Self-determination Re-examined

Self-determination and the Question of National Unity in Ethiopia

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In an article entitled Ethnic Self-Determination or Centripetal Dismemberment of a Nation - Polarity of Incarnate Narratives and Avant-garde Ideology, Costantinos highlighted one of the most controversial article of the Ethiopian Constitution, which is Article 39, that grants unrestricted rights to nations and nationalities to self determination including and upto secession without qualification. It might be initially considered to be a means to legitimising EPRDF's position that endorsed the secession of Eritrea. However, its opponents pointed out a glaring discrepancy between the Article in the Constitution and the actual practice on the ground. 

The article linked the root of such pregnant idea to the Ethiopian student movement of the 1960s which propounded the issue of self determination under the banner of "The National Question in Ethiopia". 

The author noted that the way the Eritrean problem was resolved was not within the framework of national self-determination as many tried to construct for it as justification. Hence, the crucial questions were not raised in the rush to conform to the latest trend at the time. The article highlighted that the priciple of self-determination served little more than a legitimizing instrument for all that claimed their shares in the armed resistance. For these groups, Eritrean independence had its legitimacy from their shared assumption that Ethiopian unity was deeply flawed under all the previous regimes including the Dergue.
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Harmoni@Critical Reflections  (HS-0012)

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The author asserted that ethnic hetrogeneity will not necessarily be an obstacle in the democratic process. Multiparty democracy if it is implemented in the right way might even provide an enduring solution to problem associated with ethnicity. 

Costantinos cited some of the various instances in the history of the country that proved the point that Ethiopia as a nation has already built the capacity over the years to transcend the ethno-centrism and narrow linguistic and religious affiliation that now seem to dominate the political landscape. 

Among these instances were noted the resilience of the people to fight back foreign invaders such as Mussolini and Said Barree while united under one national flag. This according to the author is the true test of a nation's unity that prevails in the time of adversity. 

"The true test of a nation's unity tested in the time of adversity. It is during these times that Ethiopians have shown their unique Ethiopianness despite linguistic differences," writes the author. 

The sympathy the Oromiffa speaking Ethiopians showed to their fellow citizens from Amhara and Tigray who were severely affected during the Great African Famine of 1984/1985 was evident in the contribution they made to the Red Cross in terms of food and money. The author also referred to the now infamous ressetlement program during the Dergue regime which he said would not be possible "without the generous guardianship of the Orromiffa speaking Ethiopians to whole families of the Amhara and Tigrayan re-settlers." 

Harmoni@Critical Reflections  (HS-0012)

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The author highlighted the tendency of revolutionary democrats to regard any opposition to their partisan views of nationality as oposition to popular opinion, and "the work of anti-people elements." One of the limitations of the structural model of revolutionary social democratic political thought and practice he identified is that the State and its institutions of governance define both the problem of democratic change and propose solutions for the them. He also pointed out the difficulty to see how ethnic-based 'democratisation' could lead to the democratisation of the country as a whole. Hence, such issue of democratisation may rather be viewed more as the feature of its ideology than a feature of Ethiopia as a country. 

For it is difficult to see how ethnic-based 'democratisation' constitutes the 'democratisation' of Ethiopia. When all that is constitutive of its historic identity and unity is subject to rejection and deconstruction, how does this become a subject of democratic change? This claim of reductionism in approaching national tradition along with the naively rationalist criticism that goes with it, is predicated on the polarity the new political order draws between historically sedimented values, sentiments and symbols of the tradition, on the one hand, and contemporary ideas and projects of self-determination which they are being promoted, on the other. It is based on a dualism of effective history and revolutionary ideology. This polarisation is indefensible in its assumption that the two forms of Ethiopian national experience are mutually exclusive. If we do not accept it, and there may be good reasons for not accepting it, the arguments that the incumbents make on its basis become untenable.

The values, sentiments and the symbols of unity cherished largely but not exclusively by the city elites and the Diaspora have come under attack and become subjects of deconstruction. The impacts of highly ethnicized political order have been felt more in the everyday social and economic life than at ideological level. Ethnocentric nationalism as a "social experiement" remains the cornerstone of the 'democratisation' strategy that goes well beyond simply changing or improving the position and status of 'nationalities' or ethnic groups. It delves into restructuring of the polity as a whole involving radical transformation of the values, traditions and institutions of the Ethiopian state in their historic and contemporary forms. Hence, it is an attempt to deal both with the question of self-determination of nationalities and the vision of national unity based on equality connected with it. 

The author underscores the polarity between historical and ideological bases of Ethiopian unity and the need to evaluate the traditional values and assumptions in light of the categories and models of modern, libertarian nationalism in order to correct the limitations of those values. The collective memory and experience should not be a hindrance for present change and development. It is not also helpful to view the relation between historical and ideological bases of Ethiopiannes in stark opposition while limiting the national consciousness entirely to the present. 

The author notes that the differences among ethnic communities is highly overemphasized rather than upholding what they share in common as the unifying edifices. The same over emphasis marks "the equally exaggerated, overly-politicised identification of the tradition with oppression of nationalities," as it is reflected in such phrases as 'a prison of nations' used in the student movement to describe the situation in Ethiopia at the time to justify the demand that Ethiopia be 'born again,' and 'born different'. 

