The majority of the toys in the world are made by many thousands of slave workers in China. Consumers also have the responsibility to change things, take responsibility and boycott toys made in China.
SANTA'S WORKSHOP takes you to the real world of China's toy factories. Workers tell us about long working hours, low wages, and dangerous work places. Those who protest or try to organize trade unions risk imprisonment. Low labor costs attract more and more companies to China. Today more than 75% of our toys are made in China. But this industry takes its toll on the workers and on the environment.
The European (and American) buyers blame bad conditions on the Chinese suppliers. But they say that increasingly hard competition gives them no option. Who should we believe? And what can you do to bring about a fairer and more humane toy trade?
"Sometimes we have no choice, we work till dawn. When you work all night you become dizzy and your eyes hurt because you can't take any breaks." - Chinese (slave) worker
Sunday
Consumption Vanity Disorder - How consumerism manipulates, transforms and destroys society, the economy and the environment
Culture in Decline: Consumption Vanity Disorder
Other episodes: 1. What Democracy? and 2. Economics 101.
The last thing that fish would ever notice in its habitat is the water. Likewise the most obvious and powerful realities of our human culture seemed also be the most unrecognized.
And it is only when we take pause, often at the risk of social alienation, to question the foundational principles and ideas to which our lives are oriented, a dark truth about our supposed “normality” becomes more clear.
Today we live in an ocean with enormous waves of status obsession, materialism, vanity, ego and consumerism. Our very lives had become defined not by our productive thoughts, social contributions and good will, but by superficial, delusional set of associations with the very fabric of our society that now radiates cheap romanticism, connected to vain competition, conspicuous consumption and neurotic addictions often related to physical beauty, status and superficial wealth.
In effect it is social conformity masquerading as individualism, with the virtues of balance, intelligence, peace, public health and true creativity left to rot on the sidelines. The cultural water we inhabit today runs deep with heavy pollution. It starts in our formative years when to be smart and achieving is to be a nerd or a geek.
Culture In Decline: Episode #3 covers a new epidemic disease rapidly spreading across the world: Consumption-Vanity Disorder.
Other episodes: 1. What Democracy? and 2. Economics 101.
The last thing that fish would ever notice in its habitat is the water. Likewise the most obvious and powerful realities of our human culture seemed also be the most unrecognized.
And it is only when we take pause, often at the risk of social alienation, to question the foundational principles and ideas to which our lives are oriented, a dark truth about our supposed “normality” becomes more clear.
Today we live in an ocean with enormous waves of status obsession, materialism, vanity, ego and consumerism. Our very lives had become defined not by our productive thoughts, social contributions and good will, but by superficial, delusional set of associations with the very fabric of our society that now radiates cheap romanticism, connected to vain competition, conspicuous consumption and neurotic addictions often related to physical beauty, status and superficial wealth.
In effect it is social conformity masquerading as individualism, with the virtues of balance, intelligence, peace, public health and true creativity left to rot on the sidelines. The cultural water we inhabit today runs deep with heavy pollution. It starts in our formative years when to be smart and achieving is to be a nerd or a geek.
Culture In Decline: Episode #3 covers a new epidemic disease rapidly spreading across the world: Consumption-Vanity Disorder.
Wednesday
The Shift - Finding your life purpose and transforming your life
A MUST SEE MOVIE
A very powerful and inspirational movie that talks about personal transformation, evolution and what really matters in life, such as happiness, peace and love for us and others.
How can we build a better life for ourselves? How can we achieve peace and happiness? This movie will show other perspectives that will help answer these and other questions, and change your life.
Best-Selling Author and Renowned Spiritual Teacher, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Presents His First Feature Film--The Shift (formerly titled Ambition to Meaning). Join Wayne Dyer and a star-studded cast for a story that will capture your imagination and send you on your own quest for a life of meaning and purpose. In The Shift, we share the stories of three modern lives in crisis--a young mother who nurtures everyone but herself, an overachieving husband who has forgotten what love means, and a moviemaker desperate for the opportunity that will make him worthy in his own eyes. Every life has a turning point, a shift, a choice to make about what really matters.
About the movie:
From the creators of You Can Heal Your Life: The Movie comes a compelling portrait of three modern lives in need of new direction and new meaning. In his first-ever movie (written by Kristen Lazarian and directed by Michael Goorjian), Wayne Dyer explores the spiritual journey in the second half of life when we long to find the purpose that is our unique contribution to the world. The powerful shift from the ego constructs we are taught early in life by parents and society—which promote an emphasis on achievement and accumulation—are shown in contrast to a life of meaning, focused on serving and giving back.
Filmed on coastal California’s spectacular Monterey Peninsula, The Shift captures every person’s mid-life longing for a more purposeful, soul-directed life.
“Thoroughly unprepared, we take the step into the afternoon of life. Worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and our ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening and what in the morning was true, at evening will have become a lie.” - Carl Gustav Jung
The Shift explores the intertwined lives of an overachieving businessman (played by Edward Kerr), a mother of two young children seeking her own expression in the world (Shannon Sturges), and a film director trying to make a name for himself (Michael DeLuise). Also starring Portia de Rossi. The Shift not only inspires, but also teaches us how to find the path to our spiritual purpose and therefore our greatest joy.
“I am 68 years old and I have a new career,” Dyer explained. “When I was asked to do this film, I didn’t think ‘I’m too old to do something I’ve never done before.’ I thought ‘I am open to everything. I am willing to change and to learn.’ I’m more proud of this film than of anything I’ve ever done before.”
Wayne Dyer appears in the film as himself. Special appearance by Louise L. Hay.
http://www.dyermovie.com
ONE - The movie: A documentary about oneness and spirituality
"ONE: The Movie" is a documentary that makes important diverse questions exploring topics of war and peace, fear and love, suffering, God, life after death and the ultimate meaning of life. The answers reflect global diversity, while emphasizing the oneness of humanity.
The lifting power of love - Do You Make a Difference?
Article by Wayne Dyer - Many years ago I was with one of my daughters as she completed a lengthy program in the wilderness to help her deal more effectively with some of her teenage dilemmas. The last thing the counselor at the wilderness camp said to her was, “Remember at all times that what you think and what you do affects other people.” This is true even beyond the impact we have on our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. I believe that we impact all of humanity.
In Power vs. Force, Dr. David Hawkins writes: “In this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in our private world improves the world at large for everyone. We all float on the collective level of consciousness of mankind, so that any increment we add comes back to us. We all add to our common buoyancy by our efforts to benefit life. It is a scientific fact that what is good for you is good for me.” Dr. Hawkins has backed up his remarks and conclusions with 29 years of hard research. I’ll briefly summarize some of these conclusions and how they relate to the impact you have on others when you’re connected to Source.
In essence, every single person as well as large groups of people can be calibrated for their energy levels. Generally speaking, low-energy people cannot distinguish truth from falsehood. They can be told how to think, whom to hate, whom to kill; and they can be herded into a group-think mentality based on such trivial details as what side of the river they were born on, what their parents and their grandparents believed, the shape of their eyes, and hundreds of other factors having to do with appearance and total identification with their material world. Hawkins tells us that approximately 87 percent of humanity calibrates at a collective energy level that weakens them. The higher up the ladder of frequency vibration, the fewer people there are in those high levels. The highest levels are represented by the truly great persons who originated spiritual patterns that multitudes have followed throughout the ages. They’re associated with divinity, and they set in motion attractor energy fields that influence all of humankind.
Just below the energy level of pure enlightenment are the energy levels associated with the experience designated as transcendence, self-realization, or God consciousness. Here’s where those who are called saintly reside. Just below this level is the place of pure joy, and the hallmark of this state is compassion. Those who attain this level have more of a desire to use their consciousness for the benefit of life itself rather than for particular individuals.
Below these supremely high levels, which few ever attain in a permanent way, are the levels of unconditional love, kindness, and acceptance of everyone. Below the levels of energy that strengthen us are the low energy levels of anger, fear, grief, apathy, guilt, hatred, judgment, and shame—all of which weaken and impact us in such a way as to inhibit our connection to the universal energy level of Source.
