Many philosophers believe that thoughts are deeds. If you project benevolent thoughts, you help create a benevolent environment. Projecting hostility creates hostility, etc. As we sow, so shall we reap.
Cleve Backster, America's foremost lie-detector expert, hooked up a lie-detector to a plant about 40 years ago in an attempt to see how long it would take water to reach the leaves. A lie detector is a sensitive instrument that measures such things as Galvanic skin response, slight variations in temperature, pressure, rates of flow, etc. He quickly discovered that the plant reacted "dramatically" to the experiment itself.
When Backster decided to burn one of the leaves, the lie detector readings went off the charts.
When Backster noticed the "trauma" being exhibited by the plant, he decided not to burn the plant after all whereupon the plant became calm once again.
Backster had not approached the plant with a match; he had only decided, in his mind, to do so, at which time the plant became "emotional." And when he had decided to call off the burning experiment, again only in his mind, the plant returned to normal.
In subsequent experiments, Backster had trouble repeating the results because once a plant had been led to believe something was going to happen and it didn't, the plant would retain that knowledge and not become "emotional" the second time. Thus, fresh plants were required for continued experimentation. This led to the conclusion that plants have some sort of memory and discrimination capability.
In other experiments, it became clear that the plants would only react if the experimenter actually intended to carry out the actions. If Backster was only bluffing to do something harmful, the plant wouldn't respond. Thus he concluded that plants could discern intent (through thought transference) and had a "memory" of past events.
Backster conducted further experiments over the last four decades and has become one of the leading bio-communications experts in the world.
For example, he discovered that an egg would react when another egg was cracked. His work tends to confirm the Gaia Hypothesis which states that the world is one huge, living organism with self-regulating capability.
Dorothy Retallack is another specialist in this field. She exposed a variety of plants to various types of music. Plants that were exposed to hard rock (Led Leppelin and Jimi Hendrix) began pointing away from the source of the music, whereas plants exposed to soothing music began pointing toward the source.
Through further studies, she concluded that being gentle with plants helps them flourish and being the opposite has the opposite effect.
THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS, by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, is a book detailing other experiments done on plant life. Distance doesn't seem to matter when communicating with plants.
For example, a chemist became so attuned to his house plants that they reacted excitedly when he made love to his girlfriend 80 miles away.
In another instance, a philodendron activated by a thought impulse from a technician started a car two miles away.
On a more unscientific note, my ex-wife, who is three-quarters Norwegian and one-quarter dingbat, used to talk to vegetables. She could spend hours chatting with a pod of peas or an ear of corn. She did most of the talking while the vegetables listened politely without too much interruption.
One day she got some financial advice from a zucchini. Two hours later she went out and bought some brand new furniture. "It really didn't cost anything," she told me, "I put it on the credit card."
I chopped up the zucchini and put it in a salad.
One morning my ex-wife got into an argument with a kumquat. It had something to do with her new hair style -- the kumquat thought it made her look fat.
She tried to get a second opinion from a yam but it ignored her, so she decided to snarl at me instead. Apparently, yams don't like to be confrontational.
I never did communicate very well with the vegetables. They prefer to communicate with entities on their own intellectual level, such as fungi, mildew, politicians and dingbats.
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Quote for the Day – "Wise men talk because they have something to say – fools talk because they have to say something." Plato
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Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and a dill pickle that occasionally chats about the meaning of life. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
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Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
A Harmonious Whole
Those who are anointed as supreme leaders from birth are rarely tempted to be human beings.
North Korea plans to launch a rocket between April 4 and April 8, a few days from now, under the pretext that it's a test for a future satellite launch. It's designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.
Even though the planned launch would contravene U.N. Security Council Rules, North Korea has given international agencies notice that the rocket's planned trajectory will take it directly over Japan, dropping booster stages along the way.
Gee whiz, that's mighty neighborly of them to give advanced warning.
Japan occupied Korea during World War II. When the war ended in 1945, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel with the USSR controlling the north and the USA controlling the south. The Koreans were not consulted.
While the Korean people were happy to be liberated from the Japanese, they objected to foreign rule being imposed over the peninsula. To make matter worse, the Soviets and Americans were unable to agree on a joint trusteeship over Korea. Thus, in 1948, separate governments were established in the north and the south.
Tensions and border skirmishes eventually led to the Korean War in 1950 when the North Korean Army stormed across the 38th parallel in an attempt to reunify the country under their communistic political system.
In 1953, an armistice was signed by North Korea, China and the United Nations thereby ending the conflict. A demilitarized zone was established at the 38th parallel, separating North Korea and South Korea ever since.
North Korea was led by Kim Il-Sung from 1948 until his death in 1994. He had delegated domestic matters to his son, Kim Jong-Il.
In 1997, Kim Jong-Il was named General Secretary (leader) of the Korean Worker's Party.
According to the official North Korean news agency, "The Korean people regard it as their most worthwhile life to uphold Secretary Kim Jong-Il and live in perfect harmony with him. He is the great teacher who teaches them with the noblest political integrity and a tender-hearted benefactor who brings their life into full bloom. As they are in harmonious whole with him, they are enjoying a life based on true conscience and obligation."
Gee whiz, North Korea sounds like a wonderful place to live. It's too bad they had to kill an estimated two million civilians and imprison 200,000 "dissidents" in slave labor camps, where they are tortured, starved, raped and murdered, in order to create a perfectly splendid environment.
In a closed-society, adhering to universal truths and seeking individuality become acts of treason. Such is life in a harmonious whole.
Officially, North Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). However, it's anything but democratic. It's a totalitarian state, dominated by the Korean Worker's Party which embraces Marxism-Leninism. Elections are held every five years for members of the People's Assembly. To avoid confusion, in every district voters are offered only one candidate.
Kim Jong-Il has been the leader of the DPRK ever since his father died in 1994. He stands 5'2", four inches shorter than Napoleon, but wears platform shoes and whips his hair skyward to make himself appear taller.
While building the fifth-largest military in the world, he ravaged the economy with political mismanagement, creating famine, fuel shortages, lack of electricity, etc. To make up for it, mass "performances" involving throngs of people participating in parades or choreographed dance routines have been introduced to foster national unity.
To generate income, the DPRK encourages opium cultivation and invested $10 million in an intaglio printing press, the same type used by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which produces $15 million per year in counterfeit U.S. currency. The drugs and counterfeit currency are passed through foreign nations via diplomatic pouches.
As the leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-Il has amassed a personal fortune of $22 billion. Although his people are dying of starvation, he dines on fresh lobster shipped in from Japan and enjoys fine cognac. He also loves children's cartoons, especially Daffy Duck, and has one of the largest collections of pornography in the world.
While grooming one of his sons to take his place, he has seized and confined all triplets born in the DPRK in special state facilities to be closely monitored because he believes a triplet may someday topple his regime.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that Kim Jong-Il is an arrogant, creepy, delusional, paranoid, deranged lunatic.
