Stimulants and Industrialization

Until a few hundred years ago having a regular source of clean drinking water was a problem.  Hunters and gatherers would drink the fresh water from lakes, springs and rivers as they were hunting their prey. When they would settle in and set up camp, following the herds, they would usually have one main source of water they would use for all their needs such as drinking, cooking, cleaning, and waste removal. With the birth of farming and domestication of animals, people started to congregate and live in tighter quarters, fueling the need for cleaner drinking water. People began to see the correlation between drinking fetid water and sickness.    As early as 4000 B.C. People at this time were aware that boiling water did help to purify it. They drank more wine than water. The process of fermentation killed many of the pathogens contained in the water used to make the wine. In the ancient world, the people who were healthy drank wine and beer, while the poor people drank the water. Tea made with boiled water helped curb illnesses including rampant alchoism and the popularity of tea encouraged the acceptance of coffee. The 17th century was the first time Europeans were able to regularly drink coffee. Explorers from Britain, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal and other nations were not just busy discovering and colonising, but were also keen to introduce the food and drink of far-off lands. Coffee, cola or an energy drink: caffeine has become the world's most widely consumed psychoactive substance. And humans have developed what is known as The caffeine personality whuch is quite different from thw non-caffeine personality. And researchers have now shown in a study that regular caffeine intake can change the gray matter of the brain. Within 10 minutes the first molecules of caffeine reach your brain and start binding to its adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a naturally occurring substance that relaxes and dilates blood vessels. Adenosine also affects the electrical activity of the heart. Side effects of adenosine include: facial flushing, difficulty breathing, chest pain, heart attack, lightheadedness, dizziness, tingling in arms, numbness, nausea, low blood pressure (hypotension) irregular heartbeat ( palpitations) apprehension, head pressure, chest pain, blurred vision, burning sensation, heaviness in arms, neck, and back pain, and more. Various health problems are assocated with adenosine. Caffiene is a drug with legitimately addictive properties, affecting our bodies in such a powerful way that once we become accustomed to consuming it, we physically need more of it. Our body and brain quickly gain a higher level of tolerance, needing more and more just to attain the expected results. And after a while we all come to a point where we no longer can use caffeine for a boost, rather just to get back to a new baseline energy level. This is when the final step in the addiction process takes over: once your body is accustomed to having its regular dose of caffeine, withdrawal symptoms occur on the days you go too long without it. Aside from putting you into a fight-or-flight mode (which basically makes you very anxious and stressed, but at the same time able to take on challenges as you feel amped up), caffeine also produces several other changes in the personality. Only in the past few decades have we begun to understand Behavior Complexity and Brain Chemistry. Extensive research into caffeines effects, and personal experience shows that caffeine increases impulsiveness and aggression. How it does this is in the fact that it causes a spike in cortisol and adrenaline and the fight or flight response. Coffee changed the course of civilization. Its use became more widespread in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and in Europe. The last three centuries witnessed an utter transformation of the world during the growth of empires. Michael Pollan, author of "This Is Your Mind On Plants," explains how caffeine has affected history. Mr Pollan writes about his on experience of cafeine withdrawal. According to one study, 79% of workers believe that coffee breaks can help boost productivity across the business. But he effects of combining sugar and caffeine are devastating on the body. The blood glucose levels soar and then crash shortly thereafter, and when combined with caffeine, the enormous surge of energy from the sugar and the stimulant in caffeine lead to a crash of blood sugar within hours. The body then resorts to a vicious cycle of cravings. A related problem is the use of stimulants in the military which dates from World War II. Militaries worldwide have used or are using various psychoactive drugs to manipulate performance of soldiers. It helps in turning ordinary men into killers. But there is little to no effort made to turn them bsck to ordinary men. Almost 1 out of every 3 Veterans seeking treatment for Substance Abuse also has PTSD. The number of Veterans who smoke (nicotine) is almost double for those with PTSD (about 6 of 10) versus those without a PTSD diagnosis (3 of 10). The caffeine personality basically makes you very anxious and stressed, but at the same time able to take on challenges as you feel amped up), caffeine also produces several other changes in personality. The killer ape theory or killer ape hypothesis is the theory that war and interpersonal aggression was the driving force behind human evolution. Humans and chimpanzees are the only two species in the world known to attack each other in organized onslaughts. The question is how we can become less compulsive and greedy and more compassionate. “We must abandon the absurd idea that there can be unlimited economic development on a planet with finite natural resources, and a growing human population...” - Jane Goodall Addiction to Energy Drinks  -  YouTube  Coffee and industrialization Brink of Disaster Veteran Substance Abuse Statistics Turning soldiers into killers Chief Seattle's famous speech in the year 1854 Disrespect for Nature Compassion in Eastern Philosophy More Heart, Less Head  How Much Is Too Much Caffeine