What I’d like you to do here is take a leap of faith with me, while I present a few of the conclusions that Dr. Hawkins came to in his second book, called The Eye of the I. Through his precise kinesiological testing for truth versus falsehood, he’s calibrated the approximate number of people whose energy is at or below the level that weakens. I’d like you to consider his findings and conclusions relative to your impact on civilization. Dr. Hawkins suggests that it’s crucial for each of us to be aware of the significance of raising our frequency of vibration to the level where we begin to match up with the energy of the universal Source.
One of the most fascinating aspects of this line of research is the idea of counterbalancing. High-energy people counterbalance the negative effect of low-energy people. But it doesn’t happen on a one-to-one basis because of that 87 percent of humanity that’s in the lower weakening frequencies. One person connected to Source can have an enormous impact on many people in the lower energy patterns. The higher up the scale you move toward actually being the light of enlightenment and knowing God consciousness, the more negatively vibrating energies you can counterbalance.
Here are some fascinating figures from Dr. Hawkins’s research for you to contemplate as you review the impact you can have on humanity simply by being on the higher rungs of the ladder:
- One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of optimism and a willingness to be nonjudgmental of others will counterbalance the negativity of 90,000 individuals who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.
- One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of pure love and reverence for all of life will counterbalance the negativity of 750,000 individuals who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.
- One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of illumination, bliss, and infinite peace will counterbalance the negativity of 10 million people who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.
- One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of grace, pure spirit beyond the body, in a world of complete oneness, will counterbalance the negativity of 70 million people who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.
The implications of these figures are immense for discovering ways of improving human consciousness. By raising your own frequency of vibration only slightly to a place where you regularly practice kindness, love, and receptivity, and where you see beauty and the endless potential of good in others as well as yourself, you counterbalance 90,000 people somewhere on this planet who are living in the low-energy levels of shame, anger, hatred, guilt, despair, and depression.
Consider the importance of becoming aware of the impact you have on others, and remind yourself that by raising your own energy level to a place where you’re in harmony with Source, you become an instrument, or a channel, of peace. This works everywhere, so be a part of the counterbalance to the human negativity you encounter in your life. As Mahatma Gandhi said: “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”
By Wayne Dyer
http://www.healyourlife.com/author-dr-wayne-w-dyer/2012/12/lifeshelp/success-and-abundance/do-you-make-a-difference?utm_id=HYLNew
Tuesday
"Animal Odd Couples": A beautiful documentary about the emotions and relationships between animals of different species
A MUST SEE DOCUMENTARY
Despite the odds, there are countless stories of the most unlikely cross-species relationships imaginable: a goat guiding a blind horse; a doe who regularly visits her Great Dane surrogate mother; a juvenile gibbon choosing to live with a family of capuchins, and so on. Instincts gone awry?
The subject has mystified scientists for years. Now, NATURE investigates why animals form these special bonds. Informed by the observations of caregivers and noted scientists Temple Grandin and Marc Bekoff, the film explores what these relationships suggest about the nature of animal emotions. Documentary by PBS Nature.
Despite the odds, there are countless stories of the most unlikely cross-species relationships imaginable: a goat guiding a blind horse; a doe who regularly visits her Great Dane surrogate mother; a juvenile gibbon choosing to live with a family of capuchins, and so on. Instincts gone awry?
The subject has mystified scientists for years. Now, NATURE investigates why animals form these special bonds. Informed by the observations of caregivers and noted scientists Temple Grandin and Marc Bekoff, the film explores what these relationships suggest about the nature of animal emotions. Documentary by PBS Nature.
Saturday
Breaking the Illusion of Limitation
Transformation and Evolution of the Mind and Humankind
Breaking the Illusion of Limitation:
You were born a small bundle of infinite potential
You loved and were loved unconditionally
The concept of lack was foreign to you
As you grew you started to question the world around you
But at school you were taught to repeat information instead of to think for yourself
You were ridiculed by peers when you challenged the status quo
And so you allowed group mentality to sway your actions and decisions
You did as you were told as you feared the consequences of what would happen if you did not
Do you like being ruled by fear?
You were judged and so you learned to do the same
Yet one has to recognise in ones self what he is judging in another
Be aware of what you are judging then change that part of yourself
Your opinions were formed through the use of television programming
(it's not called programming for nothing)
You were presented with continuous distractions to keep you from questioning the reality around you
You were deliberately kept ignorant as we fear what we do not understand
You sought news of world events but were fed propaganda
You were given hope with promise of effecting change through voting
But that hope disintegrated when you realized that both parties were played by the same hand
You were told by religions to worship a deity outside of yourself
Never realizing that you were already part of the infinite consciousness of the universe
You joined the rat race as no other option was evident
You were trained to be a consumer with constant bombardment of corporate symbolism
Chemicals were placed in your food and drink to make you more passive
You grew unhappy with your situation but were told "that's life, get on with it"
You were taught to disparage others because of their differences
Which made you vulnerable when those differences you identified yourself with were in turn attacked
You repeat the same cycles of negative behaviour because you let circumstance dictate your mood
If only you were able to realize there is no good or bad, only perception
You let the past dictate your present and worry about the future
Even though the past and future do not exist, you only ever have the present
Living in the moment is all you can ever do
National pride was instilled in you at the expense of distancing you from the rest of the world
You only limit that which you label and ascribe terms to. The truth cannot be so easily forced into a box
Is it any wonder you feel confused and directionless?
The powers that be have been working very hard to make you believe you have no power, no control
But it's all just an illusion
Once you realize how powerful you are you will never again act against your will
All you have to do is remember who you are
You are the same soul that was born all those years ago
That same soul but with years of conditioning clouding your sense of self
As Bill Hicks said "You are the imagination of yourself"
So who do you want to be?
It's your choice, just start believing
We all come from the same source, we are all one
You realize this as the labels you were given no longer fit
You were born free and will die free but will you live free?
The choice is yours
You are infinite potential
Respect yourself and you will respect others
A world beyond war
Breaking the Illusion of Limitation:
You were born a small bundle of infinite potential
You loved and were loved unconditionally
The concept of lack was foreign to you
As you grew you started to question the world around you
But at school you were taught to repeat information instead of to think for yourself
You were ridiculed by peers when you challenged the status quo
And so you allowed group mentality to sway your actions and decisions
You did as you were told as you feared the consequences of what would happen if you did not
Do you like being ruled by fear?
You were judged and so you learned to do the same
Yet one has to recognise in ones self what he is judging in another
Be aware of what you are judging then change that part of yourself
Your opinions were formed through the use of television programming
(it's not called programming for nothing)
You were presented with continuous distractions to keep you from questioning the reality around you
You were deliberately kept ignorant as we fear what we do not understand
You sought news of world events but were fed propaganda
You were given hope with promise of effecting change through voting
But that hope disintegrated when you realized that both parties were played by the same hand
You were told by religions to worship a deity outside of yourself
Never realizing that you were already part of the infinite consciousness of the universe
You joined the rat race as no other option was evident
You were trained to be a consumer with constant bombardment of corporate symbolism
Chemicals were placed in your food and drink to make you more passive
You grew unhappy with your situation but were told "that's life, get on with it"
You were taught to disparage others because of their differences
Which made you vulnerable when those differences you identified yourself with were in turn attacked
You repeat the same cycles of negative behaviour because you let circumstance dictate your mood
If only you were able to realize there is no good or bad, only perception
You let the past dictate your present and worry about the future
Even though the past and future do not exist, you only ever have the present
Living in the moment is all you can ever do
National pride was instilled in you at the expense of distancing you from the rest of the world
You only limit that which you label and ascribe terms to. The truth cannot be so easily forced into a box
Is it any wonder you feel confused and directionless?
The powers that be have been working very hard to make you believe you have no power, no control
But it's all just an illusion
Once you realize how powerful you are you will never again act against your will
All you have to do is remember who you are
You are the same soul that was born all those years ago
That same soul but with years of conditioning clouding your sense of self
As Bill Hicks said "You are the imagination of yourself"
So who do you want to be?
It's your choice, just start believing
We all come from the same source, we are all one
You realize this as the labels you were given no longer fit
You were born free and will die free but will you live free?
