The Mediocre Thud

       Atheistic scientists have proposed that Life in the "Accidental" World may have come from Matter originating from a Weird Sort of Nothingness that accidentally happened through no particular Cause. This "Something coming from Nothing" is referred to in scientific circles as The Big Bang, The Mediocre Thud, or The Pathetic Little Kafoof, depending on one's bent. It supposedly only became something by mistake and actually has no Purpose or Meaning. Different Bits of Stuff (that came from Nothing) reacted to and with each other, mixed together and formed the first Things. These particles vibrated and rubbed against each other, as random events kept on affecting each other to make even more complex Higher Thingy Stuff that showed the first evidence of Patterns and Swirly Lines, eventually forming various recognisable Shapes and early brainless Blobforms.  

But amazingly, rather than everything becoming a totally chaotic mess, some of these combinations occasionally produced spectacular flukes and wonderful surprises - the peculiar offshoots of chance phenomena that we now call Nature. All this just from some sort of haphazard pot-pourri of Nothingness and Stuff!

And what's more, because Life is an Accident and therefore has no Purpose or Meaning, there is nothing particularly meaningful in Philosophy, Morals, Ethics, Belief Systems, Religion or Spirituality.

Thus, these so-called 'intelligent' scientists theorise that we are all nothing but insignificant hapless Beings, wandering aimlessly through a Pointless Accidental World that has Spontaneously arisen, without Cause, Meaning or Purpose, from Random Chaos.

Well, now you know why I don't blindly trust Science!

       

Is the "invasive species" concept flawed?

For more on why the "invasive species" concept is flawed, you might like to read http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/ecologists-issue-a-call-to-end-the-bias-against-invasive-species.html or http://www.womenhunters.com/invasive-species.html or even do some of your own research. It is no surprise that it comes down to lost revenue, not spirituality at all. Meanwhile...

Timeline of Introduced Species in Australia.
Firstly, I must preface this with a vital piece of information to put this in context - not accepted as truth by everybody, but indisposable for the sake of the argument - that the self-realised sage sees the soul in all living creatures as equal, being a small fragment of the Supreme Being, pure in quality. Christians argue that animals don't have souls, but Christians in this instance are limited by a poor fund of knowledge due to portions of the Bible being removed (it is the only main religion on Earth without a doctrine of transmigration of the soul - although some unorthodox sects embrace metempsychosis). Technically, the amount of sin in killing any form of life is proportionate to the degree of suffering inflicted. Lower lifeforms have less developed central nervous systems and don't feel as much pain as higher forms that scream, wail, and whimper.

Circa 40,000 to 120,000 years ago tribes from South East Asia migrate. Compare ancient tribe of Sri Lankan Veddhas (photo);
c. 4,600 to 5,400 years ago, futher migration introduces the dingo;
c. 230 years ago, Europeans are introduced, and bring with them horses (brumbies) and pigs (now feral);
c. 175 years ago, foxes, camels, cats, water buffalo, goats, rabbits;
c. 80 years ago,  cane toads, ten-pound poms, Marvel comics Superheroes.

Blackberries, prickly pear, thistles, mice and rats, bamboo, fennel, wild parsley, pine trees, various birds, fish, insects (European bees and fleas, dung beetle, Monarch butterflies), germs,  viruses and other foreign diseases; the list goes on and on. Most are here to stay,  because Mother Nature allows it. Interfering humans think they know better and try to play God in a kind of xenophobic war on non-indigenous invaders, as if declaring that the only truly blue-blooded royalty in Australia is... native.

(The information is not so much my ideas but rather what I've gleaned from authoritive literature, mostly scripture. It is pointless to enter debate with atheistic greenies who have no faith in Mother Nature. She isn't absent from her duties, it's just that we cannot comprehend Her workings.)

Interestingly, any species is by dictionary definition *native by virtue of taking birth in a particular land (Latin nativus: produced by birth). Therefore it is correct to say I am a native of Australia because I was born here. Similar definitions apply for indigenous (from *gene: give birth and *indi = in), but the distinctions become blurry with *autochthonous: from the land, *aboriginal: from the beginning, and *endemic: from demos = place, people, limited to and naturally occurring with a unique place or people.

