Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Using minimum medicine is the key to wellness


Modern medical science is producing some of the most effective weapons of mass destruction


Modern medical science is producing some of the most effective weapons of mass destruction
·          

Medicine does not believe in the wellness concept. Everyone is ill unless proved otherwise is the present paradigm, thanks to the total body scanners. It is preposterous that medical science does not worry about health promotion, while it goes overboard about disease interventions, many of which make the patient worse!

Science and scientific temper simply mean curiosity. They are efforts to get to know the secrets of nature. Many a time nature refuses to fully divulge her secrets when one goes very close. Children, before they start schooling, are curious but when they come out they become, by and large, just repetitive robots because of their brainwashing in schools about the accepted norms in science. Occasionally, there are exceptions but their numbers are very small. To swim against the current is not easy, either. Research depends on grant money; most grants come either from the government or industry. Both masters would like their interests guarded. Refutative research, which tries to demolish the scientific myths, is not funded and so is nipped in the bud. Publishing the data from those latter studies is almost impossible in the present atmosphere. Even one’s position in a university might be threatened!

Scientism, on the contrary, is like a powerful fanatical religion that tries to influence people’s understanding of this universe in their accepted norms. Any attempt to show evidence to the contrary is being hushed up with all the might at their command. Scientism was helped by the early successes of technology based on the present scientific paradigm. Society venerates science for the simple reason that we have the telephone, electricity, easy transportation, satellites, spaceships, nuclear warheads and the computers, et cetera, thanks to the conventional scientific paradigm. In addition, there is this big money business in scientific technology. Powerful countries are sold to scientism because they have been able to build destructive weapons, thanks to scientism. These weapons give the countries enormous powers to dominate the world. The lure of medals and prizes and the large amount of money involved in some of the prizes like the Nobel have even made people fake research findings or plagiarize them from others without acknowledging the original source.


That is how science got a clean chit from society. Let us examine the present strong pillars of science to see how strong and solid they are. The Big Bang, origin and evolution of the human species, the relativity theory and quantum mechanics are those four pillars. Reductionism and statistics are the pillars of medical science and biology. Darwin’s theory of evolution is found wanting in many areas. Evolution inside a species is different from evolution of a new species; a bird from a fish, for example. The latter needs thousands of biochemical reactions that individually will have no survival advantage when the ultimate new species arrives by accident. The efforts by Richard Dawkins to sell Darwinism to the public are not very scientific either. One example of the very complicated eye developing from a small depression in the earlier species looks rather too simplistic.

“It is true that western science now reigns supreme all over the globe; however, the reason is not insight in its inherent rationality but the power play (the colonizing nations imposed their ways of living) and the need for weapons. Western science so far created the most efficient instruments of death!”

The above lines are taken from Professor Paul Feyerabend’s wonderful book entitled Against Method. To this I may add that modern medical science has produced some of the most effective weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in their reductionist chemical drugs. Latest extensive research points out those therapeutic drugs, which are reductionist chemicals, are treated by the body as poison and sent to the liver for destruction. After the liver does its best to destroy the drug in question the remaining drug (first pass effect) is the one that does its good or bad in the system. In the bargain the liver suffers. Adverse drug reactions are one of the leading causes of death in the world as per the latest audit in the USA.

The relativity theory, first developed by a German physicist, Lorentz along with the French mathematician, Poincare, had a significant contribution also from the famous Irish mathematician, Fitzgerald. Albert Einstein, the deified guru of physics, had very little to do with it. Einstein, however, had contributed immensely to Brownian movement, photoelectric effect and movement of ions in solutions. Einstein giving away his Nobel Prize money to his first wife, whom he had divorced by then, gives credence to the view, held by some close confidents, that the original Nobel paper of Einstein did have his wife’s name as the first author, which must have disappeared later. Many have doubted if he had plagiarized her work!

