Assisted reproduction is the cause but we have no way of knowing what the ultimate effect will be.....

The most troubling thing about this technology is that it has been commercialised and made available to anyone who can pay for it when the highly experimental nature of it should, if sanity had prevailed, demanded that only a minimum of such pregnancies took place until science/medicine could gaurantee the procedure was safe and that will not be possible until a generation of IVF created human beings have grown up and lived relatively normal lives and given birth to children who do the same.

There is absolutely nothing in nature which equals forcing the female body with the use of chemicals and drugs to produce multiple eggs and then processing those eggs in a petri dish bath of chemicals and solutions and then forcibly injecting a sperm which would never procreate in nature into the egg in a traumatic way which could never exist in a human being.

Every cause has an effect and such traumatic and interventionist manipulation of the mother's body and the procreative process will have an effect. The question is how much of an effect. A female is born with all her eggs and those eggs will have been affected by the trauma her mother faced in forced egg production and both males and females resulting from this process will be affected in some way.

As the first generation of these human beings come to young adulthood there are already indications that they have higher rates of infertility, which is hardly surprising, but also higher rates of mental illness.

One wonders how many people would choose to have a child if they had been told the true facts: a. science has no idea what the ultimate effects might be,b. not only are their likely to be physiological problems but indications are there are likely to be psychological problems.

It is one thing to have a cute baby and quite another to deal with a mentally ill child for fifty or sixty years. And science/medicine cannot gaurantee that will not be the case. The commercialization of this procedure, pushed by the science/medicine industry represents criminal culpability.

Who will pay for the millions of damaged individuals if IVF has far more of a damaging effect on those created in this way and any descendants they may have?

The arrogance and greed of science/medicine in this instance is truly shameful.

And that does not even take into account the disgraceful disregard for nature and humanity in creating in the laboratory someone who might end up with five parents: the egg mother, the sperm father, the womb mother and two 'parents.' We already know the trauma suffered by adoptees and yet here is science/medicine encouraging levels of trauma which human beings have never experienced.

It would be better if every child born in this way had access too all of their parents although given the 'womb and egg for hire' industry, accessing your womb mother, or your biological mother, your egg mother, who lives in some Third World hellhole might be difficult. To add insult to injury some of these children are going to be brought up with two fathers or two mothers, with no recognition of the missing parent and no connection with a psychologically healthy environment where one has a mother and a father even if one never meets the mother or father.

The entire industry is Frankenstein in concept and one can only hope it will not be Frankenstein in outcome.

Science/medicine has no problem telling people what they can and cannot do and dictating when it suits. With this sort of technology they should have erred on the side of caution instead of turning it into a multi-billion dollar industry which takes no account of the humanity of those involved, beyond the 'satisfying' of a need or demand on the part of one or two adults. The baby is simply not taken into account and neither are those who provide eggs, sperms, wombs - it is sourced in greed and hubris.

If this procedure had been used properly it would only have been made available to truly desperate cases and there would only be one pregnancy. That is however not what happened and the most egregious abuse of the procedure was the single American woman who was allowed to produce six children in this way and then have another eight in one pregnancy!

One cannot help but be struck by the arrogance and hypocrisy of science/medicine where women are made to feel guilty for drinking a glass of wine or eating soft cheese or salami and yet here we are, with this completely artificial and traumatically interventionist way of conceiving and that is okay.

It seems that as far as science/medicine is concerned the chemicals and drugs they pump into women and babies are okay despite the fact that in the main they are potentially more damaging and destructive than anything most individual women might do.


http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17779-assisted-reproductive-technologies-blessing-curse-both

A reply to another ridiculous anti-Homeopathy article.... this time by Dominic Lawson

 Oh dear, if there is any consistency with the anti-homeopath brigade it is the demonstration that they have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to Homeopathy. By all means, criticise, condemn, reject, but at least do so from a basis of some knowledge and not propaganda, conjecture, fevered imaginings which just make you look foolish.

For one thing, Diana was hardly the 'sharpest knife in the block' and you would know that. She recommended a cranial osteopath and you took your child along without researching that particular methodology - which to most people who know something about both 'cranial' work and osteopathy would be a ridiculous choice for your daughter's condition - and then were disappointed. One presumes, having been 'forced' into it by your friend Diana, you did not ridicule her for her suggestion?

Not only can we surmise that you are not a great believer in 'alternative' or Traditional Medicine, you are a dedicated convert to Allopathy and therefore highly prejudiced against anything other than allopathy. Which makes your opinions highly subjective and bigoted.

And yes, you got one thing right, Hahnemann was horrified by the medical practices of the time which was no doubt impetus to him, as a qualified doctor and pharmacist, to pursue other ways to help and heal. But that is the only thing you get right.

You then go on to make the ludicrous claim regarding psora - a confection of your own prejudice and fantasy rather than any description remotely approximating what Hahnemann believed. But the real teachings are perhaps too complex for you to absorb and certainly too complex to detail here. Anyone who is interested can read quite easily a correct interpretation of both psora and miasms.

You then go on to make another ridiculous statement that he sought to find the substance which allegedly caused a particular type of disorder - nope. Completely wrong. Homeopathy does not treat disorders - it treats individuals. Remedies are chosen based on 'like' symptoms - symptoms by the way which range across the physiological, psychological, emotional, spiritual, circumstantial and physical.

You then go on to describe the process of making remedies in a way which yet again demonstrates ignorance. The goal was 'potentization' - a concept which Quantum Physics can relate too perhaps more readily than mainstream science, but a concept which is, for the moment, outside the materialistic/mechanistic paradigm of science/medicine. Hahnemann has however written quite extensively on how he came to develop the process of succussion or potentization if you wish to understand.