It would be a mistake, however, to suggest that this damand, along with the highly negative and overly politicised view of the historical process of nation-state formation on which it is based, constitutes the spontaneous response of ethnic communities in Ethiopia to their incorporation into the polity. It is not necessarily democratic or popular. No one entire ethnic community or nationality in Ethiopia has ever been locked in combat with another or with the state in all-out struggle for 'liberation'. The demand can more accurately be seen as a form of 'elite advocacy': a making out of a case by limited groups within different ethnic communities for the radical transformation of the state. It represents political projects undertaken by particular organised movements on behalf of entire 'nations' and 'people' - as much of the discussion and debate around the demand was generated by leftist, specifically Leninist discourse. 

This is not to argue simply that the problem of nationalities in Ethiopia was 'created' by the Ethiopian Left. The 'problem' existed long before leftist movements appeared on the Ethiopian political scene. Rather, it is to make the point, often overlooked. The problem arose in the the specific form it did within a particular tradition of political thought, discourse and struggle -- characteristic of the Ethiopian Left, a tradition that was inherited by present day politicians. To extent, ethnic and cultural communities in Ethiopia have sought equality and freedom from forced unity by the state; they have not done so by invoking such global themes as 'self-determination'. These themes constitute a limited form of representation of concrete ethnic interests, concerns, grievances and aspirations through socialist ideological construction. However important these themes are, they do not have monolithic content or absolute form. They are a partial, variable and potentially negotiable political articulation produced by a particular organisation in a specific context of struggle. They need not and should not be invoked by anyone in non-negotiable terms. They represent a contingent, contestable closure on national identity which should not be passed off as flat, indisputable necessity.

Harmoni@Critical Reflections  (HS-0012)

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Costantinos remarks that the highly polemical political discourse and combative nature of communication among opposition groups stemmed from Stalinist, centralist and commandist legacy which proved to be usually sensitive but not particularly responsive to criticism of their goals and strategy. Political transition in Ethiopia requires greater openness and variability inclusive of more complex democratic order that cannot be fully represented by any one political group.

Political issues of self-determination inevitably raise problems, which cannot be neatly enslaved within either any one of these ethnic groups or contemporary ideology. While they constitute more or less distinct cultural area, one cannot conclude from this that contemporary national aspirations can be seen in isolation from or in opposition to issues and problems of the historic tradition. They constitute broader national elements, intersections and consequences, forms of the national experience not necessarily incompatible; nor need they be in conflict. Rather, they may be mutually complementary, as would two images of the same terrain portrayed from alternative perspectives. This means that the problems of 'democratisation' need not be defined in terms of individual projects of self-determination or the aggregate of such projects. They can be defined and addressed within a broad-based multi-ethnic political process. The commitment of  organisations to progressive ideas of democracy and ethnic quality does not compel them to use the categories of nationalism in a way that devalues and negates the national tradition. Their commitment to democratic change does not necessarily entail a rejection of the ancestral heritage. If the historic nationalism cannot be said to have a core tradition shared by all ethnic groups, neither can it be characterised as entirely lacking in elements that cut across and connect diverse communities.

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Harmoni@Critical Reflections  (HS-0012)

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The author, Dr. Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, is professor of Public Policy and Sustainable Institutional Reforms at Addis Ababa University, and he is the author of a number of articles and several books including Unleashing Africa's Resilience: Pan-Africanist Renaissance in a New African Century. 

Reincarnation

Is it a natural possibility? 

The five years old boy from Cincinnati started making a curious remarks such as "When I used to be a girl, I used to have a black hair," since he was two years old. According to his mother, he repeatedly use the name Pam in many instances. When the mother asked him who Pam was, the boy replied, "I used to be Pam before I died." When the mother asked him further if he could remember how he died, the boy replied it was due to a fire accident. He even recalled the name of the city, and it was Chicago.

When the mother searched on the internet, she found out that there was indeed a fire accident at a residential area at the Paxton Hotel. In the accident, 19 people died including a black woman called Pamela Robinson who died jumping out of a window.

When the boy was presented with pictures of different people to identify Pamela, he made no mistake in pointing out Pamela. The boy identified the picture of Pamela while he was video recorded for the documentary film, Ghost inside my Child, produced by the Lifetime Movie Network (LMN).

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The three years old boy in the picture claims he was a reincarnation of an American pilot whose plane was shot down by the Japanese during WWII.

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Harmoni@Spritual Dimension (HS-0011)

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When he was three years old, James Leininger who exhibited extreme fascination with planes at his early age started to have nightmares which he was not able to explain in words but described in drawings. He drew flying planes dropping bombs, and he talked about a plane crash and a little man who could not get out of the plane. When he was asked who that little man was, he replied, "It was me." He even said that it was the Japanese who shot his plane down. He also remembered the kind of aircraft he used to fly and told the name of the warship, called Natoma, his plane used to take off.

