Healing through breath, water and psychedelics | Ayahuasca breaking Trauma by Gabor Mate

Gabor Mate transcript Gabor Mate speaks the truth, eloquently. 10 years ago!!!

It is essential to read Gabor Mate’s transcript, for the emotionally, psychologically and spiritually sick population of the Wealthy western world (specifically the USA and its derivatives, exporting sick values from a hypocritical social and economic system of Capitalism) because healing and awareness is available. 

https://theincubator.live/2016/11/15/dr-gabor-mate-on-the-healing-power-of-ayuhuasca/

This transcript of Gabor Mate’s speech, “Psychedelics and Unlocking the Unconscious; From Cancer to Addition,” he delivered at the Psychedelic conference in Oakland California on April 20, 2013”

“My subject is the use of ayahuasca in the healing of all manner of medical conditions, from cancer to addiction. And you might say what can possibly a plant do to heal such dire and life-threatening medical problems? Well, of course, that all depends on the perspective through which we understand these problems.

Now, the medical perspective, the allopathic Western medical perspective in which I was trained is that, fundamentally, diseases are abnormalities that occur either due to external causes such as a bacterium or a toxin, or they’re accidental or due to bad luck, or their due to genetics. So, the causes are outside of the usual internal experience—the emotional and psychological and spiritual life—of the individual. These are biological events, so the medical assumption goes, and the causes are to be understood and the treatments are to be administered purely in a biological fashion.

Underlying that set of assumptions are two other assumptions. One is that you can separate the human body from the human mind, so what happens to us emotionally and psychologically has no significant impact on our health. Number two: that the individual is to be separated from the environment. So, what happens to me if I get cancer? That is just my poor personal, pure personal, misfortune, or maybe because I did the wrong things like smoked cigarettes. But, that my cancer might have something to do with the lifelong interaction which I’ve engaged in with my environment—particularly the psychological social environment—that doesn’t enter into the picture.

But what if we had a different perspective?

What if we actually got that human beings are bio-psycho-social creatures by nature, and actually bio-psycho-spiritual creatures by nature—which is to say that our biology is inseparable from our psychological emotional and spiritual existence—and therefore what manifests in the body is not some isolated and unique event or misfortune, but a manifestation of what my life has been in interaction with my psychological and social and spiritual environment?

Well, if we had that kind of understanding then we would approach illness and health in a completely different fashion.

What if, furthermore, we understood something in the West which has been the underlying core insight of Eastern spiritual pathways and aboriginal shamanic pathways around the world, which is that human beings are not their personalities, we’re not our thoughts, we’re not our emotions, we are not our dysfunctional or functional dynamics, but that at the core there is a true self that is somehow connected to—in fact not connected to but part of—nature and creation.

An illness from that perspective represents a loss of that connection, a loss of that unity, a loss of that belonging to a much larger entity. And therefore, to treat the illness or the symptom as the problem is actually to ignore the real possibility that the symptom and the illness are themselves symptoms, rather than the fundamental problems.

It’s in that perspective then, that I’ve come to understand, quite before my acquaintance with ayahuasca, but that’s how I’ve come to understand human illness and dysfunction. Which is to say that illness and dysfunction represent the products or the consequences of a lifelong interaction with our environment, particularly our psychological and social environment, and that they represent a deep disconnection from our true selves.

I mention particularly cancer and addiction, but those are only two examples. Allow me to read you something from an article that appeared in last February’s edition of Pediatrics, which is the major pediatric journal in North America, and this is an article from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child, and it’s called “An Integrated Scientific Framework for Child Development.” Here’s what they say:

Growing scientific evidence also demonstrates that social and physical environments that threaten human development because of scarcity, stress, or instability can lead to short term physiologic and psychological adjustments that may come at a significant cost to long-term outcomes in learning, behavior health and longevity.

In other words, that the emotional and behavioral patterns that as young children we adopt in order to survive stressors in our environment allow us to deal with the immediate problem, but in the long term they become prisons. They become sources of dysfunction, illness and even death, if we’re not able to let go of them.

So, in other words, what was a short-term state, or meant to be a short-term state, in a helpful way, when it becomes a long-term state, when it goes from state to a trait, now it becomes a problem.

Let me give you a few obvious examples of that. I myself have been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder, a characteristic of which is tuning out, absentmindedness. Now, ADD in North America is seen as a disease, and we see many kids that have been diagnosed with it. Now we have 3 million kids in this country who are on stimulant medications for it. The rates are going up and up and up.

According to the New York Times last week, 20 percent of American boys at one time or another have been diagnosed with it and 10 percent are, at any one time are on medication. Three million at least are on stimulants right now. It’s seen as a genetic disease. It isn’t at all. What the tuning out represents, as we all know, is actually a coping mechanism. Our brains tune out when the stress becomes overwhelming, too much to bear. And at that point the tuning out is a survival dynamic.

The real question is: why are so many kids tuning out? What’s happening in their lives? What of course is going on is that the stress in this society, and the stress in the pending environment are greatly increasing. So, the child’s brain is actually affected by the stresses in the environment.

And here’s further, from the same Harvard article, they talk about brain development and how the human brain actually develops, and here’s what they say about that:

The architecture of the brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth, continues into adulthood, and establishes either a sturdy or fragile foundation for all the health, learning and behavior that follow.

So, in other words, the architecture of the brain is actually constructed by the interaction with the environment. And they continue:

The interaction of genes and experiences literally shapes the circuitry of the developing brain and is critically influenced by the mutual responsiveness of adult-child relationships, particularly in the early childhood years.

Well, I can’t make this into a lecture on brain development; the point is that which circuits in the brain develop, and which patterns are engrained, has everything to do with the environment, particularly the mutual responsiveness of adult-child relationships. And therefore whatever interferes with that mutual responsiveness will actually interfere with the brain development of the child, including the neurochemistry of the child’s brain as well as the psychological emotional patterns.

Cancer

So then, if you look at cancer and addiction as two adaptations to stress, what do we find? Well, prior to my work with addictions, which is my most recent work —and I did that for 12 years— I worked for seven years as the medical coordinator of the palliative care unit at Vancouver hospital working with terminally ill people. And both in family practice and palliative care I had ample opportunity to see who gets sick and who doesn’t get sick. I noticed the people that got ill with chronic conditions invariably followed certain emotional dynamics that were ingrained in them so much so that these were unconscious and compulsive and for that reason all the more difficult to let go of. And, so who got cancer and who didn’t was no accident, nor was it for the most part genetically determined.

And, I’ve collected a few clippings from the Global Mailnewsletter—which is Canada’s newspaper of record, or at least it thinks it is—and these clippings illustrate the patterns that I found in people who get sick.

And I’m saying all this because in talking about my work with ayahuasca and the potential healing that ayahuasca can induce in people, we have to understand what is being healed here. What is the underlying basis of these conditions?

So, these newspaper clippings, then, illustrate something about what I have found in people who get sick chronically. And when I say chronic illness I mean cancer, I mean diabetes, rheumatic arthritis, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, chronic asthma, psoriasis, eczema, almost any chronic illness you care to name.

The first of these clippings is written by a woman who is herself diagnosed with breast cancer. She goes to her doctor, Harold, and you have to know that her husband’s name is [Hye], and [Hye]’s first wife died of breast cancer, and not Donna, the second wife, who’s diagnosed with the same condition. So she writes:

“Harold tells me that the lump is small, and most assuredly not in my lymph nodes, unlike that of [Hye]’s first wife whose cancer spread everywhere by the time they found it. You’re not going to die, he reassures me. ‘But I’m worried about [Hye],’ I say, ‘I won’t have the strength to support him.’”

What you notice is she’s the one diagnoses with the potentially fatal condition and her automatic compulsive thought is, “While I’m getting radiation and chemotherapy, how will I support my husband emotionally?” So, this automatic regard for the emotional needs of others, while ignoring your own, is a major risk factor for chronic illness.

These others are obituaries and obituaries are fascinating to me because they tell us not only about the people who died but also about what we as a society value in one another. And often what we value in one another is precisely what kills us. And the expression “the good die young” is not a mis-statement. Often the good do die young because “good” often represents compulsive self-suppression of their own needs.

So here’s a man, a physician, who dies at age 55 of cancer, and the obituary says:

Never for a day did he contemplate giving up the work he so loved at Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital. He carried on his duties throughout his year-long battle with cancer, stopping only a few days before he died.

So if you had a friend who was diagnosed with the same condition, would you say to him or her, “Hey buddy, here’s what you do: You got cancer, go back to work tomorrow, and not for a moment consider your life, and the meaning of your life, and the stresses that you’re generating. Just continue working while you’re undergoing chemo, radiation or surgery,”?

