Food For Thought | Ascension Lifestyle

18 Mar 2022
Comments: 0

Find More Ways to Be an Outsider

The world is full of outsiders: students away at a university far from home, immigrants to a new country, and people who go abroad for work or extended travel. Over the past year, more than 4.4 million American workers quit their jobs in the “Great Resignation,” and many of them became outsiders by joining a different company or moving to a new place, which they perhaps imagined might be friendlier to their personal needs and tastes.

But just because a journey to the unfamiliar was voluntary doesn’t make it easy: Being an outsider can be lonely and difficult, especially if all the strangers around you seem to know and understand one another. Your instincts might tell you that uprooting yourself was a terrible decision, that the benefits you sought are much smaller than the costs you are bearing. You might even wonder if you’ll ever be happy again.

The truth is, however, you almost certainly did not make a mistake. There is little evidence that being an outsider creates long-term problems for happiness or lowers your chance of success; on the contrary, people thrust between places and cultures tend to develop strength, flexibility, and resiliency. Being an outsider may be one of the best investments you will ever make, and you should embrace it, pain and all.

Scholars have studied outsiders, including immigrants, refugees, students, and foreign workers, to understand the long-term effects on well-being and personal success. Some of the most illuminating work has focused on so-called third-culture kids (TCKs): children who grow up outside their parents’ home culture and, as a result, are influenced partially by their parents’ home culture and partially by the culture in which they live, but mostly relate to a “third culture” made up of fellow sojourners. The term was coined in the 1960s by the sociologists Ruth Hill Useem and John Useem in studies of people who grow up in, for example, missionary and military families.

A lot of older theories of philosophy and psychiatry would predict tough outcomes for outsiders, especially TCKs—and indeed, would recommend against being one if you can avoid it. In Laws, Plato argued that people should not even travel abroad before age 40, and that visitors be restricted to port areas of cities to minimize their contact with citizens. He believed that acculturation—the psychological change that occurs when a person blends into an unfamiliar culture—was damaging to one’s sense of self. Plato’s reasoning carried on into the mid-20th century, and was shared by such eminent psychologists as Abraham Maslow, Erik Erikson, and Carl Rogers.

Outsiders do tend to face particular genres of hardships, especially distrust by insiders. Despite the biblical injunction “Do not oppress a foreigner,” even believers often disregard friendliness in favor of tribal instinct when it comes to immigrants. You don’t have to move to a new place to feel the ill effects. People at the margins of society, by virtue of the language they speak or the lifestyle they choose, often bear the brunt of hostility. Joseph Stalin, for example, felt a particular animosity for the people he and his supporters called “rootless cosmopolitans”—generally, Jewish intellectuals, who he considered to live outside of mainstream Soviet society despite the fact that they lived in Soviet cities.

However, with all due respect to Plato, outsiders can actually do very well. True, they generally suffer somewhat in the short term after a move. For example, one recent study showed that international college students rated their life satisfaction about 4 percent lower at the end of their first semester than at the beginning of the term. But a mountain of evidence shows that in the long run, being an outsider predicts well-being and emotional strength; it may even protect against depression.

For example, one 2018 study in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology showed that TCKs grow up to be happier and more resilient than their peers who possess less multicultural experience, and are less prone to age-related declines in cognitive flexibility. A 2012 review found that being raised in at least two cultures leads, on average, to greater psychological and emotional well-being and higher social competence in adulthood. Also in 2013, scholars found that acculturation is negatively associated with depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and sadness.

Furthermore, TCKs don’t usually wind up insecure; they develop multiple cultural identities that they employ flexibly, the same way they switch between languages. This is almost like a superpower in a globalized, fast-changing world.

Spending time as an outsider is like any other big, taxing investment you can make in yourself: difficult and maybe painful, but with a positive, lifelong payoff. You might think of it as less like a fun vacation, and more akin to a voluntary personal challenge, like training for a triathlon. Here are a few ideas to incorporate an outsider ethos into your life.

1. Remember that being an outsider is a feature, not a bug.

When you are new to a place or a group of people, you might be tempted to think of your unfamiliarity as a cost of doing business, and something to get over as quickly as possible. And by all means, you should make friends, learn the language, and find common ground. But don’t forget that the uncomfortable friction that occurs while you are integrating is making you stronger and more resilient. No pain, no gain.

2. Find regular ways to be an outsider.

Given the benefits of bicultural experiences, don’t leave your outsider status up to circumstance. Find opportunities to be on the margins, looking in. In my profession of academia, for instance, we regularly take sabbaticals and go someplace completely new for a year or six months. Most people don’t have this luxury, but they can do something akin to it by changing jobs every few years, or transferring between cities. If that sounds too drastic, you can try switching up your regular haunts—go to a new church, club, or gym where you know no on

3. Make friends with outsiders, even if you aren’t one.

Remember that the third culture of TCKs is the one they form together as outsiders. Although no studies that I could find have looked at the therapeutic benefits of this third culture per se, it stands to reason that such bonding is crucial to the outsider’s superior adjustment capacity; it is a way to practice creating one’s own culture spontaneously. Even if you aren’t an outsider, you can learn these skills by joining those in your community who are. Look for the new people in your workplace or town, who are probably hanging out together. There’s always room for one more.

In candor, I’m approaching this topic with a fair amount of bias. Being an outsider early in my adulthood was the most positive experience I have ever had. At 25, I moved to a foreign country where I didn’t speak a word of the language, and knew not one soul save for a woman I hoped to marry, but who spoke little English. It was brutal, but life-changing in the best way. After a few years, I had lost my fear of new things, whether it was an unfamiliar language, working with strangers, new love, or a community hostile to foreigners.

That woman became my wife, and subsequently became an outsider in the United States. Over the past 30 years we have moved many times, as have our now-adult TCKs. Our youngest, who is adopted from China, attended three high schools during an especially peripatetic period in our family, and then chose a college in Pamplona, Spain. The changes were hard at first, but she is flourishing, just as the data would predict.

Original article here

13 Mar 2022
Comments: 0

How to Get Smarter Every Day, According to Neuroscience

A friend of mine spends 20 to 30 minutes a day solving Sudoku puzzles. He says it improves his speed of mental processing and makes him, well, smarter.

Hold that thought.

Ask people which factor contributes the most to success and most will choose intelligence, even though science says you also have to be lucky: Right place, right time. Right person, right time. Right idea, right market, right audience at the right time.

