2012 Enigma 11-11-11 The Spiritual Awakening and the Dawn of a New Era For All Mankind to Experience Spiritually part 2
2012 Enigma 11-11-11 The Spiritual Awakening and the Dawn of a New Era For All Mankind to Experience Spiritually part 2
The word Reiki in its English form is both a noun and a verb. As noun, Reiki is the name of the ancient healing energies discovered in the early 1920′s in Japan by Dr. Mikao Usui. It is also the name of the method of natural healing developed around those energies and practiced by millions of people all over the world.
Kanji Reiki To understand Reiki as a verb, as the dynamic process through which energy rejuvenates and heals us, we must look at the word in its kanji form, that is, in the Japanese ideographic system of writing borrowed from the Chinese a thousand years ago. “Reiki” as written in kanji is composed of two ideographs, Rei and ki. Understood together these ideographs are a fluid expression of the relationship between the universal life force behind all creation, the energies of our bodies, and the mystery and method of Reiki healing.
Rei, the first ideograph, interpreted as Transcendent Spirit andRei Essence of Life denotes the Universal Life Force that creates, surrounds, and sustains all matter. In western terms, it signifies the non-visible quantum energy field that underlies all matter and energy. In terms of the world’s belief systems, it is the Source of Creation as that concept is expressed in the many names for God found throughout our cultures.
Ki (Chinese chi, Hindu prana, Indigenous mana) denotes the unique and individualized aspect of that Life Energy, the Inner Source, Life Force, or kipersonalized form of the Universal Energy that both creates and sustains every individual being. Ki (chi) is the Universal Life Force (Rei) stepped down in frequency to create the material world in linear time and space. The Ki of each person vibrates with unique frequencies of the Universal Life Force that are specific to the individual body and spirit. Like snow flakes everything that exists–from amoebas to humans and rocks to planets–has a unique vibration that comes from and is supported by the Universal Life Force. In the human body Ki is the energy of our cells, our DNA, our brains, hearts, and nervous systems, of our seven chakras. Ki is the energy within our meridians and nadiis and the energy of our auric fields. In its most primal and intense form it is referenced in Hindu tradition as kundalini.
Rei joined with ki to form Reiki becomes a perfect description both of the Reiki healing system Reiki and the Reiki healing process whereby a Reiki Practitioner acts as intermediary to join the Universal Life Force (Rei) with an individual’s life force (Ki) to return the ailing body to energetic balance and harmony, thus activating the body’s enormous power to rejuvenate and heal. The message Reiki healing energy carries to body and spirit is the message of Unconditional Love, of our great value in the universe. Surrounded and infused with Reiki energy, the wounded spirit heals, the vibrancy of our Ki is restored, our intent to live and love is reinforced. As the denser energies of fear, self-hatred, despair, and anger are released, as ki is replenished, the body finds the strength and the will to heal itself.
Dr. Usui received a method of energy healing unmatched in the history of the world for simplicity and directness of experience. Healing energies as they appeared in the past fit the definitions, beliefs, and restrictions of the cultural, racial, or religious structure from which they sprang. Reiki accommodates our need for healing outside of a specifically defined religious or cultural context yet reinforces the truth found in all religious and cultural beliefs. People of all ages, all religions, all belief systems, even die-hard skeptics and those with no beliefs at all have become Reiki practitioners. Reiki, as Dr. Usui received it and as Mrs. Takata passed it to the world, is uniquely suited to modern–to western–sensibilities: it is deeply spiritual yet outside of all religion. It is easy to learn, simple to use, and effective. It is the system of energy healing for the twenty-first century and beyond.”
Great expose into the orgins of Reiki Suzanne.
2012 Enigma 11-11-11 The Spiritual Awakening and the Dawn of a New Era For All Mankind to Experience Spiritually part 3
2012 Enigma 11-11-11 The Spiritual Awakening and the Dawn of a New Era For All Mankind to Experience Spiritually part 3
“Healer 2.0″ uses Evolutionary Energy Healing Therapies combined with Breakthrough Advances in Holistic Healing for Fighting Cancer, Disease and Life Transformation
Dr. Ravi takes the 11-11-11 spiritual awakening discussion deeper with his revelations into “Mantras”.
“We are store houses of immense energy. We can tap into this energy and hidden sources of information through the power of chanting. Some cultures – the Melanesians, Mbuti Pygmies, Cibique Apaches – promote successful hunting and fishing through chanting. Chanting is an important part of many Shamanic cultures, Shamanic chants are often invocations of spirit helpers, animals, and nature deities, and help prepare a shaman to be fully in their power when a ritual takes place. These chants are not “texts” in the same way that contemporary religious writings are texts. They may have occasionally been written down, but for the most part they were oral texts. When ‘tripping’ apparently, chanting helps towards an intensely spiritual experience. These methods and many others have been used successfully for centuries. Even though Buddha initially taught that mantras are not needed, he did eventually teach Mantra practices to various groups. Buddhist sects from Sri Lanka, for example, have chanted the Gayatri Mantra for hundreds of years. The great Kalachakra Mantra discipline was Buddha’s final teaching. It is now taught by Tibetans. In his book, ‘The Kalachakra Tantra’, the Dalai Lama writes, ‘Without depending upon Mantras……..Buddhahood cannot be attained’.