Later it was found out about James Huston who fought in the WWII against the Japanese, and who disappeared on 3 March 1945 when his plane was shot down. Another fellow soldier who survived the war and was still alive to confirm the claims made by the boy, witnessed that the names the boy referred to were actually his compatriots who lost their lives in the war. When the boy met the veteran solider in person, he identified the names of the soldiers he saw in the pictures. He also met the late James Hustons's older sister and asked about a picture her mother painted of her. It was baffling there was someone else other than her who knew about the picture. The boy recieved some of the items the late James Huston left behind, but eventually his memory of the deceased soldier gradually faded away. However, his passion for aircraft grew even stronger. 

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Science Of The Soul - Full Documentary, Syndicado TV, March 29, 2019

Harmoni@Spritual Dimension (HS-0011)

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Ian Stevenson was a pioneer who started to investigate claims of reincarnation using a rational scientific approach since 1961. His studies closely examined the expressed memories of the children in the reported cases of reincarnation  including birthmarks found on their body that matched the wounds sufferred by the deceased person they now embodied. The children also showed visible anxiety and emotional longing that resonates with the ways the deceased person died or other particular details in the life of the same person.  More than 2500 cases have already been studied over the past half a century using a database containing 200 variables for each individual cases of claims of reincarnation under investigation. 

Stevenson published his first book in 1966 entitled, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reirzcarrzatiorz. He followed an even-handed approach in his investigation of the cases without resorting to endorsement of the cases at face value or even dismissing their plausibility. He presented a careful documentation of the cases with exhaustive detail whenever possible and necessary. 

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Children Who Claim to Remember Previous Lives: Past, Present, and Future; Article in Journal of Scientific Exploration 21(3):543-552 · September 2007 

Harmoni@Spritual Dimension (HS-0011)

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... there was one crucial difference observed in those children who made claims of past life. The children showed signs of post traumatic stress disorder ...

Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson, a psychologist from the University of Iceland examined the psychological conditions of such children in reincarnation cases. He found that their psychological characteristics were not much different from other children who never reported such cases of reincarnation. But there was one crucial difference observed in those children who made claims of past lives. These children showed signs of post traumatic stress disorder and he found this perplexing as they did not experience any thing visibly threatening in the present life. "They have these images of having died in another life. This may be the reason for this apparent post-traumatic stress disorder," remarks Dr. Haraldsson.

Harmoni@Spritual Dimension (HS-0011)

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A three year old girl named Kumkum Verma lived in a village 25 miles far away from another city called Darbhanga in India. The girl identified the particular district in the city she claimed to have lived in her previous life. She also named one of the artisans in the district, the name of her own son whom she said used to work with a hammer, the name of her grand son, and the town where her father in her past life used to live. She also identified such intimate details such as having an iron safe at home, a sword hanging near the cot where she used to sleep, and a pet snake that she used to feed milk. All these details were found recorded by her aunt.

Her present family did not know anyone from the district, so her father had to talk to one of his friends who had an employee working with him from that district. The employee was sent to find out a family that could match with the descriptions the little girl provided. And it was found out that a woman had died five years before Kumkum was born, and her life matched all the above descriptions the girl provided about her presumed past life.

Most children in the cases usually started to talk about their memories at a very young age of 2 or 3 years old and stopped talking about their memories of a past life at around the age of 6 or 7. And they spontaneously recall certain details from their past lives without the use of hypnotic techniques.

The median interval between the death of the deceased person and the birth of the children in the cases under investigation is 15 months, and the cases happened to occur usually in the same country. Some cases reported claims of reincarnation from the same family while others were found to be strangers from another place. The mode of death of the person in the reported past life was found mostly unusual for 70pc of the cases as it involved unnatural means such as violence and sudden death. However, it was only 35pc of the cases involving violent death that the children showed phobia related to the mode of death. The children demonstrated emotional longing towards their previous families particularly to certain members of their family they used to have intimate connection. They also exhibited repetitive patterns of certain behavior or activities that were noted to be related to the occupation of the deceased person or the re-enactment of the death scene of the same person. 

Harmoni@Spritual Dimension (HS-0011)

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Dr. Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, is very sceptical about the scientifc investigation of claims of reincarnation. "I have no idea what this life after death is. I have no idea whether God exists."

"When people investigate reincarnation,most investigators want the claims to be true. They are not impartial at all and they want to believe people lived before. 

"So they are prepared to make assumptions and prepared to look the evidence in a certain way. And essentially, in my opinion, tricked themselves up." 

Dr. Wiseman referred to his experiments on some randomly selected children who were asked to make up stories about someone else who was supposedly lived before and died. He particularly mentioned one of the strongest cases that could likely be taken as evidence for reincarnation. 

Molly was just asked to make up a story about another child whom she identified by the name Kate. Molly described Kate as the only child for her family, and she had red hair and blue eyes. She wore pink clothes which had a pattern and flowers on it. She was three years old and she liked going to the beach. And one day she run away from her mom when the monsters found her and bit her to death. 

Dr. Wiseman then found a real life story showing strong similarity with the story of Kate whom Molly created in her imagination. The child was the only child fot her family and then she was abducted. She had red hair and blue eyes. On the day she was abducted she was dressed in pink with a T-shirt which had a flower on it. The girl was three years old and she used to live close to the beach where she was abducted and killed by her captor. 

For Dr. Wiseman, this story would be the best reincarnation case of the century if Molly had made claims that she had lived before. "This is essentially a strong evidence but evidence against reincarnation," Dr. Wiseman asserted. 

