radiofree.asia

Category: Life

  • Once Upon A Time

    Listen to a reading of this article:

    ❖

    Once upon a time there was born a baby universe.

    Like most babies, it didn’t have a lot going on for itself at first. It existed as nothing but a plasmic ocean of energy roaring outward from its point of origin, as simple as could be.

    As the universe matured and cooled down a bit, things got a bit more complex. Atomic systems began to emerge. Stars started to form. Matter as we know it began to coalesce.

    The emergence of stars allowed for the birth of heavier elements, which in turn allowed for the birth of planets. But while there was matter and light, the universe was still “dark” in a sense, because, like a newborn baby, it lacked self-awareness. There did not yet exist any perception in it.

    That all changed as the universe continued cooling and complexifying. Just as the stars gave birth to planets, a planet gave birth to living organisms.

    Just as was the case with the birth of the universe, when life first arrived it was as simple as could be. It remained in that state of radical simplicity for a very long time, like a kind of incubation period, before hatching and exploding into organisms of greater and greater complexity.

    As evolution took its course, the baby universe gradually became more and more capable of experiencing itself. It opened its eyes. Sensory systems were evolved. And nervous systems. And brains.

    The dawn of life brought the universe into a new stage of rapidly telescoping complexity. Matter was suddenly complexifying not over the course of billions of years but millions, and brains were emerging as the most complex form of matter.

    As organisms and their brains became more and more advanced, the universe became capable of consciously perceiving itself in greater and greater depth. Colors. Sounds. Smells. Tastes.

    And, eventually, thought.

    The human brain is the most complex matter in the known universe, and once it arrived on the scene the telescoping of complexity went from happening on the scale of millions of years to thousands of years, to hundreds of years, to tens of years. Humanity’s ability to perceive and understand the universe with unprecedented depth and complexity allowed for more and more rapid leaps of innovation which have shaped the very face of this earth.

    The arrival of the human brain gave the universe the ability to experience itself through not only sensory organs and nervous systems but through thought and through science. Suddenly the stardust was able to not just look at itself but to think about itself. To philosophize about itself. To meditate on itself. To explore itself. To run experiments on itself. To know itself with greater and greater intimacy.

    Telescopes and microscopes of greater and greater sophistication emerged, giving the universe the ability to peer inward and outward with greater and greater depth. Instruments enhancing perception and measurement exploded in advancement. The arrival of computers augmented the human brain’s ability to think and understand, and the internet connected those augmented human brains across the planet.

    And that’s where we now find ourselves: in the midst of the highest and most complex point of self-perception the universe has ever achieved, which is only continuing to telescopically elevate. We ourselves as individuals participate in this unfolding of universal self-perception when we learn things, when we share ideas and information, when we explore our own inner worlds and bring consciousness to our inner processes, when we contribute to collective understanding, when we help humanity move out of its evolutionary animal conditioning and become a more conscious and sane species.

    The story of the universe is a story of expanding perception. The story of beingness getting better and better at perceiving itself. We collaborate with that unfolding when we expand our own awareness both inwardly and outwardly, and when we help the rest of humanity expand its awareness both inwardly and outwardly. Expanding awareness is what life is about.

    We can know this is true because expanding awareness, perception and understanding is the only thing that has ever made things better. It’s what has made scientific innovations possible which have enabled us to live longer and better lives. It’s what has made societal changes possible which have caused us to treat each other more kindly and fairly. It’s what causes personal transformations which allow us to move through life with greater skill and harmony. The more aware the universe becomes on any level and at any scale, the more pleasant human life becomes on that level and at that scale.

    We are not separate from the stardust of this universe. We are one with its continual adventure of self-discovery, as surely as a wave is one with the ocean. That’s why we only feel truly satisfied in life when we are consciously participating in that movement of discovery: when we are continually growing in self-knowledge, when we are learning, when we are helping others understand this life and this world. When learning, growth, exploration and expression stops, dissatisfaction sets in and life feels awkward, for the same reason it would look awkward to see a wave frozen and unmoving offshore.

