justinfinity:orlingrabbe:

In the US, 11,750 allegations of church priest child sex abuse have so far featured in actions settled by archdioceses – in Los Angeles for $660m and in Boston for $100m.

In 2005 a test case in Texas failed because the Vatican sought and obtained the intercession of President Bush, who agreed to claim sovereign (ie head of state) immunity on the pope’s behalf. Bush lawyer John B Bellinger III certified that Pope Benedict the XVI was immune from suit “as the head of a foreign state”. Bellinger is now notorious for his defence of Bush administration torture policies.

orlingrabbe:

Saudis: We don’t Burn witches. We chop their fucking heads off

Oh those silly wahhabis. Once again, this is not representative of true islam.

‘Door To Afterlife’ Unearthed At Karnak

• The images were shocking - and strange. On Tuesday, thousands of Thai protesters splattered buckets of their own blood outside the Prime Minister’s office in Bangkok as a Brahmin priest in flowing white robes lit incense, chanted spells and cast a curse upon the government.
• As theater, it was both effective and mysterious: clips of the blood curse led international news broadcasts, with viewers and analysts bewildered as to what the protesters were trying to achieve. But in Thailand, it was anything but an aberration. Curses, dark rituals and black magic have long been part of the political culture of the country and some of its neighbors. And to some Thai analysts, the strange rite was a rare public revelation of a more covert aspect of the ongoing conflict between the country’s political movements - a war of the supernatural.
• The protesters, known as the Red Shirts for the color they wear, were supporters of fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and has fled the country rather than serve a prison term on a corruption conviction. His opponents include the current Democrat-led government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the military, a rival group of protesters known as the Yellow Shirts and, according to some, Thailand’s monarchy. Thaksin’s followers are comprised largely of the rural poor, and so it was easy to dismiss, as many commentators did, the bloody curse as a desperate act by uneducated farmers. But in Thailand, despite modern commuter Skytrains, gleaming new international airports, and a populace with a passion for the latest IT gadgets, members of all classes regularly pay deference to the supernatural. From hit men getting tattoos they believe will repel bullets, to aristocratic ladies trading stocks on the advice of astrologers, and ministers who pay tens of thousands of dollars for amulets they believe will ward off evil, the unseen is a serious, and potentially lucrative, business.
• Thailand is a nation that prides itself on its Theravada Buddhist heritage. But Buddhism in Thailand is blended with a brew of Hindu, animist, Khmer, pagan and other beliefs. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the country’s 82-year-old constitutional monarch, spent time as a Buddhist monk but also retains astrologers and Brahmin priests at court, as is tradition. So it’s no wonder that coup plotters, Prime Ministers and lawmakers have frequently consulted fortune-tellers before making important decisions. Performing dark rites to increase one’s power and defeat your adversaries is as pervasive among the political class as bribery and vote buying. Even Thaksin, who became a billionaire from satellite services, computers and telecommunications, once declined to answer a reporter’s question because “Mercury [was] not in the right house.”
• In fact, according to Wassana Namnuan, a Bangkok Post reporter, Thaksin and his opponents have been deeply engaged in black magic battles for dominance of the country for several years. “Both sides have been casting curses and spells upon each other,” says Wassana who has written a book on the subject in Thai called Secrets, Trickery and Camouflage: The Improbable Phenomena. According to Wassana, Thaksin believes he is the reincarnation of a Burmese king who killed many Thais, and so has engaged in elaborate cleansing rituals to wash away the sins of his past lives. While in power, Wassana says Thaksin performed several saiyasat, or black magic rituals, that he hoped would prolong his rule for life. While visiting Burma he sought counsel from a deformed astrologer nicknamed “ET” who is favored by the generals that have kept the country in their iron grip for more than half a century.

I’m not the messiah, says food activist – but his many worshippers do not believe him

• “I started getting emails saying ‘have you heard of Benjamin Creme?’ and ‘are you the world teacher?’” he said. “Then all of a sudden it wasn’t just random internet folk, but also friends saying, ‘Have you seen this?’”
• Their reasoning? Patel’s background and work coincidentally matched a series of prophecies made by an 87-year-old Scottish mystic called Benjamin Creme, the leader of a little-known religious group known as Share International. Because he matched the profile, hundreds of people around the world believed that Patel was the living embodiment of a figure they called Maitreya, the Christ or “the world teacher”…
• There are many elements of his life that tick the prophetic checklist of his worshippers: a flight from India to the UK as a child, growing up in London, a slight stutter, and appearances on TV. But it is his work that puts him most directly in the frame and causes him the most anguish – the very things the followers of Share believe will indicate that their new messiah has arrived…
• While his goal appears to match Share’s vision of worldwide harmony, he says the underlying assumptions it makes are wrong – and possibly even dangerous.
• “What I’m arguing in the book is precisely the opposite of the Maitreya: what we need is various kinds of rebellion and transformations about how private property works,” he said.
• “I don’t think a messiah figure is going to be a terribly good launching point for the kinds of politics I’m talking about – for someone who has very strong anarchist sympathies, this has some fairly deep contradictions in it.”

