tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111678142024-03-07T18:45:13.744-05:00Sufi AmanesisThe Sufi Path is a process of amanesis (remembrance, realization). In pre-eternity, God asked the spirits: Alastu bi Rabikum (Am I not your Lord)? When we come into this material existence, we forget about pre-eternity and the task of life is to remember our way back to the truth concerning the nature of our essential relationship with God. This process of remembering or recollecting is known as amanesis.Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.comBlogger461125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-86277710861791221682024-02-03T21:40:00.002-05:002024-02-03T21:47:37.096-05:00Anab Whitehouse Interview with Dr. Len Ber, Targeted Justice<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi15eVQMlefF9Mm19pfbe7qR3y9isMVLHMPGhZPTHkjrbl1cwSEWuc_LlXiTMbRljsSt2_Qeh41hTwbAjLUZYqmY-yInNYrMQ6Nd0qZR7CJ_hHr91AC8T_qT0sMLXcA2syDByTqudLMyNln-1mXS7RNN7jz6AubzyEn4xtCWM3FAsJSoboSXzYX/s3761/Targeted%20Justice-3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2582" data-original-width="3761" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi15eVQMlefF9Mm19pfbe7qR3y9isMVLHMPGhZPTHkjrbl1cwSEWuc_LlXiTMbRljsSt2_Qeh41hTwbAjLUZYqmY-yInNYrMQ6Nd0qZR7CJ_hHr91AC8T_qT0sMLXcA2syDByTqudLMyNln-1mXS7RNN7jz6AubzyEn4xtCWM3FAsJSoboSXzYX/s320/Targeted%20Justice-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The pdf document (link given below) encompasses much – but not all – of an
interview that was conducted by Dr. Len Ber of Targeted Justice --https://www.targetedjustice.com/
-- in late January of 2024 and which recently has been posted on YouTube. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">For those who are unfamiliar with the term, “Targeted Individuals”
are people who are being terrorized everyday of the week by: Various government
agents, would-be overlords of the corporate sector, medical people who lack
ethics and integrity, academic experimenters who care only about their careers,
military black operatives, abusers of the policing system (on a federal, state,
and local level), as well as independent contractors who are willing to torture
people for a buck. These perpetrators use a variety of protocols governing wireless
networks of energy that been </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">have established
by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and which have
enabled unscrupulous, greedy, and self-serving individuals to subject people
all over the world (estimated to consist of some 6,000,000 individuals) to
programs (operated both through systems of artificial intelligence as well as
manual apps on mobile phones, iPads, or computers) that seek to impose
physical, emotional, and cognitive torture as well as mind-control programs on
innocent people. The phenomenon of the Havana Syndrome is but one expression of
the world-wide program of terror that is being run by people that many
modalities of media are actively protecting and attempting to keep hidden from
a more, wide-spread public awareness. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">You can access the full video interview at: </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heaOJAhD9Vo " target="_blank">Anab Whitehouse Interview</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">and/or </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">you can download a pdf which encompasses most of the interview through: </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.billwhitehouse.com/FiveQuestions.pdf" target="_blank">Anab Whitehouse Interview with Dr. Len Ber of Targeted Justice</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin: 0.05in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-6292218619157824652023-11-03T16:08:00.002-04:002023-11-03T17:52:56.759-04:00Sufi Reverberations Addendum - Freedom Came Today<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">The
poem that will be featured toward the latter part of this video, following some
introductory comments, was written some twenty years ago. When the thoughts and
emotions bubbled to the surface and came together to form the soon-to-be-played
poem, the focus of the composition’s phenomenology was directed toward the insanity,
barbarity, propaganda, lies, duplicity, depraved indifference, unholy
machinations, and murderous activities of the United States Government and its
allied oppressors with respect to their invasion of Iraq – a country that was
blamed – falsely -- for helping to organize the events of 9/11 and for allegedly
hiding stockpiles of mass destruction which didn’t actually exist but whose
actual sin in the eyes of its attackers was that Iraq had begun to disengage
from the petro-dollar and was selling its oil through other means. In truth,
however, aspects of the American government – with a little help from its
friends in British and Israeli intelligence, along with rogue elements from the
CIA – were responsible for helping to organize the events of that horrendous day
in September and, this led to a reprehensible set of policies being invoked into
so-called law (starting with the Patriot Act and continuing on with the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq) that were designed to use the falsehoods surrounding the
carnage and tragedy of 9/11 as leverage for shamelessly seeking to justify the
government’s own intent to unleash very real stockpiles of mass destruction
upon the people of Iraq and elsewhere. (And, for those who have been induced to
accept the “official story” concerning 9/11, please read and critically reflect
on actual research concerning 9/11 conducted by: David Ray Griffin, Judy Wood, Jim
Marrs, Barbara Honneger, Richard Gage, Ole Dammegard, Rebecca Roth, Barrie Zwicker, Peter Dale Scott, Webster Tarpley, Graeme
MacQueen, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, David, Icke, Max Igan, </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif";">Christopher Bollyn,</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif";"> </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; text-indent: 0.25in;">Thierry Meyssan, Kevin Barrett, James Corbett,
Kevin Ryan, and Anab Whitehouse.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">If,
when one listens to the forthcoming poem, one substitutes the words:
Palestinian and/or Gazians for Iraqis, and: Zionists for American government,
nothing else that is being said in the poem – and this is said with
considerable sadness -- has changed. The names have changed, but the cruelty,
terrorism, and destructiveness that is being inflicted on innocents has not
changed at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">We
are still witnessing the insanity, barbarity, propaganda, lies, duplicity,
depraved indifference, unholy machinations, and murderous activities of a
government as it commits atrocities against unarmed people. On this occasion, however,
the Israeli government is the one which is leading the charge against the unsuspecting
people of Gaza, rather than against the unsuspecting people of Iraq, while
being assisted by self-serving oppressors from the American government as well
as several other governments populated with witless, morally challenged sycophants.
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Nonetheless,
what continues to be a common theme between now and twenty years ago is the manner
in which the Israeli government is pretending (just as the American government
did following 9/11) that it had nothing to do with enabling someone – in the
present case, Hamas – a group that the Israeli government helped protect, support,
and fund since 2007 – to breach, in fifteen different places, the security
fence system that separates Israel from Gaza. One might note in passing how
there has been an array of independent testimonies given by a number of former
IDF members (individuals who were intimately familiar with the capabilities of
that security system) who recently indicated that what happened on October 7,
2023 was completely impossible based on what they knew, via direct experience,
about that security system’s capabilities and the numerous back-up protocols
that were entailed by that system.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">The
implications of the testimonies of Israeli citizens and former members of the
IDF which are being alluded to in the foregoing comments is that October 7,
2023 was not the result of a breakdown in Israeli intelligence or incompetence on
the part of the IDF. Rather, the events of October 7, 2023 were the calculated,
deliberate, with malice aforethought, evil spawn of Israeli intelligence,
government officials, and IDF leaders.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Furthermore,
evidence from inside Israel has been leaking out in which Israeli citizens who –
much to their dismay -- had been caught up in the tricks being played out on
October 7, 2023, are testifying that it was the IDF – operating in accordance
with the Hannibal Protocol that first came into use during the 2014 Gaza War –
that was deliberately seeking to kill both members of Hamas and Israeli
citizens during Israel’s terrorist operations. In addition, not only were more
than half of the Israelis who died on that day members of the IDF, but none of
the allegations about the beheading of Israeli babies, or the raping of Israeli
women, and other alleged charges of atrocities that were being directed against
the members of Hamas have been demonstrated – on the basis of evidence rather
than propaganda -- to be true. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Did
Hamas take hostages? Yes, they did. Were members of the IDF killed by members
of Hamas on October 7, 2023? Yes, this did happen. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">However,
evidence indicating that Hamas tortured, raped, and killed unarmed Israeli
citizens or perpetrated an array of unspeakable atrocities on October 7, 2023
has not been independently substantiated. To be sure, if credible evidence
concerning such allegations should ever surface, then, the perpetrators deserve
whatever fate has sought them out because such acts are entirely antithetical
to Islam and Christianity. Nevertheless, as far as actual evidence is
concerned, there are testimonies given by a number of Israeli citizens who were
taken captive on October 7, 2023 which indicated that the latter individuals had
been treated with humanity by their Hamas captors. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">None
of the foregoing is meant to excuse the culpability of members of Hamas from,
knowingly or unknowingly, allowing themselves to be used to provide the Israeli
government with a purported, but woefully inadequate – indeed, psychopathic and
criminal -- justification for conducting a genocide against innocent
Palestinians. If the raid of Hamas into Israel was done unknowingly with
respect to the Israeli Psy-Op that was being conducted, then, how could the
members of Hamas have been so callous in their mode of unthinking,
self-aggrandizing lack of insight and discernment to suppose that their actions
would not subsequently boomerang, with deadly and devastating results, on the millions
of innocent people in Gaza – people who knew nothing about, nor had they given
their approval to, the actions of Hamas on October 7, 2023. Surely, Hamas had
considerable understanding concerning the sophistication and complexity of the
security system that was inherent in the fence structures that separated Gaza
from Israel, and, yet, apparently, none of the members of Hamas or its
leadership were suspicious of the information that led them to believe that an
impenetrable security system could be breached in fifteen different locations
on the morning of October 7, 2023. How foolish and careless can one get with
the lives of the millions of people in Gaza that were supposed to be protected
by Hamas and for whom Hamas had a fiduciary responsibility? … a responsibility
which they have failed to observe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Supposedly,
the members of Hamas are ready to resist the IDF when the latter forces enter
Gaza, as the IDF already has begun to do. Hamas fighters did actively resist
the IDF during some of the earlier IDF intrusions into Gaza and did so
successfully on a number of occasions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Trying
to protect Palestinians within Gaza is one thing. Palestinians have a right to
defend themselves against a brutal, oppressive, and tyrannical occupier.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"> Walking into a trap, however, seems like a
bridge too far. Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Hamas
has had years of experience involving the sadistic ways in which the Israeli
government tortures, abuses, manipulates, lies, steals, beats, maims, and kills
for the sheer joy of doing so. Indeed, the Israeli government and its occupying
forces are very devoted – pathologically so -- to the details of the foregoing
kinds of exploits.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Consequently,
it would seem to run overwhelmingly contrary to years of the foregoing sorts of
experiences for Hamas to suppose that, somehow, all of the Israeli government’s
years of meticulous attention to detail would completely evaporate on the day
that Hamas leaders had been induced to attack Israel. Indeed, one wonders what the
ultimate source of the alleged “Intel” was that had led Hamas to conduct their “al-Aqsa
Flood” operation because the idea that the Israeli stand-down and the Hamas
decision to attack during that stand-down was just a coincidence seems to be
rather overly coincidental.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Just
as was true in relation to the American government, following September 11<sup>th</sup>,
2001, the Israeli government wouldn’t mind being charged with having suffered a
massive intelligence failure as a way of gaslighting the idea that they were
quite prepared to kill their own people and, in the case of the Israelis, perhaps,
induce Hamas to assist them in that task in order to prepare the path to a
genocide that the Israeli government had been planning to do all along. If – and I emphasize the word “if” -- some of the leaders and members of Hamas
colluded with, if not conspired with, the Israeli government to bring about the
colossal tragedy of October 7, 2023, then, the level of the evil that has been
let loose into the world has been increased by a multiplicity of levels in
magnitude. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">If
the aforementioned scenario turns out to be true, then, not only did people in
the Israeli government betray its own Israeli citizens, but, as well, the
leaders of Hamas – or, perhaps, some of them -- might also have betrayed the
people of Gaza. There is some degree of uncertainty surrounding the issue of whether
the actions of the leaders of Hamas exhibited a knowing or unknowing lack of
discernment concerning the situation on October 7, 2023, but notwithstanding
such uncertainty, nevertheless, all of the available evidence indicates that
the Israeli government was deliberately willing to put its own people in harm’s
way in order to provide a pretext for moving forward with its genocidal plan to
destroy the people of Gaza – and government leaders in America, England,
Germany, and elsewhere appear to be quite prepared to join in to support, fund,
arm, and, if necessary, participate in such genocide.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">The
right to self-defense – a right which belongs to both Palestinians and Israelis
– is one thing. Nonetheless, the collective punishment and terrorism which is
being egregiously imposed on the Palestinian people by the Israeli government –
and, knowingly or unknowingly, with the assistance of individuals from Hamas --
has nothing to do with a right to self-defense and everything to do with the
war crimes, as well as the <br />crimes against humanity, which are being conducted
against the unarmed people of Gaza.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">None
of what is said in the foregoing is said against the thousands of Israelis and
people of Jewish faith who have been demonstrating in Tel Aviv, New York City, Washington,
D.C., and elsewhere to protest against the heinous actions of the Israeli
government. My heart and soul goes out to those thousands of Jewish individuals,
and I pray that they will be protected against the lunatics in their governments,
as well as those people in the general public, who are sufficiently
ill-educated and ill-informed that they can’t tell the difference between, on
the one hand, someone who is Jewish or Israeli -- and, who, like individuals
from Palestine, wish to be able to live free from hatred, bigotry, or
oppression -- and, someone, on the other hand, who is a deranged zealot who
wishes to inflict harm on innocent individuals and against whom we all – whether
Jew or non-Jew -- need to be protected.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Please
keep the foregoing considerations in mind, when one listens to the following
poem, entitled: “Freedom Came Today.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwt6anp8fsfxUY8YGZegleHT3LUTeT03o270fvjddrtInlKQr1K97WByQgkuC52jwKLBl8CBHcnjP8' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today for
Iraqis <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In a measured display of
shock and awe <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">That bestowed gratuitous
wounds <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">On thankful souls who’ll
line the streets <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">And greet us as
compassionate heroes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today for
600 thousand innocents <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Which, of course, we deny
as being far too high a figure <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Based on data that do
not keep track of dead Iraqis. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today for
poor Sami <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Who was looking for
safety but found some kindness <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Which blew him away, so
let us play taps to mark <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">When he became part of
America’s dream.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Freedom came today for journalist Ali <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Thrown in jail for,
possibly, thirty years <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Because he didn’t have
the sense to write lies <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Rather than truth about
ruthlessly earned liberty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today for ‘Aisha
who was raped by <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Those who set her free.
This sort of special gallantry <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Is, of course, an
anomaly since they normally <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Stick with search and
destroy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today for
unlucky Hassan <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Who was trying to see
his family, but ended up <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Naked in Abu Ghraib, with
dogs growling, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Devoid of shame, at his
dignity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today for
Ra’bia who was caressed <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">By white phosphorous
which made her feel <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">All warm and fuzzy inside,
right down to her small <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Little bones. Surely,
her cup runneth over. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today for
the masses who can,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Whenever they like, turn
on faucets empty <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Of water, or switch on
lights with no electricity <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">To illumine tyranny’s
just end. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today in
such neatly <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Wrapped packages of
hypocrisy <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">And lies … democracy at
its best, sold as a<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Capital idea to people
hungry for sovereignty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today to
greedy ones, who,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Out of duty, lobbied
their way to no bid, cost-plus <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Contracts, made in the
secrecy of self-serving facts<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">That enriched only
non-Iraqis. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today in
uncivil ways,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">One brother, against
another, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Locked in malignant
enmity,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Set loose by U.S.
magnanimity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">O’ beautiful with
rapacious eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Freedom came today to plans, where bands <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Of hired guns are
inspired to kill sand-dwellers <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">So wars will not wash up
on homeland shores,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">And mangled lives can be
sanitized through illusions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom came today when
night-vision goggles <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Found opportunity in their
sights, and those who <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Never saw it coming were
liberated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Strange how we see their
bodies but not their hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom might come today
if the good old USA --<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Despite a touch of
delusion about it’s assumed <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Place in God’s space –
would attend to the <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Ten commandments and
leave Iraq alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Freedom might come today
if knowledge <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Took hold in citizens’
souls about democracy’s <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Decay through abuse of
power, which shackles <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Conscience, and mindless
fears of created demons.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><br /></span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-49499360305708073952023-10-14T01:41:00.005-04:002023-10-14T01:41:57.815-04:00The Voice of Innocence<p> <span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #4d4b4e; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">He eloquently speaks about the present (and past) in conjunction with his people, and his words carry a resonance which alludes to a fast-approaching possible future for many other peoples. May God have mercy on all of us ... those who have awakened (at least to a degree), and those who are struggling to awaken, as well as those who are still asleep but have the potential to awaken. Whether we are struggling to awaken, or we continue to sleep or, if (to whatever degree) we have awakened and are seeking to constructively act in some way, these are all choices for which we have a duty of care and from which there is no escape. This is at the heart of what is entailed by having been given the gift of life.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzFWkQ4mBFng86jlLEC14N7gbT81yIrMqVd9fD8pU06S_JvC7xrD9a5zx5LeG9pCyjQTwMEit8E1-M' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #4d4b4e; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><p></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-57055826817198596522023-08-26T14:12:00.005-04:002023-08-26T14:15:43.725-04:00Sufi Reverberations - Episode 16 - What's In A Name?<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is once
reported to have said: “There are 71 sects among Jews, and only one of them is
correct. There are 72 sects among Christians, and only one of them is correct.
There are 73 sects among Muslims, and only one of them is correct.” Presumably,
something of a similar nature could be voiced concerning: Buddhism, Taoism,
Hinduism, many kinds of indigenous systems of belief, as well as in relation to
various modalities of the so-called mystery schools.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">We all want to think that whatever path we are on
is the right one. However I’m not going to try to claim that my spiritual
journey just happens to be fully compliant with the correct one alluded to in
the foregoing.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">I have tried hard to search for the truth, but
Allah knows best what the reality of my situation is. Nonetheless, I can say
with certainty that whatever my shortcomings might still be – and I am sure
that they are many -- my life is better than it otherwise would have been and
become had it continued on the path I was on prior to becoming initiated, by
the Grace of Allah, through my first shaykh.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">On the other hand, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him) has been reported to indicate: “The movements of nafs are more
difficult to detect than the movements of a black ant on a smooth rock in the
dead of night.” How much does one miss concerning the truth as a result of the
machinations of nafs which through a network of desires, negative emotions,
problematic motivations, and impulsive, ill-considered intentions constantly creates
a variety of emotional, psychological, conceptual, social, and spiritual
blind-spots, if not existential sink holes?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Plus, let’s add to the contributions of an
individual’s nafs, the forces of dunya (which is the chaos generated by the
manner in which the complex dynamics of our collective nafs interact with one
another to generate a dysfunctional society) and, then, mix those dynamics with
the constant entreaties of the shaytans that are urging human beings to pursue
what is not in our best interests. Nafs, dunya, and shaytans are an unholy
alliance constantly seeking to induce us to pursue things other than the truth
concerning the essential nature of our relationship with Being, and if we are
honest with ourselves, there are all too many times when we take a whipping
from that alliance.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Even if we are fortunate enough, by the Grace of
Allah, to win more of the foregoing battles than we lose, it has been said that
the sins of the elect are the virtues of those who are less spiritually
endowed. As a result, even if we believe we are doing well, this belief might
only be because we have become intoxicated with a spiritual orientation which
is nothing more than something which reverberates and resonates with the sins
of the elect. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The foregoing consideration reminds one of the
account that is associated with the life of Hazrat Ra’ bia (may Allah be
pleased with her) who was reported to have been walking with a Sufi of some
accomplishment on the side of a hill overlooking Basra. The latter individual
looked upon the city below them and remarked that most of the people of that
city did not keep their fasts or observe their prayers. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The man went on to indicate that he had never
missed a fast or prayer in his life. Hazrat Ra’bia (may Allah be pleased with
her) is reported to have given the man a hard look and said: “Thy existence is
a sin with which none other can compare.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">There are those who maintain that the Sufi path
is a sort of technology which entails a methodology which, if followed, leads
to spiritual realization concerning, among other things, essential identity.
Hazrat Bayazid Bistami (may Allah be pleased with him) indicates otherwise when
he is reported to have said: “The Thing we tell of can never be found by
seeking, but only seekers find it,” indicating that the sine qua none of the
Sufi path is God’s Grace, for as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is
reported to have said: “Many are those among you who fast and, yet, gain
nothing from it except hunger and thirst, and many are those who pray
throughout the night and, yet, gain, nothing from it except wakefulness.”
Presumably, one might add that there are many who give zakat but acquire
nothing but a lessening of their bank account, or who go on Hajj and gain
nothing but a trip, or who utter shahadah and gain only the sound of their own
voice. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Irrespective of what one’s efforts might be, God
is under no obligation to grant one spiritual realization. We are completely dependent
on God’s Mercy for, as the Qur’an indicates: “O people, you are the poor
towards God, and God is the Independent and Praiseworthy.” (35:15)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Whatever our rizq (or provision) might be, it is
from Allah. We should be grateful for what comes to us, including the desire to
seek the truth and worship the truths that are disclosed to us … whether these
truths be simple or profound, and whether these truths come via ease or
hardship.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported
to have said: “All people are doomed to perish except those of action, and all
people of action will perish except for the sincere, and the sincere are at
great risk.” As the Qur’an reminds us: “We offered the trust to the heavens and
the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, being afraid thereof,
and man accepted to bear it. He is, indeed, extremely oppressive and ignorant.”
(33:72)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again from the Qur’an: “And
surely we shall test you with some fear and hunger and loss of wealth and lives
and crops, but give glad tidings to the steadfast, who say when misfortune
strikes them: surely to Allah we belong and to Allah we are returning.” (2:
155-156). Claims to sincerity will always be tested.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">There are many people today – both within the
Muslim and Christian communities – who talk about human beings having been
created in the image of God. One should ask what the nature of an “image” is
for it is neither God, nor other than God. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">In one Hadith Qudsi – that is words which are
uttered through the mouth of the Prophet, but which are said to be the words of
God rather than those of a man and, yet, what is said does not constitute
revelation – the following statement is reported to have been said: “In the
beginning, I was alone, and I am now as I was in the beginning.” In another
Hadith Qudsi, the following words were reported to have been said: “I am Ahmad
without meem (m).“ In other words, God is Ahad. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Reflect on the foregoing. God is saying that God
was alone in the beginning, and God is now as God was in the beginning. God is
Ahad – the One, the Singular, the Only, the Alone.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is said
to have cautioned people to: “Reflect upon all things but reflect not on God’s
Essence.” The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is also reported to have
said: “I have been given all the Names and have been sent to perfect good
behavior.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">We can reflect on the Names – that is, we can
reflect on all of the different levels of manifestation that are made possible
by the way in which Nur, Divine Light, is defracted through the prism of the
Names of Allah -- but we cannot reflect on the Essence or Dhat of God. The
image of God is to be found in the Names and not in the Divine Essence for
although in essence we human beings might be Divine, we are not Divinity in
Essence. Indeed, as the Qur’an indicates: “God appointed for you stars that you
might be guided in the darkness of the land and the sea.” (6:97) The Qur’an
also states: “And God taught Adam all of the Names, then, showed them to the
angels, saying: Inform me of the names of these, if ye are truthful. They said:
Be glorified! We have no knowledge saving that which Thou hast taught us. Lo!