Yet even though there are ways to “create” your own luck, you can’t control luck.

But you can control, to some degree, how smart you are.

Let’s Define “Smart.”

While there are a number of different forms of intelligence, let’s focus on two. Crystallized intelligence is accumulated knowledge: facts, figures. Think “educated.”

Of course we all know people who are “book smart” but not necessarily smart smart. That’s where fluid intelligence comes into play: The ability to learn and retain new information and then use it to solve a problem, to learn a new skill, to recall existing memories and modify them with new knowledge. Think “applied intelligence.”

Becoming more educated is, while not easy, certainly simple.

Improving fluid intelligence is harder, which is one reason why brain games–crossword puzzles, Sudoku, brain training apps, etc.—are fairly popular.

But do they make you smarter? Do they improve fluid intelligence?

Basically, No.

A 2007 study published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences assessed the impact of brain training games on fluid intelligence. After participants played Tetris—yes, Tetris—for several weeks, cortical thickness and cortical activity increased.

Both are signs of an increase in neural connections and learned expertise. In simple terms, their brains bulked up and got smarter.

But after those first few weeks, cortical thickness and activity started to decrease, eventually returning to pre-Tetris mastery pursuit levels—even though their skill levels remained high. Participants didn’t lose brain power.

Instead, their brains became so efficient at playing Tetris those increased neural connections were no longer necessary. Using more mental energy was no longer necessary. As with most things, once they kinda figured it out, it got easy.

Unfortunately, no matter how much work it took to learn new information or gain new skills, “easy” doesn’t help improve fluid intelligence. Once knowledge or skill is in your pocket, you certainly benefit from the increase in crystallized intelligence.

But your fluid intelligence soon returns to a more baseline level.

That’s the problem with brain training games. Solving Sudoku puzzles, and only solving Sudoku puzzles, won’t improve my friend’s fluid intelligence in any other areas.

It only makes him better at solving Sudoku puzzles.

Learning how to use a new inventory management system will improve your fluid intelligence, until you’ve mastered it. Setting up Quickbooks for a new business will improve your fluid intelligence, until you’ve mastered the accounting process basics.

Once you achieve a level of comfort, your brain no longer has to work as hard, and all that new mental muscle gained starts to atrophy.

So what can you do?

Stay Uncomfortable.

Easy: Once you’ve mastered a new game, a new process, a new skill, a new anything—move on to something new.

At work. At home. Anywhere. Just keep challenging yourself.

Not only will you pocket a constant flow of new information and skill, your brain will stay “bulked up” and forging new neural connections, making it easier to keep learning and growing.

And then there’s this: The more you know, the more you can leverage the power of associative learning—the process of relating something new to something you already know.

Not in a Pavlov’s dog kind of way, but by learning the relationship between seemingly unrelated things. In simple terms, whenever you say, “Oh, that makes sense: This is basically like that,” you’re using associative learning.

The more you learn, the more likely you will be able to associate “old” knowledge to new things. Which means you only have to learn differences or nuances. And you’ll be able to apply greater context, which also helps with memory storage and retrieval, to the new information you learn.

All of which makes learning even easier, which research shows will result in your being able to learn even more quickly—and retain a lot more.

So if you like brain-training games, master one and then move on to another. And another.

Better yet, keep pushing yourself to learn new things about your business, your customers, your industry, etc.

Not only will that help you become more successful, you’ll also get to improve your crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence—which will surely help you become even more successful.

Where win-wins are concerned, that’s a tough one to beat.

Original article here

10 Mar 2022
Comments: 0

State Of The Planet Update: Consent

CONSENT:

If you give your consentto something, you give someone permission to do it. [formal]
Synonyms: agreement, sanction, approval, go-ahead [informal]
VERB: If you consentto something, you agree to do it or to allow it to be done. [formal]
Synonyms: agree, approve, yield, permit

Just a scant 4 or 5 years ago, the word “consent” became synonymous with the #MeToo movement. Everyone’s consciousness was focused on the scandals around major Hollywood actors and producers who had allegedly preyed on aspiring or established female and male actors alike. Suddenly men were on their back foot once again, surprised and a bit daunted by the onslaught on the male gender in the popular media. New workshops, books and a whole new branch of self-help therapies and therapists sprang up to educate us on the various intricacies and nuances of when “no” means no, and “yes” means yes. All the civilized world had a mirror held up to it. The ongoing pedophilia scandals involving the Catholic Church or other religious organizations, including many gurus and yoga teachers, suddenly took on new significance, and in some quarters, shocked followers and devotees of the “woke” communities.

Just about two years ago, an alleged pandemic broke out, precipitating measures that few questioned or contested. My caveat here is not to make this article a lightning rod about the pandemic itself, or how it was conducted, but to illustrate what happened in such a short period of time after it was announced that it existed.

When the lockdowns and mandatory mask and social distancing measures were first imposed, dissent was virtually non-existent. We all happily and tacitly agreed and went along with these measures, basically because we were all scared out of our wits, and because our mammalian bonding instincts were being subtly manipulated. The clarion call was to do all we could to protect grandma and the kids.

All seemed to be working with ‘flattening the curve”, as the worst seemed to be over. By autumn of 2020, the possibility or returning to normal looked feasible. Then, it took a downward turn in the last quarter. By this time, most had heard of the new generation vaccines that were due to be rolled out at the end of the year and in early 2021. The governments, the medical experts and the media all seemed to be joined in lockstep to implement “Operation Warp Speed” and vaccinate the entire planet.

No one seemed to mind that this plan of mandatory inoculations was somehow out of bounds and seemed to violate anyone’s freedom of choice. The idea of medical passports was even dismissed by government officials as something that wasn’t even being considered. That was all about to change by mid-year of 2021. By early 2022 one western European nation had made it a law that all its citizens had to receive this medical intervention, and many other countries used it as a condition of travel (medical passports) or to access social services and healthcare. Oddly, the efficacy of those interventions is now under suspicion and in some cases, litigation. There are cracks appearing on many walls as more and more souls refuse to comply or give consent to any intervention into their bodies without, you guessed it, their consent.

Let’s go back in time a bit further…like a few decades. When the Internet appeared we all were fascinated with its potential to bring humanity together in harmony and cooperation, and how education and information processing would be transformed. The first mass- produced wireless technologies would follow soon.

