Wandering Reflections

All For One and One For All

2010-06-25T12:33:00.001+02:00

Laura Knight-Jadczyk
laura-knight-jadczyk.blogspot.com
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:00 EDT

The issue of methane and outgassing has occupied me to quite some extent for the past few years particularly after writing New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection. I even asked the SOTT.net editors to keep their eyes open for news items about anything that might be related to outgassings. There's quite a collection in the database if you search. And now, with the recent news about the methane involvement in the BP Gusher, and that news getting more dire every day, I started digging around for some data I knew I had written about and, after finding a few things, I thought: how interesting that this "Mother of all Gushers" may give birth to the "Mother of all Storms." You'll understand what I mean in a minute!

First, read this bit that is current on SOTT: The Real Consequences of An Ocean Floor Collapse.

Note that it says:

The two possible scenarios are either a complete collapse of the ocean floor right above the Deepwater Horizon well and surroundings or a partial collapse in the form of a mud slide on one side of the well.

In this article I wrote back in 2007: Fire and Ice The Day After Tomorrow there's a bunch of collected articles which includes one about The Lake Nyos Gas Explosion, Cameroon 1986 where we read:

Lake Nyos is one of only three lakes in the world known to be saturated with carbon dioxide -- the others are Lake Monoun, also in Cameroon about 100 km away, and Lake Kivu in Rwanda. A magma chamber beneath the region is an abundant source of carbon dioxide, which seeps up through the lake bed, charging the waters of Lake Nyos with an estimated 90 million tonnes of CO2

Lake Nyos is thermally stratified, with layers of warm, less dense water near the surface floating on the colder, denser water layers near the lake's bottom. Over long periods, carbon dioxide gas seeping into the cold water at the lake's bottom is dissolved in great amounts.

Most of the time, the lake is stable and the CO2 remains in solution in the lower layers. However, over time the water becomes supersaturated, and if an event such as an earthquake or volcanic eruption occurs, large amounts of CO2 may suddenly come out of solution.

Although a sudden outgassing of CO2 had occurred at Lake Monoun in 1984, killing 37 local residents, a similar threat from Lake Nyos was not anticipated. However, on August 21, 1986, a limnic eruption occurred at Lake Nyos which triggered the sudden release of about 1.6 million tonnes of CO2. The gas rushed down two nearby valleys, displacing all the air and suffocating up to 1,800 people within 20 km of the lake, mostly rural villagers, as well as 3,500 livestock. About 4,000 inhabitants fled the area, and many of these developed respiratory problems, burns, and paralysis as a result of the gases.

It is not known what triggered the catastrophic outgassing. Most geologists suspect a landslide, but some believe that a small volcanic eruption may have occurred on the bed of the lake. A third possibility is that cool rainwater falling on one side of the lake triggered the overturn. Whatever the cause, the event resulted in the rapid mixing of the supersaturated deep water with the upper layers of the lake, where the reduced pressure allowed the stored CO2 to effervesce out of solution.

It is believed that up to a cubic kilometre of gas was released. Because CO2 is denser than air, the gas flowed off the mountainous flank in which Lake Nyos rests and down two adjoining valleys in a layer tens of metres deep, displacing the air and suffocating all the people and animals before it could dissipate. The normally blue waters of the lake turned a deep red after the outgassing, due to iron-rich water from the deep rising to the surface and being oxidised by the air. The level of the lake dropped by about a metre, representing the volume of gas released. The outgassing probably also caused an overflow of the waters of the lake. Trees near the lake were knocked down.

The lake Nyos situation was about a different kind of gas... maybe. In any case, a similar event with methane is even more problematical.

Anyway, there is a lot in that article I wrote in 2007 that applies to the present situation, most particularly:

John Barnes, in his fiction novel, Mother of Storms, described the release of vast quantities of methane as the trigger for a global superstorm that nearly destroys the earth.

Mother of Storms takes place about thirty years from now. The UN has become dominant and at the start of the book the US President is maneuvering desperately to avoid losing any more sovereignty to the UN. The UN undertakes a nuclear strike against the Siberian Republic's secret--and illegal--nuclear weapons caches buried in the Arctic seabed. The explosions result in the release of huge amount of methane from the methane clathrates buried there. The methane causes a near-runaway greenhouse effect with global temperatures going up by 10 degrees F in a matter of months.

The hot, wet oceans are perfect breeding grounds for hurricanes which rapidly develop into storms of unprecedented strength, duration and number.

Obviously, if such a scenario were to play out at present, the roles would be reversed to what Barnes imagined: it would be the U.S. undertaking a nuclear strike that unleashes the methane that triggers the Global Superstorm. It would probably only be in such a manner that enough methane would be released fast enough to make such an impact.

The above really caught my eye. In the book, Mother of Storms, the methane is released by a nuclear explosion in the arctic... well, so far they haven't set off any nukes in the Gulf of Mexico, but it looks like the situation there is developing rather similarly to what John Barnes described in his novel. He did a lot of research on the science, by the way, so it's worth reading just to get an idea of what COULD happen!

Then, there is the issue of earthquakes in the Gulf of Mexico. A few years ago I noted that there was an unusual earthquake in the Gulf and we archived the item on SOTT.net: 5.2 Earthquake Dead Center In Gulf Of Mexico - Precursor to a New Madrid Big One? Just read it and think about it.

Next, History Channel Mega Disasters - Methane Explosion, just to give you an idea of what all this means.

Even if nothing so cataclysmic happens, we have to deal with Gulf Coast Toxicity Syndrome which could kill and/or disable millions.

Many different gases from hydrogen sulfate to benzene are being released into the air at around 4000 times what it considered safe to humans. As a result of this people are going to become gravely ill. People are going to be poisoned and unfortunately some are going to die. We have already seen breathing problems in the Gulf region and now reports are coming in as far away as Atlanta, Georgia. [...]

In addition to destroying the wildlife, killing animals and devastating the coastal economy, the massive oil spill in the Gulf will have damaging psychological and physical consequences for Gulf coast residents, the entire state of Florida, and now it seems that Georgia and the rest of the southeastern United States could be threatened considering we are already seeing problems from people in Atlanta. And we are not even talking worse case scenarios. [...]

Others are worried about a massive loss of life through a methane explosion that would create a tidal wave that would take out all of Florida and most of the rest of the Gulf region. Included in the worst case scenarios is a toxic rain falling upon tens of millions further north from the Gulf as wind patterns and or a hurricane comes barreling into the region. Others see the entire North Atlantic turning into a black and very dead sea and the nightmare scenarios go on and on making any serious readers' stomach sick to death over what has been done to our planet. We have allowed corporate capitalists do something they cannot undo and this is sad and truly tragic for the future of our children.

I know that all of us are feeling a little shell-shocked with the current events. It really is scary and for a good reason: it is a dangerous time to be alive. According to the Cs, we have very little time left. And, based on what we are seeing with the climate change business, adding the possible effects of the BP Gusher on Florida, the "coming global superstorm" is not so crazy an idea anymore. It could be next winter, or the winter after... and the planet could be locked down in ice for the next 10,000 years or so. We don't know.

We DO know that economically, this next year is going to be tough. I'm seeing failed harvests all over the globe due to the weather and the price of food going through the roof. Revolution is also possible. One thing is certain, Florida is going to be a place to get out of and stay out of because the situation is so unstable there.

Human beings were only able to evolve because of social ties. Trusting others seems to be an evolutionary strategy that served us well for a long time. In that evolutionary struggle, man was opposed to a "natural enemy," the environment and all it contained. All he had was his bigger brain to compensate for his smaller strength and speed; and, of course, his network.

Nowadays, we are no longer opposed to the natural world out there as the sparring partner, we are opposed to a culture that has been slowly infiltrated and taken over by pathologicals. At the same time, this outer world that has been shaped by pathology, also represents a certain pathological state within normal humans - their lack of ability to see pathology in individuals that look like themselves - an intra-species predator. Humanity's failure to perceive this, to adapt, means that our inner world, taken into us from the outside by means of identification, has become an "independent power" which, in its turn, by means of projection, is our own creation. After all, it is normal humans, not pathologicals, who have the real power to "create reality" as a group. Pathologicals only influence us - mostly women - to believe certain things are the norm, and we then act as they pull our strings.

This outer reality which has such a powerful influence on the formation of our character and the focusing of our creativity, has become a power itself and we are being challenged to become "new beings" that can evolutionarily adapt to this changing situation. Either we become fully pathological, in which case there will be no stress (the Service To Self route), or we return to our roots taking with us the knowledge of the new "opponent" that will enable us to rebuild our social bonds and structures and survive through the massive changes that are ahead of us.

Because, realistically, even if no cataclysmic scenario of any external kind manifests, anybody with two neurons firing can see that we are most definitely heading straight into a "clash of civilizations" though it is not at all what is being touted. It is a clash of normal humans with pathologicals and right now, they have all the assets (which they have by trickery, cunning, cheating). Even the mildest scenario of the future is not pleasant to contemplate: Climate Change and its effects on humanity. It's not a pretty picture.

This principle that the inner world is taken in from the outside by means of identification, and then, in its turn, by way of projection, alters the external world so that it corresponds to the inner world even more closely, requires some serious thought. Basically, we have to bootstrap ourselves out of here by reversing the process: we must create an inner world in the face of the opposition of the outer world, that then becomes strong enough, EN MASSE, to change the outer world.

The creative individual must be able to create and develop his standards beyond the identifications of the external pathological world. This means, in the simplest of terms, connecting with the higher self so that this part consciously guides and rules the creative will even in terms of the personality. The important factor here is that groups of individuals must get from here to there - here being the false personality created in us by the pathological external world, there being the merging with the higher self - by consciously choosing those factors that he will identify with.

This must be a group effort.

The only solution I can see at this point is for humanity to unite their consciousnesses in awakening and DOing what needs to be done to ameliorate the situation if possible, and pass through this Horror that psychopaths have created on our planet. The big question is: how to do that effectively and efficiently? In other words, something that really works. Something that really gets everyone on the same page, going in the same direction toward Truth... and the answer that I see is to follow what the Cassiopaeans have outlined as the only possible way out: to engage in practice that will help to rapidly clear old emotional programs that get in the way of both effective networking and effective SEEing and discernment: the Éiriú Eolas program that I have created with the help of the Cassiopaeans. And no, I'm not selling it though it will help us a lot if you DO buy the DVDs. We can then make more of them to give away. No, in fact, you can watch the whole program for free on the EE website.

So, that's the first order of business: getting clear. The second is for all of humanity to be praying in the same "direction." For that, the Prayer of the Soul which is part of the EE program is exactly designed to help you awaken. The breathing exercises combined with the meditation and prayer will quickly help you to achieve that state of consciousness necessary to be able to see the unseen and know what it is you must do in concert with others.

As I explain in the video introduction to EE, stress is a worldwide epidemic. The number one disease of adults in the world is depression. Depression is the most extreme form of stress in your nervous system.

But here's the rub: stress response is vital for survival in times of danger. The problem comes when it is turned on too strong, too often.

The very fact that our stress response has gone off the charts tells us that our bodies are telling us something about our world! There is DANGER out there, only it is hiding amongst us in the form of pathologicals! We are constantly in a state of stress because we are in a state of cognitive dissonance. We sense the danger, but we cannot SEE it because we have been programmed NOT to see it by lies and false reality constructs.

James Surowiecki's book, The Wisdom of Crowds, suggests that multiple viewpoints from individuals with a wide range of backgrounds, rather than the restricted viewpoints of experts or specialists, are crucial in reaching informed decisions on complex topics. Getting input from a broad variety of people is like getting input from a wide variety of devices such as microscopes, telescopes, litmus paper, tensile testors, ultrasound devices, scales, and so on.

Here, of course, we are not talking about getting a lot of EMOTIONAL viewpoints, but rather perceptions and assessments of the shared, Primary Reality - what is REAL "out there". Even if we are agreeing that there is a real reality and it is what it is, no one of us has the all-encompassing way of perceiving that would give us the understanding of EVERY ASPECT of what is out there.

So, in this sense, the network itself is the Teacher.

But in order for a network to go anywhere and not just fall into entropy, there must be a direction and in that sense there must be a vanguard.

Vanguard: Etymology: Middle English vauntgard, from Anglo-French vantgarde, avantgarde, 1: the troops moving at the head of an army 2: the forefront of an action or movement.

It is also reflective of true evolutionary social activities that there are some who are trailblazers and others who support and "watch the back" of the trailblazers. Once the trail is blazed, and the destination is reached, the others not only benefit from the struggles of the trailblazer, they also set about organizing the details of the new environment and stabilizing it. So, everyone plays a role and if the network is tight, they all arrive pretty much together.

The bottom line is this: we are all in this mess together and we sink together, or we get our boat to harbor, but somebody's got to be the one who coordinates or we'll just go endlessly in circles, nobody will be bailing, paddling, or evaluating currents and signs to determine direction. I've created the EE program, right now hundreds, if not thousands of people are doing it and reporting amazing results. I have also created a legal organization for protection of our activities: in a world run by psychopaths, sometimes you have to take a play from their rule book to bootstrap yourself out of their trap: Fellowship of the Cosmic Mind. You can become a member and join with thousands of others who are networking to get themselves cleared and awake and working in a co-linear direction to transform our world.

As I said, we evolved to trust one another - but that was a world where others were trustworthy. We live in a different world now. The cheaters in our world have evolved ways to induce us to trust them, but we can tell by our stress that we are going in the wrong direction, we are in mortal peril. But still, to get anything done at all, we MUST TRUST. And to figure out who to trust, we need to rely, again, on the network of observations from many observers. Again, we are not talking about getting a lot of EMOTIONAL viewpoints, but rather perceptions and assessments of the shared, Primary Reality - what is REAL "out there" and what really seems to work, to explain things, and has internal consistency over time.

Those who are able to accomplish this task of rebuilding social connections based on the new evolutionary standard of accounting for pathology in the equations, will evolve. Those who do not evolve will perish.

In short, I think the Cassiopaeans are right: we have just a couple years, if that. We really need to get people on the EE program ASAP. If you are not currently doing it, or involved in some way with sharing it with others, I hope that you can begin to feel the urgency of the situation. As I have said before, I don't see anything more important to be doing now than that, not only for the potential of the self, but also because, in coming times, an awake and aware nucleus of people is going to be needed to provide leadership to the lost sheep.

That's what I see from where I sit right now. United we Stand, Divided we Fall. All for One and One for All.

The Lure of The Twilight Saga and Life Beyond the Obsessive Cullen Disorder

2009-10-19T12:41:00.003+02:00

I read recently Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and what is available of Midnight Sun. It took me about 3 days and I do confess that my Scorpio moon enjoyed it (lol!), at least until I got really really disappointed.

I like to read novels because they just make it easier to learn about our human nature which is not strictly all good or all bad. We struggle with our own negative nature to become good persons, or at least some of us do. Knowledge of manipulative behavior is needed for immunization purposes, but it requires discernment which doesn't come by gratis, it often comes by painful experience and some harsh realizations of ourselves ("know thyself"), unless we learn from other people's mistakes. The great success that the Twilight series had, also gives us information about what is going on in the human psyche of both men and women, but mostly women, as Twilight has the most appeal for them.

I initially found the story enchanting and that gave me pause for reflection, I knew that I had in my hands a powerful tool to know what was going on here, to see the unseen. I realized that for Twilight and New Moon, Stephenie Meyer was inspired in Pride and Prejudice and Romeo and Juliet. Bella Swan was also even clumsier than Anne of Green Gables. Eclipse did manage to disappoint me quite enough as Bella falls in love with Jacob Black. It just didn't fit in my view that such devoted love as the one that Bella and Edward had will give room to a love triangle. So yeah, it bothered me a lot and I do agree with most of Eclipse's 1 star amazon.com reviewers.

At the end I was cranky with Bella and most specially with Stephenie Meyer. But then, it is really not her fault. Although she is still responsible for what she has created, and here I'm referring to the whole Twilight phenomenon. Twilight made Stephenie a millionaire and she is hopefully enjoying her status, writing her fantasies into books for the rest of the world to read and get hooked on.

Obviously, after Eclipse, I already knew that I was not going to read Breaking Dawn, specially after reading the reviews and the story itself at bookspoiler.com

Yikes!

After Eclipse, all I wanted was to shake the story out of my head, it was really that bad... From the saga, I only wanted the memory of a devoted love. I would had preferred to have read only Twilight, and perhaps some parts of New Moon for that purpose, and pretend that Eclipse and Breaking Dawn didn't exist, nor the movie either for that matter!

I also agree with most of the Twilight movie's 1 star reviewers at imdb.com. Any appeal that the movie might have, pales in comparison with the book.

I won't go into the Twilight or New Moon movies, that is a whole different story. Suffice is to say, that the screen of projection that the movies are serving (and will serve), will probably generate lots of money for the usual guys and will get all fans stirred up and excited, reinforcing their fantasies and illusions. But the movies are basically just that, a devoid screen where fans can project all their fantasies and where they can get furthered programmed.

So Edward Cullen is the fascinating figure of the story and I got all stirred up with this whole Twilight/Cullen phenomenon that I finally decided to put my thoughts here so they can rest in peace. Perhaps someone out there will benefit from this, or maybe not. I certainly did!

I'm familiarized with the topic and I wanted to share a little bit of what I've learned for those who are dealing with OCD (Obessive Cullen Disorder), a term which made me chuckle even though it is so seriously appropriate!

It is the epitome of obsessive love. But it is clear that in the end it is an impossible illusion, unless you can actualize it into this reality. Now can you? I hope this post will shine some light for those are trying to make sense of their lives after the Twilight Saga, or are trying to find their own personal Edward Cullen in their lives. Fear not, this "love story" has a happy ending, although there is always a price to pay. But a price which can make the Twilight adventure quite boring! First, some refresher from Twilight and New Moon. Here are some of Bella and Edward's quotes:

About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second,
there was part of him — and I didn't know how potent that part might be — that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

"Bring on the shackles — I'm your prisoner." But his long hands formed manacles around my wrists as he spoke. He laughed his quiet, musical laugh. He'd laughed more tonight than I'd ever heard in all the time I'd spent with him. "You seem more… optimistic than usual," I observed. "I haven't seen you like this before." "Isn't it supposed to be like this?" He smiled. "The glory of first love, and all that. It's incredible, isn't it, the difference between reading about something, seeing it in the pictures, and experiencing it?" "Very different," I agreed. "More forceful than I'd imagined."

"You were mad," I insisted.
"Yes."
"But you just said —"
"That I wasn't mad at you. Can't you see that, Bella?" He was suddenly intense, all trace of teasing gone. "Don't you understand?"
"See what?" I demanded, confused by his sudden mood swing as much as his words.
"I'm never angry with you — how could I be? Brave, trusting… warm as you are."
"Then why?" I whispered, remembering the black moods that pulled him away from
me, that I'd always interpreted as well-justified frustration — frustration at my weakness, my slowness, my unruly human reactions…
He put his hands carefully on both sides of my face. "I infuriate myself," he said gently.
"The way I can't seem to keep from putting you in danger. My very existence puts you at risk. Sometimes I truly hate myself. I should be stronger, I should be able to —"
I placed my hand over his mouth. "Don't."
He took my hand, moving it from his lips, but holding it to his face.
"I love you," he said. "It's a poor excuse for what I'm doing, but it's still true."
It was the first time he'd said he loved me — in so many words. He might not realize it, but I certainly did.

"I miss you," I whispered.
"I know, Bella. Believe me, I know. It's like you've taken half my self away with you."
"Come and get it, then," I challenged. "Soon, as soon as I possibly can. I will make you safe first." His voice was hard.
"I love you," I reminded him.
"Could you believe that, despite everything I've put you through, I love you, too?"
"Yes, I can, actually."
"I'll come for you soon."
"I'll be waiting."

"How bad am I?" I asked.
"You have a broken leg, four broken ribs, some cracks in your skull, bruises covering
every inch of your skin, and you've lost a lot of blood. They gave you a few transfusions.
I didn't like it — it made you smell all wrong for a while."
"That must have been a nice change for you."
"No, I like how you smell."
"How did you do it?" I asked quietly. He knew what I meant at once.
"I'm not sure." He looked away from my wondering eyes, lifting my gauze-wrapped
hand from the bed and holding it gently in his, careful not to disrupt the wire connecting me to one of the monitors.
I waited patiently for the rest.
He sighed without returning my gaze. "It was impossible… to stop," he whispered.
"Impossible. But I did." He looked up finally, with half a smile. "I must love you."
"Don't I taste as good as I smell?" I smiled in response. That hurt my face.
"Even better — better than I'd imagined." "I'm sorry," I apologized.
He raised his eyes to the ceiling. "Of all the things to apologize for."
"What should I apologize for?"
"For very nearly taking yourself away from me forever."

I touched his face. "Look," I said. "I love you more than everything else in the world
combined. Isn't that enough?"
"Yes, it is enough," he answered, smiling. "Enough for forever.

You weren’t going to let go. I could see that. I didn’t want to do it—it felt like it would kill me to do it—but I knew that if I couldn’t convince you that I didn’t love you anymore, it would just take you that much longer to get on with your life. I hoped that, if you thought I’d moved on, so would you.-Edward

You’re not asleep, and you’re not dead. I’m here, and I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you. I was thinking of you, seeing your face in my mind, every second that I was away. When I told you that I didn’t want you, it was the very blackest kind of blasphemy.-Edward

Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars—points of light and reason… And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything.-Edward Cullen

My heart hasn’t beat in almost ninety years, but this was different. It was like my heart was gone—like I was hollow. Like I’d left everything that was inside me here with you.-Edward

I cannot be without you, but I will not destroy your soul.-Edward Cullen.

You will always be the most beautiful thing in my world. Of course… If you outgrew me—if you wanted something more—I would understand that, Bella. I promise I wouldn’t stand in your way if you wanted to leave me.-Edward Cullen

I’ll earn your trust back somehow. It’s my final act.-Edward Cullen.

Your hold is permanent and unbreakable. Never doubt that.-Edward Cullen

If there was only some way to make you see that I can’t leave you. Time, I suppose, will be the way to convince you.-Edward

The odds are always stacked against us. Mistake after mistake. I’ll never criticize Romeo again.-Edward

Laura Miller wrote a controversial Twilight review, Touched by a Vampire, which left the whole thing quite hopeless and meaningless, even though it doesn't necessarily have to be that way! Here are the relevant parts of the review:

"Preteen girls -- and their grown-up moms -- are sinking their teeth into Stephenie Meyer's gothic "Twilight" books by the millions. Move over, J.K. Rowling. [...]

Bookstores have been known to shelve the Twilight books in both the children's and the science fiction/fantasy sections, but they are -- in essence and most particulars -- romance novels, and despite their gothic trappings represent a resurrection of the most old-fashioned incarnation of the genre. They summon a world in which love is passionate, yet (relatively) chaste, girls need be nothing more than fetchingly vulnerable, and masterful men can be depended upon to protect and worship them for it.

The series' heroine, Bella Swan, a 16-year-old with divorced parents, goes to live with her father in the small town of Forks, Wash. (a real place, and now a destination for fans). At school, she observes four members of a fabulously good-looking and wealthy but standoffish family, the Cullens; later she finds herself seated next to Edward Cullen in biology lab and is rendered nearly speechless by his spectacular beauty. At first, he appears to loathe her, but after a protracted period of bewilderment and dithering she discovers the truth. Edward and his clan are vampires who have committed themselves to sparing human life; they call themselves "vegetarians." The scent of Bella's blood is excruciatingly appetizing to Edward, testing his ethical limits and eventually his emotional ones, too. The pair fall in love, and the three books detail the ups and downs of this interspecies romance, which is complicated by Bella's friendship with Jacob Black, a member of a pack of Native American werewolves who are the sworn enemies of all vampires. [...]

By contrast, Bella, once smitten by Edward, lives only for him. When he leaves her (for her own good) at the beginning of "New Moon," she becomes so disconsolate that she resorts to risking her own life, seeking extreme situations that cause her to hallucinate his voice. This practice culminates in a quasi-suicidal high dive into the ocean, after which, on the brink of drowning, she savors visions of her undead boyfriend: "I thought briefly of the clichés, about how you're supposed to see your life flash before your eyes. I was so much luckier. Who wanted to see a rerun, anyway? I saw him, and I had no will to fight ... Why would I fight when I was so happy where I was?" After Edward returns, the only obstacle she can see to her eternal happiness as a member of the glamorous Cullen family is his stubborn refusal to turn her into a vampire: He's worried that she'll lose her soul.

Otherwise directionless and unsure of herself, Bella's only distinguishing trait is her clumsiness, about which she makes frequent self-deprecating jokes. But Bella is not really the point of the Twilight series; she's more of a place holder than a character. She is purposely made as featureless and ordinary as possible in order to render her a vacant, flexible skin into which the reader can insert herself and thereby vicariously enjoy Edward's chilly charms. [...] Edward, not Bella, is the key to the Twilight franchise, the thing that fans talk about when explaining their fascination with the books. "Perfect" is the word most often used to describe him; besides looking like a male model, Edward plays and composes classical music, has two degrees from Harvard and drives several hot cars very, very fast. And he can read minds (except, mysteriously, for Bella's). "You're good at everything," Bella sighs dreamily.

Even the most timorous teenage girl couldn't conceive of Bella as intimidating; it's hard to imagine a person more insecure, or a situation better set up to magnify her insecurities. Bella's vampire and werewolf friends are all fantastically strong and fierce as well as nearly indestructible, and she spends the better part of every novel alternately cowering in their protective arms or groveling before their magnificence. "How well I knew that I wasn't good enough for him" is a typical musing on her part. Despite Edward's many protestations and demonstrations of his utter devotion, she persists in believing that he doesn't mean it, and will soon tire of her. In a way, the two are ideally suited to each other: Her insipidity is the counterpart to his flawlessness. Neither of them has much personality to speak of.

But to say this is to criticize fantasy according to the standards of literature, and Meyer -- a Mormon housewife and mother of three -- has always been frank about the origins of her novels in her own dreams. Even to a reader not especially susceptible to its particular scenario, Twilight succeeds at communicating the obsessive, narcotic interiority of all intense fantasy lives. Some imaginary worlds multiply, spinning themselves out into ever more elaborate constructs. Twilight retracts; it finds its voluptuousness in the hypnotic reduction of its attention to a single point: the experience of being loved by Edward Cullen.[...]

What this sloughing off permits is the return, again and again, to the delight of marveling at Edward's beauty, being cherished in his impermeable arms, thrilling to his caresses and, above all, hearing him profess, over and over, his absolute, unfailing, exclusive, eternal and worshipful adoration. A tiny sample:
"Bella, I couldn't live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don't know how it's tortured me ... you are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever."
"I could see it in your eyes, that you honestly believed that I didn't want you anymore. The most absurd, ridiculous concept -- as if there were any way that I could exist without needing you!"
"For this one night, could we try to forget everything besides just you and me?" He pleaded, unleashing the full force of his eyes on me. "It seems like I can never get enough time like that. I need to be with you. Just you."

Need I add that such statements rarely issue from the lips of mortal men, except perhaps when they're looking for sex? Edward, however, doesn't even insist on that -- in fact, he refuses to consummate his love for Bella because he's afraid he might accidentally harm her. "If I was too hasty," he says, "if for one second I wasn't paying enough attention, I could reach out, meaning to touch your face, and crush your skull by mistake. You don't realize how incredibly breakable you are. I can never, never afford to lose any kind of control when I'm with you." As a result, their time together is spent in protracted courtship: make-out sessions and sweet nothings galore, every shy girl's dream.

Yet it's not only shy girls who crush mightily on Edward Cullen. One of the series' most avid fan sites is Twilight Moms, created by and for grown women, many with families of their own. There, as in other forums, readers describe the effects of Meyer's books using words like "obsession" and "addiction." Chores, husbands and children go neglected, and the hours that aren't spent reading and rereading the three novels are squandered on forums and fan fiction. "I have no desires to be part of the real world right now," posted one woman. "Nothing I was doing before holds any interest to me. I do what I have to do, what I need to do to get by and that's it. Someone please tell me it will ease up, even if just a little? My entire world is consumed and in a tailspin."

The likeness to drug addiction is striking, especially when you consider that literary vampirism has often served as a metaphor for that form of enthrallment. [...] Although the connection between the bloodsucking undead and romance fiction might seem obscure to the casual observer, they do share an ancestor. Blame it all on George Gordon, aka Lord Byron, the original dangerous, seductive bad boy with an artist's wounded soul and in his own time the object of as much feminine yearning as Edward Cullen has been in the early 21st. Not only did Byron inspire such prototypical romantic heroes as Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester (a character Meyer has listed as among her favorites), he was the original pattern for the vampire as handsome, predatory nobleman. [...]

Bram Stoker's Count Dracula was the English bourgeoisie's nightmare vision of Old World aristocracy: decadent, parasitic, yet possessed of a primitive charisma. Though we members of the respectable middle class know they intend to eat us alive, we can't help being dazzled by dukes and princes. Aristocrats imperiously exercise the desires we repress and are the objects of our own secret infatuation with hereditary hierarchies. Anne Rice, in the hugely popular Vampire Chronicles, made her vampire Lestat a bisexual rock star -- Byron has also been called the first of those -- cementing the connection between vampire noblemen and modern celebrities. In recent years, in the flourishing subgenre known as paranormal romance, vampires play the role of leading man more often than any other creature of the night, whether the mode is noir, as in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series of detective novels or chick-lit-ish, as in MaryJanice Davidson's Queen Betsy series.

The YA angle on vampires, evident in the Twilight books and in many other popular series as well, is that they're high school's aristocracy, the coolest kids on campus, the clique that everyone wants to get into. Many women apparently never get over the allure of such groups; as one reader posted on Twilight Moms, "Twilight makes me feel like there may be a world where a perfect man does exist, where love can overcome anything, where men will fight for the women they love no matter what, where the underdog strange girl in high school with an amazing heart can snag the best guy in the school, and where we can live forever with the person we love," a mix of adolescent social aspirations with what are ostensibly adult longings.

The "underdog strange girl" who gets plucked from obscurity by "the best guy in school" is the 21st century's version of the humble governess who captures the heart of the lord of the manor. The chief point of this story is that the couple aren't equals, that his love rescues her from herself by elevating her to a class she could not otherwise join. Unlike Buffy, Bella is no hero. "There are so many girls out there who do not know kung fu, and if a guy jumps in the alley they're not going to turn around with a roundhouse kick," Meyer once told a journalist. "There's a lot of people who are just quieter and aren't having the Prada lifestyle and going to a special school in New York where everyone's rich and fabulous. There's normal people out there and I think that's one of the reasons Bella has become so popular."

Yet the Cullens, although they don't live in New York, are rich and fabulous. Twilight would be a lot more persuasive as an argument that an "amazing heart" counts for more than appearances if it didn't harp so incessantly on Edward's superficial splendors. If the series is supposed to be championing the worth of "normal" people, then why make Edward so exceptional? If his wealth, status, strength, beauty and accomplishments make him the "best" among all the boys at school, why shouldn't the same standard be applied to the girls, leaving Bella by the wayside? Sometimes Edward seems to subscribe to that standard, complaining about having to read the thoughts of one of Bella's classmates because "her mind isn't very original." But then, neither is Bella's. In a sense, Bella is absolutely right: She's not "good enough" for Edward -- at least, not according to the same measurements that make Edward "perfect." Yet by some miracle she -- unremarkable in every way -- is exempt from his customary contempt for the ordinary. Then again, by choosing her he proves that she's better than all the average people at school.