Homeopaths do not believe that the most effective remedy is one in which no longer a single molecule of the active ingredient remains because homeopathy is not a system like Allopathy which is sourced in the material. What you really mean to say is that science/medicine rejects Homeopathy because it cannot find any remaining molecules. That is different. Homeopaths do not think in terms of molecules.

As to water having a 'memory' there is increasing evidence even in some areas of science that water has the capacity to retain information and information is how Hahnemann himself would have described what happens, as opposed to memory. But of course, retained information is in essence, memory.

You then say that it is this 'memory' which cures the sufferer, again demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of Homeopathy and its methodology. The remedies do not cure; the body cures. The remedy triggers the body to re-balance, thereby healing and curing. Even Homeopaths have not reached agreement on the theories which exist as to how this might happen. But happen it does.

The sarcastic comment regarding 'memory' merely reveals prejudice and ignorance. Anyone, with any understanding of the process undergone to produce remedies would know that the reference to 'bladders' and the like is merely a bit of silliness sourced in egregious ignorance and arrogance.

And you keep doing it - the idea that you can destroy or triumph over something by absorbing its essence has nothing to do with Homeopathy. One could in fact find this attitude more often in the realms of science/medicine. Lots of battling, triumph, contests of will, enemies, destruction etc., going on there.

Your description of a Homeopathic Consultation is embarrassing because it demonstrates your complete ignorance. Not only do you know nothing about Homeopathy from research, clearly not done, you have never had a Homeopathic Consultation.

The consistency of the Homeopathic naysaysers is unbroken - ignorance about Homeopathy as a methodology; ignorance about the production and prescription of remedies; ignorance about homeopathic consultations - well, ignorance really, fullstop.

As to the Homeopath you found online - give her a miss. I would not do a telephone consultation with an Allopathic doctor, although in that system it probably would not make much difference and may be the way of the future, but a professional Homeopath would not consult in this way because to prescribe accurately the patient must be in front of you. There is so much which is observed at a physical level, as there is with Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the complexity of Homeopathy is so great, it is not possible to consult adequately over a phone or even online.

But you found someone who fitted your belief system as we tend to do. I doubt however that you would reject Allopathy just because there are charlatan medicos aplenty out there. Double standards.

Then again, you took your daughter to someone without adequate research so your research into Homeopathy is not likely to be comprehensive and Linda would have been good enough for your purposes.

As for the placebo - all medical treatments have placebo and nocebo effects. Research, the sort you like, has shown that patients who were told they were having knee surgery but did not, were healed and in better shape than those who had the actual surgery. Ditto for some heart procedures.

And yes, the mind is a powerful factor but given that Homeopathy is very effective with animals and babies and small children, it is pretty clear that it heals in the absence not only of belief, but of consciousness. Actually, many of those who become converts to Homeopathy have tried it out of desperation because Allopathy failed them, and often actively disbelieve in it but have nothing to lose and then find themselves healing or cured....nothing placebo about that.

There are some interesting questions in regard to the Homeopathy debate. Why are those opposed so inclined to mock and ridicule, as if that were an argument, and why are they singularly so ill-informed? Why are those opposed so 'angry' about it all when Homeopathy heals and does no harm for billions around the world and has done so for two centuries? And why is there particular rage and hatred in the UK in ways just not found in other nations?

Homeopathy is the fastest growing medical methodology in the world and in recent years has been taken up by Indian doctors, both Allopathic and Ayurvedic, and the Indian Government to levels unequalled since the 19th century when all Homeopaths were also Allopathic doctors. As they still are in France.

A medical treatment which heals and does no harm, particularly now that the third biggest killer is iatrogenic - doctor or medical induced - is cheap to produce and prescribe and remedies are enduring with Homeopathic Remedies 100 years old used and found effective, should be welcomed as Allopathic health costs rise to crushing levels.

And it is being embraced, except in the UK where a fanatical movement has arisen to 'set the world to rights.' All very odd and, at the end of the day, with little impact on Homeopathy around the world.

 One of the difficulties with Homeopathy is that it is incredibly complex as a methodology, both to learn and to practice and yet too often attempts are made to describe it in simplistic ways. No-one would presume to do this with Allopathy, or what we call modern medicine.

Much of the bad press which Homeopathy gets is because it is not regulated enough as a system and not understood well enough by many, including some Homeopaths.

Just as there is no comparison between the astrology column in the newspaper and professional astrologer, so there is no comparison between buying an over-the-counter remedy and self-prescribing as opposed to seeing a qualified professional Homeopath. To my mind, both the astrology column and the over-the-counter remedies are useless and do the profession no good service - not to mention the reader or purchaser.

It is not correct to say that Homeopathy is more successful with minor diseases or conditions. And this is not the premise upon which Homeopathy is founded anyway. The fact is that Homeopathy can cure any disease but, like Allopathy, it is not always successful. The difference is however that Homeopathy does no harm and Allopathy often does a great deal of harm. Iatrogenic, doctor or medical-induced is now the third biggest killer.

There are two areas where Allopathic or modern medicine excels - in crisis situations and reconstructive surgery. Beyond those two areas it is largely ineffective, maintaining more than curing, disease, dysfunction and chronic illness.

In the best of worlds all medical methodologies would work together and this is what is happening with the new field of Integrative Medicine - the way of the future. The strength of Homeopathy is in keeping people well by taking account of small symptoms and early signs of dis-ease and not suppressing the symptoms as Allopathy does, which drives the dis-ease deeper, and prescribing remedies which help the body to re-balance and in the doing, to heal.

