agharta

I'd have been happy to see him banned long ago.

I'm still cycling.

Moderate amounts of fish oil and vitamin D3 are very good for brain chemistry and depression. I recommend softgel caps or liquid for these. As far as anxiety goes, broad spectrum mineral supplements like Terramin and Pascalite are very good. You can also get a liquid calcium and magnesium supplement. I use both of those clays I mentioned.

Moore's Law, if it only continues for 6-8 more years, is going to give us absolutely tremendous computing power. This would probably give us enough to test the predictions of string theory, and, if it doesn't work, keep immediately testing new theories until we find something that is true. It may be coming very, very soon as in the next 8-15 years. I don't know if there really is a "spirit" or "soul" aspect to existence that truly is permanently beyond prediction via math, but, assuming Moore's law continues to hold true, I'd say we'll know soon, maybe within the next 20 years. That's my guess on the time frame. Until then, I make no guesses about the absolute nature of the Universe (that I'd stake anything major on, )

No. It was good for a time, and I think it's very helpful in some cases. However, it gave one of my ex-girlfriends some pretty bad stomach cramps, and it would occasionally give me some cramping too. Still, it's probably good for detox. You definitely want to drink a lot of water with it, though, if you take much.

I eat Terramin and/or Pascalite clays every day. I take fish oil on and off. I also take a liquid mineral supplement. It's important that it be liquid. I've read that the single thing that clogs up water treatment systems is undigested supplement pills. My mineral supplement is mostly calcium, but it has magnesium, phosphorus, and boron. I also take Vitamin D supplements, in liquid form, softgels. I also take bone meal powder as well.

For mineral supplementation, you're going to want either Terramin or Pascalite. They are good for everyday use. For cleansing, you can try Redmond Clay, but be careful, you need to drink a LOT of water with the Redmond Clay. It will suck the moisture right out of your tissues (which is good, because along with the moisture comes lots of toxins, if you are toxic). I take anywhere from 1-4 tablespoons daily, first thing after I wake up, with at least a quart of water. As far as other supplements, I would take a calcium supplement too, because those clays are all magnesium heavy. That's good, you actually need more mag than cal, but it's good to do a little calcium supplementation. I also recommend a Vitamin D supplement to help you fully use the extra minerals, but that's something to be careful with, because it is a fat-soluble vitamin that can be overdosed, and your vitamin D status can vary tremendously from person to person, and even for the same person. It depends on various factors like diet, lightness of skin tone, and sun exposure.

Most of the esoteric teaching in China, I would say, would be in the form of secret societies. Certainly all of the higher-level martial training has been, for a long time. Some of it may be very informal, some more formal, but there are scads of "secret societies" in China, some more secret than others, some so secret than no one but the practitioners really know much about them. Some of them are pretty "good", some really "evil", and plenty in-between. Ego and personal-level politics nearly always play a part in things. I was a regular student of an extremely high level martial practitioner of a secret system for several years, but I kind of got tired of the whole ego bit and stopped attending class. The guy really is amazing, he has skills of the "kill without touching" level, but there's still ego there, which did surprise me.

I found that going on an all-raw diet turned my graying hair brown again. I've seen this work for others as well, but I also know it's not 100%, I've seen it not work.

I tried the whole "fruit and veggies" thing. It's not smart, but the really quick road to ruin is low-fat. It'd be safer, in my opinion, to eat a very high-fat vegan diet (if it was high in good-quality fats like unrefined olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, with relatively few nuts and seeds) than an extremely low-fat diet ( less than 10% fat) that included meat. Buddha was a miserable bastard for most of his life. I'm not saying I'm against the doctrine of non-attachment, but vegetarianism is not the natural human state. Studies of human bones from tens of thousands of years ago show that humans ate mostly meat. There are a number of traditional groups that subsisted largely or entirely on meat and fat, and they have/had excellent health. The Inuit/Eskimo are an excellent example. The Masai of East Africa are another. If you want to call the shamans of those groups spiritually underdeveloped, go right ahead. I'll take their diet over Buddha's any day. Seriously, I'd say most shamans in traditional tribes have more spiritual awareness than the average Buddhist. Most of the vegetarian Buddhists I know are spaced-out.

Surf around on This site. That should answer the basics.

Tough to say. I know a lot of the doctors who practice NCR do it on themselves. There are really only 6 holes that you can inflate a balloon in. The only negatives I ever experienced were 1. If you approach NCR with the wrong attitude, like "intention doesn't matter." you will get a bad result. Fortunately, this sort of thing is usually self-correcting. Darwin's law applies. LOL 2. If you do it too much too soon, the bones get so mobile that the least little thing can knock you out of alignment, like chewing something tough, or heavy exercise. 3. It's pretty emotionally intense. this passes quickly, though.

