In the middle of all the extraordinary, unprecedented change that is swirling around us, one thing is clear: you can’t do this one by yourself. Each of us needs creative, thoughtful ideas about how to navigate the rapids ahead.
Well, you’re in luck . . . because on the 10th of September there will be ideas galore flying round Berkeley Springs all day!
Because that’s the day Gregg Braden returns to TransitionTALKS!
It’s always an extraordinary day when New York Times best-selling author Gregg Braden comes to town!. But in September, not only Gregg, but Penny Kelly, John Petersen, and Kingsley Dennis — the Quartet – will be part of a day-long series of highly provocative and insightful programs.
The morning will start with a live taping of Quartet, the Arlington Institute’s biweekly in-depth discussion show that features Gregg, John, and Penny live with Kingsley Dennis virtually piped in from England. If you’re a fan of Quartet, this will be a particularly exciting time.
Quartet is a one-of-a-kind deep discussion by four of the most insightful folks around tackling a significant, major issue related to the transition to a new world and a new human. In the past the topics have ranged from energy revolution, a new economy, preparing for coming disruptions, climate change, knowing what is real, extraterrestrial life, et.al. So you know that this will always be a very interesting, lively engagement. [ArlingtonInstitute.org/Quartet]
Come and be part of the studio audience and contribute questions for the panel at the Quartet page on the Arlington Institute website (see link above).
Then, you can be part of the audience in John and Gregg’s taping of What’s Up! – where they have a free-form discussion of whatever is on their minds. This is a very well received program that allows you to listen in on an always fascinating interchange. It could be current events, new technology, social change – anything that the two of them have been thinking about.
We’ll promise that you’ll learn things, be confronted by new ideas . . . and hopefully, go home thinking about what’s happening and what’s coming our way in a significantly better way.
This is an unusual opportunity to be part of the production of these two shows that are regularly distributed around the world.
After lunch, Gregg will come back for the whole afternoon, talking about Transhuman 2030, crossing the lines of biology, technology, and evolution.
There is a movement underway to forever change us as a society and as a species, and to accomplish this monumental change by the year 2030. As you’re reading these words, the policies are being written, and the technologies are being implemented that are re-defining our emotions, the way we think, the way we heal and what it means to be human.
From advanced artificial intelligence (AI), chemical enhancements in the blood and nano-sensors implanted into the body, to computer chips embedded into the human brain, technology is permanently changing us—the way our immune system responds to viruses and bacteria; the emotional bonds between parents and children; our ability to communicate with subtle energies emitted from other forms of life that physicists have revealed and confirmed. These technologies are redefining the very essence of our humanness.
By the year 2030 we will have chosen one of two kinds of society. We will either:
be locked into a futuristic society of human-machine hybrids—transhumans—where we’ve traded our cherished qualities of intuition, our lifetimes of memories and the bonds of love and intimacy for embedded computer chips that give us the convenience of fast thinking responses, efficient decision-making logic, and virtual realities that replace genuine relationships and experiences.
Or we will:
awaken to the deep truth of our natural, untapped potentials and, for the first time as a species, we will discover what it means to be fully human.
We can only make the informed choice that determines which of these paths we choose if we know who we are as humans and what’s at stake. Transhuman 2030 is designed to help us do precisely that.
Within each of us is the personal code to unlock our pure human technology of neural networks, cell membranes and emotional intelligence that allows us to supercharge our health, excel in everyday life, and give us the evolutionary edge that allows us to thrive in times of uncertainty. Transhumanism 2030 is a compelling journey of self-discovery will catapult you beyond conventional thinking when it comes to your origins, limits and, most importantly, your capabilities and potential. Prepare yourself to discover why you’re not what you’ve been told and even more than you’ve ever imagined!
As always, we’ll be getting together for dinner afterwards with Gregg and you are invited. But you must register in advance. Space is limited.
Register here: Evening Meal
So, remember, it’s a WHOLE DAY with GREGG BRADEN – and his friends. Starting with two program tapings, and then a major lecture by Gregg.
You can participate live with us in our little resort town of Berkeley Springs or you can take it all in by livestream . . . and then watch it again as many times as you’d like for six weeks. (Replay availability has been extended from two weeks to six weeks!)
Gregg Braden at TransitionTALKS
Saturday, September 10th, 9:30-5:30
The Historic Star Theatre
$115
Berkeley Springs, WV
Gregg Braden is a five-time New York Times best selling author, scientist, and visionary in the emerging paradigm bridging science, social policy, and human potential.
From 1979 to 1991 Gregg worked as a problem solver during times of crisis for Fortune 500 companies, including Cisco Systems, where he became the first Technical Operations Manager in 1990.
He continues problem-solving today as his work reveals deep insights into our origin, our potential, and how these understandings inform the policies underlying everyday lie and the emerging world.
His research resulted in the 2003 discovery of intelligent information encoded into the human genome, and the 2010 application of fractal time to predict future occurrences of past events.
To date Gregg’s research has led to 16 film credits and 12 award-winning books now published in over 40 languages.
Gregg was a 2020 nominee for the prestigious Templeton Prize, created by Sir John Templeton to recognize living individuals who have “harnessed the power of science to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within in.”
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Gregg Braden and John L. Petersen talk about Gregg’s upcoming September 10th talk. Join us in person or via livestream.
All tickets include access to the replay for six weeks!
On Aug. 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed its COVID-19 guidelines, thereby vindicating every “misinformation spreader” out there. The CDC is now advocating for taking personal responsibility and for everyone to decide for themselves “which prevention behaviors to use and when (at all times or at specific times), based on their own risk for severe illness and that of members of their household, their risk tolerance, and setting-specific factors.” The CDC is also giving up on discrimination based on COVID-19 jab status, stating, its “COVID-19 prevention recommendations no longer differentiate based on a person’s vaccination status because breakthrough infections occur.” They also admit natural immunity exists and works. Testing is now reserved for those who “are symptomatic, or have a known or suspected exposure to someone with COVID-19,” isolation is only for those who are symptomatic and have tested positive, and contact tracing is now restricted to health care settings and select “high-risk congregate settings.” The CDC’s about-face appears to be politically motivated, to give the Biden administration a “win” before the midterm elections. Post-election plans include “the biggest vaccination campaign in history,” so tyrannical overreaches may later resume, even as mounting data show the COVID-19 shots are causing depopulation.
When the virus emerged, and for some time afterward, public health authorities thought that the virus might spread through large droplets, which unlike aerosols can only travel about two meters, and can fall on nearby surfaces, which in turn become potential vehicles of transmission. This was the theory that had people wiping down their groceries and wondering whether to disinfect their mail in early 2020. But evidence that covid was airborne was abundant early on—what was lacking was the will to accept it. The WHO labeled the theory of airborne transmission as disinformation, and worked to dispel it, sharing on its social media channels: “#FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne.” Yet as early as April 2020, a team of scientists presented evidence of aerosol transmission of covid to the WHO, gathered by studying the transmission dynamics of some superspreader events. It took almost two more years for the WHO to acknowledge that the team led by renowned atmospheric physicist Lidia Morawska was right all along. For most of human history, the idea that illness would travel through the air was far from controversial. It wasn’t until the second half of the 17th century that the discovery of bacteria and microorganisms gave rise to an understanding that disease could also spread from person to person. What ensued was a long debate, spanning a few centuries, between so-called “contagionists” who thought that illnesses were spread from person to person, and “miasmatists” who believed in contagion through air. Subsequent discoveries, including germ theory, fed into one or the other camp. This article carefully recounts the tug-of-war between these two camps and explains why “following the science” can leave the general public acting on a scientifically fashionable theory that’s incorrect.
The U.S. government’s latest effort to crack down on the illicit use of cryptocurrency by rogue foreign regimes and criminals is running into resistance from the industry itself, including one of its largest and most influential players. Earlier this month, the Treasury Department sanctioned Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency service it alleges has allowed North Korean hackers and others to launder billions of dollars’ worth of digital assets stolen in virtual heists. Typically, sanctions target individuals, countries or companies, and U.S. firms comply by ensuring they avoid doing business with them. But the sanctions aimed at Tornado Cash are novel. Tornado Cash is known as a mixer, obscuring the source of digital assets by pooling them together before users withdraw them. It exists as software code on a decentralized, globe-spanning network of computers, and its authors wrote it in such a way that even they can’t edit it. Crypto industry leaders say they are not sure what they need to do to stay on the right side of the law. “More than anything else right now, we’re an industry that needs guidance,” said Ari Redbord, a former Treasury official now with TRM Labs, which provides crypto companies with tools to monitor fraud and financial crime. Cryptocurrency developers have long been divided on whether they are merely working on an innovative financial technology or are part of an explicitly political attempt to create a shadow financial system beyond the reach of government control. But crypto executives largely agree that Treasury overstepped with its Aug. 8 announcement against Tornado Cash, which they frame as an unprecedented targeting of computer code, rather than a person or entity typically on the receiving end of sanctions. Some argue the sanctions may be unconstitutional — and could be an attempt to open a wider assault on privacy protections offered by their technology. Many are trying to determine how to comply with and resist the decision. (Editor’s note: We recommend this article for its examination of an individual government’s attempt to sanction an international form of “money”.)