Be that as it may, the question raised by Prof Dingle of the London University about the theory remains unanswered so far. The assumption in the theory that there is same velocity of light independent of the direction of measurement with respect to the motion of the earth has recently been found to be inconsistent. The jewel in the crown of physics, the quantum theory, does not seem to have much connection to reality. We still do not have answers to questions like: a) what is a wave function? b) In the Schrödinger’s equation what are the waves ‘of’ and what are the waves ‘in’? and third c) what is an electron?
           

The basic problem in the theory of evolution would be, if we accept that there is no design and there is no teleology as sold by the scientific establishment, to explain the prior existence of the DNA! The accepted laws of chemistry need chance collisions between simpler constituents.  Darwin’s book Descent of Man makes it mandatory for us to discount any design. Dawkin’s book The Blind Watchmaker makes an effort to whitewash these questions! Lamarck must have had his last laugh in his grave when he came to know that rats developed diabetes following destruction of their pancreas by drugs: they then passed the disease on to their off springs—evolution through inheritance of acquired characteristics—Lamarckism. One would benefit a lot by understanding the word Entelechy—spontaneous development of order, as opposed to entropy—disorder, first coined by the German biologist, Driesch (1867-1941).

NASA claims that there is no life anywhere outside the earth, but they could not discount bacterial life deep down the surface of Mars. There are some indicators to that possibility in the recent works. Mathematics, the foundation of all sciences, including the king of sciences, physics, cannot explain many of our experiences in life. Let me quote Albert Einstein himself here: “Insofar as the propositions of mathematics give an account of reality, they are not certain; and insofar as they are certain, they do not describe reality. “If there is no design how could a high school student, Ramanujam, write down large number of new and original theorems, some of which he could prove but, some others he simply stated as true, and were later proved by other mathematicians at  the Cambridge University?

The remarkable picture of that gigantic explosion, the Big Bang that began the universe: the latter expanding ever since, is understood even by a school boy/girl. What happened before the Big Bang? Maddox, the then editor of Nature, in 1989 did write that the Big Bang theory would be forgotten by 2000 AD. Edwin Hubble did put forward arguments against the theory but the big one bangs on! The Tired Light hypothesis shows that the universe is not expanding. All that we can say about the universe today is that it is very, very old. The million dollar question as to how the world began remains unanswered! Big bang and the Black holes make good material for lay books that are sold like hot cakes and make their authors very rich, but most of that stuff is still in the realm of science fiction!

Science deals with our five senses only. What the senses cannot measure and observe does not make science in the present paradigm. However, the observers’ consciousness impinges on the findings. An electron is what it is depending on who looks at it! When no one is looking at the electron, no one knows what the electron does! There are a lot of things in this universe that our five senses cannot realize and they exist all the same. We experience much more than we could grasp. Science does accept that what is known today could be proven wrong or replaced by a new theory tomorrow, but to say that what we don’t know today (or what does not fit into the present paradigm) is unscientific is illogical. But that is exactly what scientism is trying to do.


To give a few day-today examples: We are not able to measure our thoughts, our emotions, and many of our actions based on those emotions and thoughts. Do they, then, fall outside the realm of science? Do thoughts exist? Do emotions have any role in human physiology? If the answer is yes, then we need a change of paradigm in science, at least in medical science, where the RCTs (randomized controlled studies) have been sold as the last word in medical research. The truth is that there is everything wrong with this approach. No two human beings could be compared based on a few of their phenotypical features. The results are there for all to see. Most, if not all, RCTs have given unreliable results in the long run. But look at the following in the encyclopaedia of RCTs published by the establishment!

“A major difficulty in dealing with trial results comes from commercial, political and/or academic pressure. Most trials are expensive to run, and will be the result of significant previous research, which is itself not cheap. There may be a political issue at stake (cf.MMR vaccine) or vested interests (cf. homeopathy). In such cases there is great pressure to interpret results in a way which suits the viewer, and great care must be taken by researchers to maintain emphasis on clinical facts.
 