On the health risk/benefit side, the vaunted FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in the United States cited studies made during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s that wireless devices were benign and posed zero threat to our health. Of course, they based their studies on those ancient Motorola handsets the size of bricks that some businessmen had in their cars. Little did we dream of things like the iPhone, Amazon, or online shopping. Little did we imagine what effect all of it would have on human consciousness or behaviours.
Now we see what it has wrought in many parts of our societies.

Like zombies in some dystopian science fiction film, people everywhere are walking, working, resting, and traveling around tethered to their smartphones and tablets. Hardly anyone looks up anymore. Hardly anyone notices how in their head they are. We are being steadily transformed into digitally defined mental plane that is increasing out of touch with our bodies, our feelings, and emotions, and mostly inured to Nature Herself. Was this planned or accidental? Maybe both? It most certainly has been taken advantage of a leveraged by the folks in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. We cannot ignore this any longer. The very idea of human beings even needing a soul, or a spiritual reference point is being called into question.

So, we come full circle to consent. Giving permission for anything that directly affects your life, or those whose lives are meaningful and close to you, seems now to be superfluous. Are all expected to just quietly acquiesce and cede their consent to whatever the “experts” deem is good for us, no questions asked? Have we, in such a short space of time and memory, become too docile and inept to look after ourselves?

I do not think for one moment that free will, consent isn’t important to you, or you wouldn’t be reading this, or asking questions about what is going on in our world, or actively participating in helping to heal yourself and others, or doing community building, or whatever it is your spirit directs you to be and do. We will only have a say in the future we want to face if we use our power of yes and no consciously and effectively. Otherwise, we tacitly agree to what others wish us to be or do, and our lives become theirs by default.

This decade is a crucial period of letting go of what no longer does or can serve us spiritually. As such, the transit of Pluto in late Capricorn, and his ingress into the sign of Aquarius next year, is an emphatic and difficult call to die to an old way of being, and to an old world dying, and choosing a path that ensures not just mutual survivability, but mutual peace, prosperity, and happiness. We must not rely on tech, or others, to do this for us, or save us. Nor should we give them consent to do so. If anything is a “tell” about the past two years, then bear witness to how many times opposing viewpoints to the dominant narrative have been forcibly silenced, de-platformed, derided, or even attacked. Just for asking questions, or having an opinion? In a supposed democracy that is a big “tell”.

What you give consent to matters. What you give permission to be in your life is important. It’s not about having total control over everything in your life; no one can achieve that. We need to be remembering ways in which to live and work harmoniously with the Tao, with the flow of Life. You cannot do that while dancing to another’s tune. Anything imposed on you without consent is a form of violence, and this world has a long history of enforcing rules and laws through intimidation, various types of coercion, and if all else fails, by force.

You are here on this world by your own choice, your own consent, your own cooperation with your soul. No matter what is happening in the wider world, and there is much that demands our focus and attention, always come back to what you have in your power to do in this moment, right now, to enjoy your life, your blessings, and your opportunities for joy and peace.

Your humanity depends on this. Your soul dreams about it.

About the Author:

Isaac George is an internationally recognized intuitive mentor/coach, evolutionary astrologer, conscious channel, self-published author and musician. After a life-altering spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1994 he explored various healing modalities, including hypnotherapy and Reiki. In 1998 he began spontaneously channeling Archangel Ariel and other dimensional intelligences.

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.

09 Mar 2022
Comments: 0

What Is Dirty Fasting — And Is It Healthy?

Fasting isn’t a new or trendy concept. The practice of restricting food for a certain period of time has been around for centuries. Most commonly used for religious purposes or cultural beliefs, fasting has recently become a tool for weight-management with proponents also claiming its benefits on controlling blood sugar, calming inflammation and protecting brain health. Emerging from that trend is a take on intermittent fasting, known as dirty fasting, that may make fasting easier. But what exactly is dirty intermittent fasting and is it healthy?

What Is Dirty Fasting?

Before exploring dirty fasting, it’s important to understand the concept of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting (IF) is a term used to describe the type of eating pattern where food is either partly or completely restricted during a certain period of time followed by a period of time where there is no restriction. Samantha Cassetty, M.S., RD, nutrition and wellness expert, and co-author of Sugar Shock, says to “think of fasting as a different metabolic state, rather than just the absence of food or drinks. So, in this alternate metabolic state, your body does a better job clearing damaged cells, responding to stress, and suppressing inflammation.”

There are different ways to go about this type of fasting. The first is time-restricted fasting where there is a designated time each day for eating. A popular version of this is the 16:8 method, where a 16-hour fast is followed by an 8-hour eating window. Modified fasting, also known as the 5:2 method involves eating normally for 5 days of the week and then limiting calories to 20-25% of energy needs for 2 consecutive days of the week. Alternate-day is another common form of fasting where fasting occurs every other day.

So what is a dirty fast? Think of it as the opposite of “clean fasting.” Clean fasting implies fasting where none or very little food is consumed and only water and non-caloric beverages are allowed. Dirty fasting, on the other hand, is a form of modified fasting that allows the addition of a certain number of calories during the fast. How many calories break a fast? The amount of calories permitted (usually less than 100) and the types of food/drinks (typically high-fat that won’t impact blood sugars) differ depending upon whom you ask. That’s because the term “dirty fasting” has no common or agreed-upon definition and the research on it is extremely limited.

In short, there’s no science that backs up the practice. Confirms Cassetty, “keep in mind that there are almost no studies on this form of fasting, and without evidence, we can’t say whether this modified fasting protocol would produce similar benefits as might be experienced through other intermittent fasting protocols.”

Sample Dirty Fasting Meal Plan

Here’s what a day using the IF 16:8 method with dirty fasting might look like:

10 am: 2 scrambled eggs, 1 piece sprouted whole grain toast and 1 grapefruit
12 pm: 1 cup lentil soup, 1 cup spinach salad and 1 medium apple
2 pm: 1 cup carrot sticks + ¼ cup hummus
5 pm: Tofu and veggie stir-fry with 1 cup brown rice
6 pm to 10am – FAST
8 pm – 1 cup bone broth (40 calories)
8 am – 1 cup tea with 1 tablespoon almond creamer (45 calories)

What are the Pros & Cons of Dirty Fasting?

Intermittent fasting may “improve insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and cognitive impairments,” says Cassetty. It may also promote weight loss or prevent weight gain, although it may not do this better than another form of calorie reduction, she adds.

