Quote of the day:

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought."
~ Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Image of the day:

BODY
~ The Training Strategy Handbook -- "How Should You Train?" by Christian Thibaudeau at T-Nation.
~ Non-GMO Solution To Seafood Allergies -- "Seafood allergy sufferers may soon be able to eat prawns without the fear of an adverse reaction. Chinese scientists have taken a promising step towards removing from prawns the proteins that cause an allergic response without resorting to genetic manipulation."
~ Lighten up in the weight room -- "The amount of weight you should lift is dictated by the goals you want to achieve."
~ Early sex correlates with delinquency -- "New research suggests that when teenagers and younger children engage in their first sexual intercourse far earlier than their peers that they will exhibit higher levels of delinquency in the subsequent years." My guess is that sex isn't the problem, but a symptom.
~ Study Finds Kids Gain Weight Over Summer -- "Study Finds That 5- and 6-Year-Olds Gain More Weight Over Summer Than During School Year." Damn video games.
~ Reduce your BMI, pay less for insurance -- "Amid a growing obesity epidemic in the United States, an insurance company has started giving customers another reason to slim down by being one of the first in the nation to offer discounts to customers who keep a low body-mass index." I knew this was coming. Someone like me, whose BMI is 27, will be penalized even though my bodyfat is hovering around 11%. BMI is not a good measure for healthy, muscular men.
~ Getting a Better Handle on Your Job Prevents Type 2 Diabetes -- "Left untreated, emotions can be the root of countless health issues you may be experiencing, and can even shorten your life if you let them. Based on a study of some 700 primarily male Israeli workers who complained of job burnout, add type 2 diabetes to that list."
~ Growth Hormone To Boost Athletic Performance Risks Diabetes -- "The study reports the case of a 36 year old professional body-builder who required emergency care for chest pain. He had lost 40 kg in 12 months, during which he had also experienced excessive urination, thirst, and appetite." One case is not even close to an adequate sample, and bodybuilders are not representative of the average person who wants to use growth hormone for health or weight loss.


PSYCHE
~ Overly Anxious And Driven People Prone To Irritable Bowel Syndrome -- "The researchers studied 620 people who had confirmed gastroenteritis caused by a bacterial infection. None had had IBS before, or indeed any serious bowel disorder."
~ When God Sanctions Killing, The People Listen -- "In the article, University of Michigan psychologist Brad Bushman and his colleagues suggest that scriptural violence sanctioned by God can increase aggression, especially in believers."
~ Greater Deficits In Emotional Facial Expression Can Indicate More Severe Alcoholism -- "Recognition of emotional facial expressions (EFEs) is a key form of non-verbal communication that is lacking among alcoholics. New findings show continuing EFE decoding deficits among alcoholics even after three months of abstinence."
~ The Rich See What They Believe -- "People see what they believe, not vice versa, when it comes to social injustice, new psychology research shows."
~ Angry? Breathing Beats Venting -- "While it is a common assumption that an angry person needs to blow off steam or risk going through the roof, research in psychology shows just the opposite. According to University of Arkansas psychologist Jeffrey M. Lohr, research has consistently showed that venting anger is at best ineffective and in some cases is even harmful."
~ Stress-related adult disease may originate in fetal development -- "According to a review in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, evidence is mounting that lifelong stress-related conditions such as depression and chronic pain may be linked to fetal growth and timing of delivery."
~ Positive Gains With Hypnosis -- "Over recent years, hypnosis has gained acceptance as a credible method of treatment within the traditional medical community. It is now recognized as credible by both the Mayo Clinic and the National Institutes of Health, as seen by the information provided on their websites."


CULTURE
~ 1 In 3 Boys Heavy Porn Users, Study Shows -- "Boys aged 13 and 14 living in rural areas, are the most likely of their age group to access pornography, and parents need to be more aware of how to monitor their children's viewing habits, according to a new University of Alberta study."
~ Kids Allowed To Join Groups For Complex Reasons -- "New research at the University of Maryland looks at why kids decide to include - and exclude - other kids from their group of friends. It turns out the decision making process is much more complex than previously believed, and could even provide insights into how to intervene when children are rejected by their peers."
~ Bush Health Plan Raises Taxes by $526 Billion, Report Says -- "President George W. Bush's plan to revamp the health-care system would increase taxes on Americans by $526.2 billion over the next decade, according to a congressional estimate."
~ Civic Engagement Keeps Aging Americans Mentally Healthy After Physical Decline -- "People who continuously participate in community groups are often spared losses in psychological well-being after developing functional limitations, according to an article published in the latest issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences."
~ Iran Agrees To Join Neighbors Summit -- "Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, will join U.S. and British representatives at a regional conference here on the Iraqi security crisis."
~ Censoring Our Educators -- "State legislators across the country are trying to force university professors to zip their lips on controversial topics."
~ McCain on Letterman: I Will Run in '08 -- "Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona says he will officially enter the presidential race."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Transportation study receives outstanding paper award -- "Got a train to catch? The walk to the nearest stop has been put under scientific scrutiny, looking at distances involved and the environment along the way."
~ New evidence that global warming fuels stronger Atlantic hurricanes -- "Atmospheric scientists have uncovered fresh evidence to support the hotly debated theory that global warming has contributed to the emergence of stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean."
~ Toward tapping the potential of 'stranded' natural gas -- "Newly discovered chemical catalysts may be an answer to the century-long search for economical ways of using natural gas now burned or "flared" as waste in huge quantities, scientists in the United States and Germany report."
~ Iron in Northwest rivers fuels phytoplankton, fish populations -- "A new study suggests that the iron-rich winter runoff from Pacific Northwest streams and rivers, combined with the wide continental shelf, form a potent mechanism for fertilizing the nearshore Pacific Ocean, leading to robust phytoplankton production and fisheries."
~ Huge 'Ocean' Discovered Inside Earth -- "Scans of Earth's deep interior reveal a vast water reservoir beneath Asia that is at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean."
~ Snails Save Energy by Re-Using Mucus Trails -- "Snails save valuable energy by following each other's mucus trails a new study finds." Yummy.
~ Volcano Blows as Space Probe Flies By -- "A probe flew by just in time to witness a volcanic explosion on Jupiter's moon, Io."
~ Ning lets anyone make a social-networking website -- "A new Internet company backed by Netscape Communications co-founder Marc Andreessen launched a free service on Tuesday that enables people to make their own social-networking websites."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ From ~C4Chaos: The Next Generation is Infected with Boomeritis. See also his other post: Social Entrepreneurs: Harbingers of Conscious Capitalism.
~ Umguy, late of Ideological Putty, has started a new blog: Still Seeking. Glad to have back.
~ From Joe Perez at Until: The electromagnetic spectrum as a metaphor for the 30 tiers of Kronology.
~ From Gwen at Buddhist Geeks: Why You Can’t See Me Naked: Sex & The Middle Way -- Nice post.
~ TikkunGer and I have begun a discussion of Integral Judaism. We're doing it by email, but each of us will post an update from time to time. TikkunGer has the first one: Lets Talk Integral Judaism.
~ CJ Smith looks at a recent Andrew Cohen blog entry and likes what he sees: Meaningful Enlightenment.
~ From Hokai's Blog: Buddha and Myth.

The Multiple Intelligences web site has a quick 40 question test that will give you a basic sense of your various intelligences (based on the work of Howard Gardner). I actually scored a little differently than I had thought I would, being low in logical, interpersonal, and musical (OK, I knew I was low in musical), and rather high in linguistic, naturalistic, and visual/spatial. I guess the one that threw me was being low in logical.

Take the test here.
Learn more about multiple intelligences here.

This is today's Daily Om, a good reminder that we often live our lives far removed from who we really are. Doing so can lead to all kinds of problems, including depression, anxiety, physical illness, and other forms of suffering.

Essential Authenticity
Revealing Your True Self

Identity is an elusive concept. We feel we must define ourselves using a relatively small selection of roles and conscious character traits, even if none accurately represents our notion of "self." The confusion surrounding our true natures is further compounded by the fact that society regularly asks us to suppress so much of our emotional, intellectual, and spiritual vibrancy. Yet we are, in truth, beings of light-pure energy inhabiting physical bodies, striving for enlightenment while living earthly lives. Our true selves exist whether we acknowledge them or not, often buried under fears and learned behavior. When we recognize our power, our luminosity, and our divinity, we cannot help but live authentic lives of appreciation, potential, fulfillment, and grace.

At birth and throughout your childhood, your thoughts and feelings were more than likely expressions of your true self. Though you may have learned quickly that to speak and act in a certain fashion would win others' approval, you understood innately that you were no ordinary being. There are many ways you can recapture the authenticity you once articulated so freely. Meditation can liberate you from the bonds of those earthly customs that compel you to downplay your uniqueness. Also, communing with nature can remind you of the special role you were meant to play in this lifetime. In order to realize your purpose, you must embrace your true self by letting your light shine forth, no matter the consequences.

Rediscovering who you are apart from your roles and traits takes time and also courage. If, like many, you have denied your authenticity for a long while, you may find it difficult to separate your true identity from the identity you have created to cope with the world around you. Once you do find this authentic self, however, you will be overcome by a wonderful sense of wholeness as you reconcile your spiritual aspect and your physical aspect, as well as your inner- and outer-world personas. As you gradually adjust to this developing unity, your role as a being of light will reveal itself to you, and you will discover that you have a marvelous destiny to fulfill.

Psyche doesn't like to be ignored. Our true nature is free-spirited, loving, compassionate, joyful, and expansive. But as we grow up, nearly all of us lose parts of this as a result of trying to satisfy other people's expectations, especially our parents. If we are really unfortunate, our parents may have smashed that free-spirited and vulnerable being into a box of restriction and conformity.

When we lose this inner child, as I have struggled with most of my life, our lives can feel flat and meaningless. The essential self grows out of that child. We can become rigid in our approach to life, controlling of our surroundings, and cut off from any real emotional contact with others. Psyche will tolerate this for a while, but eventually it will start to throw up symptoms to get our attention.

Depression and anxiety are two of the primary symptoms for a lot of people. Physical illness also arises, sometimes as a direct result of doing something so far from who we are that psyche has no other choice than to throw a hand grenade into our lives. We usually ignore it and pay the price later.

Getting back to this essential self, this vulnerable and curious and open inner being, can be very difficult. Therapy helps, meditation helps, identifying our subpersonalities helps, being in nature helps, and crying helps -- even loving our pets or playing with children can help. One of most direct ways into that part of ourselves is the recognition that it has been lost, especially when we see it in others. Mourning that pain, feeling the fear and loss that keeps it repressed and releasing those feelings can help us get back to the deeper part of ourselves.

The Worst Horse is a pop culture site for Dharma people, and a Dharma site for pop culture people. It's one of the truly cool sites on the web.

The editors sent me a link to their new post on Britney Spears, which is not another attack piece.

I can't stop thinking about Britney Spears and her bald head.

I keep thinking about it. Talking about it. I can't not talk about it.

Why? Because it's The Great Story of Our Time.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not a fan of Britney Spears' music. I mean, not at all. (Is that clear?) But the shaved-head story is undeniable. Not because it's the story of a young, "sexy," capital-c Celebrity -- possibly -- unraveling before our eyes. It is that, but that's not what makes it great. Its greatness is in how emblematic it is. That shaved head is everywhere: the news, the tabloids, the web, and it's already been subject to many a Photoshop job, including ours (above). It's more than the image of the moment, it's already pop-culture history.

It's no surprise, really. Earlier this year, Newsweek ran a cover story about our "Girls Gone Wild" culture -- the Britneys and Parises of the world, and the young (and not-so-young) girls who are aping their "gone wild" behavior. Perhaps it was exploitative to make that a cover story, but it might instead (or, also) have been a near-last-gasp of the way we all were, Before Celebrity Mattered Most to So Many.

These days, the news stories people are most closely following are "Anna Nicole" and "Britney's breakdown." In the case of Anna Nicole, it almost makes sense: she did in fact die. And she appears to have left a mess in her wake. (Imagine if this is how Marilyn Monroe went. It would have gotten similar play. And her actual death of course did.)

But Britney didn't die. She shaved her head. Big difference.

Maybe she is having a breakdown. But maybe she's not. Maybe she's a stressed-out young woman who's had enough and decided, You know what? I just don't care anymore -- about being famous, being pretty, being busy. Maybe I will just, bit by bit, do what I can to reject it. Seems likely it's some of both.

