The Pygmy Truth

I am of the Bayaka tribe (called pygmy by some) and could not resist reposting this lovely article. It speaks for itself.


A Pygmy Model for Partnership Relations

by Ushanda io Elima

The Efe Pygmies are “wholly non-aggressive,” Jean-Pierre Hallet told me. Could that be true? Since Hallet largely grew up with the Efe in equatorial Africa, and has lived with them for much of his sixty plus years, I figured he might know.

And since aggressive people increasingly threaten our lives, both locally and internationally, his claim seemed worth checking out. Whether or not humans are genetically violent, as some maintain, has significant relevance for we who are peace activists. The root causes of aggression, both interpersonal and international, matter greatly regarding effective strategy for prevention and elimination of human violence. And, while I cannot tolerate false hope, I was feeling a need for first-hand information that could offer genuine hope of a better world for our human family.

My fascination with the African Pygmies began in the 1960s, when I read The Forest People by Colin Turnbull, who had lived with the Mbuti Pygmies for three years. In the late ‘60s I attended Turnbull’s lecture series at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.*

In the early 1970s I heard Jean-Pierre Hallet speak about the Efe Pygmies at the University of California in Berkeley. At that time he showed his 1972 documentary film on this indigenous African tribe. Later I read Hallet’s book, Pygmy Kitabu. Hallet has lived with the culturally pure Efe Pygmies from early childhood. He gave startling evidence of the trusting, cooperative, and joyful lifestyle of these forest people.

Thus I was pleased to meet with Jean-Pierre Hallet in his Malibu home. He is six feet and four inches tall, far from pygmy size, and speaks with passion. He lost his right hand while dynamiting Lake Tanganyika for fish to feed a group of starving Africans in South Mossi. Dubbed “one of the most remarkable men of the 20th century,” he is the only white man to become a member of the Bwame Secret Society, and a blood brother of the Lega, Tutsi, and Nande tribes. He is also an initiated Maasai warrior.

Mr. Hallet was born in Belgian, but went to Zaire’s Ituri Forest, where his artist father had been living, when he was only six months old. Hallet told me that, for the most part, he grew up with the Efe Pygmies. He went barefoot, wore a loincloth, and did everything that they did. He still spends time with them every year.

The following account of Pygmy life draws upon my meeting with Hallet, as well as other firsthand reports from him and Colin Turnbull. What emerges is a picture of a culture based on honoring—to use a Native American concept—“all our relations.”

Sexual Maturity and Pregnancy

The Pygmies are well aware of the connection between sex and conception, Hallet explained during our meeting, and sexual relations before marriage are accepted. If a girl becomes pregnant, she always knows who the father is, because it is customary to have only one lover at a time. Should the couple wish to marry, they do. If they choose not to, then many men will want to marry the mother-to-be, because children are most desirable.

Birth

Hallet said he has delivered more than 500 African babies, Pygmy and non-Pygmy. He described Pygmy labor as being very short, natural, and easy, even for a first-time mother. And this is in spite of the fact that Pygmy babies are, proportionally, the biggest babies in the world. For example an 80-pound Pygmy mother typically gives birth to an eight-pound baby, about one-tenth of her body weight. This would compare to a 130-pound woman birthing a 13-pound baby.

When the mother’s membranes rupture, she notifies her two midwives, who then walk with her to the river, one on either side. “At the time of the pain,” Hallet said, “she will walk and sing, sing and be joyous.”

Once at the river, the pregnant woman squats on a flat rock. The midwives hold her on each side, and breath deeply with her in what Hallet referred to as “a tremendous feeling on oneness.” When they feel the time has come, the women hold their breath. “They pause together,” said Hallet, “and then you see the baby coming out.”

One of the midwives briefly holds the baby upside down, washes the upper part of the body to make sure the baby is breathing well, and then returns the child to the mother for nursing. The other midwife works her teeth down the umbilical cord until she finds the narrow part, a few inches from the infant’s abdomen. “This is the place where, if a baby were dropped from the womb of a standing mother, the weight of the child would be enough to break that cord at that point,” said Hallet. The midwife bites this narrow part very slowly, and then gently squeezes the cord with her fingers. There is usually very little bleeding.

To celebrate the birth of her child, Hallet noted, a mother will sing this song:

My heart is so joyous,

My heart flies in singing,

Under the trees of the forest,

The forest, our home, our mother.

In my net I have caught

A little bird,

A very little bird,

And my heart is caught

In the net with my little bird.

