"The Secret Life of Plants" an alternative way of viewing all matter in the universe

Who else is feeling like a more fun, funky piece on this feel good Friday?

I am.

There will be plenty of time for more serious matters to be discussed in future blog postings.

But, today, right here, right now, I feel like just basking in the wonder that is life on this little bubble of a planet floating in a vast and majestic universe... so let's do that.

So you have possibly heard about experiments that involve playing beautiful classical music to plants. If you have not, the premise is basically that you can take two plants, play classical music to one and not play classical music to the other. And even if all the other variables are identical... they both get the same amount of water, the same quality of soil, the same amount of sunlight, an so on... the one plant that listens (yes, I am saying the plant is listening, but I can get into that more later) to classical music will grow to be healthier and possibly more fruitful.

Ah, the possibilities just that could be discussed and pondered concerning the above point alone! It is lovely, isn't it? But, I will let you ponder that and press on.

What if your thoughts, you images you hold in your mind, your feelings and emotions, especially those that you held, and cherished and secretly fed...what if those thoughts produced a resonating, vibrating sound wave??? Like when you pluck a nice fat string on a bass guitar and it radiates outward at a low but fat frequency and some people can not quite pick it up, but it is rippling through the air and impacting things around it on a minuscule, molecular level. Let's just for a moment say that your deepest thoughts do do that, and let's say that the things they are impacting around them include every last little thing on this entire planet. Just for a moment consider that thought.

Okay, thanks for indulging me. I like you.

Now back to "The Secret Life of Plants"... this documentary is super ridiculous at moments like when you are watching snow melt, but I get what they are getting at. But the actual information and the studies they are discussing, when you do get to the actual substance of this documentary, will blow your mind. And it is worth considering and weighing this information for yourself. Roll it around in your head. Let it marinade. Weigh it against your intuition and your beliefs, and see what you think. It is an hour and a half, but you can forward through the parts where you are just watching flowers grow, if you please.

Here it is linked for you to watch for free, to enjoy and consider...

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-secret-life-of-plants/

just because I like you.

If this link ever does stop working, you can find this work of art elsewhere I am sure. It is worth a look. This planet is just plain mindblowing, wonderful and amazing. This life is fantastic. And, I wish you every bit of deliciousness that there is to be had.

Life is your garden; dig it

Take care.

“Diet for a New America” more lovely alternative concepts contrasting mainstream beliefs about diet and nutrition

“Diet for a New America” more lovely alternative concepts contrasting mainstream beliefs about diet and nutrition

Oh, how I love this one! It is so full and rich with information, insight and meaning. It sort of breaks down the issues surrounding the standard American diet into three catagories: personal health, the environmental factors and the altruistic issue of the ethics involved.

Many authors refer to the standard American diet as SAD. This is generally accepted as a diet that is heavy in meats, dairy, processed grains, saturated fats, processed foods, refined sugars and chemical additives like monosodium glutamate (MSG). Okay, that is just sad. These foods do not nourish the body. This sort of diet robs people of their health and their optimal potential as human beings. I personally like feeling good.

As more and more nations industrialize and more and more people are conforming to the standard American diet scientists are able to chart the correlation between a nations increase in consumption of animal products and refined, processed food and an increase in heart disease and certain types of cancer.

You can probably eat some lean meats and some dairy products in moderation and not develop a single health problem. But a diet consisting of pizza, doughnuts, cheeseburgers and milkshakes causes your arteries to become absolutely clogged with waxy, fatty gross gunk and leads to heart attacks and death. “Diet for a New America” gets pretty graphic as it illustrates this reality. But as hard as it is to watch those scenes, I do think it is a powerful thing to be truly informed.

