Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction?

American health officials declared a public health emergency as cases of swine flu were confirmed in the U.S. Health officials across the world fear this could be the leading edge of a global pandemic emerging from Mexico, where seven people are confirmed dead as a result of the new virus.

On Wednesday April 29th, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its pandemic alert level to five on its six-level threat scale,1 which means they”ve determined that the virus is capable of human-to-human transmission. The initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection already traveling at higher velocity than did the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.

Phase 5 had never been declared since the warning system was introduced in 2005 in response to the avian influenza crisis. Phase 6 means a pandemic is under way. WHO now openly states it is not possible to contain the spread of this infection and recommends mitigation measures, not restricting travel or closing borders.

However, a pandemic does not necessarily mean what you think it does, it is NOT black-plague carts being hauled through the streets piled high with dead bodies. Nor does it mean flesh eating zombies wandering the streets feeding on the living. All a pandemic means is that a new infectious disease is spreading throughout the world.

swine fluThe number of fatalities, and suspected and confirmed cases across the world change depending on the source, so your best bet — if you want the latest numbers — is to use Google Maps” Swine Flu Tracker.

Several nations have imposed travel bans, or made plans to quarantine air travelers2 that present symptoms of the swine flu, such as:

* Fever of more than 100
* Coughing
* Runny nose and/or sore throat
* Joint aches
* Severe headache
* Vomiting and/or diarrhea
* Lethargy
* Lack of appetite

Top global flu experts are trying to predict how dangerous the new swine flu strain will be, as it became clear that they had little information about Mexico”s outbreak. It is as yet unclear how many cases occurred in the month or so before the outbreak was detected. It”s also unknown whether the virus was mutating to be more lethal, or less.

Much Fear Mongering Being Promoted

I suspect you have likely been alarmed by the media”s coverage of the swine flu scare. It has a noticeable subplot – preparing you for draconian measures to combat a future pandemic as well as forcing you to accept the idea of mandatory vaccinations.

On April 27, Time magazine published an article which discusses how dozens died and hundreds were injured from vaccines as a result of the 1976 swine flu fiasco, when the Ford administration attempted to use the infection of soldiers at Fort Dix as a pretext for a mass vaccination of the entire country.

Despite acknowledging that the 1976 farce was an example of “how not to handle a flu outbreak”, the article still introduces the notion that officials “may soon have to consider whether to institute draconian measures to combat the disease”.

Fortunately some respectable journalists recognize this and are seeking to spread a voice of reason to the fear that is being promoted in the majority of the media

WHO and CDC Pandemic Preparedness Seriously Broken

The pandemic warning system has failed as it simply doesn”t exist, even in North America and Europe. To improve the system, massive new investments in surveillance, scientific and regulatory infrastructure, basic public health, and global access to common sense interventions like vitamin D optimization are required.

According to the Washington Post, the CDC did not learn about the outbreak until six days after Mexico had begun to impose emergency measures. There should be no excuses. The paradox of this swine flu panic is that, while totally unexpected, it was accurately predicted. Six years ago, Science dedicated a major story to evidence that “after years of stability, the North American swine flu virus has jumped onto an evolutionary fasttrack”.

However, maybe this is precisely what public health authorities desire.

This is NOT the First Swine Flu Panic

My guess is that you can expect to see a lot of panic over this issue in the near future. But the key is to remain calm — this isn”t the first time the public has been warned about swine flu. The last time was in 1976, right before I entered medical school and I remember it very clearly. It resulted in the massive swine flu vaccine campaign.

Do you happen to recall the result of this massive campaign?

Within a few months, claims totaling $1.3 billion had been filed by victims who had suffered paralysis from the vaccine. The vaccine was also blamed for 25 deaths.

However, several hundred people developed crippling Guillain-Barré Syndrome after they were injected with the swine flu vaccine. Even healthy 20-year-olds ended up as paraplegics.

And the swine flu pandemic itself? It never materialized.

More People Died From the Swine Flu Vaccine than Swine Flu!

It is very difficult to forecast a pandemic, and a rash response can be extremely damaging.

To put things into perspective, malaria kills 3,000 people EVERY DAY, and it”s considered “a health problem”… But of course, there are no fancy vaccines for malaria that can rake in billions of dollars in a short amount of time.

One Australian news source,3 for example, states that even a mild swine flu epidemic could lead to the deaths of 1.4 million people and would reduce economic growth by nearly $5 trillion dollars.

Give me a break, if this doesn”t sound like the outlandish cries of the pandemic bird-flu I don”t know what does. Do you remember when President Bush said two million Americans would die as a result of the bird flu?

In 2005, in 2006, 2007, and again in 2008, those fears were exposed as little more than a cruel hoax, designed to instill fear, and line the pocketbooks of various individuals and industry. I became so convinced by the evidence AGAINST the possibility of a bird flu pandemic that I wrote a New York Times bestselling book, The Bird Flu Hoax, all about the massive fraud involved with the epidemic that never happened..

swine fluWhat is the Swine Flu?

Regular swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease, caused by a type-A influenza virus that affects pigs. The current strain, A(H1N1), is a new variation of an H1N1 virus — which causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans — that also contains genetic material of bird and pig versions of the flu.

Interestingly enough, this version has never before been seen in neither human nor animal, which I will discuss a bit later.

This does sound bad. But not so fast. There are a few reasons to not rush to conclusions that this is the deadly pandemic we”ve been told would occur in the near future (as if anyone could predict it without having some sort of inside knowledge).

Why a True Bird- or Swine Flu Pandemic is HIGHLY Unlikely

While in my opinion it is highly likely factory farming is responsible for producing this viral strain, I believe there is still no cause for concern.

You may not know this, but all H1N1 flu”s are descendants of the 1918 pandemic strain. The reason why the flu shot may or may not work, however, from year to year, is due to mutations. Therefore, there”s no vaccine available for this current hybrid flu strain, and naturally, this is feeding the fear that millions of people will die before a vaccine can be made.

However, let me remind you of one very important fact here.

Just a couple of months ago, scientists concluded that the 1918 flu pandemic that killed between 50-100 million people worldwide in a matter of 18 months — which all these worst case scenarios are built upon — was NOT due to the flu itself!4

Instead, they discovered the real culprit was strep infections.

People with influenza often get what is known as a “superinfection” with a bacterial agent. In 1918 it appears to have been Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Since strep is much easier to treat than the flu using modern medicine, a new pandemic would likely be much less dire than it was in the early 20th century, the researchers concluded.

Others, such as evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald,5 claim that a pandemic of this sort simply cannot happen, because in order for it to occur, the world has to change. Not the virus itself, but the world.

In a previous interview for Esquire magazine, in which he discusses the possibility of a bird flu pandemic, he states:

“They think that if a virus mutates, it”s an evolutionary event. Well, the virus is mutating because that is what viruses and other pathogens do. But evolution is not just random mutation. It is random mutation coupled with natural selection; it is a battle for competitive advantage among different strains generated by random mutation.

For bird flu to evolve into a human pandemic, the strain that finds a home in humanity has to be a strain that is both highly virulent and highly transmissible. Deadliness has to translate somehow into popularity; H5N1 has to find a way to kill or immobilize its human hosts, and still find other hosts to infect. Usually that doesn”t happen.”

