Wednesday, February 27, 2019

What Happens to My Body Right After I Die?

A Timeline of the Physiological Processes

It is difficult to generalize how people will respond to the subject of death because each of us is unique, but we generally feel uncomfortable at the thought of our own mortality. What often underlies this uneasiness, however, is thinking about the process of dying and the fear of a prolonged or painful death, rather than the state of being dead.

Ironically, despite spending a lifetime walking around in the same body and doing our best to care for it, few seem to wonder what happens to their physical remains right after death occurs. Here is a timeline of the processes involved, assuming the deceased remains undisturbed, including the transition from primary flaccidity to secondary flaccidity.

At the Moment of Death
We often think of the moment of death as that time at which the heartbeat and breathing stop. We are learning, however, that death isn't instant. Our brains are now thought to continue to "work" for 10 minutes or so after we die, meaning that our brains may, in some way, be aware of our death. The research, however, is only very preliminary. 
In the hospital setting, there are a few requirements doctors use to define death. These include the absence of a pulse, the absence of breathing, the absence of reflexes, and the absence of pupillary constriction in response to a bright light. In an emergency setting, paramedics look for the 5 signs of irreversible death to determine when resuscitation not possible.
The definition of brain death includes the absence of brainstem reflexes, the inability to breathe without a ventilator, and neurologic unresponsiveness. The diagnosis is used to declare a legal death, such as before an organ donation.
 
After death is confirmed, the timeline of physical processes is as follows:
 
At Hour 1
 
At the moment of death, all of the muscles in the body relax, a state called primary flaccidity. Eyelids lose their tension, the eyes' pupils dilate, the jaw might fall open, and the body's joints and limbs are flexible. With the loss of tension in the muscles, the skin will sag, which can cause prominent joints and bones in the body, such as the jaw or hips, to become pronounced.
The human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times during the average human lifespan, circulating about 5.6 liters (6 quarts) of blood through the circulatory system.
Within minutes of the heart-stopping, a process called pallor mortis causes the usually pinkish tone of a Caucasian person to grow pale as blood drains from the smaller veins in the skin.
At the same time, the body begins to cool from its normal temperature of 37° Celsius (98.6° Fahrenheit) until reaching the ambient temperature around it. Known as algor mortis or the "death chill," the decrease in body temperature follows a somewhat linear progression: two degrees Celsius in the first hour; one degree each hour thereafter.

The expected decrease in body temperature during algor mortis can help forensic scientists approximate the time of death, assuming the body hasn't completely cooled or been exposed to extreme environmental temperatures.
As muscles relax, sphincter tone diminishes, and urine and feces will pass.

At Hours 2 to 6

Because the heart no longer pumps blood, gravity begins to pull it to the areas of the body closest to the ground (pooling), a process called livor mortis. If the body remains undisturbed long enough (several hours), the parts of the body nearest the ground can develop a reddish-purple discoloration (resembling a bruise) from the accumulating blood. Embalmers sometimes refer to this as the "postmortem stain."




 
Beginning approximately in the third hour after death, chemical changes within the body's cells cause all of the muscles to begin stiffening. Known as rigor mortis.
With rigor mortis, the first muscles affected will be the eyelids, jaw, and neck. Over the next several hours, rigor mortis will spread into the face and down through the chest, abdomen, arms, and legs until it finally reaches the fingers and toes.
 
Interestingly, the old custom of placing coins on the eyelids of the deceased might have originated from the desire to keep the eyes shut since rigor mortis affects them soonest. Also, it is not unusual for infants and young children who die to not display rigor mortis, possibly due to their smaller muscle mass.

At Hours 7 to 12

Maximum muscle stiffness throughout the body occurs after roughly 12 hours due to rigor mortis, although this will be affected by the decedent's age, physical condition, gender, the air temperature, and other factors.
At this point, the limbs of the deceased are difficult to move or manipulate. The knees and elbows will be slightly flexed, and fingers or toes can appear unusually crooked.

At Hour 12 and Beyond

After reaching a state of maximum rigor mortis, the muscles will begin to loosen due to continued chemical changes within the cells and internal tissue decay. The process, known as known as secondary flaccidity, occurs over a period of one to three days and is influenced by external conditions such as temperature. (Cold slows down the process.)
During secondary flaccidity, the skin will begin to shrink, creating the illusion that hair and nails are growing. Rigor mortis will then dissipate in the opposite direction—from the fingers and toes to the face—over a period of up to 48 hours.
Once secondary flaccidity is complete, all of the muscles of the body will again be relaxed.

Summary

Starting at the moment of death, physical changes begin to take place in the body. The classic "rigor mortis" or stiffening of the body (from which the term "stiffs" derives) begins around three hours after death and is maximal at around 12 hours after death. Beginning at around the 12-hour mark, the body again becomes more flaccid as it was at the time of death.
Some people do not want to think about the changes in the body after death, whereas others wish to know. Everyone is different, and it is a very personal decision. For those who wish to know, however, we are learning that the bodily changes leading up to death, and after death, aren't simply random decomposition. Our bodies are actually designed to shut down and die at some time in a programmed manner.

Life and Death

in one breath

“Death is a cosmic joke. If you get the joke, when you fall on the other side, it will be wonderful. If you don’t get the joke, when you are here you fear the other side, and when the other side comes, you just don’t know what it is about. If death becomes a laughing matter in your life, life becomes an utterly effortless process – there is no need to restrain yourself in the process of life; you can live your life absolutely, totally.”

For ages, most of humanity has placed ‘life’ and ‘death’ at two ends of the existential spectrum – favoring one, fearing the other and continuously floundering between the two. Only when someone who has consciously traversed between both life and death offers to articulate some aspects of it, does humanity get a glimpse of what lies beyond the horizon of its normal perception.

 Human being's life and death are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. It is only by embracing both that we can break the shackles of our self-made struggles and be set free.

Let us look at the various stages of death, and explores the significance of the various death rituals in the Indian way of life.

