“I work like a gardener,” the great painter Joan Miró wrote in his meditation on the proper pace for creative work. It is hardly a coincidence that Virginia Woolf had her electrifying epiphany about what it means to be an artist while walking amid the flower beds in the garden at St. Ives. Indeed, to garden — even merely to be in a garden — is nothing less than a triumph of resistance against the merciless race of modern life, so compulsively focused on productivity at the cost of creativity, of lucidity, of sanity; a reminder that we are creatures enmeshed with the great web of being, in which, as the great naturalist John Muir observed long ago, “when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe”; a return to what is noblest, which means most natural, in us. There is something deeply humanizing in listening to the rustle of a newly leaved tree, in watching a bumblebee romance a blossom, in kneeling onto the carpet of soil to make a hole for a sapling, gently moving a startled earthworm or two out of the way. Walt Whitman knew this when he weighed what makes life worth living as he convalesced from a paralytic stroke: “After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on — have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear — what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman with the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons — the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night.”
As a writer, I find gardens essential to the creative process; as a physician, I take my patients to gardens whenever possible. All of us have had the experience of wandering through a lush garden or a timeless desert, walking by a river or an ocean, or climbing a mountain and finding ourselves simultaneously calmed and reinvigorated, engaged in mind, refreshed in body and spirit. The importance of these physiological states on individual and community health is fundamental and wide-ranging. In forty years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical “therapy” to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: music and gardens.
Having lived and worked in New York City for half a century — a city “sometimes made bearable… only by its gardens” — Sacks recounts witnessing nature’s tonic effects on his neurologically impaired patients: A man with Tourette’s syndrome, afflicted by severe verbal and gestural tics in the urban environment, grows completely symptom-free while hiking in the desert; an elderly woman with Parkinson’s disease, who often finds herself frozen elsewhere, can not only easily initiate movement in the garden but takes to climbing up and down the rocks unaided; several people with advanced dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, who can’t recall how to perform basic operations of civilization like tying their shoes, suddenly know exactly what to do when handed seedlings and placed before a flower bed. Sacks reflects:
I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains, but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.
Art by Violeta Lopíz and Valerio Vidali from The Forest by Riccardo Bozzi
Clearly, nature calls to something very deep in us. Biophilia, the love of nature and living things, is an essential part of the human condition. Hortophilia, the desire to interact with, manage, and tend nature, is also deeply instilled in us. The role that nature plays in health and healing becomes even more critical for people working long days in windowless offices, for those living in city neighborhoods without access to green spaces, for children in city schools, or for those in institutional settings such as nursing homes. The effects of nature’s qualities on health are not only spiritual and emotional but physical and neurological. I have no doubt that they reflect deep changes in the brain’s physiology, and perhaps even its structure.
Illustration by Ashleigh Corrin from Layla’s Happiness by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie.
The Empress is the embodiment of womanhood. She covers all aspects of love, beauty and female strength. Her throne is one built of endurance, tenacity, loyalty and sheer determination. She stands for the mother, and for the daughter… who will in turn become mother.And at her highest level, the Empress also represents the Great Mother in her aspect of protector, nurturer, teacher, lover, and friend. Here are all the elements of compassion, unconditional love and acceptance that comes from a pure and unadulterated relationship with the Goddess.In recent times we have tended to overlook the importance of the innate strength in womanhood. We can get blinded by the dynamic power inherent in male strength, and completely forget the necessity for the counter-balancing influence of female power.There’s nothing mushy about this power – it’s no accident that many Goddesses are regarded as destroyers – but it is infinitely different to male strength. The entire dynamic of its expression is unique and enduring.On a day ruled by the Empress, we need to be trying to touch the Goddess – either within or without. You’ll see Her gentle beauty in a thousand places if you look for it.We also need to be considering love, and the ways in which we express love and receive love in our lives. It’s a good exercise to try out every now and again, anyhow. When we run a quick check on the level of love in our lives as a regular thing, we find it much harder to make the mistake of taking it for granted.On a more mundane level, this is a time to think of mothers – you, if you are one; your mother; the concept of motherhood. And finally, again we need to take that back to whatever we regard as the highest principle of mothering in our lives.And by the way – just because I have talked a lot about women, and mothers, I am not excluding men. You have many of these same qualities within your nature too. So get in touch with them!
