by Martha Rosenberg

It was supposed to replace Prozac profits when the patent expired in 2001 and cash in on the national love affair with antidepressants.

But Eli Lilly & Co.’s Cymbalta (duloxetine) seemed cursed from the start.

The first antidepressant to be introduced since FDA investigations into suicide/antidepressant links, Cymbalta itself was marred with suicides before it was approved.

Five occurred during Cymbalta clinical trials including previously healthy volunteer Traci Johnson who hung herself in Lilly’s Indiana University Medical School lab in 2004. Continue reading

The Brunei Times has a review of my critique of Muslim attitudes toward science, An Illusion of Harmony.

The review is interesting. Not because it has any substance; it consists largely of invective. But it’s an interesting example of what those of us who want to be critical of Islam face. Even when you avoid going on an Islam-bashing expedition, it’s very hard to get devout Muslims to pay attention to what you’re actually saying.

Next week will be an eventful week in the effort to eliminate global poverty. On October 22nd over 230 scientific journals will simultaneously publish articles on the topic of poverty and human development. You can read about the event on the NIH website (which will have a webcast event on Oct. 22nd) here. Here are some excerpts from the editorial in the latest issue of Science, by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug:

“Feeding a Hungry World”
By Norman Borlaug

Next week, more than 200 science journals throughout the world will simultaneously publish papers on global poverty and human development–a collaborative effort to increase awareness, interest, and research about these important issues of our time. Some 800 million people still experience chronic and transitory hunger each year. Over the next 50 years, we face the daunting job of feeding 3.5 billion additional people, most of whom will begin life in poverty. The battle to alleviate poverty and improve human health and productivity will require dynamic agricultural development.

….Today, nearly two-thirds of the world’s hungry people are farmers and pastoralists who live in marginal lands in Asia and Africa, where agro-climatic stresses and/or extreme remoteness make agricultural production especially risky and costly. Africa has been the region of greatest concern. High rates of population growth and little application of improved production technology during the past three decades have resulted in declining per capita food production, escalating food deficits, deteriorating nutritional levels among the rural poor, and devastating environmental degradation. There are signs that smallholder food production may be turning around through the application of science and technology to basic food production, but this recovery is still fragile. But African capacity in science and technology needs strengthening, and massive investments in infrastructure are required, especially for roads and transport, potable water, and electricity.

Cheers,
Colin

Good news — Erin and I secured a location for our New York City meet-up.  However, in order to get the space we had to go for a morning meet-up instead of an afternoon meet-up.

The location is a dance rehearsal studio on 54th St between 8th Ave and Broadway in Midtown.  It’s just a few doors east of Studio 54.  It should be conveniently located for most people who want to attend, since there are several subway stations within a few blocks.

Here are the details:

Time

Saturday, October 20th, 9:30-11:30am

Location

Shetler Studios, 244 W. 54th St. (between 8th Ave and Broadway), 12th floor, Penthouse 1

Here’s a link to a Google Map.

Subway access

There are several subway stations within a few blocks of the meet-up:

• 7th Ave and 53rd St (E, B, D)
• 57th St and 7th Ave (N, R, Q, W)
• 50th St and Broadway (1)
• 50th St and 8th Ave (C, E)
• 59th St and Columbus Circle (A, C, B, D, 1)

Finding the room

Enter the building from the south side of 54th St (it’s roughly equidistant between 8th Ave and Broadway).  You may have to sign in at the front desk and show your ID if there’s a guard there.  Take the elevator to the 12th floor.  When you exit the elevator, follow the hallway around to the left until you see a staircase on your left.  Go up the stairs one flight to the top floor.  At the top of the stairs, you’ll see a reception desk to your right.  If there’s someone there, you can tell her you’re there for the “Pavlina meet-up” and she’ll point you to the right room.  Or you can just head left from the top of the stairs, and you’ll see Penthouse 1 at the end of the hall (labeled PH1 on the double doors).  Walk right in and say hi.

Format

Despite a potentially high turnout, we’re still doing this as an informal meet and greet.  Feel free to pop in for a few minutes any time between 9:30 and 11:30 am, or stay for the whole 2 hours.  Please introduce yourself to others in the room, and meet some fellow personal growth enthusiasts.  We only have the room for a limited time, so please don’t head to the room any earlier than 9:20ish.

Please keep in mind that if a lot of people show up, Erin and I may not be able to spend much time with each person one-on-one, but we’ll try to move around and talk to as many people as we can.  We’re very friendly, so please do walk right up and say hi.  We’re happy to answer quick questions, but it isn’t likely we’ll have time for deep one-on-one conversations.

