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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
plitzkin's LiveJournal:
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| Tuesday, September 14th, 2004 | | 11:53 am |
some near death experience websites
What is a Near-Death Experience (NDE)? Although most people who have come close to death say they remember nothing, as many as a third may later report that "something happened." That "something" might be a near-death experience, an NDE. No two NDEs are identical, but when numerous NDE reports are considered together, a pattern becomes evident. Any single experience is likely to include one or more of these aspects of the overall pattern: Feeling that the "self" has left the body and is hovering overhead. The person may later be able to describe who was where and what happened, sometimes in detail. Moving through a dark space or tunnel. Experiencing intensely powerful emotions, ranging from bliss to extreme distress. Encountering a light. It is usually described as golden or white, and as being magnetic and loving; rarely, it is perceived as a reflection of the fires of hell. Receiving some variant of the message "It is not yet your time." Meeting others: may be deceased loved ones, recognized from life or not; sacred beings; unidentified entities and/or "beings of light"; sometimes symbols from one's own or other religious traditions. A life review, seeing and re-experiencing major and trivial events of one's life, sometimes from the perspective of the other people involved, and coming to some conclusion about the adequacy of that life and what changes are needed. Having a sense of understanding everything, of knowing how the universe works. Reaching a boundary, a cliff, fence, water, some kind of barrier that may not be crossed if one is to return to life. In some cases, entering a city or library. Rarely, receiving previously unknown information about one's life, e.g., adoption or hidden parentage, deceased siblings, glimpses into future events. Decision to return may be voluntary or involuntary. If voluntary, usually associated with unfinished service to loved ones. Returning to the body. Most NDEs are pleasurable, but others are deeply distressing. In either case, virtually all NDErs sooner or later come to see the experience as beneficial. http://www.nderf.org/http://www.iands.org/ | | Tuesday, August 10th, 2004 | | 10:18 pm |
news for your mind...provided by cognitiveliberty.org
 Smart Pill, anyone?
By Henry I. Miller/David Longtin, Washington Times, July 21, 2004
"This field of "psychopharmacological enhancement" is growing in intensity and sophistication." >> Read more
Can popping pills make your life better?
Claire Sawers, The Scotsman, July 21, 2004
"Pharmaceutical analysts estimate the worldwide market in lifestyle drugs is worth around £11 billion a year, with the potential for huge growth. The irony is that the vast majority of this pill-popping is not based on clinical need." >> Read more
'We can implant entirely false memories'
By Laura Spinney, The Guardian (UK)
"You were abducted by aliens, you saw Bugs Bunny at Disneyland, and then you went up in a balloon. Didn't you? Laura Spinney on our remembrance of things past" >> Read more Current Music: whitetrash shaolin - "wisdom, whiskey, & dharma" | | Saturday, August 7th, 2004 | | 7:13 pm |
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ECONOMY - RHETORIC VERSUS REALITY: This week, President Bush said, “When it comes to creating jobs for American workers, we are turning the corner and we're not going back.” It's not time to pop the champagne quite yet. According to today's report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. employers added “just an eighth of the number [of jobs] forecast. The new figures bolster "evidence that a slowdown in economic growth may extend into the third quarter.” On top of that, job numbers for recent months weren't as positive as previously thought: “Job gains also were revised lower for the preceding two months, to 78,000 for June and 208,000 in May, or 61,000 less than originally stated.” Keep in mind, about 150,000 jobs need to be added just to keep up with growth in the labor force. This month, only 32,000 were added.
HALLIBURTON – MORE REASONS IT SHOULD GET NO-BID CONTRACTS: According to a new filing by four former Halliburton employees, Vice President Cheney's former company was guilty of inflating its financial results, overbilling for services, overstating its accounts receivable due from customers, and understating accounts payable owed to vendors. The employees “contend that a high-level and systemic accounting fraud occurred at the company from 1998 to 2001,” including during the two years when Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive. “The filing accuses the company of accounting improprieties that go far beyond those outlined by the Securities and Exchange Commission in its civil suit against Halliburton, which the company settled on Tuesday, paying $7.5 million.” It notes that one former employee in accounting said superiors told her to do “whatever it took” to make projects appear profitable and to meet Wall Street estimates for the company's earnings. According to a quarterly filing it also made on Tuesday, Halliburton is under investigation by the Justice Department for possibly overbilling on work done in the Balkans from 1996 through 2000.
