The World WILL End this Time. No Seriously.

Have you ever noticed how us humans love to live in mortal fear of the "end", yet can never ever stop construing fictitious ways in which the "end" is always just around the corner? It seems to be a need, like watching horror movies or car crashes or picking your nose, that we as a species constantly obsess and fret about the "end of the world" that never seems to come.

Depending on which scientist you talk to, the beat has been going on pretty steady now for over 4 billion years on earth. Yes, 4 billion. Years. This figure is also roughly equal to each person's share of the national debt in the US (kidding, sort of).

Our forbears were running around killing animals 1 million years ago, and the Egyptians built some very sturdy headstones in Egypt about 5000 years ago.(maybe they were worried about this end of the world business as well). The world has been going now for awhile, like Cats off broadway.

However, we wouldn't want to let an annoying thing like facts and history get in they way of mania, marketing, and that oh so fun past time of fear mongering to the masses.  In the interest of gallows humor, I am going to run down some of my favorite "end is at your doorstep" scenarios that I have lived through in my short life (well, maybe not quite as short as I'd like it to be).

1. The Cold War - This one seemed real, because, well, it was. There is nothing like riding the school bus in the morning and wondering if you'll be incinerated by the Russkis or an errant computer game by 2nd period. There was always some reason during the evening news that somebody was about to launch the missles. The screwed up part is that most of the time it was a flock of birds or some German teenager flying a plane into Red Square. (click here for that one)

2. The Late Great Planet Earth - This was a popular book when I was a wee boy. I include it here because it was my first experience with this whole "end of the world" business. Needless to say, none of it came true. If you want to see this fossilized book, check it out here: The Late Great Planet Earth

3. Global Warming - A supposedly real phenomenon. However, it has all the excitement of watching paint dry. If I am going to get stark raving mad over the world ending, I need a specific date and time, not this "we better stop or we'll be sorry in a few decades". Perhaps they didn't get the memo that peoples attention spans are getting shorter, not longer. We can barely remember who we texted 30 seconds ago, let alone worry about it being 4 degrees hotter on average on July 2025. Besides, I think we'll all have enough time to evacuate the "coastal areas". It only takes a few months at most to build a boat.

4. Dec 21st, 2012 - Now, as my fictional friends in the acting world say, this one has some "legs". My friends who go to the Boom Boom room say the same thing. Anyway, we got a date, we got a time. If we only had a location, like the Starbucks on 30th and 7th Ave, this one would be the creme de la creme of end 'o the world predictions. Apparently the Mayans, the Chinese and the Hopi Indians all settled on this date as the real deal. They must have compared notes using prehistoric Skype.  They are serious this time man, no really. Anyway, I have already got my T-shirts ready to go for the day after sales. You know, the ones' that say "I survived Dec 21st.....blah blah"....

5. Y2K - This was probably the most amusing of them thus far. Thinking back, it was either a marketing campaign for The Matrix, or an attempt by the Tech industry to build a huge tech spending bubble and....oh yeah, that actually happened. Anyway, the theory went that we had all become dependent upon computers and machines and that they would one day turn us(so done to death right?)  The reason why was that all the old computer code that current systems were built on was not equipped for the millennium date change(yeah, yeah, thats the ticket!). This prompted huge spending to fix the "problem" and much fake hand ringing.  Predictions ranged from complete shutdown of air traffic, computer networks, power grids and that annoying backing alarm on delivery trucks. However, when Dick Clark dropped the ball that year, none of it happened. Bill Gates was laughing all the way to the bank.  As inventor of the internet, Al Gore knew the whole time there was no problem, he just kept it to himself while he worked on An Inconvenient Truth

6. Nostradamus - This old hack from 500 years ago had so many predictions, that some of them were bound to come true. Like an astrologer, if you say things vague enough, and repeat them often enough, people will want to believe you. Some of the predictions may also seem sorta, kinda right.  He also reminds me of the broken clock on the wall....its still right at least twice a day.

If you out there in the network of nebulous electronic ether have some others, feel free to let me know. I'd love to see what you think.

Until next time, stay loose, breathe deep, actualize.... and....be careful out there.

Alone during the Holidays?

Do You Feel Lost and Alone in the World?
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Uhrich]Kevin Uhrich

The world that we live in doesn't really feel like home to us; do you ever get that feeling? Most of us are like fish out of water nearly all of our lives. We settle down and build houses and build our lives, but somewhere deep inside we feel... lost!
   
We search all our lives trying to mollify that lost feeling that we have - trying to find God or "Something". Somewhere in the deepest part of us, maybe, we have a feeling that our true home, our pure joy or love beyond reason we're searching for is inside of us, I think...
   
You know; we start out life here on earth and as each day goes by and we get caught up in the complexities of our lives, we forget that we are part of God or Source Light; that It is within us and we are part of All That Is and we have forgotten that we create all of everything we experience as well.
   
Even so, there is a thread of recall inside of us that realizes this must be true, "Isn't there?" If we could practice "silence" each day; stop the mental chatter and just breath for a few minutes, we would find a treasure inside of us so great that we would never again feel separate or alone!
   
