Electronic logbook for the month of January 2021

The pain felt by carrots and potatoes

A little earlier this evening, in Pierre Riffard’s Nouveau dictionnaire de l’ésotérisme, I came across (this under the heading ‘Âme du monde’, pp.22-23, – even if the Latin equivalent ‘anima mundi’ is so much more elegant, I think), a reference to the alleged sensitivity of vegetables, as reported in the published diary of the Russian theosophist Helena Roerich, an entry which is dated 30th March 1936:

I remember a story about how Bernard Shaw once visited the famous Hindu scientist, Jagadis Bose, and began to boast of being a vegetarian and that this great sensitivity would not allow him to inflict pain even indirectly upon any living thing. Bose said nothing in reply, but then and there by an experiment demonstrated visually to the writer that pains are suffered by carrots and potatoes when they are cut, or chewed with relish by the jaws of such “sensitive” people.
http://agniyoga.org/ay_en/Letters-of-Helena-Roerich-II.php

What a pessimistic view this is because, at least to me, it would be easy for some to want to extrapolate from this so as to be able to make the case that their highly relativistic view of life is correct.

Corrigendum (2nd Feb.)
The above is a perfect example of gibberish, written as I was half asleep in front of my PC, late at night on the 30th of January. The point I was trying to make is that the above view would seem to imply that life can only be sustained through death, through ‘murder’ (i.e. the killing of what we are about to ingest). Well, this may not necessarily be so as there is, for example, such a process as photosynthesis. Maybe we are not sufficiently evolved as a species to sustain ourselves through similar non-violent processes.
Two more points. First, plants cannot be put on the same plane as humans – this partakes of a rather wicked ideology which tries to desacralise humanity. Which is why I have not bothered to read the works of, say, Cleve Backster or Daniel Chamovitz. Second, Helena (born Shaposhnikova) married Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich, who was an archaeologist, explorer, artist, peace activist and (for want of a better term) a mystic. Lastly, he wrote a travel diary (Altai-Himalaya) in which (it is said, as I have not read this book) he made ‘claims’ about the mythical underground kingdom of Agartha and its capital, Shamballah, being connected to Tibet (and to other places) by some network of tunnels.

Additional title to my Saturnalia list

According to Macrobius, an author who lived at the beginning of the 5^th century of our era, the age when Saturn ruled over Italy was a golden one: ‘quasi vitae melioris auctorem’ (‘as the author of a better life for humans’: Saturnalia, I, 7, 24) and ‘Regni eius tempora felicissima feruntur, cum propter rerum copiam tum quod nondum quisquam servitio vel libertate discriminabatur: quae res intellegi potest, quod Saturnalibus tota servis licentia permittitur.’ (‘The years of this reign are said to have been very happy because of the abundance of all things and above all because the distinctions between free men and slaves were not yet known, which can be deduced from the absolute freedom enjoyed by slaves during the Saturnalia.’: Saturnalia, I, 7, 26).

So when I came across the following title on Thursday as I was looking up titles with the phrase ‘spirit, mind and soul’, I decided to record not only the book’s title but also its blurb:

Erin Sullivan, Saturn in Transit: Boundaries of Mind, Body, and Soul
Saturn in Transit reveals Saturn's useful and developmental influence in our lives. Erin Sullivan gives a thorough account of the astrology, mythology, and psychology of Saturn's role as the source of divine discontent. Saturn assists the modern hero and heroine, during its transit around the zodiac, by destroying the old and outmoded within, and throwing us periodically into chaos, which invariably generates a creative transformation of purpose in our lives.

In turn this reminded me that I still had to borrow the following title, written in French and whose title and blurb I would translate as follows (sticking to the French verbosity of the original – a charge which also holds for me, unfortunately):

Saturn or the grass of the souls
Saturn is the messenger of the dark forces burdening human destiny and that tilt it towards the obsession of death, the obsession of the past or the thirst for destruction. The reading of the myth indeed introduces us to this landscape of melancholy based on regret, remorse and resentment, but the legend also bears witness to Saturn’s redemption and his last journey to lands that are no longer those of despair but those of Knowledge. Saturn whispers to us, through the myth, that beyond melancholy, the golden age is heralded, which is neither behind nor in front of us, but within us, if our gaze is the measure of what is promised to us. The quest undertaken here by Claude Mettra is part of this return to polytheism through which the men of today can reinvent their relationship with the Divine. To enter the intimacy of Saturn is to invite oneself to the banquet of immortality where the spirit finds its predestined food.