Discovered by scientists in 2000, more than 700 meters (2,300 feet) beneath the surface, the Lost City Hydrothermal Field is the longest-lived venting environment known in the ocean. Nothing else like it has ever been found. For at least 120,000 years and maybe longer, the upthrusting mantle in this part of the world has reacted with seawater to puff hydrogen, methane, and other dissolved gases out into the ocean. In the cracks and crevices of the field’s vents, hydrocarbons feed novel microbial communities even without the presence of oxygen. Chimneys spewing gases as hot as 40 °C (104 °F) are home to an abundance of snails and crustaceans. Larger animals such as crabs, shrimp, sea urchins and eels are rare, but still present. Despite the extreme nature of the environment, it appears to be teeming with life, and some researchers think it’s worth our attention and protection. While other hydrothermal fields like this one probably exist elsewhere in the world’s oceans, this is the only one remotely operated vehicles have found thus far. The hydrocarbons produced by the Lost City’s vents were not formed from atmospheric carbon dioxide or sunlight, but by chemical reactions on the deep seafloor. Because hydrocarbons are the building blocks of life, this leaves open the possibility that life originated in a habitat just like this one. And not just on our own planet. “This is an example of a type of ecosystem that could be active on Enceladus or Europa right this second,” said microbiologist William Brazelton, referring to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. “And maybe Mars in the past.”
Soon a volunteer in Boston, Massachusetts will be the first to trial a new treatment that could end up creating a second liver in their body. And that’s just the start—in the months that follow, other volunteers will test doses that could leave them with up to six livers in their bodies. The company behind the treatment, LyGenesis, hopes to save people with devastating liver diseases who are not eligible for transplants. Their approach is to inject liver cells from a donor into the lymph nodes of sick recipients, which can give rise to entirely new miniature organs. These mini livers should help compensate for an existing diseased one. The approach appears to work in mice, pigs, and dogs. Now we’ll find out if it works in people. Article explains the research and the procedure.
Chinese planes are firing rods into the sky to bring more rainfall to its crucial Yangtze River, which has dried up in parts, as swaths of the nation fall into drought and grapple with the worst heat wave on record. Several regions on the Yangtze have launched weather modification programs, but with cloud cover too thin, operations in some drought-ravaged parts of the river’s basin have remained on standby. The Ministry of Water Resources said in a notice on Wednesday that drought throughout the Yangtze river basin was “adversely affecting drinking water security of rural people and livestock, and the growth of crops.” On Wednesday, central China’s Hubei province became the latest to announce it would seed clouds, using silver iodide rods to induce rainfall. Some livestock has been temporarily relocated to other regions, the Ministry of Finance said earlier this week, adding it would issue 300 million yuan ($44.3 million) in disaster relief. To boost downstream supplies, the Three Gorges Dam, China’s biggest hydropower project, will also increase water discharges by 500 million cubic meters over the next 10 days, the Ministry of Water Resources said. The heat also forced authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan — home to around 84 million people and a key manufacturing hub — to order the shutdown of all factories for six days this week to ease a power shortage.
The EU’s Monitoring Agricultural Resources has forecasted that corn yields could drop by nearly a fifth this year due to a devastating drought. Due to low water levels, Europe’s centuries-old ‘hunger stones’ were recently revealed in the Elbe River, which runs from the mountains of Czechia through Germany to the North Sea. The stones date back to a drought in 1616 and read: “Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine.” That translates to “if you see me, then weep.” The warning on the stones appears correct because the new crop report forecasts corn yields will drop 16% below the five-year average. That compares with a July forecast of an 8% decline. The plunge in corn output will boost feed costs for livestock herds, adding to even more woes for farmers who are plagued with elevated diesel and fertilizer prices. Heading into the fall, western and central Europe face a very high risk of dry conditions over the next three months that could result in water shortages. Increasing crop failures because of drought will only exacerbate the food crisis due to Ukrainian disruptions. Supermarket prices for meat in the EU jumped 12% in July versus a year earlier. Milk, cheese, and eggs are also skyrocketing at record rates. As explained by Germany’s central bank chief Joachim Nagel: “The issue of inflation will not go away in 2023.” See also: The Phony Nitrogen Crisis: The Netherlands Is Ground Zero for Global Famine Agenda. Precipitating “30,000 Farmers Out of Business”.
The best A.I. systems are now so capable — and improving at such fast rates — that the conversation in Silicon Valley is starting to shift. Fewer experts are confidently predicting that we have years or even decades to prepare for a wave of world-changing A.I.; many now believe that major changes are right around the corner, for better or worse. Ajeya Cotra, a senior analyst with Open Philanthropy who studies A.I. risk, estimated two years ago that there was a 15% chance of “transformational A.I.” — which she and others have defined as A.I. that is good enough to usher in large-scale economic and societal changes, such as eliminating most white-collar knowledge jobs — emerging by 2036. But in a recent post, Ms. Cotra raised that to a 35% chance, citing the rapid improvement of systems like GPT-3. There are, to be fair, plenty of skeptics who say claims of A.I. progress are overblown. They’ll tell you that A.I. is still nowhere close to becoming sentient, or replacing humans in a wide variety of jobs. They’ll say that models like GPT-3 and LaMDA are just glorified parrots, blindly regurgitating their training data, and that we’re still decades away from creating true A.G.I. — artificial general intelligence — that is capable of “thinking” for itself. On the other hand, there are also tech optimists who believe that A.I. progress is accelerating, and who want it to accelerate faster. Speeding A.I.’s rate of improvement, they believe, will give us new tools to cure diseases, colonize space and avert ecological disaster. Even if the skeptics are right, and A.I. doesn’t achieve human-level sentience for many years, it’s easy to see how systems like GPT-3, LaMDA and DALL-E 2 could become a powerful force in society. In a few years, the vast majority of the photos, videos and text we encounter on the internet could be A.I.-generated. Our online interactions could become stranger and more fraught, as we struggle to figure out which of our conversational partners are human and which are convincing bots. And tech-savvy propagandists could use the technology to churn out targeted misinformation on a vast scale, distorting the political process in ways we won’t see coming. It’s a cliché, in the A.I. world, to say things like “we need to have a societal conversation about A.I. risk.” There are already plenty of Davos panels, TED talks, think tanks and A.I. ethics committees out there, sketching out contingency plans for a dystopian future. What’s missing is a shared, value-neutral way of talking about what today’s A.I. systems are actually capable of doing, and what specific risks and opportunities those capabilities present.
Today, more than two years into the pandemic, roughly a quarter of downtown offices are vacant. Even as business districts start to recover, Gallup estimates that 37% of current office space in the US is likely to be abandoned as workers switch to remote work. However, urban offices are especially attractive for e-commerce companies. Because they’re already situated closer to where people live, they’re an ideal solution to last-mile delivery problems, despite increasing heavy truck traffic and other industrial activity near people’s homes. Building warehouses up (not out) was already a common practice in dense places like Tokyo and Singapore. The trend is finally coming to the US as developers transform obsolete offices and retail spaces into warehouses, mostly for e-commerce goods. In 2016, warehouse industry giant Prologis built a multistory warehouse in Seattle, a first for the US. Warehouses have been converted from former office buildings in suburban Chicago and Somerset, New Jersey. More are planned as Amazon and other e-commerce sellers scramble for more space to meet increased demand for goods from online shoppers. Converting office buildings into condos and apartments has also been common for decades, but almost all of these redevelopments happened on a case-by-case basis. But now, cities, often at the urging of the real estate industry, are exploring approving conversions on a larger scale. A 2021 study found that converting just 10% of New York City’s buildings could create 14,000 new apartments. A similar study of Los Angeles County conducted in April 2022 found that hotel and office conversions could add upwards of 72,000 units to the area’s housing supply. The issue is that no two buildings are the same, and not all are easily converted to residences, explains Dr. Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at Brookings Institute Metro program. Office buildings often aren’t built with the right light and space requirements necessary to meet building code standards for living spaces like bedrooms. But the momentum for conversions is growing. A report from RentCafe found that in 2021, US cities saw more than 150 apartment conversion projects, and 41% of those were from former office buildings. In all, roughly 7,400 apartment units were created from office conversions in 2021, more than six times the number of units created a decade earlier.
Sustainable aviation fuel, commonly called SAF, has so far been expensive to produce, but new startups are now creating clean fuels out of carbon at a much cheaper cost. Most SAF is made out of organic vegetable oils, but Twelve, a chemical technology company based in Berkeley, California, is making fuel out of carbon. It just announced a collaboration with Alaska Airlines and Microsoft to advance production and use of Twelve’s E-jet, a lower-carbon jet fuel. “Our process takes CO2, water and electricity as inputs. We use the electricity to break apart CO2 and water, and then we have catalysts that recombine the elements to make new products. And one of the things that we can make is the building blocks for jet fuel,” said co-founder and CEO Nicholas Flanders. The process, according to Flanders, is far cheaper than existing SAF production. “The cost of renewable electricity has been falling over the last decade, so has the cost of CO2 capture, and so has the cost of electrolyzers, which is the technology that we use to transform CO2 and water into the building blocks for jet fuel,” he said. Flanders says aircraft would not need to be changed in any way to accommodate the new fuel, which he said has 90% lower emissions than conventional jet fuel. That’s huge for airlines trying to reach aggressive emissions goals.