Another important health matter addressed in this film is the myth that we need meat and dairy for protein and calcium. They go into it in more detail, but I must add here the organic spinach is an excellent source of protein, calcium, omega fatty acids and b vitamins not to mention many other vitamins, nutrients and minerals and fiber. And that is just spinach. I could go on for days about so many great plant foods. Eating a diverse array of plant foods is very nourishing. I dare say it is optimal, but I may be biased on this matter. I just want to eat organic spinach and broccoli and cucumbers and fruit and seaweed and aloe and rice and lentils like it is going out of style. I am sure one could include meat in some sort of healthy fashion, but why would I want to? I surely do not need to.

Those dietary guidelines like the four food groups that you remember from elementary school were actually set forth by the meat and dairy industries themselves. You know what? Fuck them and their profiteering and their lobbying to manipulate our FDA and our government. Fuck ‘em!

The film also documents how the meat and dairy industry is impacting our ecosystem. Basically the current methods of meat production (raising tons of crops just to feed them to live stock so we can get back a small return of meat… 80% of all the corn and 90% of all the oats and soybeans produced in America is fed to livestock) are not practical or sustainable. They are not only wasteful, but they are detrimental to the environment. We cut down forests so cattle can have a place to graze until we slaughter them and consume their flesh??? It just sounds stupid and gross to me.  The nitrates from the cow manure seep down into the drinking water and create health problems for any nearby populations… also stupid and gross. The film will cover these points better than I have.

Lastly… the ethical concerns… Okay, this is just me speaking my mind… but why is it okay to take a baby calf from its mother right after it is born, and chain it up in a box where it is not allowed to move and have it atrophy, and them kill it and consume it…. But we think that dogs and cats do not deserve this? Cows have feelings and emotions. They feel sadness and the feel fear and depression. They can also experience joy. I just think it is heartless to not give a fuck.

Okay, enough of my ranting. This film is not as dramatic as I am. In its 58 minutes it manages to convey these points and much more with far more eloquence and conviction. It is definitely something everyone who gives a care about their health and/or the wellbeing of the planet should see.  Here is a link,. but if it ever stops working for some reason, I’m sure you can find this lovely film elsewhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTvrhQIKanc

Wishing you everything that is wonderful in this infinitely beautiful universe

Take care.

“Modern Slavery” and can we please work on an alternative to this?

There are people right now being held in slavery and forced to work deadly jobs. There are living breathing people who do not even know they are slaves because they do not know what freedom is. They do not know any alternative to the reality they are living. They have never received an education. They do not know how to read or write. The only reality they know is exhausting labor. They do not receive any compensation for their labor and they have no other options.

The pictures in the short video I am linking here will convey to you so much more than my words here will. They are beyond incredible. They are upsetting. And they convey a profound truth.

Through mindless consumerism slavery is supported. When you buy gold and you do not know where it comes from, chances are you are funding this atrocity. Whenever you buy something that you do not really need and it is made in a factory in some place where you do not know if the working conditions are regulated, you don't know what you are supporting.

There are companies consciously poisoning their employees so that overprivileged people can have pointless, frivolous consumer products. These companies do this because these companies value profit over humanity. These companies do not care what their impact on the environment is. They don't care who they kill or if the products are harmful even to the consumers. Before you buy another stupid thing that you do not really need, consider what you know about the company who made it, the working conditions of the person who made it, where the resources came from- the resources used to fashion the product and the resources used in making the product such as energy. There is so much more to be said about all this, but for now I want to get back to the slaves.

If we do not make any effort to educate ourselves and live a life that does not support modern day slavery, then we are just as guilty as those who are directly committing the atrocity. Here is a link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TPFLHvn024

This may be my first post on modern day slavery that has appeared in this blog, but it is not the first time I have written about it and it will not be the last. I have to dig up some stuff off my shelves and find new links to share with you, but this video is a good place to start. Inform yourself about what is going on. Educate yourself. Know where the products you purchase come from. Know what you are supporting with your dollars and with the choices you make in your day to day life. Yes, you do impact the world around you every moment not just with your actions, but also with your intentions and your attitude. You are constantly impacting the world around you. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Wishing you everything that is wonderful in this universe.