But where there is a crisis, or a need for immediate and temporary intervention, Allopathy is the way to go. Ditto for reconstructive surgery. Many surgical procedures are interventionist and unnecessary and do more harm than good. However, Homeopathy can work well with surgical procedures to minimise any damage done and to aid the healing process.

Modern science is pretty much about drug or cut. Homeopathy can also work alongside prescribed drugs to trigger a healing process which can remove the need for the drug completely.

Vaccines are a potential minefield of medical disaster and Homeopathy offers non-harmful ways to protect the body or to repair damage done by vaccination.

Medical treatments do not need to be and should not be, either/or.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-can-you-tell-the-difference-between-homeopaths-and-witch-doctors-479741.html

How Homeopathy might work

Homeopathy does not yet have a definite theory on how sucussion (potentization) works but there are a number of theories which might apply.
Advances in Quantum Physics is creating potential for greater understanding of possible theories but the narrow materialist/mechanistic mindset of science/medicine will need to expand before even these can be accepted enough to be put into practice in tests.
In the meantime, Homeopathy works and that is what matters. Homeopathy is not Allopathic in nature, in that it targets a symptom or symptoms or even a disease - it seeks to treat the individual on the basis that a balanced organism will heal/cure any condition in its own way.
Homeopathy in my view, must work at a vibrational/energy level where a 'signature' of the remedy matches the 'signature' of the condition and in the doing, cancels it out and re-balances the organism. Sort of like a 're-boot.'
Studying the physics of soundwaves can give insight into possible theories.

http://www.britishhomeopathic.org/research/how_homeopathy_might_work.html

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/sound/u11l3a.cfm

BHA: How does homeopathy work?

www.britishhomeopathic.orgDo you need research evidence to back up your request for a homeopathy referral?...

Honour the time of the sacred bleeding!

The article linked has some important advice, it is just a pity that she starts out with the word endure! This is a part of the problem. Menstruation should not be endured - it should be a monthly gift - the time of the sacred bleeding.

Why do women maintain this attitude toward their menstrual cycle as something hateful, awful, a curse, almost a disease and something to be endured?

It should never be endured if a woman truly loves and respects her body and herself as an expression of the divine feminine.

And yes, there are organic pads and tampons and re-usable pads made from organic products which are much healthier.

Actually tampons are incredibly unhealthy but few women think about the impact of having released blood held in their bodies for long periods. The blood should be out, not in. The longer the discharged blood is held in the body, the more the body will seek to break down and assimilate it - both whatever the tampon is made of and the blood itself.

Nature never intended it to be held in this way. One wonders how much it leads to disease - STD's and more serious.

And while there is a belief, unproven given the times, that the Egyptians and Greeks used something like a tampon, the tampon as we know it was invented by a man! Says a lot.

And I suspect that any Greek or Egyptian tampons were used to collect blood for sacred ceremonies as opposed to any 'convenience.'

In 1929, the modern tampon (with applicator) was first invented and patented by Doctor Earle Haas who wanted to invent a tampon that could be effectively mass produced. Earle Haas filed for his first tampon patent on November 19, 1931. His patent description was for a "catamenial device," derived from the Greek word for monthly. He later trademarked Tampax as the brandname for his tampon product.

http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2013/07/still-using-tampons-or-pads-you-should-read-this.html

Fear-based medicine and babies

I am struck by a medical system which causes so much panic over things like camembert and salami and yet is so cavalier about ultrasounds and drugs in pregnancy and labour.

If fear-based medicine did not terrify women so much they could do the research and make up their own minds about what they eat and to what their babies are subjected. We live in hope.

Excerpt: Is ultrasound technology safe?

The simple answer is that the safety of using any ultrasound technology on pregnant mamas and babies has never been clearly established. In other words, no one can say for certain that it is safe to use ultrasound equipment on pregnant women and their babies. Additionally, there is no evidence that routine use of ultrasound in low-risk pregnancies improves outcomes for either mother or baby.

What are the risks?

The ultrasound beam can and does cause a temperature increase in the tissue where the ultrasound beam is aimed, and in pregnancy the beam happens to be aimed at your baby. No studies have been done to ascertain how much of a temperature shift occurs when used on babies in the womb. There is also the concern that the high frequency sound waves may interfere with the loosely developed embryo through a cavitation process where small pockets of gas in mammalian tissues vibrate and then collapse.

http://www.indiebirth.com/understanding-ultrasound/

When our partner is our mirror

It can be useful to have descriptions but they should not be taken too far. When we choose to be in relationship with someone, whether married or de-facto, or even if we are in relationship but not living together, then we will always change and so will they and the relationship itself will be a third entity.

There is a maxim that we marry our shadows - in other words, the other person is a hidden part of you. It can be too easy labelling others and therefore projecting out onto them. Your partner is often a hidden or denied part of yourself and you have been drawn together because the psyche always seeks balance.

By all means read up on Narcissism or any other psychological function you think might be at work in your relationship but recognise that at some level it will also be a part of you.

Your partner is your mirror a lot of the time. The more you recognise yourself, Know Thyself as the Elusinian Mysteries advised, then the less you will project onto someone else.

Are You With A Narcissist? | Narcissism and Relationships Blog by Melanie Tonia Evans

blog.melanietoniaevans.com

Feel like some of his/her behaviour doesn’t add up? Feel like you are going crazy arguing with a 5 year old? You might be with a narcissist.

Only Americans can save themselves.....

