The Adam Friedland Show Feb 17, 2026 ✪ Members first on February 16, 2026The Adam Friedland Show | Season 2 See Adam on tour https://theadamfriedland.show/pages/tour

(Rilke in 1900)

“Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don’t know what work these conditions are doing inside you? Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question of where all this is coming from and where it is going? Since you know, after all, that you are in the midst of transitions and you wished for nothing so much as to change. If there is anything unhealthy in your reactions, just bear in mind that sickness is the means by which an organism frees itself from what is alien; so one must simply help it to be sick, to have its whole sickness and to break out with it, since that is the way it gets better.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, known as Rainer Maria Rilke (December 4, 1875 – December 29, 1926), was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language. Wikipedia

Rosa Campbell on How Men Responded to The Hite Report

Via Melville House

Rosa Campbell April 15, 2026 (LitHub.com)

In 1977, a man working on a drilling rig in Alaska, far from his home, sat down and wrote a letter. He’d been working as a “roughneck” handling the drill in freezing Arctic conditions and every day after his shift finished, every spare second he had, he’d been reading. He would wash the oil and mud off, make a coffee, light a cigarette and at the back of the rec room, or lying on his bottom bunk in close quarters with other men, he would turn back to his book, The Hite Report: A National Survey of Women’s Sexuality. 

The Hite Report, published in 1976, was written by Shere Hite, Playboy model turned DIY sex researcher. Though it has sold upwards of 50 million copies, the book has now been largely forgotten.

But in 1977, this man was gripped by its revelations. He read that most heterosexual American women were sexually dissatisfied and 70% of women could not orgasm from penetrative penis-in-vagina sex but required clitoral stimulation, but most women didn’t speak up about that. Shere explained why: Women had long been expected to get the most pleasure from sex the way that men had, from penetration. That was because “sex is sexist. A woman’s place in sex, resembles her place in the rest of society.”

So, for sex to be more pleasurable required assertiveness from women and sensitivity from men, but most of required society to be reshaped along feminist lines. The Hite Report was the first feminist book this man had ever read, his entrée to women’s liberation.

Men, many men, seem to hate feminism.

After getting almost to the end of the 500 page tome, he began his letter to Shere:

“My wife gave me your book to read…My first reaction was “What is my wife trying to tell me?” Until reading your book I felt I was a great lover and all-round good guy. With the honesty of various women, I have found my shortcomings… Maybe your book is my wife’s way of communicating with me. At least opening the door.”

In the papers of Shere Hite there are hundreds of letters from male readers, these spill and bulge from the 300 boxes that make up this archive. This correspondence has only been read by Shere and by me. This pile of letters complicates the story that is usually told about men and feminism. The story usually goes that the vast majority of men were not touched by the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s at all, they responded with hostility or stunned silence.

The present seems to corroborate this. Men, many men, seem to hate feminism. Feminism, the men of manosphere suggest to their millions of followers, is a conspiracy so powerful that it has destroyed masculinity and stacked the world against men. Perhaps even more than feminism, many men seem to hate women. The first months of the year have passed in a swirl of revelations about abusive men, reminiscent of the first explosive days of the #MeToo movement. Epstein of course, and Mohamed Al Fayed, the former owner of iconic British department store, Harrods.

But while being wildly wealthy brings entitlement, valorises inequality, offers systemic protection and so encourages abuse, this is not just a rich guy problem. The nice men list, the catalogue of comrades you can count on has lately been torn up too, a fantasy in pieces. Just last month it was reported that Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers organiser, raped women and girls, and Noam Chomsky—one of the left’s foremost intellectuals whose most popular book is called Manufacturing Consent—is right there on the Epstein private jet.

The photos show him leaning over his arm rest, clutching his bottle of Voss water, his grandfatherly hair threatening to fall in his eyes that seem to look on admiringly as his cool guy friend Jeff holds court. Noam defended him against “the horrible way” the “vultures” in the press were treating him against the mounting evidence of his crimes of rape and trafficking which, in survivors’ own words, made them want to die. And some of those women are now dead.