The choice is yours
You are infinite potential
Respect yourself and you will respect others
A world beyond war
Monday
CHINA CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: The Tibetan Genocide
More informations about the Tibetan Genocide:
WATCH DOCUMENTARIES:
Dispatches - Undercover in Tibet:
As Tibetan protesters take to the streets in the biggest and most bloody challenge to Chinese rule in nearly 20 years, Dispatches reports on the hidden reality of life under Chinese occupation after spending three months undercover, deep inside the region. Dozens are feared dead after the recent clashes and crackdown by Chinese troops, but with reporting so rigidly controlled from the region little is known of living conditions inside Tibet.
To make this film, Tibetan exile Tash Despa returns to the homeland he risked his life to escape 11 years ago, to carry out secret filming with award-winning, Bafta-nominated director Jezza Neumann (Dispatches Special: China’s Stolen Children). Risking imprisonment and deportation, he uncovers evidence of the “cultural genocide” described by the Dalai Lama.
He finds the nomadic way of life being forcefully wiped out as native Tibetans are stripped of their land and livestock and are being resettled in concrete camps. Tibet reveals the regime of terror which dominates daily life and makes freedom of expression impossible. Tash meets victims of arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and “disappearances” and uncovers evidence of enforced sterilisations on ethnic Tibetan women.
He sees for himself the impact of the enormous military and police presence in the region, and the hunger and hardship being endured by many Tibetans, and hears warnings of the uprising taking place across the provinces now.
Tibet - Beyond Fear:
In this documentary "Tibet : beyond fear" a buddhist nun named Ngwang and a buddhist monk named Bagdro tell their stories. They were on the forefront in the protests against Beijing during the eighties. They were imprisoned and heavily tortured. Their personal stories tell a lot about the resilience of the Tibetan resistance. The Chinese used every conceivable method to break Ngwang and Bagdro, but they refused to compromise their Tibetan stance.
‘The police took shit from the toilet,’ Bagdro recalls about his life in prison. ‘They made it into shit soup and forced us to eat it.’ He tried to commit suicide after one year in prison to end the humiliation. The police caught him and ended his attempt.
They are imprisoned and tortured but through the power of positive thinking, find the strength to move beyond fear. When a world wide movement culminates in their release, they find a way to forgive their former torturers as they continue the struggle to free prisons of conscience they left behind.
Eventually Ngwang and Bagdro were released after years of imprisonment, not coincidentally at a time when Beijing tried to strengthen their ties with the US. Both of them are living abroad now in exile.
(Note: The majority of the video is in english)
Sunday
ISRAEL CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: The Palestinian Genocide
MUST WATCH DOCUMENTARIES / INFOS
PLEASE SHARE WIDELY
PLEASE SHARE WIDELY
Watch these important documentaries and videos (bellow) to learn the facts about Israel oppression and Crimes Against Humanity, such as terrorism and genocide, and the severe human impact it has on the Palestinian people. Also learn what you can do to help promote peace and protect millions of Palestinians from Human Rights abuses and genocide.
(Last update: 22 November 2012)
(Os documentários estão legendados em português) 
Report of an Israeli military regarding a Israeli invasion of a Palestinian village
(April 12, 1948):
"The conquest of the village was carried out with great brutality. Entire families (women, elderly, children) were killed and bodies piled up. Some of the prisoners taken to places of detention, including women and children, were brutally murdered by the guards. Among the prisoners was a young mother and baby, the guards killed the baby in front of the mother and after she passed out, they also killed her."
What the International media do not show the world.
See what happens when Israel bombs Palestinians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHYOkCmEjFA
(April 12, 1948):
"The conquest of the village was carried out with great brutality. Entire families (women, elderly, children) were killed and bodies piled up. Some of the prisoners taken to places of detention, including women and children, were brutally murdered by the guards. Among the prisoners was a young mother and baby, the guards killed the baby in front of the mother and after she passed out, they also killed her."
What the International media do not show the world.
See what happens when Israel bombs Palestinians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHYOkCmEjFA
INTRODUCTION:
The Birth of the Israeli state was a very bloody one and many millions of people deeply suffered because of it. Since 6 decades ago until the present, with the support of the UK and very especially the USA, Israel invaded, occupied and has continually been doing brutal Crimes Against Humanity in Palestine, including using tactics for terrorism, ethnic cleansing and genocide, to forcefully try to control, expel or even exterminate millions of people from their homes and land in Palestine. It is now known that the true objective of Israeli politicians and the Zionist ideology, is not to allow Palestinians to have an independent nation, but to use force to conquer 100% of the Palestinian territory for the Jewish people, no matter the human consequences. Because of what Israel has been doing all these decades, Palestine lives under an Apartheid regime, it was transformed into the biggest prison or concentration camp in history, where a whole people of millions have very limited "freedom" or even no freedom at all.
Historically, it is relevant to see and understand a cruel irony, that in many levels what the Jews and other minorities suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime, millions of Palestinians are and have been suffering for decades at the hands of the Israeli regime, including planned massacres of dozens, hundreds or thousands of civilians. One example was done in refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila where it is estimated that around 4.000 civilian refugees (children, babies, women, elders, etc) were brutally slaughtered. This massacre was planned and executed by Ariel Sharon. Watch images of the massacre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1781iyOn_A .
To be able to do this with impunity and with the support of other countries and especially the Jewish people living inside and outside Israel, the Israeli politicians, the military and religious extremists, try to hide and omit these horrible crimes and use the media, schools, churches, radical organizations, as a way to massively spread propaganda and lies in order to manipulate and fool the population about the Palestinian genocide and the core of the conflict, purposely trying to build the false image that Palestinians have no reason and no rights over their land and their lives, and that most if not all, are extremists or even terrorists.
We cannot support any form of violence and Human Rights abuses, either from the Israeli as well as the Palestinian side, but the peace in the Middle East depends sonly on Israel. There can only be peace when Israel stops it's massive abuses and crimes against the whole of the Palestinian people.
More and more Israeli and Jewish people are aware of these crimes and are against it, actively protesting and promoting peace, even if they are threaten, sent to prison and tortured by the Israeli government simply for doing this.
Watch these examples:
- Israeli soldier (one among many hundreds) admits that Israel is doing war crimes against Palestinians:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oldaN16Nu2w
- Jewish MP in the British Parliament, saying Israel was born out of terrorism, and accusing Israel politicians (Zionists) of acting like Nazis and doing Crimes Against Humanity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGuYjt6CP8
- Thousands of Jewish people say: A Jewish Message to the World - Judaism Rejects the Zionist "State of Israel" and its Atrocities:
http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/a_jewish_message_to_the_world_judaism_rejects_the_zionist_state_of_israel_and_its_atrocities_against_the_palestinians/
"WAR IS THE WORST FORM OF TERRORISM"
"THERE IS NO PATH TO PEACE, PEACE IS THE PATH"
"THERE IS NO PATH TO PEACE, PEACE IS THE PATH"
TAKE ACTION:
Help protect Human Rights and prevent a genocide in Palestine
Help protect Human Rights and prevent a genocide in Palestine
- Share this page and these documentaries to help raise awareness
- Boycott Israel (tourism and products)
- Sign petitions, make protests and do other forms of peaceful activism
- Pressure your government and the USA to stop supporting Israeli crimes.
Help the "International Solidarity Movement" - Israeli, Palestinians and people from other parts of the world join together to create a movement to bring peace for two people's:
http://palsolidarity.org
More informations:
Click here for a list of websites and organizations that work to build peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
SIGN THE PETITION:
Defend the right of the Palestinian people to have an independent nation and to live free: http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_worlds_next_nation_a?slideshow
* * *
MUST SEE DOCUMENTARIES:
John Pilger - Palestine Is Still The Issue:
A documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has lasted for more than 50 years. Contains some interviews with the children in this conflict.
In a series of extraordinary interviews with both Palestinians and Israelis, John Pilger weaves together the issue of Palestine. He speaks to the families of suicide bombers and their victims; he sees the humiliation of Palestinians imposed on them at myriad checkpoints and with a permit system not dissimilar to apartheid South Africa's infamous pass laws. He goes into the refugee camps and meets children who, he says, "no longer dream like other children, or if they do, it is about death."
