Category Archives: Immortality Medicine

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Targeted-sequence of normal urothelium and tumor of patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer | Scientific Reports - Nature.com

Susan Collins is still very concerned.

If Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson keeps doling out legal history lessons that make the Fascist Federalist Society dopes sitting next to herlook even dopier, soon the transcripts of her questions and comments fromthe bench will simply read: [Kavanaughs Airhorn].

People say that no word rhymes with 'orange.' I can think of one that does: 'Plorange.' It means, "Word that rhymes with orange."

One day our nation will be so stable and peacefulthat our midterm election will be nothing more than a referendum on pumpkin spice. Unfortunately, the result will spark a bloody civil war.

Im disappointed that the Webb space telescope has taken tons of planet and nebula pics butonly a handful of alien nudie pics.

Ididnt just ask my doctor if the drug I saw on TV "is right for me," I also asked him about my clothes, my hair, my teeth, my car insurance, my dreams, and my place in this crazy world. He now has an unlisted number.

Im glad Lizzo didnt try to play Madisons bagpipes.

I'm still waiting for the release of that audiotape in which Michelle Obama uses the term "Whitey." Remember that? I hear it's coming outany day now!

And now, our feature presentation...

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Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, October 6, 2022

Note:I'm posting today's C&J from the East Room of the White House. My thanks to the Secret Service for leaving the key under the mat last night when they went to Denny's.

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By the Numbers:

Days 'til we turn our clocks back: 31

Days 'til the New York City Wine and Food Festival: 7

Estimated number of homes still without power in Florida: 500,000

Terabytes of information gathered by prosecutors in their criminal fraud case against Steve Bannon: 4

Percent of Americans polled by the University of Chicago and AP-NORC who say their kids have no chance of having a better quality of life than they did: 54%

Percent drop in the stock price of Mark Zuckerberg's shit-show media platform "Meta" so far this year: -60%

Age of Loretta Lynn when she died this week: 90

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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Republicans in Congress are stacking up a record of election-year folly so gross it staggers even veterans of legislative debacles.

First, they let the assault weapons ban lapse, despite the fact that 70 percent of the American people want it kept in place. They had to pass a simple $5 billion corporate-tax plan because we are in violation of tariff laws. This has bogged down in a $150 billion pork-off, while American products are losing billions of dollars in retaliatory sanctions.

Even worse, Congress passed a $145 billion extension of tax cuts. To cover the resulting debt, we are borrowing money from the Bank of China, to be paid off by our children. Showing a fine sense of fiscal restraint, the R's declined to extend minimal credits for millions of children in working-poor families. Instead, they gave another $13 billion in tax cuts to the corporations. Remember when Bush told us cutting corporate taxes would result in a mighty flood of new jobs?

But, hey, they're in favor of protecting marriage and against burning the flag, so your life should get dramatically better.

September 2004

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Puppy Pic of the Day: Itsaliiiive!!!

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CHEERSto tripping over your own dendrite. During his last year as governor, Paul I was Trump before Trump was Trump LePage desperately tried to get a job in Washington so he could leave Maine behind. When that didnt pan out, he angrily completed his second term and then abandoned his state to becomea permanent resident of Florida. Finding himself unable to function without a public spotlight on him 24/7,he grudginglymoved back to try for a third term. Tuesday night he debated current Democrat governor Janet Millswho was a massive roadblock and thorn in his side as state attorney generaland, well, lets just say he probably shouldve stayed down south on the shuffleboardcircuit. Watch how Governor Mills gives him an impromptu weasel-wordectomy:

Before the debate, Mills was leading LePage by 12 points in polling released in late September. If you clicked on the clip above, you can see why.

CHEERS to cool science. The Nobel Prize-a-palooza continued yesterday with the chemistry medallions (which are a bit tougher than veal medallions, but still tasty with enough ketchup). And the winners arewould you believe nerds?

This years Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded in equal parts to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless for developing way of snapping molecules together that can be used to design medicines.

Their work, known as click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions, is used to make cancer drugs, map DNA and create materials that are tailored to a specific purpose. []

Sharpless previously won a Nobel Prize in 2001. He is the fifth person to receive the award twice.

More here at AKALib's diary. To reward them for their hard work, therecipients will receive a check good for ten-million molecules. As for the rest of the week, the coveted Peace Prize gets awarded tomorrow, but not before today's medal for Outstanding Blogger with Candy Corn Addiction is announced. I'm really excited about my prospects. For the talent portion I played Bach's Toccata and Fugue on a flaming cello while juggling chainsaws and two of the judges winked at me.

JEERSto Bovines of Mass Destruction. During this week in 1871, theGreat Chicago Firebroke out after Joe Biden kicked over a lantern onto a pile of bamboo fibers in Mrs. O'Leary's barn to try and incinerate damning evidence proving that George Soros created the Deep State to steal the 2020 election. Or, if you prefer the non-Breitbart News version: it was a cow. Despite the horrific damage and loss of life, there was a bright side: the T-bones were excellent that night.

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BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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CHEERSto brewing a cauldron of hilarity. Can't let today go by without noting that eleven years ago this week Republican tea party know-nothing Christine O'Donnell released an ad for her U.S. Senate run in Delaware with the most bizarre opening line of the 2010 election (or maybe any other, for that matter):"I'm not a witch. I'm nothing you've heard. I'm YOU!"

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The question I asked back then remains unanswered eleven years later: Yeah, but if you are me, and Im a practicing witch, then by definitionyourea witch, too! I mean,right?

How awful was her message of "I promise not to turn you into a newt"?In an election year that saw a tidal wave of tea partiers swept into power, she managed to lose to a liberal DemocratChris Coons, doing a fine job after winning re-election in 2014 and 2020. She may not have been a witch, but that flame-out was still quite a trick.

CHEERS to perspective. The chair of the MAGA Party in Arizona, Kelli Ward, was recently deposed by the House Jan. 6 select committee because she allegedly participated in the scheme to overthrow the United States government by rounding up a slate of fake electors to illegally cast their vote for Trump. She says she's totally innocent and has nothing to hide. So let's check the transcript and see the calm, smooth, thoughtful way in which she exonerated herself from criminality during her time under the klieg lights:

"On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege to not have to admit about all the crimey business I did on behalf of my hero, mentor, and pin-up poster boy Donald J. Trump."

In the immortal words of Donald J. Trump: The mob takes the Fifth Amendment. If youre innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment? I hope we find out one day.

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Ten years ago in C&J: October 6, 2012

CHEERS to the Obama Doctrine. That would be the doctrine that says, "Shut up, neoconslet the sanctions in Iran do their thing." I think I know why Mahmud Ahmadinejahd said at the U.N. that he's eager to sit down at the bargaining table after the election: we've got the regime's nads in a bit of a vise:

Tensions over the plunging value of Irans currency sparked clashes between protesters and security forces in the capital Wednesday, the most significant unrest there in two years and a possible prelude to a more serious threat to political stability. Increasingly stringent U.S. and European sanctions against Iran have driven the value of the rial down for years, but its fall has accelerated dramatically over the past week, forcing a run on hard currency and anxieties over the skyrocketing prices of food and other staples.

And if that doesn't work, we go after the Mullahs' porn. Cruel, I know, butfreedom.

