Drafting ideas, sketching projects and posting food for thought. Hacking the fabrics of our so called "1st world" privilege to find conscious humanity. After all we are all emotional watery beings.
Last nights documentary “Going Clear Scientology and the Prison of Belief" shocked and surprised me not for what it exposed - regarding the church's schizophrenic foundations and its abusive doings – but rather the realisation of power that people hold when united under a common belief, fighting for it. Throughout the 2 hours spellbinding and gripping documentary, this one scene captivated my imagination and set it on fire.
The force-fed unrealistic humanitarian beliefs - moral crucible of the Church - were bred into the Scientologist with such fervour that it acclaimed their unquestioning minds. An enemy was created, a threat was introduced and its mission was being undermined by taxes. Its message was found to be so profound that members became willing to bully, intimidate and sue one of the biggest organisation of the US government, the IRS, to achieve tax-exemptions as a religious organisation. After IRS individuals were dragged into growling court battles for weeks on claims of corruption and dodgy behaviour, the IRS dropped their investigation against the Church and accepted Scientology as a religion along with its tax privileges. At that moment, a see-through veil was lifted and with clarity I saw the cosmic joke.
This Orwellian organisation, built to save and to restore humanity from its own stupidity projected its hypocritical message across the world with scary success. Capturing people's interest at first with its auditing program - based on Freudian approach to psychoanalysis - for a moderate price and then by sucking them into the closed door smiley community. Being part of Scientology makes you feel good, people listen to you and give you time to vent out your problems, often navigating deeply into intimate subjects. In fact, you are constantly encouraged to undertake auditing sessions - which are meticulously written down, stored and kept until needed to hang above your head - in order for you to reach the bridge, the equivalent of heaven. It's tangible, you can feel the progress. The euphoric atmosphere is contagious and without access to books, communities, news, websites, friends and even family outside of the Church - as seeking them is considered an immediate threat to both the Church and its member and therefore strictly forbade - life in this protected bubble is indeed magical. The community is so caring that they will advise you to visit “Floor 7” to help amend any doubts or questioning that you may have regarding the Church’s actions. This particular floor in the Hollywood Headquarters - also knowns as Pacific Area Command Base - is dedicated to re-indoctrination of members, where arduous labour is forced upon them and strenuous hours of auditing are imposed with kind smiles. All along suffering from food scarcity and sleep deprivation. Mentally vulnerable and physically weak, brainwashing becomes all too easy. On the miraculous faith recovery, you are then relisted back into the community where certain members will be assigned to keep you under watch.
This is legal. This is a religion. This is tax-exempt.
For years I have been searching for answers regarding our system and for a decade I have been questioning our centralised government, but never quite hitting bulls-eye. The impact of seeing thousands of people actively defending and aggressively attacking a system that they believed was wrong, and win, was a wake-up call. I knew, from reading Greek texts in high-school about the origin of democracy and the power of the people, by the people and for the people. Yet if that were true, why do we have an unelected government in the UK? If democracy actually worked why do people suffer in intentional ignorance? How is it that a nonprofit religious organisation was able to stamp the IRS and FBI’s inquisition and establish itself as multi-billion tax-exempt real-estate investor across the world? How is that when masses of people peaceful protest in the streets, changes seldom take place and when they do, they take a long time? Where does the difference lie?
Leaving politics aside – for blood pressure reasons - action must be taken if we want change and to have change we must be responsible for its lack, owning up to our indifference. We all have a powerful tool at our disposal and that is money. From coin to paper to binary-digits it feeds corporations, banks, and governments. Through commodity, they entice us to buy and consume their products purposely forgetting to openly advertise who they support or where they invest. By making the educated and conscious decision we can redirect the monetary flow from the inflated power-hungry giants to other institutions which causes we support. Should supermarkets invest their revenues in political or social campaigns – such as no OGM labeling, Scotland's independence and lobbying for corrupt governments to pray on child labour? Should private education willingly receive grants from unethical sources – such as tax-dodging corporations, oil companies and weapons manufactures?
Support what you believe in and make an effort to bring the change that you would like to see around you.
A green modified home with weals driven by Matt. Friend, shaman, lion, crystal worker, chanter, teacher and awesome queer spirit.