And this reminds me that I have yet to read: David Talbott’s The Saturn Myth and Norman R. Bergrun’s Ringmakers of Saturn. Sigh, the list of interesting books to read is never ending…

Link to an article on this website related to the above discussion:
http://paulzanotelli.ch/blog/astrology/21st-december-2020-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn.html

Lausanne, 30th January 2021

Power of the heart

In a book I had borrowed from the shelves in the esoteric section of the municipal library of Lausanne and entitled ‘Les mystères de la conscience: prémonition, télépathie, voyance, sortie de corps’ (https://www.miriamgablier.fr/livres), I came across the following quote [originally in French]:

A subtle anatomy
Rollin McCraty, director of research at the Heart Math Institute in the United States, has measured that the electrical activity of the heart produces a magnetic field projected some 45 centimetres to 3 metres into the space around the organ. Current scientific data support descriptions of subtle anatomies made by traditions dating back thousands of years. For example, Indians have described a system of chakras, nadis and auras – which are centres, channels and layers of energy in and around the body. The Chinese have depicted a system composed of acupuncture points and meridians, centres and channels made up of subtle energy. […] p.195 [the part in green is my emphasis.]

A few letters typed in the search box of DuckDuckGo [https://duckduckgo.com/?q=McCraty+%22Science+of+hte+heart%22&ia=web] and I was able to retrieve the following:
‘The heart is the most powerful generator of electro-magnetic energy in the human body, producing the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field of any of the body’s organs. The heart’s electrical field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain. This field, measured in the form of an electrocardiogram (ECG), can be detected anywhere on the surface of the body. Furthermore, the magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 5,000 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain, and can be detected a number of feet away from the body [...] p.20
[...]
Our data indicate that one person’s heart signal can affect another’s brainwaves[sic], and that heart-brain synchronization can occur between two people when they interact. Finally, it appears that as individuals increase psychophysiological coherence, they become more sensitive to the subtle electromagnetic signals communicated by those around them. Taken together, these results suggest that cardioelectromagnetic communication may be a little-known source of information exchange between people, and that this exchange is influenced by our emotions.’
p.21 of Science of the Heart - Exploring the Role of the Heart in Human Performance.

Interesting, is it not? This certainly warrants more research on my part, but not now…

Two links:
https://www.heartmath.org/resources/downloads/science-of-the-heart/
https://swisscows.com/web?region=iv&query=chakras%2C%20nadis%20and%20auras

Lausanne, 18th January 2021

Please spare me a prayer...

... as there are so many topics I would like to write about here. These include (but are certainly not limited to) religion, spirituality, the paranormal and other fringe topics (e.g. psychic warfare, synchronicities, time flashbacks, even magic), history, (including facts which have been deliberately kept hidden from us), social engineering through the media, what the coronavirus crisis is really all about (in their own words, the ‘Great reset’; in mine, depopulation), various health topics and, a great favourite of mine, ponerology (the study of evil).

So there is no shortage of subjects for me to write about. The list is long as I have been researching many topics since at least my university years – which is why hundreds of books clog our living-room, our cellar and, surprise, surprise, my study... Furthermore, I have been quite Fortean [a reference to Charles H. Fort] in my note-taking.

What I need to overcome is my fear of the consequences a blog entry might have as I reside in a country where there is limited free speech and as we are living through a time when there is a huge crackdown on dissenting opinions worldwide, starting with the country which until recently was the freest in terms of freedom speech – now even its departing president (whom I profoundly dislike because he is not what he claimed he was) is being censored, deplatformed and it looks like any mention of him which is not highly negative will soon be removed from the Internet. So much so for America, which is no longer ‘the land of the free’ and which unfortunately seems to be going through some kind of neo-bolshevisation.

So if you could spare me an occasional prayer to help me overcome my cowardice, I am sure that this would help me become more productive in terms of publishing more entries here. The times we are going through are UNPRECEDENTED and the more people understand what is going on, the better.

‘Qui tacet consentire videtur.’