So what do you have to gain by dirty fasting? We’re not entirely sure. Remember, there is very little research on dirty fasting, so we cannot say with any certainty that there are any health benefits, at least scientifically. However, based on the results of one study, adding a bit of food (a manufactured energy bar in this case) during the fasting period was found to help quell hunger during the fast. The approved bar used during the study “prolonged the physiological fasting state while also making it easier to fast,” says Cassetty. Yet, she points out, this is one study, and it was funded by the company that made the bar used in it. It’s also impossible to say whether eating something similar to this bar—for example, a similar macronutrient composition or a similar calorie level—would have the same effect.

Mascha Davis M.P.H., RDN, registered dietitian nutritionist, founder of sustainable seafood snack MiniFish.co and author of Eat Your Vitamins says to think of dirty fasting as more of an extreme caloric reduction. She points out that caloric reduction can lead to weight loss, but this type of weight loss is often short term and unsustainable and in some cases, can be harmful. There is research, Davis says, that has shown that fasting can have negative effects on women’s hormone levels and is not appropriate for certain other groups. Cassetty agrees there are risks and recommends that anyone with an eating disorder or anyone who has participated in any form of disordered eating, even if it’s not a clinically diagnosed eating disorder, should avoid any form of intermittent fasting or dirty fasting. Also on that list, “pregnant and breastfeeding women, anyone with type 2 diabetes, anyone on any medication or anyone over 65 years old should avoid fasting unless their doctor gives them the green light.”

Should You Try Dirty Fasting?

Without research, it’s hard to recommend dirty fasting. As health professionals, we rely on science-backed evidence and there just isn’t much here. That being said, if you’d like to try it, Davis recommends that you work with a credentialed expert, such as a registered dietitian. “Dietitians understand the science behind dieting and can make individualized recommendations that are tailored to you and your specific needs and goals.”

Also, think beyond yourself, says Cassetty. If you have kids, consider the type of behaviors you’re modeling. “Are you normalizing body dissatisfaction or disordered eating? It’s important to model a healthy relationship with food and your body, even if you aren’t 100 percent happy with your body size or shape.” And if improving your health is your main goal, Cassetty points out that there are other ways to promote longevity and healthy aging. “Both the Mediterranean Diet and Blue Zones Diet promote long, healthy lives while also focusing on the enjoyment of eating. So, depending on your needs and goals, one of these plans may be more suitable for you.”

Original article here

03 Mar 2022
Comments: 0

Let’s Be Peace

Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will be as one.“

~ John Lennon

Our planet is experiencing hard times. Before, it was and still is the pandemic; now it is war. Peace seems to be only a nice word, and sometimes a futile desire. How do we bring peace to the world?

There is no doubt in my heart and mind that the first step to manifest peace is to become a being of peace. Being peace means to be able to act in our daily life from an elevated vibration or frequency, it means to approach any hard situation with calmness and love.

We have all experienced traumatic events in our lives, and somehow most of us are able to overcome those hard situations one way or another. Why?

Because in the middle of the emotional storm we might have been experiencing, we have managed to slip into a peaceful mode, where we allowed ourselves to think and see a path of action. This might last only a few seconds, however the repercussions can be felt longer. To be at peace is to be still, stopping all activities and the busyness of our minds.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, peace is “freedom from war and violence, especially when people live and work together happily without disagreements,” and this is more or less the definition we find in most dictionaries. We can see that for many people, peace is the opposite of violence, but for me peace is a state of being and acting in the world.

Peace is feeling the silence between the noise, the pause between words, the “nada” between the beating of our heart. Peace is awareness, is consciousness.

When we realise that peace is always possible and a choice, it is very hard to ignore it. Imagine what the world would be if everyone was able to feel peaceful, because, in reality, peace is a feeling, a thought-form capable of expanding from one person to another, then it is wise to start practising low motion, stopping and acknowledging the inner calmness that comes with us.

Here is one exercise you can start doing now:

Sit down and relax your body
Start breathing in and out a bit slower than normal
Place a hand on your heart and feel its palpitation
Pay special attention to the moment your heart stops for a millisecond before the next beat.
If it is difficult for you to feel your heart, focus on your breathing, paying attention to the moment you stop before inhaling and exhaling
Do this for a few minutes and feel a sweet sensation invading you. That sensation is peace.

And I am also adding a decree for you to repeat as many times as you want: Peace in me, peace around me, peace in the world.

Being peace, in my understanding, makes peace on our precious planet possible.

About the Author:

Veronica Sanchez De Darivas is Chilean-Australian, now living in the UK and a proud mother of teenage twins. A spiritual awakening teacher, bestselling author, pineal gland (third eye) activator and Certified Instructor for the Cyclopea Method, Veronica is currently the only instructor in the world teaching the Cyclopea Method in English.

01 Mar 2022
Comments: 0

March Artist of the Month: Miranda Vavrosky

About the Artist

I am Miranda Vavrosky, intuitive artist. Alchemizing and transmuting energy from within my own emotional body. Sometimes channeling energy from the collective or an individual for commission paintings.

My art is meant to awaken emotion within you and to be fun. To connect your conscious mind to the subconscious aspects that may be harder for you to listen to. People always say they are not creative but when you place my art in front of them, their creative mind starts to pull meaning and shapes from the abstract art. Like a mirror for your internal-being my art is meant to look back at you.

What do you project upon it?

Website: VavroskyArt

Connect with Miranda:

24 Feb 2022
Comments: 0

What If Legal Personhood Included Plants, Rivers, and the Planet?

“People think of laws being so objective and serious, and almost separate from the social norms,” says investigative climate journalist Amy Westervelt. “But it’s really just a handful of people’s beliefs that have gotten baked into law.”

Uncovering whose beliefs have shaped existing environmental law led her to report on an emerging legal arena that has been making headlines around the world: rights of nature laws.

The idea behind the rights of nature approach extrapolates on the Western legal system’s insistence that a corporation is considered a person. If that’s legally true, then why not grant legal personhood to a watershed or a forest? For those who grew up indoctrinated by the existing legal system, Westervelt says their initial response is often delivered with a scoff: “So, what, like, a tree could sue me?”

But beyond this initial skepticism, she sees a lot of practicality and possibility to the approach. Take, for example, a polluted lake. “It’s almost impossible to say my cancer was caused by this chemical in the water,” she says. “But it’s super easy, scientifically, to say this chemical in this water is destroying this watershed.”

