Witch Way to Sanity?

Once upon a time there was a witch. After consorting with demons, this witch had two identical, female twins. The problem? She couldn't tell witch, witch was witch. I know, it's a pretty lame way to start a blog, but there is an underlying message. How do you tell if someone is a witch at all? Since the upsurge in Wiccans in modern society, you most probably know a “witch” or perhaps you are even one yourself. It's okay, you can admit it. No one is going to break out the strappado, and illicit a confession if the crops fail. Well actually, I can't guarantee that at all. There are tons of ridiculous people in the World, just waiting for something to crusade against.
 Which (not a pun) is why I am fascinated by the subject of the Witch Trials in Europe, and eventually America, that ran rampant in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries. There were witch-hunts before that of course, but at that time most didn't carry the fervor and brutality of the latter, hysterical witch craze, that some estimates suggest killed well over 50,000 innocent people, and maybe even as many as 100,000. To say they were all innocent is most likely errant. They very may well have broken laws, but I doubt many actually caused famine, hail storms, had sex with demons, or bespelled townsfolk.
 So what exactly caused such hysteria, and spread it throughout most of the Western World? Several factors most likely. For one, it was a very misogynistic time, and this may be the most poignant of reasons. Women were severely restricted in society, and were thought to be less devout and more carnal than men. Women could not hold jobs outside the home, nor become civil leaders. Secondly, it was a very superstitious era, and when you can't explain why crops fail, or people get sick and/or die, the natural choices are either “God did it”, or “Satan did it”. Thirdly, it's a great way to get back at someone to whom you feel did you an injustice. I also feel there is a fourth reason, and it is sexual perversion. Once a woman was accused of witchcraft, she was often stripped naked, shaven down, and closely examined by the male leaders, who were looking for a mark of of the Devil. It's going to sound incredibly chauvinistic, but I've seen lots of young ladies I'd accuse of witchcraft, just for this reason, I know, it's very shallow of me, and I'm deeply ashamed.
 Up until the late 15th Century, most “witches” were not brutalized and killed. Most cases ended in a public penance as punishment. In fact, a large portion of the populations didn't even believe in witches, and witch hunting wasn't even supported by the Church. Charlemagne, outlawed the practice of burning witches in the early 8th Century. Views slowly changed during the Dark Ages, and eventually the hysteria returned with a vengeance. In 1486, a scorned Inquisitor named Heinrich Kramer, wrote the infamous “Malleus Maleficarum” (Latin for “Hammer of Witches”), after a failed inquisition of a group of alleged witches in the Tyrol Region (Austria). It is proposed that the book is dubious in several key areas. He claimed co-authorship by Jacob Sprenger, to which many historians feel contributed very little to the book, and his name was only included because he was much more recognized than Kramer. Also the Papal Bull (a Church Proclamation) that is included was written 3 years before the book, and in fact doesn't mention the book at all, and gave a false sense of acceptance by the Church. He also included a Letter of Approbation from the University of Cologne, in which many of the Faculty admit they didn't actually read the book. It is seen as an endorsement from Learned Scholars however, and gave the book great weight among the readers.
 In the book, Kramer lays out that witches are indeed real, how to recognize them, how to illicit confessions (read: torture) and the proper punishments of said witches. Due to the invention of the Gutenberg Press, the book was mass produced and spread throughout Europe very quickly, and eventually even reached the New World. The book is graphic and lewd, which may help identify Kramer's underlying personality disorders that lead to his irrational behavior. Kramer was eventually denounced by the Church in 1490, but the book lived on, and it's nefarious legacy reigned for many, many more years. After that, he become a very popular lecturer in Venice, and throughout the area.
 In the New World (which wasn't actually new at all), in 1692 and 1693, the hysteria gripped New England. Commonly referred to as the Salem Witch Trials, it actually encompassed the whole Provence and beyond. Most of the accusations came from young girls, who were either playing a game, garnering attention, or as some new theories suggest, having hallucinations cause by ergot contamination of the Wheat harvest. The prosecutions reached a new level of ridiculousness, by allowing spectral evidence. Spectral evidence could only be seen by the accuser, which makes it hard to defend against, or verify in any way. Another absurd facet, was the Witch's Cake, which is basically a cake with the urine of the inflicted girls, that is fed to a dog. It was thought that particles of the witch were present in the inflicted girl's urine, and when the dog bit into it, the witch would scream in pain, thus betraying her identity. Contrary to popular opinion, very few or perhaps no witches, were burned as punishment for witchcraft in New England, at least in the officially sanctioned trials. In fact, if you admitted to being a witch, you were most likely not killed at all. So all the people that died were just innocent people that stuck to their principles, and as a result, they were hung, or died during torture.
 So, are we above such silliness in our own time? I'd like to think so, but I'm not convinced. In the era of the Cold War, Communist hysteria was rampant. Ironically, there are probably more Communists in America now, then there were then, only now they occupy the Congress, the Senate, the White House and the vast majority of the News Outlets. Of course they don't call themselves Communists. Some won't even acknowledge that they are Socialists. They go by deceptive terms like Progressives, and they are on both sides of the political spectrum.
 You know, I bet a Strappado would get to the bottom of it....