Clearly the distinction is dependent on the time factor and often infers exclusivity. Sometimes it is impossible to pinpoint. For instance, curry is considered to be the "Traditional Cuisine" of India. Ok, so go and make a curry without using recently introduced foods such as chili pepper, tomato, potato, pumpkin, capsicum etc all of which came from the Americas, brought in by the Portuguese and Spanish a couple of centuries ago. Before then, black pepper, long pepper and various other spices such as ginger and mustard seeds gave curry its 'heat'; consequently it was much milder then than what we now know as 'hot' curry. So how long does a dish have to be eaten in a country or region for it to be classified as Traditional Cuisine? How long do you have to live in an area to be called a Local?

Lack of diversity is the only way any particular species becomes invasive because of the absence of its natural predator. In England, rabbits eat the tender shoots of young bramble bushes (blackberry), thus keeping them in check so that they never develop weed status. The rabbits are in turn kept in check by its natural predator, the fox. Foxes' natural predators are the automobile and Internet spam (I had to put a joke in there somewhere). The time has long since passed where geographically isolated continents were exclusive havens for endemic species. The natural course will eventually see most species inhabiting most continents as much as Mother Nature sees fit. She decides who can live where. There are no rabbits in Antarctica. There are no penguins in Hawaii. There are no polar bears in New Zealand and there will probably never be sharks in the Sahara Desert. If wild pigs and camels can survive in the outback, and feral dogs and cats are now doing what the dingo and Tasmanian Tiger did centuries ago, it is Nature taking its course. Just because we don't understand why Mother Nature would allow cane toads to devastate Northern Australia doesn't mean we know better and have to kill them all (fun fact: Meat ants are unaffected by the cane toads' toxins, and therefore are able to kill them. The cane toad's normal response to attack is to stand still and let their toxin kill the attacker, which allows the ants to attack and eat the toad). Every living thing on Earth is another's breakfast. Any species capable of survival has as much right to live as any other once it has taken birth. Personally I don't like pine trees, but somehow they must have their place here, or they wouldn't grow. See, Mother Nature isn't xenophobic at all, and our present-day bias towards what 'belongs' is only due to our narrow perspective based on recent history. Growth encompasses change.

Trying to keep things the way they are is madness.

The Triantiwontigongolope

The Triantiwontigongolope (the true story) Didus thylacinus

Contrary to popular belief, The Triantiwontigongolope was written by John Lennon and not Darles Chickens or even DJ Cennis. It tells the story of the now extinct creature, a cross between the Dodo and the Tasmanian Tiger, back in the time of Jesus.

It is a total myth that the Romans would throw Christafarians to the lions as a sport in large arenas. There were of course no lions in Rome (lions are only found in Africa) and it was in fact the fabled Triantiwontigongolope that massacred the poor victims of the Romans' gruesome appetites. They would tie up the victims' feet so they couldn't run away, then hurl them into the pit after they were coated in vegemite and hundreds and thousands.

The Christafarians became so distraught that eventually they secretly staged a sit-in and prayed for Divine intervention. The Lord of Warriors, Blood Sacrifices, Croquet and Other Bloodthirsty Sports heard their fervent pleading and sent the Buddha to solve their dilemma.

At first they were jubilant, praising the Lord non-stop for 3 days and nights in celebration. But when the time came to confront the Roman barbarians, the Buddha just sat before them in the lotus position and meditated. At first the Romans laughed and made fun of His pose. They danced around, cracked jokes, threw insults and even started poking him in ridicule. Still, the Buddha maintained his intense meditation, unwavering in his attempt at peaceful reconciliation.

"What do you think you're doing?" the Christafarians objected. "Don't just sit there! Do something!"

The Buddha thus broke his prolonged trance and addressed them as follows: "As you would surely know, I incarnated on this planet to preach Ahimsa, the doctrine of non-violence. Therefore it is quite fitting that I have arrived to relieve your suffering from this unjust and inhumane persecution. However, I cannot force the Romans to stop. They will not listen to reason and it is completely against my principles to lift even a single finger in violence as punishment to them.