VOTING – FLORIDA TOUCH SCREENS DRAW (MORE) SCRUTINY: Belated public scrutiny of a report on tens of thousands of ballots tossed out for irregularities in Florida's 2002 elections revealed that "the rate of so-called undervotes, or blank or incomplete ballots, in the 2002 gubernatorial election was nearly three times higher in counties using touch-screen machines as in those with optical scan systems.” The report shows “more than 44,000 votes weren't counted” in the governor's race won by the president's brother, Jeb Bush. Activist groups are calling on Gov. Bush to give voters in touch-screen counties the option of using paper ballots, but so far the governor has refused, even as his own party has been circulating fliers advising constituents to “Make sure your vote counts. Order your absentee ballot today.” The Miami Herald reports record numbers of voters may ask for absentee ballots because of suspicions about the touch screen machines.
JUDICIAL – INFORMATION WITHHELD ON JUDGES: The Washington Post reports that “Nearly 600 times in recent years, a judicial committee acting in private has stripped information from reports intended to alert the public to conflicts of interest involving federal judges.” A study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that “In 55 instances, the committee withheld all information on the disclosure reports -- including details about outside income, gifts, business contracts, debts, stocks and the value of holdings.” Judicial ethics specialists said they were “startled at the breadth of the excisions -- and particularly that the material cut included financial information that appeared to present little safety risk.” Legal ethicist Jeffrey Shaman said, “It makes one wonder if the real reason for a judge to request the redaction is to prevent the public from learning embarrassing information.”
MEDIA – MCCAIN CONDEMNS BUSH CAMPAIGN AD: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, has sharply condemned an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well. “The White House declined.” The 60-second ad features Vietnam veterans accusing Kerry of lying about his decorated Vietnam War record, even though none of the veterans who criticize Kerry served with him on his swift boat. “I deplore this kind of politics,” McCain said. “I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat [Kerry] commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire. I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam.” Three veterans who were on Kerry's boat -- Jim Rassmann, Gene Thorson and Del Sandusky, called the ad “pure fabrication.” |
 | | | Saturday, July 31st, 2004 | | 1:05 am |
| | Thursday, July 29th, 2004 | | 8:35 am |
essay by genpo roshi
“No matter who you are, or where you are on the globe, when you go to the sea and scoop up a handful of seawater, it will taste the same.”
What would you say if someone asked, “Do you exist?” Most of us would answer immediately, “Of course!” We take this so-called I for granted. But do you really exist? It’s a good question. The only problem is, we turn the question into a problem. First, we are stuck, deluded: we assume that we are what we think we are and that we exist in the way we think we exist. Then, we begin to question: “Is it so? Is there something more, something to be realized?” Somewhere along the way, we hear or read, “Yes! There is something to be realized, something to be tasted.” What does the mind do next? The small mind wants to figure out exactly what was experienced, precisely what was realized. Before we know it, we’ve started on a journey to the Sea. If we could have just one taste, then we could relax, right? No! The small mind is insatiable: we always want more, a bigger and better taste. One doughnut is never enough, we want the whole doughnut shop! Our grasping mind keeps us in the loop, always seeking more. Nobody is doing this to me, and nobody is doing this to you. We do it to ourselves.
Zen practice put our grasping mind to work. We have an itch, so we’re encouraged to right ahead and scratch. Don’t you really want to know, to finally discover and grasp the Truth? Tempting, isn’t it? Paradoxically, we have to try and we have to search, in order to discover that it can’t be grasped. Simply hearing about the experience is never enough. We have to go to the Sea, scoop up the water, and taste it for ourselves. So in Zen, we are encouraged to take the journey. We use fire to burn down the fuel and put out the fire.
Zen practice gives us a framework in which to do what is absolutely insane to do in the first place. I’m not talking about becoming even more insane, but admitting our insanity and becoming more sane in the process. All of us ask impossible questions: Am I a good person or a bad person? Is my life a success? Am I on the right path? Zen says: Go for it! Burn it out! Current Music: whitetrash shaolin - infinity | | Monday, July 12th, 2004 | | 10:38 pm |
be afraid...be very afraid...