Questioner: I wanted to know, what is the importance of doing shraddh (rituals for the deceased)?  Answer: In India, if someone close to you dies, you are supposed to sit and watch – no one leaves a dead body alone. If you keep the body for over two to three days, the hair will grow. If it was a man and he used to shave, you can see this from the facial hair. The nails will also grow. Therefore, in countries where they preserve the dead bodies for a longer time, the undertakers clip the nails and shave the beard. This is so because of the way life manifests. For the sake of understanding – there is fundamental life and physical life. Physical life energy, which is generally referred to as prana, has five basic manifestations. These are called samana, prana, udhana, apana, and vyana.

The Stages of Death

Within 21 to 24 minutes from the moment when a doctor would declare a person as dead, samana starts exiting. Samana is in charge of maintaining the temperature in the body. The first thing that happens after death is, the body starts cooling down. The traditional way of checking whether someone is dead or alive is to feel the nose – they would not check the eyeballs and other parameters. If the nose has gone cold, they concluded that he is dead.
Somewhere between 48 to 64 minutes after someone is considered as dead, prana exits. Between six and twelve hours after, udhana exits. There are tantric processes through which we could revive the body before udhana exits. Once udhana has exited, it is practically impossible to revive the body. Then, somewhere between eight to eighteen hours, apana exits. Subsequently, vyana, which is the preservative nature of prana, will start exiting and may continue to do so for up to 11 to 14 days if it is a normal death – that is if someone died of old age, because life became feeble. For that period of time, certain processes will continue in the body; there will still be some element of life. If someone died in an accident, when the life within was still vibrant – unless the body is totally crushed – the reverberations of this life will continue somewhere between 48 and 90 days.
 
During that time, there are things you can do for that life. Your experience of death is that someone is gone, but the experience of that being is that he or she has exited the body. Once they have exited the body, you have no business with them anymore. You cannot recognize them anymore, and if they came back, you would be terrified. If people you love died and would pop up again, there would be terror – not love, because your relationship is with their body or with their conscious mind and emotion. Once someone dies, those two aspects are left behind.
After death, discernment is completely absent, even more than in a child. Then, whatever quality you put into the mind, it will multiply a million fold.

The mind is just a bunch of information that has natural tendencies which find expression in a certain way. When someone dies, there is no more discernment, no more intellect. If you put one drop of pleasantness into their mind, this pleasantness will multiply a million fold. If you put one drop of unpleasantness, that unpleasantness will multiply a million fold. It is a little like with children – they go out to play until they are exhausted and cannot go on anymore, because they do not have the necessary discernment as to when it is time to stop.

After death, discernment is completely absent, even more than in a child. Then, whatever quality you put into the mind, it will multiply a million fold. This is what is being referred to as heaven and hell. If you go into a pleasant state of existence, it is called heaven. If you go into an unpleasant state of existence, it is called hell. These are not geographical locations - these are experiential realities that a life which has become disembodied is going through.

Death Rituals

How well or how ridiculously it is done today is a different matter, but there is a whole science of what to do at different steps. One of the first things people traditionally do if someone dies is, they will tie the big toes of the dead body together. This is very important because it will tighten up the muladhara in such a way that the body cannot be invaded by that life once again. A life that has not lived with the awareness that “this body is not me” will try to enter through any orifice of the body, particularly through the muladhara. The muladhara is where life generates, and it is always the last point of warmth when the body is cooling down.
The reason why traditionally, we always said that if someone dies, you must burn the body within an hour-and-a-half or a maximum of four hours is because life tries to get back. This is also important for the living. If someone very dear to you died, your mind may start playing tricks, thinking that maybe a miracle will happen, maybe God will come and bring them back. It has never happened to anyone, but still the mind plays up because of the emotions that you have for that particular person. Similarly, the life that has exited the body also believes that it can still get back into the body.
There are many rituals to see that you can somehow put a drop of sweetness into such a non-discerning mind.

If you want to stop the drama, the first thing is to set fire to the body within one-and-a-half hours. Or to be sure the person is dead, they have stretched it to four hours. But the body should be taken away as quickly as possible. In agriculture communities, they used to bury, because they wanted their forefathers’ bodies, which are a piece of soil, to go back to the soil that had nourished them. Today, you buy your food from the store, and do not know where it comes from. Therefore, burial is not advisable anymore. In earlier times, when they buried in their own land, they always put salt and turmeric on the dead body so that it quickly dissipates into the soil. Cremation is good because it closes the chapter. You will see that when there is a death in the family, people will be crying and wailing, but the moment cremation happens, they will become quiet, because suddenly, the truth has sunk in that it is over. This does not only go for the living but also for the disembodied being who has just exited the body. As long as the body is there, he or she is also under the illusion that he can get back.

There are many rituals to see that you can somehow put a drop of sweetness into such a non-discerning mind so that this sweetness will multiply many fold and they will live comfortably in a kind of self-induced heaven. That is the idea behind the rituals – if they are done properly.

Runanubandha

I am sure most of you have heard of runanubandha, which indicates a physical relationship. Whenever you touch someone – either because of blood relationship or sexual relationships, or even if you just hold someone’s hand or exchange clothes – these two bodies will generate runanubandha, a certain commonality. When someone dies, traditionally, you are seeing how to completely obliterate the runanubandha. The idea of putting the ashes in the Ganga or in the ocean is to disperse them as widely as possible so that you do not develop runanubandha with one who has departed. For you to continue your life, you must properly break this runanubandha. Otherwise, as it happens in modern societies, it will affect your physical and mental structure. Children up to eight years of age are immune to these things – nature has given them that protection, but adolescents will suffer immensely when we do not take care of the dead properly, because the energies of disembodied beings are always there and the first ones that they go after are adolescents because they are the most vulnerable. You see in the world today how much upheaval people are going through during adolescence.
One of the reasons why adolescence is more of a struggle today than it was in previous generations is that we are not properly taking care of those who have departed and these runanubandhas are all over the place. It is like loose software everywhere, and it always affects adolescent life most.

Questioner: But what to do? How do you grind your emotions into powder and sprinkle it? I don’t think it is possible to cut off your emotions.