In this moment, I feel my conviction that most men I encounter consider women their equals slipping away. Any certainty—my certainty—about most guys being good guys seems naive. This belief that I clung to like a life raft seems to be stone around my neck. You could be forgiven for wondering if the most extreme radical feminist polemics were right. Perhaps, under patriarchy, men can only think of women as ornaments and objects, degraded whores out to seduce and then sabotage, at once stupid bitches too dumb for STEM subjects yet also the cunningest cunts that ever walked this earth.

But against our terrifying misogynistic present, these letters to Shere from male readers flip the script. Men’s responses to The Hite Report show that feminism did reach men, and not just the men you would expect. Most of the men who wrote to Shere were not educated men from big cities, but men working on the line at the Ford plant at Dearborn, Michigan or men employed at strip mall legal firms. There are a few executives writing from corner offices among the taxi dispatchers and sports coaches.

Indicative of her wide reach are a smattering of extraordinary letters from incarcerated men who had learnt about The Hite Report from the porn they read in prison. In these letters they offered intimate biographical accounts of life before jail and their hopes beyond: “I am single, 30 years old . . . I am at the present time in for burgling a dwelling. I’m half American Indian, one quarter French Canadian. When I am free, I travel the rodeo circuit and am on the road all the time unless I’m minding some broken bones, which I have done a few times . . .”

But, in the late 1970s, in this moment before the backlash really took hold, there was a moment of radical opening.

This man agreed with Shere’s perspective on sex: “I hear complaints from dudes like ‘man, all she did was lay there and no action’ and my first thought was that this dude was probably the one who didn’t know what he was doing.” Others wrote to praise the book: “I have been delegated by 7 other prisoners at the Kansas State Industrial Reformatory to write this letter…We say ‘Right on Shere Hite. Right the Hell on.’”

Many male readers of The Hite Report found its feminism profoundly disorienting. They wondered and they worried in their letters to Shere, how could they be men in the wake of this movement? Later, in the 1980s, conservative media, politicians and faith leaders would argue that they could not, that feminism emasculated men, and blamed them for their biological instincts, so to save themselves, they best shun it.

But, in the late 1970s, in this moment before the backlash really took hold, there was a moment of radical opening. Men’s letters to Shere overflow with complex feelings. Many began their letters with a list of the range of emotions that flooded through them as they read: “I felt angry (scapegoated), guilty, understood, hopeful and excited.” The book was particularly painful to read when it seemed to contradict how men saw themselves. “Could it be true that I had been conceited enough to believe I was being a complete sexual partner?”

The power misogyny offered was conditional on them subordinating women and on cruelly ranking men against each other.

Sometimes, men were overwhelmed, and many opened up to the possibility of feminism, doubled down, then opened up again, oscillating wildly between solidarity and oppression. A particularly stark example: “I finished The Hite Report two minutes ago. I saw myself described on its pages so many times by your uncommunicative respondents that…I hope you got some input from a few hairy beasts (adult males to you, you libber!).” Shere slashed through his angry missive with green pen annotating “NO! No!” But then he added a P.S. “All kidding to the side, please accept my deep and awed congratulations.” She decorated this with stars, hearts and ticks.

The Hite Report was sexy and its author was beautiful. This made its feminism a little more palatable. Men’s female partners thrust the book into their hands, and the women’s movement demanded that they take notice. All this took men to the precipice. But the men who jumped and began to change did so because they realised that feminism had riches to offer them too. “Men need the book to become more human themselves,” one correspondent wrote.

Across their letters they discuss how misogyny pressured men to conform to rigid and limiting standards of masculinity to be, “a cross between John Wayne, the Chase Manhattan Bank and Hugh Heffner,” as one reader put it. They wrote of the violence they had endured at the hands of other men, their jostling to reach the unattainable standard of masculinity.

