STRESS: A PORTRAIT OF A KILLER (from Maharaj to Sapolsky)

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STRESS: A PORTRAIT OF A KILLER

(from Maharaj to Sapolsky)

For the non-dualist who is truly familiar with Maharaj’s pointers and with how and why his pointers differed so much from those offered in his earliest talks as opposed to his final talks, a connection between his non-dual message and Sapolsky’s research findings and Maharaj’s version of the non-dual message become obvious.

That observable linkage led to the publication of this:

Andy Gugar, Jr. wrote of that book:

“People all around the globe certainly need to understand the content of this book, as far as the relative existence is concerned. Most are trying to use prescription medicines to address the issue, but all those drugs do is treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.

“The feeling of sensitivity, and over-sensitivity, while locked up in this bag of skin is the result of a distortion-filled mind that is constantly being bombarded with programming, conditioning, acculturation, and domestication.

Advaita and the non-dual understanding is the only thing that “worked to free up this speck of consciousness. I now understand where all of the anxiety and panic attacks from the pre-Realization days came from as well as what can end all such stress, tension, worry and anxiety.

“Now, the closest thing to any remaining “desire” is that this message of understanding will reach as many as possible and that they might also enjoy the relief and freedom that has come with the understanding.”

While in South Africa in 2011, I was introduced to A Primate’s Memoir (2002) by Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky. Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya. 

A Primate’s Memoir (which documents Sapolsky’s years in Africa while studying baboons), was recommended because there is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe.

The book also portrays an unconventional way of studying neurophysiology to determine the effects of stress on life expectancy. (And the reduction or elimination of stress among humans is one of the aims of the non-dual understanding.)

Regulars to the author’s non-dual site know Louise Sterling who lives in Cape Town, S.A. and who has contributed postings to that site. (Her "Love Whisperings" series was the most read of all of the thousands of posts available there.) 

Louise has long followed the work of Sapolsky and recently shared that the content of a new documentary film entitled “Stress: Portrait of a Killer” provides the latest evidence of – among other things – 

(1) the way that the Ultimate Sickness can infect communities of baboons just the way it infects communities of humans and 

(2) the way that the roots of the Ultimate Sickness can be understood and then addressed via science (just as Maharaj predicted). 

[NOTE: The 56-minute film can be viewed in the 15 October 3023 posting on this site.]

 Louise wrote: 

“I found it fascinating at many levels - especially as I am involved in working on two manuals for NGOs here on reducing gender based violence through working with men and boys."

Louise shared these insights into what the film revealed:
 

“SHIFT IN THE TROOP SOCIAL RELATIONS”

(Especially loved how he was clearly devastated by the impact that irresponsible humans had in these senseless deaths; I was in tears reading the account; yet like a great scientist, he returned with curiosity and an open mind to find the troop in a more harmonious groove.) 

I was fascinated by how the newly constituted troop showed zero tolerance towards aggressive behaviour shown by newcomers; the troop actually fiercely protected the loving, caring, mutually safe and peaceful environment. Would be interesting to track this over generations. Really gave me hope for how troubled communities can transform. After receiving the Understanding? 

“Also interesting that the aggressive baboons all died - as obviously they demanded first access to the game lodge contaminated spoils. A cautionary tale.  

 "NEUROBIOLOGICAL IMPACT OF HIERARCHY AND SOCIAL DOMINANCE”

This really is an under-explored area in terms of causes of stress and disease (including the obesity epidemic, heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, etc.)

Simply the fact of being born into a subordinate position (working class, rural, women, disabled, etc.) creates the context for one’s neurobiology to release hormones that cause havoc. Of course the dominant baboons in theory would also carry stress from their position, but apparently they release it instantly by heading off and beating up, bullying or dumping.

Also, how a limited number of stressful / abusive encounters can be handled with some equilibrium, but after that point, the body seems to develop neural pathways that precipitate stress, anxiety, depression."

(Sapolsky’s baboon research reveals the extreme relative damage that trying to function within a hierarchy can also exert on humans, including pressures that result in terms of relative clout (or lack thereof); in terms of authority (or lack thereof); in terms of the overall mental and emotional and physical toll on the baboons as well as on the human masses (a toll which is aggravated nowadays as a result of the extremely unequal distribution of wealth around the globe and the rigid hierarchies that accompany that disparity); 

and in terms of generating falsehoods that are taken to be truth in terms of hierarchies and in terms of the common beliefs about being “different-from” and “better-than.”) 

Louise noted that there is a connection between Sapolsky’s latest research and how the Ultimate Medicine can be used effectively to address the Ultimate Sickness among humans: 

Perhaps this research will feed into a refusal amongst the oppressed to put up with exploitation, abuse, narcissistic capitalism, the One Percent, the lies, and the BS. Because it is LITERALLY killing them. 

“Really love his work – insightful, deep, well researched, advocating a humane value system and presented with humour and intelligence.” 

So in the next post, there will be a discussion of the efficacy of the non-dual, Ultimate Medicine which Sapolsky’s latest research supports, if not by name then at least - and even more significantly - by fact. 

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

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Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of god," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns.

THE EXPLANATION

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of god in the past was of a weak god, an absentee god, A Santa Claus-type god, a mean, punishing, vindictive god, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring god whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to."

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a god that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring god,' any supposed god that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'god' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part.

"That is, a non-narcissistic their god / their goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'god' and focus on the 'god as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:

"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 

"Heaven and earth shall fade away."

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places

but are states of mind, nothing more than

concepts dreamed up by men."

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell."

--Pope Francis, the current pope

in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari,

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record

teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.

[That said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional courage required to question the very existence of their institution in light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of billions of their members past and present.

And that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will they? Not likely. Why?

Because what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the international crime families which hold sway over the masses as criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major international crime families and which are the most influential and have the largest memberships?

The Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers) whose Vatican Bank worked for decades with the Mafia while laundering mob earnings (for a 15% all-profit charge by the Bank); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers) like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)

With all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business, politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the driving forces at play.

The masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.] 

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