Therefore I chose to meditate and by attaining deep trance I was going to become one with their souls, melt their hearts with love and kindness so that they would naturally become gentle and averse to cruelty. Because they are such numbskulls it was taking me longer than expected to affect them. Your impatience disturbed my transcendental consciousness and broke my purification ritual.

Wallowing in guilt, the shameful Christafarians feebly pled once more for the Buddha to try it again. But it wasn't to be. "Now that they know the secret it will not work on them, for their hearts are now guarded with vengeance. I will have to try something else instead," said the Buddha.

And so this is how the Triantiwontigongolope came to be extinct. Of course the Buddha couldn't kill them, no more than he could harm the Romans. He could however grant them liberation and turn the Triantiwontigongolopes into Angels and send then off to Heaven. And that's exactly what He did. The Romans decided to eat all the leftover vegemite and hundreds and thousands and the Christafarians went back to their caves and their strange "incense" (as they liked to call it). End of story. True!

[Written, spoken and authorised by Sam Treloar for the Australian Lullaby Party]

Pictured: Didus thylacinus

Triantiwontigongolope (Dodus thylacinus)

Premonition: so who hasn't had one?

Dontcha just love it?

Forget the content for the time being. Three things grabbed my attention with this photo. First, the eyelets for the binder rings (but they could've been shopped in, we never can tell!). Second, the italics - apparently, from the 60s on, you just dropped in a new daisy wheel or printball to change the font on typewriters. Last but not least the good old-fashioned handwriting done with a ruler for the letters to bottom out on. Classic. It could be fake still, but I'm going with "It's a piece of memorabilia" for the sheer fun of it.

Now for the content. How many times have you seen a contestant on a game show saying they had a dream they won (like tonight) and straight away they win the exact amount? It happens all the time. I'm not saying that we've all won $50,000 on Who Wants To Be A Dill but I guarantee that each and every one of us, yes I mean you, has had a similar event happen in your life where you had a premonition sometime beforehand.

Time is different on the astral planes. Some say that there is a small window, maybe as much as a week into the future, where deceased relatives or loved ones who can see it will visit us to inform us of what is about to happen. Some say that the upcoming event forms in advance on the higher plane before it is manifest on Planet Earth. Some say that our thoughts create future events and therefore of course we know what's going to happen. Yet others say that just about all the events of our lives are predestined, there is little we can do to stop our karma from happening, and that the event is being acknowledged by our psyche just prior to its occurrence.

Perhaps if you have the time and the inclination you might like to read a book I would like to recommend. I can't vouch for it being 100% non-fiction but it certainly isn't all fantasy. It is written as a novel and tells the story of the central character being visited by a mysterious 'guide' who takes him to see his recently deceased brother, in answer to his fervent praying (God, why have you taken him?).

I must admit that I don't even know if I finished reading the whole book. Apart from one of the early chapters which reads like a crash-course in Hindu Cosmology (a necessary part of setting the background theme), the story revolves about the guide accompanying him as he teaches him how to travel through the levels as he gains knowledge and technique. Not only does he re-unite with his brother but he also meets a lost love who died when he was much younger who becomes a pivotal attachment on the 4th plane which eventually enables him to travel on his own, independent of the Guide's supervision.

What struck me about A Soul's Journey (By Peter Richelieu) is the lack of preachiness. Though there is a moral code, it basically dispels the usual religious preaching that Hell awaits all of us unrepentant sinners. Instead it teaches that unless you're a little Hitler or a total jerk who treats everyone like shit, after you die, unless you hover over your dead carcass totally confused about your death (due to gross attachment and identification with the body, ie become a ghost) your etheric or ethereal or astral body or whatever you want to call it continues on to whatever plane your consciousness and karma entitle you to where you then learn, practice and rehearse until your next body becomes available... which could take hundreds of years or only a moment in time, depending on said availability.

Fascinating reading, I do recommend it.

And for what it's worth, I'm not advocating for one second that we dispense with the concept of Hell. Before the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the sole official legally-sanctioned religion (thus becoming the Holy Roman Empire, see: 313AD, Constantine the Great) there were two forms of Chistianity practised for centuries in secret in underground temples (the real meaning of the word OCCULT means HIDDEN). The Elite had privileged access to the doctrine of gradual attainment of spiritual perfection through repeated lifetimes of continued effort along The Path. This of course held belief in reincarnation and the lost Christian doctrine of Transmigration of the Soul.

