Meditation triggers molecular and genetic changes: New study

By Herbert Dyer, Jr.
Source: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16442013-meditation-triggers-molecular-and-genetic-changes-new-study

A new study published in Psychoneuroendocrinology provides scientific proof – for the first time – that the regular practice of meditation causes beneficial molecular changes within the human body.

The study was conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Institute of Biomedical Research in Barcelona. Subjects who participated in an intensive, eight-hour mindfulness-meditation regimen showed significant beneficial molecular and genetic changes.

The study group was composed of experienced meditation practitioners who meditated for the whole eight hours, while a control group simply remained quiet and participated in non-meditative activities.

The meditation group experienced observable genetic changes including lower levels of inflammatory genes like RIPK2 and COX2, indicating faster recovery from stressful situations.
As Medical News Today reports:

The extent to which some of the genes were down-regulated was associated with faster cortisol recovery to a social stress test, where participants were challenged to make an impromptu speech or complete mental calculations in front of an audience.

Put another way, meditation allows and encourages participants to subconsciously maintain their mental and physical equilibrium despite and/or in the midst of whatever pressures and potentially worrisome issues may be closing in.

“The regulation of HDACs and inflammatory pathways may represent some of the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic potential of mindfulness-based interventions. Our findings set the foundation for future studies to further assess meditation strategies for the treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions,” explained Perla Kaliman, co-author of the study.

Meditation studies abound, of course. Countless anecdotes and surveys have revealed that meditation yields direct physical benefits.

But none of those studies or stories have provided the rock-hard evidence for the benefits of meditation that this one does. This study provides genetic proof that mediation works. That is, this is the first to scientifically demonstrate molecular changes caused by the ancient practice of simply emptying one's mind of all thoughts, feelings, concerns, issues.

“Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and these results suggest that the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression,” said Dr. Richard J. Davidson of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds.

Thus, it is clear: Meditation relieves stress; it provides digestive relief; it helps regulate blood pressure. It even eases symptoms of the common cold.

There is even a study indicating that mediation reduces pain better than morphine.
However, none of these studies, including this latest one, explain precisely how the simple act of meditation does all of these wonderful things. That answer will come soon enough with more research, more study.

Until then, though, it just stands to reason that maintaining one's cool, especially in the face of adversity, allows one to more rationally deal with whatever situation is at hand.

References:

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/01/30/new-study-meditation-alters-genes-rapidly-triggers-molecular-changes/

http://www.infowars.com/new-study-meditation-alters-genes-rapidly-triggers-molecular-changes/

http://www.news.wisc.edu/22370

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/01/new-study-meditation-alters-genes-rapidly-triggers-molecular-changes-january-30-2014-by-wakingtimes-2887460.html

http://truthbroadcastnetwork.com/new-study-meditation-alters-genes-rapidly-triggers-molecular-changes/

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269910.php

Scientist says psychedelic brew consumed by Amazonian shamans could fight cancer

By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, January 27, 2014 11:57 EST
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/27/scientist-says-psychedelic-brew-consumed-by-amazonian-shamans-could-fight-cancer/

A powerful psychedelic brew consumed by shamans deep in the Amazon could help in the fight against cancer and should be researched, according to a Brazilian scientist.

Ayahuasca — meaning the “vine of the souls” – is traditionally prepared using the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and Psychotria viridis leaves, though other combinations of plants are sometimes used. Psychotria viridis contains N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the leaves, while Banisteriopsis caapi contains beta-carbolines such as harmine and harmaline.

For centuries, the psychedelic brew has been used in shamanistic healing rituals. A Natural Geographic reporter who participated in an ayahuasca ritual described the experience as “terrifying—but enlightening.”

Eduardo E. Schenberg of the Federal University of Sao Paulo thinks some of the healing powers attributed to ayahuasca deserve scientific attention, particularly when it comes to cancer.
“There is enough available evidence that ayahuasca’s active principles, especially DMT and harmine, have positive effects in some cell cultures used to study cancer, and in biochemical processes important in cancer treatment, both in vitro and in vivo,” he wrote in an article published in SAGE Open Medicine. ”Therefore, the few available reports of people benefiting from ayahuasca in their cancer treatment experiences should be taken seriously, and the hypothesis presented here, fully testable by rigorous scientific experimentation, helps to understand the available cases and pave the way for new experiments.”