Read the rest of this post.

The first poll is somewhat predictable to anyone who has been following Democratic politics for any length of time: Democrats view Hillary as most electable. Of course, this is among mainstream voters and not liberal insiders (who don't much like Hillary).

PRINCETON, NJ -- A recent Gallup Panel survey shows that Democrats think Hillary Clinton has the best chance of being elected president among the Democratic presidential candidates, followed by Barack Obama and John Edwards. Even as momentum appears to be building in some political circles for an Al Gore-presidential run, less than half of Democrats and only about one-third of Americans think he has a good chance of winning should he run. Overall, Americans are split over which Democrat -- Clinton or Obama -- has the best chance of being elected, with Republicans giving Obama the better odds.

*****

More than 7 in 10 Americans believe Clinton and Obama have an "excellent" or "good" chance of being elected president. At 52%, Edwards is the only other Democrat who is viewed as having a good chance by a majority of the public.

Even after his recent star turn as a presenter at the Grammys and Oscars, only 31% believe Gore has a good chance of winning, while 42% believe his chances are slim, and 26% think he has no chance at all. The poll was completed before Gore's documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, was awarded two Oscars Sunday night, so the impact of those wins on his chances, if any, is unclear at this point.

Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, and Christopher Dodd are thought to have better-than-average odds of winning the presidency by fewer than one in five Americans.

 

 

There's more to this poll that you might want to check out at their site.

The other poll is far more interesting, and it's a little surprising: Americans Predict Bill Clinton Would be Asset as First Spouse.

I'm sure there are many of us -- who feel that Bill was our best recent president -- who wouldn't even question this idea. Of course Bill would be a great asset as First Gentleman. He is one the most intelligent politicians we've had in a long time. And he knows the players on the world stage far better than Hillary does at this point.

What's surprising is that Bill's public image has been rehabilitated to the point that a broad spectrum of the populace also think he would be an asset.

Former President Bill Clinton will enter uncharted waters should his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, succeed in capturing the presidency in 2008. Not only would he be the first man in a position that is defined by duties traditionally associated with women, but he would have to make the seemingly awkward transition from the former leader of the free world to a rather domestic-oriented post.

The latest Gallup Panel survey, conducted Feb. 22-25, 2007, investigated how Americans say Bill Clinton might write his new resume. Although a majority of Americans (63%) say he should not hold an official government job as policy advisor to President Hillary Clinton, 61% think he should advise her unofficially. Americans also think Bill Clinton should fill such familiar duties of presidential spouses as hosting White House social events, taking up a charitable cause, and representing the White House abroad at special ceremonies. They do not believe, however, that he should deliver paid speeches before business and industry groups.

More generally, Americans predict Clinton would be an asset as a presidential spouse. By a better than two-to-one margin, 70% vs. 28%, Americans believe he would be more helpful than harmful to his wife's presidency.

 

You can read the rest of the poll results here.

Quote of the day:

"We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic."
~ David Russell

Image of the day:


BODY
~ BONUS ARTICLE: Two-Day Workout -- "Between working 40-60 hours per week, carting the kids around, or being forced to take those swing dancing lessons you promised your girlfriend (we've all been there), the last thing on the "to do list" is going to the gym. Mr. G has the answer: the Two-Day Workout."
~ Cholesterol in Foods Less Significant Than Total Calories -- "Your blood cholesterol level is influenced far more by how many calories and how much saturated and partially hydrogenated fat you eat, than by how much cholesterol is in your food." I've been trying to tell people this for a long time.
~ Strength For Caring Reminds Caregivers To Eat Healthy During National Nutrition Month -- "Strength for Caring (www.StrengthforCaring.com), an online resource for family caregivers, is pleased to announce new resources to celebrate National Nutrition Month including healthy recipes and food charts, tips for exercising when you have no time, and healthy lifestyle basics."
~ Test Your Vending Machine Smarts -- "Get the goods on the healthiest vending machine choices." A little quiz to test your "crap food" smarts.
~ Coffee: Aroma, Taste And Dietary Fiber -- "Already recognized as a source of healthful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds, coffee also contains significantly higher levels of soluble dietary fiber than other commonly consumed beverages, scientists in Spain report."
~ Sweat may spread hepatitis B virus -- "Findings from a study of Olympic wrestlers indicate that hepatitis B virus is found in the sweat of infected individuals, and so sweating might be a way that the virus could be passed between participants in contact sports."
~ Green Tea And COX-2 Inhibitors Combine To Slow Growth Of Prostate Cancer -- "Drinking a nice warm cup of green tea has long been touted for its healthful benefits, both real and anecdotal. But now researchers have found that a component of green tea, combined with low doses of a COX-2 inhibitor, could slow the spread of human prostate cancer."


PSYCHE
~ Image Concerns Tied to Depression in Arthritis, Lupus Patients -- "Concerns about appearance are associated with depression in people with rheumatic arthritis or lupus, an Australian study finds."
~ Antidepressants Help Men Decrease Alcohol Consumption -- "A CIHR-funded study explored the relationship between use of antidepressants and level of alcohol consumption, examining whether using antidepressants affected the link between depression and level of alcohol consumption."
~ Sleep Deprivation Affects Moral Judgment, Journal SLEEP -- "A study published in the March 1st issue of the journal SLEEP finds that sleep deprivation impairs the ability to integrate emotion and cognition to guide moral judgments."
~ Study: Sex Makes People Feel Sexier -- "Research finds that sexual activity raises testosterone levels in men and women."
~ Meditation Shown to Increase Grey Matter and Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease -- "Researchers ... have found in their studies that meditation can impact the thickness of the cortical tissue in the brain. This type of change is significant in the way the tissue is then able to process sensory, cognitive, and emotional responses."
~ Developmental Dissociations in Prefrontal Cortex: Maintenance vs Manipulation Processes [Developing Intelligence] -- "Cognitive theories of "executive function" vary greatly in the number of distinct cognitive processes they propose to subserve the goal-directed coordination of behavior. Some theories suggest that strong active maintenance of information, and a way of "updating" the information that is maintained, is sufficient to explain performance on executive function (EF) tasks, which typically require careful control over behavior."
~ The Driven Motorist -- "How we project ourselves onto our cars."
~ Warnings Of Increased Suicide Risk Didn't Dampen Antidepressant Prescriptions -- "'Black box' warnings on labels of certain antidepressants about possible increased suicide risk had no effect on the amounts of the medications prescribed in North America."
~ Beyond Getting Lucky -- "Achieving your goals and attracting what you want is within your control -- and when you break it down into a few easy steps, success is closer than you think!"
~ Study: The color red impacts achievement -- "U.S. and Germany scientists have discovered the color red can affect how people function, keeping them from performing at their best on tests."


CULTURE
~ Queer 101: A Guide for Heteros -- " Conservative Americans may demonize gay people -- but how much do progressives really know about queer culture?"
~ The last lovemaking taboo lifted? -- "While somebody might make a comment at a party, say, about oral sex, or some other aspect of their sex lives, few are yet willing to openly discuss anal sex. And yet the practice and interest in it appear to be growing."
~ Unpatriotic Christians [The Frontal Cortex] -- A very interesting graph, with serious implications.
~ "Intellectual Conservative" seems to be an oxymoron [Pharyngula] -- "Many will argue with the conclusion of my title, but there are so many examples of outright intellectual vacuity from people who anoint themselves with the title "conservative" that it is fast becoming a synonym for 'ignoramus.'"
~ More on the same idea: Conservapedia : why do conservatives tolerate this tripe in their name??? [Galactic Interactions] -- "It's coming-out-of-the-closet time. I was a Republican once. Now, saying you're a Republican around scienceblogs.com is a little bit like saying that you're gay in the middle of a Southern Baptist church service. You're just asking for trouble."
~ Education and Emotion [The Frontal Cortex] -- "Last week, I criticized David Brooks for his conservative interpretations of modern neuroscience. This week, I'm happy to report that Brooks' policy recommendations are much more interesting (and scientifically accurate, at least in my opinion)."
~ Anti-"Don't Ask" Bill Introduced -- "Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., on Wednesday revived legislation aimed at forcing the military to eliminate the policy preventing homosexual service members from being open about their orientation."
~ Incentivising invention -- "Will a boom in philanthropic prize-giving change the world?"
~ James Dobson's power may be waning -- "Is James Dobson's legendary power starting to wane?" We can only hope.
~ OpenCongress.org -- "Recently we blogged about Billhop, a site for tracking state legislation. OpenCongress.org is a similar site for Federal legislation, created under the auspices of the Sunlight Foundation, where Ellen Miller describes it as "a user-friendly Thomas on steroids," referring to the Library of Congress' legislative information site, which has been around since 1995."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ New market-based system aims to predict bird flu -- "Is a bird flu pandemic coming? Health experts say there is no way to know, and especially no way to know when."
~ Warning Issued For Plastic Baby Bottles -- "Parents are being warned about plastic baby bottles after studies showed they could possibly cause developmental and reproductive problems." This is deadly serious.
~ Artificially evolving social robots -- "Carl Zimmer has written a fascinating piece on a study that simulated the evolution of communication in artificially intelligent robots."
~ Parking Goes to Highest Bidder -- "See that spot that just opened up? Forget about it. Some yuppie won it in an auction two hours ago, so you're out of luck."
~ Food is Power -- "Anna Lappé attends the first international Forum on Food Sovereignty in Mali. With more than 600 participants from 98 countries, the meeting will gather some of the most important social movements working for food rights global."
~ Tornado Science, Facts and History -- "This is the fastest start for the first three months of the year since 1999. Scientists say the pattern is likely to continue."
~ Why do birds migrate? -- "Why do some birds fly thousands of miles back and forth between breeding and non-breeding areas every year whereas others never travel at all?"
~ Pre-Inca Observatory Is Oldest in Americas, Study Says -- "Thirteen 2,300-year-old towers precisely spaced along a ridge near a ceremonial site make up the oldest known solar observatory in the New World, experts say."
~ Model simulates atomic processes in nanomaterials -- "Researchers from MIT, Georgia Institute of Technology and Ohio State University have developed a new computer modeling approach to study how materials behave under stress at the atomic level, offering insights that could help engineers design materials with an ideal balance between strength and resistance to failure."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ From Alan Kazlev: Initial impressions reading Jean Gebser. He's right, Gebser is hard to read.
~ From Joe Perez at Until: The Genesis story, as viewed by Kronology (part 1) and The Cross of Stone, on Genesis (part 2). See also: Kronos mandala: a symbol of Everything and The human being, the chimpanzee, the ape, the orangutan, and the monkey. Joe has been busy.
~ Are God and Science reconcilable? from Life 2.0.
~ Cruelty from Peter at The Buddha Diaries.
~ From ~C4Chaos: The Business of The Good, The True, and The Beautiful.
~ Finding God through Intimacy from Gary at Integral in Seattle.
~ The Main Pathologies and the Beauties of Organized Religion --- A Quick Summary over at Integrative Spirituality.
~ Aurobindo’s truth claims from Ed Berge at Open Integral.
~ How Much is Too Much? How Much is Too Little? from Mike at Unknowing Mind.

Unconventional Love Sonnet #1

I had forgotten the moon, the monthly
cycle scented by oceans and blood,
the cramping pain of fertility and
the sloughing of unneeded cells.

I had forgotten the rituals of evening,
potions and elixirs applied to skin,
and the warm being in bed beside me
as I drift away into other realms.

All these mysteries and more, forgotten
but now reclaimed, embodied by the woman
whose smile tickles my awakening.

Beneath the surface of shared moments
run rivers deeper than any language,
a liquid intimacy beyond the hands of time.

.
.

Dalai Lama Quote of the Week from Snow Lion Publications:

Compassion without attachment is possible. Therefore, we need to clarify the distinctions between compassion and attachment. True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. Because of this firm foundation, a truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave negatively. Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, but rather on the needs of the other: irrespective of whether another person is a close friend or an enemy, as long as that person wishes for peace and happiness and wishes to overcome suffering, then on that basis we develop genuine concern for their problem. This is genuine compassion. For a Buddhist practitioner, the goal is to develop this genuine compassion, this genuine wish for the well-being of another, in fact for every living being throughout the universe.

