World

Have a look at this sad presentation about the ongoing war that the US government in waging in Iraq:
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/3years.html ,
It shows the casualties of war on both sides. Tears shed for a beloved one are as bitter when flowing from the eyes of the mother of a US soldier returning home in a casket, as when flowing from the eyes of a Iraqi father who lost an infant in a raid.

You can download the flash file here:
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/3years.swf

The presentation ends asking that the person who started the war finish it now.

I am not Iraqi, nor am I American. What power do I have to stop THAT war?

CHAPTER VI

EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION

Specialization and loss of employment - Limits of an expanding markets - Consumer power

Consumerism forces the adoption of successful business practices. Societies, nations, and corporations, experience and compare their organizational structure and attitudes in the global marketplace. The adoption of economically successful practices, and the standardization of production methods, presages a global culture. The continual adjustments of corporations and nations moves all societies towards a business structure with common strengths and weaknesses.

Specialization and loss of employment

BOOK II
THE PRESENT STRUCTURE
CHAPTER V
THE LIMITS OF ENDLESS GROWTH
Global dissonance - Culture clash- Consumerism - Limits of consumerism - Non-market values - Marginal economic efficiencies
In Book One we identified some of the causes for rejection of authoritarian structures. We realized that our faith in national politics and representative democracy is misplaced, and, as the breakdown of sovereignty and the growth of economic blocs continues, we move towards smaller communities.
This breakdown has been accompanied by a crescendo of information. We are unable to process the thoughts and ideas that have entered global consciousness since 1945. Nuclear annihilation; the global village; man in space; the world's population increasing at a rate of 150 persons a minute; the stock of arable land going down by four hectares every minute; the Cold War; the breakdown of communist ideology; Japan's economic supremacy; Western high tech military supremacy; the ozone hole; global warming; this is future shock. An onrush of events that shocked our consciousness. Changes, thrust upon a world, unready to accept, or deal with, the sheer mass of change.

CHAPTER IV
SOVEREIGNTY AND LOSS OF CULTURE
Sovereignty - Economic blocs - National economic integration into the global market - Economic blocs and culture
During this transition period, politics, at the level of an economic bloc, is the only control over the global economy. Even economic bloc politics cannot impose global control and some type of global government must eventually acquire power. Politicians, loath to give up power, even to an economic bloc, will limit that power to the entrenched interests of politicians. G.A.T.T., for example, does not allow direct election of its members from the public - all its members are politicians.

CHAPTER III
REPRESENTATIONAL DEMOCRACY,
LEADERSHIP, AND SELF RESPONSIBILITY
The representative democratic system - Political intractability
Survival fear, as the unacknowledged basis for national political power, allows politicians play on the fears and hopes of the electorate. Survival fear justifies the politician's usefulness and collectivises nations. The politicians investment in trauma keeps the electorate wondering what the nation will do in the face of danger. This focuses attention on the politicians who, at centre stage, convince their public that their acts are believable and can be trusted.

Enlightenment and the Brain: A Scientific Commentary of the Teachings of Sri Kalki
by Christian Opitz

The state of enlightenment has been associated with a change of brain function in various spiritual traditions. Since August 2003, an organization that calls itself the Golden Age Foundation has made a form of energy transmission or diksha available that seems to rapidly awaken human brain functions to their true potential, maiing enlightenment and deep emotional healing very accessible for ordinary people. Sri Bhagavan, the founder of the Golden Age Foundation, has given a demystified description of the enlightenment process that acknowledges the importance of a biological change in the brain. His statements about the changes induced in the brain through diksha can be confirmed with the most advanced findings in physics and neuroscience. In the following, I would like to present a comparison between some of Sri Bhagavan’s statements and my own findings in studying the brain through the means of physics and neurophysiology:

Hello Forbes,

Some people arrive in this web site, looking for information on starting an intentional community.
What advice would you have to give them?
What to do first, where to look?

thanks.

CHAPTER II

ENDING THE TYRANNY OF SURVIVAL FEAR

The global marketplace - Global communications - Millennium change

Those who benefit from the old order, deny, and strongly resist change. Governments, for example, continue to operate on the basis that survival fear is their reason for existence. Survival fear justifies the Soviet's right to shoot down a Korean airliner that mistakenly flew over their territory. Survival fear causes the United States to hesitate in signing disarmament proposals with the Soviet Union in 1989. A real basis for a fear of invasion does exist for a few nations. The Israeli government can justify actions based on fear of the nation's survival, but in most parts of the world the justification of invasion does not exist.

The newspaper article Love and Human Nature arose from a lead article in the February 2006 edition of the National Geographic. The National Geographic interviewed Helen Fisher, whose research indicates that neurochemicals dictate sexual behaviour - that chemical passion lasts only a few years and is replaced by the bonding chemical oxytocin. Faced with this, the reporter, Christin Geall, felt her romantic spirit begining to wither.
Christin's response to the idea that sexuality is governed by biology is to argue that some of the best relationships are born, not only out of passion, but also out of a deeper connection with nature. That is ducking the issue. Assuming sexuality is governed by biology, what is the role of sex in love?

Hello,

here is a nice, little web site with some very interesting information and dialogues' excerpts: Naturally Thriving: Moving from just Surviving to Thriving.

I am still exploring its content. So far, I enjoyed the article "Hurt vs. Pain" and also the steps highlighted on the front page on how to move from surviving to thriving.

A lot of food for thoughts...

Enjoy.