    We participate in the unfolding of universal awareness with any activity that helps anyone become aware of any aspect of beingness they weren’t aware of before. Bringing awareness to our own psychological habits. Exploring the nature of our own consciousness. Engaging in journalistic activity. Bringing attention to injustices and abuses. Creating art which helps people see and experience differently. Learning. Teaching. Exploring. Discovering.

    That’s how we feel like we’re at harmony with the universe, and that’s how we bring harmony to the universe. For however long this adventure continues to unfold, the key to happiness and harmony is participation in the expansion of universal consciousness.

    __________________

    My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, buying an issue of my monthly zine, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

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    This post was originally published on Caitlin Johnstone.

  • Covid patients at increased risk of psychiatric conditions after two years: Lancet

    Increased risk of depression and anxiety in adults lasts less than two months, says study

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • We’re Here To Become As Conscious As Possible

    Listen to a reading of this article:

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    If there is a purpose of human life, as near as I can tell from these severely limited sense organs and this very limited brain, it’s to become as conscious as possible.

    If you were given a video game to play without knowing anything about it, one of the first things you’d probably try to work out is what the objective is. How do you do well in the game? What do you need to do to move from this part of the game to the next part? How do you win?

    If you didn’t receive any instructions, you’d probably try to deduce the game’s objective by seeing what actions make things better for the character you’re controlling on the screen. Does the game reward your character for solving the puzzle? Do you get points for killing the space aliens? Does it make a happy noise and move you to the next level when you find the blue key? Whatever makes things better for the character and their progress through the story probably has something to do with the game’s objective.

    If I were looking at the human experience with the same kind of detached, big-picture perspective as someone playing a video game, I reckon I would eventually deduce that what makes things better for the characters in the game is the expansion of consciousness.

    I’d probably first start to notice that things get better for humans as they become more aware of the way their world works. As their understanding of toolmaking, medicine and plant life expands, so too does their ability to survive and reproduce. When their understanding of science really takes off, I’d notice their population explode alongside those expansions.

    I might later notice that human life tends to become less unequal as people’s awareness of the plight of others expands. By expanding their consciousness of what other people’s experience of the world is like, a slow realization begins to dawn that we’re all basically the same and it doesn’t make much sense for some people to be treated differently from others. This expansion would happen in the same movements as expansions in philosophical, sociological, psychological, political and historical understanding.

    I might also notice that individual humans tend to experience greater enjoyment of life as their own personal consciousness expands. As they become more conscious of how their actions affect others, they begin moving more harmoniously in society. As they become conscious of their own unique psychology and their personal history of trauma, they’ll find themselves doing fewer self-destructive things. If they become deeply conscious of how thoughts, perception and experience actually happen on a fundamental level, they may find themselves embodying what spiritual traditions call awakening or enlightenment.

    I’d probably start noticing that in fact every major positive change in the way humans operate, whether for an individual or for a group of any size, is preceded by an expansion of consciousness.

    And I would probably deduce from there that this humanity game we’re all playing is about becoming as conscious as possible, of as much as possible. Becoming conscious of our own inner processes as individuals, becoming conscious of the human condition, and becoming conscious of what’s true about the world around us.

    From there I assume I would deduce that anyone who is on the frontier of expanding human consciousness in any way or in any direction is playing the game well, and that those who are stagnating without learning or growing haven’t quite gotten the hang of it yet.

    If you choose to accept this as a legitimate perspective, then it would make sense to assume that our short time on this planet is best spent expanding consciousness in some way, or in all ways.

    You might even find that expanding consciousness in one way helps your ability to expand it in other ways. You might find for example that expanding your awareness of how your own mind operates gives you more awareness of how other people’s minds operate, and how they can be manipulated by powerful people using propaganda. You may also find for example that expanding your awareness of the plight of people less socioeconomically and geopolitically advantaged than yourself expands your own personal awareness of the various socioeconomic and geopolitical dynamics which have given rise to the way your life is right now. You may also find for example that expanding your consciousness of your own inner processes gives you a serenity which makes it easier to look squarely at the horrors you encounter when expanding your awareness of what’s going on in the world, and gives you the humility to see that you are not fully separate from those horrors.