Take care.

“A Force More Powerful” a neat alternative to mindless and escalating destructive aggression

Pacifists are not necessarily weak.

It can take strength to know that someone is doing detestable things and not use violence to take action.

Pacifists like Gandhi and Martin Luther King endured persecution, torture and being imprisoned in a nonviolent fight against injustices.

It takes resolution, determination and intelligence to fight a nonviolent battle.

Strength to know you could hurt or kill your opponent... but refrain.

Pacifism has nothing to do with inaction.

Resolution to one's belief and intelligent, strategic action takes bravery and will.

I dedicate today's post to every person out there who has ever taken nonviolent action to stand up against injustices which they knew to be wrong and worth fighting.

***

Another important facet to the discussion of violence is the question “is it innate? Are humen beings innately violent?” During the 20^th century this was a hot topic among anthropologists. Some of them believed human beings were hardwired for violence and that was why we saw so much of it around us.

Some of them pointed to chimpanzees and the fact that bands of chimpanzees often wage organized warfare on other bands of chimpanzees in the wild. These anthropologists would sometimes cite genetic data that states we share very similar genetic makeup... humans and chimpanzees. Humans also share very similar genetic makeup to bonobos who have very low rates of violence and high rates of awesomeness. Human beings also share some genetic similarities to Elephants and bananas. I really do not think there is much weight to the whole genetic based argument.

Anthropologists studying rates of peace and conflict around the world found that some cultures actually have little to no violence within their societies. When we study the factors that contribute to the peacefulness of these nonviolent cultures it becomes very apparent that violence in humans is not necissarily genetic or innate. It is learned cultural behavior. Cooperation and consideration, empathy and consciousness are also behaviors that can be learned. Cultural dissemination plays the most important factor in whether or not a culture will be peaceful or violent.

If you study human development you will learn that just about all human behavior is learned by children via mirroring the examples they see around them.

***

Okay, now back to “A Force More Powerful”... this is actually a series of documentaries on all sorts of nonviolent movements that took place over the years in all sorts of countries all over the world. Oh, the things these movements have accomplished! And the admiration they have inspired! It is beautiful.

So, yeah, you can go to www.youtube.com and search “A Force More Powerful” and it will pull up more episodes for you. But, here I am posting a link for you to get you started.

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WGnFzpGKEs

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WGnFzpGKEs

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Wr-JHSnLc

There are many various nonviolent acts that one can utilize in order to enact change in the world around them. My favorite is writing. I am a fan of those like John Locke and Jonathan Swift, but we can talk about them more another time. The pen is mightier than the sword, no?

Wishing you everything that is wonderful in this miraculous universe.

Life is your garden; dig it.

Take care.

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" -Gandhi 

“Life After Life” an alternative approach to understanding life after death

So, do you really want to know what happens to your consciousness when your physical body dies? Do you want to better understand the true nature of the soul? Do you want to understand the true meaning of life? This is not a religious piece. I am talking about indepth objective studies of near death experiences to help those of us who are currently living on this planet better understand life, death, consciousness and really living well and getting the most out of the experience we have during this lifetime. Oh the truth and the meaningfulness contained in the details of these case studies are profound.

Raymond Moody's famous book “Life Before Life” came out decades ago. He had been researching the phenomenon of the near death experience for decades before that. He was researching this phenomenon at a time when it was not well known. Many of the people whom he interviewed about their experiences had never even heard of such a thing. So they could not be biased about what they thought their experience was supposed to be like. They were not biased by cultural concepts about what near death experiences should be like. Some of them had no idea anyone else had ever experienced such a thing. Moody would find these people and ask them just to explain their experiences. He did not tell them a thing about others' experiences at first. He did not ask them leading questions. He just asked them to tell him what they had experienced, recorded the information and drew comparisons between the experiences of hundreds of people who had experienced physical death and managed to regain consciousness.

