Opinion (Ethan A. Huff, writer and health enthusiast): “When discussing the issues surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) — that is, organisms bearing the genetic traits of other species or bacteria — the focus is typically on how safe (or unsafe) these novel, food-like products are for humans. But distinguished risk engineer and two-time best-selling author Nassim Taleb thinks an even bigger problem with GMOs is their threat to the planet, and the statistical likelihood that they will eventually lead to the collapse of life on Earth. …

“Because they represent a systemic risk rather than a localized one — GM traits are known to spread unconstrained throughout the environment — GMOs will eventually breach the so-called ‘ecocide barrier,’ leading to catastrophic ecosystem failure.

“‘There are mathematical limitations to predictability in a complex system, ‘in the wild,’ which is why focusing on the difference between local (or isolated) and systemic threats is a central aspect of our warnings,’ Taleb is quoted as saying by Fool.com, noting that it’s essentially impossible to contain the inevitable spread of GMO traits far and wide.

“‘The [precautionary principle] is not there to make life comfortable, rather to avoid a certain class of what is called in probability and insurance ‘ruin’ problems,’ write Taleb and his colleagues in their paper. ‘For nature, the ‘ruin’ is ecocide: an irreversible termination of life at some scale, which could be the planet.’

“GMOs are not ‘scientific,’ and nearly every argument used in their defense is flawed

Besides using math and risk-based analysis to show that GMOs simply cannot coexist with nature as is commonly claimed — GMOs will eventually contaminate the natural world around them — Taleb also deconstructs many of the ‘arguments’ used by GMO advocates to defend the commercial use of untested transgenic materials, including the oft-repeated lie that GMOs are no different than natural organisms. …

“Taleb also draws attention to the deceitful strategies of biotechnology companies in trying to legitimize the continued use of GMOs through fear. Claiming that famine, starvation and widespread crop failures will occur if we all fail to adopt GMOs is no different than playing Russian roulette in order to get out of poverty, claims Taleb — such an approach is hardly scientific or logically sound, and yet these and other tactics are the basis of the pro-GMO agenda.

“‘What people miss is that the modification of crops impacts everyone and exports the error from the local to the global,’ concludes Taleb and his colleagues. ‘I do not wish to pay — or have my descendants pay — for errors by executives of Monsanto. We should exert the precautionary principle there — our non-naive version — simply because we would only discover errors after considerable and irreversible environmental damage.’”

My Comment: Except changing human nature from egoistic to altruistic, there is no other way to reduce consumption to a reasonable level and to stop treating the planet not as a living being, a system, with which we must be in equilibrium. This rests on the change of human consciousness, which can be achieved only through integral education.
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Opinion (Richard Layard, Professor Emeritus Lord Layard, British labour economist, currently working as programme director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics): “’There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western societies have got richer, their people have become no happier.’ Layard is one of many to propose this paradox. It is often referred to as the ‘Easterlin Paradox,’ named after economist Richard Easterlin, who demonstrated exactly this for citizens in developed countries with sufficient welfare to provide for at least the basic needs of each person. …

“Not only do we compare our income to that of others, we also set a norm for our income based on what we ourselves have grown accustomed to. The more money we make, the more money we think we need. This phenomenon is called ‘habituation’ or ‘adaptation.’ It can be compared to building up a tolerance for alcohol or drugs. Layard calls this ‘The Hedonic Treadmill’: To maintain the same level of happiness, we need to keep running.

“Richard Layard (2005) argued that seven factors are central to happiness. Furthermore, he used research such as the US General Social Survey to establish (for the US at least) five in some sort of order of importance. Two further factors were seen as central, but could not be ranked due to lack of survey evidence.

“Family relationships. In just about every study, family relationships and our close private life are ‘more important than any other single factor affecting our happiness.’

“Financial situation. As we have already seen our individual financial position is of significance – especially when we are on the margins of poverty – but beyond that it is a poor second to the quality of close family relationships as a significant source of longish term happiness.

“Work. There is considerable evidence that we need to feel we are contributing to the wider society. Layard comments, ‘[W]ork provides not only income but also an extra meaning to life’. He continues, ‘That is why unemployment is such a disaster: it reduces income but it also reduces happiness directly by destroying the self-respect and social relationships created by work.’

“Community and friends. As we have already seen writers like Lane have placed a strong emphasis upon companionship. However, it is also clear that the quality of the communities in which we participate has a strong influence upon how we feel. If we do not live and operate in communities and groups where there is a sense of trust and belonging then there is a raft of evidence that shows the impact upon our ability to be happy. …

“Health. In studies people frequently cite health as an important contributor to happiness. …

“Personal freedom. Happiness also depends upon the quality of the political, economic, legal and social systems in which we operate. There is some evidence that people living in stable and peaceful societies in which they have a voice and an ability to follow their interests (where it does not harm others), and in which institutions are accountable will be happier.

“Personal values. People’s happiness depends on their ‘inner selves‘ and philosophies of life. ‘People are happier if they are able to appreciate what they have, whatever it is; if they do not always compare themselves with others; and if they school their own moods.’” (Source: infed)

“Modern society desperately needs a concept of the common good around which to unite the efforts of its members. Here is the right concept. We want to increase the general happiness and we commit ourselves to that end.”

