Inspired Musings

LAX

2011-10-29T00:38:00.001-07:00

I have been lax in updating my readers on my latest adventures but rest assured I have been having them. I have lived in 7 different places in the first 8 months of 2011. Things seem to have settled a bit as I have been in the current place for 3 months. Time to BIM – write my newsletter has been scarce as has Internet access at times. A little re-cap:

I got my second hip replacement in May 2011 correcting the tweaking detailed in my Everest Interruptus post. I was walking 3 miles a day beginning the 11^th day after surgery. In the fifth week I hiked 30 miles through the Santa Monica Mountains here in LA.
I am back to training for the Himalayas and have been hiking from 20 to 40 miles a week in the mountains. I attribute a lot of my rapid recovery to http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Grass-Servings-8-5-Ounce-Container/dp/B00112IM56 . I bought a jar of it and gave it to my world class ortho surgeon, Dr Andrew Yun.
I also credit my acupuncturist, Miranda Brocki of Santa Monica for my great current health. I am taking Reishi mushroom extract from her and a mixture of herbs for longevity and strength.
I took http://www.landmarkdirectaccess.com/ course in October and impressive things have happened. I am a great believer in Landmark Education offerings and spent 10 years ending in 1990 taking all the courses and seminars they offered including the est Training, The Forum, the Six Day Advanced Course, many seminars, and assisting at the Six Day. To briefly summarize Direct Access: “we”, humans, store our thoughts, feelings, and thoughts about how we experience ourselves AND our actions in neuronal patterns. When a situation in the present causes a neuronal pattern to become active ALL the thoughts and ACTIONS associated with the pattern become active. We do not have choice in how we act. When I have time I’ll attempt to write this up more cogently in a newsletter. Some of the references associated with the course are Demasio - Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain ; Ludwig Wittgenstein ; Edmund Husserl ; Martin Heidegger

So, of all the stuff that’s happened the best was camping in the desert in Death Valley at natural hot springs for all of February and March as I had nowhere else to live. https://picasaweb.google.com/115628322404008008798/Trips_2011

The full Moon of March 19^th, 2011 was the Super Moon. I was sleeping in my tent in high 30’s temperatures in bright moonshine with the tent illuminated like a light bulb. I would never have chosen to go camping at that time but was forced into it – I had nowhere else to go!

I meet a lot of accomplished people. I read tons by really bright people. The thing that seems of inestimable value is ACTING – going there, seeing it for yourself, EXPERIENCING IT – whatever that is for you. Getting back to the neuronal patterns, we, whoever and wherever we are, are situational. Generally, to change your patterns change your situations! Go to India – go to the desert – GO.

More later

I know, it’s not later yet. I decided to start a hedge fund as a result of being in the Landmark work – it seemed like the most outrageous thing I could think of to do!. A few weeks later I was applying for Food Stamps but did not qualify.

Everest interruptus

2011-04-10T11:18:00.001-07:00

Everest interruptus

MY “other” hip went out when I was training for the Himalayas on Mt. Whitney in Feb-Mar 2011. I had to leave LA late January as I had no where to live so I went camping in the desert – in Death Valley at the hot springs. When the weather deteriorated I moved in to Lone Pine to my friend Doug’s hostel. Most days I climbed the Mt. Whitney road up a couple of thousand feet in snow and ice.

Anyway, my hip is tweaked. Happily, my ortho surgeon, Dr Andrew Yun from Santa Monica is anxious to take me on. I told him I had a commitment to be the oldest American to summit Everest and had everything I needed except for my joints so he said, “Well, let’s work on those joints!” LOL So, no Himalayas this year. As Dr says this one is easier than the other one which was severely congenitally mis-aligned, I am hopeful to maybe try summiting Cho Oyo next climbing season – 2012, year of the Dragon.

Ever intently,

Carlosjii

BIM 54 - randomly published

2011-02-25T17:19:00.000-08:00

Ballantyne’s Inspired Musings #54

September 2008

Vox clamantis in deserto

The voice of one crying in the wilderness

The Mount Everest of Spiritual and Philosophical journals

An oracle for the wise

Subscriptions $25 or more – the more you send the more you get. Available only by email .pdf

Lilly Strengths

William Lilly was a famous English astrologer in the 1600’s. Lilly caused much controversy in 1666 for allegedly predicting the Great Fire of London some 14 years before it happened. For this reason many people believed that he might have started the fire, but there is no evidence to support these claims. He was tried for the offence in Parliament but was found to be innocent. Lilly had a way of classifying planetary strengths in a natal horoscope giving a weighted numeric value to each planet in a person’s horoscope.

Certain of the horoscopes in my large database have Lilly Strengths worth mentioning. From my studies any Lilly Strength over 20 is notable and will express itself in the life. Roughly one horoscope in 25 has a Strength over 20 of one of the planets.

George Soros Mercury 27 & Jupiter 28

Father Terry Mercury 25

Ruth Y. Mercury 25

Pat Allen Mercury 24

Suzanne Caffee Mercury 26

Ashley Robbins Mercury 25, Jupiter 24

Susan M. Mercury 27, Mars 25

Osama bin Laden Mercury 33

Dr. Pirnazar Mars 28

Donald Angle Mars 28

Silda Spitzer Mars 26

Princess Anne Mars 24, Mercury 21

Dora W. Mars 29

Brugh Joy Mars 24

Betsy H. Mars 23

Warren Buffet Mars 23, Jupiter 21, Venus 20

Julie Poole Jupiter 21

Kevin Ryan Jupiter 23, Venus 21

Chris Robbins Jupiter 27

Tony Robbins Jupiter 25

Anna Smith Jupiter 26

Dr. Julie Ralls Jupiter 26

Karl Rove Saturn 27

All the people I know with high Mercury Strengths are extremely intelligent AND they have a capacity to express and create in the world by their writing and speaking. The mental gifts extend to the intuitive. Simplistically, they are very F’ing smart - to a greater degree than you CAN be aware. In other words we judge people and situations from our own frame of reference. Few have a frame of reference to judge Lilly strengths over 20.

Those with high Mars Strengths are dangerously unaware of their willfulness and capacity to move events to their liking – and their destructiveness to themselves and others. They MOVE things the way they want and it all seems correct – ‘Oh, this IS God’s will. It’s all going just how I wanted it to’. Strong Mars have a limited capacity for true surrender. The tough events they INEVITABLY BRING TO THEMSELVES are a result of - “That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in out lives as Fate.” K. Jung A good suggestion to these people is ‘DO nothing and look within’, BUT the Martian personality NEEDS resistance in order to experience itself so they constantly seek it out and create it when it’s not there. Ill health from middle age on seems to be the unconscious way of taking down the inner stress level – sometimes permanently.

Those with high Jupiter Strengths seem to blithely meander through always getting saved from any real bad luck, usually just in the nick of time. The problem is that of excess. “Jupiter is not always the cosmic Santa Claus it is made out to be.” Doris Hebel, Celestial Psychology. My Jupiter is 22 – high but not over the top. I have been miraculously saved ‘in the wink of an eye’ from 2 deadly diseases - polio and alcoholism. I also experienced a quite miraculous recovery from a bad case of Lyme’s disease - unless I have it now and don’t know it. ANYONE with a Jupiter Strength over 20 should be considered rich regardless of their actual financial circumstances. Bill Gates has a 19 Jupiter, Melinda, 21.

One of the most extraordinary cases is that of Susan M. who I met soon after I moved to Mammoth in 2001. It was not until some time afterwards I noticed her Lilly Strength readings. Curiously, Susan is about 4’ 9” and it has been difficult to get much information. A Berkeley Ph.D. in Art History and then the director of a large college museum Susan unexpectedly came back to California and lives in her parent’s house in Mammoth. From her energy and looking at her palm my deduction is she had a mental breakdown – as I told her the first time I met her when I looked at her palm – and has been taking fairly heavy mood altering medications ever since which has severely blunted the extraordinary powers and mentality indicated by her horoscope. This guess on my part fits exactly the fated ‘burn out’ or illness scenario I suggest is the tempering of those immensely Martian.

Osama’s Mercury Strength is 1.5 to 2 ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE higher than any other strength for any other planet for anyone else in my database. If everyone else is on a scale of 70 to 100 this is 1350. As the Jewish talk of the Lamed Vov[1] who rule the world creating the triumph of righteousness, and the Yogis speak of Himalayan ascetics seated on simple blankets in a cave unobtrusively bringing truth to human affairs, such also is the obeisance we must accord this overarching intelligence.

In case you didn’t get a specific invitation I have created a Yahoo Group named Astrolos and posted there a number of essays, including this one, I’ve written about astrology over the years – most fairly recent. You can join the group without having a Yahoo account and you may be able to read the essays without even joining. They are .pdfs in the Files section.

What Are You Thinking

“For those of us attempting to live in the world in a more conscious way, there can never be enough reminders, for we humans are such forgetful creatures. Michie delivers the message, make us smile and feel like we are walking with an old friend. That morning I was given both reminders and some loving encouragement.

The page I opened to was where Michie is quoting his teacher, Rinpoche Geshe Trungpa, "We all tend to have habitual thoughts, or attitudes, and we need to be very careful about these. Often they build up and have a cumulative effect which is immense. As Buddha said in the Dharmapada:

'The thought manifests as the word
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings...
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.'"

And as Michie points out in the section about karma that follows, "Our mindstream, our choice...we are the authors of our own future happiness or misery." How empowering the "thought that we have the opportunity to transform our whole experience of reality." With this in mind, my reality (which was never really so bad to begin with) and my day got a whole lot better.” Kay Goldstein, MA teaches meditation and writes poetry, fiction and articles addressing the challenges and joys of daily living and spiritual practice. www.kaygoldstein.com From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kay-goldstein/what-are-you-thinking_b_118935.html

My Commentary - It may be that the Lilly strengths point to inner repetitive mindstreams which inevitably manifest. I know I have an inner attitude that I will always be taken care of. I even hear a small voice inside asserting that when I get doubtful or under duress. When I was losing a house I loved living in in the mountains of New Jersey in 1980 - a 28 year Saturn cycle ago – I found a deck of tarot cards my wife had left behind. I laid out a spread and the top card was the 10 of Pentacles – the most good fortune you can have. I said to myself ‘nothing bad can ever happen to me, I can do anything I want and will always be taken care of’. I acted on this months later by ‘retiring’ at age 39 vowing to not work anymore.

I suspect this is the mindstream of those with high Lilly Jupiter Strengths. In other words, George Soros had the repetitive thought ‘I am going to make $XXXXXX pounds on a trade’ and just happened to be there when the Bank of England broke, making a billion dollars for himself on a single, albeit large, leveraged currency bet.

I can only extrapolate that the mindstream of those with high Mars strengths, having lived with a Mars 29! runs something like ‘I can do this, I can MAKE it happen, I ……’. The underlying problem can be too much ‘I’, despite the MANY accomplishments they have experienced. The Mars 29 had been divorced 4 times by the age of 35, 5 by 42 and it’s quite certain it was the totally right thing to do each time – from the ‘I’ perspective.

I suggest the high Mars, needing resistance to experience itself, CREATES the problems to surmount. This is a far different mechanism than that of the Jupiter which is essentially one of surrender. In the Jupiter case you are attempting to make your will the same as God’s – in the Mars case you are attempting to make God’s will the same as yours. Note that both methods or paths are the same, but only at the highest level of spiritual consciousness. Clearly, the easiest path seems to one that of Jupiter. Paramahansa Yogananda talks about God’s bounty being like a gentle rain. Some people go around catching it with teaspoons, others with large buckets. The Jupiterian motto might be ‘Trust in God and carry a big bucket’.

Look at the result [Warren Buffet] of both a high Jupiter AND a high Mars! And with Warren’s high Venus he managed to marry and have kids with a nice Aquarius, Susan, who he did not live with for the past 25 years AND as soon as Susan died Warren at last married the Latvian waitress of his favorite restaurant in Omaha, with whom he had lived for many years. Susan’s house in Laguna Beach got sold soon after she died. When questioned about successors at Berkshire‑Hathaway Warren has said there is a plan written out but it won’t be opened until after his death. He and his high Mars quipped "when they open that envelope the first instruction is to take my pulse again."

So here’s a Jupiter story. A few years ago I got pissed at Warren, for no apparent reason, - Oh yes, it was about my Geico insurance bills - and decided to DO something about it. I thought for a month or longer where Warren’s sensitive point might be using one of my background mindstreams. At last I had it. I wrote him a longish, nasty letter explaining how his conglomerate had wrecked a nice little insurance company I had been insured with since the 1960s when I lived in Washington, DC. I then launched into an excoriating rant about how Warren had never done anything for ANYONE, had threatened to essentially disinherit his children so they had to work, AND that, conversely, Bill Gates was using his intelligence and scientific methods to eradicate polio. I went on to say I had been on a remote island in the Andamans at the Millennium and had seen a graffiti-ish notice to get polio vaccine. I related my own case of polio and went on again that Warren had never done anything for the world except create a number of millionaires through their ownership of Berkshire-Hathaway stock. AND as a final insult I called him the Mr. Magoo of money. Some four to six months later Warren announced he was turning his entire fortune, estimated at $40 billion, over to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The point is, me with a 22 Jupiter, relatively penniless and homeless, camping out in a friend’s office for months at a time, thinks nothing of writing a letter like that to the wealthiest person in the world fully expecting a result – and it happens. How? Who knows? Note I DID write the letter as an 8 ½ x 11 postcard using the Strathmore card stock I mentioned in the previous BIM.