Ewald goes on to explain that evolution in general is all about trade-offs, and in the evolution of infections the trade-off is between virulence and transmissibility.

What this means is that in order for a “bird flu” or “swine flu” to turn into a human pandemic, it has to find an environment that favors both deadly virulence and ease of transmission.

People living in squalor on the Western Front at the end of World War I generated such an environment, from which the epidemic of 1918 could arise.

Likewise, crowded chicken farms, slaughterhouses, and jam-packed markets of eastern Asia provide another such environment, and that environment gave rise to the bird flu — a pathogen that both kills and spreads, in birds, but not in humans.

Says Ewald:

“We know that H5N1 is well adapted to birds. We also know that it has a hard time becoming a virus that can move from person to person. It has a hard time without our doing anything. But we can make it harder. We can make sure it has no human population in which to evolve transmissibility. There is no need to rely on the mass extermination of chickens. There is no need to stockpile vaccines for everyone.

By vaccinating just the people most at risk — the people who work with chickens and the caregivers — we can prevent it from becoming transmissible among humans. Then it doesn”t matter what it does in chickens.”

Please remember that, despite the fantastic headlines and projections of MILLIONS of deaths, the H5N1 bird flu virus killed a mere 257 people worldwide since late 2003. As unfortunate as those deaths are, 257 deaths worldwide from any disease, over the course of five years, simply does not constitute an emergency worthy of much attention, let alone fear!

Honestly, your risk of being killed by a lightning strike in the last five years was about 2,300 percent higher than your risk of contracting and dying from the bird flu.6 I”m not kidding! In just one year (2004), more than 1,170 people died from lighting strikes, worldwide.7

So please, as the numbers of confirmed swine flu cases are released, keep a level head and don”t let fear run away with your brains.

So is the Swine Flu Getting More or Less Dangerous?

On Sunday, April 26, The Independent reported that more than 1,000 people had contracted the swine flu virus in Mexico, 8 but by the afternoon that same day, Mexican President Calderon declared that more than two-thirds of the 1,300 thought to have contracted the disease had been given a clean bill of health and sent home.9

Additionally, the number of actual confirmed cases appears to be far lower than reported in many media outlets, leading me to believe that many reporters are interchanging the terms “suspected cases” and “confirmed cases.”

Interestingly Mexico is the ONLY country in the world where someone has actually died from this disease.Mexico has reported 159 fatalities in flu-like cases in recent days, seven of which have been confirmed as swine flu. Another 19 patients have been confirmed as having swine flu but surviving. Although some insiders at WHO believe these numbers are seriously inflated and could be as low as single digits.
By contrast, the United States has had 91 confirmed cases, five hospitalizations and no deaths from US Citizens. On April 29th CNN reported the first swine fatality in the US, however this was actually a child from Mexico that died in Texas.

According to the World Health Organization”s Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response site; as of April 27, there are:

* 91 laboratory confirmed cases in U.S. — 0 deaths (reported by CDC as of April 30)
* 26 confirmed cases in Mexico — 7 deaths
* 6 confirmed cases in Canada — 0 deaths
* 1 confirmed case in Spain — 0 deaths

Additionally, nearly all suspected new cases have been reported as mild.

Personally, I am highly skeptical. It simply doesn”t add up to a real pandemic.

But it does raise serious questions about where this brand new, never before seen virus came from, especially since it cannot be contracted from eating pork products, and has never before been seen in pigs, and contains traits from the bird flu — and which, so far, only seems to respond to Tamiflu. Are we just that lucky, or… what?

Your Fear Will Make Some People VERY Rich in Today”s Crumbling Economy

According to the Associated Press at least one financial analyst estimates up to $388 million worth of Tamiflu sales in the near future10 — and that”s without a pandemic outbreak.

More than half a dozen pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead Sciences Inc., Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies with a stake in flu treatments and detection, have seen a rise in their shares in a matter of days, and will likely see revenue boosts if the swine flu outbreak continues to spread.

As soon as Homeland Security declared a health emergency, 25 percent — about 12 million doses — of Tamiflu and Relenza treatment courses were released from the nation”s stockpile. However, beware that the declaration also allows unapproved tests and drugs to be administered to children. Many health- and government officials are more than willing to take that chance with your life, and the life of your child. But are you?

Remember, Tamiflu went through some rough times not too long ago, as the dangers of this drug came to light when, in 2007, the FDA finally began investigating some 1,800 adverse event reports related to the drug. Common side effects of Tamiflu include:

* Nausea
* Vomiting
* Diarrhea
* Headache
* Dizziness
* Fatigue
* Cough

All in all, the very symptoms you”re trying to avoid.

More serious symptoms included convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatric problems and brain infections (which led Japan to ban Tamiflu for children in 2007). And that”s for a drug that, when used as directed, only reduces the duration of influenza symptoms by 1 to 1 ½ days, according to the official data.

But making matters worse, some patients with influenza are at HIGHER risk for secondary bacterial infections when on Tamiflu. And secondary bacterial infections, as I mentioned earlier, was likely the REAL cause of the mass fatalities during the 1918 pandemic!

Where did This Mysterious New Animal-Human Flu Strain Come From?

Alongside the fear-mongering headlines, I”ve also seen increasing numbers of reports questioning the true nature of this virus. And rightfully so.

Could a mixed animal-human mutant like this occur naturally? And if not, who made it, and how was it released?

Not one to dabble too deep in conspiracy theories, I don”t have to strain very hard to find actual facts to support the notion that this may not be a natural mutation, and that those who stand to gain have the wherewithal to pull off such a stunt.

Just last month I reported on the story that the American pharmaceutical company Baxter was under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus to 18 different countries as part of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment. Czech reporters were probing to see if it may have been part of a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic; as such a “mistake” would be virtually impossible under the security protocols of that virus.

The H5N1 virus on its own is not very airborne. However, when combined with seasonal flu viruses, which are more easily spread, the effect could be a potent, airborne, deadly, biological weapon. If this batch of live bird flu and seasonal flu viruses had reached the public, it could have resulted in dire consequences.

There is a name for this mixing of viruses; it”s called “reassortment,” and it is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created in the lab. Some scientists say the most recent global outbreak — the 1977 Russian flu — was started by a virus created and leaked from a laboratory.

Another example of the less sterling integrity of Big Pharma is the case of Bayer, who sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, even though they knew it was tainted with the AIDS virus.

So while it is morally unthinkable that a drug company would knowingly contaminate flu vaccines with a deadly flu virus such as the bird- or swine flu, it is certainly not impossible. It has already happened more than once.

But there seems to be no repercussions or hard feelings when industry oversteps the boundaries of morality and integrity and enters the arena of obscenity. Because, lo and behold, which company has been chosen to head up efforts, along with WHO, to produce a vaccine against the Mexican swine flu?

Baxter!11 Despite the fact that ink has barely dried on the investigative reports from their should-be-criminal “mistake” against humanity.

According to other sources,12 a top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, has concluded that the current swine flu virus possesses certain transmission “vectors” that suggest the new strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon.

The UN expert believes that Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and the current A-H1N1 swine flu virus are biological warfare agents.

In addition, Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick — the same Army research lab from which the 2001 anthrax strain was released, according to a recent article in the Fredrick News Post.13 In February, the top biodefense lab halted all its research into Ebola, anthrax, plague, and other diseases known as “select agents,” after they discovered virus samples that weren”t listed in its inventory and might have been switched with something else.