Answer: Emotions are a different, secondary aspect to life. It is the physical sameness, the runanubandha with the dead that you want to eliminate, because this can cause sickness and mental derangement, among other things. Emotion by itself is not damaging. If you had a beautiful relationship with someone and now the person is no more, it is healthy to cherish the beauty of that relationship rather than suffer. But if the runanubandha is there, it weakens your body and your mental structure in such a way that instead of cherishing all the beautiful things that happened between two people, you are suffering, and not only that – it will lead to a certain derangement of life. To avoid that, we try to destroy the physical memory alone. It is not only that you cannot forget the emotional and psychological memory, you should not forget it either. Someone who meant so much to you – why should you forget them? You must cherish that relationship forever.

Is there life after death? What do Christians, Muslims and other religions believe?

Without any scientific evidence of an afterlife, many religions offer their own explanation as to what happens after death.

Christians believe that after dying, spirits are sent to heaven or hell depending on their Earthly behaviour.

Depending on which strand of the religion you ask, sinners are sent to hell either for eternity or until they have repented their actions. Those who have lived their lives according to Christian principles will be sent to heaven.

Catholics believe in the idea of purgatory, a place between heaven and hell where sinners first go to repent for their wrong-doings.

WILL WE EVER BE ABLE TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE?
 
The Islamic faith teaches that Allah will raise the dead on "The Last Day” – a date known only to him. On this day, he will judge all souls and send them to either paradise or hell.
Muslims believe that until then, the dead remain in their graves, where they will be sent visions of their fate.
According to Buddhists, spirits are reincarnated into new bodies until they achieve enlightenment. Upon doing so, they will exit the mortal coil and reach Nirvana – an "incomprehensible, indescribable, inconceivable and unutterable” place.
Clouds with light pouring out
 
 
Many religions believe in the idea of an afterlife.
Unlike most religions, the concept of an afterlife isn’t central to Judaism, instead it focuses on actions made in life.
There are some mentions of an afterlife in the religion, but not one divided into heaven and hell.
The Torah talks of an afterlife called Sheol – a shadowy place down in the centre of the Earth, where all souls go to without judgement.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

E250 Coupe Seat Adjustment Issues.


1. Electric Seat Adjustment
Problem


Hi All, this is the first post since I picked up my SLK 230K AMG today (2001).

So far I love the car and wished I bought one earlier. The only issue I am having is with the electric seat adjustment button on the driver side.

When I collected the car I managed to adjust the seat but now when I try and adjust the height or anything else nothing is happening when I press the button in any direction.

I have tried to get in touch with the local dealer that I got it from but he's not interested, all he said was bring the car back for a refund if I'm not happy:-(

Has anyone any ideas how to fix this?

I've had a search around and so far no luck :-(


Thanks
Garry
 
2. Look in the user's manual... I believe you have to have the door open, then turn the key to position 2 before you can adjust the seats.
 
3. The seat should adjust (a) With the door open, ignition can be off (b) with door closed, ignition should be on - at least position 2 if I remember correctly.
Also check fuses.
 
4. Thanks for the advise guys, I have tried with door open/closed and ignition on/off but no joy. Yet, the passenger side works fine. Perhaps is could be a fuse but seems odd that one side works and one side doesn't.
 
5. Fuse 21 - Seat adjustment Right
Fuse 22 - Seat adjustment Left

Check fuses and swap around if uncertain if fuse is blown.
 
6. According to page 38 of the user's manual...

Quote:
To operate the power seat adjustment switches, turn key in steering lock to position 1 or 2 (with the driver's or passenger's door open, the power seats can also be operated with the key removed or in in steering lock position 0).


7. Thanks for the advice guys, I have been at work all weekend so not had chance to check the fuse. Will have a check later on today and come back to you with any updates.

8. That would be appreciated, especially since you would be the first to have a problem with the electric seat adjustment.

9. If all the fuses are in order and seat adjustment prerequisites are met, then you should check the seat buttons. There have been cases that the buttons have been installed misaligned onto the switches. When this happens, the seats will be able to be adjusted in a particular direction and then not in the other. Hope this makes sense.

10. Hi, I have the same problem, It's a relay located around the steering column. If you
hit the area under the steering wheel it will probably start working again. You probably shodu replace the relay.



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Sunday, February 24, 2019

Myths and Misconceptions About Stem Cell Research

There is no shortage of myths and misconceptions when it comes to stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Here we address the most common concerns.

Is CIRM-funded stem cell research carried out ethically?

Stem cell research, like any field within biomedicine, poses social and ethical concerns. CIRM, as well as the broader research community, takes these seriously.
As a state funding body, CIRM has comprehensive policies to govern research, similar to our national counterpart, the National Institutes of Health. CIRM-funded researchers must comply with a comprehensive set of regulations that have been carefully developed and are in accordance with national and international standards.
These regulations were among the first formal policies governing the conduct of stem cell research and are in accordance with recommendations from the National Academies and from the International Society for Stem Cell Research. CIRM’s Standards Working Group meets regularly to consider new ethical challenges as the science progresses and to revise standards to reflect the current state of the research.
Find out More:
CIRM regulations
National Academies of Science guidelines
International Society for Stem Cell Research guidelines
National Academies of Science podcast about guidelines for embryonic stem cell research
More about CIRM-grantee ethics training (4:03)

Where do the embryos come from to create stem cell lines?

All the human embryonic stem cell lines currently in use come from four to five day-old embryos left over from in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. In IVF, researchers mix a man's sperm and a woman's eggs together in a lab dish. Some of those eggs will become fertilized. At about five days the egg has divided to become a hollow ball of roughly 100 cells called a blastocyst which is smaller than the size of the dot over an “i”. It is these very early embryos that are implanted into the woman in the hopes that she becomes pregnant.
Each cycle of IVF can produce many blastocysts, some of which are implanted into the woman. The rest are stored in the IVF clinic freezer. After a successful implantation, they must decide what to do with any remaining embryos. There are a few options:
  • Continue to paying to store the embryos
  • Defrost the embryos, which destroys them.
  • Donate the embryos for adoption(this option is rarely taken).
  • Choose to donate the frozen embryos for research. These donated embryos are the source of human embryonic stem cell lines.
Some embryonic stem cell lines also come from embryos that a couple has chosen not to implant because they carry harmful genetic mutations like the ones that cause cystic fibrosis or Tay Sachs disease. These are discovered through routine genetic testing prior to implantation. Still other embryos might be malformed in some way that causes them to be rejected for implantation into the mother. Embryos with genetic defects of malformations would have been discarded if the couple had not chosen to donate them to stem cell research.
People who donate leftover embryos for research go through an extensive consent process to ensure that they understand embryonic stem cell research. Under state, national  and international regulations, no human embryonic stem cell lines can be created without explicit consent from the donor.
Policies vary as to whether women may be paid or otherwise compensated to donate eggs.  Most jurisdictions allow donors to be reimbursed for direct costs such as travel to the clinic or lodging.  Some also allow payments or IVF services to be provided to egg donors.
Find out More:
How do scientists create stem cell lines from left over IVF embryos? (4:11)

I'm opposed to abortion. Do embryonic stem cell lines come from aborted fetuses?

