Sound Bite Philosophy

My buddy Ivan claims that electron beams come out of our eyes when we look at something.

“How else would you explain why people almost always know when someone is watching them?”, he would demand.

Anyone who has had the experience of turning suddenly to find someone staring at them; or been thinking of a friend or relative only to have them ring the phone a few seconds later has experienced the phenomena known as “intent”.

I first learned about intent from a Kung Fu instructor who had formerly been a trainer of Special Ops personnel. He taught us to tune our minds to sense dangerous intent focused on us. In this way we would know if someone intended to do us harm before they had a chance to act on it, just like in the movies.

On another level intent seems to solicit a “call and response” type reaction from the world at large. We put our intentions out there, loudly or softly and the world and people around us mirror them. Individuals and resources are attracted or repelled to us every day, and the mysterious and extraordinarily literal process that makes this happen is intent.

So constantly being on guard against attackers might well have a role in bringing trouble into our lives. However being unprepared could easily put us into unexpected random danger.

“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” is a good old New England motto, and one I recommend highly for personal adoption.

As long as I am jumping down and down on the limb of yet another difficult to prove hypothesis about the basic workings of existence, and since you haven’t stopped reading this to better utilize your time scanning for household battery pack deals; let’s talk about species evolution and intent.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on the subject of evolution and I defend wholeheartedly your right to have one! This question is interlinked with our basic individual belief system of just what this existence IS, and what if anything is the purpose of the whole beautiful mess of it. Incredible stuff to think about and form opinions on. You of course may already have some opinions on the subject.

So here’s mine. What if DNA mutation is not just about random mutation by gamma rays, survival of the fittest or just plain dumb luck? What if it is also about intent, defined in this context as focused consciousness. Nothing language based, this is more akin to the urge to pee. You just gotta go. And it always happens. Fins to legs baby! There’s new lands to conquer up ahead. Think of it as intelligent design from the inside out.

Crazy and simplistic? You bet! And I do hope you have enjoyed this sound bite philosophy moment. Keep thinking! Whatever we think it is more than that.

Modern Medicine, Patent Protection and Degenerative—or Regenerative—Healthcare? by David Richard

An article reflecting the failings of modern medicine was recently published on organicconsumers.org:

Modern medicine has failed us by providing unnatural solutions to natural problems. We are ill because we live in a toxic world, filled with the unnatural stresses of industrialization and technology along with their chemical and energetic fallout. Lost is the spiritual basis and altruistic motivation of society. Modern medicine follows a worldview that values technological innovation over healing tradition, arrogantly assuming that anything made by nature can be better made by man.

Click here to read the full story.

Hush up and Eat Your Shea Butter!

The latest research on shea butter, the African tree nut oil that is used as a moisturizer in everything from lotions to shampoo, shows that it may be even more beneficial to EAT YOUR SHEA BUTTER rather than simply slathering it onto your dry irritated skin. Now don’t get me wrong; I am a huge fan of shea slathering. Especially for dry cracked area around your fingers, and to keep your face younger looking as you age (Cleopatra’s beauty secret).

It turns out that shea butter is so special (in part) because it contains molecules that turn OFF the enzyme that causes inflammation response AND THEN they tell your body to get into gear and heal up the irritation. They are called shea triterpenes and they are my new best friend. But wait there’s more… Twenty minutes on Google revealed:

  • Ten animal and human studies indicating that shea butter lowers cholesterol.
  • Forty-four studies indicating shea butter is effective for inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
  • Six studies showing moderate anti-tumor effects against cancer.

Before you rush out and start eating your hand lotion one warning: Only eat FOOD GRADE shea butter. Raw shea butter contains latex and other impurities that you don’t need to be eating. Food grade shea butter is winding its way through the regulatory process as you read this. Expect to start seeing it on the shelves in about a year. Shea butter supplements are also clearing regulatory. You will be able to start buying them on line in another four months or so.

In the meantime shea butter is a great WINTER SKIN remedy. Shameless Promotion: www.vermontsoap.com is a great place to go for latex free topical shea butter. Or stop by the Vermont Soap Discount Factory Outlet and Soap Museum for great deals on shea butter, shea butter soap and gifts for everyone on your list. ESPECIALLY if they have sensitive skin.