Such are the tortured internal contradictions of romance, as nonsensical as its masculine counterpart, pornography, and every bit as habit forming. Search a little deeper on the Internet and you can find women readers both objecting to the antifeminist aspects of Twilight and admitting that they found the books irresistible. "Sappy romance, amateurish writing, etc.," complained one. Still, "when I read it, I just couldn't put it down. It was like an unhealthy addiction for me ... I'm not sure how I could read through it, seeing how I dislike romances immensely. But I did, and when I couldn't get 'New Moon' I almost had a heart attack. That book was hypnotizing."

Some things, it seems, are even harder to kill than vampires. The traditional feminine fantasy of being delivered from obscurity by a dazzling, powerful man, of needing to do no more to prove or find yourself than win his devotion, of being guarded from all life's vicissitudes by his boundless strength and wealth -- all this turns out to be a difficult dream to leave behind. Vampires have long served to remind us of the parts of our own psyches that seduce us, sapping our will and autonomy, dragging us back into the past. And they walk among us to this day.

Ouch! Miller is not very sensitive as a Love's Executioner. Indeed, she doesn't leave much hope or meaning either!

But sometimes you have to be that way when dealing with obsessive compulsive love. It does remind me of Irvin Yalom's book, The Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy. The first tale is about Obsessive Love, hence the name Love's Executioner. Yalom is definitely more sensitive and very transparent with his own shortcomings, and he does provide some insightful comments:

A nightmare is a failed dream, a dream that, by not “handling” anxiety, has failed in its role as the guardian of sleep.

Twilight does seem to be very successful among some people as a guardian of sleep. Hmm, lets see what else does Yalom says about what he has learned.

“Effort, too, is needed. You have to try, you know. There's a time for thinking and analyzing but there's also a time for action.” And when direct exhortation fails, the therapist is reduced, [to] employing any known means by which one person can influence another. Thus, I may advise, argue, badger, cajole, goad, implore, or simply endure, hoping that the patient's neurotic world view will crumble away from sheer fatigue."

"It is through willing, the mainspring of action, that our freedom is enacted. I see willing as having two stages: a person initiates through wishing and then enacts through deciding."

"Some people are wish-blocked, knowing neither what they feel nor what they want. Without opinions, without impulses, without inclinations, they become parasites on the desires of others. Such people tend to be tiresome."

"One of the greatest paradoxes of life is that self-awareness breeds anxiety. Fusion eradicates anxiety in a radical fashion-by eliminating self-awareness. The person who has fallen in love, and entered a blissful state of merger, is not self-reflective because the questioning lonely I (and the attendant anxiety of isolation) dissolve into the we. Thus one sheds anxiety but loses oneself.

This is precisely why therapists do not like to treat a patient who has fallen in love. Therapy and a state of love-merger are incompatible because therapeutic work requires a questioning self-awareness and an anxiety that will ultimately serve as guide to internal conflicts."

"Beware the powerful exclusive attachment to another; it is not, as people sometimes think, evidence of the purity of the love. Such encapsulated, exclusive love-feeding on itself, neither giving to nor caring about others-is destined to cave in on itself. Love is not just a passion spark between two people; there is infinite difference between falling in love and standing in love. Rather, love is a way of being, a “giving to,” not a “falling for”; a mode of relating at large, not an act limited to a single person."

"I must assume that knowing is better than not knowing, venturing than not venturing; and that magic and illusion, however rich, however alluring, ultimately weaken the human spirit."

“If a way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst.”-Thomas Hardy.

"From the beginning, of course, I had known that the pure forcefulness of my argument would not penetrate deep enough to effect any change. It almost never does. It's never worked for me when I've been in therapy. Only when one feels an insight in one's bones does one own it. Only then can one act on it and change. Pop psychologists forever talk about “responsibility assumption”, but it's all words: it is extraordinarily hard, even terrifying, to own the insight that you and only you construct your own life design. Thus, the problem in therapy is always how to move from an ineffectual intellectual appreciation of a truth about oneself to some emotional experience of it. It is only when therapy enlists deep emotions that it becomes a powerful force for change."

"Analysts seem more certain of everything than I am of anything. How comforting it would be to feel, just once, that I know exactly what I'm doing in my psychotherapeutic work-for example, that I'm dutifully traversing, in proper sequence, the precise stages of the therapeutic process."

"Like a drifting boat torn loose from its mooring, I thought-but a sentient boat desperately searching for a berth, any berth. Now, between obsessions, Thelma was in a rare free-floating state. This was the time I had been waiting for. Such states don't last long: the unbonded obsessional, like nascent oxygen, quickly melds with some mental image or idea. This moment, this brief interval between obsessions, was the crucial times for us to work-before Thelma re-established her equilibrium by latching onto something or someone. Most likely she would reconstruct the hour with Mathew so that her vision of reality could once again support her fusion fantasy."

"One of the most important principles of groups is that the group is a miniature world – whatever environment we create in the group reflects the way we have chosen to live. Each of us establishes in the group the same kind of social world we have in our real life."

"I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit."

"A therapist helps a patient not by sifting through the past but by being lovingly present with that person; by being trustworthy, interested; and by believing that their joint activity will ultimately be redemptive and healing."

Perhaps this last quote from Love's Executioner provides a hint as to why the Twilight Romance is so appealing. All wounded women cherish to be loved unconditionally by a "perfect figure", a parental figure or someone great, a Knight in a shining armor as it were. The process of being loved unconditionally for what we are doesn't mean we have to be manipulative, or that we can't aim towards improving our imperfect behaviors to become better persons. We can be called out for acting our negative behaviors or self-destructive thoughts, it is after all a re-parenting healing process. This last concept is very clear in Get Me Out of Here by Rachel Reiland. It is an amazing story about a wounded girl and we all are in a way wounded to some extent or another. Get Me Out of Here has more to do with everybody's stories than a story about a personality disorder per se. It portrays unconditional love in a relationship which allows for a re-parenting healing process and she indeed heals at the end.

People hold positive illusions about the world and about other people in general, which are reinforced by culture and by stories like Twilight. These positive illusions leaves us susceptible to predators and to the impact of reality, which sometimes shatters the illusion, leaving a bleak world in its wake. Sooner or later, illusions are shattered, whether it is reality holding you accountable for spending your life in an obsession with a non-existent person or illusion (any obsession for that matter) or whether you are prey of a real vampire -for instance a malignant narcissist or psychopath.

Stephenie Meyer portrays the vampire as the Knight in shiny armor, the savior. If you think about it, it is pretty twisted and it seems she does something similar (but inverse) with The Host where Souls and Seekers are the ones who invaded the Earth a la "body-snatchers". It just makes the lines even blurrier, and they are already most blurry without her help! Is she trying to make sense of her experiences? Can we say that, symbolically speaking, this reflects her spiritual views and archetypal energies? Is she trying to make sense of her religion by portraying it as a savior? When you strip the illusion off -because that is what it is, an illusion- what remains is reality. In reality, vampires – pathological people like malignant narcissists and psychopaths - really suck our life force and creativity. Monotheistic religions -a psychopathic system- does the same thing but with billions of people. A blood thirsty God, a blood thirsty vampire. So as far fetched as it may sound, perhaps she is projecting her inner self and Soul into a blood thirsty archetype, trying to make sense of it by making it the savior, so the bad guys become the good guys? It happens quite often than it seems, actually and unfortunately, it is the general rule rather than the exception.

In human relationships, love for the other and others can help us overcome our shortcomings and wounds so we can really be there for the the one we love. We end up learning more about ourselves and others, our yearnings and our negative personality programs.

Of course, Twilight is really a romance. But passionate obsessive love is like a powerful drug, which tries to mimic the real thing but at the end it turns out to be the entire opposite. It is a trap that lures you in, it doesn't give you emotional freedom, it enslaves you. It draws you in and at that moment, you're not living in reality anymore. You're bitten by the vampire, you are its slave, forced to feed from others in order to survive.

Twilight tries to soothe a very deep wound indeed, but it really doesn't give you any real means to actualize your needs and dreams within your reality and daily life. The more you need the soothing fantasy, the more out of touch with reality you are and the more susceptible you are. It can give you an idea of what your needs and wounds are, and how deep they run, but it can only go so far. You still don't have anyone to pull you out of this one. You've got to be your savior if you ever aspire to grow as a person.

Stephenie Meyer brings some elements of the Knight archetype and merges it dangerously with the Vampire archetype. The Knight fights and slays the dragon which represents our negative personality programs in order to rescue the Damsel in distress which symbolizes our Soul. The Knight who gives us what we never had but yearned for all our eternities: Unconditional Love. No matter how idiotic, insecure and imperfect we are, the Knight, the "Perfect Knight" will love us for who we are. Our own imperfections are perfect for him and we feel truly loved, thus we are re-parented. Courtly love is true unconditional love that sees and knows and understands and yet loves. The Knight and his courtly love can stand as a metaphor which can exist and be nurtured within ourselves. It is not necessarily an external metaphor, although that can certainly be the case when we are healed through a relationship with a boyfriend or husband who loves us unconditionally. Another example of external metaphor applies when we are in an environment who truly supports us for who we are, allowing thus for a healing re-parenting process.

Conditional love on the other hand, is truly damaging for the Self, whether it is conditional love by wounded parents or a toxic society, religion, culture, government, etc. It leaves you feeling like you must be or do something in order to earn other people's love. Conditional love offers no support for the inner self. It creates people who have no personal sense of substance or worth. Nourished on conditional love, they find themselves un-real. As Elan Golomb tells us in Trapped in the Mirror:

The child's inner self, which requires unconditional love, is treated as identical with his external behavior and his products. The child is subjected to a barrage of criticism which he eventually comes to believe. It isn't that his paper is well written—he is a genius. It isn't that he didn't understand a certain theorem in geometry—he is an idiot. The [parent] frames his comments in such a way that the child's inner self is implicated As a result, the child cannot be objective about what he does and cannot utilize criticism effectively. It hurts too much to take it in.

Consequently, he often has serious problems with performance. There are many ways of hiding. Some choose inarticulateness. Their thinking cannot be evaluated through the murk. Others cultivate the "fudge factor," a messy way of writing so that the teacher cannot read responses. The child can later argue that he meant something else. As an adult, he may act superior and throw out esoteric references as a smoke screen, counting on the fact that people tend to revere as superior that which they cannot understand.

He grows up feeling unlovable, since he has been taught that not having been loved is his fault. At best, his acceptance was conditional. A straight-A student whose grades are boasted about at a party by his [mother] feels like a gilded bird in a gilded cage. It is not he who is appreciated.

Now let us look closer to a concrete representation in our world of the Vampire archetype. Some psychopathy material will help us in that regard.

The Psychopath – The Mask of Sanity

"The individuals who constitute this 4 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth."

""Likeable," "Charming," "Intelligent," "Alert," "Impressive," "Confidence-inspiring," and "A great success with the ladies": These are the sorts of descriptions repeatedly used by Cleckley in his famous case-studies of psychopaths."

"Psychopaths seem to have in abundance the very traits most desired by normal persons. The untroubled self-confidence of the psychopath seems almost like an impossible dream and is generally what "normal" people seek to acquire when they attend assertiveness training classes. In many instances, the magnetic attraction of the psychopath for members of the opposite sex seems almost supernatural."

"Cleckley's seminal hypothesis concerning the psychopath is that he suffers from a very real mental illness indeed: a profound and incurable affective deficit. If he really feels anything at all, they are emotions of only the shallowest kind. "

"The study of "ambulatory" psychopaths - what we call "The Garden Variety Psychopath" - has, however, hardly begun. Very little is known about subcriminal psychopathy. However, some researchers have begun to seriously consider the idea that it is important to study psychopathy not as an artificial clinical category but as a general personality trait in the community at large. In other words, psychopathy is being recognized as a more or less a different type of human."

"One very interesting aspect of the psychopath is his "hidden life" that is sometimes not too well hidden. It seems that the psychopath has a regular need to take a "vacation into filth and degradation" the same way normal people may take a vacation to a resort where they enjoy beautiful surroundings and culture. To get a full feeling for this strange "need" of the psychopath - a need that seems to be evidence that "acting human" is very stressful to the psychopath - read more of The Mask of Sanity, chapters 25 and 26."

"Also, read Cleckley's speculations on what was "really wrong" with these people. He comes very close to suggesting that they are human in every respect - but that they lack a soul. This lack of "soul quality" makes them very efficient "machines." They can be brilliant, write scholarly works, imitate the words of emotion, but over time, it becomes clear that their words do not match their actions."

"Being very efficient machines, like a computer, they are able to execute very complex routines designed to elicit from others support for what they want. In this way, many psychopaths are able to reach very high positions in life. It is only over time that their associates become aware of the fact that their climb up the ladder of success is predicated on violating the rights of others."Even when they are indifferent to the rights of their associates, they are often able to inspire feelings of trust and confidence."

"The psychopath recognizes no flaw in his psyche, no need for change."

"Oh, indeed, they can imitate feelings, but the only real feelings they seem to have - the thing that drives them and causes them to act out different dramas for effect - is a sort of "predatorial hunger" for what they want. That is to say, they "feel" need/want as love, and not having their needs/wants met is described as "not being loved" by them. What is more, this "need/want" perspective posits that only the "hunger" of the psychopath is valid, and anything and everything "out there," outside of the psychopath, is not real except insofar as it has the capability of being assimilated to the psychopath as a sort of "food." "Can it be used or can it provide something?" is the only issue about which the psychopath seems to be concerned. All else - all activity - is subsumed to this drive."

"In short, the psychopath - and the narcissist to a lesser extent - is a predator. If we think about the interactions of predators with their prey in the animal kingdom, we can come to some idea of what is behind the "mask of sanity" of the psychopath. Just as an animal predator will adopt all kinds of stealthy functions in order to stalk their prey, cut them out of the herd, get close to them and reduce their resistance, so does the psychopath construct all kinds of elaborate camouflage composed of words and appearances - lies and manipulations - in order to "assimilate" their prey."

"This leads us to an important question: what does the psychopath REALLY get from their victims? It's easy to see what they are after when they lie and manipulate for money or material goods or power. But in many instances, such as love relationships or faked friendships, it is not so easy to see what the psychopath is after. Without wandering too far afield into spiritual speculations - a problem Cleckley also faced - we can only say that it seems to be that the psychopath ENJOYS making others suffer. Just as normal humans enjoy seeing other people happy, or doing things that make other people smile, the psychopath enjoys the exact opposite.

Anyone who has ever observed a cat playing with a mouse before killing and eating it has probably explained to themselves that the cat is just "entertained" by the antics of the mouse and is unable to conceive of the terror and pain being experienced by the mouse, and the cat, therefore, is innocent of any evil intent. The mouse dies, the cat is fed, and that is nature. Psychopaths don't generally eat their victims.

Yes, in extreme cases the entire cat and mouse dynamic is carried out and cannibalism has a long history wherein it was assumed that certain powers of the victim could be assimilated by eating some particular part of them. But in ordinary life, psychopaths and narcissists don't go all the way, so to say. This causes us to look at the cat and mouse scenarios again with different eyes. Now we ask: is it too simplistic to think that the innocent cat is merely entertained by the mouse running about and frantically trying to escape? Is there something more to this dynamic than meets the eye? Is there something more than being "entertained" by the antics of the mouse trying to flee? After all, in terms of evolution, why would such behavior be hard-wired into the cat? Is the mouse tastier because of the chemicals of fear that flood his little body? Is a mouse frozen with terror more of a "gourmet" meal?

This suggests that we ought to revisit our ideas about psychopaths with a slightly different perspective. One thing we do know is this: many people who experience interactions with psychopaths and narcissists report feeling "drained" and confused and often subsequently experience deteriorating health. Does this mean that part of the dynamic, part of the explanation for why psychopaths will pursue "love relationships" and "friendships" that ostensibly can result in no observable material gain, is because there is an actual energy consumption?"

"Conscience seems to depend on the ability to imagine consequences. But most "consequences" relate to pain in some way, and psychopaths really don't understand pain in the emotional sense. They understand frustration of not getting what they want, and to them, that is pain. But the fact seems to be that they act based solely on a sort of Game Theory evaluation of a situation: what will they get out of it, and what will it cost? And these "costs" have nothing to do with being humiliated, causing pain, sabotaging the future, or any of the other possibilities that normal people consider when making a choice. In short, it is almost impossible for normal people to even imagine the inner life of the psychopath.

This leads us to what psychopaths DO have that is truly outstanding: an ability to give their undivided attention to something that interests them intensely. Some clinicians have compared this to the concentration with which a predator stalks his prey. This is useful if one is in an environment with few variables, but most real life situations require us to pay attention to a number of things at once. Psychopaths often pay so much attention to getting what they want that they fail to notice danger signals."

"It should be emphasized that psychopaths are interesting as all get out - even exciting! They exude a captivating energy that keeps their listeners on the edge of their seats. Even if some part of the normal person is shocked or repelled by what the psychopath says, they are like the mouse hypnotized by the torturing cat. Even if they have the chance to run away, they don't. Many Psychopaths "make their living" by using charm, deceit, and manipulation to gain the confidence of their victims. Many of them can be found in white collar professions where they are aided in their evil by the fact that most people expect certain classes of people to be trustworthy because of their social or professional credentials. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, politicians, psychiatrists and psychologists, generally do not have to earn our trust because they have it by virtue of their positions. But the fact is: psychopaths are found in such lofty spheres also!"

"Manipulation is the key to the psychopath's conquests. Initially, the psychopath will feign false emotions to create empathy, and many of them study the tricks that can be employed by the empathy technique. Psychopaths are often able to incite pity from people because they seem like "lost souls" as Guggenbuhl-Craig writes. So the pity factor is one reason why victims often fall for these "poor" people."

"In the book Violent Attachments, women and men have noted the particular stare of the psychopath - it is an intense, relentless gaze that seems to preclude his destruction of his victim or target. Women, in particular, have reported this stare, which is related to the "predatorial" (reptilian) gaze; it is as if the psychopath is directing all of his intensity toward you through his eyes, a sensation that one woman reported as a feeling of "being eaten." They tend to invade peoples' space either by their sudden intrusions or intimidating look-overs (which some women confuse for sexuality.)"

"Sadly, as we see, psychopaths have no lack of victims because so many people are ready and willing to play the role. And in many, many cases, the victim simply refuses to believe the evidence that they are being victimized. Psychological denial screens out knowledge that is painful, and persons with large investments in their fantasies are often unable to acknowledge that they are being deceived because it it too painful. Most often, these are women who rigidly adhere to the traditional role of the female with a strong sense of duty to be a "good wife." She will believe that if she tries harder or simply waits it out, her husband will reform. When he ignores her, abuses her, cheats on her, or uses her, she can simply just decide to "try harder, put more energy into the relationship, and take better care of him." She believes that if she does this, eventually he will notice and will see how valuable she is, and then he will fall on his knees in gratitude and treat her like a queen.

Dream on.

The fact is, such a woman, with her fierce commitment to such a man, her dedication to being a proper wife, has allowed such fairy tales to distort her sense of reality. The reality is that she is doomed to a lifetime of abuse and disappointment until "death do us part."

Psychopaths are not "fragile" individuals, as Robert Hare says after years of research. What they think and do is produced from a "rock solid personality structure that is extremely resistant to outside influences." Many of them are protected for years from the consequences of their behavior by well-meaning family and friends. As long as their behavior remains unchecked or unpunished, they continue to go through life without too much inconvenience."

"Some researchers think that psychopathy is the result of some attachment or bonding difficulty as an infant. Dr. Hare has turned the idea around, after all his years digging into the background of psychopaths. He says:
In some children the very failure to bond is a symptom of psychopathy. It is likely that these children lack the capacity to bond readily, and that their lack of attachment is largely the result, not the cause, of psychopathy. [Hare]

In other words: they are born that way and you can't fix them."

"To many people, the idea of a child psychopath is almost unthinkable. But the fact is, true psychopaths are born, not made. Oh, indeed, there is the psychopath that is "made," [sociopaths] but they are generally different from the born psychopath in a number of ways."

"The fact is, clinical research clearly demonstrates that psychopathy does not spring unannounced into existence in adulthood. The symptoms reveal themselves in early life. It seems to be true that parents of psychopaths KNOW something is dreadfully wrong even before the child starts school. Such children are stubbornly immune to socializing pressures. They are "different" from other children in inexplicable ways. They are more "difficult," or "willful," or aggressive, or hard to "relate to." They are difficult to get close to, cold and distant and self-sufficient."

"For normal people, such movies [about psychopaths] may serve to remind them of the danger and destructiveness of the psychopath. They will shiver with the sense of something cold and dark having breathed on their neck. For others, people with poorly developed inner selves, such movies and glorification of psychopathic behavior only serves as a role model for serious acts of violence and predation against others."

"Over and over again we come up against that little problem: religion and belief systems that have to be defended against objective evidence or the beliefs of others. We have to ask ourselves "where did these belief systems come from that so evidentially are catastrophic?" And then, we have to think about the fact that now, in the present day, when many of these systems are breaking down and being replaced by others that similarly divert our attention away from what IS, it becomes necessary to "enforce" a certain mode of thinking. And that is what Psychopaths do best.

Psychopaths dominate and set the standard for behavior in our society. We live in a world based on a psychopathic, energy stealing food chain, because that's just the way things are. Most people are so damaged they no longer have the capacity to even imagine a different system based on a symbiotic network."

"One thing alone is certain, that man's slavery grows and increases. Man is becoming a willing slave. He no longer needs chains. He begins to grow fond of his slavery, to be proud of it. And this is the most terrible thing that can happen to a man. [Georges Gurdjieff]

"If you are a good person you will meet many evil people in your life, you need to recognize them and their actions. More importantly you need to recognize which evil behaviors you have been conned into accepting as reasonable and to reject those behaviors - both in yourself and in others - as unacceptable."

"[...] a diagnosis of psychopathy cannot be made on the basis of visible behavioral symptoms to the exclusion of interpersonal and affective symptoms because such a procedure essentially makes psychopaths of many people who are simply injured by life or society, and allows the true psychopaths who have a well-constructed "mask of sanity" to escape detection."

I hope this puts into perspective the reality of why the psychopath/vampire will never be the Perfect Knight. The psychopath/vampire "steals" the concept of courtly love and corrupts it for his own devious purposes. This is why positive illusions and lack of knowledge of psychopathy leaves us susceptible to their predations, as we wish for a happy ending with such devious and charming creatures that live among us in the highlight of society. This is where Stephenie Meyer makes her greatest disservice as well, she sustains and enhances to its maximum degree this illusion, leaving people (specially women, as psychopathy is more prevalent among the male population) susceptible to the predatory schemes of psychopaths. In real life, you will NEVER see such courtly love by a devoted "Edward Cullen" personified as a charming vampire. Don't delude yourself, a psychopath is not capable of loving you and science plus people's real accounts in our millennial history supports this. Let me say this again, a psychopath will never change his nature, he is not capable of a love that will help him transcend his own predatory nature, it is basically not hard-wired into his genes and nature. You and your own specialness or lack of specialness will never change a psychopath. A psychopath will never truly love you or anybody for that matter. It will not make him a better person nor will make it want to practice self control in order to spare your life as source of food. I can't emphasize this enough.

If there is hope for any REAL love, you'll have to look somewhere else, very far away of the vampire archetype. Like in the opposite direction! And although it is true that most of us are wounded by vampires – narcissistic and psychopathic individuals or society- we are certainly not beyond hope as psychopaths are. By virtue of our conscience and empathy, we can transcend our wounds and "vampire" programming, with unconditional love, re-parenting ourselves and our relationships, making real true happiness within our reach. There is real life and love which is worth much much more than any illusion that might temporary sooth you. Illusions don't really exist. Real love transcends all boundaries and limitations, making us feel whole and truly real.

Some shocking examples of obsessive love which was triggered by psychopaths in competent, caring, loving and successful women can be found in Women Who Love Psychopaths: Inside the Relationship of Inevitable Harm by Sandra Brown. You'll definitely get the idea of how psychopaths ruin the lives of wonderful women.

Stephenie Meyer touches indeed a very deep wound in our psyches. She portrays a scenario where the Vampire, the Psychopath, will love us unconditionally, where he has a Soul, where he is a Knight. She really hasn't done anything extraordinary, as people usually project their conscience and empathy into the Psychopath who lacks capacity of both. Twilight can be even a symbol of the result of projected higher emotions and conscience into a Psychopath, a truly impossible scenario. This does not exists within the Psychopath, he is not capable of such higher emotions. Therefore it is useless and counterproductive to imagine that it can be the case, as it only reinforces the illusion that this is so.

People can't go on projecting their "Inner-Beloved" into something and someone who will never have such love as per nature. He is the predator, he doesn't have such potential. Qualities of charm, perfection and hypnotizing abilities towards woman are only for predatory purposes. Even emotional displays are only for predatory purposes. The "falling in love" frenzy is all about chemicals, with feel good hormones like serotonin, dopamine, etc which can make you feel that you found your soul mate, when it is strictly purely chemical. And with oxytocin you can feel protective and intimately bonded towards your "loved one", even if that loved one turns out to be a predator. Its all chemicals.

Finally, I will like to share here the concept of "Inner-Beloved" and other material of Unholy Hungers by Barbara Hort. It is truly an astonishing reading which gives us the tools to put ourselves back together. Even though it seems that I might quoting Hort extensively, I'm actually only extracting the quintessential quotes. It might seem a lot to read and digest, but then, most people seem to read the whole Twilight Saga in 3 days or so, so it really isn't much at all. The book is about the Vampire archetype and I highly recommend it for a full understanding of whats being explained. Even though it seems to describe psychopathy, the actual term psychopath isn't really referenced in a direct way. This is when it is important to read and get familiarized with the material referenced here, so you can understand the distinction between a psychopath and a truly wounded individual with a healing potential. Sometimes a wounded soul can behave quite erratically.

Why are we so fascinated by the vampire?

We find the vampire mesmerizing because, even though we lack literal experience with the undead, we have all met vampires in the course of our lives. It may seem outlandish to assert that every reader of this book has encountered a vampire, but a brief detour into the realm of psychology will help to justify my sensational claim. For this discussion, I will use the model of the human psyche developed by the Swiss psychoanalyst C. G. Jung. In Jung's model, every human psyche is composed of basic elements called archetypes. We can define archetypes as the constellations of energies or traits that make up our personalities; they are what we obtain when we carve the rich complexity of our internal experience at its natural joints. Thus, the images we use to symbolize archetypes can help us comprehend the whirling kaleidoscope of our psychic energies.

When our archetypal energies are activated, we feel as if we are moved by internal characters who are acting out gripping stories on the stages of our lives. Sometimes we feel that we possess these powerful psychic energies, and at other times it feels as if they have possessed us. When we contemplate the archetypal energies that move us, it seems as if each archetype has a distinct personality with positive and negative aspects, just like any other personality. Thus, as the Jungian analyst Marion Woodman has observed, the energies of our archetypes "can fill us with radiant light, or overwhelm us with destruction and despair. They are our gods within, spiritually and instinctually. Without access to them, life becomes a boring two-dimensional existence. Relating to them [consciously] allows us to work at incarnating our angels." I would add that relating to an archetype unconsciously leads us to incarnate our demons as well, which is consistent with Woodman's later observation that archetypes "are like hidden magnets [that] attract and repel. Gods and vampires, goddesses and witches are alarmingly close in this domain. They make us or break us, depending on our conscious relationship to them" (1992, 13).

Archetypal energies can be activated in a variety of ways. A specific archetype can be activated in the psyche of one individual, but it can also be activated in the collective psyche of a group or a culture. Jung argued that when an archetype is activated in a group's collective psyche, the images of its energy will appear in the group's stories, myths, and folktales. He further believed that any story that has spread across the oceans and the millennia has done so only because it speaks to a psychological experience that is common to us all....

Stories bestow enlightenment. They clarify our internal lives in the same way that the sun illuminates our external lives. Stories can bring a slow dawn of awakening, a fierce blaze of recognition, a dusky glow of wisdom. No corner of the mind is so dark, twisted, or well defended that a story cannot shine its beacon of consciousness into the musty hole. The storyteller's light is a dangerous tool in the telling of the vampire's story, because vampires hate the light. ...

My portrayal of the vampire's essential nature will probably be offensive to those who are enamored of the charismatic vampires that proliferate in modern literature, most notably Anne Rice's Lestat and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Comte de Saint-Germain. Certainly, these literary vampires are like the real people in whom the vampire archetype is active: they are capable of periods in which they display compassion, altruism, and a social conscience. There comes a time, however, when even the most endearing vampire must revert to its essence. Its fangs must be bared to puncture innocent necks, it must suck the precious lifeblood out of its enchanted victims, and then it must either kill its lovestruck paramours or transform them into undead predators like itself. The predatory essence of the vampire is as inarguable as its capacity for charisma.

The vampire's charisma is important to note because the beast has a special ability to captivate our imagination with its hollow charm:
The vampire appears empty, like a shadow, and we, the human observers, may project whatever form will grip our imagination most, truly believing that this is the vampire. In this complex and disturbing fashion the process of depletion begins, and through this balance of fantasy and reality the vampire sucks not only blood, but the psychic energy which controls our mental and physical functions, slowly but surely becoming a perfect projection of our desires. (Maschetti 1992,46)

The vampire, like many predators in nature, is capable of appearing in a variety of alluring aspects, some of which we obligingly invent by means of our projected desires. We must, however, look beyond the beast's appearances and allures to its essential truth: the vampire is, at its core, a feeding thing. No matter how comfortable it may be to deny that truth, we must remember that when faced with a psychic vampire, we will pay for every comfy little denial with the blood of our life force.

There are two ways to tell that we have been in the presence of a vampire. The first is a feeling of shameful insufficiency. We should look around for a psychic vampire whenever we feel that we are somehow flawed-not because of what we've done, but because of who we inherently are (or are not). In this state, we feel that our flaws make us unworthy of life, love, and simple human respect. We feel we are not good enough, or thin or smart or sexy enough.

We feel, broadly or specifically and always inescapably, less than.

Our feeling of insufficiency is valid, not because we are inherently insufficient, but because some of our life force-the stuff that enables us to perceive our own beauty, talent, and worth has been bled out of us by the vampire, and we now have an insufficient amount to maintain a healthy self-perception. Sometimes the vampire who has drained us is activated in an external person, and sometimes it is the vampire we carry around in our own psyches. We may experience our insufficiency as a physical fatigue or a psychic depletion, but what we do not experience is the subjective feeling of ourselves as "green and juicy," full of vital, abundant, flowing psychic health. The vampire's ravenous sucking transforms our green juiciness into gray dessication which is simply another way of describing less than. Whenever we experience this feeling of shameful insufficiency, we have been the victim of a psychic vampire.

Anyone who has experienced this state of psychic bloodlessness knows that it is extremely unpleasant. When we are in it, we frantically seek to replenish what we have lost. But if we are not clear about what exactly we have lost, then we are likely to go about replenishing ourselves in any old way that occurs to us. The yearning for replenishment is the second symptom of having encountered a psychic vampire, and it usually is experienced as a hunger for more.