During the birth, the father stays away. Birth is considered to be women’s business. After birth, when the mother and baby have returned to their leafy, dome hut, the father comes to them and asks permission to enter. Then the father might clap his hands and thank his wife for their very wanted child.
Newborn Care

According to Hallet, there is no bonding ritual, but there is a bond — “like a fruit to its branch” — a physical attachment for the first year or so. During this year, the baby is “never separated from the mother.” In Hallet’s view, this constant contact is one reason why Pygmy infants rarely cry. Pygmy babies appear to feel good. “They are satisfied in all of their requirements,” he stated. On the rare occasion when a baby does cry, it is only for a moment, because the baby’s need is immediately taken care of. Often this means nursing, which satisfies the baby’s necessity for close contact and attention, as well as for nourishment.

Hallet remarked that the baby is usually carried in front, although sometimes on the back. In either position, Pygmies feel it is essential to maintain skin-to-skin contact, with the child naked against the mother’s bare skin. If clothing is needed for warmth, the mother wraps a clothe around both herself and her child, not between them. This constant skin contact continues for at least the first six months. Thereafter, the mother continues to provide plenty of touching as well as baby-led nursing.

A Pygmy baby continues to nurse for about five years, Hallet reported. If there’s any milk left after the new baby is finished, the breast may go to the baby before, and then to the child before that one, in turn. The priority is always the newly born child.

Hallet said, “Sometimes you’ll see little children playing, perhaps making a bow and arrow. They interrupt their play to go to their mother, reach for her breast and suckle a little bit . . . still finding the warmth of a few drops of milk.”

The breasts of women with many children may be really flat, going all the way down to the waist, commented Hallet. I thought this might result from a combination of breastfeeding along with a physically active lifestyle and no bras. Although such “droopy breasts” may be unattractive from a modern point of view, to the Pygmies it is a good sign, I learned, because it indicates a woman has been feeding a lot of children. Prolonged, child-led nursing also provides a natural form of birth control and child spacing.

The Pygmies do not equate breasts with sexual stimulation, Hallet claimed, and they do not use the breast for erogenous foreplay. The breast is considered sacred, reserved for the child.

The father takes great interest in his baby. He plays, holds and hugs the child as much as the mother does. Men and women equally manifest love and care. In fact, fathers will sometimes hold their babies for very long periods of time. Hallet recalled, “The most beautiful time for a father is when he holds his baby for the very first time. He will hold his newborn with great . . . tenderness. And usually he will cry, because he is so touched by his baby.”

Close physical contact, nursing as often as the child feels the need, emotional warmth, and loving care are among the basic requirements of very young children, according to the Pygmies. Fulfilling these needs maximizes the child’s potential to develop into a naturally sociable and responsible human being who can enjoy a good life.
Childhood

Family members sleep together. The big girls cuddle on the left side of the hut with the mother. The boys line up beside the father, on his right. The youngest child who is still breastfeeding sleeps between the father and mother. Pygmies feel that this is an intrinsic part of life, Hallet said. Since their only blankets are each other, they cuddle and fit against one another’s bodies in a very natural way.

This feeling of closeness carries beyond the family hut. Hallet said that children refer to their parents’ peers as “mother” or “father.” Children outside the immediate family are called “brother” or “sister.” As Hallet’s documentary revealed, there is a great deal of affectionate touching among all of the Pygmies. Babies and small children are held and carried. Older children and adults frequently hold hands or sit with an arm around a friend, or place their head in another’s lap. Anyone feeling the need for reassurance may touch someone briefly or go for a hug. Many enjoy cuddling.

Girls and boys are treated and valued equally, according to Hallet. Marriage involves no dowry or bride-payment, but rather simple exchanges. Most areas of work are not limited solely to one gender or the other. A man will gather food if he passes something tasty and his hands are free. And all the people—men, women and children—play a part in the hunt.

Hallet never saw a Pygmy adult hit or criticize a child. Nor do they tell their children how to behave. When I asked how they control their children, Hallet answered, “They don’t. The children do not need to be controlled. Whatever the adults do, the children do. The woman goes to gather wood for the fire, and the little girl follows and picks up a few pieces too.”

Once he saw a toddler heading straight toward a blazing fire, and called out to alert the mother. The mother calmly replied, “Let him go.” As Hallet put it, the mother knew the child would soon feel the heat and slow down. She trusted nature, including the instinctual wisdom of her child’s human nature. The child might touch a glowing twig and learn about fire without serious harm to either his fingers or his budding self-confidence.

