Please take the time to watch this educational movie. It's so vitally important to spread the message. Too many sheep walking freely into the meat grinder--the machine. Get your ACTIVISM on!!!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Acid Attack Victim Commits Suicide
"More than 8,500 acid attacks, forced marriages and other forms of violence against women were reported in Pakistan in 2011, according to The Aurat Foundation, a women's rights organization."
| http://news.yahoo.com/prominent-pakistani-acid-victim-commits-suicide-063149605.html |
This is why we need to stand strong and continue to fight for the rights of women all around the world. Women in America may think that women have all of the rights as the patriarchy, but this isn't the truth. Women in many other countries usually have no rights. This is cause for change, for protest, for women to stand together and protect one another.
This must stop.
~e.lily
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Are Men Trained To Hate Women?
http://www.cracked.com/article_19785_5-ways-modern-men-are-trained-to-hate-women.html
I first saw the link to this article on my Facebook wall via a post that Z Budapest shared. It is truely a sad statement about society, but it's the utter truth. So sad, and yet so true.
~~e.lily
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Incense and Antidepressants
"Burning Incense Is Psychoactive: New Class Of Antidepressants Might Be Right Under Our Noses
ScienceDaily (May 20, 2008) — Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. An international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.
"In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Bosweilla had not been investigated for psychoactivity," said Raphael Mechoulam, one of the research study's co-authors. "We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior. Apparently, most present day worshipers assume that incense burning has only a symbolic meaning."
To determine incense's psychoactive effects, the researchers administered incensole acetate to mice. They found that the compound significantly affected areas in brain areas known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by current anxiety and depression drugs. Specifically, incensole acetate activated a protein called TRPV3, which is present in mammalian brains and also known to play a role in the perception of warmth of the skin. When mice bred without this protein were exposed to incensole acetate, the compound had no effect on their brains.
"Perhaps Marx wasn't too wrong when he called religion the opium of the people: morphine comes from poppies, cannabinoids from marijuana, and LSD from mushrooms; each of these has been used in one or another religious ceremony." said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Studies of how those psychoactive drugs work have helped us understand modern neurobiology. The discovery of how incensole acetate, purified from frankincense, works on specific targets in the brain should also help us understand diseases of the nervous system. This study also provides a biological explanation for millennia-old spiritual practices that have persisted across time, distance, culture, language, and religion--burning incense really does make you feel warm and tingly all over!"
According to the National Institutes of Health, major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability in the United States for people ages 15--44, affecting approximately 14.8 million American adults. A less severe form of depression, dysthymic disorder, affects approximately 3.3 million American adults. Anxiety disorders affect 40 million American adults, and frequently co-occur with depressive disorders."
Reference:
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (2008, May 20). Burning Incense Is Psychoactive: New Class Of Antidepressants Might Be Right Under Our Noses. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 10, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080520110415.htm#
Thursday, September 8, 2011
The Correlation Between the Full Moon and Lunacy
Fact
or Fiction?
Psychiatric
hospital admissions and crimes increase during full moons.
While many people
believe this phenomenon to be true, there is no scientific proof that the full
moon affects anyone in a negative manner. The idea that the full moon affects
people has been used throughout history to explain away bad or strange
behavior. The very word lunatic is derived from the name of the Roman moon
goddess, Luna. Greek and Roman philosophers “suggested that the brain was the “moistest”
organ in the body, and thereby most susceptible to the pernicious influences of
the moon” (Lilienfeld and Arkowitz, 2009, para 1). This has been proven
incorrect for many reasons. One reason is the fact that the moon’s
gravitational pull affects only open bodies of water, and another reason being
that the moon’s gravitational pull is the same for new moon as it is for a full
moon. The belief of the full moon’s influence continued during the Middle Ages. During that time it was known as the lunar lunacy effect or the Transylvania
effect.
One of the only
possible explanations to the origin of this belief (urban legend) may be that
the brightness of the full moon affected the sleep patterns of people who
mainly lived outdoors. Lack of sleep affects people’s behavior especially those
with preexisting psychological disorders, causing them to possibly act in a
bizarre or erratic manner (Lilienfeld et al, 2009).
These beliefs are still alive and well in the
modern world. However, the results of many studies to date have found no
correlation between the full moon and the erratic behavior in humans. It seems
the misconception may be related to the preconceived notions based on knowledge
of what is no more than an urban legend.
References
Lilienfeld, S.O., &
Arkowitz, H. (2009, February 09). Lunacy and the Full Moon. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lunacy-and-the-full-moon
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Papa Legba/Ellegua/Exu
LWA OF OPPORTUNITIES & GATEKEEPER TO THE SPIRIT WORLD
Papa Legba's Ritual Symbol (Veve)
Legba has his origins with the Fon people of Dahomey (Benin) Africa and is said to be the guardian and trickster of the crossroads and entrances. He is one of the most widely worshipped lwas and is known by several names. In Surinam in Brazil he is known as Exu, in Trinidad, in Cuba he is known as Ellegua, and in Haiti and New Orleans he is known as Papa Legba. Papa Legba is the master linguist, the trickster, warrior, and the personal messenger of destiny. He has the power to remove obstacles and he provides opportunities. All ceremonies begin and end with Papa Legba, and there can be no communication with any of the other loas without consulting him first. His gift for linguistics enables him to translate the requests of humans into the languages of the spirits and lwas.
Papa Legba’s colors are red and black (as worshipped in New Orleans), and some of his favorite things that can be used as offerings include, candy, cigars, rum, and tobacco. He absolutely loves palm oil. His number is three and his day of the week is Monday.
Papa Legba walks with the black sun. He is very powerful as his tales manifest in the crossroads between the visible and the invisible worlds. He is the first to open the doors to the spirit world when called upon, and has the power to remove obstacles. Among many other things, he is known as a storyteller.
Likened to St. Michael and St. Peter, Legba is the guardian and opener of the crossroads of the world. His colors are red and black. His favorite foods are corn, candy, and rum.
Voodoo practitioners place representations of Papa Legba behind the front door of their home in order to clear their path in many ways and to bring His protection and to help accomplish goals.
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