Sceptic challenges guru to kill him live on TV - Times Online

• When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another man using only his mystical powers, most viewers either gasped in awe or merely nodded unquestioningly. Sanal Edamaruku’s response was different. “Go on then — kill me,” he said.
• Mr Edamaruku had been invited to the same talk show as head of the Indian Rationalists’ Association — the country’s self-appointed sceptic-in-chief. At first the holy man, Pandit Surender Sharma, was reluctant, but eventually he agreed to perform a series of rituals designed to kill Mr Edamaruku live on television. Millions tuned in as the channel cancelled scheduled programming to continue broadcasting the showdown, which can still be viewed on YouTube.
• First, the master chanted mantras, then he sprinkled water on his intended victim. He brandished a knife, ruffled the sceptic’s hair and pressed his temples. But after several hours of similar antics, Mr Edamaruku was still very much alive — smiling for the cameras and taunting the furious holy man.

Unexplained Mysteries - Roopkund The Mysterious Skeleton Lake

• Roopkund is better off known as “The skeleton lake” due to the presence of an enormous grave that holds about 300 to 600 skeletons. This discovery has revolutionized the world of ancient history ever since 1942, when a park ranger came across this mass deposition of bones. It probably is an in-accessible frozen lake that requires about four day travel to reach from the nearest locality. Recently, it has become an important spot for the visitors as they learn and conjecture this advent of science….
• Coming back to the Skeleton Lake riddle, probably the skeletons were those of the devotees participating in such a mass procession centuries ago. The folklores say that a certain king had participated in this religious ‘yatra’ with his company of female dancers. This had offended the Goddess Nanda and she vented her rage by bringing down the snowstorm at the hapless revelers.

• A small but growing number of evangelical churches are using cage fighting programs to increase their odds of converting young men, reports the New York Times. Pastors say they hope to “inject” some irresistible “machismo” into their ministries by incorporating the bloody, but increasingly popular, sport of mixed martial arts: “What led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter,” Brandon Beals, 37, lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle, told the Times. Is brawling consistent with Christianity?

vajrar0ck:

Lord Uranda & The Emissaries of Divine Light ~

In 1932, in the midst of the Depression years, Lloyd Arthur Meeker, was living in Nashville, Tennessee.

He was twenty-five years old at the time when he began to “channel” a Being known as Uranda. For three successive nights, while in trance, he blogged some gnarly teachings. As he reported later, during this initial encounter with Uranda the room filled with a silvery cloud.

Through his writing came answers to questions that had been in his mind and heart for many years. It astounded him that the answers didn’t come from anything separate from him, but from a reality that dwelt deep within him. It was described as a case of spontaneously arising gnosis.

That time marked the beginning of a spiritual movement that Uranda named The Emissaries of Divine Light.

For the next thirteen years, Uranda traveled across the United States and Canada, teaching, writing, and doing vibrational healing work. (He later teamed-up with a British nobleman by the name of Martin Exeter… more on that some day, maybe.)

Uranda was recognized by his hundreds of devotees as a Being from a distant planet, and the most advanced Being to ever have visited Earth… the most enlightened Teacher of them all… ever. They knew this as fact. Of course.

Today his “Third Sacred School” has morphed into the “Fourth Sacred School”. They are now an “international spiritual network” who continue to serve and guide humanity “vibrationally”.

Amongst themselves they share a conviction of great purpose and a sense of enlightened superiority. Many Emissaries are beyond learning because they already know. They consequently enjoy, amongst themselves, an unshakable certainty of divine specialness. This deep sense of specialness is very, very strong. It electrifies them. It radiates from them. It makes their eyes shine. They know what they know. They know who they are. They know how important their work is. They know they know. And above all, they have Uranda.

Right now they are working tirelessly to help steer Earth’s spiritual leaders, political figures, global events, even planetary weather patterns; they even have a technique for helping the Sun to shine. They use vibrational methods to shift patterns. EDL is above all a “vibrational ministry”.

As for their lifestyle, the higher-ups, as you might expect, aren’t bound by any convention. They do what they want, they serve a higher law, or as they phrase it, “the truth of love”.

It follows that most of their history and esoteric teachings and practices are utterly secret to all but the most core members and the “Supreme Council” itself, i.e. spiritual board of directors.

Also, Uranda’s spoken words were consistently transcribed into fancy hardbound volumes… lots and lots of volumes. For the Emissaries, these books are the most sacred texts on Earth. A good Emissary won’t read anything but these books, as they are granted access over time - after the appropriate classes have been taken, prerequisite retreats attended and proper devotional services rendered - they are rewarded with access to the next volume - or they are finally offered a secret book they didn’t know existed.