But his arguement seems to have overlooked other very important similarities in the cases for the claims of reincarnation including physical marks such as birthmarks closely associated with the physical injuries sustained by the deceased person. Dr. Wiseman did not even mention the name of the girl in the made up story above which would make his argument particularly stronger if it was found to be the same as what Molly said in her story, Kate. 

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These Children Remember Their Past Lives| Real Life Reincarnation| Real Family, July 11, 2019

Harmoni@Spritual Dimension (HS-0011)

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A case of a woman in Britain showed claims of reincarnation of another woman who died leaving eight of her children behind. As Roman Catholics, the family never believed in reincarnation before they came across with this woman who claimed to be the reincarnation of their late mother. Jenny was convinced of her childhood memory of being another woman who died in a hospital room leaving her eight children behind. As an adult, she tracked down the traces of her haunting memories from her childhood and found each of the eight children one by one using the sir name of the family. After the mother died, the children were separated and grew up separately at different places. 

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Kids' Past Lives (Reincarnation Documentary) | Real Stories, May 19, 2016

Harmoni@Spritual Dimension (HS-0011)

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Could such a case be easily explained away in simpler terms as mere coincidences when the woman with religious background that does not support the possibility of reincarnation came up with a story of another woman having eight children who died in a hospital? If it was a mere concidence, could it be possible that Jenny could imagine just eight children, not six or four or even less? 

Such cases have been reported from different parts of the world including Asia, West Africa, South America, the US and Europe. The cases were also found in families with diverse religious backgrounds including Christianity, Islam and, of course, Budhism. Thus,  would it be possibly to easily discard these cases as mere figments of imagination with the similarities explained away as a matter of chances and influences of cultural or religious backgrounds?

Dr. Jim Tucker, a child psychiatrist from the University of Virginia, does not agree with people who dismiss such cases because it disagrees too much with their belief how the world works. 

"But to dismiss something because it doesn't agree with your substance is not very scientific. The scientific approach is to explore and learn what we can about it," Dr. Tucker noted.

One of the strongest cases for reincarnation Dr. Tucker studied was the case of a boy in Florida who remembers his past life as a policy officer that was shot dead in a gun fire. The five year old boy Ian was a very sick boy since birth due to a very rare heart disease. He had six major operations before he turned four. The first one was carried out just six hours later after he was born. His case was related to the underdeveloped pulmenary valve at the right side of his heart. 

What is striking in this case is that his grandfather, the same policy officer, died as a result of raptured pulmenary artery caused by a gun shot wound. And that was exactly the same artery Ian was suffering from.

At the age of three, Ian once reportedly said to his mom, "When you were a little girl and when I was you daddy, lots of time you were bad and I never spanked you."

He also asked her, "When you were a little girl and I was your daddy, what was my cat's name?" When the mother told him the name of one of the two cats they used to have, the boy replied, "No, the white one?"

When the mother told him it was Boston, the boy added, "I used to call him Boss, right?" The mother confirmed that it was indeed only her dad, the same policy officer that was shot dead who used to call the cat in that particular way. 

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Past Lives: Stories of Reincarnation (Full Story), Discovery Channel, November 21, 2015; 

Harmoni@Spritual Dimension (HS-0011)

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Some things may be far beyond our present understanding and we may not have sufficient evidence to support them as a complete truth or reject them as a product of mere imaginations. In such situation, it may be wiser to recognize that we do not know enough and say, "I don't know." That would still leave the door open for the possibility that we would learn more and understand better to go beyond our own limitations or firmly ingrained misconceptions. 

Food and the Brain - We are what we eat!

A study conducted on 23,000 pregnant women by Prof. Felice Jacka at the University of Melbourne in Australia examined the relationship between the mothers' eating habits and their children's emotional health in the first few years after birth between 18 months and five years old. 

The findings showed that babies from mothers who eat more processed foods and junk foods such as sweet drinks and salty snacks during pregnancy displayed such behaviors as aggression, anger, and tension compared to those babies whose mothers eat foods with lots of fiber. 

The findings also showed that not only mother's diet impacts mental development of the baby, but if children eat too much junk or processed foods and not enough of the healthy foods, they also expressed similar behaviors including sadness, anxiety, worries and nightmares, Prof. Jacka observed.

Education, income, mother's mental health and parenting style were taken into consideration to account for any other possible sources of variations in the results of the study.

These findings were also confirmed in other studies conducted in Spain, the Netherlands and Canada. 

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Four days of junk food types of diets will have an impact on the cognitive functions of the hypocampus.

Harmoni@Harmoni-Health (HS-0010)

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Another study conducted at the University of Bordeaux in France on rats lacking Omega 3 fatty acid that is good for the heart and arteries showed that the rats took refugee at the shaded area in the holes rather than exploring the much lighted area as normal rats would do. 

Without Omega 3 fatty acid, the brain does not develop and function normally. The brain's grey matter is 90 percent fat that the brain cannot produce on its own. Fish, organ meat, vegetable oil and seeds and nuts such as almonds are good sources of Omega 3 fatty acids. Junk foods are usually lacking such essential nutrients to our brain.