We’ll only be able to get about 40 chairs, which will probably be set up around the outside edge of the room.  But there will be lots of standing room in the middle.  Again, the point is to walk around, mingle, and meet people, but if you want to sit and talk for a while, there should be some chairs for that.  Because there may be other people coming in and out of the other studios for various rehearsals, we need to stay in the room and not spill out into the hallways during the meet-up.

Since this is a dance studio, please don’t bring any food or drink up to the room except for maybe a water bottle.  There is a one-person bathroom right next to the meet-up room as well as larger bathrooms down the stairs on the floor below.

Cost

This is 100% free.  We’re not going to request donations or anything like that.  There was a nominal cost for the room which Erin and I are happy to cover.

Erin regrets she won’t be available to do any in-person readings for the remainder of the trip.  We just don’t have enough time to fulfill all the requests that keep coming in.

A huge thanks to Robin Sayers for the subway passes and for working so hard to find us a place, Jonathan Fields and Sonic Yoga for helping us find this location and to Shetler Studios for hosting us, as well as to everyone else who offered advice and suggestions.

Hope to see you there!

Discuss this post in the Steve Pavlina forum.

© 2007 by Steve Pavlina. If you find these ideas helpful, please leave a donation for Steve so you can enjoy the spirit of giving too.

Ted Rall, the cartoonist and opinion writer, has an interesting piece out called “Onward Christian Panderers.”

It’s mostly complaints about politicans sucking up to the Christian Right—nothing unfamiliar, though well-expressed. It’s worth mentioning, however, that while Rall might not be a great fan of organized religon, he is a theist. We should notice how many, from liberal religionists to the “spiritual but not religious,” are just as pissed off at religious politics as the average atheist. Moreover, Rall explicitly defends the rights of nonbelievers:

Between 10 and 14 percent of Americans are atheists. Devoting a “moment of silence” in schools sends a message to their children: you and your parents are out of step with American society.

If people want to believe in God, the Great Pumpkin, or a Jesus who lives in Missouri, that’s up to them. But religion has no place in the public life of a democracy. None.

It is perfect to be agnostic and attain unconditional peace, happiness and enlightenment.  In fact, in many ways, it makes attaining enlightenment much easier. 

For would you rather believe in enlightenment or would you rather be enlightened?  Would you rather believe in unconditional peace or would you rather live in a state of unconditional peace? 

For if you want to live enlightenment and unconditional peace, you have to truly become agnostic.   

It has always been said that happiness and peace is your very nature.  So to attain enlightenment, you have to experience yourself as you truly are beyond all beliefs, concepts, opinions and dogmas.   

It is not about becoming something, but rather to truly experience yourself as you are in this moment.  To be honest about what is here in this moment. 

Here’s an example:  Say you are sitting on a park bench, a stranger walks by, steps on your foot, doesn’t say anything and keeps on walking.  That is the truth of it in that moment.  Someone stepped on your foot and kept on walking.  Now it has passed. 

But there are a thousand thoughts that come rushing forth: “How rude of that man to step on my foot and not apologize,”  then “He must hate me” then “Why is everyone so mean to me?” then “He is everything that is wrong with this world.” Then “It would be justified for me to run after him and step on his foot.” Then “He probably would try and hit me but then I would deck him and it would feel really good…”  

On and on it goes.  Most of the thoughts you are not even aware of but still they deeply effect you because you are identified with your thoughts.  But all of the thoughts are untrue, all of it is nonsense.  The truth of it is that a man stepped on your foot.  Then it passed.  Everything else is untrue.  Whatever you say about why the man stepped on your foot is pure speculation, whatever scenarios you imagine about what might happen next are all fantasy.   

And the man stepped on your foot once.  But you replay the scene in your mind hundreds of times.  So one step on your foot turns into someone stepping on your foot hundreds of times.  But it has passed; no one is stepping on your foot now!  Quite funny if you think about it. 

So you see in this, all thought about the incident has no truth.  The only true part was a man stepped on your foot. The truth now is you are simply sitting on the park bench. 

A woman once asked a great enlightened teacher named Sri Anandagiri “I want to feel love.  I want my heart to open.” 

Anandagiri asked “Which is true:  That you want to feel love, or that you do not feel love now?” 

She replied “That I want to feel love.” 

“No” He said, “You know the truth.  The truth is that right now you do not feel love.  What you would like to feel is not the truth.” 

Because the idea that she would like to feel love was simply a thought.  A thought that she made important, but it had nothing to do with her experience in the moment, it was only a resistance to what she was experiencing in the moment.  And that is stressful. 