Affirmation: “Love and beauty flow through my life in a limitless stream.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Ancient Rome’s emperor Julius Caesar undertook a radical move to fix the calendar, which had become increasingly inaccurate as the centuries passed. He added three months to the year 46 BCE, which as a result was 445 days long. I’m thinking that 2025 might seem equally long for you, Aries. Your destiny may feel like it’s taking forever to unfold. APRIL FOOL! I totally lied. In fact, I think 2025 will be one of your briskest, crispest years ever. Your adventures will be spiced with alacrity. Your efforts will be efficient and expeditious. You may sometimes be amazed at how swiftly progress unfolds.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Guilt and fear are always useless distractions from what’s really happening. Right? APRIL FOOL! The fact is that on rare occasions, being anxious can motivate you to escape from situations that your logical mind says are tolerable. And guilt may compel you to take the right action when nothing else will. This is one time when your guilt and fear can be valuable assets.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The German word Flüsterwitze means “whisper jokes.” These jests make taboo references and need to be delivered with utmost discretion. They may include the mockery of authority figures. Dear Gemini, I recommend that you suppress your wicked satire and uproarious sarcasm for a while and stick to whisper jokes. APRIL FOOL! I lied. The truth is that the world needs your outspokenness. Your ability to call out hypocrisies and expose corruption—especially with humor and wit—will keep everyone as honest as they need to be.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In the lead-up to the Paris-hosted 2024 Summer Olympics, the iconic Eiffel Tower was repainted gold. This was a departure from tradition, as the usual colors had been brown on the bottom and red on the top. The $60-million job took twenty-five painters eighteen months. I recommend that you undertake an equally monumental task in the coming months, Cancerian. APRIL FOOL! I lied. In fact, I do hope you undertake a monumental task—but one that’s more substantive than changing the surfaces of things. Like revisioning your life story, for example—reinterpreting your past and changing the way it informs your future. I think you are ready to purge inessential elements and exorcize old ghosts as you prepare for a re-launch around your birthday.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): When I worked on the Duke University grounds crew years ago, I did the work I was assigned as quickly as possible. Then I would hide in the bushes, taking unauthorized breaks for an hour or two, so I could read books I loved. Was that unethical? Maybe. But the fact is, I would never have been able to complete my assigned tasks unless I allowed myself relaxation retreats. If there is an equivalent situation in your life, Leo, I urge you to do as I did. APRIL FOOL! I half-lied. The truth is that I think you should be a little less extravagant than I was—but only a little—as you create the spaciousness and slack you need.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In his film “Fitzcarraldo,” Virgo director Werner Herzog tells an epic story. It includes the task of hauling a 320-ton steamship up a hill and over land, moving it from one river to another. Herzog could have relied on special effects to simulate this almost impossible project, but he didn’t. With a system of pulleys and a potent labor force, he made it happen. I urge you to try your equivalent of Herzog’s heroic conquest, Virgo. You will be able to summon more power and help than you can imagine. APRIL FOOL! I half-lied. While it’s true that you will be able to summon more power and help than you can imagine, I still think you should at least partially rely on the equivalent of special effects.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Researchers discovered that Egyptian fruit bats engage in extensive communication with each other while nesting in their roosts. Surprisingly, they talk about their problems a lot. In fact, they quarrel sixty percent of the time. Areas of disagreement include food allocation, positions within the sleep cluster, and males initiating unwanted mating moves. Let’s make these bats your power creatures. The astrological omens say it’s time for you to argue more than you have ever argued. APRIL FOOL! I was not entirely truthful. The coming weeks will be a good time to address disagreements and settle disputes, but hopefully through graceful means, not bitter arguing.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Unlike many modern poets, Scorpio-born Alice Notley rejects the notion that she must be part of any poetic lineage. She aspires “to establish or continue no tradition except one that literally can’t exist—the celebration of the singular thought sung at a particular instant in a unique voice.” She has also written, “It’s necessary to maintain a state of disobedience against everything.” She describes her work as “an immense act of rebellion against dominant social forces.” I invite you to enjoy your own version of a Notley-like phase, Scorpio. APRIL FOOL! I lied. In fact, I encourage you to enjoy a Notley-like phase beginning May 1. But for now, I invite you to be extra attentive in cultivating all the ways you can benefit from honoring your similarities and connections with others.