Thou, only Thou, art the Knower, The Wise. God said: O Adam! Inform them of
their names. God said: Did I not tell you that I know the secret of the heavens
and the earth?” (2:31-33). </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Names of Divinity give active expression to
the Divine Presence. Nonetheless, one cannot reduce the latter to the former,
for if this were the case – that is, if the Names and Essence were identical --
then, to reflect on the Names (which is encouraged by God throughout the
Qur’an) would be forbidden since, as stipulated earlier, the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) is reported to have said that one should not reflect on the
Divine Essence.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is
reported to have said: “All of the Revealed Books are contained in the Qur’an.
And, the meaning of the Qur’an is contained within Surah al-Fatihah. And, the
meaning of Surah al-Fatiha is contained in Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem, and
the meaning of Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem is contained in Bimillah, and the
meaning of Bismillah is contained in the dot beneath bey (b).” Look for the
image that gives expression to the fitra or essential nature of human beings in
the dot beneath bey in Bismillah. Names are Names, but Essence is beyond all
Names even as Names give testimony to the Presence of Essence or Dhat.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Earlier in this commentary, reference was made to
my first shaykh. I have had two shaykhs – the first one was authentic and the
second individual was a spiritual charlatan, and while the second “guide” might
have been an imposter, nonetheless, he taught me some valuable lessons.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">When my first shaykh passed away in 1988 I knew
that I needed more guidance, and I knew that such an understanding of my
unfinished spiritual condition was a sincere assessment of my condition.
However, as indicated previously, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has
indicated that “the sincere are at great risk.” Part of that risk is that one’s
intentions will be rigorously tested.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Although, by the Grace of Allah, this unworthy
individual had been permitted to spend considerable time in the company of a true
saint of the 20<sup>th</sup> century and, thereby, had been provided with
numerous opportunities to serve God through him, nonetheless, following the
passing away of my guide, I was prepared to start all over again if I were to
be fortunate enough to find another shaykh. There were no expectations on my
part that I would be entitled to be given some sort of spiritual intimacy with another
shaykh as had been the case with my first spiritual guide. I was just ready to
learn whatever I could.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">After several false starts, my life was brought
into contact with someone who – on the surface – seemed to be a genuine shaykh.
That individual could quote a seemingly endless litany of appropriate Hadiths
and Quranic passages at the time that circumstances appeared to call for such
words, and, as well, he could speak authoritatively on the history of the Sufi
tradition and offer an endless stream of anecdotes that brought different
dimensions of the spiritual journey to the attention of those who listened to
him. I report the foregoing in the manner that I have because I had been
listening to my first shaykh for nearly sixteen years and could see how what
the second shaykh was saying reflected – at least on the surface -- what the
first shaykh had been saying, but words are like icebergs which have a small,
visible portion that is rooted in a reality that lies beneath the surface and
is capable of giving surface words an impetus that is a function of the
properties and qualities of the kind of reality which lies beneath the surface
of spoken words.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The second shaykh was charismatic, had a great
sense of humor, and was very approachable. On a number of occasions, I
witnessed the way the second shaykh was able to induce fundamentalist oriented
individuals to alter their approach to Islam, and this transformation often
took place within a matter of hours, if not sooner. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">At a certain point, after having had the
opportunity to listen to the second shaykh, ask him questions, and watch how he
interacted with a wide variety of individuals under an array of circumstances,
I sought initiation. Upon being initiated – and none of what follows had so
much as been hinted to me prior to initiation – I was made a shaykh and
informed about an important role that I was to serve in the West – a role that
my new shaykh had been instructed about – allegedly -- by his own shaykh a
number of years previously. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">I began to give talks, initiate mureeds, and
undertake different tasks that I was being assigned by my second shaykh in
Canada, the United States, and England. There were other presumptive shaykhs in
North America with whom I came in contact that appeared to acknowledge that my second
shaykh was the real deal. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">However, to make a longer story much shorter,
after about a decade of service, I was exposed to incontrovertible evidence
that the second shaykh who was referred to as Baba, or spiritual father, was
engaged in an array of unacceptable behaviors which were destroying people’s
lives – including my own life. Among other things, the individual was a sexual
predator.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Some people who hear the foregoing might ask:
“Well, if your first shaykh was authentic and a saint, why didn’t he step in
and help you in some way.” In truth, such help was extended to me several
times. Once was in the form of a dream in which my first shaykh came to me and
told me that I was travelling in the wrong, spiritual direction. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">However, while I was quite prepared to accept the
idea that I was making mistakes and needed to do some sort of course
correction, I chose to ask the wrong person about what the dream might mean in
specific terms. In other words, I went to the second, physically living shaykh
and mentioned the dream in which my previous shaykh had indicated that I was
journeying in the wrong direction, and, of course, the individual to whom I told
the dream was a master of spinning things and spin he did. As I reflect upon
that incident and, by the Grace of Allah, having gained some emotional distance
from that time, the irony of that set of circumstances has not been lost on me.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">In addition, prior to the foregoing incident and
before I came into contact with the individual who would turn out to be a
spiritual charlatan, I also had been given another warning by my first shaykh –
the one who had passed away. More specifically, there was a Sufi gathering that
was taking place and at that gathering someone else who had been a mureed of my
first shaykh indicated to me that he had had a dream in which our shaykh had
instructed him to tell me to look out for two wolves. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">I subsequently came in contact with a number of
individuals who turned out to have the qualities of a wolf. Consequently, I had
a little difficulty distinguishing between the wheat and the chaff when it came
to identifying which of the people I met were the two wolves to which my first
shaykh was trying to draw my attention. As a result, by the time I came into
the company of the second shaykh, I thought – incorrectly – that I already had
been exposed to, and managed to free myself from, individuals who seemed to fit
the description of the sort of individuals about which my shaykh had warned me
in the dream of a friend that had been conveyed to me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Notwithstanding the foregoing missteps, and
despite being a little slow on the uptake with respect to the understanding
that was necessary to realize some of the truth of what was transpiring, I did
come across the evidence that was needed to break free from the second, alleged
shaykh -- the spiritual charlatan. Moreover, without going into details, the
realization has gradually dawned on me over time that the spiritual charlatan
had been trying to destroy me and my life for quite some time, including doing
things behind my back that were intended to isolate me from my family and
friends.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Although there have been many truths that,
gradually, have surfaced as a result of those ten years in the spiritual
desert, the learning process has been soaked with considerable pain. However, life
is not just about the jamali names of Divinity – the names of ease, bounty,
beauty, and mercy, because whether one likes it or not, life is also about
being exposed to the jalali names as well – the names of rigor, severity, and
hardship.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The aforementioned spiritual charlatan induced
many people to lose their faith. Yet, irrespective of whatever role spiritual
charlatans play in the lives of people, the choice of what one does with the
events that come into one’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>life –
whether on refers to them as being “good” or “bad” -- always belongs to the
individual.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is
reported to have said: “Knowledge is of two kinds: Formal knowledge which does
not go beyond verbal profession. It is the evidence of God against those people
who profess such knowledge, and according to it, God will judge them; and,
genuine knowledge, which is deep rooted in the heart – this is the knowledge
which is most useful.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">God has provided me with bits of genuine
knowledge that were derived from the time I spent in the company of a real
shaykh. God also has instilled genuine knowledge in me that arose, like a
phoenix, from the ashes of my relationship with the false shaykh.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Qur’an informs us that: “If Allah were to
take humankind to task for their wrong-doing, God would not leave hereon a
living creature, but God reprieveth them to an appointed term.” (16:61) I have
tried to learn as much as I can about the nature of my own wrong-doing in the
time that has been reprieved to me by God, and both of the aforementioned
shaykhs, each in his own inimical way, has helped me to become aware of my
mistakes and, slowly, with the help of Allah, I have sought to move in the
direction of seeking to realize my fitra and away from ceding my agency to the
influence of nafs, dunya, shaytans, and a false shaykh.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">Back in the late 1960s, early 1970s, I remember
coming across a book and a set of records by Baba Ram Das who, previously, had
gone under the name: Richard Alpert. He, along with Timothy Leary, had been professors
of psychology at Harvard when I was there, and during that time they both were
fired from their jobs for experimenting with psilocybin as well as a few other
consciousness-bending substances. A few years later Alpert wrote a book,
accompanied by a set of records, called: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Be
Here, Now</i>. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">I had listened to the recordings and was quite
moved by them, and, as a result, began to explore various mystical ideas and
practices. My journey traversed a different path than his did, but, I tend to
think that we both have been trying to move in the general direction of
essential truths.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The series of words: “Be Here, Now” trips so easily
off the lips, and, yet, to really understand what it is to “Be” and what the
nature of the “Here” and the “Now” are, is profoundly difficult. The depth of
the significance of that statement runs into the Unseen, for, as the Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: “Truly, the Qur’an has
an outward and an inward dimension, and so on up to seven dimensions,” and,
therefore, to properly understand what is entailed by the notion of “Be Here,
Now,” from a Sufi perspective, one would need to travel to the most inward
dimension – the seventh level -- of the Qur’an … and, maybe, beyond.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">As the Qur’an indicates: “… if all of the trees
in the earth were pens, and the sea, with seven more seas to help it (were
ink), the words of Allah could not be exhausted.” (31:27) Or, approached in
another way, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said:
“God has seventy thousands veils of light and darkness; were they to be
removed, the Glories of God’s face would burn away everything perceived by the
sight of God’s creatures.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">We spend our lives sailing through the mysteries
of those seventy thousand veils. We try to learn the intricacies of spiritual
navigation that will enable us to find the way back to our essential selves and
the truth of the nature of our relationship to the One Who has thrown us into
the many currents of life. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">At the beginning of this commentary, I referred
to the Prophetic saying that includes the stipulation that: “there are 73 sects
among Muslims, and only one of them is correct”. The considerations put forth
throughout the present commentary allude to why there are so many paths that
might be followed which will lead toward, or to, one of the 72 incorrect sects,
and, how although the one correct way might be steeped in considerable mystery,
yet, nonetheless, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) confirmed its
reality when he is reported to have said: “There are hidden gems of knowledge
unknown to all but those who know Allah. If they are spoken of, none denies
them except those arrogant toward Allah.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">My first shaykh knew of such gems but was very
guarded in his speech concerning them. My second shaykh – the spiritual fraud –
did not know such gems but tried to speak as if he did, and, as a result, was thoroughly
ensconced in one of the 72 incorrect ways of engaging Islam.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">The present podcast will be my last in the Sufi
Reverberations series – at least for the foreseeable future. I started these
presentations not because I was a shaykh but because I wanted to share whatever
I could that might offer a form of remembrance and support for whomever might
happen onto the presentations while travelling through the darkness which is
growing all about us. Indeed, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is
reported to have said: “Verily, God doth not take away knowledge from the hands
of Divine servants, but taketh it by taking away the learned, so that when no
learned people remain, the ignorant will be placed at the head of affairs.
Causes will be submitted to their decision, and they will pass sentence without
knowledge, and they will err themselves, and lead others into error.” These are
the times in which we live.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">For those who are interested, I have written more
than forty books on an array of topics, ranging from: Medicine, to: Evolution,
the Sufi path, 9/11, spiritual abuse, Sam Harris, Tolstoy, Islam, shari’ah, education,
quantum mechanics, cosmology, religion, constitutional issues, philosophy,
psychology, sovereignty, and more. The books are all free for the taking and
can be found at: <a href="https://billwhitehouse.com/press.htm">https://billwhitehouse.com/press.htm</a>
. No e-mail addresses will be required, nor will donations be asked for. Take
what you like and leave the rest.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">If books are not your thing, then, there are some
videos that might be of interest to you. These can be found at: <a href="https://billwhitehouse.com/video.htm">https://billwhitehouse.com/video.htm</a>
-- the last two videos on the page might have the most value.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;">As-Salaam-u-‘alaykum and khuda hafiz. (<a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/238325/13474496-what-s-in-a-name-episode-16.mp3?download=true" target="_blank">What's In A Name</a>)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; margin: 0.05in 0in 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-43602698549194649742023-06-08T18:40:00.006-04:002023-06-08T18:47:09.024-04:00Sovereignty: A Play in Three Acts (Audio-Video Edition) by Anab Whitehouse<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghaaRlcYA_Y3ld_vlKz5bzHIgJ_8Iohuniz9pDzX8ywMq3MIqEwP0Z1Exyi35-mLjgpK6Px__m-QeUGpGBKxVNTzgkuIgt184SWao1pjzCkKgbHPhqA2nLQ9bmvO-R9CbxH-3lmuow10td5d9zg8SIQTGmZ3OHqiygfrjzp-WsdKAY6CmD0w/s2404/Sovereignty-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1426" data-original-width="2404" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghaaRlcYA_Y3ld_vlKz5bzHIgJ_8Iohuniz9pDzX8ywMq3MIqEwP0Z1Exyi35-mLjgpK6Px__m-QeUGpGBKxVNTzgkuIgt184SWao1pjzCkKgbHPhqA2nLQ9bmvO-R9CbxH-3lmuow10td5d9zg8SIQTGmZ3OHqiygfrjzp-WsdKAY6CmD0w/w520-h222/Sovereignty-Cover.jpg" width="520" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Nine characters are cast into a set of circumstances that cannot be explained but with which those individuals must engage. The fate of humanity rides on what they do. Their task is to come to grips with the issue of self-governance. With no resources on which to draw except their own ideas, intelligence, moral integrity, and understanding, they must try to work out the essential principles of sovereignty. The challenge is time-limited, but they do not how much time is left before the final buzzer is sounded. In addition, there is a war, of some kind, that is raging all around them, and the explosions are coming closer and closer to their location. The discussions which ensue are far-reaching. They range from: the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, to: issues of ratification, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, constitutionality, the rule of law, judicial interpretation, sovereignty, the nature of power, education, cults, the scientific problem of origins, militarism, and more. Finally, a number of the characters are suspected of terrorism and treason. As a result, they must face an investigation into their activities. The truth might not be enough to save those individuals, but an unexpected decision is rendered leading to ... To engage an audio-video (mostly audio) rendering of the foregoing play, please go to: </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://www.billwhitehouse.com/Queries/Sovereignty-Play.htm" target="_blank">Sovereignty: A Play in Three Acts</a></span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-63671523983467075342023-05-12T11:00:00.001-04:002023-05-12T11:04:08.984-04:00Follow The What? - An Introduction By Anab Whitehouse<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtkblGsfNdHWb6wBE8Y8Pf8CeKMwvPSI88_NXJrDhcawjYvjgETomtMOIftYqVM9VFiKxvvIqJfl4NqEneGJFupVIzC6AOS_lUUd6KbGOpaY6FYQ_0ADsZHrHO-eam-cAgFOpGo9g90OayZfTOWWcP33SOPzPEnACsUzUL_PgfZzWCI10jQ/s2414/Follow-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1162" data-original-width="2414" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtkblGsfNdHWb6wBE8Y8Pf8CeKMwvPSI88_NXJrDhcawjYvjgETomtMOIftYqVM9VFiKxvvIqJfl4NqEneGJFupVIzC6AOS_lUUd6KbGOpaY6FYQ_0ADsZHrHO-eam-cAgFOpGo9g90OayZfTOWWcP33SOPzPEnACsUzUL_PgfZzWCI10jQ/w438-h337/Follow-1.jpg" width="438" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The Canadian sociologist, Irving Goffman, developed a method
for analyzing experience. That technique is known as “framing analysis,” and,
among other things, it involves a process of critically reflecting on the way
in which actions, ideas, images, and so on are presented by someone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The current book offers its own inimitable exercise in
framing analysis concerning allopathic medicine. More specifically, the pages
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Follow the What? – An Introduction</i>
seek to explore a variety of ways in which experience might be organized – that
is, ways which involve framing ideas concerning the nature of experience – that
seek to place one’s relationship with the issue of health in a very different
sort of hermeneutical context than the proponents of allopathic medicine
normally might be inclined to do. As such, the material in this book is intended
to induce a reader to consider how different conceptual lenses, filters, and
the like might alter how one understands or goes about engaging the nature of
one’s relationship with reality – especially one’s lived reality as a
biological being.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Among the topics to be explored are: Framing analysis; technocracy;
the research of Louis Pasteur, Antoine Béchamp,</span><span style="background: white; color: #1f2937; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> Günther
Enderlein, Royal Rife and Gaston Naessens</span><span style="background: white; color: #1f2937; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">; monomorphism; pleiomorphism; germ theory
versus terrain theory; the alleged great influenza of 1918-19; virology;
immunology; vaccinology; smallpox research; epigenetics; the resonance effect;
frequency following behavior; energy; fields; quantum dynamics; zero-point
energy; transduction; some of the work of Rupert Sheldrake on morphogenesis;
polio research; the swine flu phenomenon of 1976; the National Childhood
Vaccine Injury Act of 1786; the PREP act of 2005, the Supreme Court decision in
the 1905 Jacobson v. Massachusetts case; rights; public health, and issues of
constitutionality.<o:p></o:p></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Follow-What-Introduction-Anab-Whitehouse/dp/B0C481K5Q1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=OVLJOC2GN0KQ&keywords=Follow+The+What+-+An+Introduction&qid=1683902361&s=books&sprefix=follow+the+what+-+an+introduction%2Cstripbooks%2C189&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Follow The What? An Introduction</a></blockquote></blockquote>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-63653451929441775312022-10-30T01:40:00.006-04:002022-10-30T01:45:13.297-04:00Sufi Reverberations Episode 12 - Mystical Science<p><a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/238325/11593319-sufi-reverberations-mystical-science.mp3?download=true">Mystical Science</a></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><b>(Right Click on above link to download MP3)</b></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Many people today believe that science and religion stand at opposite ends of any process of inquiry. For example, many individuals might claim, among other things, that science is rooted in methodology whereas religion is a function of theology. Or, alternatively, many people maintain that science seeks to provide hard evidence and work out rigorous proofs in support of various claims, whereas religion bases its assertions on professions of faith and speculation.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">While I am quite willing to concede that there often is a great deal of truth in the foregoing ways of characterizing and comparing science and religion, I don’t feel that such a perspective necessarily does justice to the discipline of authentic mysticism. Although the impression of some people concerning the nature of mysticism is that it tends to become entangled in notions of flights of fancy of one kind or another, the essential nature of authentic mysticism is quite different from such considerations.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">If one were to characterize scientific methodology, one might indicate that it consists of the following sorts of procedures or protocols: (1) empirical observation; (2) the use of instrumentation; (3) recursive methodology; (4) objectivity; (5) a community of expertise; (6) experimental replication, and (7) reliable prediction. My contention is that authentic mysticism gives expression to all of the aforementioned aspects of scientific methodology, and the following discussion seeks to provide something of an overview that lends support to the foregoing contention concerning the scientific nature of mysticism when this existential orientation is properly pursued, and I will use the Sufi path as a specific case study.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">(1)The empirical roots of the Sufi path come in many forms. Not only do the normal, external sensory channels provide empirical data, there are internal channels of empirical data as well.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Dreams, hal (that is, mystical states), maqam (spiritual stations), Kashf (mystical unveilings), and ilham (flashes of Divine intuition) also provide infinite sources of empirical data. Furthermore, these internal sources of empirical data come in different manifested forms of intensity and levels of certainty.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">As is true in the case of modern sciences, there is a considerable difference between the empirical character of the reports of a trained observer and the reports of an untrained individual concerning the nature of a given observation or experience. For example, not everyone who looks at an X-ray or who examines a photograph of the traces of a sub-atomic event can correctly interpret this empirical data. Similarly, not everyone who undergoes a mystical dream, state, station or unveiling – assuming the experience is veridical -- is able to understand, correctly, the empirical data to which such experiences give expression.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">The Sufi path provides an intense program that trains its adherents to be competent, exacting, empirical observers. The intensity and rigor of such a program rivals -- if not exceeds -- anything which modern science offers in the way of training its own observers. </span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">If an individual were critical of the scientific method but had never tried to engage its procedures or perform any of its experiments, or never worked with any of its instruments, then, a modern proponent of science might be justified if she or he were to say that such a would-be critic should try to acquire some minimal amount of experience concerning such matters before giving voice to an uninformed sort of opposition. Similarly, if a proponent of modern science were to express reservations concerning the potential value of the mystical path without, say, having gone into spiritual seclusion for an extended period of time in order to participate in an essential form of methodology and experimentation concerning the nature of the ego and other dimensions of human nature, then, a practitioner of the mystical dimension of Islam might well be justified in advising that such a would-be critic of the Sufi path should acquire some first-hand knowledge of the rigorous character of that tradition before trying to pass judgment on that perspective.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">(2) Modern science employs a variety of instruments in its pursuit of understanding. On the one hand, there are what might be termed "natural" instruments such as logic, reason, and mathematics. On the other hand, there are different kinds of external, constructed tools or instruments used in the detection and measurement of various physical phenomena.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">The physical sciences provide different way of engaging and probing the nature of the universe. For instance, light telescopes, radio telescopes, infrared telescopes, and X-ray telescopes will all gather different information concerning the character of the universe</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Like the physical sciences, the Sufi mystical path also employs a number of different instruments that are capable of exploring different facets of existence. To begin with, mysticism shares a common commitment with the physical sciences to the properties of the mind and its qualities of logic and reasoning.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">In addition, according to Sufi masters, the heart (the spiritual entity, not the physical object) is the locus of gnosis, or knowledge This provides a direct, conceptually unmediated engagement of different dimensions of Divine reality.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Another instrument spoken of by Sufi masters is the sirr or mystery. The sirr is said to be the locus of spiritual witnessing with respect to whatever God may disclose to the individual and helps to protect the heart from remembering other than, or becoming preoccupied with other than, the presence of Divinity. </span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">A further instrument of the Sufi path is referred to as the kafi or “the hidden”. The kafi is described as being the locus of manifestation for the spiritual illumination, wisdom, knowledge and understanding which comes through encounters with the Divine lights and colors of a certain realm of God’s Dominion. </span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Beyond the kafi, there is further potential for spiritual instrumentation capable of engaging still further dimensions of Reality through the agency of the aqfah – the “more hidden”. These concern certain modalities of Divine mysteries and secrets which are breathed into the essential capacity of human beings through the Spirit of God.