So this automatic identification with duty, role, and responsibility rather than the needs of the self is a major risk factor for chronic illness.

The next one— [applause] thank you, but if you’re going to applaud every time I say something smart, you’ll be applauding the whole afternoon. The next one, the next obituary, is about a woman who dies at age 55 of cancer.  Her name is Naomi. And this obituary is written by the appreciative husband:

In her entire life she never got into a fight with anyone. The worst she could say was “phooey” or something else along those lines. She had no ego, she just blended in with the environment in an unassuming manner

Now, I’m sure that many of you who are in relationships, sometimes you wish that your partner would blend into the environment in an unassuming manner, but the point is that the suppression of healthy anger that this woman engaged in all of her life actually suppresses the immune system. And I’m not going to go into the details of that, but the science of psychoneuroimmunology has amply shown that you can’t separate the mind from the body and when you’re repressing yourself emotionally you’re actually diminishing the activity of your immune system and therefore you’re less capable of responding to malignancy or to invasion by bacteria.

And again this idea that external things cause illness—take a condition like, uh, the flesh-eating disease, Necrotizing fasciitis is the medical term. And we think we know the cause, the cause is a bacterium, the strep bacterium. It isn’t. Because if we did swabs on the people in this audience, we did swabs of the throat or the crevices of the body, we’d identify the strep bacteria in probably 25, 30 percent of the people here. But there’s nobody here with necrotizing fasciitis, nobody here with flesh-eating disease.

In other words, the presence of the bacterium does not explain the disease. What happens is that the self-suppressive patterns in somebody’s life at some point will suppress the immune system, and that bacterium that has been living on your body in perfect unity with your immune system all of a sudden becomes a deadly enemy. It’s not just a bacterium, but the self-suppression that suppresses the immune system that actually causes the illness.

And I’ll leave you with one more obituary, and this is almost too incredible to believe except it is directly from the same newspaper. This is a physician who died of cancer:

Sydney and his mother had an incredibly special relationship, a bond that was apparent in all aspects of their lives until her death. As a married man with young children, Sydney made a point to have dinner with his parents every day as his wife Roslyn and their four young kids waited for him at home. Sydney would walk in greeted by yet another dinner to eat and to enjoy. Never wanting to disappoint either woman in his life, Sydney kept eating two dinners for years, until gradual weight gain began to raise suspicions.

Now, what this man believed, what he actually believed—and notice that there are core beliefs underneath all of this. The first one believes that she’s responsible for her husband’s feelings more than she is for herself. The second guy believes that he is nothing other than his responsibilities and duties and role in the world. There’s no true self there he can actually be with and be touched with. Naomi, the woman, believes, “If I am angry, I am a bad person.” And this man believes that he’s responsible for how other people feel and that he must never disappoint anybody.

Now, these beliefs don’t come out of nowhere. They’re actually coping mechanisms in a certain parenting environment. If the parents can’t handle your anger, if they can’t handle your emotions, if they’re too needy to trouble themselves then the child starts taking responsibility for the parent as a way of maintaining the relationship. In other words, the psychological coping mechanisms of the child then become part of his or her personality, and these same patterns that helped to cope with the original stress now become the major contributors to his or her illness and possibly death. What we’re talking about here are core beliefs that reflect the child’s early experience, that become ingrained into the brain and body as automatic and compulsive responses to the world. That’s my take on chronic illness.

And you begin to see now how some experiences could enlighten you that you are not those patterns, and if it can give you a sense that these patterns are simply adaptations, and that there’s a true self underneath that, and if they can put you in touch with the experiences that led you to adopt these patterns, then perhaps you can be liberated; then, perhaps you can let go; then, perhaps you can find the true self that doesn’t have to behave in those ways anymore. That’s where the liberation is. So, that’s with chronic illness.

Addiction

Now addiction. For 12 years I worked in what’s known as North America’s most concentrated area of drug use, the downtown eastside of Vancouver, where in a few square block radius thousands of people are ingesting, inhaling, or injecting all manner of substances.

And the question again is why do people do that? Why do people do such terrible thing to themselves to the point of risking their health? They lose everything, they lose their wealth, their relationships, their families, their homes, their teeth, their dignity—and they still continue with it.

The North American answer to that question is twofold. The legal answer, the socially sanctioned answer, is that these people are making a choice, they’re making a bad choice, destructive to themselves and harmful to others and the way to deter that choice is to deter them by means of draconian punishments.

The so-called war on drugs.  But there is no war on drugs because you can’t war on inanimate objects. A war on drug addicts is what there is. And as a result of such retrograde social beliefs and governmental practices, the United States which contains 5 percent of the world’s population contains 25 percent of the world’s jail population, which is to say that every fourth person in the world that is in jail is a citizen of the land of the free. And all because of the belief that we’re talking about a choice here.

The other dominant belief, which is not identical—and you’d think would at least obliterate the first belief but it doesn’t—and it’s the one held by most medical doctors, is that addictions represent illness of the brain and particularly on a genetic basis.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine considers that up to 50 percent of the predisposition to addiction is actually caused by genetic inheritance. That is more forward looking in a way than our choice hypothesis, because at least you can’t blame people for the genes they either inherit or pass on to others, but it is no more right than the other hypothesis.

Actually, if you look at it closely and if you understand human brain development which I alluded a little bit earlier in my talk you realize that if five percent of addictions are genetic. That’s not radical to say—and I doubt that anything more than five percent is genetically determined. In fact nothing is genetically determined because we know that even people that inherit genes, and there are some, that are predisposed—not predetermined by predisposed to addiction—some people that inherit genes, in the right environment those genes are never activated. Genes are turned on and off by the environment. Therefore, what is in an environment that causes the addiction?

Of course the belief again then, among the many false beliefs about addiction, is that drugs are addictive. But we know that they’re not. Nothing is addictive in itself. I mean, is alcohol addictive? If I asked a question, “How many people have had a glass of wine in your life,” most people would put their hand up. Many of you would put your hand up. But if I asked you, “How many of you have had an alcohol problem,” a much smaller minority would put their hands up.

Now if alcohol was addictive in and of itself then anybody who ever tries it could become an addict. So, the power of an addiction does not reside in a substance. Whether that substance is crystal meth, or heroin, cocaine, cannabis, alcohol, or whether it’s behaviors like sexaholism, internet addiction, gambling, shopping, work and so on, it’s not the actual activity or substance that induces that addiction, it’s that internal relationship to it, the susceptibility. What creates susceptibility? It’s very simple: trauma.

Trauma

The drug addicts I worked with in the downtown eastside Vancouver, every single one of them had been abused as children. In the 12 years I worked there, out of hundreds of women I interviewed in the course of my professional work, there was not one who hadn’t been sexually abused as a child. And that’s not just only my personal opinion; it’s also what the large-scale population studies show. Not even controversial. Not controversial, but completely impenetrable to the medical profession and certainly to governments.

So, the people who are in jail—there’s an American psychiatrist Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, many of you may know his work on stress and trauma, and he says that 100 percent of the inmates of the criminal justice system in this country are actually traumatized children.

Now, trauma induces its own set of beliefs and coping styles. One coping style is to shut down emotionally so as not to feel. Now you become alien to yourself. So you don’t feel the pain, and as one patient of mine said very eloquently, pardon the language, “The reason I do drugs is because I don’t want to feel the fucking feelings I feel when I don’t do the drugs.”

And Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones’ guitarist, in talking about his heroin habit in his book on addiction, sorry, book on his life —same thing—uh, [life], he called it, talking about his heroin habit, “It’s about the search for oblivion,” he says. The contortions we go through just not to be ourselves for a few hours.

Now why would somebody would not wish themselves to be themselves for a few hours? Because they’re suffering, and why are they suffering? Because the early trauma, early emotional loss, induces certain beliefs. One belief is that “I’m worthless.” Because children are pure narcissists, and I mean narcissists in the pure sense of the word. In other words, when something happens to a child, particularly a young child, it’s happening because to him, and happening because of him. So bad things happen, it’s because I’m a bad person. Good things happen because I’m a good person. But if bad things happen, I’m a bad person. If I’m hurt, I deserve it. I caused it. I’m unworthy.

So there’s deep shame at the core of addictions; there’s also a sense that the world is indifferent and hostile, and of course the child who suffers them is abused—the world was indifferent and hostile as they experienced it. But, as the Buddha said it, “it is with our mind that we create the world.” But, what the Buddha didn’t say was that before “with our mind we create the world,” the world creates our minds. And those minds are then shaped by those early experiences.