For the Lower Classes ie the general public (the "carnal" as they were defined) being too engrossed in the pleasures of the flesh and thus unable to grasp the lofty ideas of transcendental thought, a different theology however, was taught. One Lifetime, One Opportunity. One Chance, One Choice. Heaven or Hell, for all Eternity. Buy now. Grand sale. Ladies and Gentlemen, place your bets.

This book provides a welcome relief for those who feel that they have failed to live up to expectations, whether they be others' or their own, and for me it reinforces the notion that there is a truly all-loving God that is surprisingly not as judgemental as the other Powers-That-Be (certain unnamed religious denominations, sects, and even cults) would have us believe.

Live your life for the better. For the betterment of yourself and others. And if you can get your head around it (I struggle!) for the pleasure of our creator. Yeah, I know, preachy blah blah, but one thing I'm certain of is that I didn't create myself - for that, I would've had to have been here to begin with, which makes no sense at all. Hence, God. That explains a lot of things!

http://rune.galactic.to/PeterRichelieu_A_SoulsJourney.htm

The "Health" Industry - or is it?

When an alternative cure is accepted by mainstream health authorities do you know what it is called? Answer:  "medicine". Up to that point it is labelled as quackery. Even if they don't scientifically understand how or why it works, if and only if it is statistically proven to be effective, then and only then is it given proper accreditation... as long as it's safe (so no-one gets sued).

Take acupuncture for example. It used to be ridiculed as phoney oriental nonsense practised by devious charlatans. They eventually gave in because it cures medical ailments. Hey, patients even have some types of operations without any painkillers or anaesthesia - wide awake. It is no longer stigmatized as Alternative Therapy. Hypnotherapy is another example with a similar history.

I challenge you to look up any alternative cure on that politically correct bastion of the Left-wing propaganda machine - Wikipedia, and find one that doesn't get a bad rap. Well, "Wonkipedia" might go as far as to acknowledge that there is no danger in it, but it will always state that it hasn't been proven to be effective or cure anything under laboratory conditions - usually tagged with the "evidence is purely anecdotal" disclaimer.

Dr Johanna Budwig... pooh-poohed for curing cancer with essential fatty acids...  her protocol included a diet consisting of Quark cottage cheese and freshly ground flaxseed oil (sauerkraut juice is also produced by the same lactic acid as Quark). Can't possibly work, they say, too simple. Budwig researched the theory that a low oxygen environment would develop in the absence of sulphydryl groups and/or fatty acid partners that would encourage the proliferation of cancerous cells. Based on the principle that cancer cells thrive in that cellular environment caused by eating processed food and especially denatured fats and hydrogenated oils, her cure aims at getting the right fatty acids into the tissues, getting the right alkaline levels in body tissue, restoring healthy omega-3/omega-6 balance. No pharma, just proper diet and no processed food or toxins. Too easy, they say. You can’t patent flaxseed or sauerkraut, and with no drugs involved, there's no money to be made by "The Health Industry".  Read wiki's page on her, then read everything else net-wise and form your own opinion.

So have a go, think of any alternative medicine or treatment then look it up on Wonkipedia. They kind of tread more lightly around Ayurveda, Chinese Herbal Medicine and Unani because, well, they'd look quite foolish otherwise, given their widespread practise in the East and the sheer popularity of them. Anything else seems to be fair game. In each article go to the "Health benefits" section and you'll see a standard "There is no scientific evidence of any proven medical benefit blah blah....". I suppose we could start with crystals, but let's go with Nauropathy or Homeopathy, or anything left field. Go on, think of one - maybe try Aromatherapy, Colour Therapy, Music Therapy... Shiatsu, Tai chi, Reiki, TM, Faith Healing, Purple Plates (made "famous" by Linda Goodman - or should that be infamous!) hey, while you're at it, check out Astrology, Tarot, Spiritualism i.e. seances, scrying (crystal ball divination), or any form of fortune telling or contact with the other side. None of these seem to like laboratory testing yet proponents swear by them. I'm not saying they all work. That isn't my point.

It is then that you start to see Wikipedia in a different light - as the left-wing propaganda machine that it is.