On July 4 of 2006, the DPRK launched several test missiles and made verbal threats against the USA.
In August of 2006, the DPRK pronounced the armistice of 1953 "null and void" and declared war on the USA.
On October 9, 2006, the DPRK conducted a nuclear test in defiance of worldwide condemnation.
In early April of 2009, the DPRK will propel a missile over Japan and enjoy a gigantic choreographed dance to celebrate their supreme achievement.
Creating a harmonious whole on planet Earth is a daunting task these days.
The first step would be to strap Kim Jong-Il to the nosecone of one of his missiles and lob him into the deep end of the Pacific Ocean.
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Quote for the Day – "Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception." George Orwell
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Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and in a harmonious whole with his surroundings. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
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North Korea plans to launch a rocket between April 4 and April 8, a few days from now, under the pretext that it's a test for a future satellite launch. It's designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.
Even though the planned launch would contravene U.N. Security Council Rules, North Korea has given international agencies notice that the rocket's planned trajectory will take it directly over Japan, dropping booster stages along the way.
Gee whiz, that's mighty neighborly of them to give advanced warning.
Japan occupied Korea during World War II. When the war ended in 1945, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel with the USSR controlling the north and the USA controlling the south. The Koreans were not consulted.
While the Korean people were happy to be liberated from the Japanese, they objected to foreign rule being imposed over the peninsula. To make matter worse, the Soviets and Americans were unable to agree on a joint trusteeship over Korea. Thus, in 1948, separate governments were established in the north and the south.
Tensions and border skirmishes eventually led to the Korean War in 1950 when the North Korean Army stormed across the 38th parallel in an attempt to reunify the country under their communistic political system.
In 1953, an armistice was signed by North Korea, China and the United Nations thereby ending the conflict. A demilitarized zone was established at the 38th parallel, separating North Korea and South Korea ever since.
North Korea was led by Kim Il-Sung from 1948 until his death in 1994. He had delegated domestic matters to his son, Kim Jong-Il.
In 1997, Kim Jong-Il was named General Secretary (leader) of the Korean Worker's Party.
According to the official North Korean news agency, "The Korean people regard it as their most worthwhile life to uphold Secretary Kim Jong-Il and live in perfect harmony with him. He is the great teacher who teaches them with the noblest political integrity and a tender-hearted benefactor who brings their life into full bloom. As they are in harmonious whole with him, they are enjoying a life based on true conscience and obligation."
Gee whiz, North Korea sounds like a wonderful place to live. It's too bad they had to kill an estimated two million civilians and imprison 200,000 "dissidents" in slave labor camps, where they are tortured, starved, raped and murdered, in order to create a perfectly splendid environment.
In a closed-society, adhering to universal truths and seeking individuality become acts of treason. Such is life in a harmonious whole.
Officially, North Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). However, it's anything but democratic. It's a totalitarian state, dominated by the Korean Worker's Party which embraces Marxism-Leninism. Elections are held every five years for members of the People's Assembly. To avoid confusion, in every district voters are offered only one candidate.
Kim Jong-Il has been the leader of the DPRK ever since his father died in 1994. He stands 5'2", four inches shorter than Napoleon, but wears platform shoes and whips his hair skyward to make himself appear taller.
While building the fifth-largest military in the world, he ravaged the economy with political mismanagement, creating famine, fuel shortages, lack of electricity, etc. To make up for it, mass "performances" involving throngs of people participating in parades or choreographed dance routines have been introduced to foster national unity.
To generate income, the DPRK encourages opium cultivation and invested $10 million in an intaglio printing press, the same type used by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which produces $15 million per year in counterfeit U.S. currency. The drugs and counterfeit currency are passed through foreign nations via diplomatic pouches.
As the leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-Il has amassed a personal fortune of $22 billion. Although his people are dying of starvation, he dines on fresh lobster shipped in from Japan and enjoys fine cognac. He also loves children's cartoons, especially Daffy Duck, and has one of the largest collections of pornography in the world.
While grooming one of his sons to take his place, he has seized and confined all triplets born in the DPRK in special state facilities to be closely monitored because he believes a triplet may someday topple his regime.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that Kim Jong-Il is an arrogant, creepy, delusional, paranoid, deranged lunatic.
On July 4 of 2006, the DPRK launched several test missiles and made verbal threats against the USA.
In August of 2006, the DPRK pronounced the armistice of 1953 "null and void" and declared war on the USA.
On October 9, 2006, the DPRK conducted a nuclear test in defiance of worldwide condemnation.
In early April of 2009, the DPRK will propel a missile over Japan and enjoy a gigantic choreographed dance to celebrate their supreme achievement.
Creating a harmonious whole on planet Earth is a daunting task these days.
The first step would be to strap Kim Jong-Il to the nosecone of one of his missiles and lob him into the deep end of the Pacific Ocean.
___________
Quote for the Day – "Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception." George Orwell
___________
Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and in a harmonious whole with his surroundings. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Dare to Fail
Teddy Roosevelt, President of the United States (1901-1909), made a speech in 1910 that included the following words: "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Born in 1905, during Roosevelt's presidency, Norman Vaughan lived a life of adventure few could match.
Vaughan, at age 22, joined Admiral Richard Byrd's 1928 expedition to the South Pole. Vaughan was a skilled dog handler and musher whose main responsibility was to move 650 tons of supplies by dog sled to a base camp. Admiral Byrd appreciated Vaughan's effort so much he named a mountain after him.
At age 27, Vaughan participated in dog sled sprint races in the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY.
During World War II, Vaughan trained men and dogs for rescues. He had 425 dogs under his command.
He and his crew rescued, by dog team, 26 airmen of a lost squadron off the Greenland ice sheet. He returned to the crash sight solo by dog sled, within sight of the enemy, to salvage a top-secret bombsight.
At the Battle of the Bulge, he organized and led 17 drivers with 209 dogs in an evacuation of wounded soldiers.
During the Korean War, Vaughan served in the Psychological Warfare Department with the Pentagon.
Later, he served as Chief of Search and Rescue of the North Atlantic Division of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations.
In 1967, at age 62, Vaughan drove a snowmobile from Alaska to Boston, a 5000-mile journey.
The following year he became the first non-Alaskan to compete in the North American Sled Dog Championship in Alaska.
At age 65, Vaughan returned to Antarctica to climb his mountain, Mount Vaughan. The National Geographic Society filmed the first attempt. It took three attempts before Vaughan reached the 10,320-foot peak.
At age 68, Vaughan lost his business and dissolved his marriage. Penniless, he moved to Alaska where he shoveled sidewalks for food and eventually became a janitor. Over time, he began to assemble a dog team.
At age 72, he participated in his first Iditarod, an annual 1,150-mile dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome.
In 1990, at age 84, he completed the last of his 13 appearances in the Iditarod race.
During the 1990s, Vaughan returned to Greenland over an 11-year span to help salvage a P-38, one of the airplanes that had been downed during his World War II escapades in Greenland 50 years earlier.