We set out from Bristol on a fun revvy drive, as the half tone Cake Sniff took on the hills to Chew Manga and down towards Bishop Sutton, where we camped. Pulling into a parking space off the road and opening the back doors, the dusky skies tinted the lakes with soft worm colours. Sitting on the comfy bed, feeling the evening breeze while surrounded by good vibes was just the start of the night.
A friendly atmosphere of chatter infuses the air as I comfortably move around the van snapping away feeling the flow of energy. Hand made curtains separated the drivers area from the living, cooking and sleeping area.At the back of the van with feet dangling out, sitting on the bed, Becky quietly draws on her sketchbook. Matt on the other hand, with dangling coins strapped to his hips, is up dancing over the hob dicing and stirring away the dinner. Although the kitchen was very small, as well as the pots, I was surprised at how plentiful our portions were. In retrospect, I am not sure why I felt that way, as I am used to cooking on portable stoves when camping. Dinner was lovely, especially for me as the food was plonked onto the chopping board. A grinning smile stretch from ear to ear as I marveled at the vegetable colours contrasting the wood texture.
The wood burner was fed, and soon enough the crackling sound filled the small space with conformable warmth. The evening quietened as the sun set down behind the hill, but our hidden excitement rose.Three healers in the van, each bringing their crystals and their intentions. Each of us working at different frequencies and each of us using different practices. Matt, using a more shamanic approach by chanting and drumming. A lighter energy is used by Becky, steering more towards Reiki while I, well I honesty don’t know what I was doing. Needless to say, that both Becky and Matt felt my weird energy situation and agreed to work on me first.
I knew crow was still with me and for the past couple of months I was having trouble seeing. I didn’t feel much, I just felt trapped. When I came out, I noticed the pair of them exchanged a “Oh dear” look and when turned to face me a awkward smile crept over their faces. Matt started by saying that the energy in my right ankle wasn’t flowing properly, and that I had a “black hole” in my solar plexus, and that it felt that the water stream in me had dried up into hard mud, and that crow was scaring him away. No surprises there, I thought to myself. Becky agreed and added that my torso was like a landscape, but not in a bad way. I took in what they said, quietly assessing myself with a smile.Then it was Becky’s turn, she wanted to go back into an animal trance. The drums was out, the sage was lit and the four directions were set using the rattle. Matt guided the journey down the tunnel to meet the spirit animal, and the drum rang fast and heavy. I knew I wasn’t in the space to travel so I used it to talk to crow. A terrifying minute or two experience. I learned that he came to me to protect me, his wings spread black and wide across my eyes. I released, as I insistently told him to go away why he wouldn't. Fear started to bubble up to the surface as the words to say to him came to. In that moment I discovered that deep down, subconsciously, I was scared of falling without a safety net. I wanted to be saved, I was sabotaging myself as I was waiting for somebody to help me. My nose was flaring and my lungs where striking sharp breaths. “I don’t want to be saved, I want to learn, I want to experience”. I reaped the words with more conviction knowing that I could not go back, I didn’t want to go back, I wanted to program my subconscious to propel me forwards in life, not to hold me back. Reaching that conclusion crow left, a bright white bird flue to the left (where Becky was lying). The darkness left as crow with tucked wings looked at me from above, and to cheer me up sculls came forth laughing at me with diamond teeth. "Charming", I thought. Now that crow had closed his wings and flue up to keep an eye on me, a dark emptiness took over me. Crippling doubt and insecurities rose to consume me for the rest of the night.By then the fire died down, mainly chocked by ashes. While we all took a break I tried to bring it back to life, with little success. It was Matt’s turn to go on a journey. He wanted Becky to remove a dagger from a past life. Nervously he lays down on the bed as we set the space. The energy rapidly shifted and morphed like a wave in a bubble, and the fire burst into flames. I smiled as I peeked at it to make sure it would't spit out onto the very flammable fury carpet. From the darkness of my closed eyes, I saw a yellow bubble with an outer orange line expand as two pair of hands opened the dark slit, and in that moment I heard Matt say "I am sorry for not listening to you". The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. The session was over and the pair of them recounted what they saw and what they felt. I sat quietly, still processing crow leaving, agreeing with their feelings as they match mine as well.We opened the door to bring some needed fresh air into the space. I snuggled up to Becky, and we gazed out at the stars that poked through the clouds. Tiredness started to down on us and thus was our night.