Factory Farming Maybe Source of Swine Flu

Another theory as to the cause of Swine Flu might be factory farming. In the United States, pigs travel coast to coast. They can be bred in North Carolina, fattened in the corn belt of Iowa, and slaughtered in California.

While this may reduce short-term costs for the pork industry, the highly contagious nature of diseases like influenza (perhaps made further infectious by the stresses of transport) needs to be considered when calculating the true cost of long-distance live animal transport.

The majority of U.S. pig farms now confine more than 5,000 animals each. With a group of 5,000 animals, if a novel virus shows up it will have more opportunity to replicate and potentially spread than in a group of 100 pigs on a small farm.

With massive concentrations of farm animals within which to mutate, these new swine flu viruses in North America seem to be on an evolutionary fast track, jumping and reassorting between species at an unprecedented rate.

Should You Accept a Flu Vaccine — Just to be Safe?

Watch the video above to see ridiculous 1976 commercials promoting Swine Flu shots.

As stated in the New York Times14 and elsewhere, flu experts have no idea whether the current seasonal flu vaccine would offer any protection whatsoever against this exotic mutant, and it will take months to create a new one.

But let me tell you, getting vaccinated now would not only offer no protection and potentially cause great harm, it would most likely be loaded with toxic mercury which is used as a preservative in most flu vaccines..

I”ve written extensively about the numerous dangers (and ineffectiveness) of flu vaccines, and why I do not recommend them to anyone. So no matter what you hear — even if it comes from your doctor — don”t get a regular flu shot. They rarely work against seasonal flu…and certainly can”t offer protection against a never-before- seen strain.

Currently, the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza are the only drugs that appear effective against the (human flu) H1N1 virus, and I strongly believe taking Tamiflu to protect yourself against this new virus could be a serious mistake — for all the reasons I already mentioned above.

But in addition to the dangerous side effects of Tamiflu, there is also growing evidence of resistance against the drug. In February, the pre-publication and preliminary findings journal called Nature Precedings published a paper on this concern, stating15:

The dramatic rise of oseltamivir [Tamiflu] resistance in the H1N1 serotype in the 2007/2008 season and the fixing of H274Y in the 2008/2009 season has raised concerns regarding individuals at risk for seasonal influenza, as well as development of similar resistance in the H5N1 serotype [bird flu].

Previously, oseltamivir resistance produced changes in H1N1 and H3N2 at multiple positions in treated patients. In contrast, the recently reported resistance involved patients who had not recently taken oseltamivir.

It”s one more reason not to bother with this potentially dangerous drug.

And, once a specific swine flu drug is created, you can be sure that it has not had the time to be tested in clinical trials to determine safety and effectiveness, which puts us right back where I started this article — with a potential repeat of the last dangerous swine flu vaccine, which destroyed the lives of hundreds of people.

Topping the whole mess off, of course, is the fact that if the new vaccine turns out to be a killer, the pharmaceutical companies responsible are immune from lawsuits — something I”ve also warned about before on numerous occasions.

Unfortunately, those prospects won”t stop the governments of the world from mandating the vaccine — a scenario I hope we can all avoid.

How to Protect Yourself Without Dangerous Drugs and Vaccinations
For now, my point is that there are always going to be threats of flu pandemics, real or created, and there will always be potentially toxic vaccines that are peddled as the solution. But you can break free of that whole drug-solution trap by following some natural health principles.

I have not caught a flu in over two decades, and you can avoid it too, without getting vaccinated, by following these simple guidelines, which will keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you”re far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with.

* Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I”ve previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu — not the flu virus itself.

This is probably the single most important and least expensive action you can take. I would STRONGLY urge you to have your vitamin D level monitored to confirm your levels are therapeutic at 50-70 ng.ml and done by a reliable vitamin D lab like Lab Corp.

For those of you in the US we hope to launch a vitamin D testing service through Lab Corp that allows you to have your vitamin D levels checked at your local blood drawing facility, and relatively inexpensively. We hope to offer this service by June 2009.

If you are coming down with flu like symptoms and have not been on vitamin D you can take doses of 50,000 units a day for three days to treat the acute infection. Some researchers like Dr. Cannell, believe the dose could even be as high as 1000 units per pound of body weight for three days.

However, most of Dr. Cannell”s work was with seasonal and not pandemic flu. If your body has never been exposed to the antigens there is chance that the vitamin D might not work. However the best bet is to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D around 60 ng/ml.

BUT to keep this in perspective the regular flu, not the swine flu, has killed 13,000 in the US since January. But there is strong support that these types of figures are grossly exaggerated to increase vaccine sales. However, the fact remains that the regular flu at this point in time is FAR more dangerous than the swine flu and were you worried about the regular flu before the media started talking this up?

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Avoid Sugar and Processed Foods. Sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a strong immune system is key to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.
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Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you”re tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night”s Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.
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Have Effective Tools to Address Stress . We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness.

If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma. You can check out my free, 25-page EFT manual for some guidelines on how to perform EFT.
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Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads. You can review my exercise guidelines for some great tips on how to get started.
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Take a good source of animal based omega-3 fats like Krill Oil. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also vitally important to avoid damaged omega-6 oils that are trans fats and in processed foods as it will seriously damage your immune response.
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Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don”t use antibacterial soap for this — antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.
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Eat Garlic Regularly. Garlic works like a broad-spectrum antibiotic against bacteria, virus, and protozoa in the body. And unlike with antibiotics, no resistance can be built up so it is an absolutely safe product to use. However, if you are allergic or don”t enjoy garlic it would be best to avoid as it will likely cause more harm than good.
* Avoid Hospitals and Vaccines In this particular case, I”d also recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you”re having an emergency, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infections of all kinds, and could be one of the likeliest places you could be exposed to this new bug. Vaccines will not be available for six months at the minimum but when available they will be ineffective and can lead to crippling paralysis like Guillain-Barré Syndrome just as it did in the 70s.

Politics, Profits & Pandemic Fear Mongering
by Barbara Loe Fisher
Are you grabbing your face mask, stocking up on food and Tamiflu, locking your doors and keeping your TV tuned to the news to find out just how bad the “swine flu pandemic” really is going to get? While Americans are being scared to death, few are noticing how much of their tax money politicians are giving to drug companies and government health officials to grease the skids to create more experimental flu vaccines and drugs and more effective ways to quarantine or force their mass use whenever a “public health emergency” is declared in the future.

Call me cynical but not clueless. The bird’s eye view I have had for the past 27 years at the National Vaccine Information Center has taught me one thing: the global alliance between Big Pharma and Big Public Health is a prescription for disaster that could extend far beyond a bout with the flu.

The international drama playing out right now before our eyes is an example of how citizens around the world can be easily manipulated by doctors and politicians engaging in fear mongering in the name of disease control to forward agendas that have more to do with ideology, power and corporate profits than health. When the U.S. Director of Homeland Security is the government official doing the talking rather than the U.S. Director of the Centers for Disease Control, put a copy of the U.S. Constitution in your pocket and take a look at federal and state legislation passed since September 11, 2001 to understand which civil rights you don’t have anymore when government health officials declare a “public health emergency.”

