A mural at the Cahokia Mounds Museum and Interpretive Center shows the city during its heyday, circa 1100.Credit…L.K. Townsend/Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

Excavations at Cahokia, famous for its pre-Columbian mounds, challenge the idea that residents destroyed the city through wood clearing.

A thousand years ago, a city rose on the banks of the Mississippi River, near what eventually became the city of St. Louis. Sprawling over miles of rich farms, public plazas and earthen mounds, the city — known today as Cahokia — was a thriving hub of immigrants, lavish feasting and religious ceremony. At its peak in the 1100s, Cahokia housed 20,000 people, greater than contemporaneous Paris.

By 1350, Cahokia had largely been abandoned, and why people left the city is one of the greatest mysteries of North American archaeology.

Read the entire article by Asher Elbein published April 24, 2021 at nytimes.com.

link submitted by Robert Petrovich

“I answered and said to him [Jesus], “Master, we can obey you if you wish, for we have forsaken our fathers and our mothers and our villages, and followed you. Give us the means not to be tempted by the evil devil.” The master answered and said, “What good is it to you if you do the father’s will but you are not given your part of his bounty when you are tempted by Satan? But if you are oppressed by Satan and persecuted and do the father’s will, I say he will love you, make you my equal, and consider you beloved through his forethought, and by your own choice. Won’t you stop loving the flesh and fearing suffering? Don’t you know that you have not yet been abused, unjustly accused, locked up in prison, unlawfully condemned, crucified without reason, or buried in the sand as I myself was by the evil one? Do you dare to spare the flesh, O you for whom the spirit is a wall surrounding you? If you consider how long the world has existed before you and how long it will exist after you, you will see that your life is but a day and your sufferings an hour. The good will not enter the world. Disdain death, then, and care about life. Remember my cross and my death, and you will live.”” ~The Secret Book of James

Give Us the Means

James or one of the other disciples of Jesus says they can obey him, but it would be easier if Jesus would give them a way to avoid being tempted by Satan. This disciple is essentially asking Jesus to give them smooth sailing at all times. No storms, no errant winds, no rogue waves, all smooth sailing. It is an unrealistic request. As long as we are in the physical world we have to face adversity and deal with it. Jesus isn’t going to make the obstacles of disease, hunger, storms, earthquakes, etc. go away. They are part of this world, which is not God’s world. This world is the creation of the Demiurge or Fallen Angels, so Satan has power here. As long as we are in the physical realm, we will be tempted by Satan.

If Tempted By Satan

Whether or not Jesus could do as James asks, Jesus replies that he has no intention of preventing them from being tempted by Satan. He gives them a good reason why, if they understood. it. Jesus asks them, “What good is it to you if you do the father’s will but you are not given your part of his bounty when you are tempted by Satan?” What he is saying is this. When we do good because there is no alternative, we have not accomplished much. If the only option we have is to do God’s Will, then doing it is good, but not special, not deserving any reward. On the other hand, if we are frequently tempted by Satan and his minions to do what is pleasant, comfortable, fun, but in violation of God’s Will, and we resist and do what is right, we have accomplished something to be proud of.

When a swimmer swims against a current, he grows stronger and stronger. If he just floats in an unmoving pool, he gains little. If a weight lifter lifts barbells and dumbbells with no weights attached, she doesn’t get stronger, she doesn’t increase her stamina. But if she adds enough weight to strain her muscles, she will increase strength and stamina. In the war of Light against darkness, God needs soldiers of Light who are strong, who have stamina, and who resist temptation. When tempted by Satan, they must say no, not whine for the temptation to go away. Overcoming the obstacles makes us stronger and more useful to ourselves and to God.

Disdain Death, Care About Life

Jesus also replied that the disciples should disdain death and care about life instead. What he means by that is we should care about real life, eternal life, the life of the spirit and soul, rather than the life of the physical body which is going to die at some point no matter how well we care for it. That doesn’t mean that we should ignore the needs of the body, but the needs of the spirit should take priority.

Remember My Cross

In the final line of the paragraph quoted, Jesus reminds the disciple to remember his cross. This will almost certainly be considered by most to be the crucifix that Jesus was hung on to die. To a limited degree, it is. Jesus, who is now appearing to them in spirit after his physical death, is reminding them of the suffering he faced that was worse than being tempted by Satan. But he is also talking about the Cross of Christ which is different from a crucifix. It is not a symbol of death, but one of eternal life. Its design is recognized by the spirit and soul that understand the language of symbols.