Bright colours filled the room as the sun poked through the patch-made curtains. We all felt tired and I groggy, but stepping outside the van into the green landscape squinting at the morning rays, quickly made my forget how nice would it have been to sleep an extra hour.The obvious brushing the teeth rooting was slightly altered, due to the lack of running water and the fact that we forgot toothpaste. This is where I tried for the first Lush's toothpaste offered by Matt. A bright purple glittery pill of passion fruit freshness was popped, and soon enough our mouths were foaming with giggles as we shared the one cup of water. Oral Pleasure, the bottle label said. Who ever come up with Lush's name product must have one fun job. Breakfast was in order and peanut butter and jam rice crackers were chomped on with happy faces.
Before heading back home, leaving the spot where three friends sat on a van-bed, sharing a meal, laughing, meditating and doing shamanic and energy work with each other, we shared one last moment together. A stroll round the hilly area, one last chant with the Shruti box and the keys where in the ignition.
How on earth would you feed a city of over 200,000 people when the land around you was a swampy lake? Seems like an impossible task, but the Aztec managed it by creating floating gardens known as chinampas, then they farmed them intensively.
These ingenious creations were built up from the lake bed by piling layers of mud, decaying vegetation and reeds. This was a great way of recycling waste from the capital city Tenochtitlan. Each garden was framed and held together by wooden poles bound by reeds and then anchored to the lake floor with finely pruned willow trees. The Aztecs also dredged mud from the base of the canals which both kept the waterways clear and rejuvenate the nutrient levels in the gardens.
A variety of crops were grown, most commonly maize or corn, beans, chillies, squash, tomatoes, edible greens such as quelite and amaranth. Colourful flowers were also grown, essential produce for religious festivals and ceremonies. Each plot was systematically planned, the effective use of seedbeds allowed continuous planting and harvesting of crops.
Between each garden was a canal which enabled canoe transport. Fish and birds populated the water and were an additional source of food. [x]
This is literally so cool. Not only does it contribute to spacial efficiency, but the canals would easily keep pests, weeds, and possibly even diseases out of the respective plots. Companion planting and bio-intensive planting would be so much easier. Water-wise systems would be inherently present. Plus it looks so super neat aesthetically. I am just all about this.
Technique can trace Neandertals, Denisovans without fossils
Fifty thousand years ago, a Neandertal relieved himself in a cave in present-day Belgium, depositing, among other things, a sample of his DNA. The urine clung to minerals in the soil and the feces eventually decomposed. But traces of the DNA remained, embedded in the cave floor, where earth falling from the cave’s ceiling and blowing in from outside eventually entombed it. Now, researchers have shown they can find and identify such genetic traces of both Neandertals and Denisovans, another type of archaic human, enabling them to test for the presence of ancient humans even in sites where no bones have been found.
“It’s a great breakthrough,” says Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London. “Anyone who’s digging cave sites from the Pleistocene now should put [screening sediments for human DNA] on their list of things that they must do.” Adds Svante Pääbo, the head of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, where the work was done: “I think this will become a standard tool in archaeology, maybe even like radiocarbon dating.”
At the tip of our fingers, from the comfort of our homes, the power to wield the judges mallet is bestowed upon us by the web. Information accessible within seconds, as is our judgment towards others. A spree of un-empathic humans bread on social media, storming indiscriminately like vultures around anybody's personal life. The same tool that helps us connect in such beautiful ways is used to help us destroy one and another.
It is fun to read, to follow and to watch the unfolding of the downfall of a person, but why? Why do we enjoy seeing someone’s life being ripped to peaces by total strangers?
If you’re of the mindset that knowledge should be freely accessible to as many humans as possible, paywalls for academic journals can be downright frustrating. Now a free browser extension is promising to bust through those paywalls wherever possible.
Unpaywall was launched earlier this month by the open source not-for-profit Impactstory – funded by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation – and it’s already making a splash in the traditional publishing industry.
Install the plug-in on your Chrome or Firefox desktop browser, and it will start displaying a little lock symbol whenever you’re on the landing page of an article in an academic journal.
If the plug-in can find a freely accessible full-text copy of the paper you’re looking at, the lock symbol turns from grey to green, and you can simply click on it to get the PDF. If the lock is gold, the article you’re reading already has an open access licence.
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