Many meditative traditions use Mantras. The words Amen, Shalom, Aum and Omkar are all mantras. Not just any word can be a Mantra. Mantras are special sounds that have particular characteristics and effects. Sounds vibrating in themselves have no literal meaning and are known only as vibrations. When they effect material substances, these vibrations create forms and their forms have names. The mantras are beneficial in their effect on the entire human being. It is said that in ancient times, sages, who devoted their lives to meditation, heard these sounds within.
A Mantra works through its resonance. Mantra’s have their own vibration. Each word within a mantra has its own vibration. A Mantra is a collection of words that have been knitted together in such a way that while reading them, the vibration produced generates energy.
This energy can be focused into a direction so that it can reach the Deity for whom the mantra is being chanted. Mantras can be used for both negative and positive energies. The vibration energy of the mantra does not die but stays in the atmosphere.
Chanting a mantra produces an actual physical vibration. This is one level of energy. Another level is intent. If the actual physical vibration is coupled with a mental intention, the vibration then contains an additional mental component which influences the result of saying it.
The sound is the carrier wave and the intent is overlaid upon this wave form. The mantra wave or energy can be compared with radio waves, for example, which can generated at one location and can be picked up in another location. The requirements for this to work are the generation of the waves, and an instrument that can pick up or receive these waves.
In the case of mantra chanting, the generator of the waves is the disciple chanting the mantra with intent and the receiving ‘instrument’ is the deity of the mantra.
In the modern world, the science of Mantra is difficult to understand because we have come to believe that only words, not meaningless sounds (Mantras), have truth or value. Mantras operate at a deeper level. A Mantra has an effect because of its qualities of vibration and sound rather than because of its literal meaning. Meaningfulness is a property of words, yet the goal in meditation is not to deal with meanings, using the analytical part of the mind, but instead to experience ourselves at a deeper level. All sounds have certain qualities. Some are soothing, others are energising. Some create abundance, some protect. One of the purposes of the sounds we call Mantras is to help us to focus the mind so we can attain a deeper experience than that created by thought alone. Group members who come from different religious backgrounds may worry that ‘Mantra practice’ comes from a foreign religion. It is important to realise that mantra meditation is not a religious process and is used by many traditions.
2012 Enigma 11-11-11 The Spiritual Awakening and the Dawn of a New Era For All Mankind to Experience Spiritually part 4
2012 Enigma 11-11-11 The Spiritual Awakening and the Dawn of a New Era For All Mankind to Experience Spiritually part 4
To make the mind empty is difficult as by its very nature, the mind changes, processes memories, makes associations and constantly takes in new information. Possibly the only time the mind becomes somewhat still is in the deep state of dreamless sleep. Because of these mental processes, one method to make the mind quiet and focused is to tempt or lead it to concentrate on one object or stimulus at a time. The goal therefore is not to make the mind empty, but to quieten the mind by giving it a single focus. (Hindu traditions for example, have many idols or Demi Gods. There are many thousands to choose from and you choose the one which appeals to your psyche. The purpose of ‘Idols’ within Hinduism is misunderstood and usually mocked by other religions. Even the general Hindu believer does not understand it fully. The idol is there to create a single focus mind, ‘worship’ of this idol is a by product. The idol is meant to be used as a symbol in meditation).
A word, phrase, sound or a symbol can be used to give the mind this one-pointed focus on which to concentrate. Mantras can be used to focus. The words Amen, Shalom, and Om (Aum) are all mantras. There are many sounds, syllables or words which can be used as mantras. Many aspirants try and co ordinate a mantra with their inhalation and exhalation. Not all mantras however can be utilised in this manner. Mantra is a powerful tool, a compact prayer. Constant prayer creates awareness and constant awareness leads to self-realization.
Carrying on with Mantras, many have asked about Mantra chanting during breathing, inhalation and exhalation. Not all Mantras can be coordinated with the breath during inhalation and exhalation. If you try to force the Mantra to follow the waves of your breath, you will end up creating a distraction for yourself and disrupt your breathing. The goal is not to keep on paying attention to the process of breathing. Soham mantra lends itself perfectly to our inhalation and exhalation. The Soham Mantra is a universal mantra and perfect for realigning your chakras and for centering.
All sounds have certain qualities. Some are soothing others are energizing. As readers of this Healer 2.0 blog come from many different backgrounds and religions I am proposing using a universal and a natural sound SO HAM to initially focus the wandering mind. What is SO…..HAM?
Soham (pronounced “So’hum”) literally means “I am Him”. Every soul has a presence of God in it. In other words, it means “God is within”.
This natural mantra, is the mantra of your true self. It does not belong to the East or the West or to any religion. So’ham is the inherent in everybody, in all of us; it repeats itself continually, along with our breathing. It is said that as long as this mantra keeps going on inside us, there is life in the body. As soon as it stops, we are no more.