And in this way, granting nature its own rights could provide an avenue to protect specific environments—and the communities that depend on them. Because, she points out, “Humans actually need ecosystems to live a lot more than we need corporations.”

The Proof Is in the Pushback

When it comes to protecting the environment, most existing laws are human-centered. They focus on the rights of people to a healthy environment. Westervelt says that well over 100 countries have these kinds of laws on the books. Still, since they require making a direct, causal connection between a pollutant and a human health outcome, winning a case in court can be difficult.

Rights of nature cases, in contrast, are “playing the long game,” as Westervelt puts it. They approach legal arguments with a completely different philosophy and timescale. Incorporating the rights of nature into the constitutions of municipalities, states, and countries could shift the foundational approach to how environmental cases are litigated, Westervelt says.

And it might just be working. She says the proof is in the pushback.

“We’re starting to see pre-emptive laws get passed to block rights of nature legislation,” Westervelt says. Ohio, Florida, and most recently Missouri have passed laws to this effect. “That’s always a key indicator that something’s working, right?” Westervelt says. “They’re not passing pre-emptive laws against calling your reps—let’s put it that way.”

The other strength of this rights of nature approach to environmental protection is the surprising coalitions it creates. “The Lake Erie Bill of Rights is not a bunch of hippies in San Francisco. This is suburban moms in Toledo, Ohio,” Westervelt says. “I think that’s actually what scares the industry folks and the right wing about the way that [rights of nature laws have] progressed in this country, is you’re seeing it really pop up in the Rust Belt, in working-class towns in the Midwest.”

Take fracking, for example. A person in Pennsylvania might be upset their neighbor has a fracking well that has ruined the water in the surrounding wells, making their land essentially valueless. So, Westervelt says, you have right-wing, anti-government libertarians fighting in defense of private property alongside Indigenous leaders arguing to protect the watershed’s right to live.

The motivations may be very different, but Westervelt says the outcomes they’re fighting for are actually quite compatible.

Take the example of the Te Urewera rainforest in New Zealand. She says this case is the one that international organizations point to as a key success story for the rights of nature, because the government recognized the rainforest as its own legal entity and the Tūhoe people as its legal guardians. In a lot of ways, this is a victory, but at the end of the day, it’s still a compromise on what the Tūhoe actually want: simply the return of their land.

The idea that the government had to grant these land rights is almost offensive to those who live there, Westervelt says. Still, she sees these cases, which aim to bring an Indigenous approach to both nature and justice, as a way to “give Western law an instant upgrade on the environmental front.”

Wild Rice for the Win

One unique aspect of Westervelt’s approach is the way it frames Indigenous science, which she says is all too often viewed as myths or “woo-woo mystical nonsense.”

Westervelt shares an example of a water protector she spoke with in Hawai‘i who was working to protect his people’s sacred mountain, Mauna Kea. He told her the reason it’s sacred is because half the island’s ecosystems are affected by it. Western watershed science eventually came to the same conclusion, but centuries later, after colonization had already caused great harm.

The same goes for why wild rice is sacred to the Ojibwe: it’s an indicator species. They knew its ecological importance and therefore came to reflect that in their cultural values.

In this way, Westervelt says, storytelling—be it through Indigenous knowledge-sharing or a podcast—is an effective way to explain why it’s important to protect water.

Of “Manoomin v. Minnesota,” she says, “This case looks at the rights of wild rice to survive and thrive in local waterways, which the Ojibwe added to their 1855 treaty with the U.S. government. The White Earth Band of Ojibwe, based in present-day Minnesota, has since sued Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 pipeline, which they say will violate the rights of the rice and threaten the health of the ecosystem at large.”

This case could have a major impact on many other potential pipeline fights across the U.S.

“Whatever decision they come down with will be pretty monumental,” she says. The case is currently in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and if its decision is appealed, Westervelt says this could be “another case where the Supreme Court is deciding whether the U.S. is going to honor these treaties.” And that has far-reaching implications for the treaty rights of tribes across the continent.

“Every time I tell people, ‘Yeah, wild rice sued the state of Minnesota,’ it helps to get people to let go of the idea that the way things are is the way they’ve always been and always have to be,” Westervelt says. She believes exposing people to that idea by way of a story is less threatening than arguing with them about water clarity or carbon emissions. “Showing people a different perspective and what it can look like, I think, is helpful in opening people up to other possibilities.”

Original article here.

18 Feb 2022
Comments: 0

State Of The Planet Update: “Rock Solid”

No matter what is or isn’t happening in the world right now, you and I and all of Creation is loved beyond belief. No matter what is or isn’t happening in your life right now, you are loved beyond belief. No matter what will happen or won’t happen, it does not matter…we are loved beyond belief. No matter what, we are that Love, and we emerged from that Love by choice-desire-curiosity.

None of us is an “accident” of the Universe, nor are you and I here because of some whim of The Fates. We have purpose in our Be-ing…even when we don’t feel like we’re fulfilling our believed or adopted purpose. Sometimes our egos hijack our purpose, or distort it, or diminish it. The rock-solid truth you can always rely on is that, in the end, the truth if this: you are Love/Loved beyond belief.

And no matter who you are, and even though you may feel alone at times, no one is alone…ever.

Now some of what I relate here will already be familiar to most of you, and you’ve heard it all before. If so, that’s great! However, I must honestly say that almost everyone I speak with these days is dealing with something challenging. The continuing agenda of separating humanity into two classes of people still ripples throughout the collective experience. We all know this is instinctively “wrong” but most figure there’s nothing one can do about it. Perhaps we are so wrapped up on keeping up with our own life and it’s complexities, focusing only on our own personal triumphs or tragedies. Nonetheless, this divisiveness is useful, in one sense. It awakens us to our own inner duplicities or divisions and can help us realize that this artifice we call our “civilization” or “culture” is unsustainable and running in place to fit into its imposed agenda is a zero-sum game.

Existentially speaking, it is all unsustainable. Fearing the unknown, we cling to the past masquerading as the present and hope that we’ll get to the “new normal” somehow. What I didn’t see or understand until late last week is how much of what we call “our experience” is imposed on our lives without our consent, so much so that the plans we make, the dreams we hold about what we want in our own soul’s experience takes a back seat within this “matrix” of sorts.