~ From The Compassionate Life by Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

Dark Roasted Blend posted an amazing collection of pictures of China. I've always wanted to visit China, and these pictures are a prime example of why I've been drawn to the land there.

Here are a few, there are many more at their site.

Bono was awarded the Chairman's Award at the NAACP Image Awards the
other night. His acceptance speech was very moving. Watch until the end
-- it takes him a couple of minutes to get warmed up.

Unconventional Love Sonnet #2

Sitting on my deck beneath the cool full
moon, I hear the distant somber chords
of an acoustic guitar, an improvised blues piece
accompanied by the occasional coyote howl.

I am reminded of the losses in my life,
women I have loved and lost, each one
embedded in my cells, each one a melody
of memories, nearly forgotten most days.

As I listen to this lonely moonlit music,
my heart opens to the mystery of loving,
risk and reward, the fragile balance.

How many nights have I sought this woman
whose touch revives me? How many years
have I feared this radiant opening?

.
.

Quote of the day:

"I have too much respect for the idea of God to make it responsible for such an absurd world."
~ Georges Duhamel

Image of the day:


BODY
~ 100 Calories of Heaven -- "Get a diet-friendly portion of your favorite chocolate."
~ Simple Solutions To Postpartum Weight Retention -- "Women aiming to shed after pregnancy pounds should add daily walks and limit TV time and trans fats, according to a new study by Harvard researchers." Or you could not gain 50 pounds in the first place. My experience suggests that 25-30 pounds is the optimal weight gain, and most of that comes in the third trimester, when daily calories should be increased by about 300 over pre-pregnancy levels.
~ Natural Milk Protein Could Lead To Super Nutritious Foods -- "Technion-Israel institute of Technology researchers have engineered a way to deliver health-promoting nutrients using protein particles naturally present in milk as carriers. The breakthrough could lead to low fat or non-fat foods that contain nutrients now present only in fat-containing foods, and could be used to enrich foods with other important nutraceuticals like vitamins and antioxidants."
~ Hips Don't Lie: 10 Food Fibs that Make You Fat -- "Find out what could be holding you back from losing weight."
~ New Science-Based Guide To Natural Fat-Loss -- "American consumers have long been skeptical about weight-loss supplements, and rightly so. With dozens of nutrients, herbs, and food extracts being marketed as aids for weight loss, there is shockingly little reliable information available concerning the safety and efficacy of any given product."
~ Does cycling cause impotence? -- "The greatest source of discomfort for cyclists is the nose of their bike seat pressing on nerves and soft tissues. For men, this pain brings the additional worry of impotence."
~ Enabling Nerve Regeneration Means Evicting The Cleanup Crew -- "Macrophages are the immune cells that engulf and destroy the debris of damaged tissue to enable the healing process to begin. Their presence at the scene of damage is critical, but once their task is complete, it is just as critical that macrophages exit rapidly, ending the inflammatory process and making way for regrowth."
~ Falls And Hip Fractures Are Not Inevitable: A Return To Nature -- "Falls account for 70 percent of accidental deaths in persons 75 years of age and older. For many, this becomes the beginning of the end. But in a new study, researchers highlight the exercises and techniques needed to reverse this trend. Falls and hip fractures don't have to be inevitable, the researchers said."
~ Bernadine Healy, M.D.: A Closer Look at the Vitamin Study -- "The researchers concluded that people taking the antioxidants vitamins A, its precursor beta carotene, and vitamin E, for whatever reason, at whatever dose, and for however long, may be putting their lives in jeopardy. But before you toss out your vitamin pills, let's examine this alarmist study a little bit closer."


PSYCHE
~ Why Robots Love Music (Part 1) and Why Robots Love Music (Part 2) from Deepak Chopra. A look at how neuroscience fails in the understanding of human creativity, especially in the area of music.
~ Birth Weight, Gestation Period May Be Linked To Depression, Chronic Pain -- "According to a review in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, evidence is mounting that lifelong stress-related conditions such as depression and chronic pain may be linked to fetal growth and timing of delivery."
~ Revealing The Machinery Underlying The 'Plastic' Juvenile Brain -- "Among the central mysteries of neurobiology is what properties of the young brain enable it to so adeptly wire itself to adapt to experience - a quality known as plasticity. The extraordinary plasticity of the young brain occurs only during a narrow window of time known as the critical period."
~ New Insight Into Brain Disorders -- "The function of an enzyme in the brain - strongly linked to a number of major brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder - has been identified for the first time by researchers at the University of Bristol, UK. These findings, published in Neuron, will help in the understanding of how memories are laid down and what goes wrong in these disorders."
~ National Survey Of Health Plans Shows Very Few Provide Online Counseling -- "A national survey of commercial health plans has found that most plans provide online information regarding mental health and substance abuse but few provide clinical services such as counseling via the Internet."
~ Addiction Breakthrough May Lead To New Treatments -- "Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered why some individuals may be predisposed to drug addiction and believe it may lead to better treatments for this brain disorder.The new findings, published in Science, may lead to more targeted treatments for addiction and other compulsive behaviour disorders with fewer side effects than current alternatives.Certain changes in brain chemistry have been linked with drug addiction in humans."
~ Personality or Situation? The Psychology of Individual Differences -- "So far in this series on the top ten psychology studies, the research has lumped us all together in one group and asked what psychological research says about all of us. The studies have asked questions about how people's emotions, memories and perceptions work. What they haven't asked is what can psychologists tell us about the systematic differences between people?"
~ Signs of Posttraumatic Stress -- "Once called shell shock, PTSD now includes rape and assault victims. Symptoms are varied; treatment includes psychotherapy, support groups, and medication."
~ 5 Positive Psychology Exercises -- "Try these five exercises arising out of positive psychology studies. Research indicates each can bring greater levels of life happiness." I'm not a big fan of Positive Psychology overall, but the exercises are useful within an integral framework.


CULTURE
~ FDA drops plan for prescription drug watch list -- "Health officials said on Friday they had dropped plans to keep a public list of prescription drugs with emerging safety concerns, one of the measures proposed after Merck & Co.'s 2004 withdrawal of its arthritis drug Vioxx." But they are more than willing to watch herbal and nutritional supplements with a lot less likelihood to cause harm.
~ Objectivity, religion and the schools: yeah, right [Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge] -- "P.Z Myers has unearthed a story that would, I'm sure, become a daily occurrence all over the country were comparative religion -- currently a requirement for kids in the United Kingdom, I believe -- taught routinely in American public schools. It would be seen as nothing more than a state-sponsored attempt to undermine the faith of Christian kids, and would, I am certain, lead to people withdrawing their kids en masse and placing them in Christian schools." See also: Why comparative religion classes will never work in American public schools [Pharyngula].
~ The Kucinich Conundrum -- "Why does a 60-year-old vegan former mayor of Cleveland keep running for President? Maybe because he thinks he's right."
~ The Republican candidates -- and Ann Coulter -- try out their acts -- "At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Giuliani flops and Romney shines as the GOP presidential contenders promise the right-wing faithful everything, including a cure for cancer."
~ Confrontational investigations, subpoenas, and hearings are the priority -- "Efforts to impose legislative limits on the Bush administration's abuses will be futile until aggressive and dramatic light is shined on their behavior."
~ The Tradeoffs of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell -- "Since 2003, the number of convicted felons allowed to join has nearly doubled -- to 1,605 last year. The military has also welcomed nearly 44,000 enlistees convicted of serious misdemeanors. Going from an orange jumpsuit to desert camo must be a refreshing change. But the Pentagon hasn't eliminated its standards entirely. You still can't serve your country if you have a thing for people of your own sex."
~ Extend Legal Rights to Guantanamo -- "For more than 200 years, the courts have served as the ultimate safeguard for our civil liberties. A critical part of this role has been the judicial branch's ability to consider writs of habeas corpus, through which people who have been imprisoned can challenge the decision to hold them."
~ Arthur Schlesinger, R.I.P. -- "I always regretted that we didn't become friends, because the thousands who succeeded in doing so found friendship with Arthur Schlesinger very rewarding. For one thing, to behold him -- listen to him, observe him, read him -- was to co-exist with a miracle of sorts."
~ Giuliani Edges Out McCain in Perceptions of Viability for Presidency -- "Of the leading Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential race, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain have huge advantages over Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Sam Brownback in public perceptions of each one's chances of being elected president. But comparing Giuliani and McCain, Republicans see Giuliani as the more viable candidate for their party."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Busy Intersections Invite People To Walk More -- "People are more likely to go for a walk in areas with four-way intersections and a large number of shops and businesses as possible destinations, a large new study finds. The study examined pedestrian trips in 10 major U.S. cities to determine to what extent urban design guidelines increase walking."
~ Damp homes 'could cause asthma' -- "Damp and mould-infested houses could be the cause of permanent asthma in children, say researchers. Poor housing conditions are already linked to the illness but there is debate whether they cause asthma, or simply trigger attacks."
~ Hansen Offers Options for Addressing Global Warming -- "Speaking at the American University in Washington, D.C. on Monday, renowned U.S. climate scientist James Hansen offered a series of recommendations to stave off the most dangerous effects of climate change."
~ Power Down! Simple Ways to Reduce Energy Consumption -- "Recently, at Ignite Seattle!, a bi-monthly event for geeks and makers, Avi Geiger, a hardware architect, gave a talk on power consumption that reminded me to 'turn it off'."
~ High temperatures leave five million Chinese short of water -- "Nearly five million Chinese are unable to get enough drinking water because of a series of droughts caused by "abnormally high" temperatures, state media said Sunday."
~ Stargazers Watch Total Lunar Eclipse -- "The moon darkened, reddened, and turned shades of gray and orange Saturday night during the first total lunar eclipse in nearly three years, thrilling stargazers and astronomers around the world."
~ Physicists reveal water's secrets -- "It's essential to all life, and numerous research papers are published about it every year. Yet there are still secrets to reveal about water, that seemingly simple compound we know as H2 O."
~ A Prediction from String Theory, with Strings Attached -- "For decades researchers have tried to wrest testable predictions from string theory, the leading candidate for a more fundamental understanding of the universe. Now physicists say they have used one of the most sophisticated pieces of string theory to predict properties of the ultradense matter created in an atom smasher in Long Island, N.Y." 

INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Getting The Love You Want: Hendrix and More on IMAGO - Getting The Love You Want from Gary at Integral in Seattle.
~ Meaningful Enlightenment II from CJ Smith at Indistinct Union.
~ From the Tricycle Blog (Lin Jensen), Public Ethics.
~ Refined Carbohydrates As Environmental Toxin -- An integral look at the evil of refined carbs from Katherine at Dating God.
~ ARRAYS OF LIGHT: Ken Wilber's Tables of Correspondence - Hugh Martin over at Integral World.
~ Also at Integral World, Dispelling the Myths: Second Reply to Ray Harris - Jeff Meyerhoff.
~ Integral Institute: forever unclear on the concept, an interesting discussion of the issues in I-I forums, and the general lack of member care at I-I.
~ Ego + Desire x Kabbalah = Purpose from TikkunGer.

While the New York Times Magazine was looking at the science of religious belief this weekend, the Washington Post was looking at the ignorance of America's religious faithful.

Americans are the most religious of the developed nations, but they really tend to know very little about the tradition in which they believe -- so says Stephen Prothero in his new book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know -- and Doesn't.

The United States is the most religious nation in the developed world, if religiosity is measured by belief in all things supernatural -- from God and the Virgin Birth to the humbler workings of angels and demons. Americans are also the most religiously ignorant people in the Western world. Fewer than half of us can identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible, and only one third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

These are just two of the depressing statistics in Stephen Prothero's provocative and timely Religious Literacy. The author of American Jesus (2003) and the chair of the religion department at Boston University, Prothero sees America's religious illiteracy as even more dangerous than general cultural illiteracy "because religion is the most volatile constituent of culture, because religion has been, in addition to one of the greatest forces for good in world history, one of the greatest forces for evil."

In this book, the author combines a lively history of the rise and fall of American religious literacy with a set of proposed remedies based on his hope that "the Fall into religious ignorance is reversible." He also includes a useful multicultural glossary of religious definitions and allusions, in which religious illiterates can find the prodigal son, the promised land, the Quakers and the Koran.