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And just one more

CHEERS to ending every week on a high note. Every Friday night our C&J poll asks, "Who won the week?" We do our best to round up ten solid candidates who make us feel a little mushy-gushy and remind us that all is not lost. Thanks to your smarts and good sense, the Class of the Third Quarter of 2022 is a good-lookin' bunch. As we leave July, August, and September behind, lets take a peek back at the do-gooders who walked among us. The envelopes, please

July 1 White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, the surprise witness at the Jan. 6 hearings...and the eye-popping 13,000,000+ Americans who tuned in

July 8The Georgia Grand Jury that subpoenaed Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and others for their alleged role in trying to steal Biden's win there

July 15California's government, for plans to cap the price of insulin at $30 a month by producing it in-state, and allow residents to sue firearm makers and sellers for the harm done by their guns

July 22 The House Jan. 6 Committee: hearings reveal Trump giddily encouraging the insurrection, cementing status as worst, most treasonous president

July 29 Chuck Schumer, for outflanking unflankable McConnell by getting the CHIPS bill passed and then, moments later, announcing major climate/health care/inflation bill even Manchin likes

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Aug 5Kansas voters, for turning out in huge numbers to approve (59-41) a measure keeping abortion rights enshrined in the state constitution

Aug 12The vise of justice squeezing Trump: House committee gets tax returns; NY AG grills him for 4 hours; and FBI comes a' knockin' with a search warrant

Aug 19 President Biden: signs the massive Climate/Health/Tax-the-rich bill into law; cancels $4 billion in student loan debt owed to fraudsters at ITT Tech; and court rules he can stop oil/gas leasing on public lands/waters

Aug 26 President Biden: Student loan relief order brings cheers from minorities/middle class; OKs more aid for Ukraine; gas prices down 73 straight days

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Sept 2Democrat Mary Peltola, who beat Sarah Palin to win the special election for Alaskas only House seat. She's the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress.

Sept 9 Ukraine, as Putin gets spanked by Zelenskyy's forces, liberating 400+ miles of territory since Sept. 1 and recapturing dozens of towns

Sept 16 Ukraine, for liberating a huge swath of their country from the mighty Russian empire in one of the greatest David vs. Goliath counteroffensives in military history

Sept 23 The office of NY Attorney General Letitia James, for filing a $250 million civil lawsuit against the Trump crime family involving massive tax fraud

Sept. 30 The Iranian women and their male allies out in the streets risking their lives to protest the deadly actions of the country's "morality police"

Who will our gold-star winners be in the fourth quarter? Oh, thats for you to decide.

Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial

At this point, just cheer and jeeror dont. Im so sick of having my life dictated by the whims of bored manbaby Bill in Portland Maine.

Anonymous Twitter employee

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Read more:
Cheers and Jeers: Thursday - Daily Kos

North Korean officials have been told that more than 350,000 people in the country died of illnesses over the past year, many likely related to COVID-19, sources told RFA, as authorities began a new vaccination campaign on the countrys border with China more than a month after declaring victory over the coronavirus.

Attendees of a training session for government officials were surprised by the number of suspected deaths from COVID, and also from diseases like the flu, tuberculosis and from waterborne pathogens, a government official from South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFAs Korean Service.

At the meeting, the issue of continuing the quarantine measures to prevent the spread of an infectious disease was repeatedly emphasized because deaths from COVID-19 are suspected to account for the majority of the 350,000 deaths, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

I can tell from my surrounding area that many people have died from sickness this year, he said. A friend of mine on the provincial People's Committee died a few days after suffering from a high fever and sore throat. Another friend's parents also died, and this friend assumes that his parents died of COVID-19.

RFA was not able to confirm the death total, but if it is accurate, the number of COVID-related deaths is far higher than the government has publicly stated. For the first two years of the pandemic, Pyongyang claimed to be completely virus free.

North Korea finally acknowledged the virus was spreading within its borders in May, when it declared a national maximum emergency due to a major outbreak of the disease that it traced back to a military parade the previous month.

North Korea reported during the emergency that 4.7 million people had developed so-called fever cases, with state media reporting 74 related deaths. The government declared an end to the emergency on Aug. 10.

These figures were never officially confirmed to be COVID-19 related, likely because of a lack of testing capabilities.

The actual death toll is probably between 100,000 and 170,000, according to a journal article penned by Shin Young-jeon, a South Korean preventative medicine expert at Hanyang University in Seoul.

Prior to the emergency, anyone who died of symptoms suspected to be related to COVID-19 were hastily cremated and buried, making a confirmation of the disease impossible, sources said.

Even as more information emerges about the number of North Koreans who died in the past year, authorities are still threatening to punish citizens who spread rumors about COVIDs impact, an official from Onsong county in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

Last week the Central Committee [of the Korean Workers Party] delivered an emergency order to take measures to prevent the spread of words that disturb the public mind, said the second source. There have been stories circulating among residents that more than 350,000 people have died of sickness this year.

The State Security Department and the Social Security Department, as well as party and labor organizations, have stepped up their propaganda efforts and started cracking down on residents for believing or spreading false rumors, he said. But the citizens find it more believable that it is not a rumor and that the government actually did announce a high death toll during official meetings.

The second source said that publicly authorities still stick to the official line that only around 70 people died during the national emergency.

Many of the residents are devastated by the fact that hundreds of thousands of people may have actually died from COVID-19, he said.

Vaccine campaign

Although the COVID emergency has been officially over for more than a month, the country began to inoculate people in Ryanggang province last week, marking the first time that COVID vaccines have been made available to people living along the border with China, sources there told RFA.

In May, RFA reported that authorities had made a propaganda event out of vaccinating soldiers who were involved in a major national construction project in the capital Pyongyang, calling the Chinese-made vaccine an immortal potion of love, from leader Kim Jong Un.

Authorities later began vaccinating citizens of North Koreas capital, Pyongyang, in July, but now residents of the border city of Hyesan can also get the vaccine, a Ryanggang resident told RFA.

Authorities have already declared that the coronavirus has ended, so the people dont know why they are vaccinating us now, the third source said.

The vaccine is distributed through neighborhood watch units and schools, another resident of the province told RFA.

Residents, who were terrified of dying from colds or pneumonia, feel fortunate that they can get vaccinated even if it's this late in the game, the fourth source said. When I asked the medical staff, they said the vaccine was made in China.

In July, Pyongyang citizens were vaccinated. This must have been a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in advance of major national events such as the National Conference of War Veterans, held on the Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War on July 27, the fourth source said, using the North Korean term to describe the anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War, in what most historians consider to be a stalemate.

South Koreas National Intelligence Service on Tuesday reported to the National Assembly that North Korea started a large-scale vaccination campaign in the border area.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung.

Link:
North Korea tells officials that 350,000 people died of diseases this year - Radio Free Asia

As soon as we arrive, Overwatch 2 arrives. Free-to-play delivery will bring a ton of fans who want to play and new content changes will be added. Overwatch 2. One of the biggest changes is that team size has been drastically reduced from 6v6 to 5v5, so theres only one tank at front line. This means that players who prefer the role of the support team will be harder to keep their team alive under the armed fire.

Batiste is among the best heroes in the small support category, but he has the coolest training time. The role of support isnt only about improving the health of teammates, it can also be expressed as others, such as damage amplification and death prevention. The right play, he can be an absolute powerhouse.

The Batistas performance in Overwatch 2 has not very much changed, since all of his abilities are largely unchanged. The main difference is that all support has now a passive power called Regeneration, which has the ability to regenerate health after being out of combat for a few seconds. This means support now needs more health and can help their team without disappearing in search of medicines.