Rumors of ayahuasca helping people with cancer are common, according to Schenberg, and there are at least nine case reports of cancer patients using ayahuasca during their treatment. Of these nine reports, three showed improvements after consuming the psychedelic brew.


Rumors and less than a dozen case reports are hardly substantial evidence. But the physiological effects of the drug suggests there might be some truth behind them, Schenberg said.

DMT produces a powerful psychedelic experience by binding to serotonin receptors in the brain. More importantly, for Schenberg, the drug also binds to the sigma 1 receptor, which is found throughout the body and is involved in many cellular functions. The sigma 1 receptor appears to be implicated in the death signalling of cancer cells.

In addition, harmine has been shown to induce the death of some cancer cells and inhibit the proliferation of human carcinoma cells.

Other physiological factors suggest the combination of DMT and harmine could have medically-important antitumor effects, though more research is need.

“In summary, it is hypothesized that the combined actions of β-carbolines and DMT present in ayahuasca may diminish tumor blood supply, activate apoptotic pathways, diminish cell proliferation, and change the energetic metabolic imbalance of cancer cells, which is known as the Warburg effect,” Schenberg  wrote. ”Therefore, ayahuasca may act on cancer hallmarks such as angiogenesis, apoptosis, and cell metabolism.”

DMT is currently prohibited as a Schedule I drug by the U.S. Controlled Substances Act and the international Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The drug is relatively unknown compared to other illicit substances like cannabis, but researchers have found that DMT appears to be increasing in popularity.

“If ayahuasca is scientifically proven to have the healing potentials long recorded by anthropologists, explorers, and ethnobotanists, outlawing ayahuasca or its medical use and denying people adequate access to its curative effects could be perceived as an infringement on human rights, a serious issue that demands careful and thorough discussion,” Schenberg wrote.

Originally published by PsyPost

["Woman Touching Her Third Eye With Hand Mudra." on Shutterstock]

Water in stardust suggests widespread life in the universe

Jason McClellan
http://www.openminds.tv/water-stardust-suggests-widespread-life-universe/25796
Scientists have determined that stardust contains water, a discovery that suggests the universe is rife with life.

Although scientists have previously suggested that dust grains floating through our solar system contain water, it has actually been detected for the first time in the results from a recent study. A research team that includes John Bradley of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California inspected the outer layer of interplanetary dust particles collected from Earth’s stratosphere. Using ultra-high-resolution microscopy, the team inspected the tiny specks of space dust and discovered pockets of water just beneath the surface.

(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle)

Researchers concluded that the dust is mostly composed of silicates–an oxygen-containing compound. New Scientist describes how scientists speculate the water forms: “As stardust travels through space, it encounters the solar wind. This stream of charged particles including high-energy hydrogen ions is ejected from the sun’s atmosphere. When the two collide, hydrogen and oxygen combine to make water.”

According to New Scientist, “Combined with previous findings of organic compounds in interplanetary dust, the results suggest that these grains contain the basic ingredients needed for life. As similar dust grains are thought to be found in solar systems all over the universe, this bodes well for the existence of life across the cosmos.”

Clashes in Kiev after new protest law signed

A line of scorched buses and trucks mark the boundary between protestors and police as unrest continues in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. So far, over two hundred demonstrators, journalists, and police have been injured and/or hospitalized.

The situation began in November as Ukranian President Yanukovych made the decision to freeze ties with the European Union and seek a large bailout from Russia. This decision generated mostly peaceful protests, which increased in size and intensity after police used violence to disperse demonstrators on two occasions.

Anger grew substantially as President Yanukovych enacted measures on Thursday which included:

• A ban on the unauthorized installation of tents, stages or amplifiers in public places

• The provision to arrest protestors wearing masks or helmets

• A ban on protests involving more than five vehicles in convoy

• Hefty fines or jail for breeches of law

On Tuesday, the UN’s High Commisioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, called the situation in the Ukraine “very worrying” and said the government should suspend the laws.

"I call on the authorities to suspend application of the laws to allow time for a thorough review of their content which must be in full compliance with international human rights standards, in particular Ukraine's obligations under the treaties it has ratified," she said in a statement.