The condition Prothero describes in Religious Literacy is unquestionably one manifestation of a more general decline in the public's cultural and civic knowledge. According to polls conducted by the National Constitution Center, only one third of Americans can name even one of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Is it any more startling that only one third can identify the preacher of the Sermon on the Mount?

 

Read the whole review.

As someone who was raised Catholic, I was often amazed at how little the nuns knew about the Bible they were teaching us. Admittedly, we were kids and they probably weren't too concerned with tough questions from little minds. But I was always a skeptic and I tormented the nuns with logic questions about an illogical faith.

As I grew up and rejected Catholicism completely, I took great joy in tormenting my Christian friends with questions about their faith that they couldn't answer. There was very little compassion in me at that time for a faith that I felt was corrupt and morally bankrupt.

What troubles me now is that so many believers do not know the basics of their faith. And that same ignorance translate into other areas of their lives, especially science and politics. It seems as though religion in this country is about a blind faith, not an examined faith.

I am reminded of Søren Kierkegaard's leap to faith, a move made necessary when one comes to grips with the paradoxes inherent in the Christian tradition. Kierkegaard didn't believe we could inhabit the middle ground between doubt and faith, that we could hold both ideas in our minds simultaneously. I think we can, and I think that many modern Christians would benefit from an examined faith. In fact, for many, it might make their faith stronger and more compassionate.

The New York Times Magazine ran a long piece this weekend on science and religion called Darwin's God. However, rather than focusing on the hot topic of the day -- atheism and atheist efforts to tear down religious faith -- they are looking at the ways science is trying to understand the nearly universal human impulse toward religious faith and experience.

Here is a bit of the article:

The debate over why belief evolved is between byproduct theorists and adaptationists. You might think that the byproduct theorists would tend to be nonbelievers, looking for a way to explain religion as a fluke, while the adaptationists would be more likely to be believers who can intuit the emotional, spiritual and community advantages that accompany faith. Or you might think they would all be atheists, because what believer would want to subject his own devotion to rationalism’s cold, hard scrutiny? But a scientist’s personal religious view does not always predict which side he will take. And this is just one sign of how complex and surprising this debate has become.

Angels, demons, spirits, wizards, gods and witches have peppered folk religions since mankind first started telling stories. Charles Darwin noted this in “The Descent of Man.” “A belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies,” he wrote, “seems to be universal.” According to anthropologists, religions that share certain supernatural features — belief in a noncorporeal God or gods, belief in the afterlife, belief in the ability of prayer or ritual to change the course of human events — are found in virtually every culture on earth.

This is certainly true in the United States. About 6 in 10 Americans, according to a 2005 Harris Poll, believe in the devil and hell, and about 7 in 10 believe in angels, heaven and the existence of miracles and of life after death. A 2006 survey at Baylor University found that 92 percent of respondents believe in a personal God — that is, a God with a distinct set of character traits ranging from “distant” to “benevolent.”

When a trait is universal, evolutionary biologists look for a genetic explanation and wonder how that gene or genes might enhance survival or reproductive success. In many ways, it’s an exercise in post-hoc hypothesizing: what would have been the advantage, when the human species first evolved, for an individual who happened to have a mutation that led to, say, a smaller jaw, a bigger forehead, a better thumb? How about certain behavioral traits, like a tendency for risk-taking or for kindness?

 

 

Read the whole piece -- it's worth it.

OK, I admit it, I have been a Depeche Mode fan since waaaay back. This is one of my favorite songs from them -- certainly one of the most hopeful.




You can check the lyrics here.

Peter Birkenhead, writing over at Salon, is not too impressed with all the noise being made about The Secret, and especially Oprah's role in legitimizing the scam. I agree completely (see below).

The main idea of "The Secret" is that people need only visualize what they want in order to get it -- and the book certainly has created instant wealth, at least for Rhonda Byrne and her partners-in-con. And the marketing idea behind it -- the enlisting of that dream team, in what is essentially a massive, cross-promotional pyramid scheme -- is brilliant. But what really makes "The Secret" more than a variation on an old theme is the involvement of Oprah Winfrey, who lends the whole enterprise more prestige, and, because of that prestige, more venality, than any previous self-help scam. Oprah hasn't just endorsed "The Secret"; she's championed it, put herself at the apex of its pyramid, and helped create a symbiotic economy of New Age quacks that almost puts OPEC to shame.

Why "venality"? Because, with survivors of Auschwitz still alive, Oprah writes this about "The Secret" on her Web site, "the energy you put into the world -- both good and bad -- is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day." "Venality," because Oprah, in the age of AIDS, is advertising a book that says, "You cannot 'catch' anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought." "Venality," because Oprah, from a studio within walking distance of Chicago's notorious Cabrini Green Projects, pitches a book that says, "The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts."

Worse than "The Secret's" blame-the-victim idiocy is its baldfaced bullshitting. The titular "secret" of the book is something the authors call the Law of Attraction. They maintain that the universe is governed by the principle that "like attracts like" and that our thoughts are like magnets: Positive thoughts attract positive events and negative thoughts attract negative events. Of course, magnets do exactly the opposite -- positively charged magnets attract negatively charged particles -- and the rest of "The Secret" has a similar relationship to the truth. Here it is on biblical history: "Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus were not only prosperity teachers, but also millionaires themselves, with more affluent lifestyles than many present-day millionaires could conceive of." And worse than the idiocy and the bullshitting is its anti-intellectualism, because that's at the root of the other two. Here's "The Secret" on reading and, um, electricity: "When I discovered 'The Secret' I made a decision that I would not watch the news or read newspapers anymore, because it did not make me feel good," and, "How does it work? Nobody knows. Just like nobody knows how electricity works. I don't, do you?" And worst of all is the craven consumerist worldview at the heart of "The Secret," because it's why the book exists: "[The Secret] is like having the Universe as your catalogue. You flip through it and say, 'I'd like to have this experience and I'd like to have that product and I'd like to have a person like that.' It is you placing your order with the Universe. It's really that easy." That's from Dr. Joe Vitale, former Amway executive and contributor to "The Secret," on Oprah.com.

Oprah Winfrey is one of the richest women in the world, and one of the most influential. Her imprimatur has helped the authors of "The Secret" sell 2 million books (and 1 million DVDs), putting it ahead of the new Harry Potter book on the Amazon bestseller list. In the time Oprah spent advertising the lies in "The Secret," she could have been exposing them to an audience that otherwise might have believed them. So why didn't she? If James Frey deserved to be raked over the coals for lying about how drunk he was, doesn't Oprah deserve some scrutiny for pitching the meretricious nonsense in "The Secret"?

 

 

I'm usually in the position of defending Oprah, but in this case I agree with the author of this article (read the whole thing here). I'm beginning to question my defense of Oprah at all after reading this article.

I find this whole thing rather troubling, particularly because of the "blame the victim" bullshit. I have a very close friend who was tortured (literally) by her father as she grew up, and possibly sexually abused. Did she draw this to herself with negative thoughts? Not even close. Her father was mentally ill. Did she choose an abusive father and a demeaning mother, as some of this New Age crap would insist? Hell no.

The Secret is a lame ass attempt to sell snake oil. It's quasi religion with a feel good veneer. But the reality is that the universe in unpredictable at times. Sick and wounded people hurt other people for no apparent reason. Machines malfunction and people die. Disease kills thousands of children every day in Third World nations -- and down the street in America. Did these children think bad thoughts that invited sickness into their lives? Fuck no!

I get really angry with this kind of lazy, head in the sand thinking. Of all people, Oprah should know that it is crap. She didn't get where she is by thinking positive thoughts -- she busted her ass for years to create her empire.

Birkenhead sums up how I feel about all of this pretty well:

Books like "The Secret" have created, and are feeding, an enormously diverse market of disciples, and they're thriving in every corner of the culture, in megachurches and movies, politics and pop music, in sports arenas and state boards of education. Oprah has far more in common with George Bush than either would like to admit, and so do the psychics of Marin County, Calif., and the creationists of Kansas. The believers come from all walks of life, but they work the same way -- mostly by bastardizing and warping source materials, from the Bible to the Bhagavad Gita, to make them fit their worldview. On Page 23 of "The Secret" you'll find this revealing doozy: "Meditation quiets the mind, helps you control your thoughts." Of course, the goal of meditation is precisely the opposite -- it is to be conscious, to observe your thoughts honestly and clearly. But that's the last thing the believers want to encourage. The authors of "The Secret" sell "control" in the form of "empowerment" and "quiet" in the form of belief, not consciousness.

The promises of Oprah culture can seem irresistible, and its hallmarks are becoming ubiquitous. Believers may be separated into tribes according to what they believe, but they do it in pretty much the same way, relying on a "Secret"-style conception of "intuition" --- which seems to amount to the sneaking suspicion that they're always right -- to arrive at their tenets. Instead of the world as it is, constantly changing and full of contradiction, they see a fixed and fantastical place, where good things come to those who believe, whether it's belief in a diet, a God, or a Habit of Successful People. These believers may believe in the healing power of homeopathy, or Scripture or organizational skills -- in intelligent design, astrology or privatization. They all trust that their devotion will be rewarded with money and boyfriends and job promotions, with hockey championships and apartments. And most of all they believe -- they really, really believe -- in themselves.

For these believers, self-knowledge is much less important than self-"love." But the question they never seem to ask themselves is: If you wouldn't tell another person you loved her before you got to know her, why would you do that to yourself? Skipping the getting-to-know-you part has given us what we deserve: the Oprah culture. It's a culture where superstition is "spirituality," illiteracy is "authenticity," and schoolmarm moralism is "character." It's a culture where people apologize by saying, "I'm sorry you took offense at what I said," and forgive by saying, "I'm not angry at you anymore, I'm grateful to you for teaching me not to trust shitheads like you." And that's the part that should bother us most: the diminishing, even implicit mocking, of genuine goodness, and of authentic spiritual concerns and practices. Engagement, curiosity and active awe are in short supply these days, and it's sickening to see them devalued and misrepresented.

 

 'Nuf said. I can think of no better example of the mean green meme in action.

.

Quote of the day:

"Do I contradict myself?/ Very well then I contradict myself,/ (I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
~ Walt Whitman

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Essential Waterbury: Program Design -- "We were going to send Chad to your house, but we couldn't find a shipping container big enough. So, we did the next best thing. This article will allow you to easily construct your very own Waterbury program."
~ Unique Tomatoes Tops In Disease-Fighting Antioxidants -- "Deep red tomatoes get their rich color from lycopene, a disease-fighting antioxidant. A new study, however, suggests that a special variety of orange-colored tomatoes provide a different form of lycopene, one that our bodies may more readily use." Yum, tangerine tomatoes.
~ Diabetics Should Avoid Coffee -- OK, so coffee isn't great for everyone.
~ Early Puberty In Girls Due to Being Overweight As A Toddler -- Fat creates more estrogen, and fat cells contain more estrogen receptors -- no mystery here.
~ Staying Busy And Active Contributes To Longer Life -- "Physical activity as the elixir of youth might seem like old news, but there's a new twist, according to the March issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource. For the best chance of a long, healthy life, marathon training is not required. But, staying busy and active might be. Research published last year found that any activity that contributed to energy expenditure in older adults may help prolong life."
~ Exercise, Diet, Supplements Play Role In Lowering Cholesterol Without Drugs -- "When it's time to rein in cholesterol, the go-to prescription is usually statins. These medications can reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol -- the bad cholesterol -- from 25 percent to 50 percent. But for a variety of reasons, statins aren't an option for everyone.The March issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource outlines other ways to lower cholesterol levels."
~ Moderate drinking may benefit elderly men -- "Older men who drink moderate amounts of alcohol may function better physically than either those who abstain completely or those who abuse alcohol, a new study suggests." Well, there's a reason to stay healthy enough to get old.


