“Live in the world like a waterfowl.  The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off.  Live in the world like a mudfish.  The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.” Ramakrishna (1836-1886) Indian Mystic

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

(Courtesy of Rob Brezsny)

André Duqum • Apr 16, 2024 • Know Thyself Podcast – Full EpisodesThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/KnowThyself and get on your way to being your best self. New York Times best-selling author and scientist Gregg Braden explains the bridge between science and spirituality and what it reveals about our true nature as humans. Gregg sets the stage by describing the most pressing issue we face as a species right now: the battle for our own humanity. He shares how the innovations in technology and movement towards transhumanism threatens to extinguish the beauty of what it means to be human before we even discover what that means. This conversation is an intriguing deep dive into that topic, revealing the danger of technology and the divine potential hidden in human DNA. Gregg also discusses his theory on the true origin of homo sapiens: from debunking the theory of evolution to discovering hidden ancient civilizations. Listen to Part 2 of this conversation and learn how to unlock your own true potential:    • Becoming SUPERHUMAN: Unlock The Full …   André’s Book Recommendations: https://www.knowthyself.one/books

NATURE23 June 2023 (sciencealert.com)

By FELICITY NELSON

(Yana Iskayeva)

Biologists usually define ‘life’ as an entity that reproduces, responds to its environment, metabolizes chemicals, consumes energy, and grows. Under this model, ‘life’ is a binary state; something is either alive or not.

This definition works reasonably well on planet Earth, with viruses being one notable exception. But if life is elsewhere in the universe, it may not be made of the same stuff as us. It might not look, move, or communicate like we do. How, then, will we identify it as life?

Arizona State University astrobiologist Sara Walker and University of Glasgow chemist Lee Cronin think they’ve found a way.

They argue that chance alone cannot consistently produce the highly complex molecules found in all living creatures.

To produce billions of copies of intricate objects like proteins, human hands, or iPhones, the universe needs a ‘memory’ and a way of creating and reproducing complex information – a process that sounds very much like ‘life’.

“An electron can be made anywhere in the universe and has no history,” Walker told New Scientist.

“You are also a fundamental object, but with a lot of historical dependency. You might want to cite your age counting back to when you were born, but parts of you are billions of years older.

“From this perspective, we should think of ourselves as lineages of propagating information that temporarily finds itself aggregated in an individual.”

Walker and Cronin’s ‘assembly theory’ predicts that molecules produced by biological processes must be more complex than those produced by non-biological processes.

To test this prediction, their team analyzed a range of organic and inorganic compounds from around the world and outer space, including E. coli bacteria, yeast, urine, seawater, meteorites, drugs, home-brewed beer, and Scottish whisky.

They smashed the compounds into pieces and used mass spectrometry to identify their molecular building blocks.

They calculated the smallest number of steps required to reassemble each compound from these blocks – which they called the ‘molecular assembly index’.

The only compounds with 15 or more assembly steps came from living systems or technological processes.

“This could be a cell that constructs high-assembly molecules like proteins, or a chemist that makes molecules with an even higher assembly value, such as the anti- cancer drug Taxol,” explain Walker and Cronin.

While some compounds from living systems had less than 15 assembly steps, no inorganic compounds made it above this threshold.

“Our system … allows us to search the universe agnostically for evidence of what life does rather than attempting to define what life is,” Walker, Cronin, and others wrote in a 2021 Nature Communications article.

The beauty of the assembly index is that it does not require that aliens be made of the same carbon-based organic materials as creatures that live on Earth to be identified.

The assembly index is also indifferent to whether alien life is just starting to emerge or has moved into a technological stage beyond our comprehension. All these states produce complex molecules that could not have occurred without a living system.

Walker and Cronin’s team is now applying the idea of an assembly index of 15 to future NASA missions.

In the mid-2030s, NASA’s Dragonfly will fly through Titan‘s thick atmosphere of nitrogen and methane, moving from one site to another.

Saturn‘s moon Titan is the only place in the Solar System other than Earth to have standing bodies of liquid. It has liquid hydrocarbon lakes on its surface and is thought to harbor liquid water underground.

The robotic rotorcraft will drill into the icy surface at each landing site and extract a less-than-1-gram-in-size sample. This sample will be blasted with an onboard laser, which will break apart larger molecules so that the rock’s chemical composition can be analyzed.

“It’s a good example of the advantage of taking a more general approach to what life is because Titan is very different to Earth,” says Walker.

“We don’t expect anything like Earth life to evolve or live in this environment, so if we want to find out if life is on Titan, we need an agnostic technique.

“My group is now working on determining how we might be able to detect high assembly molecules. We’re working with NASA to ensure that their existing mass spectrometry instrumentation has high enough resolution to detect high assembly molecules.”

(Contributed by Janet Cornwell, H.W., m.)

Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/radical-new-theory-gives-a-very-different-perspective-on-what-life-is

The Ten of Disks The Lord of Wealth talks not only about material wealth and its appropriate use, but about the inner wealth and resources that we all have. This is a card that teaches us that the harvest we gather in our lives is the end result of all that we have put into living – and more importantly, how we have used the riches at our disposal.We make our own realities with every thought, every deed, every wish. And when we direct our energies positively we shall arrive – as a perfectly natural consequence – at the Ten of Disks. Of course, if we direct our energies negatively we’ll find ourselves with the Ten of Wands, or the Ten of Swords – neither of which are happy cards!There is a warning connected to this card though. When we have created sufficient wealth to make ourselves comfortable and contented, if we have a surplus, then we must make that surplus work. We cannot expect energy to flow freely in our lives if we hoard it, and try to hang on to it. This is as pointless as trying to save up the breeze so that it will blow on a stuffy day! There are some things in life you cannot clutch tight in the hand without crushing their value out of them.If this card comes up in an everyday reading, it re-assures that financial and material matters are proceeding well, and that there is no cause for concern.If it comes up in a more spiritually based reading, then we need to be applying the underlying principles to our lives – so in this case, we need to be letting our inner wealth show, in order to manifest that into our lives.

Source: https://www.angelpaths.com/tarot-online-guide/card/1701

Marianne Williamson • May 25, 2024 Marianne Williamson interviews neurosurgeon Dr. James Doty about his latest book, “Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything.” Learn more about Dr. James Doty: https://www.jamesrdotymd.com/ Buy Mind Magic: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo…

Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything

James R. Doty

A deep exploration of the neuroscience behind manifestation, with a six-part plan for realizing your dreams

For decades the practice of manifestation has been widely dismissed as self-involved, materialistic pseudoscience. But as neuroscientist and recognized compassion leader Dr. James Doty reveals, manifestation introduces us to different possibilities, and it lays the groundwork for a kinder, better world.
Doty grounds us in the practices that change our brain attention, meditation, visualization, and compassion. This mind magic allows us to move through the world in ways that help us see clearly—reclaiming our agency, realizing our dreams, and reaching out to help others along the path.
Where previous works about manifestation have focused narrowly on outward success and individual benefit, Mind Magic delivers an openhearted call to make manifestation part of a deeper contribution to healing the problems we face today.

About the author

James R. Doty

James Doty, MD, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and the Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of CA, Irvine and medical school at Tulane University. He trained in neurosurgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and completed fellowships in pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia (CHOP) and in neuroelectrophysiology focused on the use of evoked potentials to assess the integrity of neurological function. His more recent research interests have focused on the development of technologies using focused beams of radiation in conjunction with robotics and image-guidance techniques to treat solid tumors and other pathologies in the brain and spinal cord. He spent 9 years on active duty service in the U.S. Army Medical Corp.
As Director of CCARE, Dr. Doty has collaborated on a number of research projects focused on compassion and altruism including the use of neuro-economic models to assess altruism, use of the CCARE developed compassion cultivation training in individuals and its effect, assessment of compassionate and altruistic judgment utilizing implanted brain electrodes and the use of optogenetic techniques to assess nurturing pathways in rodents. Presently, he is developing collaborative research projects to assess the effect of compassion training on immunologic and other physiologic determinates of health, the use of mentoring as a method of instilling compassion in students and the use of compassion training to decrease pain.
Dr. Doty is also an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist having given support to a number of charitable organizations including Children as the Peacemakers, Global Healing, the Pachamama Alliance and Family & Children Services of Silicon Valley. These charities support a variety of programs throughout the world including those for HIV/AIDS support, blood banks, medical care in third world countries and peace initiatives. Additionally, he has endowed chairs at major universities including Stanford University and his alma mater, Tulane University. He is on the Board of Directors of a number of non-profit foundations including the Dalai Lama Foundation, of which he is chairman and the Charter for Compassion International of which he is vice-chair. He is also on the International Advisory Board of the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
– See more at: http://ccare.stanford.edu/about/peopl…

(Goodreads.com)

(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd)

Atwater

(Submitted by John Atwater, H.W.)

Democracy Now! • Mar 21, 2013 http://www.democracynow.org – Iraq War veteran Tomas Young was left paralyzed in a 2004 attack in Iraq. Released from medical care three months later, Young returned home to become an active member in Iraq Veterans Against the War. He recently announced that he will stop his medicine and nourishment, which comes in the form of liquid through a feeding tube — a decision which will hasten his death. Joining us from his home in Kansas City, Young reads from his letter, “A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran.” Young says to Bush and Cheney: “You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans — my fellow veterans — whose future you stole.” To watch part 1 of our interview, visit    • Exclusive: Dying Iraq War Veteran Tom…  

Tomas Young’s letter to Bush and Cheney:

“I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries…I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because…I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago…you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks… I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East…I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history…I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11…We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins?…

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.”

Tomas Young, March 19, 2013

(Nader.org)

“The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history… It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.” 

–RACHEL CARSON

Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose sea trilogy and book Silent Spring are credited with advancing marine conservation and the global environmental movement. Wikipedia