Mental Wars

 

War and violence are inherent in human nature. There is no way to eradicate war and its aftereffects without eradicating the impulse for war in humanity. That will never happen, as a species we are bound for conflict. The only solution is to divert our impulse for war towards something else, like a different kind of war.

Mind War or it’s concept differs in sharp contrast to physical war. Physical war takes a heavy toll on humanity. Not only in lives lost unnecessarily but also in terms of physical damage like we see in war torn areas. Often those who lose the war carry anger and resentment which could flare up later. Sometimes physical war has no official point of saying “Hey it’s over, mission accomplished. Then there is occupying a country after it has been conquered. The populace will be resentful of the occupying power.

Going into a war there is dehumanizing your enemy so that it is justifiable to do anything to them. There are psyops that undermine the security and wellbeing of that country or nation. Mind War is a different concept. It is sort of like Sun Tzu’s concept that the best way to win a war is bloodlessly. In a Mind War there are two different parties (or several) but the enemy is not another country or person but rather the problem. The objective of the Mind War is to convince the other side that it is best to join you rather than fight you. The objective is a win/win situation for both sides.

Mind War consists of identifying the problems and then identifying all the actors in the drama. As everyone comes together internal factors of the opposing nation state are analyzed as well as external factors. Negotiations are held in a building devoid of sharp angle the color red and negatively ionized air. The object is to promote an atmosphere of trust and goodwill.

Ultimately the objective is to have a society or polis based on the moral concept of Maat or something similar. The concept is one of high moral values and respect for human dignity. These just societies help to prevent future problems and help ensure a brighter future.

The concept of Mind War is far more humane than our current use of physical war and negotiating tactics. The use of intelligence gathering will still be there but gone will be the emphasis on deception and getting one over on the opponent. It’s purpose will be to gather information so that we have a full picture of what is going on. Gone will be the false flag operation and propaganda designed to make the enemy look like a monster.

 

The book puts forth a very enlightened concept. However, looking at things today it seems we have  long way to go before we are evolved enough to use the concept of Mind War. Psyops and denigrating the enemy or anyone who disagrees with you is going on left and right. More and more people are willing to use violence to meet their needs. We need re education.

Michael Aquino is a smart man with lot’s of insight. He is a military man and knows full well the psychological tactics of psyops. Many of the concepts put forth are solid and in the end there is always the possibility that Mind War will fail and we will have to resort to physical force, which is happening blatantly these day.

Norse Mythology Retold

 

Pulling from the Norse Poetic Edda and the younger Eddas using Snorri Stulson as the main source, author Neil Gaiman gives a retelling of these ancient myths. First an overview before we dive into the myths. There are nine world in the universe of the Norse. The earth that we live on is called Midguard. The realm of the sky gods like Thor, Odin and Tyr is Asguard. Asguard is protected by Heimdall and in order to get to Asguard one has to cross the Rainbow Bridge of Bifrost. Only the gods of Asguard can cross it. The next is the world of Vana or the earth gods. There are  worlds occupied by giants. Jotunheim is a land of giants. There is also Niflehim, Muspelhaim. The realm of the dead is Hell presided over by Loki’s daughter Hela. Alfheim is the realm of the light elves and svartlheim is the realm of dwarves.

Next come the players. Everyone knows Thor, Odin and Loki. But there are other gods in Asguard. Tyr loses his hand to Fenris. Tyr is the god of war. There is Frigg Odins wife. Baldur who is Odin;s son. Amongst the Vanir are Frey and Freya and their father the sea god Njord. Once upon a time there was a war between the Vanir and the Aesir. The war ended in a stalemate with them exchanging hostages and becoming almost as one, Frey gets overlordship of Alfheim and grants prosperity and peace to mankind. Freya is a goddess of love and battle. She has a rven cloak that lets her fly about.

Then of course there is Ygdrasil , the world tree that has roots in several important wells and acts as a pathway to the different realms. One of these well is Mimir’s well. Odin is forever seeking knowledge. He goes to Mimir’s well and asks to drink of the water which will give him wisdom. In order to drink of it he must first hang from Ygdrasil for nine days upside down and cut out his right eye and leave it in the well. From this Odin gets wisdom. Later Mimir loses his head and Odin preserves it by applying herbs to it and preserving it in Mimir’s well. Now Odin can turn to it anytime for wisdom .After the battle of the Vanir and Aesir a bunch of spit was left around. They combined it to make Kvasir a god of poetry and wisdom. He is tricked into entering a giant’s castle where in he is killed and added to a vat of meade. Whoever drinks of it will be blessed with the ability to write great poetry. Odin conspires to get it. By trickery he enters the castle and finished the mead. Turning to an eagle he escapes. The Giant turns itself into a eagle or hawk and pursues Odin. Odin prevails and he vomits the meade into asguard where in others may drink of it and get inspiration.