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is a standardized test that many American high school students take to prove their worth to colleges. The highest possible score is achieved by fewer than one percent of test-takers. We might imagine that earning such a premium grade must guarantee admission to any school, but it doesn’t. During one five-year period, for example, Stanford University rejected sixty-nine percent of applicants with the highest possible score. I’m sorry to predict that a comparable experience might be ahead for you, Sagittarius. Even if you are your best and brightest self, you may be denied your rightful reward. APRIL FOOL! I totally lied. Here’s my real, true prediction: In the coming weeks, I believe you will be your best and brightest self—and will win your rightful reward.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The visible part of an iceberg is typically just ten percent of its total size. Most is hidden beneath the sea’s surface. References to “the tip of the iceberg” have become a staple metaphor in many cultures, signifying situations that are not what they seem. Of all the zodiac tribes, Scorpios are renowned for their expertise in discerning concealed agendas and missing information. The rest of us tend to be far less skillful. APRIL FOOL! I fibbed. These days, you Capricorns are even more talented than Scorpios at looking beyond the obvious and becoming aware of the concealed roots and full context.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the coming weeks, I advise you to be like the nineteenth-century poet Emily Dickinson. She lived in quiet seclusion, corresponding through letters instead of socializing. She seemed content to write her poems all alone in her home and be unconcerned about trying to get them published. APRIL FOOL! I lied. Here’s my real horoscope: Now is a highly favorable time for you to shmooze with intensity at a wide range of social occasions, both to get all the educational prods you need and to advance your ambitions.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Some systems and situations improve and thrive in response to stress and errors. Indeed, some things need strain or irregularity to be fully healthy. For example, human bodies require a certain amount of stress to develop a resistance to infection. In reading the astrological omens, I conclude you now need stimulation like that. APRIL FOOL! I lied. Here’s the truth: August of 2025 will be a great time for you to harvest the benefits of benevolent stress. But for now, your forte will be the capacity to avoid and resist stress, confusion and errors.
Éliphas Lévi Zahed, born Alphonse Louis Constant (February 8, 1810 = May 31, 1875), was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. Initially pursuing an ecclesiastical career in the Catholic Church, he abandoned the priesthood in his mid-twenties and became a ceremonial magician. At the age of 40, he began professing knowledge of the occult. Wikipedia
New Thinkin • Mar 25, 2025 John J. Prendergast, PhD is a spiritual teacher, author, retired Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and a retired Marriage and Family Therapist. He Is the author of Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality (2025), The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence (2019), and In Touch: How to Tune in to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself (2015). He is also the senior editor of and contributor to two volumes of original essays entitled, The Sacred Mirror (2003) and Listening from the Heart of Silence (2007). Here John explores the depths of embodied spirituality, examining the journeys of waking up, waking down, and waking in. John shares profound insights on authenticity, truth, and true nature, while also addressing the more challenging aspects of our conditioning—terror, shame, and doubt—which often arise as obstacles on the path of healing and transformation. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:11:18 Your deepest ground and confronting annihilation 00:22:52 Spanda: the pulsation of life and awareness 00:33:45 Truth and authenticity in the spiritual journey 00:39:19 Opening to awareness and healing trauma 00:43:45 The role of therapeutic relationships 00:48:07 Identifying core limiting beliefs 00:57:42 Self-honesty and vulnerability in spiritual growth 01:03:43 Grief and the lost connection to true nature 01:13:14 Overcoming doubt and the markers of essential qualities of being New Thinking Allowed Guest Host Leanne Whitney, PhD, is a depth psychologist and transformational coach based in Los Angeles, CA. She is the author of Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali and currently serves as Executive Director of Center for Transformation and Integration. Her website is https://leannewhitney.com/ To learn about Leanne Whitney’s Transformational Coaching Certification Course with an emphasis in Somatic Integration Therapy, please visit: https://transformationandintegration…. Producer: Elena McNally Editor: John Hartmann (Recorded on February 21, 2025)
New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove • Mar 26, 2025 Eric Wargo, PhD, is author of Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocognition, and the Unconscious. He is an anthropologist and science writer. Here he examines notable instances in which disastrous events have been forecast through dreams, works of creative art, and premonitions. One notable example is a novel by Morgan Robertson that appears to have described in considerable detail, twelve years in advance of the event, the sinking of the Titanic. A sensitivity to dream interpretation methods helps one to observe the psychological dynamics of precognition. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on March 11, 2019)
“He eventually muttered, ‘You’re right, everyone’s always been right. I can’t believe I got to this point’ and kept bawling his eyes out. Then he said something that I’m still thinking about: ‘I traded my life for a lie; I don’t even know who I am anymore.'”
