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Physics of Change will feature information in specific sections each month.
The information is intended to inform the readers of this newsletter.
However, it is not advice!! Any decisions made based
on this information are to be done
in a self-responsible manner.
Mulai de Guise Publishing, LLC cannot be
held responsible for any individual actions based on the information it presents.
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~~~ July 2007 Edition ~~~
Section 1 - Q & A
I have been reading about the idea of humanity attaining a level akin to that of "heaven on earth, complete peace and harmony amongst ourselves." I have some questions. 1) Do all things have a purpose? 2. Do "bad events, bad people" have a purpose? 3. Is there a purpose to this journey where men and women are unequal? Were we meant for something other than what we are here doing now? 4. If there is nothing outside of God then how could it be that any event or person is doing something "ungodlike?"
All things do have a purpose. The purpose can be as simple as an opportunity for those who perceive it to have the experience of that event. It isn't the event that's important. It's everyone's reaction to the event that separates habits, addictions, and emotional responses from ownership. When an experience is owned, it rarely shows up again in one's reality. However, if the same stimulus brings about a habit of reaction or an emotional response, that stimulus or one very similar will continue to show up in one's environment until it no longer elicits that same response. Then it is owned and can be retired from the long list of predictable behaviors. This is evolution in the highest spiritual sense.
The same goes for the "bad events, bad people." Again, it is not the event or the people in the event. It is the observers of those people and those events that have the opportunity to grow and become greater than who they previously were. All people, places, things, time, and events are a projection of one's mind. If you see "bad people, bad events," it is within you that perceives it that way. If ten people watch the same event, there will be ten versions and interpretations of that event. Men and women will remain unequal until they are no longer unequal within each of us. Those who experience the equality of gender and behave in that same manner are destined to see a new earth. For as this earth passes away, those who remain will be of a new mind.
There is nothing outside of God. When you can see all acts as acts of gods, then you have the wisdom of the legendary sages. Everything is being done for experience, and that is a Godlike behavior.
VRINDAVAN, India (CNN) -- Ostracized by society, thousands of India's widows flock to the holy city of Vrindavan waiting to die. They are found on side streets, hunched over with walking canes, their heads shaved and their pain etched by hundreds of deep wrinkles in their faces.
A widow makes her way in Vrindavan, India,
where an estimated 15,000 widows live on the streets.
These Hindu widows, the poorest of the poor, are shunned from society when their husbands die, not for religious reasons, but because of tradition -- and because they're seen as a financial drain on their families.
They cannot remarry. They must not wear jewelry. They are forced to shave their heads and typically wear white. Even their shadows are considered bad luck.
Hindus have long believed that death in Vrindavan will free them from the cycle of life and death. For widows, they hope death will save them from being condemned to such a life again.
"Does it feel good?" says 70-year-old Rada Rani Biswas. "Now I have to loiter just for a bite to eat."
Biswas speaks with a strong voice, but her spirit is broken. When her husband of 50 years died, she was instantly ostracized by all those she thought loved her, including her son.
"My son tells me: 'You have grown old. Now who is going to feed you? Go away,' " she says, her eyes filling with tears."What do I do? My pain had no limit."
As she speaks, she squats in front of one of Vrindavan's temples, her life reduced to begging for scraps of food.
There are an estimated 40 million widows in India, the least fortunate of them shunned and stripped of the life they lived when they were married.
It's believed that 15,000 widows live on the streets of Vrindavan, a city of about 55,000 in northern India.
"Widows don't have many social rights within the family," says Ranjana Kumari with the Center for Social Research, a group that works to empower women.
The situation is much more extreme within some of India's rural community. "There, it is much more tradition-bound; in urban areas, there are more chances and possibilities to live a normal life."
But the majority of India's 1.1 billion population is rural. "The government recognizes the problem," Kumari says. "It can do a lot, but it's not doing enough."
One woman, a widow herself, is working for change. Dr. Mohini Giri has formed an organization called the Guild of Service, which helps destitute women and children.