“This is probably the most striking difference between the Pygmies and our society,” said Hallet. “They do not tell their children what to do or what not to do.”
Adulthood

After an easy birth and attentive childcare, what quality of life do Pygmies experience in maturity?

According to Hallet, Efe Pygmies are physically healthy. Living traditionally, they do not succumb to such modern diseases as high blood pressure, heart disease, or cancer. Death is usually due to pulmonary diseases like pneumonia, a result of the constant nearly 100 percent humidity of their forest environment. The second leading cause of death is what Hallet termed “accidents,” such as being crushed by a falling tree.

For simple ailments like an infected cut, the Pygmies have natural medicines derived from various combinations of roots and plant juices. They have a cure for every normally occurring illness, according to Hallet. They either eat the substance, drink it, or make a little scratch and absorb it into the bloodstream much like an injection. Through centuries of trial and error, they know what works and what does not.

The emotional health of the Pygmies is also impressive. Hallet, constantly touched by their goodness, believes that the simplicity, harmony, and serenity that the Pygmies experience are qualities we could learn to incorporate. “They are not afraid,” he said. “They are totally secure.” They have a high level of respect for themselves and others.

Most significantly, Efe Pygmies are free of hatred, greed, and competitive feelings. Physical violence against others is forbidden.

Hallet’s documentary reveals the role that social responsibility plays in a telling scene of conflict between an Efe wife and husband. The argument heats up with much shouting, hands on hips, and dramatic finger waving. Suddenly the husband picks up a stick. The wife disappears from the screen—but soon reappears bearing a club taller than herself. At this point, the women hold back the wife, and the men hold back the husband.

What usually happens when a husband and wife fight, says Hallet, is that they are encouraged. “If a man is about to hit his wife, the others will give him a stick and say, ‘Hit her with this. You are a strong man. You can kill her!’ By this time, the husband already feels a little ashamed. The others group around and call out, ‘Okay! Go! Go for it!’ And then he realizes how foolish he looks. They end up making a joke out of it, a sort of soap opera. Then every body claps, and they are happy.”

Pygmies express all of their emotions freely. According to Hallet, if Pygmies feel like crying, they cry. If they want to scream, they scream. They yell. It is acceptable for a man to cry openly. They pygmies do not suppress their emotions; instead, they say, “Tell the truth. Do not hide it—let it out.”

Turnbull referred to the bright-eyed, open look of the playful Pygmies, and was surprised by the extent of their emotional freedom: they may even fall to the ground and roll around when expressing intense sorrow, or laughter.

Even though Pygmies usually do pretty much what they feel like doing, community relationships do not suffer. As Hallet sees it, a major part of their great personal freedom comes from a mutual feeling of trust. As he spoke I thought, because the innate trust human babies are born with is not betrayed by their caregivers, that trust can continue. According to Hallet, Pygmies concentrate their attention on the betterment of their personal relationships. He said that the entire Efe society had not one criminal, not one rapist, one molester, or one case of incest.

Although a man might think of making love with a woman other than his wife, knowing how that would threaten the root of their sacred marriage for life, he would resist the temptation.

The Pygmies have no chiefs, no courts or prisons. Turnbull wrote that they did not want individual power, preferring shared decision-making.

More than anything else, what forms the basis of the healthy relationships that Pygmies enjoy is respect. For instance, respect is shown in the handling of food, which is shared with all. If food is scarce, the first to be fed are the children and then the elders—those who are the most vulnerable.

Great respect is shown for the elders. In Pygmy society, the elders are “the stars of the show.” According to Hallet, they are the most important people because they have the wisdom, the honor, the beauty that deserves respect. They have worked all their lives. They have given a lot of love to other people. They naturally reap the reward of becoming truly important in the eyes of all others. The Pygmies have a saying: “Thank God if you live to grow old.”

When I heard that I wondered how many of our modern elders feel as honored and grateful in old age.

Pygmies also show respect for their forest environment and resources. “Never cut the tall trees,” they say in Hallet’s Pygmy Kitabu. Ecology is a natural part of their religion.

According to Hallet, the Pygmies believe in one God, one Spirit, one Creator of all life. They consider no form of punishment, no hell or revenge, because they see God as being only benevolent. In The Forest People, Turnbull records the words of a song he heard his Pygmy companions sing: ". . . If darkness is, then the darkness must be good.” So completely do the Pygmies experience a trustworthy world.
The Future: Danger of Extinction

Pygmy lives are now endangered. “It is impossible for them to survive with their traditional hunting and gathering because their forest is being destroyed at a tremendous rate,” said Hallet. In fact, many experts predicted that the Efe Pygmies would be extinct by 1977. In that year, their population numbered 3,800—not yet extinct, although a significant decline from the two or three million who were once the only inhabitants of central Africa.