Batistas kit has a biotic launcher for his enemies, while also keeping his team alive using alt fire. Understanding your abilities correctly is key to success in Batista and leading your team to victory.

The Biotic Automaton has its dueling potential. Primary fires have three shot bursts, but they are your only way to deal with them. He is aware of altitude, as his team is having an accident. He throws out a healing projectile that heals allies near him. Players can both standard and primary fire at the same time to get the most out of their biotic Automaton.

Jump Boots are a passive Batistes perk, giving him excellent mobility. Holding down the crouch will make Baptiste jump higher, which is an excellent way to win the enemy and to heal allies safely.

The Field of Immortality is a handy instrument that can be thrown to protect allies against death. This is used to protect against the instant death abilities of Reapers, such as the Reapers Death Blossom. The Field of Immortality can be destroyed, therefore players must be careful not to destroy it prematurely. Without destruction, its long, long time, and lasts for five seconds.

I heal the native Baptiste and his neighbors with the help of a second of ten seconds. At the same time everybody gets mixed up with the full health. The Regeneration Stimulant is used for fights starting to keep teammates alive during the fight.

Enhance Matrix is Baptists ultimate ability. This is a matrix window that increases the damage and healing effect of all that allied projectiles have. It can help save the lives of allies in extreme cases, or paired with the reinhardts bulwark and firestrike to cause devastating damage to enemies.

Baptiste is best-known for combining his skills such as Feld of Immortality and his Biotic Automaton in order to heal the so important aoE. Baptiste can block areas using the increase matrix, especially if they have Bastion on their team.

Baptiste should be positioned mainly in the center of the team so that his Jump Boots bounce up and provide the healing and air support. If you use the Jump Boots, it is important that he is a simple target to do with DPS heroes like Widowmaker, Hanzo and Ash. Jump boots are best used to evade enemies. Therefore, its best to do this while shooting as an easy way to avoid attacking Reinhard.

Sombra is a very strong counter-move against Baptiste, who can easily hack him, which is a bad move, as far as she can now protect his allies. Her EMP Ultimate effectively disables his enhancement matrix. She can, at the same time, also disable his immortality field. Anas counter to Batista, because she can suppress all the healings for a few critical sections with a single good-timed Biotic Grenade in the face of her team.

The key to the success of Batistas is knowing at exactly the time of application of the Inmortality field. To use it correctly, the difference between defeating the enemy or losing their enemies by the fluent enemies. Its wise to wait until a powerful ultima such as D.VA self-Destruct, Genjis Dragonblade or Doomfists Meteor Strike is used as a defensive maneuver in order to protect the team.

Did you like it?

See original here:
New York: World War II: Inventive Report An interactive presentation of how, without real danger, the - Game News 24

Vedic ritual drink

In the Vedic tradition, sma (Devanagari: ) is a ritual drink[1][2] of importance among the early Vedic Indo-Aryans.[3] The Rigveda mentions it, particularly in the Soma Mandala. Gita mentions the drink in Chapter 9.[4] It is equivalent to the Iranian haoma.[5][6]

The texts describe the preparation of soma by means of extracting the juice from a plant, the identity of which is now unknown and debated among scholars. Both in the ancient religions of Historical Vedic religion and Zoroastrianism, the name of the drink and the plant are not exactly the same.[7]

There has been much speculation about the most likely identity of the original plant. Traditional Indian accounts, such as those from practitioners of Ayurveda, Siddha medicine, and Somayajna called Somayajis, identify the plant as "Somalata" (Sarcostemma acidum).[8]Non-Indian researchers have proposed candidates including the fly agaric, Amanita muscaria; Psilocybin mushrooms, Psilocybe cubensis; wild or Syrian rue, Peganum harmala; and ma huang, Ephedra sinica.

Soma is a Vedic Sanskrit word that literally means "distill, extract, sprinkle", often connected in the context of rituals.[9]

Soma's Avestan cognate is the haoma. According to Geldner (1951), the word is derived from Indo-Iranian roots *sav- (Sanskrit sav-/su) "to press", i.e. *sau-ma- is the drink prepared by pressing the stalks of a plant,[10] but the word and the related practices were borrowed by the Indo-Aryans from the BactriaMargiana culture (BMAC). Although the word is only attested in Indo-Iranian traditions, Manfred Mayrhofer has proposed a Proto-Indo-European origin from the root *sew(h)-.[13]

The Vedic religion was the religion of some of the Vedic Indo-Aryan tribes, the aryas, who migrated into the Indus River valley region of the Indian subcontinent. The Indo-Aryans were speakers of a branch of the Indo-European language family, which originated in the Sintashta culture and further developed into the Andronovo culture, which in turn developed out of the Kurgan culture of the Central Asian steppes. The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion,[18][note 1] and show relations with rituals from the Andronovo culture, from which the Indo-Aryan people descended. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran. It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements" which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices" from the BactriaMargiana culture (BMAC). This syncretic influence is supported by at least 383non-Indo-European words that were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma. According to Anthony,

Many of the qualities of Indo-Iranian god of might/victory, Verethraghna, were transferred to the adopted god Indra, who became the central deity of the developing Old Indic culture. Indra was the subject of 250hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug (perhaps derived from Ephedra) probably borrowed from the BMAC religion. His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers.

In the Vedas, the same word (soma) is used for the drink, the plant, and its deity. Drinking soma produces immortality (Amrita, Rigveda 8.48.3). Indra and Agni are portrayed as consuming soma in copious quantities. In the vedic ideology, Indra drank large amounts of soma while fighting the serpent demon Vritra. The consumption of soma by human beings is well attested in Vedic ritual. The Soma Mandala of the Rigveda is completely dedicated to Soma Pavamana, and is focused on a moment in the ritual when the soma is pressed, strained, mixed with water and milk, and poured into containers. These actions are described as a representation of a variety of things, including a king conquering territory, the Sun's journey through the cosmos, or a bull running to mate with cows (represented by the milk). The most important myth about Soma is about his theft. In it, Soma was originally held captive in a citadel in heaven by the archer Knu. A falcon stole Soma, successfully escaping Knu, and delivered Soma to Manu, the first sacrificer. Additionally, Soma is associated with the moon in the late Rigveda and Middle Vedic period. Sry, the daughter of the Sun, is sometimes stated to be the wife of Soma.[22]

The Rigveda (8.48.3) says:

pma smam amt abhmaganma jytir vidma devnk nnm asmn kravad rtikm u dhrtr amrta mrtiyasya[23]

Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton translates this as:

We have drunk the soma; we have become immortal; we have gone to the light; we have found the gods.What can hostility do to us now, and what the malice of a mortal, o immortal one?[24]

Swami Dayanand Saraswati explains this as:

Good fruit containing food not any intoxicating drink, we drink youYou are elixir of life, achieve physical strength or light of god,achieve control over senses;In this situation, what our enemy can do to me?God, what even violent people can do to me?

Also, consider Rigveda (8.79.2-6)[25] regarding the power of Soma:"...He covers the naked and heals all who are sick. The blind man sees; the lame man steps forth....Let those who seek find what they seek: let them receive the treasure....Let him find what was lost before; let him push forward the man of truth...."Such is indicative of an experience with an entheogen of some source...(Michael Wood (historian)).(The Story of India)

The finishing of haoma in Zoroastrianism may be glimpsed from the Avesta (particularly in the Hm Yast, Yasna 9), and Avestan language *hauma also survived as Middle Persian hm. The plant haoma yielded the essential ingredient for the ritual drink, parahaoma.