But before we take a look at the threat to civil liberties that pandemic fear mongering poses, let’s take a look at how creation of a global human market for influenza vaccines works. It is a blueprint for Successful Marketing 101 (or perhaps it is all just a coincidence) .

In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an international call for all nations to do whatever it takes to increase public appetite and demand for annual influenza shots as the main strategy to prepare for an influenza pandemic. In April 2007, the WHO used money donated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to fund the creation of influenza vaccine manufacturing plants in Mexico and other countries one week after the FDA gave Sanofi Pasteur a license to produce an experimental bird flu (H5N1) vaccine. Sanofi Pasteur is just one of many drug companies the U.S. government has given millions of dollars to for the creation of bird flu vaccines.

On February 19, 2009, the FDA’s Vaccines & Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) discussed whether to give approval for the testing of experimental bird flu vaccine on American infants. VRBPAC consumer member, also NVIC’s Director of Patient Safety Vicky Debold,PhD, warned that testing of an experimental pandemic bird flu vaccine on infants in the absence of a real epidemic and without assurances that unapproved novel oil based (squalene) adjuvants (AS03, MF59) are safe, could pose unacceptable risks in terms of inducing severe immune dysfunction.

On February 27, 2009 it was confirmed that an influenza vaccine maker, Baxter International, had released a mixture of seasonal influenza viruses mixed with unlabeled live bird flu viruses to facilities in Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Slovenia. Baxter, which is waiting for a license to manufacturer bird flu vaccine, explained it was an “accident” and that no harm was done.

On April 23, 2009, the world heard the first news reports about a mysterious pig (H1N1) and bird (H5N1)and human hybrid influenza virus that was making people sick near a Mexican pig farm. By April 30, the WHO had issued a Phase 5 “Alert” warning that the world was facing an imminent pandemic influenza epidemic on the strength of several hundred cases of “swine” flu and less than 10 confirmed deaths.

The pandemic flu panic that has an especially strong grip on people living in Mexico and the U.S., thanks to the governments of both countries declaring a “public health emergency,” has been a good thing for pharmaceutical companies in the pandemic flu business. Wall Street revealed that the pandemic scare sent stock prices soaring for drug companies making anti-viral drugs, rapid flu diagnosis tests and influenza vaccines. Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Novavax, Baxter, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, BioCryst, and Vical are among the drug companies likely to benefit from the world pandemic panic.

In all the chaos that has Americans running to drug stores to buy face masks, closing schools to wipe desks down with rubbing alcohol and avoiding public transportation, there is action being taken behind the scenes by politicians and government health officials to prepare the way for implementation of future quarantine and mass vaccination of citizens with experimental vaccines and drugs that have by- passed normal FDA regulations for demonstrating purity and potency of pharmaceutical products. A “public health emergency” has become an excuse to grease the skids and rush to market experimental drugs and vaccines that are not subject to product liability in the civil courts.

The creation of this pharmaceutical company stockholder dream scenario and simultaneous erosion of civil liberties in the name of disease control began in earnest in 21st century America after the tragic events on September 11, 2001. In a time defined by shock, fear, anger and deep sadness, Congress reacted quickly and passed the Homeland Security Act while CDC officials pulled out model state legislation (Model State Emergency Health Powers Act) that gave sweeping new powers to public health officials to use the militia, if necessary, to quarantine citizens and force them to use experimental drugs and vaccines after the U.S. Secretary of Health declares a “public health emergency.”

The stampede in 2001/2002 to re-write long standing public health laws in this country was fueled by reports that terrorists were in possession of weaponized smallpox and anthrax, a fear that was fostered by U.S. government officials and New York Times journalists reporting Iraq had secret stockpiles of weaponized smallpox and anthrax. This myth played a role in public support for the U.S.-Iraq War and persuaded Congress to pass Bioshield and pandemic influenza vaccine legislation that gave billions of dollars to vaccine manufacturers, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to create experimental bioeterrorism and pandemic flu vaccines while protecting drug companies and doctors from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths that will occur.

The mandated, mass use of multiple vaccines has become big business in the last quarter century since the U.S. Congress passed a law in 1986 shielding vaccine makers and doctors from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths and the numbers of vaccines recommended by the federal health officials for American children multiplied from 23 doses of 7 vaccines to 48 doses of 14 vaccines from birth to age six. For older children and adults, there are several dozen more federally recommended or state mandated vaccinations.

All of this liability protection and government vaccine mandating has been a boon for vaccine profit- making and public health agency empire building. In 1986, four drug companies made and sold vaccines in America and, by 2007, after corporate mergers and acquisitions there were six drug company giants making and selling vaccines in the U.S. Today, there are more drug companies seeking to enter the lucrative multi- billion dollar U.S. vaccine market as financial predictions for global profits from the worldwide vaccine business by 2010 have climbed to more than $20B.

A true global influenza pandemic that could take out projected millions of people is something all nations should prepare for using reasonable strategies to ensure the public health and safety. However, it is a matter of legitimate debate as to whether the primary strategy being urged by the WHO, pharmaceutical companies and government health agencies around the world – ramping up production and use of seasonal influenza vaccine and fast tracking the creation and human testing of influenza vaccines using novel but potentially risky adjuvants and cell substrates – is the way to effectively deal with public health or a future influenza pandemic.

Certainly, the loss of the human right to bodily integrity and informed consent to taking pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines that may pose serious health risks is not justified in the name of controlling pandemic influenza or any other infectious disease outbreak. Politicians should not bow to additional pressure from vaccine manufacturers and public health officials to by-pass normal FDA standards in proving safety and efficacy of pandemic flu vaccines and their components for the purpose of rushing them to market in response to the pandemic panic that has been created. The swine flu debacle of 1976 should have taught Congress that lesson.

A rational perspective that reduces pandemic fear and includes common sense advice for staying healthy in every season is being offered by holistic health doctors, such as Joseph Mercola, D.O. and physician Congressman Ron Paul, M.D. The next time you turn on the TV or the radio or search the internet for the latest news on the flu pandemic, take a deep breath and consider all the natural ways to stay healthy and resist influenza or any illness : washing your hands; eating nutritious food; drinking plenty of water; getting enough exercise, rest and sunshine, and lowering stress – which includes not walking around filled with fear, anxiety and dread.

Note from Cathy: The hyperlinks may not have copied. For more info go direct to www.nvic.org

National Vaccine Information Center
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…

The destination
And the path,
The purpose
And the plan…
All answered in one word:
Love.

The force
And the form it acts on,
The law
And the reality it governs…
All expressions of this divine substance.

Why the tree breathes
The flower blooms
The rain falls
And the star shines,
All needed for our existence
And offered unconditionally…

What makes the innocent believe
And the jaded become innocent?
What causes the wounded to forgive
And the wise to remain unwounded?
What knowing makes the heart yearn
And what experience fulfills its yearning?

What unseen power
Inexorable and without err,
Binds the earth to the sun
The electron to the nucleus
And me to you?

Investigate these questions to their ends
And when the failure of all reasonable answers
Has burned the dross from the gold
Unmasking the ultimate reality,
What remains?
Only Love.