“The forest, that perfect ecosystem that took millions of years to be established, is destroyed now to less than ten percent of its former glory,” said Hallet.

He repeatedly stressed the view that humanity needs to help the Pygmies survive because they are also the key to our own survival. “The Pygmies are the living evidence of our innate goodness.” In a world threatened by oppression, conflict, and violence, these forest people demonstrate that when we gently birth, nurture, and guide our children, without violence and other repressive controls, we human beings can live together in freedom and harmony.

Nurtured by a community that reflects the loving care adults received early in life, children develop freely in an environment of safety, warm concern, cooperation and shared pleasures. The Pygmies say, “Love the children extravagantly, with all your heart!”
Summary: A Sustained Culture Reveals Possibilities For Humanity

The images and expectations we hold in our minds powerfully influence our children’s development. The picture of “human nature” given by some modern people depicts a human “inheritance” of violent and selfish “instincts.” When we believe that humanity is innately violent or greedy, we fearfully demand obedience from our children, and strive to maintain rigid controls over the emotional responses that we have been taught to fear in our own childhoods. Dominance over others’ behavior, and over our own natural emotions, brings neither inner nor outer peace. Instead, viewing human nature as dangerous has helped to create perilous consequences for the human race.

The image of human nature demonstrated by the living Pygmies offers us the hope of better ways of relating, arising from a more accurate view of our original nature. The Efe Pygmy culture reassures us that we need not assume that human beings are genetically violent or greedy. Therefore we need not teach our children to suppress themselves or to blindly obey others. Pygmy society shows us that when children’s needs (life requirements) are lovingly provided for, they will not grow up harboring unmet needs that may become greed. They will not develop the rage and fear that result from early neglect and punishment, and may be destructively expressed for the rest of some lives.

Startling to our modern minds, it becomes clear that it is unnecessary to teach our children to love. Instead we can trust and support their innate tendencies toward empathy and generosity, which I too experienced while living in Africa and elsewhere. We can safely allow our children emotional freedom, while gently guiding them in appropriate, mutually respectful ways of behavioral expression.

In short, the Pygmies demonstrate that we do not have to war with our children. We do not have to teach them violence by our example when they are small. Instead we can cooperate with them in the graceful unfolding of their inborn integrity and kindness.

What happens in our parenting as we begin to act from this harmonious image of human nature? For one, we find ourselves reviving such ancient practices as natural homebirth, unrestricted breastfeeding, carrying our infants and maintaining close physical contact with them. Rather than punishment, we teach our children by example. In so doing, we are not simply returning to our roots. Rather, in our individual ways, we are weaving a new synthesis appropriate for our times, one that creates fresh possibilities for the whole of humanity.

From the self-respecting awareness of our inherent human goodness, a sweeter, grander version of ourselves will emerge.

Maya and the Life Minimizers

I just read an interview of Maya Angelou. I don't consume Oprah and it's been awhile since I've thought about or read Maya so I'm feeling particularly blessed to have Oprah's Master Class series come into my path (in a rather haphazardly on-purpose way of the Universe). Maya's life principles exude the line of thinking and way of being that excites and energizes me at this very moment - so I'm gonna study her ways. My husband once said that he enjoys reading biographies of others because some of life's great lessons are found therein. So true. The interview is alive with well places wisdom and there are so many points to expound upon, however this one I have to speak on:

"Maya: That's right—all of my history as an African-American woman, as a Jewish woman, as a Muslim woman. I'm bringing everything I ever knew [and all the stories I've read]—everything good, strong, kind and powerful. I bring it all with me into every situation, and I will not allow my life to be minimized by anybody's racism or sexism or ageism. I will not. So I will take the Scandinavian story of the little princess, I will take the story of Heidi in the Alpine mountains, I will take the story of O-Lan in Pearl S. Buck's book The Good Earth, I will take them all. I take them, and I know them, and I am them. So when I walk into a room, people know that somebody has come in—they just don't know it's 2,000 people!"

I made the shining sentence bold because that's exactly where 'IT' is. Many years have been spent (but not wasted) hibernating inside a shell, focused on minimizations such as racism, insecurities and issues from childhood. Life minimizers is what I'll call them. And neither self-help books nor counseling from those who love me can bring me to the magic of alive-ness until me, myself, and I decide to love living; which I have. My husband was so right when he said (to paraphrase) that the best revenge against those who hurt us is to heal. Of course negatives still exist but we can remove their energy from filling the only moment we ever have – the present.