So, to the addict, the world is hostile—is indifferent—in which he or she has to manipulate and find some way to soothe themselves because there ain’t no soothing in this world, there’s no healing in this world.

Those are some of the core beliefs at the heart of addiction. And there’s a deep emptiness here, because as the spiritual teacher— and this leads me directly to speak about the ayahuasca experience—as a spiritual teacher here in California said, “The fundamental thing that happened, and the greatest calamity, is there was not any love or support,” speaking of childhood.

The greater calamity, which was caused by that first calamity, is that you lost the connection to your essence. That is much more important than whether your mother or father loved you or not.

In other words, the greatest loss we endure is the loss of connection to ourselves, and that’s then when we experience a deep emptiness that we’re so afraid of.

And this culture is all about stuffing full of products, and stuffing full of relationships, and stuffing full of activities, and stuffing full of false meaning. But of course the more we do that, the more addicted we become, because these things can never be truly satiating. So, that emptiness can never be filled from the outside. The way through the emptiness is through the inside—is from the inside. And that’s where the spiritual experiences, and the healing experiences, empowered by ayahuasca come into it.

Now, my book on addiction came out four years ago now, and I never heard about ayahuasca until after it was published. While I was writing it I began to get emails and inquiries from people, “What do you know about ayahuasca and the healing of addiction?” and I would say, “Nothing, I don’t know anything about it.”A week later, the same question. And this went on persistently for months.

I finally began to be both irritated, and curious. And then it turned out that there was an opportunity to experience ayahuasca up in Vancouver; a Peruvian shaman was coming up and leading some ceremonies, and I did do a ceremony. And I sat there in the dark with my heart open and a feeling of delicious nurturing warmth, the tears of joy rolling down my face, and I got love. And I also got how many ways in my life I had betrayed love and had turned by back on it, which is a coping pattern, because when you’re as vulnerable and hurt as a child as I was as a Jewish infant under German occupation in Hungary, then you close down to love because it’s too painful to be open to it.

The ayahuasca got rid of my coping mechanisms in a flash, and there I was experiencing something, and I knew then that this is something to work with. And within half a year I was working with people shamanically trained in Peruvian Shipibo tradition, and beginning to lead retreats. We’ve led a number now, and the results are increasingly but uniformly astonishing.

So I’m going to read you some communications sent to me by people that have participated in our ayahuasca retreats and then I’ll talk about their experiences and why ayahuasca is so potentially helpful. Although, as the previous speaker said, nobody should ever say that it’s a panacea.

So this is Dr. Stuart Krichevsky, who writes about ayahuasca. …

Decoctions like ayahuasca, similar to many forms of meditation, has salutogenic potential. Salutogenic meaning health-giving potential i.e. can enhance physical mental and spiritual health by calling into play what is referred to as participating consciousness.

So if you can become conscious of your patterns and your beliefs, these core beliefs, and how you attain these beliefs, then you can let go of them. Rigid feeling, thought, and behavioral patterns can unclench; the self can rearrange itself and develop its inner and outer resources more deeply. So there we get to the concept of a true self and one that can be reconfigured, or at least rediscovered with the help of the psychoactive plants, particularly ayahuasca.

So I’ll read you now what some people have said about their experience at our retreats, and I’ll talk to you more about the retreats and how they function.

“The last two nights have been challenging, but I’m getting good practice. Negative thoughts as they come up, under the effect, I can feel the physical sensation of fear in my gut as the thought arises and returns to a safer place.”

In other words, when you have a certain thought, like you have a negative thought pattern—when I say negative, I mean a self defeating, self-deprecating, self invalidating thought pattern—that’s not just the thought up here, that’s immediately a physical impact on the body. You feel it in the gut, you feel it in the heart, if affects your whole nervous system, your cardiovascular system, your immune system, and this person is getting in touch with how their thoughts are influencing your body.

“In the past I’ve made many bad, irresponsible choices with hurtful consequences to myself in others. Despite knowing that right now, I’m presented with new choices I can make from a place of love towards myself and the people in my life. It’s hard to push despair aside. The despair that tells me I will continue to make the same poor choices over and over again.

That’s the core belief showing up again that “there’s something wrong with me.” But this person at least is conscious of it.

This is a physician, by the way, who has nearly lost his license because of addictions, and his marriage is falling apart, and he came to the retreat. And he thought he had a perfect childhood, by the way, and I won’t even go into the details.

“The other very powerful moment I had involved looking at the sense of being too much for my parents. I know no matter how much love they felt for me, they probably were all alone with their own fears and anxiety. Well yeah, the father had a near-fatal heart attack at age 28. I’ve experienced myself as a child when this child was a one-year old. I’ve experienced myself as too much for the world for a long time. I’ve made a grand effort over the years to prove that true, which is why it cracks my heart open so wide to feel welcomed in the hearts of you and the people here, knowing that my feelings, my hurt, fear, sadness, and need for connection are not too much. I feel that the world can hold me, in fact, always has. And maybe I can learn to hold myself. It’s painful to think that Miles, my son, may feel himself to be too much for me. I desperately don’t want that to happen. Much love and gratitude.”

I won’t read you the other experiences, but they’re all the same sort of people experiencing love, gratitude, connection to themselves, experiencing the childhood trauma.

My daughter did an ayahuasca retreat. She said that she revisited all the sad places in her childhood, and because I was a workaholic, and was very stressed, and a very undeveloped adult when I was a father to my young kids, she’s has plenty of sorrow in her life. And she said that she revisited those sad places but did so with the loving consciousness and empathy and the compassion of an adult, and if you look at the brain scans on ayahuasca … what you see is activation of the temporal lobe, where childhood memories are stored; of the limbic system where our emotions are modulated and they live, and the front part of the brain where insight is made available to us.

We can connect the childhood experience, no matter how traumatic—and it sometimes comes up for people. Some really deeply disturbing, traumatic experiences come up for people during the ayahuasca experience. And those experiences may take the form of direct memory, direct recall of an image, or what happened to them, such as a body invasion, or other kinds of trauma, or it may take the form of really scary images and creatures, but it’s like a dream. In the dream, when somebody’s chasing us, we’re not afraid because somebody’s chasing us—somebody’s chasing us because we’re afraid. In other words, during sleep, the centers in the brain where childhood memories are stored get activated, and then the brain makes up a story to explain the emotion. And I believe that much of the same is true of the scary visions that people have during the ayahuasca experience.

The beautiful images, of course, represent more the core self. We get to see both the experiences in response to which we develop these coping mechanisms that give us addiction or cancer or other form of illness. We get to experience that core self and the beauty of the world, as it actually is, when we don’t see it through a screen of suffering and misinterpretation induced by our early experience. So, we get to see both what we’ve been running from and trying to cope with, and trying to manipulate, but we also get to see that true connection that true love, that true beauty, that true vision, that pure insight, that pure strength, that pure compassion. And when we do that, we realize we don’t have to cope anymore. We don’t have to run anymore. We can just be right where we are.

Now, that’s not to say that because you have that experience it’s going to stay like that.  That takes work that takes practice. If you don’t put in some practice afterwards, if you don’t get follow up, if you don’t put it into the context of your life, this experience just becomes a beautiful memory. But the impact of it will fade. So it’s transformative, but it’s only transformative if you allow it to be transformative. And it you work with it so that it becomes transformative. But if you do, it can be very, very powerful, it can be life-changing for many, many people.

I have to say something here about context here. I don’t lead ayahuasca ceremonies, I’m not on ayahuasca, I don’t chant, I just participate in the ceremonies. Leading the ceremonies are people who wouldn’t call themselves shamans, but I would call them that because their work is that effective. They chant, and they work with people energetically. And they pick up on peoples’ energies in the dark. I don’t do that.  I pick up people’s energies in the light. I hear it in the tone of their voice, facial expression, choice of words. They sit there in the silence while they chant and they are reading the energies of the people as they emanate from each individual in that circle, where they might be 30 of us in the Malacca. And then they chant to people specifically to unblock particular energies, or particular energy blockages.

Like a person with cancer recently—two weeks after she signed up she became diagnosed with breast cancer. I’ve told you my view of breast cancer, or cancer in general: it’s a repression of anger as one of the major dynamics in it. The shaman sits there in the dark and feels the blocked anger in that woman’s breast, and then works with it to unblock that energy. So, it’s not just the chemical effect of the plant, and I’m sure other people have emphasized the same point. … It’s the context, it’s the responsiveness and supportive interaction of the environment.