Giri's mother was widowed when Giri was 9 years old, and she saw what a struggle it was. Then, Giri lost her husband when she was 50, enduring the social humiliation that comes with being a widow. At times, she was asked not to attend weddings because her presence was considered bad luck.
"Generally all widows are ostracized," she says. "An educated woman may have money and independence, but even that is snatched away when she becomes a widow. We live in a patriarchal society. Men say that culturally as a widow you cannot do anything: You cannot grow your hair, you should not look beautiful."
She adds, "It's the mind-set of society we need to change -- not the women."
Seven years ago, Giri's organization set up a refuge called Amar Bari, or "My Home," in Vrindavan. It has become a refuge for about 120 of India's widows. Giri's organization is set to open a second home, one that will house another 500 widows.
But as she says, "Mine is but a drop in the bucket."
At Amar Bari, most widows reject traditional white outfits and grow out their hair. Along the open air corridors that link the house's courtyard are green wooden doors, leading to dark tiny rooms, home for each widow.
Bent over by osteoporosis, 85-year-old Promita Das meticulously and slowly sweeps the floor just outside her door and then carefully cleans her dishes.
"I came here when I couldn't work anymore. I used to clean houses," she says. "Nobody looked after me, nobody loved me. I survived on my own."
She married at 12 and was widowed at 15. Seventy years later, she finds herself at Amar Bari. "I used to live in front of a temple, but then I came here," she says.
She carries with her not only the pain of a life without love, but also the loss of her only child. She gave birth at 14; her baby lived a year.
What is painful about this condition is that it is happening during our lifetime and what have any of us done to alleviate this situation? This is prejudice at an all-time high and a symptom of the collapsing of consciousness that will eventually destroy this earth. Global warming is an effect, not a cause!
Does recycling and eating organic food really have an effect on health or is it the mind that is creating this state of health? I am confused as to the physical body's need for evolution. What does the physical body need?
The physical body needs experience. Through experience the body can evolve and increase its frequency to the point of eternal regeneration. All of the cells in the body are created to be immortal and this process of the ascension of the physical body is its greatest accomplishment.
In regards to recycling and organic food, we must analyze why it is being done. If we know that attitude is everything and becomes the template in which we experience life, then one's life is more influenced by why we do what we do rather than the doing itself. For example, if you are recycling because it is fashionable and all your friends do it, then that is probably not going to make you a friend of nature. If you eat organic food for the same social reasons, then it is not going to produce a high level of health. It has been said more than once that "it is not what food you put into your mouth that is as important as what you are thinking while putting that food into your mouth."
The greatest food you will ever consume is the food you produce out of your own garden. This food that has been nourished by you will produce the greatest quality of vitamins and minerals that you could consume. Health in the physical body is a direct result of the joy in one's life. An avid gardener is one of the happiest people you will ever meet. You cannot be sick and consistently happy at the same time!! Ramtha has said that gardeners live longer than those who do not garden. If you eat raw foods or foods that can be quick steamed that still contain the enzymes in those foods, you are giving yourself the greatest quality of food. You will eat less as you do not have to over eat to squeeze out a fraction of the nutrition.
And a regular exercise program will pay dividends for a long and healthy life. 4% of Americans have a regular exercise program. No wonder obesity in the U.S. is epidemic, and it is becoming a problem in other parts of the world as people consume more and more processed, fast foods.
Hi Greg
Its been a long time since I wrote you last. I opened my office in May, and so far things are moving. I have a few patients and two private students whom I teach sword to.
I constantly receive emails from Ramtha that remind me of how badly I want to do my week long in Yelm. So I wanted your advice. Well, I am trying to manifest fabulous wealth and have been for quite a while, but without success. What could I do that would get me 40 patients? With 40 patients that can actually afford my program I can provide for my wife and begin my seminars without concern. I have 5 patients now, and although my wife works, we are just on the edge of not making it. I really need to end this year making money.
I would appreciate any advice in this area you can give, I know my consciousness and energy create my reality, but somehow I seem to miss the boat on what I want to create.
I watch for your reply...
If you had 40 patients, how would your life be different? NOW, act that way!!!
