Immanuel Kant was one of the foremost philosophers to reflect on aesthetics; he was particularly interested in beauty and its ultimate meaning.
each piece she's torn from the whole she gathers up to organize in a way that makes sense... A discussion point where ideas, articles, and stories that contain much of what you want and need to become aware of the existing corrupt reality we are experiencing and of ways to solve them...
Thursday, February 26, 2015
How Unleashing The Power Of The Clitoris Could Change The World
HuffPost Love And Sex Podcast: The Power Of The Clitoris
Instead it's the frank, real, anatomically correct conversations about sex and pleasure that have trouble seeing the light of day. And when it comes to any conversation about women's sexuality, the clitoris -- the only organ on the human body whose sole purpose is pleasure -- is often the elephant in the room.
Frequently referred to as a "nub" or a "button," the true anatomy of the clitoris was just discovered in 1998 -- three decades after humans landed on the moon! -- and is still rarely discussed. In this episode of The HuffPost Love+Sex Podcast, we wanted to know: What would happen if we brought the clitoris out of the shadows and its true function and capabilities were finally known? The answer is nothing short of revolutionary.
To help us better understand the clitoris, the cultural ignorance surrounding this incredible and incredibly ignored part of the human anatomy and how truly damaging that ignorance is -- not just for those with clits but for anyone who knows a person who has a clit -- Love+Sex hosts Carina Kolodny and Noah Michelson talked with Sophia Wallace, the artistic force behind the emerging 'Cliteracy' movement, Jenny Block, author of the upcoming book O Wow: Discovering Your Ultimate Orgasm and Ian Kerner, sex therapist and author of She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide To Pleasuring A Woman:
So tune in and listen up! Because you don't know what you don't know about the clitoris. And if you want to download and/or listen on iTunes, head here.
This podcast was produced by Katelyn Bogucki. Like Love + Sex? Subscribe, rate and review our podcast on iTunes.
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It Turns Out It's Not Actually That Awesome to Have 40 More Minutes in Your Day
Jet Lag Is Worse on Mars
A Martian day is 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth—a seemingly small difference that adds up quickly.
Feb 26 2015, 7:40 AM ET
Mars, as photographed by NASA's Curiosity rover ( NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS )
What would you do with an extra 40 minutes in a day?Not 40 minutes shaved off some regular daily activity to devote to something else, but an extra 40 minutes actually tacked on to the 24 hours we all get. It would be your own personal overtime, a chance to stop the clock when there just didn't seem to be enough time in the day.
"All the times you wish you had another hour of the day, you almost have that on Mars," said Jennifer Trosper, deputy project manager for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. She has worked on Mars time with four Mars rovers. The key lesson she learned: When it comes to time, be careful what you wish for.
It turns out if you're on Earth, that extra time wears thin pretty quickly. If you're on Mars, or at least work by a Mars clock, you have to figure out how to put up with the exhausting challenge of those extra 40 minutes. To be exact, the Martian day is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds long, a length of day that doesn't coincide with the human body's natural rhythms. Scientists, Mars rover drivers, and everyone else in the space community call the Martian day a "sol" to differentiate it from an Earth day. While it doesn't seem like a big difference, that extra time adds up pretty quickly. It's like heading west by two time zones every three days. Call it "rocket lag."
Trosper first started working on Mars, if only virtually, in 1997 for NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission and its small, hitchhiking rover, Sojourner. She has also worked with the rovers Spirit and Opportunity—and works now with the latest Mars rover, Curiosity. For each of those missions, controllers worked on Mars time to coincide with daylight operations on Mars, but they didn't stay on Mars time for long.
"When we landed the Mars Pathfinder, we did Mars time," Trosper said in a phone interview from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "That's the first time we ever did Mars time." They stayed on Mars time for only a month. Having an extra 40 minutes to the day every day quickly added up—the difference between 6 p.m. on Earth and 6:40 p.m. on Mars one week turned into the difference between 6 p.m. on Earth and 11:20 p.m. on Mars a week later. Unlike time-zone differences, where the time on the clock is different but days pass in the same 24-hour increments, the time differences between Earth and Mars compound quickly.
It proved exhausting for the controllers as they tried to keep the same time as Pathfinder for daylight operations on Mars, while outside JPL the sunrise, sunset, and the surrounding society stayed on Earth time. NASA officials had wanted to keep them on Mars time for three months, but the controllers had enough, and by some accounts rebelled.
The extra 40 minutes in a Martian day adds up quickly. It's like heading west by two time zones every three days. Call it "rocket lag."
"That mission was a little easier to operate," Trosper said, "and easier to transition off Mars time." The Pathfinder lander didn't move at all, and Sojourner never traveled far from the landing site. When the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed in 2004, Trosper and JPL controllers went on Mars time again and stayed on that schedule for three months. Trosper also led planning for Curiosity's surface operations prior to its landing on Mars in August 2012, including figuring out how long to stay on Mars time to work with the newcomer to the Red Planet. Again, it was about three months. The controllers have been getting better at adjusting to Mars time even as the rest of California stubbornly stuck to Pacific Time. Some controllers even had family members adapt to the same Martian time zone, kept shades down during the Martian "night" even as the California sun shone brightly, and otherwise tried to follow a slightly longer daily routine. Yet by the end of 90 sols, they would find the rest of Earth had advanced 2.5 days ahead of them. (So far, scientists are leaving it to eventual explorers and emigrants to Mars to devise official names for "week-sols" and months, though you can find recommended names on the web and in fiction. JPL controllers for each mission simply number individual sols from the time a craft lands on Mars, starting with Sol 1.)Trosper had it even rougher. While she was on Mars time with Curiosity, she was also on baby time with her youngest of three children, born shortly before Curiosity landed. Her baby and Curiosity were both very demanding of her time. Perhaps because of those dual demands while working on Mars time, "I can hardly remember it. It did go really fast. As much as you're exhausted, it just flies by."
As difficult as it has been for JPL controllers to follow Mars time while still on Earth, "I think it would be hard to be on Earth time if you're on Mars," Trosper said. She's confident the human body would naturally adjust to the longer sols once explorers finally reach Mars. Except the body's adjustment may not be that natural after all. The body runs on an internal circadian rhythm. That rhythm does adjust to its natural surroundings and responds to periods of sunlight and darkness, but only up to a point. Studies by the Max Planck Institute in Germany during the 1960s and early 1970s appeared to show that a human's circadian rhythm was naturally set at 25 hours, and just adjusted to Earth's 24-hour day.
So early in its exploration of Mars, NASA figured a person's adjustment to the Martian sol would be a cinch. But Charles Czeisler, a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard and chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, discovered that the 1970s finding of a 25-hour natural circadian rhythm for humans was wrong. The original study allowed test subjects to turn on artificial light whenever they wished, unintentionally resetting their bodies' circadian rhythms. Czeisler went to the first meetings that NASA organized in the 1990s to bring together scientists to discuss issues arising from going to Mars. He said NASA officials "sort of had a little check mark that adjusting the circadian rhythm was going to be no problem on Mars." Czeisler had to tell NASA officials that they did have a problem, perhaps a big one.