In Yasna 9.22, haoma grants "speed and strength to warriors, excellent and righteous sons to those giving birth, spiritual power and knowledge to those who apply themselves to the study of the nasks". As the religion's chief cult divinity he came to be perceived as its divine priest. In Yasna 9.26, Ahura Mazda is said to have invested him with the sacred girdle, and in Yasna 10.89, to have installed haoma as the "swiftly sacrificing zaotar" (Sanskrit hotar) for himself and the Amesha Spenta.

Soma has been mentioned in Chapter 9, verse 20 of Bhagavad Gita:

Those who perform actions (as described in the three Vedas), desiring fruit from these actions, and those who drink the juice of the pure Soma plant, are cleansed and purified of their past sins.Those who desire heaven, (the Abode of the Lord known as Indralok) [26] attain heaven and enjoy its divine pleasures by worshipping me through the offering of sacrifices.Thus, by performing good action (Karma, as outlined by the three Vedas, one will always undoubtedly receive a place in heaven where they will enjoy all of the divine pleasure that are enjoyed by the Deities.[citation needed][note 2]

The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation-Sidhi Program involves a notion of "soma", said to be based on the Rigveda.[27][28]

There has been much speculation as to the original Sauma plant. Candidates that have been suggested include honey, mushrooms, psychoactive and other herbal plants.[29]

When the ritual of somayajna is held today in South India by the traditional Srautas called Somayajis, the plant used is the somalatha (Sanskrit: soma creeper, Sarcostemma acidum)[8] which is procured as a leafless vine.

Since the late 18th century, when Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron and others made portions of the Avesta available to western scholars, several scholars have sought a representative botanical equivalent of the haoma as described in the texts and as used in living Zoroastrian practice. In the late 19th century, the highly conservative Zoroastrians of Yazd (Iran) were found to use ephedra, which was locally known as hum or homa and which they exported to the Indian Zoroastrians.[30]

During the colonial British era scholarship, cannabis was proposed as the soma candidate by Jogesh Chandra Ray, The Soma Plant (1939)[31] and by B. L. Mukherjee (1921).[32]

In the late 1960s, several studies attempted to establish soma as a psychoactive substance. A number of proposals were made, including one in 1968 by the American banker R. Gordon Wasson, an amateur ethnomycologist, who asserted that soma was an inebriant but not cannabis, and suggested fly-agaric mushroom, Amanita muscaria, as the likely candidate. Since its introduction in 1968, this theory has gained both detractors and followers in the anthropological literature.[33][34][35] Wasson and his co-author, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, drew parallels between Vedic descriptions and reports of Siberian uses of the fly-agaric in shamanic ritual.[36]

In 1989 Harry Falk noted that, in the texts, both haoma and soma were said to enhance alertness and awareness, did not coincide with the consciousness altering effects of an entheogen, and that "there is nothing shamanistic or visionary either in early Vedic or in Old Iranian texts", (Falk, 1989) Falk also asserted that the three varieties of ephedra that yield ephedrine (Ephedra gerardiana, E. major procera and E. intermedia) also have the properties attributed to haoma by the texts of the Avesta. (Falk, 1989) At the conclusion of the 1999 Haoma-Soma workshop in Leiden, Jan E. M. Houben writes: "despite strong attempts to do away with ephedra by those who are eager to see sauma as a hallucinogen, its status as a serious candidate for the Rigvedic Soma and Avestan Haoma still stands" (Houben, 2003).

The Soviet archeologist Viktor Sarianidi wrote that he had discovered vessels and mortars used to prepare soma in Zoroastrian temples in the BactriaMargiana Archaeological Complex. He said that the vessels have revealed residues and seed impressions left behind during the preparation of soma. This has not been sustained by subsequent investigations.[37] Alternatively Mark Merlin, who revisited the subject of the identity of soma more than thirty years after originally writing about it[38] stated that there is a need of further study on links between soma and Papaver somniferum. (Merlin, 2008).[39]

In his book Food of the Gods, ethnobotanist Terence McKenna postulates that the most likely candidate for soma is the mushroom Psilocybe cubensis, a hallucinogenic mushroom that grows in cow dung in certain climates. McKenna cites both Wasson's and his own unsuccessful attempts using Amanita muscaria to reach a psychedelic state as evidence that it could not have inspired the worship and praise of soma. McKenna further points out that the 9th mandala of the Rig Veda makes extensive references to the cow as the embodiment of soma.[citation needed]

According to Michael Wood, the references to immortality and light are characteristics of an entheogenic experience.[40]

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Soma (drink) - Wikipedia

A lust for everlasting life resulted in the massive Qin Shi Huang tomb.

At just thirteen years old, the boy-king, Ying Zheng (259 BCE 210 BCE), began to construct his own tomb in todays Lintong District, Xian, in Chinas Shaanxi province. At the age of 38, King Zheng would unite all the warring states and become the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. As the emperors power and wealth grew, so too did his obsession with his afterlife. He designed and constructed a mausoleum larger and more extravagant than the world had ever seen before. The Qin Shi Huang tomb and his surrounding 38 square mile necropolis would contain every single detail of the emperors luxurious life on earth, including a terracotta army to protect him all of which he would take into the afterworld.

In 260 BCE, China was in a state of turmoil. Various feudal states divided the country, and the Warring States Period had lasted for 250 years. Seven individual kingdoms tried to establish their dominance and lay claim to the entire country. However, the strongest of these states was Qin. When King Zhuangxiang began his reign in September of 250 BCE, it appeared that he would become Chinas first emperor. However, his reign was short-lived. After just three years in power, he died.

King Zhuangxiangs heir was his young son named Ying Zheng. A regent served as temporary ruler until the young king was old enough to rule on his own. Ying Zheng exhibited traits from the very beginning that marked him as calculating and fearless. At the age of 21, he led a revolt against his regent who tried to maintain control. This culminated in bloodshed and removed every obstacle to the kings reign.

Despite multiple assassination attempts, the King of Qin managed one successful campaign after another until he defeated all rival states throughout the land. In 221 BCE, the warrior king accomplished something no other leader had. He united the kingdom and created the first Chinese empire. Although he was a harsh despotic ruler, he left behind important legacies: the Great Wall, a vast network of roads that connected his empire, and one system of weights, measures, money, and writing.

As he approached his 40th year, the king proclaimedhimself Qin Shi Huangdi, a name that conveyed his power as the first high-god (or godlike emperor) of Qin. According to Chinese belief, Zhengs successes conferred upon him the mandate of heaven. As the Son of Heaven he would rule from the center of the universe like a god. From this point, the emperor became obsessed with maintaining his divine power (and possessions) even in the afterlife.

The digging and preparation of Ying Zhengs tomb had begun immediately upon his coronation as king around 246 BCE. As the king grew into a man and later became Emperor, he would amass more power and control than anyone had ever seen in the kingdom. Likewise, he acquired wealth and luxury beyond imagination. The power-hungry emperor wanted to take everything and everyone he needed to his next life. Thus, his engineering designs for his mausoleum became much more grandiose. However, he desperately feared death and hoped that he would never need his to use his mausoleum.

Qin Shi Huang embarked upon a mad search for the elixir of life. The legend about the Mountain of Immortality led him to travel three times to the island of Zhifu. He also built secret tunnels beneath his 200 palaces so that he could travel safely unseen, and he forced scholars, alchemists, and magicians to focus all of their attention on finding a cure for mortality.