Stay Sane,
Keith

Fysics Isn't Phunny

As a writer intent on illuminating some very intellectual and longhaired subjects for his readers, hopefully in an entertaining way by incorporating a decidedly comedic spin, I am finding it difficult to compose an article about Physics that is anywhere near being the least bit humorous.  Yep, physics ain't funny.  I Photoshopped a clown nose onto a sober, black and white photo of Einstein for inspiration but as I am writing this passage he is staring at me, looking a bit forlorn like one of those hobo clowns, as if he already knows that this particular article is a bad idea and that I'm about to secure my position eternally as an embarrassment to the scientific community or even worse; show just how little I know about the subject about which I have chosen to write.  Phew! I had that sentence juxtaposed for a second and almost left a dangling participle.  Which gives me a funny idea. If you take the "ip" out of participle you're left with "particle".  Einstein told us a lot about particles or photons.  A lot of which was garnered from his experiments with light.  Just call me king of the segueway.

Einstein's work with light yielded many amazing discoveries; not the least of which being the "c" in the E=mc2 formula.  You've heard, I'm sure, that the speed of light is roughly 186,000 miles per second, right?  (Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity) But did you know that the speed of light is a contstant "c" 186,000 miles per second no matter (no pun), relatively speaking of course, whether you're moving towards it, away from it or standing still.  Now that's funny!  But not in the humorous context of the word.  To clarify this funnyness, take the old math quiz question about the 2 trains headed towards each other as contrast. If a train is traveling north at 100mph on the same track that another train is traveling southbound at 100mph, what is the velocity of the trains as they barrel towards each other and certain cataclysmic destruction? The answer isn't always 100mph. In this case the answer is 200mph.  The trains are headed towards each other at 200mph relatively.  This quality does not translate to the character of light however.  If we substitute light for the trains and light speed as a mere 100mph, the "light" trains would would still only have a combined velocity of 100mph!  Always! It makes no sense at all!  But thats how it really is.  Funny.

 Another baffling aspect of light is its duality.  By duality I mean that light can be described as a wave or as a beam of particles.  100 years before Einstein declared that light was composed of particles, Thomas Young had proven that light was a wave.  How could it be both?  Oddly, there is no way to show that light is a wave and a beam of particles at the same time.  You can perform an experiment that shows that light is a waveform with a frequency and amplitude dependant upon the color of the light being observed but this experiment will not show that light is composed of particles.  Conversely, you can perform an experiment that proves that light is a beam of particles but will not uphold the wave theory.  Einstein said that the light photons are like a constant spray of bullets ricochetting about and impinging on objects at a quantum level, knocking off electrons from surfaces of similar energy; which is the funny idea I got when I caught my dangling participle at the beginning of this article.

Einstein developed the theory of the photoelectric effect by working from the ideas of the physicists Max Planck, Phillipe Lenard an his own particle theory of light.  This theory states that every time light impinges on a metal surface, or more succinctly, every time a particle of light (photon) strikes an electron, it immediately knocks the electron out of its atom.  This prompt emission of electrons is called the photoelectric effect.  What's interesting is that the color of the light determines which electrons are effected.  Being that red light is the most prevalent color in our environment (the sky is not a good indicator of this) it has the most obvious impact on our reality.  That reality being that anything red in our environment is being bombarded subatomically at a much higher rate and knocking the color right off into space.  For this reason my cherished, red, convertible, sportscar will someday be pink!  Which is not funny at all despite the fact that I do think pink is quite a lovely color.  But I imagine that if any of you see me driving down the road in a little pink car someday you'll probably let out a chuckle if not a full-on belly laugh; I suspect that at least the corners of your lips will curl up into a knowing grin as I speed on down the road with the Sun on my face and the wind in my hair like a pink streak of gloriousness on a frivolous jaunt.  So if you have ever wondered why red is the first color to fade and why old stop signs turn pink, now you know.