Lausanne, 13th January 2021

Fac bonum from 1633

Here is a new version of the sigil I wrote about a few days ago. This time it comes from
page 84 of the 1633 edition of the so-called Enchiridion of Pope Leo III. As usual with pictures in the public domain that I use here, it sports the dark green I decided to associate this website with when I started it:

Hagiographies are out of favour.

As a follow-up entry to yesterday’s ‘Ignorance is a poison’ (see below), I shall allow myself to indulge into some moaning and complaining. Wait, please do not ‘run away’ because I am doing so for the good cause. So, if only the biographies of saints were still being read, I contend that we (here in the so-called ‘West’) would then have role models of a higher moral calibre to be able to pick for emulation purposes than the numerous vacuous and sometimes highly depraved celebrities, sport champions, politicians and other people whom our news outlets are so keen to put in the limelight.

In addition, hagiographies also provide interesting source material for the paranormal activity that holy people so often display in the course of their interactions with lay people. One such source that I hope to be able to exploit here in future posts is the famous multi-year and Latin language compilation of saints’ deeds called Acta Sanctorum.

Trouble ahead?

Just so as to be able to ‘feel the pulse’ with respect to what is going on in the world, I typed rt.com in the address line of my browser. For all its shortcomings, this news outlet is still one of my main sources of information when it comes to the international headlines. However, my use of rt.com is nowadays mainly limited to skimming the headlines. Normally, I will only open an article if I wish to survey the reactions of RT’s readership – this even if I am well aware that the comment section is regularly patronised by paid trolls (whom by the way I would very much doubt that they are based in Russia).

Here are some of the headlines I decided to copy and paste here as I fear that they are indicative of the trouble that is brewing:

‘We will never concede’: Trump vows to fight on during DC rally as Congress set to certify election for Biden

[...]

A 20/20 vision - is our future a living hell combining the worst of communist tyranny with the worst of capitalism’s callousness? Op-ed

As Joe Biden prepares to take power, Iran is ramping up pressure on the incoming president to revive the nuclear deal Op-ed

[...]

Failing upwards: 5 ways governments couldn’t have handled the Covid-19 pandemic worse

Amid Trump’s calls for veto, Pence says he does not have ‘unilateral authority’ to decide which electoral votes can be counted

[...]

Victoria ‘F**k the EU’ Nuland to make a comeback in Biden’s cabinet – media

As Lockdown 3.0 descends on Britain, the time for reason and argument is over. Only dissent will save us now Op-ed

‘No big bang’: Third Covid national lockdown for England to end only by ‘gradual unwrapping,’ Boris Johnson warns

Ted Cruz and other White House wannabes don’t want to save Trump; they just want to cash in on MAGA to help their 2024 ambitions Op-ed

[...]

Former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp set to be named new BBC chairman – reports

[...]

British police won’t attend after a burglary or put officers on the street, yet spend £74k on a Director of Fairness & Belonging Op-ed

‘We're nothing like the rest of the world’: Australian disease physician says they ‘certainly don't want to rush’ Covid vaccine

Again with the ‘likely’: US spies accuse Russia of SolarWinds hack in repeat of Russiagate hysteria Op-ed

As a headmaster, I see children suffering mental health issues unlike anything before. This new shutdown of schools is disastrous Op-ed

‘Risk for future generations’? Peru clashes with Pfizer over Big Pharma’s legal immunity for Covid-19 vaccine side effects

[...]

Hungary, newest battlefield in Western media’s Covid-19 information war, still open to Russia Sputnik V jab – if enough available

New York’s new law setting up detention centers to lock up suspected Covid-19 cases heralds a Kafkaesque nightmare Op-ed

Sudan says it has signed US ‘Abraham Accords’ in major step to become latest Arab nation normalizing ties with Israel

Study says transgender women retain athletic advantage after a year of hormone treatment – but author defends letting them compete

India’s emergency approval of Covaxin & AstraZeneca vaccines used vague language & ‘lacked transparency’ – health experts to RT

Time to change? Mixed response after German officials cheer diversity campaign to give names of migrant origin to weather events

Slavoj Zizek: We’re at a grim crossroads in this pandemic: one path leads to utter despair, the other to total extinction Op-ed

Silence on Covid vaccine numbers suggests another ‘world-beating’ balls-up is on the way from BoJo Op-ed

Arabian slights: How a deepfake video caused a rift in the Arab world and led to a three-year blockade of Qatar Op-ed

EU medicines regulator approves Moderna Covid-19 vaccination

The campaign to reverse Brexit’s begun already? Oh stop, please, 70 years of interminable wrangling over Europe has been enough...Op-ed

George Galloway: I’m happy my friend Julian isn’t being sent to a US gulag. But this shameful episode is a huge stain on Britain Op-ed

The end of civil wars? Op-ed

As a doctor, I’ve studied the data swirling around this perplexing Covid virus. One stark truth stands out: lockdowns don’t work Op-ed

[...]