In a bitter twist of irony, Qin Shi Huang died from drinking the mercury that he believed would make him immortal. Ultimately,he could not cheat death and would need his mausoleum after all. Slave laborers had worked day and night for three decades and would not complete the necropolis until 208 BCE, almost two years after the emperors death at age 49 in 210 BCE.

Designers intentionally built the mausoleum to resemble the capital of Qin, Xianyang. It includes both an inner and outer city, divided by two distinct walls. Archaeologists believe that Qin Shi Huangs tomb lies in the southwest of the inner city under the mound where it faces east.

Sima Qian claimed that 700,000 men, including slaves, built the emperors mausoleum. Some historians have pointed out that no city from that period of history had such a population. Hence, they speculate that sixteen to twenty thousand laborers may be a more accurate assessment. Regardless of the number, it is certain that those peasants and slaves met a tragic end. Archaeologists found mass burial pits around the mausoleum site piled high with the bones of builders. Some of them were still wearing metal shackles.

Additionally, scholars theorize, based on clues left by Sima Qian, that the craftsmen who had worked on mechanical devices designed to prevent entry into the burial chamber were put to death. They had observed the treasures in the Qin Shi Huang tomb and could not be trusted with those secrets. Once they placed the emperor deep inside the tomb, another group sealed off the passage, probably leaving behind anyone who knew the location of the emperor.

Forty years of archaeological studies of the mausoleum site have revealed that Qin Shi Huang intended to design his afterlife to match his life on earth in every respect. This included his imperial court life and the external environment that surrounded his city.

Near the outer wall of the greater mausoleum complex, a discovery of a royal park included bronze swans, ducks, and cranes, along with an entire suite of musicians. A horse stable discovered outside the outer walls contained horse skeletons and their terracotta caretakers. Altogether, there were roughly 300 coffins containing horse skeletons. Inside the inner wall, another pit contained the emperors terracotta attendants and government officials.

Additionally, in 1980 two chariots were discovered in passageways that appear to lead to the innermost walls of the Qin Shi Huang tomb under the burial mound. Each chariot was attached to four bronze horses. According to the Han Dynasty scholar Cai Yong ( 132-192), the first chariot was for clearing the road for the Emperors entourage, and the second was his sleeping chariot. The bridles and saddles of the horses are inlaid with gold and silver designs and the body of the number 2 chariot has its sliding windows hollow cut (Exploring Chinese History).

Close to the mound of the Qin Shi Huang tomb, scientists also found a mysterious pit of partially unclothed statues. Recent examination indicates that theywere an entire imperial court of musicians, acrobats, and weightlifters designed to ensure the first emperor would have entertainment in his next life.

In addition to the imperial court, archaeologists found pits within the mausoleum complex containing the skeletal remains of young females. The scientists believe they were the emperors concubines. Evidence suggests foul play, as dismembered body parts lay strewn about along with some scattered pearls and gold jewelry. These were not proper burials. According to Sima Qian, the usurper of the emperors successor ordered the death of the concubines. In theory, this would have prevented any unborn challenges to the throne.

In 2012 archaeologists announced the largest underground complex discovered so far within the Qin Shi Huang tomb necropolis. It is an entire courtyard palace and is roughly 170,000 square meters. This equals about 42 acres. The palace grounds contain one main building that overlooks 18 other royal houses, walls, roads, brickwork, and pottery shards.

About a mile east of the tomb, a hallmarkdiscovery occurred when local villagers of the Lintong county embarked upon digging a well in March of 1974. Approximately six feet below ground, the villagers unearthed terracotta fragments and bricks.

Soon after the discovery, archaeologists began excavations. To date, they have identified three separate pits that contain about 8,099 terracotta statues of warriors, weapons, and horses with their chariots. Many of the statues were badly damaged, and scientists reconstructed only about 2000 of them so far. Experts estimate that it may take another 50 years to complete the excavation project.

Presumably, the purpose of the Terracotta Army was to protect the emperor from his enemies in the afterlife. Interestingly, the pits are located between the emperors tomb and what was enemy territory. Additionally, the soldiers stand in battle formation facing east toward the kingdoms he conquered.

The pits contain infantrymen, cavalry, and high-ranking officers, in addition to their horses and weapons. Each statue reveals exquisite details in hair and battle regalia, and each face holds different expressions and features. Some experts believe that the sculptors of the Terracotta Army designed them as exact likenesses to the best warriors that existed in Emperor Qins real army.

Nothing of the likes of the Terracotta Army has ever existed in China before. It is uncertain who crafted the statues, however, scholars theorize that Hellenistic Greek sculptors may have taught the artists under Emperor Qin. Today, the statues still stand in their original corridors, and the whole site has been enclosed in a museum where visitors can see the army.

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At the center of the enormous necropolis lies a pyramid mound that was once 350 feet high. Workers constructed the mound by packing dirt into the shape of a pyramid, shown below. Archaeologists believe there is an underground palace below the mound surrounded by walls that are about 4 meters high. The Qin Shi Huang tomb lies at the center of the mound, indicated with the brightwhite spot. However, experts are uncertain exactly how deep the tomb chamber is. Estimates place it between 20-50 meters below the surface.The chamber itself is still undisturbed.

Historical Recordsby Sima Qian is the first written documentation about the first emperors tomb:

[blockquote align=none author=Sima Qian]The site includes three streams, and his coffin is encased in a bronze sarcophagus. The floor of the central burial chamber floats on rivers, lakes, and seas of mercuryThe vaulted ceiling is inlaid with pearls and gems to emulate the sun, moon, and principal stars of the constellations in the night sky. Whale oil lamps are brightly lit for an everlasting effect of illustriousness.[/blockquote]

Using modern scientific techniques, scientists have revealed details that may confirm the historical record of Sima Qian. As noted, Qian wrote that designers of the tomb used mercury to create simulations of rivers and seas in the tomb. Archaeologists have detected extremely high levels of mercury in the area. Additionally, imaging and other tests revealed the presence of a vast amount of metal within. This also affirms Qians account that the emperor took his treasures with him.

There is an ongoing debate in China that has delayed the complete excavation of the Qin Shi Huang tomb. Some people maintain that an excavation is immediately necessary due to the potential for seismic activity in the region. However, others argue that China does not yet possess the technology or ability to carry out the exploration properly. There is also trepidation, as stories tell of entryways that have booby traps to prevent access to the tomb, and high levels of mercury could pose a health risk.

With over 600 archaeological sites, including the stunning Terracotta Army, the Qin Mausoleum is a magnificent historical treasure. The ancient artifacts can tell us about the sculpture, engineering, rituals, entertainment, military personnel, rank, and strategy, and the deeply held beliefs of the people who lived more than 2000 years ago. In 1987, UNESCO declared the Qin Shi Huang mausoleum and the Terracotta Soldiers a World Heritage Site due to their immeasurable testament to the rich history of China.

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Additional references:BBC

Updated by Historic Mysteries on January 18, 2018

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Lavish Qin Shi Huang Tomb Built for Immortality

Crocodile came to me recently in ceremony. At first I was startled by his appearance, feeling I have already embraced every shadow aspect of myself he represents. Since his visit, however, I have spent time welcoming him and examining the teachings he now brings.

Crocodile/Snake holds our basal self, our deepest fears and lesser-evolved leanings which are held in the reptilian brain. In sacred ceremony and spiritual initiations, it is snake or crocodile who confronts you to face and embrace that which you fear most. His personal challenge to me: Youre not a true shaman. You dont work in the rain forest, you dont ingest plant medicines, and youre falsely holding your craft, thereby misleading those you serve.