The root of simplicity is

being human. if we permit ourselves enough uninterrupted time to really, really, really, really think about the qualities that make us who we truly are, we'll come to some basic, simple truths. and then, what if we even permitted ourselves to design our lives in such a manner that enables and supports the enlargement of those qualities and nothing else?

sounds idealistic? perhaps to drones. but imagine what life would look and feel like if we realized 40%, 50% or even 75% of our simple truths? would it have been worth the effort?

Each time someone passes away

... we are reminded of how brief life is

it seems mysterious how generation after generation wonders about the power of distraction

how moments melt into years

until the bells of finality toll for others

and

as if awakened by these occasional ringings of life's

alarm clocks

we are reminded of how brief life is

and like unfaithful lovers,

we vow - once again -

to love life and love to live

more fully

than ever

before

Our first teacher is our own heart

"Our first teacher is our own heart."

Cheyenne Saying

Profound. Simple. Roots.

Remembering who we were when we first arrived,

unfettered, uncomplicated, undamaged,

is fundamental to living simple and simply living.

As babies, we lived 100% by and through our hearts

We were pure in heart, which was connected to mind– both in a state of oneness with our Creator.

Nevermind what and who happened to us ‘along the way’.

We can return.

Retrieve and free our heart.

Live through its wisemind.

In the moment, each moment.

[and let's not forget to tread lightly in our youths' life path - giving them the chance to live by their own hearts rather than our selfish desires (note to self)]

This saying has blessed my heart today!

Your very own piece of the great puzzle

"However progress is not over. Great progress has taken place in this third phase of my life, but it's as though the central figure of the jigsaw puzzle of your life is complete and clear and unchanging, and around the edges other pieces keep fitting in. There is always a growing edge, but the progress is harmonious. There is a feeling of always being surrounded by all of the good things, like love and peace and joy. It seems like a protective surrounding, and there is an unshakeableness within which takes you through any situation you may need to face.

The world may look at you and believe that you are facing great problems, but always there are the inner resources to easily overcome these problems. Nothing seems difficult. There is a calmness and a serenity and unhurriedness - no more striving or straining about anything. Life is full and life is good, but life is nevermore overcrowded. That's a very important thing I've learned: If your life is in harmony with your part in the Life Pattern, and if you are obedient to the laws which govern this universe, then your life is full and good but not overcrowded. If it is overcrowded, you are doing more than is right for you to do, more than is your job to do in the total scheme of things."

~ Peace Pilgrim

Wow, this coming from a woman who after more than fifteen years of spiritual preparedness decided to trust the universe to such an extent that she would walk across the country, by herself in her middle years of her life, with no money, no possessions depending solely on the free will kindness of others for food. All in order to spread her message of peace. I'll leave her story to your reading pleasure. :)

I am moved by her clear message and I find it similar to that of many others throughout the ages who have reached a certain spiritual peak. Once it dawns on us and our ego that we are not the center of the universe, that we are but one, precious, piece of a larger puzzle, and that we each have energy that must vibrate in the fullness of its tone, to make the universal symphony complete, we come to a place of peace, a space that exudes protection, purpose and a general sense that all is right with the world and its design.

I've wanted to hold onto that calm (we all are born with) all of my life but something happened along the way - as with all of us.

The Peace Pilgim has so eloquently explained that, for her, retrieving our individual singularity of purpose repels overcrowding in every aspect of our lives (our thoughts, the wrong people, possessions, overwrought schedules). If we've bought into the lie that chasing money, having a house filled to the brim with cluttered possessions - that our deepest selves can not ever truly value - we will never find happiness. If we are filled with anxiety, running the hampster wheel within the rat race- never knowing if we are coming and going, and never having time for one moment of feeling at peace and in quiet with our thoughts, we are most probably out of sync with our piece of the puzzle. In our of ignorance of truth, we have designed our lives around those components that other miserable people submit to and have pushed on us as the status quo or normal.

We watch life pass us by without ever having known the taste of its sweeter berries. So many of us are foreigners to ourselves and our innate values. Because of this, we will never know the life the Peace Pilgrim, and a few others, have spoken of; surrounded by calmness, serenity and unhurriedness. But such a life is our birthright, my friends, it really is.

