Arguelles

Beyond the purple sky of the holonomic, post-historic future stretches the planetary rainbow, a celestial guardian being. While representing the cave and sacred site guarding rainbow serpents and dragons of aboriginal and early hieratic civilization, the rainbow guardian has always been with us. Like the psi bank that it symbolizes, its chromatic pattern has always beckoned to us to fulfill our potential. As the symbol of realization, bliss, and completion, it represents the “end condition” of humanity totally attuned to and operative with the spectrum of environmental energies. Such an expression suggests a complete synesthesia, a condition of complete planetary synthesis almost unthinkable today. Yet it is a condition to with the logic of the holonomic equation inescapably points.

-- Jose Arguelles, Earth Ascending

Jean Klein on evolution

Evolution in the strict meaning of the word is only an unfolding, a passing from that which is implicit to that which is explicit, from that which is unmanifest to that which is manifest. It produces nothing extrinsic to itself. It never produces, let alone creates. We cannot rely on it in our search for salvation or liberation. Liberation is not a problem of evolution, for no evolution can lead to liberation, which is the result of discernment only. We are not concerned with evolving, but we should endlessly put the question 'Who am I?' to ourselves. -- Jean Klein

Every new emergent and transformative development brings a new demand and a new responsibility: the higher must be integrated with the lower. And the greater the degree of development, the greater the burden of inclusion.

-- Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything 495

Brain Network Related To Intelligence Identified

In a review of 37 imaging studies related to intelligence, including their own, a pair of neuroscientists have uncovered evidence of a distinct neurobiology of human intelligence. Their Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT) identifies a brain network related to intelligence, one that primarily involves areas in the frontal and the parietal lobes.

The data suggest that some of the brain areas related to intelligence are the same areas related to attention and memory and to more complex functions like language. Haier and Jung say this possible integration of cognitive functions suggests that intelligence levels might be based on how efficient the frontal-parietal networks process information.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070911092117.htm

Yoga festival planned for UN peace day

Global celebrities Christy Turlington, Russell Simmons, Sting and Donna Karan are going vegan for a day to promote the yoga-inspired events worldwide organised by the Global Mala Project (GMP) on UN's International Day of Peace, Sep 21.

The event is aimed to raise awareness and funds for global causes. The GMP aims to unite the global yoga community to form a mala or a rosary around earth through collective practices based on the Hindu sacred cycle of 108 on Sep 21-22.

Participants include hundreds of yoga studios, mainly in the US and at least two in India, renowned yoga and spiritual teachers.

The main event in Los Angeles on Sep 22 has been planned as a gathering of 108 yoga studios, 1,008 teachers and 10,000 people. The 12-hour programme includes yoga trance dance by Shiva Rea, meditation with Bangalore-based guru Paramahamsa Nithyananda, Kundalini Yoga, 108 rounds of Surya namaskar, mandala creation and kirtan.

Over 16 million people practise yoga in the US and the market for yoga in the country is worth $3 billion, according to Yoga Journal surveys.

http://tinyurl.com/2r2d3f

Travel industry turns on to yoga vacations

The purveyors of yoga and wellness vacations promise more than mere relaxation; they promise transformation. Ask why someone would choose a yoga vacation -- and the meditation, body contortions and discipline that goes with it -- and the answer repeats: People go for life-changing experiences.

From luxury hotel resorts to rustic retreats, yoga offerings and yoga-centric vacations have increasingly become a carrot to lure vacationers that want more than a fabulous place to stay and entertainment. The past five years have seen growth in yoga vacations that is emblematic of a larger trend in the travel industry.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/09/13/yoga.vacations.ap

Evolutionary Agents

"The task for Evolutionary Agents is to prefabricate the future, to build new hives, to custom make Plan-Its, to teach scientific mastery of the nervous system as an instrument to decode atomic, molecular and sub-nuclear processes so as to attain immortality, cloning, and extraterritorial existence." -- Timothy Leary

Adult Brains Can Heal Themselves

A new case study of a stroke patient suggests that adults' brains might be just as "plastic," or capable of creating new neural pathways, as those of children.

Past research has established the remarkable capacity of young brains to change or adapt to deficits by creating new signaling routes, a phenomenon called plasticity. However, whether adult brains have that same capacity has remained controversial.

Results from a new study, published in the Sept. 5 online edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, suggest at least in one patient, the visual center of an adult brain can reorganize itself neurally to overcome damaged pathways and result in changes (and possibly improvements) in visual perception.

The new finding adds weight to suggestions made by other research about the ability of adult brains to morph.

This year, neuroscientists reported the adult mice could grow new neurons, a finding they said could have implications for the treatment of human neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. A similar finding was reported a couple of years ago in mice. In 2005, a brain-scan study of human adults with macular degeneration showed evidence of plasticity in the visual regions of their brains.

http://www.livescience.com/health/070906_brain_change.html

Yogis

When I first saw pictures in books of yogis sitting cross-legged in the woods in the forests of India, something would make me look twice. I'd notice their faces. And it wasn't the face of a man wasting time. It was the face of a man holding something that I not only wanted, but I didn't know about. I was drawn to it. There was such a presence of power and dignity -- and an absence of fear. Many of their countenances held playfulness or love, or power and strength.

-- David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity (2006)

The Integral View

The integral view becomes especially important as we look at the higher or deeper levels of human growth and development -- at the further stages of consciousness evolution. If there is indeed a transformation in our future, it lies in these higher and deeper stages and these can only be accessed in their richness and fullness if we honor and appreciate the different types of truth that will unfold to set us free.

-- Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything