Fear and Wonder
By Paul Kowalewski Photo: Pixabay Fear and Wonder by Paul Kowalewski Yesterday at the gym I heard two young guys talking about their “awesome” new video game. It made me think about how that word “awesome” has been so completely trivialized in popular culture – the awesome new flavor of ice cream, the awesome new car someone has, it’s awesome that the team won the game last night. Back 100 years ago, Rudolph Otto, the renowned philosopher of religion wrote his now-famous book, The Idea of the Holy, in which he talks at length about the “numinous” in our human experience. A “numinous” experience is a “transcendent” experience- a sense of being connected to something or someone far greater than an individual. The numinous experience is an experience of a Holy Presence that cannot be rationalized or explained or...
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Quantum Researchers Able to Stop and Restart Light
Waking Times Quantum Researchers Able to Stop and Restart Light Waking In two independent experiments that defy the notions of Einstein, researchers have been able to stop, then restart a beam of light. Ordinarily, light travels at the speed of 186,282 miles per second, but the research team of Lene Hau, a professor of physics at Harvard, who in 1999 was able to slow light down to 38 miles per hour, has been able to trap light in a cloud of sodium atoms super-cooled to near ‘absolute zero.’ “It’s nifty to look into the chamber and see a clump of ultracold atoms floating there,” Hau says. “In this odd state, light takes on a more human dimension; you can almost touch it.” [1] In an independent experiment, an easier approache was tried by the team of Ronald Walsworth and Mikhail Lukin at...
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Interview with Liber-Teen Who Destroyed Pelosi with a Single Question
Video / Introduction by Alen Mischael Vukelić Interview with Liber-Teen Who Destroyed Pelosi with a Single Question Anarchast Politicians always have great trouble answering simple questions which we all would like to ask sometimes – but never have the opportunity to do so. Andrew Demeter (16) took his chance to ask Nancy Pelosi such a “simple question”. Take a look. Jeff Berwick interviews Andrew Demeter about his recent questioning of Nancy Pelosi over the NSA spying and funding. Please leave a comment, and don’t forget to follow us for more articles and videos on Google+, Twitter, via RSS feed, or by simply subscribing to our newsletter at the end of this page! ...
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Nonconformity and the Normalcy Bias
By Julian Wash Photo: Pixabay Nonconformity and the Normalcy Bias By Julian Wash | Rattleberry Pie | Dear Humans, Today I would like to return to your awareness an aspect of the Human condition that surrenders to a curious state called “normal.” Normal is a cultivated space, fashioned from how we see ourselves and how we’d like others to see us. It’s a weighted measure, balancing self-appraisal against the opinions and judgment of others. It is a dynamic state, subject to change depending on which way society pulls the levers on public opinion and the laws that govern social order. But most of all, normal is an assumed state of cooperation and expectation. A scant sixty years ago, in the so-called “Bible belt” region of the Deep South, it was considered “normal” to require African Americans to sit in...
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Ecuador Approves Oil Drilling in One of the Most Biodiverse Regions on the Planet
Dylan Charles, Editor / Waking Times Ecuador Approves Oil Drilling in One of the Most Biodiverse Regions on the Planet Dylan Charles, Editor Waking Times In 2007, Ecuador, a country already heavily invested in oil development, surprised the world by announcing the Yasuní ITT (Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini) Initiative which aimed to indefinitely refrain from exploiting the oil reserves contained within one of the most biologically diverse regions of the Yasuní National Park, situated in the upper Ecuadorian Amazon. Rather than issuing drilling permits to increase economic development by selling off the natural resources of this sacred and untouched area, the Ecuadorian government planned to petition the world to donate funds for the protection of this land. A bold and unique program that advertised the Yasuní National Park as a world treasure that should not be touched by industrial development. A plan,...