That's just something Howell came up with to make himself look better. He's changed the technique probably 10 times, according to the docs I've spoken with. I actually use a form of muscle-testing to choose which passage, but it's not that important, in my opinion. Howell will try to tell you different, but I've spoken with at least 5 or 6 guys who have done this every day for years, and it's pretty clear that the proprioception technique adds nothing important. "Not sure what anal weight lifting is but on the advice of Plato I got an Aneros and my prostate issues are doing alot better." I definitely recommend prostate massage. I also recommend general deep massage of the whole pelvic area. Both are very helpful, in my experience. Be careful with your prostate. The best thing I do for my prostate is regular tailbone contractions, strong enough to actually move my tailbone. They really have increased my energy level, and they reduce stagnation in that area very well. Anal weight lifting is where you stick a rod up your bum. The rod has weights hung from it, and you try to keep the rod from sliding out by contracting/lifting with your anus. Plato had a hilarious story about his girlfriend's parents walking in on him during an anal weightlifting session on the old Healing Tao board. LOL That's one technique I've never tried, he mentioned that it gave him anal bleeding. My guess is that you'd need to pick the right lube. it might be good stuff, though, I haven't tried it. "I'm thinking of alternating some rolfing with NCR, any thoughts on that?" I hear Rolfing is great stuff, I'd love to try it if I had the cash to do it. You probably want to do all those big musculoskeletal shifts at a moderate pace. It can really change your world, and you need time to adjust. I heard about a bass guitarist who had a rolfing session the day of a concert, and really had trouble playing, because it had made such big shifts in his structure. NCR's like that, too...you don't want to do anything strenous, physical or emotional, right after an inflation or series or inflations. It can make the bones shift in ways you don't want. Chewing something tough or large is the same way. "I even did it once on Plato but he got scared and eventually went back to Dr. Howel. Now he charges over $1,000 for 3 days, so it makes me think I'm in the wrong profession." Seriously. Howell's a little out of hand. LOL

I was not trained at all, other than watching a video of it being done, but 1. I had been a nurse assistant for a while, so I was very good with a blood pressure bulb/cuff 2. I had been using a neti pot for years, so I was experienced at sticking some foreign object up my shnozz 3. The closest NCR doctor is a 5.5 hour drive from here 4. I was unemployed at the time 5. I'm not made of money So, I did it. It turned out quite well. I can hear a lot better, I have far fewer musculoskeletal issues, and I have much greater range of motion. Certain yoga postures suddenly became possible that I just couldn't do before. I also am much less likely to pull a muscle if I'm exercising, working, running, or other types of things. It has emotional effects as well, but I'm not sure those are as easy to quantify. The first time your skull pops so loudly that it echoes off the walls of the room, and/or other people ask what that loud popping noise was, you'll know your NCR has done something deep. It was scary when that happened to me, but it wasn't painful. I was actually lying on the floor when that happened, and I blamed it on a floorboard popping, because I couldn't face the possibility that my skull did that. I read one of the testimonial's on Dr. Howell's site, though, where the same thing happened to a lady when she was on a bus, and I was reassured that my skull wasn't going to "fly apart".

Actually, you succumbed to the ways of me. I am the one that got Plato into all this in the first place. Of course, his blog doesn't mention the crazy raw foodist from North Carolina. However, should anyone have any negative experiences from NCR, I know nothing, and the above is all mad ravings. Actually, I did NCR on myself several hundred times over a 3 month period, and a few times since. It gave most of its benefits in the first month or so, and decreased after that. I think I will probably do it some more in a couple years, you have to leave some time in between to let things set. I actually thought this was going to be about Plato doing anus weight lifting. Man, he really likes sticking things in his orifices, doesn't he?

As far as Taoists and power go...it reminds me of a Chinese saying, "If a Chinese person fails, he becomes a Taoist. If he succeeds, he becomes a Confucian." Beyond that, there's the concept that the highest cultivation is to be able to be one with the Tao while living a normal life in society. All of this going and hiding in caves and shit is like a crutch for those who do not have the ability to cultivate successfully with distractions around. However, if you need the crutch, it's probably not a bad thing to use it. There comes a time to throw away the crutch, though, at least temporarily, maybe? that's situational, and individual, perhaps.