Because peace, happiness and enlightenment is not about becoming something.  It is about experiencing yourself as you are in this moment.  The idea from the ego is that you should be different than you are.  But you are as you are.  That is the truth.  The truth simply is.  And in being aware of what is, there is peace, there is happiness. 

So I ask you to look in this moment, purely agnostic.  What is your experience in this moment?   

And you might say “I want to feel peaceful.” 

But that is not what you experience in this moment, that is only a thought that you identify with.  It has nothing to do with what you are experiencing right now. 

You say, “I feel unhappy.” 

Better, more honest.  But still, that is just a label, a judgment on what you are actually experiencing.  What does unhappy feel like? 

“There is a tightness in my chest.” 

Good.  Can you allow yourself to experience that tight sensation in your chest?  Because if you can allow yourself to experience that tightness, as sensation, then there is peace. 

“The tightness is there because I got in an argument with my wife this morning.” 

But that is just an idea.  Can you prove that?  There is a tightness sensation in your chest, that is what you know in this moment.  Why it is there is just speculation.  The reason for it being there is just a thought.   

The truth is this moment, not what you remember.  You keep carrying your past with you.  But your past is past.  This moment is fresh and new.  Life is happening here and now.  Your responsibility is simply to notice what is here and now.  To be honest about what is here and now. 

“But I don’t want to feel this tightness in my chest.” 

But who doesn’t want to feel it?  Is that not just a thought that you identify with? 

“But I thought that thought.” 

But who is the ‘I’ that thought it?  You assume that you are that thought.  But if you look, the thought came by itself.  If you look, the thought arises and there is the action of identification, you grab hold of that thought and make it you.  But you are not a thought.  The thought will come and go and you will remain. 

“There is resistance to feeling the tightness in my chest.” 

Yes, very good.  Be aware of the sensation of resistance.  That is all you have to do.  There is a sensation in your chest, there is a sensation of resisting that sensation.  Can you allow all this to be?  If you do this, the resistance will fall away.  Then all will be left is that sensation in your chest.  That will eventually change too.  But you remain as awareness. 

If you investigate this moment like this, seeing what is true and what is untrue, you will see that all thinking is just that, thought.  It has no truth in what is actually happening.  You will see thoughts come and go, sensations come and go and change, but you remain aware of everything. 

The one thing you cannot deny is this awareness.  In fact, you cannot separate you, this moment and awareness.  If you are here, you are aware.  And you are always here.   

You seem to get caught up in thoughts.  If you get caught up in thinking about where you grew up, it seems you are there where you grew up.  But the moment you realize you are caught up in your thinking, you will see, you are here and you always were here.  It was just an idea, an illusion that you were somewhere else. 

So you know awareness is the truth.  You cannot deny awareness.  Whatever arises or disappears there is still always awareness here.  So if you rest in awareness, in being aware of whatever arises, you remain true to this moment.  And you will find that the very nature of awareness is peace, love and happiness.  And that the realization that you are awareness and that all arises out of awareness is enlightenment itself. 

So in questioning everything, you come to the conclusion that you truly know nothing.  That any commentary about the moment is just thought arising.    

But you remain as awareness.  There is always awareness.  And the nature of awareness is unconditional peace.  Peace that is here for no reason.  Happiness that is here for no reason.  Simply because you are. 

So to be truly agnostic is a perfect guide to finding unconditional peace, happiness and enlightenment.   

If you are truly interested in attaining unconditional peace, happiness and enlightenment, check out The Calling CDs for Spiritual Enlightenment.  The CDs have a unique sound technology that will awaken this state of peace and happiness in you, making it easy and blissful for you to be present. 

Or for more free teachings click here.

“If you really look at
every desire you have,
it is there to avoid
feeling what is here in this moment.
 
You set goals
and make plans.
 
And do many enjoyable
and fun things.

And all of this is lovely.
 
But after you attain what you want,
after you have had your holiday
or won the marathon,
you are again faced
with yourself
in this moment.
 
You are again confronted
with whatever is here in this moment
that you keep avoiding.
 
It might be emptiness,
or sadness,
or loneliness.
 
Boredom really is a state
where you have run out of ways
of distracting yourself from this moment.
 
So you invent more and more ways,
more and more actions
to keep your from stillness.
 
Unfortunately,
in all of this seeking happiness,
you are avoiding happiness.
 
I suggest to you,
in love,
to stop avoiding this moment.
 
To stop looking to feel something
else than what is here.
 
Even if it is emptiness,
to surrender yourself
to that emptiness.
 
To truly be here
in this moment.
To give yourself completely
in silence
to being present
here and now.
 
Because here,
beyond what you are avoiding
lies unconditional happiness.
 