No. Emybronic stem cells only come from four to five day old blastocysts or younger embryos.

Does creating embryonic stem cell lines destroy the embryo?

In most cases, yes. The hollow blastocyst—which is where embryonic stem cells come from—contains a cluster of 20-30 cells called the inner cell mass. These are the cells that become embryonic stem cells in a lab dish. The process of extracting these cells destroys the embryo.
Don’t forget that the embryos were donated from IVF clinics. They had either been rejected for implantation and were going to be destroyed, or the couple had decided to stop storing the embryos for future use. The embryos used to create embryonic stem cell lines were already destined to be destroyed.
There is, however, a second method that creates embryonic stem cell lines without destroying the embryo. Instead, scientists take a single cell from a very early stage IVF embryo and can use that one cell to develop a new line. The process of removing one cell from an early stage embryo has been done for many years as a way of testing the embryo for genetic predisposition to diseases such as Tay Sachs. This process is called preimplantation genetic testing.

Are adult stem cells as good—or better—than embryonic stem cells?

Adult stem cells are extremely valuable and have great potential for future therapies. However, these cells are very restricted in what they can do. Unlike embryonic stem cells, which can grow into virtually any cell type in the body, adult stem cells can only follow certain paths.
For example, Blood-forming stem cells can grow into mature blood cells, and brain stem cells may be able to grow into mature neurons, but a blood-forming stem cell can’t grow into a neuron, and vice versa. What’s more, adult stem cells don’t grow indefinitely in the lab, unlike embryonic stem cells, and they aren’t as flexible in the types of diseases they can treat.
And, while the news is full of stories about people who had great results from adult stem cell therapies, few of these therapies are part of big trials that can test whether a potential therapy is safe and effective. Until some of these large trials take place with both adult and embryonic stem cells we won't know which type of stem cell is superior. Even researchers who study adult stem cells advocate working with embryonic cells as well.
CIRM is excited about their potential for treating some diseases. However, our goal is to accelerate new treatments for diseases in need. At this time the most effective way of doing that is by exploring all types of stem cells. That's why CIRM has funded researchers pursuing a wide range of approaches to finding cures for diseases.
See how much of CIRM's funding has gone to different types of stem cells here: Overview of CIRM Stem Cell Research Funding.
Filter our list of all funded CIRM grants to see awards using different cell types.
How are adult stem cell different from embryonic stem cells? (3:29)

Don't iPS cells eliminate the need to use embryos in stem cell research?

Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, represent another type of cell that could be used for stem cell research. . iPS cells are adult cells—usually skin cells—that scientists genetically ‘reprogram’ to appear like embryonic stem cells. The technology used to generate human iPS cells, pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka in 2007, is very promising, which is why CIRM has funded many grants that create and use these cells to study or treat disease. However, iPS cell technology is very new and scientists are looking into whether those cells have the same potential as human embryonic stem cells and whether the cells are safe for transplantation. Many CIRM-funded researchers are working to find better ways of creating iPS cells that are both safe and effective.                    
Experts agree that research on all types of stem cells is critical.  In September 2008, a panel of experts convened by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences stated that the use of human embryonic stem cells is still necessary.  As panel chair Richard Hynes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology stated:
“It is far from clear at this point which types of cell types will prove to be the most useful for regenerative medicine, and it is likely that each will have some utility.”
See a video about creating iPS cells (3:40)

Can't stem cell research lead to human cloning?

No. Every significant regulatory and advisory body has restrictions on reproductive cloning. The National Academy of Sciences has issued guidelines banning the technique as has the International Society for Stem Cell Research. The California constitution and CIRM regulations specifically prohibit reproductive cloning with its funding.

To Raise Human Consciousness


If you just take away a few drugs from the market, a big portion of the population will go crazy. This is not wellbeing.
Investing in a spiritual possibility, a possibility beyond one’s physicality is the only ultimate answer. If you want long-term benefits, you must make long-term investments.

The journey from poverty to affluence is a hard journey, whether it is for an individual person or for a society, nation or large populations in the world. And it is not eco-friendly. But most of the time when people get there, they cannot enjoy their affluence.

Human beings need to realize that the quality of their life is not determined by what they drive, where they live or what they wear. It is determined by how joyful and peaceful a person is. In pursuit of wellbeing, human beings have looked up and fought forever. Then they looked out and ripped the planet apart. But wellbeing will happen only when you turn inward. In is the only way out.

Investing in a spiritual possibility, a possibility beyond one’s physicality is the only ultimate answer. If you want long-term benefits, you must make long-term investments.

“If there is no infrastructure, how will you produce enlightened beings?”

A hundred years ago, if you walked into a native village, you had to search the whole village to get one man who could read and write in just the local language itself. But today, at least 70% of the population can read in their own mother tongue and many can speak English. The turnaround happened because someone built schoolrooms and trained teachers.

Similarly, to raise human consciousness, to transform the individual human being, the most important thing that needs to happen in the world is that we build the needed infrastructure, both human and otherwise.

Gautama the Buddha, after his enlightenment, was invited by kings and emperors to many cities and towns. But he said, “If you want me to come, you must build a meditation hall and a garden.” This became a standard.

This is the only society that built a lot of infrastructure for inner wellbeing. There are more places created for spiritual blossoming than anywhere else on the planet. So, it is not a coincidence nor is it an accident that every generation produced enlightened beings.