This is the Soapman wishing you and yours a Happy Healthy Season.

Sleeping on the Job

You work hard in your busy day doing what you do. Work, chores and everything involved in keeping the rain off your head the wind off your back and the wolves from your door. And then we drop off to sleep.

And we wake up and do it again.

For years (most of my life actually) I took it for granted that we slept to recover and rest up for our next busy day. Work and rest. Work and rest. For maybe 100 years if we are lucky.

But what if I had it all wrong and the reverse is actually true?

What if we work all day to set ourselves up to then do the REAL work of living? And what if that real work occurs while we sleep? In other words; do we work all day to sleep? Or do we sleep just to wake up and work?

This is not a trick question. There are unanswered mysteries in the realm of sleep, just as there are unanswered mysteries in the realm of the awake. And it is extremely hard to gather all the data because sleep comes with a built in amnesia mechanism. We awake and have already forgotten most of the lands we traveled when our eyes shut tight. And so I have to wonder…

Did I dance and play and learn from my friends in the lands of dreams? Do the people I meet by accident in the awake times actually make an appointment to get together while we slept; to learn, share stories and to celebrate being alive? How many times have YOU changed course, turned left instead of right and met someone whose words and actions changed the course or tone of your daily life?

Coincidence? Happenstance? Or Appointment?

I do not have all the answers. Like nearly all of us I have way more questions than actual answers. But I ask you to practice questioning the current basic Western Civilization tenets of human life and existence. We may in fact have been looking at it all wrong.

Time will tell. Maybe we should sleep on it.

This is the Soapman reminding you to take time out to enjoy the warm season; and to keep thinking about the molecules!

I Dreamed I Was the Last of My Generation

I dreamed I was the last of my generation. Old beyond years I sunned myself on a bench and watched the children play.

“Great grandpa! Great grandpa! Tell us about the old days. What took out all the people?”

“Well, children. Many people back then were concerned about the radiation. We made electricity from radioactive elements back then. Sometimes it would leak out and poison huge swaths of the planet. But that is not what did it.

Then there were all the chemicals in the food supply. Herbicides, insecticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, artificial fertilizers. You are lucky that we stopped doing that before you were born. A lot of people worried about those, but that is not what killed us off.”

“What was it? What was it then?”

“We started messing around with genetic modification. We created life forms without ecological controls. But that is not what did it.

We also had a lot of trouble with metals. Metals are found in nature, but rarely in pure form. We used electricity to purify the metals. Then they leached into the food and water (through pipes) and effected people’s brains.”

“Is that what did it?”

“That was bad but metals didn’t do it”.

“You have to remember that we made plastics from petroleum back then. The plastic got into everything. The food, the water, the ocean. It made a lot of people sick.”

“So it was the plastics that did it?”

“Not really. We also burned coal and oil for energy. And we rubbed petroleum jelly onto our skin. Nasty stuff! But that wasn’t the petrochemicals that killed off all the people.”

“What was it? What was it?”

“It was the adhesives. Took years to figure it out. But in the end, it was the glues and adhesives that took us out. I was allergic to most of those things and avoided them. Now I am the last of my times. That is my blessing and my curse. It was the damn adhesives that did it.”

And then I awoke. And put the duct tape in the garage.

This is the Soapman wishing you a Happy Spring and a better more natural tomorrow for us all.

Molecular Zen: Secrets Revealed!

I’ve been thinking a lot about Molecular Zen this month, which is of course the underlining theme of this column and the basis of my personal world view. And thus, in the tradition of pop science writers everywhere, I must reveal at least one great truth about the universe per article using a paucity of verbiage. So before your rectangle beeps you yet again with an instant message, here it tis:

The crux of the Molecular Zen biscuit is to practice NOT viewing the world-at-large as a bundle of separate objects we find ourselves wandering around in (practicing Wholeness Perception).

Notice that I said “practice”. Buddha knew that all of us are practicing at being ourselves every day. Optimistically we are practicing being the best selves we can be right now. Like everything else in life the more you practice something you more you get out of it and presumably the better you become at it. Practicing not being self-obsessed is ALWAYS a good idea.

Practicing NOT viewing the world-at-large as a bundle of separate objects means (logically) keeping to the forefront of one’s thinking the ones-ness of it all.