PSYCHE
~ Anxiety disorders often untreated -- "In a study of patients seen at primary care clinics, nearly 20 percent had at least one anxiety disorder and 41 percent of these patients were receiving no treatment."
~ Study measures harm of stress on children's health -- "Children in families facing chronic stress such as conflict between parents or violence in the home become sick more often than children under less stress, according to a study published on Monday."
~ Intimate Partner Abuse Affects Broad Spectrum of Ages (HealthDay) -- "Many elderly women say they've been physically or mentally abused by intimate partners at some point in their lives, says a U.S. study in the March issue of The Gerontologist."
~ Getting Closer: The Art of Self-Disclosure -- "Turning an acquaintance into a good friend can be hard. Whether it's romantic or platonic, there are endless reasons why people fail to connect and maintain their relationships with each other."
~ The Myelin in All of Us -- "This has been a terrific couple of weeks for anyone wanting to better understand talent -- several smart magazine and newspaper pieces have zeroed in on new, critical data. Daniel Coyle has a solid piece in yesterday's NYTimes Sports Magazine that nicely combines Anders Ericsson's work on "deliberate practice" with some very recent findings about myelin, the fatty insulation around nerve fibers that makes electrical nerve signals more efficient (Ishibashi et al, 2006; Fields, 2006)."
~ Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Changes Kids Brains -- "By examining a small cohort of children suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder, researchers from Stanford University were able to show that extreme stress and PTSD effected changes in the hippocampus area of children's brains."
~ Unwanted Thoughts -- "Things we sweep under the rug fill our dreams."
~ Scientists trying to read your mind -- "At a laboratory in Germany, volunteers slide into a donut-shaped MRI machine and perform simple tasks, such as deciding whether to add or subtract two numbers, or choosing which of two buttons to press." See also: Scientists Try to Predict Intentions.
~ Out-of-body experiences may be caused by arousal system disturbances in brain -- "Having an out-of-body experience may seem far-fetched to some, but for those with arousal system disturbances in their brains, it may not be a far off idea that they could sense they were really outside their own body watching themselves."


CULTURE
~ Access To Dental Care Remains Challenging For Low-Income People -- "Access to dental care is "an often overlooked concern in the debate over universal health coverage," as some low-income children have no dental coverage and other people have limited access to care, the Washington Post reports."
~ Dysfunctional FDA Computer System Delays Drug Safety Reporting By Four Years -- "An independent report by the Breckenridge Institute has revealed a "dysfunctional" and new computer system the FDA has been using to track post-market drug safety since 2005 -- the Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) -- won't be fully operational until 2009 at the earliest."
~ Fallout from the Coulter speech -- "The right wing which has tolerated and embraced Coulter for so long slowly tries to disassociate itself from her."
~ The Questions Bush Won't Answer -- "Ever since President Bush announced on Jan. 10 that he was defying the public will and increasing the U.S. military commitment in Iraq, he has been emphatic that his latest plan -- unlike all those previous ones -- would work."
~ Privacy Board OKs Eavesdropping -- "A secretive White House privacy board says two Bush surveillance programs -- electronic eavesdropping and financial tracking -- do not violate citizens' civil liberties."
~ The Century of the Self -- "After Adam Curtis’ flawed but essential BBC 4 documentary on the neo-cons and Islamic fundamentalists, The Power of Nightmares, I was excited to learn he’d taken a similar approach to tackle the relationships between psychoanalysis, advertising and politics in The Century of the Self. I missed it on TV, but just got round to it on Google Video."
~ Evangelical’s Focus on Climate Draws Fire of Christian Right -- "Leaders of several conservative Christian groups have sent a letter urging the National Association of Evangelicals to force its policy director in Washington to stop speaking out on global warming . The conservative leaders say they are not convinced that global warming is human-induced or that human intervention can prevent it."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Are GM Crops Killing Honeybees? -- "One of nature's unsung heroes -- the honeybee -- may be in grave decline around the United States, a huge problem for those of us who live in North America, and not solely because it means a shortage of honey either."
~ The Plight of the Ugliest Endangered Animals -- "Watch this Slate slideshow and you'll come out hating pandas for everything they represent. While millions of dollars have gone into saving the last three thousand pandas just because they're cute, at least one sorry creature—the aye-aye—is bound for extinction because it's ugly. The aye-aye looks like a balding, emaciated gremlin."
~ So Much Data, Relatively Little Space -- "A new study that estimates how much digital information the world is generating (hint: a lot) finds that for the first time, there's not enough storage space to hold it all."
~ Monkeys Hug to Head Off Conflict, Study Finds -- "Like Ari "Hug It Out" Gold on HBO's Entourage, spider monkeys reportedly use well-placed embraces to ease group tension."
~ Splitting Water Molecules the Next "Green" Power Source? -- "Artificial photosynthesis may be the key to harnessing energy directly from the sun and creating a limitless renewable energy source, experts say."
~ Tundra disappearing at rapid rate -- "Forests of spruce trees and shrubs in parts of northern Canada are taking over what were once tundra landscapes--forcing out the species that lived there."
~ Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, yet there are only 24 hours in a day? -- "Michael A. Lombardi, a metrologist in the Time and Frequency Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., takes the case."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Buddhist Geeks 9: Enlightened Teachers -- "In our latest podcast (listen to Part 1) with Theravada teacher Daniel Ingram he breaches the taboo of enlightenment by discussing the enlightenment of other teachers."
~ Listen to the minerals. What are they telling you? -- An interesting post from Joe Perez at Until.
~ Magnanimous Heroes and Ignorant Enemies -- "Magnanimous. Yeah, it's one of those S.A.T. words that some of us may have forgotten. It comes from the Latin "magnus" (great) and "animus" (spirit or mind). It means to have a great and generous heart. This is the characteristic that my heroes all have in common. Among them, Mother Theresa, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Jesus, Buddha, Mae Chee Sansanee, Princess Diana and many, many others."
~ Logos, Mythos, Convergence Theory & More -- From TikkunGer.
~ More on the Secret -- ebuddha riffs on the post I put up yesterday.
~ Why would a Buddhist celebrate Passover? -- From Buddhists & Jews.

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Everything Keeps Changing

Some people practice throughout their entire lives just by paying attention to breathing. Everything that is true about anything is true about breath: it's impermanent; it arises and it passes away. Yet if you didn't breathe, you would become uncomfortable; so then you would take in a big inhalation and feel comfortable again. But if you hold onto the breath, it's no longer comfortable, so you have to breathe out again. All the time shifting, shifting. Uncomfortableness is continually arising. We see that everything keeps changing.

~ Sylvia Boorstein, in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Vol. II, #1
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book.

I found this post over at The Art of Intimacy, and I liked the message. I have some thoughts to add (below).

Be Who You Are...

This morning, in a conversation discussing the importance of valuing our individuality, the gentleman with whom I was speaking made a statement that really struck me.

He said, "If you aren't true to yourself, you are not allowing someone to love the person you truly are."

This lovely man gave an example from his own life... he is a well respected physician and as such, presented an image of what most people expect a doctor to be... but the woman he married came to love the image rather than the person he truly is and the relationship withered and died. After a divorce, he came to understand his own truth and allowed himself to reflect his uniqueness. He doesn't exactly appear as the brilliant doctor he is, and might be mistaken for a guitarist in a rock band, nevertheless, his next partner was able to love him as he truly is. And their relationship is strong and healthy.

Typically I have been a rather vocal advocate for being true to oneself for the sole reason that it is in the very uniqueness of each of us, where we can bring forth our beauty and gifts.

But this simple statement broadened my awareness as I reflected on how we love each other and the importance of intimacy.

If we are living in a way, not in accord with who we truly are, and we are loved, who is it that is truly being loved? It is some pretend person, or some false image of us.

And, when we are living a lie, we are denying our beloved to love our true self.

Yet, if we show ourselves as we are, the love we receive is love that is real and alive.

The more we are real, the deeper the love. The more our lives are a pretense, the more the love we receive is based on non-reality.

If our partner is disallowed to discover our true self because we are not willing to be who we really are, we do her/him a disservice because it is in the very act of sharing our self that we elicit the closeness and evoke the love of another. We deny them the gift of loving who we are.

I believe the more we share our true selves, the deeper the love and the stronger the connection between two people.

The very act of opening our hearts, revealing who we are, and exposing our very soul, is exactly what we need to allow the love to enter into our awareness.

And, the gift we give to our partner as we reveal our true self is a real person to love.

 

I think there is some important truth in this. And I think this is part of an informed integral relationship.

When we are courting and falling in love, we tend to only show our best selves, our perfected image of who are or who we want to be. I know I'm guilty of this, and I think many other people are as well. But this cheats the person we love of truly knowing us.

In order for there to ever be real intimacy, we need to be able to be vulnerable, exposed, and open -- and this is hard for most of us, but especially for men. Without that openness, however, we are doing a bait-and-switch with our partner. S/he may later come to resent us for not being open about who we truly are.

This is not to say that we should not strive to be our best selves -- we should, most of the time. But we also need to show our partner who we really are -- fears, doubts, insecurities, dreams, ideals, and so on, the whole beautiful mess that most of us are at our core.

Most importantly, if we are living behind a mask, we are not only cheating our partner of truly knowing us, but we are also cheating ourselves. It is impossible to extend ourselves fully to another if we are wearing masks, or hiding behind an image we have created and perpetuated. If we cannot extend ourselves, then we are also unable to let in the love with which our partner wants to gift us. Everyone loses in this situation.

But if we are authentic -- and if we can overcome the fear of truly being seen, which is what wearing masks is all about, fear of being vulnerable -- then our partner can love who we are and not some image we have created. And if we can be authentic, we can tap into the deep well of love we all carry in our hearts and share that with our partners. This is true intimacy.

My sense is that this is not easy for anyone who has not reached at least the level of the sensitive self (Wilber's Green altitude), though it certainly is not out of reach for lower altitudes. However, it requires a definite ability to identify when the ego is involved in generating images as self-protection and a fearlessness to override that impulse. Which is to say, it takes an observer self to act as gate-keeper on our actions and motivations -- something that is often developed in meditation and therapy.

A truly integral relationship requires honesty and vulnerability, not masks and created images. This has been a hard lesson that I am still trying to master, but awareness is part of the puzzle.

"Hey Under-30s Crowd, Have You Overdosed on Narcissism?" is the title of an article over at AlterNet that looks at the recent report about Gen-Y narcissism. It offers a little more balance than some of the press reports when the study was first released a week or two ago.

Key Quote:

These young adults are "hard to define," says Jody Turner of the Los Angeles business-strategy consultancy CultureofFuture.com. "Most kids coming out of college are looking at ways of contributing but not giving up their material goals," she says, and finding ways to do that by marrying Gen-X creativity with the "community desire" of other generations.

"You do have to be careful. There's a lot of conflicting evidence," says Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington who has studied youths and morality. "Millennials are also among the most hardworking and least inclined to self-destructive behavior," she says. "They've behaved better than the Gen-Xers or the baby boomers. ... They're closer to their parents than [were] previous generations."

Still, according to the study, 30 percent more college students showed "elevated narcissism" in 2006 compared with 1982. Over 25 years, researchers have posed a series of "narcissistic personality inventory" questions, each with two possible answers, to more than 16,000 students, with the latest survey conducted last year.

 

Quote of the day:

"I take my children everywhere, but they always find their way back home."
~ Robert Orben

Image of the day:


BODY
~ What’s the best time for future athletes to start training? -- "A study from Sweden suggests that the best time for future athletes to start training is probably before they go into puberty, because strength training before puberty gives a person larger and stronger bones."
~ EPDS: 7 Causes and Cures -- "Extreme Performance Decline Syndrome (EPDS) sounds like a new social disease, but it really has to do with mid-set fatigue. Ever wonder why you can pump out 12 reps on the first set but then have trouble hitting 6 or 7 reps on the fifth set? Luckily, Joel Marion knows how to boost your performance."
~ U.S. study tips scale in favor of Atkins diet -- "A study of four popular diets found that women put on the one with the least carbohydrates -- the Atkins plan -- lost at least twice as much weight as those on the others, researchers said on Tuesday."
~ Early Life Growth Spurts Protect Against 'Bad' Cholesterol -- "Tall toddlers and rapidly growing teens are likely to find themselves with lower cholesterol, particularly the "bad" type, in later life, suggests research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.Conversely, piling on the pounds after the age of 15 boosted cholesterol levels, the study showed." I was 6' tall at 13 years of age, so this bodes well for me.
~ Walking helps shed post-baby pounds -- "New moms who take walks instead of watching TV may lose those post-pregnancy pounds more easily, according to researchers."
~ Eating Less Slows Muscle Cell Damage, Helps People Live Longer -- "People who eat less are more efficient at converting food into energy, which may help them live longer, a new study shows."
~ Transcendental Meditation Reduces Congestive Heart Failure, New Study Shows -- "A widely practiced, stress-reducing meditation technique significantly decreases the severity of congestive heart failure, according to a first-of-its-kind randomized study published in Ethnicity & Disease."
~ Fitness that functions like you do -- "Functional fitness is all about helping you perform better outside the gym."