But that infrastructure is now receding, not growing. There is not much infrastructure for the making of the human being. There is infrastructure for all kinds of things. How many bars do you think exist in your city? There is enough infrastructure to get drunk but not enough infrastructure to get enlightened. That is a very lopsided way of dealing with the world. If there is no infrastructure, how will you produce enlightened beings? You will not! That is what is missing. We need to put that back.

Physical and Human Infrastructure

This is one of the commitments that Isha has for the world: we want to build infrastructure for the inner wellbeing of the human being. When I say infrastructure, I am not just talking about physical infrastructure. Physical infrastructure is just to incubate human infrastructure. The most important thing is what kind of people you generate. Without the right kind of people, you cannot transmit this science because this is a subjective science. Without the right kind of people, it will not get across to people the way it should.
This is the time and age where we can empower every human being with the necessary tools, know-how and ability to handle their own inner wellbeing by themselves, without impeding upon any other life.

When it comes to life transformation, we do not allow anyone to teach these as a profession. One must hold this above his or her life, more important than their life, only then are they allowed to teach. This is given as an offering, never as a profession or a hobby.

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Raise Human Consciousness

Societies always believed that affluence will bring wellbeing. But if you look at nations that have enjoyed long periods of affluence, such as the United States, they tell me that 70% of the adult population there is on prescription medicine. (Details read below, 1.) In Europe, which has enjoyed many decades of continuous affluence, 38% of the population suffers from mental illness.(Details read below 2.) If you just take away a few drugs from the market, a big portion of the population will go crazy. This is not wellbeing.

1.

Nearly 7 in 10 Americans Take Prescription Drugs, Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center Find

June 19, 2013
 
CORRECTION: Corrects fourth most commonly prescribed drugs to drugs used to lower lipids rather than drugs to control blood pressure, and adds Olmsted Medical Center as study co-author.
 
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug, and more than half take two, Mayo Clinic and Olmsted Medical Center researchers say. Antibiotics, antidepressants and painkilling opioids are most commonly prescribed, their study found. Twenty percent of patients are on five or more prescription medications, according to the findings, published online in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

MULTIMEDIA ALERT: For audio and video of Dr. Jennifer St. Sauver talking about the study, visit the Mayo Clinic News Network.
 
The findings offer insight into prescribing practices. The statistics from the Rochester Epidemiology Project in Olmsted County, Minn. are comparable to those elsewhere in the United States, says study author Jennifer St. Sauver, Ph.D., a member of the Mayo Clinic Population Health Program in the Mayo Clinic Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.

"Often when people talk about health conditions they're talking about chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes," Dr. St. Sauver says. "However, the second most common prescription was for antidepressants — that suggests mental health is a huge issue and is something we should focus on. And the third most common drugs were opioids, which is a bit concerning considering their addicting nature."

Seventeen percent of those studied were prescribed antibiotics, 13 percent were taking antidepressants and 13 percent were on opioids. Drugs to lower lipids, such as cholesterol, came in fourth (11 percent) and vaccines were fifth (11 percent).

Drugs were prescribed to both men and women across all age groups, except high blood pressure drugs, which were seldom used before age 30.

Overall, women and older adults receive more prescriptions. Vaccines, antibiotics and anti-asthma drugs are most commonly prescribed in people younger than 19. Antidepressants and opioids are most common among young and middle-aged adults. Cardiovascular drugs are most commonly prescribed in older adults. Women receive more prescriptions than men across several drug groups, especially antidepressants: Nearly 1 in 4 women ages 50-64 are on an antidepressant.
For several drug groups, use increases with advancing age.
"As you get older you tend to get more prescriptions, and women tend to get more prescriptions than men," Dr. St. Sauver says.

Prescription drug use has increased steadily in the U.S. for the past decade. The percentage of people who took at least one prescription drug in the past month increased from 44 percent in 1999-2000 to 48 percent in 2007-08. Spending on prescription drugs reached $250 billion in 2009 the year studied, and accounted for 12 percent of total personal health care expenditures. Drug-related spending is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, the researchers say.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.

2.

Nearly 40 percent of

Europeans suffer

mental illness

 

5 Min Read

LONDON (Reuters) - Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study.

With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden — measured in the hundreds of billions of euros — as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down.

“Mental disorders have become Europe’s largest health challenge of the 21st century,” the study’s authors said.
At the same time, some big drug companies are backing away from investment in research on how the brain works and affects behavior, putting the onus on governments and health charities to stump up funding for neuroscience.

“The immense treatment gap ... for mental disorders has to be closed,” said Hans Ulrich Wittchen, director of the institute of clinical psychology and psychotherapy at Germany’s Dresden University and the lead investigator on the European study.

“Those few receiving treatment do so with considerable delays of an average of several years and rarely with the appropriate, state-of-the-art therapies.”

Wittchen led a three-year study covering 30 European countries — the 27 European Union member states plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway — and a population of 514 million people.

A direct comparison of the prevalence of mental illnesses in other parts of the world was not available because different studies adopt varying parameters.

Wittchen’s team looked at about 100 illnesses covering all major brain disorders from anxiety and depression to addiction to schizophrenia, as well as major neurological disorders including epilepsy, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.


The results, published by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ENCP) on Monday, show an “exceedingly high burden” of mental health disorders and brain illnesses, he told reporters at a briefing in London.
Mental illnesses are a major cause of death, disability, and economic burden worldwide and the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will be the second leading contributor to the global burden of disease across all ages.

Wittchen said that in Europe, that grim future had arrived early, with diseases of the brain already the single largest contributor to the EU’s burden of ill health.

The four most disabling conditions — measured in terms of disability-adjusted life years or DALYs, a standard measure used to compare the impact of various diseases — are depression, dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, alcohol dependence and stroke.

The last major European study of brain disorders, which was published in 2005 and covered a smaller population of about 301 million people, found 27 percent of the EU adult population was suffering from mental illnesses.

Although the 2005 study cannot be compared directly with the latest finding — the scope and population was different — it found the cost burden of these and neurological disorders amounted to about 386 billion euros ($555 billion) a year at that time. Wittchen’s team has yet to finalize the economic impact data from this latest work, but he said the costs would be “considerably more” than estimated in 2005.