As long as Americans divide everything into black and white, Republican and Democrat, good and evil etc., they will never resolve their massive problems. The US government is corrupt and incompetent.

Lobbying makes it corrupt, an iniquitous system which other developed nations have not picked up and the impossibility of more than 50 States, little countries, autonomous entities, divided into Republican or Democrat make it impossible for the Federal Government to take action as is required.

The US is ungovernable and it is that fact, combined with the deep and endemic racism toward blacks and latinos, which has sowed the seeds of the nations social and material decline. The US offers the worst quality of life in the developed world to its citizens on average and claims to be the wealthiest. The wealth is debateable given the fact that much of US debt is held by foreigners, some 46% - China having the largest share of $1.2 trillion in bills, notes and bonds.

Logic suggests that while the US remains China's biggest market and that is powerfully important for the Chinese economy, that they will not 'call in their markers.' But, with 49% poverty in the US and rising, who is to say, down the track, as the market contracts and diminishes, that the Chinese will not use the most effective and peaceful weapon they have, to bring the US to its economic knees?

The US has never been in such parlous state and never so vulnerable. Only Americans can fix that.

http://www.alternet.org/comments/economy/detroits-collapse-reveals-awful-dystopia-united-states-becoming#disqus_thread

View of science/medicine not all it is cracked up to be when it comes to the vulnerability of the baby in the womb.....

This research is interesting because it confirms,  that babies are more protected in utero than extremist science/medicine would like to believe. Perhaps in time they will rediscover, as was once believed, that the placenta plays a major and powerful role in protecting the baby.

It also opens to question the paranoia of modern fear-based medicine which seeks to terrify women who drink or smoke in moderation or who, Quelle Horreur, eat soft cheeses and salami.

Obviously moderation in all things and common sense and a nutritious diet are important factors in the development of the foetus, but the human condition is nothing if not resilient.

Excerpt: Instead, researchers found poverty to be a key determining factor in how well children performed later in life. As Hallam Hurt, the former chair of neonatology at Albert Einstein Medical Center and the study’s lead researcher,  told the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Poverty is a more powerful influence on the outcome of inner-city children than gestational exposure to cocaine.”

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/study-debunks-myth-crack-baby?akid=10724.1123460.xHM37D&rd=1&src=newsletter872869&t=20

Of course everything in the human body has a purpose....

I know I frequently comment on the mistakes and at times arrogance of science/medicine but the reason is, while I can admire the mechanistic skills which Allopathy has in crisis situations and reconstructive surgery, it gets so much else wrong, like believing there could be any organ or function of the body which has no purpose, and that is why it so often fails to heal but instead maintains chronic ill-health in so many people.

Of course the appendix had a purpose. And yes, if it threatens to kill you by all means remove it but don't touch it otherwise. Ditto for things like adenoids and tonsils which are also a vital part of our immune response and which were removed with cavalier arrogance in the past and are often still removed with cavalier ignorance.

Sure, science gets there in the end but if it had respect for the wisdom and function of the human body it would get there so much faster and to the benefit of humanity.

Scientists discover true function of appendix organ

www.abc.net.au

US researchers say they have discovered the true function of the appendix as a safe house for good bacteria.

Diabetes - the deadly downside of vaccination

The US has seen a 70% rise in Type1 Diabetes in children and the US is the most heavily vaccinated country on the planet. It also has the worst general health for adults and children.

Vaccination may not be the sole cause but there is good reason to see it as a substantial part of the problem.

Excerpt: In a prior study, published in the journal Autoimmunity, Dr. J. Bartholomew Classen of Classen Immunotherapies and David Carey Classen of the University of Utah compared more than 100,000 children who had received between one and four doses of the hemophilus vaccine with more than 100,000 unvaccinated children. The Classens found that after seven years, children in the vaccination group had a 26 percent higher risk of developing diabetes than children in the non-vaccine group. This amounted to an extra 54 cases of diabetes per 100,000 children vaccinated.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/023902_diabetes_child_vaccine.html#ixzz2YuM8Mdc6


http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-5-189553-A-deadly-form-of-diabetes-doctors-sometimes-miss

Hysterically bad is the movie Hysteria

We watched the movie Hysteria last night. Apart from the fact that it had been made superficial and sanitised, no doubt in the name of Hollywood' pursuit of the peurile and banal, it was still a good, if sobering story about the atrocities perpetrated on women in times past (and still in some places), in what was considered to be the modern world.

Strong-willed, rebellious women were likely to have their uterus removed - to calm them down - if not institutionalised and lobotomised in the 19th century.

The movie could and should have been much better and would have been if the British had made it and not just been hauled in to act in it. In truth, the approach to the story reeked of the same sort of attitudes which oppressed women in the times - all a bit of a laugh, a mockery in fact, of something which was sad, serious and misogynistic.

Let's hope for a remake where the guts and grit is revealed - in the meantime.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9556026/Hysteria-It-is-really-difficult-talking-about-the-film-without-slipping-into-double-entendre....html

But they also had a trailer on research and it seems that the vibrator is still controversial in Texas for instance and one can only possess six before contravening law. The theory is that more than six and you might be selling them.

You can of course have as many guns as you like! Crazy place.



http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/united-states/texas

Meddling with mice when people cannot be cured....

When you look at something like this, in a mechanistic sense it is quite impressive. There is no doubt that science/medicine has developed remarkable skills in a materialistic sense.

The question which comes to mind, given these advances, and given the fact that science/medicine is absolutely convinced that the mechanistic/materialistic approach to the human body and health is the right one, is, why has it been so singularly unsuccessful in actually curing disease?