The Bible tells us that in the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But in the beginning, there were no words, no languages, or even sounds of humans or animals. So what was the Word that was in the beginning?
The ancient cavemen, before they had invented language or fire, would sit in their dark caves and have nothing else to focus on but the sound of their breath. Similarly, the first sound we hear when we were in our mothers’ womb is the sound of her breath, and this sound has been with us ever since we drew our first breath. It negates the need to rely on any of the words of the languages of the world to use as a mantra. It can be done even while driving, working, and doing other acts of daily life and thereby offers a continuous experience of being in the present. This is a great present, because Reality takes place now, in the present. Soham is a wonder-full meditation/focusing technique and I hope its constant application will bring you the experience of Knowledge, Consciousness, and Bliss that is your birthright.
In Sanskrit, the sound of the inhalation is termed SO, and the exhalation is HAM. Combined, the word Soham is translated as “I Am He/That”. So, whenever you are doing this technique, you are calling on God. Every breath thus becomes a prayer and adoration.
How SOHAM can be utilised to regain focus and how it can be used to center yourself.
At the time and in the place where you feel most comfortable, place your body in the position that you have found to be the most beneficial for meditation. Close your eyes. Close your ears by putting your thumbs in them, or by using earplugs. This will intensify the sound of your breath while diminishing the distractions that sight and sound bring. Focus on the sound of your breath coming in. Associate it with the word So. As your breath leaves, listen to the sound and associate it with the word Ham. To pronounce So and Ham correctly, listen to how they sound. For those just starting to use this technique, it is usual to silently say the word So with each inhalation and the word Ham with each exhale. When you are focused consistently, consciously, you will flow into simply listening to the sound of Soham. Soham is by far the easiest meditation. It comes to all living creatures without any effort. The following link illustrates precisely how SOHAM can be done or performed. It is much better than explaining.
2012 Enigma 11-11-11 The Spiritual Awakening and the Dawn of a New Era For All Mankind to Experience Spiritually part 5
2012 Enigma 11-11-11 The Spiritual Awakening and the Dawn of a New Era For All Mankind to Experience Spiritually part 5
Mantra is also considered a condensed form of spiritual energy. It can also be thought of as a compact prayer-a means of communicating with the absolute reality. The yogic scriptures often compare Mantra to a boat or a bridge that an aspirant can use to cross the mud of delusion created by the external world and to reach the center of consciousness within. According to some mystics and yogis, Mantra is an eternal friend who accompanies the meditator even after death, lighting the path in the realm where the light of the sun and the moon cannot penetrate.
I will discuss later how this happens.
Some consider that Mantra is itself the guru: Mantra, God, guru, and one’s Self are identical. This concept is difficult to grasp for those who are not familiar with the branch of metaphysics known as spanda, the science of eternal vibration. To explain briefly, spanda holds that all creation evolves from the Word. The Word referred to is not speech uttered by a human voice or the audible sound produced when two objects strike each other, but anahata nada, the unstruck sound which vibrates eternally in the realm of pure consciousness. This unstruck sound, the Word that existed before the beginning of creation, is called akshara, shabda Brahman, vak shakti, or spanda.
Although a full-fledged doctrine of the Word developed only in the East, this concept is found in all of the world’s great spiritual traditions, including Buddhism, Sufism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, as well as in the spiritual practices of many tribal societies. For example, the Karadjeri of Australia believe that objects came into manifestation only after the first two humans pronounced their names. According to Kabbala, the medieval tradition of Jewish mysticism, God himself is transcendent, but a series of ten emanations of light (sefirot) that are his “manifest and noble aspects” issue from him. Divine names and letters, the twenty-two consonants of the Hebrew alphabet, emerged parallel to these ten emanations. The texts of ancient Sumeria also speak of the creative power of the divine Word, stating that the universe begins to evolve as thought arises in the mind of the divine being. Objects spring into being as the divinity utters their names. This is similar to the Old Testament account of creation, in which God speaks the manifest world into existence: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” In the New Testament, the Gospel of John elaborates on this concept, saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In the spiritual realm, the ultimate revelation, which is also the ultimate initiation, comes in the form of a silent communication in the universal language and is communicable to very few. That is why, in the end, Moses laid his hand only on Joshua and Krishna only on Uddhava. Christ gave the key of the Word to Peter.
The wisdom that is mantra has its source in supreme truth. However, it flows down to seekers in various grades and degrees. It clothes itself in the garb of different languages, and seekers identify it as a Sanskrit mantra, a Tibetan mantra, or a Buddhist mantra. Such identifications are only partially true. The transforming power of mantras, even in their articulate form, are beyond ordinary perception because they still are connected with the source.
Whatever form they take, the purpose of all meditative mantras is to enable the practitioner to go beyond the mind and have a direct experience of his or her essential nature. It is not the meaning of the mantra but its subtle vibrations that lead or carry the meditator to the center of silence within. However, this process cannot really be understood until it is experienced personally.