More. No matter how much we have, it's never enough. Since we've been bled of what really counts, our hunger for everything else is bottomless. We feel driven to consume goods, experiences, and people as if we were starving, as if those substitutes for life force would somehow fill the void.

It is not born of finite ambition, but of the bottomless, shame driven hunger that alerts us to the vampire's presence. When we feel we must fill our pit of shameful inadequacy and cannot articulate what will constitute enough to fill it, when the only quantity that seems capable of redeeming us is the indefinite more, then we have been victimized by a psychic vampire.

The vampire usually slides in beside us during the night, when we are sleepily unaware of its lethal purpose. Nighttime is not only the classic symbol of unconsciousness but also the time when we are most subject to fearful despair, when we undergo our "dark nights of the soul." The psychic vampire chooses these moments to approach us with its offer of exploitation as a substitute for love because it knows that its "protection" will seem to be our only means of surviving in the dark, loveless place.

Even with such willing victims as we, the vampire proceeds gently-promising us immortality and eternal love, sighing over its solitude, and yearning for a true companion. We hear the vampire's sweet words in the midst of our anguish, and we are reborn with hope. We offer warmth, companionship, and most of all, love, love, love to this beacon of rescue in our black despair. Love and more love for the vampire, who lures us ever closer with gestures of affection, words of respect, and other such baubles as desperate souls crave. Many of us spend a lifetime caught in this dance. We gush with love, and the psychic vampire tosses us bait for more loving. ...

The psychic vampire, with its unconscious invasion, its inverted ethic of exploitation, and its contagious capacity for snarling our thoughts and sucking out our life force. ...

Although the vampire takes from his victim to feed his hunger, it is as if he is satisfying a hunger in his audience - a hunger for sexuality and sensuality, a desire to live forever, a yearning to be both empowered and powerless and thus completely without any responsibility for one's own actions. (Dresser I989, I68)

[The vampire is] our eidolon. . . . He is huge, and we admire size; strong, and we admire strength. He moves with the confidence of a creature that has energy, power, and will.

In our moments of weakness, self-doubt, and desperation, which of us could resist the invitation of such a godly creature? And as if godliness were not alluring enough, we find that this superhuman entity is lonely: lonely for a special companion-somebody just like us. We are wooed by the vampire's enchanting disguise of loneliness that yearns for transcendent union.

Another piece of common vampire lore states that "the draining of another's energy is particularly likely to happen in a marriage, family, or other close emotional relationship traditionally the vampire's favorite feeding ground" (Farson 1976, 37). In other words, the first vampire archetypes we meet are likely to be active in our parents' psyches. Later in our lives, we will probably encounter these energies again in the people who most resemble our parents on the psychic level. For most of us, these new bearers of the vampire archetype will be our friends, our colleagues, and our mates.

Before you fall back in revulsion and denial, remember that the psychic vampire is an archetype, which means that it is one of many forms of energy that are active in a given individual's psyche. Persons who are vampiric in one situation will usually have many nonvampiric energetic fields in their psyches as well.

In most people, the vampire archetype operates like a mild or moderate infection. It may compromise the healthy aspects of the person's psyche, but it does not overwhelm them, and the method for deactivating the vampiric energy is rarely severe. Moreover, just as an infection can remain relatively localized, so the vampire archetype in most people is active only in certain situations and with certain people. This is why a parent may feel great love for his children when he is experiencing professional success, but abuses them unmercifully when he fears professional failure or disgrace. And it is why he may abuse his children, but never his co-workers, friends, or spouse. The vampire archetype, like any archetype, can be activated and deactivated in a very localized way....

[As] the great social psychologist Else Frenkl-Brunswick discovered, we are highly intolerant of ambiguity, particularly when the ambiguity occurs in other people. We like to keep our people neatly categorized: right and wrong, good and bad. We love to hate heinous criminals because they permit us to put the bad "out there"in another person. Once all of the bad has been projected onto the Really Bad Person, we can reassure ourselves that there is no bad in ourselves. Nonetheless, the truth is that our inner lives are far more complex than we realize. "Good" people do inhuman things, and "bad" people do humane things-it just depends on the circumstances.....

The psychic vampire may think nothing of her vampiric behavior, or may even label it as "love." Indeed, one of the most frightening aspects of psychic vampirism is that it often travels, even in the mind of the vampire, under the name of love. A vampire's "love" is usually based on a conditional approval that masks its ethic of exploitation. Think of the parent who "loves" us only when we are clean, obedient, or apt. This kind of "love," which is the only kind a psychic vampire can offer, masks a profound emotional hunger, which makes the vampire incapable of offering to our love-seeking heart anything more than a sucking hole of need disguised as the solicitude of love. It is as if some deep part of the vampire cries, "I will not feed another unless I am fed first! Now. . . who will be willing to feed me? Ah! Here is a tasty morsel! And since it looks to me for love, it will be happy to be exploited if I promise it 'love' in return!"

Maschetti eloquently describes this vicious cycle, in which people wishing for escape
from their painful humanity seek shelter under the inhuman cape of the vampire:
The longing for oblivion. . . must surely be the door through which the victim is invited into the potential victim's life; to take it, annihilate it, and transform it into something supernatural, into a strange sort of existence that runs parallel to human life and yet is irredeemably separate from it, since it feeds on it as its main purpose. In a sense, therefore, the wish for eternal life endowed with superhuman power becomes the greatest sin of the ego. And vampirism then, the punishment of such sin. (1992, 58)

...As Maschetti has observed, the vampire is often an intellectual. His extremely long life, after all, permits him a considerable knowledge of the world around him, of culture, literature, art, and even music. . . .having trespassed the curtain of death, the vampire is endowed with a heightened sense of reality. This would make sense, for the vampire is also more "animal" than an ordinary human being; he is predator, he must kill in order to survive, and therefore he must listen and eye everything around him keenly and attentively in order to fulfill his purpose. He has become, furthermore, a supernatural being, and as such he possesses powers that go far beyond the human capacities we rely on for survival. (1992,62,92)

...At the very least, every person who achieves a position of power in our narcissistic society risks activating the vampire archetype in order to survive. We who serve as food for such charismatic psychic vampires contribute to the problem, for we are inclined to rationalize and even revere their behavior. ...

Each of their adoring fans seems to float along in the belief that, should she encounter such a demigod, she would woo him out of his predatory ways and inspire him to pursue with her a life filled with love and transcendent fulfillment. What a rich resource these worshipers offer the vampire! What a plethora of prey! And the greatest irony of this game is that it is often the noblest of victims who fall most definitively into the charismatic vampire's jaws. It may be that the charismatic vampire, with his apparently godlike power, seems to the noble victim to be someone who can finally match her larger-than-average psychic force. ...

Far more dangerous (particularly for the most conscious of feminine victims), are the noble vampires, who operate under the cloak of valor, integrity, and social approbation. ...The person who slaughters the lambs gives more attention to feeding his charges than to the ax in his hand. Who is to say that the pimp doesn't focus on the bounty of opportunity he extends to his exploited subordinate? Who is to say that the pimp doesn't focus on the roof he puts over the heads of the women whom he bleeds of money and self-esteem? In each of these cases, the vampire may experience actual feelings of care for his victim, as well he should if he is to maximize her nutritional value. Although the vampire is a predator, his actions are not unilaterally predatory; often he behaves with genuine concern for the victim he is about to exploit. And why not? His survival is dependent on the lamb he is fattening for slaughter....

A strong relationship with all of our positive energies, masculine and feminine, is integral to our safety when vampires skulking nearby. ...

Every vampire story is really about the dark shadow that falls across our path as we seek our perfect Beloved. Ah... the Beloved! We all seek that divine entity who will bring our dreams to life and lift us into a state of transcendent bliss. We feel the essence of the archetypal Beloved in every myth, every fairy tale, and every celluloid concoction that shines before us in the perpetual night of the movie theater. For most of us, the search for a loved one is the most compelling pursuit of our lives-the only pursuit that can drive us beyond ourselves as we journey to hell and back. But here's the bad news: the path we walk on our search for our true love makes a perfect hunting ground or hungry vampires....

In its simplest form, the search for the Beloved is born of our human drive to commune with an entity whom we love; who will love us in return. Love, in this sense, is more than a conglomeration of respect, honor, affection, and devotion. These qualities proceed from love, but they are not its essence. This kind love is what we experience when we connect with a being that is greater than ourselves. And here is born a dangerous illusion-we believe that something larger than life can be incarnated in a single person. This is only natural, since we must use the finite shapes of our external experience to comprehend an infinite internal experience. But true love is really much more complex, profound, and transcendent than the repertoire of any mere mortal.

The essence of the archetypal Beloved is as sacred, as vast, and intimate as the soul, which means that our relationship to the loved is most potent when it is not distorted by the human limitations of an external person. In other words, we are most likely to commune with the true Beloved when we turn within and touch that in ourselves which resonates with all that is sacred. This is the part of us that Jung called the Self, but we may also it the soul or the divine. Ecstatic mystics regularly enjoy this kind of intrapsychic soul love, but it is more difficult for the rest of us to achieve because we pay more attention to finite external reality, which is full of compelling sensory distractions. Most of us are not inclined to maintain the mystic's internal focus and spiritual discipline, which are requirements for communing with the Self, so we spend the greater part (if not all) of our lives looking to other people, rather than to our own souls, for our sense of ecstatic communion. This is why most of us come to expect and demand perfect love from the imperfect human mortals on whom we've projected the image of our divine Beloved.

This is not to say that an interpersonal love between two people cannot approximate the potency of communion with the true Beloved. In fact, our feelings of interpersonal love are the experiences that teach most of us how to recognize and nurture, when it finally appears, the small green shoot of intrapsychic love with our true Beloved. We also have a great opportunity to encounter the perfect Beloved during the lonely spaces between our interpersonal love relationships, since these are the periods when we are least distracted by the illusion that some finite human being is our sacred Beloved. Thus, our feelings of interpersonal love can teach us, both by their presence and absence, invaluable lessons about how to commune with the inner Beloved, and therefore it seems appropriate and eve necessary for us to devote some energy to seeking our Beloved in external reality. Unfortunately, when we embark on an external quest for someone to incarnate our Beloved, our path is fraught with several kinds of peril, much of which is vampiric. When we look outside ourselves for a love that will make us whole, we are likely to see our chosen loved one as stronger and healthier than is humanly possible and thus, as capable of rescuing us and making us whole. Psychic vampires adore this setup because they see in it our vulnerability to vampiric seduction....

The most magical traits of any loved one are always the traits, good or bad, that we don't acknowledge in ourselves- in other words, our shadows. Think for a moment. Didn't it ever strike you as odd that some of the people we most adore at one instant are those whom we most detest at another? It is a wry joke of the psyche that our loved ones frequently embody our unacknowledged darkness as well as our unacknowledged light....

As long as some of [our] energies [are] projected on someone else, [we do] not have access to the whole of [our] hearts, which leave [us] in a weakened and yearning state. Second, as long as [we are] desperate to find an external loved one, [we] are inclined to project [our] power onto any warm body that would hold the projection (even if the body was only warmed by stolen blood). And third, once [we have] securely clamped [our] projection onto a new loved one, [we feel] as if [we are] psychically welded to this [loved one] (who, after all, seemed to be our only means of connecting with the energies that we have hidden from ourselves). In this enmeshed state, [we] open wide [our] psychic windows to anyone who could hold our projection of the archetypal Beloved.

This bundle of circumstances is the perfect setup for the vampiric attack. To begin with, all predators target the vulnerable members of the herd, and when we are projecting a portion of our strength onto any external person, we are vulnerable. Moreover, the most lethal predators are those who can make themselves attractive to the intended prey; posing as the perfect Beloved is the best disguise of all. Finally, a predator can do the most damage when the prey has dropped its defenses and admitted the predator into its inner sanctum. Thus, a psychic vampire had only to detect the architect's fervent search for a screen onto whom she could project her inner Beloved. Once he had smelled her desperate yearning, the man could easily metamorphose himself into the kind of man who would meet her criteria for a projection screen. This is easy work for vampires, both mythic and psychic, since all vampires have the predator's keen senses and a talent for shape shifting. And psychic vampires are especially adept at masquerading as the Beloved. Since the vampire appears empty, like a shadow, and we, the human observers, may project whatever form will grip our imagination most. . . . In this complex and disturbing fashion the process of depletion begins, and through this balance of fantasy and reality the vampire sucks not only blood, but the psychic energy 'which controls our mental and physical functions, slowly but surely becoming a perfect projection of our desires. (Maschetti I992, 46)

In the beginning of this relationship, as in the beginning of most relationships with a loved one, the dreaming up was much more pleasant. At first, our loved one seems larger than life in so many delightful ways, and we feel equally transcendent. Both of us experience our capacities to be more compassionate, insightful, and creative than we thought two people could be, freed as we are of our normal capacities to be irritated, demanding, or petty. Our mutual dreaming up elevates us both to be our best selves. It is a blissful exchange of mutual adoration, exaltation, and gratification. ... Pure symbiosis, pure consummation, pure bliss-these are the hallmarks that distinguish both a relationship with an external beloved... The encounter seems impossibly fortunate, impossibly marvelous, impossibly gratifying.

It seems impossible because it is impossible; no one can really be the divinity that we project on our various loved ones. Eventually the person's underlying reality must leak past the projection screen. No matter how much we yearn to believe in our loved 's perfection, or how much we would like to be the paragons of humanity that our beloved projects onto us, no mere mortal can maintain the perfection inherent in a projection. A projection reflects an archetypal energy in the projector's psyche, and while it may resemble a piece of the screenholder's psyche, it is more like a deity than a real person and therefore impossible for a mere mortal to sustain.

A partner who is a psychic vampire will do whatever must be done to maintain the projective exchange, for if we victims see the vampire who stands, like the great and powerful Oz, behind the curtain of our projection, then the spell of interdependent fantasy will be broken. But most of the time, relationship vampires needn't worry that they will be unmasked. We are so convinced our gold lies outside ourselves that we resolutely maintain our projection of Belovedness unless the screen collapses beneath its weight. Of course, simply being the screen for our projections doesn't make someone a vampire. It's just that a vampire's nose is exquisitely attuned to the scent of a projection trying to happen. When vampires sniff one out, they fly to its source, shifting their shapes en route to fit the budding projection. The vampire arrives, on time and on target, as the perfect loved one for whom we have yearned. That is why it is important for us to identify and deactivate the psychic vampires who feed on our love, no matter how reluctant we may be to engage in the task of vampire killing.

Whenever we contemplate killing the psychic vampire, we must remember that "killing" any aspect of the psyche only means that we are transforming its energy into another, preferably healthier, incarnation. For example, through inner work, we can transform what was once an easily provoked, killing rage into a manageable anger that is actually helpful and constructive. Thus, the goal of psychic vampire killing is not really to eradicate the vampirically infected traits in ourselves or someone else, but rather to "kill" their old, contaminated form and give birth to their more healthful incarnations. And whether we find the contaminated trait in ourselves or someone we love, killing a psychic vampire always involves reliving old emotions, acknowledging all of what we seek and fear, grieving our losses, and rejoicing in our gains. It requires us to make an ongoing series of ethical decisions that ask us to choose between working toward transformation or surrendering to the vampire. Vampire killing requires us to go back to the moment when we couldn't find love and settled for exploitation, it challenges us to make the choice again, and again, and again. As Linda Leonard has astutely observed, we can prevail against: the vampire archetype only if "we are willing to consciously fight this battle, not just once but daily" (1986, 107).

Several factors make killing the psychic vampire a particularly difficult kind of transformative work. First, pulling back our projection of the archetypal Beloved usually feels like we are losing the external loved one. Under the weight of this depressing illusion, we usually do whatever we can to preserve the relationship, however vampiric it may be. Second, our psychic vampires usually have infected parts of our own or our loved one's psyche, and it feels as if we will kill off those vital parts when we kill the vampire who infects them. But when we kill an infection in our finger, it means, not that the finger will die, but that the finger can now resume its normal and proper function. Likewise, the vampire's death permits the infected traits to regain their health.

We face a third problem when the amount of vampirism in our past has been extreme. We whose childhoods have been haunted by psychic vampires have been the target, not of well-meaning people who hurt us primarily through ignorance, but of people who reduced us to objects and exploited our life force simply to serve their own needs. Consequently, we may have little experience of positive, loving energy to use now as a source of hope and guidance. Our work of searching our adult experience for a model of redemptive love is made difficult because people we trusted in our early years tried to exploit us, and the wounded part of us is now loathe ever to trust anyone again.

A fourth element that deters us from vampire-killing is the fact that our early encounters with vampiric energy were packaged as a lie, and we felt that our survival was dependent on playing along with the vampire. The vampire promised us power as a superior alternative to love, using the words of love to draw us in. Feeling obliged to believe the vampire's deceit, we fashioned a beautiful mask for the monster so we wouldn’t have to see its bloodsucking truth. The mask may bear the image of the Beloved Mother or Father or Child or Lover or Leader, all of whom we carry in our hearts and seek in the external world. In order to destroy the vampire, we must focus on the vampiric truth that lies underneath whatever mask we have created. This means giving up our belief that the mask reflected the vampire's essence and that the vampire's truth was a loving truth. In other words, we must give up something we never really had.

In one sense, giving up something we never had is much like giving up something we actually had in the first place. We make the rounds of loss that Elisabeth Kubler-Ross has so insightfully identified. We must rage and grieve and deny and rage and accept and grieve some more, until the loss has been psychically metabolized. But when we give up something we never had, we must also embrace the painful truth that led us to create the lovely mask of illusion in the first place. This is terribly difficult work. At first it seems like a task without recompense (aside from the death of the vampire, which in the moment may feel more like a loss than a liberation). However, there are two huge benefits from the bitter task of killing our comforting but dangerously deceptive illusions about the vampire.

First, the illusions themselves tell us precisely what we need in the way of mothering, fathering, friendship, or love. What we thought we had in the external mother, father, friend, or lover is the image of the energy we need to find in reality-both in our external relationships and activities, and in our internal experience of image and feeling. Thus, when we find ourselves bitterly disappointed in a person, a pursuit, or ourselves, we can use whatever it was we were expecting as a map home to the inner Beloved, who can give us the love we truly want and need. To perform this task, we must bring our idealized images to life by alternately being them and relating to them. For example, if your mother was vampiric and your mask for her was nourishing, then nourish yourself as you thought she was nourishing you. If your father was vampiric and your mask for him was instructive, then instruct yourself as you thought he was instructing you. If your lover was vampiric and your mask for your lover was comforting, then comfort yourself as you thought he or she was comforting you. The ideals that inspire our masks in the first place are part of what Jung called the collective unconscious, the deep part of our psyche that holds the elemental shapes of all human experience, including the Beloved Mother, Father, Child, Lover, and Leader. While it is a bitter disappointment to find that our projection of these sacred entities has served as a mask for the vampire, it also can be profoundly comforting to learn that, no matter what, we carry each Beloved entity's true essence inside ourselves.

The second benefit of tearing off the vampire's mask is that it encourages the loving soul of the vampiric person to be reanimated. Because the vampire archetype is rarely activated all the time, the vampiric person's soul occasionally shines through. Often, that soul has inspired us to project the Beloved mask in the first place. But any projection actually muzzles the screenholder's soul, since no one's idiosyncratic humanity can live up to our impossibly perfect projection. When we tear the mask off the vampire, we also tear the muzzle off the person's soul, which may then sing through in its own unique glory, liberated from both its vampiric invader and our impossible ideals. ... When we pull back our projections and cherish some one's truth (including our own) rather than defending our comforting illusions, we invoke the innate healing power of that person's psyche.

...Placing the onus of vampire killing on those whom the vampire has most depleted may seem unjust, but the very task of deactivating our vampiric predators and reclaiming our own power is integral to healing our wounds.

If, for example, we feel that the pain of our incest experiences will only be healed by compensatory acts by the abuser, then we are continuing to give the perpetrator an unhealthy amount of power over us. Where is the healing retrieval of power in that scenario? Or if we feel that the pain of a parent's rejection can only be healed by the parent's acceptance, then the power still lies with the parent, and not where it belongs-in ourselves. Of course, we can't invoke the appropriate healing force unless we understand the wound we are healing, but if we probe the wound endlessly and wait for someone else to fix the damage, then we are only cooperating with the vampire. As we linger and probe, we only bleed more profusely, and eventually we may be desperate enough to seek "rescue" from the very entity who desires to lap up our blood. Our wounding may be the vampire's fault, but the wound is inevitably ours, and so is the responsibility for killing the vampire.

This is not to say that we must do all this vampire killing alone. Indeed, we are advised, both in lore and in psyche, to seek stalwart allies. Loyal friends, wise teachers, skillful bodyworkers, and insightful therapists can be valuable allies on our journey. But it is up to us, the vampire's victims, to lead the charge, if only in spirit and intent.

One rule always applies when psychic vampires haunt our personal relationships: we protect ourselves against vampirism in our relationships whenever we pull back our projections of the inner Beloved and become aware of how our projection reflects the parts of ourselves that we have denied. ...

Let me describe this process by telling you about what a friend of mine did when she finally grew tired of the vampirism she suffered as a result of projecting her inner Beloved onto external men. First of all, this gracious woman accepted some advice from a nosy friend (ahem) and decided to pull back her projections and seek the Beloved within. This meant that whenever she was caught in the throes of passion, particularly when the passion could not be lived out, my friend reminded herself that she was, in fact, brushing up against a sweet projection of her inner Beloved. In order to get to know her inner Beloved better (and, incidentally, ease the pain of her impossible passion), my friend attempted to become the person by whom she was mesmerized. Usually, this meant manifesting in herself the traits which she found most admirable in the object of her affections. Of course, when her obsession was one of hatred, she grudgingly recognized that she had to identify in herself some manifestation, however subtle, of the traits that she detested in the other person. Either way, the purpose of my friend's exercise was to reclaim as her own the traits that she had projected onto an external person. Not only did this resolve her obsession and give her access to the full power of her psyche, but she found it a powerful way to ward off psychic vampires. The more she pulled back her projections and mined her own psychic gold, the less likely she was to select vampiric men in her desperation to find a projection screen.

Although mining her psychic gold was highly rewarding, my friend found that, like the mining of literal gold, it entailed a lot of difficult, unpleasant work in the dark. In plumbing the depths of her psyche for traits that she had previously denied in herself, she had to brave the reasons that she denied those traits in the first place. Because rejected traits are usually stuffed into unconsciousness along with one's earliest, most painful emotions, my friend's trait-reclaiming exercises were often dreary little picnics. What's more, once she had redeemed her intrinsic power, my friend had to see her external projections for what they were smoke and mirrors that disguised her lovers' imperfect human reality. Initially, this new perspective dropped my friend into despair, since it forced her give up her illusion of a Perfect Lover in exchange for a simple, flawed mortal. Her awakening was no easier when her projection had been a negative one, for she had to give up her illusion of a Detestable Fiend for a simple, blundering human being. When we are in a vampiric relationship, we are usually ravenous for love (which is why we are being vampiric in the first place), and unfamiliar with love's reality (since it's hard to be familiar with something we have never known). Thus, when we pull back our projections, we are likely to feel as if we have been dropped to a pit of oblivion, for there is seldom more than mutual feeding behind the projections. This is exactly how my friend felt. And since her socialization (like so many of ours) had taught her to view the outer reality as the only reality, the realization that her images of her external lovers were mostly composed of her projections made my friend feel as if she would never meet another man she could love. At all. Ever. The truth was that her inner Beloved was, in many ways, more present for her than the men onto whom she had projected Belovedness (though it took her a while to believe that truth). What's more, once my friend had discovered her inner Beloved, she found that she could savor his reflection (not projection) in real men, whom she no longer felt compelled to love vampirically. My friend's initial contact with her inner Beloved came in a dream about an enchanting stranger, and later, in her fantasies about a variety of external men. But the source of her images of the Beloved was not the important part. What was important that becoming familiar with the shape of her inner Beloved enhanced the "reality" of his gifts to her; his words and gestures took on more and more weight as she came to believe in him, which in turn enabled him to show her what it is on the inside that she had been seeking on the outside.

The inner Beloved is an archetypal energy that usually appears to us in the form of a person. We may sense the inner Beloved in a dream or a story or a film or an individual, but the archetype's essence is usually a composite of several images. If we want to know the shape of our inner Beloved, we must first do what my friend did-pull together and contemplate several images of the Beloved that we have projected. Not all such images are the romantic kind; they may be parental, professional, even political. For any type of projection, we should focus on the images of all the people whom we have felt could fill us with self-respect and self-love. Although they may seem unrelated at first, the energies we perceive in them will eventually coalesce into a coherent, though complex, entity who will symbolize our personal archetype of the Beloved.

For my friend, this work of getting acquainted with her inner Beloved initially felt like an exercise in pure fantasy. As her Beloved eventually assumed a more concrete shape, he came to offer her a wealth of information and support. My friend found that all his input was extremely important and lovingly framed, though some of it was initially difficult for her to accept-sometimes because it showed her something negative that she didn't want to see, and sometimes because it showed her something positive that she was afraid to believe was real. In every case, however, my friend's inner Beloved presented his truth with unswerving love and deep compassion. In the end, he became her constant companion-the lover who would never desert or betray her, who would never deceive or use her, who would never dominate or exploit her. (When any of these ugly behaviors seemed to be creeping into her Beloved fantasies, she quickly checked for vampires.) And the more "real" my friend's inner Beloved became to her, the more he was able to guide her to external men who resembled him, while his love for her kept her from clinging projectively to the men she found. Of course, this process was a bit trickier than it sounds. For example, my friend initially tried to find her inner Beloved without any outside input, and she was seduced by her inner vampire into believing that he, a demon lover, was her Beloved. My friend found that she was less likely to go astray once she solicited the help of a therapist, which makes sense, since outside observers can often give us a clearer view of our inner Beloved, just as they can for an outer loved one. Because vampires always try to isolate their prey, a third person can help break their hypnotic spell. This may be why vampiric people like to isolate themselves with their victims away from the intruding eyes of the victim's friends.

Once my friend became acquainted with her true inner Beloved-that is, once he seemed more solid and "real"-she began the second stage of their relationship. She now took a bit of time each day to become her inner Beloved, and another bit of time to commune with her inner Beloved. Again this initially felt to her like an exercise in perpetual fantasizing, but then she said to herself, "Isn't this what I do anyway when I am smitten with an external lover? I'm constantly thinking, 'What would he say, think, do, feel, or advise in any given situation, about any given topic? And how would I respond?' " Only this time, my friend was not imagining how an external person might respond. This time, her Beloved actually was all she imagined.

Because our inner Beloveds usually look like a person of the same sex as the people onto whom we have been projecting Belovedness, the inner Beloved of my friend appeared to her as a man. Although these human forms are common images of the Beloved, they are by no means its only forms. I have seen clients in whom the Beloved initially appeared in the form of an animal, or a tree or a geological structure. And our inner Beloved may be reflected in political, religious, professional, or familial relationships, as well as in our love relationships with a mate. To find our personal forms of the inner Beloved, we must first identify the ways in which we expect our lovers, parents, bosses, or leaders to fix or complete us-the ways in which they seem to be more divine than we feel we are ourselves. Seeking those qualities in our own psyches, we then weave our new recognition of our own divinity into a coherent shape of the inner Beloved, using our projective fantasies about our external lovers, parents, bosses, or leaders.

In whatever form or venue our inner Beloved is reflected, he or she bears the same attitude toward us. The Beloved is a being who honors our sacredness, inspires and protects us, offers us dignity and devotion, and helps us to transform ourselves into the people we were born to be. No wonder we seek the Beloved so fiercely, projecting Belovedness onto any serviceable screen in the external reality. No wonder, too, that anyone who attempts to hold our Beloved projection will inevitably fail at the task. And yet, we wonder, must we forgo all projective love so that we and our loved ones will be safe from psychic vampirism? Must we utterly abandon our search for a Beloved in the external world?

We can begin to form an answer by remembering that no external person can be the true Beloved-the inner reason for our being and our external loves are not the whole story but echoes of a larger, deeper experience. And when we become captivated by our projections and blind to the psychic vampirism in our relationships, we must remember above all that the divinity we perceive is actually our own. This is what I think the Jungian analyst Robert Johnson means when he says, "Romance must, by its very nature, deteriorate into egotism. . . the passion of romance is always directed at our own projections, our own expectations, our own fantasies. In a very real sense, it is a love not of another person, but of ourselves" (1983, 193).

Johnson's words reflect a core truth for those of us who are able to honor the humanity of people who reflect some aspect of our Beloved only after we have reclaimed the Beloved within ourselves. The relationship that we finally achieve in this case, in which we engage with the other person in a profound exchange of respect and affection, but not projective love, is what Johnson describes as "stirring-the-oatmeal-love." "Oatmeal love" is usually not as thrilling or enchanting as projective love, but it is a most sacred form of relationship, for as Johnson observes, it "affirms the person who is actually there, rather than the ideal we would like him or her to be or the projection that flows from our minds" (191). Oatmeal love and projective love, Johnson concludes, "are utterly opposed energetically, natural enemies with completely opposing motives" (I97). Certainly, Johnson's words reflect a deep truth about human love, but they do not address the role of love as a facilitator of psychic growth. As much as we may wish to minimize the psychic vampirism in our relationships, it is not always possible or appropriate to eradicate every archetypal dance of projected Belovedness and snuggle into the comfortable simplicity of oatmeal love. For one thing, our inner psychic processes often require some mirroring external manifestation in order for us to work with them. For example, we sometimes need to have an external argument with another person that mirrors an internal conflict in our psyches in order to fully grasp and resolve the nature of that inner conflict. In the same way, some of us can find our way home to the inner Beloved only through the echoes of Belovedness in our external relationships. These external mirrors of our internal reality are particularly important for those of us who are extroverted-that is, for those of us who more easily find meaning in the events of external reality. We who are extroverts by nature or training are more inclined to become acquainted with our inner Beloved when the aspects of that archetype are reflected in our external loves.

In addition, all of us may need to do some projecting in our relationships for spiritual reasons. Communing with our inner Beloved is much like communing with the divine. In contemporary Western society, many of us no longer pursue this transcendent spiritual goal primarily through religious practices. Rather than kneeling at the altar of orthodox religion, as our ancestors did, we kneel at the altar of love, and we practice our new form of ecstatic, mystical worship in our external relationships. We look to our loved ones for our images of a loving divinity, and when we see our projected divinity reflected in their faces, we blissfully commune with its energy until the projection fails. Robert Johnson deplores this development and exhorts us to turn within, back to the altar of our loving souls. In other words, Johnson would have us all seek the inner Beloved, invariably and constantly, thereby forgoing the very real dangers of projective love. This is great work if you can do it, but it is not a path that everyone can take. Some of us must manifest some of our worshipful loving and our spiritual growth-in the mirror of our external loves before we can experience them within ourselves.