Peace, Propaganda and The Promised Land:
This video shows how the foreign policy interests of American political elites-working in combination with Israeli public relations stratgies-influence US news reporting about the Middle East conflict. Combining American and British TV news clips with observations of analysts, journalists and political activists, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a brief historical overview, a striking media comparison, and an examination of factors that have distorted U.S. media coverage and, in turn, American public opinion.
Occupation 101 - Voice of the Silenced Majority:
A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. political involvement.
'Occupation 101' presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions. The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. Unlike any other film produced on the conflict, 'Occupation 101' explains the complicated reality with precision storytelling through a series of highly stylized visual edits, and gives audiences a complete context with which to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian debate. The roots of the conflict are explained with thought-provoking commentaries from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American media outlets.
MORE DOCUMENTARIES TO WATCH:
(BBC) The birth of Israel:
(Dispatches) Children Of Gaza:
The Zionist Story:
* * *
Article - Why children are the first casualties of war in Gaza:
In war, everyone dies: men, women, children, civilians and fighters, the innocent and the villains. Every death is ugly and sad. But the dead bodies of children drop us into a deep pit of shame and sadness: they make us angry, vulnerable and hopeless.
As I am writing, 315 children have died in Gaza in the last 19 days. Most probably, more will have died by the time this is published. About a third of the dead and injured have been children.
The dead children in Gaza take me back two years, to Israel's last war, with Lebanon. Again, it was the children who were dying. I remember seeing seven children lying together on a filthy brown blanket - next to the bodies of their relatives and parents - after their house, in the village of Qana, was bombed by Israeli planes. They all had acquired the monochrome beige colour of the debris they had been buried under all night. They had a look of astonishment, agonised confusion, their lush lips twisted, their mouths stuffed with dirt. But they looked peaceful even in the ugliness of their death.
All dead children look alike, that's the thing - even those mangled and disfigured by a Baghdad car bomb. They look asleep, not dead, just asleep after a long night of bombing and shelling.
There is no mystery as to why so many die in these wars: there are lots of children in Gaza - half of the population are children - so when you start bombing residential areas, they die.
Walk in any alleyway, refugee camp or slum in the Middle East and you will see them in their dozens, alive, and annoying: screaming, shouting and running around; chasing each other between cars, legs and push carts; gathering around any scene, a car with a flat tyre, a street scuffle - or just happily engaged in stone throwing matches. When these streets are hit, those annoying children are the first to die.
The families will grieve - and they will never forget. Last week, the day when four rockets were fired from south Lebanon towards Israel, I saw a Lebanese woman with a white headscarf sitting on the edge of her son's grave, just under a kilometre from the Israeli border. The grave, made of marble, its edges painted in green, was fenced by few bushes of red roses still wet from the early morning rain. The woman's sunken eyes were filled with tears; she cried and talked to her son Ali in the grave. "I didn't see you when you died Ali, they took you to the hospital and buried you and I wasn't there, right Ali?" She wiped her face and the marble with tissues and cried more. "May Allah burn the hearts of those who killed you like they burned my heart."
"I cry for every dead son in the world," she told me.
"Everyone, even if he was a Jew. I don't want him to die. I am a mother and I know."
Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/15/gaza-bombing-israel-war
Thursday
Alimentação e ética - Sabe o que tem realmente no seu prato?
Um pequeno e importante documentário realizado pela Associação Animal sobre a realidade da pecuária em Portugal e sobre as implicações éticas, ambientais e de saúde de se comer carnes. Saiba o que realmente acontece, e que lhe é escondido, para que possa comer carne.
"A liberdade de uns termina onde começa a liberdade de outros"
"Seja a mudança que quer ver no mundo" - Mahatma Gandhi
"Quando o homem aprender a respeitar até o menor ser da criação, seja animal ou vegetal, ninguém precisará ensiná-lo a amar seu semelhante." - Albert Schwweitzer (Nobel da Paz - 1952)
A Engrenagem - O severo impacto da pecuária e pescas no ambiente e nos animais
A discussão sobre o veganismo e seus benefícios ao meio ambiente e ao futuro é extensa e muito mais complexa do que simplesmente parar de comer carne. Envolve a diminuição da poluição atmosférica, a preservação de recursos vegetais e hídricos, e muitas outras questões.
Numa linguagem descontraída, o filme tem a participação voluntária da modelo e apresentadora Ellen Jabour e do ator Eduardo Pires, ambos vegetarianos, e tem o objetivo de alertar e levantar algumas questões como "Você já se perguntou de onde vem nossa comida? Quais os impactos que ela nos traz? A Engrenagem responde. "
Tuesday
Movie: Conversations With God - A revolutionary dialog
Conversations With God is a book that sends a "new", powerful and revolutionary message of a God of true unconditional love, that can forever deeply and positively change humanity.
The Movie: Chronicles the dramatic true journey of a struggling man turned homeless, who inadvertently becomes a spiritual messenger and bestselling author.
The Books: Conversations with God (CwG) is a sequence of books written by Neale Donald Walsch, written as a dialogue in which Walsch asks questions and God answers. The first book of the Conversations with God series, Conversations with God, Book 1: An Uncommon Dialogue, appeared on bookshelves in 1995, and quickly became a publishing phenomenon, staying on the New York Times Best-Sellers List for 137 weeks. The succeeding volumes in the nine book series also appeared prominently on the List.
Monday
Reportagem RTP: A Eco-aldeia de Tamera (Portugal)
Reportagem Linha da Frente - RTP
"Hora da Terra" - A Eco-aldeia de Tamera
Imagine uma aldeia sem asfalto, sem trânsito, onde o dinheiro não circula e onde todos vivem em contacto próximo com a natureza. As casas são feitas de materiais naturais, recorre-se ao sol para produzir energia elétrica e mecânica, a alimentação é vegetariana.
Esta aldeia existe e chama-se Tamera… Uma comunidade internacional, onde a língua que se fala é o inglês… Mas que se instalou no Alentejo, no Concelho de Odemira, há mais de 17 anos.
Durante dias uma equipa da RTP viveu nesta eco aldeia peculiar, onde para além das preocupações ambientais e ecológicas se procura também levar a cabo um trabalho de reconciliação entre povos em conflito.
Conheça mais sobre a Eco-aldeia de Tamera, a sua filosofia e o seu trabalho, vendo a reportagem.
VER REPORTAGEM (35 mins):
http://www.rtp.pt/programa/tv/p28496/e23
Thursday
WORLD VEGAN DAY | DIA MUNDIAL DO VEGANISMO
- WORLD VEGAN DAY (November 1):
Watch this short and excellent video and discover what veganism is and how this practical philosophy of life can have a great impact and help change and create a better world for all through the immense benefits it has for the animals, the environment, health and society. Help create a better world, go Vegan and share these information's.
- DIA MUNDIAL DO VEGANISMO (1 de Novembro):
Veja este pequeno e excelente vídeo e descubra o que é o veganismo e como esta filosofia prática de vida pode ter um grande impacto e ajudar a mudar e criar um mundo melhor para todos, através dos imensos benefícios que tem para os animais, o ambiente, a saúde e a sociedade. Ajude a criar um mundo melhor, seja Vegano/a e partilhe estas informações.
Watch this short and excellent video and discover what veganism is and how this practical philosophy of life can have a great impact and help change and create a better world for all through the immense benefits it has for the animals, the environment, health and society. Help create a better world, go Vegan and share these information's.
- DIA MUNDIAL DO VEGANISMO (1 de Novembro):
Veja este pequeno e excelente vídeo e descubra o que é o veganismo e como esta filosofia prática de vida pode ter um grande impacto e ajudar a mudar e criar um mundo melhor para todos, através dos imensos benefícios que tem para os animais, o ambiente, a saúde e a sociedade. Ajude a criar um mundo melhor, seja Vegano/a e partilhe estas informações.
Sunday
The Psychology of Everything: What Compassion, Racism, and Sex tell us about Human Nature
Give Paul Bloom one hour, and he'll teach you "the psychology of everything," illustrating some of the most fundamental elements of human nature through case studies about compassion, racism, and sex. He discusses some of the biggest questions in the nature versus nurture debate, including "Are we hard-wired to care about others?" Bloom points out why stereotyping can be both detrimental and beneficial, and he even explains what the porn preference of monkeys tells us about our own sexual choosiness, or lack thereof. After the hour is up you'll understand why Bloom calls psychology, because of its cross-disciplinary nature, "the perfect liberal arts major."