I refer anyone who wants to investigate further the powers of the mind to ‘The Holographic Universe’, mentioned in BIM 20, September 1997

Indeed if the universe is a holodeck, all things that appear stable and eternal, from the laws of physics to the substance of galaxies, would have to be viewed as reality fields, will-of-the-wisps no more or less real than the props in a giant, mutually shared dream. All permanence would have to be looked at as illusory, and only consciousness would be eternal, the consciousness of the living universe. Pg. 159, The Holographic Universe [THU]

"The world is nothing but an objectified dream," says Paramahansa Yogananda, "and whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely instantly comes to pass. THU

The idea that we can psychokinetically alter events that have already occurred is an unsettling notion, for we are so deeply programmed to believe the past is frozen as if it were a butterfly in glass, it is difficult for us to imagine otherwise. But in a holographic universe, a universe in which time is an illusion and reality is no more than a mind-created image, it is a possibility to which we may have to become accustomed. Pg. 226, THU

Ram Dass, of whom I am not a great fan, possibly due to my envy, has a great concept of unasking questions. I sometimes now will say, "I'd like to un-ask that question", in the brief space between having asked a question whose answer I really don't want to know and the answer not having yet been given. Questions suitable for unasking could be, "How much did you have to drink last night?” "Have you been with anyone else since we started going together?” "Why?” etc. - you get the idea?

Ram Das’s guru, Neem Karoli Baba, was from the same city in India as my guru. Neem Karouli Baba came to visit Gurujii’s ashram on one of the peak mela days when 5 million or more bathe in the Ganges and the small ashram fills with HUNDREDS of people. Gurujii went to clear the place and threw out everyone he did not recognize, including Neem Karoli Baba, who dressed like a begger wrapped only in a cheap blanket. Gurujii was later to say it was the biggest mistake he made in his life.

Somewhat happily, my writings about Gurujii and the ashram have not created the buzz and commercial stir that happened to Maharajii, NKB, after

Ram Das’s writings, when thousands of Westerners descended on the crumby little place NKB had in Allahabad. Almost no Westerners have been to OUR, my guru’s, crumby little place on the banks of the Ganges outside Allahabad.

The picture on the left is the ashram in 1989, the right in 2000. The conical structure at the far right is the tomb of Gurujii who was buried yogic style seated in the full lotus position then the grave filled ½ in sugar and ½ in salt, covered with dirt and then capped with the monument.

A Few Concluding Thoughts

The whole of this world and all the schemes of the mind are but creations of thought. Discarding these thoughts and taking leave of all conjectures, O Rama! Obtain peace. As camphor disappears in fire, and rock salt in water, so the mind with the atma loses its identity. All that appears is the knowable, the mind is called knowledge. When the knowable and the knowledge, are both destroyed equally, then there is no second way (i.e. Duality is destroyed). All this movable and immovable world is the vision of the mind. When the mind has attained to the unmani avastha there is no dvaita (from the absence of the working of the mind). Mind disappears by removing the knowable, and, on its disappearance, atma only remains behind. The Hatha Yoga scriptures as quoted in 'Hatha Yoga', Theos Bernard, Rider & Co., London, Pg. 76.

The Essence of Yoga

Concentration: Its Spiritual Uses

1 - Now yoga is explained

2 - Yoga is the restraining of the mind stuff (Chitta) from taking various forms (vrittis)

The true organ of perception is the brain not the secondary instruments, the sense organs such as the eyes and ears. What is thought? Thought is a force like gravitation. The mind is not intelligent. The Soul uses the mind as its instrument to perceive the external world. The real universe is the occasion of the reaction of the mind. A book form or an elephant form or a man form is not outside; all that we know is our mental reaction from the outer suggestion.

The real man is behind the mind; the mind is the instrument in his hands. It is his intelligence that is percolating through the mind. It is only when you stand behind the mind that it becomes intelligent. When you give it up it falls to pieces and becomes nothing. Thus you understand what is meant by the chitta. It is the mind-stuff, and the vrittis are the waves and ripples rising in it when external causes impinge on it. These vrittis are our universe.

The bottom of the lake we cannot see, because its surface is covered with ripples. If it is clear and there are no waves , we shall see the bottom. The bottom of the lake is our own true Self; the lake is the chitta, and the waves are the vrittis.

The chitta is always trying to get back to its natural pure state, but the organs draw it out. To restrain it, to check this outward tendency, and to start it on the return journey to the Essence of Intelligence is the first step in yoga, because it is only in this way can the chitta get into its proper state.

3 At that time (the time of concentration) the Seer (Purusha) rests in His own (unmodified) state

As soon as the waves have stopped and the lake has become quiet, we see its bottom. So with the mind: when it is calm, we see what our nature is; we do not mix ourselves with the modifications of the mind, but remain our own selves.

4 At other times the Seer is identified with the modifications.

For instance, someone blames me; this produces a modification, vritti, in my mind, and I identify myself with it, and the result is misery.

The numbered paragraphs are from the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Sutras of Patanjali, the italicized commentary following is by Swami Vivekananda From ‘Raja Yoga’, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York

My commentary - At the yogic level of aspiration the quest is to NOT manifest through thoughts in the mind. Once all thoughts stop the Seer becomes Himself. At my currently much lower level of consciousness, that is, the level of attempting to create ‘positive’ thoughts, my important mindstream remains;

· This is my last lifetime. I will not have to come back again.

· Everything I need will come to me

· I may have to live for a long, long time to finish up in this lifetime.

· I will remain healthy and pain free

Again, the point is, if the mind does create your Reality then choose POWERFUL, fulfilling mindstreams for yourself. After all, your therapist can’t do it for you!!!! LOL

A Little Note on 28 Year Saturn Cycles

David-san

I am going to have to abandon my storage locker in Irvine but would like you to pull a few things from it for me before Sept 9.

I’d like to keep;

Canoe paddle
Yellow handled axe
Blue hanging clothing bag with a few jackets etc
Black briefcase with old Dell Laptop – You can keep or throw away the computer but I’d like the briefcase. I don’t want the info on the hard drive to get out.
the book ‘Gods of Change = Pain, Crisis, and the Transits of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto’ by Sasportas
Pair of cowboy type boots probably in one of the blue round bags on the floor
a new pair red and yellow running shoes also in a blue bag
A small ammo case of hand tools

If you want the Canon printer or office chair take them otherwise I’ll give them up

Just leave the key at the office after you exit telling them I’ve made my last payment.

Many thanks

Carlos

Ah yes, to live in India AND the US at the same time is dicey!!!!!!!

LOL

Supplement Update

8/12/2008 I ate a 2 cup bowl of muesli at 8:30 AM after arising in the backcountry outside Bishop. I ended up at Mono Lake at 3:30 pm to go bike riding and had not eaten since the muesli. What I took;

24 oz. black tea with 1 scoop of CytoMax Natural Electrolyte, cool citrus flavor

2 scoops CytoSport Recovery mixed in about 20 oz water

2 Electrolyte Stamina tablets

1000 mg. calcium ascorbate

I cycled for 30 miles climbing about 1500 vertical feet at 6500’ to 8000’ altitude in the next 2 hours. The point here is the newer high tech nutritional supplements are worthy of looking in to by EVERYONE. For example, I routinely take a large 24 oz bottle of water with one or 2 scoops of the electrolyte mix just to stay hydrated in the mountain sun.

I found out about the Electrolyte Stamina tablets from the owner of a health food store in Joshua Tree who told me she got all the UPS drivers on them as they had to drive around in 115 degree weather in the high desert with their doors open. I recommend these for anyone. As I recall this was the first case I asked someone if they could tell me about something I didn’t know I didn’t know about.

And a bit more about olive oil. It has been found that olive oil can cure H pylori, the cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancer. You can look it up.

WOW MOM

A friend of mine was sharing how she always wanted to get a tattoo on her butt - W on one cheek, O in the middle, and W on the other cheek so when she did naked cartwheels across the front lawn to show her mother her tattoo it would flip from WOW to MOM to WOW to MOM…………

“It's alarming when the media tries to remove voter participation from the political process, when they shift from reporting the news to making it themselves. I'm reminded of the old Groucho Marx line about the fellow "who stuffed spaghetti with bicarbonate of soda, thus causing and curing indigestion at the same time." William Klein

“The gnarlination began right across the street there.” Someone describing the beginning of a tough period in their life

“Those days of spiritual midgetry still occur.” heard around the campus

$$$$$

"If banks feel they must keep on dancing while the music is playing and that at the end of the party the central bank will make sure everyone gets home safely, then over time the parties will become wilder and wilder. That might not matter were the consequences limited to the partygoers. But they are not." Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, June 2008 - or as Nouriel Roubini has put it ‘profits have been privatized and losses have been socialized’.

Most Americans think this stuff has nothing to do with them.

And more brilliant financial and geopolitical essays from http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/

Dear Candidate Obama

If you select Joe Biden as VP I will vote for McCain [and hope he has a stroke while in office].

1. Biden is too old to be an agent for change

2. Biden is a blowhard, self-aggrandizing Scorpio son-of-a-bitch VERY incompatible with your Leo energy.

3. Biden is ignorant about foreign affairs AND was responsible for the deaths of 000’s of Nepali civilians due to his backing of that war-mongering Aunt Jemima Colon Powell’s $millions of military aid to the alcoholic dysfunctional King of Nepal and the Army.

Carlos. Etc.

Actual postcard sent to Obama HQ. I sent it as an email also and got a thank you for sharing my thoughts about the vice presidential nominee.

Adventurama Drama

It’s hard to write about the adventures of the past several days at Lake Tahoe. I arrived at the Lake late Sunday afternoon and swam and lolly-gagged around until after sunset. Arriving back at the swimming hole Monday afternoon I dove into 4 foot swells and battled currents and surf crashing over the rocks for almost an hour. Again I had not eaten since 8 hours before but had plenty of energy from CytoMax electrolyte drink and CytoMax carb gel. Late in the afternoon I drove to Mammoth stopping at the Bridgeport hot springs around 9 pm. Incredible silky mineral rich water, perfect temperature, a planet and star filled sky to look at while soaking in the outback springs. I woke up this morning and ……….who could I possibly tell. So I didn’t.

Dear Innermost Self, Bhajananand,

Divine love and blessing to you. Here all the ashramites are fine. By the grace of the Almighty and our Gurudev, we are enjoying our divine life peacefully and hope the same for you. Convey my heartfelt pranams to Almighty Mother Dakshineswari of Laguna Beach at Her lotus feet.

After a long time I am sending this e-mail. I hope that all the programs at Kali Mandir have been done successfully by Mother’s grace and by the cooperation of devotees, disciples and coworkers.

…I pray to Almighty that He may grant you good understanding, happy life, peace of mind, good health and wealth with your friends, your disciples and with your coworkers.

Convey my blessings to Parameswar, Rampriya, Sadanand, Kalyani, Shambho, Devadas, Jayashree, Usha, Milli, Chandan, Ridhi, Irene, Nandu, Tarini & Carlos.

Rest all is OK.

Thy Innermost Self,

Guruji Omanand

I’ve migrated to last on the list but at least I am still there. Letter from my guru’s successor to a disciple who lives at the Kali Temple in Laguna Beach.

more disappointed by the things that you didn't do

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain from the Airstream website

also "Don’t stop. Keep right on going. Hitch up your trailer and go to Canada or down to Old Mexico. Head for Europe, if you can afford it, or go to the Mardi Gras. Go someplace you’ve heard about, where you can fish or hunt or collect rocks or just look up at the sky. Find out what’s at the end of some country road. Go see what’s over the next hill, and the one after that, and the one after that." Wally Byam, founder of Airstream Trailers, from the website

The camping season here is about to move south from Mammoth which, despite the lovely warm days, will become much cooler, usually in a short storm from that moves through in lat September. I hope to be out of here next Tuesday or so and will move the cloud of uncertainty surrounding me to Lone Pine and then to a week or so in the Saline Valley at the hot springs. I’ve become mildly obsessed with trailers again as a guy showed up in the last days the camp was open with a 1954 Silver Streak.

He said he bought it from a shepherd in New Mexico a year ago after looking for a year or longer. It was in great original condition with the 50’s yellow Formica counter and table tops and a working shower. I found a 1947 Spartan trailer for sale on eBay and sent the listing to a friend whose family had been involved in manufacturing them.

Me in front of the Mammoth Lakes post office Saturday 9/6 looking to see if any birthday presents arrived a day before my 66^th birthday. An interesting thing happened on 9/7, the actual day – I got email congrats from 5 actual people over the course of the day AND 4 emails from web sites I had signed up for including

Guardian Soulmates dating site

British Blades custom knife site

MTBR – the mountain bike review

TTORa – the Toyota off-road forum

For my birthday I drove up to Mono Lake and then cycled 30 miles in glorious warm high mountain sun exulting in just being alive. After all, not everyone is.

9/10/2008 We’re closing down the camp – mostly schlepping stuff around, dog work. This morning early we were turning large wooden picnic tables on their sides leaning against trees. Several of the trees are old growth pines – 80 to well over 100 feet tall. My workmate was telling me how the Indians used to hug trees to get some energy in ‘The Time Before Horses’, when they ran everywhere. I hugged two giants this morning and as I went to grab each one I had this feeling of strength and immensity come to me and an inner vision that I, my life, was deeply rooted into life. The second tree sat on a small hill alone, As I hugged it it were as though it spoke to me that that’s how I was, up above, looking down, with roots going way into the earth.

confident that we won't be powerless.

Just had to send you my daughter Mary Ellen's blog. (We're all just fine, by the way. I lost half of a tree; Mary Ellen lost many shingles off her roof and still has no electricity.)

Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:58:10 +0000

I just thought I'd pass along my blog from today.

Aware that we may lose electricity, but confident that we won't be powerless.

Love,

Mary Ellen

The Contraflow

Today, as of 4AM, all of our Louisiana interstates went contraflow. That means that the southbound lanes all flow North. Everyone south of us is heading North. The interstates are packed but creeping forward. The view inside cars shows not only passengers, but all of the possessions they deem vital.

The sun still smiles upon us, but an eerie anxiety cloaks people on the streets. If you examine their actions, you'll see common purpose behind it. The man on the corner is not weeding his garden, he's removing limbs that could fall through his window. The other is not cleaning the gutter, but extending the pipe so that the water won't back up into his house.

Yesterday my son had a birthday party to attend. Normalcy is reassuring for children; it was nearby, so we went. On the way, we stopped by a local bakery. The owner's first words were, "Do you want a free cake?" I laughed, not thinking he was serious. Then I looked at his face. His eyes said that this wasn't his first hurricane preparation weekend. "Seriously," he continued. He guided my daughter to the most gorgeous chocolate cake, removed it from its case and boxed it as he spoke. "We lost it all in Katrina," he explained. "The building was okay, but our freezers are the important thing. All of their contents were lost." He closed the box to seal in the over fifty dollar cake. "Then, who wants to stop in a deli-bakery after a storm? It's not like anyone will be coming by to buy cakes once we do have power." His recovery from Katrina had taken a long time. He braced himself to do it again. As he spoke, I encouraged him to bring the remaining cakes to the fire department where people had been filling sand bags all day. "The Police Station too," his assistant piped up. Although they would do their best to send off their remaining delicacies, the memory of the last hurricane's hit was etched on the kind man's face.

In the car, once again headed to the birthday party, my son had no hurricane worries. My daughter held the cake. At eleven, she was old enough to understand the hushed phone conversations and the news bulletins. From her seat she said, "Mom, maybe this means God is telling us that is really will be okay." I told her that I believed that it was a reminder that God is definitely here, and we said a special prayer for the bakery owner and his family.

Today the contraflow begins. We act counter-contra to the way we did only yesterday. Cakes we would have sold, we give away. We take what we have and see who it may help. We remember other storms and press on, heading upward, upstate, up with prayer. Our direction is not centered around the hectic haze of daily lives, but contra to that, our direction is for all those around us, all those we love. Today Gustav is still in the gulf, and the sun still shines.

Why does it take a pending storm for us to begin a contraflow?

Turning things around to head an upward direction-

Mary Ellen

How the U.S. Garrisons the Planet and Doesn't Even Notice

At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans had an estimated 37 major military bases scattered around their dominions. At the height of the British Empire, the British had 36 of them planet wide. Depending on just who you listen to and how you count, we have hundreds of bases. According to Pentagon records, in fact, there are 761 active military "sites" abroad.

The fact is: We garrison the planet north to south, east to west, and even on the seven seas, thanks to our various fleets and our massive aircraft carriers which, with 5,000-6,000 personnel aboard – that is, the population of an American town – are functionally floating bases.

And here's the other half of that simple truth: We don't care to know about it. We, the American people, aided and abetted by our politicians, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media, are knee-deep in base denial.

Now, that's the gist of it. If, like most Americans, that's more than you care to know, stop here.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt352.html

The failure of two empires

…The recent Russo-Georgian war was the last straw: from now on, Moscow, the Third Rome, the capital of the Eurasian empire to which all the numerous people of the empire have had a feeling of awe, a feeling that Moscow is also their capital, became a city of a foreign state. This feeling of Russia's foreignness is shared not just by the people of the Caucuses and Central Asia, but also by friendly Belarus, which offended Moscow by not supporting the Georgian war.

Now, Russia is more alone, more alienated and hated among the republics of the former Soviet Union than at any other time in Soviet and post-Soviet history.

…Still, the US's inability to defend its proxy Georgia, which it implicitly encouraged to attack South Ossetia, setting off the war, is a reflection of the broad geopolitical burden of Iraq and Afghanistan on the US's shoulders. These geopolitical debacles are related to America's increasing economic problems, for which no viable solution can be found in the context of present social-economic arrangements. The collapse of the American global imperial presence is structurally similar to that of the collapse of the Soviet empire. Neither Russia nor the US can be true imperial powers.

The geopolitical structure of the global order created by Stalin and his American adversaries in the aftermath of World War II is collapsing, not just on the Russian side but also on the American side. This implies that the future - at least the immediate future - is not so much for Pax Russika or Pax America, but most likely a push for increasing global anarchy. Dmitry Shlapentokh, PhD, Indiana University South Bend. He is author of East Against West: The First Encounter - The Life of Themistocles, 2005.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JI05Ag01.html

Hornswoggling Obsidian

I thought I’d grab a unique piece of the countryside here to take back – wherever back might be. A nice large piece of obsidian seemed good so I drove up to the top of my favorite hill the back side of which is littered with huge pieces of obsidian.

This is what the hill looks like – AFTER I got done creating the huge ruts and furrows trying to get my Toyota unstuck. The surface was smooth before I buried the thing up to the frame in loose obsidian and high mountain scree. Happily the Toyota – THE most capable off road off the shelf vehicle on the planet – was able to drive itself out – after 30 minutes of scary 30 degree down slope sliding.

Oh, the rock –

note the size 11 Blundstone boot attached the Horse year leg

Maybe 120 lbs, 24” x 10” x 14”. Once I located this purrfect piece I spent over an hour rolling it end over end up the hill 50 yards. It was so heavy even 2 people couldn’t lift it PLUS there’s no damn purchase on it.

So the next day, after thinking about it, I returned with my plywood bed board and rolled the rock onto it. Then, end-by-end, I levered the rock higher and higher, frantically shoving pieces of firewood and then large rounds of lodge pole pine under the ends of the bed board attempting to get one end higher than the tailgate. Taking a break I noticed that because the hill was so steep the downhill side WAS already high enough IF I backed the truck up to it from below. That’s where the problems occurred. I drove the Toy downhill a bit and experimented with backing up 3 times - no problema. So I confidently drove downhill past the rock on the elevated board and attempted to back up again. NADA. I dug in each wheel 12” or so while facing downhill the 1500’ slope. I won’t bore you with the rest of it – I got the G.D. rock, it’s in the back of the truck now. It takes up so much space I may have to abandon some of my stuff at camp when I leave tomorrow.

Oh, and why leave tomorrow? This morning when I emerged from my crumby trailer in the pine forest and walked toward the staff kitchen a large hawk flew about 20 feet away from me down the driveway opening in the 60-80 foot pines. It was unbelievable except it happened right in front of me.

I texted a friend who I knew was not driving a train at the time and got an instant Googleation. “Time to move on – follow the Hawk! Native American Hawk – spiritual guide when important direction change or decision about something must be found – Spirit of Truth, awareness, perceptiveness – the great messenger – ruthless & majestic.”

I’m outta here, I got THE ROCK, I managed to pay the fee for the next month on my storage locker, and enough gas money to get to LA.

[1] There are not less than 36 tzaddikim/righteous persons in the world who receive the Shekhinah/the Divine Presence Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 97b, Sukkot 45b

The Lamed-Vovnik Andre Schwarz-Bart

RIVERS OF BLOOD HAVE FLOWED, columns of smoke have obscured the sky, but surviving all these dooms, the tradition has remained inviolate down to our own time. According to it, the world reposes upon thirty-six Just Men, the Lamed-Vov, indistinguishable from simple mortals; often they are unaware of their station. But if just one of them were lacking, the sufferings of mankind would poison even the souls of the newborn, and humanity would suffocate with a single cry. For the Lamed-Vov are the hearts of the world multiplied, and into them, as into one receptacle, pour all our griefs.

Thousands of popular stories take note of them. Their presence is attested to everywhere. A very old text of the Haggadah tells us that the most pitiable are the Lamed-Vov who remain unknown to themselves. For those the spectacle of the world is an unspeakable hell.

In the seventh century, Andalusian Jews venerated a rock shaped like a teardrop, which they believed to be the soul, petrified by suffering, of an 'unknown' Lamed-Vovnik. Other Lamed-Vov, like Hecuba shrieking at the death of her sons, are said to have been transformed into dogs.

When an unknown Just rises to Heaven, a Hasidic story goes, he is so frozen that God must warm him for a thousand years between His fingers before his soul can open itself to Paradise. And it is known that some remain forever inconsolable at human woe, so that God Himself cannot warm them. So from time to time the Creator, blessed be His Name, sets forward the clock of the Last Judgment by one minute. The Last of the Just

XMAS 2010 card

2010-12-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

2010-11-12T11:03:00.001-08:00

Everest

I intend to become the oldest American to summit Mt. Everest and have established a special savings account in which I invite donations to my project.

PayPal is another way to donate – my ‘address’, account number, there is ckb7_2000 [at] yahoo.com

The oldest American to summit Everest so far is a 67 year old lawyer from Costa Mesa, CA. It took him 3 trips in order to reach the summit. Reading about it briefly, it appears he did not train correctly. The oldest person to summit Everest so far is a 75 year old Japanese man. A 76 year old Nepali man has summited but he is unable to verify his age. The oldest American to get above 8,000 meters [26,247 ft] was Clif Maloney who at 71 summited Cho Oyo, the sixth highest mountain in the world at 8201 metres, 26,906 ft. Maloney died the next morning, never waking up after spending the night at a high camp at 23,000’ the climbing party retreated to after reaching the summit.

My strategy is to train for Everest on Cho Oyo. Having established a climbing system I then plan to summit Cho Oyo one final time and then immediately go to climb Everest from the Chinese side of the mountain. This strategy would probably entail 3 trips to Nepal. I might return another time later to attempt the absolute age record on Everest when I become older than the then oldest summiter.

A very rough budget would be $20,000 to summit Cho Oyo the first time and then an additional $30,000 to summit Everest. Most Americans currently going with established climbing and trekking companies are paying about $75,000 or more for a one time attempt on Everest. My budget does not include most of the major equipment necessary such as food, nutritional supplements, tents and sleeping bags which I hope to get donated by manufacturers. If I am unable to get these donations another $50,000 would be needed, again, roughly. As a metric, 3 man mountaineering tents are now about $700 and a large base camp tent is $5000+.

Many thanks in advance for whatever support you can give toward this interesting and exciting project.

Carlos Ballantyne

Update 1/14/11

I have been training with ardor – the mental and physical attribute, not the person – all through this winter and am climbing and hiking up to 40 miles a week. I am about to upgrade my training to hiking Mt. Baldy, the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountain range of the LA basin. Baldy is about a 5000’ elevation gain, 12 mile climb. I plan to summit Baldy multiple times beginning about this weekend, depending on the trail conditions.

I have pretty much concluded my extensive nutrition and equipment research and am beginning to purchase gear which I plan to use on Baldy but that is also suitable for the 8000 meter peaks – Everest and Cho Oyo.

So far I have received $200 in contributions and have used it to purchase good used equipment on eBay. I have settled on using Cabela’s new Expedition grade tents and plan to get a 6 man version to test in the high winds in Death Valley this spring. I will need 2 six man tents and at least three 3 man tents. I hope to get Cabela’s to donate some of these.

I have been extremely fortunate to have two world class physicians in my corner for the past three years:

Dr. Andrew Yun performed a flawless hip replacement on me 1/3/08 and I am in better condition now than I was ten years BEFORE my hip dislocated and failed in 1997. This is due to my gait being straightened out as my failed hip was due to a congenital mis-alignment. Incidentally, I was attempting to best my time of 7 hours flat summiting and returning from the highest peak in So. Cal. – Mt. San Gorgonio – when I dislocated my hip. San G is a 6000’ elevation gain, 16 mile round trip climb. Dr. Yun is one of America’s top orthopedic surgeons and works out of St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, CA.

Dr. Herman Falsetti is a legend in sports and performance cardiology. I get at least yearly checkups on the treadmill or bicycle trainer from him resulting in a training schedule. A little background on my overall condition is my total cholesterol is about 127, my resting heart rate has been as low as 50 and I was once tested in the Himalayas by a scientific expedition and consistently had the highest dissolved blood oxygen levels of anyone they ever tested including all the Sherpa they tested. But, as ‘they’ say – that was Zen – this is Tao!

Much madness is divinest sense To a discerning eye; Much sense the starkest madness.

2010-03-08T11:21:00.001-08:00

Creative Genius

So sorry to have not included this before. I was just backing up the hard drive of my main computer and noticed this file hanging about and don’t see that I ever included it in a BIM.

Bipolar Disorder and the Creative Genius

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro98/202s98-paper3/Krishna3.html

“One common feature in mania or hypomania is the increase in unusually creative thinking and productivity. The manic factor contributes to an increased frequency and fluency of thoughts due to the cognitive difference between normalcy and mania. Manic people often speak and think in rhyme or alliteration more than non-manic people. In addition, the lifestyles of manic-depressives in their manic phase is comparable to those of creative people. Both groups function on very little sleep, restless attitudes, and they both exhibit depth and emotion beyond the norm. Biologically speaking, the manic state is physically alert.”

Kay Redfield Jamison An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness http://www.amazon.com/Unquiet-Mind-Memoir-Moods-Madness/dp/0679763309 reviewed in BIM 17 back in 1997.

“Madness …. most certainly can, and often does, kill love through its mistrustfulness, unrelenting pessimism, discontents, erratic behavior, and, especially, through its erratic moods.” An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison

manic depression is characterized by “excessive involvement in pleasurable activities.” …. “full inter-episodal recoveries” Diagnostic and Statistical manual DSM IV, from An Unquiet Mind.