Most studies start with a “null hypothesis” which is being tested (usually along the lines of “Our new treatment x cures as many patients as existing treatment y”) and an alternative hypothesis (“x cures more patients than y”). The analysis at the end will give a statistical likelihood, based on the facts, of whether the null hypothesis can be safely rejected (saying that the new treatment does, in fact, result in more cures). Nevertheless this is only a statistical likelihood, so false negatives and false positives are possible. These are generally set an acceptable level (e.g. 1% chance that it was a false result). However, this risk is cumulative. There is a tendency for these two to be seized on by those who need that proof for their point of view.”

Before we do more damage to mankind by blindly following the reductionist paradigm, at least in medical sciences, let us think of a new paradigm.

Let research be directed to find out the myths and dogmas in the present paradigm to replace them with newer ideas and findings that might make life easier for mankind. Of course, it might destroy our “rice bowl” for the moment, but we might get a bigger bowl in future. Scientific temper should make us identify the false dogmas and enable us to destroy them. Science is change and what does not change is not science. Professor John O’M Bockris so beautifully describes the new paradigm shift that is needed in science in his classic The New Paradigm.  What does not change becomes religion. That is why I sometimes feel that scientism is a kind of religion we are made to follow blindly. Present science is excited about nanobots but does not bother about our giga problems like environmental pollution, abject poverty of the majority, preventable illnesses which kill the poor and unemployment of the majority!


It is preposterous that medical science does not worry about health promotion, while it goes overboard about disease interventions, many of which make the patient worse! Sir William Osler had warned us not to intervene when the patient is doing well, but that is exactly what we do today! Medicine does not believe in the wellness concept. Everyone is ill unless proved otherwise is the present paradigm, thanks to the total body scanners. Routine check-up is the biggest medical industry, while we know that predicting the future is impossible in a dynamic human system using a few data of the initial state. Even changing those parameters might not hold good as time evolves. Changing those parameters might even harm patients in the long run, while it is mandatory to do so if the patient is symptomatic and is suffering, because doctors are here to “cure rarely, comfort mostly but to console always.”

The effort here is not to belittle the great strides science has made in the last two centuries. The stress here is to let the reader know that there is so much noise in this area that almost drowns the signal! Unless we silence those noises and try to pick the signals science will not progress and mankind will still be in the dark. Even if one person is stimulated to think on those lines, the purpose of writing this will have been achieved, despite the fact that 99% of the readers would be angry or unhappy about the contents. Conventional journals would hesitate to publish this piece for obvious reasons—their peer reviewers will not permit it and the editors dare not take the responsibility themselves! 

“Certainty generally is illusion and repose is not the destiny of mankind”—Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it”—Max Planck

(Professor Dr BM Hegde, a Padma Bhushan awardee in 2010, is an MD, PhD, FRCP (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Dublin), FACC and FAMS. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes, Chairman of the State Health Society's Expert Committee, Govt of Bihar, Patna. He is former Vice Chancellor of Manipal University at Mangalore and former professor for Cardiology of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London.)

kn� , o a �� 8� t does not fit into the present paradigm) is unscientific is illogical. But that is exactly what scientism is trying to do.


To give a few day-today examples: We are not able to measure our thoughts, our emotions, and many of our actions based on those emotions and thoughts. Do they, then, fall out side the realm of science? Do thoughts exist? Do emotions have any role in human physiology? If the answer is yes, then we need a change of paradigm in science, at least in medical science, where the RCTs (randomized controlled studies) have been sold as the last word in medical research. The truth is that there is everything wrong with this approach. No two human beings could be compared based on a few of their phenotypical features. The results are there for all to see. Most, if not all, RCTs have given unreliable results in the long run. But look at the following in the encyclopaedia of RCTs published by the establishment!

“A major difficulty in dealing with trial results comes from commercial, political and/or academic pressure. Most trials are expensive to run, and will be the result of significant previous research, which is itself not cheap. There may be a political issue at stake (cf.MMR vaccine) or vested interests (cf. homeopathy). In such cases there is great pressure to interpret results in a way which suits the viewer, and great care must be taken by researchers to maintain emphasis on clinical facts.
 