Remember what I said when I was quoting from that Harvard article about how the brain develops in response to the mutual responsiveness of child and adult? In the same way the healing benefit of something like ayahuasca is not simply the chemical effect of the plant, although that of course is inseparable from its other effects. It’s also the responsiveness of the environment in which people experience the ayahuasca. So, the experience has to be in a safe context, in a context where there’s guidance.

People sometimes have negative experiences, or they think they do because they had an experience they didn’t like, and so they resist the experience. And also, the personality has a way of invalidating our essential self.

I’ll give you a quick example of that. There was a woman in a recent retreat who wanted to experience what was blocking her from engaging with life and herself in a full and passionate way. Next she reports with great disappointment and even resentment what she experienced during the ayahuasca ceremony.

“I just got psychedelic colors, for example, there was a psychedelic Indian elephant. I didn’t come here to get a trip with Indian elephants.”

The Indian elephant is Ganesh, the god-figure who unblocks difficulties. That’s what she experienced. And in some part of her brain she knew that. But because she was resisting the experience rather than being open to it, she actually missed the point. Now, that’s okay. If you go through it that way you’ll still learn what you need to learn, so I’m not negating her experience. In fact, it turned out to be a beautiful experience for her. But people sometimes need the guidance to understand the experience. It’s not enough, the experience. We have to find the meaning of the experience, and that’s where my role comes in. That’s what I help people with. But that wouldn’t be possible without the astonishing work of the ayahuasceros, the ayahuasceras, that I work with.

So it’s an overall gestalt; the plant, the ceremony, the chanting, the energetic work, and the psychological-emotional preparation beforehand, integration afterwards, and the joint exploration and the identification of meaning.

[applause]

Well, thank you.”

via Alternet (http://www.alternet.org/drugs/gabor-mate-ayahuasca-maps-conference-2013)

Gabor Maté (born 6 January 1944) is a Hungarian-born[1] Canadian physician who specializes in neurology, psychiatry, and psychology, as well as the study and treatment of addiction. He is also widely recognized for his perspective on Attention Deficit Disorder and his firmly held belief in the connection between mind and body health. He has authored four books exploring topics including attention deficit disorder, stress, developmental psychology and addiction. He is a regular columnist for the Vancouver Sun and the Globe and Mail. -wikipedia

links:  (DrGaborMate.com)

Chante Tin’sa Kinanzi Po: Still Standing Up for Standing Rock | Earth Injustice

This links to the Black Snake film about Standing Rock

Bobbi Jean, the young Native American woman (featured in the photo with her arm raised) was raised in the Standing Rock community. She spoke of her experiences – walking and running – gathering people of all ages as they went from one to another community.

She said they made prayers with their feet.

She said that there were a lot of magical & spiritual events that happened along the way, among the different people and animals’ that joined in. For many days it rained, and yet when certain people spoke, suddenly the sun burst forth or a wind would woosh in. She knew that the ancestors were present with them in their journey. They walked to enlighten people about the fate of the land and all of the creatures, this sacred land, to money.They eventually landed in Washington D.C., which she said was a culture shock. She Lots of kids participated at different points who developed their own voice about the issue. Elders participated as well. The oil industry and the federal and state governments’ in the pocket of it, created all sorts of obstacles and their own narrative to events. Bobbi Jean continues to inspire and share the story.

This event was a panel discussion with Bobbi Jean Three Legs and Indigenous Water Protectors. Followed by screenings of Black Snake, a 360° virtual reality short film experience featuring citizens of Standing Rock, by Philip Sanchez ’05. It took place at Brown University, sponsored by Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown, Native American Brown Alumni, and the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

“Sacred Ground. The struggle for clean water continues.”

For more information and to support this cause, go to earthjustice.org

Blurred Media Black Snake Sacred Ground 360 video by Phillip Sanchez

Philip Sanchez’s 360º video Black Snake — Standing Rock — 360° Video is quite powerful; looking at the land that is sacred to the people who have lived there for generations, who know that they are not dispensable.

I had tears in my eyes, resonating with what one of the elder Native American women near the end of the film said.

 

“We’re destroying this earth.There’s no common sense. You’re hurting us, you’re hurting each other.

Don’t you think about life?

Every living thing has got to live. There is a purpose and reason why we are all here. You’re hurting yourselves and this earth. The waters. Everything is connected. My prayer goes out to all of you.”

 

“The story of the Dakota Access Pipeline is a long and difficult one to tell. On its face, it is the story of thousands of Native Americans and their non-Native allies that gathered for months in 2016 to protest the pipeline. However, this is only a small part of a much larger issue. The pipeline brought to a head conflicts about disputed treaty lands, the historical treatment of Native Americans by the Federal Government and the changing relationship between the predominantly white towns of Bismarck / Mandan to the north and the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to the south.”

The XL pipeline has different names depending on its location, which works as a mask to recognizing that it is one and the same black snake that is slithering through the land and sickening it’s waters.

President Trump Presidential Memorandum advance approval of pipeline construction

I was fortunately informed by a fellow ultimate frisbee player who is also keenly interested in protecting the natural world.

“The struggle for clean water continues.”

For more information and to support this cause, go to earthjustice.org
How can we be silent? How can we not see the value of the natural world?

How do we Create an Economy that Nourishes the Natural World – which keeps us Alive? Dr. David Suzuki

The Canadian scientist Dr. David Suzuki says that the primary driver of this climate catastrophe and mass extinction that we face has been the economy. It’s urgent that humanity act now – go all out to maintain the temperature of our heating earth. It is how we will be defined as a species. He has the academic understanding as well as emotional connection to the natural world that has built his tremendous breadth of understanding and clarity in expressing these truths. Why it’s time to think about human extinction | Dr David Suzuki”

Does your MP Representative Recognize you Environmental Rights

The economy – the corporate agenda – is driving us on the path that we’re on.

Why its time to think about human extinction Dr David Suzuki

Suzuki has a wide breadth of understanding of many subjects. He was raised in an environment in which he had a very close relationship to the natural world. He learned to love and respect all different species and to recognize our integral connection to all of nature. His understanding of the importance of protecting the natural world fed his lifelong environmental activism and lead to the co-founding of the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to “to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that does sustain us.

A genetic scientist, his academic background and expertise on the various subjects lends to his eloquence. Dr. David Suzuki has an enlightened manner. He smiles continuously as he speaks about these subjects, without contempt or anger in his voice or eyes. He is penetratingly clear and concise about what is important in life and what it is that all human beings should be aware of, educated in and what we need to do.

There are some things we can’t change – gravity, speed of light – other things like capitalism, the market, the economy, are human inventions that we can change.

Clean air is sacred – we can’t go 3 minutes without air. If the air is polluted, we become ill. Humans have a responsibility to protect this.

Clean water is sacred – we can’t go for 4 to 6 days without water. Our bodies are 60 to 70 % water. If the water is dirty, we become ill.

Clean soil (earth and fire) is sacred – we can’t go without food for 4 to 6 weeks, or we will die.

Every bit of the food we eat was once alive. All of the energy that our bodies use is derived from sunlight that has been captured and converted through photosynthesis. All the plants take in carbon out of the air and put oxygen back.

I feel that this should be mandatory viewing, However, I’m not the secretary of education nor am I living in a dictatorship which could mandate this. Suzuki mentions that we need to maintain a thread of hope. He recalls how President John F. Kennedy stated that America will put someone on the moon within a decade, in response to the successful Soviet space projects. At the time, the USA didn’t know how they would do this, but had the intention. We need to embrace this intention now. Who we vote in to office, as well as educating the voting public, is essential. What we buy and how we live is also critical.

Listening to this man could be a mind-bending and emotionally awakening experience. Suzuki understands and articulates why human beings should recognize our place and responsibility.

We are the only animals on the planet capable of destroying it, and perhaps the only ones who do not recognize that as we negatively impact our balance with nature, we will destroy ourselves.

This balance concerns human over-population, chemical pollution and damage to our air, water and soil, the destruction of life within an entire food chain in our biosphere, plastic pollution and the adverse effect of releasing carbon dioxide and methane into our atmosphere – warming the planet – and the destruction of habitats of creatures on land, sea and air, driving them to extinction. This includes the human beings.

He mentions Rachel Carson as a huge influence with the publication of her book in 1962, “Silent Spring“.

Rachel Carson wrote in Silent Spring about the deadly effects of the use of powerful chemicals in pesticides, specifically DDT. “Carson was a former marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Utilizing her many sources in federal science and in private research, she spent over six years documenting her analysis that humans were misusing powerful, persistent, chemical pesticides before knowing the full extent of their potential harm to the whole biota.”