The White House blamed the increased tensions on Ukraine’s government for failing to acknowledge its people’s legitimate grievances and threatened sanctions if the use of violence continues. (1)

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Ukraine's government:

"has moved to weaken the foundations of Ukraine's democracy by criminalizing peaceful protest and stripping civil society and political opponents of key democratic protections under the law."(1)

She called on Ukraine to repeal recent laws limiting protests, remove riot police from downtown Kiev and start talking to the opposition.(1)

"The U.S. will continue to consider additional steps -- including sanctions -- in response to the use of violence," Hayden said in a statement. (1)

According to a the ACLU and the New York Times, demonstrators are now receiving text messages saying “Dear User, you have now been registered as a riot attendant.” A scare tactic the government is trying to use to quell protests.

The device used in Kiev is most likely what's known as an 'IMSI catcher', which tricks cell phones into thinking it is a cell phone tower. Any phone within a certain distance of the device will therefore send identifying information to it, allowing the operator to automatically compile a list of every person nearby with a cell phone.(2) 

The intimidating surveillance tactic appears not to have succeeded in Kiev, however. Hours after the government sent the mass text message, "the riot police pushed past barricades of burned buses on Hrushevskoho Street near Parliament but were nonetheless met by a crowd of protesters in ski masks and helmets carrying sticks and ready to fight."(2)

“I can understand why people behaved this way and I can’t call them provocateurs,” Kateryna Kruk, a 22-year-old activist who has been one of the key voices of the movement on Twitter, wrote in The Guardian. “It is sad and wrong that they have expressed their feelings this way, but when there is no leader in the crowd to control people, they start to act as the street teaches them.”(3)

For now, Ukrainians will have to stay angry and, unless things change, get angrier still. And until that happens, they will have to find other outlets for their anger — at Yanukovych, at the police, at the opposition, at Western inaction, at other Ukrainians, at everything. Sunday’s burnt-out police buses may only be the beginning.(3)

(1)  http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ukrainians-protest-tough-anti-dissent-legislation

(2)  http://privacysos.org/node/1305

(3)  http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/how-ukraines-protest-movement-turned-into-a-bitter-standoff

Benjamin Fulford - January 20, 2013: Systematic take-down of cabal accelerates with Vatican bank purge, mass resignations, mass firings etc

Also last week Queen Elizabeth announced she was going to hand duties over to Prince Charles as well as to Princes William and Harry, starting a “gentle succession.” Elizabeth is thus following Queen Beatrix of Holland and the King of Belgium in resigning in recent years from positions that are traditionally held for life. The generational change in royal families is in preparation for a change at the very top of the financial system, a Rothschild family source said.

There is also a big storm brewing in China where a massive purge is expected to start in March with the complete replacement of all provincial Secretaries (governors), all mayors and most senior bureaucrats, according to a Chinese government representatives in Tokyo. This purge is being directed by central government officials, many who have fled to the country side with their families to avoid the massive pollution choking many of China’s large cities. This move is being made in an attempt to quell a financial crisis caused by rampant overspending and corruption at local government levels, the representatives said.

Another interesting thing these sources had to say was that the Chinese government was thinking of starting up a state religion combining elements of Christianity, Confucianism and Mohism. The aim was to improve moral standards in China and strengthen social unity, they said.

There is also something brewing in North Korea and the Chinese are not happy about it, one official said. Two top North Koreans who were close to China were executed last week as part of the ongoing purge of perceived threats to Kim Jong Un, he said. In response China staged a massive military exercise with more than 100,000 troops along the North Korean border. “China now views North Korea as an enemy state,” he said.

This will be followed by a joint US and South Korean military maneuver also aimed at North Korea.
Also, basketball star Dennis Rodman was nabbed and taken in for questioning last week immediately after returning to the US from his well-publicized visit to North Korea. The official story is that he went to “an undisclosed alcohol rehabilitation center.”

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_24946047/dennis-rodman-goes-rehab

Rodman was visiting North Korea as a personal representative of Barack Obama, according to North Korean sources. No doubt his “rehabilitators” will be trying to find out what that message was.
North Korean sources in Japan also say the new North Korean regime had threatened to hit Shanghai and Beijing with nuclear weapons as part of a power play to force the reunification of the Korean peninsula.



This may also be the real reason why government leaders in China and South Korea are willing to meet with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is closely linked to North Korea through his ties with the unification church.