A computer-generated image of Olympus Mons, one of the massive shield volcanoes on Mars (NASA)
A person's natural circadian rhythm averages about 24 hours and six minutes for women, and 24 hours and 12 minutes for men. It varies for each individual, but doesn't stray very far from 24 hours. At about the time Pathfinder landed, Czeisler and his team began conducting studies at the hospital's special laboratory that shielded study subjects from all outside influences. With their test subjects in isolation, they simulated the Martian sol to see how the test subjects adjusted to the longer day. "What we learned was none of the people adapted their circadian rhythms to the Martian day," Czeisler said.This wasn't good. If Martian explorers were trapped in Earth time, they would never last the months- or year-long stay expected of them without severe exhaustion. That exhaustion could pose grave safety risks as the explorers attempted to carry out their duties, yet there would be no way to cut their time on Mars short. NASA was at that point working on a tight schedule with a goal of landing explorers on Mars around 2014. "So we had a relatively short time frame in 1997 to develop countermeasures" to a person's natural clock, Czeisler said. "The first thing we tried was increasing the light intensity, but that was not sufficient."
Eventually Czeisler and his team discovered that for Martian explorers to adjust to the Martian sol, they needed light therapy. "We found that one of the most effective ways of achieving entrainment (to adjust circadian rhythms) was to enhance light exposure in the evening." The researchers discovered that it wasn't necessarily the light intensity but the wavelength that made a significant impact. Czeisler said his team has yet to test specific wavelengths to extend a person's body clock to sync with a Martian sol, but what he believes the new Martians will need is evening doses of light at short wavelengths—blue light not unlike the glow of a smartphone in a darkened room.
The daylight a Martian explorer is exposed to, Czeisler explained, determines the wavelength and amount of exposure needs in the evening to reset the individual's circadian rhythm. "In terms of circadian theory, we change daylight all the time. We just proportionately change it." Our internal clocks may also be impacted by the blue sky we see when we start the day, and the longer wavelengths of red sunsets we see in the evening.
But Martian daylight is red, and sunsets on Mars are blue. Might that have an impact?
In an actual adventure in space and time, Czeisler and his research team will be able to take their theories on resetting circadian rhythms and test them off Earth next year. A set of lamps his team developed with more than 100 LED bulbs that can be set to project a range of wavelengths will be heading to the International Space Station. Besides shining white light when all bulbs are lit, the lamps can be adjusted to give a dose of blue-toned light to help astronauts stay alert, and the longer waves of red-toned light that increases melatonin and promotes sleep. NASA will use the off-world laboratory for more studies on keeping astronauts alert when they need to be, and adjusting their circadian rhythms to test if explorers will stay awake when they reach Mars.
So what will the Martian explorers and eventual settlers do with those extra 40 minutes in their sol? Or because of the longer sol, a week that's always out of sync with the week on Earth? Or a year that's not quite the length of two Earth years? All of that will be up to the immigrant Martians to decide.
During the workweek, their daily extra 40 minutes will likely be parceled out throughout their daily routine. Come Saturday night, they may think up something special, something unique to the Martian sol. Trosper imagines that for the settlers of any society that could eventually establish itself on Mars, staying a half-step out of time with Earth could set the Martians even farther apart than the distance that separates them from their home world. In adapting to the "physical realities of the universe," the future Martians "may engage with those aspects that are more cultural, more societal. How they count years and things like days will make them a very unique society."
"I would love to go there," Trosper said. Though she experiences Mars more intensely than most people, "Nothing compares to standing there at the edge of Olympus Mons."
Of her children, Trosper said her 6-year-old son shows the most interest in Mars. And who's to say? He may end up standing on Mars by the time he's 18–counting in Mars years, anyway.
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It turns out male sexuality is just as fluid as female sexuality
If women can kiss women and still be straight, what about men?
Some scholars have argued that female sexual desires tend to be fluid and receptive, while men's desires – regardless of whether men are gay or straight – tend to be inflexible and unchanging. Support for this notion permeates popular culture. There are countless examples of straight-identified female actresses and pop stars kissing or caressing other women – from Madonna and Britney to Iggy and J-Lo – with little concern about being perceived as lesbians. When the Christian pop star Katy Perry sang in 2008 that she kissed a girl and liked it, nobody seriously doubted her heterosexuality.
The story is different for men. The sexuality of straight men has long been understood by evolutionary biologists, and, subsequently, the general public, as subject to a visceral, nearly unstoppable impulse to reproduce with female partners. Consequently, when straight men do engage in same sex contact, these encounters are viewed as incompatible with the bio-evolutionary coding. It's believed to signal an innate homosexual (or at least bisexual) orientation, and even just one known same-sex act can cast considerable doubt upon a man's claim to heterosexuality. For instance, in 2007, Republican Senators Larry Craig and Bob Allen were both separately arrested on charges related to sex with men in public bathrooms. While both men remained married to their wives and tirelessly avowed their heterosexuality, the press skewered them as closeted hypocrites.
Despite the common belief in the rigidity of male heterosexuality, historians and sociologists have created a substantial body of well-documented evidence showing straight men – not "closeted" gay men – engaging in sexual contact with other men. In many parts of the United States prior to the 1950s, the gay/straight binary distinguished effeminate men (or "fairies") and masculine men ("normal" men) – not whether or not a man engaged in homosexual sex. Historian George Chauncey's study of gay life in New York City from 1890-1940 revealed that through much of the first half of the 20th century, normal (i.e., "straight") working class men mixed with fairies in the saloons and tenements that were central to the lives of working men.
With sex-segregation the general rule for single men and women in the early 1900s, the private back rooms of saloons were often sites of sexual activity between normal men and fairies, with the latter perceived as a kind of intermediate sex – a reasonable alternative to female prostitutes. Public parks and restrooms were also common sites for sexual interaction between straight men and fairies. In such encounters, the fairy acted as the sole embodiment of queerness, the figures with whom normal (straight) men could have sex – just as they might with female sex workers. Fairies affirmed, rather than threatened, the heteromasculinity of straight men by embodying its opposite.
The notion that homosexual activity was not "gay" when undertaken by "real" (i.e. straight) men continued into the 1950s and 60s. During this period, the homosexual contact of straight men began to undergo a transformation from relatively mundane behavior to the bold behavior of male rebels. The American biker gang The Hells Angels, which formed in 1948, serves as a rich example. There are few figures more "macho" than a heavily tattooed, leather-clad biker, whose heterosexuality was as much on display as his masculinity. Brawling over women, exhibiting women on the back of bikes, and brandishing tattoos and patches of women were all central to the subculture of the gang.
Yet as the journalist Hunter S. Thompson documented in his 1966 book Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga, gang members also had sexual encounters with one another. One of their favorite "stunts" was to deeply French kiss one another – with tongues extended out of their mouths in a type of tongue-licking kiss often reserved for girl-on-girl porn. Members of the Hells Angels explained that the kissing was a defiant stunt that produced among onlookers the desired degree of shock. To them, it was also an expression of "brotherhood."
Today, sexual encounters between straight-identified men take new but similarly "manly" forms. For instance, when men undergo hazing in college fraternities and in the military, there's often a degree of sexual contact. It's often dismissed as a joke, game, or ritual that has no bearing on the heterosexual constitution of the participants. As I document in my forthcoming book, fraternity hazing has included practices such as the "elephant walk," in which pledges are required to strip naked and stand in a circle, with one thumb in their mouth and the other in the anus of the pledge in front of them.
Similarly, according to anthropological accounts of the Navy's longstanding "Crossing the Line" initiation ceremony, new sailors crossing the equator for the first time have garbage and rotten food shoved into their anuses by older sailors. They're also required to retrieve objects from one another's anuses.