In 1997, at age 92, Vaughan organized the Serum Run, an 868-mile dog sled race from Nenana to Nome, commemorating the 1925 event where dog teams were called upon to deliver diphtheria serum to save Nome.
Vaughan wanted to celebrate his 100th birthday, on December 19, 2005, on the summit of Mount Vaughan but was confined to a hospital bed in Anchorage while recovering from triple bypass surgery. A lifelong teetotaler, he told visitors "I told my mother I wouldn't drink until I was 100" as he had his first sip of champagne. He was already planning his next adventure, an expedition to the North Pole.
Four days later, on December 23, he died.
Norman Vaughan's motto was "The only death you die is the death you die every day by not living. Dream big and dare to fail."
Mission accomplished. His next adventure will be somewhere off in the Great Beyond.
The only person who never fails is the person who never tries.
Dare to fail – it's good for the soul.
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Quote for the Day – "Eighty percent of success is showing up." Woody Allen
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Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and a long list of failure. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
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Born in 1905, during Roosevelt's presidency, Norman Vaughan lived a life of adventure few could match.
Vaughan, at age 22, joined Admiral Richard Byrd's 1928 expedition to the South Pole. Vaughan was a skilled dog handler and musher whose main responsibility was to move 650 tons of supplies by dog sled to a base camp. Admiral Byrd appreciated Vaughan's effort so much he named a mountain after him.
At age 27, Vaughan participated in dog sled sprint races in the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY.
During World War II, Vaughan trained men and dogs for rescues. He had 425 dogs under his command.
He and his crew rescued, by dog team, 26 airmen of a lost squadron off the Greenland ice sheet. He returned to the crash sight solo by dog sled, within sight of the enemy, to salvage a top-secret bombsight.
At the Battle of the Bulge, he organized and led 17 drivers with 209 dogs in an evacuation of wounded soldiers.
During the Korean War, Vaughan served in the Psychological Warfare Department with the Pentagon.
Later, he served as Chief of Search and Rescue of the North Atlantic Division of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations.
In 1967, at age 62, Vaughan drove a snowmobile from Alaska to Boston, a 5000-mile journey.
The following year he became the first non-Alaskan to compete in the North American Sled Dog Championship in Alaska.
At age 65, Vaughan returned to Antarctica to climb his mountain, Mount Vaughan. The National Geographic Society filmed the first attempt. It took three attempts before Vaughan reached the 10,320-foot peak.
At age 68, Vaughan lost his business and dissolved his marriage. Penniless, he moved to Alaska where he shoveled sidewalks for food and eventually became a janitor. Over time, he began to assemble a dog team.
At age 72, he participated in his first Iditarod, an annual 1,150-mile dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome.
In 1990, at age 84, he completed the last of his 13 appearances in the Iditarod race.
During the 1990s, Vaughan returned to Greenland over an 11-year span to help salvage a P-38, one of the airplanes that had been downed during his World War II escapades in Greenland 50 years earlier.
In 1997, at age 92, Vaughan organized the Serum Run, an 868-mile dog sled race from Nenana to Nome, commemorating the 1925 event where dog teams were called upon to deliver diphtheria serum to save Nome.
Vaughan wanted to celebrate his 100th birthday, on December 19, 2005, on the summit of Mount Vaughan but was confined to a hospital bed in Anchorage while recovering from triple bypass surgery. A lifelong teetotaler, he told visitors "I told my mother I wouldn't drink until I was 100" as he had his first sip of champagne. He was already planning his next adventure, an expedition to the North Pole.
Four days later, on December 23, he died.
Norman Vaughan's motto was "The only death you die is the death you die every day by not living. Dream big and dare to fail."
Mission accomplished. His next adventure will be somewhere off in the Great Beyond.
The only person who never fails is the person who never tries.
Dare to fail – it's good for the soul.
___________
Quote for the Day – "Eighty percent of success is showing up." Woody Allen
___________
Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and a long list of failure. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
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Saturday, March 21, 2009
Leonard Peltier
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is located in the southwest corner area of South Dakota near the Black Hills and is home to 15,000 Oglala Sioux.
In the early 1970s, the Pine Ridge Reservation broke out into a War. Local tribal leaders were ruthless in dealing with their people. Indian activists from around the country, such as members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), entered the fray.
In February of 1973, AIM warriors seized the village of Wounded Knee, resulting in a 73-day siege by federal and state authorities.
Leonard Peltier, a Chippewa Sioux from North Dakota, joined the action in Pine Ridge. He owned a red-and-white Chevrolet van and was accompanied by Bob Robideau and Dino Butler. They set up camp in a gully on the Jumping Bull Ranch on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
On June 26, 1975, two FBI Agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were searching for a man on the Pine Ridge Reservation named Jimmy Eagle who had been involved in a fight with a friend and stole a pair of cowboy boots.
Driving in separate unmarked cars, Coler and Williams spotted a red pickup truck that matched one of Jimmy Eagle's vehicles and followed it to the Jumping Bull Ranch.
Soon, the two agents were under gunfire from the occupants of the vehicle.
Other law enforcers arrived, but they spent much of the afternoon pinned down on Route 18, waiting for other law enforcers to launch a flanking attack.
At 12:15 PM, one (or more) of the gunmen approached the vehicles and executed Coler and Williams.
At 2:30 PM, a BIA rifleman shot and killed one of the perpetrators, Joe Stuntz.
At 4:30 PM, the bodies of Coler and Williams were recovered near their vehicles. They had been shot at close range execution style. A total of 125 bullet holes were found in their vehicles.
At 6:00 PM, law enforcers stormed the Jumping Bull compound. They discovered Stuntz's corpse in Coler's FBI field jacket.
The others involved had slipped away into the hills, launching a nationwide manhunt that lasted eight months.
On September 5, 1975, Dino Butler was arrested in a raid on an AIM encampment in South Dakota's Rosebud Reservation. Agent Williams' handgun was found in a vehicle near a residence where Butler was arrested.
On September 10, 1975, a station wagon exploded on the Kansas Turnpike near Wichita, Kansas. It was carrying explosives that ignited accidentally. A burned-up AR-15 was recovered at the scene. Among those in the vehicle at the time was Bob Robideau, Peliter' cousin.
In November of 1975, an Oregon State Trooper stopped an RV based on FBI descriptions. After a brief exchange of gunfire, Peltier escaped on foot. Among other weapons in the vehicle, Agent Coler's handgun was found in a paper bag containing Peltier's fingerprint.
On December 22, 1975, Leonard Peltier was named to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
On February 6, 1976, Peltier was apprehended by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near Alberta, Canada.
Dino Butler and Bob Robideau, members of AIM, stood trial on federal charges in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Peltier, who had also been present at the Jumping Bull Ranch at the time of the incident, had fought extradition from Canada and arrived too late to be included as a defendant in the proceeding. He would be tried separately on a later date.