Another unique group of mantras, called sabar mantras, are extremely puzzling to the rational mind. These mantras are expressed in Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Hindi, Urdu, and a number of Asian vernaculars and dialects. No interpretive rules can be drawn for this particular group of mantras. These sabar mantras can be in one language or a mixture of languages, and they may or may not have a specific meaning. Sabar Mantras never show the intended result unless one receives them directly from a master. It is important not to confuse a Sabar mantra with a Guru Mantra which is a part of the Guru – Disciple relationship. Sabar Mantras, are mostly for siddhis (spiritual powers) or immediate results and have no or very little spiritual value.
I like the Deep – Resonant Vibrations of some Sounds or Words in songs or language. As I was trying new things with my Voice training, I noticed some things had an Entire Spinal Benefit. From my male self all the way to the base of the Head and Throat. There was a healing and stimulating benefit. I am discovering new “Free Form Mantras” to Resonate my Body. I also agree with you Ravi in that a Focal Point is a Key also. I like a Single Small White Candle. It’s a “Fluid” Focal Point that is also Soothing to experience.”
Thanks Dr. Ravi for your contributions to this 11-11-11 Spiritual Awakening series.
Fighting Cancer, Disease and Life Transformation has become a far more Evolved Path of Theraputic Practice thanks to Milestone Healer 2.0 Research into Energy Healing and Breakthrough Super Healing Natural Remedies. Be sure to subscribe to the globally acclaimed “Healer 2.0″ newsletter to get the latest alternative health insights from around the globe and proven over 5,000 years.
- Glen
Glen B. Stewart – Master Trainer
Depression – Are Everyday Foods In Your Kitchen Crippling Your Life
Depression – Are Everyday Foods In Your Kitchen Crippling Your Life part 1
Millions of people in the Western world suffer from severe depression everyday.
Yet if we go to our doctor, typically we will be given a prescription for antidepressants. Sadly these antidepressant drugs are not the solution and many times can make depression even more severe.
In holistic or natural healing practice the practitioner is taught to identify the source of the health ailments instead of masking the symptoms with a pharmaceutical drug.
What are the sources of depression?
Depression is typically manifested by one of 5 things.
1) Tragic or unfortunate life experiences.
2) Drug or prescription side effects.
3) Food allergies.
4) Food and pesticide toxicity.
5) Man-made toxin reactions.
In this brief article I will reveal in further detail the research behind depression and the toxic and allergenic foods we eat on a daily basis.
What I’m about to share with you will indeed surprise you, please do not take these well researched findings lightly. I am saying this to prepare you properly because many of the foods you dearly crave are in fact highly toxic to your body. The startling truth is that allergenic foods are also highly addictive, in fact you will be shocked to know that most allergenic foods are more addictive than heroin.
It is critical however that once these foods are revealed to you that you totally eliminate them from your diet completely. The 1st 2 to 3 weeks will be the toughest in fact doing this elimination process. Your body and your mind will experience withdrawal symptoms from eliminating these toxic foods.
You will experience mild to severe mood swings, inability to focus, irrational and perhaps even temporarily violent behavior. In addition you may feel weak and overcome with flulike symptoms. I encourage you to persevere through these trying moments because when you do the results will be truly life-changing.
The fact is that depression, anxiety, violence, inability to focus, frequent colds, vulnerability to disease and even cancer is directly associated with food allergies and toxic foods.
What is happening is that many of these foods that are wrecking havoc with your emotions and health are considered comfort foods. Comfort foods meaning when you are experiencing bouts of anxiety or depression you seem to feel temporarily better after you have gorged yourself with these foods.
As a tragic consequence however the same comfort foods are re-creating yet more allergic reactions that re-manifest themselves as anxiety, depression and the severe immune system disorders I mentioned.
So how does one eliminate this nightmare of mood swings and acute depression along with severe health problems?
Eliminate the following highly allergenic and toxic foods from your lifestyle completely:
1) Wheat – either whole grain or white flour, pasta, noodles, breads, bakery sweets etc.
2) Corn – corn on the cob, canned corn and “high fructose corn syrup” which is in many processed foods.
3) All other gluten containing grains such as rye and barley etc.
4) Potatoes
5) Shellfish
6) Eggs
7) Milk and milk products such as butter and cheese.
8 Rice and other grains.
9) Commercially raised grain fed beef, chicken and pork.
10) Commercially grown vegetables which are heavily sprayed with pesticides.
11) Genetically modified foods or GMO foods which are highly allergenic and toxic.
Now you know why I mentioned the severe implications of allergenic and toxic foods before I mention the particular health stealing suspects. This was because these foods are typically primary foods of your daily life. I know how you feel.
It is not your fault.
The horrible truth is the fact that these allergenic foods are much more severe in their devastation to the human body than they were back in the 50s and 60s. What is happened is that the commercial food industry has created genetically modified foods which are highly toxic to the human body. This was done to eliminate crop damage from pests. It was also devised for these particular crops to be pesticide and weed herbicide resistant to being chemically sprayed with the Roundup weed killer products. In addition these grains in the livestock eating these grains are producing pesticides themselves.
So what are you up against? One shocking example would be the fact that eating just 3 grams of wheat has a toxic effect on the human brain. There are 28 g to an ounce!