One relatively recent example of the pervasiveness of these kinds of encounters between straight men was revealed in a report by the US-based watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight. In 2009, the group released photos of American security guards at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul engaging in "deviant" after-hours pool parties. The photos show the men drunkenly urinating on each other, licking each other's nipples, and taking vodka shots and eating potato chips out of each other's butts.
Individuals often react to these examples in one of two ways. Either they jump to the conclusion that any straight-identified man who engages in sexual contact with another man must actually be gay or bisexual, or they dismiss the behavior as not actually sexual. Rather, they interpret it as an expression of dominance, a desire to humiliate, or some other ostensibly "non sexual" male impulse.
But these responses merely reveal our culture's preconceived notions about men's sexuality. Look at it from the other side of the coin: if straight young women, such as sorority pledges, were touching each other's vaginas during an initiation ritual or taking shots from each other's butts, commentators would almost certainly imagine these acts as sexual in some way (and not exclusively about women's need to dominate, for instance). Straight women are also given considerable leeway to have occasional sexual contact with women without the presumption that they are actually lesbians. In other words, same-sex contact among straight men and women is interpreted through the lens of some well-worn gender stereotypes. But these stereotypes don't hold up when we examine the range of straight men's sexual encounters with other men.
It's clear that straight men and women come into intimate contact with one another in a range of different ways. But this is less about hard-wired gender differences and more about broader cultural norms dictating how men and women are allowed to behave with people of the same sex. Instead of clinging to the notion that men's sexuality is fundamentally inflexible, we should view male heterosexuality for what it is – a fluid set of desires that are constrained less by biology than by prevailing gender norms.
Some scholars have argued that female sexual desires tend to be fluid and receptive, while men's desires – regardless of whether men are gay or straight – tend to be inflexible and unchanging. Support for this notion permeates popular culture. There are countless examples of straight-identified female actresses and pop stars kissing or caressing other women – from Madonna and Britney to Iggy and J-Lo – with little concern about being perceived as lesbians. When the Christian pop star Katy Perry sang in 2008 that she kissed a girl and liked it, nobody seriously doubted her heterosexuality.
When Madonna and Britney Spears kissed during the 2003 Video Music Awards, no one questioned their sexuality.
Win McNamee/Reuters
Win McNamee/Reuters
Despite the common belief in the rigidity of male heterosexuality, historians and sociologists have created a substantial body of well-documented evidence showing straight men – not "closeted" gay men – engaging in sexual contact with other men. In many parts of the United States prior to the 1950s, the gay/straight binary distinguished effeminate men (or "fairies") and masculine men ("normal" men) – not whether or not a man engaged in homosexual sex. Historian George Chauncey's study of gay life in New York City from 1890-1940 revealed that through much of the first half of the 20th century, normal (i.e., "straight") working class men mixed with fairies in the saloons and tenements that were central to the lives of working men.
Close quarters: sexual encounters between men and 'fairies' were commonplace in the dense neighborhoods of working class Manhattan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jacob Riis
The notion that homosexual activity was not "gay" when undertaken by "real" (i.e. straight) men continued into the 1950s and 60s. During this period, the homosexual contact of straight men began to undergo a transformation from relatively mundane behavior to the bold behavior of male rebels. The American biker gang The Hells Angels, which formed in 1948, serves as a rich example. There are few figures more "macho" than a heavily tattooed, leather-clad biker, whose heterosexuality was as much on display as his masculinity. Brawling over women, exhibiting women on the back of bikes, and brandishing tattoos and patches of women were all central to the subculture of the gang.
Today, sexual encounters between straight-identified men take new but similarly "manly" forms. For instance, when men undergo hazing in college fraternities and in the military, there's often a degree of sexual contact. It's often dismissed as a joke, game, or ritual that has no bearing on the heterosexual constitution of the participants. As I document in my forthcoming book, fraternity hazing has included practices such as the "elephant walk," in which pledges are required to strip naked and stand in a circle, with one thumb in their mouth and the other in the anus of the pledge in front of them.
Fraternities often engage in hazing rituals that involve same sex contact. Wikimedia Commons
One relatively recent example of the pervasiveness of these kinds of encounters between straight men was revealed in a report by the US-based watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight. In 2009, the group released photos of American security guards at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul engaging in "deviant" after-hours pool parties. The photos show the men drunkenly urinating on each other, licking each other's nipples, and taking vodka shots and eating potato chips out of each other's butts.
Individuals often react to these examples in one of two ways. Either they jump to the conclusion that any straight-identified man who engages in sexual contact with another man must actually be gay or bisexual, or they dismiss the behavior as not actually sexual. Rather, they interpret it as an expression of dominance, a desire to humiliate, or some other ostensibly "non sexual" male impulse.
But these responses merely reveal our culture's preconceived notions about men's sexuality. Look at it from the other side of the coin: if straight young women, such as sorority pledges, were touching each other's vaginas during an initiation ritual or taking shots from each other's butts, commentators would almost certainly imagine these acts as sexual in some way (and not exclusively about women's need to dominate, for instance). Straight women are also given considerable leeway to have occasional sexual contact with women without the presumption that they are actually lesbians. In other words, same-sex contact among straight men and women is interpreted through the lens of some well-worn gender stereotypes. But these stereotypes don't hold up when we examine the range of straight men's sexual encounters with other men.
It's clear that straight men and women come into intimate contact with one another in a range of different ways. But this is less about hard-wired gender differences and more about broader cultural norms dictating how men and women are allowed to behave with people of the same sex. Instead of clinging to the notion that men's sexuality is fundamentally inflexible, we should view male heterosexuality for what it is – a fluid set of desires that are constrained less by biology than by prevailing gender norms.
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FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules For 'Open Internet'
11:46 AM ET
At the start of a meeting to decide the issue of net neutrality, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, center, holds hands with FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, left, and Jessica Rosenworcel at the FCC headquarters Thursday. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption
itoggle caption Mark Wilson/Getty Images The policy helps to decide an essential question about how the Internet works, requiring service providers to be a neutral gateway instead of handling different types of Internet traffic in different ways — and at different costs.
"Today is a red-letter day," Wheeler said later.
The dissenting votes came from Michael O'Rielly and Ajut Pai, Republicans who warned that the FCC was overstepping its authority and interfering in commerce to solve a problem that doesn't exist. They also complained that the measure's 300-plus pages weren't publicly released or openly debated.
Our original post continues:
The new policy would replace a prior version adopted in 2010 — but that was put on hold following a legal challenge by Verizon. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled last year that the FCC did not have sufficient regulatory power over broadband.
After that ruling, the FCC was left to reclassify broadband in a way to gain broader regulatory powers.
Update at 1 p.m. ET: FCC Adopts Net Neutrality
By a 3-2 vote, the FCC votes to adopt net neutrality rules to "protect the open Internet."
Update at 12:50 p.m. ET: Wheeler Draws Applause
Chairman Tom Wheeler is speaking, meaning a vote is looming.
"The action that we take today is an irrefutable reflection of the principle that no one — whether government or corporate — should control free open access to the Internet," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said, drawing applause and whoops of approval from some of those in attendance.
Update at 12:01 p.m. ET: A Dissenting Vote
Saying the FCC was seizing power in "a radical departure" from its earlier policies. Commissioner Ajut Pai, a Republican, spoke against the proposal. He accused the FCC of "turning its back on Internet freedom."