Thursday
Fresh - Re-inventing the food system to a more sustainable and healthy one
FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.
Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy
Saturday
Ciência - Planeta terá de ser vegetariano para evitar graves carências alimentares
Ciência e Ambiente - Planeta terá de ser vegetariano se quiser evitar graves carências alimentares:
Escassez de água vai implicar medidas radicais para ser possível alimentar todo o planeta.
Os especialistas avisam que a população mundial terá de mudar totalmente para uma alimentação vegetariana nos próximos 40 anos se quiser evitar uma catástrofe alimentar planetária.
Cada vez há menos água potável no planeta e a agricultura consome mais recursos hídricos para produzir os alimentos necessários à humanidade. Actualmente, cerca de mil milhões de pessoas ainda sofrem de fome e malnutrição, apesar da produção de alimentos per capita ter aumentado constantemente. Produzir alimentos para satisfazer minimamente as necessidades de todos os seres humanos, incluindo mais 2 mil milhões em meados do século, vai provocar uma enorme pressão sobre os recursos hídricos e o solo arável disponíveis, alerta um relatório elaborado na sequência da Semana Mundial da Água que se realizou em Estocolmo.
Os especialistas avisam que a população mundial terá de mudar totalmente para uma alimentação vegetariana nos próximos 40 anos se quiser evitar uma catástrofe alimentar planetária.
O Dia Mundial da Alimentação, que hoje se celebra, está precisamente centrado no papel da água como garantia da sustentabilidade dos recursos alimentares para uma população mundial em crescimento acelerado.
Um estudo da FAO (Organização das Nações Unidas para a Alimentação e Agricultura) alerta para a necessidade estimada de vir a ser necessário aumentar em 2030 a produção alimentar 80%, o que implicará também um elevado crescimento no consumo de água na irrigação de terras aráveis para se conseguir corresponder às exigências alimentares dos países em desenvolvimento.
“Um crescimento de 80% da produção agrícola nunca poderá ser atingido com mais 80% de consumo de água”, avisa Louise Fresco, a directora-geral-adjunta da FAO.
O futuro da produção agrícola depende da disponibilidade adequada de recursos hídricos e, embora a água cubra três quartos do planeta Terra, apenas uma pequena fracção de água potável está ao alcance da humanidade. Para agravar a situação, a água é um recurso precioso e limitado e a agricultura consome cerca de 70% de toda a água potável extraída.
“Por tal motivo, é de esperar que cada vez mais água seja usada na irrigação com o aumento da necessidade de alimentos”, sublinha a FAO.
Um estudo da FAO em 93 países em desenvolvimento mostra que alguns países com escassez de água já a extraem a um ritmo superior à sua eventual renovação.
A nível global há água suficiente disponível, mas alguns países e regiões vão sofrer sérias carências. Um em cada cinco países vai sofrer graves problemas de escassez.
O relatório da FAO chama a atenção para a cada vez maior competição entre as necessidades da agricultura e as necessidades domésticas nas cidades analisadas nesse estudo.
A organização das Nações Unidas recomenda a melhoria da gestão da água, para se aumentar a produtividade agrícola com melhores sementes e solos menos dependentes de fertilizantes químicos.
O Dia Mundial da Alimentação é celebrado a 16 de Outubro, para comemorar a criação, em 1945, da FAO. O objectivo é promover em todo o mundo a luta contra a fome e os problemas de nutrição.
Fonte:
http://www.ionline.pt/mundo/planeta-tera-ser-vegetariano-se-quiser-evitar-carencia-alimentar
Permaculture and Veganism - Growing Green: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg
Graham Cole demonstrates how you can feed your family on your allotment and garden using vegetable compost and green manures to obtain good crops of high nutritional value. No poisons or artificial fertilisers are used. This method is the kindest to the environment and all Earth's creatures.
Visit us at http://www.stockfreeorganic.net and http://www.veganorganic.net
Friday
Be aware - Who is to Blame for Animal Cruelty?
For many of us who are aware of the multitude of ways that animals suffer at the hands of humans around the world, this ubiquitous cruelty is the most pressing social justice issue of them all. From declawing to debeaking, ear clipping to tail docking, the suffering that human beings inflict on animals being used for food, clothing, research, ‘pets’ and entertainment appears to know no bounds, and the many brutal ways in which we force animals to succumb to our desires appear to be limited only by the scope of our imaginations.
But why does all this cruelty take place? And what can we do about this horrifying brutality as individuals? It’s easy to point the finger at the direct perpetrators of animal cruelty as being villains who need to be brought to justice. It’s much harder – and yet much more significant – to turn that critical eye inward and ask oneself, ‘What am I doing to contribute to this?’ But it is only by asking that question that the path toward emancipation from barbaric injustice becomes clear.
The vast majority of the time, money and effort of animal welfare organizations goes toward trying to develop new laws and regulations to address the many separate issues relating to animal cruelty, while at the same time trying to force the industry to adhere to those currently in place. As explained in Are Anti-Cruelty Campaigns Really Effective?, these efforts consistently fail to create any significant improvement for animals.
Behind these campaigns lies a hidden assumption that the animal industry is responsible for animal cruelty. But is this assumption warranted? Isn’t industry simply a middle agent put in place to do the dirty deeds requested by consumers of animal products? Although it’s true that the animal industry is an eager and aggressive middle agent, its role is only that of middle agent. As such, while institutionalized exploiters certainly have a lot to answer for, it is consumers who are primarily responsible for animal cruelty through their purchases of animal products.
Many people will likely respond that their concern is not with the rights of animals not to be enslaved and killed, but with the excessive brutality in the animal industry; gratuitous violence for instance, and the cruelty that is inflicted on animals along the way to being slaughtered and butchered – debeaking, dehorning, detoeing, mulesing, castration, tail docking, etc. But as long as our society continues to treat animals as property and economic commodities, our legal system will continue to accept such mutilations as a necessary evil on the way to providing goods and services to a human population largely indifferent to what is hidden behind remote sheds and slaughterhouses.
In any case, even if we did find some way to eliminate every single practice involving physical mutilation, it’s impossible to make slavery and murder anything other than slavery and murder. We can slap fancy labels on the products of animal misery and market them as ‘humanely-raised’, ‘animal compassionate’, ‘ethically-produced’ or ‘guilt-free’, but needless killing is needless killing, and no amount of regulation can change that.
It is understandable that individual stories of horrific suffering make people want to seek out the perpetrators, bring them to justice, and protect potential victims from experiencing the same treatment. But pointing the finger at institutional exploiters ignores the most significant issue – that no matter what the suppliers do along the way, consumption of animal products ultimately requires taking animals’ lives.
Source:
http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-cruelty-who-is-to-blame.html
Thursday
Les moissons du futur - L'agriculture alternative et biologique
Ce documentaire nous montre comment de nombreux agriculteurs à travers le monde réussissent à vivre de leurs récoltes sans pesticides. De nombreux moyens d'avoir une agriculture performante sans avoir à l'arroser de produits chimiques souvent nocifs à l'environnement et aux hommes.
Les moissons du futur est un documentaire réalisé par Marie-Monique Robin.
Wednesday
Reportagem Especial - Homossexualidade e adopções de crianças
Reportagem Especial SIC - Com o apoio da mãe a justiça confia bebé com trissomia 21 a um casal homossexual, que lhe providencia amor e todos os apoios necessários:
"Um juiz do Tribunal de Família e Menores do Barreiro atribuiu o poder paternal de um menino de dois anos ao casal Eduardo Beauté e Luís Borges. A decisão do magistrado ocorreu já depois do cabeleireiro e do manequim se terem casado. Tanto o Ministério Público como o juiz entenderam que o casal homossexual é melhor solução do que a família biológica. Não é uma adopção mas, na prática, são eles os pais de Bernardo. Um caso para ver na Reportagem Especial SIC."