Manifesting our spiritual growth in our external loves presents us with a serious challenge. Any path of spiritual growth (which some call "redemption" or "salvation" and the Jungians call "individuation") can have a heavenly outcome, but it always entails some time in hell. When our loving relationships serve as our paths of spiritual growth, they are likely to entail some hell time as well-a reality blatantly incompatible with our culture's notions of love. As the Jungian analyst Adolf Guggenbtihl-Craig has observed, our culture tells us that love is supposed to be a relationship of well-being, in which both people in the relationship feel consistently happy and satisfied. Of course, some sense of well-being is an essential component of every enduring relationship-otherwise it would only be a short-lived tempest of mutual projection. The image of love as a path of continual well-being is problematic, however, when our love relationships are also the arenas in which we must struggle toward individuation, redemption, and salvation, as they must often be, according to Guggenbtihl-Craig: For us the question is, has [love] to do with well-being or with salvation? . . . Individuation is not individualism. . . . Every single soul has a part in the collective soul. . . . An egoistic individuation of a single person as a private pastime is therefore hardly conceivable. . . . The life-long dialectical encounter between two partners. . . can be understood as a special path for discovering the soul, as a special form of individuation. . . that portion of human motivation that presses toward salvation. (1977, 34, 35, 36, 38, 4)

Guggenbtihl-Craig's provocative words combine with Johnson's views to convey a more complete sense about the role of love in our psychic health and development. Oatmeal love is like a foundation of rock on which our relationships may safely rest. Yet, even on the sturdy footing of oatmeal love, some experiences and emotions stand out in their capacity to move us. These exceptional events tell us that some of our unrecognized internal forces are attempting to express and transform themselves. Internal forces of this kind are archetypal processes that we dare not ignore, and in many cases, they can be worked through only within the context of our personal relationships. For example, one man I know had spent years reflecting, with courage and honesty, on his relationship with his vampiric mother, but it was only when he fell in love with a wise, loving woman that he was able to work through (and out of) the destructive patterns of behavior that he had developed in response to his maternal psychic vampire.

Similarly, the patterns of archetypal energy that we manifest in our relationships can be powerful teachers in our pursuit of spiritual growth. Several ways in which this can occur are presented by the Jungian analyst Verena Kast in her compelling book The Nature of Loving (1986). Kast describes six mythic couples and discusses how their relationships can be manifested in the relationships of real human beings. In particular, Kast describes ways in which her clients have used these images to comprehend the powerful psychic forces moving in their partners and themselves. Kast demonstrates how a conscious, well- monitored exchange of archetypal projection can illuminate the psyches of both participants in a way that individual reflection and therapy cannot. As you probably know from personal experience, we often find ourselves manifesting feelings and behaviors in relationship that we would never manifest in the insular state of emotional detachment. Sometimes we seem to be horrifyingly worse in relationship than we ever could have imagined being in solitude. But sometimes our, relationships evoke in us a magnificence of soul that we might never have achieved alone. As Kast observes, a secret aspect of love is its power to grant us the vision and courage to see something in a partner which that person may have sensed but perhaps may never have known had it not been lovingly suggested by another. . . . through love, we envision the best possibilities in the beloved and give that person the feeling that those possibilities can be realized. (1986, 5) ...

In other words, when we project an aspect of our divine Beloved onto another person, our projection may resonate with some aspect of the person's actual divinity-an aspect that the person couldn't have seen or manifested in solitude. As a result of our projection, the other person's divine aspect might actually be activated as a real force in his or her own psyche; that is, it might "rise to the occasion" of our projection. To whatever degree the other person can maintain the activation of that divine energy, without relying on our projection, the divine energy may serve to vanquish a vampire in that person's psyche. In this case, projection becomes a conscious gift of love, not an unconscious tool of exploitation.

The metaphorical fire that can kill a psychic vampire is the deceptively simple heat generated by the touching of two human souls. If our love can manage to touch the loving soul of the vampiric person, and if that person's soul can be induced to vibrate in resonance with ours, then her vampire archetype can possibly be neutralized. Remember that the vampiric person has settled for exploitation because she experienced a lack of human warmth and compassion. When she encounters the compassionate warmth that is kindled in the fire of connecting souls, she may perceive a new opportunity to choose between love and exploitation. And this time, she may choose differently-she may choose to seek and receive the love that was unavailable the first time she chose.

The image of human warmth as a curative force resonates with the words of Alice Miller in her book For Your Own Good. Miller argues that much of our inhuman treatment of others may be seen as a way to recreate our past victimization in the external reality, in an effort to externalize and "master" it, much as traumatized children attempt to recreate and master their trauma in their play activities. In Miller's view, when our psyches are structured by childhood abuse to perceive the world in terms of predator and victim, we will repeatedly create victims in the external reality so that we can be constantly reassured that we are no longer victims ourselves. Miller asserts that we will only reduce our inhuman behavior when we have touched the emotional memory of the victims that we once were. Integrating Miller's view with the vampire metaphor, we can say that a psychic vampire will cease to prey upon others only when he can, through the compassionate intervention of a loving force, feel his own victimization as a child and, at the same time, feel compassion for the victim that he was as a child. Once the old pain has been touched and grieved, the vampiric person can revisit his early decision to settle for exploitation over love. Of course, he may choose once more to identify with the cold power of the vampire. But then again, he may choose to recommit to the warmth of human love.

There is a second kind of fire that can kill a vampire: the blaze of a soul that is burning with the passion of its destiny. This kind of passionate flame is usually ignited by a vision of our inner nature, independent of vampiric influence. When we are moved by this vision, we feel a reverence for the energies in ourselves and others that glow with their own light, untouched by ambition or pride. As we contemplate the glow of these special energies, we become more conscious of the ways in which we and our loved ones exude coldness or warmth, which makes it easier to distinguish between the chill of vampirism and the warmth of human connection. When we choose the warmth of connectedness, we and our loved ones have the opportunity to wear the faces we had before we were conceived.

When we live as the people we were born to be, we are most truly and intensely alive. In contrast, the vampire is human anti-matter. He lives only by killing. . . He does not even die, as a man does: he is undead. He is, in other words, a pure inversion. There is no anomie, no alienation, as great as the vampire's; he is the alienation of man, and that alienation is potentially immortal. He is ultimately exploitative-a spreading center of alienation, despoiling others of their very lives and identities too. (Dresser I989, 161-62)

If the vampire is the antithesis of life, then it stands to reason that the essence of life-that which gives our lives power and meaning-is poison to the vampire. Thus, doing what we were born to do is lethal to our psychic vampires. The more we incarnate our destiny and pursue that which gives meaning to our lives-not through our acquired preoccupations, but through our innate giftedness-the more likely we will be to kill our vampires with the cremating fire of love.

Whether we generate a vampire-killing fire by touching other souls with our own (even in projective love) or by incarnating our innate gifts, the potency of our loving fire lies in its capacity to connect us to that which is greater than ourselves. When we allow ourselves to fully experience our projective love for another person, we sense that we are somehow touching a form of divinity that we cannot control or create. We wonder, Where does this enormous feeling come from? And where might it take us if we allowed it to guide us? Similarly, when we bring an inner passion into the world and retain some humility in the process, we are likely to sense that we are being guided by a vision of what is possible, more than by our notions of what is reasonable. We wonder again, Where does this vision come from? And where is it taking us?...

Now, let me say again, and most emphatically, that this journey is extremely perilous, and in order to win our way through to the divine, we must be heavily armed against the beast. But the fact remains that when the vampire lures us into the place, where visions and nightmares coexist, we may discover our vision of our divinity and thus come home to ourselves. In this sense, the fire can occasionally be, as Mephistopheles describes himself to Faust, "a living part of that power which perpetually thinks Evil and does Good," and our journey into its lethal realm can be the path to our redemption. When I contemplate this perilous journey, I am reminded (as I often have been during the writing of this book) of another perilous journey that was born in the mind of J. R. R. Tolkien during the dark days of the Second War. It was a journey taken by two men, an elf, a dwarf, and four little beings called hobbits, who crawled together a perilous landscape in order to destroy the power of the Lord the Rings. In Tolkien's story, as in his world, war was being waged between exploitation and love, and in both wars, many souls were irreparably wounded or irretrievably lost. So it is along our journey through the vampire's realm. For one of us who finds our way home along the perilous path love, many others in our ranks will bleed away our lives into the maw of the bloodsucking beast. We will rush into the vampire's arms with a host of hungers-hunger for the Beloved, hunger for perfection, hunger for immortality, hunger for meaning, and hunger, hunger, hunger for the divine. In the realm of the vampire, our hungers will be rendered unholy. They will savage our souls and deplete our life force, even as we seek our living divinity. Only if we can recognize and resist the vampire's seduction only if we devote ourselves to love instead of exploitation, will our hungers be satisfied in a holy way. In the end, we must come to terms with the fact that the beast has always been with us and that it will be with us forever, plotting its next bloody feast. This is not necessarily a story without hope, nor is it a night without a dawn. But if we wish to survive the vampiric darkness savor the light of true love, we must first come to terms with vampire's unholy hunger.

Some of the information truly requires further research and reading in order to fully understand the implications involved. For example, you can't redeem a psychopath or malignant narcissist, but a very wounded person has the potential to be redeemed. A wounded person projects her or his "Inner-Beloved", as Barbara Hort calls it, into their relationships. What is more, conditional love by a pathological environment is truly damaging to the self and when this happens we recreate unconsciously that form of conditional "non-love" in our relationships and romantic lives, making us susceptible to pathological people.

I tried to synthesize here some material and I recommend further reading which is definitely useful to understand obsessive love, wounded people, and pathological personalities. Please don't hesitate to dig deeper, it can truly change your life.

Knowledge can protect you and it can be your savior if applied. Reading and digesting the psychology books like Unholy Hungers can really help you since it is about "real vampires" and about how projected romantic love can be actualized within the self. But also other recommended psychology books can be equally and even more illuminating, as well as the psychopathy material.

Further Reading

Women Who Loved Psychopaths: Inside the Relationships of Inevitable Harm by Sandra Brown.

In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People by George Simon

Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths by Robert Hare

Mask of Sanity by Hervey Cleckley PDF copy.

Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths go to Work by Paul Babiak and Robert Hare

Women Who Love Too Much by Robin Norwood

Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

On the Way to the Wedding: Transforming the Love Relationship by Linda Leonard

If You Had Controlling Parents by Dan Neuharth

Love's Executioner and Other Psychotherapy Tales by Irvin Yalom

Myth of Sanity: Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness by Martha Stout

Unholy Hungers: Encountering the Psychic Vampire in Ourselves & Others by Barbara Hort.

Children of Trauma: Rediscovering Your Discarded Self by Jane Middelton-Moz

The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self by Alice Miller

The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatment by Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman and Robert M. Pressman

Why Is It Always About You? by Sandy Hotchkiss

Trapped in the Mirror by Elan Golomb

How to Spot a Dangerous Man Before You Get Involved by Sandra Brown

Are You the One for Me?: Knowing Who's Right and Avoiding Who's Wrong by Barbara De Angelis

The Inner Landscape of the Psychopath

The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N. Aron

Get Me Out of Here: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder by Rachel Reiland

Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain by Sue Gerhardt

Deep Therapy in the Fast Lane by Restin Wells

Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior...and Feel Great Again by Jeffrey E. Young, Ph.D. and Janet S. Klosko, Ph.D

Shame & Guilt: Masters of Disguise by Jane Middelton-Moz

Word gets around: Twilight and the trick of the psychopaths

The Trick of the Psychopath's Trade: Make Us Believe that Evil Comes from Others by Silvia Cattori.

On Primary Integration, psychopathy and average person

2008-05-04T16:11:00.003+02:00

By Elizabeth Mika
November 2002
link

The concept of integration in psychology has predominantly positive connotations, usually describing a state conducive to coherent, predictable and effective functioning of an individual in the world. Disintegration, on the other hand, is typically considered a negative and undesirable aspect of human existence, characterized by lack of coherence, chaos and general ineffectiveness. Dabrowski’s aim was to show that both concepts as descriptions of psychological states can have either positive or negative meaning, depending on their role in individual development.

The term ‘primary integration’ denotes a type of a character structure and/or state of being not amenable to growth through positive disintegration. It is a concept derived from and of particular importance to developmental psychopathology. As Dabrowski writes, “The concepts of integration and disintegration are typical ‘growing’ concepts which develop in proportion to the development of psychology and psychopathology of higher mental functions.” (Dabrowski et al., 1973, p. 45). Dabrowski designed the first level of development, level 1, as the level of primary integration.

In TPD, primary integration, also called ‘negative integration,’ is a state contrary to development, which, in its extreme, characterizes severe forms of emotional and mental retardation. In Dabrowski’s words, “The concept of negative integration is indispensable to the understanding of psychopathy, some global forms of mental retardation and rigid mental structures which do not present development or only weak or partial forms of development.” (ibid., p.40)

In cases of psychopathy (emotional retardation), we find a distinct unification of psychological functions into a coherent character structure, where intelligence is subsumed under control of primitive egocentric drives and instincts such as the instinct of self-preservation or primitive sexual instinct. “Negative integration is a primitive, inflexible structure of functions, which shows a low level of narrow rigid organization of primitive, impulsive, nondevelopmental forces, with intelligence subordinated to those forces.” (Dabrowski et al. 1973, p. 40)

From the point of view of emotional development, psychopathy is characterized chiefly by the inability to experience empathy and guilt, two emotions crucial for development of a conscience and growth through positive disintegration. Empathy, and related to it an ability to experience feelings of guilt, act as disintegrative factors toward primitive, instinctively based behaviors, and thus introduce elements of inner conflict and inhibition, which are absent in psychopathic individuals.

For a long time, empathy and guilt were considered to be distinctly human emotions, not found in the animal world. Modern research in behavioral biology disputes the human uniqueness of both, showing that an ability to experience empathy and guilt is characteristic for animals as well (Preston, S., de Waal, F., 2002; O’Connor, L., personal communication). Experimental evidence, gathered through a decades-long research, reveals that in many species empathy toward another animal in distress overrides even instinct of self-preservation, leading to actions directed at relieving another’s suffering even if such actions cost the “rescuer’s” life. Moreover, many animal species can be taught to respond with empathy to distress of another (Preston and de Waal, ibid., 2002). Available data strongly support the contention that empathy is “a phylogenetically continuous phenomenon” existing in different degrees in nonhuman species (Preston, de Waal, p. 284), a view expressed already by Darwin in his 1871 work, “The Descent of Man.”

But perhaps even more thought-provoking than examples of empathy in animals are instances of failure of empathy in people. As psychological research shows, and daily experiences prove over and over again, empathy in human beings, although apparently hard-wired into our nature by selective pressures of the evolutionary history, is a relatively fragile trait, easily extinguished by such powerful motivators as fear, desire to dominate and control, and a need to submit and to belong. In an average person, empathy is limited to his closest circle of relatives and friends, and rarely stretches beyond the confines of his private world. This explains the ease with which many can dismiss the needs of “the other” who does not belong to their own group, and engage in most violent acts toward him without feeling much guilt. Examples of war atrocities, everyday violence, and indifference to pain and suffering of others, provide enough evidence of the fragility of human empathy. A somewhat different, though related phenomenon is the failure of empathy toward one’s closest relatives, despite one’s professed and enacted love for humanity at large – a trait frequently found in some social reformers, spiritual leaders and other eminent individuals with narcissistic character structures.

It is important then that the ability to experience empathy, apparently universal in group-living species, be distinguished from empathy as a dynamism of conscious personality development postulated by Dabrowski. Even though the capacity for empathy (and guilt, in some primates) is based on the same psychobiological factors common in species which develop complex systems of social interactions, only in a relatively small group of people it is coupled with cognitive complexity that gives it the strength and conscious, autonomous dimensions necessary to make it a major guiding factor in personality growth.

Degrees of primary integration

Although primary integration describes level 1 and thus encompasses the majority of individuals in the present human society, people existing in primary (negative) integration do not form a homogenous group. According to Dabrowski, there are degrees of primary integration, just like there are degrees of disintegration. An overwhelming majority of people possess some developmental potential, which means that they have some capability for positive disintegration. Dabrowski also notes that a great majority of people also exhibit some psychopathic traits; but only constitutional psychopaths and persons with global mental retardation are so highly integrated that they are incapable of any degree of development.

Based on the degree of integration and disintegration, Dabrowski described the following groups of people inhabiting level 1:

1. Psychopath and psychopath-like individual.

2. Borderline between average person and psychopath.

3. Average person.

4. Borderline between average person and psychoneurotic (Dabrowski, 1986).

The above groups differ in the degree of integration: from the high degree in psychopaths and psychopath-like persons to a less rigid integration in average persons; and still less integrated character structures in those who possess some symptoms of nervousness, which predispose them to positive disintegration (even if this disintegration is limited in its scope and transformational strength, never reaching beyond unilevelness).

The table below illustrates an approximate distribution of different developmental categories along the integration/disintegration continuum. (Please note that as a rough approximation, the table does not provide exact proportions of the listed categories as they occur on any given level of development; nor it exhausts many different developmental and psychopathological combinations observed in people. Development through positive disintegration, although conceptually divided into discreet levels, in reality occurs largely along the integration/disintegration continuum, with varying degrees of both present in most people who possess any measure of developmental potential.)

Secondary Integration	Level 5	Personality exemplars
½	Level 4	Developing personalities
ML disintegration	Level 3	Psychoneurotics
½	Level 2	Neurotics, mentally ill
½		Borderline of average person and (psycho)neurotic	ü
Disintegration			½
½		Average person	ý Statistical norm
½			÷
½		Borderline of psychopath and average person	þ
Primary Integration	Level 1	Psychopaths

Dabrowski maintained that the more individuals on the borderline of the average person and neurotics/ psychoneurotics, the healthier the society and the better the chances that its most creative and developmentally advanced members will be recognized and appreciated for the universal human values they embody in their lives.

The more so-called ‘normal’ individuals bordering psychopathy, the greater possibilities of serious social maladies, since a society structured around low level values, represented most vividly in actions of prominent psychopaths, will create and foster “suffering, mass terror, violent oppression, genocide and the decay of civilization.” (Dabrowski et al. 1973, p.40)

Average person and psychopath

The distinction between these two categories, although subtle in Dabrowski’s thought, is nevertheless important. As mentioned above, psychopaths are characterized by a strong degree of primary integration, defined here as the propensity to act on low level instincts, without possibilities of experiencing disintegrative influences of such emotions as empathy and guilt. Psychopathy is an example of either none or extremely weak developmental potential; or of negative developmental potential, if the primarily integrated character structure includes a-developmental components of overexcitabilities, namely of psychomotor and sensual OE.

An average person, in Dabrowski’s understanding, possesses some, albeit limited, developmental potential. Thus a character structure of an average person is amenable to certain disintegrative experiences, which may lead to the rise of unilevel developmental dynamisms. But experiences of disintegration in average people will not reach the breadth and depth necessary for the developmental leap toward multilevelness, even though they may lead to a certain sensitization to their inner and external environment, and occasionally awaken creative strivings. Neither their creativity, nor sensitivity, however, will assume multilevel and multidimensional proportions easily observable in psychoneurotics driven by the instinct of self-perfection. Despite often strong suffering and inner chaos associated with unilevel disintegrative experiences in some average people, their limited developmental potential places constraints on their personal growth. And so strivings toward transcending one’s psychological type and the biological life cycle, based on conscious efforts at autopsychotherapy and self-education, are generally absent in an average person. (It is important to note that the term “average person” is a concept designed to reflect statistical norm, and just like developmental levels, it does not have a tangible representation in reality. Any ‘average person’ we pick from a crowd of so-called ‘average people’ represents unique, unrepeatable characteristics tied closely to his unrepeatable life history, irreducible to conceptual shorthand.)

Even though both an average person and a psychopath inhabit level 1, primary integration, they function differently most of the time. While a psychopath’s actions are expressive of negative maladjustment (disregard for social norms and conventions in pursuit of one’s own egocentric goals), an average person represents negative adjustment (typically a faithful, often unreflective adherence to social mores). The difference between the two, though disappearing in times of social upheaval and disorder, is the difference between evil and (often harmless, sometimes not) complacency toward the societal and personal status quo. And although an average person is closer in his developmental trajectory to a psychopath than to a psychoneurotic, abolishing all distinctions between them (i.e. between psychopath and average person) is unwarranted in light of TPD.

More on Dabrowski’s views of psychopathy

Occasionally, we can hear that Dabrowski used a unique definition of psychopathy in his writings, one that would justify putting a psychopath and an average person in the same category. This is not so. Dabrowski’s views on psychopathy closely reflect contemporary knowledge about this condition, making them very relevant to today’s clinical practice.

Psychopathy is historically the oldest personality disorder described in psychiatric literature. Its validity has been supported by both clinical and research data. Although no longer officially included in the current classification of mental disorders, it still serves an important function and many advocate for its return to the official diagnostic nomenclature as the “clinical construct whose time has come” (Hare, 1996). From Pinel’s “insanity without delirium;” through all-inclusive “moral insanity” proposed by J.C. Prichard, and Lombroso’s examples of “born delinquents,” who were “emotionally hyperactive, temperamentally irascible, impetuous in action, and deficient in altruistic feelings” (Millon, 1998, p.7); the clinical picture of psychopathy evolved in the last two centuries toward contemporary definitions, rooted in clinical descriptions of Cleckley (1976) and Hare (1993). A documented progression of this conceptual evolution is the subject of “Historical Conceptions of Psychopathy in the United States and Europe” by T. Millon, E. Simonsen and M. Birket-Smith (in Millon, T. et al, 1998).

Dabrowski was aware of the changes that psychopathy as a diagnostic entity had undergone in the psychiatric terminology and his understanding reflects contemporary and commonly accepted clinical definitions of the term.

The unique contribution of Dabrowski’s approach to psychopathy was to stress its adevelopmental aspect, in line with his reasoning on the importance of disintegration in personality growth. A psychopath, due to the high integration of his character structure, which is devoid of capability to experience empathy and guilt, cannot undergo positive disintegration and engage in development, understood as a progression from automatic, instinctual egocentrism to conscious alterocentrism. Because of that, Dabrowski called psychopathy “the greatest obstacle in development of personality and social groups” (Dabrowski, 1986).

Primary integration and children

In many of his works, Dabrowski describes human infancy as a period of primary integration.

“The first year of a child’s life is a period when its psychophysical organism is an indivisible whole. An infant's activities have a character of simple reactions to stimuli. From these simple reactions there are created, thanks to environmental influences, behavioral habits." (Dabrowski, 1964, p.14)

“The period of infancy is a distinctly integrated one since all the activities of an infant are directed to the goal of satisfying the basic (needs).” (Dabrowski, 1964, p.97)

However, in his later works, Dabrowski adopts a more nuanced position, stating,

"Of course, one could say that the period of infancy is one of primary integration. However, we cannot at that time identify the developmental factors (...). By the time a child begins to speak in sentences we can attempt to discern developmental factors and establish whether the developmental trend is integrative or disintegrative." (Dabrowski, 1996, p.23)

Because childhood and adolescence are periods when basic psychological structures are just developing, Dabrowski notes that talking about disintegration during these years is unwarranted unless we observe distinct symptoms of quantitative or qualitative changes in a child’s development, significantly exceeding developmental patterns typical for childhood of the human species. Such changes include multiple types and forms of OE, excessive sensitivity, and neurotic and even psychotic symptoms, associated with accelerated or uneven growth of different psychological functions.

Dabrowski discusses forms and types of disintegration observed in childhood in several of his works, most notably in his “Spoleczno-wychowawcza psychiatria dziecieca” (Socio-educational child psychiatry).

References:

Dabrowski, K., Kawczak, A., Sochanska, J. (1973). The Dynamics of Concepts. Gryf Publications, London.

Dabrowski, K. (1964). Positive Disintegration. Little, Brown & Co. Boston.

Dabrowski, K.(1964). Spoleczno-wychowawcza psychiatria dziecieca, 2nd ed. PZWS, Warszawa. (excerpts translated by E. Mika)

Dabrowski, K. (1996). Multilevelness of emotional and instinctive functions. KUL, Lublin.

Dabrowski, K. (1986). Trud istnienia. Wiedza Powszechna, Warszawa.

Cleckley, H. (1976). The mask of sanity: an attempt to clarify some issues about the so-called psychopathic personality. Mosby Publisher. St. Louis, IL

Hare, R.D. (1993). Without conscience: the disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. Pocket Books. New York, NY

Millon, T. et al. (eds.) (1998). Psychopathy: antisocial, criminal, and violent behavior. Guilford Press. New York, NY

Preston, S.D., de Waal, F.B.M. (2002). The communication of emotions and the possibility of empathy in animals. In: Post, S.G. et al. (eds.). Altruism and Altruistic Love. Oxford University Press, New York (2002).

Comment on the article by Ms. Mika

I thank Ela for the excellent article and her permission to post it here. I have also tried to make these basic points over the years - that the psychopath and the average person both inhabit Level I, but differ by degree and also by other characteristics. I often use a quote from Dabrowski (1964) to illustrate this: "The state of primary integration is a state contrary to mental health. A fairly high degree of primary integration is present in the average person; a very high degree of primary integration is present in the psychopath. The more cohesive the structure of primary integration, the less the possibility of development; the greater the strength of automatic functioning, stereotypy, and habitual activity, the lower the level of mental health. The psychopath is only slightly, if at all, capable of development; he is deaf and blind to stimuli except those pertaining to his impulse-ridden structure, to which intelligence is subordinated. The absence of the development of personality means the absence of mental health." (pp 121 - 122)

Ela's diagram of sub-levels and description also illustrate this. Had Dabrowski published the breakdown of sub-groups that this article presents, perhaps things would have been more clear.

The article does not mention the primary reason that I have felt compelled to try to address these points in the past - over the past 20 years, several prominent authors have placed the "average" person at level II in their writings on the TPD. In my opinion, this has led to a great deal of confusion. I trust Ela's article will go a long way in clarifying this confusion.

The article first appeared in the Dabrowski Newsletter, Vol. 8 (1) Winter 2003.

Bill.

Dealing with sociopaths

2008-02-27T13:09:00.006+01:00

There is a genetic basis for a disorder that accounts for some of the violent criminal behavior, but this doesn't necessarily mean it accounts for all violent criminal behavior. This group of people have a perfect mask of sanity, they don't have conscience and they are not necessarily violent criminals.

At least 3 terms continue to be mixed up and misinterpreted. Perhaps a quote from Robert Hare's book, "Without Conscience", will provide some clarity:

Sometimes the term sociopathy is used because it is less likely than is psychopathy to be confused with psychoticism or insanity.

Some clinicians and researchers, as well as most sociologists and criminologists- who believe that the syndrome is forged entirely by social forces and early experiences prefer the term sociopath, whereas those- who feel that psychological, biological, and genetic factors also contribute to development of the syndrome generally use the term psychopath. [...]

A term that was supposed to have much the same meaning as "psychopath" or "sociopath" is antisocial personality disorder (APD), described in the 3rd edition of the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM III, 1980)[...]

The diagnostic criteria for APD consist primarily of a long list of antisocial and criminal behaviors. When the list first appeared it was felt that the average clinician could not reliably assess personality traits such as empathy, egocentricity, guilt, and so forth. Diagnosis therefore was based on what clinicians presumably could assess without difficulty, namely objective, socially deviant behaviors. The result has been confusion with many clinicians mistakenly assuming that APD and psychopathy are synonymous terms.

So, APD refers primarily to criminal and antisocial behaviors; and psychopathy refers to both personality traits and socially deviant behaviors. In other words, the majority of criminals have APD, but most criminals are not psychopaths. Let me explain this further...

It was my experience with deviant people that finally brought me to the subject of psychopathy, and finally all started to make sense. Before, I was trying to save someone who could not even be saved so to speak, the stress that he provoked me was making me miserable and my health was progressively deteriorating. I was projecting all kinds of struggles into a person, that didn't gave a damn to begin with. The key point is that psychopathy is genetically based and that there is a lot of confusion with the clinical terms. Criminal behavior does not equal psychopathy. In fact, 80% of imprisioned immates are NOT psychopaths. Some people prefer to use the term "sociopath", because Hollywood among others had loaded the word psychopath with a lot of stereotypes "a la Hannibal Lecter". But a psychopath is not exclusively a serial killer (like the guy in "No Country for Old Man"). In fact, it is much more subtle, some clear examples can be found in your own government and in CEO s of Big Pharma!!! Martha Stout's book introduction has a good synopsis of the psychopathy traits, unfortunately she uses the term sociopath where actually psychopath would be more appropriate This is so because it has a genetic basis, it is not something that society provokes, although society might play a role in how it manifests. To put just one practical example: some psychopaths already were killing cute little animals when they were kids just for the fun of it, even if they were raised in healthy environments were compassionate values were emphasized. Anyway, here is an excerpt of Martha Stout's book introduction:

Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.

And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.

Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.

You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition.

In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.

You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.

How will you live your life?

What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)?

The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people - whether they have a conscience or not - favor the ease of inertia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions. Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhere in between. There are violent people and nonviolent ones, individuals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have no such appetites. [...]

Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all.

If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. [...]

Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 4 percent of the population....

The prevalence rate for anorexic eating disorders is estimated a 3.43 percent, deemed to be nearly epidemic, and yet this figure is a fraction lower than the rate for antisocial personality. The high-profile disorders classed as schizophrenia occur in only about 1 percent of [the population] - a mere quarter of the rate of antisocial personality - and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the rate of colon cancer in the United States, considered "alarmingly high," is about 40 per 100,000 - one hundred times lower than the rate of antisocial personality.

The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 4 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.

Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psychopathy - murderers, serial killers, mass murderers - people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system.

We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.

Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish.

Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen, let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to hurt another person.

Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.

The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender.

What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity.

What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions. [Martha Stout, Ph.D., The Sociopath Next Door]

The best books available in this area, are Robert Hare's "Without Conscience", Martha Stout's "Sociopath Next Door" and Paul Babiak/Robert Hare's "Snakes in Suits". Also "Mask of Sanity" by Hervey Cleckley, its a classic (available on line, Mask of Sanity by Hervey Cleckley PDF - book download). There are also plenty of references in scientific journals and a considerable amount of websites.

Here are a few useful links:

http://www.friedgreentomatoes.org/articles_index.php (with LOTS of articles and references that explain main concepts), http://friedgreentomatoes.org/ is an exc source for victims.

http://saferelationships.com/

http://www.geocities.com/lycium7/psychopathy.html

The Trick of the Psychopath's Trade: Make Us Believe that Evil Comes from Others

Neurobiological basis of psychopathy

Early Signs of Psychopathy

Psychopathy and Corporations

The cat and the mouse

2007-02-17T21:33:00.000+01:00

What a cute kitty! Hey, wait a minute, kitty... What are you doing with that mouse? Are you deliberately playing with the poor little thing, torturing the poor animal before eating it? What if "something" is doing the very same thing to us, what if we are not in top of the food chain?

This week I heard Laura Knight-Jadczyk's interview on BBC radio, where she discusses these topics and others based on research which she has presented in her book, the Secret History of the World and How to Get Out Alive, available at qfgpublishing.com

Here is a relevant excerpt:

AW: Well, and, and who is, you know, perpetrating the experiment?

LKJ: Who perpetrates it? Well, I would suggest that it is denizens of this other reality that are referred to by the ancients as gods, and nowadays, of course they, they may refer to them as aliens. I don’t think they’re aliens. I don’t think they come from other planets. I think they are hyperdimensional beings and I think that they’ve been here for many thousands of years, if not for all of human history. There are records of lights in the sky and strange beings that are similar to, you know, what are called aliens down through history. Jacques Vallee referred to it as a control system. Control system, hyperdimensional reality; it’s pretty much the same thing.