In essence this highly toxic effect on the human brain is numbing your brain and part of the experience is the “comfort food affect”. Unfortunately as I mentioned this temporary brain numbing experience has absolutely catastrophic effects on your mood, bouts of depression and ultimately the ability to survive disease and cancer.
In a follow-up to this food and depression series on my globally acclaimed blog I will delve further into this nightmare that the majority of the Western world is now facing. In addition I will share the 10 commercial vegetables and fruits to avoid because they contain the highest amount of pesticides. These fruits and vegetables you would definitely want to consume only if they were grown organically.
In closing, find comfort in realizing it is not your fault that you are experiencing depression. I have been there myself and as a child doctors did not have an answer for me. I had to repeat 1st grade twice in fact due to extreme food allergy related illnesses.
Fortunately as I have revealed depression can be dissipated and even eliminated through self-help and life transforming changes. If you know the value of living a depression free lifestyle and wish to transform yourself away from these highly allergenic and toxic foods, become a subscriber to http://healer2.com. You will discover many delicious alternatives to suffering from depression because of choosing the wrong foods to eat.
Glen B. Stewart
Glen B Stewart is the globally acclaimed author of “Visions Of A Champion” available on Amazon. Glen transforms the lives of people from world-class athletes and children in sports to disease ridden and cancer stricken individuals worldwide.
Depression Resources:
Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 2
Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 2
Natural News states:
Ever since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force took a look, finally, at the scientific evidence and announced new recommendations earlier this month for routine mammograms — specifically that women under 50 should avoid them and women over 50 should only get them every other year — the reactions from many women, doctors and the mainstream media have reached the point of near hysteria. Not getting annual mammograms, some say, means countless women will receive a virtual death sentence because their breast tumors won’t be discovered.
But what is rarely discussed about mammograms is this: the tests could actually be causing many cases of breast cancer.
In fact, a new study just presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), concludes the low-dose radiation from annual mammography screening significantly increases breast cancer risk in women with a genetic or familial predisposition to breast cancer. This is particularly worrisome because women who are at high risk for breast cancer are regularly pushed to start mammograms at a younger age — as early as 25 — and that means they are exposed to more radiation from mammography earlier and for more years than women who don’t have breast cancer in their family trees.
“For women at high risk for breast cancer, screening is very important, but a careful approach should be taken when considering mammography for screening young women, particularly under age 30,” Marijke C. Jansen-van der Weide, Ph.D., an epidemiologist in the Department of Epidemiology and Radiology at University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, said in a statement to the media. “Further, repeated exposure to low-dose radiation should be avoided.”
Dr. Jansen-van der Weide and colleagues analyzed peer-reviewed, published medical research to investigate whether low-dose radiation exposure affects breast cancer risk among high-risk women. Out of the six studies included in this analysis, four looked at the effect of exposure to low-dose radiation among breast cancer gene mutation carriers. The other two studies traced the impact of radiation on women with a family history of breast cancer. The researchers took the combined data from all these research projects and then calculated odds ratios to estimate the risk of breast cancer caused by radiation.
The results? All the high-risk women in the study who were exposed to low-dose mammography type radiation had an increased risk of breast cancer that was 1.5 times greater than that of high-risk women who had not been exposed to low-dose radiation. What’s more, women at high risk for breast cancer who had been exposed to low-dose radiation before the age of 20 or who had five or more exposures to low-dose radiation were 2.5 times more likely to develop breast cancer than high-risk women not exposed to low-dose radiation.
Bottom line: any supposed benefit of early tumor detection using mammograms in young women with familial or genetic predisposition to breast cancer is offset by the potential risk of radiation-induced cancer.
“Our findings suggest that low-dose radiation increases breast cancer risk among these young high-risk women, and a careful approach is warranted,” Dr. Jansen-van der Weide said in the press statement.
The mammogram scam exposed
Incredibly, although it is rarely reported in the mainstream media, the new study follows on the heels of several others that have already sounded the warning that mammograms may cause breast cancer. For example, NaturalNews covered a Johns Hopkins study published earlier this year in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that warned radiation exposure from annual mammograms could trigger breast malignancies in women with a strong family history of breast and/or ovarian cancers who have altered genes (identified as BRCA1 or BRCA2).
And it may not be only women with a familial risk for breast cancer who are at extra risk from mammography radiation. As NaturalNews covered last year, a report published in the American Medical Association’sArchives of Internal Medicine found breast cancer rates increased significantly in four Norwegian counties after women there began getting mammograms every two years. In fact, the start of screening mammography programs throughout Europe has been linked to an increased incidence of breast cancer.
Read Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 3 Here
Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 3
Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 3
Mammogram pushers now have nothing left to stand on. The complete and utter hoax of mammography has now been wholly discredited through a flurry of groundbreaking studies performed by conventional medicine researchers! Yes, even the industry’s own former advocates now admit mammography harms far more women than it helps. Why? Because mammography causes the very disease it claims to “detect”. It’s much like a clever sleight-of-hand magician’s trick where they reach for your ear and suddenly produce a coin that was presumably hidden there. But as everybody knows, they put it there themselves!