The researchers said it was crucial for health policy makers to recognize the enormous burden and devise ways to identify potential patients early — possibly through screening — and make treating them quickly a high priority.

“Because mental disorders frequently start early in life, they have a strong malignant impact on later life,” Wittchen said. “Only early targeted treatment in the young will effectively prevent the risk of increasingly largely proportions of severely ill...patients in the future.”

 

Live the Best Life Possible You

Setting goals means depriving yourself of greater possibilities. The mentality of “doing less, getting more” not only means deceiving others, but above all, deceiving yourself.

There are two ways to address your life. One way is to set goals and go for them. What kind of goals will you set? Something that you are impressed with in the world, something that you have not yet done, something that is yet to be in your life. You are trying to be like someone else or do something that someone else is doing. Whatever goals you arrive at, they are all in some way within the limitations of what you already know, or maybe a little exaggerated versions thereof. Is it not tragic to spend a whole year trying to achieve what you already know?

My intention is things that you do not know should happen to you. Things that you have never imagined should enter your life. Only then will your life be truly enriched. What is the point of only doing things that you already know?
If you become conscious, you will do your best.

When it comes to financial or physical things that you want to achieve, maybe if it matters to you, you can set up such goals. Personally, I think even that is a waste of life. Suppose you have a million dollars and your goal is to have a billion dollars by the end of the year. If it doesn’t happen, it’s a good thing because you have lived in that hope. But if it happens, let’s say in January itself, then what will you do? You will want to make it ten billion dollars. There was a time when you could be happy with one dollar. Now for the same happiness, you need a million dollars. That’s called inflation. That’s not enhancement of life.

All that you do with life is create inflation. Inflation is neither good for the economy nor for your life. In physics, inflation means filling up something, like you inflate the tires of a car with air. But in economics, inflation means certain parameters go out of control. Now you are consciously causing inflation in your life – that is not an intelligent way to go about it. By setting time-bound goals, you may achieve a few things, but it will be of no consequence to the life that you are.

Instead of setting goals for the whole year, just set this one thing: By the end of the day, you must be a little more joyful, a little more enhanced, a little better. This will not work as a goal – it is better to look at it in retrospect. Tomorrow evening, just check, “Am I a little better than yesterday?” Just look at these twenty-four hours – it will make you more conscious. This is not about you being joyful or peaceful. This is about you being conscious of as many aspects of your life as possible.
By the end of the day, you must be a little more joyful, a little more enhanced, a little better.

You will do your best about whatever you are conscious of. Most of the nonsense happens because you are unconscious about so many things. All we need to do is to become conscious about everything – about our own nature, our mental states, our emotional states, our life, our physical situations, our financial situations, our ecological situations. If you become conscious, you will do your best. That’s all you need to do in life. But right now, you believe that unless you create a tension, you will not achieve anything. To get from where you are to where your goal is, you create a tension – it is like a rubber band effect. You try to keep moving from one place to another. From one level of social status to another. From one financial status to another. From one educational status to another. This is no different from how the caveman was, how hunters and gatherers were – “gather as much as you can.”

In those days, they piled up bones, feathers, and the like. Now maybe you are thinking of stocks, shares, and property. Maybe you are thinking of conquering another nation. On a material level, it looks different, but fundamentally, it is the same rudimentary thought of accumulating things. All this accumulation would make sense, had you organized transport to take all these things with you when you die. Having your own furniture in Heaven or especially in Hell would be great. Otherwise, who knows – maybe they will give you this chair with a straight back that you don’t like, so taking your own sofa with you would be great.

Anything that you gather, whether it is your knowledge, your wealth, your relationships, or whatever else, is only of value for the current transactions. If you keep it active, it will facilitate a few things for you. It has social consequence, but it has no life consequence. Instead of setting goals, it is best you find ways to nourish this life that you are. If you are nourishing this life, you only have to measure the growth. Suppose you plant a mango tree. If you set the goal that by the end of 2018, it must bear a thousand fruits, otherwise you will cut it down, all that will happen is you will cut the tree. The way to do it is to see how to nurture this tree in the best possible way, and to do that. Don’t worry about getting a thousand fruits. Whatever best can come out will come out of it. If you nourish it in a certain way, it may be more than you can imagine.
…life works best when you throw yourself into it, without bothering about what comes back.

It is not good to set goals in any sphere of life, because you will only be doing something that you already know. Nothing completely new will happen in your life. I think that’s a tragedy. Your dreams coming true is no good. If what you could not even dare to dream of becomes a reality – that’s a fantastic life. Results will happen depending on how well you handle the process of life, as well as on the times and on where you are. Today you may put in a certain amount of effort, and you will earn a million dollars. A thousand years ago, someone ten times smarter than you put in a lot of effort, but still he only earned a small amount. But this comparison is not the point. The important thing is that for the times he lived in, he yielded the best he could. For the times you live in, are you yielding the best you can? That is the question.

I know every management school is talking about setting goals. But goals are not set for themselves – they are set to drive other people. There are a lot of people who will never do their best – they are always under par. They are not conscious enough to understand that as a human being, you must do the best you can in your life. Otherwise, life will be wasted. For such people, you have to set goals. If you are a donkey, the less you do, the smarter you are, because there are no other possibilities for you beyond eating, reproducing, sleeping, hanging around, and dying one day. Because there are no possibilities, the less you do, the better. Too many people have adopted this donkey philosophy. They think if they do less and get more, they are doing well. In reality, they are just stupid. They are missing the whole possibility of life.

Human life really happens if you throw yourself into everything. If you hold back, you will miss life. If you do not give yourself totally to what you are doing, you don’t deceive someone else –you only deceive yourself of life. Once, bad times came upon Shankaran Pillai. He was a construction laborer, doing menial work to earn a living. He had to carry twenty-five bricks on a board, take them up three floors, put them there, come back down again, and so on. But after some time, once the foreman was gone, Shankaran Pillai started carrying the same set of bricks up and down. People who were working with him watched this and said, “Hey, why are you bringing back the bricks?” “Well, the foreman is not looking, right?” “But now you are carrying the bricks both ways, you idiot! Otherwise, at least coming down, you would not have had to carry the load.”
It is not good to set goals in any sphere of life, because you will only be doing something that you already know.