How many can say they actually know a lot of people who have been cured by modern medicine? That means restored to optimum health - no medication, no procedures, no ongoing maintenance - restored to optimum health.
How many people can say, yes, I know people who have been cured of heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, depression, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, cystic fibrosis, psoriasis, hypertension.... and countless other diseases, and I mean cured, disease completely gone and a healthy person as the result?

Doctors today have become secretaries who order tests and chemists who prescribe drugs and while the US stands out and 'leads' the way, society today is the most heavily medicated and most chronically ill in human history.
Something is very, very wrong.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-mice-with-human-chromosomes--the-genetic-breakthrough-that-could-revolutionise-medicine-8701357.html#disqus_thread

War

How easily we go to war chasing dreams and demons;
how smoothly do we follow lies into realms of hell,
while telling those who listen, and ourselves,
that it is in a good, just cause and it is something
which is being done for  the benefit of all. As if
good could come through dull, dead eyes and shreds
of decimated flesh. As if good could come from lives
dismembered, as no more, than mounds of  bone and
meat; as if good could ever come from suffering and death.
But deception is a determined friend and cannot
be easily dismissed; although it can be easily denied.
And even as we stand by watered gutters where
the blood runs forcefully on its way, and the shadows
of gaunt, bitter, broken buildings cast their dark
shapes upon our faces, still we can hold the hand of
deception and smile into the crippled depths
of our belief. Still we can tell ourselves that what is
being done, in our name, for it is always in our name,
is just and does have purpose. Although, in the
splintered shatterings of night and reason, a small
voice murmurs it cannot be so. But small voices
are easily made silent, even though, they will echo
through time and mind, in ways which bring in
sickened, stark relief, images of remembering.
But deception is always there; cold fingers clasping,
holding firm, to the dying warmth of conscience;
whispering that it is not for us to change the world,
but to trust as the world is changing. However terrible
that change might be. The longer one believes in
the words which deception casts upon the ground
of cold compassion, the easier it is to keep believing.
It is only when the Soul sighs, deep and grieving,
that some will gather themselves up, from the rutted
furrows in which they have been planted, and demand
change. But the sigh of Soul is so like that of
whispered deception, that one must listen very carefully,
if it is ever to be heard, or not mistaken, for the wind.


Reflections on listening to Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH96tuRA3L0

Finding the path through panic and depression

It is decades since I have had a panic attack but anyone who has experienced them always remembers the experience and has deep sympathy for those who encounter them; or rather, are called  into or captured by those realms.

What I took time to learn was that the panic attacks, like the depression, anxiety and fear, all had purpose and meaning and if they were approached as a guide, instead of as an enemy, and embraced with practical pragmatism, as well as courageous curiosity, the time would pass and they would become a thing of the past.

The modern medical approach to such experiences is to drug them away. That can certainly be useful for a couple of months to get you over the hump but it is no cure and in fact just delays the changing and the healing which the psyche is demanding and which is expressed through such symptoms. I was not aware of Homeopathy when I was experiencing panic and depression, but, if I had known then what I know now, I would have made use of it.

Having said that, there is no doubt that being forced to find my way through has taught me valuable things. I would not take medication because I knew enough about the psyche and psychology to know that it could only ever be a ‘bandaid’ and temporary and so I had no choice but to do the ‘hard yards.’ I am sure, doing it ‘hard’ gave me greater confidence and trust in myself and it certainly ensured that I developed practical ways of dealing with or managing being me.

There is no doubt that Homeopathy can have a profound and lasting balancing and healing effect because it acts on the body to heal at all levels – emotional, psychological, physiological and spiritual – but, I also believe that facing the lessons through the worst of it, is a crucial part of the healing process and invaluable in terms of coming to know one’s self.

We are all different and no experience will ever be exactly like that of someone else, but I do know what it is like to have panic attacks which can last minutes or hours. I know what it is like to wake up in the morning and to be engulfed in a wave of terror which makes putting one foot out of bed almost impossible.  I know what it is like to be engulfed in cold fear at the thought of going to work, going shopping, seeing people. But I did find ways to work with them and through them to reach a point where I never had another one again.

They happen for a reason of course and ultimately, to move beyond both, it is usually important to do the inner work, but there are practical management techniques which can help.

The first thing I realised, which got me onto more stable ground, was that it was not so much the panic attack which was the problem but the fear of having one and the fear of experiencing one. The fear of having one can trigger them, because you are already in a state of high alert and heightened tension, and the fear as one experiences, exacerbates.

The goal is to diminish or remove the fear – when I reached that point, and it did not take too long, I never had another one. And that was 30 years ago.

The second thing I realised was that in order to reduce the fear of having one, I needed to find meaning in it and to understand the physiology. A panic attack is something sourced in our primal or reptilian brain, the Fright, Fight, Flight response. Fear triggers it, conscious or unconscious, and then our adrenal system gets ready to fight and to help us run away, but of course there is no-one or nothing to fight and sometimes nowhere to run. The desire to run, to escape, increases the sense of panic.
The feelings are exactly the same that one would experience confronting a charging lion – but what messes with our heads is that we are feeling this way while sorting the washing or driving a car.

Our body is having a major physiological reaction and we are not doing what it needs, which is either to walk for a bit or to even run or jog; or, if we cannot, to trust the process as an experience of feeling – releasing the energy. I know, the thought of standing or sitting still and allowing that feeling to wash over you where you feel you might collapse, die or lose complete control is terrifying…. but when you do it, you realise that it does pass.