A recent take on it http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8504605.stm

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson

I felt a cleaving in my mind

As if my brain had split;

I tried to match it, seam by seam,

But could not make them fit.

The thought behind I strove to join

Unto the thought before,

But sequence raveled out of reach

Like balls upon a floor.

Much madness is divinest sense

To a discerning eye;

Much sense the starkest madness.

'Tis the majority

In this, as all, prevails.

Assent, and you are sane;

Demur, - you're straightway dangerous,

And handled with a chain.

‘While all human personality is probably, at bottom, in a kind of chaos, and only compelled into coherence by the necessity to act in the outer world, it has been the tradition of biography, in all its forms to impose a, more or less, Newtonian pattern of linear intelligibility on this turmoil of an individual’s nature.’ Jesse, the biography of Jesse Jackson by Marshall Frady

My letter to President Jim Yong Kim of Dartmouth College

2009-12-31T11:37:00.000-08:00

My letter to President Jim Yong Kim of Dartmouth College

Dear President Jim Yong Kim

28 December 2009

Best of luck in what portends to be a brilliant and long tenure riding herd on the Earth Ox that is Dartmouth College. I have every assurance from reading your press and my strong intuition that your presidency will not be a public relations, internecine, and financial disaster like that of your predecessor James Wright who, among other things, turned the Dartmouth investment portfolio into a conventionally contrived hedge fund.[1]

The most enduring of my many distinctions in my association with Dartmouth College might be receiving my degree in 1993 twenty-nine years after my original class of 1964 graduated – a record as far as I know. This eclipsed my father Wayne’s [class of 1937] record for the 16 lb. hammer throw which stood for twenty-five years. I was also, in real life, if there is such a thing, the person responsible for the ‘Deltas’ – Alpha Delta Phi – being put on double secret probation by then Dean Thaddeus Seymour.

Rants aside, I am writing to tell you that my Dartmouth education, despite being severely marred by an acute drinking problem, has enabled me to lead an incredible life, which, to my knowledge, does not appear to be diminishing. Among other things;

1. I entered the computer business in 1962 after being expelled for two years by Dean Seymour. After leaving Dartmouth in 1966 having completed my four years but not being granted a degree, I worked on the Apollo moon landing project in Houston and Cape Kennedy and continued working as a computer data communications consultant for almost twenty years.

2. It was my good fortune to stop my drinking addiction at age thirty-one in 1973 and as a by-product suffered an overwhelming spiritual conversion experience.

3. I stopped any regular employment at age thirty-nine. Over the past many years I have been to India, where I had a guru, fourteen times and the Mt. Everest area eight times, including two weeks in June 2009 at age sixty-seven.

4. About a year ago I moved to Los Angeles as I had no where else to go. Since then I have gone broke, landed a speaking part on a large IBM commercial, gone to Nepal for a month, camped with my dog for six weeks at Lake Tahoe, the Sierras, and Death Valley, and am now looking for more work as an actor.

5. Strangely, as a survivor of a severe case of bulbar polio at age fourteen and much later Lyme’s disease, and barely able to walk for ten years due to a worn out hip joint which only got replaced two years ago by Medicare, I am now able to consider attempting to become the oldest American to summit Everest.

My creative genius was greatly furthered by my liberal education at Dartmouth – although a chemistry major I excelled in art and classics courses. In LA now my life appears to be totally about my body – how I ‘look’ at auditions, my weight, etc. – it’s a joke. I think I should be addressing myself to writing a new constitution for the United States of North America but I keep getting interrupted to audition and hike thirty to fifty miles a week to stay in shape.

Get a hold of me if you come to LA – we can schmooze.

Carlos Ballantyne ‘64 – Seal

[1]

Dear Mr. Ballantyne:

Dartmouth's endowment is overseen carefully and very capably by Chief Investment Officer David Russ. Over the past years, returns have been excellent, with gains in every asset class. The College is not immune to the current upheavals in national and global markets. No one is.

Sincerely,

James Wright

………………………………………………………………..

Sir:

I demand that 50% of Dartmouth’s endowment be parceled out over a small range of independent creative financial managers. There are many who have done well in the very – not tough – CREATIVE investment environment that has been long predicted by many savvy followers of the markets.

Some of the managers who come to mind include;

George Soros

Roy Niederhoffer

John Paulson

Jim Rogers

If you are unable to locate these people or the funds they operate let me know.

I learned to think creatively, critically and, most importantly, independently, while at Dartmouth, something the financial overseers at the Little Green have failed at abysmally.

Carlos Ballantyne

………………………………………………………………..

12/28 addendum:

I additionally fault the involvement of many of the Board of Trustees who work in the ‘investment’ business particularly the Chairman who I would tell, given the opportunity, right to his face he is malfeasant.

I also refuse to contribute one penny to Dartmouth College until it razes that monstrosity Webster Hall which has been transmogrified into a ‘library’ by a misguidedly accepted donation. The symmetry of the Baker Library and the whole green is set askew by this granite blight.

The Demise of Swami Paramanand

2009-10-20T22:41:00.001-07:00

The Demise of Swami Paramanand

Early one morning as Gurujii and I were returning from our usual morning walk a typically scantily clad man came running up to us. He was very distraught and spoke a few rapid sentences in Hindi to Gurujii before bursting into tears. Gurujii turned to me and said, “His guru has died.” ”Where?” I asked. Gurujii pointed at a small white temple halfway up the slight hill from the now dry Ganges riverbed.

This entire area of the Ganges riverbank is a jumble of temples and ashrams of all sizes that have been built over the past fifty years. The British built a successively higher and larger dike during their years of occupation attempting to thwart the mighty Ganges from flooding the nearby city of Allahabad during the rainy season. The dike or bandh was now 50 feet high and 400 feet wide and began at the ancient fort with 75 foot high sandstone walls located on the river bank right at the intersection of the Ganges and Jumna. The bandh ran for about 2 miles into the small village of Daraganj which stood on a natural bluff overlooking the river.

The now three of us walked slowly up the hill. I asked Gurujii the name of the dead swami. “Paramanand”, he replied. At Paramanand’s temple we went through the wrought iron gate to a small courtyard. Gurujii and Paramanand’s disciple removed their shoes and stooping entered the low ceiling temple. Gurujii soon came back to the doorway and motioned me over with his hand. “Do you want to see the dead body?” “Okay.” Slipping out of the unlaced tennis shoes that I slopped around in, I crawled through the doorway onto the black and white marble floor of the temple.

The air had the sweet smell of temples everywhere, a humid mix of incense, flowers and the accumulated prayers of countless supplicants. Up against the front wall was the usual statuary, flowers and urns and alongside the altar, propped up in the corner in a slumped cross legged pose was Paramanand. Paramanand’s body was small and thin and his disciple explained that the first thing he had done in the early morning upon finding the body was to fold it into the traditional meditation pose before rigor mortis set in. The distraught disciple was very relieved to have Gurujii to consult about the traditions to follow upon a swami’s death. At that time, in the mid 1980’s, Gurujii was one of the two longest lived inhabitants of the bandh area and he had lived in his ashram for over fifty years. Gurujii told Paramanand’s disciple to sprinkle eucalyptus oil on Paramanand’s robes, presumably so there would be no smell of decay. I never detected that this was done. Gurujii is very fussy about odors of any kind and keeps a small piece of camphor with him at all times in one of the small pockets of his orange robes.

By now several of Paramanand’s devotees had arrived at the temple to pay brief homage on their way homeward from a morning bath in the Ganges. We all gathered outside and Gurujii gave orders to some to go off to the city to summon Paramanand’s followers and to others he gave directions for the ceremony itself which was to be burial in the Ganges.

Hindus traditionally burn the bodies of all who have reached puberty to quickly liberate the soul from its encasement in the flesh. I am certain also that the tradition of cremation developed for health and space considerations, as there is abundant firewood. The Hindu tradition for children who have not yet reached puberty is that their bodies may be thrown directly into the Ganges as children are considered pure and undefiled by carnal desires. Snakebite victims, of which there are many in

India

, may be thrown directly into the river as its ever pure and sacred waters have reputedly miraculously revived some of these corpses. Although the corpses of swamis are frequently burned, burial in either earth or water, especially the Ganges, is another option. The bodies of the orange robed are considered pure and free from desires. The tangerine orange color of the robes symbolically represents the color of the inner fires of renunciation through which those initiated into the swami order have passed.

With Paramanand’s devotees going off in all directions throughout the city reporting his demise, Gurujii and I completed our walk up the hill and down the dike road the short distance to Gurujii’s small ashram enclave. Since the burial wasn’t scheduled until 2 PM I went about my usual and lengthy morning ritual of meditation, exercises and picking through the dhal removing small stones and then setting it to cook while I stood on my head for a half hour or longer. Just as I finished eating Gurujii came up announcing that the death ceremony was soon to take place. As this was several hours before the previously announced time I wondered if many of Paramanand’s followers would miss the ceremony. When Gurujii, Swami Sevanand, Gurujii’s cook and personal attendant for many years, and I arrived at Paramanand’s small temple only a small crowd of perhaps ten or so had gathered. I presumed a large crowd would be here for the ceremony.

Paramanand’s body was tied at the feet, waist and chest into a large high back wooden chair with strips of orange cloth. Long bamboo poles were lashed to the chair legs. We set off on the two mile walk toward the Ganges with Paramanand sitting almost five feet off the ground in the chair borne by four men. Gurujii soon ordered us all to stop as Paramanand’s head was bobbing around. The chair was brought back down to the ground and a strip of cloth was tied around Paramanand’s neck and then around the back of the chair. We set off again. As I walked along in the warm February sun slightly behind the bier I suddenly heard scuffling and shouting behind me. Looking back I saw a young boy carrying a large water bucket full of 5 and 10 paise coins. The boy would periodically take a handful of coins and scatter them on the ground behind the procession like grass seed. This had created a long comet shaped throng of young boys and ambulatory beggars following behind us much increasing the apparent number of mourners.

Reaching the riverbank after about 45 minutes we negotiated for a large flat bottomed boat to take us all out to the exact meeting place of the muddy Ganges and the clear blue Yamuna rivers. This spot is called Tribeni. Here it is said the unseen river Saraswati surges up from the bottom and these three together create or are absorbed by the mighty Ganges which passes onward to the east to Benares, Calcutta and finally the Bay of Bengal.

About ten of us got into the boat with Swami Paramanand’s chair placed amid ship facing forward, a silent tangerine robed captain. We were rowed the several hundred yards downstream and out to the deepest part of the confluence. At Gurujii’s direction we untied Paramanand’s body from the chair and balanced it on the wood plank boat seat and then we tied bricks into the hem of Paramanand’s robe. With two people holding the bricks in the hem and two others holding the body over the side of the boat and others balancing the boat upright on the opposite gunwale, we all let loose at the same time. The body quickly sank out of sight but for a brief unforgettable moment the loose hem of his orange robes flickered in the sunlit muddy water like a large goldfish. Then nothing.

We ordered the boatman to take us in closer to shore where the water was only knee deep. We tied into the many other boats and everyone except Gurujii and me stripped down to skivvies and jumped overboard to bathe in the river. Gurujii didn’t bathe in the Ganges at all anymore. He was then 83 and hadn’t bathed in the river for some years as it was too cold for him. Sevanand yelled at me in Hindi and Gurujii translated, “He wants to know why you are not bathing in the river.” “Too cold”, I replied. Actually, I was still sick and feverish from my last bout of the recurring illness to which all Westerners in

India

are subject. I asked Gurujii about bathing right here at the confluence and he said it was the holiest spot and that Hindus believe that to bathe here was to be liberated from the necessity to be reborn. I had a sudden insight and asked Gurujii, “How much water does it take to be saved?” He reflected for a while before giving what I later saw was the only possible answer, “One drop is sufficient.” So I leaned over the side and scooped a little water in my hand and poured it over my head letting it dribble down my face. We rowed back to the riverbank and walked back to our respective ashrams and homes.

The next time I was to take a boat out to the confluence was four years later when six of us took a clay pot filled with the still smoldering ashes of Sevanand

and sank it in the sacred Tribeni. I did bathe in the river that time. Gurujii was so upset he wasn’t able to come with us. He just sat bolt upright for weeks in his high back wooden chair looking straight ahead.