The paragraph after the one quoted above goes into that more, and I will probably cover that in another post.

Original article posted at SOLAR WIND by HAROLD BOULETTE on June 14, 2021

Perfection

“That is the gospel of him whom they seek, which he has revealed to the perfect through the mercies of the father as the hidden mystery, Jesus the anointed. Through him he enlightened those who were in darkness because of forgetfulness. He enlightened them and gave them a path. And that path is the truth that he taught them. For this reason error was angry with him, so she persecuted him. She was distressed by him, and she was made powerless. He was nailed to a tree. He became a fruit of the knowledge of the father. He did not, however, destroy them because they ate of it. He rather caused those who ate of it to be joyful because of this discovery. And as for him, he found them in himself, and they found him in themselves, that illimitable, inconceivable one, that perfect father who made all, in whom the realm of all is, and whom the realm of all lacks, since he retained in himself their perfection, which he had not given to all. The father was not jealous. What jealousy, indeed, is there between him and his members? For, even if the eternal being had received their perfection, they would not have been able to approach the perfection of the father, because he retained their perfection in himself, giving it to them as a way to return to him and as a knowledge unique in perfection. He is the one who set all in order and in whom all existed and whom all lacked.” ~The Gospel of Truth

Seeking Perfection

Sadly, it has become popular in New Age spirituality to criticize the idea of seeking perfection. They seem to think that no work is involved in becoming spiritual, no attempt to improve is needed, we just need to accept ourselves as we are, and we are on our way to Heaven. This idea seems to be promoted by modern Buddhist teachers, but I don’t think Buddha, or any of the other great spiritual or religious leaders of the past, ever believed or taught that.

We all want to change, we all want to grow and become something greater than we already are. Perhaps absolute perfection is a goal we cannot achieve in our lifetime, but it is a goal worth aiming for. Many experts tell us that when we set goals of any kind, we should set them high. Shoot for the moon, and even if you fall short, you have accomplished a lot. Others disagree with that approach and feel we should stick with easily achievable goals. Either way you do it, seeking spiritual perfection should be the ultimate goal of your spiritual quest.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on April 21, 2021

In this penultimate episode of the Thunderbolts “Eye of the Storm” series, author and Thunderbolts colleague Andrew Hall describes his approach to reverse engineer the Earth, starting with outside layers and peeling inward, always following the patterns of electrical scarring.

Abstract theories for cause and effect aren’t needed when the patterns of Nature are laid bare for us to see, repeating at every scale in every structure in the universe. In the case of geology, it’s not just gravity, the mists of time, or coincidence. It’s the diffusion of charge in an environment of extreme electrical stress. The question is: What makes the patterns?

Watch the video presentation on Youtube.(13:47)

link submitted by Robert Petrovich

The Healing Center & Spa at Steamboat Hot Springs attended this year’s annual Hot Springs Connection Conference at Quinn’s Hot Springs Resort in Paradise, Montana from May 17 to May 20, 2021. Representing Steamboat were Sonya Savoy, Manager, and Susan Schafer, Lead Therapist.

More than 130 industry professionals, including 40 hot springs owners and operators, and 20 suppliers and affiliates attended from 22 states. The Hot Springs Connection is the only conference in the United States designed specifically for hot springs owners, operators, general managers, facilities directors, and industry professionals. The purpose of the event is to provide networking opportunities, seminars and workshops for commercial geothermal pools, spas and resorts.

The conference seminar topics included redevelopment, restoration and reconstruction of historic properties (which Steamboat is); industry trends; new technologies; balneology methodology and culture; water stewardship, sustainability & preservation; health, healing & wellness practices; hydrotherapy treatments; mineral water product development; leadership skills; customer service training; resort and spa management; best practices; and tourism marketing, website design, social media management.

Steamboat is also very fortunate to have a wonderful working relationship with the owners and managers of our neighboring Nevada hot springs in Carson City, Carson Hot Springs. We thank the owner, Mark Begich, and General Manager Keith Shellhamer of Carson Hot Springs for helping Steamboat Hot Springs reach its full potential!