The amount of Omega 3 fatty acids entering the brain is crucial to make the brain more efficient as they help improve electrical properties of cell membranes. Neurons rich in Omega 3 propagates signals faster. Depriving the brain of Omega 3 increases the risk of the brain functioning less efficiently.  

The general population is deficient in Omega 3 that is instrumental in improving the electrical properties of the brain, faster propagation of the signals and for more efficient neural networks. 

When meals are poor in nutrients and always the same, it resultd in aggression and hypersensitivity . . . 

When meals are poor in nutrients and always the same, it results in aggression and hypersensitivity as observed in hamsters rats during breeding as they tend to devour their infants the first day after birth. This behavior affected 80pc of the female rats observed in the study.

"We have insufficient intake of Omega 3 especially during the prenatal developmental period.  During this period, Omega 3 invades itself in massive quantity into the brain. Also in adolescence when there is often a change of food and during old age when the incorporation of Omega 3 into the brain tends to be less effective. So, we must increase its intake," says Dr. Sohie Laye from University of Bordeaux. 

Harmoni@Harmoni-Health (HS-0010)

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In a study conducted on young prisoners in eight prisons in the Netherlands, the prisoners were provided with vitamins, minerals and fatty acid supplements for three months. Consequently, the level of aggression in the prisons fell down as observed by the decline in the number of incidents of solitary confinement by about one third. 

The study conducted by Prof. Dr. So Young Park from University of Lubek in Germany also demonstrated how what we eat influence the decisions we make. In the study, 24 participants came to the laboratory and they were served with two different types of breakfast. 

And the results have shown that the same person could make a completely different decision based on what kind of breakfast he or she eats the same day. ...

Those who had breakfast with high protein content as opposed to sugar showed more tolerance and less emotional response to accept unfair offers they were presented to on the tests. However, those who had breakfast with higher contents of carbohydrates rejected the unfair offers twice as often. 

In a subsequent blood test conducted on the subjects in the study, it was noted that those with higher level of tyrozin found in their blood tend to accept the unfair offer. Tyrozin is found in the amino acid called Dopamine that is critical for brain function in coordinating communications between neurons reponsible for motivation and risk taking. 

What we eat alter the chemistry of the brain influencing the communication between neurons and consequently our decisions within a matter of hours. Diets play a decisive role in our mood and possibly in our mental health as well.

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Harmoni@Harmoni-Health (HS-0010)

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The study conducted in the University of Sydeny in Australia focused on rats fed with the kind of junk food cheaply and readily available in resturants such as pies, chips, cakes and biscuits. The rats feeding on these junk foods immediately double their rations. But more critically, the rats who ate more food with more fat and sugar contents were found their memories deteriorated resulting in impairment of their special momery. Such decline in memory was associated with observed damages in the hypocampus which is essential for learning and the consolidation of memory. 

Studies conducted in humans also showed that the two energy rich diets interfer with the functions of the hypocampus. Four days of junk food types of diets will have an impact on the cognitive functions of the hypocampus. 

Overly rich diet confuses the immune system triggering inflamatory reactions especially in fatty tissues. Due to associated deregulation as a result of unbalanced nutritions, microbial cells within the brain which are important to remove dead neurons now start to eat the living neurons that should stay functional. 

Harmoni@Harmoni-Health (HS-0010)

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The increase in glucose concentration in brain cells leads to more electrical activity in the cells showing more potential for action. Glucose has the ability to modify the activities of the entire brain areas that control emotions and pleasure. 

From the results of the studies, it appears that the power of sugar is more similar to that of drug. Rats fed with cocaine and sugar were found four times more likely to prefer to feeding on more sugary water to the one with cocaine in it.

This seems to suggest that sugar has a more addictive power than drugs such as heroine and cocaine. 

Apart from sugary foods, we usually find sugar in other food items which do not normally have sugar contents. 

In a study conducted at the Oregon Research Institue in Eugene on a hundred students, half of whom regularly eat icecream while the other half never ate it. But when both groups of subjects were given milkshakes while their brain activity was being monitored, the brains of those students who do not regularly eat icecream showed strong electrical activity while the others exhibited a much more diminished response. This result indicated that regular consumption of sugary foods reduces the pleasure of eating those types of foods over time.   

. . . regular consumption of sugary foods reduces the pleasure of eating those types of foods over time. 

The reward circuit which is the region of the brain that controls pleasure tends to show less response for the same amount of sugary food consumed. However, it is activated more readily as the brain shows hypersensitivity for images of food in the case of those subjects who frequently eat such foods. That triggers the habitual consumption of such foods even in the absence of hunger leading to obesity and weight gain. 

Harmoni@Harmoni-Science (HS-0010)

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Gut bacteria play important role in our food choice, and these bacteria establish the link between our food and our brain. A diet good for our mood is the one that is suitable to the gut bacteria. And the diversity of the diet is found crucial in shaping the composition of these microbials in our guts. 

A diet good for our mood is the one that is suitable to the gut bacteria. And the diversity of the diet is found crucial in shaping the composition of these microbials in our guts.

Mediteranian foods is one good example of the types of foods which are suitable to our microbials and then to the effective functioning of our brain. These Mediteranian foods include all sorts of lefty grains, different colored vegetables, fruits and very importantly legumes, lentils and chickpeas, nuts, seeds, fish and particularly olive oil.   