Is God/Goddess doing that? Well, trick question. Since we are inextricably part of God/Goddess, I reckon we all bear some responsibility, as we allow whatever this is to continue. Some of us are acquiescing to the illusion and some are going “what a minute…that doesn’t feel right or good to me!” Remember, no matter what’s happening, somehow and at some point in the future it will all work out for the best. You are always at choice in what you will or will not participate with. With what has happened and is happening, you have a choice in how you relate to it, and what you will or will not allow to continue in your experience.

We are infinite and eternal. Nothing is imposed without some level of tacit permission given…by you or me. Even if we don’t want this or that challenge in our lives to be occurring, it is there for a reason. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be there! Karmic or not, it is what it is. What is unfolding, including the so-called darkness and chaos, is part of the awakening/remembering/maturing process, and we are sharing in all of it.

We set up the tenpins so we can knock them down. The Universe suggests that we just don’t make a habit out of it. Then it turns into what we call “our karma”. Unconscious repetition isn’t evolution! Through it all we are still Love/Loved beyond belief.

The atmosphere is filling up with more uncertainties, chugging along in our peripheral vision, and/or intruding into our daily activities. As the old scripture says, “Fear not. Even if the mountains should slide into the sea, I Am with you, always.” That message is Love reminding us again that we…are…never…alone. There is nothing that is inherently within us, that doesn’t want to help.

True mastery doesn’t mean standing as a lone entity in the entirely of Creation, impervious and totally transpersonal. It also includes embracing all that is, and still not falling into forgetfulness of Who We Are beyond all form or circumstance. That is what being “rock solid” is, and that is what Spirit is…rock solid, always there…and everywhere. No judging, no punishments, no force or coercion, no dogma, or rules. Just Love, being Love.

Rock solid baby!

About the Author:

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.

12 Feb 2022
Comments: 0

Return to Sender

Another year, another momentous month, and many different energies pushing and pulling in many different directions. If there is one recommendation for the now, is trying to maintain some equilibrium and keep your cool. Things could fray at any moment, so it’s beneficial to take three deep breaths whenever you feel on the verge of overwhelm or your fuse is lit by your own sense of frustration, or other’s demands, or information and energy overloads. Reminds me of an old Broadway musical called, “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!”

The multidimensionality of events and stimuli is quite evident in the outer material reality, but it is mostly happening in the mind/astral realm. Our emotional bodies are jostled, and our physical bodies are telegraphing frantic messages like “danger ahead”, or “Hey, pay attention! We’re in pain, discomfort and insecurity!” This is unsurprising when the entire planet is immersed in a chaotic fishbowl of artificial digital atmospheres, media-fostered fear headlines, and one crisis after another all clamouring for attention and action.

Take a BIG step back from it all! All this is not who you are, nor is it indicative of the true nature of Nature and every other soul in this world. Meditation is important for calming the mind stuff and connecting and caring for our physicality even more so. When I get rattled, I listen to music…calming, meditative and ethereal music. Do whatever works for you, not as a mindless form of escapism, but as a conscious form of self-care and rebalancing.

The astrological/energetic markers for the weeks ahead are also multidimensional and multipurpose. Remember, what we call astrology is nothing more than a symbolic language for understanding life on Earth, nothing more and nothing less. It won’t make you more spiritual, but it can point you towards things in your psyche that may get in the way (karmic habits) of your full self-realization. When applied to national or world events, astrology has an uncanny ability to predict potential manifestations of our collective consciousness or help us understand in hindsight what the hell just did happen, and why.

We are embodied forms of Consciousness, and that is why everything ‘feels’ so freaking real. At the level of the Absolute, it is all just a form of play manifesting in a dualistic way. So, what is the Absolute wanting us to pay attention to, right now? Remember that the transiting Nodal Axis is astrology’s way of highlighting the most important thing, right now. (For those of you who are students of astrology or grizzled veterans, please reference the charts I’ve provided below.)

If you have your own chart, check for any aspects to the degrees mentioned in the next paragraph, and remember that there can be five major aspects: Conjunctions (within 6 degrees of one another), Squares (at a 90-degree angle between points), Sextiles (60 degree angles), Oppositions (180 degrees opposite one another), and Trines (90 degrees in relationship to each other).

First up the Full Moon on the 16th arrives at 4:55pm GMT (London) at the 27th degree and 59th minute of Leo. Mars and Venus are conjunct at 16 degrees of Capricorn, and Pluto is now at the 27th degree of Capricorn and quincunx to the Full Moon. Quincunxes are awkward and irritating energies. Like being stuck on a plane with someone next to you snoring and you must put up with it. A Quincunx is a 150-degree angle between two points.

This Full Moon is being squared (challenged) by the Nodal Axis at 27 degrees of Scorpio and Taurus. Recall what I said above, about the transiting Nodes saying, “pay attention to this!”? Here it is. Taurus is our values versus the culture or society’s value system. Scorpio is about secrets and security, and depth…lots of deep dark stuff. Leo is about the heart chakra, yes, but also loves being the king or queen and feeling superior. The Sun at almost the last degree of Aquarius signals a call to look beyond the obvious and discover the higher ground perspective about what’s happening — and no, you cannot ignore or avoid what is unfolding.

The Native Americans feel that whatever is happening in the moment is exactly what needs to be happening, and to push it away or rationalize about it is never going to work. Better to open one’s eyes to the opportunity for remembering and growth instead of resisting. This will be a really great time for seeing things with new eyes, and then planting new thoughts and ideas around what sort of actions would you like to create that will build a new and better tomorrow for you and everyone else. Think “both/and” and take it beyond the personal.

It is also a call to participate, even if you have strong feelings that are the opposite. For example, I have been wrestling with yearnings to simply chuck it all, head off into the woods, ditch my tech and live like a hermit. That may have a romantic spin to it, but it is a sure-fire way to fall off the edge of the world. Instead, this New Moon carries with it an energy to double one’s efforts to find and connect with your tribe and start building something in the way of a cooperative or community that looks and feels better than what the old world is offering. That world is dying, though it is putting up one hell of a fight along the way.

The next huge event is the USA Pluto Return on February 20th, 2022. To be frank, we’ve been in the energy of this already for months, and this is the first exact contact of Transiting Pluto to the USA Natal Pluto since July 4th, 1776. That’s never happened before, and it is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event. How many times have you heard that in the past two years? Plenty, I suspect. Make no mistake, this one is bigger than the Saturn-Pluto conjunction on January 12th, 2020, that heralded in (or helped trigger) the COVID era.