Pai said that the commissioners were backing the new measure for only one reason: "because President Obama told us to."
Seeing the new policy as an attempt to intrude on the Internet, Pai predicted higher costs for consumers and less innovation by businesses.
Update at 11:25 a.m. ET: 'Open Internet' Portion Has Begun
After dealing with another issue (of municipalities being able to control broadband service), the FCC has turned to the new proposal.
The proposal was introduced at today's meeting by Julie Veach, chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau, who said it "would set forth clear, sustainable, enforceable rules to preserve and protect the open Internet as a place for innovation and free expression."
She said the order "builds on the views of some 4 million Americans" who responded to a request for comments.
Guest speakers included Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson and writer and TV producer Veena Sud, whose show The Killing survived with the help of Netflix. A short video from Tim Berners-Lee was also shown.
Our original post continues:
Precise terms and details of the policy have not been made publicly available — a situation that prompted two Republican FCC commissioners to seek to postpone today's vote. That request was denied.
Summarizing "What You Need To Know" about today's vote, Eyder wrote for the Two-Way, "Without net neutrality rules, ISPs could theoretically take money from companies like Netflix or Amazon to speed up traffic to their sites."
Thursday's vote comes after Commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Ajut Pai asked that the FCC "immediately release the 332-page Internet regulation plan publicly and allow the American people a reasonable period of not less than 30 days to carefully study it."
That request was denied; we'll post the document here when it's available.
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The Staggering Bullshit of "The Secret" / Mark Manson
I hate The Secret.
There, I said it. I know I'm a self-development blogger and I'm supposed to keep everything light and airy and full of poop jokes, but fuck it — I hate it. It's an awful book. And it needs to be said.
The funny thing about all of these books is that they all more or less say the same thing: mind your own thoughts, stay positive and focused on your goals, ignore self-doubt and criticism, visualize and concentrate on what you want and you will eventually have it.
Each book brings its own generational edge to the same fundamental idea. Hill's book, launched immediately after The Great Depression, focused intently on making money and getting rich. Peale's work, launched after World War II, focused on creating a calm and happy domestic life with good relationships. Robbins' book, the bible of baby boomer mid-life crises in the '80s, focused on self-actualization and living up to one's potential.
It's not surprising then that Byrne's work, launched amid the social media/smartphone age, brings a harrowing narcissism and an "I'm the center of the universe" angle to the same old ideas. And yet, while all of the previous books offer decent or even quite good advice for stretches, The Secret is full of misplaced clichés, silly quotes, and superstitious drivel. It's a playbook for entitlement and self-absorption and I think that anybody who reads it and implements its advice in any serious way will likely make themselves worse off in the long run.
I will briefly summarize the main points of The Secret and then explain why many people initially find that the advice "works" for them. I will then explain how this advice, while perhaps making one feel better in the short run, ultimately makes one worse off in the long run. I'll conclude with some of my musings about the cultish beliefs of positive thinking at the end of the article. That's assuming I make it that far without putting my head in an oven first.
What is 'The Secret'?
"The Secret" is simply the "law of attraction." Essentially, the law of attraction states that whatever consumes your thoughts is what you will eventually get in life. So, if you think of all the things you don't want in your life, you'll only get the things you don't want. By contrast, if you only envision the things you want in your life, then you will get everything you want in life.Whereas previous self-help authors have hardly even bothered trying to explain why the law of attraction works, Byrne unabashedly dives into some cosmological nonsense. She argues that the reason The Secret works is because The Universe is made up of energy (and, as Einstein taught us, matter can be converted to energy and vice versa) and all energy has a frequency. Your thoughts also emit a frequency, and like attracts like; therefore, the frequency of your thoughts, good or bad, will resonate with the frequency of other "energies," good or bad, in The Universe.2
If you only worry about debt and not having enough money and say to yourself over and over "I can't afford that," then The Universe will respond in kind and you will always be poor. If you believe that you are rich and wealthy and successful, The Universe will respond to these vibrations and soon provide you with the wealth and success you desire. If you think you are fat and unhealthy and will never be in good health, then you'll never get slim and fit because The Universe will keep providing you with experiences that keep you fat and unhealthy. If you believe that you are thin and beautiful, then The Universe will magically deliver healthy, skinny goodness — like raw carrots and three hours on the treadmill — every morning, right to your front door.
Or something.
How 'The Secret' Actually Works (sort of)
The Secret is actually just a candied up version of an old psychological concept called the 'confirmation bias.' The confirmation bias is well-studied; researchers have known about it for decades.3 It also makes a hell of a lot more sense than the "Thoughts as Vibrations" theory.As human beings, we have a limited amount of attention for all the stuff going on around us. Therefore, whether we realize it or not (usually not), we are always choosing what we pay attention to. The confirmation bias is the human mind's tendency to notice and pay more attention to objects and experiences that match its preexisting thoughts and beliefs. It does this for the simple reason that it is biologically economical and efficient.4
We've all experienced confirmation bias a million times, you've probably just never realized it before. For example, you spend years not really paying attention to what kind of car people drive. But then the time comes for you to start thinking about buying a car and suddenly you notice the make and model of cars all over the place. You start making decisions about which styles you like and what features you care about. You start noticing these details because for the first time they are salient and relevant to your thoughts and desires, whereas before they weren't.
Or let's say that a close friend breaks your trust and you have a huge fight. Suddenly you find yourself thinking back and noticing all sorts of shady and questionable behavior from your friend that you never noticed or thought about before. Things you can't believe you overlooked or missed. But before, because you trusted your friend, you didn't notice them. Now that you don't trust them, you notice a long trail of red flags.
Essentially, The Secret is an attempt to leverage the confirmation bias to one's advantage. The idea is that if you're constantly thinking positive thoughts about yourself, you will begin to notice little things in your experiences that confirm these beliefs, thus helping them come true. On the other hand, if you're constantly thinking negative feelings about yourself, the negative feedback in your environment will stand out to you, thus making you feel worse.
The Secret advocates that people assume the identities of the person they wish to become — to actually believe that they are already rich, already skinny and healthy, already in a perfect relationship. Essentially, The Secret tells you to become delusionally positive about yourself for a long enough period of time that your natural confirmation bias kicks in and you only attend to the things in your life that match these new beliefs.
This may actually be beneficial — at least at first — for people who have some pretty fucked up and delusional negative beliefs about themselves. Simply changing the way you see things from "always shitty" to "always great" would probably have a pretty big impact in a lot of areas for some people.
But at some point, you actually have to, you know, do something…
How 'The Secret' Can Screw You Up
The Secret actually requires that you never doubt yourself, never consider negative repercussions, and never indulge in negative thoughts.5 This is the confirmation bias on steroids and it can be dangerous: taking on risky business ventures or investments, ignoring red flag behaviors from a romantic partner, denying personal problems or health issues, avoiding necessary confrontations, failing to weigh the possibility of failure in decision making, and so on. While this sort of "delusionally positive" thinking may make one feel better in some (or even many) situations, as a long-term life strategy, it is utterly disastrous.Here's just one example of how the confirmation-bias-with-good-intentions strategy could go horribly wrong: Let's say you are working on a cure for cancer and you think Drug X is the hot ticket. Drug X might help hundreds of millions, even billions of people and you would be rich, famous, and loved by all. You do four experiments with the drug: two of them suggest that the drug works, two of them don't. But you read The Secret and you told The Universe that you would find a cure for cancer. So you plow ahead with Drug X, pouring money, time, brainpower, and precious resources into it. You rationalize the negative results away because doubting yourself is tantamount to doubting The Universe, and no one fucks with The Universe. And yet, the truth is, not only are you not getting any closer to curing cancer, you're also leading researchers and doctors down a fruitless rabbit hole. And for what? To feel a little better about yourself?