It’s easier to operate a flying ATV than you think—or, at least it was for me (author of this article). It was designed so any idiot like me—who backs up into his recycling bin every time he pulls out of the driveway—can jump in and use it. The machine—dubbed the RECON—is known as an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and it’s the brainchild of Mick Kowitz, the CEO and founder of RYSE Aero Technologies. While not technically a flying ATV, it’s pretty close. Kowitz wants to put the aircraft into the hands of farmers and ranchers. Other eVTOL companies like Joby Aviation and Vertical Aerospace have their sights set on private transportation (think flying Ubers and Lyfts), while others are focused on building the aircrafts for military and defense. RYSE, on the other hand, is focused on an industry that Kowitz claims has always been on the forefront of innovation and technology—despite public perception otherwise. “We tend to think of farmers and put them in the bucket of hillbillies, but I picked them for the exact opposite,” Kowitz said. “They’re actually the most innovative users in the world. They’re the first to use fully autonomous equipment in the market like tractors that run on GPS for the last 20 years. Nobody was doing that. Tesla’s only had autopilot in their cars for eight years. “Then there’s tracking fields and soil, doing high-definition imaging and topography analysis—farming’s very sophisticated science,” he added. “These guys are used to using high tech before everyone else.” Farmers, ranchers, and other folks in rural communities are people who own hundreds if not thousands of acres of land, farms and fields that need to be regularly maintained and analyzed. If there are animals grazing on it, a farmer might need to be able to get out there quickly to help their livestock in case of emergencies. “Being able to take a vehicle like this can get you out there as the crow flies,” Kowitz said. “If you have broken down equipment in the field, you could get there, repair it, and fly back.” Now, RYSE needs to convince that a RECON—which is slated to cost $150,000—is a good investment. To do that, they need to address two of the biggest eVTOL challenges: battery life and safety (the same hurdles the electric vehicle industry faces). The RECON gets around requirements to get something like a pilot’s license, because the aircraft falls under the category of “ultralight aircraft” from the Federal Aviation Administration—anyone can jump into the RECON and start operating it pretty much right away.
After first surfacing during Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, Wagner mercenaries have been spotted across Central Africa, Syria, and Libya. Since March, according to British intelligence, Wagner forces have been operating in Ukraine, directly alongside Russia’s official military forces. One part of the Wagner group was attacked in the city of Popasna, Ukraine, earlier this month. On August 8, a pro-Russian journalist in the area shared photos on the Telegram messaging app that allegedly showed the local Wagner headquarters. In doing so, they exposed the location of the group. One photo, which has since been deleted, included a sign revealing the base’s address. Ukrainian forces put the data to work. A few days after the photos were posted online, Ukraine’s military turned the base to rubble, claiming they hit it using American-made rocket systems. The strike appears to be one of the latest incidents in which open source intelligence (OSINT) has been used to target military attacks or inform tactical operations. Piecing together small details from multiple sources of information can allow investigators to understand a clearer picture of events on the ground. For instance, comparing features in a photograph, such as a row of trees, and matching them to satellite images can reveal a real-world location. Throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, OSINT has played a big role and changed many of the rules of conventional war. Satellite images have shown Russian troop buildups around Ukraine’s borders, identified Russian army commanders, and tracked those alleged to have killed Ukrainian prisoners of war. “What you’re now seeing in Russia and Ukraine is a lot more of open source investigations geolocating targets, bases, military equipment,” says Jack McDonald, a senior lecturer in war studies at King’s College London, who studies information and privacy in war. McDonald says one of the biggest changes during this conflict has been the Ukraine government’s repurposing of the Diia public services app, which includes an “e-Enemy” feature allowing people to report the movements of Russian troops.
The federal government is currently stockpiling massive amounts of ammunition and weapons. For some departments like the FBI, CIA, or Homeland Security, that kind of makes sense. But it’s not limited to just federal agencies whose primary focus is law enforcement. The IRS has enough guns and ammo to launch a war. They now have more than two thousand of their own law enforcement agents with thousands of weapons and more than five million rounds of ammunition. What is unknown is what they could possibly need that much firepower for. And it’s not just the IRS, by the way. You may have never heard of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board. It was created in 1935 to administer a social insurance program providing retirement benefits to the country’s railroad workers. If that’s their job, why do they have an arsenal of weapons and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition? Do they need armed guards to protect the people filling out retirement forms? The analysis at PJ Media suggests that these non-security agencies are being armed in preparation for a possible war with American civilians. (Editor’s note: Here is some follow up on that: the IRS spent about $725,000 on ammunition this year. But that is actually a bit less than what was spent in other recent years. These purchases have been made for an IRS division in which agents havebeen armed for more than a century. It was established in 1919 when it was called the Intelligence Unit. The unit famously investigated gangster Al Capone, who was convicted on tax evasion charges. It was renamed the IRS Criminal Investigation in 1978. Reportedly most of the ammo is used for the division’s target practice.)
The essential narrative of the West is built into US national security strategy. The core US idea is that China and Russia are implacable foes that are “attempting to erode American security and prosperity.” These countries are, according to the US, “determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence.” The irony is that since 1980 the US has been in at least 15 overseas wars of choice (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Panama, Serbia, Syria, and Yemen just to name a few), while China has been in none, and Russia only in one (Syria) beyond the former Soviet Union. The US has military bases in 85 countries, China in 3, and Russia in 1 (Syria) beyond the former Soviet Union. The Western narrative about the Ukraine war is that it is an unprovoked attack by Putin in the quest to recreate the Russian empire. Yet the real history starts with the Western promise to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not enlarge to the East, followed by four waves of NATO aggrandizement: in 1999, incorporating three Central European countries; in 2004, incorporating 7 more, including in the Black Sea and Baltic States; in 2008, committing to enlarge to Ukraine and Georgia; and in 2022, inviting four Asia-Pacific leaders to NATO to take aim at China. Europe should reflect on the fact that the non-enlargement of NATO and the implementation of the Minsk II agreements would have averted the war in Ukraine.
Europe is facing massive increases in energy bills driven by rocketing gas prices as the war in Ukraine and European sanctions on Russia heighten concerns for the security of gas supplies. Here are some of the policies Britain and European Union member states have announced to help shield consumers (given in alphabetical order). For example, in the UK, a price cap on the most widely used household energy contracts that will cause energy bills to jump 80% to an average of 3,549 pounds ($4,188) a year starting in October, according to utility regulator Ofgem, calling it a “crisis” that needed to be tackled by urgent and decisive government intervention. In Denmark, lawmakers agreed a cash handout to the elderly and other measures totaling 3.1 billion Danish crowns ($439 million) to cushion the impact of soaring inflation and high energy prices, including a cut to a power price levy. France has committed to capping an increase in regulated electricity costs at 4%. To help do this the government has ordered utility EDF which is 80% state-owned, to sell more cheap nuclear power to its rivals.
Spanish prison authorities have euthanized a man who shot and wounded four people in December and was subsequently wounded in a shootout with the police, rendering him paralyzed and begging to be allowed to die while awaiting trial. Courts allowed the man’s assisted death after rejecting several appeals by his victims, who argued he should face justice. The case even reached the Constitutional Court, which refused to deliberate on it, saying there had been no violation of fundamental rights. Disgruntled former security guard Eugen Sabau, 46, shot three of his colleagues at the security services firm where he worked in the northeastern city of Tarragona, and then wounded a police officer while making his escape. After Sabau barricaded himself in a house with an arsenal of weapons, a tactical police unit stormed the place, shooting him several times. Sabau was left with quadriplegia and had one leg amputated. His wounds caused chronic pain that could not be treated with painkillers due to his fragile state, something he said made his existence unbearable. Spain legalized euthanasia just over a year ago. Prior to this, helping someone to end their life carried a jail term of up to 10 years.