Hmmm, how dare I utter such profanity, such crazy, rebellious nonsense! Isn't that what you'll be told or have been told when you question any aspect of the status quo or look too deeply into the message contained within the blaring billboards and marketers commercials hocking their fabricated wares (e.g. the reality they want you to buy)?

I say, let's stand still, get quiet, think a little, get to know ourselves, and then promptly simplify!

We deserve it.

Free Rangers: Identifying Zombies

Everett Bogue has written a nice piece about zombification that really resonates and definitely warrants sharing. As the veil of illusion becomes tattered, people are beginning to notice that life isn't what it seemed and the race they've running has been a complete fabrication. Puppets increase awareness when the puppet masters flounder. People want life, our souls desire freedom and elevation. I can certainly attest to the fact that without active, conscious living, we are readily pulled into the zombie zone. Simple living is how I gain awareness and stay alive in each and every moment. Here are a few of Everett's tasty morsels on the subject of zombies:

Photo from papersnake.ca

"Every superhuman has their creation story. Whether it’s escaping the 9-5, practicing 30 days in a row of Bikram yoga, or discovering they have the power to manifest money in their sleep. The stories all lead to the same place: a new way of looking at the world....

For three years, I did what I was told. I woke up every morning, I ate a bacon egg and cheeses, and I surrendered to a system that I’d been told was going to take care of me. For a moment I actually believed that. I built a life around a job that interested me in some ways, and I found ways to make the job interesting in other ways. Then one day I woke up and realized it was all a dream...


1. How to go zombie hunting. One of the first steps in becoming superhuman is developing the ability to become cognizant of who is for you or against you. I call this Zombie Hunting. The truth is that we live in a world filled with people who are either asleep, given up, tired, or they want to drag you down with them into the sewage of the remnants of the society they wished still existed. Once you can pick these people out of a crowd, you’ll be able to either make the conscious choice to help them, or you can make the choice to leave them behind...

Here’s a few ways to identify zombies:

1. They can’t make eye contact with you. Their eyes are glazed over, as if they are not present in their body. In fact, they probably aren’t in their body at all. Their mind is either dwelling on the painful past of their life, or thinking about a million futures that don’t exist yet (and may never.)

2. They look tired, beaten, worn. Zombies are universally tired, all of the time. When you say. “how are you!” and they answer “tired.” chances are you’re talking to a zombie. I actually told my roommate I was tired a few nights ago, so I’m on full-scale self-zombie alert. Have a been bitten? It’s always a risk. The truth is that I was tired because it was 11pm and I’d taught one yoga class, taken two yoga classes, and written for two hours in a coffee shop. Zombies are tired when they roll out of bed in the morning. Why are they tired? Because they eat poorly, they don’t get enough exercise, they sit in front of the TV every night, they drive cars, and they can’t see a future worth fighting for.

3. They rush everywhere, like someone is chasing them. Have you ever felt like if you didn’t run from your house to your car to your job to your desk that someone was going to kill you? Well, you might be a zombie. When you rush things, they get done poorly. Nothing is so important that you need to run to get it, unless you’re running for exercise or a zombie is chasing you...


There are three simple methods to start to bring yourself into more awareness. 

1. Learn as much as you can.
You know that scene in The Matrix where Tank uploads the helicopter flight manual into Trinity’s mind? Well, believe it or not we live in an age where that’s possible. One of the best habits you can ever start is to flip on TED.com and start watching talks. It’s passive learning that will blow your mind. Set TED to your home screen and start by watching one 15 minute TED talk per day. At the end of one year you will have the equivalent of seventeen P.H.D.’s in awesomeness...

2. Stop eating zombie food, start eating superhuman food.
When you can’t focus on the world, chances are it’s because you’re not eating properly. You aren’t eating properly because most people don’t understand nutrition anymore.

What if the only two things you learned in school were personal finance and nutrition? We’d all be so incredibly rich and beautiful.
These days I eat a few different types of fruit in the morning. For lunch I’ll have a sandwich with a salad. In the evening it’s pretty random, as these days I’ve been eating out a lot wining and dining with San Francisco superhumans, but chances are what I’m eating is locally sourced and made of real food.

Real food is unprocessed. When you eat things that you get in boxes or cans in the middle of the supermarket, it is processed food. This means that it’s been reduced to it’s basic elements and then restructured into something that resembles food. If the package has any words on it telling you that it’s healthy, chances are that it’s not. Food that has no packaging, such as vegetables, fruits, local meats, etc will bring you out of your haze quickly.