Of this was all created,
By this is all sustained,
Towards this does all evolve…
And to this…most beautiful mystery,
Do I eternally offer all that I am.

this was written by Daniel Schmachtenberger geosol114@yahoo.com

Preface: this was an email I wrote to a friend in response to him saying “the only way I could imagine a world with out money is if an asteroid hit the Earth and put us back in the stone-age”. June 2007
_______________________________________________________________________

The arrow of evolution does not move backwards. Not to the cave man days technologically….but away from the cave man days in our consciousness, towards a place where everyone cares…and understands that to even be intelligently selfish looks a lot like being “selfless”, in a world that is totally interconnected.
…A global consciousness with awareness of the abundance of life, fostering co-operation over competition. Where we realize that we are all made intrinsically good, and that criminal behaviors, on the level of an individual or a nation are not the result of evil, but of hurt and ignorance–trying to meet needs through poor strategies. And care and rehabilitation will replace punishment.
God gave all natural resources for free, equally to everyone, and continues to. No one “owns” any of it. No person created any of the atoms, any of the resource. Our planet produces enough resource to fully sustain 90 billion people (BFI, 1971). We burn stored grain to keep the prices high while thousands die of hunger daily. The leading life style cause of disease in the US is obesity while the leading cause of death world wide is starvation. The 50 billion dollars we spent in the US last year on weight loss supplements is almost enough to end world hunger permanently. And we are still the fattest nation in the world.
5% of the world’s population controls 95% of the world’s resources. 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day, and half of the global population lives on less than $3 daily. We can feed 9 children for $1 (Feed 333) and yet there are suicidally unhappy billionaires who continue to horde.
All of the Nations working against each other, out of fear, out of scarcity, utilize resource in the most ineffective manner possible.
World Watch laid out a comprehensive plan to solve all major global issues: under the auspices of the UN, with all governments cooperating, it would cost just 750 billion total over 6 years!!! The US alone spent over 2 trillion, just this year on defense! And peace, real peace, meaning everyone having all their fundamental needs met fully, denecessitates defense!
Each day 13 species go extinct for ever, and 35,000 more children die of starvation or dirty water illnesses. Every minute an acre of forest is cut down, and the US spends another $3,000,000 on armament. I could go on and on. At a deep level, our current world system is fatally flawed.
When I refer to a world with no more money, I don’t mean no more technology or industry–they will keep evolving. I mean no more babies starving to death in a world of over abundance. I mean no more people doing jobs they don’t like, feeling meaningless, because they don’t know how else to feed themselves. I mean returning God’s economy–everything that is needed for life is given freely to everyone who needs it. There is enough. I mean a consciousness where national law reflects natural law; where politics and economics are based on how life actually works.
And when you don’t have to “earn a living”, meaning “earn the right to live”, then life really begins. Then the educational system doesn’t have to prepare children for the workforce–their needs are already provided. Then the real role of education is possible: to help human beings discover who they really are, and why they are here. What unique beauty lives inside them seeking expression, what divine gifts for the world, what makes them come truly alive….and then helps them be and do that fully. That world can only exist once people know that their needs will be met.
And if people are conscious, and their hearts are open, once they know their needs are provided for, their attention will turn to others’ whose needs aren’t, and they will do the noble work of helping others.
Only once we all know that everyone’s needs are met, and the opportunities for the unfoldment of potential are in place…then the greatest art, and science, and spiritual and human development can occur. That is the garden that was created for us, that we have the opportunity to now move into.
Einstein said “It is painfully evident that our technology has far surpassed our humanity.”
Our technology has evolved light years since the time of the cave man. How far has our consciousnesss, as a people, really come? Two cave men have a dispute and throw stones at each other. The major difference now is we have bigger stones. The theory is still might is right. Us versus them. Not enough for everyone. Take care of your own first, and you don’t know what tomorrow might bring so you have to horde.
Two cave men might kill each other in a dispute, but not the whole human race. Sticks and stones can’t do that. They might use some trees up for wood. But they couldn’t clear cut an acre a minute.
We are using space age technology with cave man consciousness, and the result puts all life on the planet at risk.
The future is not about de-evolving technology, quite the opposite…continuing to evolve it for its truly positive uses. But the real key is in evolving consciousness. That is the task ahead of us. That is the real frontier of evolution we need to face.
Nature provides everything we need, for everyone, unconditionally. There is more than enough. Now what do we do with it? Technology is just power, not inherently good or bad. It can be either; it just depends on how it is used. The question is still how we choose, based on what values and from what level of understanding.
Other animals, like cave men, may fight. But no other species causes other species to go extinct. Only us. Or level of technology necessitates our evolution into higher consciousness…or it will lead way to our destruction. We can see that we are already on that path.

For the world to work, power must be used for others, not over or against them. For people, calling themselves governments, to make guns and bombs out of the material of the earth, to defend arbitrary lines they drew on the earth, and material stashes they took from the earth, without any deeds of sale from the earth, at the detriment or death of other children of the earth, is a testament to our ignorance, and arrogance, and a sign of our candidacy for extinction. That is not real government.
We are to be the stewards of the earth, our brothers’ keeper. That is our role, and our potential, and the reason we were given our amazing faculties.

Real government requires real understanding of what we are and why we are, as individuals and as a species.
The imposition of a system of principles and rules of conduct, no matter how enlightened, on people who do not understand them, agree with them, or want them, will always lead to dissent. Effective government can not start at the top down. Effective government has to start at the level of every individual, waking up…
…Out of old programs and old conditioning…to the awareness of the complete interconectednedness of all life…resulting in an active love, respect, and reverence for all life….and an internal movement to serve from that love.
…Waking up to our real power…to a clear understanding of cause and effect…recognizing all that we are influencing constantly…and taking empowered responsibility for it…
And applying our free choice, guided by our growing love and awareness…to directing all our thoughts, words, and actions…to supporting our highest good and the highest good for all life…Resulting in the realization of our individual and collective potential: a world of beauty, love and kindness that includes and works for everyone.

Note from Cathy: Daniel Schmachtenberger can be reached at 619 788 1861 geosol114@yahoo.com His ‘Strategic Global Solutions’ is in process of becoming a 5013c. If you resonate with this please contact me or Daniel and get involved.

Dietary Guidelines

Meta-Principles:

1. Listen to your body and pay attention to your experience. The food plan that you feel best on is the one that is right for you. Do not get too mental about food (or anything). There are a lot of conflicting theories regarding nutrition-it is easy to get confused and frustrated. Pay attention to your feeling. If something feels right, go with it. If you get good results stay with it. If not, do something else. Your experience is the final authority on the topic. (The rest of this paper gives you guidelines that are true for many people. These are offered as a starting place you can experiment from and find what works for you.)

2. “Eat as close to the living eco-system as possible.” Proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc are all carriers of life energy. That is the real nutrient you are looking to get from food. So more than gram counting different nutrients, ask “how much life and energy does this have to give me”, as the real measure of a foods value. Think about what the diet would have been like in the Garden of Eden?

Specifics:

At least 60% of total dietary intake should be raw (you can’t get life from dead food).
At least 40% of diet should be above-ground vegetables and at least half of those should be eaten raw (light steaming is ok).
Up to 25% of dietary intake from fresh fruit is acceptable for most people once they have stabilized their blood sugar.
Approximately 30+% of diet should come from the following: nuts (peanuts and cashews are generally not the best options), seeds, beans, lentils, and animal products.
NOTE: These percentages are a general starting place but will vary greatly from person to person based on their genetic metabolic make-up, exercise levels, etc. Some people need up to 60% of caloric intake from fats and proteins, while others do best with less than 10%. Experiment by varying the ratios to find what works best for you.