From the Adventures of a Knight Errant

Gurujii – Swami Vishnudevanand Saraswati

reprinted from BIM16, December 1996 with added photographs

Kunde Hospital [Mt. Everest region] Drug Wish List

2009-10-16T09:13:00.001-07:00

Kunde Hospital Drug Wish List

Kunde Hospital and Khumbu/Pharack Health care system is a non-profit organization staffed with a permanent Nepali physician along with an overseas volunteer physician with objective of providing medical care to the local Sherpa and Nepali community in this remote region. Any donations are deeply appreciated and the medications constantly used up here are as follows;

Antibiotic:

1. Ceftriaxone IM/TV

2. Cefotaxime IV/IM/PO

3. Cephalexin PO

4. Augmentin PO/IV/IM

5. Amoxicillin PO/IM

6. Cloxacillin PO/IV/IM

7. Zithromax PO

8. Penicillin PO

9. Clarithromycin

Analgesics:

1. Paracetamol (acetaminophen)

2. Dextropropoxyphene

Non-steriodal:

1. Ibuprofen PO

2. Cox-2 inhibitors any type

3. Diclofenac PO/Gel

4. Diclofenac tablet

Cardiac drugs

1. Enalapril

2. Atenolol

3. Hydrochlorothiazide 50/25 mg.

4. Aspirin 50/100 mg.

GI Drugs

1. Omeprazole

2. Ranitidine PO/IV/IM

3. Pantoprazole

Dermatology

1. Hydrocortisone crème

2. Antifungal drugs any type

3. Antiviral crème

4. Anusol preparations (herorroids)

Others:

1. Multistick urine test

2. Pregnancy test

3. Surgical gloves – Sterile/non-sterile Medium size

4. Plastic apron

5. Casting materials

6. Pulse/Oximetry units

Thank You – Kunde Hospital - Dr. Kami Temba Sherpa ktsherpafamily@gmail.com

-----------------------------------------

Trekker’s notes – I got this list from the attending physician in Kunde on my trek to Khumbu, the Mt. Everest region of Nepal, in June 2009. I brought up some left-over prescription medications from around the house and a few other things that are difficult to get in Nepal such as Tylenol PM. If you Google up the medical names on this list you will see that they are largely common prescription and in many cases, over the counter, medications such as Advil, Aleve, Tylenol, Darvon, Vasotec, etc. All donations must be hand-carried directly to the hospital – any mail or other parcel system does not work. Please re-Tweet or pass on this list or the link to it to anyone you know heading out to the Everest area or to trekking companies. Thank you. Carlos carlosjii at gmail dot com

Could the Dow Finally Bottom in 2017?

2009-10-01T13:47:00.001-07:00

Could the Dow Finally Bottom in 2017?

Ryan Detrick (rdetrick@sir-inc.com)
7/9/2004 3:08 PM ET

Looking back at the past one hundred years of stock market history, one thing stands out more than anything else. The Dow Jones Industrial Average moves in very long patterns that are known as secular moves. In the simplest terms, a secular bull market is an extended time frame (between 10 and 20 years) where prices increase. On the other hand, a secular bear market is an extended time frame where prices move sideways to down. Examining past bull and bear markets, there is a very good chance that we have entered another secular bear market that potentially won't find its ultimate bottom until May 2017.

Below is data that I was able to compile from our quantitative analysis database. I only examined the Dow because it is the only exchange that has been around since 1906.

I determined how long the secular market lasted by finding the Dow's ultimate daily closing low and the ultimate closing high (or vice-versa for a bear market). It is obvious by looking at the results that buying and holding would have made you a lot of money in bull times, but you would have been better off in cash during bear times.

The average bull market lasted 168 months or exactly 14 years. Indexing, buying, and holding blue chips would have been a very good strategy during one of these periods. All you had to do was buy, wait a decade or so, and watch the gains come into your portfolio.

Unfortunately, accompanying every bull market was a bear market. The average bear market from top to bottom lasted 208 months or 17 years and 4 months. From this we can conclude that the ultimate bottom may not occur in the Dow until May 2017.

There is no way of knowing whether history will hold true this time around or not, but I think it is a very important concept of which the average investor needs to be aware. The most recent bull market has brain washed investors into thinking that if you "buy and hold" blue-chip stocks then you will come out ahead in the end. While this statement may currently be true, it could take decades to realize a profit.

I realize that during these secular moves we will see counter moves (called cyclical moves) that will usually last a year or two. If we are in a new secular bear market, then the October 2002 to February 2004 rally is a classic example of a cyclical bull market within a secular bear market. Here at Schaeffer's we were able to recognize this trend. That is why we were bullish on technology, autos, and gold throughout 2003, garnering some monster returns from those sectors. Turning to this year, we see the masses quickly turning bullish, predicting wonderful returns in the markets for a second straight year. Being contrarians, we moved opposite of the crowd and said that 2004 would be a down year for U.S. stock markets. But this doesn't mean that gains in certain sectors aren't possible if you looked hard enough. We recommended investing in autos, energy companies, some exposure to gold as insurance, and keeping a healthy amount in cash. All but gold have performed extremely well so far year-to-date. However, the yellow metal has begun to show signs of life recently as the U.S. dollar, which trades inversely with gold, is beginning to look top heavy.

Turning to the major index returns so far this year, the Nasdaq, S&P 500 Index, and Dow were all negative for the year as of this morning. In other words, after listening to all of the experts telling you how high the market averages would soar this year, you would have been better off keeping your portfolios in cash the first six and a half months of 2004. Here at Schaeffer's, we consider the upcoming earnings season and how stock's react to it as being the deciding factor for the rest of the year's performance. If the first-half of the year couldn't rally stocks after very strong earnings and positive economic news, you have to wonder what can.

In conclusion, it is important to realize that we may see sideways to negative returns for quite sometime, with several pockets of strength thrown into the mix. History tells us that we had better be on the lookout for alternative investment strategies, rather than simply "buying and holding," if we want to see gains in our portfolios.

Ryan Detrick (rdetrick@sir-inc.com)

[with permission

That was a blast from the pastJ

Feel free to use it. thanks.

- Ryan Detrick

More on the END of the American Empire

2009-08-08T12:17:00.001-07:00

More on the END of the American Empire

I just – 8/8/09 - received the following email from a friend. In its entirety so as to not add too much chaff -

Hello Y'All:

The following is a serious heads-up.

Love, JDA
================================================

http://www.brassche cktv.com/ page/674. html

BRACE FOR BANK SHUTDOWN
//www.freebuck. com/articles/ jwillie/090716jw illie.htmb

Harry Schultz and Bob Chapman have revealed some harsh plans for temporary
US bank system shutdown on or about September 2009. The story has been
promoted by Peter Brimelow on MarketWatch for further publicity and
legitimacy (CLICK HERE
<http://www.marketwa tch.com/story/ schultz-paints- bleak-picture- of-future>).
See "Latest Schultz Shock: a Bank Holiday" which explains the US State Dept
tipoff to the many US Embassies. The July Hat Trick Letter cites multiple
confirmations solicited and given. My analysis goes on about speculation as
to the motive, implementation, cover for criminal activity, and market
impact. The USDollar would likely suffer a sudden quantum drop devaluation,
followed by incredible pressure to avert USTreasury default. Despite the
mockery in my email inbox for over two years, this inevitable inexorable
disaster of upcoming USTreasury default is unfolding like a path growing
more narrow and treacherous, with marauders on the hillsides lobbing Paulson
Cocktails (ala Molotov) from strategic high ground. The creditors will show
their strength very soon, very soon indeed! The unintended consequences
would be endless, not the least of which might be final declaration of state
of emergency state by state, or martial law nationally. Attempts at capital
controls should be on the table of discussion soon, but that comes with a
monumental backfire waiting to happen, as implementation seems next to
impossible in less than two years time. Look for implementation of numerous
plans to be circumvented by the reality of market forces, like elimination
of the IRS-enforced income taxes in favor of a Value Added Tax
nationally.. ..

==================

I am adding the following coincident links and stories

Corrected link http://www.freebuck.com/articles/jwillie/090716jwillie.htm

Celeste is the best long-term predictor I know - http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/marshall1.1.1.html

His predictions coincide with mine using astrology.

My predictions are here – if the email above is correct my prediction of not being able to buy either gold or silver for periods of time – perhaps long periods – with US dollars will definitely come to pass.

An older prediction from 2007 or so http://astrolos.blogspot.com/2009/08/astro-economic-alert-14.html

And my astro based prediction of the end of the Federal Reserve http://astrolos.blogspot.com/2009/01/timing-american-economic-apocalypse.html

Chaff follows

The US dollar has fallen through important technical support on the charts in the past week

The last Treasury auction essentially failed – for the first time that we know of.

I could spend the time and re-vamp my own predictions but, frankly, I don’t think anyone out here in The Heartland of America cares. Everyone is rather blithely clunking along presuming everything will continue the way it has for the past 100 years with the US being the top dog and the economy having ups and downs. We are, in fact, at the END of the American Empire.

The US and the military that will be patrolling our own streets soon have significantly ramped up their losing strategies in the Graveyard of Empires. The US has been bankrupted by its military which has FAILED TO PREVAIL in all three of the major conflicts it has had since ‘The Greatest Generation’ won WW 2. These conflicts are Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq and Afghanistan. The economic consequences of these losses are facing us now.

Carlos

The Wizard

A customer looks back at the photographer.

2009-07-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

A customer looks back at the photographer.

Thanks one and all. My headshots are best seen here

http://picasaweb.google.com/carlosjii/CKBHeadshots#

$120 per usable image for headshots. That’s about my cost to finally arrive at a set of usable headshots for posting at on-line casting sites. This does NOT INCLUDE ANY PRINTING - ‘Errr - that would be extra Sir ’.

Oh, let’s mention here we are not talking about what it takes to get good photographs. We are talking about GREAT photography. There is a huge difference getting that last 10%. EVERYONE can get the first 80-90%.

AN INVITATION TO EMPTINESS

2009-07-21T20:43:00.001-07:00

BALLANTYNE'S IRREGULAR MUSINGS

Number 2

So. Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I was in Newport Beach. Vox clamantis in deserto.

AN INVITATION TO EMPTINESS

Life is ultimately empty and beyond meaning and meaninglessness. There are no good deeds we can ever do which will bring us any favor from God and no bad deeds which will ever cause anything other than God's love to shine upon us. God has created this universe as His play and the sagest of all prayers is "God, thou hast created us against our wills. Free us!"

Most of us resist emptiness by doing things, being things, and having things. This resistance to emptiness can produce marvelous worldly results. Some of us begin to see that we are embracing only one side of the dualities of creation. True seekers persistently embrace the opposites in which we are immersed and in this embrace the opposites collapse into nothingness. To maintain this embrace is to come to the presence of emptiness and it is to this presence I strongly invite you and through which I will support you.

EMPTINESS PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED

It occurs to me many will think these writings are a fine exposition but don't apply. I pass on to you some practices of emptiness. See what happens. It can't possibly be worse than what is happening now. No one can practice for you.

. Don't eat or drink anything for three days

. OK. Just don't eat for three days and drink water

. Too long for you? Try it for one day

As a result of this practice I no longer believe I need to eat to live. Many things happened to me during the time I was practicing this. Have times of your own.

. Take a long period of time, by your definition, and travel without any particular destination in mind. See what happens.

I could tell many stories of my experiences doing this. This, in fact, may be my favorite practice. The word fakir in Sanskrit describes a type of wandering ascetic in India. The actual practice of a fakir is to stay no longer than three days in any one place because they will inevitably begin to become attached to things.

The first time I went camping as an adult I took $2200 and put it in my pocket and went to the airport and flew to San Jose from Newark, N.J. I was headed for Yosemite which I had heard of but never been to. I had no idea how to get there so as we began the descent I got out the California map and began to conjure. The fellows next to me in the aisle borrowed the map and I managed to get a ride with them all the way to Merced. Many adventures followed and when it came time to leave I went to the gas station at the Tuolumne Meadows campground and the first person I asked for a ride took me and the car full of Girl Scouts she was shepherding all the way to the San Jose airport. I was headed for Vancouver. I had a friend there and knew the name of the place he was staying but nothing else. I ended up living at a Chinese Buddhist temple for two weeks before traveling on to other adventures.

. Walk, hitchhike, bicycle, bum rides or take the bus everywhere you go for a week.

. Make a commitment to meditate for one hour a day for one week and keep it.

. Take a moment to ponder your emptiness each day for a while. "How am I doing on my emptiness?"

. Throw away, sell or give away everything you haven't used in the past year.

. Move. Just for the heck of it.

Back when I was a computer consultant I kept extensive files from periodicals on new developments because the field moved so quickly that was the only way to keep current. This was the idea base that I brought to the next job. I finally threw all this 'stuff' away and was forced to create or recreate what I then needed. I acknowledge anyone who is willing to operate in these lands of not knowing because I know the courage it takes. I will support you in travel to these places. I might even buy you a ticket.

. Stop helping other people - especially people who haven't asked for help.

. Don't talk to anyone for 24 hours.

. Engage three strangers a day in conversation.

One thing I discovered somewhere along in these practices is that my desire to be free was interfering with my freedom. I saw that I was free but was bound by my desire to be free. All I had to do was to be free because I was and stop desiring it. Wanting and having are two different things. Stop wanting what you want. You can never get enough of what you don't really want. Stop wanting and start having.

DON'T ATTACH MEANING TO EMPTINESS

Its important to distinguish emptiness from other things and this is best done by not attaching meaning to emptiness. The power of emptiness comes from simply nonjudgmentally allowing it to be, acknowledging it and standing before it. To label emptiness depression or aloneness or even feelings of suicide disempowers emptiness. Be empty.

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Arise! Awake! Oh brothers and sisters of immortality. Think not that God exists in one place more than any other place.

All the Gods and Goddesses that ever were live now in the core of your heart as your very own Self.

They, as us, were never born and will never die.

Give birth, therefore, to this knowing of your own immortality.

This is the one and true nativity.

And so it was and always will be.

CARLOS

XMAS 92

Preliminary stub of BIM 58 - My Inspired Musiings

2009-05-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

BIM 58

June 2009

The Mount Everest of Philosophical and Spiritual Publications

An oracle for the wise

Vox clamatis in deserto

Interminable subscriptions $25 and up – the more you send the more you get!

"The best philosophers are useless to the world, but that is the fault of the world, not of philosophy." Plato

Skin Cancer

Lately I’ve run into several people my age and older who’ve had basal and squamous cell carcinomas removed. Since I’m in heavy sun a lot due to my long hikes in the mountains I’ve ramped up my sun protection a lot. I am currently using SPF 70 Neutrogena sun block in a waterproof cream and a convenient spray. I am particularly careful to put lots on my nose – where the two people had ops, and my ears, where one friend has had a topical chemotherapy done. The ear is so thin that if conventional chemo is done it frequently burns holes. Be warned.

Let me remind you that the world class dermatologist I once worked for thought aloe was one of the absolute best healers for the skin. He grew his own aloe in the yard, ran it through a juicer and froze the untreated juice. This was then used directly on the skin of patients who had had dermabrasions and heavy chemical peels. I have been using an aloe vera based moisturizing lotion for 35 years. I usually lather on bunches of it every morning and let it soak in. The best real aloe you can purchase may be this.

My current outdoor hats are;

Australian Akubra with a 4” brim special order in Sand, and

this, with a 4” brim also.

Outcasts of roads better traveled

My girlfriend, who was educated at all Catholic schools in the NY area in the 50’s and 60’s, has reported that the girls she met who went to the Ursuline high school in the Bronx, send email to each other in Latin. Given the current dumbing down of America, Latin is probably as good as the best of NSA’s codes.

“Angeles Crest is a place where the outcasts of roads better traveled can be with like-minded souls.” http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crest19-2009may19,0,6585700.story

LA basin created by a meteor strike

I know, it’s more of my radical ideas and to my knowledge no one has alleged this BUT it seems clear to me the LA basin was created by a meteor strike. It became obvious to me a week ago or so as I hiked to LA through the mountains and descended into Brentwood. I have a sweeping view of the LA coastline from Santa Monica south to the Palos Verges peninsula. Clearly, the bay is round. And I was suddenly struck with remembering that the LA basin has lots of oil. In my opinion, or theory, oil has been created by meteor strikes[1].

Twitter

Don’t believe the BS by media types who deride Twitter. I was going to write this up earlier but demurred thinking even my subscribers might not be able to wrap themselves around the concept due to stodgy thinking. Increasing hype on the general uselessness of Twitter abounds in the recent press. All these commentators are older than 40. I first heard of Twitter 2 years ago when there were protests by bicyclists in NY and the NY Times article mentioned the pole-isse couldn’t keep up with the organization of the ‘mob’ who were following protest orders on something called Twitter. Twitter allows one to post short messages to one’s Twitter account. BUT if you have a Twitter account you can FOLLOW other people – get their posts sent to your account stream AND you can have posts from selected people you follow sent directly to your cell phone. Here are some example uses;

A reverse 911 that actually works. You have a photo shoot with maybe 50 staff and cast members. The director sends tweets to the film’s account which everyone on the set is following.
You have a family of 5 – you and 4 kids. You all have cell phones – RIGHT? Everyone follows everyone else in the family account so everyone knows when the soccer practices end etc.
You have a small company with 200 employees. …..get it.
I am in the TV commercial and theatrical acting business in LA. That’s how I am going to Mt. Everest! Variety magazine and all the other entertainment rags have been supplanted by Nikke Finkes blog on Hollywood. It is HUGE news that the Endeavor agency has merged with the Wm. Morris agency. Endeavor was started by Ari Emanuel – who is huge in the ‘Wood – AND he is Rahm Emanuel’s brother. Is this important? No – not unless you want to make predictions about how the entire film and TV markets are going. I follow Nikke on Twitter, getting cell phone updates when she tweets. She tweets stubs to recent blog posts of import.

As an inducement, people who are following my Twitter stream can make requests for ‘stuff’ from Kathmandu on this trip I’m about to take. You can make the request by direct email if you have my address, as a tweet, or by email to the name on my Twitter account at gmail dot com.

The above was written in May 2009. Clearly recent events show how important Twitter can be. Don’t be as dumb ass like Hillary –"I wouldn't know a Twitter from a tweeter," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "but apparently, it is very important." Geometry was hard also. Just because you’re older does not mean that you are somehow absolved from having to learn new things.

The Tenth Trip of a Lifetime

I mentioned to one person at a meeting I was on the waitlist for Kathmandu. Her comment was, “Oh, a trip of a lifetime.” True – but this will be my 10^th trip of a lifetime to Kathmandu.

At a very important conference on Elderhood a few years ago one of the seminarians suggested that her most important contribution to other people, especially children, was ‘the creation of significant memories’. If that is true, then the most important function I can perform for myself is the same – even if it does not always feel comfortable.

Here’s a compendium of tweets from the twip.

· I’m back – if there is such a place. It implies there’s an ‘away’ which, if the world is your home, doesn’t exist. Jun 18th

· I’m outta Kathmandu today – taxis are running - God is the travel agent – air here pregnant with revolt Jun 15th

· Where there is a will there is a Tweet – Maoist bandh (closure) in Kathmandu today Waited Inet shop for 10 mins and – joila Maybe fly manana Jun 14th

· I’m dizzy from reading the Upanishads and then just returning from Swayambhu – the Monkey Temple http://bit.ly/17WgGf3:26 AM Jun 13th

· Soooo if my pharts are air now I MUST be well from the trots here in Kathmandu – thanks ayurveda green pills - found new veg restaurant!!!! Jun 12th

· There is no joy in the finite, only in the Infinite is there joy - Chandogya Upanishad - Here in the finite I am twiddling around Kathmandu Jun 11th

· early AM flight from Lukla – 10 days in the land of the Sherpa - Honored guest at big wedding - taxi direct to http://mikesbreakfast.com/ Jun 9th

· Oh yeah – God is the travel agent! Jun 9th

· Lukla waiting flight to Kathmandu 7 manana. 2 weeks in Himalayas – Namche, big Sherpa wedding in Phakding. Maoist protest shut flights today Jun 9th

· tweet from Namche -huge problem of how to get a wedding cake down 4000’ and 5 hour walk to Phakding – rescue heli overhead as we tweet Jun 4th

· clouds lifted in Namche - Tibetan next to me at breakfast wood blocking prayer flags - got wish list Kunde hospital meds will post later Jun 3rd

· Hand sanitizer works great under my arms! even better than Listerine. End of the trail in Namche – food is too good. Day hiking from here Jun 2nd

· the cloudless day has changed to slight rain and mist - a few wild Tibetans have stopped by - all watching a music video w/Sherpas Jun 2nd

· Cloudless day in Namche. Taking a rest day to acclimate at Zamling Hotel Jun 1st

· The Big Collapse Could Be Very Near http://bit.ly/sxdWI Jun 1st

· Have moved my tea drinking up to Namche Bazar at 3660 meters altitude - a bitchy 800 meter climb up the final hill in bright Himalayan sun. Jun 1st

· Just added myself to the http://wefollow.com twitter directory under: #Adventurer #astrologer #mystic May 31st

· rainy day in Himalayas - sitting around drinking Tibetan salt tea at Namaste Lodge in Phakding May 30th

· I am in little Sherpa village named Phakding - my stay has been extended to attend a huge Sherpa wedding 8/9 June arranged marriage -try it May 30th

· still at Namaste Lodge surrounded by 20000' peaks cascading falls greenery up steep hills feet from rushing stream May 30th

· Tweeting from 8000' in the Himalayas - heading up to Namche Bazaar - I'net has come to Namaste Lodge in Phakding May 29th

· I'm leaving for Namche tomorrow - 6 am flight to Lukla - sounds like heavy rain up in Solukhumbu May 26th

· I keep moving to avoid pre-traumatic stress syndrome. Reading Jhumpa Lahiri pretty obsessively – which she deserves May 25th

· AS USUAL my long-standing predictions are coming true http://tinyurl.com/pqm7vl The US is broke http://tinyurl.com/pr7xnz 8:08 PM May 23rd

· tech hints http://my.foxmarks.com/ ALL my Firefox bookmarks here in Kathmandu http://www.streamy.com/ as a homepage. You herd it here! May 22nd

· Rez to LUA 28 May – world’s 2nd most exotic airport designator after SYH – return 7 June May 22nd

· now tweeting from Kathmandu - recovering from not eating for 24 hrs due cardboard· meal on airlines - 5* meal at Yak & Yeti Hotel last Knight May 21st

· Tweet from Bankok airport - now a non stop 16:35 from LAX May 20th

· one small tweet for man one big tweet for twitterdom off to LAX heading for Kathmandu May 19th from mobile web

· http://yfrog.com/2sgq9j 7:45 AM May 19th from yfrog

· “Eternity is made up of todays. Glorify the hour.” Christopher Ruess

Travel tips for Asia

Water purifier – I have not yet gotten sick purifying my own water in India or Nepal. The only real alternative is to buy bottled water or drink boiled water. At 10000’ altitude water boils at 193.6 degrees – not high enough to knock out all bad stuff. At all altitudes boiling water is energy consumptive. The filter I use is a First Need XL. Even in 5 star hotels I purchase a bottle of water or many times bring my own. I just had a bout of stomach upset drinking one glass of some kind of ‘filtered’ water with dinner at a 5 star hotel in Kathmandu. Also, NEVER brush your teeth under tap water – even at 5 star hotels. What I do is take the water the locals drink and then purify/filter that. I usually keep two or three liters of good water in my hotel room at all times.

I have a special Indian anti-dysenteric ayurvedic medicine I cannot be without – either overseas or in the US. June 2008 I contracted a case of that salmonella virus from tomatoes that hit the US. I knocked mine out in hours with my magic green pills. As I am attempting to get FDA approval to import these I don’t want to give my source. If you think you need or want some let me know. I have had about 25 successive full recoveries from diarrhea and dysentery with these with NO failures in 20 years. The best thing is there are no side-effects such as knocking out all your intestinal flora. I could never travel to all the destinations I go to without these pills.

Listerine is a very strong anti-fungal, anti-odor, disinfectant, and a superb hand sanitizer. At a minimum you can splash some under your arms if you haven’t been able to bathe for a while. Only the original works, not the CVS and other knock-offs. Great for taking the smell out of latrines. I put it into a spray bottle. Sample usage – I have a 40 oz. stainless steel water bottle. One of the bottle’s uses is to fill it at night with hot water and put it into my sleeping bag. I was at a Sherpa lodge for a few days and the bathroom was outside and far away. At night I peed into the s/s bottle, emptying it in the morning. Before using it again for drinking water I rinsed it out several times with Listerine.

My girlfriend works as a nurse R.N. in one of the US’s most prestigious hospitals. She reports that most of the infectious problems in the hospital are from not washing hands by hospital staff – including doctors. This trip I took with me several small bottles of CVS hand sanitizer and used them a lot, especially before eating.

[1]

The origins of oil

I have a theory that oil was created on our planet by asteroid strikes not the supposed decomposition of organic matter as is commonly and unthinkingly purported. I haven’t looked over the geography of oil in detail but most of the large fields occur in areas that are clearly shaped like huge circular depressions – like the Gulf of Mexico. There is a recent theory that the dinosaurs became extinct due to a large strike that created the Gulf of Mexico and drastically changed the earth’s weather. I note that the significant deposits in Texas, Oklahoma and Venezuela and the huge reserves in the Gulf could all be the result of this strike. I have not thought yet about the geo-alchemy that could directly create huge hydro-carbon deposits underground from the extreme conditions that would exist upon a meteor or asteroid striking the earth. from BIM40, 2005

The Origins of Oil and Gas

Happily, I can report the ready furtherance of my theory that the origins of oil

and gas on the planet come from meteor and asteroid strikes. Significant

corroboration has come to me in the past month as I have explored the Red

Desert Basin here in Wyoming. The basin appears totally the result of a strike

and is a 100-mile in diameter depression loaded with natural gas whose

extraction the conservationists here in Wyoming are attempting to limit. Without

having looked closely at the map, I suggest that the large asteroid strike that

created the Gulf of Mexico and caused a global cooling from the immense dust

cloud killing the dinosaurs, had large fragments that struck ‘nearby’ such as here

in Wyoming and also the Permian Basin in West Texas, site of huge hydro-carbon

resources. from BIM43, 2006

My letter to the President

2009-03-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

I have incorporated these posts into my newsletter BIM 57 below.

Preliminary - The I Ching reorganized in octal numbers

2009-03-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

Preliminary - The I Ching reorganized

Abstract: The ancient I Ching is a set of 64 hexagrams which are all the possible unique combinations of the binary numbers 0 and 1 taken as sets of 6. I have renumbered the hexagrams using an octal numbering system. Instead of the classical decimal numbering 1 through 64, the hexagrams are numbered 0 through 77 in the octal numbering system. Since the hexagrams take their new octal numbers from the binary, and octal, digits of which they are comprised, the actual make-up of any hexagram can be ascertained by its octal number alone.

Brief Introduction:

Each six line or binary digit hexagram is composed of two, three line trigrams;

_____

(7)

__ __

(0)

__ __

_____

(4)

__ __

_____

__ __

(2)

_____

__ __

(1)

_____

__ __

(3)

_____

__ __

_____

(5)

__ __

_____

(6)

each line of which can be represented by the numbers 0 and 1, where _____ is 1, and __ __ is 0.

The binary representation of each octal number is;

0, 0, 0 = 0

0, 0, 1 = 1

0, 1, 0 = 2

0, 1, 1 = 3

1, 0, 0 = 4

1, 0, 1 = 5

1, 1, 0 = 6

1, 1, 1 = 7

Because the lines of I Ching hexagrams are constructed from the bottom up to the top line, the numbers beneath the trigrams above are the octal digit of that trigram.