Butler and Robideau were found not guilty by a federal jury on the grounds of self-defense.
Peltier stood trial in federal court in Fargo, North Dakota, where he was convicted of murdering Coler and Williams. In April of 1977, Peltier was sentenced to two life sentences, to be served consecutively.
In July of 1993, after a series of appeals, Peltier's conviction was upheld by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
A woman named Myrtle Poor Bear, used in the affidavit to win Peltier's extradition from Canada, enhanced her "firsthand" knowledge of the incident with each telling and was eventually deemed to be utterly incompetent to appear in court.
An FBI Agent testified that Coler and Williams had followed a pickup truck onto the scene of the incident. He later changed his account of events to describe a red-and-white van (Peltier's vehicle). According to the FBI, these radio conversations between FBI Agents were not recorded at the time. According to Peltier's attorney, the FBI did indeed record the radio conversations but deliberately suppressed this evidence.
An FBI teletype stated that the firing pin on Peltier's weapon did not match the shell casings at the scene, thus proving Peltier's AR-15 rifle was not the murder weapon. However, the marks made by the rifle's extractor matched the recovered weapon. The FBI theorized that the firing pin must have been replaced after the killings.
There were contradictory field reports by the authorities suggesting the FBI had gone out of their way to link Peltier to the murders.
Three witnesses testified they saw Peltier approach the victim's vehicles. They later recanted their testimony, claiming that the FBI threatened and forced them to testify.
In 1990, Peter Matthiessen, author of IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE, interviewed a man who claimed to have been the actual killer of the two FBI Agents. A videotape of that unidentified (disguised) man was aired on the TV show 60 MINUTES in 1991.
The unidentified man stated that it was his pickup truck that Coler and Williams followed onto the Jumping Bull Ranch that day, as he and another AIM member attempted to deliver a load of goods to Peltier and Butler. When one of the agents opened fire, he and his passenger fired back. Soon, Peltier and others scrambled up from the gully where they had been camping and began firing at the agents.
At about 2:15 PM, the unidentified man attempted to flee, returning to the area where Coler and Williams were pinned down. Hopping out of the truck, he approached the wounded men, hoping to persuade them to surrender. One of the agents fired a shot from a pistol. "At that point I did not give him a chance to fire again," said the unidentified man who then executed both agents.
The unidentified man hopped back into his pickup truck, with his passenger, and sped away from the ranch. "I did not choose to take their lives. I only chose to save my own," he explained.
Leonard Peltier is not a hero. He had a history of petty crimes and was an active militant within the American Indian Movement. The basic question is whether or not the FBI framed Peltier for killings he may not have committed.
The FBI had extradited Peltier from Canada using affidavits they knew to be fraudulent. Much of the evidence they presented has been shown to be misrepresented or fabricated, and witnesses (who later recanted their testimony) were intimidated.
For 8 years, the FBI blocked the publication of IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE, by Peter Matthiessen.
In 1985, the Justice Department acknowledged they did not know who killed the Agents.
In 2000, near the end of Bill Clinton's presidency, rumors circulated that Clinton was considering giving Peltier clemency. This led to a demonstration outside the White House by 500 FBI agents and their families who wanted their pound of flesh for the murders of one of their own. Clemency was not granted.
Amnesty International has declared Peltier to be a political prisoner.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has joined Peltier's defense team.
Peltier has received support from the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, the European Parliament, the Italian Parliament, the Belgian Parliament, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mendela and many others.
As part of the settlement of a lawsuit in 2003, Paul DeMain, publisher of NEWS FROM INDIAN COUNTRY, issued a statement where he wrote, "I do not believe that Leonard Peltier received a fair trial in connection with the murders of which he was convicted. Certainly he was entitled to one."
It all started with a pair of stolen cowboy boots, which led to the death of two FBI Agents, which led to the death of Joe Stuntz, which led to Leonard Peltier being confined to a cage for the remainder of his life, followed by the remainder of another life.
But it really began when a small group of Anglo Europeans landed somewhere on the east coast and declared it to be a discovery. Through Manifest Destiny, the notion that the Anglo Europeans were entitled to hold dominion over the new land, the native residents were conquered and isolated and eventually presided over by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose purpose was to sequester the ignorant natives in undesirable locations and train them to adapt to Anglo customs.
The American Indian Movement did not start in a vacuum. It was a manifestation of decades of dominance of a race of people who desired to live a certain way of life by another race of people who wanted everyone to live by their way of life. It's a flaw in human behavior that has been continually repeated since the Dawn of Man.
The caretakers of Mother Earth were the residue of Manifest Destiny, an inconvenience to progress. They are the Trails of Tears, Ghost Ridge, Baker's Massacre, Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, Chief Joseph, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Black Elk, Red Cloud, Cochise, Big Bear, Jim Thorpe, Ira Hayes and Leonard Peltier.
Every American contains a drop of Indian blood. What was done to them is slowly being done to us.
Leonard Peltier was a Chippewa Sioux in the Sovereign Nation of Lakota Sioux. He was engaged in a gun battle with enemy combatants from another nation, known as the USA, created by Anglo Europeans whose ancestors arrived by boat, conquered the land and subjugated the indigenous people into squalor.
The Trail of Tears continues to haunt this land today.
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Quote for the Day – "We will forever be known by the footprints we leave behind." Lakota
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Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and the Spirit of Crazy Horse. www.myspace.com/bret1111
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In the early 1970s, the Pine Ridge Reservation broke out into a War. Local tribal leaders were ruthless in dealing with their people. Indian activists from around the country, such as members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), entered the fray.
In February of 1973, AIM warriors seized the village of Wounded Knee, resulting in a 73-day siege by federal and state authorities.
Leonard Peltier, a Chippewa Sioux from North Dakota, joined the action in Pine Ridge. He owned a red-and-white Chevrolet van and was accompanied by Bob Robideau and Dino Butler. They set up camp in a gully on the Jumping Bull Ranch on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
On June 26, 1975, two FBI Agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were searching for a man on the Pine Ridge Reservation named Jimmy Eagle who had been involved in a fight with a friend and stole a pair of cowboy boots.
Driving in separate unmarked cars, Coler and Williams spotted a red pickup truck that matched one of Jimmy Eagle's vehicles and followed it to the Jumping Bull Ranch.
Soon, the two agents were under gunfire from the occupants of the vehicle.
Other law enforcers arrived, but they spent much of the afternoon pinned down on Route 18, waiting for other law enforcers to launch a flanking attack.
At 12:15 PM, one (or more) of the gunmen approached the vehicles and executed Coler and Williams.
At 2:30 PM, a BIA rifleman shot and killed one of the perpetrators, Joe Stuntz.
At 4:30 PM, the bodies of Coler and Williams were recovered near their vehicles. They had been shot at close range execution style. A total of 125 bullet holes were found in their vehicles.