On more than one occasion I have been questioned and warned against calling myself a shaman. I havent studied in the jungle, I dont have any hint of bronzed pigment in my Irish skin, and I dont have a Maestro or don teaching me the ways. My path is unique in devoted past-life reclamation, shamanic journey, and an early proclamation at five-years-old that I would be a shaman. I was born ready and havent looked back. However, the thorny challenges still arise.

Enter the internal struggle of spirit and shadow. Its brought me to a place of deep self-inquiry and an eventual and potent reclamation. Its also offered me a new perspective on the path of the modern shaman.

When asked, What is a shaman? my easiest answer is someone who works in the invisible spaces to bring peace and healing to those whom they are in service.

Shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment.

Tryptamine Palace

In Cave and Cosmos, Michael Harner suggests it is simply one who knows.

The big divide in the shamanic communities lies between those who work in the rain forest with the lineage of indigenous wisdom in their blood; and so-called Plastic Shamans who have no connection to the cultures and traditions they represent.

As shamanism has gained prevalence in the modern era, core shamanism has become the accepted term for those who use the methods of the shaman but have not been raised in the traditional cultures. The Foundation for Shamanic Studies has reintroduced the shamanic journey for self-healing, while the Psychonauts have lead a revolution through chemically assisted self-inquiry. Both are valid paths that differ greatly from a jungle education. While the efficacy of the practice is all that should matter, there still lies a division.

Another crucial distinction for indigenous shamans is their relationships with the plants. Dietas are ceremonial ingestions of plant medicines that teach the shaman how to walk between and within the astral worlds. Any number of teacher plants are used, from tobacco to ayahuasca. These ceremonies are performed with great reverence and honor and remain within sacred guidelines as sincere spiritual endeavors to deepen the path of the seeker. The illusion of this world fades away and great insights are gained, revealing the true nature of ones own soul.

Freakin awesome when done in this sacred space, right?

I, however, am a different kind of shaman. I traverse the dimensions without the use of hallucinogens. Drums, deep meditation, and the psychic connection with spirits and plant allies, for me, have been enough. And Croc challenged me on this also: Is your plant abstinence genuinely enough to gain such an alliance with the spirit realms?

In the modern world, our relationship to the plants is vastly different than that of the indigenous shaman. We dont commune with them personally, nor do we seek to hone their wisdom. As a result, contemporary seekers often misuse the medicines. In my younger days, I experimented with mushrooms recreationally. I found them an expansive and uplifting dalliance that only affirmed my path as a seer and healer. Yet I took them with no noble intent.

Recently, I found myself called to work more closely with the plants in ceremonial space and felt conflicted. My ego holds my hallucinogenic refrain as a badge of honor a way of ensuring the purity of the messages received. And yet I found myself deeply appreciating the plant spirits again, in great awe and gratitude for the teachings they shared.

And what they shared was this: Ive connected more than sufficiently with the plant spirits. I learn and walk beside them every day to offer blessings to my community. I need not ingest them, for they have been my allies all along!

In a recent Aubrey Marcus podcast, Astral Snakes and Binaural Beats (episode 59), Cory Allen shared his most recent devotion is not in using the plant medicines, but rather simply being in the astral plane without any enhancements. Under the influence of the medicine, The consciousness of the plant is with you in that space and colors your vision of that space. If you get there without it, you are completely you and you are on your own. Boom, validation! And Croc began to smile.

What I realized was, it all comes back to me not having any allies, any perceptions, any filters on my experience in these worlds. The mark of the shaman is not who they are when theyre on the medicines or how they handle these energies inside of them. It is who they are in the absence of any aids at all!

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The Four Directions & Medicine Wheel of Native Americans - Gaia

Kim Kardashian comments on husband Kanye West's bipolar disorder

Kim Kardashian calls for "compassion and empathy" after husband Kanye Wast's recent comments, stating he struggles with bipolar disorder.

Entertain This!, USA TODAY

Like many people,Joscelyn Guzmanknew what it was like to be depressed. For much of her life, she had been shown compassion and empathy whenever she spoke about her struggles with depression that is, until, she experienced a bipolar manic episode.

For onemonth, Guzman was riddled withuncontrollable euphoria. She channeled herenergy into impulsive hobbies and could notsleep or eat for days. If she wanted a T-shirt, she wound up spendinghundreds of dollars on a shopping spree.If she wanted to make a YouTube video, she'd record hours of footagein the middle of the night.

Inone of the worstmoments of her manic episode, Guzman convincedherself that her confidencewas super-human.That her lack of sleep or foodmade her immortal.

She believed she wasGod.

"I haven't shared this very much," says Guzman, 26."People would probably look down on me for saying that, but in my mind, I really couldn't control it."

'You're so mature for your age': isn't always a compliment. Sometimes it's from trauma.

But one day, herhighwasreplaced with a newfound wave of paranoia,depressionand suicidal thoughts a lowthat wasso sudden andoverwhelming, it prompted a hospital visit.And shortly after, Guzman was officially diagnosed with bipolar disorder.More specifically, bipolar I, whichcauses manicepisodes that last at least 7 days and depressive episodes that last at least two weeks, according to theNational Institute of Mental Health.

Margot Kidder and bipolar disorder: What is it and how is it treated?

It's a complex and misunderstood diagnosisthat, despite growing awareness, is still stigmatized.

The pandemic accelerated a positive movement towardmental health prioritization, but experts and those who have dealt with more severe mental health issues,like mania, say the empathy and understanding doesn't always extend to conditions like bipolar disorder.

"I think everybody who reads this story will have mental health problems," says Patrick Corrigan, aprofessor of psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology. "Everyone knows what it means to be depressed or (have) anxiety, but the fundamental thing about stigma is difference. While one may get depressed occasionallyor a bit euphoric once in a while, most people don't know what it's like to be in the throes of a manic episode."

'Compassion and empathy': Kim Kardashian speaks out about Kanye West's mental health

Like depression, bipolar disorder is a mood disorder characterized by shifts inenergy, activity levels and concentration.The difference, however, is those with bipolar disorder experience alternating periods of depression and mania.

A manic episode typically lasts from a few weeks to a few months, accordingto Kay Redfield Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at theJohn Hopkins School of Medicine. Common signs can include "extreme irritability and paranoia, grandiosity and euphoria, changing in thinking (and) speaking a lot, very rapidly."

"People get highly sociable and disruptive. People sleep much less, are much more activated in general. It's a very high-energy state."Jamison, who specializes in mood disorders, also has firsthand experience with bipolar disorder, writing about it inher book, "An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness."

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In some cases, manic episodes can also include elements of psychosis,such as delusions, which Corriganexplainsare false, grandiose beliefs ("like 'I'm a man on the moon'") as well asvisual or auditory hallucinations.

At first, no one helped Guzman during her month-long manic episode. It wasn't because they didn't care. It's because they didn't know.

On the outside, her energy seemed uncharacteristicbut not eyebrow-raising.Friends and familydidn't recognize that she was plagued by powerful delusions while getting little-to-no sleep each night.

But this nuance,experts warn, is part of the complexity of bipolar disorder.

Often times, the media depicts mania (or even "maniacs") in an extremeway. Characters experiencing psychosis, like DC Comic's Harley Quinn, are oftenstereotyped with"crazy behavior. Hearing things, seeing things, talking to yourself and making no sense," Corrigan says.