VOTING
Postponing the Election? In a major exclusive, Newsweek reports the Bush administration is exploring legal justifications for postponing the November 2004 election in the event of a terrorist attack close to the election. In pushing for the authority to suspend democracy for the first time in America's history, the White House is seizing on the right-wing myth that the Spanish election was won by al Qaeda, instead of being lost by a government that lied to its people. And while the administration has trumpeted the prospect that al Qaeda might seek to disrupt the U.S. election, "counterterrorism officials concede they have no intelligence about any specific plots." ( more bush insanity )
Current Music: whitetrash shaolin | | Friday, July 9th, 2004 | | 3:22 pm |
from "the path of the human being"
"Why are we so dissatisfied? Do you ever ask yourself that question? On the surface we may think our unhappiness stems from some need or desire that hasn’t yet been fulfilled. If we look no deeper, we will never stop running, trying t satisfy our endless desires. When we really look at what we think we need in order to be content, we will notice a pattern: we create a very narrow path for ourselves between what we judge as good and acceptable and what we judge as bad and intolerable. We imagine that somewhere between loving and hating the way things are, there is a nice place of satisfaction and contentment. So we aim for that ideal, even though it is a razor-thin line. Every once in a while we can feel satisfied when we manage to touch that ideal, but the experience is rare and it never lasts very long. Most of the time we feel dissatisfied, and we hope and believe that things could be better. The problem is our perception, the way we look at our discontentment. As long as we think that discontentment exists because something is lacking, then of course, we will keep searching for a way to fill ourselves up. We will keep seeking and acquiring the next thing and the next thing and the next thing that we hope will bring us to that ideal state of contentment. But there is another way to approach this predicament: we don’t need to create such a thin line to begin with. Instead of thinking that in order for things to be OK they have to be this way or that, what if we accepted the way things are? What if we embraced it all? If we could learn to be at peace with whatever is, then every day would be a good day. Yet doesn’t something inside rebel when we hear that? The rational mind argues, for every day to be a good day, every day would have to be all good and no bad. That’s impossible! It’s natural for life to have ups and downs, and we should expect to have good moments and bad moments. If we could simply accept that, we wouldn’t end up causing more problems for ourselves. Instead, we judge the moments and form preferences. We create a very narrow path, our own razor’s edge of contentment. Buddha called this insanity. He saw that our basic problem is the way we view life. Somehow we see things inside out. Instead of seeing the big picture, we see things from a self-centered perspective. By putting the ego aside, the Buddha was able to look at life from the perspective of Big Mind, which sees the oneness of all things. Now, that doesn’t mean that the Buddha was some sort of god. He was just someone who was able to quiet his mind enough to perceive the nature of the disease and its cure. To be able to see what Buddha saw is not really that difficult. Discipline is all that is required to put the ego aside – even if only for a moment – so that life can be glimpsed form the perspective of Big Mind." - Genpo Roshi Current Music: whitetrash shaolin | | Monday, June 28th, 2004 | | 7:16 pm |
| | Thursday, June 17th, 2004 | | 9:25 pm |
gaming news
a news blip from [ http://www.gamasutra.com] sent by rusuden...aka http://www.justinmorgan.com"Research Volunteers Control Game With Mind" Without using any bodily motion, four volunteers with epilepsy were able to play a simple videogame using only brainpower in a health and science experiment. A grid of electrodes was placed on the patients' brains, and after about a half hour of training and practice, they were able to move an object on a screen up or down toward a target by thinking the word "move" or by imaging movement. The research aims to innovate how paraplegics and other physically disabled people interact with the world, possibly one day helping to create machines that can be operated via non-invasive electrodes. "After a brief training session, the patients could play the game by using signals that come off the surface of the brain. They achieved between 74 and 100 percent accuracy, with one patient hitting 33 out of 33 targets correctly in a row," said researcher Daniel Moran, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering. also something really cool. It's called 8 Bit D&D and it's at: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/90046Check it out! Current Music: whitetrash shaolin - "alien illuminati watts" | | Friday, June 11th, 2004 | | 12:56 pm |
video game wizard...
i now have the highest score on the ms. pacman at a little coffee shop on haight street in san fran...i should get my own!