Her book introduced the world for the first time the recognition that these chemicals are harmful, and the need for humans to be cautions, to educate ourselves and to act responsibly as stewards of the living earth. “Unlike most pesticides whose effectiveness is limited to destroying one or two types of insects, DDT was capable of killing hundreds of different kinds at once.” Because she specifically talked about the effects of DDT which was produced by powerful agricultural chemical corporations like Monsanto, with strong ties to the government, she was immediately attacked and discredited by several major media outlets.”The Deafening Criticism Against Silent Spring” mentions that she “wrote this before the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the West Virginia chemical spill, and numerous other environmental disasters brought about by apparent corporate malfeasance.”

Yet her book published in 1962 spoke such a momentous truth that it was widely read. It lead to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the banning of DDT in 1972.

The multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto was the first to manufacture DDT. They have produced a slew of very harmful chemicals since. Monsanto, a seed company as well, was recently bought by Bayer. They probably realized that it was to their advantage to have their name less public and publicized since they’ve been involved in numerous law suits. In fact, I just listened to Vandana Shiva interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now who said just that, Monsanto wished to hide its name. Vandana Shiva: We Must Fight Back Against the 1 Percent to Stop the Sixth Mass Extinction

Monsanto’s Dirty Dozen: The 12 Most Awful Products Made By Monsanto.”

Like everything else, the agrochemical companies have also consolidated their power. The Biggest Pesticide Companies in the World.

On the 50th anniversary of its publication, this article was published in the Smithsonian. “Crazy Lies Haters Threw at Rachel Carson“.

Suzuki talks of the impact of the eco philosopher and writer Clive Hamilton, his non-fiction book “Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change” written in 2010. Hamilton is an Australian academic who explores the reasons for climate change denial and its implications. Hamilton argues that questioning unfettered growth, challenges the conception of progress according to the mentality of the people who align themselves with the approach of the status quo market. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/16/requiem-for-a-species-clive-hamilton

Suzuki mentions that we can’t change the laws of nature, however we can change our human institutions. It is economics that is driving the warming of our environment, specifically through industries that are polluting and warming the atmosphere.

I had learned about Dr. David Suzuki several years ago, and was so tremendously impressed with what he expresses that I wrote a blog about him in 2016.

https://digesthis.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/sustainability-david-suzuki-creative-consciousness-same-name-but-different/

I learned of his daughter Severn Suzuki’s concern for the natural world and precocious eloquence in her presentation for the Rio climate summit in 1962. Not surprising, given the household she was raised in. I put together this blog about her also in 2016.

Servern Suzuki Rio 1992

https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/future-generations-sorry-prince-ea-stand-for-trees-severn-suzuki-anjali-appadurai/

It is my passion to share this information, because to me, it’s essential.

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

Carol Keiter the blogger 2019-02-22.

To Joan with Love | Animals Watering Hole Africa

Here’s a new Faber Castell watercolor painting I did today for my sister Joan. I reveal the progression of the painting through taking photos at various periods of time. From a composite of 4 photographs, I did an initial small sketch, then replicated it on the sketch pad.

to_Joan_Wateringhole_Africa_12_19_18

beginning sketch composite of several photographs

To Joan with Love Animals Watering Hole Africa

 

 

 

 

sources of painting
1_giraffe bird baobab

to_Joan_Wateringhole_Africa_12_19_18

 

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

Nature Art Creativity Water Life

Nature Art Water Creativity

Here’s a combination of several different photo sessions, some with a Canon digital camera, the other with a phone. Some are sunsets, others are murals I captured being created live as I was bicycling by on one bike trail, others of the Santa Fe Watershed and river, a dry river bed “El Camino Real”. Others of fabulous art I saw while attending gallery openings.

It includes art of several Santa fe galleries, some of my own new additions towards my book, a Native American water mandala…local muralists and visiting artists.

This evening I was fantastically inspired by specifically several artists’ works at Peters Projects gallery – haunting stuff speaking of light, vastness, capturing images and imagination. Many describe environmental collapse due to human actions and destruction..

A Very powerful series, “Remnants” by Sonya Kelliher-Combs is also on display at PPeters Projects.
Ironically, the series are framed in a plastic petroleum-based substance, which is probably what lead to the demise of all of the creatures, hence the exhibit, remnants. Like an archeological display of all the creatures that once roamed the planet.

flickr link to collected works

flickr collection of 104 images of art, nature, science, creativity and life

Calling for EChOACTiVate Partners & Core Team, Refugee Manpower, Best Weapon is Education & Empowerment

I have an idea which continues to evolve. I would like to know if any of you recipients – environmental organizations or individuals – can join with me or bring me under your wing so that we can do this together? I’d like to quickly put together a concise plan as a pitch for next week at the Paris Climate Talks, for people to take home and ponder. I have not yet booked a flight, however am willing to do so within the next 24 hours and will work continuously with others with research and development and writing a proposal sketch to present. By its nature, it involves many; a consensus of scientists, business advocates, governmental support as well as people within the communities where these physical structures would be built. It begins in Europe. The original idea which I had presented in August of this year, has a new twist. Specifically the manpower involving the placement, education and training of refugees, who working together with communities throughout Europe, would aspire to be cooperatively working in the implementation of structures that would be greening the environment and have business models that lead to a democratization of wealth. It would be a win:win situation; helping the climate, replacing petroleum and coal and dirty industries with clean ones, greening the environment, creating jobs for local European communities and for refugees, and would be empowering for any involved. I say yes, the money is there, it simply needs to be redirected; i.e. from weapons and military, to education and the building of a green infrastructure throughout Europe and the world.

In the 1970s, refugees from Vietnam, ‘boat people’ were introduced into various communities in the United States. My mother in central Pennsylvania volunteered to help one particular family which she was assigned to. She would go to their home regularly to tutor the family in English and help the three sons with their home work. Two of the boys became dentists and opened up a joint practice in the town I was raised in which just celebrated their 20th year anniversary. The other son is a doctor. The relationship between the two families has lasted to the present day. Their entire family have remained friends, and I’ve had several dental appointments with them when passing through town. They are genuinely kind people who have remained grateful and loyal to the initial help they received, ever since. In other words, many of the refugees are good people who wish simply to have security, opportunities for education and development for themselves and their children. In many ways their intent and self-determination will enhance the local communities they’ve been introduced into and ‘give back’ the chance they were given to survive and thrive.

Word cloud of involved actions in EChOACTiVate

This was my initial sketch – it’s the same information. I particularly need guidance in finding the right contact people and groups, to help to kindle this idea. I would appreciate any suggestions!

lets mots, les activité
pour EChOACTIvate

Often the biggest obstacle is not knowing exactly what we can do, or how to get started.

Often taking the first step is the hardest! Even finding information of how to accomplish things may involve more time than you feel that you have.

That’s where EChOACTiVate comes in!

This would at the same time deal with the world climate crisis by developing and building renewable energy structures, in areas where these are amenable and relevant to that environment. The systems would require monetary investment, yet ideally I visualize creating operations that are cooperative in nature, so that the builders and owners distribute the wealth among themselves and into the community, a more democratic form of business. Along with scientists and developers, I foresee an operation that would involve education and training, and finding in addition to citizens of that community, a placement of refugees, who would also be trained to be the man power behind the implementation of these renewable energy structures, community gardens, the building of literally green buildings, a planting of gardens and flowers and trees to create bee-highways, etc.

I had already conceived of this as a means of bringing together communities to participate, with the addition of a nature of celebration and gathering, with music together with the education. It has evolved however in the last week, in light of the continued incidents of terror around the globe. I feel that the edge of the sword of terror – if you will – is the reaction of the more radically charged Islamic peoples to the inequities and economic domination of the Western world, a structure that has been filtering throughout the world, which increases economic inequality and rather than delivering messages of cooperation, delivers ones of competition and materialism.

was EChOACTiVate ist

I would like people to join together with me or to invite me to begin delegating this idea into group that can manifest this. I need business minds, system developers, negotiators, lawyers, scientists and people passionate about the environment and animal habitat renewal and the democratization of wealth and power throughout the planet.

lo que tu puedes hacer con EChOACTiVate

Calling for EChOACTiVate Partners & a Core Team: to join and help to create the Non-Profit Mobile Task Force igniting Music, Education and ECOACTiV initiatives in communities around the world. The echo of results will propel others to also EChOACTiVate!

Contact me if you wish to partner, participate or guide me regarding what organizations may wish to act as a financial umbrella. ¡ echoactivate@gmail.com !