The situation in Asia will probably not resolve itself until the removal of cabal control from the dollar and euro based financial system is completed.

To this end dramatic changes are continuing in the Middle East, power base of the US petrodollar. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been purging Turkey, the original home of the Sabbatean mafia, with increasing success. He has removed 350 police officers and 20 prosecutors and is now purging Bankers and TV propagandists.

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1408751/recep-tayyip-erdogan-purge-over-graft-probe-extends-bankers-and-tv

The Gulf Cooperation Council also sent a delegation to China last week to negotiate a surrender and were told to end the rift with Iran and the Shia/Sunni split in general. Responding to this, the Muslim world invited Iran into “full membership in the Al Quds (Jerusalem [i.e. Israel]) Committee of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (IOC)”

http://www.debka.com/article/23599/Putin-to-visit-Tehran-King-of-Morocco-invites-Iran-to-%E2%80%9CJerusalem-Committee%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-with-Kerry%E2%80%99s-approval

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is also going to visit Iran soon to help bring peace to the region.
The ongoing shift of Middle East power away from cabal control is of course going to affect Israel and the controllers of the old petro dollar system. Perhaps that is why the White Dragon Society was contacted last week and asked if it would be possible to go through Canada to make liquid some now frozen funding. This request coincided with the start of a four day visit to Israel by Zionist slave Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The WDS is insisting on a jubilee, a redistribution of fraudulently obtained assets and the immediate start of a massive campaign to end poverty and stop environmental destruction.

The other move that is making cabalists nervous is the German government’s ongoing investigation of what happened to the 300 tons of gold it deposited with the Federal Reserve Board. So far only 5 tons have been returned and attempts to intimidate German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a beating in Switzerland (according to a CIA source) will probably backfire by driving the Germans into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and out of NATO.

Another front in which the cabal is under severe attack is the ongoing exposure of elite pedophile networks in the UK and in the Vatican. In the UK, politicians are now being investigated in the ever widening scandal that is expected to eventual lead to Tony Blair and his fellow Nazis. In the Vatican, 400 priests have already been defrocked and the purge of child abusers is continuing.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/453381/Female-MP-abused-boy-in-care

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/01/17/14/vatican-grilled-over-scale-child-sex-abuse

The Cabalists will be gathering this week at the Davos World Economic Forum where they will make noises about the dangers of income inequality. In doing so, they will be like Marie Antoinette at the time of the French Revolution asking why the peasants did not eat cake, in other words they don’t have a clue about what is really going on and their sudden concern for the poor will be way too little, way too late.

In a sign that all is not well with the forum, Daniel Dal Bosco tried last week to contact the Dragon family about cashing historical bonds. Dal Bosco was followed very closely in 2009 after he absconded with a trillion dollars’ worth of Dragon family bonds and that trail led to a certain Giancarlo Bruno, head of the financial services division of the Davos forum. The fact that he is once again initiating contact can only be taken as a sign of desperation behind the scenes at Davos. Message to Dal Bosco: “you are being watched 24/7 and can be picked and arrested at any moment.” The same will be true of any other cabal official attempting to steal assets that belong to the people of the world and not to a criminal cabal.

The other ongoing sign of unravelling cabal control is the snowballing trend to legalize marijuana. Now that Colorado, Washington State and the nation of Uruguay have joined North Korea (they never made it illegal in the first place) in legalizing marijuana, and did so without facing any reprisals, many more countries (last week Morocco for example) will join the band wagon. The loss of illegal drug revenues, combined with the loss of control over oil, will devastate Sabbatean cabal finances. Vive la revolution!

Last week Pope Francis replaced four out of the top five officers overseeing the Vatican Bank in a move that sent shock-waves through the public leadership of many countries. In probably most countries of the world, when a new leader is installed, that person gets a visit from a cabal officer like Henry Kissinger who hands them a Vatican bank account book containing a huge bribe, according to sources including former CIA chiefs. The leaders are then told that if they do not accept the money and follow cabal orders they will be assassinated, driven out by scandal, or failing that, have their country invaded by US troops. For that reason, the change at the top of the Vatican bank is a sure sign something big is coming down.