    The game of humanity will keep improving as long as our consciousness keeps expanding. I’d go so far as saying that’s the only thing that can cause things to get better, and that failing to do it guarantees things will get worse.

    Like a video game, I believe we humans are free to either win this game or lose it. We will either keep expanding our awareness of what’s really going on in this weird universe our mothers birthed us into, or we will wipe ourselves out via nuclear war or ecocide.

    Either way, if you choose to accept what’s being said here, we do each have the power to make things better by exactly one unit of human effort. We can help spread awareness of what’s going on in the world by fighting the lies we’ve been told by the powerful and drawing attention to things the powerful would rather keep hidden. We can help spread awareness of the human condition with art and with empathy. We can expand our own consciousness by getting very curious about how we operate and what makes us tick, and being very real with ourselves about what we find in that exploration.

    Whatever you choose to believe about all this, it’s your adventure. I wish you the best in your travels.

    ________________

    My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

    Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

    Image via Pixabay.

     

    This post was originally published on Caitlin Johnstone.

  • Half of Covid survivors show one symptom even two years after infection: Lancet study

    While physical and mental health generally improved over time, the study suggests that COVID-19 patients still tend to have poorer health

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Elon Musk makes first public appearance at Met Gala post Twitter takeover

    The 50-year-old entrepreneur walked the Met Gala carpet with his supermodel mother Maye Musk, 74

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Elon Musk on fun trail says ‘buying Coca Cola next’

    In a flurry of tweets, Musk claimed that he has set eyes on Coca Cola to ‘put cocaine back in’ and ‘McDonald’s to fix ice-cream machines’

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • A Love Letter To All Draft Dodgers

    Listen to a reading of this article:

    ❖

    The New York Times is naming and shaming Ukrainian men who’ve fled the country rather than stay and kill Russians for Washington, because it was illegal for men of military age to leave, and because their countrymen are angry at them, and because it’s the New York Times.

    They shamed Vova Klever, who said, “Violence is not my weapon.”

    They shamed Volodymyr Danuliv, age 50, who said, “I can’t shoot Russian people.”

    They shamed another Volodymyr, surname withheld, who said, “Look at me. I wear glasses. I am 46. I don’t look like a classic fighter, some Rambo who can fight Russian troops.”

    And to those men I can only say, I love you.

    I love you Vova Klever, outed by a trusted friend and made a pariah on Ukrainian social media. I love you Volodymyr Danuliv, who refuses to shoot Russians because you have Russians in your family. I love you other Volodymyr, surname withheld, sipping your beer in shame because you shirked your patriotic duty.

    Hold your heads high, beautiful draft dodgers, for you are the real heroes of this story. I raise my glass to you tonight.

    I raise my glass to all draft dodgers, who chose to run and hide rather than kill and be killed for some rich asshole’s power agendas. Who chose the condemnation and scorn of an insane society which praises mass murder and elevates sociopaths. Who chose excommunication from the death cult over bloodshed for geostrategic domination and Raytheon profit margins.

    I hope you live long lives full of laughter and tears, full of love and loss, full of drunken nights that go too late and surly mornings that start too early, and all the other delicious gooey nectar that life is made of.

    I hope you experience lots of beauty. I hope you make lots of beauty. I hope you read good books. I hope you dance in supermarkets. I hope you have lots of sex and I hope you find and lose religion. I hope you fall in love often and have at least one excruciating but liberating divorce.

    I hope you drink deeply from the river of life, because there are many who never got to (you know that better than anyone). I hope you know fear and I hope you know fearlessness. I hope you set aside your armor so you can let someone all the way in. I hope you learn to open your chests and love with reckless abandon, and I hope you learn to cry easily as all real men do.

    Here’s to you, oh Vova and Volodymyrs, who chose to bail the fuck out of there rather than pay the ultimate price in a stupid proxy war for US unipolar hegemony. Who chose to spend their lives with their eyes sparkling babies and breasts rather than dead-eyed haunted with blood and splattered Russian faces. Who chose to live for something rather than to die for nothing.