If you also haven’t heard that name since way back when (well, 2020), let me refresh you. It’s a conspiracy theory alleging that President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against the “deep state,” or “a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles” that controls the world.
It’s called QAnon because an anonymous poster known as “Q” began spewing nonsense about the deep state and “the Storm,” aka the day of reckoning that will one day come for the pedophilic, omnipotent cabal, on the imageboard website 4chan in 2017.
Although it’s somewhat faded out of mainstream conversation, QAnon is still very much alive. One of the most infamous January 6 Capitol rioters was known as “QAnon Shaman.”
There’s an entire subreddit devoted to people whose lives have been affected by a loved one falling into QAnon, both trying to support those individuals and help them bring their loved ones back to reality. It’s aptly called r/QAnonCasualties, and today, I wanted to share several stories from people who actually managed to get out:
1. “My uncle, who is my dad’s brother-in-law, was raised in a very Christian conservative environment but was generally very cool, calm, and collected, and a great role model for what an uncle/husband/father should be. But when Trump came around in 2016, it’s like that whole positive demeanor he had flipped on a dime. I genuinely don’t know what exactly sparked the change, but over time, he just started spouting crazier and crazier things. Anti-vax, JFK and JFK Jr. resurrection, Pizzagate, election fraud, the deep state, Democrats sacrificing children in satanic rituals, you name it. And he also believed literally anything Trump said on TV and would defend it like his life depended on it.”
“…Fast forward to about a week ago, I got a message from him on Facebook. My crazy, Trump-loving, conspiracy-theorizing Q-Uncle, who’s estranged from his whole family, sent me a random message at 8 p.m. He said he was looking through some old scrapbooks and family photo albums and found old pictures of me as a baby that he thought I might want to have, and asked if he could come over to give them to me. I agreed because I hadn’t seen him in several years, and against my better judgment, I wanted to have a conversation with him about his behavior.”
“So he shows up late at night with a small box of photos and comes inside. I set the box down, open it, and start looking at all the photos. It’s a bunch of pictures from around the time of my birth, and what caught my eye was how happy his family and mine looked and how full of life he looked. Looking at him standing in my kitchen now, he looked so different. Before his divorce, he was very well-kept. Clean cut and in very good shape. Looking at him now, he’s gotten visibly skinnier, lost muscle mass and looks dirty and disheveled. I said thank you for the photos, and he said something to the tune of ‘You’re welcome, my lib ex-wife probably has the rest, but she’s too convinced I’m crazy. I just wish she wasn’t blind, she’ll see the truth soon enough…'”
“…And I basically lost it but didn’t lash out. I started ranting about his behavior, explaining how it’s torn the family apart, especially his family. His own children either hate him or don’t know what’s wrong with him, and the woman he was married to for 30 years wants nothing to do with him anymore. How the rest of the family is embarrassed by him, and he threw it all away for Donald fucking Trump. Who, unlike us, does not know who he is and does not care if he lives or dies. All of this didn’t really seem to phase him, which I was half expecting.”
“…Throughout that little rant, his expression slowly changed from a smug look of annoyance to a fearful look of regret. His eyes widened slowly, and after I mentioned the man in front of me being different than the man in the photos, his eyes started darting back and forth between the photos on the table and me. And by the time I got done speaking, he was breathing very shallow and fast, hyperventilating. And then his eyes were just darting all over the room, almost like he was replaying his life, and he was covering his mouth and eyes and mumbling stuff like ‘fuck,’ ‘oh my god,’ and ‘no no no.'”
“I genuinely wasn’t expecting this reaction and asked if he was okay, and he just started shaking his head and covering his eyes with his hands. After doing this for about a minute, I could hear him start to groan like he was in pain, and then he let out this raw, guttural scream. I swear it shook my house; I’ve never heard anything like it. He was hitting himself on the forehead with the base of his hand and then collapsed to the floor. He took his hands off his eyes and his face was bright red, and he had tears streaming down his face. It was the most emotion and clarity I’ve seen from him in years. He tried to talk but he was still choking up on his words and his voice kept cracking. He eventually muttered, ‘You’re right, everyone’s always been so goddamn right. I can’t believe I got to this point’ and kept bawling his eyes out…”
“…Then he said something that I’m still thinking about: ‘I traded my life for a lie; I don’t even know who I am anymore.’ And he kept crying on the floor. This man was completely broken and realized the consequences of his behavior far too late, and all he could do was cry. So I let him. It went on for about 15 minutes. Eventually, he looked up at me, and I helped him stand up. And I ended up just giving him a big hug. Despite all the pain he’s caused for the family, I still loved him deep down, and I know everyone else does, too. After he pulled away from the hug, all he said was ‘thank you… I don’t know if I’m past the point of fixing things, but I’m going to try,’ and then he turned around and walked out my door.”