Loki is a giant who is a bloodbrother to Odin. He is a green eyed trickster god. He is always playing pranks and causing mischief. Whenever things go wrong Thor always says that Loki is behind it all. In one story, thor’s wife Seif ends up bald because Loki took her hair and cannot replace it. Thor threatens vengeance if he does not fix the damage. To fix it Loki goes to Svartleheim and goes to two dwarf camps and says there is a contest to see who can make the nicest gift for the gods. First he approaches a set of three dwarves and they make gifts and then he goes to a second set of dwarves and they agree but they want Loki’s head if they win. Right way Loki takes the shape of a fly and bites the second set of dwarves to sabotage them. From the contest the gods get some nice gifts. Odin get’s a spear that never misses the mark. Seif gets a golden wig to replace her hair and Frey gets a ship that can shrink to pocket size. The second set of brothers gives Frey a gold boar and a hammer to Thor called Mjolnir. The second set of dwarves win but through trickery Loki mangaged to keep his head. There are more stories all of them entertaining and informative. Hope you enjoy the read/

Alien Gods of the Bible

 

If you watch the TV show “Ancient Aliens “ then you have  heard most of this before and even seen the author on the show. The first part of the book tells about the author’s life and how he grew up in an African American Community and found a great love for the Church. By and large he was Presbyterian but now he is more ecumenical . His interests in UFO’s began when he began receiving visitation from grey aliens when he was 19 or so. At first he would see little orbs of light shaped like donuts later on he would see grey aliens in his house all the while his first wife slept through it. Later on he would be visited by a reptilian alien who held him down on his bed, like modern sleep paralysis, and told him that he would  be rich and famous.

 

The author’s main interest in UFO’s is not in the mechanics of how they got here but rather he is interested in how it changes the spiritual perspective of the contactee. Notice the use of contactee as opposed to abductee.  He was not abducted nor did he feel violated as some people had. The author notes a right and left perceptual bias in UFOology. People on the religious right tend to perceive the aliens as evil or satanic. Those on the left tend to see them as benevolent. The author seems to take a middle of the road position. Humans have a tendency to lump the unknown together and personify it as evil. He wants us to avoid that.

Going into the bible he starts off with describing incidents in Exodus where in the Israelites are guided through the desert by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire in the evening.  Something had to hover over the Red Sea to make it part. Or how about Elijah when he is taken up by a fiery chariot. Ezekial’s vision has been turned into a UFO construction. Enoch was taken up by a craft all the way to the sky and shown the mansions of Heaven.

In the new Testament you have the artifial insemination of Jesus. How else could Mary remain a virgin yet have a child without having coitus. There are a couple of examples of this in the New Testament. Usually birth are followed by shining lights in the sky. The Wisemen were guided by the star of Bethlehem which flew over the place Jesus was being born.

The author also goes into UFO sighting in the Quran. Giving an overview of humans. Angels and Jinn, the author tells how Muhammed ascended to the sky on a horse. What could this be other than an alien space craft.

The author is concerned with spirituality and believes the authorities have been covering up alien involvement since the beginning of time. There are have been many modern UFO sighting that are being covered up by our government. Contact has been going on for ages but our ancestor did not have words for what they saw. If they were to see up they would think that we too are gods. How would the religions handle it if the truth were let out. How could spiritual angels or being mate with flesh and blood human beings?

Adventures of a Modern Day Mercenary in Iraq

 

Since America entered into Iraq the scene has been nothing but chaos. It was bad before but who knows how the past compared with the present. The author tells his story in first person point of view as a mercenary who worked for Blackwater. Making over 600 bucks a day with heavy risk to life and sanity these operatives were sent there to protect dignitaries and police the place.

The story that follows is a true tale of raunchy adventure. It is a bunch of men who are very stationed together in a war zone. Immediately on arriving they are chauffeured and flown in cars and equipment that were less than they expected. Life is risky and an operative can easily be maimed or killed in action. So the operatives risk they lives in the day and then party really hard at night. After all that day and night could be your last.

Part of their job is to ride in a convoy and protect some high level politician. Sometimes they police an area or make sure an election sight can carry out the voting in a fair manner. Funny that for being liberators the population does not like them all that much. They face getting shot at, bombed or getting car rammed. If a car in front of their vehicle is too slow they will ram it often damaging the Iraqi person’s vehicle . Some times they should and kill someone they should not have. Messy paper work . In fact many times when they shoot they do not report it.

Getting men together, especially young men, you can expect raunchy behavior where men tease each other in nasty sexual con text , swap alcohol stories  and other dirty tidbit. Like a college frat they have their initiations , mean birthday celebrations and cruel goodbyes.

The money is good. But going back to society is not easy. Often times the men suffer from PTSD and have broken relationships. The author himself got divorced from his first wife who did all she could to spend the money he earned in Iraq. He met someone new got a degree and now has a family. Long distances and time away do not spell for a strong relationship.

