"The War on Consciousness"

There is a carefully buried explanation of the culture-changing use of "drugs" in Humankind's history. One of the better (perhaps even THE best) explanation of this was recently presented in a TED talk by author/researcher Graham Hancock. So shocking and controversial was this information that an anonymous "panel of scientists" demanded that it be removed. Happily for us, the outcry over this censorship meant that the original TED talk has found its way onto YouTube. It is likely that this is one of the most important videos in the Internet these days. Listen to it with an open mind.

Semper Fi

The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed. All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man’s hand and offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile. He refused.

Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients. Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.

Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.

Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her, “Who was that man?” he asked.

The nurse was startled, “He was your father,” she answered.

“No, he wasn’t,” the Marine replied. “I never saw him before in my life.”

“Then why didn’t you say something when I took you to him?”

“I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here. When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed. I came here tonight to find a Mr. William Grey. His Son was killed in Iraq today, and I was sent to inform him. What was this Gentleman’s Name? “

The nurse with tears in her eyes answered, “Mr. William Grey………”

The next time someone needs you … just be there.

Be The Drum Major In Your Food Parade

So, on a slightly more positive note than is my usual wonky-want, let me tell you why I garden for the bulk of my daily diet. I've found no better way to move my diet from merely OK to "Foodie Gourmet" than by embracing a plant-based, organic diet. But there are other important reasons, too.

My number one reason is that I don't subscribe to "health insurance". I invest in prevention rather than the cost of after-illness medical care. What it costs me in labor, seeds, water, a greenhouse and all other material that maximises the health of my fruits and vegetables is a tiny fraction of the budget-breaking required allopathic care after a breakdown of bodily well-being.

Not being addicted to any one dietary "ism". I supplement what I grow on a seasonal basis with an incorporation of oils, seeds, nuts and protein-abundant nutrients. These come not from Supermarket shelves, but from trusted local sources who use organic practices. In other words, I know where my food intake comes from, its freshness and its quality.

For me, there is an innate satisfaction of being able to walk out of my kitchen door and harvest from the garden a freshly picked meal. There is a familiarity with the food that simply cannot be found with similar produce and accompaniments displayed on the sterile shelving of a commercial market that was trucked in from hundreds if not thousand miles away.

So I get the ultimate win, win, win situation with better health through a better diet at a far less cost per meal. Not too surprisingly, almost everyone in my neighbours are doing the same thing on their property. Look around and perhaps you will find the same thing happening where you live. If not, I'd suggest that you get in front of the emerging parade and lead the way to better health.

Stumbling Into Smurfville

I haven't spoken of Vilcabamba lately, been too busy spouting off about geopolitical matters that rankle me. But I'm still very much here ….. and thriving rather than merely surviving. It's like being in a Smurf village, where the residents are all brown and white instead of blue and living a kind of fanciful life of leisure.

Vilcabamba continues to grace its inhabitants (local, indigenous and expat alike) with clean water, clean air, clean food and a relatively unpolluted environment. While we don't have chemtrails and governmental mind control technologies invading our lives, we do have an increasing amount of electromagnetic radiation from cell towers and WiFi routers. What happens when human population centers are flooded with massive amounts of powerful wireless microwave radiation? Nobody really knows ….. yet.

But we will soon. Because we are being exposed to 100 million times more Electromagnetic radiation than our grandparents were, and cell towers are making that number grow exponentially. If you can make a call on your cellphone, then you’re in an area that’s saturated with cell site microwave radiation. And this includes our own hidden-away Sacred Valley of Longevity. Those who know about these things are raising their voices in alarm, but few of our residents listen or understand.

We are a strange mix of visionaries, cranks, crazies, misfits, geniuses, goofy free-spirits and wild-eyed anarchists; a witch's brew of people, if there ever was one. Neurosis abounds, particularly in terms of the End Of The Worldists, freaks, backyard mystics, New Age Gypsies (those we used to call 'Hippies', with nowhere in particular to go and plenty of time to get there) the sleazy spiritual entrepreneurs offering their brand of 'Enlightenment' via jungle 'ceremony' and marketers of supposed Healthy Products and Super Foods, plying their fear-encrusted wares online with PayPal.

It seems to be quite difficult for such a group to remember that we are guests in this tiny pueblo and and not try to continually re-mold it into what better fits our gringo comfort zones ..... or worse. As you can imagine, "do-goodism" on the part of foreigners who can neither speak the language or understand the culture is rampant, a contemporary version of the Colonial "White Man's Burden" (of bringing modernity to our little brown brothers.) But we are muddling through, thanks to the great forbearance of our sweet-natured Ecuadorian hosts.