STAYING THE COURSE
In having an insight regarding gold and silver, and being at peace with my own purchases, I am amazed at how emotional the market is and the manipulation of precious metals by those who hold positions that must be covered to keep from losing huge amounts of money. You can see how much the dollar has fallen in value since 2002, and about how critical the support level at 80 on the U.S. dollar index chart is for the health of the greenback. If the dollar falls below 80 on the U.S. dollar index, it would signal extreme weakness that could send the currency into free fall, perhaps losing as much as 20%. Do you remember how strong the dollar was in the late 1990s, and how much of that value has been lost? In my frequent travels to all parts of the world, the dollar continues to lose value against ALL other currencies. When I buy euros on my trips, I bring home whatever is left over. I have euros I bought in 2003 that have continued to increase in value.
Given the record U.S. trade and budget deficits, the exploding money supply, the imploding housing market, the subprime mortgage crisis, the slowing U.S. economy, and growing world political tensions, the dollar is due for a strong plunge below 80. That event seemed likely in March and April, when it fell steadily from 84 before rebounding above 81.43 because of a (temporary) up-tick in the economy. Time will tell.
Nonetheless, the fact remains that the dollar is losing purchasing power and inflation is far worse than most people, including those in Washington, are willing to admit. In a www.Marketwatch.com commentary, Dr. Irwin Kellner of Hofstra University wrote that the annual rate of inflation has been running anywhere from 7% to 9% for the past three months. Since March, prices have gone up at a 7% annual clip at the consumer level and at an 11% pace at the producer, or wholesale, level, and adding injury to insult, according to the latest Economist commodity-price index, food is up 25.9% from one year ago!
And I want to remind you how inexpensive oil used to be and how expensive it has become. Oil is fully triple the price today that many Americans have lived with for a generation or longer. How oil can triple in price, yet have no material inflationary ramifications for the U.S. economy continues to baffle me-especially when filling up the gas tank in the car. It used to cost $25 for a fill up; now it costs $50 or more! One of my friends took his ¾ ton truck to get gas. He had to hand over two $100 bills. The cost to fill up his truck was $101. Of course, he got $99 in change - but that is a footnote!!
Demand building for classic U.S. gold coins
Classic U.S. gold coins are currently underperforming gold bullion and many are trading at lower levels today than would have seemed possible a year ago. This situation has created an extraordinary buying opportunity for the astute buyer. Dealer inventories remain abnormally low, so despite their lower trading prices, the coin market is not awash in available product. Our intention was to take advantage of these lower prices two weeks ago at latest major coin show, the Long Beach Coin Exposition, and buy as aggressively as possible. We were stunned by how few good coins we were able to acquire at this major show. Normally when prices fall, dealer inventories grow and sometimes dramatically. This was not the case in Long Beach.
Today's low prices for many classic U.S. gold coins today are an anomaly that will not endure. Available product in the market place remains absurdly low. With little existing dealer inventory to act as a shock absorber, coin prices should be extremely responsive to any new surges in demand. This is a superb time to add to your classic U.S. gold coin positions while prices are below normal! Especially for bullion buyers, $10 Liberty gold coins in MS62 are one of the best values we've ever seen in the classic U.S. gold coins market. While not rare coins in the classic sense, they are still quite scarce relative to common bullion coins and typically carry a significant premium over their gold price. Right now, however, they're trading at prices so low that they're almost like buying bullion. We expect their premiums to rebound significantly when the gold price heats up again, making them a fantastic deal today.
You might have heard that the U.S. Mint just began selling half-ounce gold bullion coins featuring the images of "Presidential Wives." Today alone, in fact, the mint sold more than 80,000 of these coins at a cost of around $420 each. When you compare these pieces to our classic half ounce $10 Liberty gold coins in MS62, which are roughly the same size and price, the classic U.S. gold coins are a much, much better value for investors.
Minted more than a century ago, and with a total population of only 107,000 survivors (NGC and PCGS), $10 Liberty coins in MS62 have much greater upside potential than bullion coins when the coin market gets hot because of their scarcity. In the gold coin market, scarcity usually means leverage to a rising gold price. Modern-minted gold bullion coins like these "Presidential Wives," however, are like Doritos: buy all you want and the mint will just make more, which means no premium for scarcity.