Mystery rock spotted on Mars

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN Updated 3:33 PM EST, Mon January 20, 2014 (CNN) -- Did Mars rover Opportunity order a jelly doughnut? Not quite, but scientists are baffled by a white rock with a dark red low spot in the middle that "just plain appeared at that spot" on the planet where the rover is situated, says Steve Squyres, lead scientist of the Mars Exploration Rover mission. In recent weeks, Opportunity took photos of the same spot on Mars, 12 days apart. The rover's panoramic camera showed only barren bedrock on mission day 3528 (in Mars time), but on day 3540, a photo of the same scene revealed the mysterious, doughnut-shaped rock. Squyres showed photos of this ghostly geological dessert at a recent NASA event celebrating 10 years since the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on Mars. Spirit's mission ended in 2010 after losing the use of two wheels, and ceasing to communicate. But Opportunity is still chugging along and finding new surprises, such as this rock. "One of the things I like to say is that Mars keeps throwing new things at us," Squyres said at the event, gesturing toward the rock photo and laughing. The photos of the outcrop showing the absence, and then presence, of the pastry-sized rock were taken 12 days apart. The rover had not driven over that spot, Squyres said. There are two leading theories about where the rock, called "Pinnacle Island," came from. Neither of them include the possibility of an intergalactic Dunkin' Donuts. The most likely scenario is that Opportunity flicked the rock with one of its wheels. "We had driven a meter or two away from here, and somehow maybe one of the wheels, kind of, managed to spit it out of the ground, and have it slide to this position," Squyres said. Alternatively, there could be a smoking hole in the ground nearby and the rock could be a piece of crater ejecta, or piece of matter spewn from the hole. Squyres doesn't think this is likely, however. Opportunity is now studying the mystery rock more extensively, making measurements and taking pictures. Its instruments have shown scientists that the "jelly" part is "like nothing we've ever seen before," Squyres said.  It's very high in sulfur and magnesium, and it has twice as much manganese as has ever been seen in anything on Mars. No one knows what that means. "We're completely confused, we're having a wonderful time, everyone on the team is arguing and fighting," Squyres said. Spirit landed on January 4, 2004, followed by Opportunity on January 25, 2004. Their primary missions were designated for a mere 90 days, but both far outlasted that target. Squyres said he used to think that no matter how long the rovers lasted, at some point there would be a point in the mission where the team could say "We're finished" -- that they had learned everything could about Mars with those particular vehicles. But the Red Planet isn't like that. "There will be something tantalizing, something wonderful just beyond our reach that we didn't quite get to, and that's the nature of exploration," he said. Opportunity has otherwise encountered scientifically important phenomena during its decade of investigation. At Endeavor Crater, where it is today, the rover found clay minerals that form in watery conditions, and indicate that water with a neutral pH could have once been there, which would be conducive to microbial life if there had been any. Endeavor has also unveiled veins of a mineral that appears to be gypsum, which is deposited by water. Opportunity is not the only robot roaming Mars. NASA's 2-ton Curiosity rover, which landed in 2012, has an even more powerful suite of scientific instruments. Because of Curiosity's findings, NASA announced for the first time last year that life could have existed on Mars. NASA is planning another rover mission in 2020 -- and that future robot could, possibly, collect samples that would later return to Earth for further study. Such sophisticated technologies will help us see what other mysterious "sweets" the planet can deliver. Follow Elizabeth Landau on Twitter at @lizlandau

In Search For Habitable Planets, Why Stop At 'Earth-Like'?

Kepler-22b, seen in this artist's rendering, is a planet a bit larger than Earth that orbits in the habitable zone
of its star. Some researchers think there might be "superhabitable" worlds that may not resemble Earth.

by NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE

In their hunt for potentially habitable planets around distant stars, scientists have been so focused on finding Earth-like planets that they're ignoring the possibility that other kinds of planets might be even friendlier to life, a new report says.

So-called superhabitable worlds wouldn't necessarily look like Earth but would nonetheless have conditions that are more suitable for life to emerge and evolve, according to the study published this month in the journal Astrobiology.

"In my point of view, astronomers and biologists are biased," saysRene Heller, an astrophysicist at Canada's McMaster University who is the study's lead author. "These scientists look for planets that are Earth-like."

But it's possible that Earth is actually only marginally habitable by the standards of the universe, says Heller, who points out that our home may not represent a typical habitable world.