Then there are the rest of us. Those who mind their own business, tend their gardens, try to learn the language and interact comfortable with our local neighbours. These are the ones who are trying to learn how to live Alone Together in a place far distant from the places of their birth. They are too busy enjoying their lives to spend much time musing about the latest conspiracy theory or wondering exactly who makes up the Illuminati. That we leave to the Wayfaring Strangers who meet daily at Charlito's Bar in the village.

Is Vilcabamba still the 'Shangri-La of days gone by? Yes and no. Like anywhere else in the world, it is what you make of it. Our tiny hamlet is growing and thus necessarily changing in many ways, some of which is creating friction in the clash of cultures. If you come it ought to be in the spirit of loving adventure, not out of fear of that which we want to leave behind or the hope of finding greener grass elsewhere.

Oh Most Evil Malady

Alas, I have been diagnosed as suffering from Writer’s Tourette. The symptoms are stuttering sentences, jerky paragraphs and inappropriate cuss words flung hither, thither and yon. While attempting to affect a cure, my posts to this Blog will be less frequent …. and shorttttttttttter.

Nothing But INSANITY!

After studying three separate government reports predicting a coming “financial doomsday”, Martin D. Weiss, chairman of the the financial rating and counselling firm the Weiss Group, Inc, said this:

“When our leaders have no awareness of the disastrous consequences of their actions, they can claim ignorance and take no action. Or when our leaders have no hard evidence as to what might happen in the future, they can at least claim uncertainty. But when they have full knowledge of an impending disaster …. they have proof of its inevitability in any scenario, and they so declare in their official reports … but STILL don’t lift a finger to change course …. then they have only one remaining claim: INSANITY!“

But it would be insane to actually believe that the nation’s money masters are truly insane. Thus, the only alternative is conspiracy. The financial meltdown happened because it was engineered to happen! -

The Trillion Dollar Conspiracy – Jim Marrs

Hm-mmm, ya' think? Na-aaaaa!

Is Time Speeding Up For You?

According to the late Terance McKenna, ethnobotanist, philosopher and psychonaut, time is indeed accelerating faster and faster. The golden-tongued Troubadour of Consciousness describes the process in the short video below.

So, How's Your Year Been?

As I wish one and all a Happy New Year (now that the Mayan prophesy hacks have been proven wrong), it's time to check out the balance of good and bad for 2012. Here is one way of looking at the year about to end:

For me it's been the Blue side all the way, firmly entrenched in the positive and fending off the negative. Oh, and since I'm safely away from all of the political crap that's been happening up yonder in Norte Americano land, this has nothing to do with Red State, Blue State ideology.

Wishing all of you a VERY Happy New Year and an abundance of Good Things for you and yours.

Patrick

Truer (and more timely) Words Were Never Spoken

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed. - Ayn Rand

This Is Why I'm Here And Not There!

Obamacare - What Could Go Wrong?

Please excuse me while I go all political on you, but I have a question that you dear readers might be able to answer for me.

Let me see if I have this right. We have now been "gifted" by our government with a healthcare plan we are forced to buy and fined if we don't, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people, without any new doctors but provisions for 16000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chair says he doesn't understand it, passed by a congress that didn't read it (but exempted themselves from it), with funding by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which WE will be taxed for four years before benefits even take effect, by a congress that has bankrupted social security and medicare, signed by a president who smokes, all overseen by an obese surgeon general and financed by a country already trillions in debt? What could possibly go wrong? Hm-mmm?

Let's face it, the problem with America's healthcare is that it pays for treating symptoms not curing causes, and changing how we pay or who pays will not fix this crises. Taking personal responsibility for our health and living healthier lifestyles is the solution, not Obamacare! Check out www.healthyfooders.com

The Sorcerers of Silence

We are all of us, each and every one, cast under the spell of enchantment. The malevolent Wizards of War have placed us in a trance; enthralling man, woman and child with words and images which hold us in fitful slumber. It is a place of dark bad dreams and the erratic vibration of fear. It is, alas, our present reality.

For the past few years I have pointed out to friends and familiars that you must focus on real issues and ignore all of the background noise that is produced by the media and the so called financial gurus. The scene for what is happening today, and which will continue to happen in the next few years, has already been set for years and even decades. What happens to Greece, J.P. Morgan, U.S. Federal Reserve or the European Union has no effect whatsoever on the exceedingly severe long-term economic and social decline that the world will experience in the next few years.