Such diversity in the foods we eat is linked to the diversity in our gut microbials that is important for good health outcomes in our brain functions. 

Source: Better Brain Health - DW documentary (March 5, 2020)

The Soul and Quantum Physics

From an interview with Dr. Fred Alan Wolf

Magnetism is a well- researched area of study where we have demonstrated the existence of something that is real, and yet not solid or tangible. In science class as children, you might have seen how the horseshoe-shaped, bar magnet moved the iron fillings into magnetic field patterns without the magnet having to physically touch the iron fillings to move them around. So the effects of magnetism clearly demonstrates that something may exist, is real, is not physical and solid, yet it can fill space and move in time--as we know magnetic fields do. If a common phenomenon like a magnetic field acting on iron filings can do this, could not the soul be an invisible, nonmaterial, super-intelligent, animating force that similarly acts on and through the human body and the universe?

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Harmoni@Harmoni-Science (HS-0009)

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To further explore the possible nature of the soul in scientific terms, we can look into the heart of quantum physics. It has to be said at the outset that the study of quantum physics is a very difficult realm to investigate because the objects and forces that are studied by quantum physics are usually infinitesimally small. As we go down to the level of sub-atomic particles, scientists find that these particles are moving so rapidly that we can’t follow them as we would follow an ordinary larger object moving in ordinary space. The movements and properties of these very small objects do not follow the old ways of thinking found in classical physics that were developed by Sir Issac Newton and others. On this sub-atomic level of existence, Newtonian physics simply doesn’t work. So a new form of physics had to be created to adequately account for the phenomena we observed.

On the sub-atomic level, particles don’t simply move from point A to point B in a continuous fashion. Instead, these particles move in “quantum jumps.” Particles virtually leap from one place to another. These atomic jumping processes create all visible light. In order to understand how this works, we first have to understand how light behaves in atoms.

We have found that light-emitting electrons inside atoms are actually quantum leaping from one place to another, instantaneously. Though this is sometimes hard for the mind to conceive, we know this is a fact because we have tested and verified mathematical equations with actual experiments in the field. The phenomena observed in these experiments match the theoretical equations very well.

Quantum physicists have also demonstrated in experiments with sub-atomic particles that certain fields have a kind of intelligence and seem to be able to do things that ordinary fields can’t do. One very strange process that physicists observe is that electrons simply vanish, in a puff of light, when they interact with certain other particles. 

In the beginning, we didn’t know why this happened. Then we realized that these vanishing electrons were interacting with anti-matter. Because anti-matter electrons moved oppositely to electrons, when the opposing particles met, they annihilated each other. When we studied anti-matter more closely, we began to speak about anti-matter as being “bubbles in the absolute vacuum of empty space.”

Harmoni@Harmoni-Science (HS-0009)

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Well, how many of you have ever fallen asleep watching television late at night and when you awoke, you heard the static hushing noise ” from your television screen? That noise, produced by the electronics inside the television receiver, is the amplified sound of this “vacuum of space.” 

Many quantum physicists, including myself, believe that the entire universe, the entire creation, was created out of the "absolute nothingness of the vacuum of space." It appears this "vacuum of nothingness" is intelligent, active, and has a consciousness. The source of the soul proceeds from, and is present in, this vacuum.

I theorize that the soul emerged at the same time that all the matter in the universe emerged--at the time of the “Big Bang” 15 billion years ago. According to our present scientific model, the universe and the soul will continue to exist for another 20 billion, billion years until a time that is referred by scientists as the “Big Crunch.”

As an example, right now, you have some sense of being present in your body looking out at the world. But according to what we know from physics, this is an illusion of perception: 

There is no place inside your body where "you" actually exist. You don't have a particular volume of space or spot that is "you." It is an illusion to think that everything outside that volume of space is "not you" - what you commonly say is "outside of you."

The best description we can give for this sense of presence is that you “are everywhere.” The main reason that you have more awareness of being in a body is simply because the sensory apparatus of the body commands a great deal of your attention and that much of your attention is linked to your physical senses. 

We have the illusion that our human bodies are solid, but they are over 99.99% empty space. 

If an atom is blown up to the size of an entire football stadium, the dense part of the atom would be comparable to the size of a single grain of rice placed on the 50 yard line. Now why is that important? Because in an atom, the nucleus accounts for 99.99% of all of the matter or mass. Atoms are mostly made of space. 

So although we experience ourselves as being these solid human bodies, it's more like "who we are" is an awareness or consciousness that lives in space. 

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Though all material objects cannot, by definition, travel faster than the speed of light, there is evidence that the soul, which is non-physical and therefore not confined by movements in the material world, can travel faster than the speed of light. Traveling faster than the speed of light is called "superluminal speed."

So at the time of death, or during a near-death experience, it may very well be that the person transitions from the material world--that operates at speeds less than the speed of light--to a world that operates faster than light speed, the so-called “superluminal” spiritual world. In that transfer, a tunneling effect may take place in much the same way that it appears to take place in what astrophysicists call a “black hole.”