Looks like the universe is sending us a big, smelly fart.
But this prescription for "delusionally positive" thinking can have negative consequences for people as well. Psychological research shows that trying to suppress thoughts about something only makes those thoughts more likely to recur.7 In fact, rumination and obsession appear to operate in this manner, especially in people with chronic mental disorders like OCD, depression, and anxiety: the more you try to get rid of unwanted thoughts, the more these thoughts dominate your mental space. It's like if I tell you, "Never think about a pink elephant!" the first thing that likely pops into your mind is a pink elephant. Thinking about the things you do not want can lead to more negative thinking and put you in a vicious cycle of negativity.
Research also shows that actively engaging in positive thinking, such as when you imagine getting a job, doing well on an exam, or even successfully recovering after surgery, can actually result in poorer outcomes.8 Psychologists think that this kind of delusional positive thinking can make us complacent and lazy, as though we already accomplished something we have yet to accomplish, causing us to put forth less effort and to feel less motivated.9
Other studies show that people who engage in "self-affirmations" and are then presented with information that threatens their affirmation (even healthy criticism or feedback) actually engage in more faulty reasoning than people who don't use self-affirmations.10 In fact, people who indulge in delusional positive thinking ironically become downright angry when someone tries to contradict their wall of airy-fairy thoughts. The truth about their situation just becomes that much more painful to them.
Delusional positive thinking ironically generates greater closed-mindedness in people. They must always be vigilant and block out potentially negative feedback or criticism of their beliefs, even if that negative feedback is life-or-death important to their health and well-being.
On top of all of that, as I have argued at length previously on this blog, we are all really bad at predicting what will make us happy and/or miserable in the future. So, by using the law of attraction, we might spend all this time and energy building a "future life" that isn't what we want at all. Maybe we envision having drunken orgies every night of our lives and so we seek out swingers and weird kinky sex groups on Craigslist and, turns out, it's not all that great and it kind of makes us depressed… but The Universe gave it to us because we asked for it! I think it's healthier (and more practical) to reserve judgment on what I will or will not like until I find out through my own experience, rather than just make shit up and hope it works out well.
Ultimately, the law of attraction states that if you just think about what you want, it will come to you — when taken to it's logical extreme, it encourages you to always be wanting something, to never be content, and this can make us less happy in the long run. At some point, we must all come to terms with the struggles and failures in our lives, because we all have them. This, ironically, is a more logical path to success than simply wishing incessantly for all of your dreams to come true. Don't wish for good rewards. Wish for good problems.
The Pyramid Scheme of Positive Thinking
There's an irony to all of this mess, of course. If you're desperate enough to feel better about yourself by adopting a philosophy of delusional positivity, that philosophy will appeal to others around you who are also desperate to feel better about themselves. In this way, by adopting a delusional positivity, you attract and surround yourself with others who are also delusionally positive.This is kind of my theory for why this strain of thought has persisted across generations; it's a psychological pyramid scheme of sorts. You take one person who decides to ignore reality in favor of feeling good all the time. This sort of self-absorption then turns off anybody who is content and rational, and instead attracts the most desperate and gullible. This person, delusionally positive to the brim, then ironically attracts and surrounds themselves with other delusionally positive followers. Years later, one of these delusionally positive followers then decides to "manifest" their dreams by spreading the law of attraction further to other desperate well-wishers. The chain of positivity carries on this way through the generations, where each author, blogger or seminar leader who speaks ardently of manifesting one's purpose, or believing oneself to happiness and bliss, or listening to The Universe, generates a new population of delusionally positive followers who then go on and do the same thing all over again.
And so it goes, on through the years and down through the generations. Byrne is just the latest manifestation. There will be others.
This strain of positive thinking infects practically the entire self-help industry. Even writers and scientists who don't engage directly in the silliness of asking The Universe for better vibrations or whatever still rely heavily upon the basic dogma of believing in the positive, suppressing or ignoring the negative, and seeking out happiness above all else.
In my opinion, this whole premise is misguided. It's an anesthetic for one's pain, not a remedy. Books like The Secret are like McDonald's for the mind. They're easy and make you feel good, but they also make you mentally fat and lazy, and emotionally, you die a much more painful death.
Call me crazy, but I believe that changing and improving your life requires destroying a part of yourself and replacing it with a newer, better part of yourself. It is therefore, by definition, a painful process full of resistance and anxiety. You can't grow muscle without challenging it with greater weight. You can't build emotional resilience without forging through hardship and loss. And you can't build a better mind without challenging your own beliefs and assumptions.
So why would we ever expect that becoming a better person is easy or pleasant or…positive?
These are all, by definition, difficult and stressful activities. And I don't see how one could ever do these things while relying on a crutch of delusionally positive beliefs. Sure, perhaps books like The Secret act as life preservers for people who are in such a dark and miserable place that they feel as though they're constantly drowning. But the point of a life preserver is to keep you afloat. Eventually you have to learn to swim for shore yourself.
Footnotes
- Note that Byrne didn't come up with 'The Law of Attraction' — Earl Nightingale, a self-help writer from the 1950s did.↵
- I'm not even going to go into how preposterous or scientifically insane all of these claims are. That would likely require a whole 'nother 3,000 word article by itself.↵
- Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175.↵
- The evolutionary explanation here is that thousands of years ago out on the savannah, you couldn't afford to become distracted by the grass or willow trees or how there was more hair on your left arm than your right. You were thinking about food and your family and so you needed to be primed to notice food and your family. The confirmation bias evolved as a mental mechanism that helped keep us alive in extremely harsh primitive conditions.↵
- As Byrne puts it, "When you allow a thought of doubt to enter your mind, the law of attraction will soon line up one doubtful thought after another. The moment a thought of doubt comes, release it immediately." (p. 89)↵
- In many ways, Kanye West is the epitome of delusional positive thinking: narcissistic, totally self-absorbed, unbearable to be around, yet oddly successful despite himself.↵
- Wenzlaff, R. M., & Wegner, D. M. (2000). Thought suppression. Annual Review of Psychology, 51(1), 59–91.↵
- Kappes, H. B., & Oettingen, G. (2011). Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(4), 719–729.↵
- One thing that gets lost all the time is the beneficial effects of negative emotions. Anxiety can be a hell of a motivator.↵
- Munro, G. D., & Stansbury, J. A. (2009). The dark side of self-affirmation: confirmation bias and illusory correlation in response to threatening information. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 35(9), 1143–1153.↵
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In 1997, Gillian Anderson posed as Morticia Addams / BoingBoing
Photographed by Mark Seliger for US Magazine, Ms. Anderson posed as every weirdo's favorite mama. It was hot.
We know about the upcoming X-Files reboot. Can we also have an Addams Familyreboot with Special Agent Scully as the goth matriarch?
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Exclusive Interview With Keith Davidsen Of The Upcoming ‘Reanimator’ Series
ScienceFiction (SF): Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us today. First off I have to ask – What drew you to work on Dr. Herbert West?