AW: Hmm, I’m just wondering why, you know, why they would appear to be so fascinated with us, especially over such a long protracted amount of time. Clearly, I don’t know what their intentions are, so it’s difficult to try to gauge that, or even if they do have intentions like human beings have intentions. But what do you hypothesize is the reason that people might want to manipulate us in this way, or, I’m sorry, beings, might want to manipulate us in this way?

LKJ: Well, the evidence strongly indicates that we are food for them.

(long silent pause)

AW: Uhm, what evidence suggests that?

LKJ: Well, the evidence of, say for example, wars, and plagues and famines, and, uh, the… and I’m not saying that we are physical food necessarily, I’m saying that, you know, energy, energetic food, emotional; that pain and suffering is something they uh, they feed on, that gives energy to them. Just as the movie ‘The Matrix’, you know, said that people were in pods and their emotional energy produced energy for the system, for the machine, that they were batteries, it’s very similar, that we are, in essence, a, uh, a power supply.

AW: Well, if we, the, the, the human way of maybe responding to something like that, to maybe analyze it scientifically, typically, is to try to look for, perhaps, an example within our universe. So to look at maybe, you know, a microcosm within, I don’t know, the flora or the fauna that we research and I, I can’t think of anything, you know, and I’m sure you’ll correct me. Or at least an example within our universe of an ecosystem that behaves in that way, where you put things kind of under stress rather than just eating them or devouring them, it seems a…

LKJ: Think of the cat and the mouse. What does the cat do with the mouse?

AW: He plays with the mouse.

LKJ: I mean, is it necessary for the cat to play with the mouse before it eats it?

AW: No, it’s not (laughs) that was a very, yeah, that’s a very obvious example isn’t it? A very good example. So, is the point then that they need to kind of maintain us, and keep us here, keep us going as a food source in the same way we try to sustain our own food sources?

LKJ: More or less, and I think that in many respects, they cut us some slack, you know, they make sure we know enough to create a civilization, to feed that civilization, to build that civilization up, to increase the numbers of people in that civilization; and then, to put people into conflict with one another so that they fight and kill one another so that there is massive pain and suffering.

AW: Do you find this, I mean, having come to this conclusion, do you find that, I don’t know, a depressing thought? Or do you think it’s empowering because it removes us from some of the ways that humans have sort of been stuck to over the millennium, I mean, how do you feel having come to that conclusion?

LKJ: Well, in the beginning, it was extraordinarily depressing, as you, as you might imagine. And, you know, it was… Somebody asked me, you know, after all these years what have you learned? And I said, well, I’ve learned that there is no free lunch in the Universe and if you think there is, then you’re lunch. And also, we are not at the top of the food chain.

And, that was pretty depressing for a period of time, and then I finally began to work my way through that and I went back and started searching the literature for evidence of anyone who had found their way out of this, this - you know, had they realized this situation; had they understood it - what clues were there, and what conclusions did they come to and was anybody able to, to overcome it, to escape it, so to speak?

And, clearly, there are individuals in history; and you’ll notice that the book has a thread all the way through it of alchemy. I believe that alchemists were among those who were able to not only come to understand the system, but were able to step outside of the system, to be able to access hyperdimensional realities. Because all of these things, that uh, these special powers that so-called alchemists were be able to achieve, have to do with mastery of space and time, which is what you achieve when you, uh, achieve the ability to step in and out of the hyperdimensional realities.

So, there are alchemists, there are some types of yogis, there is, uh, there is the ancient material that was brought to the West by Gurdjieff, by Mouravieff. There is some very ancient literature that speaks to these matters and talks about people who have escaped. And that’s why there is a subtitle to the book, you know, ‘and How to Get out Alive’, because I do address that. You know, I mean, I don’t want to tell somebody, you know, hey, you’re in a, in one hell of a situation, without telling them, you know, there is a way out. And it isn’t… the way out is not in believing your way out, because believing your way out is what they want you to do. As long as they can get you to believe something; as long as they can invoke your faith, in some pie in the sky idea that you’re going to change your reality by, by believing it, or you’re going to get raptured to heaven when Jesus comes, or, uh, when the Mahdi comes, or whatever. You know, that keeps you complacent. Because…

Contemporary Asian Art

2006-12-06T20:28:00.000+01:00

As a cheap wage country, Taiwan was one of the main centers of the textile industry in the 1960s. Beginning in 1990, however, the intensive production industry migrated to countries with even lower production costs, and many Taiwanese became unemployed.
In 2003 Chen Chieh-jen invited a number of textile workers to the previously closed Lien Fu textile factory, where they had worked for over two decades, to shoot a documentary. The abandoned factory presented itself like a "relic" of the past: many objects were still there, such as calendars, newspapers, punch clocks, tools and banners, megaphones and loudspeakers from the workers' protest against the closure. What was missing was replaced, and the workers agreed to take up their work again for the film. The camera concentrates on their body language while working, on simple actions and the atmosphere of the space. Several fragmentary sequences from the time of the protest against the closure of the factory were edited in. In keeping with the women's wish not to speak, the film was shot without sound. Chen Chieh-jen takes a phenomenon of globalization and translates the transformation of the textile industry in Asia into a highly professionally made 35mm film.

See an excerpt in the following link.

G. I. Gurdjieff: The Last Hour of Life

2006-12-04T18:39:00.000+01:00

via searchwithin.org

Imagine, that you have only a few minutes, maybe an hour left to live; somehow you have discovered exactly when you will die. What would you do with this precious hour of your stay on Earth? Would you be able to complete all your things in this last hour, do you have a conscious idea about how to do it?
And letting go your last breath would you feel satisfaction from knowing that you have done everything possible in this life to fulfill that you are constantly present, always vibrating, always waiting, like the son is waiting for the father-sailor? In the manifested world everything has its beginning and its end. In the Real World everything is always present and one beautiful day you will be allowed to forget everything and leave the world “forever”.
Freedom is worth a million times more than [political] liberation. The free man, even in slavery, remains a master of himself. For example, if I give you something, let‘s say, a car, in which there is no fuel, the car cannot move. Your car needs a special fuel, but it is only you who is able to define what kind of fuel is needed and where to get it.
You have to define yourself how to digest my ideas to make them yours, so that they belong only to you. Your car cannot work on the same fuel my car is working on. I suggest to you only the primary material. You have to get from it what you can use. So, more bravely, sit down at the steering wheel.
The organic life is very fragile. The planetary body can die at any moment. It is always one step from death. And if you could manage to live one more day, it is only a chance accidentally given to you by nature. If you will be able to live even one more hour, you can consider yourself to be a lucky person. From the moment of conception we are living on borrowed time.
Living in this world you have to feel death each second, so settle all your life affairs, even in your last hour. But how can anyone know exactly his last hour? For the sense of security make up your things with nature and yourself in every hour given to you, then you will never be met unprepared. The man has to be taught this starting from the [esoteric] school: how to breath, to eat, to move and to die right. This has to become a part of an educational programme. In this programme it is necessary to include the teaching about how to realize the presence of “I” and also how to establish consciousness.
Question: How to act if you do not feel that there is something unfinished?
Gurdjieff answered after a pause. He took a deep breath and replied:
Ask yourself who will be in difficulty if you die like a dog. At the moment of death you have to be wholly aware of yourself and feel that you have done everything possible to use all, within your abilities, in this life which was given to you.
Now you do not know much about yourself. But with each day you dig deeper and deeper into this bag of bones and start knowing more and more details. Day by day you will be finding out what you should have done and what you have to re-do among the things you have done. A real man is one who could take from 2
life everything that was valuable in it, and say: ”And now I can die”. We have to try to live your lives so that we could say any day: ”Today I can die and not be sorry about anything”.
Never spend fruitlessly the last hour of your life because it can become the most important hour for you. If you use it wrongly, you may be sorry about it later. This sincere excitement that you feel now can become for you a powerful source of the force that can prepare you for perfect death. Knowing that the next hour can become the last one for you, absorb the impressions which it will bring to you as a real gourmet. When lady death will call you, be prepared, always. The master knows how to take from each tasty piece the last bit of the most valuable. Learn to be the master of your life.
When I was young I learned to prepare fragrances. I learned to extract from life it’s essence, it’s most subtle qualities. Search in everything the most valuable, learn to separate the fine from the coarse. One who has learned how to extract the essence, the most important from each moment of life, has reached a sense on quality.
He is able to do with the world something that can not be done by an aboriginal.
It could be that in the last moments of your life you will not have the choice where and with whom to be, but you will have a choice to decide how fully you will live them. The ability to take the valuable from life – is the same as to take from the food, air and the impressions the substances needed to build up your higher bodies. If you want to take from your life the most valuable for yourself, it has to be for the good of the higher; for yourself it is enough to leave just a little. To work on yourself for the good of others is a smart way to receive the best from life for yourself. If you will not be satisfied with the last hour of your life, you will not be happy about the whole of your life. To die means to come through something which is impossible to repeat again. To spend your precious time in nothing means to deprive yourself the opportunity to extract from life the most valuable.
In this world, to live life through, from the beginning to the end – means another aspect of the Absolute. All greatest philosophers were carefully preparing for the last hour of their life. And now I will give you the exercise to prepare for the last hour on the Earth. Try not to misinterpret any word from the given exercise.
The Exercise
===========
Look back at the hour that has passed, as if it was the last hour for you on the earth and that you have just acknowledged that you have died. Ask yourself, were you satisfied at that hour?
And now reanimate yourself again and set up the aim for yourself. In the next hour (if you are lucky to live one more) try to extract from life a little more than you did in the last hour. Define, where and when you should have been more aware, and where you should have put more inner fire.
And now open your eyes wider, and by this I mean – open more possibilities for yourself, be a little more brave, than you were in the previous hour. Since you know that this is your last hour and you have nothing to loose, try to gain some bravery - at least now. Of course, you don’t have to be silly about it.

Get to know yourself better, look at your machine as if from the outside. Now, when you are dying, there is no sense to keep your reputation and your prestige.
And now onwards, until the real last hour, aspire with persistence to receive the most you can from life that is of value, develop your intuition. Take just a few moments each hour to watch at the hour that passed, without judgment, and then tune yourself to extracting more from the following hour.
If we look at each hour like at a separate life unit, you can try to do as much as you can to use every unit totally. Force yourself and find the way to make the next hour much more than the one before, but also be aware that you have taken care of the debts you collected till now. Increase the self-sensing and self-knowledge of yourself, and also increase the ability to master yourself, this will change the work of your machine, which is always out of your control. And these abilities can become the indication of the real changes. And it is absolutely unimportant what the machine is thinking about this.
...To live the rest of your life rehearsing your death hour by hour – is not at all pathological. None can receive more from life than the cancer patient, who knows approximately when he will die. And since he already recognized how he wishes to spend the rest of his life, he will not have to make the total change in it, but he will be able to go somewhere, where he always wished to go, but would not do it in other circumstances.
The man who knows that he will die soon, will try to use to the maximum every hour of the rest of his life. This is exactly what Christ meant when he said that the last days will come soon – the days before the Last Judgment. We are all standing in front of the Judge, but it is not the others who are judging us, but we ourselves do the last estimation of our life. We do not have to fail the most important examination, where the most serious judge is ourself.
Each moment, taken alone, represents the particle of the eternal Creation. Therefore each moment we can extract the most subtle substances, that we can call ”the essence of life”.
Imagine yourself the substance “air” or the substance “impressions”. Finally, draw in your mind the substance “moment”. Yes, even the moments of time are the substances.
If we will be able to extract the finest substances from the coarser, sooner or later we will have to pay for it. This law is called The Law of Balance. That is why we will learn how to pay immediately for those that we receive from life. Only then we will not have any debts. To pay immediately – this is what is called “real doing”. “To do” – is to think, to feel, to act, but “real doing” – is to pay immediately.
To do – may mean only one thing: to extract the essence from each moment of life and at the same moment to pay all the debts to the nature and yourself; but only when you have “I”, can you pay immediately.
Real life is not a change of activity, but a change of the quality of the activity. Destiny – is destiny. Each one of us has to find himself in the whole order of things. It is not too late yet to start doing it now, although you have spent the greater part of your life in sleep. Starting from today you can begin to prepare yourself for death and, at the same time, to increase the quality of your living. But do not delay with the start – maybe you really only have just one more hour of life.

Question: Can we share this with others? I think it is very important what we have heard about this evening.
- You can retell it word by word, but until you will [can?] do this [exercise] yourself, it would mean nothing for others. Existence is the means, or the instrument, for action. Think about this and you will find out why it is so.
Question: Therefore, we cannot pay the debts, if we do not exist, or if our “I” is absent?
- Why do you have such a need to pay? Pay for what? If life is only a coincidence, then there is no sense to go on. This does not mean that you have to end your life with a suicide. Opposite, you have to put all your effort into ‘to live’. Ordinary man always lives, just going with the flow. He is not just sleeping, he is absolutely dead. To really live, it is necessary to support the efforts of nature, to take actively from life, and not to act passively – wherever it flows.
Extracting from life the most precious, you have to be able to operate your emotions. See how fairly you can estimate yourself. Look attentively at yourself and you will see many remarkable ways to be fair. Each time notice for yourself different moments when the desires appear. Act as before, but always be aware of their presence. Transport to the world the part of your blood, but one of the higher level.
At the end of each hour after you have estimated its usefulness, imagine that you just woke up in the absolutely unknown in comparison to the previous one gone by. It is important to note that the apparent continuation of the last hour is in reality changing with every hour, although things and people seem the same as before. With the time you will learn to see yourself as a spirit of a special substance, who is coming from one world to another, as an uninvited guest of nature.
Looking from this point of view evaluate everything you do in your life. Looking at the results of all your efforts of the past and think what sense they all have now, in the last hour of your life. Those who are engaged in the Work, are dead to this world and at the same time they are more alive in this world than anyone else. Work… something strange, imperceptible, but for many it is impossible to live without it.
The ordinary way of understanding life is vanity of vanities. However big the result is according to earthly measures, sooner or later it will fail. Even the sand is being rubbed into dust by time. Even the most significant people of history are being forgotten. To understand the real possibilities of this world, it is necessary to find what we can reach in this world that will be very useful in the Real World.
Attentively look at the lives of all the greatest people, those who were commanding armies, who had power over others. What is the benefit for them from all their great actions now, when they are dead? Even when they were alive, all these great actions were no more than empty dreams. We are not here to praise ourselves and to prove ourselves, the most disgusting in the ordinary man is the ability to quickly satisfy his flesh.
The majority of people find many excuses not to work on themselves. They are in a complete prison of their weaknesses. But right now we do not speak about them, but about you.
Understand me right, I do not need followers, I am rather interested in finding the good organizers, the real warriors of the new world. I understand the weakness of the organization, because right now we do not speak about the usual organisation which would consist of initiates.
I remind you once again, learn to live each of your hours with a bigger benefit. Create a detailed plan of the last hour of your life. To understand how one should die, you should grow deep roots into life, only then you will be able to die like a human being, not like a dog. Although, it is not given to everyone - to die. You can become manure for our planet, but it does not really mean do die. To die to this world forever - is an honour. For this honour you have to pay with Conscious Labour and Intentional Suffering. You have to earn this right.
Try to imagine yourself relatively clearly the last hour of your life on earth. Write a kind of a script of this last hour, as if you were writing the script for a film. Ask yourself: “Is this how I want to dispose my life” . If you are not satisfied with the answer, rewrite the script until you like it.
Look at life like at business. Time is your money for life. When you came into this world, a definite amount of money was given to you and this you cannot exceed. Time is the only currency with which you pay for your life. Now you see, how you used the biggest part of it in a stupid way. You have not even reached the main goal of life – to have rest. You failed as a businessman, and as a user of life – you deceived yourself. All your life you thought that everything is given to you for free, and now suddenly you discovered that – it is not free. You pay for using the time, that is why each moment of your stay here costs something.
So how would it be possible for you to reimburse [recover] at least somehow these losses? Check, if the deficit on your bank account is only temporary or is it perhaps constant? Did you loose the time or could you invest it successfully? If you have spent all your money on vacations, then there is nothing to do but to be sorry about the past.
For many years you have been spending you life as if your parents gave you a bank account with unlimited credit. But now the amount is used and you see that you are all alone and that there is none to rely on. There is no more time on your bank account. Now you are forced to earn each hour of your life. All your life you behaved like a child and spent time just like a newly married couple on their honeymoon.
Our main enemy, which is hindering us from applying the necessary efforts – is hopelessness. I know, you will have many excuses not to prepare yourself for the last hour of your life. The habit is a big force, but starting once, you can learn to do each time more and more.
Do not fiddle all day, force yourself at least one hour a day to make an effort, otherwise you will loose everything. Think about the rehearsal of your last hour as if it was ballet exercises – you have to do it all your life.
I dedicate four hours a day for this exercise, but when I was young, I spent on it two times longer.

Shoutwire, Spankwire And The ADL

2006-12-01T20:25:00.000+01:00

Via signs of the times

Shoutwire, Spankwire And The ADL

Joe Quinn
Signs of the Times
01/12/2006

Readers of this web site will probably have noticed the recent additions of Shoutwire advertisements at the top and bottom of the Signs page. The background to this is that, several months ago, a number of readers of the Signs of the Times (SOTT) page began to submit to the Shoutwire website Signs of the Times editorials that they thought deserved to be more widely distributed.

As time passed, SOTT editors also began to submit editorials to Shoutwire. This process of submitting articles is, after all, supposed to be the whole point of the Shoutwire web site where anyone can sign up and submit articles or editorials that they enjoyed and which other members can then vote for and comment on.

More often than not, SOTT editorials received a lot of "Shouts" propelling them on to the "top stories" list and therefore under the noses of many Shoutwire's readers and members. Within a short period of time however, it became clear that the usual SOTT detractors had spotted the growing popularity of SOTT editorials and, rather than see it as a genuine reflection of the quality of our writing, they began to attack every SOTT submission to Shoutwire by posting petulant, juvenile, and even defamatory comments in the comments section under each editorial. The fact that these few individuals (many of whom were probably the same person signed up under different names with different IP addresses) had a personal problem with Signs of the Times rather than the content of our editorials became clear when they resorted to attacking editorials from mainstream news sites like the UK Guardian simply because it was a SOTT editor that submitted it!

Knowing well who these individuals are, we took it all in our stride and often found it quite bizarre and even funny how the simple posting of a Signs of the Times editorial would provoke a venomous attack by these individuals on the Shoutwire web site. Eventually, it seems that the fact that SOTT editorials were regularly reaching the "top stories" section brought the attention of the editors of ShoutWire, one of whom (by the name of "Bulshoy") wrote to us and accused us of somehow abusing the terms of the Shoutwire web site. After a little explanation it became obvious to all concerned that the accusation was unfounded, and there the matter should have ended. However, it seems that the editors of Shoutwire had a somewhat different reason for contacting us, because "bulshoy" then suggested that maybe Shoutwire and Signs of the Times could "collaborate" together. The "deal" was that Shoutwire would not delete SOTT editorials and ban SOTT from posting if we would host Shoutwire advertisements on the SOTT page. It was further agreed that defamatory comments directed at SOTT would be deleted from ShoutWire. What seems clear now is that this was a subtle threat, that unless we posted the Shout wire advertisements on our site, we should assume that the agreement to not interfere with SOTT editorials on Shout wire would not be honored by the Shoutwire editorial staff.

In the end, we decided that if the price that SOTT had to pay to simply be granted the same rights that are granted to any other ShoutWire member was to have a couple of advertisements on our SOTT page, then we were willing to do so.

It was clear, almost immediately that "Bulshoy" was either not keeping his part of the agreement, or that he did not really have the authority to make such an agreement. Within a very short time, "bulshoy" was observed joining in with SOTT detractors when they would post their hate-filled rants on the Shoutwire comments below every Signs of the time editorial that was submitted with no reference whatsoever to the content of the article itself..

Then, on 30th November, a Shoutwire editor by the name of "Virellek" posted a "hit piece" about SOTT and one of its editors, Laura Knight-Jadczyk. The fact that this Shoutwire editorial was penned by one of the Shout wire "staff" meant that it was automatically given 'top line' position on the Shout Wire website, thereby ensuring that as many Shout wire readers as possible would see it. The content of the editorial appeared to have been taken, almost verbatim, from the tired old spittle-flecked rants of a known con man and new age grifter who has apparently made it his life's work to try to attack and defame SOTT and Laura Knight-Jadczyk. Go figure. Evidence for this is seen in the fact that the main accusation used in the Shoutwire staff editorial was that SOTT is a "cult".

At the time of writing, the editorial in question has received about 100 votes or "shouts" and up to 200 comments, many of which are by "Virellek", the author of the editorial. Virellek has stated that everything written in his ad hominem attack on Laura Knight-Jadczyk and the SOTT website, its editors and staff is "his opinion and only his opinion" and that "ShoutWire and its staff have had nothing to do with its writing." He added that "if you have a problem with my article, take it up with me." What is clear however is that if an editorial is billed on Shoutwire as a "Shoutwire editorial" then the author is also a member of Shoutwire staff or closely associated with them.

It would be nice, therefore, if someone could explain to me how the editor or staffer of a web site that reproduces news and opinion editorials can himself write an editorial that, in a spurious and unprovoked manner, attacks another website and is artificially propelled to the top of the listings on his website, while at the same time claim that what he has written has nothing to do with the website itself!

As already stated, the content of the Shoutwire editorial was taken from the work of a known con man who indulges in "black magick" and contacting "Ophanic intelligences." This particular individual has created entire web sites for the sole purpose of attempting to demonise the SOTT website and Laura Knight-Jadczyk as a "cult". In the comments section under the Shout wire "hit piece" on SOTT, it was pointed out to the shoutwire author of the editorial "Virellek" that the use of the word "cult" to defame and slander is a tactic of several Zionist organizations like the ADL. This fact has been exposed by respectable authors such as Israel Shamir:

The pre-9/11 essay proves that the regime of Patriot Act did not land out of blue, but was carefully prepared by ADL and its satellites, the 'anti-hate' organisations. There is a direct link from Waco mass murder to Falluja, from spying on anti-Zionists to spying on everybody, from watchdogs of 1990s to Patriot Act of 2000s; and this is ADL that is behind the link. [...]

As political researcher Laird Wilcox remarks, "There is an anti-racism industry entrenched in the United States that has attracted bullying, moralizing fanatics, whose identity and livelihood depend upon growth and expansion of their particular kind of victimization.'" [...]

As we shall soon see, one needn't stockpile weapons or espouse reactionary beliefs to fall under the watchful eye of these formidable private surveillance networks. Indeed, imputing racist motives to alleged enemies of the State has become a notorious tactic among prominent watchdog groups such as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and other purveyors of fear.

As we continue to read, we discover that the favorite epithet of these Cultural Terrorists is "CULT".

According to a report from the Committee for Waco Justice, the ADL worked in concert with federal officials by providing "precise documentation" on the Davidian "cult" and "how it operated in the past." Although we can only speculate as to the nature of this intelligence, the inherent brutality of the initial raid conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the subsequent tank assault which led to the tragic death of over six-dozen members of a multiracial spiritual community suggest that this questionable information was of an inflammatory nature.

Readers will understand then that we began to wonder just who this "Virellek" was, what is his relationship to Shoutwire and its owners and why he had launched a vicious, libelous and unwarranted attack on a web site that had actually been very gracious in collaborating with the editors and owners of Shoutwire by hosting Shoutwire advertising banners on our website. It wasn't long before we were provided with a clue by Virellek himself. In attempting to defend against Shoutwire members who had commented on his article and expressed their dismay at his attack he stated:

"there is little evidence to support any idea that I'm affiliated with a cult. Why? Because it's simply not true."

The fact remains however that the owner of Shoutwire had sanctioned an unprovoked attack on SOTT that was very much in the style of the biggest and most damaging Cult of them all - the Zionist ADL.

Virellek then came right out and stated that content on Shoutwire is effectively censored by stating "we simply moderate certain content", to which a Shoutwire member responded:

"Congratulations! From now on, you are part of the "mainstream media"...

All that blabber about "user based content" was obviously too good to be true.."

It is also of interest that the Shout wire attack on SOTT came one day after we had published a rather damning indictment of Zionism where we exposed it for the Apartheid state that it is. Could this be the real motivation for the Shoutwire attack on SOTT? It seems quite probable given what Virellek then stated:

"I can't stay awake forever. So I'll take my 8 hour leave as of now. We [Shout Wire and SOTT] may hate each others politics and beliefs, but I never say goodnight on a sour note."

First of all it appears that Virellek's work at Shoutwire takes up all of his waking hours, i.e. he is an employee. His comment is also interesting because there is no way that we could possibly have known anything about the political leanings of the owner of Shoutwire or anyone who claims to speak for Shoutwire in general, yet the political beliefs of SOTT are anything but obscure. If owner and editors of Shoutwire "hate" the political stance of SOTT then it is safe to say that what is "hated" is the fact that, more than anything we are anti-Zionist, which of course ties in very well with Virellek's use of ADL defamation-type tactics.

About six days ago the above-mentioned shoutwire editor, "bulshoy" wrote an editorial that appeared on Shoutwire:

Writing For An Online Audience: The Guide

Point three was:

"3. Polarize Your Readers

If you're a comment whore, writing a polarizing piece is a great way to rack up hundreds of comments. It's as simple as choosing a topic that roughly half of your audience will agree with. This way, a battle will start in the comments. It's the pros versus the cons.

This technique, when used in conjunction with the others that I have listed, will get your work noticed."

From this we understand that Shoutwire isn't really as advertised: "Internet News for the Masses." No, it's about propaganda, polarizing the audience, and getting "your work noticed."

And what work is that?

Well, as Virellek has revealed: "Politics. They hate SOTT's politics."

And so, since they cannot argue the issues, they resort instead to the oldest method in the book: defamation.

Recently, product advertisements have appeared on the main page of Shoutwire, which suggests that the main aim of Shoutwire is to make money, which of course is dependent on Shoutwire generating as much traffic as possible. Did Shoutwire's editors believe that by slandering the SOTT web site that they could increase their traffic and therefore their revenue?

The question that we really need to answer here is: who owns Shoutwire and what is their agenda?

A 'Whois' domain name search on shoutwire.com reveals:

Registrant:
Wesley Parker
3296 Red Pine Rd.
Yorba Linda, California 92886
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: SHOUTWIRE.COM
Created on: 30-Mar-05
Expires on: 30-Mar-07
Last Updated on: 01-Sep-05

Administrative Contact:
Parker, Wesley xanthus@lostfrog.com
3296 Red Pine Rd.
Yorba Linda, California 92886
United States
7148654968 Fax --

Technical Contact:
Parker, Wesley xanthus@lostfrog.com
3296 Red Pine Rd.
Yorba Linda, California 92886
United States
7148654968 Fax --

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.LOSTFROG.COM
NS2.LOSTFROG.COM

Note that the domain servers are "lostfrog.com" and that the registrant of Shoutwire.com, Wesley Parker, can be contacted at "xanthus@lostfrog.com". This suggests that Wesley Parker is also the owner of "lostfrog.com".

Indeed, a whois search on lostfrog.com reveals:

Registrant:
Zerobit Studios, LLC
PO Box 2700
Mesquite, CA 89024
US

Domain name: LOSTFROG.COM

Administrative Contact:
Parker, Wes wesp@zerobitstudios.com
PO Box 2700
Mesquite, CA 89024
US
1-702-345-5054
Technical Contact:
Parker, Wes wesp@zerobitstudios.com
PO Box 2700
Mesquite, CA 89024
US
1-702-345-5054

Again we see Wesley parker as the contact name.

There are 22 other domain entries (or web sites) hosted on the lostfrog.com server owned by Wesley Parker owner of Shoutwire.com

Among the sites listed on Parker's lostfrog.com server we find "spankwire.com" which, as you may already have guessed, is a hardcore porn website, speakeasypoker.com (self-explanatory) and a number of other "trash download" sites. Several of the web sites listed on the lostfrog.com server are also owned by Wesley Parker, although the registrant details for the hard core porn site 'spankwire' are conveniently hidden behind a proxy. I assume that the similarity between the web site names "spankwire" and "shoutwire" does not need to be emphasised, although I feel I have to say:

SPANKWIRE!!??

With all of this data in hand, we are reminded of another internet site that also appears to be little more than a vacuum-cleaner operation with links to unsavory organisations - Abovetopsecret.com. See our forum thread for the details about abovetopsecret being exposed as a Neocon-Zionist psy-op.

Signs of the Times is a news website that, more than any other news website that we know of, is totally committed to bringing the True Objective news to its readers. Any of our readers, current or past, short or long term, will testify to that fact.

But what is Shoutwire? What is Shoutwire all about? Is it:

A money making scheme?

Censored News for the masses? (as stated by its editors)

Part of a budding Porn Empire?

A complete Waste of Space?

Or is it all of the above and, as such, possibly just another Israel lobby or CIA-funded vacuum cleaner operation that tried to attack SOTT, chiefly because Signs of the Times is determined to expose the Truth about Zionism, its infestation of America and its plan to kick-start a third world war from which few will survive?

You decide.

The Kennedy Series

2006-11-19T00:27:00.000+01:00

I was catching up with some reading, including the articles written by Laura Knight Jadczyk on John F. Kennedy, a very interesting reading indeed and I came upon the realization of the slough of despond that has taken over the world.

Noun1.slough of despond - (formal) extreme depression
formality - compliance with formal rules
depression - a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity

From The Debris of History

Imagination itself has become "un-American." It is accepted, but with fear and distrust, when it embellishes a concrete experience, the story of how a fortune was made or a victory won. But where it exists solely for itself, when it becomes a culture or a dialectic, it is no longer tolerated." Americans are insensitive to philosophical ideas. They need something tangible, something concrete, something that has been acted on the stage. Acted, that is, seen and felt. What is said is not important. We are not impressed by explanations, and verbal play leaves us indifferent. What we want is action."

It was to men without imagination that John F. Kennedy addressed these words:

"Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle..."

From The Gladiator: John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. On one, bright sunny day in Dallas Texas, 43 years ago, America was on the path to the top of the mountain and in less than a minute, everything changed; now, it is doomed to the abyss of despair.

"I don't think in this administration or in our generation or time will this country be at the top of the hill, but some day it will be, and I hope when it is that they will think we have done our part..." JOHN F. KENNEDY

From The Bushes and The Lost King

Is the Bush family implicated in the assassination of John F. Kennedy?

There is endless theorizing and speculation as to why John F. Kennedy was executed by what amounts to a firing squad, in broad daylight, in the middle of Dallas Texas, on a sunny day in November. Additionally, there have been a lot of myths created and propagated seemingly to muddy the waters. The only thing that most of the proponents of various theories can agree on is that the FBI and the CIA did little to help the Warren Commission solve the crime. Well, that also sounds a lot like the official 9/11 Report. Both events were dealt with in the same way, by a "select group of bureaucrats with an agenda of lies".

From Sim City and John F. Kennedy

When I re-read the words of John F. Kennedy, when I consider the legislation he sought to enact, when I consider the sheer depth and humanity of him, and compare him with what is lurking and lurching in the White House today, I am literally overwhelmed. How far down into the Slough of Despond we have been sucked since that November day 43 years ago.