A myriad of individuals and environmental organizations have been warning as well as educating us about Climate Change and Global Warming and the continued threat of habitat loss and the destruction of many species. They inform us that we must change, that we need to act. It is clear that industry, particularly the dirty ones such as coal and petroleum, are cause to the more sweeping and devastating injuries to the the health and well-being of humans and species all over the planet. Yet our individual actions, collectively have wrought a lot of destruction, which can be reversed, through our adopting new habits. Certainly Obama’s new hislegislation will effectively persuade these larger monolithic companies to shift their practices, yet our future is also in our own hands. Our actions or non-action will determine our fate.

As we each learn – and share that information – about what we can do to transform our environments positively through action and taking ownership for its protection every where we go, we will produce dramatic results. Our individual actions will not only raise the quality of our own lives and the spaces we inhabit, but will collectively have an enormous impact. Since all of life is entirely interdependent, what we improve in our immediate environments will echo, and spread all over the planet. Through ‘dis-ease’, we will birth the remedies, to the point that they are the trend.

Various groups have been guiding us to have a voice among our legislatures. They offer solutions for what we can do. Climate Change and World Wildlife Fund and What We Can Do. Avaaz has a Avaaz has a Climate ToolKit. Recently Pope Frances expressed the urgent need of the world population to take action and ownership with his Pope Francis’ Encyclical: “Faith Climate Action Kit”. In the last 48 hours, the United States President Barack Obama addressed this urgency, pleading for the American people (and all the World) to take this seriously as a fact, and to ACT, with his “President Barack Obama’s “America’s Clean Power Plan””

Just as a flame or campfire draws peoples’ attention, so is music something that captivates and entrances people. Music can cause people to stop in their tracks. It engages all regardless of their cultural heritage or economic ‘status’. Music attracts the young and the elderly. It is a focal point. Music drives our passions. It is close to our hearts. That’s why EChOACTiVate is environmental action for the climate that is musically driven! Music will be the element that brings people together. The glue for social cohesion. And since we all have subjective musical tastes, EChOACTiVate will have to accommodate all sorts of musical tastes 🙂 EChOACTiVate will provide all sorts of music – from classical to country, rock to jazz, folk to punk – depending on the tastes of the particular community we engage with. Music is a force which inspires and energizes! EChOACTiVate will coordinate ecological action by bringing different members of the community into groups, according to their capabilities and interests.

Presently, we are at a pivotal point of urgency in terms of how our individual and collective actions and habits affect our environment. Our planet is either our hell or our heaven. If we continue along without doing anything and rely on ‘old world’ methods of generating power and fuel, our non-action will wreak more havoc and irreversible devastation.

Yet if we all work together and educate one another to make changes in our individual habits and choices towards investment in clean, renewable energy and fuel sources and divest from dirty energy, we will collectively impact our environment in an extremely positive way.

Our choices, habits and actions will make our own neighborhoods and towns more inviting and healthy for not only the humans who live there, but all the other indigenous creatures.

It is immanently clear that it is not our planet that is in peril, but the lives of most of the species inhabiting it. Our proactive actions must start imminently !-)

That’s where you, the public comes in. Let’s do this together. Let’s EChOACTiVate

EChOACTiVate is a community outreach program in the form of a mobile citizen action campaign. Like a ‘food truck’ that is mobile, EChOACTiVate is a ‘music/information stage’. It is a virtual portal of information to inform and act as a central information exchange point as well as a physical mobile team, which visits communities worldwide, to introduce the ‘How To’s” of the action the community decides to invest in, and catalyzes them to take implement their actions, through education and guidelines from mini DIY Do-It_yourself projects to more robust ones.

Arriving to the community to set up the stage, EChOACTiVate will coordinate the music and information to inspire and set the guidelines for task orientation, from the beginning stages through to its completion. EChOACTiVate will gather people together to initiate discussions on initiatives and help the members of the community to get started.

The projects are anything from education about what types of foods to eat and physical activities that can act as health prevention, to how to create friendly habitats in your own back yards and public spaces to attract pollinators and ensure the survival of many of the creatures that share our immediate environment. EChOACTiVate activities cover a vast breadth of choices. From planting trees, community gardens, to planting flowers and vegetation in your own backyards and on vertical fences and walls to attract biodiversity, creating bee-highways, land bridges over motorways for the safe passage of indigenous animals, DIY (do-it-yourself) installation of solar panels, windmills, wave and biomass energy procedures, trash clean-Up, ocean cleanup, ocean plastic removal, info-workshops on recycling and water conservation. EChOACTiVate will also provide and exchange information on more medium and long-term projects, demonstrating projects that are proven effective that require a team of scientists and engineers to construct.

We are at a tipping point concerning human induced climate change, which negatively impacts the lives of all species on the planet.

This has come about through the actions of the human species, and it can be reversed through the actions of the human species. If we physically and socially join together in our actions, it will make them that much easier to accomplish and more fun.

DoTheMath Gobal Climate Crisis Kumi Naidoo Greenpeace website

We all sometimes need that extra incentive. Coordinated through exchanges between our web-based non-profit and visiting team with a community, EChOACTiVate will deliver the information and the tools for that community of people to get started. The EChOACTiVate team will ‘land’ in a community through coordinated bi-lateral dialogue with a neighborhood or community that elects to take some ECOATIV measures. The mobile EChOACTiVate team will arrive in a town in the form of a one or two-day centralized stage. Where they combine music celebration with an information portal, that will organize that community into implementing action. The community will choose what projects are most relevant and needed in their area. The EChOACTiVate core team and volunteers will facilitate getting the community started; through providing the education, information – in the form of speakers and work-shops – to organize that community in their acquisition of tools (through local businesses) to mobilize them into action.

There are plenty of DIY – Do It Yourself – projects that citizens can implement through working together for a short period of time. EChOACTiVate will work with the consensus and the relevance of what a community needs and help them to get started. The capability and the means will come through people working together.

midsummer hitch nYc Einstein Love

EChOACTiVate

>>>>>introduces ecological and environmental proactive measures to individual communities, with music as the initial community binding glue. Music is often what brings people together. It is the virtual maypole, around which EChO -ReVoLuTioN unfolds >>> as a celebratory means of bringing people together and stepping out of their routine. And as communities and individuals empower themselves through their own works, their efforts and accomplishments will echo to other communities, giving others’ incentive to participate in their own EChO project.

MeaningS of EChO

That’s where you, the public comes in! Together we can do this! Each ECOACTV action will echo and inspire other communities to do the same. Our actions will reverberate. Others will be inspired to demonstrate how their community EChOACTiVated to make wonderful differences.

Echo by Alexandre Cabanel 1874 Mount Kithairon

Reiterating: EChOACTiVate is both a cyber portal providing information about the divers ECOACTV DIY Do-It-Yourself projects available for that community to decide upon, and a mobile stage (built of a the core EChOACTiVate team and volunteers) that arrive to the community to provide workshops, speakers and the strategy of what they will need to do to implement their plans of action.

I am one individual with a vision. I know that I want to participate and I know that it is dramatically more engaging to have some sort of celebration with music, to get my attention and find joy in socializing and participating. I wish to make EChOACTiVate a non-profit formed through a number of people who will partner with me. The more quickly I find people who wish to help me to build this, the more quickly we can use our skills and talents to make this dream into a reality.

Calling for partners and/or remote coworkers who work on a consultant/as needed basis: web developers, web designers, app developers, lawyers, accountants, program directors, educational coordinators, biologists, zoologists, climatologists, engineers, researchers, traveling fact gatherers of environmental adaptation success stories Worlwide, artists, musicians, stage hands, a mobile team of presenters and speakers, fundraisers and funding.

Schools could get involved in ‘Expeditionary Learning’ projects, learning by doing. Environmental projects involving energy conservation and the preservation of animal habitats involve: chemistry, biology, statistics, mathematics, geography, geology, environmental sciences and physics – all sorts of learning. As communities become involved to EChOACTiVate, they will learn not only about the dangers of non-action, with respect to erosion, draught, effects of pollutants, the dangers of industrialized farming and fishing and GMO’s, but they will learn about healthy alternatives and what actions – no matter how small – from preventive health measures to the ‘how-to’s’ of getting started in their project(s)>to make their immediate environments more eco-friendly and pleasant for all species.

Corporate, State or Federal could match funds raised by townspeople, (fragment of the U.S. Political campaign budget 🙂 and Federal andState government subsidies or drives to support projects from the simple to the more technically specialized projects involving higher material and equipment costs.

