Review and Commentary

James Oschman, Ph.D., Charge Transfer in the Living Matrix

James Oschman, Ph.D., Perspective: Assume a spherical cow: The role of free or mobile electrons in bodywork, energetic and movement therapies

James Oschman, Ph.D., Earthing vs. “Good” and “Bad” Free Radicals

Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D.,Earthing, Inflammation, and Aging – Something to Think About

Matteo Tavera: A French naturalist’s vision of the importance of “natural electricity” to life

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Remember to verify your email subscription to learn more

[princerolston11-blog]

Project Scorpio Technology Revealed

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[janiklandre-blog]

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Library in Northampton, Massachusetts  on Saturday morning, 12 degrees outside - 11:30 a.m. I am stewing in New England juices - on my first morning in Amherst, Mass. I left my son's house at 6:45 a.m. - and decided to check out the PVTA - stand for mostly free public transportation between the five college - making stops at shopping malls - and the 30 running near my son's house is at many times running at 15 minutes intervals - I was there at at ten to six, stopped a young man to help me decipheer the completely impossible schedule, he said in 10 minutes one should be here - drizzlty rain - I'm standing there, cane in hand , car after car, after car zooms past me, 15 minutes later, no bus - when I was driving in those parts I often pulled up at a bus station because in the summer these buses often run at 30 minute intervals and more - also next two weeks when all five universities will be on spring break.

In Sag Harbor when I was walking up a hill, several times people going in the opposite direction would turn around and come and ask me if I needed a ride. Here I stood for half an hour - luckily I've come to learn from the Chinese, never stand still - NEVER SIT - exercise, exercise, exercise - I have come to decide, New Englanders are extremely efficient - of course one reason the hospital is understaffed, the place where I had coffee this morning is understaffed - they never did hire here undocumented help, that serves me in NYC (soon I'll have to say served) - and yes, New England does have long winters and a harsh climate - but I encounter many harsh people here - proud to be working day and night - in New Hampshire many voted for Trump - get rid of all foreigners, put the rest into private jails, so the good people - also according to the Calvinist religion - the virtuous who work day and night God rewards with material goods -and so they proudly work, work, work - and find an old European woman who lives in New York and early made it her goal to live well on a shoe string but has avoided back breaking and often - harsh work conditions - and gladly think of her to be a bum. My theme song: hallelujah, I'm a bum again.

I also have come to realize that when I've gone to cemeteries here I have seen names of people who run the banks, the industry, a lot of government - alas a good number of German origin, the cruel country I fled - the Rockefellers, who established severe punishment and led to the overcrowding of jails - where people suffer and cost - in the last  analysis, isn't it our taxes - the taxes paid by the poor - who pay these private jails? So many able bodied, intelligent, good people who could staff the hospitals, serve in restaurants - and yes - give the old like me the support I so much need. Trump is of German background. He offers to do away with the Elite - and replaces them with white haired military men.

Much pondering is done in the NYT regarding to where we are goiing - the sharply rising anti semitism - by well paid journalists.

So - my time here - I do meet with tender love from my sons, it is there - but also with - they have a hard time dealing with an odd, weird, old woman - whose body is old, her gait - forget word - wobbly - she is thin skinned , she admits to anger - yet most often is accused of jealousy - in German Eifersucht - a very graphic word for a truly nasty trait, to which no one will admit. I do react - too strongly - inappropriately is a favorite term - to what I feel are slights - and I also do remember, as long as Paco was my companion - until 1988, when I was 56 years old - my sons only allowed me to visit as long as Paco came with me. My mother made me extremely aware of the suffering of an old woman alone - as revenge that I was not willing to be a companion to her - she killed herself days vefore she turned 80 and sadly upended our lives.

We all need a companion - cum pane is with bread, a person to break bread with - a person with whom we can share our daily stories - as my daughter in law did this morning, upstairs, with her husband, my son, while I sat downstairs alone, only hearing her voice and then she rushed pAst me, off to union organizing. The day bvefore she had worked from 11 a.m. until midnight. My son said why didn't you come upstairs and ask us to come down - I knew that would not be welcome.

Old women alone - many prone to low moods, melancholia as I call it - not eating right, not sleeping right - losing interest in life, interest in them is lost  - I hard at work at this here computer trying to keep a little interest in me alive - harshly criticized by many for doing this - unbecoming, unattractive, self centered - C.B. told me long ago, thojughts are to be entered into a private journal - as she does - not aired in public.