Mammograms offer a similar kind of sleight-of-hand trick (or sleight-of-breast, as the case may be) by actually generating the very disease they claim to find. If so many women hadn’t already been harmed by mammography, the whole thing would be quite hysterical.”Early detection saves lives,” they say. Except they stupidly forget to tell women the other side of the story: “Mammograms cause cancer.” And if you’re gullible enough to actually irradiate your breasts every year, don’t be surprised — shocked! — if they someday find tumors in them.
I recently read the headline from Prevent Disease:
“Governments Quickly Dismissed Cancer Concerns To Roll Out Airport X-Ray Scanners”
And was shocked. The expose went on to say:
One after another, experts convened by health authorities raised questions about X-Ray machines because they violated a longstanding principle in radiation safety — that humans shouldn’t be X-rayed unless there is a medical benefit.They’ve been approved all over the world. The U.S., U.K., Russia, Australia, Europe and Canada. Scanners which have potentially devastating health effects have received the blessing of top governments.
“I think this is really a slippery slope,” said Jill Lipoti, who was the director of New Jersey’s radiation protection program. The device was already deployed in prisons; what was next, she and others asked — courthouses, schools, airports? “I am concerned … with expanding this type of product for the traveling public,” said another panelist, Stanley Savic, the vice president for safety at a large electronics company. “I think that would take this thing to an entirely different level of public health risk.
”The machine’s inventor, Steven W. Smith, assured the panelists that it was highly unlikely that the device would see widespread use in the near future. At the time, only 20 machines were in operation in the entire country. “The places I think you are not going to see these in the next five years is lower-security facilities, particularly power plants, embassies, courthouses, airports and governments,” Smith said. “I would be extremely surprised in the next five to 10 years if the Secure 1000 is sold to any of these.”
An influential international radiation safety organization has warned that the naked body scanners currently being rolled out in airports across the world increase the risk of cancer and birth defects and should not be used on pregnant women or children.
“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” reported Bloomberg.
Despite the fact that the level of radiation the passenger is exposed to is relatively low, repeated exposure for frequent flyers would undoubtedly increase cancer risks.
The report issued by the IACRS encompasses the work of the European Commission, International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Energy Agency and the World Health Organization.
Read Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 4 Here
Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 4
Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 4
Today, the United States has begun marching millions of airline passengers through the X-ray body scanners, parting ways with countries in Europe and elsewhere that have concluded that such widespread use of even low-level radiation poses an unacceptable health risk. The government is rolling out the X-ray scanners despite having a safer alternative that the Transportation Security Administration says is also highly effective.
A ProPublica/PBS NewsHour investigation of how this decision was made shows that in post-9/11 America, security issues can trump even long-established medical conventions. The final call to deploy the X-ray machines was made not by the FDA, which regulates drugs and medical devices, but by the TSA, an agency whose primary mission is to prevent terrorist attacks.
Research suggests that anywhere from six to 100 U.S. airline passengers each year could get cancer from the machines. Still, the TSA has repeatedly defined the scanners as “safe,” glossing over the accepted scientific view that even low doses of ionizing radiation — the kind beamed directly at the body by the X-ray scanners — increase the risk of cancer.
“Even though it’s a very small risk, when you expose that number of people, there’s a potential for some of them to get cancer,” said Kathleen Kaufman, the former radiation management director in Los Angeles County, who brought the prison X-rays to the FDA panel’s attention.
They say that the low level beam does deliver a small dose of radiation to the body but because the beam concentrates on the skin – one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body – that dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated.
About 250 X-ray scanners are currently in U.S. airports, along with 264 body scanners that use a different technology, a form of low-energy radio waves known as millimeter waves.
Robin Kane, the TSA’s assistant administrator for security technology, said that no one would get cancer because the amount of radiation the X-ray scanners emit is minute. Having both technologies is important to create competition, he added.
“It’s a really, really small amount relative to the security benefit you’re going to get,” Kane said. “Keeping multiple technologies in play is very worthwhile for the U.S. in getting that cost-effective solution — and being able to increase the capabilities of technology because you keep everyone trying to get the better mousetrap.”
Determined to fill a critical hole in its ability to detect explosives, the TSA plans to have one or the other operating at nearly every security lane in America by 2014. The TSA has designated the scanners for “primary” screening: Officers will direct every passenger, including children, to go through either a metal detector or a body scanner, and the passenger’s only alternative will be to request a physical pat-down.
How did the United States swing from considering such X-rays taboo to deeming them safe enough to scan millions of people a year?
A new wave of terrorist attacks using explosives concealed on the body, coupled with the scanners’ low dose of radiation, certainly convinced many radiation experts that the risk was justified.
But other factors helped the machines gain acceptance.
Because of a regulatory Catch-22, the airport X-ray scanners have escaped the oversight required for X-ray machines used in doctors’ offices and hospitals. The reason is that the scanners do not have a medical purpose, so the FDA cannot subject them to the rigorous evaluation it applies to medical devices.
Still, the FDA has limited authority to oversee some non-medical products and can set mandatory safety regulations. But the agency let the scanners fall under voluntary standards set by a nonprofit group heavily influenced by industry.