This is what happens if you try to do less – simple things will become burdensome in your life. People are having so much trouble just going to the office and doing nine-to-five work. They are not managing the company. They are not managing the government. It’s just a chunk of work that someone has given them, just for a living – how complicated they are making that! From that, they are getting high blood pressure and their heart is breaking. You must see the scenes that happen in families. Just two people living together – how complicated! Little children – how much suffering they cause! Only once in a way, they are a joy – the rest of the time, people suffer them immensely.

Their work, their children, their spouses, their homes, their jobs, their driving – people suffer just about everything. This happens because they are not conscious enough to understand that life works best when you throw yourself into it, without bothering about what comes back. Life happens because of your involvement, not because of what you get. What are you going to do with what you get? The only sick pleasure you could have is if you compare yourself with someone else who has less than you. If you want to know and enjoy life, if you want to explore the full potential of this life, the only way is through absolute involvement. Let us see what will come out of it. If it is winter, nothing comes out of the earth. In springtime, with a little effort, a lot comes out. The same goes with life.

The biggest mistake people make is to be goal-oriented. If you set yourself the goal to get enlightened by 2019, you will be totally messed up by the end of the year. If you just do what you have to do, life will naturally flower.

May the coming year bring the Best to you.

Full Moon : Life Lessons







Full Moon Calendar for 2019

Date



Time


January 2112:17 A.M.
February 1910:53 A.M.
March 20 9:43 P.M.
April 19 7:12 A.M.
May 18 5:11 P.M.
June 17 4:31 A.M.
July 16 5:39 P.M.
August 15 8:31 A.M.
September 1412:35 A.M.
October 13 5:10 P.M.
November 12 8:37 A.M.
December 1212:14 A.M.

Full Moon Calendar 2020







Date


Time


January 10 2:23 P.M.
February 9 2:34 A.M.
March 9 1:48 P.M.
April 710:35 P.M.
May 7 6:45 A.M.
June 5 3:12 P.M.
July 512:44 A.M.
August 311:59 A.M.
September 2 1:23 A.M.
October 1
October 31
5:06 P.M.
10:51 A.M.
November 30 4:32 A.M.
December 2910:30 P.M.


Just a phase

Here's how a full moon works:
The moon is a sphere that travels once around Earth every 27.3 days. It also takes about 27 days for the moon to rotate on its axis. So, the moon always shows us the same face; there is no single "dark side" of the moon. As the moon revolves around Earth, it is illuminated from varying angles by the sun — what we see when we look at the moon is reflected sunlight. On average, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, which means sometimes it rises during daylight and other times during nighttime hours.

Here’s how the moon's phases go:

At new moon, the moon is between Earth and the sun, so that the side of the moon facing toward us receives no direct sunlight, and is lit only by dim sunlight reflected from Earth.


A few days later, as the moon moves around Earth, the side we can see gradually becomes more illuminated by direct sunlight. This thin sliver is called the waxing crescent.

A week after new moon, the moon is 90 degrees away from the sun in the sky and is half-illuminated from our point of view, what we call first quarter because it is about a quarter of the way around Earth.

A few days later, the area of illumination continues to increase. More than half of the moon's face appears to be getting sunlight. This phase is called a waxing gibbous moon.

When the moon has moved 180 degrees from its new moon position, the sun, Earth and the moon form a line. The moon’s disk is as close as it can be to being fully illuminated by the sun, so this is called full moon.

Next, the moon moves until more than half of its face appears to be getting sunlight, but the amount is decreasing. This is the waning gibbous phase.

Days later, the moon has moved another quarter of the way around Earth, to the third quarter position. The sun's light is now shining on the other half of the visible face of the moon.

Next, the moon moves into the waning crescent phase as less than half of its face appears to be getting sunlight, and the amount is decreasing.

Finally, the moon moves back to its new moon starting position. Because the moon’s orbit is not exactly in the same plane as Earth’s orbit around the sun, they rarely are perfectly aligned. Usually the moon passes above or below the sun from our vantage point, but occasionally it passes right in front of the sun, and we get an eclipse of the sun.

Each full moon is calculated to occur at an exact moment, which may or may not be near the time the moon rises where you are. So when a full moon rises, it’s typically doing so some hours before or after the actual time when it’s technically full, but a casual skywatcher won’t notice the difference. In fact, the moon will often look roughly the same on two consecutive nights surrounding the full moon.


Life Lesson #1:

Kill the lies

  Just spend a minute to identify at least one thing in your life that is not necessary and kill that today. When I say “kill,” don’t start thinking about your boss, mother-in-law or neighbor. You must kill something about you that is unnecessary for your life. Something like “I will kill my anger” would be too general and this is not something that you can achieve by determination – this requires consciousness.

Decide on something that you can do and that you will do. This is how to transform your life – by taking small steps.

Identify something specific that you will be better off without, where you can take a concrete step today – it does not matter how small it is. Choose one specific little thing that you will not do anymore, no matter what. “I will not be angry” would be a lie, because this is not yet in your control but it could be something like, “I will not speak angry words.”

Decide on something that you can do and that you will do. This is how to transform your life – by taking small steps. But you should actually do it – it should not pop up again. If you kill something, it should be dead. If you want to move towards the truth of life, your investment in that which is not true has to be reduced. It may not all vanish immediately, but you must reduce it step-by-step.

Life Lesson #2:

Break the status quo

Look at life in terms of what can be changed and do something about it. Crying about things that you cannot change is a sure strategy to remain at status quo. At least once a month, every full moon day, consciously look at this and identify one small thing about yourself that you want to change. Like, “Every time before I eat, I will spend 10 seconds in gratitude for this food which is going to become a part of me.” Or, “Every time I use anything that is an essential element of my life, like the soil, the water, the air, and everything else around me, I will save 1% of it.” Or, “I will see to it that I only put on my plate what I can eat.” These small things will change your life and set you apart.

Life Lesson #3:

Remember you are mortal

A significant thing every human being has to do is structure their psychological and emotional framework around the most fundamental fact of their life – their mortality. Right now, it takes a lifetime for people to understand that they are mortal; they need a heart attack or the appearance of a malignant lump somewhere to remind them.
You are mortal and it is ticking away. So there is no time for frustration, depression, anxiety, anger or for any unpleasantness in this life.