With grocery prices 13.1% higher than a year ago, according to the Consumer Price Index for July, a new batch of customers has discovered the joys and pitfalls of shopping at salvage food stores, where a crushed box is never a problem, package dates are mere suggestions and questionable marketing attempts (Hostess SnoBall-flavored coffee pods?) go to die. The stores, which traffic in what mainstream food retailers call “unsellables,” operate in a gray zone between food banks and big discount chains like the German import Aldi or Dollar General, which has grown to more than 18,000 stores. With names like Sharp Shopper, the Dented Can and Stretch-a-Buck, salvage stores have long been a salvation for families on tight food budgets and the naturally thrifty. Adventurous shoppers looking for bargains use them for culinary treasure hunts. Now, the inflation-weary are joining their ranks. An analysis of 405,101 receipts submitted by consumers to the consumer rewards app Fetch showed the number of households shopping at salvage stores in the first half of this year was more than 8 percent higher than a year earlier. Salvage food stores are drawing environmentally conscious consumers intent on doing what they can to reduce the $161 billion worth of food the Department of Agriculture estimates is dumped every year into landfills. A handful of new waste-conscious companies have taken the salvage store concept online, shipping out bargains on meat and dairy products, stock overruns and food from farmers that might otherwise get tossed out. “I think the food-waste-warrior mentality has gone hand in hand with the value seekers,” said Abhi Ramesh, who founded the home-delivery company Misfits Market in 2018. The company is growing fast, and has shipped more than 14 million orders since it started. The website Buy Salvage Food maintains a (partial and growing) nationwide map of salvage food stores and offers guidance on ways to reduce food waste.
Scientists are entering a new era of space science — one that will be defined by not simply searching for planets circling distant stars, but by figuring out whether any of them could support life. For the past 30 years, researchers have focused on finding these worlds, collectively called exoplanets, discovering more than 5,000 of them since the first ones were detected in 1992. Thanks to sensitive telescopes on Earth and in space, astronomers have a chance to learn more about how planets form and their odds of habitability. A study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to find what scientists think is one of the youngest planets ever discovered, at only 1.5 million years old. Understanding the chemical compositions of newly formed planets, their stars, and disks of gas and dust around young stars will help researchers learn more about the likelihood of habitability in various star systems. Scientists have collected “stellar abundance profiles” of stars for a number of years, allowing them to break down exactly what chemicals, in what ratios, make up various stars. Now, thanks to large-scale surveys, researchers have been able to collect tens of thousands of these profiles. By pairing those stellar chemical thumbprints with the chemistry happening inside of disks of forming planets, researchers might be able to figure out what elements are being incorporated into planets and how it could affect their habitability.
Studying unusual processes of how ice accumulates below ice shelves here on Earth could hold lessons for the exploration and habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. In a new study, researchers studied two types of underwater snow found on Earth as an analog for understanding how Europa’s shell thickens from below. Frazil ice forms in supercooled water columns and floats upward to accrete onto the bottom of ice shelves, while congelation ice grows directly from under the ice shelf. Intriguingly, the researchers determined that ice formed by these processes retains just a fraction of the salt from the water from which it formed. Frazil ice retains just 0.1% of the ocean’s salinity and could be common on Europa, according to the study, suggesting that Europa’s ice shell could be orders of magnitude purer than previous estimates. “When we’re exploring Europa, we’re interested in the salinity and composition of the ocean, because that’s one of the things that will govern its potential habitability or even the type of life that might live there,” said the study’s lead author Natalie Wolfenbarger, a graduate student researcher at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is expected to launch in 2024 and arrive at the icy world in 2030, and the level of salt trapped in the ice can affect what and how deep the radar on the spacecraft will be able to see into the ice shell. Getting a good idea about the crust’s composition before arrival will help scientists make sense of the data after the spacecraft gets to work.
Earth and its Moon are unique in the Solar System. Earth is the only planet with just one moon, and that Moon is pretty influential. In fact, without the Moon, life on Earth may not have emerged, some research suggests. Couple that with a size ratio unlike any other planet-moon system we’ve seen – the Moon is a little over one-quarter the size of Earth – scientists, naturally, are interested in where the Moon even came from. Many, like the potato-shaped pair of rocks that orbit Mars, are captured asteroids. Scientists believe that the origin story of the Moon, however, is one of fire and fury: a vast spray of debris gouged out from a still-warm, barely-formed Earth on a massive collision with a Mars-sized planet named Theia, around 4.5 billion years ago. That debris, the theory goes, coalesced to form our satellite. Now, we have new evidence of that violent birth. Isotopes of the noble gasses helium and neon trapped in lunar meteorites recovered from Antarctica match up with those found in the solar wind, without ever having been exposed to it. This, together with a signature argon isotope concentration, suggests that those gasses were inherited from Earth, when the two bodies were one, long ago.
According to a new survey from CreditCards.com, 47% of people currently have at least one unused gift card, voucher or store credit. The average unused amount is $175 per person, up from $116 last year. For the entire U.S. adult population, that may add up to $21 billion, CreditCards.com estimates. Holding onto gift cards can be a losing proposition for multiple reasons, said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com. The value of the unused sums goes down because of inflation. You may lose the card or get charged inactivity fees. Or the store may go out of business. Most gift cards no longer expire. For those that do, regulations generally prohibit them from doing so before a five-year period, according to Rossman. Even if you can’t think of anything you want, you may be able to buy gifts for friends or loved ones using those balances. Alternatively, you may opt to resell your gift cards with companies like CardCash, Raise or ClipKard, Rossman suggested. However, those services may only honor part of the value, typically 70% to 80% of the original sum.
The Russian government is reviving the Soviet-era honorary title “Mother Heroine” for women who have 10 or more children, as it confronts a population decline that has accelerated since its invasion of Ukraine. According to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin, the title will be awarded to those who “birth and raise” 10 Russian citizens, with a lump sum of 1 million Russian rubles ($16,828) received when the 10th child turns one. There are some additional qualifications, however. The children must have been given the “appropriate level of care for health, education, physical, spiritual and moral development,” the assessment process for which is not specified. Also, all 10 children must be alive, unless they died during military, official or civic service, or in a terrorist attack. The “Mother Heroine” title was established in 1944 and bestowed until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia’s working age population has been declining as a share of the overall state since 2010, according to U.N. data. A forecast from the Economist Intelligence Unit, published early this year, estimated the overall Russian population would have contracted by 8.4% from its 1995 level by 2050.
Using recently developed artificial intelligence software known as large language models, the researchers say they’ve been able to design robots that can help humans with a broader range of everyday tasks. Instead of providing a laundry list of instructions — directing each of the robot’s movements one by one — the robots can now respond to complete requests, more like a human. In one demonstration last week, a researcher told a robot, “I’m hungry, can you get me a snack?” The robot then proceeded to search through a cafeteria, open a drawer, find a bag of chips, and bring it to the human. “This is very fundamentally a different paradigm,” says Brian Ichter, a research scientist at Google and one of the authors of a new paper describing the progress the company has made. Robots are already commonplace. Millions of them work in factories around the world, but they follow specific instructions and usually only focus on one or two tasks, such as moving a product down the assembly line or welding two pieces of metal together. The race to build a robot that can do a range of everyday tasks, and learn on the job, is much more complex. Tech companies big and small have labored to build such general-purpose robots for years. In general, language models could give robots knowledge of high-level planning steps, said Carnegie Mellon assistant professor Deepak Pathak, who studies AI and robotics and was commenting on the field, not specifically Google. But those models won’t give robots all the information they need — for example, how much force to apply when opening a refrigerator. That knowledge has to come from somewhere else. “It solves only the high-level planning issue,” he said. Still, Google is forging ahead, and has now melded the language models with some of its robots. Now, instead of having to encode specific technical instructions for each task a robot can do, researchers can simply talk to them in everyday language. Even more importantly, the new software helps the robots parse complex multistep instructions on their own. Now, the robots can interpret instructions they’ve never heard before and come up with responses and actions that make sense.
When the Green Bay Packers walked onto the practice field this week, they were greeted by an unusual new teammate: a robot. The Seeker is a robotic quarterback, kicker and punter rolled into one. Igor Karlicic and Bhargav Maganti, co-founders of Monarc Sport, started working on the Seeker in 2015 as engineering students at Northwestern University looking for a way that wide receivers could train on their own. They created a prototype and worked with Iowa to refine the concept. It’s a modern day version of a piece of football equipment, called a JUGS machine, that’s been used to simulate throws and kicks to football players for decades. The Seeker, company officials say however, is a more accurate thrower and runs software to let players practice more advanced gameplay scenarios. The Seeker’s software allows players to customize how they practice with it. Athletes can catch balls from close to the machine to improve hand-eye coordination. They can also program the robot to throw a ball to a spot on the field, or simulate more-lifelike conditions by over or underthrowing a ball. Players wear a pager-like tag which allows the robot to track their location on the field, and throw a ball accurately within inches. The robot, which holds six balls in a revolving cartridge, can also imitate a quarterback’s style including the speed, arc and timing of a throw. A case study published in April by Microsoft, which provides the software ecosystem for the robot, noted that West Virginia University’s dropped passes rate fell to 4% in 2021, down from 53% the past season after introducing the robot into training. Each robot costs roughly $40,000 to $50,000 per year for the hardware, software and servicing, Karlicic said.