Table of hexagrams

legend –

the number in the upper left of each square denotes the octal number of that hexagram. These numbers are 0-7, 10-17, 20-27, 30-37, 40-47, 50-57, 60-67, 70-77
the number in the lower right of each square denotes the ancient and still used decimal number of that hexagram
The text in each square gives the English name for the hexagram along with the ancient Chinese name
The lower legend gives the hexagrams lower trigram for the vertical column of hexagrams
The left side legend gives the upper trigram for that horizontal row of hexagrams
The octal numbers of the hexagrams are constructed from the binary digits from the bottom up in the same way the coins or yarrow sticks are thrown in the classic method of determining each 3 binary digit, octal digit, or trigram.

A few examples;

The lower left hexagram Standstill, Stagnation, P’i, ancient number 12 above has the octal number 07. It is comprised of the following lines;

_____

__ __

where _____ is one and __ __ is zero. From bottom to top the binary digits of this hexagram are 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1. Octally, that is, arranging each set of 3 binary digits as one octal number, the octal number of this hexagram is, therefore, 07.

In the lower left the hexagram octal 07, Standstill, Stagnation, P’i, ancient number 12.

Further study;

Marie-Louise von Franz, in 1968, was the first to publish that the mathematical structure of DNA is analogous to that of the I Ching. She cites the reference to the publication in an expanded essay Symbols of the Unus Mundus, published in her book Psyche and Matter.^--Marie-Louise von Franz Psyche and Matter (Shambhala, 1992) p.39-62. The reference is cited on page 44; she cites the reference as number 16 of the article: Dialog über den Menschen: Eine Fetschrift zum 75. Geburtstag von Wilhelm Bitter (Klett. Stuttgart, 1968).

I have the thought that because the Chinese language is pictographic and because the I Ching is a set of binary, or octally based diagrams that study of the I Ching might elucidate the seemingly different brain functioning of the classical Oriental mind.

If there is no relatively direct use of or numerological significance of the classical I Ching hexagram decimal numbers an octal numbering scheme presented is much more easily workable.

Useful Internet Links

http://www.google.com/search?q=Hexagrams+of+the+Yi+Jing+into+a+binary+order+(the+Fu+Hsi+Ordering).&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

http://myweb.usf.edu/~pkho/yijing/dnatst.htm#L2

Ballantyne’s Inspired Musings #57 - preliminary - final sent to subscribers

2009-02-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

Ballantyne’s Inspired Musings #57

April 2009

Vox clamantis in deserto

The voice of one crying in the wilderness

The Mount Everest of Spiritual and Philosophical journals

An oracle for the wise

Subscriptions $25 or more – the more you send the more you get. Available only by email .pdf

An inter-episodal recovery

I am at present unable to work much on BIMming so I thought I’d so a short wrap and send it out with just a small amount of accumulated stuff. LA’s creative forces seem to have entangled my malleable personality – the part that has the whim of iron. I’m finishing up my book, auditioning for some screen work, and publishing photos in the most accessible form I can find for sale – Picasa 3 by Google. By a multiple set of inter-locking flukes I have a commercial acting/modeling agent who told me face to face I am, mostly due to my age, in demand for screen work.

So what actually happened??????? I was 4 months behind in my storage locker fees so I was just going to abandon it and let the stuff go to auction. I talked to my main psychic advisor and she said borrow the money, sell the one thing I grieved losing as it seemed to be of value, my panoramic slide of Mt. Everest, and then pay back the moola. So I got my stuff out of hock, sold enough valuable trinkets on eBay to pay back the fees and have posted the Everest and all the other saleable photos I can readily come up with on this new Picassa program, which appears to obsolete all the photo agencies out there. I currently get 50% of the commission on photographs I have posted with an online agency that is somewhat hard to work with.

I still have the problem of the one scumbag in Laguna who sells my work as his own – he re-photographed a large photograph I sold him. Problem is – I am subject to legal fees, for starters.

I’ve also taken to blogging some here. It’s possible my newsletter of 20 years may become a blog although the enforced coherence of editing smoothes out my thoughts some instead of caffeine inspired blog blitzes, like this one.

It appears on-line publishing is the wave of the future, as is online movie downloads, so I’m doing both. To use Kay Jameson’s phrase – I appear to having a full inter-episodal recovery[1]. LOL

I am acting out my interpretation of est technology – KEEP CREATING NEW PROBLEMS FOR YOURSELF [or you will become subject to old problems over and over again]. So - I need new headshots!

Many people seem shocked by ‘the economy’. Get over it – this are going to get MUCH worse. Although it’s a bit like talking about re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, the best single reference I’ve found is Naked Capitalism. Some of its commenters are right in the middle of the decision making process and others carry the frustrated brilliance of those deeply involved in the financial industry who rue their golden handcuffs. I know, I used to meet them, went to prep and Ivy League schools with them, AND I hear the frustration of the seemingly secure and excessively normality filled lifestyles I long ago left behind. Most of the truthful economic information now comes from blogs.

Some of the more memorable recent posts or references include this, this, although many others are worthy of reading or perusing – if you like following the economy or preserving your purchasing power. I know a number of typical real estate investors who, like most Americans over the past 60 years are used to a slowly and persistently inflating economy. Many have 401-Ks down 50% in the past 12 months. What is one to say – sell all your real estate NOW and buy silver, any kind of silver – coins, bullion [if you can find any], put it in your closet or store it in Dubai or Singapore.

If I get a large managed account, a possibility as I keep getting questions, I’d probably fly to Singapore and open an account there. The two accounts I now manage now are in non-US gold and silver. It’s likely the US will seize the gold and silver in the two large funds open to investors – GLD and SLV.

You’ll know when we are getting close to, not at, market bottoms when the price of an ounce of gold equals the DOW. Think maybe 5000 from my current vantage point. This, if you believe the historic means, SHOULD have investment consequences for you.

The US is in the beginning stages of an epochal Depression and the main problem is it has no way to EARN its way out of this one. The current situation is a reaction to the Panic of 1907, as I’ve noted in my Astro Alert. When I get a round tuit I’ll look further into the astrology of the end of the American Empire, especially the possibility of a large military defeat. America has staked ALL its projections of imperial power on the aircraft carrier, an outmoded, WW 2-ish strategy, that in turn came from about 1900. History has proved that real dominance can only come from boots-on-the-ground. The US has an armed force of maybe 300,000, most of whom are support – China 2.7 million. Recall also the strategic ineptitude of the US since WW 2 – it has FAILED TO PREVAIL in ALL THREE of its large scale military ventures. If you’re having a hot flash, I used the word STRATEGIC – our mostly capable individual soldiers are TACTICAL forces, unfortunately increasing subject to the micro-management of draft dodging mental midgets like George W. Bush and septuagenarian jerk offs [I have never been able to arrive at the correct plural] like Donald Rumsfeld. By my classification though, the single most destructive influence to America, and the world, has been Alan Greenspan.

Do I sound angry here? Not really. It’s just that I vowed to no longer be an active supporter of the US government when I got a 7 year IRS tax audit 3 weeks after writing a letter to the then head of the FBI, Louis Freeh, complaining about not prosecuting their sharpshooter who gunned down an unarmed woman. I had no tax liability but a variety of nefarious things were done by the IRS. During this time I wrote to Sen. Arlen Specter and was somewhat the impetus for the famous IRS Senate hearings. More recently I wrote to then Chmn. of the Joint Chiefs, Peter Pace, about the lack of progress in Iraq and a few weeks later found my name on some kind of website which I suppose to be a construct by some part of our government to justify further monitoring or legalized harassment. My assessment was correct in that Pace was the only CJCS in recent memory to not be nominated for a second term. I also have a case of one of my trading accounts begin accessed in a way the on-line broker could not duplicate.

Our founding fathers suggested that liberty can only be secured with eternal vigilance – and we all have failed at that. Then again, this is the historic progress of the rise and fall of empires. If I had the time I’d write up my now more coalesced thoughts on the progress of human nature and that the fractal which describes it is a torus. Some time ago I wrote an introduction to the mathematics of chaos[2]. The chaos and turbulence we will experience is normal for the healthy unfoldment of the human conscious – in the long term. In the shorter term, I’m waiting for the desert to warm up so I can escape.

"No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office. Its finger was in the largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart." Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit from http://www.janemac.net/

My Amazon review of Evangeline Adams – “Merely America’s greatest astrologer

Probably her best book. The section on the mythology of the planets is particularly good. The example horoscopes are now a bit dated – who knows the personality of Samuel Gompers or Rudolph Spreckels?

The prediction section using the rulership of the Sun sign decants should be mastered by anyone with more than a newspaper - make that Internet - column interest in astrology. Learn the alphabet of astrology here.”

". . . his gaze wandered from the windows to the stars, as if he would have read in them something that was hidden from him. Many of us would, if we could; but none of us so much as know our letters in the stars yet - or seem likely to do it, in this state of existence - and few languages can be read until their alphabets are mastered."
Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, also from Jane above

The SEC is in the position of the old British Foreign Service official who after a career spanning 1903-1950 recalled, "Year after year the worriers and fretters would come to me with awful predictions of the outbreak of war. I denied it each time. I was only wrong twice." Rich Lowry in the NY Post

“Always tell only the truth, and all the truth, and do so promptly – right now.” —Buckminster Fuller http://futurepositive.synearth.net/2004/01/12

"That's what the gods are! An answer that will do! Because there's food to be caught and babies to be born and life to be lived and so there is not time for big, complicated, and worrying answers! Please give us a simple answer, so that we don't have to think, because if we think, we might find answers that don't fit the way we want the world to be." from Nation, by Terry Pratchett

“It was by far the most content I’ve ever been,” he said. “My bike was a piece of junk. I had nowhere to go, no place to be. Didn’t have anyone telling me what to do. If I felt like lying on the side of the road, I did.” Svein Tuft Canadian Rider Has Made Unorthodox Climb to the Top http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/sports/othersports/08cycling.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

“Climb the mountains and get their glad tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and storms their energy, while cares will drop like autumn leaves.” John Muir, 1898

FOUGEDABOWDIT

or a few notes from James Hillman – A Blue Fire

The disease which the experience of death cures is the rage to live. pg. 71

Until the soul gets what it wants it must fall ill again and another iatrogenic[3] vicious circle of recurrent illness begins.

For it is not the therapist or any actual person whatever who is the keeper of my soul beyond all betrayals, but the archetypal persons of the gods to whom the anima acts as bridge. The shaping of her amorphous moods, sulphuric passions, bitter resentments, and bubbles of distraction into distinct personalities is the main work of therapeutic analysis or soul-making. pg. 86-87

Projections occur between parts of the psyche, not only outside into the world.

Neither trust nor forgiveness could be fully realized without betrayal. pg. 281

Lately, I most like the Dalai Lama’s suggestion we should fall at the feet of our enemies and bless them as our enemies reveal parts of ourselves we could never otherwise see. This has caused me to think that beyond forgiveness should be gratitude. Gratitude that we experienced the betrayal in the first place as not only did it cause us our induction into forgiveness and re-contextualizing our concepts of trust, BUT ALSO the realization that the seeds of our experiences of betrayal lie within us. Those who we experience as betraying us, in fact, act out parts in our own psyche’s carefully scripted drama for our soul’s development.

Due to a variety of factors currently not fully under my control, LOL, I have a mean and fractious streak. I have come to believe that beyond gratitude is NOT CARING or forgetting. That is, the betrayer who has led us to forgiveness, trust then gratitude becomes like everyone else.

“Forgetting, that marvel of the old mind, may actually be the truest form of forgiveness, and a blessing.” Hillman, Force of Character, pg. 93

Simplistically then – FOUGEDABOWDIT

A vertical person in a horizontal world

The puer therefore, understands little of what is gained by repetition and consistency, that is, by work…in proceeding step by step through the labrynthine complexity of the horizontal world. These teachings but cripple its winged heels, for there, from below and behind, it is particularly vulnerable. It is not meant to walk, but to fly. pg. 228

You left impressions unforgettable
and when I view our moon
your image surfaces
and that love seems forever.
—Saigyo (1118-1190) http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9241142925

Salomons

Lately, I’ve been hiking up to 25 miles a week here in LA. I recently found a new hiking shoe which is the best I’ve worn in 35 years of extensive walking and trekking – Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra Shoes. The main attraction is they come in an optional wide width which I need. For years I have been wearing shoes and boots up to two sizes larger than I actually need in and then putting on two pair of socks to accommodate the problems of getting my feet comfortable in the shoes. I bought my first pair of Salomons 2 sizes larger and they worked great but my feet were moving around a lot in the shoe. On my second pair I am now down to one size over and was able to wear them for a 12 mile hike right out of the box – no break in – with only one light pair of CoolMax socks. These shoes are available at REI and, hence, are subject to periodic large discounts, like the 20% twice a year member’s discount.

The only other sort of berserker hiker I know in LA, a lesbian friend who hikes 5 to 12 miles a week to relive the stress in her life, also wears this identical shoe. I am doing about 20 miles a week, walking from Sherman Oaks all the way down to Santa Monica on fire roads. I came about one foot away from being bitten by a large black rattlesnake on my last hike as I was daydreaming meandered off to the side of the trail where the snake was coiled in the grass.

Dear Mr. President

Are you going to be locking us up in the camps Bush constructed when we riot in the streets over YOU stealing our wealth??????????????????

David Axelrod was right. You have sold out to those Wall Street sons-of-bitches. All this economic posturing and purposeful obfuscation is a transfer of wealth from the taxpayer and average citizen to ‘the banking interests’. You’ve blown it listening to those assholes like Ben Bernanke and that misogynist Larry Summers. God save us from a bunch of academic know-nothings who have never been short a contract of soybeans in their lives but suck up the public teat. Congress which has voted itself the most generous health care plan in the US and an over-the-top retirement package.