Avoid extremes in sexual practice. Idealism is a very, very foolish thing in this area. Many here can attest to this, including myself. I don't recommend long-term (decades) celibacy, though I think it can be done well, nor do I recommend stopping ejaculating altogether, although again, I think it can be done well. To do either one, you need emotional maturity, detachment from the goal, a realistic attitude about your reasons for attempting either, and a lot of good experience or some good teaching. Experience comes through messing yourself up and being lucky enough to survive and recover, so I suggest waiting for good teaching before trying celibacy or total retention. In general, regular (dozens of times daily) tailbone contractions that actually move the tailbone are very, VERY good at transforming the energy in that area, if you are trying retention. They also have the side effect of increasing your energy levels. I also recommend a diet that has a lot of raw or lightly-cooked animal products, and lots of fats, especially good-quality raw or lightly-cooked animal fats. This makes retention much harder, but...the retention that you achieve through a vegan fruitarian diet or some such is a false retention. It's easy to retain Jing when you are not replenishing it adequately through diet.

Anybody who has studied martial arts for long enough knows that the acupuncture/acupressure points are quite real. Whack somebody in the Stomach meridian point called Renying on the throat, which is over the carotid sinus. They'll go down like a sack of bricks. These points and their martial and healing effects have been known for thousands of years in Asia/India/etc. I really wonder about the martial competence of someone who has never been taught any of that. They teach the carotid sinus strike in many basic law-enforcement martial training classes. I've taught it to children as young as 9. Buddy, methinks you are more noise than knowledge. But that's OK...this is the internet, so you're right at home.

"Agharta - Native diets worked consistently for people whose constitutions were very different from ours today. Diet is an important foundation, but today that's not always enough to tackle the kinds of challenges we face with complex, chronic conditions." Agreed 100%. I do think improving the diet can often give someone enough general improvement to provide some hope and and "breathing room", so to speak, to move forward and find other solutions as well, even if their particular problem doesn't get much better with a better diet. It can be tough to heal some conditions, I agree. I don't envy some people their chronic health problems. I'm lucky to be relatively naturally healthy, particularly if I'm eating right. I have some chronic skin problems, and I tend to get a little too emotionally worked up, so to speak, and my mind wanders a bit sometimes, but otherwise, I'm in great shape.

Traditional tribes don't get cancer on their native diets. I never said not to get chemo, but does it really make sense to only do that alone?

I would suggest a high-fat, low-carb traditional-style diet, like what's suggested at the weston price foundation or over at this site or this site. Raw is best, in general. You might want to try some of the ormus products like the M-3 from Joe Lello's Atlantis Alchemy. Also, the sea crop folks have an excellent product that is said to have cured many cases of cancer. I make my own version of it at home. You might want to back off the veganism, and most definitely back off the carbs. Traditional tribes generally ate diets very high in fat, including animal fat, and had no cancer until they switched to canned foods, white flour, white sugar, and vegetable oils. Coconut oil can be helpful.

Happy b-day. Enjoy Costa.

I've been taught that there are 7 tongue seals. I only know the two you have mentioned. The one just behind the front teeth is called the "fire seal".

You do make some good points about mercury in seafood. There are 5 things to remember about that: 1. Use your common sense. Please. 2. You should choose your seafoods to maximize nutrition and minimize mercury. Fish eggs are a perfect example of that. They are very high in nutrition, and relatively low in mercury. You should probably avoid regularly eating filter feeders like oysters. They accumulate metals of all kinds, including mercury. Avoiding the organs of bigger fish, particularly predatory fish, is also good. Mercury appears to concentrate in organs, and it is not well-excreted, which means that predatory fish that eat other predatory fish will have very high amounts of it. Particularly shark, tilefish, tuna, and king mackerel appear to have very high levels. Shrimp/lobsters/crabs are a pretty good option as well, they aren't filter feeders, and they are very high in nutrition. It's not about eating huge amounts of seafood, it's about picking the right types, and eating in moderation. Use your common sense. Please. 3. It is quite possible to detox mercury. a. Drink at least a quart of water daily. This is very effective at flushing mercury from the kidneys. b. Take 15 to 25 drops of food grade 35% hydrogen peroxide in plenty of water, at least a quart, daily. Work up to this, start out with 1 to 2 drops daily. I know a man who, on this regimen, reduced his heavy metal load in a few months by 50%. c. Take healing clays like Terramin, pascalite, etc. They are pretty good as well. d. Eating pectin fruits also is very good for getting rid of minerals/metals of all types. Do this in moderation, you can deplete your body's stores of good minerals as well. 4. Some people are a LOT more sensitive to mercury than others. According to muscle-testing, I'm very insensitive. It's probably a good idea to have someone with lots of medical muscle-testing experience to do a double-blind muscle test for you to check this. Experienced NAET practitioners are usually very good at this. Google NAET, you may find an experienced practitioner in your area. 5. Use your common sense. Extremes are not recommended in diet, long-term. Completely avoiding seafoods is not particularly wise, nor is over-indulging.