Medical Cannabis DeleTED

Here's another TED Talk you're never going to see because they're scared. The official reason: "Boca Raton is not ready for a talk on Cannabis." But we all know the real reason. TEDx Boca Raton is afraid of having their charter pulled by TED and being left in the lurch like TEDx West Hollywood. They've been reined in by the parent organization.

You'd have to be living under a rock not to know that new discoveries are being made about the healing properties of cannabis. And what is most troubling here is that this talk wasn't even about the kinds of medical marijuana that make people high. It's about non-psychoactive compounds that are currently being developed into effective medical therapies. Graham Hancock has posted the text of Michael Zapolin's proposed talk, so you can at least read it. Here's just a smidgen.

Cannabis Sativa comes in two varieties, one is the traditional marijuana plant that is smoked, vaporized, and eaten for its psychoactive effect. The other is called industrial hemp, which is used worldwide as a food ingredient and to make products like rope and clothing.

What is virtually unknown is that there are over 70 different elements in the plant including a group referred to as Cannabinoids. What makes this really interesting is that each one of us has an endocannabanoid system in our bodies that allows us to interact with these different elements. The question is … why would we have this system inside our bodies unless we were supposed to be interacting with this plant?

. . .

What wasn’t realized until recently is that the Industrial Hemp variety that is non-psychoactive, has naturally high levels of CBD, higher than are found in the typical marijuana plant. Industrial hemp characteristically has less than 1% THC and high levels of CBD. The evidence is showing that these Cannabinoids are not specifically a cure for epilepsy, colitis, diabetes, or cancer, but what they’re doing is helping boost your own immune system so you can naturally fight off whatever it is that’s ailing you.

. . .

So how can something this amazing not be available? As usual, with any conspiracy, it’s important to follow the money. At one time in United States history, hemp was the number one crop because it is so incredibly strong and cheap to grow. Some of the many uses of hemp were rope, clothing, building materials, sails in ships, and as a bio-fuel. Not to mention the Constitution of the United States is written on hemp paper. There were also some very powerful industries and individuals that played a huge role in the prohibition surrounding hemp. The Dupont family controlled the cotton industry, which saw hemp as an obvious threat. William Randolf Hearst’s newspapers were printed on paper and he owned significant timber reserves. These powerful families wrote the very legislation that outlawed hemp and funded the propaganda campaign known as “Reefer Madness” where they predicted that marijuana would make people go insane and destabilize society. Many industries since then have also been threatened by cannabis and have fought hard to keep it illegal. The pharmaceutical industry fears it because they can’t patent and own it, and the alcohol industry sees it as a natural enemy. Our own government, it is said, has kept it illegal for the reason that they don’t need everyone walking around freethinking, asking questions like “Why am I paying taxes? Why are we in so many wars?”

And as usual, with any topic that is too hot for TED, you simply follow the money. Chris Anderson has turned "ideas" into a cash cow for himself, with donations and outrageous ticket prices, while giving a lot of unpaid speakers their fifteen minutes of fame... and a healthy dose of cultish indoctrination.

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Oprah Interviews FLDS Turncoat

Possibly of interest, Willie Jessop, former Warren Jeffs bodyguard, current apostate, was interviewed by Oprah in a show to air tonight.

Winfrey catches up with Jessop in an episode of "Where Are They Now," to air Sunday on the OWN network

Jessop parted with Jeffs just before Jeffs' trial in 2011. He since has started cooperating with federal and Utah authorities, so much so that the United Effort Plan, the polygamous trust operated by the state of Utah, agreed to sell him land at a reduced price.

He also took possession of Jeffs' compound in Hildale and turned it into a bed and breakfast.

Jessop remains a controversial character, with many continuing to doubt his motives. But he did give us a lovely tour of Warren Jeffs's former compound before turning it into a bed and breakfast. Maybe tonight he'll explain how one repurposes a rape room and makes such a place a charming place to stay on vacation.

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Triple Whammy

Today is the Vernal Equinox. It is also a supermoon. And a total solar eclipse. It's a triple whammy of celestial events, capping off a week of turbulent space weather and challenging transits. If you're feeling overwhelmed and enervated you're not alone. I'm hearing widespread reports of disrupted sleep cycles, intense dream activity, and erratic energy levels. I am not exempt from any of the above.

According to some skywatchers, this eclipse signals the apocalypse.

The connection between Friday’s eclipse and the end of the world comes partly from the “Blood Moon Prophecy”. That refers to the theory that a tetrad — four consecutive lunar eclipses, with six full moons between them — is a sign that the world is coming to an end.

Those that believe in the prophecy see it partly borne out by the Book of Joel, which says that “the sun will turn into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes”. That has been connected to the phenomenon of the blood moon — the phenomenon where the moon turns copper red as it passes under the Earth’s shadow.

March’s solar eclipse have been connected by some to the series of lunar ones that are seen as harbingers of the end times. This solar eclipse sits in the middle of the tetrad, and is seen as another signal that signs are appearing in the sky.

James Ray Under the Radar

Since leaving his prison cell, James Arthur Ray has quite predictably been working on a comeback. My biggest concern about a post-incarceration Ray has never been that he would once again ascend to the dizzying heights he attained as part of The Secret. It's that he would consolidate a small, devoted following, without ever becoming big enough to invite much media scrutiny. If I had to guess, I'd say that this is precisely his strategy.

Ray is not courting media as he once did. He's avoiding all but the most sycophantic and controllable outlets. If they won't lob him softballs like the thoroughly compromised media whore Piers Morgan, he's not interested. So, when Bloomberg reporter Matt Stroud came calling, Ray declined to be interviewed on the record. 

The result is a fairly even-handed article about Ray's appearances in small rooms anywhere he can scrape together an audience. Unlike Morgan, Stroud also interviewed Ginny Brown, who lost her daughter Kirby to Ray's sweat lodge inferno. The writing is dispassionate. The facts are damning.

Ray no longer commands huge auditoriums at thousands of dollars a head. Stroud caught up with him at the Tatum Ranch Community Center teaching "around 30 name-tagged men and women who last week shelled out $495 for his daylong presentation." The event is ironically titled "Resources for Epic Living."

Tesseract: A Journey Through Art and Time

A Wrinkle in Time was considered essential reading in my home. My mother simply loved this book and, once she'd persuaded me to read it, so did I. It has all the elements: a strong female character that any adolescent girl could admire, a fantastical storyline, and travel to other planets. I've always loved stories about interstellar travel. The book revolves around something called the tesseract which allows the central characters to move through space at light-speed by folding, or wrinkling, time. I'd always assumed "tesseract" was one of those funny, made-up words. Obviously, I was incorrect and I only learned this years later when I began to work with sacred geometry and learned about the hypercube, aka, the tesseract.