At 6:00 PM, law enforcers stormed the Jumping Bull compound. They discovered Stuntz's corpse in Coler's FBI field jacket.
The others involved had slipped away into the hills, launching a nationwide manhunt that lasted eight months.
On September 5, 1975, Dino Butler was arrested in a raid on an AIM encampment in South Dakota's Rosebud Reservation. Agent Williams' handgun was found in a vehicle near a residence where Butler was arrested.
On September 10, 1975, a station wagon exploded on the Kansas Turnpike near Wichita, Kansas. It was carrying explosives that ignited accidentally. A burned-up AR-15 was recovered at the scene. Among those in the vehicle at the time was Bob Robideau, Peliter' cousin.
In November of 1975, an Oregon State Trooper stopped an RV based on FBI descriptions. After a brief exchange of gunfire, Peltier escaped on foot. Among other weapons in the vehicle, Agent Coler's handgun was found in a paper bag containing Peltier's fingerprint.
On December 22, 1975, Leonard Peltier was named to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
On February 6, 1976, Peltier was apprehended by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near Alberta, Canada.
Dino Butler and Bob Robideau, members of AIM, stood trial on federal charges in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Peltier, who had also been present at the Jumping Bull Ranch at the time of the incident, had fought extradition from Canada and arrived too late to be included as a defendant in the proceeding. He would be tried separately on a later date.
Butler and Robideau were found not guilty by a federal jury on the grounds of self-defense.
Peltier stood trial in federal court in Fargo, North Dakota, where he was convicted of murdering Coler and Williams. In April of 1977, Peltier was sentenced to two life sentences, to be served consecutively.
In July of 1993, after a series of appeals, Peltier's conviction was upheld by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
A woman named Myrtle Poor Bear, used in the affidavit to win Peltier's extradition from Canada, enhanced her "firsthand" knowledge of the incident with each telling and was eventually deemed to be utterly incompetent to appear in court.
An FBI Agent testified that Coler and Williams had followed a pickup truck onto the scene of the incident. He later changed his account of events to describe a red-and-white van (Peltier's vehicle). According to the FBI, these radio conversations between FBI Agents were not recorded at the time. According to Peltier's attorney, the FBI did indeed record the radio conversations but deliberately suppressed this evidence.
An FBI teletype stated that the firing pin on Peltier's weapon did not match the shell casings at the scene, thus proving Peltier's AR-15 rifle was not the murder weapon. However, the marks made by the rifle's extractor matched the recovered weapon. The FBI theorized that the firing pin must have been replaced after the killings.
There were contradictory field reports by the authorities suggesting the FBI had gone out of their way to link Peltier to the murders.
Three witnesses testified they saw Peltier approach the victim's vehicles. They later recanted their testimony, claiming that the FBI threatened and forced them to testify.
In 1990, Peter Matthiessen, author of IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE, interviewed a man who claimed to have been the actual killer of the two FBI Agents. A videotape of that unidentified (disguised) man was aired on the TV show 60 MINUTES in 1991.
The unidentified man stated that it was his pickup truck that Coler and Williams followed onto the Jumping Bull Ranch that day, as he and another AIM member attempted to deliver a load of goods to Peltier and Butler. When one of the agents opened fire, he and his passenger fired back. Soon, Peltier and others scrambled up from the gully where they had been camping and began firing at the agents.
At about 2:15 PM, the unidentified man attempted to flee, returning to the area where Coler and Williams were pinned down. Hopping out of the truck, he approached the wounded men, hoping to persuade them to surrender. One of the agents fired a shot from a pistol. "At that point I did not give him a chance to fire again," said the unidentified man who then executed both agents.
The unidentified man hopped back into his pickup truck, with his passenger, and sped away from the ranch. "I did not choose to take their lives. I only chose to save my own," he explained.
Leonard Peltier is not a hero. He had a history of petty crimes and was an active militant within the American Indian Movement. The basic question is whether or not the FBI framed Peltier for killings he may not have committed.
The FBI had extradited Peltier from Canada using affidavits they knew to be fraudulent. Much of the evidence they presented has been shown to be misrepresented or fabricated, and witnesses (who later recanted their testimony) were intimidated.
For 8 years, the FBI blocked the publication of IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE, by Peter Matthiessen.
In 1985, the Justice Department acknowledged they did not know who killed the Agents.
In 2000, near the end of Bill Clinton's presidency, rumors circulated that Clinton was considering giving Peltier clemency. This led to a demonstration outside the White House by 500 FBI agents and their families who wanted their pound of flesh for the murders of one of their own. Clemency was not granted.
Amnesty International has declared Peltier to be a political prisoner.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has joined Peltier's defense team.
Peltier has received support from the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, the European Parliament, the Italian Parliament, the Belgian Parliament, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mendela and many others.
As part of the settlement of a lawsuit in 2003, Paul DeMain, publisher of NEWS FROM INDIAN COUNTRY, issued a statement where he wrote, "I do not believe that Leonard Peltier received a fair trial in connection with the murders of which he was convicted. Certainly he was entitled to one."
It all started with a pair of stolen cowboy boots, which led to the death of two FBI Agents, which led to the death of Joe Stuntz, which led to Leonard Peltier being confined to a cage for the remainder of his life, followed by the remainder of another life.
But it really began when a small group of Anglo Europeans landed somewhere on the east coast and declared it to be a discovery. Through Manifest Destiny, the notion that the Anglo Europeans were entitled to hold dominion over the new land, the native residents were conquered and isolated and eventually presided over by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose purpose was to sequester the ignorant natives in undesirable locations and train them to adapt to Anglo customs.
The American Indian Movement did not start in a vacuum. It was a manifestation of decades of dominance of a race of people who desired to live a certain way of life by another race of people who wanted everyone to live by their way of life. It's a flaw in human behavior that has been continually repeated since the Dawn of Man.
The caretakers of Mother Earth were the residue of Manifest Destiny, an inconvenience to progress. They are the Trails of Tears, Ghost Ridge, Baker's Massacre, Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, Chief Joseph, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Black Elk, Red Cloud, Cochise, Big Bear, Jim Thorpe, Ira Hayes and Leonard Peltier.
Every American contains a drop of Indian blood. What was done to them is slowly being done to us.
Leonard Peltier was a Chippewa Sioux in the Sovereign Nation of Lakota Sioux. He was engaged in a gun battle with enemy combatants from another nation, known as the USA, created by Anglo Europeans whose ancestors arrived by boat, conquered the land and subjugated the indigenous people into squalor.
The Trail of Tears continues to haunt this land today.
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Quote for the Day – "We will forever be known by the footprints we leave behind." Lakota
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Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and the Spirit of Crazy Horse. www.myspace.com/bret1111
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Knights of the Golden Circle
Bob Brewer was born and raised in western Arkansas. As a youngster, his great-uncle introduced him to a mystery that included wilderness paths, hidden symbols, carvings on trees and rocks, and the topography of certain areas. The old man was the keeper of some sort of secret knowledge that he kept to himself.