Pessoas e casais homossexuais deveriam ter os mesmos direitos que todas as outras pessoas, como por exemplo, não só o direito de casamento, mas inclusivamente o direito de poderem adoptar crianças. Factual e cientificamente, não é verdade que uma criança que cresça junto e seja educada por pessoas homossexuais, de alguma forma possa ter a sua aprendizagem, cultura e biologia deturpadas. É tempo de terminar com a ignorância, intolerância e homofobia.
Fonte: http://videos.sapo.pt/SSpVmiz8J9E1zzruoQHO
"Um juiz do Tribunal de Família e Menores do Barreiro atribuiu o poder paternal de um menino de dois anos ao casal Eduardo Beauté e Luís Borges. A decisão do magistrado ocorreu já depois do cabeleireiro e do manequim se terem casado. Tanto o Ministério Público como o juiz entenderam que o casal homossexual é melhor solução do que a família biológica. Não é uma adopção mas, na prática, são eles os pais de Bernardo. Um caso para ver na Reportagem Especial SIC."
Pessoas e casais homossexuais deveriam ter os mesmos direitos que todas as outras pessoas, como por exemplo, não só o direito de casamento, mas inclusivamente o direito de poderem adoptar crianças. Factual e cientificamente, não é verdade que uma criança que cresça junto e seja educada por pessoas homossexuais, de alguma forma possa ter a sua aprendizagem, cultura e biologia deturpadas. É tempo de terminar com a ignorância, intolerância e homofobia.
Fonte: http://videos.sapo.pt/SSpVmiz8J9E1zzruoQHO
Saturday
Your Mind Builds Your Life - Learn How To Change Your Mind
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
– George Bernard Shaw
– George Bernard Shaw
Some people would rather hack off a limb than change their mind. Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but it doesn’t change the fact that changing your mind is one of the hardest things you can ever do.
Once you have a specific idea in your head – whether it’s an idea about who someone is, the way something should work, the way something happened or the way something should happen – it becomes sticky. Your brain becomes attached to it and expects it to be there, just like you with that limb of yours.
With a stubborn streak a mile-wide, I know this all too well. But sticking stubbornly to your view of the world is like boarding yourself into your living room, switching the lights off and hiding under the sofa cushions. It’s kinda limiting.
So here’s how to make changing your mind easy:
1. Be Curious
Curiosity is the ultimate antidote to dogmatism.
There’s always another way to look at things and different ways that things can work, and being honestly, playfully curious about how things could be is how you spot something that works better.
In 2007 I threw out the way I was trained to coach people – a method my peers asserted was the very best – because I had a hunch there was a better way. I followed that hunch and took the difficult road of creating my own method that gets better results, and it’s curiosity that made room for that to happen.
The practice of sticking ceaselessly to your guns can’t be born or survive when you’re asking the right questions, and a curious spirit gifts you with possibility.
2. Be Ready for Self-Justification
At some point your brain will shout at you “Whoa, hold on a second there peppy! We already figured this out remember, don’t go and screw this up now”
Your brain wants you to be right, so faced with the possibility of a new viewpoint it will do what it can to defend how it already sees things. It will tell you that other people are wrong; it will tell you that changing your mind now would be wrong; and even if you have a vague notion that you might be wrong about something, it will tell you that sticking to your guns is what “strong” people do.
So prime yourself for this self-justification and see it for what it is – a bunch of hot air that’s focused on making you right rather making you happy.
3. Embrace the leap
I refused to change my mind about my old career in corporate IT, and instead stuck with it and chose to believe it was what I was supposed to be doing. Eventually, my stubbornness and lack of insight caused a massive breakdown at a level I didn’t know was possible.
I consistently held myself back from that scary moment when you have to jump from one point of view to another, like you’re about to jump from one car to another when you’re barrelling down the freeway.
My amygdala fired and my brain told me that the safest way to go was to stick with the way things were or I’d end up as a hood ornament.
The same thing happens in your head – the thinking that stems from your brains’ safety cravings will hold you back from taking that leap until the outcome is certain. It’s simply your brain trying to help you out and it’s nothing more than a legacy survival tactic.
So reassure yourself, take a breath and jump.
4. Don’t Judge
You might find that you beat yourself up for not changing your mind earlier. You might even judge yourself harshly for changing your mind at all, even if that change is a positive one.
Your brain doesn’t like to be wrong and will dismiss any inkling that you’re wrong by letting you know that you’ll look like an idiot if you change your mind.
This is, of course, complete nonsense. Changing your mind in a positive context (i.e. not due simply to peer pressure or other irrelevant influences) is only ever a move that sees you expand.
Don’t judge yourself for flourishing.
5. Fess up
It’s tempting to execute a cover up to hide any evidence that you changed your mind. Can’t let people think less of you. Can’t let it be known that you just did a U-turn. Can’t let it be known that you were wrong.
But what if people thought more of you for changing your mind? What if it didn’t matter what a few people might think? What if having trust in your ability to choose was more important than your perceived status with others?
It’s tempting in my work to pretend to have all the answers and it’s ego-boosting to be seen as a guru. But there’s way more that I don’t know than I do know, and so when I try something with a client that I’m confident will work out great but simply isn’t working, I’ll hold my hands up, declare it a failed experiment and move us on.
That’s just as it should be.
Please don’t cover things up or pretend they never happened. Admit when you’re wrong and cherish changing your mind.
6. Ride the curve
Staying rooted to the spot when life throws you a curve will guarantee a frustrated life full of “What If’s“.
Life IS full of curves, and to ride those curves you need to be willing to improvise. Fortunately, you have the stunning ability to make up thinking along the way; an in-built mechanism to create your future. It’s only by leveraging that ability – which requires you to acknowledge the magic of potentiality – that you get to see what life has in store.
I’ve been living with CFS/ME for over 5 years, and in order to help me integrate and live with the illness I’ve had to improvise so many new ways of doing things and thinking about things that I actually get a little dizzy thinking about it all. Riding the CFS/ME curve has benefitted me – and will continue to benefit me – in the most extraordinary ways.
Life’s curves can only be enjoyed by a mind that’s open to change.
Source:
http://www.thechangeblog.com/how-to-change-your-mind/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheChangeBlog+%28The+Change+Blog%29
Wednesday
Being Your Highest Self - Learn to make the leap from fear to love
ONE OF THE BIGGEST LIES we have come to believe about ourselves and our true nature is that we are nothing more than physical beings defined by a material reality, devoid of dimension and vital energy, and separate from God—which I trust you know by now is within us and all around us. To keep the truth about our real identity from us is not only enslaving, but it asserts that we are finite beings living a linear life that lacks real meaning.
The assertion that there are no realms and no life beyond our physical world and that we have no control over our destiny is not a “truth” that you and I should ever believe in. You are a multidimensional being who creates your reality. Helping you accept this idea as your law and new belief has been my labor in my book. Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself means that you are going to have to lose your mind and create a new one.
But when we fully lay down the old, familiar life or mind and start creating the new, there is a moment between the two worlds that is bereft of anything we know, and most rush back from this void to the familiar. That place of uncertainty—the unknown—is what the maverick, the mystic, and the saint know to be fertile ground.
To live in the realm of the unpredictable is to be all potentials at once. Can you become comfortable in this empty space? If you can, you are at the nexus of a great creative power, the “I am.”
To biologically, energetically, physically, emotionally, chemically, neurologically, and genetically change ourselves and to stop living by the unconscious affirmation that competition, strife, success, fame, physical beauty, sexuality, possessions, and power are the be-all and end-all in life is when we break from the chains of the mundane. I fear that this so-called recipe for ultimate success in life has kept us looking outside of ourselves for answers and true happiness, when the real answers and true joy have always been within.
So where and how do we find our true self? Do we create a persona that is shaped by associations with the outer environment, which perpetrates the lie? Or do we identify with something within us that is as real as everything outside us, and create a unique identity, which has awareness and a mind that we can emulate?
That’s right—it is that infinite resource of information and intelligence, personal and universal, that is intrinsic to all human beings. It is an energetic consciousness that is filled with such coherence that when it moves through us, we can only call it love. When the door opens, its frequency carries such vital information that it changes who we are from within.