Nilza Shellhamer, Operations Manager of Carson Hot Springs (CHS); Mark Begich, owner of CHS; with Gene Savoy, Jr. and Sonya Savoy. PHOTO CREDIT: Keith Shellhamer, General Manager (CHS)

Take a look at all the smiling faces here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zYNjNAeQqwQVonkr6

by Sonya Savoy and Gene Savoy Jr.

Proxima Centauri, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2013.Credit…ESA/Hubble & NASA

As another 11-year cycle of solar activity begins, scientists debate how violent our stellar friend is likely to be.

The big news about the sun is that there is no big news. We are blessed, astronomers like to say, to be living next to a “boring star.”

But the inhabitants (if there are any) of the planets orbiting the neighboring star Proxima Centauri, only 4.2 light-years away, are less fortunate. In April astronomers announced that a massive flare had erupted from its surface in 2019. For seven seconds, as a battery of telescopes on Earth and in space watched, the little star had increased its output of ultraviolet radiation 14,000-fold, in one of the most violent such flares ever seen in our galaxy.

This was more than serious sunburn territory. “A human being on this planet would have a bad time,” said Meredith MacGregor, an astronomy professor at the University of Colorado who led the worldwide observing effort.

Space weather on this scale could sterilize potentially habitable planets, and could augur bad news for the search for life beyond this solar system. Even mild space weather can be disruptive to creatures already evolved and settled; sunspots and solar storms, which wax and wane in an 11-year cycle, spray energy that can endanger spacecraft, astronauts and communication systems.

Read the entire article posted May 31, 2021 online at nytimes.com.

link submitted by Charles Stewart

What If Only Matter Exists?

“If Matter is taken to be the only existent, and all other things as modifications of Matter, it is not legitimate to set up a single genus to embrace both the existent and the other things; consistency requires that Being (Substance) be distinguished from its modifications an that these modifications be duly classified. …

“The error in this theory is fundamental. To set Matter the potential above everything, instead of recognizing the primacy of actuality, is in the highest degree perverse. If the potential holds the primacy among the Existents, its actualization becomes impossible; it certainly cannot bring itself into actuality; either the actual exists previously, and so the potential is not the first principle, or, if the two are to be regarded as existing simultaneously, the first-principle must be attributed to hazard. Besides, if they are simultaneous, why is not actuality given the primacy? Why is the potential more truly real than the actual?

“Supposing then that the actual does come later than the potential, how must the theory proceed? Obviously, Matter does not produce form: the unqualified does not produce quality, nor does actuality take its origin in the potential; for that would mean that the actual was inherent in the potential, which at once becomes a dual thing.

“Furthermore, God becomes a secondary to Matter, inasmuch as even He is regarded as a body composed of Matter and Form.” ~Plotinus

If Only Matter Exists

It is hard to follow the archaic and convoluted style of Plotinus, but what he is saying quite simply is that it is not possible that Matter is the only thing that exists, and everything else (spirit, consciousness) is derived from Matter. While he may put it oddly, what he says is true.

We can add to this falsehood of the theory that only matter exists, a second one which says that matter existed before spirit or consciousness.

Actuality and Potential

What Plotinus is saying about actuality and potential means that matter, as he sees it as a potential. By itself, it has no form, no being. Being and form must be added to matter to create an actuality, such as an apple. So what Plotinus is saying is that something had to be added to matter to give it being and form, and that something cannot be simply more matter, but something that is not matter. But, he argues, if the actuality of the thing, with being and form, is no longer pure matter, it cannot be derived from matter, or at least not solely from matter.

Matter and Spirit

It is generally believed in science today that matter did come first, and the spirit and soul, if they actually exist, are offshoots of matter. This idea denies the whole concept of spirit.

Spirit is immortal. All spirits are immortal, all souls are immortal. They exist entirely without the limitations of time and space, so they have no beginning and no end. Matter, on the other hand, does have a beginning and an end. Everything in the material universe is born, or comes into existence, and is later destroyed or dies on its own. So matter could not have existed before the spirit or the soul.