P.S.  A man sets a tall glass half filled with water in front of a Physicist and asks him if the glass is half full or half empty.  To which the Physicist responds, "The glass is full of air and water."  Ha Ha Ha Ha Not!!

See, physics ain't funny...

Jay

Deep Time and Beyond

Have you ever been sitting at your desk at work, on a Friday afternoon around 3:00pm, and while staring at the clock, wonder why time moves so slow? Or, maybe sitting on your couch, on a Sunday Evening, and wonder why time was moving so quickly. Of course time doesn't really vary in it's proximity to the weekend. Time is relative however. The Hafele-Keating Experiment in 1971 proved this, by sending an aircraft with atomic clocks around the world twice (once Eastward and once Westward). Due to time dilation, gravity, and velocity, the clocks on board the plane progressed at a slower rate than the atomic clocks left on the ground, thus proving Einstein's Theory of Relativity. There are numerous thought experiments that rationalize the paradox of such thinking, that are both entertaining and mind bending. I won't go into these, because this isn't actually what I wanted to write about. I would like to discuss time however, and in particular, vast time scales.
 First off, I'd like to discuss Deep Time, which is a Geological time frame coined by James Hutton in the 18th Century. Hutton is considered by most to be the grandfather of Geology. Before him, The Earth's history was gauged in thousands of years, garnered erroneously from the Judea-Christian Bible. At the time, the Church was the authority of almost every discipline, and disagreeing with the Church Leaders was a fast track to excommunication, or most likely, something entirely worse. The main authority at the time was an Irish Archbishop by the name of James Ussher. Ussher counted the begets in the Bible and was convince that the Earth was created in the nightfall preceding October 23rd, 4004 B.C.E. Hutton, by studying rock formations and Hadrian's Wall, realized that the Earth had to be considerably older. Through his work, and the work of others, the age of the Earth skyrocketed to millions of years old. All these people had no idea of a source of heat present in the early Earth that slowed the cooling process and altered the  outcomes of their Thermodynamic equations. That heat source was radiation, and was something that they had no idea existed. Eventually we came to the current scientifically accepted age of 4.54 Billion years old.
That's a big number. It's really hard to get your head around a number that big, but that number pales in comparison to the age of the Milky Way, which is easily twice that. On top of that, the age of our Universe is currently projected to around 14.5 Billion years old. It could be even older, as that number is garnered by the light generated from the farthest objects we can see, through our best telescopes. It takes 14.5 Billion years for that light to reach us, traveling at approximately 186,282 miles per second. To put the speed of light into perspective, we can approximate the circumference of the Earth along the Equator at 24,000 miles and divide that number into 186,000. This means that a beam of light could circumnavigate the Earth roughly 7 and ¾ times in one second.
 I possess the belief that our Universe isn't the only one. Modern Physics, using String Theory and it's offspring M Theory (M stands for Membrane, but I'm sure Jay or I one, will dive into that topic in an upcoming blog), leads us to believe ours is just part of a larger Multiverse. At one time, what we thought was the Universe, turned out to be just our Solar System. A mere 60 years ago, what we thought was the Universe was just our Galaxy. It's only a matter of time before the Multiverse becomes a household word. Once it does, we will have to come to grips with much larger numbers.
 In conclusion, I want to leave you with a video of one of my favorite people to ever grace the Earth. Carl Sagan will explain time on the Universal Scale, and put the galaxy, the Earth, and us insignificant primates into perspective.