Current Music: whitetrash shaolin - "infinity" | | 12:47 pm |
| | Wednesday, June 9th, 2004 | | 5:10 pm |
| | Tuesday, June 8th, 2004 | | 10:34 pm |
holotropic breathing...
this coming weekend...holotrophic breathing with dr. stan grof...and the sixteenth international transpersonal conference...
at the riviera spa & resort in palm springs, california... http://www.itaconferences.org/
more about stan grof and holotropic breathing:
http://www.holotropic.com/
Holotropic Breathwork is a powerful approach to self-exploration and healing that integrates insights from modern consciousness research, anthropology, various depth psychologies, transpersonal psychology, Eastern spiritual practices, and mystical traditions of the world. The name Holotropic means literally "moving toward wholeness" (from the Greek "holos"=whole and "trepein"=moving in the direction of something).
The process itself uses very simple means: it combines accelerated breathing with evocative music in a special set and setting. With the eyes closed and lying on a mat, each person uses their own breath and the music in the room to enter a non-ordinary state of consciousness. This state activates the natural inner healing process of the individual's psyche, bringing him or her a particular set of internal experiences. With the inner healing intelligence guiding the process, the quality and content brought forth is unique to each person and for that particular time and place. While recurring themes are common, no two sessions are ever alike.
Additional elements of the process include focused energy release work and mandala drawing. Holotropic Breathwork is usually done in groups, although individual sessions are also possible. Within the groups, people work in pairs and alternate in the roles of experiencer and "sitter". The sitter's role is simply to be available to assist the breather, not to interfere or interrupt the process. The same is true for trained facilitators, who are available as helpers if necessary. Current Music: mediocrates.net | | 10:33 pm |
The prison scandal was merely the product of "disgraceful conduct by a few American troops."
- President Bush, 5/24/04
VERSUS
"A Pentagon report set the framework for the use of torture" in Iraq. "A military lawyer who helped prepare the report said that political appointees heading the working group sought to assign to the president virtually unlimited authority on matters of torture."
- WSJ, 6/7/04 | | 10:32 pm |
SPIRITUAL GADGETRY
"The practice of meditation presents itself as an especially powerful discipline for the shrinking [modern] world....The age of technology would like also to produce a spiritual gadgetry -- a new improved spirituality guaranteed to bring quick results. Charlatans manufacture their versions of
the dharma, advertising miraculous, easy ways, rather than the steady and demanding personal journey which has always been essential to genuine spiritual practice." -chogyam trungpa
From the Foreword to Living Dharma in THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume Three, page 575.
or mind machine museum: www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~andrewc/
The Authentic Self
"The Authentic Self is a completely different dimension of the self than either the Self Absolute or the ego. It is that part of ourselves that is already whole. It has never been hurt, wounded, traumatized, or victimized. It is already whole and complete, and yet it can and does develop. For the Authentic Self, the point of departure in the developmental process is wholeness itself. This is the part of ourselves that cares passionately about evolution for its own sake, already. When individuals awaken to the Authentic Self—even if it's only temporarily—suddenly they become aware of a living evolutionary context and experience a passion and concern about the necessity for development itself" - Andrew Cohen
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) paradoxology - an altered state of reality
Current Music: whitetrash shaolin - "alien illuminati watts" | | Saturday, June 5th, 2004 | | 10:02 am |
an essay by the professor e.g. madhman
Elvis and Religion: Sex, Salvation, and Substitution Religious figures throughout history have been closely aligned with certain religious categories, or contexts that help shaped the figure from historical particularity to universal appeal. Founders of religions possess an extreme charisma that when funneled into the proper vessel can lead people to new ways of living and experiencing reality. But it is also the ability to tap into certain contexts within the human condition to fully flower as a leader of a new religion. These categories are Ecstasy, Salvation, and Impersonation. ( Read the Entire Elvisness )
Current Music: whitetrash shaolin | | Wednesday, June 2nd, 2004 | | 11:28 pm |
| | Tuesday, June 1st, 2004 | | 9:56 am |
from centerforamericanprogress.org
IRAQ
U.S. Railroads U.N.