I remember reading that the physiological response to fear is the same as that for excitement – the difference being how we interpret it. People who bungy jump or parachute, experience what we call panic attacks, but they enjoy the sensation and so there is no fear – just the massive rush of energy and its release. It helped me to think of this.

The other thing which helped me was to think – fine, if I fall on the floor, frothing at the mouth, scream hysterically, piss or shit myself, die of a heart attack, who gives a fuck……at some point I will just pick myself up and get on with it. And the fact is that with panic attacks you don’t do any of that …. and you know what, a lot of the time no-one else is even aware of the terror and turmoil inside. I remember years after the worst of my time, talking to people, probably acquaintances more than friends, about my experience and they were astonished to believe a. that I reacted like that, and b. that I hid it so well.

As a reformed ‘control junkie’ who relapses regularly, I would also say that panic attacks usually happen to those who feel a need to be in control – it is if you like the ultimate loss of control – well, it isn’t, but it sure as hell feels like it.
I also found that if I saw the panic attack as an expression, like weeping or sobbing, another skill I mastered, including doing it in front of others – Quelle Horreur – and as a releasing of feelings, emotions, physiological responses I did not understand, it also helped.

My other approach, combined with the rest, was to tell myself that I would allow the feelings of panic to be felt for five minutes, just sitting or standing with them – this is of course best done at home where you can set a timer – and then, bring the cerebral into it and observe what is happening. Make notes even. What are you feeling? Where are you feeling it? What images come to mind – what thoughts – write it all down. The process of observing detaches you from the feelings but, having honoured them initially, they won’t mind.

Seeing the panic attacks as your psyche trying to communicate with you – as a guide – also gives the experience meaning and when we can find meaning we feel calmer. Panic attacks terrify because we cannot control them, we don’t understand why they happen, and we fear we will die, lose control or lose our minds.

We are all different but the goal was to remove the Fear factor from the panic attack. And I found, once I stopped fearing them I stopped having them. In time I did the same thing with depression and got the same result. From decades, until my late thirties, when depression would swallow me up for weeks and months at a time, into the darkest most horrible of places, I reached a place where depression would come to visit and I would welcome it and it would stay for perhaps hours or a day…. no more.

My journey was a long one, beginning in a place where I feared the sort of insanity which swallowed my mother, but taking me to an understanding of myself and the psyche which has enriched my life. I read a lot and found therapists less useful than one might hope; psychiatrists not much use at all because they pretty much do drugs which can certainly help get over a crisis period of a few months but are not a long-term answer and sought the support of others who had been there. Books were my companions, guides, angels and friends and the ‘right one’ would appear just when I needed it.

It’s a bit like being an 18th century explorer in deepest Africa where there is not much of a map, most people have never been there, you don’t know what you will find, or if you will survive.

I guess I am just saying, for anyone who finds themselves in this place, it is worth it, there is a point and a purpose to it, and you will find your way through it. And, while I was reluctant to talk too much about my psychological state for some years  when I did, I was surprised at how many people had experienced similar things.It is often shame and embarrassment which keeps us silent and yet both of those things are sourced in ego and have no place in Soul work. For it is soul work. Only by sharing can you bring insight, comfort and companionship to others who might need it.

It is the leap of the Fool, as the Tarot Deck, describes, into an unknown which is the beginning of an adventure which leads you on – life, love, light and understanding. Such experiences are a calling to Self and at the end of the day, more rewarding than most might imagine.

Replacing robotic doctors with real robots - would we notice?

Mechanistic/materialist medicine gone quite mad and now they are talking about robots to carry out procedures. Nothing more clearly demonstrates the difference between Allopathic approaches and that of medical treatments like Traditional Chinese Medicine, Herbal Medicine or Homeopathy - robots to play doctors.

 Well, the fact is, given how modern medicine works,  where doctors today are mainly chemists who prescribe drugs and secretaries who order tests, they could be replaced by robots. And, given the clear failures of modern medicine and the fact it now ranks as the third biggest killer, no doubt the robots could increase those numbers as they administer their vaccines, pharmaceuticals, dangerous intrusive tests with as much compassion, intelligence and common sense that a robot can muster.

And to add insanity to arrogance, Bill Gates now talks about the use of cell phones for vaccination monitoring in India and Africa - places where, the data is now revealing, with increased vaccination programmes is coming increased autism.Let's computerise the Third World - as if they will achieve anything? As if anyone can control anything in places like Africa when the Africans cannot even control their own lives.

More to the point, he clearly has no idea how such places work. Let's bring mosquito nets to Africa someone said and it is a truly excellent idea to combat malaria but, guess what happened - the locals looked at them and thought: 'great fishing nets,; so guess where the mosquito nets ended up?

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/pure-genius/bill-gates-mobile-health-technology-will-save-lives-help-overpopulation/4908

On growing old...... the only way to avoid it and wrinkles is to die young.

Growing older is a skill which takes commitment and practice if one is to do it well and become the best that one can be as the years pass, continuing to grow, as opposed to shrinking into the smallest (safest?) parts of Self as so many do.

From observation I have formed the view that many people as they grow older, become more rigid in their habits and views, locking themselves away in essence, into ways which give some illusion of control. This is hardly surprising given that age brings with it greater uncertainty and experiences of less control; but it is not healthy and rarely leads to someone expressing or becoming the best they might be.

If nature demands that we 'loosen up' in a physical sense and 'soften' in appearance and form, then it is highly unlikely that what nature requires is that we 'harden' emotionally or psychologically. And yet this is what so many do; or rather, what so many either allow to happen or create.