Brewer went off to a career in the Navy and retired in 1977. He returned to Arkansas and began to explore the mystery of his childhood. Over the next 25 years, he interviewed old-timers, researched documents, studied old maps, made alliances and went on expeditions. He became convinced he was on the trail of lost treasure.
Warren Getler, a former Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, has teamed with Brewer to create the book titled SHADOW OF THE SENTINEL which reveals the mystery of the Knights of the Golden Circle and their involvement in a vast Civil War era conspiracy.
The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society formed in 1854 by sympathizers of Southern causes, dedicated to supporting pro-slavery policies and promoting the conquest of Mexico. It was created directly out of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and linked to the highest circles of American Freemasons.
During the Civil War, KGC operatives amassed huge quantities of gold and silver through clandestine raids. The caches were hidden in various secret locations, particularly in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, marked by a trail of complicated KGC ciphers. The accumulation of riches continued after the end of the Civil War in anticipation of a second war. Operations ceased in 1922 and the caches were sealed for good.
Getler and Brewer claim that the infamous outlaw Jesse James, a member of the KGC who turned over much of his ill-gotten gain to the cause, wasn’t actually killed in 1882 by Bob Ford as reported. A fellow named Charlie Bigelow who resembled Jesse James had been robbing banks using Jesse’s name. Supposedly, Jesse killed him and hired a prostitute to pose as Mrs. Jesse James to officially identify the body. Others who identified the body were all relatives or members of Quantrill’s Raiders, Jesse’s former comrades.
The real Jesse James then changed his name to J. Frank Dalton (his mother’s maiden name was Dalton) and continued his nefarious life as Chief of the Inner Sanctum of the Knights of the Golden Circle.
According to the book titled JESSE JAMES WAS ONE OF HIS NAMES by Jesse James III (the grandson) and Del Schroeder, Jesse James was indeed a prominent member of the KGC and hid large quantities of stolen riches in various locations on behalf of the secret society. In addition, John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Lincoln, was also a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle and didn’t die as history tells us either.
Booth was smuggled by the Confederate underground to Texas where he became a bartender by the name of John St. Helen. In the 1870s, he began telling folks about his past. When members of the KGC found out, they decided to silence him. Booth fled to Enid, Oklahoma, under the name of David George but was eventually tracked down by Jesse James and William Lincoln (a distant cousin of Abraham Lincoln who had spent 14 years searching for the real Booth). James and Lincoln then tricked Booth to drink a glass of arsenic-laced lemonade. James subsequently arranged to have Booth’s mummified body exhibited on a national carnival tour.
In her book titled THIS ONE MAD ACT, John Wilkes Booth’s granddaughter, Iola Forrester Booth, reveals that her grandfather had belonged to the Knights of the Golden Circle and had not been killed in Baltimore as reported in history, but rather had escaped capture through the aid of fraternal brothers.
The Supreme Headquarters for the Knights of the Golden Circle was 814 Fatherland Drive in Nashville, Tennessee. This was the home of Dr. Sylvester Frank James, older brother of Jesse James and high-ranking member of the KGC. Years later it became the Dixie Tabernacle, the original home of the Grand Olde Opry.
As conspiracies go, it’s a whopper. But then again, it’s so bizarre it’s probably true.
I originally wrote this piece as a newspaper column in February of 2004. Not long after publication, a man from Tennessee and a woman from Mississippi, neither of whom knew each other, each sent me detailed messages confirming the authenticity of this story, claiming it had been passed down within their respective families.
___________
Quote for the Day – "A warrior lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting." Carlos Castaneda (shaman)
___________
Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and a multitude of wilderness paths. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
___________
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Brewer went off to a career in the Navy and retired in 1977. He returned to Arkansas and began to explore the mystery of his childhood. Over the next 25 years, he interviewed old-timers, researched documents, studied old maps, made alliances and went on expeditions. He became convinced he was on the trail of lost treasure.
Warren Getler, a former Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, has teamed with Brewer to create the book titled SHADOW OF THE SENTINEL which reveals the mystery of the Knights of the Golden Circle and their involvement in a vast Civil War era conspiracy.
The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society formed in 1854 by sympathizers of Southern causes, dedicated to supporting pro-slavery policies and promoting the conquest of Mexico. It was created directly out of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and linked to the highest circles of American Freemasons.
During the Civil War, KGC operatives amassed huge quantities of gold and silver through clandestine raids. The caches were hidden in various secret locations, particularly in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, marked by a trail of complicated KGC ciphers. The accumulation of riches continued after the end of the Civil War in anticipation of a second war. Operations ceased in 1922 and the caches were sealed for good.
Getler and Brewer claim that the infamous outlaw Jesse James, a member of the KGC who turned over much of his ill-gotten gain to the cause, wasn’t actually killed in 1882 by Bob Ford as reported. A fellow named Charlie Bigelow who resembled Jesse James had been robbing banks using Jesse’s name. Supposedly, Jesse killed him and hired a prostitute to pose as Mrs. Jesse James to officially identify the body. Others who identified the body were all relatives or members of Quantrill’s Raiders, Jesse’s former comrades.
The real Jesse James then changed his name to J. Frank Dalton (his mother’s maiden name was Dalton) and continued his nefarious life as Chief of the Inner Sanctum of the Knights of the Golden Circle.
According to the book titled JESSE JAMES WAS ONE OF HIS NAMES by Jesse James III (the grandson) and Del Schroeder, Jesse James was indeed a prominent member of the KGC and hid large quantities of stolen riches in various locations on behalf of the secret society. In addition, John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Lincoln, was also a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle and didn’t die as history tells us either.
Booth was smuggled by the Confederate underground to Texas where he became a bartender by the name of John St. Helen. In the 1870s, he began telling folks about his past. When members of the KGC found out, they decided to silence him. Booth fled to Enid, Oklahoma, under the name of David George but was eventually tracked down by Jesse James and William Lincoln (a distant cousin of Abraham Lincoln who had spent 14 years searching for the real Booth). James and Lincoln then tricked Booth to drink a glass of arsenic-laced lemonade. James subsequently arranged to have Booth’s mummified body exhibited on a national carnival tour.
In her book titled THIS ONE MAD ACT, John Wilkes Booth’s granddaughter, Iola Forrester Booth, reveals that her grandfather had belonged to the Knights of the Golden Circle and had not been killed in Baltimore as reported in history, but rather had escaped capture through the aid of fraternal brothers.
The Supreme Headquarters for the Knights of the Golden Circle was 814 Fatherland Drive in Nashville, Tennessee. This was the home of Dr. Sylvester Frank James, older brother of Jesse James and high-ranking member of the KGC. Years later it became the Dixie Tabernacle, the original home of the Grand Olde Opry.
As conspiracies go, it’s a whopper. But then again, it’s so bizarre it’s probably true.