Time has a way of taking Time,

Keith

Aliens Don't Get High

   Have you ever walked into your neighborhood bar or lounge with the intention of achieving a little social freedom and hippity-bippity after a long day/week of work or spouse and were shocked to find a somber alien bellied up to the bar nursing a bourbon and cola with a thin wisp of smoke curling into the air from the filterless Pall Mall clenched between its slender, effeminate fingers?  Or have you ever showed up at one of those "home get-togethers" where everyone is gathered around the coffee table in the living room passing around a giant purple water bong and witnessed a thin-lipped, off-world visitor struggling to contain the massive toke that might just send him spinning back to space without the luxury of his super-luminal spacecraft?  Yeah, me neither.  That's because aliens don't get high.  Don't get me wrong; they love to dance and get their groove on and yuk it up as much as the rest of us; just without the mind altering substances that cause us drug loving humans to get all loosey-goosey and out of control.  I suppose part of the reason they refrain is because they're afraid that they'd lose their inhibitions and blow their cover by running around blurting things out like, "hey baby! I'm an alien! You want to go for a ride on my astro-glide?  I know I have.  We've all seen aliens at some point in our lives.  Most of us just don't realize it because many of them look just like us, only slighlty better looking because they've had the luxury of time and breeding to weed out the ugly ducklings.  You're more likely to find them huddled together shaking their perfect bottoms to whirring, whizzing and thumping electronica on the dance floor of the most hip and exclusive dance club in the coolest part of town than a seedy neighborhood lounge where the only people dancing are toothless old ladies doing the electric slide to songs on the jukebox.  Believe me, if you consciously look for them, you'll see them.  They're the ones with the softly chiseled, perfect facial features, sparkling blue eyes and luxurious, blond, flowing hair set atop the most enviable physiques that you could never achieve even if you worked out at the gym 4 hours a day and jogged the rest of the time.  You know, like the Arian race that Hitler was trying to champion; most likely because of the genetic traits that most closely matched that of the aliens that were buzzing around back then.  Nevertheless, I like aliens.  They're good..... people.  At least the ones I've met are.  I worked with one in the art department of an international specialty advertising manufacturing company 17 years ago and then again 3 or 4 years ago at a different job, only he had changed his name and hadn't aged a day since last I'd seen him.  He pretended not to know me; said he was from "Oklahoma" wink wink.  I didn't blow his cover.


Now consider, from an entirely different source, the evidence of multiple intelligent extraterrestrial races from crash retrieval specialist, alien interfacer and liason, Sgt. Clifford Stone (U.S. Army Retired), at the Disclosure Project's National Press Club Conference in Washington DC. Stone reports that 57 different extraterrestrial species had been catalogued by the military/government by 1989.



Yeah, that's right, he said that 57 different races had been catalogued by 1989!  And interestingly, they all are humanoid type beings.  Which really isn't all that surprising being that we are related to all of them; star brothers and sisters all cozy and beautiful together in this great big Universe.  Is it really that difficult to believe?  Afterall, its been said by some very intelligent scientists that it is more likely for a strong wind to reassemble a 747 from its individual pieces, scattered in every direction, in a large overgrown junkyard than for human DNA to develop as it did, supposedly by accident.  Darwin's evolution falls short of explaining how monkeys became men.  There is no missing link because it never happened!  Intelligent Design is more on target than any of us ever could have hoped to believe.  Except the Designers were ancient astronauts fiddling with our genes so that we as aliens to this planet could survive and flourish in its climate rather than a long-bearded omnipotent shooting bolts of lightening from his finger-tip.  Even America's forefathers accepted without question that we are not alone in the Universe.  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, etc. had no illusion that we were singular.  They termed it "Plurality of Worlds" and they were right.  But I'm getting a little ahead of myself by foreshadowing future topics so I think I'll stop now and save the juicy bits for another time.....


Until then keep your eyes open when you're out and about.  You won't find them at the bar or at your dealer's house but you never know what you might run into in the health food isle at the grocery store or the darkest row in the movie theater.  Yeah, they like movies too.