Let me offer a speculative but scientifically grounded view of God. First, in speaking about any phenomena, including God, scientists prefer to say that something or someone behaves in this way, or that way, rather than say that something is or someone does this or does that. So, using this scientific terminology, how does God behave in the universe? 

Well, if we read the Bible, God seems to behave in very paradoxical ways. But there is one way that God behaves that seems to be very relevant to this discussion: God creates. God is considered the ultimate Creator of all that is. If that’s the case, is it possible to speak about a “physics of God’s behavior” that explains how God creates?

Basically, we’re looking at a process in which the ultimate source of everything, “God,” or whatever name you want to call it, transforms consciousness into matter. Once this happens, matter inherently acts as a kind of reflection or mirror of the intelligence from which it sprung. As matter modifies itself over time in an ongoing evolutionary process, new information and intelligence continues to be reflected in an ever-evolving universe.

When Einstein died, researchers were interested in examining his brain to see whether there was something special about it that made him a genius. Aside form a greater amount of glial cells in his visual cortex, there wasn’t. His brain is still in a jar at Princeton University. We’re not going to find what makes one person smart and one person stupid by looking at their brains, unless, of course, there’s an obvious physical impairment. So we’re not going to find the source of intelligence and the soul in the material world.

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Source: In Experiencing the Soul: Before Birth, During Life, After Death. Edited by Eliot Jay Rosen. Carlsbad, CA: Hays House, 1998, pp. 245-252

Understanding Islam

Does the Quran promote terrorism? 

This is a partial reading of the Quran from an outsider's perspective who do not have any background in Islamic education. But it is a genuine pursuit to seek clarity and understanding of the revelations of Allah's messages in the Quran to reflect on the actions of some groups who declare to enforce strict Islamic interpretations in their own community as well as on those whom they call the infidels. Hence, it is the writer's of this article personal exploration of some parts of the Quran published in English to find out the answer to the following question: Does the Quran truly promote and justify the acts of terrorism be it against believers and non-believers? 

The Quran expressly forbids the shading of 'each other's blood' as stated in the following verse: 

"You shall not shade each other's blood and you shall not expell your people from your homes." (Al-Baqara 2:84)

Perhaps, this may be interpreted by some extreme groups as referring to only Muslim brothers excluding non-Muslims usually referred to as infidels. Such interpretation may perhaps be used to justify the killings of other people who are not considered Muslims. However, is this interpretation in line with other verses in other parts of the Quran?

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The Quran condones those who expect others to do good deeds whereas they themselves do not actually do as stated below: 

"How is it that you enjoin others to do good and neglect your ownselves while you recite the Scripture? Do you not even (after reading the Scripture) abstain (from evil)?" (Al-Baqara 2:44)

Unless what is good or not becomes debatable and subject to various interpretations, it is apparent that the Quran does not approve doing evil deeds which also appear to include shading the bloods of other fellow human beings, among other things.

"And make not Allah an excuse through your oaths, that you may (thereby) abstain from doing good and from becoming secure against evil and from setting the affairs right and from making peace between various people." (Al-Baqara 2:224)

The verse above clearly forbid to use the name of Allah as an excuse not to do good or  not to do the right things. It expressly states that Allah should not be used as a reason not to make peace among 'various people'. Here, it refers to different groups of people without any clear demarcation between what is called the believers and what is regarded as non-believers or infidels by some extreme readings of the Scripture.  

Accordingly, the Holy Quran gives strong warnings to anyone who presents one's own thoughts or words as the words of Allah to advance their own selfish interests and promote their evil intentions or deeds in the name of Allah as dectated below:

"And (some) among them are illitrate, who do not know the Scripture except cramming it up, and are doing nothing but making conjectures."

"Woe, therefore, to those who write the Scripture with their own hands and then say, 'This is from Allah.' They do so that they may thereby acquire some paltry gains. Woe to them for what their hands have written (to give them out as words of God). Again (We say), woe to them for what they do (of evil deed)." (Al-Baqara 2:79) 

Hence, the Quran noted that not all those who proclaim themselves to be the followers of Islam are not genuine believers. 

"There are some people who say, 'We believe in Allah and the Last Day', while they are no believers at all." (Al-Baqara 2:8)

But the Quran reveals that they are hypocrites and they are breaking the peace of the land in the pretext of doing the right things to promote peace among people. 

"When it is said to them, 'Do not disturb the peace of the land (by hypocritical tactics),'  they say, 'We are simply setting things (and so helping the cause of peace).' 

Beware! They alone are the peace breakers, but they do not perceive (its evil consequences)." (Al-Baqara 2:11-12)

And yet these people consider themselves special and strong and do not want to identify themselves with other believers whom they consider weak-minded. But the Quran says they are but weak-minded themselves: 

"And when it is said to them, 'Believe as (other) people (-Companions of the Prophet) believed,' they say, 'Shall we believe as the weak-minded have believed? Beware! It is they only who are weak-minded, but they do not know (this fact)." (Al-Baqara 2:13)

And the Quran also says, "Allah will bring down disgrace upon them and will let them continue in their (ways of) transgression. They are blindly wandering." (Al-Baqara 2:15)

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The Holy Quran is also critical of those believers who say one thing but who do another thing in practice.

"O you who believe! Why should you say what you do not do. 