You need to celebrate and enjoy every moment of your life because life does not wait for you even for a moment. If you were immortal, you could enjoy a hundred years each of depression, anxiety, madness and misery and then on the 500th anniversary, you could become joyful. But that is not the case. You are mortal and it is ticking away. So there is no time for frustration, depression, anxiety, anger or for any unpleasantness in this life.

 I always tell people, no matter what work you are doing, every day you must stick your fingers into the earth at least for an hour. This will build a natural physical memory, a bodily memory in you that you are mortal.

Life Lesson #4:

Choose to live intelligently

Within yourself, is it more pleasant to be loving, or to be angry, hateful and jealous? Which is a more intelligent way to exist? Loving, isn’t it? All I am saying is, please live intelligently. This is not for someone else’s sake. It is pleasant and beautiful for you. Creating a loving world is not a service that you do for someone else. It is an intelligent way to exist.

You can create a loving world in every single activity that you do in your life. Creating a loving world does not mean doing something more or less. If you live your life constantly focused on what you want, it will unquestionably happen in your immediate surroundings, and it will also begin to happen in the larger surroundings.

 
The moon is the easiest celestial object to find in the night sky — when it's there. Earth's only natural satellite hovers above us bright and round until it seemingly disappears for a few nights. The rhythm of the moon's phases has guided humanity for millennia — for instance, calendar months are roughly equal to the time it takes to go from one full moon to the next.

Life Lesson #5:

Determine the quality of your life

In many ways, most people’s happiness, peace and love are mortgaged to the external situation. So, if the stock market goes up you are happy, if the stock market goes down you are unhappy. But the quality of life is not about what is around you. Our ability to live joyfully here does not depend on the size of the house we live in or the car that we drive. These things make your life comfortable and convenient but the essential quality of your life is how you are within yourself right now.

Living joyfully and peacefully is not new to you. You were like that as a child, isn’t it? So, I am not talking about taking you beyond, I am just talking about starting at the square one of your life.

Life Lesson #6:

There is intelligence in humility

The difference between a fool and an intelligent person is that an intelligent person knows how foolish he is; a fool does not. Noticing the stupidity of who you are is great intelligence. Anything in this existence – a tree, a blade of grass, a grain of sand, one single atom – do you understand any of these things fully? No. When this is your level of intelligence and perception, how should you walk in the world? Gently, with a little humility, respect and love for everything around you. If not love, then at least with awe, because you don’t understand a damn thing in this world.

If you just learn to walk like this, you will not escape a spiritual process. You don’t need any teaching. It will happen to you anyway. This is why in the eastern cultures, always, you bow down to whatever you see, whether it is a rock, an animal or a human being. Being in reverence towards the very earth that you walk upon, towards the air that you breathe, the water that you drink, the food that you eat, the people that you come in touch with and everything else that you use, including your body and mind, is a way of ensuring success in every endeavor that we partake in.

Life Lesson #7:

There is no good and bad

Your inner world – if you want to call it that – should only be a reflection of what is around you. This may be diametrically opposite to some moral theories that say the outer and the inner should not touch each other, otherwise you would immediately get corrupted by everything around you. That is not true. You get corrupted by what is around you only when you have opinions about everything.
Seeing everything just the way it is – that is the way to be within. If you see something other than what is there, it means you are contaminating the world with your opinions and prejudices.

You look at one thing as good, something else as bad. You get attached to what you consider as good. You desperately try to avoid what you consider as bad, and of course that will rule you from inside. This is not the way to be. Seeing everything just the way it is – that is the way to be within. If you see something other than what is there, it means you are contaminating the world with your opinions and prejudices.

Creation is made so that you see it the way it is, not to make it the way you want to make it. This is an obscenity that humanity is committing upon the Creator’s creation. Such a magnificent creation – what is there for you to do? Absorb it if you can – nothing more – and even that is not simple because creation is phenomenally multi-tiered. So many phenomena are happening right here – one inside the other, all in one space, all in one time.

Everything that you think is past, everything that you think will be future is right here. If you see everything the way it is, if the whole creation reflects within you, if you can contain creation the way it is within you, you become the very source of creation. That is the way to be, inside and outside.

Moon phases and the moon's orbit are mysteries to many. For example, the moon always shows us the same face. That happens because it takes 27.3 days both to rotate on its axis and to orbit Earth. We see either the full moon, half moon or no moon (new moon) because the moon reflects sunlight. How much of it we see depends on the moon's position in relation to Earth and the sun.

Though a satellite of Earth, the moon, with a diameter of about 2,159 miles (3,475 kilometers), is bigger than Pluto. (Four other moons in our solar system are even bigger.) The moon is a bit more than one-fourth (27 percent) the size of Earth, a much smaller ratio (1:4) than any other planets and their moons. This means the moon has a great effect on the planet and very possibly is what makes life on Earth possible.

How did the moon form?

There are various theories about how the moon was created, but recent evidence indicates it formed when a huge collision tore a chunk of Earth away.

The leading explanation for how the moon formed was that a giant impact knocked off the raw ingredients for the moon off the primitive molten Earth and into orbit. Scientists have suggested the impactor was roughly 10 percent the mass of Earth, about the size of Mars. Because Earth and the moon are so similar in composition, researchers have concluded that the impact must have occurred about 95 million years after the formation of the solar system, give or take 32 million years. (The solar system is roughly 4.6 billion years old.) New studies in 2015 gave further weight to this theory, based on simulations of planetary orbits in the early solar system, as well as newly uncovered differences in the abundance of the element tungsten-182 detected in the Earth and the moon.

Although the large impact theory dominates the scientific community's discussion, there are several other ideas for the moon's formation. These include that the Earth captured the moon, that the moon fissioned out of the Earth, or that Earth may even have stolen the moon from Venus, according to a recent theory.
Internal structure
The moon very likely has a very small core, just 1 to 2 percent of the moon's mass and roughly 420 miles (680 km) wide. It likely consists mostly of iron, but may also contain large amounts of sulfur and other elements.