Kanye West: The problematic attention surrounding his behavior

The realityis thatmania can manifest in subtle and positive ways at first, making it harder to spot.Singer Bebe Rexha said, in a tweet announcing her diagnosis,the "highs" initially contributed to her strong work ethic.And Kanye West, who has rapped about hisbipolar disorder,is often glamorizedby some fans.

"Sometimes, the maniaseemspositive, but I know it can get really dark. That's why it's important we don't make it seem like this amazing thing, because it's not: It's your mind not being OK, and the real-life consequence is death," Guzman says.

Jamison adds, "It is a very interesting illness and certainly associated with creativity, which runs the risk of romanticizing a very potentially lethal illness." The rate of suicide among people who deal with bipolar disorderis approximately 10 to 30 times higher than the general population, research has shown, with2060% of them attemptingsuicide at least once in their lifetime.

In recent years, more people have been spreading awareness about the importance of de-stigmatizing bipolar disorder including celebrities.

In 2018, Mariah Careyrevealed her bipolar diagnosis, encouraging others to seek treatment after "the hardest couple of years I've been through." Selena Gomezhas shared her personalexperiences in an effort to rid the shame often associated with it, andWest has challengedthe "crazy" label that is often slapped onto mental illness.EvenHalsey, also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, responded to the lack of compassion towardWest duringhis public mental health struggle.

"Im so disturbed by what Im seeing," Halsey tweeted. "A manic episode isn't a joke. If you cant offer understanding or sympathy, offer your silence."

Selena Gomez: explains why mental health is 'personal' at White House, MTV event

Open, judgement-free conversations about mental health that gobeyond sadness and anxietyare the first step to de-stigmatization and compassion.

"Know about mania. Know about your illness. Know about the treatments for it. Always ask questions," says Jamison.

Beyond awareness, however, Corrigan emphasizes the importance of learning about these diagnoses by listening topeople's real-life experiences.It'swhat inspiredGuzman to shareher story with us.

"There's so much stigma around mental illness in general and then especially bipolar disorder," she says. "But I'm going to keep talking about being diagnosed bipolar. I'm going to talk about being in therapy. I'm going to talk about mental illness."

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis,call the988 Suicide and Crisis Lifelinewhich provides confidential 24/7 support by dialing 9-8-8.

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The painter Forrest Bess (191177) lived most of his adult life in a ramshackle house he built on a bayou in Chinquapin, Texas, a rural stretch of the state that straddles the Gulf of Mexico. In 1956, a writer for the Houston Chronicle called it the loneliest spot in Texas. A bait fisherman by trade, Besss home was accessible only by boat, meaning that customers and visitors alike were required to drive to the end of the nearest dirt road and honk their horns until Bess could cross the water in his skiff to pick them up. The artistic legacy he left behind has for decades defied categorization and largely befuddled curators and institutions.

From one vantage point, he was the consummate Outsider artist; he was even included in the celebrated 2018 survey Outliers and American Vanguard Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. And yet, he was on the artist roster of the Betty Parsons Gallery, one of the most significant New York galleries of the 20th century, meaning he was in the same stable as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, and Agnes Martin.

He was also formally educatedhe studied architecture in college, although he didnt graduate. And we know through his many letters, which were donated to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art (and partially digitized), that he maintained deep relationships with historians, collectors, and other art-world figures, as well as with academics across the sciences, including the psychoanalyst Carl Jung.

A portrait of Forrest Bess. Photo: Courtesy Josh Pazda Hiram Butler.

I think he never felt like he fit in, in the art world, said Martin Clark, director of the Camden Arts Centre in London and curator of Forrest Bess: Out of the Blue, on view at the museum from September 30 to January 15, 2023. The show features 50 of Besss paintingsalmost half of the just-over 100 known to still existas well as a collection of his letters, notebooks, and other ephemera. He chose to position himself on the margins in different ways, but if you read his letters, theyre very knowing.

In those letters, Bess described his younger self as a clumsy awkward kid who was always on the outside looking in. But the key thing was that he was a gay man in Texas, Clark said. And though he came out to certain friends and to people he felt close toand he actually wrote very movingly about his sexualityhe never found his place within that either.

Bess wrestled to square his queerness with a life that he saw as otherwise conventionally masculine. This culminated in two surgeries he performed on himself in an attempt to become what he called a pseudo-hermaphrodite. Bess wrote that he believed these surgeries might bring him immortality, though whether his words were intended to be taken literally or figuratively is a matter of debate. He also likely hoped they would bring an end to the internal disharmonry that had dogged him for so many decades.

Forrest Bess, Untitled (The Spider) (1970), oil on canvas. documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH Photo: Andrea Rossetti.

There are, in my makeup, two distinct personalities, Bess once wrote. Number one is the military engineer, the oil-field roughneck, the accomplisher of missions well-done. Number two is weak as a jellyfish, he suffers much, thinks deeply, and is quite passive in nature. Number one was reality, the oilfields, mud tents, struggle. The other, the child who hid in the sandbanks and spent the day watching clouds and gathering flowers.

The surgical procedures were based on an Aboriginal Australian tradition that Bess studied, and his desire to merge what he felt to be dissonant aspects of himself was a hyper-literal take on Jungs theory of individuation, of which there is no doubt that Bess was familiar.

He kept a scrapbookmost of which is now presumed to be lostthat he referred to as his Thesis, in which he wrote extensive notes and collected medical texts and other forms of historical research that aligned with this idea of reaching an enlightened state through gender non-dualism, or by merging the male and female aspects of oneself. (Pages from the Thesis are on view at the Camden Arts Centre.)

Forrest Bess, Crowded Mind / Untitled (The Void I) (1946/47), oil on canvas. documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH. Photo: Andrea Rossetti.

He wrote multiple letters to Parsons in 1958 asking if he could exhibit the Thesis alongside his paintings in a show at the gallery, but Parsons rejected the idea, saying she would rather keep it purely on the aesthetic plain. A 2011 exhibition of Besss work, curated by the sculptor Robert Gober and displayed as a show-within-a-show at the 2012 Whitney Biennial, attempted to rectify this, presenting some remaining Thesis pages in a vitrine alongside 11 paintings.

Bess saw the Thesis as absolutely underpinning all of the work he was doing, Clark said. And just as notions of union and non-duality are at the core of nearly every major religious and mystical tradition, the Thesis too centers on the idea of opposites coming together to produce a kind of transcendent state, the curator added.

When World War II arrived, Bess enlisted in the military, where he was tasked with designing camouflage. He served from 1941 to 1945, but after suffering a nervous breakdown, as well as being brutally beaten with a lead pipe by fellow soldiers who suspected him of being gay, he met with a military psychiatrist. Bess spoke in their meeting about visions hed had with regularity since childhood, in which abstract symbols would appear to him, and the psychiatrist encouraged him to paint them. In 1946, Bess discovered Jungs psychological theories, which renewed his focus on these forms.

I never knew there was a clue to the understanding of my symbols until I ran across Jung accidentally, he wrote in a 1952 letter to collector Dominique de Menil. Not only have I found meaning in my work, but I have been given another dimension. Bess described the symbols as the language of the unconscious which contains some ancient sorcery. He exchanged letters with Jung as well, even mailing the renowned psychiatrist a painting.

Forrest Bess, The Three Doors (1959), oil on canvas. documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH. Photo: Andrea Rossetti.