PSYCHE
~ Bingeing Is Most Common Eating Disorder -- "In the public eye, binge eating springs from a faulty sense of self-discipline rather than a diagnosable physical condition, but it is very much a clinical disorder, often occurring in tandem with major depression and anxiety."
~ Boost Your Body Image in the Bedroom -- "Self esteem expert Jess Weiner tells you how to get over issues so you can get the loving you deserve."
~ Happiness is more than chasing pleasure -- "Psychiatrist Dr. Donald Rosen speaks with MSNBC.com about the connection between happiness and health."
~ Failure Analysis -- "Success education involves being aware of how your explanations affect your daily life, future plans, and interactions with others (attribution theory)."
~ Brain Works More Chaotically Than Previously Thought -- "The passing on of information from neuron to neuron does not, they show, occur exclusively at the synapses, i.e. the junctions between the nerve cell extensions. Rather, it seems that the neurons release their chemical messengers along the entire length of these extensions and, in this way, excite the neighbouring cells."
~ Research On The Color Red Shows Definite Impact On Achievement -- "The color red can affect how people function: Red means danger and commands us to stop in traffic. Researchers at the University of Rochester have now found that red also can keep us from performing our best on tests."
~ Polarity and Your Career -- "As a follow-up to the Polarity and Polarization articles, let’s explore some practical applications of polarity-based thinking with respect to your career choices."
~ The 4 Elements of Purpose -- "As I mentioned in the previous post, discovering your purpose in life can bless you with a life of passion, fulfillment and contribution. So how can you figure out what that purpose is?"


CULTURE
~ 60% Of U.S. Residents Say They Would Pay Higher Taxes To Fund Nationwide Universal Health Insurance System, New York Times CBS News Poll Finds.
~ The E Generation at 40 -- "BBC Radio 4 recently broadcast a documentary on the long-term effects of ecstasy (MDMA) now that the 'E Generation' are in their 40s."
~ Libby Convicted in Leak Case -- "The Vice President's former chief of staff is found guilty on four of five counts for his role in the Valerie Plame affair."
~ Clinton Pledges Alliance With Gays -- "Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton told the nation's leading gay rights group in an unpublicized speech that she wants a partnership with gays if elected president."
~ Giuliani Says Family Issues Private -- "Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani asked for privacy on Monday to deal with strained relationships within his family." As it should be.
~ The Administration Goes For Broke -- "It has become conservatives' equivalent of handshakes at a union hall. Professing aversion to government and venom toward taxes before the right-wing rank-and-file is a set piece of Republican presidential primaries."
~ Robert Naiman: Obama Voted to Protect Civilians from Cluster Bombs. Where Were Clinton, Biden, and Dodd? -- "If you have the good fortune to find yourself in one of those situations where you get to question one of the Democrats running for President - especially one of the sitting Senators - perhaps you'd like to ask some variant of the following: When you had a chance six months ago to protect civilians from being killed or maimed by cluster bombs, how did you vote? If you weren't in the Senate, how would you have voted? If you voted no, why did you vote no? Will you support such legislation now?"


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Uninsured Children Admitted To Hospitals Are Twice As Likely To Die As Insured Children, According To Families USA Study -- "For the report, researchers led by J. Mick Tilford of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences analyzed government data from 2000 and 2003."
~ Microsoft researchers collaborate to change the world -- "Microsoft researchers from the software giant's labs around the world gathered on Tuesday to conspire on innovations intended to change the world."
~ Sound waves turn natural gas into liquid -- "Worldwide, 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas is wasted every year. Now, the Denver-based company Swift LNG aims to turn that gas into a usable liquid fuel with a thermoacoustic natural gas liquefaction technology just licensed from Los Alamos National Laboratory."
~ Honda Unveils 'Small Hybrid Sports Concept' -- "Honda Small Hybrid Sports Concept, a design study model, demonstrates a unique fusion of advanced environmental technology, exciting styling and fun-to-drive characteristics."
~ "Mafia Birds" Make Others Raise Their Young ... Or Else -- "Some cowbirds make other birds an offer they can't refuse, a new study says: Raise our chicks or we'll whack yours."
~ New Weapon Against Warming: "Flatulence Cards" Offset Dog, Human Emissions -- "While global warming is nothing to laugh at, an Australian company is providing some comic relief, selling carbon credits for flatulent pets and people." Hmmm. . . .
~ World's Longest Underground River Discovered in Mexico, Divers Say -- "Divers have finished mapping a twisting subterranean waterway that winds through 95 miles (153 kilometers) of the Yucatán Peninsula's limestone caverns."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Looking at knots from the emptiness and form sides -- "Knots are the whole complex of a belief in a story (as absolutely true), and the accompanying emotional and behavioral patterns. It brings identification into the content of awareness, and comes from and props up a sense of a separate self."
~ Gary doesn't like The Secret either.
~ Julian REALLY doesn't like The Secret, and he gets integral about it.
~ Metta from The Buddha Diaries.
~ Oi! Are You Looking at My Triangle? from Think Buddha.
~ Buddha Break 2007.03.06 -- some links from Sentient Developments.
~ Mahayana Buddhism and the Pre-Pomo Turn from Ghost in the Wire.

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Our Suffering Stems From Ignorance

 

Observing respiration is also the means for practicing right awareness. Our suffering stems from ignorance. We react because we do not know what we are doing, because we do not know the reality of ourselves. The mind spends most of the time lost in fantasies and illusions, reliving pleasant or unpleasant experiences and anticipating the future with eagerness or fear. While lost in such cravings or aversions, we are unaware of what is happening now, what we are doing now. Yet surely this moment, now, is the most important for us. We cannot live in the past; it is gone. Nor can we live in the future; it is forever beyond our grasp. We can live only in the present. If we are unaware of our present actions, we are condemned to repeating the mistakes of the past and can never succeed in attaining our dreams for the future. But if we can develop the ability to be aware of the present moment, we can use the past as a guide for ordering our actions in the future, so that we may attain our goal.

~ S.N. Goenka, in The Art of Living, from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book.

Sorry this is so late today -- Earthlink was down all morning and just came back online in AZ.

Quote of the day:

"Nihilism is best done by professionals."
~ Iggy Pop

Image of the day:

BODY
~ Whole-Grain Breakfast Cereal Associated With Reduced Heart Failure Risk -- "Eating whole-grain breakfast cereals seven or more times per week was associated with a lower risk of heart failure, according to an analysis of the observational Physicians' Health Study." Fiber is good for what ails ya.
~ Osteoporosis Linked to Vitamin D Deficiency -- "Vitamin D deficiency is being recognized as a growing problem in people who are at risk for osteoporosis. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, over 60 million Americans, 41 million of them women, will have either osteoporosis or low bone mass by the year 2020."
~ Genetic Mutations Cause CoQ10 Enzyme Deficiency -- "Individuals with a deficiency in a protein known as CoQ10 can be grouped into different categories depending on their clinical symptoms. Primary CoQ10 deficiency, that is a deficiency caused by a genetic mutation, can be treated by dietary CoQ10 supplementation."
~ Diet Advice to take to Heart -- "Find out 6 ways to make your diet heart-healthy and lose weight."
~ A Specific Fat Type Can Protect Against Weight Gain And Diabetes -- "A new study from Joslin Diabetes Center may shed light on why some people can eat excessive amounts of food and not gain weight or develop type 2 diabetes, while others are more likely to develop obesity and this most common form of diabetes on any diet."
~ Prevent injury and improve performance by increasing the intensity of your warm-up -- "Warming up before you exercise helps to prevent injuries and lets you jump higher, run faster, lift heavier or throw further."
~ Erectile Dysfunction Drugs May Trump Nitroglycerin For Heart Protection -- "Erectile dysfunction drugs may be better than nitroglycerin in protecting the heart from damage before and after a severe heart attack."
~ Exercise slows decline in Alzheimer's patients -- "Nursing home residents with Alzheimer's disease who participate in a moderate exercise program have a significantly slower deterioration than those who receive routine medical care, researchers have shown."
~ It's true -- stress makes teens break out -- "Teen-agers who claim that stress makes them break out are telling the truth: The stress of taking an exam can make pimples worse, researchers reported on Tuesday." I'm guessing this applies to adults too.


PSYCHE
~ Psychoanalysis effective for panic disorder -- "The findings from a clinical trial indicate that psychoanalytic therapy can be particularly effective for people suffering from panic disorder. Relaxation training is also helpful but it has a lower success rate."
~ Addiction: Why Can't They Just Stop? -- "New Book, Documentary Explores Brain Chemistry Behind Addictive Behaviors."
~ How to Cheer Up -- "When bad things happen, as they will, it's helpful to have an arsenal of useful interventions to raise your spirits and improve your attitude."
~ Antidepressants Improve Post-Stroke 'Thinking Outside The Box' -- "Antidepressant treatment appears to help stroke survivors with the kind of complex mental abilities often referred to as "thinking outside the box," according to a University of Iowa study. The antidepressants' effects on study participants' abilities were independent of any changes in depression. In addition, the improvements in complex mental abilities were not seen immediately but during the course of 21 months after the treatment ended."
~ Women are best at being buddies -- "A four-year study by sociologists at The University of Manchester has found that women are much more likely than men to make deep and lasting friendships.The investigation into social networks by the University's Research Centre for Socio-Cultural Change found that men are more fickle and calculating about who they should be friends with."
~ Why children love their security blankets -- "Every parent of a young child knows how emotionally attached children can become to a soft toy or blanket that they sleep with every night. New research, published today in the international journal Cognition, suggests that this might be because children think the toy or blanket has a unique property or ‘essence."
~ Findings may explain why omega-3s seem to improve mood -- "Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fatty fish like salmon, are associated with increased grey matter volume in areas of the brain commonly linked to mood and behavior according to a University of Pittsburgh study."
~ Is Your Memory Erased While You Sleep? -- "Scientists have a new theory about what happens in the brain when you snooze." var bool_dhtmlPOPup = true; //restarting dhtml popup exclusively. /*var mathRandom = Math.random(); if( mathRandom < .5 ) { var bool_dhtmlPOPup = true; } else { var bool_dhtmlPOPup = false; } */

CULTURE
~ The four unspeakable truths about Iraq -- "When it comes to Iraq, there are two kinds of presidential candidates. The disciplined ones, like Hillary Clinton, carefully avoid acknowledging reality. The more candid, like John McCain and Barack Obama, sometimes blurt out the truth, but quickly apologize."
~ Wikipedia to Seek Credentials Proof -- "Following revelations that a high-ranking member of Wikipedia's bureaucracy used his cloak of anonymity to lie about being a professor of religion, the free Internet encyclopedia plans to ask contributors who claim such credentials to identify themselves."
~ YouTube Banned In Turkey -- "A Turkish court ordered access to YouTube's Web site blocked on Wednesday, after a prosecutor recommended the ban because of videos allegedly insulting the founder of modern Turkey."
~ Clipping Cheney's Wings -- "John Nichols writes that the Libby trial revealed stunning details about Dick Cheney's aggressive efforts to attack his enemies and cherry-pick pre-war intelligence. Will Congress now conduct hearings to call the Vice President to account?"
~ Why Jews Should Care About the ‘Jesus Tomb’ -- "Our rabbi reflects on the claim that Christ’s tomb has been found."
~ Ann Coulter's the Paris Hilton of political coverage -- " Even among her most rabid red-state fans, she has become a cartoon character -- and journalists should treat her like one."
~ NBC/WSJ: Confidence on Iraq continues to fall -- "Almost two months after President Bush announced that he was sending more than 21,000 additional troops into Iraq, saying, “We can, and we will, prevail,” nearly seven in 10 Americans remain pessimistic about the war’s outcome, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds."
~ Nebraska Senator Hagel to announce 2008 plans -- Run, Chuck, run!