Putting people to work on a Worldwide level, one community at a time. ecoactivate.org will compile lists of the array of projects that communities opt to engage in and monitor and correlate the exchange in open forums in which the community decides on what they wish to do to be ECOACTV in their area and what they’ve accomplished, in the EChOACTiVate campaign rippling across the planet. ecoactivate.org is the portal to gather and exchange information, to coordinate the mobile EChOACTiVate presenters and musicians to come to your town in a face-to-face hands-on delivery and designation of plans for the community itself to implement.

This is a rough sketch! I need you to help me transform it into a reality.

Contact me if you wish to partner, participate or guide me regarding what organizations may wish to act as a financial umbrella. ¡ echoactivate@gmail.com !

§ a web-based interactive information portal ecoactivate.org (not yet constructed) providing information in categories of work projects and DIY information from simpler to more technically complex projects. The EChOACTiVate website will provide open forums for communities to investigate their options, suggest ECOACTV projects of their own and as well as to ask questions and work out schedules. The website will also project what different communities have accomplished with more success stories.

§ a mobile unit with a core team of organizers and educators visiting communities to catalyze their projects: including special guest musicians, educators, specialists and technicians upon Touch Down in that community. This occurs on a one or two day central area within the town, where information and a plan of action for the community to take for the project(s) they have decided to embark on, is provided.

§ This takes place on the “ECOACTV Opening Day’ – a celebration with music and education, vendors and informational work-shops. The EChOACTiVate core team and volunteers touch down to provide guidance and incentive, and certainly helping hands in the beginning stages.

§ The community has a continual ‘two-way’ information exchange, from offering information before the EChOACTiVate group has arrived in their town, to participating by inviting their own town musicians, bands and dj’s to perform for the Informational Opening day as well as during the days or weeks that the community is working on their project. I haven’t worked out the local noise ordinance rules, but this is an exceptional event during exceptional times requiring awareness and action.

§ The successes of various groups will be shared on the EChOACTiVate website and Facebook page as well as through an EChOACTiVate app for mobile devices, so that neighborhoods and communities can compare and display what they’ve accomplished; as well as to provide their feedback, comments and suggestions.

§ whereas digital technology can often isolate people, it can also bring them together to physically join one another:
• apps to record community progress & success stories
• competitions and challenges between communities

§ music is key; with live entertainment from musicians and bands on the opening day and special guests. The town can contribute their own live entertainment with musicians, bands creating their own acts on the Opening Day. Special guests will participate.

§ The Touch Down Opening Day will be the arena for the local citizens to assemble in a celebratory way with the music and food and/or product vendors. Side by side, they will participate in actively learning and sharing information, prior to being organized into groups to work together on teams, according to their physical size, strength, skills and expertise.

§ At this Opening event a series of workshops and meetings will take place to lay out the plans.

§ If a project thaT has been discusses between community members and the EChOACTiVate team in advance is of a more complex nature, EChOACTiVate will help to find consultants to bridge the information gap and parlay what the community’s options are. Educators, speakers, technical consultants and habitat specialists would contribute information on a variety of conservation and preservation topics as well as on themes specifically relevant to the articular chosen project by the community: to assist in determining the material, hardware and man-power needs to get the project started.
People do best, what they like to do most.

§ The EChOACTiVate website will also host live-streamed interactive telecasts of participating groups in other countries, as info-seminars as well as speeches consulting experts in the fields regarding whatever technology is being researched, developed and implemented.

§ As groups EChOACTiVate, their actions and own stories are shared by word-of-mouth, visitors to their town, twitter, Facebook, through the EChOACTiVate App revealing achievements and and on the echoactivate.org Success Stories section.

Each metamorphoses will echo…and invite others to EChOACTiVate and share their own success stories.

Did you hear what Memphis, or Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Pittsburg, Brooklyn, New Dehli, Sao Paulo, Montpelier, Barcelona or Guangxi did? What are you waiting for? Let’s do this. Let’s EChoACTiVate!

Engaging and coordinating local townspeople, businesses and industries to participate, draw resources and form teams of man-power to join together and take action together. Resulting in improved quality of their own environment and learning about all the ways that we the human species can adopt habits and develop awareness about our connection to our environment and to all other species. An public engagement in an environment of celebration, fun and learning, that delights and empowers the people as they transform their own environment.

This idea resulted from Carol Keiter, the blogger

Carol Keiter informational architect of EChOACTiVate

Carol holding the plastic globe

in her aim to follow her own path.

A tagcloud summing up Carol Keiter’s interests and passions.

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Health is Circulation | Letting things Flow | Diarrhetic vs Constipative (made up that word !-)

I’m full of shit these days, copious amounts. Well, that’s because of the foods I eat: lots of onion, veggies, fruit, garlic, blue-green leafy greens, beans, oats, lots of water all day….So, yeah, I’m talking literally. Although for anyone who has read my blogs etc, I’ve never tended to be constipative (my derivative of a verb from constipation) in expressing myself in writing either. I’ve often tended towards the diarrhetic side. It will be a life-long work-in-progress to write more leanly, concisely and to bring my points to the tip of the burg, rather than buried in its depths.

I’m brining it up as a health note in general; diet is very important as far as introducing nutrients and water into your body, since that is what you’re body is made of. The more real and raw the food (less processed and full of unpronounceable additives), the closer to the source and closer to being absorbed in your body. Point being that the more water to circulate through your body to cleanse and the more nutrient rich foods that circulate through your body, the better for your circulation and general health. Most causes of disease are inflammation: when things get blocked.

Analogously, the more real your feelings and expression, and intent in expressing your honest beliefs and sentiments to others, the healthier you are. If you’re holding onto grudges, and looking through the lens of anger, intolerance, judgement, etc., this is the stuff that is stressful; emotions that are stressing your physical body as you constrict them and tighten them into an armor. When these e motions have no-where to go, they start stressing out your own physical body from within; muscles, blood flow, organs…resulting in dis ease.

So, that’s my thought for the day. Health is about consuming lots of water, foods containing nutrients and letting oneself flow with emotions, rather than holding things in and letting the pressure build.

In fact the heart-rhythm mediation group I’ve attended talks about the four elements – earth, water, air and fire – each as cleansing. The movement through the earth of rhizomes, like a circulatory system, the motion of air, of water, of ions within the plasma of fire, all as cleansing. It’s the blockage or shrinkage from motion, that gets you into trouble. Holding your emotions in, is analogous to stuffing them.

As far as health practices, it’s about consuming more nutritious things, that naturally act to maintain health and strength. I’ve been boiling water first thing in the morning to which, once it has cooled down a bit, I squeeze a slice of lemon into the glass of water. http://cureproven.blogspot.com/2015/10/drink-warm-lemon-water-in-morning-for.html Then oats either alone or mixed with cereal, blueberries and plain greek yogurt, or once in a while eggs. My evening meals often consist of sweet potatoes and any dish I’m preparing will start with onion sautéed in olive oil and have plenty of spices (cayenne, chili, pepper, turmeric) along with garlic and typically cabbage, to which I then add whatever other vegetables. The Chopra Newsletter talks about “12 Foods to Help you Focus“. That’s why I have absolutely no problem with shitting. I’ve been adopting into my diet as much as possible the G-BOMB theme (nutrient dense foods) when I’m grocery shopping, planning and then preparing a meal. Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms & Berries http://wellandgood.com/2012/12/07/the-6-nutrient-dense-foods-that-should-rule-your-diet/#the-6-nutrient-dense-foods-that-should-rule-your-diet-2

I absolutely believe that we can live our lives eating well as a preventive measure to maintain health and that we can heal ourselves. http://truththeory.com/2014/04/27/is-there-scientific-proof-we-can-heal-ourselves/

It’s all about letting things go and letting things flow.

We Do Have the Means | Living Harmoniously with the Planet | Salt-water Powered Cars

Collective Evolution’s article on salt-water generated fuel.

“It works just like a hydrogen fuel cell except that the liquid used for storing energy is saltwater.”

nanoFlowCell SaltWater fuel conversion

“In this case the liquid (saltwater) passes through a membrane in between the two tanks, creating an electric charge. This electricity is then stored and distributed by super capacitors. The four electric motors in the car are fed electricity which makes it run. The car carries the water in two 200-litre tanks, which in one sitting will allow drivers to travel up to 373 miles (600km).

We’ve got major plans, and not just within the automobile industry. The potential of the NanoFlowcell technology and its applications is much greater, especially in terms of domestic energy supplies as well as in maritime, rail and aviation technology.

All cars should be required to be made from this type, or other similar types of clean green energy.