I originally wrote this piece as a newspaper column in February of 2004. Not long after publication, a man from Tennessee and a woman from Mississippi, neither of whom knew each other, each sent me detailed messages confirming the authenticity of this story, claiming it had been passed down within their respective families.
___________
Quote for the Day – "A warrior lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting." Carlos Castaneda (shaman)
___________
Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and a multitude of wilderness paths. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
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Saturday, March 14, 2009
Happy Water
Japanese researcher, Dr. Masaru Emoto, has done extensive experiments with water and concluded that it has a consciousness.
According to Dr. Emoto, water has the capacity to perceive and remember. It also has the capacity to communicate with its environment just like any other living organism.
Water is a basic component of all living things on the planet. Two-thirds of the surface of earth is covered by water and the human body is made up of over 70 percent water. It's the essence of our being.
In 1994, Dr. Emoto began research to measure the properties of water by using Magnetic Resonance Analysis (MRA), a technology used in alternative medicine to measure the ability of the human body to resonate (vibrate) at certain frequencies thereby becoming a natural healing agent.
He collected water samples from many parts of Japan, as well as from other places in the world. Each sample of water was placed in 100 Petri dishes and frozen. Utilizing a photographic microscope (magnifications of 200 to 500 times), photographs were taken a split moment before the frozen ice flakes began to liquefy.
After more than four years of observations and 10,000 photographs, Dr. Emoto has concluded that "healthy water will show a complete hexagonal crystal structure while the chipping away and/or collapsing of crystal structures are not good signs." He added that each water crystal seemed to be "trying to purify itself."
Not surprising to most country bumpkins, some of the water samples from urban areas show deformed crystal structures, whereas water from remote rural areas generally appears to have fine crystal structures.
In another experiment, Dr. Emoto placed distilled water between two speakers and played different sounds. Bach and Mozart created good crystal structures while heavy metal music had the opposite effect. The prayer chanting of monks resulted in superior crystal structures. Dr. Emoto opined, "Musical vibrations contain positive and negative energies, depending on the information inscribed into them. Water reflects what it perceives."
Dr. Emoto is convinced that water is influenced by its surroundings. For example, he placed a glass of water in front of a running computer for four hours and no crystals were produced. When he placed water near a television playing a movie with a positive storyline, good crystals were formed. "Positive information results in beautiful hexagonal crystals, while negative information shows otherwise," Dr. Emoto observed.
Photographs of the water crystals and additional information can be found on www.hado.net.
If Dr. Emoto's findings are correct, positive thoughts can affect the quality of water in our own bodies, whereas stress (a cause of many illnesses) may be the result of the negativity (bad energy) we propagate in our body's water.
A positive attitude leads to good bodily vibrations.
A negative attitude wears you down.
In many places around the world water has become highly polluted. Dr. Emoto hopes to create an awareness of this problem and believes we can improve the quality of water simply by becoming more grateful of it.
This may sound like New Age nonsense but there was a time when it was believed that the world was flat. Then an astronomer named Galileo discovered that the world was round and revolved around the sun. In 1633, he was brought before the Catholic Inquisition, tortured, forced to renounce his heretical views, and imprisoned.
The proliferation of knowledge is a slow process on a planet where greed is good, more is always better and wars are memorialized. But in reality everything in the universe and beyond is a single entity -- it's all connected.
I decided to test some of Dr. Emoto's theories on my own water. I hired a group of chanting monks and had them perform some heavy metal music. As expected, my water crystals became very schizophrenic – they were both delighted (by the chanting monks) and irritated (by the heavy metal music) at the same time.
Then again, I'm often delighted and irritated at the same time too. But I don't think I'm schizophrenic though, and neither does the other guy who lives inside my body. I deal with the outside world while he hides in the lower left quadrant of my cerebral cortex, snickering at me. Although he usually keeps a low profile, he tends to howl during full moons and Madame Blavatsky's birthday.
Perhaps this could explain why I live alone in the middle of nowhere and talk mostly to trees.
___________
Quote for the Day – "It is wise to bring some water when one goes out to look for water." Arab Proverb
___________
Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and a year-round spring of fresh pure water. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
___________
-
-
According to Dr. Emoto, water has the capacity to perceive and remember. It also has the capacity to communicate with its environment just like any other living organism.
Water is a basic component of all living things on the planet. Two-thirds of the surface of earth is covered by water and the human body is made up of over 70 percent water. It's the essence of our being.
In 1994, Dr. Emoto began research to measure the properties of water by using Magnetic Resonance Analysis (MRA), a technology used in alternative medicine to measure the ability of the human body to resonate (vibrate) at certain frequencies thereby becoming a natural healing agent.
He collected water samples from many parts of Japan, as well as from other places in the world. Each sample of water was placed in 100 Petri dishes and frozen. Utilizing a photographic microscope (magnifications of 200 to 500 times), photographs were taken a split moment before the frozen ice flakes began to liquefy.
After more than four years of observations and 10,000 photographs, Dr. Emoto has concluded that "healthy water will show a complete hexagonal crystal structure while the chipping away and/or collapsing of crystal structures are not good signs." He added that each water crystal seemed to be "trying to purify itself."
Not surprising to most country bumpkins, some of the water samples from urban areas show deformed crystal structures, whereas water from remote rural areas generally appears to have fine crystal structures.
In another experiment, Dr. Emoto placed distilled water between two speakers and played different sounds. Bach and Mozart created good crystal structures while heavy metal music had the opposite effect. The prayer chanting of monks resulted in superior crystal structures. Dr. Emoto opined, "Musical vibrations contain positive and negative energies, depending on the information inscribed into them. Water reflects what it perceives."
Dr. Emoto is convinced that water is influenced by its surroundings. For example, he placed a glass of water in front of a running computer for four hours and no crystals were produced. When he placed water near a television playing a movie with a positive storyline, good crystals were formed. "Positive information results in beautiful hexagonal crystals, while negative information shows otherwise," Dr. Emoto observed.
Photographs of the water crystals and additional information can be found on www.hado.net.
If Dr. Emoto's findings are correct, positive thoughts can affect the quality of water in our own bodies, whereas stress (a cause of many illnesses) may be the result of the negativity (bad energy) we propagate in our body's water.
A positive attitude leads to good bodily vibrations.
A negative attitude wears you down.
In many places around the world water has become highly polluted. Dr. Emoto hopes to create an awareness of this problem and believes we can improve the quality of water simply by becoming more grateful of it.
This may sound like New Age nonsense but there was a time when it was believed that the world was flat. Then an astronomer named Galileo discovered that the world was round and revolved around the sun. In 1633, he was brought before the Catholic Inquisition, tortured, forced to renounce his heretical views, and imprisoned.
The proliferation of knowledge is a slow process on a planet where greed is good, more is always better and wars are memorialized. But in reality everything in the universe and beyond is a single entity -- it's all connected.