Most studies start with a “null hypothesis” which is being tested (usually along the lines of “Our new treatment x cures as many patients as existing treatment y”) and an alternative hypothesis (“x cures more patients than y”). The analysis at the end will give a statistical likelihood, based on the facts, of whether the null hypothesis can be safely rejected (saying that the new treatment does, in fact, result in more cures). Nevertheless this is only a statistical likelihood, so false negatives and false positives are possible. These are generally set an acceptable level (e.g. 1% chance that it was a false result). However, this risk is cumulative. There is a tendency for these two to be seized on by those who need that proof for their point of view.”

Before we do more damage to mankind by blindly following the reductionist paradigm, at least in medical sciences, let us think of a new paradigm.

Let research be directed to find out the myths and dogmas in the present paradigm to replace them with newer ideas and findings that might make life easier for mankind. Of course, it might destroy our “rice bowl” for the moment, but we might get a bigger bowl in future. Scientific temper should make us identify the false dogmas and enable us to destroy them. Science is change and what does not change is not science. Professor John O’M Bockris so beautifully describes the new paradigm shift that is needed in science in his classic The New Paradigm.  What does not change becomes religion. That is why I sometimes feel that scientism is a kind of religion we are made to follow blindly. Present science is excited about nanobots but does not bother about our giga problems like environmental pollution, abject poverty of the majority, preventable illnesses which kill the poor and unemployment of the majority!


It is preposterous that medical science does not worry about health promotion, while it goes overboard about disease interventions, many of which make the patient worse! Sir William Osler had warned us not to intervene when the patient is doing well, but that is exactly what we do today! Medicine does not believe in the wellness concept. Everyone is ill unless proved otherwise is the present paradigm, thanks to the total body scanners. Routine check up is the biggest medical industry, while we know that predicting the future is impossible in a dynamic human system using a few data of the initial state. Even changing those parameters might not hold good as time evolves. Changing those parameters might even harm patients in the long run, while it is mandatory to do so if the patient is symptomatic and is suffering, because doctors are here to “cure rarely, comfort mostly but to console always.”

The effort here is not to belittle the great strides science has made in the last two centuries. The stress here is to let the reader know that there is so much noise in this area that almost drowns the signal! Unless we silence those noises and try to pick the signalsscience will not progress and mankind will still be in the dark. Even if one person is stimulated to think on those lines, the purpose of writing this will have been achieved, despite the fact that 99% of the readers would be angry or unhappy about the contents. Conventional journals would hesitate to publish this piece for obvious reasons—their peer reviewers will not permit it and the editors dare not take the responsibility themselves! 

“Certainty generally is illusion and repose is not the destiny of mankind”—Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it”—Max Planck

(Professor Dr BM Hegde, a Padma Bhushan awardee in 2010, is an MD, PhD, FRCP (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Dublin), FACC and FAMS. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes, Chairman of the State Health Society's Expert Committee, Govt of Bihar, Patna. He is former Vice Chancellor of Manipal University at Mangalore and former professor for Cardiology of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London.)

SOURCE :http://www.moneylife.in/article/modern-medical-science-is-producing-some-of-the-most-effective-weapons-of-mass-destruction/30488.html?utm_source=PoweRelayEDM&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=Subscriber%23111138&utm_campaign=Today%27s%20Exclusives

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Interesting Webistes



1. I-Banks eye startups with crowd funding 15 FEB, 2011,ET

When Bollywood director Onir found it difficult to find traditional film financiers to fund his off-beat cinema, he decided to raise money from the ‘crowd’. Onir posted a request on Facebook and Twitter, and in a year’s time, he collected over Rs 1 crore which was used to part-fund his upcoming film ‘I Am...’

Short film-maker Harish Iyer also collected money from the masses to fund his 20-minute film on human rights, ‘Amen’. He collected around Rs 1.5 lakh in a few months’ time to fund his Rs 3 lakh project. Actor-director Rajat Kapoor funded his 2003 movie ‘Raghu Romeo’ by collecting money from the public.