All farmed meat and poultry should be organic and free-range.
Wild game meat is far better than farmed meat, if available.
If beef is to be consumed, it should be grass-fed.
Avoid and fish and water creatures unless tested to be mercury-free. Wild Alaskan salmon is one of the best choices.
Avoid all pork products.
Overheating meat ruins the nutrients and makes it carcinogenic. The best ways to cook meats are by crock pot, baking or steaming. In some circumstances broiling is o.k. Charred meat should be avoided.
Pasteurized dairy is inflammatory and allergenic for most people and is best avoided. Raw, unpasteurized dairy, however, is highly nutritious and fewer people have allergic responses. Unpasteurized goat dairy is even better.
Raw eggs are another nutritionally dense food. The yolks contain many minerals and organic compounds that are destroyed or even made toxic by cooking (e.g., the good cholesterol is oxidized and turned to “bad” cholesterol). If the yolks congeal, that is a sign they have been overcooked-its is best that the yolks stay runny. The whites contain valuable protein but are less sensitive to temperature, so soft-boiled and sunny-side-up are options for people who don’t want to eat raw eggs. All eggs should be organic, free-range, and Omega-3. The incidence of salmonella in free-range eggs is almost non-existent.

All nuts and seeds should be eaten raw. Of the two, seeds are generally the better option, especially flax, and chia seeds, as they have a higher Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio. Hemp, pumpkin, and sesame are also good. Over-consumption of nuts can definitely contribute to weight gain and inflammation.

Avoid all hydrogenated and rancid (heated) fats-they can be very harmful.
Eat good raw fats containing Omega-3, such as organic flax, primrose, hemp, fish, and krill oils.
The right kinds of saturated fats are also important: coconut oil is very beneficial. It supports the thyroid, increases metabolism, aids digestion and is anti-pathogenic.

It is best to avoid most grains. Grains have a high glycemic index (i.e., breaks down into sugar very quickly). This causes raised insulin levels and unstable blood sugar, which can cause weight gain, unstable energy levels, etc. This includes white rice, corn, and refined grain products: bread, cereal, pasta, etc. Many grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt) also contain gluten—-one of the most common (sub-clinical) food allergens.
If you are going to eat grains, wild (black) rice and buckwheat are gluten free and have a lower glycemic index. Amaranth and quinoa have very low glycemic index and many nutrients, but can be reactive for people who are highly gluten intolerant. Millet and brown rice are gluten free but have slightly higher glycemic index and should be used sparingly.

Complete vegetarian proteins can be obtained by mixing multiple types of beans (or lentils), or by mixing certain beans with the safe grains. Seeds, algae, dark green vegetables, sprouts, and bee pollen also contain protein.
Most people have a hard time digesting soy products, especially soy protein. It contains trypsin inhibitors, which can impair protein digestion and tax the digestive organs. Miso, Nato, and Tempeh usually are fine for most people (due to the method of fermentation).

Avoid all pre-processed foods: junk foods, fast foods, anything containing artificial sweeteners, colors or additives, etc.
Avoid refined sugars, such as sucrose, dextrose, lactose, maltose, fructose, syrups, etc. Same reason a mentioned for grains: blood sugar stability is one of the foundational pillars of health.
If desired, the best sweeteners are stevia, lo han, raw organic honey, agave nectar, yakon syrup, grade B maple syrup, and blackstrap molasses.
Eat mostly foods with a lower-glycemic index (refer to a glycemic-index chart), especially if weight loss is desired.
It is not ideal to combine fruits and vegetables at the same meal as it can be harder on your digestion.
Avoid caffeine and stimulants. If you are tired, rest. It is important to respect your body and what it is telling you.

The best things to drink are clean water, fresh juices (not too much fruit juice because of the sugar), and certain herbal teas.

A good rule of thumb is to drink approximately one liter of water per 50 pounds of body weight, per day. Exercise levels, metabolic type, and other factors affect this number. Find out what works for you.
Avoid drinking liquids with meals, as they dilute the gastric juices. Not much liquid for one-half hour before meals and 1-1/2 hours after a meal is recommended. (If the food is dry, like a health bar, some liquid is needed for digestion. Use common sense and pay attention to how you feel.)

Most people do best with some protein at breakfast. Carbohydrate breakfasts and non-existent breakfasts are hard for blood sugar stability. Lunch should also contain some protein. Dinner should be a lighter meal.
As much as possible, buy organic and locally grown produce.
Vitamin, mineral, enzyme, etc. supplements can be very beneficial, but I recommend consulting with a qualified health-care professional first.
Starting an organic food garden, or at least sprouting, is one of the very best things you can do for your health and for the environment.

It is important to be realistic with cause and effect. Not acknowledging the effect nutrition can have on your wellbeing is not wise…neither is exaggerating its role and being excessive. If your energy is low or your mood is down, it is fine to clean up your diet…but don’t forget to clean up your relationships, thoughts, life, etc.

It is important to chew your food well so that it is possible to digest.
Eat in a calm, peaceful, relaxed, and joyous atmosphere. Avoid eating in a rushed environment, when distracted, or when emotionally upset.
Avoid foods that you know aren’t good for you.
Take time to prepare your food with love and blessings.
Take time to prioritize yourself and your well-being–it pays off.
Know that you can be well, and that it doesn’t have to be difficult.
Avoid eating addictively. Food is intended to provide physical nourishment. It cannot provide nurturing. Become aware of the reasons why you are eating what you are. If you are eating when you aren’t hungry, or eating foods that don’t support the health of your body, get clear what needs you are trying to meet and ask if the strategy you are using to meet them really makes sense. If not, explore more effective strategies to meet your needs lastingly.

Take it one step at a time and don’t get overwhelmed. It is important to have ease and peace surrounding food.

Thank you for your willingness and care.

Namaste,

Daniel Schmachtenberger
(619) 788-1681
geosol114@yahoo.com

Please remember these are only guidelines and the opinion of the author, at that. This paper is designed to support your healthy food decisions and is not intended to replace one-on-one advice of a qualified health care provider.

Jasmine and Bramble the roe deer

This is the story of a dog so saintly, birds perch on her nose.

In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. It had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had clearly been abused.

In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a greyhound bitch, to the nearby Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, run by a man named Geoff Grewcock and known as a willing haven for animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in need.

Geoff Grewcock and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims: to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust… It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved.

They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.

The dog had other ideas. No-one remembers now how it began, but Jasmine started welcoming all animal arrivals at the sanctuary. It wouldn’t matter if it was a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or, probably, a rhinoceros, Jasmine would peer into the box or cage and, where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.

Geoff Grewcock relates one of the early incidents. “We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line. One was a Lakeland Terrier cross and another was a Jack Russell Doberman cross. They were tiny when they arrived at the centre and Jasmine approached them and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck in her mouth and put him on the settee. Then she fetched the other one and sat down with them, cuddling them.”

“But she is like that with all of our animals, even the rabbits. She takes all the stress out of them and it helps them to not only feel close to her but to settle into their new surroundings.

