EINSTEIN'S SECOND THOUGHTS

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If only I had known,

I should have become a watchmaker.

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Albert Einstein

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IT'S ALL IN YOUR MIND

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Happiness in old age may have more to do with attitude than actual health, a new study suggests.
Researchers examined 500 Americans age 60 to 98 who live independently and had dealt with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental health conditions or a range of other problems. The participants rated their own degree of successful aging on scale of 1-10, with 10 being best.
Despite their ills, the average rating was 8.4.
"What is most interesting about this study is that people who think they are aging well are not necessarily the (healthiest) individuals," said lead researcher Dilip Jeste of the University of California at San Diego.
"In fact, optimism and effective coping styles were found to be more important to successfully aging than traditional measures of health and wellness," Jeste said. "These findings suggest that physical health is not the best indicator of successful aging—attitude is."
The finding may prove important for the medical community, which by traditional measures would have considered only 10 percent of the study members to be aging successfully.
"The commonly used criteria suggest that a person is aging well if they have a low level of disease and disability," Jeste said. "However, this study shows that self-perception about aging can be more important than the traditional success markers."
Health and happiness may indeed be largely in the mind. A study released last year found that people who described themselves as highly optimistic a decade ago had lower rates of death from cardiovascular disease and lower overall death rates than strong pessimists. Research earlier this year revealed that the sick and disabled are often as happy as anyone else.
The new study also showed that people who spent time each day socializing, reading or participating in other hobbies rated their aging satisfaction higher.
"For most people, worries about their future aging involve fear of physical infirmity, disease or disability," Jeste said. "However, this study is encouraging because it shows that the best predictors of successful aging are well within an individual's control."
The results, announced today, were reported at a meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience.com

DESERTS OF VAST ETERNITY

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“But at my back I always hear,

Time's winged chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie,

Deserts of vast eternity”

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Andrew Marvel

17th Century English Metaphysical Poet
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FROM TWAIN

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Everyone is a moon and has a dark side

which he never shows to anybody.

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Mark Twain

THE YOGA OF THE CROSS

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From the New Testament:

Jesus proclaimed aloud: 'Whoever believes

in me is actually believing not in me but in Him

who sent me. And whoever sees me is seeing

Him who sent me. As Light have I come

into the world so that no one who believes in me

need remain in darkness.

If anyone hears my words, and does not

keep them, I am not the one to condemn him;

for I did not come to condemn the world

but to save it. Whoever rejects me and

does not accept my words already

has his judge, namely, the word

that I have spoken - that is what will

condemn him on the last day, because

it was not on my own that I spoke.

No, the Father who sent me has Himself

commanded me what to say and

how to speak, and I know that his

commandment is Eternal Life.

So when I speak, I speak

just as the Father told me.'

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John (12:44-50)

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As far as Jesus Christ is concerned,

the right preparation consists in dying

to one's self will, and in denying oneself,

so that one could obey the will of God.

His yoga consists of this; and of this

the cross is the supreme symbol.

Whether or not it corresponds to any

actual method of killing Jesus, the enormous

psychological and spiritual significance

of the cross cannot be exaggerated.

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Every moment, whenever a man is present

to it, he is at a crossing;

at this point of crossing he chooses whether

to remain in the horizontal plane of the world

or to be yoked to the way of the Christ

and follow the vertical axis of being.

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From CHRIST THE YOGI - A Hindu Reflection

on The Gospel of John, by Ravi Ravindra

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ANOTHER SUMMER PAST

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Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,

especially through my lord Brother Sun,

who brings the day; and you give light through him.

And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!

Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

From "The Canticle of the Sun"

St. Francis of Assissi

ASTROLOGERS, SHAMANS, PRIESTS, SEERS, WIZARDS & WITCHES

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Spirit conjuring was a very precise and

highly complicated procedure, comparable to

present-day church rituals conducted in an

ancient tongue. The human race very early sought

for superhuman help, for revelation; and men believed

that the shaman actually received such revelations.

While the shamans utilized the great power of

suggestion in their work, it was almost invariably

negative suggestion; only in very recent times

has the technique of positive suggestion been

employed. In the early development of their

profession the shamans began to specialize in such

vocations as rain making, disease healing, and

crime detecting. To heal diseases was not,

however,the chief function of a shamanic

medicine man; it was, rather, to know

and to control the hazards of living.