Prices for classic U.S. gold coins are probably hitting their low points in the current cycle and demand has been perking back up again in the last few days. Investors who were on the sidelines in recent months are now re-entering the market. We did not expect to see such a superb buying opportunity this summer, but here it is. We hope you will take advantage of it while prices remain oversold. This may be the last really great buying opportunity before the gold bull market starts to run in earnest again!
Silver has been mirroring gold's price movements over the last two years. Silver has been in a steady up-trend since its last real low, set in the summer of 2006. Trading action over the last 45 days shows typical seasonal weakness following the March 2007 challenge of the May 2006 high, both just under $15 an ounce. Silver is now trading below its latest trend line and below its 50-day moving average of $13.50. While silver could drift below its 200-day moving average of just under $13.00, we expect it to remain above the major support level of $12.75 on the chart.
Silver trailed gold from 2001 through 2005 but has been playing a strong game of catch-up ever since. I now believe silver will out-perform gold in the short term. You have to ask yourself, if gold were to move back up to the $850 all time high from the current market price of $650 an ounce, where would that put silver? A gold gain from $650 to $850 an ounce equals a 30% increase in price. In this environment, we believe silver would move as high as $22 before consolidating back to $18. From the current trading price of about $12.50, that would means gains equal of 45% or more.
If your bullion holdings are mostly in gold, now would be a good time to diversify into silver while prices remain near the bottom of their recent trading range.
PROGNOSIS
Now let's look at the latest price action. As we move into summer 2007, gold is range-bound but holding above its 200-day moving average of $640. Gold is currently experiencing typical summer weakness and has fallen below these trading bands. In addition, it's now below its 50-day moving average of around $675. Since the September 2006 low of $566, each time gold has fallen below its 50-day moving average it has proven to be one of the best entry points in the price cycle.
Because we've entered the months of summer consolidation, gold may move moderately lower before the peak buying season resumes in September. Nonetheless, we expect gold to hold over $640 this summer before climbing over $700 during the next buying season and perhaps challenging its previous all-time high of $850. If gold falls below $640 this summer, we'd view the event as an enormous buying opportunity that will probably be short-lived. If you go back to the six-year gold chart, you'll see that gold has offered two major buying opportunities almost every year since 2001. The first came in the correction following the seasonal high and the second occurred during the period of summer consolidation.
I believe that gold is now setting the stage for another major surge in price, and the time for that surge seems to be approaching. Remember, gold quadrupled in price from between 1971 and 1974, rising from $50 to $200 an ounce before consolidating around $125 in 1975 and 1976. Many investors thought the party was over but it was only starting. In the next three years, from 1977 to 1980, gold multiplied seven times in price, rising from $125 to a peak of $850.
So far in this century, gold has almost tripled in price from $252 to $730, fallen back as low as $555, and now seems ready to begin the next leg up. Because the mega-trends that have propelled gold to its highest price level in a generation remain firmly in place, there is no reason why it shouldn't eventually double or even triple its current price, and trade in a range between $1,200 and $1,800, when all is said and done.
HERE IS ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
TO HELP YOU STAY THE COURSE
In this Gold Market Update, we will review the price history in precious metals over the last few years in order to put recent events into historical perspective. We've received many calls and emails over the last several months asking, "Why haven't precious metals set a new high this year, like they did for five straight years, and what are the prospects for more gains in the future?" In this issue, we'll do our best to answer these important questions.
Gold has advanced steadily between 2001 and 2005 before surging dramatically from fall 2005 to spring 2006. Between 2001 and 2005, gold rose in an orderly fashion, mainly on the back of weakness in the U.S. dollar. Beginning in summer 2005, the U.S. bull market in gold blossomed into an international bull market, with gold surging dramatically in U.S. dollars and in most other currencies around the world during the following fall and spring.