For weeks, President Bush has insisted that the makeup of the Iraqi government to which the U.S. will transfer power June 30 is "going to be decided by Mr. [Lakhdar] Brahimi," a special envoy to the United Nations. Putting the U.N. in charge was supposed to reassure Iraqis that the new government would owe their primary allegiance to the Iraqi people, not the United States. But it appears that the Bush administration has not been able to relinquish its iron grip on the process. According to the NYT, Ayad Alawi, named Prime Minister on Friday, was presented to Brahimi as "'a fait accompli' after President Bush's envoy to Iraq, Robert D. Blackwell, 'railroaded' the Governing Council into coalescing around him." Brahimi "reluctantly endorsed [Alawi] only after American officials aggressively recommended him." Yesterday Paul Bremer, head of the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority, "ordered Iraq's Governing Council...to postpone a vote on nominating a president because the council's favored candidate is opposed by the authority." This morning, Bremer finally relented after the candidate he favored – former Iraqi foreign minister Adnan Pachachi – "turned down the job." In light of the continued confusion, take a look at the American Progress alternative plan for Iraq: Iraq: a Strategy for Progress.
MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS: Both Alawi and the newly appointed president, Ghazi al-Yawar, are members of the Iraqi Governing Council, a group appointed by the Bush administration which is viewed by Iraqis "as little more than a mouthpiece for the United States." The new government is in grave danger of "looking too much like the old one" and "could lack the credibility it needs to carry the country though the turbulent period leading to nationwide elections next year." Sheikh Mohammed Bashir al-Faydi, the spokesman for the Association of Muslim Clerics summed up the problem: "We were hoping that they would chose a neutral government, a trusted government. Instead we see only a second version of the Governing Council with America written all over it."
U.N. PROCESS HAS COLLAPSED: The appointment of Yawar and Alawi makes it clear that the "UN process...[has] largely collapsed." Brahimi recommended that Iraqi politicians like Yawar and Alawi should "stay out of the interim government." Brahimi "sought independent technocrats who would act as caretakers until elections are held next year." Although he was supposed to be in charge of the process the results "have been the opposite of what [Brahimi] wanted."
ALAWI PASSED FAULTY INTELLIGENCE TO THE CIA: Alawi, "is the secretary general of the Iraqi National Accord (INA), an exile group that has received funds from the Central Intelligence Agency." Alawi also has close connections the British MI6 intelligence agency. Alawi is "the person through whom the controversial claim was channeled that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be operational in 45 minutes" – a claim pushed by British intelligence and parroted by President Bush. After months of weapons inspections, Alawi's claims have yet to be supported by any evidence. The INA had little support in Iraq. In fact, "during an uprising in the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, last year, crowds immediately set fire to the INA office." Alawi's close association with the CIA and the United States "could become an issue in a country where public opinion has grown almost universally hostile to the Americans."
AS TRANSITION FLOUNDERS, SECURITY PROBLEMS PERSIST: The chaotic transition is especially troubling in the context of Iraq's persistent security problems. In recent weeks, "much of the country has been badly destabilized by the recent surge in fighting aimed at forcing out U.S. troops." While the U.S. boasts that it has created a 70,000 person Iraqi police force, just 3,000 have completed a two month training course – 55,000 are listed as untrained. $18 billion in reconstruction projects have been "delayed by insurgent attacks and rampant corruption." A poll conducted by the CPA in April found 92 percent of Iraqis believe "freedom and democracy are meaningless without peace and security." Current Music: enlightentainment.com | | 9:55 am |
"Since I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests...And as vice president, I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government..."
– Vice President Dick Cheney on Meet The Press, 9/14/03
VERSUS
"Time Magazine has obtained an internal Pentagon e-mail sent by an Army Corps of Engineers official...dated March 5, 2003 [that] says 'action' on a multibillion-dollar Halliburton contract was 'coordinated' with Cheney's office. The e-mail says Douglas Feith, a high-ranking Pentagon hawk, got the 'authority to execute RIO,' or Restore Iraqi Oil, from his boss, who is Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz."
– Time Magazine, 5/30/04 | | Monday, May 31st, 2004 | | 10:27 pm |
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