Brandon Dalaly, a Tesla owner, has a unique way of unlocking his car: with his hand. Or rather, with the specially made chip that was implanted in his hand. Here’s a video of the implant procedure. Brandon explained that this was his second chip. When he received his first one, he did not use any anesthesia or anything to numb it. The first chip implant burned and was sore for about a month. However, for the second one which is what is used to unlock his Tesla, his hand was anesthetized with lidocaine. Brandon said a four-gauge needle was used. The chips, he explained, are coated in biocompatible substances such as biopolymer. His other one is a bioglass. Once implanted, the body encapsulates the chip with its own tissue. The two chips are used for different things such as access control, storing data, lighting up under your skin, or storing cryptocurrencies. Brandon is actually beta testing the chip he uses to unlock his Tesla. The chip that Brandon uses to unlock his Tesla is the VivoKey Apex which is a contactless NFC secure element chip. “I’m in a beta group of around 100 people and this one can do secure transactions and java card applets. The company that put this together literally has its own app store where you can wirelessly install apps into your body with these chips. And one of the apps just happened to be a Tesla key card. So that was the first app I installed on it because I have a Tesla and now I use that as my key when my Bluetooth key fails or I don’t have my key card. You just use your hand.” The first chip, Brandon explained, is the key to his home and stores his portfolio, his contact card, medical information, Covid vaccination card, and similar items. The chip can be scanned with any cell phone which then opens a portal where you can access the information. “The whole idea was that I would have my house key in my left hand and my car key in my right hand. And then what’s really cool is when it’s approved, they can wirelessly activate the new chip I just got to do credit card transactions. I can link a credit card to it and I can use it anywhere where there are tap-to-pay terminals.”
Remote work has ebbed significantly since the height of pandemic shutdowns in 2020, when almost two-thirds of work was done remotely. But it has since stabilized at an extraordinarily high level: Around a third of work was done remotely in the United States in 2021 and 2022, according to economists José María Barrero (Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico), Nicholas Bloom (Stanford University) and Steven Davis (University of Chicago). In particular, the remote-work wave has roiled the so-called knowledge industries such as finance and information, a category that includes everything from journalists to search-engine developers. There, 3 of every 5 workdays are now done from home, according to Barrero, Bloom and Davis. The data hints that the real remote revolution is taking place not at tech giants but at firms like the Inside Out Co., an Illinois construction, roofing and painting outfit that has found it provides a competitive advantage. Inside Out had never considered a hybrid or remote model for the 40-plus back-office employees in its Batavia headquarters. But when the pandemic hit, the company adapted, jettisoning cumbersome workflows that required staff to pass files around the office, and adopting a streamlined cloud provider. Notably, two of the counties with the most remote-eligible jobs, Manhattan and San Francisco, experienced the fastest population loss of any county with more than 10,000 residents from 2020 to 2021. Each saw their prime working-age population shrink by almost 10%. “What we’re definitely seeing is a shift away from these top 10 cities and toward both medium-sized and smaller metro areas — and actually a pretty big jump for rural employment,” said Liz Wilke, principal economist of the payroll and benefits provider Gusto.
According to Science magazine, the #2 question that remains in all of science is: “What is the biological basis of consciousness?” Consciousness can be thought of as our mind or awareness; our inner, subjective experience and our sense of being alive. So, Science magazine is asking how a physical body and brain can generate a non-physical mind. I can touch my arm; I can touch my leg; I can touch my head; but I can’t touch my mind. This is known as “the hard problem of consciousness.” No one has figured out how it happens. And some really smart people have tried – unsuccessfully. All we know that there is a strong relationship or correlation between our brain and our conscious experience. Damage a part of your brain and your conscious experience is affected. That doesn’t prove that the brain produces consciousness though. Correlation does not imply causation. There is another possibility: What if the brain is like an antenna/receiver or filtering mechanism that processes a consciousness that exists outside the body? That would redefine what it means to be a human being. We would go from being a body that has a consciousness (the belief of mainstream science) to being a consciousness first and foremost that is having the experience of a physical world through a body. If the latter were true, consciousness wouldn’t be confined to the body (i.e., it would be “non-local” to the brain) and consciousness wouldn’t die when the physical body dies. This article examines that possibility.
What happens to letters that computers can’t read and properly route? The front of each envelope is scanned and the scan sent electronically to the Remote Encoding Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Last year the Center, with about 810 employees “handled” 1.2 billion images. This 8 minute clip shows you the process when humans pick up where computers leave off.
Blatant one-upmanship and theatrical displays are part of Dubai’s DNA — and in an era of depressing international news, who can blame holidaymakers for wanting some out-of-this-world escapism? And there are two new record-breaking destinations in Dubai offering just that. Those who love free-falling into mysterious watery terrains can now put their skills to the test at Deep Dive Dubai — the only facility in the world where you can dive to depths of 60 meters, which is 15 meters deeper than any other space, not to mention four times bigger. The Deep Dive Dubai pool has been verified by Guinness World Records as the world’s deepest swimming pool and holds 14 million liters of water, the equivalent of six Olympic-sized pools. To try it out you need to book in advance and it’s only open to those aged 10 years and above for the scuba. Built to resemble a vast sunken city, this eerie hole in the heart of the desert is equipped with 56 cameras to ensure visitor safety along with state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems. Move back out into the dazzling Dubai sunlight and head 294 meters up into the sky and you find another Guinness World Record breaker — the outdoor infinity pool atop the five-star Address Beach Resort in Jumeirah Beach Residence, the highest in the world. Jutting out of the 77th-floor, the pool (which also opened last year) offers incredible panoramic views of the city’s most popular landmarks such as Bluewaters Island, Palm Jumeirah, and the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab — although swimmers prone to vertigo should steer well clear of the edge with its breath-sucking drop.
In both China and Japan, different colors of rice plants are used to create huge living “paintings”. Five different colors of rice – green, red, yellow, white, and black – of varying height create three dimensional images. In China, the Xibo farmers, an ethnic Chinese group, have an annual tradition of creating patterns on their rice paddy fields. Farmers in the north-eastern Liaoning province, made use of different colors and varieties of rice saplings in order to create the 3D effect. The fields are housed as part of a theme park in Shenyang city, which also caters to weddings and camping trips for tourists. Traditionally, creating art on their rice fields also serves as a way of praying for blessings. Here is an example of “rice painting” in Japan. Here is a video clip on how these art works are created. And if, after seeing people spend hundreds of hours hand planting, you are wondering how conventional modern rice farming is done, here is a clip showcasing current technology that requires roughly two people to run an entire rice farm. Where the fields are large enough for the equipment to turn, it is almost entirely mechanized.
I don’t try to describe the future. I try to prevent it.
— Ray Bradbury
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Joni Patry
Joni Patry is one of the most recognized teachers and Vedic astrologers in the world. She was a faculty member for ACVA, CVA and Instructor for online certification programs, published many books, journals and appeared on national and international television shows. As the keynote speaker for international conferences, she has a Japanese website, and teaches in Austria, Turkey and India. She has been awarded the 2015 Jyotish Star of the year and Dr B. V. Raman’s Janma Shatamanothsava Award Jyotisha Choodamani. She publishes an online astrological magazine, Astrologic Magazine http://astrologicmagazine.com/ and has an online University for certification, the University of Vedic Astrology. http://universityofvedicastrology.com
William Henry
William Henry is a Nashville-based author, investigative mythologist, art historian, and TV presenter. He is an internationally recognized authority on human spiritual potential, transformation and ascension. He has a unique ability to incorporate historical, religious, spiritual, scientific, archaeological and other forms of such knowledge into factually-based theories and conclusions that provide the layperson with a more in-depth understanding of the profound shift we are actually experiencing in our lifetime.
The spiritual voice and Consulting Producer of the global hit History Channel program, Ancient Aliens, and host of the Gaia TV series The Awakened Soul: The Lost Science of Ascension, and Arcanum, along with his wife, Clare, William Henry is your guide into the transformative sacred science of human ascension. By bringing to life the ancient stories of ascension through art and gnostic texts, he teaches the secrets of soul transfiguration or metamorphosis and connects people to one another across cultures, time and space. With over 30 years of research distilled into 18 books and numerous video presentations, William’s work will guide you to next level of human consciousness and our expanding reality.
William’s present work has taken him into the area of transhumanism, which he first began writing about in his 2002 bestseller, Cloak of the Illuminati. His latest book, The Singularity Is Near: The Next Human, the Perfect Rainbow Light Body and the Technology of Human Transcendence is a primer and a warning for the looming potential transformation of humanity as we speed closer to meshing computer technology with human flesh. William discusses transhumanism as the fulfillment of an ancient impulse to transcend our human bodies. His work has propelled him into the role of human rights activist and advisor on the biopolitics of human enhancement as he informs audiences of the unparalleled perils and potentials of Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism.
Pierre Dubois
Pierre Richard Dubois is Registered Architect and holds two advanced degrees from Columbia University. He has been on a life quest to satisfy his inner and intuitive knowing about consciousness-expanding technologies and wisdom. He is an author, life coach, healer, ascension teacher, and a minister. Pierre has travelled the world and studied many religions and belief systems and found that we are all seeking the same thing: merger back with the uncreated Source of all. An insightful listener and counselor, Pierre deeply aspires to share with others his wisdom and has helped countless people on their journey of healing, expansion, and ascension over the past 20 years.