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Another modality of mystical instrumentation comes via the ruh or spirit. Sufi masters describe the spirit as being the locus of love for Divinity. When the potential for love that is inherent in the spirit is realized, this enables the individual to experience, know and understand life, identity and one’s relationship with Divinity in a manner which is different from, but supplemental to, the other spiritual instruments of mind, heart, sirr, kafi, and aqfah. </span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Of course, in the matter of the physical sciences, one can be like the Church elders during the time of Galileo and refuse to look at reality through the lens of a telescope. Similarly, one can refuse to become trained in the use of, and take advantage of, the instruments to which the Sufi masters allude through which one can engage different dimensions of reality. However, failing to use instruments – whether in the physical sciences or the mystical sciences – does not justify claims that such instruments have nothing to tell one about the nature of Reality or Being.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Finally, the instruments that are used in modern science must all be calibrated to provide reliable readings. This also is the case on the Sufi path. Mystical instruments, like their physical counterparts, only produce reliable results after a process of calibration in which a variety of adjustments are necessary in the use of a given form of instrumentation so that various sources of distortion and inconsistent readings can be eliminated.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">(3) Modern science employs a recursive methodology which entails a series of repetitive steps that, hopefully, permits one, to come closer and closer to the true character of some aspect of reality being encountered through experience. In effect, one feeds the results from one cycle of repetitive, methodological activity back into the next cycle of such activity in order to generate improved accuracy, understanding, and so on, over time.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">On the Sufi path, recursive methodology plays a key role. One starts out by, if God wishes, cleansing, balancing and transforming the ego or false self through repetitive cycles of prayer, fasting, charity and so on. This constitutes the first set of repetitive steps.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">One takes the results from the first application of recursive methodology concerning the ego and proceeds, God willing, to purify the heart through zikr or remembrance of God. This is a second cycle of repetitive steps which builds on the accomplishments of the first cycle.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">The next set of repetitive steps involves the sirr or mystery. If God wishes, through a process referred to, by Sufi masters, as emptying the sirr of other than God, the understanding of the individual is further supplemented and complemented.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">A further cycle of the process of recursive methodology is encountered when, God willing, the spirit undergoes the perfection of its spiritual potential. Once again, the application of recursive methodology through a process of perfecting the spirit brings the individual, by the grace of God, to a deeper, fuller, richer understanding of different dimensions of the reality of Being.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">(4) To be objective, one needs to eliminate as many sources of bias, prejudice, distortion and error as is possible. The search for truth must be freed from all forces which would compromise the integrity of that search.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Sufi masters outline two major expressions of objectivity on the mystical path. The first concerns the condition known as "fana".</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Fana occurs when the false self dissolves before the Presence of Divinity. Since the false self is a major source of error and distortion, the condition of fana enhances the degree of objectivity in one’s engagement of Reality.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">The second source of objectivity on the Sufi path comes through the spiritual condition of "baqa". This condition occurs when the true self and essential capacity of the individual become established.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">In a sense, baqa is a spiritual version of an unobtrusive measure. In baqa one sees by the vision of God and one hears by the hearing of God, and so on. Consequently, there is nothing which one does which intrudes into the engagement of experience and distorts the nature of that experience, and, as a result, one is able to engage Reality according to one’s spiritual capacity to do so. </span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">In other words, while what one experiences during the foregoing states or conditions is not distorted, nonetheless, it might be limited due to the nature of one’s inherent spiritual capabilities.One cannot experience or know more than one has the capacity to experience and know.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Spiritual capacity, however, does not distort or introduce error. Whatever is experienced is true and real as far as it goes. On the other hand, the spiritual experience, knowledge and understanding made possible, by the grace of God, through the full realization of one’s spiritual capacity do not exhaust what can be experienced, known or understood with respect to Divine realities by those who have been more spiritually gifted by God.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">(5) The community of expertise in modern science plays an important role with respect to considerations of methodology, evaluation, and understanding. The community of expertise establishes the parameters of agreement and degrees of freedom concerning disagreement within which the process of science is to be conducted.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">There is a similar community of expertise in the Sufi mystical tradition. Unlike modern science, however, the essence of what is agreed upon by the mystical community of expertise has not changed since the inception of such a community.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">The Sufi mystical community of expertise consists of all the Sufi masters of the path, both present and past. All of these masters are in agreement concerning the structural character of human beings and what is necessary in order to be able to work toward the full realization of the essential, spiritual potential of being human.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Sufi masters do not always share the same understanding in all matters. Like their counterparts in the community of expertise in modern science, not all Sufi masters are equal in spiritual capacity. First there are the Prophets, and, then, there are those who have followed, and realized, to varying degrees, the way of the Prophets, and, then, there are those who are sincerely and actively seeking the truth and might have realized varying degrees of the truth, and, finally, there are the commonality of believers, each of whom has his or her own potential relationship with Divinity.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Nevertheless, irrespective of whatever differences in spiritual capacity exist among Sufi masters, none of this affects their agreement concerning the general character of what constitutes spiritual progress on the path. One goes from: seeking, to finding, to gnosis or knowledge, to loving, to fana (extinction), and, finally, to unity concerning the relationship between human potential and Reality (i.e., baqa) .</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Different people may experience these stages in self-similar rather than self-same ways. However, the essence of Unity remains in the midst of whatever differences might be present.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">(6) The issue of replication is at the heart of modern science. If the results of a research project cannot be repeated by other investigators, the original research cannot be confirmed and, therefore, lacks scientific credibility and reliability.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">The procedures for setting up and carrying out a given line of inquiry must be clearly stated. This is necessary so that any qualified and competent researcher can follow those procedures and produce a result which reflects, within certain allowable limits of difference, the outcome of the original research.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">The process of replication is also central to the Sufi mystical path. Indeed, the nature of the mystical path is itself the process of replication which clearly has been described by all competent and qualified spiritual researchers who have preceded one on that path.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">If one follows the procedures and methods indicated, then, God willing, one will arrive at the same sort of outcome and conclusions as did the original researchers. These results are expressions of universal laws concerning the inherent nature of the relationship between human beings and Divinity. </span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">However, just as many scientists of the physical world work under, and with, the guidance of some senior research leader, so too is this the case with respect to the Sufi path. Until a certain point of investigative sophistication has been reached, a Sufi scientist tends to work with the assistance of someone who has achieved a certain degree of scientific advancement.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">(7) Finally, although not all sciences exhibit the capacity to predict, on the basis of known principles, how certain phenomena will unfold over time, mystical science does have this capability. However, for a variety of reasons, Sufi masters often will not indulge others or themselves with public exhibitions of their God given gifts to predict how events will unfold.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">There are many well documented accounts of the ability of Sufi masters and Sufi saints to tell what will happen before a given event manifests itself in the physical world. There are also well known accounts of the ability, by the grace of God, of various practitioners of the Sufi path to be able to describe, and, subsequently, have corroborated, what is going on, simultaneously, at considerable distance from them. </span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">For example, there was a renowned shaykh who was being visited by a woman whose son had gone away and whom she was deeply missing. She kept asking the shaykh to do something about her situation, and the shaykh kept saying that, God willing, her son would return.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">On a particular day, the woman had approached the shaykh on a number of occasions concerning her son. Finally, after a number of visits by that woman on a given day, he said: “Go home, your son will be waiting for you,” whereupon the woman quickly left, quite happy with what she had been told.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Later in the day, the woman returned with her son. She introduced her son to the shaykh and thanked him for his assistance.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">After the woman left, one of the companions of the shaykh asked the latter how he had known that the son would be at the woman’s house waiting for her given that the shaykh had not left their present location all day? The shaykh is reported to have said: “There is certainty in my prayer.”</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Above and beyond such favors of God, there is a precision to the predictive understanding which Sufi masters have concerning the effect on the individual of different spiritual practices, or lack thereof. This understanding comes from the light of God and allows the Sufi master to be able to guide initiates along the Sufi path, with precision, as a result of that understanding.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">According to Sufi masters, there are different levels of reality. The lowest realm concerns the world of corporeal bodies. This is known as Nasut.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Next, is the realm of the souls of all created things. This is the level of Malakut.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Beyond this is the realm of Jabarut. This level concerns the Attributes of Divinity.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">After the realm of Jabarut, is the level of Lahut. This concerns the fixed forms of non-existence which, if God wishes, are given reflected existence through the Divine command of creation: "Kun! (Be)".</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Beyond the realm of Lahut, is Hahut. This is the Divine Essence which makes all the other levels possible.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">For the most part, modern science only explores the lowest realm of existence—namely, Nasut, which is the realm of corporeal bodies. Modern physical science, unlike mystical science, has no capacity to explore any of the other realms of Being.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Unfortunately, all too many physical scientists rationalize the foregoing limitation by dismissing the other realms as being irrelevant to the process of science. Mystical scientists (i.e., Sufi masters) indicate that, in a very fundamental way, such realms are not irrelevant to the process of science.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">In fact, according to practitioners of the Sufi path, the very first act one must perform in order to seek the truth is to cleanse and purify the self. As such, science, of whatever kind, is, in essence, a moral and spiritual activity.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: lato, "Helvetic Neue", Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bolder;">Scientific methodology has value and appeal precisely because, among other things, it gives expression to a way of trying to preserve the integrity of the scientific process and protect the results of that process from being compromised and rendered unreliable. Mystical science pursues the value and integrity of such methodology to the furthest limits of possibility for human beings.</span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-32247340691095888072022-09-30T16:28:00.004-04:002022-09-30T16:32:25.473-04:00Free Books - Varied Topics! From: Quantum Physics, to: Psychology, Constitutional History, Mysticism, and More<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='588' height='366' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxzN78jtjeADyTO90G1JcFmxRm5jsB4mRxa71LUdCEfOteo_YD4cWkE1JHUZwuKll-WeP1D1X7P0hE' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-3867083844866367852022-01-18T16:16:00.004-05:002022-01-18T16:17:34.530-05:00Hearts Across The Waters Podcast<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinJVXalyniQxrvmkyKTUyM0rI8PY9LUbJZeD4-1XtZZBOucASdG8tSd-wmNqqzFY6NTWxiaIIZe6BRdISYXtMNQkTD-1CzpA9OJVACq8QdnHevQgnEfVzBXbQKS7dwxWwiL4preZzbC3Z_-O0LHFNRzKVUqVZlgh9bbs87J6gsRgBF9EViqw=s6000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3894" data-original-width="6000" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinJVXalyniQxrvmkyKTUyM0rI8PY9LUbJZeD4-1XtZZBOucASdG8tSd-wmNqqzFY6NTWxiaIIZe6BRdISYXtMNQkTD-1CzpA9OJVACq8QdnHevQgnEfVzBXbQKS7dwxWwiL4preZzbC3Z_-O0LHFNRzKVUqVZlgh9bbs87J6gsRgBF9EViqw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Two
individuals -- one from Senegal (Masake Kane) and one from the United States
(Anab Whitehouse) -- join together to explore an array of philosophical,
educational, political, economic, medical, cultural, scientific, and spiritual
issues from their respective perspectives. While both individuals are Muslim
and, therefore, such a spiritual orientation helps shape their ways of engaging
life, nonetheless, the tenor of the podcasts will be to focus on topical issues
through a process of critically reflective inquiry (by the two co-hosts along
with thoughts and insights from occasional guests) which seeks to highlight a
variety of conceptual themes that might be of potential value, as well as to
raise relevant questions that could serve as food for thought, among members of
the listening audience. </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://heartsacrossthewaters.buzzsprout.com/" target="_blank">Hearts Across the Waters Podcast</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-19239134384737084472021-12-25T15:01:00.000-05:002021-12-25T15:01:44.349-05:00Observations Concerning My Encounter with COVID-19 (?)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Observations-Concerning-My-Encounter-COVID-19/dp/B09MYVWN49/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17TX1E85IDQ1I&keywords=Observations+Concerning+My+Encounter+With+COVID-19%28%3F%29&qid=1640460411&sprefix=observations+concerning+my+encounter+with+covid-19+%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1447" data-original-width="965" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAIusLw9h2Cq8gt4yJq3uiaME_U3fnPfD7gx0k05YRLPU09YjQsyLUfqLArJoDuu_AzSrW0WbOyGaIf50DfJAuJ_H4TtxAXgpE_qf1xuBGt2ZgLzuSue-fd0U4zzrr-ANODFX3Icj6sZ9-yE3UGNPbmHeFzM625zxM6DuqmrUz3A8wXvy5Vg=s320" width="213" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">For the last month, or so, I have been recovering from a fairly serious illness that began in late September 2021 and continued on throughout most of the month of October 2021. Many individuals -- whose understanding has been shaped and framed by sources that, for various reasons, cannot necessarily be trusted – might be likely to have assumed that the illness against which I have been struggling was nothing other than a manifestation of a viral infection caused by SARS-CoV-2. For reasons that will be made clear during the course of this book, such an assumption is not necessarily warranted.</span><p></p><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This book has been written, for the most part, during my period of on-going recovery. It gives expression to a variety of observations that have been made concerning the whole COVID-19 narrative and what relevance, if any, that narrative has in relation to my recent bout of illness. Click on the image of the book cover for the link to the Amazon page.</span>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-49812158501628493622021-07-18T02:02:00.005-04:002021-07-18T02:07:06.078-04:00Gaslighting in the Age of COVID<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The following video seeks to offer a critically reflective
tour through not only some of the Constitutional dimensions of the COVID-19
crisis(at least as those dimensions pertain to constitutional possibilities in America),
but, as well, the video undertakes forays into a number of issues involving
public health, virology, PCR testing, immunity, and medicine. The latter part of the video also touches on
some of the work of Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo by offering a brief
overview concerning how two of their experiments in particular have
considerable relevance for many of the controversies that surround, and are
entailed by, the events to which COVID-19 has given rise.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Quite frequently, the biggest obstacle to
being able to properly understand various issues is not necessarily a function
of ignorance but, instead, often tends to arise when we become entangled in the
illusion that we believe we know something to be true when such a belief might not be tenable when critically
examined. Hopefully, the Gaslighting video will provide potential viewers with
an opportunity to meditate on a variety of issues of importance to everyday
life. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For
those who complete the the video journey to which I am directing your attention, you will discover that near the end
of the video there are directions for how to go about downloading a number of
free e-books covering topics such as sovereignty, constitutionality, and
education. And, no, you will not have to give your e-mail in exchange for those
free books, nor will you required to join anything in order to acquire the
foregoing material. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What’s
the trick? There is none. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="background: white; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If you
like the books, then, we both will be happy. If you don’t like the books, then,
we both will be happy as well, because you didn’t lose any money to acquire them,
and I didn’t receive any money for something you didn’t like. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="background: white; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Here is the link for the video: <a href="https://www.billwhitehouse.com/Queries/Gaslighting.htm" target="_blank">Gaslighting</a> . Depending on the speed of your internet connection, the video could take a little bit of time to buffer.</span></b></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-19903832639324061612021-06-19T17:05:00.006-04:002021-06-19T17:14:29.601-04:00Sufi Reverberations Podcast: Constitutional Gaslighting, Dershowitz, and the Age of COVID<p> <a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/238325" target="_blank">Constitutional Gaslighting, Dershowitz, and the Age of Covid</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The following few paragraphs are taken from the beginning of the most recent edition of: <u>The Sufi Reverberations Podcast</u> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">-----</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Relatively recently, Alan
Dershowitz, an American criminal and constitutional lawyer, has claimed that
government has a right to forcibly vaccinate individuals in order to protect
the health of the public in general. I do not believe that his claim is tenable,
and while elucidating what I consider to be the errors in his way of thinking
will take a bit of time to delineate, nonetheless, I believe the exercise will
be worth the time and effort that are required to concentrate and reflect on
the ideas that follow.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Let’s begin with a counterclaim
to Mr. Dershowitz assertions concerning forcible, mandated inoculations, and let’s
use this as a starting point through which to explore a variety of issues from
the perspective which is inherent in such a counterclaim. More specifically,
consider the following thesis: The unspecified, retained rights of the Ninth
Amendment and the unspecified, reserved powers of the Tenth Amendment are
independent of the jurisdiction of both the federal government as well as the
state governments. Therefore, the executive, legislative, and/or the judicial
branches of federal and state governments do not have any constitutional standing
or authority with respect to identifying, designating, defining, or making
rulings concerning the conceptual structure and/or content that might be
entailed by either the retained rights or reserved powers of the Ninth and
Tenth Amendments respectively. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Another
way of stating the foregoing thesis is the following. Anyone (whether
government official, lawyer, judge, media personality, senator, representative,
corporate official, or academic) who tries to claim that the Constitution
recognizes only the rights, powers, and sovereignty of federal or state
authorities, and, thereby, allegedly establishes that individuals do not have retained
rights and reserved powers under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments that give
expression to a separate, independent venue of rights, powers and sovereignty which
is not subject to the authority of either the federal or state governments is
engaging, knowingly or unknowingly, in a process of seeking to gaslight
whomever they are addressing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/238325" target="_blank">Constitutional Gaslighting, Dershowitz, and the Age of COVID</a></span></span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-116274022930846712021-06-07T15:37:00.001-04:002021-06-07T15:56:12.990-04:00Constitutional Gaslighting, Dershowitz, and the Age of COVID<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcDB52w2QplgZQhdyXkJDG6w4ZTShVB0s-_EuAM7kd65_q2So6k0ofvm2vsq0-A00bEZMUOG5wPr6CxG_Oof6a2Y1Ruxtm3ogS6BFkT_nb3xVC_MHCcWWsreXe8C3o42O0hoC0_w/s1843/Gaslighting-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1843" data-original-width="1556" height="479" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcDB52w2QplgZQhdyXkJDG6w4ZTShVB0s-_EuAM7kd65_q2So6k0ofvm2vsq0-A00bEZMUOG5wPr6CxG_Oof6a2Y1Ruxtm3ogS6BFkT_nb3xVC_MHCcWWsreXe8C3o42O0hoC0_w/w540-h479/Gaslighting-2.jpg" width="540" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Thesis</span></u><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.25in;">: The
unspecified “retained rights” of the Ninth Amendment and the unspecified
“reserved powers” of the Tenth Amendment are independent of the jurisdiction of
both the federal government as well as state governments. Therefore, the
executive, legislative, and/or the judicial branches of federal and state
governments do not have any constitutional standing or authority with respect
to identifying, designating, defining, or making rulings concerning the
conceptual structure and/or content that might be entailed by either the
“retained rights” or “reserved powers” of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments
respectively.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">-----<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">Another
way of stating the foregoing thesis is the following. Anyone (whether
government official, lawyer, judge, media personality, senator, representative,
corporate official, or academic) who tries to claim that the Constitution
recognizes only the rights, powers, and sovereignty of federal or state
authorities, and, thereby, allegedly establishes that individuals do not have
“retained rights” and “reserved powers” under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments that
give expression to a separate, independent venue of rights, powers and
sovereignty which is not subject to the authority of either the federal or
state governments is engaging, knowingly or unknowingly, in a process of seeking
to gaslight whomever they are addressing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">To
restrict the nature of the Constitution to being the exclusive function of
either federal or state rights and powers is to significantly distort the
character of what is being said in the Bill of Rights facet of the Constitution.
Unfortunately, the foregoing, erroneous, binary reading of the Constitution not
only began to increasingly manifest itself after 1791 when the Bill of Rights had
been ratified, but, in fact, constitutes a perspective that can be traced back
to the various Ratification Conventions that were subsequently convened in
order to consider, discuss, as well as vote upon the acceptability of the
constitutional document that emerged from the Philadelphia Convention of 1787.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">More
specifically, during the aforementioned ratification conventions, the statements
of many participants in those gatherings concerning individual rights and
powers were consistently ignored or dismissed by those individuals who were in
favor of a binary axis of authority that was to be divided between federal and
state governments and, therefore, who sought to rigorously resist all efforts to
have any of the ideas about individual rights and powers included in the text
of the pre-amended Constitution that was to be ratified. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">Promises
to address the foregoing sorts of concerns were made by those who were in favor
of a binary division of power between federal and state governments, but those
promises were soon forgotten when the constitutional document of 1787 was
ratified by the requisite number of conventions … a number which was
arbitrarily fixed by the Philadelphia document that was to be ratified. One
might also note that the various ratification conventions which took place following
the public release of the 1787 constitutional document consisted entirely of
people who had been appointed by an array of communities, villages, towns, and
cities rather than by state governments. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">In
short, state governments were not ratifying the 1787 constitutional document.