As for the TSA, it skipped a public comment period required before deploying the scanners. Then, in defending them, it relied on a small body of unpublished research to insist the machines were safe, and ignored contrary opinions from U.S. and European authorities that recommended precautions, especially for pregnant women. Finally, the manufacturer, Rapiscan Systems, unleashed an intense and sophisticated lobbying campaign, ultimately winning large contracts.
Both the FDA and TSA say due diligence has been done to assure the scanners’ safety. Rapiscan says it won the contract because its technology is superior at detecting threats. While the TSA says X-ray and millimeter-wave scanners are both effective, Germany decided earlier this year not to roll out millimeter-wave machines after finding they produced too many false positives.
Most of the news coverage on body scanners has focused on privacy, because the machines can produce images showing breasts and buttocks. But the TSA has since installed software to make the images less graphic. While some accounts have raised the specter of radiation, this is the first report to trace the history of the scanners and document the gaps in regulation that allowed them to avoid rigorous safety evaluation.
Little research on cancer risk of body scanners
Humans are constantly exposed to ionizing radiation, a form of energy that has been shown to strip electrons from atoms, damage DNA and mutate genes, potentially leading to cancer. Most radiation comes from radon, a gas produced from naturally decaying elements in the ground. Another major source is cosmic radiation from outer space. Many common items, such as smoke detectors, contain tiny amounts of radioactive material, as do exit signs in schools and office buildings.
As a result, the cancer risk from any one source of radiation is often small. Outside of nuclear accidents, such as that at Japan’s Fukushima plant, and medical errors, the health risk comes from cumulative exposure.
In Rapiscan’s Secure 1000 scanner, which uses ionizing radiation, a passenger stands between two large blue boxes and is scanned with a pencil X-ray beam that rapidly moves left to right and up and down the body. In the other machine, ProVision, made by defense contractor L-3 Communications, a passenger enters a chamber that looks like a round phone booth and is scanned with millimeter waves, a form of low-energy radio waves, which have not been shown to strip electrons from atoms or cause cancer.
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Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 5
Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 5
Only a decade ago, many states prohibited X-raying a person for anything other than a medical exam. Even after 9/11, such non-medical X-raying remains taboo in most of the industrialized world. In July, the European Parliament passed a resolution that security “scanners using ionizing radiation should be prohibited” because of health risks. Although the United Kingdom uses the X-ray machine for limited purposes, such as when passengers trigger the metal detector, most developed countries have decided to forgo body scanners altogether or use only the millimeter-wave machines.
While the research on medical X-rays could fill many bookcases, the studies that have been done on the airport X-ray scanners, known as backscatters, fill a file no more than a few inches thick. None of the main studies cited by the TSA has been published in a peer-reviewed journal, the gold standard for scientific research.
Those tests show that the Secure 1000 delivers an extremely low dose of radiation, less than 10 microrems. The dose is roughly one-thousandth of a chest X-ray and equivalent to the cosmic radiation received in a few minutes of flying at typical cruising altitude. The TSA has used those measurements to say the machines are “safe.”
Most of what researchers know about the long-term health effects of low levels of radiation comes from studies of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By charting exposure levels and cancer cases, researchers established a linear link that shows the higher the exposure, the greater risk of cancer.
Some scientists argue the danger is exaggerated. They claim low levels stimulate the repair mechanism in cells, meaning that a little radiation might actually be good for the body.
But in the authoritative report on low doses of ionizing radiation, published in 2006, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the research and concluded that the preponderance of research supported the linear link. It found “no compelling evidence” that there is any level of radiation at which the risk of cancer is zero.
Radiation experts say the dose from the backscatter is negligible when compared to naturally occurring background radiation. Speaking to the 1998 FDA panel, Smith, the inventor, compared the increased risk to choosing to visit Denver instead of San Diego or the decision to wear a sweater versus a sport coat.
Using the linear model, even such trivial amounts increase the number of cancer cases. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a radiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, estimated that the backscatters would lead to only six cancers over the course of a lifetime among the approximately 100 million people who fly every year. David Brenner, director of Columbia University’s Center for Radiological Research, reached a higher number — potentially 100 additional cancers every year.
“Why would we want to put ourselves in this uncertain situation where potentially we’re going to have some cancer cases?” Brenner asked. “It makes me think, really, why don’t we use millimeter waves when we don’t have so much uncertainty?”
But even without the machines, Smith-Bindman said, the same 100 million people would develop 40 million cancers over the course of their lifetimes. In this sea of cancer cases, it would be impossible to identify the patients whose cancer is linked to the backscatter machines.
How the scanners avoided strict oversight
Although they deliberately expose humans to radiation, the airport X-ray scanners are not medical devices, so they are not subject to the stringent regulations required for diagnostic X-ray machines.Â
If they were, the manufacturer would have to submit clinical data showing safety and effectiveness and be approved through a rigorous process by the FDA. If the machines contained radioactive material, they would have to report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
But because it didn’t fit into either category, the Secure 1000 was classified as an electronic product. The FDA does not review or approve the safety of such products. However, manufacturers must provide a brief radiation safety report explaining the dose and notify the agency if any overexposure is discovered. According to the FDA, no such incidents have been reported.