“She has done the same with the fox and badger cubs, she licks the rabbits and guinea pigs and even lets the birds perch on the bridge of her nose.”

Jasmine, the timid, abused, deserted waif, became the animal sanctuary’s resident surrogate mother, a role for which she might have been born. The list of orphaned and abandoned youngsters she has cared for comprises five fox cubs, four badger cubs, 15 chicks, eight guinea pigs, two stray puppies and 15 rabbits.

And one roe deer fawn. Tiny Bramble, 11 weeks old, was found semi-conscious in a field. Upon arrival at the sanctuary, Jasmine cuddled up to her to keep her warm, and then went into the full foster mum role. Jasmine the greyhound showers Bramble the roe deer with affection and makes sure nothing is matted in her fur.

“They are inseparable,” says Geoff Grewcock. “Bramble walks between her legs and they keep kissing each other. They walk together round the sanctuary. It’s a real treat to see them.”

Jasmine will continue to care for Bramble until she is old enough to be returned to woodland life. When that happens, Jasmine will not be lonely. She will be too busy showering love and affection on the next orphan or victim of abuse.

Doing what she does best, being a mother.

www.dailymail.co..uk; images: Caters News Agency Ltd

From left, Toby, a stray Lakeland dog; Bramble, an orphaned roe deer;

Buster, a stray Jack Russell; a dumped rabbit; Sky, an injured barn owl; and Jasmine

note from Cathy – I had a rescued Greyhound for 11 years and they are the sweetest most loving and mellow dogs. The other day my hubby and I went out to Operation Greyhound in El Cajon where they have many greyhounds rescued from the racetrack. We walked some of the beautiful dogs. If you can,  consider adopting one. Go to www.operationgreyhound.com

Body Statistics

> It takes your food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.
> One human hair can support 3 kg (6.6 lb).
> The average man’s penis is two times the length of his thumb.
> Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.
> A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s.
> There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.
> Women blink twice as often as men.
> The average person’s skin weighs twice as much as the brain.
> Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still.
> If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.
> Women reading this will be finished now.
> Men are still busy checking their thumbs.

Thank you Dirk for sending this. I am still LOL

Surprising Benefits of Biofeedback

The 1970s are forever associated with bizarre fads and funky ideas like the Pet Rock. Those disappeared quickly but at least one idea that seemed weird then not only had staying power, but in retrospect proved visionary. Mood rings, made with liquid crystal that changes color based on body temperature, were marketed as a tool to gauge state of mind — but actually, these were an early form of biofeedback. Biofeedback was being studied in the 1970s, with research continuing even now, and it has become a highly sophisticated therapy for a host of different health challenges. In fact, even the American Cancer Society acknowledges biofeedback can help improve cancer patients’ quality of life and certain associated health conditions.

I spoke with Celeste De Bease, PhD, the former chair of the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America, who has taught biofeedback therapy for many years and practices it in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

ARE YOU “OVER-REACTIVE?”

Dr. De Bease explains that ideally the alarm or arousal levels people experience should be appropriate to the situations they encounter, but that’s often not what happens. Many people chronically over-respond to stress and others go through daily life on “high alert” even when nothing particularly stressful is happening — Dr. De Bease calls this having a “hyperactive idling speed.” Though they may have no clue that this is happening, they pay a high price in stress-related fatigue and illnesses. Through biofeedback, says Dr. De Bease, such people can learn to “uncouple the primitive and physically taxing survival response of fight or flight from situations that do not call for it.”

Biofeedback is used for a wide swath of disorders, many associated with some degree of stress, including Raynaud’s disease, urinary incontinence, ADHD, fibromyalgia, anxiety, epilepsy, high blood pressure, migraine and other headaches, sleep disorders, IBS and tinnitus. Treatment usually starts with a psycho-physiological stress test in which people are exposed to stress-inducing situations, such as recounting a stressful experience or hearing a sudden loud noise. They are hooked up to equipment that measures the physical responses to determine their individual levels of reactivity and how long it takes them to recover afterward. Machines used in biofeedback therapy measure muscle tension, blood flow, heart rate and skin temperature, as well as sweat gland activity — all are extremely sensitive to thoughts and feelings. Additional equipment identifies brain activity (neurofeedback), which includes alpha waves (calm relaxation), beta (alert), theta (meditation and light sleep) and delta waves (deep sleep).

LEARNING A BETTER WAY THROUGH BIOFEEDBACK

Once problems are identified, the therapist uses various techniques to retrain clients to improve their physiological responses. One area of change centers on releasing muscle tension. This is the easiest biofeedback goal to achieve, says Dr. De Bease, because we control many of our muscles voluntarily. Then the work moves on to learning control of the autonomic nervous system, which affects vasoconstriction. For example, people who have Raynaud’s disease often have cold hands, caused by constriction in the blood vessels leading to them. Biofeedback teaches them to focus on learning how to uncouple this subconscious response and pay attention to what triggered it.

Another key diagnostic area centers on heart rate. To explain: Normally the heart beats faster on inhalation and slows with exhalation (variability), but that pattern can be disrupted in people who are chronically stressed and whose hearts remain at a fast-paced “ready” rate. People can learn to normalize this heartbeat with breathing exercises, which Dr. De Bease explains is “a great bridge for helping people to balance the influences from the two components of autonomic nervous system function — sympathetic (preparing for attack) and parasympathetic (calm and relaxation).” Eventually people learn to consciously make changes that can affect their autonomic responses, including heart rate and perspiration. Rather than becoming inappropriately stressed yet again, you can learn to modify your response to fit the situation.

THE BODY-MIND LINK

Dr. De Bease observes that using the body to calm the mind is exactly the opposite of the usual path in the Western world, where many believe that if you “think it, you can make it so.” Biofeedback works in reverse, she says: “Change your body and it will change your mind.” It’s a tactic that reminds me of being told to smile when upset or angry — however silly you feel with a grin on your angry face, it does seem impossible to stay mad.

Much of the stress in our culture comes from time constraints and attempts to multitask, thinking about several things at once, says Dr. De Bease. When you find yourself overstressing because of commitments or distractions or fear of not getting everything done, slow down and regulate your breathing. Breathing slowly in and out will help balance the function of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, allowing for a more appropriate autonomic response to external stressful stimuli.

Biofeedback can help all sorts of health problems — and is generally considered safe. You can find a practitioner near you by going to the Web site of the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America (www.bcia.org). Most biofeedback sessions run about 45 minutes and cost in the same range as psychotherapy. Insurance generally pays at least part of the cost — sometimes all, depending on your health condition. Don’t expect to solve your problems in one visit, however. Most people require a session a week for 20 weeks or so and some may continue even longer.

Source(s):

Celeste De Bease, PhD, former chair of the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America, is a biofeedback therapy teacher and therapist in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, www.bioneurofeedback.com. She is associate clinical professor at Widener University’s Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology.

Please enjoy these beautiful words and thoughts written by Daniel Schmachtenberger

Daniel can be reached at geosol114@yahoo.com

Freedom

Our past sets up predispositions. For most people, those predispositions determine much of their life forever. A key to freedom is understanding that predisposition does not equal predetermination. The difference is your conscious choice, your will.

Even how you think about that is likely colored by past programming…which you can change if you want to.