One man recalled sexualised bullying at the hands of his cousin, how years of insults about penis size resulted in sexual dysfunction and stomach ulcers. Another discussed targeting others as “sissies” to avoid the taunts himself. Men told Shere how in sex they acted “as they thought men should act.” They got on top, shut down emotionally and minimised affection. The power misogyny offered was conditional on them subordinating women and on cruelly ranking men against each other. They told Shere that it just didn’t seem worth it anymore.

One man wrote honestly, “I’m frightened because I don’t know how… but your work has set the wheels in motion for a desire to break away from predictable patterns of action and thought.” Another “You are incredible. The only suitable thank you is to try to develop my own support systems for real, humane, vulnerable, aware contact. In an insane society, this is a project of years, not weeks. But the way is clear, my bags are packed.”

The story of The Hite Report shows us how feminism reached men, took them by the hand and led them somewhere new, more interesting and frankly, more pleasurable. Feminism is a movement for the liberation of women, sure, and for everyone else. The invitation it holds out to men to do it differently, in sex and in life, remains open.

__________________________________

From The Book That Taught the World to Orgasm and Then Disappeared. Used with the permission of the publisher, Melville House. Copyright © 2026 by Rosa Campbell

Rosa Campbell

Rosa Campbell is completing her PhD in history at the University of Cambridge. Her work explores the global history of feminism. She writes on a range of platforms for adults and children. Her work has recently appeared, or is forthcoming, in The White Review, Meanjin, Public Books, History Workshop Online, Feminist Review and Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society. She tweets @rosa_v_campbell

“Under and behind the universe of time, space and change is a fundamental reality.

–Thane of Hawaii

I asked ChatGPT, “If the body replaces its cells every 7 years, what causes aging?”  Here is the response:

ChatGPT:

The idea that your body “replaces all its cells every 7 years” is catchy—but it’s not really true, and even if it were, it wouldn’t stop aging.

First, the myth

Different cells turn over at very different rates:

• Skin cells: weeks
• Gut lining: days
• Red blood cells: ~4 months
• Liver cells: months to years
• Neurons (brain cells): many last your entire lifetime
• Heart muscle cells: mostly lifelong

So your body is more like a patchwork of old and new parts—not a full reset every 7 years.

---

So why do we age?

Even when cells are replaced, the system that makes and maintains them gradually degrades. A few key drivers:

1. DNA damage accumulates
Every time a cell divides, it copies its DNA. Errors creep in, and damage from radiation, toxins, and normal metabolism builds up. Repair systems get less efficient over time.

2. Telomere shortening
Telomeres are protective caps on chromosomes (a classic example of a telomere). Each time a cell divides, they shorten. Eventually, cells can’t divide anymore and either stop functioning or die.

3. Cellular senescence
Some cells enter a “zombie” state—they don’t divide but also don’t die. These cells release inflammatory signals that damage nearby tissue.

4. Mitochondrial decline
Mitochondria (your cells’ energy producers) become less efficient and leak more harmful byproducts.

5. Protein and cellular “junk” buildup
Cells accumulate misfolded proteins and waste products they can’t fully clear out.

6. Stem cell exhaustion
Stem cells—the source of new cells—become less effective at replenishing tissues.

7. System-level changes
Hormones shift, the immune system becomes less precise, and chronic low-grade inflammation increases (sometimes called “inflammaging”).

---

The key idea

Even if you swap out individual parts, aging happens because:

• The blueprint (DNA) accumulates errors
• The repair systems weaken
• The environment inside the body becomes less stable

It’s like renovating a house continuously—but using aging tools, imperfect instructions, and worn-out workers.

And ChatGPT on fundamental reality:

1. The Upanishads (nondual “something”)

From the Upanishads:

• There is a fundamental reality: Brahman
• It is unchanging, eternal, beyond time and space
• Your true self (Ātman) is identical with it

Core insight:

Reality = One eternal essence, and you are That

---

2. Buddhism (nondual “no-thing”)

In Buddhism, especially later Mahayana traditions:

• There is no permanent underlying substance
• Everything is empty (śūnyatā) of independent existence
• All things arise through interdependence

From the Heart Sutra:

“Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.”