Frank DeMarco
FRANK DeMARCO has been reporting on his conversations with non-physical beings for more than two decades, in magazine articles, talks, and in a dozen non-fiction books and two novels.
FRANK DeMARCO is the author of 14 books rooted in more than 25 years of psychic exploration, including It’s All One World, Awakening from the 3D World, Rita’s World (two volumes), The Cosmic Internet, The Sphere and the Hologram, and Imagine Yourself Well. Since 2005, he has been actively engaged in an on-going series of conversations with various non-physical beings, including historical individuals, “past lives,” aspects of personal guidance, and a generalized group he calls “the guys upstairs.”
He is also the author of three novels, Messenger, That Phenomenal Background (originally published as Babe in the Woods) and Dark Fire.
William Buhlman
William Buhlman is a recognized expert on the subject of out-of-body experiences. The author’s forty years of extensive personal out-of-body explorations give him a unique and thought provoking insight into this subject. His first book, Adventures beyond the Body chronicles his personal journey of self-discovery through out-of-body travel, and provides the reader with the preparation and techniques that can be used for their own adventure. He has conducted an international out-of-body experience survey that includes over 16,000 participants from forty-two countries. The provocative results of this survey are presented in his book, The Secret of the Soul. This cutting edge book explores the unique opportunities for personal growth and profound spiritual awakenings that are reported during out-of-body experiences.
Over the past two decades William has developed an effective system to experience safe, self initiated out-of-body adventures. He conducts an in-depth six-day workshop titled, Out-of-Body Exploration Intensive at the renowned Monroe Institute in Virginia. As a certified hypnotherapist, William incorporates various methods, including hypnosis, visualization and meditation techniques in his workshops to explore the profound nature of out-of-body experiences and the benefits of accelerated personal development. Through lectures, workshops and his books the author teaches the preparation and techniques of astral projection and spiritual exploration.
The author brings a refreshing look to how we can use out-of-body experiences to explore our spiritual identity and enhance our intellectual and physical lives. William is best known for his ability to teach people how to have profound spiritual adventures through the use of out-of-body experiences. In addition, he has developed an extensive series of audio programs that are designed to expand awareness and assist in the exploration of consciousness. William has appeared on numerous television and radio shows worldwide. William’s books are currently available in twelve languages. The author lives in Delaware, USA. For more information visit his web site, www.astralinfo.org.
Joe McMoneagle
Joe was the longest operational psychic spy in the US government’s very highly classified Stargate program where they used psychics and intuitives to look into installations and people around the world that were of interest to government intelligence agencies. They called the process remote viewing.
As it turned out, the remote viewers discovered that they were – not limited by either time or space and produced drawings and assessments that could not have been obtained in any other way. The Soviets had an active remote viewing program at the same time and it is rumored that Russia, China and the U.S. still have initiatives of this kind that are operational.
Joe’s stories are fascinating, like the time he mentally got inside a Chinese nuclear weapon and saw how the triggering mechanism worked . . . and then went out and bought the parts at Radio Shack to show the scientists in the intelligence agency exactly how it was done. The remote viewers could find submarines at the bottom of the ocean and crashed aircraft in the middle of African jungles.
Dr. Joe Dispenza
Dr Joe Dispenza is an international lecturer, researcher, corporate consultant, author, and educator who has been invited to speak in more than 33 countries on six continents. As a lecturer and educator, he is driven by the conviction that each of us has the potential for greatness and unlimited abilities. In his easy-to-understand, encouraging, and compassionate style, he has educated thousands of people, detailing how they can rewire their brains and recondition their bodies to make lasting changes.
Dr. Joe is also a faculty member at Quantum University in Honolulu, Hawaii; the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York; and Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He’s also an invited chair of the research committee at Life University in Atlanta, Georgia.
As a researcher, Dr. Joe’s passion can be found at the intersection of the latest findings from the fields of neuroscience, epigenetics, and quantum physics to explore the science behind spontaneous remissions. He uses that knowledge to help people heal themselves of illnesses, chronic conditions, and even terminal diseases so they can enjoy a more fulfilled and happy life, as well as evolve their consciousness. At his advanced workshops around the world, he has partnered with other scientists to perform extensive research on the effects of meditation, including epigenetic testing, brain mapping with electroencephalograms (EEGs), and individual energy field testing with a gas discharge visualization (GDV) machine. His research also includes measuring both heart coherence with HeartMath monitors and the energy present in the workshop environment before, during, and after events with a GDV Sputnik sensor.
As a NY Times best-selling author, Dr. Joe has written Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon(Hay House, 2017), which draws on research conducted at his advanced workshops since 2012 to explore how common people are doing the uncommon to transform themselves and their lives; You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter (Hay House, 2014), which explores our ability to heal without drugs or surgery, but rather by thought alone; Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One (Hay House, 2012) and Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind (2007), both of which detail the neuroscience of change and epigenetics. His film appearances include Transcendence: Live Life Beyond the Ordinary (2018); HEAL (2017); E-Motion (2014); Sacred Journey of the Heart (2012); People v. the State of Illusion (2011); What IF – The Movie (2010); Unleashing Creativity (2009); and What the #$*! Do We Know? & Down the Rabbit Hole, extended DVD version (2005).
Dr. Todd Ovokaitys
After two years at Northwestern, he was accepted into an accelerated combined graduate/undergraduate program at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, which conferred both B.A. and M.D. degrees. Advanced training was at Georgetown University Hospital, with a Residency and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine followed by a Fellowship in Pulmonary and Intensive Care Medicine.
During his Pulmonary Fellowship, the specialty that concerns the lungs, Dr. Todd began his research with cells of the immune system. Many procedures were done on AIDS patients to diagnose their lung problems. Observing this dire disease firsthand and the toxic results of early medical treatments, Dr. Todd developed a passion for finding better solutions. Towards the end of his Fellowship, he became aware of the benefits of Holistic Medicine for improving the function of the immune system while building rather than impairing the function of other systems.
Inspired to learn more, he moved to Southern California to study with practitioners of Complementary Medicine. In the context of these studies, he had an experience so radical that the course of his life and work were forever transformed.
During a meditation class in the summer of 1989, Dr. Todd paired with another student for an exercise. The process was profound and they took turns, one in the process while the other scribed to record any breakthroughs of awareness. Much as in the Jodie Foster movie “Contact,” the usual anchor points dissolved with the feeling of instant transport to a different dimension of being. There was a doorway or portal to traverse, with a message of the responsibility taken on through the choice to go further.
Instantly upon walking through this doorway, a living form was seen that filled a room – and had the shape of a DNA strand enlarged millions of times. This form communicated that science only partly understood how DNA worked. The linear understanding of DNA as an enormous data string was correct but incomplete. In addition, DNA was a structure of coils within coils in an environment of moving charges that permitted DNA to send electromagnetic signals much as a radio transmitter. Further, DNA could receive and be conditioned by electromagnetic signals. Most significantly, if it were possible to determine and transmit the correct resonant signals, that it was possible to switch the activity of a sick cell to that of a healthy cell, an old cell to that of a young cell.
This experience brought with it a certainty that solutions were possible. After intensive review of the previous work showing the effects of electromagnetic energy patterns on cellular health and function, Dr. Todd located a colleague with the technical expertise to build the desired invention.
Mary Rodwell is a professional counsellor, hypnotherapist, researcher, metaphysician, and founder and principal of ACERN (Australian Close Encounter Resource Network). She is internationally known for her work with ET experiencers and star children. She offers regressions and support for contactees and has organized a buddy system to help those who have had close encounters. Mary has spoken at conferences in Australia, USA, UK, Scandinavia, Hawaii and New Zealand. She is a regular guest on international radio and online shows and writes article for international publications like the UFO Truth Magazine. Mary is co-founder of FREE, a non-profit organization aimed at researching close encounters.
She is the author of, Awakening – How extra-terrestrial contact can transform your life. Mary is working on her second book, The New Human, due for release this year.
Freddy Silva
Freddy Silva is a best-selling author, and leading researcher of ancient civilizations, restricted history, sacred sites and their interaction with consciousness. He has published six books in six languages, and produced eleven documentaries. Described by one CEO as “perhaps the best metaphysical speaker in the world right now,” for two decades he has been an international keynote speaker, with notable appearances at the International Science and Consciousness Conference, the International Society For The Study Of Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine, and the Association for Research and Enlightenment, in addition to appearances on Gaia TV, History Channel, BBC, and radio shows such as Coast To Coast. He also leads private sell-out tours to ancient temples worldwide. www.invisibletemple.com
Dr. Larry Dossey
Dr. Larry Dossey is a physician of internal medicine and former Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital. He received his M. D. degree from Southwestern Medical School (Dallas), and trained in internal medicine at Parkland and the VA hospitals in Dallas. Dossey has lectured at medical schools and hospitals throughout the United States and abroad. In 1988 he delivered the annual Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, India, the only physician ever invited to do so. He is the author of twelve books dealing with consciousness, spirituality, and healing, including the New York Times bestseller HEALING WORDS: THE POWER OF PRAYER AND THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE, and most recently One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters. His books have been translated into languages around the world. Dr. Dossey is the former co-chairman of the Panel on Mind/Body Interventions, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health. He is the executive editor of the peer-reviewed journal EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing. Dr. Dossey lectures around the world. He lives in Santa Fe with his wife Barbara, a nurse-consultant and the author of several award-winning books.