In typical years, gold makes its most aggressive price movements during the months from September to May, its primary international buying season. Afterwards, during the summer, it tends to consolidate these gains before beginning the cycle again in September. Last year, however, following its supercharged run up to $730 in May, gold entered an extended consolidation phase that continues today.
Why did the gold market accelerate so much during last year's buying season? With hindsight being 20/20 (as always), it seems pretty clear that the U.S. presidential election of 2004 had much more impact on precious metals than was apparent at the time. Once the world fully understood that U.S. policy would continue along the same path for another four years (including the costly and almost unilateral prosecution of the war on terror, an escalation of the very expensive war in Iraq, and the continuation of tax cuts, all financed through record-shattering deficit spending), precious metals became extremely attractive to investors everywhere as protection from growing U.S. fiscal irresponsibility. Couple this exploding safe-haven demand for precious metals with a similarly exploding global appetite for all commodities, especially in China and India, the world's fastest growing and most populous economies, and it's no wonder gold skyrocketed during the 2005 to 2006 buying season.
Now let's take a closer look. Between 2001 and 2005, the gold price increased by 6% to 18% per year. Based on these steady gains, it was reasonable to assume that gold would see similar gains during the 2005 to 2006 season-and it did. Gold's move from about $450 to $550 an ounce between September 2005 and March 2006 equaled about a 20% gain, above average but within previous parameters. But then the gold price just kept climbing until it reached its new generational high of $730 an ounce on May 12.
Underlying the increased global demand mentioned above, three causes are notable in gold's dramatic second surge from $550 to over $700 in the late spring of 2006. First, the U.S. dollar plummeted from 90 to 84 on the U.S. Dollar Index chart, which underscored the troubling weakness of the greenback. Second, the price of oil jumped from $58 to $78 a barrel in a few short months, hitting its highest price in a generation.
If gold had stalled at $550 in March 2006, postponing its movement into the $650 range until spring 2007, the chart would show a fairly uniform stair-stepping pattern over six years of growth, with steady annual gains of 6% to 20%. In our opinion, gold is now about where it should be with regard to price and time-line, at about $650 an ounce in the summer of 2007. If the gold market had gained less dramatically in the 2005 to 2006 buying season, achieving only its typical gains rather than doubling up, the market would perhaps be a bit healthier psychologically than it is today, but its fundamental outlook would be the same-excellent.
It is precisely because of gold's strong gains through 2005 and stunning 61% surge in 2006 that investors are disappointed about its performance over the past twelve months. But in reality, on an annual basis, this glorious bull market has lost no momentum. Last year's surge over $700 was simply too much, too fast; and despite some real volatility in the interim, gold continues to hold just about all of its gains since 2001. If you toss out the high and low scores for the gold price in 2006, like judges do in the Olympics, the gold chart would still show a steady climb from $450 to $550 to $650 to $695. Many of today's investors who are disappointed in gold's performance over the past few months would then be thrilled, and rightly so, at the progress of their investments.
Section 2 - Environment
Scientific American editor Steve Mirsky recently interviewed science writer Alan Weisman to find out why he wrote the book, The World without Us, and what lessons can be drawn from his research. Q&A With Alan Weisman
If human beings were to disappear tomorrow, the magnificent skyline of Manhattan would not long survive them. Weisman describes how the concrete jungle of New York City would revert to a real forest.
"What would happen to all of our stuff if we weren't here anymore? Could nature wipe out all of our traces? Are there some things that we've made that are indestructible or indelible? Could nature, for example, take New York City back to the forest that was there when Henry Hudson first saw it in 1609?