That document was being ratified by people who were serving as representatives
of other individuals rather than their state governments, although, as the
activities of the ratification conventions unfolded, the fact that quite a few
of the representatives in the conventions being held in various states were
serving as lobbyists and power brokers for state and federalist interests soon
became quite clear. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">As
indicated earlier, promises that had been made during different ratification
conventions concerning the issue of individual rights and powers were forgotten
once the Constitution of 1787 had been ratified. Those concerns might have
remained in the dustbin of history if a variety of individuals had not
persistently reminded an initially resistant James Madison about those promises
and, as a result, induced him (some might say guilted him) to put together a
number of rights concerning people and bring those ideas to Congress for
consideration. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">One
might also note in passing the following piece of history. When the wording of
the Tenth Amendment was being discussed by the members of Congress, the
following version of the Tenth Amendment had, more or less, been agreed upon –
namely:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">“The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the states, are reserved for the states respectively.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">After
some collective reflection on the foregoing, Roger Sherman, of Connecticut,
added: “or to the people”, to the foregoing. His offering was accepted without
discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: times;">Roger
Sherman is the only individual in American history to have been part of the
processes that led to the signing of: (a) the Continental Association; (b) the Declaration
of Independence; (c) the Articles of Confederation, and (d) the 1787
Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, and, as well, participated in the
official Congressional formulation concerning the Bill of Rights. Furthermore,
one should keep in mind that Sherman, along with many of the other participants
who helped bring the United States of America into formal existence, tended to
be wordsmiths, and, therefore, in light of his experience throughout the early
history of America, the fact that he added the words “or to the people” to the
aforementioned preliminary text of the Tenth Amendment indicates that “or to
the people” means something that is different from, and not identical to, the
term “states”. Moreover, given that the addition of the four words which he was
suggesting should be added to the end of the Tenth Amendment were accepted
without comment by his Congressional colleagues indicates that most, if not
all, of them understood the significance of what he was proposing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><span style="font-family: times;">----- </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><span style="font-family: times;">The full article is 48 pages in length. If you would like to either access or download the entire document, please go to:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><a href="https://www.billwhitehouse.com/Queries/Gaslighting.pdf" target="_blank">Constitutional Gaslighting, Dershowitz, and the Age of COVID</a> </span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-54561164780341834382021-04-13T02:38:00.000-04:002021-04-13T02:38:31.410-04:00Jeffrey Taubenberger's 1998 PBS Interview Concerning The 1918 Influenza Seems Strangely Familiar<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8kK8zWvhkPRi1KQLknI2XVBNs5WbHPqYXodx7oEHUMJWXJigALJt_dz_KDwkGqb8gyKrnURJqyJWv_CTIm6tJemI6FjiNfdScHr8QNHhygGS6yk_MWGDjcvanaBvFDn7dpNuvyg/s2048/1998-Interview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1753" data-original-width="2048" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8kK8zWvhkPRi1KQLknI2XVBNs5WbHPqYXodx7oEHUMJWXJigALJt_dz_KDwkGqb8gyKrnURJqyJWv_CTIm6tJemI6FjiNfdScHr8QNHhygGS6yk_MWGDjcvanaBvFDn7dpNuvyg/w536-h364/1998-Interview.jpg" width="536" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Before being employed by National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Jeffrey Taubenberger used to work for the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology (AFIP). The Institute has been in existence for about
130 years and began its operations during the Civil War as the result of an
executive order by Lincoln which instructed the Army Surgeon General to study
diseases that were connected to the battlefield. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The foregoing executive order was issued because
more people were dying from various forms of pathologies that arose in
conjunction with military conflicts than actually died as a result of the
weapons that were being deployed during those engagements. Consequently, the
Institute became a venue for collecting and studying samples taken from surgery
as well as autopsies involving both human beings and animals that had roles of
one kind or another within the military.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger is a specialist in molecular
pathology. This discipline develops methods for making diagnoses based on
changes in genetic composition rather than -- as is the case in conjunction
with traditional methods of pathology -- using microscopic examination of
biological samples to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Pathology samples are generally fixed in
chemicals such as formaldehyde, and, then, embedded in wax. This makes the
process of isolating DNA and RNA difficult to accomplish because the genetic
material found within the samples that are fixed in the foregoing ways tends to
become quite degraded over time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">RNA is much more fragile than DNA is. However,
Taubenberger indicates that researchers have developed techniques which permit
pathologists to help optimize – as much as possible – recovery efforts
concerning those two molecules, and, consequently, the alleged 1918 flu virus
served as an opportunity for using, exploring, and developing the kind of
recovery techniques to which Taubenberger was alluding earlier that involve
various kinds of molecules which are of interest to researchers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nevertheless, whatever the nature of the
foregoing sorts of recovery techniques might be, unless one can show how those
protocols are capable of zeroing in on RNA that is uniquely from alleged viral
bodies rather than from other biological sources, then one is faced with a
problem. More specifically, why should one suppose that whatever RNA is
recovered through the foregoing sort of techniques is necessarily from viral
bodies rather than from other biological components – such as tissue cells that
have died and released their genetic contents into the samples that have been
preserved?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger said his recovery project was
intended to “get a first direct look at the virus.” However, for a number of
reasons (some of which are noted in the following discussion), one might wish
to question whether, or not, his research group actually ever came in contact
with the alleged virus, and, therefore, in order to investigate such a
possibility, let’s take a look at various facets of Taubenberger’s research
that are touched upon in the 1998 Taubenberger interview.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">According to Taubenberger, there were some 70
samples that were present in the Institute’s archives that had been drawn from
people who supposedly died from the influenza in 1918. These samples had been
fixed in formalin and paraffin, and half of them were selected arbitrarily or
randomly for purposes of study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">People died in different ways during the
so-called Spanish Flu event of 1918. Some individuals died very quickly
following the onset of symptoms, and this was quite different from the way
people were believed to normally succumb to past cases of influenza. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Given that there were differences in the length
of time that passed between, on the one hand, instances in which symptoms first
began to appear, and, on the other hand, the point when life processes ceased
in various patients, one query that could be explored is whether all the people
who were dying in 1918 were necessarily dying from the same underlying
pathology. For example, over the years, there have been a number of theories
based on various kinds of evidence which suggest that whatever deaths occurred
during 1918 might have been due to something other than -- or, perhaps, in
addition to -- a suspected influenza virus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Among the theories which have arisen over the
years, are the following possibilities.
(1) The forms of vaccines and medical treatments that were in use in
1918 often were injurious to patients in one way or another and, as a result,
people might have died from the medical treatments they received rather than
from a virus; or, (2) what had been diagnosed as cases of influenza were,
instead, actually due to the work of the bacteria that is responsible for
tuberculosis – something that was endemic in many places during the era of the
“Spanish Flu and which can give rise to symptoms that are very similar to ones
that are present in cases of influenza and, consequently, medical practitioners
might have improperly diagnosed the nature of the problem with which they were
dealing; or, (3) many people might have been developing bacterial infections of
one kind or another due to the masks that were being worn to (supposedly)
protect them against the alleged virus; or, (4) the pathology that was being
referred to as the Spanish Flu might, actually, have been a form of poisoning that
occurs when susceptible people are exposed to excessive amounts of certain
kinds of electromagnetic radiation; or, (5) conceivably some combination of the
foregoing possibilities came together in a sort of perfect storm of lethality,
but, subsequently, were all subsumed in an undifferentiated fashion under the
category of “death due to influenza”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To be sure, the aforementioned observed
differences concerning the time intervals between symptom onset and death might
have been a function of the extent to which individuals within the affected
population could have possessed varying capacities of resistance to the
pathology or pathologies to which they had been exposed. Nonetheless, as
intimated previously, another way of accounting for the foregoing kinds of
differences in temporal intervals between symptom onset and death is that an
array of lethal causes might have been involved in the events of 1918, and some
of those maladies might have been more lethal than others, and, if this were
the case, then this might explain why some individuals died far more quickly
than other individuals did.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Besides the issue of rapid rates of morbidity,
another oddity concerning some of the people who became sick during 1918 had to
do with the onset of pulmonary edema in which the lungs of patients would fill
up with fluids generated by, among other things, the blood from hemorrhaging
tissue. Such people died by drowning in their own fluids. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What was odd about the foregoing feature is
there was very little, if any, inflammation that was observed prior to, or
during, the rising, deadly onslaught of such bodily fluids. The presence of
pulmonary edema together with the absence of inflammation was not ordinary when
compared with cases of influenza that had occurred in past years. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A third, somewhat unique aspect of the patient
histories that were being studied by Taubenberger in conjunction with the 1918
“Flu” had to do with the age of the individuals who were succumbing to whatever
the pathology might have been that was stalking people during that time. Most
of the cases he studied involved people who had been healthy and were young,
rather than consisting of the sorts of elderly individuals who normally fell
victim to influenza. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Therefore, in summary, there were at least three
properties associated with some of the 70 cases that had been archived from
1918 that distinguished those cases from what might be considered to have been
“normal” instances of influenza based on past clinical experience. First, the
time interval between the onset of symptoms and the occurrence of death was
extremely rapid in various cases; secondly, many of those cases involved
pulmonary edema without being accompanied by any kind of inflammation, and,
finally, many of the people who were dying were much younger in age than the
individuals who normally were vulnerable to the ravages of influenza.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So, presumably, any explanation that proposes to
account for what is transpiring in cases such as some of the ones that were
occurring in 1918 will entail putting together a causal framework that might be
capable of providing a degree of insight with respect to those cases that were
exhibiting properties or characteristics that departed from what previous
clinical experience had indicated was the normal course of events involving
influenza. Such an explanation would need to answer at least the following
questions – namely: Why was pulmonary edema showing up in 1918 patients without
simultaneously being accompanied by inflammation, or why were some people
succumbing quickly in 1918 relative to what seemed to have happened in the past
with cases of influenza, and, finally, why did whatever was happening in 1918
seem to affect – in atypical fashion relative to cases of influenza in previous
years -- young people rather than the elderly? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The foregoing questions will be re-visited
toward the end of this article. However, let’s leave aside -- at least for the
time being -- the foregoing considerations and continue on with exploring the
information that is being transmitted through Taubenberger’s 1998 PBS
interview. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For instance, according to Taubenberger,
influenza viruses are believed to replicate very quickly. Yet, why – or how --
the foregoing characteristic is present is not addressed by Taubenberger.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is said is the following: The process of
rapid replication allegedly takes place within the cells of lung tissue, and,
then, in about five day’s time, viral bodies supposedly withdraw from the
foregoing cells and move on to infect other cells and/or individuals. Consequently,
according to virologists, after about a week one will not find any viral bodies
present in lung tissue cells that had been infected previously by those alleged
viral bodies. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As a result, Taubenberger wanted to examine
samples of “influenza” patients who died in 1918 that -- according to the
archived medical records -- had died within one week, or less, from whatever
pathology had befallen them. In theory, such samples might provide him with an
opportunity to access some of the replicated RNA material before it disappeared
from a cell’s interior.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One of the cases that met the foregoing
conditions was accompanied by a sample that displayed strong histological
features. In other words, when one
looked at the tissue sample with a microscope, one could detect evidence that
was interpreted to have been the result of primary influenza pneumonia. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Virology theory contends that the influenza
virus consists of eight RNA fragments. These fragments supposedly vary in
length, and are believed to run from approximately 1000 to 2500 base pairs per
fragment. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In his PBS interview, Taubenberger indicates
that the size of the fragments that he was able to recover from the 1918
patient lung tissue sample was only about 150 to 160 base pairs long. He admits
in the interview that his research project consisted largely of trying to find
ways to piece together different RNA fragments that were recovered from the
sample being studied and, then, eventually, he hoped to arrive at a stage of
research through which he would be able to come up with a model for the entire
genome of the influenza virus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger’s research is, to some extent,
based on assumptions concerning the number and type of genes that are contained
in different kinds of alleged influenza viruses. In other words, the number of
genes (supposedly eight) is based on a theory about gene structure and function
rather than being based on discoveries concerning the actual number, structure
and function of genes “in the wild” that have been isolated, characterized, and
sequenced in a rigorous methodological manner.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the PBS interview, Taubenberger indicates
that his research group first looked at segments of five different genes in
order to attempt to develop a sense of what the overall genomic properties of
the influenza virus might look like. However, given what has been said earlier
in this article, Taubenberger and his associates weren’t necessarily looking at
subsections of the actual genes of an alleged influenza virus, but, instead,
might only have been looking at theoretical constructions of those genes …
theoretical constructions that might, or might not, accurately reflect the
structure of certain facets of the contents that could have – possibly --
originally existed within the cell tissue samples being studied.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger states that after completing the
foregoing sorts of preliminary studies, his group began to narrow its focus on
what was considered to be – at least theoretically -- one of the primary
surface proteins of the influenza virus. The aforementioned protein supposedly
is coded for by the hemagglutinin gene, and virologists believe that the
hemagglutinin protein is the means by which influenza viruses gain access to
the interior of a host that is allegedly being infected by such an agent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nonetheless, once again, all Taubenberger -- as
well as his research associates -- might have accomplished is to have engaged
reality through the lenses and filters of the theoretical framework to which
virology gives expression. After all, among other things, no one, yet, has been
able to capture the dynamics of a virus entering a cell through the activity of
a hemagglutinin surface protein.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Consequently, one cannot be certain that the
aforementioned sorts of cellular access events actually take place. Alternatively,
if the foregoing dynamics actually do occur, one still does not know the
details of those dynamics and whether, or not, the character of that activity
accurately reflects the theory which virologists have put forth concerning how
they believe influenza viruses are structured and function. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Notwithstanding the foregoing considerations,
Taubenberger maintains that his research group has succeeded in putting
together the genetic sequence that is alleged to code for the hemagglutinin
protein. The sequence is said to be about 1800 bases in length. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">However, as noted earlier, all one can really
say is that the research group has come up with a “possible” sequence which is
highly theoretical in nature. This is because Taubenberger and his associates
have never actually isolated an influenza virus but, instead, have put forth
various hypotheses concerning the nature of those sequences that is based on
various theoretical principles for which there is a consensus, of sorts, by a
certain number of practitioners within the field of virology. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yet, science requires more than consensus. One
must be able to empirically demonstrate that the working hypothesis which is
being used to explain certain kinds of phenomena can be verified independently
by means of real world data that is capable of being replicated in a variety of
experimental circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Unfortunately, in many respects, virology gives
expression to a set of theories concerning the way its proponents believe
certain dimensions of reality operate. As a result, virology doesn’t
necessarily accurately capture the facet of reality to which its theories are
alluding. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As an addendum to the foregoing claim, one might
note in passing that despite a lot of early hype on the matter, nonetheless,
virology failed miserably to come up with a defensible viral theory of cancer
during the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, as the Perth Group in Australia -- along
with Peter Duesberg, Kary Mullis, and others -- has shown, through a variety of
empirical venues, virology also struck out with respect to being able to
provide a verifiable explanation for precisely how HIV causes AIDS, and, yet,
despite such a monumental failure, many virologists continue to engage life
through their best, blustery, Wizard of OZ, knob turning, lever pulling, smoke
generating, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain modes of behavior. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Furthermore, since the HIV causes AIDS debacle
(which led to the deaths of millions of people in Africa and elsewhere through
the ill-advised use of poisonous anti-viral medicines such as AZT), many
virologists have been making a very good living promoting various modalities of
fear-porn as they sought to transmit their alleged concerns to fellow human
beings with respect to all manner of alleged imminent viral pandemics [such as:
West Nile Virus (1999), SARS (2003), Swine Flu (2009), MERS (2012), Avian Flu
(2013), Zika Virus (2015-2016), and so on] that, supposedly, were, or are,
invading humanity. Moreover, virologists and other researchers were not shy to
recommend that everyone urgently needed to be treated by means of one brand, or
another, of virology-based vaccinations and pharmaceuticals despite the fact
that none of their pronouncements – either with respect to the alleged
pandemics or the proposed treatments for those putative pandemics – accurately
reflected what actually transpired in the real world during the aforementioned
time periods.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">During his PBS interview, Taubenberger stated he
felt that the complete reconstruction of the entire set of genetic instructions
for the influenza virus (and not just the hemagglutinin gene on which he was
focused prior to 1998) is likely to take years to complete since the fragments
being studied are so small that the process of reassembling them is very time
intensive. One should point out once again, however, that the foregoing sorts
of efforts will not necessarily involve reassembling the actual genetic
sequence of some viral entity (For example, see my article: <i>The Deadliest Flu: The Complete Story of an
Influenza Pandemic (?)</i>, which is a critical reflection on a CDC paper that
purports to provide an account of the subsequent work of Taubenberger and
others concerning their contention that they have “discovered” the viral agent
that, supposedly, was responsible for the 1918 flu). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Instead, as intimated previously, he appears to
be interested in developing a theory about what he and his associates believe
such a sequence might look like, and this assumes, of course, that such an
entity actually exists. In short, Taubenberger’s research group is engaged in a
process of interpreting certain kinds of data and, therefore, the group is not
necessarily pursuing a course of research that is capable of uncovering the
actual nature of the dynamics that give expression to the 1918 phenomena which
they are seeking to explain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In many respects, Taubenberger and his
associates appear to have become entangled in a game of conceptual
will-o’-the-wisp. If so, then the foregoing sorts of understanding which are
guiding his research team could be nothing more than a series of variable
glimpses into a mist of elusive data that is heavily shaped by theoretical
considerations that could be distorting the nature of what actually might have
happened in 1918.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">According to Taubenberger, his research group
believes that it can assert, with some degree of definitiveness, that the
entity which they believe they have been studying is an influenza virus. More
specifically, they claim that the agent they have been studying is a type A
influenza and belongs to the subtype H1N1 where H and N stand for proteins that
supposedly permit such an alleged virus to, respectively, be able to gain
access to (i.e., infect), as well as to be able to exit, a given cell on its
way to infect other cells or organisms. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Virologists maintain that there are three types
of influenza viruses – namely, A, B, and C. These types of influenza are
further sub-categorized according to the kind of hemagglutinin (H) and
neuraminidase (N) proteins that are believed to be present on the surface of
any given influenza virus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While such influenza types and subtypes give
expression to virology theory, nonetheless, no one has seen viruses entering or
exiting cells via, respectively, H and N proteins. Therefore, there appears to
be an absence of the requisite kinds of data which might be able to
definitively verify any of the aforementioned theoretical pronouncements of
virology.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Currently, virologists claim there are 14
different kinds of hemagglutinin protein subtypes and 9 different subtypes of
neuraminidase proteins which differentiate one type of influenza from another
type of influenza. The virus that is believed to have been present in the lung
tissue samples from patients who died during 1918 is thought to be the H1N1
subtype, and this belief rests on the sorts of antibodies which were found in
people who had been alive during 1918 but were able to survive whatever took
place at that time. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Although there are theories within virology and
immunology about how, and why, antibodies emerge, there is no reliable
empirical data which actually captures the process of antibodies coming into
existence. The evidence all has to do with finding antibodies at one point in
time but not another, and, then, coming up with a theory for why such
antibodies are found at one time but not another, or why those antibodies exist
in some people but not others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Virologists not only believe that influenza
viruses infect human beings, but, as well, such individuals also are of the
opinion that those presumed viral agents are able to infect chickens, ducks,
and a variety of birds as well as pigs and horses. Furthermore, based on the
study of serum drawn from human beings who lived during 1918 and were able to
survive whatever transpired during that year, virologists maintain that the
antibodies in circulation in those individuals are a closer match to alleged
swine influenza bodies that virologists believe were discovered in the 1930s
than the aforementioned 1918 antibodies were a match to the human influenzas
that were supposedly discovered in the 1930s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Unfortunately, during the interview,
Taubenberger does not spell out what is meant by the idea that the so-called
“matches” between certain types of influenza and antibodies circulating in the
blood stream are a better fit when considered in conjunction with alleged swine
influenza bodies of the 1930s rather than in relation to presumed human
influenza bodies of the 1930s. Antibodies can be quite promiscuous with respect