My Comment: Of course, this is a wonderful goal. But first, it is necessary to realize that happiness is possible only beyond our egoism, not in it and not in suppressing it. That is why we need a method for getting out of egoism, the method of Kabbalah, or rather, the Light, the force of bestowal and love, which is manifested when this method is implemented.
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In the News (from Russian Bazaar): “Almost a hundred people in the US became victims of unauthorized LSD: some crashed cars into concrete walls, others jumped from windows of high-rise buildings, the third interrupted lessons in schools and colleges with inappropriate behavior etc.

“The press quickly spread the news about the poisoning. A new wave of popularity of LSD among young people can turn into huge costs in healthcare and can radically change tactics in fighting against illegal drugs.

“Fifty years ago, a hallucinogenic drug became an integral part of youth subculture. Unlike cocaine, heroin and marijuana, it transported a person into a completely different reality. People claimed that they allegedly began to see with the eyes closed, read minds, predict the future and even change the past, etc.

“There was a time when some scientists did not condemn, but welcomed the use of LSD as a ‘means of expansion of consciousness.’ It was only towards the end of the 70s that this drug craze began to subside.

“The drug industry experiences a crisis. Marijuana today is allowed in 20 states and does not cause much interest on the part of young people. The internal state of the youth in the 80s matched cocaine; those who lived in the depressed and rebellious 90s loved heroin; the generation of the 2000s did not make their choice of drugs, and those who live now want to find something that will completely change their outlook.

“The interest in LSD is obvious. Today, even the most successful teens are depressed because of oversaturation of the market with goods and services. They do not aspire to anything, but deep down they want to find something that will entice them.

“Unlike marijuana, heroin and cocaine, the production and transportation of LSD does not cause great difficulties – it is liquid, which in microscopic doses is dropped on a piece of paper. Therefore, to carry across the border 100,000 ” stamps ” is much easier than 100,000 tablets, cigarettes or dose of powder.

“Cartels will flood the U.S. market with LSD in the second half of 2014; they have already started a marketing campaign. Most likely, the LSD will move among the higher strata of society.

“LSD will not compete with marijuana or heroin; LSD takes its market segment. Cartels are already resigned to the fact that marijuana will soon be legalized in the USA, and potent products of pharmaceutical companies will replace heroin and cocaine.”

My Comment: People experience a burning desire to find meaning, passion, and purpose. Drugs give a false sense of “flight,” soothe, and distract. But as an infatuation with them took place in the past, it will pass this time as well, because our nature, egoism, is constantly evolving and requires a more precise answer to the question about the meaning of existence, the revelation of its true purpose: the transition to the level of eternity and perfection.

Our dissemination will help us go through this period faster and occupy humanity with the true task: the transition to the next level of existence.
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In the News (from Reuters): “In Colorado- the state’s first marijuana industry job fair. There were lines before the doors even opened. Fifteen marijuana-related companies are looking to fill jobs ranging from accounting to actually growing the plant.

“A job hunter says: ‘It would be nice to be a budtender, but whatever they want to throw at me, and get my foot in the door.’ The fair brought in job hunters from many different fields. …

“Luke Ramirez, marijuana dispensary owner, saying: ‘Our sales have increased 300%. Our traffic through our stores has increased by the same number. That’s why we’re here today. We need to hire more folks to help out with that traffic added revenues.” While the requirements vary from job to job, industry recruiters say all applicants must be at least 21-years-old.’”

My Comment: But how much will we have to spend on the undesirable consequences of drug use: ruined health, increased crime, broken families, etc.?
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In the news (from the American Dream): “The American people are the most drugged people in the history of the planet. Illegal drugs get most of the headlines, but the truth is that the number of Americans that are addicted to legal drugs is far greater than the number of Americans that are addicted to illegal drugs. As you will see below, close to 70 percent of all Americans are currently on at least one prescription drug. In addition, there are 60 million Americans that ‘abuse alcohol’ and 22 million Americans that use illegal drugs. What that means is that almost everyone that you meet is going to be onsomething. …

“That sounds absolutely crazy but it is true. We are literally being drugged out of our minds. In fact, as you will read about below, there are 70 million Americans that are taking ‘mind-altering drugs’ right now. If it seems like most people cannot think clearly these days, it is because they can’t. We love our legal drugs and it is getting worse with each passing year. And considering the fact that big corporations are making tens of billions of dollars peddling their drugs to the rest of us, don’t expect things to change any time soon.”

My Comment: This condition is spreading around the world, in the favor of the ruling circles: it is easier to control a weak-willed and dependent population. People need to go through the lowest point of the fall, the recognition of evil, and only then will they be willing to change themselves. Then they will be able to hear about the existence of the method of integral education.
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In the News (from The Republican): “Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin took the extraordinary step of devoting his entire State of the State message earlier this month to highlight what he described as a “full-blown heroin crisis” in his state. …

“Timothy W. Purington, director of prevention services for Tapestry Health in Northampton, applauded Shumlin’s heroin message. The crisis, he said, is not just in Vermont; it’s throughout New England. …

“Some of the numbers that Shumlin offered in his message from Montpelier are especially grim. Since 2000, Vermont has seen a 770 percent increase in treatment for all opiates; last year the state’s number of deaths from overdoses nearly doubled from the previous year. …

“Shumlin said the heroin crisis got its start in Vermont as an OxyContin and prescription drug-addiction problem.