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Climbing the Ladder of Success
By Paul Kowalewski Photo: Pixabay Climbing the Ladder of Success by Paul Kowalewski Every once in a while I will come across a poem, a picture, or phrase in a book that will just sort of leap out at me, begging to catch my attention. Yesterday I had such an experience while reading one of the journals of the priest and monk, Thomas Merton. One simple phrase literally stopped me in my tracks. When ambition ends, happiness begins. I had seen this quote many times before but never paid much attention to it in the past. I think maybe I just didn’t understand it, or maybe I didn’t believe it. After all, what’s wrong with setting goals in life and having dreams? But it struck me yesterday that to be ambitious is quite different from having dreams and hopes...
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One Of The World’s Most Eminent Climate Scientists Changes Stance On Global Warming
Collective Evolution One Of The World’s Most Eminent Climate Scientists Changes Stance On Global Warming from Collective Evolution Considered by some to be one of the world’s most eminent climate scientists, who has supported the theory of global warming for decades, has now shifted his opinion and become a skeptic of it. Yes climate change is happening and it’s to be noted. But climate change is often linked with global warming, if there is a dramatic shift in our weather then our corporate media instantly attributes it to global warming. The idea of global warming has been marketed and pushed on us so much so that anybody who questions it is made out to look like a fool. For other skeptics out there, you are not alone, in fact, you are joined by hundreds of renowned scientists all...
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Who Is Behind The Constant Bigoted Comments On The Internet?
Marco Torres, Prevent Disease / Waking Times Photo: Pixabay/organictalks.com Surging Disinformation Analysts Commenting On Your Favorite Websites To Emotionalize and Antagonize Marco Torres, Prevent Disease Waking Times Ever wonder why those same obnoxious, arrogant and infrequent users just happen to appear on the heels of very controversial posts like clock-work? They monitor, wait and then pounce of the same topics to emotionalize and antagonize legitimate users on social networking and thousands of other websites. Whether it be vaccines, GMO, organic foods or any other topic geared towards natural health or contradicting mainstream opinion, these “online trolls” are now being exposed as part of sophisticated, larger operation on behalf of multi-national food corporations, pharmaceutical cartels, big agribusiness and chemical companies that cumulatively generate trillions of dollars in revenue. Front Groups and The International Food Additives Council (IFAC) Were Created...
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The Smaller, The Better
By Paul Kowalewski Photo: Pixabay The Smaller, The Better by Paul Kowalewski As I went around watering some of the pots in our garden yesterday, I noticed that one tiny little flower had sprung up from a bristly cactus. The little flower was so simple, so small, and so tenderly beautiful. It grabbed my total attention, and I had to simply stop and gaze at it. That one tiny cactus flower became an icon for me of what a “spiritual” journey is all about. That one little flower pointed a “way” for me. As I see it, the direction of any spiritual quest usually runs directly against the grain of popular culture. On my spiritual journey, I find that I am always “going against the traffic,” which is probably why the spiritual path is often the road less traveled....
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Capuchin monkeys reject unequal pay
Video / Introduction by Alen Mischael Vukelić Photo: Pixabay Capuchin monkeys reject unequal pay Our sense for fairness and equality is no socialist idea but a natural heritage. The program, which was placed into our minds that we are ruthless competitors, has taken away the joy of playing with each other and established the rule to play against each other. Of course we feel estranged from nature and ourselves; this is why we need laboratories with monkeys to find out who we really are. We test animals to understand their behavior, while, in fact, we are trying to find our way back to reason and sanity. There is always a deep discomfort looking at people who are amazed by the wondrous functionings of nature. Why? Because it means they still don’t understand it; they still experience this world through...
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Nisargadatta: Your world is only a reflection of yourself
Photo: Pixabay/organictalks.com ...