Here's a poem that I wrote December 2004, and they even published it in 2006!!! That was pretty cool!

Fear Nothing
Fear nothing
Oh you searchers of truth,
Stop for a moment your quest
Though it is a noble one.
For what you seek has always been within you.
This worldly existence has made us forget, what we know is truth,
All that is and all that will be, is there inside you.
Fear nothing.
The commandments that you try to embrace
Are only a guide to help you remember
The only One law,
"God is Love... nothing more and All That Is
And that is your true essence and foundation.

There we are then, now go Create Great Thoughts with No Regard to Logic, because All That Is is there inside you.

Kevin is a business man, writer and poet in Saskatchewan. He is nearing completion of a book on self help, mind power and philosophy. He knows first hand the power of our human thought/feeling processes. His website will be set up in the near future.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Do-You-Feel-Lost-and-Alone-in-the-World?&id=3468232] Do You Feel Lost and Alone in the World?

Through the Eye of the Needle

1. It was once said that a man's possessions. his money, are the most tangible of his fleeting ideas of success. I suppose that is why so many have struggled to accumulate, and then felt empty upon this "achievement"

2. Likewise, it has been said that people's memories of their behavior are almost always consistent with their personal beliefs, and have little to do with their actual behavior.

3. People can live together for years, yet many times rarely discuss anything that frightens them. It may be that they fear the response of others, themselves, or how they will be perceived.

Ideas, and our memories and perceptions of them, are what normally constitute our concept of "rich" or success. While many assume to know what rich is, if it is examined closely, what is revealed is the outline of a collective belief, around which we base a series of assumptions. This belief is not related to fact whatsoever, but rather an unspoken agreement with others that we all choose to believe the same thing (i.e. money is "valuable")

Does money have any value whatsoever? The answer is no, it is merely a device, a collective idea we all believe in, that allows it to have power. This idea is reinforced by all facets of our society, from government, to the education system, to the media. Because all of these facets have a stake in perpetuating the idea, its reinforcement continues. The idea is reinforced because it is perceived to have value. You need to look no further than history books to realize that 600 years ago "money" as we know it, did not exist.

Money only has value as long as the majority of people believe it has value. In the end, it is an idea built around collective belief (or confidence) and faith. Green paper and electronic digits have no intrinsic value at all. You need go no further than September of 2008 to see how panicked authority became when they thought people no longer believed money had value.

In our quest for survival, for riches, behaviors are deemed necessary in order to acquire more and thereby achieve 'more' than the competitor. Adversarial competition is the basis of the American economic system, and is a hallmark of all human interaction. The competitor role can be carried by many people who operate under other labels; friend, spouse, coworker, company, state, team, nation. In many cases, the behavior needed to acquire money is not consistent with a person's espoused beliefs.

These concepts were explored in many famous experiments such as the Milgram experiment. In this now famous simulation test, unwitting subjects were told to electrically "shock" a victim to death by an imposing authority figure, despite repeated cries of pain from the unseen victim. The result was that almost all the test subjects willingly followed the orders of the authority figure to kill the "victim", even though they had no personal reason to do so.

My point in mentioning this is that our society's economic survival, based on money and competition to get it, is dictatorial in nature. That is, it is based upon authority figures telling workers to execute a given profit strategy. Often such a strategy is at odds with the purported beliefs of those people who are executing the strategy. Our government may be nominally "democratic", but most workplaces are dictatorial. In other words, there is always an authority figure guiding, dictating and regulating behavior. If one does not follow this figure, one's access to money, and by extension, survival is often perceived as threatened.

This power dynamic of authority over the masses, has been near the center of all human interaction in history except for one. That interaction is the one you are engaging in right now, receiving information via the Internet. It is for this reason that I believe the Internet holds more promise than peril in the future. While everyone needs guidance at some point, the abuse of power that has embraced humanity is beginning to unwind as the floodgates of information open. 50 years from now, the world will look back on this transition and give it a name.

For those seeking, I say, now is the time to define your idea of success. This does not mean no work, or unlimited abundance. What it does mean is that you define your goals, and make them real. Never has there been a better time. Do your own thinking, or harness the almost unlimited capacity for knowledge that is now available. Take little at face value, challenge assumptions, and most of all, don't let anyone tell you what your success looks like.

The Evil Eye, Astrology and Awakening the Dead

Some interesting "data" came out today in regard to people's beliefs regarding religion and spiritual concepts/ideas. What these statistics really show is how subjective the beliefs are. The common thread is that most people believe in some other plane of existence outside that which is readily visible. The manifestation of that plane is what varies widely. Among the interesting bullet points:

• Approximately 24% believe in Astrology, close to the same number who identify themselves as Roman Catholics
• 30% of Americans felt they have been in touch with the dead
  
• 26% thought spiritual energy could be gathered in objects such as trees
• 16% think the "evil eye" or casting evil spells is real.
• The Vatican has acknowledged, officially, that aliens and other life forms may exist elsewhere in the Universe.
• Approximately 50% of Americans claimed to have had a "spiritual or mystical" experience
  

I guess that explains why my Oak tree was looking at me strangely the other day. Seriously though, what do such statistics, taken from a sample of over 4000 people mean? My takeaway is that meaning is an empty vessel we all hold, how we fill it up is completely an individual choice, guided by our social need to feel connected and our own biases.