[RT Documentary]

What is the anti-vaccine movement and what does it mean for Covid vaccines?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kBhjSVovOM

[which I archived at 18:49:47 on 6^th Jan.] https://web.archive.org/web/20210106184947/https://www.rt.com/

A couple of hours later, my fears had not been assuaged, unfortunately:

Twitter JAILS Trump over ‘go home’ message to protesters, threatening to delete US president’s account over ‘policy violations’ 7 Jan, 2021 00:14 https://www.rt.com/usa/511750-trump-twitter-account-suspended/

Malfunction or sabotage? Probe launched in Argentina after 400 Sputnik V jabs spoiled in possible ‘attack’ https://www.rt.com/russia/511715-argentina-sputnik-vaccine-probe-sabotage/

Trump supporters STORM Capitol as Congress meets to certify Biden's election (VIDEO) 6 Jan, 2021 18:43 / Updated 5 hours ago https://www.rt.com/usa/511728-trump-supporters-protest-storm-congress/

Trump supporter SHOT during Capitol breach, now in critical condition 6 Jan, 2021 20:45 https://www.rt.com/usa/511737-capitol-breach-shots-fired/

Lausanne, 7th January 2021

Ignorance is a poison.

In a Buddhist hagiography written by a French (Buddhist) author who has published several books not only on French military history during WWII but also on various religious topics, I read a sentence that resonated with me yesterday as I was on a train taking me back home and I felt that I had to use at least part of the train ride to go through a book I had borrowed from the municipal library in the hope of coming across references to paranormal Tibetan religious practices instead of letting my gaze wander aimlessly through the window. Translated from French, this one-sentence paragraph summing up the life of a Tibetan holy man by the name of Milarepa (1052-1135) reads as follows:

‘The life of this great Buddhist saint proves that it is possible to reach supreme enlightenment in this life and to liberate oneself once and for all from the six poisons at the root of suffering: greed, hatred, ignorance, jealousy, pride and egoism.’ [p.33 of Dominique Lormier’s Histoires extraordinaires du bouddhisme tibétain, 2006.]

This short list of the six main poisons believed to be at the origin of human suffering simply adds three more items to the three poisons the Buddha mentioned. What rings true with me is that both lists place much weight on one ‘poison’: ignorance.

Even if I am aware that in Tibetan religious thinking ignorance is almost synonymous with delusion, this does not really matter to me as I believe that delusion, illusion and other misrepresentations of reality are highly characteristic of the times we are going through PRESENTLY.

As a reminder, ignorance (which comes from gnos, a beautiful word) means both

1 The fact or condition of being ignorant; lack of knowledge (general or particular).

[obsolete]2 An offence or sin caused by lack of knowledge.

And that to ignore has three meanings, the most common being to ‘refuse to recognise or take notice of; disregard intentionally’ [Shorter Oxford English Dictionary].

My wish for 2021 would be that, twelve months from now, one will be able to say in retrospect that both ignore and ignorance lost their sway on humans during the course of 2021 – needless to say, may this also be the case for anybody who comes to read these lines!

A Happy New Year to all – may 2021 keep you in good health, may the fallout from our governments’ most ill-advised* actions **affect you and your beloved ones as little as possible and may the veil be removed from your eyes***, too, as to what is really going on behind the scenes because the adage that claims that ‘knowledge is power’ is unfortunately so true.

* In some cases, probably even attributable to malice (i.e. carried out with the intent of causing harm).

** That is, if you live in the so-called ‘West’ because I do not know what is going on (in terms of lockdowns) in, say, Africa, India, Southeast Asia or even Russia.

*** In Greek, apocalypse.

Lausanne, 6th January 2021