Our problem is that we have developed habits that limit our true greatness. The survival emotions, which are so addictive, cause us to live with limitation, feeling separate from the Source, and forget we are creators. In fact, the corresponding states of mind that correlate with stress truly are the reasons why we are controlled by our emotions, live by a lower denominator of energy, and are enslaved by a set of beliefs rooted in fear. These so-called normal psychological states have been accepted by most as ordinary and common. They are the real “altered states” of consciousness.
Hence, I want to emphasize that anxiety, depression, frustration, anger, guilt, pain, worry, and sadness—the emotions regularly expressed by billions of people—are why the masses live life knocked out of balance and altered from the true self. And maybe the supposed altered states of consciousness achieved in meditation during true mystical moments are actually “natural” human states of consciousness that we should strive to live by on a regular basis. I accept that contention as my truth.
It’s time to wake up and to be the living example of the truth. It’s not enough to espouse these understandings; it’s time to live them, demonstrate them, and be “at cause” in all areas of our lives. When you and I “in-body” such ideals as truth, and make it a habit, then it innately becomes part of us.
Since we are wired to create habits, why not make true greatness, compassion, genius, ingenuity, empowerment, love, awareness, generosity, healing, quantum manifestation, or divinity our new habits? To remove the layers of personal emotions we decided to memorize as our identity; to shed our selfish limitations that we have given such power to; to abandon false beliefs and perceptions about the nature of reality and self; to overcome our neural habituations of destructive traits that repeatedly undermine our evolution; and to relinquish the attitudes that have kept us from knowing who we really are . . . are all part of finding the true self.
There is an aspect of the self that is a benevolent being who waits behind all of those veils. This is who we are when we are not feeling threatened; fearing loss; trying to please everyone; racing to succeed and scrambling to get to the top at any cost; regretting the past; or feeling inferior, hopeless, desperate, or greedy, just to name a few. When we overcome, and remove whatever stands in the way of our infinite power and self, we are demonstrating a noble deed, not only for ourselves but for all of humanity.
So the greatest habit you will ever break is the habit of being yourself, and the greatest habit you will ever create is the habit of expressing the divine through you. That is when you inhabit your true nature and identity. It is to inhabit self.
Source:
http://www.healyourlife.com/author-joe-dispenza-dc/2012/09/lifeshelp/success-and-abundance/being-your-highest-self?utm_id=SANews
Thursday
Science - Do Animals Have Souls?
RELATED ARTICLES:
Scientists Proclaim Animal and Human Consciousness the Same
4 Animals Who Mourn Their Dead
Animals As Spirit Guides
Elephant Tarra Mourns Bella the Dog
4 Animals Who Mourn Their Dead
Animals As Spirit Guides
Elephant Tarra Mourns Bella the Dog
SCIENCE - ANIMALS SAID TO HAVE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES:
* * *
(Care2 article) - University of Kentucky neurologist, Kevin Nelson concluded animals can experience spiritual events like humans. Nelson has performed over 30 year’s research into OBE (out of body experiences) and has published a book “The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain: a Neurologist’s Search for the God Experience.”
Scientists recently declared human and animal consciousness the same. Would you agree that to have a soul requires consciousness? This is certainly thought-provoking.
We all have belief systems. Some have faith in the concept of a soul and afterlife. Others count on reincarnation and some are convinced after the body dies there is nothing but a big, black abyss. But if you are one who believes humans have a soul, do you also feel that an animal has a soul?
Nelson’s hypothesis is drawn on the fact that research in humans has shown mystical experiences of wonderment originate in the more primitive parts of the brain called the limbic system. All mammals share similar brain structure, therefore he concludes animals can have spiritual experiences similar to humans.
Theology
Some religions believe animals have souls and reincarnate. Others teach animals do not have souls because humans are the masters of the earth and its animals. In 1990, Pope John Paul II said in a shocking statement at the time, he believed that animals do have souls. The Pontiff said animals are “…fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect.” In the Catholic school I attended as a child, the nuns drummed it into us that only people have souls.
In the Jewish faith, author Yanki Tauber talks about souls on Chabad.org.
The Chassidic masters speak of two distinct souls that vitalize the human being: an “Animal Soul” and a “G-dly Soul.” The Animal Soul is driven by the quest for self-preservation and self-enhancement; in this, it resembles the soul and self of all other creations. But we also possess a G-dly Soul”–a soul driven by the desire to reconnect with its Source. Our lives are the story of the contest and interplay between these two souls, as we struggle to balance and reconcile our physical needs and desires with our spiritual aspirations, our self-focused drives with our altruistic yearnings.
These two souls, however, do not reside “side-by-side” within the body; rather, the G-dly Soul is enclothed within the Animal Soul–just as the Animal Soul is enclothed within the body. This means that the Animal Soul, too, is vitalized by the “part of G-d above” at its core. Ostensibly, the two souls are in conflict with each other, but in essence they are compatible.
Hindu belief states all life forms are manifestations of God and therefore have souls that can achieve salvation. Animals, plants and inanimate objects are believed to possess a soul. The difference is in the level of a soul. Human souls are considered the most evolved due to the level of consciousness. After a soul lives many lives as an animal, it will eventually be allowed to reincarnate into a human body and continue to evolve in understanding God and Godliness.
Muslims believe a soul has different parts: the plant or vegetative part of a living being, the animal or sensitive part, the rational part as well as totality of all three parts. The Qur’an states a soul is a creature of Allah.
It [the soul] is blown into every human being when it is just a foetus of 120 days old, it remains in contact if not inside the human being throughout its life on earth, and at the point of death it departs from the body to reside in the heavens.
During their journeys through this universe, the soul and its body travel through four different worlds:
1. The womb – where the soul joins its body.
2. This world – where we all live for a limited period only.
3. The grave – a ‘Barzakh’ period.
4. The Hereafter – The final destination of all human beings.
During their journeys through this universe, the soul and its body travel through four different worlds:
1. The womb – where the soul joins its body.
2. This world – where we all live for a limited period only.
3. The grave – a ‘Barzakh’ period.
4. The Hereafter – The final destination of all human beings.
I find it intriguing how the different religions are so similar in its teachings, don’t you?
Personal Stories of Animal SpiritualityI’d wager many pet guardians have a story or two about feeling the presence of a deceased pet. Personally, I will never forget the day I felt the spirit of my dog Spanky walk right through my soul. At that moment I knew he had died and I was devastated to find it true. I felt a sudden sense of peace from Spanky. I believe he was telling me good-bye and reveling in his sudden sense of freedom from all the worries and fears he had carried inside him for so long.
My sister and brother-in-law had two very elderly Schnauzers who grew up together. When Nicky was 18 he succumbed to heart disease, diabetes and kidney failure. Willie, who died two years later at 20, spent more than two weeks after Nicky’s death going to his grave, throwing himself on it, literally crying. The grave wasn’t marked and Willie — being blind and deaf at this point — had not seen Nicky being buried. He simply knew where Nicky was and was mourning his brother.
Having worked in Hospice in the past, I’ve seen many a pet be the protector of their dying companion. One family told me at the moment of death of their loved one, the individual’s dog — sleeping on the bed with the patient — stood up and quietly looked up at the ceiling as if he were watching the person’s soul exit their body. Then he lay quietly down next to the body and licked the patient’s face.
Animal communicators claim to understand the thoughts of an animal through the pictures the creatures show them. Since animals do not have expressive human speech ability – many do understand language, like the hand signing chimps or your dog when you tell her to sit, stay or roll over – they must communicate in different ways with us mere mortals.
With the change in attitudes about pets in recent years, it is not surprising that pet loss support groups have become more common. Dogs and cats and other domestic animals are thought of as family members, not merely possessions. If you ever have the need, attending a pet loss support group can be very beneficial in dealing with the grief of losing a beloved pet.
Books to Consider Reading:
The Soul of Your Pet by Scott S. Smith – Interviews with people who have lost pets. Includes a chapter on the major religions’ beliefs about the afterlife of animals.
Animals as Guides for the Soul: Stories of Life-Changing Encounters by Susan Chernak McElroy – With personal experience and compelling true stories of others, McElroy explores the questions animal lovers ask themselves. Are pets our prisoners? Is it moral to eat animals? … and more.