He and co-author John Armstrong of Weber State University in Utah have come up with a long list of traits that might make a planet "superhabitable."

Such planets would most likely be older than Earth and two to three times bigger, the researchers say. And they would orbit stars that are somewhat less massive than our sun.

Any liquid water wouldn't be in a giant, deep ocean, but would be scattered over the surface of the planets in shallow reservoirs. The planets would need a global magnetic field to serve as protection from cosmic radiation, and they would probably have thicker atmospheres than the Earth does.

"It's good to start thinking now about how do we sort of rank these planets in terms of their potential to host life," agrees Rory Barnes of the University of Washington, who uses computer models to explore the habitability of planets outside our solar system. "I think this paper does a really good job of examining the different kinds of features that all come into play when making a habitable planet."

So far, scientists have detected about a thousand planets orbiting other stars. Current technology usually can't reveal much about them — just a planet's size, density and how far it orbits from its host star.

Planets are said to be in the "habitable zone" when their surface temperatures would potentially allow liquid water to exist on the surface.

"That's all we can really say at this point," Barnes says. "We don't have any clue if they actually are habitable, let alone if they are inhabited."

Souce: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/16/263106030/in-search-for-habitable-planets-why-stop-at-earth-like?ft=1&f=1007&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=nprscience

The Truth About Psychedelics

Neurons To Nirvana Kickstarter - ELEVATE and Mangusta Films

Ancient medicines, new molecules, interviews from researchers at universities like John Hopkins, UCLA, NYU; neurochemistry, neurotheology, shamanism and psychotherapy; Ayahuasca, LSD, Cannabis, Psilocybin, MDMA — all potent tools for getting to know who we are, who we can be, and for healing the trauma of a society that is addicted to greed and consumerism — Neurons to Nirvana covers it all and the proverbial more.

In an age where a film like Neurons 2 Nirvana can be powered by the people, we are counting on you to help bring this information to world, and see to it that these astounding plants, molecules, and ancient vehicles of transformation are liberated from the ignorance and repression of the status quo. As a civilization and as individuals — we can no longer afford to lose the lessons that they can bring. Neurons 2 Nirvana dares to break the taboo surrounding psychedelic medicines, examining and revealing their proven potential to heal and alleviate suffering on a global scale.

With your help, we can expand the awareness of what these mind revealing substances can contribute to our collective well-being. Please help us by donating what you can and by helping us share the campaign far and wide. 

Iran Says 'Tall, White' Space Aliens Control America

Michael Peck, Contributor

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpeck/2014/01/13/iran-says-tall-white-space-aliens-control-america/

Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden conclusively prove that the United States has been ruled by a race of tall, white space aliens who also assisted the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

These revelations about our alien overlords might not cost you any sleep. But the part that should concern you a tad is that the UFO storywas just published by the Fars News Agency, the English-language news service of Iran, a nation that may be very close to acquiring nuclear weapons.

This being a crazy conspiracy theory, naturally the Russians are behind it. The alleged alien invasion was revealed in a report by Russia’s FSB spy agency, which found “incontrovertible proof’ that an ‘alien/extraterrestrial intelligence agenda’ is driving U.S. domestic and international policy, and has been doing so since at least 1945,” said the Iranian news service.

Fars apparently got the story from a hard-core conspiracy site calledwhatdoesitmean.com. Here is the gist of the whatdoesitmean.com story as best I understand it (or as the alien mind-control lasers allow me to understand it):

Snowden, who has been given asylum in Russia, leaked documents that a race of extraterestrial “tall whites” arrived on Earth, helped Nazi Germany build a fleet of advanced submarines in the 1930s, and then met in 1954 with President Dwight Eisenhower “where the ‘secret regime’ currently ruling over America was established.”

“Most disturbingly, this FSB report warns, is that the ‘Tall White’ agenda being implemented by the ‘secret regime’ ruling the United States calls for the creation of a global electronic surveillance system meant to hide all true information about their presence here on earth as they enter into what one of Snowden’s documents calls the ‘final phase’ of their end plan for total assimilation and world rule.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is embroiled in a “cataclysmic” power struggle between President Obama, who heads the alien shadow government, and some unknown force that opposed the U.S.-alien alliance. “Most to be feared by Russian policy makers and authorities, this [FSB] report concludes, is if those opposing the ‘Tall White’ ‘secret regime’ ruled over by Obama have themselves aligned with another alien-extraterrestrial power themselves.”