Scientists at the U.S Naval Research Laboratory have developed a technology to recover carbon dioxide and hydrogen from seawater and convert it into a liquid hydrocarbon fuel. This could be a tremendous breakthrough and eliminate the need for old ways of generating fuel.”

Golly gee, if the U.S. Navy can break-up from their addiction to fossil fuels, so can all of us!

U.S. Navy produces fuel from Seawater

Navy’s new fuel process: Extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from seawater to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuel.

Why did they bother investigating this? Because “in Fiscal year 2011, the U.S. Navy Military Sea Lift Command, the primary supplier of fuel and oil to the U.S. Navy fleet, delivered nearly 600 million gallons of fuel to Navy vessels underway, operating 15 fleet replenishment oilers around the globe.”

“A catalytic converter extracts carbon dioxide and hydrogen from water and converts the gases into liquid hydrocarbons at a 92 percent efficiency rate, and the resulting fuel can be used in ships’ existing engines.”

carbon capture skid at (NRL) Navy Research Laboratory

 

 

Research chemist Heather D. Willhauer NRL

“It’s remarkable how Barack Obama has constantly pointed out that we will be using oil, gas and coal for the next twenty years, and that we don’t have the technology to lift our dependence off of these resources.

 

Those who are looking into it can clearly see that this simply isn’t true. We have the means to live in ways that are more harmonious with the planet and all beings on it.” Not to mention, a plethora of jobs can be created to implement this at all levels.

Calling: all workers in the industries of coal, mining, petroleum… > there are other income opportunities out there!

Yes, We Can, well that is, Yes, the U.S. Navy CAN covert seawater to fuel.

We need to pull away from coal, petroleum and all other dirty, non-renewable processes and invest our insights, energies and integrity into supporting clean, renewable energies.

“It’s just another example of the many ways of generating energy that are now available that could end our dependence on fossil fuels. These new, clean green ways of generating energy have been around for decades, so why are we always talking about them without ever implementing them?”

It just so happens that those with undivided interest and ownership in coal and fossil fuel as well as their dirty derivative industries are anonymously pouring huge amounts of money into disinformation campaigns regarding Global Warming and its main culprits. This article from the Guardian talks about the secretive donors who gave US climate denial groups $125m over three years.

The Earth is not Responsible for Global Warming – Earth has no barcode

Thomas Berry, Dreamer of the Earth: The Spiritual Ecology co-author of “The Universe Story” writes, “The natural world itself is the primary economic reality, the primary educator, the primary governance, the primary technologist, the primary healer, the primary presence of the sacred, the primary moral value“.

It is in the best interest of all – humans and all other life forms on Earth. And for financial reasons, companies and individuals who have divested their stocks and bonds in fossil fuel companies have outperformed…

This article from the Guardian points out that the real danger is not the kayaktivists, but Shell.

Why is this important? Because the beautiful and fantastic display of the diversity of life that have taken millions of years to evolve to their unique spectacular natures, is what ROCKS about our planet Earth: Living together intimately and harmoniously with the diversity of the entire biosphere is the reason and the beauty of this planet. No other reason, except for the fact that we are all related and interdependent and of this earth. Our heaven is right here on earth. It is the Earth and its myriad of life – the biosphere and the geosphere – that is sacred and needs our protection.

What can you do? There is plenty that you can do, right now! The Ecological Buddhism website offers you a whole gamut of solutions in every arena; with guidance regarding Renewable Energy, Sustainable Economy, Deep Ecology & Ecopsychology, Energy Efficiency, Activism, Behavior & Communication and the Game Changers!

The National Wildlife Federation can help to guide you, advocating about Clean Energy and Climate Solutions.

“Whether it be Solar, Free Energy (zero-point), Converting Seawater, {Wind, or Wave technology}, it’s clear we can do better than we are doing now.”

Do it! – divest in dirty and invest in clean & renewable – for your kids and for all other creatures with whom we share our planet Earth.

Why bother? As the authors of “Ecobuddhism and the wisdom of the psyche – The Universe Story” unveil. “We are a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects”. Here are some excerpts from the “The Universe Story” of Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry.

“That our western civilization should be the principal cause of such extensive damage to the planet is so difficult a truth for us to absorb that our society in general is presently in a state of shock and denial, or disbelief…Our western addiction to commercial-industrial progress as our basic referent for reality and value, is becoming an all-pervasive attitude throughout the various peoples and cultures of the Earth.”

Not a neural toxin, but an attitude and understanding deficiency!

“Efforts to present the full reality of the situation are being met generally with intense opposition, an opposition due to the subservience of our religious, educational and professional establishments to our industrial culture….the Ecozoic Era requires a comprehensive human consensus away from what we’ve been brainwashed into beholding as true; i.e. Manufactured Consent – The Political Economy of the Mass Media – a non-fiction book written by by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in 1988…

¡ Reiterating! The authors of “The Universe Story” state that “The natural world itself is the primary economic reality, the primary educator, the primary governance, the primary technologist, the primary healer, the primary presence of the sacred, the primary moral value.”

Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth.

The most dangerous animal, by its side a Great White shark swims peacefully.

Happy Winter Solstice | New Moon | Be like Water | Aboriginal Dreamtime

Earth Sky diagram of path of Earth around Sun

I race to finish this as the daylight fades. Today is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the only hemisphere I’ve lived in so far. I skipped the Make Music New York music celebration of the solstice in the boroughs of New York.

The Winter Solstice, December 21st of 2014 coincides almost with the ‘New Moon‘ of December, on the 22nd of the month.

New Moon December 22 2014

It’s a pivotal point. Time to set new plans into motion; plant, trim, initiate new activities.

Day and Night times on Earth at Winter Solstice NightSky

One could follow the surfing or ski/snowboarding seasons by continually going from hemisphere to hemisphere, moving to where the water flows, in waves or drifting from clouds to blanket the mountains. Snow forms when low temperatures cause the water droplets to solidify into glinting crystals as snowflakes.

Snow Crystals

Aboriginal snake image

Aboriginal Dreamtime Image

 

 

The uncanny resemblance of the traditional symbols of aborigines to those demonstrating the motions of celestial bodies moving through space, ignited my curiosity. These images describe dreamtime.

Though those in the northern hemisphere are living through the longest nights, dreamtime isn’t about dreams that we have while sleeping. Dreamtime is a state of consciousness that one can initiate or tap into at any time. Wiki iterates that Dreamtime is a place beyond time and space in which the past, present, and future exist wholly as one.

Describing the solstice and the new moon as physical events in spacetime; the relationship of these large bodies as they travel through space…plays into seasons… and into the topic of dreamtime and water. Water, because most of our bodies and the planet consists of water. And dreamtime, because it is a kind of fluid state of awareness.

Water is an infinitely pliable and innocuous substance in small quantities, and yet the most volatile force in nature when it’s operating in unison – en masse.

“Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.”  — Lao Tzu

“You are not just the drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop.” — Rumi

Perhaps we need to ‘re member’ (put together) that force increases with quantity and that the power of each, when one taps the infinite from within, can be a grand force of nature.

Like Water Bruce Lee

I’ve never been to Australia to personally meet with Aborigines, yet heard of their traditional belief system, similar to the quote by Bruce Lee. For an individual to find something they are seeking, they must become what they seek. Coinciding with Dreamtime, The Dreaming, described as a “vertical line in which the past underlies and is within the present”.

 

 

Aboriginal Dreamtime

I’ll be posting a blog on my https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/new-year-resolutions-happiness-through-action-one-mini-habit-at-a-time/ post shortly, with respect to how much force becomes apparent with just incremental actions.

What Does Net Neutrality Mean to You? | It’s a 3

Lifescience says humans can live 3 minutes without air, 3 hours (in an extremely harsh environment) without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food or sleep – with some exceptions – or you’ll perish.

Humans are social creatures. We survive and flourish through nourishing our physical bodies and minds. Throughout our lives we take in, learn and share information. It is our right.

To deprive a modern human being who has already been introduced to the free flow of information, by putting a price tag on the content and flow, should cause each human being to revolt, in 3 months. Reject the (too large monopolithic) providers withholding the information (for yourself, for him and her, your children, cousins, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, grandmothers) until new smaller providers, out of necessity, pop up to take their place with a resilience of free-market healthy competition.

Think globally, act locally. Down with corporate lobbying strongholds. United consensus must be felt and acted upon from the public to hold-out until a smaller provider emerges to blossom from the too big giants.

Why does net neutrality matter anyway? Those at Lifehacker explain that “The basic principle driving net neutrality is that the internet should be a free and open platform, almost like any other utility we use in our home (like electricity).”

What does it mean? It was Tim Wu,