Keith Davidsen (KD): I’ve always been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft — or, I should say, the themes explored in his work. Looking at my own history of writing, one of my very first efforts at a short story, written in high school, involved a team of American explorers delving into the elaborate tunnel system of a civilization that seemingly predated the continent’s human population. This exploration inevitably lead to a confrontation with an inhuman monster and a gruesome death for all involved. That description alone is probably the summary of half the Lovecraft stories ever written!
Regarding my specific interest in ‘Reanimator,’ I suppose that developed thanks to continued exposure simply to the idea throughout my adolescence. I was always fascinated by horror concepts – whenever I’d go to the supermarket with my mother, I’d always ask permission to break off and roam the movie rental aisle. We never rented any films, but my imagination would be stoked at all the scary movie boxes on the shelves. The film ‘Re-Animator,’ starring Jeffrey Combs, was often on the shelves. There was something very appealing to the name itself; it had power and allure, much like the similar-sounding titles of ‘The Terminator’ or ‘Predator.’ References over the years to ‘Reanimator’ and other Lovecraft concepts (like the infamous Cthulhu Mythos) eventually lured me to the original Herbert West – Reanimator prose story, which serves as the basis for Dynamite Entertainment’s incarnation of the character.
KD: There’s a character arc that Dynamite Entertainment created for Herbert West, first in his debut appearances written by James Kuhoric (the ‘Reanimator’ #0 one-shot and the ‘Army of Darkness Vs. Reanimator’ series), then in the event miniseries ‘Prophecy’ by Ron Marz, and most recently chronicled by Mark Rahner in the ‘Army of Darkness / Reanimator’ one-shot. When introduced into comics, West was clearly the science-obsessed medical student as originally depicted in Lovecraft’s writing, but was quickly drawn into the violent – and somewhat wacky – supernatural world of ‘Army of Darkness.’ Over the course of his several appearances, he evolved into an occult expert and quirky sidekick, of sorts, to the anti-hero Ash Williams. Mark Rahner’s one-shot, however, returned him to form after he was thrown through the time stream to the early 20th century, where his disposition grew much darker.
My contribution picks up from the more serious tone of Rahner’s tale, although any reader should be able to pick up the upcoming ‘Reanimator’ #1 without having to worry about previous continuity. Dr. Herbert West’s personality now more accurately reflects Lovecraft’s prototype. He’s a morally ambiguous character, fiercely dedicated to his personal goal of conquering the medical condition called “death” through purely scientific means. While he’s still adept in occult knowledge, he’s rejected those experiences completely, considering them a distraction from the true focus of his work.
SF: What can you tell us about the series without spoilers?
KD: The new ‘Reanimator’ series is really two interwoven stories. The first involves his need to acquire resources (bodies, equipment, chemicals, etc.), and the extremely dangerous way he does so: by supplying zombie brain fluid as a narcotic to a drug cartel — much to the chagrin of their powerful rivals. So Herbert West inevitably becomes the linchpin in a New Orleans power struggle, and – even though he has renounced supernatural power himself – it seems that both of the criminal organizations are aligned with sinister forces of the occult variety (i.e. Elder Gods and Louisiana Voodoo). So there’s some Science vs. Magic at play.
The second story revolves around Susan Green, West’s new assistant, who uncovers a terrible secret – one that threatens everything that she and West have been working towards. So there’s a lot going on in this series, as we build the mystery and its explosive payoff.
KD: That’s one of the main reasons that the New Orleans setting appealed to me. I’ve long been fascinated by that city, its dual reputation as both a lively, colorful tourist destination and as sinister, mystical place. The Louisianan Voodoo culture, or more appropriately, our bastardized perception of that culture, has created the perfect sandbox for the Reanimator to play in. We’re going to see zombies of the pre-Romero variety… and West’s reaction to those shambling-yet-living killers should be pretty amusing for fans.
SF: You’re mixing a couple of Lovecraft’s mythos here. Will we see hints or references to any of his other work?
KD: A portion of Lovecraft’s tale, ‘The Call of Cthulhu,’ is set in Louisiana, so it’s natural to have elements of that story mix with Herbert West’s new adventure. I don’t want to spoil it for readers, but there will be at least one established Cult of Cthulhu human character as a cast member, plus the Elder Gods will have their presence felt.
SF: West often strongly relies on his assistant. What can you tell us about his new one?
KD: Susan Greene is a young, wide-eyed pharmacologist, a likeable and ultimately good person who is wrestling with some inner demons. Having suffered a personal loss, she’s drawn to the Reanimator’s mad research because she’s looking for something to fill a void in her life – and with zombie experiments and the tension of a growing turf, she certainly has a lot to deal with.
I really wanted to introduce a strong female character into the Lovecraft world, and Susan fulfills the role preceded by the unnamed narrator of the original Herbert West, ‘Reanimator’ story: namely, an “every woman” character that can look upon his mad work with both fascination and terror.
Also, I’m a huge fan of the television series ‘Doctor Who,’ and see parallels between the West/Greene relationship and the prototypical Doctor/Companion partnership. In a perversion of the ‘Doctor Who’ premise (i.e. that the Companion’s role is to keep the Doctor morally sound), it seems that the Reanimator’s influence on the young Miss Greene may tempt her to his own amoral view of the world…
KD: I love Randy Valiente’s work, mostly because we can immediately tell that he has a passion and flair for Lovecraftian storytelling in each panel, on every page. ‘Reanimator’ fans will revel in his interpretation of Herbert West, a character that visually gives off a creepy, unnerving quality… even when he’s at his most charming or sincere. Randy also has great attention to detail, and his character work is very expressive. I’m very fortunate that Dynamite placed such an exceptional talent onto this project!
SF: The upcoming series is set to be a 4 book mini-series, are there plans to further explore the Lovecraft universe down the line?
KD: While I’m not at liberty to give away too much regarding Dynamite’s horror plans, I can say that ‘Reanimator’ throws open more than a few doors to hellish worlds… and who could say what evils will crawl through, and where those diabolical fiends will show their faces (or many-faces, or lack-of-faces)? Considering that the ‘Reanimator’ has been established in the shared Dynamite universe (with previous crossovers involving characters from ‘Army of Darkness’, ‘Vampirella,’ ‘Dracula’, and more), the groundwork for future carnage is certainly there.
SF: What other projects do you have in the works that fans of Lovecraft and horror would be excited about?
KD: I’m planning to make appearances at several comic book and horror conventions this summer, and to coincide with those shows, I’ll be unveiling a few new projects to send chills down the spines of Lovecraft fans. For now, though, I’ll just leave it that the Reanimator’s not the only person with secrets. Would it be okay if I insert a maniacal laugh in here? Cool, thanks. Mwa-hahahahahahaha!
I WAS IN THE ILLUMINATI...NOW I AM TELLING ALL (OBAMA, SPACE FLIGHTS, DENVER)
February 24, 2015 - An interesting read to say at lease.
This post appeared first on anonymousmags.
And it is currently spreading fast on the Internet.
What is your take?
--- cut & pasted from anonymousmags ---
This post will be about how the Illuminati recruited me and what exactly I had to go through.
When I was nineteen years old, I fell into some money through some connections with friends and some successful investments of some money that I had made throughout my childhood. I got involved in some backroom deals and saw my money begin to grow. As I attended college at Harvard in 1964, I begin to become increasingly rich, and my influence on campus grew as well through my participation in various clubs, and organizations. Some friends and I began to serve as quasi-stock brokers while still at Harvard. I made tons of cash during that year, and was very powerful and influential on campus.