2. “So, I was having a convo with my FIL, and he was pissed and feeling himself after the Trump victory. He was saying all sorts of crazy Q tangent-type stuff, and I calmly said, ‘None of that happened.’ He screamed, ‘I saw it!’ I asked where he gets his news from, and he said it was from all the sources. I said no, you don’t, you never saw that on CNN or a trusted news source. He later admitted, when he calmed down, that he saw it on YouTube or X, which I said wasn’t news.”
3. “I used to be a conspiracy theorist who held many beliefs that I now realize are spread by QAnon believers. Eventually, I had to get the COVID-19 vaccine for work, and nothing happened. This led to me starting to question my other beliefs, and I realized I had been tricked. I didn’t die of any horrible side effects like people were saying. I met a classmate who was trans, and he was really cool. That made me see that the narrative I was fed was untrue since he clearly wasn’t a horrible person like the right-wing media portrays. I also got involved with TikTok (mostly for the funny videos lol), but that led to me seeing a lot of diverse people and beliefs I hadn’t heard of before.”
“I was a teenager when this happened, so I understand how I fell for the ploy so easily. I was socially isolated during COVID-19 and became wrapped up in the wrong crowd. Since then, a few years have passed, and I’ve continued to learn about politics and the dangers of conspiracy theories and extremist ideas; I’ve become much better at forming my own ideas rather than just listening to whatever I hear online…”
“…What I struggle to understand is how my dad, who is much older and in many ways wiser than me, fell for it, too. Not only that, but he is falling deeper and deeper into this group, and all of my efforts to talk to him have failed. This change happened over a period of time when I was living with my mom. All of a sudden, he started talking about Trump and how great his policies were. He ended up voting for Trump that year, but I would say his level of enthusiasm was still in the normal range at the time. He just wanted more jobs in America and for the middle class to prosper. 2020 was when things really started to go downhill, starting with all the COVID theories that were floating around. He fully believed them, and so did I.”
4. “Part of the QAnon story my dad believed was that the USD had to be removed and replaced by a new currency because the dollar is the currency of the deep state. Some hours or days ago, I can’t remember, Trump said that he would preserve the USD at all costs, and if BRICS tried to develop a currency to battle the USD, he would establish a 100% tariff on BRICS members (something along those lines). My father was heavily disappointed, so I exploited the doubt momentum my father was stuck in, and I told him, ‘Remember what I told you days ago? This is what I mean, Trump is not the hero they portrayed.'”
5. “They ended up in rehab and started to think more like a normal human after that.”
6. “My whole life has always been just me and my mom. My father died before I was born, so it was just us girls up against the world. Mom clawed her way up from food stamps and Section 8 to a six-figure research-based job. I am so proud of her. She did seem oddly against me getting ‘optional’ vaccines like HPV and meningitis, but whatever. I didn’t think much of it.”
“…She has no real answers to any of these questions and I thought this was the end of it. She had a theory, we talked about it rationally, nothing in her theory made any sense, and now we could move on with our lives. I am not exaggerating when I say I thought she was going to disown me when I got my COVID vaccine. This woman is a research scientist, y’all! What is happening!? She descended deeper and deeper into anti-vaxx conspiracy theories and fringe religious practices and… I honestly still don’t understand the Bill Gates thing. I didn’t even know this person anymore. This person who witnessed my first breath. The first heartbeat I ever knew. Ugh, I’m getting teary just thinking about this now.”
“I got pregnant shortly after my second Moderna shot. I didn’t tell her for six whole months. It was hard, and the whole world felt dark. I didn’t tell her any of this. Just that I was pregnant, my due date was SOON, and that if she wanted to see the baby, she would need to be FULLY vaccinated. Two shots, plus the efficacy time. There was protest and #Q-logic, but I just could not care at all. We didn’t talk again, not a real talk based in reality, until she called to tell me the fire department had to come to the CVS since she was hyperventilating in the pharmacy area waiting for her shot. They still gave her the shot. She was one round in and half the way to seeing my baby be born. I felt this odd twinge of an emotion I wasn’t sure I would ever see again. Pride…”
“…I was so proud of her for facing her fears for my kid. She didn’t do this for me, her kid, but somehow, my kid was worth it. I’ll take it! She got her second shot on a delayed schedule. Ok, fine, whatever. This delay made it so that she wasn’t going to be considered fully vaccinated until after my due date, but I held firm, even though that meant that I was realistically facing being in the delivery room alone. This was such a scary time of my life, and I had no one to hug me. In the end, my kid decided to come late. Very late. So late that my mom could be in the hospital with me.”