These daily headline events merely create short term volatility caused by irrational and short-term-oriented investors, including HFC (high frequency computer) traders. The Dark Years Are here, the world is almost certain to experience a hyperinflationary depression of a magnitude that will have a massive impact for the majority of the world’s population for years and probably decades. And there is no short term action taken by any governments that can change the outcome. They have tried, and failed.

It is time to Get Out Of Dodge! It is long since past the time to make a change, you must not tarry further. You must distance yourself from the steadily encroaching fascist Security State apparatus that seeks to hold you in thrall to their corporatist masters and bleed from you the taxes necessary to wage their Everlasting War (aka population reduction). It is time to make a change.

The very thought of "change" in one's life is scary to a lot of people. But change is our only constant companion. It is the only sure thing in our lives. Thus, we ought to embrace change as a friend who brings opportunity, even though in the companionship of uncertainty.

There are still countries that, due to their unique circumstances, offer a more benign governance to their citizens, along with their foreign residents. These places, particularly a few countries in South America, will soon close down their borders to the veritable tsunami of immigrants attempting to escape from the tyranny of their current governments. Thus, time is of the essence. You should seek safety. Now!

Richard Russell of Dow Theory Financial Letters, who, like myself, experienced the 1930s Depression, says that in an economic depression everyone suffers, it is just the case of who suffers the least. For me, that's just where I wish to be …. somewhere else, in company with the least suffering. Those who had "Eyes To See and Ears To Hear", and then acted!

Growing Your Own Grocery Store

These beautiful, tender, succulent leaves that you see above will provide me several nutritious, organic meals ... all with very little time and effort on my part. It takes only high altitude sunshine, the magical mineralized water of Vilcabamba and deep, rich soil. Add in a few vegetables that grow along side the lettuce in the same garden greenhouse and you have what is called "Healthy Food". When that day comes where the supermarket shelves are stripped bare, my garden will sustain me ... abundently. How about you? Just wondering.

In the Dark Days to come, FOOD is going to be in short supply (if available at all.) The little garden plot you create now, either an inexpensive indoor hydroponic system or outdoor greenhouse, can feed you and your family with nourishing, organically grown food. If what the so-called "prepping experts" are telling us is true, then the greenhouse will be needed to protect the plants from excess solar UV radiation. It's why I have one, as do my neighbors. And it helps me grow HUGE heads of lettuce like that which I'm holding in the photo just above. Good luck with your own.

U.S. FAMILY NET WORTH DROPS TO LEVELS OF EARLY 1990s

The Fed’s much anticipated release of its survey of U.S. consumer finances reports that a hypothetical family richer than half of the nation’s families had, in 2010, a net worth of $77,300 as compared to $126,400 in 2007. That’s a whopping drop of nearly 40%. In fact, that is galloping poverty! Moreover, the median family income also fell to $45,800 in 2010 from $49,600 in 2007. No, quantitative easing does not solve all problems; far from it.

The only way to beat such a growing reality caused to us all by a fiat currency system and uncontrolled credit and debt creations is to own the right asset classes at the right time, i.e., NOW. Failure to do so will only lead to further net worth loses. Oh, and in case you're wondering, GOLD is the only item shown on the chart below to be a buy ... except for periods of strong growth. Do you really think THAT is right around the corner?

For those of my greatly belabored readers who are still invested in the stock market (hmm-mm, like to live dangerously, dont'cha?) here is a chart that gives you at least a hint as to "what to do when". But good luck in figuring out from government statistics whether we are in inflation or deflation. Fear and Greed aren't that hard, just check your gut feeling. Here is the chart:

Helga's Bar And The Banksters

A subscription service sent me this piece and I don't know whom to credit for it, but it's the clearest explanation I've heard regarding the debt crisis and the credit bottleneck that is stifling the world's economy.

Helga is the proprietor of a bar. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.

Helga keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans).

Word gets around about Helga's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Helga's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in town.

By providing her customers the freedom from immediate payment demands, Helga gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer - the most consumed beverages.

Consequently, Helga's gross sales volumes and paper profits increase massively. A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Helga's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.

He is rewarded with a six-figure bonus.

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS. These "securities” are then bundled and traded on international securities markets.

Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as "AA Secured Bonds" are really debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

The traders all receive a six-figure bonus.

One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Helga's bar. He so informs Helga. Helga then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons but, being unemployed alcoholics, they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since Helga cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Helga's 11 employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.

The suppliers of Helga's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations; her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion-dollar, no-strings-attached cash infusion from the government.

They all receive six a figure bonus.

The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who've never been in Helga's bar.

Now do you understand?