“Delaney said it’s much the same in Western Massachusetts and that those who get hooked on OxyContin or oxycodone down here often move on to heroin because it’s cheaper.

“‘It’s a lot cheaper buying a bag of heroin than it is to buy an 80 mg “oxy” for 50 to 80 bucks,’ he said.

“The appeal for heroin has increased because of the OxyContin problem. People are resorting to heroin because they are addicted to this drug.”

My Comment: The elite is interested in sedating the masses, both physically and psychologically. Drugs are designed to lull the masses, to trigger their dependence, and thus, the opportunity to set the conditions for distribution of drugs. It is a new form of slavery.
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In the News (from the University of California San Francisco): “Scientists say the unexpected finding offers a new basic understanding of fetal eye development and ocular diseases caused by vascular disorders – in particular one called retinopathy of prematurity that can blind premature infants. The research, led by scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and UCSF, was published online Jan. 16 ahead of print publication.

“’This fundamentally changes our understanding of how the retina develops,’ says study co-author Richard Lang, PhD, a researcher in the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. ‘We have identified a light-response pathway that controls the number of retinal neurons. This has downstream effects on developing vasculature in the eye and is important because several major eye diseases are vascular diseases.’

“But researchers in the current study found that activation of the newly described light-response pathway must happen during pregnancy to activate the carefully choreographed program that produces a healthy eye. Specifically, they say it is important for a sufficient number of photons to enter the mother’s body by late gestation, or about 16 days into a mouse pregnancy.

“Researchers were also surprised to learn that photons of light activate a protein called melanopsin directly in the fetus – not the mother – to help initiate normal development of blood vessels and retinal neurons in the eye.

“Mice were reared in the dark and in a normal day-night cycle beginning at late gestation to observe the comparative effects on vascular development of the eye. The researchers verified the function of the light response pathway by mutating an opsin gene in mice called Opn4 that produces melanopsin, in essence preventing activation of the photo pigment.

“The melanopsin protein is present in both mice and humans during pregnancy. Lang said the research team is continuing to study how the light-response pathway might influence the susceptibility of pre-term infants to retinopathy of prematurity and also be related to other diseases of the eye.”

My Comment: The developing fetus experiences not only light, but also all other influences that we experience from the external environment. This prepares it to the existence outside. In spiritual development at the level of the fetus, we have to clarify all the influences of the upper one on the lower one, and precisely in the correct relationship between them, which we form, to develop until our spiritual birth.
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Question: Why do health problems appear with us all the time, in the family, etc.?

Answer: We don’t know why we are sick because we don’t see the entire system of creation. Someone does something in one place and for that someone in another place “takes it on the head” because we are a single integral system. So I cannot tell you how to act when someone is sick.

We need only to advance towards an inclusive unity. Only this alone! As Baal HaSulam writes, love of friends is ready to cover all of our problems.
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In the News (from The Independent): “Scientists at Oxford University have made a startling discovery: they’ve found a region of the brain that makes you wonder if you’ve done something wrong, and whether you’d have been well advised to do something better.

“There are several things that you should know about this region, which is inside your head… One, it’s called the lateral frontal pole. Two, it’s unique to humans – they ran tests on monkeys in the course of the research at Oxford and, nope, they don’t have it. Three, it’s the size of ‘a large Brussels sprout.’ And four, it’s a leap beyond current scientific knowledge into realms that can only be described as spooky. …

“For centuries we thought that the conscience was just some faculty of moral insight in the human mind, an innate sense that one was behaving well or badly – although the great HL Mencken once defined it as, ‘the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.’ It’s been used by religions as a numinous something-or-other, kindly bestowed by God, to give humans a choice between sin and Paradise.”

My Comment: Our world and our body is a replica of the higher worlds. The only difference is in the program of their work: for one’s own sake, in our world and for others, for the Creator, in the upper world. But all the details are identical.
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Opinion (Alexander Markov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Senior Research Professor at the Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences): “From where did the human being acquire ability for a long-term romantic love with the formation of permanent couples? The same systems of regulation work both in humans and animals – neural networks that control sexual and social behavior.

“Neurobiological studies show that love is something more than a basic emotion. It is associated with higher cognitive functions. Romantic love includes activity of the parts of the cortex, responsible for social cognition (the work with information about other people) and perception (image) of oneself. Conclusion: love is based on a desire to extend the internal image of oneself by including the other person in this image.”

My Comment: Everything is created only for expansion of feeling and inclusion of feelings between all those who fill the world. In the human being, love is necessary as a means of communication and mutual inclusion, which leads to both greater positive and negative interactions and further to an understanding of the need to unite completely to fulfill the purpose of creation.
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