I have yet to see the political contributions FNM and FRE made to Congress published – my 2 ‘senators’ refuse to release them to me citing …….

Read the Naked Capitalism blog if you want to know what’s really going on economically instead of those assholes in YOUR administration who are lining the pockets of GS, AIG, MS et. al.

People are just beginning to understand why I began saying years ago that Hank Paulson, Frank Raines, Hank Greenberg, Sandy Weill and others belong in jail.

Carlos Ballantyne

I posted this on my blog and got the following comment - OOOOH! I HAVE NOT SEEN OR HEARD YOU SO EXCITED? OR ANGRY? HARLEY

to which I replied whith another post

Thanks for the comment.

Thanks for the comment. My highly intentioned letters sent to the right persons have effected MANY changes. I can only estimate each of my carefully thought out and carefully addressed letters expressing my strongly held opinions has the effect of 100,000 or more opinions equally strongly held but not effectively expressed. When you see me envision a swath of 100,000 ardent, involved citizenry.

My opinions about the bailout stem from my belief that the current economic crisis is still in the beginning stages, and that the US, due largely to the malfeasance of Congress and the lack of vigilance of the American citizenry, will experience its first real economic collapse. Don’t forget, looking at the broad sweep of history, the USA is a very young nation. This is why other nations, with longer histories, attempted to act much more conservatively during the bubbles Alan Greenspan created. It is not just a random oddity that conservative Islam disallows usury – paying dividends on loans. Simplistically, interest leads to fractional reserve banking, paper money and eventual economic collapse.

“Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value ---- zero.” Voltaire (1694-1778)

One of my recent campaigns has been to expose the pay-to-play financial hookups between Congress and the Federal mortgage giants FNM and FRE. Essentially, FNM/FRE made large numbers of campaign donations to Congress members in return for continually watered down oversight provisions. I personally had a number of prospective financial management clients some years ago who were seemingly safely invested in FMN stock which traded as high as $70 a few years ago and paid a seemingly safe and reliably conservative dividend. JUST YESTERDAY it was revealed that Rahm Emanuel Was Director Of Freddie Mac During Scandal. Both Sens. Barb Boxer and Diane Feinstein have refused to reveal to me campaign contribution received in the past 7 years from FNM and FRE despite my repeated direct requests.

I still cannot believe there is no outrage that Franklin Raines, CEO of FNM before and during its implosion, has managed to keep his huge performance bonii AND lives on a $120,000/month FNM pension, largely outside the US financial jurisdictions, in Bermuda.

I have an outstanding prediction of the DEMISE the Federal Reserve. Furthermore, I predict that the American citizenry, once the full truth is exposed, and much of it will never be, will riot in the streets over the loss of their wealth – actually its transfer to others. SEE: The new bailouts are an end run around Congress - http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/03/guest-post-new-bailouts-are-end-run.html

Among my other letters:

1. My letter about 6 years ago to the head of the California State Tourism Dept. proposing a Tour of California bicycle race suggesting that since there was so much controversy over drug use in the Tour de France, that many of the top riders were Americans, and California has an international allure, such a race was a sure winner perhaps capable of equaling or supplanting the original Tour in importance.

2. My letter to Senator Arlen Specter about the IRS which contributed to the huge televised hearings about 12 years ago. One of the phrases from my letter was quoted directly by Specter during the hearings.

3. I have had a long running controversy with Citibank ever since they treated me badly as a computer networking design consultant some time ago. I wrote a letter to the head of one of their then largest shareholders, a hedge find in Greenwich, CT suggesting Charles Prince was acting incompetently as CEO and further suggesting the bank had laid off one of their most competent strategists, Louise Yamada, whose advice, if they had followed it, would have extricated them from much of the financial stress they were in. C stock began seriously tanking soon after I wrote this hedge fund.

4. In a campaign lasting MANY years I contributed to the ascendancy of true democracy in Nepal. The problem has been that the US militarily supported the now deposed corrupt former king of Nepal and his army and for many years, suppressing democratic and economic reforms in my fav little country. I attempted for years to get the US to stop this aid. During the Clinton administration Joe Biden on the Senate Foreign Relations committee directly supported Colin Powell’s large $12M military aid package to Nepal. This military aid to Nepal led to the pro-democracy protestors on the streets of Kathmandu being shot with AMERICAN M-16s.

FINALLY, I wrote to Sec. of State Rice suggesting the US was impeding true democracy in Nepal and that the US had the power to bring the factions to the table. This seemed to happen. During the last presidential campaign I wrote to McCain, on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, speaking once again about stopping American military aid to Nepal and it has apparently stopped. What most people do not know is that the US has a number of military training arrangements with Nepal. The Nepalese are part of the little military go-fers the US military uses for its ‘missions’ around the world.

5. I have written a number of other letters about a variety of things I should not talk about due to the possibility of retribution. I am now listed as a contributor to a mid-East aid organization here after writing a letter to the Chmn. of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military. Among my several comments was that the US, since it began keeping a standing military force after WW 2 has failed to prevail in the three major conflicts in which it has been involved. Interesting, soon afterward, Gen P. Pace was not re-nominated for a second term as CJS – a first in recent history.

I’m off to my next adventure for the day and could say more, I have many stories to tell and could have written this better given more time.

I suspect Mr. President and David Axelrod were reading or discussing my letter at the time I scared up the rattlesnake. LOL

Joseph Stiglitz’s Op-ed in the NYT 4/1/09 greatly simplifies the purposely complicated ‘recovery’ package. “But Americans are likely to lose even more than these calculations suggest”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/opinion/01stiglitz.html

Sure, go ahead, sit around and do nothing – it’s YOUR money.

SAGed

or the inter-episodal recovery continues!

My agent gave me a bunch of papers to sign and demanded I sign up on a variety of casting related websites as a requisite for actually signing a contract with me. The paperwork finally bubbled up to the top of my stack, I did everything AND THEN studied astrology to ascertain an auspicious time in which to sign the contract. I determined the moment and drove over to the office un-announced about an hour before. They waylaid me, as I expected, since I didn’t have an appointment, and the LA ‘thing’ is all that sort of stuff. At almost the exact minute I determined I signed the paperwork.

A day later I get a hurried call and a text message to go for an audition. I go in - the casting director likes me immediately as I’m different than the other guys. “Where are you from”, he asks. “Ecuador”, I reply. LOL I say a few lines and leave. Later that day a hurried call from my agency – “they booked you” – meaning they want me for a part in a huge corporate commercial. I get another call. “Since the production company is union we have to Taft-Hartley you into SAG.” That means I am, due to unique qualifications, made eligible to join he Screen Actors Guild, an otherwise laborious process of 3 paying gigs, etc.

The shoot itself was quite remarkable – huge set in downtown LA at a mostly closed shopping complex, most highly acclaimed commercial director of all time, hair and makeup, etc. I scoped out the LA subway system the day before as there was a station right at the location. I finally go in front of the camera. The volatile director begins yelling at me about my lines. This goes on for some time. We get through that, I have to change my wardrobe during the shoot as it’s incorrect. We go on. The director says “Beautiful” a couple of times to my later lines. As far as I know, my pieces will be used in a continuing set of commercials for one of the world’s largest corporations. Apparently I get residuals every time my part appears on TV.

One of my psychic friends says I’ll be cast for an upcoming large commercial campaign and ‘my face will become known all over America’.

On the problem of headshots - “Don’t take out a single line. I paid for each one.” Anna Magnani as quoted in ‘The Force of Character’, James Hillman, Random House.

[1] manic depression is characterized by “excessive involvement in pleasurable activities.” “full inter-episodal recoveries” Diagnostic and Statistical manual DSM IV, from An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison

Sounds sort of like me in that brackish time between adventures. Jamison described diffidently going to the head of her department at Johns Hopkins Medical School to reveal her treated manic depressive condition and he said, “My God, Kay. I know you are manic depressive. If we got rid of all the manic depressives on the faculty here we’d have a much smaller school and, I would say, a much more boring one.” I really like that one though. Imagine! “So how are you?” “Oh, I’m having a full inter-episodal recovery, thank you.”

BIM17, lest we forget

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson

I felt a cleaving in my mind

As if my brain had split;

I tried to match it, seam by seam,

But could not make them fit.

The thought behind I strove to join

Unto the thought before,

But sequence ravelled out of reach

Like balls upon a floor.

Much madness is divinest sense

To a discerning eye;

Much sense the starkest madness.

'Tis the majority

In this, as all, prevails.

Assent, and you are sane;

Demur, - you're straightway dangerous,

And handled with a chain.

[2]

D. Preliminary Conclusions and Intermediate Thoughts

It is not easy for me to share with you what appear to me to be unorganized and sometimes disjoint thoughts. It offends my sense of order. I think a better purpose is served by ignoring my inner resistance.

TRIBAL CONSCIOUSNESS

We human beings are at the end of a long age of tribal consciousness. Ever since mankind began he gathered in familial and tribal groups for protection and to further the species as represented by that group. In time, this consciousness led to inter-tribal warfare that is still with us in the form of seemingly senseless conflicts between tribes, countries, regions and races.

The paradigm shift that will occur is that soon we are to become ONE tribe as it were. I see (literally, at times) the flux of human consciousness coalescing into a single unified stream. It is as though rivers of different colored water commingle and thoroughly mix into another larger stream of a single color and consistency. Thinking about the human consciousness in this way makes for use of the mathematics of chaotic systems.

I liken the shift in consciousness from tribal to universal as being like the quick evolution of a point to the opposite side of a strange attractor. Thinking about the human consciousness in this way may lead to conclusions about what human being will be like after the shift. Then, perhaps, I can better make inquiries into or better, design a schema for, the spiritual consciousness of humankind. I mean, you don't want it to just be random, do you?

SYMBOLS

The study of symbols is useful because symbols are the projections of our consciousness. Therefore, it seems to me that if the consciousness of human beings is going to change then its symbols will change also. So I'm thinking about what some of the new symbols of mankind might be in order to better ascertain the nature of that consciousness.

Fractals may be a good possible candidate for a new type of symbol. Fractals have non-integer or fractional dimensionality. A point has 1 dimension, a line, 2 and a cube, 3. A fractal, however, has dimensions like 2.3, 3.5.

So, using the ideas of mathematics some questions I have come up with are; What is the fractal of the human consciousness? In other words, what are some of the bounds to which human beings will be confined over a large period of time? Or again, what is the shape that contains all that human being can ever be? Knowing that shape it might be possible to predict where human being is going in the future.

WAVES

I think it is useful to think about waves in the human consciousness. I see that species have many of the properties of solitons such as stability and capacity for self-organization. See, for example, Arguelles’s definition of consciousness.

Medons look interesting also. I am daymaring about things like what happens when strange attractors cross or coincide. Could one jump from one strange attractor to another? Would it hurt to go from dimension 2.3 to 3.2? Could WW II be viewed as a medon? If our civilization encountered another civilization would that be like our strange attractor intersecting another strange attractor? If the universe were viewed as a wave then would the astronomical bodies be seen as medons or coalesced vortices of energy expressed as matter?

E. A Few Quotes

James 1:5 - If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, ... and it shall be given him.

James 4:14 - Whereas ye know not what will be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appearth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) - Oh, how many of them there are in the fields. But each flower in its own way. In this is the highest achievement of a flower.

Mandala - Consciousness is the power of an organism to order, integrate and transform itself.

Mandala - Man is a transition, an agent of transformation as well as the material to be transformed. This transformative operation can only occur through the focusing power of some new symbol or image of the whole process in which man now finds himself involved.

C. Jung - That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as fate.

C Jung - It is only under ideal conditions, when life is still simple and unconscious enough to follow the serpentine path of instinct without hesitation or misgiving, that the compensating function of the unconscious works with entire success. The more civilized ... and complicated a man is, the less he is able to follow his instincts. His complicated living conditions and the influence of his environment are so strong that they drown the quiet voice of nature. Opinions, beliefs, theories, and the collective tendencies appear in its stead and back up all the aberrations of the conscious mind.

Tucci - Thus, even when the worlds at last are consumed in the cosmic fire, the force of karma, the sum of the individual experiences, acts as though thrust forward for the creation of a new universe. The latter then is not initiated ex novo but conforms itself according to the predisposition which survive destruction, so that it begins where the old world ends and inherits from it all its characters and possibilities.

M. Planck - A new truth does not triumph from convincing opponents and showing them the light but thanks to the fact that opponents are dying off and a new generation matures within the surroundings of the new truth.

Kellert - Recent investigations ... indicate that aperiodic or chaotic dynamics are typical of the healthy functioning of the human neurological and metabolic systems.

F. Bibliography

Mandala, Jose and Miriam Arguelles, Shambala, Boston

The Theory and Practice of the Mandala, With Special Reference to the Modern Psychology of the Subconscious, G. Tucci, Rider, London

Man and His Symbols, C. Jung, Aldus Pub.

Scientific Genius - A Psychology of Science, Simonton, Cambridge U. Press

In the Wake of Chaos, Unpredictable Order in Dynamical Systems, Kellert, U. of Chicago Press

Solitons, A.S. Davydov,

Chaos, From Theory to Application, A. Tsonis, Plenum Press

Does God Play Dice - The Mathematics of Chaos, Blackwell, Oxford U. Press

[3] The terms iatrogenesis and iatrogenic artifact refer to adverse effects or complications caused by or resulting from medical treatment or advice. In addition to harmful consequences of actions by physicians, iatrogenesis can also refer to actions by other healthcare professionals, such as psychologists, therapists, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and others. Iatrogenisis is not restricted to conventional medicine and can also result from complementary and alternative medicine treatments.