It is very hateful in the sight of Allah that you should profess what you do not practice." (Al-Saff 61:2-3)

The Quran declares that such believers use their words to hide their evil intentions: 

"They take shelter behind their oaths (to hide their evil design). Thus they keep people back from the way of Allah. Surely, evil is the practice they follow." (Al-Munafiqun 63:2)

According to to the Holy Quran, the responsibility of the Messenger is only to convey the messages sent from Allah. Therefore, it is not the duty of the Messenger to punish those who transgress the words of Allah as the Messenger was sent only to convey the messages from Allah.

"Obey Allah and obey the Messenger. But if you turn away (paying no heed) then (bear in mind that) Our Messenger is responsible only for the plain conveying (of the messages)." (Al-Taghabun 64:12) 

Instead, the Quran clearly states that the duty of the messengers even to those who disbelieve is not to carry out punitive actions of their own but to just convey the message of a woeful punishment that awaits them.

"On the contrary, these disbelievers cry lies (to the Quran). 

And Allah knows best all that they keep hidden (in their hearts).

So (do not bother about them, rather) give them the news of a woeful punishment." (Al-Inshiqaq 84:22-24)

In line with the above verse, the Quran clearly declares that it is not the duty or responsibility of anyone to force others to accept the words of Allah, but it is the role of Allah to punish those who disbelieve, and to hold them accountable: 

"You are not (appointed) a keeper, stern and hard, to (compel) them. 

But as to him who turns away and disbelieves,

Allah shall punish him with the greatest punishment. 

Verily, to Us is the ultimate return; 

Then it is surely for Us to call them to account." (Al-Ghashiyah 88:22-26)

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It is indeed the clear message stated in the Quran that believers are expected to make similar favours to other human beings to show their gratitude to Allah who has given them all the blessings and who has done to them favours in their lives. 

"Then as to the blessings and favours of your Lord, keep on proclaiming (your gratitude by doing similar favours to your fellow beings)." (Al-Dhuha 93:11) 

Since the Holy Quran is considered a perfect book with no harmful and destructive intentions, on what basis then the radicals advocate terrorism and bloodshed in the pretext of defending Islam from attacks from infidels? 

Even though the above analysis and interpretation is not based on a complete readings of the whole Scripture, one cannot expect that other parts of the Quran should contain contradictory messages as the Quran declares that:

"This is the only perfect Book, wanting in naught, containing nothing doubtful, harmful or destructive, there is no false charge in it. It is a guidance for those who guard against evil." (Al-Baqara 2:2)

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God told the 4 years old girl to paint

The 13 years old girl, Akiane Kramarik, started painting when she was only four years old after God reportedly told her in a mysterious vision to do painting. She said she was about four and half years old when she first had this amazing vision as one day a voice was guiding her in the galaxies. She calls this voice God who, she claims, have told her to paint. "God is my personal teacher, my tutor," she says. 

Her mother, Foreli Kramarik, corroborated her daughters claim saying that her child started describing new things on spritual matters and began painting exceptionally well at around the age of four. 

By 5 years old she was sketching way beyond her age, and she already started painting on giant canvas by eight years old. 

Since she first had her mysterious vision, she has continued painting for 9 years and already painted more than 100 pictures ranging from realistic portrait to fantastic landscapes and the natural world.

When Akiane was asked how she managed to do all her paintings, her answer is simple. "I don't know, I just did it."

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Markus Kramarik, her father, said both parents had no spiritual connection before and they did not even read the Bible which might have probably been considered to have influenced their daughter's claim of the vision. 

Akiane was completely self taught. She devotes all her time to painting and she spends on average upto five hours a day for six days a week. Each of the pictures she painted could take up from 15 to 300 hours to complete.

Her mother said she sometimes painted for 12 to 14 hours without break and she refused to take a break to even eat or drink in between.

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Akiane only studies the subjects she enjoys. The mother said she never forced her daughter to do anything else or study maths. 

Apart from painting, Akiane loves printing and publishing her books in poetry and art. 

Critics might point out that it is no wonder the girl is a genuis becuase she devotes all her time to painting. But her mother would respond to such criticism saying: 

"It would be a better place in the world that there would be more people who are interested in focusing their energy in the fields they are interested in." 

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Now Akiane is the sole bread winner of her family with her prints alone being sold in thousands of dollars. But she doesn't have to worry about how much money she makes from her paintings. She just have fun making her paintings while the rest of the family is taking care of the business side of this now joint family venture. 

Her father said they sold at least 50 prints of the pictures for 1800 to 3100 US dollar per print, which already made the family rich. They also earn additional income from the sale of the original paints between one hundred thousand and three hundred thousand US dollar for each original paint. But the father said they prefer not to sell the originals. 

The family has now owned a new million dollar family house as a fruit of their daughter's creative labour.

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Is it a normal childhood for a 13 years old girl? One would probably ask.

The mother is quick to respond, "If a normal childhood is to sit in front of a television and be on the cell phone for three or four hours a day, I don't know if that is a normal childhood."

For the mother, a normal childhood would mean her daughter is able to serve other people, help children, enjoy what she does and be together with her family. 

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Source: Superhuman - Geniuses 

(bTV docs,  November 19, 2015)