Under its limited oversight of electronic products, the FDA could issue mandatory safety regulations. But it didn’t do so, a decision that flows from its history of supervising electronics.
Regulation of electronic products in the United States began after a series of scandals. From the 1930s to the 1950s, it was common for a child to go to a shoe store and stand underneath an X-ray machine known as a fluoroscope to check whether a shoe was the right fit. But after cases arose of a shoe model’s leg being amputated and store clerks developing dermatitis from putting their hands in the beam to adjust the shoe, the practice ended.
In 1967, General Electric recalled 90,000 color televisions that had been sold without the proper shielding, potentially exposing viewers to dangerous levels of radiation. The scandal prompted the creation of the federal Bureau of Radiological Health.
“That ultimately led to a lot more aggressive program,” said John Villforth, who was the director of the bureau. Over the next decade, the bureau created federal safety standards for televisions, medical X-rays, microwaves, tanning beds, even laser light shows.
But in 1982, the FDA merged the radiological health bureau into its medical-device unit.
“I was concerned that if they were to combine the two centers into one, it would probably mean the ending of the radiation program because the demands for medical-device regulation were becoming increasingly great,” said Villforth, who was put in charge of the new Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “As I sort of guessed, the radiation program took a big hit.”
The new unit became stretched for scarce resources as it tried to deal with everything from tongue depressors to industrial lasers. The government used to have 500 people examining the safety of electronic products emitting radiation. It now has about 20 people. In fact, the FDA has not set a mandatory safety standard for an electronic product since 1985.
As a result, there is an FDA safety regulation for X-rays scanning baggage — but none for X-rays scanning people at airports.
Meanwhile, scientists began developing backscatter X-rays, in which the waves are reflected off an object to a detector, for the security industry.
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Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 6
Cancer Survival – What You Do Not Know About A Deadly Cancer Causing Lifestyle Can Kill You part 9
The Secure 1000 people scanner was invented by Smith in 1991 and later sold to Rapiscan, then a small security firm based in southern California. The first major customer was the California prison system, which began scanning visitors to prevent drugs and weapons from getting in. But the state pulled the devices in 2001 after a group of inmates’ wives filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the prisons of violating their civil liberties.
The U.S. Customs Service deployed backscatter machines for several years but in limited fashion and with strict supervision. Travelers suspected of carrying contraband had to sign a consent form, and Customs policy prohibited the scanning of pregnant women. The agency abandoned them in 2006, not for safety reasons but because smugglers had learned where the machines were installed and adapted their methods to avoid them, said Rick Whitman, the radiation safety officer for Customs until 2008.
Yet, even this limited application of X-ray scanning for security dismayed radiation safety experts. In 1999, the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors, a nongovernmental organization, passed a resolution recommending that such screening be stopped immediately.
The backscatter machines had also caught the attention of the 1998 FDA advisory panel, which recommended that the FDA establish government safety regulations for people scanners. Instead, the FDA decided to go with a voluntary standard set by a trade group largely comprising manufacturers and government agencies that wanted to use the machines.
“Establishing a mandatory standard takes an enormous amount of resources and could take a decade to publish,” said Dan Kassiday, a longtime radiation safety engineer at the FDA.
In addition, since the mid-1990s, Congress has directed federal safety agencies to use industry standards wherever possible instead of creating their own.
The FDA delegated the task of establishing the voluntary standards to the American National Standards Institute. A private nonprofit that sets standards for many industries, ANSI convened a committee of the Health Physics Society, a trade group of radiation safety specialists. It was made up of 15 people, including six representatives of manufacturers of X-ray body scanners and five from U.S. Customs and the California prison system. There were few government regulators and no independent scientists.
In contrast, the FDA advisory panel was also made up of 15 people — five representatives from government regulatory agencies, four outside medical experts, one labor representative and five experts from the electronic products industry, but none from the scanner manufacturers themselves.
“I am more comfortable with having a regulatory agency — either federal or the states — develop the standards and enforce them,” Kaufman said. Such regulators, she added, “have only one priority, and that’s public health.”
A representative of the Health Physics Society committee said that was its main priority as well. Most of the committee’s evaluation was completed before 9/11. The standard was published in 2002 and updated with minor changes in 2009.
Ed Bailey, chief of California’s radiological health branch at the time, said he was the lone voice opposing the use of the machines. But after 9/11, his views changed about what was acceptable in pursuit of security.
“The whole climate of their use has changed,” Bailey said. “The consequence of something being smuggled on an airplane is far more serious than somebody getting drugs into a prison.”
Are Inspections Independent?
While the TSA doesn’t regulate the machines, it must seek public input before making major changes to security procedures. In July, a federal appeals court ruled that the agency failed to follow rule-making procedures and solicit public comment before installing body scanners at airports across the country. TSA spokesman Michael McCarthy said the agency couldn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
The TSA asserts there is no need to take additional precautions for sensitive populations, even pregnant women, following the guidance of the congressionally chartered National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements.
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