Archive for March, 2009
Symbolist Ancient Egypt
The artifacts and monuments of ancient Egypt have a significance that goes far beyond the “funerary” meaning that is conventionally applied to them. Many great temples, such as the Temple of Luxor, actually represent the growth of man in four dimensions; they also represent the growth of the Universe through time. One of the most interesting aspects of the Luxor temple, is how it shows the mathematical relation between Human and Universe.
When you look deeply into the story in the words of the ancient Egyptians; and you take them at their word, instead of the word of an outside “academic” observer, you see a completely different perspective of these people and their culture.
The symbolist interpretation of ancient Egyptian history is a rich and vast web of intricacy, which creates a true understanding of what this culture was trying to accomplish.
Their goal was not to preserve their physical bodies for all of time; instead it was to become attuned to the divinity within themselves, by living a life in touch with divine principles. Then they will have significantly enhanced their awareness, so they can move towards higher forms of being in the after-life.
The following is a selection from Magical Egypt, a documentary by John Anthony West, in which he unravels the mysteries of ancient Egypt and the Mystery Schools, from a symbolist perspective.
Alan Watts: A Conversation With Myself (1971)
Alan Watts is one of the most fascinating minds of the 20th century. I still recall discovering his books, for the first time, several years ago; starting with This is It and later The B∞k: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. Of all of the books I have read over the years, these two have some of the most profound influences on my relationship with reality.
His work is very powerful. Once you connect with it, it infuses with your very being and becomes a new facet of your awareness.
Alan has several foundational concepts, which he utilizes in his work. There is this idea that, what we think of as “our self” is not really who we are; but is instead an ego, or an entity that attaches to the self and tricks itself into thinking that it is the self. This ego gives itself the idea that everything in life fits into neat little boxes, simplified concepts, that causes us to act more rigidly; thus constraining our behavior and limiting our possibilities.
One of the biggest casualties of the ego, is not being able to fully exist in the moment. That is the theme of This is It; the notion that what is most important is being here, right now; in this body that is holding you. Yet the general tenancy is to escape the now for something that is to happen sometime in the future.
Opening up the mind to these new concepts of reality is one of the most edifying experiences. It really helps you to re-think this idea we call truth. It opens up a world of infinite inter-connectedness and inter-dependence.
A 1971 television recording with Alan Watts walking in the mountains and talking about the limitations of technology and the problem of trying to keep track of an infinite universe with a single tracked mind. Video posted by Alan’s son and courtesy of alanwatts.com.
Harvard Medical Students Finally Realize They’ve Been Had
These are supposed to be the “best and the brightest,” or so the conventional wisdom goes. It is interesting how these students would pay so much money to go to Harvard, only to find that the “education” is nothing more than a glorified big-pharma infomercial, pitching dangerous and unnecessary medications and therapies.
The academic “system” has a pyramid-like control structure, as with most of the tightly controlled edifices of our civilization. The bullshit that issues from the “ivy league” schools, is generally accepted as fact by the “lesser” schools; because they are thought to be the “best and the brightest, after all.”
There are so many broad-daylight conflicts of interest in “medicine” that it positively boggles the mind that people trust it with their lives and well-being. Many of these medical professionals actually have their educations financed by the pharmaceutical industry!
Guess what? The whiz kids at Harvard finally realized that they’ve been sold a phony bill of goods!
Harvard Medical School Finally Concerned About Drug Company Influence On Campus
source: nonprofitsoapbox.com
A fascinating article in the New York Times last week told the story of Matt Zerden, a student at Harvard Medical School who was troubled when he heard his pharmacology professor repeatedly promote the benefits of cholesterol drugs and seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects.
Mr. Zerden later discovered that the professor, a full-time member of the Harvard Medical faculty, was also a paid consultant to ten different drug companies, including five makers of cholesterol treatments. “I felt really violated,” Zerden says. “Here we have 160 open minds trying to learn the basics in a protected space, and the information he was giving wasn’t as pure as I think it should be.”
Read the rest of this entry »
They Done Us Wrong: Spending Our Way Into Greater Depression
by Michael S. Rozeff | LewRockwell.com
If you like economic depression, Obama is your man. The stock market is shouting this message loudly and clearly. The S & P 500 (measured by the security SPY) made a little high at 100.41 on November 4, 2008. The election was the next day. It has been downhill ever since. The close on March 2, 2009 was 70.60. This 30 percent decline qualifies as what used to be an ordinary bear market!
Congress and the President could not construct better measures, proposed and enacted, to deepen this depression if they tried. Congressional Democrats intend to ensconce Democrats as the majority party for the next 25 years or so. Their chosen method is wasteful pork sold as rational investment. But by gilding the nests of their chosen constituencies and supporters with huge taxpayer-funded giveaways, they will deepen and lengthen the depression.
The stock market tells us this, but it is easy for stimulus supporters to explain away the stock market’s drop in other ways. Obama supporters are likely to extol the good things that his program is doing to revive spending in the economy, and to regard the stock market as an aberrant den of gamblers and thieves who deserve their Bush-induced fate.
Very few men on the street, including my doctor, understand that spending, whether private or government, does not get rid of economic depression; and the lack of spending does not cause it. They do not fathom that government spending, borrowing, and taxing will further gash the sinking economy below the water line and send it to its watery grave. They are more inclined to believe, along with prominent economists, that government spending should be increased by trillions more. There cannot be too much of a good thing.
People automatically think that if everyone does not spend, then how can businesses keep going and hire people? How can the economy work? Then they think, if people only have money, then they can spend. If the government spending will only put that money into their hands, this will cause people to spend. It will jump start the economy, restore business confidence, and all will be well.
This story has a firm hold on the public imagination, but things don’t work that way. People in the aggregate can only earn money to spend by working productively. Money still doesn’t grow on trees.
The government doesn’t have a money tree either. Without resorting to inflation, it can only shift money around. America’s federal government is a group of Americans who are empowered to tax the rest of us and borrow from anyone in the world. This money is collected from you, me, and others. We then have less to spend. Shifting money from the left pocket to the right pocket doesn’t enhance the total amount. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s the Worst Thing about Becoming a new Parent?
You might think its the bodily trauma of pregnancy and birth, or the constant stream of dirty diapers, or the sleep deprivation. There are many negative things that people often associate with the journey into parenthood; but I submit to you that there is something else altogether, seldom mentioned, which goes far beyond all of these things.
The worst thing about becoming a new parent, is how people who wish to control you, treat you. Yes, you heard it right. When you don’t have a kid on the way, you are of little matter to them; but once they hear that one is on the way; all of the sudden, they want to know everything about your life; they want to become good buddies, give you their “sage advice,” and guilt you for anything that you don’t include them in.
Read the rest of this entry »
Chomsky: Obama on Israel-Palestine
Barack Obama is recognized to be a person of acute intelligence, a legal scholar, careful with his choice of words. He deserves to be taken seriously – both what he says, and what he omits. Particularly significant is his first substantive statement on foreign affairs, on January 22, at the State Department, when introducing George Mitchell to serve as his special envoy for Middle East peace.
Mitchell is to focus his attention on the Israel-Palestine problem, in the wake of the recent US-Israeli invasion of Gaza. During the murderous assault, Obama remained silent apart from a few platitudes, because, he said, there is only one president – a fact that did not silence him on many other issues. His campaign did, however, repeat his statement that “if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that.” He was referring to Israeli children, not the hundreds of Palestinian children being butchered by US arms, about whom he could not speak, because there was only one president.
Read the rest of this entry »