I decided to test some of Dr. Emoto's theories on my own water. I hired a group of chanting monks and had them perform some heavy metal music. As expected, my water crystals became very schizophrenic – they were both delighted (by the chanting monks) and irritated (by the heavy metal music) at the same time.
Then again, I'm often delighted and irritated at the same time too. But I don't think I'm schizophrenic though, and neither does the other guy who lives inside my body. I deal with the outside world while he hides in the lower left quadrant of my cerebral cortex, snickering at me. Although he usually keeps a low profile, he tends to howl during full moons and Madame Blavatsky's birthday.
Perhaps this could explain why I live alone in the middle of nowhere and talk mostly to trees.
___________
Quote for the Day – "It is wise to bring some water when one goes out to look for water." Arab Proverb
___________
Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and a year-round spring of fresh pure water. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
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Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Path of Life
Life is a journey without a map. You come to a fork in the road of life and choose a direction. When things that once shocked you begin to amuse you, you've crossed the first barrier of true wisdom.
Every time I reach a new age in life, I spend a long day dwelling on my painful past, blessing the present and ignoring the future. Then I wake up the next day, usually a bit hung over, and start all over again.
While everyone follows a different Path in Life, there seems to be a general pattern.
Age 1-3 – You are a mass of human jelly trying to walk across the room without falling on your face.
Age 4-5 – You’re a helpless squirt being cared for by flawless parents who love and protect you.
Age 6-12 – You struggle through grade school, making friends and dodging bullies. Somewhere along the line you discover your parents aren’t exactly perfect and embarrass you with their mere existence
Age 13-17 – As a teen-ager, you stumble into your niche as one of the in-crowd or a jock or a nerd or a greaser or a nobody. No matter which category you fall into you’re an outcast but you don’t actually realize it unless you’re a nobody. You become rebellious of authority and change your hairstyle accordingly.
Age 18-20 – If you’re lucky, you go on to college and party for four years. If not, you marry your high school sweetheart and begin a life of quiet desperation involving employment, raising a family and maintaining a lawn.
Age 21 – You are now of legal age to consume alcohol, so you discard your fake ID’s.
Age 22-29 – You get a job that’s much less exciting than expected and try real hard not to go insane spending five days a week working for some lame idiot. You don’t think much about the future, except to fantasize about winning the lottery or writing a novel or sailing around the world or becoming a movie star.
Age 30 – Your first real zero year. You sense you’re in a rut and consider doing something drastic, like switch jobs or switch spouses or join the Merchant Marines. Instead, you change your hairstyle.
Age 31-39 – You coast along, fairly optimistic about the future. You’ve acquired a bit of money by now and perhaps have the house and automobile you’ve always wanted.
Age 40 – A bad zero year. You ponder deep thoughts about the meaning of life. Material things seem less important and you wonder what went wrong so you change your hairstyle reflecting your contemplative mood.
Age 41-49 – You switch from a fancy car to a practical car. If you have kids, they are going off on their own to screw up their own lives. You begin to read self-help books, buy a treadmill and eat more yogurt.
Age 50-59 – You put on a few pounds that are now harder to take off than when you were younger. You stop eating yogurt and start eating whatever pleases you the most. The treadmill collects dust in the garage.
Age 60 – Another bad zero year. You have now slipped across the line to become an old codger. You begin to worry about your health and change your hairstyle from stylish to whatever is the most comfortable.
Age 61-79 – You have lots of conversations about medical procedures and read the obituaries daily. Your back goes out more than you do and you change your hairstyle one last time, just for something exciting to do.
Age 80-99 – You smile more often but don’t know why, call everyone “Bub” because it’s easy to pronounce, your favorite exercise is sitting and you now have more hair growing out your ears than on your head.
Age 100+ -- You live in a strange world of young whippersnappers who seem to be from a different planet. You spend much of your time trying to remember things, like your own name and where you put your teeth.
___________
Quote for the Day – "As you journey along the Path of Life you don't lose all the other ages you've been." Bret
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Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and a Path of Life that includes many detours. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
___________
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-
Every time I reach a new age in life, I spend a long day dwelling on my painful past, blessing the present and ignoring the future. Then I wake up the next day, usually a bit hung over, and start all over again.
While everyone follows a different Path in Life, there seems to be a general pattern.
Age 1-3 – You are a mass of human jelly trying to walk across the room without falling on your face.
Age 4-5 – You’re a helpless squirt being cared for by flawless parents who love and protect you.
Age 6-12 – You struggle through grade school, making friends and dodging bullies. Somewhere along the line you discover your parents aren’t exactly perfect and embarrass you with their mere existence
Age 13-17 – As a teen-ager, you stumble into your niche as one of the in-crowd or a jock or a nerd or a greaser or a nobody. No matter which category you fall into you’re an outcast but you don’t actually realize it unless you’re a nobody. You become rebellious of authority and change your hairstyle accordingly.
Age 18-20 – If you’re lucky, you go on to college and party for four years. If not, you marry your high school sweetheart and begin a life of quiet desperation involving employment, raising a family and maintaining a lawn.
Age 21 – You are now of legal age to consume alcohol, so you discard your fake ID’s.
Age 22-29 – You get a job that’s much less exciting than expected and try real hard not to go insane spending five days a week working for some lame idiot. You don’t think much about the future, except to fantasize about winning the lottery or writing a novel or sailing around the world or becoming a movie star.
Age 30 – Your first real zero year. You sense you’re in a rut and consider doing something drastic, like switch jobs or switch spouses or join the Merchant Marines. Instead, you change your hairstyle.
Age 31-39 – You coast along, fairly optimistic about the future. You’ve acquired a bit of money by now and perhaps have the house and automobile you’ve always wanted.
Age 40 – A bad zero year. You ponder deep thoughts about the meaning of life. Material things seem less important and you wonder what went wrong so you change your hairstyle reflecting your contemplative mood.
Age 41-49 – You switch from a fancy car to a practical car. If you have kids, they are going off on their own to screw up their own lives. You begin to read self-help books, buy a treadmill and eat more yogurt.
Age 50-59 – You put on a few pounds that are now harder to take off than when you were younger. You stop eating yogurt and start eating whatever pleases you the most. The treadmill collects dust in the garage.
Age 60 – Another bad zero year. You have now slipped across the line to become an old codger. You begin to worry about your health and change your hairstyle from stylish to whatever is the most comfortable.
Age 61-79 – You have lots of conversations about medical procedures and read the obituaries daily. Your back goes out more than you do and you change your hairstyle one last time, just for something exciting to do.
Age 80-99 – You smile more often but don’t know why, call everyone “Bub” because it’s easy to pronounce, your favorite exercise is sitting and you now have more hair growing out your ears than on your head.
Age 100+ -- You live in a strange world of young whippersnappers who seem to be from a different planet. You spend much of your time trying to remember things, like your own name and where you put your teeth.
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Quote for the Day – "As you journey along the Path of Life you don't lose all the other ages you've been." Bret
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Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and a Path of Life that includes many detours. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
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