If you’ve been eating sugar-coated processed corn for the last seventeen years of your life, chances are fruits and vegetables will taste like crap to you. That’s understandable, your mind has been desensitized to the real sugars present in amazing real foods. Over time your body will become re-accustomed to eating real food, and carrots will taste like awesome.

One of the most important elements of becoming superhuman is learning about real food...

3. Walk using your feet, because you have them.
I know it sounds silly, but if zombies don’t walk nearly enough — this is why they stagger around so much, they don’t know how to use their legs anymore. This is why San Francisco, Portland, and New York have a much higher superhuman-per-capita than other places, because we all walk everywhere...

4. Where do you get your information?
This is the final element in this series of strategies is the most important.
The information that you take into your mind shapes the way you think — words have power to control your mind — the power of auto-suggestion.
This is why anyone you meet who only gets their information from Cable news tends to think that they’re going to be mugged or murdered if they leave their house and that full-body scanners in airports are going to keep them safer from terrorists. When the reality is that these people will die in their cars and on their couches while they’re watching cable news.

The Internet is vast, and it’s filled with tons of amazing information that’s incredibly important. The truth of the matter is that no one source will tell you everything that matters. Just like having one income source for all of your money is a dumb idea, having one info source for all of your information is a dumb idea.

Everyone has an agenda, whether it’s secret or not. This agenda is clouded by politics, economics, religion, personal bias, and a million other things...

I was a journalism major in college, and I worked at a national magazine for three years. While I know mostly nothing about everything, I know something about the journalism world.

Here’s how 99% of stories make it onto the news:
PR person from company X calls his buddy Joe the reporter at The Times.

PR: “Hey man, I have a good story for you. Did you know that our new pharmaceutical can give you everlasting life and make you happy forever? It’s awesome and only costs $124 a month but is covered by “medical” insurance!, let me send five boxes and also I’ll buy your wife a new TV for Christmas.”

Joe: “Oh, PR man, I guess so? I know I’m supposed to have journalistic ethics, but bullcrap, I want to be happy and I don’t make more than $35,000 a year at my job here, so I guess I’ll take the new TV too.”

PR: “Oh good, I’ll send over that case. I’m going to send you a bottle of Jack Daniels too, so you can drink away the fact that you make 5% of how much I make selling people poison.”

Joe: “Oh, thanks! I just ran out of my last bottle of Jack.”

PR: “It’s a good thing too, because company X is also your main advertising sponsor. If you hadn’t run the story I would have pulled the ads and you’d be out of a job! Cool huh? It’s like a giant corporation controls your life and everyone else’s. This must be what power feels like. Muahhahahaha!”

Joe: “I hate my job.”

This is not an exaggeration. The mainstream journalism world really does work like this. Every single story you see on the news is a collaboration between a company that wants to make money, a political organization that wants to stay in power, or a religious organization with enough money to throw at a good marketing team and a journalist.

This isn’t to say that this is wrong, it’s just reality. This wasn’t always the case, but because journalism is tied to two of the most expensive mediums to maintain on the planet — printing on newspaper and broadcasting on TV costs so much that it’s a delicate system to maintain.

When the budget is low, the first element to go out the door is the truth...
Now that you know that, here’s what I want you to do:

1. Double check facts on the Internet before you assume that what you’re seeing on the TV is true.
2. Realize that all information can also be manipulation.
3. Consider cutting TV news and the newspaper out of your life entirely. There are better ways to get information, most of what you read in the newspaper doesn’t apply to your own life. You can do without it.
4. Use your time to concentrate on what you can control in your life and others.

When you’re conscious of the fact that you’re being manipulated, you’re able to defend yourself against it. This is true with advertising, this is true with television, it’s also true of the blogs you read.

Sometimes the difference between being asleep and awake is simply the ability to ask a simple question: “what is the truth?”

Sometimes the truth will surprise you..."

EXCELLENT MESSAGE! LET'S WAKE UP Y'ALL!

Read his full blog post here.

The Most Venerated Souls Championed Simplicity

A meditation for today: I am certain that there is nothing new under the sun and what I'm about to say is nothing ingenious or original. However, I've noticed that there is not one great soul I admire who didn't naturally and instinctively cling to simplicity in lifestyle, action and thought; e.g., poverty in possessions (lack of attachment), wealth in spirit.


Haile Sellassie I, Iyesus Christos, Buddha, Amma, Mother Teresa, Leonard Howell, Maria Stewart, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Patrice Lumumba, Henry David Thoreau

(a wholly incomplete list of the many, many greats)

In a world of many illusions and delusions, so many of us feel unworthy to relinquish the 'things' and ideas that burden our hearts and make us so unhappy.