That’s how it works. They have a very structured, hierachical and secretive organization through which one advances incrementally… if they choose you and approve your progress.

Nowadays, the elders of the Supreme Council operate as invisibly and anonymously as possible and have done their best to disappear from plain sight. The Council has recently begun to call themselves “the steering committee” as an attempt to appear less grandiose to others.

Many Emissaries do continue to live communally - from Ashland, OR to Loveland, CO to Vancouver, BC. In fact, they have Centers networked around the globe where they continue to carry out the Master’s vision. They have, however, radically altered their facade, their tone and curriculum; the past is the past. In fact, the past is so much the past they kinda want to blow-off the silvery cloud origins. Their own Precious Guru, Lord Uranda himself, quickly becoming yet another secret as they go about their busy spiritual business.

Asch Conformity Experiment

aka Group Think vs. YOU.

This 4min video shows how easy it is to conform, even against your own perceptions and experiences.

You experience this mental bug in: Politics, Society, Religion, Corporations, Peer Groups, etc…you know, the real Great Beast…

Think, Think, THINK.

borderlandsciences:kookscience:

Part One: On the Technology and the Ethics of Wishing

William S. Burroughs on the technology and the ethics of wishing. The discussion includes rules for wishing, the dogma of science, L. Ron Hubbard, The Big Lie, and sympathetic magic. The class also includes a question and answer session covering subjects such as memory, Henry Miller, dreams in writing, and defining the soul.

Part Two: On the Technology and the Ethics of Wishing

[Part Two] contains additional commentary by Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg. Included is a question and answer session that covers the space shuttle Challenger explosion, lucid dreaming, yoga, feminine energy, DNA, the Dalai Lama, and music. Waldman also discusses the ego, rituals, science and why questions, death, birth, mortality, and the bodhisattva.

Today’s lessons are courtesy of Aleph9 Waveform Research Journal and the Naropa Poetics Audio Archives.

Image: William S. Burroughs as illustrated by Shaky Kane

some of my favorites:

• 992: Good Friday coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation; this had long been believed to be the event that would bring forth the Antichrist, and thus the end-times events foretold in the book of Revelation. Records from Germany report that a new sun rose in the north and that as many as 3 suns and 3 moons were fighting. There does not appear to be independent verification of this remarkable event.
• 1000-JAN-1: Many Christians in Europe had predicted the end of the world on this date. As the date approached, Christian armies waged war against some of the Pagan countries in Northern Europe. The motivation was to convert them all to Christianity, by force if necessary, before Christ returned in the year 1000. Meanwhile, some Christians had given their possessions to the Church in anticipation of the end. Fortunately, the level of education was so low that many citizens were unaware of the year. They did not know enough to be afraid. Otherwise, the panic might have been far worse than it was. Unfortunately, when Jesus did not appear, the church did not return the gifts. Serious criticism of the Church followed. The Church reacted by exterminating some heretics. Agitation settled down quickly, as it later did in the year 2000.
• 1000-MAY: The body of Charlemagne was disinterred on Pentecost. A legend had arisen that an emperor would rise from his sleep to fight the Antichrist.
• 1284: Pope Innocent III computed this date by adding 666 years onto the date the Islam was founded.
• 1346 and later: The black plague spread across Europe, killing one third of the population. This was seen as the prelude to an immediate end of the world. Unfortunately, the Christians had previously killed a many of the cats, fearing that they might be familiars of Witches. The fewer the cats, the more the rats. It was the rat fleas that spread the black plague.
• 1524: Many astrologers predicted the imminent end of the world due to a world wide flood. They obviously had not read the Genesis story of the rainbow.
• 1844-OCT-22: When Jesus did not return, William Miller predicted this new date. In an event which is now called “The Great Disappointment,” many Christians sold their property and possessions, quit their jobs and prepared themselves for the second coming. Nothing happened; the day came and went without incident.
• 1919: Meteorologist Albert Porta predicted that the conjunction of 6 planets would generate a magnetic current that would cause the sun to explode and engulf the earth on DEC-17.

• ANKARA, Turkey - The Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II nearly 29 years ago emerged from prison and declared himself a messenger from God, then spent his first night of freedom in a luxury hotel room.
• “I will meet you in the next three days,” Agca said. “In the name of God Almighty, I proclaim the end of the world in this century. All the world will be destroyed, every human being will die. I am not God, I am not son of God, I am Christ eternal.”
• Agca, who has previously claimed to be the Messiah, said the Gospel was full of mistakes and he would write the perfect one. He delivered a similar message in a long, rambling statement distributed by Abosoglu outside the prison in Sincan on the outskirts of Ankara, the Turkish capital.