Growing older demands that we experiment with less form,  not more; less control, not more; less rigidity of opinion or habit, not more - in other words, it calls upon us to practise trust, acceptance and flexibility for these are the skills I am sure which death demands if we are to pass from this world to the next as easily and harmoniously as possible.

It is ironic that we live in a youth-obsessed age when, if one lives to a reasonable age, as most can expect, say 85, the majority of one's life will be spent as an adult who is not 'young' per se: or 'young' as society defines it.

If we take adulthood as 18, then we have say 20 years before our body will begin to register what we see as signs of aging, although there are individual differences in that process.

That means we will have 50 years, half a century and perhaps more, living as someone who is 'not young,' and continuing to see physical evidence as we grow into our mature selves; as women, our Crone selves.

It is yet another reason to have children in your twenties or thirties because age can bring with it, not as an absolute but as a possible, less energy and having and raising children requires energy. It is nothing to have weeks of sleepless nights and demands 24/7 when we are in our twenties or even thirties, but the situation changes for most once they get into their forties in many ways.

Fertility declines in both men and women from the thirties; of course there are exceptions but it remains a factor. In a youth-obsessed society we have begun to indulge in denial that it doesn't matter when we have children and a reliance on a procedure, IVF, which will remain truly unproven for at least three generations.

So, having children naturally and having them young is wiser if it can be done. What many people today do is ignore the reality of the numbers. Have a child at 25 and you will be 45 or so when they are off your hands, and, depending on their lives and destiny, a grandparent sometime between the age of 50, if they have a child at the same age, or 65 if they leave it later, as so many do.

However, if you have a child at 35, you will be getting them off your hands at the age of 55; probably within the menopausal phase, where your parents are in their seventies, eighties or nineties depending on when they had you, and, if they have children young, you will be a grandparent somewhere between the age of 60 or 80. If you have a child at 40 and they have a child at 40 you will be a grandparent in your eighties. Let's just say, in a world where mostly both parents work and the help and support of grandparents is vital if not crucial, being in your sixties is, for most, better than being in your eighties. When it comes to age, numbers matter more than wrinkles.

Even if we have the luck or the genes to remain looking 'youthful' or 'beautiful for our age,' we will still carry the signs of age and not look as that which is defined as 'young and beautiful,' beyond 50. So, at best, we will have 35 years as an someone who is not 'young and beautiful,' although we may well be beautiful, the young will have long passed.

So whether it is 35 years or 50 years, depending on how kindly the years treat us, we will spend most of our lives as 'not young,' or, as the young will see us and society might label us, 'old.'

Deciding who we want to be and how we want to be during these years is probably the most important thing we will ever do, for living the years as 'not young' when there is less time ahead than there is behind; when some dreams whether of people or profession or just life become less likely; and when it becomes harder to deny the reality of aging, which of course walks hand in hand with mortality, is not easy unless we can bring full acceptance to this irrefutable fact of life and embrace all that it brings.

The more we know who we are and the more we can enjoy all we become as the years pass, the better our life will be lived and the greater our contribution to Self and others.

Logic suggests, that given we will spend most of our life in this phase, we should put our focus on it sooner, not later. In a youth-obsessed world that is hard to do and harder for women than for men because of the hold which patriarchy and sexism still have on cultures, but, the stark reality is that there is only one way to avoid getting wrinkled and getting old and that is to die.

'Dying' to Self and Ego and physicality is a much better alternative and makes for a life well lived no matter what age we may be.

Why the Homeopathy hounders will fail....

There are many things in life which human beings use where they don’t actually understand how it works but the simple reality is this, Homeopathy does work and anyone who has made use of it with professional help – buying at the chemist and self-prescribing is generally ineffective although harmless and may certainly have a placebo effect – cannot but be impressed with its efficacy and convinced it does work.

The reason why over-the-counter self-prescribing may be so ineffective is that the process of deciding which remedy is the right one is complex and while 'getting it right' can bring major and immediate healing, 'getting it right' is not simple because human beings are not simple.


A Homeopathic Remedy is not chosen purely on the basis of symptoms which is the focus of simple prescribing. The Homeopath does find symptoms important, from the major to the minor and particularly those which are ‘different’ or ‘unusual’ but the Homeopath also takes into account the physical shape of the individual, how they talk, move, what they say, what is going on in their lives, what their birth, childhood and previous symptoms or illnesses have been, what their emotional, physiological, psychological and spiritual attitudes or responses are – in other words, they seek to get as complete a picture of the person as they can in any and every sense.

And neither does Homeopathy work on a given cause such as pollen causes hay fever and so Homeopathy does not seek to determine any general cause, but the particular cause for the particular patient. The reason that Homeopathy does not attempt to determine a ’cause’ is that it approaches dis-ease and healing from the perspective that the ’cause’ is different for every individual.

What causes hay fever in one is not what causes it in another; why one person gets malaria is not why someone else gets malaria, etc. In a healthy body the bacteria, virus, mosquito or genetic tendency does not harm which is why not everyone gets infection, the flu, malaria, or a disease because they are subjected to the virus, bacteria, mosquito or gene. So the crucial factor is not the ‘trigger’ but why the ‘trigger’ is activated and that means the immune response or the human organism is out of balance.

The reasons for imbalance are not the same for everyone hence there is no one ’cause’ just a variety of individual, particular and unique ’causes’ for each and every one of us and the Homeopath must find the remedy which fits on that basis.