Then we have to return to the previously mentioned form and being. If form and being did not come from matter, then where did it come from? The logical answer is that spirit added to matter brings about being and form. So this tells us again that spirit came before matter, it is not an offshoot of matter, it is not a form of matter. This is something that the great spiritual masters have taught for centuries, but few seem to grasp it. So not only is it false that only matter exists, but it is also false that matter generated spirit. And if being and form come from spirit, not matter, then all forms and all beings must be made up of a spirit as well as matter.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on May 3, 2021

One lazy afternoon in the 1890s, legendary inventor Nikola Tesla was lounging around his laboratory with his good friend Samuel Clemens, also known as the famed writer Mark Twain. The two had a longstanding relationship, and Twain, who was notoriously fascinated with science and technology, was a regular visitor at Tesla’s laboratory.

By this point in his life, Twain was, as Tesla described, “…in the worst shape, suffering from a variety of distressing and dangerous ailments.” Thus, on this particular afternoon, Tesla suggested that Twain try out a new invention he’d been working on, a mechanical oscillator that sent vibrations through the body at various frequencies. Twain agreed and stepped onto Tesla’s machine. At the end of the process, Twain suddenly leaped up and rushed to the toilet with terrible diarrhea.

Despite this, Twain would continue to use the machine daily for almost two months, at the end of which he had, in the words of Tesla, “regained his old vigor and ability to enjoy life to the fullest extent.” This was precisely what Tesla had expected, the same results Tesla and his assistants had achieved during their experimentation with the invention.

Read the entire blog post posted online August 16, 2020 at universe-inside-you.com.

Watch the video posted August 16, 2020 on YouTube. (20:25)

link submitted by Ted Staver

“If you suffer yourself to be always looking into Nature and the things of Time, and to be leading the will, and to be seeking somewhat for thyself in the desire, it will be impossible for thee ever to arrive at the Unity, that you wish for. Remember this and always be on your watch. Give not your mind leave to enter into, nor to fill itself with, that which without you; neither look backwards upon yourself; but quit yourself and look forward upon Christ. Let not your left eye deceive you, by making continually one representation after another, and stirring up thereby an earnest longing in your self-propriety; but let your right eye command back the left; and attract it to you, so that it may not gad abroad into the wonders and delights of Nature. Yea, it is better to pluck it quite out, and to cast it from thee, then to suffer it to proceed forth without restraint into Nature, and to follow its own lusts. However, for this there is no necessity since both eyes may become very useful, if ordered aright; and both the divine and natural Light may in the Soul subsist together, and be of mutual service to each other.” ~Jacob Boehme

Always Looking Into Nature

Let’s get one thing straight right away. There is nothing wrong with Nature. Nor is there anything wrong with enjoying what nature has to offer. What Boehme is talking about, we would today call Materialism. He is warning us to not get caught up in the traps and endeavors of materialism. To use the more proper spiritual terminology in use today, he is telling us to not get attached to the material world and the things in it.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on April 16, 2021

“The success of a person depends on their faith: their faith in God, their neighbor and themselves. Be glad when you meet a smart person, it is a blessing for you. …

“There are countless abilities in Man’s soul, because it is the expression of God Himself. The soul is made of the image and likeness of God. One cannot understand these things until he tries them. You say: ‘I believe in God.’ Firstly, think about God, then you will feel God. You have to become a servant of God; you have to do something for Him. If you have a Lord for whom you have not thought the best, if you have not put Him in ypuself to think the best, to have the best feelings, to do good things for Him, to do favors for others, you cannot know God.

“The name we have for God is not the true one, because if we know His true name, it will get stained. The one who pronounces the name of God must possess pure heart and deeds. When you pronounce the name of God, pronounce it with that Love, faith, and hope as if God is something great.

“In love, there are no difficulties. In love, there is no suffering. In love, there are no misunderstandings. … I say: love is a nice world where I can rest; in love is paradise. … Allow love to start acting in you where it has not acted so far.” ~Biensa Douno

Having Faith

Faith is belief in God, people, or ideals. We all need to have faith in something. We should start with having faith in ourselves and in God. Once we have that, we should develop faith in others and faith in ideas and beliefs. Hopefully, we are discerning enough to have faith in ideas ad beliefs that are true, not unproven fantasies. If we can’t develop faith in others, we can’t trust others. If we can’t trust others, we can’t learn from them.

Some will argue that faith in God is faith in the unproven and unprovable, but that isn’t true. The existence of a Supreme Being or Force is logical and provable, although the methods of proof may not meet the criteria of physical science. God, being spirit, cannot be proven by the rules of matter, or He would be matter. But there are sciences of spirit that allow the existence of God to be proven, or at least shown to be probable.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on April 12, 2021