He is said to have used postcards to communicate with potential investors. The success of these ventures has prompted mid-sized merchant bankers to structure similar funding options for business startups in the country. Newly-established fund arrangers, like Kennis Group and Springboard Ventures, are planning to arrange ‘crowd funding’ options for companies needing growth capital. Onir and his friends are also planning to launch a firm that will arrange ‘capital from friends and strangers’.

“Directors always find it difficult to raise money for making off-beat films. The best option for them is to raise money from people who are like-minded or believe in a cause which the film discusses,” said Onir, who raised over Rs 1 crore from more than 400 people residing in 45 world cities.

“We’re planning to give ‘crowd funding’ a formal structure. This route can be adopted for funding films made by upcoming directors who do not have financier backing,” Onir said.

Crowd finance is simply a process where small amounts are raised for definite purpose. Without intermediaries, crowd finance brings social media technologies to work for financing transaction from something as small as microfinance transaction or a venture capital transaction. With technology already in place and proven, this feels like an evolution or an idea waiting to happen.

“We are almost ready with our crowd-funding platform. We’ll help startups raise money through the crowd-funding route,” said Saurabh Agarwal, director, Kennis Group, which partially owns crowd-funding website ‘Growvc.com’.
According to Mr Agarwal, ‘Growvc.com’ has listed numerous business proposals (and startups) that are on the lookout for funds. People looking for investment options can pay ‘Growvc.com’ a subscription fees (starting at Rs 1,000 per month) and look at business proposals.

“Around 75% of the subscription money paid to growvc.com is kept aside by us to invest in a startup of investor’s choice. Once enough funds get accumulated for a particular project, we fund the startup and take a board seat in the company,” Mr Agarwal said.

Investments in business startups usually generate profits after three - five years. ‘Growvc.com’ will return 75% of the profits generated to investors on the basis of their investments. Investors, on their part, will have subscription receipts with names of companies where money is invested as investment proof. Crowd funding is a very new concept and is not regulated even in foreign countries. However, investors in such schemes can approach courts for legal recourse.

“Crowd funding works more like online donations,” said Abhishek Khare , senior partner, Khare Legal Chambers. “As long as these schemes don’t guarantee returns or coerce people to invest in them, things should be fine legally. Profits by investing in these schemes will be taxed just like any other income,” Mr Khare said.

According to him, investors will get a legal recourse since such online schemes have a well-covered legal contracts for participants. “Based on these legal contracts, signed before joining the scheme, investors can approach courts for legal support,” Mr Khare added. Crowd-funding recipient Onir already has plans to return the money he borrowed from friends and strangers.

“If my movie does well, I’ll return money the borrowed money to our investors. I also plan to give a percentage of my profits to them,” Onir said.


2) Homestay at Nagaland



3) Tour OF North East



4) One of my friends (Colin Christopher) contribute to this Islamic site



5) Meditation in India


Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation.It was taught in India more than 2500 years ago as a universal remedy for universal ills.

It's a 10-day complete residential program where the technique is taught step-by-step each day.
(No fee for the program.
All expenses are met by donations from those who, having completed a course and experienced the benefits of Vipassana, wish to give others the same opportunity.
Neither the Teacher nor the assistant teachers receive remuneration; they and those who serve the courses volunteer their time. Thus Vipassana is offered free from commercialization.)

In North India you can do at picturesque Dharamshala or in Laddakh.

To register for the program check this site -

For Meditation (Buddism) Bangalore Vipassana Centre



Calcutta Vipassana Centre 


There is a centre at Panihati, Sodepur,Kolkata (West Bengal) and has beautiful natural scenery

The schedules are there for 3 days and weekend courses but for beginner a residential (free) 10 days course is best . 