Any good conspiracy theory needs a patina of truth, a bit of intellectual cover to camouflage the craziness. In this case, the whatdoesitmean.com/Fars story cites Paul Hellyer, the 1960s Canadian defense minister who is now a fervent UFO activist. Hellyer allegedly has confirmed the accuracy of Snowden’s UFO leaks.

This is almost a funny story, until one remembers that Iran is a moderately powerful nation of 76 million people, with a possible nuclear arsenal, relatively large conventional military power, extensive terrorist capabilities through its intelligence agencies and Hezbollah, and a fundamentalist government that could easily engage in hostilities against the U.S. Laugh if you will at conspiracy theories, but they offer explanatory value for their believers, a way of making sense of why things happen, even if it is a funhouse-mirror explanation of the world. The Fars News Agency is reportedly affiliated with Iran’s influential Revolutionary Guards, which suggests that either Iran is either desperate to smear the U.S. any way it can, or there indeed is a very peculiar view of U.S. politics at the highest levels of the Iranian government.

If there is a bright spot to this as well as a funny bone, it’s that the goal of U.S. policy is to contain and neutralize Iranian influence. So, perhaps it’s not necessarily a bad thing that Tehran thinks its main adversary is backed by the power of space aliens. It’s good to have friends in high places, even if they have two heads.

---------------------------------------

See related story:

Austrailian TV show Interviews Charles Hall: US Military Worked with Extraterrestrials

Did Roger Ebert Have a Deathbed Vision?

Famous movie pundit Roger Ebert was often claimed by others as an atheist, although his own opinion was that he disliked his convictions being reduced to one word or label. Ebert's real 'religion', I think, was summed up by his admission that he had "spent hours and hours in churches all over the world...not to pray, but to gently nudge my thoughts toward wonder and awe" - a position many readers here would probably feel aligned with.

It did not surprise me then when I read, in a recent Esquire article ("Oral Histories of 2013"), a first-hand account of Ebert's passing from his wife Chaz that suggests he had a profound experience in his final days:

On April 4, he was strong enough again for me to take him back home. My daughter and I went to pick him up. When we got there, the nurses were helping him get dressed. He was sitting on his bed, and he looked really happy to be going home. He was smiling. He was sitting almost like Buddha, and then he just put his head down. We thought he was meditating, maybe reflecting on his experiences, grateful to be going home. I don't remember who noticed first, who checked his pulse… In the beginning, of course, I was totally freaked out. There was some kind of code thing, and they brought machines in. I was stunned. But as we realized he was transitioning out of this world and into the next, everything, all of us, just went calm. They turned off the machines, and that room was so peaceful. I put on his music that he liked, Dave Brubeck. We just sat there on the bed together, and I whispered in his ear. I didn't want to leave him. I sat there with him for hours, just holding his hand.

Roger looked beautiful. He looked really beautiful. I don't know how to describe it, but he looked peaceful, and he looked young.

The one thing people might be surprised about — Roger said that he didn't know if he could believe in God. He had his doubts. But toward the end, something really interesting happened. That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about having visited this other place. I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: "This is all an elaborate hoax." I asked him, "What's a hoax?" And he was talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I thought he was just confused. But he was not confused. He wasn't visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven. He described it as a vastness that you can't even imagine. It was a place where the past, present, and future were happening all at once.

As I noted in my recent book Stop Worrying! There Probably is an Afterlife, the fascinating phenomena associated with end-of-life experiences (ELEs), such as deathbed visions, aren't restricted to occurring in the minutes or seconds before passing...they can occur, days, weeks and sometimes even months before. I'd love to hear more from Chaz Ebert about what Roger experienced and described, because it certainly does sound like he had visions of a some kind of 'other' place that his consciousness was transiting to.
 
Link: Oral Histories of 2013: Roger Ebert's Wife, Chaz, on His Final Moments

Related: Stop Worrying! There Probably is an Afterlife (Kindle/Paperback)

(h/t Nathan Deitcher/Michael Hughes)

Source: http://www.dailygrail.com/Spirit-World/2014/1/Did-Roger-Ebert-Have-Deathbed-Vision