People now write essays and books about the ills of the computer age - the ability it gives to those of us who have - as I have - struggled (with the great help of Ken) - to get at least a toe into the computer age and now with Molly's assistance reaching a wider public - and not even so sure whether what I am doing is right, is nice, am I not hurting people - hurting myself?

A few other "oldies" write about getting old - but most had found ways to become respected authors - they have editors, they know that they are doing, they get paid for their efforts, they are professionals - who always have looked down, scorned - the amateur (amare love in Latin, doing things for love, not moeny) - dilettante - related to delight - yes, their writing is polished, well edited, crafted - and I read their books that are publisghed by respected publishers, get them in my library, read them when my spirits are down and I am glad to escape into their world - a world of worldly success that has eluded me - and they do have companions, they are loved, they are cherished and no one ever has accjused them of jealousy - - people are jealous of them! They give highly paid talks, own beajutiful houses and mostly describe how well they have mastered life - own a beautiful house where family comes to surround them, friends come to surround them, they are admired - and often have servants - who adore them - and make their life and the lives of those around the, pleasant.

My mother from my point of view made - a cruel! - mistake by the way she treated my sweet and gentle father - who did not share her skill and ability to make moeny. He was a loving companion to her - he had suffered in many ways more as a German under Hitler - psychologically - then my mother who had declared herself in 1933 Jewish - a questionaire offerring Protestant, Catholic, Jewish - she crossed off Jewish, her father was Jewish and her birth in 1902 were entered, there were only religious entries, into a Jewish register. She longed to be a Catholic - I wish she had acted on it. I wish she had been merciful with my father - when he was diagnozed with Parkinson's she called him a hypochondriac. By then she had a lovely apartment, was making good money - working VERY hard - he had a rented room, was evicted because there now was enough housing in Munich to allow people to be evicted - he then made a suicide attempt - she said, even that he cannot get together and later demonstrated how it is to be done, with the assistance of a German friend.

I had left in 1951 for America - fled - my father left a couple of days after I left, only much later did I realize how much he had loved me and stayed to protect me from a mother heavily damaged by the destruction of her great ambitions after 1933 - seethiing with anger, taking it out on him and on me, her only child - she had planned on five - having been an only child herself.

At one time a sociology professor, Wlodzimierz Nahirny, suggested a dissertation - perhaps a book to me - The backgrounds of successful writers - they are very different from my background - mostly what e call high bourgeoisie - the gift of the child is discovered and encouraged early - my gift was scorned by my mother - there is real work to be done, we need potatoes - that was after 1945 in Germany - go out ansd get potatoes and stop writing letters - in Czech - to your beloved friend whom you had to leave behind in Prague. All you do in these letters is complain about me. My friend handed me those letters neatly bundled on a visit to Prague - 1987 - I put off reading them and in 2000 they burned.

Well, I should go to all my unanswered email - but - this here blog has become my companion to talk to - some day I may write about my search for companionship after 1988 - a good deal of pain - and I've often said, if I had the money, I would happily pay a companion.

Being poor, old, wobbly on my legs - there is not much I have to offer any more - occasionally there is a kindred soul - usually soon leaves New York, a city now only for millionaires - for the virtuous - for my mother the most important quality was to be "tuechtig" - related to virtuous. My father lacked the virtue and I have also - money never really interested me - I never looked to a job in finance - I lacked that virtue. I also have gravelly sinned in the care of my body - after 50 I began putting on weight - Kummerspeck I call it - Kummer is sorrow, too much sorrow in my life, looking to sweet food. not enough exercise, not enough healthy food - also - the run in with melanoma - my once upon a time nurse friend, Christine Fiedler, she dropped me when I became useless - she freely diagnosed me mentally troubled, chided me for refusing pills to make me into a nice and quiet old woman, perhaps a zombie - she did not share with me her suspicion of melanoma when she first noticed the mole on my leg - it was oozing when I half a year later saw a doctor and got a stage number 4 cancer diagonosis - almost a death sentence - this was 1981 - when I wrote my first unpublished memoir (I've written thousands and thousands of unpublished pages, many burned in 2000) - I lived for 25 years without any kind of insurance, a surgeaon I had tutored in German, a plastic surgeon did what is called a wider excision - luckily unnecessary - still I lost some muscle in my leg that now is cramping and altogether in worse shape than the other, the left leg.

I am convinced the one pill I take, for 7 years now, a beta blocker to keep my blood pressure under control - a German doctor friend, Ursula, a high school classmate - urgently recommended it - I believe it has cost me my teeth (acidified saliva my dentist said) and now I still have a bridge that keeps falling out, right this minute   and once again the time on this here computer is running out and I will  once again - send without reading what I have written  - adios Marianne .