What do you think?

10 Ways Not to be Abducted by Aliens

In my research, I came upon an article regarding UFO abduction "phenomenon", as it were. In the article, it claimed that as much as 5 to 6 percent of the population may have been abducted or experienced "missing time".

Given that this is an amount of people that is literally in the millions, I have decided to post an official guide as how to NOT be abducted by aliens. With the holidays coming, this may or may not be useful, as some people may secretly wish they would be abducted prior to visiting Aunt Ethel and Uncle Mermon.

Top Ten Ways to NOT be abducted by aliens

1.) Don't sleep, as aliens seem to like to abduct people from their beds and/or bedrooms. If you do sleep, sleep on the couch.

2.) If you must sleep, sleep with a video camera. If you don't have a video camera, a cell phone camera will do. Aliens hate videos, and also seem to hate pictures. Apparently, they go after the 5 to 6 percent of the population that are technological Luddites.

3.) Live in a big city. If you are in a big city, move to a bigger one. If you are in a small town, move to the biggest city you can find. Aliens are more country mouse than city mouse and only seem to take people from quiet rural areas.

4.) Join the military. Aliens never seem to abduct anyone but regular people, loggers, farmers. They avoid anyone with a uniform.

5.) Eat lots of Kale. Aliens do not like leafy greens in general, and Kale in particular. This is why they are often called "greys". Not enough Vitamin C and B-12

6.) Think about baseball.

7.) Wear a hardhat and chastity belt to bed. Many stories say that aliens are interested in people and their reproductive organs. Its best to be prepared.

8.) Of course, number 7 could also refer to many humans I know as well.

9.) Think bad thoughts about aliens, that way, they will stay away from you. They can read minds you know, and are sensitive about who their friends are.

10.) Shower regularly, preferably right before bed. Studies show aliens are attracted to bad smells.

Unconscious Deja Vu: I've dreamed this dream before

The experience is one that you may have had. You will be bopping around your basement vault, usually doing something completely routine, and all of the sudden, you will swear to yourself you have done this exact same thing, in the exact same way as you did before.

Its not the same as thinking you have performed the act you are doing previously, but rather, that you have lived the exact same moment more than once. In other words, you are revisiting a moment you have already lived and are experiencing it the exact same way you did previously, except you are aware of that fact.

An example may be that you are tying your shoe on your back porch. While most people have tied their shoe hundreds of times, a case of Deja Vu may mean that you feel as though you are repeating a specific moment in time again. The sun is shining the same way, the breeze is blowing as it was before, and the time of day are the same. The experience leaves most people slightly unsettled, simply because of its apparent randomness.

While it is a common experience, there is, as of yet, no real explanation, scientific or otherwise. Some scientists have linked it to dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personality disorder. However, the common nature of the phenomena and the inability of researchers to recreate the experience in a lab setting has left science unable to offer more than educated conjecture.

Does the mind have untapped intrinsic knowledge outside of the limits of time and space? If so, is there a way for us to become in control of these experiences? Leave your ideas and thoughts below, or maybe you have already done that, many times before!!

Edgar Cayce: Sunshine Man or Farce?

You may have heard of Edgar Cayce before. He was known primarily as the founder of holistic medicine, as well as a prophet and master of meditation. While there have been many of these types of folks throughout human history, what makes Cayce different is that he is not from the bible or medieval times like Nostradamus.

Edgar Cayce was born in 1877 and died in 1945. What makes him even more interesting is that he never asked for a fee, accepting only voluntary donations for his teaching and spiritual readings. He did this because he had a strong desire and conviction to help others. Beginning in September of 1923, every single reading and prediction he ever made was meticulously recorded. By the time of his death, this totaled over 14,000 readings and proclamations on a wide variety of topics.

Despite his 9th grade education, Cayce touched on subjects such as China's rise to power, the coming of WW II as well as now commonly accepted ideas that are the cornerstone of the "new age" movement (the phrase new age is attributed to him). Despite his unorthodox ideas, he considered himself a devout Christian who read the bible daily. He also established a hospital and made a point of always trying to put others first, sometimes to the detriment of his own family.

Skeptics have called Cayce a farce because some of his predictions, such as Atlantis and the earth flipping its axis, are fantastical and did not come true. He also had a notable lack of success with readings when they were from individuals seeking personal gain and greed. He eventually refused to do these types of readings, saying that they made him feel "depleted and uncomfortable".

Cayce created a foundation while he was still alive that is still operating to this day. The Association for Enlightenment and Research or A.R.E. also houses a museum and the full text of all 14,000 plus of Cayces' readings. Check it out, and draw your own conclusions, and let me know what you think