The main event is Pluto conjunct Pluto, in Capricorn. It is the end of America as we have known it, and we will have to see how and what the people of the USA choose to do with that. All the fruits of the seeds sown for 248 years are going to fall out of the sky all at once for good or bad. In America they refer to this as “chickens coming home to roost.” Hence the title for this article as it refers to how karma always returns to its sender.

Remember that there is only “good-bad” in duality. It may be more useful to phrase this as “helpful, or not helpful.” Since Capricorn governs governments, all manner of institutions (political, military, financial, medical, and social), a further dis-integration of the same may accelerate under Pluto’s tutelage.

Simultaneously, the regular folk may also realize that their leadership has been leading them down the garden path for a very long time. It will be time for everyone, not just Americans, to realize that the only power that these institutions and leaders have is the power we have ceded to them. It will be time to emancipate and wean ourselves out of the outworn habit of placing our trust and power into the hands of others, and start growing into mature, adult souls capable of looking after ourselves and each other in an egalitarian sort of way. Pluto is the Lord of Death, the Lord who Taketh Away, and anything that no longer is serving the collective soul of humanity is going to be removed…one way or another. Best not to resist it on any level as that is what causes suffering.

Once again, with the transiting Nodes involved the message is that THIS is the most important thing to focus on. Mars and Venus conjoined in Capricorn will stimulate loving ourselves no matter what happens and will stimulate our instincts to create structures and modalities designed to foster mutual survival and compassion…no matter what. Mercury conjunct the USA Nodal Axis in Aquarius-Leo will ask us, can you “think” in a new way about how to go about solving problems? In a nutshell, innovate from intuition, and provide leadership with heart. The transiting Moon in Libra conjunct the USA Natal Juno might be saying “all are welcome to the new Dispensation”, or something like that.

There will be two further conjunctions of Pluto to the USA Pluto this year, on July 12th when retrograde Pluto touches the natal Pluto, and the last pass, the “Resolution” will occur on December 28th, 2022.

So, what might happen at the initiation phase of this major archetypal event? Before I hazard a guess, I need to make the following statement:

One of the reasons that the world is the way it is and has been for thousands of years is because those entities and people whose orientation is rooted in domination of others in order to ensure the survival of the fittest, or hold the belief that the strong deserve to survive and the weak don’t matter, or they that were born to rule and see themselves as superior to us Muggles, is about to be heavily challenged. The globalists have woven the world together into a tight, authoritarian digital construct that they imagine they rule, and don’t kid yourselves, they know about astrology, and the hidden metaphysical arts and methods, and have employed their knowledge of these things to mold the world and human beings as they see fit. Talk about lack of consent on our part! They have been well organized, insanely well-funded, and working towards total hegemonic control of this planet and all it’s people and resources for a very long time. They won’t go away quietly either.

This year is pivotal in challenging that mindset and agenda, and replace it with a spiritually based, human-oriented philosophy and culture that works for everyone. Otherwise, once Pluto moves into Aquarius in the early part of 2023, the psychotic push towards an all too real one world digital tyranny may well culminate between 2023 and 2025 and be in place until well after Pluto leaves Aquarius in 2043.

The rabbit hole goes ever so deep, and into some real sci-fi places that many would prefer not to venture. There are malevolent forces that have never held anything but envy for this planet, and animosity towards the humans and the divine experiment we are in and co-creating. Some call them the Archons, or the Jinn, or the Watchers. In the Americas they are referred to as “Wetiko”. Modern mystics and psychologists alike tend to think that this is an innate part of our original human design. I seriously contest that notion, as I feel that our original design never was intended to be predatory and deliberately cruel. These beings can infiltrate our minds, and we may unknowingly and ignorantly attribute some of our less desirable behaviours or propensities to our minds and personalities to our parents, our upbringing or some other purely psychological reason. If we remain unaware of what can influence and does influence us, then we cannot take responsible action to correct ourselves and trust solely in our own internal guidance system. A good technology example is television…or the Internet, and especially, smartphones.

I strongly feel that there are other lifeforms in the multiverse, many who benign and benevolent, and some that are hostile. These hostile ones are given the some of the same abilities and some form of intelligence and volition from the Creator of All That Is. They are allowed to follow their predatory instincts, because the true nature of Love is always non-judgmental of Itself and is always allowing. It will be up to us to grow in wisdom and reactivate the perceptual and practical skills needed to neutralize all such negative influences and do so without condemnation or judgment.

I remember listening to a very wise being from Arcturus who was speaking though a human channel in 1994 who addressed the thorny issues of entity possession, dark forces, and all that sort of stuff. With an abundant sense of humor and laser-like perception, he dropped the ultimate non-dualism statement: “After this world has ascended, that ‘darkness’ will be revealed to be of the Light.” They are a type of lifeform but their nature is synthetic, i.e., artificial sentient intelligence. One serious little caveat — this same Arcturian being also said that he and his colleagues were told before they came to Earth that they should not participate with evil in any form. Doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room these days.

Okay, one of my guesses about the upcoming exact meeting of Pluto to the USA Pluto is a big disruption in the world financial markets, starting on Wall Street or perhaps something in the currency trading markets. This could be precipitated by any number of factors, so I can’t reliably name a catalyst. Personally, any number of current events could be the trigger. Russia invading the Ukraine is one I can name. Another is the Canadian PM Trudeau deciding to break up the Freedom Convoy, while still another could be the removal of Britain’s scandal-ridden Prime Minister from power. This might precipitate a crisis of confidence in the UK currency — the Pound Sterling, and trigger panic in the markets and causing a devaluation.

Well, the bubbles have been building for some time in the real estate, speculative stock trading, and currency trading markets (cryptocurrencies as well). The growing gap between the very rich and the rest of us has only gotten worse the last two years, when another huge and secret transfer of wealth upwards to the 1% of the 1% was enacted. Pluto presided over the crash of the cheap credit and real estate markets in 2007-2008, and he may just end his tenure in Capricorn the same way he entered it – in a dramatic fashion. This is just one guess. What you do feel, what do think?

One thing is for sure…the only constant is change, so be prepared for anything. A full-on collapse may be just the galvanizing event to bring us together at a whole new level and build a new tomorrow. After all, isn’t all we have ever wanted is to be free? Isn’t that the rallying cry in many parts of the planet right now? Here’s our opportunity, our gift. Let’s make it real, for all.