The gift of presence, I missed my entire life

“The present is never our goal:
the past and present are our means:
the future alone is our goal.
Thus, we never live but we hope to live;
and always hoping to be happy,
it is inevitable that we will never be so.”

~ Blaise Pascal (1623-1662);
French mathematician & philosopher

Photo from sweet-melis.com

The virtues of living in the present moment...

I've heard it said many times, many ways and then I recently heard it again and it clicked, finally. 

As a dedicated student of life with PhD honors in worry and brooding, the gift of presence was as impossible as the attainment of 'happiness'. Being a double Scorpio - and thus heavily fixed - I needed a stable reality anchored in long term conditions and situations. It did not matter that the reality was a phantom rife with long bouts of depression and perpetual anxiety - it was reliable.

However, the excessive unpredictability of these past three few years has finally brought me to my knees: in the midst of a saturn return and six months after the delivery of my last child, I was fired for the first time in my life (and experienced resulting trauma), I lost the following job within 2 months, had two miscarriages, went through a stressful lawsuit for the wrongful termination, endured the stress of purchasing a home, suffered losses in the stock market, was laid off, attempted loan modification, then a short sale, finally foreclosed and now long term unemployment. Within the last 3 months I've lived in 3 different locations and planned many more living options that fell through.

Needless to say, life has become less than stable and certainly lacks reliability. I can not say what tomorrow brings and I can't believe I'm actually in a state of detachment from hoped for outcomes. Finally 'living in the present' makes sense, It brings peace. It simplifies my mind by filling it with the five senses of each moment - what am I hearing, smelling, seeing, tasting and feeling? I'm paying attention to the thoughts that cross my mind and any time my mind strays to an emotional reaction, or thoughts of the past or future, I redirect them to here and now. I'm paying attention to each syllable my children produce, their body movements I paid so little attention to but want to remember. The gift of presence, being really present, has relieved my depression, decreased anxiety and returned a bit of laughter to my life.

Sure there remains a few things I could feel bad about, but I've given vast amounts of energy to feeling bad all of my life and have repetitively missed the beauty of the forest from being blinded by each tree. Money comes and goes, housing is temporary, resources decrease and despite my best, exhausting efforts, most of these things I've had little control over. Meanwhile, I missed the smiles, the sunsets, the tinkling of my baby's laughter - all the while admiring those people who've made a point of highlighting these very special ingredients of life.

I realized that despite the stress and horror of the past, I could pass away one hour from now while driving to the store. What if my heart fails while I sleep? I would have missed living every waking moment of my entire life.

Tomorrow never comes.

It's always today.

And even today is not guaranteed.

There is only this very moment.

The busy 3 yr old

[Right now, at this very moment there are raindrops falling outside my window, the Bearenstain Bears' wholesome episode is playing on the split screen computer window, my 16 year olds' room where I'm sitting smells like her body sprays because the 3 year old has been trying them all (and I'm smiling thinking about the 16 yr olds' reaction when she returns from her sleepover to find the results of her younger sisters exploration) and now the little one is busting out new dance moves after turning on the radio and within a split second, she's just brought me her box of chocolate covered almonds, closes her eyes and asks me if I can surprise her with the box one more time, I smile, comply and she displays the best surprised look of her life. All while I'm attempting to close out this post. Why miss out on this?]

An Earlier, More Sacred Hour...

Dawn is the only time of day I experience 'Mother' as she absorbs my 7 soul into the folds of her womb. 'Please stay', I say, each time she slips from view. The answer is inevitably, always gently, the same...

Following are the timeless words of

Henry David Thoreau

"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep"

 

"Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tching Thang to this effect: "Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again." I can understand that."

 

"The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night. Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly acquired force and aspirations from within, accompanied by the undulations of celestial music, instead of factory bells, and a fragrance filling the air — to a higher life than we fell asleep from; and thus the darkness bear its fruit, and prove itself to be good, no less than the light."

"That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way. After a partial cessation of his sensuous life, the soul of man, or its organs rather, are reinvigorated each day, and his Genius tries again what noble life it can make. All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere. The Vedas say, "All intelligences awake with the morning." Poetry and art, and the fairest and most memorable of the actions of men, date from such an hour. All poets and heroes, like Memnon, are the children of Aurora, and emit their music at sunrise."

"To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me."

"Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness, they would have performed something. The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life."

"To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?"

Walden Pond, the view from Thoreau's cabin site

Quotes taken from thoreau.eserver.org