What you were looking for
all along.

There is nothing you need to do.
Just stop all doing.
Stop all action.
 
Let go of everything
that can be let go of.
 
Then there is unfathomable peace.
Subtler and subtler levels of awareness.
 
The weight and stress
of ego
disappears in an instant,
and you rest as radiance.
 
Once you really
surrender into stillness,
and experience this peace,
you may never want to leave.
 
Blessings,
 
Kip”
 
 
Discover How to Awaken Yourself
To Unconditional Peace & Happiness
 
“Why struggle meditating on your own for decades to experience
the stillness you could attain within minutes of listening the these CDs.”
 
 
      “How does one really define a euphoric, rapturous,
       high in the heavenly realm, peaceful, blissful plane in one word! 
 
       I went through many phases of emotions
       from crying to bliss to peace beyond description.
       The world needs to know about your work!”
     
      (Gina Hakeem Reavis, Tenn., USA)
 
Click this link while you
are still thinking about it: www.bliss-music.com/thecalling.htm

Following on from my post last night… today’s issue of Nature has an interesting Science and Politics essay entitled “Big lessons for a healthy future” by David King and Sandy Thomas. Here is an excerpt:

One of the most important findings of the Foresight obesity project is that individuals have much less choice in the matter of their weight than we may often assume. Our analysis shows that the current epidemic of obesity does not arise from individual over-indulgence or laziness. Instead, human biology has become out of step with the structure of society.

We evolved to respond to hunger by eating; we are only weakly able to notice, and stop when we have had enough. This was an effective survival strategy in prehistoric times when food was scarce. Now high-energy, cheap foods abound, as do labour-saving devices, motorized transport, sedentary work and the association of eating with indulgence. These conspire to create an ‘obesogenic’ environment. The increasing prevalence of obesity is a consequence of modern life.

These points reinforce the importance of “Taking People as They Really Are“. The social contract for the 21st Century must be updated to include the new insights we have made concerning the factors (both environmental and genetic) that have an important impact on our health prospects.

Cheers,
Colin

In looking back over my posting history here on Existence is Wonderful, it is very interesting to see how my own attitudes have shifted over time. There are still some fundamental principles I adhere to: e.g., “Life is a good thing”, and “All different kinds of people are valuable”, but lately I’ve been coming to terms with some of the “affiliation uneasiness” that has been bothering me in the background throughout my public writing endeavors so far.

As of now, I’m still OK with using the term “transhumanism” to describe some of my take on technosocial development. I do believe that radical longevity is a great goal (and one that I will continue to advocate fiercely for). I find talking about robots and cyborgs, etc., to be fascinating and a lot of fun. I’m all for continuing the human process of shaping our environment (with sustainability in mind) to suit our needs and creative energies, and for enabling consensual “augmentation” and modification without regard for unexamined, parochial notions of what is “natural”.

But here’s the thing: I am massively social-libertarian when it comes to the issue of morphological freedom — one of the things that strikes me as tremendously important in any movement that wants to “push” for positive outcomes in society involving the individual’s rights to control his/her own form and function is the notion that we have to be radically tolerant of people who choose forms and functions that we ourselves would not. Which includes forms and functions that we (as in, any one of us) might even find bizarre or aesthetically displeasing.

I’m finding myself increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of being associated with people who can’t understand how power relationships work, and who think that disability activism is “extremism” despite the wealth of good, cogent disability literature out there (which has much in common with transhumanist-themed morphological freedom literature).

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean I’m getting annoyed at “transhumanists”, per se — I in fact think that many emerging mainstream attitudes are quite akin to early eugenic attitudes (e.g., the drive toward prenatal testing causing a shift away from trying to help keep all kinds of children alive once they are born), and that in the mainstream, these attitudes are probably more pernicious and powerful due to being examined less frequently and less consciously than in culturally critical and speculative movements.

I guess I’m just getting annoyed with how so much has been written on the nature of power dynamics, on the real reasons behind the need for disability activism (e.g., so that vulnerable populations are not continually depersonalized, and so that more people understand the nature of interdependence in society), and on similar stuff, but how some people still don’t seem to be able to get past the status quo. I want to help shape a future that is truly “better” than the present, as opposed to just an extreme, exaggerated version of current fashion.

I don’t know if this is even possible, given the complexity of the tasks at hand, but I do get the sense that a better future (one in which people enjoy increased liberty, tolerance, and safety from environmental and other risks) isn’t going to happen through assuming too much about what forms and functionalities are “acceptable” for the future to contain.

A mother reports on the severe side effects experienced by her previously healthy daughter after taking HPV vaccine.