Men need relations and will look at fellow female soldiers they would not normally find attractive state side. Some soldiers resort to prostitute. It is a tough, fun adventurous life.

The Ancient Art of Sudden Violence

 You are walking down the street and all,of a sudden you are confronted with a violent situation. What do you do ? It is literally fight or flight. Master Greg Jones says make your choice either step in close enough and initiate pre emotive self defense or leave the situation. No point staying in the grey zone waiting for the fighter to strike where you increase your odds of getting hurt. Never know how good your opponent is.

To get you started with defending yourself the author goes through each of the five families. The first family is San Soo is the Tsoy ga family. This is the family is strikes, kicks and punches embracing all combinations there in. The Li Ga family is the family of leverages and throws. The Hoi Ga family deals with pressure points and nerve passes. These pressure points can cause severe pain or crippling. The Fut Ga family deals with fighting psychology breathing and becoming a predatory fighter. Hung Ga is conditioning . These are exercises to increase your personal power.

Master Greg Jones does not advocate taking a stance when confronted with a situation rather he advises you act and act quickly and accurately. Each section on the five families instructs the student on how to use the principle in a self defense situation. The first part tells the student about all the various punches, strikes and kicks in San Soo. Both how to use them and defend against them. The second section tells how to use the leverages and throw but also how to get out of them yourself. I like the third family of pressure point. There is one instance when a subtle bully uses a handshake to over power and humumiliate someone. He tells how to turn the table using a pressure point. The lesson is that you teach people how you will be treated. Don’t let them get one over on you. The psychology part teaches you how to end the fight before it has begun. Sometimes you have to take the initiative.

The author does make a note about teaching children. It is a dangerous world out there and they need to be prepared. Yet how much do you teach them. Teach them too much and they could hurt another kid on the school yard, yet these techniques may save their life. It is a dilemma 

From the Islands We Came

 The theories surrounding the advancement and history are numerous. The questions always remain. How did primitive humans manage to build pyramids ? How did they learn so much about the stars? Graham Hancock posits that there was an advanced society located on America that was wiped out  during the younger dryas period by comets or asteroids . Of course this brought up a great flood which is talked about in the worlds mythologies. Other posit that aliens can down to earth and jump started our civization. All that is possible. Yet does that really explain things ?

Academia has done a terrible job. Archaeology is showing that human civilization goes back even further than imagined, possible by hundreds of thousands of years. Yet any piece of evidence that threatens the sacred narrative of human development is shelved or destroyed. Academics do t want to hear it and conspiracy theorists take things way to far.

Archaeologists think everyithing is material and totally avoid the spiritual. They tend to believe that temple are constructed only often a high degree of civilization and sophistication. Goblek Tepi proves them wrong. There is no proof of surrounding civilization rather it is hunter gathers who got together and built it.

What we thought about the development of civilization could be all wrong. It was thought that humans moved from the mainland to island meanwhile archaeologists are getting a different picture. Evidence shows that there was an advanced civilization in Sundalan close to Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. It was a huge land mass prior to the flooding caused by an Asteroid strike which raised the ocean levels. From there they spread out teaching humanity what they learned.

In conclusion it is fair to say that we do not know everything about history and how humanity developed but the ancient humans were a lot brighter than what we give them credit.

Dracula in Turkey

 

Continuing where the first book left off, the young Vlad Dracula is in the Ottoman Empire with his good friend Gruya. They are both well hidden in his father’s supplies. Of course events transpire and Vlad Dracul the father of Vlad the III and ruler of Wallachia find out about the stowaways. And so the adventures begin.

Young Vlad and his friend Gruya wander in Edirne at a caravanserai and experience life under the Ottomans. Vlad frees a young pretty blond girl from being sold off as a slave. The poor girl never makes it to freedom she is caught by the slavers and decapitated. A lesson learned in Turkish brutality. Slave that try to escape face mutilation and death. Once a slave you must have your freedom purchased or you will never be free.
Intrigues were commonplace among the ruling class and politics are a shifty game. Vlad the II is caught in an intrigue by a sly Zaganos pasha. He frames Vlad the II and sets him up to be imprisoned, tortured and killed. Young Vlad can only think of one thing and that is to become a hostage in the Ottoman court and prove his father’s loyalty. Meanwhile back in Wallachia, Hungary is backing a pretender to the Wallachian throne but intrigues get the ruler locked in a dungeon.
Young Vlad’s attempt to become a hostage go sideways and he ends up in a prison. The rest of the story details his life as a slave and a prisoner. There are attempts to escape to freedom but we all know the story, Dracula remained a hostage.
This is a work of historical fiction. These adventures per se did not happen but they are a possibility. It reveals Dracula’s love for his country along with his bravery and daring. Better yet this gives a picture of what life was really like living in the Ottoman Empire. The empire and the Sultan could be very cruel and at the same time the Sultan could show himself to be very generous and kind. The Turks were master manipulators. Great book for young adults.