And unlike many other members of the Parsons gallery roster, Bess did not view himself as an action painter or an Abstract Expressionist. His work was not concerned with improvisation, but was rather an attempt to translate and explore the visual lexicon that came to him in these meditative states.

I just go to bed, close my eyes and see these things. I keep a notebook handy and sketch them down in the dark or turn on a flashlight and sketch them, he wrote of his process in an undated letter to art historian Meyer Schapiro, who was a close friend to Bess. I get up the next morningspend the day fishing, then that night I paint the canvas as it was seen. In fact I sense that I have very little to do with what is put down on the canvas.

The surfaces of Besss paintings are rich and thick, the paint often applied with the use of a palette knife, the biomorphic forms of his symbology floating amid intricate textures and patterns. He often framed the work himself using driftwood.

Forrest Bess, Untitled (No. 18) (1952), oil on canvas. Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody Photo: Robert Glowacki. Courtesy Modern Art, London.

They have an object-quality, like a relic or something devotional, Clark said. He was very close to the natural world that he was part of, so I think those textures and that sense of a tangible, physical world was important to him, and it comes through in the painting.

Despite having six solo shows with Betty Parsons in his lifetime, Bess never found commercial success. He spent his life in poverty, and the lack of recognition from the art market and institutional world continued for years after his death. Modernism, for such a long time, was about being secular, it was about purity, internationalism; it was definitely not about the esoteric or the occult or any of these messy things, Clark said. The work wasnt commercially successful and he just fell through every sort of crack.

Now, I think Bess speaks to the messiness which has become much more a part of the way that artists do operate, Clark said. Were much more accommodating of artists moving through and across ideas. Theres much more interest in what would be considered non-normative or queer systems of thought.

Today, it is easier to understand Besss search to feel complete, the curator added. The tragedy is that, at the time he was doing this, there wasnt really a way to work as an artist like that.

Forrest Bess: Out of the Blue is on view at the Camden Art Centre in London from September 30, 2022January 15, 2023.

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Forrest Bess Was a Fisherman by Day and Painter of Wild Visions by Night. A New Show Explores His Legacy - artnet News

The Jedi walk a fine line between being cool and, well, not so cool. The more we encounter them in movies, series, and other parts of the Star Wars franchise, the more we realize how dull they can be. That was one of the jaw-droppingly obvious revelations of the prequel trilogy, and one it had to overcome quickly. Even the hypocrisy of being an order of pacifists eager to scrap in the Clone Wars with their elegant lightsabers didnt help. But before we all rush off to have more fun as Darksiders, is there more to being a Jedi?

Of course, there is. Both sides of the Force have abilities that lean towards one or other side of the Force. As Jedi never tire of saying, the dark side may grant great some attractive powers, but it blinds the true nature of the force. The Jedi may not be great at selling themselves, but at least they had Yoda working on their publicity.

When Luke Skywalker asks Yoda how he could tell the good side from the bad, the former Grand Master replies, A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack. Never has passivity been so attractive Jedi minds have a connection with the Force that opens them to abilities their Sith counterparts just cant reach.

So what powers are Jedi-only? Clear your mind of questions padawans, because here are nine.

Love or loathe Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker bid farewell with one of the most incredible displays of light side powers were ever likely to see in a movie theater. Kylo Ren was as unsuspecting as us during the final mighty confrontation between nephew and uncle. True, the ploy wasnt that honorable, but it was an immensely powerful display and an extraordinary way for Skywalker to bow out after so many years forsaking the Jedi way. The real shame is that it meant Luke and Leias fan-pleasing reunion didnt happen the way we all thought.

Light and dark lightsabers are two sides of the same coin, arent they? Oh no. The Sith dont have the same connection to the blade that the Jedi have, which explains why the only color they got for is Crimson. The hatred boiling away in a Sith clouds their ability to form a Force-bond with the kyber crystal at the heart of a saber. While their red comes from the hatred poured into the crystal, Jedi have a softer relationship with their elegant weapon and a wider selection of colors reflects that. The traditional rite of passage known as the Gathering saw young Jedi finding their own crystal in the caves of Ilum, where the bond first occurs. While Sith are pretty tasty with the blades, Jedi are at one with them.

Oh, yes, Sith can influence people where would they be without the power to manipulate and corrupt? The Jedi Mind Trick was better known in the order as a Mind Touch, a term that lessened the ethical dilemma of using it. For a Jedi it was about light suggestion they would encourage cooperation while a Sith would take it. In the Darth Vader comics (2015), the Sith Lord dismissed the trick, stating that Sith prefer Force.

Few things meet the ideals of the Jedi Order like Force Healing. Those on the light side could draw on the Force to accelerate natural healing and overcome even fatal wounds. Various levels of application have been seen throughout the saga, including overcoming fatigue and fixing a broken bone through meditation. A spin-off power called Force Assist even allowed them to project and heal others.

Healing is a powerful tool, and there have been reports of Sith being prepared to access the light side just to use it. The dark side does have an equivalent, but unsurprisingly, could only approximate at a terrible cost, usually through debilitatingly intense concentration or sucking the life force or pain from others. Darth Vaders need for constant medical healing proves the limited power of the dark side in this area. To effectively restore his damaged organs with the Force, Vader would have to maintain a continuous, concentrated flow of anger.

This handy and positive power allowed the Jedi to increase their capacity and reactions to themselves and their allies. The most obvious example is Grand Master Yoda, using the power to overcome his age and show off his incredible lightsaber combat against Count Dooku and Darth Sidious in the Prequel Trilogy. For Jedi, the power increased their resolve, accuracy, and speed of the wielder. It was wholesome and more useful compared to the dark side variant called Force Rage which increased a Siths power by tapping into their deepest fears.

Not a Jedi coffee, but an ancient and dangerous art that allows the most accomplished Jedi to rapidly slow the bodily functions of an opponent. Its a contradictory ability so dangerous it could easily accidentally kill an opponent (if not tended while catatonic, they risked death by starvation or dehydration), but requiring a distinct knowledge of the light side that means Darksiders cant access it. Its inherent danger and moral complexity meant that by the time of the Galactic Republic it was forbidden to all but select Jedi.

The Jedi class Power absorption under the umbrella term Tutaminis. Its a broad selection of skills that could, depending on experience and skill, take care of blaster fire or Force weapons. The Sith have been known to absorb or deflect small blaster fire, most notably Darth Vader. But it was Grand Master Yoda who demonstrated the greatest control when he caught the Force Lightning lobbed at him by Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.

Otherwise known as Force Containment, this light side ability comes in handy in a bind. Jedi used it to contain and control an object of the dark side so they could be transported or stopped from affecting their surroundings. As a way to limit and control the spread of Sith influence, its a far more Jedi response than the Sith would take if the saber was on the other hand kill, destroy, obliterate. Binding was canonically first revealed in the 2021 novels of the High Republic series.

Theres a fairly reliable chain of thought that the Sith simply dont know that Jedi can survive as Force Ghosts although Anakin may have had a suspicion before his old master surprised him at death. In many ways, this is another ability that goes against Darksiders physical interactions with the Force and their pursuit of unlimited and endless power through dark and literal methods like cloning and essence transference.

The Jedi once again benefit from their closer connection and selfless dedication to the Force. Through training, they were capable of becoming one with the Force and transferring their essence beyond death, effectively gaining immortality.

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'Star Wars': 9 Force Powers Used Only by The Jedi - We Got This Covered