From John F. Kennedy and All Those "isms"

He was a thinker, a philosopher, and a man who had emerged from the common people, just one generation away. Yes, indeed, it was the Captitalist system that had given his father the means of putting the family into the class of the elite, but John Kennedy wasn't Joe Kennedy; he saw that changes needed to be made, and the only way to make them was to bootstrap himself into position to do so by the very system he sought to change. That was why he had to die. I don't think that Kennedy was desirous of creating a completely socialist system, but he clearly saw that Capitalism wasn't doing what it was supposed to do: to create a prosperous society across the board.

From John F. Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, Organized Crime and the Global Village

On January 9, 1961, John F. Kennedy addressed the Massachusetts State Legislature:

"We are setting out upon a voyage in 1961 no less hazardous than that undertaken by the Arbella in 1630,"

"For of those whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us, recording whether in our brief span of service, we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state, our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:

"First, were we truly men of courage, with the courage to stand up to one's enemies, and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one's associates, the courage to resist public pressure as well as private greed?

"Second, were we truly men of judgment, with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past, of our own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others, with enough wisdom to know what we did not know, and enough candor to admit it?

"Third, were we truly men of integrity, men who never ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the people who believed in us, men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?

"Finally, were we truly men of dedication, with an honor mortgaged not to a single individual or group, and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?

"Courage, judgment, integrity, dedication -- these are the historic qualities of the Bay Colony and the Bay State, the qualities which this state has consistently sent to Beacon Hill here in Boston and to Capital Hill back in Washington. And these are the qualities which, with God's help, this son of Massachusetts hopes will characterize our government's conduct in the four stormy years that lie ahead. Humbly I ask His help in this undertaking; but aware that on earth His will is worked by men, I ask for your help and your prayers as I embark on this new and solemn journey."

From John F. Kennedy and the Psychopathology of Politics

John Kennedy was different from the type of animals that dominate human politic and I believe that, at some level, he knew that this difference was more than skin deep. He felt the altruistic tendencies towards normal humans, and did not feel himself to be one of the pathological deviant minority at the top. Yes, he had used the system to get to the top, but he immediately made it clear who he really identified with: the average human being of conscience. And that is why, when the news of his death spread, there were people involved in crime and politics who rejoiced while millions upon millions of human beings with souls, ordinary people, the man and woman on the street struggling to make a decent life for themselves against the machinations of deviants, wept in an agony of despair. They knew what they had lost; the last, best hope for humanity in our time.

Then, "'John F. Kennedy and the Pigs of War' discusses John F. Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs invasion..."

For we are opposed, around the world, by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence; in infiltration instead of invasion; on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice; on guerillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific, and political operations. Its preparations are concealed not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined, its dissenters are silenced, not praised; no expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the cold war, in short, with a wartime discipline no democracy would ever hope to wish to match.

From John F. Kennedy and the Titans

"I realize that there are some businessmen who feel they only want to be left alone, that government and politics are none of their affairs, that the balance sheet and profit rate of their own Corporation are of more importance than the worldwide balance of power or the nationwide rate of unemployment. But I hope it is not rushing the season to recall to you the passage from Dickens' 'Christmas Carol' in which Ebenezer Scrooge is terrified by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, and Scrooge, appalled by Marley's story of ceaseless wandering, cries out, 'But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.' And the ghost of Marley, his legs bound by a chain of ledger books and cash boxes, replies, 'Business? Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.'

"Members and guests of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, whether we work in the White House or the State House or in a house of industry or commerce, mankind is our business. And if we work in harmony, if we understand the problems of each other, and the responsibilities that each of us bears, then surely the business of mankind will prosper. And your children and mine will move ahead in a securer world, and one in which there is opportunity for them all..."

From John F. Kennedy, Oil, and the War on Terror

As the reader is probably thinking by now, having read this present series of articles on John Kennedy and his plans to steer the ship of American State into peaceful waters, "Oh, what a different world we would be living in today if John F. Kennedy had lived and had finished his work!"

And it's true. Because the same cabal that was responsible for his death is the cabal that that is running the planet today via the puppet regime in the United States, and with hooked tentacles in nearly every other government on the planet. We are, indeed, facing 30 years of War Without End from which few of us will emerge alive. We are living in a virtual police state planet, with terror around every corner, a terror that is NOT due to some mad Muslim hating us because of our "freedoms" - what a joke - but is due to all of the machinations and manipulations of evil people in high places whose greed for money and power knows no bounds.

And that is what the monied elite wanted: War and more war to make money and more money. And their controllers - those pulling the strings behind the scenes only wanted power and more power and used the greed of the Business Titans, the Mob and the Oil Empire to achieve their ends.

From John F. Kennedy, The Secret Service and Rich, Fascist Texans

On November 21st, 1963, 43 years ago today, the 1,035th day of John F. Kennedy's tenure as President, he asked the Congress for $95.7 million in supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 1964. He also President asked his economic advisers to prepare "War on Poverty" program for 1964. Then, President Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy departed for a two-day trip to Texas. It was to be his last full day on Earth.

From John F. Kennedy and the Monolithic and Ruthless Conspiracy

But today other voices are heard in the land--voices preaching doctrines wholly unrelated to reality, wholly unsuited to the sixties, doctrines which apparently assume that words will suffice without weapons, that vituperation is as good as victory and that peace is a sign of weakness. At a time when the national debt is steadily being reduced in terms of its burden on our economy, they see that debt as the greatest single threat to our security. At a time when we are steadily reducing the number of Federal employees serving every thousand citizens, they fear those supposed hordes of civil servants far more than the actual hordes of opposing armies.[...]

Finally, it should be clear by now that a nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future. Only an America which has fully educated its citizens is fully capable of tackling the complex problems and perceiving the hidden dangers of the world in which we live. And only an America which is growing and prospering economically can sustain the worldwide defenses of freedom, while demonstrating to all concerned the opportunities of our system and society.[...]

That strength will never be used in pursuit of aggressive ambitions--it will always be used in pursuit of peace. It will never be used to promote provocations--it will always be used to promote the peaceful settlement of disputes.

Let us weep for what it could have been.

John F. Kennedy

Dumping around

2006-11-13T21:52:00.000+01:00

The following are quotes of the book "Why is it always about you" by Sandra Hotchkiss.

The narcissistic engages us via our own narcissistic vulnerabilities. These early experiences leave us with unrealistic expectations of ourselves and a need for repair of the shame we felt when we couldn't measure up to theirs. [...]

By attaching ourselves to these individuals we get immediate gratification of our need to feel special by basking in their glow, and when we go out of our way to please them in order to hold their interest, we signal them that we can be used to meet their needs. The door is then open to the exploitation and shame-dumping that is characteristic of the way they operate. The most treacherous ones will keep us bound to them by pumping us up between the put-downs and the manipulations.

The Narcissistic has a prism that refracts and distorts incoming messages to avoid the intolerable feeling of shame. Narcissists constantly dump -or project- unwanted parts of themselves onto other people. They begin to behave as if others possess these unwanted pieces of themselves and they may even succeed in getting others to feel as if they actually have those traits or feelings. This is an unconscious process for both the dumper and the dumpee, but what if means is that you end up being treated like the dirt they've brushed off their own psyches, or feeling the humiliation, the anger, the vulnerability, and the worthlessness that they cannot tolerate themselves. They lob it onto you, you suck it in, and for an icky while, it's yours. If you are young, dependent, or otherwise vulnerable, their "disowned" parts may stick around and become part of your own self-image.

Boundless ocean

2006-10-21T20:44:00.000+02:00

A quote from the book Life is Real only then, when "I am", by Georges I. Gurdjieff:

"It is interesting to note here that the expression often used by contemporary people, of course quite automatically, without any understanding of its hidden sense—'the first liberation of man'— signifies, according to the interpretation of initiates of one school existing presently in Central Asia, just that supposed figurative understanding which I in my writings formulated as the possibility for each drop of water of the prime general river to cross from the stream which is predetermined to disappear into the 'nether regions' into the stream which empties itself into the vast space of the boundless ocean.

"As to the possibility of this crossing for a man who in his responsible age has already entered into the stream of the 'nether region,' although it is given by Great Nature, I must warn you, in order not to provoke in you so to say 'light-hearted illusions' regarding this possibility to cross from one stream to another, that it is not so easy— merely to wish and you cross.

"For this it is indispensable, with a constantly active consciousness, first of all with extremely great intensity to obtain the intentional crystallization in oneself of the data for engendering in one's common presence an unquenchable impulse of desire for such a crossing, and then will follow a long inner struggle, requiring great tension of all the inner forces, with the obvious abnormalities crystallized in one's individuality and evident even to one's own self-reasoning, that is to say, a struggle with the crystallized habits unworthy for man even in his own understanding in a period of repose, which contribute, first, to the arising in us of our inner 'Evil-God' and second, to the supporting and increasing in us of its power and strength always and in everything, namely that 'Evil-God,' the presence of which creates ideal conditions, especially in contemporary people, for enjoying a state of 'immutable peace' —speaking shortly, there will be required all kinds of corresponding, very complicated and difficult preparations...."

Test of faith

2006-09-18T20:15:00.000+02:00

And now comes the test of faith (and hope...).

[...]One must have faith. The test takes the form of a need for man to surmount his fear of 'abandonment' to Faith. Jesus reassured His sheep on this subject: 'Be not therefore anxious saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek ;your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His truth; and all these things shall be added unto you.'[...][Gnosis, Book I, Boris Mouravieff]

Counsel with Yoda

2006-08-30T22:26:00.000+02:00

via Star Wars: Blog

"Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin. The fear of loss is the path to the Dark Side."

Anakin responds "I won't let these visions come true, master Yoda"

Already he is unwilling to accept loss.

"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who have transformed into the force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not."

Yoda is trying to teach Anakin why he should not be so occupied with the death of those he cares for. In terms of the Force, death means very little. It is important for a Jedi to not become obsessed with emotions about death, or anything, because...

"Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is."

Greed and jealously are not really Anakin's problem in this case, but this is a great example of one of the many principles for restricting emotions that the Jedi must maintain.Yo be a Jedi is to walk a fine line, always wary of temptation and passion. This leads to a very potent point about the ways and teachings of the Jedi, and how they are forced to live. Jedi must detach themselves from many things, including emotions. Because a Jedi is strong in the Force, the danger of the Dark Side tapping into their negative emotions is great, and must constantly be gaurded against.

The best way to do this, or so the Jedi of the Old Jedi Order believe, is to isolate their life from certain things that inspire temptations and negative emotions. That is why the lives of Jedi are largely void of material possessions, why Jedi are not allowed to love, and exactly why it is an important Jedi teaching to consider death favorably and peacefully, for if Jedi took deaths too seriously, the emotional disturbances and repurcussions would be disastrous. Revenge alone is too powerful an emotion and too great a tool of the Dark Side to leave unchecked in jedi teachings, and revenge may be just one of many strong emotion spurred by death.

"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose."

This is the simple how. How to save yourself from emotional turmoil over loss. A Jedi must detach themself from a lot of things, inorder to maintain a peaceful disposition.

Pathocracy

2006-08-16T01:04:00.000+02:00

Don't miss this flash video:

Pathocracy is a disease of great social movements followed by entire societies, nations, and empires. In the course of human history, it has affected social, political, and religious movements as well as the accompanying ideologies… and turned them into caricatures of themselves…. This occurred as a result of the … participation of pathological agents in a pathodynamically similar process. That explains why all the pathocracies of the world are, and have been, so similar in their essential properties.

…Identifying these phenomena through history and properly qualifying them according to their true nature and contents - not according to the ideology in question, which succumbed to the process of caricaturization - is a job for historians. […]
The actions of [pathocracy] affect an entire society, starting with the leaders and infiltrating every town, business, and institution. The pathological social structure gradually covers the entire country creating a “new class” within that nation. This privileged class [of pathocrats] feels permanently threatened by the “others”, i.e. by the majority of normal people. Neither do the pathocrats entertain any illusions about their personal fate should there be a return to the system of normal man. [Andrew M. Lobaczewski Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes]

A sudden realization

2006-07-22T23:48:00.000+02:00

I remember meditating about the lack of response from the people in the US to the genocide that Israel was inflicting and that it was because they were ponerized. Not being able to do what is obviously the thing to do when you see what's wrong and what's right is a really bad sign of being morally depleted after years of being exposed to ponerology. And I was thinking that something similar could apply in my life.

I waked up today with the realization that a lot of my current uneasiness had to do with the process of ponerization I've been throughout all my career as a medical doctor. Well, at least it is a part of it. That was kind of funny because I already knew it, it's just that I tend to forget and maybe that is also part of the ponerization process I've been through.

Just one example of one case among the hundreds if not thousands I've experienced... There was this old man whom we all knew was going to die. He knew it, the family knew it, my boss knew it, and of course I knew it. I was aware that the old man wanted to die in his house, among his family and all the people he cared for during his life. After a week or so of hinting and convincing my co-workers that his stay in the hospital was causing him more harm than good (just by pointing out the obvious), we decided to send him home. And then he suddenly had a respiratory insufficiency and he died after a few days in the intensive care unit. Maybe I should had tried harder? Maybe that is the way the system works... Nowadays people hardly die in their houses among love ones. The respiratory insufficiency was from a lung infection that he would not had caught in his house because it was a nosocomial infection. Who knows, he might still be alive. But he is not. He even said that he was afraid that he was going to die in the hospital and I was going to prove him wrong... But at the end he was right. He died ALONE in the 7th floor of a miserable hospital because no family members were allowed to be around.

Sigh.

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back-- Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues
from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." -Goethe

Pathocrat's policy

2006-07-22T09:20:00.000+02:00

Dispatch from Gaza: We Suffer Together

2006-07-15T13:38:00.000+02:00

Via signs of the times

Testimony recorded by Silvia Cattori on July 14, 2006
Our friend Swiss journalist Silvia Cattori is in Palestine reporting on the criminal actions of the Israeli army in Gaza. She sent us this report.

The testimony of this Palestinian living in the north of Gaza gives an idea of the way Palestinians are reacting to the events that are hitting them.

Silvia Cattori: What is the mental state of the population after weeks of bombings and deprivations?

A: We have suffered. We are in a dramatic situation. The Israeli army has entered up to Saladine Street; the military has cut Gaza in two: it is like it was before. They have installed a base. There are a dozen tanks with bulldozers. They are in the process of razing land, greenhouses; they are destroying all that remains of life. For two weeks, the F-16s and the drones bomb and destroy our homes. There are hundreds of dead and badly wounded.

S.C.: Is it blind bombing of everything as opposed to bombing that is targeting "terrorists"?

A: The day before yesterday, for example, the Israelis attacked a house, assassinating an entire family, under the pretext that it sheltered Mohamed Daif, the head of those firing the Qassam rockets. However, it wasn't true. Unfortunately, an entire family, a father, a mother, five daughters and two sons lost their lives.

S.C.: Having cut Gaza in two, are the soldiers threatening the population from this position?

A: Yes, their tanks, posted in the centre of the Gaza Strip, between Del Balla and Kahn Younes, are currently firing rockets - just like in the north of Gaza.

S.C.: Are the tanks moving?

A: No, the Israeli soldiers are chicken; they are afraid of being attacked by the resistance.

S.C.: Do the members of the Hamas Government still show themselves on the street?

A: We are seeing no one. They are all on the list of the next assassinations. They only come out when they have a rendez-vous, but it is always done with great secrecy.

S.C.: During the two weeks of the bombings that have left you without water, without electricity, without food, have you been afraid for your family?

A: The first attack by the Israeli planes at Betlaya was near my house. It was there that there were a large number of wounded and killed. The children were in a panic. Fearing that Israel would attack our neighbourhood, we left our house to move away from the zone. Now, we have returned home.

S.C.: How do people put up with living in such a horrible situation? Do they want you to free the captured soldier as quickly as possible to end Israel's pretext to continue the collective punishment?

A: The majority of the Palestinians support the position of the resistance, the position that the soldier won't be released until Israel releases 1000 of the weakest prisoners they hold, women and children. Prisoners that are living - contrary to the Israeli propaganda film shown recently on television in the west that we have heard about - under inhuman conditions. This film didn't talk about the torture of the prisoners, didn't show prisoners being held like beasts in tents, plagued by insects and disease, didn't say that most of the prisoners can only see their families once every six months. [1]

S.C.: Has the accord signed between Fatah and Hamas two weeks ago taken affect?

A: They were speaking of an entente. But on the ground, it is the contrary. The Fatah militia continues their assassinations, so the Palestinians continue to be threatened by two enemies: that is, by Israel and by those Palestinians who are collaborating with the occupier in order to destablize Hamas. The Israeli attacks actually prevented a civil war between Palestinians. At this moment, each Palestinian, no matter what party, feels above all like a target of Israeli shooting.

S.C.: Can even the father of a family like you, who has nothing to do with the resistance, be hit by what they call a targeted assassination?

A: You must know that our crime is being Palestinian, to belong to Palestine. If I find myself by chance in the same taxi as someone that an Israeli plane wants to assassinate, I can be killed.

S.C.: For that you will have to face more and more aggression? The Israeli army has announced that Operation Summer Rain will last as long as necessary.

A: You know that Israel is government by lunatics at this moment. They are narrow-minded politicians. They have unleashed war in Gaza, and, as of two days, they have declared war on Lebanon. Maybe that will give us a bit of a break because the pressure is only longer only concentrated on us.

S.C.: One thing that is worrisome in any situation of war is the trauma undergone by the children. Are they still normal after all they have had to endure?

A: The other day I wanted to take my kids to the sea. My three-year-old daughter started to cry. She said, "No, Daddy, I never want to go to the beach again." I asked her why. "I don't want to die." I said, "OK, if you don't want to die, I'll go with your brothers and sisters." "You neither. No one should go to the beach," she cried. You can see how a three-year-old child reacts after seeing on television the family massacred on the beach. If I talk about the beach, she cries.

S.C.: Were the victims these last months people like you, people who are not armed, who have no protection, and who do not harm anyone?

A: Almost all of the victims are civilians. However, the Israeli army justifies the bombings of families who are eating or sleeping saying that there are fighters among them. There are members of the resistance, but they aren't among these victims. Everyone in Palestine, with the exception of the collaborators, is a resistor in spirit.

S.C.: With such a catastrophic situation, one that is ongoing, in what kind of mental state are you?

A: We continue to live in spite of the unlivable situation Israel imposes upon us. We are accustomed to living this life that isn't a life. There is no food, there is only brackish water, there is no electricity. This is our life. But it is better than living a life were we crush ourselves.

SC.: How will you be able to rebuild yet again the entire infrastructure that the Israel bombing is destroying? Do you think they can be put back in action quickly?

A: The Israelis will never leave standing anything we build. Each time that we repair the transformer in the north or the south of Gaza, they bomb it again. We have yet to hear any protests from the Arab or European states. Some states have condemned the Israeli operations, but their condemnations are too weak. It isn't enough to make Israel back off. From the moment that Europe cut off our aid, it meant they have been collaborating with Israel in its collective punishment, to starve us and to make us suffer more.

S.C.: Do you have the impression that the journalists who obtained permission to enter Gaza have been correctly informing the world on the suffering you are undergoing?

A: It is always the same thing, whether they come or not. I would have been very happy it if had been you who had gotten permission to come, because I am certain you would have reported with honesty. We follow the news. It is always a superficial and Israeli version of things that is shown. The suffering of the people, our pain, all those at CNN, Fox News, the BBS, have no idea what it is. They lie in our faces. We watch their lies live.

S.C.: Don't you think that those journalists that ignore your reality and repeat the same things are led into error by the Palestinian chauffeurs and guides accompanying and supervising them and informing them in a biased way?

A: All they have to do is what you do, go out into the street and get people to talk. It's not by them all staying in the same five star hotels in Gaza that they will be able to find the truth.

S.C.: They don't go out into the streets?

A: Even when they go, they conform to the information given by Israeli press officers or the supervision of their agencies. At the end of the day, they say what their Jerusalem or other office tells them to say and don't say what they have been told not to say. You're a journalist; you should know how it works.

S.C.: I wasn't able to enter Gaza this time and can't report on what is happening to you. It makes me all the more sad because I have remained very attached to the place and I knew so many Palestinians who were suffering and two members of the ISM as well as the London journalist James Miller - who wanted to report about your suffering and the assassination of children - who were killed in 2003 by the Israeli army.

A: They won't let you in because you are too honest. Israel well knows that you do not look at our reality in the same way as the journalists who generally come here. If you were seeing everything through the eyes of Israeli propaganda, you could have entered Gaza....

S.C. I was interrogated by the Israel secret service Sabak on my arrival at Ben Gurion airport. Won't I put any Palestinian I meet into danger if these services, which have their spies on every Palestinian street, are watching me now?

A: You can't put anyone in danger. Every Palestinian is in danger. At any moment, the drone that is flying overhead can strike me. Don't let yourself be intimidated. Do you know why they intimidated you when you arrived and why they follow you? Because those people are afraid of you?

S.C.: Afraid of me? Are you joking?

A: All of these soldiers and spies that make up the most formidable army in the world, in spite of their power, are afraid of anyone who uses his words...to speak the truth. They are afraid of those who speak the truth. They are weak people. We can win this fight even though our means are nothing compared to theirs, because we have the will and the courage that they don't have.

S.C.: What I have seen since I started traveling through the West Bank is without a doubt less atrocious than what is happening in Gaza, but, believe me, it is already too much to support. I cried when I saw a group of people being held like animals in an enclosed space at the checkpoint in Bethlehem. I cried when I arrived in Naplouse and I saw the crowd of silent people who were waiting for the soldiers to condescend to let them leave. You Palestinians seem so strong in the face of all of these humiliations they impose. Do you cry sometimes?

A: Of course I cry. I often cry now when I see all of these families who have been assassinated. A quarter of the victims are children.

S.C.: Does your wife cry, too?

A: Yes, often. Everywhere around, here in Gaza, or over there in the West Bank, are people struck by misfortune that breaks your heart. We are one people and we are suffering together. We are one unique body.

[1] It may be the film recently shown by the television network Arte.

P.S.: This interview was conducted via internet and telephone.

Translated by Signs of the Times

Noche de San Juan

2006-06-24T10:46:00.000+02:00

St John the Baptist night is a much celebrated party in the mediterrean and as I am currently visiting the area, I had the opportunity to celebrate it with the local people. It went something like this: We went to the beach, lighted some candles, had our dinner and then we went to the sea at mid-night and jumped over the waves several times (I forgot the number...) It was great fun and it is to say that the mediterrean is seriously beautiful. I can only make a hint of the symbolism of this night.

On another note, I am pretty much reminded of don Juan's words these days:

"The grand trick of those sorcerers of ancient times," don Juan continued, "was to burden the flyers' mind with discipline. They found out that if they taxed the flyers' mind with inner silence, the foreign installation would flee, giving to any one of the practitioners involved in this maneuver the total certainty of the mind's foreign origin. The foreign installation comes back, I assure you, but not as strong, and a process begins in which the fleeing of the 'flyers' mind becomes routine, until one day it flees permanently. A sad day indeed! That's the day when you have to rely on your own devices, which are nearly zero. There's no one to tell you what to do. There's no mind of foreign origin to dictate the imbecilities you're accustomed to.
"My teacher, the nagual Julian, used to warn all his disciples," don Juan continued, "that this was the toughest day in a sorcerer's life, for the real mind that belongs to us, the sum total of our experience, after a lifetime of domination has been rendered shy, insecure, and shifty. Personally, I would say that the real battle of sorcerers begins at that moment. The rest is merely preparation."

There is a point of no return

2006-06-11T15:24:00.000+02:00

"There is a point of no return, that point must be reached"

The first requirement, the first condition, the first test for one who wishes to work on himself is to change his appreciation of himself. He must not imagine, not simply believe or think, but see things in himself which he has never seen before, see them actually. His appreciation will never be able to change as long as he sees nothing in himself. And in order to see, he must learn to see; this is the first initiation of man into self-knowledge.

First of all, he has to know what he must look at. When he knows, he must make efforts, keep his attention, look constantly with persistence. Only through maintaining his attention, and not forgetting to look, one day, perhaps, he will be able to see. If he sees one time he can see a second time, and if that continues he will no longer be able not to see. This is the state to be looked for, it is the aim of our observation; it is from there that the true wish will be born, the irresistible wish to become: from cold we shall become warm, vibrant; we shall be touched by our reality. [G.I. Gurdjieff]

Zanskar Valley

2006-06-01T19:48:00.000+02:00

Via www.follmi.com

On the banks of the frozen river, at -30 degrees, people warm their hands over the last embers of a fire used for making tea.

If we think of the vast majority of human problems, both on a personal and on a worldwide scale, it seems that they stem from an inability to feel sincerely involved with others, and to put ourselves in their place. Violence is inconceivable if you are genuinely concerned with the happiness of others. [Matthieu Ricard]

Sigh, but for some people these words don’t mean anything at all.

Last supper

2006-05-29T21:44:00.000+02:00

The Way of the Warrior

2006-05-28T18:27:00.000+02:00

A couple of years ago, I read everything of Carlos Castaneda. The effect it had on my life was magical, and it also made my trips in train quite enjoyable. Today I pulled out a few quotes about death from the Wheel of Time because it helped me deal with the subject back then and so it seems now…

Only the idea of death makes a warrior sufficiently detached so that he is capable of abandoning himself to anything. He knows his death is stalking him and won't give him time to cling to anything, so he tries, without craving, all of everything.

One of the great aids that the shamans of ancient Mexico employed in establishing the concept of the warrior was the idea of taking our death as a companion, a witness to our acts. Don Juan said that once that premise is accepted, in whatever mild form, a bridge is formed which extends across the gap between our world of daily affairs, and something that is in front of us, but has no name; something that is lost in a fog, and doesn't seem to exist; something so terribly unclear that it cannot be used as a point of reference, and yet, it is there, undeniably present.
Don Juan claimed that the only being on earth capable of crossing over that bridge was the warrior: silent in his struggle, undetainable because he has nothing to lose, functional and efficacious because he has everything to gain.

A man, any man, deserves everything that is a man's lot - joy, pain, sadness and struggle. The nature of his acts is unimportant as long as he acts as a warrior. If his spirit is distorted he should simply fix it - purge it, make it perfect - because there is no other task in our entire lives which is more worthwhile. Not to fix the spirit is to seek death, and that is the same as to seek nothing, since death is going to overtake us regardless of anything. To seek the perfection of the warrior's spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, and our manhood.

The hardest thing in the world is to assume the mood of a warrior. It is of no use to be sad and complain and feel justified in doing so, believing that someone is always doing something to us. Nobody is doing anything to anybody, much less to a warrior.

A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions.

In order to help his ward to erase personal history, the warrior as a teacher teaches three techniques: losing self-importance, assuming responsibility for one's acts, and using death as an adviser. Without the beneficial effect of these three techniques, erasing personal history would involve being shifty, evasive and unnecessarily dubious about oneself and one's actions.

Princesses and Trapped in the Mirror

2006-05-21T17:52:00.000+02:00

I got caught on a web of confusion after some harsh experiences during the past week or so and it took me awhile to shake off the mental block. It really takes “knowledge input on a continuous basis”. Last year I read “Trapped in the Mirror” by author Elan Golomb. Her writings proved to be, once again, very useful:

Introject is the hostile foreigner that watches you with a critical eye. It criticizes you with comments as “you’re a failure” and “why try”? Your feelings of depression strengthen its force. It makes you discard appreciation and distrust affection. Its punitive demands and paralyzing arguments stop you from trying to change. In repeatedly silencing my introject I learned more about the struggle. Eradication takes deliberate thought and effort. You need to identify the introject as foreign to your self. If we see it as a non-self, an identification that drives us to unacceptable roles, feelings, and behaviors, we can work on it.[...]

Reason and will can keep you going until you get support.[...]

If you putt off the quest for freedom you always will lack love.

But what really gave me food for thought today was the movie "Princesas". Geez, after that movie, my life suddenly seemed so perfect... Set in Spain, the story is about a friendship between a Dominican prostitute and a Spanish prostitute. Here is a review:

I am a great lover of cinema which has either been taken from live theatre or which delve into the realness of the human condition, of human feelings, which explore the depths of what makes people tick, of what makes people think, feel, love, hate, of what makes people on celluloid be real live living people with character and personality and deep feelings. In this aspect "Princesas" is a beautiful, moving, thoughtful piece which deserves great accolade. I left the cinema with very very deep feelings running through my heart and mind, such that I missed the bus-stop, and in the end walked all the way home - about three kilometres!

I must remember to watch a movie by Amenábar and León de Aranoa next time I get caught on a mental block :-)

Update (28/05/06): I just realize that my DVD had a defect on it, and I missed the end of the movie. Apparently the movie has a happy ending and some critics say it makes the characters quite unreal. Who knows, maybe one day I'll find out the end and judge by myself...

Political Ponerology: The Scientific Study of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes

2006-04-13T16:45:00.000+02:00

link

Political Ponerology: The Scientific Study of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes
by Andrew M. Lobaczewski

The first manuscript of this book went into the fire five minutes before the arrival of the secret police in Communist Poland. The second copy, reassembled painfully by scientists working under impossible conditions of repression, was sent via a courier to the Vatican. Its receipt was never acknowledged, no word was ever heard from the courier - the manuscript and all the valuable data was lost. The third copy was produced after one of the scientists working on the project escaped to America in the 1980s. Zbigniew Brzezinski suppressed it.

Political Ponerology: The scientific study of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes was forged in the crucible of the very subject it studies. Scientists living under an oppressive regime decide to study it clinically, to study the founders and supporters of an evil regime to determine what common factor is at play in the rise and propagation of man's inhumanity to man.

Shocking in its clinically spare descriptions of the true nature of evil, poignant in the more literary passages where the author reveals the suffering experienced by the researchers who were contaminated or destroyed by the disease they were studying, this is a book that should be required reading by every citizen of every country that claims a moral or humanistic foundation. For it is a certainty that morality and humanism cannot long withstand the predations of Evil. Knowledge of its nature, how it creates its networks and spreads, how insidious is its guileful approach, is the only antidote.

Get the book in this link before it is too late...

Psychopath, Sociopath or Antisocial Personality Disorder?

2006-04-12T17:21:00.000+02:00

Perhaps Robert Hare's book, "Without Conscience", will provide some clarity.

Sometimes the term sociopathy is used because it is less likely than is psychopathy to be confused with psychoticism or insanity.

Some clinicians and researchers, as well as most sociologists and criminologists- who believe that the syndrome is forged entirely by social forces and early experiences prefer the term sociopath, whereas those- who feel that psychological, biological, and genetic factors also contribute to development of the syndrome generally use the term psychopath. [...]

A term that was supposed to have much the same meaning as "psychopath" or "sociopath" is antisocial personality disorder (APD), described in the 3rd edition of the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM III, 1980)[...]

The diagnostic criteria for APD consist primarily of a long list of antisocial and criminal behaviors. When the list first appeared it was felt that the average clinician could not reliably assess personality traits such as empathy, egocentricity, guilt, and so forth. Diagnosis therefore was based on what clinicians presumably could assess without difficulty, namely objective, socially deviant behaviors. The result has been confusion with many clinicians mistakenly assuming that APD and psychopathy are synonymous terms.

Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 and Neither Did a Boeing 757, Part II

2006-03-24T01:14:00.000+01:00

Part I

Someone doesn't want you to read the article Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 and Neither Did a Boeing 757. In fact, somebody is really desperate as Laura Knight-Jadczyk, editor of Signs of the Times explains to us in her blog:

Some of you may have noticed that signs of the times was down for awhile today. This was due to the actions of the website abovetopsecret.com. As I have speculated, they were given the task to run cointelpro on Joe Quinn's article:

Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 - and Neither Did a Boeing 757
which was an analysis of the "catherder" article on abovetopsecret which essentially was support for the Bush Neocons conspiracy theory about the events of September 11.

As anyone who is familiar with copyright law knows, this is perfectly legal under standard copyright law.

However, abovetopsecret.com, like Bush and the Neocons, make up their own laws. As I have chronicled on this blog, their urgent demands that we remove this article because it was a violation of their "creative commons" copyright was absurd and simply evidence of their position as an active cointelpro/psy-ops propagator on the internet. It isn't copyrights they are concerned about, it is google bombing and running psy-ops. And now, they have proven it.

Here is the letter we received from our server people after being notified by about a hundred people via email that the signs of the times site was down:
From: "James" **** To: Arkadiusz Jadczyk

Subject: FW: Notice of Copyright Infringement

Date sent: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:55:32 -0500

Date forwarded: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:38:12 -0600

Hi, we received the following complaint from your site. Please investigate this and let us know.

James

From: Jaeschke, Jr., Wayne [mailto:WJaeschke@****.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 2:35 PM To: dmca@velcom.com Cc: mark@abovetopsecret.com; skepticoverlord@abovetopsecret.com Subject: Notice of Copyright Infringement

Sirs:

Our firm represents AboveTopSecret.com LLP ("ATS"). ATS is the owner of numerous copyrighted articles being displayed in an infringing

manner on a website hosted by your company. That website is http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/> http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/.

The infringing articles appear at:

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/Above_Top_Secret_article.htm>

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/Abo … rticle.htm ("the 757

article")

And

http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/signs/signs20050909.htm>

http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/signs … 050909.htm ("the FEMA article")

The original articles appear on the Abovetopsecret.com website at:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread167902/pg1>

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread167902/pg1

And

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread79655/pg1>

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread79655/pg1

The republication of each of these articles is governed by the Creative

Commons 2.5 Deed ("the CC Deed").

The 757 article may be republished in accordance with the terms and conditions specified here:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/cc.php?tid=79655&pid=816414>

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/cc. … pid=816414

The FEMA article may be republished in accordance with the terms and conditions specified here:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/cc.php?tid=167902&pid=1685907>

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/cc. … id=1685907

Pursuant to the CC Deed, these articles, each of which is owned by ATS and is the subject of a registration in the United States Copyright Office 1) may not be published on sites/pages with commercial advertisements; 2) may not be used to make "derivative works"; and 3) must provide proper attribution to the author and a link to the original article.

In each instance of content owned by ATS appearing on the "signs-of-the-times.org" website, all three of these conditions of the terms of use is violated. The owners/operators of ATS have attempted to contact the operator of signs-of-the-times.org and have this situation corrected by either removing the articles or republishing them in a manner that complies with the CC Deed. The operators of the Signs-of-the-times.org websites, Laura Knight-Jadczyk and Arkadiusz Jadczyk, have failed to comply.

We must therefore request that Velcom.com, as hosts for the Signs-of-the-times.org website, remove these pages from publication.

Moreover, this letter constitutes notice to the operators of Velcom.com that ATS believes that have a right to enforce their copyright under Canadian and U.S. law and reserves the right to take further action in the U.S., Canada, or both without further notice.

As well, this letter is also to serve notice on Velcom.com that the owners of ATS have rescinded all rights to the operators of signs-of-the-times.org under the CC Deed, in view of their continued non-compliance with the terms and conditions of use of original, copyright content appears on the abovetopsecret.com website.

Please contact me at ******* if you have any questions with regard to this matter. Otherwise, we look forward to the prompt and amicable resolution of this matter.

Regards,

Wayne Jaeschke

Wayne C. Jaeschke, Jr. Morrison & Foerster LLP

********************

McLean, VA 22102

phone: ****

fax: ****

wjaeschke@****.com

================================================

To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, Morrison & Foerster LLP informs you that, if any advice concerning one or more U.S. Federal tax issues is contained in this communication (including any attachments), such advice is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.

For information about this legend, go to

http://www.mofo.com/Circular230.html

=

This message contains information which may be confidential and privileged. Unless you are the addressee (or authorized to receive for the addressee), you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the message or any information contained in the message. If you have received the message in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail @mofo.com, and delete the message.

Now folks, come on, how many websites that were just started by an ordinary guy who took on a couple of "ordinary" partners, and is just a hobby and sharing on the internet, are able to afford a copyright attorney in McLean Virginia???

This action also is highly suggestive of the idea that the Pentagon Issue is a LOT more sensitive than anyone has thus far suspected! Do take note of THAT!

For more info check this link and this link.

A prison for your mind

2006-03-22T00:32:00.000+01:00

Better keep posting; otherwise I will forget all the English that I learned.

I went back to Europe after spending quite some time in North America. The experience in North America is like the never ending story, so I’m not going to talk about it.

In Europe I was a guest of a cute Spanish girl. She cooks wonderfully and her boyfriend is a well known local musician. She works very hard, but in her free time she reads books like the "Stargate Conspiracy" because she hates the idea of working 6-7 days a week while no so friendly entities are taking over the world, and as she says “I must know what’s happening in this world”.

Then, I was a guest of a Colombian girl. She is a classic so to say. Hard worker, ready to help you when you need her, very religious and extremely attached to her family. I wake her up on Sundays so she can go to church in time, although in that church she has more chances to meet the no so friendly entities that I mentioned, but who I am to interfere with her happy church life?

Now I came to my homeland in South America, a place that people around the world had envied me when they ask where I come from, a paradise on Earth. In my homeland, ignorance rules supreme, that’s why it is paradise, because ignorance is bliss for most people. Okay… it has beautiful landscapes and beaches, and people are very nice.

Talking about ignorance… I read today an enlightening passage in the book Hostage to the Devil and it applies to all humanity or so I think. What happens in the book is that a priest is doing an exorcism to a guy named Carl. And the demon (named Tortoise) says that he possessed Carl because he asked for it. The demon explains that there are no words for this understanding of “wanting to be possessed”, that it is rather a “thought”. Here is what the priest realizes:

His chief feeling is one of horror: horror at what he sees happening, horror at his own imprisonment in his mind. The “thought” is now clear to him in a way he never dreamed: he sees it concretely in his four assistants and in Carl. They are completely at ease; their only emotion is wonder that Hearty (the priest) is not at ease. He wants to scream at them, to shout: “Watch out! Watch out! They have played on your desire for normal behaviour. They are making it all normal for you.” But he cannot open his mouth or produce a sound.

As his helplessness grows, he sees more and more clearly what is happening. No one wants to believe in evil, really, above all, not in an evil being, an evil spirit. Everyone wants to abolish the idea. To admit the existence of evil means a responsibility, and no one wants that responsibility. That is the opening through which Tortoise crawls, stilling all suspicions, making everything seem normal and natural. This is the “thought”, the unwariness of the ordinary human being which amounts to a disinclination to believe in evil. And, if you do not believe in evil, how can you believe in or ever know what good is?

Good point, if you don’t know evil, how can you know what good is? The above case is a real case… No fiction here! A real Matrix, a prison for your mind.

9-11 The Ultimate Truth

2006-03-14T15:56:00.000+01:00

I read this book last year and it was an amazing reading with a good dose of common sense. After going through all the details of that infamous date I found the official story of the US government quite comical. The book is a good introduction to the psychopathy behind the mask of sanity of the Neocons and Zionists, and it is a good hypothesis to explain the grand-scheme of world events where we all seem like pawns in a chess game that is played by no so friendly entities with their entropic interests in mind.

I think it is in our best interests to know what really is behind the events of 9-11 and this book is a good case in point. It is available through redpillpress.com or qfgpublishing.com

9-11

13 rules for dealing with sociopaths in everyday life

2006-01-31T19:45:00.000+01:00

Well, this is only a guide... is much better to read the book from which these rules came from, "The Sociopath Next Door" by Martha Stout.

1) The first rule involves the bitter pill of accepting that some people literally have no conscience.
2) In a contest between your instincts and what is implied by the role a person has taken on, go with your instincts.
3) When considering a new relationship, practice the Rule of 3s regarding the claims and promises a person makes, and the responsibilities he or she has.
4) Question authority.
5) Suspect flattery.
6) If necessary redefine your concept of respect. [based on fear?]
7) Do not join the game.
8) The best way to protect yourself is to avoid him, to refuse any kind of contact or communication.
9) Question your tendency to pity too easily.
10) Do not try to redeem the unredeemable.
11) Never agree, out of pity or any other reason, to help a sociopath conceal his or her true character.
12) Defend your psyche.
13) Living well is the best revenge.

sociopath

Predators, pedophiles, rapists, and other sex offenders

2006-01-20T23:54:00.000+01:00

Predators, pedophiles, rapists, and other sex offenders...scary title. Thats a book I heard every woman should read. I agree with author Anna C. Salter that people hold positive illusions about themselves, about the amount of control they have over their fates, and about the benevolence of the world. Apparently these positive illusions have a negative impact on our susceptibility to predators and these illusions are themselves susceptible to the impact of trauma, which sometimes shatters them, leaving a bleak world in its wake... again, knowledge protects.

So here I am reading this book with interviews of the worst men that ever stepped into this world, I would even suggest that they are not human.

The following is from Michael DeBardeleben a counterfeiter and sadist, one who kept voluminous notes on his exploits. Among the notes was found his recipe for a relationship:

A [man] must be aware of all this:
-Get his satisfaction early
-Isolate her contacts with others
-Don't let her make any decisions
-Don't let her acquire any skills (working, driving, social skills, etc.)
-Don't let her have any power (bank accounts, ownership, inside information-material for blackmail)
-Never trust her completely
-Don't "enlighten" her with knowledge (specially of psychology)
-Always remember that the relationship is temporary+likewise prepare to "cut her loose" before she does it to you
-Set the "price" higher than needed at first; whip, infidelity, extreme humiliation-then gradually reduce to keep at an adequate level
-Actively seek a "new" partner when she begins to show signs of rebellion
-Make her more dependent: drugs? Live in country. No phone (or hidden-for my use only) no drivers license, no books (except fantasy) no fancy clothes, no doctors
-Never show weakness, guilt or insecurity.

This was a few of the things that I read from the chapter of sadists, I skipped almost everything because the author said:

"If this is not something you want to read, you can skip this chapter, and the rest of the book will still make sense. To be honest, you'll like the world more if you don't read it."

Its hard to read, but I keep the pressure on it because after all wisdom about predators is the best kind of defense against sexual offenders. From the foreword by Gavin de Becker:

"Sexual abuse is an enormous problem, particularly for young teens. Thank God mine aren't there yet."
No sorry, says reality, the most common age at which sexual abuse begins is three.

"Well, sure, if you have homosexuals around small children, there's a risk"
No sorry, says reality, most sexul abuse is committed by heterosexual males.

"Yeah, but that kind of pervert isn't living in our neighborhood"
Sorry, says reality, but that kind of pervert is living in your neighborhood. The Department of Justice estimates that on average, there is one child molester per square mile in the United States.

"Well, at least the police know who these people are"
Not likely, says reality, since the average child molester victimizes between 50 and 150 children before he is ever arrested (and many more after he is arrested).

When all defenses against reality are taken away, some parents switch to resignation, literally resigning from responsibility: "Well, there's nothing you can do about it anyway." This misplaced fatalism actually becomes fatal for some children.

Another common refrain uttered by deniers of the dangers of sexual abuse is: "Well, kids are resilient. When bad things happen, they bounce back."

Absolutely not, says reality. Children do not bounce back. They adjust, they conceal, they repress, and sometimes they accept and move on, but they don't bounce back.

It is incredible the capacity to con of these psychopaths, predators or whatever you prefer to call them. They know that other people [and not them] are bonded by consciousness, empathy, the motivation to see good in all people. And they use this, against us, faking a perfect mask of empathy and con their prey into whatever needs they may have. And when it comes to pedophiles, rapists, and other sex offenders... it can be really disturbing. But remember illusions are themselves susceptible to the impact of trauma, which sometimes shatters them, leaving a bleak world in its wake. And there are plenty of predators in this world. Knowledge protects.

sex offenders

Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 and Neither Did a Boeing 757

2006-01-07T20:05:00.000+01:00

After the 9-11 events there was plenty of evidence that supported the theory that the Pentagon wasn't hit by a Boeing 757. Then there were a lot of articles written to dismiss this theory and their twisting and manipulation of the actual evidence is such that for the sake of thinking with a hammer I will quote author Joe Quinn who made sort of a parody out of a popular article on the internet that "shows the evidence" that a Boeing hit the Pentagon:

Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 and Neither Did a Boeing 757

by Joe Quinn

[...] Anyone who takes on the formidable task of digging into the events of 9/11 is immediately at a disadvantage because the US government has already declared the case closed. The government knows how it happened and who did it and have informed the entire world. As a result, there is no possibility of access to the raw data, to the crime scene or analyses of same. Here is where we meet the major obstacle: since the US government is the prime suspect, we cannot simply take as truth everything - or anything - that they say in relation to the case.

Investigation of the 9/11 attacks should be approached like any murder investigation. When confronted with a murder case (like 9/11) and a suspect that has a history of deceit and murder (like the US government and its agencies) and who had an opportunity and a motive to commit the murder, do you take as fact any claims by the suspect that he did not commit the murder? Do you seek to fit the facts around his claim that he did not commit the murder? When you confront evidence that suggests that the suspect is lying about his account of where he was and what he was doing, or you find inconsistencies and logistically impossible scenarios in his account, do you ignore these and focus only on the fact that he said he did not commit the murder and try to find and present evidence that backs up his claim to innocence? [...]

Now, if the person with a truly open mind is given all of the publicly available evidence and has been additionally furnished with knowledge of the effects of airplane crashes and that of missile impacts, what would such a person conclude about the most likely cause of the Pentagon damage? Of course, not all of the evidence was made available to the public, but there is still sufficient visual evidence from "ground zero" (both in terms of place and TIME), to form a pretty good "best guess". For a definitive conclusion to be reached, the "private" evidence, like the video tapes of the event that the FBI confiscated, would have to be released, and we don't expect that to happen any time soon. Of course, the fact that the definitive evidence of the videos has not been released is in itself a key piece of evidence that suggests that the official story of what hit the Pentagon is not the real story.

The purpose of this small introduction is to prepare the reader for the fact that, in his attempted rebuttal of the no 757 at the Pentagon theory, the ATS article author, CatHerder, appears to have succumbed to the influence of the mainstream media shills that have incessantly parroted the official government story about what happened on 9/11 for the three years prior to the writing of the article. As such, he has failed to don the mantle of objective observer of the available evidence that is so crucial to finding the truth, and instead exerts a lot of effort to make the available evidence fit the government claim that Flight 77 hit the Pentagon on the morning of September 11th 2001. Either that, or he/she is part of the "official government cover-up." After you read everything below, you can make a call on that one yourself.

Here is the ATS article as it appears on the ATS site with my comments interspersed in blue text.

Read the article here or here.

Big Lies: Who told the worst political untruth of 2005?

2005-12-28T04:55:00.000+01:00

"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it" -Albert Einstein

SOTT news commentary:

Two years ago, almost NONE of the mainstream media sources were calling Bush and Cheney liars; that was the purview of the alternative news sites and bloggers. But the issues have grown so large, so frightening that even the moderates and former Bush supporters are joining the general clamor for something to be done.

There's a problem, however, as Eleanor Clift points out:
"The polls show that a majority of Americans no longer trust this team, which is why Bush and Cheney are hitting back hard at their critics. ... We have no mechanism to deal with a president who has lost the trust and confidence of the American people and has three years remaining in office. Impeachment is a nonissue; it’s not going to happen with Republicans in control of the House and Senate."

Recent polls (uncooked ones, that is) show that over 80 % of the American People want Bush impeached. But, as we pointed out a day or so ago, that's not the answer. If you impeache Bush, you get Cheney, if you impeach Cheney, you get Hastert, if you impeach Hastert, you get Stevens.

What we need is a way to get rid of an entire government.

The problem seems to be that our Founding Fathers did not include in their deliberations, any situation such as the United States is faced with today: a gang that has fixed elections, assassinated opposition, blackmailed and stacked the Congress to pass laws that essentially create a dictatorship.

Some other democratic governments have made provisions for just such contingencies. Typically, when parliaments vote 'no confidence,' or where it fails to vote confidence, a government must either: 1. resign, or 2. seek a parliamentary dissolution and request a General Election. We think that such provisions still leave something to be desired in that there is no way to factor in the voice of the people

In view of the situation, we here at Signs do have an idea. Since it is now obvious that 80 % or more of the American people want Bush OUT, it is not very likely that any of them will be voting Republican in the next congressional elections. If a Republican majority is returned to Congress, we can then be almost certain of vote rigging. So, the thing to do first is deluge all state governments with demands for voting systems that have a paper trail to ensure that no more elections are stolen.

Then, the people must put their energy into demanding new legislation. This legislation should be a bill introduced in Congress to the effect that a petition of citizens can invoke a national referendum of confidence/no confidence. Such a referendum will be 1 person = 1 vote, no "electoral college," no steps between the will of the people and the representatives of the people. If the will of the people is "no confidence" in the reigning government, they must all resign and a new election will be held. There ought to also be new legislation regarding elections, election financing, Congressional perks and power brokering.

The Milgram Experiment

2005-12-27T01:21:00.000+01:00

"Of all moral principles, the one that comes closest to being universally accepted is this: one should not inflict suffering on a helpless person who is neither harmful nor threatening to oneself. This principle is the counterforce we shall set in opposition to obedience." -Stanley Milgram

I am currently reading The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout and came across with the Milgram experiment:

Subjects were recruited by newspaper ad and direct mail solicitation to participate in a "study of memory" at Yale. (The experiments themselves took place in two rooms in the basement of Linsly-Chittenden Hall, on the university's Old Campus.) The experiment was advertised as taking one hour, for which those responding would be paid $4.50. Participants were men between the ages of 20 and 50, coming from all educational backgrounds from an elementary school dropout to participants with doctoral degrees.

The participant and a confederate (an actor pretending to be another participant) are told by the experimenter that they will be participating in an experiment to test the effects of punishment on learning behavior.

A slip of paper is given to the participant, another to the confederate. The participant is led to believe that one of the slips says "learner" and one says "teacher" and that he is randomly given one of the slips. The actor claims to have been assigned as "learner," so the participant is led to believe that the roles have been chosen randomly. In actuality both slips say "teacher," while the actor just misreports what is on his slip; no element of randomness is involved.

The participant or "teacher" is then given a sample 45-volt electric shock from the electro-shock generator, as a "sample" of the shock the "learner" will supposedly receive during the experiment. The "teacher" is then given a list of word pairs which he is to teach the learner. The teacher begins by reading off a list of word pairs to the learner. After reading through the word pairs, the teacher will then only read the first word of each pair, and read 4 possible answers. The learner will indicate which second word he believes to be correct by pressing a button (1 through 4) corresponding to the teacher's choices. If incorrect, the learner will receive a shock, increasing by 15 volts with each wrong answer. If correct, the next word pair is read.

The teacher believes that he is actually giving shocks to the learner participant. In reality, there are no shocks being given to the learner. Once the learner is separated, he sets up a tape recorder, integrated with the electro-shock generator, which plays pre-recorded tracks at certain shock levels. After a certain number of level increases, the actor starts to bang on the wall that separates him from the teacher (subject). After banging on the wall and complaining of his heart condition (which he talked about at the beginning of the experiment), the learner gives no further response to the questions and no further complaints.

It is at this point that many people begin to indicate their desire to stop the experiment and check on the subject. Many test subjects pause at 135 volts and begin to question the purpose of the experiment. Some continue after being assured that they will not be held responsible. Some participants begin to laugh nervously once they hear the screams of pain coming from the learner.

If, at any time, the subject indicates his desire to halt the experiment he is given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:

1. Please continue.
2. The experiment requires you to continue, please go on.
3. It is essential that you continue.
4. You have no choice, you must continue.

If the subject still wishes to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment is halted. Otherwise, it is halted after the subject has given the maximal 450-volt shock three times in succession. [Wikipedia]

In Milgram's first set of experiments, 65 percent (27 out of 40) of experimental participants administered the experiment's final 450-volt shock. After the original experiment, Milgram varied his design and when the subjects were not commanded to operate the switches (another person pushed them), 92.5% continued to participate to the highest shock level on the "generator". Martha Stout writes:

"A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority." Milgram believed that authority could put conscience to sleep mainly because the obedient person makes an "adjustment of thought," which is to see himself as not responsible for his own actions.

[...] education can sometimes level the perceived legitimacy of an authority figure, and thereby limit unquestioning obedience. With education and knowledge, the individual may be able to hold on to the perception of him- of herself as a legitimate authority.

Knowledge protects!

See also Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes by Andrew M. Lobaczewski, Ph.D.

Ponerology

2005-12-01T00:38:00.000+01:00

The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau [Genesis 27:22]

It was only until I had the courage to study evil per se that current events on a worldwide and personal level made sense.

Ponerology means the study of evil within theology and it comes from the greek poneros 'evil'. The term is used by Dr. Andrew M. Lobaczewski Ph.D in the article "Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes." Quoting the article:

During good times, the search for the meaning of life, the truth of our reality, becomes uncomfortable because it reveals inconvenient factors. Unconscious elimination of data which are, or appear to be, inexpedient, begins to be habitual, a custom accepted by entire societies. [...]

Talking about evil in this world is sort of a tabu, which surprises me as this world seems as per default an evil one. As Lobaczewski writes:

If physicians behaved like ethicists and failed to study diseases because they were only interested in studying questions of health, there would be no such thing as modern medicine. [...] Physicians were correct in their emphasis on studying disease above all in order to discover the causes and biological properties of illnesses, and then to understand the pathodynamics of their courses. A comprehension of the nature of a disease, and the course it runs, after all, enables the proper curative means to be elaborated and employed. [...]

Understanding the nature of macro-social pathology helps us to find a healthy attitude and thus protects our minds from being controlled or poisoned by the diseased contents and influence of their propaganda.

We can only conquer this huge, contagious social cancer if we comprehend its essence and its etiological causes.

Such an understanding of the nature of the phenomena leads to the logical conclusion that the measures for healing and reordering the world today should be completely different from the ones heretofore used for solving international conflicts. It is also true that, merely having the knowledge and awareness of the phenomena of the genesis of macro-social Evil can begin healing individual humans and help their minds regain harmony. [...]

The article can be found here, I highly recommend this article as it reviews the political history and explains a lot of the current events in this world which is led by psycopaths wearing a mask of sanity.

Coffee or Coca-Cola?

2005-11-14T14:58:00.000+01:00

And you thought coffee was bad for you? Well maybe, but watch out the other black waters. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association:

Colas, not coffee, linked to hypertension in women
[...] No link was found between habitual coffee consumption and hypertension based on analysis of 12 years of data on 33,077 cases of high blood pressure among 155,594 women participating in the Nurses Health Study, which is jointly run by the hospital and the school.
However, there was an association found between hypertension and consumption of caffeinated colas, independent of whether the soft drinks were sugared or diet. [...]
"We speculate that it is not caffeine but perhaps some other compound contained in soda-type soft drinks that may be responsible for the increased risk in hypertension," said the study [...]

God knows what compound is contained in Cokes. I heard that Coca-Cola is very good for cleaning the toilets… Anyway, I do prefer a good cup of coffee!

Coffee

Onda

2005-11-12T16:24:00.000+01:00

In previous days I had the opportunity to visit the Basque Region and it was very interesting to find several towns or other locations that begin with the spanish word "onda", which in english is "wave". Ondarreta, Ondarribia, Ondarritz and others that I can't remember now. Hendaye pronounced in French also sounds phonetically to onda.

In the Cassiopaea material we find the following:

"The Wave" is a term used to describe a Macro-cosmic Quantum Wave Collapse producing both a physical and a "metaphysical" change to the Earth's cosmic environment theorized to be statistically probable sometime in the early 21st century. This event is variously described by other sources as the planetary shift to 4th density, shift of the ages, the harvest etc., and is most often placed around the end of 2012. The Wave Series begins with a UFO abduction account, a transcript of an actual hypnotic regression session, that refers to a global cataclysmic change. Please note that we do not, however, subscribe to the notion that such events can be exactly predicted as to whether or when they might occur. Quantum physics talks about statistical probabilities, not prophetic certainties.

You can read the articles of The Wave in this link.

The other interesting thing that caught my attention is the basque language, a strange language compared to spanish, english, french, italian, and other languages of European countries. The Basque people inhabit the adjoining area of the Pyrenees in north Spain and south-western France. The ancestors of the Basques are among the oldest inhabitants of Europe, and their origins are still unknown, as are the origins of their language itself [maybe they came from Atlantis :-D]

Freedom

2005-11-05T12:56:00.000+01:00

Libertad ["Freedom"] Original Art and Prints From Costa Rica by Carlos Galli, http://www.galli-art.com/

Freedom is a luxury these days...

I'm still wandering like a lost sheep, but after all, who gets to travel that much as I do during these days? I guess I'm fortunate, although it will be nice to start finally settling down somewhere.

The picture above got my attention because my grandfather used to say that those birds, "lapas", were free to fly in the skies a long time ago when he was a kid. You can still find them in some national parks where the birds are strictly protected.

Economic collapse?

2005-10-24T21:24:00.000+02:00

Are we heading to an economic collapse? If you already know the answer, I highly recommend the following podcast in this link, where a eurozone banker is interviewed on the coming crash. It really says all that needs to be said about the situation we find ourselves in.

The bad news of an uncoming collapse is being discussed already on mainstream news, in the alternative news its being discussed for quite awhile. Lets see what Donald Hunt tells us in his blog “Signs of the Economic Apocalyse”:

We make a mistake if we assume that the markets for various commodities act as markets do in economic textbooks. Here is an excellent account by Robert Bell of how, by whom and for whom markets can be rigged, worth quoting at length but too long to quote in full. The article helps explain why those of us who thought the dollar would have collapsed by now were wrong. A major reason for this was the consequence of the law passed by Bush in the fall of 2004 allowing U.S. corporations to "repatriate" profits parked overseas and to have that money taxed at a much lower rate. According to Bell, that had the effect of propping up the dollar.
The Invisible Hand (of the U.S. Government) in Financial Markets

Robert Bell

Summary: The U.S. government is manipulating all major U.S. financial markets - stocks, treasuries, currencies. This article shows how it is possible and how it is done, why it is done, who specifically is doing it, when they do it, and where they get the money to do it. [read the article here]

The present political and climatological factors are already bad enough and it seems that things are getting worse… It is like the feeling that they are not telling you everything because they don’t have your best interests at heart. Obviously the economy of an egocentric world will also mean that the interests of those at the top come first. I guess it will be like the classical corporate-fascist economy. From the same blog:

Classic liberal economics represent one branch of clear STS or Service to Self economic relations. Corporate-Fascist economics represents an alternate STS economic path. Both ideologies propose an ethos of getting as much as you can for yourself without concern for the other. The difference is, the “you” in liberal economic ideology is the “individual” and in corporate fascism the “you” that is maximizing personal benefits is the Nation or the State merged with the powerful corporations. Game Theory, with its rational self-interested actors and two-person games, is essential to both types of STS economic ideologies. What results, then, when societies make these theories and ideologies their fundament, is a culture of psychopathy, a culture where psychopathic behavior is rewarded. (see Laura Knight-Jadczyk’s “'Official Culture’ in America: A Natural State of Psychopathy?” ) and her Adventures with Cassiopaea series).

Good luck! We all are going to need it, but more than that, lets remember that KNOWLEDGE PROTECTS!.

economy

Mordechai Vanunu: “Having the atomic bomb is what has allowed Israel to fearlessly carry out its apartheid policy”

2005-10-22T20:15:00.000+02:00

Exclusive Interview for Voltaire Network by by Silvia Cattori

In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, an engineer at the Dimona nuclear centre, revealed to the Sunday Times the existence of the secret Israeli nuclear program. He was Kidnapped in Italy by the Israeli secret services following his contacts with the British reporters and before the publication of the article with his revelations, he was judged behind doors and jailed for 18 years. Although he is still banned from contacting reporters, Mordechai Vanunu answers Silvia Cattori’s questions in an exclusive interview for Voltaire Network. [Read the article here]

Quantum Future Institute - The Academy of Wisdom

2005-10-19T20:07:00.000+02:00

The Quantum Future Institute is conducted according to the principles of Knowledge Protects and should be shared, that Truth is the highest value, that Ignorance Endangers and Wisdom is nothing else but "Knowledge Applied".

Science has been corrupted, it has become an industry, an arm of the Military utilized primarily for dealing death and destruction on our planet, and this process is like a train speeding out of control toward a bridge that has been washed out by a mighty flood. The "truth" does not matter anymore. Greed and corruption rule science even if many scientists are sincere and well meaning.

Today we living in a corrupted society, corrupted to such an extent that the end of human civilisation is highly probable long before the "End of Everything" predicted by theoretical physicists; perhaps even in our lifetime. At the same time, synchronistically, the rate of "natural catastrophes" seems to be accelerating. We understand more and more that our human existence on the planet Earth is rather fragile and can end at any moment. A strike by an asteroid can annihilate most of the population of our planet, and evidence indicates that such can happen with literally no warning. A supernova explosion of a nearby star can all life on earth almost instantly. In this case there will be no warning at all. The star could have already exploded and the deadly radiation is already on the way towards us - with the speed of light.

Much closer to home, an eruption on the Sun, directed towards the Earth, can end nearly all life on our planet in the form that we know about (some sea creatures in the deep ocean may survive). Assigning probabilities to such events is simply meaningless. We do not know enough about the inner mechanisms inside our Sun or stars, we do not have means for shielding our planet from cosmic catastrophes.

And still we use science to build weapons, to kill and maim, to steal and starve others blithely ignoring the facts of history: he who digs a pit generally falls into it.

Then we have religions. They give us a different perspective, they give us hope: they talk about consciousness that transcends physical reality. But religions also tell us a lot of silly things and they have been the cause of probably more human deaths, cruelty and suffering than science and technology together. Religions have also been corrupted. Science ruled by religion or religion ruled by science seem to be equally deadly mixtures.

What to do then? This question occurs only to those that are not satisfied with being simply passive vitnesses and victims of the "unavoidable". This question occurs to those who understand that there is no such thing as "unavoidable", who understand that in a nonlinear universe the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas. Even if today we may not be able to provide any constructive answer to these probalems of global importance, tomorrow we may acquire a different perspective and our questions may find their "Columbus solutions". Knowledge, too, is nonlinear. But for this a special approach is needed. All corruption in science and in religion have to be spotted and discarded. A healthy marriage of the exact methods science and of the mysterious esotericism is needed.

There is no other solution.

For more information see Quantum Future Institute

Police state placement...while you sleep

2005-10-17T17:59:00.000+02:00

My laptop is about to be unplugged from its 8th internet connection for reasons of traveling… again. By now I’m already an expert in hooking up my computer to any networking cable available.