Keeping to the forefront the ones-ness of it all means understanding that the Universe has an operating system that is increasingly discernable over time (by practicing Wholeness Perception). Seeing the system of life and interlocking existence as an ocean – rather than a mishmash of waves and currents helps us to understand the basic principles of how life and stuff are put together and behave here at home base.

You see, Nature does not reinvent itself every time it creates something new. Rather it borrows heavily from everything that came before, building off of the previous models. The point is this:

The basic laws and working systems that operate on every level, from atomic system to ecosystem to solar system; all apply equally to human existence and behavior. The distribution of warm water into cooler water is no different from the dissemination of new ideas into a society. The colonizing behavior of penicillin mold on bread is incredibly similar to the colonization of “virgin” land by humans.

Humans are passionate; and so are molecules. They hook up, long or short term and form new families with new properties when they “mate” with other molecules. Every law of Newtonian Physics and Biology can and is applied to human construction and human behavior.

We arose out of the Universe, are made of its stuff, and follow the same principles in our short existence as does the rest of the mess.

Simple! Molecular Zen rules. Now back to practicing…practice, practice……

What are PFOAs?

There’s a lot of talk in the local news about per-flouro-octanoic acid or PFOA in some Bennington County and upstate NY wells. What is PFOA and its half dozen or more cousins? Is it harmful, should you be concerned and what can be done about it? Here’s the abbreviated version:

PFOA is the shiny nonstick surface found on candy wrappers, waxed food service papers, microwaved popcorn, carpets, treated textiles, floor wax and dental floss. Teflon is one of its many cousins that can and will break down into PFOA over time. In fact there are 615 compounds known to break down into PFOA. It is primarily Fluorine, an element humans need in amounts that are measured in parts per million rather than in macro dosages. Your teeth which are mostly calcium and phosphorus need about 5 parts per million of fluorine to stay strong; basically an invisible amount undetectable without specialized instrumentation.

PFOA is one of those invisible chemicals found throughout our civilization, influencing our health without our knowledge or a complete understanding of its impacts. It would take about six years to naturally eliminate the PFOAs in your body right now; assuming you could end all contact with them from this breath onward. Highly unlikely given their dispersion throughout the entire planetary ecosystem. PFOAs bio-accumulate in our bodies faster than we can get rid of them. Not cool. This is the part that really ticks me off. PFOA upside is that your cheap candy bar won’t stick to its wrapper. Downside is it takes six years to pass out the molecules that stuck to your chocolate bar and got eaten in the process. PFOAS are measured in the blood in parts per billion. We are not talking about a lot having a big effect here.

According to Wikipedia,” PFOA is a carcinogen, a liver toxicant, a developmental toxicant, and an immune system toxicant, and also exerts hormonal effects including alteration of thyroid hormone levels. Animal studies show developmental toxicity from reduced birth size, physical developmental delays, endocrine disruption, and neonatal mortality”.

Good news is that a carbon filter appears to work well in removing PFOAs from your water. Bad news is that these puppies are literally everywhere on the planet now. Thanks 3M! Thank you Dow!

But the real crux of the biscuit is that there even exists a mindset that allows novel persistent chemicals to be introduced in mind boggling quantities in the first place, AND then disperses those molecules throughout the planet. All this without any long term understanding of their influence upon living systems.

This, in my humble opinion is the definition of complete and utter madness, a dementia that crosses all national borders and appears to be both unending and inexorable in its scope and influence. THIS IS a true evil among us.

The emperor is naked and winter is coming. Time to wake up and smell the molecules.

All the Best,

Soapman

Tonics and Antidotes: The keys to health and survival in the modern world

A lot of people ask what the difference between a tonic and an antidote is. Here’s a simple answer.

A tonic is something that you take to keep you from having a flare-up. An antidote is what you take when you are already having one.
They are often the same thing, but are used in very different quantities or potencies. Here’s a real personal story to illustrate…

I was traveling through Europe drinking coffee and waiting to change planes in the very early morning hours. Too late did I realized that the municipal water there was disinfected with chloramine, a chemical made from ammonia and chlorine. I am quite reactive to chloramine and sustained exposure could very well hospitalize or even kill me. Those two cups of coffee couple with the many other environmental stresses of traveling quickly began to take me down. Sounds became annoyingly loud and garbled. Lights were too bright and every scent was painful. I was in the middle of a world class flare-up without any of my usual botanical remedies in sight.