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Making Money and Living the Lie
Barbara H. Peterson, Guest Writer / Waking Times Photo: Pixabay Making Money and Living the Lie Barbara H. Peterson, Guest Writer Waking Times Compromise. That’s what it’s all about, eh? We are taught from early on that the only way to get along is to go along. Meet halfway, in the middle. Don’t be such a stickler. Nothing is so sacred or important that it cannot stand a little compromise. And just where has this type of thinking gotten us? Just how willing should we be to compromise and lay our values down on the altar of coexistence? Just how much compromise do we have to accept to feel that it is okay to allow others to put poison in our food, to spray poisons on the land that we are supposed to be stewards of, to poison our animals that...
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The Practice of Everyday Kindness
By Paul Kowalewski Photo: Pixabay/organictalks.com The Practice of Everyday Kindness by Paul Kowalewski It’s amazing what you can learn sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office by just paying attention to what is going on. Yesterday I sat in such a room. Throughout my life I’ve sat in hundreds of waiting rooms at numerous doctors’ offices – it’s almost always the same experience. The receptionists are sometimes pleasant, more often abrupt, and at times even rude – barely tolerating the people who have appointments to see the doctor. Waiting rooms are often quiet places, but rather than being calming, the silence often hangs like a cloud over the room – filled with tension over upcoming appointments. No one makes eye contact as people avoid one another by browsing through magazines they would otherwise never read. My experience...
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John Cleese talks about ‘what is creativity’ and how to stimulate it
Video John Cleese talks about ‘what is creativity’ and how to stimulate it “Creativity is not a talent; it is a way of operating” – John Cleese. Well, I think this says it all. Schools try to teach us creativity – rather unsuccessfully – by telling us what other creative people have done in their lives – to be creative. Obviously, this is not the key to productivity. John Cleese gives his best to explain to us how it works. Excellent talk – enjoy. Please leave a comment, and don’t forget to follow us for more articles and videos on Google+, Twitter, via RSS feed, or by simply subscribing to our newsletter at the end of this page! ...
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Fear Itself
Dan and Sheila Gendron, Guest Writers / Waking Times Photo: Pixabay Fear Itself Dan and Sheila Gendron, Guest Writers Waking Times If we were to pinpoint the one pervasive emotion in society today, it would be fear. People all around you are fearful of almost everything. They fear the police. They fear the IRS, ATF, TSA and all the other “alphabet police”. They fear losing their job. They fear losing their house. They fear their city or town government. And they fear the mother of them all – fear of continuing life without enough money to maintain their current lifestyle (or at least the one they remember from a decade ago). Most people rationalize these fears as normal because “everyone has them”. We are trained from a very early age to act out of fear. We fear our teachers...
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True Myths
By Paul Kowalewski Photo: Pixabay True Myths by Paul Kowalewski I was listening to a public radio station yesterday. A prominent atheist was giving a talk, and he said something that struck me as being very odd: “All the stories in the Bible are nothing more than myths. So, they are all false.” I thought to myself, “Does this guy really believe that myths are false?” Then I had this flash of insight that in general, most people today probably don’t understand what myths and metaphors are all about – and this lack of understanding may be the primary roadblock people encounter in conversations and dialogue about “God.” Modern-day people (believers and non-believers alike) hear stories like those found in the Bible, and they read or listen to these stories as if they were fact-based descriptions of “objective” history,...
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Paid US$7,000 for a full-page ad in the paper to tell this story
Photo: Pixabay Jim Willis from Grand Rapids, Michigan paid US$7,000 for a full-page ad in the paper to tell this story. (Source: The Alternative Sanctuary) When I was a puppy, I entertained you with my antics and made you laugh. You called me your child, and despite a number of chewed shoes and a couple of murdered throw pillows, I became your best friend. Whenever I was bad, you’d shake your finger at me and ask ‘How could you’? But then you’d relent and roll me over for a belly rub. My housebreaking took a little longer than expected, because you were terribly busy, but we worked on that together. I remember those nights of nuzzling you in bed and listening to your confidences and secret dreams, and I believed that life could not be anymore perfect. We...
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