And yes, there is no doubt in many cases a placebo effect but there is a placebo effect for every medical consultation or medical procedure or medical prescription as even science/medicine knows. In fact it is the placebo effect in drug trials which makes the drugs themselves look so bad, to such a degree that drug companies are now looking to have the placebo effect removed from such trials. The placebo effect has also been demonstrated in heart and knee surgery where patients who had a 'pretend procedure' where nothing was actually done, not only demonstrated dramatic improvement but often to far greater levels than those who had the real procedure carried out. No doubt because in the latter, the procedure did harm, whereas in the former it did not.


Anyone who has used it on a child or an animal, who may well be influenced by parental or owner’s belief, cannot help but be impressed and convinced. Anyone who has used it on their child or animal or themselves when they in fact do not believe in it but are in a position where they will try anything, is even more impressed and convinced.

There is no conclusive theory as yet as to how it works but there is a great deal of information coming out of scientific research, particularly quantum physics, which gives insight into how it might work. There is also hard research data showing it does work so, in the meantime, while science develops enough to be able to understand how it works, human beings are very sensibly making use of it. Homeopathy is the fastest growing medicine in the world and particularly in India and even in Africa where, because it is so cheap to produce, because it is so cheap to use – sometimes one remedy taken once will bring about healing – and because it is so durable, if kept away from electronics and too much light (remedies 100 years old have been used effectively) it is vastly better for use in the less developed countries. But even without that, Homeopathy heals and does no harm.

Anyone who studies Homeopathy and is exposed to it professionally becomes a convert. The reason why some in science/medicine so hate it and wish to discredit is very simple:

The principles of Homeopathy which are about healing not removing symptoms run counter to the mechanistic nature of Allopathic or Modern medicine and medicine would have to have a radical re-think about its approach and its methodology and it resists such a challenge; the remedies cannot be patented and are economical to produce and use compared to pharmaceutical drugs and that means a massively reduced profit margin which the billion dollar drugs industry would reject out of hand; and the premise upon which Homeopathic remedies are produced and how they work would (will) destroy many of the basic premises on which science now rests and that would impact egos, careers, profits, professions and the entire basis of modern science.

Truth will out however and in the meantime Homeopathy will keep healing and more and more people will make use of it.

A rational approach to Homeopathy is even more important at a time when the third biggest killer in the world is now iatrogenic – doctor or medical induced – and millions of people around the world are hospitalised or dead every year because of it.

In addition, as we face the outcome of years of abuse and over-use of antibiotics where there are few if any effective antibiotics which could be used in the face of major epidemics, it may well we Homeopathy which comes to the rescue as it has in times past with disease epidemics. Well, in those times when most Homeopaths were medical doctors and the medical industry had not become so profit-driven that it sought to destroy any other contenders.

Every human being has a right to decide which healing methodologies they will use and every parent should have the right to do the same for their children. In the best of worlds, and there is a growing focus on Integrative Medicine which utilises all methodologies, including Homeopathy, all will be available through the medical system.

There are people who have been cured of cancer through the use of Allopathic treatments and there are those who have been cured through the use of Traditional healing methodologies – the choice should be theirs.

In terms of cancer cure in fact, Allopathy is singularly a failure on many if not most counts. Traditional medical approaches such as Homeopathy and TCM would say that is because Allopathy focuses on the removal of symptoms and does not address the original cause/s of the disease, which both Homeopathy and TCM do because they take a logical position of seeing disease as something emanating from dis-ease at emotional, psychological, physiological and in some cases, spiritual levels.

Modern or Allopathic medicine is sourced in materialistic science and takes a mechanistic approach which is why its areas of strength are those things which can be approached mechanically, like surgery – and in crisis or emergency situations, but where its limited and narrow approach means many other illnesses are never cured but maintained in a chronic state and where something like cancer, can be temporarily brought to a halt, only to re-appear even more strongly in months or years to come. That is not healing.

The body is not a machine and neither is it a ‘bag of chemicals’ as some aspects of science/medicine would also have it, because, if it were then Allopathy would be vastly more successful as a healing methodology than it is.

Medical approaches like Homeopathy and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), and other traditional healing approaches, work on a basis of helping the body to create and maintain wellness by dealing with minor symptoms, which Allopathy would merely seek to suppress, so that major symptoms and major illness does not develop.

At the end of the day the body heals – no drug, operation, herb, remedy or practitioner does the healing – only the body does the healing and the task of the practitioner and his or her remedies is to assist and sometimes trigger, that healing capacity. That is not the approach of Allopathic Medicine and on that count, Allopathy, the youngest of all of the Medical approaches, stands alone. The drug and cut approach of modern medicine gives the illusion that it is effective because it is ‘doing something’ although even modern medicine knows about and sometimes utilises an approach called ‘benign neglect’ – but usually when there is no ‘doing’ to be done.

But given the massively increasing profits in medicine and pharmaceuticals, and the scientific industries associated and the massively increasing numbers of people needing medical help and the massively increasing size of hospitals, and the massively increasing cost of health care – it is difficult to argue that modern medicine has been successful at doing what it is meant to do – keeping people well and healing those who get sick.

There is also growing evidence of the efficacy of Homeopathy in treating children damaged by vaccination. There is nothing the human body cannot heal, nothing, but it can need help in the process of re-balancing which is required. We are all energy beings - a few atoms spinning around in a lot of empty space. We are vibratory organisms, both wave and particle, manifesting and disappearing in space constantly - call it energy.

Homeopathy, like acupuncture, works at this vibratory or energy level and a body in balance, or rather, a body in tune because we are, each of us, more like a 'song' than anything else, cannot succumb to dis-ease and will be restored from dis-ease.

http://jeromeburne.com/2013/06/27/why-hounding-homeopaths-is-both-batty-and-arrogant/#comment-1415