Sharry Edwards
Sharry Edwards has been accused of being too scientific by some, too esoteric by others. In actuality, she is a bridge between both fields of inquiry. Sharry is the acknowledged pioneer in the emerging field of Vocal Profiling using BioAcoustic Biology. For many years she has provided the leading-edge research to show the voice as a holographic representation of the body that can be used to change the face of medicine.
Sharry asks that we imagine a future in which we can be individually identified and maintained through the use of frequency based biomarkers that keep us healthy and emotionally balanced. Her work at the Institute of BioAcoustic Biology has shown that we can each have dominion over those frequencies by individual mind management or a simple remote control that is completely programmable. Using the unique techniques of Vocal Profiling and evaluation, emotional as well as physiological issues can be revealed and addressed.
Her work with the human voice reveals that people who share similar traumas, stresses, diseases, toxicities…share similar, if not identical, vocal anomalies. She brings together ancient knowledge with modern ideas of harmonics and frequency relationship theories to show that math can be used as a form of predictive, diagnostic and curative foundation for wellness. Through entrainment of the frequency grids of the brain, the body can be programmed to support its own optimal form and function.
Integrative Physician Dr. Carrie Hempel and Holistic Pharmacist Brian Sanderoffare both experts in the medicinal use of cannabis in Maryland.
Dr. Hempel is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2002. As an Osteopathic Physician, she has embraced a holistic approach to patient care, providing loving attention to the relationship between mind, body, and spirit. For the past 11 years she has received specialist training, Board Certification and expertise in several fields including Internal Medicine, Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, and Hospice & Palliative Medicine, along with many Integrative modalities. She is a member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, the Association of Cannabis Specialists, and is registered with the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission.
Over the course of her career she has seen the consistent struggle of patients dealing with chronic, progressive, debilitating illness, and witnessed the challenges and limitations of the current pharmaceutical options for pain and symptom managment. Her passion for this population has grown, along with her desire to advocate for patients to have access to non-opioid, holistic options to enhance quality of life and optimize function.
Trained as a pharmacist, Brian Sanderoff has integrated 25 years of experience with his traditional medical training and herbalism, nutrition and numerous other holistic modalities to help clients devise practical, common-sense, safe solutions to most any health issue.
His clients appreciate how he embraces a complementary approach to health and how his holistic “compass” brings them new solutions to their unique health concerns – especially chronic diseases.
Mary Rodwell is a professional counsellor, hypnotherapist, researcher, metaphysician, and founder and principal of ACERN (Australian Close Encounter Resource Network). She is internationally known for her work with ET experiencers and star children. She offers regressions and support for contactees and has organised a buddy system to help those who have had close encounters. Mary has spoken at conferences in Australia, USA, UK, Scandinavia, Hawaii and New Zealand. She is a regular guest on international radio and online shows and writes article for international publications like the UFO Truth Magazine. Mary is co-founder of FREE, a non-profit organisation aimed at researching close encounters.
Steve McDonald is an extraordinary Australian thinker and researcher who arguably knows as much about the structure of the global planetary transition that we are experiencing as anyone on the planet. He draws coherent pictures from the deep insights of Clair W. Graves and paints clear, explanatory images of not only how humanity has evolved to this point, but what is inevitably on our horizon . . . and how this epic transition will continue to play out.
He is currently writing a book about the global paradigm shift that’s taking us beyond the scientific-industrial era. Steve served with the Australian Army for 15 years, including war service as an infantry company commander in Somalia, 1993. He is also a qualified military helicopter pilot and on leaving the army he flew a rescue helicopter in the tropical Mackay-Whitsunday region of Queensland. Building upon his extensive experience in unpredictable environments, after retiring from flying Steve specialized as a change management consultant. He consequently studied the developmental psychology research of Dr Clare W Graves and became one of the first Australians qualified to teach Dr Graves’ theory under the banner of Spiral Dynamics Integral. A long-term struggle with posttraumatic stress has driven Steve’s deep interest in human nature and consciousness. He is a founder of Psychedelic Research in Science & Medicine, an Australian non-profit association. He is also a founder of AADII, a non-profit company created to support worldwide transformational change.
Although Robert Coxon had been studying and composing music for many years, it was after taking the Silva Mind Control course that he realized how powerful sound could be in relaxing the body and opening the consciousness. He then decided to write his first album.
Cristal Silence quickly became a major hit throughout Canada, staying on top of the charts for many years. This was the beginning of his continuing phenomenal success as composer and solo artist. For the last 29 years he has performed only his original compositions in concert. Robert has been nominated four times for the prestigious “Felix” award (French Canada equivalent to the Grammy), and became Canada’s best-selling New Age artist. His international breakthrough came after composing The Silent Path in 1995. This album was an instant hit in Canada, the USA and France. After hearing The Silent Path, Lee Carroll, internationally renowned author of 15 bestselling Kryon and Indigo books, contacted Robert and asked him to join his team on tour. Through the years this has given Robert the opportunity to experience different cultures and inspires him to write music honoring these many countries he performs in.
Robert offers us nine albums, the latest three being The Infinite, essence of life, Goddess -The Power of Woman and Passion Compassion Alegeria.
Gary Sycalik has been described as an entrepreneur, businessman, project developer/manager, consultant/advisor, organizational troubleshooter, strategic planner, facilitator, futurist, business and social architect, complex problematic game designer (policy, strategic, tactic levels) and writer. Gary brings a robust horizontal and vertical functional capability to any project from the conceptual to operational stage.
Kingsley L. Dennis, PhD, is a sociologist, researcher, and writer. He previously worked in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University, UK. Kingsley is the author of numerous articles on social futures; technology and new media communications; global affairs; and conscious evolution. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books including Healing the Wounded Mind, The Sacred Revival, The Phoenix Generation, New Consciousness for a New World, Struggle for Your Mind, After the Car, and the celebrated Dawn of the Akashic Age (with Ervin Laszlo). He has traveled extensively and lived in various countries. He currently lives in Andalusia, Spain.
John McMichael, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Beach Tree Labs, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and early development of new therapeutic agents targeting unmet medical needs. These disorders range from herpes infections to chronic fatigue syndrome to urinary incontinence. His PhD is in virology and immunology from Oregon State University. He headed up the labs at one of the largest private veterinary research practices in the country, was a college professor for more than a decade, and now works out of a small lab on his form in New York state and a larger, more sophisticated lab in Providence, Rhode Island. He holds over 200 patents, has published in books and peer-reviewed journals, and is currently working with his team to begin formal FDA trials for product candidates for chronic traumatic brain injury and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes.
Good health is dependent on the appropriate transfer of information within and between cells. The informational and molecular disharmonies associated with disease can be reversed using appropriate therapeutic signals that stimulate the return to the normal state without adverse effects. One such signal molecule, SLO, has demonstrated clinical utility in a broad spectrum of indications that would at first glance appear to be unrelated. The underlying common thread that links these disorders is representative of the targets to which resonant molecular signals are directed.
Chris Robinson
Chris Robinson’s amazing ability to dream about the future in terms that can be reliably translated into people, times, places, and activities has been the subject of books, major university scientific studies, films, articles, TV shows, and just about all forms of media. He has taught many people how to dream about the future and, through his advanced intuitive capabilities, helped thousands to understand how to deal with seemingly impossible personal situations. He is also a healer, having on numerous occasions led people with supposedly terminal conditions to eliminate those issues and return to a healthy life. There is no one else in the world that has Chris’s fascinating background (undercover police work, etc.), coupled with these amazing personal gifts.
Thomas Drake is a former senior executive at the National Security Agency where he blew the whistle on massive multi-billion dollar fraud, waste and abuse; the widespread violations of the rights of citizens through secret mass surveillance programs after 9/11; and critical 9/11 intelligence failures. He is the recipient of the 2011 Ridenhour Truth Telling Prize, a joint recipient with Jesselyn Radack of the 2011 Sam Adams Associates Integrity in Intelligence Award and the 2012 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award. He is now dedicated to the defense of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Robert David Steele, former spy, former Marine Corps officer, a proponent of Open Source Everything, Presidential candidate in 2012 and perhaps again in 2024, recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 will integrate his life’s experience with his lessons from the works of others to explore love versus fear as a foundation for politics; liberty under natural law versus predatory fascism as we now have in the USA; and the possibilities for cosmic awakening very soon, in a full-on defeat of the Deep State and its Archon masters.
Lee Carrol a.k.a. Kryon
Lee Carroll, Ph.D. has channeled Kryon for 25 years worldwide and is the author of the Kryon Series of 16 books in 24 languages. Well known in metaphysics, Kryon books have made the top seller’s list within months of their release. Having presented seven times at the United Nations in New York, as well as in 33 different countries overseas, Lee attracts audiences in the thousands.