Core insight:

There is no fixed essence beneath things—only process and relation

Key contrast with Upanishads:

• Upanishads: “There is an eternal Self”
• Buddhism: “There is no eternal self”

---

3. A Course in Miracles (radical reinterpretation)

From A Course in Miracles:

• The world of time, space, and change is not ultimately real (it’s a kind of illusion or misperception)
• Only God / Love / Spirit is real and changeless
• The separation we experience is a mistake in perception

A representative idea:

“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.”

Core insight:

Ultimate reality is perfect, changeless love, and the world we see is a misperception of it

---

Where they overlap

All three agree on something big:

• What we normally experience (time, change, separate things) is not the deepest level of reality

---

Where they sharply differ

• Upanishads → There is a real, eternal Self (Ātman/Brahman)
• Buddhism → There is no enduring self or substance at all
• ACIM → There is a real divine reality, but the world itself is largely illusory

---

A simple way to feel the difference

• Upanishads:“Behind everything is One thing.”
• Buddhism:“Behind everything is no thing—only emptiness and interconnection.”
• ACIM:“Only God/Love is real; the rest is a mistaken perception.”

(Astrobutterfly.com)

“I am what I am

And what I am needs no excuses

I deal my own deck

Sometimes the ace

Sometimes the deuces”

On April 17th, 2026, the New Moon in Aries meets Chiron – the wounded healer – at 27° Aries.

Since 2018, Chiron in Aries has been pressing on one of the most existential questions of them all: Who am I really, and why am I here?

In this period, we’ve seen the rise of influencer culture, the visibility of minority groups, the explosion of gender discussions – all different faces of the same wound:

Identity that doesn’t feel seen, that doesn’t feel allowed, that is refusing to stay quiet.

That’s how Chiron works. It tears apart the comfortable version of yourself until you can no longer ignore what’s underneath. Until you can no longer pretend that THIS – this particular quality, this particular way of being – is not part of you.

Because you can only be You once you embrace all of you.

And when the Sun and the Moon – the 2 identity planets – meet with this Chironic ache, looking away is no longer an option. The answer can no longer be researched, postponed, or outsourced to someone else’s opinion.

There’s an immediacy, almost pressure, to this New Moon in Aries. A sense that something is asking to be reclaimed – now.

“I am what I am”

Because when Chiron moves out of Aries, the next opportunity to go this deep, to meet this particular wound this directly, won’t come until the next time Chiron returns to Aries. And that’s in 2068.

With Chiron in Aries, we’ve been sensing – even if not always consciously – that the only way to be ourselves is to actually be ourselves.

And that without this, without this fundamental honesty about who we are, nothing truly fulfilling can take root, because it’s not being built on the right foundation.

“Life’s not worth a damn

‘Til you can shout out

I am what I am”

That Aries shout out doesn’t have to be to the world. Aries is not about getting a reaction, requesting feedback, or waiting for permission. It’s simply about being witnessed into existence.

“I am not invisible, I am here”.

I am here – and the world has no choice but to accept that.

If the world has been treating you as invisible or optional – tough luck, because you’re not.

If the environment you’re in glosses over who you are, or tries to fit you into a shape that was never yours – that’s not your environment.

If your friends can only accept the version of you that aligns with them and their views – they are not your friends.

At the same time, if we want the world to accept us for who we are, we have to actually BE who we are.

Because Aries energy doesn’t flame in mixed signals. It needs clarity and commitment to itself.

So – who are you, underneath all of it? Behind the filters, the curated pictures, the diploma on the wall, the job title on the business card?

For the past few decades, these things made sense to lead with. All the outer planets were moving through collective signs – Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.

Whether we realized it or not, we’ve been living in a climate that rewarded conformity, credentials, and fitting in. The diploma and the job title were the language of that era.