The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul by Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary – Beauregard’s research compellingly makes a case that spiritual experiences are created by God and not the brain.
The Divine Life of Animals: One Man’s Quest to Discover Whether the Souls of Animals Live On by Ptolemy Tompkins – A search of 20,000 years of history and myth to find the answer to: Do animals have souls? Explores the religious teachings of East and West to discover profound meanings about the animal soul.
The Souls of Animals by Gary Kowalski – Kowalski talks about animal souls through the qualities he considers spiritual: playfulness, capacity for love, altruism, and awareness of death.
Animals in Spirit by Penelope Smith – As an interspecies communicator, Smith explores the process of dying from the viewpoints of animals and their humans. She posits animals choose their paths in each life, and leave behind knowledge for their humans. Using true stories as well as meditations she shows how it is possible communicate with animals in the spirit realm.
The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel by Garth Stein – Fiction, not science but told through a dog named Enzo as the protagonist, this story will make you believe.
Questions to Consider:
The question of whether or not animals have souls is one we will continue to ask for years to come. If animals do have souls is it fair to keep them imprisoned in zoos? Is it okay to eat them or wear them? Should we use them for entertainment? How about horse and dog racing? Should they be made to carry our burdens over long distances? Should they be bred only to be sold for profit?
Will there ever be scientific proof animals have souls? Or, is it a matter of faith? What do you think? Please leave your own stories about spiritual experiences with animals.
Wednesday
The Superior human? - Are Humans superior to other animals?
A MUST WATCH: "The Superior human?" (March 2012) is the first documentary to systematically challenge the common human belief that humans are superior to other life forms. The documentary reveals the absurdity of this belief while exploding human bias.
Featuring Dr Bernard Rollin, Gary Yourofsky Dr Richard Ryder, Dr Steven Best. Narrated by Dr Nick Gylaw. - More informations: http://thesuperiorhuman.ultraventus.info/
Featuring Dr Bernard Rollin, Gary Yourofsky Dr Richard Ryder, Dr Steven Best. Narrated by Dr Nick Gylaw. - More informations: http://thesuperiorhuman.ultraventus.info/
Tuesday
Creating a positive transformation - 5 People You Should Stop Resenting
“Resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die”
- Unknown
Resentment is generally defined as a feeling of indignation or ill will felt as a result of a real or imagined grievance. The word resentment comes from the Latin word “sentire” which means, “to feel”, and the prefix “re” of course means “again”, so the word “resent” means “to feel again”. This means that when we experience resentments, we are forcing ourselves to repeatedly feel angry, hurt, annoyed, or upset about a single situation. We all experience feelings of resentment at various times in our lives. What we don’t realize, is that this masochistic cycle of self-obsession only hurts ourselves.
I realized that by holding onto resentments, I was ruining my life. I didn’t realize that my resentments were weighing me down with negativity which prevented me from being able to live in the moment, or experience gratitude. I desperately wanted to be able to access happiness, fulfillment, and a sense of purpose. But, in order for me to feel content with my life and experience genuine serenity, I had to first let go of my resentments that were holding me back from being truly happy.
Notice how I said “let go of”. I was taught that you cannot overcome, get around, get through, fight off, or get over resentment. These emotions are like heavy bags that I was choosing to pick up and carry with me on a daily basis. The only way to free myself from my own self-imposed prison of resentment was to relax my grip on the handles, and let them go. Letting go of resentment requires surrender, something I had always incorrectly perceived as weakness. I had to understand that you can’t stop feeling something out of sheer willpower. Surrender was absolutely necessary.
Letting It Go
In order to let go of my resentments, I had to first identify the people who caused me to have these feelings. Since resentments stem from “real or imagined grievances”, I discovered that it’s common to resent people who are closest to you since you have the most history with them, and therefore, more opportunities to find grievances and build resentments.
Awareness of who I had built up resentments towards was the first step in recognizing where my resentments were coming from, which ultimately allowed me to let them go and experience the freedom of living without those negative feelings that had become such a constant in my life.
However, I also learned that sometimes self-sabotage rears its ugly head, and our egos don’t allow us to admit some of our most deep seated and toxic resentments. The following is a list of the five most common sources of resentment that most people experience without even realizing it.
5 Common Targets of Resentment
1. Parents
As an adult, it’s no fun to admit that you’re still affected by things that happened when you were younger. Parents often make decisions (such as getting divorced, or switching schools) that affect their children’s lives all the way into adulthood. I had a parent who struggled with addiction while I was young. I didn’t think I would ever stop resenting them, but I followed the advice of a mentor anyways and did all the little exercises this person told me to do, and slowly all the writing and talking finally alleviated one of my biggest resentments. It didn’t happen overnight, but now it feels as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Take an honest look into your childhood and ask yourself if you are still harboring feelings against your parents or primary caregivers, this will bring you one step closer to letting go and living a fuller life.
2. Past and Current Partners
Boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives and former romantic partners are an almost guaranteed source of resentment for most people. It is usually the people we spend most of our time with, that we create unconscious resentments towards. You’ve probably heard of the term “baggage” when it comes to dating. “He has too much baggage” or “I don’t want someone with a lot of baggage” are common expressions. You might not realize it, but “baggage” usually translates directly into resentment. Letting go of the resentments you’ve built up over the years from failed relationships or unresolved issues in your current one, will give you freedom and allow you to fully invest in a future relationship. Just because your ex hurt you, doesn’t mean that its healthy to keep hurting yourself by holding those poisonous resentments inside.
3. Co-workers
Aside from home, we spend the majority of our time at work. The office is often seen as an arena for competition and personal advancement. This potentially antagonistic atmosphere can be a breeding ground for resentment. If you have a legitimate issue with someone, it’s better to address your concern in a timely fashion either with that specific person, or in a conflict-resolution meeting mediated by a qualified representative of the Human Resources department. You can’t effectively climb up through the professional ranks if you are being weighed down by resentments you are holding onto against your co-workers. Keep your side of the street clean, and focus on moving forward instead of falling back into negative thinking.
4. Strangers
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, aside from the people we are closest to, total strangers can also be a common source of resentment. Something about the cloak of anonymity makes people feel safe in expressing their emotions against someone they have never met. That guy who cut you off on the way to work, the customer who left you a lousy tip, or the person who jumped in front of you in line at the bank, acts like this committed by strangers can create a well of wrath within us that we are just dying to unleash onto the world. Some people chalk it up to “having road rage” or “being high strung” but the reality is that you are probably susceptible to catching quick resentments. Don’t let something small like losing a parking spot ruin your day and create unjustified enemies in your mind.
5. Large Groups of People
When I first undertook the task of listing all my resentments on paper, I was shocked at how many resentments I had towards entire populations of people or institutions in general. I grew up very poor, and have always been slightly jealous of people who were born into wealthy families. For me, this translated into an overarching resentment towards all rich people. My whole life I viewed the distribution of wealth as an egregious injustice and wanted nothing to do with the people who benefited from this type of system. After doing some work on resentments, I now realize this is a short sighted outlook, and that I was stereotyping an entire group of people, and holding them accountable for the circumstances I was born into.
Taking stock of your resentments means honestly evaluating your own prejudices. Letting go of resentments is usually a process that will include eliminating grudges against certain groups of people and alleviating acrimony towards entire institutions like a school or church you used to attend.
Conclusion
This is certainly not an all inclusive list, and not everybody has resentments in these areas of their lives. But if you harbor resentment in these areas, they are a great palce to start. This is what I have found to be true in my own experience, and in the experiences that have been shared with me by other people.
The process of letting go of resentments will be unique to each person. Some people chose to find a 12 step based support group and work through their resentments with the help of a sponsor. Some people seek outside help in the form of psychiatry. For others, this is a personal process completed in solitude.
I feel it should also be noted that in many cases, feelings of resentment are completely understandable, and are a normal part of processing trauma. Not all grievances are “perceived”. Some are very real, and are the result of significant trauma or abuse. Letting go of resentment does not mean that you must tolerate bad behavior. It means that you are no longer allowing a person or situation to have power over you. Letting go of resentments is a personal process to help yourself live the happy, fulfilled life you deserve.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