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Global Polio Eradication May Take Time -- "WHO Says Global Polio Eradication Still Possible but Will Take at Least Another Year."
~ Global Fund to Help Buy Malaria Drugs -- "Health Experts Announce a Global Fund to Subsidize New Malaria Drugs."
~ More Ways Teflon Can Harm Your Baby -- "More than a year after the FDA urged companies to ban the use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the chemical used in making Teflon, reports of new toxic side effects associated with your cookware and other products keeping on coming."
~ World Wide Divide -- "Globalization advocates and internet idealists may talk of a future without borders, but the world's not as connected as people think."
~ Love-making gets green light from adult stores -- "You've heard of green cars, green tourism and green weddings. Now Canadians should ready themselves for green sex."
~ Evolution Getting Faster Thanks to Germs, Viruses, Study Says -- "Evolution has gotten faster, and scientists think they know why: Microbes are swapping DNA from one species to another, giving the Darwinian process an added boost."
~ Time Change: Springing Forward Could be Bad For You -- "This Sunday, Daylight Saving Time starts ... three weeks earlier than in the past. It might save energy. It's sure to fuel depression."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Can Buddha Hit a Curveball?…and other questions of special powers -- "In this post I want to talk about special abilities and powers, which seem to always be discussed in terms of secondary by-products of one’s practice and realization."
~ From The Buddha Diaries: A Visitation -- "Well, yesterday, I chanced to look up from my writing and was greeted with the vision of a hawk. He was perched there, magnificent and imperious, on the lip of the upper bowl, no more than a few feet from where I sat."
~ From Ed Berge at Open Integral: No views is good views? -- "From my investigation of Nagarjuna and Derrida I’m coming to feel that indeed “no views is good views,” as the moment I take a position I immediately see my own negative projections–and the antithesis–built right into the very premise(s) of that view."
~ Three aspects of identities and freefall from Mystery of Existence.
~ From ~C4Chaos: The Secret, Steve Pavlina, and Stuff Called HOLONS. Also from ~C (an expansion of ideas in the first post): What the Hell? Is Steve Pavlina Turquoise?
~ Julian says what I have been thinking for quite a while now: Second Tier? Get Over Yourself. A Brief Righteous Vent.... over at the I-I pod at Zaadz. Even if you aren't a member, check it out. ~C4Chaos adds: Brad Warner: Big Mind™ is a Big Load of Horse Shit.

Today's Daily Om is a good one.

The Wisdom Of Surrender
Relying On Others

Most of us pride ourselves on our self-sufficiency. We like to be responsible for taking care of ourselves and pulling our own weight in the world. This is why it can be so challenging when we find ourselves in a situation in which we have to rely on someone else. This can happen as the result of an illness or an injury, or even in the case of a positive change, such as the arrival of a newborn. At times like these, it is essential that we let go of our feeling that we should be able to do it all by ourselves and accept the help of others.

The first step is accepting the situation fully as it is. Too often we make things worse either by trying to do more than we should or by lapsing into feelings of uselessness. In both cases we run the risk of actually prolonging our dependency. In addition, we miss a valuable opportunity to practice acceptance and humility. The ego resists what is, so when we move into acceptance we move into the deeper realm of the soul. In needing others and allowing them to help us, we experience the full realization that we are not on our own in the world. While this may bring up feelings of vulnerability, a deep feeling of gratitude may also emerge as we open to the experience of being helped. This realization can enable us to be wiser in our service of others when we are called upon to help.

It takes wisdom and strength to surrender to our own helplessness and to accept that we, just like every other human being, have limitations. The gifts of surrender are numerous. We discover humility, gratitude, and a deepening understanding of the human experience that enables us to be that much more compassionate and surrendered in the world.

Quote of the day:

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
~ Philip K. Dick

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Saturated Fat: Killer or Testosterone Booster? -- "We run articles about dietary fat on T-Nation fairly often, but do you truly understand fat, especially saturated fat? If you don't, you might be seriously shortchanging your health and your physique."
~ Going Deep With EDT: Your 10 Most Common Questions Answered -- "EDT is one of the simplest, most effective bodybuilding programs ever devised. If you're not familiar with it, here's your chance." From my experience, EDT is the most effective fat loss lifting program ever developed.
~ Speed up recovery with food -- "A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that eating any source of protein and sugar immediately after finishing a workout helps athletes grow larger and stronger muscles (November 2006)." Not new info, but worth repeating.
~ Health Benefits of Massage -- "Many people look upon massage as an indulgence that is simply not necessary, I have to admit that I enjoy getting a massage but was always wondering if long term massage was good for me. This way of thinking keeps them from experiencing the miraculous healing power a good massage can have. This form of therapy is not only very pleasant and relaxing but offers great health inspiring benefits."
~ Study Probes Odor, Sleep and Memory Link -- "Doctors have long advised that a good night's sleep is important for memory - but researchers now say a familiar scent wafting in the bedroom might help sometimes, too...."
~ Health Tip: Common Causes of Fever -- "Each of us has an internal thermostat in the brain that raises or lowers our body temperature. Fever occurs when the body's temperature is raised above normal."
~ Tai Chi Chuan may benefit type 2 diabetes patients -- "A new study suggests that participation in the Chinese martial art Tai Chi Chuan may help boost immune function and improve blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes."
~ Teens experimenting with steroids earlier -- "Adolescents are using muscle-building steroids at an earlier age, but most stop using these drugs as they grow older, according to more than 2,500 youth who were surveyed in 1999 and again in 2004."
~ Another Impact of Smoking During Pregnancy: Troubled Kids -- "Smoking During Pregnancy Has Long-Term Effects on Childhood Behavior, New Research Suggests."


PSYCHE
~ Pain complicates depression treatment in elderly -- "By interfering with normal activities, chronic pain can impede recovery from depression in older adults, according to findings reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society."
~ Severe PTSD Damages Children's Brains -- "The researchers found that children with post-traumatic stress disorder and high levels of the stress hormone cortisol were likely to experience a decrease in the size of the hippocampus - a brain structure important in memory processing and emotion."
~ Web program may help ward off eating disorders -- "Young women showed less dissatisfaction with their weight and shape after participating in an Internet-based eating disorder prevention program, researchers from Germany found."
~ We can judge the emotional content of pictures in as little as 13 milliseconds (with more polls!) [Cognitive Daily] -- "Two days ago, we discussed research suggesting that the emotional qualities of images affect short-term memory for those images. When you watch a movie depicting a rapid sequence of images, you're more likely to remember images that have strong emotional content -- especially images that are arousing, whether they depict positive or negative things. Most fascinating of all: when we see images for a very short time, we're more likely to remember positive images, but when we view them for a longer period, we're more likely to remember negative ones."
~ Dopamine to the Rescue: The Binding Problem [Developing Intelligence] -- "The infamous "binding problem" concerns how a coherent subjective experience of the world can emerge from the widely-distributed processing of individual object characteristics (for example, object identity and object spatial locations appear to be processed by independent neural systems)."
~ Savants and us (An FAQ) -- "The prodigious savant Daniel Tammet was just profiled on 60 Minutes, sparking a provocative email from my brainy and combative step-uncle Stan; he wants to know how savant syndrome fits into, or conflicts with, my developing understanding of talent."
~ The Call of Solitude -- "How spending time alone can enhance intimacy." Yup.
~ How to Get Your Space -- "Are you suffocating in your relationship?"
~ Love Isn't Blind -- "How to form an enduring bond."
~ Panic Attacks & Panic Disorder -- "Panic attacks can be a terrifying part of panic disorder. Treatments of both panic attacks and panic disorder are usually necessary - and not too painful!"
~ The Psychological Uncertainty Principle -- "You can't know who a person is without relating to them, and once you do that, you irrevocably change them."
~ Are You a Lightworker or a Darkworker? -- "Asking this question is like asking whether you’re a black belt in karate or jujitsu. Most likely you are neither, since most people never make such a commitment in their entire lives. Lightworkers and darkworkers combined probably account for less than 1% of the population." More on the polarity topic.


CULTURE
~ Teenagers With Retail, Service Jobs At Risk Of Injury, Robberies, Sleep Deprivation -- "Despite federal regulations intended to protect them, many teenagers in the U.S. use dangerous equipment or work long hours during the school week, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study."
~ Wisconsin Governor Rejects Federal Abstinence Education Funds -- " Cool.
~ The Evolution of Religion [EvolutionBlog] -- "With all the fuss lately about the atheistic books of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, it is easy to overlook another glut of books that tend to threaten religion. I am referring to the series of books intending to provide a scientific basis for the prevalence of religious belief."
~ Fall-out from Scooter Libby's conviction -- "Scooter Libby's conviction spells awful times for the Republicans, and for Dick Cheney in particular."
~ The battle epic 300 reviewed -- "If 300, the new battle epic based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynne Varley, had been made in Germany in the mid-1930s, it would be studied today alongside The Eternal Jew as a textbook example of how race-baiting fantasy and nationalist myth can serve as an incitement to total war. Since it's a product of the post-ideological, post-Xbox 21st century, 300 will instead be talked about as a technical achievement, the next blip on the increasingly blurry line between movies and video games."
~ A Sense of Urgency -- "John Nichols writes that as the Democratic leadership seeks a way out of Iraq, what they most lack is a sense of urgency to put an end the carnage."
~ Q&A: What Americans Don't Know About Religion Could Fill a Book -- "With roughly 9 in 10 of its citizens claiming to believe in God or a Supreme Being, America is widely acknowledged to be the most religious of modern industrial nations. Yet when it comes to knowledge about religion, it ranks among the most ill-informed."
~ Clinton Announce "New GI Bill" -- "In a speech today at the Center for American Progress, Sen. Hillary Clinton announced a "new GI Bill of Rights," to include expanded care and physical and mental screening of soldiers going into war zones--and those returning as well." Popular sentiment supports this and it's politically expedient -- she's good.
~ Which Side Are We On? -- "In early February, President Bush told a group of Wall Street executives that "income inequality is real; it's been rising for more than 25 years. ... And the question is whether we respond to the income inequality we see with policies that help lift people up, or tear others down." It's ironic that this president raised the issue of income inequality because his own trickle-down economic policies have contributed to the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, a situation worse today than at any time since the '20s."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Scientists Call for Worldwide Warning: Be Wary of Eating Fish -- "I have been warning about the health risks associated with eating mercury-contaminated fish for some time, and now the world’s leading mercury scientists are calling for worldwide attention to this serious issue." It's not as dire as Mercola makes it sound.
~ Keeping Your PC in Tune With Daylight Saving -- "The sun will be rising a bit later next week, which is a blessing for some of us and a hassle for all. A hassle because your PC may need updating to understand that daylight saving time starts this Sunday, March 11, which is three weeks earlier than in the past. It also lasts a week longer into autumn."
~ Will Biology Solve the Universe? -- "Dr. Robert Lanza, famous for his stem-cell and cloning research, believes his ideas will lead to a unified theory of the universe. It's all in the biology."
~ Taking Climate Legislation to the Hill: Four Major Bills Battle for Congress' Support -- "The concern has prompted a flurry of legislative activity on Capitol Hill, with four major bills, soon to be five, vying for support and votes, and some measure appearing likely to pass. But it remains unclear how strong it will be, how far lawmakers are willing to go in restricting U.S. industry, and whether President Bush might veto a bill."
~ Madison, Wis., Named 'Most Walkable' -- "With the thermometer hovering at 22, and the wind ripping off a frozen Lake Mendota, Rink DaVee and his brother Jim decided to take a stroll."
~ Regardless of global warming, rising CO2 levels threaten marine life -- "Like a piece of chalk dissolving in vinegar, marine life with hard shells is in danger of being dissolved by increasing acidity in the oceans."
~ The Real Value of Solar Power for Your Home -- "A green house may be attractive to homebuyers and boost your home's resale price. And in the end, you just can't put a price on the future of our planet."
~ Nobel Winner Seeks Government Deeds to Match Words -- "A global campaign to plant a billion trees has highlighted a big gap between government aid pledges and action, African Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai said on Wednesday."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The Discovering Buddhism from Tyson Williams, a video.
~ Big Mind process and Kensho -- More on the Brad Warner controversy around Big Mind from Per at Mystery of Existence.
~ Identities as either/or, both/and, and none and also, Differentiating surrendering of idenitification, and changing content from Per at Mystery of Existence.
~ The Center for Sacred Sciences a link from Deep Surface.
~ Appropriate from Aaron at Anxious Living.
~ Big Mind? discussed at the Zaadz I-I pod. This is still more on the Brad Warner thing.
~ Vertical Magic and the Magic of Verticality -- Robert Godwin is as controversial as ever.
.
.