Jay

Urining for a Cure

  “Step right up, sirs and madams. See for yourself the amazing properties of Dr. Keipher's magnificent, medicinal, miracle tonic!”
 Most everyone I know has an ailment or malady of some sort, and are dependent on a multitude of prescriptions that are often very expensive, and possess a list of side effects that are often much worse than the actual symptom(s) that they are trying to eradicate. I've even seen these labeled as “treatment effects”, which to me denotes an air of necessity, instead of a potentiality. It seems as though the Snake Oil Salesmen went into mainstream advertising after being ran out of town “on a rail”. No matter how you label them, medicines can cause unintentional problems. I myself, take a medicine called Savella, that has unsettling side effects, and I also suspect is causing “false positives” in my drug tests administered by my Neurologist.
 Well, what would you say if I told you that there is an inexpensive and homeopathic cure for: diabetes, blood pressure, asthma, psoriasis, eczema, heart attack, blockage in arteries, cancer, AIDS, prostate problems, arthritis, migraines and headaches, problems of the thyroid, ulcers, constipation, gynecological problems, earaches and many other diseases (even incurable ones)? Sounds hard to believe and is reminiscent of the Snake Oil Barker of yore, isn't it? Well, the answer to all of your medical woes may be cow urine. Yes, I said cow urine.
 Long used in India for the treatment of, well just about everything, cow urine is making it's way into naturalist's medicine cabinets all over the world. It is the subject of research and holds patents in many countries, including the United States. As you most likely already know, the cow is a sacred animal in India, and has been for many millennia. The cow takes very little from the land (grasses mostly), and provides a multitude of products in return. It is regarded as the World's Mother, due to the fact that milk is very nourishing, and that the cow takes over where the human mother leaves off. Sprinkling Ghee (an Indian butter made from cow's milk) on burning cow dung is said to purify the air and has the ability to remove poisonous gases from the air. Some parts of the world have discovered other novel uses for cows, from eating it's meat, to using it's waste as fertilizer, and as location indicators of certain psychotropic drugs.
 To this day, in the Buddhist ritual of becoming a Bikkhu (Buddhist Monk), individuals take a precept of only using cow's urine for medicine. This is largely symbolic (especially in Western Cultures), and is only taken as a source of continuity of the ancient ordination rituals. Buddhist Monks are allowed to take other medicines, although they avoid any that cause “cloudiness of the mind”.
Analysis of cow urine has determined that it is rich in Nitrogen and also essential vitamins and minerals. However, I am unsure of the “delivery vehicle” of those necessities, and wonder if other waste properties are inherit to the urine. For that fact, I have yet to try cow urine. One Indian company though, has been developing a product called  "Gau Jal", or "cow water", which is a soda made from cow urine. They insist that it will not smell, nor taste like urine, and will be very tasty. They hope to be competitive with the traditional soda giants imported from the United States. They also hope to begin exporting it as well.
 If any of you wish to try cow urine, it is available over the internet, and quite possible in a field, not to far from your house. I would be interested to know your results and of any side effects you may encounter. It may very well be, the only side effect is bad breath.

Stay Healthy,

Keith

The Beginning

Today begins a new chapter in the evolution of the authors of this blog.  We now have a platform to share the unusual and mind-bending knowledge that we so passionately pursue in our own lives.  Keith and I have a shared unquenchable thirst to attempt to understand reality in its many wonderous and variegated facets.  Our interest in physics, metaphysics, spirituality, philosophy, science, history, art, music and life in general has driven us, seperately and together, to seek out the answers to our deepest most haunting questions.  We are certain that as each day passes and more content is presented that you too will find yourself drawn into the strange and fantastic world that Keith and I struggle to understand every day.  Many of the topics and ideas that we will address will seem completely out of this world to many peoples' accepted idea of what is real and true in this dimension...  but we don't limit ourselves to just this dimension.  We are just crazy and unhinged enough to expand our fields of interest to all eleven dimensions and beyond.  Most of what we present will seem completely deranged to those who refuse to open their minds to the possibility of things they never even thought to consider.  If our premise on any given subject offends your sense of morality, religious belief, self awareness or righteousness please don't judge us harshly.  We are merely presenting alternative perspectives of the world and Universe in which we all presently find ourselves; each attempting to travel the most clever and fulfilling path on the wheel of time.  What may seem sacreligious to some is just an unavoidable consequence of challenging long held beliefs and personal perceptions that have been handed down from generation to generation.  The unexamined life is yours to choose if you so wish.  Sacrelicious is a term we use to describe the liberation of our hearts, minds and souls to the infinite possibilities of a life examined regardless of whether or not it goes against the grain of popular decorum. Evolution is our aim.  We must sift through the muddled pretense of what we have been told is our history.  There is a history that has been kept from most of us.  That is the history we wish to reveal.  Our present state can be much improved if we accept that which has been before unbelievable and is now readily available for us to see with unfettered eyes.


Jay