"I had a fascinating time talking to engineers and maintenance people in New York City about what it takes to hold off nature. I discovered that our huge, imposing, overwhelming infrastructures that seem so monumental and indestructible are actually these fairly fragile concepts that continue to function and exist thanks to a few human beings on whom all of us really depend. The name 'Manhattan' comes from an Indian term referring to hills. It used to be a very hilly island. Of course, the region was eventually flattened to have a grid of streets imposed on it. Around those hills there used to flow about 40 different streams, and there were numerous springs all over Manhattan island. What happened to all that water? There's still just as much rainfall as ever on Manhattan, but the water has now been suppressed. It's underground. Some of it runs through the sewage system, but a sewage system is never as efficient as nature in wicking away water. So there is a lot of groundwater rushing around underneath, trying to get out. Even on a clear, sunny day, the people who keep the subway going have to pump 13 million gallons of water away. Otherwise the tunnels will start to flood. "There are places in Manhattan where they're constantly fighting rising underground rivers that are corroding the tracks. You stand in these pump rooms, and you see an enormous amount of water gushing in. And down there in a little box are these pumps, pumping it away. So, say human beings disappeared tomorrow. One of the first things that would happen is that the power would go off. A lot of our power comes out of nuclear or coal-fired plants that have automatic fail-safe switches to make sure that they don't go out of control if no humans are monitoring their systems. Once the power goes off, the pumps stop working. Once the pumps stop working, the subways start filling with water. Within 48 hours you're going to have a lot of flooding in New York City. Some of this would be visible on the surface. You might have some sewers overflowing. Those sewers would very quickly become clogged with debris-in the beginning the innumerable plastic bags that are blowing around the city and later, if nobody is trimming the hedges in the parks, you're going to have leaf litter clogging up the sewers.
"But what would be happening underground? Corrosion. Just think of the subway lines below Lexington Avenue. You stand there waiting for the train, and there are all these steel columns that are holding up the roof, which is really the street. These things would start to corrode and, eventually, to collapse. After a while the streets would begin cracking, which could happen within just a couple of decades. And pretty soon, some of the streets would revert to the surface rivers that we used to have in Manhattan before we built all of this stuff. "Many of the buildings in Manhattan are anchored to bedrock. But even if they have steel beam foundations, these structures were not designed to be waterlogged all the time. So eventually buildings would start to topple and fall. And we're bound to have some more hurricanes hitting the East Coast as climate change gives us more extreme weather. When a building would fall, it would take down a couple of others as it went, creating a clearing. Into those clearings would blow seeds from plants, and those seeds would establish themselves in the cracks in the pavement. They would already be rooting in leaf litter anyhow, but the addition of lime from powdered concrete would create a less acidic environment for various species. A city would start to develop its own little ecosystem. Every spring when the temperature would be hovering on one side or the other of freezing, new cracks would appear. Water would go down into the cracks and freeze. The cracks would widen, and seeds would blow in there. It would happen very quickly."
How would the earth's ecosystems change if human beings were out of the picture? Weisman says we can get a glimpse of this hypothetical world by looking at primeval pockets where humanity's footprint has been lightest.
"To see how the world would look if humans were gone, I began going to abandoned places, places that people had left for different reasons. One of them is the last fragment of primeval forest in Europe. It's like what you see in your mind's eye when you're a kid and someone is reading Grimm's fairy tales to you: a dark, brooding forest with wolves howling and tons of moss hanging off the trees. And there is such a place. It still exists on the border between Poland and Belarus. It was a game reserve that was set aside in the 1300s by a Lithuanian duke who later became king of Poland. A series of Polish kings and then Russian czars kept it as their own private hunting ground. There was very little human impact. After World War II it became a national park. You go in there and you see these enormous trees. It doesn't feel strange. It almost feels right. Like something feels complete in there. You see oaks and ashes nearly 150 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter, with bark furrows so deep that woodpeckers stuff pinecones in them. Besides wolves and elk, the forest is home to the last remaining wild herd of Bison bonasus, the native European buffalo. "I also went to the Korean DMZ, the demilitarized zone. Here you have this little stretch of land-it's about 150 miles long and 2.5 miles wide-that has two of the world's biggest armies facing off against each other. And in between the armies is an inadvertent wildlife preserve. You see species that might be extinct if it weren't for this one little piece of land. Sometimes you'll hear the soldiers screaming at one another through loudspeakers or flashing their propaganda back and forth, and in the middle of all this tension you'll see the flocks of cranes that winter there.