But that era is over. Now Neptune is in Aries. Saturn is in Aries. Chiron is in Aries. Eris is in Aries. Uranus is still in Taurus.

And Pluto, while in collective Aquarius, is this time supporting the individuation process unfolding in Aries – rather than imposing another system to belong to.

What once pulled us away from ourselves – toward the collective, toward conformity, toward whatever version of ourselves was most acceptable – is losing its grip. With this much energy in Aries, we need to start from the source.

“I am what I am”

Because you – behind the mask, behind the AI, behind all the things designed to make life smoother and more palatable – are faaaar more interesting than any of it.

Your unique style, your quirkiness, your particular way of seeing the world, your unique bird song is what makes you, you. There is only one person born with your natal chart. THIS is what this Aries world needs right now.

The New Moon in Aries conjunct Chiron is an invitation to strip back the layers of identification and distill your essence.

Nothing needs to be added, nothing needs to be removed. Only recognized: I am what I am.

Art Credit: The Chess Players (1863), Honoré Daumier. 

New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove Apr 17, 2026 Psychology and Psychotherapy This video is a special release from the original Thinking Allowed series that ran on public television from 1986 until 2002. It was recorded in about 1990. It will remain public for only one week.  Frank X. Barron, PhD, a World War II veteran and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, was an internationally influential figure in the study of human personality and creativity for nearly half a century. He authored many books, including Creativity and Psychological Health. 

“The essence of love of G-d is in the desire of the soul for its creator, for unity with this higher light.” The Talmud Central Text of Rabbinic Judaism

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DAILY REFLECTION BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY

In this book, Daniel Bourke compiles the most comprehensive record of this mysterious phenomenon to date, presenting hundreds of romantic and other precognitive dreams from legendary, historical, and modern sources, collected for the first time in one place. Highlighting in particular the experience of dreams that foretell love encounters, Bourke explores the way these dreams and visions draw people together.

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Using the latest scientific research on immunity, sensation, stress, cognition, and emotional expression, the authors demonstrate that the way we process our feelings provides a key to who is most likely to experience these phenomena and why. They explain that emotion is a portal into the world of extraordinary perception, and they provide the studies that validate the science behind telepathic dreams, poltergeists, and ESP.

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Many academicians attribute such psychic discoveries to “poetic license” rather than to accurate understanding of our parapsychological capacities. The author–a practicing psychoanalyst and parapsychologist, and a lawyer familiar with Navajo culture–argues for a fresh appraisal of psi phenomena and their integration into psychoanalytic theory and clinical work, literary studies and anthropology.

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This comprehensive book presents not only historical evidence of this energy, but also practical applications of how to sense it and direct it toward magical goals through ritual, breath-work, movements, and visualization exercises. Uniting Western ceremonial traditions with Eastern energy healing practices, Ætheric Magic helps you achieve material, spiritual, mental, and physical transformation.

SUNDAY MEETING — APRIL 19

“Tracking the Wild Word” with Janet Cornwell, H.W., m. Come along on a hunt for word meanings, and find new ways to connect with them. The practice of Word Tracking is a great adjunct to Translation® class, but can be used by anyone who wants to better understand their word-built world. It will help you find out what you really mean by what you say! For further information, click here: https://www.theprosperos.org/prosperos-events/sunday-meeting-22-09-2024  SUNDAY MEETING —  April 19, 2026 11:00 am Pacific / Noon Mountain / 1:00 pm Central / 2:00 pm Eastern NEW LINK…PLEASE USE THE JOIN BUTTON BELOW FOR MEETING Join Sunday Meeting By contribution.  Please click here to contribute: Contribute! Call In Information: +16699006833,,85882863391# US (San Jose) +13462487799,,85882863391# US (Houston) Dial by your location        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)        +1 301 715 8592 US        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)        +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)        +1 253 215 8782 US Meeting ID: 858 8286 3391 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abtcyLDACK

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