About the Author:

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.

10 Feb 2022
Comments: 0

How The Physics of Resonance Shapes Reality

Almost any time physicists announce that they’ve discovered a new particle, whether it’s the Higgs boson or the recently bagged double-charm tetraquark, what they’ve actually spotted is a small bump rising from an otherwise smooth curve on a plot. Such a bump is the unmistakable signature of “resonance,” one of the most ubiquitous phenomena in nature.

Resonance underlies aspects of the world as diverse as music, nuclear fusion in dying stars, and even the very existence of subatomic particles. Here’s how the same effect manifests in such varied settings, from everyday life down to the smallest scales.

In its simplest form, resonance occurs when an object experiences an oscillating force that’s close to one of its “natural” frequencies, at which it easily oscillates. That objects have natural frequencies “is one of the bedrock properties of both math and the universe,” said Matt Strassler, a particle physicist affiliated with Harvard University who is writing a book about the Higgs boson. A playground swing is one familiar example: “Knock something like that around, and it will always pick out its resonant frequency automatically,” Strassler said. Or flick a wineglass and the rim will vibrate a few hundred times per second, producing a characteristic tone as the vibrations transfer to the surrounding air.

A system’s natural frequencies depend on its intrinsic properties: For a flute, for instance, they are the frequencies of sound waves that exactly fit inside its cylindrical geometry.

The Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler solved the equation describing a system continuously driven near its resonant frequency in 1739. He found that the system exhibited “various and wonderful motions,” as he put it in a letter to fellow mathematician Johann Bernoulli, and that, when the system is driven precisely at the resonant frequency, the amplitude of the motion “increases continually and finally grows out to infinity.”

Driving a system too hard at the right frequency can have dramatic effects: A trained singer, for instance, can shatter a glass with a sustained note at its resonant frequency. A bridge resonating with the footsteps of marching soldiers can collapse. But more often, energy loss, which Euler’s analysis neglected, prevents the motion of a physical system from growing unchecked. If the singer sings the note quietly, vibrations in the glass will grow at first, but larger vibrations cause more energy to radiate outward as sound waves than before, so eventually a balance will be achieved that results in vibrations with constant amplitude.

Now suppose the singer starts with a low note and continuously glides up in pitch. As the singer sweeps past the frequency at which the wineglass resonates, the sound momentarily grows much louder. This enhancement arises because the sound waves arrive at the glass in sync with vibrations that are already present, just as pushing on a swing at the right time can amplify its initial motion. A plot of the sound amplitude as a function of frequency would trace out a curve with a pronounced bump around the resonant frequency, one that’s strikingly similar to the bumps heralding particle discoveries. In both cases, the bump’s width reflects how lossy the system is, indicating, for instance, how long a glass rings after it is struck once, or how long a particle exists before it decays.

The Higgs Boson Bump

But why do particles behave like humming wineglasses? At the turn of the 20th century, resonance was understood to be a property of vibrating and oscillating systems. Particles, which travel in straight lines and scatter like billiard balls, seemed far removed from this branch of physics.

The development of quantum mechanics showed otherwise. Experiments indicated that light, which had been thought of as an electromagnetic wave, sometimes behaves like a particle: a “photon,” which possesses an amount of energy proportional to the frequency of the associated wave. Meanwhile, matter particles like electrons sometimes exhibit wavelike behavior with the same relation between frequency and energy.

In 1925, inspired by this correspondence, the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger derived an equation for the hydrogen atom whose solutions are waves oscillating at a set of natural frequencies, much like the solutions to equations governing the acoustics of wind instruments.

Each solution to Schrödinger’s equation represents a possible state of the atom’s orbiting electron. The electron can hop up to a higher-energy state by absorbing a photon whose frequency makes up the difference between the two states’ natural frequencies.

Such transitions are themselves a form of resonance: Just like a wine glass, an atom only absorbs energy from waves with specific frequencies, and it can also shed energy by emitting waves with those same frequencies. (When excited at precisely the right frequency, certain atoms will oscillate for more than 10 quadrillion cycles before releasing their energy as photons — extremely sharp atomic resonances that form the basis for the world’s most precise atomic clocks.)

Quantum theory revealed that the structure of atoms, no less than the structure of symphonies, is intimately tied to resonance. Electrons bound to atoms are a little like sound waves trapped inside flutes. As for the atomic nuclei, further advances in the 1930s showed that many kinds of atomic nuclei only exist in the universe today because of resonance. Resonant transitions are critical to the nuclear fusion reactions that transmute one type of atomic nucleus into another. The most celebrated of these nuclear resonances enables the fusion of three helium nuclei into one carbon nucleus. Without this, stars would not be capable of producing carbon or heavier elements, and life as we know it would not be possible.

But the roots of resonance in fundamental physics lie deeper. In the late 1920s physicists began to develop a powerful mathematical framework known as quantum field theory that remains the language of particle physics to this day. In quantum field theory, the universe’s truly elementary entities are fields that fill all space. Particles are localized, resonant excitations of these fields, vibrating like springs in an infinite mattress. The frequencies at which quantum fields prefer to vibrate stem from fundamental constants whose origins remain obscure; these frequencies in turn determine the masses of the corresponding particles. Blast the vacuum of empty space hard enough at the right frequency, and out will pop a bunch of particles.

In this sense, resonance is responsible for the very existence of particles. It has also increasingly become the workhorse of experimental particle physics. When measuring how often specific combinations of particles are produced in high-energy collisions, physicists see pronounced peaks in the detection rate as they vary the collision energy: new manifestations of the universal resonance curve. “As with the wineglass, you’re sweeping through a system that wants to resonate,” said Strassler. “You’ll make anything vibrate that can.”

In the 1950s and ’60s, physicists saw many more peaks than they had expected, and at first nobody knew quite what to make of them. Many of the bumps were very broad, suggesting the existence of particles that stuck around for barely more than a trillionth of a trillionth of a second. Unlike more familiar particles that can be detected directly, these newcomers could only be observed through the process of resonance.

Physicists later appreciated that these new ephemeral particles were fundamentally no different from protons and neutrons, save for their short lifetimes. Even so, short-lived particles are often simply referred to as “resonances” — a testament to a phenomenon that has played a surprisingly central role in expanding our understanding of the world.

Original article here.