    There are no war heroes. There are only war victims. Here’s to everyone, ever, who throughout the ages has chosen not to be made one. I raise my glass to your lives, and to your hidden yet radiant dignity. Please know that at least one pair of eyes sees your beauty.

    Thank you for your service.

    Oh yeah, and fuck The New York Times.

    ____________________

    ____________________

    ____________________

    My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. 

    Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

    This post was originally published on Caitlin Johnstone.

  • ‘Life Has Changed. There’s Fear And Tears’: Zaporizhzhya Residents Talk About Life During War


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Oestrogen levels linked to COVID-19 death risk in older women, suggests study

    Women seemed to have a lower risk of severe COVID-19 infection than men, even after accounting for potentially influential factors

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Coronavirus can destroy the placenta and lead to stillbirths

    It’s an uncommon outcome for any pregnancy but authorities believe vaccination can help prevent these cases

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Union Budget lists tele-mental health programme

    Sitharaman also announced an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Immune response induced by Omicron effectively neutralise Delta variant: ICMR study

    The main limitation of this study are lesser participants in the unvaccinated group and the shorter window period post infection

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Decrease in air pollution in India during lockdown not as high as thought: Study

    Air pollution is a known health risk and India has some of the worst air pollution globally

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • No evidence Omicron has lower severity than Delta variant: UK study

    The study estimates that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant is 5.4 times greater than that of the Delta variant

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • 2 doses of Covid vaccines induce lower antibody levels against Omicron: Oxford study

    The researchers noted that these data are important but are only one part of the picture

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • India’s Harnaaz Sandhu crowned Miss Universe 2021

    Only two Indians have won the title of Miss Universe till now – actors Sushmita Sen in 1994 and Lara Dutta in 2000

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Signs of Omicron milder than Delta variant: South African doctors

    Just 3% of patients hospitalized recently with COVID-19 have died, versus about 20% in the country’s earlier outbreaks

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Nasal vaccine might help fight new COVID-19 variants: Study

    The research has been published in the ‘Science Immunology Journal’

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Risk of reinfection from Omicron three times higher than any other variant: Study

    National daily cases almost doubled on Wednesday, days after countries across the world halted flights to and from southern Africa

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • New warning on Omicron variant severity from South African scientists

    Leading South African scientists warned it is still too early to determine that the omicron variant will only cause mild illness

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Very large number of Indians may be protected from Omicron: Virologist Shahid Jameel

    Jameel said more data is awaited but vaccine effectiveness against the variant may dip by a few points

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Explainer: Here’s what we know so far about the new variant in South Africa

    A new variant of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 has been identified in South Africa, with officials there saying it’s of concern

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • ITC starts clinical trials of nasal spray for COVID-19 prevention

    Developed by scientists at ITC Life Sciences and Technology Centre, the company plans to market it under the Savlon brand

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Europe, UK, China continue to remain in ‘at-risk’ category in terms of air travellers

    There is a list of 10 countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Mutation linked to remdesivir resistance found in Covid patient

    Genetic analysis of the virus showed that it acquired a mutation during treatment that appeared to reduce the effectiveness of the drug

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Vaccinated 16 times less likely to die from Covid, study shows

    The results add to a growing body of evidence that the vaccines’ protection against severe disease and death holds up well

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • COVID-19 pills are no substitute for vaccines, disease experts say

    Some disease experts fear the arrival of oral COVID-19 treatments may further impede vaccination campaigns

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Pfizer results open door to new chapter for COVID-19 treatments

    If the drugs are authorized by regulators, they are likely to overtake currently-available antibody treatments

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Pfizer says Covid pill ‘Paxlovid’ 89% effective against severe disease

    The results from the clinical trial are so good that Pfizer will stop recruiting new people for the trial, the company said

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Covid booster dose effective in reducing severe disease outcomes: Lancet study

    Individuals were assigned to each group dynamically based on their changing vaccination status

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.