Every store and restaurant in the airport was closed except for the pizza shack. I ordered two slices with no cheese, nothing but sauce. They allowed me to cover the slices with a thick layer of crushed oregano which I choked down with a can of root beer. It worked! That massive dose of oregano gave me enough of a boost to make it onto the plane where I gratefully slept it off. Hallelujah!

This is what I mean by “Being a MacGyver”; developing the knack of anti-doting yourself with the materials available around you. Herbs and spices are potent anti-oxidants and tonics for health. And with a strong enough dose you can antidote yourself back from a flare-up.

As the master of your own health and destiny you owe it to yourself to discover the plants that boost you up energetically, clear that foggy brain and make you healthy, strong and resilient. Use them whenever you feel yourself flagging (as a tonic) and as an antidote when you are sinking fast. Remember to rotate those tonics every six weeks or so to combat tolerance to them.

Wishing you All the Best!

Larry Plesent

A Consumer Guide to Fragrance Allergies

Some helpful information from Perfume.com about fragrance allergies, includes a comprehensive list of resource links.

Has this ever happened to you? You walk into a room, or a specific aisle in a store or you detect the scent of the new laundry detergent you are using, and suddenly you start sneezing or even feel dizzy? This is something that happens on a daily basis to millions of people. If this is the case you may be suffering from a fragrance allergy.

READ MORE

Electronic Crack

We’ve all heard comments that smartphones, which moving forward we will refer to as rectangles, being “electronic crack”. Well the scientific data is coming in, and it turns out that the electronic crack remark is spot on. Here’s why:

You know how good and self-satisfied you feel after completing a task like cleaning your house or organizing your desk? That is because our brains have a built in reward mechanism that gives us a shot of dopamine (as in “why do you think they call it dopamine?”) when we accomplish something. Kind of like getting a treat for being a good girl or boy.

Well, it turns out this reward mechanism is actually quite stupid. It gives out that shot of dopamine whenever YOU feel like you accomplished a task. This applies not only big things like discovering a new nonpolluting energy source, but really little dumb ass little things like deleting spam or forwarding a Facebook post about a cat that can dance on its hind legs (as one example).

Yes, it’s true. Making simple, silly little decisions like deleting, forwarding or otherwise dealing with words on your rectangle, because they involve making ANY type of decision can and most likely will trigger the dopamine reward mechanism.

So there it is. Playing with your rectangle is the brain equivalent of smoking crack cocaine. This is literally true, since cocaine works by blocking one of the dopamine feedback receptors, allowing your own brain dopamine levels to quickly build up beyond normal parameters. It doesn’t matter if your delivery system is a glass crack pipe or a 6” plastic rectangle. The results are exactly the same, though the dosage is smaller.

For Reactive Bodies the stakes are even higher. Many reactives tell me they don’t “like” smartphones, citing vague concerns about microwave radiation or the way their bodies feel after being around them. I feel the same way about digital devices myself, and limit my rectangle use throughout the day below obsessional levels.

But the thing that concerns me the most is the ADHD state that so many reactives fall into triggered by excessive rectangle use. I have friends who get themselves so manic-ed up I can no longer hold a conversation with them and have to walk away until tomorrow.

Tip: Keep ALL digital screened devices away from children and reactive bodies before 11am. The ADHD reaction appears to be cumulative, ie the more the rectangle is in use the faster and more intense the ADHD symptoms appear in susceptible individuals.

Early morning screen time can also have a zombifying effect on the rest of your child’s day, pulling down attention span, memory retention, test scores and effect how PRESENT the child is through their day. If you see any of these behaviors in your children try manipulating morning screen time experimentally.

Remember, most people do not really believe that their consciousness is effected by molecules or by the radiant energy they are surrounded with. It is easier for some of us to believe in astrological influences than it is to believe in molecules and electromagnetic energy!

Hard copies of The Reactive Body Handbook will be out soon. Stay tuned and Enjoy your Summer!

Larry Plesent