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Ancient black art, both religious and secular,

was called white art when practiced by either

priests, seers, shamans, or medicine men.

The practitioners of the black art were called

sorcerers, magicians, wizards, witches, enchanters,

necromancers, conjurers, and soothsayers.

As time passed, all such purported contact

with the supernatural was classified either

as witchcraft or shamancraft.

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Witchcraft embraced the magic performed

by earlier, irregular, and unrecognized spirits;

shamancraft had to do with miracles performed

by regular spirits and recognized gods of the tribe.

In later times the witch became associated with

the devil, and thus was the stage set for the many

comparatively recent exhibitions of religious

intolerance. Witchcraft was a religion with

many primitive tribes.

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The shamans were great believers in the

mission of chance as revelatory of the will

of the spirits; they frequently cast lots to

arrive at decisions. Modern survivals of this

proclivity for casting lots are illustrated,

not only in the many games of chance,

but also in the well-known "counting-out"

rhymes. Once, the person counted out must die;

now, he is only it in some childish game.

That which was serious business to primitive man

has survived as a diversion of the modern child.

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The medicine men put great trust in signs and omens,

such as, "When you hear the sound of a rustling

in the tops of the mulberry trees, then shall you

bestir yourself." Very early in the history of the race

the shamans turned their attention to the stars.

Primitive astrology was a world-wide

belief and practice;

dream interpreting also became widespread.

All this was soon followed by the appearance of

those temperamental shamanesses who professed to

be able to communicate with the spirits of the dead.

.Though of ancient origin, the rain makers,

or weather shamans, have persisted right on down

through the ages. A severe drought meant death

to the early agriculturists; weather control

was the object of much ancient magic.

Civilized man still makes the weather the common

topic of conversation. The olden peoples all believed

in the power of the shaman as a rain maker,

but it was customary to kill him when he failed,

unless he could offer a plausible excuse

to account for the failure.

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Again and again did the Caesars banish

the astrologers, but they invariably returned because

of the popular belief in their powers.

They could not be driven out, and even in

the sixteenth century after Christ the directors

of Occidental church and state were

the patrons of astrology.

Thousands of supposedly intelligent people

still believe that one may be born under the

domination of a lucky or an unlucky star;

that the juxtaposition of the heavenly bodies

determines the outcome of various terrestrial

adventures. Fortunetellers are still patronized

by the credulous.

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The Greeks believed in the efficacy of oracular advice,

the Chinese used magic as protection against demons,

shamanism flourished in India,

and it still openly persists in central Asia.

It is an only recently abandoned practice

throughout much of the world.

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Ever and anon, true prophets and teachers arose

to denounce and expose shamanism. Even the vanishing

red man had such a prophet within the past hundred

years, the Shawnee Tenskwatawa, who predicted

the eclipse of the sun in 1808 and denounced

the vices of the white man.
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Many true teachers have appeared among the

various tribes and races all through the long ages

of evolutionary history. And they will ever continue to

appear to challenge the shamans or priests of any age

who oppose general education and attempt

to thwart scientific progress.

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In many ways and by devious methods the

olden shamans established their reputations as

voices of God and custodians of providence.

They sprinkled the newborn with water and conferred

names upon them; they circumcised the males.

They presided over all burial ceremonies and made

due announcement of the safe arrival

of the dead in spiritland.

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The shamanic priests and medicine men

often became very wealthy through the accretion

of their various fees which were ostensibly offerings

to the spirits. Not infrequently a shaman would

accumulate practically all the material wealth

of his tribe.
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Upon the death of a wealthy man it was customary

to divide his property equally with the shaman

and some public enterprise or charity.

This practice still obtains in some parts of Tibet,

where one half the male population belongs to

this class of nonproducers.
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The shamans dressed well and usually had

a number of wives; they were the original aristocracy,

being exempt from all tribal restrictions.

They were very often of low-grade mind and morals.

They suppressed their rivals by denominating them

witches or sorcerers and very frequently rose to

such positions of influence and power that they

were able to dominate the chiefs or kings.

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Primitive man regarded the shaman as

a necessary evil; he feared him but did not love him.

Early man respected knowledge; he honored and

rewarded wisdom. The shaman was mostly fraud,

but the veneration for shamanism well illustrates

the premium put upon wisdom in

the evolution of the race.

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THE URANTIA BOOK, III, 90, 2
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