I found this at Geek Army:

Taktshang Taktshang is the most famous of monasteries in Bhutan. It hangs on a cliff at 3,120 metres (10,200 feet), some 700 meters (2,300 feet) above the bottom of Paro valley.

Here are a couple of pictures -- there are many more at their site.

There is an interesting article over at In These Times on the disappearance of group rituals and festivals in Western and large-scale societies. Here is a brief excerpt:

Ours is what the French theorist Guy Debord called the “society of the spectacle,” which he described as occurring in “an epoch without festivals.” Instead of generating their own collective pleasures, people absorb, or consume, the spectacles of commercial entertainment, nationalist rituals and the consumer culture, with its endless advertisements for the pleasure of individual ownership. Debord bemoaned the passivity engendered by constant spectatorship, announcing that “the spectacle is the nightmare of imprisoned modern society which ultimately expresses nothing more than its desire to sleep.”

But there is no obvious reason why festivities and ecstatic rituals can’t survive within large-scale societies. Whole cities were swept up in the French Revolution’s Festival of Federation in 1790, with lines of dancers extending from the streets and out into the countryside. Rock events have sometimes drawn tens of thousands for days of peaceful dancing and socializing. Modern Brazil still celebrates Carnaval and Trinidad preserves its Carnival. Recent nonviolent uprisings, like Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, invariably feature rock or rap music, dancing in the streets, and “costuming” in the revolution-appropriate color. There is no apparent limit on the number of people who can celebrate together.

Nor can the growing size of human societies explain the long hostility of elites to their people’s festivities and ecstatic rituals—a hostility that goes back at least to the city-states of ancient Greece, which contained only a few tens of thousands of people each. No, the repression of festivities and ecstatic rituals over the centuries was the conscious work of men, and occasionally women, who saw in them a real and urgent threat. The aspect of “civilization” that is most hostile to festivity is not capitalism or industrialism—both of which are fairly recent innovations—but social hierarchy, which is far more ancient. When one class, or ethnic group or gender, rules over a population of subordinates, it comes to fear the empowering rituals of the subordinates as a threat to civil order.

 

I'm not so sure about the Marxist conflict approach to this, although that most surely is an aspect of it. I think there is a bigger picture to this, a way to see it as part of an integral developmental model. And Barbara Ehrenreich does look at other elements of this topic:

But elite hostility to Dionysian festivities goes beyond pragmatic concerns about the possibility of uprisings or the seduction of the young. Philosophically, too, elites cringe from the spectacle of disorderly public joy. Hierarchy, by its nature, establishes boundaries between people—who can go where, who can approach whom, who is welcome, and who is not. Festivity breaks the boundaries down.

While hierarchy is about exclusion, festivity generates inclusiveness. The music invites everyone to the dance; shared food briefly undermines the privilege of class. As for masks, they may serve symbolic, ritual functions, but, to the extent that they conceal identity, they also dissolve the difference between stranger and neighbor, making the neighbor temporarily strange and the stranger no more foreign than anyone else. No source of human difference or identity is immune to the carnival challenge: cross-dressers defy gender just as those who costume as priests and kings mock power and rank. At the height of the festivity, we step out of our assigned roles and statuses—of gender, ethnicity, tribe and rank—and into a brief utopia defined by egalitarianism, creativity and mutual love. This is how danced rituals and festivities served to bind prehistoric human groups, and this is what still beckons us today.

 

From a Spiral Dynamics point of view, it would seem that the cool color Memes are the ones that might celebrate festivals in various forms -- Purple, Blue, Green, Turquoise. These Memes are more group oriented and focused on inclusion within the group (or exclusion from the group at the lower levels).

The warm color Memes (Red, Orange, Yellow), being more focused on the self, would probably not like festivals and public celebrations. These Memes might reject the group element as too threatening, both at the individual level and the societal level.

In reality, however, no person or culture is represented by a single Meme. So the author might have a point in the conflict approach -- this struggle between group dynamic and individual responsibility seems to be built in to most developed societies.

The author also mentions the Dionysian element of these festivals, echoing Nietzsche's ideas on the conflict of Dionysian and Apollonian energies in art and culture -- essentially a conflict between horizontal, sensual experience (Dionysus) and vertical, spiritual experience (Apollo). Still, I think this is contained within the SD model of conflict between group energy (Dionysus) and individual energy (Apollo).

I don't really have a point here, I'm just thinking out loud -- and it's early, so I might be rambling. Anyone have any thoughts on this article? I'd like to hear what others think.

This was yesterday's Daily Om:

Shifting into Gratitude
The Question of Worthiness

We all know what it's like to finally get something we want, only to find ourselves feeling as if we don't deserve it. Whether it's a car, a new job, or a date with someone wonderful, we suddenly feel as if we are not up to it. Something in us wants to reject this gift from the universe, perhaps because it requires that we think of ourselves in a new way or makes us question why we should have something that others don't have. If these feelings of unworthiness are not consciously acknowledged, they can lead us to sabotage ourselves out of the gift being offered. Perhaps the best way to avoid rejection and sabotage is to simply shift into a state of gratitude, bypassing the question of worthiness altogether.

The question of whether we or anyone else deserves something is not really in our jurisdiction. These themes play themselves out in ways we can't fully comprehend-on the level of the soul, over the course of many lifetimes. What we do know is that the universe has its own way of shifting the balance over the course of time so that all things are ultimately fair. We can trust in this process and understand that when a gift comes our way, it is because we are meant to have it. Otherwise, it would not be available to us. Accepting the gift with gratitude and using it to the best of our ability is true humility.

When we receive a gift and find that feelings of unworthiness crop up, we can simply acknowledge the feelings and then remind ourselves that they are beside the point. We might say to ourselves, "I am meant to have this." As we allow ourselves to accept the gift, we might feel tenderness in our hearts that naturally shifts into a deep feeling of gratitude. As we sit for a moment, consciously holding the gift in our hands or in our hearts, we say "yes" to the universe's many blessings, and we also say "thank you."

I have often struggled with feeling worthy of the gifts I have received in my life, so I understand this passage pretty well. But of late, I simply feel grateful for the blessings that have come to me.

In fact, I hadn't read this yet when this morning I was feeling filled with gratitude for the woman who has come into my life. She and I both have fears as we face the intensity of our feelings, and some of that, at least for me, might be a shadow sense of not being worthy of her love.

Still, the gratitude comes and it engulfs me in its aura of peace and mystery. I cannot believe how blessed I am to know her and spend time with her.

Yeah, I'm more than a little sappy.

When I do recognize feelings of not being worthy, or not being good enough, I hold them up in the light and look at them closely and they quickly disappear. I know I have wounded subpersonalities from my childhood who were told they were never good enough. But they no longer are primary subs. They have been recognized, held in compassion, and allowed to feel their worth through long years of practice and personal work, especially shadow work with my subs.

We all probably have similar subpersonalities in one way or another. It's difficult to grow up as a child, being open and vulnerable, and not at some point feel our worth diminished by those whose opinions shape our self-image. But we need not let these parts of ourselves run the show.

Practicing gratitude is one way to shift the balance in the present. But in the end, we will have to work with those subs, allow them a voice, and repattern their sense of who they are.

Unconventional Love Sonnet #3

Outside, the animals are pairing off
in the ardor of spring -- sparrows build
nests of small twigs and even the squirrels
give in to the brief passion of procreation.

Such an ancient ritual this mating dance,
a cellular fire propelling all creatures
toward polarity -- not simply to reproduce,
but to know the flame of pairing.

Yet, we seek no progeny, only the depth
of two bodies in communion, flesh
and blood and something unnamed.

All that remains is beyond our skin,
beyond our voices, a sacred mystery
binding two souls in union.
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I've been thinking for a few days now that beyond the shadow concerns of each individual in a relationship that there is also a relationship shadow.

I'm not quite sure about any of this, I'm just thinking out loud.

When a relationship is new and exciting, we do not see the shadow part of it at all, but it is still there, growing and developing in the darkness. All the things that bring two people together feel wonderful and healthy. We tend not to see any of the less desirable qualities in our partner or ourselves. We think -- or try to convince ourselves -- that it will always be this way.

Hal and Sidra Stone talk about bonding patterns in relationships, the inner selves that interact to bring couples together. I've posted on this in the past.

The authors look at relationships through what seems, at first glance, to be a very limited and limiting filter. They believe that all relationships -- romantic, sibling, parent/child, friendship, and so on -- can be reduced to a simple diagram. I tried to find it on the web to include it here, but was unsuccessful. So I will just recreate it as best I can and quote their brief introduction to the topic.

Mother . . . . .[the woman]. . . . Daughter

Son . . . . . . . . [the man] . . . . . . Father

This is their diagram, sort of. Here is their explanation:

 

In this diagram we see the basic male-female bonding pattern. The mother side of the woman is bonded to the son side of the man (the M-S axis), and the father side of the man is bonded to the daughter side of the woman (the F-D axis). This diagram illustrates the basic bonding pattern that exists in all male and female relationships before the development of any kind of awareness. It is a normal and natural process. It cannot be eliminated, nor would eliminating it be desirable; these bonding patterns contain much life and vitality. They often provide warmth and nurturing. The problem is that without awareness they are very likely to turn negative. In addition, the two people miss what is possible in the interaction of two aware egos.

These bonding patterns are part of the shadow of all relationships, although the Stones never really use that term. If we are not aware of how we are seeking to get our needs met, and if we continue to live these bonding patterns throughout the relationship, then the healthy bonding that brings two people together can become negative.

Here is a little more from the first chapter of their book:

 

To summarize what we have so far discussed, we refer to this way of being locked into each other in a relationship as a negative bonding pattern. The term "bonding patterns" in relationship refers specifically to the activation of parent/child patterns of interaction between two people. These are normal and natural configurations that exist in all relationships. This bonding can develop between any two people, whether they be male/female, male/male, or female/female. The catalyst for all negative bonding patterns is the activation of the disowned vulnerability in the two people. ... The fuel for these bonding patterns can generally be found in the mutuality of the disowned selves that exists between two people. This keeps the bonding pattern burning bright and strong.

To analyze a negative bonding pattern in a relationship, one looks for the following:

1. What was the ignition point or catalyst? How was the vulnerability of the two people activated? Where are they feeling insecure, overwhelmed, or otherwise vulnerable?

2. What are the disowned selves that each carries for the other? What is the fuel that keeps the fires burning?

3. What are the actual selves that are involved in the bonding, i.e., the mother daughter selves in the woman, and the father and son selves in the man?

For an explanation of primary and disowned selves, please see this post from last April.

The relationship shadow, as I am now conceiving of it, consists in these negative bonding patterns. Even more to the point, the relationship shadow consists of the interaction of our disowned selves.

Part of what draws us to a partner is that s/he contains or represents some element of ourselves that we have disowned. These are parts of our personal shadow, elements of our own psyches (and often distinct subpersonalities) that we do not own and have not integrated into our self concept. Our psyches are drawn to this energy in the other person and if everything else is right (attraction, compatibility, emotion, and so on), then we fall in love.

This is as it should be.

Part of the work of relationships is learning to see these disowned selves in the other person so that we may reclaim them. We most often become aware of them when conflict comes up. Because disowned selves are necessarily shadow elements, we have projected them onto our partner. Our projections have the unique ability to make us crazy when we see them in others, even when they are not negative elements ourselves.

Much of our conflict in relationships, according to the Stones, is a result of our disowned selves interacting -- and this includes the father-daughter, mother-son bonding patterns. For example, if my internalized father becomes distant when my partner's inner daughter is acting needy, then there will be conflict. If my inner child is being selfish and her inner mother were to respond by being critical, there would be conflict. Often, this would set off a cascade of different selves acting up, with each partner switching roles quickly and fluidly.

The interaction of subpersonalities (selves) within each partner -- the bonding patterns that most often occurs behind the scenes -- is what I am thinking of as the relationship shadow.

But we are not doomed to live with this for the duration of our relationships. With a little bit of work, we can become aware of our subpersonalities and those we have disowned and projected onto our partner. The Stone's book, Embracing Each Other, is a great place to begin. Once we know to what look for, we can begin to see negative bonding patterns as they arise in a conflict and stop the process before it escalates.

If we can disidentify with our subpersonalities in a conflict, we can short-circuit the negative bonding patterns and expose the relationship shadow to the light of day.
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