The daily schedule is tough and consists of keeping silence and sitting on meditation for almost 8-10 hours a day with some breaks for lunch and breakfast and evening tea and snacks. Each one hour meditation has 5 min break. Full silence and celibacy and one hour discourse in the evening are the main features. 
There are other courses of 45 days and so on.
(source CS Kolkata)

6) Study Yoga in India -
According to inputs from different members of my group :
Some good yoga places:

1. Ashtanga yoga, mysore
2. Vivekananda yoga, bangalore
3. Iyengar yoga, pune (http://www.bksiyengar.com/)4. Bihar school of yoga,Munger,Bihar
5. Sivananda yoga centers,Kerala etc.

These Courses range from 1 month to few years depending on how deep you want to go.
However you can do the 4 month "Yogic Study Course" from Bihar School of Yoga (World's first Yoga University).
Course period: October to January (in English)
Contact Bihar Yoga Bharati, Ganga Darshan for further information.
Bihar Yoga Bharati
Ganga Darshan, Fort,
Munger, Bihar 811201,
India
Tel: 00 91 (0)6344 222430
00 91 (0) 9304799615

http://www.yogavision.net/byb/courses/ys_4mth.htm

OR

According to one fellow member of my group , "you can go to Dharamshala - where you will get lots of ashrams there.Its a hub for Meditation and yoga.There is also Mcleodganj (Bhagsu); there is a meditation centres, lots of foreigners goes there...."

OR

If funds are very limited then in south you can contact Yoga school in Saraswathipuram, near kamakshi hospital, Mysore,Tamilnadu.


Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh

http://www.parmarth.com/yoga.html

Santacruz Yoga Institute, Mumbai
http://www.theyogainstitute.org/

Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI), Pune
http://www.bksiyengar.com/modules/Institut/RIMYI/rimyi.htm

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram, Neyyar Dam, Kerala
http://www.sivananda.org/neyyardam/

Shri K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute, Mysore
http://kpjayi.org/

Kaivalyadhama Yoga Center, Lonavala (Pune)
http://kdham.com/

Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Chennai
http://www.kym.org/

Central Council of Research in Yoga & Naturopathy, New Delhi
http://www.ccryn.org/

Yog Vidya Gurukul, Nasik
http://www.yogapoint.com/info/yvduniv.htm


7) Yoga vacations

Give your life a boost, develop positive thinking, radiant health and inner peace through the practice of ancient yogic techniques for balanced living. The yoga vacation is based on the teachings of Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda. It is designed to help you develop a strong practice which can be incorporated back into your daily life at home.
Living in the ashram following a simple, structured daily schedule, allows you to focus on yourself for two weeks (or more!!). The term vacation usually implies doing nothing, perhaps lying on a beach. Swami Vishnudevananda adopted the term 'Yoga Vacation' because the structured schedule allows you to relax completely in a way a beach or travel holiday doesn't. All you have to do is be here, relax and participate

7a) Yoga vacationsRishikesh is a great place for learning Yoga - serene and compelling. As to learning yoga, the place is replete with institutions that flaunt 200 hour yoga courses for 800 USD to 1100 USD with food and stay etc. Some charge 1500 USD.
These are all high end courses meant for regular yoga practicioners.

For beginners and seekers of instant nirvana, introductory courses in various retreats will set you back by about 300-500 USD for 1-2 week course. Here is one called Rishikesh yoga peeth

http://www.rishikeshyogpeeth.com/yoga_retreats_rishikesh.html  -  running every month on 1st and 15th.

So much for Yoga. In my humble opinion these are all tailored by commercial practicioners to lure unsuspecting lovers of yoga , preferably from foreign destinations.

(CS Anoop Negi)

8)Travelling stories by a biker


9) Homestays in India


11) Homestays in Kolkata

This is run by an ex-CS. I have not met him, but talked to him number of times. It seems to be very interesting and has one of the best reviews. Just see it and very cheap also.They have meditation,yoga courses and voluntary services with slum children and stray dogs and also have interesting tours.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crazy-Wanderers-Foundation/
It was highly rated by Tripadvisor too.





Chronological order

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