Good health is dependent on the appropriate transfer of information within and between cells. The informational and molecular disharmonies associated with disease can be reversed using appropriate therapeutic signals that stimulate the return to the normal state without adverse effects. One such signal molecule, SLO, has demonstrated clinical utility in a broad spectrum of indications that would at first glance appear to be unrelated. The underlying common thread that links these disorders is representative of the targets to which resonant molecular signals are directed.
Dennis McKenna’s research has focused on the interdisciplinary study of Amazonian ethnopharmacology and plant hallucinogens. His doctoral research (University of British Columbia, 1984) focused on the ethnopharmacology of ayahuasca and oo-koo-he, two tryptamine-based hallucinogens used by indigenous peoples in the Northwest Amazon. Dr. McKenna is author or co-author of 4 books and over 50 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Paul H. Smith is the longest-serving controlled remote viewing (CRV) teacher active today, having begun his career as an instructor in 1984. He served for seven years in the government’s Star Gate remote viewing program at Ft. Meade, MD (from September 1983 to August 1990). Starting 1984, he became one of only five Star Gate personnel to be personally trained as remote viewers by the legendary founders of remote viewing, Ingo Swann and Dr. Harold E. Puthoff at SRI-International.
Raymon Grace, one of the world’s most extraordinary dowsers, travels the world teaching and demonstrating how dowsing can be used by most anyone to change themselves and the world around them. His down-home, direct approach is sought out by many thousands of searchers who are looking for bettering their lives and dealing with the extraordinary change that the world is experiencing.
Charles Eisenstein is a teacher, speaker, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution. His on-line writings have generated a vast following; he speaks frequently at conferences and other events and gives numerous interviews on radio and podcasts.
In 1980, Jim McCarty joined L/L Research where Don Elkins and Carla L. Rueckert were researching the field of the paranormal in general, and contact with extraterrestrial intelligence in particular. Soon later the Ra Contact began, producing 106 sessions with the social memory complex of Ra. Five books of The Law of One series were published documenting this contact.
Joey Korn is one of the most accomplished dowsers in the world. Known internationally for an extraordinary ability to change and manipulate energy at all levels, he brings a deep, practical understanding of how to balance these energies . . . and change the way that they influence humans and their lives.
Michael Waters is an advanced technology consultant, researcher, inventor, and sustainable recovery strategist. His automated disaster recovery and library preservation systems are used worldwide. Michael has researched cutting edge science and technologies that redefine current understandings in mainstream physics. He is currently on the board of a number of organizations involved in advanced energy, mining, agriculture, and finance.
Las Vegas headliner, Alain Nu – “The Man Who Knows”, brings us his mind-bending mental and metaphysical abilities. His highly entertaining and most provocative show intermingles feats of mind-reading and spoon bending with other baffling demonstrations that defy explanation.
Joni Patry
Joni Patry is one of the most recognized teachers and Vedic astrologers in the world. She was a faculty member for ACVA, CVA and Instructor for online certification programs, published many books, journals and appeared on national and international television shows. As the keynote speaker for international conferences, she has a Japanese website, and teaches in Austria, Turkey and India. She has been awarded the 2015 Jyotish Star of the year and Dr B. V. Raman’s Janma Shatamanothsava Award Jyotisha Choodamani. She publishes an online astrological magazine, Astrologic Magazine http://astrologicmagazine.com/ and has an online University for certification, the University of Vedic Astrology. http://universityofvedicastrology.com
As Regina’s career progressed, so did her decades long exploration into the world of esoteric and hidden sciences – the reality beyond the 5 sense world. Guidance from these realms suggested it was time to bring her skill set to the world of video/televised media, so in late 2004, along with her husband Scott, she co-created ‘Conscious Media Network’, the first online network to feature full length original video interviews with authors and experts in the realms of the meta-physical, healing arts and alternative theories, opening up a world that many had experienced but never had access to on this scale.
Gaia: In 2012, Conscious Media Network merged with Gaiam TV in 2012, with Regina serving as anchor in their new media division on Open Minds and Healing Matrix. The demand for Regina’s unique perspective on a variety of subjects has drawn attention from conference organizers, moving her into the public as a presenter at conferences. In addition, Regina offers retreats and workshops for those who wish to ‘Dive Deep’ into a new understanding of the nature of reality and life itself. In this venue she shares her exclusive approach to meditation and regression work for a greater understanding of life’s challenges and identifying the innate joys.
Although nominated for a Nobel Prize in physics for his breakthrough theoretical work on zero-point energy, Dr. Harold Puthoff, is most recognized for having been a co-founder of the secret US government “remote viewing” program that successfully used psychics to spy on the Soviet Union and China.
Now a principal and science advisor in a leading-edge effort by former senior military and intelligence managers to disclose the many decades of interest that the US has had in UFOs, he comes to Berkeley Springs on the 8th of February to give a TransitionTalk about his work in making sense out of the UFO phenomena.
Dr. Puthoff’s presentation will include a summary of his current activities with To The Stars Academy, which is on the forefront of bringing into the open formerly highly classified efforts by the government to track, record and understand the meaning of hundreds of encounters that the military has had with UFOs over the past years.
This is an extraordinary opportunity to learn from and question one of the foremost thinkers and leaders of the rapidly accelerating global effort to both make the public aware of what was previously unacknowledged about UFO and alien interaction with humans and also to address the deep questions about what is happening and what it might mean for the future of humanity.
Gregg Braden is a five-time New York Times best-selling author, and is internationally renowned as a pioneer in bridging science, spirituality and human potential! His discoveries have led to 12 award-winning books now published in over 40 languages. The UK’s Watkins Journal lists Gregg among the top 100 of “the world’s most spiritually influential living people” for the 5th consecutive year, and he is a 2017 nominee for the prestigious Templeton Award.
Rosemary Ellen Guiley is a leading expert on the paranormal and supernatural. With more than 50 books – including 10 encyclopedias – and hundreds of articles in print on a wide range of paranormal, spiritual and mystical topics, she possesses exceptional knowledge of the field. Her present work focuses on inter-dimensional entity contact experiences and communication.
John L. Petersen is considered by many to be one of the most informed futurists in the world. He is best-known for writing and thinking about high impact surprises (wild cards) and the process of surprise anticipation. His current professional involvements include the development of sophisticated tools for anticipatory analysis and surprise anticipation, long-range strategic planning and helping leadership design new approaches for dealing with the future.
He has led national non-profit organizations, worked in sales, manufacturing, real estate development, and marketing and advertising, mostly for companies he founded. A graduate electrical engineer, he has also promoted rock concerts; produced conventions; and worked as a disc jockey, among other things.
Mr. Petersens government and political experience include stints at the National War College, the Institute for National Security Studies, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Council staff at the White House. He was a naval flight officer in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve and is a decorated veteran of both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. He has served in senior positions for a number of presidential political campaigns and was an elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1984. He was twice the runner-up to be Secretary of the Navy.
In 1989, Petersen founded The Arlington Institute (TAI), a non-profit, future-oriented research institute. TAI operates on the premise that effective thinking about the future is impossible without casting a very wide net. The “think tank” serves as a global agent for change by developing new concepts, processes and tools for anticipating the future and translating that knowledge into better present-day decisions. Using advanced information technology, a core group of bright thinkers and an international network of exceptionally curious people along with simulations, modeling, scenario building, polling and analysis, Arlington helps equip leaders and organizations from many disciplines with tools and actionable perspectives for dealing with uncertain times.
An award-winning writer, Petersens first book, The Road to 2015: Profiles of the Future was awarded Outstanding Academic Book of 1995 by CHOICE Academic Review, and remained on The World Future Societys best-seller list for more than a year. His Out of the Blue: How to Anticipate Wild Cards and Big Future Surprises book was also a WFS best-seller. His latest book is a Vision of 2012: Planning for Extraordinary Change. His coauthored article, (The Year 2000: Social Chaos or Social Transformation?) was one of the most highly acclaimed writings on Y2K. His 1988 book-length report (The Diffusion of Power: An Era of Realignment) was used at the highest levels of American government as a basis for strategic planning. He has also written papers on the future of national security and the military, the future of energy and the future of the media.
Petersen is a past board member of the World Future Society, writes on the future of aviation for Professional Pilot magazine and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation. He is a former network member of the Global Business Network and a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. A provocative public speaker, he addresses a wide array of audiences around the world on a variety of future subjects. When he is not writing or speaking, Petersen invests in and develops resources for large, international projects and advanced technology start-up companies. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. Speaking Inquiries: Email johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org
Penny Kelly is an author, teacher, speaker, publisher, personal and spiritual consultant, and Naturopathic physician. She travels, lectures, and teaches a variety of classes and workshops, and maintains a large consulting practice. She has been involved in scientific research and investigations into consciousness at Pinelandia Laboratory near Ann Arbor, MI.