"But to really understand a world without humans, I realized I would have to learn what the world was like before humans evolved. So I went to Africa, the place where humans arose and the only continent where there are still huge animals roaming around. We used to have huge animals on all the other continents and on many of the islands. We had enormous creatures in North and South America-giant sloths that were even bigger than the mammoths; beavers the size of bears. It's controversial as to what actually wiped them out, but a lot of indications point the finger at us. The extinctions on each landmass seemed to coincide with the arrival of humans. But Africa is the place where human beings and animals evolved together, and the animals there learned strategies to avoid our predation. Without humans, North America would probably become a giant deer habitat in the near term. As forests would become reestablished across the continent, eventually-in evolutionary time-larger herbivores would evolve to take advantage of all the nutrients locked up in woody species. Larger predators would evolve accordingly."
Thinking about an earth without humans can have practical benefits. Weisman explains that his approach can shed new light on environmental problems.
"I'm not suggesting that we have to worry about human beings suddenly disappearing tomorrow, some alien death ray taking us all away. On the contrary, what I'm finding is that this way of looking at our planet-by theoretically just removing us-turns out to be so fascinating that it kind of disarms people's fears or the terrible wave of depression that can engulf us when we read about the environmental problems that we have created and the possible disasters we may be facing in the future. Because frankly, whenever we read about those things, our concern is: Oh, my God, are we going to die? Is this going to be the end? My book eliminates that concern right at the beginning by saying the end has already taken place. For whatever reason, human beings are gone, and now we get to sit back and see what happens in our absence. It's a delicious little way of reducing all the fear and anxiety. And looking at what would happen in our absence is another way of looking at, well, what goes on in our presence.
"For example, think about how long it would take to wipe out some of the things we have created. Some of our more formidable inventions have a longevity that we can't even predict yet, like some of the persistent organic pollutants that began as pesticides or industrial chemicals. Or some of our plastics, which have an enormous role in our lives and an enormous presence in the environment. And nearly all of these things weren't even here until after World War II. You begin to think there's probably no way that we are going to have any kind of positive outcome, that we are looking at an overwhelming tide of geologic proportions that the human race has loosed on the earth. I raise one possibility toward the end of the book that humans can continue to be part of the ecosystem in a way that is much more in balance with the rest of the planet.
"It's something that I approach by first looking at not just the horrible things that we have created that are so frightening-such as our radioactivity and pollutants, some of which may be around until the end of the planet-but also some of the beautiful things that we have done. I raise the question, Wouldn't it be a sad loss if humanity was extirpated from the planet? What about our greatest acts of art and expression? Our most beautiful sculpture? Our finest architecture? Will there be any signs of us at all that would indicate that we were here at one point? This is the second reaction that I always get from people. At first they think, this world would be beautiful without us. But then they think, Wouldn't it be sad not to have us here? And I don't think it's necessary for us to all disappear for the earth to come back to a healthier state."
DID YOU KNOW?
1. Children in the U.S. receive 68 vaccinations by age eighteen.
2. There has been a 50% increase in the U.S. infant mortality rate in the last ten years.
3. Before 1960 childhood cancer was almost unheard of.
4. Autism in the U.S. is epidemic. It is prevalent in 1/150 children.
5. Autism is a unique type of mercury poisoning.
6. Mercury is the third most toxic substance known to man.
7. The # 1 symptom of Americans is chronic fatigue.
8. High Blood Pressure doubles the chance of sudden death.
9. High Blood Pressure medications triple the chance of early death.
10. Lipitor is the # 1 prescribed drug in America - the first drug to sell $1 Billion / year.
Section 5 - Testimonials, Revelations,
and Inspirational Stories and Quotes.
This recent testimonial touched me. In 1987, when I left my highly successful business, my longtime friends, and an exotic, fast-lane lifestyle and drove from Southern California to Washington State, I had no idea how my life would turn out. I just knew that I needed to change!!
When I began reading your book the other night, I was deeply impressed by how our lives have taken such different paths over the last 20 years. TWENTY YEARS! During that time you chose a totally different life and have continued to grow in so many ways that are out of the realm of the ordinary. I, on the other hand, have been living deeply entrenched in the ordinary, and still being affected far too much by the past.
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."
- Henry David Thoreau
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