The messages these people bring back are so profound. They also bring back information that is later confirmed to be true and that could not have been obtained through hallucination or delusion. You can read the book and weigh the facts for yourself. If you live in the states, I am sure you can request it at your local library and borrow it for free. I am linking a short documentary here, so you can get some of the information and beautiful insights without having to actually take any action, go out to a library and actually read something. I enjoy reading. But if you don't, that's your thing... here you go...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z56u4wMxNlg

If the link ever stops working, please know there is a documentary entitled “Life After Life” by Raymond Moody and that I wish you could see it.

The book still is worth checking out and is one of the favorites in my collection... to know that we are in a sense immortal, to know that there is more to life than this material world, to know there is actual meaning to our existence is such an incredible thing... and this is not the only piece I would like to write on this topic. There are other books on this subject I would like to address in the future. But, here is this one for now.

I truly wish you everything that is wonderful in this entire universe. I wish you love and joy and peace and wisdom.

Take care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z56u4wMxNlg

“The Corporation” an alternative to mindless consumerism

This documentary offers insight into the inner workings of the most powerful entities that are currently controlling our lives. Let's be frank for a second. We don't live in a democracy. Voters do not elect the president. Technically it is supposedly the electoral college... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)

But I have my own theories about our government and the federal reserve...

We don't live in an aristocracy where the people are governed by the best.

We live in an oligarchy where laws are made as a result of lobbyists who serve corporations.

We are taught and conditioned by corporations. They are very practiced at manipulating the way we think and feel. They make people feel like they need smart phones and designer shoes to fit in.

These corporations control so many aspects of our existence.

You might as well educate yourself about what is actually going on around you. What are corporations doing that could be considered immoral? What are they doing that could harm you, your kids, your mom? Knowledge and insight can be empowering. I want that for you.

You can check out this documentary for free. The makers of this documentary wanted you to be able to see it for free because they care more about you than they care about profit. It would be nice if the corporations felt the same way.

Here is the link. If the link stops working, I am sure you can still find this work elsewhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y888wVY5hzw

Wishing you everything wonderful.

Take care.

“Forks Over Knives” another lovely piece on an alternative to the standard American diet

In my last blog on an alternative to the standard American diet the famous anthropological article “the Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” addressed dietary changes which occurred around 10,000 years ago when Homo sapiens adopted agriculture as a main means of sustenance. More simply put... 10,000 years ago our ancestors went from feeding themselves by foraging for and collecting plant foods that grew in the wild and hunting and scavenging for wild meat to a totally different way of feeding themselves. They took up farming. This change in turn led to an increase in health problems and people not living as healthy a life as they possibly could have otherwise. The archeological evidence is outlined in that article.

“Forks Over Knives” talks about another major shift in diet and eating habits that took place in America and other wealthy nations over the last century.

A hundred years ago people just simply were not eating as much meat. They were not eating as much dairy, and they were not eating eggs to the extent that they now are. They were not eating processed foods.

And there have been some serious health problems that have increased in direct correlation with the increase in consumption of these animal products and processed foods.

The effects which overconsumption of animal products can have on your health are pretty gross and can be deadly. At best it is simply robbing you of optimal health and wellbeing. The studies cited in this documentary are pretty mindblowing, and if one person benefits from seeing it, I would be stoked. You can prevent cancer. You can prevent heart attacks and strokes. It is awesome that this information is out there and readily available in an easy to view and easy to understand and appreciate sort of format.

I'm not saying you should stop eating meat. Do whatever you please. Those choices are up to you entirely. But if you do have kids, your life is not the only one you are affecting. All I am saying is that you might want to consider watching this documentary and examining other enlightened sources of information on this important topic and weigh the information for yourself.

As of right now, you can watch it on hulu for free. Here's a link. As always, if the link stops working, I am sure you could find this work elsewhere.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/279734

Whatever your choices, I wish you well and I wish you everything that is wonderful.

Life is your garden; dig it