One night as I was walking back to my dorm shortly after midnight, I was approached by two men in black suits. I initially assumed that they were going to investigate my business activity because some of it was not exactly legal. They asked me to come with them and I followed them into the basement of a two story house a couple streets over from my dorm room. They sat me down at a table and asked me if I was willing to make a deal. They would not tell me what deal I would be making, but just continually asked if I would be willing to make a deal. I half-assed agreed that I would, and that is when the biggest man that I have ever seen walked through some closet doors and sat down First of all, if you do not believe me then I am sorry. I am here to tell the truth, and nothing that is written by me is false exaggeration nor science fiction. This information is real, it is true, it is reality, and it is time for it to be told.
I was a member of the Illuminati for 47 years. I was recruited when I was 19 years old. I have posted here off and on over the past year. (Some of the posts are mine, others are my brothers, mainly they are his) The information that I am about to unfold is very revealing and very dangerous. I am one of seven people in the history of the Illuminati that have performed the “Departure” Ritual. I knew that I needed to get out when I had something revealed to me at a meeting in June of 2010. For years I was in line with the beliefs, motives, and actions of the Illuminati, but it recently became too much for me to bear, and I had to extinguish my sacred contract.
My reason for coming here is to reveal EVERYTHING about the Illuminati. How you become a member, what the organization is about, what the organization does, and the future plans that we have.
I will be back to make my first post when I can see that this thread has enough attention for me continue. Any time in the near future when I begin to reveal the secrets of the Illuminati, I need to ensure that there are enough people paying attention so that my efforts do not go to waste. Once I see that this thread has a substantial amount of views and replies, I will make my first post.
Here is a preview of some of the things that I will reveal:
Barack Obama is not a member of the Illuminati, he is something much, much worse.
The new “space flights” which are planes that can briefly enter orbit are not as fun as they seem, they are an Illuminati tool.
Denver, Colorado is an evil place
The information I have is essential!
page 69 of thread:
The first topic to discuss will be these underground bunkers that I have mentioned. Currently, there are 57 underground bases and bunkers around the United States that are in use for various purposes. There are 439 bunkers in the entire world. ALL of these bunkers and bases are controlled and maintained by the Illuminati. The largest underground bunker is in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This bunker has the capability of holding up to 5,000 people for a period of up to ten years. I have personally been in this bunker, and it is much larger than one that anyone can possible even imagine. This bunker is secured mainly for the events of the end times. 5,000 of the world’s richest, brightest, and most powerful individuals will secure shelter in this bunker in the event of a global thermonuclear war, natural disaster, or any other form of global catastrophe. Don’t be confused. Several other bunkers have the ability of housing large numbers of people for extended periods of time, but no other bunkers is as large and capable as this one. In the event of World War 3, all of the world’s leaders will take shelter here, and the governments of the world will be theoretical proxy governments. The world’s richest people will be here as well. People such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, the oil tycoons ( however, these oil tycoons will be murdered while they are in the bunker so that the takeover of the Middle East will be much easier for the New World Order). I do not know the exact number, but of the 439 bunkers in the world, I would say that around 275 of them are constructed mainly for shelter and extended stays. I myself stayed in one of these bunkers while in China in the nineties. They are very nice, very luxurious. It is practically like you are staying in a 5 star hotel.
Some people that have stayed in these bunkers:
Leon Trotsky: After Stalin defeated Trotsky and secured power in the Soviet Union following Lenin’s death, Trotsky was moved to an underground bunker just inside Switzerland. Stalin originally did not know about this because if he did not follow the orders of the Illuminati, then Trotsky was going to be reinstated as the leader of the Soviet Union. It was important to have Trotsky placed in this bunker because Stalin was going to kill him otherwise. Stalin eventually fell in line with the Illuminati’s plans, and Trotsky was executed because he was no longer needed.
Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln was NOT murdered by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was placed in the office of presidency as a pawn. The Illuminati knew that if he was elected then the South would secede. The Civil War made the North very, very rich. That was the only reason the Civil War was allowed to happen. If the Illuminati had not seen the opportunity to become rich off of the war, then slavery would still be an American institution. Lincoln was placed in office just to start the war. He made a deal that once the war was over, that he would be removed from office. This was taken care of through a fake assassination, and he spent the rest of his days in a bunker in Mexico.
Saddam Hussein: Hussein was in power in Iraq merely to raise justification for invasion by the United States and other nations. Many of you are already familiar with what I have said about the plans to entirely take over the Middle East and to secure the oil that is currently untapped. The Hussein that was “hung” was a dummy, and the cell phone video that was release was meant to be released as “proof.” Saddam is currently in a bunker somewhere in Argentina. I do not know of any future plans with him.
The rest of the bunkers in the world are used for storage of things that cannot be stored on top of the ground. Nuclear stockpiles are being held in these underground bunkers . In the event that a nation veers off the course that is planned, then they will be eliminated. Either through assassination of their leaders or by nuclear destruction. Thankfully, nuclear action has not had to be taken yet; however, do not put it past these people to bring about such destruction.
You all know about the HAARP machine conspiracy. It is real. I can assure you. The machine is housed entirely in a bunker that is underwater in the Pacific Ocean. This machine was developed back in the 1980’s, and was first used in the late nineties. This machine has capability of creating any natural disaster that the Illuminati wish to create. Hurricane Katrina was a product of the HAARP machine. The Hurricane was used as a diversion. While the area was in chaos, and attention was diverted everywhere, engineers were sent down to prepare for the gulf oil spill. I can assure you that the Illuminati is capable of releasing more oil into the gulf. The oil that has already been pumped into the gulf is only a small amount compared to what could possibly be done. I already mentioned that the oil spill was used as an agent to implant microbodies into the brains of the children in the area. These children that have been affected are now subject to government control whenever these microbodies are activated. The Illuminati also used the opportunity that Katrina presented to build a bunker that is directly beneath the French Quarter. Why else do you think that FEMA was slow to provide adequate assistance? The engineers needed time.
The HAARP machine is not controlled by any one single country; it is collectively controlled and used. The earthquake in Haiti, the ones that happened over the past couple days, all are products of the HAARP. Not all of the events are relevant or important, some are just tests, some are even mistakes. Rest assured however that once there is need for a natural disaster, the disaster can be generated, engineered, and directed and have whatever effect is necessary.
Another thing that is housed in these bunkers are drugs. There are massive amounts of cocaine, marijuana, heroine, and all kinds of other drugs being stored. The drug trade and war on drugs are essential to the Illuminati. As more and more drugs are traded and cartels become more powerful, the Illuminati becomes richer and more powerful. One of the major contributors and benefactors to the drug trade is Warren Buffett. Buffett has been running the drug trade in the Western Hemisphere for the past twenty years. The drug cartels of Mexico are under his power. It is important that the Illuminati control the majority of the drugs in North America. This is because it gives them yet another vehicle to transport technology that allows them to take control of the consumers. The Illuminati is constantly searching for ways to implant themselves in the minds of the general public, and naturally, control of the drug trade was the perfect way to do so. Buffett secured control of the drug trade when he approached multiple drug cartels and presented them with contracts. He has been in control ever since, and Ben Bernanke is assisting him with the day to day operations.