During the last days I had the chance to live with a classical English family, it proved to be very enlightening for me. Now I have a better idea on why people are not interested in all the lies and injustices of Blair and collaborators.

So well next stop is Italy, but I already been there for quite awhile. I am even afraid to surf the internet there. Everywhere I go, I have to show my documents. To use an internet café, they had to scan my permit of stay and give me a card with a code. At the end they check my code and are able to know how many hours I owe them. And I tried various places, they all need my permit of stay scanned. In the subway they check people’s backpacks, well I will say that they check blacks and Arabs (males). But that doesn’t surprises me either.

Whatever, I am a good immigrant. Its incredible to how much BS we are getting used to.

Dust off the Nuremberg Files

2005-10-12T22:44:00.000+02:00

In the article "Dust off the Nuremberg Files", Anwaar Hussain writes:

The Nuremberg Trial Counts One & Two: Conspiracy to Wage Aggressive War and Waging Aggressive War. The "common plan or conspiracy" charge was designed to get around the problem of how to deal with crimes committed before the war. The defendants charged under Count One were accused of agreeing to commit crimes. Accusation for Count Two was defined in the indictment as "the planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances."

Abundant evidence is now available that shows that leaders and advisers of the Bush and Blair administrations engaged in "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression." Iraq posed no threat to either the United States or Britain. Its government had neither the means nor the intent of waging war against these countries; nor did it issue any threat to them. It possessed no WMDs. [...]

If all other war crimes could be argued against by legal wizardry, there is one crime of the coalition forces that is enough to surely sentence them ten times over for crimes against humanity. The use of depleted uranium weapons by the US armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan is as horrific a crime against humanity as there ever could be. This one crime takes its ghastly toll not just on the existing humanity, but successive generations continue to suffer for eons to come. A look here (too graphic, be warned) would confirm that the hideous beginning has already been made. [...]

One problem remains though. And that is that it is always the vanquished that are supposed to have committed war crimes. The current accused are militarily so powerful that inflicting a military defeat on them by any power/combination of powers looks remote at the moment. Additionally, the 'war on terror' has been purposely made so elusive that the lines of legality are blurred enough to muddy the evidence of the crime. [...]

Leonardo Da Vinci: The Last Supper

2005-10-07T17:06:00.000+02:00

Much have been said about Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper. For example that the apostole next to Jesus' right is a woman, and thanks to the Da Vinci Code and other predecessors it is said that its his wife. But maybe an interpretation of Leonardo Da Vinci himself about his paintings will provide a clue. In Laura Knight-Jadczyk's updated article "The True Identity of Fulcanelli and The Da Vinci Code", there is an analysis of Leonardo's paintings with some reference to his notebooks and manuscripts. Laura Knight-Jadczyk quotes the following for the particular painting in discussion:

Pleasure and Pain represent as twins, since there never is one without the other; and as if they were united back to back, since they are contrary to each other. [...] This represents Pleasure together with Pain, and show them as twins because one is never apart from the other. They are back to back because they are opposed to each other; and they exist as contrairies in the same body...[Leonardo's quotes from: "The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci" compiled and edited from the original manuscripts by Jean Paul Richter, Dover Edition, 1970, first published in 1883 by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington under the title "The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci. Dover Publications, New York]

Interesting suggestion isn't it?

Anyway, remember if you are travelling to Milan, book your reservation with AT LEAST one week of anticipation. The reservation IS required. In order not to lose the reservation, visitors must arrive 15 minutes before the time allocated for the visit. For reservations call (+39)028942114. For more information see: www.cenacolovinciano.it

Leonardo Da Vinci
Last Supper
Travel

Good sheep

2005-09-20T00:07:00.000+02:00

Well, I had been rather absent from this blog and this is just the beginning. I have no choice but to behave like a good sheep. Lets see if I come out of this one, until then... Hasta la vista!

In the mean time I will quote Gurdjieff from the book In Search of the Miraculous by Ouspensky:

"There is an Eastern tale which speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep. But at the same time this magician was very mean. He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where his sheep were grazing. The sheep consequently often wandered into the forest, fell into ravines, and so on, and above all they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and skins and this they did not like.
"At last the magician found a remedy. He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned, that, on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place he suggested to them that if anything at all were going to happen to them it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it. Further the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not sheep at all; to some of them he suggested that they were lions, to others that they were eagles, to others that they were men, and to others that they were magicians.
"And after this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away again but quietly awaited the time when the magician would require their fleshand skins."

I won’t forget to behave like a rebel then.

Signs of the Times

2005-09-09T00:37:00.000+02:00

Sung by Relic

Download MP3 (Right click and "Save link as...") (6 MB - 160 kbps)

Update! Enjoy the video made for dickeatsbush.com:

http://www.dickeatsbush.com/signs.htm [Stream]
http://www.dickeatsbush.com/assets/zip/signs.zip [windows media player download]
http://www.dickeatsbush.com/assets/zip/sott.zip [quicktime download]

"Signs of the Times" words & music by Relic

There are UFOs over Mexico
Hurricanes in Florida
You may be surprised to know
It's raining frogs in Serbia

Tornadoes over Texas
California quakes
The ring of fire is the next to blow
And all of Europe is left to bake

Refrain:

These are the Signs of the Times
The world is burning, yeah
These are the Signs of the Times
The tides are turning, yeah
See the signs

The weather's changed
Everything is strange, somehow
It's all connected

Our leaders lie
Our children die, somehow
It's all connected

Locust plagues and wildfires
Ice age follows climate change
What to do with the avian flu
And HAARP is turned on again

The beast of revelation
Is living in the States
Jesus seen in a grilled cheese
Virgin Mary's on the interstate

Refrain

Butterfly wings
Start so many things, somehow
It's all connected

Gravity waves
Change your DNA, somehow
It's all connected

There's drought in Australia
While China floods
Tsunami wash it all away
Persian rivers run with blood

The sun's dark companion
Comes around again
Auroras in the atmosphere
Meteors falling down like rain

Refrain

So raise your voice
Time to make a choice, somehow
It's all connected

Refrain

Copyright 2005 Relic

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How Bush’s policies doomed New Orleans II

2005-09-03T01:17:00.000+02:00

There is a worth reading analysis going on in Signs of the Times:

New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes
By ALLEN G. BREED
Sep 1, 11:04 PM (ET)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out, cops turned in their badges and the governor declared war on looters who have made the city a menacing landscape of disorder and fear.

"They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said of 300 National Guard troops who landed in New Orleans fresh from duty in Iraq. "These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will."

Comment: "Fresh" from duty in Iraq?? Given the situation in Iraq, including the deaths of countless innocent Iraqi civilians at the hands of US forces, we really have to wonder what is going on in the minds of Bush administration officials. Getting troops who are more than willing to shoot and kill into New Orleans doesn't seem to be a problem - but getting emergency supplies and enough helicopters and other equipment to evacuate stranded residents does seem to be an issue. As such, perhaps the plan was never to rescue anyone. Many people are beginning to speculate that the levees were intentionally sabotaged 9/11 style. In a SkyNews survey, 90% think that Bush's response to Katrina is entirely too slow. In the same broadcast, an American who lost his home stated that if the US can go into Iraq and rebuild the country as Bush claims, why isn't the same being done in the region ravaged by Katrina?

When we read that only seven helicopters were available to rescue an estimated 200,000 people stranded in the New Orleans area alone, and that the National Guard troops sent in just got back from Iraq, we have to wonder if perhaps US forces are stretched so thin that there simply aren't enough troops and equipment to conduct a full-scale rescue operation. If the Bush Reich knew this, they would certainly allow or help the levees to break, creating such a huge disaster that anarchy would result. They could then release a story about abandoned residents shooting at rescue helicopters, impose martial law, send in the big guns, and not really have to worry about actually saving anyone. Besides, the majority of those people stranded appear to be lower class citizens who are primarily African American, and the Powers that Be have been historically less than helpful to that portion of the population. As an added bonus, the US economy would crash, and the administration could blame Mother Nature.

So, what do US authorities have to say for themselves? Well, Bush urged the people of New Orleans to remain patient. Yesterday, an AFP article also reported the following:
With 80 percent of New Orleans submerged, authorities blamed the floods for their inability to get the relief operation into high gear.

"For those who wonder why it is difficult to get these supply and medical teams into place, the answer is, they are battling an ongoing dynamic problem with the water," said Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff.

This is the best explanation they could come up with?! An "ongoing dynamic problem with the water"?? Does this statement mean that the Office of Homeland Security and the military don't have any boats or helicopters available to rescue people? Most of the people stranded in New Orleans seem to still be surviving despite a lack of food, clean water, medicine, shelter, and the ongoing dynamic problem with the water - yet a massive collection of government and military agencies just stands around and watches helplessly.

We suspect that either Bush's Brain has made an extraordinarily huge miscalculation, or there is much more to Katrina than meets the eye...

Continue reading here

Katrina

How Bush’s policies doomed New Orleans

2005-09-02T00:27:00.000+02:00

Quoting from bellaciao:

The 2006 Budget slashes funding for the US Army Corps of Engineers, NO Districts, by $71.2 million dollars. Addditionally, a study to determine ways to protect the area from a Category 5 hurricane was cancelled.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/artic...

I know some of you will say "It’s 2005..those cuts haven’t happened yet". To you I say, I’m only getting started.

Beginning in 2001, the Bush administration has consistently cut federal disaster mitigation programs run by FEMA. I guess the policy of ABC includes disaster preparedness.

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dis...

"...Among emergency specialists, ’mitigation’ -- the measures taken in advance to minimize the damage caused by natural disasters -- is a crucial part of the strategy to save lives and cut recovery costs. But since 2001, key federal disaster mitigation programs, developed over many years, have been slashed and tossed aside. FEMA’s Project Impact, a model mitigation program created by the Clinton administration, has been canceled outright. Federal funding of post-disaster mitigation efforts designed to protect people and property from the next disaster has been cut in half. Communities across the country must now compete for pre-disaster mitigation dollars.

In addition, the White House has pushed for privatization of essential government services, including disaster management, and merged FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security -- where, critics say, natural disaster programs are often sidelined by counter-terrorism programs. Along the way, morale at FEMA has plummeted, and many of the agency’s most experienced personnel have left for work in other government agencies or private corporations..."

Ahhh... privatization. The only other word besides ’tax cuts’ that this administration knows.

From a followup to that article, we find this..

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dis...

"Before FEMA was condensed into Homeland Security Š it responded much more quickly," says Walter Maestri, director of Jefferson Parish’s Office of Emergency Management. Maestri has worked with FEMA for eight years. "Truthfully, you had access to the individuals who were the decision-makers. The FEMA administrator had Cabinet status. Now, you have another layer of bureaucracy. FEMA is headed by an assistant secretary who now has to compete with other assistant secretaries of Homeland Security for available funds. And elevating houses is not as sexy as providing gas masks."

Maestri is still awaiting word from FEMA officials as to why Louisiana, despite being called the "floodplain of the nation" in a 2002 FEMA report, received no disaster mitigation grant money from FEMA in 2003 ("Homeland Insecurity," Sept. 28). Maestri says the rejection left emergency officials around the state "flabbergasted."

So, all you Bush supporters, it IS true that the extensive damage and lack of preparedness is this administration’s fault.

No mitigation monies in 2003...huge budget cuts forthcoming...NG troops having to be ’borrowed’ to restore order...privatization of emergency managment tasks...

A recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, this time, the meal was served in LA, MS, and AL.

http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=24745 [...]

Katrina

Warrior

2005-08-31T05:58:00.000+02:00

Via Signs of the Times: Cindy Sheehan, left, begins to cry as Anishinabi elder Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement puts gold stars on her warrior shawls presented to her at Camp Casey 2 near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. Banks drove 1357 miles from northern Minnesota to present Sheehan with the Native American gift reserved for warriors. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

The warrior is not a fighting man in the ordinary sense. The warrior's journey is not motivated by power, glory, serving God, country or tribe or any such thing. The journey is rather an end in itself, its own destination and reward. The warrior is not a mercenary who fights for opportunistic gain or as a way of life. The warrior is rather a representative and seeker of a higher world. The power obtained by the warrior changes him and uses him, but he also uses the power. The power is an impersonal force of a spiritual, supersensible nature, the warrior is in a sense its representative on Earth.[esoteric glossary]

MindWar

2005-08-23T22:41:00.000+02:00

Via signs of the times I found the article of Jeffrey Steinberg that discusses the psychology of victory:

Sometime in late 1980, then-Col. Paul E. Vallely, the Commander of the 7th Psychological Operations Group, United States Army Reserve, Presidio of San Francisco, Ca., co-authored a discussion paper, which received wide and controversial attention within the U.S. military, particularly within the Special Operations community. The paper was titled "From PSYOP to MindWar: The Psychology of Victory," and it presented a Nietzschean scheme for waging perpetual psychological warfare against friend and enemy populations alike, and even against the American people.

The "MindWar" paper was provoked by an article by Lt. Col. John Alexander, which appeared in the December 1980 edition of Military Review, advocating the introduction of ESP (extra-sensory perception), "tele-pathetic behavior modification," para-psychology, psychokinesis ("mind over matter"), remote viewing, out of body experiences, and other New Age and occult practices into U.S. military intelligence. Alexander's paper was titled "The New Mental Battlefield: Beam Me Up, Spock."

But the subsequent paper co-authored by Vallely went way beyond ESP and the other paranormal techniques advocated by Alexander: "Strategic MindWar must begin the moment war is considered to be inevitable," the document stated. "It must seek out the attention of the enemy nation through every available medium, and it must strike at the nation's potential soldiers before they put on their uniforms. It is in their homes and their communities that they are most vulnerable to MindWar....

"To this end," Vallely and co-author continued, "MindWar must be strategic in emphasis, with tactical applications playing a reinforcing, supplementary role. In its strategic context, MindWar must reach out to friends, enemies, and neutrals alike across the globe—neither through primitive 'battlefield' leaflets and loudspeakers of PSYOP nor through the weak, imprecise, and narrow effort of psychotronics—but through the media possessed by the United States which have the capabilities to reach virtually all people on the face of the Earth. These media are, of course the electronic media—television and radio. State of the art developments in satellite communication, video recording techniques, and laser and optical transmission of broadcasts make possible a penetration of the minds of the world such as would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. Like the sword Excalibur [King Arthur's magical sword—ed.], we have but to reach out and seize this tool; and it can transform the world for us if we have the courage and the integrity to enhance civilization with it. If we do not accept Excalibur, then we relinquish our ability to inspire foreign cultures with our morality. If they can then desire moralities unsatisfactory to us, we have no choice but to fight them on a more brutish level.

"MindWar must target all participants to be effective. It must not only weaken the enemy; it must strengthen the United States. It strengthens the United States by denying enemy propaganda access to our people, and by explaining and emphasizing to our people the rationale for our national interest in a specific war."

Leaving nothing to the imagination, the document concluded by emphasizing that MindWar should employ subliminal brainwashing technologies, and weapons that directly attack the targetted population's central nervous system and brain functioning: "There are some purely natural conditions under which minds may become more or less receptive to ideas, and MindWar should take full advantage of such phenomena as atmospheric electromagnetic activity, air ionization, and extremely low frequency waves," the paper concluded. [...]

Chocolate

2005-08-23T01:08:00.000+02:00

chocolate

Source: The Lancet
Vol: 366 Issue: 9486

Does eating chocolate prevent or even treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, or do the calories, and especially the high fat and sugar content, do more harm than good? The health benefits or harms of chocolate have intrigued researchers and provided fodder for media frenzies for decades with every positive study of the effects of cocoa flavanols (a flavonoid subclass) making the headlines. It would suit many a chocolate lover if it were proven beyond doubt that chocolate offers substantial health benefits.

So how robust is the evidence that cocoa flavanols are beneficial? Much of the epidemiological data on flavonoid-rich products have focused on red wine and tea, and there is certainly some evidence that high intakes of some flavonoids are associated with a low risk of coronary heart disease and stroke but the precise role of cocoa is more difficult to determine. Preliminary research indicates that cocoa flavanols have antioxidant effects, decrease LDL-cholesterol oxidation, reduce platelet aggregation, and enhance endothelial function. But huge variability in cocoa processing and flavanol content makes it hard, at present, to determine how far these early findings translate into tangible clinical benefits. What is clear is that few confectionary chocolate products contain doses of flavanols that are even likely to be beneficial. Dark chocolate may be better than milk chocolate, and certainly better than white chocolate, but cocoa-rich products in which flavanols have been preserved need to be developed and tested in trials before any clear-cut health benefit can be ascribed to them.

Secrets of the morgue: Baghdad's body count

2005-08-19T00:14:00.000+02:00

Bodies of 1,100 civilians brought to mortuary in July
Pre-invasion, July figure was typically less than 200
Last Sunday alone, the mortuary received 36 bodies
Up to 20 per cent of the bodies are never identified
Many of the dead have been tortured or disfigured

Via bellaciao:

Secrets of the morgue - Baghdad’s body count

By Robert Fisk

The Independent

The Baghdad morgue is a fearful place of heat and stench and mourning, the cries of relatives echoing down the narrow, foetid laneway behind the pale-yellow brick medical centre where the authorities keep their computerised records. So many corpses are being brought to the mortuary that human remains are stacked on top of each other. Unidentified bodies must be buried within days for lack of space - but the municipality is so overwhelmed by the number of killings that it can no longer provide the vehicles and personnel to take the remains to cemeteries.

July was the bloodiest month in Baghdad’s modern history - in all, 1,100 bodies were brought to the city’s mortuary; executed for the most part, eviscerated, stabbed, bludgeoned, tortured to death. The figure is secret.[...]

Continue reading here.

The Soviet Faction in North Korea

2005-08-18T23:39:00.000+02:00

The Korean Peninsula famine of the 1860s forced thousands of Koreans to emigrate to better lands. It was about that time when Korean emigration controls weakened and Korean farmers started moving into Russian lands. Some of them later played an important role in the formation of North Korea. Dr Andrei N. Lankov writes in his article "The Soviet Faction in the DPRK, 1945-1955":

A very important role in the formation of the North Korean state and its early development was played by numerous Soviet Koreans -- Soviet citizens of Korean extraction. They were sent to North Korea by the Soviet authorities and occupied various leading positions during the period 1945-60[...]

It is remarkable, however, that only one Soviet Korean was actually commanding a battle unit [in the Korean war](Cho:ng Ch'o:l-u, Alexei Ten, commander of the 17 mechanical division)[...]

The personal honesty of these people is beyond doubt. They went to Korea in order to help the country of their ancestors, with a belief that Stalinist socialism which they strove to build was the best social order in the world. The Soviet faction played an important role in the establishment of the North Korean state. Without its efforts the economic success of the 1950s would not have been possible. The mass exodus of Soviet Koreans in the late 1950s and the early 1960s became one of the factors leading to the sharp decline of the speed of the country's economic development.

On the other hand, the activities of Soviet Koreans helped to establish the dictatorship of Kim Il Song in the northern part of the Korean peninsula. They did much to help the development of the police and the army of North Korea. The history of the Soviet faction is inseparable from the history of the policy of "Communisation" of the Korean peninsula, conducted by the Soviet authorities in the 1940s. The Soviet faction was one of the most powerful instruments of this policy and as such shares the responsibility for its consequences.

Harry Potter and the recessive allele

2005-08-11T21:08:00.000+02:00

I found a cute explanation in the latest issue of Nature Magazine, they explain genetics in terms of Harry Potter, in fact the article is titled “Harry Potter and the recessive allele”. It is perfect for the latest story, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

It is set in a world like our own, but populated by a minority of people with supernatural powers (wizards and witches) and a majority of people without (muggles).

Wizards or witches can be of any race, and may be the offspring of a wizard and a witch, the offspring of two muggles ('muggle-born'), or of mixed ancestry ('half-blood').

This suggests that wizarding ability is inherited in a mendelian fashion, with the wizard allele (W) being recessive to the muggle allele (M). According to this hypothesis, all wizards and witches therefore have two copies of the wizard allele (WW). Harry's friends Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom and his arch-enemy Draco Malfoy are 'pure-blood' wizards: WW with WW ancestors for generations back. Harry's friend Hermione is a powerful muggle-born witch (WW with WM parents). Their classmate Seamus is a half-blood wizard, the son of a witch and a muggle (WW with one WW and one WM parent). Harry (WW with WW parents) is not considered a pure-blood, as his mother was muggle-born.

There may even be examples of incomplete penetrance (Neville has poor wizarding skills) and possible mutations or questionable paternity: Filch, the caretaker, is a 'squib', someone born into a wizarding family but with no wizarding powers of their own.

harry potter

Depleted uranium is WMD

2005-08-11T00:10:00.000+02:00

A shocking review of depleted uranium via bellaciao by international radiation specialist Leuren Moret:

[...]

-Depleted uranium (DU) weaponry meets the definition of weapon of mass destruction in two out of three categories under U.S. Federal Code Title 50 Chapter 40 Section 2302.

-DU weaponry violates all international treaties and agreements, Hague and Geneva war conventions, the 1925 Geneva gas protocol, U.S. laws and U.S. military law.

-Since 1991, the U.S. has released the radioactive atomicity equivalent of at least 400,000 Nagasaki bombs into the global atmosphere. That is 10 times the amount released during atmospheric testing which was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs. The U.S. has permanently contaminated the global atmosphere with radioactive pollution having a half-life of 2.5 billion years.

-The U.S. has illegally conducted four nuclear wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and twice in Iraq since 1991, calling DU "conventional" weapons when in fact they are nuclear weapons.

-DU on the battlefield has three effects on living systems: it is a heavy metal "chemical" poison, a "radioactive" poison and has a "particulate" effect due to the very tiny size of the particles that are 0.1 microns and smaller.

-The blueprint for DU weaponry is a 1943 Manhattan Project memo to Gen. L. Groves that recommended development of radioactive materials as poison gas weapons - dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets.

-DU weapons are very effective kinetic energy penetrators, but even more effective bioweapons since uranium has a strong chemical affinity for phosphate structures concentrated in DNA.

-DU is the Trojan Horse of nuclear war - it keeps giving and keeps killing. There is no way to clean it up, and no way to turn it off because it continues to decay into other radioactive isotopes in over 20 steps.

-Terry Jemison at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stated in August 2004 that over 518,000 Gulf-era veterans (14-year period) are now on medical disability, and that 7,039 were wounded on the battlefield in that same period. Over 500,000 U.S. veterans are homeless.

-In some studies of soldiers who had normal babies before the war, 67 percent of the post-war babies are born with severe birth defects - missing brains, eyes, organs, legs and arms, and blood diseases.

-In southern Iraq, scientists are reporting five times higher levels of gamma radiation in the air, which increases the radioactive body burden daily of inhabitants. In fact, Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan are uninhabitable.

-Cancer starts with one alpha particle under the right conditions. One gram of DU is the size of a period in this sentence and releases 12,000 alpha particles per second.

[...]

The Da Vinci Code and Les Dossiers Secrets: Update

2005-08-09T21:00:00.000+02:00

I realized that most of my hits are for “critical analysis of the da vinci code” and for “les dossiers secrets”, so I decided to include this information from the website Priory of Sion for those researching on the Best-seller 'The Da Vinci Code' which is based on a deception…

'Dossiers Secrets'

In his preface, Dan Brown states: 'The secret society of the Priory of Sion was founded in 1099, after the First Crusade. In 1975, parchments referred to as 'Dossiers Secrets' were discovered at the Bibliothèque Nationale [in Paris - Editor's Note], which mention the names of certain members of the Priory, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo and Leonardo Da Vinci'. These events, which Dan Brown presents as the truth, are simply untrue. The Priory of Sion was founded in June 1956 by Pierre Plantard, who at that time was working as a draughtsman at the Chanovin works in Annemasse. As for the 'Dossiers Secrets', they were forged and filed with the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris by Pierre Plantard in the 1960s. The French journalist Jean-Luc Chaumeil unmasked Plantard's imposture in the 1980s and published several books on the subject. He also collaborated with BBC2 on a TV programme which was broadcast in 1996, and which presented evidence demolishing the whole story. But it would seem that Dan Brown has not taken any account of this.[...]

You may find also the following articles VERY interesting:

The True Identity of Fulcanelli, The Four Elements, and the Da Vinci Code

The Grail Quest

And also this book:

Secret History of the World and How to Get Out Alive

Happy researching :-)

the da vinci code

Religious cults

2005-08-04T07:44:00.000+02:00

An interesting article that talks about Christianity, Judaism and Islam and some implications in current and future world events. The article is titled “The Most Dangerous Cult in the World” Here are some excerpts:

[...]Halsell interviewed fundamentalists, all of whom believed that we must fulfill the biblical prophecy of fighting World War III preparatory to Christ's Second Coming. Most disquieting is her discussion of an alliance of the New Christian Right and militant Zionists who share a common belief and enthusiasm for a global holocaust. Alarming, too, is the extent of the political influence of these evangelists, the Israeli lobby and the fact that the policies of George W. Bush are largely subject to his alleged belief in the inevitability of a God-willed nuclear war.[...]

[...]Both Gorenberg and Halsell detail and document the history of the alliance between militant Zionism and Christian fundamentalism and expose the purpose of the alliance which is the return to Israeli control of all of Palestine and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. For the religious Zionist, these actions are the prerequisite to the Messiah's FIRST coming. For the Christian fundamentalists, it is prerequisite to Armageddon and Messiah's SECOND coming. Reclamation of Israel from the Palestinians who have lived there for over 2000 years, and establishing Jewish hegemony, including the use of nuclear weapons (Armageddon) are seen as events to be earnestly desired and supported.[...]

[...]Jewish messianists and Christian millennialists both believe that building the Third Temple on the site where both Solomon's and Herod's temples are alleged to have stood is essential for their respective prophetic scenarios to take place (never mind that they seem to both be using each other and each believe that the other is just a dumb tool), while the Muslim believers fear that efforts to destroy Al-Aqsa mosque to make way for the Third Temple will prevent fulfillment of the prophecy about Islam's Meccan shrine migrating to Jerusalem at the end of time.[...]

We are toasted… Check the article here for some interesting details and links.

cults

Economic breakdown

2005-08-01T21:54:00.000+02:00

I had the idea that this blog was a “philosophical” one, where I would entertain a thought and then blog about it. But then I realized that it became a little bit political and strangely enough in yahoo I am in the second place for economic collapse although I only posted once about it. Following the economic news is such a pain; I have to prepare myself psychologically to inform myself about it. It is not a pretty picture. From signs of the economic apocalypse (yeah, the name says it all…):

Again we see a bifurcation between the conclusions reached looking at snapshot-data for the U.S. economy and those reached by looking at the big picture and at historical trends. People interested in the latter would have spent the week thinking about the unpegging of the yuan, the passage of CAFTA and the new U.S. energy bill as well as the continuing disaster of the war in Southwest Asia.[...]
Far from being the panacea that American politicians proclaim, China's decision to alter its peg could be the pin that finally pricks America's bubble economy.[...]

More “interesting” news for an economic collapse at this blog.

It's easier to win the lottery...

2005-07-31T22:31:00.000+02:00

Exercises were conducted on the London Underground which targeted the exact same spots as the bombings that happened on the morning of Thursday 7th July. This was published in infowars.com:

PROBABILITY OF DRILL AND TERROR ATTACK COINCIDING BY CHANCE (10yr mean):
One chance in 3,715,592,613,265,750,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

You can still find the other "coincidence" in the USA today... Via The Bulldog Manifesto:

On September 11, 2001, it just so happens that the CIA was planning to run a 'training exercise' on that very same morning. The 'training exercise' was intended to simulate the crashing of a small jet plane into one of the CIA's own buildings near Dulles Airport. (Isn't that where Flight 77 took off from?)

You might not remember this "amazing coincidence" because the major media outlets only mentioned this story in quick passing. It did, however make the front page of the USA Today.

Hope of feeling is slavery

2005-07-31T01:05:00.000+02:00

When I was little girl my mother took me to the Bolshoi in Moscow to see all the ballets of the '89 winter season. I couldn’t ask for more. I loved to dress with my winter cloths, walk in the snowy streets of Moscow traveling in the underground, which was so beautiful at that time. I haven’t been there since the 80’s so I can't tell how it is now; I “stole” this picture from the internet...

The ballets kept me so concentrated that I still remember the outfits, scenario, the dances and other details. I will follow the dancers as if I was dancing myself. As I grew up I decided to choose something entertaining enough for my moving center so I chose a hand skill profession. But I guess that now is time to put more attention to my poorly developed emotional center.

The only opera/ballet/ that I will like to see now is Carmen from Bizet. Is all in French but I think I may understand a few words. Now that I am a grown up it is my turn to take my mother to the theater. No luck this time, as they don’t have Carmen for this season. But that’s okay, La Sylphide will do.

Carmen reminds me what Gurdjieff said: Hope of feeling is slavery.

Faith of consciousness is freedom
Faith of feeling is weakness
Faith of body is stupidity.
Love of consciousness evokes the same in response
Love of feeling evokes the opposite
Love of the body depends only on type and polarity.
Hope of consciousness is strength
Hope of feeling is slavery
Hope of body is disease. [G.I. Gurdjieff]

Wandering Reflections

All For One and One For All

The Lure of The Twilight Saga and Life Beyond the Obsessive Cullen Disorder

On Primary Integration, psychopathy and average person

Secondary Integration

Level 5

Personality exemplars

Dealing with sociopaths

The cat and the mouse

Contemporary Asian Art

G. I. Gurdjieff: The Last Hour of Life

Shoutwire, Spankwire And The ADL

Shoutwire, Spankwire And The ADL

The Kennedy Series

Dumping around

Boundless ocean

Test of faith

Counsel with Yoda

Pathocracy

A sudden realization

Pathocrat's policy

Dispatch from Gaza: We Suffer Together

Noche de San Juan

There is a point of no return

Zanskar Valley

Last supper

The Way of the Warrior

Princesses and Trapped in the Mirror

Political Ponerology: The Scientific Study of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes

Psychopath, Sociopath or Antisocial Personality Disorder?

Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 and Neither Did a Boeing 757, Part II

A prison for your mind

9-11 The Ultimate Truth

13 rules for dealing with sociopaths in everyday life

Predators, pedophiles, rapists, and other sex offenders

Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 and Neither Did a Boeing 757

Big Lies: Who told the worst political untruth of 2005?

The Milgram Experiment

Ponerology

Coffee or Coca-Cola?

Onda

Freedom

Economic collapse?

Mordechai Vanunu: “Having the atomic bomb is what has allowed Israel to fearlessly carry out its apartheid policy”

Quantum Future Institute - The Academy of Wisdom

Police state placement...while you sleep

Dust off the Nuremberg Files

Leonardo Da Vinci: The Last Supper

Good sheep

Signs of the Times

How Bush’s policies doomed New Orleans II

How Bush’s policies doomed New Orleans

Warrior

MindWar

Chocolate

Secrets of the morgue: Baghdad's body count

The Soviet Faction in North Korea

Harry Potter and the recessive allele

Depleted uranium is WMD

The Da Vinci Code and Les Dossiers Secrets: Update

Religious cults

Economic breakdown

It's easier to win the lottery...

Hope of feeling is slavery