“…I feel SO LUCKY because I know this could have been so so so so so so so much worse. I have a reasonable approximation of my mom back with just one really dark year that I try to never think about. I credit her recovery primarily to my son and, more specifically, that I got pregnant so quickly after COVID-19 vaccines came out. She didn’t have time to really steep in the Q-ness because the ultimatum came relatively quickly.
7. “My two successes were with people who were not 100% full Q yet. They were at the point where they thought Alex Jones was a gift from God. So, pretty far in. I got them out with challenging conversations and consistency. Sometimes, I would be more empathetic and not try to act like they were crazy for their beliefs and just try to gently ask, ‘Oh, I get how you see that; have you ever thought about (thing) though?’ Other times, I was more direct and would try to make them feel dumb/embarrassed. Consistency was a huge part.”
“…I definitely don’t have the magic solution, even if you put in the 500 hours of prep/research you would need. I’ve been successful twice but failed three other times so far. Being with someone daily gives you a huge advantage in being able to frame information they are getting every day in a different, more sane way. Most people don’t really have a thought on any topic until their chosen demagogue tells them how to feel later online. If you can start to change how they think about something before they get programmed, it can help a lot.”
8. And finally, from r/skeptic: “I am an ex-QAnon and conspiracy nut, and one strange phrase helped me get out. I left the conspiracy world five years ago after heavy involvement for 10 years. I got out of QAnon around the end of Trump’s [first] presidency. One very strange phrase was common among the believers, and it gave me a lot of internal conflict at the time: ‘Even if Q turns out to be fake, I still value my time in QAnon because it taught me to pay attention and how to think.'”
“This sort of speech was very common among adherents and really bothered me bc it was so self-insulating and protective. Basically, claiming that even if I find out I’ve been a rube believing in batshit conspiracy, I still can’t allow myself to think of myself as wrong, so I’ll spin it as learning to be a ‘critical thinker’ rather than realizing I was conned and I’m ignorant. As for me? I got out and realized I was wrong.”
I’m sending this to family and friends to tell you that I will be singing in a concert with the choir I’ve been singing with for some 23 years now. This concert is Saturday night MARCH 29 at 8 PM EDT (5 PM PDT). It will be Live-streamed and of course my job is to SELL tickets which you can buy at this link – https://cvchorus.org/ Since my job is selling tickets, this is a pretty wide distribution.
We are singing a Gloria Mass written by Puccini, the opera composer. The music is glorious and we will sing with an orchestra. We only get to sing with an orchestra about every three years. Some of you know I started singing opera some 50 years ago in Alaska. So I love this dramatic music. This however may be my last concert with his group. Not sure I have the chops for this director anymore. And singing the Credo this time made me think about the words – words that I have been singing since I was a choir boy. And I’m thinking maybe I need to express myself musically in a different way.
Finally for those of you with limited financial resources, the concert will be posted on our YouTube page after the concert is over. But If you can afford it, buy a LiveSteam. We need to pay for this orchestra.
I know classical music isn’t for everyone. For those who are local, the concert is at Glenn Memorial on the Emory campus. And there will be a nice reception afterwards. Live Streams won’t get the good food.
Hope to see some of you and since this is going to some family and friends far away, I’ll probably have some sort of party for my 75th birthday this July. I had a guest room built which I’ll probably rent out to a student in the Fall but until then, I have an extra room if anyone wants to come to Atlanta in July.
I hope to see you Saturday evening either in person or livestream.
I appreciate all of you,
Ned
Consciousness, spirituality, biography, sexuality, androgyny, futurism, space, the arts, science, astrology, democracy, humor, books, movies and more
As a writer, I find gardens essential to the creative process; as a physician, I take my patients to gardens whenever possible. All of us have had the experience of wandering through a lush garden or a timeless desert, walking by a river or an ocean, or climbing a mountain and finding ourselves simultaneously calmed and reinvigorated, engaged in mind, refreshed in body and spirit. The importance of these physiological states on individual and community health is fundamental and wide-ranging. In forty years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical “therapy” to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: 