Remember this: the Truth does not cause pain. If you have a belief or perception that causes you to feel hopeless, angry, sad, etc, those feelings are the clear indication that that belief or perception is off.

The Universe actually works…and with such an intricate, unerring order, that it’s almost unfathomable….governed by Truth (natural law). When you understand what is True, and think in ways that are true, your life will work with such an order.

“Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.” JC

If someone comes to your door selling vacuums, you don’t have to buy. No matter how convincing their sales pitch. That’s your choice. When a pattern of thought comes knocking at your minds door, wanting to sell you a load of pain…no matter how buyable the pitch is, how many times you have bought in the past…you don’t have to go with it. (You may want to unsubscribe from their auto-ship program.) 

You can remember that Truth empowers and misinformation (which misaligns you with the reality of Life) disempowers…and feeling the disempowerment of the thought, your clear understanding can recognize “That thought isn’t True. It only seems true because it matches my programming, but it actually isn’t. And as I don’t buy it, and instead refocus on a perspective that empowers me, Ill have a better life and even the programming will change.”

If you claim the issues you get to keep them. Why do that? Your words have power and influence reality. Every word you speak has an effect that either blesses or hurts your life. So why speak words that aren’t a blessing to you. You don’t have to.
Pay attention to the patterns of predisposition that have been running you. The key is being conscious…the conscious direction of your life, your creative force, for the life-experience you actually want. Before acting, before speaking, even when thoughts come up…remember what you really want, take full responsibility for your life, and direct yourself accordingly.

You can witness your thoughts, your beliefs, your moods and emotions…which means you are not any of those things. You are the witness, which is also the chooser when you remember. Your sovereignty comes from existence itself “Made in the image and likeness of God…”  Nothing has the power to take that away (though it can be forgotten).

When you are not conscious, clearly your consciousness—You—are not directing the show. So the patterns of the past play auto-pilot based on what they have learned (doing the best they can actually).

(Here is a tip: anytime you think, say, or do anything that is not in your highest good, there is some degree of unconsciousness at work. In a truly clear space, no one ever consciously chooses pain…for themselves or others.)

There are things you can control and things you can’t. Focusing on what you can’t control disempowers you. Consciously moving your attention to what you can control in every situation will empower you. Ask “what can I do about this?” and do it. Don’t blame yourself, don’t blame others, and don’t indulge negativities that won’t benefit you…just ask what you can do that is positive and do it. And go neutral to the rest (since that’s all you can do). This is a recipe for freedom.

When you become aware in a moment that you were being directed by an old pattern (worrying, judging, despairing, etc), be glad that you realized it because now you can shift. If frustration, self-judgment, impatience come up, i.e. “Why am I still doing that, I know better…am I ever going to get it?”…realize that is just another layer of patterning and don’t indulge it. It won’t help. Just recognize that the patterning was established over time and it may require some time and consistency to fully transform it…be glad that you recognized it, and simply shift. No drama needed.

Right now, reading these words, there may even be a pattern coming up saying “I can’t do that, its too hard…its not that simple…I don’t have the energy, etc”. That also, is just a pattern, programmed in the past, not even by you. It’s ok that it comes up. Just recognize it as a programmed reaction…you can even anticipate when it will likely come up…but recognize that it’s not advantaging you, and ultimately not True…and don’t buy into it. And redirect your thinking and perceiving in a manner that better produces what you want. That’s all. It’s actually simple.

Easy and hard are states of mind about energy application. All shifts require energy application. That does not have to be subjectively related to as hard. Calling what needs to be done hard, is just another unconscious pattern of thought that will not benefit you. “See the job, do the job, and stay out of the misery.” Maharishi

And enjoy your life. It’s a beautiful gift. Attune your awareness to the beauty of life. What you put your attention on grows.

Got it?

I know you are capable. I hope you let yourself discover that as well.

Peace and blessings to you.

Daniel

P.S. To make shifting (and staying there) easier, you can dissipate the energy out of the old patterns so their pull is progressively less. The first part of doing that we have already discussed: simply noticing them when they arise, and recognizing them as conditioned patterns that are ultimately not True. Awareness alone transforms a lot.

In addition, you can look at the events and conditions from your life that contributed to the development of those patterns and do two things:

1. Make peace around all the hurts that occurred so you don’t carry them with you (you can go to www.howardwills.com for a great resource for peace-making).

2. Look at how you perceived those events and conditions and what meanings you may have given them…and reassess them now with a wider and deeper understanding and more compassion (for yourself and others)…find the gifts and positive lessons…and a meaning for all of it that empowers you.

You can e-mail Daniel at geosol114@yahoo.com

Cathy Bliss
1175 Corte de Cera
Chula Vista, CA 91910

Dear Mr. President,

Natural Solutions Foundation, the nation’s premiere “net roots” Health Freedom association alerted me to the threats to Health Freedom hidden in H.R. 1 EH, the economic stimulus law and also found in the pending Food Safety Agency bill, H.R. 875 (and its Senate companion bill).

“Health Freedom” was one of the “Top Ten” social issues on Change.org and was included in the President’s Briefing Book on the official Change.gov web site. Please consider thoughtfully that Health Freedom be taken seriously and that Health Fascism – as exemplified by the hidden provisions of the “stimulus” bill and the potential harm of the Food Agency bill – be stopped NOW.

We are concerned that language in the “stimulus” bill will restrict our health care choices, our medical privacy, and course of treatment or therapy that may benefit. We are concerned with what the new Federal bureaucratic overlords of “Health Care” will authorize for us, at our age, and at our financial ‘worth’ to society.

One commentator sited specific page numbers (refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version) as examples:

“The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system…. But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners…” (Bloomberg, February 9, 2009)

So what is an unprecedented Congressional grant of power over health care to the bureaucracy doing in an economic “stimulus” bill? And why does Congress think a new bureaucracy should make life-and-death health care choices for us?

We are further concerned that H.R. 875 will be applied to organic and small family farms and ranches, as well as natural and organic food products, including Dietary Supplements, in ways that will greatly harm these areas of the economy. They are not part of the food safety problem which is essentially a problem of big agriculture businesses.

President Obama, this imposition of what could be termed Medical Fascism on the People is NOT real Change. Sneaking it into the “stimulus” bill is just plain old “politics as usual.” Creating a new bureaucracy, even if called “Food Safety” is not helpful if the new bureau will hurt family farms and ranches, natural and organic products.

Please use your authority as President to make it clear that these new powers granted by Congress will not be used to restrict Healthcare Freedom of Choice and local food production.

I petition you to clearly instruct the Federal agencies, including the FDA and other agencies involved in restricting healthcare freedom of choice to reverse all policies that restrict access to natural, alternative and complementary healthcare modalities and natural or organic food products.

I request that you formally adopt the Definition of Health Freedom from Change.org and your Briefing Book, “Health Freedom means the right to control what happens to your body, choosing your own health path, making your own health choices as you see fit.” as the definition to be used by all Federal agencies.

You need to regulate the regulators – we call upon you to instruct the bureaucracy to respect the rights of doctors and patients, to ensure that the United States fully respects the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki – http://www.wma.net/e/policy/pdf/17c.pdf – and does not impose on our Citizens restrictions against health care choice, especially when those choices involve nutrients and natural remedies.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter. “Health Freedom is Our First Freedom!”

Sincerely

Cathy Bliss