to the kinds of entities with which they manifest some degree of affinity, and,
therefore, one cannot be certain – as some virologists seem to be -- that the
reason why there is a some amount of affinity between antibodies from 1918 and
swine influenza bodies from the 1930 is necessarily because the 1918 antibodies
were formed due to, or response to, an encounter with some sort of swine flu
entity either just prior to, or during, the events of 1918.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In fact, if -- contrary to current theories and
models of virology -- one were to entertain an hypothesis that the 1918
influenza virus did not necessarily exist, then, one would have to come up with
a different theory to account for why antibodies of a certain kind might exist
at one time rather than another. After all, if the 1918 influenza virus did not
exist, and if influenza was caused by something other than a virus, then,
making the sort of claims that some virologists seem inclined to make
concerning the alleged significance that is supposedly demonstrated through the
presence of alleged matches between particular kinds of antibodies and certain
kinds of swine viruses becomes something of a problem. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Among other things, the foregoing conceptual
crisis would force one to search for some alternative reason or set of reasons
to account for why antibodies of a particular kind can be found in the serum of
some people but not others. In other words, one would have to ask: Why do
certain antibodies arise if this is not in response to the presence of some
sort of viral agent?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Notwithstanding the foregoing considerations, Taubenberger
and his research associates believe that the aforementioned purported
antibody-swine flu match indicates that the 1918 flu did not come directly from
avian sources but, instead, arose through some sort of mammalian connection. In
other words, they believe that the path of viral transmission might have
started with avian organisms, and, then, emerged, at some point, within
mammalian organisms -- such as swine -- and, then, somehow, got passed on to
human beings. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">However, at the present time, there is no
detailed account that is capable of providing a viable explanation for the
supposed process through which various genetic fragments might be able to make
the jump from avian hosts to swine hosts, and then, subsequently, to human
hosts. Although, in general terms, the foregoing sort of transition phenomenon
is presumed to have transpired through some modality of recombinant DNA or RNA
processes, nonetheless, this presumption is unaccompanied by any sort of
account concerning a demonstrable, step-by-step dynamic that gives expression
to the proposed series of transitions in genetic material that runs from avian,
through swine, and, eventually to human beings. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The foregoing issue is crucial. In other words,
based on antibody data (which, as previously suggested, does not necessarily
mean what some researchers believe that data signifies), Taubenberger
stipulates that prior to 1918, viruses had been circulating within human
populations in a relatively non-lethal form except in conjunction with a small fraction
of individuals who, for various reasons, might have been susceptible to those
kinds of influenza agents, and, therefore, one needs to ask the following
questions: How did the 1918 influenza virus acquire its alleged lethality, and
what was the nature of the biological or molecular mechanism that underlies
such supposed lethality? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> According
to Taubenberger, viruses tend to be genetically unstable, and, as a result,
undergo regular transitions with respect to certain aspects of their structure
and function. Taubenberger describes
such transitions as “… presumably an adaptation of the virus, to evade the host
immune response, so that the influenza virus that was circulating last year is
not the same as the influenza virus that is circulating this year” and
concludes by saying: “So they’re very clever in that sense.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To be sure, changes in genetic sequences might
give expression to some form of genetic instability, but determining the cause
of those changes tends to be quite another matter. One cannot assume – as
Taubenberger seems to -- that changes in the genetic sequence of a virus are
due to some sort of, apparently, intentional or logistical viral strategy which
seeks to adapt to a host’s immune response by bringing about changes that
enable successive generations to evade that same kind of immune response. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Viruses are not necessarily “very clever” in the
foregoing sense.” More specifically, if one were to assume that changes in
genetic sequence occur among viruses, then, although some of those changes
might confer a “novel” advantage of some sort, nonetheless, other changes might
not necessarily confer any kind of advantage, or those changes could introduce
something that is decidedly a disadvantage to the virus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Therefore, whether or not a presumed virus
acquires some sort of new “trick” that permits the immune responses of a host
to be evaded will depend on the nature of the changes in genetic sequence that
either do, or do not, occur. Yet, such changes do not necessarily have anything
to do with some kind of adaptive strategy of ‘cleverness’ that is supposedly
actively transpiring within a given viral entity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In other words, changes in genetic sequence
within a proposed virus could be a reflection of nothing more than – to use
Taubenberger’s way of stating things -- the inherent genetic instability of
those entities. If so, then, as previously indicated, whatever changes occur in
genetic sequence do not necessarily have anything to do with cleverness or
adaptive, evolutionary strategies but merely give expression to the alleged
virus’s on-going susceptibility to genetic instability which arbitrarily moves
the genome of the alleged virus in one direction rather than another …
sometimes with felicitous results, and sometimes with problematic results, and,
sometimes with the sort of variance that has no appreciable impact concerning
issues of adaptability.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger maintains that while mutations do
tend to occur on a regular basis, most of these changes will <u>not</u> lead to
substantially different structural or functional forms. However, he believes
that every so often, substantial changes do occur, and this takes place he
supposes as the result of some sort of recombinant exchange dynamic that takes
place between two different species.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As a result, he maintains that the foregoing
sorts of recombinant changes could give rise to a form of virus that has not
previously been encountered. Furthermore, he believes that this sort of virus
might pose a threat for any species that did not have the capacity to defend
against the presence of that kind of an agent. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Of course, not all changes in genetic sequence
will necessarily give rise to a variant that carries potential lethal
implications in conjunction with human beings. Moreover, for a virus, the
essence of adaptation is a function of being able to replicate and continue on,
and such a capacity is quite independent of any potential that might bring
about biological mayhem in the organisms that are being engaged by the
virus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In short, the capacity of a virus to inflict
pathology on its host – or, in conjunction with some degree of vulnerability or
susceptibility in a host to the properties of a virus that will generate a
dynamic that results in death or disease -- is not necessarily adaptive. On the
other hand, the capacity of a virus to be able to replicate is quintessentially
adaptive in nature.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Although there is considerable evidence
indicating that recombinant processes do occur, nonetheless, the notion that
those recombinant processes will necessarily give rise, at some point, to
something that is, on the one hand, capable of evading the capacity of
organisms to defend against the presence of such entities, and, on the other
hand, will be capable of being highly lethal in relation to its impact on a given
organism is really nothing more than a conjecture. Consequently, even though
Taubenberger – along with other researchers -- has put forth a hypothesis which
contends that the foregoing sort of ‘substantial’ recombinant event occurred in
connection with 1918, nonetheless, he has not provided evidence which
demonstrates that such an event actually did occur.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In fact, during the PBS interview, he indicates
that he actually is searching for the foregoing sort of evidence. Consequently,
although – as noted earlier -- he does refer to a certain amount of data
involving antibody titers in blood serum that had been drawn from people who
lived during -- but survived – the 1918 event, nevertheless, at best, that sort
of data is only suggestive – and can even be ambiguous with respect to its
significance concerning the possible relationship between swine influenza
viruses and human beings -- and,
therefore, the presence of the sorts of antibody data to which Taubenberger is
alluding does not necessarily support his contention that the existence of
those antibodies means that they came into existence as a result of earlier
encounters with swine flu antigens. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">During the PBS interview, Taubenberger refers to
three alleged pandemics – namely, events in 1918, 1957, and 1968 – which he
believes give expression to the possibility that some sort of recombinant set
of events occurred which gave rise to novel viruses of one kind or another that
had lethal properties in all three of those instances. However, in each case,
Taubenberger fails to put forth any evidence to persuasively demonstrate that
what he believes was responsible for those three events – namely, changes in
genetic sequence due to recombinant dynamics – is what actually happened. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Furthermore, one might note in passing that
there is a certain amount of evidence to indicate that the events of 1918,
1957, and 1968 might not have been due to a viral agent at all. For example, in
the book: <i>The Invisible Rainbow: A
History of Electricity and Life</i>, Arthur Firstenberg puts forth considerable
evidence in support of the possibility that the three “pandemics” cited by
Taubenberger (as well as a number of other outbreaks of “influenza” that
occurred prior to 1918 and after 1968) might have been due to various kinds of
changes in electromagnetic radiation that were being introduced into the
Earth’s environment at those times (e.g., numerous new sources of powerful
radio frequencies had come on line in many geographical locals just prior to
and during 1918 and were being beamed throughout the world; or, in the case of
1957 there were many powerful radar facilities that were being deployed in
various parts of the world, or, in the case of 1968, numerous communication and
intelligence satellites had been, and were being, launched by various military
groups as well as by an array of corporations and, as a result, such technology
was bathing the Earth – and its life forms – in an array of electromagnetic
radiation). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Radiation poisoning has been demonstrated to be
capable of producing many of the same sorts or symptoms that are present in
cases of influenza … symptoms that, for nearly a hundred years, have been
attributed to a viral agent of some kind. In fact, although abundant evidence
currently exists which is capable of demonstrating that electromagnetic
radiation can bring about flu-like symptoms as well as many other kinds of
pathological conditions (see the work of, among others, Samuel Milham, Olle
Johansson, Martin Pall, and Devra Davis), nonetheless, to date, no one has been
able to properly isolate an influenza virus which can be shown to be infectious
or lethal (and the notion of “isolates” that appears in the virology literature
is a bastardized version of the sort of rigorous methodologies that are needed
to properly isolate, sequence, and demonstrate that such isolated agents
actually exist as well as that they are actually infectious and lethal).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The foregoing considerations give expression to
a very critical issue. If viruses, of one kind or another, cannot be shown
(following proper isolation and sequencing) to be the cause of, say, influenza,
then, one must look to some other sort of environmental trigger (e.g.,
chemical, electromagnetic, or biological) to account for the existence of those
maladies. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yet, if something other than a virus plays a
role in the onset of influenza, then, the nature of the dynamic with which
human beings are presently faced changes in substantial ways. For instance,
instead of trying to come up with some kind of virology-based vaccine or virology-based
pharmaceutical elixir, and, then, insisting that people – as a matter of public
health – must become vaccinated with, or must ingest, such an anti-viral
concoction, then, perhaps, the proper way of treating such maladies lies in
another direction. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">More specifically, if viruses do not have a
causal role to play with respect to the occurrence of diseases such as
influenza (and, to date, the viral theory of influenza rests on evidentially
problematic grounds), and if, furthermore, viruses do not have a role to play
in pathologies like SARS, MERS, Zika, and so on (and, once again, there has
been no proper process of virus isolation that identifies different kinds of
viruses as causing the foregoing maladies), then public health in those
circumstances need not depend on discovering and mandating certain kinds of
virology-based vaccines or pharmaceuticals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Instead what is required is a shift in the
nature of the paradigm through which those diseases are explored. In other
words, if the nature of the problem with respect to the foregoing sorts of
maladies is not a function of the role that different kinds of infectious
agents of a viral nature play, then, perhaps the problems associated with, for
example, influenza, might be better resolved if one were to suppose that the
diseases mentioned previously might be due not to viruses but, instead, could
be due to, for example, the impact that different kinds of electromagnetic
and/or chemical poisoning are having on the environment along with the
ecologies that reside in the environment. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If the latter possibility were the case, then
the onus of responsibility for combating those pathologies would no longer be a
matter of trying to foist off some sort of mandated vaccine or pharmaceutical
program onto the people and, then, proceeding to try to argue that resolving
those health crises requires individuals to do their civic duty and take their
medicine in order to protect others. Instead, the responsibility for combating
the aforementioned diseases shifts to those who are poisoning the environment
through chemical, electromagnetic, or biological means, and, therefore, what
must be mandated are not various kinds of vaccines or pharmaceuticals but,
rather, mandates should be issued which require various environmental polluters
to cease and desist with respect to the activities which are poisoning human
beings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Toward the latter part of his 1998 PBS
interview, Taubenberger returns to the idea of evolutionary adaptation. For
example, after mentioning how there are many bacteria which can be found on our
skins and within various parts of the gastrointestinal tract that are
well-adapted to the surrounding biological environment and which actually
perform many useful functions for their hosts – such as generating vitamin K –
he goes on to allude to different kinds of bacteria and viruses that are not
well-adapted to their hosts and, as a result, those entities take on what
Taubenberger believes to be is an adversarial relationship with their hosts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger does not explain how bacteria and
their hosts came to work out adaptive solutions which serve their mutual
interests – or how they discover ways that, at least, do not adversely affect
one another. Furthermore, he does not mention the fact that there are many
different kinds of agents that have been found on, say, human skin – such as
staphylococcus aureus – that, under the right circumstances, are potentially
harmful but which, for unknown reasons, are not always active, and, therefore,
contrary to what Taubenberger claims, do not automatically take on an
adversarial relationship with their hosts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In any event, Taubenberger indicates that if an
agent -- virus ‘x’ -- were to behave in an overly aggressively manner with
respect to their hosts, then, the infected individuals will die too quickly. As
a result, this sort of aggressive activity would tend to prevent that virus
from being able to move on to other hosts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger alludes to the idea that the
alleged 1918 virus seems to have avoided the foregoing sort of problem and,
instead, was able to work out a good evolutionary strategy. In other words,
although he believes that the virus killed a lot of people, nevertheless, it
somehow managed to constrain its activities in ways that only lethally affected
somewhere between 2 and 5 percent of the population. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">According to Taubenberger, by behaving in the
foregoing manner, such a strategy provided the virus with an opportunity to
move from host to host and, thereby, spread all over the world since only a
relatively small percentage of the host population succumbed to the alleged
onslaught of that virus. One wonders, however, whether the aforementioned 2-5%
solution is the product of an evolutionary strategy that emerged in some
inexplicable manner or whether that percentage merely reflects the possibility
that 2-5% of the population is, for whatever reasons, vulnerable to the
presence of certain kinds of agents and, therefore, the 2-5% figure might have
nothing to do with some sort of viral evolutionary strategy but, instead, just
gives expression to the manner in which viral agents with certain kinds of
properties interact with susceptible biological systems in a given set of
contingent circumstances and, in certain instances, leads to a series of
complex interactions that result in the demise of some of those organisms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger maintains that as a virus is
transmitted from locale to locale in different regions of the world, people
eventually would have developed an effective immune response to the virus. He
further contends that such a state of affairs of general immunity would have
placed the virus under “enormous pressure” to undergo mutation so that it could
change some facet of its genetic composition – such as the part of the genome
that gave expression to one or another protein on its surface – in order to be
able to find new ways of infecting human hosts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Notwithstanding Taubenberger’s foregoing
account, one might suppose that mutations either occur, or they don’t. One does
not need to assume that there is some sort of “pressure” that is present which
induces a given virus to mutate. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger’s use of the term “pressure” might
merely be his way of framing the discussion by means of a theory which seeks to
advance the possibility that there is some kind of “force” in existence which
is capable of inducing organisms to move in – or mutate in -- new directions
that will prove to be adaptive. However, over a period of several billion
years, the primary lesson of life on Earth would seem to be that, sooner or
later, almost all species tend toward extinction irrespective of whatever
changes might, or might not, take place with respect to their genomes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As far as we know, to whatever extent viruses
exist, they consist only of a glycoprotein coating which houses either an RNA
or DNA-based genomic reservoir which codes for a small number of genes that,
under the right circumstances, supposedly enable those viruses to go about the
business of replicating themselves by hijacking the machinery of a host cell or
organism. Whether the foregoing entities can be considered to be alive in some
sense is a debatable issue, but irrespective of their existential status, there
is nothing in their molecular or genetic composition which would seem to
suggest that there is some underlying force or pressure within them, or working
through them, that requires mutations of a certain kind to emerge … namely,
mutations that would allow those entities to find new ways to infect and/or
inflict damage on a host.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">However, Taubenberger resorts to the idea of
viruses operating under an ‘extreme pressure’ to bring about adaptive mutations
of certain kinds in order to account for why, after 1918, the alleged pandemic
did not continue on but, eventually, petered out. Presumably, the virus had
undergone some sort of mutation that would permit it to continue to circulate
within the human population but, in the process, had – due, perhaps, to the
immune responses of host organisms – lost the ability to have anything more
than a limited capacity for lethality with respect to all but a small
percentage of human beings who were somehow vulnerable to such a viral
presence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yet, to suppose, as Taubenberger does, that a
virus must mutate if it is to continue on is not necessarily true. Indeed,
until one knows why some people are either more vulnerable than others -- or
vulnerable at all -- to the presence of a viral agent, one cannot necessarily
suppose that the virus will have to mutate in order to continue to be able to
infect a host. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thus, irrespective of whether, or not,
antibodies arise in conjunction with the presence of a given viral agent -- and
leaving aside the issue of whether, or not, the presence of those antibodies
helps confer sufficient immunity to prevent all of a virus’s genetic potential
from being able to express themselves -- it might be that some small percentage
of a previous <u>viral</u> population will continue to exist even if such
entities were to have lost their capacity to act in a lethal manner with
respect to most individuals within a <u>host</u> population. A virus – to
whatever extent it exists – has certain capabilities that (given the right
opportunity) will be expressed, but in other circumstances might just remain
inactive. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If the right kind of conducive circumstances do
not arise, then, even if the virus was not able to fully express itself,
nonetheless, it might continue to exist for an indeterminate or indefinite
period of time quite independently of whether, or not, a host actively engages
– or is engaged by -- such an agent. The entity just wouldn’t replicate, and
since viruses – to whatever extent they exist – are not necessarily “alive,”
then whether or not replication continues to occur is not necessarily a matter
of “life and death” for such an entity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The life cycle of a virus – to whatever extent
it exists -- is digital in nature. It is either on or off … that is, it either
replicates or it doesn’t. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whatever else happens with respect to such an
entity – in the way of lethality or infectivity or pathology – will be a matter
of the particular manner in which a given virus and a given host interact with
one another during the time in which the two are in contact. Conceivably, a
virus could remain inactive or dormant even though the circumstances that are
necessary for replication are not present, and, yet, such a body might still
continue to inhabit a host just as bacteria like staphylococcus aureus can be
found in human beings in a non-active or non-problematic state.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Consequently, Taubenberger’s notion that viruses
must mutate in order to continue their existence is little more than a
conjecture. While the possibility that he mentions is consistent with the
theory of viruses as well as an evolutionary framework, there is not any
evidence which is capable of definitively demonstrating the truth of the
conceptual thrust of his conjecture concerning the existence of some sort of
pressure that induces a virus to continue to mutate in ways that are
increasingly adaptive in some sense of the word. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Indeed, one might suppose that developing some sort
of capacity for lethality is actually counterproductive for a virus’s continued
viability. Viruses appear to complete their life-cycle via replication and not
through inflicting pathology.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There is no evident evolutionary purpose that
appears to be served by enhancing the capacity of a virus to inflict pathology.
Being able to gain access to the interior of a cell or to be able to find a way
out of that cell or to be able to borrow some of a cell’s potential to
replicate does not necessarily require the virus to be able to “infect” that
cell in pathological manner and, thereby, cause some sort of disease anymore
than DNA or RNA needs to inflict damage on a cell in order to be able to
replicate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger’s 1998 PBS account of the 1918
pandemic leaves unanswered a number of questions. For example, what was the
specific nature of the recombinant event(s) involving -- at least, possibly,
initially -- birds and mammals (such as swine) and, then, how did the process
of species jumping continue on by, allegedly, making the transition from the
foregoing sorts of mammals to human beings? One also would like to know the
precise character of the dynamics of lethality that supposedly arose in an
unknown manner, and, therefore, one might ask whether the lethality came from
birds, or mammals, or, in some unanticipated way, emerged during the time when
the jump was made to human beings? Finally, one might also ask why and how such
a lethal agent suddenly appeared to vanish.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Apparently, Taubenberger is putting forth nothing
more than a narrative which has been woven from various assumptions and
conjectures based on a hermeneutical engagement of different kinds of empirical
data. Indeed, in many respects, virology – and any discipline (for instance,
molecular pathology) that has a potential for contributing to the development
of virology -- appears to be nothing more than a theoretical narrative which
seems to be masquerading as a set of scientific discoveries. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger states that: “Historically, it
seems that most new influenza viruses emerge in Asia, in the Far East, which is
another thing that’s unusual about the 1918 virus because everything we know
historically suggested that it actually originated in the United States.” One
might wonder, however, about why different kinds of influenza supposedly have
such an inclination to begin in Asia. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Could the foregoing sort of asymmetry in racial
or ethnic susceptibility be a function of certain kinds of environmental
conditions (e.g., electromagnetic, chemical, as well as biological)? Or, could
such a racial or ethnic asymmetry be due to some sort of genetic vulnerability
that is more pronounced in Asians relative to other racial and ethnic groups?