Multiple bunkers are also equipped to serve as crematories. Much in the same way that the Nazis burned their victims, the Illuminati plans to burn victims that are killed off. Many have speculated that FEMA has constructed stockpiles of coffins to be used for mass burials, but this is not true. Mass burials would take a massive amount of time and effort. Therefore, when the time comes to begin mass killings and executions, the bodies will be shipped to “burn yard” where they will be dropped in these bunkers and reduced to ashes. FEMA, which is an Illuminati run organization, decided that this would be the most effective way to dispose of a mass amount of bodies.
Yet more of these bunkers contain robots that are designed and ready to infiltrate the workplace in the case of a labor shortage. The scenario in which these robots will most likely be used is when the mind control aspect of the Illuminati’s plan goes into effect. Robots will be sent in to perform the jobs that these people were doing, and these people will be used for other events, such as war, propaganda, and violence. These robots will also be used once population control goes into effect.
Alex Jones is not who he says he is. For years he has been working to uncover the secrets of the Illuminati and the New World Order, but yet he is a member of the former, and will be in power in the latter. Jones has been placed in the world of conspiracy theories to feed false information, to throw trackers off the trail. Do not believe anything that the man tells you. All of the information that he presents is fabricated by the Illuminati, for the Illuminati. Think of Joseph Goebbels. Alex Jones is the perfect Joseph Goebbels. STOP LISTENING TO HIM IF YOU ARE. You are being lied to by a man that receives his instructions straight from the Illuminati.
The moon landing in 1969 was real, but there was a moon landing seven years earlier that was the first real landing. In truth, the Russians were the first ones to land on the moon; however, they did not publicize the mission nor the results. It was decided that America was going to win the space race in order to secure a feeling of capitalism over communism. Russia launched their own rocket ship toward the moon as a test run to ensure that the American trial would be successful seven years later. Everything went perfect with the Russian moon landing, and the same technology was then applied to the American moon mission. While on the moon, the American astronauts began the first construction of nuclear missile sites on the moon. These nuclear missile sites have been added onto over the years by way of subsequent moon missions and work by remote control robots. The purpose of these missile sites is the ability to launch nuclear missiles without the risk of tracing the missiles back to a particular country. The scenario in which these missiles would be used is to attack a nation that is not cooperating with the Illuminati. The Illuminati would order missiles launched at the nation, but without the afflicted nation being able to track where exactly the missiles came from, they would not be able to show evidence that they should declare war on a specific country. In my opinion, these missiles will never be used because there are many other ways that the Illuminati can bring down an entire government other than nuking them. However, to my knowledge, the moon currently has 2 fully equipped nuclear missile sites that can be operated from Earth.
Sticking with space….
Scientists working for the Illuminati have found a way that they can “shut” off the sun. A weapon has been created that shoot a beam of high density radiation right into the heart of a planet or star. This beam of radiation penetrates through the planet creating a very large cylinder in the exact middle of it. The radiation that is left behind begins to eat at the star or planet and the effects spread like wildfire. This technology has been tested on various stars in our immediate solar system and is very effective. The first thing that occurs to the star is that the radiation eats a perfect cylinder through the middle of the star, the radiation left behind begins working its way outward degenerating anything in its path. The radiation continues to build and spread. Some stars hung on until they were totally deteriorated from the radiation; however, some stars became so unstable that they combusted at a certain point.
Scientists are certain that this technology can be used on the sun, but also on other planets. One estimate that I overheard was that from the initial shot of radiation, it would take approximately nine years for the entire sun to be entirely consumed. We would begin seeing the effects of the radiation in approximately 3 and a half years however. The first signs would be shorter days and a decreased amount of sunlight during those days. The sun would start becoming unstable at about the seven year point, and we will begin seeing massive solar flares. Once the nine years is up, all life on earth will be dead.
Since my departure, I am completely unsure who the top, head leaders of the Illuminati are at this point, but I will give my best guess. The Illuminati is structured so that there are one to three major leaders in each major region of the world; however, some regions are left out because of a lack of a suitable leader; therefore, a leader is installed there.
In North America:
Warren Buffett is most likely the head of all Illuminati operations. Followed by Ben Bernanke, followed by Lloyd Blankfein who is CEO of Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs is a key player in the North American Illuminati sector. Recently, Goldman Sachs invested almost $500 million dollars in Facebook. Usually this means that Facebook will fall under Illuminati control soon, just as Myspace and Twitter have.
Other key players in North America are Alex Jones, Bill Clinton, Rahm Emmanuel, of course Obama, and Timothy Geithner
South America is void of any real Illuminati leaders. Hugo Chavez has been difficult to work with in the past. He seems to be in line with the Illuminati agenda; however, he does not like being told what to do. Most of the North American leaders control South America as well.
Nicolas Sarkozy is the main guy. He controls the majority of the operations in Europe and Africa. Gordon Brown was very influential in the Illuminati until he decided to begin playing his way; this is why he was removed from office. My opinion is that he is still a key player, just not as key as he once was. There are several African arms dealer that have recently gained some power; however, I am unaware of their identities.
The Middle East is controlled largely by Benjamin Netanyahu which should not come as much of a surprise. Netanyahu does not have as much control as you would think however. As I have stated before, Israel is the grand puppet state of the Illuminati.They will do absolutely anything that the Illuminati wants them to do, and they will do it to the best of their ability without even thinking twice. Israel has been given the permission to fire upon Iran whenever it wishes to do so. Control of the Middle East is hard because there are so many rebel groups. Palestine should not even be worried about. Although they are not controlled by the Illuminati, they are not able to do anything. Iran is borderline at time, and completely in opposition at others. This is why Israel will destroy Iran to start WWIII.
Asia is controlled entirely by Vladimir Putin and his cronies. Putin is a very powerful, very smart man. He will regain popular control of Russia very soon, but you can be assured that everything that is happening in Russia right now is going through him. China has chosen to give up a little power to the Illuminati. They cooperate; just do not care to become too involved. In my opinion, it is because they feel that they will be able to defeat the Illuminati in the end. They are sadly mistaken. Eventually they will come to terms and will join in the great skit that will be called World War 3.
The Spanish flu of 1918, SARS, and the H1N1 scare all have one thing in common: they all were engineered by the Illuminati. While nothing has been instituted on a global scale, the Illuminati has been testing these viruses for years and they are finally unlocking the keys to creating a virus that will spread across the globe very, very fast killing select people. My advice: do not receive the vaccines. You will become a part of a test group that the Illuminati is using to experiment. The H1N1 virus started to become widespread when animals escaped from a farm in Brazil where the virus was being tested. Several of these animals mingled with citizens of surrounding towns, and many of the animals were consumed. The population of the surround towns were quarantined, and the ones that died were covered up; however, somehow, a traveler had carried the flu virus all the way up into northern Mexico, where the virus was first reported. The Illuminati soon found out that the virus was much, much less ineffective than they thought. They are currently pursuing research on a virus that will wipe out a country within a matter of days.
I hope this data dump has been informational for you and has contributed to my credibility in some way. I have much, much more information. It just takes me time to sit down and father my thoughts long enough to format them in an easily readable and comprehensive manner. This is definitely not my last post, as I have more information that needs to be told. It has been a long, tiring past couple of days, and I hope this is enough information to give me a good rest for awhile. If you have any questions then feel free to post them here, on my youtube account, or email me at [email protected]
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