Our Paradigm

For a long time we thought of the world as a machine. Now we are beginning to see it as organic. The New Physics reveals that everything is energy and energy cannot be destroyed. This has profound implications. The main way we relate to this energy is with a brain that in in a dark cavity with no direct contact with the external world. It receives information form our sensory organs in the form of electrical signals which are translated into thoughts after it is first categorized into hierarchies. Apparently about 95% of this process takes place in our subconscious mind, which does not use words, so we are consciously aware of only a small, filtered version of the over-all experience. One of the most important filters is emotion. Thoughts flagged with strong emotion have the highest priority in the order of what is to be considered. Survival is the strongest emotion. The two basic motives we all have are approach and avoidance. If a child touches something hot and burns a finger, it triggers an unconscious memory process. After that if a finger touches something hot, instinct takes over and the body begins to withdraw the finger even before there is any conscious awareness if injury. Instinctual programming operates on several levels. For example emotional trauma programs an avoidance pattern not unlike a burned finger. On another level we develop behavior patterns with which we were programmed very early in life. More or less automatically we adopt the social beliefs and behaviors of our relatives, our tribe, and even our geographic region to some extent. Some of these values may be problematic, antiquated, prejudiced, or otherwise incorrect. So we can sometimes be quite sincere but dead wrong. Tradition has advantages and disadvantages. A paradigm shift brings about large scale changes. What seemed to be working in the past is challenged and changed. Individually and collectively our value structures get an overhaul. Paradigms can be social, intellectual, political, economic, etc. Often it is a combination of those factors. A few of the past paradigm shifts: when humans went from hunter-gatherer nomads to an agriculturalists living in houses; feudalism, the printing press, Discovery of the New World; The European Renaissance and Religious Reformation; The Industrial Revolution, Newtonian Scientism. Obviously some paradigms last a long time and overlap. Some of the current overlapping paradigms include: The Nuclear Age, The Space Age, The Digital Age, Climate Change, The population Explosion, the Digital Age, the Virus Pandemic, and economic instability. There are other paradigm shifts happening related to our understanding of the ultimate nature of reality. Apparently a New Age Paradigm is also bringing about big changes having to do with Sociology, Psychology, Health and Wellness. Much of this is in response to big changes in stress levels, diseases, and drastic changes in the food chain. We are apparently seeing the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, which is supposed to last for about 2,500 years. Some believe that there is also a kind of Spiritual paradigm change happening. Astrologers say that a 26,000 year cycle has ended. Some Gurus say that there is a shift from masculine dominated energies into an era when feminine energies will be prevalent. They say that masculine forces of aggression, violence, exploitation, and war has brought us to the brink of annihilation as a species. They say that for thousands of years feminine energies have been oppressed and violated, and a return to honoring feminine energies becoming prevalent again may be our salvation. It seems that there is yet another paradigm which is about extra-terrestrial aliens. It may not in fact be a new occurrence, but possibly very very old, though suppressed. However this topic is getting considerable internet coverage and much of it seems more and more credible. Wikipedia encyclopedia has a very long list of reported UFO sightings and another large reference list. YouTube also offers many videos about UFOs. On TV the History Channel has a whole section devoted to extra-terrestrials, This topic has been sensationalized by the media to such an extent as to seem part of a plot to bury the facts in mountains of misinformation. One of the more profound implications about recent UFO info is that our ideas of divinity may have derived in part from extra-terrestrial beings that seemed like gods to ancient humans.They had super-human abilities; they traveled in "fiery ships in the sky," and did various things that seemed miraculous to humans. They seemed to be immortal, apparently regenerated damage, possessed superhuman physical attributes, and had heightened senses, much like what we call angels or gods. The Anunnaki are "the Sumerian deities of the old primordial time;" a pantheon of gods who were the children of the sky god Anu and his sister, Ki. These gods are very similar to the gods that you would know from ancient Greece and Rome, and this is the first time that we hear about the garden of Eden that we know from the Bible. Within the Sumerian tablets, Ninlil asks the Council of seven to create what is called "Eden." which is a heavenly garden. Former US military pilots say that aliens have deactivated British and US nuclear missiles. Many of the internet videos about UFOs are intentionally spooky, or just plain silly, like a Halloween carnival (especially the older ones). But if you click the negative stuff away there is some interesting and enlightening choices.    The Living Universe  Wikipedia on UFOs Sumerian UFOs  -   Extraterrestrials