Or, perhaps such an asymmetry might be due to some sort of systemic iatrogenic
issue in which various kinds of pneumonia and respiratory diseases are being
misdiagnosed as, or confused with, influenza, and, as a result, one is being
given a distorted impression of what is actually taking place or whether there
is any actual kind of asymmetry in susceptibility to influenza that is present.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nonetheless, notwithstanding the foregoing sorts
of considerations, Taubenberger’s claim that the 1918 event started in the
United States is not necessarily capable of being verified. More specifically,
there is a considerable body of evidence (e.g., see <i>Virus Mania</i> by Torsten Engelbrecht and Claus <span style="background: white; color: #494949;">Köhnlein,</span> as well as <i>The Invisible Rainbow </i>by Arthur
Firstenberg) indicating that large numbers of people were dying all over the
Earth from influenza-like maladies at roughly the same time in 1918, and,
indeed, even Taubenberger states during the PBS interview that the spread of
influenza took place with an incredible rapidity that occurred “within a period
of a month or so in the fall of” that year. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Consequently influenza-like deaths were taking
place in many locations around the world in a fashion that seemed to be faster
than could be accounted for by any possible route of surface transmission that
was available at that time (e.g., horses, automobiles, trains, or ships). On
the other hand, the seemingly inexplicable rapidity of disease transmission in
1918 would be quite consistent with the possibility that the deaths being
attributed to the “Spanish Flu” were actually due to the generation of electromagnetic
frequencies that were poisoning people all over the world in a, more or less,
simultaneous fashion at roughly the speed of light. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The explanation which Taubenberger offers as a
way of trying to account for why influenza tends to emerge in Asian societies
rather than in Western nations is zoonotic in nature. In other words, he
contends that the cultural eating habits of many Asians involves going to
so-called wet markets where various exotic life forms are available for
purchase and consumption.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Presumably, somewhere along the line -- during
or following the aforementioned visits to the so-called wet markets --
influenzas supposedly made a species jump from birds to mammals of one kind or
another, or, a species jump allegedly transpired between mammals of one kind to
other mammals such as human beings. Yet, as intimated previously, Taubenberger
really doesn’t appear to have any concrete evidence that is capable of
demonstrating the validity of his zoonotic hypothesis. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger goes on to indicate that during the
1950s “influenza viruses could be cultured and characterized in the
laboratory.” Technically speaking, however, viruses are not living and,
therefore, do not need to be cultured. Indeed, short of a fully functioning
host, there is no medium in which one could place a virus in order to help it
grow and replicate. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In fact, if a given virus is functional, then,
one does not need to place such a virus in some sort of medium culture. All one
has to do is take a virus that has been properly isolated – and, therefore,
separated from everything else including a culture medium of some kind – then,
expose a potential host to that isolated virus and, finally, just wait to see
what takes place. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is what transpires in the wild, so to
speak. Introducing cultured mediums into the research process merely obfuscates
the character of whatever dynamics might follow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">According to Taubenberger, various attempts were
made to exhume bodies of individuals in Alaska and elsewhere who supposedly
died of influenza during 1918. However, while those exploratory expeditions
were able to bring forth live bacteria through the use of various kinds of
culture mediums, no one had been able to induce influenza viruses to surface. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In passing, Taubenberger mentions the work of a
Canadian researcher, Dr. Kirsty Duncan, who has been attempting to locate the
bodies of individuals who had died from influenza in 1918 but who had been
buried in very cold – i.e., frozen – conditions. He notes that she is hoping to
be able to uncover functional viruses from the foregoing sorts of cold storage
exhumations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger contends that he feels the
aforementioned research venture is not likely to succeed. He goes on to indicate that influenza viruses
are quite fragile and that although bodies frozen in permafrost might retain
some fragments of viral RNA, nonetheless, those samples would be unlikely to
contain “live” or viable viral entities because of – as previously noted -- the
fragile character of the influenza virus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While Taubenberger mentions the extremely
fragile nature of influenza viruses in the foregoing overview, nonetheless, he
doesn’t actually go into any sort of detail about the kind of environmental
conditions that are necessary in order for a virus to be able to “survive” –
i.e., be in a position to replicate when conditions are right. Presumably, the
understanding which the aforementioned sort of missing information might help
engender would be of value if one wanted to try to figure out the nature of the
dynamic through which influenza viruses and human beings tend to engage one
another, and, furthermore, such information also would be of value if wished to
determine what kinds of conditions might be more conducive or less conducive to
such alleged viruses becoming active within a host – human or otherwise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taubenberger believes that, generally speaking,
societies in 1998 are in a much better position than they were in 1918 to be
able to deal with potential pandemics. He feels this is the case because, among
other things, “…we know that influenza viruses exist, and we can analyze them
and watch their emergence and evolution.” In addition, Taubenberger maintains
that societies also are better prepared to deal with potential forthcoming
pandemics due to (1) advancements in medical treatment such as drugs that,
supposedly, are able to thwart the capacity of influenza viruses to, for
example, replicate, as well as due to (2) the emergence of influenza vaccines
which Taubenberger claims “are obviously the most important factor of our
current armamentarium against influenza viruses.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">However, as noted previously, neither
Taubenberger, nor anyone else, has actually gone through the necessary set of
rigorous procedures which are capable of properly isolating, characterizing, or
sequencing the alleged1918 influenza virus, nor, in addition, has he or other
researchers also been able to go on to reliably demonstrate that such isolated
virus are both infectious as well as lethal [See my article: “The Deadliest
Flu: The Complete Story of a Virus Influenza Pandemic (?)”]. Moreover, the
antiviral treatments that are used to treat various viruses have proven, quite
frequently, to be quite hazardous in their own right (for example, consider the
deadly impact that the use of AZT had on the treatment of alleged cases of
HIV).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, notwithstanding Taubenberger’s
foregoing claim to the contrary concerning the alleged essential role of
vaccines, there is considerable evidence that flu vaccines (e.g., see <i>Jabbed</i> by Brett Wilcox; <i>The Vaccine Court</i> by Wayne Rohde;
Dissolving <i>Illusions: Disease, Vaccines,
and the Forgotten History</i> by Dr. Suzanne Humphries and Roman Bystrianyk; <i>Vaccines: A Reappraisal</i> by Dr. Richard
Moskowitz, Vaccine Epidemic, edited by Louise Kuo Habakus and Mary Holland, as
well as <i>What Really Makes You Ill? – Why
Everything You Thought You Knew About Disease Is Wrong</i> by Dawn Lester and
David Parker) are neither safe nor effective. In this respect, one might
consider, among other possibilities, the fiasco that arose in 1976 with respect
to so-called swine flu in which hundreds of cases were documented in which
human beings suffered from Guillain-<span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Barré</span> Syndrome, instances of transverse
myelitus, or death as a result of the flu vaccines that were given in 1976.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One might also note in closing – and as was
intimated to be a topic that would resurface toward the beginning of this
article -- that early in the PBS interview Taubenberger listed a number of
features that were atypical with respect to cases of influenza that had been
encountered prior to the 1918 event. More specifically, he indicated that: (1)
the death of many individuals took place very rapidly following the onset of
symptoms; (2) a substantial number of the cases that occurred in 1918 exhibited
signs of pneumonia edema without any accompanying inflammation; (3) a large
proportion of the cases he studied involved individuals who had been healthy
and were young, rather than the sort of elderly people who, in the past,
normally fell victim to influenza; (4) the “influenza” that occurred in 1918
seemed to emerge, more or less, simultaneously in different parts of the world
rather than following some sort of epidemiological path that moved from one
location to the next via individuals who were traveling by foot, or via horses,
trains, or ships.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nothing which Taubenberger stated in the 1998
PBS interview is capable of providing an answer to any of the foregoing
anomalies that he, himself, introduced into the discussion and which seemed to
differentiate the 1918 event from previous bouts of influenza. While he offers
a lot of conjectures during his interview, nevertheless, he does not provide
much in the way of substantive, definitive information that is capable of
addressing the four aforementioned anomalies that apparently were uniquely
characteristic of the 1918 “influenza” event and do so in a satisfactory
manner. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, as indicated earlier in this article, during
the 1998 PBS interview, Taubenberger attempted to describe some of his research
concerning the hemagglutinin gene and, in the process, sought to link that work
to the events of the 1918 “Flu”. However, at best, his research only appears to
advance a theoretical narrative, of sorts, concerning what he believes
transpired in 1918 rather than giving expression to a fully delineated account
of the 1918 phenomenon that is capable of being empirically substantiated. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">----- </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you would like to download a PDF edition of the foregoing article please go to: <a href="https://www.billwhitehouse.com/Queries/1998Taubenberger.pdf" target="_blank">Taubenberger</a></span></p></div><p><br /></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-64792412522933381062021-03-31T16:51:00.002-04:002021-03-31T19:42:42.853-04:00The Deadliest Flu: The Complete Story of a Virus Influenza Pandemic (?)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ4bxdWFVwIkc6TctRYiVZc1pwezVCTwU0Dxyh6UWdJNeXfqi2xdW_nNCPDWrEJ30st2BeVcxGyFFPheCl9tlZSEhyphenhyphen3Ssr9gMu5lzMAWqOcIswKUWFNszDa6Ajznp044cfNCpgxw/s1566/DeadliestFlu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="1367" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ4bxdWFVwIkc6TctRYiVZc1pwezVCTwU0Dxyh6UWdJNeXfqi2xdW_nNCPDWrEJ30st2BeVcxGyFFPheCl9tlZSEhyphenhyphen3Ssr9gMu5lzMAWqOcIswKUWFNszDa6Ajznp044cfNCpgxw/s320/DeadliestFlu.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15.1298px;">The CDC article: “The Deadliest Flu: The Complete Story of a Virus Pandemic Influenza” – minus the parenthetical question mark which I have added for the title of this essay -- begins with a Transmission Electron Micrograph of the alleged virus that, supposedly, caused the 1918 pandemic known generally as “the Spanish Flu” despite not necessarily having its origins in that country. However, the micrograph does not constitute proof that the bodies depicted in the image are either infectious or lethal.</span></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">A micrograph, after all, is a static rather than a dynamic depiction of something about which claims are being made. This remains the case even if one were to concede that the bodies being depicted in the micrograph actually constitute a virus or even if one were to concede that the entities in the image constituted the same virus that many individuals believe was so lethal in 1918, and this latter contention is not necessarily a foregone conclusion. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The CDC article operates on the assumption that the proper explanation for the 1918 phenomenon is that it involved a viral agent that was both highly infectious and highly lethal. As a result, the CDC article argues that the 1918 event provides valuable data and insights concerning how to prepare for future viral pandemics, and this assertion is also not necessarily tenable.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Early on, the CDC article maintains that “an unusual characteristic of this virus was the high death rate it caused among healthy adults 15 to 34 years of age.” Such a statement makes a number of assumptions.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">For example, the foregoing statement presupposes – but does not prove -- that the people who died in 1918 all died from the Spanish flu virus (and there is considerable evidence to indicate that this might not be the case). Moreover, the aforementioned claim also operates on the assumption that the people who died were actually healthy individuals … as opposed to individuals who were outwardly apparently healthy but who might actually have had underlying health problems of one kind or another which had not, yet, shown up in the form of symptoms, and, therefore, while a viral agent of some kind might have played some role in the demise of certain individuals, there may have been a number of factors aside from the presence of a given virus which was responsible for the death of various people. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">According to the CDC article, a dedicated group of researchers were able to: “ … search for the lost 1918 virus, sequence its genome, recreate the virus in a highly safe and regulated laboratory setting at CDC, and ultimately study its secrets to better prepare for future pandemics.” The CDC article purports to be a “complete” account of the history to which the foregoing process of research gives expression. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The story being provided through the CDC paper begins with a small, ocean-side Alaskan village known as Brevig Mission. In 1918, the village contained approximately 80 adults, consisting mostly of Inuit indigenous people.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The article goes on to say that there has been some degree of controversy concerning just how the inhabitants of that village became infected. Some individuals believe that the virus was transmitted by a local member of the postal service, while others contend that the virus arrived in the village via one, or another, trader who travelled to Brevig Mission via dog sled.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Notwithstanding the foregoing considerations, if one doesn’t know how the virus was introduced into a community, then, one can’t necessarily be sure that the virus is what killed those individuals. All one can say is that something happened in 1918 which resulted in the death of 72 of the 80 inhabitants of that village, and one does not necessarily know why the 72 individuals who died were vulnerable to whatever happened, or why 8 people were able to survive.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">One also one does not know if the latter eight individuals got sick and, then, recovered, or whether they ever became ill. Furthermore, if the latter possibility is the case, then, why didn’t they get sick?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">What one does know is that all of the deaths took place within a six day period, lasting from November 15th to November 20th in 1918. The bodies were all buried in a mass grave near the village and remained that way until 1951.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In 1951, Johan Hultin, a Swede, was doing doctoral research in microbiology at the University of Iowa. He sought, and received, permission from village elders in Brevig Mission to excavate the bodies from 1918 because he believed that he might be able to find remnants of the 1918 flu in tissues of the bodies that had been buried and preserved in a frozen state while having been entombed in the permafrost for more than three decades. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Hultin was able to procure lung tissue samples from five of the excavated bodies. Nonetheless, back in his laboratory at the University of Iowa, he was unable to induce what he believed were viral entities to become active when he injected his collected lung tissue samples into chicken eggs in order to try to get the virus to grow. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In 1997, nearly a half century later, Hultin read an article by Jeffrey Taubenberger, and others, that appeared in the journal <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Science</em>. The article was entitled: “Initial Genetic Characterization of the 1918 ‘Spanish’ Influenza Virus.”<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Taubenberger is a molecular pathologist who, at that time, was working within the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C. . He, together with other members of his research team, had been able to obtain a lung tissue sample from an apparent victim of the 1918 flu who had been stationed in Fort Jackson, South Carolina at the time of the alleged pandemic. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The soldier had been hospitalized on September 20, 1918 with a diagnosis of influenza and pneumonia. He died less than a week later on September 26, 1918, and a sample of lung tissue had been taken from him and stored for possible subsequent examination. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Before proceeding further, perhaps, the following observation would not be inappropriate. More specifically, making a clinical diagnosis of influenza gives expression to a judgment that is made by a physician with respect to various symptoms that are being observed.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">What is causing those symptoms is a separate, although, obviously, not an unrelated issue. However, electron micrographs that were capable of capturing images of possible viral-like entities would not be possible for nearly another two decades, and, consequently, to maintain in 1918 that symptoms of influenza or pneumonia were caused by a viral infection would be an entirely speculative perspective (This is a point that is touched upon in passing toward the latter part of the CDC article being discussed here.) . <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Physicians treat the clinical presentation of symptoms. The cause of those symptoms might not ever be known until an autopsy is performed, and, perhaps, not even then.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Furthermore, the issue of autopsy findings is somewhat of a moot point in 1918. Very few autopsies were performed in conjunction with determining the cause of whatever might be causing the deaths that transpired in 1918.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Putting the foregoing considerations aside for the moment, Taubenberger’s research group had been able to sequence nine relatively small remnants of single-stranded RNA chains from the aforementioned soldier’s lung tissue sample. Those nine fragments were alleged to be from four of the purported eight gene segments that were theorized to make up the genome of the 1918 influenza. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">One problem with the foregoing account is that since human cells – including samples from the lungs – often contain single-stranded RNA sequences of many different kinds, one cannot necessarily be sure that any given RNA fragment which one is able to acquire from a human cell is necessarily from a virus. Moreover, even if the single-stranded RNA sequence were from a virus, there is no guarantee that the segment will be from one particular kind of virus (i.e., 1918 Influenza) rather than from some other virus that might have been in the lung tissue of the soldier who died in 1918. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Virologists contend that the Influenza A viral genome consists of eight, single negative-strand RNAs that can range between 890 and 2340 nucleotides long. Each RNA segment is believed to encode one to two proteins … including the glycoproteins -- hemagglutinin and neuraminidase – which is where the ‘H’ and the ‘N’ come from in the H1N1 subtype that is believed by many virologists to constitute the 1918 influenza virus.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">There are thousands, if not millions, of RNA fragments that are to be found within the cultures that supposedly contain the foregoing sort of virus. So, the question becomes, how does one know that the “nine relatively small remnants of single-stranded RNA chains from the aforementioned soldier’s lung tissue sample” actually constitute fragments from the 1918 influenza?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Notwithstanding the foregoing issues, Taubenberger’s research group maintained that the RNA which it had sequenced constituted a novel form of influenza A – namely, H1N1. This virus was alleged to belong to a subgroup of viruses that tended to inhabit pigs and human beings rather than birds.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">After reading the Taubenberger article in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Science</em>, Johan Hultin, wrote to Taubenberger and inquired about whether, or not, Taubenberger would be interested in what might be discovered if Hultin returned to Brevig Mission and, once again, tried to obtain some lung-tissue samples from the interred bodies that had died during the 1918 phenomenon. Taubenberger said he would be interested in such a venture, and, consequently, Hultin returned to the village which he had visited in 1951. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">During this return journey, and after, once again, receiving permission from village elders, Hultin unearthed the body of an Inuit woman who was buried some 7 feet deep in the mass grave. Her lungs had been extremely well-preserved due to the permafrost in which they had been entombed.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">After placing the lungs in an appropriate kind of preserving fluid, Hultin later sent the excavated biological materials to Taubenberger. Word subsequently came back to Hultin from Taubenberger “that positive 1918 virus genetic material had indeed been obtained from” the lung tissues that had been sent.” <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Nothing is said in the CDC article at this point about what made the RNA sequences from the Inuit woman’s lungs positive with respect to the 1918 virus. In other words, one does not know what the RNA sequences from the Inuit woman’s lung tissue cells were being compared against in order to permit someone to be able to conclude that, in fact, some of her RNA had come from the 1918 Influenza virus that supposedly had caused the woman’s death. <br /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Putting aside the foregoing sorts of issues, the CDC article proceeds to state that in February of 1999, a paper entitled: “Origin and evolution of the 1918 ‘Spanish’ influenza virus hemagglutinin gene” appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The article was written by, among others, Anne Reid, who was part of Taubenberger’s team of researchers and Johan Hultin had been given credit as being one of the co-authors of the article. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The Hemagglutinin gene is hypothesized to help make possible the entry of the influenza virus into the interior of a healthy cell within the respiratory system of a human being and, thereafter, go about replicating itself. The foregoing claim is actually only a theory about how a virus gains access to the interior of a cell since no one has actually seen or proven how the breeching process take place, just as once a virus is alleged to have gained entry to the interior of a cell – no one has seen, or knows how the virus is able to take control of the cell’s replication machinery or how it sets in motion a series of events that lead to death. Everything which is said about such a virus – or viruses in general -- is part of an elaborate theoretical framework that is based, in part, on data, and, in to a large degree, on speculations concerning how to interpret that data.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">At this point, the CDC article offers an illustration of what virologists believe the influenza virus looks like. One needs to understand that the illustration in the CDC article is someone’s rendition of the virus since there are no electron micrographs that are capable of verifying that such an illustration is accurate. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The hemagglutinin – HA – protein that was the subject matter of the aforementioned Reid article is a surface protein which is believed to aid the virus to gain access to the interior of a human cell. Once inside a cell, the virus proceeds to infect a healthy respiratory tract, but, so far, nothing has been said in article to indicate how this infection process takes place or why it can be so lethal. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The fact that an entity of some kind might be able to gain entry into the interior of a human cell doesn’t, in and of itself, prove anything. One needs to understand the dynamics taking place within human cells, but this is difficult to do in conjunction with objects that are the size that viruses are said to be, and, therefore, such accounts tend to be heavily theory-laden.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The aforementioned HA component is one of the features of the virus that is believed to be targeted and tagged by antibodies. One theory underlying flu vaccines is built around the idea of finding a way to target, and, then, neutralize, the HA surface protein of that virus, and, in the process, undermine the putative means by which such viruses are believed to gain access to the interior of human cells.. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The CDC article goes on to indicate that the 1999 Reid – et. al. – study was able to put together a proposed sequence structure for the hemagglutinin surface protein. This structure was based on combining fragments from the lung tissue samples drawn from the woman unearthed in Brevig Mission, as well as from the soldier who had died at Fort Jackson, along with remnants from a service member who had been stationed – and who died -- at Camp Upton in New York in 1918. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The foregoing amalgamation of data constitutes a theoretical construction. The aforementioned study did not isolate such a protein in any of the bodies, but, instead, inferred its existence on the basis of genetic data drawn from three different people. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">According to Reid and others, the 1918 virus had initially invaded human beings sometime between 1900 and 1915. Since the HA gene was believed to have various mammalian – as opposed to avian – adaptations, and, therefore, was more human-like or swine-like --“depending on the method of analysis” -- the virus was placed within a mammalian clade. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">More specifically, Reid and Taubenberger maintain that the purported 1918 virus sequence that had been constructed is most closely related to the oldest classical strain of swine influenza – namely, “A/sw/Iowa/30. Moreover, they note that the former viral sequence seems to be quite different from current avian influenzas but, also add that no one is certain about what avian influenza viruses might have looked like back in 1918. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">How closely related the purported 1918 virus sequence is to the oldest classical strain of swine influenza is not specified. Furthermore, precisely what the considerable differences are that differentiate current avian influenzas from the alleged 1918 viral sequence that was constructed is also not spelled out in the CDC article.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Nonetheless, Reid and Taubenberger believe that the HA component of the virus originated from an avian viral source. However, they are uncertain about the extent to which the virus might have been undergoing changes within a mammalian evolutionary framework before it assumed the form that led to a pandemic. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">There are a number of points to note with respect to the foregoing claims. First, one might highlight the acknowledgment by Reid and Taubenberger that whether a researcher considered the HA component to be swine-like or human-like depended on the nature of the method of analysis which was used, and, therefore, one needs to recognize that conclusions concerning the precise mammalian nature of the HA protein might be more a reflection of a given method of analysis than any intrinsic feature of the HA protein.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Secondly, because Taubenberger and Reid are uncertain about how long the HA component of the virus might have been undergoing evolutionary changes within a mammalian environment before emerging as something capable of bringing about a pandemic, they are not certain about how the virus came to possess its – alleged -- lethal qualities … or what the nature of such lethality actually involves. In fact, they can’t even be certain if the virus is what was actually responsible for the deaths of so many people.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In addition, although they believe that the HA component of the virus ultimately came from an avian source, they have no data to demonstrate how the virus component might have been able to jump species. The alleged link between an avian source and a mammalian version of the virus is entirely speculative. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Finally, the so-called mammalian adaptations to which Reid and her associate authors allude are not necessarily expressions of evolutionary change. Those differences might be nothing more than artifacts of the computer program that is used to construct the theoretical version of the HA protein. In other words, as the computer programs that are used in such research is run a number of different times, the available base pairs and fragments that have been detected in a given culture are put together according to an underlying pre-fabricated template for – in this case – a given protein, but, nonetheless, differences will show up during each run as a function of the program and, therefore, one cannot suppose that differences which show up in a constructed model of a protein are due to evolutionary changes over time rather than being expressions of the way the computer program constructs things on any given occasion. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Reid and her fellow authors also indicate that the alleged 1918 virus’ HA1 protein exhibited four glycosylation sites. Virologists believe that glycosylation sites play a critical role in influenza viral functioning, but one should probably keep in mind that the foregoing belief is part of a theoretical framework in which the notion of “an influenza virus” is embedded rather than being an expression of experimentally observed performance involving those glycosylation sites. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Current HA proteins associated with human beings exhibit anywhere up to five additional glycosylation sites when compared with the alleged 1918 virus’s HA1 protein. These extra sites are believed to be the result of a process of “antigenic drift” which constitute small changes that are introduced into a component – in this case a protein – that occur as a result of errors that occur during the process of being copied to form the next generation version of that component. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">These instances of antigenic drift are believed to be adaptive in nature as a given kind of virus adjusts to its animal hosts. However, the foregoing perspective is somewhat presumptuous because one cannot automatically assume that any particular copying error that might occur will necessarily give rise to a functional adaptation. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Such instances of antigenic drift are cited as being one of the reasons why there is a new flu season every year or why someone might be able to become infected with an influenza virus on more than one occasion. Nonetheless, once again, this is like putting the cart before the horse because one cannot be certain that any given case of influenza that might occur in the future is necessarily infectious as a result of such changes. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Perhaps, somewhat more importantly, Reid and the other authors of the aforementioned article did not come across any sequence changes for the HA protein that might account for why the 1918 influenza virus was, supposedly, so virulent. For example, unlike modern avian influenza A viruses involving H5 or H7 variants which exhibit “cleavage site” mutations that are associated with added virulence due, allegedly, to the way in which such sites supposedly permit a virus to grow in tissues outside of its usual host cells through the insertion of amino acids in the aforementioned cleavage sites, the 1918 virus did not contain any sequences that coded for amino acids which could become inserted into the cleavage sites in its HA proteins. \<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Because Dr. Reid and her associate researchers could not identify any biological markers associated with the HA protein that might have been capable of generating the sort of enhanced virulence that supposedly was exhibited by the 1918 influenza virus, the researchers maintained that there were probably an number of factors which might have synergistically interacted with one another to give expression to enhanced virulence, and, therefore, lethality during the 1918 pandemic. However, the foregoing claim concerning the multifaceted nature of virulence really amounts to little more than an admission that the researchers actually have no idea why the 1918 influenza was capable of doing the damage that it was perceived to have done, and whether, or not, that virus was even responsible for what took place in 1918. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The aforementioned research group wrote a second paper in June of 2000. This article focused on the neuraminidase gene which codes for a surface protein known as NA and was entitled: “Characterization of the 1918 ‘Spanish’ Influenza Virus Neuraminidase Gene.”<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The NA protein is believed to enable a virus to escape from an infected cell, and, therefore, helps the virus to spread to other cells. According to immunologists, antibodies arise in conjunction with the NA surface proteins of viruses, and while such antibodies do not prevent infection, such antibodies are believed to help stem the tide of viral spread from taking place within human beings. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Unlike the genetic sequence for the hemagglutinin surface protein (HA) which needed to be pieced together using data from tissue samples that came from three different human bodies, the research group that was working with the tissue samples that had been sent to them by Hultin which had been obtained from excavated cadavers in Alaska, the researchers were able to work out a genetic sequence for the neuraminidase using tissue samples from just one body. Nonetheless, whether one is working with tissue samples from three bodies or one body, the process of generating a genetic sequence from such samples is pretty much the same and, consequently, such a process depends on using a computer program (set of algorithms) involving a theoretical template for whatever viral component in which one is interested in order to be able to make educated guesses about whether the RNA fragments that are present in a given tissue sample contain a sufficient number of the right kind of fragment sequences that might have underwritten the expression of a certain kind of surface protein … in this case, the neuraminidase protein. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In short, the hypothesized genetic sequence for the neuraminidase protein that many virologists believe to have been present in the 1918 influenza virus – along with the genetic sequence for the hemagglutinin (HA) viral surface protein -- is a theoretical construct. Neither the protein nor its purported genetic sequence was not found intact inside of a virus that had been properly isolated but was, instead, put together by running a variety of RNA fragments that were present in tissue samples through a computer program to see whether, or not, such fragments could be put together in a way that was capable of matching -- to varying degrees – the theoretical template being used in the underlying program. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">This is like taking the scattered letters of an alphabet that are within a sample of some sort and, then, running those letters -- along with various fragmented, short combinations of those letters -- through a computer program containing templates of certain words – say hemagglutinin and neuraminidase – in order to see whether, or not, one might be able to come up with a set of possible alphabet sequences that were capable of matching up with the program templates. One’s understanding is being filtered through the lenses of a theoretical framework, and, as a result, one might, or might not, be introducing some degree of obfuscation into the process of trying to understand whether such words were actually present in the sample or one merely had discovered a way to come up with such words using the alphabetic fragments that were available in a given sample.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">To claim that such words actually were present in the original sample -- but simply had degraded over a period of time -- is a problematic contention. After all, such words were not actually found intact in the sample one was studying but, rather, those words had to be constructed as possibilities based on what is known about the presence of various kinds of exemplars from an alphabet that were found in a given sample that contained both single instances of the alphabet along with various fragments of combined components of that alphabet. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In any event, once again, just as was true in conjunction with the constructed hemagglutinin gene sequence in which Dr. Reid and her fellow researchers were not able to identify anything in that sequence which might have enabled the proposed 1918 flu virus to be especially virulent, so too, the researchers came to the conclusion that their constructed sequence of the neuraminidase gene did not exhibit any properties that might suggest, or were known to be associated with, a capacity for enhanced virulence or lethality that was assumed to exist in the 1918 influenza virus. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">For instance, there is a certain amount of evidence to indicate that the loss of a glycosylation site in the neuraminidase gene at amino acid 146 is associated with an increase of virulence in certain current influenza viruses. However, nothing of this kind was detected in the gene sequence of the neuraminidase surface protein from the 1918 tissue samples from Alaska, and, in passing, one also might note that correlating certain features in gene sequence with enhanced virulence is not the same as demonstrating that such gene sequence features are the cause behind observed increases in virulence. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">According to the phylogenetic analysis conducted by the aforementioned research group, the neuraminidase gene sequence from the 1918 tissue sample was classified as being intermediate between mammals and birds. What exactly is entailed by the notion of “intermediacy” is not spelled out, but such considerations notwithstanding, the researchers contend that the intermediary status of the neuraminidase viral protein indicates that the virus was, most probably, introduced into human beings at some point just prior to the 1918 pandemic and that the source of the change in virulence is most likely rooted in an avian source of some kind. Yet, the CDC article also goes on to note that the research group was not able to trace the precise nature of the pathway that led to increased virulence.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">So, once again, one is talking about theories of virulence and phylogenetic transitions that are bereft of the sort of evidence which is necessary to be able to demonstrate that such a theory has credible empirical legs. Correlational possibilities and plausibilities are not the same thing as empirically demonstrated causality.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The CDC article proceeds to mention further facets of the 1918 influenza research project that led to the appearance of articles focusing on six more of the eight genes that are believed to be present in the 1918. Thus, in 2001, a paper published in the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em> was authored by Christopher Basier and others which provided an account of a nonstructural gene (NS) that was believed to be present in the 1918 influenza virus, and this was followed, in 2002, by a paper from an Ann Reid led research group which appeared in the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Journal of Virology</em> and dealt with the matrix gene that was alleged to be present in that same virus.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In 2004, a further study was published in the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Journal of Virology</em> that put forth an account of the nucleoprotein – NP gene – which is believed to have been present in the 1918 influenza virus. Finally, a year later, Taubenberger et. al. wrote an article that was published in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nature</em> and focused on different polymerase genes which are considered to have been a part of the 1918 influenza virus.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">All eight of the genes that are believed to make up the genome of the 1918 influenza virus are theoretical constructs. None of those genes were actually discovered by examining the sequences of a genome that had been located within a virus that had been isolated from all other aspects of the tissues and cultures that served as the basis for the research that was being carried out by Basier, Reid, Taubenberger and their associates … research that was being published in a variety of prestigious scientific journals. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Following the publication of the foregoing papers, a program was set in motion that was intended to create a live version of the 1918 virus. The first step in this process of going “live” involved the creation of plasmids, and this was done through the work of microbiologists Peter Palese and Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, both of whom worked at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">A plasmid consists of a tiny, circular strand of DNA. Such strands are capable of being amplified through means of laboratory controlled forms of replication. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The plasmids that were generated by Palese and Garcia-Sastre would be utilized in a process of reverse genetics that researchers hoped might enable them to study the possible relationships between viral structure and function. In turn, the foregoing sort of studies could help lay the basis for moving to the next phase of producing viable forms of viruses which will be discussed shortly.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Once the foregoing plasmids had been created, they were shipped to the CDC. Because researchers at the CDC were going to use those plasmids during the process of generating live versions of the 1918 influenza virus, the CDC instituted what it considered to be rigorous protocols for ensuring that such research would take place within an environment that exhibited the necessary qualities of biosecurity and biosafety … and these enhanced set of protocols turned out to constitute what is known as BSL-3, one level lower than the maximum conditions for biosecurity and biosafety that have been established in conjunction with BSL-4.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Dr. Julie Gerberding -- who is now the executive vice-president for strategic communications, global public policy & population health, as well as the chief patent officer, for Merck & Co., Inc. but at the time of the proposed 1918 influenza reconstruction project was the Director of the CDC -- appointed a microbiologist, Terrence Tumpey, to be the individual who would be solely responsible for working within the BSL-3 containment facility in conjunction with the attempt to recreate a live viral version of the alleged cause of the 1918 influenza pandemic. The foregoing proposal also had been approved by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease under the authority of Anthony Fauci.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The project actually got under way in the summer of 2005. The plasmids which had been sent to the CDC -- and, previously, had been constructed by Dr. Palese for each of the eight genes that were theorized to constitute the 1918 Influenza virus and -- were introduced into human kidney cells by Terrance Tumpey. Once inserted into the kidney cells, the plasmids induced those cells to generate what the members of the reconstruction project believed were a complete set of RNA sequences for the 1918 virus. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">There is some question, however, as to whether, or not, the RNA sequences that are being alluded to in the foregoing claim actually captured the structural and functional properties that might have been present in the alleged agent of the 1918 pandemic. After all, Taubenberger and Reid -- together with their associate researchers who had been involved with the various studies that produced the 8 genes that, supposedly, made up the composition of the 1918 influenza virus -- had acknowledged, as noted earlier, that they saw nothing in the 8 genes that might be considered to be a possible causal source of the virulence that was thought to be present in the 1918 influenza virus. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">If the reconstructed edition of the 1918 influenza virus had no obvious capacity for inducing infectious lethality in its hosts, then perhaps, something is missing from the reconstructed, alleged version of the 1918 influenza. Indeed, one should keep in mind that each of the 8 genes that had been created by Taubenberger, Reid and others were, actually, all constructs that were based on various kinds of computer programs, algorithms, templates and the like in order to produce what was presumed -- on the basis of an array of theoretical considerations, assumptions, and calculations – to be an accurate re-creation of the 1918 influenza virus. However, absent the presence of a causal mechanism for infectious lethality in such a model, then, perhaps, the researchers should have exercised some degree of scientific caution concerning precisely what it is that had been created and whether, or not, such a creation has anything to do with the agent that supposedly led to a pandemic in 1918. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">An article, entitled: “Characterization of the Reconstructed 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic Virus” appeared in the October 7, 2005 edition of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Science</em>. Following the publication of the foregoing article, the researchers undertook a series of experiments which was conducted in order to assess the pathogenicity of the reconstructed entity. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In other words, the researchers wanted to evaluate the capacity of their creation to infect and disrupt the healthy functioning of organisms into which their reconstructed agent was going to be introduced. This process of evaluation involved conducting a number of experiments involving mice. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The CDC article proceeds to give an overview of the experimental procedures that were used and, in the process, indicates that one set of mice were infected with the reconstructed agent, while other sets of mice were exposed to various combinations of the eight genes that constituted the reconstructed agent that had been combined with various strains of influenza A viruses (H1N1) that affect human beings on a seasonal basis. These latter concoctions are referred to as “recombinant viruses.” <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">There might, or might not, be problems surrounding the character of the foregoing experimental setup. For example, nothing is specifically mentioned in the CDC article about how the different sets of mice were infected or just what it was that constituted the vector that was being introduced into those mice. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">To begin with, living organisms come into contact with potentially infectious agents by interacting with the surrounding environment. Therefore, unless the various experimental sets of mice were being exposed to a possible infectious agent via air, water, food, or through their physical interaction with the environment, then, one is using a mode of vector introduction into the test subjects which is of questionable scientific value. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Secondly, there are a number of questions that should be raised in conjunction with the nature of the precise contents of the potential infectious agent to which the test animals were being exposed. For instance, since the CDC reconstruction project supposedly had succeeded in generating the RNA sequences for the complete genome of the purported 1918 virus, then shouldn’t they have been able to produce completely isolated versions of the entities to which such RNA sequences give expression … versions that would be uncontaminated or unadulterated by the presence of any other components such as would happen if one were to embed the reconstructed virus in some sort of culture which, supposedly contains said agents but, in addition, also often tend to involve a number of other components, as well, that are considered by researchers to be necessary to maintain a viable culture. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The term “viable” in the foregoing means something that serves the purposes of a group of researchers rather than something that necessarily reflects what is likely to happen outside of a laboratory. If the potentially infectious vector which is being introduced to experimental groups of mice consists of anything except a purified compilation of the reconstructed virus, or anything but a purified amalgamation of various kinds of recombinant viruses in control groups, then whatever other components are being mixed in with the reconstructed virus or mixed in with recombinant viruses that are being used as control groups might have the capacity to obfuscate the character of the biological dynamics that are taking place within organisms in conjunction with the possibly infectious agents to which they are being exposed? <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">According to the account provided by the CDC article concerning the foregoing experiments, there was a marked difference between the impact of the reconstructed version of the 1918 influenza virus on mice and the nature of the impact which the recombinant viruses had when they were introduced to various control groups of mice. For instance, mice that had been given the reconstructed version of the 1918 influenza virus contained quantities of the replicated virus that were 39,000 times higher than were produced through one of the recombinant viruses.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">One question that might be asked in conjunction with the aforementioned claim in the CDC article is the following possibility. Given the claim that mice which, somehow, had been exposed to the reconstructed version of the 1918 influenza contained 39,000 times the amount of that reconstructed version than mice which were not exposed to the reconstructed version, how does one know that all the entities which are being claimed to be exemplars of the reconstructed version (some 39,000 times some given amount) are what they are said to be? In other words, have samples from the set of entities that arose in conjunction with the fully reconstructed edition of the 1918 influenza virus been properly isolated, opened up, and shown to contain an intact RNA genome that is the same as the reconstructed version from which the large quantity of replicated entities supposedly arose and which also can be shown, when re-introduced to other mice, to produce the same kind of patterns of replication?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">According to the CDC report concerning the reconstruction project for the 1918 influenza virus, another indicator of the virulence of their reconstructed agent -- beside the degree of replication that is observed -- concerned the possible lethality of that agent. More specifically, the reconstructed edition of the 1918 influenza virus was said to be 100 times more lethal than “one of the other recombinant viruses tested.” <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Does the foregoing claim mean that the recombinant viruses were also lethal but 100 times less so than the fully reconstructed edition of the 1918 influenza virus, and, if this is the case, then why would such a recombinant virus be lethal? Furthermore, one might entertain various questions in relation to the extent of the lethality to which the article seems to be alluding in conjunction with the recombinant viruses which are not specified, as well have questions about the nature of the mechanism of lethal pathogenicity that might be involved in those deaths. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In other words, if one accepts the premise that the fully reconstructed edition of the 1918 virus was 100 times more lethal than “one of the other recombinant viruses tested,” then just how lethal was the latter recombinant virus? How many mice in this group died, and what was the cause of death?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Moreover, there is a certain amount of ambiguity present in the CDC article with respect to experiments involving the reconstructed virus when the article indicates that the fully reconstructed version was 100 times more lethal than “one of the other recombinant viruses tested”. In other words, does the foregoing claim in the CDC article mean that other versions of the recombinant viruses were associated with higher degrees of lethality than the one recombinant virus, in particular, that was tested and which, apparently is being referenced in the quoted statement. Or, alternatively, were the other recombinant viruses found to be more lethal than one of the recombinant viruses that was tested but were, to varying degrees, less lethal than the reconstructed edition of the 1918 influenza virus, and, if the latter is the case, then, once again, what is the extent to which such recombinant viruses are associated with dead mice and why do such deaths occur at all? <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The CDC article does indicate that the HA or hemagglutinin gene from the fully reconstructed edition of the purported 1918 flu virus seems to play a critical role in rendering the virus to be lethal. The evidence for such a claim rests with an experiment in which the gene from the fully reconstructed edition of the 1918 gene was removed, while the seven other genes from the reconstructed virus were combined with a seasonal influenza virus labeled as: “A/Texas/36/91” or in more abbreviated form: “Tx/91.”<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The latter recombinant virus did not result in the death of any mice. Furthermore, such mice did not undergo any sort of weight loss, whereas many mice exposed to the supposedly fully reconstructed rendition of the 1918 virus not only died but, as well, some number of the latter group of mice lost up to 13% of body weight within two days of being exposed. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The foregoing experiment involving “TX/91” is described in a somewhat ambiguous manner. Presumably, the only difference between, on the one hand, the recombinant virus that combined seven genes from the fully reconstructed version of the 1918 virus with the “Tx/91” control virus would have centered around the absence of the HA gene. However, since nothing was said in the CDC article about the number or kinds of genes that might have been present in the “TX/91” to which the seven genes from the fully reconstructed version were being added, one is not really certain if the only difference between the fully reconstructed virus and the recombinant “Tx/91” virus is the presence or absence of the HA gene, or whether there are other differences in genomic structure as well.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Furthermore, the phrase: “lost up to 13% of body weight” which appears in the CDC article sounds like a lot of television advertisements which indicate that if one buys a certain product, then, one can save up to “x” amount, or if one uses a certain product, then one’s condition can improve by “x” amount, but, in reality, the amount which can be saved, or the benefit that actually accrues, turns out, in most instances, to be substantially less than whatever the indicated “x” amount might be, and, yet, the original statement would not constitute a lie because there were some cases in which “x” amount was saved or “x” benefit accrued. Consequently, to say that some mice “lost up to 13% of body weight” doesn’t necessarily provide one with much information or provide any insight into what the nature of the dynamic that might have caused such a loss in body weight. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">One would like to know how many experimental mice exhibited the foregoing loss in body weight. One also would like to know how many mice in the experimental group exhibited little, if no, weight loss, as well as how many mice in the control group exhibited some degree of weight loss, even if not substantial. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Aside from the issue of numbers involving various kinds of weight loss, one might also like to know something about the causal issues underlying such weight loss. Why did some mice experience more weight loss than others, and what factors might have affected how much weight, if any, was lost? <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Apparently, according to the CDC account of the reconstruction project, the presence or absence of the HA gene had a marked effect on the symptoms that arise. However, exactly what role the HA gene plays in the nature of the symptoms that arise, or do not arise, is not actually spelled out.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The CDC article describing the experiments involving the fully reconstructed gene version of the purported 1918 influenza virus also indicates that within four days of being exposed to the aforementioned reconstructed edition, mice displayed various forms of inflammation in their lungs that were reminiscent of, or similar to, the sorts of lung tissue inflammation that had been observed in conjunction with many human beings during the alleged 1918 pandemic. In other words, apparently, the lungs of the exposed mice filled up with fluids, or exhibited signs of pneumonia, or had some other kind of lung inflammation.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">However, the term “similar” that appears in the CDC article is somewhat open-ended. As a result, one remains unsure as to the extent or degree of similarity between the sorts of lung complications that emerged in conjunction with the mice that were exposed to the fully reconstructed version of the purported 1918 virus and the kind of lung complications that were fairly common among the human beings who were said to be infected with the 1918 virus.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The CDC article also describes a set of experiments that were run using a human lung cell line referred to as “Calu-3 cells”. More specifically, measurements were taken at 12 hours, 16 hours, and 24 hours following exposure of those cells to the alleged fully reconstructed edition of the 1918 virus, and, then, these measurements were compared with measurements that were made following the exposure of the human lung cell line to various forms of recombinant viruses involving different arrangements of certain genes from the fully reconstructed form and various kinds of seasonal flu viruses that supposedly affect human beings. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">According to the CDC article, the reconstructed version replicated rapidly within the human lung cell line into which they had been introduced. In fact, the reconstructed virus produced “as much as 50 times” the amount of virus as various forms of the recombinant viruses did.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Once again, the notion that one virus produces “as much as 50 times more” of that virus than does another kind of virus doesn’t really explain how frequently this maximum of 50 times greater production actually occurred. Rather, the statement only indicates that there were some cases in which this sort of rate of multiplication was observed, but there also were other instances in which this kind of differential in production was not observed, but no details are given concerning the latter sorts of cases.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">The CDC article goes on to state that one of the conclusions drawn from the aforementioned sorts of experiments is that the polymerase genes that were present in the reconstructed viral form also appeared to play a significant role in the pathogenicity (i.e., virulence and capacity for infectivity) that was observed when human lung tissue was exposed to the fully reconstructed edition of the alleged 1918 virus. Nonetheless, what the nature of that enhanced role might be is not really spelled out.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In addition, what takes place in a laboratory Petri dish is not necessarily an accurate reflection of what takes place in the much more complex environment of a living organism. Do the dynamics occurring within a laboratory point to certain possibilities in conjunction with life? Possibly … however, there is a potential for many a slip twixt experimental cup and living lip. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">As noted earlier, Taubenberger and Reid were of the opinion that the 1918 influenza virus might have derived certain gain of function properties from an avian source … properties that were theorized to have made a species jump at some point prior to the onset of the pandemic. The researchers had reached the foregoing point of view because they felt that the reconstructed influenza virus had segments in its genetic sequence that seemed to be much closer to avian influenza A viruses (H1N1) than they were to various kinds of H1N1 mammalian influenza viruses, but what precisely was entailed by the notion of appearing to be “closer” to avian influenza A H1N1 viruses than to H1N1 mammalian editions of such viruses was not really specified or explained.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In order to test the foregoing thesis concerning the possible origins of the alleged 1918 influenza virus, 10-day old fertilized chicken eggs were exposed to the CDC reconstructed virus and, then, compared with results from experiments that exposed the same kind of eggs to various editions of a modern human influenza A virus that contained different combinations of the two, five, and seven gene recombinant viruses that had been created by Dr. Tumpey during earlier stages of the series of experiments that were being run through the CDC concerning the alleged 1918 influenza. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">According to the CDC article, the fertilized chicken egg experiments indicted that the reconstructed version of what was assumed to be the virus at the heart of the 1918 pandemic had a much more lethal effect upon the chicken egg embryos than did any of the recombinant versions of the human influenza virus. In fact, none of the recombinant viruses seemed to have the same degree of lethality in conjunction with the fertilized egg embryos as the fully reconstructed version did, but the CDC article is unclear about whether, or not, the presence of any of the recombinant viruses led to symptoms of one kind or another in the fertilized chicken embryos. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Furthermore, the pathogenicity of the fully reconstructed edition of the 1918 influenza virus in relation to fertilized chicken eggs was said to be “similar” to the kind of pathogenicity that was observed when fertilized chicken eggs were exposed to various kinds of current H1N1 editions of avian flu viruses. However, the nature of the alleged ‘similarity’ between, on the one hand, the fully reconstructed edition of the putative 1918 virus and, on the other hand, contemporary versions of avian flu viruses was not specified, nor was there any discussion in the CDC article concerning whether, or not, similar sorts of pathogenetic outcomes might have been produced in more than one way. Yet, if there were multiple possible paths to similar sorts of effects in the chicken embryos, then, one couldn’t necessarily conclude that the reason for such similar outcomes is necessarily due to the role that avian flu viruses might have played in the theorized gain of function that supposedly showed up in the virus that is alleged to have caused the 1918 pandemic. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In addition, although the researchers believe that the foregoing experiments with chicken egg embryos showed – as the researchers also had concluded with respect to the human lung cell line experiments – that both the HA, or hemagglutinin gene, as well as the polymerase genes of the reconstructed influenza virus played significant roles in enhancing the virulence of the alleged 1918 influenza virus, once again there was an absence of details in the CDC article concerning just what the nature of those roles might have been, or how such capabilities actually came into being (rather than theoretically might have come into being in such a fashion), and why such features would have generated the kind of pathogenicity that had been observed in 1918. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Although much speculation within the CDC article, as well as elsewhere, has been focused on the possible mechanisms of pathogenicity to be found in conjunction with any given form of influenza virus, one should keep in mind that not all mice died in the CDC experiments when they were exposed to such viruses, nor did all mice lose 13 % of their body weight within a couple of days following that exposure. Consequently, one must also take into consideration the characteristics of the organisms that are being exposed to a putative virus in order to try to account for the differential outcomes that occurred in such experiments despite being exposed to precisely the same reconstructed virus. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Death, like life, involves a dance between environment and organism. Why, despite being exposed to the same set of environmental features, some organisms die, while other organisms live, is an issue that cannot be reduced down to only questions of pathogenicity concerning a given virus, but, as well, one must take into consideration the degree of vulnerability, if any, that exists in various organisms and just what is entailed by such vulnerability. In short, one can’t talk about the lethality of a viral agent or entity without simultaneously exploring the susceptibility of an organism to certain kinds of difficulties that might arise when engaged in various ways by various elements within a given environment. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">In fact, given the foregoing considerations, one might ask: Is the pathogenicity that is observed in such circumstances a function of the virus or is it a function of the organism? Where is the locus of causality to be set? <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">If an organism is immune to the presence of a certain entity (say, some sort of viral agent), then, in reality, the latter entity has absolutely no pathogenicity relative to such an organism. So, if another organism of the same kind displays various kinds of biological difficulties when exposed to the same sort of environmental agent, can one really say that it is the entity’s pathogenicity that causes such difficulties or is the causal dynamic much more complex than assigning pathogenicity to a entity such as a virus? <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Perhaps, the reason why researchers have had such difficulty in delineating the causal process with respect to the 1918 pandemic is because their analysis should have been looking for something beyond the idea of an agent or entity that has some sort of capacity for generating pathogenicity in an organism. In other words, perhaps, they should have been looking into the complexities of how organisms interact with the environment and what both sides of the dynamic bring to the life, death, and well-being equation.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Finally, the research conducted by Taubenberger, Reid, Tumpey, and others that is, to a degree, delineated in the CDC article and which has been the focus of the present essay, hasn’t actually demonstrated that the reconstructed genome that arose through their efforts was the same as the viral agent that supposedly played such a devastating role in the events of 1918. Although they believe they have demonstrated that their reconstructed version is correlated with certain kinds of results in various sorts of experimental contexts, nonetheless, by their own admission, they acknowledge that their reconstructed genome does not seem to display any features which have been empirically demonstrated to be capable of generating the sort of virulence or pathogenicity that is believed to have been characteristic of whatever transpired in 1918. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">They talk about a possible mechanism for entry into a cell (e.g., hemagglutinin – HA gene) as well as a possible means of being able to exit from cells (e.g., neuraminidase – NA gene). In addition, they allude to the possible role that various polymerase genes in their reconstructed entity might have had in conjunction with the process of successful replication as well as possibly enhancing, in some way, the virulence of the alleged 1918 virus, but the capacity to enter, exit, and replicate do not necessarily give expression to a causal account of how such a virus generates its lethality within a human host <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Consequently, the foregoing lacks causal concreteness. They cite experiments that were conducted at the CDC concerning the potential pathogenicity of their reconstructed creation, but none of those experiments demonstrate that their re-created entity is identical to what supposedly was at the heart of events in 1918, and, in fact, only indicate that in some fashion their reconstructed genome can be correlated with certain kinds of experimental results without being able to spell out what the precise causal dynamics were which underlay those experimental results. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">Once can agree with the authors of the CDC article when she, he, or they conclude: “… that more work needs to be done.” Whether the future work to which the article is alluding will be able to demonstrate that researchers will be able to causally prove that their constructions constitute accurate recreations of the agent that, supposedly, was responsible for the public health crisis that occurred in 1918 remains to be seen. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">---- </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;">If you would like to download the foregoing article, then please right click on the following link : </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1298px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem;"><a href="https://www.billwhitehouse.com/Queries/DeadliestFlu.pdf" target="_blank">The Deadliest Flu</a></div>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-9259842163542581572021-03-28T18:37:00.000-04:002021-06-09T04:03:15.218-04:00Explication of the Logo for Sufi Amanesis<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw-Gff6dVWXteTJ6ci4UaCCOnOgCUTZWyVi29a7jlGVYezp6QDnZ9wg_ySWvr8SkDmmO46ijAPLYy4' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-16337470933827171082020-11-01T14:35:00.005-05:002020-11-01T15:00:05.122-05:00The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us (Part 5) - Video Presentation<p>I've re-packaged episode 5 of the multi-part series of podcasts entitled: "The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us" in a video format which can be accessed through the following url: </p><p> <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/zai2gih0yBoE/ " target="_blank">Bitchute</a></p><p>I believe the foregoing visual presentation adds a lot of valuable, and stimulating possibilities for critical reflection to the audio portion of the podcast.</p><p>The four earlier parts of the aforementioned podcast can still be freely downloaded at: </p><p> <a href="https://www.billwhitehouse.com/Queries/index.html " target="_blank">Queries</a></p><p>In addition, there is an array of free videos, articles, and books on a variety of contemporary issues that also are available through the latter link. </p><p>I hope you will have the interest and courage to explore the material associated with both of the foregoing links. The surface is merely a veil that tends to obscure what lies beneath.</p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-87339249084685504062020-09-06T18:54:00.003-04:002020-09-06T18:54:55.365-04:00The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 5<p> <a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/238325/5321176-the-essence-of-the-problem-that-lies-before-us-part-5.mp3?blob_id=21537013&download=true" target="_blank">The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 5</a></p><p> (The foregoing link is for listening to or downloading a free mp3 file - just over 26 minutes long) </p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 18.4px;">This is the fifth and final episode in a five-part series on the U.S. Constitution which explores the meaning of: The establishment clause of the First Amendment, along with some critical reflection concerning the nature and scope of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, as well as the guarantee clause of Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution. All of the foregoing is pursued in relation to the roles of Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 18.4px;">I know that the description above seems to SCREAM "Boring". However, both metaphorically and literally, your life might well depend on being able to properly grasp the nature of the rights and powers that have, respectively, been retained and reserved for the people under the U.S. Constitution, as well as being able to acquire insight into what neither the Federal nor state governments are entitled to do with respect to the people.</span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-36117421397985421532020-09-06T00:06:00.001-04:002020-09-06T00:07:08.984-04:00The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 4<p> <a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/238325/5312563-the-essence-of-the-problem-that-lies-before-us-part-4.mp3?blob_id=21496012&download=true" target="_blank">The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 4</a></p><p> (The foregoing link is for listening to or downloading a free mp3 file - nearly 26 minutes long) </p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 18.4px;">This is the fourth episode in a five-part series on the U.S. Constitution which explores the meaning of: The establishment clause of the First Amendment, along with some critical reflection concerning the nature and scope of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, as well as the guarantee clause of Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution. All of the foregoing is pursued in relation to the roles of Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 18.4px;">I know that the description above seems to SCREAM "Boring". However, both metaphorically and literally, your life might well depend on being able to properly grasp the nature of the rights and powers that have, respectively, been retained and reserved for the people under the U.S. Constitution, as well as being able to acquire insight into what neither the Federal nor state governments are entitled to do with respect to the people.</span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-57050265077796007432020-09-04T16:50:00.001-04:002020-09-04T16:50:31.044-04:00The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 3<p> <a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/238325/5301088-the-essence-of-the-problem-that-lies-before-us-part-3.mp3?blob_id=21439105&download=true" target="_blank">The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 3</a></p><p> (The foregoing link is for listening to or downloading a free mp3 file - 25 minutes long) </p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 18.4px;">This is the third episode in a five-part series on the U.S. Constitution which explores the meaning of: The establishment clause of the First Amendment, along with some critical reflection concerning the nature and scope of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, as well as the guarantee clause of Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution. All of the foregoing is pursued in relation to the roles of Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 18.4px;">I know that the description above seems to SCREAM "Boring". However, both metaphorically and literally, your life might well depend on being able to properly grasp the nature of the rights and powers that have, respectively, been retained and reserved for the people under the U.S. Constitution, as well as being able to acquire insight into what neither the Federal nor state governments are entitled to do with respect to the people.</span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-91887278766813182652020-09-03T23:18:00.002-04:002020-09-03T23:18:23.456-04:00The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 2<p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/238325/5285345-the-essence-of-the-problem-that-lies-before-us-part-2.mp3?blob_id=21364937&download=true" target="_blank">The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 2</a></p><p> (The foregoing link is for listening to or downloading an mp3 file - 26 minutes long) </p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 18.4px;">This is the second episode in a five-part series on the U.S. Constitution which explores the meaning of: The establishment clause of the First Amendment, along with some critical reflection concerning the nature and scope of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, as well as the guarantee clause of Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution. All of the foregoing is pursued in relation to the roles of Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 18.4px;">I know that the description above seems to SCREAM "Boring". However, both metaphorically and literally, your life might well depend on being able to properly grasp the nature of the rights and powers that have, respectively, been retained and reserved for the people under the U.S. Constitution, as well as being able to acquire insight into what neither the Federal nor state governments are entitled to do with respect to the people.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span></div>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-91963019522039586612020-09-02T17:48:00.009-04:002020-09-02T18:28:26.814-04:00The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 1<p> <a href=" https://www.buzzsprout.com/238325/5267008-the-essence-of-the-problem-that-lies-before-us-part-1.mp3?blob_id=21276250&download=true" target="_blank"> The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us - Part 1</a> </p><p>(The foregoing link is for downloading an mp3 file - 26 minutes long) </p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 115%;">This is the first of a five-part series on the U.S. Constitution which explores the meaning of: The establishment clause of the First Amendment, along with some critical reflection concerning the nature and scope of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, as well as the guarantee clause of Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution. All of the foregoing is pursued in relation to the roles of Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 115%;">I know that the description above seems to SCREAM "Boring". However, both metaphorically and literally, your life might well depend on being able to properly grasp the nature of the rights and powers that have, respectively, been retained and reserved for the people under the U.S. Constitution, as well as being able to acquire insight into what neither the Federal nor state governments are entitled to do with respect to the people.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-64734475427001980942020-08-26T13:30:00.006-04:002020-08-26T13:30:49.219-04:00The Essence of the Problem That Lies Before Us<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><u><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 115%;">Preamble</span></u><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 115%;">: Any
form of public policy, including health, gives expression to a species of
religion which government officials are seeking to evangelically and forcibly
impose on other individuals (i.e., citizens). No one – not governments (whether
federal or state) and not individuals -- can be shown to have a right under the
U.S. Constitution -- to establish the foregoing sort of religious perspective. <span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">---- </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">The foregoing preamble serves to introduce a 65- page article that critically reflects on the the U.S. Constitution with respect to the nature of the relationship among: The establishment clause; the necessary and proper clause; the Ninth Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, and the guarantee clause of Article IV, Section 4 in conjunction with the structural character of the roles that have been assigned to the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of federal government. Among other things, the foregoing conceptual exploration seeks to understand the potential meaning and significance of terms such as: "religion," "establishment," "retained rights," "reserved powers," "necessary and proper," "the people," "guarantee," as well as "a republican form of government". </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">I believe the foregoing article provides readers with considerable insight into what the essential nature of the problem is with which we are presently confronted, and, consequently, I contend that the aforementioned article is of crucial significance to every American -- especially in light of the events that currently are unfolding all about us -- and, as a result, constitutes essential reading material. Please let others know about this article, because these are issues about which we all need to critically reflect and act upon.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">The article is <u>freely</u> available through my website: <a href="https://www.billwhitehouse.com/Queries/Essence.pdf" target="_blank">Bill Whitehouse</a> (right click)</span></p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-17357721695853576972020-08-14T17:41:00.003-04:002020-08-14T17:50:33.456-04:00BillWhitehouse.com - New Queries section<p> A new section has been added to the https://www.billwhitehouse.com web site. For those who might have an interest in exploring it, please go to: </p><p><a href="https://www.billwhitehouse.com/Queries/index.html">Queries</a></p><p>There is a great deal of interesting, potentially useful, and relevant information that can be discovered if one will take the time to critically reflect on the material that is encompassed within the aforementioned section.</p>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11167814.post-75256557716550099752020-04-27T12:57:00.000-04:002020-04-27T12:57:18.682-04:00Some Principles of Sovereignty -- Food For Thought
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(1) Sovereignty is indigenous to, and inherent
in, the potential of human beings. It is not derived from society or
governments but, in fact, exists prior to, and independently of, the formation
of society and governments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(2) Sovereignty is the right to realize
essential identity and constructive potential in ways that are free from
techniques of undue influence (which seek to push or pull individuals in
directions that are antithetical to the realization of sovereignty) but, as
well, in ways that do not infringe on the like rights of others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(3) Sovereignty entails the human capacity (and
corresponding duties of care) to be able to push back the horizons of ignorance
concerning the nature of reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(4) Sovereignty encompasses rights to the
quality of food, shelter, clothing, education, and medical care that are
minimally necessary to work toward trying to realize identity and constructive potential through the
process of pushing back the horizons of ignorance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(5) Sovereignty is rooted in the duties of care
that are owed to others to ensure that the foregoing rights of sovereignty are
established, protected, and nurtured for everyone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(6) Sovereignty is the right to choose how to
engage the dynamics of: ‘neither control, nor be controlled’. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(7) Sovereignty entails establishing local
councils that constructively promote and develop principles of sovereignty and
if necessary those councils would help mediate disputes that arise along the
boundary dynamics involving the principle of: ‘Neither control nor be controlled’.
The composition, selection, and nature of the council would be similar to that
of a grand jury. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In other words, council members would not be
elected but chosen through an agreed-upon random-like process and, then,
subject to a vetting procedure to determine the suitability of a given
individual for taking on the responsibilities of the aforementioned council …
much like prospective jurors go through a voir dire process. In addition, the
length of service would be for a limited time (6 months to a year) before new
members would be selected through the aforementioned sort of non-manipulated
manner of selecting and vetting prospective candidates that was noted earlier.
Like a grand jury, the members of a local sovereignty council would be
empowered to investigate whatever issues and problems seem relevant, but,
unlike a grand jury, that council would have the authority to research issues,
subpoena witnesses, and present their results directly to the community for
further deliberation without having to go through the office of a prosecutor or
attorney general. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(8) Sovereignty is the responsibility of
individuals to work toward realizing their own individual sovereignty within a
collective context that gives expression to the idea of sovereignty being writ
large for the community as a whole. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(9) Sovereignty is rooted in economic activity
that serves the principles of sovereignty, not vice versa. Corporations should
be permitted to exist only as temporary charter arrangements devoid of any
claims of personhood and they should be designed to serve specific purposes of
value for the constructive development of sovereignty for both individuals and
the collective. Whatever profits accrue from corporate activity should be
shared with the communities in which the corporation operates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(10) The constructive value of money is a
function of its role in advancing the principles of sovereignty for everyone.
The destructive value of money is a function of the way it undermines,
corrupts, and obstructs the principles of sovereignty. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Money acquires its value through the service it
provides in relation to the establishment, enhancement, and protection of
sovereignty. The money-generating capacity of banks should serve the purposes
of sovereignty both individually and collectively. Banks should be owned and
regulated by local communities as public utilities. Moreover, whatever profits
are earned in conjunction with bank activities should be reinvested in the
community. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(11) Capital refers primarily to the
constructive potential inherent in human beings and only secondarily to
financial resources. The flow of capital (in both human and financial terms)
should serve the interests of sovereignty, both individually and
collectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(12) Sovereignty is not a zero-sum game. It is
about co-operation, not competition. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(13) Sovereignty is rooted in the acquisition of
personal character traits involving: Honesty, compassion, charitableness,
benevolence, friendship, objectivity, equitability, tolerance, forgiveness,
patience, perseverance, nobility, courage, kindness, humility, integrity,
independence and judiciousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(14) Sovereignty is not imposed from the outside
in but is realized from the inside out through struggle by individuals for
purposes<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of coming being able to grasp
the meaning of the following notion: ‘Neither control nor be controlled’. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(15) Sovereignty is rooted in struggling
against: Dishonesty, bias, hatred, jealousy, greed, anger, selfishness,
intolerance, arrogance, apathy, cowardice, egocentrism, duplicity,
exploitation, and cruelty. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(16) Sovereignty is the process of struggling to
learn how not to cede one’s moral and intellectual agency to anything but:
Truth, justice and character in the service of realizing one’s identity, and
constructive potential, as well as in the service of assisting others to
realize their identity and constructive potential. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(17) Sovereignty can never be defended,
protected, or enhanced by diminishing, corrupting, co-opting, or suspending the
conditions necessary for the pursuit, practice, and realization of sovereignty.
Sovereignty should not be subject to the politics of fear. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(18) Sovereignty is rooted in the principle that
no person can represent the sovereign interests of another individual unless
the sovereign interests of everybody are equally served at the same time. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(19) To whatever extent: Governments, nations,
institutions, and corporations exist, their activities should always be capable
of being demonstrated -- beyond a reasonable doubt – to be in the service of people’s
sovereignty, considered both collectively and individually. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(20) Sovereignty is rooted in the principle of
de-centralization whenever doing so would serve, in a clearly demonstrable
manner, the interests of sovereignty better than some form of centralized
system of governance would be able to accomplish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(21) Efficiency and wealth should be measured in
terms that enhance the way of sovereignty, not the way of power. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(22) The principles of sovereignty should be
rooted in the notion of sustainability, and those principles should not be
pursued or realized at the expense of destroying the environment ... either
with respect to short term possibilities or in conjunction with long term
prospects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(23) Sovereignty is rooted in the cautionary
principle. In other words, if there is a reasonable doubt about the safety,
efficiency, judiciousness, or potential destructive ramifications of a given
activity, then that activity should be suspended until a time when the
foregoing sorts of doubts have been completely, successfully, and rigorously
addressed. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(24) The defense of sovereignty is best served
through the co-operation of de-centralized communities of sovereign individuals
... with only occasional, limited, and secondary assistance from centralized institutions
and groups. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(25) Standing armies do not serve the interests
of sovereignty but, rather, serve the interests of the bureaucracies that
organize, fund, equip, and direct those standing armies. Being able to defend
one’s country and communities from physical attack does not require standing
armies but, instead, requires sovereign individuals who understand the value of
defending the principles of sovereignty that help a community and network of
communities to flourish. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(26) The police should serve and protect both
individual, as well as collective, sovereignty. The police should not be the
guardians and enforcers of arbitrary laws that are designed to protect
centralized governments, corporations, institutions, and other bodies that tend
to operate in accordance with the way of power and, therefore, in opposition to
the way of sovereignty. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(27) When done correctly, the practice of
sovereignty creates a public space or commons that is conducive to the pursuit
and realization of the principles of sovereignty by everyone who is willing to
struggle toward that end. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(28) Sovereignty is rooted in the principle that
the commons – that is, the resources of the Earth, if not the Universe – cannot
be proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, to belong to anyone. Therefore, the
commons should be shared, conserved, and protected by all of us rather than be
permitted to be treated as individual, institutional, corporate, or government
forms of private property. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(29) Whatever forms of private property are
considered to be permissible by general consensus, that property should serve
the establishment, enhancement, and protection of the principles of
sovereignty, both individual and collective. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(30) Aside from what is necessary to operate a
business in an effective and productive manner, as well as what is necessary in
the way of resources to be able to improve that business through research and
development, and/or is necessary to provide a fair return for the employees of
such a business for their collective efforts, then any profits that are
generated by a business should be shared with the community or communities in
which that business resides. The shareholders of a business should always be
the entire community in which a business is located and not just a select number
of private shareholders. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In exchange for foregoing kind of arrangement,
there should be no taxes assessed in conjunction with businesses. At the same
time, both businesses and the community become liable for whatever damages to
individuals, the environment, or other parts of the community that are
adversely affected by the activities of those businesses. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(31) A market in which all of its participants
are not sovereign individuals is not a free market. Markets that exploit the
vulnerabilities of participants are not free. Markets that are organized by the
few in a way that undermines, corrupts, or compromises the principles of
sovereignty are not free. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Markets in which the participants are all
equally sovereign are free. Nonetheless, the freedom inherent in those markets
should serve the interests of sovereignty for those who are both inside and
outside of those markets. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(32) Sovereignty is only realizable when it is
rooted in a collective, reciprocal, guarantee that we will all treat one
another through the principles of sovereignty. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(33) Violations of sovereignty are an impediment
to the full realization of the principles of sovereignty. However, those
violations should not be primarily or initially be subject to punitive forms of
treatment. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Instead, violations of sovereignty should be
engaged through a process of mediated, conflict resolution and reconciliation
intended to restore the efficacious and judicious functioning of sovereignty
amongst both individuals and the collective. This mediated process is, first
and foremost, rooted in a rigorous effort to determine the facts of a given
situation before proceeding on with the process of mediation, conflict
resolution, or reconciliation. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A community has the right to defend itself
against individuals who violate, and show a disregard for, the sovereignty
rights of other individuals. The aforementioned right to self protection might
assume the form of: Treatment, exile, incarceration, paroled supervision,
community service, and other forms of negotiated settlement with respect to
those who undermine the principles of sovereignty. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(34) Alleged scientific and technical progress
that cannot be rigorously demonstrated -- beyond a reasonable doubt -- to
enhance the pursuit and realization of principles of sovereignty for everyone
is subject to being governed by the precautionary principle. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(35) Sovereignty is not a form of democracy in
which the majority rules on any given issue. Rather, sovereignty is a process
of generating consensus within a community that can be demonstrated, beyond a
reasonable doubt, to serve the sovereignty interests of everyone. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(36) Sovereignty is rooted in the principle that
before making a community decision concerning a given practice, a community
should take into consideration what the impact of that practice is likely to be
on generations seven times removed from the current one. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(37) Everyone should underwrite the costs of
pursuing, establishing, enhancing, realizing, and protecting sovereignty --
both individually and collectively -- according to his or her capacity to do
so. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(38) Sovereignty is not a function of political
maneuvering, manipulations, or strategies. Rather, sovereignty is a function of
the application of: Reasoned discussion, critical reflection, constructive reciprocity,
creative opportunities, and rigorous methodology in the pursuit of pushing back
the horizons of ignorance and seeking to establish, enhance, realize, and
protect sovereignty, both individually and collectively. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(39) Sovereignty is not about hierarchy or
leadership. Advisors and technical consultants who are capable of lending their
expertise and experience to a given project that serves the interests of
sovereignty in a community are temporary facilitators whose responsibilities do
not extend beyond a given project or undertaking. Those facilitators often tend
to arise in the context of a given need and, then, are reabsorbed into the
community when a given need has been met.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(40) Education should serve the interests of
establishing, developing, enhancing and protecting the principles of
sovereignty – both individually and collectively – and not serve the interests
of the way of power. Education should not use techniques of undue influence
that push or pull individuals toward accepting, or rejecting, specific
philosophical, political, economic, or religious perspectives. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(41) To whatever extent taxes are collected (and
the issue of taxes needs to be considered and justified – to the extent that
this can be accomplished -- in a critically, rigorous fashion), those taxes
should be assessed only on a local basis and only after all sovereignty needs
of an individual for a given period of time have been addressed. Those taxes
should be proportional -- within generally agreed upon specific limits -- to a
person’s capacity to pay those taxes without undermining a person’s ability to
fully pursue realizing the principles of sovereignty. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whatever taxes are collected can be used only in
conjunction with projects of which the individual taxpayer approves. Disputes
concerning the issue of taxation should be handled through mediated discussions
and not through punitive or coercive policies. </span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Anab Whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09349433166342161304noreply@blogger.com0